#she cam and WILL punch a fucker

[chibifox2002]

I absolutely do not support the euphoric brothers... But here's my design for the "player" of garten of banban...

(I hate that I did this and also made her cute as fuck)

[ohnopeh]

i love this post cause yes, absolutely 1000%. i’ve been watching shameless since the end of season 2 which means i had to go through 3x06 and the ending of s3 as it aired, waiting for s4, reading about cameron having other projects and wondering what that meant for ian’s character. s4 was a blast and when mickey came out i couldn’t believe it! then s5 happened and i think it was the worst time of my life as i spent my sunday night awake till 6am (bc fuck timezone) so i could watch the episode live, aware that i’d have to wake up two hours later to go to school— but there was literally not even a episode in that season that made you think ‘it’s gonna be okay’ which made it impossible to chill out after the episode ended! so would could even go to bed or function properly when all i wanted to do was being on tumblr and read people’s thoughts? there were some accounts that had access to episodes earlier and would make posts with emojis or answer questions very cryptically which only increased my anxiety cause it was never good news lol. when mickey said i love you on the phone i couldn’t believe it and kept hoping they would talk about it eventually ( which never happened ).

then interviews and tweets about noel not coming back and having other projects started to float around. i spent my days, weeks and months trying to analyse everything hoping that they were simply pulling our legs to make their make up worth it. then cam tweeted about noel’s journey on shameless ending and i wanted to cry my eyes out!!! when 6x01 happened i felt like shit and stopped watching shameless all together. i love(d) the show and watched it for every character but i was so damn pissed at the whole thing, the frustration and emotions i felt really didn’t do well for me and i started hating anything related to the show and its characters— i randomly found out noel was coming back for s7 and again i had my hopes up and got punched in the face with that ending. i zoned out of the fandom/show once again only to randomly find out about their reunion in prison + them coming back for the last two seasons and i couldn’t believe it!!!

my experience with shameless was like going to war, i feel traumatised by all the emotions it made me feel, the anxiety they would mess the characters/couple, not knowing if they would be a thing, mickey’s character being treated like shit etc. i used to love reading their fics back in the day and i had to force everything away from me cause it really pissed me off and the fact that it made me feel that way pissed me off even more cause ian and mickey were and are comfort characters to me and have it ruined by a greedy fucker who wouldn’t pay actors properly made me go nuts. now that everything is over, they’re happy, can’t be touched and potentially ruined anymore, i feel content and i could go back to the show that had been a comfort to me all those years ago— to a new, older, more mature and depressed me that can appreciate the show more than ever! although i still struggle to watch s6-9 without feeling rage in my little hateful heart, i know they made it to the end and it’s all worth it. i don’t care if the show became less serious than what it was, i welcomed it even as i really needed the boys to be okay and happy and in love with their shared i love yous.

so yes, back then everything about them, their scenes post break up etc. could only make me rage and feel empty, now that it’s over and i know they’re happy, some of those scenes have found a new meaning to fit with later seasons and i can find comfort in them knowing it’s not the end!

bless those who didn’t give up and made them come back, i smooch you all

(fun act, mickey’s full name was thanks to fanfic writers that just made it up one day and kept using it over and over, seeing it as canon. so when 7x09 happened, one writer that interacted lots with fans decided to use it and make it canon in the show too! she tweeted about it back then, i tried to find the tweet but found out she deleted her account cause,, well. she got lots of hate)

I love this revisit of season 7 Gallavich, because I love those episodes. They are absolutely the comfort episodes I'm most likely to put on if I just want to watch some Gallavich (and then bonus Monica chaos, with Lip falling apart in the corner.) But when I see this sort of literal celebration of the season and those precious two episodes, I always think of the people who watched that shit LIVE. And they were not celebrating.

Context is everything. When you know how the story ends, and you know that isn't the ending, and you know you can just fully skip season 8 on your rewatch, 7x10 and 7x11 are really lovely, bittersweet, emotionally cathartic episodes.

I try to keep this in mind in fandom -- though to make it silly, maybe I can also keep this in mind in life -- that sometimes all you need is a little time and a different perspective, and it's not that bad. It might even be pretty good.

[meltwonu]

| 🍒 CH-CH-CHERRY BOMB! 🍒 |     [CHAPTER 15]

pairing; dom!seungcheol x camgirl!reader

this chapter’s notes; camshow, softdom!seungcheol, blowjob, cum swallowing, restraints/blindfold, daddy!kink, dirty talk, v little hair pulling, orgasm control, squirting, sex toys 😗💕 hope y’all are having a good weekend! As you can see, with this chapter comes the decided amount of chapters 😭 which means! cherry bomb ends on jan. 1st! 😭😭😭 I’m sad about it but!! excited to start the new year with some new projects too!! and I promise it won't be the last of this au either (I'll upload and talk abt a new schedule when it gets closer to time)💕💕 Thank you, as always, for your support with Cherry Bomb and I’m glad some of us have had pavlovian responses when we hear the term now LOOOL😩💕 Enjoy ch15 and have a great weekend! see u tomorrow for the last intro post! 💕🍒 

chapters; 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8 - 9 - 10 - 11 - 12 - 13 - 14 - 15 - x - x - x - x - x 

Seungcheol takes it as a blessing that he doesn’t work on the weekends.

You do your camshow on Friday and upload prerecorded content on Saturday which leaves two whole days of relaxation that the two of you enjoy.

But Monday comes quicker than you anticipate and Seungcheol drops you off to work before he heads back to the roller rink; ignoring the multitudes of texts it seems Jeongguk is sending.

I’ll be at work in 30 minutes, he thinks.

“I’ll be back to pick you up after work, baby!”

You nod back, blowing Seungcheol a kiss through the window before you turn to leave.

Seungcheol’s phone rings 3 more times, brows furrowed.

‘It can wait.’

“Hyung, we’re in trouble… Maybe?”

Jeongguk’s big puppy eyes stare back at the older male and he can already feel the blood draining from his face at the potential reasons that the younger male would even say that. “Um… is---is this pertaining to why you tried calling like 14 times?” Jeongguk nods, tugging on Seungcheol’s shirt and pulling him in closer.

“Before you say anything… Namjoon-hyung didn’t find out, did he?”

“Find out about what?”

“That I… cam… I don’t want to get fired because I--”

Jeongguk rolls his eyes, “Listen, I’m gonna be real, I don’t think he cares. The problem is… remember that dude that came in? A couple weeks ago. Lookin’ for a job.”

Seungcheol nods slowly; trying to remember the male’s name. “Seok--something, right?” Jeongguk nods.

“Apparently, he came back, and at the right time too. Namjoon hired his ass on the spot and he starts tomorrow. I heard from Seokjin.” Confusion crosses Seungcheol’s features as he stares and waits for Jeongguk to continue. “... And? How is that trouble for us?”

Jeongguk lets out an over dramatic sigh, hands on Seungcheol’s shoulders. “Nevermind, I forgot you’re making bank on those videos. I was gonna say, we might get a pay cut! Or maybe Joon-hyung’s trying to replace us but I guess that’s not a ‘you’ problem.”

Seungcheol laughs under his breath, shaking his head before patting Jeongguk’s hands.

“You’ll be okay. I don’t think anyone is coming for your concession stand job.”

The next day when Seungcheol makes it to work, he can’t help but have a weird feeling in his gut.

Much like the time when he first met Jun, there’s an indescribable feeling bubbling up in his body that he can’t seem to shake off once he arrives at the roller rink and the sight of Jeongguk with the new employee doesn’t help to settle the feeling at all.

Just before he can make his escape, the younger male waves him over; a cheery smile plastered on his face when Seungcheol starts walking over.

“Hyung! It’s the new employee!”

So much for panicking about being replaced, Jeongguk.

Seungcheol smiles at the other male, introducing himself swiftly before extending a hand to shake. “Ah! I remember you! I’m Seokmin! I’m the same age as Jeongguk!” Seungcheol’s lips part as he nods in understanding; that had been why Jeongguk seemed so okay with it all of a sudden.

Seokmin’s eyes form crescents when he smiles and Seungcheol takes a second to do a once over of the other male; noting the pins tacked to his denim jacket. His eyes hone in on a specific one, narrowing once he realized what it was.

It’d been a while ago now, but when you’d hit 5k subscribers to your camming channel, you had made only three of the same pin, which you had raffled and only gave to three winners.

By nature, Seungcheol was one of them, and the other two were ‘xcaliburDK’ and ‘gentleman_josh95’. Seungcheol could deduce from usernames alone that this wasn’t ‘Josh’ so it only left one option left; albeit Seokmin didn’t add up to the username either.

“Hyung? Hyung, are you okay? You’re spacing out.” Jeongguk waves a hand in the elder’s face as Seungcheol shakes himself from his thoughts.

He’d just have to figure it out later.

Although, he can already feel the groan spilling from his lips.

Why was everyone popping up now?

When he picks you up from work, later that afternoon, he can already tell something is off about you too.

You slink into the passenger’s seat of his car, quiet and a little jittery. “You okay? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.” He comments, watching as you fumble with the seatbelt.

“Yeah it’s just… Can we talk about it when we get home? I think I’m still recovering from the weird experience I had earlier.”

Nodding, Seungcheol reaches over, placing his palm in yours in a means of comforting you; even just a little.

“Guess we both have had weird days, huh?”

You can’t thank Seungcheol enough for how patient he is.

He doesn’t say a word in the car and lets you have your quiet, cool down time before you get home.

But when the lock slides into place and you finally plop down onto the bed, you know it’s finally time to have the talk that you knew was brewing.

“I met another one of my regulars at the diner today.” You mumble; beating Seungcheol to the punch of him asking.

“Weird, I think I ran into one of your regulars at the roller rink today too. He works there now, by the way.”

The two of you share an awkward laugh as Seungcheol lays down next to you; neither of you bothering to change out of your outside clothes as you bask in the oddly similar occurrences. “Wouldn’t happen to be ‘universe_WZ’ would it? He came by the diner earlier, ‘just passing through town’ he said. It was so weird though, y’know? Him and Jun kinda got along ‘cause apparently they’re born in the same year.” You smile at the memory, despite how odd it was at first. “He was quiet and Jun is very much not. I think he bailed earlier than he wanted ‘cause his ear was getting talked off. But he asked me for an autograph on the way out and some old lady stared at me. It was just… a little weird.”

Seungcheol laughs; somewhat glad that your experience hadn’t been as bad as he was expecting.

“How ‘bout you, ‘Cheol? What was that about him working with you?”

The male groans, sliding a hand down his features. “It was… somethin’ else.” You turn on your side to face him, raising a brow.

“Couldn’t be that bad, could it?”

Seungcheol laughs, but only in the way he knows that the next words out of his mouth will sound ridiculous, even to you.

“I’m not going to say who it is because I don’t want you to be extra weirded out. He’s an okay guy, very diligent about his work. But let’s just say I caught a glimpse of his wallpaper, which was you by the way. And when I asked him, ‘hey, is that your girlfriend?’, the fucker lied and said yes!”

It takes a second before you’re letting out a boisterous laugh; tears springing to your eyes at the hilarious encounter Seungcheol had experienced.

“You’re not mad!?” He comments, eyes wide as saucers as he watches you curl up in laughter. “I thought you’d be mad!” You wipe a tear from your eye, catching your breath before you turn back to Seungcheol who watches you in confusion.

“No way, that’s fuckin’ hilarious! And let’s be real, probably not the first time someone’s lied about me being their girlfriend, right? But I--he doesn’t know, does he? That you’re… y’know, ‘dom.cheol’?” Seungcheol blushes, cheeks blooming a pale pink when he thinks about it.

Would his voice be enough to give it away?

“I don’t… know? He didn’t say anything but neither did I, honestly. It was just… weird. And now I work with him so that’ll be fun. Can’t wait for him to tell me how cute his girlfriend is.” He grumbles.

“Awww, is widdol Swungcheol jealous?” You blink cutely back at him; a teasing smirk on your lips when you see him narrowing his eyes back at you.

“Watch it, brat. You know I can punish you at any time, right?”

“Try me, then~”

Seungcheol mentally logs into his brain and waits until your Wednesday show before he makes a move.

He brings his favorite silk ties from his closet and places them on the bed while you get changed; a sly smirk on his face.

“‘Okay, ‘Cheol I’m--whoa.” You bite your lip when you step out and see the array of ties and the vibrator already sitting on the bed. “Um… I take it that these are part of the show tonight?” You end with a shy giggle; body already warm at the way Seungcheol looks at you.

“Mmhmm. For the ‘lil jealous comment you made. What was it that you said? ‘Try me, then’?” He grins in a way that you know you’re screwed and you saunter up to him in hopes of maybe pacifying him a little.

“Too late to say that I take it back?”

“Waaaay too late, baby. Now, let’s get started.”

chwenon has donated $50

sleepy_wonu has donated $100

artist8hao has donated $75

artist8hao: she’s so pretty with her hands tied behind her back like that

angelhan: shibari next time???

universe_WZ: she’d be so pretty all tied up

universe_WZ: rly nice seeing u btw ;)

therealchan99: where tf are all of u seeing her!?!?? I need to go out more im lackin bro

alphagyu97: its the way u walk into every set up for me

Seungcheol chuckles under his breath, reading the comments with his hand tangled in your hair and your arms tied behind your back as you work your mouth up and down on his cock.

Before the show had even started, he had quickly rearranged the setup so that the camera was angled down towards the space in front of the bed instead of where it usually faced which was on top of the bed. You were a little confused at first when he had nodded and told you to start your camshow from the rug placed underneath you but it soon made sense when he had tied your arms behind your back and made you suck him off with your knees digging into the rug and a silk tie tied into a bow around your eyes to prevent you from seeing.

“Shibari, huh? Ooh, wouldn’t it be a treat for your viewers if you did a show where you were all tied up? I’d have to start it for you, or maybe they’d like to watch the process and see how quickly I can get you to fall apart.” Seungcheol pauses; hips canting up slightly into your mouth as you swallow and gag around him. “We can make it an extra long camshow… Maybe a pay-per-view situation. They can watch you squirm and cum all night long while I keep a vibrator pressed against your clit until your cute body is trembling.”

Your eyes roll to the back of your head even if Seungcheol can’t see it and you moan around his cock when you feel him throbbing in your mouth.

The sound of donations and comments is all you can go off of with your back towards the camera and your vision taken away; noting that the viewers must’ve liked the idea.

j__min has donated $150

j__min: popping in to say if u need help buying ropes, i know a guy ;)

alphagyu97: wait is this rly happening

alphagyu97: i’ll clear my schedule gentleman_josh95: yea same

xcaliburDK: i just started a new job i cant have any sick days plz… at least reupload it for me 😭😭

Seungcheol smirks when he reads that particular comment; fingertips massaging your skull when he hears you whining. “I know, baby. You wanna be fucked, huh? It isn’t nice being teased, right? So now you know how I feel~” In a blink of an eye, ‘xcaliburDK’s comment is buried and Seungcheol is thankful that you didn’t see it. He’d just have to keep it a secret for now while he played along and listened to what else Seokmin had to say about his so-called ‘girlfriend’.

You rub your thighs together; already feeling the slickness on them from how wet you already were and how long you’d been teasing and sucking his cock.

“Fuck, I could cum down your pretty ‘lil throat and then make you work for my cock. Drag your punishment out even longer than your viewers would see.” You moan around his cock in response and Seungcheol can only take it as a whiny ‘no’ before he’s pulling you off of him by the hair; soft sputters and coughs spilling from your wet lips as you catch your breath.

“But I think you’ve earned your orgasm, hmm? What do you say, princess?”

Your throat feels hoarse and your body feel obscenely hot at the way Seungcheol doesn’t seem to want to take off your restraints just yet. “Y-yes, daddy I--I want to c-cum… pl--please.”

tangerine_kwan: ahhh shes so cute

tangerine_kwan: petition for baby pink ties next time i think they suit her

sleepy_wonu: if that shibari show is happening, yes

“We’ll talk about it later, although I don’t think she’ll be opposed to it~” You furrow your brows; wondering what Seungcheok was referring to. 

You’d ask later.

“D-daddy…?”

Seungcheol tugs you slightly by your hair, urging you up as you slowly stand on shaky legs. You let him take the reins as he unties your arms and repositions you until you’re bent over the edge of the bed; left leg folded atop the bedsheets while your right leg keeps you upright. He keeps your blindfold on but lets you keep your arms loose; which you find out fairly quickly, is for good reason.

The buzzing of the vibrator makes you bite your bottom lip and soon enough, Seungcheol places the toy in your clammy hand.

“You’re gonna slide your hand under your body and keep that vibrator pressed against your clit while I fuck you. And you’re not allowed to cum unless I say so. Am I understood, baby?” You feel Seungcheol teasing you as he slides his cock through your soaking folds before circling the tip around your entrance.

“I expect a response when I ask you a question, sweetheart.”

“Y--yes, daddy, I--ah!”

Seungcheol grins as he slides his cock into your tight cunt; watching as you slowly sandwich your arm between your body and the bed sheets to place the vibrator against your clit. You cry out, a mess of sharp whines and jumbled words spilling off your lips with the combination of Seungcheol’s thrusts and the vibrations on your clit.

“Ngh, d--daddy! Fuck me m-more!”

Your other hand digs into the sheets, fingers tight around the fabric as Seungcheol fucks you from behind. He knows your body like the back of his hand and he quickly already has you on the verge of an orgasm despite only having started fucking you, moments prior.

“Don’t cum, princess~” Teasingly, he alternates from quick snaps of his hips that have his cock slamming into your g-spot to slow thrusts that have you remembering every groove and vein of his cock when he pulls out. And when he fucks you like this, it’s easy to forget the camera was even on and that people were watching; if not for the constant pinging of comments and donations that mix in with your moans, Seungcheol’s harsh breaths and the sound of the vibrator against your clit.

hoshi_tiger_xx: hmm but shes obv being punished and we all kno good girls dont get creampies

therealchan99: ur right,,, where should he cum then?

kitty_junjun: my votes on her tits

kitty_junjun has donated $75

sleepy_wonu: maybe all over her back and then post the pics in the private room

xcaliburDK: or raffle them!! I want them

chwenon: ooo cum in her mouth but dont let her swallow

chwenon: then u can raffle those pics or sth

Neither you nor Seungcheol are even paying attention to the comments that fly past on the screen and the only thing Seungcheol even turns slightly for, is to check to make sure he’s still properly out of frame.

He can already feel you tightening up around him and with the vibrator on your clit, he knows for a fact you won’t last much longer before you’re cumming.

“Hmm, princess, I can feel you getting so tight around me. Bet you wanna cum already, huh?”

“D-daddy, I dunno, ah, how--how much longer I can h-hold off…” You mumble; already feeling the tension in your body ready to snap at any second.

“Be a good girl. I said you earned your orgasm but you need to be patient.” You nod to the best of your ability; head feeling heavy and fuzzy as you try to stave off your orgasm for a little longer. “Y--yes, daddy…” He slows down his thrusts in order to help you a little and the soft praises that fall from his lips have the warmth blooming in your chest.

But it doesn’t last long because despite Seungcheol’s valiant efforts, you’re already too close to cumming to stop yourself when you feel the pressure building up too fast.

“Oh, d-daddy, I---I can’t, I---I can’t, I have, ah, to---to c-cum! Fuh--fuck, ‘m s--sorry!”

Seungcheol can’t even manage a word in before he feels his cock being forced out of your pussy and the wetness that squirts all over his cock and lower half. Loud cries and whines are all you can manage in the thrums of pleasure and the grip you have on the vibrator only tightens as you grind against the toy to ride out your high.

Seungcheol takes the time to wrap a hand around his cock as he strokes himself; body turned halfway towards the laptop to see what everyone was saying.

hoshi_tiger_xx: uh ohhh pretty baby came without permission

hoshi_tiger_xx has donated $50

hoshi_tiger_xx: donation for squirting tho

alphagyu97: ugh look at her cute lil hole begging to be filled up

angelhan: bet she’s feeling empty rn huh

Your soft mewls have Seungcheol turning back to face you; eyes trained on your twitching body when the pleasure starts to ebb away and the overstimulation from the vibrator starts to bite. “Daddy… the---the, mmh, toy…”

“You can turn it off, sweetheart.” His tone is clipped and you already know you’re in for it once you manage to find the switch on the silicone toy. You turn it off and slide your hand from underneath you; palms flat against the sheets as you sniffle.

“I--I’m really s-sorry, I--I couldn’t--”

“I want you on your knees again, princess.”

Nodding shakily, you ease your bent leg down as you maneuver yourself onto your knees; hands already searching for Seungcheol before you hear his small ‘ah, ah, ah’s.  “Hands behind your back and tongue out, baby.” You follow his orders as you clasp your hands behind your back and diligently open your mouth and stick your tongue out as far as you can.

He brings his cock towards your face, tapping his cock head against your tongue before he starts to jerk himself off over your mouth and face. “I gotta hand it to you, princess. At least you apologized.” Seungcheol laughs under his breath, “But next time though? I won’t even let you have my cock.”

You whimper in return, brows furrowed under the silk tie.

“Fuck, ‘m gonna cum all over this pretty face.” His grip on his cock tightens and he thrusts into his palm quicker as he chases his high. “Don’t worry. I’ll take pretty pictures of your cum stained face.”

Seungcheol groans as he feels the coil in his body snapping and not a second later do you feel warm rivulets of cum hitting your cheeks and your tongue. Some of it manages to catch on the silk tie as you moan. The donations and comments pour in like water as Seungcheol continues to cover your face in cum and for the umpteeth time, you’re reassured that this was a path that worked out for you.

It was so silly that you’d thought of quitting camming earlier. 

Although, you never brought it up to Seungcheol.

In actuality, there were quite a few things that you’d never brought up to Seungcheol.

“Fuck…” He mutters from above you and it’s enough to bring you out of your thoughts as you hold still. Seungcheol takes the hint, using a sticky cum covered hand to reach for his phone to snap pictures of you; he’d just clean it up later.

“Say cheese~” He laughs, taking a couple photos before tossing his phone onto the bed as you draw your tongue back into your mouth and swallow down the warm salty substance that managed to hit your tongue.

Seungcheol helps you up from the floor, pouting when he sees how red your knees have gotten. “Hmm, think I need to take care of my princess after this.” He helps take your blindfold off and you’re quick to blink the fogginess away as  you try to focus on Seungcheol’s face before peering over to the laptop’s screen.

Your cheeks burn hot at the cum that still stains your cheeks when you see  yourself but the comments that flood in calling you pretty make you giggle.

“Ooookay. I think daddy is gonna get all cleaned up and I’ll wrap up here?” You check in with Seungcheol, who shoots you a nod and a small thumbs up before slinking completely out of the camera’s view.

“Okay guys, now what were you all talking about while I was on my knees?”

You get out of the shower feeling refreshed; tossing on a loose shirt before skipping out of the bathroom.

Seungcheol is cozied up on the sofa, waiting on the food that the two of you had ordered right after you ended your show. “‘Cheollie~” He turns to you as you plop down next to him and he’s quick to wrap an arm around your shoulders as he tugs you into his side.

“Feeling better?”

“Mmhmm~ A ‘lil sleepy but I can go for that food and then sleep.”

The two of you share a laugh, eyes focused on the movie that plays on the TV. “Say…” You start, “Someone asked a good question in the comments after you stepped out.” You gulp; palms a little clammy.

You just had to know.

“Yeah? Was it about the shibari camshow again?”

“No, actually…” You take a deep breath, telling yourself it’d be okay regardless of what he said.

“Seungcheol, am I your girlfriend?”

[princess-of-the-corner]

Human After All: I'd like to know more about A) Lust realizing that Hohenheim had an actual life in Resembool and B) everyone's reactions to Ed and Al sneaking off to do the human transmutation and the aftermath.

Oh boy here we fuckin go!!!!!

Lust realizing that Hohenheim had a life in Resembool:

Oh boy. Okay so this has some setup.

When Lust first meets Ed and Al, she assumes the situation is a lot different. Basically They're close enough to be mistaken for twins, so she thought it was more "one night stand and disappeared from town but their mom remembered the name and told the kids". Because... Why would he stay?

But then Lust babysits Ed and Al on a trip back to Resembool to visit Winry and her grandma. And like.

Lust gets curious about some things. And she happens to see a photo album out that she can't help but look through.

Of course Granny finds her snooping but just lets her look through it and explains that it's from Winry's parents' wedding. And Lust eventually flips to a page where Hohenheim is in the photo.

Lust pauses on it because it's so strange. First in general, of how Hohenheim looks just like Father but also nothing like him at the same time. Physically identical, but the way they carry themselves is.. Entirely different.

Especially as this picture is kinda goofy. Granny tells her how everyone was hinting to Hohenheim that he should marry Trisha since they were already "basically married". And the newly married Sarah Rockbell had given up pn subtly, and chucked her boquet right at Hohenheim's face with a "sorry I was aiming for Trisha!"(which no one belives because she has incredible aim).

Lust asks more on that. And Granny mentions how Hohenheim and Trisha had been together for a bit amd were already living in the same home. And that pretty much immediatly after that whole "lack of subtly" the pair decided "despite not going through legal paperwork we are married now fuck you' and also bonus pregnancy announcement. Which has Lust relize Ed and Al aren't twins.

But it's weird to her. Because like. Hohenheim had a life here? He was with this woman for a few years and essentially got married (clearly the "don't go through the paperwork" is because he doesn't legally exist). But like. He had a wife and kids. One of the kids seems to have been actually planned. Why would he do that? And why did he leave? No one has answers on that, but Granny says that if he did leave, it was for good reasons. Not whatever the town gossips make up for fun.

Granny is a little sus about Lust's interests in all this because like. I kiiinda mentioned this before on my artblog but he way I draw Lust she actually looks a lot like "if Ed was a girl" and considering how much Ed looks like Hohenheim... They basically look somewhat related. Granny points that out and kinda pulls some Gaslight Girlboss Gatekeep of "nope no relation whatsoever my father just worked with him long ago but it's totally not relevant to anything!"

Anyway!

Later, Lust is wandering around Ed and Al's home because that fucker hasn't burned yet. And she just... Sees more of it.

True. It's been just the boys for years but there's still things like his clothes in the bedroom closet or something casually put on a shelf too high for Trisha to have reached.

The two rooms that really hit are the bedroom and the study.

Tbe bedroom is mostly untouched. But she sees a shelf of little statues. It's strange to her, but she realizes all the statutes are made from Alchemy. About half of them have very obvious marks, a sign of a talented but inexperienced maker. Seeing two distinct styles, she cam guess Ed and Al made those.

The rest are perfect. Intricate and flawless. If they weren't on the shelf with the others, she would've thought they were made by some master clay artist.

Alchemically made trinkets as gifts for someone they love.

The study is another beast altogether. A whole library on Alchemical texts. Some even older than Lust. All marked up with someone's notes in the margins. The same person's notes, as the handwriting doesn't differ. Clearly all these are important. So why leave them?

The real hard hitter is a journal Hohenheim left. Of course Lust reads it. The fact that the journal is written in Xerxian is just another punch to the gut, but thankfully Lust can read it.

It has a lot of things but the main info she reads is an entry from when Ed was just born and Hohenheim is discussing worries over how his whole "Philosophers Stone in Human Form" deal might be effecting Ed in terms of like. Genetics and stuff.

But the main thing Lust focuses on is that Hohenheim mentions discussing those fears with Trisha. That he told her what he was and his whole history and everything.

It's... Confusing to Lust. Why did Hohenheim just settle down here in this small ass rural town with a normal woman? What was it about her that compelled him to stay in one place so long? To settle down after years and have a kid? Having a second kid? And telling her about... Everything?

She finds no answer because, from all accounts, it seems like Trisha was just a normal, small-town girl. She didn't even have an interest in Alchemy! Just gardening. Why her? Why not someone at least... Great and powerful to match what he was? Even if no one could truly compare to what he was.

Everyone's reactions to Ed and Al sneaking off to do Human Transmutation:

Oh boy. This is a big plot point.

So the boys had quite a plan to trick the adults. Lust has gone on trips out of town for weekends(reporting back to Father), and she's also babysat the boys on a trip to Resembool before. So the boys wait until one of her trips and tell Roy and Riza that she's taking them on a different trip to Resembool. None of the adults know this until Lust comes back without them and has no idea where they were.

They put it together real fast and all three book it to the train station. Several hours of worried pacing of what could've happened.

Roy and Riza are entirely in the dark of what might happen. Lust though... She knows how the Gate works. And what could have happened.

She knows that There's a Price to pay. And while she was planning on encouraging the boys to go through the Gate anyway, she was supposed to be involved with it so she could trade a part of her Philosopher's Stone for their safety. Obviously just so they don't loose a Sacrifice to blood loss or later infection! Not because she cares or anything! But yeah without her, who knows what the Price may be?

They check the boys house first. They see plenty of blood, which is a terrifying sight. But they also see a trail leading out. And that if the boys are still alive, they probably went to the Rockbell place.

Which yeah. Granny's already waiting for them. She wants to yell at them for failing, but it would be hypocritical sinve she didn't notice the first time around.

She tells them the boys are alive but fucked up. Ed lost a couple limbs and Al is... Hard to explain.

Lust is the first to notice the suit of armor in the living room. The way it's arranged like a child, curled up and hiding, barely peeking out from behind the "arms". Light in it's "eyes", like someone's in there watching her.

She remembers the experiments done on the death row inmates. Puttin Souls in suits of armor. She's horrified, but not surprised, when it moves.

That is a whole conversation. Lust has to pretend she doesn't know how that works(while also questioning how the boys managed it). Al tells them what he remembers, which is just everythiny going wrong and then being in the armor and Ed missing some limbs.

We have a long emotional scene when Roy goes to talk to Ed.

Ed is very much not okay at this point and he's trying to be angry but it's just not really there. And he just asks why Roy is still there. He failed to keep them from fucking up why does he still care? Just go back home and leave them so he doesn't have to deal with them anymore.

Well that's just heartbreaking. Roy just talks to him about a lot of things. And the main thing was that this wasn't just "I'm gonna try and stop you but whoops failed that bye bitch" situation. He's not just going to drop the kids because he failed once. He's not even going ti drop them after months of pushing him away and being stubborn about the whole situation. They're a family now damn it.

And Ed kinda feels like that might be worse, because he threw that away ti go fuck up. But Roy tells him it's not "thrown away". They're still going to be here for him. And figure things out.

Later at night, Roy, Riza and Lust all kinda sneaknout individually. Which does lead to some comedy until Granny catches them and calls them idiots. But all of them were thinking of going to the boy's house and looking over their notes.

Roy and Lust are the only ones who can make heads or tails of the notes. Riza can follow some but gets lost and Granny never was an Alchemy person. Roy's looking more for "what went wrong" while Lust is focused more on "what went right". And Lust does find that though they came very close to making a Homunculus, they did do everything pretty right. She accidentally comments on that, which leads to a horrifying theoretical of "what if the boys managed to make a fake Trisha that looked and acted like her but wasn't her?". This also leads to the more disturbing question of "what was it they did manage to make"?

This is a thing that came up in Canon, but here they get answers of the thing that they made wasn't their mom, and you can't bring back the dead. Ed and Al take that news about as well as they did in Canon as well.

The "possible homunculus" thing comes up too with the others wondering if Al really is Al and not just... Something vaguely like him that Ed accidentally created. (Lust knows but can't tell how she knows rip!). Riza to the rescue on this one by asking Al about something Ed shouldn't know about. So that existential crisis is averted!

Of course there's discussion of what to do to help Ed and Al. Which... Does lead to getting back toward Canon of "have Ed become a State Alchemist". It's debated a lot because ya know. Sure it's the best option to help them have the freedom and access to stuff tk find shit but. Ya know. Roy already feels like he failed to protect these kids once already this is not helping.

Anyway! One more fun scene!

Please imagine once Ed gets the automail arm and just does the clap-slap Alchemy. And Roy and Riza are like "yo what the FUCK???"

[augment-techs]

Well, since you're getting into the swing of things, and I am still so gd behind on another series, sure I can play again~

Cam: I'm sorry, what?

Kapri: What what?

Cam: I just...I feel like I'm misunderstanding you. Because the Lothor of my dimension is a bastard and all, but I don't think...he'd never... Three years as pleasure slaves?

Kapri: For me. I can't have kids, being infertile and Drakkon didn't want to waste my "talents" so I was the pleasure slave; Marah was the breeding stock. For all the good that did anyone.

Cam: I'm sorry, what do you mean by that?

Kapri: Our species can carry up to three infants in a pregnancy in a matter of seven months, unlike humans. If we feel safe. But we miscarry if we feel upset, and...and the sentries and environment and Drakkon kept upsetting Marah.

Cam (mouth dry as a desert, palms sweating, maintained eye contact with this Kapri; this brave, blonde, never having worn makeup for as long as she'd been on Terra Venture, never dressed in anything other than scrubs and the under suit of her sentry uniform version of his cousin from what he was understanding to be the worst timeline; blinked and then walking over to look down from the training area with punching bags and weight equipment and floor mats, over to the balcony that looked down onto the kitchen area where the version of his baby cousin with the auburn hair and very thin complexion and inability to look most of the men in the eye for very long was trying her level best to teach Mia Watanabe how to cook): ...Does that mean she did get pregnant?

Kapri (giving a smile that was disgusted, but not at Cam, more at the universe, as she went back to punching the one sandbag on the reinforced chain Terona had set up when she'd almost punched the last bag through a wall): Oh, yes. Many times. But that was never the problem, since that disgusting fucker Finster-5 figured out her estrus cycle and kept feeding her fertility treatments. The problem, as far as Drakkon was concerned, was that she kept wasting resources when she miscarried and had to start all over again.

Cam (sick to his stomach and calculating the probability of how completely worse off these two were compared to his cousins back home): How many?

Kapri (slowing her punches, then disengaging with the bag to walk over to where Cam continued to watch Marah loosen up around someone that had no idea what she was doing, but was trying her best, with Cassidy and Devin having wandered in with Conner after a long day of helping alien refugees and looking for something to eat that wouldn't come back up; an almost domestic setting that Kapri herself appreciated tremendously for the sake of everyone she knew from Eighth Division): Fourteen pregnancies, twenty-five fetuses. Two almost made it, but faded two months from their due date; which meant she had to go into labor and birth them anyway.

Cam: ...Boys or girls or both?

Kapri (chewing her tongue, trying to find the words): We don't know. They were missing a lot of what would have allowed them to live to begin with, and genitals didn't even begin to cover it. One was growing it's intestines on the outside of its body and the other one had no legs, no arms, no face... That was when Drakkon finally gave up and handed us over to our Captain. After Marah stopped screaming and could keep solid food down. And I'm glad.

Tagging: @lordkingsmith @koragg1 @theonewhonothingknows @rivulet027 @aletterinthenameofsanity

Character voice tag game

Line provided by @vyuntspakhkite-l-darling: "We have to Go"

(With characters from TCOT and I'll reblog with J&R Side WIP)

Kasi: Please, go.

Xhaazi (Shady): Let's get out of here!

Chrin: Come on, let's go!

Sokuna: We can't stay here!

Mouse: Can we leave yet?

Marril: Hurry up.

Viasaki: *just picks you up and leaves*

Kila: If you spend another second staring at that wall I will Feed you to the wolves

Shyre: Please, we need to leave, now.

(I will be doing these for a while because I am now obsessed)

@ajgrey9647 @smudged-red-ink @clever-naming-convention and anyone who wants to, your phrase is: "I can't do this anymore"

[c-is-for-circinate]

Who wants a little Cinderbrush AU on this quarantine evening?

A while ago, @brightandshinynewstories and I were chatting about what would happen if the Cinderbrush four lived in Exandria (and also relatedly, if the M9 were Monsterhearts characters, but that is a digression y’all should take up with her).  We figured it would start, at least, a little like this:

There’s a phrase Sasha's history tutor used once, when she was thirteen or fourteen and didn’t have a way to stop her parents hiring all her tutors and arranging her schedule for her.  Her history tutor was a stuttery little halfling man fresh out of Vasselheim, and half of what he said was deadly boring, but he was less brutally awful than her etiquette and protocol tutor, which was probably why he got fired before she turned fifteen.  That one conversation, though, has stuck with her for all these years.

“Everyone thinks they live at the end of history,” he’d said.  They’d been talking about the end of the reign of Uriel Tal’dorei at the time, how his decision to abdicate five minutes before he unexpectedly died in a massive dragon attack hadn’t accomplished much of anything except for making life massively difficult for his son fifteen years later.  “This is it, the final form of the world.  All the aeons of existence have led up to this moment right now, and finally we’re living in the future.”

“Isn’t everybody always living at the end of history, then?” Sasha had asked.  “If you look at it that way?”

“Not...not quite,” Kempler had stammered, a little off-balance the way he always was when she asked questions she actually wanted to know the answers to.  “Usually it means more like..the idea that everything, societal structures, social mores, everything has fallen into place in such a way that it doesn’t need to change any more.  Does that make sense?”

“Of course,” Sasha had said, and let him go on talking about dragons and heroes and the politics of non-existent emperors and kings.  She’d thought about it all afternoon.

This isn’t quite the end of history, Sasha figures now, half a dozen years later.  If it were, there’d be a better way to work her way up in the government of Emon besides playing personal aide to Arbiter Ethna for the next ten years in hopes of getting appointed to a magistrate’s position someday.  Some kind of school for barristers and politicians, at least, instead of everything coming down to her parents’ names and polite tolerance for her existence.  Her advancement wouldn’t depend so much on this awkward noble apprenticeship system where she’s more tied to Ethna’s reputation than her own skills.

It’s got to be getting pretty close, though.  It’s 853 PD.  Emon’s a miracle of government and engineering.  Uriel Tal’dorei’s been dead for forty years, there haven’t been dragons around to ravage anything since Sasha’s parents were children, and every day law, order, and the modern age prove a little more how they triumph over chaos.

It’s good to live at this end of history, Sasha tends to think.  There’s just enough still to do in the world to give her a chance to do something really special about it.  Just enough wiggle room left to let her...bend the rules.  Just a little.

Nobody says arbiters and politicians can’t have a little magic on their side to...smooth things along, just a little.  Nobody says aides like Sasha can’t spend their free time however they like.  Nobody tells Sir Murasaki’s daughter she can’t go where she wants, besides Sir Murasaki himself.  If she likes to sit auditing classes in the back of the room at the Alabaster Lyceum--if she happens to enjoy practicing classical violin or running vocal exercises in her tiny little office behind Arbiter Ethna’s courtroom--well.  The bardic arts might be a relic of the past, when people had to go out slaying monsters and dealing with dragons every other day, but history hasn’t quite left them useless yet.  Anything can be a tool if you’re clever and charming enough to use it right.

Living at very-nearly-the-end of history might be the best tool there is.  The best thing about it, Sasha thinks, is the chance to make sure she’s the one who decides how it ends.

.

Sasha told Cam about her end-of-history theory once, some starlit evening on the rooftop balcony of his parents’ townhouse, looking out over the sparkling lights of the Cloudtop District and enjoying the quiet.  He’s not sure he’s smart enough to really understand it, but that’s Sasha for you.  There’s a reason she’s going to be on the Tal’Dorei Council someday, while Cam’s going to be...whatever Cam’s going to be, by then.

Probably running the family business, one way or another, if his dad hasn’t actually killed him instead of letting him inherit.  It’s basically fine, as life plans go.  Parts of it don’t suck.  That’s something.

It’s why everyone was so in favor of him courting around with Sasha in the first place, anyway.  The Murasakis are nobility and all, but they’re from some island in the middle of the Lucidian Ocean on the other side of Exandria.  The Solomons were nobodies, until they just happened to own the only still-operating stone quarry in a hundred miles in the wake of the destruction of Emon forty years ago.  Sasha’s parents have influence, Cam’s have money.  Even Cam knows putting that combination together is a recipe for power.

Real power, probably, not the magic kind.  Fewer rules.  Fewer restrictions.  Fewer demons, whispering in the back of your ear when you’re trying to sleep.

If this is really the perfect future that everything’s always been trying to lead to, then shouldn’t they have wizard magic or some shit that would just get the stone out of the ground without needing miners and overseers and crap like that?  And then, like, nobody would send some stupid human kid with no darkvision into the back end of the quarry just because he’s the boss’s son and some fucker thinks he needs to be hazed for “company morale” or whatever.  Just for example.

So maybe the world’s not getting better, it’s just that the bullshit that piles up a little deeper every year has just about reached a critical maximum.  That’s fine.  No wonder Sasha’s looking forward to the future so much, gets along with the world so well.  He used to watch her weave her own web of total crap every time she worked a room, catching eyes and shaking hands and making everybody fall in love with her as soon as they met.  It’s kind of the most impressive thing Cam’s ever seen.  He kind of hates her for it, right at this moment.

Cam’s just not built for that much shit.  He's charming, sure, people trust him, people like him, but he can’t talk his way out of any- and everything like Sasha can.  Probably that’s a nobility thing.  The Solomons aren’t nobility, everybody knows that, especially Cam’s dad, and he’s never let Cam forget it for two seconds in a row his whole life, so right, no wonder Cam’s useless in Sasha’s kind of world.  No wonder he lets himself get into such shitty situations sometimes.  No wonder he can’t get Anukirai to leave him--to leave Sasha--alone.

If that’s what he wants.  Which--it is, of course, it should be, it has to be, it’s just.  Hard, sometimes, when Cam’s father decides if he can’t be the normal born kind of nobility, he’d better just prove he’s the High Lord of All Assholes.  When Cam’s trying not to be the kind of guy who just up and punches his problems in the face.  When Anukirai starts making promises, and Cam--when Cam can feel the power behind them, the weight of thousands of years of lurking underground, lying in wait, full of so much more patience than Cam’s ever had himself.

He’s pretty sure he could Command his dad to do just about anything, once.  Just once.  So far he hasn’t tried.

The worst thing about living this close to the end of history, Cam knows for damn sure, is feeling the weight of all of it crushing down on top of you all the time.

.

Jamie’s heard about it, too, somewhere along the way.  Lunch with Sasha at the Lyceum is always interesting, one way or another.

It’s bullshit, of course, but it’s the sort of bullshit that always appeals to people like Sasha.  As though there are other people in the world like Sasha Murasaki.  Things don’t end, they just die occasionally, and leave stinking corpses of whatever they used to be there to entertain passers-by.  Witness the inside of poor Cameron Solomon’s head these days after that particular breakup, case in point.

But of course it’s enticing to picture the world as just half a step short of perfection, all the for pretty, perfect people who think they might just be that last piece of perfection Exandria’s waiting for.  That, at least, isn’t exactly an uncommon attitude around the Alabaster Lyceum.  Everybody thinks they’re going to be the next Allura Vysoren, or whoever it is they’re all idolizing these days.  Everybody thinks they need just that little bit of extra edge to get there.

Jamie’s done with that particular race, which doesn’t mean they can’t enjoy spectating it.  There’s a lot of benefits that come from staying enrolled as a student of the arcane arts at the Alabaster Lyceum of Emon.  Greg Wrenly keeps paying tuition, room, and board, for one.  There’s a handful of cantrips and a couple of halfway decent wizard spells in Jamie’s back pocket now, too, which is never a bad thing.  It’s always good to have options.

For instance: now the desperate, overachieving would-be wizards of the Lyceum don’t have to fight their way through years of arduous study and spend enormous reserves of magical energy to cast True Seeing.  A little bit of druidcraft, a couple of exactly the right mushrooms, and for a handful of gold coins Jamie can provide a direct line of sight to the Ethereal Plane with negligible side effects to follow.  Options.  They’re practically a public service.

Jamie prefers to keep as many options open as possible; gods know nobody in this fucking city seem to realize they have any.  That’s what needing to be the best will do to you.  If a quarter of their classmates realized how much power the average archdruid has at their command, there’d be a mass exodus of ex-arcanists desperate to be the next fucking Voice of the Tempest, every one of them desperate to live up to thousands of years of legends and heroes and complete fairytales.  Every single one of them would miss the entire point.

Jamie doesn’t need to be the best.  They just need to maintain their own, extremely specific skill set, market it in the right way to the right people, and not get caught up in everyone else’s everything.  Stay a minimum safe distance away from Sasha.  Enjoy Cam’s company without getting too invested in the pretty and the trauma.  Enough wizardry to mess with peoples’ heads and not be too bound to the whims of nature, enough druidry to keep in good supply and not be too bound to some fucking hand-scribed spellbook.  Enough alchemy to keep in business.  Enough business to make sure they don’t completely lose touch with reality, the way so many mages tend to do.

Of course it’s not exactly traditional, or historical, or Respectful of the Great Arts, or whatever the fucking line is.  What the hell would be the point of that?

The best thing about living on this end of history, whatever the fuck that means to anyone, is getting to pick and choose exactly which parts of it you want to keep.

.

Aff gets the whole history thing in pieces, in passing at first, but it makes more sense the more they think about it.  You can learn a lot slinging pints of ale in your dad’s tavern on a regular old Grissen weeknight.

It’s not like they’re friends with Sasha Murasaki of all people.  Aff hadn’t even known who she was until Amanda from the livery stable down the street explained it, and apparently there’s an actual member of a titled noble family on her way up the ranks in the Watchful Hall who comes out to Aff’s dad’s tavern, like, a lot, which is just crazy.  It’s just that sometimes when Sasha’s waiting for somebody, or she and her trio of Emon’s Who’s Who are bored or whatever, they invite Aff to sit down and talk for a while.  Cameron Solomon’s... whatever, he’s cool, Aff’s mom doesn’t live too far from his dad’s mine these days, so maybe they’d helped him out while he was puking in an alleyway once or twice before even moving to Emon, out in the countryside where being a super-rich merchant prince didn’t matter that much.  And Jamie...Aff doesn’t really get Jamie, but they’re in here a lot, alone at a table where a whole rotation of people sit down to join them and then leave ten minutes later.  You learn a lot about someone when they drink by themselves while they’re doing some kind of weird shady business in your bar at least once a week.  That’s all.

Aff doesn’t even really think any of them are friends with each other, either, anyway.  Sasha and Cameron used to come in on dates, a couple of kids from the Cloudtop slumming it in Diamond Liquor out in the Central District, but they don’t really do that any more.  The one time Sasha showed up when Cam was already here, he got up and left.  Sometimes Sasha goes and sits at Jamie’s table in the corner, and she’s usually there for a lot longer than ten minutes when she does, but she still always goes back to the rest of her crew and Jamie goes back to drinking alone.  Jamie and Cam have come in together a couple of times, and it seems like Jamie doesn’t even do business on those nights, but like, who even knows what’s up with that, right?

Not that Aff’s being creepy or anything.  They’re the bar...not-maid.  Bartender?  No, that’s their dad, ruling over the land of kegs behind the actual physical bar.  Bar...server?  Is that a thing?  Whatever, it is now.  Aff’s the bar-server, they hear things.  They notice things.  That’s all.

Like Sasha talking about the end of history, which, it took Aff a couple of different conversations to realize she didn’t mean the end of the world, which is probably good.  Aff’s pretty sure she means the fact that they live now, in modern times, which don’t really have dragon attacks or cool heroes or crazy adventures any more, because all the cool heroes already went on all the crazy adventures and killed the dragons so that modern times could happen in the first place.  Which is great!  Right, that’s totally for the best, dragons are definitely bad news.  Aff’s seen a couple of places where Emon got rebuilt forty or fifty years ago after half the city...melted, they guess?  So like, it’s good that that’s not happening nowadays.  That’s a good thing.

It’s just...

Look, Aff’s a good bar-server, or whatever you want to call it, and they like living here with their dad, and Emon’s not a bad place to be, it’s just.  Hard, sometimes.  It’s hard, when they get so angry they just want to hit something, again.  Like, a lot.  Again.

If there were still adventurers and dragons and shit, then maybe Aff would have a use for all that pent-up aggression or whatever.  Maybe they could, y’know, kill monsters or whatever, and it would make them a hero instead of a fuckup.  If it were still the old days like that, maybe Aff would be good for something.

If this really is the end of history or whatever, Aff thinks that maybe the hardest part is feeling like they got smacked down in the wrong part of it.

.

The trouble, of course, is that history is nowhere near through with them.  Or with its own twists and turns, which is how history tends to work, really, even when you think it’s all just about settled down.

The third week of Fessuran is...confusing, more than anything.  Everything happens so fucking fast, in a blur of blood and fear and sleep-deprivation, washed over with a little extra haze from Jamie’s very good berries, and a couple of days go by in either about two hours or two weeks, and this is never going to make a good story to tell any kids they ever have, if they ever survive long enough to have kids.

Half a dozen people are very dead, that’s very clear, well beyond the help of any cleric or reasonably-ethical necromancer.  Amanda from the livery stable down the street from Diamond Liquor was pale and streaked in blood, breathing shallowly and barely alive, last time they saw her.  That might be worth something, if they could figure out or agree on what.

The four of them are not dead.  They are not under arrest.  They’re not in Emon any more, either, but since staying away might be the only chance they have to keep being not-dead and not-arrested, that’s probably a win, too.

They look at each other, hollow-eyed and dazed, across the table at the only inn in the tiny nowhere town of Cinder Hills, where they didn’t dare sleep last night and had better leave the minute they finish breakfast and also decide what the hell comes next.

“What,” Cam says, speaking for them all, “the fuck?”

.

“Look,” Sasha says.  “It’s fine.  We just…go to another city, and wait for things to die down.  Come back when it’s all over and pretend none of it ever happened.  Nothing to do with us at all.”

It’s fine.  It has to be fine, because if it’s not then Sasha’s lost everything.  Jail isn’t the only way to be trapped.  Freedom costs so much.

“You cannot possibly think that’s going to work,” Jamie says scathingly.  “You think there’s anybody in Emon who doesn’t know who the great Sasha Murasaki is?  We run, and we do not come back.”

Fuck Jamie, fuck them, just…fuck.

She’s spent years building herself a future in Emon.  Years, fighting to make herself a place in history.  Scrounging for every fucking scrap her parents would let her have, every fraction of respect or freedom that couldn’t just be taken away on a whim because she didn’t lower her eyes enough on any random night.  And now she’s going to lose it to this?

“Um,” Aff says.  “I have family in Emon?  I’m not just going to disappear on my dad.  And like, what about Cam’s dad, or Sasha’s family, or–”

“I can’t see my dad right now,” Cam interrupts quickly.  “Leaving actually maybe sounds good.”

“Oh, and leaving where, Jamie?” Sasha demands, because she’s ignoring Cameron right now until she can handle looking at him.  “Are we all going to stay with your little forest friends?  Sleep on leaf mattresses and learn to be druids, then?”

Jamie snorts.  “I’m not taking any of you within ten fucking miles of any druid circle I’ve ever met.  You, they’d eat alive,” and he gestures dismissively at Aff, “and you, they’d never forgive me for.  Luckily the world’s pretty fucking big.”

“So, what, you just want to–what, get on a ship and go to Wildemount?” Cam asks, interrupting Sasha again before she can get started on what even she knows is going to come out sharp and bitter and useless.  “Never come home?”

“You can do whatever the fuck you want.  I’m going to Kymal as soon as I can get on the fucking road, to see if I can rebuild even a third of what I just left behind.” Jamie says, like it’s just…that easy.  “Maybe Westruun, eventually, depending on how that goes.”

Sasha cannot start over in fucking Kymal.  She can’t.  She’s going home.  She’ll get this straightened out.

Everybody knows who her parents are.  They could smooth the whole thing over, probably, if she went down on her knees and begged hard enough.  If she agreed to let them ship her off to whatever cloister or rich husband they chose, and lost everything to spending the rest of her life under her mother’s thumb and her father’s commands anyway.

Fuck.  Fuck.  It feels like the walls of this tiny shitty tavern room are closing in on her already.  Sasha is so fucked.

It was supposed to be perfect.  She was almost done.  She was on her way.  It was going to be perfect.

“We should probably stay together,” Cameron says worriedly, looking between Sasha and his precious Aff and Jamie fucking Wrenly.

“Westruun,” Sasha says.  It’s too small to build anything worth having and it’s too far away from everything she’s ever built so far and it’s too big for her to matter at all and it’s too close for her to really be safe.  Westruun’s nothing.  But at least it’s better than fucking Kymal.  “We can go to Westruun.”

Or Vasselheim.  Or Rexxentrum.  Or Ank’harel.  Or Port Damali.  Sasha’s a little afraid to start running.  She’s a little afraid that once she gets going, she won’t be able to stop.

.

Notes on Level 2:

Sasha, human bard 2 Cantrips: Message, Prestidigitation L1 spells (3/day): Charm Person, Sense Emotions, Disguise Self, Comprehend Languages, Detect Magic

Cameron, human warlock 2 Patron: Fiend Cantrips: Mage Hand, Friends L1 spells (2/day): Command, Charm Person, Hex Invocations: Beguiling Influence, Devil’s Sight

Jamie, human wizard 1 druid 1 Cantrips: Friends, Mind Sliver, Minor Illusion, Druidcraft, Infestation L1 spells (3/day) : Cause Fear, Color Spray, Silent Image, Charm Person, Sleep, Identify, plus any druid spells prepared that day

Aff, human barbarian 2 Rage (2/day): +2 damage

[unapologeticallyjaylos]

descendants halloween week - day 1

prompt: vampire

pairings: jay x carlos ; mal x evie

rating: T for sexual references/language

cameron boyce had somewhat long incisors and it inspired this little ficlet. i miss you, cam. thinking of you always. 

---

The deciding of Jay’s costume for the Auradon Prep Halloween Party had been very last minute.

“You look good,” Carlos told him for the hundredth time, fixing his own eyeliner in the mirror. He’d gone a bit heavier on the stuff tonight, and it stood out against the pale white foundation he had on. 

“You look sexy,” he blurted back, raising an eyebrow. “I like that makeup.”

“I’m shocked,” his boyfriend deadpanned, applying the final touches to the fake blood dripping from the corner of his mouth. “Stop gawking, Jay, or we’ll never make it out the door. Do you want Evie to be on our asses about being late or not?”

“Not.” Jay returned his attention to the mirror in front of him. “‘Los, I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’m ready. That’s the whole point of this costume, right? I don’t have to do anything?”

Huffing, Carlos set the vial of fake blood on the bathroom counter and turned to Jay, messing with the shredded shirt and dangling the sleeve off his shoulder. “It has to look - hold still - more disheveled. Mess up your hair. Oh, shit, not like that - give me the brush.” Carlos snatched it from him, artfully teasing Jay’s long strands until he was satisfied. “Now hand me the foundation - not that one, the darker one.”

After several more minutes of fussing and adjusting from Carlos, Jay thought he looked pretty damn good. The smudges of dark foundation streaked across his mostly bare chest and cheeks like mud, and the shirt definitely looked more “ruined” after whatever Carlos had done to it. There was one last thing, though - the defining element of his costume - that needed approval.

“Hey, Pup?” Jay turned his neck, pointing to the two red bite marks on his neck - perfectly spaced and fang-like. “This look alright?”

Carlos’ lips curled into a wicked grin. “That,” he laughed, “is the best damn part.”

“Christ.” Jay loved the look in the freckled boy’s eyes, how he eyed the bite like it was the hottest thing he’d ever seen. “Never took you as the possessive one in the relationship.”

“A fatal mistake on your part.” Carlos leaned into the mirror, baring his teeth. He hadn’t needed to buy fangs from the costume store, as his own incisors were prominent and pointy enough already. Jay loved his boyfriend’s natural kind-of baby fangs; he liked to tease Carlos that he was a real vampire sometimes.

“Ready?” Jay motioned dramatically to the door. “I got like a hundred ideas for pranks to play on these sons of bitches. They’re too soft; they have an entire holiday dedicated to scaring people, and they always default to giving out candy instead.”

“As long as I get some chocolate,” Carlos laughed, “I’m good.”

The girls met them at the bottom of the stairs, raising their eyebrows. Evie looked stunning as always, dressed as a ghoulish Snow White - her makeup corpse-like and dark, as if the princess had never been awoken with True Love’s Kiss. And although Mal had initially complained about dressing up as a princess, she didn’t look any less terrifying in her zombified Aurora costume - right down to the golden curly wig on her head.

“You know,” Jay commented, gesturing to her getup. “Audrey might take some serious offense to that.”

“Well, let her,” Mal shrugged. “I heard she’s coming as my mother with a sword-in-the-heart just to torment me, so I’m just meeting her challenge.”

“And I already cleared mine with Snow,” Evie added, looking a little breathless. “She said it was a spookily perfect idea.” She’d been speaking - tentatively - with her step-sister, and so far, things had been going pretty well from what Jay had heard. He was just glad he didn’t have to beat any princesses up for disrespecting her.

“Well, I said you should go as a Sexy Snow White, but I was outvoted,” Mal shrugged, the comment earning her a nice solid punch from her girlfriend and an indignant “Mal!”

“Changing topics,” Evie laughed, still blushing fiercely as she stepped forward to inspect them both. “What have we got here? Carlos was very secretive on the phone this morning, and I’ve been bugging him about it all afternoon. All he said was ‘there’s more to it than meets the eye.’”

“You little shit,” Jay muttered to Carlos with a smile.

“Well, I’m a vampire,” Carlos grinned, showing off his costume. “And he’s my victim.”

Jay pointed to his ripped ensemble and the bite on his neck. “He got me.”

Evie’s eyes were bright. “That’s adorable! And Carlitos, your makeup is stunning.” She came closer to inspect the bite on Jay’s neck, turning around to motion Mal closer. “Wow, who did the makeup on this? Carlos, was this you? It looks so realistic!”

Even Mal looked impressed as she peered in, ruffling Carlos’ curls. “Pretty solid, Spots. You might just be as good as Evie with a brush.”

“You wanna know a secret?” Carlos batted his eyelashes, smiling angelically at the girls. “Jay got that hickey last night. It’s not makeup - just a fuck mark.” Then he grabbed Jay’s hand and took off towards the doors at a run, laughing like an idiot in love.

“You wild little fuckers!” Mal called after them, hiking up her skirt to follow. “You planned your entire costume in one day around a hickey?? I’m surprised the people next door don’t hate you both!”

“You bit the shit out of him, Carlos!” Evie shouted, her heels clicking on the cement as the girls burst through the doors behind them. “What, is that like a kink or something? Dammit, those sharp little almost-fangs of yours did that, didn’t they?”

“Maybe I’m a real vampire after all!” Carlos joked over his shoulder with a laugh. “And what Jay and I do in the bedroom is entirely our secret!”

“You better not take that makeup off tonight,” Jay told him under his breath as they ran. “I meant what I said earlier; it’s sexy.”

“Round two, huh?” Carlos laughed, slowing to a stop just as they reached the entrance to the party - the girls a few yards behind them. “Too bad we don’t have another costume party tomorrow night. We’ll have to cover up the marks with regular old foundation in the morning.”

And this time, it was Jay’s turn to flash an evil smile. “Who said anything about covering my hickeys up?”

[what-is-your-plan-today]

Stark Spangled Banner Ch9: You Just Keep On Giving

Summary: Katie and Coulson’s team head off in an attempt to track down the missing Asgardian staff whilst Steve confronts Fury about his actions. Pairing: Steve Rogers x OFC Katie Stark

Warnings: Smut (NSFW)  over 18s only thanks. LANGUAGE!!

Flashbacks depicted in italics.

November 2013

Steve was sat on his couch when Katie called. Smiling he accepted the face time and she beamed at him.

“Hey handsome.” she smiled “Am I glad to see your face.” “You’ve only been gone a few hours.” he chuckled.

“7, actually.” she pouted “Jerk.” He grinned “7 too long, love. How’s it going?” “Ok, we’re heading out tomorrow to speak to a professor I took some advice from when Thor was first on Earth. He’s based in Seville so not too far away.” “Tour of Europe, nice.” “Be nicer if you were here.” she sighed

“Wish I was. The team ok?” he asked, leaning back.

“Well I know all of them bar 1.” Katie said “And like all of them bar 1”

Steve laughed “They made a good first impression then?” “Oh, it’s not the one I don’t know that I don’t like.” she paused, before letting out a groan and wrinkling up her freckle spattered nose “Fucking Ward is here.” Steve frowned and sat up, swallowing the anger rising from his chest “What?” “Yeah, apparently his post was one with Coulson’s mobile team. Go figure.” “Son of a…” Steve was mad, really mad. First off Fury had sprung Coulson on his girl, and now this. He looked at her as she shook her head, shrugging “You could always come home.” he suggested, even though he knew she wouldn’t.

“I’m involved now.” she said, “might as well see it through. And as much of a dickhead he is, he’s a good agent so…” “I’m not sure I like you being cooped up in so close proximity to him.” Steve sighed, and as her eyes narrowed he knew he’d said the wrong thing.

Katie frowned “What’s that supposed to mean? Don’t you trust me?” “Of course I do.” he placated, cursing himself. And he did. He trusted her implicitly “I just know how much he upset you and I don’t like him.”

Katie laughed at his somewhat childish answer and he was pleased to see the anger in her face dissipating. “In case you hadn’t noticed, I’m over him now.” “I wish I was over you…” Steve said, smirking and she gave a shocked gasp.

“Captain Badass! How rude…” He laughed and then sighed “But I mean it. If he steps a toe outta line, I’ll be on a jet straight over to break his nose, again.”

Katie smirked “You didn’t break it last time, that was Tony remember?”

Remember? How could he forget?

They’d were at a bar, Tony was in town and Lawson’s band had been playing so they had gone out for a few beers. And then he’d shown up, again. Steve and Katie had spent most of the night trying to keep Tony calm and away from him, and now by some sick twist of fate Steve unfortunately, found himself next to Ward at the bar as he waited to get another round of drinks in whilst Tony and Natasha were at a table by the dance floor. Ward was watching Katie whilst she danced with Clint as the archer twirled her effortlessly round the floor as the post-band DJ continued to play. Steve didn’t miss the way her ex boy-friend’s eyes travelled down her body and backup again and he felt himself bristle as he watched the man, blatantly ogling his girl. It wasn’t alien, she turned heads wherever but the fact it was her ex riled him big time, especially as this man had treat her like shit, made her feel worthless… Steve hated him for that.

Ward looked up and at least had the grace to look a little sheepish at being caught.

“Sorry Captain…just, well, you have a hell of a woman there.”

Steve looked at the man, his voice low and emotionless “I know.”

“Biggest regret I have is how I treated her.” Ward sighed, taking a drink from his glass. “I was a jerk.”

“No arguments here.” Steve muttered, a bit louder than he had intended as the bar tender approached with his order. Steve paid and picked up his bottle to take a swig whilst waiting for his change, only to find Ward talking to him again.

“She was a demon in the sack too, as you’ll know…” Ward said, looking straight ahead, a smirk on his face. Steve paused, bottle raised to his mouth. Was this asshole actually going there?

“I’ve no idea why I went looking elsewhere.” Ward continued, before he turned to look at Steve, “The things she can do with her mouth and-“

“That’s enough.” Steve said, his voice was loaded with anger as he slammed the bottle down on the counter causing it to shatter, sending its contents flying over the surface along with shards of glass as he turned his head to look at Ward, ignoring the bar tenders squeak of shock. As Steve stood up straight and glared at the man, who was an inch or so shorter than he was, he knew he’d risen to the ridiculous goading and given Ward the reaction he wanted, but right now what he wanted was to smash the fucker’s face straight down into the pool of beer that was gathered on the surface below and watch as his nose broke.

But he didn’t get chance, as at that moment a whirl of grey blazer and dark jeans flew in between them both and suddenly Ward was on the floor. 

Tony had punched him straight in the face.

“Man I’ve been waiting to do that for years…” Tony said, shaking out his fist as he glanced down at Ward.

“You broke my nose…” Ward said as he stood up, shrugging off Rollins who had helped him to his feet. “Yeah well you broke my sister’s heart” Tony snarled back as Natasha stepped in front of him, both hands on her chest pushing him away. “Sue me.”

“What is going on?” a loud voice said to their side and all 3 men turned to see Katie stood there, Clint at her side, a blank expression on her face as her eyes locked onto Tony’s.

“Your brother just punched me.” Ward said, wiping at his bloodied face.

"yeah I saw that. " She said, eyes still on Tony "Why?”

“Because he’s a dick.” Tony said simply “And he was picking a fight with Spangles. Thought I’d get in there first…”

Katie looked at Steve who gave her a raise of his eyebrows in confirmation before she tuned to look at Tony again.

“You were protecting Captain America…” Katie said, her lips twitching slightly.

Tony shrugged “That and I just really wanted to hit him.” “Come on guys…” the bar tender said lightly “I don’t want to have to ask any of you to leave…”

“You never did like me, did you Tony?” Ward wiped again at his nose, spatters of blood landing all over his shirt.

“No.” Tony deadpanned simply, picking at something on his sleeve.

“Time to go Ward…” Rollins said, patting Ward’s chest. Ward shot one last look at the group before turning to go.

“Ok, nothing to see here…move it a long…” Clint said as the crowd that had gathered dissipated and the volume level of the club returned to normal.

Tony groaned, shaking out his right hand. “Jesus that hurt.” “Let me see…” Natasha said, turning to Tony as Clint announced that the fact Ward had his nose splattered across his face called for a celebratory round of chasers, turning to the bar.

Steve stepped towards his girl and gently placed a hand in the small of her back and she turned to look at him, breaking her gaze from the door Ward had left through.

“So what did he say to you to make you lose it?” She said gently.

“I didn’t lose it, Tony was the one that punched him” he said someone childishly.

Katie raised an eyebrow “Oh, and did Tony smash that bottle all over the bar?” “You saw that?” Steve wrinkled his nose, sheepishly.

She nodded. ���What did he say?”

“It doesn’t matter” he said softly.

“Let me guess, ‘she was amazing in bed…’” she mimicked a deep voice “’she can do amazing things with her hands…mouth…pick a hole’” Steve flushed bright red, which was answer in itself as she shook her head. 

“So predictable.” Katie said, her eyes not once leaving Steve’s “You know he was doing it on purpose, to get a rise out of you. And it worked.”

“Yeah, I know.” Steve sighed, reaching out and gently grabbing her hips, pulling her to him. “I just…I didn’t like him talking about you like that, I wouldn’t like anyone talking about you like that.” He saw Katie’s mouth twitch at the side as her hands gently wrapped around his upper arms. ”My hero.”

He let out a huff of a laugh and was about to, once again, point out that it was Tony who had landed the blow when the Inventor reminded them himself.

“Jesus you are a sadist!” Tony was pulling his hand away from where Nat had pressed a towel wrapped around a load of ice to his knuckles.

“Quite being a baby.” she said airily as Tony glared at her, holding his hand to his chest.

“To be fair to Tony…” Steve said, grinning at the memory as he looked at the screen of his StarkPhone “It was a pretty good punch.” Katie sniggered and looked up as Steve heard a knock on her door. “Yeah?” A voice from off screen spoke. “Hey, we’re meeting for some food and a few beers if you wanna…” “Yeah I’ll be with you in a sec…” “Are you talking to him?” the voice gained pitch and Steve arched an eyebrow letting out a soft sigh.

Katie laughed “Yeah, hey Stevie…you got a fan.” she said looking at him before he turned the phone round and Steve saw a small woman, leaning in the doorway, long, dark hair tucked behind her ears. He rubbed his neck slightly embarrassed and waved.

“Hi…” “Skye, Steve, Steve, Skye…” “Nice to meet you Skye…well, talk to you…” “You too Cap.” she grinned as Katie turned the phone round. “I’ll see you down there.”

Katie nodded as she shut the door.

“That was the newbie.” she said to Steve who smiled at her. “She seems nice.” Steve nodded. “I’ll let you go get some food, I know how you get when you don’t eat.”

“Oh hello kettle, this is Steve Rogers here. You're black” she said sarcastically making him laugh loudly “You’re the king of hanger.” “And that makes you the queen of hanger by default so…”

“Smart ass.” she said after a pause, “I better go, I’ll message you later.”

“Love you.” he smiled at her. “Love you too.” she said, before adding with a sarcastic grin “My king…”

***** Katie had no idea where the food came from but she didn’t care. A big, greasy bacon cheeseburger with a side of loaded fries really hit the spot, especially alongside a large glass of Aviation gin.

As they ate they talked and Fitz, who was bouncing on his chair eventually lost his composure and leant forward.

“So…I’m sorry…and May told me not to ask but I have to… what’s it like dating Captain America?” Katie gave a huff as she swallowed down her food. “I wouldn’t know.” she said “I’m dating Steve Rogers.”

"I’m sorry…I didn’t mean to…”  Fitz stuttered as May threw him a filthy look whilst Simmons hit him on the arm.

“It’s fine, don’t worry.” she smiled “I just… well, there’s far more to him than the shield and the stars and stripes….he’s the kindest, gentlest, sweetest guy I’ve ever met.”

Ward shifted in his seat and whilst Katie didn’t look at him, the movement didn’t go unnoticed.

“But, isn’t he like, dead old fashioned?” Skye asked. “Being like nearly a hundred…” “Not really.” Katie said, shrugging “I mean he has a few little quirks, but he’s adapted quite well all things considered”

“How is he?” Coulson asked “I mean, I’ve not seen him since…well, I died.” “He’s good.” Katie smiled “He’s fit right in to SHIELD and…he’s happy, we’re happy.”

“Oh that’s so sweet!” Simmons gushed.

“An Avengers love story…” Fitz sighed. “Man, wish I could be an Avenger…”

"What would your super power be?” Ward snorted, knocking back his scotch “Boring everyone to death with algorithms?” “You do know that there’s only actually 3 out of the 7 of us that a super power of sorts.” Katie said simply, shooting Ward a glare before she turned to Fitz “Steve, Dr Banner and Thor. The rest of us rely on training or technology…” “So you’re saying I have a chance?” Fitz grinned causing the rest of the table to laugh or snort.

“Never give up on your dreams.”  May deadpanned, causing the table to laugh.  

They continued chatting and attacked their food before Skye continued questioning

“We’re all dying to know…” she looked at Katie “What was AC like as an SO?” Coulson groaned and Katie laughed, swallowing the rest of her burger “He was the best.” she smirked, “although to be fair, once I started training as a Field Op, my real SO was Hawkeye.” “Now HE is dreamy…” Simmons said “all dark and broody and…arrowy…” “Arrowy?” Skye snorted “that isn’t even a word…”

“He’ll love that!” Katie said, laughing “Arrowy...”

Coulson stood up, gesturing round the table as people had finished drinks and he headed to the bar to get more, Fitz and Ward following to help.

“So how did you end up joining SHIELD?” Katie looked at Skye.

“I hacked them.” She shrugged “I was trailing some guy who had taken some extremis serum and blew their cover.”

“You’d get on very well with my brother.” Katie snorted “He hacks SHIELD for fun.” “Still?” Coulson asked as he placed another drink down in front of her.

She nodded “Much to Fury’s annoyance...”

She trailed off slightly as she remembered the last time Tony had hacked SHIELD. He’d discovered something that she really wished he hadn’t. SHIELD were conducting experiments on the recovered Chitauri weapons. It had pissed her, Steve and Tony off no end and made her extremely glad the Tesseract had gone back to Asgard with Thor. Meddling with things they didn’t understand never did any good. But more so it was the fact that Fury had declared it was all being destroyed upon recovery. Another lie the Director had spun. And she was getting tired of them. Real tired.

Shaking the thought off she turned her attention to Coulson who was now talking about the task in hand tomorrow. The team came up with a plan about who was going where and when, and then Katie decided she’d had enough. She stood up, bidding the team goodnight.

***** The university was a short drive away from where they had set The Bus down. Coulson drove in his beloved red sports car, Lola. When they arrived they easily navigated their way through to Elliot’s office. As they reached his office door, it swung outwards and Coulson held it open. “I’ll see you later.” Elliot was saying to a dark haired, female student who exited the office with a pile of paper and books clutched in her arm. Elliot looked up, saw them standing there and let out a small exclamation of surprise.

“Oh…”

“Professor Randolph.” Coulson said, shaking his hand.

“Agent Coulson, Agent Stark”

“Good to see you again.” Katie shook his hand.

“Well I never, come in, come in.” “Waterfield 44” Phil said suddenly, and Katie looked at him frowning. It was only when Elliot looked down at the pen in his hand, holding it out for Coulson to take that she realised what he was talking about. “14-Karat gold nib with mother of pearl inlay.” Coulson turned the pen over in his hand before offering it back.

Katie bit back a snort, it sounded like something Tony would own. “That’s quite an eye you’ve got. I didn’t know you were a collector.” Professor Randalph laughed.

“On my wages?” Coulson snorted “I wish.” “Well…” Elliot took the pen back and tucked it in his pocket before looking at them. “I’m assuming you found something on the ground in London…”

“In a tree in Norway.” Coulson added, placing the case containing the printed rod that Fitz had made on the desk, opening it.  ”And unfortunately we weren’t the ones who found it.” Katie added “It’s a 3-D model” Couslon said, handing the item to Elliot who took it, examining it closely. “Oh, that is amazing”

He turned away from them and put the rods symbols under a light to look at them better. “Now, based on these runes,” he said, still looking at it “I’d say I’m looking at a piece of  Berserker Staff.”

Katie smiled as her and Coulson exchanged a look. Even if she said so herself, she was good at this.

“But I think you already know that…”  Elliot looked up as he set the rod down.

“Only suspected.” Katie smiled “My knowledge on it is sketchy, and there are many different theories about it so...”

The Professor stood up and walked over to pull a book off his shelf “Here.” He set the book on the desk and Katie and Coulson looked down at a drawing of a man holding the rod up high over his head, the rod in the book was considerably bigger than the one that was taken out of the tree.  Katie started to read the book as Elliot continued to explain. “The man in question was a solider in the Berserker Army” Professor Randalph spoke “Berserker Army?” Coulson asked “Oh, yeah. A powerful army. Fierce army” Elliot spoke “Berserkers battled like raging beasts, destroying everything in their path. A single Berserker had the strength of 20 warriors”. “So whoever wielded the staff got superhuman strength?” Coulson asked “Fighting with it put the warrior into a state of uncontrollable rage” he replied, picking up the rod and showing it to Coulson.  “The staff contained a very powerful magic”. “The warrior in the story?” Coulson pressed as Katie continued to read, frowning as she spotted something pretty interesting. “He came to Earth to fight,” Elliot said “But he ended up falling in love.”

“With whom?” Coulson asked “With life, on Earth. Humanity” Professor Randalph shrugged   “He fell so much in love that when his army returned to Asgard, he stayed behind.”

“And the staff? He broke it?”

Professor Randalph nodded “He didn’t want its dark magic falling into the wrong hands. So, according to legend he broke it into three pieces and hid each one in a different location.”  “That manuscript wouldn’t happen to say where he hid them, would it?” Coulson asked. “Actually, it does.” Katie spoke, and placed the book down on the desk, pointing at it, smiling. “In three verses.”

“Now, let’s all bear in mind these are poetic abstracts from long-lost ancient texts.”  Elliot said as Katie cleared her throat and began to read.

“So, there is one about a tree, which they’ve found it seems. Another is ‘East of the river, sun overhead, buried in Earth with the bones of the dead.”’

“That’s a bit macabre, isn’t it?” Randalph said, folding his arms as he smiled.

“There’s another one here.” she continued “Well, this one doesn’t even have a rhyme. But the gist of it is “close to God.” That could be anything, couldn’t it?” “Yeah, I was hoping for less metaphor, more longitude and latitude” Coulson sighed. “Well, maybe we should start looking at areas and places located near Viking raid routes” Katie said, an idea coming to her “Being Norse and all…”

“There have been some recent interesting findings of Norse relics on Baffin Island off the coast of Canada” Randalph shrugged “ Yeah, a virtual treasure trove of new artefacts.”

“Well, we’ll check it out. Thank you for your time Professor.” Coulson said, reaching out to shake his hand. Steve and I also did the same and followed him out of the university

“So AC, Baffin Island?” Katie said as they climbed back into Lola.

“Did you know there’s Mount Thor on Baffin Island?” Coulson said, starting up the car as Katie shut the passenger door.

“Really?” “Yeah, and do you know what’s not on Mount Thor?” Coulson asked “Anything Asgardian at all. Our agents on the ground combed over it when all these Norse relics turned up. Didn’t find a thing”

***** “So like you’re a Mission Analyst.” Skye looked at Katie, across the table of the Planning Room

“Yeah”

“And a sniper with STRIKE?”

“Yeah.”

“And you’re also an Avenger…”

“Yeah.” Katie muttered, not looking up from the screen she was studying, “Although what we’re avenging now that Coulson isn’t actually dead I don’t know…”

She peered closer at the screen and moved the map 180 degrees using her hand.

“Pretty intense.” Skye said.

“Yeah it can be.” Katie smiled, staring back at the map. She’d been running an analysis on the Viking Routes in Europe and she was missing something. But she couldn’t think what. And then one highlighted on the map in yellow caught her eye. She tapped in closer, and frowned. “Now that’s interesting…”

She thought for a moment, and then ran another quick search on something, her mind working ten to the dozen.

“What have we got?” Coulson asked as he walked into the room with Ward. Katie looked up and was about to speak but Skye beat her to it.

"Nystorm’s deep-web message boards are just abuzz with psychos”

She moved her hand over the screen so that it activated the hologram display functionality in the middle of the table, various messages scrolling across the bottom part. “They believe they’re gonna ascend to be the Gods of destruction and death. People suck, sir.” “That’s your progress, “people suck”?” Ward looked at her, his eyebrows raised slightly. Katie felt the corner of her mouth twitch up slightly. “These people do.” Skye insisted “And there’s also chatter about going underground.”

“Could be going incognito or – “ Ward started “ Or searching for the next piece.” Coulson said turning to Katie “You said about checking Viking routes. Find anything?” “Matter of fact I did.” She said, clicking on her mouse to send the map to the holoview.  “There are some sites along the Volga River in Russia, some in Kiev, and weirdly, here.” She hovered the curser over the map on her screen, zooming into show a map of Seville.

“In Seville, Spain?” Coulson said, frowning. “It’s a long shot, but Vikings ransacked Seville twice.” she said, “Or so the history books tell us.” At that point the search she was running stopped and something flashed up.

“There…” Katie said, “That’s a promising location. Viking Relics found at El Divino Nino, a church would you believe it. ”

“Built on the ruins of an 8th century crypt.” Agent May said as she walked into the room “It’s a tourist attraction” she explained as everyone turned to look at her.

“Which in turn was built on Roman ruins from 206 B.C.” Katie said, reading off the screen. “It’s East of a river.” Ward said, leaning on the back of her chair to look at the map over her shoulder. Katie rolled her eyes, he didn’t need to do that, he could have looked at the holodisplay.

“Crypt could be underground…” Sky offered.

“And lots of bones…” Katie shrugged.

Coulson nodded “Ok, Let’s see what we can dig up. See what I did there?”

“I’m glad dying and rising again didn’t change your sense of humour AC.” Katie said, grinning at him “It’s still crap.” *****

 “Must be nice, have a mandatory nap time” Fitz said, looking out of the van. Katie, Coulson and Fitz were providing support up top, whilst Skye and Ward investigated the crypts.  It was the middle of the day, there wasn’t a soul in sight.

“Siesta isn’t mandatory, just very pleasant” Coulson replied, before he spoke into the comms device. “How you doing, Agent Ward?”

“Wishing I was shorter.” His voice responded, “Nothing yet. All my readings are normal”

“What about you Skye? Any luck?

“I’m lucky Ward volunteered to take the super creepy hallways instead of the slightly less creepy dungeon room place” Sky responded.

At that point the tablet that Fitz was holding pinged and all 3 of them shifted to look at it.

“I got nothing. Sorry, nada.” Sky continued. “Ward,” Fitz’s said, looking down at the tablet. “Your spectrograph is reading something near you.” “ I don’t see anything”. Ward replied “Well, it’s right in front of you. Oh, wait. No. Uh, okay, hold on. It’s moving – northwest”

The three of them watched the dot on the screen.

There was a pause and then suddenly Ward responded, his voice now excited.

“Visual Contact…”

“Ward, turn left.” Fitz said, reading off the screen.

After a moment or so they heard another voice that wasn’t Ward, before he finally spoke again.

“Yeah, I just ran into some unexpected…”

But he trailed off. The three of them sat up straight as they heard some kind of strange, low rumbling noise and then there was a groan of pain, a grunt and silence.

“Ward, what’s happening?” Coulson asked as, Fitz let out a groan. “His device just went down” Fitz said, tilting the tablet so we could all see it.

“Skye can you get…” Coulson started to say but he was cut off by her reply “Already on it.”

There were a few moments of silence, where Katie nervously nibbled on her lip. She hated this, not knowing what was going on was always the shittest bit of not being in the middle of the action.

“Somethings wrong with Agent Ward.” Skye replied a few minutes later “The staff’s gone, someone took it.”

“Shit.” Katie said as Coulson looked at her, then to Fitz, before he stepped out of the SUV, Katie following.

“He can’t just disappear.” Coulson said, turning in the street “He’ll have to turn up some –“

Then they heard someone yelling from behind them and a loud whishing noise.

“Where…” Coulson finished as they both turned round to see a car being tossed into the street, landing on its roof.

“There we go. A block South of the Church.” Fitz spoke in their ears.

The pair of them started in that direction, running across the street. As they rounded the corner they spotted Professor Randalph who was picking books up and putting them inside his bag. Katie exchanged a glance with Coulson and he shrugged at her before the pair of them strode over to where the Professor was stooped. He glanced up at them and then sighed, sitting down hard on the pavement.

“Professor.” Coulson stated as Katie folded her arms

“I screwed up.” Professor Randalph said simply.

***** “One of my men is hurt, the staff is gone.” Coulson spoke, sitting at the table opposite Elliot as Katie and Agent May watched from Coulson’s office. “I didn’t want any of that to happen.” the professor sighed.

“What did you want?” Coulson asked “The staff’s power for yourself?”

“Nothing like that.” Elliot shook his head earnestly “You know, I just wanted to be the first to study it. To prove that the Berserkers were actually here, a part of history. You think about that.” “ Oh, I’m thinking about it.” Coulson replied. “How’d they find it?” “I have no idea.” Elliot laughed “They may have the original texts. I wasn’t involved. You know, it was just a chance to uncover something that the Gods brought down from the heavens. “Aliens brought it. From space” Coulson said. Katie smiled as she thought about how Thor would respond to being called an alien. “I’ve spent some one-on-one time with aliens before. Didn’t work out too well.”

“Understatement of the century…” Katie muttered, drawing a glimmer of a smirk from May.

“So cases like this are personal to me.” Coulson concluded. “That’s all I know” Elliot, placed his hands flat on the table and sighed. Coulson stood up and made his way to the door before paused and looked back. “Get comfortable.” and the door to the cell slammed shut.

“What you think?” Katie turned to May, who was stood her arms crossed. She pondered for a moment, opened her mouth but was cut off.

“Agent May…” Fitz appeared in the doorway “Ward’s… well he’s not well, he’s gone down to the cargo bay, won’t let me treat him.”

She nodded and looked back to Katie

.“Oh no.” Katie snorted “My days of dealing with his tantrums are over.”

“Thought I’d ask.” she said, smirking slightly. Katie waved her off and returned to looking at the screen. Elliot was sat still at the table, looking around the room in mild amusement, not the demeanour of a man who was concerned or phased in the slightest, which puzzled her slightly. In his shoes, she’d be extremely uncomfortable in a cell, being quizzed by a Government body on some kind of extra-terrestrial item.

She turned to face Coulson as he walked into the room.

“You don’t think he does want the power for himself, do you?” Katie looked at him. It was more a statement than a question.

“I don’t know… there’s something not quite right.” Phil said, sinking into the chair behind his desk.

“He’s too confident” Katie said, “Look at him. He’s not phased in the slightest."

They both glanced at the screen. Now their ‘prisoner’ was sat on his chair, tilting backwards so the front two legs were off the floor. A sudden wild theory sprang into Katie’s head and she turned to AC.

“You know, he didn’t even flinch when you said you’d spent time with Aliens, normally that would make someone kinda curious right?”

“Normally, yes” Phil said, leaning back in his chair.

“And how did he know how to get that second piece?” Katie said, “Do you think he figured it out as fast as we did or..."

“Did he know where to find it, because he hid it in the first place?”  Coulson finished her sentence. Katie shrugged, smiling. “See Nova, that is why I wanted you here."

“A moment, sir?”  they both looked up to see Ward stood in the doorway.

“Come on in”

“Are you alright?” Katie asked, despite herself. Ward looked pale and drawn.

“Yeah, thanks. I just need a word with Coulson.”

Katie nodded to show she understood and made to stand up but Ward shook his head.

"Stay.” Ward said “It concerns the team so…

Katie shrugged and sat up slightly in her chair.

“Alright Ward, what is it?” Coulson asked as he took a seat next to Katie on the other side of the desk.

“I don’t think back to childhood. Ever. As you know.” He looked at Katie and she looked down. He’d told her about his childhood, he’d had an older brother that had been abusive, as had his father. “There are things I put away a long time ago because I have to be focused, tactical. I can’t be distracted. Especially by things that happened a lifetime ago. But before, when I touched that thing… I did.”

“Touching the staff brought back memories?” Katie asked, curiously. Ward nodded and looked at her “My worst memory”. He paused for a moment and when he spoke again she was surprised to hear his voice was breaking slightly. “The first time I felt…hate. And it won’t go away.

The room fell silent and Katie looked at Coulson who took a deep breath and broke the silence.

“You’ve got some rage built up?” Coulson asked. Ward looked at him and nodded “Maybe it’s time to let it out.”

“Put our theory to the test.” Katie said, catching on.

Coulson nodded “I can run with that. ***** “You wanted to see me sir.” Steve stepped into the Directors office.

“Close the door Captain.” Fury said. Steve turned, did as he was told and then strode over to Fury’s desk.

“Have you spoken to Agent Stark today?”

Steve frowned “ Not today, no. I spoke to her last night.”

“What did she tell you about the mission?”

He was digging. Digging to see how much he knew and if Katie had kept her word. Swallowing down the annoyance he levelled the Director with a look that would have anyone else quaking in their boots.

“Nothing. All I know is she’s in Seville, and the team she’s working with contains Ward.” He drew himself a bit taller “Which for the record was a real shitty thing to do.” Fury looked at Steve “I’m not having the teams I organise dictated by personal issues, Captain. “I don’t expect them to be.” Steve bit back. “But not warning her before hand was out of order.” “Would she have gone if I’d have told her?” Steve hesitated, he didn’t actually know the answer to that. In actual fact she would have probably been torn, torn between wanting to take the mission, torn between not wanting to spend time in his vicinity. And knowing Katie as he did, the mission would have probably won.”

“I don’t know.” he said honestly. “I think she would have wanted to do the right thing,  just don’t think all the lies are fair, its manipulative...”

“All the lies, Captain?” Fury looked at him and Steve felt himself pale “What other lies has she told you about?" “Nothing.” “So she hasn’t told you Coulson’s still alive?”

Steve put on what he hoped was his best shocked face. “What?”

Fury laughed ”Your acting is as bad as your lying Captain."

Steve sighed before immediately going on the defensive “You gonna sack her? I mean that’s what you told her isn’t it? Her job was on the line unless she lied for you?" Fury sighed “I didn’t want to do that. In hindsight I realised it was unfair to ask her to keep it from you. But it’s imperative that no one else finds out about this.

“Secrets and lies huh?” Steve raised his eyebrows.

“We operate in the shadows Captain, it’s just how it needs to be.” Steve looked to the side, his hands dropping to the buckle of his belt in his usual Captain stance.

“Look, if you both wanna take a few days off when she’s back, it can be arranged.” Fury said, looking at him and Steve frowned at the man’s outward display of compassion.

“Feeling guilty?” Steve looked at him.

“Happens to the most cold hearted of us all.” Fury said , “And I figured you both might need it.” “Both of us?” Steve frowned, looking at him.

“Yeah, I didn’t just bring you up here to talk about Stark.” Fury said, picking up a remote and turning on the screen. A map flashed up and Steve took a deep breath. “Agent Romanoff has been undercover this last week tracking down more Chitauri weapons. This time to Yemen. I need you to organise an op."

Steve folded his arms and let out a deep breath.

“You just keep on giving, don’t you Nick?”

****

Their theory was right. Elliot Randalph was Asgardian, a fact he displayed by easily bending the blade of a knife that Ward threatened him with.

“I had no clue. Did you?” Fitz looked over at Simmons who shook her head. “Hidden in plain sight, an actual Asgardian. Brilliant.” Simmons said, staring at the screen. “ How long do you suppose he’s been on our planet?” Skye asked. “A thousand years, maybe more.” Katie said, turning her attention from the screen she’d been watching Elliot confess on to look at the team.

"If we could just cut him open a little..." Simmons mused

Katie and Skye both looked at her, Fitz was nodding his head in agreement. “…get some tissue samples, maybe some bodily fluids, we could find out.” She finished. “ Or we could just ask him, weirdo” Skye rolled her eyes. “This is way, way better than the History Channel. I mean this guy has lived through all the scary stuff, the Crusades, the Black Death, Disco.”

“It is pretty exciting.” Katie said, “I mean Coulson thought finding Steve was cool but, he’d just slept for 70 years…”

Sky grinned as Agent May entered the room, holding a tablet and hitting various buttons on it. “What are you doing?” she asked, curiously.

“Sealing the interrogation room door.” May replied. Katie looked at her, the confusion she was feeling clearly evident on her face as May shrugged “Coulson’s orders.” She said simply.

“Ah, locking me in.” Elliot said as Katie turned her attention back to the screen. “Well, I’ve been in tighter spots.” “This room is made of a silicon carbide-coated vibranium alloy.” Ward explained “Meant for prisoners like yourself.” “But you’re in here, too. And eventually somebody will open that door”. “ Not if I tell them not to.”  Coulson shrugged, sitting in the chair opposite Elliot “ So the myth is your autobiography.” “ I didn’t write it. I didn’t want anyone to know about me. Then I had to open my big mouth.” He sighed “Were you captured? Tortured?”

“Horny.” Elliot shrugged  “I met a French girl in 1546. Ah, she loved stories. So…I told her a great one. All about the peaceful Asgardian warrior who stayed. Now, how was I to know her brother, the priest, would write it all down and turn it into, I don’t know, a thing?”

“Do you know Thor?” Coulson continued the questions.

“Oh sure. I spent all my days palling around with the future King of Asgard” Elliot rolled his eyes “No, I don’t know Thor. I was a mason. I broke rocks. He chuckled. “For thousands of years. If you can imagine that. So when they came, asking for people to fight, yes, of course I signed up. I think, really, I just wanted to travel.” “ But you had the staff.” Ward stated. “ I hated that thing. Other guys loved all the power that comes with the rage. No, I didn’t like it at all.”

He cocked his head to Ward and leant in closer.

“And you don’t, either, it seems.” “ What did it do to me?” “ It shines a light into your dark places. Doesn’t matter if you’re human, Asgardian, the effect is the same. Unpleasant.” “Shines a light” Simmons scoffed “that’s no explanation”. “It was forged from a rare metal and reacts to whoever is holding it. Or interacts.” Elliot carried on. “I went to such great lengths to make sure that the staff wasn’t found. Unfortunately, since the myth was written down, people have been searching for it for centuries.” “I need your help to stop them before they get the last piece of your staff.” Coulson said, leaning on the table. “Oh, I’m a pacifist now.” Elliot said, leaning back. "And you don’t want to risk your identity being discovered.” Coulson carried on “Listen, I wouldn’t worry too much about these angry youths. They always clam down, and eventually, they die of old age. And that is one of the pleasant aspects of life here. Everything changes. “I’ll tell you what’s gonna change, your anonymity, unless you help us find the final piece of your staff.” Coulson sighed “You may not know Thor, but I do, and he’s very fond of Agent Stark so…”. Elliot slouched on the table in front of him glaring up at Coulson, before he shrugged and sat up a bit. 

“My first love on this planet was Ireland.” He said quietly “There was a monastery and the monks gave a nice, warm place to sleep, some soup and some mulled wine.” “Near God.” Katie muttered, looking at Sky who triumphantly slammed her hand on the desk.

“I’ll go set the course for Ireland.” May said, nodding.

“Make it fast.” Katie said, as the woman looked at her. “Let’s get the rest of that damned thing before it hurts anyone else.”

*****

It wasn’t a long flight over to Ireland from Spain, but Katie took the chance to nip back to her room with the intention of calling Steve. He didn’t answer, which wasn’t surprising as he’d messaged during the night to say he had an urgent mission. She left a message informing him that she thought they’d located what they’d come for in Ireland so with a bit of luck she would be home soon. She really was missing him, it was pathetic really, not even a full 48 hours apart and she was aching for him, in more ways than one. Groaning she dropped onto her bed, trying to understand how he’d managed to turn her into such a horny, dependent wreck. She’d gone over a year without a fuck after Grant and now going 2 days was killing her. In actuality it had been longer than that, the last time they’d done it was almost 4 days ago due to work stuff meaning they had a clash of schedules. Katie found herself sighing, and her hands wandering into the front of her cat suit as she thought about how delicious that particular time had been, it was the first time Steve had been really spontaneous, taking her slightly by surprise.

Katie was busy prepping their dinner when she felt 2 strong arms circle her hips. Soft lips trailed kisses down her neck and across her jaw and she sighed, putting down the knife.

“Stop it” she giggled, “I’m trying to make us something to eat.”

He didn’t speak, and her continued protests died in her throat as his hand made its way down the front of her jeans and she felt her knees going as his fingers started their assault. Slow, deliberate strokes and flicks against her spot, over and over until she let out a loud moan as he slipped 2 fingers inside, his lips leaving hot, wet kisses all down her neck and the back of her shoulders as he pressed into her back, his arousal evident against her spine.

“You still want me to stop…” he murmured. She shook her head, her breathing was rapid now as the familiar burning hit the pit of her stomach. Suddenly Steve removed his hands from her pants and spun her round, lips crashing onto hers, his hands now on her back pinning her to his front. She kissed him back smirking slightly as she undid his jeans. Flipping the waist band of his boxers down, she took him in her hand and felt his whole body shudder slightly.

“Fuck…” he said, and then before she knew it she was out of her jeans and in his arms, his hands on each of her thighs lifting her off the floor. She wrapped her legs around him her lips still not leaving his as he backed her against the wall in the kitchen, using it to support her back. Securing her to the wall with his body, he rest his hands either side of her shoulders and locked his gaze onto hers, a storm of blue as she searched for those small spots of green in his irises. And then his right hand slid downwards to move her underwear to the side and he guided himself into her. At the feel of him, Katie tipped her head back, both of them letting out a groan as he began to gently thrust, then again, getting harder. And faster. Katie moved with him, winding her hands through his hair, tipping his head back so she could meet his lips again, between their now ragged breathing. She had no idea what had gotten into him, but whatever it was, she like this. She liked it a lot. He slid one hand up her top and into her bra, gently teasing and tweaking at her nipple and that was it. The heat in her belly began to rise, and she knew it wouldn’t be long.

“Come on baby…” he whispered into her ear and she let out a small gasp as she felt the tightening between her legs and in her lower abdomen, the muscles involuntarily spasming.

“Fuck Stevie…” and with that she surrendered, tightening her legs as her whole body gave into the wave of pleasure. She let out a strangled cry, tipping her head backwards as she zoned out.

The sight was enough to tip Steve over. “You feel so good…sweetheart…” he managed to stutter and with a final rut upwards, he felt his release too, a surge from deep within as his legs trembled and his knees almost buckled. He managed to keep hold of Katie and the pair of them slid to the floor in a tangle of limbs and clothing.

Katie lay her head back against the pillow, gasping, moving her fingers away from her now sensitive clit, her insides clenching around nothing. It wasn’t Steve, but at least it was enough to keep her satisfied for now.

Yep, Steve Rogers had a hold on her, but she loved it.

Tags

@the-omni-princess​

@momobaby227​

[hillnerd]

fic: Ron and the Snatchers

Well, a while back I was speculating about the snatchers, and how Ron was gone for 12 hours or so after he left Harry and Hermione. According to Ron he wanted to get back to them immediately. He describes the confrontation with the Snatchers as no big deal- but if so, where was he for all that missing time? What would keep Ron ��stand on a broken leg’ Weasley missing for all that time?

I asked because I was writing him telling Hermione what happened in that Romione Australia fic I keep meaning to edit and post- but then I just sat down and wrote it all. This is dark. Very dark.

Input always valued, good or bad.

An account of Ron’s solo run-in with the Snatchers in Deathly Hallows.  Whump. Very dark fic.

A03   FF.NET

Rated R/NC-17 --- BIG thank you to @diva-gonzo for being the best beta ever!

trigger warnings: self loathing, painful physical assault, torture, whipping, assault, unwanted sexual touching, graphic threats of r***

 “Ron! Ron!” Hermione called after him, rain pounding around them.

‘I need to think! I need to be by myself for just a moment!’ Ron thought as he apparated.

The seething hot anger that had roiled inside him faded within seconds.

For the first time in his life he apparated without leaving any bits of him behind. Well, physically. He realized in horror he’d left his heart and soul behind. He’d left Harry. He’d left Hermione screaming his name as she chased him through the rain. He swore he could almost hear her, still.

“Oh fuck, what have I done?” he moaned to himself, and his wheezes from running turned into a scattering of sobs. His skin prickled and his very insides began to feel cold.

It took a moment to orient himself in the mist and stifle his sobs, but he was in Ottery St Catchpole. He was next to a familiar old stump he’d used as his secret sanctuary so many times. There was a little bunch of reeds next to the big hollowed stump he had hidden in as a child, long before he had his own room. He’d run away to this hiding spot in the village quite a few times.

The cold began to tear at his lungs and the voice he’d heard with the Locket cam back loud in his ears.

You’re worthless.

The sensation of choking to death closed in on him. The helplessness of never breathing again he’d felt when he’d been poisoned cloyed at him. Brain’s tentacles choked him. He hadn’t thought of that in ages, but the hopelessness was filling him up, almost as unnaturally as the cold around him. Wait, unnatural cold?

Ron snapped his eyes up and two eyeless dementors were not meters away from him, their scabbed hands reaching towards him as their tattered robes whipped about.

He thought of Hermione and cast the charm “Expecto Patronum!” and his Jack Russell Terrier burst forth, tenaciously chasing them away into the distance. Any relief he might have felt was immediately quashed by the sound of a shout.

“Oi! Who’s there?” cried out a small portly man down an alley. “Look! Look, ‘e looks school age!”

He wasn’t alone, and they all began to smile with excited glee at the sight of Ron. They didn’t wait to find out his age before immediately bombarding him with spells. Ron threw himself to the muddy ground, and rolled behind the stump as jets of light flew from their wands.

Ron hurled a few spells, even disarming one of the several figures, but was finding it difficult to hit a target without exposing himself. He blindly cast an ‘Expulso!’ around the edge of the stump, and a corresponding explosion and horrible scream let Ron know he’d met his mark. He tried again to blindly cast a spell, but a flash of orange slammed into his hand.

A horrible scream ripped out of him as his arm broiled and scalded like it had been thrown upon a bed of coals. His wand slipped from his fingers as they twitched in blistering pain. He felt for his wand with his left hand, and saw his right was free of any signs of injury, even though he felt it burn so thoroughly he expected his skin should be charred and falling off. He tried to move his right hand to grip his wand, but hissed in pain at the slighted twitch it gave. It was now useless to him.

He had to use his other hand. Ever since his left shoulder had been splinched he’d had trouble using that arm. He couldn’t move it smoothly, or grip things as certainly as he had before, but he grit his teeth and hissed through the pain as he angled his wand around the stump again. He heard the corresponding thump of a body hitting the ground. If he could just get one more, maybe he could run for it and apparate away! Each curse he shakily cast was slower and more poorly done, and the angle was making his shoulder sting with pain.

There was a pop of Apparition behind him, but he was unable to turn his wand in time to stop the forceful blow to the back of his head.

He woke up slowly, his head pounding and even though he wasn’t moving, the whole world seemed to tilt on him. Nausea and dizziness made his brain feel like it was swimming about his skull and hitting the sides. Rough ropes bit into his wrists, and uncomfortably tied them to his sides. He was on his side, and felt the cool earth on his cheek. He attempted moving a bit and realized there were ropes tying his legs together as well. He could hear his captors talking and didn’t want them to know he was awake. Through his lashes he could just make out their forms. A motley crew of five men stood around the body of a sixth man on the ground. The prostrate man’s face was so bloody and swollen he looked like a spoilt pumpkin.

“‘Can do a Patronus, so ‘e’s probably not a mudblood,” said the short fat one. He held Ron’s wand in his hand. “Them mudbloods couldn’t do a spell like that if they ‘ad to.”

“Fucker nearly took my bleedin’ head off!” the burly bearded one complained and there was a chorus of grunts and sighs.

“You’re all better off than my brother!” rumbled the largest one, pointing to the bloodied man on the ground.

Ron felt along the ground for something to possibly cut into his ropes, but nothing was there. All he had on him was the deluminator in his pocket, digging into his hip.

None of the men were wearing Death Eater robes, but he didn’t know any good guys who would attack someone so fiercely just for casting a Patronus and looking school age.

“You can Apparate your brother to St Mungo’s later, Crowthers,” said a thin one with a snide reedy voice. His tone showed little concern. “We’ll need to see what Galleons we can get for the ginger first.”

“Not worth whatever galleons are on his head, Smythe,” muttered the bearded man, mopping at a bloody wound on his head.

The gaunt bald one spat, and it landed just next to Ron’s head. Ron closed his eyes all the way, but it was too late. He’d been spotted.

“Oh! Look who’s waking up!” Smythe gleefully sneered at Ron, his reedy voice somehow making his delivery more grating.

Ron gave up his ruse and opened his eyes to look at them. Opening his eyes all the way made the pain behind his eyes blast forth and he struggled to keep his eyes from rolling back in his head. The five of them were staring at him, all looking a bit roughed up, a few of them bleeding.

“What are you doing out here tonight?” the big one asked. He was hulking like a gorilla, and had a sloping brow to match.

“I was out on a walk,” Ron said, struggling against his restraints. “I can get back to that if you let me go.”

“And ‘ave you curse us all bloody again?” the short one snorted.

“You cursed first.”

“Shouldn’t you be in school?” the bearded one asked. They all examined him curiously.

“Graduated,” Ron grunted, looking between them all. They were not two miles from his home. If they found out he was Ron Weasley, his parents would immediately be in danger.

“How’d you cast a Patronus?” the reedy voiced man asked. More bloody questions… His head was pounding and he had little patience to hear more of them. “Where’d you learn that?”

“At school.”

“What school?”

“A school for wizards.”

“You better answer our questions better than that!”

“What do you want, an essay?” Ron bit out, head hurting. He regretted his sarcasm the moment he saw the looks on their faces.

“Think you’re funny, do you?” the big one growled. “Let’s show him what we do to funny ones!”

Sadistic smiles formed on their faces as they approached Ron. He struggled against his bonds for a moment before a hard boot was kicked into his stomach. He let out a deep gasp. He was bound in such a way he couldn’t double over much, and it was a struggle to replace the air he’d just had kicked out of him. All the air left his lungs as more and more boots and fists began to rain down upon him.

They pummeled him, crashing into his head, chest, stomach, back, legs and bound arms. One of them gave a punch to the back of Ron’s still tender head and he saw stars in front of his eyes. He couldn’t catch breath to scream. Tears burned his eyes from the pain. Hardly any noise left him at all. He had no idea how many times they had struck him, or how long it had been since he could breath when one of them called out:

“Ok, that’s enough.” It was Crowthers, the big one whose brother still lay forgotten on the ground. The other four shuffled back and Ron took the opportunity to gasp for breath, every bit of him aching and hurting. Crowthers stooped down and grabbed Ron by the hair, forcing his face up at an odd angle.

“Think you’re real clever, huh?”

Ron groaned in response. The man smelled in every way, body odor rolling off him like the troll Ron had faced in first year. Crowthers continued to wrench Ron’s head back so far, he felt his neck might snap. His wand poked into Ron’s cheek and clacked against his teeth.

“Nothing to say, ginger?”

Ron closed his eyes and tried to exhale to keep the horrible smells of the man at bay.

“Oh, we’ll soon have you screaming or apologizing before long,” he growled, suddenly dragging Ron to the stump. He threw Ron onto it chest first, his bound legs scrambling for balance, his throbbing head so dizzy that the task was made doubly hard. Crowthers painfully lodged a hobnailed boot onto Ron’s back, crushing the air out of him. Ron struggled for breath, and his ribs ached, feeling like they might splinter as the weight of Crowthers increased.

“Apologize for cursing us.”

Ron was scared out of his mind, but he wouldn’t do that. He couldn’t give them the satisfaction. Ron determinedly looked ahead.

“Fine, screams it is,” the man growled, conjuring some more ropes to tie Ron in place to the stump. “Smythe, make him scream.”

Ron couldn’t move, except for his pulsing head. He stiffly turned his neck and saw Smythe, the thin reedy voiced man, step forward. A horrible satisfied grin cutting across his thin face.

“Verbero!” he cried out, and with a flourish of his wand a sharp skin splitting pain lashed across Ron’s back. The spell had hit him like a bullwhip, even through his clothes, and a bloody gash was flogged across his skin. Smyth whipped his wand through the air again and again. With every slash of the wand came another stinging pain through Ron’s back. The pain was becoming unbearable, his whole back aflame. Ron grit his teeth and dug his cheek into the splinters of the stump, putting every fiber of concentration into not making a sound. Then it finally stopped. Ron was in so much pain he couldn’t even sigh in relief. All he could do was bite his lip and shake.

“You should do that Calefacio again!” The short one gleefully shouted. “I think you got ‘im with that when we were dueling ‘im.”

“Calefacio!” Smythe intoned. The agonizing sensation of fire ripped through his nerves, wrenching a throat tearing scream from him. The very skin was being flayed from his legs by a raging inferno. His bones were being burnt to ash. Or at least it felt that way. It was the same spell from earlier. It didn’t do any physical damage this time either, but the sensation his limbs were being burned off continued to painfully flare, even as the spell slowly faded in intensity.  He was awash in torment.

His legs gave out on him completely, and were it not for the ropes holding his body to the stump Ron would have collapsed to the ground. The stump had once been a safe haven for him. It was now a dais of torture.

The men laughed in triumph, and Ron fought to keep his whimpers quiet as the spell continued to burn down his legs.

Crowthers stepped out from the group, and hulked over to Ron. He sat himself on the wide stump, and a large hand patted Ron on his injured back. Ron gave a hiss in pain.

“Aw, shhh, poor little boy on a holiday from school,” he said, rubbing Ron’s shirt into his covered injuries with painful accuracy.

“M’not f-from school!” Ron blurrily insisted through gritted teeth.

“You know what?” Crowthers whispered so low no one but Ron could hear. “Maybe I ought to give you a good rutting in the arse, see if we can fuck the truth out of you?”

Cold dread froze Ron’s throat. He could barely think to move. Crowther’s hot breath was pungent and metallic, making Ron want to gag.

“Got you to scream good and loud for me, didn’t I? Bet I can do that to you without a wand, pretty boy,” Crowthers breathed into Ron’s ear, his hand rubbing lower on Ron’s back than it had before, travelling just centimeters below the waistband of his jeans. Ron shut his eyes tight and he started to shake. Fear clenched at him as it had never before.

“Alright, we need to find out who he is,” Smyth said, still trying to suppress his giggles.

“Tell me your name, pretty,” Crowthers practically crooned at Ron. Ron searched his mind for a name, any name. His mind was horribly blank of thoughts, frozen in pain and fear. If only he could get out of there. He didn’t care how. He’d even take the Knight Bus if he had to! If only the Knight bus could be hailed without a wand… The Knight Bus!

“Stan!” Ron exclaimed, surprised at his own clarity. “I’m Stan Shunpike!”

“And what’s your blood status?”

“Pureblood!”

“Check the list,” Crowthers said before muttering a severing charm on Ron’s belt, making his jeans begin to sag. “I’m going to tear that arse up so you can’t sit down for weeks.”

Ron trembled, and willed himself not to start crying.

“Shunpike’s not on the list,” said the short one.

“And he could do a Patronus charm. What if he’s pureblood like he says?” the bearded man said, suddenly looking afraid.

“Doesn’t matter, he’s probably a truant,” said Smythe.

“He’s definitely young,” Crowthers said as he pulled Ron’s jeans a bit further down, but the ropes tying him to the dais kept them from going much lower on his hips. “I like raw meat like you, ginger.”

“But what if he’s not a truant?” The bearded man began to protest. “I don’t want no trouble for attacking someone who wasn’t on the list.”

“Then what should we do?” Smythe said, looking between them. No one was really in charge, and they all seemed equally clueless.

“I know what I want to do,” Crowthers said, fingers pressing into Ron’s hips as he lined himself up and did a few thrusts at Ron’s clothed ass. A few of the men laughed, and Ron shuddered as the man’s hardness pushed against him.

“Yeah, we all know you want to bugger him,” the bearded one growled out. “That don’t work out well for us if he’s not on the list.”

“We can always kill him,” the bald gaunt one said, speaking for the first time.

“And not get a bloody galleon after all this trouble?” Smythe scoffed.

“Still might not get a galleon either way.”

“He’s not on the list. It’s not worth it,” the bearded man said, untying Ron from the stump.

“No, we take him to the Ministry. See if he’s who he says he is,” Smythe said, grabbing hold of Ron’s wrists to pull him to his feet from behind. Ron had trouble standing, but he was finally free of the ropes. If they got him to the Ministry, it was all over for Ron and his family. He needed to finish this. He had to get out of there. It didn’t matter if he was alive or not at the end of this, as long as they couldn’t find his body and identify him as Ron Weasley. He had to think fast.

The bearded man went for Ron to free him, but Crowthers gave him a push.

“We’re not letting him go either way!”

“You want to keep him so you can bugger him like some pouf!”

“I ain’t a bloody pouf!” snarled Crowthers, his giant hand swinging at the bearded man. The two of them began to blindly punch at one another. The gaunt bald man lurched out of their way as the two of them nearly barged into him, and the short one was laughing at the sight. This was Ron’s chance.

Luck was on his side that the best dueler was currently holding Ron with little physical force. Ron braced himself, for he knew it was going to hurt like hell, but he took his left elbow and jabbed back into Smythe’s stomach as hard as he could. His back and shoulders screamed in agony from the sudden twist, but Smyth let out a breathless grunt and doubled over, giving Ron just enough slack to break free. He grabbed the wand from Smythe’s hand, pointed it at the short one, growled “Expelliarmus!” and caught his own wand.

The four all turned, gobsmacked. For a moment they and Ron all stared at one another, all equally surprised at what he had done. Crowthers was the first to move to attack him, but it was too late; Ron turned and apparated away on the spot, not caring where he went as long as he was as far away from them as possible, and could be with Hermione and Harry again.

His body twisted and turned through space and with a thud he landed on his back, the pain so great that he immediately passed out.

Ron slowly woke up, the steady burning pain stinging him to consciousness. His head still felt as foggy as his surroundings. The sun hadn’t quite risen, so there was still a tinge of dingy blue to the misty woods surrounding him. He was damp and chilled with early morning dew, and every inch of him hurt. He needed to move, but he knew the second it did it would be excruciating.

With teeth gritted he let out an agonized moan as he turned over, and put his right hand to the ground to balance himself. He gave a hiss as his fingers pressed into the ground and saw his hand was covered in blood. He didn’t remember his hand being all that injured, since it had been bound in ropes as they beat him and whipped him. He held it up and saw, to his chagrin, the same telltale missing flesh of a splinching. His middle and index finger stung, and the tops of his fingers, where fingernails has one grown, were gone, leaving nothing but raw open flesh behind. He awkwardly severed the hem of his t-shirt and wrapped it around the tips of the bloody digits, hissing as it made contact with the freshly peeled nerves

Ron tried to picture the exact place they’d camped so he could apparate to them, but the moment his eyes closed he began to lose his balance and lurch to the side. He couldn’t apparate yet, he was too dizzy and disoriented to do it. He might splinch his head off, then what use would he be to them? His eyes began to tear, and he forced himself to gulp down a few breathes. He didn’t have time to cry. He needed to get back to Hermione and Harry.

He’d been in so much pain he hadn’t thought to take stock of just where he was located. He was in the woods, and they looked awfully similar to the ones he’d been staying in just yesterday. If he could get to the top of the hill he was on he could orient himself and know for certain. At their campsite there had been a low mountain in the far distance with a funny looking spot on its peak. The spot had sort of looked like a deflated fish. If he could see that, he could find their camp spot. He gathered the two wands, placing the extra in his sock, and began his trek.

The climb up the hill was excruciating. Every step was painful, and he had to will himself not to begin shaking and crying again as he panted and limped up the hill. The top of the hill had less and less trees, but the fog made visibility remain low. He’d have to wait for either his head to stop feeling so disoriented so he could apparate, or for the fog in his surroundings to get burned off by sunrise.

He wanted to pace, to do something, but his body wouldn’t let him. All he could do was woodenly stand, shiver, and wait.

The sun traveled higher and higher, and Ron’s head still swam.

He stared ahead at the distance, willing the outlines of the landscape to come into focus.

Finally, not so far away, he could see the mountain ahead of him in detail. It was the same mountain he’d seen as they camped!

He got out his wand and excitedly cast the “point me” spell. The mountain had been almost perfectly south of their location, making it all too easy to head north.

‘Just hold on a little bit longer!’ Ron silently plead, willing himself to hold on until he got to Harry and Hermione.

It amazed Ron how quickly the hike was sapping him of his sense and abilities. Little rocks and brambles left each step unsure, and a few times he caught himself before falling and getting a mechanical injury. The wind was cold and harsh as he pushed north. He could barely move his hands and arms, and his back and legs burned in pain as he doggedly pushed on. He could barely think or concentrate on anything other than the pain, and the thought of reaching Harry and Hermione.

Hours passed. The north wind numbed his hands and face, his head pounded with every step, but the sight of a river made his sore face split into a mad grin. His pace quickened as followed along the river, just barely avoiding roots as he excitedly forged ahead. He kept looking back to the mountain, which was looking more and more like it had the day before.

Finally he reached a bit of riverbed that had to be the same one they’d been at. The sight of Ted Tonks and Dean’s campfire, complete with fish guts from their meal prep, confirmed it.

“Harry? Hermione?” He said, cautiously wanting to avoid being loud as he walked to where the tent had been the night before.

There wasn’t a sound.

“Harry! Hermione!” He asked a bit more insistently.

He went to the patch of dirt where the tent should be, and was able to walk across it easily.

Panic coursed through his veins. They couldn’t be gone, could they? That meant he’d never be able to find them again! Where could he even hope to be able to find them? They had no plan in place for their next site.

The tears he’d held for hours began to openly flow down his face. He kicked up the dirt where the tent had been. It wasn’t there.

A horrible thought struck him. What if they were there, and they didn’t want him back at all? Were hiding from him.

“Please!” Ron cried, not caring who heard him as sobs began to rack his body. “Please, I’m sorry! I’m so sorry! I shouldn’t have left for even a moment! I’m a worthless wanker, I know. Please let me come back!”

All was still. The only sign of time moving at all was the river’s steady movement, and the tree branches creaking in the wind.

“Please…” Ron croaked out, collapsing into the mud. Tears steadily fell down his long nose as he rocked back and forth. He’d done it. He’d abandoned the two most important people in the world. He’d left them. They were well and truly gone. He was all alone, and every bit as worthless and stupid as the locket had said.

Hours passed, and Ron continued to sit in the mud, unable to move. Ron’s hands were beginning to go as numb as his soul. He was shaking from cold, from grief, and from the pain he felt in every part of him.

Despite all this, his mind was beginning to clear enough to plan and think again. As soon as his brain was clear enough, he was going to Apparate to Bill’s. He’d start there for any sign of anything that might lead to Harry and Hermione’s whereabouts. He’d find his way back to them, even if they didn’t want them. He had to help them somehow, even if it was just to stand in front of a killing curse for them.

The world didn’t need a Ron Weasley. He was just a piece on the board you’d use to sacrifice for the more important pieces. He’d known that since he was kid in his first year, on a giant chess board. He had sacrificed himself for his friends, and from then on he knew that was his only real worth. He’d stand between them and any threat. The world needed heroes like Harry. It needed intelligent world-changers like Hermione. And he needed to protect them, if not for themselves and the love he had for them, then for everyone else. The world needed them.

The world didn’t need a worthless git like himself.

Mind finally focused, he stood.

With every brain cell he focused on the three D’s of Apparition.

Destination: Bill and Fleur’s home of Shell Cottage outside of Tinworth. He clearly pictured the beach home he’d been to once. The dunes. The blue door. The sea weathered wood panels. The smells and sounds. He could see it.

Determination: He had to get there. He would. It was the only way to get to Harry and Hermione. He would do it.

Deliberation: He centered his mind, and slowed his thoughts. He carefully considered it, steadied his nerves, and stood with certainly.

An exhaled breath. The wood of his wand pressing into his fist. The turn. And with a small ‘pop!’ he was gone.

The river’s rippling waters were replaced by ocean’s waves turning over.

He opened his eyes, and sure as he stood, there was Shell cottage. He was one step closer to finding Harry and Hermione, and nothing would stop him until he did.

If you have thoughts on this piece, leave a comment please.

[pinkbubbles-and-bigtroubles]

Knock Em Out (Girls Talk Boys Part 29)

You can't knock em out, you can't walk away, Try desperately to think of the politest way to say, "Just get out my face" Just leave me alone", "And no you can't have my number", "'Cause I've lost my phone"

Go away now, let me go, Are you stupid? Or just a little slow? "Please fuck off" Go away now I've made myself clear, I don't think so, Nah it's not gonna happen, Not in a million years

Camille took a sip of the mystery punch in the red cup Calum had just given her and made a face. It was almost too sweet but it helped mask the amount of vodka loaded into it. They were at a house party for one of Calum's buddies, Camille wasn't a fan of the guy, he was older and a bit sketchy in her opinion, but he'd made a real effort with her friends so here she was.

“Easy now babe, we know what a lightweight you can be” Calum teased grinning down at her.

Calum hadn't stopped teasing her about getting shitfaced with Luke last week. They'd been grounded from each other for a month unless they had adult supervision. Calum had threatened to spank her if she broke the rules. So of course she went to Luke's the very next day to see if Calum would back up his threats. Which he did. All of the guys hadn't forgotten her blatantly flirting with Calum either, and some things really stuck.

“What's up King? Your grace,” Michael came up behind them. “About time you fucking made it.”

“Piss off Mikey,” Camille laughed blushing a bit.

“Awww I love drunk Camille, she has no filter and this party is hella lame so far,” Michael pushed her cup towards her.

“Are you kidding this shit tastes like bad decisions and regret. Where'd you get the beer?” Camille pointed to the bottle in his hand.

“Right this way my lady,” Mikey led them over to where Luke and Summer were sitting next to a cooler.

“Hey peanut,” Camille scratched Luke behind the ear and smiled at his girlfriend.

“That dress looks really cute on you Summer,” Camille meant the compliment, the yellow dress played well against her olive skin.

To Camille's surprise she smiled back. “Thanks Camille, you look cute too. I like those shoes.” Summer replied.

Calum had stopped to talk to Ashton and a couple of people Camille didn't know, she tried not to be nervous. The boys were all here and Cal's friends had all been nice to her so far but she couldn't help but notice more than a couple girls lingering around the edges of the group their eyes glued to her boyfriend. She'd been introduced to a couple of them but to be honest they all looked so much alike Camille couldn't tell them apart. They all were tall and thin with the same contoured makeup, same bold eyebrows, and the same lip fillers. She wished Cher had tagged along but Cher hated parties like this and not being officially a girlfriend she wasn't obliged to come.

Calum slid his arms around her shoulders from behind and kissed the top of her head.  The way the smell of sandalwood, leather and tobacco tickled her nose when he wrapped himself around her was intoxicating, the way his chest pressed against her back so she could feel his heartbeat was thrilling. Camille always felt like nothing could hurt her when Calum was holding her. She caught a couple of dirty looks thrown her way, but she tried not to let it bother her. She knew all too well what it was like to be jealous of Calum's girlfriend. He pulled back and smacked her ass “C’mon babe, let’s go play beer pong against Mikey and Crystal”

“I gotta drive us home babe, besides my feet are going to be killing me if I don't sit down for a little bit. I'll come find you in a few minutes.” Camille kissed him on his jaw and pulled up a chair next to Luke.

“Ooh I get to sit with the pretty girls,” Luke winked at Camille and Summer.

The three of them chatted for a bit and Camille took advantage of Summer's good mood to ask her questions about her work.

“I never properly got to thank you for my Christmas present,” Camille told her. “That photograph of Calum was amazing. You're so talented.”

“Well you know it's pretty hard to take a bad photo of these guys,” Summer chuckled and Camille nodded. “And you two really have that perfect couple vibe. You two are so cute, and I bet Calum is a perfect boyfriend.”

Camille grinned and spotted Calum across the room with a group of guys being rowdy. One of the girls, a redhead kept lingering around him, asking him questions and touching his arm when she did. She was blatantly hitting on him and Calum was either oblivious or at least pretending to be.

Camille shrugged it off, it was just part of dating a guy like Calum. Summer, however wouldn’t let it go. Summer was already slurring a bit, thanks to the vodka punch, and seemed determined to point out to Camille that same girl seemed to be hovering over Calum each time they looked up. Camille watched as the ginger who'd been following Calum around went up to Crystal for a chat. She saw both girls look towards Calum and Ashton before Crystal point towards where Camille and Summer were sitting, Camille smiled at her and the girl scowled and shook her head retreating to her group of friends.

Summer had by now climbed onto Luke's lap and they were having a noisy make out session so Camille got up and made her way to the rest of the boys.

“What was that all about?” she asked Crystal who grinned.

“You already know, I saw you watching her.” Crystal replied winking at her. Ever since the Halloween party Crystal had really warmed up to her. Camille understood the hesitation. Calum had a girlfriend when they met and there were plenty of girls who tried to interfere with both Calum and Michael’s relationships, something Crystal wasn’t amused by.

“I wasn't worried. I don't think Calum even noticed her.” Camille almost believed what she said.

“Notice who?” Calum was behind her again, his arms encircling her waist, and his chin resting on top of her head.

“The girl who's been following you around since we got here.” Camille could tell he had a buzz by his goofy grin.

“Yeah told her I had a girlfriend, I'm not gonna leave you right when you come into some money.” Calum joked and they both laughed.

Earlier in the week, after Camille sobered up from her adventure with Luke she'd told Calum about the contract she'd signed. Even though he didn't fully understand the details he was immensely proud of her, and kept telling all his friends how amazing she was at her job. The other night he'd tried explaining it to his mom over video chat but he ended up having to call Camille away from cooking dinner to help him on the details. He hated that her career kept her in constant contact with NFL players, but he knew that was his own insecurity talking. She wasn't thrilled with how much female attention he got either and if she dealt with it then he could too. Camille wasn't going to let anyone or anything get in her way.

The party was fun considering Camille was fairly sober, some of the girls were starting to get sloppy and were boldly making moves on the guys. Ashton was fending off one blonde girl desperately trying to get him to go upstairs. At first he laughed it off but as she got more aggressive Ashton finally got fed up.

“Because I'm not fucking interested okay?” Camille heard the frustration in his voice and she went to go save him.

“That's not what you said last time. Is it because I didn't let you put it in my ass?” the blonde girl whined and Camille stepped up.

“Everything okay Ashton? Cal's looking for you.” Camille eyed the blonde who was glaring at them before she retreated in a huff.

“Everything good?” Cam raised her eyebrows at him.

“Yeah, look about that...” he started.

“Ashton I know you have a past, it's not a big deal. You looked like you could use an interruption.” Camille snickered.

“Look I know Cher's told you we're not together exclusively or in a relationship but” Ashton was stammering barely able to get the words out.

“Ashton calm down, I know the deal and I love whatever y'all are doing because you're both happy with it. Good move on not going upstairs with that girl though.” Camille winked and laughed until she saw the strangest “Oh shit” expression cross Ashton's face before he looked at her.

Camille spun around and saw that same busted redhead from earlier surrounding Calum with her friends. She'd slung herself into Calum's lap, and he was frantically trying to get her off of him. Her friends were all but pushing her into Cal making it almost appear he was wrestling a spider.

“Excuse me honey, but you're in my seat.” Camille's icy tone made everyone stop and look at her. Calum stood up trying to balance the girl so she didn't topple over. Heels and alcohol won out and she went down flailing like she was trying to draw a foul.

Drunk and embarrassed she began to cry, but before anyone could help her up. A short but absolutely massive looking guy came barreling through the crowd, knocking people out of the way.

“Did you just push my girlfriend you little Asian fucker?” the meathead shouted in Calum's direction.

Ashton went to step between them to diffuse the situation but he didn't get the chance.

“First of all he didn't push her, her drunk ass fell. Second, if that's your girlfriend you need to get your girl. She's throwing herself at all these guys including my boyfriend, It's really not a good look.” Camille snapped glaring at this drunk asshole.

“What the fuck did you say you fat bitch. You think my girl wants your bitch was boyfriend?” He spat at her.

“Clearly she fucking does,” Camille saw Ashton and Calum trying to get through the guys friends who were blocking their way. Luke had come up beside her trying to pull her away but she shrugged him off. “Don't get pissed at him because your girl went looking for better dick.”

Camille tried to duck away but he grabbed her arm. Calum had broken through and was charging towards him. Luke tried to grab Camille away from him but the guy landed a sloppy punch that caught Luke in the shoulder just hard enough to knock him down. He yanked Camille back towards him.

CRACK

It was loud enough that everyone stopped to look.

THUMP

The guy hit the ground clutching his jaw. Camille stood over him beer bottle in hand.

“Don't get up. If you ever touch me again I'll kick your teeth in.” Camille snarled.

He pushed himself up earning him a kick to the ribs. “Stay DOWN!” Camille shouted before all hell broke loose.

Calum snatched Camille up throwing her over his shoulder. He carried her outside Ashton trailing behind. Calum set her down and grabbed her shoulders. “Are you crazy?” His eyes were wild and his breathing frantic. “You could've gotten hurt. What the fuck Camille?”

“We gotta go,” Ashton said “before this gets bad.”

“Okay you and Camille can drive.” Calum told him. “We'll drop Summer off and you take the others straight home.”

Ashton nodded and winked at Camille “Don't let him be to hard on you, that was awesome sweetheart.”

They gathered everyone up and loaded them into the cars. Summer didn't live very far and they'd gotten a couple blocks from her house after dropping her off when Camille heard Calum growl “PULL OVER!”

Alarmed she pulled over on a residential street in front of a house for sale.

“If you're gonna be sick you need to-” Camille couldn't finish before his mouth was on hers, his body pressing hers back into the seat. His hands all but ripped the seat belt away from her. Calum was pulling her towards him tugging her skirt up

“Baby I need you right now. That got me so turned on seeing you kick his ass. You're so fucking sexy darling, please ride me baby. I'm not gonna last long I'm sorry but I need you. Please darling need you, so much, so good,” Calum mumbled yanking her panties to the side, he buried himself in her lost completely in his desire for her.

The next morning Cher had just walked into the kitchen and was making coffee when she heard shouting out back. She looked out the back door towards the courtyard and saw a massive argument unfolding.

“Oh shit,” she yelped pulling out her phone to text Camille.

“Am I making breakfast for everyone or just us?” Ashton asked coming into the kitchen behind her. “ What's going on out there? Oh shit,” Ashton's eyes bugged out when he saw what was happening.

Camille came thundering down the stairs still pulling her clothes on. She scurried over to the back door “what's going on Cher? Oh shit well we can guess what that's about.” Camille said and Cher laughed.

“What are you talking about?” Calum came into the kitchen. The coffee had finished so he poured a cup for both he and Camille before joining them by the door. “Okay so what's this about? I thought Nick and Cody were fine.”

“I wasn't supposed to say anything but Cody has been cheating on Nick,” Camille told him as Nick was throwing Cody's belongings out on the back porch. They were both yelling at each other. Cody had his arms crossed clearly defensive and Nick was red faced and furious. When he started pointing across the courtyard Camille and Cher exchanged a glance “uh oh,” Cher whispered.

“What? What's happening? Is it someone here?” Ashton was catching on.

“Yeah...” Camille told him.

“Camille,” something in Calum's voice made her look up “who is it?”

Camille grinned “It's Harry, I caught them together.”

“When? Why didn't you tell me?” Calum looked pissed.

“Baby, don't do this. This has nothing to do with us, I didn't tell you because they didn't want anyone to know. I only told Cher because we have to deal with Cody when it all blows up.” Camille placed her hands on his chest “Please don't make a big deal out of it.” Camille didn't have the energy for another stupid argument.

“Of course not darling,” Calum kissed her forehead. “Especially when I know my girl can kick my ass.”

Ashton made cheese omelets for Cal, Cher and himself. Camille didn't eat eggs so she made herself a bagel and some of the bacon Ashton pulled out of the oven. Camille made everyone a fruit cup with fresh pineapple and pear slices. They sat on the back porch watching the days drama unfold. After breakfast Ashton went with Cal to go tend to Duke trying to avoid the arguing couple they went out the front door and around the long way. They were both still laughing about Camille taking that asshole down. When Ashton thought he saw something moving under a bush across the parking lot. He thought he imagined it but then he barely saw it again, he started to jog across the lot. Calum stopped and watched him stop and bend down to scoop up a ball of fluff.

Ashton waved him over and Calum ran up to find he'd found a tiny brown kitten.

“What should we do?” Ashton asked him.

Calum pulled his t shirt off over his head to wrap the little kitty up and keep him warm. “Do you see any others?” Calum asked holding the kitten gently against his chest.

Ashton crawled around looking through the bushes but saw no signs of other cats. He shook his head.

“We gotta get this little guy to the vet. Let's go grab Duke and we'll head out. Text the guys and tell them where we're going, that practice is gonna be late.” Calum was already headed to get his dog and his keys. 

@biba3434 @toofadedtofight @babygirlcashton @slimthicccal @kiiiimberlyriiiicker1995  @vfdsstuff @unabashedlymyself

[fuforthought]

Infinity War stuff (SPOILERS!)

I can’t wait anymore. If you haven’t seen the film then don’t read what’s ahead.. You’ve been warned.

Firstly, I’m not here to pick apart the film like some people. “Why didn’t Dr. Strange just go back to when Thanos was born and stab him in the face?” I’m not about that. If you’re nitpicking a Marvel film then you’re coming at things from the wrong angle. They’re not made to be airtight. Cut them some slack.

I would like to discuss what I liked and disliked though...

I don’t like Thor’s new axe. It just looks so cumbersome. It doesn’t have the versatility that Mjolnir had and by that I mean he can’t spin it around and do funky shit. It’s a two-handed weapon and I’m just not digging that at all. I’m used to his short, stubby hammer he could swing about and twat loads of people with. It looks weird and clunky. Thumbs down.

Ebony Maw was a motherfucking beast who died too easily.

The whole, “Look! It’s a really BIG Peter Dinklage!” thing was way too on the nose. It just seemed...unnecessarily silly. Maybe I’M being too nitpicky with this one?

Iron Man’s new armour was the motherfucking bee’s knees. It totally reinvigorated my love of Iron Man. I always thought nano bots were a cop out but, for some reason, it just worked her. Really fucking well.

The ending annoyed the shit out of me. It felt really consequential until they took out Black Panther. We know that fucker’s coming back so it kind of just shit on its own premise of killing off people.With that said, I have heard some interesting theories regarding this and I actually like them a lot. So I can’t whine too much.

Peter Parker’s emotional evaporation fucking GOT ME. I genuinely felt saddened. It was done so well.

Also, not enough people are talking about when Peter gets told he’s an Avenger. His face is perfect. He says so much without actually saying anything.

Vision was dull as fuck. His relationship with Scarlet Witch wasn’t developed enough for me to really give a fuck. Vision himself was so one-note, I didn’t really give a fuck. Although, it was nice that they tried to give him some personality in Scotland.

Loki’s early death was perfect.

Yes, Star-Lord ruined everything. But he was acting on pure emotion. That’s what made it good. He wasn’t thinking about saving the world. He was thinking about losing the woman he loved. It was raw heartbreak and he reacted accordingly. He seems to be getting a lot of shit for pistol whipping Thanos but I think it was an honest display of emotion.

Spider-Man’s armour wasn’t needed. Yeah, his new legs (arms?) did cool shit but I like my Spidey to be Spidey. He’s one of the quickest and strongest superheroes there is without technological enhancements. Just let him be!

The Bucky/Rocket shooty spin was dope as hell.

Thanos is the best Marvel villain thus far.

Falcon is still shit.

I liked Hulk being too scared to come out and fight Thanos again. I thought that was a really nice touch. It played a little silly at times but, conceptually, it’s really good. Hulk hasn’t been bitch slapped like that before. He’s rightfully scared.Although, I feel like they were a little up and down with Thanos’ strength levels at times. He beats the FUCK out of Hulk but then seems to be a little weaker when it comes to fighting other heroes. It just seemed like he’d kill Tony with one punch, you know?

Can someone explain to me, in two sentences or less, what Scarlet Witch’s powers are? It’s so frustrating that she can just “do red shit.

Cap’s new shields were shit.

I know Black Panther just had a barnstormer of a solo film but he didn’t do shit in “Infinity War.” A few cool moves here and there and that was it. I actually wanted a lot more T’Challa.

Again, the shaky-cam and poor edits during the fights were so annoying in places. I don’t understand why the Russos, two of the best action directors in Holloywood right now, resorted to badly staged brawls.

I actually liked the after-credits scene. My nipples got hard when the pager revealed the Captain Marvel insignia.

Did I mention how good Iron Man was?

Gamora’s death was beautifully tragic. Thanos’ tears...great stuff. Really gave him some emotional resonance.

I’m sure there’s more I liked/disliked but I have to watch it a few more times. I do think the Russos did a fantastic job and accomplished the near-impossible. They gave the film substance, character development, emotion, a solid plot and wonderful action. The more I think about it, the more I liked it.

I hope to go back later in the week and give it another viewing.

[corvid-knight]

Dig Up Freud And Kill Him Again

alternate title: Rose does not, in fact, have a licence to practice psychotherapy.

Dave talks to Karkat after a therapy session with Rose goes in a direction he's not comfortable with yet.

(Read it on ao3 here:https://archiveofourown.org/works/13850811)

turntechGodhead (TG) started pestering carcinoGeneticist (CG)!

TG: yo karkat TG: you know how you like to start feelings jams or whatever the fuck you call them TG: like im sure you have a nice complicated troll name for them but fuck me if I can think of the right fucking word right now TG: whenever i say feelings jam you can just fill in the technical term for dave losing his shit again

CG: WHY THE FUCK DO YOU HAVE TO TYPE SO FAST? CG: DO I NEED TO COME OVER?

TG: no TG: no no no dont do that okay thats not the goal here TG: at this point the only contact i want is through text until i calm the fuck down

CG: OKAY. WE CAN DO TEXT. CG: WHAT HAPPENED? AND DON'T YOU FUCKING SAY "NOTHING," BECAUSE YOU DON'T GET LIKE THIS WHEN NOTHING'S WRONG AND WE BOTH KNOW IT.

TG: it shouldntve been a problem though

CG: SHUSH. DO I NEED TO CALL ROSE AND GET HER TO EXPLAIN WHY SHIT IS NEVER INHERENTLY "NOT A PROBLEM?"

TG: dont bring rose into this again TG: ive got her blocked on pesterchum for right now anyway and i think i need to leave her that way for a minute TG: kind of just said some really shitty stuff to her

CG: WHY?

TG: because TG: fuck TG: you know how shell slip into trying to give you therapy or psychoanalyzing you or whatever the fuck when youre talking to her sometimes? i dunno if she only does it with me

CG: NO, SHE DOES THAT WITH EVERYONE. IT'S NOT JUST YOU, I PROMISE.

TG: i guess thats a relief since it means she doesnt just fixate on me as being the supreme fuckup

CG: WELL, YOU AREN'T.

TG: thanks TG: but she does that shit to me and i dont realize until shes halfway through explaining some fucking thing about trauma and repression and whatever the fuck TG: and usually its just like ugh rose cmon what kind of psychiatrist are you if youre doing this shit for free TG: but she decided to fucking apply freudian shit to me TG: and i couldnt distract her enough to get her off that fucking tangent TG: i kind of ended up TG: saying some shit about her and her mom that was fucked up TG: blocked her like i told you TG: broke my keyboard TG: kind of punched the wall

CG: IS YOUR HAND OKAY?

TG: nothings broken TG: well i guess theres a fucked up spot in the wall now but ill fix it later TG: im a fucking idiot for getting this worked up about shit

CG: SHUT THE FUCK UP, DAVE. IF SOMEONE NEEDS TO CALL YOU AN IDIOT, I'LL BE THE ONE TO DO IT. CG: WHAT DID SHE EVEN SAY TO YOU?

TG: normal shit TG: normal for rose anyway TG: analyzing why i "put up a stoic front" which is bullshit anyway

CG: IT'S REALLY NOT. YOU DO THAT ALL THE FUCKING TIME.

TG: ...fine but i dont fucking do it because of repressed sexual trauma or whatever the fuck she was trying to get at TG: but she decided to use the phrase "modified oedipal complex" and yeah i guess I fucking overreacted

CG: I DON'T EVEN KNOW WHAT THAT IS.

TG: its a psychology thing TG: i think its based on greek mythology TG: some guy who ended up sleeping with his mom TG: its kind of fucked up that shes using it to mean i wanted to fuck bro because the guy didnt fucking know it was his mom and he thought he was doing the fucking right thing anyway

CG: DAVE, I DON'T HAVE ANY IDEA WHERE YOU'RE GOING WITH THIS.

TG: yeah fair enough since im pretty sure im just trying to avoid going over the shit im upset about

CG: THIS IS WHY ROSE SAYS YOU PUT UP A FRONT OVER SHIT.

TG: yeah yeah youre very perceptive shut up

CG: DO YOU WANT TO NOT TALK ABOUT IT?

TG: thats a hard question TG: like just clamming up sounds like an amazingly smart idea but then again itd mean that rose is one fucking hundred percent right about how i am and i cant handle accepting that

CG: BECAUSE?

TG: she said TG: or like at least implied TG: that i wanted to fuck bro TG: or wanted him to fuck me i guess but that was always the last fucking thing id ever want TG: why the hell would i want that

CG: MAYBE SHE MEANT SUBCONSCIOUSLY?

TG: that doesnt make that much of a difference TG: like why would this be a subconscious thought TG: were talking about a guy who didnt give a shit whether his kid saw his fucked up sex toys every day TG: he had cameras everywhere and he filmed everything either of us did and played it back where he knew id see it so he could film how i reacted TG: like theres a lot of things that got treated as off-limits when i was growing up but sex wasnt one of them

CG: MAYBE THAT'S WHY SHE SAID THAT, THOUGH.

TG: what because i knew what fucking was id want him to fuck me TG: thats stupid TG: thats really fucking stupid TG: look TG: did i wonder if he wanted to fuck me? yeah TG: a lot TG: whenever he decided to bring smuppets into a fight TG: whenever i found one of his cameras in my room or the bathroom TG: whenever i lost a strife and ended up on my back looking up at him standing over me TG: it wasnt ever a question of me wanting that shit it was always me wondering if this was the time it was going to happen TG: nothing ever even did TG: like i dodged those plush fuckers and i disconnected his cams and he walked away or he made me pick up my sword and keep fighting TG: but i cant tell her that TG: fuck i cant tell anybody that karkat

CG: YOU TOLD ME.

TG: youre different TG: if i lose my shit while im talking to you you know how to just wait and let me come down off it or talk me through it but rose tries to fix shit the right way TG: or at least the fucking professional way TG: god fucking damn psychology shit

CG: SHE'S TRYING TO HELP YOU, YOU KNOW.

TG: yeah but im fucking it up

CG: THAT'S NOT WHAT I MEANT AND YOU KNOW IT. CG: YOU KNOW WHAT YOU NEED?

TG: a lobotomy

CG: ...NO. CG: YOU NEED. LIKE. CONVERSATIONAL SAFEWORDS. MORE THAN JUST "I DON'T WANT TO TALK ABOUT IT," BECAUSE YOU SAY THAT ABOUT EVERYTHING THAT MAKES YOU EVEN A LITTLE UNCOMFORTABLE.

TG: so everything rose wants to talk about

CG: MOST THINGS, YEAH. CG: AND YOU GET UPSET AND YOU STOP BEING ABLE TO ARTICULATE IT WELL ENOUGH FOR ANYONE TO TELL OVER TEXT. SOMETIMES EVEN IN PERSON.

TG: okay you do have a point TG: rose is going to have some shit to say about me wanting to set up safewords for her therapy sessions like it's some kinky bondage setup

CG: SO YOU TALK TO HER WHEN I'M THERE AND I GIVE HER A DEATH GLARE UNTIL SHE GETS THE MESSAGE THAT YOU DON'T NEED HER GIVING YOU SHIT FOR DOING THIS.

TG: thatd work yeah TG: see this is why youre the smart one

CG: I KEEP TELLING YOU THAT.

TG: yeah yeah i already admitted it okay TG: hey karkat TG: thanks

CG: HEY, I DON'T NEED THANKS FOR HELPING MY BOYFRIEND. CG: DO YOU WANT ME TO COME OVER NOW?

TG: maybe in a little while

CG: OKAY. CG: MESSAGE ME AGAIN WHEN YOU'RE READY AND I'LL BRING A MOVIE AND SOME SNACKS, OKAY?

TG: yeah man TG: love you

CG: LOVE YOU TOO.

carcinoGeneticist (CG) is an idle chum!

Notes:

I feel like I need to make a note here that this is supposed to be set when Rose and Dave are both about fifteen-sixteen. This isn't meant to be a jab at Rose's attempts to practice psychiatry, this isn't me saying anything about her. She's a fucking kid who's working off shit she taught herself; even if she referenced Freud's faulty and horrible findings, I'm not trying to go after her character for that. She made a mistake, and Dave's damn well going to try to explain that mistake to her so she doesn't make it again.

[trashpandaorigins]

And If You Don’t Love Me Now  Ch. 6

When Rocket wasn’t inspecting the waret or the protected cargo holds, when he wasn’t tag teaming with Quill to navigate to Gravior, or trying to push aside the walls of Groot’s iron apathy, in the quiet moments aboard the ship, (which were few,) he sat and tried to repair the malfunctions of his cybernetics. Groot had wordlessly depart their room, as per usual, to spar with Drax and Kraglin.“I thought you were gonna help me fix the broken electrics in the southern chambers!” Rocket shouted at the adolescents back. Groot turned, his side almost fully healed. The raccoonoid looked at him, blinking, waiting for some recognition. For anything. The hard-dark eyes only narrowed, deep shades of brown barely gleaming a touch of wanton sympathy.“

Groot….” Rocket began, words filling his throat. The teen turned, walking from the room with finality and leaving the door open, just as gaping as the feeling in his chest. “Flark it,” he mumbled, going to his bed and reaching underneath for the draw of nick knacks. He withdrew his cleaning cloths and ointments, a wrench and a screw driver and took a deep breath. He knew the routine well and didn’t think about the pain he was going to feel as he undid the top of his customary jumpsuit. Looking through the faded dirty mirror Rocket made an effort to fix the knots and bolts in his back, each wipe of ointment and twerk of wrench making his body spasm with electric hurt.

 “F…fuck..” he breathed, leaning forward and gripping the edge of his bed

“Knock knock,” Gamora said quietly. Rocket didn’t bother to hide his small smile. Such meetings had become routine in the months and years since Groot was a small infant. She took the wrench and screw driver from him and sat herself down behind him all without words. Rocket gritted his teeth as she stuck the wrench to the lowest bolt in his back and twisted.

“Shit….” He whispered. Gamora poured more of the ointment on his torn flesh and rubbed it soothingly. She moved on to another section, this one slightly less painful.

“How is Groot?” She finally asked, Rocked sighed begrudgingly.

“You’d know better than me,” he grumbled through his fangs.

“Hold still,” the assassin ordered and pulled once, sending sparks from the panel in his back dazzling. Rocket’s arms and legs tightened, his tail rigid. Blood slicked down his back from the wounds where skin met metal.“You’re allergic to this,” Gamora stated, resting her palm gently on his shoulder. Her hand felt surprisingly smooth and welcome on his fur.“Yeah,” he reached around and finished tightening the bolt with his own fingers. 

“It’s a low-grade reaction.” He didn’t need to turn around to sense Gamora’s unhappiness.“Rocket….”

“Don’t.” He snapped. “I know what you’re gonna say, don’t say it.” Gamora only applied more of the soothing stuff and continued to work on his repairs.

“I have to tell you something Rocket,” Gamora spoke in hushed tones as she worked through his fur.“Yeah what?”

“…How much have you told Groot. About what happened on Xandar?” Rocket’s ears pricked up.

“Nothing. I mean, I told him how we met and everything, told him about the good times and a lot of the bad. Told him how we met you guys but nothing about….wait why are you even askin me?” He looked over his shoulder at her. She focused intently on the knots in his fur and grimaced.

“Peter told me…that Groot asked him about…what happened before his pot”“I swear to the gods if star fucker…”

“He didn’t say anything Rocket. He would never say anything without talking to you first. But you…you have to tell Groot. That’s probably why he’s been…so restless.” The racconooid laughed bitterly.

“Restless, tsch, that’s one way to put it.” Gamora sighed.“You need to tell him.”

“I can’t!” Rocket exploded, turning to face her. “He’s my best friend and….”

“That’s the point Rocket, he’s not your best friend.” She spoke not unkindly. “Not anymore. He’s his own person and he’s trying to figure out who that is. The more you keep from him, the worse off he’ll be. If you love him like I know you do…you’ll tell him.”

“I know he ain’t my best friend no more!!” he snarled, clenching his fists against the hot burning fire in his limbs and turning away once more. His vision swam as he blinked away the black shadows on the edge of his site. “…I made peace with that,” he coughed through his pain. “More or less.” Gamora finished cleaning the bolts and gently spread more ointment over the raised scars. Rocket bit his lip as she carefully wet a rag and dampened the bleeding scabs around the metal. “….I know this Groot ain’t the one who saved us but….every time I look at him I see him and…I just…” Rocket closed his eyes and the large flora colossus, smiling and staring at butterflies came into full view. “I miss him so much,” tears welled in his eyes, running with the water that ran down his back. Gamora fiddled with a knot in his fur, disentangling it and stroking his fur rhythmically.

“I miss him too Rocket,” she whispered. “He sacrificed his life, not only for you but for me as well. After hardly knowing me…after I hacked off his arms and sliced his torso. “No one had ever done that for me…a tool of Thanos…”

“You are NOT a tool of that psycho Gams, I don’t know how many times I have to tell yah.”“I didn’t deserve it. But he gave his life for mine and…I will never be able to repay that debt. But I try, every day, to help raise this Groot with patience…and forgiveness and love. It’s the least I can do.” Rocket nodded at her quiet voice.

“I just don’t want him to end up like me,” he repeated. Gamora straightened and wiped at the edge of her eye.

“Would that be so bad?” She joked, wiping down the last of his cybernetics and gave him a strong pat. Rocket grinned but felt his heart fall. He can’t be like me…I don’t want him to be so broken…so afraid…

“Thank you Gams,” he managed.“

Anytime Rock, now…I think Groot just needs… BEEP, BEEP,BEEP red lighting flooded the room.

“Shit!” The raccoonoid scurried down from his seat and pressed the comms button. “Quill! What the flark is going on?!” Star-Lord’s voice came in grainy and broken,

“A….sh…ship…must’ve tracked us from C…con..tra…tracxia and waited util we were further..e…enough out…” Bam! Bam, bam, bam, the room pitched and banked on to it’s side sending a rattling throughout the chamber. Gamora whipped out her sword instantly.

“Ravagers?!”

“I…if they are…I do..don’t know em! Just..g..get up here now!”

“Fuck balls,” Rocket scrambled for his gun, hefting over both of his shoulders and ran after Gamora, his tail struggling to balance him as he ran to the cockpit. “Didn’t you upgrade our security systems?” She asked, stumbling forward and grabbing on to the railing.

“I did! I don’t know how they spotted us!” Drax’s thundering footfalls came up behind them, and Rocket slid to the side letting out an involuntary yelp. Shame welled in his stomach watching the warrior go, knives brandished like a mad man. If Groot wanted anything to do with him, he’d be perched on his shoulder right now. Granted still not as high as before, but better then running on the ground, terrified of being stepped on. Rocket adjusted his weight on the gun as he barged into the cockpit. The ship spun and the whole team fell crashing on top of each other,

“Blam!”

“Fuck!” Peter gripped the wheel tight and pulled the Milano up. On his stomach, Rocket leapt off of Drax’s chest and scanned the room. Groot stood up, growing a vine outward and attaching himself to the wall of the Milano.

“Groot! Groot yah alright?” Groot’s eyes only locked on the sky ahead, black but littered with lights as the rounds from the ship pelted them.

“Rocket! Give me a status update!” The raccoooid tore his eyes away from Groot and made his way to the co-pilot seat, rigging up the port and starboard guns.

“They ain’t aiming for the body of the ship so they’re after the cargo. Otherwise they’d just blast us with one of their glarking canyons.”

“Let us board them!” Drax shouted over the fire as the Milano swooped under another round of fire. “I will destroy them!”

“No! We need to loose em!” Gamora shouted.

“I am Groot!”

“No! We’re not going into space are you crazy? We can’t possibly fight out…Ah!!” Rocket felt himself get thrown forward as fire riddled the ship, making everything vibrate.

“I am Groot!” He slowly watched the teen try to make his way back down the hall, that stubborn look on his face.

“What the hell was that?!” Peter asked, staring wide eyed at the controls before him.

“Alert, alert, alert, engine down. Alert, alert, alert, engine down.” Quill tugged at the wheel, punched the thrusters. Rocket snarled in frustration, firing the rear guns. The enemy ship gained on them, not twelve paces away, firing off from all of their small scale arms.

“Fuck!” Rocket yelled over the gun fire. Drax, Mantis and Gamora slid to the left, beer bottles rolled across the floor. “They’re sending they’re guys out!” He watched on his camera pad as several small figures, attached to the colossus ship leapt out of a portside lock in full space-protected armor.

“How is that possible?” Gamora asked in awe, clutching the back of Quill’s chair. BAM, BBBAAAMMMMBB, there was a ripping sound of grating metal and Rocket watched in terror as a fireball hit against the ship.

“Peter what’s the plan?” The assassin demanded.

“I’m trying to find a place to land! There’s no nearby planets!” Drax hollered as bullets grazed the glass, Mantis covered her ears and screamed.

“Kraglin! Go below to our short range missile launch and fire at the….” Rocket’s heart caught in his chest, watching the external cam. Groot! The flora colossus had attached himself to the Milano with a braid of vines and was shouting at the enemies, reaching out and striking them before they got in range. Being hit with gun fire, Groot grew a protective thorny bushel out of his right arm, trying to shield himself with one arm while fighting the rest of them. Rocket unbuckled himself, sliding off the chair and balanced his way across the room.

“Rocket!” Peter shouted, “Rocket! Gamora,” Peter un-did his own buckle, signaling Gamora to take over as the ship began to slide downward. Kraglin. Rocket made his way to the main bay of the ship, stepping into his space suit. “Rocket what are you doing?!” Peter shouted,

“What’s it look like Star-Munch?” Rocket secured the buckle around his waist, steadying himself against the rocking ship.

“You’ll get torn to pieces!” Peter shouted. Rocket’s ear twitched, loading ammo into his spare pockets.

“Tsch, wouldn’t be the first time.” Peter’s brows knitted, jaw set.

“Rocket as your captain and your friend I forbid it.” Rocket looked up at him,

“I ain’t never done anything right my whole life Pete, you gotta give me this.” The words were out before Rocket knew it. Peter looked side to side, searching for something. Hands on his hips and he swallowed for a moment before meeting Rocket’s eyes. The raccoonoid couldn’t tell exactly what he saw there. Desperation, helplessness, worry…..l..love?” Peter stepped forward, pushing the button and Rocket took a breath as the door of the Milano’s clanked to open. The humie secured the cord to the anchor.

“You come back in one piece.” He ordered, “both of you. Got it?” Suction tugged at Rocket and the made his way to the edge, looking out at the enemy ship, he could see Groot struggling to combat two of the suited aliens.

“Rocket…” Peter began, but the raccoonoid only turned over his shoulder. Shoving down the image of Yondu with those same sad eyes. He saluted the humie, took a deep breath and vaulted out into the unforgiving vacuum of space.

[themanicgalaxy]

SPN 1X11 Scarecrow

Eyyy here we goooo John’s back, I wanna punch him, and I am too tired to multitask in this one

I mean I say that now but...

no previously on this time? rly?? THAT WAS A STYLISTIC CHOICE, SERIOUSLY??

one year ago? that’s...ominous

Girl is reticent, man gets her to go to a CLEARLY creepy place....yeah I don’t like this theme

why does no one have a fucken braincell

o great and the creepy scarecrow thing that’s OBVIOUSLY totally normal

AND OF FUCKING COURSE IT MOVES OF FUCKING COURSE

heyyyy look it’s shaky cam, I Dislike

like I get their budget is fucked and I respect what they’ve done with it but I can say i dislike shaky cam 

holy fuck his skin is just peeled off

they really shoot john winchester in the most disconcerting way possible I mean I realize that’s the point but

and in the true Winchester fashion, literally no one explains a damn THING

Of course Dean listens to “that’s an order” and Sam doesn't, especially after last night’s episode 

praise vs rebellion aft;diofha;

This argument is fucking killing me, noooo

I feel like...you know,,,them falling apart the INSTANT their dad calls...is indicative of their fucked up relationship but.....jesus mary and joseph FUCK JOHN 

DOESN’T DELETE SAM’S NUMBER THANK G O D 

whelp Dean’s clearly off his game

I mean he’s not that great at lying on game but he’s at least more animated

and now Sam’s gonna get a bit picked on or something

heh the tattoo comes into play

This rly does feel like the KIDS STOP GOING AFTER ME LOOK HERE’S A SHINY GO FETCH

ohN O DON’T GET CLOSE 

IT IS C L E A R L Y MOVING

OHO AND THE COUPLE SHOWS UP

And Sam’s making his way in the world

IS IT THE PIE? IS THE PIE EVIL?

HE’S TRYING TO WARN YOU OH M Y GOD

AND HE GETS THE COPS CALLED ON HIM 

O O F IS DEAN HAVING A BAD DAY

Sam found a kindred spirit, at least someone’s having a good day

oooo pagan god+really nice weather+Crops+last meal

possessing the scarecrow is pretty interesting i like

DEAN LITERALLY CANNOT GET THE WORDS OUT DSIFAPIHF

ACTUAL EMOTING! FROM DEAN!!! AAAAAA YAYYYY GOOD 

GOD FUCKING DAMMIT THE “what’d he say” “goodbye” Killed me

Dean: Hypothetically, I could kill a god right?

Priest: whatthefuckwhatthefuckwhatthefuck

THEY’RE JUST GONNA FUCKING KILL THEIR NIECE WHAT THE FUCK

I feel like Sam wants to run away from the Expectations of his dad, and in this case, that ends up being everything about Dean(because desperation for approval yada yada)

Also notice how none of them will sacrifice themselves 

heyyyy the apple pie line! (”Hope your apple pie is freakin worth it”)

That was 100% NOT The context I thought this would get used in 

also apparently the “dude you fugly” line came from here? A+ all around

“I stole a car” “That’s my boy” 

Pfft 

and in the end it killed her aunt and uncle, to which i say, good

sacrifice yourself for your kids not send your kid to the slaughter house you fuckers

u know what the girl had characterization this time and survived, I will take it

“Can i drop you off somewhere” “Nah you’re stuck with me” :))))

sAM HAD GROWTH!! BONDS WITH BROTHER BECAUSE HE’S THE ONLY PERSON THAT HASN’T LEFT DSIFJAPISDFJASF AAAAAA

Dean u ruined the fucking moment

...is...is this Meg? Is that why Meg is evil??

WHAT

DEMON TWISSTTTT

wrap-up:

1. SOLID horror, solid world building, I especially liked the fact that it took the old couple that were bastards to their niece showing that the criteria wasn’t picky and they were pieces of shit, cool thing with pagan gods(even if it did Other immigrants)

2. So Much Shaky Cam. I get they were low on budget but So Much, seriously

3. Girl got to have a storyline of her own this time! I actually rly liked her as a character and she was only put in danger at the end, I liked the progression+mystery of her story and this episode.

4. EEEE SIBLINGS ARE LEARNING TO BOND YESSSSSS

5. I feel like we’re getting into the Plot now, so that’ll be something

I am quite tired, gn

[wtfcami-blog1]

a ZARA LARSSON lookalike just rolled into new york city in their maserati. cami bacardi just had a birthday bash for her twenty-second birthday. i doubt she’ll make it here in new york city since i hear she tends to be flaky, but on the other hand she is advebturous. ( cis female & she/her) [ ren, 24, cst & she/her ] 

wow ok so my life has been insane, but i’m super excited to be back. i’ve missed everyone and cami so much. and i’m excited to get to know people i haven’t met yet. so below is her original intro, and then i’m updating at the bottom of it with anything new

her real name is cameron, but she h-a-t-e-s it soo much. call her cam or cami or face her wrath

she might look smol and cute and blonde, but she’s got an explosive temper, the first thing she inherited from her dad

speaking of her dad, he’s a senator for illinois and has always appeared like a nice family guy for the elections, but he’s really a total asshole

like he was v neglectful and basically is constantly cheating on cami’s mom, but she stays with him bc money, security, and divorce would look bad for his politics when he believes in traditional marraige and bullshit like tht

and cami can’t stand him or her mom and she’s basically this big party girl who’s always drunk or high or both and doesn’t take anything sersiously

and she kept getting in trouble in chicago and getting in the tabloids which hurt her dad’s ratings, so he basically banished her from chicago

annnnnnnnnd then she got into a bit of legal trouble for punching a particularly invasive reporter who managed to dig up some of her past as well and was threatening to leak it

ABORTION TW

and that tw pretty much sums up what he was threatening to leak. so basically her dad is republican and is constantly voting to defund planned parenthood, but when she was 16, cami had an abortion (possible almost baby daddy connection for any chicago males????)

so her secret getting out would further ruin her father’s career

so yah, she’s trying to get a new start here and shizz

ok wow so update time crazy shit

since moving to new york, cami kept up w her partying and has been drunk or high or both almost always

rbfkjbqerbjknqerb

DRUG TW

she loves coke. like loves it

anywaysss she and lido were hooking up and she got pregnant back in janurary :):):):)

but they lost her in june :(:(:(:( which really fucked cami up and like she had gotten sober and was taking care of herself, but that happened and it was bad

and it also fucked lido up where he went to jail and was supposed to spend 90 days in prison

buuuuuuuut cami talked to her dad even tho she hates him and he used some of his connections to get lido out after just a couple days

but in return, he made cami sign a contract saying that she had to calm the fuck down and basically be a model daughter bc she was making him look bad and he wanted to run for president in a few years, and she was basically ruining his image

so she signed it and worked hard to keep herself together and out of the tabloids

and them lol a sex tape leaked of cami and lido and her and her dad was pissed as fuck

and the mother fucker cut her off

so she’s broke

however things are kinda looking up bc once word got out about her shit, she got contacted by the ppl who originally produced the simple life and w paris and nicole’s blessing, cami’s basically doing a new version of the reality show

but it’s about a girl who was rich af who lost everything and is trying to make it so like riches to rags and bc of this she has a camera crew w her everywhere

and i think that’s it???

oh wait no after she was disowned she was pissed and didn’t want any association w her father anymore so lido offered to marry her so she could change her last name from asher to bacardi

but it wasn’t like a wedding wedding it was a vegas thing but like once they’re ready to get married freal it;l be a fucking huge ordeal tbh most ppl don’t even really know cami and lido are legally married rn

UPDATE

ok so this is the hard part trying to figure out since it was ooc stuff that messed me up before, but here’s what i’m going with

so basically as you’ve read, her life has been crazy and she’s gone through a lot of shit

she had several mini breakdowns throughout 2017, but she never had a huge full on breakdown

and that’s what finally happened. she just felt like she couldn’t take things anymore and went on a total bender where she was doing cocaine and pills and felt like she couldn’t survive without it

and while she was high, she ended up at the airport and took the next flight out and ended up in rio brazil but she was so fucked up, she didn’t really know where she was????

she just kinda woke up in this sketchy ass motel and it was the first time she was sober enough to realize that something wasn’t right

and she was panicking and it was bad bc she basically had no memory of anything that had been going on

but bc she didn’t pack clothes when she went to the airport, she found her ticket in her pocket that said where she was and she freaked out bc she had been there for a few days

and she stayed a little longer and considered staying forever bc tht seemed better than dealing with the repercussions of her actions

but she did end up getting back on a plane and now she’s back 

time for another update wooo

ok so she's divorced now and currently dealing w a lot of depression and anxiety and trying to deal w that

bc of that,, her drug use increased a lot I mean a lot

but then she had an overdose and now she's in therapy and narcotics anonymous

and trying to be good without doing drugs ?? but it's hard

ok so that’s it, i think??? figuring out why she was gone was difficult. and with how out of it she was, lbr she was probs on something harder than coke and pills. i’ll need to research and figure things out for that bc idon’t want a full blown heroin addiction or anything, but she defs probably needs a lot of help after everything

anyways, if you want to plot with me, like this and i’ll come to you. or message me. whatever

[kingofskycity]

>:(

I am so ready to punch a fucking wall right now

I’m so sick of this lag compensation and asking how to make my game better and getting no answers for it

im tired of dying when my screen says i was behind a wall and then the kill cam saying i wasn’t

I’m tired of getting assholes who think they know what they’re doing and run off to feed the enemy team

I’m tired of all these once great characters becoming shit because Blizzard decides to listen to those people who complain that Roadhog was too powerful and Mercy’s ult was a bummer- which both were relatively easy to avoid/counter. For Roadhog, don’t have bad position. And mercy? How about you kill her first, hm? make sure she can’t rez and then destroy her team?? 

But no, we gotta give her something else, something that can potentially turn her into a dps and make it harder for mercy players to have fun in any mode other than mystery heroes, all because her ult was too good for you guys. Couldn’t go and kill the mercy first, just had to get blizzard to rewrite her

And it’s not that I don’t like her new stuff. I think it’ll be fun but fucking hell for those (like me) who play a lot of mercy. You have to be careful about who you rez and in Comp you have to be really careful and if you rez the wrong person everyone will go ballistic and curse you- probably try to get you removed. 

I’m also tired of people picking bastion in Team Deathmatch and saying the opposing team sucks like??? No buddy, you suck. Don’t be so fucking cheap that you have to choose a character that’s not hard to play. And don’t give me that “It’s not hard to kill bastion” bullshit. once a team has a bastion they protect that fucker with their lives or distract for the asshole so he’s perfectly safe even when someone tries to counter and shit. Don’t be insulting people if you are bastion too. Because honestly it just means that you were doing so bad you needed to switch to a character who is guaranteed kills just to feel good about yourself

Don’t give me the “choose Genji” or whatever bullshit because I’ve tried and it doesn’t fucking help. Just- if you’re playing bastion you really have no right to be insulting the other team for being “bad” because you were doing horribly enough you needed to switch to that shit of a character. And it’s not that I don’t like Bastion, it’s that in team deathmatch he’s pretty fucking op. Why is he allowed? dunno, doesn’t seem fair to me in the slightest.

You know what else bugs me? When you’re trying to get away and your team up and fucking leaves you alone like, “see ya bitch good luck getting out of that”, and then they turn around and bitch at you for feeding like?? the fuck?? where was the healer? could’ve healed me through that. Where were you guys? could’ve provided cover fire for me so I could get through. Don’t fucking run like the fucking pussy you are and then bitch to me about not being able to get out of there.

I honestly hate this game and the only reason I fucking play is for my junker son and my friends since they don’t want to get Gigantic- which in my opinion is a better game because it forces you to work together. you can’t run in there and get kills by yourself. You have to work with your team whether you like it or not. Not to mention the style is better, the characters are all so unique, and if I have lag the game shows me and I can fix it instead of this lag compensation bullshit.