#this idea hit me like a truck loaded with motivation

[pocketscribbs]

so umm, i had an idea…

and before you ask, yes. I do already have ideas on how her role fits into the story

[sailor-manga]

Sugar Crash [Shouta Aizawa drabble ]

A/N: I have a lot of others saved, but since I got a little motivation back I was trying to see what I could come up with now. It’s not a lot, and it’s not super long.. But I hope you guys enjoy the sawft yet slutty mood I’m in right now hahah. 

This fic is intended for readers +18, if you are not +18, please go elsewhere. 

Warnings: DDLG mentions, Oral, NSFW, Swearing. 

It was late, you knew you shouldn’t be sneaking around the kitchen so late but it was after that time of the month and boy, were you craving just about anything sweet you could get your hands on. Wiggling a little as you opened the upper cupboard, you’d reach upwards to grab that bag of soft baked cookies that Shouta kept for the movie nights you two had often. You knew it probably wasn’t the best idea to choose that as a secret snack, but the monster inside of you that CRAVED something sweet was telling you not to think about the consequences. Besides, Aizawa was knocked the hell out, if you were quiet you could have a few and he would never know. 

Going up on your tiptoes, you would pinch the bag between your middle and ring finger, pulling to the edge so you could grab it, but of course.. Nothing was ever simple for you. As the bag neared the edge of the cupboard, it snagged a box of some boring crackers and that as well as the bag went crashing onto the counter, causing you to hiss out in irritation “God freaking.. Ugh” you whispered in a fit, quickly picking up the stuff and cradling them in your arms. 

Unfortunately for you though, Aizawa was a somewhat cautious sleeper- He could sleep during all of his classes, through all of the noise, but when he was at home he was always on alert, so the crash had him downstairs in seconds. 

“Kitten?” he called out quickly, rushing into the kitchen just to see you shove something behind your back.

“I-I’m sorry, It was dark in here and I ran into the counter” you said with a nervous laugh, but the males stern stare showed complete disbelief.

“Is that right? What was on the counter, hm?” he asked, flicking the light on “I don’t see anything you could have run into” he noted, walking along the counter to inspect it, making you swallow dryly. 

“Uhh.. These” you’d say quickly, pulling out the crackers. 

“Those weren’t on the counter, kitten.. Any other fibs you want to tell me?” he said with a smirk. He absolutely loved catching you in situations like this, because it meant he’d get to reward himself.. And though it was supposed to be punishment for you, you sure fucking felt like it was reward too. 

“A-Aizawa” you’d whimper out with a pout.

“Ah, ah, ah.. Kitteh, that’s not what we call me now, is it?” he said with a lazy yet smug grin.

Letting out a huff you would look down some “Daddy..” you’d whimper out “I told a lie”. 

Letting out a breathy laugh, he would walk forward and reach around you, plucking the bag of sweets from behind you “Oh, I know, Kitten.. But the feeling of catching you is absolutely divine” he purred before setting both the crackers and the cookies on the counter “You know, I don’t condone sweets this late, babygirl.. But I wouldn’t have minded if you asked or told me in the morning” He said with a raised brow “It was almost like you wanted me to catch you” he said kissing your forehead “Come on now, who am I to deny you something sweet?” he asked, taking your hand and guiding it to his clothed cock that was already semi stiff “Is this sweet enough to curve that hunger for now?” he asked with a smirk. 

Feeling his groin immediately made your cheeks light up, and his words caused your vision to fog for just a moment “Y-..mn..” you’d mutter out, squeezing his cock lightly “Yes, Daddy.. I think it would definitely make me not want cookies” you’d hum out with a sheepish smile. 

“Good girl, you know what to do then, hm?” he said, lifting his hand now to your head and slowly pushing you to your knees.

When they hit the cool flooring, you would look up at him with a blush before going immediately for the elastic that hugged around his toned hips and pulled them down to see his cock slowly growing for you. Licking your lips you would taste test the mushroom shaped head, causing the raven haired male to groan “Now, now Kitten, Daddy doesn’t want a tease” he said, tightening his fingers in your tresses. 

Letting out a soft moan, you would nod and wrap your lips around his cock and itching yourself further and further down until your nose hit the base. Letting out loud breath through your nostrils, you would hollow out your cheeks and swallow around the thick head of his dick, earning the fist in your hair to loosen, and his fingers to start massaging your scalp. 

It took you a moment to get the right rhythm, but soon you were bobbing your head at a medium pace, your jaw popping from how hard you were caving your cheeks in, which seemed to be working because the strict male standing before you was starting to unravel. 

“F-..uck, that’s right Kitten.. Suck the fucking life out of me you dirty fucking girl, earn your sweet treat” he growled almost in an almost feral tone. 

His encouragement was all you needed to truck through the welling pain in your jaw, this was probably the ever time you sucked him off so roughly so it was a treat for the both of you.

That’s what did it though, you were being so rough, so eager to take his load that he couldn’t hold out any longer. Gripping your hair once again he would pull you fully onto his cock, his tip resting in your throat as he let out yet another feral growl and unloaded into you. 

At first the size of his climax made you choke, he seemed to be cumming too fast for you to swallow whole, but soon you gained your bearings and drank him down like a good girl, earning your hair to be set free completely, allowing you to pull back and gasp for air. 

Licking your lips, you’d lean forward again and clean his cock off for him, eagerly lapping up at any cum you might have missed. 

“That’s my good, slutty little Kitten.. Was that sweet enough for you?” he purred in a tired tone.

“Mn.. Yes, Daddy.. I’m sorry I fibbed” you’d mutter out, looking up at him with the same pair of tired hues. 

“I’m glad” he said, helping you up and scooping you up bridal style in his arms “Now, next time you want something sweet like cookies, please just ask me first.. Just because I’m your Daddy doesn’t mean I control you that harshly, okay Kitten?” he mused softly, kissing your cheek.

Nodding with a pout, you’d rest your head on his broad chest. 

“Good girl, let’s go back to bed” he whispered quietly, whisking you back to the bedroom for a good nights sleep.

[dreamii-yume]

I've had an idea in my head for quite a while! What about Cater using you all he can for his birthday? You can't deny him either! You don't want to make the birthday boy sad, do you? He'd film everything as well! Threatening to upload it to Magicam if you don't do as he says.

- 🍑

Let’s start off with some spicy blackmail for our birthday boi~ (ง ื▿ ื)ว

“Oh~ That’s good pose, (Y/N)-chan! Look a little more to the right, here!”

Holding his phone in a horizontal manner, Cater tilted his upper body to get that perfect angle he wanted. You awkwardly shifted from your position, waiting for him to get a shot as you looked away in embarrassment. “Ah! Come on, don’t look away all shy like that~! It’s cute though, but it doesn’t feel right~” You flinched as you quickly went back to glance at the lens of his phone, your face blooming redder by the second.

“T-Take the shot already…” You barely mumbled out with your voice coming out a lot weaker than you would’ve wanted. You knew he was utilizing his time here, trying to savor the moment, but resulting in you becoming more and more humiliated by the second…I mean, how could you not? When this birthday boy just ordered you to go down on your knees right between his legs, and basically gave you the permission to jerk him off. It’s his own perverted way of a gift, yet you could only puff your cheeks at it.

Cater gave nothing but a chuckle. “Now, now…It takes time to get that perfection, Cupcake~” He taunted, his eyes sparkling at the sight of you through his phone screen. His responses seemed distracted, you figured it must be because he’s so lost on his own world right now. Well, of course he’s applying this much focus on you right now; The way you nervously hold his cock in your hands and letting it poke against your warm cheeks, it’s simply enticing. No matter which place he holds the camera at, each angle is just unbearably adorable that it’s just impossible to take one shot. “Hey, why don’t you stick out your tongue for me, Darling?”

You let out a slight whine, keeping your mouth shut into a straight line as a form of rejection, stubborn as you can be. Still, it wasn’t enough for Cater to rethink his choice, having your tongue out just above his cock would definitely increase your cuteness level! “Hm~? Is that a no?” He hummed in a mocking manner; it made your stomach churn in response. The feeling of regret bubbles in. “That’s too bad…I guess we can still go with a livestream then! What do you say? Let’s livestream this event on Magicam!”

You gulped. “I just can’t decide on a good shot, you see! Maybe if I let everyone see your current state, they’ll be able to help me? Cay-kun is quite popular, you see~!” He said with a cheerful smile, but his eyes look down on you with dark intentions, making you feel as if there’s a loaded gun right at the back of your skull. His fingers began to fiddle with his phone screen, filling you with dread especially when you can’t see which buttons he was pressing. What if he was already livestreaming all this time and you just haven’t realized…!? “Let’s title this with…”The Prefect of Night Raven College’s Adorable Birthday Gift to Cay-kun”! Then-“

With a huffing whimper and frustrated tears building up on the side of your eyes, you opened your quavering mouth and stuck out your tongue like he asked. Cater stopped with a victorious smirk on his face before laughing, you felt his cock twitched in your hand. “Aw, you poor thing~! Getting all flustered like that…” He said, reaching out to your face to wipe away those tiny tears, before studying your facial features. “Hm…So cute…”

He slipped his thumb on the side of your mouth, widening the gap before a truly smug smile followed right after. You widened your eyes with a squeak as he moved his cock right at the entrance “…Now, I want you to take this all in your mouth. All of it.” He smiled sweetly with a small giggle.

There’s nothing that you could really do here, your words are useless against him when he literally has the power to ruin you with a click of a button. Covering it up as a birthday gift didn’t really mean anything at all, he could’ve done this at a normal day and he’d still have that power. After much mental deliberation with yourself, you eventually moved to lean in closer and do as he say, opening your mouth wider to accommodate his girth. “Mm…That’s a good girl…” He said in a gentle whisper, moving his hand to pat your head as a form of motivation. His breath seems shaky, now that he’s feeling all sensitive with how warm you feel on the inside. “…You can move now.”

And so, you did, not having any other choice in the matter. Your actions were a bit clumsy, but you provided a warm and comforting feeling every time you bobbed your head to swallow him whole. The way your tongue would slide up and down his shaft, your saliva sticking to his skin like a protective layer. Cater couldn’t help but be amused as he noticed that you were actually learning fast, curiously exploring your options to deliver pleasure without even noticing it yourself. Cater was glad that he decided to secretly record this whole event, not to livestream or to post anywhere, but for himself to daydream again and again in the near future.

He let out a slight breathy chuckle and kept the fact for himself, however he would be lying if he said that he expected you to adapt this quickly. Honestly, your hands would automatically pump his dick slightly while you nibble and suck on his head, your hot breathing lingering against him was enough to stimulate him faster than he would’ve liked. Before Cater knew it, he just found himself to be the one moaning out loud as you fastened your pace. He mentally cursed as he just overestimated his endurance and his hand, which was sitting on top of your head, was beginning to add pressure to have you engulf him deeper and longer. “Nngh…(Y/N)-chan…You’re really good at this, huh…” He giggled, like an intoxicated individual, a drool slipped out on the side of his mouth in process. “More…Cay-kun wants more, (Y/N)-chan…!”

You heard him and to your surprise, your body was more than willing to grant his request as you felt a surge of motivation flowing in you and you began to suck him faster. Throwing his head back, Cater was unable to hold himself back anymore and with a euphoric smile, he gripped your head and pulled you out. His thick, white semen came bursting out of his slit like that of a firework and landing everywhere, mainly on you. You closed your eyes, feeling some liquid all over your face and mouth, eventually dripping down your cheeks like slime. “A-Ah…” You moaned slightly, slowly opening your eyes only to shut them off immediately as bright white flash suddenly slipped into your vision. Clearing your mind soon took the realization in you that after so long, Cater finally took that one perfect photo he wanted, and you weren’t even ready! You wondered how it look but seeing how your senior stares at his phone with that lovesick look on his face made you rethink otherwise.

Maybe that picture should really just be for his eyes.

“Aah~! This is perfect! It’s a completely stolen shot and you still look so cute!” He admired the photo, exhaustion doesn’t seem to have any effect on him even after his initial release, but trails of sweat drops down from his forehead. “Plus, my cum makes you look like you’re covered in whip cream instead! I guess pulling out was really the correct choice, good job me~!”

Squealing like a little girl, Cater finally took noticed of your pouting self and merely smiled brightly at you. “And good job to you too, (Y/N)-chan! You’re such a Sweetheart!” He said as leaned forward and pulled you into a bone-crushing hug. “You really made Cay-kun’s birthday so much fun! Thank you~!”

You averted your eyes to the side and gave him a twitching smile. “Uuh…Y-Yeah, whatever you say…” You said, paling at the thought that you actually wouldn’t have agreed to this if he hadn’t blackmailed you in the first place. The senior seemed to be too distracted with his own enthusiasm to notice your salty attitude, but you had an underlying that he does notice, he just doesn’t want to acknowledge it. You ended up sighing in depravity in the end whilst hugging him back, you quietly click your tongue as a plan to have your revenge later…When you’re sure that those pictures won’t accidentally fall to some shady website that is.

Cater melts a little long in your touch before forcing himself to pull away and flashed you a wide smile. “Well then, I’m expecting our date in that one super photogenic café this Saturday, yeah~?” He said as you looked back to him, blinking. “What kind of boyfriend would I be if I don’t take my girlfriend out somewhere nice?”

Then it hits you like a truck. “Wait…G-Girlfriend…!? Boyfriend!?”

With your panicking self, Cater tilted his head to the side, feigning innocence. “Hm~? That’s right. I mean, it’s just common sense for us to be in a proper relationship after doing that, you know?” He said with a shy blush, but still gave an evil smile in the end, making you gulp down a very bad feeling. Especially as proceeded he pulled out his phone with the recent picture of you covered in his seed, making you squeak in fear. “After all, you wouldn’t want this coming out so soon, right?”

“So, you better bet that we’re going to be stepping up a higher level than this, Sweetheart~!”

[prouvaireafterdark]

Staring in the Blackness at Some Distant Star

I know it's been a while, but hopefully this direct follow up to Caught in the Moment from my Michael Sanders AU makes up for it! 💜

Also on AO3!

***

There are nights when Alex crawls into bed with bruises he’ll have to explain away to Michael in the morning already blooming on his skin.

On these nights, Alex draws his blankets close around himself and lives in the corner of his mind where things are different—where he’s older, stronger, and finally free from all the bullshit that comes with being Jesse Manes’ youngest, most disappointing son.

He pictures a future where he can walk down Main Street holding Michael’s hand and not give a single fuck who’s watching—or better yet, load up Michael’s pick up truck with their belongings and leave Roswell altogether.

And when he’s feeling particularly sorry for himself, he imagines what it would be like to have a family that accepts him as he is, that would even be interested in learning more about his life and the people in it that make him happy.

That kind of acceptance has felt like nothing but a pipe dream for so long that now, sitting at the kitchen table with Michael and his dad, Alex feels a little like he’s in the Twilight Zone.

Because after walking in on Alex sprawled on his living room floor and kissing his only son, Mr. Sanders didn’t yell or throw things or even kick Alex out of his house.

Because all Mr. Sanders has done is cook Alex dinner and ask him how his advanced guitar lessons are going.

Even just the fact that Michael’s dad cares enough to ask about his lessons—let alone remembers Alex mentioning them—defies logic. After years of his own father scoffing and rolling his eyes whenever he dares to talk about music, Alex has come to expect a certain level of apathy toward his interests from the adults in his life.

And yet here Mr. Sanders sits, listening attentively while Alex talks about the chord progressions he learned earlier this week.

It’s all a little hard to accept, if Alex is honest. So much so that, even as he lowers his guard, there’s a voice in his head warning him to be careful, preparing him for the possibility that this moment really is too good to be true.

But then Alex catches Michael smiling at him fondly across the table, and maybe it’s foolishly sentimental, but Alex trusts that smile more than anything. He knows it means he’s safe, that he’s loved, and it gives him hope that maybe this is real—that maybe Alex doesn’t have to stick to that familiar corner of his mind for a taste of the acceptance he’s spent his whole life wishing for.

But as with every other good thing in his life, Alex should have expected that his father would find some way to ruin it.

As dinner winds to a close, Alex’s phone vibrates in his pocket. He fishes it out and sees he has a new text from Flint. It’s a short message, but Alex’s blood runs cold the second he reads it.

15 minutes

“Hey,” Alex hears distantly, his attention grabbed more by the foot nudging his own under the table. He looks up from his phone to see concern on Michael’s face. “What’s wrong?”

“I-I need to go home,” Alex stammers in response.

“Is everything okay?” Michael pries, the furrow in his brow growing deeper.

Alex swallows tensely, his stomach knotting up as he thinks of the fresh Hell he’s going to face if his dad gets home before he does.

“It will be if I get home in the next fifteen minutes,” Alex answers carefully.

He can feel Mr. Sanders’ questioning gaze on him as he offers, “I can drop you off now if you need.”

“No, I can do it,” Michael says immediately, already standing up and reaching for his keys on the kitchen counter.

“Not a chance, kid,” Mr. Sanders shuts him down.

Michael freezes where he stands, his head whipping abruptly in his father’s direction.

“What?” Michael asks, brow crinkling with confusion Alex can’t help but share. “Why not?”

“You’ll be too busy doing the dishes and cleaning your room,” Mr. Sanders tells him.

“Dad!” Michael starts to argue, but Mr. Sanders puts his foot down.

“Don’t think I’ve forgotten you slacked on getting dinner started,” he says, before adding, “again.”

“That wasn’t even my fault,” Michael defends himself.

“Oh, so was it Alex’s fault then?” Mr. Sanders shoots back, raising one weathered eyebrow.

Alex flinches reflexively at the suggestion, his cheeks coloring, but Michael’s dramatic sigh steals his attention.

“Alright, fine,” Michael says, holding up his hands in surrender. “If you insist, old man.”

To anyone else’s ear, it would come across as a rude or petulant thing to say, but Michael somehow makes it sound like an endearment.

“Cute,” Mr. Sanders comments in a dry tone, and Alex can see his mouth turn up a little at the corners as he tries not to smile. “Now get started. Those dishes aren’t gonna wash themselves.”

Michael looks offended. “I’ve gotta say goodbye first.”

Alex’s heart jumps in his chest when Michael walks over to him and pulls him into his arms. It’s far from the most intimate hug they’ve shared, but Alex’s eyes still flick nervously over to where Mr. Sanders is patting himself down for his keys.

When he feels Michael’s lips brush against his cheek, Alex flushes and pulls back to look at him. Michael’s expression is soft, his eyes concerned and full of love as they track a path across Alex’s face.

God, Alex thinks, if Michael’s ever looked at me like this in front of his dad, no wonder he figured us out.

“Are you sure you’re okay?” Michael whispers.

“Yeah,” Alex lies through a tight-lipped smile.

Michael frowns, clearly not buying it.

“Just don’t want to miss curfew,” Alex explains, hoping that will be enough. There’s a lot Michael doesn’t know about his dad and now isn’t really the best time to get into it.

This time, Michael sighs and nods in understanding.

“Call me when you get home?” he asks, and Alex’s heart melts a little at the need he hears in his voice.

Alex nods and reaches discreetly for Michael’s hand, giving it a gentle squeeze. “I will,” he assures him.

“You ready?” Mr. Sanders asks as he waits patiently by the door.

“Yeah,” Alex says, standing up a little straighter. “Let’s go.”

Inside the car, things are quiet—too quiet, even with the dad rock filtering into the cab of Mr. Sanders’ truck through the radio—and Alex is nervous again. His own ticking clock aside, he’s never been alone with Michael’s dad before and he can’t help but wonder if there’s an ulterior motive behind his offer for a ride. Alex tries to remind himself that Mr. Sanders has been nothing but nice to him all evening, but without Michael as a buffer that voice is back, reminding him that that doesn’t really mean shit.

Even his dad isn’t a bastard all the time.

The anticipation is unbearable and eventually Alex takes a breath and asks, “So is this the part where you give me the shovel talk?”

He’d been aiming for casual, but he doesn’t quite hit the mark. The corner of Mr. Sanders’ mouth ticks upward and Alex swallows tensely as he waits for a response.

“No,” Mr. Sanders answers lightly, eyes still on the road ahead.

“Oh,” Alex says, relaxing minutely. “Why not?”

“Don’t need to,” is all Mr. Sanders says.

Alex thinks about that, confused. “Why not?”

“Because I’ve been watching you, son,” Sanders explains, “and I think the idea of Michael hurting hurts you.”

Alex thinks back to all those afternoons he’s spent with Michael at his house or at the junkyard, remembering how hard he’d tried to not do or say anything that would give away his feelings whenever Mr. Sanders was around. He thought he’d been successful, but Michael must not be the only one who wears his heart on his sleeve.

“Am I wrong?” Mr. Sanders asks, and Alex realizes he’s been quiet too long.

“No,” Alex answers quickly. “No, you’re not.”

“Good,” Mr. Sanders nods.

He thinks that’s the end of it until Mr. Sanders asks him, “How we doin’ on time?” a minute later.

“Six minutes,” Alex says, double-checking his phone.

Mr. Sanders grunts in response and presses his foot on the gas pedal a little harder, familiar enough with Alex’s directions to know they’re cutting it close.

“Curfew’s awfully early for a boy your age, isn’t it?” Mr. Sanders comments as he turns down a nearby side street.

“I, uh, may have forgotten to tell my dad I was going out,” Alex admits, hoping the confession won’t bite him in the ass.

“Mm,” Mr. Sanders hums in understanding. “Well, at least you were just having dinner at my place. S’not like you were out doing something bad.”

Alex huffs a shallow, incredulous laugh. “I doubt he’ll see it that way, sir.”

“I can vouch for you if you need,” he offers, but Alex shakes his head. No good will come from his dad finding out he was spending time at Michael’s house, whether he knows they’re dating or not.

Mr. Sanders seems to turn that over in his mind for a moment before he asks, “Does your old man know?”

Alex doesn’t need to ask him what he means. He sighs and wraps his arms around himself a little defensively.

“Not about Michael,” he answers.

“I see.”

Mr. Sanders must take pity on him then because he lapses into silence once more. Alex fills the minutes by reflexively checking his phone until Mr. Sanders’ truck finally rolls to a stop outside his house.

Alex unbuckles his seatbelt quickly, but before he gets out of the car, Mr. Sanders says something that makes him pause, his hand still on the door handle.

“You’re a good kid, Alex,” he says, “and you’ve been good for Michael. As long as that stays true, you’re welcome to come over as often as you like.”

It takes a moment for Mr. Sanders’ words to fully sink in, and once they do, Alex’s eyes start to burn. After years of feeling unwelcome—hated, even—in his own home, there aren’t words for what that means to him.

He swallows roughly, choking down the emotion brewing inside him, and forces himself to smile.

“Thank you,” Alex says, and it doesn’t feel like nearly enough.

“Don’t mention it,” Mr. Sanders replies. “You should probably get going now. You’ve only got another two minutes.”

That lights a fire under Alex’s ass.

“Shit,” he says, slinging the strap of his messenger bag over his neck. “Thanks again, Mr. Sanders.”

Mr. Sanders’ lips twitch up in a small smile. “No problem, kid.”

Alex hears Mr. Sanders’ truck idle behind him as he books it to the front door. He fumbles for his keys and throws it open the second it’s unlocked.

“You can unclench,” he hears Flint call from the couch, his eyes not straying from the first person shooter he’s playing. “He’s not home yet.”

“Fuck you,” Alex grumbles as he closes the door behind him, but he releases a breath in relief all the same.

Alex climbs the stairs to his bedroom two at a time, shutting the door and letting his bag thud against the carpet once he’s inside. He collapses onto his bed and kicks his shoes haphazardly off his feet, mind reeling from the emotional rollercoaster he’s ridden tonight.

His phone buzzes in his hand a minute later, and Alex opens it to find a text from Michael.

Did you get home okay?

Shit, Alex thinks, dialing Michael immediately.

“Alex,” Michael says when he picks up on the second ring. “Everything okay?”

“Yeah, I’m okay,” Alex says, taking care to keep his voice down so he isn’t overheard. “I just got home, so, crisis averted.”

“Okay, good,” Michael sighs, sounding relieved.

“Are you okay?” Alex asks a moment of silence later, rolling over onto his back so he can stare at the ceiling. “Doing the dishes can’t be that bad, can it?”

Alex can hear Michael laugh softly over the line.

“Sorry,” Michael says, and Alex can practically see him shaking his head at himself. “You just, um, kinda scared me when you left. You looked like you were, like, a minute away from having a panic attack. I was worried about you.”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to worry you,” Alex apologizes. “I just lost track of time, and, well—you know how my dad is,” he finishes vaguely, hoping Michael won’t probe deeper.

“It’s okay,” Michael assures him. ”I get it.”

There’s a lull where neither of them speaks, and Alex just lets the familiar sound of Michael’s breathing distract him from the tight feeling growing in his throat.

He blinks back to attention when he hears Michael ask, “So how was the drive with my dad? He didn’t do anything embarrassing, did he?”

“No,” Alex says quickly, thinking back to his conversation with Mr. Sanders. “No, he was… he was great, actually.”

“Yeah?” Michael asks, sounding a little surprised. “No awkward ‘If you hurt my son…’ talk?”

“No,” Alex says. “He said I didn’t need one, actually.”

“Really?”

“Yup. Apparently, I’m not exactly subtle about how in love with you I am.”

“You’re really not,” Michael laughs, sounding inordinately pleased. Alex closes his eyes to that happy sound, picturing Michael’s wide smile as it washes over him. “Did he say anything else?”

Alex recalls their final exchange before he left the car, the one that made him want to cry. It hits him all over again—the extraordinary validation and impossible kindness Michael’s father offered him as easily as he’d offered him a ride home—and Alex once again feels like he’s on the precipice of some big, undefined emotion.

“Yeah,” Alex replies, and he finds the words catching in his throat when he adds, “He, um, he said I was good for you and that I could come over any time.”

“Oh fuck yeah,” Michael says, ignorant of the emotions weighing down Alex’s heart and the tears gathering in his eyes. “I hope you know I plan to exploit the hell out of that ‘cause I literally always want you over.”

Alex’s answering laugh comes out a little wet, and it’s then that Michael notices something’s off.

“Alex?” he asks.

“Yeah?” Alex responds, his voice breaking just enough to betray him.

“Are you—Alex, are you crying?”

Alex tries to answer him, to say something, anything, but he just—can’t. Not without releasing the sob building up inside him. Instead, he rolls onto his side again and draws his limbs close to his chest, his phone still pressed tight to his ear.

“Alex,” Michael says his name again, soft as a whisper this time, and fuck, Alex wishes he was still with Michael, wishes he could just tuck himself against his chest and forget everything else. “Baby, what’s wrong?”

“Sorry,” Alex sniffles, feeling incredibly stupid. “Nothing’s wrong, I just—“ Alex breaks off to take a deep breath to collect himself, but the tears just keep falling down his cheeks. “Fuck, sorry, this is so dumb.”

“Hey, no, it’s not,” Michael tries to soothe him. “Just breathe. I’m right here.”

Alex closes his eyes and focuses on his breathing again, willing his tears away. It takes another minute, but eventually they stop.

“Sorry,” Alex apologizes again once his voice returns.

“You don’t need to apologize, Alex,” Michael says. “Can you just tell me what’s wrong? Is there anything I can do to help?”

“It’s stupid,” Alex says again.

“If you’re upset about it, it’s not stupid,” Michael argues. “Not to me.”

Alex lets out a sigh before he answers. “I just… I never thought I’d hear anyone say that to me, I guess.”

“Say what?”

“That I’m good for my boyfriend,” Alex explains. “That I’m... welcome, at his house, whenever—whenever I want to be there.”

“Oh, baby,” Michael sighs sympathetically. “That’s not stupid, that’s—really fucking sad, but it’s not stupid.”

Alex sniffs as he shrugs. He doesn’t need to explain the rest of his thoughts to Michael—that he’d convinced himself that Michael’s dad would throw him out or worse the second he found out about them. They’ve had that conversation already, months ago now, tucked away together in the bed of Michael’s truck with the desert sky a starry blanket overhead. He’d been so sure things would get harder for them, not easier, and the fact that his relentless cynicism turned out to be wrong, well—

His gratitude is a little overwhelming.

There’s a moment where neither of them speaks, both of them unsure what to say, until Michael huffs a sigh in frustration.

“Fuck, I just really want to hold you right now,” he says.

Alex buries his face in his pillow and makes a noise that says he agrees.

“Do you think you could sneak out tonight?”

“I doubt it,” Alex says. His dad will be jet-lagged when he gets back and that means he’ll probably be up all night.

“Hmm…” Michael hums in thought. “What do you say we cut gym tomorrow, then? We could come back to my place and make out while Buffy reruns play in the background.”

“You had me at ‘cut gym’,” Alex says, and Michael laughs, the sound warming Alex from the inside out.

“There’s my boy,” Michael says fondly, and hopeless affection rushes through Alex at Michael’s gentle possessiveness.

“I love you,” he says, wishing he could see the way Michael’s eyes light up when those words hit.

“I love you too,” Michael replies easily, and it would be a perfect moment if not for the daunting sound of his father’s SUV rolling into the driveway just outside Alex’s window.

“Shit, I gotta go,” Alex says, climbing out of bed. “Have fun cleaning your room.”

Michael whines a little at that. “I won’t, but thank you.”

“Well,” Alex says, picking up his shoes and placing them in his closet where they belong, “what if I said that if your room is clean when I get there tomorrow, we’ll do more than just make out?”

“I would say that I’m suddenly very motivated,” Michael answers.

“There’s my boy,” Alex says, and Michael laughs at the callback.

“You know me so well,” Michael says. “Anything specific I should plan for, or are you gonna surprise me?”

Before Alex can answer, he hears the front door slam on its hinges and nerves start to coil in his belly all over again.

“I’ll surprise you,” he says, reaching into his messenger bag and grabbing the book he’s reading for English.

“Can’t wait,” Michael replies, his voice dipping down seductively, but all Alex notices are the heavy footsteps on the stairs.

“Alright, I really gotta go now,” Alex says.

“If you insist,” Michael sighs. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“See you tomorrow,” Alex echoes and hangs up.

His bedroom door opens a moment later and when it does, Alex is sitting at his desk with his book, the picture of innocence.

“What are you doing?” Jesse Manes asks him, still in his uniform.

“Reading,” Alex says, waving the book so his father can see.

He steps further into Alex’s bedroom, his eyes doing a sweep for anything out of place. When he doesn’t find anything, Jesse comes up to Alex’s desk and plucks the book he’s reading right out of his grasp.

“Night by Elie Wiesel,” he reads the cover aloud, turning it over in his hands.

“It’s for English,” Alex explains as his father flips idly through the thin book. He tosses it unceremoniously on Alex’s desk when he’s done.

“Flint ordered a pizza,” he says. “Should be here in thirty.”

“Okay,” Alex nods, trying not to think about how he’s somehow going to have to eat a second dinner. “I’ll be down soon to set the table.”

“Good,” Jesse says, turning on his heel to head back the way he came. Alex watches him go, releasing a breath he didn’t know he was holding when the door closes behind him.

That is, until it opens again a second later and his father peeks his head back in.

“Oh, and Alex?” Jesse says, face hard and impassable as stone.

“Yeah?”

“You better have that black shit off your face when you come down.”

“Yes, sir,” Alex answers, ducking his head and silently cursing himself for forgetting to remove his makeup when he first got home.

Without another word, Jesse walks off down the hall, leaving Alex’s door ajar.

When his footsteps have completely receded down the stairs, Alex sinks into his desk chair with a heavy sigh, his head tipping back up toward the ceiling.

Tomorrow can’t come fast enough.

[xxwritemeastoryxx]

So Close

Author: xxwritemeastoryxx

Pairings: Jackson Kenner x Labonair!Reader

Word Count: 3.4K

Warnings: Season rewrite, character death, canon typical blood and gore, there are no happy moments in this. 

Author’s Note: Here is the third installment of Angst. Just some notes before you guys dive into this. The reader is Hayley’s younger sister and is currently married to Jackson. This is a bit of a series rewrite, reader takes Hayley’s spot for the most part. At least util I take the reigns for some divergence. 

Feedback gives me life and motivation for future things. ♥

“Remind me again, why we are moving out of the Bayou and into the French Quarter?” Jackson asked as he followed Y/N out of their house in the Bayou, loading up a truck full of their things.

“Because Hayley asked us nicely.” Y/N said as she placed a box into the back of the truck and turned to look at him. “We agreed because we both know it would give Hope and Hayley as safe space.” A smirk pulled at her lips. “Plus you know I’m a sucker for having my niece around.”

Jackson chuckled as he came to stand beside her, placing the box he held into the back of the truck. “Oh I know. It’s just going to be different being in the city.”

Y/N gave him a small smile and placed her hand on his cheek. “We’ll make this work. We can always come back out here if we need time to ourselves.”

Jackson would have chuckled at Y/N’s words if hadn’t been for the wolfsbane filled dart that shot right into his neck, causing him to groan. Y/N’s eyes widened as he did.

“Jack?” Her eyes searched his face for only a moment, before she heard the sounds of another headed in her direction.

With quick movements, Y/N had been able to stop the dart from ever hitting her. Tossing it to the ground, she turned back to make sure Jackson was alright. But before she could, the sound of several more darts being shot at once filled their ears, before they pierced their skin. Their eyes met for only a moment before they both fell as darkness filled them.

____

Pain radiated through Y/N as she came to. The damage that had been done to her while unconscious was now evident in the blood and bruises that covered her skin. The slightest movement caused a shot of pain to run through her body. The more she came to, the more panicked she became.

Her first instinct was to pull her wrists free from their restraints, but no matter how many times she tried, they only clanged against the metal of the chair she was confined to. With each try she felt weaker.

“I tried that.” Jackson’s voice had been mixed in with the sounds of Y/N trying to get free, she hadn’t heard him the first time. “I tried that.” He said again getting her attention. “The more you struggle, the more wolfsbane gets pumped into your veins.”

Y/N’s eyes widened at not only his words but how badly beaten he looked. Her eyes moved to the IV lines that had been right next to Jackson. One line led straight for her and the other went to Jackson. “Jack, we have to at least try to get out of-” That had been when her eyes landed on the pool of blood at Jackson’s feet. “Your leg.” Her eyes shot up to his.

Jackson shook his head. “Yeah, they worked me over pretty good. With all the...” He took a moment to catch his breath. “the wolfsbane in my system, I ain’t healing so well.”

Y/N shook her head. “There has to be a way.” She began looking around the room, hoping to find something, anything that would be able to get them out of their current situation. “There’s always something.”

“The wolfsbane is going to make it a whole hell of a lot harder to do anything.” Jackson noted.

He was trying to keep his voice calm for his wife. But there was something inside of him that told him they were stuck as they were. And while he wouldn’t admit it in that moment, he knew his time was running out. With how much blood he lost and the wolfsbane keeping him from healing, his thoughts were heading in a dark direction.

Y/N’s eyes snapped over to Jackson. She had never heard him sound so defeated before. “Jack, you have to trust me that we’ll get out of here.”

“I always trust you.” He said giving her a broken smile.

The moment he had, her heart filled with pain. They wouldn’t have been in this situation if it hadn’t been for her. She knew this was the consequences for helping her sister out. “This is my fault, I’m gonna get us out of here.” She promised.

“This isn’t your fault.” He said as he watched her begin to look around the room. “We’ve found ourselves in the middle of a war between the Mikaelsons and their sires. Your sister was only helping them and you with her. Don’t think for a second this is your fault.”

Y/N felt her eyes fill with tears as she tried to blink them back. She looked down at the ground before her as she did. “We’ll play the blame game later. I just need to find us a way out of this.” Her eyes moved to her restraints and a thought formed as she had. “Oh this is going to hurt like a bitch.”

“Worse than turning?” Jackson asked with a chuckle. He knew the moment Y/N had an idea. He could see it in the ay her expression turned from worry to calm instantly. And if there was a way to keep her calm  for as long as he could, he’d do that.

“No, but with the wolfsbane, it’s not going to be any easier.” She said as she looked over at him for only a moment before looking back at her hand.

Taking a deep breath, she began pulling her arm up, causing the shackles to reach her wrist. The further she pulled her arm, back, the more the shackle began to bite into her skin as she tried to pull her wrist through.

The whole time she did, her mind reminded her of how Hayley had shown her how to do this. The memory the only thing making it possible. Hayley’s words playing in her head. ‘If there is one thing I’m going to show you, it might as well be this.’

With a muffled cry, Y/N dislocated her thumb, making it easier to manipulate and pull the rest of her hand through the shackle. The sound of the metal hit the ground, and she took a deep breath. Even with her thumb still dislocated, she reached up and pulled the IV out of her arm.

“That’s my girl.” Jackson mumbled as he gave her a smile.

A small smile pulled at her lips as she looked over at him. “Told you I’d come up with something.” Popping her thumb back into place, she repeated the process with her other hand. This time she hadn’t been met with resistance from the wolfsbane entering her system.

The moment she was free, she moved over to Jackson. The first thing she did was pull the IV out of him as well. While he may have had more of it running through his system than she had, it was still going to take him a lot longer to heal because of his injuries.

Grabbing the nearest free piece of fabric, she made a tourniquet out of it. Jackson already lost a lot of blood as it was, she didn’t need him losing any more of it. “We don’t know when they’ll be back, so we need to be quick about this.” She said as she looked up at him.

“Do it.” He nodded his head. He wanted her to do the same thing she had in order to get free, but he knew he couldn’t do it himself. Not in the state he was in.

Y/N braced her self as she brought her hands to his. With one quick movement, she had his thumbs dislocated. His cry of pain caused Y/N to bite down on her lips, attempting to keep her own cry at bay. She hated that this was what they needed to do to be free.

“I’m okay.” He said a moment later. “I’ll heal faster once this is out of my system.”

Y/N nodded her head as she removed the chains from around his ankles before helping him up. He brought his arm up around her shoulders as she helped support him. “As soon as we are away, I’ll call Hayley.”

“We’ll worry about that once we’re out.” Jackson said as he held on to her and tried his best to help support himself.

The two managed to get out of the building that they had been in. But they hadn’t gotten far before Jackson needed a break from walking. Y/N set him down behind a tree, hoping to keep him hidden.

“You should go on without me.” Jackson said the moment he was settled.

Y/N was already shaking her head before he had even finished speaking. “I’m not leaving you here.” She knelt in front of him.

“I can hardly walk, Y/N/N.” He said as he looked up at her, his hand coming up to run along her cheek. “We’ve left a blood trail to here. Even if we don’t have wolfsbane being pumped into us, I’m not gonna be able to heal without rest. It will give you a chance to get away.”

“No.” She shook her head once more. “Leaving you is a possible death sentence and I’m not about to do that to you.”

“I’d rather it be me than you.” His eyes met hers. He hadn’t missed the way her eyes began to fill with tears.

“Jack, even if we have to fight our way through, we’ll make it home.” Y/N refused to believe that they made it this far for them to not make it out. They just had to get a little bit farther, and they’d be okay.

“We both know I wouldn’t make it through a fight.” He shook his head. “Not like this, Not this injured. I love you.” His eyes searched her face for a moment. “I’ve always loved you.”

She shook her head. “Don’t-”

“Even as kids, I loved you.” He continued despite Y/N not wanting him to continue. “What we’ve had between us, I wouldn’t give that up for anything. Every moment, every touch, every word.” He stopped for a moment to get himself in control. “You’ve been the best part of me and while I will sure as hell fight by your side if needed, we both know it’s not going to end well if they catch up with us.”

“Stop, Jack.” She moved out of his hold, attempting to keep her lips from trembling. “You are going to rest a few more minutes, and we are both going to get out of here, even if I have to drag you out of here to make sure you are safe.”

“How absolutely darling! Or pathetic. I suppose it’s all relative.” Tristan’s words filled the air, causing both of them to notice they were now surrounded.

A member of the Strix pulled Y/N away from Jackson, leaving Jackson struggling to get up to try and get her back. Y/N fought against their hold but it hadn’t been enough. They kept her out of Jackson’s reach as Tristan’s pulled Jackson up.

“You’ve already done enough to him, leave him alone.” Y/N said as she tugged herself against their hold. “You’re doing this because of what I helped Hayley do. This has nothing to do with him.”

“Y/N.” Jackson said shaking his head, already knowing where her mind was going.

Tristan chuckled as he kept his hold on Jackson. “This was always about how you helped tortured me. I’ve been pondering this moment since then. The best way to hurt your sister would have been to take your life, leaving her an orphan after finally reuniting with you. But you have another use for me. You on the other hand, it was rather easy to figure out how to hurt you.”

Y/N’s eyes widened at his words before she even seen him move. Tristan’s hand shoved into Jackson’s chest causing Jackson to groan in pain. At the same time, Y/N screamed as she fought against the members of the Strix’s hold.

“Please don’t.” She begged. Anything to get him to stop and leave Jackson alone.

But Tristan hadn’t cared. He pulled his arm out, along with Jackson’s heart before letting his body fall to the ground. It was only then they had released her. Her cries and screams blended in together as she rushed over to his body.

“No, no, no.” She said as she placed her hands on his face. Her body shaking as she tried to find someway to bring him back.

Tristan nodded his head towards the others and began walking away. As Y/N felt their hands on her, she tried fighting them off, wanting to stay by Jackson’s side. But in the end, she lost the fight as they dragged her back, kicking and screaming.

_____

Hayley, Elijah and Vincent walked into the courtyard to find Freya standing there. While they were trying to finalize plans with Vincent, seeing the way Freya was currently clutching her chest with one hand caused them to re prioritize.

Hayley noticed that Freya had been looking at the small box that had been sitting on the table. Her eyes quickly moved back to Freya noticing the piece of parchment in her hand. Worry had filled not only Hayley, but Elijah as well.

“What is it?” Hayley asked as she and Elijah came to her side.

Freya took a breath, her eyes had been filled with tears. “A messenger came.” That caused concerned looked to form on Hayley and Elijah. “Some compelled tourist,” she added in quickly. “He left this...” Freya gestured towards the box.

Hayley moved to look in the box, but Elijah stopped her. Taking a step towards it, he gently lifted the lid of the box while Hayley and Vincent watched from behind. From where Hayley stood she could clearly see what was in side of it. Seeing the bloody heart in it caused Hayley to look elsewhere while Elijah closed the box.

“Who?” Elijah asked looking over at his sister.

Freya looked to Elijah before looking over at Hayley. “Jackson.” Hayley’s eyes widened as she looked over at Freya. Fear coursed through Hayley as she took in the words. If that was Jackson’s heart, where was her sister at? “Courtesy of the Strix.” Freya continued as she held up the letter.

Again, before Hayley could make a move to retrieve the letter, Elijah had stopped her, especially now. If Y/N was in any kind of danger, he didn’t need Hayley running off without thinking clearly.

Elijah looked to Hayley as he took the letter and read it out loud for Hayley’s sake. “Dearest friends, please find enclosed the heart of Jackson. Y/N’s will follow unless you meet me at Coltrane’s Autoshop. Kind regards, Tristan.” Elijah sighed.

“So unless we meet their demands, my sister is next.” Hayley said as she looked at Elijah who already seemed to be thinking of a plan.

Y/n felt numb. Even as they dragged her out of the room in her shackles once more, she didn’t care what happened to her. After they had placed her back and with both IV bags flowing into her, she fought as hard as she could to get back to Jackson. But the more she struggled, the worse she became.

Her drugged state and the numbness she felt had made it even more difficult to register the fact she heard her sister’s voice, along with Klaus and Elijah’s. They were in reach, but she couldn’t get her vision to focus. All she could see in her mind was Jackson’s heart being pulled out on followed by being dragged away from him on repeat.

Her lips trembled as she tried to fight through the haziness the wolfsbane had created and the tears that wanted to so desperately form in her eyes. But there was nothing. Even as she picked up and practically tossed at someone, none of it had registered in her mind.

“You’re safe.” Hayley’s words held some comfort. “We’re going to flush your system. Get you feeling better.”

Y/N hadn’t even realized her sister had been carrying her away from wherever it was they were now. The last thing Y/N in conscious state was her whispering Jackson’s name.

_____

Y/N jolted up in bed as woke up a few hours later. Her mind raced as she tried to piece together where she was currently. Her heart raced as she took in the familiar surrounding of her home out in the Bayou.

Hayley moved to sit down next to her the moment she had. Her heart hurt for her sister. This whole time Hayley had been off trying to find a way to keep the Mikaelsons safe, she had forgotten to check in on her own sister. She’d been missing and she hadn’t even known.

“Hey, Y/N/N.” She said softly. “You’re safe.”

Her words had cause Y/N’s eyes to land on Hayley and really focus on her. “Hayley,” Her lips began trembling as the events from the day came flooding back. “Jackson. He’s gone.”

Hayley bit down on her lip as she pulled her sister into her tightly. “I know. And I am so sorry for bringing you into this. You two would have been safe if I hadn’t asked you to help.”

“We were out.” Y/N shook her head. Hayley’s head tilted as she listened to her sister. “We escaped. We were so close to being able to call for help.” Her lips trembled. “He-he wanted me to leave him behind and I couldn’t. Tristan killed him in front of me. All because I helped you. If I hadn’t, it would have been me.” The words sounded numb to even Hayley the moment they passed Y/N’s lips. “It hurt’s so much I can’t even feel anything else.”

Hayley placed her hands on either side of her sister’s face, forcing her to look at her. “And that is okay. After everything you’ve been through today, I don’t expect any other emotion to be there. I know this is because of me that this happened to Jack. I won’t stop until I make it up to you in some way.”

The sound of the knock at the door caused them both to look towards the door. Elijah’s head popped in a moment later, giving Hayley a nod. She returned the nod and looked back at Y/N.

“The pack is outside.” She said the moment she had Y/N’s attention again. “You were out for some time, but they wanted to make sure everything was taken care of.”

Understanding filled Y/N, and she couldn’t stop the tears from forming or even falling. “How am I supposed to do this?”

A sigh passed Hayley’s lips as she took hold of Y/N’s hand. “After losing quite a few people, I learned that the best way to do this, is to start with saying goodbye. That’s what tonight is about. But after that, you are allowed to heal any way you need to. No one will dare judge you for not being strong.”

Y/N nodded her head. She could do that just for tonight. She could make it through the night to give herself, and the pack, the send off their Alpha needed. Jackson knew this was going to happen despite how hard she tried to deny it. He wanted her safe and now she was.

Standing from the bed, she steadied herself for the first time since the wolfsbane had been out of her system. Even though she had several tears falling down her cheeks, she held her head up high. She was the Alpha of the Labonair line, despite her sister being older. She married Jackson, the Alpha of the pack.

While her heart ached in pain from the loss of her first love, her partner, her mate, she made her way towards her front door. She could make it through the next few minutes. Her pack needed their Alpha, even if she was in mourning, and she couldn’t let her people down.

For tomorrow, she wouldn’t be the same person she was. For the widow was going to do everything she could to make herself feel better about the loss of her husband. And unknowingly to her sister, Hayley had been the one to implant the idea into her head. She’d give into the darker thoughts that surrounded her. Her husband was killed in the middle of a war. And Y/N was willing to add to the death toll to ensure her husband’s death wasn’t for nothing.

Always & Forever Tag: @taylordrunkonwhiskey @thewolf-and-thesheep @wayward-dan @neeadinghugs @fafulous @kenmen02 @elizamonet @dora-the-grownup @mschellehitt @xanderling @fandom-princess-forevermore @buckysarm4 @hi-my-name-is-riley @helenasingers @alka16555 @hellotvshowtrash

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[ducktracy]

188. porky’s poppa (1938)

release date: january 15th, 1938

series: looney tunes

director: bob clampett

starring: mel blanc (porky, porky’s poppa, narrator), bob clampett (duck)

it’s safe to say that 1938 was porky’s best year. speaking in terms of solo cartoons, that is. his cartoons were genuinely funny, stimulating, and he looked great appearance wise. 1939 the porky burnout started, and he was slowly reduced to a smiling stock character whose adversaries and costars were much more alive than he was.

as daffy (and later bugs) rose to popularity, porky slipped into the sidekick role, paired primarily with the duck. with that said, the porky/daffy cartoons are some of the funniest around, and i firmly believe the best cartoons for the both of them are the ones where they’re paired together—with a few exceptions, of course.

however, let’s not get ahead of ourselves: a great year of pig stardom awaits. porky’s father, who made a few appearances during the joe dougherty era, makes his final return. in a story that has loose similarities to the premise of porky’s railroad, porky struggles to convince his father that their cow, bessie, is a much better fit for the farm than the newfangled mechanical cow his father has his eyes on.

the introduction is one of the funniest aspects of the cartoon itself. a hand erases the title credits, scrawled on a blackboard, and fills in “PORKY’S POPPA... HAS A FARM”, mirroring the underscore of “old macdonald” (with substitute lyrics) below it.

a layout of the farm cuts to our pint-sized hero, grinning at the camera as the vocals sing “...and on this farm he had a pig: porky pig, you know.” bobe cannon animates porky struggling to sing along with the lyrics, his “oh buh-beh-boy!”s lagging with the beat. the music halts just in time for porky to pump his fists in frustration, not stuttering once as he grumbles “oh, skip it!”

repeatedly cutting back to the layout of the farm in conjunction with the lyrics is practically a gag within itself. the song grows increasingly absurd, with a goose honking horns, a cow showing off her legs as the vocals sing “with a little calf here, with a little calf there...”, struggling to keep up with the rapid pace of the song. bob clampett lends his own voice to a random duck (no relation to daffy!), following a hand pointing at certain areas of the farm and quacking (”with a little quack here, with a little quack there...”) 

finally, the duck in his psuedo-donald duck voice instructs “EVERYBODY SING!”, complete with some fun and unique typography. the entire song falls to pieces--before, the cutting back to the farm’s layout added an incongruous feeling of calm to balance out the wacky antics of the animals and the song. now, everything happens at once. the duck zips across the screen in a quacking frenzy, the mother cow shows off her baby calves, thrusting them to the beat of the music, the goose is a one man band of assorted horns, etc. blissful chaos.

things slow down as we cut back to porky, who smugly whips out a phonograph behind his back. the record is just him saying “oh boy!”, playing correctly to the beat of the music. he’s got this song number figured out... or does he?

even technology can’t conceal his stutter. the record begins to skip, mimicking the sound of his stutter, and porky smashes the phonograph to pieces as he slams it against the ground. the wordless yet furious stare he gives the audience as the dying record croaks out a distorted “oooooooh..... boooooooooy....” is nothing short of priceless. though he didn’t say a word himself during this scene, his motives, thoughts, and emotions are clearly visible. you can FEEL his pride at his solution, as well of the subsequent fury of his solution blowing up in his face. a wonderful end to a hilarious song sequence. 

“but on his farm, he has a mortgage... woe, oh woe, oh woe!” the score turns in to a mournful, minor key dirge, with anthropomorphic mortgage papers posing proudly on the farm. some very clever posing and metaphorical play as we fade to porky’s dad, moping around on the farm, the mortgage aligning with his silhouette and becoming a physical weight on his back. more playing with typography as the narrator reads aloud the words on the screen:

this is a parody of the march of time, a radio program who would often announce the death of a notorious person by declaring “and so, today, as it must to all men, death came to [name], [age].” even without the context, the gag is rather amusing, bringing a different change of pace to the cartoon with the addition of a narrator and the typography. knowing the source of the gag makes it hit just the right spot.

porky’s dad mutters about ruination, how he has no milk and no money, etc. mel blanc does a fine job of mimicking joe dougherty, maintaining the stutter and the low voice--in the dougherty cartoons, porky’s father was just dougherty’s natural speaking voice, whereas porky was sped up considerably. you can hear both at once here for comparison. 

we pan over to the cause of one of these stresses: their cow, bessie, has been quarantined (how timely!) for “hoof ‘n mouth trouble”, a play on hand-foot-and-mouth disease. clampett opts to take things just a step further--we truck inside the stall to see bessie posing for the camera, grinning with her foot INSIDE her mouth, batting her eyelashes and all. the “bull bontana” (bull montana) poster  plastered inside of her stall is a clever touch. 

after seeing that bessie’s production chart has dipped overwhelmingly into the negatives--a roll of paper unfurling at porky’s father’s feet, indicating just how poor the farm is doing--he places an “out of order” sign on the stall door.

suddenly, porky’s father grows aggravated. “i need to send you to the hamburger factory!” cue a close-up of bessie tearfully picturing her fate--a pile of burgers and hotdogs make up her figure. clampett would reprise this gag (albeit in a much more cruel manner) in porky’s last stand 2 years later, where daffy eagerly envisions a steaming hot hamburger in place of an innocent little calf. 

this is the second cartoon to make an ACME reference, the first being buddy’s bug hunt back in 1935. porky’s father phones up ACME mail order company, asking for “one cow--airmail”. context clues are just as important to the gag than the reveal itself: porky, his father, and bessie all become alert to the sounds of an airplane making a cacophony overhead. suddenly, a package bursts through the barn ceiling, floating to the ground with a neatly tied parachute. the animation appears to be the work of john carey, from the tall, pill-shaped eyes to the slow, drawn out way that porky blinks.

norm mccabe takes over to animate the grand reveal. lots of wonderful little subtleties: porky and his father are timed slightly differently, giving them both a natural sense of interaction and movement. there’s a lovely little accent on porky’s father opening the package by pulling a string--he jerks his head up slightly as he plucks the string, allowing the audience to feel the physical impact and snap of the pluck. it’s subtle, but very well done. 

instead of a flesh and blood cow, a mechanical hunk of metal slowly unfurls to life as the package opens. as porky’s father reads the label (The New 1938 CREAMLINED COW), porky himself objects to the new addition. “aww, eh-the-there ain’t no such animal!”

indeed there is: porky’s father loads a pile of hay into a chute, pressing down on the cow’s paintbrush tail. the cow pumps along to a brassy score of “old macdonald”, churning out milk from its metal udders, the milk pouring straight into an assembly line of bottles below. bob clampett’s puns are plentiful in this cartoon (notice how there’s no writer’s credit--he often said that he would write some of his earliest cartoons himself. i assume he wrote this one as well? i wonder how much input chuck jones had in the story?), but delivered nonchalantly, so they can actually be enjoyed. the cow caps the milk bottles by putting literal newsboy caps on top of the bottles, the paintbrush tail painting “cream paint” to the outside of the bottles and forming the illusion of cream. interesting business practices!

bobe cannon animates a delightful scene with porky. fun animation and fun dialogue make for a great combo. some very fluid, light, and fun animation of porky giving his pep talk as he hops around, swinging his arms, nonchalantly pushing his hat out of his face after getting so excited. “c’mon, eh-beh-beh-beh-bessie! we won’t let that old eh-neh-nuh-new fangled eh-ceh-co--heifer beat us. you just eat your uh-wuh-wee-weh-whea--eh-ha-hay, and show that eh-teh-eeh-eh-tin-can cow who can make the most...”

porky lowers bessie’s foot from her mouth by climbing on it, preparing to shovel a forkful of hay into her mouth, however, she shoves her foot right back in it, much to porky’s annoyance. “aww, every time you open your muh-mee-muh-me-eh-mou--kisser, ya put your eh-feh-eh-foot in it! eh-bee-bessie, you gotta eat! you eh-deh-dee-eh-don’t wanna be eh-seh-seeah-seeah-smothered in onions, eh-do ya?” 

treg brown’s sound effects of doors creaking as her leg is lowered is the perfect touch to the gag. porky struggles to feed bessie, eventually getting stuck in her mouth himself as he attempts to hold both legs down to no avail. he frees himself, just in time to hatch an ingenious idea.

his plan works: porky places the entire pile of hay onto bessie’s legs, who swallows it up whole, her mouth comically huge as she attempts to swallow it. porky is overjoyed, clapping at her efforts before rushing off to give her some privacy.

instead of porky just milking her like a regular farmer, clampett pushes the entire scenario further. porky paces around in the manner of an expectant father, accompanied by a soft score of “lullaby on broadway”. the sound of a baby crying prompts porky to do a gorgeously animated head shake of surprise--bessie hands him a milk bottle, which porky carefully swaddles and places in a basket. 

the charade continues, with clampett lulling us into a false sense of security with an already absurd gag. cue a gag that would have been incredibly risque in 1938: at about the fifth bottle, porky reaches out and finds that bessie hands him a bottle labeled “CHOC. MALT”, accompanied by an underscore of “i wish i was in dixie”. porky and bessie both grow bashful, but porky’s nonchalant whistling is cut to a half as bessie delivers yet another bottle. “gosh--eh-ceh-ceh-quin-eh-qui-eh--quart-tuplets!”

porky rushes over to his farther to share the good news. however, dad is too preoccupied with the fancy mechanics of the cow to pay bessie any mind. he shows porky a barrage of dairy-related puns churned out by the creamlined cow:

cottage cheese (cheese in the shapes of houses--and an outhouse for good measure--don the conveyer belt), limburger cheese (cheese slices with clothes pins pinned to their “noses” to ward off the stench), and swiss cheese (a cuckoo bird pops out of the cow’s mechanical side and sprays the cheese wheels with bullets, which turn into yodeling mouths). interestingly, mel’s voice for porky’s father changes in this scene--it’s still him, but the nasally undertones are absent. i wonder if he did this on a different day?

nevertheless, the staging of the next gag is genius. the majority of the screen is black, save for a small window revealing porky holding onto bessie’s udders. “c’mon, eh-beh-bessie! hurry eh... hurry eh... step on it!” the window expands to reveal bessie pouring a bucket of milk into a line of funnels (rather than udders), which are then evenly distributed to the bottles. “’ats a guh-geh-gee-eh-girl!”

mechanical cow seems to be doing just fine, plopping cherries on top of elaborate ice cream sundaes and milk shakes. the only fault in the system is the cow’s own personal whiskey bottle rolling down the assembly line, which it confiscates promptly. 

porky, on the other hand, is making do. with an ice block on her head, bessie churns out ice cream cones to the best of her ability. as the cones grow smaller and smaller in size, porky orders her to eat more hay, which she happily does so.

now, it’s cow vs. cow. the mechanical cow opts to play some dirty tricks on bessie, pouring a jar of vanishing cream it produced onto the hay bessie is eating. and, thanks to the law of cartoon physics, the milk bottles she hands porky disappear by the minute. though the effect of the bottles disappearing may not seem like much today, for 1938 the ink and paint department did a wonderful job of demonstrating the illusion that the bottles suddenly disappeared.

with the rest of the hay now gone thanks to a hefty glob of vanishing cream, porky and bessie engage in a wild goose (cow?) chase to find more hay. the mechanical cow gobbles up every square inch of hay in sight--at one point, bessie heaves a dubious shrug to the audience. i love how they made her hooves look like hands, but still remain identifiable hooves. the scramble animation she does as she dashes out of frame (with porky clinging to her like a horse) is wonderfully done as well.

both porky and bessie and the creamlined cow exit the barn, chasing each other around the farm. the mechanical cow physically turns into a vacuum cleaner, threatening to suck up the last remaining pile of hay. in a gag that’s reminiscent of the harman-ising days (is it the inclusion of the outhouse?), the cow-turned-vacuum rushes into a shed filled to the brim with hay. the audience merely watches the shed itself shrink in size as the cow gobbles up all of the hay, the final result a puny little outhouse. 

at last, the enemies reach a face-off. the last pile of hay--or, as porky puts it in his punny little way, “eh-thee-the-thee-that’s the last straw.” in a relatively tashlin-esque maneuver, clampett makes some fast cuts to heighten the suspense of the action. cut between porky and bessie to the mechanical cow to the pile of straw (facetiously labeled “MILK WEED”). the cuts grow quicker and quicker, the music crescendo-ing... 

until BLAM! in a loose parallel to the finale of rover’s rival, everything explodes at once. nuts and bolts rain in the sky, as do neat little bundles of hay. however, clampett doesn’t allow the audience to rest just yet--with bessie nowhere in sight, the mechanical cow continues to charge forth, seeking refuge in a hay to release a humongous pile of milk bottles. so high, in fact, that the shed (and cow) are elevated several feet into the air. porky’s a goner.

porky’s father, who had been absent for the past few minutes, reappears to declare the tin-can cow a winner, much to porky’s visible dissatisfaction.

yet it’s not a clampett cartoon without a twist! bessie pokes her head out of the mechanical cow’s mouth, mooing the ever popular catchphrase from the ken murray show: “mmmmmmwooooooooooah, yeeeeaaaaaah!” porky gives a celebratory “oh, boy!” as we iris out--the goose and duck from earlier poke their heads into the scene just before the iris fully closes.

this is an early porky cartoon that’s just plain fun. bobe cannon’s animation of porky serves as one of the many highlights, from porky getting aggravated with his phonograph to his excited pep talk towards bessie. corny as the opening number is, it’s a lot of fun at the same time--the intensity in increasing chaos is a prevalent theme to clampett’s cartoons. just look at the climax/ending of baby bottleneck!

i don’t have many complaints towards this cartoon, if any at all. it’s not my favorite porky entry, sure, but it’s most certainly an enjoyable watch and one of his better cartoons of the ‘30s. the visual puns aren’t nearly as hamfisted as ben hardaway’s (as we’ll soon discover), making them more enjoyable than some of the jokes present in, say, daffy duck & egghead. regardless, there are a lot of unique gags, fun animation, and amusing dialogue to constitute a watch.

the cartoon is up on HBOmax, but you can also watch it here!

[baka-kawa]

Nekoma HC: simping for manager

Request | “Hello luv💗 just wanna say ur prev hcs are ✨exquisite✨ (look at me using big mature-ish words👁) Can u please do hcs for the team/s (specifically nekoma, seijoh, inarizaki. Feel free to change the teams tho,,) simping on their manager (reader) and protecting her from flirts from other schools? Hope it’s not confusing 😅 thank you sweetheart 💖💖💖

Notes | hope you enjoy this one as much :))) I had so much fun writing for these boys thank you for your request!!

Kuroo

he’s adorable

he’s so sweet to you

he knows how tough it can be taking care a group of boys on the volley team

so he’d help you out quite a bit

always has a hand in planning stuff

always there to keep you company

this boy sneaks little jokes to catch your reaction

were you even surprised he caught feelings??

you shouldn’t be

kuroo fucking loves seeing you take on the cute little mother role over the boys

he lives for it

which his jokes mainly consist of dad jokes

and not the type you think of

no

“okay kids listen to mom”

“didn’t sign up to be a dad but you kids leave me no choice”

“listen to daddy, little one” 

“kuroo stfu” -kenma

he loves referring himself as the father

he loves it even more when it makes you giggle or blush 

bitch

he one time called you mommy

and the shade of red your face became just fueled something inside of him oh my god

other than his crush

he simps super hard

but his crush just added to the flame

eventually he confesses

and his simping doesn’t disappear

he continues to put you on this throne

and has no issue putting others in their places if anyone crosses lines against his manager

Kenma

kenma doesn’t simp

ppl simp for kenma

let’s be honest

he’s a lot like Kunimi

except he doesn’t simp even if he has feelings

he’s a good boyfriend ofc

but he’s not territorial or aggressive

he does little things for you

packs you lunches

writes you cute little notes/letters

gets kuroo’s attention when the boys are being to loud when you’re trying to grab their attention

you’re his bus buddy now

he loves falling sleep against you on the way to games

but his favorite part

are the rides back home

he’s tired out from the games

you have the window seat

and he has you hold him and you both fall asleep that way

w him curled up into you

the whole team simps for you both

making sure you both aren’t having issues or arguing w one another

but yeah

kenma seriously doesn’t simp

the most simp thing he’d do is just look after you when you don’t notice

like making sure the position you’re in when you’re napping is a comfortable spot

brushing hair out of you face

he once pulled your hair into a pony tail when he noticed how hot it was in the gym

kuroo fucking died at how simply cute it was

yeah

that’s abt it for kenma

Yamamoto

mmm

this boy is a simp for literally any woman

but you’re his manager now

and all his focus is on you

he’s always looking for reasons to spend time w you

kuroo gets pissy bc he wants him to focus on practice

but instead,, Yamamoto is conversing w you abt random shit

he doesn’t have feelings for you atm

he just simps bc you’re his manager and you’re the sweetest person he’s ever met

it doesn’t take long for him to crush on you

and oh boy

his simp levels rise

he gets scolded by kuroo heavily

but he also improves in games

mainly bc he doesn’t want to lose in front of you

very good motivation

he gets the team to for a wall around you when going to comps

it makes you embarrassed to the max ffs

but he gives you no choice

he’d definitely confess

and once you two start dating

he actually becomes pretty tame tbh

he still simps a little

compliments you heavily

your personal hype man

but he isn’t behaving like a wild dog off a leash

he found that silence is far more intimidating to other men

so when other boys are hitting on you

he stands there and stares them down 

sometimes an arm of his is around your shoulders

or he holds your hand and rubs small circles into it

sometimes he’ll even give it a kiss

or kiss your cheek or forehead

you’re grateful he isn’t so crazy anymore

Yaku

he’s kinda already the mom of the group

but he loves having someone like you to take the stress off of him

he doesn’t really simp for you tbh

you simp for him tho

he found it a little weird in the beginning

like why are you always there?

usually their managers stay in the background

mainly conversing w the coach

a little bit w kuroo

but rarely w him

he finds it cute that you provide so much for the team

and thanks you w the sweetest smile when you hand him water and a towel

he’ll eventually simp after you went off on another team for shitting on nekoma

something in him just switched

seeing you get angry just looked so hot

after that occurrence he found new ways to hang out w you

he would chill w you on the bus

sit next to you on the bench when he wasn’t playing

and he’d even spend more time w you when the team has outings

he’d totally ask you on a date

and once you start dating

he’d be slightly more territorial

nothing too crazy

mainly w other guys at comps

he’d walk up to you and take your hand when he sees you in a situation that you’re visibly uncomfortable with

he’s a sweet bf

but again

he wouldn’t really simp

but his bf skills are pretty great

Lev

oh lev

this sweet boy

he’d totally simp for his manager

but in the most clumsy and cutest way

always asking if you need help cleaning or loading the truck w the supplies

and he’d end up making a bigger mess on accident

a lot of apologies

but he’s adorable so it’s easy to forgive him

when you’re being cornered by other dudes

he gets a lil upset

isn’t sure why

and kuroo has to push him to make a move

bc kuroo knows what’s up

“hey lev, y/n was asking for you.”

so he’d walk over to you and see what’s up

you’d get an idea to escape

“hey baby”

fuck dude

lev almost fainted

hearing that name come out of your mouth

he wasn’t aware he had feelings until now

his cheeks reddened

“h-hi-”

the dudes that were trying to make a move weren’t buying that he was your bf

“you don’t believe me?” -you

you mentally apologized to lev as you pulled him down and your lips met

wtf did you just do?

lev was shocked but knew the situation now and pulled you close

figured he’d take advantage of the situation and kiss you back

when you pulled away

the guys were gone

nekoma were wide eyed

and so were the two of you

lev wasn’t shaking as much

but you were

he felt it through his hands on your waist

you apologized profusely

but he was like

nono its okay

and when you kept rumbling he had no idea what to do

he caught a glimpse of kuroo

and he told lev to kiss you again

so he did

and it did the trick

he simps as much as he did before

the only difference is that you two are official

and no one dares to mess w you or disrespect you bc of lev’s appearance

even tho he’s not aware the power he holds

but yeah

hope this was cute :))

sorry if you wanted them to simp platonically

[popculturebuffet]

Ducktales 87 Review: A Whale of A Bad Time (Catch as Cash Can Part 2)

A SEA MONSTER ATE MY ICE CREAM! Yup come with me under the cut as I cover one of the most infamous moments of all Ducktales.. and the absolutely bonkers episode attached involving robot ice cream trucks, giant robotic whales, Optimus Prime as a navy admiral, and semen.. er seaman Donald Duck!  All of this and more commissioned by @weirdkev27​ is waiting under the ocean and under the cut! Come aboard!

So yeah....

And not the adventure time or regular show or what have you kind of intetionally weird I mean all the elements just sort of conjeal into a mess of poor decisions in and out of universes, robotic whales and the most insane scheme to get a noble peace prize of all time. If that and the intro didn’t hook you I don’t know what will, let’s do this. 

PREVIOUSLY ON DUCKTALES:

Okay maybe not THAT previously... guess I gotta do this myself. *Grumble grumble* : Last time we met a steoyptical-ish foreign leader give Scrooge and Glomgold a deadline to literally weigh their fortunes in his country at ten days, with Glomgold’s sending the Beagle Boys after Scrooge in an attempt to cheat.. and springing from jail in a giant blimp shaped like a cow because your guess is as good as mine. Scrooge naturally won and here we are. As said last time, these episodes were still basically written as done in ones, able to be digested on their own, just with the overall framework of the four parter, in this case Scrooge and Glomgold’s contest, tieing it together. So with that out of the way. 

We open as Duckburg is hit with a heatwave. 

No that’s Heat Wave.. and besides he works out of central city, not Duckberg silly.. wherever those images come from.. me I guess? I dunno. Point is the boys are sweaty and uncomfortable, just like me 90 percent of the time, and decide to cool off by visiting Scrooge’s new ice cream factory for free samples. We’re only about a minute, and a recap about the contest on the news, in and already the characters this episode are acting kind of dumb.. get used to it. One of Scrooge’s primary, most consistent, most iron clad character traits is he does NOT give away something for nothing. Even for Charity he’ll often try and pench pennies and how much he donates, and in older harsher comics like Carl Barks famous “A Christmas For Shacktown” good luck getting him to donate any money to anyone else AT ALL. If he DOES give someone a gift, it’s usually with an alterior motive or some sort of scheme brewing, with Donald or the Nephews or all four rightly questioning him. The idea any factory of any product of his would give out samples unless he got something out of doint so or that they wouldn’t be tiny or use flavors that don’t sell or some cost cutting measure like that is nuts and while it’s not out of the boys characters to be stupid it is a bit for them to just blindly think he’d be okay with this.  Their soon distracted by other matters once they arrive though as the Guard won’t let them in despite being Huey, Dewey and Louie as much like bill and ted their a package deal, and yes they do a team pose and yes.. it’s actually pretty adorable. Again nepotism has never been a trait of scrooges either boys, why would he start now? They try flagging down one of his ice cream  trucks but they totally ignore him. and seem to be driving automatically... they also look human which... yeah. Just.. yeah. The boys are naturally suspicious and plan to ask scrooge at Dinner. This fails because Scrooge isn’t coming and Beakly refuses to let them disturb him on his orders.. and refused to let Webby eat till everyone’s at the table. I’ll come back to Beakly in a second, and there will be blood dumpster. 

The boys sleep that night, but are woken up by the ice cream trucks and wondering why the hell their running at night... which yeah is weird and was a bad part of the plan. We’ll get to why that plan’s a bit totally fucked in a second though as the boys assume someone is doing something shady with scrooge’s company and pull a Marty McFly, attaching their skateboards to a bumper and then hopping onto one of the trucks. And given that Magica, the Beagle Boys and Flintheart have all gone up at scrooge several times at this point judging by the episode guides, not to mention all the one off thieves, scumbags, con artists and warlords they’ve fought, you honestly can’t blame them for being super suspicious. 

Their suspcions of this being some kind of elaborate theft are semeingly confirmed when instead of , and this is really the flavor they use “Bubble Gum Pistachio Fudge” they find Scrooge’s money. And let’s just take a sec to .. unpack that flavor as none of those go together. I mean in a three scoop cone or bowl maybe, but in the same ice cream your just throwing shit together at that point. And the flavor isn’t outlandish enough to really be a good joke.

 I’ts just three flavors jammed together that don’t belong. It’s not like the, ironically in the same year, 87 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle’s love for weird pizza toppings. That.. actually comes off as a joke. It didn’t always land in the episodes i’d seen but I get what their going for. Thanks to this infographic I know they put ALL of this on pizza at some point, omitting actual pizza toppings for obvious reasons: Granola, Licorice, Fudge, Marshmallows, Clams, Peanut Butter, Avacado (Which didn’t sound bad in theory but once I thought about it I winced), Pickles, Asparagus, Butterscotch, Onions (Yes I know this is an actual regular pizza topping but no just.. no.. everyone hones in on anchovies, which i’ve never had but no.. onions are the real scourge of the pizza world), Toast, Tea (okay that one actually shocked me), Clam Sauce, Chocolate Sprinkles, Jelly Beans, Yogurt, Coconut, Strawberries, Oatmeal, Grape Jelly, Gucamole, Tuna, Popcorn, Sardines, Whipped Cream, Bannans and Goulash. The point i’m making is it’s not hard to come up with even a weak wacky flavor of something and it was  a weird line to just utterly botch but they somehow did it. Also that the Teenage Mutant Turtles have serious issues to address. I mean onions, really? onions? Guys you can do better... onions are a next mutation topping!

One Tangent Later, the boys and the trucks arrive at the docks where they see the money filled ice cream trucks loading onto a boat and a shadowy mystery man. Who could it be? My money is on

But my money is always on Crab People. It’s likely why i’m poor. But the boys chuck a bag of cash at him, then Louie... prepares to break his legs with a crowbar?

Seriously the truck was automated and they came straight form home. he had to have brought that with him. Whelp at least Louie has a unique character trait: He likes to make people bleed. I don’t know if that’s necessarily a GOOD thing for a 8-10 year old to want to do but it’s better than nothing. Before Louie can get up to a bit of the ultra violence, Huey finds out it’s Scrooge who explains himself: Naturally the sudden new Ice Cream Factory he built in days right next to the bin is a front, and the trucks are his own, a stealthy way to outfox glomgold. While the news said he was transporting the loot by air, he’s doing it by sea stealthily to prevent glomgold from attacking it. Which given he hasn’t a giant cow Zepplin, fair enough. 

The rest of this though is ludicrously overcomplicated: First off it’s not REMOTELY stealthy to build a giant fake factory next to your bin, days before you transport your cash, something so obvious i’m suprised Glomgold dind’t just come to the factory himself and set some explosives. Second while Robot Drivers isn’t a bad idea, Glomgold has many spies with many eyes, it’s a BIG gamble to both have active trucks around, especially at night carrying large sums of cash. I mean what if the police stopped them? Sure Scrooge could get his money back legally, but Flintheart might get to it first or bribe some cops first. Or some dirty cops might take it for themselves. It’s also WEIRDLY costly for someone as spiendthrift as Scrooge, I mean while he owns the land for the factory he had to buy a ton of trucks, pay for gyro’s, i’m assuming Gyro’s at least, material to make the robots, and pay for the guard to keep people out as well as presumibly either well paid workers or more robots inside to get the money into the trucks. It’s just hilariously overcomplicated and while not an intentional joke clearly got a laugh out of me as it just makes no logical sense for scrooge’s character and he’s done similar ideas for far less money in the comics. It’s a carl barks style “hide the money bin’s cash” plot, funnled through bloodshot eyes of someone having done a small mountain of cocaine to get this script done on time and I love it for that. The boys applaud their uncle for his wacky scheme while a mysteroius periscope watches them from a distance. 

The Next Morning Beakly is still awful as despite everyone being there, she now refuses to let Webby eat till everyone’s settled. And NOW we can talk about 87 Beakly. I don’t like her. She’s had one or two moments in the episodes I watched, but outside of that she’s a bland character who mostly fusses over the boys and webby, worries things are too dangerous, or is there for a weak joke. She’s just not all that intresting, and while i’ll grant the 87 Ducktales cast isn’t the deepest set of characters and the boys can be annoying depending on the episode.. their at least INTRESTING. The boys are clever, rambunctions and curious, Webby has all of that and an underlying swetness that while cloying at times is mostly just really endearing, Launchpad is a klutz and a crash magnet but means well and keeps trying and genuinely is a good scoutleader and person, and Scrooge despite his rough edges is a hardscrabbled adventuerer. The rest of the main cast here at least has a drive and character to them that makes the stories work when their at their best. Beakly is just kinda.. there. Why I also go into this is because 87 Webby gets a lot of shit.. and she really dosen’t deserve it. Yes she’s clearly a studio executives idea of what a little girl should like and that’s bad. And yes she got kidnapped a bunch.. but so did everyone else. But she makes up for that by being the heart of the team, offering love and empathy to all of them, easily bonding with varous animals and people they meet, and genuinely offering a naive but optimistic worldview that nicely contrasts with scrooge and the boys understandable cyncism. And she CAN handle herself more often than not. Wheras frank and co basically took almost everything about beakly and started over with Webby they simply tweaked her for the times: Made her about the same age if not older than the triplets so their equals, took away the triplet’s outdated and utterly loathsome sexisim, and added badassery and intellegence to her already admirable emotional skills and naive optimism, along with some boundless energy on top.They took a decent character and made her an amazing one.  With Beakly.. they took a dodering, easily frightned old lady whose overly proper and stuffy and turned her into a taciturn, snarky, badass former secret agent whose the sanest person in the mansion and when she IS wrong, will not only admit it but usually had some good reason for it. She also goes from being mostly deferent to scrooge to one of his few equals, to the point that the “87 Cent Solution!” lampshades the fact that if they’d called her the episode would’ve been over, as she’s , outside of a few exceptions the one person he listens to. She’s a throughly likeable, throughly complex character and one i’m glad their doing more with this season while I really hope I don’t see the original her more than I have to.  Okay with that rant done for this and any future retro ducktales reviews, we can get to the reason your all here and Kev comissioned me to do all 4 of these episodes: You’ve seen it on youtube, you’ve seen it in “Let’s get Dangerous”, you’ve seen it in dreams, ladies, gentleman and others, A. SEA. MONSTER. ATE. MY. ICE. CREAM. 

As the family sits for pancakes, Wippleman, Scrooge’s accountant and what I can only assume is this universe’s version of WWE manager Harvey Wippleman, comes in and has some bad news for Scrooge: A Sea Monster of some kind sunk one of his ships.. but the good news it was only Ice Cream. Knowing what it really was Scrooge goes absolute APE shit and procedes to hop around the table going absolutely insane, destroying everyone’s breakfast, with poor webby bemoaning she’ll never get to eat, Beakly remarking “it must’ve been some ice cream’ which isnt’ a bad line, Huey explaning what’s up with the weirdly delivered “It was half his fort-une!” and the boys finally restraining Scrooge with an impromptu tablecloth straightjacket, which calms him down and he hops off to get his money back. Wether you’ve seen the scene for yourself and ESPECIALLY if somehow you haven’t, it’s right here if you want to take another look. 

This scene is not only the most remembered part of the special, and easily the most beloved, it’s one of the best scenes in all of Ducktales 87 and easily one of the funniest across duck canon. Everything just clicks: The concept, the animation showing off just how manic scrooge is, how he never does the same move twice, how rather than looping it Alan Young very clearly said the word a bunch of times each time with a different more manic and uniquely hilarious delivery, Beakly’s deadpan reaction, and the boys vain attempts to restrain him before finally succeeding. Everything about this works and in an otherwise just really off center episode, this sparkling gem of a scene stands out. I waited till now to talk about Alan Young’s scrooge and honestly the man defined the roll for a reason: he can do a dramatic or emotional delivery just as effortlessly as a comic bit like this, and plays the character with the sternness and stubbornness expected. He got the character perfectly and it’s unsurprising Frank and Matt wanted him to reprise the roll and he only didn’t because he sadly passed on, though I will say David Tenant is a perfect replacement. Though even HE couldn’t do the Sea Monster Ate My Ice Cream bit as well as Alan, as his felt a bit more stilted and was clearly looped, but really I don’t think anyone could top him at this. It’s his shining moment as the character and he earned it square. 

So getting back to the ten car pileup that is the rest of this episode, the boys and Scrooge head under the sea, doot doot doot, to find his ship. But while under water they instead find the navy who’ve quarantined the ship.. yet aren’t wearing face masks inside their little suits. How odd. Guess the giant glass dome and giant ocean of water between them and the ship helps but still, you can’t be too careful.  Point is both sides are being kind of douchey: The Naval Guards, rather than direct Scrooge to their superior to PROVE it’s his vessel and ask questions to him directly since their aircraft carrier soon turns out not to be far from here just tell him he can’t pass and Scrooge is as bill gerent as you’d expect. I’m not saying people aren’t this dumb in real life, just google any video of a karen of any gender throwing a giant tantrum in a store over masks, i’m just saying i’td be nice to move the plot along without unnecessary cul de sacs.  The boys however naturally have a way around this and sneak in with scrooge on the underside of a sea turtle. It’s a genuinely clever tactic. They find the ship with a large bite out of it.. and the Navy then swoop in to take them in. 

On the ship Scrooge continues to not help his case and pulls a classic old white guy and demands to see their superior. Or white person in particular really. Point is he throws a strop on their way to what could easily be a trip to the brig with his behavior and possible criminal charges, while the boys muse that this is Donald’s ship. For the uninitiated, the in-series reason Donald left the boys for this series was he was called back to the Navy, and thus left the boys with Scrooge. Out of series it was an executive mandate: As Tad Stones, future creator of Darkwing Duck and story editor for Ducktales 87, explained, and I found out about this via looper, Disney was nervous about having one of their biggest characters overexposed by having him as part of 65 episode tv show. This was combined with the fact they were worried Donald’s voice would make stories confusing.  I also believe, if with no proof there was at third reason: Tony Anselmo had just started as Donald Duck, taking over from the late great Clarence Nash at Nash’s request after Nash died in 85, and they likely feared putting Tony through such a ringer this soon might sour audiences on him before audiences had gotten used to the new voice actor. So with all this Donald was kept to the occasional guest roll, though I will say while there have been complaints about Donald’s voice on this show I have no issue with it. It’s not as good as the reboot.. but the reboot also comes after Tony’s been playing the roll for over 30 years and is just as iconic as his predecessor in the roll at this point versus two years after his mentor died and he picked up his sword.. or squawky duck voice in this case. 

Scrooge is escorted to Admiral Grimitz, the head of this aircraft carrier whose showed up in other Donald episodes, specifically his segment of the Treasure of the Golden Suns series opener. He’s the gruff but mostly fair head of the ship and is voiced by, of all the va’s possible, Peter “Optimus Prime” Cullen, using a voice that is DIFFRENT but not by much. It’s hard not to be distracted by it. The Admiral waves scrooge off from his entirely justified fear the Army stole his money, but refuses to give any details since i’ts classified. Scrooge angrily.. decides to do the next shipment anyway and tells them to stay out of it instead of calling the president like he threatened to get some answers. Or threaten to pull funding for his military contracts. I know Scrooge never would, but they don’t know that. It’s just.. odd to see scrooge give up and it would’ve made more sense if the Admiral threatened legal action first or something that would get him to back off.  The Admiral then brings in Donald, and gives him the truth: Their own scientist, Dr. Bluebottle, stole an experimental sub shaped like a whale and stole the money for reasons they don’t know. So since he can go undercover easily, he sends Donald to go with scrooge and slaps a transmitter on him so they can track him. Donald also does some slapstick. That’s my boy. And yes it was a very nice surprise to see him again since i’d forgot he was in this episode. Especially since aside from “The Trickining!” he hasn’t been in any episodes since Ducktales came back. Justifably though as none of those NEEDED him and the show’s massively improved from it’s “donald might as not well exist” days of season 1, I just miss him is all and it’s nice to see some form of him again.  And this is where the episode kinda lost me, as this scheme, while not really out of the bounds of the reality, just.. feels like it overcomplicates the plot for the sake of padding. I mean I buy the Government going iwth a far more complex plan to cover their own asses.. but it would’ve made more sense from a plot standpoint to have it go this way: The Admiral is honest with Scrooge, tells him about bluebottle.. and threatens him into helping them by pointing out he broke into a federal quarantine and defined naval orders and could be brought up on charges, and if he tired telling anyone about Bluebottle could likewise be tried for leaking federal secrets. That way instead of using an unknowing scrooge as bait he goes into the situation KNOWING he’s probably going to get captured and while grumbly about it uses it to his advantage. Donald could still plausibly be sent along as naval lisaon/as a seemingly nice act/to have the bug to track the sub. Instead it just feels like they added an extra uncessary step to things to pad the episode more. I mean if you needed to do that just add more of the sea monster or give launchpad a cameo. He’s been missing for days at this point. 

So Scrooge and family, which naturally includes Webby and Beakly even if I don’t like classic bleakly she’s still family, head out with the second half of his fortune which makes next to no sense when he has days left in the concept and you know, half is missing, but whatever. Naturally the obvious happens and we meet the famous Sea Monster.. which actually looks neat.. it’s drawn like your standard cartoony killer whale but has bits of indents much like a sub would to show it’s not entirely a beast. It’s a nice bit of design work. The whale eats the cash and Donald and Scrooge but the navy pick up the boys, webby and beakly.  Donald let’s things slip on the sub, while back at the carrier the good Admiral explains the rest and my other issues with the plot aside this scene is a good bit of exploition as it explains some obvious questions away cleverly, something this plot could’ve used more of frankly but it’s refreshing to get at least a little: The reason they don’t just attack the sub en masse, besides it being you know incredibly valuable is that it’s made to be torpedo resistant, it’s sonar resitant so they can’t track it easily, and it’s faster than any ship. After all it was made to be a super weapon, so naturally the carriers standard barrage of navy vehicles can’t match it. However again to the episodes credit the tracker is actually vitally important, as it allows them to see the ship and where it is, so they can attack.. though right now their holding off on it since a crewman and a civilian are on board but if it comes down to it they’ll have no choice. I also gotta admit..t his concept is pretty cool. Kind of ridiculous? Sure but a super sub shaped like a whale that can still bite like one and outrun and outlast any other sea vehicle? It’s undoubtly awesome and a point in this episodes favor.  But now we get to most gloriously insane and convoluted part of the episode.. yes NOW we do. Donald and Scrooge naturally sneak around the ship, and find Dr. Bluebottle at his controls, talking to Flintheart on a video monitor. Turns out, to no one’s surprised, Flintheart subcontracted out his plans to Bluebottle and in exchange for keeping the money under the ocean till the contest, Glomgold is going to make sure he gets the Nobel Prize, and covers on all the magazines.  Okay at first I genuinely thought this plan made no sense.. until I realized it does, but ONLY for Glomgold. Bluebottle comes off as the smartest moron that’s ever lived for agreeing to any of this. But I have to give Glommy this the plan works out great for him: He convinces an already Rogue scientist to steal scrooge’s money, which prevents Scrooge from finding out what’s going on as he, correctly, guessed the government would cover this up because of course they did. He then correctly figured either the government would work with scrooge to trap bluebottle or they’d just use scrooge as bait anyway without a formal agreement, thus netting him scrooge’s entire fortune. He knows bluebottle won’t take it up because he gave bluebottle a bribe specifically for him and the only thing he wants, and even if he does take the money, Glomgold has more and Bluebottle could still remotely blow up the sub or something. And if he can’t the Navy would have to hold the sub, and money included , as evidence for the trial. And even if Bluebottle DOES rat him out, Glomgold could easily bury the evidence. The only way glomgold gets caught is if Bluebottle recorded their video chats or if scrooge saw them talking.. which he did, but given the two are direct competitors his testimony is dubious at best as is donald’s. So basically Flintheart almost certainly wins no matter what, and Bluebottle takes the fall no matter what. It does make Bluebottle comeff as a massive moron for not thinking of this, but props to glomgold.  Also yeah.. it’s clear to me at this point that if he hasn’t said it somewhere Frank clearly did the same thing he did with Gyro here with Flintheart: Take one accidental trait from the original (Glomgold’s penchant for overly complicated schemes and Gyro’s tendency to make robots that go rogue.) and make it a part of their personality instead of just a coincidence and turn it up to 11 for hilarity.. which worked in both cases. I genuinely thought this Flintheart was saner but no he’s just less interesting.  So Bluebottle gets an intruder alert.. and turns around to find Scrooge and Donald. Who rather than just whap the guy on the head while his back is turned, just stood there to confront him directly. 

Look this review is running long and is behind, I don’t have more time to marvel over how plot conveniently stupid they are being right now. A fight ensues with blue bottles inventions till Donald threatens to pull a big lever. I’ts thankfully not the self destruct lever like Donald thinks or Bluebottle’s equivlent of the blow up the engine button because he’s clearly just that smart, but a lever to dump all the gold.. which isn’t a terrible idea for once as if the ship gets stalled it can float up, as we’ll naturally see as there was no way they weren’t going to pull this chekov’s lever at some point. Scrooge stops him, Bluebottle uses gadgets to tie both up and finds out about the bug , as that’s why the miltary have been able to attack him which happened but I didn’t get to becuse of all the stupid. Bluebottle snuffs it out and then fully assaults the aircraft carrier, and things look grim. But Scrooge and Donald aren’t put down that easily and escape and scrooge pulls a donald and just starts breaking shit and breaks the sub.  Now with the sub plumiting, and Bluebottle bragging that only he can fix it as the sub will just keep sinking into the ocean’s depths.. and that only it’s design has kept compression from crushing them to death. But Scrooge has another solution and a suprisingly, and badassingly self sacrifical one: He dumps the money into the marinara trench, nice pun, and thus the whale floats up, Bluebottle is arrested, and Glomgold... still wins for now as Scrooge still has to get his fortune out, but Scrooge figures Gyro can help with that. We get an everybody laughs ending and we’re out. 

Final Thoughts: This one is a mess. While it has a great moment here or there, Donald and Tony as him are fantastic as they are now, and of course A Sea Monster Ate My Ice Cream! is an utterly classic scene and an utter joy to watch. The attached episode is just a mess structurally, if still a fun watch. Yes despite my bitching about it the sheer slapped together nature of it means it’s fun to pick apart and make fun of, so it’s not unwatchable. I’ve seen worse episodes of this very show, and worse episodes of tv. But as an old friend would say.

Not a terrible sit, but it easily could’ve been better. I’m also getting tired of scrooge being enitrely usless and just throwing up his hands at times. Stop that he’s better than that. With this one THANKFULLY AND FINALLY out of the way, next up is Aqua Ducks....... 

Oh god. Well if you want to see the next one follow me. If there’s an episode of any animated show you’d like to see me cover classic ducktales, modern ducktales, disney in general, etc, etc, just send me a PM and you can comission a review. 5 bucks for one episode, 15 for a movie and 5 bucks off one episode when you order three or more like say a multiparter like this. Until then say safe, check your house for Busey’s and hopefully we’ll meet again. 

[chyrstis]

I won’t ask for much (but just this once, I’d like you) 9/10

Fell off of the updating schedule big-time with this one, but better late than never! There’s only one left to go here after this, and if I can motivate myself properly, I’d love to have another ficlet ready by that update to add to this AU too. Until then, let’s get back to the happier side of things.

Pairing: Sharky Boshaw x John Seed Rating: E (but only for Ch. 10, the rest are a solid T) Word Count: 3.3K  

Link to AO3!

Ch. 1 / Ch. 2 / Ch. 3 / Ch. 4 / Ch. 5 / Ch. 6 / Ch. 7 / Ch. 8 / Ch. 9 / Ch. 10

—

Sharky steals a boat. It just happens to be John’s boat, and when it’s damaged along with his boathouse, John proceeds to lay out a means of having Sharky pay him back. [No Cult AU]

———–

Every shovel Sharky owned he threw in the trunk. Packed them all, and didn’t care if they all bumped into each other as he took every corner faster than he should’ve.

That shouldn’t have worked. Hell, that shouldn’t have registered or been anything close to a winning proposition, but he said yes. John picked up, he heard him say yes, and that was all it took for him to throw everything aside for it. To grab Hurk, tell him what's what and go, and he was willing to dive in headfirst just to get an answer. All just to have the chance to put a pin in any of this.

And to see him, but he’d known that for a while now.

The white that covered everything as he pulled up was beautiful. Almost too pretty to mess with, but the wheels of his car drew jagged lines through it, and after getting out he had to hold back on the urge to drop down and see how good of a snow angel he could pull off.

Grabbing one of the shovels, Sharky trudged over to the front door, and stood there. Stared at the doorbell like it was going to jump out at him until he jabbed at it. Then hit it one more time just to make sure it worked.

After that came the waiting. That was what sucked, and after a few seconds of it, he started fumbling for a cigarette. Searching both pockets, however, gave him nothing. Not a loose one, not pocket lint, but he did find some stray matches.

Taking one out, he twisted it between his fingers as he kept on patting himself down, and dropped it when the door opened and he caught John looking out at him.

John, cautious, but hopeful, and that was all he needed for that old feeling to kick in again. The one he’d tried to put out and failed, and he forced himself to do anything to get the ball rolling. Anything, just to keep from staring at John dreamily as he stood there on his doorstep.

Pulling himself up, Sharky grabbed for the shovel and held it out in front of him. Almost like one would a spear, and he cleared his throat.

“Yo, so snow. You got a lot of it here.”

Giving the area behind Sharky a passing glance, John nodded slightly. “It appears to be so.”

“And I know you want that shit out, and fast. Now I’ve got a few ways of doing that. Got the traditional way, the express way, and the uh, Boshaw Barbeque way. Not gonna just limit you to one, I figured you’d want the full set of things to pick from.”

The look of interest in John’s eyes grew. “I remember you mentioning a few over the phone. Any recommendations?”

“Well, namesake’s kinda a no-brainer. ‘Cause usually that means I can go a round or two outside with my flamethrower. Torch the shit out of it and clear it out without thinking too much.” Stopping to rub at his neck as he thought it over, he made a face. “Think that might be the express way too.”

“So, two out of the three ways involve…fire?”

“Uh, yeah. Kinda my go-to for most things, but I figured you might wanna limit that.”

John’s reply came fast, “Agreed.”

“But the others are still open. If you change your mind, I’ve got her loaded up back there. Takes nothing to just whip it out on a second’s notice, and get the job done. But ol’ faithful it is. Just shoveling that shit, and shoveling it well. And I could probably dig up a few testimonials for that too, if you wanna go through them first.”

John raised a hand to rub at his lips, considering him as he stood there. “No, I don’t think that’ll be necessary. As entertaining as I’m sure that would be, your word will do just fine.”

“So,” setting the shovel down, Sharky cleared his throat, “ready to work with Boshaw and er…well, it’s just one Boshaw, but I like the idea of having a name for it. Makes it sound all official, ‘cause it’s coming together. Just slowly.”

“You do have name recognition on your side right now. Or would that be more notoriety?”

“Hey, being known for something’s not all bad. Being known for the kind of thing that you’ll be using? Guarantees you’ll make it work. And here? Still offering up a service, and fire or not it’s getting done. So, fuck it. Tell me where to start, and I’ll get right on that.”

Barely hiding a smile behind his hand, John gestured indoors, “Let me get my coat.”

---

This was going well. The kind of well that had him hoping there wasn’t something awful waiting just behind the scenes to strike, because his hopes were at an all-time high, and Sharky wasn’t ready to let them crash back down to earth.

John took another shovel, with the reasoning behind it being that one man couldn’t possibly put a dent into any of this alone. Not quickly. It was his fault for having a fucking mansion for starters, but the minute he started chipping in, Sharky couldn’t quite keep the grin off of his face.

“More snow’s coming in tonight,” John said, not breathing hard yet, but each one left his mouth in a white puff. “Not heavy, but enough to make it a problem.”

“See, we could get all of this taken care of in a night, but I know my method’s off the table. Just offering that again, in case you’re looking for something quick and easy.”

“And I appreciate the offer, but I fail to see how that would make it easier.”

“Just point, work the trigger a little to see how you like it, then gently sweep the stream back and forth.”

Making the motion with his hands, he rocked back and forth, putting his hips into it too, and only stopped when he noticed the wry way John was looking at him.

“Hey, don’t knock it ‘til you’ve tried it. That shit works wonders when you’ve got twenty feet of snow and only one buckaroo around to move it all.”

John set his hands on top of the shovel. “Namely yourself.”

“Yeah, though Hurk’s had my back ever since we were little. He’s been there for me for anything and everything, and if I asked right now he’d be at my house in ten with a sled and a spare shovel. Course we’d skid down any slopes first, ‘cause an opportunity like that you just don’t pass up, but after he’d throw in with me to cart that shit out. No complaining, or fussing, or nothing. I couldn’t have asked for anyone better. Just sucks he’s out of town often as he is. Seen some real strange shit too, going off of what he’s brought up.”

“Well, maybe you won’t have to handle it alone next time.”

Sharky paused mid-shovel. “Say what?”

“You could…ask.”

“Ask you?”

John tilted his head to the side, glancing down briefly before making eye contact again. “I understand I’m not going to bring a lot of firepower to it, but it’s another set of hands.”

“Oh. Uh, yeah," he said, shaking off the surprise that had set in. "Having two heads and four sets of hands to use? It sure would be. Maybe clear all that snow up before that tingly sensation kicks in, you know that kind where you lose the feeling in your fingers? What a thing that’d be." And the idea of it was more than enough to put a broad smile on his face. "Thanks, man.”

John waved him off, but let his attention linger on him even after going back to shoveling. That might’ve made Sharky put his back into it a little more, when he wasn’t trying to look over at him himself.

Pink started to tint John’s face, mainly his cheeks, which reminded him of one of those old Christmas figurines he had a bad habit of knocking over at his grandma’s. Rosy-cheeked, probably ghost-touched, going off of some of their weirder bumps in the night that happened during the holidays, but still smiling and happy. John wasn’t smiling directly, but every time their eyes met, he caught something there. Not even one of those ‘blink and you’ll miss it’ type moments, but there. It made that warm feeling run through his chest again, and Sharky felt his mouth moving before he could stop it.

“You know, uh…you can come by again. Anytime. Just to shoot the shit, hang, dodge Broseph or Jake if they’re getting at you. Or hell, bring ‘em. We can all rock the firepit, I’ll set up some music, and we can just chill.”

Sharky cleared his throat, focused right on the pile of snow that kept on growing, and kept on talking.

“Or we could hop in Hurk’s truck, go do some ice fishing, but by giving it the ol’ Shurky one-two fer. You know, ‘cause Hurkie and I came up with it, and if we wanna trademark that it’d take a while, but you’re a lawyer. We could all sit down, you slap on a suit and crack open that briefcase of yours, and set us up while you’re throwing around all of that shit they say on Law and Order, and…oh, fuck.”

He stopped and crunched enough numbers to sweat.

“That whole talking bit’s got a price tag too, huh? Shit, think you could uh, swing a bit of a first time customer satisfaction guaranteed deal for-“

He turned as John reached his side, and yelped as he yanked him forward by the front of his coat. Kissed him in full, his lips cold, but his breath warm. So warm, and so much closer than he had been not even a minute before.

The shovel hit the snow, falling right out of his hands. Trying not to trip over it, Sharky moved forward, grabbing for him as John slid a hand up behind his head. Kissed him back. Just like he’d wanted to weeks back. Days back. Today, soon after seeing him at his front door. Like he could right now, even as words kept on trying to bubble up and spill out.

But he was here. John was on him, kissing him, moaning into his mouth, and he couldn’t believe it. Couldn’t believe it even as it was happening.

Breaking away, Sharky pulled back. Blinked and held his eyes shut for a few seconds just to see if he could ground himself. But John was still there when he opened them. Still there, still holding onto him, and nearly pinched himself just to be sure.

Sharky laughed. “Fuck, man. You just…you like throwing me off balance, don’t you?”

“Me? That’s you. Has been you from the very first day I met you,” John said, stroking his cheek. “Officially, at least. This fool that thought it’d be a fine idea to borrow a boat - while intoxicated at that - and trusted he would be able to return it.”

“Hey, I only failed step four. Nearly had profit too, but…uh, yeah.” Leaning into John’s touch, Sharky let his eyes fall shut. “Better that I didn’t. Hindsight being twenty-forty and all that.”

“Twenty-twenty.”

“Whatever. But-“ But why? The thought crept in, and his smile grew brittle. “You change your mind, or…?”

John’s eyebrows drew together. “About what?”

“You didn’t… I didn’t think you-“

A shaky breath slipped out, and Sharky couldn’t help it. Took two steps back to get some distance between them.

“I’d run through this before. Thought this shit over, and you weren’t interested. And that’s cool, not everyone is. Shit, I didn’t even think I was until it fucking laid me out. ‘Cause when I said I liked you, I liked you. Like, enough to put up with damn near anything just to get a few more minutes with you.”

John let out a breath, and pressed a hand to his eyes. Murmured something softly to himself that Sharky couldn’t quite catch, only for John to repeat it soon after. “It wasn’t you.”

“Wasn’t what?”

“‘You’ that made a mistake. I did. And letting you think that for as long as I did wasn’t fair. Not to you.”

When he lowered his hand, Sharky didn’t need to guess the expression crossing John for once. Regret came through clear as day.

“I don’t have friends. For a long time it wasn’t wise to, and the ones that I did make quickly showed me it was only for what they could get out of me. What they could take. Others took it further than that, and…I did the same in turn. Took people that I could’ve grown close to, and trusted, and used them instead. Ruined what could’ve been something wonderful. Something to cherish, and hold on to.”

John pursed his lips together, and gave him a rueful look.

“I knew what this was building towards. Ignored it. Then let myself want it. Where was the harm? But there’s always a catch to wanting. Wanting something, or someone. Was I doing it again? Being selfish? Taking that, twisting it just enough to make it into something that would harm more than help?”

Searching his eyes, John started reaching for him before drawing his hand back to his chest.

“But did you even want me? As a friend or anything else? I thought I saw the first there, and gave little thought before trying to see what was beyond that.”

“Like, I kissed you,” Sharky said, frowning slightly. “That’s…that wasn’t crossing any wires there.”

“But I put you in that position. When we stopped-”

“John, I was full on set to keep on going, man. Like, I wanted it. Thought you’d stopped, realized what the fuck was going on and decided to slam on the brakes once you’d got some sense back. And sure, I needed to cool it and think it over, but that was just…” Sharky paused, and drew in a deep breath, “just to come to realize how much I liked being around you. Okay, getting hit with the whole ‘shit, guess I’m bi too’ bit didn’t hurt, but I wanted to be there. Wanted to finish all of this, and maybe see where it’d go after that. And you, uh…”

“I came home. I told you we were done, and forced you off of my property.”

“Yeah,” Sharky replied, looking away. “Yeah, it pretty much went like that.”

“It was…I thought I was making a wise choice. To put that distance back where it should’ve been the entire time, because I was making the same mistakes all over again. And I didn’t trust myself with that. Or you.”

“And I wanna respect that. You’ve gotta do right by you, and you didn’t wanna fuck me up, but…maybe it’s not always gonna lead straight to a bad end, you know?” John kept his eyes on Sharky as he took a few steps closer, on edge, but not backing away from him, and Sharky continued, “I mean, I’ve heard you like having me around. Is that right?”

That, John didn’t hesitate to answer. “I do.”

It brought a smile out, and Sharky didn’t hide it. “Already told you how I feel. Unless…you want me to go over that a little again. Break it down some more.”

John raised his chin. “I might.”

“Okay, let’s see,” Sharky said, rubbing his hands together. “I like you. Like hanging with you, and shooting the shit. Like working on your plane. Car’s also good, and I like looking at you, though uh, that’s not the sentimental kind of thing we’re going for right now.”

John chuckled, “No, not quite.”

“But it was nice being here. Being wanted. Knowing you wanted me here at all, even if it was only to fix shit up at first. And to get sprayed the hell out of, but that was a bad moment. Got the drop on me, and I wasn’t super slick when it came to getting out of it. But I handled it, and later on, I had some other cool moments.”

“True. We can’t forget that.”

“And I uh, mentioned the talking, right?”

“You did, but as nice as that was, maybe I liked looking at you too.”

Sharky blushed, laughing at it only to grow quiet when John stepped closer. Almost enough to cross back into his space, and felt his breath catch.

“Just like right now.”

“Well, uh, shit,” Sharky sputtered, as John ran a hand up the front of his coat, right along the zipper. He toyed with that enough for Sharky to drop his eyes only to park them right on John’s lips, “Um. That right?”

“Yes, I believe so. But if you need any convincing, I could go into more detail.” The look John wore now he’d have to be blasted beyond all comprehension to deny. “Break it down some more.”

“You talking a lot? Or like-”

John tugged him close enough to share a few directly with him, breath all too hot against his ear as he did so. Outlining everything in the kind of painstaking detail he’d come to expect. But this wasn’t history, flying, or anything having to deal with the nuts, bolts, or screws of the boathouse.

This was all about him. The subject of choice, and the thing that kept John pressed right up against him. What he’d noticed. What he’d liked. Painting just the kind of picture Sharky would’ve been all too glad to slot into, especially if it kept John at his ear like this. Whispering the kind of things he’d never thought he’d ever hear him say.

“…Fuck me running, man. You ain’t messing around any.”

“It pays to be thorough.” John’s lips grazed him, brushing his earlobe as he stayed close, and every breath coming out of him made him want to curl in closer. “To never overlook a single detail, no matter how small, or insignificant it might seem.“

Swallowing thickly, Sharky rasped, “Speaking of details, I might’ve missed one last thing here. Really meant to bring it up.”

“What?”

“The whole kissing part.” Leaning back to look at him, their noses brushed together as he didn’t quite escape John’s orbit. Stayed well within range as he hovered closer and closer by the second. “Liked that a whole hell of a lot too.”

Kissing him this time wasn’t a problem. No, it was all too easy as he wrapped his arms around John, and held him as close as possible.

John’s fingers ran through his hair, knocking his winter cap off onto the snow, and he shivered. More from the cold than the gesture, but John seemed set on giving it a run for its money anyway. He didn’t pull, just tugged him closer as he deepened the kiss, dragging a moan right up and out of Sharky’s throat in record time. He also seemed set on finding a way to slip his hands under Sharky’s coat, and he barely held off from giving John added access. ‘Cause stripping was totally cool. Stripping outside in this weather was a dumbass stunt, and he held off.

Soon though, John broke the kiss to whisper something into his ear. Distracted by the feeling of his lips on his neck, Sharky leaned into him, and felt him laugh as he repeated what he’d initially said.

“Much as I like this,” John said, his breath warm against him, “standing out here with you, I think it’d be a lot more pleasant inside. Where it’s warmer for one, and maybe we can also find a few other means of keeping it that way. Do you agree?”

Sharky swallowed hard at the suggestion, nervous, but eager. “Yeah, let’s…let’s do it.”

Grabbing John’s hand, he squeezed it tight. And when he felt himself being guided towards the house, he stayed close behind.

[pmyournudes]

Moons Over Madripoor Ch 1

“I’m sorry Daddy, I’ve been naughty”

“Wade what have I told you about coming to Hell’s Kitchen”. Matt is exhausted, it’s nearing midnight, and he’d already kicked everyone’s ass in a bar to break up a Maggia gun deal. He’s too tired to deal with any of the Merc’s mouth tonight, and he knows it’s just beginning, “and more importantly what have I told you about staying in Hell’s kitchen.” Matt adjusted his footing. Normally Wade would try to futilely sneak up on him, this time he just came up the fire escape.

“You don’t want to hear my confession? I’m sure I could find some saps to perforate with my guilt.” Wade unholstered a pistol and spun it idly, Matt could tell the gun wasn’t even loaded.

“I’m not a priest but, I don’t like you threatening thugs just to make me bend an ear.” Matt knew Wade was manipulating him, but he also knew Wade only dealt with money and bodies. His emotions were something Wade had a less than tenuous grasp on. “You going to tell me where to find a pile of bodies? You know I don’t appreciate those as favors, you’re not a cat.” Matt leaned against the stonework, Wade’s heartrate was flittering, if Matt knew any better he’d think that Wade had been crying.

“No, I haven’t been in the mood to kill anyone. Well not IN the mood but I just don’t care. Like you ever get a drumstick ice cream and just can’t even bother eating enough to get to the chocolate so you just throw it away? Or you think the taco truck sounds good to hit up but by the time you load all your mags and strap your guns on you realize you don’t even want any mexican? It’s like that” Matt knew Wade must be low. Someone so impulsive and carefree doesn’t just lose motivation for their chicanery. He must have been crying after all.

“Too languid to kill drug dealers or support any taquerias? That’s not the Deadpool I know. I suppose I can hear your confession. I have no idea what it’d pertain to since crimes against thugs and chimichangas normally top that list.” Matt was genuinely curious, this could only mean trouble. Or a headache for him, something he doesn’t need if what he heard with Tombstone was actually about to go down. “I suppose I could spare a few for you but, if anything comes up tonight I’ll need to see to that too.” Matt sat down on the ledge of the walk up, one leg off the side so he could keep an ear on the bar he was staking out.

“Of course, there’s other buildings that could use some brooding on them. Or if any of your gargoyle buddies needs back up catching pigeon shit you should get on that.” Wade jokingly toyed, a little too cavalier for someone trying to have a heartfelt conversation.

“Did you want to talk or did you come here to belittle me? Some of us feel a personal responsibility to doing the right thing.”

“Dont fucking talk about responsibility to me. You know who else does? That shit eating Spider-man. Maybe you should leave and go be responsible too, maybe Queens needs you, maybe my flat isn’t good enough, maybe we can’t take weeks to ourselves as if we don’t need it, don’t need each other.”  Wade grabbed his mouth. He’d said more than he meant. He knew that his team ups with Spidey were public but maybe Daredevil would miss his slip up or not know what he was talking about. Wade crouched down, or maybe he was slumping, his body scabbards kept his back straight, but his head falling let Daredevil know that he was exhausted as well.

“Oh, I meant I have guilt that I’m not doing enough, every person the mob hurts, hurts me too. I don’t like seeing those I care about in pain. You included Wade.” Matt knew what Wade was talking about. As if he couldn’t hear Wade’s pulse rev up like a sportbike anytime he mentioned Spider-Man. It’d been going on for months, Deadpool was so easy to get a hold of. Just mentioning the wall crawler could be there and Deadpool would show up like clockwork. It was a nice ace to have up his sleeve if a volatile situation needed combusting. Normally Wade couldn’t be relied on, but he actually was helpful the past few times. He didn’t even kill anyone the last fight they had at the docks. “Is something hurting you now?”

“Well that’s why I’m here. You ever get told you can’t do the thing you really want? Like if the priest told you that you’d prayed too much and that he wouldn’t hear another Hail Mary?” Deadpool sat down, his guns clattering on the rooftop. His legs splayed in front of him like a child sitting for a story.

“Wade church doesn’t work like that, priests are always there in times of need. I think you and I both know that.” It was a clever dig, even Matt had to admit that Wade’s wit was plenty sharp enough to earn his monicker.

“Ok well I don’t know what else you’d be into or broken up about. Maybe if they stopped sending ninjas to New York and you’d have to only fight mobsters. Yeah it’s like that, you WANT to fight ninjas because it’s exciting and fun and exhilarating and new every time,” Deadpool hugged himself, like he was overcome with joy. “but, instead New York only had mafiosos and petty crooks. Just the same boring thing you can get anywhere else.” his arms dropped and his head hung again. Matt could smell tears on Wade’s eyes, he was on the brink of crying.

“I would be more than happy if I never saw another ninja again.” Matt meant that, the city had enough issues without immortal assassin’s harrying him. The only thing ancient orders brought with them was ancient issues.

“What if it was /her/ though, what if she never showed up again because she didn’t want any part of New York and instead you had to deal with Tombstone or Bullseye.” Deadpool barked at him, his voice hoarsening. Matt faced Deadpool, had he told Wade about Elektra? Who had Matt told about her? “Oh if you’re wondering how I know about Nachos girl, literally everyone knows you two are a thing. I'd hear at poker games how people would bait her out since it would throw you off so badly just smelling her.” Was Matt really that bad when she was around? He remembered Foggy telling him she was trouble but that was just because his court cases backed up. 

“I don’t know who you’re playing poker with, but I don’t ‘lose my senses’ when I smell someone like some pubescent teen.” This was making Matt uncomfortable, but Wade wasn’t noticing. He was lying down, not relaxed, but lackadaisical. Fully off guard and exposed on the rooftop.

“That makes one of us I guess. I can’t control myself, I’ve fully lost who I am trying to make someone else happy.” His voice was straining, he was holding back trying to be strong.

“Are you sure it’s what would make them happy, or what you think would make them happy?”

“I’m sure I know them and what would make them happy, we’ve spent weeks together. Working on assignments and spending long nights together.” Wade’s voice caught in his throat.

“Nights like this? You know this is just a night out, like any other. Sometimes a night is just a night.”

“Don’t be cheeky, it wasn’t some cheap rooftop in a ratty borough. These were nights in Madripoor, that place is enchanted, there’s magic in that air.” Deadpool looked off wistfully. Daredevil was sure he was imagining another night on another rooftop elsewhere. “DON’T even bother telling me I can’t make someone happy either, I can make anyone smile.”

“That’s true, I’d be lying if I said you haven’t made me crack a grin before. But true happiness isn’t made, it’s something you find and you enjoy it while it’s there.”

“I did find it, it was the sun and the moon all in one. I thought it was mine and that I had somehow cheated fate to have it.” Deadpool doffed his mask to wipe a tear from his eye. He sat up and faced Daredevil. “But, it wasn’t meant to last. You want to hear my confession now Daredevil?”

“That’s what I’m here for Wade, whatever you have to tell me, I’ll hear you.” Daredevil turned his back to the street to face Deadpool.

“I’m in love with Spider-Man and he doesn’t love me the same way.”

[chaneltae]

Mångata pt.1 | kth

Pairing: Taehyung x reader Genre: College!AU, fluff Warnings: none Words: 2,8k Part: 1

↳ When faced with his final art project for college Taehyung considers himself royally fucked if it weren’t for class mate Yoongi to come up with a rescuing idea. Struggling herself, Y/N can’t help but accept to work together with the just introduced strawberry enthusiast. And it’s just for this one assignment anyway, what could possibly go wrong? ⋆ aka your local broke college students + strangers to lovers trope

“Okay, that’s it. I quit.” Taehyung groans into his hands, covering his face. All this time he knew exactly how important this moment is going to be, but he never expected to be so utterly confused and helpless once he was confronted with it. The final project. The last piece of art to determine his grade, his degree. If he even gets one. At this point right now, he feels like rather giving up than spending another six months trying to figure out a final… something to present at the grand exhibition. Ten minutes ago, he was motivated, ready to tackle this last mission, excited to pack out whatever medium required and start working on his most important piece so far. But that already seems to have been an eternity ago, his mind long gone into the depths of a feeling equivalent to watching paint dry. Glancing around the lecture hall it seems he isn’t the only one questioning the choice of his major at this given moment. As if anyone had a realistic chance of actually escaping this. The topic couldn’t have been worse. Human. What’s that supposed to mean? 

“Human? What’s that supposed to mean?” Next to him a disheveled mop of hair lets out a snorting giggle. A weird sound Taehyung notes, as if it’s supposed to sound unbothered but it sounds more like anxiety laughing. “Whatever it is, our professor definitely is not.” The raspy voice states, clearly not having it. “She really wants us to suffer, huh? Even forcing us to work together with a person… a human.” another undefined sound of displeasure leaving his lips. “I would say it couldn’t get worse, but we have complete freedom regarding nearly everything and there is honestly nothing more constricting than freedom in this situation.” A sharp voice cuts them off of any further conversation. Faced to the blackboard the professor continues her monolog, scribbling down the time schedule everyone is expected to follow suit. The last number mentally already saved as funeral date in Taehyung’s head. “I repeat once again, the overall topic of your project is ‘Human’. Interpret that however you want, you have no restrictions in terms of media, but keep in mind the size of our gallery is limited, and so is your designated space in it.” A few grunts erupt around the boys’ seats, everyone knowing very well that calling the gallery limited is a huge understatement. As if anyone of them would come around with a giant truck loaded with massive pieces for the exhibition when they are still unable to even have the grasp of an idea. Even the sculptors wouldn’t. “Regarding the person we are supposed to work with. Any restrictions?” Taehyung hears his seat neighbor ask, eyes fixed to the front of the room. An evil smirk gracing his professor’s lips, he can almost feel everyone’s heart in the room dropping in to their pants. “Good question Mr. Min. Yes, there are restrictions. You are, of course, not allowed to work with anyone in your class. Your final project is supposed to reflect your own work and inspirations and not end up being a group project. You’re not particularly searching for a partner, I want you to take a person and add them as a human aspect to your work. Again, interpret that as you wish.” The silent grimaces of confusion paint the rows of students as the professor leaves with the promise of an email with more detailed information and a threatful reminder of the set schedule. With a sigh of defeat Taehyung turns his body towards the smaller man next to him “Hyung, what now?” Finally looking up, the other stares right into his eyes, dead serious “We’re fucked.”

 The door opens, the annoying bells chiming at the disturbance. Your cue to put on a smile and look like selling beverages to sleep deprived students at this ungodly hour is the one thing to bring you joy and mental strength. Despite the fact that you are anything but joyful at this given moment. You were just about to start your generic greeting when you spot ashy grey hair sticking out of a blue beanie, catlike eyes gazing through them in a warm hello. “Oh Yoongs, you’re early! How was class? Did I predict your topic right?” you wiggle your eyebrows in expectation, hands already working on the coffee machine as you grab his favorite mug. It was a production mistake, the city skyline somehow printed on the ceramic twice, leaving it unable to sell, so you kept it as your own. Even though it ended up being Yoongi’s favorite once he started to visit you between his classes and you couldn’t bring yourself to deny him that when he looked like a proud puppy holding it in his hands. You get an annoyed scuff as an answer as he peels himself out of his scarf and jacket “I wish. That would have been better.” Surprised you can’t hold back a slight chuckle, answering once the machine in front of you stopped loudly grinding coffee beans. “That would have been better? What could possibly be a topic worse than ‘Developing a prototype to translate text and speech to sign language with bilingual subtitles: a framework’?” “Developing a what?” a third voice suddenly stutters half laughing, obviously taken aback by your statement. Bewildered you turn around to take in the sight of another man standing in the café, one corner of his mouth rising slightly at your expression. Having him next to Yoongi is nearly amusing, while the older is dressed in ripped skinny jeans and his favorite Kendrick hoodie, muffled up in huge scarfs and beanies during the biting winter air (“no I’m not going to wear ‘unripped’ jeans, I’m not a monster”), the taller looks quite the opposite. A dark red flower shirt decorates his broad chest, tucked into wide-legged, black pants which hug his unnecessarily long legs, unfair, in a way that make it look like he is too expensive for clothes. His fluffy black hair frames an unreadable face on one side, while the other half is tucked behind his ear, barely long enough to stay there in place. “Oh Y/N, this is Taehyung. We’re both in arts class with Professor Power Point but he’s one of those motivated kiddos who chose a double major, consider yourself warned.” Yoongi mindlessly gestures his hand through the air, as if that would give the introduction more substance. “Taehyung, this is Y/N. The only reason I actually attend morning classes.” With that he plops down on the armchair, apparently done with his excellent characterization. Confused, Taehyung’s eyes skim from the older to you behind the counter, waiting for further annotation. “What he’s trying to say is that I’m his flat mate and have to drag him out of bed and provide him with free coffee when I’m on shift.” You laugh at his confused façade falling with realization as you turn your attention back to the roaring machine. “Well then double major Taehyung, who I have been warned of, what drink can I get you? Full offense, you don’t look like someone who would drink the same hell-brew like Yoongs does.” The last bit of awkwardness falling off of him Taehyung steps to the counter, taking a quick look at the menu only to end up pouting “Do you have anything with strawberries?” Cute.

A few minutes and tired customers later you join the two boys gathered around the tiny table in the rather hidden corner of the shop, Yoongi’s favorite spot to no one’s surprise. With a grin you place the pastel pink drink in front of a curious Taehyung “Here is your ‘Very Berry Gurt’, hope you like it.” Cautiously he wraps his lips around the straw, obviously suspicious, as you let yourself slouch down on a nearby chair “It used to be the favorite drink of our Yoongurt here.” “Yah, don’t call me that!” the small male retorts at your stupid nickname, swatting his hand in your direction with the weak attempt of hitting you. Bursting out in giggles you can’t stop yourself but continue “He was berry passionate about it, you know.” Yoongi groans out in annoyance, his head falling into his palms, wishing he could morph with the chair as a deep, breathy laughter fills the room. Pleased you take in the sight of Taehyung’s boxy grin as he tries his best not to choke on said drink. “Since when did you plan to set up this joke?” the grey-haired asks while gently hitting the youngers back, judging look on his face. Shrugging your shoulders nonchalantly you sip at your own drink “The second I saw the name.” “How come I never met you before Y/N? Even though I have the feeling I saw you around somewhere.” Taehyung asks once he is able to breath properly again, carefully placing his drink back on the table. Keeping a safe distance in regards of his own health. “My classes are practically on the other end of campus if you are at the arts building, so I’m sure we never ran in to each other there.” You try to think of a possible scenario but nothing comes to mind, knowing for sure Yoongi most definitely didn’t invite him over to your shared flat. That you would remember. Tilting his head to the side his somewhat puppy-like but also fascinatingly intense eyes scan your face, searching for an answer in your contours. Yoongi shifts in his armchair, pulling his knees up to wrap his arms around them, looking more huggable than anything else. “Maybe you recognize her from the photos.” He states, leaving Taehyung even more confused than before. “You remember my last years’ final project? Part of it is still hanging in the gallery if I’m not mistaken.” Slowly nodding the younger seems to vaguely remember what the older is referencing, his mind wrapping around the information. “There were a few pictures with Y/N in them.” “Oh yeah right, I helped you with that project!” you chirm in, remembering the small favor to save him from an existential photographer crisis. Taehyung’s eyes widen, finally envisioning the pieces in his head. You didn’t really think much of being in the background of a few photos if it prevents your best friend from going insane over a potential failed class. But now that you are faced with the situation of someone actually paying enough attention to take in your features, let alone being able to somewhat remember you, leaves a weird taste behind. You can’t help but wonder if there are more people who looked at those pictures, looked at your face, able to recognize it in a crowd. A familiar face but nothing behind it. A familiar stranger. The shrill notification sound of different phones interrupts the moment, the two males starting to frantically fish around in their pockets as if their life depends on it. “Oh god, it’s Professor Power Point with her details mail.” Yoongi states once he found the device before scanning through the text on his screen. Taehyung falls just as silent with a concentrated expression on his face, brows slightly furrowed and his tongue quickly poking out to wet his lips. Somehow it reminds you of Yoshi’s little ‘mlem’ sound. Adorable. Not long after starting to read a desperate rampart of ‘no’s, slowly increasing in volume, leaves Yoongis lips as he continues scrolling. You just raise your brow in question, waiting for him to elucidate his distress. However, all he does is start to whine, gripping his phone as if he would try to strangle it, wishing for it to be something else “What did I ever do to deserve this?”. “In all probability, something terrible.” He shots you a disappointed, judging look at your remark, not even worthy of an eyeroll. “You’re not helping Y/N.” Shifting in your chair you plant yourself in a position that says ‘you can tell me everything’ as Taehyung chimes in, apparently done with reading “What is it, hyung?”. With a sigh the older tugs his phone into the armchair gap and turns to you “Okay, let me summarize quickly so you can understand, Y/N. Our project theme is ‘human’. Yes, I know, stupid, please don’t say anything. Thank you.” You nod slowly, no intention of adding anything. “And our delightful professor had the audacity to force us to work with a partner. A human, hah. But we are not allowed to work with people from our class, even if they have a different major. Which means I can’t work with Taehyung here since he’s in fine arts and photography. So, my brilliant thought was to ask you again, since y’know, you saved my ass with the last project and of all people you should know the best what to do with the topic ‘human’.” At that Taehyung sends you a questioning look but doesn’t dare to interrupt the older as you keep nodding. “However, we are also not allowed to work with people we paired up with before. Aka, I can’t ask you either. Aka, I’m lost.” That said Yoongi looks at both of you with a face that resembles the smiling upside-down emoji horrifyingly accurate. For a few seconds no one is quite sure what to say, staring into their beverages as if the liquid would give them the needed advice. Helpless you turn to the tall male sitting next to you “Do you have any plans on how to find a partner yourself, Taehyung?” A pained smile crosses his features as he ruffles through the hair at the back of his head, fluffy strains floating through his ring accessorized fingers. “I’m was also going to ask my flat mates, but I’m not sure what they’ll say. Especially since I have no concept or idea whatsoever… they might be too busy with their own stuff.” He trails off, obviously unsure about his own words, a wave of anxiousness hitting at the realization this might be harder than initially anticipated. Given the lack of ideas everyone returns to stare at the table in front of them. The drinks still far from illuminating. “Hm, it makes sense to work with someone from my classes though, even if it’s not me. But on the other hand, it also might be a little too literal to pair up with a social major, don’t you think?” you attempt to reason, trying to think of a person who would be willing to accept such a challenge when everyone is busy themselves surviving their own classes. Eyes hovering over Yoongi’s hoodie you suddenly get an idea “I could ask Namjoon from Legal! You know each other, right?” “Legal?” Taehyung asks, even if not the person involved, he can’t hold back his curiosity. “Legal and ethic issues in social work.” You mechanically respond before turning back to Yoongi “He has more business focused classes, but still shares the social ones with me. It’s worth a try.” Relieved you note that his face seems at least a little less anxious at the mention of his former music school acquaintance. Carefully he takes a sip of his hell brew coffee, still hesitant but eventually agreeing to your idea. Interrupted by the aggressive bells announcing a new customer you get up to move back to work with the promise to ask Namjoon in behalf of Yoongi, hopefully saving him once again.

-

“Jimin, please! I’ll even do your laundry for the next month.” Taehyung almost begs into the phone he’s holding on to for dear life. After he left the café with Yoongi, parting their ways, he couldn’t help but dial his best friend’s number in an instant. The fear of having to search for someone who isn’t one of his two flat mates creeping up his spine, now that realization finally hit. The problem of the concept itself long forgotten, all he can think of is persuading the male on the other end of the line to help him out. However, the soft voice coming through the speakers only fuels Taehyung’s desperation “I’m so sorry Tae, but I don’t want to make promises I can’t keep. You know how busy Hobi hyung and I are with the studio and we don’t want to agree on helping you, when we might end up having to bail out.” He can hear the sincerity in the others voice, knowing very well they only mean good and want the best for him. But still – “Well, shit.”

[izzy-b-hands]

Silver and Shotguns

Prompt: Gun

I’m watching Buzzfeed Supernatural, and this happened as a result. That is all the explanation I have, aka yes this is Eugene and Snafu fighting off something supernatural and terrifying, and yes it is kind of a random one shot to drop on a Sunday evening, but…yeah. 

A quick note that I’m actually not really comfortable with guns (for a variety of reasons, not least of all involving an ex-stepdad who worked at a prison, but we don’t have time to unpack all of that.) However, due to the prompt and the plot, guns are used and mentioned in this fic, so if they really make you uncomfortable, I’d say maybe skip this one. I tried to keep all weapon talk within my own comfort zone, but that zone is different for everyone, so like I say, if you think it might upset you, then no harm in skipping this piece. 

Also kinda still winging the interior of the house, because I’ve rewatched all the scenes where they show the Sledge house and…man I need more shots to better establish it exactly. So forgive me if I took a bit of liberty with the set up of it (like I know it looks like a ranch from the outside but then during the scene where Sledge’s father is outside his room, they look to be on a second floor???). If nothing else, I’ll try and keep my headcanon version of it straight lol. 

My love to all who read/like/reblog!!

It sounded like a gunshot, loud enough to drag him out of a deep sleep, shoving Snafu hard to wake him up. 

“Someone’s downstairs.” 

Snafu looked up, eyes barely open. “One of the cats?” 

“Someone broke in through the back door; I just heard it; I’m sure of it,” Eugene replied, his heart about to beat out of his chest. It hurt, being so alert and on edge, every muscle tensed. 

Snafu sat up, and gently held onto his hand as they listened. “Maybe it was just somethin’ outside. I’m not tryin’ to doubt you, but I don’t hear-” 

The sound of glass shattering downstairs interrupted him, and like that they were both out of bed, yanking on trousers, boots that had been set by their bed pulled on before they started to creep out the hall to the stairs. 

“Let me go first,” Snafu whispered. “Got my kabar.” 

He did, gripped in one hand. Eugene had no idea where he’d had it, but he knew where his was. He withdrew it slowly from the side of his boot, and showed it to Snafu. 

“That’s my baby,” Snafu smiled. “Still though, scoot. I’m goin’ first.” 

He rolled his eyes, but smiled as he let Snafu slip in front of him as they slowly started down the stairs, stepping just so on each step, knowing where to avoid so the steps wouldn’t creak under their weight. 

A growl stilled their steps. 

“What sort of animals y’all got around here again?” Snafu whispered. 

“…are you about to tell me you think a bear, or a mountain lion, or a bobcat or somethin’ has broken into our house?” 

“You got a better idea about what that was?” Snafu was still whispering, but fiercely as he nervously looked down the rest of the stairs. They were about halfway down the staircase. If whatever was down there came through the sitting room at that moment, it would see them easy as anything. 

“No, but it didn’t sound like an animal breaking down the back door. At least, I didn’t think so,” Eugene mumbled, his free hand holding onto Snafu’s bicep in case he needed to pull him back up the stairs in a hurry. 

“Not like either of us would really know for sure what that sounds like,” Snafu said. “Unless you and your parents just had bears breakin’ in every other night? They just conveniently forget to mention that?” 

“Shut up,” Eugene hissed as he listened. “No, we did not have bears breakin’ in to our house most nights. But humans don’t growl like that!” 

The click of claws on the wooden floor made them both jump. 

“Queenie! Get your ass up here; we got a goddamn bear or some shit in the house and you’re explorin’,” Snafu whispered as loudly as he seemed to dare, handing Eugene his kabar as he darted down the rest of the stairs and picked Queen up. 

“C’mon. Let’s go make sure the rest of them are up here, get ‘em locked in a room to be safe. Then we’ll keep checkin’ this out, okay Snaf?” 

But Snafu didn’t turn his head, didn’t move a muscle as he held Queen tight in his arms, staring out from the hall into the sitting room. 

“Merriell?” 

That did it. Snafu was suddenly running towards him, then right by him, Queen whimpering fearfully in his arms. 

Eugene climbed back up the stairs quietly and watched as he dumped her into their room, then darted down the hall, retrieving two more cats from the hall bathroom, then another two from the guest room, then ran to pull him into the bedroom as well. 

“Snaf-”

Snafu shut him up with a look, the same sort of look he’d worn during the worst of the shelling and fire they’d been under, his eyes wide and fearful and looking like he was a thousand miles away, lost somewhere in his mind. 

Snafu closed the bedroom door, then locked it, then started to drag the armoire in front of the door. 

“Let me help,” Eugene whispered as he set their kabars on the bedside table and moved to push the other side of the armoire. He could feel the cats watching them from their hiding spot under the bed, and it made it all the more tense. The cats weren’t scared of much, surprisingly. They couldn’t be left outside because they’d more than once ran after creatures two times their size that had tried to amble over the fence of the backyard. If they were scared now…

It made his heart skip a beat in the worst way. 

“What did you see?” Eugene asked Snafu, willing his voice not to shake. 

Snafu shook his head. “Can’t have seen it, ‘cause it can’t be real.” 

“But you saw somethin’,” Eugene replied, pulling him to the bed, and holding him close as they both sat. He was shaking. 

“You’re gonna think I’ve snapped,” Snafu said. “Hell, I think I have.” 

“Just tell me. You know you can; I’m not gonna think you’ve lost it,” Eugene said. He meant it, but also he just really wanted to know what the hell sounded like it was coming up the stairs. 

“A werewolf,” Snafu whispered. “I’m gone, I must be, but…you shoulda seen it, I swear that’s what it was. Least seven feet tall, covered in fur, and those claws…” 

Eugene took a breath. “Where’s the gun?” 

“Downstairs, same spot as always,” Snafu whimpered. 

A growl outside the bedroom door pulled them back to the reality of the situation, though it hardly felt like reality. 

“We can’t stay in here,” Eugene whispered. “Go get the cat carriers, get ‘em in, and hide ‘em in the bathroom for now. Don’t want them runnin’ around in danger.” 

Snafu moved quickly but quietly, pulling the carriers from the closet, and dragging the whimpering and whining cats out from under the bed one by one. 

While he did, Eugene tucked his kabar back into his boot, then went to the window and opened it. There wasn’t much roof to walk on, but it would have to do. 

“What are you doin’?” Snafu asked as he finished placing the cats in their carriers into the bathroom, then pulled their other dresser in front of the door. 

“We need the gun. Now, I’m not gonna say if this thing really is a…y’know. Not because I don’t believe you, but because I didn’t see it. Might be a real sick bear or somethin’, who knows. Either way, we need the gun. Can try and scare it off, long enough to run to the car,” Eugene replied. 

“And then what?” 

“Then…I’m not sure. Maybe it’ll follow us, and we can get it away from the house. Or maybe we can go get Sid, some reinforcements to try and shoot whatever this thing is down,” Eugene sighed as he carefully climbed out of the window and onto the shingles of the roof. Even in his uniform boots, it was hard to get a grip, and he could feel his legs shaking with the effort. 

“Get back in here!” Snafu reached a hand out the window, but Eugene shook his head. 

“You gotta keep it near the bedroom door, or at least on this floor. I’ll climb down the drain pipe, get the gun-” 

“And climb back up the damn house carryin’ a gun?!” Snafu interrupted angrily. “You’re gonna get your fool ass killed!” 

“You got any other ideas?”

Snafu looked away at that. “No. But I don’t like this one, not at all.” 

“Me neither. But we gotta do somethin’,” Eugene replied. He took a deep breath, then slowly started the climb towards the drain pipe, his hands aching with the effort of holding onto the edges of the shingles, feeling them slice into his skin. He was horribly aware of where the ground was, and was suddenly incredibly grateful his parents hadn’t built a house that was three stories. 

The drain pipe was cool, smooth relief in his hands as he slid down it, and carefully walked through the doorway of the broken back door, wincing at the crunch of broken wood and glass beneath his boots. 

His hands shook as he went to the kitchen and pulled the gun and ammo from their respective cupboards, loading the gun carefully but quickly, shoving the rest of the bullets into each of his trouser pockets. 

The house was eerily quiet except for the sound of claws scraping on the floor upstairs, and Eugene hoped desperately that whatever was up there hadn’t actually gotten into the bedroom. Their armoire was thick, as was the bedroom door, but the backdoor looked like a fucking truck had hit it, so who knew what the creature could do to anything else. 

The clamber back up the drain pipe was terrible. There was no other word for it. He had managed to tuck the gun into the front of his trousers so his hands would be free, but it made him nervous as hell. The safety was on, and there wasn’t anywhere else to put it really, but it didn’t mean he didn’t envision it accidentally shooting part of his cock off. Granted, there was something scarier to worry about, but accidentally shooting his cock off was still number two on the list of current fears. 

He made it back across the roof faster than he thought he would, motivated half out of fear of the gun moving and falling and half out of the idea that whatever was in their house had gotten to Snafu. 

He climbed back in through the bedroom window, and found Snafu alive. Scared, and attempting to drag their bed in front of the armoire with one hand, his kabar in the other, but alive. 

“Got it,” he said as Snafu turned, shoved his kabar back into his boot, and ran to him, wrapping him in a hug so tight it hurt. “Careful, I didn’t have anywhere else to put it-” 

“Jesus fuckin’…Eugene!” Snafu hissed as he pulled away from him and saw the gun. “Give me that. No corpsman here to treat you if you shoot the damn thing off. Not sure they’d know how to treat it anyway.” 

Eugene pulled it from his waistband and happily handed it over. “I know, I know. I didn’t like it anymore than you, I promise. Half afraid the damn thing would somehow fire, then there I’d be.” 

Snafu nodded as he checked the gun for ammo. “Mhm. Werewolf in the house, bleedin’ from your pecker, waitin’ for me to rescue you. Hell of a situation.”

“Speakin’ of rescue. I figure we can either try and fight our way out and get around it, or just both go out the window, and maybe sneak round the house. Might not have to use the gun then, if it doesn’t realize we’re out of here until we’re almost to the car,” Eugene said. 

“You realize the only reason it didn’t run back down when we heard you walking down there, was because I was up here yellin’ at it through the door, threatenin’ it and makin’ sure it was focused on tryin’ to get at me instead?” Snafu asked. 

“…I didn’t, actually. Knew you might be makin’ noise, but not that,” Eugene replied. “Thank you.” 

“I always got your back, darlin’. What say we get the fuck outta here and get some help, so we can get the kids out of here too?” 

Eugene nodded. “Window?” 

Snafu nodded right back. “This is a nice piece, but it won’t do much to that fuckin’ thing. No way we’re gettin’ through it, so we’re gonna have to go around.” 

“Great. You get to tuck that thing in your pants this time,” Eugene chirped as he made for the window, trying to ignore the clear sound of claws scraping deeper into the wood of the bedroom door. He hoped the bathroom door and the dresser in front of it would hold until they could get back with help. He’d never forgive himself if the thing got to the cats. 

The careful crawl back across the roof and down the pipe felt longer than before, and he half expected to drop down to see the creature staring at them and waiting by the torn apart back door. 

But it wasn’t, and they were able to charge around the house to the front lawn before a deep howl echoed from the house. 

“What in the fuck-” Eugene couldn’t keep himself quiet as the front door broke open in a burst of wood slivers, the door knocker and knob flying onto the lawn. The thing was as tall as Snafu had said, covered in grey and black fur, stood on two legs with paws that ended in claws as long as the kabar he held out towards the creature, as if that would do anything at all to protect him. 

“Keep movin’!” Snafu commanded, and fired at it once, twice, still running behind Eugene. Accuracy hardly mattered, there was no way a few shots would take the thing down. But it made it stop and roar with anger, just long enough of a break for them to dive into the car. 

Eugene felt the tires skid on the gravel as he drove them past the creature, Snafu half hanging out of the passenger window, aiming the gun at the thing even as they drove away from it. 

It was only once they were a good ways down the road that Snafu settled back against the seat and put the safety back on. 

“That was a werewolf,” Eugene heard himself say as he drove, his knuckles white on the steering wheel. “How the fuck was that a werewolf?” 

Snafu shook his head. “Got me. But if it isn’t a werewolf, then what the fuck is it?” 

“If that thing is a werewolf…then who is it?” Eugene asked. 

“Hm?” 

“In the movies, I mean. It usually…is a person. Just not during a full moon, or whatever. So, let’s run with this particular insanity, and say that’s what’s really in our house right now…who is it?” Eugene asked again, half afraid of what that answer might be. 

Snafu seemed just as terrified, only scooting closer to him on the seat as they continued on their way to Sid and Mary’s. 

As they pulled into Sid and Mary’s driveway, he checked the mirrors again. But it seemed safe, the thing, for whatever reason, hadn’t followed them. 

Snafu was ahead of him, out of the car and banging on the door hard. “Sid! Mary! Let us in, please! Quick-like, if you don’t mind!” 

After a few moments, Sid opened the door, his hair a mess, one eye still shut as he rubbed it. “What the fuck are y’all doin’ here at this hour?” 

“We can explain, but later. I need you, and anyone else who’s half a decent shot to come back to the house with us,” Eugene instructed as they pushed their way inside. 

Sid shut and locked the door behind them as he watched them pace. “Okay. You guys got a bear or a bobcat or somethin’ out there? Told y’all to get a closed fence so nothin’ could get in through the front yard. Hell, your dad shoulda put one in years ago, honestly.” 

“I wish it was a bobcat,” Snafu huffed. 

Eugene nodded. “It…look, we can explain once we get there. Tell everyone the thing is a bobcat if it’ll get ‘em here. But we can’t take it out on our own. And we need silver bullets.” 

Sid stared. “Sure, bud. I’ll just go get my supply of those. Now, I want to help-” 

“Then help us,” Snafu interrupted harshly, his hands tapping on the gun as he carefully held it. 

“I will, but you gotta understand how this looks. Y’all are half naked, bearing weapons, at two in the fuckin’ morning, talkin’ like you’re gonna go fight off some monster,” Sid continued. 

“It is. I know you don’t believe us, and I don’t blame you, but I saw it,” Eugene said. “It…looks like a damn werewolf.” 

Sid nodded slowly. “Okay. Tell you what. I’ve got more than a few guns in here, and a few silver bullets. Those are meant to be part of an antique set, but if it’ll make you feel better, we’ll bring ‘em along in case we need ‘em, okay? But I’m not gonna call anyone else just yet.” 

“He thinks we’ve cracked,” Snafu nearly sobbed. “The cats are gonna be dead, and that thing is gonna come on down the road lookin’ for us, killin’ who knows who else on the way.” 

Sid sighed, and Eugene could feel how frustrated he was. He didn’t blame him, but at the same time he wished he could will him to understand. 

“That’s the best I can offer. If we need more help after I go out with y’all, then we’ll go get it, I promise.” 

Mary had come down the stairs, and was watching them with a curious expression on her face. “You boys want another hand? I can-” 

“No, no, you stay put,” Sid interrupted. 

Mary glared at him, and strode down the rest of the steps until she was standing directly in front of Sid. 

“Sidney Phillips, I did not learn how to use a gun at your request, only to never get a chance to actually use one. You need an extra set of hands, and half the time, I’m a better shot than you. So simmer down,” she said. Without another word, she strode away again, grabbing a key from the top of a doorway as she went. 

“That’s the key for the uh, the gun safe,” Sid mumbled. “Guess she’ll help get that stuff ready.” 

“If you don’t let her come along, she just might clock you with the butt of one of ‘em,” Snafu chuckled. “What a woman.” 

Sid sighed, and ran after her, muttering about changing into some of his old uniforms and boots for safety’s sake, while Eugene bit back his laughter. 

He only lasted until he was out of the room. “Maybe all we need is Mary.” 

“Might very well be,” Snafu replied. “Bet you ten bucks she really is a better shot than he is.” 

“I’m not gonna take a bet I’m gonna lose,” Eugene smiled. It felt good to smile, even if fear was still nipping at the back of his mind. He almost hoped they’d get back home, only to find they’d dreamed the whole thing. 

Sid and Mary came back dressed to fight, Sid’s old and somewhat tattered uniform shirt hanging off of Mary. But she was grinning, an armful of a variety of guns that she happily loaded into the trunk of the car before piling in back with Sid. 

The ride back was a silent one, which made the fear creep back into his mind. It was far too quiet as they drove onto their driveway, and he didn’t like it one bit. 

Sid and Mary each bore a rifle loaded with the few silver bullets Sid had, and he and Snafu had borrowed a shotgun each, their own gun left on the front seat and their kabars safely back tucked into their boots. 

“Guys,” Sid said softly as they walked towards the remnants of the front door. “What the fuck happened here?” 

“We fuckin’ told you,” Snafu sighed. “And now I gotta pay to replace the front and back doors, ‘cause I can’t bill the werewolf fuck for it.” 

Sid shot Eugene a look, but he only shrugged in reply. He would see for himself soon enough. 

They didn’t have to wait long. He figured it must have smelled them, with the way it tore around the house from the backyard, running on all fours. It growled and huffed as it watched them. 

“Holy fuckin’-” Sid started, but was cut off by a shot. 

Mary’s eyes were wide, but her aim was true. 

The beast howled angrily at the wound, and started towards them as Mary got off another shot. 

Sid dropped his gun as he picked Mary up and ran for the car, despite her protests and attempts to shoot even as he ran. 

The shotgun shells didn’t seem to do much in comparison to the silver, only confirming the absolute nonsense in front of him. A werewolf had taken over their home, and maybe eaten their cats, and his best friend was so damned scared he was running away. 

“Sid! Get back here!” Eugene called as he fired again, reloading the shotgun with shaking hands. The shots at least stopped the beast, but only for a moment before he’d start running towards them again. 

“Get out of the way!” Mary’s voice called from the car. She was laid on top of the hood, a sniper rifle set on top of it. 

“What in the fuck…” Snafu muttered as they ran backwards towards the car, stopping only to get a few more shots off at the encroaching beast. “You ever shot one of those?” 

“Nope,” Mary shouted back, and Eugene could hear her voice waver. “I mean, once before, but only at the range. And not at a werewolf.” 

“You got this, baby!” Sid shouted from the backseat, another of his rifles pointed out the window. “I’m…I’m just gonna-” 

“Yeah, yeah, you stay in the car, ya baby,” Snafu spat. “All ya done is made yourself a tinned fuckin’ sardine for him.” 

“Shit!” Sid yelled. 

“Yeah, so get the fuck outta there!” Eugene called. “I’m scared too, but c’mon man!” 

“Will y’all move out of my fucking way already?!” Mary screamed, and they moved back rest against the car. 

The beast was thundering towards them, digging up grass and sod as it ran, growling, with salivia dripping off of its fangs. 

A shot rang out and it dropped. 

There was only silence for a moment, then a soft whine from the creature. 

Three more shots rang out, and then it was silent for good. 

“Holy shit,” Mary murmured as she slipped off of the roof. “Did I kill it?” 

Sid climbed out of the backseat and wrapped her in his arms. “Yeah. I think you did.” 

Before Eugene could volunteer to check it, Snafu was running ahead of him, carefully circling the beast before quickly leaning in to feel for a pulse. His heart stopped until Snafu stood back up, a triumphant grin on his face. 

Then, the grin dropped. “Who the hell did we just kill?” 

“What are you talkin’ about?” Sid asked as they walked over to join him, staring at the corpse that was rapidly returning to a human-like state. 

“He couldn’t make it through a horror movie if his life depended on it,” Mary sighed. “I told you. Last monster movie I saw had a werewolf, and it was just a regular man that turned into the werewolf. But they had to put him down because he wouldn’t take the cure, and he was killin’ people.” 

“Oh shit,” Sid murmured. 

“Oh shit indeed,” Eugene agreed as he knelt down to look at the face of their aggressor. It felt uncomfortably close to the war, like any moment Snafu would start digging gold teeth out of its mouth. 

But he looked just as horrified, leaning down to see the face. 

“No idea who the hell this is,” Eugene sighed. “But he’s dead on our lawn. What the hell do we do now?” 

“We bury him, and hope to god nobody comes lookin’ for him,” Snafu replied. “Shame we don’t have a swamp nearby…” 

He couldn’t help but turn to look at Snafu, feeling Sid and Mary’s eyes follow his. 

“Oh for fuck’s sake. Don’t look at me like that. I just always heard about people doin’ that back in New Orleans, that the gators would eat up whatever or whoever you dumped in there. Don’t know if that’s actually true,” Snafu sighed. “Y’all hid a corpse before, that you can be judgin’ like that?” 

“Fair point,” Sid said. “I mean…not like we can just go take him to the police or anythin’. Probably should, but how the fuck do we explain what happened?” 

“No police,” Eugene said. “I don’t like any option here, but I also don’t like that this asshole tried to eat us, so…” 

“I’ll get a shovel. Y’all can drag him to the backyard,” Snafu said as he started towards the backyard, moaning and mumbling about the landscaping that would need to be done on the yard. 

There was no way to make it a quick burial, but he wanted it to be sort of respectful. Presumably, whoever it was hadn’t known what he was doing. 

“We oughta say somethin’,” Eugene mumbled as they stared into the hole they’d dug. It was deep, maybe deeper than it needed to be, but then again he wasn’t really sure. There’d been no way to bury bodies on Peleliu due to the coral, and he hadn’t seen much of the burials done once the bodies had been dragged to the few spots that allowed for digging. 

“…I’d hope you were less of an asshole when you weren’t a werewolf,” Snafu offered. “Sorry we had to kill you, but you were tryin’ to kill us, so…yeah. Also I gotta spend how many weekends now repairin’ all the damage you did to our house and the yards.” 

“If we knew where the hell you had come from, we’d have tried to get you back home,” Sid muttered. “I mean, woulda had to drop you somewhere random probably, but we woulda tried.” 

“I do feel bad for killin’ you,” Mary sighed. “But you were trying to kill my friends and me and my husband. You can’t just go around doing that, even if you are a werewolf.” 

“You did a really good job, darlin’,” Sid said. “Hell of a shot.” 

“I’d say thank you, but that doesn’t really…feel right,” Mary replied with an awkward clear of her throat. 

“I should have somethin’ to say,” Eugene said. “But honestly, I’m so fuckin’ tired, and confused by this whole goddamn thing. I mean, what if there are more of you? What if someone comes lookin’ for you? I…rest in peace, you scary motherfucker.” 

“Amen,” Snafu muttered as he started to pile dirt back into the hole.

Once it was all said and done, they offered Sid and Mary the guest room before heading back to their room. Where the front and back doors had been was still wide open, but what else could they do? The doors were in literal splinters. The flooring, both the carpet and hardwood, was gouged from the werewolf’s claws. Their bedroom door had cracked, but not broken open thankfully. 

It did break as they forced it open, causing the armoire to drag against the wood floor as they made their way in. 

“Forgot we did that,” Snafu sighed. “Whatever. Another project, why not.” 

The sound of the hall shower started, and Eugene led Snafu by the hand to their bathroom. “They’ve got the right idea. I feel…gross. Beyond gross.” 

They showered together, in part out of comfort but also to keep each other awake. As it was, he couldn’t be bothered to finish drying off or change into night clothes after. They freed the cats, who were safe but still scared, from their carriers and let them run back under the bed. He flopped on the bed with Snafu, still wet, their towels wrapped around their waists, and passed out. 

The next few weeks were unsettling, as they waited to see if any missing persons matching the man that had been the werewolf came up. But nothing ever did, though occasionally during a Sunday dinner with Sid and Mary, they’d comb through the papers from nearby towns that they’d driven around to collect, to see if there was any sign to confirm that their shared secret night had really happened. 

It seemed nothing every would though, and to Eugene that almost made it worse. Sure, they had each other and Sid and Mary (and a corpse buried in their backyard) to prove it had happened, but not knowing where the thing had come from, and why?

It only made it harder to sleep at night, on the horrible off chance that another might somehow be waiting in the dark. And if werewolves were real, then what the hell else might be?

[fly-pow-bye]

Powerpuff Girls 2016 - “Save the Date”

Written by: Haley Mancini

Written & Storyboarded by: Leticia Abreu Silva, John Martinez

Directed by: Nick Jennings, Bob Boyle

Can it save the reboot?

I'm sorry, I have to bring this up. Season 2 was a minor improvement over Season 1, and I was wondering if Season 3 was going to continue with fixing minor problems. Already, they managed to address two particular aspects that some people felt was a horrible, horrible problem with this reboot. Looks like the crew have listened to their pleas...

...finally, they decided to give Ms. Keane her chest back. What a huge problem that was, am I right? Well, I was a little curious to why they decided to omit her breasts in the last two seasons. I was almost thinking that this was a subtle hint at a very special episode that this show would definitely not do appropriately. But no, they were just hiding under that jacket the whole time. Yeah, that's it. Now that I got that settled, let's begin the actual review.

The episode starts off with Ms. Keane being awkward while she's teaching class about Shakespeare. As soon as she starts saying the word love, she starts to stutter. She even writes it out, which is a slightly clever joke.

The Powerpuff Girls ask her what's wrong. Buttercup assumes that she has a malfunctioning robot brain, which is a typical random joke from our rascally little green princess. But no, it's because she has to get ready for a first date. Yes, in that wording; that elephant in the room is certainly growing at an alarming rate!

The Reboot Puffs offer to give her some makeup tips. They did do a good job with the Professor when they prepared for his date with Ima Goodlady, so it's not completely out there for the Powerpuff Girls to prepare someone for a date. Any potential jokes were thrown out pretty much immediately by Ms. Keane refusing their offer, which is probably to this episode’s benefit.

There’s two different running jokes with this outfit: Ms. Keane's difficulty with high heels, a relatable joke for anyone who had to wear them, and Ms. Keane apparently has a bad pimple that everyone in the show can see, but is thankfully never drawn for us. It's for this episode's benefit.

Her "first date" with this random 38-year-old named Todd at the Snooty Rose. It's cool to see a reference to a previous episode, right down to having the same waiter show up.

Speaking of references to previous episodes, now I shall point out the elephant in the room: yes, Ms. Keane did go on a date with the Professor in the original, and this episode outright denies it ever happened by calling this the first date. People might be mad that this rando that never appeared before replaced an official pairing in the original. I'm not one of them. Sure, a professor and a teacher would make a great couple...

...but even with her inexperience, Ms. Keane is way too good to be the Marge Simpson to this show's Sitcom Dad. Thankfully, this scene in Super Sweet 6 was the closest we got to referencing that pairing. Besides, he already has a love interest with Sapna Nehru, and I would prefer he get eaten alive by a giant spider monster.

Before Ms. Keane can get to that date, Discount Jojo shows up driving a truck loaded with a bunch of barrels full of radioactive goo. He's angry that he has to drive all of these to a special location to dispose of it. Sure, he may be an evil monkey, but he has to abide by those environmental laws!

Another crime he doesn't want to commit is vehicular manslaughter, as he notices Ms. Keane walking across the crosswalk, trying not to fall on her face. He swerves out of the way, causing one of the barrels to fall over and spill radioactive goo all over her. Discount Jojo tries to save face.

Discount Jojo: Uh, don't worry! It's defective!

Ms. Keane: How is it defective?

Discount Jojo: (slowly drives away)

Admittedly, that did get a minor laugh out of me. But hey, maybe her date won't notice the radioactive slime that's all over her! Suddenly, she starts glowing, and we get a GIF that was probably made already, but I decided to make it myself anyway. That's the Fly Pow Bye way!

This episode involves Ms. Keane growing to skyscraper size, ripping her clothes, and her accidently causing a ruckus around Townsville. Yeah, I knew this reboot was essentially official fanfiction, but I didn't think it was going to be that kind of fanfiction! Granted, I should have expected this considering we had that muscle episode a season ago.

This episode is just like that episode of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles where Irma grew into a giant, that episode of DuckTales 87 where Webby grew into a giant, or that episode of Jackie Chan Adventures where Jade grew into a giant. Wow, that plot is really common! I guess one big difference is that it doesn't advertise itself as a "turn into a giant" episode. It's like, surprise, it's one of these!

Even some helicopters come in to complete the Godzilla reference. Give them credit, they manage to get both of the running jokes about Ms. Keane's appearance in one line. They start shooting her, with some surprisingly realistic machine gun sound effects out of them. I guess if they're completely useless against the giant teacher, it's okay.

Ms. Keane ends up being chased off to Monster Island, which is a setting I feel has a lot of potential for plots. There's only two episodes that had a major focus on this island: Escape From Monster Island and Aliver. I wouldn't say this episode is the best appearance of that island, but I can't say this is bad, either.

The Powerpuff Girls show up just as soon as Ms. Keane goes away, and the Mayor tells them that a giant pretty monster lady just attacked Townsville. Somehow, they managed to look at Monster Island and find out that it's Ms. Keane. It's here that I realize that it's pretty rare to see the Powerpuff Girls use any superpower that isn't strength, flight, eye-lasers, or those new-fangled aura powers, so I didn't even think about them having telescoping vision!

The Powerpuff Girls go to Monster Island to find Ms. Keane sobbing about her new appearance and height. They offer to take her to the Professor. Judging by his track record, he'd probably accidently turn her into an even more hideous monster with two pimples, so she refuses. Well, that is not the actual reason.

She decided that, since she's a monster now, Monster Island is her new home. The Powerpuff Girls try to convince her that she's acting...something, but Blossom gets a text message from the Mayor that Townsville is under attack by a giant monster before she can complete that sentence.

Bubbles: But Ms. Keane's already here!

...burn? By the way, there's another running gag about the Mayor needing Ms. Keane to teach him how to spell. Good to know that didn't hinder his ability to send a text message! I would say Ms. Bellum sent the text, but sadly, while that all-important boob "problem" was fixed, they didn't fix that problem.

An ant came into contact with the goo, causing it to grow into this monster. The helicopters come in, but immediately leave because there's no pimple to focus on. The real flying heroes show up, and they actually do very well! Won't this just turn into a Monster Punch Girls Down in the end like every other scene like this? Does Buttercup make a lazy pun that had to be telegraphed to the audience?

Buttercup: ANT (five seconds later) that's the end of that!

Before Buttercup can make an aura scarf and say the word "chapter" to complete a Simpsons reference, we relearn that it just wouldn't be good for the plot if the Powerpuff Girls could easily take care of this monster.

Ant Stomp, Girls Down, womp womp. One minute, they’re superpowerful and no monster can beat them, the next minute, they are getting curbstomped by an ant. Admittedly, having trouble with a giant ant monster for plot convenience isn’t unique to the reboot; the exact same thing happened in Bubblevision. However, just because the original did it doesn't make it okay.

While that carnage is going on, Ms. Keane is trying to teach a bunch of giant monsters about the story of Romeo and Juliet. It goes about as well as one might expect: one of the tiny monsters eats one of the bigger monsters in one gulp. Okay, maybe one didn't expect that. Romeo and Juliet did have death, but that might not be the reference they're going for.

Eventually, she sees the Powerpuff Girls flying all around the ant monster. Once again, being off-camera seems to be the Reboot Puff's equivalent to Popeye's spinach cans. As she leaves, that tiny monster spits out the bigger monster's bloodless skull. I am both bewildered and amused by that random joke, mostly becase I was surprised they could even show bones.

The Powerpuff Girls, once again at the mercy of the ant's giant foot, is saved by Ms. Keane's flying kick! Not that this is entirely another "our powerful heroines have to be saved by a strong person" plot, the Powerpuff Girls do manage to help her out, too. As she gets knocked out by the ant monster, the Powerpuff Girls wake up to do a strategy.

It's a strategy they repeat from a previous episode, surprisingly enough. I will now call it the Tazmanian Devil strategy because it uses the same sound effect in this episode. They flying all around the monster, causing him to get dizzy. Blossom motions to Ms. Keane to finish the job.

Blossom: Ms. Keane, he's dizzy! Give him the busy!

Ugh, Blossom, while it may be that kind of fanfiction, it's not that kind of fanfiction. Thankfully.

She runs flawlessly with her heels, giving a payoff to the heels gag, and punches him right back into Monster Island. Yeah, someone who had no implied fighting skills whatsoever managed to upstage the Powerpuff Girls in defeating a giant monster all because she’s super big. One would think this show about three tiny six-year-old superheroes would teach kids that size isn’t everything, but here’s an episode kicks that right in the face. With heels!

Sadly for Ms. Keane's fighting career, the goo starts to wear off. How convienent! Discount Jojo drives back and says that's the reason why it was defective. Glad to see that joke wasn't kept hanging without a real punchline, even if this barely counts as one. I don't really get it.

Most importantly, she manages to make it to her date, who was talking to his mother the whole time about how not all women are monsters. I don't know why, either. Even though her dress is ruined, and most of the resturaunt is in shambles due to the giant ant monster, he's okay with it. What a nice guy. I'm sure Todd will eventually appear again. Maybe. Sort of. Not really.

Does the title fit?

Two different meanings to the title: Ms. Keane had to save the day and also had to save her "date".

How does it stack up?

This episode is actually pretty good by reboot standards. There's some decent jokes here and there, and the fight scenes are above average. Even when Ms. Keane joins the picture, it's not completely one-sided like most battles in this series.

The Powerpuff Girls are mostly useless in this episode. The best they can do is make an ant dizzy so that Ms. Keane can defeat the monster. The date character isn't too interesting, either, he doesn't add any real tension to the plot. They tried, but it didn't work for me.

Despite that, even if a giant Ms. Keane isn't your fantasy story, this is one of the better episodes. It's definitely a superheroine story, even if it wasn't the superheroines you expected.

Next, we find out if this reboot deserves a Beatles reference, a Meet The Beat-Alls reference, or even a reference to that Bee Gees movie.

← Trouble Clef ☆ Can’t Buy Love →

[the-firebird69]

Watch "Disturbed - The Vengeful One [Official Music Video]" on YouTube

We are all going to ride onto the capital of LA and in this format and we all have the bike and it's all hard knock kicker 5150 and we all believe in what he's saying and you guys are kind of lame instead of bothering us and douchebags took a plan and you flushed it as you do all right considering those stupid you are and we're going to arrive and of course and all these bikes are going to become famous and everyone's going to demand them I'm going to have to offer the hand of God and hand of Goddess for each version and there's a whole bunch thousands. The Violator and Demigoddess Wife will introduce this earlier today I don't think it's him

Thor Freya

Sales are through the roof I have it on the monitor that they can't keep them in the shop it's hard not kicker bikes and everyone is modifying it to look like yours and QE has so many calls and she doesn't know what to do with them she calls up China it says he's been getting him batteries won't you get me parts tonight and he says sure it means invasion and I said where is this first you said the British and now you're sending parts invasions no we come along with the parts how can you fit on those little boxes so start laughing cuz that's what she says and he goes oh no I've been trained by a woman and I laugh because I Hera her and I hear Olympus will say stuff now qe

It's my statement and I'm saying this so get those parts to me now I got tons of bikes to make we're going to hire everybody. And Sebastian is switching over his plant and she's sending parts to him and their retro fitting in the building new ones there's just tons of them and they're all coming out now it's a huge pile they're all demanding it and just saying that he can't have one because it says that he is God and they're all saying it out loud and it's a huge protest going on and then huge numbers of them go up and by the bike so they're using it they say and what we say is he's going to have one and then you're going to say that you're him otherwise it kind of kind of s***** Thor says. We agreed to there's no transition there so it's trying to figure out something anyway you got to make this hand of God bike because if you make tons of them and they buy tons of them then I'll be on it and then go after each other it becomes a lot bigger than I'm making it sound so we need to make some plants on some Island somewhere maybe do cuz he's not really shutting along very well so make the whole island this kicker 5150 and say it's for all those poor n****** all this particular model and of course yours so start doing it and I said I'm making yours here yes and there is right and you're in my particular model Gu says and my Goddess Wife's version right he says. So I got it right away and I built tons it would take them over the whole island putting all your factories there and building this bike. Huge numbers of orders just so massive I can't feel him and we have the biggest factories on Earth back to the Madagascar and Japan is now doing it and they've been doing it and they can't fill the orders there's so many orders that is just mind-boggling so we're making tons and tons of frames and huge numbers of them and he says to make a monster frame making company at the at the mine so he did that it's easy to fit cuz all the frames the same and other parts too that are still and we said this so it is damn bikes you better be assigning people and we are you just might have someone it's a huge number of people who want the bike back huge it's just a gigantic force that we're building and this number of Hand of God bikes is exceeded anything we've ever anticipated. It's so huge cuz I recognize the technique and that they don't understand anything now and he expects everything out of them so it even looks like I'm doing it and they're going crazy because I think it's impressively it says it's not and it doesn't have to be him personally and it actually doesn't have to be occasion and then some people know that so it's on I say the sales numbers are so huge we can't mention them

Gu and Goddess Wife

He sounds so many of this bike I got to wish him luck cuz it's so crazy but then he says I should probably be able to get a fitty out of it and people say yes because they want to be here they don't want to be this guy sitting around that doesn't have one and that will boost sales to the maximum and we've got several plants right at mines and they're right at your minds and we're building the frames and other steel parts right there costume the faster we send them out to work bikes get made so we're wondering how big of an operation it should be and we're asking our people and it should be huge because they're all interested in it and having his bike this is going to be like Saddam Hussein without the war so dumb so dumb you saying hello Saddam but it came out so dumb there's huge numbers huge it's it's way past the sales of any motorcycle company and all of them combined for this year including hard knock and Sim it says he should get his own company and he said no and he knows it's not possible but he's going to wipe out the competition and John C Riley's angry because it's based on the model that he rides it's not the same though and he says have you stolen everything yet why am I getting tired of this you haven't the devil going to have him up so we can take over Scotland and Iraq.

Of course he's requesting we make approve a beer and a whiskey and call it the devil's own whiskey and the devils beer and my name is Lilith by the way she says and she's making it hers right now as he requested she's still a little miffed I just came out with a title he's doing it again fighting a little bit not much if they're going to make one with both of them on it this is what they call it she's going to name it it's already huge and it's out in the stores he says he's going to present it over and the devil's Tower and it's not in stores yet but it's near them Google searching seek and destroy they want to beat the opening she's over there too at the devil's Tower right on top of it you're going to show me it and they have the bikes tons of people are going huge caravans and yes military ones they have a way out but decided to load the bikes up and it's in there they did a commercial and they tasted and they're asking if people want to come up and taste it and have free drinks and they said yes so doing that and the machines are coming and they're about to head out and they said wait wait you can't go and leave us here I said they're just going to leave if we do they said okay so they're waiting a few minutes to see what happens all sudden one of them started firing the firing on the crowd and we stopped it it's corky it started hitting him and actually we wiped them out this is approaching carefully I said well corky wants to just destroy him and he go up and say well you know it's time to get rid of that little b**** corky he's had it you know what he's saying so we're leaving and we hear the people the same don't leave us here and said it's time for you guys to vacate the premises as well so they're going down and they're leaving and say okay it wasn't that bad and they leave and nothing happened to him suddenly we get this screw you she ran into the line of trucks and stuff and we said well it seems to be Max so what am I and they're just humans and they said we got to drink it first and that's why I don't know what it is so if you came over there drinking together and we left a huge bunch of it up there this big huge cast of it and then caravan is pulling up and they're all going upstairs drinking it and we're delivering beer also they start laughing cork is a party pooper yeah certainly is. I have my own brand Liluth's Brew and there's a whiskey and there's a beer and a silly huge almost more than his almost and it's up and there's tons of sails and it's going out the door and it has a guy eventual one on his on the whiskey and the beer and eventually what looks like it's even more so on the whiskey but looks like himself on the pier there's all sorts of contests for the Hand of God bike in the Hand of Goddess online

Hera Zues

We just got done explaining that we have our own versions and we were up there too and that's who they let go and we're clear now if we're out and they know why we're flipping them off and we have our bikes and we're riding away and yes Pee-wee Herman was out there yesterday

Thor Freya

It's really my vehicle but he helped make it the way it is even the version of mine is telling me what to put there and tell me what to put on it how to do it I'm really getting pissed cuz I don't get any money from all this stuff and it's a three ring circles just barely made it out of there live up to upstate New York a bunch of fools fighting with some s***** buildings I started laughing about myself and I was leaving vrying a little it says that would be great footage for a movie I started laughing because it is my God what a stupid thing just as Mac was about a stupid movie about the teamsters and everyone's trying to wonder what they're doing stupid crap and New York is gone by the way all states pretty much going and they're moving that Old Town we're in now they're taking the rest of the place pretty soon Virginia will be gone I wonder if it's a good idea or not

John C Reilly says and he's been a huge pain in the ass threading ever since you get off Island about 2 weeks ago and he's been driving this hard knock kicker thing for us and he doesn't want him in a bike but it seems that he's finally gone too far and people say it's John C Riley version really Randall text calm but don't feel motivated because Randall is not around so now I guess what he has to do and the two big ones see it it's going to try and compete with him instead of flying and pissed and have him do the job for himself

Thor Freya

He's making some funny noises that's turning their faces sour and we like it because her big huge ninnies

Olympus

[expatimes]

In Breonna Taylor's Louisville, anger fuels demand for change

Louisville, Kentucky - It had only been a day since Louisville, Kentucky, learned there would be no murder charges in the police killing of Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old unarmed Black woman, and more than 200 demonstrators were back in the square that has been the center of 120 consecutive days of protests.

Many talked among themselves. Every few minutes, someone led a chant, “Say her name.”

“Breonna Taylor,” the crowd shouted back.

At 8pm, long high-pitched alerts echoed from phones throughout the square: a one-hour warning before the mayor-issued curfew would take effect. A few minutes later, a woman on a megaphone told protesters to get ready to march. The night before, different groups got split up, according to one protester, resulting in the arrests of several dozen after the curfew began. On last Thursday night, they were not taking any chances.

“We're going down a new route,” the woman on the megaphone announced. “Stay together,” she said. The group then headed out.

Breonna Taylor, 26, was shot dead by police on March 13 [Laurin-Whitney Gottbrath/Al Jazeera]

Protests have rocked the city since late May when demonstrations erupted across the country over the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota. In Louisville, it is the name of Taylor, who was shot dead by police on March 13, at the forefront.

A grand jury on Wednesday declined to indict the three Louisville Metro Police Department (LMPD) officers who fired into Taylor's apartment on charges directly related to her death. Instead, it indicted former officer Brett Hankison, who was fired in June, on three counts of wanton endangerment for “blindly” shooting into a neighboring apartment.

Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron said in a news conference the other officers who fired their weapons were justified in their actions because Kenneth Walker, Taylor's boyfriend, fired the first shot. Walker has said he mistook police, who barged through the door while serving a “no-knock” warrant, for intruders.

The highly-anticipated decision left protesters angry and in tears. But the feeling of dejection quickly turned to motivation as they charted a path forward.

In 24 hours following the grand jury's decision, those next steps began to take shape: protesters and leaders pledged to stay in the streets, called on local legislators to change policies that they say led to Taylor's death, demanded increased investment in impoverished neighborhoods, and urged residents to vote.

New strategies

As demonstrators marched in Louisville on Thursday night, organisers were already adapting and changing their strategies.

“Whose streets? Our streets, ”the group chanted as it weaved through the city's downtown core. At one point, those in the lead pack who knew the march plan spotted police, dressed in riot gear, running along the city block where the group was headed.

The organizers quickly switched course. They appeared to do the same on several occasions, including cutting through a McDonald's parking lot to avoid an intersection blocked by the police. Just before 9pm, they headed towards First Unitarian Church.

This is a “sanctuary space”, pastors and others told the marchers, welcoming them to the place of worship where the curfew did not apply. As what appeared to be the last of the marchers made their way onto the church grounds, phones buzzed again with an emergency notification: “Louisville Metro is now under curfew until 6:30 am. Please be heading home. ”

A police line stands behind a sign outlining the history of the First Unitarian Church, where protesters sought refuge in downtown Louisville [Chris Kenning/Al Jazeera]

Protesters used the restrooms and grabbed food and water. A loud commotion then ensued. “Oh s ***,” one protester said. Police marched down an alleyway towards the church where dozens stood crammed together. It was quickly apparent that the church was more or less surrounded, and protesters would be in for a long night.

Soon, whispers of “they got Attica” could be heard in the crowd. Nearby, police had arrested Attica Scott, Kentucky's only Black female state legislator.

“I did not understand what was happening,” Scott later told Al Jazeera. “It wasn't even nine o'clock yet,” she said. "They literally rushed us, 'yelled, circle them, circle them' so that we couldn't even get to our cars or across the street to the church for sanctuary."

There seems to be two justices in America: one for Black America and one for white America

Benjamin Crump, US civil rights lawyer representing the Taylor family

Scott, who did not march with the protesters, said she was walking near the church with her 19-year-old daughter and others when police encircled them. They were taken into custody and charged with first-degree rioting - a felony - along with failure to disperse and unlawful assembly, both misdemeanours, according to a police spokesman.

Police claim Scott and others “caused extreme damage at multiple locations including setting fire to the Louisville Public Library”, according to the citation shared by local arrest media - an allegation Scott dismissed as “frivolous”.

“It was clear that [police] were targeting leaders, ”she said, pointing to Shameka Parrish-Wright, the site manager of the Louisville Bail Project, and Donny Greene, the co-founder of Feed Louisville, who were arrested alongside Scott.

New legislation, more investment

Scott has been at the forefront of the recent protest movement since it began. Authoring a bill called “Breonna's Law”, she is now leading an effort at the state level to ban “no-knock” warrants like the one used the night Taylor was killed.

Pushing through this kind of legislation is one way Scott and other city and state leaders see a way forward for the movement. Scott said in addition to Breonna's Law, she and her colleagues are working on other initiatives, including legislation that would require independent investigations for police killings.

Activists have already seen some victories at the hyper-local level with a city-wide ban on “no-knock” warrants and other promised police reforms. But politicians, including Jecorey Arthur, who grew up and continues to live in one of Louisville's predominantly Black neighborhoods, say measures must go beyond police reforms.

The 28-year-old Democrat says when he takes his Metro Council seat in January, he will focus on economic development in the city's mostly-Black areas, including the West End. "The policies that I'm thinking about are wealth-building policies, so that we don't have to resort or don't feel like we need to resort to a life of crime, which of course attracts police to our neighborhoods," he told Al Jazeera. He also wants the city to allocate more funds to neighborhoods such as the West End that experience higher levels of poverty.

Back at the church on Thursday night, protesters agreed: without investment in the city's predominantly Black neighborhoods - which are the product of a long history of codified and informal segregation - true change would be impossible. “Come clean up the West End,” Jomikha McGee said as she and other protesters remained holed up at the church.

“Clean this s *** up. We need to do something, ”the 28-year-old told Al Jazeera, comparing the city's West End and downtown area to predominantly white areas of town. "This ain't right."

Protesting for 120 consecutive days, McGee says she is even more enraged now that she knows no police officers will face murder charges in Taylor's killing. McGee, like many activists, dismissed the idea that the officers were justified in firing back after one was hit. “I'm angry. I'm so mad because you know, it could have been me, ”she said. "It could have been my mama."

That rage pulsated throughout the church grounds as protesters shouted at police who stared on, helmet shields down, batons in hand. “How do you spell racist? LMPD, ”the crowd chanted.

Protesters gasped as they watched officers tackled a man who crossed the perimeter and load him into the back of a police transport truck. Organisers and church staff, meanwhile, negotiated with police to allow protesters to go without being arrested. "How can we believe them?" one protester asked, referring to the police.

As time went on, small groups of officers slowly left the area. At 10:57 pm, what appeared to be the last of the officers climbed onto truck beds and headed out - ending the two-hour standoff.

Turning anger into votes

At a news conference back in the sun-filled square the next morning, the tone shifted to one of demands and calls for action beyond protests and legislation.

Benjamin Crump, a prominent US civil rights lawyer representing the Taylor family, demanded that Cameron, the attorney general, release the full transcripts of the grand jury proceedings. “So we can know if anybody was giving a voice to Breonna Taylor,” Crump said as he spoke in front of a large mural of Taylor.

The lawyer said the three wanton endangerment charges stemmed from bullets that entered white neighbor's apartments, not Taylor's or other Black residents. "No wanton murder charges for the bullets that mutilated Breonna Taylor's body?" Crump asked, standing next to Taylor's mother, Tamika Palmer. "There seems to be two justices in America: one for Black America and one for white America."

In a statement read by Bianca Austin, Taylor's aunt, Palmer said: “I knew Cameron would never do his job. But what I do know is that him and countless others will go to bed sleeping with Breonna's face, still hearing her say her name. ”

Other speakers called for all the officers involved to be fired. “We will make this city as uncomfortable as it can be,” said activist Tamika Mallory. Crump urged people to turn their anger into votes. “If you were protesting for Breonna Taylor, if you signed a petition for Breonna Taylor, we need you to go sign a ballot and vote” in November, Crump said.

Following the more than one-hour news conference, just a small group of protesters along with some media remained. Among them was Bail Fund's Parrish-Wright, who had only gotten out of jail hours before.

Walking towards the Metro Corrections jail to check on a fellow activist who was also arrested on Thursday night, the 43-year-old said she is hopeful for the movement's future. “Even through all the trauma, and the continued aggressiveness from LMPD, I feel like I see a light in our youth being more activated,” Parrish-Wright told Al Jazeera, her voice full of energy, but eyes heavy from lack of sleep.

She said the youth will lead the movement as it moves forward. “We have to be led by our young people because even history tells us all of the major gains in the fight started with young people being bold, so we have to get behind it,” she said. “That's hope. This is hope in action. ”

That action was again on display on Friday evening - Day 121 of the protests - as the sun began to set.

A memorial for Breonna Taylor has been set up in Louisville [File: Bryan Woolston/Reuters]

Protesters again marched in downtown Louisville, at one point stopping at businesses they had not heeded demands to hire more Black workers. Police declared the march an "unlawful assembly" because people were walking in the street. They then set off two thunderous flashbang rounds to “get the crowd's attention”, a police spokesman said, and made two arrests before protesters eventually headed back to the square.

With less than an hour to go before curfew, a lull took over the park. One man said things would soon get “real different”, encouraging some to find a safe place. By 8:20 pm, 40 minutes before curfew, about two dozen of the remaining protesters marched towards the church they had sought refuge at the night before - this time with little police presence.

Within sight of the church, phones buzzed with an alert: “A curfew is beginning at 9pm… Please begin heading home.”

“Hello and welcome,” a former minister said, as the group reached the yard. There, a familiar call-and-response broke out between small groups. "Say her name… Breonna Taylor." How long they would be saying that name in Louisville's streets to win change, no one was certain.

#world Read full article: https://expatimes.com/?p=10935&feed_id=7456

[kheprrison-arts]

Paradise (Chapter Three)

part: 3/? Summary: Finally meeting up with an old friend, Shaundre begins to learn some new stuff almost immediately. A/N:-wheeze- Sorry this took a while. I work on one or two chapters for EoG then I work on one or two for this story and it’s actually working out. I’m glad I’ve been so motivated to work on these. Let’s hope it stays this way.

“I am taking the right road right?” I asked, glancing at Alex behind me in the back seat.

“I think so,” he said, holding his phone, “it’s taking a while to load.”

“Lord,” I sighed and continued anyway. I could easily hear the crumbling gravel under the tires of the car.

“We should’ve gotten a truck,” I heard Kris mumble.

“Hey,” I frowned playfully, “I got this car from my previous job before I met you. Be happy. It’s a good car.”

“It’s a tank.”

“Uh-huh,” I snorted.

“Yeah this is the right road. I think it leads straight to Ark’dor if that’s what we’re going for,” Alex said, turning his phone off and setting it in the seat beside him. He hooked his arms around the seat Kris sat in in front of him, receiving an amused look from her.

I pulled on the side of the road, making sure I wasn’t in the way of anyone. I wasn’t entirely expecting having to be held up like this.

“Honk your horn,” Alex said, leaning on Kris’s seat from the back, watching a couple small wyverns hiss and bark at us. I’ve always hated driving in Rak’our for just this reason and I’d rather not get scratches on this damned car.

“I’m getting out,” I said, leaning on Kris’s side and opening the glovebox, taking out my pistol and closing it before opening my door and jumping out. I made sure my pistol was loaded before quickly aiming at the small wyverns and shooting at their feet, the popping of the gun echoed throughout the mountain side along with the squeaking of the gray-blue Beasts. They were barely my height, in fact they only went up to my knees in height but their length was about half the length of my car. The wyvern’s squeaked and hissed, all lifting themselves in the air and spitting on the floors.

At least these ones aren’t as venomous as the ones in Bajiak.

I jumped back in the car, closing my door and putting my pistol back. “I didn’t know you had a gun in here, Dad,” Alex said.

“You can’t be too sure,” I said, “I even have a rifle under your seat.” I smiled when I glanced at Alex and his horrified face. “It’s loaded too,” I sneered playfully and looked at Kris beside me with a smirk. She only shook her head in silence and turned to watch outside her window.

I huffed and put the car back into drive, hitting the gas and driving back up the road. I’m glad no one came up this road and saw me shoot those wyverns. They would’ve killed me if they were native here.

“So what was your previous job?” Alex asked me. I don’t blame him, I hadn’t known him before becoming a detective. In fact I hadn’t known him till I started dating Kris.

“I was a hunter,” I responded, “more like a cop I guess but most of my time was spent hunting monsters and whatnot. I was rewarded with this car and a few guns when I retired.”

“Why’d you retire?” He asked.

“Uh,” I hummed, “more or less because I was better at being a detective than I was a shooter. Then I met your mother.”

“How cute,” Kris smiled.

“I’ve always hated driving up in the mountains,” I groaned, pulling in the driveway. “I didn’t even remember if this is the right place.”

“He sent me a picture,” Kris said, “it looks right.”

“I mean I thought it was pretty cool going up here,” Alex smiled, jumping out of the car. “In fact it was so beautiful on our way up.”

“Of course it was,” I smiled slightly, stepping out and closing the door. I locked it and heard Alex on the other side making sure it was locked.

“It is quite beautiful,” Kris mumbled, turning around to watch Vaemyth hovering just above the horizon. It was quite a beautiful scene; the vastness of Tailnrr shining against Vaemyth, the mountains reflecting its red and orange light while the sky shimmered with purples and oranges.

I walked up to her, wrapping my arms around her and resting my head on hers, watching Vaemyth slowly fall. “Not as beautiful as you.”

“Oh stop,” I heard behind me, a voice I haven’t heard in a long time. I let Kris go to see Platinum, an old friend of mine I met while hunting. I haven’t seen him in so long. “You’ve always made me sick, Shaundre,” he said with a frown, but I knew he was joking by the tone of his voice. Even if it’s extremely subtle.

“Hey, Plat, how’s it going,” I said with a smirk, watching his frown deepen. I faltered slightly when I noticed not only the age in his face but also the cybernetics covering the right half of his face and even his right arm and neck. Looking down I saw his right leg was also the same. The light of Vaemyth reflected off the silvery metal and even his new red eye. “What happened?”

“A war happened. It was quite a long time ago,” he said, moving his leg slightly while looking down at it. “I’m still not used to this.”

“A war? When?” I asked, dropping my smile.

“‘Bout a hundred years ago. If not that then more. I’ve seemed to have lost track of time since then,” he answered, looking back up at me and Kris who moved to stand next to me. Alex stayed by the car. “It’s good to see you’ve been safe since then.”

“Yeah.”

“So what do you need?” He asked, walking closer to me.

Kris grabbed the vial out from her pocket and handed it to him. “We wanted to know what this is. If you know that is.”

Platinum took the vial with his left, the black liquid immediately turning blue. Part of me felt like I knew why it turned that way. He shook the vial slightly, the blue turning even brighter and almost turning white and consuming the blackness of the substance.

“Uh,” he frowned, “where did this come from?”

“A dead body,” Kris said.

“Let’s… go inside. I’ll have a closer look at this,” Platinum said and closed his hand over the vial before turning and walking towards the front entrance of the house. “Selenite isn’t here right now,” he said when we had caught up, “He has a meeting with someone.”

“Who?” I asked.

Platinum only shrugged while he stood to let us in the house. “Make yourself at home. I suspect you’ll be staying for a few days.”

“For a few weeks,” Kris corrected. “If it has to take that long.”

Platinum nodded and led us to the living room after closing the door. He sat on the couch by the end and waved off at the rest of us. We all took our seats while he explained what he believed we discovered.

“It looks like you’ve come across an attack in a civilian in krescent. I assume,” he paused, continuing when Kris and I nodded. “I’m pretty sure a monster did this. Which one would be the question… I think it’s something from Jayle as most creatures from that lake tend to rise up insane.”

“How could something come from the Jayle and move all the way south like that?”

“Not sure.” He shrugged, “there is an island there. If it was a monster it could’ve been a land dweller. You have pictures?”

“Yeah,” I mumbled and turned my phone on, scrolling through my camera roll and handing him the device when I found the picture. “I took a few before we left.”

“That’s… disgusting,” he frowned. “I didn’t expect to see that. That’s definitely a monster.”

“You would know?” I smirked.

“I own a dragon, Shaundre, I think I know what a dragon attack looks like.”

“You… do?” I asked, cocking my head slightly. I would’ve thought he knew what one looked like because of his experience in hunting, not because he was partners with a dragon.

He gave a confirming hum and handing me my phone back. He took out the vial again and examined it. “Although I’ve never think I’ve seen this kind of substance before, but if it’s from a monster in Jayle I’m sure it’s some sort of venom as most of them are venomous.”

“Sounds fun,” I mumbled, turning my head to look at Kris beside me. She looked like she was deep in thought.

“But I doubt it’s something serious,” he shrugged and handed me the vial.

“You say that,” I said, “and it’s going to be something serious.”

He shrugged again and watched as I handed Kris the vial, when she took it the blue in the liquid dimmed and turned black again.

“Intriguing,” he mumbled. “I didn’t expect it to turn from the touch of a god. I thought it was merely a coincidence.”

“Yeah,” I agreed, “I didn’t think it’d turn so bright from your touch, seeing as it turned a slight blue from mine.”

He sat for a second, staring at me. I assume he was thinking as he stared blankly with his silvery eye. “I see,” he mumbled and stood, walking over to his desk and grabbed his phone that had been sitting there. “Excuse me for a second,” he said as he walked over to the front door and left, closing it after him.

“Is everything okay?” Alex asked quietly. I didn’t answer but instead stood up and walked over to the door and set my hand on the handle. I could just barely hear Platinum speaking on the other side. He seemed to try and conceal his voice and it would working very well if I didn’t have sensitive ears.

“I wouldn’t be expecting to either,” he said, “but I do think it’s something you need to check on… especially with… you know… thank you.”

“What’s up?” Kris asked when I walked back.

“I have no idea who he was talking to,” I mumbled, sitting back down next to her. She wrapped her arms around one of mine and rested her head on my shoulder.

Platinum returned, closing the front door with a click. “Shaundre,” he said. “I need to speak with you for a minute.” He almost had a solemn look on his face, but part of me felt he was determined or relieved. He’s a very confusing man I’d have to say.

He led me to the kitchen and I wondered why he didn’t just bring me outside. “What do you need?” I asked.

He stood close to me, almost close enough to where we’d be breathing the same air. I sharply swallowed on my breath when he spoke in a deep whisper. “I had to call Aeregele, and he will be here to test you. You will be staying with him and I will help Kris with your case.”

“Why did you call him?” I frowned deeply, narrowing my eyes I had no idea who Aeregele was. I’m familiar with the name, in fact the main city of Krescent is named Aergele and I’m sure that’s named after him. But who is he anyways? Why have I never met him if he’s so important to call?

“Because I believe there are certain substances that are able to detect divine blood, but they’re extremely rare,” he explained, “in fact there are blades known to have metal that’s infused with this substance and they are the only materials capable of fatally injuring all gods. I believe you have found such a substance and that it’s reacting to your blood.” He paused, closing his eyes for a minute. “Although because the reaction is weak compared to mine, I believe you are a hybrid.”

“Hybrid?” I repeated, “How?”

“Maybe from heritage,” he said, “a demigod born from heritage isn’t uncommon. But one untested by Aeregele is. Then we will see where you truly belong.”

I took a step back, starting to feel somewhat uncomfortable with him so close to me. His good eye blinked slowly, almost like a feline. I started to become creeped out when I realized that only one eye blinks while the other stays open.

“Each test is different for every god. You might get a brutal fight, or you might have to come up with a strategic solution to certain events. Whatever he’s in the mood for,” he said and stepped back as well.

I hummed.

“He’s here,” Platinum said and walked out of the kitchen. Shortly after I heard him ask, “anyone wanna meet the god of gods?”

When I came into the living room I saw Alex jump up from his seat with a happy yes, his puffy tail wagging excitedly. Kris chuckled and stood up. Platinum lead Alex outside the house with him while Kris waited for me to approach her.

“What’s all this about?” She asked.

“Apparently I need to be tested by Aeregele,” I said, “because I guess I’m part god?”

She cocked her head but shook it off and walked over to the front door. “I knew something was up with you,” she smiled and held the door for me.

“Uh huh,” I hummed and walked out, hearing the click of the door shortly after.