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alt-vera · 2 years ago

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— don’t take the girl ⁀➷

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when faced with a life-threatening choice, joel miller makes a surprising confession.

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☆ | joel miller | 1.5k | ❛ don’t take the girl - tim mcgraw ❜

warnings: fluff. slight angst. lowkey soft!joel miller. murder. kissing. age gap.

❝ take the very breath you gave me, take the heart from my chest. i’ll gladly take her place if you’ll let me, make this my last request. take me out of this world, god please, don’t take the girl ❞

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HE DIDN’T MEAN TO BECOME SO ATTACHED.

　Joel could remember the very first minute he met you. The shade of the alleyway casting a low tone over your soft features, a small scrape on your cheek just below your eye.

　Tess had taken you in, explaining that you were the daughter of an old friend from way before all the chaos and destruction. That she remembered meeting you when you were just a baby, barely cooing out words with small chubby fingers that wrapped around her own. That you’d lost your mom a while ago, and had no one else. That you’d been on a mission to find Tess for a long time.

　He didn’t like you at first. Thought you were too soft. It annoyed him how persistent you were, always hovering around him and Tess. Always there. He didn’t like how young you were, and he was convinced that you’d somehow fuck up one of their deals if you were there, or that you’d somehow get killed in the process. Or worse, get him killed.

　It wasn’t until he saw you in action that he gave in a bit. Saw how you’d really survived all those years on your own. Saw how you ripped yourself free from a raider on one of their trips out of the QZ, how you’d so effortlessly pulled your knife across the taut skin of the raiders throat, blood splattering onto the soft apples of your cheeks as you watched the man fall, no emotion crossing those deep eyes of yours that always seemed so expressive. They were blank in that moment, as if you had watched a man’s life leave his body a million times. As if you were used to it.

　He couldn’t believe how you’d smiled at him so softly that same night while a fire flickered between the two of you, mere hours after the whole scene. How could you still be so sweet after killing a man as if it were plain sailing?

　He couldn’t help but let his mind wander to a darker place. How many people had you killed?

　He didn’t like to think about such a kind young woman slashing a man as if he were a bug she were squishing.

　After that, he began letting you come on runs with him.

　It was supposed to be a routine mission in the city, grabbing supplies and trades at a drop point to smuggle back into the QZ. Neither of you were expecting a struggle, not to mention an ambush, but in the world you lived in the unexpected always seemed to happen.

　Inside the drop point, which was an abandoned warehouse, rotting and dilapidated, you’d let your guard down. Your gun was placed on an old crate as you poked around while Joel, only a few feet away from you, checked to make sure everything that had been promised was delivered.

　You didn’t see the man coming up behind you, didn’t hear his uneven breaths or the crunching of old glass beneath his feet.

　He grabbed your arm, nearly tearing your shoulder out of it’s socket as he pulled you like a shield across his chest. The cold barrel of his pistol pressed against your temple, his grip like iron, bruising your supple skin.

　Joel heard the struggle and whipped around instantly, eyes wild and frantic as he held his gun out in front of him, not sure where to aim that wouldn’t get you shot in the crossfire.

　“Put your gun down!” The man behind you screamed, his voice so loud that your ear drums rang. You watched everything in slow-motion as Joel carefully put his rifle down, raising his hands as he did so. A stray bead of perspiration ran down your spine.

　“Just let her go, n’we can talk,” Joel attempted to reason, but was met with silence broken by the mans ragged breaths as he pressed the gun further into your temple, the metal creating a building pressure in your head, leaving an imprint in its wake.

　“There’s no talking here,” The man spat, “Someone ripped me off. I don’t know who it was, but somebody here is paying for it. It’s either you or the girl, old man. You choose.”

　Your pulse quickened as your eyes trained on Joel, who’s face wrinkled as he tried to figure out some sort of solution. You tried to speak with your eyes, tried to tell him that it was okay. That he could get out of here and take the stuff back to the QZ, and leave you to your fate. You were fine with it.

　But Joel wasn’t. “I’ll take her place, if you’ll let me,” He said quietly, his words slicing through you. “Just please, don’t take the girl.”

　You wanted to scream at him, but you stayed quiet, lips locked shut and body shaking with fear and adrenaline.

　You heard the gunshot, and your eyes closed on impact. You only inched them open when you felt the pressure on your head leave, and heard the sound of a body hit the floor. When your eyelids lifted, there stood Joel, small handgun that was presumably in his back pocket resting with it’s aim towards the floor, his hands shaking.

　You slowly looked to the ground beside you, and there laid your assailant, blooding and bits of brain pooling on the concrete around him with a fresh hole in his forehead. The gun that had been so dangerous in his hands only moments ago now laid slackly in his limp palm.

　“Goddamn it!” You could faintly hear Joel yell, his words falling on deaf ears. “See this—This is what i was worried about.”

　Joel was in front of you in an instant, rough hands cupping your cheeks as he examined you for any sort of injury, eyes lingering on the crisp indent from the barrel that stayed on your temple.

　“I thought i’d lose you,” He breathed out softly, anger leaving the bones of his body, hot air fanning your face as he fought to calm down his anxiety. He pulled you into him, surprising you as he wrapped his arms around you in a bone-crushing hug.

　Your voice was muffled against the flannel of his shirt. “I thought you didn’t like me.”

　“I’d have traded places with you in an instant.” His words were heavy against the shell of you ear, and you pulled away from his grasp, eyes studying him carefully. There was no denying the terror that still lingered in the dark hue of his iris’, and how deep his worry lines were creased as he frowned down at you.

　“You’re around so much that I—I can’t imagine what it’d be like if you weren’t,” He continued, “Don’t want to.”

　“I would’ve given him everything i had,” He carried on, “Would’ve given him the damn heart out of my chest if it meant he’d take my life instead’a yours.”

　You figured this was Joel’s messed up version of a confession. So, without words, you kissed him, and he deepened it with long buried affection and protectiveness. Two things you didn’t think Joel Miller was capable of.

　“Let’s get out’f here,” He said after he had pulled away. His words brought you back into the atmosphere, struggling to tame your wildly beating heart as you remembered the dangerous predicament you could potentially still be in. “Don’t know if it was just him, or if there’s more.”

　You nodded, taking one of the duffle bags of supplies onto your shoulders. It made you lean to the side slightly from the weight, and a rare chuckle escaped Joel’s lips. He took the bag from your shoulder, putting both onto one arm and slinging his rifle onto the other.

　“I got it,” He said, “Jus’ watch my six.”

　During the trip back to the QZ, it seemed as if nothing had changed between the two of you. But it did. There was a newfound tension in the air, one that spoke of the kiss you shared in the warehouse, and how Joel would lay his life on the line for you. It sparked with the electricity of intimacy and a fucked up version of love.

　It was an unspoken agreement between the two of you that neither of you would tell Tess about what had happened. About the ambush, or the kiss. But you and Joel would know. You and Joel would know that there was now some sort of feelings between the two of you. A new connection that would be acted upon on late nights and moments alone together. The kind that was shared within knowing looks and small grins to one another. Fleeting touches when no one’s watching, and memorized whispered pleas of trading your life for his.

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kinnsporsche · 15 days ago

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yeah there's no way this breakup is sticking not with the way this episode started not with tim making it so clear that buck wants a future with tommy and tommy so clearly wants it too he's just scared of having his heart broken oliver said something in an interview about how the best relationships have an aspect of longing to it and there is. there's going to be so much longing because they want each other and they love each other every single relationship on the show has had angst (this is a procedural drama) i would be more worried if things were all just smooth sailing for them if they didn't have any angst or hiccups in their relationship. they both walked away from each other heartbroken but trust me when i say that this just means they'll walk back to each other with so much more security in their relationship

#bucktommy #buck x tommy #911 #911 spoilers #evan buckley #tommy kinard

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mesapies · 7 months ago

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Canon lgbtq+ avatar characters

Korra and asami - bisexual

Kya - lesbian

Kyoshi - bisexual

rangi - lesbian

Zeisan (sozins sister) and her lover Rioshon - sapphic (I think zeisan is a lesbian but I'm not 100% sure)

Mingxia and her gf Melin - sapphic

Zenko (left) and his named husband - gay

Katara saved zenko and their daughter chio from a fire nation attack

Akuudan and tayagum - gay

Akuudan and his husband tayagum were water tribe warriors that helped avatar yangchen

Hua and Rose - sapphic

from the avatar legends the roleplaying game - core book. Rose was a wealthy girl who purse was attempted to be stolen by Hua a firebending criminal but they later fell in love

Dalja Rose - trans(I think)

from the avatar legends the roleplaying game - core book. Attended fire academy fir girls when they realized they didn't truly feel like a girl.

Jiang - gay

From adventure booklet: the burning fuse. He's a detective from republic city who gained airbending through the harmonic convergence

Junyi - gay

from the avatar legends the roleplaying game - core book. He was a earth nation Outlaw during the time of roku. Hes was swordsmith who fell in love with one of his clients. The two men were set to run away together, but his lover's wife, the mayor of the town, discovered their affair. She had her husband killed and pinned the crime on Junyi. (Messy as hell)

Makittuq - trans woman

from the avatar legends the roleplaying game - core book. She's northern water tribe girl from the tims of roku who knew she assigned the wrong gender since birth. When her family didn't accept her she connected with sports who did

Massak and nyn chei - sapphic ex lovers

from the avatar legends the roleplaying game - core book. During the time of roku, Massak was a swt boatwright and inventor and he ex lover nyn chei was a fire nation inventor and engineer who'd inventions helped create the new fire navy coal fuled fleet.

Mayu - trans man

from the avatar legends the roleplaying game - republic city. From republic city him and his friends Yuka and Saya ran away together after mayu came out to his traditional fire nation family who didn't accept him.(im think Yuka is non binary as well)

Mosi and his husband sayako - gay

From adventure booklet: pirate of crimson sails. From a fire nation colony as a earth nation guy. Mosi as an adult became a pirate working to go against azulon. He later fell in love with a firebender, sayako. They married and had a daughter, lily

Sunlin - non binary

from the avatar legends the roleplaying game - quicksart. They were a joyful and idealistic orphan from Harbor City, and a former member of the Fire Finches during the late stages of the Hundred Year War

Wen - non binary

From avatar generations. Wen was an Earth Kingdom archaeologist broadly interested in relics. They explored the four nations in pursuit of their studies.

Netxflix Oma and shu - sapphics

Aiwei (left) - said to be gay but I couldn't find anything confirming

Jargala (right) - her artist said that she's pansexual but there's nothing confirming it

Unnamed gay air nomads and fire nation sapphics(getting arrested) from when kya was explaining to Korrasami the different views on gay ppl in the different nations

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torscrawls · 3 months ago

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A Ghost by Any Other Name

Danny tries to discreetly combat the ghosts suddenly showing up in Gotham without anyone finding out his secret, find out exactly why the ghosts have decided to follow him like lost ducklings after his narrow escape from his hometown, keep under the radar of both the Bats and his parents, not melt any more than he already has, and not worry his new and innocent friend Tim. Who knew that running away from home would be this stressful?

Wordcount: 1,620

Chapter 1/10

Can be read on AO3!

This fic has art from the wonderful and talented Luca!

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Tim was just exiting his favorite coffee-shop when he was suddenly tackled by a shouting woman. “My baby! There you are!”

He watched his innocent cup of quintuple-shot espresso sail through the air and splatter across the sidewalk at the same time as he registered her muscular arms and the clear press of several weapons strapped to her body. Not a normal civilian then.

Right. Priorities.

The woman kept her strangle-hold on him as she continued, “Thank goodness you finally managed to get away from that terrible ghost!”

Tim twisted to get his attacker off him. Then he noticed that he wasn’t held in any of the multitude of restraining holds that he had been trained to escape. No, it was something a lot stranger than that. It was a hug.

“I think you have the wrong person,” he managed to get out as he tried to ease her off him, finally registering her earlier words and mentally readjusting the scenario towards a case of misunderstanding rather than an attack. Hopefully. It wouldn’t be the first time a villain took a roundabout way of getting to him, even if he had to say a hug was quite a nice way of going about it.

And that was the moment he noticed the frankly ridiculously big man bounding towards them with a wide smile and tears streaming down his face. He wasn’t slowing down. Oh shit.

He patted the woman on the back to get her attention since she seemed completely unaware of their impending doom. “Um…”

She only squeezed him harder and said, “God! It’s been so long! We were so worried!”

Tim’s bad feeling turned into dread. “… We?”

Then the man slammed into both of them with a wail of, “Danno!”

The air rushed out of Tim as he was squashed between the two strangers. He might have been robbed of his morning coffee but he couldn’t deny that he was wide awake by now. Cass would be proud, and laugh her ass off. Tim vowed to never let her know about this.

After what felt like an eternity and what was surely a few cracked ribs, the woman disentangled herself from the hug with practiced ease that would put Catwoman to shame. She somehow managed to get the man to let Tim go and after a few seconds of struggling to breathe, Tim managed to wheeze out, “What's a Danno?!”

Then he was staring down the barrel of a gun. He tried to quell his instinct to kick it out of the woman’s hands, but it was the middle of the morning rush, and they were standing on a fairly well trafficked sidewalk, where even if people were smart enough to give the gun-wielding-maniacs—ergo, possible villains—a wide berth, it didn't mean they weren't staring.

Tim slowly raised his hands in a disarming gesture as he thought of a way to get out of this. So far they hadn’t made any demands. They also hadn’t harmed him (except his coffee and his wounded pride). Tim just wished he knew what this was about. So far he had been hugged twice, then had a gun aimed at his face. A gun that glowed green, emitted a worryingly high-pitched whine, and was very clearly home-made. Wonderful.

As Tim looked between the woman and the man he noted how both of their expressions had gone from relief and love to cold and hateful in the blink of an eye. He tensed, ready to disarm her, no matter the people around them. He refused to get himself shot before lunch.

The woman’s hands were steady—even though Tim noted that one of her hands were wrapped in bandages, and how both she and the man looked like they hadn’t slept in days—and her voice was flat as she said, “Phantom might still be overshadowing him.”

Tim frowned as both of them looked intensely into his eyes and after a few tense seconds the woman gave a satisfied nod. “The ghost is gone. You're safe now.”

She lowered the gun but Tim’s frown only deepened. “Ghost? What ghost?”

The man and woman exchanged looks which only served to confuse him even more.

“Honey,” the woman said in a soft voice, holstering her gun before placing a hand on Tim’s arm. He shook her off. “Honey, you were kidnapped by Phantom. It overshadowed you. You’ve been missing for a long time! That's probably why you can't remember anything.”

The man nodded along. “We’ve followed you to several cities. You must be exhausted!”

They seemed genuinely distraught by what they were saying but that didn't change the fact that they were absolutely insane.

Tim shook his head. “Look, you’re clearly confused. I’m not—”

He didn’t get to finish before the big man patted Tim on the shoulder with enough force to make him stumble. “Come on, now. It’s time to go home!”

“I’m not going anywhere with you,” Tim bit out, his patience running out. He was almost certainly late to his meeting by now, he didn’t have his coffee, and these two seemed allergic to making any kind of sense. “Who the fuck even are you?”

“Language young man!” The woman with the gun admonished him at the same time as the hulking man shook his head with a disapproving, “Is that any way to address your folks?”

“My what?!”

These people were absolutely crazy. He already had one unstable parent which was more than enough, thank you very much. He had to get away from them. He took a few steps backwards. The big man stepped with him.

“Son. We know you must be scared, but—”

“Why would you think I'm your son?!” And what kind of parents would be so ready to pull a gun on their child?

The man slammed a meaty fist into his other hand. “Is this something Phantom put you up to? Oh, when I get my hands on that ghost I’ll—”

The woman grabbed Tim’s arm in a startlingly strong grip. “Are you sure you’re okay, honey? Did that pesky ghost mess with your head?”

“I’m not your son!” Tim exclaimed with increasing desperation. He slapped her hand away. “And stop touching me!”

At this she paused, wide eyes fixed on him, before they narrowed sharply.

The man’s eyes fixed on the side of his neck as he slowly said, “What happened to your scar…?”

The woman finally drew back from him. “Daniel would never hit—”

“Wait a minute…” the man said as he pointed an accusatory finger at Tim. “You're not Daniel!”

Tim groaned as he dragged a hand through his hair. “That's what I've been saying the whole time!”

“Oh!” The woman tilted her head with a calculating look in her eyes that made a shiver of discomfort crawl up Tim’s spine. “But you really do look similar. You both have dark hair and blue eyes.”

Tim waited for more attributes that he shared with this mysterious Daniel, but nothing else came. That was why they had mistaken him for their son? His hair and eye color? …Shouldn’t they be a bit more familiar with what their own son looked like?

The man rubbed at his shin. “Did we have another son?”

“Ha!” the woman laughed, “Of course not, honey. We wouldn’t forget that!”

Tim wasn’t so sure, but he didn’t want to risk starting another argument with these people. He jerked a thumb over his shoulder and awkwardly said, “So, I have to get going. It was… interesting meeting you.”

“Yes! Right! We need to keep looking!” The man straightened up and then screamed at the sky, “Don’t worry, son! We’re coming for you!”

Tim winced, both at the volume and at tomorrow’s headlines which he could already see in his mind’s eye. ‘Wayne Enterprise’s young CEO Tim Wayne caught roughhousing in the streets’. His family would not let him live this down for weeks.

“So sorry for the inconvenience,” the woman said as she lowered goggles over her eyes and took out what looked like some sort of tracking device from somewhere on her jumpsuit. She didn’t sound sorry at all. She continued under her breath, “Phantom should still be in the city… We won't let it get away again.”

And Tim was fairly certain that they should be more focused on finding their apparently missing son than hunting down some ghost, but who was he to judge? And he really didn’t want to get involved in this situation any more than he already had.

The man didn’t even try to apologize as he, once again, slapped Tim on the shoulder with enough force to make him stagger. “It was nice meeting you, young man! And remember; the only good ghost is a dead one!”

“Aren’t all ghosts dead…?”

That made the man boom out a laugh loud enough to make Tim wince. “I like your humor! If you ever get into any trouble with the undead just give us a call!”

Tim didn’t even know their names, but didn’t have time to ask before the woman exclaimed something about a reading and they both took off down the street on a run.

Whoever their missing son was, Tim hoped he stayed far away from them.

His eyes landed on his spilled coffee and Tim heaved a sigh as he turned back towards the coffee-shop. He would have to call in late, but he refused to face any more of this day without caffeine.

He had more important things to focus on than Bruce getting some competition in the adoption-department. Oh, well. He probably wouldn't see them again.

At least he could console himself with the fact that ghosts aren't real.

#dp x dc #Invisobang 2024 #Danny Phantom Big Bang #Invisobang #danny phantom #dp #danny phantom fic #dp fanfic #dp fic #phic #my writing #this is gonna be a wild ride

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trashland-llamas · 2 months ago

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Fork in the Road

x gn reader

Plot bunny/ramble based off the one Cells! At Work episode where the rbc tries to navigate the circulatory system & wbc follows her, making sure it goes well. Instead it’s the batfam w/ their vigilante identities and Reader.

Reader who tends to be easily taken advantage of by Gotham locals, what with being a transplant to the area. But one day they decide they want to learn how to navigate the city, as in go through all the train and subways lines. And then at the end, figure their way back home. It starts with Dick in Bludhaven, riding on top of the train in his Nightwing attire with a clear view of Reader sitting in an aisle seat. Showing their ticket to the conductor, smooth sailing ahead. He’s noticed by a few Gothamites who just hope that his presence doesn’t make them late to work.

‘You’re being a creep. I don’t know how Reader hasn’t spotted you.’ Jason tells him, coming to take the next shift as they had started to encroach on Jason’s patrol territory. ‘I just want to keep them safe.’ Once again, everything goes well as the ghost that was the Red Hood lurking close by. No one dared bother Reader with their scary guard dog privilege equipped. They get spun around a few times and Jason has to stop himself from helping or comforting him. Dick strictly said they only could if it was life or death. So he instead watches from the shadows as Reader pulls out their phone and successfully corrects course. ‘Tag, you’re it.’ Is all he says to Damian after exiting the subway.

Damian helps them get to the edges of the city so Tim can then do the dutiful job of supervising them on their way back to the center. Damian isn't nearly as watchful as Jason or Dick. Oddly defending their choice. Getting into an argument over the phone with the others, 'You all told them to be more self-sufficient. That's why we taught them self defense. For fucks sake, have a little more faith in them.' Hanging up, he places a tracker on their backpack. A last ditch effort in case they did end up lost and unable to find their way back. At the very least to keep his brothers from breathing down his neck.

Tim has the easiest job as Reader's able to apply everything they've learned up to that point. He's not even dressed in his usual Robin attire when he walks straight up to them. The weekly family dinner taking place at the manor and Bruce told them to invite Reader. An invitation that they had agreed to, dressing casual. It wasn't a gala, they reasoned. The duo is two stops away from their destination. Making light conversation, 'heading to the manor?'

'Oh, hey Tim.' While it wasn't out of the norm for him to take public transport, he was a known figure. Wouldn't it be better to travel via Bruce's private car? 'Having a good day so far?' Reader lets out a long 'eh' sound, exhausted by their travels. But ends up yapping all about their adventure into the city. Tim perfectly acts as if he hadn't been following them for the past few hours. By the time they finish, they're at the manor's door with Alfred to greet them. They happily sigh at the thought of a nice, hot meal surrounded by familiar company.

#dcu #dc universe #batman series #x reader #x gn reader #x gender neutral reader #batfam x reader #dick grayson #jason todd #damian wayne #tim drake #dick grayson x reader #jason todd x reader #tim drake x reader #damian wayne x reader

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thefandomdirtymind · 1 year ago

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Hello! I saw your post you're open for a request and I was wondering if I could I have OPLA Sanji?

About Sanji fall in love towards reader but reader was hesitate and unsure if Sanji is being sincere it's like she's having trust issues since Sanji is considered a ladies' man or flirty and was afraid he'll broke her heart?

A/N IMPORTANT: Hey, thank you for your request Anon ! I had to confess that it was kind of a hard one for me because well...trust issu hit close from home and I just start to write that angst even if it was not my specialty, but I really like the result and I hope you will too !

Trust Issues

OPLA - Vinsmoke Sanji

Sanji / OPLA Masterlist and Coming Soon

* English is not my first language, I tried really hard to correct myself but, I hope you will excuse me if some mistakes are still there.

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Love wasn’t your cup of tea. Sure, the idea of a partner supporting and adoring you like you deserve was cute. But, in your opinion, you have already done enough. After all, your last relationship has resulted as becoming a pirate and being abandoned by your lover to save his ass. And, If the humiliation hadn’t been enough, not long after your escape for the marines, you had seen him parading with his new lady wrapped around his arm. Like if you hadn’t existed at all.

So, nobody could blame you if you had some trust issues and an aversion for ladie’s man.

It’s why you knew the minute you saw his smile what Vinsmoke Sanji was : A pretty flirt.

If it was only you, you had refused his presence on the ship, but, like Luffy had said, the Going Merry needed a cook and the man was a hell of a fighter. As the morning came, you couldn’t also deny the fact that he looked incredibly good in his suit, his bag on his shoulder, ready to come aboard. Smiling at the instant he spotted you.

“ Hello Madam, I'm glad we met again. Can I say that you seem even more beautiful in this sunlight” He offered, from the dock, as you were sitting on the main deck rail adjusting a rope.

“ You may, but it doesn't mean I will accept the compliment. Luffy is on the upper deck if you search him” You coldly replied, trying to shut down your traitor heart. You will not fall for another pretty face, never.

“ I didn’t expect much Madam, thank you for the information “ Sanji replied, his mood in nothing affected by your coldness. Sure, he had hoped for a warmer welcome, but after serving you the night before and found himself unable to turn his gaze away from your beauty. He was satisfied with just being part of the same crew as you, the rest would come later he had assumed.

It took, in fact, way longer than he first thought. For the entire few weeks he had been on board, you hadn’t looked or talked to him except to thank him for the food or urgent matters.

Many times, the crew had tried to talk to you, asking you to be more nice with Sanji. But, even if you could feel his charm often softened your shield, your stubbornness was even stronger.

It wasn’t easy for Sanji either. He knew you clearly disliked him without knowing why. When, on his part, the more he was admiring you, watching you laugh with the others, hearing your brilliant plan, watching you gracefully climb the cordage and being as stubborn as him. Make him love you even more. Everyday, he was trying to charm you, offering you compliments, taking an interest in what you were doing or simply making you the best food he could. But, nothing worked, you answered him quickly and as coldly as always.

It'll take another two months and a storm before Sanji has enough.

The rain was falling for hours,helped by a wind so strong that you had to close one of the sails to avoid drifting away. Each two hours or so, the members of the crew were making a rotation, trying as much as possible to not fatigue themself too much and end up falling into the water.

You were the only one still standing, drenched by the cold rain, your muscles sore by the force necessary to keep the helm stable. Multiple times Nami and Usopp had tried to push you to take a rest or at least eat something warm, but each time you refused resolutely, you would pass that storm and rest after.

Meanwhile in the kitchen, Sanji was finishing his soup, preparing three bowls for the crew member who will come downstairs to take their rest. As he prepared himself for going upstairs, doing his part, the blond chef saw Nami and Usopp going down the stairs, alone. You aren’t with them, again.

“ Where Y/N ” He asked, already knowing the answer.

“ She refuses to budge of the helm. we tried to talk to her but it’s like talking to a rock” Nami replied, wrapping herself in a big towel.

“ I’ll come back, I will bring her here “ Sanji only replied, his happy mood now sour. It wasn’t rare in the time who’s he was running the restaurant with Zeff that he lost his temper. He had lost it already a time or two during battle, but against another member of the crew,it was a first.

Making his way to the helm, he looked at you, already knowing it will not be easy. But, to be sure you’re in security, he was ready to fight you if he had to.

“ Y/N, your time has long passed, I will replace you. I prepared a dry towel and warm soup in the kitchen. Go take some rest “ He first tried.

“ I’m not tired or hungry “ You simply replied with your gaze focused on the horizon.

“ Then I’m afraid I have to excuse myself Darling “ Profiting from an adjustment of your position, he then proceeds to lift you on his shoulder, easily dodging all your attacks, as he was getting you down in the ship to dry both of you.

“ How dare you ! “ You scream, shaking of rage and cold. As he sits you on one of the kitchen stools and throws a dry towel at you. “ I was perfectly fine !”

“ You were on a trip to catch death ! “Sanji replied sharply, his gaze dark and his wet form in a stiff posture with anger “ I don’t know what I exactly did to make you dislike me like that, but I can care for you if you do some stupid things like that ! “

“ Then just don’t care about me and go flirt somewhere else !!” You angrily answered.

Taken aback, Sanji tilted his head, frowning his eyebrow, clearly confused.

“ Wait…what…You dislike me…because I flirted with you ?“ He slowly asked, trying to understand your point.

“ I just don’t understand why you haven't given up yet ! I had already done with the damn flirty kind, go charm your other ladies and leave me alone ! “

" My other…” Sanji starts disbelief. “ I don’t give up because I care for you…stubborn woman! " Sanji tried to say. Never had he thought that it was his manner that you hated so much. " But if my affection isn't required, fine, eat and rest, that's all I ask " He sighs ,disappearing upstairs.

A long and heavy silence fell in the kitchen after he left, leaving you with a curiously heavy heart and some concerned gaze of Nami and Usopp eating their soup. After a while, you sigh, defeated and take yourself a bowl. As always, the dish was perfectly balanced and delicious.

" You know y/n...I know your story, I understand, I do. But…Sanji didn't flirt with any woman aside from you for months…I think he genuinely likes you, " Nami softly spoke. "Of course I'm not you and you have all the right to act like you do, but it’s not Sanji's fault. He’s not him… and I think the day he will stop caring for you, you will realize it’s will be maybe too late”.

“ Maybe “ You admit, finishing your food before leave it into the sink and heading to the door” I will sleep a little, wake me up when it will be our turn again please “

But she never woke you up and when you opened your eyes, the sun was shining again on another day.

Sanji wasn’t the kind of man who'd give up easily, neither on his dream nor on the people he loved. But, even with his flirty tendency, respecting women and their wishes was a priority. It’s why, even if it cost him and that your word had wounded him, on that sunny day, he started to restrict at the minimum his attention to you.

And you noticed it immediately. His gaze on you, usually full of affection, was now more distant, he didn’t ask you if you had slept well, nor if you would like something in particular for breakfast, he simply put an omelet in front of you, smiled politely and returned to his occupation. Yes, for Sanji it was odd, but, as a ladie’s man you give him a week before going back to his old habit.

Luckily for you, life decided to give both of you a hand.

Your estimation could never be more wrong. After two weeks of polite but cold Sanji, you were almost wishing you never had that fight. Your traitor heart was missed his radiant smile toward you, his compliments for every little detail of your person or the way he tried to know every one of your favorite things. But you had broken it and you were now unsure how to repair it. Excuse could probably do the charm, but your stubbornness was always blocking you, estimating that protecting your heart wasn't shameful.

The Going Merry was anchored alongside an island, doing his needed resupply. As the last barrel had been brought on board, you followed the idea of Zoro and decided to join your companions for a drink at the little bar on the beach.

But, as you put your foot in the small place, you froze, your mind resuming to a static white noise. Your ex, already another lady at his arm, was installed with his crew at the largest table of the little tavern.

“ Hey Y/N come here, that table is free ! “ Luffy exclaimed, not noticing your stiffness.

“ Y/N is that you ! Damn girl, I haven't seen you since you were surrounded by Marines ! I own you for this one, how did you escape ?! “ The despicable man shouted, clearly more happy to see you, than you were to see him. “ Darla, that girl was... my most loyal crew member. “He explained to the girl at his side “Look at you, have you always been that pretty ? “

The compliment was the last straw that snapped you out of your shock. How could he talk to you so casually after all you had endured because of him. Doesn’t he have an ounce of regret or shame ?!

“ I escaped on my own after you had cowardly abandoned me ! “ You replied, as Sanji placed himself behind you, placing a hand on your shoulder in support.

“ Y/N, that man clearly doesn’t deserve your time, come, the drink will arrive soon” He tried, giving a hard look at the pathetique Captain who was now coming a you, his hand scratching his hair, gauging if Sanji was a menace for his future plan with you or not.

“ Not deserving of his time, I had already two years of her time mate, go sip your beer and let us discuss. Y/N and I have many things to talk about. I haven’t abandoned her, I knew she could escape, she’s a smart cat. Aren't you Sweet pea”

“ I have nothing to say to you, thank you Sanji but I’m not in the mood. Being in the same room as him would suck all the joy I have. I will be on the ship. “ You simply replied, making your exit before tears ran down your cheeks.

Sat on the upper deck, watching the night sky, the fresh wind drying your last tears, you saw Sanji came back onboard. Without a word, he simply sat beside you and offered you the bottle he was keeping in his hand.

“ Zoro sent his regards and I’m here to tell you that I’m sorry. I had tried to respect your wish, but I couldn’t stop myself tonight. I can’t not care for you and that man was...he shouldn’t ever treat a lady as you like that. Maybe now he had learn “

“ Sanji, what did you do? “ You asked, strangely touched that he had actually take your defense even after you had left.

“ I kicked his pathetic and disgraceful ass. I couldn’t tolerate the way he was looking at you, talking to you...But I understand now how my behavior led you to dislike me when I arrived, But I assure you that…”

“ I know, “ You said your heart, still fragile, beating faster.” You aren’t him and I should have waited to know you. I was scared, I didn’t want to like you because I was afraid to repeat the same story. But even if I tried, I realize when you had stop to caring for me that I miss it, I missed you…a lot“

Suddenly unusually shy, his cheeks a slightly shade of faded pink in the dark, Sanji avoided your gaze, a joyful smile spreading on his lips.

“ I suggest that we start over. We can't forget all those months but we can restart our relationship.I can’t wait to truly know you Y/N” He tell, finally planting in gaze in yours, that lost spackles in his eyes, the one you though forever vanish, back even brighter that ever.

“ I can’t wait too, Sanji “ You softly smile.

___

Your first kiss with Sanji happened a little shorter than a month later. At exactly the same spot.

Since that night, you have made a habit of watching the sky together, sharing stories, passions and thoughts. Even if the blond cook, not without surprise, seems to find the constellation less appealing than your sweet view at his side. But, you slowly adapted yourself to his flirting and even often replied, to his joy.

It was in one of those moments, as you turned your head to point to him a group of stars that Sanji captured your lips, answering your heart's deepest desire from months and even probably since the tall man had put a foot on the deck.

Somewhere on the lower level of the ship, you hear the playful screams and wolf whistles of your friends. But, as he captured your lips for another kiss you couldn't care less. You had an amazing group of friends, the sea was peaceful and with the help of Sanji, your heart finally started to heal.

#opla!sanji x reader #sanji x reader #one piece netflix #opla #opla sanji #vinesmoke sanji x reader #one piece #one piece sanji #opla vinesmoke sanji x reader #sanji x y/n #Request #Sanji Request

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mysteriousbeetle · 1 month ago

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People act like Tim and Cass's relationship is all smooth sailing which is not true. And I think acting like it is does a disservice to their relationship.

During No Man's Land while Tim cares about her general survival, he is shown to dislike her and feel reluctant about working with her (Robin (1993) #73). While this reluctance continues after No Man's Land, it's resolved by the end of Batgirl (2000) #18.

They are both very different people and in order to find an understanding they have to put in the effort. Even then, that doesn't mean they're always on the same page.

In Robin/Batgirl: Fresh Blood, while they are able to work well together, they are shown to have differing ideals and have some disagreements over them.

They're siblings and again very different people so of course they're capable of arguing. And I think it's also important to acknowledge that it took time and effort to form the relationship they have. I'm not saying that they don't get along but to ignore their conflicts really takes away from their complexity and makes their relationship seem a lot less interesting.

#cass cain #cassandra cain #tim drake #dc #my text #people love to misinterpret some panels and act like dick didn't trust cass in nml.#meanwhile people ignore how tim described her as creepy and sarcastically said “great” at the thought of having to work with her.#i think the problem is that some people only know cass from red robin #which gives a lacking portrayal of her tbh.

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mostlysignssomeportents · 7 months ago

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Algorithmic feeds are a twiddler’s playground

Next TUESDAY (May 14), I'm on a livecast about AI AND ENSHITTIFICATION with TIM O'REILLY; on WEDNESDAY (May 15), I'm in NORTH HOLLYWOOD with HARRY SHEARER for a screening of STEPHANIE KELTON'S FINDING THE MONEY; FRIDAY (May 17), I'm at the INTERNET ARCHIVE in SAN FRANCISCO to keynote the 10th anniversary of the AUTHORS ALLIANCE.

Like Oscar Wilde, "I can resist anything except temptation," and my slow and halting journey to adulthood is really just me grappling with this fact, getting temptation out of my way before I can yield to it.

Behavioral economists have a name for the steps we take to guard against temptation: a "Ulysses pact." That's when you take some possibility off the table during a moment of strength in recognition of some coming moment of weakness:

https://archive.org/details/decentralizedwebsummit2016-corydoctorow

Famously, Ulysses did this before he sailed into the Sea of Sirens. Rather than stopping his ears with wax to prevent his hearing the sirens' song, which would lure him to his drowning, Ulysses has his sailors tie him to the mast, leaving his ears unplugged. Ulysses became the first person to hear the sirens' song and live to tell the tale.

Ulysses was strong enough to know that he would someday be weak. He expressed his strength by guarding against his weakness. Our modern lives are filled with less epic versions of the Ulysses pact: the day you go on a diet, it's a good idea to throw away all your Oreos. That way, when your blood sugar sings its siren song at 2AM, it will be drowned out by the rest of your body's unwillingness to get dressed, find your keys and drive half an hour to the all-night grocery store.

Note that this Ulysses pact isn't perfect. You might drive to the grocery store. It's rare that a Ulysses pact is unbreakable – we bind ourselves to the mast, but we don't chain ourselves to it and slap on a pair of handcuffs for good measure.

People who run institutions can – and should – create Ulysses pacts, too. A company that holds the kind of sensitive data that might be subjected to "sneak-and-peek" warrants by cops or spies can set up a "warrant canary":

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warrant_canary

This isn't perfect. A company that stops publishing regular transparency reports might have been compromised by the NSA, but it's also possible that they've had a change in management and the new boss just doesn't give a shit about his users' privacy:

https://www.fastcompany.com/90853794/twitters-transparency-reporting-has-tanked-under-elon-musk

Likewise, a company making software it wants users to trust can release that code under an irrevocable free/open software license, thus guaranteeing that each release under that license will be free and open forever. This is good, but not perfect: the new boss can take that free/open code down a proprietary fork and try to orphan the free version:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39772562

A company can structure itself as a public benefit corporation and make a binding promise to elevate its stakeholders' interests over its shareholders' – but the CEO can still take a secret $100m bribe from cryptocurrency creeps and try to lure those stakeholders into a shitcoin Ponzi scheme:

https://fortune.com/crypto/2024/03/11/kickstarter-blockchain-a16z-crypto-secret-investment-chris-dixon/

A key resource can be entrusted to a nonprofit with a board of directors who are charged with stewarding it for the benefit of a broad community, but when a private equity fund dangles billions before that board, they can talk themselves into a belief that selling out is the right thing to do:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2020/12/how-we-saved-org-2020-review

Ulysses pacts aren't perfect, but they are very important. At the very least, creating a Ulysses pact starts with acknowledging that you are fallible. That you can be tempted, and rationalize your way into taking bad action, even when you know better. Becoming an adult is a process of learning that your strength comes from seeing your weaknesses and protecting yourself and the people who trust you from them.

Which brings me to enshittification. Enshittification is the process by which platforms betray their users and their customers by siphoning value away from each until the platform is a pile of shit:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enshittification

Enshittification is a spectrum that can be applied to many companies' decay, but in its purest form, enshittification requires:

a) A platform: a two-sided market with business customers and end users who can be played off against each other; b) A digital back-end: a market that can be easily, rapidly and undetectably manipulated by its owners, who can alter search-rankings, prices and costs on a per-user, per-query basis; and c) A lack of constraint: the platform's owners must not fear a consequence for this cheating, be it from competitors, regulators, workforce resignations or rival technologists who use mods, alternative clients, blockers or other "adversarial interoperability" tools to disenshittify your product and sever your relationship with your users.

he founders of tech platforms don't generally set out to enshittify them. Rather, they are constantly seeking some equilibrium between delivering value to their shareholders and turning value over to end users, business customers, and their own workers. Founders are consummate rationalizers; like parenting, founding a company requires continuous, low-grade self-deception about the amount of work involved and the chances of success. A founder, confronted with the likelihood of failure, is absolutely capable of talking themselves into believing that nearly any compromise is superior to shuttering the business: "I'm one of the good guys, so the most important thing is for me to live to fight another day. Thus I can do any number of immoral things to my users, business customers or workers, because I can make it up to them when we survive this crisis. It's for their own good, even if they don't know it. Indeed, I'm doubly moral here, because I'm volunteering to look like the bad guy, just so I can save this business, which will make the world over for the better":

https://locusmag.com/2024/05/cory-doctorow-no-one-is-the-enshittifier-of-their-own-story/

(En)shit(tification) flows downhill, so tech workers grapple with their own version of this dilemma. Faced with constant pressure to increase the value flowing from their division to the company, they have to balance different, conflicting tactics, like "increasing the number of users or business customers, possibly by shifting value from the company to these stakeholders in the hopes of making it up in volume"; or "locking in my existing stakeholders and squeezing them harder, safe in the knowledge that they can't easily leave the service provided the abuse is subtle enough." The bigger a company gets, the harder it is for it to grow, so the biggest companies realize their gains by locking in and squeezing their users, not by improving their service::

https://pluralistic.net/2023/07/28/microincentives-and-enshittification/

That's where "twiddling" comes in. Digital platforms are extremely flexible, which comes with the territory: computers are the most flexible tools we have. This means that companies can automate high-speed, deceptive changes to the "business logic" of their platforms – what end users pay, how much of that goes to business customers, and how offers are presented to both:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/02/19/twiddler/

This kind of fraud isn't particularly sophisticated, but it doesn't have to be – it just has to be fast. In any shell-game, the quickness of the hand deceives the eye:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/03/26/glitchbread/#electronic-shelf-tags

Under normal circumstances, this twiddling would be constrained by counterforces in society. Changing the business rules like this is fraud, so you'd hope that a regulator would step in and extinguish the conduct, fining the company that engaged in it so hard that they saw a net loss from the conduct. But when a sector gets very concentrated, its mega-firms capture their regulators, becoming "too big to jail":

https://pluralistic.net/2022/06/05/regulatory-capture/

Thus the tendency among the giant tech companies to practice the one lesson of the Darth Vader MBA: dismissing your stakeholders' outrage by saying, "I am altering the deal. Pray I don't alter it any further":

https://pluralistic.net/2023/10/26/hit-with-a-brick/#graceful-failure

Where regulators fail, technology can step in. The flexibility of digital platforms cuts both ways: when the company enshittifies its products, you can disenshittify it with your own countertwiddling: third-party ink-cartridges, alternative app stores and clients, scrapers, browser automation and other forms of high-tech guerrilla warfare:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2019/10/adversarial-interoperability

But tech giants' regulatory capture have allowed them to expand "IP rights" to prevent this self-help. By carefully layering overlapping IP rights around their products, they can criminalize the technology that lets you wrestle back the value they've claimed for themselves, creating a new offense of "felony contempt of business model":

https://locusmag.com/2020/09/cory-doctorow-ip/

A world where users must defer to platforms' moment-to-moment decisions about how the service operates, without the protection of rival technology or regulatory oversight is a world where companies face a powerful temptation to enshittify.

That's why we've seen so much enshittification in platforms that algorithmically rank their feeds, from Google and Amazon search to Facebook and Twitter feeds. A search engine is always going to be making a judgment call about what the best result for your search should be. If a search engine is generally good at predicting which results will please you best, you'll return to it, automatically clicking the first result ("I'm feeling lucky").

This means that if a search engine slips in the odd paid result at the top of the results, they can exploit your trusting habits to shift value from you to their investors. The congifurability of a digital service means that they can sprinkle these frauds into their services on a random schedule, making them hard to detect and easy to dismiss as lapses. Gradually, this acquires its own momentum, and the platform becomes addicted to lowering its own quality to raise its profits, and you get modern Google, which cynically lowered search quality to increase search volume:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/04/24/naming-names/#prabhakar-raghavan

And you get Amazon, which makes $38 billion every year, accepting bribes to replace its best search results with paid results for products that cost more and are of lower quality:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/11/06/attention-rents/#consumer-welfare-queens

Social media's enshittification followed a different path. In the beginning, social media presented a deterministic feed: after you told the platform who you wanted to follow, the platform simply gathered up the posts those users made and presented them to you, in reverse-chronological order.

This presented few opportunities for enshittification, but it wasn't perfect. For users who were well-established on a platform, a reverse-chrono feed was an ungovernable torrent, where high-frequency trivialities drowned out the important posts from people whose missives were buried ten screens down in the updates since your last login.

For new users who didn't yet follow many people, this presented the opposite problem: an empty feed, and the sense that you were all alone while everyone else was having a rollicking conversation down the hall, in a room you could never find.

The answer was the algorithmic feed: a feed of recommendations drawn from both the accounts you followed and strangers alike. Theoretically, this could solve both problems, by surfacing the most important materials from your friends while keeping you abreast of the most important and interesting activity beyond your filter bubble. For many of us, this promise was realized, and algorithmic feeds became a source of novelty and relevance.

But these feeds are a profoundly tempting enshittification target. The critique of these algorithms has largely focused on "addictiveness" and the idea that platforms would twiddle the knobs to increase the relevance of material in your feed to "hack your engagement":

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/mar/04/has-dopamine-got-us-hooked-on-tech-facebook-apps-addiction

Less noticed – and more important – was how platforms did the opposite: twiddling the knobs to remove things from your feed that you'd asked to see or that the algorithm predicted you'd enjoy, to make room for "boosted" content and advertisements:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Instagram/comments/z9j7uy/what_happened_to_instagram_only_ads_and_accounts/

Users were helpless before this kind of twiddling. On the one hand, they were locked into the platform – not because their dopamine had been hacked by evil tech-bro wizards – but because they loved the friends they had there more than they hated the way the service was run:

https://locusmag.com/2023/01/commentary-cory-doctorow-social-quitting/

On the other hand, the platforms had such an iron grip on their technology, and had deployed IP so cleverly, that any countertwiddling technology was instantaneously incinerated by legal death-rays:

https://techcrunch.com/2022/10/10/google-removes-the-og-app-from-the-play-store-as-founders-think-about-next-steps/

Newer social media platforms, notably Tiktok, dispensed entirely with deterministic feeds, defaulting every user into a feed that consisted entirely of algorithmic picks; the people you follow on these platforms are treated as mere suggestions by their algorithms. This is a perfect breeding-ground for enshittification: different parts of the business can twiddle the knobs to override the algorithm for their own parochial purposes, shifting the quality:shit ratio by unnoticeable increments, temporarily toggling the quality knob when your engagement drops off:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/emilybaker-white/2023/01/20/tiktoks-secret-heating-button-can-make-anyone-go-viral/

All social platforms want to be Tiktok: nominally, that's because Tiktok's algorithmic feed is so good at hooking new users and keeping established users hooked. But tech bosses also understand that a purely algorithmic feed is the kind of black box that can be plausibly and subtly enshittified without sparking user revolts:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/01/21/potemkin-ai/#hey-guys

Back in 2004, when Mark Zuckerberg was coming to grips with Facebook's success, he boasted to a friend that he was sitting on a trove of emails, pictures and Social Security numbers for his fellow Harvard students, offering this up for his friend's idle snooping. The friend, surprised, asked "What? How'd you manage that one?"

Infamously, Zuck replied, "People just submitted it. I don't know why. They 'trust me.' Dumb fucks."

https://www.esquire.com/uk/latest-news/a19490586/mark-zuckerberg-called-people-who-handed-over-their-data-dumb-f/

This was a remarkable (and uncharacteristic) self-aware moment from the then-nineteen-year-old Zuck. Of course Zuck couldn't be trusted with that data. Whatever Jiminy Cricket voice told him to safeguard that trust was drowned out by his need to boast to pals, or participate in the creepy nonconsensual rating of the fuckability of their female classmates. Over and over again, Zuckerberg would promise to use his power wisely, then break that promise as soon as he could do so without consequence:

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3247362

Zuckerberg is a cautionary tale. Aware from the earliest moments that he was amassing power that he couldn't be trusted with, he nevertheless operated with only the weakest of Ulysses pacts, like a nonbinding promise never to spy on his users:

https://web.archive.org/web/20050107221705/http://www.thefacebook.com/policy.php

But the platforms have learned the wrong lesson from Zuckerberg. Rather than treating Facebook's enshittification as a cautionary tale, they've turned it into a roadmap. The Darth Vader MBA rules high-tech boardrooms.

Algorithmic feeds and other forms of "paternalistic" content presentation are necessary and even desirable in an information-rich environment. In many instances, decisions about what you see must be largely controlled by a third party whom you trust. The audience in a comedy club doesn't get to insist on knowing the punchline before the joke is told, just as RPG players don't get to order the Dungeon Master to present their preferred challenges during a campaign.

But this power is balanced against the ease of the players replacing the Dungeon Master or the audience walking out on the comic. When you've got more than a hundred dollars sunk into a video game and an online-only friend-group you raid with, the games company can do a lot of enshittification without losing your business, and they know it:

https://www.theverge.com/2024/5/10/24153809/ea-in-game-ads-redux

Even if they sometimes overreach and have to retreat:

https://www.eurogamer.net/sony-overturns-helldivers-2-psn-requirement-following-backlash

A tech company that seeks your trust for an algorithmic feed needs Ulysses pacts, or it will inevitably yield to the temptation to enshittify. From strongest to weakest, these are:

Not showing you an algorithmic feed at all;

https://joinmastodon.org/

"Composable moderation" that lets multiple parties provide feeds:

https://bsky.social/about/blog/4-13-2023-moderation

Offering an algorithmic "For You" feed alongside of a reverse-chrono "Friends" feed, defaulting to friends;

https://pluralistic.net/2022/12/10/e2e/#the-censors-pen

As above, but defaulting to "For You"

Maturity lies in being strong enough to know your weaknesses. Never trust someone who tells you that they will never yield to temptation! Instead, seek out people – and service providers – with the maturity and honesty to know how tempting temptation is, and who act before temptation strikes to make it easier to resist.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/05/11/for-you/#the-algorithm-tm

Image: Cryteria (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HAL9000.svg

CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en

djhughman https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Modular_synthesizer_-_%22Control_Voltage%22_electronic_music_shop_in_Portland_OR_-_School_Photos_PCC_%282015-05-23_12.43.01_by_djhughman%29.jpg

CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en

#pluralistic #twiddling #for you #enshittification #intermediation #the algorithm tm #moral hazard #end to end

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antebunny · 1 month ago

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a cuckoo in the nest update

a plan, a snippet, and a question

plan is of course subject to change

no idea how long it will be

anyways, here's the snippet:

---

A seed of suspicion sprouts in the stake park. Someone whose name may or may not rhyme with Grick Dayson strong-arms Bruce into taking his family to the skate park nearest to their home in Bristol. Necessarily, the fae accompanies them. Bruce expected it to be on its best human-like behavior in public, but even he, paranoid bastard that he is, underestimates the cunning of the creature. Gone is the lost little boy act; in is the rascal preteen boy who hollers at his older brothers from the sidelines to do a kickflip.

Within minutes, the fae has acquired a skateboard. After a couple of wobbly attempts at using it, the fae progresses to attempting to drop in. If the fae were a human child, Bruce would strongly advise it to practice more before making an attempt. If the child were his kid, Bruce would insist on wearing kneepads and the like before stepping foot on another skateboard.

As it is, Bruce is not even sure that the fae can be hurt in the same way as humans. Through his research and through the fae’s demonstration, Bruce has learned a little about how fae operate; namely, that they separate body from being. A fae can be hurt through incorporeal, intangible means that mean nothing to humans, such as using a “true name” and striking deals. Humans can break bargains, lie, and call each other names without anything resembling consequences. But is the reverse also true? Are fae immune to bullets and knives and all the weapons humanity has to offer? Bruce is quite certain that Tim–the particular fae forced upon him–has no idea.

“TIM!”

Speak of the devil. Bruce’s gaze instantly snaps to the bottom of the half-pipe. His eyes land on Tim’s skateboard, which sails away from him (it). The fae stays on its hands and knees as Jason and Dick pound over dirty concrete, flying over the railings and people to reach him first. Both hover as Tim pulls himself to his feet.

“You okay?” Dick squats next to Tim. “Those knees look pretty banged up.”

But Tim’s attention isn’t on his skinned knees quickly welling with beads of blood or the boys by his side. His gaze stays trained on the runaway skateboard. “I used to be able to float,” he cries, and bursts into tears.

Jason pats him on the back. “Alright, calm down, Timmy’s Delivery Service. We’ll getcha back in the air in no time.”

“I don’t want to!” Tim shoves his hand away, perfectly emulating the preteen boy behavior it is pretending to be. “I’m not going to float, ever again. I’m gonna learn to skateboard.” And he marches all of two petulant steps away from Jason before he freezes and looks down at his knees.

Like he’s surprised they hurt.

Long after Dick cleans and patches up those cuts and bruises, Bruce’s eyes keep looking at Tim’s knees. The fae bled red just like any human and had not expected it. The fae wants to learn skateboarding and wants to leave behind the dreamlike ways of the fae. This fae–Tim–wants to be human. This fae has known nothing but the fae realm and the life of the Unseelie Court. An iron fist in a velvet glove, the rule of the Unseelie Queen. Perhaps, with time and exposure to Gotham, Tim now values the marvels of the human realm and wishes to join it? Is it possible they might turn against the Unseelie Queen?

How old is the fae?

#my writing #my fanfiction #antebunny's ficlets #batfam #tim drake #fae tim #the question is:#what the hell do i name the chapter #QAQ

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buds-and-baubles · 2 months ago

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silly snippets from my wildstorm to dc transfer:

apollo: no, you shouldn't fly if you're still tired. *he stands behind but still at a respectable distance, hands held out with a grin* want the apollo express to help you out?

kon: *he grabs apollo's hands* sure why not, it would be interesting to compare how you fly to claAAAAAAAAAAAAAH *apollo took off flying mid-sentence on that word just to be funny*

midnighter: *stands in the alleyway, bo staff in his hands* oh, for fuck's sake.

tim: *stands on the other side of the alleyway, twirling his bo staff* midnighter, interesting seeing you here. nice weapon, by the way.

midnighter: *he sighs, moving his weapon to one hand* what're you doing here, kid? i'm working.

tim: i'm working too. *gestures to his costume* need any assistance? we can work out some terms for a teamup but i'm sure we can come to an understanding.

midnighter: *he rubs a hand over his face* fine, but only because i know you'll pester me until i agree. you got a paper or something for these terms?

tim: *smiles wide at the 'pestering' comment, nodding his head*

nathaniel adam: *he's walking into the justice league conference room for a meeting*

the rest of the justice league: *discussing the anomaly (the wildstorm transfer), a blurry picture of apollo up on a projector*

nathaniel adam: *flashbacks to armageddon* don't trust any of them. don't trust any of them, especially THAT guy! *points at screen*

the picture: *apollo is kneeling to hold out a cat he rescued from a tree to a teary-eyed kid, halo glowing bright as he smiles*

shen: *stretching out her wings as she sits perched on a rock by the ocean* feel like there's something to be said about a bird and a fish spending time together.

garth: *he's next to her with his legs in the water, kicking his legs to splash* dogs and cats become friends too. if we bind ourselves by what others tell us, we'll never sail away. or so the analogy goes.

shen: huh. *she smiles a little mischeviously, dipping the tips of her wings in the waves to splash him a bit* i'd prefer the analogy 'fly away' personally.

garth: *he's actually happy about being splashed since it moisturizes him* so no pelican analogies then?

jack hawksmoor and city boy: *spider-man pointing meme*

rose tattoo and death of the endless: *spider-man pointing meme*

jenny quantum: you know, you could use your hair as a weapon.

kori: oh, how so? *a mix of intrigue and concern on what she's going to hear*

jenny quantum: like a beautiful flaming jump rope. you don't even have to kill anyone to use it like that.

kori: an excellent reccomendation for future battles to be used in a pinch. thank you, jennifer, i'll be sure to pass the idea along to the titans. *she holds her arms out* do you still want to fly with me?

jenny quantum: absolutely! *jumps into her arms*

jenny quantum and kori: *cue to them flying with jenny in kori's arms, both of them going 'wheeee!'*

dream of the endless: *opens a door, stepping into the garden of ancestral memories* . . . this.. is new...

angie, babs, and natasha irons: *dangerously powerful teamup which the world is forever changed for the betterment of STEM*

midnighter: *takes a step*

cass: *takes a step at the same time*

midnighter: son of a–

cass: *he can't see but she's sticking her tongue out* womp womp.

apollo: *opens the door to his apartment to see the core four standing there* ..i take it this has to do with something nobody else knows about that has happened that you don't want them to know happened?

bart: for legal reasons, no comment.

cassie: that was a comment, bart.

kon: *bashfully scraping one of his boots on the ground* yes.

apollo: *takes a deep breath as he stands aside so they can come in* let's see what we're dealing with.

all four: thank you. *walk inside*

tim: oh hey, m got the new curtains he was mumbling about!

the authority: *murderizes henry bendix again*

jay nakamura: *shocked blinking meme*

the watchtower: *exists*

the carrier: *loud sentient shift ship sounds of upset informal protests*

superman: *he's hovering midair, giving a small wave* mister majestic, good to see you!

mister majestic: *he offers his own wave* i wish it was under better circumstances.

superman: that's why i am here. *he offers an apologetic smile* i'm sorry for what happened to your universe and earth. you did the best you could under those circumstances.

mister majestic: thank you. i know we did, but it doesn't make it entirely easier... on the bright side, we now don't have to worry about earth's god returning to kill us all.

superman: *baffled silence*

superman: come again?

grifter and red hood: *in a metaphorical stare down*

grifter: *twirls his two guns* full offense, you make me look healthy.

red hood: *grips his own two guns tighter* shut the fuck up.

grifter: not even a therapist could fix that. they should dip you again like an easter egg in green dye.

red hood: i'm not going to fall for this attempt to make us fight.

grifter: congratulations, you finally learned limits!

gen13: *staring at teen titans/young justice and titans with wonder in their eyes* we're just like them! *a building explodes behind them*

nightwing and huntress: *whisper bickering about the case they have to work on together because babs told them to*

midnighter: *lands on the ground with his night (escrima) sticks out*

nightwing: *turns around, frowning* the midnighter.

midnighter: nightwing and i'm guessing huntress. with the way you two were whispering, you'd be the worst spies ever.

nightwing: i'd ask you to kill me if i was ever a spy.

huntress: i'd rather throw myself into gotham river than be a spy. even worse if i had to lead them.

apollo, angie and shen: *air support/cav rescuing people after fucking up the people they were fighting*

kon: as thanks for lookin' out for me, i wanted to give you these. *hands him some circular sunglasses with yellow lenses, and a leather jacket that's got his chest symbol on the back of it*

apollo: *he carefully takes both items, putting them on* you really didn't have to, kon-el, but thank you. *he pulls his hair out from the collar of the jacket, posing* do i look, as you say.. funky fresh?

kon: *laughs, nodding his head* the funky and freshest. you wanna pose for a picture together?

apollo: *he nods* how about pictures and lunch in hawaii? i've been meaning to check there out.

kon: the s.s.superboy is at your service! *salutes as he flies off, apollo following right alongside him*

(connected to the previous one) the quantum apartment, san francisco;

midnighter: *gets a notification on his phone, opening it up to pictures of apollo posing in his new stuff with kon in hawaii* . . . *he grins like a shark* that's nice. i think i'm having a second coming out and it's gonna be mes–

angie and shen: *wearing matching knowing but deadpanned smirking expressions * we know.

jenny quantum: *stares at midnighter unblinking* dad two: electric boogaloo, you can't say that everytime dad sends you a selfie. also, gross.

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gothamite-rambler · 19 days ago

Text

Indecent Exposure

Barbara Gordon rolled into the Wayne Mansion, waving to Stephanie, Cass, and Tim, but then she bumps into Dick Grayson.

Dick: Oh hey! I'm not- I just dropped by and-

Barbara: Mm-hm, cool, I didn't come to see you. Gotta talk to Bruce. Good to see you put some clothes on and not walking around with your—

Dick: Yep, yep, yep. Don't want to talk about it! He's in his office, but remember to knock. Knock. Just knock and wait for him to respond.

Barbara: I will, and I do hope he makes it very clear that it is safe to enter and not just silence.

Dick (tight smile): Maybe the silence is a hint that you shouldn't enter. Some people don’t say anything to mean to not enter.

Barbara: Maybe—Maybe leaving a door unlocked in a guest room is a hint to not be silent! Especially when the homeowner has to ask a question about using all of her Irish Spring lavender body wash!

Dick: I cashapped you the money for that!

Barbara (loud): That doesn't take away the fact you used all of it or that when someone knocks on the door at their house for one of their rooms, you say something or be wearing something!

Dick: Oh yeah, well... maybe next time I'll just go back to my place instead of staying at yours!

Tim sipped his coffee silently watching.

Barbara: Maybe I won't invite you to my apartment next time when you're too tired to drive home and "desperately need a shower that's close by"!

Dick (embarrassed): Whatever!

Dick stormed off grumbling. Barbara rolled her eyes.

Barbara: Great defense!

Tim went to Barbara, tapping his cup.

Tim: Did you guys have sex?

Barbara: Why do you use that same joke? Is it to piss me off?

Tim: It is... It works everytime.

Tim calmly takes another sip from his coffee cop. Barbara rolled her eyes.

Tim: What's the story then? Did he ruin another piece of furniture?

Barbara (covering her eyes): No, just makes me want to be blind. What happened was... I need a second.

Bruce left his office having heard the entire conversation and gave the correct incident without hesitation.

Bruce: He left the door unlocked in the guest room at your house while there for the night, you knocked on the door to ask for something, he didn't say anything, and you took that as a hint to enter the room, and he was fully unclothed. I'm guessing from a shower?

Barbara (agreeing): Yeah, he took a shower after a fight with the Condiment King. He was buck-naked, and this is the fifth time I've seen that man's birthmark and not by choice. At least it wasn't him and April on my couch again.

Bruce: Did he pay you back for that?

Barbara nodded, groaning.

Barbara: I had to replace the couch though, but April and I are on good terms.

Tim: In his defense, if he doesn't say anything, that means you don't enter.

Barbara (offended): It's—

Bruce: It's her house. She can enter whoever's room whenever she wants.

Barbara: Bruce gets it. I own the house, it's owned BY me! You hear that, Dick? Bruce gets it!

Dick (across the hall): Of course he would; he's a megalomaniac too!

Tim (chuckling): I'll go talk to him and calm him down.

Tim walked off still laughing while Barbara rolled past Bruce to his office.

Barbara (aggravated): You need to deal with that son of yours or I'm going to hurt his feelings.

Bruce shook his head.

Bruce: You know when you had a crush on him you guys didn't bicker like siblings.

Barbara: Not my fault we're not each other's types. Would you have wanted us to act like the cutesy couple that humps each other?

Bruce (deadpan): I would prefer you both act like adults, but that shipped sailed a long time ago.

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hyperfixation-throwaway · 1 month ago

Text

All Quiet at the Batcave (one-shot fic)

“I said quit it.” Jason snarled, wiping the sweat off his forehead on the back of his hand. With the other hand, he tested the bike’s brakes again.

Better, but still not nearly responsive enough.

A perfectly pleasant Friday night and he was stuck on the lower level of the Batcave tending to the Batcycle, performing “bat-repairs”.

I could be out with Roy and the others, on casual patrol or getting hammered at the boulevard, or both at once. A rare night off and this is how I’m spending it.

To his great annoyance, he heard Damian—who had rolled the Batcomputer’s chair right up against the railing—tear out yet another page from his notebook and scrunch it up, “But why does it bother you so much? It’s just paper, Todd.”

With that, another paper ball came sailing from above, this time hitting Jason’s shoulder.

Jason sucked in a deep breath. He had been making some good headway in his anger management sessions lately and he was NOT going to let Damian cost him that progress.

“You’re right, Damian.” he said through gritted teeth, “It’s just paper. Although doesn’t wasting it go against your deeply environmentalist beliefs?”

The youngest child snorted, “It��s hardly considered a waste if it fulfills my purpose.”

Deep breaths, Jay. Deep, deep breaths.

“Yeah? Well, I have my own purpose to fulfill.” Jason nodded towards the Batcycle, “The calibration’s been off since Bruce crashed it last week and he hasn’t stopped complaining since. Let me finish up in peace and you can continue turning the cave into your private paper ball-pit or whatever.”

“You know Bruce is only making you do this because he wanted an excuse to see you, right?” Tim’s voice piped up. The Red Robin had draped himself across the brown leather couch next to the Batcomputer, holding his phone barely an inch away from his face.

Bruce had been saying he’d replace that couch for years now—actually, since the days Jason was Robin. But for some reason or another, the couch remained unmoved and unchanged. Hell, it technically even outlived Jason.

Jason scoffed, “I’m touched. Though if that were really the case, wouldn’t he be here?” He scanned the floor for the rag he was using, only to remember that he had draped it over his shoulder earlier.

“Father said Catwoman suddenly found a new lead on the Malkovich files.” Damian grumbled, “How convenient that she—of all people—managed to uncover such critical information right when he was starting to get desperate for it.”

Jason and Tim’s chuckles echoed lightly throughout the cave.

“That explains why he didn’t take you along then.” Jason grinned, “A brooding kid in bright tights trailing behind you doesn’t exactly help set the mood.”

His youngest adoptive sibling only glowered at him in response and then proceeded to storm away in a huff.

“Come on, Ian!” Jason called after him, “You realize that by brooding even harder, you’re just proving my point, right?”

Still no response, only the whoosh of the cave’s elevator doors closing.

Tim sat up on the couch, stretching his arms above him, “Is he genuinely upset? Or is he just being a Wayne?”

“A little bit of Column A, a little bit of Column B.” Jason shook his head, “But maybe it wouldn’t hurt to check on the kid… you know, for the sake of the petty criminals he might take his anger out on tonight.”

Tim leaned over the railing, “Ah, are you already done with the Batcycle?”

“Not even close.” Jason laughed, “But the Batman has suffered worse ordeals than missing his Batcycle for a couple nights. Oh hey, toss me Damian’s notebook, I can do the polite thing and leave Bruce a note.”

***

“Damian?” Jason knocked, “You there?”

No response.

“If you’re bored, the three of us could go on patrol.” Tim called out, “We’ll even pass by the animal shelter on our way to Main Stree-”

A muffled, “Shut up!” came through the door, “Would you both just shut the fu-”

“Hey! No swearing. At least, not for you just yet.” Jason banged on the door, “Now open up. You heard what Alfred said about damaging even one more door this month and I’m not taking any-”

To their surprise, the lock turned and the door swung open immediately. This was a most unexpected development considering that this standoff didn’t end with a chase through the east gardens this time.

But the even bigger surprise was the state they found Damian in. They had expected to find him all suited up and halfway out the window. Instead, they were greeted by teary eyes and a sniffling nose. At least his eyebrows remained as they usually were: set in a deep frown.

“Go away.” he simply hissed, “Clearly, I have no intentions of sneaking out tonight. So you can leave me alone.”

“Whoa, not so fast there, Mini B.” Jason stuck his arm out, stopping the door from slamming shut, “How are you supposed to shred my apology if you don’t listen to it first?”

“I don’t want an apology.” Damian roared, “l want you gone.” he slammed the door on Jason’s arm again, even harder this time.

“Damian,” Tim reasoned gently, “if you give us at least a vague idea of what’s wrong, it’ll put us at ease and we’ll leave you alone knowing that you’ll be able to handle it—whatever it is.”

The door creaked as it widened once more.

This time, Damian couldn’t bring himself to look them in the eyes “But it’s… embarrassing.” he mumbled through gritted teeth.

“More embarrassing than when Jason spilled coffee on Wonder Woman?” Tim raised an eyebrow.

“That was years ago.” Jason snapped at Tim, “On the other hand, your little Twitter mishap was only last week.”

Tim narrowed his eyes at him, “Carefully consider what you’re about to start here, Todd.” he warned.

“Me? But you’re the one who brought up-”

Damian let out an exasperated, “Ugh!” and moved to close his door once again.

“Wait, wait, wait.” Jason stopped it again, “Sorry, bud. You were saying?”

“Never mind.” he answered coldly, “It’s not like it would make a difference anyway.”

“You don’t know that for sure.” Tim rebutted, “Just try us. There’s no harm in that, right?”

Damian sucked in a deep breath before letting all his words out at once, “Every day it feels like this family gets smaller. Grayson’s in Bludhaven, you’ve got your sorry excuse of an apartment, even Tim’s spending more nights at the Tower. And now-“

He slowed down, his chest deflating further, “Now it seems even Father is losing interest in taking me out on patrol. How long until everyone just… forgets me?”

Jason and Tim met each other’s gaze silently. They had always known that Damian didn’t always mean the harsh words he threw their way, but who knew he cared this deeply about them?

About Dick? Sure. He and Damian have a bond so solid that on most days, not even Bruce can compete. But Jason—and by the looks of it, Tim as well—had no idea that Damian would even notice their absence, let alone miss having them around.

Jason finally broke the silence, “I’m only going to say this once,” he gently placed a hand on the young boy’s shoulder, “but no matter how busy we all get, no one’s ever going to forget about—or replace—the only Blood Son.”

He lowered himself onto one knee before continuing, “Nothing is going to change that fact. Not people moving out of the manor, not people finding new teammates, and not even patrol dates with Catwoman. Hell, not even if Bruce somehow married Catwoman. You are Damian f**king Wayne! You’re our little brother—whether you like it or not. And you’ll never be rid of us.”

Bursting into tears, Damian threw his arms around Jason’s neck—yet another unexpected, but welcome, development of the evening.

As Jason held him close, he felt Tim join in the hug from behind, “I always knew you were a big softie.” he chuckled in Jason’s ear.

Jason laughed, “You better savor this moment, Chalamet. Because it’ll be your last once I’m released from this hug.”

“Then bring it, Todd.” came the smug response.

***

Epilogue

Bruce practically dragged himself out of the Batmobile, his left shoulder still sore from the explosion.

As he took his gloves off, he was surprised to find the cave deserted. No yelling or punches to be heard, just the low steady hum of the Batcomputer.

“Boys?” he called out, but his voice was still hoarse from the tear gas earlier. Clearing his throat; he called out again, louder this time, “Boys?”

But only his own booming voice echoed throughout the cave and returned to him.

He spotted Jason’s tools in a neat pile near the Batcycle. Approaching it, he found not one, but two notes.

The first one—clearly in Jason’s handwriting—read: Sorry, will finish later. Something came up.

The second one—this time in Damian’s handwriting—simply read: Finished homework. Gone to Bludhaven and will return shortly.

Bruce smiled to himself. A visit to Bludhaven doesn’t sound like a bad idea, but maybe a shower and a nap first.

#batfam #jason todd #tim drake #damian wayne #dick grayson #batman #oneshot #fanfic

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stagefoureddiediaz · 2 months ago

Note

I know Tim said something along the lines of — Characters can’t always be happy or it’d make for boring television. With this in mind, do you think Buddie getting together will be a cliffhanger? Like one admits their feelings to the other and the other doesn’t reply or runs away? I feel like Tim would want to make it dramatic 🙄😂

Hmmm I don’t think so. I think it would be a disservice to buddie.

I think Tim is smart enough to let the moment do the talking. Buddie going canon will be a watershed moment in lgbtq television and storytelling so I don’t think it will be dramatic (I mean it will be a dramatic moment but not in an angsty cliffhanger way) the drama of the moment comes from it actually happening.

So I think it will be fairly quiet and intense and and it will be fairly smooth and easy when that moment arrives because all the drama etc is in the build up to it, the ratcheting of the tension of a slow burn over 7 seasons is the drama not the moment they get together so it doesn’t need a cliffhanger.

Them going canon is the opposite of boring television and whilst it’s true characters can’t always be happy because it would become boring, you do have to give them moments and periods of happiness etc or it also becomes boring g for the opposite reason. 911 has always done a good job of balancing both aspects - the couples on the show get to be happy together and they get to get together in beautiful and drama lacking ways because it’s much more interesting and satisfying to give them that moment and slow them to enjoy it for a little while so they can settle into a new dynamic. Because then you can test them - then you can throw spanner’s at them and see how they fight to be together through whatever comes their way - bathena, henren, madney are all stronger couples because they got together in a simple and beautiful way and then had their relationships tested. None of the relationships on the show have been easy or smooth sailing. They’ve all been pushed and had conflict and challenges and sometimes they break apart for a bit like madney did, but whatever happens, they come back together and are stronger for it on the other side.

So that’s what I think we’ll see with buddie - we’re going to get the drama in Eddie’s coming out of the closet and in the distance Tommy is likely to create between them in the build up and then once they’re together and have been given a little time - (which is when the others will go through their own drama) then the relationship gets tested and we get the drama! It’s much more rewarding for the viewer if that’s what we see.

That’s my two cents and how I would do it because I think it gives you the most options and the best outcomes. 😎

#kym answers things #buddiediaz118 asks #my thoughts #911 spoilers #eddie diaz #evan buckley #911 abc #buddie

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cevansbrat0007 · 2 years ago

Text

The Green Light: Afterglow

Summary: After an emotional afternoon, you finally allow your husband to take you to bed. Can you trust your man to help you see past your flaws? This is an immediate follow-up to The Green Light.

Warnings: Mature Themes, Body Acceptance, Smut, Daddy Kink, Implied Lactation Kink, Oral Sex (fem rec), Unprotected Sex, Spanking (mentioned), Punishments (implied), Post-Pregnancy Discussions, Cursing, Minors DNI

A/N: Be sure to read The Green Light before this drabble, otherwise it might not make sense. Dedicated to my sweet friend, @sarahdonald87. Part of my ongoing Growing Pains Series. Not beta'd. All mistakes are my own. Likes, comments, and reblogs are appreciated. Thanks for reading! ___

“Here we are, my lady.” Your husband purrs, gently dropping you on your bed. He’d carried you all the way from the foyer upstairs to your bedroom and he wasn’t even remotely out of breath.

“Oof!” The sound of your giggles fill the room, helping you forget the fact that you’d been ashamed of your naked postpartum body only moments before. “And here I was worried about being too heavy for you to lift.” Your teeth go to nibble your lower lip as your Big Man quickly goes to work shedding himself of his clothes.

“Hush.” He chuckles as he kicks off his slacks. “Start that shit up again and my palm is liable to start twitching.” The pants go sailing into a random corner, which is nowhere near the hamper. But this time you allow it.

You were too busy enjoying your front-row seat to Andrew Barber’s enthusiastic, occasionally bordering on frantic, striptease.

“Yes, Daddy.” You mumble as you feel your core spasm in anticipation. “No spankings for this girl tonight.” More giggles tumble out before you can stop them.

Andy’s gaze never leaves your lounging form, his bright blue eyes brimming with adoration. What struck you most was that this open look of love was all for you. It wasn't a ploy or a tool used to manipulate - oh no. It was all truly genuine.

This was the only man you trusted enough to share your innermost thoughts and insecurities. The ones you so often convinced yourself were better off being kept locked away.

But your man wasn’t the type to ever leave you to face your demons alone. He never shied away from a challenge. If only because he wanted to see you smile.

Sometimes life with Andrew Barber was like walking around with your own personal knight in shining armor. It truly was the stuff of dreams.

“I’ve missed you so much, Baby Girl.” He growls as he stands in front of you now clad in only a pair of form-fitting boxer briefs. “You honestly have no idea.” His head tips back on a strangled groan as he palms his impressive erection.

The sight of the wet spot darkening the fabric of his briefs is enough to make your mouth water. You really hoped that your man had been serious earlier when he’d said you two had all night.

Because now you were starving for a taste of him as well.

“I’ve missed you too.” You breathe, reaching up to play with your heavy breasts. Andy’s attention immediately shifts as a small trickle of milk leaks out, leaving a delicious trail as it tracks its way down your belly. “I already pumped before you got home.” You can’t help but notice the way his cock twitches when you pinch your nipple between your fingers, producing another tantalizing drop. “So this is all for you, handsome.”

You reach out your hand, inviting Andy to join you on the bed. He takes it without hesitation, but instead of doing as you bid, he sucks the sticky digits into his mouth. Another moan rumbles deep in his chest as he licks your fingers clean.

“Fuck – I was hoping you’d be willing to feed me tonight, princess.” Your husband winks at you before climbing on the bed.

Feeling powerful in your own right, you rise up on your knees, giving him a better view while you continue to play with yourself. You sneak a glance at him through lowered lashes as you tease him, delighting in the way his nostrils flare every time he’s treated to another glimpse of milk.

“Am I making you hungry, Daddy?” Your voice comes out so husky you hardly recognize it. “Hm?”

“Very.”

He’s not kidding. You have no idea just how many times he’s spent himself in the shower fantasizing about the prospect of enjoying you like this again.

“But there’s no need to rush it. I plan to savor every second of our special time tonight. Starting with reintroducing myself to that sweet little pussy of yours. And you’re gonna offer it to me like a good girl, aren’t you?”

Andy quirks one confident dark brow as he waits for you to comply. Wanting to obey, your hands abandon your breasts in favor of maneuvering yourself backwards on the bed. You both knew from experience that you needed to be good and relaxed before taking things to the next level.

He waits until you’re settled comfortably against several pillows before taking hold of your ankles and deftly parting your thighs, exposing your glistening cunt to his predatory gaze. His tongue darts out to moisten his plump bottom lip as he leans forward to pet the swollen clit peeking out from between your folds.

Your hips buck when his fingers make contact with the slippery bundle of nerves. He repeats the action twice more before bringing his hand down with a little more force, eliciting a cry from you as the wet slap echoes throughout the room.

“Consider that your punishment for all of the negative self-talk you subjected yourself to earlier. Daddy won’t settle for anyone mistreating his baby like that.” Andy pops you again. “Not even you. Understood?” He raises his hand to administer another blow when you don’t answer fast enough.

“Yes, Sir.” Your response comes out more like a whimper.

“Good girl.” A hint of wolfish grin is your only warning before your man’s head is suddenly buried between your thighs. Your fingers tangle their way into his chestnut locks as he busies himself getting reacquainted with your most intimate flesh.

“Ooh! Yeah, Daddy – just like that!”

Andy takes his time with you, enjoying your flavor on his tongue once again. You don’t even have it in you to be self-conscious about the fact that you’d only been able to devote a few minutes towards a quick, ahh, trim down there before rushing out the door this morning.

Not that he ever really gave a fuck about things like that. Andrew Barber wasn’t the type to let a little body hair distract him from his prize.

“I don’t know how you did it, baby.” Andy rasps when he finally comes up for air, his mouth shining with your juices. “But you taste even sweeter than you did when you were pregnant.” He nuzzles your puffy lips with his nose before allowing his skilled tongue to tease your increasingly sensitive clit.

“It’s all for you.” You keen, arching your body off the bed. “Always for you.”

“Fucking soaked.” He growls, slowly working one thick finger inside you, patiently allowing you all the time you need to get used to his delicious invasion. “Let me know if you need me to slow down or stop, okay?”

“Kay.” Hopefully you wouldn’t need him too.

He hums in pleasure when your thighs instinctively go to clamp around his head. Effectively holding him hostage as he goes back to appreciating the meal you’ve so generously set before him.

Not that he was complaining any. Your husband is more than content to lap at your drenched core like a jungle cat enjoying his favorite treat as you buck and writhe beneath his sensual ministrations.

“God!” You push at his head as you feel the coil tighten in your belly, threatening to snap with each maddening lash of his tongue. Fuck if it didn’t feel good to be worshiped like this!

“Daddy, I – ooh! I can’t!” Your knees begin to tremble as your impending orgasm looms – just out of reach. It was too much. Too much too soon. “Andy!” You wail as you crest higher and higher – your body hurtling towards that carnal plateau. “Oh FuckFuckFuck!”

Glittering pinpricks of white hot pleasure course through your veins, growing more and more intense by the second. Sensing you’re about to run, Andy wraps one thickly muscled arm around your thigh while his free hand goes to rest on your belly.

You get the message loud and clear. You’re to hold still and take it, take everything your man has to give you, until he’s good and satisfied.

Your husband increases his ardent assault, loving the way your heels dig into his back when you finally go flying over the edge into absolute bliss. A spectacular display of lights and colors dance behind your eyes as the orgasm thoroughly wrecks you.

You’re not sure how long it lasts. But you’re aware that at least a few minutes have passed by the time you’re finally able to think again. Of course your smug husband is waiting for you on the other side, his eyes glazed over with unrepentant lust.

“Beautiful.” He bestows a hot, open-mouthed kiss on your still spasming cunt. “Thank you for that gift you just gave me.” The reverence in his tone lets you know that he means every word. “How do you feel?”

“Amazing.” You tell him, also feeling just a tiny bit bashful. On impulse, you reach out to lightly stroke your fingers through his messy strands, your short nails affectionately grazing his scalp.

It’s a simple moment of quiet intimacy shared between two lovers.

“You wanna keep going?” You smile at the question, appreciating his thoughtfulness. Andy wouldn’t push if you said you wanted or needed a break. But you also weren’t ready to stop just yet.

He wasn’t the only one who wanted more out of this evening. Mr. Barber was shaping up to be a terrible influence on you...

“Yes, please.” You beckon him forward, opening up your arms to receive him. Wanting to feel the heat of his tattoo-covered chest with your own two hands. Seconds later, your man joins you at the head of the bed.

Unable to resist, you bridge the distance between you to take his soft lips in a kiss. Andy lets you lead for a moment, giving you time to appreciate just how good you taste before taking control again. Your eager tongues dance with one another as a familiar fire ignites a slow burning in your belly.

By the time you finally pull away you’re both breathing hard and grinning like a couple of dopey, lovesick teenagers.

“Hi.”

“Hiya, Andy Bear.” You giggle back, excitement blooming in your chest. “I love you.” You put everything you have into those three words, wanting him to feel the emotional weight behind them.

“I love you more. Any pain or discomfort just tell me to stop. Okay?”

“Mhm.” You nod, knowing that there was also a handy vial of lube in the nightstand nearby in case you needed a little something extra. “But I want these off first.” Your man doesn’t fight you as you work to divest him of his pesky boxers, finally freeing his hardened length from its confines.

You hated his boxers almost as much as he despised your panties. Damned things always got in the way.

You tenderly wrap your hand around his girth, loving the way his big body shudders in your grasp. Emboldened by his response, you begin to work him with your fist – occasionally using your thumb to tease the swollen mushroom head.

Andy lets out a sharp hiss as you continue to tease him. But he doesn’t make any moves to intervene until you pull away briefly, intending to roll him onto his back so that you could tend to him like he’d cherished you earlier.

“Later.” He promises, kissing the pout off your lips. “Remember, we have all night.” Although, he can’t quite seem to resist taking a nipple into his mouth either, sucking just hard enough to be rewarded with a taste of your breastmilk. “Sorry – but they’re right there. Couldn’t help myself, Baby Girl.”

“Uh huh.” You nip at his jaw as your hands seek out the taut globes of his ass, giving them a hearty squeeze.

“Not my fault you’re sweet all over.” His sensual laugh rumbles through his chest. The sound proves to be rather contagious as he helps you get settled comfortably on a pillow before lining himself up with your slick entrance.

Andy’s eyes never leave yours as the broad head of his cock gently bumps against your cunt before slowly easing inside you. “Just look at me, princess. Daddy’s got you.” He keeps going, pausing only briefly to link his fingers through yours. “Swear I’ve got you. Fuck, you’re tight.”

You knew that he did. Your husband was always there, waiting to catch you when you fell. Your fucking knight in shining armor.

“And you’re big.” You gasp, breathing through the pressure. Only to exhale in relief when your man is finally seated fully inside you. “But it feels good. So full with you inside me.”

Once Andy’s satisfied that there isn’t any lingering discomfort, he finally allows himself to move. He starts things off slow enough. And he doesn’t increase his pace until you sink your teeth into his arm.

“Okay, my greedy girl.” He purrs, acknowledging your impatience. “Have it your way.” Andy bears down then, giving you time to get used to the power of his thrusts as he finds his rhythm.

It’d been so long since you’d been together like this. You’d missed the kind of intimacy that could only come from being physically joined with the man you loved. With your husband.

“God, yes!” Your hips snap up in time with his movements, making it clear that you were well and truly enjoying yourself. “Oh please don’t stop!” You tell him, pressing a quick kiss to his knuckles.

And while Andy is thankful for the encouragement, he’s also pretty certain that he couldn’t stop even if he wanted to – that’s how far gone he was. His hungry mouth slants over yours as your velvety walls continue to clench around his thick cock, enthusiastically milking him for all he’s worth.

He swallows each and every moan that slips passed your lips as he lovingly fucks you mindless. The sharp sound of his heavy balls rhythmically slapping against your core pushes you even closer to yet another orgasm.

Right as you’re about to topple over the edge, Andy pulls back – adjusting your positions so that your legs are now draped over his shoulders. And then he’s back fucking you like the sensual madman that he is, angling his body so that his cock hits that special spot inside of you.

But his attention is focused solely on that of your connection. Almost as if he’s enthralled by the carnal image of his hard cock slamming home inside your sopping wet pussy over and over again.

Fuck! You were gonna cum again.

“Never had a better pussy.” He snarls, his pace becoming more erratic. “Never had a better wife.” Your man was close – so fucking close. And you weren’t too far behind. “All fucking mine.”

“Yes, Daddy.” You mewl, spurring him on as your inner muscles work him over good. “Take your pussy. Take it. Take it. Take it.” You chant as your orgasm threatens to rob you of breath.

Your bliss crashes into you at the same time it hits Andy. He throws his head back when he cums, a pleasure-filled roar escaping his throat while your hungry cunt milks every last drop of his thick seed.

You were his greedy girl after all.

He lightly continues to pump in and out you for another moment, his movements eventually slowing when he finally comes back down to earth. But even still, he finds himself reluctant to sever your connection.

“We have all night, Andy.” You remind him gently before reaching out to cup his bearded cheek.

“Promise?” He whispers back, his eyes shining with emotion as he presses his lips to the inside of your wrist. “Because I’ve really missed my wife.”

Truer words had never been spoken.

“Well, I think that’s only fair to say. Especially since I also really missed my husband.” You lightly trace your fingers over one of his many tattoos. “Which is why neither of us is leaving this bed until it's time for us to get the kids tomorrow.” You toss him a wink for good measure.

“You promise?” Andy asks again, not bothering to hide his chuckle.

“You've got my word on that, Big Man.” You pull him down for another kiss. "Now, let me welcome you home again."

END

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