#something special coming for said marin fans soon

[tag-if]

can mc and marin become the ultimate killer duo? unstoppable from anyone and anything?

AWW that's an oddly cute idea omg

i will say that Marin is the only RO who won't discourage you from continuing your job once together, either in romance or just close friends (the other RO's reactions will remain a secret)

so...technically yes!

[donotaskwhyiamhere]

so I heard you’re having alittle trouble with that shanks fan fic

so I came to help ( not because I desperately need an update )

So lemme just

One their way shanks and y/n walk was somewhat quiet. Sometimes it was filled with shanks talking about the adventures he went on, other times it was full with how he can’t wait to have stupid memories with y/n too. 

Shank even swore he saw a glint in y/n eyes when he talked about wanting memories with y/n. 

When they finally got to the city the silence wasn’t there anymore but the tension was. 

(Shank would then say something about buy y/n anything to carry to sea and asking if he has anything else he’d like to carry) 

As their walk y/n asks if he’s sure. Y/n would cry but his facial expression doesn’t match it stuck in a numb state. This time there wasn’t much noise far from the city approaching the shore where the shanks ship was. 

Shanks was about to answer but it started raining, almost ironic. However the heavier y/n cried the heavier the rain. 

Shanks gave no answer but a hug. A tight one firm as to say, “You follow this wandering pirate, with hopes and dreams that is enough to give this pirate the will to reach his dreams and beyond. You followed me so it’s only right I accept you for you have accepted me”, shanks said while hugging Y/n. Y/n slowly stopped crying and so did the rain. 

Shanks x suicidal marine m!reader part 2

Part 1 part 3

Note: oh my goodness 😭 thank you so much! I owe you!

Warning: mention of suicide, self doubt

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Your pov

You and Shanks were walking out along the dirt road, on your way to the port where his ship was. You walked quietly next to him as he went on and on about the adventure he went on and the poeple he's met and the poeple on his crew, tell you how you will be welcomed with a celebration. He seems like the guy who loves partying. You looked up at the sky, it seems that it will be raining soon but not much to worry about, just some light rain. You walked with your hands behind your back, you weren't use to being relaxed, having been raised to be a perfect tool, you didn't get to have fun, make friends or experience love like others did. You listen to every little word he spoke, studying his body language. "Ah wait, I completely forgot! Do you have anything you want to take to sea with you? If you don't, how about I get you something special? A gift for the new member?" You looked at him surprised. Get you something? Something special? ...

You didn't know what to say, you were raised with bearly and anything, the last time you asked for something, you slept outside of your garden with the family dogs. You look down to the side and shake your head "No... it's alright. You don't need to" you said softly, you didn't think you deserved something special, you didn't do anything to deserve it yet. That's how you were raised, if you want something, you need to work hard for it, nothing was ever free in your life, not even love.

Shanks pov

He looked at you sadly, knowing that you wouldn't just let he get you something. He spots little market up ahead and smiled brightly. "Come on! I'm sure there's something I can get you anyway!" He happily walked around. He saw a bunch of nice things: weapons, food, paintings, jewelry, animal toys. "Hey, how abo-" he was about to ask you if you wanted a box of sweet but then he saw you eyeing a plush toy, an (fav/animal) plush. He could tell it reminded you of something dear to you, he wasn't sure what but he knew what to get you now. He walked up the the little old lady selling the many plush toys and took the one you were eyeing "I'll take this one miss" he payed for it "Thank you, have a good day handsome young man" said the old lady, Shanks smiled happily at the compliment before walking back to you. He held it out for you to take. "Here is your welcome to the crew gift!" Shanks said happily as you slowly took the gift, you seemed to have a blank expression, he couldn't tell what was going on in your head but he decided not to push you. He put an arm around you and you to continue walking to his ship out of the market. As Shanks happily talked about more of his adventures and how exciting it will be to have you along the journey. "We're gonna make many happy memories together, go on many adventures together with you and my crew, we'll be a big family! We'll all look out for each other! Oh like there was this one time- hey... you ok?" He stopped his story telling as he noticed you had stopped walking. He was about to ask you again but stopped himself as you hugged the plush close to you for dear life and looked up at Shanks, you had a blank expression but you had tears falling from your eyes like a river. "Do you really mean it?" "Do I.. really mean what?" "That you want to make memories with me... that I'm part of your family? I've done nothing to earn anything you have given me but you gave it to me with a smile each time... why?" Your tears kept falling faster and faster as you spoke, hugging your plush tightly against your chest "Never once has my father given me anything, he knows nothing of what I like.. yet you have given me something dear to me, one of the very few things I like..." as you speak it started to rain softly, as if the sky itself felt your pain. The rain mixed with your tears.

Shanks looked at you with a soft expression, smiling softly at you, he couldn't help but look at you, he saw a child scared, confused and lost. "Because we're family now, family looks out for each other, and that means getting to know each other." He takes a step forward, placing a gental hand on your shoulder "it's ok to cry you know? It's doesn't make you weak.." At those words you start to cry your heart out, years of pain flowing out like a waterfall. The rain starts to pour more, crying with you. Shanks ignored the rain and pulled you into a hug, letting you cry on his shoulder, hearing the pain in your cries. You hugged you plush tightly against you as he hugged you. The frist toy you've ever received, it was a wonderful gift.

"It doesn't matter who you were. What matters now is the fact that you are now following me, a pirate with hopes and dreams. Poeple like you keep me going. As your captain, your hopes and dreams become mine, and my hopes and dreams become yours. I am your captain and you are my crew, we care for each other because one cannot exist without the other. I need you as much as you need me. The same goes for the rest of your fellow crewmates. We care about you"

After a few minutes you calmed down with the rain as the sun begins to shin once again in the big blue sky. "Thank you.. captain" Shanks smiled brightly at your words and placed an arm around once more "Alright then, off we go! I'm sure the rest of the crew are dying to know where their captain ran off to, to avoid his work! I'm sure they'll forgive me once they see your beauty! They'll be like 'Captain, we're mad that you up and left to avoid your paper work as captain but now that we see this beautiful little crew members you have brought along with you we forgive you!'" He said as mimicking the voice of one if his crew members.

You laughed slightly as you walked with him, hugging the plush close to your heart, smiling up at your captain as he continued to talk. You just couldn't wait to serve your new captain, you wanted to give him everything you had to offer♡

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

I hope you enjoyed it! I'm so happy I got to write it! Thank you for the help ♡♡♡

I hope you all have a good week!

[otakugurl-11037]

Who Let Vampires Run Rock n' Roll?! Part 4!

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We got mentions of biting and blood. That's about it.

Part One! Part Two! Part Three!

Over 1,000 words.

Happy reading!

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I let his words marinate in my mind. This whole time, I’d been a fan of a vampire band, and I didn’t even know until now. Looking back at their name and some of the songs they put out, it made sense. Lucien then snapped his fingers, bringing me back to reality. He looked up like he was remembering something. “Ah, we’ve gotten distracted,” he said, looking back at me. “I have an offer for you. A proposition, if you will. Are you willing to hear me out, sweetheart?” “Um,” I said. “Sure, also, what’s up with that nickname?” “Oh, when I tasted you that night, you were as sweet as strawberries. Your little heart was racing as well. That’s where that moniker came from. I could stop calling you that, if you want to.” A surge of embarrassment attacked me as soon as he brought up that night. “No, no. It’s fine,” I said, shaking out any thoughts about the night at the concert. “You had an offer for me, right?” He smiled again, as if he was about to tell me something grand. “Yeah, I do. So, me and the guys were thinking that you should join us. Like, join our band.” …come again? “We heard your voice that night, albeit it was small. They agreed that you have some potential as a backup vocalist, with how your voice complimented mine. For you see, you have a delicate voice, like a fallen angel who’s been lamenting to her God each night, hoping to be brought back. It adds more…depth to us.” “I…I never thought my voice would be compared to a fallen angel’s,” I start. “Why that specifically?” “Hm,” Lucien looked at my wall in consideration. “It’s what came to mind when I heard you. You have gentleness, yet you also have melancholy. I believe it would fit a fallen angel’s voice.” “Oh, well, thank you.” “Of course. As I was saying, sweetheart, you would be the backup vocalist, but you wouldn’t have to be on stage if you wish to remain anonymous. But if you want to be on stage, you would get a unique mask just like the others’.” I nod, waiting for him to continue on. “You would also get access to Crimson Nocturne’s special secrets. Little snippets of stories we put in the music videos, the meaning of these masks, and many more. So much of our lore will be instilled into your mind and it is mind-blowing.” “Ah wait,” I said, remembering something crucial. “Am I going to have to feed you? And if so, will I be passed around your bandmates if they’re vampires too? “Yes and no. In that order,” Lucien replied. “The other girl that I fed on before I came here ditched me out of the blue and I haven’t been able to find another. As for the others, they already have their own respected meals. Alexzander has Ellie, Lysander has Amie, and Alistair has Charlotte. You will not have to worry about being passed around.” Oh my gosh… “Don’t worry, those feedings will be 100% private from now on. You won’t be bitten in front of a live audience unless you truly want me to.” “And another thing,” I said. “You better specify that you want blood. Not a drink. A drink could be anything.” “Of course, sweetheart,” he said, genuinely. “I won’t cross that line again.” “Anyway, what kind of benefits does your band offer?” “Benefits?” “Yeah, are you able to back my healthcare, dental, and other things like that?” Lucien looked away, in deep thought. He then turned back to me. “I could be your sugar daddy. Is that a benefit?” “No!” “Ah,” he said, shrugging. “That’s the only benefit we can offer, sorry. You don’t think that being treated to whatever you want whenever you want is a benefit?” “Shoot, unless you can help pay off these taxes.” “Vampires don’t pay taxes, sweetheart. None of that money goes toward anything that benefits us, so we just simply avoid them.” Vampires committing tax evasion was something that sounded outlandish yet it made sense at the same time. “Okay, so sugar daddying is your only benefit,” I said to confirm what he said. “What about the pay?”

“Oh, these venues pay a LOT,” Lucien said with a wide grin. “It’s much easier to divide the check up by 5 than it is 4, so everybody would get an even cut. That last concert we did paid us $250,000. So if you were in it, you would get $50,000.” I have to admit, that is some good money.

“So what do you think,” Lucien asked. “Will you join us, the Crimson Nocturne?”

I brought my hand to hold my chin to think. Am I really going to toss my old job and life to be in a band? I don’t even work in music, I’m an editor for a health newsletter. Not only that, they only heard one performance of mine--it’s not enough to determine if I can truly do it.

With that in mind, I give him my answer.

•••

I lay in bed, a puddle of drool on my pillow. It’s been days since I turned down Lucien’s offer. For whatever reason, he didn’t seem disappointed nor sad. He did try to convince me further, but I told him no and he left.

I’m not sure what those guys heard from me that night, but I am not going to embarrass myself in front of all those people. I haven’t sung since that night, what if my voice cracks and instead of a “aaaa,” I go, “aaaAAAaaa?” I would leave as soon as that happens.

I get up and head downstairs to cook breakfast. Some pancakes, eggs, and bacon should do me well today.

•••

I sat back on my couch, having finished my breakfast. I picked up my phone and checked my notifications--Mai had texted me.

Mai(Bestie ❤ ️ ❤ ️): AHHH OH MY GOD

Mai(Bestie ❤ ️ ❤ ️): GRIL YOU GOTTA COME OVER IMMEDIATELY!!

Mai(Bestie ❤ ️ ❤ ️): ◉▢◉

Me: wait what’s going on??

Mai(Bestie ❤ ️ ❤ ️): Youll see when you get here! 🤭I bet she’s found an old trinket from the summer camp we went to when we were kids again. Me: omw I get up and head to my room. I open my dresser and grab my fresh clothes before walking to the bathroom. After showering and dressing myself up, I grab my keys and head down to the car. Mai’s place is about a 3 minute drive from here, which is perfect. I lock the front door behind and enter the car, turning the key into the ignition. By the time I pull up to Mai’s place, a large black car is already in her driveway. “Huh,” I said aloud. “That’s definitely not concerning at all.” The car was bulky, it could hold a handful of people inside. Not only that, but the windows were tinted to near black. Anything could happen in that car, and people outside would be oblivious. That’s scary. I park nearby and walk on the sidewalk. Normally when she invites me to come over, her door is already unlocked. I told her not to do that before, but she insisted. If it’s one thing about her, she has a great tenacity. I open the door to hear her giggling and laughing in the living room. Her house is smaller than mine; she doesn’t have a second floor. Yet it’s one of the comfiest spaces I’ve been in. I walk to the living room, waving at Mai. “Hey Mai, you wanted to see me-” I stopped right at the door frame to see that she was laughing with Lucien. That SAME Lucien who bit me then offered a spot in his band. “Aah, oh my gosh, you’re so funny,” Mai said, tears in her eyes. “My sides are starting to hurt!” Lucien giggled, then glanced at me smugly. “Oh, hey!!” Mai ran up to me and embraced me, I returned the embrace, staring back at Lucien. “My gosh, you won’t believe it! He came over to see me!” Mai was practically hopping up and down from the excitement. She soon let me go, a huge smile on her face. It’s like seeing a child getting to play with Legos for the first time. Lucien giggled and stood beside her. “Your friend is a sweet girl, sweetheart,” Lucien said, Mai blushing profusely. “I can see why you two are buddies. She told me about how much you two were such big fans of my work. Even to the point where you’d dig into our lore. It’s admirable.” “Oh, you gotta tell us! We’ve been trying to figure you out for ages!!” “No can do, only those within our dark circle may know.” Mai let out a ‘wah’ before looking back at me. “How come you didn’t join the band, girlie??” How’d she know?? “I…have no idea what you mean by that,” I said, looking away. “Yeah you do, Lucien told me about it earlier!” Damn. He threw me under the bus. “Look, this is a super-cool opportunity that’ll never ever come again! You gotta step out of your comfort zone, girl! Try new things! And if it doesn’t work out, then that’s okay!” “Crimson Nocturne isn’t forever, sweetheart. We can let it go after you’ve tried it and you didn’t like it,” Lucien added. “See? Please, can you just perform one gig with them? If you hate it, you can always come back.” I was about to turn her down again, but she had to hit me with her most brutal weapon known to man. It could defeat an army of a million men. Those freakin puppy dog eyes. I have no clue how he managed to get a hold of Mai and convince her to convince me to join, but man. It’s working. “Fine,” I said, earning the celebration of Mai and the content countenance upon Lucien. He knew this would work, I could tell by his face. “But ONLY one performance,” I add. “If I like it, I’ll come back for more. And if I don’t, that’s it.” “Fair enough, sweetheart. So it’s a trial. As for this trial, I welcome you with open arms to our darkness.”

I dunno what happened to the spacing, but I'm too tired to fix it right now. Part 5 will come someday.

[themovieblogonline]

Ahmed Best talks about returning to the world of Star Wars

Ahmed Best is an American actor, musician, and voice actor. He is best known for his role as Jar Jar Binks in the Star Wars prequel trilogy. Best played the controversial character Jar Jar Binks in the Star Wars prequel trilogy and also provided the voice for Jar Jar Binks in various video games, television shows, and theme park attractions. In addition to his work in Star Wars, Best has appeared in several other films, television shows, and stage productions since that time. https://youtu.be/6gvxB4eVAgI The actor recently returned to the Star Wars world as Jedi Kelleran Beq In The Mandalorian Season 3 in the episode titled “The Foundling”. In this episode, we see how Grogu survived the evil Emporer’d Order 66. As clone troopers attacked the Jedi Temple on Coruscant, Jedi Knights and Padawans protected Grogu as he escaped. As he took an elevator down to a ship, he was met by Kelleran Beq. Known as “The Sabered Hand,” the Jedi Master used two lightsabers to thwart the troopers. We then watch Kelleran  Beq and Grogu hop on a speeder bike and race through the city. Best told StarWars.com that it was difficult to decide whether to rejoin the universe in The Mandalorian. “Honestly, I had to think about it. I’ve been in the Star Wars world for such a long time and my story is such a rollercoaster ride of emotions. So coming back to Star Wars wasn’t an easy decision for me. It wasn’t something I could have immediately said yes to. I did have to marinate over it for a bit,” he said. “I mean, I was excited. I don’t think people really understand how much I care about Star Wars. Like, I really care. I really, really care about the storytelling, about the mythology, about the fans. I really want Star Wars to deliver, and if I become an obstacle to that, then I shouldn’t be in it. I don’t want to be bigger than the story. I don’t want to be bigger than the mythology. I want to contribute, I want to add to it. So it took me a minute.” “As soon as I put the robes on for my first costume test, and I walked on to get approval from Jon and Dave , and they handed me a lightsaber, I was like, ‘Oh, I’m in this,’” Best said. “And boom, Kelleran Beq came alive.” The Star Wars social media account even posted a special message from Ahmed Best thanking the fans for the positive response received for his character: I am now a huge Kelleran Beq fan as made obvious by my cosplaying as the character at both Star Wars Celebration in Anaheim and the 2022 NYCC. Do you think I should do the cosplay again at this year's show? Let me know what you think in the comments.    Read the full article

[amoveablejake]

Spring has sprung

Dreaming of the pacific North West yet again.

Over the past one hundred years there has been a definite shift away from religion. Ofcourse, yes countless people across the world do still believe in a high power but more people have stepped away from religion or at the very least are less devout than historically they would have been. And yet, in these days where faith is perhaps being questioned it ofcourse still exists. Faith or having faith in something surrounds the human race everyday. By no means does it need to be in a higher, omnipotent power, faith and the belief that comes with it can be in anything or anyone. Faith and belief is ultimately support and it is perhaps more meaningful when it is turned towards humans than it is any spiritual being that may or may not be out there. As technology progresses and humankind develops alongside it, new ways of thinking do come to the forefront and ways of thinking from days gone by are looked at but throughout all of the reviews, the idea of belief is still there and it should always remain. It should because to believe in something can reap wonderful rewards, believing in someone or something helps you to form an even deeper connection to it and those connections can become key parts of us. Do I believe in general, ofcourse. I believe in many people and many things and one of those that I believe in is something that I hope one day will come to fruition. I believe in the Seattle Mariners and maybe this year, they’ll believe in themselves soon. 

That may have seemed like a little bit of an odd introduction to talking about a baseball team but it is grounded in a real run of events. As the Mariners ended their playoff drought last season the messaging coming from the organisation was to believe. Thats what the team needed, belief. To know that their fans were out their thinking of them and knowing that they could do it. Ofcourse, as my lack of a last minute ticket to Seattle shows, the Mariners did not have a prolonged play off run and did not make it to the World Series. But, the play off appearance was enough for now. As I say, it ended a wait that had been going on for years and years and allowed the Mariners fan base a feeling of accomplishment that has been a little rare as of late. It also helped to install some optimism. I do always in my heart believe that the Mariners will win the World Series, what sort of fan would I be if I didn’t, but after reaching the play offs last year I feel that my eternal optimism for my baseball team is actually founded and that things are looking more positive for this upcoming season. Spring training is currently ongoing at the moment and the results have been quite positive, which is only making me believe even more. Who knows, maybe this will be the year. Maybe. Just maybe. 

There are a few different sports teams that mean a lot to me, I have my NFL team, my NBA team, I have the drivers that I like in Formula One and a couple of baseball teams that I do have soft spots for. But really, the Seattle Mariners always have a special place in my heart. If you’re a regular reader of the blog this ofcourse will not come as a surprise as I have mentioned it before but there is just something about that baseball team from the Pacific North West that always brings me a great deal of comfort. As I have said before, to know that they’re out there playing, doing their thing, makes me very happy and one day I know that I’ll get to see them and it will feel like a homecoming. I am going to watch a Major League Baseball game in June but it won’t be with the Mariners, not this time at least. And thats, thats okay. I am extremely excited to watch the Chicago Cubs take on the St Louis Cardinals and to soak in the MLB atmosphere knowing that at some point down the line I will be doing the same for my Mariners. And also, I am hoping for two things when I do watch that game. One, that by that point in June the Mariners are emerging as one of the clear favourites to go to the World Series and two, that I’ll finally be able to find a Seattle Mariners cap because at this point my hunt for one is getting a little ridiculous. But, with all things, you just have to believe. And you bet I do. 

In the Mariners and the cap. 

-Jake, a man still waiting for invitation to play in the Major Leagues, 12/03/2023

[motherfingtitan]

Hi! Big fan of your fics. I have a suggestion for one: the basic idea is that the Lower Decks characters (mainly the Warp Core Four) get involved with the ep. "Trials and Tribble-ations" Meet both DS9 and TOS crew in a subtle/not-so-subtle way (PARADOX!). Bonus: They are drawn and animated in TAS Filmation style, with some of them slightly aware. Maybe a bit of Mariner x Boimler? Hope you have fun with the idea.

Time Tribbles

The Warp Core Four decides to go back in time to the Enterprise to do some not-so-scientific research on Tribbles. They come across not one, but two famous Starfleet Crews

Tendi dragged herself to her bunk. She was absolutely exhausted from pulling double shifts in Medbay to make up for the influx of patients. Earlier today, some of the food replicators were producing food at extreme temperatures. They were also uncontrollably spewing food out, and in the case of ten forward, literally spraying boiling nacho cheese. Crew members had been in and out all day with burns. Just as she sat on her bed, she saw Mariner down the hallway. Both of them waved to each other.

"Yo, Tendi, what's up?" Mariner said as she walked up to her.

"Nothing much; I’m just exhausted from all the activity in Medbay. I did see somebody with a nacho cheese burn in the shape of an Orion continent!" She smiled.

"I have something that will cheer you up!" Mariner held up her finger and ran off, going to get her special piece of contraband.

After a few minutes, she returned with a Tribble in hand. It had brown fur and little white patches. She handed the Tribble to Tendi and sat down next to her. The cooing of the ball of fur filled the room.

"Personally, I would prefer getting drunk, but I thought this might be more up your alley" Beckett smiled as Tendi ran her hand through the fur, her eyes lit up.

"This is the cutest thing ever," Tendi squealed. She then spoke in baby talk to the Tribble, "Yes you are, you are the cutest little Tribble on this ship.”

She continued to pet the Tribble for a couple of minutes before finally speaking, "You know, I've always wanted to see a Tribble reproduce. I know that the ones they sell at the pet stores are neutered."

Beckett thought for a second before finally speaking. "Ok, so I got this really cool piece of contraband from the planet we did second contact with a couple of weeks back. I've been testing it, and I think it opens up portals to different times. We could go back in time to see Tribbles reproduce."

"But isn't that against the rules?”

"Yes, but it's for science, so it's probably ok. Come on, let get Rutherford and Boimler."

…

A few hours later, the four Ensigns were in an empty part of the docking bay. All of them were wearing 2260s uniforms. Tendi messed with her holographic disguise, trying to find the right hairstyle. She felt odd with blonde hair and peachy skin, but there was no way she could go back in time looking like an Orion. Enterprise crew members would ask too many questions.

"Bangs or no Bangs?" She adjusted her holographic remote, letting it flip through different hairstyles.

"Definitely the Bangs," Rutherford gave a thumbs up before continuing his excitement-filled lecture about Constitution-class ships. “Did you know that turbolifts were not completely voice-controlled back then? You had to hold down a bar for them to work.”

"Mariner, are you sure we should be doing this. Time travel is against 253.7-" Boimler began before being cut off Mariner.

"Rules, Schmules. Come on, Boims, this could be your one chance to see Kirk in flesh and blood."

"Fine, but I'm keeping you in check," he spoke.

Beckett then pulled out the small blue stone from her trouser pocket. It glowed softly in her hand. She set it down and stated where she wanted to go "Stardate 4523.3, USS Enterprise 1701."

The store glowed brighter until it flashed, opening up a small portal to the other ship. Its corridors were empty, meaning the Ensigns could slip in undetected.

"Ready to do science stuff?" Mariner asked Tendi.

She bounced in excitement, nodding rapidly. Mariner was the first to step into the portal. She felt slight tingles all over her body as she popped out on the other side. The Enterprise looked much different than the ships of her time. The lights had colored tints, and more equipment was exposed. Rutherford came out of the portal next, slightly dizzy but extremely excited to see such an old ship. Tendi and Boimler followed. Once through the portal, it returned to its original gem form.

Boimler slowly stood up, trying to shake off how dizzy he felt. "I feel so stiff and kinda cheap too,"

"You look different," Rutherford pointed out

"Oh god! Am I phasy again?!?"

"No, but your eyes look smaller," Tendi looked at all of them. "We all look kinda different."

"Probably some stupid time travel stuff, come on, let's got find some Tribbles!" Mariner shoved the gem in her pocket and started down the hallway, followed by the other four.

Soon, they came to the main corridor that was bustling with people. The women styled their hair in extravagant bumps and wore earrings. Most wore minidresses, a popular style in the 2260s, but a couple wore the tunic style uniform, just as Mariner was. The sound of boots tapping filled the hallway, and the gold rank bands on the officer sleeve sparkled among the sea of yellow, red, and blue. Perhaps the most striking thing, however, was the lack of aliens. The vast majority of the officers were human, a stark contrast from how diverse the Cerritos was.

Suddenly, Mariner stopped and motioned to the other three to get against the wall. From just around the corner, two very famous Starfleet officers could be heard.

"Is that Kirk?" Boimler asked

Mariner nodded, feeling just as excited as the rest of them but doing an excellent job of hiding it. Kirk and Spock were speaking with someone through the communication unit.

"Bridge to Captain Kirk." A young man with a Russian accent spoke.

"Kirk here." The captain responded

“Mister Baris is waiting on channel E to speak to you, sir."

Mariners’ heart was beating fast. She may have acted like she didn't care, but she did grow up as a Starfleet brat, and though she may have seen Captain Kirk in a holodeck simulation, it wasn't the same as being a couple of feet away from him.

"Mister Baris is coming on." The young man spoke again.

"Yes, Mister Baris. What can I do for you?" Kirk’s voice was pleasant

"Kirk, this station is swarming with Klingons." A man by the name of Baris replied.

"I was not aware, Mister Baris, that twelve Klingons constitutes a swarm."

"Captain Kirk, I consider your security measures a disgrace. In my opinion, you have taken this entire..."

At this point, Boimler had lost focus on that conversation as his eyes drifted to the other side of the hallway. There, a man with a deeper voice and a tall woman spoke. Both looked as if they were doing routine maintenance. The woman kept glancing back at the captain and the first officer.

"I had no idea." The woman began

"What?" The man replied, fiddling with some machinery.

“He's so much more handsome in person. And those eyes."

"Kirk had quite the reputation as a ladies' man."

"Not him. Spock."

Boimler noticed that, just like him, they looked out of place. He continued to listen.

"I can't believe you don't at least want to meet Captain Kirk."

"That's the last thing on my mind."

"Oh, come on, Benjamin. Are you telling me you're not the tiniest bit interested in meeting one of the most famous men in Starfleet history?"

Benjamin? He thought as he slowly went through all the people he knew named Benjamin in his head.

Benjamin Anderson

Benjamin Taylor

Benjamin Sisko

Sisko!

It was Captain Sisko! And the woman next to him must be one of his crew members. Jadzia Dax, maybe? His face twisted in confusion. What was he doing in this time?

"Guys, look!" Boimler whispered and motioned his head to the other side of the hallway.

"Is that... Sisko?" Rutherford asked. "He looks different," he added, still getting used to how everything looked in this period.

"Two famous Starfleet Captains in one day?!?" Tendi bounced on her heels.

"Why is he here?" Boimler looked at Mariner.

"I don't know, something to do with a Tribble and a bomb,"

"A bomb?!"

She shrugged. "Relax, it's on the space station. We will stay on the ship,"

"How do you even know all this?"

"I have my ways,"

The Ensigns decided that it was time to get moving. They didn't want to create too much suspicion by huddling up against the wall. The halls were so crowded, Constitution-class ships were certainly packed, even without the hallway bedrooms of the Cerritos. The colored lights enthralled Tendi. She was so used to sterile fluorescent lights that the soft blues, purples, and yellows were dazzling. She had read about these types of ships, but reading about it and seeing it were two different things.

"Gosh, I love Constitution-class ships," Tendi said.

But there was no response. She twisted her head back and forth, slightly panicking that she had lost her other three friends. She wanted to yell out their names, but that would raise too many questions. She would have to silently slither through the confusing corridors of the ship to find them, all while looking natural. Looking back and forth one more time, she decided to continue forward. Turning down a hallway, she noticed that there was a turbolift at the end. Inside were two men. One was a bulkier man in a red shirt, while the other man with slicked-back hair wore blue with a single strip of gold on the bottom of his sleeve.

"Deck twenty-one. Deck twenty-one. I said, Deck twenty-one." The man in the red shirt said. He's getting more frustrated every time he spoke.

"Maybe if you said please." The other man replied

Tendi remembered from Rutherford’s conversation earlier that turbolifts were not entirely voice commanded at this time. She continued to walk towards the lift.

"Maybe it's jammed. Help me get this wall panel off." The redshirt was starting to open a panel when the disguised Orion walked in. She put one hand on the wall handle and crossed her fingers, on the other hand, hoping that this would work.

"Deck fifteen." She spoke, and the lift started to move. She breathed a secret sigh of relief.

"I won't tell anyone if you don't." The medical man, with a British accent, spoke.

"My lips are sealed."

"Guys, where's Tendi?" Rutherford asks, trying to find one of his best friends.

"Aw Sh*t, we must have lost her" Mariner looked some more. "Tend-"

Boimler clamped his hand against her mouth. "Are you insane? You wanna mess up history?"

"Ok, then how do you want to find her?"

"Constitution-class ships only held about 300 people, so it shouldn't be too hard to find her, especially compared to a Galaxy-class ship," Rutherford suggested.

All three realize that the only way to find their friend was to just walk through the halls and hope they stumble across her. They started down the aisle, maneuvering their way through the mass amounts of people. At one point, Beckett hit somebody with her elbow.

"Oh, sorry." She said

The woman smiled and replied. She was wearing an operations red dress, and her hair was teased on top of her head. Her sleeves bore lieutenant stripes. "It's ok," she said as she walked away. She was making baby noises at something in her hand.

Mariner craned her neck just enough to see that in the lieutenants’ arms was a small Tribble. "It can't be long now."

Tendi saw the first baby Tribble in one of the turbolifts she was taking back down. She was alerted when she heard soft sweet cooing on the other side of the lift, and she couldn't resist. She picked it up, so happy to see an unneutered baby Tribble. At first, she only saw one every once in a while. Maybe one would be stuck to a wall. Another was in an older doctor's hands, and he was scanning it with a tricorder. However, the amount started to multiply, and before she knew it, Tribbles were lining every single hallway. They came and all shapes and sizes. Some were white with gray spots, and some were a beautiful shiny Brown. They stuck to the walls and the ceiling, and cooing filled the hallway, along with the occasional screech when someone stepped on one.

She tried to resist the temptation and only grab one, but every time she turned around, she found herself face-to-face with another ball of fur, and soon she had an entire armful of Tribbles. Curiously, as she wandered about trying to find her three friends, she saw Sisko and that other female officer scanning Tribbles. Both looked frazzled. She realized that they were scanning for a bomb of sorts and remembered that Mariner said it was on the space station, not on the Enterprise.

Speaking of Mariner, she finally found her friends walking towards her in a hallway. The pep in her step grew as she walked towards them.

"They are so cute!" Tendi showed off her arm full of at least ten Tribbles.

"Let's get to a private room, watch how a Tribble gives birth, and then get back to our own time," Boimler continued. "I don't want any time travel shenanigans on my file. It's not very Captain-like."

"Oh please," Mariner replied, "you realize how much stuff was on Kirk's record?"

The four came across an empty meeting room. They all walked in, Rutherford closed the door, and Tendi set one of her many Tribbles on the table. With her pad on hand, she was ready to take notes.

Tribbles reproduce fast, so it was only a matter of time before the one on the table, which Tendi lovingly named Warpy, gave birth. The ball of fur soon went from cooing to screeching as it tensed up half its body. Soon from underneath the adult Tribble, baby Tribbles emerged. Tendi was so excited, but the other three just watched with confused and uncomfortable faces. After she finished taking notes, Boimler suggested they leave.

"I'm going to miss the blonde hair, but I can't wait to have my old body back," Tendi spoke as Mariner pulled out her blue gem.

"Tell me about it; my eyes are the same color as my skin. That can't be healthy," she replied

"Maybe people look like this because of issues with the older technology," Rutherford suggested.

Mariner spoke to the gem the time she wanted to go back to. The portal opened underneath them.

"No one's got any Tribbles, right?" Mariner asked.

All of them nodded, and Mariner was the first to jump through the portal. Rutherford followed, and then Boimler. Tendi turned around one last time to her Tribbles.

"Bye, Warpy," she spoke as she jumped through the portal.

"Much fu*king better" Mariner cracked her back in the Cerritos’ shuttle bay. Tendi glanced over her notes and deactivated her disguise. Beckett came over to her and wrapped an arm around her.

"You had fun?"

"So much, thanks" Tendi smiled.

"How about we change and get some tacos?" Beckett spoke as she walked towards the doors.

"Okie Dokie" Rutherford and the other two ensigns followed.

As they walked to the mess hall, Mariner spoke to Boimler, “Glad you could join us. Ya know, you actually look confident in that old uniform! And kinda charming.”

“Thank you, I feel confident” He did a cheesy smirk.

“Annnnd now it’s gone.” She said, trying to hide the slightest blush.

They continued to their bunks to change. Unknown to Boimler, however, was a small ball of fur stuck to his vintage uniform boots.

Three days later

Ransom woke up for his morning shift at the sound of his alarm. When he reached over to turn it off, he felt a ball of fur right on his alarm clock. Upon opening his eyes, he saw that Tribbles filled his entire room, all cooing.

"Who brought an unneutered Tribble on board!?"

[jd-arts319]

Transformers oc Renegade

Designation: Renegade/Nirenia

(Others):Chromalight/Ultraviolet(Marine),Switchblade

(As a Cyber ninja):Cybeswift,Switchblade Former name: Artemis Enigma Nickname:Renny,Switchy,Switcher Age: 20(past)

        26(future) Gender: (Mech, Femme)Femme Status: (Single, Taken)

             Single(past)(before orion(optimus)asked her out)

             Taken(future)

Appearance:

Current

(former)

Primary:Teal

Secondary:Black

Tertiary:Grey

Accents:Whites

Color of Optics:Turquoise

(Others):she has teal & white lumiscient hair that is 2-tone hair,with one white streak on the leftside of her hair

She sports a well endowed & athletic, voluptuous figure with some busty parts,she also has a angelic face(she felt awkward as she remembers only being busty,not voluptuous nor athletic,& she also remembers she is plainly beautiful not exotic type).

Her holoform

Size: 7ft Alt Mode:triple changer

-sports car(Corvette stingray)

-jet(windblade & slipstream VTOL alt mode) Speed Limits: - at altitude:Mach 2.35(2,500 km/h,1,550 mph)

-at sea level:1,400 km/h,872 mph Weapon(s): - multi-changing staff(an ancient relic of unknown origins,but believe to be forge by solus prime) -Energon fan(special),scythe,daggers

As Cyberninja

-enegron fan

-hidden blades & weapons

Fighting style:-Panzer kunst,Krav Maga,aikido,Brazilian jiu Jitsu,jeet kune do

Universe: (G1, Animated, Prime, Beast wars, Beast Machines, Armada, Energon, Cybertron, Bayverse,RID,Cyberverse)

-All of them

-Main:Transformers Animated

Abilities:

-she use Aura(Mana) as her basic power,her minors but common power are telepathy,telekinesis,teleportation/spatial,divine prediction & recognition,however their is one uncanny power that she used,but is came from the spectral meter pendant given by vector prime,she recognize it as sci twi’s pendant from mlp eg friendship games.

Faction: (Autobot, Deceptcion, Neutral, Own creation)

-Neutral(but is part of N.E.X.U.S team,she can either stay at autobots or decepticon)

-Autobot Neutral

-(alt.universe)decepticon Primary Class Function:Triple changer,Cyberninja (point one percenter) Secondary Class Function:Warrior,scientist

As Cyberninja:Warrior,espionage,scout

Subroutine Function:Mystery Personality: - an enigma,at first she is seen apathetic,impulsive,dumb & is nihillistic,but once she is focused she is very intelligent,cunning,calm,sassy,kind,nice,sweet,& empathetic,her attitude towards things but she is very much like ratchet except,unlike him she results in more passive-agressive way,she is shown to have at least patience,undersganding & consideration,aside that she will be protective to those who wormed their way into her spark,not only that but she deosn’t easily keeps promise because she knows their some promises aren’t eash to keep.

she has a humorous side as she likes bad puns & good jokes,aside from it their are times she comes off arrogant or who doesn't care but deep down she shows she cares,she isn’t fond of attention as she is currently self-aware who she really is,but she is rather uncanny of her unique abilities & talents.

(there times she questions why optimus end up choosing her among the three well-known femmes as she tries not to have his attention but alas is inevitable,but in other universe,she is a bit like pearl from steven universe,despite she done everything for optimus,he ends up choosing someone else & this cause her to feel ignored,she is now comping of moving on from him & their war all together ) Background story: when she was just a human,who likes anime,transformers etc. & many other things,but suddenly she was transmigrated into a cybertronian,it turns out the primes & primus,saw something in her as she understood about the lives of transformers & their each different unique aspects of their lives in the continuity,because of it she is transmigrated in tfa,as she woken up as artemis & unknown to her,she was gonna change everything.

She soon starts her life slowly as she tries not to get attention from others,but after saving bumblebee from wasp & ironhide up to offering a friendship to orion,she soon gain others attention as she slowly curses of herself,she did not realize she had taken the spark of a certain handsome blue & red truck bot.

As time pass she gain more attention from others as she tries to live her life peacefully while having some odd misunderstandings occurs.

Relationship:

Optimus prime

-great friends/lovers(<in another community),met earlier years before the show begins,she & him become really great friends to one another,however at the starts of the show,she enters the autobot boot camp after optimus enter first,she caught every mechs attention including sentinel,she also met elita who once had the reputation of being the most beautiful & intelligent femme in the boot camp,until she came but she stays close to optimus most of the time,however the arch 7 incident begun & because she wasn’t there at the time,despite knowing what happened she couldn’t help,even though she admits to the three she felt something is not right,it happend & she helps him trying to recover while she gave sentinel a visible dent under his chin,fast years go by she is now in 2nd command of ultra magnus.

Optimus really care for her than he thought because she still believes in him more than anyone else.

(in another timeline ren & optimus are together,but mostly i others she just mostly friends with him)

Bumblebee & Bulkhead:

-friends & respect with admiration,,when she was the sergeant in the boot camp,she always help both bumblebee & bulkhead out of trouble everytime both wasp & ironhide(she saw hope in him),including sentinel who in turn cant talk back to her,she once told wasp if he keeps it up with his bullying he will get karma,months later wasp was arrested for something he didn't do,while ren felt she knew something might happen & after this she once talked to bumblebee about this & said ominously”once you saw wasp again,give me a call,kay?”she gave him a special device to call her,bumblebee still clueless as to why but ren did help him & bulkhead out all time so he kinda owe her,years now when he saw wasp remembering her words he called her & she helps the two,bulkhead admire & respect her because she was the only one who believes in him.

The two are grateful to her & they respect her more than ultra & sentinel.

Prowl & ratchet:

-Friends & respect,prowl had once met her as she was training under yoketron,he thought she was one of those snobbish nobles,however he was proven wrong when she shows tactic & precise through training,over time of their training the two gain each other respect,on the endgame with her help she & prowl manage to save the allspark,Ratchet on the other hand it was a different story,while she may asked for a personal training in medical,but im truth it took awhile for the two to grown each other,she was the one who keeps on a tab on arcee’s state,hearing this he decided to to be acquainted with her & soon they become at least good friends.

They are fine with her,especially since she always helps them.

Sentinel prime:

-love-hate relationship,while the two are torn because of sentinel actions,there are a times they end up acting like they used to,still she was still pissed at him.

Elita one/Blackarachnia:

- same with sentinel,she & elita are once close but the arch 7 incident happens & when meet again their friendship torns apart,while blackarachnia snarky tries to still pins the blame on optimus,Ren decided to give her a run down on everything,reminding her that she also the one insisted,experimented on others,nearly trying to kill others & especially others,she told her that its makes her monster not because of her appearance but mostly her actions,she also remind her she almost have to be saved by optimus far too many times,however she have a little faith on elita.

Decepticons:

Megatron:

-Respect,friends-regardless of their factions,he owes her his life,,it was unknown how the two meet or why,but both stayed in touch most of the time,there isn't much of information about it.

Shockwave:

-Friends,Respect-she saved him before she enters the autobot boot camp,she found his bleeding in a planet where he suppsoed to start his mission but in a unfortunate time,he was bitten by a scraplet,while he kiled the scraplet he was bleeding,she found him & fixed his bitten part of his body & the two become acquintained,to its whether or not she knew he was decepticon.

Strengths: - her friends

-her powers

-the people she cares for

-self-awareness Weakness: - her mind

-her friends

-her empathy

-self-awareness Family: - she was forged & was taken care by the Enigma house -she is a Crescente

-her parents in house of Enigma,is Axel Enigma & Copper 

Friends: - Orion pax/Optimus prime(friends/lovers(?),bumblebee,bulkhead,thundercracker,skywarp(she questions why),starscream(this one as well),Megatron(back then,she don’t know about now(tfp & idw),shockwave,lugnut,blitzwing(bruh??),

ocs:Novus,remix,ideaboard,

Enemies: -tfa(sentinel,council,blackarachnia(mutual)---0

-tfp(council,sentinel,arachnid,M.E.C.H)

-IDW TF(black block consortia,djd,overlord,sentinel---) Favorite Quotes to say: - “....i still think they are cybertronians regardless of their factions,they are like us in many ways of ones,we aren’t that different to begin with”(about the decepticons,autobots,& humans with aliens) Other: (other things about the character) -she was a Crescente & she doesn’t remember her real name,but her bracelet number code is SW1TCH814D3 she is fond of this name but she doesn’t use it,but she was always called Ren,Switchblade was her secondary name & nickname from her full name she can’t remember

-the “Celestyn”was her middle like all her ancestors starts from her 1st ancestor who had Celests,as their middle name

-”Crescente” was named after the moon,they history of their name & family is still mystery

-she has a counterpart who is a cyber ninja known as Cyberswift,born from enigma house & is the student of dai atlas

-she mostly use the energon fan given by dai atlas,who said it was made for her

-she has kids with optimus prime,their name is ortensia,a girl & artemis,a boy,they only exist in tfp & tfa au,rescue bots & rescue bots academy

-their relationship between ren & optimus,is portrayed as romantic in some transformers community & but their relationship is complete platonic in others

-her main universe is tfa & tfp

-the name “enigma”is special since it was rare to have “enigma”part of your name,it was name of the family she is”born”in

-some other universe,megatron becomes her lover instead,they had a kid named terminus

-her real name is Nirenia but changed into renegade,she still kept her real name though

-her nickname”Ren”is shared with the creator(me)regardless of her creator is sometimes called”rei”,but whenever the creator is referred to their other name”Ren”,renegade can be referred by her other names

-she is a point one precenter

-her cyberninja side has an extra but short bio about them

-she is the only one had two counterparts,her real-self & her cyberninja form

-Switchblade was someone else name.

________________

Her other forms

-g1

-rid2015

-tfp

-rescue  bots

-cyberverse

-rescue bots academy

-bayverse! 1&2 vers.

Renegade (c) me

Transformers(all media types) (c) Hasbro,michale Bay

[reidingandwriting]

5 Times Tony Wasn’t There for You, and 1 Time He Was

Word Count: ~3200 words

Ship: Tony Stark x Daughter!Reader, Peter Parker x Stark!Daughter (Platonic), Lots of IronFam ft. the Parkers 

Warnings: Probably some swearing, not completely movie compliant but follows the general timeline ❤ Kinda unrelated gif (kind of related if you pay attention) but look how CUTE Morgan and Tony are

✨ Masterlist ✨

-One-

As the young daughter of Tony Stark, you were used to your dad being busy with work. Meetings across the country, dinners with royal dignitaries across the globe, or simply just endless hours spent locked in his office. All of this before he went missing for three months and came back as Iron Man. 

It was your sixth birthday and Tony had planned the perfect birthday party for you, with Pepper’s and Happy’s help of course. You had recently developed an intense fascination with marine life, so what better way for you and your family to celebrate your birthday then spending the day at the aquarium? He even splurged a little extra to convince the owners of the aquarium for you to have a sleepover under the sea. But the night before your party, Tony told you he had to leave for a little while. “It’s okay, Daddy.” You said, with the most innocent smile on your face. “Can we have some of my birthday cake tonight?” And how could Tony say no to that? After birthday cake and being tucked into bed, Tony flew off in his suit for one of the first of many times. 

“Pepper, Pepper, Pepper!” You ran down the hall of your Malibu mansion, Happy trailing behind you. You launched yourself at Pepper, your little arms wrapping around her legs. “Is it time to see the fish?” Pepper scooped you into her arms and you settled on her hip, your face nuzzled into the crook of her neck. 

“It’s almost time! Are all the bags packed?” Pepper looked up at Happy, who nodded. 

“And in the car, ready whenever we leave.” Pepper smiled gratefully at Happy. 

“Wait! Forgot something, down please.” Pepper set you down and you ran off towards your room. 

“Thank you again, Happy. You know you don’t have to stay with us-“

“I want to.” Happy interjected. “What can I say? The kid’s grown on me.” The sound of your footsteps grew louder as you entered the living room a minute later, your stuffed bear and wad of black fabric in your arms.

“What’s that, Y/N?” Pepper tilted her head as you held out the material. 

“You know Teddy, and this is Daddy’s favorite shirt. He’s not here, so Teddy can wear his shirt. Almost like he is there!” Pepper bit her lip and plastered on a smile she hoped looked half as happy as yours. 

“Just like he’s there, huh? Come on, let’s go to the car. I bet the fish are so excited to see you.” 

-Two-

After Tony had taken down Obadiah, who you totally never trusted by the way, and had the press conference where he announced he was Iron Man, things started to go back to normal. Well, as normal as anything involving Tony Stark can be. You spent time with your dad in the garage as he worked on suit upgrades, and DUM-E seemed extra chipper (and klutzy) while you were around. Your Uncle Rhodey visited more frequently and everything was good. Life was good, until recently. 

For the last few weeks, your dad had been acting different. “Your dad’s under a lot of stress right now, Y/N. He’s okay.” Pepper would repeat this to you every time you asked. Natalie’s addition to Stark Industries provided a distraction for you, and you found yourself growing close to the red head. 

Your dad, Pepper, Happy, and Natalie were in Monaco and you were left at home  with Rhodey. You stood in the dark hall of your house, your Uncle Rhodey seated on the couch in the living room. The television lit up the room, and you slowly tip-toed to the couch. The blanket you held in your hand dragged against the floor as you climbed onto the couch. 

“Hey, kiddo. What are you doing up so late?” Rhodey wrapped his arm around you and covered your body with your blanket.

“Lonely. Miss everyone.” You nestled into Rhodey’s side and your eyes glued to the television. “Boring movie, Uncle Rhodey.” Rhodey laughed and looked at you. 

“And what do you want to watch, little miss? Let me guess, Tangled?” You nodded quickly and sent a dimpled smile up at your uncle. 

“Please?” Rhodey groaned dramatically before he started the movie, and you giggled happily. And if Rhodey sang the songs with you, that was no one’s business but yours. 

-Three-

You had hoped after the events in New York, with the team called the Avengers and their battle with Loki, things would go back to normal. Boy, were you wrong. You were on a plane with Pepper when you saw the footage of your dad flying into a wormhole, and it wasn’t until you were back in Malibu before you saw him again. Tears were shed and an endless amount of hugs were given when you were reunited. 

The changes in your dad’s behavior were subtle in the beginning. Loud noises would startle him much easier than before, and he spent less time sleeping and double the amount of time in the garage working on his suits. When he did sleep, his dreams were plagued with nightmares. On those nights, he’d check on you multiple times before morning came. “Have to make sure my best girl’s okay.” Tony would say on the rare chance you were awake before he went back to the garage to work for hours until sunrise, where he’d repeat the cycle again. Work with Stark Industries, work at home, and maybe get a few hours of sleep. 

Your dad’s PTSD got worse with each day that passed; throw in Happy being hospitalized, your Uncle Rhodey’s Iron Patriot makeover, and Pepper’s meeting with Aldrich Killian, Tony was a mess. And the threat of the Mandarin was the breaking point. “Come and find me. 10880 Malibu Point, 90265.” When Pepper heard the news, she told you to pack a bag, Christmas was going to take place as far from Malibu as possible. You stood in your bedroom, JARVIS playing Christmas music as you finished packing when you heard your dad, Pepper, and another woman yelling. You walked to the door and outstretched your hand, your fingertips brushing the handle when the first explosion went off. You went flying into your bedroom wall, and your world went dark. 

When you woke up again, you were hit with the news. The only home you had known was reduced to rubble, your dad was missing, presumed to be dead by the media, and your life as you knew it was over. You and Pepper had joined the unknown woman, known as Maya, to get the hell out of there. 

On Christmas Eve, you sat on your hotel bed, soft Christmas music playing in the room. You held your dad’s helmet in your lap, it being the closest it could be to having your dad with you. Pepper took a seat beside you, and you kept your gaze down, eyes glued to the helmet rested in your lap. 

“How are you holding up?” Pepper’s voice was quiet, hesitant. She was especially cautious with you for the last few days, afraid to further upset you. You couldn’t even count how many times you burst into tears out of nowhere, but you always had Pepper to lean on. Like now, as you leaned your head on her shoulder. 

“I just want my dad home.” Your voice cracked as the familiar sting in your eyes returned. You blinked rapidly as you tried not to cry again today. You picked up the helmet and hugged it to your chest. “I want to be on the couch, watching Home Alone, drinking hot chocolate. I want to be home. I miss him, Pepper.” Pepper’s shoulders shook as she tried not to cry, and she hugged you close. 

‘Me too, kid. I miss him too.’ 

-Four-

After everything died down with the Mandarin, your dad returned to the Stark Tower you now called home. It took a while to settle in, even longer with the Avengers frequenting the space, but you had your family- your dad, Pepper, Happy, and Rhodey. Even JARVIS in his own special way was an important part of your life and family. But history has a way of repeating itself. Right as you developed a new routine and sense of normalcy, shit hits the fan. This time it was Ultron. 

~~~

You were seated beside Maria as you and the team were on the balcony after one of your dad’s parties. You watched in amusement as Clint, your father, Rhodey, and Steve attempted to lift Mjolnir to no avail. The group talked and laughed, until the battle with Ultron started. 

“Hill! Get Y/N out of here, now!” Tony yelled. 

“Dad, no!” You started to go after your dad, and Maria grabbed your arm. 

“Y/N. You can’t fight with them. I need to get you out of here, please don’t make me carry you.” You paused before nodding, and you followed Maria to safety. Hours later, you were on the phone with your dad. 

“I’m sorry, kid. I only have a minute until I have to go off the grid.” Your eyes burned as you blinked away tears. “I’ll be home as soon as I can.”

“You promise? All in one piece?” You asked

“Maybe two.” You choked out a tearful laugh at your dad’s answer and took a deep breath. 

“I love you, Dad. Please, be safe.”

“I promise.”

~~~

You woke up with a gasp and clutched at your chest as you caught your breath. You flipped your phone over, three in the morning. 

“Miss Stark?” FRIDAY, your dad’s new AI, asked. Before the first fight with Ultron, JARVIS had been pretty much destroyed. Then FRIDAY was born. “Your heart rate has greatly increased and your oxygen levels have slightly decreased. Shall I call Ms. Potts for medical attention?”

“No, no, no. No, please. I’m okay, just... a bad dream is all. Nothing new.” You grabbed your cup of water that sat on the nightstand and took a large gulp, and tried to calm yourself down. You also turned on your lamp, the small bulb casting a warm glow around you. 

“Do you frequently have nightmares, Miss Stark?” 

“Y/N, please. Sometimes. Usually my dad is here and he helps me calm down. He’d sit with me; sometimes we’d watch the TV for a while, or he’d read to me until I fell asleep again.“ You pulled your blanket closer to you, a wave of sadness hitting you. “I wish he was here.”

“I’m positive Mr. Stark will be home as soon as he can, Y/N.” A pause. “What did Mr. Stark read to you when you couldn’t sleep?”

“We’ve been reading the Percy Jackson books lately. We just finished the second book the other night.” You laid back in bed and let your eyes close, and you willed yourself to fall back asleep. 

“‘The Friday before winter break, my mom-’” FRIDAY started to speak and your eyes snapped open. 

“What are you doing, Fri?”

“Reading book three, The Titan’s Curse.” FRIDAY answered as if it was the obvious answer. 

“But... why?” 

“You said your father would read to you whenever you had nightmares. Mr. Stark can’t be here, so I thought I could start reading the book to you. Hopefully he won’t be too upset that you started without him.” You smiled at how genuine and caring FRIDAY sounded and closed your eyes again. 

“That can be our little secret. Sorry for interrupting, FRIDAY. You can keep reading if you’d like.” 

“Certainly. ‘The Friday before winter break, my mom packed me an overnight bag and a few deadly weapons and took me to a new boarding school. We picked up my friends Annabeth and Thalia on the way.’” FRIDAY continued to read and you shortly fell asleep, a smile on your face. “Goodnight, Y/N.” 

-Five-

You knew things would change after the battle with Ultron in Sokovia. You had just greatly underestimated how different things would be. One change was the new additions to the team- Vision and Wanda. While you got along well with them, not even your friendships could blind you to the tensions between your unconventional family. The already seldom group meals became even more rare the silence would be unsettling. If it wasn’t silent, there was arguing that you couldn’t escape. 

Another change was the lack of Pepper in Tony’s life and subsequently your life. Pepper always tried to be there for you, even called you often and invited you to her office for lunch, but it wasn’t the same at home without her. Your dad was suffering from the loss more than he was letting on, and you had to be there for him as well. 

~~~

“I’m a grown man, Y/N. I can take care of myself.” Tony said as he looked at you, and you set a plate and a glass of water down on his workshop table. 

“I know you can, but will you?” Tony scowled at you, but you could see the gratitude in his eyes.

“Don’t know what I’d do without you, kid.” You smiled and hugged your dad tight. 

“Probably fall apart.” You said with a playful smile. “Good thing you’ll never have to find out.” You let go of Tony and walked towards the exit. “Finish up soon, or I’ll have FRIDAY shut the power off.” 

~~~

Things got worse when the Sokovia Accords were brought into play. Your family was torn apart by the decision whether or not to sign, with your dad being one of the few to sign and Cap being one of the few against the Accords. Throw in Clint’s retirement and the team you knew was no more. Tony knew this, and he made a trip to Queens for recruitment. 

~~~

“Where are you going?” You sat up from your spot on the couch. 

“Queens.” Tony walked over and took a seat beside you. “I’ve had FRIDAY tracking crime statistics, pair that with trending searches after these crimes, and I think we may have found someone in Queens that could be helpful.” Tony pulled his phone out of his pocket and projected a video for you. You tilted your head as you watched the person (definitely my age, you thought) in their makeshift suit swinging around the city, and your jaw dropped when you saw them catch a car with their bare hands. 

“And how exactly did you find out who they are? Under the suit?” 

“Classified.” Tony tapped the tip of your nose, and you swatted his hand away with a playful glare. 

“Hope you have a way to convince his guardians to speak with him, let alone go with you to fight against the rogues.” You laid back down and cuddled your blanket.

“Have we met? I always have a plan.” Tony stood up. “You’ll be okay on your own?”

“Have we met?” You copied him and Tony rolled his eyes. 

“Brat.”

“Old man.”

“I’m running away!” Tony called out as he walked to the elevator. 

“See you in a few hours.” You closed your eyes, and let sleep take over. 

~

“I wish I could go with you. We haven’t been to Germany in so long.” You sat on a workshop bench as your dad finished tweaking the web shooters for Spider-Man’s new suit. 

“As soon as everything is calm again, we’ll have a vacation wherever you want. Just us, I promise. It has been too long since we’ve spent time together without work getting in the way.” You could hear the guilt in your dad’s voice and you smiled sympathetically at him. 

“I know you’ll make it right, Dad. You always do.”

~~~

Before you knew it, your dad and the remaining team members were off to Germany for the fight against the rogues. Happy stayed behind, which you said was completely unnecessary, per your dad’s request. Just in case, he had said. He’ll only be a call away. And it’s a good thing he did. 

———

“Happy?” You groaned and held your phone to your ear. “I think I need the hospital.” That was nearly an hour ago. Now, you laid in a stretcher, being wheeled to the operating room, as Happy waited in the lobby the emergency room. Your stomach had been aching all day and it got worse as the day progressed. 

“Sounds like appendicitis. We’ll need to remove her appendix as soon as possible.” The rest of the conversation faded into the background, as did the preparation for your surgery. 

“Alright, Miss Stark.” The surgeon spoke as she administered the anesthesia. “Count down from five for me. Can you do that?”

“Five...” Your eyes closed. “Four... three...” And you slipped into darkness again. 

(In the waiting room...)

“Guess it’s a good thing you stayed behind.” Happy held his phone against his ear, Pepper speaking on the other end of the line. “How is she?”

“Surgery should be finishing up soon. I’ll call you again when I’ve seen her. I’m sure she’d appreciate seeing you when she’s home.” Happy glanced at the door, anxious to see your surgeon again. 

“The minute she’s ready for visitors, I’ll be there.” Muffled voices in the background. “Keep me posted, please? I have to go.”

“I will. Bye, Pepper.” The two exchanged goodbyes just in time for the surgeon to walk over. 

“Mr. Hogan? Miss Stark is waking up. I’ll walk you to her room.”

~

“Hey, kid.” Happy spoke quietly and took a seat in the chair beside your bed. 

“Happy...” You smiled and struggled to keep your eyes half open. “You’re here.”

“Where else would I be?” Happy could see the gears in your brain working after the question. 

“Dunno. Just happy you’re here.” You giggled tiredly. “Happy that Happy’s here. Happy, happy, happy.” Your voice trailed to a whisper and you were quiet for a minute. “Happy?”

“Yes, Y/N?” You turned to face Happy, and his eyes met yours. 

“Thank you. For always being here for me.” 

“Always will be, Y/N/N.“ Happy watched as your eyes closed, the smile still on your face. 

“Like a family. You’re my family, Hap. And I love you.” It was Happy’s turn to smile, and he leaned down and pressed a chaste kiss to your forehead. 

“I love you too, kid.” He hoped you heard him before you fell asleep. 

-One Time He Was There-

“Peter!” You laughed as the brunette led (dragged) you through the hall of his apartment building, and you looked at the doors you passed on the way to his. “Slow down, I’m going to trip!”

“I’ll catch you.” Peter replied but slowed down. “Sorry, I’m just excited.”

“For pizza at your aunt’s?” You stopped walking and Peter nodded. The slight twitch of Peter’s eye didn’t go unnoticed- his nervous tic. What can you say? Natasha trained you well. 

Happy had dropped you off at the Parker’s apartment last night, giving you an excuse about some business trip him, Pepper, and your dad had planned over the weekend. You insisted you could stay home alone, but when Tony mentioned staying with Peter, you couldn’t pass up the opportunity to spend time with your best friend. You two had spent all of the day together, Peter showing you around the city Spider-Man style. Holding onto Peter while he swung across the city was your favorite way to travel now. 

After the battle in Germany, the team had all gone separate ways. The loss was hard on both you and your father, and the addition of Peter to your life (and Pepper rejoining) made everything easier. You quickly became friends with the teen, grateful to have someone your age to spend time with. And he was ridiculously attractive, not that you’d say it out loud. After all the time you two had talked and spent together, you grew close to Peter and him to you. And for him right now, that was a curse. 

“Are you hiding something from me, Peter?” You asked. 

“Absolutely not. I wouldn’t hide anything from you. I’m a horrible liar, you know that. I start talking a lot, talking really fast-“ 

“Like you’re doing right now?” Peter scoffed at your question. 

“You have no faith in me. Come on, we don’t want to be late.” Peter continued walking and led you to his apartment door. 

“It’s okay if we’re late, I doubt May ate all of our dinner by herself.” You walked into the apartment with Peter, confused why the lights were off. You turned the lights on and...

“Surprise!” You jumped from the cheers and grinned at the sight. Your dad, Pepper, Happy, and May stood in the living room wearing party hats. A homemade “Happy Birthday” banner hung in the living room, and there were containers of your favorite takeout and a birthday cake on the coffee table. 

“Oh, my God.” You looked around the room. “Guys.” You whispered and your eyes watered as you turned to Peter. “This is why we spent the day in the city?”

“Had to keep you outside so they could get everything set up.” You hugged Peter tight, and Peter gladly returned the hug. “It was all your dad’s idea. He wanted to surprise you for your birthday.” Peter spoke softly as he rubbed your back. You pulled away after a moment and walked to your dad. 

“You did all this for me?” Your bottom lip trembled as you blinked back tears. 

“Of course I did, Y/N. You’re my daughter, my heart. You deserve the best, this is the least I could do.” Your dad opened his arms and you flung yourself into his arms. “I don’t have the best track record of being here when you need me. But I promise I’ll do better. Be the dad you deserve.” You let out a muffled sob, your face buried in your dad’s shirt. 

“Please, just more days like today.” You whispered and Tony nodded, pressing a tender kiss to the top of your head. You stepped away after a minute and wiped your eyes. “Thank you all so much. I’ll cry all over the rest of you later.” Laughter sounded through the room as you stood by your dad’s side. 

“We have plenty of time, Y/N. Now, let’s eat dinner. I nearly had to lock Tony outside to keep him from eating the cake.” Pepper said and walked to the living room, everyone but your dad following. 

“Dad? Come on.” Your dad looked nervous and you started to question him, until Pepper yelled. 

“Anthony Edward Stark, did you-?!”

“Gotta run!” You laughed as Pepper reprimanded Tony, and you sat on the couch with Peter and May. Maybe your family wasn’t conventional, and maybe your dad was busier than most. But when he was there, you were the happiest you could be, and you wouldn’t trade him for the world. Even when he stole a slice of your birthday cake before you could. Punk.

Taglist: @daughter-of-stark @agent-barnes40 @spideygirl2003 @ditttiii @missmulti @5aftermidnight ❤ Taglist and requests are open! Hope you guys enjoyed this because I loved it

[msmarvelouswinchester]

Lost In Translation - 2

Summary - Jensen comes to India and falls in love with a fan who accidentally sees him while he's lost and saves him cause she knows Hindi.

Pairing - Jensen Ackles x Indian!Reader

Warning - Fluff, fluff and fluff.

Word Count - 2.4k+

Square filled - Date Night ( @spndeanbingo )

A/N 1 - I finally decided to add a second part to this fic! I had fun writing in Hindi and English in Indian dialect and I am incredibly happy at how the fic turned out.

Spn divider by the talented @talesmaniac89

A/N 2- For all the non-Indian readers, a little info on some of the food names used in the story -

Rosogolla - It is also called Rasgulla. It's a famous sweet of India which is a speciality of Kolkata (West Bengal). It's a spongy, white, ball shaped dumplings made from chhena (An Indian cottage cheese)

Pulao - It is a famous one pot rice dish made by cooking fragrant basmati rice with aromatic spices, herbs and sometimes stocks.

Butter Chicken - It is an Indian dish made by marinating a chicken overnight in a yoghurt and spice mixture. The chicken is then roasted or baked. A sauce is made from butter, tomatoes, almonds and various spices, usually including the famous tandoori masala spice mix, and sometimes cream.

Vada Pav - Vada pav, alternatively spelt vada pao is a vegetarian fast food dish native to the state of Maharashtra. The dish consists of a deep fried potato dumpling placed inside a bread bun (pav) sliced almost in half through the middle.

Part 1

“Y/N! Listen to me, beta!” your mom exclaimed over the phone.(child)

“What is it, Ma? You know I can't cancel the date with him,” you told your mother, as you gave your makeup some final touches.

“Aise kaise tu us ladke ke saath ja rahi hai? Acche se pehchanta hai usko? How come you are going on a date with an absolute stranger?” your mother asked. (How are you going out with that boy? Do you even know him properly?)

“Ma, he is a really good man. Stop worrying about me now,” you tried to assure her.

“Lekin tere baba ko kaun samjhayega? It doesn't feel safe. What if he is a-” (Who will convince your father?)

“Ma! You know what, I will call you later! I am getting late and I don't want to keep Jensen waiting,” you said and went to your room to get your purse.

“Just call me when you get home. Call me if anything suspicious happens. Call me-”

“Ma!” You let out a defeated sigh, “Bye!” You said and disconnected the call. You shook your head at your mother's outburst even though you knew she would behave like that but you weren't going to cancel on Jensen just because your Mom didn't agree. You weren't a little girl anymore who needed her mother's permission for every single matter.

You groaned when you felt your phone buzzing again in your hands, interrupting your train of thoughts. You didn't want to talk to your mother again but you looked at your phone only to see Jensen calling you.

“Hey sweetheart,” your heart fluttered in your chest as soon as you heard his voice.

“Hey,” you greeted, “I am waiting for my Uber and-”

“No uhm..I'll pick you up,” he said.

“You don't know my address.”

“Uh-yeah,” he chuckled, “you can text me your address and Clif will drive over and I can pick you up.”

“It's okay, Jensen. I know my way-”

“No, just text me the damn address, y/n,” he said and you heard a muffled voice over the phone.

“Okay, if you insist,” you said, making him chuckle.

“I insist, sweetheart,” he chuckled, “see you in a little while.”

You disconnected the call. Texting him your address, you hoped that he doesn't get lost.

You spent the next hour checking your makeup and dress, trying to look perfect and occasionally going through your phone. You smiled as you saw the pictures from the con, as you scrolled through the gallery of your phone. You thought back to the day before the con, when out of pure luck Jensen had bumped into you, looking like a lost puppy. Your thoughts were interrupted by the sound of your doorbell. You walked towards the door and opened it.

“I thought you got lost,” you giggled, “again.”

“That was one time,” Jensen groaned, making you laugh.

“You look beautiful, sweetheart,” he said, flashing you his signature smile.

“Thanks. You don't look bad yourself,” you blushed.

“Ready to go?” He asked.

“Haan, one minute,” you said. (Yes, one minute) You went back inside and retrieved your purse and phone and approached the front door again. You stepped out of the door and felt Jensen hands snaking across your waist. Biting your lower lip, you locked the door to your house.

“After you,” he whispered and guided you to his car. He opened the door to his car and you slipped inside it, Jensen climbing into the seat beside you.

“Where to, Miss-” Clif asked, trailing off at the end.

“Call me Y/N,” you said and told him the name of the restaurant as he set the GPS.

You looked to your side and saw Jensen watching you with a soft smile on his face. Your breathing hitched as he entangled his fingers with you. The car ride was filled with a comfortable silence only to be broken by Clif’s voice as he pulled the car to the side, announcing that you had arrived.

Jensen climbed out of the car, and waited as you got out of the car. He took your hands into his and started walking towards the restaurant.

“Table for two,” you said and the waiter guided you both over to a table.

“About that sudden change in plans,” Jensen said, as you both took a seat at the table, “Jared insisted that I take Clif with me because he was worried that I-”

“You would get lost again?” You giggled.

“....not really.” He cast his eyes down, as he spoke softly.

“What is it?” You asked.

“Jared-he is….uhm-he's a little wary about you, it's nothing, he is just looking out for me….you know,” the actor hesitated.

“I-I totally understand,” you said, making him look up to you, “I do. He doesn't know me, you are in an unknown country. I would feel the same too but I won't kidnap you.”

“I was hoping you would,” Jensen tsked, a smile slowly spreading on his face.

“I can but who will finish the show then?” you smirked.

“Now I think you only agreed to go on a date with me because of the show,” He feigned hurt.

“What can I say? I need to know what happens to a certain hunter.”

“A certain hunter, huh?” He smirked, as a waiter approached your table handing you guys a couple of menus.

“Yeah.” You saw his smile getting bigger, “those luscious locks of hair of Jared are really captivating and his hazel eyes.” You saw as his smile dropped and you couldn't help yourself as you laughed but he quickly recovered.

“Well I can't really blame you, I also tend to get lost in those eyes,” he joked, making you laugh harder.

“If I'm not wrong, this is your first time in India. Are you enjoying yourself?” You asked.

“Not gonna lie, I'm slowly starting to fall in love with India,” he replied.

“She is beautiful,” you remarked, and looked down to see the menu in front of you.

“Beautiful indeed,” Jensen said, only for you to look up to see him staring at you with fondness in his eyes. Your cheeks turned pink under his gaze and you gave him a soft smile. He dropped his gaze and started to skim through the menu.

“Considering this is my first time here, what Indian cuisine is a must have for me?” He asked.

“I like it that you are willing to try an Indian cuisine,” you smirked.

“When in India, do as the Indians do,” the actor said.

“Okay but do you think you can handle the spice?” You smirked.

“Are you challenging me sweetheart?”

“I'm not but I don't think you can handle our spicy dishes,” you said, raising an eyebrow.

“Bring it on. How spicy can it be?”

“Oh you have no idea but I'll go easy on this one with you and I would suggest you order Pulao which is a rice dish and Chicken Tikka Masala,” you said as he nodded.

“Have you ever been to the US?”

“Nope.” You shook your head, “But I want to. I really want to see the Grand Canyon.”

“That's a good choice,” he said.

“And maybe catch a show on Broadway-” your words were cut off as a waiter approached the table and you had to give him your food orders.

“I would gladly be your tour guide when you come to the US with a special tour around Texas,” he winked, making you smile.

“Maybe I'll call you up when I visit the US."

“I do want to ask you one thing. A lot of fans here recommended me something….a sweet, maybe-uh….something called Ros-roso-”

“Rosogolla. It's a sweet which is a specialty of my state. You have to try it. Tell me something, did you try the Vada Pav, considering you had a con in Mumbai?”

“Vada-what?”

“Vada Pav. You didn't try that? Really? Not even Jared?”

“No because we were always on the go go go and finally tonight we got some time off since Kolkata is our last pit stop before I have to fly back to Texas,” Jensen replied.

The night went on as you two got to know each other better. Your cheeks had started to hurt by how much you were smiling at his words. You were quite surprised at how well Jensen handled the food at first but you completely lost when he reached for the glass of water as soon as he had taken one bite of the chicken dish.

“Son of a bitch, why is this so damn spicy?” He jad exclaimed, making you burst out in laughter.

The rest of the night was filled with conversations about casual subjects about friends, family and work life. You didn't even realise how the time flew by and the time with him came to an end. As you two were leaving the restaurant, Jensen took your hand into his, entangling your fingers with his.

The car ride was filled with silence except the occasional small talk between you and Jensen. After sometime, the car came to a halt in front of your house.

“I am flying back tomorrow morning,” he whispered as you approached your house.

“I enjoyed a lot tonight Jensen. Thank you.”

“No thank you. You made this weekend a really special one,” he smiled, making you blush and look down to the ground. He put a finger under your chin, prompting you to look up at him.

“Can I?” He asked and you nodded.

He cupped your face with his hands and tilted his head, slowly leaning into you. He pressed his lips onto yours. The kiss was slow and passionate and he took his sweet time to explore your mouth. You gripped onto his biceps to keep yourself steady. You closed your eyes, feeling yourself get lost in the kiss. Growing up in an Indian household meant you had strict parents and a nonexistent dating life. You always used to dream about that perfect man in your life, the perfect date, the perfect kiss - would it it be like the scene from your favourite Bollywood movie “Jab We Met” when Geet realises her love for Aditya and runs after him to profess her love or would it be like the last scene from “Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge” where Simran gets the happy ending with Raj?

But that moment, at your doorstep, when your lips met with Jensen's, all those thoughts had left your mind because now you knew everything - the perfect man, the perfect date and the perfect kiss.

“Hi,” you said as he finally let go of your lips. Caressing your cheek with his thumb, he placed a kiss to your forehead.

“I want to make this work, Y/N/N,” Jensen spoke, his voice barely a whisper.

“But you will be in Texas and Vancouver, I will be in India. How- ”

“Long distance sucks but….come to the US with me,” he said.

“W-what?” You asked, slightly surprised at his wish, “I have my whole life here, Jay. I can't move to the US just like that. It's not a change between two cities. It's literally a change between two countries.”

“Yeah, yeah I get it. I-I shouldn't have made such a stupid suggestion.”

“No. It's not stupid. I just need some time before I move to America. I can't move there immediately.” You said.

“Till then we will try to make this long distance thing work. I am willing to try if you are, sweetheart,” he said.

“I am,” you said and gave him a chaste kiss on his cheek.

“Come to the airport with me tomorrow. I wanna see you again before I fly back,” he said, “I'll pick you up on the way to the airport.”

“Okay but-”

“Nuh-uh.”

“I was gonna say what will happen if you get lost on the way to your airport?” You asked with a straight face.

“I am never gonna live that one down, am I?” Jensen grumbled before laughing loudly.

“Nope,” you giggled.

“I am kinda glad I got lost. I found you,” he said, dipping his head to kiss you again.

“I think you should go now. You have an early flight. I don't want you to miss it,” you mumbled.

“What if I want to miss it?” The actor asked.

“Jay,” you frowned.

“Fine. I just don't want to let go of….this moment.”

“Hey you said it yourself. We'll work through this,” you tried to assure even though your own heart was breaking at the thought of him flying back to Texas. He gave you a quick kiss before making his way back to the car, leaving you standing at your doorstep. You stood there till you couldn't see the car anymore. You felt your phone buzz in your hand and you saw a text from Jensen about when he would pick you up the next day and a good night.

You felt yourself getting teared up. Being in a long distance relationship sucks. It was going to be a tough thing for both of you but you were both willing to work through it and maybe it wouldn't prove to be so hard.

“We'll make it work,” you whispered to yourself while standing at the doorstep like a mantra just like you whispered to Jensen the next day at the airport, as he kissed you one last time.

“I think I'm falling for you,” he whispered back, bumping his nose with yours.

“I am falling for you too, Jay,” you said, your hand fondling his shirt collar.

“Ackles!” The said man looked up and saw his best friend, Jared beckoning to him.

“Call me when you reach Texas,” you said.

“I will,” he said, “Goodbye, sweetheart.”

“Goodbye, Jay,” you said, your voice strained as you tried to keep your tears at bay. You watched as he walked with the other actors, glancing back at you one last time. You smiled at him and waved him a goodbye.

“I think I love you,” you whispered, sighing aloud as he turned around the corner and disappeared. You knew the con weekend would be the best experience in your life but you could have never guessed that it would change your life entirely. Life surely is unpredictable, isn't it?

Let me know how you liked this fic!

Feedback is appreciated!

[plaidbooks]

Everyone Deserves Love chapter 6

A/N: The sexual tension rises! This chapter is a lot of housekeeping and waiting for things to happen, much like how the characters are waiting for shit to hit the fan. Fun fact, for fight scenes in this story, I reenacted them with my mom to make sure they were realistic. Also, the thought of Barba flustered and face first in a wall is highly funny to me.

Previous Chapter | Next Chapter

Tags: briefest of child abuse mention (not explicit), normal SVU stuff, Devon gets a little intense during an interrogation scene, but not too bad

Words: 5k+

Office of Rafael Barba

1 Hogan Place

Monday, April 6th. 1:05pm

  “Whatcha working on?” Devon asked as she shoved the last bit of her sandwich into her mouth. It had been two weeks since the last attack on Barba, and today was the day that they were finally going to go get Devon’s stitches taken out. Thank god, these things itch so bad, she thought, fighting the urge to scratch at her shoulder. She was currently in one of Barba’s chairs, legs draped over one of the arms, back against the other.

Barba glanced up, smirking at her easy-going posture. “Just finishing up this closing statement for tomorrow, then we can leave.” His eyes drifted back to the legal pad in front of him, pen tapping on the desk lightly as he thought.

“Barbs, you’ve been working on that statement for the past hour. If it’s not done yet, then what makes you think it’s gonna be done any time soon?”

He huffed out a laugh. “For someone with unlimited patience in terms of staking out a perp, you have zero patience for paperwork. Now hush and let me finish this.”

Devon rolled her eyes and continued counting the wooden boards in the ceiling. Barba gave her another glance, before shaking his head and continuing on his statement. After spending the better part of three months with the agent, Devon had certainly proved herself to him in terms of her being able to protect him. He felt at ease around her, not nervous or anxious at all, even with a deadly gang still out there. And even though she seemed relaxed, especially now, lounging in the chair, he knew that she was still on high alert, listening for footsteps outside his office. He still had no idea how she heard people approach from so far away, but she always knew when someone was about to enter well in advance. And no matter how she was sitting in a chair, or on his couch, she was always up and by his side before anyone came in, ready to defend. It was weird the first couple weeks, and the people who visited—usually other attorneys or colleagues—always gave her, and Barba, a weird look, and a wide berth.

The first day someone had come in, Devon had her hand on her glock, resting it easily, but not drawing it. The poor paralegal who was just delivering a message almost passed out at the sight of it.

“We need a code word…for when someone comes in that you don’t know,” Devon had mentioned after the white-faced messenger left.

Barba raised his eyebrows. “You know, I’m not going to know everyone who comes into my office. I didn’t even know that guy. Maybe you should just not grab you gun?”

Devon shot him a glare at that. “And leave you unprotected? No thanks. Like Han Solo, I plan on shooting first.”

 “I—did you really just make a Star Wars reference? Really?” Devon smirked at him. “No, you don’t need to shoot anyone in here.”

And that was that. They never made a code word, but Devon did stop reaching for her gun when people came into his office. Though, she did still stand by his desk and glared at everyone who entered, daring them to try anything.

“You know, you haven’t written anything in ten minutes,” Devon said, snapping Barba back to the present. He looked at his legal pad, at the words, the scribbles, the scratched-out phrases. Suddenly, inspiration hit; he knew exactly how to finish his closing statement. He furiously started writing, cursing his hand for not being able to keep up with his thoughts. After a few moments of scribbling down some last-minute thoughts, Barba put down his pen.

 “Done. Let’s get you to the hospital,” he announced; he could read over it again later that night, at home. He stood, gathering his things. Devon got out of the chair, stretching with her full body—right arm being able to lift high above her head. She scrunched up her face as she stretched, making a weird, groaning noise, then releasing the tension in her limbs.

“Feeling better?” Barba asked, amused.

 “Much,” Devon replied, smiling. Sleeping on a too-small couch for the past ten weeks hasn’t been the best for her back, but like hell would she admit that to him, especially after their last fight about it. He still tried to force her to sleep in his bed—with him taking the couch, of course—at least once a week, to which she denied him every time. She definitely appreciated the thought, but she was there to protect him, to make him comfortable, not the other way around.

Mercy Hospital

Monday, April 6th. 2:37pm

It was something else to have left the office while the sun was still high in the air; Barba had taken a half day just to make this hospital trip with Devon. It shocked her just how much it meant to her that he took time off to go with her, even though she had offered to have Detective Amaro or Fin cover at his office while she got the stitches out.

 “I need the time off, if I’m being honest,” Barba had said. “I’ve been working too much recently.”

Devon rubbed her arm nervously. “Are you sure? I still feel bad that you’re using vacation time for this.”

Barba waved her off. “Don’t feel bad; I got over a month in vacation days saved. Besides, we’ve been having too much takeout. Why don’t we do some grocery shopping after the hospital? I’ll make one of my mom’s special recipes.”

 “Wait; you cook? And we’ve been eating shitty takeout for months?”

Barba laughed. “Yes, I cook. I just haven’t been allowed to go to the grocery store,” he gave Devon a playful glare. “Besides, I haven’t had the time.” It was true; it was rare that they made it back to his loft before 9pm.

She thought about it, weighed the options of going to the store, about how likely it was that he’d be attacked there. “Fine, but let’s stock up so we don’t have to go back for a while. Plus, I’m going to introduce you to this magical thing called Instacart….”

When the nurse came to get Devon, Barba looked like he was going to stay out in the lobby. Devon only needed to give him a stern look to have him following them back to the room.

 “Family only,” the nurse was starting to say.

 “He’s my, uh, boyfriend,” Devon blurted out. Besides the red creeping up her neck, she kept a straight face. Barba, however, raised an eyebrow, face flushed.  He opened his mouth to say something, thought better of it, and closed his mouth again.

The nurse gave them both a look. “Alright…,” she replied, motioning for Devon to sit on the raised medical table. Barba sat in the chair in the corner, trying to melt into the wall. After the nurse checked Devon’s blood pressure, throat, and ears, she informed them that the doctor would be there in a moment, and to take off her shirt and change into the hospital gown.

“Boyfriend, huh?” Barba asked as soon as the door was closed, not quite making eye contact. “Amaro and Rollins are going to have a field day if they hear about this.”

 “Look, it was easier than explaining the whole ADA-being-threatened-by-a-gang-thing, okay?” Devon said, taking her shirt off. Barba groaned and turned to face the wall.

 “I feel like I’m in a bad romcom,” he mumbled, voice slightly muffled by the wall.

Devon’s face grew warmer, but she smiled at the sight of Rafael Barba, master attorney, face first in the corner of the room. He was too damn cute when he was flustered. Devon smacked the thought away. “At least you didn’t blow your cover.”

 “After this, we never speak of this again.”

Once in the gown, Devon sat back on the table. Barba eventually turned back around to face the room, face not quite as bright, and they waited for the doctor in awkward silence.

Apartment of Rafael Barba

Monday April 6th. 4:30pm

 The grocery store was largely uneventful. Devon was on high alert the whole time, as per usual, while Barba seemed undisturbed, walking up and down the aisles, grabbing supplies.

“How have you not had a heart attack with how tense you are?” he jokingly asked.

Devon rolled her eyes. “It’s a skill, I guess.” Though, she seemed to relax after that, if only just a little bit.

Once back in Barba’s loft, he changed out of his court suit and into slacks and a simple t-shirt, and started getting to work prepping dinner. Devon grinned; she secretly loved when he wore casual clothes. Even on his days off, when they stayed in the apartment watching TV or catching up on work, he normally wore a polo shirt, or a less fancy dress shirt.

“I hope you don’t mind eating a little late tonight,” he called from the kitchen as he cubed the steak.

“Like we don’t every night?” Devon called back, grinning.

Barba huffed at that. “Fair enough.” After a few moments of them both working in silence, Devon picked up her laptop and moved into the kitchen. It was a decent sized kitchen, big enough that he could work on the counter, chopping and marinating ingredients while she hopped up on the opposite counter, typing away on her laptop, a small island in between them. Every now and again, she’d glance up at Barba working, appreciating how deftly his hands moved from meat to garlic to limes. He had rice already steaming and black beans cooking at a low temperature.

“Did your mother teach you to cook a lot of meals?” Devon finally asked, reports long forgotten.

“A few. My abuelita taught me more, but my father didn’t like the idea of a man stuck inside cooking all day,” Barba replied bitterly.

Devon was going to drop it, to leave the conversation there. She wasn’t quite sure why she opened her mouth, but she found herself saying, “neither parent taught me to cook. But, if dinner wasn’t done before father got home, then there would be hell to pay. Sometimes, mother would be too drunk; she’d be passed out before he got home, so I taught myself to cook basic meals…just something quick and easy, before father got home.”

The silence that followed this statement was deafening. Devon’s face flushed as she realized what she had told him, what she had let loose; she didn’t let people know about that time in her life. She was still reeling from the fact that she even spoke when Barba answered in the softest voice.

“Seems like we both had shitty fathers.”

Such a simple statement, yet Devon felt closer to the counselor. They did let the conversation die there, though, neither one wanting to delve deeper into their traumatic pasts; that would be a conversation for another day. Devon swore she could still feel Barba’s touch, the ghost of his fingertip as he trailed it along the scar on her back all those weeks ago, and she shuddered. Maybe they would continue the conversation.

“So, what’s the name of this dish?” Devon asked, pushing all of that out of her mind. She lightly jumped down from the counter, moving to stand next to Barba. She watched as he moved the marinated meat into the pan with a loud sizzle.

“Bistec de palomilla. It’s simple, but delicious. It won’t be nearly as good as mí Mamí makes, but hopefully it’ll still be good.”

Devon smiled; it was endearing that he called his mom “Mamí.” She had the sudden urge to wrap her arms around his shoulders, to lean her head against his. Fighting this urge, she went back to her forgotten laptop, pretending to type on it. “I’m sure it’ll be great. It already smells amazing.”

“Garlic cooking always smells amazing,” he commented matter-of-factly. She nodded, then snatched her laptop and moved back to the living room. She wasn’t sure what was happening to her. I’ve never had someone cook dinner for me before. That must be it, she thought. It had to be. Why else was she feeling so touched, so excited by a simple dinner?

Dinner, as predicted, was amazing. Devon had to restrain herself from shoveling the food into her mouth faster than she could taste it.

“If this isn’t as good as your mom’s, then I’m going to have to try her version,” Devon said in between bites.

Barba gave her an amused smile. “Usually, we marinate the meat much longer, but I didn’t have the time. One day, I’ll have to make you ropa vieja…maybe on a weekend when I have time to slow roast the meat.”

“I will eat anything you make,” she promised, causing him to chuckle warmly. They talked about food for a little, including Barba raving about his abuelita’s tamales, before they fell silent once more.

Barba cleared his throat awkwardly. “Did you, uh, want to talk about your parents? Because I’m all ears if you did.”

Devon choked on a piece of rice, sputtering. “N-not really,” she coughed out. Once she composed herself, she asked, “why, did you want to talk about your father? Cause I promise I won’t judge you.”

He should’ve known she’d turn it back on him; she always did when he asked about her parents. He should’ve just taken the little bit of information he got earlier, been happy with that. She’d talk about it when she wanted to…if she wanted to.

“Look, I’m not going to push it. I just want you to know that I’m here if you wanted to talk,” he replied gently. Barba’s phone chimed, mercifully saving Devon from responding. A moment later, her phone went off, too.

“Seems Liv wants us to stop by tomorrow,” Devon reported, reading over the text.

“Seems like it,” he agreed. The tension didn’t go away, so Devon stood, grabbing her plate and taking his empty one, heading to the kitchen. She made it to the sink, turning on the water, and started washing the dishes.

“You don’t have—” Barba started, following her to the kitchen, before Devon cut him off.

“You cooked. I’ll clean,” she said simply. He just stood in the doorway, watching her until her hands began to shake in a panic that she hadn’t felt in decades. It’s just Barbs, not father, she thought, but it didn’t stop her heart from beating faster. Finally, he left the kitchen, heading back to the living room and pulling some files out of his case. Once the dishes were done, Devon joined him, taking her usual spot in the armchair, laptop out, and typing away.

SVU Department

Tuesday, April 7th. 10:08am

This had been the most relaxed Devon had felt since taking on the job of protecting Barba. Which wasn’t saying much; she’d seen people sneak guns into the precinct before, perps and suspects alike lashing out and hurting those around them. But it was nice having a room full of detectives around. So, when Olivia asked to speak to Devon in her office, alone, Devon had no qualms with leaving the ADA with the squad; they were going over some case, anyways.

“So, how’s the 24/7 going?” Olivia asked as Devon closed the door behind her.

Devon took the seat across from the Sergeant. “Ah, it’s been going well. No attacks since the Olivera brothers, though that’s just making me more anxious than anything.”

Liv nodded in agreement. “You’re worried that they’re planning something?”

“Why else take this long? Have you heard anything?”

Olivia let out a breath, leaning back in her chair. “No, I haven’t. I don’t know how such a low-ranking bunch of kids are keeping their mouths shut. No one’s talking.”

Devon thought for a moment. “Want to let me have a go at one of them? Whoever you think might be a weak link. I’ll just need someone to watch Barba for a bit while I interrogate them.”

Olivia gave Devon a long look, trying to judge what her real intentions were. “I trust that you know we do not harm the people we’re interrogating?”

Devon gave her a grin. “I know that, and you know that, but they don’t need to know that, right?” That seemed like the correct answer, because Olivia nodded, standing. Devon stood up with her, followed her out of her office. Liv glanced over at the squad; they were in the bullpen, discussing the rape case that Barba was initially called in for today. Seemingly satisfied that they would be there for a while longer, Liv led Devon to interrogation 1, both of them missing the fact that Barba turned at the last moment to see them entering the room, his brow furrowing.

“I didn’t know you had one here now,” Devon said, silently wishing she had her knife; the EMT never got back to her on it, and the small dagger she was using as a replacement was quicker, yes, but paltry in comparison.

“Tony Garcia--we only have him until tomorrow morning. Then he goes to Rikers. If you’re going to get anything, it’s going to be now.” Olivia leveled a heady stare at the agent. “Look, I’m going to let you take point on this. But don’t go too overboard, okay?”

Devon nodded, mentally aligning herself with the mean, scary, intimidating Federal agent that she had to be. She’s only done this a handful of times, and every time, it left a bad taste in her mouth; she saw the look that the observers gave her afterwards, the fear that they tried to mask. But they needed answers, and they needed them now.

“Whenever you’re ready,” Liv said. Devon took a deep breath, rolled her neck, then burst through the door, slamming it against the wall. It hit so hard that it ricocheted off the wall, closing harshly behind her. The man in the chair had been slouching before she came in, but now he was sitting ramrod straight, eyes huge.

“Why, hello there, Garciiiiii-ya!” Devon said in the most obnoxious, over-the-top voice she could muster. “I’ve heard that you’ve been a bit of a bad little boy, huh? Not telling the good detectives here anything.”

“What the hell is this?” Garcia asked, looking at the one-way mirror in horror. Good, so the façade was unsettling him. But would that be enough to make him talk? Devon wanted to push him harder.

“No one’s there ta help ya, buddy boy. It’s just you,”—Devon took her knife out and pointed to him—“and me.” She slammed the knife down hard enough that it stuck up straight out of the table, blade sinking into the soft metal a couple of centimeters, the handle far enough out of reach that Garcia, with his hands cuffed to the table, couldn’t grab it. Devon moved to stand right next to the man, uncomfortably close, putting her head right next to his ear, so close that he could feel her breath on him. “Now, are you gonna answer my questions, or am I gonna start taking bits of you?”

Garcia lurched away as if she struck him, trying to put as much space between them as possible.

In the observation room, Olivia watched, listening intently. It was working. As much as Olivia hated watching Devon play this role, it was actually working. Garcia was going to break, he had to—

“What the hell is going on in there?” A voice asked. Liv turned to see Barba sticking his head in. Once he saw the scene unfolding, he came to stand next to the Sergeant, intrigue and a creeping horror rooting him to the spot, like watching a car crash.

“Y-you can’t do that!” Garcia yelled, once again looking towards the mirror. “Please! Someone! Get her away from me!”

Devon chuckled darkly, pulling her knife out of the table and sitting on top of cool metal, using the tip of the dagger to pick under her nails. “I already told you, no one’s there, Tone. It’s just us. So, here’s how this is gonna go; either you start telling me about the Ace’s hit on ADA Rafael Barba, or I’m going to take your pinky. Then your ring finger. And so on and so forth, you get the picture. Now, which hand is your dominant hand?” When Garcia didn’t answer, she reached for his left hand—the hand closest to her.

“Wait! I’ll tell you everything I know! But I’m only a scout; I don’t know much,” Garcia pleaded.

“You have to the count of three,” Devon replied. She stood, gripping his wrist in an iron grip. She was pushing his hand against the table, attempting to get his fingers to lay flat. Garcia was struggling against her, but with his cuffed hands and seated position, he quickly lost. With his fingers splayed on the table, Devon held the dagger poised above his pinky. “One…two—”

“We’ve been waiting!” Garcia yelled, causing Devon to pause. She didn’t release him, continuing to hold the razor-sharp edge an inch from the man’s digit.

“For?”

“Marco to get back into town. He’s the best of the Aces,” he gasped out. Devon thought for a moment, contemplating if she should try and get more out of him now, if he’d shut his mouth later. She had no idea who this Marco was—never saw anything on him in the database.

“When does he get back?”

“I don’t know! I told you, I’m just a scout, I swear!”

“Wrong answer, Tone,” Devon said, repositioning the dagger above him. Instead of more information, though, Garcia just started yelling, begging and pleading for Devon to have mercy on him, that he knew nothing. Just then, the door burst open, Olivia coming in.

“That’s enough, Motely,” she ordered.

Devon let out a disappointed sigh. “You’re no fun, Sarge.” As she was leaving, she turned and winked at Garcia. “Just remember, I work with the FBI. I can find you anywhere.” She gave a little wave and a bright smile, and she thought Garcia was going to faint. Once in the observation room, Devon let her shoulders drop, resheathing her dagger and trying to shake off that persona.

“That was…highly disturbing,” Barba muttered, making Devon jump; she didn’t even notice he was there. Devon was suddenly embarrassed. How much did he see? By the look in his eyes, he had seen enough.

“Yeah, that’s kinda the point,” she replied defensively. “Besides, at least I got a name out of it.”

“Which is better than nothing, but barely,” Olivia announced, coming out of the interrogation room. “Good job in there, Devon. You made the man piss himself.”

She hated the accusatory tone that Liv used; was she really that intimidating? She couldn’t bring herself to look at the counselor, but she felt his gaze on her, examining her. She didn’t think she was that bad. But then, replaying the scene in her mind, maybe she was that bad. Ugh, she needed a shower.

Barba couldn’t look away from the agent, someone who he had thought he had all figured out. You don’t know her as well as you think you do, he thought disparagingly. “Do we know who this Marco is?” He asked, finally pulling his eyes to look at Liv.

“No, but we can find out,” Olivia replied. “I’ll have Rollins look into it, shoot you an update when we have one.”

Barba nodded, then looked at his watch. “Fine. We need to be heading to the courthouse; I have a trial in twenty minutes.” Still avoiding eye contact, Devon led Barba outside to wave down a cab.

They spent the first few minutes in an uncomfortable silence. Devon looked out the window, willing the taxi to go faster, so that Barba would be sucked into court, and she could just sit in the gallery with her shame.

“Where’d you learn to do that?” Barba finally asked, breaking the silence. His voice was low, like he didn’t want the driver to hear him. Like he, too, was embarrassed and ashamed of Devon’s display.

She sighed through her nose, closing her eyes. “Just something I picked up while working.” Hoping he’d drop it, she continued staring out the window. She felt him shift on the seat next to her, but he didn’t ask any more questions.

Courthouse

Tuesday, April 7th. 12:15pm

They made it to the courtroom with five minutes to spare. Barba took his normal spot by the prosecutor’s table, Devon sitting right behind him in the gallery. She was so absorbed in her thoughts, she didn’t pay attention to the trial at all, completely zoning out until the Judge banged her gavel, calling it quits for the day. Devon looked at her phone, shocked to find that it was nearing 5pm. How’d she miss over 4 hours of the day? Focus…she thought to herself, mentally shaking the fog out of her mind. She stood as Barba packed his things, putting the papers neatly away into his attaché.

“Your office next?” she asked; a normal question after a trial. She usually had his schedule memorized, but it changed often, and the visit to SVU had thrown a wrench into the day.

He snapped his case closed, taking the handle and looking up. “Yes. I only have a couple things to work on, then we should be done for the day.”

“Good. That gives me some time to look into Marco,” Devon replied. It’s not that she didn’t trust Rollins and the NYPD’s resources, but she knew that her resources were better. Barba nodded, the same look from the observation room flashing through his eyes for just the briefest moment as he looked at her, then it was gone. Devon swallowed past the lump in her throat, turning to lead him out of the courtroom. After working together so long, she knew the building as well as he did, maybe even better. She had a way of noticing hallways and doors that most people didn’t. She kept at a brisk pace, one that Barba almost had to jog to keep up with.

Office of Rafael Barba

1 Hogan Place

Tuesday, April 7th. 5:15pm

Devon was typing furiously on her laptop, scanning the FBI’s database for any Marco in New York City affiliated with a gang. At first, she simply looked within the Aces, but that search turned out to be futile. It didn’t help that Olivia had texted her as much; Rollins had hit a dead end, and they had no other possible leads on the name. Tony Garcia had refused to answer questions, or to talk at all, anymore. It seemed like he was scared into some sort of stupor, his eyes unfocused and his mouth not forming any words. So, that left Devon to find out what she could on the one lead they did have. And she would find something. She had to. For Barba’s sake.

Ping! A page uploaded. This looks promising…Devon thought, clicking through some files. She found a name, one that had appeared a couple of times in a few homicide cases; Marco Sorrel.

She waited for his page to load, then called, “hey Barbs, come look at this.” She was seated on the couch, Barba at his desk, as per usual. He looked up at her voice, then stood and came over. This was the first time she had spoken since getting back to his office, and he was somewhat relieved to hear her voice. He sat on the couch next to her, huddling close to look at the screen.

There was a picture of the man on the left side of the screen, his profile on the right. The picture showed a Hispanic man in his early 30s with short, black hair. He looked like any face in the crowd, no particular identifying marks outside of mean-looking eyes, and one other thing; he had a tattoo on the right side of his neck: two poker cards, an Ace of Spades and an Ace of Hearts.

“Those tattoos seem a little cliché for someone in a gang called the Aces,” Barba pointed out.

“I’d hate to agree with you, but I do. Tattoos mean nothing, really; just a way to tell him apart from the crowd. Look at this though.” Devon pointed to the other side of the screen, the one with his criminal profile written out.

“Says here that he’s been connected to at least six counts of aggravated assault, and three homicides,” Devon continued. “He’s never been caught; every time he gets cornered by cops, it seems, he shoots his way out of it. Hmmm…no family, no aliases, the guy seems to be unattached.” They sat in silence, letting the weight of Devon’s words sink in.

“That…doesn’t bode well for me,” Barba finally said. He meant it as a joke, but his voice fell flat. “I’m almost glad that whatever persona you had in the interrogation room is at least some part of you.” He wanted to take the words back as soon as he said them. He saw the look on her face, how her eyes seemed to dull slightly.

“You’re right; it’s good that I can scare someone so bad, they urinate. I’ll be sure to remember that when Marco comes after you.”

“Dev, I’m sorry, that’s not what I meant…”

“What did you mean, then? What could you possibly have meant?” Devon asked, voice deadly quiet. She stood, closing her laptop and walking to the other side of the office. Barba cursed himself; he saw how she had collapsed in on herself after the interrogation. How could he have made such a stupid comment?

Barba pulled himself to his feet, took a step towards her, then stopped, running through his words. “I’m sorry that I said that; it was a stupid mistake. Devon, you don’t need a persona to take on Marco. Did you forget how you’ve already saved my life? Twice? Hell, you got stabbed protecting me! I can never thank you enough for what you’ve done for me, what you’ve sacrificed for me. And even before today, some thug like Marco Sorrel wouldn’t scare me, because I know I have you watching my back.”

They stood in silence for a moment, Devon drinking in his words. This was the first time he ever thanked her for her service, ever acknowledged the fact that his life was in danger. She felt familiar butterflies in her stomach, and tears briefly tinged in her eyes. She blinked them away rapidly, not even completely sure why they were there.

Just when Barba was sure Devon wouldn’t respond, she spoke, softly at first. “Look, Barbs…I know this hasn’t been easy on you, as much as you like to act like nothing’s changed. You always seem so calm, collected, and hell, maybe you are. I’ve only known you for a couple months, and only while you’ve had a target on you. And I know that I’m not the easier person to be around,” she shrugged, smiling slightly. “But in this time together, you went from a victim in my mind to a friend. I do actually care about you, about your wellbeing. Unfortunately for you, I’m a ride-or-die friend as it is. So, while I appreciate your words, trust me when I say I’m not ‘sacrificing’ anything by being here for you. I’d be here anyways.”

He had never felt safer in his life, standing in his dimly lit office, staring at this stranger—no, this friend—who had come into his life like a whirlwind. So, this is what it’s like to have someone you can trust with your life, Barba thought. He was suddenly very jealous of Olivia; she had a whole team of people like this? Maybe there was something to this whole “friends” thing that Barba had been missing out on, something he didn’t realize he wanted, needed.

“Thank you,” Barba said sincerely. There was nothing else he could think to say; nothing that could convey his thoughts any better. He gave her a smile, one she returned before taking the few steps to him and enveloping him in a hug. It caught him off-guard—Barba wasn’t much of a hugger—but he returned it, rubbing a small circle into her muscular back. He tucked his face into her hair, breathed in her scent; she felt so strong, so reassuring in his arms. He could have spent a lifetime standing there, holding onto her forever. But just as quickly as it started, Devon was moving away, arms releasing him as she pulled back.

“Sorry, I should have asked before hugging you like that,” she said, cheeks flushed.

“No, no, it’s fine. Really. I don’t mind.” Their eyes made contact, locking them into place. Devon wasn’t sure what she saw there, but she couldn’t force herself to look away. She could still faintly smell his cologne on her, feel where his hand had rubbed her, where his head had rested against hers. Feeling her face heat, she ducked her head, breaking the eye contact.

“Almost done?” She asked, gesturing towards the paperwork still scattered on his desk.

Barba swallowed past the lump in his throat. “Ah, almost. One more opening statement to prep for….”

And just like that, the moment was gone, and they were both back to their spots, Barba at his desk, Devon on the couch, both working away into the night.

[aboyandhisstarship]

Humans are weird: Enhancement/ Ethical...even in the face of armageddon?

It is a common trope in most SCI FI that humans are on the weaker end of most alien species, with the glaring exception of this kind of universe, so simply…the world is slowly uniting and expanding throughout the solar system and you detect ships heading your way…what would you do?  

The woman leaned forward in the cell as the man sighed “doc your attempt to shift blame is not appreciated.”

The doctor spoke calmly “please do not mistake me for some whimpering bug, what I did I did for the human race.”

The man shakes his head “500 individuals and you knew it would kill all of them.”

The doctor sat back “I did, and I would do it again, imagine for a second…that you get woken up in the middle of the night by man in suits informing you that aliens are coming, and we don’t know if they come in peace but more likely they are coming to our world to kill us, would you care about the live of 499 volunteers?”

The man stated “once again, you are over stating the volunteer aspect of the program.”

The doctor smiled coyly

Sometime in the past:

The general looked at the file “are you sure Doctor?”

The woman simply nodded “he is exactly one of the People we need, his skill set plus his compatibility will make him ideal for the project.”

The general sighed “alright, let’s see what he thinks, Send in the Private.” Into his intercom,

Erickson entered standing at attention “you wanted to see me sir?”

The general nodded “indeed private, this is Doctor Vanessa Corbin, and she has a job for you.”

Erickson blinked “sir?”

The doctor spoke clearly “want you are about to be told is highly classified, and cannot leave this room is that understood?”

Erickson stood a little straighter “sir…”

The general briefed “17 hours ago, we detected a fast moving object on radar, moving for the outer edge of the System, officially no comment has been given, however we have been forced to conclude that it is an alien vessel, we are assuming hostile.”

Erickson blinked “why do you need me sir?”

The Doctor smiled “you have a certain rare Gene and the skills Nessacery for what we need.”  

Erickson asked again “what do you need…Ma’am?”

The general cut in “the world powers are in talks to unite facing this threat, and ship building has been on-going for years reverse engineering some crashed alien crafts with the work of Doctor Chekov…what we lack are ground troops. That’s where you and other like you come in.”

The doctor reached out to shake his hand “pack your bags…welcome to Project Centurion.”

 3 days later:

Erickson was in a facility on an island in the pacific ocean, he was the youngest there by at least 3 years, the eighteen year old scout sniper shifted awkwardly as Doctor Corbin appeared “hello to you all, you were brought here from some of the finest special forces on earth, everything from the United states Marine core, to the Special Air service. Time is of the essence so I will not beat around the bush, an group of aliens…possibly an invasion force is inbound and we need to be ready, as such you all be biologically, chemically and Cybernatically enhanced, I need Verbal consent to these procedure’s.”

There was a quiet pause before Erickson spoke up “I consent…”

His consent was followed by everyone else in the new room.

Corbin smiled “well then let’s get started.”

1 month later:

Erickson lay down on a table wearing nothing but his dog tags, as a doctor asked “how are you feeling Private”

Erickson chuckled “my mom is going to kick my ass after this.”

The doc chuckled “if your mom is able to, we didn’t do our job right.”

4 needles lowered toward his arms and legs as Erickson groaned “this is going to hurt isn’t it.”

The doc didn’t sugar coat it “like hell, bite down on this. Putting a piece of rubber into his mouth, he asked “you ready?” glancing over the restraints holding the marine down.

Erickson nodded as the red hot needles entered his limbs emptying their contents as he screamed and bit down hard.

Erickson felt the needles leave his limbs they were numb he could barely feel them as the doc said distantly “how are you feeling private?”

Erickson answered “woozy sir….permission to pass out?”

The doctor laughed “granted son…granted.”

Erickson muttered “thank you sir.” Feeling his eyes roll into the back of his head.

Erickson opened his eyes he was in a hospital bed; all across his body was a series of scars, running down his arms and legs and across his torso, he was muscled before but now he was even more defined he tried to sit up as a nurse rushed in flipping the light switch, wait the room was dark, it looked bright as day as he blinked “uhhh water.” Realizing his throat was dry.

The nurse gave him a glass as he said “I feel weird…”

The nurse nodded “you are not used to your new body, you are stronger faster and enhanced in every way you care to think of.” Erickson answered by vomiting hard.

1 month later:

Erickson was running in full tac gear at a decent pace, 90 kilometers an hour. He was running laps around the island, something that even toughest pre enhancement trooper would not be able to do in less than 3 hours he could due in 45 minutes…if he was taking his time.”

Erickson ran up to the only friend he made in this place, Michelle Galagar was from Australia and seemed to be a fan of all things boom as he accepted her handed water bottle saying “good run?”

Erickson laughed “no is ever going to challenge me to a foot race again.”

Michelle grinned “good feature for our scout to have.”

Erickson ginned “I think so, so you hear?”

Michelle nodded eagerly “they finally built them, power suits! Can you believe it…it’s like a cheesy sci fi show!”

Erickson shook his head “except we are fighting a group of probably hostile aliens.”

Michelle laughed “sure but come on, the rule of cool!”

Erickson shook his head “I’m hitting the showers.”

8 months later, Pluto:

Erickson pulled his fist out of a dead bug looking at the person across from him “you ok ma’am?”

The pilot nodded she was in a blue space suit, contrasting with the larger green suit Erickson was wearing, flight Lieutenant Herndez  nodded “yes, do you have radio contact?”

Erickson sighed “mine got fried on the drop.”

Herndez sighed “well then I guess we are walking back to base camp.”

Erickson grinned “I can carry you ma’am”

Herendez smiled “I will bear that in mind.” As they rounded the corner of a small tunnel they came face to face with the queen with spoke mechanically “we mean you no harm!”

Present day, earth:

The woman in the hospital bed looked like she was in great shape, save for the criss crossing scars across her body, and the oxygen mask on her face.  Erickson plucked down saying “jeez so this is what you got up to instead of doing real work?”

Michelle laughed before coughing “what have I said about not doing that.”

Erickson smiled “sorry Ma’am.”

Michelle dead panned “pretty sure you out rank me now…about that?”

Erickson sighed “they said I had none of the symptoms…yet, but with my luck I will be dead by the end of the week.”

Michelle coughed with a teasing smile “hey I may be dying but no need to be selfish.”

Erickson smiled “what can I say I want all the speaking tours to myself.”

Michelle paused “looks like it won’t be long before you will.”

Erickson nodded “I went to the others, whenever I could, Corbin got arrested after the fifteenth one they tell you?”

Michelle stared like he was an idiot saying “this some kind of cold water memory test, everybody knew about that.”

Erickson sighed “she knew….she knew the older the candidate the sooner it kills us….”

Michelle grinned “how much did they say we cost, a billion per, man the bean counters must have mad as hell.”

Erickson rolled his eyes “yea that’s why they’re mad, not that it was a procedure she knew would kill anyone over the age of 23 within 18 months, and everyone over the age of 20 period.”

Michelle crocked her head “everyone over the age of 20?”

Erickson said lowly “should not tell you this, but apparently part of the reason I was chosen so young…is because it would not kill me, or so she claims…she said the rest of you were…expendable.”

Michelle narrowed her eyes “man I want to kill that bitch.”

Erickson laughed “welcome to the club I have considered using my training but…”

Michelle chuckled “but you got a squad now…you need to take care of them?”

Erickson nodded touching her leg saying “you know what gets me, it was pointless? They wanted peace, it was an accident…power suits alone would have and does do it now…we all died for nothing.”

Michelle pointed out “well it is not known if you will.”

Erickson sighed “I miss them, all of them that war brought us close together…”

Michelle laughed “buck up Ohio, think about it this way, soon you will be the last centurion and that puts you in interesting company.”

Erickson sighed “still never seen doctor who.”  

Michelle grinned “you should watch it with your girlfriend.”

Erickson sighed “Hailey is not my girlfriend.”

Michelle winked “how did you know who I was talking about then.”

Erickson narrowed his eyes “you have been “shipping it” for nine years!”

Michelle coughed “you two were alone in a cave for 3 months, don’t shoot the messenger.”

Erickson groaned “we were with the queen.”

Michelle laughed “Please I have met the queen; she is biggest wing woman in the entire galaxy.”

Erickson “can we please change the subject”

Michelle pouted “hey this is my deathbed, If i want to talk about you pining after a fleet officer I will.”

Erickson countered “I’m not pining.”

Michelle sighed “suuuuurrrrrreeeeeeeee,” Carrying out the word painfully long.

Erickson sighed “you done.”

Michelle sighed “for now, when you shipping out?”

Erickson sighed “tomorrow.”

Michelle smiled “visit me when you get back ok?”

Erickson grinned “wouldn’t miss it.”

 That night:

Erickson com beeped he rolled over in bed answering “Lieutenant Erickson.”

A voice said “hello Lieutenant, this is the nurse’s station at Johnson Memorial hospital….”

Erickson sat up “Michelle!?”

The nurse answered simply “I’m sorry sir Master Sargent Galagar, suffered total organ failure at 0100 hours local time and was declared deceased, she had you as her next of kin…sir.”

Erickson nodded taking a deep breath “thank you nurse I’m sure you did all you could.”

The nurse sighed “she was very sick, but she didn’t suffer at the end, take confront in that.”

Erickson nodded “thank you, I would like her body released for a service with full honors.”

The nurse nodded “we will make the arrangements for her to be released.”

 4 days later:

Erickson was in full dress uniform as he stood at the wake, no one else came of course, she didn’t have anyone else he mused to himself angrily, well that was not entirely true, a few of the big brass made brief appearances but other than that it was just him.

Hailey had been kind enough to extend the crews leave, for him and after 3 hours of standing around in the empty room he left with the coffin to Cemetery.

As the body was lowered he felt a presence behind him his heighted senses telling him who it was saying simply “ma’am.”

Hailey appeared next to him in full uniform as well saying “sorry I missed the wake, ships business….”

Erickson chuckled “thanks for showing up anyway Hailey.”

Hailey sighed “she was my friend to, and you two…I can’t imagine what you went through.”

Erickson sighed “I’m going to talk to her.”

Hailey said quietly “Will….”

Will looked at her “I have to Hail’s this won’t have meaning if I don’t find out why.”

Hailey sighed “you know why.”

Will shook his head “no I don’t, no one but her does, she went through with it knowing it would kill us, and looking back just power suits would have done it…why did she lie?”

Hailey took his hand “the only thing worse than a question is an answer.”

Will returned the squeeze “I have got to do this Hail’s.”

Hailey sighed “just be careful…”

Will grinned “had to eat worms in training, a can of them sounds awfully appetizing.”

Hailey crinkled her nose “Gross….”

Will laughed “talk to you later.”

Hailey nodded “yea will.”

 Prison cell:

Corbin grinned “you consented.”

Erickson countered “you didn’t exactly tell us what we were getting into.”

Corbin smiled “you all joined the military, you don’t do that unless you are willing to die for the greater good…but I doubt you came here to discuss philosophy, so why are you here?”

Erickosn sighed “499 candidate’s you knew would be dead before long, and yet you still went through with it why?”

Corbin sighed “please William such a question is beneath you, you were at the same briefings as me, all those projections…so ask me what you really want to.”

Erickson said simply “why not recruit everyone my age?”

Corbin sighed “no time to train them to be the force we needed, we needed leaders…plus a rare gene profile needed for the chemicals to not kill you instantly, as such a very limited set of population were even valid even fewer in the military and few still with the kind of experice you need to fight an interstellar war, in fact they were exactly 500….”

Erickson scoffed as Corbin smiled “a centurion, the great warrior of the Roman Empire, one of the if not the mightiest on earth.  And that’s what we needed and that’s what I provided, but I was always quite proud of what I accomplished with you…the others were wheat made to harvest, but you I created a true superhuman, healing factor, last projections say you will be able to fight for at least a hundred years if you are so inclined, and if that invasion proved hostile my name would join the likes of Robert Oppenheimer and Werner von Braun! Not being dragged through the mud now.”

Erickson sighed “the Nazi and the man who made nukes, great heroes to have.”

Corbin countered “the rocket scientist that developed technology that kept the cold war cold, and the man who paved the way to unity…yes I believe I would have fit in nicely.”

Erikson countered “but alas, the threat was non-existent and your legacy is paired with the like of doctor Frankenstein and MK ultra.”

Corbin said “did you come here just to insult me?”

Erickson sighed “it seems that we are the last two, Michelle died a few days ago…so just us.”

Corbin nodded “she lasted longer than my projections would have guessed.”

Erickson “sighed so that’s it? Just like that?”

Corbin looked at him “I know about every one of my Centurion’s, I know they all mattered, but we were going to war, and I’ve said it before and I will say so again, 499 deaths are nothing a snow flake on the breeze compared to you, you proved I was right!”

Erickson stood up “you have time to think about that doc…a long time.”

And with that he stood up saying “if they all mattered maybe you should not have thrown their lives away.”

  what do you think?

[minmotl]

Chapter 27: Sui Zhou & Tang Fan Living Happily with Each Other (Among Other Things)

Context: After arresting Li Man (Tang Fan’s ex-landlord) for the murder of his wife, Tang Fan and Sui Zhou are trying to find the man’s missing concubine who is a suspected member of the White Lotus Sect. Li Lin is Li Man’s son, who now owns Ah Dong and the house that Tang Fan was staying in previously. More importantly, Tang Fan moves in with Sui Zhou and begins a life of being pampered by Sui Zhou and Ah Dong.

Introduction Post | Masterpost

—

Highlights under the cut

Sui Zhou lives in a house with three sections and courtyards, if a large family lives here, it would be a tight squeeze for everyone, but if Sui Zhou is the only occupant, then the house is ridiculously spacious. Adding Tang Fan to the house is only too easy; there are three main bedrooms, and three side chambers. Aside from the room Sui Zhou is staying in and the single side chamber he uses for storage, the other two main rooms and smaller chambers are offered to Tang Fan for his choosing.

Note: No rent needed.

Tang Fan never thought of staying for free, but Sui Zhou does not lack his bit of rental money, and even if Tang Fan didn’t move in, Sui Zhou would still be the only occupant in this huge house.

Since Sui-baihu said that he will not take any money from Tang Fan with a cold look, Tang-daren does not insist, but whenever he is free, he will buy some rice and noodles and bring it home, together with some other groceries as well. This is equivalent to taking on the food expenses, and this, Sui Zhou does not refuse.

Tang Fan picked a smaller chamber for his own room, not because he’s being courteous and doesn’t dare to stay in a main room, but because the chamber he’s in faces East, and when he opens his door, he can immediately see the courtyard. The view there is pretty good, and when he’s free, he can even grow various plants and flowers under the pillars of the yard.

On a rest day, Tang Fan moves his thing over.

Li Lin didn’t expect that before he could deal with Tang Fan, the man managed to find new accommodations so soon.

Ah Dong’s situation was solved similarly quick, and while Tang Fan could not  handle this matter directly, Sui Zhou does not share the same concerns as he.

He didn’t even have to turn up to solve this in person. All the guards from the Northern Administrative Court had to do was station themselves at the Li family’s house, saying that Li Man’s case has not yet been solved and that they intend to take some of the people in the house back for questioning. So the guards grabbed Ah Chun, Ah Qiu, Ah Dong and the other servants, then returned them, and then took them back to the court again, then brought them back, and then to the courts again. Just a few trips like that and the Li family was unable to tolerate it anymore. Steward Li spoke to the guards and begged them to show mercy, even shoving two silvers at them, but the guards refused. In the end, the Li family could only give up the slave contracts — not only Ah Dong’s, but even Ah Chun’s.

Lady Zhang is no longer here and Ah Chun is not willing to stay in the Li family. Her greatest wish is to regain her freedom and find someone to marry. Previously, Li Lin wanted her to become his concubine, but she was unwilling, so Tang Fan decided to play Good Samaritan thoroughly. Since he agreed to save Ah Dong, he would bring Ah Chun out as well. Ah Qiu is willing to stay in the Li family, so Tang Fan left her to it.

Within three days, everything is settled and Tang Fan cannot help but sigh in awe of the Northern Administrative Court’s efficiency. Moreover, they can do what others cannot, so it is no wonder everyone’s faces change when they hear of the words ‘Embroidered Uniform Guards’.

Ah Dong was sold to the Li family when she was young, and she has nowhere to go after leaving the Li family. The only thing she can do is come and look for Tang Fan.

However, Tang Fan does not hold onto Ah Dong’s slave contract. He instead burns it in front of her, telling her that he will take her in as his adopted sister. Tang Fan adopts her before she is 15 years old, and after that, if she would like to marry, he will not keep her. When that time comes, he will naturally put together a dowry for her and find her a good family.

Of course, Ah Dong is more than willing and immediately begins to call him da-ge. And for Ah Dong who never had a surname, from now onwards, there is a surname in front of her name - Tang Dong.

The house originally had two adult men who left early and returned late, and the housework was usually done by temporary workers. Even if Sui Zhou knows how to cook, it’s impossible for him to have time to cook everyday. After Ah Dong arrived, they do not even need to hire temporary workers. She cooks the food, took the initiative to take on all the housework, and even though she’s young and a little greedy for food and playful, she’s meticulous when she works. It takes no more than two days for the interior and exterior of the house to look entirely new, and she even planted plenty of different plants and flowers. Sui Zhou and Tang Fan are very satisfied with this.

From here on, Tang-daren begins a happy life, absent of the worries of household cleaning chores and cooking.

***

Tang-daren’s life cohabiting with Sui Zhou is entirely too comfortable.

He managed to get several types of seeds to plant in the courtyard and Ah Dong is responsible for taking care of them. Some of the flowers they bought are already blooming well and shortly, the originally empty space is filled with a myriad colours, blooming with vibrance, and the courtyard is suddenly looking more alive.

Tang-daren doesn’t have much skills when it comes to cooking, but he searched for quite a lot of external recipes and says that he’s teaching Ah Dong how to improve the standards of her cooking.

During one of his rest days, as Ah Dong is cooking, a Tang-daren with nothing on his hands starts to recite recipes at Ah Dong, “Wash the plum flowers clean, cook the porridge with snow-melted water, and when it’s cooked, put the plum flowers in and cook them together…”

It’s so noisy that Ah Dong covers her ears and whines, “Da-ge, I’m illiterate, whatever you’re reciting right now, I don’t understand it at all!”

Tang-daren looks so innocent when he says, “It’s not that difficult to understand, is it? Come here, I’ll teach you how to identify characters first. What ‘washing the plum flowers clean’ means, is picking up the fallen petals of plum flowers in the winter, collecting them, washing them clean and then adding it to porridge cooked with melted snow water…”

“But it’s not winter now, where do the plum flowers come from?”

“It can be substituted with plenty of other alternatives. Not just plum flowers, but black locust flowers or pear blossoms, these can be mixed with the porridge, and there are also different effects using different flowers.”

Ah Dong blinks, “But what does plum flower porridge taste like, isn’t it a mouthful of flower petals?”

“… you’re such a spoilsport. Fine, then let’s switch to something else. Erm… here it is! This dish is called Huai Ye Tao. We have to specially pick leaves from the top of the locust tree, pound it and mix it into thin noodle strips. After it’s cooked, we put it into cold water for a soak, and it becomes cold noodles. Then we slice up some garlic, add some vinegar and drizzle it together over the noodles with oil. Oh right, isn’t there a locust tree behind the house? It’s summer too, how about we try this one?”

Ah Dong is drooling too, “This sounds like it’ll be really delicious, and the locust tree isn’t very tall, why not I try tomorrow?”

Tang Fan protests, “No way, you’re still young, what if you fall? You can count on your da-ge in times like this, I’ll go pick the leaves.”

“Huh? Da-ge, you can climb trees?”

“Of course, when I was younger I too was energetic, climbing trees and getting into rivers, why, you don’t believe me?”

Ah Dong looks him up and down properly, and shakes her head.

Tang Fan rolls up his sleeves gleefully and says, “If you don’t believe me, I’ll climb one now to show you. It’s still early anyway, once I pick the leaves, let’s have this for dinner!”

“But I’m already cooking the rice, and it’s better if you don’t go. What if you fall and end up getting scolded by Sui da-ge?

Tang Fan responds, “It’s alright. He’s still reading in the study and won’t have any time to care about what we’re doing for a while.”

As soon as he says this, he turns around and sees the person standing right behind him.

Tang Fan laughs awkwardly, “Guang Chuan-xiong, you’re done so soon?”

Sui Zhou nods, “I heard that Tang-daren is going to climb a tree, so I’m here specially to observe.”

Tang Fan sweats, “What’s there to see when a person is climbing a tree? I’m doing this so everyone can eat more delicious food, don’t you want to try it too?”

“Who’s the one said he wanted to try some Ba Xia Gong the last time, insisted that I bring a rabbit home and then treat the meat with some ancient recipe? In the end it was both sour and bitter, we couldn’t eat even a bit of it,” Sui Zhou says with a stoic expression.

Tang Fan carefully wipes at his sweat, “That was an accident. I forgot that we had to marinate it with alcohol first.”

“Then who was the one who courageously declared that he would make us bamboo shoot soup, and ended up ruining the entire pot?”

“…”

Ah Dong pops her head from the back and betrays Tang Fan without hesitation, “It was da-ge!”

Tang-daren is lectured extensively, unable to lift his head. After Sui Zhou points out his abysmal record, he takes Tang Fan out of the kitchen with him and says, “So you should just be responsible for eating. Going into the kitchen is not suitable for you.”

With this, Tang-daren’s reputation as a rice bucket is cemented.

An expressionless Sui Zhou continues to chide him as they walk away, “Next time when Ah Dong is cooking, don’t go in and disturb her anymore.”

Well aware that he’s at fault, Tang Fan accepts the scolding, “Yes yes yes!”

“Just eat whatever Ah Dong makes, don’t keep coming up with strange recipes for Ah Dong to try, and if you want something fancy, we can go to a restaurant outside.”

Tang-daren nods profusely, “Yes yes yes!”

“Also, you have to eat lesser in the evenings. It’s okay to indulge once in a while with snacks, but this cannot be done every day. Ah Dong told me once that when she was helping you to clean your room, she found some leftover pastry crumbs under your table, and in the beginning she thought we had rats in the house.”

“Yes yes yes!”

Tang-daren feels entirely helpless, and thinks, when I was living alone this was how I lived, so why is it now that after I adopted a sister, made another friend, it seems that I’ve suddenly found two nagging mothers for myself?

After some time staying under the same roof with Sui Zhou, Tang Fan realizes that the man’s life is so simple that it’s bordering on dry and boring.

Usually when it comes to leaving for work, Sui Zhou and Tang Fan will leave the house at about the same time, and even though they come home at different times, they still manage to enjoy dinner together often.

After dinner, they would chat for a while before going back to their own study rooms to read, and they sometimes will have a game of chess or something similar, but Sui Zhou’s game skills are only average and he basically loses every round, suffering defeat at the hands of Tang Fan.

It is common for the Northern Administrative Court to have endless amounts of things to handle, endless numbers of records to read, criminals to catch and secrets that they have to investigate. Compared to Tang Fan, it is several times busier at the court as they have to deal with matters inside the palace, and also outside of it.

When one is at Sui Zhou’s position, it is often that he has to pull several all-nighters without returning home, but Sui Zhou is serious and sombre in nature, unlike other men who occasionally go out to eat, drink, gamble and visit brothels. His life is even simpler than Tang Fan’s.

Tang-daren feels that as a friend, he has a duty to change the lack of fun in Sui Zhou’s life, so when he’s free he thinks of various ideas, hoping to spice up Sui Zhou’s free time.

Just like what he’s doing now.

“Here, xiong-di, these are novels I’ve kept for many years. If you’ve got some time, don’t always bury your head in work, you’ll get old easily like this. I know that your duties are important, but we have to live well too, am I right?”

Tang Fan puts a stack of books on the table, and smiles at Sui Zhou.

Spending so much time with Tang-daren has taught Sui Zhou that under the man’s gentle and elegant appearance, Tang Fan can be rather eccentric and unorthodox, and so hearing what Tang Fan said, he puts down his brush and helplessly leafs through the books.

He says, “I’ve read all of these.”

“You’ve read them all?” Tang Fan asks, stunned. Indeed, a book cannot be judged by its cover, he really could not tell!

Sui Zhou replies, “Some time back the disciples from White Lotus Sect used books to spread rumours and confuse the public, so the Northern Administrative Court needed to check all the books in the market, in case malicious actors used the books as an excuse to commit treason.”

He gets to the last book and takes it out, “What is this about?”

Tang-daren goes ‘oh’, and sheepishly, he says, “I wrote that.”

“…”

===

Notes:

*百户 bai hu

There are four ranks within the Embroidered Uniform Guards - 千户 (qian hu)、百户 (bai hu)、总旗 (zong qi)、小旗 (xiao qi) arranged highest to smallest rank, aside from the Commander 统领官 (zong ling guan).

*三进 san jin

Houses during this era are all measured by how many 进 (jin) it has. A proper house would have several courtyards, sections and chambers, and every enclosed courtyard is consider one jin. From a visual perspective, each rectangle section formed in the house regardless of the size is considered one jin. It’s pretty interesting and you can take a look at a diagram of how the house is sectioned here.

*主房, 厢房 zhu fang, xiang fang

A courtyard is usually surrounded by four room sections, and the two longer ones are considered bigger main rooms/houses, while the smaller ones are considered chambers. You can take a look at the diagrams here.

*春夏秋冬 chun xia qiu dong

The four seasons - spring 春 (chun), summer 夏 (xia) autumn 秋 (qiu) winter 冬 (dong). The Li family had four servants, Ah Dong being one of them, and it’s common to name girls after the seasons, so the servants were named Ah Chun, Ah Xia, Ah Qiu and Ah Dong.

*大哥 da ge

Older brother. You can call any male slightly older than you da ge.

*槐叶冷淘 huai ye leng tao

The novel names it huai ye tao, this is a historic cold noodle dish.

*拨霞供 ba xia gong

A rabbit meat dish.

*饭桶 fan tong 

Literally translated means rice bucket (fan tong). Rice bucket can be understood to refer to a person with a bottomless pit for food, but is also used as a metaphor for a useless person. First referenced in Chapter 8.

*兄弟 xiong di

Meaning brother. This can be meant for like bros - brothers or actual biological brothers. You can also use both characters separately, with xiong used for a male your age or older, and di for someone younger. Tang Fan calls Sui Zhou Guang Chuan-xiong quite frequently.

*人不可貌相 ren bu ke mao xiang

An idiom that is equivalent to ‘don’t judge by a book by its cover’. It means simply not to judge a person from their looks, but the idiom works well in this case.

*《拾珍记》、《一枝花话》、《莺莺传》、《取经诗话》、《武王伐纣平话》、《金玉良缘》、《多情记》、《梨花缘记》

In the novel they do name all the books that Tang Fan tries to get Sui Zhou to read towards the end of the chapter, but it’s really hard to translate, so I didn’t attempt, but the books that Tang Fan chose are mostly fiction (erotica or not) and the one Tang Fan wrote himself is the last one in the list above called Li Hua Yuan Ji which translates roughly to The Story of the Pear Blossoms.

[songtoyou]

Chapter Two: Never Enough

Would You Call That Love

Pairing: Chris Evans x Raina Morrison (OC) 

Rating: PG to PG-13 (Might be 18+ for some chapters)

Description: There was always one person Chris Evans tended to turn to when he was not in a committed relationship, Raina Morrison. He could confide in her about things going on in his life that he did not feel comfortable talking to his family or close friends about. Chris and Raina were able to establish a way to communicate with one another openly but also being respectful of the other’s time and needs. It was the only constant “relationship” he had, but without all the nonsense of trying to build a life together. A “friends with benefits” situation. However, what happens when Chris starts rethinking his “relationship” with Raina and if either is willing to pursue something more?

Chapter Rating: PG with mild swearing

Warnings: None

Word Count: 3,630

Author’s Note: I hoped those who ‘liked’ the previous chapter enjoys this one as well. I went back and made one little change in the first chapter. No longer is Raina a fan of the Seattle Mariners or Seattle Seahawks, but a Mets/Giants fan. Instead of having Raina grow up in Washington State, she grew up in New York on Long Island. It just made more sense location-wise for her to “closer” to Chris. I also changed something that happened during the summer of 2016 that involved another MCU actor. Let me know what you think. Feedback is always welcomed.

Sadly, I do not know Chris Evans or anyone in his family, and this is just a fictional take on his life. I do not permit this fic to be reposted on other platforms. 

Thank you to @southerngracela​ for your support! :)

*Updated for grammar edits.

July 2019

"Christopher Robert Evans! Come here!" yelled his mother, Lisa Evans.

"What, Ma?" Chris asked when he entered her kitchen and replied, "Whatever happened? I assure you that it was Scott who did it."

"Would you stop? You aren't in trouble. Sit down for a sec." Lisa told her oldest son. 

Taking a seat at the kitchen table next to his mother, Chris asked, "Why are you on the laptop? You hate using the computer."

"I do, but you need to send Raina some flowers to celebrate her big opening night on Broadway. You were planning on getting her something, right?" inquired Lisa as she turned the laptop over to Chris for him to look through different flower arrangements. 

"Uh…I don't know, Ma. I am sure you will pick out something great."

Lisa gave Chris a knowing look and said, "Chris, you spend more time with Raina than the rest of us. You know her likes and dislikes. Now come on, look at the arrangements and pick which one she would like best."

Chris groaned and turned away from his mother to roll his eyes. His mother's behavior was not unusual to always insinuate that Raina was more than a friend to Chris. Well, she was, but that did not mean his mother had to know all of the dirty details. Despite what people might think of the confessed mama's boy, Chris did not always share everything with Lisa.  

"Don't get her flowers…" Chris began, but Lisa cut him off.

"Chris! Why not?"

"It would be better to get Raina chocolate, cookies, or brownies. Something edible. Just not cupcakes because she doesn't like them. Call them overrated. Trust me. She'd prefer to have food over flowers," informed Chris.

"Great. You choose something for Raina while I give Carly a call. Choose something good," Lisa ordered as she got up from the table and exited the kitchen. 

As Chris perused the website's items, he knew what to get Raina when he saw the object: a personalized gigantic caramel toffee fortune cookie. It was perfect. Not only was it giant, but it was dipped in decadent caramel with fatty toffee bits sprinkled on top and drizzled with dark chocolate. Raina would love it. 

"Ma! Come here and look at this! What do you think?"

Lisa entered the kitchen once again. She was still talking on the phone with Carly.

"Chris, whatever you get, Raina, it will be great."

"What should I put on the card since it is from all of us?" asked Chris with a hint of annoyance in his voice.

"No. Just have it be from you. Scott and I already picked out a nice flower arrangement from the two of us for Raina," Lisa informed Chris nonchalantly and added, "Carly is wondering if you could watch the kids this weekend?"

Chris was amazed at his mother's crafty scheme. She had that way about her. 

"I'll text her that it isn't a problem, and I know what you are doing."

Lisa feigned an innocent look. "What are you talking about?"

Pinching the bridge of his nose and letting out an exasperated sigh, Chris said, "Ma, it isn't like that with Raina, okay. We are just friends. Nothing more. We can't be anything more. It would ruin what we have already. Plus, we both don't necessarily want the same things. She has shared with me that she doesn't see herself having kids. I want kids, someday." 

Lisa put her hands up in mock defeat. She was not going to press Chris press about his hidden feelings for Raina. He was an adult, after all. However, as a mother, it was hard not to step in and help her children no matter what they were dealing with at the time. 

"Just be sure to write something heartfelt and sweet in the gift message," ordered Lisa and got up once again left the kitchen.

Now alone, Chris looked over the textbox space to put his message for Raina's gift. He typed and retyped what to write to her. Taking a deep breath, Chris let his inhibitions go and proceeded to write honestly about how he felt.

Raina,

You bring so much joy and love to my existence. I know it would not be the same If I did not have you in my life. You help keep me centered in this crazy world of ours, and I always know I can count on you if I need anything. I am so proud of you. Your determination, hard work, and motivation in achieving your dreams have always inspired me. Sometimes I wished you could see yourself through my eyes because then you would realize how special you are to me. I hope you know much. I appreciate and love you so much.

Love,

Chris

With the gift now ordered and soon to be on its way, there was no going back. 

"1, 2, 3, and 4! Turn! Kick leg up! Cross and dip!" shouted the choreographer and added, "Let's do it again from the top!"

Trying to catch her breath, Raina got back into position next to her co-star, Aaron Tveit. The two have been working on this project for the past three years. It amazed them both how everything started at a workshop lab, to a small theater production in Boston, to debut the show on Broadway. It was a dream come true for everyone involved. 

For Raina, it was a check-off on her list of career accomplishments. While Raina had been offered different roles for Broadway productions in the past, she never accepted the offers. She was either too busy promoting and touring for her albums. Or the parts offered merely did not appeal to her. Raina was cautious about particular projects and took her time in making decisions on which to pursue or decline. That would often lead to arguments with people at her record company or management as one or the other would tell Raina that she was not reaching her full potential as a star. But the Long Island native never wanted to be "famous for being famous." She was not the type to freely give out information about her private life to maintain relevancy with the press or fans. She wanted her work to speak for itself.  

A child prodigy gifted in music, Raina has set her sights on impacting the world through song. Her parents, George and Marie, often worried about the precocious little girl when she would hold herself up in her room for hours and hours a day practicing on her guitar or keyboard while jotting down lyrics.

When Raina was 14 years old, she was discovered by her first manager, Jerry Sullivan, at the annual New York State Fair. Jerry was taken aback by the young girl's mature voice as she sang Reba McEntire's classic hits, "Why Haven't I Heard from You" and "Fancy." He immediately introduced himself to Raina and her parents.

Although skeptical, both George and Marie agreed to a formal meeting with Jerry to discuss their daughter's future. After all, they did not want their only child to get screwed over by some conman. Thankfully, Jerry turned out to be legit and had been in the music industry for 20 years as an artists and repertoire (A&R) personnel at Columbia Records.

"Not many talented singers I have seen in all my years in the music have what Raina has. She has 'it' and could go far," said Jerry.

"Oh, I don't want to be famous," little Raina spoke up and continued, "I just want to make music."

Jerry just beamed with happiness, "That is a great answer, little one. You have your priorities. That is important in this industry. You don't ever want to lose sight of why you started in the first place."

"Trust me, I won't," replied Raina with a toothy smile.

Unfortunately, it was hard to remain authentic in the music industry. Too many times, someone would try to mold Raina into who they thought she should be. She never wanted to be placed in a box or confined to one style of music. All Raina ever wanted to be was Raina.

"1, 2, 3, and 4! Turn! Kick leg up! Cross and dip!" repeated the choreographer, "Great job, everyone. Let us take a ten-minute break. Raina and Aaron, they need another costume fitting."

"I swear, I am at a point where I could do the choreography in my sleep," Aaron joked as he walked with Raina to the fitting area.

Raina let out a chuckle, "Isn't that the truth."

With rehearsals finally coming to an end for the day, Raina gathered her belongings, said her goodbyes, and headed home. Thankfully, her Tribeca apartment was only 15 minutes away from the Al Hirschfeld Theatre. Frank, Raina's driver, greeted her as he opened the black Cadillac Escalade's back door.

"How were rehearsals today, Miss Raina?" 

"Not too bad," Raina shared with her driver, "I think once the show is finally open to the public, everything will be…a lot easier to handle."

"You're going to be great. The previews of the show went very well, as you mentioned," Frank reminded Raina and asked, "Who you got coming to see you on opening night? I'm taking my wife and youngest daughter to see it before she heads off to school in late August."

It was not uncommon for Frank and Raina to have an easy rapport with one another. Frank was a talker, while Raina was quieter and preferred to listen to his stories about growing up in Queens or his family that consisted of a loving wife and three daughters. Despite enjoying Frank's company, Raina knew that she still had to keep herself wary and not allow herself to be caught off guard. Sadly, her past experiences when allowing others into her world, both private and public, left her feeling burned. Raina learned how to be a master at changing the subject from herself to the other person prying into her personal life. 

"Aw! That is wonderful. Where is Alisha headed off to again? Cornell?" asked Raina while thinking, 'Hook line and sinker.'

"Brown University in Providence. Got a full academic scholarship."

"That's wonderful. At least your daughter won't be too far from home. I kind of wish I went to college but never had the time with everything else going on."

"Oh, come on now. I'd say you turned out well. Not everyone needs to go to college to be successful. With Alisha, she always had her sights on pursuing a career in archaeology. By attending Brown, she will have access to the best research and educators the country has to offer."

"Well, if she is anything like her father, then she's got the charms to take the world by storm."

When Frank finally reached the building of Raina's apartment, he proceeded to step out to open her door, but she stopped him and said, "I got it, Frank."

"You sure?" he questioned. 

"Yeah. Tell your wife and daughter I said 'hello.' Bye, Frank. See you tomorrow."

"Okay. Have a nice night, Raina."

Upon entering the apartment building, Raina was greeted by the concierge, Winston.

"Hi, Winston. How are you?" asked Raina to make polite conversation as she strode into the lobby.

"Very well, ma'am. Thank you for asking."

Raina cringed at being referred to as "ma'am" despite being two-decades younger than Winston; however, she knew he was only polite and professional. Stopping by to check her mail at the cluster of mailboxes, there was only advertisements and bills. Closing the mailbox with a loud sigh, Raina walked towards the elevator to head up to her penthouse apartment. 

The Tribeca apartment was such a great find as the penthouse had its own intimate and homey feel. The condo's main floor greeted guests with an open space kitchen-living room area with a fireplace and powder room. Floor-to-ceiling arched windows dominated the living room, allowing natural light to seep through in the morning and afternoon. Overall, it was ample space for when Raina wanted to entertain her close friends. She was able to accommodate overnight guest stays with two sky-lighted bedrooms with one main bathroom. One floor up was where the master suite was located with floor-to-ceiling French doors that led to a landscaped terrace that included a hot tub, outdoor kitchen, along with fantastic sunset and nighttime views of the Tribeca skyline. 

It was a place where Raina felt at home and safe from the prying eyes of the paparazzi or overzealous admirers. Thankfully, the majority of Raina's fans respected her privacy and knew the importance of boundaries.

Unfortunately, only Raina's name was associated with fellow celebrities that things could get out of hand and overrun with speculations. For instance, in the early years of her friendship with Chris, both fandoms speculated if they were more than friends. Whereas with the media, they were relentless in their prying for more information about the two stars. Luckily, it was a dilemma that the two friends worked hard to overcome. The bond that grew between Chris and Raina was not something either experienced with other people. It was unique in how relatively normal both felt around each other. There were no pretenses the friends had to follow or any egos getting in the way. 

Sad that the same could not have been applied to Raina's last relationship. The media scrutiny and the online abuse/harassment from the actor's fanbase became too much for Raina to handle that she eventually had to end the relationship prematurely. It was not something that she wanted to do as she cared for the man very much. He was sweet, charming, handsome, and treated Raina with respect. He became someone Raina could confide in outside of her inner circle. She was lucky to have met him at President Barack Obama's final White House Correspondents' Dinner back in April 2016. 

'What might have been? Where would my life be if I had stayed with Tom?' Raina often thought.

After taking a quick shower, Raina changed into baggy sweats and a fitted tank top. Stretching out on the couch, she searched through Netflix and selected season five of Schitt's Creek to watch. It was her go-to show that she liked to watch at the end of the day. The crazy antics of the Rose family always helped her relax and ease her anxious mind. 

"Oh, David Rose, you are a precious little bean, wrapped in uncertainty and apprehension about the world, aren't you? I connect with you on a spiritual level," Raina commented to herself.  

Chris was a bag of nerves ever since he ordered Raina that gift. It was not so much the gift that was causing him to have anxiety, but the message inside the present. 

He let it all out in that gift message and was mostly worried about what Raina would make of his words. For instance, would she read them and express the same sentiment, revealing that Chris's feelings were more profound than mere friends. However, what if Chris's words caused her to be upset and that she would not be able to return his feelings in fear of losing their friendship. 

'Or she just doesn't love you the way you might want her to,' thought Chris apprehensively.  

Now, Chris was beginning to worry that he might have overstepped his boundaries with Raina. 'Why did you have to go and develop deeper feelings for her. I knew our whole friends with benefits wasn't a good idea. 

Nothing good ever comes from that arrangement,' he scolded himself while taking Dodger out for a walk on his property. Chris hoped that the cool night air would help relieve the tension and worry he was feeling. It was either a walk or a cigarette, and he promised both his mother and Raina that he would no longer partake in the nasty habit. 

The dynamic of Chris and Raina's friendship was a unique one. She was one of the very few that Chris allowed in his world. Over the years, Raina had become acquainted with his close friends from Massachusetts and individual family members outside of his mother, father, brother, and sisters. It was not unusual for Raina to attend one of his Uncle Mike's campaign rallies. That always got the fans on social media talking and wondering if there was something more than friendship between the two. 

Chris and Raina's responses were always the same, "We are just friends." It was their go-to answer for years.

It was not until mid-2014 when they decided to add a new element to their friendship: sex. 

What started as a fun hookup turned into a full-fledged agreement. For Chris, it was liberating to be with someone sexually with no strings attached. For Raina, she felt safe and comfortable with Chris. There was genuine respect and trust the two had for one another that when sex added to the mix, it did not cause a lot of complications, surprisingly. They took the time to set guidelines and go over expectations that both could abide by and not ruin the aspect of their friendship. 

Their guidelines included:

Be transparent with one another as possible. Be open to compromises.

Be open to communicating with your partner.

Never be judgmental.

Be open about what is off-limits and what is acceptable. 

Conversations or decisions cannot be one-sided.

Make sure each partner is on the same page.

Check-in with one another. Ask each other about how things are going and how the individual is feeling about the arrangement.

Develop a PR strategy for when friends or family members ask questions about the status of your relationship.

Ground rules: staying over is optional, breakfast in the morning is acceptable, no booty calls as it demeans the overall friendship, and friend-dates are suitable.

Even when Chris was in a serious relationship with Minka or Jenny, he could revert to his non-sexual friendship with Raina. Chris never quite understood how Raina could adapt so quickly whenever he had a new romantic partner. He honestly would not know how he would react if Raina showed up one day with a boyfriend on her arm. 

'Liar! You'd flip your shit!' Chris thought, which he did when Raina was rumored to be dating fellow MCU actor Tom Hiddleston back in 2016. Both had been photographed together numerous times during outings and events.

'Six-months of Hell,' Chris bitterly referred that time. 

The crazy thing about that time is that Raina did not share anything with him about her relationship with Tom. She kept it all to herself even after they broke up. 

"Why does she keep that part of her life secret from me?" Chris asked himself as he walked up the steps on his front porch with Dodger following suit.

"Because it is none of your business how Raina's relationships go down," a voice spoke up, startling Chris.

"Holy shit, Scott! What the fuck are you doing out here?" yelled Chris as he stood in front of his little brother. 

Scott replied with a shit-eating grin on his face, "Just getting some fresh air and enjoying the sunset. What have you been up to?"

"Don't change the subject. Why do you automatically assume I am talking about Raina? For all you know, I could have been referring to Shanna," Chris retorted back defiantly as he crossed his arms over his chest and leaned back against the porch railing. 

However, Scott was not falling for what his brother was trying to sell. "Don't bullshit a bullshitter, Chris," Scott reprimanded and continued, "I know you and Raina have had a friend with benefits situation going on for the last five years. Of course, only when neither of you was in relationships with other people, that is."

"How the fuck did you know about that?" questioned Chris. His eyes looked like they were about to pop out of his head.

"Well, I had my speculations, but your reaction just now confirmed everything. What the fuck were thinking. Nothing good comes out of a friend with benefits relationship. Hell, I could have told you that while also saving you the eventual heartbreak that will eventually happen. So again, I ask, what the fuck were you thinking?" 

Letting out a huge sigh, Chris moved to sit next to Scott on the porch swing. "I was thinking…that this is someone who I love and care about, you know. At first, the arrangement was, I don't want to say that it was just for fun. With Raina, it felt like a natural progression for our friendship. I don't know. I guess maybe…"

"You hoped that it could turn into something more down the road," Scott finished for his brother. 

"Yeah. I felt we were getting to that point, but Raina kept pulling back, you know. Like, she was too scared to move in that direction with me,' Chris confessed as he leaned back on the porch swing. 

Scott continued to stare at Chris as he contemplated what to say next. He felt terrible for his older brother and realized Chris's dilemma.

"I wish I could give you some sage advice, but honestly, I am at a loss on what you should do. Raina is special to you. To all of us. But, no one can deny that she has always had a little hold on your heart. The sad thing is that I don't think the poor thing fully understands the effect she has on you. All I can say is to tread carefully. Don't do anything rash," advised Scott and got up to go into the house.

'Too late.' Chris thought to himself. 

"Fuck it! I need a cigarette." 

[darkestwolfx]

Up from the Depths P.1 - Re-Review #32

Now, just to stick my personal opinion in here... we’re about to get to two of my all time favourite episodes. The amount of references to Jeff, and the purpose for IR - there’s just golden moments everywhere you look. So let’s have a look at some of them.

“What is it, John?”

“You’re gonna’ want to see this.”

“The TV-21! No, it can’t be...”

Well, it is (or we wouldn’t have an episode)!

“Is that what I think it is?”

“It’s the TV-21!”

“Is anyone gonna’ clue me in here?”

“It’s the TV-21!”

“That is not helping!”

Don’t worry, Alan, I’ll try and catch you up. But that just serves as another well-placed reminder of all the things Alan (and Kayo) is too young to remember about IR.

The fact Jeff etched his name onto the ship does not surprise me. It goes towards showing how proud he was of it, and completely fits in with everything we are told about him by Grandma (once again, wonderfully well placed comments).

Now, the TV-21, is given to us as “the first Thunderbird”, the fastest ship (at the moment), and Jeff’s pride and joy. There’s a nice little reference to Jeff’s previous careers as well, with the fact they’ve added the ‘Colonel’. Nice touch.

But of course, of all the places to crash land, it had to be in the Mariana’s Trench. I mean, there is a reason why it’s “the world’s last unmapped ocean”, according to the crew. It’s a pretty dangerous place. If you want to read about it, feel free, National Geographic have some incredibly interesting articles on what they theorise could be down there based on their limited exploration. But what we do know, is that it’s actually a very hostile seascape, and that the marine life which inhabits it seems to have evolved drastically to cope. I think that if we are ever able to understand it, we will know a lot more towards global warming and the mutations of animals. But I hate swimming. Water’s not my area. I prefer to research land mammals and leave my colleagues with the wet-weather adventures.

Anyhow, I think it’s totally awesome that Virgil was playing the piano and that Scott was sat at Jeff’s desk in the opening for this episode too. It’s always nice to see little throwbacks to this very human family.

So let’s discuss the origins of TV-21 for a moment. Before it was a Thunderbird, it was a comic series! And it’s original name was ‘TV Century 21′ which was eventually shortened to TV21. It had various mergers, which featured additions to the name, but TV21 stuck for the majority of issues. It was a weekly comic published by City Magazines, beginning around 1965. It’s content was... drum roll... the sci-fi TV series created by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson’s company: Century 21 Productions - thus where the comics name originated from, the TV being added to clarify where the material was coming from and hopefully encourage people to watch and read both in tandem.

The comic often had newspaper front pages, dedicated to the fictional news stories of the multiple Anderson worlds, e.g. Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet, Stingray.

Some really well known artists of the time worked on the comics, which only serves to increase their value. In our current day, the original ‘TV Century 21′ editions (Issues 1 - 154) are really hard to find, and so they sell/auction for incredibly high prices when one can be found - like much of the Anderson’s work which made it’s way into print. It does also mean that the first half of this great comic series is practically lost to the world.

Which is a big shame, because it was in many of these first issues (with their print time colliding with the original air slot of ‘Thunderbirds’) featured many episode-story related additions. For instance;

The supposed capture of ‘The Hood’ - which might have gone someway to explaining his disappearance during Series 2 of the show.

An addition to the US Army’s story line from ‘Pit of Peril’.

An addition to the events of ‘Sun Probe’, as well as an in-depth story on Thunderbird Three investigating the connection between the sun and natural disasters (better known now as global warming). My dad still has his copy of this edition, and I have no plans on selling it. It’s ironic that it features the only story line relevant to my current career. Hey, maybe there is such a thing as fate over coincidence (as ‘Doctor Who’ does suggest).

A special story for Thunderbirds Two and Four, upon which it is rumoured that the opening rescue of the ‘Thunderbirds’ (2004 film) was based upon. I personally think this was one of the best stories for the pair, and I’m disappointed it never appeared in an episode (as such). There were also rumours that this story was an expansion of the TOS episode ‘Atlantic Inferno’, but those were never confirmed and all suggestions ever made pointed towards it being a completely separate idea. There are interesting similarities in places though, so it’s worth consideration.

An expansion to Thunderbird Two’s ‘disappearance’, after the events of ‘Terror in New York City’, which covered the rumours spiraling during the time Thunderbird Two was out of operation, and some of the missions which were undertaken during said time.

And one of the few Fireflash related stories to feature outside of the TOS TV episodes. It was also one of the comic editions which fans come to know as ‘Thunderbirds meets Doctor Who’. At the time, both shows were scoring some of the highest viewings, and so I suppose these crossover editions only made sense. Many of the early editions featured such crossovers, including 2 other issues which I’ve posted above.

When we actually get to 2065, there’s going to be a bit of confusion over dates - the comics (set still in the futurist time - ever encroaching for us) were released on the corresponding dates, but with the year still set a hundred forward, e.g. 1965 was 2065, but the 13th March was the 13th March.

Right, enough of my geek-worthy knowledge on comics, and back to the episode. I mean, look at Scott’s face. He’s definitely had enough of my comic-based ramblings.

“Begging your forgiveness, Your Mongrel-ship.” 

I think the fact that Parker serves Sherbet tea (with one sugar) it’s just classic.

“I believe ‘wild goose chase’ were the words they used.”

“Well, as it happens, Parker loves a good chase. Parker, bring the car around would you? That’s right Sherbet. ‘On the double’.”

“hOn the double, hit his. Taking horders from ha mut, never though hI’d see the day.”

He does it anyway though - dedication right there,

Well now, time to visit the ocean. Did anyone else think the Deep Ocean Surveyor looked a bit... wrong? I had bad feelings about that thing from the start.

“This ship sure is a weird looking thing.”

Yeah, thanks for the back up there Gordon. Should have kept a closer eye on that one, although I do completely understand why they got so distracted and don’t blame them for it.

I love how Scott - Mr in command and always right - turns straight towards the TV-21 as soon as he knows they’re no injuries to worry about and that the DOS is all okay. Wasn’t he the one saying there was a rescue to prioritise only minutes ago?

“Gordon, what about the TV-21? Have they found part of the wreck?”

“Stand by, Scott, I’ll take a closer look. Just gotta’ clear some debris. It’s not just part of the wreck, it’s the whole thing!”

That is actually quite surprising! You know, something surviving like that. Good craftsmanship is all I can say.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UvltZMDOK5g

I can’t describe this scene any better than the scene itself, so I’m just gonna’ leave it there for you to re-watch at your own leisure. The faces are pictures!

“Why’s everyone making such a big deal about a wrecked plane? I don’t even remember it!”

“The TV-21 was Dad’s baby. The first ever super Mach-20 ship. It was the prototype to Thunderbird One. Dad invested everything into, but The Hood sabotaged it in flight. Dad had to abandon the plane somewhere over the Maraina Trench rather than let The Hood get his hands on it. I remember it broke Dad’s heart. I always thought it was smashed and lost in the deep.”

And there we have a link to that Hood-Jeff backstory (which the writer’s then conveniently shoved into a like ten-fifteen second explanation of ‘I am a bad guy because’, but hey, we’re not quite there yet!) that kinda gets forgotten.

“Cor!”

“I believe the word you’re looking for is Bingo. Well done Bertie.”

“Very smart of you to track that signal John.”

“We got lucky.”

You don’t have to be so modest you know John.

“It seems The Hood may be up to his old tricks.”

“I’ve seen engineering like this before. It’s the work of The Mechanic.”

“Oh no! That’s The Mechanic’s ship! Thunderbird Four, get out of there!”

“Too late.”

Yeah... it might have been good to notice that a little bit sooner.

Now, someone has some serious anger issues! I mean, I now he wants them out of the way (and later on that’s he’s being controlled), but that was seriously uncalled for!

“You better come up with something fast. Thunderbird Four’s hull integrity is failing. You’re getting crushed!”

Thanks Virgil, we can see that, unfortunately. This is another of those moments where - even though I know how it ends - I have a little panic.

“Hull integrity at 28%. Gordon what are you doing?”

“The airlock’s jammed. I can’t get the door open.”

“Then make a new door! But do it fast, you don’t have long. Hull at 7%. Gordon, get out now! Thunderbird Four is offline.”

“What happened?”

“Thunderbird Four's been rendered in operative.”

“Gordon!”

“I’m here. I’m okay. But Thunderbird Four’s a little... ur... beat up.”

This is a little like that moment in ‘EOS’, where I think our collective hearts stopped.

I know Gordon left the sub to try and free it, but it was actually a good thing that he did, else he probably would have been crushed, which wouldn't have been good. He was caught a little in the blast anyway, so I’m surprised he was a well-able to continue as he was.

But back to those serious anger issues - The Mechanic, you need to learn that once you have damaged someone’s ship past the piloting level, you don’t need to then snap it in two - that is just downright mean, not to mention unnecessary!

Poor Thunderbird Four. I seriously thought at the time that it wasn’t going to be recoverable. Look at Gordon’s poor little face.

The determination to get the TV-21 back as well was just wonderful.

“Not possible, only Thunderbird Four can survive the pressure. We need to come up with something extraordinary and fast.”

“We can use the TV-21!”

“It’s been sitting on the bottom of the ocean for years. Do you think it will still work?”

“Absolutely. I build things to last.”

“Gordon, we need you to get on board the TV-21.”

“I always wanted to fly Dad’s plane.”

Of course he did.

Now this was a sight to behold. Look at him!

“I can’t believe we used to wear these things.”

This was such a lovely little throw back moment.

“You could try the Jeff Tracy fix. After all, it is Dad’s plane.”

“FAB. This is TV-21. We have lift off.”

And hell did that work!

Rescue count: 35

I mean, let’s just momentarily forget that this part ends with The Mechanic making a grand come back and stealing it.

“To The Mechanic, let me tell you who you’re dealing with. We’re International Rescue; you can’t push us around, you cant tell us what to do, and you absolutely, positively can’t take our stuff!”

“No, let me tell you who you’re dealing with. I’m The Mechanic. I take what I want, from who I want, whenever I want it.”

Yeah... shivers.

Let’s just remember Gordon’s great moment getting to pilot it.

“So tell me, what is it like flying Dad’s plane?”

“It was awesome.”

See, that’s a nicer ending.

[catchester]

12 Days of Christmas

Title: Twelve Drummers Drumming

Authors: @evieplease​​​​ and @catchester​​​​

Which character: Actor!Tom and OFC Rocky

Genre: Humour/Explicit

Fic Summary: Tom and Rocky spend their first Christmas as a couple and Rocky meets Tom’s Mum for the first time. Expect 12 gifts, too much boozy, bad puns and lots of fun!

Rating: Mature

Previous Chapters: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17138390/chapters/40304798

AN: Well, we just scraped it in on the 12 night (as long as you don't live in the UK) and we have a special little epilogue planned, which we hope to bring you tomorrow. 

Also, sorry for not tagging directly, but tagging seems to work much better for @evieplease​ than  for me.

12 Drummers Drumming

When I told Tom to bring his guitar he knew I had something musical planned but I could see him becoming confused when the cab drove us away from the centre and towards Croydon. He held his tongue until we parked in a very nice new development of town houses and flats. 

“Okay,” he said, looking around as he retrieved the guitar case from the boot while I paid. “I give up, why are we here?” 

I just smiled and took his arm, tamping down my own nervousness, leading him to one of the new townhouses and ringing the bell. It was opened a moment later by slim, sandy blonde man in a black t-shirt and faded blue jeans. 

“Rox!” he said with an enthusiastic smile, leaning forward for a cheek kiss. I never liked that nickname, but he was family so he got a pass . . . sometimes. And since he and Dave had allowed me to hijack their evening at the last minute, he definitely gets a pass tonight. Though I did wince at the name.

I turned to Tom, just in time to catch his smirk. I knew he was filing ‘Rox’ away in that prodigious brain to use in some future nefarious plan. I would, if the situation were reversed, after all! I warningly narrowed my eyes at him, and his smirk grew wider. He knew I couldn’t do fuck all about it at the moment.

I dragged myself back into the moment. I do want him to like my family, and my family to like him. Right, so.

“Tom, this is Ryan, my brother-in-law.” 

Tom had to switch his guitar to shake hands but he professed he was pleased to meet him. He even managed a warm smile for Ryan, while shooting me a glare that promised retribution for not warning him that he was about to meet my family.

Ryan shook Tom’s hand and then froze, giving me wild eyed look as he twigged to Tom.

“Oh, Rocky you’ve outdone yourself! Dave is absolutely going to shit! I can’t believe you brought Loki home! No wait. Yes I can.” Dave shook his head and grinned at Tom. “Come on in, Tom, you’re just in time for the fireworks!” 

Ryan offered to take our coats and Tom’s guitar. 

“What can I get you to drink?” Ryan asked Tom, then listed off the wines they had available. 

“Whatever’s open is fine,” Tom smiled, as we seated ourselves on the sofa and Ryan headed off into the kitchen. Tom grabbed my elbow and hissed in my ear as soon as Ryan was out of the room..

“You didn’t tell your family anything about me?? Rocky...” 

“Sure I did, Tom! I told ‘em that you’re wonderful and kind and fun. You make me laugh  and you like me. What else do they need to know?”

Tom’s eyes softened. “Rocky, you…”  he shook his head, apparently speechless. But I knew better. I was sure to hear about it later.

I flashed him a cheeky smile as we sat down. “I just thought it was probably best not to give you time to get drunk before meeting my family,” I teased. 

The glare he levelled at me was slightly spoiled by the smile he couldn't quite repress. 

“You’re here!”

We looked to the doorway where my clone stood, assuming I was 6 inches taller and 60lbs heavier. He also had short hair but the family resemblance was uncanny. 

“You must be Dave,” Tom said, rising from the sofa to greet him. 

“I am indeed,” Dave grinned, shaking Tom’s hand genially. “And I’ve heard an awful lot about you. All good, of course.” 

Tom turned and gave us both some serious side eye, looking back and forth. 

“Have you met your sister?” he asked Dave.

Ryan clapped a hand over his mouth and did his best to stifle a giggle and letting out a small snort over madly twinkling eyes, while Dave laughed ruefully.

“Too true, but ‘All I know is that you have dodgy plumbing and work away sometimes’ doesn't really sound very polite.” 

I stood to reach up and kiss Dave hello. “And that’s why you haven't met my family yet, Tom,” I glanced at him and teased. “Let me just apologise in advance for my brother.”

“Right,” Ryan said as he returned with three glasses of red wine and a bottle of beer for me. He’d been a bartender in college so he could juggle far more beverage than the average Joe. “Can’t you lot stop sniping at each other for just one night?” he teased us.  

“Oh please,” I smiled. “You give as good as you get.” I’d always liked Ryan. 

“Yes, but I find it’s best to break new people in gently.” He tilted his head at Tom in a ‘sorry, mate’ eye roll.

“Oh, don’t worry about Tom.” I waved an airy hand. “He’s so broken in I’ve ridden him hard and put him away wet many times now.”

Ryan nearly choked on his wine and Tom couldn't stifle his laugh. 

“She speaks the truth,” Tom agreed. “Although she could learn a little tact.” 

“That’s what I keep you around for,” I explained. 

“Well, don’t stand on ceremony,” Ryan gestured to the sofa behind us and as we sat down I heard a small ‘ding’ emanating from the kitchen. 

“I’m up, I’ll go,” Dave offered since Ryan had taken a seat too. 

“I knew I could smell something delicious,” I said as Dave went into the kitchen to serve the nibbles. “Ryan’s a caterer,” I told Tom. “A very good one too.” He’d catered a few prestigious events so he was used to acting naturally around famous faces, although his events tended to be business and politics more than theatrical, but he’s told us all about meeting Stephen Fry at one of his events. 

“I can’t believe he hasn’t noticed yet,” Ryan whispered. 

“I know!” I whispered back. He’d understand once we took him upstairs. 

Tom looked slightly nonplussed by the conversation but he turned to Ryan with a friendly smile and asked, “What are we having?” 

“Well given what Rocky said about tonight, we’re just having a series of finger foods, starting with mini kebabs marinated in satay and hoi sin sauce. The satay is a teeny bit hot but nothing most people can’t handle.”

“Is it just us?” he asked.

“While introducing you to my family really should be a one at a time thing to avoid premature ageing, Dad and Paul are still in Florida.

“Well they may have sun, but we have hors d'oeuvres.” Dave returned with a serving plate of mini kebabs, two small pots of extra sauce in the middle. He put them on the coffee table then sat on the sofa opposite us, next to Ryan. 

“Rocky tells me you work in Finance?” Tom said to Dave as he helped himself to a kebab. 

I jumped in. “Dear god, Tom, don’t get him started, we’ll be hip deep in spreadsheets!”

“It’s a little more sophisticated than that,” Dave rolled his eyes. 

“What Dave, I keep telling you that one and one are two. Two and two are four. It’s not hard.” I teased him, tipping my glass at him.

Dave grinned back. “Bet you can’t tell me the square root of three, though!”

I opened my mouth and shut it. I had no idea. Dave took a sip of his wine and managed to look like the cat who got the cream.

Ryan laughed. “Do you want to tell her, or shall I?” 

Dave toasted Ryan and snickered. “Be my guest.”

Ryan put a consoling arm around me. “Darling. Three is a square root,” he said gently.

“Well, shit.” The two men chuckled at me, but Tom winced. I knew he didn’t know, either. I flopped back on the sofa and scowled at my smartypants brother. For some reason Dave got all the maths in the family. Dad was right annoyed when he went into banking, instead of staying home and doing the books for the family plumbing business. But really, Dad’s very proud of Dave. And so am I, come to that.

“So, what’s the plan for tonight?” Tom tried being more direct this time as he reached for another kebab and offered me the plate. 

Those things were moreish and I was tempted to hold onto the plate and finished off the remains. Good manners won out however and I returned them to the coffee table. 

“She didn't tell you?” Dave asked playfully. 

“No, she didn't,” Tom levelled a narrow eyed glare at me. “Secrets abound tonight, it seems.”

It was time to put him out of his misery. 

“It just so happens that although he wears a suit and tie, and has the world’s most boring job, in his spare time, my brother here happens to be a world-class drummer.”

“Hardly,” Dave blushed. “But I enjoy it.” 

“Don’t listen to him. He’s good. Really good, and I have the scars to prove it!”

“I can’t see any scars!”

“They’re all mental, dear brother.” I smiled sweetly and took a sip of my wine.

Ryan choked a bit. “Shall we get on then?” 

“I thought you two could have a little jam session,” I told Tom. 

“While Rocky and I will gaze on adoringly,” Ryan added, batting his eyelashes only slightly sarcastically. 

“Oh no,” Dave shook his head. “If I have to play, you two have to sing.” 

“I’m game,” I grinned. “Besides, we’re running low of kebabs,” I said as I popped the last one in my mouth.

“So,” Tom cleared his throat, “When do we start?” he said in his Loki voice, doing his best to suppress a smirk.

“All right,” Ryan stood up. “Let’s do this!” 

Tom picked up his guitar from the hall and we all trooped upstairs. The Marvel posters lining the stairway and the upper landing didn't escape his notice and I could see the penny drop with regard to why Ryan as surprised Dave hadn’t recognised Tom. 

“Who’s the Marvel fan?” Tom asked. 

“That’d be me,” Dave answered. “Do you like the MCU too?”

“Well, I suppose you could say that, yes.” Tom blushed slightly but I don't think the boys noticed.

“I’ve got a collection of awesome memorabilia in the bedroom. I’ll show you once we’re done here, if you’re interested.”

“Are you indecently propositioning my boyfriend?” I asked innocently. 

“No, but I do have a new life size cutout of Captain America that might tempt him away from you,” Dave fired back with a smirk. 

Tom snickered. “I’m fairly sure that Rocky looks better in tights, mate! ” 

“I can feel the righteousness surging! Let’s hear it for truth, justice, and the American way!” I did my best Loki impression, which was shite, but when I tried to walk backwards at the same time and nearly fell on my arse it got a laugh.

Tom lept forward and caught me. “Darling, that was pitiful! Are you sure you want to talk about our kinky bedroom habits in front of your brother,” Tom teased as we were guided into the music room. 

“Our kinky habits?!” I tried to sound outraged.

Ryan laughed out loud. Dave narrowed his eyes..

“Wait, there’s an American Way?” He glared at Tom. “Just what the hell are you doing to my sister, mate??”

I clapped a hand over Tom’s mouth just as he opened it to tell Dave. “Now Tom, there’s no need to tell my brother just what you get up to in Captain America’s tights!”

Ryan held up a hand. “Right! That’s enough out of all of you! You’ll be giving Dave nightmares, and I need my beauty sleep!”

Tom didn’t let it go, though. He bent down and purred in my ear so just I could hear. “Don’t worry, darling, you will kneel for me later.”

Fuck me! My knees wobbled.

He, of course wandered off into the room without a care in the world leaving me feeling all hot and bothered on my brothers landing. 

Bastard. 

The largest bedroom had been turned into the music room and the walls were covered with some sort of soundproof foam. A large drum set took up about a third of the room, but there was also a keyboard against one wall, and a guitar propped up against it.  

There were also two small sofas and a couple of stools, so obviously jamming sessions weren’t unheard of. 

Tom looked around. “This is great, man!”

Ryan nodded. “Dave needed the space for his gear, so we use one of the smaller rooms for our bedroom. 

“It’s a terrific set up!” Tom enthused. “Do you play the piano and guitar too?” Tom asked as he pulled his guitar out of its case and began to tune it. 

“The guitar is mine,” Ryan admitted with a grimace. “I haven't been playing long, though.”

“The keyboard is something I keep meaning to learn,” Dave added. “Trouble is, the drums are just such good stress relief.” 

“We’ve pretty much decided we’ll have to adopt some kids and fill out our band with them,” Ryan teased. 

“The Osmond’s mark two,” I quipped. 

“The family that plays together stays together,” Dave shot back, while Ryan clutched his head.

“Oh god no! Not the bloody Osmonds! 

We all laughed. 

“Go on then,” I gestured for Dave to play his drums as I took a seat on one of the couches. “I promised Tom drums, after all.”

“But what about the other eleven drummers?”

“Sorry. This is the discount 12th day. All the other drummers were sold out. All you get is Dave. But he can play Wipeout like he has twelve pairs of arms!”

“All right Oh, thanks very much, sister dear! No pressure there!” He sat behind his drum kit and looked surprisingly nervous. A few deep breaths, however, and he launched into the familiar opening bars of Wipeout. His hands and feet moved with a furious pace and at the correct time, Ryan jumped up and grabbed my hands and we both launched into a gyrating dance and sang along, sort of na-na-na-ing the missing electric guitar accompaniment. Tom joined in after a minute, riffing on his acoustic guitar. Who didn't know Wipeout? 

At the end we all fell back, laughing and clapping.  Tom got up and offered his hand for Dave to shake. 

“I’ve got to say, I’m impressed.” He said that last in his slightly deeper Loki voice, but Dave was too busy blushing to notice. 

“Thanks.” Dave had turned a bit pink around the ears. “It’s one of my favourites, so I’m very practised at it.” 

“Very,” I agreed dryly. 

Dave chuckled. “When  we were kids I went a bit overboard one summer, obsessed with getting it right. One day Rocky got so fed up at hearing the same tune over and over she stormed into the garage and swore that if I ever played Wipeout again, she would get a gun and stab me to death.”

That story was one of the family staples now, Dave’ll be telling his grandkids one day about crazy, homicidal Aunt Rocky, no doubt!

“I’m not very coherent when I’m angry,” I shrugged. “And while we’re on embarrassing musical stories, I seem to recall you having a thing for Michael Jackson’s Man in the Mirror, only you kept singing, ‘and no moustache could have been any clearer’.”

Dave blushed again. “Oh please, I was only about 12 or something.”

“Yeah? I was 12 when you were driving me mad over wipeout, and you’re still telling the story!

Tom smiled and doing his Michael Jackson impression, carried the song on. “If you want to make the world a better place take a look at yourself and then make that... shave.”

We all laughed. 

“Excuse me a second,” Ryan left the room.

“If you want to talk misheard lyrics, you can’t beat our dad,” I smiled at the memory. “You know that Abba song, Chiquitita? He always used to sing Chicken Tikka. ‘Chicken Tikka, tell me the truth’.” I sang. 

“Our brother, Paul, has the best one of all time though,” Dave explained. “Everyone knows Bohemian Rhapsody but when Paul was about seven or eight, he kept singing, “Beelzebub has the devil for a sideboard.” 

“Did you correct him?” Tom asked me. 

“I was too young to, I didn’t know,” I explained. “And I think Dave enjoyed the fact he got it wrong.” I slanted a look at Dave. “In fact, I think Dave used to feed him wrong lyrics all the time. Remember ‘Scare a moose, scare a moose’?” I grinned.

“Bastard’s good at everything, I can’t enjoy the fact he fucks up such a well known song?” Dave growled. “I think he figured it out in his teens. I remember him being moody as fuck one day because his friends made fun of him for it. Now he knows better, but he does it just to annoy me.”

Ryan returned with a tray containing a selection of crispbread with various toppings, plus a pitcher of margaritas and 4 glasses. “Got to keep our strength up.”

“And our dutch courage,” I added. 

“Absolutely! Citrus is good for the vocal cords, as well!” He grinned as he handed me a glass. “Right, what’s next?”

“Let’s do something we can all join in on,” Dave suggested. “Anyone know any Queen?” 

“Not well enough to play without sheet music,” Tom admitted. “Unless, maybe Crazy Little Thing Called Love.” 

“I love that one! It’s a great dance tune! What about it Ryan? I’ll take the low parts if you’ll take the high ones!” 

“Deal!” 

Mounted on the wall over the keyboard was a huge flat screen TV because Dave limed to practice with some musical accompaniment sometimes, and Ryan liked watching Youtube guitar tutorials. Oh, the things you can afford when you’re a DINK. For the uninitiated, that’s Double Income No Kids household, and Dave does not like being called that, but that’s mainly because he think’s the word dinky doesn't reflect well on his manhood. So of course I use it whenever I can.

Ryan turned the telly on and spoke his google search into the remote. They’re gadget freaks too. Just about every room has an Alexa. It wouldn't surprise me if she was even wired into some of their sex toys! EWW! No, no, nasty stray thought! Back to lyrics. 

Even with the lyrics on screen, we still got some parts wrong because we were too busy trying to dance while seated and just generally hamming it up. 

“I hear Adam Lambert might leave Queen and try going solo again. You should audition,” I teased Ryan. 

He clasped his heart and uttered a gasp that would rival any of Ru Paul’s drag queens. 

“Sacrilege!” he pointed at me. “Get this blasphemer out of my house this instant! Away, demon! By the power of Gay I command you, leave this place!” 

We all laughed. His views on replacing Freddie Mercury were about on par with mine, only I wasn't quite so theatrical about it. 

When we finally stopped laughing we continued disavowing any new iterations of Queen for a minute or two, then we discussed songs again. 

“Hotel California,” I suggested, “Everyone knows that.” 

“Not known for it’s drum solos, though,” Tom reminded me. “But if it’s for everyone,” he turned to Ryan. “Don’t tell me you haven't learned to play Hey Jude yet?” 

“Well, it is one they usually teach beginners,” Ryan admitted. 

“That’s a yes,” Dave explained. “Come on, if I have to perform, so do you.” 

Tom handed Ryan his guitar and approached the keyboard. 

“All right, I can take a hint.” 

“How do you turn this thing on?” Tom asked, examining the keyboard.

“Need to turn it on at the plug.” Dave did it for him. 

“My saviour is here,” Tom teased and Dave smiled. He got the marvel quote, he just hadn't had the second realisation yet.

Tom sat down and played a chord, which sounded like a church organ. He switched it to piano and tried again. 

“There we go,” he smiled. 

“Is this a Gibson?” Ryan asked, examining Tom’s guitar. 

“It is,” Tom confirmed. “Beautiful instrument, you’ll love it.”

Ryan looked a little green around the gills and swallowed, probably understanding its worth. He slipped the strap around his neck despite already sitting down.

It had left me breathless for a moment when I realised how haphazardly I’d been slinging around a £2,000 guitar, but it had survived my laissez faire treatment, so I was fairly confident of its ability to survive Ryan’s playing. 

Tom  and Ryan played around for a few moments, familiarising themselves with their instruments. “Ready?” I asked when they quietened. 

They nodded and I counted to four then began. We’d sung this fairly often as kids. Dad had an accordion and Hey Jude was one of his favourites, so I was fairly confident the words would come back to me. If not, I didn't expect to be the only one singing, someone else would pick up my slack. 

There’s something about hey Jude, it just sort of unites people, like a world war two knees-up around the piano or something, except a totally different style. 

Usually I thought the na na na nas went on a bit long for my tastes but I’d have been happy carrying on longer tonight. The final note held for four beats, then we all clapped. 

“That was brilliant!” Ryan gushed. 

“It was! We should form a cover band! We could call it Duvet!”

“Dung Beatles more like,” I joked.

“Scarabs, if you don’t mind, Tom said loftily. 

“Oh we’re in treble now, boys!”

“Speaking of the Osmonds, and given geek boy here’s comic book addiction, we could be The Ozymandias… ians?” 

“Not the snappiest name,” Ryan laughed. 

I took a sip of my drink and helped myself to one of the last crispbreads. 

The evening continued in a similar vein with Ryan regularly bringing fresh treats and drinks to keep us nourished and hydrated. 

We played, drank, ate and sang for a good couple of hours. 

Tom dropped a few more Loki hints but it seemed my brother was determined to remain  as dense as Thor [Love it!]. Then Tom suggested Immigrant Song. It actually sounds really good on  an acoustic guitar and Dave  was able to provide drum backup, but I have no idea if he was true to the original or not. 

Tom handled most of the lyrics but Ryan and I join in on the bits we knew—basically the ah-aah-aaaah-ah bits. Turns out Ryan can get that bit really high when you pinch him at just the right moment! When the song finished We were all smiling. 

“I’d never really paid much attention to the lyrics before, but that stuff about hammer of the gods and what not, I can see why they used it for Ragnarok.”

And then I could literally see the penny drop as I watched the colour drain from Dave’s face. It was enough to gladden a sister’s heart!

“Wait, you— You’re not—? Holy fuck, you are!” 

We all cracked up laughing, Ryan even clapped. 

“Oh my God, I’m so sorry!” Dave rushed on. “It’s  just with the ginger and the glasses and the tan you’re so. . . and with the black and pale skin he’s so. . .”

Poor Dave. I was going to pay for not warning him earlier but it’s a sister’s job to torture their siblings. And honestly, I really did think he’d recognise Tom instantly. He even had a Loki action figure for Christ’s sake! 

“Sorry, mate. It’s all Rocky’s fault, you know” Tom ticked his chin at me.

I clutched my chest dramatically. “Under the bus! I can’t believe you pushed me under the bus, Tom!”

“Yes, well, I needed company under here, didn’t I?”

Ryan turned to Dave and slipped an arm around his waist. “They’re well matched, don’t you think?” They both turned to look at us. I stuck my tongue out at them.

Dave snorted, looking at Tom with pity and shaking his head. “Poor sod.”

Tom wrapped his arms around me from behind. “I know. But I like a challenge…”

I rubbed my arse against Tom and reached back to pat his bum. “It’s alright. He’s well up to the job!”

Dave groaned. “I’m going to need brain bleach after this night,” he muttered.

“Why don’t you play us some Hank Williams,” I suggested, to give Dave a chance to recover a bit. 

Tom played Move it on Over which we didn't know but on the choruses we could just echo him and be his backup singers. Everyone knows Hey, Good Lookin’, of course, and then he sang Your Cheatin’ Heart, which we knew from Patsy Cline (our dad was a fan) but the words were the same so we joined in. Dave had even recovered enough by then to back him up on the drums.

After that Ryan and I managed to do Chasing Cars together. He’d been teaching himself the tune and I’d been obsessed with that song it first came out. Then Tom and Dave were forced by popular demand to play In the Air Tonight, and Dave made the most of his drum solo, expanding it. 

“Couple of kids I went to school with had that song as their first dance at their wedding,” I laughed as I clapped. “I sat there trying not to giggle as they gazed into each other’s eyes while Phil sang, well if you told me you were drowning, I would not lend a hand.”

“Okay,” Dave held up his hand. “Worst first song to play at a wedding, winner gets the first serving of Ryan’s sinful sticky toffee pudding. Go!” he pointed at Tom. 

“Uh . . . U2, I Still Haven't Found What I’m Looking For.”

His suggestion was greeted with a mixture of laughter and wincing ‘Ooh!’s

“Rox,” Dave pointed at me. “And no, you can’t say Phil Collins!”

“Ummmm . . . My Chemical Romance, I Don’t Love You Like I Did Yesterday!”

“Ryan.”

“Don’t Marry her, Have Me, by The Beautiful South.”

“You turn,” I told Dave. 

“Lady Gaga, Bad Romance.” 

Then the suggestions were just flying and I could hardly keep up with who was suggesting what.

Tainted Love by Soft Cell, D.I.V.O.R.C.E. by Tammy Wynette, The Human League’s Don’t You Want Me Baby... Jar of Hearts... What’s Love Got to Do With It?... You Give Love a Bad Name

 You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling... Another One Bites the Dust... Highway to Hell... I’m All Out of Love, anything by Adele, You’re So Vain… You Can’t Always Get What You Want... I Will Survive... Gold Digger by Kanye, 

“No, I’ve got it,” Tom cut in. “Engelbert Humperdinck and Please Release Me, Let Me Go.”

“Step back!” Dave said. 

“We have a winner!” Ryan finished for him. Everyone clapped and cheered.

We adjourned back to the living room for dessert, Dave and Ryan going off hand in hand to the kitchen to fetch it. They’ve been together for about five years now, and it’s good to see they’re still just as lovey and gooey as they always were.

Tom pulled me down onto his lap on the sofa, making me giggle and squirm just as the boys returned with the sticky toffee.

Ryan handed me a double sized portion on a single plate, and went to sit on Dave's lap with theirs.

Tom moaned out loud when I fed him a spoonful, and everybody cracked up. Except Tom, who was too busy having a food orgasm.

“That’s brilliant stuff, Ryan! Can I have the recipe?” I nodded my head frantically, my mouth too stuffed with deliciousness to speak.

Ryan chuckled as he fed another spoonful to Dave and listened to his own moan of appreciation. 

“Nope. You’ll have to come back if you want more!”

Dave chimed in. “Oh yes, please do Tom! You can even bring my sister with you, if you must!” He leaned in confidentially, “Ryan only makes it for company, you see. It’s the only time I get it!”

Ryan rolled his eyes at Dave and turned his attention back to Tom. “But I’ll send the rest home with you, if you like.”

Tom popped the last bite into my mouth and shoved me off his lap, standing abruptly. “It must be getting awfully late! Don’t you think so, Rocky?” He stretched and yawned ostentatiously.

“Oh, um...yes.” I looked at my bare wrist. “Will you look at the time! I’ll just go get the rest and we’ll be off, shall we?”

Ryan laughed and shook his finger at us. “Don’t think I don’t know what you’re planning on doing with my sticky toffee, you naughty things! Tell you what, I’ll even give you an extra pot,” he winked.

Dave thumped his head on Ryan's shoulder. “Ryannn,” he whined, “that’s my sister!”

Ryan turned his head and dropped a kiss on Dave’s head. “Oh like you aren’t planning something naughty for the extra piece I kept!”

Dave leapt up. “Here, let me help you with your coats! So sorry you can’t stay longer!”

Despite being hustled out we had hugs and kisses all around, and plenty of laughter.

“I like your brother. Ryan too. They’re nice chaps.” Tom said later as he was hanging my coat at his front door.

“Yeah Dave’s not bad. He got bloody lucky with Ryan, and he knows it too. Now, where’s that pudding? I have things to do with it!”

The smile on Tom’s face broadened into a leer. “Do you?”

“Yep. I have to give my boyfriend his just desserts for being such a good sport tonight.” I reached for the carrier that Ryan had given us, but Tom lifted it high over my head teasingly. 

I narrowed my eyes at the bag. Nah. Too high. Well, if Mohammed can’t get to the mountain, the mountain will have to come to Mohammed! 

“I’m not jumping for it!” I stamped my foot.

“But darling, it does such charming things to your...charms when you jump!”

I took a couple of steps back, and started to peel my jumper off. “Oh, I think my charms are fine just the way they are.” I reached back to undo my bra strap and the rustle of the bag hitting the floor signalled my victory. Darting under Tom’s arm as he lunged, I swiped my prize and scrambled for the sofa, holding the bag behind my back.

“To the victor go the spoils,” I grinned. 

“Too right,” Tom smiled. “Looks like I win either way…”

I glanced down at the girls. My bra had slipped down under one boob and the shoulder straps had come down to bind my elbows. Well, damn.

Tom strolled in front of me, reaching a finger out to push my bra the last bit off my other boob. I could have easily struggled out of my bra, but Tom looked so happy, what the hell.

Still being in possession of the bag, I raised my head defiantly. “You want my pudding?” I asked.

“Darling, I would love your pudding. Name your price?”

“Hmm,” I pretended to think aloud. “Nice newish car on the driveway… Decent bank balance… Lots of designer gear… Hmm… I want…” I drew it out. Maybe there was a little bit of drama queen in me. “... A kiss.”

“One kiss?” he clarified and I nodded. “One single, solitary kiss?” I nodded again. “That sounds easy enough, deal.”

“Oh, I may have forgotten to, mention, this kiss has to make my toes curl and forget my own name.”

“Is that all?” he smirked. “I think I can oblige.” 

Tom knelt on the floor, carefully taking the bag from my hand and setting it on the side table. He lifted his warm hands to cup my boobs, and I'm honestly not sure who moaned. His hands slid smoothly down my ribs to the waistband of my jeans and deftly undid them, pushing them down and helping me step out.

He nuzzled at the junction of my thighs and made a deep humming sound. Abruptly he stood and slung me over his shoulder. I shrieked as he grabbed the dessert bag and strode off to the kitchen.

He set me down on the edge of the table and opened the bag. “Now, let’s see what we can do with this…”

I opened my mouth to tell him just what he could do with it, but he beat me to it, sliding a finger full into my mouth and following it with his tongue. This time we both definitely moaned. God, the silky toffee flavours, combined with Tom’s tongue? Nirvana!

We giggled and fought a bit over the morsel, Tom trying to steal it back, but he conceded it at last and he let me swallow.

Putting a hand between my breasts he pushed me slowly back to lie on the table. I blinked up at him, still trussed helplessly in my bra, and licked my lips.

“Now I have you just where I want you, my pretty!”

I rather thought that I had him just where I wanted him! The bag rustled and he was dripping caramel sauce over my boobs with a maniacal grin. God, it’s cold! I shivered.

“Thank Christ he didn't make rice pudding!” I joked as Tom drizzled more toffee sauce over my nipple. 

“But baked Alaska might have been fun!” Tom suggested.

“Thanks, we’ve done that—” My words cut off as Tom’s hot mouth wrapped around my nipple, sucking the sauce off and leaving me nearly dizzy with want.

Tom stood back to admire the artistic swirl of sauce he’d left on my body, and fortunately for him, to take his clothes off. I growled at him for taking so long and opened my mouth to scold him, but he popped another bite of the sticky stuff into my mouth.

“Hush now, Rocky! None of your lip, I’m busy!”

He planted a large hand on my torso and began to very delicately lick up all the sweetness from my body. Oh god, he was driving me mad.

Heat was flowing through my body, making me squirm and I felt Tom’s chuckle vibrating on my skin. When he lifted my hips and took a long lick and swirl around my clit I nearly came off the table.

Then Tom was pushing into me at last, leaning over me to kiss me as he thrust into me, rocking us both on the table. I could feel the coil inside me tightening and tightening, Tom’s breath harsh in my ear. 

“Fuck, Rocky!” Tom’s burning eyes stared into mine and I couldn’t look away. His hand went between us, and at the first press of his fingers I exploded with a scream. Tom shouted along with me and I felt the hot wash of his release, both of us still grinding into each other the last little bit of pleasure.

“Oh,” I sighed, getting my breath back. “Thanks for pudding up with me.”

Tom chuckled at the awful pun. “I think you’re flan-tastic, Rocky.”

I groaned. “You know what this means,” I said with gravity. 

“What?”

“We need a bath now.”

“But you’re  cleaning the table!” 

[askthewitchlady]

Revisions Review

THIS REVIEW WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS

I’d seen the trailers a couple times before deciding to watch this one,  There was something I couldn’t quiet put my finger on about it but it annoyed me, I dis’t know why, after watching it, now I know.

Our ‘protagonist’ is just so douchey I could feel it in the trailers.

I’m not even kidding here this guy is Omega level douche from the word go.

Basically a huge chunk of the Shibuya ward in Tokyo is suddenly transported to the year 2388  a world wide Pandemic has decimated humanity leaving only two surviving species, humans of the team ARHV Of whom we only ever meet Milo, but who Have specialised brains that allow them to jump through time and predict the future.  And the Revisions, people who where not immune to the pandemic and became bloated monster like creatures who eventually learned to use Machines to support the weight of their bodies.  these are commonly referred to as civilians and in order to maintain a level of control they break down human bodies on a cellular level and absorb those new healthy cells to replace what has decayed from the illness.

A lot of this you don’t find out till half way through the series.

STORY TIME

When they where young a group of five friends while on a trip for the summer get separated from one of their number Daisuke who is kidnapped as a result.  The kidnapper uses his cell phone to call one of his friends as they wait at his home for news and he tearfully explains if they don’t come alone the kidnapper will kill him  as they debate what to do they meet a pink hair woman named Milo who helps them find and save Daisuke before giving them advice which it is later discovered plays an important role in their futures.

She tells Daisuke that a prophecy has told he has a great destiny and must protect everyone. Several years later Daisuke has taken this to such an extreme that he’s constantly causing trouble for his friend by picking fights with people who he perceives as slighting them such as Punching a businessman asking his female friend Marin for directions.

He insists something bad is going to happen it will happen soon and he will be ready he will protect everyone, it’s revealed the five friends have drifted apart because of Daisukes attitude and his only remaining close friend is Keisaku.  It’s also revealed that Daiske constantly carries weapons even to school such as a switch blade so he is ‘prepared’  but that he has made no plans for his future like collage or Career choices.

Everyone has resigned to the fact Daisuke is delusional and following a mass text to all five friends Gai leads a confrontation Demanding Daisuke knock it off, Gais twin sisters Lu admits Daisuke has gone to far this time but Daisuke admits he never sent the text. Suddenly there is a pulse and everyone is lifted off the ground for an instant before falling,  upon investigation it is revealed a large area of Shibuya has been transported to another time.

after heading to the roof to investigate and try to get a cell phone signal the students including Daisuke and Marin are attacked by a massive robotic monster that kills some students and collects others., While attempting to flee the roof with Marin Daisukes Counsellor Miss Yumiko panics and shuts the door preventing any more students from escaping the roof.  Daisuke realises he’s not actually prepared for the situation and thinks he’s about to die when Milo appears attacking the creature.

She doesn't seem to know Daisuke and Marin however after he tells her his name she grabs him and jumps from the roof rappelling to a waiting mechsuit that is apparently coded for his brain.

PROBLEMS

The dog ear girls didn’t need to be dog ear girls.  it’s explained that the looks ‘communication vessels’, the only way the revisions can communicate with the people of Shibuya, were selected based on data to encourage empathy in the people they talked with.  Sooo we got A tall dark skinned dog ear girl who is overtly sextualized ((The dark skin isn’t the problem By the way it’s the fact that the ONLY dark skinned character in the show is a hyper sexualized woman it’s just wrong in a mecha show full of people in skintight suits she didn’t get a better design)) a dog ear lolita girl, and a walking dog mascot character...  yeah....

Daisuke, as I said in the beginning is almost irredeemably Douchy I mean for some he might not be redeemable at all,  I thought ok character arch and growth is good, but by episode 9 I had a sneaking suspicion he wasn’t going to learn anything.  AND HE DOESN’T  the show kind of sandbags his weird hero complex and desperation to ‘protect everyone’ and instead gives it... justification?  I dunno how to explain it but basically you never feel like Daisuke learns a lesson from anything he does, not the times he ignores direct orders, or even steals one of the mech suits to help his friend Keisaku find his missing mother.

Daisuke is imprisoned along with Keisaku for stealing the mechs known as string puppets, but while Keisaku comes around to understanding what they did wrong, Daisuke never does instead coming to this pseudo philosophical conclusion of, I understand that others understand me,  it was stupid.

when the characters learn that the civilians they have been fighting and killing aren’t monsters but infected human Marin has a major beakdown which you think is going to be like a thing but Nope, an episode later she’s back to smiley giggling Marin, because even though there are six main characters this story isn’t about them it’s about Daisuke and the anime reminds you of that... all... the... time

which is a shame because the other characters when given screen time are really good!  Milo is fascinating with her abilities, Gai and Lu as twins have a great dynamic with each other and the others around them.  when they first realise a real disaster has happened Gai take Lu to the nearest convenience store to get supplies because he knows the ones in the school won’t be enough.

Marin is a sweety and seeing her bits of character growth are satisfying but rushed because it’s not her story.  and Keisaku?  OMG this guy gets the shaft!

Not only does he see the horrifying way his mother is dissolved and dies (which was unexpectedly graphic for the show  and I was kind of pissed about that) but he’s then killed but not just killed, he’s ‘ripped out of time’ because he doesn't have a special future brain,  so the last remaining piece of him is used by the big bad who constructs a body that looks just like Keisaku to taunt Daisuke during the final battle which becomes a massive timeline fight and then Because they became merged and free of the timeline Keisaku Dies while Daiskle lived,  The whiney bitch lived but not the best freaking character in the show WTF?

you find out during the climax of the show that the reality was that the prophecy was that Keisaku was actually meant to lead the five friends and you see hints of that through the series where he consistently mediates between characters and works in the background to help move things along as well as offering everyone support even while he’s worried for his mother,  he calls people out but is also willing to help them. THAT BEING SAID THERE ARE GOOD THINGS Other then Daisuke all the characters are really interesting, even the teacher who shut the students on the roof later admits that people act on instinct when scared, and that she regrets what she did even actively trying to help the Shibuya survivors.

The plot isn’t bad, a little convoluted at points but not terrible

The 2D animation and 3D rendering is a little different this time around so there were moments I wasn’t sure which was which, unfortunately the weaknesses in the CG rigs eventually gave away but the moments were I really had to look gave me hope for future CG projects.

It’s really easy for a show with timeline shenanigans to just revive everyone so no one dies and there’s no consequences and blah blah blah.  This didn’t do that and in fact at the very end there’s a memorial for everyone who died while Shibuya was stuck in 2388  I love happy endings don’t get me wrong but I can appreciate that they didn’t do that here.

FINAL THOUGHTS?

I’m on the fence on this one, I would recommend it t was interesting to watch But you really gotta power through Daisuke and his hero complex, and some of his scenes are really hard to get through with out wanting to smack him through the screen, it’s just a shame he’s the main character. Interestingly because he has the same English VA  (Bryce Papenbrook)   as Kirito from SAO (which I enjoy don’t @ me) I found myself comparing the two characters and while both of them have this need to protect people and this drive to ensure the ones they care for are safe even to the point of self sacrifice in the dangerous situations they find themselves in.   Kiritos comes off more genuine.  so the younger guy from the pseudo fantasy harem Anime is way more mature then the Highschool kid who knows he has a responsibility and a destiny (supposedly)

If you’re a fan of Mech battles you might enjoy it, if you like lots of intersecting plot lines you might like it. It’s got it’s goods and bads and the goods are really good,  the problem is the Main Bad is the Main Character which is probably the reason I won’t watch it again.

Great concept, amazing side characters, okish ending... really really really terrible protagonist.