#the one guy who thought I would go get his bail money out of some car

[whereisthedamndaddymanual]

If you know anyone else who got arrested, was quite guilty, told the truth during the entire arrest and trial, refused the judge on the last day in court and walked out free that same day with all charges dropped please let me know.

Because I never bothered looking at it like that, but it is accurate as fuck

[writingouthere]

neighbor!Sukuna x singlemom!reader. In the aftermath of your apartment flooding, Sukuna makes you a deal that is too good to pass up. You don't fully know what you're agreeing to, but if you did would it have really changed anything? Reader POV

cw: Sukuna may seem like just a nice guy stepping up but really he's a red flag you're just too tired to see. It's hinted reader has not been treated well in the past but no specifics.

You hadn't known what to do when you woke up to the sound of rushing water. You had acted on instinct and grabbed your daughter from the room next to yours and stood in the kitchen, calling your landlord from the number on your lease to no avail. Your daughter was starting to get fussy and after the fourth attempt with no answer, you felt lost.

Your ex hadn't exactly been the reliable type and he probably would have just contributed by cursing and complaining about shitty landlords and even shittier affordable housing but that wouldn't have helped then and thinking about it wasn't helping you now. Single, alone with your daughter who was growing more disgruntled by the minute.

You hated to even consider but, there was someone who you kept coming back to that you thought could help.

Sukuna.

The tattooed man across the hallway hadn't struck you as the friendly type, but he had proved you wrong in the few months since you moved in. He looked like the type of guy you would cross the street to avoid, but he always had time to stop and talk to you when he saw you. He also always made it a point to say hello to your daughter and listen to her rambles, even when they didn't make sense to you.

Your other neighbors had warned you about him. Stories that included threats and assaults you just couldn't connect to the man who had taken you and your daughter to the aquarium when your piece of shit ex bailed on you both, again.

You had googled him afterwards and what you saw was pages and pages that included things like attempted, suspected and scarier words like murder, hospitalized and other things that just didn't fit with the man you were still getting to know.

The water was still falling and once your daughter started waking up, you called it and went over to the maybe scary man across the hall, who never scared you.

Within ten minutes, you found yourself in Sukuna's guest room while he stayed behind at your apartment to figure everything out. When was the last time someone told you, "I got it." You were always the responsible one. You were the mom friend, the girlfriend people liked to introduce to their parents. You had basically parented yourself!

But now, there was someone who told you that, "I got it."

So who could blame you for going along with what came next. When the next morning came and Sukuna told you that your super had come too late and the apartment was damage and you couldn't stop yourself from putting your head in your hands as your daughter happily munched on the pancakes he had made you both.

"What am I going to do," you groaned and you couldn't help but lean in when Sukuna placed his hand on your cheek.

"He said he would put you up in a hotel until it can be fixed," he said gently and you sighed. You envisioned the next several months in some shitty motel with no kitchen, sharing a lumpy bed with your two year-old, disrupting the routines you had been trying so hard to build as a single mom. No more afternoon trips to the park that was less than a block away. No more feeding the ducks with your leftover veggies or sharing pick up duties with the other moms at the daycare by your work.

"This sucks, I don't want to have to build my life all over again." And you really didn't. This was so frustrating and over what, a little water damage?

"Well," Sukuna started and he tilted your head so you were looking at him. "I do have the guest room. You could move some of your stuff over here and camp out until it's fixed. Pocket the hotel money, use it for something for the kid."

"Oh, I couldn't impose on you like that-"

"I wouldn't offer if it was an imposition," he said, his eyes glinting and for just a second you could see a little of the danger your neighbors had told you about, but then it was gone and he was leaning over you to take another pancake from the serving tray and putting it on your daughter's empty plate.

"It's not just for you, I would-I would feel a lot better knowing the both of you were taken care of. I doubt the hotel that-" he cut off looking over at your daughter, "you know is putting you up in is going to be the safest place for the two of you."

You couldn't believe you were considering it but you were so tired. You felt like life had just become a series of less than ideal circumstances you were forced to deal with just because you didn't want to settle for the wrong guy or give your daughter less than she deserved.

"I would pay rent," you said and he looked ready to argue but you held up your hand. He smiled, amused and gestured go on. "Just until they can fix the apartment and if we get to be too much tell me. We can tough it out in a hotel. We've dealt with worse," you added and he frowned before nodding.

"Deal." He turned to look at your daughter and smiled. "You hear that bug, you and mommy are moving in." Your daughter giggled and clapped her syrup covered hands.

"Temporarily," you reminded him and he smiled at you.

"Right, let's go grab the stuff you'll need while you're here temporarily." He went grabbed a towel and wiped your daughters hands while she kept laughing and chanting "move in, move in!"

Is it your fault that you didn't know that your circumstances were anything but temporary?

[wu-sisyphus-gang]

Jaune: “So…”

Taiyang: “So?”

Jaune: “Ruby must have gotten most of her looks from her mom. Summer? RIght? I mean… I see where Yang got it. From both you and Raven Branwen. But Ruby must have taken mostly after her mother.”

Taiyang: “You knew Raven?”

Jaune: “I fought her twice. I killed her the second time. I have her sword. Do you… do you want it?”

Taiyang: “I didn’t know that about you. No. I don’t want it. It’s yours by all rights. And Ruby does take after more Summer than me. It’s a good thing. It reminds me of her.”

Jaune: “Couldn’t have been easy with how she wanted to be a huntress. With how both of your girls wanted to be hunters. I hope… I hope my kids choose something else.”

Taiyang: “It wasn’t a walk in the park. I worry about them but I had to let them go. I couldn’t hold them back. But you’re planning on having kids? With Ruby?”

Jaune: *nods* “Ruby wants four. Weiss wants two. They want to drown me, I think. ”

Taiyang: “You’re a lucky guy.”

Jaune: “You… everyone says that. But they wouldn’t if they really knew me. You feel me?”

Taiyang: *laughs* “A little bit.”

Jaune: “Ruby and Weiss are all I really have. I lost everyone else. And if I lost them I’d lose it in a bad, bad way. I… I have some real power behind me and I’ve done some pretty terrible stuff with it before when no one was able to stop me. And we’ll see how I fucking handle kids.”

Taiyang: “Ruby trusts you with it. That counts for something.”

Jaune: “Ruby trusts a little too easily.”

Taiyang: “Maybe. You took off with her to Mistral. That was you.”

Jaune: “Back then I thought they were just her enemies and it was my place to serve beside her. It was my honor to serve her and hound her enemies like a dog.” 

Taiyang: *nods* “But they weren’t just her enemies. Ozpin’s enemies. I don’t know the details like Qrow and Summer did.”

Jaune: “My family are those enemies. I defected from them. I fight them now. I… I lead the fight in many ways. It’s my responsibility to fight them. It will kill me. And Ruby and Weiss are trying to squeeze as much life out of me as they can before I bite it fighting something like Ozpin’s enemies or something for the council.”

Taiyang: “You run errands for the council?”

Jaune: “They pay well enough and it’s sort of my duty. The money can’t buy what I really want but it pays for pretty much everything else pretty handily for my ladies.”

Taiyang: “Summer used to run those sorts of missions,. I’m sure Ruby worries about you.”

Jaune: “Ruby worries about literally everyone. But yeah. She worries about me. But it’s… it’s really only a matter of time. You know? Until I run into something too big for me to handle. And there’s no one who can really bail me out if I’m in a bad way. But in the meantime I have my women and a pretty good job.”

Taiyang: “Beacon, right?”  

Jaune: *nods, walks into Taiyang’s family room. Folds his arms in front of his chest and listens to Ruby work in the kitchen. She was after the old pots and pans and sheets which belonged to her mother. She wanted them at our house. It wasn’t far. Just a thirty minute drive.*

Taiyang: “Well, you seem like a good kid…”  

Jaune: “But looks can be deceiving.“ 

Taiyang: “Ruby’s an adult. She can make her own decisions. She always wanted a big family and I’m glad she’s getting it. Raising kids is safer than hunting.”

Jaune: “It’s just as hard, though. Isn’t it.”

Taiyang: “It’s harder.”

Jaune: "I was worried about that. And I suspected as much. Luckily I’ll have Ruby and Weiss to bail me out of a bad situation. Set me straight when I’m wrong.”

Taiyang: “Are you sure about that?”

Jaune: “That or this world stops being my problem. I lost it before. I know what would shatter me again. Losing Weiss or Ruby would be intolerable. I literally couldn’t handle it.”

Taiyang: “Kids change you." 

Jaune: “Vale would be gone. No one could stop me from tearing down cities in my madness. Atlas and Mistral too. It would break me and I would level mountains out of spite.”

Taiyang: “Kids change you.”

Jaune: “Nothing could change this. We call that checkmate.”

Taiyang: “Maybe. If you have kids, they could ground you. Keep you sane. My kids kept me sane. Both times.”

Jaune: “I would break. I’m already glass. Ruby has no idea how fragile I am and how she holds me together. She’s my moral compass. I would perish. I couldn’t do what you did. Luckily I’m the one slated for death. I couldn’t handle it if it was one of them.”

Taiyang: “We don’t really have a choice. I had to keep going for my little girls. I didn’t have a choice. I had to let Summer and Raven go. I had to push forward. They were so wonderful and they held me together but I had to keep going for my little girls.”

Jaune: “Not so little anymore.”

Taiyang: “No. Not so little anymore. Now she’s somebody else’s sweetheart. And I just have to trust that she’s making the right decision for herself with who she chooses. You seem like a good kid but I sort of have to take it on faith.”

Jaune: “Sounds hard.”

Taiyang: “Wait until you have a little girl of your own,” the words dripped from his lips like an ancient curse. Jaune imagines it stretching all the way back to the dawn of time. From father to son in law. “Then tell that to me.”

Jaune: “Weiss wants a little girl. A boy and a girl. I’m not sure if she wants both bad enough to do some in vitro bullshit. But I know that’s what she wants. And Ruby I think is up for dealing with whatever hand she gets dealt.”

Taiyang: “Six is a lot.”

Jaune: “It is. And they’ll probably have to do most of the work without me. Especially if I bite it.”

Taiyang: “But you want to give it to them?”

Jaune: “I’d do anything for them. I’d even fight my family and try to walk away for them. It’s so easy to say. ‘I’d do anything for you.’ But would I actually? Would I kill my friends if they asked me to? I’m having kids for them. Because they want it. And that’s pretty hard. Maybe it’s even the hardest task that they could ask me to do. You know?”

Taiyang: *nods*

Jaune: “I’m gonna fail. Whether I beat my family or not, I will fail to be a good enough parent. It’s literally impossible to do a good enough job”

Taiyang: “I take offense to that. I did good enough.“ 

Jaune: “You’re not allowed to be offended because did you? Or could you have done better?”

Taiyang: *gets quiet*

Jaune: “How do I do it? How do I do a good enough job? On top of all my other responsibilities?”

Taiyang: "You can’t. You will fail.”

Jaune: “I knew it. But I have to try anyway. They’re asking me to try anyway. They want me to try. They really honestly believe I can be a good father even with all my other bullshit. And I can’t talk them out of it. And I’ve tried. And I would do anything for them. And it scares the living shit out of me. Even more than my family does.”

Taiyang: “Good. You should be scared. Six.” *grants Jaune a kindly smile* 

Jaune: “Thank the gods I have two of them to support me or I would be fucked.”

Taiyang: “But then again you wouldn’t be having six without the two of them.”

Jaune: “You been to our place yet?”

Taiyang: *shakes his head*

Jaune: “You’re welcome to swing by. Big empty house to fill with all those little ones. That’s the plan.”

Taiyang: “The wedding is there as well, isn’t it?”

Jaune: *nods* “It is. That’s the accord, at least. As far as I’m aware. Most of the planning is those two. I’m sort of just along for the ride.”

Taiyang: “They both taking your name?”  

Jaune: “Yeah. Both of them. I suppose I had better ask for your blessing.” 

Taiyang: “Is that how you ask me?”

jaune: “Yeah. It is.”

Taiyang: “Did you ask Weiss’s dad for his blessing to marry her?” 

Jaune: “Weiss isn’t on speaking terms with her father. I was going to ask the man she chose to walk her down the aisle. A butler who actually raised her named Klein.”

Taiyang: “So you don’t intend to ask her father?”

Jaune: “No. She hates her pop. She couldn’t care less if I had his blessing or not so I don’t care about asking for it.”

Taiyang: “But you do care about mine? And this other man’s? Klein’s?”

Jaune: “To an extent. Ruby wants to marry me. I’m gonna marry her. You can either give me your blessing or you can not. But I’m gonna marry her regardless because I love her and she loves me. It’s still your choice to give me the blessing or not.”

Taiyang: “But it doesn’t really matter. You’d marry her anyway.”

Jaune: “I’d like your blessing. Ruby cares what you think. That counts for something.”

Taiyang: “And I’m supposed to give it to you off of one conversation?”

Jaune: “You got to take me on faith. Isn’t that what you said? And yeah, maybe don’t give it to me today. Maybe don’t give it to me in general. But I’m gonna marry Ruby. We’re gonna have kids. You can be as big of a part of that as Ruby lets you.”

Taiyang: “What about you? You gonna cut me out?”

Jaune: “Not unless you motivate me to. Please don’t motivate me to. And it would take more than not giving me your blessing to motivate me to.”

Taiyang: “So how important is this blessing.”

Jaune: “I think it’s important to Ruby.”

Taiyang: “So… pretty important?”  

Jaune: “So pretty important.“

Taiyang: “But not so important that you wouldn’t marry her against my will?”

Jaune: “You’d have to have some pretty potent will to stop me. You couldn’t stop Ruby from leaving for Mistral under my protection. When I was her dog and nothing more. Even if you would have wanted to, you couldn’t stop her. And I’m willing to bet you would have rather she stayed here. Nice and safe. Not out dealing with those same forces that took her mother from you.”

Taiyang: “Would you kill and die for Ruby?”

Jaune: “Easily.” "pulls up his shirt to reveal the bifurcating scars Tyrian left behind* "This serial killer came after us out in Anima and I almost died rather than let him take her. When I killed for the first time it was in Ruby’s defense. I’d do it again now. I have a lot more power now than I did then. I’d do more if she asked me for more. Like having kids.”

Taiyang: “Like having kids. Put your shirt down, kid. I’m probably going to need more than one conversation.”

Jaune: “No problem. You had two wives, right?”

Taiyang: “Not at the same time.” *shakes her head*“Not like you will.”

Jaune: “Just about. Ruby and Yang are what? A year and a half apart? Minus nine months implies… You moved on fast at the very least.”

Taiyang: “I never really moved on and got over Raven.”

Jaune: “Ouch. But Summer scooped you up nice and quick.”

Taiyang: “Yeah, I suppose she did.”

Jaune: “You can be more honest with me than that.”

Taiyang: “I… I don’t know what you mean?”

Jaune: “Did you sleep with Summer before Raven left you?”

Taiyang: *says nothing, doesn’t meet Jaune’s eye*

Jaune: “I was just curious. Does Ruby know?”  

Taiyang: *shakes his head*

Jaune: “How do you want her to find out?”  

Taiyang: *lowers his face into his hands* “Don’t tell her, please. I will. When I’m ready.”

Jaune: “Fair cop. Fair enough. Just don’t wait too long. I don’t want to have to tell her.”

Taiyang: “Making me the bad guy?”

Jaune: “Holding you responsible. I have to be responsible for so much bullshit. Your daughter comes up to me and tells me ‘take responsibility for me, won’t you?’ You have to be held responsible for the impact you have over her emotions too. And if I have to hold you responsible so that she’s informed and aware of everything she should know, then I will. That’s my job. I’m the person she turns to now.”

Taiyang: “She used to turn to me…” 

Jaune: “You had your time, old man. She’s mine now.”

Taiyang: “And if I don’t like it?”

Jaune: “Well let’s ask her. We’ll tell her you don’t like it and ask her to decide.”

Taiyang: “That’s not fair…”

Jaune: “Really? What’s not fair about it? You had her for fifteen years, old man . I’ll be lucky to squeeze out ten. You don’t get to sit there and tell me it’s not fair. Your time as the sun has passed. I’m her sunshine now. And I worked hard to get there. I killed, and bled, and almost died to get there. Over and over again I killed and bled and almost died. Worse than that happened to me too. What’s not fair? Tell me specifically? If I’m not a good enough man for your daughter you better come out and accuse me of such.”

Taiyang: “You’re not a good enough man for my daughter.“  

Jaune: “Yeah, no shit. But she chose me anyway. She chose to save me. She could have left me in the garbage where I belong. Now I’m the most powerful man on the planet and it’s all because of her. She has the power to make and unmake me. I’m only the most powerful man on the planet.”

Taiyang: “And this other girl? Weiss? You want her too?”

Jaune: “I always wanted Weiss. Ever since I was young. She was my first real crush. She was the question with the changing answer. ‘How do I be good enough?’ Do I need to be faster? Stronger? Smarter? More confident? Do I need more power? Always more power. Unending with the power. When is it enough? And of course the answer is that it’s never enough. It can’t be. I can’t be enough. I was never going to be. But she also chose me anyway.”

Taiyang: “And how did you three get together?”

Jaune: “How we got together… Ruby and I dated out in Anima. Then I got split up and they and I weren’t sure that we’d ever see each other again. Then Weiss and Ruby got together. They were always close and had good chemistry. Then when we found each other again Ruby begged me not to make her choose. She begged me. So I gave it a shot.”

Taiyang: “How magnanimous of you.”

Jaune: “Please. I’m allowed to have something . Just because you never figured out how to make it work with your business doesn’t mean we can’t. And Ruby begged me to try. I had no choice. And I always wanted Weiss. It just played out well. If we tried it again a million times I think they’d exclude me. And I would deserve it.”

Taiyang: “If you don’t deserve to marry them and you know you don’t deserve to marry them, then you shouldn’t be marrying them.”

Jaune: “Not even if they beg me to? Their heads are on straighter than mine. If they think it’s a good idea, then who am I to argue?”

Taiyang: “You sound like a dog. Why would I be happy about my little girl marrying some dog?”

Jaune: “Well, I am a dog. But I’m her dog. And I’m doin’ it because she asked me to. And I would do anything for her. Even if I personally don’t think it’s a good idea. I didn’t think this trio was a good idea. But she begged me to try and robbed me of my free will. I had to. And you don’t have to address me like you’re not also a dog. Do you? Out of you and Summer Rose, who was the person and who crawled on all fours?” 

Taiyang: “Cruel of you…”  

Jaune: “But not inaccurate. Is it? And it’s not my fault that it’s the truth. Did you deserve her? Or was she so fantastic you didn’t deserve to pray for her? When she came for you did you have a choice in sireing Ruby? Or did she tell you to come and, like a dog, you did?”

Taiyang: “I couldn’t help it. I didn’t have any choice really. I never really did. Not with Summer or with Raven.”

Jaune: “So do you think I have any choice when she says she wants to marry me and wants four kids?”  

Taiyang: “You’re supposed to be a man.“

Jaune: “I’m not. I never was. Ruby knows that. Or I’ve told her so many times she’s forbidden me from saying it anymore. Qrow didn’t like me around her. He thinks it’s dangerous because of my family. And it is. And Ruby knows that. She is so cruelly merciful.”

Taiyang: “She’s sweet like that… Summer was as well. That’s where she gets it from.”

Jaune: “And here I am hoping for a daughter just like Ruby. I’m over here praying for my heart to be broken.”

Taiyang: “A good woman is like that. On one hand I hope… this awful thing I’m going through right now… some kid does to you someday with your daughters. My granddaughters. On the other I really wouldn’t wish this on another person.”

Jaune: “I’ll look after Ruby and my daughters.”

Taiyang: “Lookin’ after ‘em is easy. Letting them go is hard.”

Jaune: “I hope I’m fuckin’ dead before that happens. Stone cold gone.”

Taiyang: “I mean… it’s beautiful. Watching her grow into the woman she’s supposed to be. It’s so beautiful I can hardly watch it happen. But I do have to watch it happen. And part of that is you. You’re the man she wants to marry. You have a role in it too. And it’s so terrible I want to laugh and so beautiful I want to cry. And I’m just left sitting here feeling it all. What am I going to do now? She doesn’t need me anymore? She’s the reason I’m alive and kicking. And she doesn’t need me anymore. And I can’t attach myself to her like a parasite. I can’t. I have to set her free. And part of that is watching her run into your arms and watching her run towards heart break and I can’t stop it. It’s agony and wonder unlike anything in the world. And all I can do is watch while my brain melts.”

Jaune: “Sometimes life is like that, I think. With the awe and horror mixing together in unmerciful quantities. But what can we do about it? We just have to lay back and take it. Or let it take us at any rate. It’s so much bigger than we are. It’s huge. Ruby has a heart bigger and stronger than my whole soul. That’s why I’m just a dog compared to her. The real reason. Not just because I do what she tells me to do.”

Taiyang:: “Sounds painful.”

Jaune: “I want to claw my eyes out but I want to stare at her forever and I deserve neither. Was it the same for you?”

Taiyang: “Largely. I couldn’t handle it. Summer was too good to me. I didn’t deserve it. And she left me with this shining gem of a daughter. I didn’t deserve Ruby either. But… my time as her light has ended. You’re her sunshine now. Isn’t that right?”

Jaune: “My turn. My turn to not deserve her.”

Ruby: *walks in carrying a box from the kitchen* “What are you two talking about?”

Jaune: "You." 

Taiyang: “I was just giving this kid my blessing. He asked for it and you trust him. That’s good enough for me.”

Ruby: “Oh, well that’s wonderful. I’m glad you two can get along. And you don’t have to worry, dad, Jaune’s good material. He’s a wonderful person.”

Taiyang: “You wouldn’t be marrying him if he wasn’t.” 

Jaune: *takes the box from Ruby on basic principle*

Ruby: *cocks her head up at him*

Jaune: *walks out of the house and puts the box in his bike’s trunk*

Jaune: *catches the tail end of their conversation*  

Ruby: “-oh? Yang? Well she’s with Blake. They’re dating but I don’t know how far along they really are with it. They aren’t pressed for time like I am with Jaune.”

Taiyang: “But you’re not rushing in?”

Jaune: *hesitates by the door* 

Ruby “No, I’ve dated Cloud for almost three years. I trust him totally and I’ve been with Weiss for almost two. Longer if you count how long I’ve been on a team with her. But I get the sense it’s not Weiss that has you worried about me.”

Taiyang: “Well… he talked a little about his family. And the missions he’s doing. I hear you say you love him and trust him. But… I don’t want to see you get hurt.”

Ruby: “I’ll be fine dad. Swing by our house some time. Okay? I love you.”

Taiyang: “I love you too sweet girl. Bye. Drive safe.”

Ruby: “I will. See you soon!” *walks out of the house*

Jaune: *stares at her*

Ruby: "What?”

Jaune: “I just… like looking at you.”

Ruby: “So what did you and my dad really talk about?” 

Jaune: “I told you, you. I mean, a little about Raven and Ozpin and missions for the council. But it was mostly about you.”

Ruby: “Like what about me?”

Jaune: “Well, how many kids you want. How hard it’s gonna be for me to be a teacher, a hunter and a father. We talked about how I didn’t really need his permission to marry you. I mean, if he could stop you from doing what you wanted, then he would have stopped you from leaving for Anima. Then we talked about how I killed for you and almost died when the Scorpion came for you. He talked about how scared he was.”

Ruby: “What did you say?” 

Jaune: “I told him his time was over. I told him it was my turn to take care of you.”

Ruby: “Were you mean?”

Jaune: “Maybe… I’m a selfish beast. And you belong to me now.”

Ruby: “Be nice to him.”

Jaune: “Sure. No problem.”

If you liked this excerpt try my fanfic Motion Sickness V2

[vanfleeter]

Matched: Chapter 9 - The Honeymoon 2.2

Characters: Jake Kiszka x Thea Foster Warnings: 18+. Angst. Yelling. Anger. Frustration. Annoyance. Smut. Mentions of sex. Penetrative sex. Fluff. A/N: Second to last chapter! Thank you all so much for coming with me on this journey! Only one final chapter an then an announcement!!

“No, no, no!” I slam the door shut to the engine compartment and rest my hands on my hips.

We’re supposed to be leaving today to sail back to Florida and fly into New York to be with Josh for his directorial debut, but this stupid engine decides now that it wants to quit working. A brand new fucking engine and it breaks. That’s nearly $20,000 right down the drain.

“Everything okay?” Thea asks as she walks up to the edge of the boat.

I run my hands through my hair and shake my head. “Stupid engine is broken…”

“Is there anything you can do?” She asks as she leans against the railing of the boat.

“No!” I shout. “This fucking engine is more complex and I don’t know what to fucking do!”

“Okay, I’m sorry..” She whispers.

I sigh. “No, I’m sorry.. I shouldn’t snap at you.. It’s just.. If we can’t leave today, we won’t make it to New York on time. I don’t want to miss the film festival.”

I grumble words under my breath as I pull out my phone and dial a number. It rings a few times before the call is picked up.

“Hey Jake! What’s up man?”

“Hey Phil! I have a problem..”

“Uh oh, with the boat?”

“Yeah.. The damn engine went out and I don’t know how to fix it..”

“Oh man.. Uh, where are you?”

“Brazil,” I grumble. “On my honeymoon.. We’re supposed to already be heading back to Florida. This is a long shot, but any chance you can get down here? I’ll pay for everything.”

“I can, but it’d be a few days, a week at most.” Phil says. “I’d have to get all my gear together and buy a potential engine in case yours needs to be replaced.”

“A week?” I sigh. “I have to be in New York by Friday.”

“That’s the best that I can do, Jake.”

“Dammit…”

“Well hey listen, I know a guy in Rio who works on boats like yours. I’ll ring him and see if he can do anything. Where are you?”

“São Paulo.”

“So not too far, I’ll give him a call and see if he’s able to meet you there. Give me an hour and I’ll call you if I find anything.”

“Thanks Phil, I fucking owe you.”

“No need, Jake.” He chuckles. “I’ll call you back later.”

I hang up and put my phone away before climbing up onto the boat. “Phil said he can't be out here for at least a week, but he knows a guy in Rio who might be able to help, so he’s gonna give him a call..”

“And if he can’t?” Thea asks as she pushes off the railing.

I huff and rest my hands on my hips. “Then we’ll have to wait for Phil and we miss the film festival.” I groan and pull my phone back out. “I have to go call Josh, I’ll be back.”

-

“What do you mean you can’t make it?!”

“Josh, I’m sorry.. I didn’t know this was gonna happen..”

“Jake, I really needed you here.”

“I know, I know. I want to be there too, but there’s nothing I can do. I thought maybe Thea and I could fly out of São Paulo but I can’t leave my boat here and the fees to keep it docked here is fucking astronomical…”

Josh sighs. “Alright.. I mean, I would love to have you here more than anything but I also don’t want you wasting so much money..”

I scoff. “I’m probably gonna have to drop another twenty grand to fix the engine.”

“Are you serious?” Josh says. “That much?!”

“Unfortunately yes..”

“Well… You focus on the boat,” He says. “I’ll be fine here.”

“Josh, I’m really sorry.”

“Don’t worry about it, Jake. And besides, I don’t want you overshadowing me anyways. Everyone would be more excited about the baby anyways.”

I chuckle. “That’s just bullshit.”

He returns the laughter. “I’m only joking.. I have to go though, Sam’s about to get himself into some shit.”

I roll my eyes. “Of course he would be.. If he needs to be bailed out, I can’t do it this time.”

“Ha!” Josh exclaims. “Baby brother can sleep overnight if it comes down to it. Please be safe, keep me updated.”

“Yeah, I will.” I hand up and toss my phone onto the bed.

There hasn’t been one thing that Josh has done that I haven’t been there for. This is his first debut on the big screen and I have to miss because of this damn boat engine. Sitting down on the bed, I dig my hands into my hair and I mentally curse myself. Stupid boat. Stupid engine.

I feel Thea’s arms wrap around me. I close my eyes and try to avoid the annoyance but I can’t.

“Please don’t..” I say as I wriggle out of her arms.

“Oh.. I’m sorry, I was just..”

“I just want to be alone right now..” Standing up from the bed, I leave the room and step back out on the deck. I take a deep breath and lean against the railing.

The guilt fills my body and all I want to do is scream. I’m supposed to be there. I’m supposed to be standing beside him. I helped write the damn script, the least I can do is show up. He needs my support, he deserves it.

“Jake?”

“Not now, Thea..”

“I know you’re upset but-”

“Don’t even start..” I sigh. “Don’t stand there and try to tell me that this isn’t my fault, that we couldn't have known this was going to happen. And don’t tell me that it’s going to be okay. I should be in New York, I should be there for him. All these years he’s stood beside me and we lived out my dream together.. And I can’t even do that for him. So please, fucking save the cliché speech.”

I refuse to turn to face her, knowing exactly what she’ll look like so I keep my back turned towards her.

“I’m sorry, I just wanted.. I didn’t mean to..” I hear her sigh. “Forget it..”

I close my eyes again and drop my head. I knew exactly what she meant and I know she only means well, but all of this is my fault. I didn’t inspect anything before letting the guys take the boat. Had I done the necessary inspections beforehand, then we wouldn't be stranded in Brazil, nearly five thousand miles away from New York.

My phone finally rings after what feels like eternity. Phil, I see his name flash on the screen. “Please tell me you have good news.”

“I do.”

“Thank god.”

“I called Luiz, explained your situation. Now.. I know you don’t want to keep your boat docked down there, and you won’t have to. Luiz is offering to trade boats for the time being–give you his so that you and your wife can make it back to Florida and catch your flight to New York.”

“Phil, you’re fantastic. Please thank Luiz for me.”

Phil chuckles. “You thank him when he gets there. He’ll be there in a few hours so it might set you back but at least you’ll be able to get home.”

“Thank you, I owe you.”

“No, Jake, you owe me nothing,” Phil chuckles. “We’ll talk later.”

Hanging up the call, I put my phone away into my pocket and head inside the boat. I come to a stop at the entrance to the bedroom when I see Thea sitting at the edge of the bed. When she lifts her head, she stands from the bed and straightens out her dress. Her small bump is just barely visible as she smooths out the fabric and clears her throat.

“Phil called,” I say. “He called in a favor with a friend who lives in Rio. His name is Luiz.. He’s going to come here and trade us boats so we can go home.”

“Trade?” She says, looking up at me. “You’re going to leave yours here?”

“For the time being.” I say.

She softly nods her head. “Okay..”

We barely spoke after that. She spent most of the time packing up our things to move onto the other boat. And when Luiz finally showed up and we traded, he offered to take a look at the engine while he had my boat and to see if he had a way to fix it without me having to drop another twenty grand on a new one.

“It’s no trouble,” Luiz smiles. “Now go, the longer you wait, the later you get back.”

“I will,” I say. “Thank you, again, for helping us out. It really means a lot.”

“No need to thank me, just helping out a fellow sailor.” Luiz pats my shoulder and smiles. “Congratulations on the baby too. Take good care of them both.”

I return the smile. “I will, thank you.”

Saying our goodbyes, I climb onto the boat and start to untie the rope. Luiz helps to push it away from the dock. He waves goodbye as I start the engine and pull the boat away into the water.

The journey home was a slow one. Felt even slower when Thea wasn’t talking to me. I knew I had hurt her when I yelled at her before we left. I guess she was punishing me for treating her the way I did. I don’t blame her. I put my own feelings above anything.

We made it back to Florida with little to no stopping along the way. I docked the boat and paid to keep it there for a week or two until I could figure out plans on how to get it back to Luiz. We then boarded the plane a couple hours later and headed off for New York.

Making our way through the halls of the convention center, my heart pounded in my chest. It was halfway through the film so we had to sneak in. No one knew we’d be here so it would be a surprise for everyone and not just for Josh. Sneaking into the screening room, we slide into one of the empty seats towards the back to finish out watching the film.

And when the film ended and it got the applause that it deserved, I gave Thea a kiss on the cheek before making my way up the aisle as Josh stepped up to the stage to accept the well deserved standing ovation. His eyes locked on mine and his smile grew wider.

“I couldn’t have done any of this without my brother,” He says, outstretching his hand to me. I stepped up onto the stage and we pulled each other into a hug. “I thought you couldn’t make it.”

“Sailors help each other in need.”

He scoffs with a laugh and pats my back before we pull apart. “Well it’s wonderful to have you here.”

“You’ve been by my side our entire lives and for the last decade as my bandmate and my brother. Now it’s my turn to be by your side.”

I stuck by Josh’s side for most of the next hour doing interviews with him. Most questions were geared towards his directing and what decisions he had to make that made the movie turn out the way it did, while a few were geared toward me and the script.

“What gave you the idea of this epic story between two brothers? Did your own relationship with Josh influence it at all?”

“All of it actually.” I smile as I look at Josh. “We’ve nearly every waking day together and we have a bond that just can’t be broken, no matter how someone might try. He’s my better half and without him, I’m not sure where I’d be or life would have turned out. So essentially yes, it did influence the script because I wanted to feel real and raw and even relatable.”

The interviewer thanks us for our time before getting up from the chair and leaving the table.

Josh turns in his chair to face me and pulls me in for a hug. “Jake, I don’t know what I’d do without you.” He says over my shoulder. “And I can’t thank you enough for doing this with me.”

“Why wouldn’t I?” I say as I reach over to drink some of the water that we were given earlier. “You helped me with my dream, now it’s my turn to help you. I made that promise and I am going to stick with it.”

“I don’t know what I’d do if you weren’t my twin.. I don’t even think we’d be doing this if we weren’t.”

I scoff and roll my eyes. “It still would have happened, I have no doubt.”

“You think so?”

“I know so. Now come on, we have one more interview and then we can go to the party.” I say, patting him on the shoulder and standing from the table.

“God, would you look at this thing,” I say as I hold up his award. “It’s bigger than a Grammy, and heavier.” I start lifting it in the air above my head with mine. “It works great as a weight. You know, I bet if you use this at least three times a week, you could totally buff up even more.”

Josh rolls his eyes. “Give me that,” He says as he takes back his award. “I am not using this as a workout weight.” He polishes it off with the sleeve of his suit.

“So you get an award for your first major directorial debut and I get one for being an outstanding writer. I think tonight was pretty successful.”

“I’m still amazed that you even made it. When did you even get in?”

“About midway through the movie,” I say as I push open the glass doors and step outside in the growing chilly air of New York City. “So I am requesting a hard copy so I can watch it from the beginning.”

Josh shakes his head and throws his arm around my shoulders. “Look at us, taking over the world with one song and one movie at a time. Watch out world, the Kiszka Twins are taking over.” He gasps and pushes me away. “That’s perfect!”

“For what?”

“For us!”

“The Kiszka Twins? Sounds kind of basic, don’t you think?”

“No! Well yes.. But not that! No, what I mean is.. Kiszkography!”

I screw my face up in disgust and shake my head. Josh’s jaw falls open.

“No?! Wha–Why?”

“Kiszkography? I don’t know what that sounds like, but I know it doesn’t sound good. Why do you even want to change the name anyways? Just stick with the New Society.”

“Yeah but this is about you and me. We are a team.”

“I know we are, but just keep the original name.”

He huffs and rolls his eyes. “Fine, I’ll keep it as it is,” He grumbles.

I chuckle and pat his shoulder. “Let’s hurry up and get to the party, I am starving.”

The party that followed wasn’t big, Josh didn’t want that. Which is odd because he loves to celebrate in a big way. “Only family,” He told me as I poured us a fresh glass of whiskey. “That’s all I need right now,” He clinks his glass against mine before taking another sip. “So how’s marriage so far?” He asks. “Aside from the baby.” I blow out a sigh and take a drink of my whiskey. “Uh oh, first marital fight already?”

“I was pissed off about the boat, and I took my anger out on Thea.. I didn’t mean to.”

“And now she’s giving you the silent treatment?”

“No, but I get short worded answers and she won’t stay around me for long. Can’t say that I blame her.. I was an ass to her.”

“Have you tried talking to her?”

“I don’t even know what to say.” I take another drink, allowing the amber liquid to burn down my throat.

“Tell her you were an ass, like you said were,” Josh says with a sly smile.

I looked across the way, the private room bustling as our family milled around and mingled. I catch sight of Thea as she sips generously on water. Ever since Josh spread the word of the baby, everyone has been taking care of her. Making sure she eats and stays hydrated. Sam has been fawning over the prospect of having a niece or nephew.

“Stop letting your temper get in the way,” Josh says as he pops a tater tot into his mouth. “That always gets you in trouble.”

Downing the rest of my whiskey, I hand over the empty glass to Josh before making my way across the room to Thea. I graciously excuse her from the conversation with Sam over potential babysitting duties with Rose.

I bring her to a quieter place, one where we can speak with no one listening.

“I want to apologize for how I acted..” I said as I leaned back against the nearest table. “It wasn’t right of me to be that way.. I don’t like fighting with you, and yelling at you like that was… I hate myself for it.”

Thea reaches for my hands and brings them up to her lips. “I will admit that it did take me by surprise when you did that. You’ve only ever done that a couple times before–but I understand why you were feeling the way you were feeling. You were stressed and upset–something you worked hard for and longed for, was broken.”

I shake my head. “Still not an excuse for losing my temper..”

She moves closer and stands between my legs. “Can I admit something?” She says. I hum in acknowledgment and she wraps her arms around my neck. “I find you particularly sexy when you’re angry.”

“Oh do you now?” I chuckle.

“Mmhmm,” She giggles. “I so badly wanted to just lay you out on that bed and fuck you.” I felt my cheeks burn and she laughed. “Am I making you blush, Mr. Kiszka?”

I chuckle and draw her in for a kiss. “You do, Mrs. Kiszka.”

“How upset would Josh be if we departed early?” She asks before kissing me again.

“I’m sure he won’t mind if we turn in early,” I say, wrapping my arms around her waist.

“Good, because I have been dying for your touch.”

“Aw, is my love touch starved?” I whisper against her lips.

“Very,” She whispers back.

I smile and give her another kiss before I pull away. “I’ll go tell Josh that we’re heading out.”

My hands never left her body as we stumbled through the hotel room. They roamed up underneath her skirt as I lifted her up onto my waist and carried her to the bed. “I love you,” I say as I kiss down the expanse of her neck. “I love you so much.”

“I love you too.” She whispers.

As we discard ourselves from our clothing, I can’t help but to kiss every inch of her body, from the top of her head and down to the tips of her toes. I move back to her stomach, where her small baby bump resides. I place a gentle kiss there again. She hums sweetly and tangles her fingers in my hair.

“My sweet baby,” I say as I press another kiss to her bump.

“Our..” She corrects me.

I chuckle and look up at her. “Yes.. Our.” I kiss her stomach before crawling up her body and resting my own body between her legs. “A baby that we created together. The blood of my blood, and of yours. A baby created out of love and will be born into love.”

Slowly I enter her, pushing in as far as I can. She moans in pleasure, moving her body with mine with each thrust that I give.

“Until the day that I die, my body will be yours.” I say as I lean down to kiss her.

“Such a man of words,” She says as she traces my jaw with her finger.

“Words that I mean with every fiber of my being,” I thrust deeply, hitting that known spot inside of her. She whines in pleasure, her legs tightening around me. “Say we finish our honeymoon here–in New York?”

“Two weeks isn’t enough for you?” She says. She releases a loud moan as her release coats my cock.

I smile and kiss her quickly before I’m releasing inside of her, riding out my own climax. When we both relax, I lay on the bed beside her.

“If I can have it my way, the honeymoon would never end.” I say. “And neither will be the baby making business.”

She laughs, lightly swatting my chest. “Slow your roll, Jacob.”

I chuckle and turn over onto my side to face. “If I could live buried inside of you for the rest of my life, I would be ever so grateful.”

“Well then we’d never have those boys you dreamt of,” She says giggling as she turns over to face me too. I reach my hand over and place it on her stomach. “And who knows, this little one may just be the first–Henry Francis.”

“Henry Francis indeed.”

“I spoke to Sam about the baby,” She smiles and rests her hand over mine. “I told him the name.”

“You did?”

She nods her head. “He’s happy that he gets to share his name, should this baby be a boy.”

“I have a good feeling that it will be.”

“Guess we’ll find out.” She says.

The time has come for the tour to begin. The honeymoon is now officially over as I settled into the seat on the plane. Thea sits down beside me and pats my thigh. I give her a small smile and lean over to kiss her. In just six months time, we’ll be ending time with the band, for only just a little while. We made the announcement together, all four of us, to our fans, explaining to them that the time has come to embark on new journeys.

Sam to his producing endeavors. He’s already got a few artists lined up to start producing their songs and albums when we conclude this tour.

Danny decided to step fully into golf. See how far he makes it a career.

Josh has been invited to direct a few films over the next few years. All of which gives him one foot in the door to create his own film company.

And me? Music is my life. I won’t stop making music. I do have plans in the future to work on some other projects. But for now, my focus is on my family.

I felt comfortable enough to tell them that I was married with a baby on the way. That was my main focus once this tour ended. As for now, we’ll pour all we have into making the next six months worth of shows utterly amazing, fun, and intimate.

“Are you excited?” Thea asks.

I nod my head. “Yes,” I say. “I’ll admit, I do miss being out there on the stage.”

“And are you sure giving that up for a little while is what you want to do?”

“So I won’t be on stage, but I can still make music.” I say. “I can even help Sam every now and then producing albums and working with up and coming artists. I think it’ll be good to step back for a little while. Less stress.” She smiles and leans over the armrest to kiss my cheek. “Though I will admit that I was hoping to see my own children looking up and watching their father.”

“And they will, one day.” Thea picks up my hand and kisses my knuckles. “In due time they will see just how great you are up there and they will know just how amazing you are when you play the guitar for them and sing lullabies. Your talents on and off the stage will amaze them no matter what, because you will be their father and they will love you all the same.”

Landing in Los Angeles six hours later, I was immediately separated from Thea and dragged to the venue for rehearsal and soundcheck and to meet the new band that’s opening for us for the next few shows. “I’m going to go to sleep,” Thea says as she kisses my cheek. “I’ll meet you at the venue later?”

“Jetlag?” She nods her head and I chuckle. “Yeah, go get some sleep and we’ll meet up later. Make sure to get something to eat too.”

Getting to the venue and filing into the green room, we were greeted with welcoming baskets for all four of us. “You have two?” Sam says as he walks over. “Jealous.”

I chuckle and pick up a onesie to show him. “I believe it’s for the baby.”

“Oh I see, getting special treatment because you procreated.” I roll my eyes and shove him aside and he laughs. “I’m just messing with you.. That baby is going to be spoiled.”

I smile and set the onesie back down in the basket. A few of my friends have kids, even Thea’s good friend, who by the way is due in the next couple of weeks, and I never really quite get over how small humans start out. And soon I’ll have a tiny one of my own.

Pulling out my phone, I snap a photo of the basket and send it to Thea and put my phone back in my pocket before leaving the room to meet the guys at the stage.

Getting through soundcheck and rehearsal, I split off from the others and made my way back to the hotel to check on Thea. I find her curled up in the bed and hugging one of the pillows to her body. Smiling to myself, I walk over to the bed and kneel beside it. I tuck her hair behind her ear and softly coax her awake. She groans a little, scrunching her eyebrows together.

“Go away..”

“Come on, it’s time to get up. The venue set up dinner.”

“Mm mm, not hungry..” She grumbles. “Feeling sick..”

I lean over and press a kiss to her forehead. “Too sick to come watch the show too?”

She shakes her head. “Just too sick to eat.” She slowly pushes herself up into a sitting position and runs a hand through her hair. “Give me ten minutes and I’ll be ready.”

“Do you need help?” She shakes her head and slowly makes her way to the bathroom.

Ten minutes later she was dressed in a different outfit and looking a lot better than she did when I first got here. She gives me a smile and pecks my cheek and we leave the room to meet the others down at the van.

“Hey mama!” Josh greets her with a wide smile and a soft hug. “You look beautiful this evening!”

She smiles and returns the hug. “I look better than I feel.” She says as they pull apart.

The smell of the food wafts in from the other room, I have no doubt that she too can smell it. I watch her carefully, ready to assist her at any given moment. But instead she keeps a smile on her face as she greets Danny and Sam. After going around to everyone, she comes back to me and grabs my hands.

“Show me the basket.” She smiles. “I want to see the little onesies.”

I smile and nod my head before taking her from the green room and bringing her down the hall to my dressing room. “It’s stuffed full with all sorts of things for the baby.” I chuckle. “All neutral clothing since we don’t know the exact sex just yet.”

She picks up a small pair of boots and examines them in her hand. “They have hopes for a boy?” She giggles.

“Someone here seems to.”

Thea sets the boots back in the basket and picks up a small diaper. “Can you believe that babies are this small?”

I shake my head and reach for the diaper. “Sometimes I struggle to wrap my mind around it. How humans start out so small when they are born and somehow grow into people like us.” She sets the diapers down and wraps her arms around me. “Is someone feeling better?” I ask and she nods her head. “Good enough to eat?”

“Not yet.. I just want to spend a little time with you before you have to get ready.”

I feel her slide her hands over my ass before giving it a light squeeze. “Oh..” I pull her close to me and grip her hips in my hands. “Are the hormones in control all of a sudden?”

“Very..” She says, biting down on her bottom lip.

I know I have said this before, and I will say it again until my very last breath. She is my siren, the one who beckons me to follow her and I always will. Even if it poses a risk of being caught, I will still do it.

Pulling away from her, I go to lock the door to the room before pulling her to the couch and setting her on my lap.

Reaching for the guitar in Johnny's hand, I wrap mine around the neck and pull it in close to me. I reach for the strap and drape it over my shoulders. It felt strange doing this again. I’m not just playing music in a studio anymore, I’m back on the stage, in front of thousands of people. My heart thrums in my chest, nearly bursting through my ribcage. I hadn’t realized my hands were shaking until I felt Josh’s hand rest top of mine on the neck of the guitar and he gives me a reassuring smile.

“You’ve got this,” He says. “Now come on, the curtain’s about to drop.”

I nod my head and follow him up the stairs and up onto the highrise of the stage. The music intensified and I took in another deep breath and the curtain dropped to the ground, revealing us to the crowd. My eyes scan them all until they land on Thea. She’s up in the suite with the rest of our family. She may be at a distance but I can see the bright smile on her face. I give her a wink before placing my fingers on the strings and playing out the beginning notes of the first song after Josh greets the crowd.

Everything felt the same that it always had. The electric feeling of playing in front of everyone again. I can see all of their smiles and it feels good to feel all of that love again. The only thing different was wearing my wedding band. I had debated on whether or not to wear it, to keep this a secret until we were both ready to share. Thea slid it on my finger as I was getting ready to go out and gave me a small nod of her head and smile before giving me a kiss.

So I kept it on, wearing it proudly to not-so-subtly announce the marriage. Simple yet profound.

Leaving the secondary stage, I begin my trek back to the main stage in front of Danny. When I reach for the hand of an older woman, she smiles gleefully and shouts a congratulations over the loud cheering. I bid her my thanks as I pulled my hands away and went the rest of the way to the stage.

As the show comes to an end, we say our goodbyes and give our bows before heading off the stage. I hand off my guitar before following the guys backstage to the green room. Cheers and applause erupted as soon as we stepped into the room, everyone congratulating us on a victorious return.

I immediately made a beeline for Thea and wrapped her in my arms as I kissed her. “Congratulations baby, you did great.” She says to me, “And by the way, you looked really sexy up there.”

“Was I?”

She nods her head and pulls me in close. “I really need you to tone it down though.. Making it hard for me to pay attention to everything else.”

“Well all of your attention should be on me.”

“Oh you think so?”

I tilt her chin upwards and softly kiss her lips. “I am your husband.. Your attention should always be on me.”

“And what if I wanted to look at Danny?”

“Danny’s not your husband, is he? Nor is the father of this baby, hmm?” She smiles and shakes her head. “Mmm, that’s what I thought. Your eyes stay on me.” I smile and kiss her once more before I’m dragged away to make toasts on a job well done tonight.

“To everyone involved with this tour, nothing would be possible with you,” Josh begins to talk. “And though by the end we will depart and say our farewells for the time being, tonight and the rest of this tour, we shall live it to the fullest, have fun, and make memories. To our family, thank you for joining us all these years and being our biggest supporters. Without you, none of this could have happened if we didn’t have the love from you all. And to Jake,” His hand lands on my shoulder and he raises his glass full of champagne. “This has been the wildest ride we’ve ever been on, and I can’t wait to see what the rest of this tour brings. I have enjoyed every single second of being in this band and living out this dream with you. So.. Tonight and every night moving forward, let’s revel in our festivities and have a grand ole time!”

“Saúde!” I exclaim and thrusting my glass into the air. Everyone repeats before we all take a drink.

Going back over to Thea, I pull her back into my arms. “How about we celebrate alone?” I say. “In about, eh, say thirty minutes and we go back to the hotel room..”

“Are you suggesting what I think you’re suggesting?”

“Mmhmm..” I hum and take another drink of the champagne. “Like Josh said, live it to the fullest, have fun, and make memories..” I kiss her, sliding my hand down her back and to her ass. “Let’s make a memory.”

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[corrodedseraphine]

timezone | #3 and I don't give a shit about the contracts that I signed

pairing: eddie munson x fem!reader, chrissy cunningham x robin buckley

chapter summary: Eddie decides to get you back no matter what. You, on the other hand, are looking for an escape.

the story is also avaliable on ao3

previous chapter | masterlist | eddie munson masterlist | general masterlist

After a sleepless night, Eddie was already out of bed at dawn and determined to head straight for a meeting with the manager to settle an issue that should have been finished long ago.

Unfortunately, it ended in a brawl. The manager didn't even want to hear about ending the pretended relationship with Chrissy. As one of the most popular and beloved couples in show business, they had a certain amount of responsibility, including various contacts and collaborations that generously enriched the label's bank account. Money, however, was the last thing Eddie could think about. The only thing that mattered to him was you. No matter what the price, he had to do everything he could to try to clarify the situation and win you back.

"We need to end this bullshit!" he shouted getting up from the table.

"It's not an option, we are just preparing another collaboration with an advertising campaign for Valentine's Day."

"Valentine's Day is six months away!"

"Such things must be decided in advance." The man watched with a poker-faced expression as the young guitarist boiled over. "I won't let you risk all your contracts because of some girl," he said.

"She is not just SOME girl." he growled through his teeth.

"Then why did you leave her? Why did you get into a relationship with Chrissy if she's not just SOME girl?"

Taken aback, Eddie didn't know what to answer. He loved you more than anything, but he knew that from a third party's perspective this situation looked very different.

"I don't give a shit about the contracts that I signed," he slammed his fist on the table, recalling the words of the song that was flying in his head on loop. "I am cutting the bullshit, now."

"If you do that, you'll destroy everything we've worked for all these years. Ask yourself if it's worth it."

"It's worth a lot more." Fury clouded his eyes when he heard the way he was talking about you.

"If you even try in any way to affect a change in your relationship with Chrissy, you have no business coming back here. You'll be over."

"Fuck you."

Eddie was used to people's stares when he walked on the street, he usually didn't care, but today it seemed too suspicious and intense. Every now and then, looking around him, he came to a newsstand. What he saw there made his blood rush. On the front pages of the papers was a picture of you from the beach, with a big, eye-expanding EDDIE MUNSON'S SECRET LOVER.

Without a second thought, he threw bills on the counter to the salesman and collected all the copies with him only to throw them in the trash, cursing under his breath. The unexpected flash had acted on him like a flea on a bull, and the fact that he recognized the paparazzi who took the photo completely made him lose control. Throwing himself at the man, he felt fury. When his rings met the face of the person who was the reason that the world would now view and hate you for the breakup of the beloved Hollywood couple. He was snapped out of his angry trance by the sight of blood on his hands and the police dragging him away from the paparazzi. He didn't even defend himself when the handcuffs were placed on his wrists.

After three hours in jail, Jeff showed up at the station to pay bail and take Eddie home.

"Aren't you going to say anything?" he asked as they closed the door behind them.

"What do you want me to say since you know everything?" asked Eddie sarcastically as he walked into the living room, where the rest of the guys, Chrissy and Robin were.

"What the hell dude?" asked Gareth, Eddie that due to his old reputation in Hawkins, he always tried to avoid all kinds of fights and unpleasant situations. He was shocked by his friend's behavior. "What has gotten into you?!"

Eddie wordlessly dodged everyone and headed to the kitchen to pull frozen vegetables from the freezer onto his sore hand.

"uh, I- I might have an idea." said Robin uncertainly, reaching for his backpack and pulling out a newspaper.

"Fuck." said Gareth seeing the cover.

"Yeah, fuck." replied Munson groggily. "Anyone else have any pointless questions?" silence was enough of an answer. When he returned to the living room he stood in front of everyone gathered and took a deep breath. "I'm leaving the band."

"What?!"

"You heard me. I have no other choice."

"But- why?!"

Still full of negative emotions, he recounted the meeting with the manager and explained that nothing would be able to change his decision. The priority for him was to fight for love, but he didn't want to drag others along with him because the consequences could be painful. Just because he was ready to walk off the stage didn't mean his friends were too, and he didn't want his consequences to be theirs too. However, he didn't expect them to have a different opinion on the matter.

"Dude, do you really think we'll let you go?" asked Jeff crossing his arms over his chest.

"You are insane." added Simon.

"Screw Pete and his label, if you leave, we're leaving with you!"

"You guys are popular enough that you should have no problem finding a new label." Robin said.

"Guys, for real I don't expect you-"

"Shut up and start thinking about how to get y/n back." interjected Gareth. Eddie didn't even try to hide his emotion. The gentle smile on his face showed the shadow of hope that had awakened in him despite the awful start to the day.

"I have an idea." Chrissy said. "But it's very risky and…public."

"I'll do anything." he replied without thinking.

Walking out of the house you didn't expect to be the most recognizable person on the street, the gaze of other people burned holes in your body from all sides however what completely knocked you out of rhythm were groups of girls shouting insults in your direction. Your anxiety was getting stronger and stronger. You fixed your eyes on the sidewalk and headed as fast as you could to Steve's bar, where you promised to help out as a waitress, since crowd today was exceptionally heavy.

"Here you are! I thought you wouldn't come! How are you feeling?" Layla ran up to you from the entrance.

"Fine, but some strange things are happening…" you reply confused.

"Oh my God, you don't know." your friend replied while covering her mouth.

"Don't know what?"

"y/n! How are you holding up? It's all fucked up!"

"Steve she doesn't know…"

"Oh."

"Can someone explain?" you asked impatiently. What the hell was going on?

"Come with me." the girl grabbed your hand and dragged you to the back room, where she handed you a newspaper.

Bitch.

Slut.

Whore.

Suddenly all the terms you heard about yourself made a lot more sense to you. The pressure in your heart that you had felt since the kiss tightened even more. However, you could not allow yourself a moment of weakness. You knew that if you broke down now, you wouldn't get back together for a very long time.

Seeing the worried expressions on your friends' faces, you blinked a few times to chase the tears away and grunted. You had to be strong.

"I'll go get ready for work." you said quietly.

"You don't have to-" began Layla, but you didn't let her finish by disappearing out the door.

Completely focusing your attention on remembering orders you successfully managed to push invasive thoughts aside. More and more people were gathering in the premises, and you couldn't help feeling that some of them had come here just to see you.

Everyone wanted to see with their own eyes what Eddie Munson's mistress looked like. Everyone wanted to see if the person on the cover was better than Chrissy, if the person responsible for the cheating was at least worth it. Most people said no. Some didn't even try to hide their comments. Your head was bursting with comparisons to the model and loud whispers that brought your biggest insecurities to light.

Of course you were no match for Chrissy. Never once in your life did it even cross your mind to compare yourself to her in any positive sense. In the negative for that too often. Again you felt like a teenager with ruined self-esteem. Unfortunately, however, this time all the voices in your head got out and materialized. After a long time of hearing that you were insufficiently attractive and Eddie had lost his mind cheating on Chrissy with a mere waitress, you were relieved to see that it was time for a break.

Carrying the last order to your table, you didn't notice how three girls with fury in their eyes burst into the local. Before you had time to react in any way, one of them grabbed the glass that was on the tray and poured its contents right in your face.

"Slut." she said with a strange satisfaction.

The next events flashed through your head barely registered. Steve threw them out of the place, Layla quickly led you to the bathroom to help you dry off. All the while she was saying something to you, and you were nodding without even fully knowing what. Her voice was distant and all the ambient sounds were drowned out by your heartbeat. Later, you accepted Steve's offer to drive you home without protest. You couldn't stand another walk full of eyes filled with curiosity or hatred.

Steve, having his set of keys to your apartment, went inside first. Closing the door behind him, still somewhat stunned, you heard only his surprised and raised voice.

"What the fuck, Robin?!"

"Jesus, Steve!" she exclaimed.

Following their voices, you entered the living room where a sight that you were definitely not prepared for awaited you. The sight, however, was something that brought you back down to earth. Robin with disheveled hair, puffy lips, glossy eyes and an unbuttoned shirt was looking at you like a deer caught in the headlights. Right next to her stood Chrissy in exactly the same condition. Chrissy.

Beautiful, charming, sweet, lovely Chrissy.

The favorite of the whole country, and maybe even the world, Chrissy.

The Chrissy who, according to Eddie, you never had to be jealous of.

Chrissy, who was allegedly madly in love with him, was now standing with a guilty expression on her face waiting for your outburst.

Could this situation get any more complicated?

Without giving you time to explain, you went straight to your room and pulled out a bag from under your bed, into which you started throwing your clothes. You didn't know where you would go, however, what was certain was that you wouldn't stay in this apartment for a while longer.

Ignoring all requests for a chance to clarify the situation, you left a panicked Robin and Chrissy with a confused Steve alone. It's been a long time since you felt as lost as you do now. Not thinking much, you went straight. to the bus station, and there you chose the only direction you knew.

Sitting opposite the mirror, Eddie noticed Chrissy's pale and nervous face in the reflection. He knew the expression perfectly well.

"What's wrong?" he asked before she could say anything. The blonde swallowed nervously and began to recount the situation that had occurred in the apartment.

"She saw what?!"

"Eddie, please-"

"Couldn't you keep your hands to yourself for a while?!"

"We didn't know she'd come back early! She was supposed to help Steve!

"What did she say?" He asked with a sigh.

"Nothing…she left the apartment without a word."

"Oh my fucking god," he sighed and hid his face in his hands.

"Are you guys ready?" A man entered the room and asked. "We'll start in two minutes."

taglist: @i-me-mine @greatpizzascissorstaco @alanamarie @hiscrimsonangel @micheledawn1975

[nevereverthem]

Gotham : Season 1 Episode 3

Earlier than I thought, here I am watching the third episode of the show.

Honestly, I can't wait to see what happens with Oswald because dude kidnapped a guy to ask for ransom... that he did not get. 🤣😭 I'm still not over the mother not believing it AT ALL.

My silly little crush wants to see Alfred so much! 🙄 I'm also all for having Brucey in his emo phase as I like to call it. I know that's not it, but just the 10 seconds frame of Bruce listening to metal-ish singers while doodling on a piece of paper was 🤌.

Selina is going to save her ass, but that sucks for the other kids though! She is one of the main characters, of course, but the other kids got their ass sent upstate! Don't you forget about that. 🥲

Anyway, here we go.

"There's a war coming..." Aaaaahhhhh! Honestly, starting the episode with Oswald's voice as a 'previously in Gotham' sort of thing, warms my heart. 😌

Gotham's streets... A bus... Oswald Cobblepot in a freaking pullover! Man is gonna be wearing a suit most of the time in the future. Let's enjoy these precious moments of him in casual clothing. 😌 The SMUDGE BLACK MAKEUP!! I know the man's got dark undereyes from exhaustion, but still.

Dude sees : Kids stealing a wallet from someone's back pocket. A cop taking money from an old asian guy. A man stealing a woman's bag. Prostitutes proposing their services to a person in a car... And all that Oswald is thinking is "home, sweet home". 🤣🤣😭😭

Okay, the story starting with a rich guy (Ronald Danzer) who did some shit. He's out on bail and plans on paying for his freedom and sneaking out to escape any problems. Like dude! That is sadly a great representation of how it works in real life too... 🙃

Balloons! And did you see that pig mask!? Foreshadowing I guess!? 😏

Oh MY! Cuffed to a balloon and being pulled up in the air!? That's so cool & terrifying at the same time. 😱

💥 INTRO TITLE 💥

Not the same punch as Oswald stabbing someone in the neck, but we'll settle for it.

Jim! ����

"No body. We're calling it a murder?" I mean... If the guy went up until there was no oxygen available and died... I suppose it is. 🤷‍♀️ We'll see. Or, if he went that far up and then fell... He probably died from the fall... somewhere. So, it would be a murder.

For once, agreeing with Harvey. The man kinda got "what he deserved". I mean... It's a bit strong... But he probably ruined lots of people's lives so...

Bill Cranston... Switches so fast to being angry to having a hypocritical smile on his face... Dude. X) Okay, so the guy does interviews by beating people down with a little statue? I... 🙃

Hey, that's what I said! Two people killed themselves because Ronald Danzer ruined them...

Oh! Jim bringing up the Mario Pepper case! Ah!

Selina! 😌

Did she really steal Harvey's PEN!? 🤣🤣

Selina "I can see in the dark" Kyle. x) Kitty cat Kat

I don't know why, but Jim and Selina facing eachother with both hands on their own hips just makes me laugh. x)

Selina cuffed to a staircase. Legit... She's using the pen she stole to free herself from the cuffs? Damn! Plus, payoff!

Jim in the sewer. Yuk! Shoes in dirty water.

"Son of a bitch! She was telling the truth." 🤣 (Reminds me of Dean from Supernatural iykyk)

"Oh, Detective!" in Selina's sing-song voice. 🤣🤣 How she throws him back the cuffs in the sewer!

Jim's groan of frustration. 🙄

Fish! Oh no, Lazlo got beaten hard damn. 😮

Fish directly telling Montoya and Allen that Jim killed Oswald. Bitch! 🤣🤣 I mean, great move though. That's technically what happened, although he didn't actually do it. I love when the 'bad guys' tell the truth and it does serve their interests.

"Jim Gordon pulled the trigger, but who gave the order?" Yeay! Mama tryna bring Falcone down!!

"I just want justice for little Oswald." 🤣🤣 I would believe the earth is flat more than that blatant lie! 🤣🤣

Speak of the devil... 🙄

Oswald counting coins... What did he do with the guy he kidnapped? For real, are we ever gonna know? I suppose he killed him, but I would like to get some real answers. 😅

Pocket knife. 😭😭 For food at least...

"Hey, Cobblepot! You're supposed to be dead." Fuck! I wasn't expecting that.

"I'm afraid you have me confused. My name is Dimitri-" Still, the way he talks... 🥵 Plus, did he try to pull off a fake accent? x)

Oh no! Each time Oswald pleads not to be killed is... 😮

"I couldn't stay away. Gotham is my home. It's my destiny. You don't see what's coming. I do. Gotham needs me. I'm its future." Dude sounds like a cult prophet. 🤣😭 He's right though. Foreshadowing at its MAX. x)

Ouch! Achilles tendon! 😮 Killed. By the way, how Oswald manages to get rid of guys who should have physical dominance over him always impresses me.

His teeny-tiny walk! 🐧

"Can I have a tuna sandwich please?" Aw, he can be so soft... when he's been so violent ten seconds before. Bro! 🙃 I love the callback to episode 1. The first time he slits the throat of a stranger to steal his sandwich. The second time, he kills a bad guy, takes his money and actually buys the sandwich. 😌 Can someone draw Ozzie eating a tuna sandwich? 🥹 I just love seeing characters do every day activities. 😌

Waynes' manor! 😍 Okay, I might just like little Brucey ☺️ and crush hard on Alfred. 🙄

Alfred teaching Bruce fencing? Aaww.

"En garde." Aaaahhhh! I know it's the actual term for the sport practice, but each time a character says a french word, I just melt! 🫠 I am french, so just hearing my language makes me somehow proud! And boy... I'm wet. 🤣🤣 Kidding, alright. But it's AWESOME!! Plus, that's Alfred who says it. 🙄🥰

And how is the actor so good at manipulating that cane (used as a replacement for the foil)!? I'm so impressed!

By the way, that scene must have been so much fun for Bruce's actor at the time. 😌

Alfred apologizing to the armor he accidentally hit. 🤣

*Alfred hitting Bruce on the thigh or butt, not sure* "That's gotta hurt." BITCH. 🤣🤣

How did Bruce got the police file of his parents' murder? Okay, he said it wasn't hard. I suppose he just payed them. But how? I don't know if he has access to his money on his own. He's 11. Doesn't he have to get Alfred's authorization or something because he is his legal guardian? Anyway. 🙄

Bruce "If I find a clue, I am" Wayne. 🥲

Jim scrapping mud from his shoes with a paper knife? x)

Montaya straight up asking Jim about him killing Oswald. Not wasting time with innuendos. Effective.

"I didn't kill him." Which is the ACTUAL TRUTH! That's the best part. x) He is both praised and condemned for something that he did not do! I like that SO MUCH! x)

Oswald searching for a job.

"You don't even have the right shoes." Him directly looking down behind at one of the staff's shoes and grinning evilly... Is he planning on killing for SHOES now!? 🙃🙃

By the way "Here, you're on your feet all day." Me, thinking about his bad leg. 🥲

Jim and Harvey arguing about the whole situation of the Waynes' murder...

"For the last time Gordon, let it go."

"Or what? Am I gonna be the next person taken out to the pier to get a bullet in the head?"

AH! 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

OSWALD!! You actually really... The shoes. 😭😭

"What size are your shoes?" Blabla "What a coincidence!" 😭😭 His laugh. 😭😭

I CANNOT.

That reinforces the feeling that I have about the fisherman's sandwich scene... That was not Oswald's first murder... Surely not... And if it was... Dude's taking a long way down... 😭🙃

Right now, I'm just thinking about Oswald telling his story to Edward, like the very first steps he took into his villain career... That would be something. 🤣😭

The interview.

Oh, 4 balloons... Who are gonna be the three other supposed-to-be victims then? 🤔

"47$?" - "You're a disgrace to drug dealers." Okay, chuckled a bit. 🙄🙃

Cranston!? OMG, I did not even recognise the guy. 😱 Honestly... I don't really mind... We saw him once... But I don't think he really deserved the balloon thing... Man... That's tough...

Attached by the ankle is worse though.

In the night with a lot less witnesses too!

ALFRED! 😍😍 No, I won't shut up.

Bruce reading the newspaper. Yeah, totally doing that at 11. 🙃

Bruce, GIMME YOUR BREAKFAST! 😋 The lil' flower though. PLEASE!

"What's the new program? Trying to see how long you can go without eating anything? If that's the case I should save myself the trouble of making it." 🔥 DAMN! 🔥 I love how he doesn't miss a moment to shoot! x) By the way, Alfred... You can make breakfast for me. 🙄 Breakfast in bed? Breakfast in your bed... in OUR bed... 🙄

Alfred is trying SO HARD. 🥲😭

Gun holder, the gun, the tie, Jim's gaze straight into the camera aaaahhhh!! 😍 Man's going into battle!

Barbara! 🥰

"[newspaper talk] It says he killed a cop. You're not in danger, are you?" GIRL! Your man is a cop... in GOTHAM. He is in danger every second of his life!

"Everyone has to matter or nobody matters." -Jim Gordon. That did something to my heart. 💔❤️‍🩹

Barbara calling Jim a "hero" because he caught Mario Pepper for the Waynes' murder... That hits hard...

Jim talking about the fact that the balloon man's targets are dirty public figures... And Harvey going "Basically any elected official should stay indoors." is so legit. 😭😭

"Listen, one thing I know is how to find someone." Harvey chatting with prostitutes... I mean, he's not wrong! They can have a lot of informations. Tough job it is! Then he beats a guy down... Typical Harvey. 😅 Stopping to get food. TYPICAL HARVEY! That was the fastest summary of his character. x)

The SHOES. 😭😭 Oswald...

Him realising that he's been hired in a Mob boss owned restaurant! 🤣🤣 His FACE. 🤣🤣 Sorry Ozzie, but you deserve it a bit. "Don Maroni!"

"Great opportunity indeed." Oswald... I can't with him. x)

Harvey got so much informations about the guy they're searching for... Okay, I have to admit that's a damn skill! Respect.

DAMN! Harvey 'woman-handled', thrown around. I appreciate that. Sorry. 🙄

Lazlo being actually worried about Fish is so cute. 🥺

What!? Bitch is getting rid of some girl I didn't understand... AND Lazlo. I... 😭

Barbara. Oh hi Montoya!

Montoya HAS THE KEY!? DAMN!!

OMG yeah, Barbare is smoking... weed I suppose. Okay okay... 🤔

Talking about Jim...

"When we were together I did lie to you." I KNEW IT!! Former lovers! Aaaaahhhh

She's talking about being sober for a year etc... What she did blabla... What did Montoya DO!? 😮

Failed attempt at a kiss. I saw that coming. RIP.

Barbara being with another person (Jim) who might also be lying to her... The pattern is repeating itself... Girl must be feeling so down.

OMG the balloons are gonna pop? It's gonna rain bodies? 😭😭 Imagine you're going about your day and then a dead body falls from the sky... 😨

Totally what happened. The woman who died though. RIP for real... 🙏

A church guy being the third victim? Not surprised... 😅🙃

Maroni talking about Arkham!! I'm so excited!!

Obviously, Oswald listening in the background...

New name : Paolo. He's really trying, but he gets it wrong. x)

He's lying about being Italian on his mother's side, "the side that he claims", but the truth is that he actually does love his mother. Half lies. x)

Maroni just gave him money out of the blue?

The little talk about starting from nothing and making yourself by working hard etc... FORESHADOWING!! 😌

"Gotham is the city of opportunity." Hum... Shouldn't it be 'Gotham is the city of crimes'? x)

"Honestly sir, I didn't hear anything at all." "Atta boy." YES!! That's actually the ONLY way to react when you are asked if you heard ANYTHING! 😌

"Go take care of your mother, Paolo." That would be so sweet... but you know... x)

The walk! I like the fact that even when we just see his upper body, Oswald's actor actually always does the walk! I mean, that's part of the character so you HAVE to do it, but like, you notice it, you actually do notice it, and I love that about him! 🥰🐧

The guy actually hiding in the former juvi facility. Meh, can't be smart about everything. Gotta catch the guy 9 minutes before the end of the episode ya know. x)

Is it a TRAP!? Like for Harvey, or Gordon? 😮

Oops. Harvey's been caught.

Harvey pleading his case to the killer saying that he's thankful, that he's doing them a favor. Great defence. 🤣🤣

Oh my God... The killer's talk though... He's so right... Public figures almost never pay for their crimes... So he did justice himself... I feel that man...

Jim's conflicted because he knows that the man's right...

FUCK!! The whole man's speech!! This is the premise of Jim's morality path... Damn it!

NNNNNOOOO! Harvey cuffing the guy to the balloon was a fucked up move! Jim grabbing the man! Please I hoped he would, but damn he's flying in the air with him now. 😭😭

Jim didn't want to let go and begged (ordered?) Harvey to shoot the balloon instead! THANK GOD! Jim, you're doing so good there. I know you're gonna go somehow dark later, but for now... freaking thank you!

The landing on the top of the pickup must have hurt though. 😅

Falcone!!

OMG Natalia was Falcone's "girl"... 😮 That's the one Fish ordered to get into an "accident". 😭

Arkham again... Damn.

Btw, Fish's makeup. 🤌

Damn. Who's the guy's last target?

Bruce's "He killed people too. That made him a criminal." Okay, let me get this straight. I don't condone murder, but I get the idea that sometime you need to be a bad guy to do good. Imagine if killing that guy now would prevent a hundred innocent people to be killed. Killing is not something right to do, but in that context, you kill one to save the others, you know? What I mean is... It's a tough subject, but if killing one person saves a lot of others... And I mean one actual bad person against kind of good people... and I don't really mean "good people", just people who actually did not do terrible things, you know. I don't even know if I would be capable of doing something like that, but the self righteous belief that killing is bad in every context... I don't think it's true. Anyway.

Alfred with his APRON. 🫠 Make me dinner too. 🥰 Please. 🙄🥰

Alfred witty remarks. x)

Bruce is EATING, finally dude.

Jim, home, must be full of bruises, damn. The man struggles to sit down. He didn't break a bone because it's a tv show, hum. 🙄

Barbara concerned again. 🥲

Seeing Jim's face... It's like he's really been 'moved' by the balloon man's speech. It's like an electroshock. I feel like he's about to tell Barbara about Oswald. 🤔 (he did not, oops)

"I want you to know that you can tell me anything." BRO! She's giving you a chance to come clean. I mean, technically you are clean, but ya know.

"This city's sick. Sick in a way I hadn't realised." For real though. 🙃 Harvey told you in the first episode. 🙃

"Doesn't matter" That's the 'last target'? Disappointing, but I get it. That also genius 'cause basically the guy only had 4 balloons, but there's way more people that would 'need' to be cuffed to it...

Jim's speech on people, justice, the law... 👌

Barbara wants to believes him so bad! Girl's crying!

OOOOHHHH, the knock knock knocking... Tell me... I think I saw that... That's him right? HIM!?

OSWALD!! 🎉 In a SUIT!! I told YOU!! (Btw, did he buy a new suit with the money Maroni gave him ? Or did he take his suit to dry-cleaning to get rid of the blood stains? Just wondering 🤔) He wanted to look good for Jim. 🙄 Let me fantasize. x)

"Hello, James. *huffs* Old friend." AAAAHHHH!!

He's already calling him 'old friend'. 🙃🙃🙃🙃 I guess throwing you into the water, instead of shooting you, makes him somehow closer to a friend than an enemy, but... 🤣🤣😭😭 The AUDACITY!! x)

Jim's face. Oswald's smile. AH!

Jim had a freaking day... and it's not over. 😭

FUCKING HELL. MY GOD. I... AWESOME.

I don't even know what to say... Just... My brain's not working anymore...

[Okay, a tiny bit disappointed that we didn't see Edward this time, but I know there is going to be a lot of him in the future. So that makes up for it.]

1. Alfred did not say "bloody", not even once, in the whole damn episode!! 😮 I'm utterly disappointed!! 😔 But I still like him, of course. 🙄🥰

Late additions, two hours later, when my brain decides to function again :

Like, comment, loose your shit with me... It's your choice!!

2. Barbara will at least be relieved that her boyfriend is NOT a liar (not really yk) nor a murderer. Because here he is : Oswald Cobblepot, flesh and blood!! 😌

3. The fact that Barbara is BI, BI, BI! 🎶

Looking forward to the next episode!! 🫶

[dnpanimationstudioclone]

Chris Bradford Backstory-Top Dog

It’s a bummer we never got Chris’ backstory. We saw Xever’s and a lot of the other Foot’s but sadly nothing on him. I always wondered who he used to be before becoming the famous Martial Arts star to loyal ninja warrior mutant for the Foot and Shredder. What if he wasn’t always the Top Dog?

What if the episode about Chris wanting his humanity back was expanded, along with Xever and when presented with a chance to become human again like getting a certain ingredient or formula where only one can use it to turn back to human, they fight over who should get the chance.

Xever-It’s all your fault we’re freaks to begin with! You’re the reason I’m stuck in all this! Chris-I’m sorry, was I the one who made you steal from Master Shredder and got you thrown into prison to be bailed out into working for the Foot!? Cause I’m pretty sure you stuck yourself in that corner! Not me!

Xever-My life was already hard as it was but you practically go out of your way to make it worse and enjoy doing so! For crying out loud I lost my own legs!

Chris-Hey you got new ones! And they can crush stuff way better and you love crushing things! Usually other people’s legs! Xever-Ugh, I don’t even know why I’m trying to get you to understand my situation, you’d never understand what having it hard is like at all!

Chris-Excuse me?

Xever-Oh don’t act dumb, you don’t need to for that! People like you have had everything handed to them their whole lives! You didn’t have to work to get where you are, from being some pretty rich boy to some rich martial arts movie star and now to Shredder’s lap dog! You’ve made it very clear that all you’ll ever see me as is just some lowly bottom-feeder so can’t you at least let me be human-

Chris-SHUT UP! YOU DONT KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT ME!

Xever stunned by his reaction.

Chris-You seriously think that I just didn’t have to earn my place into the Foot, to once have earned HIS respect!? You think just a bunch of money and fame got me into here!? In fact it’s the other way around. It’s because of the Foot, I ever became somebody that mattered…flashback

Way back, I grew up as a foster kid, going from new home to home but always end up being returned back. I felt like some weak little runt in the pound, a total underdog. The kind where all the bigger kids would pick on, the kind where teachers thought I was too stupid to be taught anything and as I got older it got worse. Pretty soon, nobody wanted me. The only thing that brought me some comfort where all those cool Martial Art films and shows. The heroes looked so cool fighting all those bad guys and getting through any kind of obstacle and everyone else thought so too. I wanted to be just like that! To be the seen the way everyone else saw them, to be respected, to be adored…to be loved. And I thought it would only ever be just some silly dream until…I met him. Xever-Shredder?

Chris- At that time, he was looking for new potential recruits and I got lucky enough for him to check for fosters like me who were starting to get too old for most to consider fostering. He was the first person who ever looked at me and not just pass by me like everyone else would, like he saw something in me that no one, including me could see at the time, I felt…hopeful. So when he asked if I was open to become one of his new students, I took the offer and never looked back. I did everything I could to show Shredder he wouldn’t regret giving me a shot! I endured everything he put me through, sometimes I wonder how I even survived but I did! And I used what he taught me to finally show the rest of the world what Chris Bradford could do and become the same kind of hero I watched on tv, some other little kid like me could look up to! I was finally the top dog!

Xever-Wow. Guess you really did earn your place at the top.

Chris-I did, but now? I’m a giant hideous mutant dog man, I’m constantly beaten by teenage turtle mutants and worst of all Shredder’s pretty much lost all care for me and it’s only a matter of time Karai kicks me to the curb to be just a nobody again! And to top it all off, I’m forced to work with some guy, 10 years younger than me who got where I had to go through so much more to be, by attempting to steal from my Master! Being Chris Bradford’s all I really have left at this point and I know that windows closing soon enough, in show business! YOU know how to survive on your own without needing conditional love. I don’t!…I can’t💔

Xever-…

What do u think? I’d love to know💖

[tobbesdiscordkitten]

Repugnant Fic: Supervision (vol. 1)

Summary: Tom Bones applies for a job at a daycare centre. What could possibly go wrong?

Characters: Tom Bones, OC: Barbara, Sid E. Burns, and Mary Goore.

Rating: Teen and up audience.

Word Count: 2,124

Warnings: Strong language, children indulging in shenanigans, and mild cult indoctrination.

Tom Bones could never keep a job. Ever. It didn't matter what kind of job he had, whether it be part of the movie theatre crew, a car dealership seller, clerk, janitor, etc., customer service wasn't his forte. He was reckless when performing his duties and he was careless with the customers. If an angry customer snapped at him, he would snap back, and get into a fistfight. Sometimes his ass would land in jail, causing Mary or Sid to bail him out the next day.

Since Tom applied to one or two jobs per year he wasn't draining the band's money by getting into trouble. Repugnant was already gaining more recognition by the masses. Tom didn't need the extra cash. Whenever the band wasn't touring or recording albums Tom would take a side job out of pure boredom.

After Repugnant's last concert ended, it was the same old situation for Tom and his big break, yet, this time, he believed he found the perfect job, not only to avoid trouble, but to cure his apathy: a daycare centre.

Tom's job interviews were usually mediocre. It was no different when he was being interviewed by one of the supervisors at the daycare centre, Barbara. He tried to put on his best impression, saying, 'yes, ma'am,' "no, ma'am,' lying about his past and boasting about what a great influence he'd be for the kids.

Barbara observed his appearance and detected how grungy he looked as if he were in some kind of grunge band similar to Pearl Jam. He did good answering each question, she noted. How bad could he be?

While examining his résumé, she also noticed he listed no prior job experience. She wasn't necessarily looking for someone with experience. Anybody could handle a kid. She just hoped he wouldn't allow them to misbehave. She brushed the thought aside and decided to give him a chance. After all, the people who haven't had a job yet needed one more than those who did. Little did she know... Tom had plenty.

"You're hired." She gave him a yellow slip which had both her number, her email, the address the daycare was located (in case he forgot), and what time he needed to arrive. “See you at noon tomorrow."

Back at the Repugnant hideout, Tom bragged to Sid and Mary about his new job, deeming himself less lazy than them.

"You won't last a fuckin' day, man," Sid retorted.

“Oh yeah? Wanna bet?”

Sid scoffed. "Dude. I've won all your bets." He has, in fact, won 20 of Tom's bets. What started out as a $5 bet steadily grew to $10, $15, $20, and now $50. Tom often wondered where his money went until being reminded about it when Sid flaunted the cash in his face.

"I'm telling you, this job is a keeper."

Sid rolled his eyes. He heard that phrase many times before. "Whatever."

Mary listened to their conversation and drank his beer. He couldn't care less.

The next day Tom arrived on time but wasn't dressed to impress. He walked over and greeted Barbara by the entrance.

"Welcome, Tom. So glad you're here." She would later regret saying that. "The little ones are waiting for you. I'll be back soon with their parents ready to pick them up."

“Yeah. No problem.”

She led him inside into the classroom. All the children were sitting criss cross, staring blankly at nothing. Barbara had taught them well. "Kids, this is your new sitter, Tom. Be nice to him and don't make a mess," she scolded playfully, wagging her finger.

“Yes, ma’am,” they all said in unison.

She turned to Tom and smiled. "They're all yours. Good luck." She patted his shoulder. “See you in a few hours." With that she left Tom to his duties.

He grabbed a chair, plopping himself down in front. "Hey, guys and gals. I'm in charge here. So I say, do whatever the fuck you want."

Shit. He said a bad word. A forbidden word! The girls plugged their ears, and the boys gasped while some giggled in the back, finding the word amusing.

After a moment of silence, one boy, who mustered up all his courage, raised his hand. “Where did you get your nose ring...?"

"This?" Tom pointed to his piercing. "At a shop." He was casual about it. Kids shouldn't have nose piercings. Maybe when they were older, but definitely not now.

“Can I touch it?” The same boy asked.

Tom chuckled. “Go right ahead.”

The kid walked forward and touched the piece of silver. Other kids followed suit and soon enough everybody was touching his piercing. Tom didn't mind being the main attraction. He enjoyed it.

"Did it hurt?" A girl queried.

He gave her a wink. “Only a little.”

"Hey, Tom!" A boy cut in. "Can me and Ethan play ball?"

“Do whatever you want. I’m easy.”

The kids got into groups and did their own thing. Tom watched, occasionally dodging a ball or catching it, before throwing it back.

A girl came up and started running her fingers through his blonde strands. "Your hair is so long." She muttered, almost in awe. In her early comprehension years, guys are supposed to have short hair, not long hair. "Can I braid it?"

Tom didn't hesitate. He allowed her and a few other friends to take each strand of hair and braid it. They chatted amongst themselves until they were finished. Tom thought the hairstyle looked cool and wanted to don it at a future Repugnant concert. Mary, of course, denied his wishes.

“Hair done! Next is makeup." The girls sifted through loads of paperwork on Barbara's desk, hoping to find a makeup kit. They looked inside the drawers and attempted to pull on the locked drawer with no luck.

“Tom, we can't find any." A little girl protested.

“Wait, I have an idea!" Another girl chimed in, holding up a box of markers.

The girls agreed and each grabbed a different color. Bethany used the red marker for lipstick; Charmaynae used the blue marker for eyeshadow; Hailey used an orange marker for blush, Dakota used the green marker for defining Tom's jawline and cheekbones; and the rest had yellow to press tiny dots all over his face. By the end of his makeup session Tom looked like a disaster and a scary clown.

The girls handed him a mirror. He inspected himself, praising the girls for all their hard work while impersonating Barbara, making the girls squeal with laughter.

Although his “makeup" was childish, Tom would later see this as inspiration to use makeup for his Kiki Bones appearance in Subvision.

Meanwhile, the boys were separated into three groups: one group situated themselves at the desks, making paper airplanes and flying them across the room. The second group continued to play ball and the third group wrestled, knocking down a few chairs in the process. Tom didn't care about the mess. He wasn't gonna take charge and clean up or force the kids to do it.

In the midst of all the chaos, one boy walked over to Tom, analyzing his black metal band t-shirt. "Um...excuse me? You like Mayhem?"

“I do,” confirmed Tom.

"My dad does too."

"Really? What's his favorite song?"

The kid shrugged. "I don't remember the exact name, but there's this one particular song he plays everyday." The boy paused and raked his eyes over Tom's tattoos, looking flabbergasted. “Whoa! That's a lot."

Tom chuckled. "Thanks." Suddenly, an idea struck. "Why don't you gather everyone around and I'll tell you guys about each tattoo?" The boy nodded and started herding the rest of his classmates like cattle onto the floor where they all sat, cross cross, staring at Tom...or a second cousin of Pennywise?

"Who wants story time?"

Everybody raised their hand.

"Excellent." Tom rolled up his shirt cuff, further exposing his tattoos. A few tiny mouths went agape at the sight. Tom’s right arm was a full tattoo sleeve while his left arm was half a sleeve. He pointed to the first tattoo he ever received at the ripe age of 17 then started sharing stories for the rest of his tattoos. It took an hour and a half to talk about all the ink but he eventually finished, concluding, "That is how I got my tattoos."

The kids cheered and clapped.

"Are you in a band?" Marcus asked.

"Yeah. I play drums."

"Can you spin your sticks like Nikki Sixx?" Ethan demanded.

"That's Tommy Lee!" Corrected Dylan.

"Guys." Tom caught their attention again. He looked at both boys, smirking. "Yes and yes."

"Well, what band are you in?" Questioned Sophia.

Poor, sweet child, thought Tom. He didn't want to corrupt her innocent facade by revealing he was in a death metal band. However, if she was curious....he didn't want to deny her an answer.

"Anyone heard of Repugnant?"

The kids fell silent. Tom could've swore he heard crickets in the background until a random girl, Jocelyn, spoke, "What does that mean?"

Ah, children and their vocabulary. "It means..." Tom tried to figure out a way to word the definition without scarring the kids too much. "All the bad stuff in the world, things that are inhumane, disgusting, revolting - that's Repugnant."

"So... the worst of the worst?"

"Correct. The worst of the worst."

"I wanna hear what your band sounds like. You think we can attend a concert?" Ethan asked, his eyes widening like saucers. He was getting excited.

Tom didn't want to deject Ethan's dreams by saying he was too young to watch them play live. So, instead, he offered: "Would you like to have a concert here, in this very room?"

All the boys looked at each other, nodding eagerly. Tom dimmed the lights and went over to Barbara's computer, finding a few Repugnant concert videos on YouTube. “Prepare to rock out," Tom warned. "This song is called Premature Burial." He clicked play and the thrashing music echoed off the speakers. "There's me." Tom pointed himself out, smashing the drums. The kids watched. The girls didn't find this type of music enjoyable or catchy. It was unlike Taylor Swift.

Through the grainy film of the video, Mary Goore appeared on stage, banging his head forth and back, while fingering the strings on his guitar. He flipped his head up as his long brown hair fell down near the length of his shoulders, revealing his face and darkened eye paint, as he sang in a deep, growly voice, “Decrepit as you've fallen in disease. Joints are withering as they slowly freeze. Decomposition eating through your head. Mistakenly you're confirmed as dead." The words were incoherent but the boys didn't seem to mind it. Some started to bang their heads and mimic Mary's guitar playing. The girls locked eyes at the screen in horror before scampering out of the room in fright.

Tom didn't pay attention, he was busy using his index fingers to hit the desk, pretending he was back on tour.

The boys started to feel the groove of the music take control of their bodies as the song continued. The indoctrination process was beginning to happen. The boys would become future death metal heads and society had no source of stopping it. These young rebels would continue the legacy of wrecking havoc on ordinary life. Tom couldn't have been more proud.

Next the boys stood up on desks, chanting, “Repugnant! Repugnant! Repugnant!"

Not long after, Barbara barged in, shocked at what was unfolding in front of her own eyes.

Tom quickly paused the video while the boys scrambled off the desk.

"What is going on?!" Barbara shrieked.

Tom stood up, confronting her. "I can explain-"

Barbara gasped at Tom's new makeover. What the fuck happened to him?? His hair was braided and his face was covered in different colors. How did this happen? Why did any of this happen? "The k-kids d-did that to y-you?" She looked around the room, inspecting the strewn items that scattered the floor. "And y-you allowed them to d-do this?" Barbara was in a pure state of shock, she could hardly speak without trampling over her own words.

Tom cleared his throat. It was the only moment in which he was honest with her. He nodded his head, not looking a bit shameful, but rather smug, amused.

"Get out! You're fired." No explanation could ever change her mind about Tom. She pointed to the exit where he left, not saying goodbye to his miniature comrades. "Did he hurt you?" Barbara interrogated, worried about the children’s well-being. The boys shook their heads, however, the girls provided a different response, concerning their mental state after witnessing the shock value that was contained in the concert video.

The daycare centre was the first and only job in which Tom Bones was fired from after a day.

Taglist: @copias-juicebox

Side-note: if anybody else wants to be added on my taglist for certain eras/characters, let me know!

[sarahdogoc80]

Part 3. The Perfect Victims at Perfect Times

Sometimes interesting about the Diet Pill Crisis and Pain Pill Crisis was who they targeted. In both these cases the perfect victims were women of their current times. While guys would jump in later they usually did the street version of the percriptions.

Let's start with the diet pill Crisis of the 1970's that spawned the crack and cocaine problem. As this one I wasn't able to experience personally and was only able to read about/ heard about in my hippie group from some of the older women. I'm sure everyone reading this knows post war America wasn't the best time for women. Due to the unhealthy beauty standard and a little info German doctor coming over to America brought was a recipe for disaster. They started giving the women amphetamine and later when the women couldn't handle the speeders they'd give them Valium to calm them down. I can only see this ending well. The unhealthy beauty standard along with the loose regulation around diet pills. They were becoming a problem because women realized that the speeder made them thin and able to deal with their shitty husbands. Young women and older girls were encouraged to take these pills. Because they had to look perfect otherwise their husband would cheat and not love them. Which is also great for young women and girls phycology/S. My grandma use to take a diet pill called Black Beauties. I'm sure they weren't called that because the pills were just so beautiful. But they were black with black beads in them. Thought this bubble would pop and crackdowns stared on diet pills around the early 70's. So you know what that means. Women who couldn't get them legally or just find people selling their pills. Started doing cocaine. I wonder if any government organizations had anything to do with this so they could fund their anti whatever in South America and the Middle East. Well another thing that was going on at the time was the break down of segregation. Thought alot of places even today still feel the effects of segregation even more so back then when it has only started being criminalized like ten years ago at that point. So many poor women (usually women of color) couldn't afford to buy the cocaine. But don't worry the American Government being a piller for equity though their money was just as good as the rich white women's money. It was all going to be used to try and over throw someone. They supposedly came up with a cheaper alternative. And they supposedly started having people sell that to minority communities.

My grandma came from money so once she couldn't find Black Beauties anymore she got hooked on cocaine. As did one of her sisters. Her younger sister was actually a huge coke dealer for the area. Well she and her husband got busted. And so her mommy came and bailed both them out and while my great grandma and her daughter trying to figure out how to get out of this. Her husband got drunk and crashed the car and died. So my great grandma got her daughter to see a judge she was friends with. And my great aunt played a battered house wife who was forced to help with the drug dealing. And because he was dead he couldn't defend himself or prove otherwise. She got a year of probation and left the state once that was up. My great grandma had a "habit" of paying off judges for her kids by the way. My grandpa (who would have just been her daughter's boyfriend at the time) crashed his motorcycle with a 1000 Quaaludes for my grandma while drunk. And my great grandma arranged for him to pay the judge off so he never got in trouble.

I want to state something that will be important context. So what was America like in the 70's when this started getting bad. Well the 70's were rough. There was the gas rationing that had to happen under Carter. The factories where going overseas and alot of the adult boomers were left to dry. That's probably why they tell us to try harder. Because that's probably what they were told by their parents. Because people were losing their factory jobs they couldn't support their family and so had to figure out something. People were coming back from Vietnam around this time too. And as we Americans know the Vietnam veterans weren't respected by their country or country men. And crippling PTSD was just ignored or they were given addictive substance like Valium and opiates. Martial rape was finally being recognized and women were starting to be allowed to open bank account. No fault divorces also started rolling out in states. Making it so women could leave but religious and social pressures still kept many women stuck. It was a rough time and didn't breed the most healthy mind sets. And alot of these people just couldn't stop because they weren't there mentally. I think it's started to be understood that Gen x and Older millennial had apathetic parents and this wasn't a good thing actually. These factors are why and insured the next generation of addicts would have trama the pharmaceutical industry could manipulate.

The cocaine stuff started dying down in the 90's I wanta say. While it was still big cocaine started getting cut with garbage because the government wasn't important pure stuff anymore. So my grandma as she puts it. It was more dangerous and wasn't as good as the old stuff. Another event also happened in the 90's that was very special for this coming disaster. The kids born and raised during the crack/cocaine epidemic are becoming adults and working. And a very important drug was on the horizon. "So remember kids your government sponsors the Billion dollar pharmaceutical industry. So if you got a problem they got the salutation."

Opioids weren't a new thing in the 90's like I said they've known it's addictive for years at that point. But their over percriptions stated climbing. By the turn of the century a lot of adults had been on an opioid atleast once. And it was something people would do for "fun". Well with that event that happened in 2001 came hardships. People lost their families to terrorist attacks, people's anxiety about another attack, and people's family getting sent over to fight a very unpopular war. So addiction on most substances went up.

Before I move on I need to make something clear. Before fentanyl was a main ingredient in Heroin it was usually oxy products. I've never done heroin nor do I know how it's made but like I said people just heard this stuff though the grape vines. But the reason they used oxy products was because pills like Percocet, Vikes, and codeine had too much filler for the little they would get out of it. So it wasn't worth it to try and get the opioids out of those. But oxy products were pretty much straight opioids and had a lot in them especially when they still sold the 120mg ones. Yes those were sold but taken off the market before my mom got into it because um if you don't know that's a lot of opioid. And people who were new to drugs and kids stealing their parent's drugs were ODing off one pill so they stopped producing those a while ago. So before fentanyl was in everything it was probably morphine or more likely oxy. The reason for the shift over was because in 2011 America and like no one else approved this coating to be put on oxy products. This coating would turn into this melted mochi like glob when you'd crush it and it got it wet. So now people who tried to inject, snort it, or turn it into heroin where met with it turning into melted mochi making it useless. But many countries still have what Americans refer to as the crushable ones because this coating very much causes liver cancer. And most other countries banned this coating.

So the 2008 Reccestion happened and everything went to shit. To put this into prospective people where loosing their jobs, their homes, still loosing family members to war, 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina also put a hard strain on people's faith in the government, and people couldn't get government benefits because of how the Bush administration handled this stuff. With this lost in faith in the government people realized they were on their own for the most part. So to keep their heads above water people started hearing about this thing people have been doing of getting pain pills and just selling them. And making a decent amount of money. And the more and more people did this the more people talked and the more "normal" people got dragged into this. Most of the time the mothers of these families or just women in general had an easier time getting them. Plus men still had this sigma to doing it themselves. But making their wives do it was okay. So many families go into this so they could feed their kids, buy their kids school stuff, keep bills paid and it hinged on selling pain pills. But this was a network. Because in my city especially these middle class white women didn't want to have to talk to a hood drug dealer. But there were people in town who would so people would sell to them and be done with it. So when I explained this to make it clear your parents/ middle class and higher people most likely weren't dealing with the worse of the worse. They were probably selling them to a middle man from your town. And most importantly not thinking of the consequences. Another thing I need to make clear is I know a lot of people were horrified when they finally got a peak behind the opiate black market and what it was doing. So people I know for a fact were selling don't want to think they were causing this. So I've seen people who were selling talk as if they weren't selling and would never have done that. When they were. But the opioid crisis wasn't funded by just the addicts or bad people. But doctor and normal people who just didn't care, realize, or were in desperate situations and had their hands tied. I think it's important for everyone who had any part of this to be honest not to shame them though. But so people who want to blame the junkies as a scapegoat can see the honest truth of people doing this and why. Because the more people hide their part in this the more it pushes blame on the addicts and people it's easy to blame. And it causes people to have some wacky ideas about the crisis.

But what about the people who didn't understand drugs started taking these new fancy oxycodine. Well this ended up having way more devastating effects. Because like their mothers alot of women were still stuck in shitty situations. Especially during the economic hardship and mental health was still heavenly stigmatized during the Bush and early Obama administrations. So your wife being on anti depressed looked bad but them being on pain medicine you didn't care about for their lady pains was easier to digest. We had people who just wanted an escape from the world around them. And the Oxycotin company sold them a solution. "They put it in your brain that it [Drug] is the salutation for depression, weight loss, spinal contusion. So take this, better yet take two of them."

My mom started abusing them once she'd had enough of my dad's shit. And it "helped" her get though dealing with him. He was starting to become very physically abusive at the time. My mom also had to deal with my autistic brother and I think around the time he had just started saying words at 5. They thought he was going to be mute. My mom was also a couple years out of having to watch me go through three years of cancer treatments. And was working almost 12 hour shifts in a factory at night. She wasn't in a good place mental and will properly never be. She also had to grow up with her mom used cocaine so she didn't have to deal with her father. So while it's easy for my to say my mom should have just been stronger or seen thought the sales propaganda. But when you look at the humanity behind it she wasn't in a right state of mind to just stop once Doctor A. got her hooked. She did try and showed hesitation but he then lied to her saying oxycodine was less addictive because it lasted longer. Now to people who understand addictive substances probley see this excuse for what it is sales propaganda. But it was 2008 and with her personal life. She just didn't have all the info/ mental fortitude to argue. She had no surpost form her family either around this time. My grandma had been kicked out because she sided with my grandpa over some property my dad had stolen from him. My grandpa was mad his daughter was taking my dad's side and because he was also abusive told her she deserved to be beat by my dad. And her sister had her own stuff going on. This isn't my mom's fault completely. It just wasn't a good situation for my mom especially because she had to work in a factory, take care of me and my brother (because my dad didn't do child care), and had been in 5 car accident at that point most of them from her falling asleep at the wheel because of how overwhelmed she was. So for people who just want to blame people like her for falling down this pit. You probably wouldn't have done much better. While you can say you would in 2024 looking back on this with hindsight. This is missing the point completely of understanding the time period and what different families had to go through. Alot of use don't realize why Obama "Change" campaign went over so well. Bush had a bunch of stuff happen under his presidency that he didn't handle well and America started becoming jaded. It was a different social environment we can't say how much better we would have done. But doctor and the government should have minimize this by not taking payout from drug companies to push an addictive substance or put more value on physical therapy, non addictive medicine, coughnotcriminalizingweedcough, and most importantly invested in mental health.

My grandma now after being a victim of the diet pill epidemic got to watch her daughter go though the same thing with oxycodine. The only difference is my mom has liver cancer and her body is shutting down. Unlike my grandma she wasn't able to stop in time. So now my grandma has to watch as her daughter slowly dies. And the worse part she said was the doctor knew what he was doing, he had to, he could have stopped this. That this didn't need to happen. Due to my mom's abuse of drugs my grandmother refuses to go to pain management and only goes to doctors if she has to. She was screwed by doctors for a paycheck one to many times. My grandpa after seeing how pain medicine effected his daughter. He stopped taking any pain management. He was dying of cancer when she got bad. And in his last days he refused morphine because of my mom. He was slowly bleeding to death because his plantlets were non existing. Even in the face of certain death he refused pain medicine because of how much trama was associated with them. The only thing My grandpa had for his last 6 years of life was weed. It was the only thing making it so he would eat and not just lay there in pain. My grandma stopped cocaine around the time I was born because my mom said she would never know her grandkids if she didn't stop. It was enough of a wake up call for her to stop but because of my cancer diagnosis she has a relapse for a little bit. But since 2005 has only done weed and drinks a couple beers every now and then. Which is preferable but what do I know.

My mom just didn't have the will to stop due to her own undiagnosed mental disorders and the trama she was trying to burry with more pills. Now that she is getting the proper help it's too late and her kidneys are barely functioning, her liver is poisoning her, and her heart can give out at any moment. Me and my brother will probably never get any justice because she was doing stuff outside of Oxycotin. So legally and medically they can't 100 confirm that's what caused these problems. Medical lawsuits of any kind are hard to argue against especially because all the court has to do is say she was just some junkie. And then I have no case. While others where still able to bring them down and drag a lot of the corruptions through the mud. It's too little to late. They should have never paided doctors to do this.

When you look at the victims of Oxycotin please remember what they had to work with at the time. I need to state not all drug addicts are good people but that doesn't mean all of them are/were trying to hurt anyone. Its up to you to forgive the addicts in your life and you aren't entitled to. This Crisis brought out the worse in everyone and if you can't forgive an addict that is trying to get better that's fine. But don't treat them like they are lesser. Make your boundaries clear with the recovering addict in your life. Sobriety is possible no one is a lost cause. But if you are an addict please try and get the best therapy you can. Because it will be a huge help.

TLDR: both times regardless of if they ment to the pharmaceutical industry targeted women during times of stress. And with Oxycotin they paid doctor to get people hooked and used the old drug dealer strategy of "The first one is free." And to burry their corruption everyone involved threw their victims under the bus and dehumanize them. So you don't see when the pharmacusal industry does this again with the next substance. Then they will dehumanize you when you become to inconvenient for them.

[noodyl-blasstal]

okay perhaps: build a bear receipt, Mortified, perhaps to literal death, annnnnnd Barry :3

Did this get slightly out of hand? Who could say (me, it did.)

From this prompt list.

-

Barry knew what Build a Bear was, well, conceptually. You went in, you spent an obscene amount of money, you came out with a creature - possibly one wearing sunglasses and a tutu. It hadn’t been a thing when Barry was a kid, not one his Mum could afford anyway. But now he was stood in one, overwhelmed, confused, and being pressured to make decisions quickly.

The type was easy, Beary Bluejeans had to be a bear. Tick tick, done. Or, it should have been done, but there were 18 different kinds of bear to choose from and no clear parameters for selection. Every single one of them was a sad deflated puddle of fluff, and sure, Barry could relate, but he also knew there had to be a right answer. Gifts were a test. Probably. Well, Barry thought they were a test, and he had never met a test he couldn’t worry extensively about. Lup probably wouldn’t mind, this was just a small gesture, a little joke between friends. She called him Bear, he was going to get her a bear with his signature jeans. Casual, fun, no one’s harbouring any massive crushes and may or may not be in love with anyone else. Lup saw him as a friend and that was fine. All good! What was not all good, was the crowd of children building up around him. He was finding this hard enough without kids bashing into his legs, all sharp elbows and whirling rucksack attacks. 

After intense deliberation he decided on a soft medium-brown teddy the shelf proclaimed was ‘vintage.’ Barry could relate, he was vintage too. The modern bears had intensely large eyes or fur that didn’t feel as nice under his fingers - this guy though, this little soft puddle could be him, could be Lup’s, he could be Lup’s… Another kid slammed their elbow into his knee and Barry staggered. How much did he actually need to be here? He could leave, he could put Beary down and go, Lup would never know, no one would know, he didn’t make any promises about doing this. ‘Man Incapable of Purchasing Bear’ would only be a headline in his brain. It might be nice to have a fun new failure to torture himself about at 2am when he couldn’t sleep? Something funky fresh to add to the flagellation rotation. Even as he entertained the thought he knew he wouldn’t do it. The gesture was good, the joke was good, it would make Lup laugh, he loved to make Lup laugh, it was worth some bruising. 

Barry finally escaped from the scrum round the toy pelts? Skins? It all sounded bad. He needed to stop thinking about it in taxidermy terms, but this sure was a skin without the meat. Build a Bear was taxidermy for babies and no one could tell him any different. At least he knew the next step, they probably weren’t working with armature, so it’d be stuffing. He had definitely walked past some kind of woolly slushy machine on the way in so he tried to retrace his steps. Did the shop actually need to be this big and this full of people? Maybe they should do adult-only hours where everyone could just pick their bears in silence and form orderly queues and not run into anyone else actually.

“Excuse me!” Someone tapped lightly on his shoulder.

“Sorry, was I supposed to pay over there? I didn’t realise, I thought I did it at the end.” He couldn’t call Lup to bail him out if he got arrested. He couldn’t ruin the surprise… also she’d want pictures, his mug shot would be on t-shirts, mugs, pyjama sets, pillows, he’d never ever live it down. “I’ll pay now here, let me just grab...” Barry nearly dropped Beary as he fumbled for his wallet, but he couldn’t afford to get arrested right now. The stakes were high.

“Oh, you’re not in any trouble Sir! You forgot to get a sound and you can’t forget your new friend’s heart!” She smiled so big that Barry didn’t dare ask what most of the words meant. 

“Ah, uh, okay… uh, where do I…?”

“I’ll show you, come with me! I’m Lydia.” Barry tried not to acknowledge the look on her face which clearly telegraphed This Idiot Can’t Bear.

“It’s fine, you can just, uh, point me in the right direction, I just need the stuffing and I should, ah, be fine.” Barry was going to expire on the spot and emerge a terrifying spectre, no one could grab him and make him keep doing bears if he was incorporeal. Lup probably wouldn’t mind, she’d probably think it was rad to be friends with a death spectre… in fact, Barry was fairly sure he remembered her saying something about it being cool to bang a ghost… huh… nope! He couldn’t follow that thought anywhere right now, because apparently he had to think about what sound Beary was going to make and also there was a heart and fuck fuck fuck. Lydia had definitely been explaining. Barry nodded enthusiastically, not wanting her to realise he’d been ignoring her, this wasn’t her fault and she had a job to do.

“Great, it’s 20 seconds. If you head to the bathroom it’ll be a bit quieter.” She shoved a contraption and Barry and nodded encouragingly. “Just speak clearly into it, and remember, 20 seconds. Once you’re done, come back and we’ll start the ceremony.” 

“Ceremony? I… wh…” She cut Barry off with a gentle shove towards the bathrooms. There probably wasn’t any point in arguing, he’d already agreed so apparently he was recording a message… a message for Lup. That was fine. He could do that.

Barry couldn’t do that.

Barry was seven practice recordings deep.

Barry was never going to leave the bathroom, he lived here now. If he didn’t record the message then it couldn’t be bad, that was just science. Flawless hypothesis.

He’d already tried something casual. “Hey Lup, it’s me, Beary. I think you’re Beary wonderful.” Bad. Awful. Terrible. D-, she’s never speaking to him again. Funny: “Bear with me, voice message loading…” also bad. Heartfelt… he couldn’t even think about what he’d said, he’d been rambling long after the 20 seconds were done. The bear noises had been fun, roaring in a toilet was a strange experience and Barry usually loved strange experiences, but this was absolutely not it. “Will you Beary me?” was great on the pun front, terrible on the we’re-just-friends-I’m-definitely-not-in-love-with-you side of things. Ghost noises almost won the day until he considered her accidentally rolling on it in the night and waking up spooked. The time he dropped the recorder and swore a lot while trying to pick it up was probably the best of the bunch.

Eventually he settled on Arrane Ben-Vlieaun, or, “the magic cow song” as Lup insisted. He found a corner next to the sink which seemed to have relatively reasonable acoustics and rumbled the first bit out “Cur dty vainney, cur dty vainney, choud's mish ta goaill arrane. Lhig yn curn nish goll harrish, lesh dty vainney my vooaveen.” There. That was probably fine. Lup sometimes got him to sing it when she was struggling to sleep, it made sense to pre-load it in Beary. He definitely didn’t have time for any more attempts, he was surprised Lydia hadn’t already burst through the wall like a terrifyingly peppy terminator.

She zeroed in on him when he emerged. “There you are! I thought you’d gotten lost, are you ready?” 

Barry hesitated, maybe he could try one more time… he pulled his hand back as Lydia reached out for the device. No, eight was enough, it had to be enough. The cow song was fine. He nodded and handed over the recording majigger. Lydia smiled even wider, Barry debated counting her teeth, she definitely had too many.

“Fantastic!” Lydia said, then set off towards the fluff box. Barry followed, there was no way off the ride at this point, he may as well keep his arms and legs inside the car. “Okay, so this is very important, we’re going to perform the heart ceremony.” 

Barry is fairly sure this is going to be different to the type of heart ceremonies in his books at home… probably? There definitely weren’t any ceremonial knives on display. “Okay?”

“You’re going to develop your special bond with your new friend…?” Lydia paused and looked at Barry expectantly.

“Beary.” 

“Beary. Huh…”

“He’s called Beary Bluejeans.” Barry added, thinking that might make her stop doing the squinchy face at him. It didn’t.

“That’s… super!” She said after a long pause. “So, we’re going to make sure you and Beary build a special bond and you always look after him and love him forever and ever.”

“It’s okay, we can just do the stuffing, that’s fine, I uh, I don’t need to, you know, do the uh, the bonding thing.” 

Lydia gave him a hard look. “We don’t send the bears home with just anyone, we need to know you’re going to look after Beary Bluejeans.”

Barry wasn’t sure he’d felt fear like this before… did he actually like Lup enough to go through with this? Was he scared enough of Lydia to do whatever she said? “What do I have to do?” He’d die for Lup, multiple times if necessary, and he was fairly sure Lydia would put him in the ground without a second thought - still smiling - if she felt he wouldn’t be a competent guardian for Beary.

Lydia solemnly handed him a small plastic heart. “This is Beary Bluejeans’ heart. We’re going to establish your bond now. Are you ready?”

Barry waited for further instruction.

“Are. You. Ready?” He wasn’t sure a polite tone had ever felt so much like knives.

“Yeah, uh, yes Lydia.”

Her smile was back. “Fantastic, take Beary’s heart and rub it on your toes so he’s totally awesome.” 

“I’m… what?”

“Rub it on your toes so he’s totally awesome.” Lydia repeated, then mimed the action. Barry looked longingly towards the exit, it wasn’t that far, he could probably just drop Beary’s floppy corpse and run. “Sir, on your toes, so he’s toe-tally awesome.” 

Barry bent over and ignored the rice crispies and milk noises his back made in protest. He swiped the plastic across his shoe.

“Now rub it on your cheeks so Beary gives warm smiles.” Barry didn’t think it was particularly hygienic to rub something on his toes and then his face, but who was he to fly in the face of the experts? He rubbed the heart quickly on his cheek.

“Rub it on your hip so he’s hip and cool.”

Barry was at least 90% Lydia was messing with him by this point. Barry wasn’t hip, he wasn’t cool, and he certainly wasn’t funky fresh. If Taako was here Barry could probably scoop up some of his vibes, but Barry certainly wasn’t a reliable coolness supply. Beary was going to get Barry’s clicky hip, lose all the street cred he’d earned in his short life, and say goodbye to his fuzzy charisma.

“Nearly there! Rub it on your arms so Beary always gives good hugs.”

Barry promised himself he was never going to return to Build a Bear, this was hell, Lydia was the devil. He swished the heart near his arm.

“Like you mean it, Sir. You want him to give good hugs don’t you?” Lydia sing songed, loudly enough for the line behind him to hear.

Barry quickly rubbed the heart more forcefully across both arms.

“Now spin around to make him magical!” Barry was not going to spin around, he was going to think heavy thoughts and let himself sink into the floor. He wouldn’t have to exist in this room or any room ever again, he wouldn’t have to spin around with a stupid anatomically inaccurate heart, or deal with the line of children who were probably staring and laughing at him right now. Floor Barry, Flarry, he’d never have let this happen. “Don’t you want Beary to be magical, Barry?” No. He wanted Beary to be finished so he could leave. But Lup, Lup would probably want Beary to be magical… fine. Fine! Barry was going to spin around. He shuffled in a begrudging circle.

“And lastly, make a big wish!”

Barry wished this was over. That he was at home. That he hadn’t decided to get Lup this stupid bear. He wished he was brave enough to tell her he’d been in love with her for the last 8 years and probably would be for the rest of his life. But none of these wishes seemed like something he should wrap up in Beary. Barry considered for a moment, then wished, and wished hard that Lup would like him. Beary… obviously. The wish would know who he meant, it didn’t matter how he phrased it.

“So lastly, I need you to promise to always care for Beary, and seal the magic promise with a kiss.” Lydia was dead behind the eyes, Barry could tell, no one could be this chipper, not for the 6 years her badge said she’d worked there.

“Okay.” Said Barry. There was an excruciating pause. Lydia looked at him expectantly. Was he supposed to say more? Were there proper words? “I promise to, uh, to, take care of you Beary?” 

“Are you asking, or telling?” Lydia said sweetly.

“I promise to always take care of you Beary.” Please let this be over.

“Now kiss his heart.”

This definitely wasn’t hygienic, not with all the rubbing and spinning. Barry decided to keep those concerns to himself. Lydia finally seemed satisfied, and instructed him on the foot pedal that would help him add the fluff to Beary.

They stuffed, fluffed, stopped for hug tests, and decided on the appropriate firmness. Barry could feel the heat in his face, but at least no one he knew was here to see it. Taako would never let him life this down. But it was fine, he was a 50 year old guy cuddle testing a bear which occasionally sang about milk at him in his own gravelly hum when he pressed the voice chip by accident and that was fine. Twenty entire seconds of excruciating singing while he waited for it to shut up and Lydia pretended not to be laughing about it. He was totally fine. 

Lydia deftly stitched up the hole in Beary and handed him back. “Now I’m going to shoo you off to the grooming station so you can get Beary all fluffed and puffed and ready for snuggles. Have a wonderful day now!” Her relief was palpable.

Barry fled as soon as Lydia dismissed him, maybe he could skip the grooming, he didn’t really need to do that, surely? Beary seemed fine.

“Over here Sir! I’m Edward and I’m here to help you get your new friend looking their very best.”

Barry couldn’t outrun him, Edward was at least 30 years younger than him and looked like he’d be able to tackle Barry before he could make it three steps. “Okay.” His voice cracked. Maybe this was hell? Barry couldn’t leave, there would always be another step and another smiling assistant to help him.

Edward pointed at a large fake bath which swarmed with children. “You can give your new friend a bath and then we’ll dry them off and get them combed nicely for you.”

“Jeans!” Barry refused, he absolutely refused to pretend to bathe Beary surrounded by children who were no doubt just as sharp of elbow as the first group.

“I’m… I’m sorry Sir?” Edward looked nonplussed, but Barry refused to get suckered into this one. Next they’d tell him he could get custom smells.

“I.. uh, thanks Edward, but Beary’s good, he doesn’t need a bath, see! Super soft. He just needs some jeans please, then I’d like to check out. Thank you very much for your help.” There, he was doing it, Barry was a guy who could say what he wanted.

“Oh, sure, no problem, the clothes are over here!” Edward grinned easily and indicated a towering wall of options. “Have a great day, you can register Beary there when you’re done.” He pointed at a large bank of computer terminals. Of course, of course there were more steps.

“Then I can leave?”

Edward frowned. “I’m sorry.”

“I can pay and go, when I’ve done the computers bit?”

“Yeah?” Edward raised an eyebrow at Barry as if he was being insane, then remembered he wasn’t allowed to do that. “I mean, yes Sir, of course, the tills are just on the other side of the computer terminals.”

Barry grabbed the first denim he saw, shoved Beary into them at speed, tapped Captain Professor Dr. Beary Bluejeans esq.’s details into the computer terminals and finally, finally, smelled freedom. Beary was safely ensconced in his ‘house’ (which Barry was apparently allowed to colour in), Barry was handed a birth certificate, rinsed for more money than he anticipated, and finally allowed to leave. He blinked groggily as he emerged into the daylight. Barry was never ever ever returning to that cursed shop. Even for Lup. He could have sworn he’d lost years of his life wandering around that maze and trying to complete all the stupid tasks.

_________

Barry left the box on the doorstep, rang the bell, and fled. This was how friends delivered gifts, it was fine, in fact, Lup didn’t even have to know it was from him. His phone rang, Lup’s ringtone dragged his hand to his pocket before he’d even thought about it. 

“Hey Barold, what’s in the goth box? I love the paint job, flame decal door is going right onto my Lup’s Dreamhouse wishlist.”

“I… uh.” Said Barry, intelligently.

“I can see you fleeing down the street, wanna turn round, Bluejeans? Not that the view is bad from here. Wink.”

Barry wheezed down the phone, turned, turned back, and debated throwing himself into a bush. If she couldn’t see him she couldn’t tease him, right?

“Okay… You continue rotating, my guy. Lup’s cracking into goth house of wonder to see what you got me.”

“I… I, well, you see… It’s… er.”

“Barold… Barry…” Lup gasped for breath. “Barry, why… why is this bear wearing hot pants?”

“Yes.” Said Barry. Maybe this was a mistake. Maybe if he explained? She didn’t understand how much he needed to escape by the trouser selection stage.

“The bear is wearing denim hotpants.”

“They’re blue jeans.”

“My guy, they are blue jorts.”

“He’s called Beary.”

“Beary Bluejorts?” Lup cackled so hard he had to move the phone away from his ear. He moved it back just in time to hear “I love him.”

[madsworld15]

New Fic Alert! i held my head up high (Brian/Justin)

This one answers the prompt: getting arrested (Prompt #17) [12/21 for me personally] for the QaF Prompt Challenge 2024

Spending most of the day in jail was not something Justin would recommend. Hell, it did nothing more than increase the amount of anger he had in his soul for those supporting Prop 14. His dad now sat at the top of that list. Prior to this, Justin could brush off his father’s disdain for his sexuality as just that, a dislike. But now, now he knew that his father was amongst those people who wanted him dead.

When the officer came back to the holding cell and told Justin his bail had been posted, he hadn’t expected to feel disappointed. Not that staying in the jail cell was ideal, but it had also been the best break from everything he’d had in weeks. Breaking up with Brian, for good this time, had come with its own series of heartbreaking thoughts and realizations. Being in jail allowed him to drown them out with thoughts instead of how awful the place smelled and whether or not the people in there with him would hurt him.

Then, Justin stepped into the lobby of the Police Station, and all his thoughts and worries about whether or not he had made the right decision came flooding back. Standing in the lobby, next to his mom and Ben, was Brian himself. Justin licked his lips, ran a hand nervously through his hair, and approached the group.

“Brian, what are you doing here?” Justin immediately questioned his ex, while staring down his mother. He was certain she had called him in some side plot to get them back together.

“Your mom called. Said you needed to be bailed out of prison and asked if I had any cash handy.” Brian shrugged; his eyes looked Justin up and down. It was clear that despite his aloof, carefree demeanor, Brian was worried about him.

“Mom.” Justin sighed, “I don’t need you running to him every time something happens. We aren’t together anymore.”

“He still cares about you, Justin. Besides, where else were we going to get the money for your bail? Your father?” Jennifer didn’t back down despite Justin’s hard gaze. 

Justin rolled his eyes and stepped past them to leave the premises. “Either way, you shouldn’t have called Brian. I can handle things on my own.”

“Oh well, by all means. I will take my bail money back, and you can sit in jail until you ‘handle’ things.” Brian quipped back at him.

“Justin, we just wanted to help. Brian’s the only person we know who typically has cash on hand.” Ben tried to jump in and defend his mom’s choice in calling the brunet.

“Bullshit,” Justin replied. “Be honest, Mom. You hoped that by calling Brian, you could get us back together.”

“I just don’t understand why you guys can’t make it work. You love each other.” Jennifer wrung her hands and gave Justin a sympathetic look. “I just want you to be happy.”

“I am, Mom. Generally speaking.” Justin forced a smile at her and gave her shoulder a reassuring squeeze. “Today, however, I’m pissed. The nerve of that…man.”

Justin continued his quest to leave the building. This time, Ben, Jennifer, and Brian all let him. Instead, they followed him out onto the street. Jennifer scoffed in response.

“I never thought the man I once married and loved would have his own son arrested. And for what? So he can prove he’s the bigger man?” 

“Considering he smashed my Jeep and beat the shit out of me when he first found out about our relationship, this doesn’t surprise me that much.” Brian shrugged. “Anyway, I gotta go. Take care.”

And with that, Brian was gone. Trudging up the street with his hands in his leather jacket and his shoulders hunched against the wind. As much as Justin protested Brian being there, a small part of him had hoped Brian would want to go to the diner for a cup of coffee and a chat. Or even just acknowledge him more than he did. Instead, Justin is met with the cold, hard truth: Brian still worries about him because he’s a good person, but he’s no longer Brian’s person.

Justin sniffed against the chilly air and smiled at both his mom and Ben. 

“Let’s get out of the cold. Think I can crash with you guys tonight?” Justin turned to Ben in question.

“Sure, you are always welcome at our place.” Ben wrapped an arm around Justin, and they walked off down the street. 

“Bye, Mom. Let’s get lunch tomorrow.” Justin called over his shoulder. 

“Take care of yourself,” Jennifer called, and then she, too, headed down the block toward the direction Brian had gone moments earlier.

[wu-sisyphus-gang]

Jaune: "So..."

Taiyang: "So?"

Jaune: "Ruby must have gotten most of her looks from her mom. Summer? RIght? I mean... I see where Yang got it. From both you and Raven Branwen. But Ruby must have taken mostly after her mother."

Taiyang: "You knew Raven?"

Jaune: "I fought her twice. I killed her the second time. I have her sword. Do you... do you want it?"

Taiyang: "I didn’t know that about you. No. I don’t want it. It’s yours by all rights. And Ruby does take after more Summer than me. It’s a good thing. It reminds me of her."

Jaune: "Couldn’t have been easy with how she wanted to be a huntress. With how both of your girls wanted to be hunters. I hope… I hope my kids choose something else."

Taiyang: "It wasn’t a walk in the park. I worry about them but I had to let them go. I couldn’t hold them back. But you’re planning on having kids? With Ruby?"

Jaune: *nods* "Ruby wants four. Weiss wants two. They want to drown me, I think. "

Taiyang: "You’re a lucky guy."

Jaune: "You… everyone says that. But they wouldn’t if they really knew me. You feel me?"

Taiyang: *laughs* “A little bit.”

Jaune: “Ruby and Weiss are all I really have. I lost everyone else. And if I lost them I’d lose it in a bad, bad way. I… I have some real power behind me and I’ve done some pretty terrible stuff with it before when no one was able to stop me. And we’ll see how I fucking handle kids.”

Taiyang: “Ruby trusts you with it. That counts for something.”

Jaune: “Ruby trusts a little too easily.”

Taiyang: “Maybe. You took off with her to Mistral. That was you.”

Jaune: “Back then I thought they were just her enemies and it was my place to serve beside her. It was my honor to serve her and hound her enemies like a dog.” 

Taiyang: *nods* “But they weren’t just her enemies. Ozpin’s enemies. I don’t know the details like Qrow and Summer did.”

Jaune: “My family are those enemies. I defected from them. I fight them now. I… I lead the fight in many ways. It’s my responsibility to fight them. It will kill me. And Ruby and Weiss are trying to squeeze as much life out of me as they can before I bite it fighting something like Ozpin’s enemies or something for the council.”

Taiyang: “You run errands for the council?”

Jaune: “They pay well enough and it’s sort of my duty. The money can’t buy what I really want but it pays for pretty much everything else pretty handily for my ladies.”

Taiyang: “Summer used to run those sorts of missions,. I’m sure Ruby worries about you.”

Jaune: “Ruby worries about literally everyone. But yeah. She worries about me. But it’s… it’s really only a matter of time. You know? Until I run into something too big for me to handle. And there’s no one who can really bail me out if I’m in a bad way. But in the meantime I have my women and a pretty good job.”

Taiyang: “Beacon, right?”  

Jaune: *nods, walks into Taiyang's family room. Folds his arms in front of his chest and listens to Ruby work in the kitchen. She was after the old pots and pans and sheets which belonged to her mother. She wanted them at our house. It wasn’t far. Just a thirty minute drive.*

Taiyang: “Well, you seem like a good kid…”  

Jaune: “But looks can be deceiving." 

Taiyang: “Ruby’s an adult. She can make her own decisions. She always wanted a big family and I’m glad she’s getting it. Raising kids is safer than hunting.”

Jaune: “It’s just as hard, though. Isn’t it.”

Taiyang: “It’s harder.”

Jaune: "I was worried about that. And I suspected as much. Luckily I’ll have Ruby and Weiss to bail me out of a bad situation. Set me straight when I’m wrong.”

Taiyang: “Are you sure about that?”

Jaune: “That or this world stops being my problem. I lost it before. I know what would shatter me again. Losing Weiss or Ruby would be intolerable. I literally couldn’t handle it.”

Taiyang: “Kids change you." 

Jaune: “Vale would be gone. No one could stop me from tearing down cities in my madness. Atlas and Mistral too. It would break me and I would level mountains out of spite.”

Taiyang: “Kids change you.”

Jaune: “Nothing could change this. We call that checkmate.”

Taiyang: “Maybe. If you have kids, they could ground you. Keep you sane. My kids kept me sane. Both times.”

Jaune: “I would break. I’m already glass. Ruby has no idea how fragile I am and how she holds me together. She’s my moral compass. I would perish. I couldn’t do what you did. Luckily I’m the one slated for death. I couldn’t handle it if it was one of them.”

Taiyang: “We don’t really have a choice. I had to keep going for my little girls. I didn’t have a choice. I had to let Summer and Raven go. I had to push forward. They were so wonderful and they held me together but I had to keep going for my little girls.”

Jaune: “Not so little anymore.”

Taiyang: “No. Not so little anymore. Now she’s somebody else’s sweetheart. And I just have to trust that she’s making the right decision for herself with who she chooses. You seem like a good kid but I sort of have to take it on faith.”

Jaune: “Sounds hard.”

Taiyang: “Wait until you have a little girl of your own,” the words dripped from his lips like an ancient curse. Jaune imagines it stretching all the way back to the dawn of time. From father to son in law. “Then tell that to me.”

Jaune: “Weiss wants a little girl. A boy and a girl. I’m not sure if she wants both bad enough to do some in vitro bullshit. But I know that’s what she wants. And Ruby I think is up for dealing with whatever hand she gets dealt.”

Taiyang: “Six is a lot.”

Jaune: “It is. And they’ll probably have to do most of the work without me. Especially if I bite it.”

Taiyang: “But you want to give it to them?”

Jaune: “I’d do anything for them. I’d even fight my family and try to walk away for them. It’s so easy to say. ‘I’d do anything for you.’ But would I actually? Would I kill my friends if they asked me to? I’m having kids for them. Because they want it. And that’s pretty hard. Maybe it’s even the hardest task that they could ask me to do. You know?”

Taiyang: *nods*

Jaune: “I’m gonna fail. Whether I beat my family or not, I will fail to be a good enough parent. It’s literally impossible to do a good enough job"

Taiyang: “I take offense to that. I did good enough." 

Jaune: “You’re not allowed to be offended because did you? Or could you have done better?”

Taiyang: *gets quiet*

Jaune: “How do I do it? How do I do a good enough job? On top of all my other responsibilities?”

Taiyang: "You can’t. You will fail."

Jaune: “I knew it. But I have to try anyway. They’re asking me to try anyway. They want me to try. They really honestly believe I can be a good father even with all my other bullshit. And I can’t talk them out of it. And I’ve tried. And I would do anything for them. And it scares the living shit out of me. Even more than my family does.”

Taiyang: “Good. You should be scared. Six.” *grants Jaune a kindly smile* 

Jaune: “Thank the gods I have two of them to support me or I would be fucked.”

Taiyang: “But then again you wouldn’t be having six without the two of them.”

Jaune: “You been to our place yet?”

Taiyang: *shakes his head*

Jaune: “You’re welcome to swing by. Big empty house to fill with all those little ones. That’s the plan.”

Taiyang: “The wedding is there as well, isn’t it?”

Jaune: *nods* “It is. That’s the accord, at least. As far as I’m aware. Most of the planning is those two. I’m sort of just along for the ride.”

Taiyang: “They both taking your name?”  

Jaune: “Yeah. Both of them. I suppose I had better ask for your blessing.” 

Taiyang: “Is that how you ask me?”

jaune: “Yeah. It is.”

Taiyang: “Did you ask Weiss’s dad for his blessing to marry her?” 

Jaune: “Weiss isn’t on speaking terms with her father. I was going to ask the man she chose to walk her down the aisle. A butler who actually raised her named Klein.”

Taiyang: “So you don’t intend to ask her father?”

Jaune: “No. She hates her pop. She couldn’t care less if I had his blessing or not so I don’t care about asking for it.”

Taiyang: “But you do care about mine? And this other man’s? Klein’s?”

Jaune: “To an extent. Ruby wants to marry me. I’m gonna marry her. You can either give me your blessing or you can not. But I’m gonna marry her regardless because I love her and she loves me. It’s still your choice to give me the blessing or not.”

Taiyang: “But it doesn’t really matter. You’d marry her anyway.”

Jaune: “I’d like your blessing. Ruby cares what you think. That counts for something.”

Taiyang: “And I’m supposed to give it to you off of one conversation?”

Jaune: “You got to take me on faith. Isn’t that what you said? And yeah, maybe don’t give it to me today. Maybe don’t give it to me in general. But I’m gonna marry Ruby. We’re gonna have kids. You can be as big of a part of that as Ruby lets you.”

Taiyang: “What about you? You gonna cut me out?”

Jaune: “Not unless you motivate me to. Please don’t motivate me to. And it would take more than not giving me your blessing to motivate me to.”

Taiyang: “So how important is this blessing.”

Jaune: “I think it’s important to Ruby.”

Taiyang: “So… pretty important?”  

Jaune: “So pretty important."

Taiyang: “But not so important that you wouldn’t marry her against my will?”

Jaune: “You’d have to have some pretty potent will to stop me. You couldn’t stop Ruby from leaving for Mistral under my protection. When I was her dog and nothing more. Even if you would have wanted to, you couldn’t stop her. And I’m willing to bet you would have rather she stayed here. Nice and safe. Not out dealing with those same forces that took her mother from you.”

Taiyang: “Would you kill and die for Ruby?”

Jaune: “Easily.” "pulls up his shirt to reveal the bifurcating scars Tyrian left behind* "This serial killer came after us out in Anima and I almost died rather than let him take her. When I killed for the first time it was in Ruby’s defense. I’d do it again now. I have a lot more power now than I did then. I’d do more if she asked me for more. Like having kids.”

Taiyang: “Like having kids. Put your shirt down, kid. I’m probably going to need more than one conversation.”

Jaune: “No problem. You had two wives, right?”

Taiyang: “Not at the same time." *shakes her head*“Not like you will.”

Jaune: “Just about. Ruby and Yang are what? A year and a half apart? Minus nine months implies… You moved on fast at the very least.”

Taiyang: “I never really moved on and got over Raven.”

Jaune: “Ouch. But Summer scooped you up nice and quick.”

Taiyang: “Yeah, I suppose she did.”

Jaune: “You can be more honest with me than that.”

Taiyang: “I… I don’t know what you mean?”

Jaune: “Did you sleep with Summer before Raven left you?”

Taiyang: *says nothing, doesn't meet Jaune's eye*

Jaune: “I was just curious. Does Ruby know?”  

Taiyang: *shakes his head*

Jaune: “How do you want her to find out?”  

Taiyang: *lowers his face into his hands* “Don’t tell her, please. I will. When I’m ready.”

Jaune: “Fair cop. Fair enough. Just don’t wait too long. I don’t want to have to tell her.”

Taiyang: “Making me the bad guy?”

Jaune: “Holding you responsible. I have to be responsible for so much bullshit. Your daughter comes up to me and tells me ‘take responsibility for me, won’t you?’ You have to be held responsible for the impact you have over her emotions too. And if I have to hold you responsible so that she’s informed and aware of everything she should know, then I will. That’s my job. I’m the person she turns to now.”

Taiyang: “She used to turn to me…” 

Jaune: “You had your time, old man. She’s mine now.”

Taiyang: “And if I don’t like it?”

Jaune: “Well let’s ask her. We’ll tell her you don’t like it and ask her to decide.”

Taiyang: “That’s not fair…”

Jaune: “Really? What’s not fair about it? You had her for fifteen years, old man . I’ll be lucky to squeeze out ten. You don’t get to sit there and tell me it’s not fair. Your time as the sun has passed. I’m her sunshine now. And I worked hard to get there. I killed, and bled, and almost died to get there. Over and over again I killed and bled and almost died. Worse than that happened to me too. What’s not fair? Tell me specifically? If I’m not a good enough man for your daughter you better come out and accuse me of such.”

Taiyang: “You’re not a good enough man for my daughter."  

Jaune: “Yeah, no shit. But she chose me anyway. She chose to save me. She could have left me in the garbage where I belong. Now I’m the most powerful man on the planet and it’s all because of her. She has the power to make and unmake me. I’m only the most powerful man on the planet.”

Taiyang: “And this other girl? Weiss? You want her too?”

Jaune: “I always wanted Weiss. Ever since I was young. She was my first real crush. She was the question with the changing answer. ‘How do I be good enough?’ Do I need to be faster? Stronger? Smarter? More confident? Do I need more power? Always more power. Unending with the power. When is it enough? And of course the answer is that it’s never enough. It can’t be. I can’t be enough. I was never going to be. But she also chose me anyway.”

Taiyang: “And how did you three get together?”

Jaune: “How we got together… Ruby and I dated out in Anima. Then I got split up and they and I weren’t sure that we’d ever see each other again. Then Weiss and Ruby got together. They were always close and had good chemistry. Then when we found each other again Ruby begged me not to make her choose. She begged me. So I gave it a shot.”

Taiyang: “How magnanimous of you.”

Jaune: “Please. I’m allowed to have something . Just because you never figured out how to make it work with your business doesn’t mean we can’t. And Ruby begged me to try. I had no choice. And I always wanted Weiss. It just played out well. If we tried it again a million times I think they’d exclude me. And I would deserve it.”

Taiyang: “If you don’t deserve to marry them and you know you don’t deserve to marry them, then you shouldn’t be marrying them."

Jaune: “Not even if they beg me to? Their heads are on straighter than mine. If they think it’s a good idea, then who am I to argue?”

Taiyang: “You sound like a dog. Why would I be happy about my little girl marrying some dog?”

Jaune: “Well, I am a dog. But I’m her dog. And I’m doin’ it because she asked me to. And I would do anything for her. Even if I personally don’t think it’s a good idea. I didn’t think this trio was a good idea. But she begged me to try and robbed me of my free will. I had to. And you don’t have to address me like you’re not also a dog. Do you? Out of you and Summer Rose, who was the person and who crawled on all fours?” 

Taiyang: “Cruel of you…”  

Jaune: “But not inaccurate. Is it? And it’s not my fault that it’s the truth. Did you deserve her? Or was she so fantastic you didn’t deserve to pray for her? When she came for you did you have a choice in sireing Ruby? Or did she tell you to come and, like a dog, you did?”

Taiyang: “I couldn’t help it. I didn’t have any choice really. I never really did. Not with Summer or with Raven.”

Jaune: “So do you think I have any choice when she says she wants to marry me and wants four kids?”  

Taiyang: “You’re supposed to be a man."

Jaune: “I’m not. I never was. Ruby knows that. Or I’ve told her so many times she’s forbidden me from saying it anymore. Qrow didn’t like me around her. He thinks it’s dangerous because of my family. And it is. And Ruby knows that. She is so cruelly merciful.”

Taiyang: “She’s sweet like that… Summer was as well. That’s where she gets it from.”

Jaune: “And here I am hoping for a daughter just like Ruby. I'm over here praying for my heart to be broken.”

Taiyang: “A good woman is like that. On one hand I hope… this awful thing I’m going through right now… some kid does to you someday with your daughters. My granddaughters. On the other I really wouldn’t wish this on another person.”

Jaune: “I’ll look after Ruby and my daughters.”

Taiyang: “Lookin’ after ‘em is easy. Letting them go is hard.”

Jaune: “I hope I’m fuckin’ dead before that happens. Stone cold gone.”

Taiyang: “I mean… it’s beautiful. Watching her grow into the woman she’s supposed to be. It’s so beautiful I can hardly watch it happen. But I do have to watch it happen. And part of that is you. You’re the man she wants to marry. You have a role in it too. And it’s so terrible I want to laugh and so beautiful I want to cry. And I’m just left sitting here feeling it all. What am I going to do now? She doesn’t need me anymore? She’s the reason I’m alive and kicking. And she doesn’t need me anymore. And I can’t attach myself to her like a parasite. I can’t. I have to set her free. And part of that is watching her run into your arms and watching her run towards heart break and I can’t stop it. It’s agony and wonder unlike anything in the world. And all I can do is watch while my brain melts.”

Jaune: “Sometimes life is like that, I think. With the awe and horror mixing together in unmerciful quantities. But what can we do about it? We just have to lay back and take it. Or let it take us at any rate. It’s so much bigger than we are. It’s huge. Ruby has a heart bigger and stronger than my whole soul. That’s why I’m just a dog compared to her. The real reason. Not just because I do what she tells me to do.”

Taiyang:: “Sounds painful."

Jaune: “I want to claw my eyes out but I want to stare at her forever and I deserve neither. Was it the same for you?”

Taiyang: “Largely. I couldn’t handle it. Summer was too good to me. I didn’t deserve it. And she left me with this shining gem of a daughter. I didn’t deserve Ruby either. But… my time as her light has ended. You’re her sunshine now. Isn’t that right?”

Jaune: “My turn. My turn to not deserve her.”

Ruby: *walks in carrying a box from the kitchen* "What are you two talking about?”

Jaune: "You." 

Taiyang: “I was just giving this kid my blessing. He asked for it and you trust him. That’s good enough for me.”

Ruby: “Oh, well that’s wonderful. I’m glad you two can get along. And you don’t have to worry, dad, Jaune’s good material. He’s a wonderful person.”

Taiyang: “You wouldn’t be marrying him if he wasn’t.” 

Jaune: *takes the box from Ruby on basic principle*

Ruby: *cocks her head up at him*

Jaune: *walks out of the house and puts the box in his bike's trunk*

Jaune: *catches the tail end of their conversation*  

Ruby: “-oh? Yang? Well she’s with Blake. They’re dating but I don’t know how far along they really are with it. They aren’t pressed for time like I am with Jaune.”

Taiyang: “But you’re not rushing in?”

Jaune: *hesitates by the door* 

Ruby “No, I’ve dated Cloud for almost three years. I trust him totally and I’ve been with Weiss for almost two. Longer if you count how long I’ve been on a team with her. But I get the sense it’s not Weiss that has you worried about me.”

Taiyang: “Well… he talked a little about his family. And the missions he’s doing. I hear you say you love him and trust him. But… I don’t want to see you get hurt.”

Ruby: “I’ll be fine dad. Swing by our house some time. Okay? I love you.”

Taiyang: “I love you too sweet girl. Bye. Drive safe.”

Ruby: “I will. See you soon!” *walks out of the house*

Jaune: *stares at her*

Ruby: "What?”

Jaune: “I just… like looking at you."

Ruby: "So what did you and my dad really talk about?” 

Jaune: “I told you, you. I mean, a little about Raven and Ozpin and missions for the council. But it was mostly about you.”

Ruby: “Like what about me?”

Jaune: “Well, how many kids you want. How hard it’s gonna be for me to be a teacher, a hunter and a father. We talked about how I didn’t really need his permission to marry you. I mean, if he could stop you from doing what you wanted, then he would have stopped you from leaving for Anima. Then we talked about how I killed for you and almost died when the Scorpion came for you. He talked about how scared he was.”

Ruby: “What did you say?” 

Jaune: “I told him his time was over. I told him it was my turn to take care of you.”

Ruby: “Were you mean?”

Jaune: “Maybe… I’m a selfish beast. And you belong to me now.”

Ruby: “Be nice to him.”

Jaune: “Sure. No problem.”

If you liked this excerpt try my fanfic Motion Sickness V2

[aclosetfan]

sheesh, i finally finished it. Bloomer fans (3 ppl) this one's for us.

t/w: underage drinking, but they're like 19-20 not 5 lol

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

“You’re not drinking!” Boomer announced, shoving a finger in her face, “Whys not?”

Blossom hit his hand away and frowned, “Because. Don’t be rude.”

Boomer took a long swig from his red solo cup before addressing her with a lopsided smile, “Because you’re afraid you may have fuuunnn?”

She glared at him, “It’s because, one, we’re underage. Two, someone has to be responsible.”

“Brick’s not drinking!” Boomer quipped, pointing to Brick, already passed out on a random couch, “They’s responsible, you know, so you don’t gotta!”

She continued to frown and shook her head. “Go, Boomer.”

“But,” he pouted, “we’re supposed to be havin’ fun!”

She wrinkled her nose a bit and shrugged, looking off, “This isn’t really my kind of...fun, Boomer. Really, I’m alright. I don’t mind.”

Actually, she minded quite a bit. Breaking the law wasn't fun, thank you very much. The very idea that they, the Powerpuff Girls, could be caught red-handed with underage drinkers flared her anxiety to almost uncontrollable levels. And so, she had forbidden her sisters to come to this dumb party and then fought against them tooth and nail when they ambushed and dragged her along.

When they had made it to the party, Buttercup and Bubbles had given up on her almost immediately after it became clear that she would not be enjoying herself. She figured that would happen and planned to leave when their backs were turned, but the idea of leaving them here without a sober companion made her heart palpitate. So instead, she had taken up post by the front door, glowering at anyone who dared to talk to her.

Unfortunately, Boomer was notorious for ignoring the obvious.

"But how do you know!" He argued, "You've never even try it, Bumbles told me!"

"Bubbles," She corrected, "and, well, just...because, now, go find Butch or something."

He didn't listen (typical) and stood before her, pouting. "Because why? Cause you're afraid of fun?"

She huffed and crossed her arms, not at all interested in discussing her (arguable) control issues. "Go find Butch, Boomer."

"He's with Butters," He finally explained, which distracted him enough to ramble on, "and oof those two, amiright? Getta room."

"Then, find Bubbles."

He stuck out his tongue and blew a raspberry, "She's fightin' fer money right now, and listen," he pointed to himself, "I'ma bad guy, but tha's still not my scene."

"I'm sorry. What is she doing?" She blinked, but Boomer ignored her, throwing an arm around her shoulders.

"And Brick's all not drinkin' right now—"

"—passed out—"

"—right, tomato-tamato, but then I saw you standing here all by your lonesome and thought, Boomer! She looks like she needs a drink! Soooo, let's go get you one!"

"Boomer, no." She said sternly.

"But it's fun!"

"No."

He slumped against her and sighed, "yeah, okay, but at least come hang out with us."

Guilt rocked her stomach. She hadn't believed her sisters when they told her Boomer specifically requested she come with them this time, but the look on his face made her think they were actually telling the truth.

This wasn't the first party the brothers had invited them to that she had bailed on, and she was pretty sure it was starting to hurt Boomer's feelings. She supposed they were friendly enough with the boys that it was a little insulting, from their perspective, that she never attempted to hang out with them on their terms as opposed to her own. Still, she had always figured they'd have more fun without her, given the fact she was better at killing parties than being the life of them.

In fact, the last time she had seen any of the boys was when she had an unexpected run-in with Boomer, and he had helped her deal with some electrical giant by the power plant when her sisters were otherwise engaged with other hero-related activities. He had come to investigate the power plant issue himself because the monster had killed the internet, which had ruined his "kill streak" on some videogame he was currently obsessed with. Therefore, the problem had become too personal for him to ignore. He had actually been quite helpful in the endeavor. She had admittedly forgotten about his ability to manipulate electrical currents, but she was exceedingly grateful for it that day, and she had said as much to him.

Boomer had blushed, shrugged, and acted surprisingly bashful about it, and now, he wanted to have a drink with her.

She pressed her lips together and weighed her options. On the one hand, she knew she felt she may have owed him, but she also knew that she, in fact, did not owe him anything when it came to the consumption of goods. But it was such a simple request, and he was at least a good sport about her irritable behavior.

With a long sigh, she said, "One drink. I will try one drink with you, and then I'll be going home."

Boomer's face lit up, and he took her hand in his, leading her into the thick of the party. He continued babbling as she followed after him. She had no idea what he was saying, but he seemed rather confident saying it, waving his arms around as he spouted off a string of slurred words.

‘He never actually stops talking, does he?’ She thought.

She was quite aware that alcohol was a social lubricant, but she figured since Boomer didn’t need any help with socializing, alcohol would have had a somewhat calming effect and made him not so bouncy, but no, it seemed he had even more energy to spare.

He brought her to a table tucked away in the corner of the kitchen where the floors had exceeded an uncomfortable level of sticky and began mixing a drink. She stood awkwardly by him, highly aware of how people kept a wide breadth, staring at Boomer like he was out of his mind. She scowled at them until a red solo cup was pushed into her hands.

"Ta-da! A—" He hiccupped, "—dirty Shirley!"

She looked at the red drink skeptically before turning her attention back to him, “What should I expect?”

“Hmmm,” he tapped his chin in thought as his drink sloshed over the rim of his cup. “Well, Buttercup’s soooo giggly and Bub—Bub is like fighting everybody...maybe you’ll be like not boring, like fun and stuff?”

“I’m not boring!” She stiffened and paused, “Do people think I’m boring?”

“Yeah, pretty much!” Boomer hummed, taking a sip of his drink. Then, swaying to the beat of the music, he shrugged and continued, “S’not so bad! You’re just so...” his nose wrinkled, “booky?”

The brute honesty stung a little, but she wasn’t surprised. Boomer would have probably said the same thing sober too.

She gave the cup an uncomfortable look and then glanced back up at Boomer. He was watching her with slow, uncoordinated blinks, but watching her all the same. When he noticed she was looking at him, he gave her an encouraging smile.

“Go’on!” He hummed, nudging the drink with his own, “I made it extra sweet! Won’t taste a thing!”

She sniffed the drink, and it made her nose crinkle as the overwhelming smell of cherry grenadine irritated her sinuses. Still, artificial flavoring did a poor job of masking the ethanol smell wafting from the connection. And, quite frankly, she was of the opinion that there was no sprite in this drink whatsoever.

“I-I—you’ll stay with me?” She clarified, and Boomer shook his head.

“S’course, Bossy!”

She took a deep breath, brought the cup to her lips, and then slightly back down. This made him frown again, but she shook her head and gave him an inquisitive look.

“I—okay, before, what if I do something stupid? What if I make a bad decision or something, and the whole world finds out?”

Boomer's million-watt smile brightened the dingy corner, "Well, Bloss," he started rather eloquently, given his inebriation, "I don't mean to brag or anything, but I don't even have to be drunk to make really bad decisions! And look at me; people still think I'm fucking awesome!"

In a way, the loud confession was slightly comforting. It was misguided, of course. Also, arrogant. But still, slightly comforting. But Boomer was well-liked. Her?

...not so much.

He must have seen it on her face because his smile dimmed.

He raised his right hand and put his drink over his heart, "I promise on my parole officer's life, nothing bad's gonna happen. You're just gonna try it, just once, and decide."

She sighed, frowned at the liquid in her cup, and returned the cup to her mouth.

The alcohol barely touched her lips, coating them in a sickly sweet taste that she licked tentatively. Her heart rammed against her ribs, and for a heartstopping moment, she thought she was already drunk and had to fight back tears. Of course, the reaction was ridiculous, but now that the deed was done, every bad thing that could happen sat at the forefront of her mind. Without thinking, she reached for Boomer's arm to steady herself.

"I don't think I can do this," She shook her head, trying to return the cup, "this is—it's too much. I'm sorry."

He stepped back and looked genuinely surprised, "Hey, okay, it's okay, don't look so freaked out, you don't gotta! Here, here, give it to me."

"Sorry," She breathed, "sorry this was stupid, I'm not—I'm not like you," she ignored the furrowed, almost offended look on his face, "I'm not fun, Boomer, I'm like the least fun person ever, and this is—" She shook her head, trying so hard to keep the panic at bay, "—something bad will happen, I just know it. I can't have fun because what if something bad happens and I can't keep control of it and—"

The offended look morphed quickly back into surprise as her grip on him tightened. A normal human wouldn't have appreciated the tight, painful grip, but he wasn't a normal human. He put their cups down and reached for her shoulders.

"Blossom! Dude, it's okay. Look at me. Everything's okay. Look, we're fine! Everyone's fine!" He gestured around the room, speaking over her rambling, and when she quieted down enough to follow his directions, people were very much staring.

More panic flared, and she pulled away from him with a terrified squeak. Freaking out was not a Powerpuff thing to do in public.

"Ohhhkay," Boomer announced, abandoning the drinks and pulling her out a set of sliding glass doors leading to the back patio. She welcomed the blast of cold air and broke free from him, bounding down the patio steps and around the corner of the house. There, she sunk down the wall and sat with her head between her knees, breathing.

She wanted nothing more than to call the professor but didn't want to risk getting her sisters in trouble.

"Blossom?" Boomer peeked around the corner, "Shit! Are you okay?"

She jumped at his voice and shot up, wiping her eyes, "Yep! Fine! Sorry, um, I, it's, uh, in there that was weird, wasn't it. Sorry. Ignore that. I'm fine, totally."

Boomer frowned, "So, like, I know you're not, though. Should I get Buttercup or—"

"No!" She interrupted, "No, please don't. She'll be all worried, and it'll ruin her fun, and I'm just—" She deflated, giving up the act as she sunk back to the ground. Who cared? He was drunk anyway, right?

"I'm overwhelmed, that's all. I'm sorry. I know you were just trying to get me to have fun, but it freaks me out. My whole life, I've been on, always trying my best and never feeling like it's good enough, and anytime I ever do anything fun," She shook her head like the word itself was offensive, "it just backfires."

He slid down next to her, "that sucks."

She snorted, "yeah, that's a pretty good word for it."

"Your sisters don't seem to care?"

She looked at him and shrugged, "they worry about other things."

He nodded, "yeah, I get that."

"Do you?" She quirked an eyebrow, "Really?"

"Yeah, before—" He broadly gestured, rolling his eyes, "—I was the one in charge of worrying about like food and shit, you know, when we lived in the middle of the fucking forest because that was a real bright idea, Brickhead. That guy," he snorted, "and they say I'm the dumb one."

She giggled, "Brick's too stubborn for his own good."

"You're tellin' me!"

They sat for a while outside, watching the stars, when Boomer spoke up again. It was the longest bout of silence she had ever heard from him.

"Sorry if I pressured you or something in there. I just didn't want you to go."

She shook her head, wrapping her arms around her knees, "It's okay. It wasn't like you were acting maliciously. You were just being...sweet."

"Don't tell my brothers, okay?" He smiled, "I've got a rep, you know."

She crossed her heart and locked her lips.

"You know, though, you may wanna think about drinking with your sisters sometime or something. You don't want your first time being drunk stuck at some snotty benefit or with some shit company, just in case. Learned that from experience." His face darkened.

"I feel like I remember hearing something about that."

"My brothers gambled me off!" He threw up his arms, "They lost me in a bet! To Boogie! Who does that!"

She laughed again and slapped a hand over her mouth when he shot her a look, "Sorry!" She spoke through her fingers, "Sorry! Not funny!" But then, she snorted and spit, and soon, they were both laughing.

"Hey?" She asked after they had calmed down.

"Yeah?" He wiped a tear from his eye.

"Could I, well, if you wouldn't mind, could I try again?"

"Drinking?"

"Mhm, if you, um, wouldn't mind staying with me, that is."

Boomer's face broke into a wide, gleaming smile, "duh."

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

A pair of arms wrapped around her, and even with the brain fog, she braced herself for an attack and felt silly for it a second later.

"Blossy," Buttercup pressed a smile into her temple. Her breath was warm, and she leaned heavily on her, but the weight was welcomed. It wasn't every day Buttercup initiated a hug, and despite Blossom being the less physical of the three, she leaned into her sister's arms, or more like, practically collapsed.

Nothing bad happened when Buttercup was around. It was the best part about her. It honestly made Blossom a little jealous of how naturally "being a hero" came to her sister and not her, but currently, she pushed that from her mind and enjoyed the warmth.

"Are you still mad at us?" Buttercup laughed, pulling away slightly with a broad, pretty smile, "Boomer teaching you how to have fun?"

The two questions right in a row confused her for a moment, so she shook her head and then corrected herself and nodded.

"I think, uh, I think so?" She murmured back, aware people were watching them but doing an excellent job ignoring their gazes' weight. A first, in her experience.

Buttercup laughed and didn't ask her to clarify whether she thought she was mad or learning to have fun, which was fine by Blossom. Her thoughts were rolling away from her anyway.

"Course I am!" Another arm looped around her shoulders, pulling her into Boomer's chest, "We're doing great, right, Bloss?"

"Yeah," She agreed, relaxing in his hold as she took another sip from her red solo cup. After that, she lost track of the conversation, but Boomer's arm remained around her shoulders, tethering her to reality.

The room they all sat in seemed murky around the edges as she watched the group. Buttercup, surprisingly, held the spotlight. Her laughter was infectious, and Blossom couldn't help but notice how Bubbles she was being. She smiled into her cup as Buttercup launched into another nonsense story that Butch and Robin kept correcting the details of. Boomer would also chime in, prodding on the conversation. He and Buttercup commanded the room together, and she was somehow there with them, soaking it all up.

"Nooo," Buttercup giggled, arguing with Robin, "that's totally not what happened."

Butch snorted, his head lulling to the side as his free hand massaged Buttercup's neck, "babe, that's exactly how it happened."

"No, no," She smiled, letting her head bump against his, "Bloss, you remember, right, there were three snake monsters, not one?"

She blinked, swimming back to the surface at the sound of her name, "Uh, yeah?"

"See!" Buttercup pointed, "Even Blossom agrees with me! Three, not one!"

Butch laughed, sitting up, "Oh please, come on, listen, hey, Red?"

She smiled at him. Butch called her and Brick "Red," and it was cute but also sometimes confusing because who was he talking to? But, then he'd say, ack, both of you always have something to say, so both of you might as well listen, but he'd say it with more curse words, and not exactly like that either, but close, and then, she remembered Butch was waiting for her to answer.

"Yeah?"

"I've got blue hair, right?"

She smiled with him, forgetting the question almost instantly, "Um, yes?"

"No, shush, you're just trying to trick her," Buttercup waved him off over the sound of her own laughter, "no, she remembers, she does!"

Again, the conversation began to dull around her as she sank back into the murky waters of her brain.

Boomer squeezed her shoulders, and she looked up at him with a sluggish blink.

"Still good?" He smiled at her, "How you feelin'?"

She shook her head, but it took her a minute to verbally answer.

"Good," She agreed, more interested in the feel of him next to her and the rumbly sound his chest made when he talked than her state of intoxication, "murky. Dizzy. Uh, slow, but, uh, relaxed? I think relaxed? I don't know. What does that feel like, relaxed?"

He shrugged, his smile growing wider, "I think...like that, actually."

"Oh." She nodded, "That's nice. Good to know."

He laughed, and it was all she could focus on.

"That's nice too," she explained, "have I told you that before? You have a nice laugh."

His eyes crinkled, and he moved to say something, but now, words she couldn't find earlier started bubbling up her throat, and she didn't want to stop them.

"Thank you, by the way," She tangled her fingers with his hand dangling over her shoulder, "for encouraging me to do this and staying with me. I know this is probably boring for you, cause you know, you're bouncy and stuff, but I appreciate it. This was," She looked away from him and shook her head, agreeing with her own thoughts before blurting, "yeah, this was a smart idea, Boom, yeah, uh, yeah, smart, you know, getting drunk for the first time while I'm with people who care about me, and not, you know, some other time."

"Oh!" Boomer blinked a few times, and it seemed now, it was his turn to be at a loss for words, and that was interesting to Blossom because Boomer always had something to say, "uh, yeah, it's, uh—" He cleared his throat and shrugged, rubbing the back of his neck with his free hand, "—no problem, Bloss. Do you want more?"

He gestured to her cup, and she shook her head, "No thank you, I think—" She hiccupped, "—I think that was enough, but can we still sit here?"

"Yeah," He agreed, "yeah, that'd be, uh, sure, no problem."

Taking a page out of Buttercup's book, Blossom gave him a big smile before leaning her head against his shoulder. With a contented sigh, feeling safe and relaxed, she let her eyes slip close, enjoying the conversation flowing around her. It was pretty alright not being boring.

[zooterscooter]

thank you for asking @expensive-muscle i will be doing that for sure

i had this sitting in my drafts for a while so here we go hehe. it'll be quite a bit so i do apologize in advance

original post with the tags

the guy with the mask will be first :) his name is mars (legally his name is micah, but he doesn't go by it anymore, not a deadname or anything he just doesn't like it. not terribly important but yknow) he's part of a group of four... outlaws... i guess ? the group consists of him, his sister, the other girl in the drawing (who's also the one in the fifth drawing) and one other guy (when you look a bit closer on the 8th drawing, he's the one in the speech bubble they're talking about. their names are cecil, finch and karman, in order of being mentioned

he was unfortunately caught in a warehouse fire a few years back (story wise) and was pretty badly scarred bc of it. he wears the mask so he doesn't have to walk around with his scarred face and blind eye showing. he really only wears it out in public and around strangers because it is quite uncomfortable

i'm still working on a group name for the four of them, and nothings really sticking. but since we're on the topic of them i'll talk about finch a bit :)

she's a hitman, late 20s. she's been employed by a bunch of higher power people in the city where she lives, so she's kinda sorta untouchable by law. she's been taken in a few times but is always bailed out by someone somehow. money can buy anything i suppose

the other two mentioned, karman and cecil, are kind of a team... as someone who has no clue how sports betting works (yet) i don't really know how to explain, but cecil is like... this worlds equivalent of a nascar driver kinda ? kinda not really. anyways. betting is legal in this city, but for karman and cecil it's like an inside job, if that makes any sense at all. i haven't thought about this group as a whole much if i'm being honest, but it'll come in time i hope

moving on !!

onto the "mf in the beanie" :3 her name is lilith and she's a screenwriter. her dad kinda sorta skipped town when she was younger, but she is super close with her mom, and they're so awesome. her mom gets a bit sick at one point, spending a lot of time at various hospitals, but she ultimately turns out fine

lilith wanted to peruse comedy as a career at one point, but she didn't really get as into it as she thought she would, so she just sticks to the behind the scenes by writing :)

the "homosexual friendship" is about her now girlfriend, who was an alchemist at one point a few years ago but i've changed her career a bit and don't know the exact word to describe it 😭 her name is ophelia, very smart, very pretty, younger sister.

i'm going to be honest with you, dear readers. lilith was a danganronpa self insert at one point. she comes from a simpler time. her and her girlfriend, tho said gf wasn't a self insert, just a dangan oc. not anymore tho....

the more i rack my brain for info the more i realize i just. don't have the descriptors for anything that they do. questions welcome and encouraged

now onto the rest of the people in the drawings, i'll attempt keep them short and simple hehe

1st drawing- ophelia/her sisters moms, vada medea (left) and sage (right) both are biological. i took inspo from how the "making babies from bone marrow" stuff that's kinda sorta happening in the science scene. the timeline for all this takes place about a hundred years from now, so i think they'd be figuring out how to do it with little complication. i am not a scientist myself, so i have plenty research to do to get the specifics down

2nd drawing- ophelia's sister, rue, and some 180 year old freak scientist. the freak is the one in the sewer. he had a grand time fucking up a bunch of people and giving them what appear to be lizard scales, and then was told to get the hell out of the city lest he causes more chaos. unfortunately the scales get passed down, but they really have no impact on the lives of the people who have them. rue is nurse who lowkey gets corrupted by the freak (his name is emrys) after her girlfriend passes from a long battle with various medical complications. she takes her grief to the wrong person and starts to lose her mind.

3rd drawing- their names are kaleo (left) and Non (right) not quite sure what their deal is exactly if i'm being honest. kaleo is a boxer, and Non just... exists really. he's alive to be pals with kaleo so far 😭 he's one of the people who had the scales passed down to him, which is silly and fun. kaleo is related to the person in the 6th drawing, which i will get to

4th drawing- zephyr (left) and kairos (right). detective and cop due respectively. sometimes they're tasked with keeping up with finch and her little gang of criminals but they can't really do much.

5th drawing- that's finch. love her

6th drawing- her name is desdemona and she's a spirit freak. she's been alive for hundreds of years or maybe she was just willed into being alive yesterday. she's got a bunch of weird spiritual abilities, like time travel (sounds cheesy) and communicating with the dead. she also eats people sometimes but that's a minor thing don't worry about it. she's the "wrong person" rue went to after her girlfriend died... oopsie. kaleos relative somehow also. the body on the floor is her ""human disguise"" because she can't really walk around town with a skull on her head. said skull isn't hers btw

7th drawing- holt (welding the sandwich) and caspien (watching him weld) they're just a little duo of gays tbh. it would take a while for me to explain it all so lmk if anyone wants to hear about it. holt is a mechanic, early 20s, and caspien is legally dead but he's fine. has wicked nightmares a lot but other than that he's fine. caspien and zephyr are brothers.

8th drawing- finch and mars :)

9th drawing- lilith (explained above) and her pal alaric. alaric is the guy that knows everyone and everything about the city they're in. somehow related to emrys (sewer freak) but neither of them are exactly sure how. emrys shouldn't even be alive but here he is, corrupting the youth

10th drawing- eve and varden :) (varden is @yaffles-world 's oc, shoutout to you) eve is sage's sister, making him ophelia and rues uncle. one of the only guys in the family which is lowkey funny bc he's a trans guy. someone had to attempt to balance the scales i guess. varden is his secret partner he hid from everyone for like 15 years because he was scared of being made fun of for some reason. i dunno. he's my main projection oc and even i don't get it. his full legal first name is evening btw. he's named this because i was like "hey wouldn't this be funny ?" and then it stuck. eve is an astrophysicist (which is why his name is funny to me) and varden is a mechanic :) lots of mechanics in the city

and with that im gonna cut it off or else i'd just keep yapping on in a single post about everything. thanks for taking the time to read this all if you did, please PLEASE ask questions i obviously love talking. asks are encouraged

[draggeddowntothedark]

[AGGRESSION   //   SEXUAL  TENSION PROMPTS]

👀   //   grab  my  muse’s  jaw   &   direct  their  gaze  towards  yours. + 🗩   //   verbally  threaten  my  muse.

-

It wasn't easy getting past Adrian's security and sneak into his office at Veidt's Industries. To say that Adrian was displeased would be an understatement. Yet on the outside, the ex costumed adventurer seemed so eerily calm.

"And here I thought my office was closed for the night." He spoke while emerging from the secret doorway behind a fake, ancient large tablet on display. His tone of voice as sweet and light as whipped cream. The smile he wore in any other scene would be viewed as kind, yet given that Adrian was prowling toward the intruder, seemed hungry and sinister. "Let me guess, you're a fan of Ozymandias. Lost your way from the tour group and didn't mean to stumble upon my private study?"

He approached Kevin slowly and in a casual manner as he spoke, making sure to corner the smaller man. With both hands kept in his trouser pockets, he wore a deep purple dress shirt that was slacked with the first few buttons undone. It was made from finest of silk which glimmered against the dim lights showcasing the many Egyptian replica's around the large open spaced office. All the while Veidt's blue eyes never left Kevin's. Ozymandias was perspective, and took a great pleasure in reading one's body language. Even more so if it made the person uncomfortable.

"Or," Adrian added, gradually lifting one of his hands out of his pocket. Keeping his palm open, his motion smooth yet gradual to show he was not going to attack the younger man. "Perhaps you see me as another soulless billionaire, selling Ozymandias as a way to make easy money."

He stepped closer so that he was towering over the intruder as he reached out and took a hold of Kevin's jaw. Forcing the younger man to maintain eye contact. "Perhaps you came in here to carry out some vendetta." His grip was firm as it held Kevin's head in place. Then Adrian's thumb gently caressed the corner of Cho's jawline. "If that is the case, I should reassure you that killing any who possess a soul is not something I partake in."

There was a long pause as the polite smile twisted into a larger, more ominous one as darkness clouded his bright eyes. "Just... killing."

Ooooooh fuck.

The plan was just to get a good look at the artifact and see if it what what Natalie needed. Not get caught by the dude who owned it. It didn't help that even Kevin realized pretty quickly the little Egypt artifacts were... not real. These were fakes. Someone should've done their homework before picking the locks he needed to to get in here. And that person was Kevin.

Kevin gulped audibly as the older man tilted his chin up but put on his charming lil grin and cocked his head just so slightly to the side, not trying to pull away.

"Nah man, no hard feelings, no vendetta, just looking into something for a friend." Butter wouldn't melt in his mouth right now, but he didn't want to get punched. Or arrested. He did not want to call Nat's Uncle Zeke for bail money.

"You got a cool collection here, you know?" Kevin's eyes did briefly dart to the tablet the guy had just. Popped out of. "I thought they were the real deal, I just wanted a peek. Say, how accurate are they? Like down to the hieroglyphic or just slapped on what looked good?"

@0zymandias-v

[the-firebird69]

We Got ENGULFED by BLUEFIN TUNA in 100' of Water in a 13' SKIFF!!

Getting the track sharks they did not attract them but it was close a few were out there and smelled it you just kept going it wasn't enough it would have been a good meal but these guys may have caught him no this is incredible cash for a boat like that there's a reason why it works it holds the air in this is the same company it's del Mar it says of the sea it's ironic this is one of the persons from the old man the sea Tommy f cuz the Santiago character and that was his first clone and they're going through it now cuz they heard it from a lot of people and our son said it's because by the time you're done I'm going to be like a Walmart guy and a grocery store chain guy and that's what you'll have left and he says that freaking blows and they might need some other gross stuff so he's trying to get upset and angry and they may try and make another brother and all sudden it's like this I've heard this stuff and Trump heard it a little and start looking at it and said it's horrible and that's what it's like for a son cuz he's smart and you people live in ignorance and you get crushed they have maneuvers coming up and they're big and we know about them and you don't and we won't tell you. This boat is going to be ours it makes the bigger boat goes up to a 36 and we probably should use the and he says that's plenty we should probably use the large cabin with the open bow idea and use our idea of raising the bow up a bit and when you're underway you come back and it's true this would work really nicely I get an extra foot down there and it's comfortable it's a little cozy but boy it's it's a nice boat and it's a 35 and the bottle is a little bit beefier these have a little smaller bow and we might keep it that way for the work boats they're easier to manage and the way it's designed it holds air in it it's really cool and I mean the air it's not airtight but it stays in it and we might make some compartments that are airtight so it doesn't sink it is a great idea and the compartments is a great idea there is stuff that floats that's not flammable as much and we might do that too and it's lightweight and just put about four or five packs in and it floats enough feet to sit on it or people to see it so you these days you don't want to be in the water think you can avoid some things and other stuff eats it and it goes away sometimes it's better than nothing and if it stays upright then we'll try and make it so it does and you put the packs up higher you stay in it when it's upright a lot of stuff will not get in and you can you repair the boat and we're going to do that it's going to be a top seller material and it's hard to break and it's easy to patch and there's a patch kit it's really easy it's sticking on it stays on maybe bail it out so we're going to start doing that and we're going to approach these people and here we talk to them and they want to sell so we're going to try and do a presale and we're going to work on the paperwork

Thor Freya

Of course we're going to hire management and other sales he says to have Santiago each version the salespeople and have big sales offices not small and a nice size one in Italy and they use these all the time and he loves the thing and they'll think he has it but he'll make the money and we'll be making the product and he wonders why this is it won't work otherwise and it gets that so it's something we'd like to do there are other people too who have that curse people who are in the water Tommy Allen has it and other people here who are constantly trying to fly fish for our son like it's possible it's really horrible and they do pull a tune in that's what Santiago's fishing for and that's what he's fishing for right here

Thor Freya

Oh s*** I thought I was going to use it as cover and it's real because the max we got this stuff he's trying to work the code doesn't really have a boat company but he probably will try and take this over and have certain people do it and get it going it's a nice boat this thing is great and I was playing around with it this thing is so fast supposed to hit the water is gross but we do it anyways and says you could do it somewhere where it's clean and I'm going to try and find that but boy it's a fun time I mean this thing really moves and you can go around with it it's not light either it's powerful and that boat that little the work boat with a huge deck area has a cuddy cabin that's comfortable and a kitchenette it is great and they're built right and yeah I'm from the ocean too and we like it and this is a nightmare

Tommy f

He wants to be able to have a yacht and it won't be too big and 36 is pretty big he says and it's the right number of the let him have one and they'll try and do stuff and we do get that they'll probably increase sales I tell you what it's a lot of fun for him just that size boat you just need anything huge and he needs something to rugged like this cuz it's going to be heavier after time you'll need a yacht just to fit in it but he doesn't have a specially made one not too special but really would be all heavy duty and he knows he can they're ones you can buy that are metal not steel and that would be what he'd buy smell like a real cruise ship but they cost a lot of money he's going to have money so we're getting ready for that kind of thing now but really this is starting and he says we have to start at some point and this is a nice boat and a son has seen them at boat shows when they are pretty big and they had nice boats and he liked the boat he looked all over it so wow this is built really well he thinks one was down here and it was and it was a lot of money but it was built with thick fiberglass like it should be he said and I'll tell you what they actually honk through the water pretty good and they're a lot safer we're going to put a that safety feature so it'll float upright some boats have it by the way donzi has it

Thor Freya the people who own it now will have access to the company and we're setting up an agreement and we want them to help do sales and things like that and they will and they know how to run it and they know what it's for work phone I mean what you saw as a work phone that is a work boat it is meant for crabbing and lobster and fishing and moving around movies and I maintaining things it's a dive boat and it's a work boat and they sell a lot of them but the other boys would be fun to sell and to model and to have a few wherever you go it's a nice time before the boat and some Marina's are very nice it's a bit dangerous now but it's going to clear up pretty soon I'm going to be ready right now we need a ton of work boats and a lot of people do

Thor Freya again

Olympus

Zues Hera