#this is my first time drawing a wheelchair so i hope it looks ok !!!!!

[creativesparkz]

tried making a human design for scag :] i think she looks cuuuteeee

[slitherbop]

.......Any papastuck hcs?

THANK YOU for giving me an excuse to publicly ramble about PAPA G AND CHUCK beware of Spoilers within ALSO HERE’S A PIC happy valentines day

When they met and Chuck was still Stuck in the floor, like Post-Chicken-Feed-Missing-Scene, Chuck would be RUDE as HELL to Papa G. But Papa G took it as realizing he’s just A Guy and was like AH MAYBE I SHOULDA BEEN GIVIN HIM REAL FOOD and then he does that, but Chuck is still a bastard to him. Not to The Kid’s knowledge tho, he only found out that Papa G knew about Chuck’s existence in the second episode like we saw.

Papa G literally just looked at Chuck and how Evil he was being at the beginning and was like OH YES WE CAN BE FRIENDS I LIKE THIS GUY cuz he DID save him and want him to be redeemed and have the last ring to be on the team... Papa G’s Immediate Trust.. like if u agree

I like to imagine that Papa G actually did have da iced tea with Chuck to get to know him :] this was Post-Chuck-getting-Cut-in-Half. Papa G is Very Curious about Chuck but Chuck’s still a rude little man at this point and Papa G laughs off his behaviour. Papa G might be f*cked up enough that he does enjoy his company, bad vibes and all

Chuck has NO idea what to make of Papa G here because no one else has ever shown him kindness or wasn’t annoyed at him. It doesn’t stop him from being a force of negativity though cuz at this point he still Believes he’s going to conquer the earth.

This ended up being like a timeline of their relationship and not relationship headcanon UUHH OOPS!!!!!

OK, Chuck actually likes that he calls him Charles it’s the special name :]

I’m prepared to be proven wrong but it would be epic if Chuck started calling Papa G “George” because he was there to hear that that is his first name and Papa G like with Tuna Sandwich doesn’t mind being called it, it’s just his name. Also George is my real name and I’d love to hear Chuck say. Also Also George and Charles are gay old man names

Uh oh I’m talking more about timeline stuff but some time after the events of the big showdown and they’re dealing with the fact that Chuck is deciding to stay here on earth, Papa G and The Kid make him his own living space there in the junkyard with them. Not sure where or what it’d look like but it means a lot to Chuck (makes this face -> 🥺) I’d imagine since his species aren’t given their own names / have individuality he wasn’t given a space of his own to do whatever he wanted with

Since they no longer have the rings, Chuck helps Papa G as an extra hand doing work in the yard (Papa G had to get used to doing stuff without being his own company :[ ) and Chuck ACTUALLY LOVES HELPING imagine that one scene where Papa G and Chuck are working together to build the ice cream megaphone truck, they’re both really skilled at building stuff and enjoy it so it’s like that pretty often!

I swear to god Papa G needs to get Chuck a wheelchair / make him one, I want to believe that he does have one and we just didn’t see it at the end of the time skip -_- :prayer: but they totally deck it the hell out (you KNOW Papa G is capable of making deadly death machines and you KNOW Chuck would absolutely love that sh*t!!!!)

Anyway back to the time skip relationship development thing: PAPA G SHOWS CHUCK AROUND HIS HOUSE I wish we knew what inside the house looked like besides the kitchen sink lol but Papa G figured if he’s gonna be around here more often he might as well show him where HE lives! Papa G is SUPER excitedly showing him all the weird stuff he’s accumulated over his lifetime. Chuck doesn’t Get the specialness of physical possessions and calls it Junk but Papa G doesn’t mind! He shows things and Chuck is confused about certain things (being an Alien) and Papa G is happy to explain everything to him.

Papa G shares Chuck his art and is showing him painting ;_; once again Chuck is a bastard and doesn’t totally get it. Papa G would definitely call HIM an artist, pointing out that all the building that Chuck does is artwork, those comics that he spent all that time reading was him appreciating the art, and that changes the way he views it. Chuck makes his own dam comics, I’d imagine the way he’d draw is very unique and the text is written in his language, and then it’s Papa G who doesn’t totally get it but is ENTHUSIASTIC ABOUT IT!!!

Also Papa G totally takes Chuck out to the middle of nowhere to go look for junk, this is probably Chuck’s Least Favourite Activity LOL but they do spend a lot of time talking about anything, I’m really curious about what the kind of things they’d even say when they’re not faced with any threat and are only with each other *looks up at the sky in thought..*

Chuck please go off about your previous life away from earth I feel like as soon as he came here he kinda just accepted himself being Stuck Chuck and therefore had no attachment to being a nameless body in an alien army. Also Papa G please open up about your messed up secret history that warranted the government keeping tabs on you and made you live almost completely isolated.

See^ I think whatever they got going on on a DEEP LEVEL could be wild and would have so much to unravel, Chuck’s life before this was probably just 90% seeing various people DIE and was simply made to Kill people for his leader. And. you KNOW Papa G has something Messed Up about him + Is Traumatized / got “bad flashbacks” + the whole seeing himself die and being numb to it. And now that they are people who are trying to save lives on their team they could Relate to each other as the two older guys with UNKNOWN HISTORY!!!!

UUUUH OK SO SHIP HEADCANONS RIGHT. RIGHT. They hold hands :] they rarely kiss it’s mostly Papa G who kisses Chuck on the face but Chuck is forbidden from kissing unless Papa G wants to go to sleep. Also Chuck likes to be held by Papa G, they hug a lot :D Papa G takes Chuck out to the diner and gets him everything he wants <3 they go to the house and watch movies and Kid joins them too as a family ;_; Papa G goes to sleep in his god forsaken hammock with Chuck, and Chuck is like So This Is Your Weird-Ass Cocoon Huh and Papa G is like HAHA YUP and its sweet.

I’m gonna end this here thank you for reading, this is the kinda stuff I ramble on and on like this in private but I hope u enjoy some of my thoughts about this I think it’s a genius ship with so much potential and is my favourite thing right now THANKS

[intubatedangel]

Cold Snap: Chapter 7

Story Index - All my stories in one place.

Chapter 1 |  Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 |  Chapter 5 | Chapter 6

***

As soon as the camera angle changed, presumably someone in the news control room had realised they were showing a possibly dead woman under intensive CPR and had cut away, Anna and Carl started to get prepared. Carl called out for his team to join him in Trauma 4, the other rooms already claimed by those doctors who were scheduled for today. There was fewer of them than normal, a few of the nurses already occupied with minor injuries or the other trauma rooms. Zainab was also occupied by the cubicles, sheer practicality making her more useful with the minor injuries that don't need a fully qualified emergency doctor to double-check.

Anna and Carl were joined by Kirstie, Roger, and Trish. It would be enough for now; they could also call for additional help if they needed it when their patient arrived. Carl looked at them, figuring out a plan.

"We all saw what we're dealing with. Cold water drowning, clearly no pulse. Don't expect it to be any different when they arrive here. Our priorities are maintaining artificial circulation and oxygenation while we warm her up. We need to go fast, but careful. The last thing we need is to trigger rewarming collapse. Kirstie, I want you get in touch with Cardio-thoracics and with Nephrology, I want an ECMO or a dialysis machine, both can heat her blood directly, so either will do. We'll also need warmed saline, a lot of it Roger, I want to get a warmed gastric lavage going as soon as we can and depending on her temperature, we may need to consider a thoracic lavage too."

Anna cringed slightly at that. A thoracic lavage would involve sticking tube through their patient’s chest wall. It was brutal, but effective. Carl was continuing.

"Anna, Trish, get the temperature vest set up too, warm her from inside and out. Remember everyone, we have time. We do not give up until she is warm, understood?" The team all nods. "Ok, let’s get ready people." Carl finished, the others all going about their tasks. Trish went to get the temperature vest from Trauma 1, giving Anna a few moments alone with Carl.

"You sound confident." Anna told him as they stepped out of the way of the others.

He shrugged. "We have every reason to be. We have the equipment, the skills, and the circumstances favour us. Cold water drowning discovered almost instantly? It's not a guarantee, but in our line of work? It's the best damn odds we could ask for." He looked at her seeing her far off gaze. "Are you doing ok?" He asked.

She nodded slowly, then looked back at him, with a sharper nod. "Yeah. Just doing what you said." Her voice went quieter, just between the two of them. "Accepting it. Using it."

Carl nodded slowly. "Ok. Let me know if it gets too much. You can take a step back if you need to." He told her, keeping his own voice quiet.

Anna slipped her hand into his and they gave a mutual squeeze. Then, Trish came into the room with the bulky vest and Anna went to help her. They laid it on the trauma bed, spread open, ready and waiting for them. To Anna it looked inviting, and she couldn't help but wonder what it would be like to be wrapped up in it. At this point she would normally feel ashamed and try to bury the thought. This time, she didn't try to eradicate it. Instead, she filed it away. Something to think about later, maybe...even do later. She thought back to her unit on psychology during nursing school. Using rewards to encourage behaviour. If they succeeded, she would ask Carl if he could 'tinker' with one over the rest of the weekend, they were his experiment after all, maybe they could be her reward.

She shook her head, dispelling the fantasy and disguising the small smile on her face, as if she were trying to shake a stray lock of hair out of her eyes while she was setting the control panel on the pump unit, which they had hooked to the end of the bed. The had just finished arranging the hoses so they wouldn't be an obstruction when a receptionist stuck her head into the trauma room.

"We just got a 2-minute warning on the casualty." She announced.

"Thanks" Carl dismissed her, looking to the rest of his team. Kirstie was still on the phone in the corner, and she shrugged at Carl's questioning look. "Keep trying, everyone else, let's get out front."

* * *

Lucy kept on rocking her body weight forward and backward, keeping her shoulders and elbows locked, hands planted between Shona's pale breasts. Each time she leant forward, her hands pressed down the drowned young woman’s sternum 2 inches, squeezing Shona's stopped heart, pushing blood out of it and around her body. When Lucy rocked backwards, Shona's ribs sprang back also, releasing the pressure on her heart and allowing it to refill with blood.

Lucy did this over and over and over again, keeping the blood flowing. Keeping hope alive.

She'd heard the driver call out the minute warning. She was aware of Dave hooking things to the gurney and moving around her. She was also aware of the burning in her arms, the lead weight feeling of lactic acid build up. It was a long, excruciating minute. But Lucy never faltered. Shona's ribs bent inwards 100 times in that minute. Each perfect compression forced her abdomen to roll and her shoulders to pop. Her feet swayed and her head bobbed as the force of the compressions translated through her body. It was brutal, what her body was enduring. But that brutality was the only chance she had.

Lucy felt the entire ambulance tilt as it swung into the hospital grounds, felt the inertia tugging her as the brakes squealed and brought the ambulance to a stop. She ignored it all, maintaining her compressions until she saw the blur out the corner of her eye as Anna mounted the gurney, straddling Shona's unresponsive body. Just like they had done two days ago, and so many times before, Anna gave a short countdown before Lucy drew back her hands, Anna planted her own, and Shona's chest continued to be compressed.

The gurney was pulled from the back of the ambulance, Dave squeezing the Ambu-bag regularly, and was rushed towards the emergency entrance. Lucy let them go. She dropped onto the bench, flexing her aching fingers and breathing deeply to pay off the oxygen debt. She shook her arms out, then looked at the man beside her. Jones was still wrapped tightly in the blanket and was staring out after the gurney that had already disappeared around a corner and vanished from sight.

"Come on Jones, you need to get to checked over." She told him, dragging herself to her feet. She helped him from the back of the ambulance, despite the exhaustion she was feeling, and led him toward the entrance. An observer would have struggled to tell which was helping the other, and Lucy was grateful to the porter who ran over with a wheelchair, easing Jones into it before she pushed him into the busy triage area, leaning heavily on the handles herself.

* * *

 The wind had eased to a stiff breeze, though it still cut straight through you, in the hour since Shona had fatefully boarded the now sunk Beetle. Yet, none of the team that had assembled outside the sliding door was shivering. Their collective adrenaline rush banished the cold. There was a tension, but it was that invigorating kind of tension, rather than a panic fuelled one. They knew they were up to the task. Their determination was written all over their faces. So, they stood, filled with an anticipation that grew in intensity as the sirens of the ambulance grew louder. Like the legendary warrior, calmly waiting to enter an arena, their own kind of battle was about to begin, and they radiated the same serenity. The same clarity of purpose. The same capacity to spring into action at a moment’s notice.

The siren reached a crescendo, with an accompaniment of squealing tires, as the ambulance pulled into the emergency bay. Anna waited a beat, then stepped forward, giving Roger and Trish just enough time to pull open the rear doors of the ambulance, before she planted her foot on the step, lined herself up, and vaulted onto the gurney. Her knees made the metallic blanket crinkle as she landed softly and shuffled her knees forward. She gave the countdown, and as soon as Lucy's hands left the patients sternum, Anna snapped hers into position.

Even through her blue gloves, Anna could feel just how cold the young woman was. Her ghostly pale skin seemed to pull the warmth out of Anna's hands in an instant. It did not deter the nurse. She began her initial round of compressions. The first press was firm and harsh, to gauge the resistance of her patient’s chest, then those that followed were perfectly judged, pushing in the ideal two inches and drawing back fully in under a second. The gurney moving beneath her had no effect on Anna. She was in her zone. This, this was what she was born to do, and nothing, internal or external, could disturb her rhythm as she put all her effort into delivering the best chest compressions she could to the young woman who lay pulseless between her legs.

As she settled into her task, she became more aware of what was going on around her. She heard the whistling of the flatlined monitor, and she heard Carl say something loudly. He was clearly asking for details, as Anna began to hear the response from the paramedic who was pushing the gurney with one hand, while he squeezed the Ambu-bag that was connected to a breathing tube with the other.

"This is Shona. Trapped and immersed in near freezing water. Immersion resulted in asphyxiation via drowning. Due to the water temperature she's profoundly hypothermic, skin temperature of just 23C. She's been in respiratory and cardiac arrest for between 18 and 25 minutes, confirmed asystole for 5 of those, but likely much longer.  Resuscitation attempts started 14 minutes ago, with no response. She also has a closed fracture to her left tibia. We cleared her lungs and intubated 8 minutes ago, applied chemical heat packs and warmed saline as much as we could. Throughout she's had a palpable pulse with compressions, so major internal bleeding is unlikely."

Carl nodded through the report, and Anna knew he was taking in everything, filing it away in his mind, able to recall every detail at a moment’s notice, to the point that the chart Roger was making notes on would be for later doctors, not for the ER team. At the edges of her vision Anna saw black tarmac turn into the marble effect veneered flooring that ran through the ER and almost every other hospital, school and government building in the western world. During those moments Carl was processing what he had been told, and then he began to give orders.

"Right, let's carry on as planned. Get her into Trauma 4 and get her in the TMV. I want a central line in addition to those bilateral IVs, and I want wide bore access in one of her legs, ready for extracorporeal warming. Let's get an NG tube inserted too, bi-directional for the gastric lavage. Let's get a core temp before we consider surgical intervention though." Carl briefly held his fingers against Shona's femoral pulse point, his wrist resting against Anna's calf. "Good pulse with compressions Anna, keep it up, but let's also get a Lucas ready, this could be a long one people!" He said, a tone to his voice that instilled confidence and re-doubled their determination.

They were going to get their patient back. Shona, Anna reminded herself, looking at the girl beneath her, forcing her name into the front of her mind.  She had a cute face, even with pale skin and blue lips, that much was clear. The tape holding the ET tube also pulled at the corner of her mouth, forming a grimace, as though she could feel each brutal compression that Anna delivered.  Not that Anna was deterred. She was going to do everything she could to get Shona back. To see those lips pink instead of blue. Smiling instead of a forced grimace. She wasn't alone in those thoughts. The whole team was feeling the same way as they guided the gurney into the Trauma Wing and crashed through the doors into Trauma 4.

[rotationalsymmetry]

Hello! I hope you’re doing well. I saw your post about UUs and I myself am one as well! I was wondering if maybe you could explain some of the issues there are in UU congregations so I can better understand what’s going on. I can’t change much, but I’d like to know what can be improved and how I can better use my privilege. Thank you :)

Hi there. Thanks for reaching out. I think. Oof. Are you sure you want to ask this? I don’t have a really straightforward “here’s precisely what Unitarian Universalism needs to do to improve (broken down into concrete, realistic steps!)” I have a whole tangle of feelings and personal biases and incredibly subjective experiences. OK? All right. With that disclaimer out of the way. Eh, actually, more disclaimer: all institutions have problems. There are things that Unitarian Universalism does better than most other religious institutions. There’s a reason I was going off about what I like about UU before what I dislike. This is not saying that Unitarian Universalism is bad. OK?

Putting in a cut because this is long:

Unitarian Universalism has an ongoing, well-known problem around being kind of fuzzy around what it is and what it wants to be. Do we draw on multiple faiths, and if so what does that look like in practice? Are we Christianity lite? Are we basically a bunch of secular humanists who like to get together and sing sometimes? How far exactly does (or should) our tolerance stretch?

Unitarian Universalism has a whiteness issue and a class issue. Now, I’m white, so the race part isn’t mainly coming from my own experience. There’s something I’ve seen that sums it up well, but I can’t find it right now. Basically: there’s a bit of a tendency for UU’s to nominally want to more diverse congregations, but when a new person of color shows up, sometimes they get treated kind of...weirdly. Like they’re not one of us and not going to be.

a bit more on UU and race here: x

And, class wise, I was raised middle class, but I’ve been broke for an awful lot of my adulthood and a lot of the people I know in my generation (Millenials) are broke/struggling financially. So when the lead minister of my congregation made some random comment about having trouble attracting young people because church and brunch with friends are competing for the same time slot. I thought of a young adult in the congregation who was active in the youth group but couldn’t make it to Sunday worship because he had to work on Sundays. And the time one of my coworkers got a promotion at my workplace, and definitely she was competent and I don’t begrudge her getting it, but also she ended up working an awful lot of Sundays and that was very likely a factor in her getting the promotion. And I’d been trying to avoid pledge drive Sunday for years because it always, every time, made me feel like I wasn’t really welcome if I couldn’t contribute much financially, even when I was contributing a great deal of my time. This is subjective and it could mostly be an issue with my then congregation. But I don’t think it is.

While Unitarian Universalism likes to think of itself as trans friendly, and it’s certainly much friendlier than some denominations, sometimes it drops the ball. Here’s an apology for an article about trans people that centered a cis person’s perspective and had some other issues: x

Anecdotally, subjectively, etc: this is an issue across the board. Unitarian Universalism’ self-image and what the organization actually is has a substantial gap. I attended a few workshops at GA this year, and: on the surface, great! So many workshops on such great anti-oppressive topics! But...when I actually went to the workshops, it was unsatisfying. It felt very introduction-ish. Maybe that was on purpose. But...I was hoping for better. 

Super anecdotally: UU’s tend to forget that disabled people exist. UU’s tend to not support disabled people and parents of disabled children.

Back to the “are we Christianity Lite?” thing. I dropped out of seminary. One part of thatwas this: x  Another was that at the time (it’s apparently since changed) the MFC requirements (uh, this is getting a bit technical: congregations ordain ministers, but in practice fellowshipping is important as well, and that’s what the MFC does, basically it’s saying other UU ministers think you should be a UU minsiter) prioritized knowledge about Christianity and the Bible over knowledge of other religions, even though nominally Unitarian Universalism is not Christian and Christianity isn’t especially prioritized in our Six Sources. As someone who is not Christian and didn’t expect my future ministry to involve a lot of Bible talk and really didn’t think prioritizing knowledge of the Bible among our religious leaders was good for the denomination as a whole, this bothered me. A lot. (For what it’s worth, most Starr King classes were actually really good at not doing this.) (The classes that did, though, made me want to tear my hair out. And made me wonder if this denomination I was studying to be a minister in, was the same as the denomination I’d participated in as a lay person for years.)

This is hard to put into words. But: sometimes people will say they believe a thing, but their follow-through is bad. Or they say one thing but act another way -- not because they’re lying, but because what they believe on the surface hasn’t been fully internalized. This is, anecdotally etc, a really common issue in Unitarian Universalism.

More super anecdotal etc: UU’s need to break the habit of seeing RE as daycare, and worship services that involve kids as being about showing off the kids to the adults. I took a quick look at you and it says you’re 18, so if you grew up UU you probably have your own opinions on this. But...sometimes the adult congregation and the kids’/youth programs are entirely separate worlds, and that’s not healthy for congregations.

YMMV: I’m not a huge fan of approaches to worship that involve sitting passively for most of the service. If the worship is going to be the same whether you’re there or not, why bother showing up? (Obviously some congregations are more like this than others, and apparently some people like the “lecture and a concert” format?? I’m not one of them.)

Basically, I think UU’s need to work on connection more and mutual support of each other more. While I approve of the social justice focus of course, social justice starts at home. You need to support the people who are actually in your congregation. I moved a year and a half ago, and haven’t joined my local congregation. Why? Because my illness makes it almost impossible to go anywhere in the mornings, and while they livestreamed each worship service, before the pandemic (presumably it’s all zoom worship now), there was zero effort to actually include anyone watching the livestream. Not so much as a PDF of the order of service. No verbal acknowledgement that some people aren’t present in the room. Nothing. (Side note: I tried one worship service at a “normal” congregation after the pandemic started, and all the mourning of not being able to be together in person was extremely frustrating to me, since I hadn’t been able to attend in person worship before the pandemic either. No one was thinking of people like me, and it was really, really obvious. I’ve since joined Church of the Larger Fellowship.) You say you want to use your privilege. That’s great! Some thoughts.

Trans people: How’s your congregation on pronouns? If your congregation uses nametags, can you push to normalize people putting their pronouns on nametags? What’s the bathroom situation: is it clear that trans women (whether you currently have any trans women in your congregation or not) can use the women’s bathroom? Is there a unisex bathroom that non-binary people and binary people who don’t feel safe using “their” bathroom can use? Also: a lot of older people weren’t raised with this and never really caught up, (and tbf some young people are ignorant too) so there’s a need for some trans 101 education.

Disability: for zoom worship, is there closed captioning for people who have hearing impairments or language processing issues? For live worship, what’s being done to make sure deaf and hard of hearing people are included? What’s being done for blind people (eg, electronic copies of the order of service being available for people who are blind but have screen readers?) For people who just have a little trouble seeing, are there large-print orders of service? What about the agendas for committee meetings and so on? This doesn’t have a quick fix, but are there places in your congregation that can’t be reached in a wheelchair? What about the chancel? (ie that area that the minister and whoever else is leading worship is speaking from?) Is there a wheelchair-accessible entrance that’s open during worship but closed during other programming?

How’s ministry to people who are sick or injured or just too old to get out much? And: is that support available to newer or prospective members, or only people who contributed to the congregation first? How available is information on how to get that kind of support: is it a thing where only some people are in the know, or is there outreach?

Are there unspoken rules about who’s the “right kind” of person to be in the congregation and who isn’t?

Sexual harassment, abuse, etc: is there a clear way to report sexual harassment? Does everyone know what it is? Does the congregation have a policy for what happens if a congregant is accused of sexual abuse? If a minister is? What's the congregation’s child abuse prevention policy? Do the people who work/volunteer with kids know what to do if a child or teen reports abuse to them? Are they screened in any way?

What accommodations does RE make for special needs children? If a child needs one on one assistance, does the RE program force the parent to provide that assistance if the child is to be part of the program?

What’s the policy on support animals? (these days: what’s the policy on emotional support animals?) How are the needs of people with allergies or other issues with dogs etc, balanced with the needs of people who benefit from support animals? (This can be tricky, I’m not saying there’s a clear right/wrong here, but it’s something that can make a congregation inaccessible.)

I don’t know the details on this, but I know sensory issues can be a problem for some people, eg flickering overhead lights. Scents can be an issue for some people, one possible solution is to have part of the sanctuary marked scent-free, dunno how well that plays out in practice.)

Representation: who’s speaking up during worship, and what are they speaking about? Something to be aware of.

Us/Them language: especially relevant if you’re speaking to the congregation during worship, but important in casual coffee hour chat too: who’s “us” and who’s “them”? Do people in your congregation tend to talk about, say, people below the poverty line as “them”? Homeless people? Black people? Immigrants?

Finding ways of making small talk that aren’t “what do you do for a living?”

I haven’t said anything about racism yet; a lot of congregations have some sort of anti-racist discussion group or something? Those things are good; there’s only so much they do by themselves, but as part of a larger whole, they’re important. Also, presence at Black Lives Matter protests, putting up a Black Lives Matter banner or sign if your congregation hasn’t done that, stuff like that.

Oh, culture and music and stuff. What kind of music gets played. Congregations that have made a specific attempt to be multiracial often find it’s necessary to do a lot of hashing out of what the music is going to be like.

And there’s a representation aspect to who gets quoted.

Small Group Ministry/Covenant groups: my former congregation liked to ask what your demographic info is and then split things up for “diversity” purposes. This is actually a really bad idea. In a congregation that’s mostly white, it means that often the non-white people end up being the only non-white person in their groups. Great for white people who want to “experience diversity”, but not so great for actual poc. My congregation had enough queer people that it wasn’t one queer person per group, but I could see that maybe happening in other places. And I think it did tend to separate out trans people into separate groups.

Cultural appropriation/cultural misappropriation: uff. I think some people go off the deep end on this. But, some things to consider. If the congregation is doing something to celebrate a Jewish holiday, is it run by someone who is Jewish or is of Jewish heritage? Stuff like that. Sometimes Unitarian Universalists’ desire to be all multicultural and interfaith and stuff, leaves out important things like “is this part of the culture that it’s ok for outsiders to share?” and “are we actually in relationship with this group of people?” And “are we cherry picking messages from sacred texts that we like, and leaving out the stuff we don’t like, when it’s not our sacred text and we don’t have enough context to do that respectfully?” x for overview and in more detail x

Also RE: is this Native American story one that it’s actually OK for us to tell? I’m not necessarily suggesting you go over what other people are doing, but if you’re teaching RE yourself, you get a say in what you teach.

If you happen to be a UU pagan or there’s a CUUPS group at your congregation that you sometimes participate in, there’s kind of a ton of work about untangling cultural appropriation in specifically pagan spaces, honestly I don’t know where to start with that. Don’t put that on yourself if you’re not part of that kind of group though, focus on groups you are part of.

Land acknowledgements.

Oftentimes if someone brings up an issue that requires work to change it, especially a younger person, the people who get stuff done are going to be, “ok, that sounds like work, we’ve already got a ton on our plate so are you going to do it?” So, if you offer to do some of the work of running the congregation, you’ll be in a better place to implement these sorts of changes. (I know a lot of times older adults don’t want to trust young adults with responsibility, so it might take some time to earn trust.) But also some are things you can just do: like you can say your pronouns every time you introduce yourself or put your pronouns on disposable nametags, if you’re comfortable with it.

General advice: you don’t have to (and shouldn’t try to) change everything at once. Be aware of a lot of things and be willing to be a “follower” on a lot of things. Signing petitions, saying “yes, that sounds like a good idea,” stuff like that. Be a leader on a small, manageable number of things. Maybe see what other people in your congregation are already doing that seems like a step in the right direction, and see how you can support that. Some of what UU’s are already doing is already really good, and most likely there’s already people around you who want Unitarian Universalism to act in closer alignment with its ideals.

[nkp1981]

Yusuf meets a man under a stack of books!!

Disclaimer: My first Yusuf/Nicolo fic as normal people:

Nicolo considered to take a stool to reach the book, who laid at top of a big stack of books, but because he had the habit of getting distracted, he took the chance and stood up on the box next to him.

At the same moment Yusuf locked himself into the building. He emptied his mailbox and started to read an article in his magazine as he walked up the stairs. When he reached the second floor, he heard someone scream and big bang in the apartment to his left. First his thought was just to ignore it and get something to eat, but when he heard someone shout, he knocked on the door.

“Yeah!” Nicolo shouted, while he started to move books, so he could get up. “Are you ok?” Yusuf asked and walked into the apartment, that had books, clothes, shoes and other things laying all over the places in different stacks and was pitch-black in most of the rooms except the living room. “I actually think that Plato was trying to kill me for a moment.” Nicolo replied and looked at the book in his hands. “No, I was wrong. It was Caligula.” Nicolo added with a laughter in his voice after reading the title of the book and held it up in front Yusuf, who scratched his beard, while he thought that the man on the floor had eyes he had never seen before. It was like looking at the ocean. “Can you stand?” Yusuf wanted to know and offered him a hand, but when Nicolo put pressure on his foot, he felt the pain and grabbed at the edge of an unstable table which resulted in them both getting a stack of books in the head. “Sorry, that you just got hit by German literature. Are you ok?” Nicolo wanted to know and gave him a smile with a sorry look in his eyes. “Well, now I can say, I have been to Germany.” Yusuf replied dried, which resulted in Nicolo started to laugh and soon after Yusuf also had to give in. “I’m sorry. Maybe it’s about time, I start to make new stacks.” Nicolo said and grabbed a couple of books. “That has to wait.” Yusuf said and threw the first sweater at him, he saw. “Why?” Nicolo wanted to know and looked confused. “You need to have that foot checked.” Yusuf replied and helped him up again, but this time Yusuf took his hand to prevent more books falling on them. “That can wait until tomorrow. I got a paper to write.” Nicolo protested heavily and looked at his desk. “The paper will still be there tomorrow.” Yusuf said and started to direct him towards the door thinking that he had never met anyone like him. “My editor might disagree with you. I’m already four days over the deadline.” Nicolo protested when they stood out in the hallway. “Then you can give him my number.” Yusuf said and closed the door with a bang. “What’s the face for?” Yusuf wanted to know. “I don’t have a key for that door.” Nicolo replied and leaned up against the wall. “You mean it is inside the apartment? We just call a locksmith when we are back.” Yusuf said and took around Nicolo’s waist to help down the stairs. “No, I mean, I don’t have a key. Lost it years ago, so I usually use a piece of paper to wedge between the lock and the door.” Nicolo replied and opened the front door for them. “You are a strange man.” Yusuf just said as he helped Nicolo into the taxi. “Takes one to know one.” Nicolo replied with a smile. “I’m Yusuf.” Yusuf said and held out his hand. “Nicolo.” Nicolo replied and took his hand with a smile.

Yusuf could easily have left Nicolo at the Emergency because he normally didn’t like being around people, but he actually liked being around Nicolo. He made Yusuf smile in a way; he had never tried before. “So, you know a bit about me, so tell me a bit about yourself.” Nicolo said with his journalistic eagerness, when he had found a good story and turned the wheelchair around, so he could look at Yusuf. “Not much to tell. New to the town, been here a couple of weeks and ignoring my mother’s phone calls.” Yusuf replied and scratched his curls, which Nicolo found unbelievably cute. “Then welcome to the town my family is named after. And before you ask why, it has to do with that an ancestor of mine got a moment of megalomania about what he thought was an important building here in Genova and decided to take the name after the city. Three days after he died, they destroyed the building, but the name stocked.” Nicolo explained and made a face when his foot hit the table leg and dropped the icepack on the floor, which Yusuf picked up and placed it back on the foot. “Thanks.” Nicolo said grateful and gave him another smile. “So, what do you else spend the day with beside ignoring your mother?” Nicolo asked out of curiosity. “I had hoped to find something that could inspire my art, but I’m still looking.” Yusuf replied and stood up to get some water from the water dispenser. “You helped me, so when my editor has gotten my article, I’ll show you something that will inspire you.” Nicolo promised and gave Yusuf a smile that told him that Nicolo would keep his word.

A couple of days later Nicolo stood outside the building on the crutches waiting for Yusuf, who was on his way home from work. “Hey you.” Yusuf said with a smile and jumped off his motorbike. “Hey, ready?” Nicolo asked with a shy smile and he let Yusuf help him up on the motorbike. “Where to?” Yusuf wanted to know and was reluctant to let go of Nicolo’s hand. “South. I tell you when to stop.” Nicolo replied and took around Yusuf’s waist.

“This is a beautiful place.” Yusuf said, when they stopped at a cliffside overlooking the city. “One of my favorite places, since it isn’t overflooded with tourists.” Nicolo replied and took the crutches, before he started to walk with Yusuf after him.

They found a spot that had a bit of shade and sat down on the blanket. “How’s the foot btw?” Yusuf asked as he packed out the food. “Better than my front door and my relationship with the landlord. I haven’t been yelled at like that since I was a kid by Father Santiago, when he caught me stealing apples.” Nicolo replied with a smirk and started to laugh. “I have to say, I have never met anyone like you before.” Yusuf admitted and handed him a sandwich. “Likewise. You’re good company, Yusuf.” Nicolo said and took a bite of the sandwich. “So, are you. it has been awhile since; I actually have had a decent conversation with anyone.” Yusuf admitted and looked at Nicolo briefly before he looked out on the ocean, while Nicolo summoned all his courage and placed his hand over Yusuf’s, who didn’t pull it away and instead merged their fingers. They looked at each other again and Yusuf placed a finger under Nicolo’s chin before he pulled him in for a kiss. When they looked at each other again, they just knew that it was the start of something new for them both. They talked a bit until Nicolo fell asleep on the blanket, and when Yusuf found his sketchbook, he felt the inspiration rushing through him as he started to draw Nicolo.

 my creation

[spn-ficfanatic]

F*ck Cancer- Ch 8: The End (Final)

SERIES MASTERLIST - CHAPTER ONE - CHAPTER TWO - CHAPTER THREE - CHAPTER FOUR - CHAPTER FIVE - CHAPTER SIX - CHAPTER SEVEN

A/N: This is it guys, the final chapter. No summary, the title speaks for itself. Let me know if you laughed, let me know if you cried, let me know if you decide to unfollow me after this cuz I’m scum (but please don’t?). Second A/N at the bottom.

Genre: Angst all the way

Characters: Sam x Reader, Dean x Platonic!Reader* *For the Dean ladies/lads: it may not be romantic between him and the reader, but it’s a very close brotherly/sisterly relationship and I still think y’all will really enjoy it :)

Words: 2412

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You thought a lot about death. You wondered if it would hurt, or if you might just fall asleep... if you would even remember who you were when the time came. Would you go to heaven, or hell? If it was hell, would Crowley cut you some slack? If it was heaven, well… what even WAS heaven? Would your parents be there? Would you have an imaginary Sam to keep you company, until the real one could join you?

Sam thought a lot about what came after death. Not being able to wake up every morning and spoon you until you opened your eyes and kissed his neck. Not sitting with you in the garden anymore, watching the family of foxes behind your house as they grew up and had cubs. Not being able to follow the foxes and have babies of your own. Moreso, he couldn’t even begin to imagine what he would do next. You wanted him to sell the house and go back to hunting, but he couldn’t see a life after you.

Dean mostly thought about ways to save you. Sure, you’d had this conversation with them before and they’d promised not to look. But he did anyway, while you slept he hid away in his room and scoured as many books and websites as he could. Columns of printed paper highlighted in various colours filled his wardrobe to the brim, hidden from view. Suddenly the man who loathed research found himself living and breathing the pages of any ancient book he could get his hands on. Bobby had brought some with him when he came for the wedding, and continued to look on his own back at his house. But time was drawing nearer, the inevitable just around the corner, and hope was running out.

The day you heard loud crashes coming from Dean’s room was the day you knew... If there ever WAS hope, it was now gone. Of course you knew he was still looking for ways to save you, you weren’t stupid. And you’d be lying if you said you weren’t slightly optimistic that he might come through with some miracle, despite what you told them. Sam looked at you with concern and you gave him a small sad smile.

“He’s been trying to find ways to save me,” you whispered to him, too tired to speak at a regular volume anymore. You saw a flash of anger cross his eyes, and brushed your palm over his cheek affectionately. “Don’t be angry with him, he needed a distraction from watching me die. You need to help him now though, because I think his world just crumbled.”

You smiled sadly, and leaned over to kiss him lightly on the lips. He nodded, and sniffled as he stood up and tread carefully to his older brother’s room while the noise continued. You listened to the exchange from the lounge room, unable to do anything but sit helplessly.

Sam opened the door and his eyes widened to find hundred of pages floating through the air. Feathers too, and he spotted a torn pillow on the floor. Books and papers were littered across the carpet, and Dean’s laptop lay on top with a broken screen. The older brother hadn’t even noticed Sam had walked in, he was too busy swearing and shredding the hundreds of papers he’d collected over the last few months.

“Dean!” Sam shouted, stepping forward and grabbing his arm. Dean thrust his arm away and didn’t respond, continuing to destroy whatever he could lay his hands on. When he reached for one of Bobby’s ancient books Sam yelled with alarm and grabbed him harder, pushing him onto the bed. “Snap out of it man, Bobby will kill you if you wreck tha-”

“Shut it Sam, get out of here,” Dean responded, moving to stand on his feet again before Sam pushed him back down. Dean glared at him, seeing red. In one fell swoop he leapt up and pushed him back, sending him into the desk.

“I’m not leaving Dean,” he growled, standing tall in front of his big brother.

“Fine, then I will,” he replied, making for the door. Sam rushed to block his way, and Dean shook his head with a humourless laugh before punching him in the jaw. Sam staggered back slightly, but quickly recovered before pushing Dean back into the room. He hit the wall and fell to the floor.

“You’re not going anywhere,” he told him angrily, “not like this. You’re not gonna go out and get blind stinking drunk and pick a fight with a guy who probably doesn’t deserve it. You wanna punch someone? Punch me. I’m the one who brought us here. I’m the one who fell in love with a dying woman. I’m the one who’s forced you to watch Y/N die.”

Tears were filling his eyes at this point, but Dean didn’t notice through his own. He stood up, using the now broken and unstable desk for support. It creaked under his weight, its legs cracking.

“Fuck off Sam, this isn’t on you OK? This is all on me. I’m supposed to be the big brother, I’m supposed to get you guys out of trouble, that’s my damn job. Always has been, always will be,” he growled, kicking a nearby wastebasket in frustration. He paused, bringing his hands up and rubbing his face, resting them behind his head as he looked away with tears in his eyes.

“That’s not on you Dean,” Sam told him, calmer now as he watched his brother’s wall collapse. He slowly approached him, careful not to step on anything in the process. “You’re not here because you’re just some guy we’d hired to save her life, you’re here because we’re a family. And sometimes part of that is accepting that family doesn’t end with death.”

Sam voice shuddered as he spoke that word. He generally tried to avoid it when it came to speaking about you but lately had been trying to be more open to the idea, which meant not shying away from it. He cleared his throat before continuing.

“Y/N doesn’t blame you for not finding a cure. I don’t blame you. I’m a little pissed that you kept it from me truth be known, but that’s a whole other thing.”

The corner of Dean’s mouth raised slightly in a half-hearted smirk, and he nodded slightly. He sniffed, and brought his hands down and rested them on his hips.

“How’s she doing?” he asked quietly. “Really?”

Sam sighed and ran his hand through his hair, sitting down on Dean’s bed.

“She’s sleeping a lot, not eating much. Her memory is just getting worse, along with the headaches and the nosebleeds. So, everything you’d expect I guess.”

Dean frowned and leaned back against the wall he stood in front of. As he opened his mouth to respond he heard a crash coming from the lounge-room, and as he and Sam shared an alarmed glance they both bolted from the room shouting your name.

They found you on the ground where Sam had left you in your wheelchair, shaking as a seizure wracked your body. Sam fell to the floor next to you and rolled you to your side.

“Dean!” he cried in a panic. “Wha-what do I do?”

“You’re doing it man, just sit with her,” he responded, trying to stay calm for his little brother as he pulled his mobile out and called for an ambulance. He patted him on the shoulder in reassurance, “just hang on Sammy, I’m getting help.”

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

As Dr Wheeler approached them, they could see on her face that the news wasn’t good. They didn’t wait for her to reach them, standing from their chairs and meeting her halfway instead.

“How is she?” Sam asked desperately. They’d been waiting anxiously for 3 hours while they examined you and called in your doctor for a second opinion. Dr Wheeler sighed, and gestured for them to take a seat with her.

“No, please Doc, we’ve been sitting for hours,” Dean told her firmly. “Just tell us.”

Sally nodded in understanding, and cleared her throat. “Y/N is comfortable for now, but the tumour has increased in size significantly since I last saw her. If nothing else, it’s confirmation that any further treatment would have merely caused her unnecessary suffering,” she explained, trying to soften the blow. “I’m afraid other than making her comfortable, we can’t do anything more for her.”

Dean nodded, looking at the ground. “How long?”

Sally looked at the two men sadly. The older brother couldn’t bear to look her in the eyes, and the younger stood staring into space, hearing but not seeing. She’d seen it hundreds of times before and it never got any easier, but something about these men made it harder than most.

“I’m sorry, but I don’t expect she’ll make it through the night.”

Sam lifted his eyes to hers, tears pooling but not falling. Behind her he could see the sun rising through the window, turning a beautiful shade of purple that he knew you would have loved. The idea that you might not see it set nearly broke him, but some inner strength he didn’t know he had kept him standing.

“Can we take her home please?” he asked, his voice cracking.

“Of course,” she told him with a sad smile. “I can arrange for a nurse to join you and administer pain relief, and an ambulance to take her home and connect her to a drip. It should be enough to get her through relatively pain-free and, hopefully, conscious enough to allow you to say goodbye.”

Against his better judgement a small sob escaped Dean’s throat, but he quickly cleared it and avoided his brothers gaze.

“Sam, why don’t you go sit with Y/N? I can do the paperwork,” he offered, looking at Sally for the first time. She nodded with a small smile, indicating this would be fine, and led the boys to your room.

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

You were asleep for most of the day but this wasn’t unusual for you anymore. You woke up for an hour around lunchtime, sitting on Sam’s lap while he and Dean shared a beer on your porch. You were wrapped snugly in your quilt, and coupled with Sam’s body warmth you were very toasty. You were grateful when they didn’t make a fuss when you opened your eyes; Dean offered you a beer and you enjoyed a small sip as they continued talking about whatever topic they could think of to fill the silence. Dean told you Bobby was on his way and you gave a small nod, resting your head against your husband’s chest and looking out over your garden.

“Will you guys be ok?” you asked quietly, and silence fell.

Sam’s grip on you tightened as you heard Dean’s footsteps approach you. As he knelt down to face you, you noted sadly that his eyes were red and puffy.

“Not really,” he told you honestly, brushing a loose strand of hair behind your ear. “But we know that you’ll be safe wherever you are.”

“Do hunters, do hunters go to heaven? Do you think?” you asked, already running out of breath.

“Yes,” Sam answered, not missing a beat. “And even if they don’t, Crowley is going to make sure you do.”

You wrinkled your brow in confusion. “You didn’t-”

“Make a deal?” Dean finished for you with a reassuring smile. “No, no deal. Just a favour, he owed me one.”

Dean didn’t miss the sparkle in your eyes at that news. “So my mom…”

“You’ll see her again,” Dean promised solemnly. “She’ll look after you.”

A tear slid down your cheek and you nodded slightly. Sam leaned over and planted a kiss on your cheek, and you turned your head slowly to look at him.

“Until we’re together again,” you told him simply. He had held it together before this, but couldn’t stop the dam from breaking at that moment. Unable to answer he simply nodded, and kissed you on the lips. You let your head fall to his chest again to look at Dean, who was unable to stop his own tears, and gave him a small smile.

“I know,” you whispered, before letting your eyes close for what would be the last time.

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

EPILOGUE

As Dean pulled Baby up to the sand he cut the engine. They had been driving for 2 days waiting for something, anything, to speak to them. To say they were looking for a sign was corny; perhaps it was more guidance that they sought. Neither had spoken much since your death. They wordlessly picked out an urn to collect as many of your ashes as they could and, with Bobby in tow, drove you to a remote location in the woods to give you the hunter’s funeral you deserved.

And now here they were, thousands of miles away from Austin and standing on a beach a few hours out of Seattle, the first they’d come across since heading west. They took off their shoes as they looked over the horizon, the sun setting, and as Dean headed towards the water Sam followed behind carrying your urn.

The water felt warmer than it should have been, inviting almost, and they walked in until the water lapped at their knees.

“She’ll like it here,” Sam commented, watching the children play further down the beach and a family of ducks floating nearby. Dean nodded in silent agreement as Sam removed the lid with a trembling hand. He waited until the breeze came, and gently tipped your ashes out of the urn. The breeze took you easily, and you danced in the air gracefully before landing on the water. A small wave enveloped you, and soon you were scattered amongst the fish and coral underneath the surface.

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A/N 2: OK, so, in my defense nearly every fic I write the Reader makes some miraculous recovery. I felt it was time to branch out from this. I hope I did it justice, and I hope everyone still liked the ending even though I saw many of you hoping she’d make it.

If you like my stuff please be sure to ask to be on one of my taglists! I’ve been thinking for a while that I’d like to do another Buffy episode rewrite... if anyone has a request for an episode send me an ask!

Thanks for joining me on this journey... love y’all!

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SERIES MASTERLIST - CHAPTER ONE - CHAPTER TWO - CHAPTER THREE - CHAPTER FOUR - CHAPTER FIVE - CHAPTER SIX - CHAPTER SEVEN

MY MASTERLIST

Tag Lists (Open)

Series Taglist: @deghostyboi , @dreaminemz , @spence-rreid, @almostelegantfire , @ericaprice2008 @mirandaaustin93, @sandlee44

“Dean/Jensen” taglist:  @mrsambroserollinsacklesmgk, @perpetualabsurdity, @mlovesstories

“Everything” taglist: @angelsandwinchesters, @grace-for-sale, @growningupgeek, @iamnotsaneatall, @nanie5, @waywardasfudge, @im-dead-inside05, @julzdec, @adoptdontshoppets, @meghanbeinghappy, @sleepylunarwolf , @sammysgirl1997, @imaginationisgrowth, @screechingartisancashbailiff , @flamencodiva

People who requested tags, that I cannot tag (but will still mention because I feel bad :( ): @ronja-uebrick, @lilydarcy, @cabbagewithissues

[harley-sunday]

The Draw (11)

Summary: The whirlwind starts at the 2018 ACE Comic Con in Phoenix but you’re not sure where it will end...

Pairing: Sebastian Stan x reader

Warnings: Language. Smut. NSFW under the cut. Unprotected sex

Word count: 3855

AN: Sorry for the long wait, but I’m sort of counting on this chapter to make up for that! Also, there’s definitely going to be a part 12 to this, maybe even a part 13… I just don’t seem to be able to quit this little daydream of mine :) Hope you like this part, let me know what you think!

I don’t have a taglist, but if you follow Harley Sunday x Sebastian Stan you should see any update I post.

Masterlist

Sebastian’s text is short, but it brings a smile to your face nevertheless.

Headed towards premiere number three in Madrid. Rather be with you somewhere. -S

You type a quick reply.

Have fun! See you in 12 days. Xx

“I still don’t understand why I have to be wheeled out of here,” Nathan grumbles, shaking his head.

“Hmm,” you agree, pushing the button to call the elevator. “Hospital policy, probably.”

“Well, it’s stupid,” he sulks, crossing his arms in front of his chest just as the elevator doors open.

“Jesus, what are you, five?” You flick his shoulder, “Just be glad it’s me who’s picking you up and not Mom or Dad. They probably would have wanted you wheeled out on a stretcher.”

“Probably would have asked if an ambulance could drive me home,” Nathan scoffs, but at least there’s a smile forming on his lips now.

“Probably would have had Aunt Carol live with you so she could take care of you whenever Sarah’s at work,” you snicker. “And she’d probably insist to give you a sponge bath every day-”

“Ew,” Nathan interrupts you, holding up his hand to stop you. “ Ew. Let’s not go there.”

“Better not,” you agree as you wheel Nathan out of the elevator and out of the hospital. It’s sunny outside and you can see your brother taking a deep breath after he’s been cooped up in a hospital for the last eight days. You steer the wheelchair to where you’ve parked your car and watch as Nathan gets inside before you return the wheelchair to it’s designated area.

“Alright,” you say as you sit down and start the car, “put your seat belt on, loser, I’m taking you home.”

The drive is short and quiet, both of you lost in your own thoughts. It isn’t until you pull up on his driveway that you turn to your brother and spill out what’s been on your mind ever since you picked him up from the hospital, “You guys are coming to dinner next week.”

“Ok,” he draws out, a confused look passing his face.

“Sebastian really wants to meet you,” you explain then. “He’s coming back from doing press in Europe and Asia and he has 2 days off so he’s coming visit, because God knows when we would be able to see each other again otherwise and, I mean, he knows Jake already right? So, it makes sense that he wants to meet you too and I would really like for you to meet him and-”

“Ok. Calm down,” Nathan says, holding up his hands. “Jesus. Just breathe in between the sentences, ok?” He laughs then, “God, you’re such a girl.”

‘Oh, shut up,” you reply, smacking his arm. You take a deep breath then, “It’s just,” you hesitate for a second, trying to find the right words, “it’s just important to me that you like him, ok? Because I really like him, but-”

“But you’re afraid your judgement might be off because you used to like Mark too?”

You sigh and simply answer, “Yes,” not even surprised anymore at how your brother put into words what you couldn’t.   

There’s a sympathetic smile from your brother then, “He played all of us, ok? Jesus, Mom and Dad thought he was the best thing that had ever happened to you. Sarah and I thought you guys would get married one day. So don’t even think about blaming yourself for that.”

“Hmm,”

“Listen, we’ll be there, ok? And I promise not to be too much of a dickhead.” His smile disappears then, replaced by a more serious look, “It means a lot that you value my opinion of him, so,” he nods, “I got your back.”

“Thanks,” you smile back at him. But it’s you two and you were never really good at the sentimental stuff so you all but shove him out of the car next, “Let’s get you inside, loser.”

Your first day back at work seems endless and your mailbox is so overflowing that it feels like you’ll never catch up, but once it’s six o’clock you’re almost done, only a couple of emails left, and you decided to call it quits for today. You head over to Lauren’s, who invited you over for dinner.

Letting yourself inside with the spare key she gave you, you find her in the kitchen, making the lasagna her Nonna used to make and you can feel your mouth start to water, remembering how good it tastes. You hug her from behind, placing a quick kiss on her cheek, “Hey, bestie.”

“Babe!” She greets you enthusiastically while stirring the sauce to make sure it doesn’t burn. “How’s Nathan?”

“Good,” you reply while you grab a wine glass from the cabinet and help yourself to a glass of white, while you top up her glass. “He’s at home, resting I hope. Probably bored out of his mind.”

“Hmm,” Lauren agrees as she tastes the sauce before she adds a little more salt. “And how’s Sebastian?”

“Good,” you reply again. “He’s in Romania now, I think.” You count the days in your head, “Yeah, Romania today and tomorrow and then they’re flying to somewhere in Asia on Friday.”

“Oh, to be the girlfriend of a celebrity,” Lauren sighs dramatically, but then she turns around and smiles at you, “You holding up ok?”

“Yeah,” you shrug, “It’s weird. I mean, I’ve literally like what, known him for 24 hours in total? It just doesn’t make any sense when you think of it.”

“And why should it?” Lauren counters. “It feels good, right?”

“It does,” you agree.

“Well, that’s all that matters.”

“Tante!” Jake exclaims as he opens the front door.

“Hi, bud!” You give your nephew a hug and ruffle his hair, “How are you? How’s Dad?”

“Good!” Jake replies as he takes your hand and tugs you inside, “Come see the Lego I build!”

“In a minute, bud,” you say, letting go of his hand. “I’ll go say hi to Dad first ok?”

“Ok!”

You smile as you watch him bolt up the stairs to his room, happier than he’s been in a long time and you’re sure it is because his Dad’s out of the hospital and spending time with him at home. You make your way to the living room where you find your brother sprawled out on the couch, remote control in his hand, watching God knows what. You walk up to him and kiss his forehead, “Hi, loser.”

“You’re the loser,” he mumbles but he winks then and smiles. “How is my favorite sister?”

“I’m your only sister, Nathan,” you reply out of habit as you sit down in the chair next to him, but can’t help but laugh, “but I’m good. How are you?”

“Same old, same old,” he says with a dramatic sigh. He sits up then before he looks at you, “But I’m going crazy here. You have to help me!”

You laugh, shaking your head, “That bad, huh?”

“Daytime TV is so bad! You have no idea.” He points towards the TV, “Dr Phil, dude, wow. I, I can’t even.”

“When do you get to go back to work?”

“Monday,” Nathan says with a relieved smile, “I never thought I’d say this, but I’m so looking forward to it.”

“I’m sure Sarah does to,” you tease, “She deals with enough difficult patients at work and then she’s got you at home-”

Your brother is about to reply but it’s then your phone rings and you smile when you see “Mr. Smooth” flashing across the screen. You get up and tell your brother you’ll be right back before you answer as you walk out the back door and into the garden, “Hey, you.”

“Hi,” Sebastian says and you’re surprised at how tired he sounds.

“You ok?” you ask, worried now.

“Yeah, just a terrible jet lag from all the flying around,” he answers quietly.

“Where are you now?”

“Tokyo,”

You do the math quickly and realize it’s five in the morning over on his side of the world, “Couldn’t sleep anymore?”

“Nah,” he sighs. “What are you doing?”

“I’m over at Nathan’s. Sarah’s at work so I’m just checking up on him.” You lean against the back door, not sure you should say what you’re about to say next, but then deciding to throw caution in the wind, “I miss you.”

“Just a couple more days, sweetheart,” his voice is low and does things to you.

“I know,” you whisper.

“I like you,”

“I like you too,” you reply. “See you on Thursday.”

“I’ll be seeing you.”

Hugging the phone to your chest for a few seconds after he’s hung up you try to get your heart rate back to normal before you go back inside.

Tapping your fingers on the steering wheel you’re starting to get impatient and your eyes keep darting from the clock on your dashboard to exit doors of the arrival hall, willing them to open with your boyfriend walking out of the airport.

Your boyfriend.

You can’t help but smile when you think back to the night you spent together, heat rising to your cheeks when you remember what you did and how much you can’t wait to do it again. Pulling up the texting app on your phone you read the last text Sebastian sent you:

Just landed. Can’t wait to see you. Exit E, right? -S

Looking at the clock again you see it’s been ten minutes since you parked the car and you are about to send Sebastian another text, asking him where he’s at, but then the doors open and even though the baseball cap he’s wearing and the way he keeps his head down shield most of his face, your hearts jumps because you just know it’s him.

You watch him round the car, putting his suitcase in the backseat before he gets into the passenger’s seat. You turn towards him and smile, “Hi,”

“Hi,” he replies, taking off his baseball cap before he leans in, his lips brushing against yours.

You part your lips almost on instinct, an involuntary moan escaping you as he pulls back and looks at you with a smirk. Shaking your head you decide you’ll make him pay for it later and focus on starting the car instead, pulling out of the parking spot and onto the road, heading home.

He lays his arm on your headrest then and runs his fingers through your ponytail, twirling strands of hair between his fingers, occasionally tugging on them gently. You bite your lip to keep from cursing at how good it feels but of course he knows, because your breathing has turned ragged and you’re holding onto the steering wheel just a little too tight. He unbuckles his seat belt then and almost immediately you feel his warm breath hitting your neck, his lips leaving a trail of kisses from just underneath your ear to the base of your throat. 

Swallowing hard, you try to focus on the road, thanking whatever God their may be that there’s almost no traffic this time of night.

He moves closer then, kissing the corner of your mouth, his hand still in your hair, trying to take out the hair tie without getting it tangled up. The next kiss lands on your mouth and before you know it you’re kissing him back, turning your head ever so slightly to meet him, but your eyes never leaving the road. You smile into the kisses because he keeps pulling away, teasing you, and you keep finding him.

His eyes stay on you and you try your hardest to keep yours on the road, but God, he’s too much and an idea forms in your head when you see there’s a rest stop coming up. You put your blinker on and steer towards the exit, a self satisfied grin on your face. Sebastian looks at you in confusion when you pull over at the far end of the parking, where there are no other cars in sight, but you don’t give him any time to ask questions, already unbuckling your seat belt before you turn towards him and breathing a low, “We’re doing this now.”

You meet him halfway, sitting up as much as you can, your mouth crashing against his, your hands tugging at the hem of his t-shirt, pulling it over his head before you shower his chest in kisses, quickly making your way down. His hands are in your hair again, pulling you up for another kiss, his teeth pulling on your lower lip, a need to the kiss that tells you he wants this just as much. You break contact just long enough to pull your own shirt off before you push him back against the passenger’s seat and straddle him, feeling his erection pressing against your already wet core. You grind down and a groan escapes him as his hands grab your hips, pushing you against him, his mouth finding yours again the stubble of his beard scratching your skin.

You fumble with the button of your jeans, arching your back, lifting yourself off of him to rid yourself of the piece of clothing, taking your soaked panties down with it. Your hands find the hem of his jeans and you undo the buttons before pushing down the fabric, your hand in his boxers now, taking out his already hard cock. You lick your lips at the sight of him and you run your thumb from the base to the tip, pumping a few times then to make him even harder.

He groans and tugs on your hips so that you’re now directly above him. He watches you through hooded lids as you lower yourself, taking him in slowly, not bothering with a condom because honestly, it never even crosses your mind to do so and you both got tested since last time, so you know you’re good.

You let out an involuntary shiver at how good it feels to have him fill you up and your mouth finds his, hands in his hair as you take him all the way in, staying still for just a second as you get used to him again. You rest your forehead against his, slowly grinding your hips, letting out a moan as he fills you up even more.

His hand slides in between you and starts rubbing your clit, which in turn makes you throw your head back as you start riding him for real, setting a steady pace that you know will get both of you there quickly. You feel his mouth on your nipple, gently biting and tugging and you can feel your release coming close, your voice barely a whisper when you say, “Seb, I’m- fuck!”

He releases your nipple, tongue licking his lips, “I know.” His fingers pinch your clit, a wicked grin on his lips as he watches you, his voice dangerously low when he says, “Come for me, sweetheart,”

It sends you right over the edge and you let out a loud, “Oh fuck,” as your orgasm washes over you. You feel his hands on your hips again as he helps you keep up the rhythm he needs to follow you. You lean forward, kissing his shoulder, gently dragging your teeth towards the base of his neck when you feel him tense up and you steady yourself, groaning at him, “ Let go, babe,”

He trusts harder then and you hear your name roll of his lips almost breathlessly as he releases himself inside of you. You bury your face in his neck, panting, and feel his hands caress your back as he holds you against him, whispering a quiet, “Fuck, sweetheart, I missed you,” in your ear.

“You sure you don’t need any help?” Sebastian asks, hands on your hips, his chin resting on shoulder as he watches you chop the potatoes.

“Very sure,” you reassure him, whimpering a little when he lets go of you. You smile as you hear him take out plates from the cabinet before he sets the table, still amazed at how easy it is between you two. Earlier today he admitted he feels very at home in your house, before shyly adding that he feels that way wherever he’s with you and it made your heart melt.

“Seb?” you ask, “Tell me you schedule again?”

He replies from the dining room, “Flying back to L.A. tomorrow, then back to New York on Wednesday.”

“Right,” you reply softly. You continue, louder then, so he can hear you, “How long are you staying in New York?”

“At least four weeks,” he says as he walks back into the kitchen. He leans against the counter, hands shoved into the pockets of his jeans, “Why?”

“I don’t know,” you shrug. But of course you know, because this is what you’ve been meaning to ask ever since he came back. You take a deep breath in attempt to calm your nerves and look at him, “We have an office in New York at work, and I,” you hesitate, “I asked if maybe I could work from there every now and then and-”

“You want to come to New York with me?”

You’re not sure about his tone of voice and so you quietly add, “Yes. If that’s ok for you?” You try to smile, “I mean, if it’s too much or too soon, I totally get it, I just thought that maybe it would nice to spend some more time together, but-”

“It would be really nice,” he interrupts with a smile. Taking your hand in his to make you stop fumbling with the tea towel, he pulls you towards him, his lips on yours within seconds.

You throw your arms around his neck and deepen the kiss.

“Ew!”

You pull back quickly, shocked to see Jake standing in your kitchen, a look of disgust on his face. His parents are right behind him, with Sarah smiling at you and Nathan making a gagging sound.

“Hi, bud!” you say a little too enthusiastically, straightening your dress even though it is not wrinkled whatsoever.

“Hi,” Jake replies with caution, his eyes darting between you and Sebastian. “Why were you kissing him?”

“Jake,” Sarah hisses, a hand on Jake’s shoulder.

Your brother just snickers, “Yeah, why were you kissing him, tante?”

“Why didn’t you just ring the doorbell like any normal person would?” you shoot back at your brother.

He shrugs, “Would ruin the surprise, wouldn’t it?” He walks up to Sebastian then, holding out his hand, “Hi, I’m Nathan.”

“Sebastian,” he takes your brother’s hand and shakes it, before he introduces himself to Sarah and then gives Jake a high five.

“Why don’t I help you with dinner?” Sarah suggests, dropping her purse in the corner. She looks at Nathan, “Will you take Jake outside? Maybe offer Sebastian a beer while you’re at it?”

Nathan just nods before he grabs two beers and a juice pouch from the fridge, calling out for Jake to follow him.

You look at Sebastian, “Go! Sarah and I will finish up here.”

“I’ll go tell them dinner is ready,” Sarah offers.

You nod and watch as she makes her way outside, leaving you alone in the kitchen for a moment. You wonder if your brother has behaved himself and worry he might have been too harsh on Sebastian but then you hear laughter as they come inside, and see your brother smacking Sebastian’s arm in a playful manner and your instantly reassured.

Jake sits in between you and Sebastian at the table and you can tell he’s still trying to wrap his head around the fact that the Winter Soldier is sitting next to him and apparently likes to kiss his aunt. You try to get something out of your brother during dinner by throwing him a few pointed looks, but he just shrugs and keeps eating.

"Tante?” Jake asks as you’re in the kitchen together, because you’ve asked him to help you serve dessert.

“Yeah, bud?”

“Dad told the Winter Soldier,” he hesitates then, before he corrects himself, “I mean, Sebastian. Dad told Sebastian that if he ever hurt you he would kick his ass.” He giggles when he says “ass” and it makes you laugh too.

“Well, it’s nice that Dad’s looking out for me, don’t you think?” And it really is. You remind yourself to thank Nathan later, because it tells you that he’s taken you seriously and did what he said he would do.

“Yeah,” Jake agrees. “I told Sebastian that you deserve to be happy.”

“Ah, thank you, bud,” you say as you give him a hug, “that means a lot.”

“So,” you draw out slowly as you finish the last of the dishes. “How was your talk with Sebastian?”

“Good,” Nathan simply answers.

You hit him with the tea towel and give him a pointed look, “And?”

“And,” Nathan mimics your tone with a grin, “He’s good people.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.” Nathan puts his arm around you and pulls you close, “but you knew that already, didn’t you?”

“Yeah,” you agree, “I just wanted you to know as well.”

You wake up before Sebastian does and as you cuddle up to him you glance at the clock and see you still have three hours left before he has to leave. You don’t want to wake him, not really, but you also don’t want to spend the next couple of hours just cuddling and so you softly kiss his cheek, before you move down to his jaw, his chest next and then down to the hem of his boxers. You can’t help but smile when you see how his body reacts to your touch and there’s a moan escaping him when you cup him through the fabric. “Morning,” you say, looking at him from in between his legs.

He looks at you through hooded eyes, not fully understanding what is going on just yet but then you pull his boxers down and take him into your mouth and suddenly he’s wide awake, “Fuck, sweetheart,”

You hum contently, the vibrations instantly making him hard and this time you decide to just give him what he wants instead of taking it nice and slow. You set a steady pace, using both your hands and mouth, and it isn’t long before you feel his hand on the back of your head, keeping you in place as he bucks his hips, making you take all of him. He’s close and you hollow your cheeks, giving him the friction he needs to come.

After you’ve swallowed his cum you draw back slowly, kissing your way back up until you find his mouth. You smile against his lips, your hand still on his cock, stroking it languidly as your tongue traces his lips.

By the way he grabs you you can tell he’s about to roll you over, probably to return the favor and so you pull back, “No.”

He looks at you, surprised no doubt.

You just look back at him, whispering a quiet, “It’s about you today, Seb. Consider this my going-away present,” smiling when you feel his cock twitch in your hand.

[emeraldeyes23]

My Banana Fish fanfic

Happy ending fanfic - Banana Fish

Another Missed Flight- chapter 1:

Diversion: Stage 1 - Escaping from the airport

He didn't know what had happened to Ash while he was in the hospital, but he knew that he would blame himself for letting I him get injured during the sudden attack. That must also be the reason why he hadn't come to the airport to see him off. He always thought he only put Eiji in danger and that Eiji would never be safe as long as he would be by Ash's side. It was Ash's way to protect him and to make sure that he was safe by not seeing Eiji off himself. Eiji knew that even though no one else apparently did.

But he still couldn't shake the feeling that something bad would happen. But what could he even do? Being tied to a wheel chair he couldn't just leave the airport, go back to Manhattan and look for Ash. Ibe and Max would stop him and as powerless as he was he couldn't do a thing anyway. Ash said he knew how to fly but now he couldn't even walk properly, let alone run. Damn! If he were able to do that he would've already left by now even if he 'd miss another flight. By now he must be on the Japan Air missing flights most wanted watch list or something.

Just when he was about to drown in self-pity he saw Sing walking towards him. But something wasn't right, Eiji noticed right away. Sing tried to hide it but unlike Ash he's never been good at concealing his true emotions.

"What happened? Did you meet Ash? Did you give him my letter?", Eiji asked.

"Yes, don't worry, I met up with him and gave him your letter. Everything's fine."

"You're a lousy liar. Tell me what's wrong. Now, Sing!"

Sing sighed. "Well, I gave Ash your letter and asked him why the hell he wasn't coming to see you off himself. He just said he wanted you to return to your world far away from all the weapons and the violence. He said he wasn't going to see you because he was your friend. But it wasn't the Ash I knew, it was as if he had given up and nothing mattered to him anymore. His whole body was trembling really hard and even I could hear the pain in his voice. It scared the shit out of me, I've never seen him like that.

It's just ... I don't know... I just have a bad feeling, you know?"

"I know what you mean. And I knew that Ash probably wouldn't come. It's his way of protecting me. He thinks it's safer for me without him being here. However, I have the very same feeling. But how am I supposed to leave here? Don't you see the pathetic state I'm in? How can I help you? I can't even walk!", Eiji said in a painstricken voice.

"My motorcycle is parked just outside. The only thing you have to do is hold on to me. Are you ready to get into some more trouble for our favorite bad boy?" he said grinning mischievously.

"That made Eiji actually smile for the first time in days. "But what about Ibe and Max? There's no way they let me go with you!"

"I'll explain the situation to Ash's gang standing over there and ask them to create a diversion for us."

"Ok, then, but that has to be a pretty good one if you want to fool Max. He's pretty observant and clever."

"That's where you come in. You have to distract Ibe and Max by talking to them, ok? Just engage them in a conversation for 5 minutes and draw their attention to you. After that pretend you want to look around at the book store and when I give you a sign meet me at the entrance where you'll ditch that wheelchair for a really cool motorcycle.", he said, a wicked grin on his face.

"All right, Eiji said a smile lighting up his face. Let's pull one last crazy and unforgettable stunt together!"

Well, here goes nothing. Eiji really hoped he could pull this off.

He drove his wheel chair over to Ibe and Max and after some small talk about Jessica and his son he asked Max if he knew what had happened to Ash and the others while he was in the hospital. He had a feeling that Ibe hadn't told him the whole story since he had still been recovering and hadn't wanted him to get upset.

Realizing Eiji couldn't pull a crazy stunt while sitting in a wheelchair, Max told him what he knew: that Foxx had shot Dino and had fought against a still injured Ash and that Foxx had been killed by Dino in the end who then had fallen down the building and had died as well. He also told him how Blanca had shot down the helicopter that was supposed to be Foxx's means of escape and that Ash had saved Sing but had lost the suitcase full of evidence concerning the Banana Fish incidents by doing so.

Eiji was shocked. He really couldn't believe that he missed so much and that Ash had been this close to dying again without him even knowing it. Why was he always suffering this much? Now he was even more determined to go see him again but to do that he had to stay calm and behave according to plan. So after some more talking he told both of them that he wanted to go to the book store to look for some English books for the flight.

They bought his lie easily which made him wonder when he learned to lie like that. Ash must really have rubbed off on him.

When Sing gave him the sign he drove to the entrance around the corner while at the same time something was exploding at the other side and an alarm was going off. Before Eiji knew what had happened on the other side both of them sat on Sing's motorcycle driving downtown as fast as possible.

[demigodsanswer]

Drew/Jake?

Hmmm, I’ve never written for this ship before (I think Jake is gay, personally, but I’ll give it a shot). Ok, so this ended up being super long and angsty, so I’m sorry. 

Drew gets an apprenticeship with the New York City Ballet when she is 18, and, despite being a daughter of Aphrodite, dating is far from her mind - especially dating a demigod. She has never had an issue with monster attacks and she doesn’t need them now. 

But when she’s 19, and promoted to the core, some demigods start showing up to see her perform. She had more friends at camp than she thought. Either that or they were all waiting for her to fall. 

Admittedly, when Jake went to see her in The Nutcracker, he couldn’t even tell which snowflake she was. He still told her she looked beautiful on stage when he saw her after. 

It was her legs, honestly, that he was most attracted to at first. They were incredibly strong and powerful, but graceful at the same time. She could balance her whole body on two toes. He could barely stand up with crutches for too long, preferring a wheel chair when it was convenient. 

He started talking to her after the show, told her that he had just moved to New York for graduate school (he had graduated MIT a year early). And she told him about her time in the ballet. Towards the end of the conversation, Drew could tell he was trying to ask her out. She finally encouraged him to do it, but he said “Nah, beautiful girls like you don’t go for guys like me.” 

This made her angry. She said, “You don’t have any idea what I’m like. Why would you assume that? Because I’m beautiful, because I’m a dancer? Because I’m a child of Aphrodite?” 

He tried to back track but couldn’t; she was pretty much right. So finally he said, “I would very much like to get to know you. Maybe over coffee?” 

“Well it won’t be a date,” she told him. He smiled, and said that just getting the time to get to know her was enough. 

Jake specialized in biomedical engineering in his bachelors work and was continuing that in his masters work. It didn’t take long after their getting to know you date to actually start dating, and soon after that, he was drawing and studying her legs for his own research. He thought they were the perfectly imperfect example of the human body. They were strong and flexible from years of dance, but dance careers were short because of the strain put on them. But if he could recreate them as machine … 

After a while, though, Drew didn’t feel like he was actually in love with her; she felt like he had more or less idealized her - his perfect, beautiful, daughter of Aphrodite girlfriend, everything he could ever dream of having. 

She finally confronted him about this just before their one year anniversary, and they ended up breaking up. 

They got back together two months later after a long conversation about what went wrong and what they were going to do better the next time. 

And for a really long time they worked well together. 

Until Drew was 30 and he was 33 and he asked if they were ever going to get married. They had been together for eleven years, living together for five, and the question had never seriously come up. 

She told him that, honestly, she never wanted to get married. She didn’t like the idea of it. “If something is going really well, then why get the government involved?”

“So you never want to marry me?” He asked. 

“It’s not just you, it would be anybody. I’ve felt this way for a long time. It makes the most sense to me to just … be together without all the pomp and documents.” 

“But …” he paused, “you never want to get married?”

She smiled, “That doesn’t mean we can’t still be together for ever,” she grabbed his hands and gave them a tight squeeze. “I love you, and I think that I will always love you. But marriage is …” 

“A chance to tell the world how much we love each other? A chance to bind ourselves together forever?” 

She stood up, “See, that’s what bothers me. The binding. We can love each other and be faithful to each other for the rest of our lives without the idea that we can never leave each other.” 

“This is 1945, it’s not that hard to leave each other if a marriage fails.” 

“But it’s a lot easier to leave if there was never a marriage to begin with!” 

Jake pushed the wheels of his wheelchair and rolled over towards her. “So that’s what it is then? You want an easy out incase everything falls apart? So you can leave without working on it like last time?” 

“Last time I gave you very clear reasons for leaving!” 

“And I had to come back to you to prove I changed. You didn’t stick around to see if things would get better, you walked away. What if I had never come back?”

She looked out the window; there was an ugly January snow falling on Greenwich Village, quickly mixing with pollution and turning brown before white. “Maybe you never would come back. I knew that. But I knew I didn’t want to be with the person I left. You changed before coming back, and that meant a lot to me! I loved you so much in that moment.” 

He rolled closer to her again, held her hands, and used her to pull himself up out of the chair. “I changed for you because it was important and because I love you. Can you try and do that for me?”

She leaned up and kissed him, “I don’t know.” Jake sat back down. “I’ve never wanted to get married. I don’t like the idea of it –” 

“I’m not asking you to change overnight or get married tomorrow, I’m just asking you to think about it.” 

She knelt down in front of him and put her head on his lap, “Then can you think about not getting married.” 

He paused for a moment before conceding, “I guess that’s only fair.” 

She stood up and went into the bathroom to get ready for bed, and nearly cried once the door was shut behind her. And she wasn’t sure why. She just had an overwhelming feeling of needing to get out of her apartment, so she texted Piper who lived a few floors down. 

She came out of the bathroom, puffy eyed, and told him that she was going to stay with her sister, and he didn’t understand why. He begged her for an answer and she told him that she just needed to be away from him to think about what the marriage question. 

Piper was less sympathetic to her than she was hoping she would be. 

“I think that you should at least try and consider his side.” 

“Why?” Drew asked, sitting on Piper’s couch, “I know I don’t want to get married.” 

“Because if you aren’t willing to try, then maybe you aren’t meant to be with him at all.” Piper sat down next to her, and put her head in her hands. “You’re thirty years old, and you’ve been dating him since you were nineteen. Sometimes it’s just easier to be with someone because it’s familiar, but not because you love each other. And soon an argument, a chance, and choice presents itself as a way out, and you’re taking it before you even know what it is.” 

Drew pulled her knees up to her chest, and finally looked around Piper’s apparent. She had been married to Rachel for four years, and Drew had seen the apartment countless times since then. Signs of her artist wife had been everywhere - paints, pencils, canvases, works in progress were usually all over the apartment. Now it was inexplicably clean. 

“Where’s Rachel?” Drew asked. 

Piper ran a hand through her hair. “She said she was going to Whales, but she could be in any number of European cities. I don’t know. I haven’t spoken to her in a month.” 

Drew moved closer to her. “What happened?” 

“I had sex with someone else,” Piper said flatly, “some beautiful 24-year-old with a pair of Clark Kent glasses. He was attracted to from the first moment we met. I didn’t realize that I was just content with Rachel until I wanted him.” She paused and took a deep breath. “I’m not proud of it. I never did it again. It wasn’t right, nothing about it was right, but … I wasn’t happy. And when you’re not happy, its easy to do things like that.” 

Drew moved away from her. “Me not wanting to get married isn’t the same thing.” 

“I’m not saying it it’s as bad, but I’m saying that if you guys can’t agree on this then it’s probably going to split you up, and you know that. And you’re still not willing to stop for a moment and think about marrying him. Because it’s safer to stick to your guns and let this get you out of a relationship you don’t even realize you’re unhappy in. “ 

“Or,” Drew suggested, “I can just sleep with some bright eyed 24-year-old ballet dancer, that sounds more fun.” 

Piper slapped her hard across the face and didn’t apologize for it. 

“You asked for my advice and I gave it to you. You can stay here tonight, but you’re leaving in the morning.” 

Piper got up and moved to her bedroom, leaving Drew on the couch with a thin blanket and a lot to think about.  

[orionares]

Drabble, Part 7

At a week, Kensi is finally being discharged from the hospital.

Sitting in a hospital-issued wheelchair, donning a pair of sweats bought from a nearby pharmacy, Kensi is surrounded by her mother, Deeks’ mother and a young dark-haired doctor who’s in the middle of explaining a laundry list of instructions that the agent hasn’t heard a word of. Instead she sits quietly, fighting against her mind drifting back to memories of Mexico and nightmares of losing her partner.

So, she focuses on a memory. A happy one.

“You’ve got to give me something- I can’t plan this wedding by myself,” Kensi pleads, plopping down on the couch next to Deeks. She smiles as Monty’s ears perk up at the movement before darting off the couch and trotting happily into the kitchen. Deeks’ eyes widen momentarily and then slowly lowers the remote in hand onto the arm of the couch.

“Mm..okay…” his tone quickly changes from cautionary to contentment. “What can I do?”

“Help me pick between these two halls,” Kensi replies. She holds out two photos of a banquet hall from a hotel in Venice and another in Marina del Rey. “Which one?”

“For what?”

Kensi narrows her eyes at her fiancée. “For the reception?”

Deeks turns to face Kensi, confusion clear on his face. “I thought we were going to get married on the beach?”

“That’s for the wedding ceremony. This would be for the reception. Did you expect us to host burgers and beer for one hundred fifty people on the beach?”

“Are we still going with one hundred fifty people? Sweetheart, I was hoping that was an overestimate.”

“Sweetheart,” Kensi repeats in a similar tone, “It wasn’t. Think of it like seventy-five people each.”

“No.” Deeks suddenly stands up and glances around the room anxiously as if he’s trying to dig up something to change the subject. “It’s more like me, my mom, the team and Monty. And you.”

“There’s got to be some old friends or co-workers from LAPD- “

The uneasiness on Deeks’ face is clear. “Nope. That’s all I’ve got and all I’ll ever need.”

“Well,” Kensi leans forward and rubs her hands on his thighs. “I love you. So, here’s an idea- we relax on the reception as I already have many friends of my dad and old friends when I was an agent afloat all excited to come, but…. the ceremony will be you, me, our moms and the team. Minus Mosley.”

A sparkle twinkles in Deeks’ eyes. “That, Fern, is perfect.”

“Kensi Marie, are you listening?”

Her mother’s voice draws Kensi’s mind back to the present. Kensi can’t help but scowl as she draws her eyes from the floor and up to her mother.

“Like I was saying,” her doctor continues, focusing on the small Samsung tablet in hand, “Bedrest for at least a week and I’ll be giving you a prescription to take back home with you for any aches and pain you’ll have with your ribs…”

Kensi doesn’t notice the slight shake of Roberta’s head before she cuts the doctor off, her voice with a tint of humor, “She’s not hearing you, doc. You do realize that, right?”

Julia scoffs. “Roberta- “

“Don’t Roberta me. It’s true, isn’t it?” Roberta’s gaze travels from the doctor towards the directions of Deeks’ room. “Her mind’s with my boy. Doc, you might as well give her mother and I the instructions and we’ll make sure she’ll follow it.”

“Look, I can’t break our hospital policy right now. I’m nearly done.” The doctor gently tosses the tablet onto the pile of blankets in the center of the bed. “Look, I’ll make it simple- take it easy, take your meds and don’t overexert yourself when you go home, Miss Blye.”

“I’m not going home,” Kensi tells the doctor as bluntly as possible. She reaches over to the small plastic bag with her only belongings on her when rescued- her tattered pants and scraps of her blue long-sleeved and the smashed remains of her cellphone. A ping of guilt hits her heart when she remembers the photos Deeks and her had taken of a possible beach location- I never told him that it was my favorite.

“Sweetheart, it’s time to go,” Julia calls out. When Kensi doesn’t react, Julia grips the wheelchair handles before leaning next to Kensi and stating, “Let’s go for a walk.” 

 Ten minutes later, Kensi winces under the bright sun in the hospital’s outdoor sitting area. The bright sun and humid, thick air is a definite shock to the system and leaves her hoping desperately for whatever conversation her mother has planned is quick.  

“I need to get back up there,” Kensi protests. She’s already counted the row of hospital windows twice leading to Deeks’ floor twice. “It’s hot, Mom, and…. I really need to get up there.”

“No, we need to have a mother- daughter talk,” Julia explains. “You have the look in your eye that I don’t particularly enjoy seeing in my daughter.”

“I’m fine- “

“No. You are kicking yourself and doubting everything about whether you’re strong enough to deal with what comes next.”

The junior agent shudders at her mother’s words. She despises everything that comes with doubt- it had nearly eaten her alive after Jack had left and something she had kept at bay in the early years of her relationship with Deeks. Doubt’s slowly crept back into her life with Deeks’ sudden push to leave their jobs and as she stares at her mother, Kensi realizes that doubt has fueled every nightmare and anxious breath she’s taken during the last week. “Mom- “

“Marty had the same look when you were in that coma, sweetheart. He came with it daily, completely unsure of his ability to take care of you. Even after you woke up, that look was still there, although a little different,” Julia continues. She sadly smiles at the tears forming in Kensi’s eyes. “Not only was it a continuous fear of being able to take care of you, but also like he was unsure if he’d be strong enough for you.”

“Damn it- damn it!” Kensi cries out. She slams her hand twice against the left arm of the chair. She points back to the hospital and states, “I tried asking him how he had coped with and he always said he was fine! I should have pushed him on it- “

“No more what ifs or I should have out of you, darling. Trust me, I’ve done that with your father for years and it doesn’t help.” Julia slides forward on the bench and takes her daughter’s hands into hers. You told us the other day that you worked so hard for your job and that you didn’t want to give it up. Why does that scare you? I’m sure Marty knows that you aren’t a housewife.”

“He never asked me to be a housewife, Mom- “

“So, what scares you?”

A whimper leaves Kensi’s lips and she drops her head to hide the tears now streaming down her cheeks. An answer sits clear in a mind, one that she’s never told anyone. “I was going to leave my job after marrying Jack,” Kensi confesses. “Not right away- maybe a year after, you know? I’d figured that I could work in an office and plus, I was relatively new to this field, so it would have been easy. But then Jack left…. this job is a part of who I am and…the last time that I even remotely thought about leaving and letting go of this world, Jack left me. I know it’s stupid- “

“Kensi Marie Blye, do you love this man?”

Kensi’s heart flutters at the question. “More than anything,” she answers.

“Then understand this- Love isn’t perfect and it sure isn’t easy. Neither your father and I nor any other couple that I’ve ever met had all their problems solved before getting married. There are going to be challenges that you two will face and you will work through them as partners. You both come to that understanding and you can do anything.”

Kensi nods and manages a weak, heartbroken smile. Thanks, Mom.

Finally, with a reprieve from her mother and Deeks’ mother, Kensi returns to Deeks’ room to find him still unconscious and thankfully, still breathing.

“I was discharged this morning, baby, and it feels good,” Kensi says. “I mean, I still feel like crap but being able to not be confined for the bed for weeks is amazing. Sam had another procedure late last night for his leg and we won’t know for a few weeks the impact of it. Callen checked out this morning and you can tell that’s he’s blaming himself for this.”

Her fiancée’s hand twitches slightly, the timing almost like a response. It isn’t the first involuntary response he’s given her in the days after being intubated and yet it still causes Kensi’s heart to skip. At least he isn’t wheezing or seizing.

Kensi sits on edge of the bed and continues, “Still haven’t heard from Hetty, but I’m not overly surprised by this. Mosley came and I’m too tired and too angry to think about how I feel about her. Also, my mom gave me good advice about marriage and it sounds much easier than it is. So much easier. And Hidoko-“

Something in the corner of her eye, something she can’t quite explain, suddenly catches Kensi’s attention. Deeks’ hand has twitched again, this time enough to leave an indent in the blanket. An anxious breath leaves Kensi’s lips before she watches her fiancé’s fingers slowly close into a fist.

He’s- no, he’s waking up? Kensi’s mind and heart begins to race as she calls out, “Deeks? Baby?”

Kensi kisses his forehead and forces herself to take calm, even breaths. The last time Deeks had showed signs of waking up is still so clear in her mind, especially the moments where he couldn’t breathe. “If you can hear me, squeeze my hand. I know it’s hard, but you need to push through and come back to me.”

“Mmm....”

Kensi gaps and covers her mouth with one hand, exclaiming happily, “Yeah! That’s it! It’s okay, it’s ok!”

Deeks lets out what sounds like a whimper and scrunches his face in pain and confusion. For a moment, Kensi feels her heart begin to race uncontrollably as she focuses on the heart monitor, praying that it continues.  “Stay with me, baby. Come back to me.”.

Deeks’ eyes flutter open briefly before his eyes close and he settles back into the bed. Kensi drops her head in defeat and shakes her head disappointedly. When she decides to return her gaze back to her fiancé after a few minutes of deafening silence, she expects to see her find him still unconscious. Instead, Kensi finally sees the most beautiful thing she’s seen in a long time.

Marty Deeks- her fiancé, her partner and best friend- finally conscious.

[winmance]

This chapter was beta by @riverfinl

“So, Jared, how are you feeling today?” Doctor Morgan asked, taking his notebook out of his bag.

“Good,” Jared said, but there was now conviction with it; and they both knew it was a lie. He’d been awake for three days, and no one came to see him.

Someone dropped his homework, but he had been asleep. It was probably Marta since he heard her walking into his room, and Jared could’ve sworn he felt it when she dropped a kiss on his forehead. He wished he had had the force to wake up, but the medication was still to strong for him.

“Did you sleep well?” Doctor Morgan asked.

“Yes.”

“No nightmares?”

“No,” he lied again.

Doctor Morgan – JD, frowned, and Jared didn’t know if he was trying not to laugh at how evident the lie was or trying not to shake him for not telling him the true. Both, probably. The first time Jared saw JD, he thought it was a joke. There he was, unable to stand up, unable to move his legs or his arms, in front of a man who looked more like a biker than a doctor with tattoos on his hands and arms and cigarettes on his desk. The room wasn’t white like the other rooms of the hospital. No, here, there were drawings, posters, and pictures on the walls along with soda cans on the floor, and if Jared hadn’t known he was in a hospital, he would’ve  thought he was in a teenager room.

JD didn’t ask him right away some deep and meaning question. In fact, he stayed on the surface for most of the sessions, simply asking him what his favorite shows was or his favorite food. It was like hanging out with a friend, and Jared quickly started to open up a little more; and without realizing it, he was talking about the problems he had in school and at home. He left Jensen out of it though.

“Alright then. You seemed really good for someone who jumped in a ravine,” JD said.

Jared bit his lips without answering. He knew what JD was doing. It wasn’t about humiliating him; it was about forcing him to face what he did, to make him talk, but it still didn’t work. Jared wouldn’t talk, and if he wasn’t in a wheelchair, he would be out of the room in a heartbeat.

“So, did you catch on your homework?”

“Yeah, well, not everything. I’ve missed almost two weeks of school, so there’s a lot to catch up on.”

“You’re telling me,” JD said, putting some chocolate on his desk. Jared wondered if the nurse told him that he wasn’t eating, or if he was trying to buy him with candies. “Why don’t you ask your friend to help you?”

“I don’t…I don’t really have friend”

“Yeah? What about the one who dropped your homework?”

“Marta? She’s…She’s not really my friend. I mean…We just talked sometimes, but I don’t think she wants to spend time with me.”

JD frowned again, but this time, he looked more intrigued than anything else with a little smirk appearing on his face, and it was Jared’s time to frown.

“Marta?” JD questioned.

“Yeah,” Jared simply replied, still trying to figure out what was happening.

“Marta as… She’s a girl, right?”

“Well, I mean, I think she is?” He was pretty sure Marta was a girl. If she’s not, then she wanted to be called one; and he won’t call her otherwise.

“How is she? Physically, I mean.”

“Oh, uh, she’s…She’s pretty with black hair and brown eyes. She’s Hispanic, tall, and maybe a little overweight.”

“I see,” Doctor Morgan said, scratching his beard. “So she’s not a football player with brown hair, freckles and green eyes?”

Jared’s heart stopped immediately, and his face must have shown something because JD smiled, apparently happy with himself.

“Did… Did Jensen come?” He whispered, fear and hope mixing in his mind, making his voice shake.

“Yeah, well, I don’t know his name, but if he matched the description then it’s him. Marta came too.”

Jensen was here? Why? Why hadn’t he stopped to see him? Maybe it wasn’t for him. Maybe someone else is at the hospital, and he was just visiting them?

“He dropped my homework?”

“Yeah, between other things,” JD leaned on his chair, watching as Jared got more and more excited by the information he was giving him.

“Other thing? What do you mean?”

“What I mean is that maybe you should ask him?”

“I don’t… I don’t think he’ll come back,” Jared said, swallowing hard as he tries to push his emotions back.

“You may be surprise, Jared. Maybe there are more people that care about you than you think.”

Jared didn’t answer, but the sentence stayed in his mind.

If so many people cared about him, where were they when he needed them?

They all knew what was going on, and yet, they didn’t do a thing. Jensen took Chad’s side; he made it pretty clear. So why would he come now?

“I want to propose something to you,” JD said, his serious expression back in place. “It’s a group session, where the person of your choice comes. It may be your parents, Marta, or Jensen. They can all come together, and we’ll talk about you.”

“I’m not sure I want to know what they think of me,” Jared laughed. “My parents didn’t even come. The staff called them. I called them, but they didn’t come. They didn’t even pick up the phone.”

JD sighed, his face showing a mixture of pity, sadness, and embarrassment. Jared didn’t want his pity. He didn’t want anyone’s pity.

“I know, Jared. I’m very much aware of it, but maybe they would agree to this? Send them a message, and we’ll see. If no one comes, we will do our session as usual. It’s our what? Seventh session together? I love being with you, I truly do, but I feel like we should focus on your relationships outside of the hospital. Of course, we’ll still have our private session”

Jared thought about it for a moment. He didn’t have anything to lose after all. He didn’t think his parents will comes, but Marta will probably. Jensen… He didn’t know if he should text him or not.

“I don’t have my phone” He said, only now realizing that he was still not allowed to have it. The only time he was allowed to use it was in Jeff’s office when he wanted to call his parents. Other than that, it stayed locked in JD office for his own safety.

“You can use it here, but I need to see what you’re doing”

“Yeah, but I’m still not sure of who I want to be here.”

“Well, who are you sure about?”

“My parents, I guess. I don’t want my sibling to come, they’re too young.” He stopped, thinking for a moment, “I… I don’t think Marta should come. I mean… She never done anything, we’re not even that close.”

“She seemed to care about you.”

“I… No. It’s… No.”

“Alright. You’re the one choosing here. What about Jensen?”

“I… I don’t know.”

“I see,” JD said, taking Jared’s phone out of his drawer. “Text your parents. Then you go back to your room, and when you make your decision, you come here. I’m working until two a.m. today, and I will tell Doctor Lucas that you’re allowed to text Jensen.”

“Yeah, ok. Uh, his name…His name is Jack, in my phone.”

“Jack?”

“Yeah, it’s… A nickname.”

JD didn’t answer right away, simply looking at Jared like he was trying to find all the answers to all his questions. Jared wouldn’t admit it out loud, but it was nice to have someone carrying so much about him, even if he knew it was only because of his job.

“You know we’ll need to talk about your relationship with Jensen, right?”

“I know,” Jared said, sending the text to his parents.

JD smiled before walking him out, and a nurse dragged him to his room, as usual. He could do it alone, but they always refused. He didn’t know if it was because of the wheelchair or because he was suicidal. He asked JD, and the only answer he got was that he was too pretty to walk alone in the hospital. That got a laugh out of Jared, the first one in a long time.

It was stupid to say, but he liked JD. He was a nice, really nice, but he knew that it was his job to be nice with his patients; however, Jared couldn’t help but think that JD liked him too. It was great to be able to talk to someone, even if Jared wasn’t really cooperative.

“Lucia?” He asked before the nurse left the room. “Did you… Did you see a boy, around my age, coming to give me my homework?”

“Jensen Ackles? Hard to miss him.” She winked before laughing, and he tried to smile, shoving back the little bit of jealousy that was growing inside of him. Jensen wasn’t his, and he had to understand that.

“Yeah. If you see him again, could you tell him to come in my room?” He could see how her brain was working by the way she smiled, her cheeks getting red as her smile went wider. “No, it’s not-I think there’s a page missing, and I can’t do the rest of my exercises.”

“Of course, I’ll tell him to come help you with your “exercises”.”

She laughed as she walked out of the room, ignoring Jared as he yelled after her.

He was left alone in his room once again, but his mind was lighter than before.

He was supposed to go home in a few days, but he wasn’t sure if it was a good idea. As weird as it sounds, he was happier in the hospital than he was in his own house. He didn’t even know if his parents would want him, and maybe he was just trying to avoid having to deal with the truth.

He spent the rest of the day watching TV or pretending too. His mind only focusing on Jensen, and if he should or shouldn’t tell him to come. Would he come if he invited him?

At five pm, he had his reeducation. Since he couldn’t do hard work because of his chest injuries, the doctor did most of the work, but it was still tiring. His legs hurt, and he hated not being able to do anything except lie down. The doctor told him that he would be able to do reeducation in the pool soon, and he couldn’t wait to be able to move on his own again, even if it was just in the water.

When the nurse putted him back in his bed, he tried to stay awake but fell asleep in no time, the little energy he had gone. He kept having nightmares, vivid ones, where he could feel and live everything that was happening, and sometimes, he wasn’t sure if it was real or not. He knew he should probably talk about it with JD, but he couldn’t find himself to do so .

If you like my work, you can buy me a coffee here

Tags : @mereka18 @dreaminblue67 @meganwinchester1999 @iheartjohnlock @sammygurl976-blog @daddycasstiel @andyoucallthisapocalypse @golly-god

[oasisfound]

An Afternoon Haze Pg 3 Ch1 The sun was setting and darkness would soon be upon them. And still, he could see the wreckage behind him, too far to turn back, too close to be a decent distance. He closed his eyes, beginning to shake the uncertainty and guilt creeping in... “Come on now, we can't keep our eyes back there, we need to keep going- it was fun! No...don't say that. It still hurts too much” he shuddered and continued onwards. Dragging Ables makeshift sled as he pressed through the ever-deepening blizzard... he had been too afraid to check for a pulse in the last hour...two...three hours?...the sun was moving so swiftly perhaps it was just a few minutes. But his knees ached, now his head hurt...shut up shut up...you couldn't save them “STOP” looking down at his browning petals, he noticed his motion had been slowed so severely to the frost; it had crawled under his jacket and began stabbing through his flesh.He observed the frost..exquisite designs, scorched into his skin...and he started marching on once again. The sun had reached Paradises opening and was casting beams of golden, once hopeful light throughout the snow, Elliot closed his eyes, biting his lip hard...he couldn't block out the memories...he had to relive it, he had to…So... This is how it happened. It was the day we were going to make a point. We were going to speak out against the religious massacre. We were going to bomb the lower storeroom where our parents maintained all the artifacts. It was one bomb one small bomb. Its radius was tiny it wasn't anything it would've barely wiped out the artifacts. We double, triple checked, it even had glitter in it, it was supposed to coat the lower cellar in glitter and ash. But something else transpired.Think…Think…What went on just hours ago… “This one's going to be big. We’ll show them those stupid artifacts are just hurting the people around them” “Elliot I think you’re taking out some pent-up aggression on old collectibles…” “NAH. anyhow it is going to be fabulous. It’ll coat the whole lower cellar in glitter” “oh yeah perfect then they’ll know exactly who did it.” “A bit late I already set it up…” “You- what? Without me.” “I told you my plan, you’ll have no part in it Able, you’ve gotta keep up the perfect child look” “Where’s no perfect child look” “Good good, keep it up, they’ll never suspect us” KNOCK “yEllOW?”  From beyond the closet door came the ear wracking ring of Lady Elizabeth’s voice. Elliots Fiance. “I’ve been out on the balcony all day waiting for you! You just left me standing there looking like a complete fool. You made me look stupid. You hurt me AGAIN. You’re the absolute worst possible Fiance I've ever had that’s lived this long and HONESTLY. I can’t wait for you to bite the dust after all you’ve put me through.”  “Can we maybe put her in the basement-” “No. go talk to her Elliot. You really need to get it together, you know how her father is, keep this up and you won't make it past the first hour.” “Might be the preferable option…” “well would you rather take the pledge of chastity-” “NOPE!” Elliot kicked the door out, spinning around and taking her hand gently “I’m terribly sorry to have left you there, again, on purpose” “At least I'm trying to make this work, you’re a child.” “A child shouldn't be married off~” “Oh, whatever. Just dance with me and look pretty. You’ll be dead by sunrise” “Oooh, fun, I'm sure I will be.” And we danced and danced...and danced...it, was actually nice...I should’ve been kinder to her...I should've seen it from her side, how horrible it to be treated with such distance before death. We danced for hours and I was bored sick. I made it clear too, I hurt her, and at the time I didn't care...we talked so much about wanting each other dead, but she didn't deserve it… The banquet. “I could probably eat all of this in one bite” “Yeah, and it would be disgusting.” “Aaaooooommmmn” “Oh wow look at that, I was right, you’re a pig” “You’re jusht jealoush “  Able couldn’t stand looking at me, heheh… But what was he looking at...no, who. Taking a moment off himself he realized there was someone else in Ables vision, someone that caught his eye not just once but twice...and not in a good way. ...ah, an Ebonwood. Lady Elizabeth family, a father more likely...Able was watching him like a Hawke, probably covering my dumbass as always…Fast forward...who was in the gala, looking at creepy pictures of my uncle...someone id never really seen before, I didn't pay much attention then, but he feels so familiar...brown hair, dead eyes, pale skin, wheelchair...why do I know that? Ugh...whos next then... mom, dad…? “No no no, can’t do it, nope, they’re fine, they’re ok, they’ll catch up.” He started to shake again “This was supposed to help c-c’mon I get it I was an asshole, b-but I didn't cause this I didn’t I just lived I lived and others might've too so did Able, and all the ones with wings, that's like a lot of them, a lot of them lived, it wasn't me” His legs caved and he hit the snow. “N-no c’mon. C-c’mon they’ll be fine” He started to curl up “S-stop it body s-stop it, we need to keep g-going” He felt his eyes shut, flashes of his mother and father coming to the surface. “S-stop s-stop.” The sun was setting...and the frost creeping under his petals. “I can't make it on my own…” “I'm sorry…” his petals began to shift black, he felt the sludge creeping up his throat and down his eyes “Let go~” his petals flared into the sky, he was pulled up by his back and thrown onto his feet. A wave of black swept over the snow and an eye began to open on his forehead “FUCK. OFF.” Elliot punched the eye, sending himself backward, the eye squinted, and shut. “S-stay down.” he shivered, shutting his eyes, covered in freezing sweat, he squinted, looking into the distance...headlights...about six of them...scavengers. Elliot dragged himself to his feet, quivering as he raised a hand to the sky, a beam of light shooting up from the snow reflecting through the final of his shimmering gold petals, and creating a lance. Untying the cord from his waist he took a defensive stance...and watched...seven headlights...tinted green...a gang without a doubt… He stood his ground, prepared to fight. And as they arrived, circling, blaring their horns, flashing their lights. His ears dropped, he winced but stood tall...no idea where they were, his shaking was evident, becoming more violent as they laughed, his petals changing darker once more, he felt the sludge crawling up his legs. A silhouette made sharper before him, a woman, advancing gradually, reaching a hand out “a Zephline all the way out here? So you must know what transpired” “SH-SHUT IT” he raised his spear, and she pushed it aside with ease, she pressed her hand to his forehead. A wave of green shooting out from him as she pulled forth a necklace of emeralds. Grabbing him by his collar she lifted him up, looking to Able. “get that one too” The dark shot up to him like fractures in ice pitch-black arteries filling his skin, petals falling and skin turning white. The eye opened and two thorn horns jet out from his skull “oh that was a mistake bitch.” They dug their sharpened talons into her chest ripping out a chunk of flesh, she dropped them, tumbling to her knees, he kicked her down turning to the men who already had pulled the emeralds from Able. “heheh...back. The fuck. Off.”  He charged, ripping into the first man, while the other stabbed him in the side twice or thrice, sending him down clawing and punching, a third being stepped forth and pressed his hand to his forehead. And the last thing they could Manage was a gargled, defeated laugh.   “The afterlife feels funny…” Elliot opened his eyes, sitting in a field of turquoise, on a mountaintop overlooking hills and seas… “there’s no way I made into the elysian fields.” he looked around with a rising grimace “there's no way Able didn't.” he rubbed his head closing his eyes “no...this isn't okay at all, but wherever I am I'm not ready to wake up yet…” he sat down “so...ill wait till I'm ready to wake up…” and there he sat, playing with grass and blossoms, gradually beginning to sense the dull aches drawing him nearer to awareness. “Did you hear that? I think he said something” “He's just breathing Plant boy, dead people don’t breathe so be glad he's at least doing that.”   The scavenger muttered, putting on tea in her warn down tiny shack of a house, everything compressed to two rooms and dawning two windows with a skylight. She sat by the old wood stove, watching Elliot with narrowed eyes, bandaged, surrounded by warm embers with blankets stacked up, a few poorly put together tubes attached him to a DIY iv. Bandages wrapped around his chest and arms “the frostbites pretty bad, if he doesn't pull through in the next week I'm pulling the plug.” “no, no-no. I’ll pay you” she raised an eyebrow “with what? You’re a nobody”  “you’re a mechanic right?”  “scaven-gggg you know what, yeah sure I'm a mechanic.”  “we’ll, I could help you out with your shop”  “pfff. What shop.”  “We could..make one?”  “I'm not making a shop to keep your brain-dead brother alive.” “then don't do it for him, do it because you want to! and ...also because I really need your help…” “fine~ but like I said. If it doesn't work in one week, he's out. And so are you” Able let out a relieved sigh, sinking back “This is doable”  “PFFT. hah. Sure.” She sat back, pouring tea into a can, and handing it to Able “calm before the storm I guess. Sip up” “no rest for the wicked…” “yeah whatever, so like, do we steam this vegetable or how do you hydrate it” “I could just stick his hand in some water and as long as he gets light he’ll be ok” “Your plants are so...weird. And kind of impressive, if I got cut and just needed some sunshine that’d be-but you plants are usually stuck up so nevermind~” “not all..” “said all.” “point taken, do you have any paper I could use? I have some ideas for your shop” “Already?” “my brother's life is on the line, I’ll be working at this until we get your shop up and flourishing.” “you don’t want to investigate how you got out there?” “what I don’t know can't hurt me, right now is what's important, and right now he’s losing time the less I work” “ok ok desperado.” she scoffed, handing him some paper and a charcoal pencil “thank you…” “uhuh.” she eyed him as he worked, sketching out blueprints and floor plans, signs and locations, he seemed to have a good idea on her inventory “I keep a keen eye out on everything...well...I feel like it's a habit anyways…” 

“is mind-reading also one?” Able bellowed out a deep, gentle laugh. “ I try not to do it too much” Her eyes widened “Ok ok not really, we can't read minds, I don’t think so anyway” “let’s hope not. For your sake.” Able moved Elliot's palm into a little dish of water, and opened a window over him, kissing his brow and heading outside to start demonstrating his ideas to the Scavenger, her back and front yard consisted of a junkyard that Able was determined to organize, build and prepare for selling spare parts and presenting his trash to treasures vehicle repair service.  Their distant voices brought a tiny smirk to Elliot's lips, sitting in this dull dark pain, listening to his brother work, so long as Able was in earshot, Elliot could count on him...and focus on this long patient recovery...hours of sitting, unable to even open his eyes. It was pure torture. But so long as he had Ables voice to guide him...He knew he could pull through on top.

[kdfrqqg]

French Perfume Part 14

Crowley x reader Summary: Reader receives a gift from a secret admirer. Reader learns about her special gifts. This part of the story Crowley and the reader have been dating for a bit with some complications. Warnings: language, sexual talk but no smut

Word Count: 2.5 K

Catch up here: French Perfume Series

The promise of Dean’s tacos with all the bad fats lead your nose to the savory smell of the kitchen.  Cas was helping Dean put the tacos together and Sam was sitting at the table with his laptop up clacking away on the keyboard.  

“No computers during dinner.” Dean told Sam as you and Crowley sat down.

“But I think I got us a case.” Sam complained.

“Don’t care.  They can wait until after we eat.” You watched the two brothers argue.

“Really Dean?”

“Yes, really!” Dean could be King of the sass when he wanted to be. “I’ve been cooking for an hour and it’d be nice to have a family meal.  The monster will still be there in thirty minutes.”

Sam mumbled something before putting his computer on the counter just out of arm’s reach. “So can we talk about the case?” You asked Dean.

“Yeah, sure, we can talk about work.” Dean replied.

“Ok so what do you think it is?” You turned and addressed Sam.

“I’m thinking it’s a wraith.”

“Ooh ooh I call dibs on being the crazy person this time.” You shot your hand in the air, knowing typical wraith MO.

“You’re going on this hunt, Love?” Crowley asked out of concern.

“Yeah, I’ve been itching to hunt something for awhile.  I’ve been so focused on solving our problem. Is that ok?” You weren’t used to asking permission but you thought it was necessary now since you had someone actually waiting for you at home.

He took your hand, “yes of course, just be careful.” He kissed your cheek.

Dean brought over a huge tray of food, “Alright dig in.”  Cas and Dean sat next to each other and Dean reached for Cas’ hand before whispering in his ear. By the smile on Cas’ face you could only assume it was ‘I love you’ or ‘thank you’. Dean looked at you “I’m guessing that charm thing works.”

“Oh yeah!” You nudged Crowley a little. “Cassie, thank you so much again. Oh, Baby, we should do something nice for your mom.”

“Agreed, maybe a nice condo in Boca.” Crowley hummed, you winked back in agreement.

Everyone grabbed at the food, you noticed how you and Crowley were holding hands and Cas and Dean were still as well. You couldn’t help but think Sam needed someone too.  “um we are going to have to get you a girl cause you are now the fifth wheel, Sammy boy.”

“Well when I meet someone, I’ll bring her around.” Sam told you sarcastically.

“You know who you would be great with.” You smiled.

“You told me before, I don’t think so.” Sam cut you off not wanting to go down that rabbit hole again.

“Oh no, you don’t get to say something like that and not tell the class.” Dean commented.

You look at Sam and he motioned you to tell everyone, “I think him and Jody would make an awesome couple.”

“Oh Miss Mills, she is lovely. Good choice.” Crowley chimed in.

“How did I forget? You two went on a date once.” You chuckled before you punched him in the arm “never hurt her again.”

“Oh my honor.” Crowley wrapped his arm around you.

“No, no, no, Jody is like our mom. She is the wrong choice for him.” Dean argued.

“Cas, tell him that I have a keen ability to make a love match.” You glared at Cas.

“It is true, she is able to determine compatible souls.  I would trust her, Siphons like Cupids pull their powers from love and are able to sense a possible match.” Cas clarified.

“Ok let’s hear your reason why.” Dean addressed.

“Hear me out guys,” your hands were expressive, “so men marry their moms right?”  

All the guys shook their heads except for Dean. “But he didn’t know his mom.”

“Sam may have not known Mary but he had you as his mom.  And Jody is probably the closest thing to a female version of you, Dean.”

“What? I don’t see it.” Dean kept playing devil’s advocate, knowing that you wanted the best for Sam.

“Really! She’s strong, smart, compassionate, loyal.  She is an amazing mom and kick ass hunter.  She is totally you.  Oh plus she’s hot for an older woman.” Dean tilted his head and conceded to your points.

“Ok ok, next time we’re up in South Dakota. I’ll see about asking her out.” Sam threw up his hands. “But I make no promises.  She may not even like the idea.”

“Dude have you seen you? She’s gonna like the idea.” You said with a fake New Jersey accent.

“So are Cas and I, a good match?” Dean asked.

“Oh yeah, cause girls always marry their fathers.” You chuckled and Sam spit out his beer in laughter.

“Oh my God. I never saw that before but damn Cas is so much like Dad.” Sam high fived you.

“Is not!” Dean got flustered.

“Is too!” You yelled back.  “I knew John.  When you first meet Cas he was totally John maybe not so much now, but it’s still there.”

“Fine. If I won’t with Cas, who would you pair me with?” Dean asked.

“That’s easy, Donna.” You replied.

“Now that I definitely see that too.” Sam said.

“She is very beautiful and nice.” Cas added.

“Dean loves himself some lady cops. Remember that hot blonde one in that little town in Texas that I bet you I could pick up. Damn, she was fine.  I rocked her all night.” You brought up.

“Wait you like women too?” Crowley looked at you surprised/excited.

“Ahh yeah, I guess we never really talked about that.  But if you ever want to spice things up I don’t mind sharing you. We could pick up a cute blonde or brunette with big boobs, she’s gotta have big boobs, and we could lick you like a lollipop.  Or better yet you could pound her while I lick her good.”

“On that note, I think you just gave all the men at the table a boner.” Dean joked and looked at Cas’ growing crotch area. “Don’t worry hunny, I’ll take care of you in a bit.” Dean nibbled on Cas’ ear.

“That is so hot.  I volunteer as tribute whenever you two want to spice things up.” You giggled, getting a side eye from Crowley. “of course with my boyfriend’s permission.”

Within a few hours, you and the Winchesters were on the road headed to a small city somewhere in Colorado.  Dean saw you smiling in the rearview mirror only 30 minutes away from the bunker, “you really are going to miss him aren’t you?”

“Yeah.” You smiled taking the time to properly blush and think about how much you really were going to miss him. “But this is good.  Us off to hunt monsters together.  This is my first hunt since Crowley and I got together. Nothing’s changed right?”

“Ummm have you seen those powers you got. Yeah, that’s a game changer now.” Dean commented.

You formed a blue ball of light from your hands, “I guess you’re right. I can’t wait to use these in action.”

“(Y/N/N)” you hummed at Sam, “I wouldn’t use those too openly.  If other hunters find out they may try and kill you.  They don’t know you like we do.”

“Don’t worry about it.” You made the glowing orb disappear.  “It’s not something that I would show to just anyone and I know to only use them when I’m really in trouble.” Both men looked at each other with silent nods knowing that you understood what it took to keep your powers a secret.

It was little harder than you were hoping to get yourself inside the facility since it was an retirement home that the wraith was terrorizing and not a mental institution.  So here you were three days later, pushing little old Ms. Gill down the hallway in a wheelchair, she was a nice lady who went to the bathroom a lot but it could be worse.  Sam was working with Mr. Thompson, who was a mean old son of a bitch that kept pinching your ass.  While Dean on the other hand was in charge of some of the more incapacitated patients, plus he was a favorite of all of the nurses.  Even though he was with Cas, he could still pull out the charm that made all the ladies swoon.  It didn’t take you long to try and test everyone with silver or a mirror that would have had access to the patients.  This was beginning to wear on you, who the hell was it? You needed to gank this bitch and soon.

The phone in the pocket of your scrubs vibrated as your turned the corner to Ms. Gill’s room.

Crowley: Love, I miss you. Be careful.

You smiled and looked down at your feet before replying back.

Y/N: I miss you too.  I love you.

Ms. Gill noticed your demeanor change, “You look happy today.  Was that from your boyfriend?”  

“Yeah it was.” You smiled.

“What’s he like? You know a girl like me hasn’t gotten any in a long time.” Ms. Gill explained making you chuckle.

“Well he’s sophisticated, handsome, a lot older than me.”

“Not like me older?” she questioned.

The truth was closer to yes but you knew you had to lie. “Um no, no he’s-he’s in his fifties.  So it’s still a May December relationship.” You sat in the chair next to the bed.  “Oh but he’s so caring and generous, the perfect bad boy.  My brothers don’t really like him.  Well they’re starting to come around, it’s been the hardest on Dean because they were friends before we started to date.”

“Like good friends?”

“Yeah, he helped Dean through a rough patch.”

“He seems like he might be one.” She told you.

“Yeah, that’s crazy to even think about but yeah, yeah I think you might be right.” You agreed.

That evening trio went back to the motel with no leads.

“I’m telling you it is the janitor.” Dean proclaimed.

“Dude, I flirted my ass off to get him to stand in front of that mirror.  It’s not him.” You sassed back.

Dean sighed, “You’re right.”

“Maybe we’re looking this wrong.  Could it be a patient?” Sam stepped in.

“Well it ain’t Mr. Thompson, if that’s what you’re thinking.  I smacked him good with my silver ring after he grabbed me.”  You told them.

It was back to the drawing board, laptops opened up and you were sitting on the bed while the Winchesters sat a the small table by the window.   You were about to fall asleep after researching for few hours, when Jarrell popped into your room.

The guys immediately jumped up with weapons drawn, “Your Majesty! Your Majesty!” Jarrell yelled.

You leap up and went to him taking his hands. “Jarrell, what are you doing here?”

“The King sent me. The demons must think he is weak and they are trying to change the timeframe of deals from 10 years to 5 years.” He informed.

“What?  Hell no!  They can’t do that.” You turned to the brothers, “I gotta go stop this.” you hugged both of them, and they kissed you on your cheeks.

“Just be careful, Kid!” Dean said as he squeezed you.

“I will be.  I know just what to do to get these bastards inline.” You marched towards the door, right before you hit it you vanished into thin air.

You appeared right outside the main doors to the throne room.  Pushing the large wooden doors open with a great deal of force, you made your entrance.  The heels of your boots made a loud banging noise that quieted the room quickly, “What the hell is going on here?” You asked in an authoritative voice as you walked towards Crowley.

“Your Majesty, we were just suggesting that we reduce the amount of years someone is given after selling their soul.  This would increase our soul collection by 20%.” The Demon cowered in front of you.  It was clear to everyone that the demons feared you more than Crowley now. He normally held them in contempt and was agitated with them, where as you looked for any redeeming qualities they may have so when you were pissed your whole personality changed.

“No, no, no, no, nooo.” you almost sang your displeasure with their ideas.  “I don’t think so.  First off your plan is short sighted,” you said, looking to Crowley for his approval, “sure you want to increase your numbers now but once word gets out that we’ve reduced the amount of years people get, they won’t want to deal with us anymore. If anything, you wanna increase your long term numbers, then you need to give them more years!” you let that sink in for a moment, the demons started to whisper to each other. “Jarrell?” you tried to find him in the crowd, he was almost always in the back.

“Yes, Your Majesty.” he came forward.

“What would an extra year or an extra five years have meant for you to be with your wife and daughter?” you compassionately asked.

“It would have meant everything, Your Majesty.” Jarrell responded.

“Think about it.  More years is the way to go. Hell, we should be thinking about ways to help them buy back their souls.”  The demons murmured amongst themselves again.  “That is probably not a discussion for today but y’all need to think about.  Believe me we will not be hurting for the numbers. People will still sell their souls, but what we offer is a service and in the service industry you always want to give more to your customers.”

You took Crowley’s hand indicated that you were done speaking, “That settles that.  This meeting is adjourned.” Crowley told them.  The demons exited the room, “Darling, that was brilliant.” He kissed your forehead.

“I didn’t overstep my bounds, did I?” You chewed the inside of your mouth.

“No, I’ve been thinking about increasing the number of years for a long time now.  It’s good to know you are on my side.”

“I’m always on your side.”

“Can you stay, Love?” He asked.

“I want to but we have a wraith to gank.” You sighed not wanting to leave his side.  

“I understand.” Your bodies naturally gravitated towards each other until arms wrapped gently around each other.  He kissed you deeply burning the breath from your lungs, his lips moved smoothly over yours. “Just remember, you can always pop over here and get a little lovin’ anytime you’d like.” His words made you chuckle.

“I’ll have to remember that Baby.” You told him before he let you go back to work.

You popped back into the motel room startling the Winchesters. “Jeez, you are just as bad a Cas.” Dean told you.

“Sorry about that.” you said to them as you looked into the mirror, your lips were all swollen and red.  You loved that feeling of being loved by Crowley.

“And?” Sam asked pulling you away from your day dream.

“Oh yeah there was stay of execution.” you informed.

“Because of you?” Dean questioned a little surprised.

“Yeah, because of me.” you chuckled at yourself, still not believing that you just commanded a room of demons and they actually listened.

“Wow, you might actually change hell.” Dean said as he handed you a beer.

I love all the likes and reblogs but I really do want your feedback. Please leave me a comment; let me know what worked or what didn’t. If you hated it let me know what I could do different. It may determine how I write my next fic.

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[piscespsyche]

Dear Dad

Today, February 27th, is the saddest and most emotional day of the year for me. February 27th also happens to be my birthday. This day wasn't always a sad one. Similar to most people, my birthday used to be met with excitement and joy. However, my excitement and joy were due to a reason the majority of the world will never be able to relate to. You see...my birthday was always most enjoyable because it was my dad’s birthday as well. All of this changed when cancer took him away from me two and a half years ago at the age of 56. Since his passing, my birthday has never been the same.

I've always been, in my opinion, better at expressing myself and my emotions through words. When my father died I wanted people to know what sharing a birthday with a parent is like. I wrote the most heartfelt letter that I've ever written so that I could unleash my emotions to those attending the funeral. As I was unable to hold myself together, my step-sister read my letter on my behalf. Today, on our birthday, I am going to share my utmost emotional outpouring.

Dear Dad,

No amount of words would do justice to describe the degree of pain I'm in having to write this letter. A letter being written far sooner than I imagined; far sooner than I hoped. My greatest fear now being realized. The fear of having to continue on this journey of life without you by my side. My biggest fan and I your biggest fan. A unique bond between father and son. A bond forged by destiny. The same destiny that decided I would be born on your, very own, birthday. Like father, like son. We never needed a lot of words to explain how we felt about each other. A simple look was all it would take. There was no mistaking the love gleaming from your eyes everytime you saw me. I know you love me very much. You also know that I love you very much. The last 3 years have been extremely heartbreaking. Watching you live a life of pain and sorrow. I know you never wanted me to see you that way but you never showed it. You would always keep a smile on for me. You would always gain more strength to put up a fight for me. You fought as long and hard as you could. You managed to make me even more proud of you at a time you felt your weakest. I wanted to trade places with you. So that the world would not be robbed of a great man. I would be honored to become half the man you are. You have been a wonderful role model and my absolute hero. A hero who never shied away from responsibility. A hero who had a clear purpose. A purpose to take care of his family.

Dad, you truly are a strong man. For you knew this day was coming but you accepted your fate. The fact that your biggest concern was how we, your family, would handle your fate speaks volumes about the type of person you are. Well, Dad, you were right to worry. I will not pretend to be ok when I'm not. Time will never heal this wound, only conceal it. I will cry many nights with memories of you drawing your last breath. Your agony finally coming to an end. The day before you left us I came to see you. I was not prepared to see you in your worse condition since falling ill. Seemingly, no longer responsive, all I could do was cry. As I stood over your bedside, your right arm began to rise and you proceeded to give me a fist bump; you knew I was there. I hope it did not hurt you to see me crying but it wasn't until that day the reality of the situation began to sink in. It meant the world to me knowing that you knew I was there with you. You felt my pain as well as my love as I felt both resonating from you. As a day full of tears drew closer to an end, I remember my thoughts as I climbed into bed. I switched my phone to silent mode then, unlike any other night, I paused. My mind began formulating thoughts of what ifs. What if tonight is the night? What if my family calls? After a minute of having such thoughts, I decided I didn't want to jinx myself. Enough with that negative thinking. Think positively, so I left my phone on silent and went to sleep.

It was a little after 2 am when I awoke from my sleep. I reached for my phone and, as the home screen lit up, I noticed I had 12 missed calls and several voice messages. Immediately I wondered...wondered if I would ever see you again? Did I or could I even fathom seeing you again? Did I already say my last goodbye or was this my chance for the last goodbye. This brings us to August 24th, the worse day of my life. Loris(my step-mom) had to convince me to come to the hospital to see you that day. I know you would have understood my not coming. But despite that, I did want to say goodbye one more time, as a family. One last time, all of us together. Loris, Tim(my brother), Talisha(my step-sister), and I surrounding you with our everlasting love. A love that has no end. A proper family farewell; the way you would have wanted. For all the love you've always projected onto your family we owed it to you and we wanted nothing more than for you to know we were there until the very end.

That day started out as a typical August summer day. It was hot and the sun was shining brightly. I remember getting home and going straight to sit on my balcony. I looked up at the sky and noticed dark clouds moving in simultaneously as my eyes began tearing up. By the time the tears reached my face, the rain poured towards the ground. It was as though we shared one last cry together. Rainy days will forever hold a place in my heart for you. A heart full of so much void right now. A void that can never be filled or replaced. Yes, I know Dad, you would want me to be happy. But you're also the only person who can understand if I'm not. An unexplainable love. An undeniable love. Only you know my true heartache because only you and I could understand our bond. The bond that all started on February 27th, the day I was born. The day you were born. How will I ever view that day now when I was always more excited that it was your birthday? I still have the last voicemail you left on my phone. I keep it so that I can hear your voice anytime I want. You sounded tired, a bit weak even. But you were so upbeat and in a good mood. You didn't have any money for the vending machine and you wanted some snacks. You were so silly on the phone and it made me laugh; it made me smile. I remember bringing money and getting you those snacks the next day. I remember getting you in a wheelchair, wheeling you to the vending machine, and then wheeling you outside. It was your first time outside since being at that facility. You were ecstatic to feel the sun beaming on your skin. Even in the face if death, you were so full of life. I miss you with all my heart. You were, and still are, my everything.

We mostly talked sports. A common interest we were never short on words for. It wasn't uncommon for us to sit in silence. But this last year, especially the last few months, we had our most emotional conversations and moments. So, I am thankful that despite not always having the most to say, in the end, we left nothing unsaid. We created a lot of memories to look back on and smile. And look back I will. You will always be on my mind and forever in my heart. I will strive to be the man you are. For you have set the perfect example of one. Please give me strength from above. The strength to overcome such a loss. The strength to carry on each day. Family has always been the most important part of life for you. We will continue to make you proud by continuing to be the family you loved whole heartedly. The family you would still expect us to be. We will forever cherish all of the good times, all of the good memories. But we will forever mourn that day. That last day we were all together in that room. I know you sensed and felt our presence and the love we sent you off with. No more suffering, no more pain. Ironically, the day your pain ceased is the day ours began. Only because we will miss you. Only because we now rely on memories and pictures to see your face.

Loris, Tim, and Talisha have all been very strong through this process. I’m certain that they will get through these tough times. I know you are certain that they will too. As for me, Dad, I know you worry how I will handle all of this. Truth be told, I worry too. But I don’t want you to worry. You know me better than anyone and you know I’m a fighter. So, despite my inevitable breakdowns, sleepless nights, and tear-filled days know that I am fighting hard to get back to living the life you have always wanted me to have. I love you beyond what words could ever describe. I'm devastated that our run has come to an end but oh so grateful for the run we had. So, it's almost back to where it all began. A son, back on his bike without training wheels. A father, guiding his son on the bike for one last push. One last push as I ride off on my own now. And though I ride alone now, I will always look back over my shoulder. I will always look back and see you there. I will always look back and see your smiling face. Until we meet again, Pops...

With all my love,

Steven

[mrneighbourlove]

Snake who Smiles: Ch 6. Means to an End

"I believe we finally have enough evidence to convict Zemalocke." Ralnor presented all that he could to the commander. "The assassins we captured, the underground mercenaries, the pirates from Glacier's Forge, not to mention, the poison... we finally were able to trace it back to him." He planted the files right in front of Malik with a huge smirk. "He paid off the vendor not to talk, but you see, it has to be special ordered from the high mountains of Labrynna and THAT, Malik, is where he forgot to cover his tracks. It is only in season a few times a year and he thought no one would ask about such a plant after it has been months out of season."

Malik carefully went over each piece of information that had been gathered. Once he was done he went through it again, and again. He kept quiet for a moment. "It's still not enough."

"What do you mean it's not enough? We have an order, right there, written directly from Zemalocke! That's his signature for the poison!" Ralnor protested. "What else do we need!"

"It's too old. Not to mention it's just a purchase for a plant. He could lawyer up and say it was for a decoration. We would still need to know where he got an alchemist to make the potion."

"There's only a certain few alchemists who could make such a lethal poison." Ralnor rubbed the sides of his head. "Firstly, they would have to have a knowledge of Lorleidian anatomy. Secondly, he would have to know how to distribute it without detection. There's no such alchemist in Hyrule who knows how..." The prince paused, his words trailing off for a moment. "No, Zemalocke wouldn't hire an alchemist... it would be a way to trace it back to him. No, no, this... this is an inside job. Who on Zemalocke's court has a knowledge of chemistry?"

Malik tapped his fingers on his table in contemplation. "Who indeed..." He reads a file on Zemalocke's closest allies. "Give me some time. We will find something Ralnor. We've been putting pressure on Zemalocke. People under pressure get desperate, and those desperate makes fatal mistakes. His end is coming soon."

"I can only hope you're right, Malik. I honestly don't think my brother can take much more of this." Ralnor tried not to let his shoulders slump when thinking of his elder sibling. "Covarog was beside himself for days on end when Zarazu was nearly on her deathbed. I honestly thought nothing could ever shake him, make him look so defeated..." He trailed off, trying his best to shove aside the negative thoughts. "Well... I did receive one little piece of good news."

"Really? Do tell."

"For the first time in nearly three months, the queen was able to use her first spark of magic." Ralnor smiled quietly at how excited Covarog sounded when relaying the news. "She touched her cup of water and it froze solid!"

That's wonderful! I'm glad to finally hear progress! She may be able to walk again soon." Malik beamed at the thought of her well again.

"Perhaps you'll stop by and see her later?" Ralnor suggested as he put the paperwork into the file to place back with his others. "I'm sure she'll be happy for some company at therapy."

~

"For the last time, Doctor Boveir, I still can't feel my left leg."

"Any feeling in the right?"

"Slightly. I can feel you running that pen up and down my foot."

"What about this?"

"If you poke me with that needle, I'm going to kick you."

"I should hope you can get that leg of yours that high."

"Oh shush."

"Look, you're slowly getting feeling back. That's a good sign rather than no feeling at all."

"And the outlook for me walking by myself?"

"Without the help of crutches?"

"How about we start without a wheelchair first?"

"As soon as you build up enough strength, we'll see."

"... can I at least go outside today to enjoy the sunshine?" Zarazu asked in an exasperated tone. "I thought you were going to bite off my head when I took my twins and Zahirog out to the gardens."

"Your twins can get about just fine, you and your little one can't."

"Luimaya or Turagor could have gotten someone if I needed aid."

"... fine, fine. Just for a bit. The sunshine might do your pale complexion some good."

"Hey!" Queen Zarazu protested. "I'm getting better, surely the goodness I don't look as pale as I did."

"Not as pale, I'll give you that. Soon enough, you'll be chocolate again."

"Chocolate?"

"Tis what the king calls your skin."

"Ah... well, he does like to lick it."

"My queen, do I really need to hear such things?"

"Of course you do, I might have triplets if the King has his way with me too much in the bedroom."

"Well, before you even consider anymore children, you have got to be well." Doctor Boveir started to wheel her out to the courtyard. "Besides, my queen... do you really think you ought to have anymore children with Zahirog's entry being so rough on your body?"

"... do you advise against it?"

"Being a father of ten children and your personal doctor, I'd have to advise you to not have anymore. It might be too risky."

"Very well." Zarazu could not hide her disappointment. Lorleidian families were rather large and so were Gerudos.

"Now, let's think of something else. Come, let's get you on these crutches and see how that left leg behaves."

The Queen struggled a bit as she slowly hobbled her way forward, but she was determined to move past this. Doctor Boveir made sure to help her every step of the way. However, they were not alone.

The Garo Master had been watching the Queen and studying the castle for some time. Her weakened state would ensure no escape. The pair heard a deep laugh that echoed through the air. After he was done he jumped down, almost floating in his landing. His golden mask glowed with the suns reflection and the sunken black eyes starred directly at the Queen. "Zarazu Dragmire. Your angel of death awaits." With that two blades just out of his robes, and he walked towards them, fire igniting his weapons.

Zarazu was wondering how the hell someone could have infiltrated the castle with such high security. Whoever this was, she knew he was serious business. Yet another assassin who wanted her dead. The queen was getting ready tired of all this fighting. However, there was that creeping feeling of fear in her chest. She could barely move her legs as it was and her magic was not all the way back at her fingertips.

Before Zarazu could say a word, Doctor Boveir hefted her up into the wheelchair and took off running at full blast back into the castle. He was pushing the queen and yelling for help.

The Garo Master took a deep breath a jumped into the air. He made this almost sonic sound as he jumped up. They would not get away.

"I didn't know you could run so fast at your age!"

"When I'm scared shitless, of course I can run fast."

"But you're a doctor not a warrior!"

"I'm a man who has ten kids, of course I have to learn how to run fast!"

Sliding around a corner, Doctor Boveir was trying to get to the inner part of the castle. If he could just reach Covarog, or someone to help, this situation would turn better. For now, he had to focus on not letting the queen get killed.

That sonic sound returned as the Garo Master simply landed behind Doctor Boveir and cut deeply into his back side, the weight of the blades sinking in deeply. Blood sprayed out and stained the floor.

Doctor Boveir did not scream or yell as the blades made contact, merely gasped in pain as his knees buckled. He lost control of the wheelchair, causing it to topple as he went down to the floor. Zarazu rolled out of it, unhurt for now. Groaning, the queen quickly reacted and started scooting backwards by her hands. Her legs were still too weak to run and she looked for anything to defend herself. Gritting her teeth, she managed to form just a spark of ice around her fingertips, just sharp enough to cut.

"You stay away from me!"

The Garo Master pointed his flaming sword at Zarazu's ice, and the Queen could see that the tips were dripping. "This is your end."

As he raised his blade he heard the sound of an arrow fly and turning barely deflected it with his second blade. Turning to his attacker he saw an older woman in green with blonde sharp hair in locks and a ponytail. Her stance held confidence as she put the bow away, opting to draw a sword. She gave a light smile to her sister in law, brimming with courage, resolve, and hope. "Hey Zarazu, you ok?!"

"I'm fine, Boveir is hurt and he's not moving!" Zarazu told Rinku as she had her back plastered against the wall. Her chest was heaving from the adrenaline. She was trying her best to will her legs to move, but all she could do was shake. "Kick his ass!"

Rinku gives Zarazu a thumbs up before giving the Garo Master her full attention. "Hmm a Garo huh? Been a long, long time since I seen one of you."

"You wish to be a hero? Very well. You die. Then the helpless girl." The Garo Master darted towards Rinku, almost bouncing up and down off the floor. Upon connection Rinku raised the shield she grabbed off the wall, pushing the warrior back. He hopped side to side before trying another strike, aiming for her side. Rinku threw her body around him and, rolling into an upwards strike, slashed him across his back. He gave an yelp, but suddenly recovered quickly, and almost hovering, spun both his swords low like a spinning top, and cut into Rinku's thigh. She gritted her teeth and stepped back. He was damn quick that was for sure.

Zarazu managed to crawl over to Boveir. He was still breathing. It seemed the pain just caught him off guard and he managed to lose consciousness. There was blood pouring off of his back, soaking his clothes and staining the floor. There was little the queen could do to help him. Taking off her coat, she placed pressure on his back. This earned a groan from the doctor. The queen gave a sigh of relief when he opened his eyes.

"Boveir? You going to be all right?"

"Nhhh... he didn't... get my spine..."

Rinku's eyes watched closely as the Garo Master hopped back and forth. He was getting to such speeds that the normal eye couldn't follow. To a seasoned warrior such as herself she knew if she faltered she'd lose sight of him for sure.

Malik came in with Prince Ralnor, quickly moving to the Queen. "Zarazu! Are you alright?!"

"Oh goddesses, if you're hurt again, Covarog's going to go flat out insane!" Ralnor helped Malik get Zarazu to her feet. She was still unsteady but could at least balance her weight against the wall. The second prince then turned his attention to his elder sister.

"Doctor Boveir is the one that needs help." Zarazu winced as the pair move her. "Help Rinku!"

Malik turned to see who she was fighting. All he saw was her standing still, and a purple blur, with embers dancing around.

"What on Earth is she fighting?"

"He called himself an angel of death." Zarazu watched as Ralnor helped Doctor Boveir to his feet as well. The physician was in some discomfort yet still alive. "He's so fast and he wears a gold mask."

"Golden Mask?"

Rinku stayed focus on her opponent, drowning everything else out. One move. It would all come down to that. As time slowed down for her she gripped her sword handle. Then it all came to a daring conclusion as the Garo Master burst forward. Their swords clashed and a tear echoed throughout the hall with the sound of blood splattering the wall.

~

Zemalocke paced the halls with his home back and forth. He had waited patiently for this for so long. Then the moment finally arrived. A man walked towards him. To tell the truth he was worried how credible this was. "Tell me, you have the amulet?"

"You do realize how hard it is to find one of these that will work against such magic from a Lorleidian?" The elderly archaeologist asked him as he carried in the box. "Their kind was considered extinct once and now that they're back, it's hard to find such artifacts that will work against them." Opening the box, he revealed the amulet to Zemalocke. It was not anything overly grand, just an odd looking rock with streaks of glowing purple and green. "You wear it, their magic can't harm you.."

"Even the Queen? And you sure it will work?"

"If she is weak like you say she is, then I doubt you'll have any problem." The old man told Zemalocke with a twitch of his moustache. "However, I would advise that you still don't get too close unless necessary. Lorleidians use magic but still know some brutal combat from what I've read. I don't know too much about this queen you dislike, though if I were you, I'd exercise caution."

"That's not what I goddamned asked! I need to know if this could protect me from the magical abilities from all of those monsters, Covarog and Ganondorf included. I'm paying you a fortune for this."

"Oh quit your huffing, it will protect you. I had some of the magicians around town test it, some of the alchemists, dark magic, light magic, old magic, new magic, and even tried it against one of the Lorleidians." The archaeologist closed the box. "Do you want it or not?"

"Give to me you fool!!!" Zemalocke greedily grabbed the box. "With this Zarazu's life will come to an end!!! God knows that assassin will fail I just know it! NO ONE is good enough, NO ONE CAN COME THROUGH! Everyone is such a disappointment. I just needed time to get this." He had a look of mad glee in his eyes as he put the amulet around his neck.

"Maybe if no one can touch the queen you should take it as a hint." The old man collected his bag and headed in the direction of the door. "While that will protect you from magic, it won't protect you from brute force. Don't say I didn't warn you."

"I can handle myself just fine. Now BEGONE!" Zemalocke stormed to see his advisor. "Harry. It's time. Send word to my followers to prepare for their new King to take the throne."

~

Rinku breathed heavy as her sword arm wobbled. The Garo Master stood still as well. However, only one rose. Rinku turned around to see the Garo Master barely support himself with one sword planted into the ground as blood soaked his cloak and he bleed deeply on the carpet.

At Malik's insistence, Ralnor had carried Boveir off to the medical bay while Covarog took Zarazu to safety. It was more important for the King to protect his Queen and children rather than dealing with this assassin. Besides, the king had an inkling that Malik wanted to exact his personal revenge. For once, Covarog did not want to argue. He just wanted this whole ordeal to be over with soon enough. However, luck was not on his side today.

"My king! There's... there's a mob at the gate!"

Rinku kept her distance from the Garo Master. He breathed in ragged pants. "Although my rival....you were spectacular....I shall pardon one piece of wisdom onto you..."

Malik would have to deal with this mob later, but perhaps he could get a confession out of this man first. "Who sent you to kill the Queen?"

The Garo Master looked to Rinku. "It would be normally be dishonorable to give that away. Is that what you wish to know though?"

Rinku nodded. At her answer he threw them a scroll. Looking through Malik felt his heart stop, but for once it was out of joy. A handwritten confession in blood, Zemalocke's order to kill Zarazu. "We got him. We actually got the bastard!"

"Lord Malik!" Tulilad rounded the corner, breathing hard. "We got more trouble coming this way. It seems Zemalocke has finally decided to make his move, the bastard. The mob at the gates is a distraction! There's assassins lose in the castle! We don't know how they got in!"

Rinku gave Tulilad a look and cleared her throat. She gave a quick gesture to the Garo Master.

"Oh... sorry." Tulilad apologized, having not even seen the Garo Master until now. He was so focused on relaying the news to Lord Malik. He stepped to the side for the moment, keeping an eye out for any trouble in the halls.

Meanwhile, Covarog had Zarazu and his children in the safest room in the castle. Ironically enough, it was the old tower where his sister was kept during her pregnancy. It was high away from everything else and the way to it looked to be abandoned. It was merely an illusion and it would do for now.

"Covarog, what are you going to do?" Zarazu asked her husband as he hid the children in the wardrobe. "If they have infiltrated the castle..."

"I'll do whatever necessary to protect you and our children." Covarog told her with a fierce determination. "I'll kill them with my bare hands."

The Garo Master gave a small laugh. "This...is where I leave..."

Malik was about to say something when the Garo Master took out a bomb. "To die without leaving a corpse. That is the way of the Garo."

Rinku's memories flashed back to this. "Shit."

She and Malik ran back as a huge explosion destroyed the floor, wall and every trace of the Garo.

Tulilad was clear out of the way of the bomb as well. Since the Garo Master was no more, the Captain looked at Lord Malik and Rinku.

"Now can we do something about the mob wanting to break in?”

Malik nodded. "Of course. Who is attacking us?"

"Zemalocke and some of his loyal cronies." Tulilad told Malik and Rinku. "They want him to take the throne and get rid of all of Ganondorf's legacy."

Malik had a dark smile form on his lips. At long last. "Apologies in advance towards you two."

"Apologies for what? ... ooohhh..." Tulilad had a moment of realization. "Well... I'll just make sure to keep out of your way then."

"I get to kill Hylians again. I'm going to enjoy cleaning up the trash of your race." Just then a massive explosion was heard, shaking the castle.  Zemalocke was making his final move.

[stargleeksil-blog]

Criminal Minds s04e23 Roadkill review - or more aptly named, cutesy (by CM standards) filler episode that eventually disappointed me in regards to Lynch the Bitch

Episode 23 – Roadkill

Hey guys, so unfortunately tonight I’m only doing this one review … it pisses me off, because I really wanted to go on with this as much as possible so I’ll be able to watch season five already, but alas, I’ve been at work today and straight after I had to take a five hour bus journey down to see my folks for the long weekend. So Shemar and Matthew will have to wait until tomorrow for the last episodes of the season and the beginning of season five.

But, let’s not focus on the negative, and let’s see what happens. All right?

Let’s get started.

Smoking guy. Already a bad sign.

Uh oh, she has a gas leak, that’s not good. Lady. Stop driving!

She just told her friend she might get a bad reception area. Come on. You’re hopeless, sheeple.

Oh dear. He’s gonna run over her. Oh no.

Get off the fucking road! Why didn’t she run sideways instead of forwards? I’m seriously confused at people’s lack of … I don’t know even how to call this.

“Penelope is hoping the migraine she woke up with this morning goes away in time for the Small Wonder marathon tonight.”

Of course, lovely, but why talk to yourself in the third person?

“You decent?” “Never.”

Ha, I love you, lady.

And Lynch the Bitch is back, oh boy.

“Look at you. Did somebody die?”

Ha. Guess it’s seriously bizarre to see him in a suit.

“BAU yearbook photo?”

Oh god, she is so cute.

“I have a job interview.”

Wait. What? Doesn’t he already work for the FBI?

“Hey, rock star, you up for that systems promotion?”

So cute!

“A friend of mine is a headliner for the NSA. Uh, they’re looking for analysts versed in scyber warfare.” Wait. Aren’t hackers and the NSA mortal enemies?

“Really? That sounds exciting.” Aw, I love how supportive she is of Lynch even though it’s obvious it’s wrong.

“Yeah, the job is totally cutting edge.”

You nerd.

“Yeah, it sounds like it. Are you sure you’re gonna want to make the commute to Fort Mead every day?” Oh god, it’s not in Quantico, RED ALERT.

“It’s an overseas position.” Fuck you.

“Where overseas?”

“I can’t say, it’s classified.” For real?

“Are we breaking up right now?”

As much as I hate to see my baby girl broken up over someone, I have to say, finally! “They haven’t hired me yet. It’s my final interview.” Wait. Final?

“How long have you known about this?”

“A few weeks.” Oh darling, you’re in deep guano.

“And is this what you want?” oh god, my heart.

‘I don’t know … the long-distance thing would be rough.’ Wait, what?

“Yeah, it would be, considering you can’t even tell me where you’re going.”

“I could if you applied with me.” Wait. What now?

“Leave the BAU?” No! Hell no!

“I need to get back to work.” Oh god, Lynch is such a bitch!

My baby! Don’t cry!!!! He’s not worth it!

Wait. The fucker who ran over that lady actually backed over her? Damn.

“Two tons of metal make a hell of an impact.” True, baby.

“Easy targets, randomly selected.” So awful.

Poodle!

Wait. The asshole is actually repairing his car after the hit so he can do it over and over again/ Oh god, now I feel sick. I’m regretting that potato.

Booth Tarkington: “I’m not sure about automobiles. With all their speed forward, they may be a step backward in civilization.” Whoa. That’s deep.

“The fact that men have an unnatural bond with their cars.”

“That is true.”

“Wait a minute. I don’t know about unnatural.”

Oh honey.

“I once dated a guy who washed his car more than he washed his hair.” Ew.

“A nice car needs love.”

Oh honey.

Oh Derek.

“And a woman doesn’t?”

“I’m not qualified to answer that.” Oh Rossi, you slick dude.

Derek, you little shit!!!!!

“I’m just saying, big car – it’s phallic.”

Did they just use that word or are my ears impaired from whining coffee addicts?

“Or overcompensating.”

Did my poodle just say that? Oh god.

“Impotent?”

Seriously? I thought we established the rules about hot guys and sexy talk. Ugh.

“Vehicular rape.”

Oh god.

“Rape and thrill kill are two very different profiles.” Are they, though?

Yummy Shemar butt.

“Perfect place for an ambush.”

True.

“You don’t think this was a random attack.”

Oh boy.

“That takes thrill kill off the table.”

Yup.

“Sabotage.”

Yup.

“Sounds like he debadged the truck so nobody could ID him.” Oh boy.

“He might not be working at all. Stalking someone, getting to know their schedule, it’s a pretty serious time commitment.” And how would my poodle know that?

At least the doctor had sense to literally move out of the way instead of running ahead. Phew.

Wait. Never mind.

Why didn’t he run behind the parking cars?

Wait. He flattened a podiatrist? Shit.

“Did you ever smoke?”

“I used to do a lot of things.”

Oh god, I love Emily.

“He field-stripped it.”

“What’s that?”

Taking out the filter then ball up the surrounding paper? Oh boy.

“I think I know what connects the victims.”

They all drove red 2-door coupes.

Seriously?

Oh god.

Look at that floppy, glorious hair. He could be a hair product model. Wait. Was that what he did before this?

“We believe the unsub us ex-military, most likely army or marines.”

Oh boy.

Wait. Didn’t we just see him in a wheelchair? I’m not following this.

Wait. So a guy who drives a red coup, like the victims, came in and claimed guilty for the killings? Why?

Oh. So he hit the dude who is now killing the pour souls who decided to drive a red coup. Got it.

“Did he ever talk about getting even?”

Oh my smart cupcake.

“You had to know this guy was disturbed.”

Uh yeah, drawing killer trucks after being in a car accident … yup.

“Well, there’s gotta be a paper trail, then.”

“Yeah, and that trail leads to a land called nowhere.” Aww.

“My exquisitely educated guess is …”

Oh god, I love this woman to death.

“I smell what you’re cooking, agent.”

Seriously?

“Yeah, Rossi gets a fruit cup with lunch.”

Oh my god, I love Garcia so fucking much.

Oh god.

“Hey, baby girl, I need you to run a plate, fast.”

So he’s finally learned to use a phone? Good.

Oh boy. Oh boy. He’s gonna hit a biker. Fuck.

Wait. So the unsub was driving the red car? I don’t get it.

Did Hotch just seriously drive into that truck? Fuck, he’s awesome.

Shit. Honey. Why did you say you were OK when you’re not?

Aw, his wife is Julia Dever! That’s Seamus Dever’s wife, Kevin Ryan from Castle XD love her so much.

Aw, JJ let Bonner off the hook. So cute.

“Garcia is … contemplating a life of solitude and celibacy.” Never, baby.

So hold on. Kevin didn’t get the job? There was no hiring? The position just went away, someone hacked into the server? Oh god.

“With your delicate stomach, you wouldn’t have been able to stand the food in Karachi.”

Wait.

He never told her it’s there.

Wait. So he didn’t even want to go in the first place if she hadn’t gone with him?

First smart thing he did in his entire appearance in this show.

Ugh. Guess Lynch the Bitch isn’t going anywhere yet.

Mahatma Gandhi: “The human voice can never reach the distance that is covered by the still, small voice of conscience.”

Wow. I love that little Buddhist.

 Okay. So this episode was all kinds of cuteness. I mean, the murder thing was terrible and those victims were just plain dumb, but it did end in a good way. It was really cute. Kind of disappointing because Kevin Lynch didn’t leave the show after all, which sucks balls, because as you all know, I ship Derek/Penelope from the very first season. So yeah. But we got to see Rossi and Morgan talk about how they love cars and the girls judging them, which was awesome.

Overall? Felt like a filler episode, kind of apropos for a late night watch.

Will continue tomorrow as soon as I open the presents my dad got me from his trip to Malta.

See you guys! Thanks again for the love and support, deeply appreciated.