#probs forgot something but yeah hope everything is clear

[yeunarchive]

hello , hello my name is veer, she/her and living in the gmt+1 timezone. anyways this is yeun minsu / hellcats mechanic and fighter ,  resident firestarter , who won’t hesitate to light up your car if you are mean. here is a pinterest board and under the cut , you will find his biography , and some wanted connections ideas at the end. i hope to go through all the intro posts in the tag , but in the meantime give this a like / hmu in the ims or discord V.#6252

┅ ☆ ★ ✮ ∟ ‖ jeon jungkook. 21. male. he/him ‖— the familiar scent of ash coming from a car engulfed in flames , the match in his hand , a kiss on the throat. 」YEUN MINSEOK “MINSU” is planning on attending the next race ?! i won’t lie, i’m pretty excited to see their BLACK & YAMAHA YZF-R1M in person. i know people say they’re really  QUICK-LEARNER , PROUD & DETERMINED , but don’t you think they come off way too IMPULSIVE  , CORRUPTIBLE &  RESENTFUL ? i hear they’re always blasting GOOSEBUMPS by TRAVIS SCOTT ? oh well, they’re a member of the HELLCATS so i guess i shouldn’t complain. ┠ veer , gmt+1 , 21 & she/her ┨

trigger warnings for arson and infidelity.

I.

the runt of the litter, the black sheep in a pack of wolves. from a young age, minsu was disdained by his mother ; an animosity that began shortly after his birth, as the infant was a result of a wayward affair that his father had with one of his secretaries - and his mother never made a secret that he was no son of hers, words sharp and cutting as diamonds through teeth. yet in many ways, she was the only mother he has ever known. she never mistreated him, but was cold and avoided him whenever possible, viewing him as a living reminder of the one time that her husband had dishonoured her. though his mother was not his birth-mother he would still be raised alongside his three-elder siblings ; attend the same private schools they had, subjected to violin lessons , private tutors ,  but he would always be marginalized, it was an unique experience, minsu would sit at the dinner table alongside his family, but when important guests came to visit the the manor, in order not to offend him, he would be hidden in one of the many rooms or shuffled off to stay with his crooked uncle. this way of upbringing was the root of his selective muteness, an unwillingness to speak around members of his family - he would speak to the maids, the stranger on the street and sometimes with his father, but that was very few words at best.

II.

in a family of cut-throat politicians, minsu was not the only black sheep - his uncle having always felt short of his brother’s  accomplishments grew his envy into benevolence, but for the wrong sort of people , running an illicit automobile shop out of spite and where the back of the shop turned into a fight club at night welcoming all degenerates, misfits, and hell-seekers. but most of all welcoming him. god help the outcast, for he fell as icarus had for those who gave him a little bit of love. Weak-willed and naive he was ; his muteness hadn’t given him a chance to find his voice and personality until much later. it was easy then, for the scorned brother to manipulate him and turn him against his family. at first, minsu observed with crossed arms from the sidelines of the shop ; watching how his uncle went about his work and observing how he had a team of 5 men working on the cars in the front and another select 3 arriving at late hours with random cars, which minsu later realized were stolen from the streets. 

he was thirteen and for the first time, he spoke to someone within his family that was not his father - asking his uncle if he could teach him. after that, it did not take long for some sort of father-son relationship to be build - with his uncle learning him the workings of a car ; tidbits of basic restorations ; changing tires and engines. once, he was fifteen , he got to learn more about the illegal side: how he had to cover an entire track of stolen cars very carefully, how to make fake receipts from a manufacturer for part items of a car and sell the rest of the parts to a wrecking yard. and between the hours were the work in the shop ended and the fighting hadn’t begun yet , his uncle trained him , passed down his technique for a powerful right hook. at the car shop, minsu became was he was. kept his lips shut now even towards his father - never talking about the corrupt things he saw, but waiting with beating heart to return again.

IIII.

his affiliation with fire began in his childhood. locked inside his father’s office and not allowed to leave until the guests were gone , minsu found a gold zippo lighter in one of the drawers ( which he soon claimed to be his ). playing with the lighter too much and tempting his bitterness to be  relieved with each on and off flick as he watches with a sort of amusement. eventually, the leather armchair flared with beauty ; orange and red flames burning like the pits of hell.3 he was so captured, that he didn’t notice the fire alarms above his head , until he was drenched from head to foot , until the maid stormed in and there was no choice for him, but to be exposed to his family’s guests. not soon after he became fixated with the thrill of creating fires , through his bad habit minsu was able to expel some of the rage and frustration that he had within him. 

IV.

ripe in his adolescence , his uncle’s drinking caused him to swerve down the wrong road and he went comatose for months. his father hid the scandal from the tabloids like they had hidden him. never coming to visit at the hospital and leaving minsu to be the only one to take care of him. screw the upper class ; all it would take was a match and a few cunningly words planted in his head by his uncle and a war against his own family was declared. he stole 2 million dollars from his family and watched the white manor go up in flames. the world was exploding in violent red and the match had been in his hand. “bravo.“ he could hear his uncle’s voice in his head, and minsu could not help but be proud, and as the hours ticked by he found himself on the rooftop of an obscenely high building, his arm outstretched like an angel ready to fall from the sky.

that night he killed a part of him - minsu never truly felt that he belonged amongst his pretentious family and their position in the 1%. his approach to life was far grittier , harsher,  his own personal violence. he was a boy like arsenic with a cigarette tucked between pouted lips. a young rich kid , ( who never belonged in his family’s house ) had been given his uncle’s shop to rub shoulders with criminals. the hellcats found him in the center of glory and gore , the same boy who had been fixing their car was participating in the raw underground fight , and there were plenty of old rich men willing to bet on him. 

wanted connections :

THE INFLUENCE ( closed m/nb. kings. ) :  it was terrifyingly easy for minsu to fall in the need of someone to look for as guidance. it was the blame of how he had been raised , a way of growing up that allowed him to find his own voice far too late , leaving him with a certain want of having a role-model. for a while it had been his uncle to whom he had displayed a certain devotion , but now it is your muse. must be a member of the kings , just because i love drama and minsu has always been the type of person to pit the world against him , believing that it his crime to have no place on earth where he belonged. which also means that he is not totally devoted to the hellcats.

WATER IS THICKER THAN BLOOD ( open m/f/nb. hellcats. ) : they carry themselves like siblings , and have a way of capturing attention. they are often found not far apart from one another. your muse is someone who pulls minsu back when he gets too far , but also won’t hesitate to step in during a fight. however , even friends need a hard punch to the face every now and again , and minsu definitely put your muse through a lot. your muse is someone who has been known to loudly stick up for minsu even at the worst of times , when he does not deserve it.

with that said, i’m open for any other plot you had in mind !!

[yourmcu]

Emotional Support Mode

Pairings: Tony Stark x daughter!reader

Summary:

in which the reader is the loner, antisocial daughter of Tony Stark and the other Avengers including her father never acknowledge her presence (they thought some sort of interaction made you uncomfortable) so she becomes friends with Friday instead - Tony probs finds out and it’s gonna be all cute n fluffie once he realizes -

Word count: 2,243

a/n: hi just wanted to write fluffy tony :)) also I used they/them for friday’s pronouns

Warnings: angst n fluff, friday’s a bit more advanced (not like they aren’t already but) bc they could almost act like a literal human here.

read it on ao3!

You arrive back at the Avengers facility, shoulders slumped and just tired in general since you have a lot of homework and projects to do from school, most of them due by the end of the week. You also have exams later in the week.

“Hey, Fri,” you huff as you make your way to the elevator.

“Welcome home, Y/N. Where do you want to go?”

Yes, you're very close with the A.I that they started calling you by your first name. “To my room - and uh, will you remind me to read two chapters in my history book after I’m done with all my homework? I also have this project, I just need some measurements later, if you don’t mind.”

“Sure thing.”

“Thank you.”

It’s going to be a long night, you sigh heavily just thinking about it. Now you’re probably wondering, ‘you live with the Avengers! Why don’t you ask Tony and Bruce for help? Maybe Steve and Bucky for your History test?’

Yeah, well... you barely talk to any real person you live with. Maybe it’s you, you always thought you're making the team uncomfortable. You don’t even talk to your own father often which is kind of depressing on your part.

You love them, they’re like your extended family, but it just isn’t working out. Maybe they just don’t like you. Up to this day you still wonder why Tony took you in when you were just a baby (you were a mistake from one of his one night stands) - he had the choice not to.

“I’m assuming you zoned out again. You have arrived to your room five minutes ago.” Friday announces.

“Y-yeah sorry,” you shuffle out of the elevator and swiftly head to your bedroom, closing the door behind you.

“I also asked if I should inform Mr. Stark that you have arrived home.”

“No, no thanks. He’s busy and... probably wouldn’t care anyway,” You mutter the last part as you pile the books you need on your desk. “Can you put my study playlist on, please?”

----

“What time is it, Friday?”

“7PM. I was about to remind you to take a break.”

You get up from your chair and stretch, halfway through the last of your homework which is a two page essay. “You’re too kind, thanks pal,” when you walk out your room to head to the kitchen and grab a snack, the lounge is empty, kitchen empty,

“The team’s on a mission? I thought they had the whole week off,” you say before gulping down a water bottle.

“I checked the security footage: they left about an hour ago. Captain Rogers was talking about getting dinner.”

You put the bottle down. “Oh,” you try to mask your disappointment. This isn’t your first time being alone, they always left you here when they had a mission of course but... well, it’s not like they want you around them. “I’ll - I’ll just make myself something later, then. Not a big deal. I have to study anyway.”

Another hour later, the Avengers are back. They're all conversing happily as they pile in the lounge. Peter's rambling about upgrades for the Spiderman suit while Tony's typing away in his phone, nodding at everything he says. Everyone else is arguing about the TV channels and talking about the new restaurant they ate at.

Rhodey shifts, looking around. “Why do I feel like we forgot something?”

Natasha looks at him, waiting for him to go on.

“I assure you, I brought Mjolnir with me this time.” Thor butts in.

“No not that, what time does Y/N get home from school?” No one answers. It’s not like any of them know. It's natural that Rhodey would be worried about his goddaughter (even if they rarely talk). He turns his head to his best friend who’s now walking away with Peter, an arm around his shoulder. “Tony, where’s Y/N?”

He doesn’t hear since he has his full attention on his protégé.

“I’ll start making this tomorrow, I guess. I still have to buy materials.” You mumble to yourself, but you hope Friday's listening to everything you say just to make you feel less lonely. You swipe the hologram of the blueprint away and place the thick books in front of you.

“I would like to recommend a suitable study plan.” they state.

You rub your eyes, sighing, “I’m already halfway, I would’ve considered it earlier though.”

“This is only a recommendation, feel free to ignore it.”

You push yourself away from the desk and mutter a “go on,”, fiddling with your pen.

“Asking Mr. Rogers and Mr. Barnes would give you more details for your History examination, since the pair were originally from that time period. The same goes for Mr. Banner for your Science examination, I believe he has seven Ph.D’s, you may also approach Vision for the same topic. Mr. Stark has all the necessary materials for your project in his lab. Would you like me to-”

If only it were that easy. It should be easy, the thought alone makes you really nervous. “No, I - I appreciate the recommendation, Friday, but - I think I can do this on my own.”

“But you’re tired and it is almost midnight. I would help you myself but you specifically told me not to.”

They’re not wrong. Your eyes are starting to droop and you barely understand anything you're reading. You're also fighting back tears - why is talking to your family so hard?

“I can sense sadness. Would you like me to activate emotional support mode?”

“Yeah, okay. That sounds great right about now.”

----

“Crap. Guess we lost track of time again, kid,” Tony wipes his hands with a rag while he looks at the time on his computer. “You better get home. I’ll send May a text for keeping you this late.”

“Okay, thank you Mr. Stark. I’m just gonna use my suit-”

“No. Happy will drive you.”

Peter knew better than to argue and insist so he just nods and smiles sheepishly. A minute later Happy came ‘round to take him home.

Tony turns back around. “Friday, make a new project for me please, I’m adding minor upgrades to the Spiderman suit.”

“Not now, boss.”

Oh. He did not expect that. “Excuse me?”

“Y/N is currently opening up. I would like to give her my full, undivided attention. Please come back after fifteen minutes or so.”

Tony doesn’t exactly know how to feel about that. He never sees her outside her room anymore that he kinda forgot she existed tonight - oh fuck, they didn’t bring her to dinner with them.

“Well,” he exhales. “What is she saying?”

“That would be an invasion of privacy.”

“I’m her father-”

“Are you, sir?” Friday’s clever remark makes him stop abruptly.

It’s pretty clear that he’s been a shit father. Not only does he ignore you all the time but he treats Peter way better than his own flesh and blood. The Avengers on the other hand, they were nice people, but just didn’t understand so they try their best to get out of your way.

You were afraid of rejection, afraid to interact, because you had no idea what everyone thought of you. Did they like you? Did you make them uncomfortable? Did they want you around? What about Tony, did he really want a daughter in his life? Because you noticed he’d be better off with a son, yeah, like Peter goddamn Parker.

Tony sighs, walking out of his lab and heads to the mini bar to grab a drink. He needs to think: there's absolutely nothing wrong about you, he just didn’t do his job right, you thought he didn’t care, you thought nobody did. Even Friday is turning against him, doing a better job of comforting and being there for you.

“God, I’m such an asshole,” he mutters to himself, rubbing his forehead. He drinks his last shot and heads to the kitchen. “She still awake?” He calls out.

“She is.” Friday has a bitter tone.

He's hesitant to ask again, feeling really bad for not knowing this simple question - “what’s her favorite beverage?”

----

“How do you feel?”

You sniffle. “Well y’know, better than before. I should probably go to sleep. Thanks, Fri.”

“You’re welcome. Also, Mr. Stark is outside your door.”

“W-what?” You put away your books and straighten up, rubbing your damp eyes. “You’re serious? Okay, uh, let him in?” It's more of a question.

“Alright.”

You turn to face your desk as Tony enters the room, holding two steaming mugs. He sits at the end of your bed, just right next to the chair you're sitting on. “Hi,” he gives you a small smile and hands you a mug.

What’s the occasion?

“What’s this?” You ask quietly before taking the mug from his hands. Tony's being gentle and soft, it's odd but you’re not complaining.

“Green tea with honey. I... I thought I saw you make that stuff once.” He says, not mentioning the fact that Friday told him that.

“Oh, well, yeah,” you take a small sip. He added a bit too much honey but other than that it was good. “I thought you preferred coffee, though,”

Tony shrugs, his eyes glistening when he looks at you. “Wouldn’t hurt to try something new.”

“Did - did you want something, Dad?” You always found yourself awkward, couldn’t even make conversation with someone for long, always wanted to get straight to the point so it could be over with.

He looks like he wants to say something but he just averts his gaze to you, his hands, the floor, then suddenly he leans in and hugs you. Your feel your heart swell and body warm up, it’s a new sensation for you after all, you rarely get hugs from people. “I’m sorry,” he whispers. “For everything. I’m such a bad dad, I don’t deserve you. I even forgot you when we went out to dinner.”

“You don’t have to be sorry for anything. I had loads of stuff to do earlier anyway, so, but yeah I was just - I just overreact, I’m sensitive. I don’t blame you and the others for not liking me, I know there’s nothing like-able about me, I’m not like Peter-” You ramble, tears now leaving your eyes again.

“Sweetheart, don’t say that,” Tony says as he pulls you closer to him, head resting against his chest while he rubs your back comfortably. “Y/N Stark, you are smart, brilliant - I was just an ass for not acknowledging that.”

“I know you’re just saying that to-”

“Oh, but I’m not,” he now places his hands on your shoulders, getting you to look at him. “Tell me who built their first engine when they were eight?”

You blush, “Dad-”

“No, come on, I wanna hear it.”

“I did.”

“Yes you did. And who made a completely functioning robot at their middle school science fair that blew all the teacher’s minds?”

You’re trying to hide a smile, recalling the memory,  “I did.”

“And who,” Tony gets up and walks to the bulky looking thing that you covered with a sheet, pulling it off, “is currently building a computer from scratch?”

“Dad! That’s still a work in progress,” he messily places the sheet back and chuckles.

“My point is, you’re a clever and talented girl, Y/N. Don’t bring yourself down. And you don’t have to be shy around your family, those idiots have been dying to get to know you but since you don’t talk much... they don’t want to force it. We love you,” he says. “I hope you forgive me ‘cause I really wanna make it up to you. I’m not calling Peter in for a few weeks.” Tony sits down beside you again.

You couldn’t believe he’d do that for you. “You don’t have to, if you need him for something then-”

“-then you could help me instead, if you’re up for it.”

“I’m really sorry for being such a lonely freak,” you yawn, getting back into Tony’s open arms. “I love you.”

Tony tucks you in and lies down beside you, “I love you tons, kiddo.”

You snuggle into his chest, feeling his steady breathing while he rests his chin above your head.

----

It's morning. The Avengers are gathered at your open bedroom door.

“Are you getting all of this, Friday?”

“Yes, Ms. Romanoff.”

“Steve turn that shuttering sound down!” Natasha hisses at the super soldier who's doing his task, taking pictures.

Steve almost drops the phone and has Bruce fix the volume for him.

They’re all watching you and Tony cuddle together, still fast asleep.

“Do we have to stay here until they wake up?”

“Unless you have a great way of waking them up, yes. Now shut up.”

“If you think about it we definitely look creepy right now.” Sam comments.

“It’s their fault for having the door wide open all night!” Clint says.

Tony's actually awake the whole time, listening to them bickering. “You have three seconds to get the hell out of here before I make all of you polish my suits.” With that, the team races down the hall, pushing each other to get away first like literal children.

[ayuen]

Gnostic Chorus - theory time!

Not really, just something that bothered me for a long time. From the first moment I saw this one story it did not left my mind and sometimes new information we get fit... so I decided to have a little fun and write down my own thoughts on it. And since we have little to no information about Kaeya... about that a little later, well, let’s treat it like my little headcannon that may turn out not true but is so fun, so here we go :D

Also some spoliers? about newest Archon quest I guess? it may turn out long, I’m just in a mood for it, so you have been warned. 

So the story starts with this glorious kingdom, established among the heavens:

Khaenri'ah was like Dain said: 

He says nothing about them being underground. 

And well, they didn’t have a god, so these words can be understood differently, like Khaenri'ah being among kingdoms in a heaven in garden of gods.

Next we have this line about a crowned heir, will come back to her later. 

She was tasked to search for the genesis pearl...(genesis makes me think about creation - so here another idea for a possibility like remember Khemia? maybe she was meant to find it, but somehow forgot who she was? And stayed as a ruler of  Khaenri'ah? well, let’s leave it for another time) from the kingdom of darkness. 

So lets’ stop here. There is this theory that Teyvat is upside down. 

Which could mean that what we consider top is actually bottom. So if the lore in the books talks about Khaenri'ah as an underground kingdom maybe it’s just misinformation? Maybe not but if we take into consideration how recent Kaeya’s love poem isn’t without a doubt translatable, truly who can trust in everything that’s written about historical events in the pieces in the game? But if it was in fact turned upside down... also this quest and the theory of a fake sky? From  The Crisis Deepens. This would be too much to write about it, also I read all about it, bc I wasn’t playing the game at the time so yeah, it’s on youtube in any case.

So from newest Archon quest we have this: 

I know it doesn’t say out right that there is someone above our sibling leading Abyss but whatever Paimon says something, it is relevant so we can take it into consideration. Will come back to it in a moment as well. 

And here comes Childe, Tartaglia, I don’t have him so here a part of his story: (And why did I bring Childe?) Well, first we have his story where it’s said that he learned how to fight from a woman in the abyss:

Story 4

“That 14-year-old boy got lost in the snowy forest.

Pursued by bears and wolf packs, he lost his footing and fell into a bottomless crack in the earth's surface.

There, he witnessed the endless possibilities of another ancient world. There, he would meet a mysterious swordswoman...

Or perhaps one should say that this dark realm had sensed the burning ambition in this boy's heart.”

“In those three months, the swordswoman taught Tartaglia how to pass through the Abyss unhindered, and more importantly, nurtured the ability to stir up endless havoc from within Ajax's trouble-mongering nature.”

Also a really nice post on reddit about his transformation.

 https://www.reddit.com/r/childemains/comments/m9nbei/reasons_behind_the_appearance_similarities/

Also there’s another one:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Genshin_Impact/comments/mt8l3i/at_young_age_childe_had_fallen_into_abyssal_and/

For those who prefer to see it all in one post. And in the story line our sibling who leads Abyss is Lumine, it does not fit her fighting style. even before coming to Teyvat she was using a sword, so her style wouldn’t change much, even after traveling through every nation. 

So I’m assuming it’s another person who is higher than Lumine in a hierarchy in the Abyss. So remember this Crowned Heir that was supposed to find the Genesis Pearl? What if she did in fact ended up in the Abyss, she believed to be a queen of the darkness.

Which would also explain why our sibling is not called queen, but princess:

We don’t know how she may ended up in there, but we also know that The Abyss equals ppl from Khaenri'ah. Than why Dain is against Abyss order? 

Like who laid this curse upon him? Not Gods I think, so maybe the queen of the abyss? Since abyss mages fear her more than they fear painful interrogation...

Also The Abyss order and Dain are on different sides. Why? We don’t know what happened there for sure. 

There are also theories (also on youtube) about the cycle and the truth of the word. What if the Genesis pearl is just a knowledge of this word? What if this crowned heir figured it out? And decided to destroy Celestia? And forgot about her orgins, forgot Khaenri'ah? What if what Abyss is trying to do have really not much to do with revenge for for destroying  Khaenri'ah but for all the destruction that Celestia did? What if Dain is on other side because he doesn’t need to fight this order? He doesn’t like gods for what happend to Khaenri'ah but we don’t see him rushing to harm them either. But that’s topic for another occasion.

Coming back to this “theory”. 

The second crowned heir taken on the path where the first have stumbled. 

Here also why I think it’s not about our siblings. We don’t know from where they come from, true. We know they were traveling together, maybe they where searching for something? Maybe they are royals? Now we know nothing about it. We know that:

I’m not putting the whole exchange here but from this we know that our sibling was not send by someone to find something our sibling failed to do. We don’t know what is this destiny Lumine/Aether talks about.

From the Gnostic Chorus we know this about first crowned heir:

But as we see in the newest Archon quest, it’s from Aether being on the side of the Abyss because I play Lumine.

He/Lumine didn’t forget who they are. From this we can see they also searched for their new home, maybe their last one was destroyed too? Maybe that’s why Lumine sides with people from Khaenri'ah? 

But anyway...

Who in the story have a task to do? Who was send with a clear mission we know nothing about? Who is a person about which we actually know less than about Dain? 

Yeah, Kaeya.

We know his father abandoned him at Down Winery with a mission of being their “Last hope” (I will be not posting pictures here about it, this post is long enough). There is a lot of theories about him being a prince or some royal since theories about Dain being a sword are confirmed (see theories about Alberich) not to mention the names of his talents that led us to this conclusion long ago.

For for sake of this theory let’s say that Kaeya is a prince send to find Genesis Pearl. Wouldn’t it fit that he makes friends with criminals? Who is better for a information network? 

Not to mention, he told the truth to Diluc, if he was a treat wouldn’t he kill him? or at last told about him to others? Diluc was respected at the time, who wouldn’t believe him?

So maybe his goal is not to destroy Mondstat?  

I always was wondering about this one. What major decision? maybe I’m thinking here too much from experience, maybe it’s not common approach... but his father left him in unknown land, with strangers. With a mission on his shoulders. And Mond gave him a loving family, Crepus, Diluc other ppl who love him, as it is stated on official side of Genshin Impact. 

Why would it be a hard choice to choose between happiness and duty? Like I said maybe it’s not a common approach, but what does some old kingdom mean when you have a found home? Shouldn’t it mean more? Is it really that hard of a choice?

But what if he have someone to save? Someone he cares about? or loves? Who isn’t guilty but lost? 

You probably can tell where I’m going now with it right?

What if he will have to save his sister? Ok, some will say Aether have to save Lumine from Abyss order but does he? Is she kept there against her will? did she forget about him or their goal? or is she just waiting for him so they can really reunite and continue their journey through words?

I know that this messes with my “theory”:

Teyvat Chapter Storyline Preview: Travail｜Genshin Impact

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TAlKhARUcoY

But Dain is against Lumine? He is against the whole Abyss Order, why would be stop us from getting or sister and getting away from Tayvat for good?

The thing that doesn’t fit is that he seems to be talking to Aether here with “You who set foot into this word. Your journey has reached it’s end but one final doorway remains.” And yeah, Aether is travelling, prob the reason why most of NPC call us Traveler instead of using our name. But it can be taken about kaeya as well, if we consider the fact that he come from Khaenri'ah and now he is in Tayvat, which is not considered to be a part of Tayvat. 

Ok, it’s longer than I thought... and I still wanted to put her more but oh well.   

[iampikachuhearmeroar]

honestly one of my worst crush rejections from high school was when my years 9-12 crush (let’s call him rich boy) decided to do one of those stupid “like this status and i’ll…..” trend fb statuses that were big when i was in late high school back in 2011-2013….. and it was “like this and i’ll pair you with someone/something for shit & giggles!”. unfortunately for teen me, rich boy decided to pair himself with one of the girls in my group at catholic school, a post which had a load of likes….. while he paired me with fucking lord voldemort (leave me be i was still a hella HP stan at that age). but the post on MY timeline had received no likes but mine (i think) and a like on the weird asf comment that i’d made on it from one of our friends from catholic school.

like 17yo me liked rich boy’s status all bc she just wanted to see if he’d be nice to her on fb bc she was partly getting over the crush by then (mid 2013)…. but she was still hoping he’d write something stupidly romantic like “you’re the elizabeth bennett to my darcy” or some other jane austen pairing; even though she’d never bothered to read jane austen books back then lmao. or even “you’re the hermione granger to my ron weasley” (again LEAVE ME BE) or some other harry potter themed relationship lmao.

obvs it was all bc a couple of years earlier, rich boy had decided at our year 10 formal to hold one of teen me’s high heels up for her when it’d come off in a dance circle lmao. or at that point, she was even happy to be paired with his best friend that he kept trying to hint at her on some joke statuses with flirtatious undertones; that she should go out with him by tagging that friend on them lol.

the crush was also based on the one term long drama group assignment we did together in year 9, and the one (1) seemingly flirtatious comment he’d made to 14yo me in year 9/2010 when i had that short-lived typical train-wreck teen relationship with clear braces boy…. where rich boy and a couple of his friends decided to sit with us (ie to harass us) on the wooden benches at back of year 9/10 lunch area, which were playground hot property for groups to sit on.

but the point is that the flirtatious comment came out as if to sound that rich boy was jealous about that teen me was “off the market” so to speak lmao. but i remember with the drama group assignment, i hated rich boy at the start and wanted to change groups 😂, even asking my teacher to change me to another one. but he made me stay in the group with rich boy to “learn to work with him” lmao 😂😅. i was so overdramatic back then. and then i got the crush on RB like a sickness for 3 years. the jokes’ on me, as usual lol 🙄😂.

she also was holding out secretly that hopefully rich boy was staying at tafe (technical college) with her bc he liked being with her and also wanted to keep her safe from her stalker/creeper from public school (although let’s be real here, he really couldn’t do much about that lmao, that was more her job to deal with and not his) and in general she hoped he was just staying to keep her updated on what was happening at that school when her group from catholic school had stopped talking to her by mid 2013….

when looking back now, he was probs staying bc he was the top of our small tafe theatre tech class along with me lmao… so he was staying there for the good marks and not teen me’s company at all. on top of it all, by the end of the course, i’d stopped talking to him anyway. like 17/18yo me really had a rosy view of everything lmao.

and also, i haven’t seen rich boy (and by extension also clear braces boy although that’s more than 10 years now lol) in almost 10 years now lmao. i legit forgot that he existed for a while bc he never updates his fb; except when something big happens or when he gets tagged in something. or i’m also reminded that he exists when he likes one of my selfies/i update my dp or whatever else; albeit those times are obvs very, very few and far between. and like…. i’ve pretty much forgiven him for the above. bc god. we were both fucking dickhead assholes. and i suppose i should’ve actually expected some stupid witty pairing like voldemort or the like….. and not a real one lmao….. bc after all, we were always sassy/witty/sarcastic/snarky to each other at catholic school; so we had to play that bs out on our fb interactions as well.

which looking back, didn’t breed a good friendship with us either. considering i only ever went to him for rude tit-for-tat conversations, where i always made sure that i got the last quick-witted word in with criticising him when people were around us; and nothing deep and meaningful or serious lmao. bc to teen me, he was only good to talk to for a laugh mostly… but when we did try to talk about other things it was stilted and awkward; bc we didn’t really know how to be consistently nice to each other when we were alone lmao.

and tafe is also where l learnt that we didn’t really have much in common (besides liking 1-2 of the same emo bands- and things like him going to soundwave (ie aussie warped tour/slam dunk fest etc back then)… where i literally posted flirtatiously on his wall one that that i “hated” him for going to it and also made pointed statuses at him about it lmao) like lonely 14-18yo me thought we did lmao.

for example: rich boy was super into classic cinema (one of his projects in our tafe course was building a model house from alfred hitchcock’s psycho), game of thrones and quentin tarantino movies and also he loved basketball…. while i was still obsessed with harry potter as i said earlier, and still into pretty little liars and into the “…….next top model” reality tv juggernaut with australia’s and america’s next top model and the E! celeb channel; amongst other things. i loathed and despised sport, and most especially basketball lmao. i actually tried to read asoiaf/watch GOT bc he liked it lmao (and also had friends at public school who were into it)…. but i couldnt bring myself to do it at the time. like we weren’t compatible at all lmao. but teen me didn’t get it.

but yeah. unrequited teen crushes suck. so, to all of my younger followers, if i have any: if your crush acts like this don’t waste time on thinking they’ll be nice to you lmao; and drop that crush like a hot fucking potato. bc if they’re mean to you (which is what i was running under from all the shitty tween/teen shows i was watching at the time) it defs means that they do NOT like you romantically lmao. fuck that noise.

[hjh-ceilo-monster]

Soulmate Verse : Tangled (PJM)

Summary : Do you believe in soulmate?Of course,everyone in this world would say yes.In the world with soulmate system,your dream were to find one like others.However,growing up with no red string or other sign make you feel disappoint.What’ll happen when one day you see the red mark on your finger and then a cat turn up in front of your door at the same day?

Author POV.

In the world with soulmate system,people are all so eager to find their soulmate. Each of them will have a condition,a mark,a string or any sign that show their connection with their half.

You were one of them.Ever since you were a child,you dreamed of meeting your soulmate.However,borning with no sign,mark,mole or any condition to determine whether you have a soulmate or not was a serious problem for you.Your surrounding was so harsh toward you.Some bullied you while the others just laughed.

Growing older with those things make you become a strong independent woman.You now are carng no more whether you have a soulmate or not.You promise yourself to enjoy every minutes in your life;eventhough,you may be single forever till you die.

“You plan to travel again?”

“Yeah I have a lot of free time anyway.”

“Ah sometimes I jelous,ya know.You are so delight with your life.In fact you have no soulmate.”

“Like I care.I can take care myself and enjoy my life alone.”

You are having a conversation with your best friend.She was a gorgeous girl who fortunately find her soulmate since her first year in college.It was funny back then when her soulmate thought he was gay.However when they both got to know each other,they got together a month or two afterward.

“Gotta go sis,some business come up.”

“Some business or a lunch date with your boy?” You tease her and she blushes. They engaged for a year now yet they all act like a highschooler.You let her go, bid her a goodbye.

You get bored and decide to explore the familiar streets of your town again.You love travelling.Exploring variety places around the world.Seeing people stroll down the streets,cars running on roads and different scenerio of cities are things that warm up your heart.

Next day

“Brazil...I think I’ve already been there.”

“Need to add Scandinavian area on the list.”You are checking on your travel journal.Checking your old lists for places that left you to explore.All of sudden,there a sound from your front door.

Y/N POV.

I’ve been checking the lists when all of sudden the sound interupt my thought. That must come from the front door.I sigh and leave my sofa.Approaching the door then open up.

“A cat?” The little calico creature sit in front of the door.Its paw still pat on the door.I grab him/her up.

“What are doing here hmm?Where’s your owner?”

“Meow” It reply and start clinging on me.I bring him inside.Walking back to the sofa and settle him down.‘I think he might be hungry.’So I start roaming around my kitchen.I take the bow out and pour milk down.

Putting in front of him,he start licking.‘How can someone leave him alone on the street?’I think in my head.Seeing the creature slurping all of the milk,I smile. Gently pet him and gain the meow sound from him.

“What’s your name?”

I look at his collar,trying to find the name.I see the name tag,golden round plate hanging under his chin.I search the name and see the engrave letter in it.This cat must belong to the rich guy.No one would use pure gold to engrave a cat name and put it on the collar.

“So it’s Chim.”

“Meow”

Coming closer and snuggle into my lap,I chuckle with this lil cat action.I caress his fur under my palm,it is so soft.Wait! why my finger has a red mark on it.I suddenly stare st my hand.The red mark form like a ring wrapping around my right ring finger.

“What is this?Did I hurt myself?” I mumble with confuision.I decide to ignore it and cuddle the cat to sleep.

Jimin POV.

It’s been a week and I miss my baby.I didn’t know when that rascal ran off the house and where will it be right now.I just hope it didn’t go cause trouble or get capture.I sigh and snuggle with my pillow.

“Young master,we found him.”

“Huh?Really Jinssi,you found him?”

“Yes,you might as well come with us.” I nod and follow my butler,Jin.He’s like my brother to be honest.I live my lonely life with these luxury things yet not satisfy with it.How can you ba happy when money can’t buy you a real friend?

“Taehyungssi,drive to this place please.”

“Yes young master.”

Taehyung,my driver,start driving the car out of my villa.I start dozing off with silence cover the whole atmosphere inside the car.Without even realize the caar stop,Tae speak.

“We arrive.”

“Oh thank you.” I open the door before Taehyung will open it for me.Sometimes these two are serving me too much.I can do it by myself.Not I don’t like it but at least,I want them to treat me just like a friend.

I look at the house in front of me.So he’s been here for the whole week.I appraoch the door and ring the bell.Anxious is written all over my face.Will the owner think I’m a weirdo? Will it be rude to come like this?

“Calm down Jiminie.”

“But Tae.”

“Umm excuse me sir how can I help you?”

When the ower open the door,I see the girl in front of me.We might actually around the same age but her face look younger than me.I feel nervous but why and why I feel my finger burning.

“I would...huh I come..”

“Young master come here to pick up his cat.One of your neighbor said that he was here.”

“You mean Chim?” She asks Taehyung.I only nod while Taehyung answer her question.She runs back inside the house.

Author POV.

After the incident,Jimin got his lovely cat back.However,he was so disappoint for a whole week since he forgot to ask your name.While on your side,you still try to find out about your red ring mark.

“Miss it’s nothing to worry about.”

“Something happen with my finger and you tell me to not worry about it?”

“Well you see miss,this mark is your soulmate mark.”

“What?” You gasp,don’t want to believe what he just said.You were growing up for like 27 years and you just got a stupid mark burn a week ago?That was unbelievable.

“I suppose you never have seen it or may be you born with no mark,am I right?”

“Yeah but how?”

“I can’t really explain to you either to be honest.It’s a rare case to find someone get their mark this late.Usually if you are this age and still no mark or any other sign,that means you have no soulmate.”

After you come back from the clinic,you walk around the park to clear your head. You got a mark for a week and now you know that mark is soulmate mark.You don’t want to believe any of this right now.

“Meow”

“Huh?” You look down and see the same calico cat in front of you.He walks toward you and start circling around your leg.You gently pick him up from the ground.

“I wonder,is it because he lost you or you actually escape?”

“Meow..Meow”

“Argh you run away again,little res...cal.”

A figure stop infront of you and rant something.When he looks up,oh it’s that boy again.Jimin notice your presence and regret his word immediately.He just curse in front of you.

“Sorry,he’s a little trouble.”

“No prob,at least you didn’t lose this little guy to some capturers.”

“Thanks again uhh..”

“Y/N,I’m F/N L/N.”

“Park Jimin,Jimin.” He reply with a blush crept up to his face.He wants to cover his face ,but no use.

“Youg ma- it’s you again miss.”

“Nice to see you.” You smile.Taehyung glance at Jimin who’s now standing with a red face and clueless.Hi mentally face palm himself.

“Miss,thank you for save him again.” Then he look at Jimin and speak.

“Jimin-ah I think you should treat her at least a meal?”

“No you don’t hav-”

“Okay let’s go then Taehyung.”

“Yes young master.”

‘This is akward.’ Both of them thought in their head.They can feel the tension in the air and none of them dare to break silence.Taehyung only sigh while Jin look at these clueless kids.

“Taehyung we need to do something.”

“Hyung I swear,I try everything but Jimin though...”

“Hopeless,I see.”

Jin then start serving the meal.Both of them again look at the meal and prepare to eat.When Jimin munch up,Y/N stay still in her place.Jimin only look at her and decide to speak.

“Aren’t you hungry?” He asks.

“Uhh I well isn’t it like too much for me?” You ask with stutter in your voice.All of the meals,yes they look delicious.However,you feel abit anxious about his butlers serve you expensive dishes.

“You can eat all of this miss.I assure this is the best dishes you will ever have and it isn’t too much.As ouur young master thanks gift.” Jin speak and you nod.

Jin is responsible replace Taehyung who is a bit tired.He tries his best to encourage theses two to talk.It quite help them a bit.

“Young master,maybe you should hang out with her more often.I think Chim really love her so it’ll be good.Plus you didn’t have a friend.”

“Hyung.” Jimin whisper.He starts getting uncomfortable with the topic while you look at him.Wondering what’s going on.

“Sure no problem for me.” Jimin eyes widen when Jin glance at him with a little smirk.He then introduce himself.

Your decision that day wasn’t a regretable one.Jimin is a nice guy to hang out and one similar trait you both have is love travelling like life.Although Jimin personality is a shy type,he tries his best to open up with you.

You get to know that this guy was the owner of the villa at the corner of your street for all those year.He was a super rich kid yet lacking the socialize skills. You also learn that he has his own tutors.He isn’t attend the college since most of the time he work in his family company.

You have a chance to mmet his tutor once.His name is ‘Kim Namjoon’.That guy was so cool and know a lot of things.The next one is ‘Min Yoongi’ , his cousine. Your presence become a fimiliar one in the villa.The butlers and maids won’t hesitate to open up the gate when you visit.

“Noona let’s go to the cat cafe.”

“You wanne go there again.” He nods cutely while put up his pout face.

‘What is this heart beat?’ You think before accept this guy idea.

“You’re here again,noona,hyung.” Jungkook one of the waiter in this cafe greet us.

“This boy wanna come here again.”

“Your usual?”

“Yeah.” Jungkook tap a few time on the matchine.He puts a discount again and Jimin disagree.They argue for a while until you pay the whole price.Asking Jungkook to join your table after his break.

Now three of you hang out inside the cafe.Jungkook offer Jimin a special ticket to come to the night celebration of his cafe.

“You visit here again,kid?” Yoongi enter the cafe and see all of you are chatting with each other.

“Hyung you know I love your cats.” That’s right Jimin love cats and Yoongi is the owner of this house.

4 months later

“Hyung I don’t want to go.”

“But you need to go.Auntie force me to drag you this time.”

“Young master you need to go this year.Beside you’re going to get the position soon.”

Jimin sigh in defeat.He doesn’t know what to argue.His parents want him to go to that stupid event again.Taehyung and Yoongi try to convince him.Out of the blue,Jin comes up with the weird idea.

“So you want me to go to the fancy party of your family as your partner?”

“Noona please,I don’t know who to ask for help.”

“His parents force me to force him to go this year.” Y/N quint your eyes then stare at every single of them.You well how will you put this up.The fact that you hate fancy pary and all.

“Fine,just this one.”

“Noona! love ya.”

Jimin jump toward you and hug tightly.Both of you feel the electric spark,but you ignore it.Skinship is apart of Jimin habit when he’s with you.You don’t think much of it.However,for Yoongi he feel something is off.

‘Soulmate...are they?’

A week pass so fast.Now both of them is in the venue of Jimin’s parents company anniversary.You can’t lie that you don’t feel nervous.One thing that you notice about this event is that everyone is business men or women.

“Ugh..I hate this feeling.”

“Noona,you’re going to be fine.” 

“Our Jiminie is here,honey.” The woman around 50 step toward you guys.You look at her and greet with a smile.

“My boy is here.How are you sone?”

‘So this is his parents.’Your thought alarm in the head.You observe his family quietly without speaking anything.

The event turned out well.You didn’t feel that nervous after all.For his family,they treated you well.They were a bit surprise since their son never interact much people,leave alone girls.

However,what was a sad thing?

“Noona,I found my soulmete.”

You are in your room.The only sentence that run in your head is that sentence. You should feel happy for him,but why you don’t.The phone inturupt your thought so you pick up the call.

“Noona.” Oh it’s him.God,out of all people and now?

“Yep what is it?”

“Can you help me for my date today please?I don’t know what to prepare and I’m feel...”Everything he speak start fading away.You don’t know why.Your mind turn blank and don’t hear anything at all.

“You here me noona,helloooo....”

“Oh umm ok,what time?”

“Afternoon would be great.”You accept it and the line cut off.How the hell will you face him when your head is full of sorrow.

From first date turn into second then third.Finally,those two date each other.You were left their by yourself again.For the first time in your life,you feel hurt.You decide it’s the time to start you trip.

You go without saying any goodbye.Eveyone know about it accept him.Not like he will notice since he has his girlfriend by his side.You’ve been in the plane for 3 hours now.Your thought still full of Jimin.

“Just why you need to lie?”Jimin is now crying.His puffy eyes get redder and redder.His throat become dry with no voice left to speak.

“Well you see boy,you’re a rich kid.I think I can mess with you for awhile.Who would think you’re so boring.”

“Get out of my house!”

“Fine! I get what I want anyway.Bye toy.”

With that,she leaves the house.The girl that he once believe is his soulmate now gone.‘Stupid fate,why do I need soulmate?’Jin come inside and comfort the young boy while Taehyung sigh.

“Jimin..Jimin...”Namjoon call Jimin a lot of time today.The boy looks lifeless to him.He wonders what happened.

“Let’s end the class for today.”

“No hyung,you can continue.”

“I won’t continue.Look at you,you look like zombie.”Namjoon gesture make him face the floor.

“Anything you want to talk with hyung?”

“I didn’t see her forawhile now.”

“Really...”Jimin face turn into a sad one.He comes to the cat cafe since you aren’t at home.Asking Jungkook whether he saw you visited here these pass few weeks.

“She left.”Yoongi reply his question.Making both of them turn and face him.

“She’s on her trip now.Why do you ask?”Yoongi continue.Jimin all of sudden fuming with anger.

“And why didn’t you tell me hyung?!”

“Because you don’t care Jimin.For the last time I saw you was when you and your girlfriend clued to each other.Never once visit Y/N after that event.”

Both of them start fighting and arguing in the cafe.Fortunetely,the cafe already close.Yoongi blood is boiling with anger.Each of them aren’t going to back down.A tense aruguing turn into a fist fight in not time.Jungkook need to call Taehyung.While him and Jhope,the other worker ,who decide to help him close the shop for today,come and help him as well.

“I know you’re jealous of me right?”

“Why do I need to jealous you?”

“Because Y/N didn’t like you.”And then another fist land on Jimin face.

“Why do I need to jealous a bastard who can’t treat his soulmate right.Perhaps didn’t even care about her and her feeling at all.You just whore around with that girl when your actual soulmate is Y/N!”

Everything stop,literally stop.Jimin head is spinning and trying it best to process with what Yoongi has just said.He stops and step back from Yoongi.How can.. how of people is her?No,he just doesn’t understand at all.

“I think to myself I would step back.I want you to realize by yourself.Seems like I’m wrong.You’re stupid,Park Jimin.And if you don’t do anything,fuck that soulmate system because I’ll make her mine.Mark my word!”

Yoongi release Jimin collar and go inside manager room.Jimin stands there and thinks about everything.Yoongi come out of his room and throw a letter toward his cousine.

“Leave before you get another one.”

3 months later : Y/N POV.

“Home sweet home,I miss you.”

After your trip,I feel like I become alive again.This trip really heal my heart and my mind.I’m in the airport,waiting for my luggage.Getting everything,I find Taehyung and Yoongi.

For the pass 3 months,me and Yoongi become really close to each other, Taehyung and Jin as well.For Jungkook,I visit him after I settle everything into the house.

“Noona how was the trip?”

“Good,get something for you as well.”

“Your the best!”He runs and charge a hug toward you.You only chuckle with his adorable action.

I make it up with him by hang out with the boy for a whole week.I get to know Jhope,his coworker as well.Both of us find something in common which is dancing.Jhope invite me to become a new choreogrpher or at least his coworker at the studio he’s been working for years.

“I don’t really want to ask this,but did you contact him yet?”

“No Jungkook,I’m not..ready.”

“You know,he was really worry for this past few months.He visited our shop every day as possible.Not long ago he gained his position.Eventhough his schedule became tougher each day,he tried his best to visit your house,the cafe or anything places he thought he would find you.He would always bring Chim with him and hoped my be Chim would find you.”

I want to cry.Why this boy make me feel like I’m a bitch here.Am I that harsh toward him?Am I acting too selfish?I am confuse,so confuse with myself. Jungkook words spark the old feeling of mine.

“I don’t know what really happen.However,I respect his effort.You should give him a chance.At least for him to prove himself especially when Yoongi hyung told us he was your soulmate.”Jhope speak and look at me.

‘I need to do what’s right,for once.’

Jimin POV.

Again,at the park under the tree with Chim.I don’t want to give up yet.Not when everything happened because of me and my stupid mind that couldn’t realize sooner.

“Chim do you think she will come here today?”

“Meow”

“I hope buddy.”

“Meow..Meow”He snuggles into my chest.

Chim is sometimes acting like a human.I look around the park and sigh. ‘Where are you,noona?’I think to myself.My eye lids get heavier.Still sitting under the tree like that until everything turn black.

“Huh what time is it?”I open my eyes.I must be so tired today.Sleeping here is a bit embarrasing yet so calm.

“Wait Chim,where are you?”

I call out his name and nothing answer back.Panic rise in my chest and make my feet move.Roaming around the park to find that little trouble maker.‘That guy does this again.’

“Chim..Chim come out your little rascal.” I walk around and shout like an idiot.

“I swear if your don’t come out,no more toy and tuna.”

Author POV.

“Let’s find your owner hhmm?”

It’s been a half hour that Y/N wandered around the park to find this cat owner.‘Is she that attractive for a cat?’she thinks.The weather start getting colder and colder so she snuggles the creatuers in her coat.

“Chim...”You here a voice from afar.The cat wiggle and simply ‘meow’.You decide to follow the sound.

“Sir I think I found..your cat.”

“Noona?”Both of them stare at each other.For Jimin,he feels like a miricle happen to him.For Y/N,the sprak light her feeling back.Both of them continue to stare deep into each other soul.

Memories show in front of them like a flash of time line.How they’ve been together,laugh,smile and hurt.Both never realize until now.Stepping closer and closer,gaps between them reduce.Jimin embrace you tightly in his arm.

“I’m sorry.”He whimper those words out,broking your heart.

“So am I.”You reply.

You continue stay in that position.Warmth crept up and take over your body,both of you.The air is chill yet nice.Smelling of the pine tree mix with a little spice from Jimin make you relax.Jimin then realese you,still holding your hands.

“Noona,let me have a chance to prove myself.”He glance up at you.Looking at you with eyes full of hope.

“Don’t let me down..again.”

Perhaps from everything that fate created and tangled them up like a knot,this is the start of the climax.Starting from here where they both try to untangle their fate and make things right for once.

[meetmeinthematinee]

Torn

AN: Probs going to be a multichapter fic so have no fear, while this is fluffy there is a 100% chance of smut in the future. 

A botched bookbinding attempt leads to a meet-cute for John Wick and small paper shop owner Kristen.

“Motherfucker!” John was frustrated. He had just ripped a page in the book he was supposed to be restoring. He leaned back hard against his chair and covered his face with his hands. He stayed that way for a moment, not quite ready to survey the damage. As he slid his hands down his face he opened his eyes and leaned forward, taking in a breath as he looked over the ragged inch long tear. It’s not too bad he thought. It wasn’t great, obviously, considering it was a pricey tome that he had planned on keeping for himself -- but it was fixable. He sulked for another moment before getting up and gathering the supplies he’d need for the repair job. He kept everything neatly arranged in the cabinet under the counter top across from his workbench. He pulled out the paste and brush he’d use to seal up the tear but came up empty handed when he went to grab the vellum needed to smooth everything out. “Fuck!” He exclaimed as he slammed the cabinet shut.

Normally he ordered everything from an online paper restoration dealer but he really didn’t feel like putting the project on hold for the week it would take for shipping. He glanced at his watch. It was 11:30AM. Plenty of time to go hunt down some vellum from somewhere he thought as his stomach growled. “And lunch.” He said that last part aloud to no one in particular. Since losing Helen meals had become a chore -- one he often forgot about entirely. He spread his hands out in front of him and leaned against the counter for support. It had been a year and change since he’d lost her and the dog and the car and the house and ultimately his retirement. He inhaled deeply through his nose and exhaled through his mouth slowly. Trying to fight against the wave of grief crashing over him. He laughed bitterly to himself as he realised he was using his tactical training -- box breathing -- to regain his composure and slow his racing thoughts. After a minute he pushed away from the counter and headed upstairs.

None of the big box craft stores had what he needed. As a last ditch effort at salvaging this disaster of a day he pulled out his phone and searched for a paper store. There was one not too far from where he was now. “Perfect.” He muttered before slipping his phone back into his pocket and peeling out of the parking lot.

He was hungry and irritated by the time he got into the shop. He didn’t even hear the friendly greeting called out by the person behind the register when he walked in. An entire wall of the shop was filled with wooden cubby like shelving that held what seemed like hundreds of kinds of paper in every colour one could ever think of. That’s a hopeful sign he thought as he made a beeline for it. He scanned the wall for what he was looking for and was startled when he heard a voice next to him. “Are you looking for something in particular?” “Vellum” he replied a little bit sharper than he intended. He was rattled. How the hell did she get so close without me noticing? He wondered. Was he quiet, yes. A Man of few words? Notoriously so. The kind to not pay attention and get crept up on in a fucking paper store? Absolutely not. “Uhh, ok.” She replied. “Is there a particular colour you’re looking for? All our vellum is in this section here.” She pointed and when he nodded in response she walked back over to her spot at the register. He went over and pulled out a stack of plain white vellum and then did a bit of browsing around before settling on a couple of Japanese brush tip pens to go with his paper. She was behind the register folding up a small bright green piece of paper. He watched for a moment before stepping forward and putting his items down. “Does your boss mind you making things on the clock?” He asked. She groaned inwardly, looked up from her small project and laughed. “That’s one of the many perks of owning your own shop” She said with a tight smile. He looked sheepishly away from her. She must think I’m a gigantic asshole he thought to himself. “So, do you draw?” She said eyeing the thick stack of vellum. He looked at her again and said “I bind and restore books.” Her eyes widened in surprise and lit up with delight. “That’s fascinating! I’d love to see your work sometime.” She blurted out. He nodded. “I can do that.” He said after a moment. He paid for his items and she handed him the tiny, bright green origami dog she had made along with her business card. The bells over the door tinkled as he stepped back out into the world.

John was still feeling off balance. Food. You need to eat he thought to himself. He stopped at his favourite cafe, a French spot that had the best ham and cheese sandwiches and a cozy walled in patio out back of the place. He ordered a sandwich along with an iced coffee and an almond croissant for later on. I mean, I’m here -- I might as well he decided. There was a free spot on the back patio so he settled into a chair and made quick work of the sandwich. He enjoyed the warmth of the sun on his shoulders as he finished the rest of his iced coffee occasionally swirling the ice around in the glass absentmindedly while he watched the only entrance from behind the safety of his dark sunglasses.

He pulled out his house keys to unlock the door and caught a flash of green as something fell out of his pocket. He bent down and picked up the origami dog that the woman from the paper shop had given him. He turned it over in his hands and shook his head as he stepped inside to be greeted by an overexcited Dog. Kicking off his shoes he dropped everything on the counter and knelt to give Dog some much needed attention. “Yes, I’m home.” “Good boy.” He said as he scratched behind Dog’s ears as the pup desperately tried to lick his face. He stood up with a huff and headed back down to his basement workshop.

The fact that the tear was so ragged actually made the repair job easier. A clean slice was much more challenging to fix. He thought about how the opposite held true for human beings. A clean slice was easy to stitch up and would heal nicely. A ragged tear would be a challenge to close up and would heal into a very visible scar. There was some overlap between the skill set he used for work and his hobby but the differences were what made it so fulfilling. Work was all precision and speed, brutal and visceral destruction. Book binding also required precision but it allowed him to take something that was on the verge of destruction and pull it back from the brink -- restoring it lovingly and giving it life anew. It was slow, meditative work that was tactile and creative but in a very structured way.

As he waited for the paste to dry he found his mind wandering again to the woman at the shop. How she had flown right under his radar? How had she made him feel so vulnerable without even realising it. What the hell was that about? He could barely admit to himself that something in his chest jumped when she smiled so warmly with excitement in her eyes over his hobby -- especially after he had been so rude earlier. That off balance feeling returned again and this time well fed and safely alone at home he realised he had felt it before. When he had met Helen. Fuck.

He threw himself into work for the next few weeks. Taking job after job hoping that the more time that passed since his visit there would mean he’d think about her less and would shake that feeling. It hadn’t worked. At night, when he was alone, his thoughts would drift to her and he’d feel ridiculous for it. He was a grown man not some heartsick teenage boy. He knew absolutely nothing about her aside from the fact that she owned a business. For all he knew she wasn’t even single. He hoped she was and at the same time desperately hoped she wasn’t. Especially since there was no getting out this time. That much had been made crystal clear to him and was part of the reason he had so many jobs. He had killed so many people in the weeks after Helen’s death that many of the best had been eliminated from the business. The high table was struggling to find good, qualified help so they eventually stopped sending people after him. He had single-handedly wiped out a generation of killers and not an insignificant number of their trainers either.

John was sprawled on the couch with a book when Dog trotted into the room making some munching sounds. He was a good dog but he did love to chew the occasional thing when John had been away too long. A bit of bright green was poking out of Dog’s teeth. “Give!” John got up and pulled the now drool soaked paper from his mouth. “Where did you get this?” he wondered aloud as he pinched the slobbery little origami dog between his fingers. He threw it in the garbage and stood for a moment thinking about her. It’s time to put a stop to this nonsense he thought grabbing his car keys. Padding down into the basement he picked up the now fully restored book he had been working on when he’d met her and slid it into his leather bag.

The bells over the door jangled as he walked in and narrowly avoided tripping over a small dog that was wandering around near the door. “Gremlin, bed!” She said and pointed toward the counter. The little thing sauntered away from John slowly. “Sorry about that, vellum” she said with a smirk. “Gremlin over there is a cautionary tale on why you should name your pets carefully. He lives up to his name a little too much sometimes.” John shook his head a little and arched a brow. “Vellum?” He asked. “Yeah, you never introduced yourself when you were here last.” She said as a hint of pink spread across her cheeks. “John.” He said warmly and extended a hand. “Kristen” she said as she slid her hand into his for a shake. Her grip was firm, confident and that smile returned to her face. “So John, what do you need today?” She asked letting go of his hand. “Just you.” He thought, but it actually came out of his mouth instead. He froze realising what had happened. Kristen was taken aback at his directness. In the weeks since this handsome but brusque man came into her shop she found herself hoping he’d reappear, newly bound book in hand. She wasn’t prepared for this though. He cleared his throat. “What I meant was” he said slowly, staring down at her. “I was just about to leave and get a coffee. Would you like to join me?” She said cutting him off mid sentence while gracefully letting him off the hook at the same time. He was quiet for a moment, relaxing the death grip he had on the strap of his leather bag. She could have sworn she saw a slight blush ghost across his face. “Yeah, I’d like that.” He replied. Kristen turned and called out “Steph!” “Yeah?” Came a voice from somewhere at the back of the shop. Where’d they come from he wondered. He hadn’t even noticed that someone else was in there with them. “Steph, I’m going to take my break now ok? Be sure to keep an eye on Gremlin. He’s trying to trip people again.” A short dark haired and heavily tattooed 20 something popped into view. “You’re not taking him with -- oh.” She said when she looked up from the box she was carrying and saw John standing somewhat awkwardly by the counter. “Gotcha boss, take your time.” Steph said with an amused smirk. Grabbing her purse Kristen headed out the door with John.

There was a small cafe a few doors down from the shop. Noticing a table was free Kristen gestured to it. “If you snag the table I’ll get our stuff, what would you like? They have really great scones here.” She offered. John held up his hands. “No. It’s on me. What’s your usual?” He countered with a smile. She shook her head slightly. “Fine, but only because we’re holding up the line.” She laughed. “I’ll have a coffee and a lemon poppy seed scone, please.” He smiled and headed off to put in their order as she laid claim to their table.

He reappeared with both coffees and two scones balanced in his hands. “Show off.” She teased playfully as he set everything down. He just shrugged and smirked at her. Her hand brushed his as he passed her the coffee and Kristen’s heart sank when she caught sight of the wedding ring on his finger. She hadn’t noticed it before. Of course. She thought to herself. Of course he’s married. She felt incredibly foolish all of a sudden. She pointed at his scone “Goat cheese and chive?” John nodded. “I’m more of a sweet over savoury guy but this looked too good to pass up.” He said with a smile. “Are you a sweet guy though?” She asked him rather pointedly. “Depends on who you ask.” He said heavily, his smile vanishing from his face. She could see how hurt he looked but she continued anyway. “I mean, maybe I read this whole thing wrong and if so that’s on me but I’m 99% sure this is halfway to a date, yes?” John’s face clouded with confusion. “You’re not wrong.” He admitted staring into his coffee. He finally made eye contact with her and watched her grow irritated. “I don’t understand.” He said. “Listen John, people have different arrangements and that’s fine but I’m not interested.” She cast a pointed glare at his wedding ring and went to stand. Before she could he grabbed her hand quickly. “Please stay” he said quietly, almost shyly. “I’ll explain.” The amount of pain in his eyes was clear enough for her to see. Either this guy is a sociopath and is about to tell me some next level lies, she thought, or he’s been through some shit. She was hoping for the latter. “I’ll stay but I would like my hand back.” She shot him a hesitant smile. I’m really fucking this up he thought. He let go of her hand and took a long sip of his coffee.

“I was married and those five years we had together were the happiest in my life. She meant absolutely everything to me. Everything.” He said quietly. He was talking so lowly that she could barely hear him over the din of the cafe so she leaned in closer, not wanting to interrupt him. John cleared his throat and looked up at her. “Helen died a year and a half ago.” Her name caught in his throat and he felt like someone had just landed a crushing blow against his sternum. “I’m still wearing my ring because I.” The pain in his eyes was almost unbearable to witness. Kristen felt relief followed immediately by a wave of guilt for it. She put her hand over his and gently ran her thumb across his knuckles. “I’m sorry for your loss John.” She said simply, not to cut him off but to make it clear she understood. He covered her hand with his and she smiled softly at him but didn’t move away. They sat like that for a few more moments until he chuckled softly. She eyed him curiously, not knowing how to respond. “If this is halfway to a date your scone choice is a bold one.” he said stealing a piece off of it and popping it into his mouth. “What’s bold about lemon popp--oh” she broke off and laughed. “After accusing you of being a philanderous scoundrel I think poppy seeds in my teeth are the least of my worries right now.” She grimaced. John laughed warmly at that. He leaned forward and grabbed her hand. “Never apologise for having boundaries. You look out for yourself. I respect that.” He said, squeezing her hand. She grinned broadly at him and her eyes crinkled softy at their edges, happiness illuminating her face. She was absolutely stunning.

“I brought that book I bound -- if you’d like to see it.” He offered. Kristen checked her phone. “Oh shoot! It’s nearly closing time -- would you mind showing me at the shop?” She asked. “No, I don’t mind at all.” “After you.” He said.

The bells jangled over the door as they walked in and Gremlin came scrambling over. John laughed as the tiny dog slid on the floor. “What is he?” He asked furrowing his brow. “He’s a chug.” “A what?” “A Chihuahua - Pug” You and Steph answered in unison. He smiled and shook his head. “I think my dog is at least 5 of Gremlin” “Oh! What kind of dog is it?” She practically cooed. “It’s a pit-bull, his name is...Dog.” John said with a laugh. Kristen grinned again. “They’re such sweethearts!” Steph cleared her throat “Well, I’m off! See you tomorrow, 10AM right?” “Yep! Thanks for your work today, I’ll see you tomorrow Steph.” Kristen said with a wave.

John waited by the counter while Kristen flipped the sign and locked the door. He watched the way she moved across the shop. Her confident stride punctuated by the sway of her hips. She was much shorter than him and her dark jeans hugged her in a way that had John thinking about what it would feel like to wrap his hands around her waist and feel her soft skin under his fingers as he pulled her against him. Fuck. It had been a long time since he had felt this way about anyone.

She appeared at his side with Gremlin not far behind. “Let’s go to my office -- I don’t want people to think the shop’s open.” She suggested. She grabbed his hand and lead him through the door at the back of the shop. They settled onto the small couch across from her desk. John carefully pulled his book from his bag and took out his phone to show her a couple of pre-restoration photos and explain his process. “Wow.” She marvelled. “May I?” She asked with her hands poised over the book. John smiled and nodded. She gently ran her hands over the oxblood leather, traced her fingers over the gold leafed vine pattern and then gently lifted the cover. The first page read ‘This book was bound by John Wick’. She smiled up at him and bumped his shoulder with hers. “This is so gorgeous John” “Thanks.” he replied sheepishly. He never knew what to do with the kind words of others. Even with Helen he always shrugged them off but now that she was gone and those kind words were absent from his life he realised how much he missed them. Kristen brought him back from his thoughts by reaching out and gently cupping his face with her hand. “Hey”, she said softly “Thank you for showing me your book.” The feel of his beard and his strong jaw underneath against her hand lit a fire inside her. She imagined him pressing his face into her neck, his hands lifting her up onto the counter and. Her daydream was interrupted by the feeling of his mouth gently pressing against hers. The distant but lusty look in her eyes hadn’t escaped his notice. He brought a hand up to her face and pulled her closer to him with the other. Their kisses were hesitant and slow at first -- almost as if they were waiting for the other to pull away. Neither one did and when John gently took Kristen's lower lip between his teeth she slid her arms around him tightly, opening her mouth and deepening their kiss. It was only when Gremlin growled that they parted and Kristen blushed deeply. “Sorry, Gremlin gets uh, overly protective sometimes.” She said with a tight smile. “He’s doing his job then.” He murmured before leaning in to kiss her on the forehead. He knew if he didn’t leave right that minute he wouldn’t leave at all. “I should go.” He whispered softly before kissing her again. Everything in his body was screaming STAY but he just couldn’t. Not yet. She nodded in reply. He took her hands in his and squeezed them. “I’m sorry. I’m just not--” He stammered until she cut him off “John, there’s nothing to be sorry for. I understand.” His eyes widened a little. How was this woman so generous and so clearly fine with making herself vulnerable? He wondered to himself. It pushed him to give it a shot. “I’d like to see you again.” He stated. If anyone else had said that Kristen would have thought they were blowing her off but something in his eyes told her that he was serious. “I’d like that John. Very much.” Her eyes crinkled softly at the corners as her mouth spread into another wide grin. They exchanged numbers and gathered up their things. She leashed up Gremlin and all three walked in comfortable silence as they left the shop. As she locked up outside John slid an arm around her waist and planted a kiss on her cheek. “I’ll text you.” He said with a grin. Kristen beamed back at him not quite believing the turn this day had taken. “You better!” She teased. “Thanks again for the coffee.” She leaned up and kissed him before turning and setting out with Gremlin, heading for home.

[theskyexists]

Spyfall part 1 (spoilers)

Ok so.

I was pleasantly surprised.

I really was.

I thought this was going to be another disaster ( which for me watching a chibs ep means: I am stewing in frustration during and afterwards I think what in the heck was that,  it doesn’t make ANY sense)

I appreciate how the trailer (the good one) was almost completely taken from this first episode - that was well done. I’m not as happy that the motorbiking was much more fun and cool in the trailer than the episode in which it didn’t really involve any stakes only reinforced by all the bullets hitting the motorbikes - harmlessly??

I have to say - that twist. Uh.............???? All I could think was, really? REALLY?? Already? Huh?? I couldn’t believe it. I literally was like - surely not. You’re not now implying this. How can you reboot Missy after ONE series break? That’s really...like, it did not feel right. And I’ll be honest, I was just straight up disappointed by a male Master. Then I thought, well, maybe we’re going to get a worthy opponent for the Doctor.....? :/

However, I like the actor. He gave O a lot of humanity - interestingly. Like O as a character - bit sad he doesn’t exist.

I actually liked the directing, i noticed that the very, very up close stuff - it now really gave a little more subtle panic vibe. The music was.

The pace seemed high to me - so check. Chibs fixed a big problem of mine.

Lots of character moments. Check. Though not being a native speaker and having no access to subtitles i had to really listen very VERY hard for those interactions. I liked the ‘iced tea - possibly.’

We briefly get to find out how the companions are dealing with travelling in combination with their regular lives. Check. Alright then. Graham even discusses it - the temporal disorientation.

The companions are PUT IN DANGER. check, fuckin hell finally. There’s just a bit of suspense in this.

Loved the decided focus on Yaz and Ryan. Check. Ryan being a normal kid not trained for this shit and Yaz smoothing the conversation, taking risks, asking sharp questions, modelling herself after the Doctor - I really like how they contrasted that.

I suspect Ryan casually noticing the weird statue in the glass case is going to be relevant however. (if not - sigh)

Really really liked how Chibs really worked at NOT undercutting the Doctor -  giving her clear moments of authority and genius and unaffectedness as the Doctor is supposed to get.  ‘i got an upgrade’ and having the Doctor chewing people out, interrogating them, negotiating with them - WITHOUT getting self-conscious or self-deprecating - lots of confidence - all of that helped along by multiple special agents coming for the Doctor - implying the need for more force, C mistaking Graham (i like that lil moment) but losing his argument to her, O being such a fan, and the Doctor sassing so much - he really worked on rendering her authority.

He only put in two moments:  ‘I don’t understand’ and ‘I think it’s laughing at you Doc’ - ‘I know that!’ which was so similar to the Tsuranga Conundrum I guess Chibs is going to buckle down on this specific stuff (and I can see how the Doctor sometimes simply admitting to not knowing might be a deliberate and interesting choice) - well if it’s balanced like this it’s alright. NOT so happy about this RANDOM SPY DUDE telling her to go back inside - which is clearly something Chibs wanted to emphasise AGAIN because that bit was completely isolated, that she should listen to other people - always just your regular self-sacrificial well-meaning men!!! (turns out lol they always get killed if she listens to them but the narrative doesn’t acknowledge that.) And i Hate it.

Also actually, that ‘i don’t understand’ was about multiple earths, and she’d just heard that the aliens were going to conquer the ‘universe’, implying they were from somewhere else. Like, if the very normal viewer (me) can see the writing on the wall, then why the fuck can’t the Doctor. I just wish Chibs would stop emphasising his need for his character not to figure out the plot at that moment - at great cost to the character and accompanying power fantasy.

Most of all, I thought the acting was great. Jodie built in a LOT more calm and authority (the script explicitly allowed her that) but also lots of quirkiness. Graham really got a wonderful supporting role dynamic with the Doctor as he does at his best - emphasising her go go go attitude and genius, and Yaz got to have a near-death experience. Bit weirded out that once again, it’s not the Doctor who deals with the fallout of a mission which she’d explicitly sent Yaz on. I also got some VERY ominously heterosexual vibes from Ryan and Yaz there....mostly because of the sister angle.... hmmmm

I liked the topicalness of ‘VOR’ and the dependence of national governments on their expertise and resources but I have no idea where it’s going or whether Chibs just wanted to point out: yeah tech giants (esp google) are powerful. kay. true.

Liked the Doctor doing some computer stuff bc it tickled that women programming narrative.

Loved Graham and Ryan bantering. Loved the moment in the TARDIS with the creatures getting in and Yaz pulling Doctor to attention. Loved the moment that the Doctor was playing a totally different game from blackjack extremely seriously. hahaha. strangely enough loved the moment between O and Yaz in the casino as well though I don’t know what it means. Maybe nothing. (MAYBE YAZ BECOMES THE MASTER)

Anyway as a viewer who’s not super good at theorising - i was like.....????????

A lot of stuff is uh - strange. e.g. Why can the scanner identify 93% human dna but not the 7% alien (or whatever it is) dna? Not sure why Yaz would be able to wipe the camera images of them from a distance (???) but then Barton got them recovered no probs. The car stuff took a bit too long but eh. I also in retrospect have no idea why they’d try to assassinate them via car. Also let’s not talk about everybody sprinting at the same speeds as a plane during take-off.

Anyway. The ‘monsters’ sure are - not exactly scary - but a bit typical. I liked the implication of them not being from this universe bc it’s a bit different. But if the Master is in league with them it’s uhhhh well it’s quite typical. I enjoyed this episode riffing on the spy genre. That is to say, they carried it off - watching the preview i was like...why spies??? but they asked the same question and it worked.

I feel like it would have been possible to make this a little bit more scary, just a little bit more scary. I appreciate that them playing with the lights was supposed to be  that - but surely there’s a more scary way to represent creatures not from this universe - for horror purposes? there is such a primal fear you can tap into.

ANYWAY

the Master literally spelling out ‘everything you know isn’t real’ or whatever makes me feel hopeful about this being not just the face of it all. Multiple universes, multiple masters?, and Yaz got hella zapped and then zapped right back into the midst of the team? interesting huh....

what a weird episode to start off a season with and whether he makes it work or not - that IS quite brave.

forgot to say: they really love instantly killing off their famous guest actors. think Fry did quite a good job with what he got.

also one more thing i LOVED; the Doctor threw herself against the door of the cockpit when the bomb went off in some sort of attempt to protect her companions. wanted that from the Sonic Bomb in Tsuranga (it just fit) and glad i got it here.

when part 2 gets here i might still think: what in the heck that didn’t make ANY sense.

[darks-ink]

What a Nice Surprise CH.7

I never know what the state of links and linebreaks on Tumblr is. Do posts with links appear in tags again? Who knows. Still haven’t got any linebreaks though so I’m making do with ---, but I would still recommend following the mirror links to AO3 or Fanfiction.net instead tbh.

First Chapter - Previous Chapter - Next Chapter AO3 - FFnet

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Danny knew, logically, that this wasn’t the best moment to go visit his parents as Phantom. It was the middle of the week, after all, just after school. He should be working on his homework, or patrolling the city, or something. Not this. Definitely not this.

He rang the doorbell anyway.

The door swung open, his dad’s head poking out. “Phantom?” he asked, uncertainly.

“Hey Jack.” Danny twitched his spectral tail, even if the man couldn’t see it – he was invisible, after all. “I promised I would drop by, didn’t I?”

“You did.” Jack stepped back and opened the door further, a clear sign for Danny to enter. “Not as busy anymore?”

“Nope.” He let the invisibility leech away now that the door was closed. “But I also used this time to prepare something neat for today.”

“Really now?” His dad looked intrigued, wandering further into the house and towards the kitchen. “Well, I assume you won’t tell me unless Mads is around to hear it as well.” Danny nodded, and he continued. “Down to the lab we go, then.”

“Hold on one moment,” Maddie said as they entered the lab. Something in her hands clicked – a part in the machine finding its place – and she nodded appreciatively. Then she turned around to face Danny and Jack. “Phantom, I hope you’ve been well?”

“Uh.” Danny rubbed the back of his neck, unsure. “I mean, yeah? No worse than usual, I guess. But, um. I arranged some things for today, if you’re interested.”

“Oh?” She pulled her goggles up, a spark of interest in her eyes. “Are we meeting more of your allies, then? I thought none of them left the Ghost Zone?”

Danny nodded. “Yeah, I, uh. If you’re okay with going in the Zone, I arranged that you could go meet some of my more established allies. Frostbite and his yetis in the Far Frozen, and Queen Dorathea in the Kingdom of Aragon, although we probably won’t get around to that today.”

“I don’t know, Phantom. We’ve never been in the Ghost Zone before.” Maddie frowned. “The Specter Speeder should be ready, but…”

“But won’t this be one of your best shots?” Danny continued after she’d trailed off. “It won’t get much safer than if I’m by your side protecting you, right? Plus I know how to navigate the Zone, so there’s no risk of you getting lost.”

“He’s got a point, Mads.” Jack looked rather excited at the prospect. Danny wouldn’t be surprised if the man had been eager to explore the Zone even before now. “Plus, isn’t this why we built the Portal in the first place? To explore the world of the ghosts, and the ones that live there?”

Maddie hummed, thoughtfully. “Yes, I suppose you’re right. Both of you.” She shook her head, then folded her hands together, looking much more determined. “We’ll check the Specter Speeder over once more just to be sure, and then we’ll grab some supplies. Phantom, do you need to warn your allies beforehand?”

“Nah.” He flapped a hand in her direction. “Frostbite knows I’m coming, plus he and his people are open to me visiting whenever.”

“Those were the guys that worship you, right? Does Frostbite do so as well?” Jack had lumbered over to the Specter Speeder, opening the machine to look at the internal mechanisms. Sometimes Danny admired his parents’ ability to multitask – it seemed pretty useful.

“Kinda, yeah.” Danny shrugged, floating over to peek into the Specter Speeder. None of the machinery made sense to him, however, so he wasn’t sure if he could offer to help. “He’s gotten a lot easier about it, thankfully. Still insists on calling me ‘Great One’, though.”

Maddie sidled up next to Jack, also eyeing up the Specter Speeder’s… engine, maybe? “And that was because you defeated Pariah Dark, right? Does that affect your relationship with him in any way, you think?”

“Maybe at first, but that wore off quick, I think.” Danny swung himself upside down to attempt to decipher the complicated mess of electronics and machinery. “Working on my ice powers with him made him see me more like, well, me. My status just made sure I had a good enough first impression to get that far, I guess.”

She nodded. Then both of the adults stepped back, closing the panel on the Specter Speeder. “Well, looks like it should be fine. I’ll grab some supplies from the Vault. Jack, Phantom, can you collect the things here in the lab?”

“Of course honey,” Jack said, and Danny stuck up his thumb in her direction. Maddie nodded, seemingly pleased, and left for the Vault.

Once she was gone, Danny turned to his dad. “So, uh. I’m guessing you know what we need to take along to the Zone?”

Jack blinked. Then again. “Oh. Oh, right. Sorry, Phantom. I guess you’ve become such a normal sight around here that I forgot how recent that change was.”

“It’s fine.” Danny shrugged, then looped around so he hung in front of his dad. “So… supplies?”

He nodded. “Most of it is in the Vault, so we’ll just need some of the basic stuff. Fenton Phones, medical supplies, snacks…”

“I’ve got a pair of Fenton Phones myself, so we just need two more pairs for you two.” Danny let his eyes wander through the lab, but the gadgets were too small to pick out in the mess. “If you can point me in the right direction I can get those, and you can focus on the food.”

“Good man,” Jack complimented with a grin. He gestured to a large table close to the Portal – loaded with half-finished inventions, of course. “They should be on that table, since that’s where we store everything we’re not actively working on. Well, besides the stuff in the Vault, of course. Are you sure you’ll be fine? Most of it is anti-ghost, you know?”

“I’ll be fine.” Danny shot his dad a comforting smile. It wasn’t like this would be much more dangerous than cleaning the lab, and he did that on regular basis. Not as often as his parents would’ve liked, but still. “If I can handle it while it’s being wielded by ghost hunters, I’m sure I can deal with the inactive ones lying on a table.”

His dad barked out a surprised laugh, then nodded. “Alright, fair enough. I’ll go grab the food then. If you run into trouble, shout.”

“I will,” Danny assured him, floating over to the table in question.

Thankfully, the Fenton Phones ended up being easy to find. While carefully pushing aside a deactivated Ghost Catcher (you could never be too careful with those) Danny accidentally knocked over a stack of other inventions. And underneath those were the Fenton Phones! And none of the inventions had really fallen, either – Danny had managed to catch them all using his telekinesis.

After somewhat carefully putting everything else back into place, Danny floated back to the Specter Speeder. The four Fenton Phones – two pairs of them – were held carefully in his hand. With his other, he unzipped the pocket he carried his own pair in, not that he’d ever used them.

When he took them, he had hoped to maybe link them to Valerie’s suit. If they ever made a permanent alliance, it would be good to be able to communicate on the field. Or if another invasion happened, of course.

This, however. This was better, actually.

His parents might be a strange choice for allies, but dang if they didn’t make good ones.

“Did you find them alright?” Jack asked when he wandered back over. His arms were loaded full of snacks – mostly unhealthy foods, of course. It was a good thing that they didn’t plan on staying long – worst came to worst, Danny could ask Frostbite for human-safe food.

Danny opened his hand to show his dad the earpieces. The shiny metal shone against his white glove, the ecto-green accents matching his eyes. It was a funny coincidence, he thought, that the accident turned his eyes the exact color of ectoplasm.

“Good, good.” Jack stepped forward to open the Specter Speeder’s door, but seemed to be struggling. Danny floated past him and reached to open it instead. “Oh, thanks, kid.”

“No prob.” Danny floated in after his dad, glancing around the cabin. He’d been in the Speeder before, of course – his dad had accidentally pushed him in when he first met Walker. It was how he knew that the Speeder worked and would be safe in the first place – it wasn’t like he had ever brought anyone else to Zone before, after all. “What else do we need? Medical supplies, right?”

Jack nodded, opening a kit that was mounted to the wall. “Yeah, but this one is stocked well enough. We should be fine with just this.”

“And if anything happens, Frostbite has medical facilities as well.” And a good thing too. Danny didn’t like to think about what could’ve happened if he had truly overloaded his ghost form with his newly emerging ice powers, back during Undergrowth’s invasion.

“Really?” His dad looked intrigued, eyes bright and wide. “I suppose it makes sense – we’ve seen that you can get injured beyond what your enhanced healing can take care of. I just figured that it was because you were more human in structure.” Then he refocused, growing a little more serious. “Still, though, just because they have medics of their own doesn’t mean we can sit back. Ghost medicine won’t work on humans, most likely.”

“Nah, any ghost can get injured if you try hard enough.” Danny shrugged. “That aside, if my anatomy is so similar to that of a human, why wouldn’t Frostbite’s people know how to treat the living as well?”

“I suppose you have a point,” Jack acknowledged with a tilt of his head. “And they might’ve preserved information from when they were among the living as well, I guess. Or otherwise had an interest and studied it.”

An interest which definitely didn’t come from the fact that their great savior was half human, no sirree!

Before he could say anything, however, his mom appeared in the door of the Specter Speeder.

“There you two are,” she said, looking over the pile of food with a mild grimace. “Did you get everything?”

“Yeah we did!” Jack grinned, clearly not noticing Maddie’s less-than-stellar opinion of his food choices. “You got everything from the Vault as well, Mads?”

She nodded, handing him several ecto-guns, complete with holsters. Then she turned to Danny and, to his surprise, handed him another Thermos.

Seeing his surprise, she explained. “I’m not sure how well it’ll work in the Ghost Zone, but I felt uncomfortable not bringing any weaponry for you as well.”

“Oh, well, um. Thanks.” Danny clipped it to his belt, in the spot where he normally carried his replacement Thermos. He had, admittedly, left it behind for this trip – he didn’t like to use the Thermos in the Zone because that’s where he dumped the ghosts anyway.

“We’re all ready to go, then?” Jack asked, glancing between Danny and Maddie. “We have everything we need?”

“Well, we definitely have everything we need. Phantom?” His mom looked over to him as well.

Danny smirked. “Well, I kinda don’t need anything to go into the Ghost Zone? So yeah, I’m good as well.”

She blinked, once, and then nodded with sudden understanding. “Oh, right. Yes, of course. Lead the way, Phantom.”

“First, these.” He floated closer, handing both of his parents the Fenton Phones. “I don’t know how much sound the walls of the Speeder block, and I don’t want to have to phase through to talk.”

They took the earphones and put them in, while Danny did the same. “You raise a good point, kid,” Jack said once they all lowered their hands again. “Wouldn’t want to have to travel in silence the whole way. Unless it’s not far from our Portal?”

“Eh.” Danny wiggled his hand. “Distance in the Zone is weird. Obviously I’m not a good judge since I don’t know how quickly I fly at any given moment, but I know that some places I can fly to within minutes and other times they’re like an hours flight away.”

He flew through the still-open door and closed it behind him. Hovering between the Speeder and the Portal itself, he continued speaking. “That having been said, the Far Frozen is very true to both parts of its name. You don’t have to worry about the cold much, since we can meet Frostbite inside where it’s warmer, but, well. It’s still pretty far.”

“Well, at least we’ll have plenty of time to enjoy the scenery?” Jack suggested, voice a mingling of excitement and uncertainty. “Hang on, Phantom, we’ll open the Portal doors from inside the Speeder.”

Danny nodded, hovering in front of the enormous yellow-and-black doors. Moments later they groaned open, thick metal sliding into the arch around it.

He remembered being afraid of the Portal, at first. The accident had changed him, he’d been hurt and alone and terrified. And it was all the fault of the Portal. His own too, of course, for messing with the machine in the first place. But most of all it was the Portal’s.

It had taken him forever to get over it, really. Every time he had gone in the lab, it just lurked there. It was so big, and his parents refused to distance themselves from it, so Danny kept having to come close. And then one day his dad accidentally pushed him through it-

The Ghost Zone was enormous and green and simultaneously everything Danny had been expecting and nothing like it. And knowing what laid behind the frame, that entering the Zone was nothing like his accident, that helped. Approaching the Portal was still scary, at first, but it got easier over time.

Visiting the Zone with friends, or to visit friends, that helped too. Promising to meet Sidney and sight-see. Going to help other ghosts in the Zone. That kinda thing.

Flying through the Portal felt refreshing. Its surface was cool to the touch, barely tangible regardless of form and tangibility. But the Ghost Zone behind it, and its enormous amount of free-floating ectoplasm, was like a pick-me-up for his ghost form. A booster shot of energy.

The Specter Speeder glid through the Portal as well, closely behind Danny. For a moment he stopped to watch it, in awe of his parents’ skill at engineering despite himself. Seeing it from the outside was way different than the one time he had rode it.

“Phantom, are we okay to go?” his mom asked him via the Fenton Phones, snapping him out of his thoughts.

“Uh, yeah, sorry.” He cleared his throat and looked away, hiding the blush that crept onto his face. “I’ll, uh, start flying in the right direction.”

He angled himself in the right direction, merged his legs into a spectral tail, and flew off. He tempered his speed at first, unsure of how fast the Speeder could go. That, and he could keep a closer eye on his environment at lower speeds. Danny knew he could fly to the Far Frozen blind – it was the other ghosts he was worried about.

They flew on in silence for a while. Danny raised his speed, little by little, until the Speeder could no longer match it. His parents, he assumed, were busy watching the Zone. It was their first time visiting it, at least. And, as far as they knew, it was the first time a living human had visited the Ghost Zone.

Danny wouldn’t tell them that Valerie been here. Multiple times, even. It would only ruin their fun.

“Say, Phantom, don’t you ever get cold?” Jack asked out of the blue after more than 30 minutes of silence. Danny, startled, jerked off course and only barely dodged a floating rock.

“What?” he replied as he tried to calm down from his start. “No, I mean, not really. Why?”

“Well,” a scuffing sound, like Jack was scraping his foot over the floor of the Speeder, “You mentioned how cold the Far Frozen was earlier. And while most ghosts seem immune to temperatures, we know that you’re warmer than most.”

“Oh.” Well, he supposed his dad had a point. “Um, not really? Sometimes in the past it could get a little nippy if it was very cold, but now that I have ice powers I’m basically immune to extreme temperatures.” Danny shrugged, looking over his shoulder at the Speeder. “Plus my suit does a pretty adequate job of keeping me warm.”

“It is a pretty neat suit.” Danny could see his dad shift inside the cabin of the Speeder. “You’re a man of taste, Phantom, wearing jumpsuits just like we do!”

“I mean, um.” Danny glanced away, blush crawling onto his cheeks again. “I, uh. I didn’t make the conscious decision to wear it, per se.”

“Oh?” It was his mom, now. “Don’t all ghosts pick their clothing on their own? How else did you come to wear a jumpsuit?”

“Well, you see.” Danny floated closer to the Speeder, still leading it in the right direction. “I kind of, um. Died wearing it?”

A moment of silence. A long moment of silence. Then–

“Oh.” Jack cleared his throat. “I see. That’s um. Unfortunate.”

Danny shrugged. “Yeah, I wasn’t a big fan of it at first either. I, uh. Used to say I wouldn’t be caught dead wearing them.”

“Phantom,” his mom chastised, her tone tired. “Are you really making jokes about your death?”

“Well, what else am I supposed to do?” He locked eyes with her through the window, offering a shrug. “Mope about it? It’s not like it’ll get better. Might as well live with it, for as far as you can call it ‘living’, you know? ‘s better than being sad about it.”

She sighed, weary. “Yes, I suppose you’re right. It’s just…”

“Death is a difficult topic,” Danny finished for her. “I know. Believe me, I do. But you can’t get hung up on it forever, you know? It’s a thing that happens for everyone, eventually.”

“But you’re just a kid,” Jack said, voice also heavy with sadness. “You’re our son’s age, Phantom, and you died wearing a hazmat suit. I know you don’t like talking about your death, but…”

“It wasn’t natural, no.” Danny phased through the windscreen of the Speeder, startling both of his parents. “Sorry, this was easier for the conversation. Just, uh, keep heading in the direction we were going.”

His parents shared a glance. A few quick ones, actually, making Danny think it was an entire silent conversation. Then, finally, his mom spoke up again.

“But you still didn’t tell anybody?”

He huffed out a breath. “No. It was nobody’s fault but my own, and no one else was hurt. No more than they’ll be if they know the entire truth, anyway.”

“I wouldn’t be so sure.” Jack’s voice was quieter than usual, but in the silence of the cabin it still carried. “But we can’t force you to do anything, Phantom. Just… think about it? About telling your parents?”

“Yeah.” He smiled, humorlessly. “I think about it pretty often, to be honest. It’s just…” He combed his fingers through his hair, pushing his bangs out of his face. “It would hurt them more than help them. At least for now. Maybe… Maybe later. When things are better.”

“But what if things never get better?” His mom’s hand wrapped around his upper arm, warm and comforting. “What is better, anyway? What amount of improvement would be enough?”

“I don’t– I don’t know,” Danny admitted, shoulders slumping down. “I can’t tell them, though. Not yet.”

“As long as you really do plan on telling them, kid.” Jack’s massive hand wrapped around his shoulders, pulling Danny against his side. “Your parents deserve to know the truth.”

“I know,” Danny said before his dad had really stopped talking. The man smiled, but continued anyway.

“They deserve to know how wonderful their son really is. How much good he does, even now.”

Danny nodded, ducking his head to hide the smile that had crept onto his face. “I… I’ll think about it, okay? But, um.” He looked up, out of the window, straight at a giant rock in front of the Specter Speeder.

“Shit,” he swore, automatically lifting higher in the air even though there was nothing he could do anymore. They were going too fast, couldn’t dodge or turn intangible–

The Speeder careened through the rock like it didn’t even exist. Danny barely missed it, but his dad went straight through it.

In front of them empty green sky hung. Danny looked back to see the last of the rock phase through the Specter Speeder, stunned. His dad, next to him, look at his hands with wide-eyed amazement.

“Phantom, no swearing,” his mom scolded belatedly, like she had only just realized what he’d said. Then, “What on Earth was that?”

“Well, not Earth,” Danny said before he could really think about it. “I think… that humans can turn themselves intangible in the Ghost Zone, to ectoplasm-based materials at least. But I’m not sure how the Speeder did it, here.”

“Do you think we could’ve turned it intangible?” Jack offered, brow creased in thought. “Like how you could turn us intangible in the human world?”

“Maybe.” Danny glanced out the window to make sure they weren’t about to hit anything else. “But you should hold off on testing that theory until we get to the Far Frozen, at least, just in case it doesn’t work.”

Jack barked out a laugh. “Yeah, probably.”

“Maybe it would be for the best if you went ahead again, Phantom.” Maddie’s hands were still clawed around the controls. Danny was sure that her hands were white-knuckled beneath her gloves. “Just to avoid a repeat performance.”

Danny nodded, phasing through the front of the Speeder. “At least we can still keep up the conversation. Your Fenton Phones work really well.”

“We should test them more while we’re here,” Jack suggested. “Maybe the tech behind them could be used for those phones the other ghosts were talking about a while back.”

Caught off-guard, Danny glanced over his shoulder back at his dad. “Huh?”

“Well, our Fenton Phones work in the Zone, right?” his dad started explaining. “So if they work over longer distances, or even while one is here and the other is in our world, then that technology could be used to help with that phone network the biker ghosts were talking about before, yeah?”

“I– Yeah. Yeah, you’re right.” If they really did work, then Danny might even be able to improve his relationship with Technus a little. Helping with this would be a sure-fire way of winning the ghost’s favor – or at least keeping him out of Amity for a little longer. “If you’re okay with me sharing the tech like that, that would be really helpful, yeah.”

“Wouldn’t offer if it wasn’t okay,” Jack said, an amused tone to his voice. “Seriously, Phantom, we really do want to help in whatever way possible.”

“I know, I know. I’m just…” Danny twitched his spectral tail, uncertain. “Just not used to it, I guess. Even my allies who want to help just can’t. There’s not much they can do for me, besides offer me their company.”

He looked ahead, spotting the enormous mountains of the Far Frozen. “And speaking of which, we’re nearly there. You probably can’t see it yet, but soon you should be able to see the tunnel we’ll use to enter.”

“Why a tunnel?” his mom asked, a hint of worry in her voice. “Isn’t it an island like everything else seems to be?”

“Well, most lairs are actually sub-dimensions that you can only access via doors.” Danny slowed a little as they approached the tunnel, which should now be visible to his parents as well. “But yeah, the Far Frozen is an island as well. The correct way to approach is via the tunnel – it’s so they can protect their realm more easily.”

“Like a bottleneck in case they’re attacked?” The Speeder slowed down as well, Maddie clearly eyeing up the tunnel. “That might be a narrow fit, Phantom.”

“We might have to try the intangibility thing.” He stopped to float over the opening, glancing between it and the Speeder. “Worst come to worst we can leave it here and I’ll carry you to the palace. Frostbite can set guards on it to make sure no ghost messes with it.”

The Specter Speeder lowered closer to the tunnel entrance. Danny could see his parents sitting behind the window, worried expressions on their faces. Maddie, especially, had a crease in her brow that suggested extreme focus.

“I’ll go just ahead,” Danny offered, dipping into the tunnel. “To make sure the guards won’t worry.”

“Copy that, Phantom,” his dad replied, seeing that Maddie wouldn’t. “We’ll follow at our own pace.”

The crawl through the tunnels was slow, but steady. As it turned out, they’d gotten lucky; the tunnel was just big enough to fit the Specter Speeder.

One of the guards stationed at the end of the tunnel glanced between Danny and the Speeder, warily. He waved a greeting at her, however, offering an understanding smile. “It’s fine, Frostbite knew they were coming.”

“Great One,” she replied with a short bow. “Very well, although I wish he had informed us as well.”

“We didn’t exactly pick a specific moment.” He shrugged, still smiling somewhat sheepishly. “Sorry. I’ll try to give more of a warning next time.”

“It’s much appreciated.” She stepped aside, nodding towards the Fentons in the Specter Speeder. “Carry on, you three. Enjoy your stay in the Far Frozen.”

“Thanks.” Danny waved at her before flying off. He moderated his speed even though most ghosts in the Far Frozen didn’t fly – it just seemed more polite. Knowing that his parents were probably still listening, he said, “I’ll bring us right to the front steps of Frostbite’s palace. The Speeder will be fine there, unless it can’t handle the cold for extended periods of time?” Hmm, he should’ve considered that possibility before. There was probably a better place to park it if that was the case.

“It should be fine with the cold,” his dad assured him before he could worry too much. “But will it be fine parked out in the open like that?”

“None of the ghosts will mess with it, if that’s what you’re worried about.” Danny slowed as he approached the palace, coming to a stop in front of the massive sprawling structure – made entirely out of ice, of course. “You’re with me, and I’m the ‘Great One’, remember? So they’ll leave it alone.”

“If you’re sure.” His dad more or less mumbled the reply, clearly worried about the machine. For all that he tried to change, the man clearly still struggled to trust ghosts, especially ones he didn’t know. That, and he was just very protective of things he considered his own.

Danny would’ve been annoyed, except that his dad clearly trusted him, trusted his judgment enough to leave it be.

The Specter Speeder came to a halt as well, lowering until it gently landed in the snow. It then promptly sunk another 3 inches before actually settling down.

Danny was already floating over to the door when it opened, his mom standing in the opening. “It certainly does honor to its name.” She looked around, at the town made entirely out of ice and the ghosts that were peeking outside, just as curious of them as they were of the ghosts. “And it’s so different from the rest of the Zone.”

“Everything else was just green and purple, but this place is almost entirely white and blue.” His dad was looking around as well, wide-eyed but grinning. “It’s incredible.”

“I thank you very much.” Both Fentons whirled around, startled, at the unexpected voice. Danny just grinned at the yeti who had just exited the palace.

“Frostbite! These are Jack and Maddie Fenton, the ghost hunters I told you I would bring by.” He turned to face his parents again. “Jack, Maddie, this is Frostbite, leader of the Far Frozen.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you.” Maddie stepped forward first, uncertainly offering her hand. She was clearly eyeing up Frostbite – and Danny couldn’t blame them. He cut an imposing figure, large and muscular with an enormous amount of fur that made him look even bigger. The icy horns on his head and toothy muzzle didn’t help. Neither did the false left arm, composed only of bone with ice surrounding it.

Frostbite took her hand – with his right hand, thankfully – and shook it. “A pleasure to meet you as well, Huntress. And you too, Hunter,” he added as he shook Jack’s hand as well. “The Great One has spoken well of your skills, even before your current alliance.”

“Frostbite,” Danny whined, leaning on the ghost’s shoulder. “Can’t you just call me by my name for once?”

“No, I cannot.” He grinned, frustratingly, knowing exactly how much Danny disliked the title. Then he turned back to the Fentons. “Come, let us go inside. I’m sure you two are cold out here.”

“Yeah, kinda.” Jack eagerly followed the ghost, and Maddie trailed behind them. Danny matched her pace, floating alongside.

“You okay?” he asked, a little worried. Jack had enough flesh to weather the cold a little while. His mom, however, had far less protection. And Danny didn’t know how well the jumpsuit would protect her – how cold it really was in the Far Frozen.

“I’m fine Phantom, no worries.” She smiled at him, then turned to look at the palace they were entering. “It’s just a little… overwhelming. No, not overwhelming. Humbling is a better word.”

“How so?” He flipped onto his side so he could watch her more easily.

“All this time, we’ve insisted that ghosts were dumb, unintelligent, inhuman.” She looked away, shoulders tense. “That they were incapable of the depth that humans have. Yet the proof was right here, all this time. If we had just gone through the Portal, we could’ve seen how wrong we were. But we had to wait until you almost died at our feet before we noticed.”

“Well, everyone makes mistakes.” Danny shrugged when she looked back at him, slightly incredulous. “It’s part of being… uh. I was gonna say human but that doesn’t entirely work. Existing? It’s part of existing. You make mistakes, you learn from them, and then you do better.”

He threw out a hand, demonstratively. “And that’s this. You’re here, both of you, following a ghost to meet another ghost you had never even heard of.”

She huffed out a short breath. “Yes, I suppose you’re right. But I can’t help but think…”

“Don’t,” he insisted, laying a hand on her shoulder. “Mo– Maddie, there’s no changing the past. Thinking about how things could have gone won’t make things better. Focus on the here and the now, and stop worrying, alright?”

“Yeah, alright.” She smiled at him, still a little shaky but clearly real. “Thanks, Phantom. I think I needed to hear that.”

“It’s no problem.” He looked forward to where the huge shapes of Frostbite and his dad had stopped. “Come on, I think they’re waiting for us.”

She nodded, and they both sped up to meet up with the other two again.

---

They didn’t end up staying all that long, in the end. The flight had taken longer than they had really expected (apparently Danny really did fly significantly faster than the Speeder) and his parents were unsure about staying too long in the Ghost Zone. After all, little was known about the Ghost Zone or its effects on humans.

Danny had tried to reassure them, that it would do no harm, but their minds had been made. They had thanked Frostbite for his hospitality – and for teaching them more about ghosts – and left.

But despite the shorter-than-expected stay, the visit had gone well. Despite Frostbite’s uncertainty beforehand, when Danny had suggested the visit, he showed no fear towards the Fentons. Not that Danny had expected him to – Frostbite was a leader, and could very easily put on a brave face. Even if he was worried that he would accidentally spill the Great One’s secret.

He had been cajoled into teaching the Fentons more about ghostly anatomy, however. When he had mentioned their medical facilities the Fentons had shown clear interest and asked more. And while Frostbite had been initially unsure, they told him that they mostly wanted to know so they could help ‘the Great One’ if he got hurt, and, well… That was all they needed to say, apparently.

Still, Danny couldn’t really be mad. His parents did intend to use it to help him. He didn’t hope it would be necessary, but even so. The gesture was very nice.

The three of them agreed that he would return another time for the next visit to the Ghost Zone. After all, he had promised to introduce them to Queen Dorathea as well, and they hadn’t gotten around to that quite yet.

---

The Specter Speeder hovered just above the floor of the lab. Its metal walls shone under the bright artificial light, its green lights blinking energetically. The door hung open, Maddie standing in its opening to peer inside the vehicle.

“I think we have everything,” she said, not turning around to face Danny and Jack. “Phantom, the Kingdom wasn’t as uninhabitable as the Far Frozen, right?”

“Uh, yeah. Less unified and still kind of medieval, but it’s not freezing cold or anything, at least.”

“Good, good.” She turned around. “In that case we should be…” she trailed off, clearly hearing the same footsteps as Danny.

Jazz walked into the lab, starting when she locked eyes with Danny. “Oh, Phantom! Sorry, I didn’t know you were here.”

“We were just leaving,” Danny said with a shrug, looking over at the Speeder. Jazz followed his gaze with a slight frown.

“With the Specter Speeder?” She turned to their parents. “I thought you guys only wanted to use that in the Ghost Zone?”

“Which is where we’re going!” Jack grinned, bright and wide. “Earlier this week Phantom took us to meet one of his allies in the Zone, and today we’re meeting another one! Dora, right?”

“Queen Dorathea of Aragon, yeah.” Danny ran a hand through his hair. “She doesn’t stand on titles much, but not using it when you’re first meeting her might annoy her. And uh, I can recommend avoiding that.”

“How so?” Jazz asked, looking intrigued. “And is she really a queen, or is that just a general title?”

“Well, Dora has this necklace which turns her into a dragon when she gets angry,” Danny started explaining, smiling slightly at the incredulous expressions of his family. “A really big fire-breathing dragon, yeah. Her brother had one as well, so that’s why she didn’t use it to overthrow him. But the Red Huntress and I convinced her that she was a better ruler and didn’t have to live in Aragon’s shadow, and she fought him. In the end, Red and I barely had to do anything – Dora was strong enough to deal with Aragon herself.”

“So this Dora… What’s the story between her and her brother, exactly?” Jazz looked surprising thoughtful. Oh, duh, of course. She had spotted another target to psycho-analyze, probably.

Which, actually… might be kind of good for Dora. At the very least she could meet another girl without having to worry about the whole rank thing getting in the way.

“Well, her brother used to be the king of their kingdom. Only he wasn’t a very good ruler – he insisted that things stay the way they had always been, was opposed to all change and such. He forcibly kept the entire kingdom in the Middle Ages, with all the things that came with it. Bad living situations, inequality for the women, and all that. Dora, especially, was more his servant than his sister. She had to listen to his every command, wasn’t allowed to stand for herself or do things she enjoyed. She wasn’t even allowed to have an opinion of her own.”

He shifted, pausing for a moment to let the story sink in. “It lasted for several centuries. Then Aragon decided that to really be a king, he needed a queen. But he didn’t just want any queen, he wanted the best queen. He wanted one no other ghost had – a living queen. So he instructed Dora to kidnap one from the human realm, with the specific instruction that it had to be one that I seemed to favor, since I was a strong powerful ghost and all that.”

Danny shrugged, scratching his cheek for a moment. “Of course, I don’t spend a whole lot of time around human girls, so. She ended up grabbing the Red Huntress. By the time I heard what had happened and made my way over, Red had already almost convinced Dora to stand up for herself. I helped convince her as well, and then Dora overthrew her brother, took his dragon-necklace, and locked him up in prison. She’s been ruling the Kingdom ever since.”

Jazz nodded, a determined expression settling on her face. “Sounds like she could use someone to talk to. Mind if I join you three?”

“Fine with me.” He looked at Maddie and Jack. “But she’s your kid, so it’s your call.”

The two of them shared a few glances. They were clearly caught between enthusiasm that their kid was showing an interest in ghosts, and worrying that the Ghost Zone wouldn’t be safe for her. Finally Maddie nodded, first at him and then at Jazz.

“You said that it’ll be safe, Phantom, and I trust you. Yes, Jazz, you can come along if you want.”

Grinning, Jazz strode towards the Speeder. Then she paused. Turned around. “So, uh. Do I need to bring anything to stay safe, or…?”

Danny snorted, accidentally drawing everyone’s attention back to him. He flapped a dismissive hand towards Jazz. “No, no, the Zone is perfectly safe. Your parents spent several hours in the Far Frozen earlier this week and the only thing that threatened them was the cold. Dora’s castle, unlike Frostbite’s, isn’t made out of ice, so you’ll be fine.”

“Take these though,” Maddie said, handing Jazz two Fenton Phones. Where she got them from, Danny didn’t know. But then, to be fair, his mom had a lot of stuff in her belt. “We’re all wearing them so we can talk more easily. Phantom will fly outside the Speeder to guide us, and this way we won’t have to shout.”

“And we won’t hit a rock because we were too busy talking to watch the road,” Danny joked, grinning. “Go and hop on before Dora gets impatient.”

“Actually, Phantom, why don’t you go ahead?” Jack stopped in the door of the Speeder to look at him. “We forgot to test the inter-dimensional range of the Fenton Phones last time, but we can try them now.”

“Oh, that’s actually… a pretty good idea.” Danny floated over to the Portal, then turned back to his family. “Can you, uh, open the Portal doors, then?”

“Right, right.” His dad ducked into the Speeder, and with a groan the Portal doors slid open. “We’ll be right behind you even if the Phones don’t work, okay kid?”

Danny nodded, then realized none of them could see him. “Uh, yeah, alright. See you guys in a minute.”

He dove through the Portal, replacing the artificial white of the lab for strangely-comforting green. Turning around to face the open Portal, he hesitantly spoke up. “So, uh. Are you guys hearing this?”

“Loud and clear,” his dad’s voice replied. The sound carried just as well as it had before, when they had all been in the Ghost Zone. “Try flying a little further from the Portal.”

Doing as asked, Danny flew about a hundred feet away and landed on a rock. “How about now?”

“Still good,” his mom confirmed, her voice ringing clear as well. “We’ll come through now. How far did you go?”

Seeing the Specter Speeder enter the Zone, Danny lifted up from the rock to catch their eye. “A hundred feet or so. We’re heading this way, anyway.”

The Speeder made its way over to where Danny floated, although he sped away before they reached him. “It’s not as far as the Far Frozen, but still 30 minutes flying or so, I think. Like I said last time, distances are weird in the Zone.”

“You’re also just bad at judging them,” Maddie said, her tone light and joking. “Since you base everything off of how fast you fly, despite not knowing how fast that is.”

Danny gasped, offended, and clasped a hand to his chest. “How dare you! I, the Great One, Sir Phantom, am obviously the best at everything I ever do.”

Jazz snorted, and both of his parents chuckled.

“That’s a lot of titles, kid,” his dad commented in-between chuckles.

“Yeah, I keep getting them for some reason.” Danny looked in front of him to make sure he didn’t hit any floating rocks. “Maybe it’s because I keep befriending powerful ghosts in leadership roles.”

“You think?” Jazz asked with that perfect ‘sarcastic sister’ voice he was so familiar with.

He hummed, pretending to think about it. “Nah, probably not. Must be something else.”

After that the conversation more or less petered off. When Danny glanced over his shoulder he could see Jazz peering into the depths of the Ghost Zone, apparently captivated by her first visit. His parents, admittedly, weren’t much better.

But then again, neither had he. Maybe he shouldn’t have blamed his interest in the Zone on being part ghost. Maybe it was just part of being a Fenton. Who would’ve thought?

Eventually they reached the Kingdom of Aragon. Dora’s castle had been visible for a while, the rest of the island more mundane.

“So the good news is that we can just fly to the island this time,” he said, breaking the silence.

“What’s the bad news?” his mom asked, wary.

“There is no bad news.” Danny turned around mid-air to shoot her a grin. “We can just fly straight to the castle since I’m with you guys.”

“You’re a dork,” Jazz muttered under her breath. Through the window Danny could see her clamp her hands over her mouth as she realized he could hear her through the Fenton Phones.

“I’ll take that as a compliment.” He spun back around, slowly guiding the Specter Speeder to a safe place to land. “My jokes are the best kind of dorky, after all.”

“Don’t let the jocks hear you, they would be heartbroken.”

He looked over his shoulder to see both of his parents focusing on landing the Speeder. “Maybe that would finally get Paulina to stop obsessing over me.”

“Oh god, yeah, maybe.” She hummed. “That girl has a problem, and I say that as a professional.”

“Jazz, sweetie, you’re not actually a professional yet,” their mom commented as the Speeder touched down.

“You don’t have to be to know that Paulina’s crush on Phantom is unhealthy.” She stood up from her seat, stretching her arms over her head. “Man, these seats aren’t great for longer travels.”

“No, we definitely didn’t anticipate the Ghost Zone being this big.” Maddie opened the door to let Jack step out first, clearing room in the cabin for her and Jazz to move around more easily. “But I suppose that that was a silly mistake.”

“Kinda, yeah.” Danny flew over to the Speeder, hovering by the open door. “A lot of the ghosts call it the Infinite Realms, even. It’s just as never-ending as regular space, or so they say.”

Jack whistled, impressed.

Maddie and Jazz clambered out of the Speeder, joining him outside. Maddie had joined Jack in looking around wildly, but Jazz had focused her attention on the castle itself.

“We should go inside,” Danny suggested, seeing that none of them seemed inclined to move. “Unlike Frostbite, Dora probably won’t come looking for us.”

The three of them nodded, looking at him to lead the way. And with an internal shrug, Danny did.

A couple of guards stood by the castle, but they nodded at him in greeting and said nothing. His family remained silent, simply following him over the bridge and into the castle.

“Not as chatty as those yetis in the Far Frozen, huh?” Jack asked once they were inside.

“Not really, no.” Danny shrugged. “The Far Frozen are a very sociable people, and they’ve been led by Frostbite who encourages that kinda stuff. The people of Aragon are still recovering from their old ruler, so they’re stuck in their old ways still.”

They walked into the throne room, an enormous empty hall with a single raised throne set at the far wall. Sitting on it was Dora, who (literally) brightened up when she saw him. “Sir Phantom! How nice to see you again!”

She raised out of the chair, floating closer to them. Danny gave her a short bow, which his family quickly copied. “Queen Dora, it’s nice to see you as well. These are Jack, Maddie, and Jazz Fenton; the parents are the ghost hunters I mentioned, and Jazz is their daughter who asked to come along. I hope that that was okay?”

Dora smiled, her aura still steadily increasing in brightness – a clear sign of happiness. “Yes of course it is! And a pleasure to meet you three as well. Come, come, we can sit down in another room.”

The group followed Dora to another room, the parents right behind her and Jazz trailing a little further behind. Danny floated up next to her, giving her a short nudge. “Dora is pretty shy with initiating contact,” he told her with a conspiring tone. “Try introducing yourself more directly, and then I’ll offer to show your parents around the Kingdom so you two can talk in private.”

She glanced over at him. “Would that work? You know her better than I do, Phantom.”

“Definitely. Just, uh. If her eyes change color and her pupils narrow, try to calm her down.” He looked over at Dora, who was steadfastly looking straight-forward despite her obvious interest in her guests. “That’s a clear sign that she’s edging on a transformation.”

“Gotcha,” Jazz said with a nod. “I’ll be careful, I promise.”

“I know you will.” He looked back at her with a smile. “You’re good at this stuff, Jazz. That’s why I’m trusting you with this. I know it’ll be good for Dora.”

They entered the next room before Jazz could answer, Dora swirling around. “And here we are. Please, everyone, take a seat.”

Jazz looked over at him, and he gave her a short encouraging nod. Then she turned back to Dora, straightened her shoulders, and said, “Actually, um, Your Highness. I was wondering if we could… sit down and talk. Just the two of us, I mean.”

Dora frowned, looking between Jazz and Danny. Then she glanced over to the adult Fentons, uncertainly. “Ah, well…”

“I can take Maddie and Jack outside,” Danny offered with a smile. “I’ll show them around, since they haven’t seen much ghost society yet. It’ll be interesting, right guys?”

Maddie clearly caught on to the emphasized words. “Oh, certainly. That would be very nice actually, right Jack?” She jabbed him with her elbow.

“What? Oh, uh, yeah.” He nodded vigorously. “Yeah, that would be really interesting.”

The ghost still frowned, glancing between her various guests. Then she slumped in a little, nodding towards Danny. “Very well then. Sir Phantom, please show our guests around. Miss… Jazz? Come and have a seat.”

Danny started leading his parents away, but paused to shoot Jazz an encouraging smile. She smiled back, grasping her confidence again now that she entered more familiar territory.

Yes, this would definitely be good for both of them. Danny would definitely have to look into those phones – connecting Dora and Jazz in a more manageable way would be good for them. Maybe he could even get Sidney mixed in. The three of them all desperately needed friends.

[afewmarvelousthoughts]

No Surrender: Part 2

Part 1

Request: hey i love your writing!! i was wondering if you could write something where the ready and bucky are in the same hydra facility and try to escape together. idk maybe that’s bad but i love your writing!!

Pairing: Bucky X Reader

Summary: In the winter of 1945 Hydra captures Sargent James Barnes. After months spent unconscious, he wakes up in a cell with you and a new addition on his left side. Quickly it becomes clear that being locked up together may be the best bout of luck either of you has had in a while… Maybe together the two of you have a chance of making it out of this hell alive. Now, 69 years later the two of you are brought back together, scars and all. War changes everyone it touches but maybe, together, you can both find some kind of peace. 

Warnings: Light angst, heavy emotions, that’s really it

A/N: Lol, one shot. I know better. This is prob going to be a 3 part with an epilogue. Why? Because this is A Few Marvelous Thoughts and that’s how things are done here. The stories are long and the writer is overly invested in ALL OF THEM.  And, honestly, I kind of liked doing something that brought the Howlers into the mix and some Peggy and... yeah. I’m just enjoying myself. I hope y’all enjoy it too!

Tags are open!

@mywinterwolf @disagreetoagree @breezy1415 @peachthatdrinkslemonade @wonderlandmind4@piensa-bonito @buckysstar @for-the-love-of-the-fandom @handplucked  @krugeforeveryone @jewelofwinter @get-loki @just-a-littlebit-of-everything

June 2014

You stare at your muted reflection in the airplane window tracing the scar on your cheek. It’s not quite as visible as it once was but you can feel it all the same.

Pulling your eyes away you check the screen on the back of the seat in front of you. One more hour until DC. It had been 69 years, what was one more hour… Still, you can’t keep your heeled foot from jiggling nervously.

Opening your iPad you look over the files Sharon sent you, thinking as you often do just how much easier this kind of tech would have made yours and Peg’s lives back in the day. 

You wish Stark was here to give him shit for not coming up with this sooner. Thinking of your old friends always brings a sad smile to your face. Absentmindedly you fiddle with the dog tags and wedding rings always hanging around your neck from a long chain.

Steve and someone named Wilson had brought him in. Physically he was fine, some minor injuries but nothing to cause concern. Mentally… severe memory loss, disorientation, disassociation, PTSD, on and on. Quickly you scroll past it all, you didn’t need to read about it to know that a lifetime with Hydra could leave a person fractured. At the end was what you wanted. A photo.

He looked much the same. Dark hair and those spectacular blue eyes but… he was changed, even in a photo, you could see that. Really though you were all changed. Not one of you left that war or any of the ones that followed without wounds that wouldn’t heal.

Tenderly your fingers touch the image on the screen. You’re lost in memories of a day so long ago that the flight attendant startles you when she approaches.

“Sorry, ma'am,” she smiles brightly, “would you like another gin and tonic before we land?”

“Yes, please. Thank you.” It wouldn’t do anything to calm your nerves of course, but you liked the taste.

The first sip reminds you you’ll also need to see Peg… it got harder every time. Silently you pray to anything that will listen for her to be lucid so you can tell her you found him, finally after all these years. Sharon said that seeing Steve helped her, he brought back the old Peg. Maybe you’d get lucky. Though… guilt roils in your gut.

You’d spent the last couple of years actively avoiding Steve Rogers. All you could think was that you could only give him a story of regret, one more may have been. He didn’t need that. Something in your heart reminds you though, you have more than that to give him. Stories of his old friends no one else could tell. How the Howlers never forgot him, how every toast until the very end held his name… and Bucky’s. What kind of legacy he really left with the people that mattered.

A tear winds its way down your cheek and you dash it away. You’d make up for it now. Tell them both the rest of their story. Maybe it would be a comfort.

When the wheels meet the tarmac your heart lodges in your throat. You rush off the plane to the nearest restroom to inspect yourself. In the floor length mirror, you smooth a hand over your breezy white blouse tucked into a pair of camel high waist trousers. The slim straight fit showed off your figure just enough. To anyone, you would look like a woman in her early 40’s maybe. A few grey hairs, soft lines on your face, but still young enough and certainly not 94.

You take a shaky breath, reapply your red lipstick, and stride confidently out of the airport, ready as you’ll ever be.

From the outside, it looks like a nondescript, if not a touch run down, office building. You know it’s an old S.H.I.E.L.D. office. They’re holding him here, assessing him, trying to figure out exactly what to do in a situation that bucks just about every bit of protocol there is in one way or another.

“Thank you,” you say to the agent in the front seat. 

Your accent had softened over the decades. This thought makes worry curl in your gut. The chances of him recognizing you are so slim. You were older, your voice was different… Hell, the report said he had trouble remembering Steve and they’d known one another their whole lives until the war. He’d only known you for a day…

“Are you ok?” The young man asks gently.

“Yes, sorry…” Your hand curls around the handle.

“Don’t know why they’re sending someone like you in with a monster like that. If you don’t wanna to go I’ll take you to your hotel or some-”

Your well-manicured hand wrapped around his throat cuts him off, “If that’s what you think that man is,” your voice a malicious purr, “I highly suggest you find a new line of work, boy.” You release him and go to open the door.

Turning back to him you catch his slack-jawed expression, “That man deserves your respect. Am I clear?”

“Y-Yes ma’am,” he stammers.

“Good,” you open the door and step out, strutting up to the building, adding just a touch of extra sway to your hips for good measure.

At the door, you push a button to activate the com, “Y/N Bernard, here for Sharon Carter.” There’s no response just a click.

As you enter the sparse lobby you hear the elevator ding, the doors swoosh, your body tenses on reflex. When a blonde with a bright smile exits though, you relax.

“Aunt Y/N!” Sharon calls, her tone full of excitement. She rushes you and you embrace your best friend’s favorite niece. “It’s so good to see you.”

“You too my darling,” you pull the girl back and look at her. So much like her mother but she inherited Peggy’s fire.

“Come on, let’s get started.” You follow her into the elevator.

As the doors close and the elevator moves down, you reach into your tote to pull out a small box, “I never forget, mon chaton.”

Sharon laughs, taking the box from you, “You didn’t have to.” She lifts one of the macarons out, taking a bite, savoring it.

“Bah,” you wave away her protest, “of course I did.” Every time you saw Sharon you brought her some. Her whole life.

She takes a deep shaky breath, closing the lid, “Thank you Aunt Y/N.” Tenderly you cup the side of her face with your left hand, she shakes her head, “I’m ok.”

“No, you’re not. Nor should you be,” you tuck a strand of hair behind her ear as the elevator settles. “I’m here for you, always, you know that?”

“I do.” The doors slide open and you follow your adopted niece out. Heart kicking up a notch.

Sharon leads you down a corridor to a conference room. A young man with a kind smile rounds the corner just before she opens the door.

“Hey, Sam,” Sharon nods at him.

“Hey,” he returns the nod. “You must be Mrs. Bernard. Sam Wilson, it’s good to meet you,” he extends a hand and you take it giving it a shake.

“It’s, miss,” you say smiling. “But you can call me, Y/N. Thank you for what you did.”

Sam shakes his head, “Just helping out a fellow soldier, no need for thanks.”

“You have it anyway,” you smile, liking this young man already.

Sharon opens the door and your eyes see, not initially Steve Rogers as you expect, but Tony Stark. Once he registers who you are his jaw hits the floor, eyes wide with shock.

“You look well Anthony,” a mischievous smile curls your lips, “certainly better than the last time I saw you.”

“How do you…?” Sharon, standing to your right, looks like she may not want to know the answer.

You laugh, “Oh no darling, nothing like that. I simply got Anthony here out of a pinch in where was it Morocco?”

“Monaco,” Tony says, smiling a smile that makes you think of his father.

“Ah, yes Monaco,” Sam rounds the table and takes a seat to Tony’s left. “You couldn’t have been 17. Pissed off the wrong person and landed in a cell.”

“And somehow you got me out. Though I was more scared of you than the cops after that verbal lashing.”

“That sounds like my Aunt Y/N,” Sharon says smiling.

Tony’s brows raise trying to work that one out, “But you never told my dad.”

“What point was there to tell, Howard? He would have just thrown some overblown fit. He loved to hear himself talk, especially when he was angry.”

Tony laughs, “You’re not wrong.”

“Sounds like you knew Howard well,” a voice from the back left corner of the room says causing you to jump a little. Steve Rogers is leaning there, arms crossed, face dark, watching you.

You swallow hard, “I did. I knew them all… very well.”

He saunters to the table, “So I saw,” slamming down a thick file before he takes a seat. You hold his gaze for a second. The emotion passing between the two of you beyond words.

“Ooook,” Tony breaks the silence and you turn to him a tense smile on your lips. “I’m assuming you’re some kind of super soldier too.”

You take a seat next to Sharon, across from Tony. “I wouldn’t say soldier but I am… enhanced. Much like Captain Rogers and Sargent Barnes. Only difference is I was never put on ice.”

“So you were born in…?” Sam is studying you with fascination.

“1920, I’m 94 years old,” he makes a whistling noise and you laugh.

The door opens and a slender brunette rushes in, “Sorry, had another fire to put out.” Agent Hill looks at you as you stand, “I’m-”

“Agent Hill,” you smile at her, “Nick spoke highly of you.” Your knowing gaze seems to convey that you’re all too aware that he’s fully alive. It would take a cataclysm to kill Nick Fury. Thank god for it.

“And you’re, Y/N Bernard,” her head shakes and an awkward smile curls her lips. “I never thought I’d have the honor.”

“The pleasure is mine, I assure you.”

She rounds the table and sits at the head opposite Steve, taking a deep breath. “Did you all start without me?”

“Nope,” Sharon slides a tablet to her.

“Good. We wanted to take a moment to brief you on the predicament we’re in, Ms. Bernard.”

“Y/N, please.”

“Y/N,” Hill smiles, “we think things are going to move quickly. The government wants to clean this mess up and do things under the radar as much as possible. That means we have to work fast to get our bearings and determine the best course of action.”

“Bearings regarding S.H.I.E.L.D. or Sargent Barnes?” You ask, tone even but suspect.

“Both,” Hill runs a hand over her face. “We’ve had Barnes for almost two weeks. So far they’re letting us hold him, mainly because no one else is equipped, but who knows how long that will last. Technically he’s considered a P.O.W. and Wilson is pulling any strings he can to sort that situation out. Get Barnes the care he deserves.”

You look to Sam, his eyes are on the wood of the table hands clasped in front of him. The Howlers would have liked this one. Out of habit you pull the necklace from your shirt and begin to fiddle with the contents.

“However, in the month since S.H.I.E.L.D. was exposed…” She clears her throat. You understand her pain, the thought that Hydra was so close… “Well, it’s become pretty apparent that there’s no rebuilding it.”

Sharon glances over to you. Slipping your hand into hers you give it a squeeze. Losing S.H.I.E.L.D. was like losing a part of yourselves.

“Stark has offered an alternative, kind of an official/unofficial organization,” Tony nods, “but that’s for another time. Right now we have to deal with the very real possibility of Barnes being put on trial.” Your blood runs cold, you release Sharon’s hand, worried you may accidentally break it.

“On trial for what exactly?” You spit.

Hill’s look is soft, sympathetic, “Anything they can pin on him.”

“That’s preposterous,” you try to take a deep breath to calm yourself.

“We agree,” Hill nods. “That’s why we’re trying to make sure we have anything we can to prove that whatever actions he partook in when he was with them was against his will.” 

Her jaw tenses, “Agent Carter has implied you may be able to help with that. There’s not a lot on file about you. You’re officially listed as retired, have been for over 40 years. I’ve heard stories of course but…”

“I’ll tell you anything you need to know. Put me on the stand if you must.”

“Aunt Y/N, that would-” Sharon’s eyes are filled with fear.

“Expose me? I know, mon chaton, I know,” your smile is tender. “It doesn’t matter. For him, I would do anything.”

Hill goes to speak but Steve cuts her off, his voice low, heavy with emotion, “Why?”

You drag your eyes to the brooding Captain, “Because, Captain Rogers, 69 years ago Bucky Barnes saved my life.” Your voice cracks despite your efforts, “And he’s here today because of that.” Sharon’s hand rests on your knee, trying to provide comfort. She doesn’t know that some hurts are too deep for comfort.

“Thank you, Y/N,” Hill’s voice is soft. “If it comes to that we will talk strategy. How about we break for now. I need,” she rubs the bridge of her nose, “something.”

Everyone stands to leave. You direct Sharon to look after Agent Hill and go to follow them all out when Steve grabs your arm.

“I think we need to talk,” his blue eyes are stormy.

“I agree,” you look into the conference room.

“No, follow me,” he walks to the elevators without once looking back.

It’s possible that it’s the most awkward elevator ride of your long life. When the doors open he walks to the end of the hall, a door opening to a steep flight of stairs.

“Will those be a problem,” he glances down to your breakneck stilettos.

You raise an eyebrow at him, “You’d be surprised what I can do in heels, Captain Rogers.” He holds the door and you sprint up them, never teetering and not the least bit winded, smirking a bit at him as he comes up behind you.

Inwardly you thank god that he wanted to talk outside, you want a cigarette, desperately. Reaching into your bag you pull the pack and flick one up skillfully, pulling it out with red lips. He’s watching and you smile with the unlit cigarette between your lips.

“Want one?” You hold the pack out. He shrugs and takes one. You’re about to pull out your matches when he flicks up a zippo.  

“Light?” You nod and he lights yours before his own. A smile plays on your lips as you try to think of the last time a man lit your cigarette.

He walks to the edge of the roof and sits on the low wall facing you. Taking a drag he finally speaks, “I never smoked before… this,” he gestures to his body. “So I never really knew what the appeal was but the motion is-”

“Soothing,” you finish sitting next to him. “I miss what nicotine used to do to me. Can’t tell you how often I have wished I could get drunk still. Never thought I’d miss a good hangover.”

He laughs a little, “Yeah.” The two of you sit in silence for a few minutes, lost in your own thoughts.

“What did you mean?” Rogers is staring off into the distance.

“Sorry?” You’re unsure what he wants you to clarify.

“When you said he’s here because he saved you… what did you mean?”

Your heart squeezes. Memories of that place, the sound of the soldiers coming, the bunker shaking, the look on his face as he shoved you into that crawl space… So long ago but it may as well have been yesterday.

Taking a deep breath you dive in, “Hydra captured me in January 1945…”

The two of you burn through two more cigarettes each as tell him your story. You keep the part about promises of dances and that kiss to yourself. Though your hand lingers near your lips as you remember.

“I crawled through that tunnel for what must have been a mile,” you take a drag. “When I finally got out I ran for two days until I came across a British camp. They thought I was Hydra with the uniform and all. I kept telling them, ‘My name is Y/N Bernard, I am French Resistance Lyon. I have a message for Captain America.’ But they wouldn’t-”

“Wait,” he holds up a hand, “what was the message.”

Oh. You had told him Bucky said find Steve and the Howlers but the message… You hold Steve’s gaze, “I was to tell you that it wasn’t the end of the line.” Somehow you had maintained composure through the whole thing but now tears spill from your eyes.

Rogers looks away, sniffing hard, wiping at his own eyes. His elbows rest on his knees and he laughs a bit, shaking his head, “It really was him then.”

“Oui,” you sit straighter trying to get a hold of yourself. “Of course they didn’t believe me. Threw me in shackles and transported me to London.” Steve’s eyes burn into you but you can’t look at him.

“Once there they locked me in an interrogation room for hours until they found, Peg,” your voice almost breaks but you push through it. “Since… since I was a woman and it had to do with you they thought she was best. I told her everything. Begged, cried, pleaded her to bring me to you, I had a message we didn’t have time…” Your hands are trembling with emotion, “Finally I just told her the message, just to pass it along. Lock me in a cell, whatever she had to do just to tell you.”

Finally, you can look at him, “That’s when she told me you had died. But she believed me, apparently, you had shared that pledge you and Bucky had with her.” 

He nods and you press on, “She took me to the Howlers immediately. Said we had a mission. At first, they didn’t believe some broad but Dugan,” you have to take a breath, “he said that if there was even a chance we had to take it.”

“Sounds like him,” Steve smiles sadly.

“It does, yes,” your hand toys with the tags, “We left the next day.” You shake your head, the lump in your throat growing, “We weren’t fast enough… I knew we wouldn’t be,” tears stream down your face now. 

“I failed him. He saved me and I didn’t make it back in time,” a sob tears out before you can stop it. You hadn’t ever told this story not the full thing… it felt like a special kind of hell.

Steve lays a hand on your back. You look to him, “We didn’t stop looking though. Every base, every agent, we tried to find something, anything, that would lead us to him. But… we never found him…”

“You were a Howler,” his tone is filled with respect.

You nod, “I was. Proud to be too.” You squeeze his knee, “They never forgot you, either of you.”

Tears sparkle in Steve’s eyes, “Did you know… when I… when I woke up?”

Shame rolls over you but you don’t look away, “I knew the day they found you, Fury called me…”

“Then why… I mean I know we didn’t know each other but… I,” he wipes his eyes and stands to take a few paces. “It would have been good to have someone who knew… what… what it’s like to…”

“Be so out of place?” He nods. “I know,” you look at the ground, tears streaming, “I’m so sorry.” You hold in a sob and try to compose yourself before looking up at him.

“All I could think was that I failed you both, that all I could give you were empty apologies.” He opens his mouth but you hold up a hand, “I know that’s not right… and I’m sorry. It’s a shit excuse, but it is the truth. I’d like to make it up to you if I can.”

Steve shakes his head, “You don’t have to make anything up. I understand.” A smile fills his face, “I’m just happy we have another Howler back where she belongs.”

Something between a laugh and a sob breaks from you and he holds out a hand. When you take it Steve pulls you into a bone-crushing hug. The two of you hold one another and have a good cry for a bit.

“Come on,” he pulls back, “let’s head in.”

You follow him back inside and he leads you to a different section than where the conference room from earlier was. Two guards, heavily armed, eye you as you pass through sliding bulletproof doors.

He pauses in front of a nondescript door and turns to you thumb nervously tapping on the handle. “This is just the monitor room but… do you want to see him?”

Your fingers freeze on the dog tags you’d been fiddling with and stare at him suddenly unable to speak. The obvious answer was yes but… what if it was bad… what if he’s feral or catatonic or- It doesn’t matter.

“Yes,” the word finally crawls from your mouth. Steve smiles opening the door, holding it to allow you entry.

Sam’s already there and gives you a warm smile, “I’ll leave you two.” He gives Steve’s shoulder a reassuring squeeze as he walks out.

There’s a man wearing simple scrubs sitting on a cot with his back pressed to the wall, head leaned back, a knee pulled up with his metal left arm resting on it. Music is playing from speakers you can’t see, he softly sings along smiling gently.

Your jaw hangs open. This isn’t the ghost you were anticipating. This is Bucky.

“He’s had a good day,” Steve’s voice reaches you but you can’t look away.

Composure leaves you. Doubling over as if you’ve been hit you weep, a huge smile on your face. Pressing the dog tags and rings to your lips you eke out, “He’s ok, Dummy. He’s safe. It’s over, Dummy.”

Steve doesn’t say anything for a minute then you feel his hand on your back, “It’s a lot I know. Here,” he gently lifts you and guides you to a desk chair passing you a box of tissues.

“Thank you,” you wipe at the mascara streaming down your face.

“I’m sorry but… did you say dummy a second ago?” He takes the seat next to you.

You smile, “I did.”

“As in, Dum Dum Dugan.”

Nodding you hold up the necklace, “My husband.”

“That has to be one of the first stories you regale me with,” Steve laughs.

“Deal,” your eyes wander back to one of the screens, fingers hovering over the image of Bucky. You can’t help but think of another cot in another cell. Snapping your eyes shut you remind yourself that this isn’t Hydra… well not anymore.

There’s a knock at the door, “Come in,” Steve replies. Sam and a woman you haven’t met enter. You stand wiping at your eyes a bit more, certain it’s all beyond saving anyway.

Steve introduces you, “Y/N, this is Dr. Laura Carr. She’s the psychologist taking point with Bucky, former S.H.I.E.L.D.”

Dr. Carr takes your hand, “It’s a pleasure.”

“Thank you for being willing to help him, Doctor,” you give her a warm smile.

“No thanks needed. It’s the right thing to do.” She laughs a little, “And I’d be lying if I didn’t say I was more than a little fascinated by the case.”

You like her honesty, “I think that’s a good thing. Curiosity drives us to think outside set parameters,” Sharon comes in as you speak, “and I believe you’re going to need that in this case.” Dr. Carr nods.

Steve looks back at the screen then to you, “Dr. Carr,” he throws her a smile, “do you think Y/N, here could see Bucky today?” Your breath catches and you swear you can hardly feel your heartbeat.

The doctor eyes you, “Sharon told me you two have a history, though she was pretty vague with the details.”

“My apologies, doctor,” you smile softly at Sharon, “the life I’ve led has made vague the default. Being with S.H.I.E.L.D. I’m sure you understand.”

She nods, “I do. It always made things more complicated when your patients couldn’t, or wouldn’t, tell you everything.” She takes a moment and looks to Steve, “You’re his medical power of attorney, if you trust her I would say that today would be fine. Though I will want to monitor the exchange.”

“I trust her,” some tension slides from you at Steve’s words, “I’m ok with you watching. Y/N?”

“Of course,” you nod. “But… there’s something I need to get first.” Confusion settles on the faces around you, “Just a promise I made a long time ago that I’d like to keep. Could I use your car, Sharon?”

“I can drive you,” she walks to your side.

“Fantastic!” You smile up at Steve, “I’ll be back in an hour.”

-

“Bread?” Sharon eyes the large french loaf you’re cradling as you get back in the car.

“Oui.”

“Not what I was expecting but… ok.”

“What were you expecting, mon chaton?”

She laughs, “I don’t know. Whiskey, brandy, lingerie.”

You laugh fully, it feels good after the weight of the day thus far, “I don’t usually prefer an audience when lingerie is involved, kitten.”

“Please, stop there,” Sharon’s face scrunches in mock disgust.

As she parks the tone shifts, “Will you be ok, Aunt Y/N… seeing him?” She takes your hand giving it a squeeze, “It’s ok if you want to-”

“My sweet girl,” you squeeze back, “I have not been this ok in a long, long time.” Sharon smiles and nods.

Back in the monitor room everyone looks just as confused when you enter with the bread. Steve is already in the room the two talking casually about something.

“You can go in whenever you’re ready, Y/N,” Dr. Carr tells you. “I thought it best to have Steve go in as a sort of warm up. Keep in mind he’s suffering from severe memory loss, he may not know you so don’t be put off by that.”

“I’ve grown strangely used to my friends not knowing me,” sadness flits across Sharon’s features, “doesn’t make me any less happy to see them.” The doctor nods and Sharon leads you down the hall.

The door is heavy, reinforced steel. She enters a code and does a retina scan before the locks give way. You had expected this to lead to the room but there’s just a hall. You go through two more less enforced doors before stopping at one that looks normal.

“You ready?” She asks you. Your grip on the bread tightens a little. The perfect crackle of the crust hits your ears and you know.

“Absolutely.”

“Well, it’s all yours,” she steps behind you, “just let me get past the last door then knock.”

As the door behind you closes you raise your fist, take a deep breath, and rap on the door. The metal tings and you realize that the normalcy is a bit of a front. A moment later Steve opens the door a nervous smile on his lips. He eyes the bread but doesn’t say anything.

“Buck, there’s someone who wants to see you if that’s ok?”

“Sure?” His voice hits you like a freight train. Steve leads you into the room, “Don’t know who would want-” His words halt when he sees you.

You press down the hope that rises in your chest. He doesn’t know you, the chances are too slim. He’s surprised is all, a new person, one he can’t remember wants to see him and he doesn’t know why. You tell yourself you’ve seen this before in Peg, Dernier, and Juniper. This is the same. Don’t get excited.

“Hello, Sargent Barnes,” your voice is soft, heart thundering in your chest. He stands slowly, those eyes you remember so well, studying you. You try to swallow the lump in your throat.

“I know this may be confusing. And that you likely don’t know who I am… That’s ok. I just… wanted to see that you were well and… bring you this.” Tentatively you hold the bread out to him. He takes the wrapped loaf and opens it.

You swear a smile is playing on his lips, “Bread?”

“Oui. I-I know it seems silly-”

“Did you fly all the way from Lyon to bring it to me?” The breath leaves you. Hot tears stream down your face instantly. 

He smiles, that bright true smile and sets the bread down on the edge of his cot, “I’m glad you’re ok, Y/N.”

“Bucky,” your voice is thick with emotion. Without thought you fling yourself at him, wrapping your arms around his neck. His arms encircle you holding you tight. When you feel a tremor pass through him you realize he’s crying too.

“I’m so sorry,” you say over and over again.

“Hush,” he whispers, pulling back he looks at you. “You have nothing to be sorry for.”

“I do though. I wasn’t fast enough I-”

“Stop,” his right-hand cups your face. The silence hangs for a moment while you try to find your bearings.

“I don’t know how or why, but you were always one of the first things I’d remember when my memories would come back. Before they…” His whole body shakes and you know exactly what he means. “You gave me hope. Reminded me that there was no surrender,” his lips twitch up into a crooked smile and your heart clenches.

“It’s not from Lyon,” you give him a grin. “But it is French, thought you had waited long enough for some decent bread.”

He laughs, “Well, it’ll do. For now.”

Oh yeah, there’s more to come.

[b-afterhours]

Avenue Of Sins (part six)

summary: a story of two misfit kids from mid-west america making it big in the big apple. and in the true sense of the american dream they find themselves in a life of sex, money, drugs, and a little rock n roll too.

warnings: adult content, mature readers only.

if you’re seeing this for the first time you can read part one here and if you need to catch up on previous chapters go here. 

series playlist

Bill had woken up to the sound of fuzzy guitar riffs of a Stooges song blaring from the stereo speakers down the hall in the living room. He knew he hadn’t been asleep for long since he stayed up for hours laying stiff on his back while Alma clung to him sound asleep. He laid on his side now with his back to Alma, hoping last night was all just a shitty nightmare but unfortunately reality came crashing down on him like a freight train. He lazily turned over, his arm meant to hold Alma smacking against the mattress. She was sitting on the edge of the bed wearing one of his oversized shirts hunched over a small mirror tray on the nightstand, pushing powder into neat uniform lines with a razor blade.

She glanced over at him flashing him a cheeky smirk. “Morning,” she said tightly rolling up a stray twenty dollar bill she found on the nightstand. “Or I guess afternoon – it’s like one or something,” she shrugged.

Bill watched her snort a line – half in one nostril before pausing to snort the rest with the other. It was then he noticed she was skinnier than normal, not terribly noticeable but enough that he felt like shit for not realizing before. He frowned as he rolled out of bed, announcing that he was going to take a quick shower so that they could leave.

“Wait,” Alma said rubbing residual powder on to her gums, “I made a line for you too.” She lifted the mirror tray off the nightstand, holding it while he leaned over to quickly snort the thick line she prepared for him.

Doing blow as soon as they woke up wasn’t a new occurrence by any means but this instance just felt off to him. He was thinking maybe they did have a problem, though beside himself he was worried for Alma. How long had she been up? Was this her first line of the day? He wasn’t so sure, he was too afraid to ask.

He went to meet her in the living room after getting dressed in his usual black button up and trousers. Alma was sitting on the couch with a can of Pabst Blue Ribbon in hand, reading the back of the Stooges record sleeve. He was surprised to see her dressed down in the punk garb that she was most comfortable in – ditching the bodycon and silk dresses that she had adhered herself too. It was a refreshing reminder of the girl she really was. Although she still kept it a bit sexy wearing only a lacy red bra underneath her old leather jacket along with black straight leg jeans nearly ripped to shreds, and platform creepers.

“You look nice,” he smirked.

She tilted her head back drinking the last of the lager before squeezing the tin in her hand, crushing it. “Thanks,” she said flattered. …

The ride to the club was painfully quiet in the Impala, Bill looked over at Alma who was persistently picking at a hole in the knee of her jeans while sniffing back the bitter cocaine drip she had. It was when she noticed Bill looking at her that she took the opportunity to speak after growing impatient with waiting as long as she could for him to speak up it himself.

“So… what happened last night,” she asked.

Bill gripped on to the wheel tightly, clearing his throat. “Uh, well-“

“Have you been thinking about her again?”

“Who?”

“Myrna? You seem kinda… down?”

“Oh. I mean kinda yeah.”

“It’s okay. I’m sure she’s always keeping an eye on you where ever she is now,” she said rubbing his shoulder in comfort.

“I hope so,” said under his breath. “By the way, I’m sorry about last night I don’t think you would have left with Ben if I hadn’t teased you about him.”

She waved off his apology. “I already forgot about it,” she said but her awkward tone slightly indicated otherwise and when she quickly changed the subject he knew so. “So anyway the Russo’s.”

“Right, Right. Uh so,” he stuttered unsure where to start. “Um we’re almost at Trigger I’ll just tell you in the loft.”

“Alright, then?” She turned her gaze out the windshield, his unease causing her unease as well.

Bill couldn’t risk telling her in the car, there was no way that he could explain thoroughly that would make sense enough to settle her anger over the deal he’d made with their enemy. For all he knew she would reach for the wheel, pulling a sharp right, and end both of them over it. Though the longer he stalled the uncomfortable sense of dread only seemed to further ache. ...

He had planned to go straight for the loft to get it over with. Instead, Praline had called Alma over to bar seeking help in double checking the liquor shipment that had arrived. While she was tied up he took the opportunity to meet with Theo and the rest of the security staff instructing them to not beat Craig’s ass out the club upon arrival and to also keep a close eye on Kansas for her protection. They all gave Bill peculiar looks as to why he was even allowed to come back but they knew better than to question it. Though Theo was the only one embolden enough to once the security staff dispersed to their posts.

Bill took a drag of his cigarette before he spoke. “Fuck Theo just a bunch of bullshit really.”

“With the Russo’s? When is it not?” Theo watched as his boss shifted between feet, glancing over at Alma and looking jittery and nervous all together. “Hey, Boss,” he put a hand on his shoulder, “whatever it is I got your back.”

“Thanks,” he took another deep drag. “Hey, can you tell the doorman if Wall Street dickhead Ben comes by to give him a hard time? I’d be surprised if he shows up tonight but in case?”

Theo chuckled. “Sure no prob-”

He was abruptly cut short when the club door had opened behind Bill, turning his head he made eye contact with his newly hired employee, Craig. The whole clubs murmuring and opening preparations had stalled to turn to see who it was, all except, Alma who was slow to look up from the checklist on her clipboard. That was until Cooch could be heard through the silent club saying a solid, “what the fuck” that reverberated and rang off the walls of the club.

It seemed to happen in slow motion. Bill watched as Alma took an uninterested peering glance before doing a double take, her clipboard fumbling in her hands. With her jaw dropped she scanned the room who was already striding over meeting her alarmed almost frightened expression as he approached. Putting his finger in the air and with a flick of his wrist, he signaled to everyone to continue with their everyday routine. 

“Tell everyone to relax,” he said to Theo who had followed behind him. “Alma, I need to talk to you, right now.”

“Why the fuck is he here?!”

“I’ll explain everything. I prom-” The word fell dead on his lips knowing he couldn’t exactly tell her everything. “The loft?” He pleaded. This was exactly what he was trying to avoid yet trying to selfishly maintain a sense of normalcy ultimately fucked him over. There was nothing normal about anything anymore. Alma glared at him and then glared at Craig who had smugly moseyed towards the bar.

“Fine.” She said tossing the clipboard on to the bar top and without another word she begrudgingly followed Bill up to the loft. 

He could feel her icy stare as he led the way, shutting his eyes he braced himself from the sound of the door slamming behind him but it never came. Cautiously, he continued towards the desk, finally rounding it to face Alma. She stood there with her arms crossed over her chest, biting the sides of her cheeks looking as pissed as ever.

“Well then?!” She said scornfully.

“Okay, fuck,” he said leaning on his desk with the flats of his palms and sighed. “To put it simply, Craig’s working here.”

Alma rolled her eyes, scoffing. “You’re fucking joking, right?”

“No,” he shook his head.

“Wha- what kind of bullshit deal did you cut with the Russo’s? He’s working here? After what he did to Kansas, have you thought about how that would make her feel?”

“I plan on talking to her.”

“Jesus Christ,” she hissed, briefly looking around in disbelief before pointing a finger at him. “You’re always big on protecting every girl here and you just brought back a pervert you beat the hell out of to the club again?”

“He’s not going to be working anywhere near the girls, Alma. You think even in this fucked situation I’m in I’d allow that?”

“So then, where do you have him working? With security? So he can go running to the Russo’s about all about our operation? ‘Cause you know he’s going to do that,” she laughed incredulously.

“You just need to be careful what you say around him.”

“Me?!”

Bill carefully nodded his head as he stood tall again. “I figured, that he should work bar back, it’s out of the way and-”

“Out of the way for who?! YOU!?”

“Alma, damn it! No!” He yelled back. “I know this is all bullshit to you but I need you on my side here. You’re the only person I trust. You still have Paul and Rashad guarding you by the bar. And I’ll be keeping a fucking hawk eye on Craig…” She didn’t look a lick convinced as he spoke. “This – this is only temporary,” he digressed.

“How long is temporary?”

“Just,” he sighed, “give me a bit.”

“A bit? Well, I guess fuck me then right boss?”

“Alma-”

“I’ll go along and do what you say this – one, fucking, time, Bill. But if Craig pulls some shit on me or my girls I’m going to fucking stab him.”

Please do, he thought, it’ll make things so much easier. If she could just jab him straight in his heart this would all be over and he wouldn’t have to dwell on a murder plot he hadn’t even formally thought out yet. He didn’t want to kill but for her, he would.

“Fair,” he said.

“Fair,” she mocked him as she stomped out. “Sometimes I wonder why the fuck I ever came here!”

“What the fuck is that supposed to mean?” He hollered at her but the response to his question was the slamming the door behind her. He bowed his head, running a hand through his hair as he harshly huffed. He swallowed thickly as anger crept up his spine, tingling the back of his neck as Alma’s last sentiments rang through his head. He felt like shit, he felt like a bad friend, a bad boss – even a bad lover too.  …

Alma had called for an impromptu staff meeting in the stock room while Paul and Rashad kept a watchful eye on Craig until they were done. She was met with many groans and complaints once she informed them of their new coworker.

“I know, I know,” she put her hands up in defense. “I fucking know. And I’m sorry but let’s keep up some semblance of professionalism here. If he gives you problems let me know so this ship can continue smooth sailing.”

They all grumbled respectively as they dispersed back into their positions, only Praline stayed behind watching Alma tap a bump onto the back of her hand.

“Shit, Echo how long is he gonna work here for?”

“Temporarily,” she said before sniffing the powder.

Praline nodded watching Alma tap another mound on the back of her hand, knowing whatever opinion she had on the whole situation wouldn’t even be heard anyway. Instead, she created some idle banter asking her if she wanted to put in some money for some pizza later. 

“Sure,” Alma said holding her hand out offering her a bump as she tucked the little pink baggie in the inner pocket of her jacket. Praline took her up on the offer. “I don’t need change,” Alma said taking a 20 dollar bill from her back pocket handing it to Praline. That amount alone would cover the price of a delivered XL cheese pizza plus tip. “Just save me a slice whenever it gets here.”

Shortly, Alma stalked out the back room, rubbing her nose, and motioned with a finger for Craig to come to her. He cautiously made his way around to her side of the bar unsure of how to approach her, she was nearly unreadable to him.

“So? I guess I’ll be working with you then?” He said sheepishly.

“Unfortunately.”

He shrugged, “Okay...”

“You’re working bar back, Diego,” she pointed out a short guy with a slick hairdo who was refilling bottles on the bar shelves. “He’s the lead and you do whatever he tells you, you stay out of the way of the girls serving and if I catch you staring at them too long I’ll skin the top layer of your eyeballs off.”

“Sheesh!”

“I mean it. If you see that any of them walk to the stock room you wait your ass outside the door, you hear me? Under no circumstances, you should find yourself alone with any of them.”

“Fine, I get it, Boss,” he playfully winked.

“Don’t fucking wink at me. Here,” she said handing him a black collared work shirt emblazoned with the Trigger Finger cursive logo in neon pink with staff, written right below in block letters on the back. “Get dressed, don’t take any more than five minutes and be ready to work.”

“Blondie never told me you’d be so feisty?” He said pulling at the hem of his salmon button shirt and lifting it over his head. Alma was taken aback she expected that he’d change shirts in the bathroom. Instead, he stood before her showing off his impeccable lean muscled body before slipping his work shirt on. “What’d that take like 40 seconds,” he laughed.

“Chop, chop then. And by the way,” she said turning on her heel as he went on his way to talk to Diego, “Blondie doesn’t know shit about me.” ...

Bill watched Craig like a hawk like he said he would that night. Everything was going as smoothly as any other night almost too perfect. There was just an hour before close and he decided it was time to cut Craig loose for the night. He didn’t need him to be around when money was gathered or when the girls were leaving. He had promised, Kansas that bit when he spoke to her. She wasn’t happy about Craig being there but she also didn’t express any complaints other than that she wanted to only work around Bill’s section of the club when she wasn’t on the main stage which he agreed. She made good money at Trigger Finger and she wasn’t going to jeopardize her income on an asshole and a bizarre yet bad call by her boss.

He trekked over to the bar with his loyal giant shadow just behind him. He waved Craig over who was washing up mugs and tumblers at the end of the bar. Without prompt Queenie had set a glass of bourbon before Bill and blew a playful kiss his way as she took a new drink order. He took a big gulp as he watched Craig round the bar over his glass. It was then he saw the fresh pink battle scars on his brow and side of his hairline from the beating he and his security had given him not too long ago.

“Uh, what’s up?” He said drying his hands with a blue cotton rag.

“Your shift is over. Same time tomorrow, right?” He reached into his back jean pocket for his wallet. “Nights pay,” he said handing the money over clutched between his two long fingers.

“Thirty dollars? How the hell am I gonna pay my cousins back on 30 bucks a night?”

“I guess just depends how long you work here for? Either way, it’s not my fucking problem. See you tomorrow.” He pointed at the door, then snapped his fingers at Paul, who stood close by, to escort him out. He sighed a deep heavy sigh of relief once Craig walked out of his club. He caught Alma glaring at him to which she quickly looked away focusing on the oh-so-interesting cocktail shaker. “Uh, how was he?”

“Fine, I guess,” she shrugged indifferently.

“I know you’re still pissed-”

“Of course.”

“But do you hate me?”

She took an annoyed glance at him as she adorned the rim of a glass filled to the brim with a thin slice of navel orange across the bar towards Bundy. She could never hate him, she could never bring herself to. Though rather than telling him that she said nothing, ignoring his question entirely.

“Alma?”

“I’m busy,” she said dismissively.

Bill’s jaw clenched, his lips thinning to a hard line as he knocked the bar top and thought it was best to leave her alone. Swiveling off the bar stool he caught Bundy eavesdropping on them with amused delight.

“The fuck you lookin’ at?” Bill seethed as he walked away.

“Sorry ‘bout him,” Alma said wiping down the counter in front of her.

“Isn’t she a beauty?” He said unaffected and loud enough for Alma to hear as he watched Chastity spin around the pole on the main stage in nothing but a barely-there gold g-string and white cowboy hat. He swiveled in his stool to face Alma. “Trouble in paradise?” Bundy lightly chuckled.

“Don’t start, Nosey,” Alma shook her head.

He shot up his hands defensively. “Wouldn’t dream of starting anything Miss Echo, you look like you’d snap my neck tonight if I do. Let me buy you a shot, you look like you need it.”

“Wanna make it a double shot?”

“Whatever you want.”  …

A week has past and the cold silence from Alma was drive Bill up a wall. Meanwhile, she had been gritting her teeth and baring it while he was measuring how long he could have Craig in the club until she broke. The only significant conversation they had since his first shift was that, Bill needed to page Alvin to deliver as they were running low on supply. And there he was now, delivering on call and bringing his smug and douchey demeanor with him.

“Hey, Bill,” Alvin leaned in as he sat across from him at the desk. “I don’t know if you know but one of those bar backs you got is a Russo, man.” He whispered not realizing he was stating an obvious fact to them.

“He knows,” Alma said flatly as she stood with her arms crossed by the desk.

Alvin found that odd. Any time he had dropped a kilo by they were giddy and overtly flirtatious with each other. He once had to sit back and awkwardly watch them feverishly make out. After which he began to feel a strange stir in his pants after a minute of it. 

“Well,  the fuck is that about?” Alvin asked.

Bill glared at him. “Can I help you with anything else? You’re money’s all there,” he said pointing at the deposit bag thick full of bills for the kilo plus some for the personal delivery.

Alvin took the hint and stood up, tucking the deposit bag in his track jacket, “Nope. You’ve been moving faster than normal so I suppose I’ll be seeing you sooner rather than later,” he said bowing out the door.

“God he gets on my nerves,” Alma muttered under her breath. “I’m gonna go take a nap in the locker room.”

“Locker room?”

“I’m tired and I have a good 15 minute for a power nap before open.”

“Well then take a nap here?”

“It’s fine.” She quickly rushed out the loft before he could have another word in.

She had been sleeping in her own room all week. With the door completely closed and sometimes locked, two things she’d never done before. Though it bothered him, he didn’t want to step any further on her toes but despite their close proximity, he was starting to miss her. He missed her warmth and the feeling of being needed. He missed her laugh, especially when he could hear her guffaw over the DJ’s speakers which only flooded him with jealousy towards the person who had the privilege of amusing her. It had been a long time since he felt alone and he had no one to blame but himself this time.  …

Behind the bar, Alma stood at the far end with her arms crossed watching her staff work diligently but kept her sights on Craig as he clumsily fumbled with drinking glasses. He had been a productive and decent crew member since he had started the weekend before. He even followed along with her rules. Which shocked her, he did what he was told, kept busy and kept the snark to a cool minimum. 

Though today, he was late for his shift and he had seemed somewhat frazzled tonight. He was tucking the dried glasses in the crook of his arm and Alma deliberately failed to inform him that one was slowly slipping from his grips. Instead, she waited until it crashed to the floor, shattering to pieces, jagged shards skittering across the epoxy floor. The was a brief silence throughout the club over the sound of it though in the same second things resumed as if nothing happened albeit the few claps he earned from a few smart ass patrons.

“God fucking damn IT!” Craig said setting down the drinking glasses carefully as to not repeat his previous action.

Alma pressed her lips together tightly, sucking in her cheeks to stifle her laugh. She waited until he had finished cleaning up his mess that she hollered from her end of the bar for him to take a five-minute break. He made his way towards Alma’s side of the bar, thinking he couldn’t hear her well she repeated herself.

“I heard you.”

“Then what are you doing?”

“Can I bum a cig from you?”

“I suppose…” she said leaning away from him and reaching into her jacket pocket for her pack. “What’s up with you today?” She asked him as she handed him a menthol.

“Got into with my girl,” he said lighting up.

“Never mind I don’t care,” she scoffed.

“Listen, I know you two have some kind of beef-”

“Beef? I don’t think so.”

“Well, what’s your issue with her?”

“Don’t be annoying. Blondie’s the one giving you shit right now. You should know her bratty, selfish issues better than anyone here.”

“Sheesh, say less,” he lightly chuckled.

From the VIP section, Bill was intently watching their exchange. It put him off, he could tell that they were sharing some kind of mutual banter and he couldn’t help but wonder what about and why. Reaching for his glass he slammed the rest of his bourbon down his throat and diverted his eyes away. He caught the sight of Violet prowling around the club looking to give a prospective private lap dance while flirtatiously twirling her fuzzy pink feather boa in the faces of uninterested men. Suddenly he felt impulsive, his thoughts now guided by his neglected manhood. She wasn’t what he wanted but she’d do, he thought to himself. He needed a warm body and someone to give him attention however shallow it was.

From Alma’s peripheral, she could see Bill’s familiar tall figure clear across the club with a giddy Violet following behind him up to the loft. Craig was still talking at her but he quickly caught on to where her attention now lied. She looked miffed that much he could tell but it became apparent when she rolled her eyes at the loft door closing behind them.

“Did he ever fuck her?”

“Huh?”

“Him and Blondie?”

Alma laughed to herself. “You can’t be that naive. Breaks over.” …

They were harshly kissing and nipping each other's bottoms lips in the center of the loft. Bill’s back was pressed against the gold stripper pole, he tilted his head away from Violet nudging her to get on her knees before him. Impatiently, he quickly undid his belt and trousers, letting her take over in pulling them down herself. He closed his eyes immersing himself in the moment, hoping that a blowjob would help ease his frustrations and stress. When she got his lower half bare she was surprised to see that he was hardly erect when usually he was standing near to full attention in moments like this. Either way, she took him into her mouth working him in all the ways she learned he liked recalling the times he praised her on how good she had gotten since she started working there. Yet, nothing was happening he stayed soft and gummy in her mouth. She peered up at him with furrowed brows, concerned.

“Are… are you okay?” She asked timidly.

“Shhh,” he said taking the back of her head in his hand coaxing her to continue.

He was trying to get erect maybe harder than Violet was trying to get him there. He, of course, was trying to flood his mind of the girl who he royally pissed off and wouldn’t give him the time of day. He thought to the times they were wrapped up in each other yet the sight of the bruised skin Ben had marred across her body and how she had gotten thinner caused the guilt to settle afresh.

“Stop.”

“You sure-”

“Just go.”

“Sorry,” she said dejected.

“Don’t be… I-it’s fine. I just have a lot on my mind,” he said fixing his trousers back on his hips. “I’m sorry.”

“Oh…” Violet didn’t know what to make of that. He’d always been so stern with her that she almost couldn’t believe he was genuinely apologizing to her. “I’m gonna go, okay?”

Bill nodded with his hands on his hips, when Violet closed the door behind her he blew out the breath he was holding on to. He felt embarrassed, his cheeks turning a deep shade of red. He knew he’d been stressed but until now he hadn’t realized he was more fucked in the head over everything than he originally presumed. He already had a whole week, seven whole nights, to kill Craig yet he was still breathing in his club chumming up to his girl that for all he knew hated his guts now. It made him irrationally jealous and angry and after hours he should have bit his tongue but he asked Alma about their interaction anyway.

She was closing the secret safe after counting, they were alone. She turned to him where he was seated in his desk chair.

“Ready,” she asked.

“Almost,” he said threading his fingers together and rest his hands on his belly as he leaned back in his chair. “What were you and Craig talking about earlier?”

Alma raised her brow and shrugged, “nothing really. But I hope you docked his pay for that broken glass. So, ready?”

“It didn’t look like nothing? And I don’t think you should be talking to him.”

Alma sighed, she was tired and now he was picking a fight at 3:30 in the morning. “He bummed a cig, I asked him what was wrong with him and he said he got in a fight with Blondie before work and that’s it.” She said matter a fact.

“So that’s why he was late?”

“I mean you of all people know how big of a bitch Blondie is.”

“Me?”

“Oh c’mon Bill. You know why she quit, it’s not like she’s making the same bank at the Russo’s club. You both were giving each other the runaround and then she blamed me for it all! And you let her!”

“Shit!” He backed off as his petty fight picking backfired on him. “Okay, okay...” he raised his arms hands up defensively.

“I don’t know what you want from me? But I want to go home, so can we go?”

“I went about that all wrong, Alma.” He covered his eyes with his hand, his middle finger and thumb pressing against his temples. Sliding his hand towards his mouth he paused uncertain of what to say.

Alma suddenly felt bad, she thought she was having the worst week of her life but apparently, he had been too. “Bill I don’t know what’s wrong with you but I know you’re not telling me something about that deal and I-” she swallowed thickly, “I don’t know why...”

“I-I told you everything...”

She shook her head, “I’ll pretend to believe you for now.” …

At home, Bill was just about to enter his room but he halted, turning his head calling Alma just before she could duck off into her own. She stopped, both of them in the hallway staring at each other waiting for the other to say a word.

“Yeah?”

“Could I sleep with you? In your bed? Just to sleep?”

“Uh,” Alma looked to her feet unsure.

“Fine. It’s fine,” he sighed, turning the doorknob. “Goodnight.

“Wait. Come in,” she said nudging her head to the side, motioning him to follow.

They settled in her bed and it felt awkward like the times they were teens hanging out in his room making sure not to touch a certain way or shift too close together during their secret sleepovers. Their teenage hormones making it extremely tense yet either were too shy to acknowledge it. It felt like that all over again as if they hadn’t seen and shared every inch of their adult bodies with each other since then. Rather than getting comfortable in each other's arms as they usually did they both laid stiff on their backs both of them unsuccessfully trying to breathe as quietly as they could to not disturb the other.

“Alma?” Bill spoke.

“Bill, I’m sorry I didn’t say that I didn’t hate you last week because I don’t,” she blurted out, it had been weighing heavy on her heart since.

Bill nodded accepting her apology. “I don’t know how to say this...”

Her heart began to rapidly, was he finally going to say it? She quickly practiced her response in her head over and over in anticipation.

“I have to kill Craig.”

“I lo- WHAT? Kill Craig?!”

“Shhh,” he put a finger to her lips. “That’s the deal.” And if I don’t do it you’re dead, he finished explaining in his head.

She was silent for a moment, trying to make sense of it as Bill read her contemplative expressions.

“He owes he cousins a lot of money,” he said before she could ask why. “And it must be a fuck ton if the only way he can pay is with his life so yeah, it’s all a ruse. All of it.”

“Holy shit,” she whispered.

“This isn’t what you left Missouri for and I feel so fucking terrible...”

“When are you going to do it?”

“Huh?”

“I don’t want to be surprised when it happens, you know?”

“Fuck. I-I haven’t figured it out,” he was taken aback. Had he known that she would take it well he wouldn’t have bothered to keep it from her like some deep dark secret. “Are you not freaked out? I almost shit myself when they asked me to.”

“I mean… it is some heavy shit yeah. And I sure as hell didn’t leave Missouri for this but if we still want this then I guess you gotta do what you have to? Or back to little ol’ Strathburg we go.”

“Right…” he bit his lip. There was no way in hell he could go back to Strathburg, there was nothing left there for either of them. “And what were you going to say? You what?” 

“Oh, nothing,” she faked a yawn as she cuddled into the side of him. “Goodnight.”

tags: @dreamtherapy @bskarsgardlove92 @tinygayfungi@skarswhat @nutinanutshell @xskarsgardx @reinamysterio @darling-dearest-desired@erika-beau-berika @fine-i-suppose @corlin90 @codependentcellist @loveforbillskasgard@kikilikes @twosupergayghosts @umbriellethenightfall @tigers-pat @billullabies

[kpop-stole-my-sanity]

Insomnia // Hwang Hyunjin [bulleted scenario!]

Summary: In which you and Hyunjin are both too oblivious to realize your true feelings... until it’s too late? 

Genre: angsty, floooof, gender neutral 

Word Count: 2175

Warnings: Just some cursing 

A/N: This is my first time writing a bulleted scenario and i quite enjoyed it :) idk it’s fun to not care about settings too much and punctuation and stuff. I also liked adding my own little dumb remarks here are there :PP it was fuN! This was another scenario that kinda arose while i was napping i hope you guys enjoy it! <3 i love stray kids 

i’m also gonna try to make all my scenarios gender neutral from now on (unless specifically requested) b/c we are all about inclusivity here !! :)

This was originally gonna be like a real fic

But the writers block was REAL like i really tried to set the scene and everything

But it didn’t turn out right

And i really wanted to get this one out so HERE WE ARE TRYING THE BULLETED SCENARIO OKAY YAY LETS BEGIN!

Trainee au!! Kinda :D

Like skz didnt go through the survival show yet

Ok so SEtting thE SCeNe~~~~

You just walked into the jyp building bc jyp hired you as a new producer

Like to study under him and potentially help w producing in the future

Like jyp 2.0 ya know

Jyp meets w you himself bc you’re like a prodigy

And a foreigner so he thought you’d be more comfortable w him speaking toyou in english :D

So he explained what you gotta do during your training period

Like studying more about composition and production

Learning korean to more easily communicate w idols and what not

And also honing your own style and figuring out who you are as an artist

So he pairs you up w the trainees bc it be good practice

More specifically skz bc they seem to have a more flexible style

Also like he thought it would be good for you to work w chan and the rest of 3racha

Like bc yall around the same age

And it helps you become more comfy

And familiar w the company and the producing rooms and recording studios and what no

Like

Yer

And then like

Through working w them to produce a song for the trainee showcase

Yall get mad close

And like

You have your eyes on hyunjin from the start

Like bc who couldn’t

Like

Gorgeous boy

At first you were just like “this is admiration”

“He very handsome i just admire his features”

Yeah

And maybe it was..

At first

Now it's a full blown crush

Like

For real

That boy is so hard working

Like you constantly see him asking for help

So he can improve

And like

People always said he was a visual only

Which made you feel bad that you saw that at first 

But you realized later

That like

You actually like him bc of his personality

What a hard worker 

For real

Angel

Anyways

Little did you know that your crush was NOT one sided

Hyunjin admired your hard work in producing

And how you always took criticism well and only worked to improve your work

Also

He thought you were hella cute

So yall were both kinda obvious

Him more than you

Like by a loT

So skz knew for a fact that hyunjin was head over heels in love w you so they pushed him to confess to you

Yeah he was like no

But after PEEr pRessUre

He finally agreed

They was gonna plan something like a party for you

To celebrate the time you’ve been w the company

But the showcase came before the celebration and suddenly they were on a survival show to see who would debut

So the party was postponed OOOODDDDD

But you didnt even know it was gonna happen so you didnt mind anyways

Soon enough it got closer to your birthday, and skz just decided to make it a birthday celebration instead

Hyunjin was more iffy about confessing bc what if you dont feel the same and he ruins your bday oh no

But at this point, skz was sure you liked him back so they were like dont worry about that they aren’t like that your relationship will be fine

So the party happens ladida

You were super surprised and sosososososo happy

Bc like

Your hart

These boys were precious and totally made your day

Tbh bc of your work

You almost forgot it was your birthday

After the crazy loud party, you wanted to like take some quiet time for yourself so you excused yourself

And then walked to the hallway and sat by the window and looked out at the city and the night sky

Beautiful

And suddenly you heard footsteps

It was this boy named jason who you were friends with

He was from the same town you were from so you got close p quickly when you first got to jyp

And jason had a not-so-secret crush on you

That ofc you were oblivious to

But he came over there to spend time w you and wish you happy bday

Little did you know

Hyunijn was mentally preparing himself to confess to you down the hall and around the corner w a pretty bouquet of flowers what a sweet boy

And when he finally works up the courage, he turns the corner and sees jason giving you a bday hug 

And he cant help but feel his hart drop

Yall look good together and like you were from the same town so similarities

So he was heartbroken needless to say

 He quickly turned around and walked away

But you heard the footsteps and saw just a glance of his outfit retreating

You excused yourself from jason’s company and ran after him bc you are so in love w this boy

You were gonna hug him and thank him, but when you approached he took a step back

Like ow

That hurt

He quickly stammered that he had to go home bc he was tired and left

He was hiding the flowers behind his back :’(

And then tossed them as soon as he left the building

He went for a long ass walk to clear his mind and soothe his aching heart

You were so worried

Was he okay?

You went home soon after bc you couldnt help but worry and that made you super tired

But you couldn't sleep

InsOMniA

Goddamn it hyunjin

You messaged him

“you’re prob sleeping but i hope you feel better”

Dry ass reply: “thx”

Like wow

Rude

But you let it go

jic he was actually really exhausted

You knew he took criticism from the show too so maybe it was that

Hopefully he’d talk to you about it bc he usually did

But he didn't

He avoided you

Your heart really couldnt take it

Meanwhile you and jason got closer bc you didnt have hyunjin to hang out w anymore

Despite your many efforts

And this just further fuels his belief that yall are together

So to ignore the tinge in his heart every time he saw you, he buried himself in practice

Didn't sleep

Didnt drink enough water

Didnt eat enough

He was getting dangerously skinny and unhealthy

And it affected his attitude

Not only to you but to his members

One day you were asked to come in and monitor a recording session

And he was happy and giggly in front of the camera

But as soon as it turned off u could see the fatigue

And you told him that he should take better care of himself

And he SNAPPEd at you

 You actually flinched bc he was so aggressive

Your heart SHATTEREd

And you, also sleep deprived as FUCk

Slapped him

Not super hard, but like a “what the fuck is wrong with you”

And you walked right out, not even bothering to hide your tears

And he was sad but he thought that you hating him would help him get over you

What a dumb boy

You completely avoided him after that

You also still had restless nights 

God that convo kept playing over and over in your head

YOU COULDNT SLEEP

But one day you got a call from chan

He needed your help

Hyunjin was seriously overworking himself and he was afraid hyunjin was gonna collapse

Luckily you were still at the company working on smth bc ofc you couldn't sleep anyways so might as well make use of your time

So you finally agree bc even if you’re still angry at him, you are srsly worried about this boy

And when you get to the dance room your heart breaks all over again

Hes so pale

And sickly looking

And hes shaking but hes still dancing

You knock and hear a gruff “its open”

The music pauses for a moment but when he sees its you he scoffs and turns it back on

“what do you want”

“Uhm.. are you okay?”

“Why? You wanna slap me again to make me feel better?”

Ofc you rolled your eyes bc wtf hyunjin you were being nice

“I dont even know why i bothered”

You go over to the stereo and turn it off yourself

And he turns to you angry

ARGUMENT TIME

Him: “WHAT THE FUCK IS YOUR PROBLEM?”

“MY PROBLEM?!!!?!?? YOU’RE THE ONE WHO PUSHED ME AWAY FOR NO DAMN REASON!! AND EVEN AFTER ALL THAT, I STILL TRIED TO BE NICE AND ASK IF YOU WERE OKAY. I WAITED FOR YOU TO OPEN UP TO ME. TO TALK TO ME ABOUT WHATEVER WAS BOTHERING YOU!”

At this point, you’re practically sobbing like udk if he can understand you but who cares

All this frustration that was pent up inside felt good being released

Bc at this point, you had nothing more to lose

Hyunjin already hated you so like why not just speak your mind amirite

 Anyways continuing w the dialogue:

“HOW WAS I SUPPOSED TO TALK TO YOU ABOUT MY PROBLEM WHEN MY PROBLEM IS YOU!”

Cue awkward pause/break thing (AWKwARD SiLEncE)

“What are you talking about hyunjin?”

He sighed defeatedly

It was now or never. He felt like his relationship w you was ruined already anyways

So he, like you, also had a ‘what do i have to lose’ mentality

“I was going to confess to you y/n. That night at your birthday party. But i was too late. I saw you with jason and you looked so happy and perfect together.  So i left. I cut my ties with you because i didn’t want my own feelings to get in the way of your happiness.”

You were completely utterly speechless

Like there were an overwhelming number of feelings enveloping you atm

Bc on the one hand:

The love of your life just confessed to you

But on the other

Like

What a dumbass

You end up laughing and scoffing at his words bc

Hes so dumb

You dont like jason

God you’ve been in love w hyunjin for so goddamn long

And now you’re debating over how to respond

But like your anger and frustration kinda takes precedence bc youre also sleep deprived and you go

“ so, you broke your own heart and then you broke mine because you didn’t want to talk to me about it you dumbass ????”

And he gives you that classic confused puppy-dog look

W the head tilt and everything

And you go

“Hwang hyunjin, i’m fucking in love with you”

And he just stares blankly at you and blinks like 8 times trying to comprehend what just came out of your mouth

And his lips form an ‘o’ shape

And then hes coming closer and wrapping his arms around you

And you dont even mind that hes still sweaty and kinda smelly

Bc hes finally in your arms

But holding him so close also makes you super aware of just how skinny he’s gotten

Like it was worse than you thought

So you pull back and you open your mouth to chastise him

But before you can even start he’s cupping your cheeks can pulling your face to his

Your lips collide and then they're molding into one another

And your mind kinda blanks out

But your automatic reaction seems to be letting your fingers run through his hair and pulling him closer towards you

And when yall finally come up for breath

He tries to go in for another one like immediately after

Like slow your roll boy you guys can kiss all you want later

If you said that out loud, he wouldve responded w something like “we gotta make up for lost time”

But you put your hands on his chest and hold him back

And he pouts

(you almost squeal at how cute he looks)

“Ok, now that we’re dating, i am literally commanding you to take better care of yourself because this,” you eye him up and down, “is unacceptable”

And he quirks an eyebrow up and is like

Oh? I don’t recall asking you out? On a date?”

And you get all blushing and become a blubbering mess and hide your face in his chest like

“Shut up hyunjin”

But he’s just giggling at your embarrassed face :D

Then, him being the dramatic hoe that he is, he gets down on one knee in front of you and says

“y/n, y/l/n, will you go out on a date with me?”

And ofc u say yes

And after that whole dramatic scene, you pull him out of the practice room, fingers intertwined, ready to stuff him with food

And he goes

“I dont think i said it back.”

“Said what back?”

“That i love you”

UWU

And the rest is history

[delysartfanart]

Satsuten ep. 11

Yeah I know, I’m a bit late, but finally here the comment of this episode:

1-Gray considering himself as God 

Pretty well done scene! (And more trauma for Ray, YEEEEEH!!!)

2- Ray’s illusion let her to met Zack

Zack here was going to kill her, but something behind Ray appear. A sort of dark cloud (or gas, or whatever it was) that wanted to inglobe her, but Zack cut it fast. And then he grab her hand and run away. This scene was new (I mean yeah, in the game she think about Zack here, but not in this way) but I loved it because the OTPPPP and because it was full of meanings. The dark cloud is problably all the dark side or story of Ray, something that she want to escape from, and Zack cut it. This means that he is saving her, and the fact that they run away with their hands in hands confirm it. They are so close!

Now, pay attention on this two things:

We can’t see Zack’s face, and then, his scythe with his bandages. At the first look I didn’t know what to think about it, but I watched again the episode, and now I have a theory about it: We can’t see Zack’s face because he isn’t covered in his bandages, that are now with his scythe. Remember that Ray wanted to know better him since she came back to floor B6. Now put this with the fact that Zack’s face is now a shadow. Is like he isn’t covered anymore with his bandages (that he use always for cover himself, for cover his skin), so he do not hide anymore his skin, but at the same time we can’t see it. The theory is that Ray wants to know him, but it’s not easy. Under his bandages, is like he cover not only his skin, but also his trueself, the real Isaac Foster, and not only the serial killer. Ray can’t see his face because ok that she wants to know him, but at the same time also Zack must to want to let her to see him. But is not easy for him, that spent his life covering himself, like a barrier, and don’t let someone to know him, to know what he hide under the bandages. 

(my english is so bad, but I hope you understand what I mean)

Anyway, Ray can wake up thanks the Zack’s knife

But ATTENTION:

Only this cut. ONLY THIS. AND SHE ANYWAY GET UP FROM GRAY’S ILLUSION. 

WHAT. THE FUCK? 

NO. 

She cut in her hand and in her leg for wake up! What is this?? Come on!

3- Ray wakes up. Ok darling, you have the knifu, you are angry with Gray because with this illusions you had so much problems and Zack is still in danger. Now you are so angry for  threaten him with the knife on his throat...

NO...

She... doesn’t.... put... the knife... on his throat....

Just this...

GIRL ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME????? COME ON!!! I loved this part in the game because finally Ray begin a badass, she was so upset with Gray! But here... meh... she lost here the coolness... I don’t know... The knife behind him, pffffffffff...

4- The medicine!

Now, my ask can be stupid, but... Gray said that he took the medicine from Danny, ok? Danny get all the medicines from his floor. Ok...

But look how much they are!!!! Ray has to use her bag from bring all of them! SO WHERE THE FUCK DANNY PUT ALL OF THIS MEDICINE?

No... I... I don’t wanna think about it...

5- The “MOMENT THAT EVERYONE WANTED TO SEE!!!!”

For your happiness, Ray doesn’t sew up Zack’s hoodie!!! (YESSSS!!!)

Ahhhhh, and we can see HIS SKIN. HIS BURNED SKIN! 

I am glad that we can see it, finally! In the game we couldn’t see it, in the manga... meh, yes, but it wasn’t so clear. Too much dark for understand it, and the shots don’t focused on it so much. But here... 

GOOD JOB, J.C. STAFF! I AM FUCKING PROUD OF YOU KNOW!

Ok, talking seriusly. Of course, watching Zack’s eyes was obvious that his skin wasn’t soo dark as I always imaginated, but here we can see that is not just a palette. We can see the burned skin effect. 

(no Ray, he is fine ewe)

I mean look!!!

This scene is GOLD. I loved it so much (also for the fanservi- COFF COFF)

AHHAHAH poor him XDDD

(Be gentleeeeee uwu)

6- after they sleep a bit, finally can move again for continue their fantastic adventure! 

And they talk about Gray

AHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAH XDDDD RAY, STOP MAKE HIM VOMIT XDDD

7- Ahhhhh, the scene that I wanted (and the same time no) to see it. They are in the elevator, and Ray ask how Zack get burned. So he start to talk about it

OH, YOU SON OF A BITCH! BURN ALIVE A LITTLE CHILD!

I never imaginated him like this. Not blondy. I always imaginated that the man was Zack’s father, so for some things was to be like Zack (dark hair, and yellow eyes). But ok. I can’t say so much about it, it wasn’t canon in the game/manga, so ok.

And now... guys... 

This... part has to hurt me... but there is this thing that confused me so much:

SO ZACK WAS BURNED IN HIS LEG TOO? WHEN THERE ARE NO BURNS IN HIS LEG? WHAT THE FUCK?

But anyway is a crude scene... my poor baby....

AND BABY ZACK WITH NORMAL SKINNNNNNN T3T LET ME HUG HIM!!! HE SUFFERED SO MUCH, FUCK OFF!!

AND FUCK THIS FUCKING SADIC MAN!

But Zack, telling his story, finish it with “this woman covered me as a mummy and sold me to a house”....

.....

......

..........................

NO.

NO. FUCKING. WAY.

NOOOOOOOOOOOO!

WHAT THE FUCK? ZACK I LOVE YOU SO MUCH, BUT THE FUCK ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT? YOUR MOTHER ABANDONED YOU IN AN ABANDONED BUILD, THROW TO YOU SOME MONEY AND THEN ESCAPED. SHE NEVER SOLD YOU!!!

J.C. why? You did great with his burned skin, and now this! His story has to be more drammatic for me, but I was more confused that drammatic.... 

Shit....

(ok prob is me that think too much about it... but... fuck... I am not satisfied...)

Oh, but they let him smiling while telling this. that’s ok.

(Zack, your mother. Come on, say it!)

8- Ray now remember her past and... she was to tell everything to Zack, but...

*FACEPALM*

RAYYYYYYYY!!! TELL TO HIMMMMMMMMM!!!!

9- the floor B1...

THE FUCKING FLOOR B1.

Everything happened before this floor was a tutorial. NOW THE STORY START TO BE MORE INTENSE, MORE ANXIOUS!

(you can hear me screaming)

Vote: 8

I loved the sewing scene and the illusion with Zack scene. These were so beautiful, and from them you can know how much now they care to eachother.

This episode could be more great, but:

-RAY DON’T CUT HERSELF! fuck! in the game Zack was worried about her, and told to her to do something for herself too. From this you could understand better their relationship!!!!

-Ray don’t  threaten Gray in the badass mode of the game....

-THe final part of the Zack’s burned skin story... THIS IS A FUCKING LIE! HIS MOM NEVER SOLD HIM!!!!! And someone explain to me how the fuck he couldn’t get burn in his leg while the flames start from his leg! I am confused!!!!

(I FORGOT THE BONUS!!!)

BONUS

Oh Ray.... you lucky girl... uwu

[sharkytrash7]

My last say. Hopefully not my final essay.

So I've been watching YouTube videos of how to get over ex's and how to deal with break ups. In my heart, I know we belong together. I know the fact that I'm not Christian is a problem. My arguement is that you never fell in love with an atheist. You fell in love with me. Its tough when you refer to me as atheist because I'm so much more then that. You of all people know that. I love you with all my heart. I want to marry you still. I'm not of being alone or being without you. I'm scared of what I am without you. To be honest you were and still are my guardian angel in my eyes. You've changed my life and I hate to see you leave. You keep emphasizing that we might not be together but I still have hope we'll be together. After all, you have my rib. I know things are hard for you at the moment with God. Its tough for me 2. I go to afda and put on a smile pretending I'm fine. You want to be with a Christian. I get that. But no Christian will be as good as I am to you. Even tough I'm not a Christian, I can try to be the best person in the world for you. I dont love for your looks or your voice or cause you give me affection or cause you buy me stuff or cause you did things to me. Its all those things and more. I love you cause youre you. I would never change anything about you. Even your cute toes. Once upon a time I promised you I'd convert for you. I want to make this clear ! I am not trying to manipulate you in any way shape or or form ! Im just venting to tumblr. I'd keep my promise. It wouldnt be for you or for me but for us. Cause your right woman ! Its just better if we're both Christian. I know your gonna be thinking, "hmmmm, hes probably just saying this so I get back with him. He just wants me back. What an ass" and it does look like that. Thats why. Huh. Idk actually. I guess it is kinda fucked up to say this. Kinda shity cause then it would make your life 10 times harder. Okay so ignore that bit. Im not deleting it because effort AND because I said it / typed it with meaning and for a reason.

I get why we dont talk because if your parents find out they'll lose their minds and also because I'm pulling you away from your God things. But like when will I be able to date you. Ya know. Like even if I was Christian, your parents would still hate me. And if your parents forgave me. I wouldnt be Christian. So i get your side of life. Cause thats tough cookie. I wish our love could be enough because it is lowkey for us. Its a rough one. I wanna tell you so many things but i dont wanna jinx your future. I just find it crazy that you think your going to marry someone else. People have been saying its just because your my first girlfriend but I dont believe em. I felt a connection with you. Something I dont see happening with anyone else. You keep telling not to wait for you but its what I feel is right. Just like how you said it feels right to break up. I dont think this will last forever. We'll I wont be able to last much longer but. I feel like we've got this. We've been through a lot together and I'm positive about us. When I said us not being together would be a watse I didnt mean a waste of time or money or anything. I just meant it would be crazy for us to go through everything we did just to let (a big deal) get in the way. I love you. I love you. I LOVE YOU MY BOO !

Lowkey in the back of my head thinking this

I know I said these things but I cant hold you to anything. You could be over me and my shit and want another relationship. I have to deal with that. If you want some buff white english indie guy to come love you then that the way it'll be.

Deep down I want it to be though. Like I want to be your knight. Your dark knight _wink wink_. I know eternal life is a big thing for you and I'd like to be there with you to. I dont really know if I'll be accepted up in heaven. Even if i am a Christian. Im hard on myself like that. Id rather let more deserving people go to heaven. Idk why I put myself. Its just me. I just see potential in others. More so than in myself. I see my purpose on earth as a chance to help others. You know. Plus im sure when (i cant remember the name of it) the blue lights come down and take people to heaven. Im sure I'll meet you up there. Your just so scared of messing up like one thing and I get it I was like that 2. Id make sure everything was planned out. Truth is. I hd to stop being scared in order to move forward. Like after my car accident. I was terrified to drive again. I couldnt deal with driving. But i had to get over it. And I know you blame yourself and God for what happened. Please dont. Everything happens for a reason. I feel like that stuff taught me a lesson about being calm and calming myself down. It definitely wasnt God punishing you for being with me. Again not trying manipulate you or preach to you or try to change your thoughts. Its just my opinion. All I'm hoping you do is consider what I'm saying. I really truley am sorry about everything but at the same time. Everything that happened has happened and its made us who we are. If given the chance I'd do it again.

Also lowkey I'd love to celebrate 2 years with you. #nopressure. Like seriously I'm being serious but at the same time dont stress you cute little head about it. If it doesnt happen it doesnt happen.

My eating habits have gotten worse. Idk. Im lowkey scared im dying. I want to go to the doctor but its expensive and I've been such a burden on my parents. I'm pretty sure I can wait a couple years before getting it checked up.

My new glasses are cool. You have to see yhem in person. That another thing. I thought i wouldve seen you by now just driving or something. But i guess you only really drive to church and home. Or to someones house or like a party thing.

Happy 21st birthday baby. Wow. Your getting like so old. I still remember falling in love with the 19 year old you. Look how far we came. A whole 2 years. Youve grown so much since then. Firstly you don't bump into cars xD. Jk. You really have become such a grown up and I've been blessed being there with you. You became independent and youve become yourself. Its was a wild trip but to see you come out on top has been worth it. You deserve the world. And if anyone tries to hurt you / stop you, send em my way. Youre one of the most beautiful intelligent cutest amazingest bestest person in the whole world. Happy Birthday Boo.

The boo tattoo. We getting em together ? Also all your stuff is still here so if you do move out invite me over sometime so i can drop off these things. Lowkey your life is amazing and spontaneous and I have huge FOMO (fear of missing out). You don't to worry about me tho. I've been waiting to do things with you.

Moving out. Yeah. Its a big possibility next for me. I remember you originally said we can't live together which sucked but made sense. So. If you ever need a place to stay. Call me. I'll set up a guest bedroom for you.

I wasnt going to with your dad a happy birthday because you never with mine I dont think. But im not a monster like you. Jk lol. You probs just forgot.

Also it really sucks you cant speak 2 me. Your not an asshole. I just wish you could've helped me calm down.

Im sorry this was so long. I'm sure Ive forgotten things and said things I shouldnt have but tbh its been kinda theraputic for me. Like I feel a lot better having got thise things off my chest. You dont have to reply to anything yet. Cause I know your brains busy atm. If you can acknowledge that you seen it that would be nice. But ja. Please dont take anything Ive said personally or strongly. I just blurped things out and yes things do have meaning. But it takes two to tango. I desperately want to tango with you though.

Ps I love you

Pps Im sorry

Ppps take me back

Pppps jk. not jk

Yours truly

Triston Kyle Pillay (Penguin)

3:36 Vala is today. Shhhh

[stunudo]

BAU Prep School AU

A Criminal Minds Fan-fiction

Dirty Laundry

Welcome to the Frederick Buchanan Institute located in scenic Quantico, Virginia, a senior high academy that shapes the best and brightest minds. Its motto is “Behavior, Analysis, Unity,” the mascot the Submariners, colloquially “the Unsubs”. The small school supports the most accomplished faculty from across the country. 

April 10, 2017 7:06pm

Emily Prentiss hated her required time on the Booster Club teacher’s panel, but at least she didn’t have to suffer alone. Elle was supposed to be here sharing in the cringe-worthy parents and regents. Apparently Emily wasn’t the only who noticed the empty seat beside her, Mr. Ryan was giving her quite the side-eye. The students were leading the meeting as it was the final one before the end of the year and the preparations for the Alumni Association Gala were kept under wraps so not to spoil the experience.

“Coach Jareau will be hosting a soccer tournament on campus at the end of the month, I have the volunteer sheets with me for various tables, concessions and items needed. Nurse Callahan leaves it posted outside of her office, since it is closest to the field house, during school hours.” Michel continued, cupping and wringing their hands as they read through their agenda enthusiastically.

“We are grateful for Coach Morgan and the football team for volunteering for most of the unskilled slots, but we would still like a few more parent volunteers,” Cissy added.

“That’s the 29th, Mr. Foyet?” Mr. Ryan asked over his reading glasses.

“Yes,” Cissy answered for her flustered friend. Michel shuddered at the title and gathered themselves quickly as Ms. Greenaway stormed in and plopped down at the staff table. Mr. Cruz and President Strauss shared a glance at the tardiness of the young teacher.

Emily couldn’t contain her cough as the aroma surrounding Elle filled her nose and mouth. She smelled like she had crawled out of an aging barrel.

“What’d I miss?” Elle asked, hanging her jacket off the back of the chair.

“Just current events,” Emily whispered, eyes still on the student table. “Everything alright?”

“Yeah, why?” Elle asked, slightly annoyed.

“Well, you’re late.” Emily scratched behind her ear. Elle rolled her eyes, and took out a folder with notes and fliers from Penelope. The meeting continued quickly, agenda very easily conveyed by the dedicated junior, Michel. The regents and parents didn’t have much to add as they had reached their threshold for questioning with the mess of the winter months.

“Staff? Anything to add?” President Strauss asked to cover all the bases.

“Yes, thanks.” Elle started then cracked a smile and had to stop herself from laughing at the look of impatient across the regents’ faces. “Ms. Garcia says that Chef Rossi and Mr. Anderson are well on their way to the most successful and elegant Alumni Gala yet. Invitations will be out within the next two weeks.”

“Penelope and Grant are working around the clock on this.” Emily added, watching Elle’s eyes droop as she exhaled dramatically after reading her note card. “Headmaster Hotchner hopes to raise enough for a staff retreat over the summer as well as a student leadership seminar in the fall.”

“Those are certainly ambitious goals,” Mr. Cruz added. “Does he have estimated costs for these outings?”

“He does,” Emily nodded, grabbing the proposals she received from Hotch and walking them over. Elle stood and followed her, adding some sheets from Penelope, nearly falling back into her seat.

“These look well planned out,” President Strauss added. “We’ll look over these and touch base after the totals are all in. Thank you, Ms. Prentiss and, uh-hm, Ms. Greenaway.”

“No prob.” Elle said lazily.

“I think that is everything we have,” Emily clasped her hands on top of her notes.

“Very well, if that is all current items. I move that we adjourn.” Mr. Cruz suggested.

“Seconded.” Mr. Ryan and Michel said simultaneously.

“So moved.” The gavel struck the sounding block, allowing Emily to grab Elle by the elbow and drag her into the side hallway off the Delaney Owens’ Memorial Library.

“What is your problem?!” Elle huffed.

“You tell me, Elle.” Emily stared down the younger woman and waited. Elle stuck out her chin and refused to break eye contact with the English teacher. Emily shook her head, “Fine, act like one of the students. But show up trashed to another school event and I go straight to Hotch.”

“Relax, I just needed some liquid courage before facing the three amigos in there.” Elle explained, offhandedly.

“Not the best idea.”

“Yeah, well, we were just fillers in there anyway. Hotch and Garcia were who they really want, but this stupid requirement makes us sub in anyway.”

“Because it’s fair this way, let them have a night off once in awhile.” Emily was really holding back.

“Aren’t you tired, Emily?”

“Not particularly.”

“That’s not what I meant. Aren’t you tired of being the leftovers?” Elle asked almost nervously. Emily wasn’t sure everything that was going on with her colleague, but it was obviously more than attending an arbitrary meeting.

“Let’s get you home, Greenaway, before I lose my better judgement.” Emily drove the woman home in near silence, her death metal a calm undercurrent to the ride.

April 13 3:20pm

“I heard it was heroin, I mean, look at the guy; he is so skinny!” Lizzie whispered not too discreetly to Hannah and Camille’s work table during the last few minutes of AP Physics. Her lab partner, rolling his eyes at her tactless gossiping.

“Come on, Liz, do you really thing your mom, would keep him on staff if he was on heroin?” Camille countered, keeping her head down while working on an equation.

“I don’t know, what if he is really good at hiding it?” Hannah pointed out.

“Okay, but doesn’t he have like a recluse mom or something? He has chess club and tutoring, he doesn’t even have time to date.” Camille was getting worked up and her friends noticed.

“Wow, Cam, you sure know the pipe cleaner’s schedule.” Hannah teased.

“Yeah, I mean, perhaps you could ask him about his drug problem. Since you know him so well?” Lizzie tucked her hair behind her ear, as her tone shifted.

“Shut up, Lizzie.” Camille turned beet red.

“Dr. Reid?” Lizzie’s hand shot in the air just as the final bell burst through the halls. Camille grabbed her friend’s arm and pulled it down, denying Lizzie to ask whatever embarrassing thing she was bound to follow with.

Dr. Reid turned and looked at the front of the class, confusion pulling at his brow.

“Never mind, Dr. Reid.” Camille replied, covering Lizzie’s mouth with her notebook.

“Have a good weekend!” Hannah added, helping to drag Lizzie away from the unsuspecting teacher.

“Enjoy your break, ladies.” Spencer Reid replied, confused as ever with the opposite gender.

April 26 7:28am

“Hiya Boy Wonder!” Penelope gushed as she came sauntering into his first period class mere moments before roll call.

“Ms. Garcia?” Dr. Reid was startled. “What do you need?”

“What makes you say that?”

“You use flattery to soften your victims before you get them to do your bidding.” Spencer smirked at the blonde as she started fiddling with things on his demonstration table. “Don’t touch that. Penelope!” His voice jumping in volume before she opened the gas line.

“So, uh, you have your tutoring group tonight, right?” She asked coyly as she slid an envelope across the table to him.

“Are you bribing me?” Spencer’s eyes shot around the room ensuring they weren’t being over heard.

“What? No!” Penelope motioned in the air as if to whisk away the idea. “Just give this to, uh, Coach Morgan for me?”

“Penelope, I’m not your mail carrier.” Dr. Reid held the letter in the air, meaning to return it.

“You’re a peach!” Penelope grinned and walked back out of the room. “Thanks!”

He was left with his entire Chemistry class staring back at him as he waved a not so secret love letter in the air.

“She’s not very stealth.” Lucas pointed out.

“Tell me about it,” the teacher agreed.

April 26 1:09pm

“Honestly, this was the shortest--,” Alex chuckled. “The shortest line, but he refused. REFUSED to get in it.”

“Where do you think your stubbornness comes from?” Dave teased, sauteing a divine dish as they spoke. “How was the game?”

“Too close, but they won.”

“Not going to be doing much of that this season.” The chef added haughtily. The brunette threw the chunk of bread she was picking at, towards her ex-husband’s face, he easily dodged the assault.

“Your Cubs have one season and you think it’s the rapture.”

“Your point?”

Hotch had been observing the pair bantering over baseball in the doorway. It was a level of intimacy that he didn’t want to intrude on, but his stomach had more primal ideas. The rolling of hunger pulled the couple’s eyes to the young Headmaster.

“Here he is!” Dave grinned, “Thought you forgot about little, ole me.”

“I may have, but can’t argue with basic needs.” Hotch smirked, patting his flat stomach.

“I’m glad you showed, he wasn’t going to let me have any until you arrived.” Alex Blake shrugged as she claimed a stool at an empty preparations counter.

“Says who?” Chef Rossi argued.

“I know what stalling looks like, Dave.” Alex held up her hands against the eye daggers shooting her way.

“Alright, you two.” Hotch cleared the comedic flirtations with his low voice.

“Order up.” The amused chef served the two ravenous educators, watching proudly as they dug into lunches. Alex hurried away with the class bell, leaving Hotch to help clear her spot.

April 28 9:40am

Erin Strauss didn’t know why she was nervous as she walked up the stairs to the second floor of the school that Friday morning. Sure, she was rarely in the building during school hours and the last few interactions with this particular teacher had been less than pleasant. But, she had somehow come to the conclusion that this conversation needed to take place, and she wasn’t one to back down when her mind had been set.

It was there in her shoulders, Erin could see it, the heaviness settled in on such a young body. Lizzie had private language tutors, which left Erin with only tertiary experience with the Spanish teacher. Perhaps it was her years of sobriety, accented by her years of motherhood, but she finally accepted that she was compelled to say something. She shifted her bag in her hands, knocking on the open frame before stepping inside the simple office.

“Adelante. Come in. Venien--” Elle paused as she acknowledged the visitor.

“Morning, Ms. Greenaway.” Erin Strauss offered gently. “Do you mind if we talk?”

April 29 6:22am

Jennifer Jareau expertly entered the field house with a tray of coffees in each hand. The meager early morning cheers she received from her volunteers would have to be her motivation for the day, unnecessarily swearing off caffeine during her pregnancy. She handed out the assorted drinks and pre-opening assignments in a blur.

Derek and the majority of the varsity football team arrived in packs, rolling in just before registration began. There were eight other schools attending the tournament, as hosting campus, FBI was not participating. This left JJ to facilitate to the best of her abilities and kept her out of the spotlight of the sidelines. Though her name was plastered over every flier and social media reminder for the event, she insisted on making it about the school and not about her celebrity.

Stephen and the pep band shuffled to the center of the basketball court, preparing for the national anthem. The bleachers were a patchwork of the masses, teenage girls in every colored jersey bunched together awaiting the first round of games. Line judges and referees were huddled near the first aid station, manned by the enthusiastic Nurse Callahan and her friend, Gary helping out, once again. JJ was pleased with the turn out and especially the good publicity the school was getting, eyeing the camera crews from some local station and internet sports broadcasts present.

After the general welcome, rules and the anthem was sung, JJ was free to slip back into the coordinator role. But not before a tall stranger approached her, “So who’s the lucky guy?”

“Excuse me? I don’t know what you’re talking about.” JJ eyed the man cautiously.

“Come one, JJ. You’re what, four months along by now?”

“Who are you?” JJ demanded, crossing her arms, wishing Derek or Heathridge were around to show this guy out, right about now.

“Just a fan,” He smiled easily, his almond eyes kind despite his pressing questions. “I covered your team at the World Cup in ‘07, but I don’t think you remember me.”

“You’re a reporter?” JJ glanced around for a hidden camera. “I don’t know what kind of story you think you’re getting, pal, but-”

“And my niece is one of your players?” He waved as an enthusiastic Hannah came running into his arms, he effortlessly lifted the teenager into the air.

“Weh-sukbu!” Hannah said, “I didn’t know you were in the country!”

“Which is what makes it a surprise.” The man hugged the girl and set her back down before they both turned to JJ. “I was just re-introducing myself to your coach.”

“Ugh, gross.” Hannah teased. “Sorry, Coach Jareau, my uncle thinks he’s funny. I hope he wasn’t being his pushy-self.”

“I’m not working today,” Matt Simmons casually hooked his thumbs in the belt loops on his fitted jeans. “But it was nice seeing you, Miss Jareau. Make sure this one does her laps, eh?”

The duo wandered off towards the concessions, the invading man messing up the girl’s hair mercilessly. JJ didn’t remember ever meeting the man before, but something about his approach left her on edge. Other than a few petty disagreements with the refs, the remaining tournament went off without a hitch. JJ’s back was killing her when she drove away from the school grounds late in the day, leaving Anderson and some groundskeepers with the last of the clean up. Between the parents’ comments and other coaches’ feedback; she knew they had done a great job, but hoped it was reflected in the funds raised.

April 30 11:12am Brunch

The waitress wasn’t sure why the man dressed like her grandfather was twitching nervously with his water glass until his companion walked in, clearly this woman was above of this guy’s comfort zone. She re-approached the table to refill his coffee.

“Anything for you, dear?” She casually asked the blonde woman.

“Water is fine, thanks.” Her smile didn’t quite meet her ice blue eyes. “How are you doing, Spence? It feels like ages since we talked.”

“It has been seven months and some change, since we have had a non-work related conversation, so ages isn’t too far off, I suppose.” Spencer scrunched his nose, trying to calm his racing heart. “But I am doing well, thanks. Are you?”

“Am I what?”

“Are you well?”

“Oh, ha!” JJ smiled. “Yes, much better now that the tournament is behind me for the year.”

“That’s great! I know Derek was impressed with all the details such an endeavor requires.” Spencer glanced back at the menu, though the words were already safe in his mind.

“All day events are a strategic nightmare, but I had a lot of help.” JJ turned back to the menu. Spencer waited a cool four minutes and thirteen seconds before approaching the subject.

“Anything else new with you?” Spencer was horrible at small talk.

“No, not really.” JJ shook her head with a comical frown.

“JJ?” Spencer ducked down, trying to catch her eyes from hiding in the menu again. “JJ, its alright, I know.”

“You know?”

“About the baby. Elle told me.” Spencer shrugged, sliding his glass over one half inch. “I hope that’s alright.”

“Well, I shouldn’t be surprised, you two have been rather close.” JJ admitted. “Besides, it’s not like it isn’t obvious by now.

“No, that’s not what I-” Spencer stammered. “You look gr- gor. You’re beautiful.”

“Easy for you to say!” JJ laughed. “Spence, it’s okay. I don’t mind my bump.”

“Good, you shouldn’t. It suits you.”

“Ready to order?” The waitress broke the awkwardness by her sheer presence. After taking away their one distraction, the conversation inched forward.

“So how’s your mom?” JJ scratched her head, wishing she had come better prepared.

“Doing quite well, actually, her aide has been phenomenal. I really think she is on the right track, after so long.” Spencer pursed his lips, proud of Diana’s progress.

“That’s great! So is she going out yet or having people over more?”

“She has a group she meets with twice a week at a local clinic, which she hardly ever misses. If everything continues on her current trajectory, she should be able to be in an assisted living situation or a retirement facility by early next year.” Spencer’s excitement was palpable, allowing JJ to relax.

“That’s fantastic. I know you hadn’t seen improvement in quite sometime, I am really happy for you, for you both.” JJ dug into her Belgian waffles, letting the fluffy grids soak up the sugary goodness.

“JJ, I want you to know, if you need anything now or in the future; I am more than willing to step in to help.” Spencer blurted out as the waitress handed them their to go containers.

“Thanks?” JJ replied, confused.

“I mean it.” Spencer reached over and took her hand. “It isn’t fair to you to do this all on your own. I have seen firsthand the toll single parenthood takes. Let me help you, JJ.”

“Spencer! What are you doing?” JJ was floored. “I am not exactly helpless, you know.”

“I know you’re not, but a baby needs a lot.” Spencer sighed. “I don’t know what happened between you and Emily and it is none of my business. But if you need a partner in this,” he gestured toward her growing belly. “I am more than willing to be the father.”

“Oh, Spencer.” JJ’s eyes filled with hopeless tears. “You know I can’t do that.”

Very Special Thanks to Cassie @mentallydatingspencerreid,

Meg @imagicana , and Loki @ay-nako!!!

@ddreammcatcher @ultrarebelheart @lightbluelester @criminal-anatomy   @captainreid  @thebadyears @amarislestrange @shaelyn102 @badasprentiss @fl0werb0nes18 @inestava @sam-carter-in-training @wonderboygenius @fortheloveofpearlet @valentina-pendragon-blog @imarockstar45 @chocok22 @cynbx @fairymega @madamredwrites @doctorspencerreidrp @mindsunleashed @dontshootmespence @bookofreid @marvelfanlife @welp-there-it-is @ilikeitwhenyousleepforyouareso   @remember-me-forever-silent-angel @original-criminal-fanfics @derpyprentiss @olicia-leeshy @lookwhatyoumademequeue @veroinnumera @sarahkay-19 @sammles27 @lesbian-asajj @teatimewithtiya @braziliangirlonasharkcity @alienlynz @janam03 @nobravery @clockworkballerina @whymesswperfection  @hagridsmumhasgotitgoingon @brooke0297 @xxmaddhatter39xx  @gurliest @handpaintedgalaxy @kxlley @krazykendraisnotinsane @bat-crazydoll8 @hownottobeaheartbreaker @captainreid @beereadsthings @prettyboysjello @megsi98 @criminal-prentiss @eternaldarknessiscool  @loadingdelete @tinydancer26 @sydneymikayla @blabla412 @pleinemoon @pebblesinthelake @iamaquaria @megsi98 @prettyboysjello

[fmlfpl]

Lineup Lamentations - GW38+

Our Transfers, Captains, and Starting 11s for the week!

—

WALSH ON FREE HIT

TRANSFERS:

OUT: free hit

IN: free hit

Free Hit (subject to leaks and shit on Sunday morning obv)

GK:

Lloris (cry)

We fucking suck with nothing to play for I expect us to just turtle and limit the damage. Season can't end fast enough. Mou has them Mouing their lives away and we have scored like two goals in the last bunch of games....hard to see us scoring. French guy in.

DEF:

Alderweireld & Aurier (cry)

Going with the treble up on Mou's defense.

I feel like we have looked completely all out of sorts in our set piece defending lately. Missing Benteke and Gazza...now Mom is out...if we run Dann and Kelly out and also Millie might still be fucked...suddenly we are a team of mainly little people. I'd expect them to get their fair share of corners and shit this game so maybe I spike one with Toby, who knows.

Really not a huge fan of Serge but making a last-minute switch for him in for Davinson. Totally forgot about Dier being back and also Vert's last game fuck I don't really know who he will pair with Toby even though I think it should be Davinson after some solid wins.

Aurier doesn't have such question marks and at least he gets to go attack down the side of baby Mitch. Bleh. Couldn't really justify Bavies over Serge even though I wanted to.

Alonso (WOL)

Feeling anxious that if he goes in the offseason this might be the last Marcos A game available to us in FPL. As such, I feel like I owe the man and he well deserves a spot in my free hit. I expect this game to be cagey and even though Chelsea don't really do clean sheets...maybe they'll dig deep for this one. Put to boot he's got those direct frees and has been roaming up lately maybe he gets something here. I'm anticipating Franklin will just match formation and although going up against potential Adama feels not greattttt.......I don't really see loads of other defenders jumping out at me. Fun punt, ok Marcos A.

MID:

Silva & Sterling (NOR)

Pretty straightforward here...Razzy been in form so he is an easy pick. I'm expecting Dilv to get the whole game and the lads will be looking for him so that he may go out in style.

Norwich are banter, and in a fixture that means nothing, the score should get run up. Just trying to get as many pieces of the pie as I can.

Salah & Mane (new)

A switch...after doing more digging and seeing Keita not in many predicted teams with Mane seemingly with a nothing to have missed yesterday I'm going to put him back in as I had originally planned. Newc defense is really in tatters and even though Livp guys could be rotated and drunk still think there could be a lot a lot of goals in this game.

Redmond (SHU)

Redderz, alongside Woodman and Dilv, were the first three names in my team. Another sentimental emotional pick needing to have a twirl with Redderz in the late stages of the season.

He's low key been returning 4 in 8 at a 1 in 2 clip..pretty fucking good. Soton have been hitting stride since the restart and even though it feels like a bad on paper fixture it is one of the very few games with both teams having nothing to play for. I like goals in those sorts, so let's do it Redderz.

FWD:

Jesus (NOR)

There aren't a ton of forwards I like and so Jesus kinda picks himself. Mahrez or Kevin or whatever would be fine but again, in the absence of forwards that I really want to go for Jesus feels like a strong option. Stats been great and been looking good on the eye as well - hoping he's involved in their goals.

Greenwood (lei)

Don't really love this pick but fancy him over the other cheap forwards.

Gayle would've been more fun but I haven't danced with Ladwood all year and even though this is a game with both teams to play for, in which I would ideally not have an attacker, but he just seems the best option.

I looked at Gayle for a fun punt but feels a little bit too insane even for me. I'll prob be watching this game out of the ten on offer so maybe having a guy in it is okay in the end.

CAP:

Silva (NOR)

Raz is probably the "right" pick here but I would like to have fun with El Mago.

He's one of my favorite players to watch since I got into the prem and has been on and off my fpl team more times than I could possibly count. An era is coming to an end and it will be strange to watch the prem without him, but for one last day he'll be my captain.

—

ALON ON FREE HIT

TRANSFERS:

OUT: free hit

IN: free hit

Free Hit (subject to leaks and shit on Sunday morning if I wake up).

I didn’t make any changes (yet?) from the team I ended up with on the Twitch stream.

GK:

Martinez (WAT)

I duno. Can Arsenal clean here? They can. But it’ll be tough with Watford sending the kitchen sink at’em but I think that gives Martinez a nice high floor of save points and maybe bonus points with the potential high ceiling if a clean comes in.

I like it and he’s cheap as hell.

DEF:

Alderweireld & Aurier (cry)

Palace is the best or second best clean fixture in the league at this moment in time and a Mou team should do a job here.

Alonso (WOL)

Reasoned out ‘Zo on the aforementioned stream before even seeing Pod Partner’s lambs and then here we both are with him in the side.

Feels like somewhere to punt and spend money and super high ceiling. We expect Chelsea to match Wolves’ back three and Alonso to push up at wingback. A clean is unlikely but certainly possible and assists and goals are both possible too.

MID:

Sterling & Silva (NOR)

Yeah Mahrez probably better if he’s starting over Daveed but fuck it. Everything Walsh wrote above about Dilv as his cap is all the emotions right there. I cannot add anything to it. And watch Mahrez get subbed off on 50ish minutes again... Lol...

And Raz yeah Raz is obvious.

Salah (new)

Haven’t had any Liverpool guys in a while will be cool to have Mo in there. He said it himself he just wants to play 90′ all the time forever he haaaaaates getting subbed off. Go on Mo <3<3<3.

Redmond (SHU)

I don’t have the feels personally for Redderz in this moment but I’m trusting Pod Partner and trusting the lore. End of season Redderz turns into Henry. (Henry not Henry).

FWD:

Kane (cry)

Spoken about Harold ad nauseam and don’t have enough fucks to type out the reasoning behind it but I trust him here. Feel good about it.

Gayle (LIV)

My shout for highest xChaotic match is NEW vs. LIV and I’m purely backing that fact. Liverpool haven’t been playing defense for about a month straight or so and I think it happens exactly one more time in this extended preseason.

Jesus (NOR)

Making up my City triumvirate in what should be about an 8-0 or so. Seems good.

CAP:

Sterling (NOR)

Don’t feel very strongly about something else so just going with the clear best pick. Feel meh about it.

We’ll see what fuckery I get up to at about 9am if I wakeup in time lol... Good luck have fun everyone.

Slackers... see ya there <3

[calyssmarviss]

Supernatural 13x07 - War of the Worlds

Since for once i didn’t watch at 3 am but slept like a normal person and actually woke up kinda early (ikr unbelievable) i thought i would react to it this time :)

Uhm after seeing the “then” i can tell you that i don’t really give a shit about what can possibly happen to Lucifer and Mary BUT i’m really interested in what AltMichael has to sell and also i just remembered that Osric is in this one and i love this dude so i’ll suffer whatever bullshit the Deadly Duo want to make us gobble up today for them.

Jack from 13x06: “I can’t make the world a better place...”

Someone has to tell this kid that he’s allowed to live for himself and that everything doesn’t have to revolve around his alignment.

Well it sure won’t be the Winchesters but there’s surely someone out there who knows that.

09:28 Oh dear lord it starts with Lucifer monologuing like, yeah, needed that. Thanks. (also i only understand like half of what comes out of his mouth, Pellegrino needs to articulate.) Nice view tho:

(lmao at the space logo. yes it is indeed space) Yes Luci has always kinda loved nature. Just look at Casifer strolling in that park. OH MY GOD ARTICULATE I DON'T UNDERSTAND YOU. Pffffff. Ok I'll check if there is any subtitles available yet.

Okay let's start over.

Lucifer: "Okay bro, could you do me a favor, eat me."

Like, in the Leviathan way? :D What that would actually spare him the eternity alone in this dump. OMG FUCKING CALM DOWN IT'S NOT THAT BAD IT'S JUST A LITTLE BIT OF RUSTED METAL WHAT CAN IT EVEN DO TO YOU YOU'RE A FUCKING ARCHANGEL NO NEED TO SCREAM LIKE THAT I'm sorry but Lucifer is a wimp?

Can you hear me sigh as i gaze upon Dean Winchester's face. CAS CAS CAS CAS CAS CAS CAS CAS CAS I've seen this scene in the sneak peek but, still.

I mean... I doubt very much Dean qualifies as "a stranger" for any self-respecting supernatural creature. just take a second and imagine an angel being like "Dean Winchester who???" (actually know that i think about it that's what happened with Metatron, no? :DDD but he'd been living under a metaphorical rock for eons) It's alright Cas, you can tell him that's him, specifically (and his brother) that the angels really don't wanna see at their work meetings, he won't take it badly. Bet he would even be kinda proud :D

OH NO OH NO OH NOOOO HIS FACE IS KILLING ME. DAMN YOU JENSEN AND YOUR STUPID EMOTING. You can tell that he's thinking about the last time met with angels, and how he disappeared, and how he came back only to steal the Colt and, like, we have no reason to think the finale would have played differently if he hadn't but you can bet that in Dean's head, it's up there in the reason Cas was taken away from him and you can see the grief bubbling back up, and it's terrible and i don't want to watch this anymore.

OKAY SO we're like, 6 minutes in and we already got 1. Lucifer and Michael. (wich means Mary (edit: hum no) and Kevin are going to show up) 2. Cas and the Angels 3. Sam and Dean going after witch killers? 4. Asmodeus

And I really don't see what the witches have to do with the rest? Like, it could be a demon that lead them to Asmodeus but why would demons kill witches? Aaaah Bucklemming.

"The Jack"???? Hey let's play a game called Follow This TV Trope Link.

10:05 FFS WEIRDASS DEMON STOP CALLING HIM THAT. IT'S WEIRD.

AltMichael: "You claim to be a god in your world. Here, you're pathetic."

Oh, Mikey, no. He's pathetic everywhere.

OKOKOKOK. So what's the deal with interdimensional travel, uh? Couldn't the angels do that during the apocalypse? Like, It's a Terrible Life was probably a pocket universe created by Zachariah for funsies but the world shown in The French Mistake was an alternate universe, right? I mean, no reason at all for Cas (or Balthazar?) to create something as wonky and without magic just for the purpose of hiding weapons and when urgency was kinda important??? Also does that mean that Chuck created multiple versions of the archangels/angels? Or is it another God? Fuck I really hope they thought this through because this could be sooooo interesting.

IT'S HIIIIIIM. He looks great. He looks a bit barmy tho :D

Uh, I don't like having those crosses in the background. They catch my eyes and I can't concentrate on the actors faces.

THAT'S KETCH??? How the fuck did Dean recognized him with this beard I have no fucking idea. Also how did he (apparently not) died? I don't remember but I can tell you it looked pretty deffinitive.

"Mom shot him. Clear through the head."

Thank you for this information.

OMG I CAN'T. I know Lucifer is trying to get Kevin on his side but this is all really surealistic.

:D

AltKevin: "Michael is taking me to Paradise World. So I can meet hot women!"

I'm dying here. So there really aren't that many women left there, apparently.

10:32 OMGOMGOMG I HOPE HE’S POWERLESS HE IS AND I'M LIVING

Ketch is looking for Rowena? For what? OH YOU'RE GONNA BE BAIT WITCH LADY (wow i'm only 17 minutes in i forgot how long it took me to react to 40 minutes episodes)(also, where is the angel? Was that Cas's only appearance in this episode and we actually could have only watched the sneak peek? kidding it's not that bad. well i have some trouble judging the quality cause of the snail pace i'm watching at but i'm enjoying doing it, so)

Ketch barging in with is automatic (or something, look i’m not a firearm expert) be like "NO FINESSE NO SUBTLETY NO FUCKS TO GIVE LOOK I COULD BE A SPN WRITER" a metaphor in which the bullets are destiel and the walls of that shack the GA, you’re welcome, my job here is done.

DID THEY BRING HIM BACK TO THE BUNKER TO INTERROGATE HIM? I mean, yeah, it makes sense but also, i wouln't let this guy in my house again if I were them.

Okay this is clearly not Ketch or at least not Arthur. But the stick on tattoo thing made me laugh out loud (well i can give that to this ep. it's actually pretty funny). Yeah this one's name Alexander, he’s the Backup Twin (probs because DHJ is a cool bean?) and you can hear Dean screaming OH COME ON in his head

good screencap a +job

Such a tale of woe. Hum so if I get this right, dude didn't want to go to Kendricks because??? So he fled and became a... Mercenary?

Ketch: "A hunter." Dean: "A mercenary."

Finger guns @Dean.

This framing is... interesting. I guess. Interesting enough for me to want to grab a caption of it. Who directed this episode again? Isn't it Speight? BRB.

While i think about it, this ep is doing great at continuing the theme of mirrors and things looking like other things, what with the alternate reality and Ketch #2 showing up.

11:16 Yes it is indeed a Speight episode, which doesn’t help me at all interpretating this shot but it’s nice to know. I guess it’s just a nice, elegant way to show how (once again!) they’re not on the same page. Tbh they don’t even look like they’re in the same space at all, as if Sam had been added there and they're looking in different directions

(plz Jensen quit touching your inner thigh like that I’ve read to many body language posts for you to pull shit like that when I’m trying to analyze seriously)

CAS

lmao this is the AI from that episode Sam killed other Sams.

I mean she plays Becca in the 100 and also the AI Alie, 

which imo is a great choice in this episode in a super meta do you watch other CW shows and caught this other double kinda way and she was a woman Sam killed when he was soulless and shows up in the Man Who Knew Too Much:

Where there was three Sams :D

Dumah: "Our numbers were greatly diminished after the Fall."

Mmmh I like that she's saying that to the greatest angel killer ever (pretty sure she choose to say "after the Fall" cause that's one occasion where Cas didn't actually killed them himself)

Dumah: “We’re going extinct.” Me: Well i guess it’s time to retreat to the City of Lights. Cas:

NO ONE DELIVERS CASTIEL STOP IT I DON'T WANT HIM TO BE TAKEN BY YOU NUTJOBS AGAIN DUMAH YOU BITCH NO ONE SHOULD EVER TRUST A WOMAN WITH THAT FACE SHE'S FAKE AND WILL BETRAY YOU AND CONSUME YOUR BRAIN

SLAY THEM BABE

11:58 I refuse to be happy Lucifer showed up. Nope.

OKAY ALRIGHT I actually like this

A fish on one side and the kingdom neon sign on the other.

Look at those hair. So much sass I'm in love.

YES TALK TO SAM AND DEAN BEFORE YOU SHACKLE UP WITH THE DEVIL AGAIN That's exactly what Dean meant by "don't do anything stupid"!!!

Why the fuck are they keeping Ketch in the armory?

Cas: “Yes I would like to see you too, the sooner the better.”

I FEEL YOU BUDDY

Can we keep him (this time)?

Sam: “Don’t worry, you did tell him not to do anything stupid.”

Oh, Sam. 

Are you seeing that shit?

OH NO OH NO OHNO THE BAR LOOKS EMPTY WHAT DID THEY DO WITH CAS?????

YOU KNOW WHAT I HOPE HE'S IN ACTUAL HELL SO WE CAN HAVE A REVERSE LAZARUS RISING PLZ AND THANK YOU Okay let's be realistic they're not gonna be in actual Hell but in that topside complex where Crowley set up his throne room. :(

Well Dean was right. It was a Fake Twin Gambit!

And he’s working with Asmodeus!

@Cas: SEE THE STUPID THING WAS JUST GOING ALONE YOU’RE NOW JOINING ANAKIN SKYWALKER IN THE  “Shouldn’t Be Left Unsupervised” CATEGORY CONGRATULATION HE’S A FUCKING DUMPSTER FIRE

13:23

Hum I wanted to do the Bucklemming bingo to cap this off but I have already forgotten stuff like one liners, are specific dialogues so guess that’s where i’m ending this already too long post and now I’m going to READ ALL THE META