#they fight like they’ve been married for 20 years

[sappy-detective]

can we not ignore how fucking sassy/petty tweek is when creek fight???! he spend the whole time of TFBW being passive aggressive to craig the WHOLEE time and craig is so over him. i think it’s the funnies shit in the world and people need to  acknowledge sassy tweek more! here are some of my favorites moments

first. there whole rant he went on at new kid at the coffee shop.

“oh, you work for him huh?! AgH well. you can go back and tell him he can have his laptop back, when i get my FuCKING guinea pig back! NGh. we baught it when we where together but stipe. is. mine. Ngh. i payed for him. and i have the recite. you think it’s right for him to keep stripe while he’s the one who didn’t stand up for me!? you tell him that.!

“Yeah, I remember! So, when I walked out on Coon and Friends, you should've walked out with me!”

“Super Craig? More like Stupid Craig.”

“Yes, I do! You think it's easy controlling the weather?”

“Fine. Choke on a burrito next time you need a pick-me-up.”

“Oh, he finally decided to be reasonable, huh? Fine.”

“i have nothing to say if that's his attitude.”

[tweek: agh! why would you hit super craig?!

craig: uh because they’re bad guys?

tweek: Why are YOU defending them!

craig: oh god.]

“don’t “dude” me!”

“no you calm down!!”

“your side kick!? what?!”

“shut up! shut up! i’m thinking!”

“hurry up craig i hate when you do this!!”

“craig! why did you make me do that!”

[ craig: ever get the feeling life is punishing you for being a dick tweek?

tweek: NO.]

[tweek: “craig! cant be bothered to save your love?!”

craig: “i was busy.”

tweek: “you’re always busy!!”]

plus+

just look at him. he’s not even looking in craig’s general direction and his arms are crossed. i love him he’s so cute

and tweek subtweeting about him ^^

obviously not all of it but even the way he says stuff is so funny.

“are you shitting me?! fine. as long as your there. you seem to be able to get him to think rationally.”

he’s so silly.

[cabin07slytherinblogs]

I’ve been doing a lot of research on the wizarding world and here are some canon things I have found out that I didn’t know

Molly and Arthur did not go to school with the marauders. They started in 1961.

Gideon and Fabian were between the ages of 31-41 when they died, I thought they were young like James and Lily. Molly is 2 years younger then them.

Bellatrix, Narcissa, and Andromeda all went to school with Molly and Arthur but they were sorted into Slytherin while Molly and Arthur were sorted into Gryffindor.

Bill was born in 1970, Charlie in 1972, Percy in 1976, Fred and George in 1978, Ron in 1980, and Ginny in 1981.

Molly and Arthur didn’t know that they were having a daughter until Ginny was born.

Hermione Granger is the oldest out of the three friends.

Rowling confirmed Dumbledore’s sexuality

Grindelwald and Voldemort weren’t fighting for the same things

Tom Riddle was conceived under a love potion. Some even say that’s why he can’t feel love.

Hermione became minister of magic

James and Lily had Harry at 19/20 years old

Molly and Arthur married right away after Hogwarts not wanting to waste time. They’ve been together for over 50 years (honestly goals) They also had 12 grandchildren. 5 grandsons and 7 granddaughters.

Hermione’s name means messenger.

The original timeline for the original 7 books/8 movies is 1991-1998

Remus Lupin was bitten by Greyback at age 4 (which I knew) but he was bitten because his father, Lyall, said some pretty nasty/hateful comments about werewolves in front of Greyback so he snuck into Remus’s room and attacked him as revenge

[tennessoui]

omg time traveler ahsoka au! she gets obi-wan to leave the order for satine in the hopes that he’d be weird with someone else but anakin gets sent on a mission to mandalore and wow there’s this handsome duke he has to look after. what a shame he’s married and definitely wouldn’t leave his wife for this jedi he feels immediately weird about

hmmmmmmm this is one of Ahsoka’s closest attempts because obi-wan’s personal sense of loyalty wouldn’t let him cheat on his wife, and he’s spent so long building a family and a life on Mandalore that he would never toss it aside to be romantically involved with a kid (read: 22yo) that he doesn’t even know even though he feels a very strong pull towards him….obi-wan is adept at lying to himself

It gets easier to lie to himself when he realizes that Skywalker is also married, though secretly…..it offends part of Kenobi, but that’s just because Skywalker is making a mockery of the Jedi order with his secret marriage!! Kenobi is no longer a Jedi of course but he still has great respect for the Order!!!

That’s the only reason he feels so strange when he thinks of Skywalker’s marriage even long after Skywalker and the senator he was guarding as she came to a celebratory feast on Mandalore leave again.

(Ahsoka tenses on her reset button as anakin makes his way back to mandalore a few months later, but they’re being….normal…this anakin requests to study ancient mandalorian and Jedi texts that are housed in the capital city and it’s weird because he’s never really cared about history but he’s being very…respectful….and master obi-wan is also being very respectful if a little stand offish….he accompanied him down to read the texts and they spend hours down there together but as far as Ahsoka can tell there is nothing inappropriate happening —she has gotten very good at telling when something inappropriate is happening between her old masters—they really are just…talking and reading and they’re being…sort of weird…but sort of normal….it’s the closest they’ve come to the original timeline in fact…Ahsoka relaxes on her reset button)

War breaks out anyway of course and obi-wan lasts only a month or so after anakin is pulled to the front lines before donning an old beat up and anonymous suit of mandalorian armor and flying to fight with him. The Duchess of Mandalore offers no comment. The official story is that her husband is sick in bed from a nasty case of Flafu flu. No one knows that it’s the Duke of mandalore in the red armor, supporting Skywalker’s troops.

Ahsoka wonders if Anakin knows, up until the moment some droid gets a lucky shot in and obi-wan goes down on the battlefield and anakin levels an entire field of droids to get to him looking half out of his mind with worry and rage….then she knows he knows and maybe that he’s always known

She’s tensed up over the reset button again, but after obi-wan’s been seen to by the medic, anakin sends him back to his wife on mandalore and, miraculously, after 2 years fighting to be by anakin’s side, obi-wan…stays, but he looks so beaten down over it, so without half his heart, like he’s suddenly aged 20 years and lived in a desert for all of them. But he stays.

The war ends eventually and the Jedi triumph. Ten years later, leia runs through Anakin’s study with an old red helmet over her head as Luke runs after her, playing war. anakin gently takes it off her and sets her on the ground. He cradles the helmet though in battle worn hands, but thankfully before either of them can ask, padmes speeder arrives and they shoot off to go welcome their mom home - anakin stays for a second longer, just staring at the helmet with such a naked expression of wistfulness longing heartbreak and acceptance that Ahsoka almost wants to turn away. Before she does she sees anakin touch his forehead to the helmet’s once before rising and putting it away, turning instead to go greet his wife

and it leaves Ahsoka with such a WEIRD feeling in her own heart that she’s pressing the reset button before she can think it through because she wants them to be apart and she wants the Jedi to win the war and everyone to get their happy endings but…but not like this…not if they’re not happy….she gets 1 reset where she gets to be selfish ok she’s gone through thousands now probably.

[armando-triplepapito]

Armando and Betty are my Roman empire! I would really hate it if they ruined the beautiful relationship they have.

Yes!! Same!! I love them so much when I heard about the new sequel I was excited to see how much stronger their bond has gotten over the years. But after finding out about the amnesia plotline I’ve been having mixed feelings about it.

It sounds interesting cause it’ll be like a do over with their love story. They’ll be able to restart their relationship without the horrible plan Mario created. I’m kinda liking that idea cause tbh I am a sucker for couples falling in love with each other all over again (doesn’t matter the scenario). In a sense it’s kinda romantic for me.❤️

Then again we might not see their great partnership they’ve created from the 20+ yrs of marriage.

In the OG Armando would get into all sorts of trouble but Betty would be able to solve them by assessing the situation now imagine in the new sequel roles are reversed! Instead of Betty solving problems it’ll be Armando taking on that role! Ahh that would be so cool!! But if we’re taking the amnesia route then will most likely not see this unless, by some miracle, towards the end of the series.😒

Also I’m worried that with the amnesia plotline the story will start off with Betty and Armando having a rough marriage with a divorce on sight and end with “thanks to Betty fighting for Armando’s memories(and love) now their marriage is stronger than ever”. I can swear to you this is how it’s going to play out! And if they do then to me that just sounds like lazy writing and uninteresting to me.

Tho I have to admit it would be nice to see Armando avoiding all forms of flirtation from other women cause of his love for Betty even if he doesn’t have his memories. It’s like his mind doesn’t remember but his heart and body does which is romantic to me ngl🙈.

Now that I think about it I remember AMO mentioned in an interview that in this sequel Betty will think about the choices she’s made in her life. I really do hope it doesn’t involve Betty regretting marrying Armando!! Cause if that’s even mentioned I will not take the sequel seriously. From that point onwards I’ll just think about it as a live action fanfic and not a continuation to the novela.😒

Sorry for being so negative! It’s just that I don’t have much hope for the writers. I remember someone mentioned that the writers for the sequel were involved in Pasión de Gavilanes. Even tho I’ve never watch that novela Ik a lot of people hated the progression and ending of it. I just hope the writers have been listening to the ysblf fandom and not mess things up!

Anyways things that I really want to see in the new sequel is lovey dovey scenes from B&A, jealousy on both sides, them defending each other, their different parenting style and how they harmonize, and most of all I want scenes of Armando being his sexy self🫦

Also it’ll be funny if they end the sequel with them wanting another kid🤣 cause ngl I’m still shocked how they only had one lol!

[she-karev]

First Day Back (Japril Imagine)

Age Rating: 12+

Chapters: One of Five

Fandom: Grey’s Anatomy

Ship: Jackson Avery x April Kepner

Canon Episode: Season 17 Episode 6

Summary: April goes back to work at Grey Sloan and has an awkward interaction with Amber after their fight. She later talks to Jackson about their fight but leaves before revealing more.

AN: Hey guys so I’m sick that’s why I haven’t posted all week but I’m about to give you guys some Japril content where things really start to get interesting, like and reblog below and let me know what you think.

Words: 1632

May 2nd, 2020

April Kepner stands in front of the elevator of the Grey Sloan lobby feeling nervous about her first night back as a trauma surgeon. Normally she would be doing work at the clinic but since they added 20 locum tenens to their staff April isn’t needed as much and her schedule has been cut in half.

Feeling like she could fill that time in by helping more people during this crisis she called Catherine about coming back to Grey Sloan part time and she and Bailey were all for it needing all the help they can get. And being here and seeing all the changes that they’ve been forced to make has April feeling bad for leaving at all. At the very least she can help out and lessen the load even a little bit and maybe save a life or two. Also she can take supplies for her clinic so her homeless patients can be protected. Anything to distract herself from the manila envelope inside her purse that she’s carrying.

Yesterday a courier gave her an envelope with divorce papers inside with her exes Matthew Taylor’s signature already on the dotted line. April has come to understand since her first divorce that the topic isn’t such a big deal but still having to sign your second divorce papers brings an unsettling feeling in her stomach. It’s not the divorce that upsets her but rather her own reaction to it…and her lingering thoughts about Jackson since they kissed two weeks ago.

When it happened, Jackson was upset that Amber was positive with covid and April was comforting him with a hug. It escalated when he kissed her and she reacted by instinct, like it was something she never forgot how to do. But then she stepped back knowing Jackson would be conflicted about it and told him it was a stupid mistake so she could save herself from the pain again.

Except now that pain is still there and a longing for Jackson Avery that never went away even when she married Matthew. Even with their cordial interactions the last two years April can’t help but feel that she and Jackson circle around each other like gravity. And she isn’t sure if she should fight it again to save herself from the pain or give in and possibly have a better outcome with Jackson than last time.

“Hey.” April looks to her left to see Amber Karev standing six feet away in her baby blue scrubs, N95 mask and face shield. Her tone from the hey is polite and makes April guess her friend is trying to tread lightly after their argument six nights ago where they both said hurtful things to each other.

“Hey.” April greets back with a curt nod, “I haven’t seen you around the apartment the last few days, are you working late?”

“No it’s my first day back actually. I’m staying at a hotel for now.” Amber explains to April who nods, “I’m trying to keep a tiny bubble after quarantine, and I don’t want to risk exposing Harriet so I’m looking for a new place right now.”

April thinks to herself if Amber having covid is warranting this move or their fight but Amber doesn’t notice as she asks, “Anyways what are you doing here? Do you have a patient here?”

“Um not yet. It’s my first day back, I’m coming back part time.”

Amber’s eyes widen at this news, “Oh, Jackson did not tell me this so this is a very big surprise.”

“Yeah it just happened, I wanted to help out since the clinic has more doctors and if I did nothing I would kick myself.”

“So, are you back in the OR?”

April groans at that, “No I wish, I’m gonna help out in the pit and manage the overflow. One minute back and I feel like I’m back in Iraq only there’s no one shooting at me.”

“It’s how it always feels.” Amber states gloomy before the elevator doors open with a ding.

“Stop that train!” The women look to see Jackson yelling as he power walks to them outside the elevator. He is in his casual clothes having come to start his shift as well.

“Dramatic much?” Amber chuckles.

“It’s from a movie.” Jackson explains to Amber who looks confused, “The Dresser? 1983? Albert Finney? You’re doing this on purpose aren’t you.”

“Dude as far as I’m concerned the world began the day I was born, you going?”

“Uh no, I’ll let you guys go and I’ll get the next one.” Jackson offers to the women who both look uncomfortable at using a small space together.

Amber clears her throat behind her mask, “Um you know what I am gonna take the stairs it’s probably safer anyway I’ll see you later bye.”

April nods at that slightly hurt as Amber walks away from them. She walks inside the elevator with Jackson who saw the exchange that sparks his curiosity.

April sighs and explains while the doors close, “We had a little…thing a tiff the night she came back. It’s fine were fine.”

April and Amber's Fight Here

“She took the stairs and you’re not talking to each other?” Jackson points out in worry, “At least tell me this isn’t the part where I have to take sides because both of you scare me, and I don’t want my head on a platter.”

April chuckles, “No we were talking, that was talking, it’s fine we’re fine.”

“That is a lot of fines.” Jackson observes in amusement, “What were you guys fighting about anyway?”

April groans and recaps to her ex, “I called her out for sleeping with DeLuca the night before and already plotting on breaking his heart. I might have overreacted because of my own issues concerning mixed signals and called her selfish which I feel bad about, so I don’t need you to do that for me thank you. I want to apologize but she said some things too and I’m mad as well and want her to apologize first. It’s a vicious cycle and now we’re barely acknowledging each other and talking when we need to so…it’s a great first day back.”

Jackson is shocked by this and closes his eyes to process, “Amber slept with DeLuca?”

April raises an eyebrow at that and the doors open in front of them with a ding, “That’s the only thing you got from me?”

They both walk out and head to the attendings lounge side by side six feet apart, “No I got the rest it’s just that hearing my best friend sleeping with her ex while in quarantine is something I’m trying to process first and then the rest.”

“Yeah I know how you feel about him.” April says understanding, “And I know he hurt her but he’s had a hard year. And he apologized for it repeatedly. I’ve been where he’s at when the person you love doesn’t want anything beyond a one-night stand only it’s not a one night if you live and work together. And seeing that person and knowing they are never gonna be all in is torture and in this time, it will make DeLuca hit a breaking point again.”

April exhales frustrated and sees Jackson looking at her knowingly with a raised eyebrow, “Yeah I might have projected my own feelings onto her situation.”

“Might have?” Jackson asks with a grin, “I’ll give you this you had a fight with Amber and walked away with all of your teeth you might be the first.”

“Well DeLuca is first actually.” April tells him, “And I know you’re on her side, not against me but on her conflicting feelings for DeLuca. I know your probably disappointed in her for going back to him and it’s another thing she’s gonna hold over me.”

Jackson sighs opening the lounge door for April and they both enter the empty room. Jackson takes his mask off that he looks at in his hands with thought while April looks at him waiting for his response.

“A few weeks ago, I would march right up to DeLuca and tell him he doesn’t have a shot in hell with her even after that night…but things changed.” April looks surprised by this change in heart concerning DeLuca and Amber, “You know he was there for her the whole time she was sick? He brought her food, he coordinated with the nurses, and she didn’t call security on him when he visited which is a big sign that she didn’t sleep with him out of desperation. I uh…I think if given the chance he might not screw things up with her again.”

April nods supporting this and supporting DeLuca’s attempts to get back on Amber’s good side. She wonders if Amber was right that night about Jackson being reluctant to trust her like she is reluctant to trust DeLuca. She wonders if her actions five years ago had the same effect on Jackson as DeLuca’s had on Amber a few months ago. Her thought train stops as Jackson continues.

“I’ll deny ever having said that, especially to Alex.” Jackson states with a grin, “So what did Amber say to make you upset with her anyway?”

April inhales as she dreads hashing up that part of the night especially to Jackson, luckily her phone beeps.

“Um I gotta go my shift is about to start but we’ll talk later.”

Jackson nods, “Yeah I should get ready too, I’ll come down to the pit and see how you are.”

“Thanks.” April grabs her scrubs in the cubby and goes to the bathroom to change leaving Jackson to wonder why she suddenly changed the subject. He suspects whatever Amber told her the night they fought had to do with him.

Next Part Here

[hazbinextgeneration]

Demon Bride Ch10 All In A Name P3

(WARNINGS AND DISCLAIMERS!!! EVERYONE in this story is in their early 20s-30s! This story will contain mentions of past abuse and death! I'll be keeping it as SFW. Some backstories have been slightly altered for this particular story, and some characters cannonically dead or harmed is alive and well. I own nothing.

Credit to @flanelltees​ for the designs I based the demons off to look more demon-like with tails and pointed ears.

This story will be sfw, but there will be some blood, implied death, fighting, some gore mentioned, and a few other things that will be made aware by warnings. Pay attention to warnings at the top of any chapters just under the summery please.)

Once in the mountain villages it was a custom that once a year on the night of the new year's first moon, an unlucky young lady would be selected and left for the demons to become one of the unlucky few who married such a husband. In exchange for this offering the demons would protect the villages and leave the humans in peace. Until one day a powerful warrior drove the demons away freeing the humans of them. Now 2,000 years later, it's become a tradition that once a year, a new young lady would be picked and wait for her future husband to retrieve her from a shrine in the mountains. And now the lucky tradition would fall upon Y/n L/n. It would be her own turn to take on the tradition and not have to worry about demons. After all that part of the old tradition was just fake, made up by paranoid ancestors. Everyone knew demons didn't exist.

...Right?

(WARNINGS!!!:  Some cussing, Mentioning of reader's fractured leg, death/implied death, fighting which will include some wounds and mentioning of wounds and a demon's hand being cut off.  )  

First Part Here:

https://at.tumblr.com/hazbinextgeneration/demon-bride-ch-1-thus-it-begins/dibtpmvn5d42

Last Part Here:

https://www.tumblr.com/hazbinextgeneration/713597692878766080/demon-bride-ch9-all-in-a-name-p2?source=share

Next Part Here:

https://www.tumblr.com/hazbinextgeneration/716769330504876033/demon-bride-ch11-interluding?source=share

Quiet night. Unholy night of beasts. Feasting their sights upon the stray women who dare stay out at night when the full moon rises, lighting the pathway for the beasts to claim their prey. Gnashing teeth, snarling fangs waiting to take a bite into innocent flesh where the terrible claws miss. Waiting to snatch you away down into their dark abyss never to return.

The bark of trees felt rough against the palm of grey skin, perfect to blending into shadows and walking along the darkness of the cursed trees that beckoned any unknowing traveler further into their branches. A light step. Another light step. Light enough to not be heard by anyone my dear. A quiet mouse amongst the darkness a contrast to the many others in the surroundings. Many preferred brute force by tooth and nail, fang and claw to drag off their unwilling prey in the name of twisted love they've come to claim or give. Ears perked just now hearing the far off wails that sounded like some sick love sick beasts. A whoop of triumph from the lungs of some lucky beasts who was able to stake a claim on some poor soul that accepted their twisted gift of love. Dark black claws dug into the harsh bark of the thick plant that would otherwise not feel the pain it would usually cause another living thing. An aura of annoyance flooding forth from the source of the claws, and the darkness only received a scoff, as blue eyes as dangerous as the bottomless ocean looked up towards the sky, towards the source of the happy wails from far into the trees' abyss of darkness.

"Tch. Dam fools. They act like dogs in heat! The lot of them!" A voice. As rough as it was envious. The idiots. No brains at all. Now all that celebrating would do was attract others towards him in wanting to fight him for the claimed prize he just received. He knew that was the case entirely because many a shadowy beasts was already flocking towards that noise. "They have no dam senses to them!"

Fools. All of them fools. They should've quietly snuck away when they had the chance. But then again he couldn't expect any of them to be close to the intelligence he held. Whatever. He wasn't out here to watch the rabid fighting of fools, as entertaining as it was to watch others rip either apart. No. He had something else long thought over he wanted to be done with. And it all started with the wind. And the air filling his lungs. And a sweet scent that wafted within both.

Huh....That was different. Not one he was often met with, but one he was familiar with.

One he liked very much.

But why would one such as this be this close to the forbidden areas?...Unless someone carried it with them. Either way it was something that had gained his attention, and even if it was nothing, there might be fun had in seeing why this was there. And so light steps approached the direction of the scent, back against the few remaining lights of the setting sun. Step after step as the scent grew stronger and the forest less dense around him which was the more interesting part to it. It was the more confusing part of all about it really. After all-

"No peaches should be this dam close."

He recognized that scent now. It was one he often craved and made his mouth water, but one thing he could barely have as it was out of bounds of the forest line. Often he could catch the faintest of their scent from further down the mountain where he was sure a plethora of them grew, but he could never see for himself. But sometimes on rare occasions he worked hard enough to please his master, he would be rewarded with the succulent fruits of his labor. The soft fruit being devoured within seconds before being missed again. Perhaps it was someone else who had gotten their claws on them? If so he'd cut them down and take what he wanted as a prize for disobeying the one law no one shall disobey without permission from the Master. And he would rectify it. Then maybe he'd be rewarded with more fruits for his loyalty. The thought excited him. Maybe this night wouldn't be such a dull fest after all. The scent lead until the tree line forbiddily broke and it left him standing there cloaked in darkness as the last few rays of sunset left the world, and saw nothing. After just a moment of standing against the wind he cursed himself for being stupid enough to even entertain the goose chase that was this night. He cursed this night, and his luck and the stupid hope of rewards. He would've turned around and disappeared back into the shadows if it weren't for one thing that made him pause in his actions.

A ghost in the night.

A white shining in the dark up the pathway that lead away which lead the sweet scent of fruit with it. Odd. What was that? He hadn't see something like that before. Not around here and especially not at night, but there was visibly something there. Alive and moving within the moonlight. Well, well. Now what was this he wondered? His curiosity got the better of him. After all he did have nothing better to do than to follow from the shadows and get close enough to see what exactly this strange new oddity was. And the end result was what surprised him the most. The white movable object was indeed a living being, not a ghost or figment of the light like he suspected. But...it was not an animal either which was what both confused him more. It was a woman. No older than him, maybe by just a year or two in her early twenties, judging by how young and beautiful her form looked. This was...intriguing. And quite the interest. It was-..

"Human."

This was not a topic lost on him. He heard many tales of the humans from his Master's engagements with them and Douma's countless rambles (that often gave him headaches-) and he had even seen one although rarely if ever. Master's wife was human. Their child was human. He sometimes saw them when the Master made mandatory meetings or surprise inspections. The woman was...Kind. He was indifferent about the Master's choice in mate, as he didn't know her enough to have an opinion other than she was a lovely woman in appearance. And sometimes if he walked near the edge of the forest at the right time, he'd see humans traveling along the roads but he could never get this close or ever saw a sight stranger than a long young human woman walking by herself at night, especially tonight of all nights. Unless she-... No. It couldn't be. A-...

"An offering?"

A tempting. Young offering of scents that caught his interest and tempted him enough to follow. Yes. A nice offering for a nice night. Oh how the tides have turned in his interest. He began following this 'ghost in the night' half out of interest to the sweet and half out of boredom as there has really been nothing interesting happening tonight that Akaza wasn't able to (annoyingly) handle himself by getting there before he did. And he wouldn't be judged surely if he was just checking out this seemingly random traveler walking about at night none the less. It was highly stranger and maybe even suspicious, so he set off silently following the lost looking human woman wondering the paths. He only assumed she was lost as she shivered against the night's wind and dug her hands harder against the strap of your bag. Every so often she'd whip her head around wide eyed and looked directly at him, but because he was cloaked in darkness so well she never saw him, and only shook her head and continued walking on. It amused him slightly that she couldn't blatantly see him looking right dead at her, but what was to be expected from a human?....He had to admit though.

She WAS cute.

Soft looking skin. Neatly dressed clothes. Pretty f/c hair. And gentle looking f/c eyes. And a simple look that all humans seemed to have. Or at least what he's heard of.

Akaza spoke often of a woman's beauty seriously and showed great disgust towards some specific colleges of theirs who agreed with his statement but in a perverted way. Honestly he couldn't be bothered to think about such things too much. That foolish thinking would only hold him back! Hender his training! And such a thing would make him look pathetically weak!! And he HATED being weak. Plus women were annoying! That was a literal fact! Every YEAR he had to break up countless fights, taking up so much of his time, and waste his time when the same thing happened all over again two seconds later once his back was turned! The women he helped weren't even grateful just fleeing or getting angry that he dared interrupt a fight over HER and sometimes attacked himself. Ugh! Nothing about them was 'cute'. Especially that Daki woman! She had her brother practically wrapped around her finger, when they weren't arguing that is, and she was as bratty and vain as they come! And Susamaru- OH! Don't get him started on that piece of work! She was always so annoying just throwing her toy balls everywhere trailed by Yahaba who did nothing to stop her! And girls always made men go nuts! Lose all sense of thought! No. No. He was always better off without them. The only one he sort of liked was Nakime because she was serious and non nonsense like his Sensei. Other than that, he could care less about them!!

....But on the other hand-

The Master's wife was...gentle. Kind. Softer than anyone else he's ever met. She was...quite a contrast to the Master in both looks and personality, and he'd be lying if he didn't say he wasn't once envious of him for having a beautiful wife like her. Ever since the Master met and married his wife a few years back he had been more...lenient. Not very much, but it that woman's impact certainly saved himself from a few harsher punishments he would've received otherwise if she hadn't impacted the Master's life. So whatever impact she had on him, it made a noticeable difference (sometimes).  So maybe human women had some kind of talent he wasn't aware of. However this human woman seemed quite pathetic.

At one point she passed by a fork in the road and went deeper into the mountain until she stopped sometime in the early night and looked lost. Well what was he expecting? Humans had zero night vision. But at one point she pulled out what he assumed to be a map and looked over it. At least she had enough smarts to do that. The wind was still blowing however, and it wasn't long until the map was blown from her hands, into the woods, and like an idiot!! She ran right after it. Into the forest.

The forest filled with demons hunting for a mate desperately. The forest no one was allowed in. The forest which HE was supposed to make sure no one entered.

.......Oh Crap-

Ohcrapohcrapohcrapohcrap-

OH CRAP!!

"Shit!"

He was going to be in SO much trouble!! He'd be punished worse than the time he accidentally sliced his Sensei's ponytail off!! She wasn't supposed to be in here! Stupid humans! Ok. Remain calm. No matter. All he had to do was literally grab and toss her back out before anyone knew! Yeah! Easy peasy. No one would even know, and he'd avoid being in any trouble! He'd even scare her just to make sure she didn't get any ideas of coming back! It would be as easy as hunting a blind deer! Nothing he couldn't handle! After all it was just one simple human.

....Oh how his problems loved to get bigger.

Because he didn't find her at all. Not at first at least. He followed her scent but he couldn't pinpoint her exactly which was starting to get him worried. Maybe he HAD been just seeing things from being overworked or bored to death. That was until he heard a scream. A very loud, high pitched, woman's scream! That had him snapping his head up against the wind in the direction of where it echoed out from, which was followed by a second just as scared shriek just moments later. Which could only mean one thing and he was dreading it-

"SHIT!!"

Some idiot HAD ended up finding that human! If she wasn't tossed out of here, it'd be his head! He was thankful for the extra speed training his sensei made him do, strengthening his legs and lungs in order to handle more speed and get to places faster. He still had a long way to go before he matched the speed of someone like Akaza, but it should be enough to get done what he needed to get done. And then he ended up smelling it again. That unmistakable sweet scent of fruit. That must've been the human because he only smelt this fruit when he was watching the human anyways. The wind and branches creaked past his black body darting between the grabbing branches and wind that howled with laughter seeming to taunt him for his blunder. Made him snarl and grit his fangs harder. Dammit! He followed that sweet scent until he skidded to a stop, a small cloud of dirt falling up from his feet sliding into place in the black dirt, came to a small cluster of dark trees only to find..nothing. Not a soul. But the scent was all over the small place, along with one other which smelt foul. Another male. And he could see an imprint in the dirt, as if something large fell from someplace high above. Dammit! Was the human attacked by an ambush? He wasn't sure. All that he knew was that she got away because the sweet scent was faintly head off into the west direction, and the foul smell followed, which obviously indicated a chase was given. Ah! F his life! This was going to be a long night! But none the less he growled and just ended up sprinting again after them. Dam human! Dam season! DAM ALL OF THIS!!! He was about ready to cut someone in half!! The wind was blowing away most of the already faint peach scent but he was lucky enough to be graced with yet another girly shriek of terror from just up ahead. Good. That was close. REAL CLOSE!! If fact, it was so close, he could hear a voice already-

"Stupid woman! SHUT UP!," a man's voice bellowed out, "Are you trying to alert others!? Dammit! You'll be a terrible mother."

Dark tree past dark tree. Weaving past darkness and limbs and lungs heavy with air whirled around by the wind. The vision appeared of a small innocent white ghost of the night and a sin daring to attempt to snuff it out for it's own needs. The trees couldn't hide that from him. Adrenaline pumping. Viens bunching up as a black tsuka of a katanna was grabbed, burnt to the touch as the rumbling of thunder was parting the whirling, taunting, laughing wind to make way for an electrical storm that bubbled through his blood vessels and gave the needed power to metal to become the lightning strike that shook the scene before him.

"Stop struggling! It's futile! There's no escape-"

SHING!!

A metal sound. A shine of silver in the dark. A dash of shadow. And a strike of thunder.

It all happened too fast and too dark for her mind to comprehend what happened. All that she knew was that one moment she were pinned against a tree and the next dropped to the ground like a rock, landing with a loud thud. A loud inhuman half screech half animal cry pierced the air and crimson liquid splattered across the dark. The cry echoed across the darkness, and was cut short when a powerful foot kicked out and struck the handless demon in the chest, knocking him back. And his form went flying back into the darkness only to be swallowed again and disappear, the red trailing after him, the only sounds to be heard was broken branches and then a loud thud and then the silence resumed once more.

"Dam idiots."

He stood there. Snarling. Staring off in the direction of the body he had just kicked away. Wasn't enough to kill, he could've easily crushed his chest on the spot but chose not too. For many reasons. He was here to retrieve not instigate a fight. He'd be in more trouble if he just started a fight, and he didn't need more trouble. He just needed to fix this situation before anyone else found out about a human woman stupidly bumbling her way in here especially when he was watching her! That wouldn't do him any good. If that insect knew what was good for him, he'd tuck his tail between his legs and run. After all, he was merciful enough to let him off with a warning. He could regenerate his hand easily and he doubted that kick did any real harm, maybe he'd be sore from falling back but he'd be-

Another shriek rang out from behind him. Causing him to snap his attention back to the thing he came here for.

In a flash her body reacted, scrambling away from the severed hand that just laid limply and crawling back on her hands and feet clumsily until her back hit a tree, breathing heavily. Ah right. He supposed that would've scared someone like her who never saw combat. Simple minded creatures, weren't they? He just rolled his eyes and turned his body to her, but the movement made the human freeze...before she slowly looked over and up at him, and she froze jaw dropping open. Hey now. He didn't think he was that horrendous looking! By demon standards, he was drop dead handsome! But then it clicked that she wasn't looking at his face, it was the long sword he still had unsheathed. A small slap sound came from her when her hand slapped over her mouth. Was she afraid he'd cut her down as well? That was ridiculous. He'd be more trouble if she was killed by him verses if he just tossed her out! Like he suspected. Simple minded. Let's just get this over with.

In a small rapid session his fangs clacked together enough to get her to look at him. "Hey! Get the hell up!"

He thought he made himself loud and clear, anyone else would perfectly understand what he just said. But instead she gave him the same looked he'd give the Master if he was in trouble. Pale. Terrified. Jaw dropped. And f/c eyes wide in terror at what she was seeing. Oh come now. He knew he was intimidating, but he hasn't even made a move to harm her! Although..her...Her face was actually kinda cute now that he was able to see it up close. Soft skinned. Pretty eyes reflective at him. It didn't have any demonic features like extra eyes or horns. And her f/c hair falling down her legs framing her face in a nice contrast to the white bridal gown she wor-

....Oh..Oh! ...OH!!

Like a flash of lightning in a storm, it all flashed across his mind now. Oh. A...bride. A human bride. It was a human offering. Oh. ...Well this was awkward. There hadn't been one of these since the mountain drought two hundred years ago. Back then, the humans thought sending a young lady in 'sacrifice' would cause some divine intervention from the demons to end the drought. Spoiler alert!! It did indeed NOT do that, and instead the poor human ended up getting taken by Douma to join his cult. No one ever heard anything about her since, and the drought continued on for another five years until mother nature sorted itself out. Of course this was before he was a part of the Twelve Kizuki so he actually never seen a 'Demon Bride' other than the Master's wife, so this situation was..Rather surprising to him.

The both of them stared at each other for a moment, before he opened his mouth revealing a mouthful of fangs and she flinched before he clattered them together in a rapid session to make the same clattering noise as before, before his face changed to look like he was straining his cheeks and a small shrill-grunt sound left his mouth.

"Get the hell up! Tell me why you're here!", he demanded and tilted his head expectantly at her terrified form. She still said nothing and it annoyed him. Great! Was she that scared?...Or maybe- Don't tell him you didn't understand what he just said! He grunted and rolled his eyes. "Not fluent in that, huh?" he spoke in human making her blink. "Figures you wouldn't be." He scoffed with another eye roll before bringing up his sword to inspect. And he scowled at the blood on it. It would have to be cleaned and polished later. "Disgusting pigs!" He harshly gave the blade one harsh shake to knock what droplet he could off, twirled it around with a wrist movement and aimed the blade to be returned to the sheath covered by his cloak. "So did I cut you or what?" She could only let her bottom lip quiver in response as she made some kind of squeak noise making him sigh in annoyance. "You gonna make me repeat myself? You humans are pathetic." She finally seemed to regain some sense as he scowled at her. "Hey, Human! Did I cut you or what!?'' She flinched pulling her hands to herself before frantically shaking her head no making him snort. "Good. Didn't think I did anyways, my skills are too precise for that."

She didn't answer. Instead doing something that made him pause. So taking a shaking hand, she pulled it back and slapped herself across the cheek making him just stare at her. By gods. Had she really HAD gone crazy!?

"The hell? Did that weakling hit your head too hard or something!?"

She hissed hand rubbing her sore cheek. "....This h-h-has got to b-b-be a n-nightmare..." She spoke barely above a whisper, but he still heard her voice.

"Tch. Unless you ran into Enmu, I highly doubt we're in one," he bluntly answered which made her flinch and look at him again. "But I've been trailing you this entire time so I know we didn't. Which begs the question." She yelped as he suddenly squatted and pushed his face into hers making it to where she were forced to stare into his angry scowl. "Who the hell are you!? You're not one of the humans brought in from the train! And you don't belong to Douma, you don't have his scent on you." His tail gave an annoyed thrash behind him. "So are you a trespasser or what!?"

"NO!!", she suddenly blurted out in fear. "I-I WAS JUST F-F-FOLLOWING THE MAP IS AL-ALL!!"

A thick brow rose higher, but he hummed. Yes..he had seen her with a map. "You were just following the map?" He asked again and terrified, she nodded making him hum again. "And then let me guess. You accidentally got lost on your way through here?"

She nodded again. "Y-YES!! That's r-r-right! I was!"

"Well why the hell were you not paying attention!? Any human should know once they're sent in that they need to be on the look out for scum like that!" He gestured at the ground like it should've been obvious. It was totally obvious for any bride to be thrusted in here that she should be careful for weaklings like the one he just trashed!! Didn't she even think of that!? She didn't answer and it made him growl before reaching up a hand to rub at his temples. Humans...This is why he never interacted with them outside of the Master's family. "Doesn't matter." The hand moved and he bore back into you. "I only spared your life because I wanted answers, otherwise I would have left you for whatever fucking scum to claim."

Screw this night AND this job! But...he wasn't sure what to do about this situation now. Now he knew she weren't a trespasser perse if she were sent to be an offering. Should he still throw her out? Can he throw her out while she was an offering? Was she allowed in here now or should he still toss her out? This situation was too new and complicated for him to figure out...He'd take her to Kyogai. Yes. Kyogai was the record keeper. If there was any laws for this kind of situation then he would definitely know about it! BUT-..If he was going through all this trouble to save an offering then he was going to make this worth his time! And right now he was very interested in that strong sweet smell, and her dowry. All brides these days had one to impress males if they wished to court instead.

"So before I leave your sorry ass, let me see your dowry."

Silence continued on. He stared at her expectantly. She stared at him silently wide eyed. Nothing answered them both except for the wind and creaking branches. ....And then he scowled.

"W-What-"

"Your dowry! Let me see your dowry! What do you have to offer me!?," he practically shouted at her face before giving a grunt of annoyance pointing at her bag. "In there! Gods above! Do I have to repeat everything to you!?"

She slowly rose a brow at him. "You want the-...A return payment?"

"Dowry! Payment! Offering! What ever the hell you people call it! Just give it to me! I know every human in your situation has one to give if they travel through here!"

"I-...I-I have no money." He seemed to exhale annoyed at her response. "B-B-But I ha-have these!"

He watched intently as her hands reached over, trembling harder, to her bag and he watched every moment intently. She reached to her bag, and pulled the top flap back with one hand, in an instant the sweet-sugary scent he'd been following this whole time intensified and she nearly flinched when you saw the way his eyes enlarged like a cat's when they saw a mouse. Instead she ever so slowly reached into the bag and pulled out a peice of cloth tied with a knot at the top, shaped lumpy with some visibly round objects. It was brought up to the monster held out, and his gaze was fully focused on it. He knew EXACTLY what was in that cloth before she even answered him again. His mouth instantly watered and his tongue flicked the inside of his fangs.

Peaches.

"H-Here. F-For you." She forced herself to smile.

He gave just the tiniest glance at her smile before he reacted in his own desires, her arm froze as the cloth was instantly snatched from herr hand and soon found itself within his claws, who didn't waste any time shredding through the cloth instead of just undoing the knot leaving the shreds to slowly float to the ground from his hands and inside amongst the shredded cloth in his hands was three small pieces of fruit. The small heart shaped pieces were cute looking in contrast to the clawed hands that held them, a pretty pink that faded to a yellow-tan color near the bottom. Not a blemish on them. Perfect. Sweet. And a delicacy to the tongue. He hadn't had them in so long...he couldn't even remember the last time he had one! He seemed almost in a trance as he stared at the perfect round things, savoring the sight just a bit longer to remember this moment by, before he could no longer resist the temptations. She flinched as a few peach juice droplets splashed against your hands and blinked. He had revealed his mouthful of fangs and bit through half of one peach with one bite, some pieces of the fruit falling to the ground. He exhaled slowly through his nose and his shoulders visibly relaxed. One more bite made the rest of the fruit disappear into his mouth like he was terribly hungry, then the second one followed the same fate as the first, gone in under a minute in two bites. It was by the third one that he even bothered to look at her again after all this time, where she had remained unmoving too. Was she still scared of him? Or was she waiting to see if he'd pick her for his own mate? Psh. Yeah right. As if he'd do that-...

Hm. On second thought. Maybe there was perks to having a human around-

After a moment he bothered to hum, arm reaching up to wipe at his mouth before he stood. "Not really a good dowry. Dam pathetic really." The last peach was tossed up and down in one hand. "The bare fucking minimum of expectations." Blue eyes carefully rolled over her form studying. She wasn't the worst looking. Infact it was an upgrade from most women he'd seen. ..Eh. She wasn't like the Master's wife, but her body looked strong and sturdy, and his senses indicated she was young and healthy. Early twenties tops....She might make a good servant. He hummed and then nodded. He'd check in with Kyogai first and make his choice from there. "But lucky for you, I'm feeling generous tonight. Hmph! You should be thankful!"

"S-So...Y-You're not going to hurt me?"

"If I wanted to hurt you, I would've struck you down the moment you stepped passed the tree line! Now stand up! We're leaving!"

She blinked.... "Leaving?"

He gestured at the dark. "Would you like me to leave you lost, alone, and in the dead of night where others are sure to find you?" He paused at what he said himself, because he hummed and turned his head upwards. She screamed quite a few times. Surely someone would've heard her, in fact someone might be coming towards them this moment. "With how much you stupidly screamed, I don't doubt others are already on their way here now." He growled with a scowl. "The bastards. Fighting like rats over a scrap of meat."

"N-NO!" He looked back to her as she forced herself on wobbling feet to stand before him. "I-I don't want to stay here! P-Please show me the way."

He seemed pleased with her answer because he huffed and one side of his mouth curled up in a smile. "That's more like it. If you're gonna be around me you need to step up your think-"

He didn't get to finish that sentence. In fact...He didn't get to even stand when a large hunk of branch flew past at lightning speed, and slammed right into the his side with a sickening crack sound. Wind flew past her from the sheer force of the throw, and the black robed demon was sent flying to the right and into a heap several yards away from where he initially stood. She stood frozen for a moment, the sight being too fast to comprehend what exactly had just happened. Then a horribly familiar voice spoke.

"Hands off the female! She's MY claim!!"

Her head snapped around, and she again shrieked as the insect-eyed demon has returned, hands fully intact and fangs bared towards the sight of another one of his kind as she stumbled back, eyes wide. A creaking sound was herd somewhere behind her followed by a loud thud and a deeper growl that reverberated off the wind and trees as a hiss sound escaped a black mass pushing themselves off the ground with many bone cracks and hissing noises until dangerously blue eyes cut through the dark right at the other.

"Dammed fools! You dare attack one of the Twelve Kizuki!?"

"I couldn't give a dam who you are! I staked my claim first! By law she's mine!"

And with that, he charged. She shrieked and ducked, arms coming to shield her head from the upcoming lunge but a black mass lunged faster, knocking the first one back into the trees as the two monsters rolled off. Something snapped within him. Perhaps it was all the pent up annoyance and anger at being challenged despite his rank. A whirlwind of claws and teeth they became. Crashing through tree branches, cutting one another, biting, each drawing blood from the other but he was stronger! He was faster!

He was superior!

So it wasn't very long that his opponent laid defeated. Silenced. Dead.

It wasn't a very long battle. Lasting under ten minutes. His wounds would heal within an hour or two. And he couldn't be in trouble for this, right? Surely he couldn't. Someone dared to challenge a Twelve Kizuki to battle and lost. Happened sometimes. And he had a right to fight since he insisted on fighting over the woman he still had unfinished business with. So he shouldn't be punished harshly for this. Although the fight was over, that did not stop his rage. For when he returned to claim what he had fought over, it was gone.

A piercing raged wail went through the night.

He couldn't believe this!! Did another one claim her while he was busy?! No. no. Couldn't have. He would've heard her shriek again. So that pathetic human must've taken the distraction and ran when he wasn't looking! DAMMIT!! And not only that-...

HIS LAST PEACH HAD BEEN CRUSHED IN THE FIGHT BEFORE HE COULD EVEN EAT IT!!!

He was angry! He was very, VERY ANGRY!! And he had to spend the rest of that night scrambling around trying to find this human, distracting him from his usual duties, and the scent going cold amongst the wind and other scents in the dam place! But now he was going to get in (maybe) trouble and won't get anything out of it.

....Oh so he thought.

One day went by.  Absolutely nothing. He was bitter, angry, and could do nothing but go back to do his own duties. Hopefully no one would notice or care about what happened. Everyone seemed too busy to pay him any mind anyways. Too busy struck by love-syndrome to really ever pay attention to himself. Which what he preferred anyways? It was best to leave him alone during these times anyways.

Two days go by and most of the bitterness had faded away, but he was still annoyed, stewing in the leftover bitterness that was attained from yesterday. Although an unexpected event happened, and it all happened as he was traveling along the Eastern tree line mindlessly. A very strong, and very important presence. Calling to him.

STRUM!

A forced pushed the back of his mind making him stumble in his step from how sudden it was. Like a mental rock was suddenly thrown on his shoulders, and it's weight made him lurch forward in real life, stumbling and throwing his arms out to catch himself against a tree. A feeling deep inside like something pulling his soul into a different box was tugging at his mind and it made him blink in confusion for a moment.

"What the fu-"

STRUM!!

His mind was pulled into a calling. It was like his conscious became thinned, light as air, and as nimble as a snake slithering through the lines of connection between himself and the bonds the Master's blood allowed them all to have. If he had one way of describing it, he would say it felt and looked like a tree rooted into their minds, different branches that were never the same but still connected to the same trunk in the end sharing the same deepened roots. The mind thread slithered ever closer to the thing that pulled and pulled and pulled him until he felt himself connecting to two others before him in this web of connections. He was thrown for a loop for a moment, but he quickly understood where he was and why he was here. One of the Twelve Kizuki wished him here, and the one responsible for bringing him here was just above him sitting silently. Upper Moon Five, Nakime, the one responsible for all transportation within this hivemind of threads. He reached out to that small thread sending a questioning thought for why she brought him here on such short notice. In return a thrum of an instrument vibrated within the wave lengths in return, and a mental arrow pointed to the third presence with them. And he followed her pointing. Who could it be who called him? Sensei Kokushibo? It wasn't the Master. The presence wasn't intimidating to him in the least.

"Kaigaku. I'm glad you answered my calling."

Kyogai!? What the hell could that lower moon want with him!? Especially now!? "What do you want!? I'm busy!"

He thought he heard Kyogai mentally sigh."I have something to ask you concerning some events which occurred last night."

"WHAT!?"

"Last night two intruders broke into my home."

"And? It's not my fault most of your staff are girls! You deal with your own territory and don't cry to me about not being able to do your job! If you want me to scare some dam idiots into submission, you can wait until I'm done!"

"You not doing your job is precisely my point! One of the dam insects claimed they were chasing a human bride through the woods!" The anger in the other presence fell silent. What did Kyogai just say? Human bride? In his home? "It's YOUR job to patrol the east side of the mountain and make sure no strangers enter or any demons leave the forest to that side of the mountain! Clearly you aren't doing your job good enough!"

There was silence for a few seconds as the younger presence thought on what he said. "You have the human?"

"I have no human!  DO. YOUR. DAM. JOB!! NEXT TIME SOMETHING LIKE THIS HAPPENS I'M REPORTING YOUR MESS UP TO KOKUSHIBO AND THE MASTER!! DO NOT LET SOMETHING LIKE THIS HAPPEN AGAIN! CONSIDER THIS YOUR ONLY WARNING!! Nakime, I am done with this message."

"NO! WAI-"

STRUM!!

The connection of the two wavelengths were cut off with a harsh strum of a bawa string, like a knife through hot butter, and there was a slight pain from the severed connection. He was thrown forward fast and with a gasp of air, was released from the wavelengths harshly without warning, ended up colliding face first into the tree he previously grabbed and slid down it to his knees coughing from the air knocked from his lungs. But he allowed the sweet silence to cascade over his body as he breathed. And there was silence. ....before a growl escaped his throat and bark splintered under his fingernails as blue eyes narrowed.

"Kyogai."

That was how he found himself in front of the infamous mansion throwing open the front door and making the sound spook any servant that was close enough to see his angered form stomp his way inside. This wasn't his first time here. Not by a longshot. He'd seek shelter here many a times before since it was so close to where he patrolled so it was very convenient for him, so much so that the older demon who ruled this home had been kind enough to give him his own room whenever he dropped by. Those whom saw him instantly bowed as his form stomped past them all one footfall after another.

"Lord Kaigaku. Good afternoon to you," one woman greeted with a bow but he ignored her in favor of stomping forward.

Further and further into the mansion he went, many servants bowing to the young lord but he paid them no attention. The scents around here all mixed with various different demons, but mostly Kyogai's. Kyogai was much more powerful compared to them all, so of course most of everything in here smelt of him. There was also the faint smell of blood. ...So Kyogai wasn't lying about intruders walking into his home. Which only made him more suspicious. Nothing really seemed out of place until he turned one corner in the mansion and paused.

"Found you."

And he stomped towards the smell. The very familiar smell he remembered from two nights ago. The very one he'd been trying to find these last two days was here, and he sure as hell wasn't letting her get off that easily. He quickened his pace speed walking through hallway after hallway ignoring the sudden bowing demons or any demons that were thrown his way, after one thing in particular. It got stronger and stronger and he was eventually able to pinpoint it to one room behind one door in particular. Heavy and quick footsteps went right up to the sliding door, his hand reaching out to grab it hard enough that some claw marks were  left behind by his claws and in one fluid, powerful motion he threw the door back hard enough to made a loud slam echo through the halls.

SLAM!!

There was a loud gasp, almost shriek at the sudden door open, and a woman whipped her head to him. F/c eyes met blue and he let a growl come out of his throat.

"It's about dam time I fucking found you."

**********************************************************************

You leaned back in the chair blissfully unaware of the approaching footsteps stomping their way towards your room. It had been a little while since Eri had left and left you just sitting there with nothing to do but keep your hurt leg submerged in the cold bucket of water. There was literally nothing you could do to keep yourself entertained other than to day dream of everything you wanted to do once you got out of here with your newfound freedom. Maybe that's why you didn't hear the stomping coming straight towards your room-

STOMP. STOMP. STOMP. STOMP-

Or the door being grabbed hard enough to leave claw indents in them.

SLAM!!

Making you gasp and whip your head to the thundering storm looming in the doorway only to meet blue eyes.

"It's about dam time I fucking found you."

You almost shrieked upon first laying eyes upon the demon who just barged into your room. Mostly because the entrance he gave scared you but you nearly shrieked again when the menacing form stepped in. Until you paused...and just stared at him. The demon didn't look much older than yourself, wearing a scowl on his face but not a dangerous scowl that said 'I'm going to murder you'. It was more of a really, really annoyed scowl like the ones Sanemi used to wear. Still made you nervous, but not to the point where you felt in danger. You watched with wide eyes as he stomped until he stood directly in front of you with that scowl of his, staring you down. His black cloaks looked torn and dirtied on him and here and there was small dirt smudged on his gray skin.

Wait a second. You knew this demon, but where did you see him?

You jumped as a black claw was suddenly pointed at your face. "Do you know how foolish you made me look defending you from that dam parasite!? I could have been killed for all you knew and you had the gall to leave without seeing if I died!!"

Oh right. He was the one who initially saved you from that first demon! You'd forgotten him up until this point. In the light he was a lot less intimidating.

"I should've left you to be made into someone's housewife than waste my time wi-"

"Are you alright?''

He paused. You stared at him concerned. He just stared back at you blankly for a moment. "...What?"He shook his head. "Of course I'm-"

He froze when your hand just grabbed his own and yanked. And he leaned forward, the surprising action catching him off guard. Especially when he felt something soft reached up and touch his face. And he just stood there as you squinted your eyes at him. One hand on his cheek, the other firmly around his left wrist as you took the chance to look over him. Despite his dirtied and ragged looking clothes, he seemed to be completely fine other than being angry, but you'd seen scarier. From Sanemi no less. Your eyes wondered over him and seemed satisfied to not see any damage to his body, so you released his wrist and face despite him staying stunned leaned over.

"I'm glad you're ok. That sounded like a bad fight you got into, and I'm sorry you had to go through that for my sake." Just apologize now and get it over with. You didn't want to owe anyone anything after you left here, including apologies, and he did have a point as much as you'd hate to admit it. He did spare you from that vulgar insect-eyed demon you first ran into and got in the way when it lunged back at you. Just remain calm. Everything would be fine if you just remained calm. It was then you bowed while still sitting in the chair which hindered your movement, but you did still bow to the best of your abilities. "I thank you for all the help and kindness you've shown me, and I apologize again for running off. I was scared and lucky to be alive." You then looked back up to his face. "And I'm not lying when I say I do hope you're ok. I'd hate for anyone else to get hurt because of me." And you were genuine with what you said. "Are you sure you're alright?"

The demon above you just-....Dumbfoundedly stared down at you. As if he lost all ability to think and act for himself. And ever patient you just continued to stare back silently at him. In total silence. Until you smiled to break the awkward silent tension and that small gesture finally seemed to snap him out of it because he blinked...before scowling and ripping his body away from you.

He opened his mouth and pointed at you...before closing his mouth and just growling before turning his head away. "I'm fine! Like I would allow myself to be hurt by someone beneath me! And you should be grateful to me! I could've left you to be taken by predators!"

You chose to not argue with him and honestly you didn't have the energy to deal with another Sanemi-like tantrum on top of your leg being hurt. If a small compromise of your pride meant peace, then it'd be better in the long run. Although you were not planning on seeing this demon again so soon.

"Whatever you say, but what are you doing here?" He turned slightly and cocked a thick brow at your question, a hum escaping his throat. "I wasn't expecting to ever see you again no offense, so why are you here now?"

He stared at you like you were dumb before scowling harder. "Are you dense!? I came here for you, Moron!"

Your brow rose now. "Me? Now why would you want to find me?"

"Because I need to toss you out! THAT'S WHY!!" A hand pointed a thumb behind his shoulder with a small growl from his throat. "If you hadn't come in here, I wouldn't be at risk for being punished! Who knows what'll happen to me if I don't make you leave!! Now get up!" He demanded with a 'come on' gesture. "You've plagued my existence long enough!" You...did not get up and only stared at him. "Well what are you waiting for!? I said GET UP!!"

"I can't."

"Why not!?"

"My leg was injured. That's why!" You frowned and gestured to your leg which still was dunked in the bucket of cold water. "I can't even stand let alone walk! Exactly how do you expect me to follow you out of here?"

He looked down at your leg, blinking as it just seemed to dawn on him that indeed your leg was in an awkward position. "What the hell- What are you doing sticking your leg in a fucking pail of water?"

"Trying to get the swelling to go down. The water's ice cold!," you deadpanned back at him he seemed to be annoyed again as he looked from your leg back to your face. "What? It's not my fault. One of those stupid monsters hurt me!"

"OH FOR FUCKS SAKE!!" At this point he threw his arms up looking both defeated and frustrated. "FINE!! Then I'll just take you to the human settlements Douma runs! One of them must have a healer! I am NOT getting in trouble for someone else harming a human!"

"I don't think that's a good ide-AH!!"

He didn't give you any warnings with two black sleeved arms just shoved themselves behind your back and under your knees before you were just roughly lifted up into a bridal style position in his arms. The bucket of water nearly spilling over from your sudden lift off via the demon who held you in his arms frustrated. On instinct your hands latched onto the front of his blackened robes which made him look down at you for a moment, taking in your wide eyed stare back up at him..Before he just wrenched his look away and turn you both around towards the door.

"W-WAIT!! I don't think this is a good idea! You could get in trouble more!"

He scoffed with an eye roll. "Oh, please. Who would stop me?"

"KAIGAKU!!!"

Your head snapped back to the still open door and the demon bristled. Muscles going rigid as an 'Oh crap-' expression flashed across his face, and then the footsteps, hurried and heavy came running down the hallway.

THUDTHUDTHUDTHUDTHUDTHUD-

Something big, heavy, and furious came running down the hallway and both you and the demon only watched as the floor shook under his feet. No escape as the thing came closer and closer- Until a giant clawed hand slammed harshly onto the doorframe making the demon holding you flinch and stumble a couple steps back as the looming form of Kyogai pushed his way into the doorway and stood above both of you much taller. You were confused looking between the now paled face of the demon holding you, and the furious look in Kyogai's blue and red eyes narrowed at the younger demon, breathing heavily from running all the way to here. You could only sit there awkwardly looking between the two demons staring each other down...Until your brow rose, and you decided to speak up.

"Kyogai?"

In an instant, his eyes snapped to you, and he blinked seeming to notice you finally, and froze. His blue eyes stared at your equally confused face, before they slowly roamed over across to where your hands gripped the black haired demon's front, then to said demon's arms holding you. Blue eyes widened for a second, but only a second, because instantly they narrowed into slits, a growl you hadn't heard him give before escaping his throat, and ever so slowly he pointed a hand right. At. The. Demon holding you.

"Put. Her. Back. Now."

The demon holding you stayed frozen in place for a moment longer before finally scowling back and pulling you closer to him. "Fuck off!"

"What are you even planning on doing with her!?," Kyogai demanded throwing up his hands, "She has no use to you!"

"I'm not getting in trouble because Little Miss Lost decided to wonder in and get herself hurt!!"

"HEY!" You scowled back at him but he ignored you staring down the taller demon with another growl.

"Wha- WHAT WAS YOUR PLAN ON FIXING THIS!? Dumping her outside the Eastern Tree Line!? She can't even walk! You'll end up killing her leaving her for dead, you dim witted beetle!"

He growled baring his fangs back. "That's why I was taking her to Douma's settlements!! He has one or two human healers so they ought to know how to fix her! And Douma's good at handling new human pets, so it'd be the perfect place for her!" Kyogai's face immediately twisted to one of horror as you shot him a look. "If I deliver her to a human settlement, then I won't be in trouble if she's with her own kind! Douma's always up for taking in more humans anyways.''

"Excuse me!," you yelled at him.

"W H A T!?"

The home shook. Literally. The entire mansion shook, lurched a bit from it's master's rage built into it making the demon holding you wobble and nearly drop you from how much he stumbled and you increased your grip on him yelping at the home's groaning creaks. As if the entire mansion was alive with his anger.

THUD!!

Kyogai slammed a single foot down leaning forward all of a sudden and got into the face of the younger demon who half paused half scowled at the older demon. "Now you listen to me you dam tantrum throwing insect! She is not even FIT for travel even if you carried her with the speed and grace of a swan! It was your own fault that this all happened in the first place! Maybe if you did your job and actually pay attention these things wouldn't have happened! Now would they!? This is why you haven't become an Upper Moon yet because Kokushibo still has to teach you the basics of the duties!!"

"How dare you speak to me that way!? IM A HIGHER RANK THAN YOU!!!''

"You're only a higher rank because of your strength and speed, and because Kokushibo has taken you on as his student so the Master was generous enough to grant you a position within the Twelve Kizuki! Otherwise you wouldn't even have the pleasure of being able to argue with me right now!" The younger demon flinched when a clawed finger roughly jabbed his chest. "AND LIKE HELL I'M ALLOWING DOUMA ANYWHERE NEAR HERE!!! THAT PERVERTED EMPTY SHELL OF A MAN CAN'T THINK OF ANYTHING BUT HIS OWN PERVERTED DESIRES AND I'LL NOT SUBJECT MY WOMEN STAFF OR THAT HUMAN TO ANY OF IT!!!"

"THAT'S WHY I SAID I'M TAKING HER TO DOUMA, NOT THE OTHER WAY AROUND!! YOUR 'PRECIOUS STAFF' SHOULD BE PROTECTED IF THAT MAKES YOU FEEL BETTER-"

"DAM YOU!! GIVE ME THE HUMAN!!" You squealed out as two larger hands hooked from under your body and again you found yourself being lifted into the arms of a demon, Kyogai to be in fact. He lifted you up and out of the smaller demon's hands. You blinked and looked up at him.

"HEY!! You have no claim to her!!," the black haired demon shouted back pointing at you.

"Oh! And I suppose you have?"

"YES!! Of matter of fact I do! Since she gave me her dowry!!" He huffed proud of himself and crossed his arms, and for once Kyogai went silent. Allowing this new demon to smugly turn his head.

"....What?"

"Yes! That girl-" He pointed at you. "-gave me her dowry which means she was interested in me! And I accepted, so obviously I DO get the final say in her! So I demand as a higher up and as my claim you hand her over to me!!"

You face palmed and Kyogai continued to stare at him silently before looking to you obviously for answers. After a moment you dared to look at him, and sighed.

"It's a misunderstanding," you cleared up. "Because first of all, and for the last time, I AM NOT A BRIDE!! I never was a bride before, I'm NOBODY'S bride now, and I never WILL be someone's bride!" You practically shouted into the air, frustrated at the constant bad hand life's always dealt you. And then you pointed at the smug jerk's face as he blinked. "Second of all, the only reason I'm here is because I got lost and then chased by some simple minded men who couldn't treat women with respect! That 'dowry' I gave you wasn't even a dowry! I just thought you wanted a payment in return for rescuing me from that beast!! And even then, I'm not going anywhere I don't know! I'm staying here and waiting for a doctor to come see me!!"

The black haired demon continued to stare at you for a long moment as you frowned back at him. "....So you're not interested in me? I thought it was pretty obvious."

Kyogai looked like he wanted to lash into him again but you stopped him before he could. "I never even got your name. What's your name?"

The black haired demon regarded you for a moment before huffing. "Kaigaku. Lower Moon one of the Twelve Kizuki. It'd do you good to remember it."

You nodded calmly. "Well, Kaigaku, I'm glad to meet you, but you're looking a little ragged. You should rest and have someone fix your clothes."

Kyogai perked up seeming to catch onto what you were doing because he was quick to calm himself. "She is right, Kaigaku. You look stressed and dirtied. You should rest and allow my staff to look over you."

He looked about ready to protest but you smiled and stopped him. "A member of the Twelve Kizuki needs to look presentable. It wouldn't be proper to allow yourself to fall into disarray, how'd that make you look to the others?"

To your surprise, Kaigaku actually hummed and looked as if he was actually considering it before he grunted. "Fine. But don't think I'm doing it because you asked. It's only deserving I get a break for everything I've done."

Kyogai's eyelid twitched, but managed to retain his rage. "Of course. Please, allow me." You yelped when all of a sudden you were hiked up to be cradled within one arm as his other, now free arm, went to one of the drums on his legs tapping it twice.

BUM! BUM!

Two seconds passed and a moment later there was footsteps and a random demon woman stopped in the doorway before bowing to the taller demon. "You called me, Lord Kyogai?" Wow. They were fast around here.

"Yes. Prepare the mens' bath for Lord Kaigaku, and send someone to address his garments. Tell the cook to prepare him a meal and have Ami prepare his room for his stay with us."

"And have Eri look him over as well."

Everyone looked at you as you stared at Kaigaku and pointed. "I don't like it that he got into a fight because of me, and I don't want him hurt. So just in case have Eri look him over."

"..I don't need a second opinion on my own body! I know my limits and strengths! I would know if I was injured!"

"Yes. But it would make me feel better, and I mean it when I said I don't want anyone hurt over me." You reached out and grabbed his hand making him freeze as you stared at him sadly. "...Please?"

...He opened his mouth- ....And closed it before yanking his hand away. "Fine! But I'll only do it as a part of the luxery I'm entitled too! Not for anyone worry especially a woman's!"

"Then I shall send Eri to look you over once you've settled. Mayla! Escort Kaigaku to the baths and carry out my other orders."

Mayla. (Was that her name?) She only simply bowed deeper before leaning back up. "As you wish, My Lord. Lord Kaigaku, please follow me."

"I've been here before I know where it is!," he mumbled but started off after Mayla as she turned and began to walk off but not before shoot Kyogai a look. "I expect to be informed on what the hell's happened in between my time last seeing the human."

"Oh you will be." Kyogai narrowed his eyes back. Wait until he heard about the Master already knowing about this. That ought to get this brat to shut up. He held eye contact and watched until Kaigaku (reluctantly) disappeared out of the door following Mayla and his footsteps disappeared, before he finally allowed his body to relaxed and he slowly looked back down to you still in his arms. "Are you alright? He didn't harm you did he?"

"Um...No. B-But could you put me back down? T-This is kind of awkward."

He blinked....and his face lit up a pink. "UH!! R-Right! Y-Yes! W-What was I thinking!? Apologies!" He was quick to set you back down gently in the chair before plopping your hurt leg back into the bucket with a small splash sound. Quickly retracting his hands away from your body afterwards. "H-Here! I-Is this better?"

You nodded. "Yes. Much better thank you." Your head tilted back towards the door. "But who was that just now?"

"That mess was one of my colleges. Lower Moon One of the Twelve Kizuki although if you ask me he does not deserve the generous rank!....But how do you know him is what I would like to know!?"

You shrugged. "I ran into him by accident when I first came in here. He saved me from an attacker-" Kyogai's brows rose in surprise at that. "-but then he ate all the food I had left for doing so. He called it a 'dowry' but at the time I just thought he wanted some payment in return for saving me. I guess that was yet another misunderstanding wasn't it?"

"Kaigaku expressed interest in a dowry? From a woman?.....Kaigaku!?" he blinked.

"Oh. Is that...bad?"

"I am...Unsure." Kyogai then mumbled and reached a hand to rub his temples with a sigh. "I see I have yet another thing to fix around here. I don't get paid enough for this."

"Oh...Well, Kyogai." He jumped when he felt you reach out and grab his hand in thanks blinking from under his thanks. "Thank you again for saving me! You're a real life saver. Was Eri able to treat you yet?"

His brain froze for a second, before with his cheeks pink he pulled his hand away and held it up. "UH! N-Not yet! I-I'm afraid she was interrupted by Kaigaku's presence!"

You blinked. "Oh. Well return to her and let her finish up healing you."

"YES!! I-I will! I-I return her to assist you as soon as possible," he slowly backed away and out of the room, "Please remain here and call one of the s-servants to help you." A hand grabbed the door and slid it shut quickly. "I-I'll make sure to have a word with Kaigaku. D-Don't worry."

You rose a brow at the sudden exit and even more so at the hurried footsteps retreating from the door. What the world just happened?

[averagewriter-inthedark]

When It’s Cold, I’d Like To Die 🌨 | TGM Imagine- Apocalypse AU

Set in an alternate world during a zombie apocalypse

TGM masterlist

Characters & Pairings: female!reader x Dagger Squad (platonic), slight Bradley Bradshaw x female!reader (implied romance), sister!oc x female reader (platonic/sisters)

Content Warnings: MAJOR angst & MAJOR character death (read at your own risk). Profanity. Emotional, sad, light fluff at the end (sorta a happy ending), apocalypse!au, light spoilers for TLOU (one scene is loosely inspired by one from Ep.2) | female!reader (she/her) wc: 7.5k

Premise: 2019 was the last year humanity could laugh and have fun without a care in the world. Then in November the world was turned upside down when a deadly virus swept though causing humans to turn into beings they only saw in movies. Seven years after the outbreak, the Top Gun special detachment have remained a team, but in the way they predicted obviously. They’ve survived things no training from the Navy could’ve prepared them for. Now years later, they’ve wondered to Seattle with hopes of returning to California by down….but for a couple of them, it’s their last stop.

Note: I’m sorry. Again. - Bee 🐝

———————————————

Date: 30 November 2026 –7 Years, 0 Months, and 20 Days since the outbreak

It’s been 12 hours. Another 12 and my brain will be consumed by the virus making me one of the things I’ve spent years fighting. No one knows. Everything happened so fast after the ambush that I rushed to get my gloves on before anyone could notice the bite mark just below my thumb. The veins have already started to appear, my muscles aching with light spasms I try to hide when no one is looking. So far they’ve only reached my elbow…but once they reach my neck It’s rapid from there. Then the foam will leave my mouth, my pupils will dilate to the point you can barely make out the white. I guess I should start figuring out what to do before I either lose my mind or end things before it gets worse.

I fear Maverick is onto me, but maybe he fears I’m onto him. His behavior has changed just as mine, becoming drawn away from the rest as we set sights on heading south for the winter. When he thinks I’m not looking I catch him fidgeting with his pant leg. Like he’s trying to make sure it’s covering his skin…..Maybe I wasn’t the only one to be bitten—not sure if I should find comfort at the fact I may not have to go through this alone, or just as hopeless with the fact it’s Mav. Once the others discover our my secret I’m scared they’re gonna lose faith. We’re so close to the rumored safe haven—so so close that we could get there by the end of the week…..but it looks like they're gonna have to continue without me.

We’ve been together as a team for seven years—before the outbreak even happened. I still remember the smell of the ocean and the feel of the felt on the pool table against my fingertips. The taste of draft beer that I once hated almost seems nostalgic since I haven’t had it in years. I can still hear the laughter from Bradley and Javy when Jake tried chatting up a pretty blonde who turned out to be married to an admiral. I wonder what happened to her….did she survive that night? Did she last a week? A year? Is she out there now wondering about the country like us?

With my eyes closed I can still picture the news coverage. The initial confusion filling my veins followed by a rush of anxiety that what I was witnessing was real. Then the panic erupting from everyone in the bar. Some rushed out immediately, likely rushing to get to their families. All of us who stayed did our best to board up the windows and doors with whatever we could find. Those of us with weapons in our cars were all so nervous about using them for the first time. Poor Bob didn’t know how to handle his gun and Mav being the saint he is, helped Bob when chaos was happening around them. Just picturing myself that night…shooting a person that didn’t even look human trying to break through the barrier. The revolver in my hand shook by how horrified I was and when I looked at Nat she mirrored my expression. I forgot what happened to my little revolver…it lasted me a good six months into the outbreak before we snuck on base and stole everything we could.

It’s crazy how everything changed in the blink of an eye. One second we’re all celebrating the success of an impossible mission, the Navy’s best fighter pilots. The next…we’re fighting for our lives in a war we only saw in movies. For the first year as humanity attempted to adapt to the new reality, we all traveled across different areas of the country to find our families. Radio and communications were lost early, with the only relying source was to go to our homes and see if they were there. Unfortunately, we never found most of the team’s loved ones. And those we did were already turned or on the brink of. I’ll never forget Javy’s face having to put his parents out of their misery. Same with Nat to her siblings. The only people we found who were healthy and joined our expedition were Bob’s cousin, Mickey’s brothers, and my sister, Jamie. While there was joy finding them, it came with heartbreak.

We lost Omaha first, then Harvard and Yale in one night. Fritz was shortly after marking one year of the outbreak when we thought a building was clear and turned out a stray was lurking underground. Every now and then I’m surprised Rooster and Hangman haven’t killed each other. In the beginning they were always butting heads on what to do, with a knife being pulled out one time that ended with Mav threatening to send them on their own if they couldn’t get their act together.

I’m still mad about losing Hondo, Halo, Penny, and Amelia—It wasn’t even one of the bastards who got them, the damn war between the army and these militia groups has taken more lives nowadays than the virus. The large cities are where most of it happens—and unfortunately we happened to be passing Vegas during turmoil. The conflict arose in the months after the outbreak. It’s understandable really—everyone was pissed that the government failed to prepare after it was revealed they had knowledge that a possible deadly virus would be on the loose. But it’s gotten out of hand. Too out of hand.

I know Mav hasn’t been the same since Penny died. Maybe that’s why he’s not looking too panicked at the idea he could be reuniting with her by the end of the day.

Nothing good came out of that night besides stealing military armored vehicles. That’s made traveling from coast to coast easier with the new jobs we’ve taken up. Fightertown, the once home of Top Gun, is now our base of operations. We’re currently in Seattle with the plan to leave for California tonight, but I won’t be making that drive. Not when I’m already feeling the changes in my psychological well being shift. Jaime is now 16 and I want nothing more than for her to survive this damn apocalypse—to go on and actually live the life she deserves. Not waking up every morning with the fear it would be her last. She’s been traumatized enough with everything she’s seen and I know it’s going to be difficult for her without me. But she’s the strongest girl I’ve ever met. She can survive this all. And I know the squad will take care of her. They’ll keep her safe until their final breath.

That last mission I’ll keep close to me even after I’m gone. They’re my family—my only family I’ve known for the last seven years. We’ve survived so much together. And I pray that whoever stands above all will keep them safe from here on out. Maybe one day they’ll see the world how it once was. That’s my last wish for them.

To find peace.

6 Hours later

Twirling the match box in her hand, Lt. Y/n ‘Pepper’ L/n, relished in watching the sun make its descent on her final day of life. The colors were beautiful, painting the sky an array of pinks and oranges. Sunsets in the Pacific Northwest were always beautiful. She was glad she got to witness another one last time.

She was sitting on the steps of a courthouse, the others inside behind her going over plans or packing the vehicles. Jaime was tossing a ball she found with Mickey’s brothers, giggling when it accidentally hit one of them in the head. Trying to remain composed, she closed her eyes and breathed in the air. It almost felt fresh and clean. Not the polluted with lingering decomposition of human flesh scent she was accustomed to.

No. Tonight it was nice. Actually comforting with the cool breeze of the wind.

“Twenty minutes we’re out,” Jake called from the doorway. “Pep, we need ya in her’.”

“Alright,” she signed, pulling herself up and putting the match box in her jacket pocket. Making sure the clothing was zipped all the way, Pepper cranked her neck to make it look like she was stretching, all while fighting the urge to twitch. Adjusting her gloves next she grabbed the canteen of water off the step and moved inside where the team were holding up. The teenagers behind her raced in after, only to receive some looks when they made a lot of noise.

When scouting the area for refuge the squad checked the surrounding proximity for any undead. Big cities were hives for them, and one loud noise such as an explosion or a simple blast of a shotgun could trigger a mob. Since they started their cargo transport ‘business’ they’ve mastered avoiding the undead when traveling to populated cities.

A moment passes, everyone glancing around for the sounds of disturbance. When nothing happened they visibly relaxed and signaled it was okay to talk.

“Sorry,” Ray, the oldest of Mickey’s two brothers, mumbled.

“It’s okay, buddy,” he told him, “Just remember to be careful next time. Okay?” The teen nodded, moving to sit next to Sammy, and Bob’s cousin Allison.

“What’s it looking like?” Nat was the first to ask, Bob coming to stand in front of the table with the large map displayed.

“The gas we have in the trucks will last us till the Oregon-California border. Portland is four hours from here, and then it’ll likely be another four or so to the border if we don’t run into any trouble. We’re gonna have to stop to refill the takes and then we can either decide to haul it to Sacramento— where I’ve already notified the base camp there we’re planning to stop so they’re getting stuff ready for us—or we can try to find a place at the border to rest.”

“I say we go to the base,” Javy said, rummaging through his pack for a snack. “I wouldn’t trust the border—could be scavengers hiding out for passerbyers.”

“Yeah, but Sacramento’s being hit with conflict,” Payback pointed out with a tired sigh.

“But if we haul for the long run tonight then it should die down by morning. You know how it is…It’s at night these things usually happen.”

“Both of you are right,” Rooster steps in, frowning down at the map with his arms crossed. “We stop at the border we could be ambushed, but if we go to Sacramento we’ll walk right into a war.”

None noticed how quiet Y/n was, fidgeting with her thumbs as they discussed. There was no need for her to give input. Not when she was gonna be likely dead within the hour.

“Well we need to decide,” Nat says sternly, the exhaustion evident in her tone. “I want us to be out of here in fifteen minutes—so either we vote, you two rock, paper, scissors it or we flip a coin.” Rooster almost considers it but then turns to the oldest member of their squadron.

“What do you think, Mav?”

The former pilot blinked several times, not realizing his name had been said and quickly recovered. Pepper’s anxiety rose…he was showing signs. “I-I yeah..I think you-we, we should go to Sacramento.”

‘Fuck,’ Y/n dropped her head in silent thought.

The others didn’t seem to notice the slip up and continued on. “Well that settles it,” Jake clapped his hands, “Let’s finish packin’ up and get the hell outta her’.” There was distress expressed by those who were worried about what lay ahead in Sacramento. For Y/n, her heart was racing by what she needed to do next.

“Jaime,” she called her sister over softly, the teen coming to stop in front of her. “How are you doing tonight?”

“Fine,” she drawled with a shrug. “Not looking forward to being cooped up in a van for the next eight plus hours…but I plan to sleep the entire time.”

“Good,” Y/n brushed some hair behind Jaime’s ear, letting her gloved hand softly liner against her cheek. It was shaking lightly, but Y/n managed to not let her sister notice. “Me too. That sounds like a good plan. I uh—,” she reached into her pants pocket, removing a small booklet. “I’ve been hanging onto this for a while and I thought you should have it. Maybe you can keep it safe since I almost lost it when we were in Denver.”

Jaime took the booklet, examining it. “What is it?”

“Open it and find out.”

Doing so, Jaime felt tears spring in her eyes when the booklet revealed Polaroid photos of not just the team from the past years, but ones of her and Y/n’s family. “W-where did you get this?”

“When we found you back at the house and after I….I won’t say,” she was referring to having to shoot their parents and brother who had turned. Jaime was hiding in the attic when they found her, malnourished and living off of rice cakes and water. “But I went through the house to find things that were sentimental. And well, I made sure to grab photos so we could always remember what they looked like.” Y/n felt a bile of emotion in her throat, swallowing it down. “It’s yours now. Take care of it.”

Jaime closes the book and wraps the thread around it to keep it together. Then her arms go around Y/n’s waist, causing her to stumble a bit, but hold her sister nonetheless. “Thank you,” she said. “I’ll keep it safe. I promise.”

The booklet was the last piece Y/n had of their family. All it contained were the photographs. Keeping their memory alive as a happy one rather than the painful last image of having to execute them to put them out of their misery. Only a few times a year Y/n would flip through the photos, and read over the handwritten notes of her mother and father she found. Now it was time to pass them to Jaime. So she could have them and also remember Y/n.

Pulling away from the hug, Y/n places her hands on Jaime’s shoulders and looks deep into her eyes. “Promise me something, kiddo.” The teen gave a short nod and Y/n took a sharp breath. “Promise me that whatever happens to me, you’ll always fight. You’ll move forward and continue to survive. Promise that you won’t give up no matter what happens okay?” Jaime appeared taken aback by the request, not liking the idea she may have to one day continue without her sister. “Promise, kiddo. I need to hear you say it.”

“Why are you asking me this now, Y/n?”

“Because It would bring me peace knowing you are going to be okay,” Y/n offers a small smile. “I want reassurance you would never give up just because I’m not there. You’re stronger than that. And I need you to promise me you will be.”

Eyes still watery, Jaime sniffs and gives her sister a nod, “I promise I’ll try.”

“That’s all I can, kiddo. For you to try,” she brings her into another hug, feeling eyes on her and looks up to see Maverick with a sympathetic expression.

He knows.

“It’s you and me against the world, right?” Y/n holds her close, resting her head on top of Jaime’s, who then repeats, “You and me against the world.”

“Go wait in the van with the others while we finish up here,” before sending her off, Y/n places a comforting kiss on Jaime's head with the soft whisper of ‘I love you.’ The teenager wanted to question her sister’s behavior, but followed the order anyway despite the feeling in her gut starting to form.

Once Jaime, Sammy, Ray, and Allison were outside, leaving just the squad, Y/n’s voice echoed against the silence, “I can’t go with you.” Everyone stopped what they were doing, Maverick off to the side with his hands on his hips and all of them waiting for the former pilot to say she was joking. Holding her hands together, she keeps her gaze on the floor.

Jake scoffed, “Now’s not the time to joke, Pep. We’re leaving in five—.”

“I’m not going,” she snaps, “I can’t go.” Her arm twitches, catching the attention of Rooster, who unconsciously takes a step forward causing her to move back. “Don’t get close to me, please,” she falls to a whisper, letting her eyes drift up to find the mixed reactions from her friends. Some were ashen—already understanding what she was trying to say while a couple appeared confused, not yet catching on.

“Y/n…” Nat’s tone becomes strained. Not wanting to accept the possibility.

“I’m sorry,” she looks at each of them, but Jake just shakes his head and demands, “Show us.” Removing the gloves first, Y/n’s hand trembles as she reaches up to unzip her jacket, shrugging it off her body to reveal the veins taking up the entire right side of her body. Her tank top showed where it was heading. They crept just halfway up her neck, meaning she was far into the infection that she only had a few hours before she fully succumbed.

“Fucking hell,” Jake turned away as Mickey and Bob immediately went distraught. Rooster and Nat simply remained frozen.

“When did this happen, Pepper?” Payback gently asked, trying to contain his reaction. All of them were already feeling the impending loss, and were all thinking the same thing: Who’s gonna be the one to do it?

“Eighteen hours ago…”

“During that ambush at the Hospital?” Javy was next to question her.

“Yeah,” she sadly replied, moving her hand a bit to show the bite. “Fucker that tackled me from the side got me as I was knifing him.”

“And you kept it from us?” Jake shouted, anger in his eyes. Y/n remained calm, knowing his reaction was justified. “This whole time you knew you were infected. And you didn’t say a word until now. Why?”

She tilted her head like it was obvious, “what the hell was I supposed to do, Jake? What would have you done? Shoot me right there?” She saw him still, making her scoff, “Forgive me for wanting a few more hours of peace with you guys and my sister before I end things.” Now that had everyone, minus Mav, eyes to go wide. Again she scoffed, “You really think I was gonna let it consume me? Or put one of y’all in the position to kill me? No,” she shakes her head, “no, I wanted you guys to be off to California before that happened. Honestly I would’ve just left hours ago with no word to spare you all, but…you probably would’ve searched for me.”

Some had to look away at that. She was right, they would have come looking for her. Even if they feared she had turned they’d at least want closure instead of wondering what happened.

“Seven years though,” she tried to laugh. “Not bad when you think about it. Would’ve hoped to make it to ten but life surprises you in mysterious ways. Now I’ll just have to root for Y’all on the side lines. I’ll kinda be pissed though if they somehow find a cure within the next month.”

No one knew how to respond. Quite frankly they didn’t want to. They were all dealing with having to adjust without Y/n going forward. Some didn’t want to accept it.

“Pep, we can try to figure something out—,” Nat tries to say, but Y/n spins to face her.

“What? figure out what, Nat?” She gestures to her arm. “I’m too far gone, okay? I have less than six hours at most—I won’t make it to Sacramento. And even if I were to….they’ll shoot me the second they see me. I’m not letting Jaime see that.” Y/n faces Rooster with a desperate look, tears threatening her eyes. “She doesn’t know,” she could see the heartbreak in his gaze.

Over the years Rooster and Pepper had grown close. At first it was just solely due to the connection they formed in the Navy which grew more at Top Gun. But when the end of the world is happening and there’s not many people in your life….things tend to happen.

They never put a label on it. At no point referring to the other as their ‘partner/significant other,’ but at night they’d bunk together. Rode in the same trucks. Had each other’s six. Sometimes they’d get involved in more intimate scenarios….. Maybe one can call it love, but they had a deep respect and admiration for each other.

“Take care of her for me,” she tells him. “Promise me you will.”

Rooster doesn’t hesitate, “I will.” Y/n swallows, nodding with thanks before adding, “She may fight you when she realizes you’re leaving without me. Sedate if you have to. Keep her from trying to come back.”

They had just gone to an abandoned hospital to retrieve supplies. It was where Y/n, and possibly Mav, got bit. In their search they got plenty of medical equipment including sedatives.

“I’ll do it,” Nat says, bringing a hand up to wipe her eyes. There were tears already escaping. The woman goes over to one of the backpacks and pulls out a bottle with a syringe to prepare it just in case she had to use it. Her hands were shaking, and before she knew it Mav was crouching beside her to take the syringe and do it himself.

“Here,” he hands it back to her, now full of the liquid. She thanks him softly before placing it in her jacket pocket.

At that moment an ugly screech fills the space, many reaching for their weapons in time to light up the undead that wandered in. Another one followed, and lastly a third, all dropping to the ground with bullets filling them. The rapid fire of the sound had Ray come rushing in to which Mickey yelled, “get back to the truck now!” They could hear faint noise in the distance, coming from the direction the three had run in from.

“There’s gonna be more. They must’ve snuck in from the sewers and came through the back,” Payback said in a rush, scanning for any more that could be lurking. “We gotta go.”

“But—,” Bob raised a hand to Y/n, who cut him off by saying, “I can hold them off. Buy you some time,” she paused a bit, looking at her shotgun and then said, “Leave the diesel.” She was referring to the large containers of diesel gasoline that had been on the streets. They didn’t know what to do with them since none of their vehicles took that type of gas. Y/n saw them and instantly thought of a plan.

“What the fuck are you on about?” Jake asked when she started to cut into the containers to let the liquid leak onto the floor.

“I’m gonna drown them in diesel,” she says sarcastically, making him glare. “I’m gonna fucking blow the place up, Jake. Do you want to sit and watch or are you gonna get your ass in that truck and make it tomorrow?”

He doesn’t answer, instead he marches up to her and pulls her into a near bone breaking hug. “I’m gonna miss you, Pep. You’re the best fucking wingman I could’ve asked for.”

Y/n’s lip quivered, hugging him back. “Don’t get sentimental on me now, Seresin,” she attempted to joke. “We both know you’ve been wanting to get rid of me for a while.” She feels him shake his head, though he chuckles.

“Never. You’ve been the glue of this team. I don’t know how we’ll get through this hell without ya, but we’ll try.”

“Thank you,” she pulls away, seeing a stray tear fall from his eyes. “Take care of each other.” He squeezes her shoulder that’s not covered in veins, patting it before stepping away.

“Let’s get a move on.” Everyone takes turns saying goodbye to Y/n and gathering their packs. There’s not a dry eye in the room, Nat holding onto her tightly and not wanting to let go.

“C’mon, Phee,” Y/n’s tone is soft, “you rise from the ashes. You’ve been doing it since I’ve known ya. You’ll get through this. I know you will.”

Nat whimpers, wiping her face as she says, “You better save me a drink up there. Because we’ll have a lot to discuss when I join you.”

“That’ll be years from now,” she assures her, pulling away from the hug, “But I’ll have your favorite ready to go when that happens.”

It was hard with each goodbye. Reuben and Javy understandably made theirs quick. Mickey said how he was gonna miss sharing the excitement with Y/n when he would find an old comic book. Sweet Bob’s face was bright red as the tears ran down his face unapologetically. “I’ll never forget you, Y/n.” She choked back a sob as she replied, “I would hope not, Bobby Boy.”

Rooster’s hug lasted longer than the others, kissing the side of her head lovely as he whispered into her ear, “Thank you for everything. I promise I won’t let anything happen to Jaime. You can count on it. And Y/n…I-I just want you to know that I lo—.”

“I know,” she cups his face, staring into the beautiful hazel eyes she adored. “I know, Roo. I’ve known for a while. And I feel the same, always have.” He wanted to kiss her one last time, but the infection had a chance of transferring through saliva and they couldn’t risk him getting it. It pained him that he couldn’t offer one last kiss to her.

Movement in the corner of his eye caught his attention, making them narrow in confusion. “Mav, what are you doing?” The question came at the sight of the older man cutting into the containers and bringing the gas further out to the hall where they could hear the approaching noise increase. They had maybe less than two minutes before they had company.

Mav threw his bag down as he pushed away the empty canister. “I’m staying.” The reaction was immediate.

“The hell you—!”

“I’m infected too,” at the gasp from Nat and stunned looks from everyone, besides Y/n, Pete bent down to pull up his pant leg. When he did the same ugly veins coated his skin. Then he lifted the end of his t-shirt, revealing more. “I don't have much time either.”

The reaction from Bradley could best be described with one word: agony.

“No,” he rubbed his face before his hands went to his hair. “No. This can’t be happening.” He wouldn’t accept it. Losing Y/n was one thing, but also losing Mav—his second father, in the same night? His entire soul was being ripped apart.

“Bradley—.”

“This can’t fucking be real!” Rooster shouted, not caring the tears were falling from his eyes. “Not you too!” The sounds from the distant hallways were getting louder, Payback and Jake rushing to close the doors of the room they were in to block them off before pushing desks and tables in front of them. It wouldn’t last much, but it’d at least buy them some seconds.

“Guys we really need to go,” Jake rushed out, pushing Coyote to the door. “Now! We can’t stay here!” It was a scene of distraught. They were now faced with the reality of losing both Y/n and their team leader. Fear of the incoming undead is what made them not break down right then and there. Nat knew once she got in the van she’d would lose it.

Rooster was already starting to break down. His face was red and riddled with tears, breathing heavily as he tried to fight back against Payback and Bob’s grip. “Don’t do this to me, Mav! N-no! Fucking dammit-I’m not leaving them! Mav! Please!”

“I’m sorry, kid,” Pete removes his dog tags and tosses them to Bradley to catch. He doesn’t know how he caught them, but the action hurts him even more. “You’re gonna be okay. I’ll see you again one day.”

“Don’t fucking tell me that! I don’t want that, Mav. C’mon—we were supposed to survive this together!”

“I know,” Mav sighs, green eyes red from crying. “I’m sorry, Bradley. But you’re gonna have to do it without me.” The former pilot releases a heartbreaking sound, making Y/n put her hand to her mouth to cover her sobs.

“Rooster, we have to go!” Reuben tells him sadly, practically shoving his friend backward. “I’m sorry, man, but it’s over.”

“Don’t make us have to sedate you, Bradshaw,” Jake threatens with an unreadable tone. He hated doing so, but if they didn’t leave in the next ten seconds they were about to be sitting ducks for a mob of undead.

“Mav!” Bradley screams as they finally get him out the door and out from their sights. Y/n is having to catch her breath from how hard she was crying. Seeing the man she loved in such a state did absolute destruction to her heart.

“Give these to Jaime,” she removes her own dog tags that were around her neck. She passes them to Natasha, who was the last in the building and fighting back the urge to collapse. “I love you guys so much.”

“We love you too,” Nat sobs, glancing between Pepper and Mav. “Both of you. I-I’m so sorry. This shouldn’t—this shouldn't have happened.”

Y/n just sighs, trying to smile at her friend, “It was an honor serving with you, Nat.” She sees the woman let out a shaky breath, nodding before turning on her heel and racing out of the building. When the trucks started she felt some relief, feeling more of it when the sound of them driving off could be heard.

Now it was just her and Pete.

“When did you figure it out?” She hesitated to ask, finally looking up from the ground she had been staring at for a good five seconds.

“When I noticed you were quieter than usual,” he replied, then asked, “What about you?”

“When you kept messing with your pants and checking if someone noticed.”

“Yeah,” he cracked his neck, then said, “I take it you got something to light this place up?” Instead of answering, Y/n removes the match box from her pocket.

Together they pull two chairs into the middle of the floor, facing the doors the undead were currently running for. A loud bang indicated they breached whatever obstacle in their path. It would be maybe thirty seconds before they arrived. Sitting down, Y/n opened the match box to find two cigatters hidden with only one match.

“How fucking ironic,” she chuckled, removing one to place between her lips before offering one to Maverick. Though he didn’t smoke, the occasion called for it so he took the tobacco and allowed her to light it with the last match before doing the same to hers.

Leaning forward in her chair, Y/n inhaled deeply before releasing the smoke, “What do you think we’ll find?”

“Hopefully…peace,” he breathes out, smoke filling the air. “But I hope to find my parents, maybe Ice and Goose. Hondo. Penny and Amelia,” his voice turns softer at the last couple names. “But mostly I hope to find peace. You?”

“The same,” she gives a small smile, leaning back in the chair as the noise gets louder. Fifteen seconds. “I sorta hope to find The Hard Deck. Maybe that’s where everyone is waiting for us.”

“That would be nice,” Mav agrees. Ten seconds.

Y/n gulps, “Mav?” The growls and moans were closing in.

“Yeah,” he says calmly. Five seconds.

“It’s been an honor serving with you.” He takes her hand in his. Three.

“The honor is mine, Pepper.” Two.

The cigarette bud flicked from her hand at the same moment the doors busted open. One.

Nothing could describe the flooding of anxiety that filled Jaime L/n when she heard the commotion from inside the courthouse, followed by the guys practically dragging Rooster out. Javy, Jake, and Mickey hopped into the armored van in front of the one she was in where Mickey’s brothers were. Meanwhile Bob, Payback and Nat were coming to the one she and Allison were in, hauling Rooster who was in evident distraught.

“What’s happening?” She said aloud, receiving no answer as Bob and Payback threw Bradley into the back seat, with Nat hopping in after them. Payback immediately got into the driver's seat with Bob in the passenger. Turning around to the courthouse, Jaime awaited Y/n to run out with Maverick. But neither came and she realized Payback was starting up the vehicle. “Where’s Y/n? And Maverick?” When none answered, only hearing the light cries from the former pilots.

This time with her blood running cold, she asked in a more demanding tone, “Where’s my sister? Wha—what are you doing!” She shouted when the van started to move, following behind Jake and the others. “Wait!” She turned in her seat, still no sight of the two. “No! What are you doing!? Stop—my sister’s still in there!” When Jaime turned back to scream at Payback to stop the van, she was met with the heartbreaking eyes of Natasha, who simply extended her hand over the seat to hand over something. Snatching it, Jaime felt her entire world collapsed seeing it was Y/n’s dog tags.

“N-no,” she croaked, lifting her gaze to Nat to find she was shaking her head. “No…”

“I’m sorry, Jaime. She was bit—.”

“NO!!” Jaime screamed, turning to look at the courthouse in hopes it was a joke and Y/n would run after the van. “You’re lying! She would’ve said something.”

“Honey, she didn’t want you to know—s-she was gonna have to leave us eventually.”

The teenager wailed at the news. Not wanting to believe her sister would send her off without saying. Not without a goodbye. Now it made sense why she was asking her to promise her all those. It was because she knew it would be the last time they saw each other. Jaime cried at the realization.

She slapped the seat, “Go back! Go back now! I won’t fucking leave her there! Ple-ease!” She hiccuped, beginning to crawl over the seats so she could get to the doors. Immediately Rooster was taking a hold of her, causing her to thrash. “No-fuck you! Let me go! That’s m-my sister! Please, Rooster—we have to go-oo back!”

“I’m sorry, kiddo,” he shot Nat a look when she removed the syringe, mouthing, ‘not yet.’

“No-no-no-no-no-nooo,” she cried, fighting against him but to no avail. “Please! Don’t leave her—go back!

They were some distance away, but still in sight of the courthouse when an explosion rattled the ground. Jaime got enough away from Rooster’s grip to look up and see the building was on fire. “NOOO!!!!” She broke down in despair, falling against the man who just held onto her as his own tears rolled down. Everyone in the van was in the same state, Payback was gripping the steering wheel so tight and Bob had his head in his hands.

Jaime just kept screaming and crying, occasionally fighting against Rooster and at one point her panic attack became too much that Nat had to sedate her when she actually threw a punch at him. He wasn’t angry or upset of course. He understood exactly what she was going through.

Both of them just lost the only family they had.

It would be an image that would haunt them forever. The ablazed courthouse where their friends layed. They didn’t want to picture what they looked like, instead focusing on their final days. Where Y/n was dancing with Mickey to an old song that came on the radio. Where Maverick was showing the teenagers how to change a tire in case the vans were to break down. The nights by the fires reminiscing on what it was like before the outbreak. Shooting pool and darts at the Hard Deck, before it became a graveyard to the undead.

Those things are what they would remember. The feeling of warmth and nostalgia from reliving those memories would help them in their grief. They were in denial at first, then angry, followed by bargaining as they asked, “it should’ve been me.” The depression lasted a long time. Mostly for Rooster and Jaime who had trouble adjusting to life without their loved ones. The nightmares were horrible, keeping them from getting sleep. Jaime went from an optimistic, bright, teenager to cold and detached. It took some time before she reached the final stage of grief: acceptance.

It was roughly two years after Y/n died that she understood why her sister didn’t tell her during that final conversation. Why she made sure she was out in the van before she realized Y/n was staying behind. It was so Jaime could remember her in a healthy, happy, light. So she wasn’t faced with the devastation of seeing her become undead.

Everyday she wore her dog tags, fiddling with them whenever she became anxious. The days she felt lonely and depressed she’d glance through the booklet with all the photographs Y/n had gifted her. Shortly after the incident Jaime discovered Y/n’s notebook with all her entries starting from the day after the outbreak, to the most recent being the one six hours before she died. Jaime felt her heart break and repair each time she read an entry. She cried a lot at the one detailing the day the squad found her, where Y/n spoke of how she had to execute their infected parents and brother. There were entries that made her laugh, some made her angry—especially one talking about the night they lost Halo, Hondo, Penny, and Amelia. It was so unfair how it happened. The team was just trying to get through Vegas and bombs were going off due to the conflict between the army and rebelled militia groups.

The last entry, Jaime trailed her fingertips over Y/n’s handwriting, hoping she would feel closer to her sister. Feel her warmth again, hear her laugh, see her smile. She wasn’t the only one. Every now and then Jaime would catch Rooster looking at his own Polaroids with Y/n and Mav.

Years passed. Summers turned to fall and then winter and spring. The tenth anniversary of the outbreak came and went, with their group losing Javy, Ray, Bob, and Allison along the way. Jake died around the fifteenth, with Mickey not too far behind due to an injury to his leg. They finally decided to stop their ‘transport’ business when that happened, no longer able to do the work they once were able to as Bradley, Nat, and Rueben were all approaching their fifties. Jaime was now in her thirties and had met a nice man on their travels, falling in love when she never thought it was possible.

She wasn’t the only one to find love. Nat married, so did Payback though neither had children. Rooster was the only one to not do so. Even when it was obvious men and women they met in their travels expressed attraction to him, Bradley denied their advances. When asked he simply said, “I had my love. There wasn’t anyone like her and my heart won’t belong to someone else. She took it with her when she left.”

Rumors started to spread around the twentieth year that the new generation of children being born were immune to the virus. Pregnant, Jaime felt a mix of fear and hope at the thought her baby was immune. Hope that maybe a cure could be discovered, but fear at what the government planned to do with the children. Surely they were ripping them from their families to be taken to testing locations. Immediately Jaimie, her husband and the remaining squad members with their loved ones they found and created all went into hiding in Fightertown.

Humanity began to rebuild in the 25th year. An announcement was made just shortly after the outbreak anniversary that countries working together were able to create an effective vaccine. It was to be distributed immediately, with no human being denied the access to be cured. Jaime had just had her second child when they got it. Within six months every remaining human had received the vaccination.

Finally, after 25 years. They could breathe a sigh of relief.

The team remained in contact despite going their separate ways. Rooster traveled back to Virginia where his parents rested, sending a vintage postcard to Jaime when he arrived. Nat and her husband remained in San Diego, Reuben and his wife traveled to Colorado. Jaime, having seen every inch of the country, ended up landing in Washington state. She didn’t go to Seattle, it was still too painful, but she went close to the Canadian border.

The reason: the sunsets.

“Look at how the sky just lights up. So many colors—a beautiful array of orange and pinks,” she heard Y/n’s voice when she closed her eyes the first time she sat on the porch steps of her new home, the sun descending on the horizon. “I’ve seen many sunsets in my days, kiddo. But nothing compares to the ones on the PNW. They by far are the most mesmerizing to look at.”

Breathing in the fresh air, the most refreshing she’d ever inhaled now that she was away from most of civilization as the cities were being rebuilt, Jaime felt the weight finally lift from her shoulders. “You and me against the world, right kiddo?”

“You and me against the world.”

Acceptance. It was finally here. Jaime thought she had accepted her sister’s death ages ago, but really she had pushed it to the back burner to focus on other things. Never did she truly accept Y/n’s death, she just adapted to it like everything else.

Being able to come back to Washington, the place she lost her sister, and watching the sunsets she knew Y/n loved is what really brought Jaime peace.

She finally reached the final stage of grief.

40 years later

The bright welcomed Jaime with warmth spreading throughout her body. Gasping, she opened her eyes and glanced down to find she was no longer sleeping in her bed with her children holding onto her hands. Instead she was wearing an old flannel she remembered she loved as a teenager, with light wash jeans and converse. Her hands were no longer wrinkled and rail, she felt like she was back in the body of her young self.

Ocean waves filled her ears, and when she turned around she found the sea ahead with a familiar building she only knew by the memories her sister would tell her.

The Hard Deck.

All around was a hue she couldn’t explain. It was bright, almost luminescent with the sun’s rays beating down. Something in the building was calling to her.

“Go,” a voice said. She didn’t recognize it, but it was telling her to go inside. “They’re waiting for you.”

Her feet carried her across the parking lot. No cars were there which made it unusual for a bar that read ‘open’ on its glowing sign. Still Jaime approached the door, hearing the faint sounds of conversation and music. When she pushed the door open, the music stopped and she was frozen at the sight before her.

The whole Dagger Squad were dressed in their service khakis looking the same as they did the night of the outbreak. Penny and Amelia were behind the bar, where Mav was seated with Hondo, Warlock, and Cyclone. Ray, Sammy, and Allison were by the jukebox, beaming at Jaime and her heart picked up at the sight of her husband of nearly 50 years beside them. The Dagger Squad were smiling. Especially Rooster who looked young and handsome again, throwing Jaime a wink as if to say, ‘about time you showed up. We’ve been waiting ages.’

Heart beating, she felt the emotion surge in her causing tears to prick in eyes. Jaime’s eyes drifted over, bringing a hand to her mouth when they landed on her parents and brother seated in a booth, her father standing from his seat.

She wanted to rush over to them but something was stopping her. Almost like she needed to see one last person before she could.

And there was only one missing.

Before the name could leave her lips, Jaime heard her voice. After years of wondering if she had found peace, the answer came with a simple greeting of, “Hey, kiddo.”

……………………….

TGM Tag List: @avaleineandafryingpan, @caitsymichelle13, @poppyalice2001, @cutelittlepotatofry, @luckyladycreator2, @americaarse, @elenavampire21, @back-tooo-black

[calciumdeficientt]

I know I already asked you for headcanons, but could you do some headcanons with my OC Mary and Gord? 👉👈

This is so perfect!!! I was about to make a post of Mary hcs anyway so I’m going to kind of co-opt this ask to kind of do some solo Mary hcs but dw Gord will be here!

MARY BROWN HCS (FEAT. GORD)

SOLO MARY HCS

Shes the most kindhearted prep, it really shows. She does her best to act cruel and snobbish but she just doesn’t have the heart to do it, she’s so genuinely nice that it kind of rubs off on everyone around her. It’s pretty infectious, even though most of the preps don’t want to be infected. This endless kindness does get her in everyone’s good graces. It sort of acts for a force field, especially on bullies. There’s nothing that a small gift cannot solve, its not TECHNICALLY bribery if you don’t actually want the service the other party is providing, right?

Her interest in drama leads her to join the school’s drama club. She has every right to use her power and influence as a prep to buy her way into lead roles but she thinks its unfair, so she auditions the same way everyone else does. In the drame club, she got to know Trent a little better, he’s usually the leading man, and that energy follows him offstage too. He’s a pretty cool goy once you get past all the borderline torture he puts other students through and a good friend of Mary’s too

Comes from a good, loving family who despite admitting they’re not fully on board with her dreams of being an actress they’re more than willing to pay her way into it. They just want to see their daughter happy, and if she feels more comfortable in front of a camera than she does behind a jeweller’s desk than that’s the way it’s going to be. They moved from Cambridge to Bullworth when Mary was a baby, but she retained the accent because all their house staff moved to America with them. Nannies, maids, chefs. Everyone Mary interacted with in her formative years had a southern English accent.

Cares for Bif after tough fights. They have a good sibling relationship going, so if he’s particularly down or injured, she likes to take him out somewhere for coffee or yknow… to the emergency room. Mary comes to every fight, she makes time specifically to come and watch the fights, she’s not got a great stomach when it comes to violence, she likes to let Bif know he’s supported whenever he fights. Even if he’s just sparring. It’s a real testament to her incomparable niceness. She comes, despite her hatred for fighting, to support her friend.

Started and funded their first Bullworth festival with the help of Miss Phillips, every student can make any film they like (with a few restrictions, no snuff films, no nudity -tasteful or otherwise- and no profanity unless its absolutely VITAL to the plot) they have six weeks to write, film and produce their films and then at the end of that time the films are submitted, screened and a winner is voted for by the student body. The winner receives a shitty plastic Oscar dupe, 20 bucks each and an instant pass on all art and photography classes for the semester. It’s a good morale booster, and almost everyone gets involved. To avoid any clique wars, there is one final rule that Mary introduces… each film cast/crew must contain a member from at least one other clique or the film is disqualified. It makes a difference around the school for like a month before everyone forgets and starts fighting again.

GORD X MARY HCS

Gord and Mary are very much a picture book couple, they’re so happy together. There’s never been a moment that they’ve ever fought, or even frowned at each other. They’re very happy, very healthy and so in love. It’s almost poetic, its the kind of thing any kid dreams about. They assume that they’ll marry their childhood sweetheart and live a good life, usually in a castle. Well for Mary and gord who’ve been playing happy families since they were tots, its their reality. They took a small break through middle school and the start of high school but there’s a very good chance that even during those years, their minds were still on each other.

Shopping dates are an absolute must. Gord prides himself on his fashion taste, so one thing he really likes to do is style outfits for her. They go out and he gets busy creating outfits for her based on what’s seasonal and trendy. Gord really has his finger on the pulse of fashion, a fact he’s really not modest about, so Mary always looks stunning and chic. Not one to miss out on any fashion fun, Gord buys matching outfits when he can, and complimentary outfits when he can’t.

Gord is too sentimental for his own good. He remembers every single milestone possible, and he gets Mary gifts for every one. Wether it’s the day they held hands for the first time, the day they first kissed or the day they both said i love you, a slew of fancy gifts is crammed into her dorm. It’s a little much, but it really proves to her that he cares about her.

Both of them are allergic to flowers, so Gord has to get creative. Her uses anything from his limited crochet skills to dried flowers, if its an important event Gord will usually get some bespoke flowers made. For their 1 year anniversary he commissioned a French artist to make a bouquet of roses out of blown glass and solid gold. They’re absolutely beautiful and as a bonus, he even had a vase made or them.

They have tea dates in Harrington house, an event that requires the rest of the preps to clear off. It’s more intimate than a fancy dinner or a night being paraded around at a gala. They light candles and sit around Harrington house’s smallest dining table to drink real tea, and spill metaphorical tea. If the preps weren’t so worried about hearing something about themselves they’d rather have not known, they probably would linger dunring these dates.

[thedndgoblinwholivesinyourwalls]

Standing at ur door politely asking for more oc lore

HIHI HELLOOO!! it seems this is a rite of passage for many mutuals (they have all gotten this oc lore hehehe) So sooo i’ll try to make it as short as possible :]]

The story is set in Beckenshire, a fake town in florida! This world is literally just ours but with monsters/cryptids. And they’ve been here since the dawn of time but ever since the discovery of nuclear power, they seem to be drawn to nuclear plants/nuclear sites, and Beckenshire is an old mining/nuclear facility town so they have a lot of monsters!

so the main three characters are Ryan (he/him), Carmela (she/her) and Dana (they/she)!

Ryan is a basketball and dnd player who is the son of Adele and Josh Beckett and he has an older sister called Claire. What happens to him in the story is that his arm gets cut off by his gf Carmela D: and he gets a werewolf-ish bite which causes him to get yellow pupils, horns and pointy teeth :]

Carmela is a soccer player and her parents are Maria Luzardo and Daniel Rivera. Maria moved away three years ago after a fight with her husband. Carmela is not doing well in the story (well nobody is really lmao)- she gets emotionally manipulated into cutting ryan’s arm off and joined a cult (the cult made her cut his arm off btw)

Dana!! Love them soo much!! She runs a weather station for the town :]] Her parent’s are Noah B and José! Noah married José some years after his wife, Dana’s bio mum, died. Later in the story, a Fetch (monsters that take the form of a loved on to kill you) pretends to be Dana’s mum and tries to drown them and mermaid-ish monsters steal Dana’s left eye!

I have very lengthy lore for all the parents but i shall focus on Janette, Adele, and Josh (the polycule ever if they were good peoplee). So Adele and Josh started dating in highschool and Josh is transmasc but found that out in his late 20’s so they began as a sapphic couple. Adele is very transphobic (girl nooo) and blames Josh for Ryan also being transmasc (josh just break up with adele it’d be easierr)

Janette Biswar is the leader of the cult that Carmela joined! I love janette actually she’s amazing <-she’s evil but shshshhs. So janette and adele end up in a weird situationship/relationship thing?? Janette’s aro and she tells Adele that when they meet like ‘heyyy no romance please’ and adele is like ‘yeah sure sure whatever’ reminder that adele is cheating on her husband and janette has no clue about this!! Adele ends up falling in love, it could be obsession idk if its love but here we are shsvkshdkdn, with janette and she uses the ‘your heartless’ line which is like GIRL NOOO

Putting aside their drama, Janette uses Carmela’s mum against her to blackmail her into cutting off Ryan’s arm. Janette dies twice in this story, first one being burnt alive inside the cult building. Adele is the one who lit the place on fire btw. The second time is quite gory if you think about it soo here we go:

So one of the monsters in this world is called Sprites! They are little spirits that inhabit inanimate objects and you can give them sweet treats to get the object back! There is another type of them which I’m calling Sprite 2.0 at the moment which inhabit dead bodies or making deals with people on their deathbed (literally and methaporically). Janette makes a deal with them when she’s dying in the burning building.

The catch here is that the sprites will give your body energy and like magic fuel but that energy is so rich with magic that bright blue flowers with thorns that grow under the skin of the person. They are always trying to get out of the body, but they aren’t able to break the skin by their own. When your skin gets cut, all the flowers will rush to the cut and push their way out of your body.

So Janette gets shot by her son/nephew (that’s complicated but yeah its her sister kid she adopted) and its in the chest but just above her collarbone so if she got to the hospital she’d be fine. But the flowers under her skin rush towards that wound and tear the skin away to let them out. They tear away at her heart, lungs and windpipe, but grow reallyyyy slowly so she’s just lying there slowly dying while Adele’s like ‘hahhaa L imaginr fuck you’ basically.

Uh yeah. that’s a short rundown if you can believe it! I could go into soo much more detail on every character mentioned so yeyeyee if you have any questions, since this was very confusing, pls send them my way since i love talking about these guys! (obviously as you can tell lmao :]])

[neilperryismine]

Sharing the films I’ve watched this year (copied from @lefthandedspaghetti )

1. Joy

2. The Patriot

3. I Know What Did Last Summer

4. I Still Know What You Did Last Summer

5. The Hunger Games

6. Mean Girls The Musical

7. The Hunger Games: Catching Fire

8. One Life

9. Real Women Have Curves

10. No Hard Feelings

11. Lady Bird

12. Knives Out

13. 10 Things I Hate About You

14. Clueless

15. Sabrina

16. Shakespeare in Love

17. Pride and Prejudice

18. Sense and Sensibility

19. Crazy Rich Asians

20. Back to the Future

21. Back to the Future 2

22. Back to the Future 3

23. Far and Away

24. Damsel

25. Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl

26. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest

27. Bottoms

28. Red, White & Royal Blue

29. Primal Fear

30. Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour (Taylor’s Version)

31. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

32. Iron Man

33. Bodies Bodies Bodies

34. Jurassic Park

35. Mary Poppins

36. The Boys in the Boat

37. Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End

38. Peter Rabbit

39. Passengers

40. The Help

41. Death on the Nile

42. Spiderman: Homecoming

43. The Avengers

44. Love, Rosie

45. How to Date Billy Walsh

46. Fear Street Part 2: 1978

47. Bridget Jones Baby

48. Emma (1996)

49. When Harry Met Sally

50. Miranda’s Victim

51. *Dead Poets Society* !!!!!

52. Sleepless in Seattle

53. Runaway Bride

54. Dead Poets Society (again, yes😔)

55. Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. 1

56. Little Miss Sunshine

57. Jurassic World

58. Scream 5

59. The Boys Next Door

60. Barbie Princess Charm School

61. Mamma Mia!

62. The Zone of Interest

63. Jumanji

64. Matilda

65. Married to It (rsl)

66. Hairspray

67. Good Will Hunting

68. In the Gloaming (rsl again)

69. Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules!

70. Killers of the Flower Moon

71. My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3

72. Billy Elliot

73. Tape (rsl and ethan)

74. The Blackening

75. The Money Pit

76. The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

77. Little Women

78. About Time

79. Ferris Bueller’s Day Off

80. Turtles All The Way Down

81. Lullaby

82. Beautiful Boy

83. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1

84. Thelma & Louise

85. The Talented Mr Ripley

86. Father of the Bride

87. Father of the Bride Part II

88. Stand By Me

89. Girl, Interrupted

90. The Map of Perfect Tiny Things

91. The Wedding Planner

92. The Sixth Sense

93. Living

94. Big

95. Speed

96. Love & other drugs

97. Notting Hill

98. Five Feet Apart

99. The Outsiders

100. Before Sunrise (ethan)

101. Parenthood

102. Terms of Endearment

103. The Matrix

104. Fight Club

105. Leave the World Behind (ethan)

106. Bride Wars

107. Forrest Gump

108. Dazed and Confused

109. Don’t Tell Mum the Babysitter’s Dead (josh charles)

110. The Breakfast Club

111. Legally Blonde

112. Hidden Figures

113. Confessions of a Shopaholic

114. Three Men and a Baby

115. The Fault in our Stars

116. Sister Act: Back in the Habit

I definitely have a problem and this probably isn’t even all the films I’ve watched this year :/

But my favourites have been the ones I’ve watched since dead poets society (obv including it) mainly cause they’ve been a bit weird or different like tape!!

any film recommendations are welcome!! :)

[victimized-martyr]

hi❤ i love your blog and your tags 🥺❤ could you share a list of your favorite kyman fanfics plz

WAAAA thank you!!! 😭✨

The Stag Prince is a fandom classic. It’s south park’s stick of truth meets swan princess. I’m usually adverse to aus, but this was so true to the source material in terms of dialogue and tone that I couldn’t help but fall in love. It’s incredibly funny, all the characters get their moment to shine, it’s a really well crafted story overall. 

Put The Fire Out on Us is another fandom classic, still being written! who knew the push Kyle and Cartman needed was them getting stranded in the woods together, eh?? 

Slam Dunk is kyman being insufferable boyfriends. Kenny and Stan are there (silently fighting for their lives). 

I. LOVE Hands . Tt’s rare that I find a canon aged kyman fic that manages to capture the complexities of their dynamic. As friends, as rivals, as…. “something”. 

Leonard Cohen, Bruh : Fixit fics for Post Covid are in criminally short supply. Rainbow_convection fuckin delivers!

Hypothermia Love fics where Cartman’s obsession over their rivalry shines. A good demonstration of what ppl mean when they say the difference between love and hate is a fine line.

get up, get up, (wake up, wake up) I adore numbknees’ writing, and it’s an absolute honor this was inspired by my silly kyman rants about Cartman’s sa trauma that affects how he canonically views sex and love. I assure you, I’ve read it a normal amount. 

Creep is not an absolute fav, but I really like stan’s characterization in this fic, especially when the author goes into detail about how he processes his thoughts and his aversion to change. (I know, weird thing to love in a kyman centric fic). I also love the exchange between kyman halfway thru the story. 

Know Your Enemy : Be not afraid of the tags! Remember that South Park itself has done far more crude, and inappropriate things. It’s incredibly vulgar, with so much heart. Just like South Park itself. What I love most about the fic is how elsen is able to put Cartman’s delusions and twisted logic into words, and for Kyle, his rigidity and tendency to justify every single thing he does into words. Both are unreliable narrators, but the reader is able to see through their bullshit all the same. What a gift of a fic. I can’t wait to see where it goes. 

Kyle is a B : The world doesn’t have enough Married Kyman Shenanigans! And what a shame. This fic also stays true to  the craziness of the show (the fact the the underpants gnomes are referenced, just 🤌🏼 that’s an instant win in my book) You can definitely tell they’ve been married for over 10 years in this fic. so so good.

The Rules focuses more on their mutual obsession, the hopelessly-intertwined-for-better-or-worse aspects of their dynamic. 

Green Eyed is playful jab at the skinny cartman trope, and how Kyle would react to a skinny cartman. 

Vice Versa approaches the switched bodies trope earnestly and so beautifully and gets kyman to understand each other better and also reflect on themselves. Delicious character deep dive. Also, it’s damn hilarious. 

Bella Note Kyman, from Stan’s perspective!!! 

Jew Magic Saves the Day Takes place right after the scene in s7 where Cartman wakes up next to a naked Ben Affleck. Can you tell I love fics where Kyle makes Cartman feel safe ghfjkdh 

Seriously : Protective boyfriend Kyle my beloved.  

Ashtray : I am absolutely WEAK for the religious themes in Kyman works. The paragraph detailing Cartman’s revelation is something that sticks with me to this day. I get chills.

How To Live a Lie is a really well crafted fixit for the mess that was season 20. No heiman necessary. Honestly after reading this I was pretty upset that the show never went down this route because it even addressed Kyle’ arc abt giving up gay speeches? Like im still upset the show hasn’t fixed that yet. Damn I love this fic. 

[my-shields-are-down]

chenford+ proposal

“Hey Dad, do you have a sec? Would you come meet me back by the pool house? I need to ask you something kinda private.”

Tim looked up from the lounge chair where he and Lucy were sitting. They were talking about carpooling to the Rose Bowl game that weekend, where Kai and Mateo Evers were hopefully going to lead UCLA past Ohio State for the National and BCS championship.

Both young men were up for the Heisman Award, neck and neck with the OSU quarterback that they both had played against in high school - Marshall West’s son Jackson was dedicating his season to his late uncle, his namesake - the same Jackson who died protecting Mateo’s mom. This game was to be a family affair.

Now inching towards 70, Tim took his time standing up. He had to kiss Lucy first- and that always took longer than expected. Kai rolled his eyes, shook his head and grinned saying, “oh Dad come on, I don’t need to see that. You can make out with Mom later. come on!”

Tim smiled at his son and said, “nothing is more important than telling (and showing) the woman you love how you feel.” Kai pretended to gag and then skipped back to the pool house. When Tim meandered around the back corner of the yard, he saw not only Kai, but Mateo and his dad Wesley standing there waiting. Wesley, looking as confused as Tim, reached out smiling to shake his hand. They nodded at each other.

“Ok, I’m here. What’s going on?” Tim turns to Kai, who shakes hands with Mateo and says, “Good Luck!” Then Kai and Mateo switch places - so Kai is looking at Wesley and Mateo is looking at Tim.

Tim and Wesley look at each other and then at the young men in front of them. Tim notices that both Kai and Mateo are nervous. Taking deep breaths, Mateo and Kai say in unison to the men they’ve known and looked up to all of their lives and say:”

“I am in love with your daughter.”

“I have been most of my life.“

“She completes me, loves me and gives me a soft place to land.”

“She sees me - flaws and all and loves me anyway. “

Kai stops talking so Mateo can speak directly to Tim. “Tim- about Diana. She’s so smart, kind and thoughtful. She wears her heart on her sleeve yet has a spine of steel. She stands up for and fights for the little guy. She loves her family deeply. She says that I love her the way you love Lucy - with our whole hearts. She’s the most beautiful woman (after my mom) that I have ever seen. I fell in love with her when I was 5 years old and I cannot imagine my life without her in it. I promise to love her with every fiber of my being. To show her every day how lucky I am that she chose me. That she continues to choose me every day.”

Mateo stops talking so Kai can speak to Wesley. “Wes - Patrizia is a dynamo. She’s full of boundless energy. A fierce firecracker who knows herself and what she wants. She speaks her mind and doesn’t take no for an answer. She’s passionate, brilliant and hilarious. She’s my rock, my light in the storm, my beacon, my home. She told me when she was 4 that she was going to marry me, but I was too cool to show up in first grade already tied down. I’ve been playing catch-up for the past 16 years. Once I catch her, I am never ever letting her go. We are opposites in almost every way, but our differences, when meshed together, make us stronger, our connection deeper, our love tighter.”

“So we have one last question for you both”

“Tim/Wes - I’d like your blessing to propose to your daughter during the upcoming bowl game. What do you think?”

==========

Later that week …….

UCLA and OSU are very evenly matched. Neither team scores against the other for 3-1/2 quarters of play. 90 seconds left on the clock. 3rd down and 20 will bring them within 5 yards of the goal line.

Kai and Mateo grin at each other in their last huddle - they’ve been best friends since they could walk. Their families are closer than most families of their friends. They are both on the edge of an amazing life with the loves of their lives. The four of them have spent every day together from middle school on, starting as friends and those friendships morphing into two great love stories. And soon, they’d both be engaged and planning a double wedding.

One last fist bump - Mateo turns to Kai and says, “A play for TJ? Shall we pull a Rosalind?” Kai bursts out laughing and nods. Let’s do it.”

Back at the 3rd down line, Mateo yells “Rosalind better run!” then on “hike” tosses the ball back to Kai who throws a Hail Mary pass downfield in a flee-flicker route Tim + Wesley taught the boys when they were 7 and in pee wee football. People tend to forget that Mateo not only is the star quarterback for UCLA but he’s also a nationally ranked 110 meter hurdler. So while everyone is watching Kai, no one notices Mateo streak down the field to catch Rosalind and then run across the goal line with no defensive players in sight.

As the stadium erupts in cheers, and the rest of their team celebrates, Kai and Mateo walk through the end zone to where their girlfriends are standing. A lone ABC Sports cameraman noticed the pair and follows them, coming into Kai’s vision just before the men turn and wave on camera at their mom’s, before they each drop to a knee and hold up a big candy ring , and ripping off the guards from their arms to reveal the words - MARRY ME?!

Both Diana and Patrizia nod and start crying being scooped up by the boys. If you listen closely to the replaying scene you can just hear Patrizia say, “Took you long enough to ask. I told you, didn’t I?”

=====

Unsurprisingly, Jackson West II won the Heisman Trophy after both Mateo and Kai said in their final interviews that, they also were dedicating their seasons to the original Jackson West who left his mark on both their families.

More details about the lives of the fearless foursome in my next story.

[the-girl-in-the-box]

So there’s just been an interview in Japan of Julian Fellowes, and I am… So Furious I don’t even hardly know where to start. So, I’ll start with the worst part, which reeks of straight privilege.

…I don't think the proportion of homosexuals like Ellis and Barrow in society was much different then than it is now, but in 1920s Britain, it was a society that didn't accept it, so most parties had to live a lie. I wanted to remind young people today how stressful that was. We've come a very long way in the last 20 or 30 years in terms of their human rights, but I wanted them to understand once again how much they've benefited from that progress.

I’m sorry, WHAT? I guarantee you, Mr. Fellowes, we’re very well aware that it’s stressful! “How much they’ve benefitted”?? Sir, I still live in the closet because it is not safe for me to come out of it right now. Who do you think you are, to tell us what we’ve benefited from? You’re a straight man! This is NOT your story to tell! You have no need to remind us what we suffer, to make it sound like things are so great now. Sure, we’ve won battles in the last 20-30 years, but our fight is far from over and saying you have to “remind” us of anything is extremely offensive. As a straight man, reminding queer audiences of the suffering we’ve been through is just homophobic, full stop. That’s not your place, and we don’t want you minimising what we still endure today like we’ve somehow forgotten our own damn history. Take several seats, please.

Another thing is about the character of Barrow. Ellis makes the choice to marry for his own life rather than for his life with Barrow. But while Barrow recognises this, he is given the chance to express that he himself does not want to be a person who lives a lie. Moreover, he even has compassion for those who have had to compromise in order to lead their own lives. That's what we wanted to portray.

I just… Really? Richard nearly was given a wife in the first film, but the creative team cut it so Thomas would have a hopeful and optimistic arc. What does this say now, if you scrapped that storyline only to bring it back, but now worse because you’ve also allowed your queer audiences to root for Thomas and Richard? This could have been discussed between them in this film, shown Thomas’s compassion for Richard in having to make this decision, but ultimately Richard chooses Thomas instead, and you’d have gotten the same result, just without hammering home that apparently a queer couple is the only one in this show which has to be held to extreme historical accuracy (ha!), and can’t overcome their conflict to come together and stay together ultimately. Cool. Great message, Julian. I sure feel so hopeful after seeing Richard’s, who I deeply connected with in the first film, arc go this way. Again, several seats. Please take them.

Let's say, for example, that Ellis and Barrow's relationship was a happy one. In that case, they would have lived in love in London, renting separate flats but hiding from the world. I don't think that's entirely bad in itself, but it's not a dramatically interesting story either. That's why we have a story for Barrow in this piece that is more dramatic and offers a choice that is uniquely his.

This is all just blatant bullshit. There is a literal running joke about “historians will call them lifelong friends” because of the amount of so-called “lifelong friends” who lived together! Men who lived with men included! In fact, is Thomas not going to go and live with Guy Dexter now? Why is it they won’t have to rent separate flats, but Richard and Thomas would? And all this about it not being dramatically interesting? What could be MORE interesting than seeing them work together to make things work? I’m sorry, but I don’t think his DA2 plot was more dramatic. Maybe he got to make a choice, but there was no need to butcher his relationship with Richard Ellis to give him any choices. In fact, he could have even still chosen to leave Downton to be with him, if that was the desired angle! There were places queer men could go to be together in (relative) safety. So why could this not have been drama? It would have even managed all the points you covered here! We could have seen the struggles of two gay men in the society they lived in, Thomas’s compassion, his choices, and it still would have ended on a hopeful note, all without crushing anything, or toting your straight privilege around as if he understands anything about our history, when he clearly doesn’t. What a slap in the face this entire thing has been.

Fantastic joke, Julian Fellowes. You’ve made yourself a brilliant farce with this one.

[marestomars]

my work wives headcanons (part 1)

(in a universe without gerald, ‘cause I’m in a good mood) this is gonna be a long one!!!

they’ve been married for 8 years, since the day the law passed. they married in a hurry, afraid that the court decision wouldn’t hold for long, so they rushed with the kids to city hall and married in a wednesday afternoon; 

melissa wore an off-white pantsuit and barbara wore a mid-lenght white dress. they’ve had those outfits stored in their closets for almost three years, just waiting for the right moment; 

they took the kids to have lunch in a fancy italian restaurant afterwards, and ended the night drinking prosecco and eating pastries; 

before the wedding, they’re together for 20 years already! 

they’ve met in 1987, when they both started teaching at Abbott. Barbara was 31, already a teacher for 7 years and Melissa was 24, fresh out college and taking her first class alone. 

they didn’t clicked instantly. melissa was too loud, too harsh, and too fond of bending the rules, for barbara’s liking. sometimes, they would fight about the noise in melissa’s classroom, melissa’s wardrobe (”your pants are too tight and your rockband shirts have no place inside a classroom), barbara’s uptightness and morals, and melissa’s foul mouth. 

it took them several months to settle into professional neutrality, where barbara started to ignore melissa’s antics, and melissa decided to ignore the way barbara’s looks could make her skin prickle. but at the end of the day, melissa would always choose to pick a fight, just to get barbara’s attention. 

she definitely caught barbara’s attention on easter week of 1988. the private school from a few blocks away from Abbott were a having a massive egg hunt, with the presence of the Mayor himself, and the school board had just denied an extra budget so Abbott could afford a small egg hunt and candies for the kids. of course, melissa called a guy, who knew a guy, who knew another guy, and by thursday, she showed up to school 2 hours before the kids and set the greatest egg hunt Abbott Elementary had seen. 

when barbara asked (very impressed to say the least) how melissa pulled it all together, she just shrugged off her effort like it was nothing, and started running around with the kids, hyping them up and helping them find the spots where she hid the largest amount of candy. 

from that day on, barbara started paying more attention to the younger teacher, and by the end of the school year, they became close colleagues.

it took them 6 years (and melissa’s last nasty breakup) for them to realize there was something more to they’re relationship, and the realization came in the form of a mocking comment from an obnoxious colleague they overheard during a mixer at development week. “damn, if my girlfriend and I flirted this much, we would be having our third kid by now”, and nodded towards them, laughing like his teasing was just a joke. 

things became awkward between them for a while, none willing to take the first step and actually confront the elephant in the room, but it took only a glass of wine during the teacher’s Christmas party for them to talk too closely, dance too loosely and stare too hard at each other’s lips before melissa caught barbara’s hand in an act of defiance and asked dead seriously “do you trust me?”

barbara just nodded her answer and melissa dragged her outside the party. they kissed under a mistletoe inside melissa’s classroom, and they just kept kissing for what it felt like hours, neither believing what was happening.

after that night, they spent a week without talking to each other, both hesitant of reaching out on the phone during the holiday, but on new year’s eve, the doorbell on melissa’s apartment rings, and she’s dumbfounded when barbara was on the hallway, all dressed up, with a nice bottle of prosecco and a box of fancy pastries. 

they started dating during the first weeks of 1994, and things were hard at the beginning, to say the least. the moment weren’t friendly, and they hid they’re relationship like a dark secret. at school, they kept their act like always, sitting together, talking about amenities, complaining about classes and wild students, and sometimes, to deceive, they would talk about dates, loud enough to entertain a few nosy colleagues.  (to be continued, ‘cause I have lots of thoughts)

[acertainmoshke]

WIP Intro: Cold Iron

So I decided to turn Cold Iron into a series. Which means I need to come up with more book names, yay! But basically Cold Iron is currently both the title of the first book and the series as a whole.

Book 1 takes place in 1956. Shakatra Zoawin and their chosen brother Kristoffer have been alive for 40 years. Well, for him it’s approximate, but they know their birthday and they just turned 40. Which really shouldn’t matter. I mean, it really shouldn’t. Physically they’re still 20 and they never cared much about time and age anyway. They’re happy to live in the half-finished empty subway station, sometimes going to the old abandoned motel instead. They pick fights with the Wild Fae that live down the track, make up silly games, sometimes save people from Fae trickery or their own foolishness. They’ve never needed anyone but each other. No one else accepts them as anything but monsters anyway.

Their life isn’t lonely. They are happy with Kris. They don’t like other people and have no desire at all to meet any. Kris is different. He sits and people watches sometimes, wondering what their lives are like or describing feelings of desire Shaka can’t relate to at all. Kris likes to talk in general, which is good because they really don’t. They can talk, sometimes, but mostly it’s too much trouble. This is greatly helped by the fact that Kris has a particular ability that almost makes up for his struggle with and disinterest in other magic: he has telepathy. He can’t read minds, but he can speak into your mind and with practice you can speak back silently. Shaka has had lots of practice. Most of their conversations are Kris talking and Shaka thinking back. And it doesn’t matter that he hates the feeling of doing magic because he’s big and strong and a physical fighter while Shaka’s magic is so powerful and instinctive they sometimes struggle to reign it in. Part of that is their excellent glamour ability. The two can almost pass for human at a glance now, and while Kris has some pretty impressive stealing abilities, Shaka can just ask for food and then convince the person they already paid.

Really, their life is everything they want it to be.

Except that they just turned 40, which made them realize that She must have too.

40 years ago, there was a baby named Cassandra Tapple who had 2 older brothers, Jon and Sam. That baby was loved until she was stolen and replaced with a monster. The monster was hated and hurt until they ran away, changed their name, tried to forget. But there was a baby who never hurt anyone and was stolen by the Fae, the ones who live in courts in another realm and have all the menace and cunning of the ones Shaka fights daily, but so much more power.

It’s not fair. They’ve never liked things that weren’t fair. That lady is 40 now and missed half her life. She could be married with her own family, she might have been a nurse in the war, she would wear the polka dot dresses and shiny heels Shaka sees everywhere now. So they make up their mind to go rescue this innocent lady, just set her free. Maybe steal her some money to start. Then they could move on and fully forget their past.

Getting to the realm of Faerie isn’t easy in itself. They have to track down and demand debts from a lot of specific and angry beings, and then go through a whole adventure to make it work. And it’s every bit as illogical and horrifying as they expected. It takes a bit to find the right place with only her name, but eventually they do.

Only she isn’t an exhausted and overworked 40-year-old lady. She’s a bouncy, sharp-tongued 10-year-old girl. It turns out that while some humans are put to work as servants, many of them are frozen as children to dress up and entertain with song and dance, serving food and smiling. They are carefully controlled and, despite being kept young, are rarely allowed to play as kids.

They try everything to set her free, while panicking about how they are barely able to care for themself, much less a kid. But they can’t leave her. She likes them but is also wild, impossible to keep track of or get to listen.

And nothing works. They try trickery, running away, and other plots. They know they aren’t powerful enough to fight. So they end up at negotiating. They give up a lot for it and still aren’t allowed to keep her.

But the Fae let them take her out on a short trip. And when they return, they give her a plastic horse (the child had no toys!) and negotiate to take her on vacations a couple times a decade. It’s something, at least.

General tag list: @blind-the-winds

[unohanabbygirl]

fmbh!lcmd had a child in the first years of marriage, what would change? Would their relationship develop 20 years later?How does the dynamics work? and especially what would they be like as parents? there are so many questions :)

Luke is so against it that i’ve never actually thought of how things would’ve turned out if a child had come about someway somehow. This could go one of two ways; Luke would either have an abortion with the help of Gerardys. Something that while on the table Luke probably couldn’t endure without falling into a bad depression since he’s always wanted to be a parent. Or go through with the pregnancy and have the child be named a Targaryen at birth before shipping them off to live with Jace and Baela as their own similar to how they’ve done with Laena.

When Luke says he won’t have a child while in a forced married void of any love he absolutely meant it. If he were to somehow forget to drink his tea or if it simply didn’t work for whatever reason he would still refuse to raise a child in such a hostile environment. Their early years were a stressful mess, fighting over any and everything, screaming, and throwing the most hateful insults one could at the most painful moments. Luke knows good and well this hatred between the two of them wouldn’t just evaporate because of a baby, in actuality the stress of a child would likely make it 10x worse. Giving their child away to the two people he trusts most would be the best choice in his eyes. This way Luke knows his child is in safe loving arms and won’t know anything but a happy union between parents PLUS he’ll have a bunch of siblings just as he does. Not to mention that he’ll still be able to take part in his child’s life through gifts and letters even when he can’t physically be there.

Aemond of course doesn’t like this. Not because he’s secretly in love with Luke or even wants a baby (he warms up to the idea of a mini version of himself but ultimately wouldn’t have been the best father at this particular time. Too similar to Alicent.) But because he sees this as his nephew trying to hurt him once again he’s agonizing it 100%. Aemond sees Luke giving away their child as a cowardice act of running away from your problems without even realizing viewing your child as a problem in the first place is a clear sign that parenting isn’t meant for you, at least for the time being until some self-discovery and growth is had.

Having this child would wholly encourage Luke to do better while Aemond only grows more resentful. While Luke is trying to mend bonds for the sake of having a chance to one day make their home a loving enough environment for a child, Aemond is bitter, angry even.

Down the road this becomes a really sore spot between them. Especially since I can see Aemond begging for Luke to not send their child away once they’re born, the babe is a perfect mix of both of them and his heart physically hurts. Sadly, Luke knows he’d regret it because he can already see them fighting over the most simplest of things to the point where nannies will end up being more present in their child’s life than they are. He assures Aemond that their babe will still call him father, that he can visit any time, that this isn’t the end of the world. Just giving them some much needed time to become better.

In the end while this decision would encourage them to start working out their internal issues, the anger and resentment from both sides from an unexpected child would make the process painfully long. Their kid would probably be old enough to be a parent themselves by the time Lucemond can honestly say there are no longer any grievances towards one another.

Luke is a great mother, does his all to be there considering his physical presence is often lacking due to distance. It’s similar to how his relationship with Corlys was a child. They were close ofc, extremely so, but Luke didn’t see his grandfather a majority of the time until he moved to driftmark. Luke sends letters everyday, sends toys, blankets he’s slept with so the babe can have his scent, even encourages Aemond to do the same. Always laying out his plans for the month so he knows what days are available for he and Aemond to go visit.

As for Aemond I can imagine a little bit of a disconnect there. He’s good with children seeing as he was practically a father to Helaena’s children, but knowing this is his own child, a child that was never planned for expected in any way does make it surreal. How he seems himself so clearly but also sees Luke as well makes him emotional to the point where he forces himself to remain stiff. The sort of father who never says outright says ‘i love you’ but shows it in his actions rather than his words. Whereas Luke is constantly singing his love and giving hugs whenever an opportunity presents itself.

It’s interesting because their child knows their parents don’t really care for one another, always has. Whereas others don’t come to realize mom and dad don’t care for each other until they grow up to see how more loving couples act.