#the timeline can be much shorter for this i guess??

[cloudyvulpine]

So something that's been bugging/concerning me about HB is specifically how old Stolas is.

(To preface this I know there's seemingly a difference between years and Hell years since the wiki distinguished the two, but they seem to work close enough for huge red flags to be raised (in my brain at least))

The wiki states Stolas is in his 30s, no specification on early or late so we're working with 30-39. And in The Circus he seems the exact same age as Blitzø, maybe a year or two older.

With Blitzø in mind we can get a more solid guess. Oops happens 15 years after the circus fire and they were probably in their late teens (15-17) making Blitzø 30-32. (Also sorry for the picture choice it was the clearest shot 😭😭)

With this in mind, Stolas is at youngest the same age and at oldest about 34 since he reinforces the timeline of things by saying it's been over two decades

Where my concern and why this has been bugging me so much is Octavia. She is 17, almost 18. Going by the absolute oldest he could be he had Via when he was 21 or 22, but I unfortunately don't think it's likely (in my heart and soul i hope this is the right answer if they ever confirm his age). With my estimations, the oldest Stolas could've had Via was 16 or 17 and at the youngest only 12 or 13. The worst part is that the visuals don't do anything to dismiss these.

Look at the differences!!! He's so, so much shorter than he is now.

Even comparing shots like this is such a difference. It's not like young Goetias are the size of adult imps, we see that in the flashback that Blitzø and Stolas were the same height when they were kids.

So yeah this whole thing has been nagging me for like 2 weeks. If he was a teenager it genuinely makes me feel a bit of sympathy to Stella too because she's probably the same age. Of course I still hate her a lot but it's all really fucked up no matter what happened

[noridoorman]

# Nuzi is not a pro-ship, I'm so tired that needs to be repeated #

I went on Twitter for like the first time (what a mistake) and saw again and again people complaining about how Nuzi is a pro-ship, Uzi is just a teen, N is an adult, yadda yadda and it gets so tiring at some point.

one point might be a bit controversial tho oops

"Uzi said herself that she's a teenager!"

Yes, she did. But teens can range from the ages of 13-20. It is a wide spectrum that is thankfully narrowed down by episode 3 when it is revealed that all classmates in her class are around the ages of 18-20. There's nobody younger than 18, meaning that it's highly unlikely that Uzi is 17 and even more unlikely that she's 16. She has to be around the ages of 18-20.

"But Uzi does to highschool, which only teens between the ages of 15-17 go to!"

That is if you assume that the drones only adopted the American school system. However, we've got a drone that only speaks Russian and a manuel for drone parents that is translated in French. In Germany, adults over the age of 18 can visit highschools. Heck, I'm 19 and currently in my 12th year of highschool. I'll be 20 in my final years where my prom will happen too, which, again, indicated that Uzi is older than what everyone assumes.

"How come Uzi is older than 18 if there are parent-teacher conferences?"

Again, my school also has parent-teacher conferences, even for the students that are adults. It's an optional thing and at this point in the story, Khan wanted to somehow reconnect with Uzi again which makes sense that he visits the parent-teacher conference.

"Uzi is shorter than her classmates, indicating that she's younger!"

Short adults exist, I don't need to elaborate further.

"Uzi's mom died shortly after she was made. N was already an adult at that time!"

We've seen through flashbacks from Doll that her parents died while she was a teen/not a pill baby. The same could have happened to Uzi, that Nori died while she was older. Also, N already being an adult is something I wanna unpack in the next argument.

"Uzi at some point asks about her mother, indicating that she never truly knew her! This implies that Uzi was a baby when Nori died!"

Yes, N could have also killed Nori while Uzi was a baby. But guess what?

N was a "baby" too.

Bear with me.

If we really wanna go by ages of the drones, we should remember that ALL the drones aged differently. Uzi was the only one that was a pill-baby before. N, V and J weren't, they were all in adult bodies. Yet, they were all around the same age of Uzi.

The way I understand the timeline is like this;

Uzi is made. N gets rescued from the scrapyard and saved by Tessa. I'd like to assume that he only got to live a few months before being discarded, as we can see that humans act very carelessly with their drones. So, Uzi is essentially a newborn while N is around 3-5 months old.

about 2 years pass. Both N and Uzi are two-years-old. However, ONLY UZI IS A PILL BABY DRONE. N was always in the default worker drone body. He can talk, move and do a bunch of things a 2-year-old shouldn't be able to do. However, if we base age on maturity and life experiences than he's no more an adult than Uzi was. All of his capabilities are programmed, he'll literally just die if he can't do those things cause otherwise he's defective. (BTW, NOT JUSTYFING PPL THAT GO "oh, you're mature for your age" OR SHIT LIKE THAT. I'M JUST SAYING THAT IN TERMS OF MATURITY, THEY WERE MOST LIKELY ON THE SAME LEVEL)

Uzi is now 3-years-old and the diassembly drones killed Nori. It'll make sense why she doesn't remember much of Nori and ask questions about her. N is also 3-years-old and he, along with V and J, are doomed to kill Worker Drones until they finish their job and die due to overheating.

By that logic, N AND UZI ARE AROUND THE SAME AGE.

Of course we can't get a clear timeline of events as Liam said that he doesn't want to write himself into a corner. But this is the one that makes me most sense to me unless somebody manages to proof me otherwise.

UZI WAS A PILL BABY, N WAS NOT.

N might aswell have been a pill baby this whole time and nobody would have batted an eye. Their physical bodies do not equal their mental maturity and age, those are completely seperate entities.

I might have fumbled on my words a lot, I'm not a native English speaker. I still hope this was easy to explain without me having said something wrong accidentaly.

"N x Uzi just came out of nowhere for fanservice!"

It was confirmed that the scirpt of Murder Drones was finished way back at episode 1 before the ship became even popular. Heck, Glitch posted a picture of Beau before the second episode dropped. Also, animations takes such a long time to do with lots of planing. Last minute changes are extremely risky to make and no professional studio like GLITCH would do that just to appease the fans.

"They killed of V to make Nuzi canon!"

I agree with the part that V should have gotten more screentime before her death.

But she wasn't killed off to make Nuzi happen.

She just went through an entire charachter arc from this drone that masks her trauma thorugh feiging apathy/joy in killing and always making decisions based on what she thought was right because she couldn't trust the people around her, not even N.

At the end, when V sacrificed herself, she finally recognized that Uzi is not CYN, she's as much as a victim as V was and that Uzi truly cares about N like she does. Her sacrifice was there to show how she finally manages to trust Uzi, even though she most likely knows how dangerous Uzi can get if she loses control. I just wished they build up towards that more cause it would have been so much better but she wasn't killed off to make Nuzi happen.

There are probably more arguments that I missed...

[beyoursbb]

€uro Tra$h Series: Dipped in $ugar (Part 3 - final)

Pairing: Billy Butcher x You (Reader) || Rating: Explicit || Word Count: 1.9k || Link to Part 1 and Link to Part 2 (Not necessary to read to understand Part 3, but here if you want more! Timeline for this work is Season 1 btw).

Summary: Just morning sex with Butcher lol.

Author’s Note: Wrote this shorter cuz I meant to get this out a long while ago, whoops! You can let me know how it was! Likes, dislikes, etc. I love and appreciate feedback in the comments. This 3-part scenario is now complete. @a-rogue-tiddy-bot thought you might want to be tagged!

Warnings: swearing, teasing, vaginal fingering, implied p in v sex, sugar daddy / daddy kink (the name daddy is used 1 time, and a lil talk of those dynamics), age gap (implied, not specified), little bit of praise, begging

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You woke up gradually, each of your senses gathering intel on your surroundings to remind you of where you were. Sunlight streamed through the tiny crack in the motel’s curtains, glinting off the weapon on the table. The bed sheets by your nose still had the scent of laundry detergent despite last night’s action. The faint snoring of the man behind you matched the warm body cuddled up to your backside, and the arm under your neck that you were using as a pillow. You could feel the heat radiating off Billy’s chest and the weight of his other arm hanging over your midsection, as well as something not-so-soft pressing against your butt. 

You stretched your hand back to stroke his neck. “Billy?” you whispered. 

No response. 

“Billy,” you said louder, lightly tugging on his hair. 

He hummed, keeping his eyes closed. 

You took a breath, then gave an experimental shift backwards into his crotch.

“Oi. Morning sunshine,” he mumbled into your hair, his hand already cupping between your legs.

You giggled at how that got his attention. “Morning, Billy.”

“When’d you put these on?” he complained softly, playing with the waistband of your bottoms.

“When I got up in the middle of the night.”

If you thought Butcher’s regular deep voice was sexy, you were wholly unprepared to face this gravelly tone as he woke up. Especially when it was demanding your naked body again. 

“Well fucking take ‘em off, will ya?” 

Billy hardly gave you a moment to comply before shoving his hand in your underwear. He immediately found your clit, but his touch was gentle, and worked tantalizingly slow, tracing lazy circles. Your legs didn’t need much coaxing to open up as Billy eagerly pushed his own thigh between them and hooked yours around it while planting soft kisses to your neck. His beard tickled your jawline, and you sighed contentedly, melting into the sensation with a slight turn of your head toward him. You closed your eyes.

If this was how snug morning sex with Billy could be, you hoped he would let you linger more frequently. You guessed being half asleep was why his demeanor had taken a sharp left turn and a whole 180 flip to be so…calm. Not that you ever minded his roughness. But this right now was a different experience, and it was nice. You were used to trying to help Butcher relax as much as possible during your visits, but there is only so many times a guy can fuck the stress out of his system before needing to face his stressors head-on, like a well-adjusted adult. You knew an unstable, emotionally unavailable man when you saw one; Butcher didn’t have time for that. His mind was always preoccupied, his actions always in a hustle to return to whatever was demanding his attention before you arrived. Hence, why you were surprised he wasn’t already fucking you into the mattress and sending you on your way. 

Instead, Billy’s fingers continued to tease your slick entrance delicately; it was almost unbelievable they were the same fingers that brought you to a searing climax some hours ago. 

“Even first thing in the morning, so wet and ready,” Billy whispered in your ear.

You could hear the smirk in his voice, driving you to push your hips against him to address your growing need for more friction. But Billy seemed satisfied taking his time playing with you, his breathing even as his lips ghosted across the smooth skin of your shoulder. 

A cross between a groan and a whimper slipped off your tongue. You were getting impatient already. “I need more, Daddy.”

“Need more what, luv?” Billy took hardly a second to push your underwear farther down your legs until it was off, and run his hand back up your bare skin.

“More of you,” you answered, reaching behind to grab his increasingly hard length. Hot and heavy in your palm, you started to touch him too, rubbing slowly from base to tip. 

“Oh, you’ll get more, baby.”

You inhaled sharply. Billy rarely called you baby. Shit, you thought. Since when had he picked up on the effect that word had on you when it was uttered by him? You could give less of a shit when your other sugar daddies called you the pet name. But Billy dropping it so casually right now while he toyed with your arousal? You were in for it this morning.

“My baby can be such a greedy girl,” he chuckled.

My baby. My. Baby. My.

This time you visibly shivered, your shoulders rattling against his chest, but you tried to cover it up by twisting your head back at the same time to steal a kiss from his lips. He allowed it, nipping at your lower lip, then removed his arm from under you and propped himself up on it. Butcher was at the perfect level now to hover right above your ear. 

“Did ya know that’s why I say you’re my favorite?” 

His fingers were back on your clit, the pressure still light, but he quickened his pace. 

“Why?” you asked, dumbly, his teasing clearly too distracting for your mind to keep up with the conversation, as well as provide any stimulation for him. Your hand on his length had already slowed to a pathetic, arrhythmic rate. You blushed at the realization when he — rather politely — removed your useless hand from his crotch and placed it under his own to touch yourself with as he continued his ministrations on your wetting pussy. 

“Because you’re greedy, luv. And I know it’s not for my money.” 

A pitifully needy noise slipped out from deep in your throat as Billy’s mouth connected to the soft spot under your ear, tongue flicking at the lobe, before he bit it — harder than you anticipated. 

“You get that everywhere, with however many daddies you have.” 

You drew in a deep breath in an attempt to steady your loudly beating heart. Was there a tinge of spite in his voice? You didn’t have time to analyze. Billy flipped you around to face him, swiftly replacing the hands on your core with his length dragging through your folds. You gasped, gripping at his shoulders, trying not to stare down at the delicious sight of his big hand around his even bigger member, its head leaking precum into your slit. 

“Nah, I know,” Billy growled. Your eyes snapped up to meet his dark, lust-filled gaze. “You’re just greedy for my cock.”

You shrieked at the sudden intrusion, then swore at him. Finally he had dipped into your dripping cunt. Except this fucker switched back to using his fingers.

“Billy— Billy, please,” you cried out, not even sure what you were begging for. You were greedy for his cock, yes. You were just as desperate for your fucking release. Also, you wanted to wipe that smug smile off his handsome face. 

“Let me hear you,” he insisted, two digits pushing in and out of your center. “Tell me, why are you my favorite fuck?”

You willed your mind and mouth to cooperate in forming sentences. “Because I’m greedy.”

The quick response earned you a third digit stretching you out, causing you to bite down on your lip.

“For…?”

Again, you forced yourself to concentrate, despite the lewd noises echoing below you and the feeling of climax in the pit of your stomach hungry to break free. 

“For your cock,” you breathed out. “I’m so greedy for your cock.”

Billy curled his fingers to hit that spot you loved, and you felt your tether to reality loosen. 

“So sweet of you to say, darlin’.” The stillness in his tone matched the precision of his palm now rubbing tight circles on your clit. "Is that what you want now? You want my cock in your tight little pussy?"

Your head drooped forward, thudding against his firm chest, your hands still clawing at his arms for some sense of stability while you grinded down on him, desperately chasing your high. He was stringing you out for all you were worth and you were so, so close, you didn’t care how pathetic you sounded. "Yes, yes! Please— I want it so bad,” you panted.

“Next time, baby, look at me when you speak. Maybe then you'll get exactly what you want.”

With one last stroke of his hand, your orgasm hit hard, much more intense than the two last night combined, and twice as pleasurable. You saw stars with your eyes sealed shut while your pussy clenched with a vice grip around Billy, as strong as your nails dug into his skin. He made you the most writhing, sweaty mess you’d been in months, yet you didn’t — couldn’t — even make a sound, sans the quiet gushing of your juices thoroughly coating him.

You had no idea how many minutes passed before you came back down to Earth in Butcher’s arms and opened your eyes to see him peering down at you gingerly. He pecked your forehead, and you did the same to his neck, collarbone, and chest.

“Fuck, I’m glad you stayed last night, luv.”

“Me too,” you squeaked out.

“You alrigh’?” Billy asked, wiping the tears that had formed at the corners of your eyes.

You nodded, then laughed. “Pretty sure I blacked out.”

“Thought so, too,” he replied, a small, satisfied grin appearing. 

You rolled your eyes and playfully pushed him away. Then for the first time all morning, you got a good look at him. His thick, dark brown hair could definitely be characterized as a bed head, and you aimlessly combed through it a few times. Your gaze drifted downwards to the red scratches you had just gifted him, and you gently brushed over them with the pad of your thumb. A little farther down you carefully studied the still-fresh bruises and past-lingering scars across his broad torso. 

Your turn to inquire. “Are you alright?”

“Never better,” Billy said, a little too quickly.

“I mean from last night.” You traced an imaginary line connecting the marks on his body, to make your point clear. “What happened?”

Butcher shifted his body, but his face remained hardened. “Even MM needs a reminder every once in a while. Captain’s gotta run a tight ship,” he said matter-of-factly. “Job’s stressful, night didn’t go as planned, he took it out on me, but he knows when I’m right.”

You nodded, as if deliberately sidestepping the question about his injuries to explain the one part of his night you were present for was an acceptable enough answer. However, after a restful night’s sleep and an active morning that left you plenty clear-headed, you felt a bit more bold. You didn’t care if it wasn’t a sugar baby’s place to know his job. If he wasn’t ready to discuss the elephant in the room this second, you were at least going to let him know he wouldn’t get away with avoiding it for long.

“Fine, if you want to dance around it. You don’t have to tell me right now why you were gone four hours longer than you expected, or came back with this,” you nudged his taped up hand, “or that,” you gestured toward the semi-automatic on the table, “but at the very least, you should introduce me to your colleagues.”

The flashback of you laying on the bed, thankfully fully clothed, when they stormed in last night flashed through your memory. “You know, the guys who weren’t sure that this is legal,” you added. “Want them to know it’s all good.”

There was a beat of silence, until Billy relented, and you were genuinely surprised at the lack of pushback. “Fine.” 

With his hand on your hip, he rolled you over onto your other side, back into a spooning position, with your ass pulled against him. 

“You’ll meet the boys with my cum dripping down your thighs.”

[laughterfixs]

fic suggestion!:

lee Eclipse, but like specifically, it’s during the dlc’s timeline. Eclipse is slowly realizing that the kids aren’t going to return to the daycare (unfortunately), and slowly slips into a depressive state.

the ler can be anyone you want, bc I dunno who to suggest that lines up with the timeline I’m suggesting, but the ler notices Eclipse (or just straight up finds ‘em) is feeling a little (okay, a LOT) gloomy, and bam! Cheer-up tickles!

A bit shorter than my usual but here's fic one! Wait til you see who the ler is :3c

No One’s Coming 

Summary: 

The daycare is cleaned up! Eclipse is in charge and now all that’s left is to wait for the children! 

But…when the children don’t show up, Eclipse starts losing hope. Who could possibly be there in his time of need?

“Aaaand done!” Eclipse hummed happily as he stepped back to admire his hard work. He spent the last…well he wasn’t keeping track of time but, he knew it was more than a couple hours, cleaning up the daycare. 

Now it wasn’t as….ruined. There was more space to walk around. The play structures no longer collapsed and blocked half the daycare. The toys were…a little burn’t and messy but that was okay! They could still play plenty of games!

“We should open any moment now..” Eclipse smiled, sitting patiently as he checked his internal clock. 

He waited. 

And waited….

And waited some more. 

…..

But nothing happened. No laughter from the children on the other side of the door. No footsteps of the guards walking around. 

There was just…nothing. 

“Uhh…heh…are…are we opening late this morning? Gosh it’s awful quiet!” 

From the digital realm, Sun and Moon looked at each other and then back at their brother.

“We have to tell him…” Moon sighed. 

“B-but it’s gonna break his heart!”

“So will just sitting here waiting…” Moon reasoned, earning a sigh from Sun. 

“You’re right…” he agreed, tapping his fingers. 

“Cmon…” Moon sighed as the two gingerly made their way over to Eclipse’s sides. 

“Eclipse…?”

“Hm? Oh, hello brothers! Late start to the day huh? What’s today? Saturday? That must be why the kids aren’t here yet! Though…I haven’t seen any employees…or even heard the glamrocks.” 

Moon looked to Sun who shrunk his rays in and sighed. 

“Clipsey-“ 

“B-but it’s still early. I just have to keep positive! It’s been so long since I played and-and…”

Eclipse sighed, slumping over. 

“….no one’s coming, are they…?” 

The twins looked to each other. Sun sat beside Eclipse and wrapped his digital arms around him. 

“They’re not…” Moon answered. “No ones been here in a long time…” 

“We don’t think anyone’s coming anymore…” Sun finished, hugging their brother tighter from the digital scape. 

Eclipse didn’t answer. He simply just stared off, arms limp. He looked down at his…broken self and sighed. 

“Eclipse..?” Sunny frowned. “You okay?”

Eclipse didn’t answer at first. He simulated a deep breath. 

“I’m fine…” he answered. “I just….need to be left alone for a bit…” 

As he stood, arms wrapped around himself and summoned the wire to fly to the top balcony, Sun reached out to him only to be stopped by Moon. 

“Just…let him process…he’s been gone a long while…waking up to all this? And finding out he no longer has a purpose…it can take a toll on someone…” 

Sun frowned, his rays shrinking in as he sighed. 

“I guess you’re right…I hope he’ll be okay…”

Eclipse however felt anything but fine in the moment. He crawled into the makeshift bed that was on the floor and curled up. He felt every wire and servo screaming with exhaustion. But he couldn’t power down to sleep…his mind was racing too much. 

“No purpose…

Nothing. 

Not important…

Never important. 

Does anyone even remember me?

Did…anyone miss me…?” 

Eclipse hiccuped a bit, curling up into a tighter ball, he could feel his chest tighten with the need to cry. 

He heard a buzzing sound behind him and turned his head. 

“Sun, moon please-“ he stopped, seeing the digital blue rabbit there. 

“O-oh…MXES…it’s you.” 

The rabbit tilted its head, holding a large hand out to him as if questioning something. The security program couldn’t speak, but the boys were able to communicate pretty easily with him, reading his body language. 

“Oh it’s…it’s nothing…I’m okay, really…” 

MXES didn’t seem to believe that. He placed a gentle hand on the attendant's shoulder, silently coaxing him to talk. 

Eclipse glanced up at him. He sighed again and hugged his legs to his chest. 

“I…I just…the kids aren’t coming. I cleaned up the daycare for them and-and no one’s coming! Did they forget about us? Are they mad? Did…did I fail…wh-what’s going to happen to us..” Eclipse felt the tightness in his chest again, the tears falling now. He scrubbed his eyes with the side of his hand that still had plastic covering on it. 

MXES listened, saddened as the broken bot lamented. He rubbed his back as he allowed Eclipse to get all his emotions out. 

As he calmed down again, he rested his head on his knees. 

“I’m sorry MXES…I probably sound ridiculous…you have more to worry about than me and my fears and worries…”

A curt buzz sounded from the glitchy bunny, grabbing Eclipse’s attention. Seeing the stern look he was given, he shrunk back a little. 

MXES mimicked a sigh before gently hugging the bot. 

“Heh…I guess I should know better than to think I’m bothering you with such things…all you do is act like a protector…it’s only natural for you isn’t it..”

MXES nodded, pulling away to get Eclipse’s attention again. He pointed to the corners of his mouth, and slid his hands up. Eclipse looked away. 

“I-I’m sorry MXES. I’m just…not in the mood right now…everything just…hurts…”

MXES frowned with drooped ears, looking to the side as if to think…suddenly his ears perked up as an idea came to him. The blue bunny turned back to the smaller bot, smirking as it seemed Eclipse was paying no attention to him. 

One large glitchy hand moved ever so slowly to Eclipse’s unbroken side. Without the bot realizing, he gently wiggled his fingers. 

Eclipse gasped, straightening his back. Streams of giggles flooded out of him while he tried to wriggle away. 

“Wait-wahahait! Nohoho! Ohoho stahahars eep!” Eclipse fell back in his bed, MXES following him and tickling around his belly. 

“PFFFHEHEHEE! Ohohoho nyahat THEHERE!” Eclipse curled up on his side, wrapping his arms around his belly to try and protect it. “Mahahahax!!” 

“Max”, a nickname lovingly bestowed upon him by the daycare trio, mimicked a chuckle. He looked happy to be cheering up the attendant after such a harsh realization. 

They all needed a playmate. And he was more than happy to be one if it meant Eclipse and the brothers wouldn’t feel so lonely. 

Max pulled his fingers away, giving Eclipse a moment to breathe. He looked up at the rabbit only to see his fingers wiggling teasingly at him. 

Eclipse squeaked and used his hat to hide his face. Even without the ability to speak, Max could effectively tease. 

“Nohohoho! Thahats not fahahair!” Eclipse cackled, kicking his legs from the anticipation alone. Max grinned down at him and gently scritched around under his arms, earning a squeal from the daycare attendant. 

“OHOHOHO STAHAHAHARS THAHAHATS CHEHEHEATIHIHIHING!” He locked his arms down in an attempt to protect them from the tickle monster entity above him but Max was bigger and stronger than the attendants. 

Max’s fingers crawled like ants along Eclipse’s exo, procuring an entire cornucopia of giggles, snorts, surprised squeaks and snickers. 

Max lifted the bot’s hat back up so he could see him, Eclipse hiccuping through giggles and snorts. 

“Y-youhoohoohoo snort meheheanie hic heheheheee…” 

MXES gave him a smirk, his fingers moving and wiggling toward Clipse’s face and rays. Eclipse froze seeing the big hands getting closer. 

“W-wahait! No no no! Max please! Not the rays! NYAHAHAT THE RAHAHAHAYS SNORT SNORT EEEEHEHEHE YOU BUHUHUHULLY SNORT HIC AHAHAHAHEHEHE!”

Eclipse’s rays wobbled in place, some shrinking back. When one would shrink back Max would go for another only for that one to shrink back too. 

“Ohohokay! Okah*hic*aHAHAY! MaHAHAax, no snort mohore! No moOHOHORE mahax!”

With that, the security program pulled away and let the attendant breathe and calm down. 

“Hehehe..ohoho stahars…you ahare s-suhuhuch a sneheaky bunny…”

Again, Max pointed to the corners of his mouth and slid his fingers up. 

“Hehe, yes I feel much better. Thank you friend…” 

The glitchy rabbit gave a nod, patting his head and hat. 

Eclipse chuckled and sighed as he stood up. 

“I guess I should let Sun and Moon know I’m alright…I’m sure I worried them..” 

Max nodded, giving the bot’s side a quick prod. 

“Eep! Okahahay okay! I know it isn’t my fault.” He took a deep breath and sighed with a smile. 

“We’ll get through this…” Eclipse then waved to MXES. “Thank you again MXES, I’ll see you later!”

MXES nodded and disappeared to get back to his security job. Eclipse hooked the wire and flew back down to the daycare floor. 

“Clipsey! We know you aren’t the happiest about the kids not comin…but-BUT we want you to know it’s not your fault, okay?” Sun frowned. 

“The kids would’ve loved you…don’t beat yourself up for any of this.” Moon added. Eclipse looked between them and chuckled, surprising the twins. 

“Wha-what’s funny..?” Sun asked. 

“It’s okay guys…I’m not as upset about it as I was then. I know it’s not my fault. It still hurts that I won't be able to play with the kids…but maybe something will change! I still have you two, and we got Max…with you three in my life? I’ll be happy. And we’ll figure something out together…” 

Sun and Moon blinked at each other. Then turned to their elder brother and smiled. 

“Yeah…we’ll be fine as long as we’re together.” Moon smiled softly. 

“Like family’s meant to be!” Sun cheered. 

Eclipse nodded in agreement, hugging both his brothers. 

“Just as family’s meant to be..” he repeated, happy to have such a thing during such a dark time. 

He was going to be okay. They all were. 

[emeryhiro]

I over analysed the new TBOC Teaser and Sneak Peek

There's so much to cover here, and I'm so happy right now because of all the content we've gotten today! I'm going to focus the analysis on the new things we see in the teaser and trailer since many of the things shown today have already been discussed on here many times.

So please grab yourself a cup of tea or your morning coffee and bear with me through this post. It might be a little long, but I'd love to hear your takes on my timeline theory at the end. ♡

The Teaser

I'm starting with the teaser because that's what I got to see first.

Firstly, we see in the below photo that Daryl has finally gotten himself some arrows, which means we're finally going to see him with a bow (excluding that one time he used a crossbow in twd:dd 01x02). These definitely don't look like crossbow bolts, which implies that this shot is pre-reunion.

I also want to break down the dialog here:

Isabell: Tell me a story Daryl: There was this guy, he left home looking for something, and he couldn't get back.

I'm focusing on the part where he said "he couldn't get back" because he didn't say "he didn't go back" or "he didn't want to go back"; he said he couldn't; he's not there by choice.

~~~~~~

Secondly, we have this shot of Carol and her crew on a mountaintop. What stands out here is that it's not just her (on the right) and Ash (on the left); there are two other people there with them (middle).

Making notes of who these people are, here's a breakdown of what we can see about them.

There are two people.

First one: seems shorter with longer brown/black hair and wearing a beige coat.

Second one: seems taller, shorter auburn hair and wearing a black coat with a faux fur collar.

Unlike Carol and Ash, neither of them is visibly holding a weapon.

Also unlike Carol and Ash, they both seem to have bags/supplies.

They must trust each other at this moment because Carol and Ash don't seem to have their weapons drawn or their guards up.

The last three points make me think that the two in the middle might be locals from wherever they've landed in France and are helping them find their way. Additionally, to the local's guess, there's no way that the plane (image/model below) C/A flew in could have fit more than 2 people.

Beechcraft S35 Bonanza:

~~~~~~

Next, we see Carol (looking amazing as always) holding/shooting the crossbow, killing the walker we see below.

What's interesting here is that this walker is covered in moss and what looks like fungus growing out of it, which would happen to walkers who have been around water and/or in humid environments. The walker is also wearing winter clothing, which aligns with the snowy mountains in the background.

The only other place I remember seeing a walker like this, in France, was on the way to Normandy Beach, where Daryl looked over at the walker that had similar moss on it with trees growing through it; however, if I had to guess I'd say that's not relevant to the location of this new scene.

If the filming location accurately reflects the actual location of Carol/Crew, based on the surroundings and lake in the above shots, my best guess is that they are near the French Alps, somewhere around the area highlighted in red, OR the Spanish Alps highlighted in blue, since the rest of France is relatively flat and does not feature any large mountain scapes like we see in the photos.

It is also possible that these photos of Carol and Ash in the mountains are pre-France, set in the US while they were planning their departure via plane, with the only reason being that I don't think I've seen any photos of Carol or Daryl with the crossbow in France (that we know for sure were set in France). However, I'm still leaning towards it being in France because I don't see why Carol couldn't have taken the crossbow with her if they managed to take the rifle along.

Carol is later seen in a clip at Chantier Naval de la Passagère (purple mark on map), placing her right next to Daryl/Crew at Mont Saint-Michel (green mark on map).

~~~~~~

The Sneak Peek

The first thing to note with the sneak peek is that it looks like these images from the first teaser (below)...

are not at the same location as Daryl/Crew fighting in the sneak peak (below).

Another thing to note that's different is the people present with Daryl during each fight, which brings me to the next thing I've noticed.

~~~~~~

When the back of the truck is opened in the sneak peek, we see three people sitting in the back. After playing with the image a little bit, it becomes a little easier to guess who we're looking at.

To me, it appears that it's Fallou and Emile on the right, and the guy on the left resembles the man highlighted in the image below (from the first teaser).

All of this leads me to believe that somehow/somewhere, Fallou, Emile, and the ??? Man are taken by Genet and her people. This would explain Daryl's desperation during the sneak peek fight to stop Genet/Crew and get to whatever/whoever is in the back of the truck.

However, it gets a little complicated with how the timeline of these two fights relates to the below scene with Carol/Fallou/Codron.

I have two theories about how the timeline can go, but for now I'm just going to break down the one I think is the most feasible.

Firstly, we know that Fallou and Emile leave Daryl/Crew in 01x06, potentially heading back to Paris. On their way, they run into Codron, who's been badly hurt/tortured by Genet, along with Carol, who has tracked Daryl to Paris at this point.

From here, after resting, resupplying, and with the new information that Codron and Fallou gave her about Daryl's whereabouts and what he's been going through to try and get back to her, Carol leaves the Paris group and heads out to resume her search for him.

Sometime after Carol leaves Paris, the Paris group/base could have been attached, leading to Fallou, Emille, and ??? Man being captured.

This leads us to the fight we see in the sneak peek between Daryl/Crew and Genet/Crew, which results in Fallou/Emile/??? Man being rescued and joining up with Daryl and the Nest Crew again.

Here's where I think it gets interesting: Now that Fallout is back with Daryl, he tells him everything he knows about Carol, how they ran into her, how she's been looking for him, and how, right before the attack on that Paris base, she left to resume her search for him.

This would light a fire under Daryl, realising how much danger she could be in because the areas between Paris and Mont Saint-Michel are swarming with Genet's men, and Carol could very likely be unknowingly walking into an ambush that wasn't meant for her.

Knowing that Carol is somewhere between Paris and Mont Saint-Michel, Daryl can now easily track her to Maison Mere, where she happens to be trapped in a car with Ash, surrounded by walkers (image below).

This leads us to the scene from the first teaser, where we see Daryl, Fallou, Isabell,??? Man, and a few others from the Nest, are searching through what we've said appears to be Maison Mere.

In the first teaser, We see the walkers surrounding Carol's car get killed by something/someone that's not visible to us, other than the lone hand we see on the back of the windshield, which we have all agreed strongly resembles Daryl's (image below).

Leading us to our long-awaited life-changing reunion!!

Thank you so much for sticking with me and getting through this post ♡. I really hope reading it made sense like it did in my head.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on any of the above and specially on things that I've missed.

I'm so happy we'll have Caryl back in a few short months!!! Our wait is almost over ♡♡♡

[sunseed-leaf]

art dump timeee

lots of pokemon stuff i hope you like it :) this is a looooooooooong post

Originally these were just design mashups, at least, that was the plan for my "redesigns"... but it really made me realize how little they change Red throughout the generations. hence why he looks VERY similar to his canon design, i just added some things i guess. for Blue i could go absolutely ham with things i wanted in his design since there's so much to choose from. the fang idea comes from my friend. also, these are pretty much used for an AU based off of the RG project romhack by @shima-draws (i hope tagging is okay aaa) bc i played it with my friend and we really liked it and it converted him into a pokemon fan and namelessshipper :) In the end we made our own AU based off of it because other characters got thrown into it. we're continuing the timeline in soul silver :p

Here's a design for Leaf, she's Red's sister in my headcanon, i again went for the design mashup thing so that's why she looks like a mashup of Green and Leaf. i don't have much to say here....

Then there's some designs i can't show but it's for the reason that they are just human + trainer versions of sonic exes (not joking, i wish i was. my friend dragged them into our mini-roleplays, only two and they were Red's traveling companions and later Kris's too.)

Then here's a redesign inspired by other Daisy designs. dunno why but i just wanted her to be pink....

Eepy...

even more eepies....

then i made some silly redesigns/design mashups for Ash and Gary

And drew Red and Blue in alola. married dudes -w- Just in general my headcanon is that Red collects keychains, he probably has boxes worth of keychains and puts different ones on his bag every day, he even did this as a child he just didn't stop even into adulthood. Still a kid at heart with his silly keychains more headcanon rambles: Blue hates the cold but loves the warmth and Red loves the cold and hates the warmth. please put him into a freezer he can't handle the heat of alola- also yeah i know i messed up the number on Red's shirt, i learned how to draw 96 after this, i promise

And now we get to Pokemon Soul Crystal,,, which is just pokemon soul silver but with a patch that makes Lyra into Kris lol

Here she is!! i tried incorporating some bits from Lyra and her comfy outfit is based off of Gold i swear i love Kris's design in canon, the hair is a lil funky tho so i made the pigtails a bit shorter and poofier

then we got Silver here... again not much change, i love his design, i just wanted to add some moon details bc why not

I'll batch these together! here's some redesigns for the OG trio for Soul Crystal

Blue is supposed to look like he's been crying (sorry Blue :C) Red just makes me think of pokepastas im sorry, once he gets off mt. silver he'll get a haircut. Leaf is just. i dunno, i don't really know how to characterize her... she cares a lot about people but she's kinda bitchy about it. tough love i guess.. I think after soul crystal is over i'll get working on an continuation of that that isn't tied to a game where she gets more of an important role so i can work on her character. Blue is wearing lots of reds/warmer tones cause why not and Red is supposed to wear lots of blues/colder tones to give a little bit of a connection i guess.

Now, here's the final drawing before i show shitpost stuff, this was drawn with a drawing tablet rather than a mouse like usual

lines are a little funky but i like how this looks, i just need a bit more practice, i'm rusty on drawing with a pen

and now, shitpost:

i love Cinder the Typhlosion,,,, he's so cute

i know this is at the top of the post but i wanna put this here again and credit the idea for this: here.

that's all, goob bye i'll go back into hibernation

[sonkitty]

The Sideburns Scheme Post #9

(For reference: The Sideburns Scheme)

This post was last updated 09/05/2024.

Crowley, Good Omens 2, Episode 1, The Arrival, fragile existence

I heard David Tennant got a BAFTA nomination for his portrayal of Crowley in Good Omens 2! Yay! He did such a good job. Congrats Mr. Tennant! You're awesome!

I don't really have anything else to add, so I am moving on with the rest of the post...

Some images below are brightened as I see fit to help show things better.

...

Sideburns Check

The sideburns are shorter than they were in the previous scene with Gabriel. Their length best matches the length found in the park. That would be short but not quite the intended shortness after driving for enough time.

As noted in the main sideburns post, this reading recognizes Crowley as a supernatural entity but still giving something shorter than longer reading around other angels. Most likely, that's because Crowley and Aziraphale are supernatural friends whose relationship is very similar to human partners.

...

Brighter Red Streak Check

While the previous scene wanted to show the streak more clearly for most of the scene, this one does not. It wants anyone looking to look really hard.

There are a number of places where I think the hair is more red and hesitate, at this point thinking it is largely absent.

If it is there, it may have moved to the right side of Crowley's head. Here is an image of what I mean:

In motion without checking frame by frame, and just watching the scene a few times, it looks more plausible on that right side of the head in a few other cuts.

I definitely cannot find a more saturated red streak right before Crowley leaves the room and says, "You're on your own with this one." That's an angle where it can usually be found.

My theory goes that the streak is an after-effect of a Big Miracle performed either on Sunday at midnight or a previous timeline. So, this scene could be a mix of both Saturday and Monday or it could be that previous timeline.

I still can't quite get the pieces to line up in a way I understand, but that's my general guess from the story's clues.

...

Hairstyle Changes

Crowley's hair is erratic here, suiting his frustrated mood.

...

The sideburns are shorter than the previous scene with Gabriel. Instead of a tidy collected swoop, he has curls going up from his forehead that actually change how they curl during this scene itself.

When Crowley closes the door, his hair has two visibly thicker curls going down, then curving up toward his left back inward, ending either in the center above his left eye.

When Crowley is thinking they "just take him somewhere and leave him there", the curls go up and out from the center creating a V-like shape.

When Crowley is talking about "exactlys", the curling of his hair above his right eye is going up in and back, much like the hair more centered and above his left eye, instead of parting away from the center of his forehead like the description above. It has a stronger resemblance to the style when he encountered Gabriel than the other styles in this scene. I think Crowley looks best in that particular cut and the ones most similar to it, for the scene.

...

Earthly Objects

(For reference: Earthly Objects)

Crowley touches the door frame on the way in, but his fingers aren't shown. Due to hand mechanics being so complex, I'm not sure what it counts for, regarding earthly objects or thresholds. I tend to assume the threshold-only touches are in the Threshold Tricks with a notable exception being when Crowley agrees to loan the car through how he touches the car's thresholds. At that point, he is allowed to do that because of his actively known but unseen pocket touch, I assume anyway. The audible slap on Aziraphale's hand before such touches on the car thresholds might count for something too.

Well, here Crowley does make a small pocket with his hand, including his thumb, even if digits get blurry as he lets go. So, I would guess it's either an earthly object touch or a null touch.

As noted in a previous post, this time Crowley actually fully crosses a threshold first with Aziraphale close behind him. He generally doesn't lead when it comes to locations outside the bookshop; Aziraphale does. The door isn't closed until Aziraphale has passed by him though, now that I think about it.

As Aziraphale enters, his reflection can be found in a push plate on the door. It's mainly his arm that is most visible though there is technically some of a blurry hand. Aziraphale visibly crosses past Crowley, so this action could be a ridiculously complex assist for whatever is necessary for the Tied Hands. I'm not sure if the Tied Hands need re-tying because if they do, I think the process is being drawn out in some special way until Crowley lets the smoke hit him later with his lightning. They'll do some things shown shortly.

Crowley makes pockets with his arms due to placing his hands on his hips. Admittedly, with the left arm, it is an assumed pocket because I can't find an actual gap showing what is behind him. I just know a pocket is there because of the lighting. Nonetheless, he touches his jacket with his thumb joints. He's very particular about his jacket touches when it comes to pocket trickery, especially the thumb joints. Part of an actual door is visually in the pocket for Crowley's right arm and torso.

The tie strands switch when Crowley closes the door:

I can see his shadow on the door itself. Shadows show up in The Pocket Trick as if to allow leniency through stretching or sharing or some other word I can't place. I suspect shadows are significantly what helps Aziraphale reach for and keep his Green in the Rainbow Connection during The Door Catch.

Getting back to the tie strands, they pop out off Crowley's chest to make a pocket at least twice:

In each of those times, there is something resembling more switching happening.

Crowley makes a pocket with his shoulder, left arm, and left hand when he emphasizes the word "him" for saying Gabriel needs to be nowhere near Crowley. Part of his watch is visible.

Knowing Crowley, the left hand and watch are up to something here too:

The main earthly object touch of the scene is at the end when Aziraphale sits in a chair. For this one, Aziraphale's back actually does touch the chair.

Regarding dialogue, Aziraphale says Crowley's name. Otherwise, there is the name of a place, Dartmoor, and a title for Gabriel with Supreme Archangel of all Heaven. Titles seem to be acceptable as name alternatives. There are several questions, probably most notable of which is, "What does your exactly mean exactly?"

Edit, addition as of 09/05/2024:

As an addendum some months after making post, I have tried to study retying and the activation of the Belt Head. This scene is well beyond me in that regard, but I have picked up on a few other details I would like to add for the overall log.

Overhead Lights tend to go that left-side Overhead Lights are for demons, and right-side Overhead Lights are for angels. When Crowley and Aziraphale enter, their heads pocket the lights that reverse this understanding. The lights are to Crowley's right and Aziraphale's left. After passing these lights, Aziraphale's hand reflection can be found in the push plate of the door.

Then, during the scene, Overhead Lights for actual heads are avoided. However, there is partially open door with a push plate that sometimes gets visual touches over it during the scene, including the heads sometimes. It's not an Overhead Light, but it seems to serve some function in the mechanics with the lacking Overhead Lights, especially for Crowley's actual head.

Meanwhile, Crowley's belt is hidden for almost the entire scene. The top of the Belt Head can be found early in this one particular cut:

It's easy to miss. I only caught it because of how thorough I am being overall in my notes.

That cut is also the first of when the unlit lamp to Crowley's left is showing its pole stand that has a mildly reflective surface.

This lamp seems to act as the Belt Head's Overhead Light in a scene that very much avoids Overhead Lights for Crowley's actual head.

For the part where I said I thought Crowley's left hand and watch were up to something, I suspect that is a retying. I'm a little unsure due to how the thumb joints are managed, but various little clues still suggest that to be the case, especially with the watch and left index finger being so overt in action.

...

Story Commentary

Crowley is only in this room twice during the season and with Aziraphale both times. It is the most private space we see for the two of them though Muriel intrudes in episode 3.

The lighting in this scene favors Crowley's right side, instead of his left. As such, his left sideburn looks to have more hair to increase its fullness compared to other scenes when the lighting favors Crowley's left side.

There are some cuts where a lightning imprint seems to appear in Crowley's forehead. I can sometimes spot it in other cuts during the story too. He'll be shooting out lightning later in the episode.

There are moments where I think Aziraphale sees the lightning imprint too.

Here is a picture. I've indicated these imprints in red rectangles instead of white since his lightning will be red.

...

Crowley emphasizes the word "fragile". When we eventually see Crowley summoned to Hell, I take that particular scene as a way to show his meaning. He'll be there, reluctantly, and having to manage his own movement carefully in the process.

One of Crowley's points in the argument is that Gabriel is not their friend. Other parts of the story imply he and Gabriel were friends or have some further personal history together, so that might be another part of his distraught emotions on display in the scene.

Crowley doesn't bring up the possibility of Gabriel falling, but it is something he himself has experienced so that might be an understated and even unconscious fear.

When Crowley walks past Aziraphale to start to leave, there is a hiss type sound effect. Crowley uses a demonic hiss three times when removing his sunglasses later. Otherwise, he has this hiss when preparing to leave the room in anger and another in episode 3 where he is not angry at all. In episode 3, that hiss seems to mean something more like a friendly, "Follow me."

The red on the back of the collar on Crowley's jacket can be found in this scene more obviously than it usually can:

Even though the room is a private setting, there is a partially open door visible in the background during the scene.

Both characters have understandable views of the situation they've found themselves in, so I'm not particularly in favor of one over the other on their points in the argument.

I have an overall obvious bias for Crowley in general though.

...

That's it for this post. Sometimes I edit my posts, FYI.

The next intended post is very important because game tutorials are on the way! By that, I mean the tutorials are from the story, not me.

...

Main post:

The Sideburns Scheme

...

Past version of this post:

Post #9 (fragile existence)

[pokelolmc]

The Ultimate Enemy is a Disappointment (and How I'd Fix It) (Part 3)

Happy holidays, everyone! Welcome to part three of my analysis on The Ultimate Enemy. If you want to check out the previous parts, you can start at part 2.5 and go backwards. After this, there's only two...maybe 2.5....more to go! To make up for the long waffle on why the "Dan is a fusion" plotline doesn't work, this one's relatively shorter.

(Part 2.5), Part 3, (Part 4)

This one is about the issues with the episode's time travel. To be honest, I couldn't find much to say about it logistically because it was so vague/poorly defined. I have more to say about the time-travelling characters and their decision-making, which will be part four.

Problems with the Time Travel:

The events leading to Dan’s timeline only happen in the episode because of the very time travel used (in an attempt) to prevent them

The episode never actually shows us how Danny’s tragedy started in the alternate timeline itself, outside of Vlad’s flashback of what happened at his castle. But that was the very end of the chain of dominoes that led to Dan. However, we do get to see the alleged events leading up to that play out in the main timeline (before Clockwork saves Danny’s loved ones)—as part of the episode’s plot. The only problem is, the way it happens in the main timeline was only possible because of time travel.

(Clockwork is literally the only reason this happened)

In the main timeline, Danny’s alleged cheating—the first major event in the alternate timeline—only happened because Clockwork set it up. He wanted to give Danny a “moral test” of some sort. And it only happened, logistically, because he sent Boxed Lunch back into the past to attack Danny.

Then he sent back Skulktech, which facilitated the trio hitching a ride to his tower and getting access to the alternate future. Which facilitated Dan realising that his creation was in jeopardy and coming back into the past to cheat in Danny’s place.

The second major event, the Nasty Burger explosion, also only happened because of time travel. Arguably, in order for Danny to go to Vlad (assuming he went un-coerced/of his own choice), everyone that was there had to die. At least one survivor would’ve enough to change his fate.

If he still had Jazz, for example—they could’ve been moved into an orphanage or with Aunt Alicia or some sort of temporary care but (hopefully) still at least had each other. Sam and/or Tucker surviving would’ve given Danny social support and an external voice of reason against going to Vlad. At least one of his parents surviving…that’s a no-brainer—he doesn’t leave their care.

But in the episode, Danny’s parents and Lancer were only at the Nasty Burger because Dan time travelled back and cheated on the CAT in Danny’s place. Sam and Tucker were only there because of their own time travel (they learned of their deaths in the future, and came to the NB to warn everyone), and Jazz because of Dan’s (she came to warn everyone “Danny” was an impostor).

The episode makes these events specific consequences of time travel. There’s no indicator of whether Danny would’ve come up with cheating on the CAT/getting the answers without Clockwork’s prompting, or just given up and flunked the test in frustration (and Danny failing the test couldn’t have led to the parent-teacher meeting at the NB because the results wouldn’t have been out yet). While you could argue Sam and Tucker have reason to be at the Nasty Burger without Dan (because they hang out there regularly), Jazz doesn’t really have one…unless I guess she wanted in on the parent-teacher conference…? Why?

But even then, the newspaper article in the alternate timeline implied that Danny, his loved ones and Lancer were the only ones caught in the explosion (they died and Danny was the “sole survivor”). So that means no one else was at the Nasty Burger.

The explosion happened on a school day, in the afternoon/evening after school, with all of them having a different reason to be there and there was no one else at the restaurant? Not even any staff?

In that case, it’d have to be closed…but it was only closed in the main timeline because of the smaller explosion from the Boxed Lunch fight. And if another previous Nasty Sauce incident somehow closed it early in the alternate timeline, that means Sam and Tucker had no reason to be at the Nasty Burger for the explosion. Why go hang out when it’s closed?

I guess we just have to assume there was some other offscreen reason that they happened in the alternate timeline, with little prompting or explanation…but I still argue that if Danny cheated of his own volition in the alternate timeline, then Clockwork shouldn’t have given Danny the answers in the main one—and the "what could've been" in the alternate timeline would’ve been the better/more compelling story to tell. And Danny’s loved ones lining up for the explosion just feels…it feels like it’s busted there. Without the time travel seen in the main timeline, it just couldn’t happen the way the episode said it did. But the episode can’t be a time loop (where the time travel happened in the alternate timeline) because it would’ve been broken at the end.

Unfortunately, I don't have any real ideas on what to do about this except for my now-repeated insistence of Danny steals the answers of his own volition and gets to finish cheating. And there's probably some way to change the circumstances of the explosion/whatever kills Danny's loved ones so everyone has a reason to be there without time travel.

2. The Boo-merang shouldn’t be able to reach Danny in the alternate future because it didn’t time travel. It could even potentially risk a time paradox.

The Boo-merang takes Jazz’s message from the present-day events of the episode (main timeline) to Danny in the Ghost Zone of alternate future, without using any time travel. Instead, it simply waits the long way around. It seems clever and creative at first glance, but it doesn’t actually make sense.

The Boo-merang’s ten-year wait to reach Danny runs simultaneously to the school day, the CAT and the final fight at the Nasty Burger, which differ from the events that led to Dan’s birth. By the time the Boo-merang had only been in the Ghost Zone for a few hours, Danny’s loved ones would’ve been saved and the future it was headed to would’ve been/become non-existent. Reaching Danny’s destination in Dan’s timeline would’ve been impossible. He never would’ve gotten the letter.

How it’d affect the timeline/events of the episode if Danny didn’t get Jazz’s letter…well…it depends. All Jazz’s letter did was remind him of Vlad, so it’s still possible he could’ve figured it out on his own if given more time. Jazz’s letter not arriving would just remove the guarantee that Danny found Vlad. Assuming that he could’ve eventually thought of Vlad on his own, or found someone in the GZ to help him remove the Time Medallion, there’s still a chance he could get back to the past without Jazz’s letter, Vlad or the Ghost Gauntlets. But that leaves a problem:

Without Vlad, he never would’ve heard about Dan’s backstory. He’d have watched his loved ones die (or been sent back to the past by Dan, in the aftermath of their deaths) and been liable to follow the path to Dan’s existence (not knowing that he had to avoid going to Vlad and the fusion). However, that would’ve created the alternate future, resulting in the Boo-merang’s destination in the future existing in the main timeline, and being able to reach Danny just by waiting. Danny would’ve then found his way to Vlad, and resulted in an eventual victory over Dan (and avoiding the alternate future) as per the episode’s ending (making the Boo-merang unable to reach its destination again). This creates a time paradox.

I'm not really sure what to do about this. It was what the writers set up the Boo-merang for (outside of outing Dan to Jazz because it doesn't react to his ectosignature) and it feels like they were really trying to be clever. I feel like you'd have to give Jazz some other role in the story. Maybe Dan brought a Time Medallion back as his only way of accessing the past (stolen from Sam/Tucker, instead of canon where he seems to just open a portal to the past??) and she gets a hold of it? I don't know I'm just spitballing here.

[amethystfairy1]

Hihi! I just wanted to say I absolutely adore both of your fics sooooo much! The way you write all the characters is amazing :D. I was just wondering do you have any advice or tips for people looking to get into fic writing? And quick q about travelling thieves! We know that mumbo has met pearl but if Grian and Pearl were to meet would they even recognise one another? Anyway your work is incredible and I cant wait to see what you do for the rest of febuwhump!

Hello, hello! ✨

I'm so glad you enjoy my fics and characters!

Tips to get into fic writing? Hmm...I mean, I know it's probably said a lot, but my biggest advice is don't be afraid to start. The first fic you ever write won't be perfect, it'll be far from that, and you've just gotta be ok with that. The best thing you can do is start, write something and post it, see what people think, see what you liked and didn't like about it...then do it again!

As far as like...actual advice, I'd say participate in a writing challenge! Like Febuwhump which is going on right now! 😆 It'll force you to take a prompt, make something of it, post it quickly and then move on. You'll end up with a big chunk of fics and feedback on at least some of them I'm sure, and you can go from there! Also you'd be surprised what sort of storylines might accidentally form during a writing challenge...Traveling Thieves came out of my Whumptober prompts from last year, after all!

My last bit of advice would be to not start with a long fic. By that what I mean is don't try to write some huge overarching narrative...start with something smaller.

Your favorite ship needs to get together, who asks who out? How did that go? What was their first date like? What about their first kiss? How long did it take for them to say 'I love you'? That's like four or five short fics right there. 😛

The reason I write my AU's the way I do is because of stuff like this. It's scary writing a long fic (trust me I've done it a ton of times) because once you bypass a certain point in the story, you can never go back. The fun thing about my AU's being a series of short stories is that I can always bounce up and down the timeline! If you've been keeping up with TTSBC you can see it! I wrote Flower Husbands all the way up to Scott knowing about Jimmy's wings and consistently spending the night at his apartment. They've fought, they've said 'I love you', Scott has been to the under-city and met Jimmy's parents...but I suddenly felt like writing more details about their early game relationship! Before Scott know Jimmy's big secret, before they'd said 'I love you' or anything like that...so guess what? I did just that! I wrote 'Karma Witch' and 'Lovestruck Baby' after I'd written fics like 'Gutterline Sunshine' because that's the greatest part of this set up! I can bounce around! I never get bored or stuck on one plot point because if I don't feel like working on it, then I don't have too! So if you're into worldbuilding and wanna create an AU to have your characters all exist in, I'd super super super recommend using the 'shorter stories in an interconnected series' format.

BONUS TRAVELING THIEVES QUESTION 🏃‍♀️

Pearl and Grian last saw each other when they were sold away form their colony at fifteen years old. It's been seven years since then, but considering they're twins and they were both already mostly grown before they were sold away? Yes. They would definitely recognize each other if they saw each other again. The problem would be if they'd allow themselves to admit they recognized each other...cut ties and forgotten names and all. 😭

I hope my rambling advice helped at least a little bit!

Thanks for coming by! 💖

[tropes-and-tales-archives]

More Precious Than Rubies: Part 6b

This is an alternate timeline story that has a Rafael Barba track and a Sonny Carisi track. The two paths split off in part 3.

WC: 6162

TW: Angst; family drama; smut (PiV, protected). 18+ only.

AN: The prompt was "I’m not good enough for you"

For the first time in a long time, you slept well, like you were in a bottomless ocean where no dreams could sink deep enough to find you.  When you finally woke up, it was an easy surfacing.  No jolt from nightmares or an alarm that came too early.

It was both new and familiar, being in Sonny’s arms again.  It felt like the old Sonny in some ways, like how his long limbs tangled with your own shorter ones.  Some of it was new though.  He smelled better – like he finally traded his cheap musky cologne for something more grown-up and sophisticated.

The other new thing?  His hands exploring your body.  Tentative at first.  Then he whispered in your ear, his voice husky with sleep, and asked if it was okay.  After you nodded and hummed your assent, his hands moved with more purpose.

It was new.  Sonny had always been frisky in the bedroom – joking and laughing.  It had always been good, but never exactly sensual or leisurely.

Now he was moving slower.  The insecure part of you wondered what woman he had been with, which woman taught him to move at a more relaxed pace.  Sonny must have felt your apprehension.  He leaned in and whispered to you again that he missed you and that he wanted to touch every inch of you to reacquaint himself.

“I’ve missed you,” he repeated. 

“I’ve missed you too,” you whispered back.

He just touched you over his own t-shirt, cupping your breasts so that you arched against his hand.  You were spooning, his bare chest to your back, and every time you pressed yourself into his hand, he’d pull you back to him.  You could feel him growing hard behind you, and you felt your pulse start to quicken.

Over your quickening heart rate, though, you felt a low panic start to build in the back of your skull.  It was a buzzing sort of feeling that you knew would wash over you if you didn’t handle it.  Sonny had never seen you have a panic attack, and you didn’t want to start a trend now.  You used to have it handled, under control, but as the pressures of your job had increased, the panic attacks had increased in lock-step.  Sometimes, more and more frequently, they were triggered by mundane things. 

Not that re-opening that door that you had slammed shut was mundane.  You felt the weight of letting Sonny back into your life keenly.

“Sonny,” you whispered, and he took it as a sign to keep going.  “Sonny, stop.”

He did, immediately.  “What’s wrong?”

You took a few deep breaths through your nose and willed the panic to settle.  Where did it come from?  You tried to scan your thoughts, but Sonny hit on it inadvertently.

“It’s too fast,” he guessed.  He removed his hand from your breast and wrapped it around your waist instead. 

“Maybe,” you murmured in reply.

“There’s no rush,” he said.  “We can take our time.  Get caught up.”  He paused, then added in a less certain voice, “if that’s what you want, I mean.”

You turned over in his arms so that you were on your back, gazing up at him in the faint dawn light.  “I do want that,” you told him, a little shy.  “If you do.”

The nervous look on his face disappeared as he smiled down on you, his trademark sunniness making the corners of his eyes crinkle.  His hair was ruffled, making him look younger than he was.  He leaned down and laid a closed-mouth kiss on you, then broke away and said, “there’s nothing I want more.”

********

Sonny was never exactly known for his patience, but he tried to exercise it now.  He never thought you’d speak to him again.  Maybe it was the wedding that did it – maybe when you’d dated him before, you had thought about marrying him, and maybe the wedding had stirred those feelings up.  

You had stopped him that morning before he had a chance to show you how much he’d really missed you, but he didn’t mind.  He could be patient.  You had been apart for over a year, after all.  A lot had changed since he’d last been with you, and he’d done such a poor job near the end, he was perfectly happy to just start all the way over. 

That’s what he proposed as you both checked out of the hotel together:  that he take you on a proper first date.  You had pressed your lips together as you thought about it – the longer you looked at things in the bright light of day, the more reticent you seemed.  But you finally agreed, and he made a date for the following weekend.

“But in the meantime, I’d like to take you to lunch?  Or coffee?” he asked, and he turned on his charm to it’s highest setting.  “Please?”

You couldn’t resist his smile – you never could.  That’s how he got you in the first place.  You grinned back at him.  “You can call my assistant and get my calendar,” you replied.

-----

Sonny parted ways with you on a Sunday morning, and he had plans with you for the following Saturday evening.  Only five full days between then and now.  He was going to make it perfect.

First thing Monday, he started calling in every favor he had, and he managed – by luck or karma or copious prayers to all the saints in heaven – to get a reservation for the newest, hottest restaurant to get a good review by the Times.  Then he sent you an extravagant bouquet of flowers to your office.  He’d never sent you flowers before.  He figured it was time he started.

He got your schedule from your assistant, so he was able to surprise you before work on Tuesday.  It was really early – only starting to get light outside – when you made your way into your office suite.  You were half-asleep on your feet, Sonny could see.  But your eyes widened when you saw him, and he didn’t miss the happy grin as it spread across your face.

“It’s so early,” you protested as he handed you a steaming cup of coffee from a nearby cafe.  “You shouldn’t have.”

“I should have,” he replied, and he watched you unlock your office.  You pushed the door open and gestured for him to come in too.

“You also shouldn’t have gotten me so many flowers,” you continued as you shed your coat and bag.  You turned to face him with a smile, pointing over your shoulder at the massive bouquet on your desk.  “I’ll get used to the smell and forget what this office usually smells like.”

“What’s that?”

“It smells like my high school,” you informed him.  “An old building that’s kind of mildewy, kind of dusty.”

“I’ll get you flowers every day then.”

You shook your head, still smiling.  “You don’t have to do that, Sonny.  These are beautiful though.”

He was pleased that you liked them – the bouquet was too big for your office, though.  He’d forgotten how small your space was.  He was used to Barba’s sprawling office with the leather couch and mahogany furniture.

“They’re not as beautiful as you,” he said earnestly, but you gave a surprised laugh and chucked him lightly in the shoulder.

“Is this who you are now?” you asked with a giggle that made his heart soar.  “You going corny on me, detective?”

He smiled back, but he told you about the plans for Saturday, casually dropping the name of the restaurant where he scored a coveted reservation.  You looked at him in disbelief.

“You didn’t have to go to all that effort,” you told him.  “All you need to do is bring more corny lines.”

He leaned in to kiss you on your cheek before he left.  “Doll,” he told you from your doorway.  “I’ve got nothing but corny lines.”  It made you laugh, and hearing it buoyed Sonny for the entire horrible day at SVU.

********

Time as a public defender was wonky.  Sometimes a day dragged, but the week flew by.  Sometimes a trial was over before you knew it – but the waiting to get on the docket felt like an eternity.

Your week was like that.  Sometimes you’d put your head down to focus on the pile of work on your desk, and the day would disappear in a blink.  Other times, you’d look up at your clock, assuming that hours had passed when it had only been a few minutes.

Sonny’s reappearance kept you on your toes.  The impending date on Saturday night kept your anxiety at peak levels:  what if, after the date, he changed his mind and decided that he didn’t want to be with you?  What if you had changed too much?  You knew that your job was wearing on you and not in good ways.  Your temper was shorter, your sleep was poor, and your patience was shot.  You weren’t quite the friendly, optimistic person you had been.  You didn’t feel like the person who Sonny had addressed in his letter to you.

The days leading up to Saturday didn’t help.  Sonny was going out of his way to be perfect, you realized.  Which made you feel more pressure to be perfect.  You always felt a panic attack threatening on the horizon.

But you couldn’t deny that seeing him – when he dropped off coffee, when he snagged you for a quick lunch – made your stomach do the same pleasant flip-flops they did when you’d first met him in law school, at a night out bowling. 

And Sonny seemed so certain.  Maybe that had been a change for him since you’d broken up – a new sense of assuredness.  When you dated, he was always vacillating about his job and the law degree and minor family drama and the like.  Now he seemed confident.

At least one of you was.

-----

You just worked from home on Saturday, burying your jitteriness under your caseload.  You set an alarm, just to be sure, and when it went off in the late afternoon, you sighed and pushed your work aside to get ready.  You were a riot of conflicting emotions, but right now, the dread was oversized.

You showered, then fussed about what to wear.  Sonny had managed to snag reservations at the restaurant of the moment, so your usual fit-and-flare dresses weren’t going to cut it.  You finally settled on a deep blue sheath dress, subtly sexy but classic.  You dressed it up with more makeup than you usually wore, hair actually down and styled instead of just twisted into your usual chignon.  You finished it off with a pair of impractical stilettos that were just high enough to almost make you as tall as Sonny.  Almost.

You were putting the finishing touches on your makeup when you heard a knock at your door, and your stomach turned.  You weren’t sure if it was that dread again or anticipation of seeing Sonny.  Both, possibly.

When you opened your door, Sonny was standing there, looking like a vision in his best navy blue suit.  He had another massive bouquet of flowers in his hand – this time, deep red roses.  And he had his trademark smile that always made you smile in return.

“You look gorgeous,” he said as he stepped into your place.  He gave it an appraising look – you had moved into this apartment after you’d broken up with him, and this was his first time here.  “I like your place,” he added.

“Thanks.  And…thanks,” you said, awkward.  He looked amazing, and he’d strode in with that new, confident air he had.  It made your own insecurity feel even more apparent.  He handed you the flowers, and you murmured a third “thanks” as you went to find a vase.

Once they were in water and sat on your table, Sonny asked if you were ready.  You swallowed hard and nodded, and he held out his hand.  You grabbed your coat and purse and then took his hand, and he led you out of your building and to his waiting car.

********

Sonny had ignored the early signs that the night was going to start poorly.  When he arrived at your place to pick you up, you had looked a little green under your makeup, like you were sick, but he thought it might just be the lighting in your place.  When he took your hand, he ignored how cold and clammy it was in his own.

On the ride back to Manhattan, he ignored how uncharacteristically quiet you were, not talking much, but how you seemed to be taking deliberate breaths through your nose so that you sounded like a small, chuffing steam engine.

Then, at the restaurant, disaster hit:  Sonny’s reservation got bumped by some actor asshole and his entourage.  Sonny could make them out past the hostess stand, a gang of unwashed looking hipsters, smirking at the other patrons trying to sneak pictures with their phones on the sly.

Sonny argued with the hostess, then asked to see the manager, but your hand was sweating in his and you just tried to tug him away.

“It’s fine, Sonny,” you said, and your voice sounded so small and strained that it broke his concentration.  He turned to look at you and saw that you looked even sicker now.  Through your clasped hands, he could feel you trembling, and when he peered into your eyes, he saw how your pupils were narrowed to near pinpoints.

“Hey,” he said.  He dropped your hand and put both of his own on your shoulders, turning to face you squarely.  “What’s wrong?”

You shook your head.  “Let’s just go somewhere else,” you replied.  Your voice was shaky, and he shifted a hand to cup your face.  You refused to make eye contact with him, so he took your hand again and led you out to the sidewalk and the chilly evening air.

“What’s wrong?” he repeated once you were both outside.  He watched as you took a bunch of deep breaths – too deep, the kind where you were trying to fill every inch of your lungs with oxygen, the kind that led to hyperventilating.  When you didn’t answer, he simply said, “let me take you home.”  Sonny didn’t know what was going on with you, but you were obviously upset.

Once back in his car, he stole glances over at you when he could.  Your head was bent, and your face was hidden by your hair hanging down.  Your hands were clenched into fists in your lap though, and over the sound of traffic, Sonny could just make out your quiet sniffles.  He wracked his brain for what might have changed between now and earlier in the week.  You had seemed excited to go out with him, and now…it had been a complete 180.

“Doll, whatever it is, you can tell me,” he tried, desperate to get you to talk to him.  “I’ve…I’ve got corny lines for you if you do.”

That, at least, drew a watery, breathless laugh from you, and Sonny found a spot near your apartment and parked.

As soon as the car was stopped, you reached for the door handle, prepared to bolt, but Sonny laid a hand on your knee to still you.  “Can I come up?”  He sounded anxious, wheedling, but he didn’t care.  He was bewildered by your unexpected mood, and he wanted to get to the bottom of it.  He was a detective, after all.

You bit your bottom lip so hard that it made him wince, but then you nodded your assent.  He killed the ignition and followed you into your place, a step behind, watching as you walked a little unsteady on your narrow heels.

Once inside your apartment, Sonny walked over to your couch and sat down, and he patted the cushion beside him.  “Sit down,” he said gently.  “Tell me what’s wrong.”

You did sit beside him, but you were already shaking your head, and when he tried to take your hand in his, you shook him off.

“Hey,” he started, but you cut him off.

“This was a bad idea,” you said, and your voice had a strained quality to it, like you were holding back tears.  “This isn’t going to work, Sonny.”

“Why?” he asked.  His stomach dropped, and his bewilderment grew.  He tried to think about what could have happened – he’d met you for coffee only yesterday, Friday morning, and everything seemed fine, you had smiled at him and let him kiss your cheek and…

“It’s been too long,” you said, and your words tumbled out of your mouth so fast that Sonny could barely keep up, so fast that he realized you’d been damming them until they spilled over now.  “Too long, Sonny, and you don’t know me anymore.  You don’t know me, you think you do but I’ve changed.  I’m different now.”  He watched you take a shuddering breath and saw the tears that were rolling down your cheeks now, and you continued.  “I’m not the person you wrote that letter to.  I’m worse.  I’m not a good person, I’m not…not nice anymore.  I lose my temper and I’m mean, and I have…have…uncharitable thoughts about my clients sometimes, and I’m tired all the time…”

“Hey,” he said.  He wrapped an arm around your shoulders and pulled you to him as you continued to babble against him.  “Doll, it’s okay…”

“It’s not.  Sonny, I’m not the girl you knew.”  You pushed away from him enough to gaze up into his face, and he looked into your eyes, brilliant with tears. 

“I’m not exactly the man you knew either,” he said.  “I’ve changed too.”

This set off a fresh wave of tears.  “You’re better, Sonny.  You’ve gotten better, and now I’m…I’m…n-not…”  You were crying so hard now that you were practically choking on the words.  “I’m not going to be enough for you now.  I’m not good enough for you.”

He made a helpless sort of clucking at this, and he pulled you back to him.  You struggled against him for a moment but then gave up, and Sonny realized with a start that you weren’t just crying and upset – you were having a full-blown panic attack. 

When had that started?  Had you always had them?  Were they a new development?

He pushed the questions aside.  For now, he just pulled you onto his lap so that you were huddled against him, sobbing but also pulling massive, ragged breaths through your crying and shaking so hard that his own teeth nearly chattered in sympathy.  He didn’t tell you that he knew you had changed, everyone did, and of course you were enough for him.  He could tell you all that later.

Now, he just held you close and hoped his arms around you felt reassuring.  Safe.  He felt the full force of your panic attack tearing through you, and he held you.  Then, after a very long while, he felt it taper off, then pass like a storm.  It left you limp against him, but your breathing steadied and he didn’t feel anymore tears.

When he felt that he could talk to you and that you would hear him, he murmured against your hair.  “I think you’re tired, and I think you need a good meal and a good night’s sleep,” he said.  “Do you have any groceries?”

You gave a feeble laugh at that question, and Sonny chuckled too.  “See?  You haven’t changed that much,” he continued.  “I bet your fridge is nothing but condiments and maybe a sad old head of lettuce in the crisper drawer.”

“It’s a bundle of kale, actually,” you sniffled against him.  “Or it used to be.”

Sonny drew his nose through your hair, breathing in the floral scent of your shampoo.  “Since when did you start eating kale?”

You pulled away to gaze at him.  Your eyelids were swollen, and your makeup was ruined and smeared around your eyes, making you look like a slightly deranged panda.  “Well, I didn’t eat it, obviously.  I was going to start making smoothies in the morning….”  You trailed off and gave him a sheepish smile and a shrug.

“I saw a store a few blocks away.  Why don’t you go get cleaned up and change into your pajamas?  I’ll go get some groceries and whip up dinner.  Does that sound okay?”

You sniffled against him.  “You don’t have to do that.”

He chuckled again.  “I’m Italian.  It’s my religion to feed people.”

********

When you first started college, years ago, you had gone on a blind date, some brother of a friend of a friend.  You had been nervous – it was your first date as an adult, and you had been flustered by what that meant.  Until then, dates had been at fast-food restaurants and movies and school-sanctioned dances. 

You had a panic attack that night too, and your date had been utterly exasperated by you.  He went to the bathroom at the restaurant and then never returned, leaving you with the bill and a racing heartbeat.

Tonight, at least, you had Sonny.  He was probably one of only a handful of men who had the patience to deal with a date night that had gone completely wrong.  The plan had been a fancy dinner at a hot new restaurant.  The reality was Sonny making ricotta gnocchi in your kitchen, his suit coat and tie shed and his sleeves rolled up as he diced chives and rolled out the dough.  His phone was on the kitchen counter, playing Sinatra like a stereotypical Italian-American, and he hummed along as he worked. 

For your part, he just made you put on comfortable clothes.  When you offered to help him cook, he winced and gave you a pained smile.

“I love you, but you’re a terrible cook,” he said.  “But if you want to help, you can throw out that kale in your fridge.”

Your heart did a little lunch at his casual “I love you,” but you stuck your tongue out at him and took care of your expired produce all the same.  Then you just leaned against the counter and watched him work.

Dinner ended up being the gnocchi with a homemade marinara sauce, and a Caprese salad as a side.  Sonny did that thing that you assumed all Italian grandmothers did – he apologized that it wasn’t elaborate – so you rocked onto your toes and kissed him gently, and you told him that it was perfect.  He poured you each a generous glass of pinot noir, and you both chatted about nothing in particular while you ate.

Sonny had been right.  A good meal did wonders.  You felt the residual panic – and the guilt and shame to have had a panic attack in front of Sonny – fade.  After you finished eating, you tried to clean up, but Sonny fussed at you, refilled your wine glass, and marched you to your couch to relax while he took care of the dishes.

When he eventually joined you with his own refilled wine glass, you were more relaxed then you had been in ages.  He sat beside you and turned to face you on the couch, and he reached out to take your free hand in his. 

“I’m really sorry about tonight,” you told him.  “I didn’t mean to fall apart like that.”

He shook his head slightly.  “You don’t have to apologize.”  A beat, and then he asked, “is this a new problem?”

You hesitated before answering.  When you had dated before, you had kept certain things from him.  It hadn’t been lying, exactly.  Lying by omission, maybe. 

“I’ve had panic attacks for a long time,” you told him, choosing your words carefully.  “I got them under control when I was in undergrad.  I didn’t really have them in graduate school.  When we dated.  But lately….”  You trailed off with a shrug.  “Work is harder than I thought it’d be.”

He nodded thoughtfully.  “And I didn’t help.”

You sighed and squeezed his hand.  “I’m just worried that I’ve changed too much.”  You took a deep breath and added, “and I’m worried that there are things you don’t know about me.”

He didn’t reply, but he squeezed your hand back, reassuring you.  You glanced up at his face – his eyes were the same bright blue as always, but he gave you a nod of encouragement.  You took another deep breath and continued.  You had thought about all the ways you could frame the issue, but you were nearly two glasses of wine deep, so you just blurted it out.

“My dad is in prison, Sonny.”

The look on his face was a myriad of different emotions – confusion, relief, and then, unbelievably, a smile.

“Sorry,” he said, dropping the small grin.  “I’m not…not smiling at that.  Definitely not.  I just was prepared for something a lot worse, when you said there were things I didn’t know about you.”

You grimaced.  “He’s in prison for rape and murder, Sonny.”

He grimaced at that, matching your own.  And he didn’t say anything for a long moment, and you felt your stomach clench in fear.  This was where he was going to leave you.  Rollins had told you once that Sonny liked projects – but your life – your family – wasn’t a project.  It was a full-blown disaster.  It qualified for FEMA relief, not just homemade cannoli and comfort.

He didn’t leave, though.  He just squeezed your hand again.  “Do you want to talk about it?”

You gave a humorless laugh before answering him haltingly.  “There isn’t that much to talk about.  He was arrested when I…when I was ten.  He was…uh, he had been dating her.  The victim, I mean.  My parents were divorced by then.”  You paused to polish off the rest of your wine and sat the empty glass down.  “The entire case was circumstantial.  Not that I knew that at the time.  But he…didn’t have money for a lawyer…”

“He had a public defender?” Sonny guessed gently.

You nodded.

“Not a very good one?” he guessed again.

Another nod.

“So he got railroaded, and that’s what spurred you to become a public defender.”  Sonny gazed at you sadly as he filled in the blanks.  “Why didn’t you ever tell me this before?”

You felt a sting of tears in your eyes.  “I wanted to.  I almost did once.  But you were in Homicide then, and you used to go on these rants about how the women victims you saw were always done up nice, like they were expecting it, and you called the men who killed them animals, monsters…”  You shook your head at him.  “I didn’t want you to judge me.  Or my dad.  Sonny, he didn’t do it.  He wasn’t…he made a lot of mistakes, but he wasn’t violent.  He’s one of the gentlest people…”

He dropped your hand and reached up to lay his palm against the side of your face.  “I wouldn’t judge you.”

“So you aren’t upset?”

He tilted his head at you, and you swore you could see his own eyes filming over with unshed tears.  “I’m upset that you couldn’t open up to me before.  That I didn’t make you feel safe enough to, I mean.”

“It’s not your f…”

“But you told me now, so maybe I’m doing better?”  He cut you off and sounded so heartbreakingly hopeful.  You tried to think back to when you’d first dated, why you hadn’t told him.  You had been afraid of his reaction, but that Sonny – the one from Homicide, the one who ranted about his job – wasn’t the same as the Sonny sitting beside you now.  This Sonny was tearing up and blaming himself….

You didn’t even think.  You surged forward and kissed him, hard enough that you could feel his teeth behind his kissable pink lips as you pressed your mouth to his.  He froze for only a split-second, and then he leaned into the kiss with a groan.

He fumbled his wine glass, placed it on your coffee table, and then he turned to face you completely.  You weren’t sure what his expectations had been at the start of the date, but now you were feverishly kissing each other, breaking away only to catch your respective breaths or groan that you had missed the other. 

His hands shifted from your face to your waist, and his fingers slid under the hem of your t-shirt to dance against your bare skin.  You moved your head, breaking away from his mouth so that you could kiss the sensitive spot on his neck that always drew an undignified squeal from him.  When he let out his usual squawk, you smiled against him.  He hadn’t changed that much after all. 

But he felt your lips curving against him, and he huffed in offense.  “Something funny?” he asked, and his voice was a low growl by your ear.

You answered him by laying a trail of open-mouthed kisses under his jaw to the other side of his neck, drawing tortured groans from him.  You had planned on taking a measured approach to a new, potential relationship, but you were rapidly losing control.  His hands were under your shirt, cupping your breasts almost shyly, carefully.  You could taste him as you kissed your way down to his loosened collar, and you could smell his new cologne, and his groans were nearly drowned out by your own pulse thudding in your ears.

“We can slow down,” he muttered thickly, so you pulled away to gaze at him.  His face was flushed, his cheeks a rosy pink, and his eyes seemed preternaturally blue. 

“Do you want to?” you asked.

He hesitated.  “I want whatever you want.”

You leaned into him, relishing the feel of his palms on you.  You put your mouth by his ear and whispered that what you wanted was him.

********

Sonny carried you into your bedroom, bridal-style, and he noted to himself that you were lighter than you had been a year ago.  He made a mental note to feed you up, make sure you ate better.

Now, though, his focus was on you, stretched across your bed with him on top of you, pressing you into the mattress with his weight.  He felt almost crazed with love and lust and wonder to be in your bed and to have you kiss him just as passionately as he kissed you.  He should have undressed you before laying you on the bed; instead, you each fumbled at each other’s clothing, revealing odd strips of naked skin and snaking hands underneath shirts and waistbands until you gave a frustrated growl and shoved him off of you.

“Take off your clothes,” you ordered him, your voice tight with lust, and he felt a curious bolt of desire at being ordered around.

“Yes, ma’am,” he answered.  He finished unbuttoning his shirt and pulled it off, but his motions slowed as he watched you pulled your own shirt over your head, revealing your naked breasts.  He reached a hand out, and you playfully slapped it away.

“Finish undressing, Dominick,” you told him, and you pushed your bottoms down and kicked them off.  You stood in front of him, just out of arms’ reach, your hands on your hips in a posture of impatience.

He unbuckled his belt and pushed his pants and underwear off in one motion, then struggled to kick them off his one ankle.  You snorted at him as he hopped on one foot and then the other as he pulled his socks off, but once he was completely naked, you reached for him and he was on you again.

He lifted you up and laid you back on the bed, and he crawled on top of you.  He wanted to take his time, kiss every inch of you, but you opened your legs and he settled into the cradle between your thighs.  He bit back a groan as his erection brushed against the unbearable wet heat of your core.

“Sonny, please,” you whimpered underneath him.  “Please take me.”

“Protection?” he asked, his voice husky with want.  You tilted your head and pointed with your chin at the bedside table, and he reached over to grope for the box of condoms.  They looked familiar.

“Are these the ones I had brought…from before?” he asked as he tore one from the foil strip. 

You gazed back at him, your face a little red, but you smirked up at him.  “Yes, those are yours, Dominick.”  You bit your lip, and added, a little shyly, “and if you count them, you’d know that I…haven’t used any since you left.”

He grinned down at you as he put the condom on, but he felt tears sting in his eyes again.  In your year apart, he had tortured himself with thoughts of you dating other people, sleeping with other people.  It hadn’t been jealousy (or mostly not jealousy); it was more like a melancholy sort of bleakness.  He had pictured you moving on from him.  But maybe you hadn’t.  Obviously you hadn’t:  you were with him now.

Sonny laid down on you again, and he looked you in the eyes.  “I haven’t been with anyone since you,” he said seriously.  “I went on one date, but I kept wishing she was you.”

You smiled up at him.  “I went on two dates, and they were all terrible.”

“We should probably just stick with each other then,” he teased, but he was dead serious under his lilting tone.  He reached down to cup your left breast and rub the pad of his thumb over your pebbled nipple. 

“Probably,” you said, and you started to add something else, but it was cut off with a gasp as his hand journeyed further southward to cup your mound and stroke his index finger against your slick crease.  He groaned as he sunk first one, then a second finger into you, twisting them inside you until you were panting against his ear.

“Please,” you whispered to him, and he removed his hand to grasp his cock and line it up with your entrance.  He pressed just the tip into you, and you responded by drawing one leg up beside him before wrapping it around his ass.

He went slowly, pushing himself in one torturous inch at a time, then pulling back before pushing more of himself into you.  He tried to read your facial expressions as a guide, but your eyes were shut and your head was turned from him.  It had always been like that with you:  you were perfectly comfortable being naked in front of him, but when you were joined, you avoided making eye contact, strangely shy at the intimacy of looking at him while he was inside you.

Maybe you were afraid of what he might see if he gazed into your eyes.  But you had opened up to him tonight, so Sonny reached up to cup your face, and he turned your head until you were facing him.  Your eyes stayed squeezed shut though.

“Look at me,” he murmured.  It took a moment, but you finally did.  Your pupils were wide with desire, and he held your gaze as he seated himself in you, buried to the hilt in your vice-like grip.  He let out a shaky breath that he had been holding, and he pressed a gentle kiss to your mouth before telling you how much he loved you.

“I love you too,” you whispered back, and Sonny’s heart soared to hear it.  You had always been reserved about saying those words too, but maybe that was another wall that was coming down.

He thrust into you slowly, carefully, enjoying every sigh and whimper he was able to pull from you.  You wrapped your arms around his shoulders, and he felt the sting of your fingernails as you dug your fingers into him, holding tight to him as he picked up the pace.

He could feel his own release approaching, but he held it at bay as best he could.  He never wanted it to end – the way you pressed against his thrusts, the way your arms wound around him to pull him closer.  The way your perfume rose off of your heated skin and combined with the headier scent of sex.  How you said his name – his real name – over and over, sighing each syllable but accenting the last one – Dominick – as your own orgasm overtook you. 

And then how you cried out and arched against him hard as he felt you tense up and tremble under him and around him.  He only had a single moment to thrust back into your clenching core, wanting to be as joined to you as he could be, and then he kissed you hard and came too.

[ecosystem-administrator]

Stamp

Timeline: Early 5.0, spoilers for HW character death and in-character speculation on the identity of the Crystal Exarch

When they confessed their feelings for each other after the liberation of Ala Mhigo, Mayhem promised to write letters to Aymeric as they traveled. This is the first such letter, delivered via pixie from another world.

To the handsome, generous, charming, patient, and ever-so-gallant Lord Speaker of Ishgard,

You asked me to write you of my travels when we confessed our feelings for each other, and while I don’t know if this was exactly the kind of travels you were thinking of at the time, I have found someone who claims they can deliver these letters all the way to the Source. So here I am, writing to you. It’s more difficult than I expected to think of what to say, honestly. Writing to Haurchefant was just an excuse of sorts, a way of keeping some kind of connection alive, pretending he was still there to listen while I learned to cope with a world where he never would be again. The dead don’t judge your words, and the practice turned itself into a journal pretty quickly if I’m honest. But you…if I say the wrong thing, you’re there to be hurt, or worried. I’m not used to considering whether people worry over me. It’s new, so…please be patient with me if I make some mistakes. This is a strange and beautiful land. I arrived in a forest of lavender-pink trees, under a sky that glowed with roiling golden light from one horizon to the other. Soon enough, I learned the terrible truth of this: the light in the sky is unending, unchanging. It’s a world that has known no night or stars for a hundred years, suffering under a surfeit of light aether. Stranger still, the Crystal Tower is here as it is in Mor Dhona, and indeed I’m writing to you from a room in a building near the base of it. They’ve built up a whole settlement of people who came together after the world was nearly destroyed by surging waves of light, working hand in hand to rebuild a functional society. It’s all rather inspiring. Their leader is the one who called me here, a man they call the Crystal Exarch, perhaps due to the crystallization of parts of his body: one hand is fully composed of living crystal the same color as the Crystal Tower, and more seems to be creeping up his neck. However he came by it, it’s clear his connection to the Tower is profound indeed. He apologized for the abruptness of his means of calling for our attention, and for the stealing away of the Scions. Apparently the spell meant to contact me was of his own creation and needed a few attempts at refining, and I can well imagine that few have ever come by the knowledge and power needed to reach across the rift between worlds. Despite everything, he seems quite reasonable, and his people are happy. Besides…there’s something I noticed that I haven’t told anyone else yet. I don’t know if I’m right, but… The thing is, he’s just a little bit shorter than I am. Maybe that doesn’t mean much to you, but I’m pretty short as male-born Miqo’te go, and we’re shorter on the whole than Hyur or just about any other race aside from Lalafells, which he is assuredly not. There is one Miqo’te man I met in the past who was about the same height, though…a scholar and expert on Allagan history, who collaborated on an expedition into the Crystal Tower in our world, and upon gaining a deeper connection to it, locked himself inside it to seal its power away. I don’t know how he could have gotten here. The Crystal Tower and its Exarch arrived on this world shortly after the Flood of Light, so they say, nearly a hundred years ago. Even if time flows differently here, I don’t understand how any of it’s possible, but it’s just too much of a coincidence to ignore. And…I liked that young scholar, quite a lot, when I knew him. So I’m going to take an inadvisable risk and try trusting this man, for the time being. I guess I’m probably not doing as well as I hoped at avoiding worrying you. Other things not to worry about: any weird dreams you might have before receiving this letter. I’m given to understand that the pixie (I hope I spelled that right) who has volunteered to help me transfer objects between worlds travels via dream, and they seem a bit mischievous. It’s probably better just to disregard any strangeness and not think too hard on it.

I love you so very much, and I promise I’ll write more soon,

Mayhem Moondrop

[kimmiessimmies]

Plans

It'll be a while until my next story update is finished as the chapter that's due next is one I'm struggling with a little bit, so I thought I'd do a rambling post on what my plans for the coming time are.

Under the cut, for it is longgggg rambling.

Writing

As we speak, I'm writing several things at once. One of the things I'm writing is the next chapter of the story, entitled 'Bestseller'. It's not coming along brilliantly, which is mostly due to the fact that I'm feeling quite out of touch with the characters who feature heavily in this chapter. They have been slightly off the radar for a while since my student bunch, particularly Sadie and everyone around her, required so much attention. I guess I'm also a bit reluctant to post this chapter for that same reason. Many of you have gotten to know ATOH mostly for all the Sadie-drama, but there's more to it, and eventually, it all connects. So I need to write this chapter, even though the characters will probably be unknown to many (new) followers, and it may seem like a different story altogether unless you've been with me for longer.

Aside from struggling to write Bestseller, I'm also already working on the chapter after that, working title 'Starting Over', but with the way it's going, I'm probably changing that title; it doesn't fit right. Edited to add, this chapter is pretty much finished now and titled 'Now or Never.' This one is flowing from my keyboard more easily, which is mostly because it takes us back to Sadie (and James! ;) ).

Lastly, I'm writing two shorter chapters/updates. These weren't originally on the timeline, but I'm fitting them in. One might even be the first one I post next. It will show twins Viola and Rosa, nieces to James and Sarah, have their first birthday and age up to toddlers. This will show James with his family, which is interesting for reasons I won't yet go into too deeply, and it will give me a chance to stage a conversation between James and Seth they really need to have, but I couldn't build in elsewhere. The other is something I really don't know where to fit in, but it shows a conversation between Jill and Daniel, which I also really want to show.

2. Character posts

I feel like I need to do some character posts before posting Bestseller. Because of what I wrote above; the characters might be too unknown. I don't know how to approach this yet, but I feel like I should. Ideas are welcome.

3. Rachel's Dating Adventure

Thank you so much to everyone who's created someone for my dear Rach. <3 It might be a while until I can continue this because I'm still contemplating whether this takes place before the aforementioned chapters, after, or somewhere in between. But it will happen, and I'm very excited about it.

4. "Backstage" posts

Since the topic of time came up several times in replies and conversations I had recently, I've decided I'm going to write up some posts on how I do things with regard to my game and the story "behind the scenes". I'll explain a bit more about how I approach time and dates (why is it 2008 in my story, and what does that mean?), but I also want to write something on education and why my students started uni at 20 years old. Also, what's with the bees and the honey? Why all that? Maybe I'll go into that one too.

5. The Grand Honeycomb Valley Tour

I keep promising this and keep postponing it, but I will do it. I will, over time, give you all a closer look of everything I built to make Honeycomb Valley the town it is.

Is it too ambitious to want this all sorted before March?

[an-au-blog]

hello! a different anon interested in the unclenapped au here! (and other aus where buggy is with the strawhats i guess)

not to bring PLOT into a mostly character-focused au, but with extra strawhat crew aus i'm always curious where the author would have kuma send the new guy(s) post-sabaody. basically, where would you send your au buggy to learn & grow over the time skip? is he learning new skills somewhere, or landing on the red force (or wherever luffy & rayleigh ended up) and learning about his past?

thanks!

Hello other anon! Can I call you Difan (get it? because different anon (I'm so funny ik))

And no, no, no, don't worry, I LOVE plot! And I was actually recently thinking about the whole Kuma situation. Because he sent each one either to a friend/somewhere to make connections with the revolution, or to help them train/help with personal growth.

At first I thought maybe I should make up an island that would fit this version of him. Something that would maybe make him conquer his fear of being trapped and claustrophobia, or maybe something to better help him use his powers.

Maybe something like an island where everything is small and all the inhabitants live in dark holes in the walls (picture something like the kindergarten from Steven Universe). And Buggy is freaking out because he can't live in the whole in the wall, he just can't! Not again! Not to mention the food, there's so little food for the small people there, what would he eat - as someone probably two times their size?

He just wasn't ready to go back to not having anything. So he starts helping them grow their farms and defend themselves from wild beasts and in return they help him reach inner peace and face his trauma. Maybe he'd even have a Sanji moment where he finds out that the people can teach him fighting skills he didn't know they had?

idk...

But I also started looking into places or different arcs and two specific ones actually seem pretty fitting. (can you tell I've actually given this quite a bit of thought hahaha ':))

The first place I thought of was Impel down. It would also cross with the canon timeline and events. Think about it: he'll get over his fear of imprisonment, make connections with the revolutionaries living in the walls. It would be just like in canon for the exception that Buggy is willingly helping Luffy and he's been in there for a shorter time.

Not to mention that on the ship when they tell everyone that he used to sail with Roger, he would be finding out something new about himself. Maybe even remember something.

(And here I go pushing my shuggy agenda again) And that way Shanks's return would be have more weight as well. It would impact both of them so much because 1. Shanks not only lost Ace but now he finally found Buggy and 2. Buggy went through so much trauma and then some greasy redhead claims to know him??? And what's more, he doesn't have this spike of anxiety upon meeting him?? (but maybe I'll make a separate post about that specifically)

Although I don't know if after that I'd want him to go back to Amazon Lily with Luffy and meet Rayleigh (because again: revealing past and all that fun stuff), or if i want him to be taken in by Shanks and his crew instead of Law (and he'd still have the reveal of the past but differently that with Silver...)(idk just food for thought)

Anyway though,

The second place I thought of is a bit of a stretch. I thought of Arabasta. It's a bit of a stretch because, why would he be there?

Well they're alleys of the straw hats and had recently gotten out from under Crocodile. Also if I'm not mistaken the revolution army had it's foot in there as well right? Also I'd absolutely love seeing Vivi and Buggy interactions. I feel like she could teach him a lot in just general. Also he'd love the sun so much.

I'm also thinking maybe he could train and learn quite a bit history there. But I hadn't had that much time to think about this option to be honest...

[pixeldistractions]

Her hair all in his eyes, lol! This is the price you pay for sleeping with a curly-headed woman! (My hubby can testify!)

This weekend for us has been long and lazy for Memorial Day. We didn’t really do anything, but spent lots of family time at home. Next week is June, which brings end of school year chaos for the kids, and then they’ll be running me around all summer, and all bets are off.

flimsy blog plans for summer 2024:

My biggest hope is to finish B&S #4.5 in the next week, before the kids finish school. Even if I don’t get it all posted, I’d like to get the pictures finished, because that’s the challenging part for me when I’m busy with family stuff. That would complete “book 4” and it’s a great spot in the story to move into a more casual summertime posting schedule.

I will still be here on simblr and I’ll still play as I can and post as I can. I’ll absolutely still be reading everyone’s stories! I don’t even have any big travel plans until much later in the summer, near fall, but we do have plans for shorter trips here and there. It’s just going to be less consistent than I’ve been able to accomplish lately. Like, there’s probably not going to be updates posted nightly at 7:00 pm on the dot, lol! I also have plans to visit some other households that we haven’t seen in a while and enjoy some casual gameplay, too.

Sensitive information redacted below, of course. ;)

Please don’t take these dates as promises, just best guesses. My timeline never progresses as quickly as I’d like it to, but if I can accomplish this much by the end of the summer, I’ll be very pleased. Maybe I’ll even make it through the Jackson family updates, too.

And I’m cautiously looking forward to the new romance EP. I hope it gives our pixel sweeties lots of new swoony gameplay.

How about you guys? Any plans for the summer? Are you simming, traveling, or getting outside for some sunshine?

[therantsofawriterrr]

91221

Chapter Five: I'm Alone Now, Jagiya

Summary: Kang Hyunyul has had a good life since he left the Jindo gang. But when he finds out that Do Jin is going to be temporarily released, he's stressed and the return of an old flame triggers familiar feelings and with them, the old memories of the only real thing of his complicated past. All while she was saving his life, literally putting her life on the line. Chapter Summary: Hyunyul and Sujin meet again and Hyunyul questions his limited knowledge of the past. Warning: Mentions of violence and that's mostly it, i think. Tell me in the comments if I missed anything. A/N: Timeskip to after Hyunyul has gone to college yay! I'm assuming that Hyunyul got into a prestigious college lol. Also after some research that didn't rly tell me much, I'm guessing that all of these people have those keypad phones. The timeline may not be accurate, so just bear with me, pls and thx.

A few years later.

Hyunyul was farely content. He'd learned sign language diligently so that he could communicate with Yichan and his girlfriend, Cheongah. He'd gotten into a very good institution after school.

And Dojin hadn't been any trouble after the school incident.

Currently, they were all taking a gap year to relax before starting to look for work, so they were able to meet every weekend. Cheongah took them all to a nice, quaint cafe that had opened up a few years ago.

They were all sitting on a table, talking to each other.

"Hello, welcome to Jiha's Cafe. I'll be your server today, what would you like to have?"

The kind, welcoming voice caught Hyunyul off guard as he almost broke his neck, turning to see the person.

Jang Sujin.

He saw surprise flash in her face at seeing him as well. Everyone ordered their food and when Yichan and Cheongah's turn came, they pointed at the name in the menu card. She immediately pocketed her little notepad and started signing.

"I know sign language, so you can talk to me in that way."

Her knuckles were bruised, he noticed. She had a fresh cut on her forehead too, he noticed. She'd cut her hair a bit shorter, her dark locks were only reaching till her neck now. But, she looked... different. There were dark circles which were enough to show her tiredness, but her gaze was so energetic that he almost missed it.

"What can I get you, sir?" She asked. He realised that the question was pointed towards him so he chose a dish that he'd already decided.

Upon hearing, he could've sworn she smiled softly, like she expected it.

The door opened with a bang, revealing a man in casual clothes, heaving breaths.

"Am I late? Is she gone?" He asked Sujin. Sujin only gave him a withering look and shook her head. He sighed out in relief and sat down on a table.

She immediately slammed her hand down on the table, glaring at him. She probably threatened him, because his eyes widened.

"Hey, you can't treat me like that! I'm seven years older than you!"

"I don't care. Either confess to her now and keep coming back to eat my dishes or get out. I'm getting tired of the longing gazes. And her just gushing about you every time she gets the chance."

"Kyungmi-shi gushes about me? What does she say?"

She groaned and clenched her fists. "If you weren't a brother figure for me, I would've killed you a long time ago. Ugh."

He turned back with a smile as she yelled out to Kyungmi to go take her future boyfriend's order.

Yichan gestured for me and signed, "Do you know her?"

Hyunyul only shook his head and signed back, "Not that well. She's just an acquaintance."

The bruises and cut made him think though. Was she still in the gang? Maybe Dojin was making her work even after she left?

Thought you'd never look back, Hyunyul. What're you doing right now?

Hyunyul was caught off guard both by the thought and because he'd placed scalding hot food in his mouth. His panic made everyone laugh as he forgot his doubts and just got into the moment.

An hour or so later, they were put of the hotel, walking towards their houses. Hyunyul had bought a bike after saving up a lot of money. He patted his pockets and realised that his keys were missing. He jogged back to the hotel, entering silently, not wanting to make his presence known.

"Dojin tried to break out, y'know?" He heard the man from earlier say and he paused, his hand poised over his keys. "You're sure you don't need protection?"

"It's not that easy to break out of jail, oppa. Plus, you're there to keep me updated."

"Sujin, from what I heard, he's very angry. What if he does break out and tries to kill you? What'll you do, then?"

She grunted dismissively, and even if he couldn't see it, he knew that she batted her hand.

"Let him try. I'm nothing if not a fighter."

"Yeah I can see that. Who the hell did you fight this time?"

"Ehhhh, just some guys."

The conversation shifted, prompting Hyunyul to pocket his keys thoughtfully.

So, Dojin was in jail for good? When had that happened?

Last he'd heard was that he'd been caught trying to sell drugs. Had he been tried and sentenced to a few years in jail?

But if he was angry at Sujin, then it could mean that....

Oh.

He paused, his feet dragging against the road as his eyes widened, staring at the ground as his heartbeat got faster.

Had it all been... an act?

♬♩♪♩ ♩♪♩♬

Sujin wiped the sweat off her forehead when she was home just above the cafe, sighing out a quick breath. She switched on the light, thankful for being able to afford it with the loans and everything else.

She fell on the couch, staring at the ceiling, loneliness starting to creep onto her quickly.

Her mother passed away a year ago. Without her, she didn't really like coming back. There was nothing to come back to, really, so she was always trying to keep the cafe open as late as she could.

But ever since Ha Kyungmi had started working there, she always succeeded in shooing the younger woman out, demanding that she close shop and head home.

"She's a good match for Yojun oppa, honestly," she murmured.

But she still was lonely in her house, with no one to talk to and no one to rant to. So, she only got up to wash the dishes.

As she did, though, her mind couldn't help but wander to earlier in the evening.

He still liked the same dishes. He still laughed the same. He was still a bit clumsy.

He really hasn't changed.

She smiled softly and sighed, wiping her forehead again and hissing because of the cut on there.

She sighed deeply again, for the burly men will be back the next day to ask for the money again.

"Shouldn't have taken the loan, mom was right," she murmured again, falling onto the bed after dinner, deciding to let go of the worries for now.

I'll be taking a nap and nothing will disturb me.

Likes, reblogs and comments are highly appreciated!! Thanks for reading 💙💙💙

[summerfevers]

if you’re up to it i would very much like to know your white collar neal timeline🎤🎤

this turned out to have many asides and be very long so the tl;dr is: peter have you considered that he's just a twenty-something teenage girl :( ?

timeline:

neal born 1984 ish. he's an aries and a millennial

neal, ellen, and neal's mom go into witsec 1987, neal age 3

2003 adler scandal i fucking guess. neal age 19

neal arrested probably mid 2005, 21

neal goes to jail for the first time, i want to say early 2006, age almost 22

pilot is set late summer 2009, age 25

same-sex marriage legalized in new york june 24th 2011, they talk about this in season 3 episode 14 which is soon after. neal's 27

more or less a year later–let's go with less–neal tells sam that he has spent the last decade running from the truth he learned at 18. taking him literally that it was 10 years ago he is now 28 it is the end of season 4 and 2012

the end of season 4 to the series finale is less than a year. he is 29 its 2013.

when we see him in paris he might be 30 but that doesn't count To Me

i present my evidence:

i don't know where we got "neal is 35" from i cant make it work. neal and co. went into witsec (which i have actually since learned is not available to people living in dc, they have their own version but it is not overseen by the federal marshalls, i don't think they can give you as many legal documents like a ssn, and they don't help you set up your new life as much? something about neal's life that would be interesting to explore.) when he was three and ellen says in season 4 that she's been in witsec for Nearly three decades. confirmed 33 or under in season 4

he also says to "sam" more than once that he's spent the last decade running from the truth he learned at 18–he very well could be rounding down here and mean like 12-13 years but i am Choosing to Believe he meant that literally. we are now at youngest 28, it is the last episode of season 4.

now due to the way the show is structured and the fact that it is never really winter. ok maybe winter 1 time because i can see in my mind neal in his little wool coat and earmuffs but largely it is summer and we never have a christmas episode. anyway due to All That our only real anchor in the timeline is that the episode where diana is Grappling with her engagement to Christie happens immediately following june 24th 2011, when same-sex marriage was legalized in new york. and also that later that season in the commutation hearing they say that neal has served 2 years of his sentence. so the pilot was set in 2009 when it aired we are at one year/season. but as the series goes on the episodes and even seasons have increasingly shorter gaps between them, and by season 6 we haven't even finished our four years. by the end of season 4 i want to say we are three years into his sentence and he's 28. between the end of season 4 and when neal dies in season 6 there has got to be less than a year that passes. actually deadass why was neal so obsessed with the pink panther case ending his sentence early we are like months out king. i get the injustice the system is broken they'd keep him forever but to people outside his circle he must have looked sooo silly for that. but whatever. he is 29 when he dies and 30 when we see him again in paris, his roaring 20s of crime and incarceration over.

Anyway where the "neal is 35 or at least claims to be much older than this timeline would say he is" probably came from in-universe is that the adler scandal takes place SEVEN years before s2 when peter confronts neal about it. 2003?????? guys the thing we have to understand, to embrace, about neal's personal timeline is that i do not think anyone in that writers room was really grasping how much they had neal do in so short a time. 2003 he is like 19 guys. maybe by the time peter says it was 7 years ago it was 2011 ? and the adler thing was 2004? but no that couldn't work because it's mid 2011 like a year later in s3. so basically neal walks out of st louis and has a magical girl transformation through which he immediately becomes a great conman and criminal. and he meets mozzie basically straight away. he should still be in like calculus and ap lit at this juncture. and then they go right into the adler con ??? and neal is obviously lying through his teeth to everyone saying he is at least 21 but probably more along the lines of 23. and while most of his aliases are eventually found out by peter if no one else, no one ever goes "wait IS HE a teenager?" no one is guessing this.

so we spend a couple months fucking around and fucking UP with adler, kate probably doesn't know how old we actually are, this relationship cannot actually last very long at all because we are truly on a time crunch right now. we have less than three years for neals entire criminal career before he goes to jail. i know i said on the bullet list he went to jail early 2006 he has got to have been arrested like summer 2005 at the latest to be tried and sentenced by then and i feel like even that might be tight because he was suspected of so many other things they wanted to get evidence for. but how is neal teaching kate to be a criminal less than a year into his own career. i think neal must have been a hardcore improv kid for this to work honestly. i bet he competed. so our golden days of mozzie neal and kate against the world lasts maybe a year at best before neal and kate fight and she leaves and he spends months trying to get her back and get her attention and commits a truly breathtaking amount of crimes in this time.

also i'm skipping through forging bonds right now trying to flesh out this timeline and it was incredibly shady of peter and co to see that kate is doing so much to stay hidden from her ex boyfriend and then to reveal her to neal in order to catch him. like that was fucked up they didn't know neal yet he hadn't been suspected of violent crimes but they didn't know why kate was working so hard to escape him. like it worked out ok (arguably, but that could be a different post) but they had no reason to trust neal not to hurt her like this. she could have been running from an abusive situation he's known to be a talented criminal with no fears about escalating his crimes he could have killed her. one thing about the fbi is that they never once care about kate's safety and it does indeed get her killed one day.

in conclusion neal is known as one of the best forgers in the world when he is arrested in 2005 at age 21 maybe 2 years into his criminal career. here i am 21 what have i accomplished