#reversed? if it was Will trying to get Mike's attention only for Mike to either ignore him or yell in his face how it's stupid to be

[uselessnbee]

sometimes i feel so petty i want to make a big post about all the times Will and El weren't that great towards Mike just to ..you know.. balance it out a bit

[raccoon-eyed-rebel]

Part 6

Masterlist

Series Masterlist

Part 5 🟣 Part 7

A reverse harem vampire AU ft. Mikey, Marshall, August and Sherlock

Series summary: Somehow, you've managed to live with your boyfriend and his roommates for months before finding out they're vampires, but the real shock first comes when they find out you have a special quality. A quality the guys would love to make use of...

Warnings: Mentions of blood, biting, vampire stuff.

Word count: 3.3k

A/N: Even more information incoming! And that conversation we've been waiting for...

@geralts-yenn @deandoesthingstome @summersong69 @teamfan7asy @mis-lil-red @ellethespaceunicorn @sillyrabbit81 @manysecrets2020 I know you didn't ask to be tagged but I figured... Sorry if I overstepped

The others indeed came back shortly after your conversation ended, and Mikey had a rather defeated look on his face. August immediately asked if you were up for it to talk to all of them, and seemed very happy when you said you were. All five of you moved to the living room, where you sat next to Mike on the couch. He immediately pulled you against him.

“Do you mind if I sit on the other side of you?” Sherlock asked politely. Something in his eyes told you the effect from the feeding hadn’t worn off completely.

“No problem at all,” you said with a smile before turning to the group in general. “So… Where do we start?” August opened his mouth to reply to your question, but Marshall quickly raised a hand.

“Mike,” he said, giving him a nod that clearly meant something – although you weren’t privy to what exactly that ‘something’ was.

“The guys want to…” Mike looked extremely uncomfortable as he struggled to find the words to explain what he was trying to explain, “… propose an arrangement, of sorts. I’m sure Sherlock has brought you up to speed on what the general idea is?”

“He has,” you answered, “it was very intriguing.”

“See?” August sneered from the other side of the room, but Marshall shut him up immediately. It was a good thing: Mike looked just about ready to jump him.

“Guys,” you interjected, “I’m willing to hear you out, but that’s all I’m promising. Besides, I’ll give you a fair warning upfront: Mike doesn’t look on board with this, and if he isn’t, then neither am I.” That seemed to relax him a little; you felt the tension in his body slack as you said it. At the same time, you noticed he felt colder than Sherlock. It was a very subtle difference, but it was definitely there. Marshall took over, telling August that he could get out of the room – only he used stronger terms – if he couldn’t behave.

“Thank you for at least taking this into consideration,” he said, “I understand it can be a very strange request if you don’t have any hands-on experience with the concept.” You noticed he wasn’t just talking to you, but to Mikey, too.

“Well, please allow us to drink your blood hardly feels equivalent to can you bring me home some chips from the store, so I’m definitely still adjusting,” you said. It was the truth: even though you were incredibly intrigued by the concept of these agreements, and – if you were being completely honest – very curious to find out what it would be like, it was still an overwhelming amount of information, and a rather uncomfortable topic.

“So is Mikey,” August said, and this time his tone was friendly enough for Marshall to let him speak, “he hates it when I say this, but he’s just a baby.” You could feel Mike tense up again, and a very low growl emerged from his throat. If August heard it – which you doubted – he paid it no mind. He didn’t pay much attention to Marshall’s warning, either.

“You’re the only one who has never experienced this type of thing?” You asked Mike carefully.

“Yeah, the others all have. At least, we assume that in nine hundred years, Sherlock’s…” Mike was clearly as uncomfortable talking about this as you were, and the others gave each other a few funny looks because of it.

“I have, indeed, been fortunate enough to experience this particular kind of relationship,” Sherlock replied kindly, telling Mike and the others what you already knew.

“Fortunate enough?” Mike repeated, seemingly a little lost for words.

“Yes, Mike, fortunate enough. At the time, the alternative was to feed from captives, often with the specific goal to kill them. We’re talking about the Middle Ages, for crying out loud, it was a far cry from a walk in the park in most aspects of life, Mikey.” Sherlock sounded vaguely desperate as he briefly recanted the story about his arrangement, giving them the exact amount of information that he had given you earlier in the afternoon. Marshall and August exchanged looks, and August scoffed when he saw the terrified expression on Mike’s face.

“You’ve never had to kill to feed, have you?” Mike shook his head slowly as an answer to August’s question.

“Has the… modern way, I guess, been around that long already?” You asked.

“Yes and no,” Marshall answered, “I very distinctly remember the time when they – government – decided the best course of action was to feed us exclusively animal blood.” Even Mike shuddered next to you when that was brought up.

“There was the ‘supplemental’ approach, I believe they called it,” August remembered, “diet of mainly human food, supplemented with donated blood every month. The amount was barely enough to last a week. Thank God for butter…” Butter? What the hell was he talking about?

“Couldn’t help but overhear,” Marshall said. You caught yourself as you were beginning to find his talent less annoying. “We’d end up just eating sticks of butter to keep from starving. It was ridiculously expensive, too…”

“Basically, you would be paying for enough food for a family of four, but it was just you,” Mike added. “There were volunteers in the eighties and nineties, but it was largely illegal. Do we have photos from those decades? Marshall with an eyebrow piercing is a sight.”

“What are you talking about?”

“I met Mike because he hung out with a bunch of goths,” Marshall answered, but it sounded like he was avoiding something.

“What he means,” Mike added, “is that he was hooking up with my ex.”

“Ouch,” August blurted out. You were surprised he’d never heard this story before.

“It’s not common to disclose our entire histories,” Marshall answered that unasked question, “in cases like ours or – even worse – Sherlock’s, we’d be talking for a while.” Ok, that actually made sense.

He continued: “And Mike is right, I was hooking up with his ex. She went kinda nuts for the whole vampire thing… Actually, Mike… She wasn’t your ex when we started hooking up.” August’s eyes shot daggers at Marshall. He was no doubt thinking he’d for sure ruined any and all chances Mike would ever get on board with the proposal now. And he probably wasn’t wrong about that.

“I know,” Mike answered to everyone’s surprise, “I knew it when it was happening. Just didn’t care. She was shagging two or three other guys on the side; we weren’t all that committed.”

“Mike!”

“Hold up, you had no problem with your girl back in the day getting dicked down by other dudes, but you’re all up in arms about us feeding o-“ Marshall sighed and buried his face in his hands as he listened to August’s rant, and Mike interrupted him before he could even finish his sentence.

“Yeah, because this time around, I actually am committed, asshole.” 

“Wh- Mikey?” That was actually quite flattering. You leaned into his side and allowed him to hug you. “You’re forgiven. Ish.”

“Thanks, babe,” he said as he leaned his head against yours. “It was a long time ago.”

“Yeah, it’s kinda freaky how long ago…”

“Don’t dwell on it,” August said, which was probably the first piece of actually helpful advice you’d ever gotten from the man.

“Anyway,” you said, trying to move the conversation back to the topic to be discussed, “we’ve been circling this whole thing nicely. I promised I’d listen to your proposal… So, what is it?”

“Well,” August started. He sounded very calm, and ready to answer your every question. You guessed that of the three of them – Sherlock, Marshall and August himself, that was – he wanted this the most. “If you’d be open to some kind of arrangement, you’d be part of the negotiations of that agreement, of course, so there’s not a lot of specifics to present you with right now.”

“Just tell her what you told me,” Mike sighed as he grabbed you a little tighter.

“What we would like, is an opportunity to feed once every two weeks,” Marshall said. You were surprised; didn’t Mike say before that most vampires only fed once a month? The guys looked slightly uneasy when you asked about it.

“He did say that, and it’s the truth,” August answered your question. “It’s just not the whole truth. The experience is… annoying, and inconvenient, and not something you want to do very often. It takes out a good chunk out of your day, it’s… Just not very good.”

“They’d like to feed comfortably, instead of overfeeding to make it through as much time as possible,” Sherlock said. It was nice of him to draw the simple conclusion to all of this, but you noticed something strange.

“You say ‘they’, but you mean ‘we’, don’t you?” You were never certain of your ability to read others, but somehow you were extremely confident that you were right in this particular instance.

“Ah, yes. I won’t lie; I wouldn’t be opposed to the type of arrangement they’re proposing. But only if you’re entirely willing.” Sherlock said with an apologetic smile, as if he’d been trying to manipulate you through his use of words. You were fairly sure that had never been his intention. Nor could you find out to what end he would have said what he said.

“That applies to all of us,” Marshall said quickly, “none of us want to do this if you’re not up for it.”

“The rest of it, Marshall,” Mike urged. He was beginning to lose his patience, and had clearly agreed to go along with this for the duration of this conversation, but he didn’t look prepared to pretend to be unbothered by this for a second longer than was strictly necessary.

“Alright. A condition on your part would likely be that you run no risk of being turned, which would be a term we’d more than willingly agree to.”

“Garlic?”

“The same daily dose we’re already taking,” Mike clarified. Considering the kinky little secrets that were exposed earlier today, you weren’t surprised they were all taking precautions already. Marshall laughed when he heard your thought, but didn’t seem intent on sharing it with the others, which was awfully nice of him.

“Sherlock wasn’t able to accurately explain why ‘McBloodDrive’ didn’t cover all elements of such a relationship,” you said, “and he was hoping you’d be able to clarify. I really am curious about that.”

“It’s a great deal more intimate. Like you said yourself; letting us feed from you is a long way from just getting someone a snack. Or even cooking for someone.” Marshall folded his hands in his lap and sat back.

“Look,” August said, “there’s no denying these relationships are quite intimate. There’s a reason Sherlock wanted to sit next to you. The reaction to the feeding is quite strong, it can get a bit crazy at times. It can definitely be beneficial to you, you could ask us to do pretty much anything for you. We would like to ask you to not abuse that position, though. Other than that, there’s a degree of intimacy and affection involved that is tough to explain. You wouldn’t be just a food source to us. You’d allow us to exchange something inconvenient, uncomfortable, impersonal and generally just rather awful, for something that’s the complete opposite.” They were probably the friendliest, most sincere words you’ve ever heard August say, and you thanked him for the explanation.

“Maybe this is a weird question, August, but… You don’t even like me.” Mike and Marshall both laughed when you said that, somehow indicating to you that it wasn’t necessarily true.

“I wouldn’t say he doesn’t like you,” Mike said, “I know for a fact he liked you a little too much when I first introduced you to the guys.” What? August had a crush on you?

“He did,” Marshall said. August seemed to avoid your eyes on purpose – and you could imagine why.  

“That’s one of the reasons I’m very much opposed to all of this,” Mike murmured.

“You’re afraid I’ll leave you for him?” you asked, and Mike nodded. “That wouldn’t happen, Mike, I love you. But that does settle things for me, guys. It’s not happening.”

“Well, we gave it a shot,” Marshall said. August, on the other hand, didn’t seem intent to just let this go.

“Is that the only reason you’re opposed to this, Mike?” he asked. The look in his eyes told you more than enough; it was. Now that you’d formally and definitively rejected their proposal, you noticed that there was definitely a part of you that wanted to do this for them – even August. It was the same thing you had felt when you had impulsively offered Sherlock to let him feed on you.

“It is,” he said flatly, as if he was understanding some implication made by August that you were missing – and in all fairness, he was probably getting loads more information because of his gift.

“And you don’t care that it goes against her nature?” What? No, you know what, before Marshall was going to answer that question, you were just going to ask it out loud.

“What?”

“There’s a certain… willingness we see in your kind to let us feed,” Sherlock answered. “In some Naturals it turns into more of a need.”

“That’s right,” August said smugly. “He’s not worried about it at all. He’s just planning on using her as his personal buffet. How do you justify that? Were you ever going to be…” The atmosphere in the room turned cold and hostile, and it wasn’t long before Marshall interrupted.

“August, that’s enough!” he snapped. It was enough to get August to shut up, which was nice. Mike relaxed again, and you sighed in relief when the pressure of his fingers on your hips disappeared – You were fairly sure there were bruises where his hands had dug into your skin.

“Did I hurt you?” Mike asked softly, gently stroking the spot he’d just assaulted to further soothe the lingering pain. You nodded, but barely. It was more than enough for all of them to notice, though. “I didn’t mean to, I’m sorry.” You thought about what August had said, but you weren’t going to continue the conversation with the others still in the room.

“Was he wrong?” you asked Mike when you were finally alone in your room again. He slumped down on your bed with a massive sigh.

“He wasn’t,” he said. You weren’t shocked; August was perceptive – even for a vampire, you guessed – and it did sound a lot like Mike to do something like that, even if he didn’t mean any harm by it. “I figured, if your inclination turned into a serious need – apparently that’s pretty common when a Natural lives with vampires, as far as anything surrounding your kind can be called ‘common’ – I’d ask if you’d be okay if I fed on you.”

“Were you going to manipulate me into it?” There was about a zero percent chance of getting an honest answer to a question like that if he had been planning on that, because why would he tell you the truth?

“There was a plan that someone might consider to be that, yes. Which is exactly what August pointed out to me when I told him about it. I should have known he would use it against me. I wasn’t going to go through with it,” he explained. In the end, that made August the manipulative one, which made more sense than Mike taking on that role, honestly. That being said, you were still pissed at Mike and you and August were overdue for a talk.

“August,” you said as you stepped into his room without knocking, “I think we ne- oh my God, I’m sorry!” You turned around immediately. Funnily enough, August didn’t move.

“If you go back outside and knock I might just put my cock away and let you in.” Why did everything he said have to be rude, abrasive and… he was just downright impossible. His next remark only made things worse: “If you’re gonna stand there, I’d rather you turn around and watch me, to be honest.”

That was it. You closed the distance between you two with a few aggressive strides.

“August Walker, put your dick back in your pants, go wash your hands, then get your ass back in here because we need to talk,” you snarled at him. He didn’t move, so you spoke again: “Move!” This time he did listen, and you were impressed with yourself.

He was back before you knew it, sitting on the edge of his bed as if he’d never moved.

“You wanted to talk?”

“Why do you have to be such a… cunt?” If there was a nice way to phrase that, you were less than inclined to look for it.

“I’m not the only one being a cunt, sweetheart,” August growled, “Mike is being a pain in the ass. He needs to grow up.”

“Mike doesn’t need to do anything, August.”

“He’s being greedy, keeping you all to himself. Do you think he’d react the same way if you decided to… sell?”

“’Sell’ as in… turn it into a job?” Somehow, the idea of letting strange vampires suck your blood for money seemed very… escort-y to you. Not that there was anything wrong with that, of course. It’s just not a job you saw yourself in. Now, that didn’t stop you from being extremely curious about it…

“Yeah. Do you have any idea of the kind of money you could make?” Sherlock had mentioned that vampires paid good money to feed on your kind…

“Oh, but you lot just want to use me as a free buffet?” That was downright insulting! Somewhere deep down inside you knew you were grasping at straws here, looking for a reason to stay mad at the guys so you wouldn’t have to confront the fact that there genuinely was a part of you that didn’t like the way that conversation had ended. A part of you that wanted to be there for them in the way they had proposed. Besides, it was almost impossible to forget the way it had felt…

“We never said anything about ‘free’, princess, we said you’d be part of the negotiations.” August snarled. “The second you said ‘no’, Mike knew what you really wanted. Even before that, but he was in denial. He knows he’s hurting you. He knows you want this. He’s just being a kid about it.” You thought about what he said for a moment, especially the part about the negotiations. For the first time, you realized you had never actually considered what those negotiations could really entail. It was too late to ask about it now, of course. And you were happy with your decision, right? You were doing this – or rather; not doing this – for Mikey. Right?

“Is that a bad thing?” You asked softly, remembering what Sherlock had said. Fine; what you had said to Sherlock – and that Sherlock had confirmed: Mike was only baby-vampire. And you should never tell him that out loud.

“Taking into consideration the fact that he is a kid? Not really. He needs time to adjust to the idea, I guess.” August sighed and put his hands on your shoulders. “Look, I’ll try to be less of a prick, okay? But I’ll do that for your sake. Not his.” It seemed to you like that was all you’d get from August, so you agreed.

[istherewifiinhell]

oh boy if theres any cover that could get my attention

[ID: Comic cover art by Mark Texeira, showing Spider-man swinging a web around Megatron, his arms bound to his chest. Spidey's in the black symbiote suit, other decepticons reacting to their tussle. END]

well anyway its not very good. marvel tf no 3, or 5-6 in uk, 1984, (despite the cover indicating january, it was in the fall)

alright lets go-- Writer: Jim Salicrup, Pencils: Frank Springer, Inks: Kim Demulder & Mike Esposito, Letters: Janice Chiang and Others*, Colour: Nelson Yomtov, Editor: Bob Buduansky, EiC: Jim Shooter Digital re-master by digikore studios limited. collection edits by Justin Eisinger and Alonzo Simon. editorial notes and assistance by Mark. W. Bellomo

* thats really how they credited it. not even the wiki list anyone else. what the fuck.

normally i strive for these posts to be ordered either in a way for comedy, or perhaps one that will give a gist of the plot. this one were just gonna try and get thru. okay?

robots... COMMENCE

[ID: Caption box: "--Or. While still inside him, witnessing Starscream's amazing transformation will!" Starscream lands from jet to bot mode, and says "Machines have been slaves on this backward world long enough!" He opens his cockpit, continuing "Today the roles are rightly reversed!" Sparkplug, who's hoisted up by the shirt goes "Ulp!" END]

always good to check in. okay. thanks starscream.

[ID: Sparkplug looks distressed, as Megatron looms behind. He's thinking "And these guys ain't any friendlier than my jailkeepers when i was a prisoner of war in Korea. Well, if that's the case…" and then says "My name's William Witwicky!Sergeant first class, United States Marines! Serial number--" Megatron picks him up by the foot, dangling him at head height. "Enough! You will cooperate or cease to exist!" END]

wha-. WILLIAM??? he was a POW in the KOREAN WAR. what the fuck. dont say that. dont say that ever again. anyway

[ID: Inside the Decepticon base, the cons standing around. Megatron speaks "Rumble…", who in response, twists his hand and replies "Whatever you say, boss!" Sparkplug standing on a small platform, thinks "These stooges'll do whatever the big cheese tells them!" Rumble holds his now unscrewed hand in the other, directing the energon spilling from his wrist into a oil drum. He says "Say "When" Scraplet!" Sparkplug replies "Er-- that's enough!" END]

i mean. yeah i think when ur saying. okay. ill do the science u kidnapped me for, but ill need some samples. ur not really expecting. that.

[ID: Autobots in alt mode, Optimus with his trailer open, says "Hound, Sideswipe, you're both low in fuel! Ride with me!" Sideswipe is driving up the trailer ramp and Hound responds "As you command, Optimus!" but thinks to himself "Wait 'til Doc Ratchet sees he has to patch up Sideswipe-- again!*" editors note: *see last issue-Bob. END]

hey look, play features. (i always love an editors note when theres less than 5 issues lol)

and introducing in this episodes special introduction

[ID: Full body of Ratchet, hands on hips. Notable, he looks more like a regular transformer, with a clear head and face, a blocky but still human layout of body. END]

the character models have been finished! good to see ya ratchet, hows having a body suiting ya? oh sorry were you looking for spiderman?

[ID: Caption box: "Soon, in a nearby secluded spot…" Peter Parker hides behind some rocks, looking toward a crowd on the other side. He thinks "I'll have a much better chance at photographing whatever's in that fortress as Spider- man!" and the symbiote suit starts to cover his body. "This costume's quite a time-saver! All I have to do is think about changing and it takes care of the rest!" He swings up to a tree thinking "If only I could solve all my problems as easily!" Editors note reads "This story takes place before spider-man #258." END]

im gonna level with you editors. i dont know what that means and i dont care.

[ID: Spidey is upside down, watching Gears transform, thinking "--I bet he's one of those robots returning to the nest!" Gears meanwhile thinks "How did i get stuck with this scouting mission? What do i care about these pesky little creatures?" He flies off, he continues musing "I've always suspected that Optimus Prime had a perverse sense of humor!" Spidey swings after him calling out "Hey! Hold on, big boy!--or as that funny lady on tv says, "Can we talk?" END]

spiderman can't u tell hes busy bitching about his job? all tho 10/10 first words to a transformers being hold on big boy.... me too man.

[ID: Caption box: Later, after extensive introductions and explanations… Spidey is hanging upside down over a congregation of Autobots in alt mode and remarks "I've fought alongside some weird characters in my career, Optimus--but this has to be a first!" Optimus replies "I am sure tales of your exploits would be interesting, Spider-man, but, for now, can you inform your military to step aside and allow us to deal with the Decepticons?" Spidey "Trust me--they'll never buy it coming from me! But i've got a plan!" END]

oh okay so were just. yeah okay were just gonna skip the interesting parts. no first meeting. okay. both of them: you seem cool but i havent read your comics. and also im not going to.

[ID: Caption Box: Meanwhile... Spidey and Gears scout out the Decepticon Base. Spidey, comically at length: We're in luck, Gears! With the army and your buddies keeping them busy out front, they're not guarding the back door! Of course, this sheer drop is enough to discourage most visitors--even traveling salesman-- but not your friendly out-of-town Spider-man! Gears thinks "This human reminds me of Bluestreak they both seem to love the sound of their own voice!" Spidey scales the cliff as Gears shoots up past him asking "Do all humans have powers like yours?" Spidey: Not since i checked last! I'd feel real foolish if they did! END]

does the bad text layout get a pass when its for a joke?

anyway give it up for the best three panels weve had all series

[ID: Spidey swinging around inside the base, Gears following, a door closing at the end of the hall. Spidey: They're trying to seal us in and i didn't even bring my overnight bag! He swings under the lowering bulkhead, calling out "See you later, big brother!" Gears simply bust thru the closed door saying "Not so fast! We're in this together, little one!" END]

wait what the fuck that was actually really cute. do that again, for a second there i thought i was reading good comics for a change

[ID: Spidey webbing up Megatron saying "Bazooka Joe's all tied up... Let's call a cab and split!" Gears is guiding Sparkplug away, who says "Remind me to thank that masked fella!" But Gears is thinking "This is worse than I expected! We don't have a chance against Megatron!" And calls out "Spider-man, hurry! We must--!" END]

Mf called him BAZOOKA JOE. alright. probably spiderman showing up after u were kidnapped by robits. not a big deal?

[ID: Caption box: Soon, after the other Autobots have disengaged from their battle with the Decepticons on the other side of the mountain… Autobots are standing over Gears, crumpled on the ground. One, Sunstreaker or Brawn, announces "That's the last piece-- we've collected all that's left of him!" Spidey is lowering down on a web asking "How can you all be so cold and unfeeling? He died a hero!" Sparkplug on the ground adds "Don't you even have mechanical hearts?" END]

lot of assuming "i know when robots are dead" from the humans here. hes fine. not that anyone even took the two seconds to say, "for us this is a recoverable injury he just needs the medic" lol. he waited until ratchet was actually. DOING that back at base. anyway. thats the crossover comic. its. not great. fine. maybe. OKAY BYE

[ID: Soundwave, heaving a massive piece of machinery over his head, and casually walking over a iron wrought fence that crunches under his feet. A guard shooting at him harmlessly and yelling "H-hey! Come back here with that!" And then thinks to himself "I'd quit this job if i wasn't so close to retirement! END]

(demastered edit. PURPLEWAVE YOU WILL LIVE ON IN OUR HEARTS AND MINDS)

[memes-saved-me]

Billy Hargrove and implied Queerness

First off this is focusing on his scenes without Steve because we've all seen those and....they're pretty homoerotic to say the least so I will be bringing your attention to the other factors which lead people to believe Billy is gay or interested in men and not so much women. This isn't very indepth but more surface level observations I've made and seen others make.

(TW: Homophobia and slurs discussed)

Season 2

The first scene we get of Billy he is instantly sexualised by those around him. Tina and Vicki taking interest in him based on his looks while Carol watches on rather unamused. This sets a trend for his character and his relationship with his looks and body, but more importantly how he uses it to his own advantage. Of course this was done to play into the 80s bad boy who all the high school girls fall for but what I'll explain later makes it much more interesting.

The next we see of Billy is with Max on their way home. During this scene he insults the looks of the high school girls, referring to them as cows. We then get a very interesting line "Yeah, we're stuck here and who's fault is that?" Which Max replies to with "Yours."

A response that instantly angers Billy to the point he demands she take responsibility for moving to Hawkins. A topic that has clearly been discussed before because Max's reaction implies this has happened before if not multiple times.

In Runaway Max, which isn't confirmed canon and contradicts a lot of stuff but, we are told that the reason they moved was because Billy was completely off the rails to the point he broke her friends arm. Now. Does that make sense in blaming who's fault the move was? If this is the case it is obviously Billy's fault so why does he keep saying it was her who caused this? She clearly liked being in California so why would she do something to make them move. Unless it was unintentional...

This heavily implies that there is an unspoken incident which involves them both. An incident which triggers such anger and recklessness in Billy to the point he almost runs over Mike, Lucas and Dustin because Max wouldn't say it was her fault. Many have then filled in this gap with Max accidentally telling either Neil or Susan about Billy and another boy, which would make sense with the information or lack of information we are given in canon about the reason they moved.

While at Tina's Halloween party we do not see Billy interact with a single girl. He is seen with Tommy and another boy who then approach Steve with him. It would make sense for girls to be drooling over him in this moment, trying to dance with him or following him inside but no. He makes a beeline for Steve and we do not see him for the rest of the party.

Now, I don't know about you but have you ever seen a teenage boy look less interested in his date? Not only is he not interacting with verbally but also physically. He then gets angry when she calls Max his sister and they drive off without a word. It's implied he is taking her home as he they were waiting for Max, meaning he was probably going to hook up with her but if he was wouldn't he act just a little nicer towards her?

I mentioned before that he is the archetype for 80s bad boy and the girls sure are falling, he just isn't catching them. This is the only time we see him interact with a women his age in a romantic way. If you could call this romantic at all.

When in trouble for letting Max run off while watching her, his response is that he doesn't have the time to go looking for her because he has a date, a date we never see or get the name of, this prompts his father to say the line "So that's why you've been staring at yourself in the mirror like some faggot..."

A line that then prompts Billy to snap and argue back after clearly wanting to get out of this situation as fast and smoothly as possible. Where else have we seen anger brought on by a topic? That's right in the car with Max. There is a trend of Billy reacting with anger to conversations or comments he finds personal or as some sort of attack. This is also when Neil becomes fully angry with Billy as seen in his rather shocked reaction at his response to that line.

This also continues the trend of Billy caring about his looks and using them as a shield of sorts, a shield that doesn't work against his father but everyone else he encounters.

Something to keep in mind, Billy is the only character to be called a homophobic slur by a parental figure other than Will. The character he mirrors in multiple ways including having the same full name William, as well as Will being heavily implied as gay or queer. Both of their father's use homophobic language against them, unlike any of the other characters in the show.

The next we see of him after the incident with Neil is also when we see him interacting with another women in a romantic sense. Karen. This is where his use of his looks and body fully come into play. He uses these assets to get information and affection out of Karen to make his father happy and avoid further punishment.

Now this is my own interpretation but Billy is used to using his body for positive attention and doesn't get that any other way. At no point in the series is he treated like a person other than in S3 by Max and Max only. Everyone else views him in an objectified manner or as a bad guy to avoid.

There is a clear resemblance between Karen and Billy's mother which I'll further discuss in the season 3 section but this leads me to believe he is subconsciously or even consciously wanting positive attention from a motherly figure, he just doesn't know any other way to achieve that.

However, it is very clear that flirting with Karen was an act as seen by the quite jarring juxtaposition of these two frames. The mask fully gone once by himself again. Meaning the only time we see him flirt with a women it isn't genuine at all.

Season 3

Now, continuing off the last point, there is countless girls practically drooling over Billy at the pool but he only accepts this attention from Karen. This exemplifies my theory that he doesn't know how to gain positive affection other than through flirting and well sex, but he only wants this attention from an older women who resembles his mother. Except, again he doesn't know any other way of gaining it. He hasn't had a strong positive female influence in his life since he was 10 years old and by the looks of it every motherly figure has treated him as eye candy and not a teenager crying for help.

He has Heather who is very much his age and flirts with him. Yet, he acts as if she isn't even there and goes straight over to Karen to flirt. The way he acts with Karen should be the way he would act with girls his age, flirting and making advances but we do not see a single example of this.

This part I find extremely interesting because it perfectly mirrors his interaction with Karen in season 2, except instead of dropping the mask he puts it on. The way he looks to his right as if she is sitting there as he practices what he is going to say to her is a clear example of his act coming into play as he prepares to meet up with her. His expression very similar to when he leaves the Wheeler home but it shifts to practice the way he is planning on talking to Karen. A complete reversal from their scene in season 2.

A rather reaching piece of symbolism could be that this also mirrors the way Neil cuts off Billy's date in season 2 as the Mindflayer is a literal representation of him being controlled by his father.

I also find it very interesting that he chooses to flirt with Karen very publicly and this might be reading a little too into it but it comes off as trying to uphold some sort of image. Another example of this is Max saying she hears Billy with girls in his room, something that sure is something he would do but when you put this with everything in this post it also comes off as him trying to prove something.

Another thing I find interesting is the way he acts around Karen, all smiles and friendly is very similar to that of the way he acts at dinner with Heather's parents. An act put on by the Mindflayer, just as he does when flirting with Karen. A mask used for underlying means and not what it shows on the surface.

Conclusion

This is all just my observation and he is not canonically gay or queer but the way he acts around women compared to Steve is a very interesting aspect to his character. If they truly intended for him to be this bad boy ladies man then they failed at presenting that.

One final thing, which I have posted about before is the fact Billy does not use homophobic language towards anyone. Even Steve does in season 1 so it would make sense for a teenage boy trying to upstage another teenage boy to use slurs and such to belittle and bully him. Except he doesn't.

I could write a full dissertation on Billy's implied queerness but a unorganised Tumblr post will have to do. Thanks for coming to my TED Talk.

[lsvdw-blog]

Not a Minute More: Part 2

Pairing: Ethan Ramsey x f!MC

Word Count: 1.8k

Warnings; Rating: Mentions of a cyberattack, Angst; Teen+

Premise: MC's perspective on the day that rocks Ethan to his core and threatens to change his life.

Author’s Note: I was going to wait to post this, but I'm loving the flood of content we're getting rn, so I thought I'd hop on too. I cried writing this... I'm so sorry 😭. Part 1 here. I hope you enjoy and thank you for reading 💖

~ Monday, 8:20am ~

"Good morning, Mike!" Serena greets the security guard right inside the door.

"Hey! How are ya? How's that Dr. Ramsey?"

"We're both doing well, thanks! How about you and the family?" She asks as she puts her phone in a cubby and unplugs the Wi-Fi enabler from her laptop.

"It was the wife and I's anniversary this weekend! We went to Martha's vineyard and saw the most beautiful proposal! You and Dr. R gonna get going on that soon? Aly has been talking about going to y'alls wedding since she met ya!" Mike gives a playful wink.

"Oh, congratulations! That's wonderful and send Aly my best wishes. But you'll have to talk to E on that one," she laughs before opening the door to a stairwell that leads to a classified area.

After keying in her pin, the door clicks open. She grabs a static protection lab coat, walks through the entrance, and is met with a plethora of state-of-the-art equipment. Floor-to-ceiling grey switch panels, curved monitors as far as the eye can see, and countless probes, clips, and wires.

She walks over to a few familiar faces. “Good morning! How’s it going?”

“Nice of you to finally join us! Dr. Ramsey keep you this morning?” Isla, one of the engineers, jests.

“I saw your check-in on the monitor — you walked in two minutes before me!”

“Those diagnostic skills at work, I see,” Isla retorts and they both laugh.

Isla had become a fast and faithful friend since Serena joined the project. They bonded quickly over both being minorities in the world of science and supported each other in every work facet. They had lunch together everyday and gradually, their work bond grew into a personal friendship as well. They’ve become so close that Isla now also regularly spends time with the original Edenbrook gang.

“Alright, enough chit chat. Let’s get this show on the road.”

The team nods and responds, “Yes, Doctor.”

~ 12:00pm ~

Serena exits the classified area with some colleagues and they all make their way to retrieve their phones.

"No new patients. Stuck in meetings and doing paperwork. I miss you and wish you were here."

She immediately breaks out into a large grin after reading Ethan's text and hits the dial button.

"Hey, ready for lunch?" Carmen, one of the lead scientists, asks.

Serena nods and moves her phone slightly away from her ear. "Be there in a minute. You guys go ahead."

She waits for a few more rings. He’s probably busy, I’ll call again later. She hangs up and makes her way to the cafeteria.

~ 12:40pm ~

"We did all the necessary prep work this morning to begin testing after lunch. Everything is looking good. We can begin running our tests since everyone is here. Are we all ready to begin?"

"Yes."

The system engineers are sitting at connected computer stations, inputting the required credentials to start. The rest of the team is standing behind them, waiting and nervously watching the screens. After a couple minutes of tense silence with nothing but the clack clack clack of keyboard keys, Vincenzo, one of the lead engineers, speaks up.

"This is weird… we're having some trouble accessing the necessary data. Did someone put up a firewall?"

Everybody looks around at each other, shaking their heads and muttering "no."

"Isla, are you seeing this? Can you get through?"

Isla continues to type, not saying anything. After a few more seconds, she turns to look at Vincenzo with a concerned expression. "I don't recognize some of the items in our system."

Just as she finishes her sentence, everyone's attention is pulled abruptly to a wall monitor on the right as it starts showing nonsensical images and patterns. Two seconds later, an alarm goes off and a red warning light begins flashing within the building. Everyone's eyes go wide as realization dawns on them: they've been compromised and shelter-in-place has been activated.

~ 12:55pm ~

Everyone begins to evacuate the classified lab area, grabbing their phones on the way out, and peering through the one-way windows. They can occasionally hear Mike speaking rapidly into the phone with a 911 dispatcher, when he's not being drowned out by shouts from colleagues.

On the descent to the bunker, the tension is palpable. Individuals clutch onto each other, others try frantically to reach loved ones, and some are in complete disbelief and shock. As they all descend the five flights of the winding staircase to the basement, windows are no longer available, but the ceiling bulbs keep flickering on and off. Each time it happens, everyone stops in their tracks, ducks down on instinct, and picks up the pace when the lights come back on.

~ 1:15pm ~

The entrance to the Harvard labs bunker is protected by a vault door that has a counter system. When the system is in place, the door can be opened once for people to get in. Once it's been closed, it can only be opened when there's one person on either side working together — it's futile with only one person. The only other way it can be opened is by shutting down the counter system from the outside, with the correct override pin, which only a handful of the most trusted team members know.*

As the vault door comes into sight, the wheel on the outside is turned, and the door opens with a whoosh. People slowly start filing in and head towards the back. However, not everyone can stay in the safety of the bunker. In case of an emergency, the project they’re working on must be erased, to protect it from falling into the wrong hands. Certain people have been assigned particular instructions to delete specific portions.

Serena is one of them.

She's walking next to Isla and their arms are looped together. As Isla enters the bunker, Serena lets go of her arm, stopping at the threshold. Isla whips her head around.

"What are you doing?! Get in here!" She reaches for Serena’s arm.

Serena shakes her head. "I'm the only one currently here who knows the medical codes."

Isla's eyes are frantic in realization. "I'll go back with you! I'll be your lookout! You're not going alone!"

"You'll be safe here. This is my responsibility."

Serena reaches behind her neck and unclasps her gold necklace for the first time in 7 years. She grabs Isla's hand and places the jewelry into her palm, closing Isla's fingers around it.

Serena stares at their clasped hands. "In case anything happens," they both flinch at another flickering of lights. "Promise me that you'll get this to E."

Their eyes are locked now, having a silent battle: Isla begging her to stay and Serena finding the strength not to.

"Isla, promise me. Please." Serena squeezes Isla’s hand that much tighter.

Isla realizes that there's no use in fighting Serena. Risking her life to delete the project is part of the job. They all made a commitment and if the roles were reversed, Isla would be the one fighting to go back.

Isla slowly nods. "I promise, Serena. I promise. But do your best to keep yourself safe. Try and stay near the corners, away from any large equipment that could have aftershock effects, and—"

Serena shakes her slightly. "I know, Isla. We did take the same training," she smiles, trying to make a joke to lighten the mood, but Isla just stares gravely at her.

A booming sound rattles the building and Serena knows it's time to go. She gives Isla a quick hug, before pushing her backwards into the bunker. Before Isla has regained her footing, Serena has closed the bunker door with a resounding thud.

~ 1:30pm ~

On the way back to the classified area, Serena takes out her phone. Ethan hasn't returned her earlier call. Her heart is pounding and with trembling hands, she hits the call button on Ethan's contact card for the second time in less than two hours. After a few rings, his voice comes through.

"You've reached Dr. Ethan Ramsey. I apologize for missing your call. Leave a message and I'll get back to you."

Just as she’s about to start speaking, the lights go down for good. "Hey E," she tries her best to keep her voice from shaking. She puts the call on speaker, places the phone out in front of her, and turns the flashlight on. "I don't know when this will hit the news, but we're currently under cyberattack. I don't know from who or what, but they’ve already gotten into our mainframe and power supply. Everyone has sheltered-in-place and is awaiting further instructions." She takes a deep breath as she inches down a corridor.

"Everyone except me, Vincenzo, and Carmen. We’re the only three here right now trained to completely delete the project in the event something like this happened. I'm walking back to the lab as I speak."

Serena rounds a corner and the lab comes into view. Thinking about what she has to say next, silent tears stream down her face.

"Ethan, sweetheart, I need you to know that the last eight months by your side have been the absolute best eight months of my entire life. You are the light of my existence and mean everything to me." She lets out a deep breath. "I wish I could hear your voice right now… I'm really scared. But I made a commitment, so I need to go back in and finish the job. If something happens, know that you are unequivocally the love of my life and the one for me. I know we haven't talked about it yet, but know that I want to spend forever with you as your wife and have you be the father of my children." She sniffs and continues, "you would be a fantastic husband and dad."

She comes to a stop in front of the keypad located right outside the lab and swallows past the lump in her throat. "But if the universe has other plans for me, I'll be waiting for you and I can't wait to spend forever with you in the next life. This isn't how I wanted to tell you, but until next time, whenever that is, I love you so much, Ethan Jonah Ramsey, more than words could ever properly convey."

She ends the phone call with tear-filled eyes, stashes her phone on a nearby workbench, punches in her key, and enters the classified area one more time.

~~~~~~

*Disclaimer: I have no idea if Harvard labs has a bunker and if they do, what kind of door/system they utilize. This is all purely AU!

[thenakedgingerwrites]

Gullible Mike

AN: I’ve had a few prompts on my notepad for years that I haven’t fleshed out and finally got into a creative and horny mood today. Prompt below. I welcome any other authors to take it and run with it to make their own variation on the simple idea. I ended up having the POV be the controller but I think my original prompt idea was that the POV would be controlled. If you use the prompt shoot me a message so I can enjoy your mischievous minds :)

Prompt: “Photo or video gets found of a friend and he has to convince his friend it’s not him by getting naked.”

--------------------------------------------------

The hypnosis show me and some buddies went to a few weeks ago was pretty fun. A few of us had been called up on stage and while it didn’t appear to work on a few invited volunteers, it had certainly worked on Mike.

His instruction was pretty simple: to be incredibly gullible. The hypnotist lady had then gotten him into a number of funny situations by proving just how gullible he was. He had offered a bunch of money to random members of the audience since it was obviously illegal to have more than $2 in your wallet at any time. He talked like a baby to anyone who claimed they were a parent because that was the polite thing to do. And lastly, he had taken off his jeans because the hypnotist thought they were on fire!

The show wasn’t x-rated or anything, so it stopped there, but it was pretty funny to see Mike hopping around on stage in his boxer briefs and polo. The audience’s wolf whistles agreed. Before a heckler’s shout of “I think your underwear’s on fire too!” she had put him back under.

It wasn’t until a few days later that it became apparent to me that Mike was still under this ‘gullible’ command. We had been hanging out just the two of us and watching the Packers v. Steelers game and he was going on and on about how Roethlisberger was going to wipe the field with my team. I jokingly said something like “since you’re clearly in love with him, a good luck kiss might go a long way.”

He somewhat seriously asked me, “you think so?” I figured we were still just razzing each other and so I responded, “Oh for sure. If you plant a big one on the TV when he’s on screen I’m positive that’ll make sure the Steelers win.”

Mike just sat there with a curious face as we continued to watch the game. I thought it was just a weird interaction until the camera zoomed in on Roethlisberger between downs. Mike nearly sprinted to the TV and kissed the image of Ben. “Good luck Ben!” he said, somewhat seductively.

I burst out laughing thinking he was still just trying to be funny. He looked back at me and said, “we’ll see who’s laughing at the end of the game.”

I rolled my eyes and got us another round of beers, but these bizarre actions continued. All through the game anytime Ben was shown on screen, Mike would run up and kiss the TV. Luckily we were at his place so I didn’t care about the lip marks and saliva streaks on the screen but I was flabbergasted. What the fuck was wrong with him?

And then I remembered the hypnotist.

It clicked that Mike was clearly still under the command she had given him. I wasn’t sure what to do about it though. I remembered the bar she had performed at so maybe I could call them to get in contact with her and have her reverse this thing.

Then the Steelers scored and he gloated to me that my team was gonna lose because I didn’t have as much team spirit and loyalty like he did.

“You haven’t kissed Rodgers once and you call yourself a fan? You should be ashamed.”

Really, Mike? That’s how you’re gonna act?

“Well at least I’m not kissing him wrong unlike you. What you’re doing is far more disrespectful. I bet they lose the game since you’re doing it so wrong.”

Mike looked worried, “what do you mean?”

“Everyone knows you don’t fucking kiss the quarterback like it’s your grandma or something. I haven’t seen tongue once this whole game. And your silent ass kiss is probably gonna make him miss every throw from this point on.”

Mike was wide eyed. I wagered that in his warped mind now he thought HE would be responsible if they lost. He looked to the TV in terror. Serendipitously, he actually did botch the pass in the next play. Honestly it was more good defense from the Packers end and less-so a poor throw from Roethlisberger but to Mike, that was the confirmation he needed.

The camera zoomed in on Ben cursing inaudibly and Mike went to work. He was fucking making out with the screen, tongue and all, and moaning a ton. He even ran one of his hands up the screen like he was caressing the dude.

I was filled with mixed emotions. I felt bad that I was taking advantage of the situation, I felt ecstatic because this shit was hilarious and I couldn’t wait to tell the guys, and, scarily, I felt turned on watching him make out with 2D Ben Roethlisberger and moaning louder and louder.

The tent in my gym shorts told me I was feeling the third emotion more than anything else.

We were close to the end of the game and I wasn’t pleased that the Packers had lost but for the first time in my life I didn’t care. The day had made a turn and seeing Mike in this way was a treat I didn’t know I wanted.

He continued to berate me for not caring about the Packers as much as he cared about the Steelers which was an argument I let him win. I was still a bit in a state of shock.

I finished my beer and needed to get home. As I was getting ready to leave, I decided to try something. It was dumb, but at that point I was still thinking with the hard dick in my shorts.

“Alright, Mike, I need to head out.”

“Sounds good Matt. Sorry, I made your team lose. Not!”

I rolled my eyes again, “yeah, well maybe next time I’ll try my own good luck charm.”

He raised his eyes, “What’s that!?”

“Well I’m not going to give you any secrets to let your team keep winning against mine.”

“Ah, fuck you Matt. We’ll win no matter what.”

“Sure, sure. Anyway, should we do the kiss now?”

He looked at me confused and took a step back. “The what now?”

“You know, the goodbye kiss.”

He still looked at me like I was crazy. I started to get nervous but doubled down, hoping it would work.

“When two friends watch a game together, they have to kiss after it’s over to show there’s no hard feelings. Have you honestly never heard of that rule?”

He shook his head, “No I… I guess I haven’t. I’m sorry, Matt.”

“Shit, I hope you haven’t pissed off any of your other friends.”

I could see panic in his eyes as he thought through how many times he had botched this gentleman’s rule before.

“It’s probably fine, Mike,” I assured him. “You didn’t know. I’m sure no harm done.”

“Fuck. I hope so.” He looked up at me, “Well I won’t fuck up from now on, that’s for sure!”

He walked up to me and kissed me.

It was so quick and I was on cloud nine with the realization that it had worked that I just stood there for a second.

He looked at me curiously and asked, “We good?” I blinked away my shock to continue the game, “Is that how you kissed Roethlisberger? I thought we were actually friends, dude.”

“Oh, shit sorry!”

I didn’t even need to coach him on what I wanted. He leaned back in and planted his lips on mine but this time, began to invade my mouth with his tongue. As he did he rubbed my back and began to moan. This time, I kissed back.

My arms also stroked up and down the small of his back and I even risked a single rub down onto his butt. Man, was it hot. If he felt my boner pressing up against his thigh, Mike didn’t say anything.

We kissed hot and heavy like this for a good 30 seconds before he broke away.

“Sorry, Matt. I’ll be sure to give a proper kiss moving forward.”

“Yeah… Yeah.”

I was at a loss for words.

I should leave.

I should.

I didn’t.

I’m not sure why it came to mind but I was running on autopilot at this stage controlled entirely by the dick in my shorts. I wouldn’t identify as gay or really even bi, but I had been curious for a bit what it would be like to be with another guy. Mostly like a morbid curiosity or something, but now that there was a real opportunity on the table, with someone I trusted and who was pretty freaking hot, I couldn’t resist the temptation to get it out of my system.

“Oh fuck, dude.”

I looked down at my phone as I exclaimed that.

Mike looked at me, “What’s up? Everything okay?”

“I think your ex leaked dick pics of you.”

“What?!” Mike shouted and ran over to my phone to try and get a look.

I hid my phone from him quickly and covered myself by saying “wait, Mike. You don’t want to look at these in case it’s not actually your dick. That would make you gay if you did.”

He quickly backed off, “I’m not gay!”

“Right, right. Me either. But I didn’t have a choice, I had to look at them but you don’t have to.”

“Okay, yeah. How the fuck would she have done that though? I don’t remember her even taking them!”

“I’m not sure, Mike,” I said. “Maybe she took them when you weren’t paying attention.”

“Fuck, are you sure it’s me?” he asked nervously.

Gotcha.

“Well, I’m not sure. The only way I could know for sure would be to see your dick to compare.”

Mike looked confused, “Well that would be pretty gay dude. I don’t want you looking at my junk and I’m sure you don’t either.”

“Well of course not, but chances are I’m already looking at it right now. But I’m willing to do this as a friend, and that wouldn’t be gay. And if it’s not actually your dick then you don’t have to worry. If it is, we should report them and try and get them taken down.”

“Fuck. Fuck! I don’t want dick pics of me out there on the internet!”

“I know! Think about if your work found them, or your family! That would be so embarrassing!”

“Shit shit shit.” Mike was freaking out. “Okay… Okay, are you sure you don’t mind helping me out?”

“As a friend, I have to do everything in my power to confirm whether these pics are of you or not.”

“You’re such a good friend, Matt. I’m sorry you’re in this position though.”

Oh, no worries.

Mike hesitantly started to undo the button on his cargo shorts. He didn’t strip in any sort of sexy way but a second later his cargo shorts hit the ground. I was staring at a similar image as last week: Mike standing there with nothing but a shirt and underwear. This time though, his hands were reaching for the waistband.

“I’m sorry,” he said to me one more time.

I went to say ‘no problem’ but got caught off by the shucking of his boxer briefs. As he stood back up I finally got to see it. The whole package.

Mike clearly didn’t manscape much and honestly neither did I, but that didn’t hide what he was packing. His soft cock was cut like my own and pretty thick. I knew not to judge a guy based on his softie but wagered he was large. And as a double bonus the balls below, while tight to his body, looked pretty big too.

I stared.

“Well?” Mike asked me cautiously with his palms extended, miming ‘what do you think?’

“I… I’m not sure.”

“What do you mean?” he asked me.

“Well, Mike, this is awkward… but the photos here are of a hard dick. It’s difficult to know for sure if this is you or not comparing the two.”

“Fuck man! What are we gonna do?”

“I’m not sure,” I replied.

I wanted him to come up with the solution. Somehow that made me feel less like a terrible person and friend.

“I hate to ask…” he started. “But, would you be willing to look at my stuff if I went and got a boner?”

“Man, Mike… I mean. Like I said, as a friend I basically have to. It’s my duty, as everyone knows. So yeah, I’ll compare your boner to the pictures.”

He sighed in relief. “You’re the best, Matt.”

He looked around, “I’m not sure if I’ll be able to get it up though given the situation…”

Time to test this hypnosis. I planted a seed. “Well, I heard that in this situation I’m supposed to be the one to get you hard.”

“What? Where did you hear that?”

“Greg, my buddy from work, told me a year or so ago. This same thing had happened to a friend of his.”

“Fuck, really?”

“Yeah,” I said. “And I asked him if that was gay or anything.”

“That’s what I was wondering too.”

Mike was falling perfectly into my made up scenario. “Yeah, but Greg assured me that it isn’t. Literally anything I have to do to make sure you’re good isn’t gay. It’s just being a good friend. But he told me that his friend couldn’t get himself hard because boners look different when you get it up versus when someone else does.”

“Really, I’ve never noticed before.”

“Me either, but I guess that’s because I don’t really notice dicks, you know?”

He nodded his head eagerly. “Right, right.”

“So, I guess, I’ll have to get you hard. That’s like the only way I’ll be able to tell for sure.”

“Damn. I’m so sorry, Matt.”

“Honestly, don’t worry about apologizing. I’m just happy I can hopeful help to confirm you have nothing to worry about with these photos.”

“Thanks man!”

He looked around the room a bit awkwardly. “Should we uh.. Sit down or something?”

I pointed to the couch. “Yeah, why don’t you sit there.”

He did as instructed and spread his legs out. He hadn’t bothered to cover up at all this whole time and as he sat down and reclined a bit, his soft dick fell to one side of his thighs.

I timidly knelt down in front of him. He watched me. Now just inches from me was the first dick I had really ever seen up close besides my own. Gym showers don’t really count. This was entirely different.

I reached my hand out. I was no longer nervous that I would get caught or something because it was clear I could do anything with Gullible Mike at this point. I was just nervous about how much I was going to like this.

My fingers touched flesh. The soft skin of Mike’s cock was warm and spongey. I sort of just played with it in my finger tips for a few moments before palming it. As I started my slow strokes to bring Mike Jr. to life, I looked up at Mike Sr.

He was watching but was clearly embarrassed. He was blushing profusely. I probably could have spared him with some command, but I decided against it. It was fun to watch him squirm a bit.

He slowly began to inflate and as he did I took note of his balls with my other hand. They were indeed large. Larger than mine at least. Mike clearly didn’t shave them but there wasn’t much hair. Mostly up near where they met his body. I lightly massaged them, earning me the first moan from Mike.

He had leaned his head back, no longer watching the action. Perhaps he was imagining some girl doing this to him. Perhaps he was just enjoying the experience as much as I was.

My hand was now grasping onto firm meat. His cock was at full mast. Finally I had him beat somewhere. His dick was probably only about 6 inches hard, maybe a little smaller actually. However, he still had me beat in girth. I continued to stroke him for a bit when Mike finally spoke up.

“I think I’m fully hard now. Can you tell if the pics are of my dick or not?”

I pulled out my phone, letting his dick fall back onto his belly with an audible ‘smack.’ I pretended to compare the imaginary pics up against his dick.

“Hm, mind if I take some photos of the same angle so I can compare them side by side?”

“Umm…” he bit his lip.

“I’ll delete them obviously.”

“Oh yeah, sorry, that’s fine.”

I took a myriad of photos for my own personal entertainment. Some close up, some showing all of Mike including his face which was still flushed. I even took a secret video of me holding his dick upright and stroking it a bit.

“So, I’m feeling more confident that it may not be your dick.”

“Oh thank god!”

“But, there’s a few things that are still off.”

Mike was worried again, “like what?”

“Well… the photos of the dick are kind of… wet.”

“Wet?”

“Yeah,” I said. “Like, your ex had just given you a blowjob or something.”

“Fuck. Is there that much of a difference with a bit of saliva on it?”

“Surprisingly yeah. It’s hard for me to know for sure. Unless…”

“Unless you…?” He asked.

I feigned hesitation. “I think I have to blow you.”

“Matt, no, that’s too much. I couldn’t ask you to do that.”

“Mike, you don’t have to. You’re one of my best friends.”

“Seriously, Matt. I’d rather just have my dick pics leaked. I would feel so bad asking you to do that for me.”

“No, I’ve made up my mind. This is for you, Mike!”

Without letting him try and talk me out of it, I brought his dick to my mouth.

“Oh fuck! Mmmm” Mike no longer protested.

Being the first blowjob I’d ever given, I didn’t get much in at first. Maybe two inches of his thick cock. But as I continued to bob on it, I got past the halfway point.

Mike’s dick tasted great. There was a fleshy, salty taste that I’d expect from skin like when I’ve licked my fingers in the past after getting food on them or something. But there was also an extra flavor that I realized must be his pre.

In under a minute, Mike was moaning loudly. He even placed a hand on the back of my head. Not forcing me down his dick or anything, but he kindly rubbed and played with my hair as I sucked him.

I hate to admit it, but I loved it. I don’t think I could say I wasn’t bi anymore.

I continued to nearly gag on his thick tool when he interrupted me to say, “Matt, I think you should stop. If you go any further I might fucking cum.”

I stopped to look up at him and deliver my last line, “I didn’t want to mention this, but the pics also had a video of the dick cumming. I think that’s the only way I’ll know for sure.”

“Matt…”

Mike was fully flushed both from the seemingly great blowjob I had been giving but also the idea that he was asking his friend to make him cum. He was so embarrassed.

“You don’t have to ask me, Mike. I want to. You’d make me into a bad friend if you didn’t let me.”

“Well, you are a great friend.”

“So it’s settled.”

I went back to work.

“Fuck, Matt…”

It honestly didn’t take long. I hadn’t gotten to the point where I could take his whole dick in my throat; I’m not sure how gay guys do it. But I got probably 4 or 5 inches down when I felt his ball sac start to tighten up.

“Matt, I’m gonna cum.”

I wanted to taste it but I also got a little gun shy and scared. This was maybe too much for my first gay experience. I released his dick from my mouth and began to stroke him instead. Eight strokes later, his thighs flexed and he grunted.

Mike wasn’t a shooter like myself but fuck did he cum a lot. The first spurt actually shot out a couple inches onto his abs. The next four were just gushes that flowed out and down his dick onto my hand but it was a ton. Then he dribbled more and more for a minute or so as I continued to stroke his slowly deflating cock.

“Wow, Mike. That’s a lot of cum.”

“Haha, thanks. I feel terrible for putting you through this though. I’m a fucking asshole.”

“No you’re not! And, now that I’ve seen you cum, I’m positive these dick pics aren’t of you.”

“Really?!”

He shot up in excitement which caused his semi-hard dick, covered in cum, hit me the face. I fell back in shock and he quickly knelt down to make sure I was okay.

“Shit, sorry Matt! Oh fuck, I got my cum on your face.”

I could feel the warm liquid on my cheek and bit on my mouth.

“Well you know what they say,” I said with a laugh.

“What?”

“You know, ‘if you get cum on a guy’s face, you have to clean it off with your tongue.’”

“Shit, I had no idea. Matt you seem to know so much.”

“Oh I do. I’ll be sure to keep teaching you.”

We shared a laugh before he leaned in.

[colorfulandblack]

So did you notice how every single song in JATP is dedicated to different character? I'm going to skip all the Dirty Candy cos obviously, and same goes to Caleb's HGC numbers. Bit for the rest:

Now or Never - this is the ultimate and only Sunset Curve song. It's THEM. But also have you read the lyrics?

"Clocks move forward but we don't get older, no" and "When all the days felt black and white those were the best shades of my life" it can be read two way. It's both about 1995 and 2020 and their life and afterlife. It's almost prophetic but you don't know it unless you keep watching the show. Also "we're the revolution that's been singing in the rain" watch out for the rain but cos it's echoed in another song.

Wake Up - so at first this seems to be Julie's song but hear me out. It's not. It was written by Rose, Julie's mom. The lyrics: "And you use your pain, cause it makes you you though I wish I could hold you through it. I know it's not the same you got living to do and I just want you to do it". Rose knew she was going to die and she wanted Julie to keep living. To keep playing music. It's her guidance from beyond the grave. It's precisely why this is the first song Julie sings in a YEAR. Because it's the LAST message her mom left for her. It's Rose's song for Julie.

Bright - this is Alex's song and you can fight me on it. Mind it was written back in the 90s - Luke gives it to Julie because it was one of the songs that Bobby hasn't stolen which means that they either played it before, live when they were alive (which seems sort of unlikely because it has more of a pop sound to it than say Now or Never) or because it was never played to the public before. Because it was private. Now again it wasn't something that was kept a secret either because the band joined Julie on stage and executed the song perfectly and they haven't reversed it before, couldn't have because at this point the boys didn't know they could be seen when playing. They sort of joined last minute. They were standing by and watching Julie to the almost last second. And now the lyrics:

"Sometimes I think I'm falling down I wanna cry, I'm crying out for one more try to feel alive. And when I'm lost and alone I know that I can make it home fight through the dark and find the spark" and "In times like that I doubted myself I felt like I needed some help stuck in my head with nothing left. I feel something around me now so unclear, lifting me out I found the ground I'm marching on" this is Alex, anxious, worrisome Alex who came out to his parents who weren't accepting. And his band was there for him. "I can make it home", home being the garage, his band, his friends. They helped him find his 'ground that he's marching on'. Also, I ain't saying that Alex and Luke dated back in the 90s but they definately dated. Just look at this:

"Life is a risk, but we can take it close my eyes and jump. Together, I think that we can make it, c'mon let's run" and "And rise through the night, you and I, we will fight to shine together, bright forever" WE WILL FIGHT TO SHINE TOGETHER, BRIGHT FOREVER. Shine as in unapologetly being themselves. As being happy and accepted and themselves.

Sure when Julie sings it it's about her incredible talent and trying to get back into the music program but again this song was written back in the 90s. It's Alex's song.

The Band is Back - Reggie's Jam. This is pretty self explanatory and the song might be simplistic and upbeat and very beach, summer like but is not without dept. The boys don't know where they stand with the band. They know they are dead and can be heard when singing and seen when playing with Julie but they are still dead. Now remember this song plays right after the boys leave the studio when Ray talks about his happy times with a wife that died. This hits close to home because well they are also dead. But also the way Ray talks about Rose. So much love and admiration. And now Reggie's parents who were "one fight away from divorce". And on top of that his house is gone so there is no way of him (at this point at least and without Julie's help) to find his family or even to learn if they are alive. This song, Luke says that he knows how to cheer Reggie up. But notice this. It's not something that Luke or Alex sing. No. Reggie is. I'm not going to mention that it is kind of weird that they had a song in the ready that's called "the band is back" as if they had a fallout before or something like that. But this aside, this is a song to remind Reggie that they are still friends and that they are family. The only family they are going to need. And they are going to stick together, life or afterlife.

"Can you, can you hear me?" "Loud and clear!" Is such a simple thing that is used on so many concerts to get the audience's attention. But here is different. Becaus eits reaffirming that Reggie is valid. That his voice is being heard and that he's safe. And by having Reggie sing the song - it's like saying "hey Reg we know this is terrible and it sucks but if you'd like we'll be your family and will me always stick around". By making REGGIE sing it, by making him announce that the back is back together is like giving him a choice. A choice to have Luke and Alex as his family. If Luke sang it it was as if he said: "we're your family" but the way it is it's more like a question: "we will be your family if you'll have us" and of course Reggie would that's why the band is back.

Flying Solo - Flynn's song. One of my personal favourites actually. Nothing much to add really. The lyrics are from Julie's dream box because the boys were looking for the kitchen again and are very personal. Flynn is a constant in Julie's life and by having her sing a song about her best friend, SING (a big change that has happened recently in Julie's life) is letting her in once again, having her in her life when the change happens. Letting her on the secret about the ghost band. And it's also an apology and giving her thanks. Because Julie is so thankful to have Flynn there. "My life would be real zero, flying solo without you"

And one more thing, notice how the boys sing nothing but chorus. On every other song the boys get a line or two to sing on their own, except Luke who is not ready to give up his front man position (which is quite fair since he writes the songs too). This song is entirely BY Julie and sang by Julie but is still a Flynn's song.

Finally Free - this is JULIE'S song. This is her first song playing PUBLIC (yes I know it was Bright but it was different. There was no band then yet.) It's her metamorphosis. The song reflects the change in Julie every time she sings:

"I'm awakened, no more faking so we push all our fears away. Don't know if I'll make it cause I'm failing under, close my eyes, and feel my chest beating like thunder. I wanna fly. Come alive. Watch me shine. " it starts off with noting Julie's life without music and then its restoration of it back in her life. Here is this word again, SHINE. It refers to the same thing just different situation. Sine as being themselves. Being true to themselves and singing their heart out.

"Hands up if you believe, been so long, and now I'm finally free. We're all bright now. What a sight now. Coming out like we're fireworks. Marching on proud. Turn it up loud cause now we know what we're worth" Now this can be applied to the entire band. They are visible again, they can be heard and seen. They are feeling as if they are alive again. But more importantly- remember how Julie couldn't sing in her class? How she choked back tears as she run away and Carrie's bitchy comment (it's not that I hate her but y'know if they used to be friends she must have known that Rose died so low blow). "COS NOW WE KNOW WHAT WE'RE WORHT" She proved to everyone that she can sing. She proved to her friends and family that she is getting better with her mother passing. And most of all that she feels closer to her when she sings. She is free. Free of pretending to be fine so her dad wouldn't worry. Free of bottling up all the fear of singing before Flynn and the inevitable disappointment because her friend knew Julie can sing but didn't to say with her in the music program. She is done proving things to people. She is shining bright and she is free.

Edge of Great - ultimate Juke song or a BAND song. Now let me explain, I love the ship I really do but-there is a but,however, I'm not going to go in about my slight concerns regarding Juke as it is canon so let me just jump into the analysis.

Of course it can be read as a Juke song but also as an Julie and Luke's song separately. "Running from the past. Tripping on the now. What is lost can be found, its obvious. And like a rubber ball we come bouncing back. We've all got a second act inside of us" essentially it's about how they all had their past, their demons to battle but they come together united in music. "This is an interesting little relationship you and I have" Luke said. And he was right. Because their relationship is not physical. Its a bond forged by similar life experience and the pain they draw from joined in music.

Now this bit, this 100% Juke right there: "I believe that were just one dream away from who we're meant to be. That were standing on the edge of- something big, something crazy our best days are yet unknown. That this moment is ours to own cause were standing on the edge of great" this gives me some serious throwback vibes to HSM. Also note how this is possibly the only song where Reggie and Luke don't share the mike. They stand next to each other but just watch Julie instead. Also, I think mentioned in other lengthy post about how Reggie and Alex intentionally poofed out giving Luke and Julie that last harmony moment by the piano.

Now this bit: "We all make mistakes but they're just stepping stones. To take us where we wanna go it's never straight, no. Sometimes we gotta lean. Lean on someone else to get a little help until we find our way." Now listen I mentioned the band. See I know this is the almost acoustic chilling chemistry packed moment when Luke and Julie sing. It's obvious they mean so much to each other. By the lyrics itself. It applies to the entire band. They were there to pick each other up and to provide a shoulder to rest their head on.

But as I said untimalte Juke song.

Unsaid Emily - now this, this is LUKE'S song. Obviously. But it's not only because it's dedicated to his mother. It's like Wake Up. It's the second song that is sang acoustically but just one person throughout. And it gives up such a great insight into Luke as a character.

"First things first, we start the scene from reverse, all of the lines rehearsed" THIS is how much his family means to him. He was going over this moment over and over and over in his head. Thinking what he would say. We saw in the show that he approached his house few times checking on his parents. Possibly hoping to come back but never doing it.

"I should have turned around but I had too much pride" he KNEW his parents were only looking out for him. But he was Luke. His music was EVERYTHING to him. Luke has a very single way of thinking of things. He didn't care, doesn't mean he didn't know, how hard it would be to make it. All that mattered it was his music. And it must have hurt. Because he says that his parents regretted buying him his first guitar. It's obvious that he was close with his parents with his mom so they must have not completely condone him being in the band. They just wanted him to have an option if the band won't work out. But Luke didn't see it like that. Because every time his parents tried to convince him to think about it for a moment to think about his future they were looking out for him but to him it felt like betrayal. Because to Luke it sounded like they had no faith in him, on his talent in his band and their chance or making it big. And it hurts SO FUCKING MUCH BECAUSE HE KNOWS IT. He knows it but as he sings he was too prideful to admit it. To come back.

"No times for goodbyes. Didn't get to applogise" and " conversations in my head and that's just where they're gonna stay forever" it's goddamn HEARTBREAKING because this song was written when he was still alive. He still stalked his house and his parents but THIS indicate that he thought things were beyond repair. Like he wanted to come back and apologise but thought it was too late. Like he would never get a chance to say he was sorry and ultimately he never did. Not until Julie.

"If I could take us back, if I could just do that. And write in every empty space the words I love you in replace and everytime would not erase me if you could only know I never let you go and the words I most regret and the ones I never meant to leave" everything he said was in the heat of the moment. He was hurt. But god, at this point I'm crying don't mind me, he thinks that he apologise would mean nothing. He says that if he could replace EVERY SINGLE WORD with I Love You he would but he think it would be erased. It would never be received. Thay it would dissapear. And ultimately it was. Because he died. He died and never got to say how sorry he was.

This song shows us the other side of Luke. Not only the side that only the band has seen before because I think that noone really saw Luke break down like thay when he was singing Unsaid Emily. He was bottling all of it inside and wouldn't let his friends to help him out. Because I refuse to believe that the boys wouldn't try to comfort him knowing that he was hunting around his parents both when he was alive and after.

And this song makes me ugly sob in every form, written, sang, seen in the show so thanks Kenny for it.

Stand Tall - this is the JULIE AND THE PHANTOMS song. The first one of many. And it's almost as heartbreaking as Unsaid Emily. First of all let's lay out the situation. Julie decides to sing ALONE and UNCERTAIN whether the boys would show up or not. Even if she still believes thay they are still there lingering, fighting to play the Orpheum with her and complete their unfinished business she would still lose them. When they cross over they are gone. And if they don't they will cease the exist in the afterlife. So no matter what Julie does she says goodbye to her family. And she STILL DECIDES TO SING.

"Whatever happens even if I'm the last standing I'ma stand tall." THIS FUCKING MOMENT. This is when the boys are supposed to come in. BUT THEY DON'T. They are still trapped in the HGC so JULIE LITERALLY IS THE LAST ONE STANDING. Because she thinks it's too late. She thinks they boys are dead.

I shit you not I scream everytime the boys appear and Luke flickering gives me a heart attach every single time but it's so powerful in terms of showing how much they mean for each other. When Alex and Reggie break free they are so happy to see Julie but when Luke can't get there quite yet the tension is palpable and I will never forgive Charlie for being the little shit when Luke finally appears exactly on his cue with a shit eating grin like he didn't almost die.

"Right now, I'm loving every minute. Hands down, can't let myself forget it, no cause everything is rushing in fast. Keep holding on never look back. And it's one, two, three, four times that I'll try for one more night. Light a fire in my eyes." This is so bittersweet because she is playing with the band. THEY MADE IT! But also she knows it's the last performance. And it's so powerful because she knows it and she will still keep trying. Keep playing music. Keep creating.

This is the ULTIMATE JULIE AND THE PHANTOMS, BAND UNITED AND TOGETHER SONG

But I want to note the literal chills I get everytime Alex and Reggie get their separate "whatever happens even if I'm the last standing I'ma stand tall" because it speaks VOLUMES. For Alex standing tall is being who he is. Unashamed and happy and loved. For Reggie is being with his family. Doing everything for his found family.

This is incredible performance and on top of that the boys disappear barely finishing their bow. If you listen closely. The second Julie stops singing all the music dies down except for the last line guitar strum, Luke's guitar strum and everything is quiet. You can hear Julie's voice, alone, still echo but that's it. The boys are gone.

+1

House is Where my Horse Is - ok, I know it was a joke cos they are in the rock back and this is country song. But you ever listened to a country music? And I'm not talking about modern stuff but a good old fashioned country ballad. I had a moment of little musical crisis in my life and listened to some songs and honestly they are so bittersweet and full of longing and melancholy. 90% of them are about loss, whether that be of a parent (almost always father and almost always cancer) or love and hardships of life and struggle. And I think it's really interesting to give Reggie, a person who is nothing but optimistic and cheerful this characteristic. Because if anything it only underlines what we have seen before that he is not the sharpest tool in the shed but he's smart. He sees things, and he might get lost in the conversation but he sees everything else. And it's not the fist country song he has written either. Luke says "stop putting your country songs in my journal". It's an occurring thing. I just think it sheds a light a bit on Reggie's character as someone else than the goofball.

[thoughtfullyyoungduck]

Do you think you could do headcanons for if Richie got a woman pregnant on a one-night-stand, and the woman just ended up dropping the baby on his doorstep, and how the losers, including Richie, would react?

- let’s say this happens a few months after Derry 2.0

- because before that Richie was still very deep in the closet and he trying to prove to everyone around him that he’s very heterosexual.

- The woman he has a one night stand with is friends with Steve, mostly because he is secretly hoping she tell Steve about their night

- (Richie thinks Steve is suspecting that he’s gay and want to nip it in the bud)

- They go back to Richie’s place on evening after getting McDonald’s and it’s fine, obviously Richie doesn’t feel anything for her but she’s nice enough that he likes talking to her

- One thing leads to another and they spend the night together

- The next day things aren’t hostile between them but it is akward because Richie is nervously fluttering hoping she’ll go home soon

- She does and they don’t keep in touch, which is fine for Richie. He doesn’t want to feel the guilt every time he looks at her knowing that he used her for his own gain.

- Richie mostly forgets about that night and her, and after Derry he’s too busy to pay that night any thought

- His head over heels for Eddie now, and he’s gearing up to tell him soon.

- He’s waiting for Eddie’s divorce to come through. He doesn’t want to add pressure on Eddie during such a demanding time but, he’s excited for what will happen after.

- So they’re not yet dating, but they’re getting there. It’s just a matter of time.

- And then Steve shows up with his baby one morning.

- He’s pale white, and the hand of which he’s hold the maxicosi is trembling

- Of course, Richie being the trash mouth that he is, starts making fun of him.

- He doesn’t understand why Steve would have a baby with him (as far as he’s heard Steve didn’t want kids) but the comedy gold is right there for grabbing.

- ‘What’s the baby for Steve? Did you father a baby I didn’t know anything about?’

- Uno reverse card

- When Steve bashfully admits that it’s not his kid, but Richie’s, the latter laughs.

- At first he’s convinced it’s just Steve messing with him, but Steve would never go as far as to kidnap a baby.

- He still continues to chuckle even after apprehension starts to take hold him off

- ‘It’s not a joke Richie, this is your daughter.’

- Instead of becoming serious as the situation calls for it, Richie begins to cackle.

- Not laugh, not chuckle or snort, cackle.

- He’s so confused, and flabbergasted and he can’t believe this tiny human thing crying in her crib is his.

- ‘I’m just the messenger man,’ Steve placates, slowly sinking the carrier to the ground.

- When Richie is finally done laughing ( it goes on for a very long time) Steve is itching to get out of there.

- He leaves with very little more explanation other than; ‘it was your one night stand from a few months ago, she doesn’t have a name yet, and her mother is refusing to take care of her.

- Richie finds himself just staring at this tiny little thing that’s beginning to cry and whimper as she kicks her tiny feet in the air.

- She starts to cry earnestly after about five minutes, not to fond of not being payed attention too for so long

- Richie tries to shush her gently, but it’s a baby and they don’t listen to what anyone tells them too.

- The cries grow in intensity, and Richie’s slowly losing his mind.

- He’s pacing his apartment, in a daze. He’s working on automatic pilot, because he can’t comprehend the fact that he just became a father, he’s clueless about what to do

- His own daughters birthday remains a mystery to him for god sake.

- If Richie were thinking logically, he’d call Steve and ask him to come back and explain everything in a better way, but he’s not, and he can only think with his emotions.

- He ends up calling Ben and Bev.

- His first instinct was to call Eddie, seeing as Eddie is his best friend and all, but Eddie would panicked just as much as him and that would be of no help.

- Reaching out to Stan also pops up in his mind, but he can’t deal with cynical saying right now. He needs people who will be sympathetic towards him and hopefully tell him what to do.

- On the phone he barely explains anything to bev and Ben, but he does tell them to hurry up.

- When they get to the apartment, Ben and Bev are shocked at seeing the little baby, and get concerned after Richie fails to give them an answer about how or why she’s in his house.

- Regardless, they step up up to the task and do their best to take care of the girl they know nothing about.

- Ben drives to the store to get formula and blankets and diapers, while Bev fishes her out of her crib and begins to slowly rock her. They’re both calm and collected.

- Richie on the other hand is snapping out of his haze, and the reality of the situation begins to dawn on him.

- Bev tries to console him but it’s hard when she has zero background information.

- Ben comes back and heats up her formula, but she refuses to drink and lets out a piercing cry in refusal.

- Even Bev’s rocking isn’t doing anything the south the baby, and out of desperation, Richie begins to cry.

- Because Bev is out of option herself, and doesn’t have a clue on how to help Richie, she passes him the baby.

- Richie is terrified of holding this petit thing that fits just exactly right in his arms. He’s scared of crushing her or dropping her and messing her up for life.

- But miraculously, as soon as she’s snuggled in his arms, she stops crying.

- She’s just content to lay there with her dad, who eventually tries to bottle feed her and it works. She eagerly drinks from it.

- First crisis evaded

- But, after everyone has processed the first major shock, Richie needs to give Ben and Bev the answers they deserve now.

- Richie tries to be as straight forward as he can, but he hasn’t had the details yet himself.

- The two losers insists that he tells the others of their group right away. It’s too big of a secret to hide, and they need all the help they can get.

- Again, none of the losers are informed as to why they have to go to Richie’s house ASAP, but they still do, because he’s there best friend and they wouldn’t be called if it wasn’t important.

- It’s Stan and Patty that arrive after Bev and Ben.

- Stan and Patty are less astounded for some reason.

- Patty doesn’t even inquire, she just goes straight into cooing over the baby fase.

- She’ll sit next to Richie (still holding his daughter) and begins talking gibberish to the baby about how beautiful she is.

- Richie agrees.

- Stan follows her lead, but he simply observes the two of them together and then sits near touching to Richie.

- ‘I should have know you’d be the first one with a kid Trashmouth.’

- But he doesn’t lecture Richie, or starts to interrogate him about anything.

- He must have sensed that Richie wasn’t up to it at the moment.

- Bill and Mike are next.

- Within stepping one food inside the place, and spotting Richie with a baby, Bill laughs, and asks him who he knocked up.

- He intends it as a joke, obviously, but when no one else laughs, he realises how right he is.

- ‘Richie... have you been keeping your baby from us for three months?’ Mike asks, a little offended.

- ‘What do you mean three months?’

- ‘She’s clearly three months old. You can tell by her development.’ When everyone just stares at him, Mike explains further. ‘I had a lot of time on my my hands after you all left Derry. Maybe I spend that time reading children books.’

- He doesn’t more time to elaborate, because that’s the moment Eddie arrives.

- It’s his reaction Richie is most frightened off.

- He’s in love with Eddie, loves him with all his heart, but he can’t ask Eddie to date a man that just became a father. That would mean not only choosing him, but also his child.

- Eddie looks at the baby, at Richie and then back, and follows it up by cursing;’what the fuck’. loudly.

- The harsh sound startles the baby, but with a gentle kiss on the forehead that Richie gives her, she’s pacified back into sleep.

- ‘Oh shit, oh no. I need an explanation, right now.’

- Richie explains the story yet again, and hopes that none of his friends will label him as an asshole at the end of it.

- Of course they don’t, but Eddie is headed up over the whole situation.

- ‘I know a lot of lawyers after my divorce with Myra, I could hook you up someone.’

- ‘She can’t just dump her baby on you without any of the proper paperwork. What if she has a deadly disease and needs to get continuos treatment?’

- Eddie’s ‘advice’ turns Richie’s complexion green, and his stomach in knots. He’s never had to thought of that stuff before, and now he has a whole human being that depends on him for everything.

- Stan snaps at Eddie to stop him from adding more stress onto Richie, which Eddie does with a guilty apologie.

- ‘Look Richie,’ Stan says to him with full seriousness. ‘You need to decide what you’re going to do,and unfortunately you do not have a lot of time. You cannot put this off, she needs a name, and a crib and everything she needs to survive. You need to make a decision if you’re keeping her.’

- Richie gazes down upon his baby. The same baby he hasn’t let go off from the second he held her. He’s so scared, beyond explanation or able to put it in words, but this is his daughter. He could give her up for adoption, and he live would remain the same, but he knows she excites now, and to give her away to strangers? He don’t think he could have the heart.

- But...

- ‘I can’t do it by myself’, he admits, voice small and honest.

- ‘You’d never have to.’ Eddie responds, one of his fingers stroking over the ring babies head. He looks absolutely smitten.

- His life was uprooted once again, but last time the change wasn’t bad at all. Richie is confident, this won’t be bad either.

- Barely a month later Eddie moves in with them full time, and becomes pops to Maggie lover Tozier.

[eretzyisrael]

What President Biden Will Mean for Israel

As I write this, preparations are underway for the swearing-in ceremony of a new President of the US. Nobody truly knows what this will mean for us in Israel. Caroline Glick, who can be depended on to see the dark side – often, unfortunately, correctly – finds Biden’s appointments of numerous former Obama officials, some of whom are demonstrably anti-Israel, to be evidence that the new administration will return to the almost maliciously anti-Israel policies of the Obama Administration.

On the other hand, as Bret Stephens notes (in a masterful piece that I hope will be required reading for Biden and his people), the situation has drastically changed since Obama pursued his diplomatic assault on Israel. Everything is different (except perhaps the Palestinians). Israel, Iran, the Arab nations, and the situation in the USA have all undergone significant changes. The damage to American interests from continuing Obama’s policy today would be even greater than in 2008-2016.

But not all politics is rational, as history amply demonstrates. Bad regimes sometimes follow policies dictated primarily by the misapprehensions, prejudices or even obsessions of their leadership rather than the interests of their nations. The Obama Administration was one of those.

Indeed, its interpretations of the intentions of the Palestinians and the Iranian regime – which could be determined simply by paying attention to their words – were so far from reality that I often found myself asking, “stupid or evil?” Did American officials really think that the Palestinians would be satisfied with a peaceful state alongside Israel if only the right concessions were forced out of us? Did they really believe that the agreement with the Iranians would prevent them from getting nuclear weapons, or even significantly slow them down?

There was also an ideological element, a clear affinity of Obama himself to the Muslim opponents of Israel that was demonstrated by the speech he delivered in Cairo shortly after his inauguration. There was his comparison of the Palestinians to black Americans, one of the worst possible analogies. And there was his antipathy for our Prime Minister, which he famously shared in an off-mike chat with the French president. Taking all this into account, one can be excused for thinking that one of the deliberate objectives of Obama’s policies was to weaken and hurt Israel.

While these personal characteristics of Barack Obama do not apply to Joe Biden, he does seem to believe in the traditional (and wrong) principles of American Middle East policy, such as the primacy of creating a sovereign Palestinian state in bringing normal relations to the region. He agrees with Obama that Israeli settlements in Judea and Samaria are “illegitimate and an obstacle to peace,” a position that the State Department reversed under Trump.

American policy toward the Palestinians, going back to the Clinton Administration, has always been to provide ample financial aid to them and get Israel to make concessions up front, both territorial and practical (like freeing jailed terrorists). And Obama’s Iran policy was heavily front-loaded with financial benefits to Iran. One would think that professional diplomats would understand why this strategy failed over and over. Both the Palestinians and the Iranians have objectives that they cannot be paid to give up. Giving them presents only made them ask for more, and in both cases they used the money to pay for terrorism.

The non-professionals of the Trump Administration did understand this. They reversed course and applied economic pressure to both the Palestinians and the Iranian regime, in order to create leverage for negotiations. Unfortunately, the policy hasn’t been in place long enough to tell if it will work, but the desire to be “not-Trump” may cause the new Administration to end sanctions on Iran and re-fund the PA and UNRWA – making failure a certainty. Biden has already promised to restore Trump-suspended payments to UNRWA, the Palestinian refugee agency, thus continuing the decades-long growth of a hostile population of heavily indoctrinated, stateless welfare clients.

We can also expect a resumption of objections from the US against Jewish construction in Judea/Samaria and Eastern Jerusalem, joining the chorus from Europe. It wouldn’t surprise me if another unannounced but near-total freeze on construction will soon go into effect.

In more encouraging news, recent comments by Anthony Blinken, Biden’s nominee for Secretary of State, indicate that he doesn’t intend to reactivate the Iran deal immediately. Nevertheless, we should watch for any loosening of the Trump-applied sanctions on Iran as an indication of the likely direction the administration will take.

Israel has been engaged in a “war between the wars,” against Iranian installations in Syria. The Trump Administration did not interfere. I expect that attacks against these targets will be less frequent under the new administration. A warning sign will be if they stop entirely.

I had hoped that Israel would utilize the last weeks of Trump’s term to destroy the Iranian nuclear installations, perhaps even with American help; but apparently our PM and the IDF believe that their lower-level activities are effective enough that such an ambitious project wasn’t needed. We might regret this later; I will be very surprised if it happens under Biden.

All of the above is based on the assumption that the “moderates” in Biden’s administration, including Biden himself, will be in control. And here is where the real scary stuff begins.

Biden is 78 years old, older than any other American president at the time of his inauguration (Trump was 70 and Ronald Reagan was not quite 78 at the end of his second term). He certainly does not appear to me, admittedly a non-professional, to be at the top of his game … or worse. Even if he remains as president for a full term, it’s hard to imagine that he will be calling the shots. His vice president, Kamala Harris, is an unknown quantity in the area of foreign affairs. And there are strong forces that will be trying to exert their influence on the administration – unfriendly ones.

One is the left wing of the Democratic party, which supported Bernie Sanders for the presidency, and which is strongly anti-Israel. The other is the Obama organization.

When Barack Obama left the White House, he did not retire from politics and retreat to his home state, like so many other ex-presidents. Rather, he bought a home in walking distance to the White House, and transformed his highly effective campaign fund-raising organization into a social action group, with both domestic and foreign policy goals. It’s hard to believe that he will not try to exert influence over the new administration.

I believe that Israel will be able to work with an administration that is somewhat less friendly than that of Trump, as long as it is honestly interested in regional peace. Israel will present the evidence – which is overwhelming – that Iran wants to develop nuclear weapons; indeed, is developing them now. Together with its new allies in the Arab world, it will argue that continued maximum economic and diplomatic pressure is the most effective way to stop Iran, short of war.

I believe also that Israel will be able to convince such an administration that the real reason for the lack of progress with the Palestinians is their refusal to accept the existence of a Jewish state with any borders. We will explain that the development of Israel’s relations with other Arab states means that Palestinian sovereignty can be delayed indefinitely, until the Palestinians are prepared to accept the legitimacy of the nation state of the Jewish people.

But if the American administration undergoes a sharp turn toward the left, either as a result of a takeover by the left wing of the Democratic Party or from the influence of the Obama organization, we could see a return of Obama-era pressure for concessions, restrictions on our actions, and appeasement of Iran.

We’ve made a great deal of progress in the past four years. It would be a shame if it were reversed.

We’ll find out in the next few months.

Abu Yehuda

[formerprincess]

A tale written with fangs and claws || Chapter 60

Chapters: 60/? Fandom: Teen Wolf (TV) Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Relationships: Liam Dunbar/Theo Raeken, Corey Bryant/Mason Hewitt Characters: Liam Dunbar, Theo Raeken, Mason Hewitt, Corey Bryant, Nolan (Teen Wolf) Additional Tags: Alpha Liam Dunbar, Slow Build, Friends to Lovers, Dunbar Pack, Bisexual Liam Dunbar, Werewolf Theo Raeken, Alpha Theo Raeken, Canon-Typical Violence, Smut, Mates, Liam and Theo are mates, Top Theo Raeken, Bottom Theo Raeken, Top Liam, Bottom Liam Dunbar Series: Part 1 of Morning Dew Pack

Liam meets with Luka again and learns a bit more about the other werewolf pack. The friendship is blossoming.

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"Thank you for dropping me off." Liam climbed out of the passenger seat of Savannah's car and closed the passenger door behind him. "Don't forget to text me!" The blonde yelled through the open window before she reversed her car. Liam waved at her and watched her drive away before he finally made his way to the front door of his house. Luka, Savannah, Maddie, and he had sat together in the bar and talked for a while until they all had to disperse in different directions. Maddie and Luka had matters to attend to in regards to business and coven, Savannah had plans with her friends later on but offered to drop Liam off. He had gladly accepted her offer since it saved him from riding the bus during summer. Would Theo or someone else had come to get Liam? Absolutely but his Betas were not his chauffeurs.

Liam unlocked the door now and stepped into the house. He heard the tv running, the bass of Mike's music coming from downstairs. As always, it filled Liam with the undeniable feeling of home and happiness. Here he belonged. He hung his keys up and walked further into the house. Theo and Mason lounged on the opposite ends of the couch; Theo with a book in his hand and Mason with his notebook. Corey sat in front of the couch table and solved a puzzle. Tim sat in one of the chairs and watched tv. "Hey, you're back." Mason checked his watch. "Way later than I expected you to be. So it was good?" The others stopped what they were doing and turned to Liam. Tim even muted the series he had been watching. "Mixed, I would say." Liam kissed Theo and then sat next to his mate. Theo licked his lips. "Have you've been drinking lemon shots?" "I'm concerned how you got that from just one kiss", Liam remarked. Then he decided to answer Mason's question. "First of, those Alphas really think they're something else. Something I'm not. I don't have enough millions in my bank account to ever have them accept me." "That bad? I'm sorry." Corey grimaced. His parents were like that as well and he despised them for it. "Most of them, yeah. But I met three people who are very cool. First of, Mase, were cheetahs and vampire are a thing." Mason squeaked and pushed his notebook out of the way. "Tell me everything!" "The hotel had such old Hollywood glam style. Not my chic but whatever. First I met Savannah. She's the cheetah. Alpha of a very small pack here in Seattle. Outgoing, very direct, and honest. She talked to me before I even entered the meeting room. Was her first time too. We kind of stuck together. Then we met Meadow, the vampire. She has been to meetings before but she does not like the Alphas. She has a human best friend and told me he also has some notes about the supernatural community. I invited the two of them here cause I thought you and him could maybe check your notes, combine them so to speak. He surely will have things you don't have and vice versa, Mason and Corey." "Great idea." Corey helped Mason with the Bestiary and he would also profit from meeting Asher. If Asher wanted to follow the invitation. Maddie had said it would not be a problem but Liam would wait for clarification from Asher himself. "You said you met three people. Who's the third?" Theo asked. "Luka. He's the only other cool werewolf I met. Also older than us but his pack is from around. They're more modern and open-minded. Like ours is." "Sounds good. All in all, it seemed as if the meeting wasn't for nothing." Mason smiled. "And vampires. Wait! How was she there? Can she walk in the sun? Did the other Alphas wrangle her into the hotel? Is she traveling in a coffin? Did she try to drink your blood? What was she like??" "Jesus, Mason." Corey shook his head. But Liam gladly answered every question his Emissary had. "I'll stay in contact with them", he finally ended and his mate, as well as Consultant and Emissary, voiced their agreement. "Liam?" Tim said shyly. "Didn't you put up a rule of not having strangers come to the house? When you said you invited the vampire and her friend here, are you not breaking your own rule?"

Shit. Oh shit.

Liam had completely forgotten about that rule. Yes, he had told his Betas not to bring strangers into their new home. And here he was breaking his very own rule. Great, Dunbar! "No...I mean...yeah, I did....But...." Tim got up to leave the room. "I mean, you're the Alpha and therefore it's your decision. You can do whatever you want. I just remembered the rule." He gave an insecure shrug and then left the room in the direction of his room. Liam huffed. "You forgot you had put the rule in place, right?" Theo guessed. "Yep." Liam closed his eyes for a moment and scolded himself mentally. Idiot! Idiot! Idiot! "I mean, you are the Alpha. We can still follow the rules but what you do is up to you", Corey suggested softly. Liam's eyes snapped open. "No!" He said sharply. "We're not running a pack like that! If rules are in place, we all have to follow them. Including me. Especially me." "Then you have to decide what to do with that situation. You could always meet with Meadow and her friend somewhere else", Mason suggested. "No. The rule made sense back then but not it's not feasible anymore. And I will tell Tim that."

The young Alpha got up from the couch and marched downstairs to his Beta's room. He knocked, waited a few moments, then opened the door. Liam peeked into the room. "Hey. Have a minute?" Tim had sat on his desk and now spun around in his chair, a mixture of shock and surprise written on his face. But then he caught himself and nodded. Liam walked in and closed the door behind him. "You can sit on the bed if you want." Tim pointed at said furniture piece and Liam sat down on the edge. He rubbed his palms over his thighs. "You're right. I set this rule and I completely and utterly forgot about it. Had you not said anything, it would have left my mind forever. I am sorry about that." "It's okay. As I said, you're the Alpha. You make the rules, you sure can break the rules." Tim tried his best to give off the impression it was really okay. But Liam was stubborn. "It's not okay", he stated calmly. "When I set the rule, it seemed reasonable to me and came from a place of being worried about everyone and our home. I wanted to be absolutely sure nothing could get to us. That was weeks ago. I should have kept it in mind and change it again after Ever cast the spell and we were more secure. I didn't. I fucked up and I am sorry about that." Tim opened his mouth to protest but Liam was faster: "I am grateful for you guys calling me out. Tim, you're my friend, my family, my Beta. You and the others absolutely should call me out when I do something wrong. I'm not perfect and I will make these mistakes. But only with this echo from you, I can improve and become a better leader. I'm not mad at you and you don't have to be afraid to speak up. This rule was okay back then but now is not anymore. Therefore I cut it. Gone! Just like that! thank you for bringing this up. I mean it. But what will never happen is that I set rules for you and then don't follow them myself. This is not the type of leader I wanna be. Okay?" Tim gnawed on his lip. "I would not care so much but this is the first house I am not judged and ridiculed in. I can be myself and I want to protect it as much as I can", he confessed. "So do I, Timmy", Liam promised him. "I would never let anyone in here I might consider not fully trustworthy." Tim considered. "So you trust Meadow and her friend?" "I do, yeah." Liam nodded. "Do you consider them good allies for the pack?" The twenty-year-old had to laugh. "My brain's not wired like that." Liam played with his hands. "Theo is good at that, Mason too. But I don't think strategically. On the lacrosse field, yeah, that's my jam, but not when it comes to people. I meet a person and I either like or dislike them. Maybe I trust too easy and maybe I will make a fool out of myself but then I have to take responsibility for it. I can't, I don't want to meet someone and be like Your name is what? Oh, you will be a splendid ally to my pack. This is not me and I will probably never get there. Hence why I keep Theo around", he joked at the end. Tim chuckled but then sighed. "I know what you mean. I'm not like that either. It would feel...I don't know...like..." They both thought about it. "Like using someone", they both finally said at the same time and this time they both laugh. "Mike is good at it too. To easily find out how people can be useful to him upon meeting them." "Maybe it's a survival tactic", Liam put out a theory. "How can you help me in my current situation to get a better stand and survive. Would explain why Theo is so good at it. He and Mike both needed to survive in a world that didn't want them." Tim raised his shoulders. "My survival tactic is not being seen or heard. Not draw any attention." "Well, I hope you don't feel like that anymore in the house or around the pack in general." Liam sounded like a father, he realized that himself. But wasn't an Alpha supposed to be a father sometimes? Tim shook his head. "Not always. But it's hard to unlearn what I learned for nineteen years. You know, you guys are great! You make me feel welcome! Don't think anybody else, please!"

He moved his hands around and knocked over a small can filled with brushes of all kinds. They clattered to the floor. Liam knelt and helped him pick them up again. "Didn't know you were painting, Timmy. Those are many brushes." His Beta turned a concerning shade of red and stuttered. "I...No...Not...Irgs. I don't paint! Pictures! I don't paint pictures!" "Then what do you paint?" Liam had never seen Tim being creative with brushes in any shape or form. From how his friend acted, one would think he was doing forbidden things with those brushes. "You don't have to tell me, of course. I'm just curious." You could basically see Tim's thought process on his face. Denial, fear, nervousness, fear again, shame. Finally, he pointed to the other side of the room. There was a large board with something tiny on it. Curiosity got the better of Liam and he stepped closer. Tiny little figurines were placed all over the board, along with trees, and various other little things. There was even a tiny truck looking amazingly similar to Theo's truck. And there was a car looking like Liam's. Wait a second. "Are those figurines of the pack?" Tim rushed next to Liam. "I can stop with that if you think it's weird. It's just, I like making those little scenes and take inspiration from real life." He gently pushed a tiny figurine in a blue jersey. A tiny Liam in lacrosse gear, Liam realized. "You've got to be kidding me! This is awesome! Can I touch it?" Liam was in awe. Tim blushed furiously but then gently placed lacrosse Liam on Liam's palm. The young Alpha turned the figurine to inspect it from all sides. For such a small thing, the details were incredibly detailed. "I make the figurines from a special clay and then I paint them. I hope you don't think it's weird. I am sorry if you do. I'm not a creep, I promise!" Tim almost stumbled over his words in his haste to get them out. "You make them? This is incredible, Tim! Why did you never show us this? That's not creepy or weird, this is fucking amazing! You're crazy talented." Liam could not stop praising the guy. And Tim beamed under the praise. Once he realized Liam did not find anything weird about that and actually loved it, he preened. "Does anybody in the pack know you're doing this?" "Mike knows." Tim smiled shyly. "But I made him swear he wouldn't tell a soul. Made him swear on something important to him." "Uh uh. What did he swear on?" Now Tim blushed again. "Our friendship." "Aw." Those two were cute and deserved each other. Mike because he needed a calm anchor in his life, Tim because he needed someone to speak up when he couldn't himself. "But seriously, Timmy, those are cool. I'm not going to say anything but if you ever want to share with the rest, I can already assure you, they will be as amazed as I was. It's a really cool hobby. I imagine it takes a lot of time?" "Oh, it does. But I like to modulate all the figurines and then paint them. It's calm work and I can think while doing it." Tim began chatting about his hobby. Now that Liam knew it seemed like a dam had burst and he could share it with the Alpha. Liam willingly listened.

****** "I'm glad you could clear the air with Tim." Theo pulled the covers back and crawled in bed. Liam was already under the covers and had scrolled through his phone but now put the device away to concentrate on the talk with his mate. "I'm glad too. It is important to me to get those kinds of replies so I can reflect on myself. I'm not doing everything right. But I'm working on it." "You're doing a lot of things already right. The things you're not doing right, well they partly make you Liam. Not perfect but human and very loveable." "How were you ever the chimera of death?" Liam teased and Theo smacked him with his pillow. Liam laughed. "I am trying here to compliment you and you do not appreciate it? You should be ashamed of yourself!" Theo wailed. Liam laughed louder. "Naw, you will survive that one, big boy. You know I love you." To prove it, he pressed his mate down on the mattress and kissed him passionately. Theo laughed into the kiss but returned it soon enough. "I know you love me", he mumbled after they parted. "And I love you, Lee." Liam was proud to hear that and he smirked. His phone chimed and he let go of Theo to grab it. "It's from Luka. He's asking if I want to meet up sometime next week. Cool." Liam already typed an answer. "You really like the three, right?" Theo mused. Liam looked up from his phone screen. Theo was watching him with questioning eyes but there was no sign of jealousy as he had shown with Scott in the beginning. He sighed. "I do. It's strange. They're all older than me and yet they never acted like they had to explain the world to me. Never a patronizing word, never telling me I'm still so young. I was just Liam and from the get-go, I was part of this little gang. I didn't have to prove myself to them. Because it felt like I had already proved myself prior to meeting them and they didn't even care. It was nice. I wasn't...." "You weren't the fourteen-year-old?" Theo asked amusedly and yet with compassion. "Yeah", Liam confirmed. "I wasn't even Liam the twenty-year-old. I was just...Liam." He fell silent for a few beats. "Doesn't mean I will leave you guys behind. You're my family." "Nobody's thinking that!" Theo furrowed his brows. "If we did, we would be bad friends and family members. We all are individuals outside of this pack and we all will make friendships without the pack being involved. If not, we would be one lousy pack. What we are is, happy you found people appreciating you and liking you for who you are." He reached out and pushed Liam's chin up so the couple looked at each other. "Liam, you have so many things going on for you. Your age shouldn't be one of the first things to notice." It was still strange to hear those things with such sincerity and Liam swallowed dryly. "What's the first thing?" He asked softly. Theo smiled lovingly. "Your good heart. And your eyes. Not because of their color - even though it's a beautiful color - but because they shine with such honesty and happiness." They stared at each other, Liam lost for words. He found his voice only after moments passed. "Were you always that poetic?" "You bring out the best in me", the ex-chimera replied and then kissed Liam deeply.

****** "Not to be pessimistic or something but would it not have been better to plant the flowers after the heatwave?" Liam stood in the open front door and watched Brett watering their plants. Nope", the tall werewolf replied and carried on with his task. "Because?" "Because I wanted to do it now", Brett simply answered. He gave Liam a cheeky grin. "That's reason enough." "Why would I ever doubt that?" Liam remarked teasingly. "Careful before I water you. You could use some growing", Brett teased back. The next moment, he was distracted by the red convertible oldtimer rolling into their driveway. The car was highly polished, not one speck of dirt to be seen, and it was sparkling in the sun. "Holy crap, that is awesome." Brett didn't even realize he was watering the ground instead of the plants, too busy staring at the car. It stopped in front of the entrance and Luka in the driver seat smirked. "Hi." "Hi." Liam laughed. "Nice car." "It's the pack car when one of us wants to go for a nice ride. Holden, a pack member, resto moded it but he lends it to everyone. Thought it's a nice day, why not take it?" He took off his sunglasses and seemed quite proud of his Beta's skills. Liam had no interest in cars but it was a pretty one and why not? He had no objections to driving around in this. Mike and Theo came out of the house. "Dude, that car is sick!" Mike jumped down the stairs and rounded it. Luka preened. "I'll forward it to Holden." Theo was also circling the car, as amazed by it as Mike and Brett were. Liam could only shake his head. Who knew those guys were such car freaks? "Luka, that one over there is Brett and that guy there is Mike. And that is Theo." "Nice to meet you." Theo was the only one to actually shake Luka's hand, the other two simply waved and then continued to fawn over the car. "Nice to meet you too", Luka replied. "You're Liam's boyfriend, right?" "I am", Theo proudly confirmed. "Bring him back in one piece." "I swear on my life", Luka promised in a playful serious tone. Liam grunted. "I can hear you guys! Theo, maybe I won't bring Luka back in one piece. How about that?" "As long as you bring the car back in one piece!" Mike cut in and made them all laugh. "Okay, now that some of my Betas embarrassed me in front of you, I'll get my sunglasses and we can go", Liam called out to the older Alpha and ran into the house and upstairs.

It took him a little while to find his sunglasses (he really needed to try and be tidier) but when he found them under some papers, Liam let out a triumphant cry and ran back downstairs. His Betas were involved in a conversation with Luka (surprisingly not about cars) which Liam now interrupted. "I'm ready." "Great. Hop in." Liam opened the passenger door and marveled at how smooth this was going. He somehow expected the door to get stuck because of age. But this car looked and felt like a brand new one. "See you guys later. Don't burn the house down", he joked. "Yes, dad!" All three Betas chimed in unison. Theo smirked and came to the passenger side to give Liam a quick kiss. "Have fun", he mumbled and Liam nodded. "Bye, guys. See you next time!" Luka called out before he started the car and soon they rolled down the driveway.

"You're one of the few people in this car to use the seatbelt immediately", he informed Liam when he turned into the street. The young Alpha looked down. "I do this in every car. My mother drilled this into me from a young age. I could not drive in a car without buckling up." "My mom was like that too. She always said just because were werewolves didn't mean we had to challenge fate. And she got mad if she saw one of us without a seatbelt on. Not just her own kids but basically everyone. There is a story where she refused to drive another Alpha's wife to the airport because the lady refused to put hers on. It's said they sat in the car for forty minutes until my dad went looking for them." Liam started laughing. "That's dedication. It's that the temper you were talking about?" Now Luka laughed. "My mom was stubborn. I'm too. And my sister is as well. Fun times during puberty, I can tell you. Good thing my dad was good at finding middle ground." "Your parents seemed like an amazing couple. Their personalities really matched with each other, from what I already heard." He wanted to know more about his new friend. And Liam wanted to share things about himself as well. He believed Savannah was right, this could become great friendships. "They were the perfect match even though their personalities were as different as they can be. But they balanced each other out. They were incredible Alphas for our pack." "You say Alphas. Were both real Alphas? Or just an Alpha couple?" Luka stopped at a crosswalk and let some pedestrians pass. "Technically, if you base it on red eyes and stamina, my father was the Alpha. My mother was a Beta but no one would have dared to treat her like one. Or like she was just dad's wife and mate. The way she cared for her pack, the way she made decisions, the way she spoke, she was an Alpha. There is so much more to an Alpha than red eyes. It's all about behavior and the relationship to the pack members." "I don't base it on the red eyes. Theo, he's also a Beta, but we call him Second Alpha. He takes over if I can't. We're the Alpha couple. Why should the color of somebody's eyes define their role?" Luka agreed with Liam's point of view. "There are some packs without an Alpha with red eyes. One Beta is in charge and guides them." "I didn't know that, that's awesome. But wouldn't that be an Alpha by conquest in the long run?" "Depends on how serious the pack takes it. Not all packs are focused on Alpha and Betas, some are more lenient. There are so many kinds of packs. Not just different species but different versions. There are also many Alpha Omegas around." "Alphas without a pack? So wolves with the Alpha spark." "Yeah." "Huh." Liam had never considered that. To him, Omegas had always been those wolves. With normal wolf powers. What were normal wolf powers? Betas? Liam guessed so. He never bothered to really make a distinction or think about what exactly Omegas were. "I kind of don't know a lot about the supernatural. I know how to fight and about several evil beings but all those connections between weres, species, what other magical beings are there, rituals, I know nothing about." Luka didn't take it badly. "At what age were you bitten?" "Fourteen." "You're twenty now. Which means I'm twelve years older than you. Trust and believe me when I tell you I didn't know that much more when I was your age. Plus I have the unfair advantage of being born in a werewolf family." He smiled impishly. Liam grinned. Yet he still insisted on his opinion. "I still think the first few years as a werewolf did not prepare me for that."

Thus he found himself telling Luka everything, from how Scott bit him to the hyenas. It was somewhat therapeutic to talk about all this with another wolf without knowing him beforehand. He didn't need to find periphrases for things, could tell it how it happened and didn't need to sugarcoat the events. He also could be as open as possible without having to worry about insulting some old friends. It had been the same with Byron.

He talked until they parked in the parking lot of the restaurant they had picked to grab something to eat. Liam didn't know the place but according to Luka it had delicious food and you could sit outside under trees so it would not be too hot. "See? That's the reason why teenagers shouldn't become Alphas", Luka said matter of factly and killed the engine. "I don't mean this condescendingly but it is what it is. Maybe if Scott had been a born werewolf it would have been different but I understand why this was all complicated. And why you didn't learn about the supernatural community. You had enough other problems to take care of." "I just wished I could have learned more. Maybe being an Alpha would be easier then", Liam mumbled. "Nah." Luka denied. "Becoming an Alpha does not mean you suddenly get access to this knowledge. It's not like a hatch opens and it's flowing into your brain. You have to make mistakes to find your footing as an Alpha." He unbuckled his seatbelt. "I was prepared to become an Alpha after my father's death for years. It could have become anybody in the pack but since I'm the oldest it was kind of expected for me to take over afterward. But it's not possible to really prepare someone for the weight we shoulder as Alphas. For the magnitude of responsibility settling in. It's something we just feel. And every Alpha has to find their own way to cope with that." Liam frowned. "How do I know I'm doing the right thing then?" Luka gave him a brotherly nudge. "I'd say you're on a good way already. When the first Alpha came to town, your Betas followed you into a potentially deadly fight. They were willing to die by your side. That's a type of loyalty you cannot buy or blackmail. It's loyalty coming from the soul and the heart. And it's only happening because an Alpha made the right decision for those Betas. You're young, Liam, one of the youngest Alphas I've ever met but you marched into the Alpha meeting without a care in the world. Do you think any of those Alphas would have done that at the age of twenty? From my point of view, you're doing absolutely great. Don't focus so much on being perfect and rather follow your heart and gut and you're set. You will be fine." It felt good to hear that. Byron told him that often enough but now a second experienced werewolf told Liam the same thing. He felt flattered. Those men saw him as equal, not just as a teenager. Saw eye-to-eye with him and respected him the same way he respected them. Enough to give Liam a soaring feeling in his chest. "Thanks." He clapped Luka's shoulder. "No come on, I'm hungry."

They exited the car and walked to the restaurant entrance. The hostess greeted them with a friendly smile and an even friendlier one when she got the first good glance at Luka. Liam was friends with Brett so this was not new to him. He was flabbergasted still. "How do you do that?" He had to inquire once they sat outside on their table and the hostess left to get menus for them. "Do what?" Luka acted innocently but his grin and the sparkle in his eyes betrayed him. The hostess came back and made a show to slowly put the menus on the table. She didn't pay Liam any mind and that was fine, he was mated, instead just gave Luka a coy smile. "Don't hesitate to ask me in case you need anything." "Will do. Thank you", he repaid her with a charming smile of his own and she left in a slow, seductive motion. On top of the menus, she left a little note with digits behind. "You barely talked to her and still got her number. Brett managed to pull this off as well. How? Not that I will ever need to try since I have Theo but how the fuck do you pull that off?" Liam could not find any satisfying explanation. Luka had gazed back at the hostess but now his head snapped back. "Luck, I guess. And charm, maybe." "Maybe, uh uh." Liam snickered. Luka had a certain boyish charm about him and that made him attractive. Not taking life too seriously, giving everything an easier vibe. Liam also understood the hostess because the deep green t-shirt Luka was wearing brought out his eyes nicely and accentuated his fit body perfectly. "I like sex. What can I say? Everywhere. No matter what country I am." Luka was not embarrassed to share this. "Have you always been like this?" "Frankly? Yeah. I always liked to flirt and when I was old enough to actually become sexually active, I saw no harm in there. I don't play. That's how my parents raised me. My mother always said: Go and have fun with whoever you want to have fun. But don't break hearts if you don't have to. Be upfront. If it's just sex, say it. Saves you and other people heartbreak. I always followed that. Yes, I had relationships but most of the time I have been single and had one-night-stands. Or several night stands. Whatever. The minute I'm interested in someone or in a relationship, I'm faithful. I can't stand cheaters." "That's the right answer. Sex is nice, with the right person even better, but I don't like players. Nice to hear someone having values."

Liam took a look inside the menu. Right on cue, a waiter appeared. "Hello gentlemen, I'm your server for today. Would you care for a drink?" The Alphas looked at each other. "Just water is fine for me", Liam decided. It was hot, despite the trees providing shade, and he would become thirsty, he knew himself. "Water is good", Luka decided himself and the waiter went to fetch their drinks. "You said no matter what country you are in. Are you traveling a lot?" Liam had picked up on that. "For work yeah." "What are you doing for a living?" "I deal in car parts for either oldtimer or pimped-out cars. Like the convertible. Holden is the mechanic, we work together. He screws the cars together, I contract the clients and the manufacturers. We have business all over the world since some of the parts are very rare. So I traveled a lot. For periods of time, I wasn't home for months. I never had my own apartment because it made no sense to pay for something I used. Tried it once and after weeks my landlord called and said he just wanted to check if I was still alive since I never came around. So I moved out again and if I stayed home, I stayed with the Alphas." "And that was okay? For you to be gone so long?" "My parents ket an open door policy. If something important came up, they called us home but aside from that, we were free to leave as long as we wanted. We knew we could always return to the pack house. No matter how late, even in the middle of the night, we were always welcome. We all made use of that rule over the years."

The waiter brought their drinks and took their order. When he left the two alone again, Liam raised his glass. "Good idea to meet up again", he praised. "Well, Savannah said it right, it's the beginning of wonderful friendships. So of course." Luka smiled and they clinked their glasses together. Liam took a sip. Perfect, cool water, he never drank anything better. He put his glass down again and savored the sip. "Uhm, I never got the chance to ask. How many Betas do you have? We're only talking about me." "I don't mind. You're good at telling a story and explaining things. Somebody ever told you that?" Luka had put his glass down as well. Liam made an incredulous face. "No. What would they? I'm kind of dumb." It had slipped out faster than Liam could have stopped it. Luka's frown was almost instantly. "What asshole told you that?" "No one. Life experience, if you will. I'm not the brightest." "You don't have to be a genius but you really don't appear dumb, Liam. Don't believe it when people tell you that. They're just haters." It had the same vibe as a worried older brother giving a stern talking to his younger sibling and Liam chuckled. He was a big brother but not a little brother and yeah he called Scott his brother sometimes but that was different. Maybe because Scott was only two years older than Liam himself. They came from the same walk of life, small town, maybe that was also a factor? Liam could not really put his finger on it but it hit differently with Luka. "Okay", he said to end this topic. "I will remember this talk." "Good", Luka looked stern but then he smiled. "To get back to the question, seven Betas. A few less than you have." He leaned back in his chair. "There is my younger sister Delaney. Younger by three years. An absolute firecracker. If she gets angry, if you piss her off, she will cuss at you and rant for hours if you let her. Especially in the background of a phone conversation. Very entertaining, if I'm being honest." Luka laughed. But the love for his sister was evident in his words. "Then there is Simon. He is...was dad's best friend. They've been to school and college together and he acted like some sort of advisor for the pack. Helped with international deals and connections. He's my godfather and like a second dad. I'm happy I still have him after I lost dad. It doesn't bear contemplating if he would have been also gone..." Luka trailed off. Liam managed a compassionate smile. "I am sorry for your loss. Losing somebody we love is never easy." He touched his collar bone where the Lion King tattoo was hidden under his shirt. Luka appreciated the sentiment. He continued his list on a lighter note. "With Simon came Holden, his son. Holden's just a few months younger than I am, we grew up together." "Holden's mom is not part of the pack?" "No. She never wanted to get married or have kids. Yet she married Simon and got pregnant with Holden. Weeks after his birth she handed Simon the infant and announced: I don't want to be a wife or a mother. Here's the child, I'll leave your life for good. He does not have to search for me, I want nothing to do with any of you. My lawyer will send you the documents where I signed my rights away and the divorce papers. Got her suitcase and left. From that moment on, mom and dad gave a hand to Simon. Holt and I basically grew up like brothers. He annoys Delaney the same way I do." Liam giggled. "Are younger siblings not something fun? I have a younger brother. He's ten but living at the lake." "Aw, they're so cute at that age. And then they start stating their own opinions and become brats." It was obvious Luka didn't mean a thing he said about his sister. They both began to laugh. "Holden's a great guy but he can be a hothead. Impulsive and very brash. Those are not his finest moments and we have to hold him back. But he's fiercely protective of the pack. Would do anything for us. Another one of my Betas is Sandro. Alessandro. My second in command. We met during freshmen orientation in college and clicked almost instantly. Have been inseparable ever since. When I brought him home the first time, mom looked at dad and said: Look, it's Luka in another body. Our parents often joked how they could each take the wrong son home and nobody would notice cause we're so similar. It's eerie. "

Their food came out and they interrupted their talk to thank the waiter and dig in before Luka resumed talking. "Sandro was human when we met but after a while, he noticed my family was hiding something. He confronted me and after consulting with my Alphas I came clean to him. Thank god cause when he was twenty-five, he go involved with a lone Alpha and said Alpha got a bit too excited in bed. Right before a full moon. Sandro showed up at our doorstep, bloodied and already on the verge of transforming. Dad took one look at him and dragged him to the basement where we keep a cage for those things.  I stayed with him the whole night and after that, it was more or less clear he would become part of the pack. Sandro helped me a lot after my parents' death. He took charge when I couldn't do it and held the pack together. That's why he became my second in command, just like Theo is for you." Luka drank from his water. "We have two other women in the pack. Bryn and Lynn. Laugh if you want, their rhyming names are a running joke in our pack. Bryn I know for almost her whole life. How fit are you in werewolf genetics?" Liam snorted. "That a thing? I'd give it a solid zero." "To keep it simple: The werewolf gene is dominant most of the time. Werewolf parents will have werewolf children. Even if only one parent is a wolf, the child likely will be one as well. The chances are even higher by born wolves rather than bitten ones. But if you have several generations of werewolves mixing with humans there is a slight possibility to have a human child even as werewolf parents. In Bryn's family case it was the opposite. There had been some wolves here and there, some of them had been in contact with my father's pack, but for generations, there were only humans. Until Bryn was born. Boom. Human parents with a werewolf baby." "You're kidding me!" Liam was amazed at how crazy nature could get. "Absolutely not. But her family knew about werewolves and so they knew the name of my father's pack. They grabbed their daughter and moved closer to us, showed up at our door, and kindly asked my parents to help them. To make having yet another child running around somewhat plausible, we started calling Bryn Delany's and my second cousin. We kept this til this day and mostly refer to her as our cousin. Lynn, on the other hand, was bitten after a night of clubbing and then left to die. Mom found her somewhere in the ditch and brought her home. We were not sure she would survive but that girl is tough as nails. Don't underestimate her." "She reminds me of Sadie. One should never underestimate Sadie as well. She will kick your ass and probably gnaw on your bones without ruining her makeup." "Somehow that description also fits Maddie and Savannah", Luka realized. Liam had to agree with that. "Anyway, you said you had seven Betas. One's missing." "The latest addition to the pack before my parents died. Will. He's Sandro's cousin, full-blood-related this time. They have been close while growing up and he visited one time. This family is good at picking up things and he got curious. We never got to explain to him everything cause a hostile pack attacked and he was wounded badly. Dad turned him in an attempt to save his life. It worked and Will moved to live with us. Funny enough, he and Holden clicked almost as instantly as Sandro and I did. They just balance each other a bit better. Hopefully. One's a hothead, the other is too cocky for his own good sometimes. I think the day these two linked, Simon's world kinda ended. He had several gray hairs more after that day. Lynn once kept a tally which one had to get bailed out of jail more often..." Luka tilted his head. "Huh, wondered what happened to that. I think I was the third place..." Liam smirked and Luka gave him an innocent smile. "I mean, we are all law-abiding citizens and never do anything wrong. We stick together and love each other, as a family should." "So do we. My pack and I. They're my family and I don't want to miss anyone of them." "Tell you what, Liam, why don't you and you pack visit us? We could have a BBQ party. Next Friday, is that good?" "That's a great idea. I'll check with the pack and text you."

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When I started this story, I imagined how many chapters this might will have and thought sixty was a good number. Now we are at chapter 60 and this story is far from over. I can't believe that. It's absolutely amazing and I want to thank every single one of my readers for the support. You all are amazing! Thank you!!!

In regards to this chapter, I like the friendship between Luka and Liam. They both are on the same wavelength and get each other. And it was fun working out Luka's Betas. In the next chapter, both packs will fully meet each other. I am excited.

[mediocre-riverdale]

WHY FINN HUDSON WAS THE WORST

#1. Cheating

Finn cheats on Quinn twice with Rachel, which evens out when Quinn also cheats, but no one ever mentions Finn cheating again. So, Finn gets cheated on by Quinn and Rachel, and both times he says how much it hurts and has an outburst. Despite now knowing the pain it causes, he encourages Quinn to cheat on Sam multiple times until she finally does it. He then continues to mock Sam, smirking at Sam and saying ‘I didn’t kiss your girlfriend’ in a teasing tone that implies to everyone that he did. Sam has done absolutely nothing to Finn except be nice and Finn shows no remorse at all for wrecking a relationship, even though he’s been cheated on twice. Again, no one calls him out on this besides Sam.

#2. How He Treats Rachel

Finn knows that Rachel has a crush on him because Rachel is very obvious about it. Despite the fact that he has a pregnant girlfriend at the time, he manipulates Rachel’s emotions and asks her out on a date with the intention to get her back in the Glee Club and not actually date her. He even kisses her (twice). So, after Quinn and Finn break up, Rachel assumes that her and Finn will date (since by this point they’ve kissed twice and been out on a date). Finn goes ahead and tells her he doesn’t actually want to be her boyfriend, which is fine because even though he led her on at least he’s honest.

He goes to hook up with hotter girls and when that doesn’t work out he goes back to Rachel, who now has Jesse. Rachel tells Finn that she’s moved on, which she has a right to do since Finn dumped her. Finn’s response? He’s not taking no for an answer and will not respect Rachel/Jesse’s relationship even though he had his chance. He goes on to betray Rachel’s trust and expose Rachel/Jesse’s relationship to everyone, taunt Jesse multiple times, and not back down. After Rachel tells him no again, he even sings Jessie’s Girl to her in front of multiple people and circles her while Rachel sits there uncomfortably.

After Finn leaves Rachel to go to the army comes back (after backpacking around for months without saying a word to anyone), he’s angry that Rachel moved on after he told her to do just that. He complains and is shown to be jealous of Rachel’s success. Once he finds out Rachel did kiss Brody, he runs off like a child to Lima, again without saying anything to Rachel. This forces Rachel to abandon her life in NYC for at least a whole day just to come find his pouty ass.

While Rachel maturely explains why they can’t be together anyone, Finn pathetically complains about how he now has no one in the world and how things will never be good again.

#3. How Finn Treats Other Males

I’ve already mentioned how he belittled Sam (also: when the Sam did the Justin Bieber experience, Finn claimed it was stupid and then after finding out he could get Quinn to cheat using a Bieber song, he stole Sam’s idea) and Jesse, and encouraged their girlfriends to sleep with him. So, let’s move on to Blaine. Blaine is a nice guy who joins the New Directions with the intention of helping them and finding love with Kurt. Finn, noticing Blaine’s talent, insults him multiple times and tries to make him feel as if he’s not part of the team.

Moving onto Kurt. Kurt is his friend and step-brother, yet he doesn’t really treat Kurt well. He indirectly calls him a fag, tells him to tone it down with the gay stuff, doesn’t stand up for him multiple times in fear of losing his high school popularity, and is shown to be uncomfortable in a lot of normal situations with Kurt. There’s an episode where Rachel asks Finn to stand up for Kurt and Finn blatantly says he can’t do it because of his reputation. In the end, all of this is resolved by him dancing with Kurt at a wedding (where the only people attending are the Glee clubbers and family members, all of which are already accepting), which does absolutely nothing to stop the fact that Kurt is being terrorized by Karofsky.

#4. Finn Is A Hypocrite

We’ve already covered the whole cheating thing where he constantly complains about being cheated on but encourages cheating himself. Let’s talk about how he berates Rachel for not giving up the spotlight or allowing talented people to join (Sunshine), but then is threatened and mean whenever any other talented male comes in. If Rachel insults someone or tries to steal a solo she’s a horrible, annoying diva. If Finn insults another nice male with more talent than him, Finn is an insecure teen who needs to be coddled and propped up by everyone.

In season one, Finn is creeped out by Kurt’s persistent crush on him. He says something along the lines of ‘if I did that to a girl, she would take out a restraining order’. But he does do stuff like that to girls. Again, Rachel says that she is dating Jesse and he needs to respect that and Finn continues to pursue her. Quinn says that she is dating Sam and doesn’t want to cheat, but Finn won’t take no for an answer and goes on anyways.

#5. Finn’s Prejudice

I’ve already mentioned how he screamed faggy at Kurt multiple times, but let’s look more into that. When Sam comes and wants to sing a duet with Kurt, Finn immediately finds Sam to say that he can’t do a duet with another guy. Sam says that he already promised and will be doing it, but Finn argues against it and later goes to tell Kurt that he shouldn’t sing with Sam. Poor Kurt is guilted into singing alone.

Finn later calls Sue’s baby a retard, even though he knows multiple people with Down syndrome and obviously knows that word is an insult. He says this when he is an adult, not a dumb teenager.

#6. Finn’s Reputation

Everyone constantly talks about how Finn was ever so brave for being nice to the Glee Club and joining them. No one mentions how Quinn, Santana, Brittany, Puck, Mike, and Matt also joined even though they were Cheerios/football players.

Finn cares about his reputation more than anyone else. At first, he won’t admit he likes Rachel because she’s a loser. He won’t pose in the Glee photo after promising Rachel he would. He won’t stand up for Kurt. In the episode where all of the football players have to choose between football and Glee, he is the only one not to show up. He basically tells Kurt to ‘tone down the gay’ multiple times. In another episode, he goes to throw a slushie in Kurt’s face because he needs to keep his popularity.

#7. Finn Compared to Others

Now, you might be saying ‘oh, but Santana, Quinn, and Rachel did bad stuff too’.

Okay, let’s talk about Santana first. Yes, Santana insults people all of the time and is a bitch. She also gets called out on it multiple times (while basically no one ever calls Finn out on anything), and she stands up for multiple glee members. Santana tapes a recorder to her under boob to get Sebastian in trouble after hurting Blaine, threatens Karofsky in the halls when he threatens to beat up Kurt/Blaine, creates the Bullywhips to protect Kurt, blackmails Karofsky so Kurt can come back to school, and threatens Brody with a Paula Abdul song after she finds out he’s shady.

Rachel is annoying yes, but everyone never forgets to tell her this. She constantly stands up for herself and others in the club. She’s the one that comes up with the idea for the guys to threaten Karofsky. She’s the one who offers everyone singing lessons, is down to do anything to help the club, and helps Kurt multiple times with songs/auditions. She’s nice to Quinn about the pregnancy, even though both of them know Quinn would have tortured her if the roles were reversed.

Now onto Quinn. I think Quinn is kind of a bad person, but again, people tell her this to her face. No one ever really tells Finn when he’s done something wrong, they just continue to praise him over basic human decency. Multiple people have told Quinn how horrible she is, and somehow acknowledging that she’s a bitch makes it less annoying to see because we know that something will be said/happen to her. For Finn, consequences don’t exist.

#8. Santana’s Outing

Okay, I’ve seen some people say that Santana was a bitch who deserved to be outed (no one deserves that) and that Finn wasn’t trying to tell everyone, just a couple people. So, we’ll disregard that he outed her in a high school hallway in a school that was openly homophobic.

After the outing, Santana slaps Finn and later Finn uses that as blackmail to get her back into the Glee Club for a week, saying it’s either that or no competition. Lady Music Week is humiliating. It consists of everyone singing a song while making deep eye contact with Santana while she sits there uncomfortably. Santana says multiple times that she doesn’t like the idea and doesn’t want attention on her, but of course Finn doesn’t listen because he can’t take no for an answer.

Finn sings Girls Just Want to Have Fun and everyone immediately disregards the fact that he said Santana’s biggest secret in front of multiple people.

#9. No One Blames Finn For Anything

Like I’ve said above, Finn cheats, isn’t there for his friends, insults people, has jealous rage, outs Santana, and cares about his reputation over everything, and yet no one says a word to him about this. No one goes ‘hey Finn, you’re acting like an ass’.

Finn is praised the entire show for being ‘the best guy in the world’. There’s a scene where Artie thanks Finn for being his friend and basically says that it was a sacrifice for Finn to step down from his popularity for a bit to slum it with the Glee Club. Again, Quinn, Santana, Brittany, Mike, Puck, Sam, and Matt all joined even though they could’ve been popular. They receive no praise.

#10. Finn Is A Lazy Complainer

Finn spends most of high school not studying and playing video games. He’s also on the football team, but doesn’t really commit to football that much. He’s a mediocre high school student.

When college applications time comes around, Finn has the audacity to be shocked by the fact that he doesn’t get a football or theater scholarship. He spends all of season three complaining about how he’ll never get out of Lima, even though all we’ve seen from him is him plotting how to sleep with girls, whining about his reputation, and occasionally doing a decent thing. We never really see him work hard at anything.

He just complains constantly about everything and when Mr. Schue, Rachel, and Emma try to help him by giving him college pamphlets, he doesn’t even read them. He throws them out in the trash as soon as possible and then later goes on a rant about how he won’t be young forever, as if he never thought or learned about aging.

Then, in college, he’s shown to be a slacker who parties all day, drinks, and makes grilled cheeses. He even lies and manipulates college girls into taking off their tops, so hey, maybe he’s moved up a little in the world. Anyways, Puck has to come and tell him it isn’t cool to skip your classes.

Basically, Finn complained, finally got into a college, and then just slacked off again without learning anything

[kariachi]

Thoughts on all the characters done wrong by OS/UAF/OM (Ben 10) and how they would or how you'd like to see them in the reboot

Nix, nix I could be here the rest of the year. Like, where the fuck does a bitch start there?

With Alan, who could’ve been a great addition to the main cast but nope, can’t be having that, can’t even have him show up regularly?

With Manny, who got even less time and attention than Alan and went from disabled rep to whatever the fuck people were thinking when they made the Rooters arc?

Helen, who got pretty much nothing, period?

Any girl who had any sort’ve romantic plot with Ben, especially Ester? Poor fucking Ester, who didn’t even get to have a reaction to Ben ghosting her, just a ‘yeah I’ve been trying to tell you I’m leaving you for another man’ and she’s off after one of the worst episodes-

Pierce, our dear, ‘if you’re gonna kill him at least let it have some fucking impact in the goddamn show’ boy Pierce Wheels?

The Validus family? Just in general? I mean good fuck? Elena, sweetpea, what the flying hell did they do to you?!

Charmcaster, whose autonomy was just yanked out of her for the sake of letting her be a villain without actually being a villain?

Mike, who could’ve been a source of some great worldbuilding or at least character work?

Argit, whose behavior got progressively less evil until after the arc where he’s at his best, at which point they just decide to reverse all that progress and make him worse than he started for no apparent reason?

With Cooper, maybe, who was a cunning little thing in his premiere but suddenly had all his character dropped in favor of being a ‘fat nerd likes girl who doesn’t like him’ joke?

And that’s just off the top of my head, and excluding main characters! This show was an absolute mess. I love it, but it was a mess.

As for getting them in the reboot... fuck. Honestly with a lot of them I’d be fine just getting cameos. After the Rooters’ arc shitshow I’d would be perfectly cool getting the Amalgams as a cameo in a few episodes, where they’re hanging out at some monument or park or something just, watching the chaos and being grateful they aren’t involved.  With Pierce especially I just, we got burned so bad before I’m not sure I’d trust them if they put him in in a major way. At most, give me an episode where its the Amalgams vs Kevin, Ben, and Gwen at something. Bonus points if the Amalgams win. By a landslide. Give them this.

Bonus bonus points if they give Manny back his fucking prosthetic because yes I am sour about that.

Julie they can bring back if she ends up Gwen’s rival in her athletic stuff. Ben can even have a crush on her, I don’t care (maybe balance out Kevin’s stuff a bit), just, give her and Gwen a rivalry so her shit is never overshadowed by Ben and we don’t have to worry about her.

Ester, don’t even, leave the poor girl alone.

Attea, don’t. If I see anybody anywhere near Attea after OV I’m going to pitch the unholiest of fits I swear to fuck.

Looma can come back if, and only if, it’s because Kwarrel is a thing, and Kevin’s dad, and he’s dating Gar now. Otherwise, leave her the fuck be, she’s been through enough.

The Validuses can happen, as long as they’re Alien Swarm Validuses and not whatever bullshit everything else was pulling because I do not have the patience for that shit.

Cooper, make him a one episode wonder. This unassuming kid who manages to play the Tennysons and Kev and Argit off each other to his own benefit to absolute perfection. The Tennysons are in shock at the end, Kevin is pissed, and Argit can only give respect to the kid’s hustle.

Which gets us to Argit and, y’all all know the various ways I’d do Argit already. A boy and his rat, somehow both each other’s morality pets and sources of basic fucking sense. Give me some of the loyalty and bravery and goodness we see in the Rooters Arc, and that they just, brushed under the rug immediately because apparently they’ve got no sense of character progression.

And then Kai who. I honestly do want to see interaction with reboot!Kev and a Kai. I really think that could be a whole different angle on the stuff she did with Benwolf, with plenty of space for her character to grow and then for her to drag Kevin into growth. I’ve said it before, I need a Kai who ends up a reverse Indiana Jones and gets Kevin to help her on her jobs. She knows her history and is going to make damn sure that people get their stolen property back so help her. Don’t even- Make her exclusive to Kevin things. Don’t even have Tennysons in the same episode as her until either the reboot version of OV or a flashforward. Seriously, give the kids a Kai that doesn’t know a Tennyson from a nightstand, friends with Kevin, then a flashforward and she’s married to Ben? Drive them wild, right up the fucking wall.

I doubt any of this would happen, I don’t have that kind of luck, but damnit a bitch can dream...

[insert-pun-here-now]

Shooting Star- All or Nothing- Part 2

Masterpost

“Thank God!” Tina yelled, rushing over to hug Blaine. He jerked back, stiffly. His movements were more robotic than anything, eyes fixed blankly ahead as he slowly tilted his head downwards to look at Tina, eyes burning from the number of times he rubbed it on his sleeve, unable to use his hands due to them being covered in Marley’s blood.

Tina took in the sad environment, the glassy eyes, the dried tear tracks on everybody’s faces, their silence, the blood. She looked around, trying to find people missing. “Where’s Marley and Brittany?”

“We don’t know where Brittany is,” Joe admitted.

“But Marley? I thought she was with you,” Tina asked, confused, then the shock began to really catch up to her, taking in their faces, taking in everything. The pain, the sorrow, the regret, the guilt.

“She was.” Artie’s hands were hanging out of the sides of his wheelchair, eyes glazed over and staring into the distance. “Then she wasn’t.”

“I should have been there.” Tina’s hands flew up to her mouth, horrified. “I should have been with you guys.”

“No you shouldn’t,” Blaine rasped softly, voice cracking.

“I wanted to be with you guys!” Tina yelled back.

“It wasn’t nice, Tina. You wouldn’t have... we all didn’t...” Blaine stared at the sky.

“We stick together!”

“Did we ever, for Marley?” Unique shouted, voice wavering slightly as she stepped up to Tina, seeing Blaine unresponsive. “Do you want to know what happened in there? She was beaten. She was battered. She was so thin her ribs cracked with a little force. She was so weak it took a man stepping on her wrist to break it. And all the while we realized that we weren’t the best to her. He beat her and shot her because she took attention away from Kitty by saying she was the one who was a burden to all of us by losing Sectionals! And you know the last thing she said? SHE FUCKING APOLOGIZED TO US FOR EVERYTHING! In low self-esteem language, that means she was sorry she even existed in our lives to begin with. Let that sink in. She. Was. Sorry. She. Existed. Marley Rose, our own version of your Rachel, had such low self-esteem that she was sorry she existed,” Unique scoffed, stepping closer. “No one has passed out at Sectionals before. But I don’t think you let someone feel so underappreciated they were sorry for their own existence.”

“Unique...” Ryder whispered, stepping forward. “Let it be.”

“Hell no I’m not letting this be!” Unique spun around to face him angrily, her face turning redder as her voice rose higher and higher. “I was her best friend! She had my back since day one! I should have had her back! Maybe then she wouldn’t be this worse off... maybe then she wouldn’t have been shot at all...” Her voice became nothing more than a whisper.

It didn’t escape anybody that she used was.

Sure, Marley could be a little extra, a little goofy, sunny, stubborn, her sense of justice too strong sometimes, her sense of morality an annoying trait that made people think she was a goody-two-shoes most of the time. Maybe her songwriting wasn’t the best, maybe her songwriting needed a little improvement, but maybe if they all worked together they could create a masterpiece.

They were all works in progress, but Marley was the best out of all of them.

(Rachel would later state that of all the members so far, Marley was the only one who hadn’t cheated on anybody, hadn’t been a total bitch, hadn’t done anything that was remarkably stupid and wrong. Eating disorders didn’t count- they realized with Mercedes and Quinn before and Kitty later. To Ryder he found it bitter that it took Kitty coming out with an ED for everybody to take it seriously. Everybody found it bitterly ironic even later, when the truth came out about Kitty’s involvement.)

Joe sighed, slouching slightly as he cast his eyes up skywards, hoping to God that with one member down, they could find the other one quickly safely and unharmed.

Jake spoke up, voice thick, echoing everybody’s feelings, thoughts... anything.

“Brittany got shot too.”

The world around Sam shifted and tilted on its axis as he gaped at the younger Puckerman, staring right at him mouth ajar. “You’re kidding. How did you know? Where is she? Where the fuck-? Why didn’t you tell me earlier?! Tell me fucking where she is!” Sam roared, closing the distance in an instant and grabbing the front of Jake’s shirt. “ANSWER ME!”

“When I went outside to look for help... I checked everywhere for other people. I heard Brittany crying in one of the corners. She was bleeding quite badly and I helped her outside... and then she told me not to blame myself,” Jake whispered. “That’s when I got the paramedics to go back for Marley.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“My heart shattered. I didn’t want yours to break either.”

“Piece of shit!” Sam yelled, shoving Jake back. Mr. Schue stopped Sam from attacking Jake any further by throwing a hand across his chest to block him. “You should have just told me!”

“Like it would have made anything better!” Jake shouted back.

“You don’t know me,” Sam snarled. Coach Beiste stepped up, separating the two.

“That’s enough. You both arguing isn’t going to reverse what happened. We need to calm down, now.”

“I need to call Kurt,” Blaine said suddenly, stepping away and tapping at his phone. “I need to tell him- I can’t- I can’t...”

“It’s okay,” Sugar whispered, rubbing his back. “We’re here.”

“No,” he choked out, fumbling with his phone and putting it up to his ear. “Kurt, please, pick up. Pick up. Pick up.”

A choked sob, as he almost collapsed to the ground, his knees weak as he finally heard Kurt’s simple, “Hello? Blaine?”

“Kurt.” His voice was choked, as if someone was strangling him. He didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, or anything. “Kurt, I love you.”

“I don’t understand-“

“I love you,” Blaine repeated forcefully this time, before sobbing. “I just... I just wanted you... I just wanted you to know that. I needed for you to know that. And I know I’ve apologized a million times for what I’ve done and did a lot of terrible things and I know we’re reconnecting again but-“ Blaine sank to the floor, on his knees, hands covered in Marley’s blood as he stared at the stains. “There was a shooting in the school.”

There was a gasp over the phone as Kurt fumbled with something, glass shattering in the background. He could hear Santana and Rachel in the background, yelling about something. About breaking glass. They abruptly stopped, there were murmurs of concern, then- that was Rachel’s voice now. “You’re on speaker, Blaine.”

“I- I just... we had something happen. Something happened and the school was shot up,” Blaine said, and Rachel’s gasp could be heard over the phone.

“Are you okay?” Rachel asked, gently. “Was anyone hurt?”

“I’m okay physically.” There was a sigh of relief over the phone. “Brittany and Marley got hurt.”

Utter silence.

“Britt and Marley got hurt?” Santana asked, slowly. She was in shock. She was in disbelief. She sounded like she wanted someone to slap her to get her back into reality.

It finally registered in Blaine’s head that Santana still loves Brittany. She was still head over heels in love with Brittany and no one could say anything about it, even if Brittany is dating Sam at the moment. And Marley was her mentee. Santana was fiercely protective of anyone she considered to be worth protecting. Blaine wondered if Santana could see what he sees in the newbies: potential. Brittany was self-explanatory but he wondered why Santana was attached to Marley. Maybe they were closer than he thought.

With all that was said and done, would Santana feel guilty too?

“Baby Blaine? You still there?”

Blaine blinked back into reality, forcing himself to look away from the incriminating red on his hands and getting to his feet and walking. Each step felt like he was sinking into cement, deeper and deeper. He was walking in an aimless direction.

“Y-yeah, I’m still here.” It felt like someone dumped an ice cold bucket in his face, shocking him. Santana’s voice felt like that at the moment, probably taking over speaking since Rachel was probably busy with Kurt, who he could hear sobbing in the background. “For now.”

“No, don’t you dare speak like that,” Santana snapped, and there was a rustle as she shifted. “I don’t care where everybody is now, I will call for a full New Directions reunion even if I have to drag Puckerman’s ass out of college and whip Finn into coming back. They are his students, and if Mr. Schue was caught in the crossfire like that, then he’s no use. I don’t care if Mr. Schue and Finn are feuding, I don’t care if you all say you’re fine because you’re all clearly not. I am dragging the entire New Directions back to Lima and you will not say a word to stop anything about it.”

“Santana, I-“

“Blaine Anderson if you are about to say that it’s too much for us to suddenly come there and possibly leave everything behind abruptly, I’m sorry, but Rachel and Kurt are packing as we speak and they have sent texts to Puck, Finn, Quinn, Mike and Mercedes and they have AGREED, so shut your pie hole about it and accept our love! I don’t give it out that easy. God, I think I see why I let Berry organize these things...”

Blaine closed his eyes and smiled, listening to Santana rant in the background. He knew it was to distract him from the madness around him as the paramedics came up to him and looked him over.

“You okay, man?” Ryder asked softly, coming up to him.

“No. I don’t think I’ll ever be,” Blaine said, knowing that Santana was trying to act extra tough and sassy to hide the fact that she was downright terrified.

“Blaine- stop,” Santana huffed. “They will get through this. Look, I will flay you if you tell anybody else but... I’m scared too. I’m scared for Baby Marley and Britt. I know there’s so much more you’re not telling me because you can’t bring yourself to tell me. I’m downright terrified that you’re not telling me fucking anything other than there was a shooting and both of them were hurt. But we’re coming back, we’re not letting you guys go through this alone, alright? We are family, and if the newbs don’t know that yet, they’re going to know it now.” A pause. “I’m not just saying that ‘cause Puckerman’s brother is in there and he’s literal family.”

“Santana, you are a secret softie.”

“Shut up.” She paused for a moment. “Kurt wants the phone back. We’re all hopping onto the first flight as soon as we can. I’ll leave you both to talk things out later, alright? He’s a mess.”

“Alright. See you soon, Santana.”

“Take care of yourself, baby Blaine. And remember: you’re alive now. And you’re safe.”

Blaine hung up the call as Ryder placed himself next to him. Everybody was getting rollcalled, Coach Beiste and Mr. Schuester were called by Sue Sylvester to help the rest of the teachers do rollcall. Blaine imagined the tears that came when mentioning Marley’s name. It felt like a stab in his heart as Kitty joined him and Artie was just in his wheelchair, staring at the sky blankly. Jake was keeping a wide berth from Sam, who was talking to Unique and Tina. Joe and Sugar were trying to pray together, but they were practically supporting each other.

Kitty’s mouth opened, then shut suddenly. Then... “I didn’t get to tell Marley it wasn’t her.”

“Wasn’t her what?” Ryder asked.

But Kitty just shook her head, suddenly sobbing and curling into Blaine’s side as he put his arm around her and let her sob into his shirt. Artie was practically indisposed, staring into space. Sam was dry-heaving. Unique was actually vomiting into the ground, Tina rubbing both of their backs. Jake was kicking the shit out of a tree, yelling and screaming in frustration as he also picked up rocks and chucked it at the tree, barely satisfied when the rocks made a heavy thunk on the tree.

Ryder was just looking at Jake, sliding out of his seat and watched him pull back his fist and punch the tree as if it would make everything go away. For all his efforts, the tree barely moved. With a roar, Jake continued to slam his fist into the tree. His shoulders shook with silent sobs as every punch grew weaker and weaker as he finally threw a slow punch, missing the tree entirely, and then sliding to the ground as his back hit the tree.

“Did you get it out of your system?” Ryder asked quietly.

“No,” Jake muttered, but he made no move to get up. He was panting heavily, sweating hard, though Ryder couldn’t tell the difference between his tears and his sweat. “I’m her boyfriend, Ryder. I’m her fucking boyfriend and I didn’t see this. I didn’t fucking see any of this.”

“I’m pretty sure none of us ever saw a school shooting to happen today, so...”

“No!” Jake shouted, and Ryder flinched slightly, but relaxed. “I mean her. I didn’t see any of that. I didn’t see that she needed help. I didn’t see that she still relapsed. I didn’t see she didn’t love herself. I didn’t see because I was fucking blind to all of it!” Jake picked up a stone and hurled it far away from them.

“Love is a blindfold,” Ryder said softly, staring into the distance. “You love someone so much that you don’t see their flaws. It doesn’t matter what kind of love it is, you just think they’re perfect and can do no wrong. You put them on a pedestal and turn a blind eye to what falls from the top because you’re focused on the perfect artefact.”

“When did you get so wise?” Jake smiled, though it was mostly forced. Ryder would still take it.

“Because that’s what I did with Katie. And it’s what I did before... but that’s a story for another day.” Ryder patted his shoulder awkwardly, and noticed Jake was still heaving, panting from his efforts to destroy the tree. “I think we all owe Marley an apology.”

Ryder was absolutely gutted. He thought she stopped. He thought everything was okay. But no. He should have pushed. Should have done something. But now it’s too late. It’s too late and Marley absolutely paid the price.

“Guys...” Kitty’s voice drew all of them back to the present as Joe and Sugar came up to Blaine and Kitty, hands outstretched to Kitty who looked like she was going to faint. “I... I don’t feel so good.”

“Did you eat?” was the first question that popped into Joe’s mind, frowning at her.

“No... I missed one of Sue’s shakes today...”

Artie looked back at Kitty and at Unique and Sam vomiting and having a panic attack respectively. Sam was rocking back and forth, hands over his ears and whimpering. Unique sighed as she stopped vomiting, looking tired, and Tina was trying really hard to comfort them both, looking up to Artie for help.

“Mr. Schue!” Artie yelled, rolling over the ground to get to the four staff members deep in discussion about the situation. Coach Beiste had silent tears rolling down her face. Sue was comforting Becky with a hand on her back. Miss Pillsbury had looked up at Artie shouting, Joe catching Kitty as she collapsed, Unique and a bunch of vomit in front of her, Sam having a panic attack. Ryder and Blaine were trying to help Tina with Sam. Sugar was running to the teachers, looking terrified. “Mr. Schue we need help.”

“Will,” Emma said, swatting Will’s hand. “We need to help them!”

“Go and help them,” Sue said, trying to calm Becky down. “I’ll stay with Becky.”

“Hey, hey,” Will said, crouching by Sam. “It’s Mr. Schue. You’re safe now.”

“No-no- no we have to get out, Mr. Schue, we have to get out, we have to get out-“ Sam gasped for a breath, grasping at Blaine blindly. Blaine hardly blinked, as Ryder put a hand on his back, but instead of rubbing aimlessly like Tina, he motioned for Sam to lean against Blaine.

“Can you feel his heartbeat?” Ryder asked quietly. “Can you try to match his?”

“Don’t worry, Mr. Schue, we got Sam. Help Unique, I think she’s throwing up due to nerves and stress and Kitty passed out,” Blaine whispered, controlling his breathing to keep his heartbeat steady. “Tina, could you help Sugar in getting us all some water?”

“We’re going to the hospital in a bit,” Will whispered. “If you want to go home, that’s fine. I don’t blame you.”

“No. Us Glee freaks stick together,” Ryder said sadly. “And I don’t think we’re leaving each other alone, not for a hot minute. I think we all... have something to say to each other.”

“And the others... they’re coming back. Something about supporting us, organized by Santana,” Blaine muttered. “I tried to talk them out of it, but you know Santana...”

“I think we need their help,” Will admitted, hanging his head. “I should have known something was up. I just... thought you kids could handle it.”

Blaine smiled sadly. “As you say, we’re only kids.”

Will got up to help Joe with Kitty, who was pale, paler than ever. The paramedics looked her over then frowned.

“She needs to be taken to the hospital. She’s very dehydrated, she’s severely underweight. She has electrolyte imbalances, which could lead to fatality.”

“What?”

“We need to move to the hospital now.”

[snarksandkisses]

February 11, 2020 (Tuesday)

Heather Cox Richardson 

As predicted, yesterday’s calm was short-lived. There were three major news items today but, put together, they added up to a surprisingly coherent narrative.

The first story was that one that has taken the media by storm: the Department of Justice, under Attorney General William Barr, today stepped into the sentencing of Trump advisor Roger Stone to reverse the recommendation the department had made yesterday.

In November, a jury convicted Stone of seven counts of obstructing and lying to Congress and tampering with witnesses concerning his role connecting the Trump campaign with Wikileaks in 2016. Career prosecutors in the Justice Department yesterday followed federal guidelines to recommend that the judge sentence him to between 7 and 9 years in prison. After they made this recommendation, Trump tweeted that the recommendations for the sentencing of his friend were “very unfair,” a “miscarriage of justice,” and a “ridiculous 9 year sentence recommendation.” Today, the department submitted a revision to its recommendation, telling the judge the previous recommendation was “excessive and unwarranted.”

It appears the Justice Department attorneys on this case learned about the revision by hearing it on the Fox News Channel. As soon as they heard, four of them—Aaron Zelinsky, Adam Jed, and Michael Marando-- filed paperwork to be removed from the case, and one, Jonathan Kravis, resigned his position as an assistant U.S. Attorney in Washington, D.C., going back to his home base as an assistant U.S. attorney in Baltimore.

It is hard to overstate the significance of this event.

The Department of Justice is supposed to defend the rule of law in America. It is not supposed to be swayed by political pressure, and traditionally, communicates with the White House only very generally, and never about specific cases. It is emphatically not the role of the Justice Department to work with the president, but rather its job is to guarantee equality before the law for everyone in America. The Attorney General is the lawyer for the American people, theoretically, while the White House Counsel is the lawyer for the office of the president. In addition, the president can have his or her own personal lawyers. But the idea that the Attorney General is working for the president undermines the whole idea of the impartial justice on which our body of laws rests.

I can’t resist noting here that, while the Constitution established an office of the Attorney General, President Ulysses S. Grant signed the bill creating the Department of Justice in 1870 to try to preserve the rights of African Americans in the South after the Civil War. The department’s first assignment was to stop the Ku Klux Klan in the South, and it did, indicting more than 3000 people and winning more than 600 convictions as it tried to reestablish the rule of law in the former Confederacy. That history reflects that the role of the Department of Justice is really about upholding the rule of law, not about doing any particular president’s bidding.

Even while this is going on, pundits noted that the judge, Amy Berman Jackson, whom Stone attacked online, apparently to try to get her to withdraw from the case, and then apologized when she didn’t, was unlikely to be moved by the revision. Tonight, though, Trump tweeted “Is this the Judge that put Paul Manafort in SOLITARY CONFINEMENT, something that not even mobster Al Capone had to endure? How did she treat Crooked Hillary Clinton? Just asking!” (Jackson did not put Manafort in solitary confinement.) Hillary Clinton retorted: “Do you realize intimidating judges is the behavior of failed-state fascists? Just asking!”

Meanwhile, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi tweeted that Trump had “engaged in political interference in the sentencing of Roger Stone. It is outrageous that DOJ has deeply damaged the rule of law by withdrawing its recommendation. Stepping down of prosecutors should be commended & actions of DOJ should be investigated.” Trump instantly responded “Who are the four prosecutors (Mueller people?) who cut and ran after being exposed for recommending a ridiculous 9 year prison sentence to a man that got caught up in an investigation that was illegal, the Mueller Scam and shouldn’t ever even have started? 13 Angry Democrats?”

(As an aside, can I just say I long, with every fiber of my being, for the days when profound political fights were not conducted by tweet?)

Pundits agree that this is a uniquely terrifying moment. But for all tonight’s outrage, it is not clear that Trump holds all the cards. As former US Attorney for the Southern District of New York Preet Bharara noted, the judge could insist on hearing from the withdrawing prosecutors before she lets them quit. We will know more tomorrow.

The second major story—although it is not being treated as such—is that the Trump administration has withdrawn the nomination of Elaine McCusker for the position of Pentagon Comptroller and Chief Financial Officer. Her confirmation hearing was scheduled for Thursday. Recently released emails show that McCusker pushed back on Trump’s order to withhold money from Ukraine and warned officials that they were likely breaking the law. While the White House is suggesting they are withdrawing the nomination because McCusker is not sufficiently loyal to Trump, the timing makes it likely that they do not want her in a confirmation hearing before the Senate, where she can be asked about the Ukraine Scandal.

And the third major story is the New Hampshire primaries. Before I talk about them, let me note that I am approaching them as a historian looking for patterns, rather than as a modern-day partisan, and I cannot tell you how much I don’t want to be swarmed with supporters of one candidate or another screaming at me that I’m wrong. Yes. I could be wrong. And no, I am neither thrilled by what I see, nor endorsing any candidate. But I will note what I see nonetheless in the hope it will be of interest to some of you. Dismiss it at will.

What has grabbed headlines tonight is that Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, an Independent, has won the New Hampshire Democratic primary. But if you dig a little deeper, the New Hampshire primary showed something very interesting. Progressive candidates Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren won 35% of the vote in New Hampshire, while the moderates—Pete Buttigieg, Amy Klobuchar, and Joe Biden-- won 53% of the vote. Now, for all the fact that we pay such deep attention to Iowa and New Hampshire, those states are emphatically not representative of either Democratic voters or of the United States at large. But it is not inappropriate to see groupings at this point, and to note that Democratic votes seem to be resting on candidates perceived to be moderate rather than those perceived to be more progressive. Super Tuesday, March 3 this year, when 14 states vote for presidential candidates, will tell us more about the preferred Democrat, not least because former New York City mayor Mike Bloomberg has saved his firepower for that contest.

But my guess is that the headlines trumpeting Sanders at this point are missing the larger story that today revealed so clearly. Americans are just sick of Trump, sick of his attempts to undermine the rule of law, and eager simply for a return to a stable government that does not produce constant drama. That the White House is so eager to keep McCusker from testifying before the Senate that they are withdrawing her nomination suggests that the drama is not yet over, and will not be over, for a long time.

[Original post with sources here]

[Heather Cox Richardson is a political historian who uses facts and history to make observations about contemporary American politics. She is the author, most recently, of To Make Men Free: A History of the Republican Party. She write these updates DAILY and they are amazing.]

[fanfic-ofbands]

And One Thing Led To Another - Chapter 1

| Character Summary |

Banter To A Falter

GERARD gazed at his brother adoringly.  Heck, he may be seventeen, but Mikey would always be Gerard’s baby brother.  Said baby brother was currently deep in sleep, his mouth opened slightly as stifled snores escaped from time to time.  He almost looked cute… almost.

Gerard smiled.  He loved his brother, which was precisely why he needed to do this:

“Wake up fucker!” Gerard yelled as he launched himself onto his startled sibling.  He landed right on top of Mikey, earning a furious gasp.

“What the fuck Gerard!” Mikey yelled.

“Good morning sunshine! Ya miss me?” Gerard asked, grinning broadly.  He couldn’t help but laugh at Mikey’s unruly brown hair as he positioned himself so that he held most of his weight propped on his elbow while still draping over the now pissed Mikey.

“I did… right up until the moment you winded me you ass.” Mikey groaned, crossing his arms.

“Aw c’mon Mikes, don’t be that way.  I only wanted to say hi.”  Gerard pouted, earning an exasperated eye-roll from the younger Way.

“Is that so?” Mikey asked, rubbing his eyes and yawning.

“Yeah.  Hi!” Gerard answered, flopping all his weight onto Mikey earning yet another groan.

“Gerard, fuck off.  You’re making me cold.” Mikey whined.

“Hey, c’mon now.  You know I can’t help it.”  It was Gerard’s turn to cross his arms.

Mikey instantly regretted the complaint.  It had been seven years since his older brother had been attacked and turned.  You’d think he’d be used to the cold skin that came with the transformation, but alas, it was not something one could get used to quickly.  Especially when exposed to it after being wrapped in his cozy confines of blankets.

“Sorry, Gee.” He offered a small, apologetic smile to the older of the two.

“Nah it’s all good.  I’d be pissed too.”  Gerard shrugged.

The two sat in silence for a while staring at the ceiling. The Way brothers had always been close, ever since they were toddlers.  Practically inseparable.  However, sharing their secret had made the bond even stronger which may come to a surprise to some people, but the Way brothers didn’t see any other outcome. They were too close.  

But then again, not every sibling could say they got to keep such a large and dangerously precarious secret.  How many kids had a vampire as an older brother?

No, Gerard wasn’t a ‘Dracula’ type vampire, an ‘Interview With A Vampire’ type, a ‘Vampire Diaries’ one, nor was he one of those weird ‘Twilight’ vamps.  He was a real-life, un-living creature of the night… well, a creature in general.  He could walk in sunlight perfectly fine; thank you very much.  He was just incredibly susceptible to sunburn.  His skin was incredibly pale – Mikey liked to call him Snow White because of the whole “skin as white as snow and hair as black as ebony” even if his hair was dyed at the moment – and exceptionally flammable.  He’d found that out the hard way (smoking was now far too risky, unfortunately).  Yes, his hearing and eyesight were incredible, even his strength and speed were supernatural, heck he was even allowed to age!

Ageing is a very complicated scenario actually.  You see, vampires, real vampires, can… enforce ageing. No, they cannot die – they are still immortal to sense after all – but if vampires really want to, they can implement ageing.  It’s incredibly useful when wanting to fit it or stay in place for long periods.  All one must do is will it to happen.  It’s hard to explain, but it’s almost as if there is a switch that causes the time lapse.  To age, one must ‘flick the switch on’, if that makes sense of course. To revert to the age at which the vampire was turned, they ‘switch it off’.  To retain an age, the ‘switch’ is ‘held in the middle’.  Please keep in mind that these are strange and simplistic analogies that do not give the art justice.

It had taken four years for Gerard to become aware of such an ability, one which he used as soon as possible.  So instead of looking seven years older than Mikey, he looked three. However, despite all the marvellous pros, there was one large con that outweighed them.  His lust for blood.  

Gerard craved the stuff.  Blood fuelled his being now, and he hated it.  Vampires, to stay reasonably healthy complexioned, comfortable and supernaturally advantaged to the utmost extent needed to feed every two to three days.  Slight problem, Gerard despised feeding.  Hated it.  He loathed that he had to make human beings living blood bags for his own unnatural survival.  He hadn’t chosen vampirism.  Vampirism chose him.

It had found him in an alleyway at his lowest of lows, close to blackout drunk and incredibly high on a multitude of drugs.  He was heartbroken and full of self-loathing merely looking for a way to forget for a night no matter the cost in the morning. Or so he had thought.  Any amount of heartbreak was preferable to the self-loathing Gerard currently lived, no, existed with.  Or maybe endured... either way, there weren’t many positives, in his own belief, to being a vampire.

“Gee?  Gerard.” Mikey said, demanding his brother’s attention with a shove.  A shove that shouldn’t have even budged the older brother what with the supernatural strength and all.  But it did.  And it caused Mikey to frown.  Now that he thought about it, Gerard was colder than usual.  Sure, being vampire had meant far lower temperatures, but Gerard was icy.

“Gerard,” Mikey said, a slight whine in his tone.

“Huh?” Gerard asked, unaware that he had been enraptured in his own thoughts yet again.

“I was asking how the cabin and the cycle went.  How Frank is?” Mikey answered, annoyance obvious in his voice.

“Oh… Yeah, it was fine.  Well, the usual anyway.  Nothing abnormal.  Frank, on the other hand, is currently passed out on the couch.  We had to use the cellar this time.  One of the neighbouring cabins was occupied, so he’s a little bruised up.  But he’ll heal.” Gerard said, frowning a little.

To some, the conversation would be, to say the least, but to the way brothers, it was a part of their lives now.  

To add onto what is already pretty unbelievable, Gerard was not only the supernatural but dated it too.  Frank, a short, tattooed man with a slight case of hyperactivity, was a werewolf. Not a ‘Vampire Diaries’ werewolf, a ‘Teen Wolf’ type of a ‘Harry Potter’ breed, but a living, breathing werewolf.

Of course, lycanthropy is the typical trait of wolfmen. (They wouldn’t be a werewolf if they didn’t, now would they?)  Of every lunar cycle – which lasts twenty-nine days – three nights are overshone with a full moon.  This is the trigger.  Something the many pieces of entertainment in our culture got correct.  For these three nights, a werewolf will undergo their transformation: An excruciating experience for the poor soul who endures body is being recreated.  Joints and bones are dislocated, muscles are transformed, and insides are relocated as a wolf form is taken.  At the crack of dawn, the transformation is reversed, and the pain is experienced once more.  For all werewolves, hormones are maxed and raging as their body prepares for the inevitable torment.  Mood swings are prominent while specific needs make themselves known, all causing a very roller coaster-like-week for our werewolf Frank.

The reason he was “passed out on the couch” as because over those three days, sleep was not something he came by easily.  The wolf form runs wild on those full-mooned nights. Hunting where it wants, running where it pleases but always returning to the old cabin outside New Jersey located in a national park.  It was the closest thing the boys could get to seclusion.  Unfortunately, this park was open for hunting every once and a while – mainly winter – making it an exceedingly exhausting and challenging time of year for Frank.  

You’d think that running around as a wolf through the forest would be more tiring for the man; however, it hated being caged – the wolf that is – and it fought for escape from the confinement of the underground cellar of the cabin for hours without end throughout the night.  Throwing itself against the cold and unforgiving reinforced steel door and barricade, trying in vain to dig at the concrete flooring and fight against the rock walls.  So, after nights like the past few where Frank had to be locked up for the safety of a neighbouring family and camping hunters close to the cabin’s radius, Frank awoke to find himself bruised, swollen, bloodied and sometimes still broken.

One of the perks to Frank’s supernatural curse was his healing ability.  Unlike Gerard, who could only be harmed by another vampire and otherwise comes out of a physical complication unscathed, Frank is injured just as easily as anyone else… he just heals much faster.  A broken arm is perfectly fine after a few hours, a small cut in only seconds and bruises within minutes to half an hour.  But this all depended on his condition.  After three gruelling nights of physical agony and little to no sleep (even during the day he only slept a couple hours before the emotions and need to move became too much to handle), healing became a little more time-consuming. Bruises taking hours; cut's up to a day and breaks multiple.

“And, how are you?”  Mikey asked Gerard, concern evident on his pointed features.

“I’m fine Mikes.  It’s hard listening to it, but Frank is the concern here.” Gerard shrugged.  

“That’s not what I’m talking about Gee,” Mikey sighed. Gerard knew what Mikey meant, he was just ignoring it.  His brother was asking about his feeding schedule, but he could lie.

“I’m fine.  It hasn’t been long.”

“You can’t lie to me, Gerard.” Shit. Well, there does that theory.  “Now when was the last time you fed.”  Mikey raised his eyebrows, not letting his brother getting out of it that easily.

“Not long,” Gerard replied quietly, looking anywhere but at Mikey.

“Bullshit Gee.  You’ve got dark rings around your eyes, your pale… well paler and you are literally like ice.  Now, when did you last feed?”

Damn, he’s good. Gerard thought before sighing.

“It’s probably been a good week? Week ‘n’ a half? I’m not too sure…” Gerard rubbed the back of his neck as Mikey scolded him.  Not verbally, just with eye-contact.  He was good at it.

“Gerard, you need to eat.  You remember the last time you went too long without bl-“

“Yeah, yeah!  I get it.” Gerard snapped, cutting Mikey off before he could finish the sentence, “It’s just hard y’know?  Like, I shudder just thinking about it.”  A very similar shudder ran up his spine.

“Gee, you’ve done it a hundred times before.  You’ll be fine.  You know they forget.”  Mikey reasoned.

“Ugh, I know.”

Vampires were able to make their victims forget about the wound left after feeding and the very experience.  It was like a venom that was injected through their fangs into the puncture wounds of the bite site, 'blissing out' the victim before they finished.  The victim was left in a dazed state for a certain amount of time after the vampire has finished feeding, giving said attacker enough time to flee the scene. This of course only occurs when the victim is left alive.

“It’s just hard to find someone.  And don’t you dare give me the whole, “It’s winter, Gerard. The marks are covered,” speech because that is only part of the difficulty.” Gerard retorted, becoming defensive.

“I don’t sound like that,” Mikey muttered, “and I know. You’ve explained this to me before. But it’s still easier.  Just go into a bar, bite an alone, drunk stranger and leave.  It’s that easy.”  Mikey knew it wasn’t that easy, but he put on the low-difficulty mask for his brother. Gerard had always been the same. When he was little, he’d hated it when his mum had killed even the smallest of insects in the house, crying that they should be set free instead.  Now that he was the potential killer, it was tormenting.

Gerard snorted. “’That easy’ my ass.”

“I’ve asked you before, and I’ll ask again; why don’t you just feed on me?”

“Because you’re my brother Mikey!  I’m not turning you into a food source.  We’ve been over this.”

“Gerard, please.  You look like shit, and your hands are beginning to shake. Just this once, do it.  It doesn’t have to be much, just enough to give you a clear mind for when you go and feed tonight.” Mikey pushed.  A small, smug feeling began to harbour in his mind.  He could see Gerard and his resolve wavering.

“C’mon, just a little.  It can just be from my wrist.  It’s no biggie, and you know you’d do the same for me.” Mikey knew he had one. Gerard was biting his lip and wringing his hands.  It was his signs of defeat and self-beratement.

Gerard sighed heavily, “Fine.  But as soon as you get weirded out, you tell me okay? And as soon as the venom starts kicking in you stop me.”

“Yeah, okay.” Mikey nodded.

They’d done this once before.  Him, Mikey and their parents were on holiday at their great aunt’s and were rooming with a multitude of cousins.  Gerard was four years into his new life and attending the first family gathering in three years.  

He’d graduated, made do with the little knowledge he had of his new lifestyle and had just figured out how to start ageing again because despite being twenty-one, he still looked seventeen.

Mikey had just turned fifteen and knew about Gerard and his vampirism.  He’d thought it was the coolest thing in the world when overlooking the actual use of people.  

It was an extended stay.  Five weeks at a private estate connected to a beach in a mansion type household.  The boy’s mother had begged Gerard to come along, and he eventually agreed.  What he hadn’t decided too, however, was one visit into town.  Which meant he’d have to starve himself for far longer than usual.  Once he had gotten through the first two weeks, and the signs were beginning to really show.  Gerard played it off as a cold, but Mikey knew that his older brother hadn’t fed.  He knew his brother would feed once a week – they had worked out time-frames together – and the end of the second week a lot closer than the start.  

He’d found Gerard in the middle of the day laying on the shared bunk, shivering despite the forty-degree heat.  He looked as if he hadn’t slept in days - which wasn’t far off the mark – and strangely gaunt.  How the rest of the family didn’t notice was astounding, but then again, none of them really paid him much mind. It had always been the same once he’d gotten a little older than twelve.  He started delving into the world of art, darker imagery and more intense self-representation.  The family began to treat him as an outcast and still did even at twenty-one.  

Mikey had asked Gerard what the problem was, and in a heartbeat, Gerard admitted the problem.  He was hiding away from everyone, so he didn’t lose control.  He needed blood and didn’t know how to get it without a problem. (He hadn’t been allowed to take his car, his parents insisting he go with them – and he’d caved to that too).  Mikey offered that he feed off him and it hadn’t taken much convincing.

And here they were again, the brothers undergoing a sense of déjà vu.  Mikey offered his wrist to his brother, clenching his fist as he waited for the sharp stinging pain that he knew would occur.  As Gerard held Mikey’s arm gingerly, slowly lowering his head towards the boy’s exposed wrist, Mikey started to hold his breath.  Not just because of the pain that would come, but because of the feeling of euphoria he felt after being fed on for a while.

“Mikes, how are you gonna hide it at school?” Gerard asked suddenly, pulling back but the boy’s arm still in a light grip.

“I’ll just wear that Adidas wrist thing you gave me. It’s fine.”

“Okay,” Gerard answered almost absentmindedly as he lowered his head once more.  Closing his eyes, he opened his mouth and exposed his fangs to the soft skin on the inside of Mikey’s wrist.  He sighed a shaky breath before biting down and piercing the surface, a small flow of blood meeting his tongue.

Mikey hissed slightly as he felt his skin being punctured and then sucked on.  Sure, it was weird, but he knew Gerard would do the same for him.  He watched as Gerard began to breathe a little harder in between swallowing the small mouthfuls which were steadily increasing along with the grip on Mikey’s arm.

Gerard was now enraptured with the taste that flooded his mouth and groaned in content.  His supernatural instincts took over causing him to sink his fangs deeper into Mikey’s wrist, moaning as the flow increased.

Mikey was now beginning to feel a slight wave of euphoria trickle into his mind.  He’d barely noticed his brothers' grip tightening further, possibly causing bruises.  He knew he needed to stop his brother now.

“Okay, Gee.  That’s enough.” Mikey said, shaking his head willing the fuzzy feeling in his brain to go away.  Gerard didn’t stop though as his breathing deepened.

“Gee… C’mon, stop now,” Mikey said, his voice becoming firmer. Still no response.

“Gerard!” He yelled.

Gerard’s eyes snapped open, his hazel eyes tinted red – a side effect while feeding.  With a sharp intake of breath, Gerard unlatched his mouth from his brother's arm and sprung off the bed, slamming into the wall across the room.

“Fuck,” Gerard said shakily, a line of blood trailing down the side of his chin.

“Fuck!  Shit, Mikey, I’m sorry.  Fucking shit.”  He apologised in between shaky breath and wrangling of his hair.

“Gerard. Gerard hey!  It’s okay.  It was only a little longer, I’m fine.  Seriously.” Mikey said hastily, pressing a discarded shirt to his wrist.

“Better a little more from me than too much from someone else right?”

Gerard shook his head, “I’m sorry,” he mumbled.

“Dude it’s all good.  No, go clean yourself up, I need a lift to school.”

“Yeah… Yeah okay.  Be ready in fifteen?”

“You got it,” Mikey replied.  He was already walking to the bathroom, his clothes and wristbands in hand and a bandage in mind, oh and a coffee.

“Gerard, can you make me a coffee?!”

“Yeah. Yeah of course!” Gerard answered.  He was still a little out of it, especially after licking the blood off his chin.  He’d almost lost control, and yet Mikey was still able to reassure him.

He walked to the kitchen, bypassing the couch to see Frank snoring.

Gerard smiled. He had a gorgeous boyfriend and a brother who seemed to care about his wellbeing far too much.  He wondered how he could even deserve such people in his life.  

[masaru2042]

The Engine is My Boss

This a little short of the r/entitledparents thing.  But this time, it’s a story of Bessie...Dana’s former engine, running into a very entitled mother and her brat wanting a cab ride.  And then, the mother damages the Flying Scotsman’s cowcatcher, that’s a big no-no!

So, it’s Dana again.  I got another one of those stories.  Entitled parents, you know.  And their kids.  Something you have to deal with when driving a steam engine.  But this one isn’t from Sodor, it’s from my old job.

I used to work for a particular railroad museum in Chattanooga and was the driver of the famous Southern #4501 “Ms. Mikado”, aka Bessie Baldwin.  

Little story on Bessie herself.  Bessie is a Mikado type steam locomotive, runs on coal, though she has a brother who runs on waste vegetable oil.  Which is why I suggested the fuel to Sir Topham Hatt for Gordon.  Bessie managed to talk him into it, saying she’s considering a conversion herself mostly because she’s sick of the bill she gets from TVA.  Yeah, she orders coal from TVA, having them drop off a couple cars when they deliver to the steam plant.  And it’s expensive!  I know when Bessie’s having a bad day when she looks at the invoice she gets from TVA.  She already complains about the high electric bill, now this.  Saul loves it when she starts complaining.

Mikados have a wheel arrangement of 2-8-2, a wheel arrangement invented in Japan.  Sodor has a couple of Mikados of its own, notably the two Smallies...Bert and Mike.  But also Hiro Kawasaki, who is a Mikado from Japan.  The United States saw the wheel arrangement Japan was using for its steam engines and wanted to use it for their steam engines.  The very first MS-1 Mikado built by Baldwin Locomotive Works was Bessie herself.  And she’s the last one of that particular type remaining.  It’s why she is nicknamed Ms. Mikado.  Because she is THE Mikado of the US.

And she’ll let you know it.

She was built in Pennsylvania in 1911, but don’t let that fool you, she’s a Southern belle through and through, even jokes that her water tank is actually filled with sweet tea, not water.  It isn’t, but she loves to say it is.  She was retired in the 1940s when the Southern Railway was going to diesel, sold to a short line and pulled coal cars until the 1960s when she was bought by a railfan who restored her to working order.  Unfortunately, said railfan passed away, and she ended up getting his entire estate.  He left her everything, and I do mean everything, including the museum itself!

Bessie Baldwin is in fact the third richest locomotive in the world.  Her business partner is Saul Amerigo, a Consolidated 2-8-0 built by ALCO in 1901.  He’s the Southern #630.

Some of you Brits might notice the odd surnames these engines have.  In Britain, steam engines tend to take on the surname of their designer, not so in the States.  American steam engines use their plant name as the surnames.  Since Bessie was built at Baldwin Locomotive Works, she’s Bessie Baldwin.  Saul was built by the American Locomotive Company, so rather than call him Saul ALCO, he’s Saul Amerigo...for the explorer who named the Americas.  Japanese steam engines also do the same thing with their surnames, which is why Hiro has the surname of Kawasaki, despite that in Japan the surnames come first.  He actually would be Kawasaki Hiro.

Kinda interesting little tidbit.

Also, Bessie is a big fangirl of the Flying Scotsman. It’s adorable.  Likewise, Scott’s got a crush on her as well.  If she’s not focusing on the business, she’s on Skype, or Discord, or Facebook with Scott.  

And what can I say about Bessie, she practically saved my life once.  I was down on my luck, got out of an abusive relationship with my ex-husband, couldn’t go back to working as a freight hauler at Norfolk and Southern, was about to commit suicide when Bessie came in, whistle blaring, scooping me up and took me to the museum.  And from that day on until my move to Sodor, I was her driver.  My cousin was her fireman.

She even hopped on a boat to Sodor just to surprise me for Christmas all because I was home sick.  And that’s no easy task for a steam engine that’s 150 tons.  I don’t deserve a friend like Bessie, but I’m glad she is one.  She’s like the grandmother I never had but always wanted.  She even lets me call her “grannie” a few times too.  And apparently Saul is my crazy, fun uncle.  Which make sense since my actual uncle drives him.

And she is a hard-ass, make no mistake.  She will make you work hard, but in the end, you’ll feel like you achieved something after you did.

But there’s one thing I’ll have to say about Bessie is...you have to follow her rules, no matter what.  She’s a “my way, or the highway” kind of girl.  Especially when it comes to railroad safety.

On Sodor, cab rides are a flat NO.  There’s a reason for that, it’s an actual working railway that has steam engines on it.  The only exceptions are VIPs, inspectors, the press, and Sir Topham Hatt’s mother, Dowager Hatt.  Don’t ask about the last one, because I don’t know!

However, I do know about heritage railways in the UK that will allow for cab rides, or even the chance to drive said steam engine with a trainer driver and trainer fireman to supervise the guest.  The NWR is very strict on no cab rides.  

However, back at the museum in Chattanooga, Bessie does allow for cab rides on short excursions, not on long excursions, and the person riding has to be at least 16 years of age, or older.  And only two extra riders.  Despite American steam engines having much larger cabs than British steam engines, it’s still a tight fit to have a bunch of people standing in it, so, there’s a limit.  The driver and fireman still needs their conductor to be with them, so two extra people riding is the limit.  That makes five people in total inside Bessie’s cab, and that’s a bit cramped, even for her large cab.

And 16 years or older is because she doesn’t want little kids who can’t keep their hands to themselves from messing with her controls.  She figures if the person is old enough to drive a car, they can be mature enough to keep their hands to themselves while being escorted by a parent or guardian.  That’s 16 with an adult.  However, 18 years and over, you can ride without an adult.

Again, Bessie figures, if you’re old enough to go to war, you’re old enough to not have a babysitter in her cab along with you.

Bessie is funny that way.

Also to get a cab ride, it’s an extra surcharge.  

Hey, if you’re gonna be bothering the driver and fireman, you might as well pay them for their time of answering all your questions while they’re trying to pay attention to their job, as Bessie states.

And don’t argue with her about it.  She also loves giving the cab rider a nice little lecture before the ride, to make sure the rider understands what they’re allowed to do and what they’re not allowed to do.  Because Bessie is Bessie.  And she doesn’t want people messing around with things they shouldn’t.

It is her body after all and she makes that clear by saying “you wouldn’t want someone constantly poking you in all the inappropriate places too, right?”

Some people keep forgetting that sapient steam engines are living beings, and have their own boundaries and comfort zones just like humans do.  And they expect people respect their boundaries.  It takes a lot of trust that the engine must have to work with a driver and fireman manning the controls to assist in the control of steam, and even more trust to allow untrained strangers inside the cab on a ride.

And this is why she doesn’t allow children in her cab.

She had a bad experience once when she gave it a try to allow children inside her cab, and we’ll leave it at that.  But it does involve various fluids that little kids tend to excrete either on purpose or on accident.  

So, no kids.

They can ride in the coaches instead!

Unfortunately, this is one of those stories that involves a child wanting a cab ride and the entitled mother not understanding that no means no, and thinks that talking to the manager of the museum will get what she wants.

Hahaha, no.

So, we were about go out on our little short excursion, a special all the way to the east end of Chattanooga, passing by historic Civil War sites along the way.  The scenery is always nice, especially in the summer.  A lot of people love riding this special because at the end of the line, before returning, you get to see some turntable action.  Kids love that!

On this particular track, there’s a tunnel, and because of the coal burning, you do have to hold your breath a bit when you’re riding in the cab and going through the tunnel.  You don’t want that soot in your mouth.  This is the other reason why kids aren’t allowed to ride in the cab.

Well, on that day, Bessie was reversing slowly to the coaches, the conductor was hanging out out the door, helping her and me to see behind her large tender.  She just upgraded from her old 15 ton coal capacity tender to an 18 ton coal capacity tender, something she made a little bid on an auction off of an old Illinois Central J-3.  Not as big as the Centipede tenders that Saul’s younger sister Opal or his nephew Zack had, but way more than what Gordon uses!  A single Corridor Tender that Gresley designed had a 9 ton coal capacity.  Bessie now has a tender that is twice that capacity.  And she ripped a mechanical stoker from an old Canadian Pacific 4-6-2 steam engine she had purchased as a static display.

We don’t know if said engine was sapient or not, and the Pacific isn’t in good shape for a restore either.  Sad.

So, as we were backing up, my cousin Chuck turned his head to hear some sort of argument happening at the ticket counter.  It happens.  The supervisor inside the ticket counter should be able to help out with any trouble any dissatisfied customer has.  So lucky I didn’t have that job.  I’m not a people person, or rather a general public person.  It’s why I went to work for NS and hauled freight in a diesel up and down the east coast.

The rest of the crowd was out, waiting for the coaches to open up, taking pictures as we backed up.  Bessie’s bell was blaring loudly to make sure people knew she was moving.  She’s a big ole girl, and she wants to make sure you stay out of her way.  And then, the mother who had a scrawny looking 6 year old boy, came storming our way.  The ticket lady came out the door and raced after her.

“Hey, cuz…” said Chuck. “We got trouble.”

I got up from my seat and looked out the fireman’s window.

“Bessie, stop!” I shouted and she clenched her brakes.

“Set the brake!” Bessie called back.

I pulled back on the brake lever and then returned to Chuck’s window.

“What’s the hold up?” Bessie asked.  Her knuckle hadn’t touched the knuckle of the first coach yet.

“Trouble,” said Chuck.

“What?  What kind of trouble.”

There were times Bessie wished she had a neck so she could look around.  Though, she does have very excellent peripheral vision, despite being over a century old.

“The ‘I wanna speak to a manager’ kind,” I told her.

“Well, ain’t that a bowl of peaches and cream…”

Except, the mother wasn’t storming up to Bessie to complain to her, because well, Bessie’s the manager.  She was storming right to the cab where we were.  

Yeah, people tend to either forget, or not know that Bessie is the boss to talk to for any problems.  She’ll put her driver wheel down and tell you “tough shit” and then get to her trip.  And if you don’t like it, that’s your problem.  She’s too old to care and she has a time table to adhere.

“Excuse me,” the woman said, dragging her jiggling son over. “My son wants a cab ride, and the lady at the ticket counter said you won’t give him one.  I’m willing to pay extra.  That’s not a problem.”

“Right,” I said. “Your son can’t have a cab ride.  That’s policy.  No child under the age of 16 can ride in the cab.”

“I WANNA RIDE THE TRAIN!” screamed the kid.

I felt a slight tilt from Bessie’s frame.  Oh, she hates the screamers.  She hates the screamers.  I could feel the cab shudder just a little at the ear bleeding sound of that child’s voice.

“And you will, precious,” said the mother.

“He can ride the train,” said Chuck. “Just not the cab.  It’s for his safety and also for insurance reasons.  We don’t want him potentially messing with the delicate controls inside.  And Bessie is very particular when it comes to who can touch her valves.  Little children tend to don’t know how to keep their hands to themselves.  And it’s just best they don’t ride inside here.”

The mother wasn’t happy with that answer and her mouth puckered, wrinkling at the lips.

“My son is a good boy, he won’t mess with the train’s controls,” she said.

“I ain’t a train, honey!” Bessie shouted.  The woman wasn’t paying attention to her.

“It’s also very hot in the cab,” I said. “Which can be very dangerous for very young children's health.  There’s also the danger of the child inhaling the particles that come from the engine’s funnel going through the tunnel.  She burns coal in her firebox and there’s a lot of soot and ashes.  This can damage a child’s lungs.  It’s safer for them to ride the coaches.”

“Now, see here!” the mother called.

Oh god, not the “see here” phrase.  A Southern mom’s version of holding a gun to your head to get what she wants.  You don’t piss of a Southern momma.  Ever.  

Chuck and I just tensed at her grating voice.

“You let my little son ride in your cab, he’s been a good boy!” she said. “I wanted to do something nice for him.  I’ll be sitting there with him, so I’ll make sure he won’t touch anything.”

“We could get fired if we allowed your son in Bessie’s cab,” said Chuck. “It doesn’t matter if you’re with him or not.”

“I WANNA RIDE THE TRAIN, MOMMA!” the child screamed again.

“You’re upsetting my little boy!” she shouted at the both of us. “Now you let my son in there right now, or I’ll see the manager! I’ll make sure you are fired!”

“Oh?” I perked up, jumping down from the cab. “You wanna see the manager?  Okay.  You can see my boss.  And she can tell you why you ain’t getting into that cab.”

All the while, that kid kept screaming, pulling on his mother’s arm.  And with each crescendo, I winced.

“Somebody’s torturin’ a cat, it sounds like,” said Bessie. “Marci, get the ASPCA on the phone!”

That’s Bessie, everyone!

“Ma’am,” I began. “This is my manager, Bessie Baldwin.  You can now relay all your grievances to her.”

“You’re joking!” the mother shouted. “I will not be disrespected.”

“She ain’t jokin’,” said Bessie. “I own the museum.  Now, what’s this about a cab ride?”

“A train runs the museum?”

Keep in mind, that kid was still screaming.  He even flopped onto the grass, pulling up the dirt around him.

“Engine, or locomotive,” began Bessie. “And if locomotive is to hard to say, then use engine. Either one will fit.  The train is the thing I was backing up to before you ran over with your wailing banshee, demanding for a cab ride despite it being against our policy!  I haven’t finished coupling up to it, and I’ve got passengers waiting.  Now, what is it you want?”

No engine likes being called a “train.”

“My son deserves a cab ride,” she said. “And your...operator…”

“Engineer,” I said.

“Don’t interrupt me, young lady,” she snapped at me.

“I don’t give a damn if you’re precious little hell spawn’s got good grades, helped a little old lady across the street, made Cub Scouts, won a little league game, or saved a bag of drowning kittens near the Chickamauga Dam, he ain’t getting in my cab.”

I heard a clank on the rails.  Bessie just set her center driver wheel down.  And when she does that, it’s end of discussion.

I don’t think the mother got that message though.

In fact, she put her foot down as well.

“My son…” the mother began.

“Can get the hell out of my museum,” Bessie finished.

“How dare you…”

“Demand that I let that wallowing little monster inside my cab.”

That’s right, Bessie can play the game too.

The mother pointed her finger stiffly at Bessie, coming near her cowcatcher.  Just when she was about to open her mouth again, Bessie blew her whistle loudly.  Now, Bessie’s whistle ain’t no peeper you Brits are probably used to hearing from a steam engine.  It’s the kind of whistle most people think of when they hear “steam engine whistle”.  The loud...whooowhooo! She’s got a three chime whistle.  And that clamped the mother’s mouth up real quick.  It also grabbed all the eyes from the other passengers to the front.

“I don’t have time to argue with an entitled, stuck up snob that’s obviously gotten more than she deserves, and never once been grateful for it,” began Bessie. “Nor for her little hellion that sounds like he wants to die of asphyxiation rather than shutting up.  It’s obvious you haven’t popped one on his little bottom enough.  If I had a pair of hands, he would have been taken out to the back of the shed and given a prompt to whoopin’ for making such a scene like that.”  She tilted her frame down. “Both my engineer and fireman have given you the reason why we do not allow children under the age of 16 from ridin’ inside my cab.  This is policy, and it is to protect my business as much as the child’s health.  The boy can easily suffer a heat stroke standing so close to my firebox.  My cab ain’t like your fancy Lexus with climate control at the touch of a button.  Driving a steam engine is no fun ride, it is hard, hot and sweaty work.  And I do not want your child’s snot covered hands anywhere near my controls.  I’ve spent most of my century not knowing the intimate relationship between a child’s snot bubble and my valves, and I wish to keep it that way. And another thing, the policy of cab rides is not only my policy, but Norfolk and Southern’s policy.  I must adhere to that policy if I wish to continue to run on their lines.  What you are asking for just to please your brat and your sense of entitlement will put me out of business.  Now either go buy a regular ticket, enjoy the ride in the coaches and shut the hell up, or get the hell off my property.”

There was a short humph from the mother as she began to drag her kid away.

“See if I bring my business back here again,” she said. “And I want a refund and compensation for you scaring my precious child.”

“Patricia!” Bessie shouted. “Did this woman pay for a ticket yet?”

“No, ma’am,” said Patricia.

“That ain’t happenin’, hon,” said Bessie. “Now, get the hell out.  You’re holding everyone up.  Chuck, release the brake so I can back up.  I needa get the coaches hitched.”

There was a clink and Bessie began to back up slowly again, softly expelling steam as she went and letting gravity guide her back.  Her bell rang loudly.  Then, tapping her brakes, she finally came to a stop as the knuckles connected.

I didn’t have to be in the cab to back her up.  Chuck was just as good as a driver as he was a fireman, and could handle both at the same time just to help Bessie back up.  And Bessie took care of the rest.

I watched the mother drag her child away, exclaiming: “I’ll sue your company!  You’ll go bankrupt and have to be scrapped for parts!”

No engine likes the “S” word.  Neither Gordon, nor Bessie.

“Lady, you are banned from my museum definitely!” Bessie called back. “If you try to come back on museum property, I will have you arrested for tresspassin’.  And I have the police on speed dial!”

She does. Bessie has an iPad hooked up in her cab, and can do a “hey, Siri, call 911” if need be.  Some of the small wires near her smokebox are in fact connected to a microphone so that Siri can hear her and a speaker so that she can hear whoever is talking to her over the phone.  Bessie is a bit of a jerryrigger, she can jimmy anything she needs in a pinch, or rather, design it and get one of the mechanics to jimmy it for her.  Because, she doesn’t have any hands.  And the iPad is actually connected to a rigging near the water glass and plugged into a USB cord that’s attached to her dynamo.  

The woman walked swiftly away only to stop for a moment and peered down upon a bright red cowcatcher hanging up by two long nails with four yellow numbers written on it.  The numbers were 4472.  The woman let go of the child’s hand and then began to tug on the cowcatcher.

Oh no, not the Flying Scotsman’s cowcatcher!

“What in blue blazes are you doin’!” Bessie shouted just as she saw the woman try to drag the heavy iron cowcatcher from its resting place.  That thing was Bessie’s prized possession, something she won off an auction from another railway museum.  The cowcatcher was from Scott Gresley’s USA tour in the late 1960’s, an event that Bessie sadly missed.  Scott Gresley, aka the Flying Scotsman, came to the United States on a friendly tour with his owner Sir Alan Pegler as a show of friendship between the two allies.  It nearly ended in tragedy when the Prime Minister at the time withdrew funds and bankrupted Pegler and Scott was nearly scrapped to pay off the debts.  Luckily, this was during the time of the Civil Rights movement, which then decided to include sapient steam engines in its movement.  Scott was recognized as a person, not an object, could not be cut apart and scrapped, as that would be considered murder, and was sent home under good faith that the UK will recognize Scott’s personhood.  They did, in fact.  Scott’s now the second richest sapient steam engine in the world and helps to fund the British Railway Museum.

And the last thing Bessie wants is anyone to mess with her beau’s cowcatcher.

“You leave that alone!” Bessie shouted. “Security!”

The aids were already calling for security, Bessie sounding her whistle finally drew them towards where the commotion was happening.  All the while, the woman took hold of the cowcatcher and hefted it from the nails.  It slid and dropped face down with a loud clang!  And right on the woman’s big toe as well.

She called out and slipped her foot from the heavy iron cowcatcher, hopping on one foot.  The cowcatcher was very sturdy, so it won’t be easily broken from a fall, but no doubt it probably needs a good repaint after scraping on the concrete.  

“You’re gonna pay for whatever detailing is needed to fix the paint,” Bessie said. “Security!”

At last the security guards grabbed the woman. One of them, a rather large man, picked up the child and then took both to their cars.  All the while the woman kept shouting she wanted to sue Bessie for not allowing her son a cab ride.

Bessie had to file a small claims and take the woman to court over the damage to Scott’s cowcatcher.  Of course, being an engine, she couldn’t really appear in court, but had her lawyer and her secretary appear on her behalf.  It wasn’t much, just a couple hundred dollars to have the cowcatcher repainted, but then there was the filing the police report for disruption of the other customers, as well as being fined for delaying a passenger excursion train.  Needless to say, the woman had to pay a hefty fine, and serve several hours of community service for her attitude.

Bessie would have given the boy a ride eventually, once he became 16, but now that’s not going to be possible.  She put a ban on the boy until he was 18 so he could come back without  his loudmouthed mother.  However, being around 6 years old, it’ll be over a decade before that boy will be allowed to return to the museum.

But that’s not a problem for Bessie.  Oh no.  She intends to keep on puffing for another century, until the Good Lord finally decides its her time.  Until then, she’ll keep taking passengers, and telling stories of her days on the Southern Railroad.