#tiny hammond

[wildtornado-o]

More doodles done with @a-pepper-honey !!! Had lots of fun <3<3<3

[sophaeros]

if i told you that i had two characters who'd written a song about a secretive doomed relationship together and released a poster for it featuring the two of them holding hands as they drove off a cliff together you'd probably tell me to stop being so on the nose but no. it's real and it's called one way trigger by the strokes

[junebug-gel]

jurassic park but i'm just cloning horses and acting like i've brought dinosaurs back and i call in a bunch of scientists to approve my work and they're like ????these are horses????! and im like yes!!!!!! aren't i a mad genius!!!

@smallpox-juicebox

[neonthewrite]

Let's Go (Tiny) Gamers

Today's prompt is video games. It's probably not a surprise, I landed on the classic "lil guy wants to try a viddy game". Decided to go with Adrian and Colfax, with a lil story set sometime after A Little More Trust (DA) (Ao3). AU cowritten with @creatorofuniverses

~~~

“And Sawyer just lets you play in his video game files? He’s not worried about the, uh, the data or whatever?”

Adrian was intrigued. He’d seen plenty of humans talk about the near-sanctity of their video game files. It hadn’t occurred to him that some humans would be perfectly okay letting someone else play their games, potentially altering the story or missing out on things.

Colfax had also been surprised at first. When he lived in a university building, he heard human after human talk about their various games. The occasional story about a “lost file” or a “corrupted save” was always met with a somber air. It always seemed to him that, unless they were playing collaboratively, humans weren’t keen on sharing their games. 

Sawyer, by contrast, had been ecstatic to share his games with Colfax, along with his favorite movies and shows. Colfax had seen a lot more media since he’d decided to stay in the apartment with the enthusiastic human. Some were more baffling than others, though it was often easier to just humor the guy when he wanted Colfax to give something a try, no matter how nonsensical. He hadn’t shown a single sign of being worried that Colfax would ruin his game data.

“He doesn’t seem to care,” Colfax said, not divulging how strange he felt that was. “I sometimes try some games. To humor him.”

Adrian grinned. He could tell that Colfax probably liked the games more than he let on. If nothing else, they were an intriguing thing that most viri didn’t get a chance to play around with very often, thanks to the secrecy of their usual lifestyles. Adrian and Colfax had opportunities many viri didn’t, including being able to live out in the open human apartments, able to trust their much larger friends.

Though Sawyer and Charlie were out for the day, the viri had found themselves wandering the apartment instead of scouting the neighboring ones for possible supplies. They’d done that plenty of times already. This occasion had found them standing on a couch cushion, and a nearby game controller sat waiting for someone to bother with it.

It was big‒easily bigger than both viri combined, though that wasn’t a very high bar. It would fit comfortably in a human’s palms, with the buttons and joysticks in easy reach for just a few fingers. By contrast, Colfax would have to stretch his arms across the thing to hope to reach both sides. That meant Adrian probably wouldn’t stand a chance, with his much smaller frame.

Still. “Do you think he’d mind if I tried it too?”

Colfax shrugged. “Don’t see why not.” With that, he strode over to the controller and placed a hand over the center button. He leaned into it a bit, and with a beep and a flash of bright light, the controller woke from its electronic slumber. Across the room, the console it belonged to beeped in kind, fans whirring to life.

Sawyer had the TV set to respond to connected devices switching on. Soon enough, the TV and the console and the controller were at the ready, showing the game console’s menu.

Adrian hurried over, standing next to Colfax at the controller and taking in the several buttons and brushing a hand over the strange, almost-rough rubber of one of the joysticks. “Maybe I should stick to something simple. I don’t think I can reach all of these.”

Colfax chuckled faintly. He nudged the other joystick to the side, moving to select one of the games downloaded to the console. “I usually can’t,” he admitted, pushing down on one of the other buttons to select an option that he remembered being mostly forgiving. “I’ll help you.”

[elenchi]

Top Gear Series 8: Episode 8

[starshideurfics]

A Mother’s Love

Omega Benny who was part of the MKUltra experiment in college. They took his baby, said he died, but Benny knows in his heart that he would have felt that. He moved to Hawkins after he found out Brenner worked there, hoping to be near his pup.

But with his build he’ll never make it past security.

So he waits, gathers information, and when Terry Ives comes to him with her plan, he asks her to look for his boy.

She’s so focused on finding Jane, Terry doesn’t even have a chance to notice that none of the pups there could be Benny’s boy.

Because he’s already been smuggled out.

The Harringtons aren’t the kind of family to go to a diner, so the first time Benny sees Steve the boy is in middle school, out with his friends. 13-years-old, still unpresented, and his scent makes Benny’s heart ache.

He’s found his pup.

🫂🫂🫂

Steve was a sensitive child. His mother always said so, that he couldn’t stand to see anyone in pain.

He’s grown out of it, or learned to control it now, hides it by fitting in with the popular kids, does his best to get Tommy not to be a dick.

But maybe that’s why.

Why he feels compelled to open the door back to the kitchen while he’s waiting to pay, and finds Mr. Hammond crying.

“Is something wrong?” he asks softly, letting the door close behind him.

“Oh, no…” Mr. Hammond says, wiping at his eyes. “Not wrong. Very right. I got some good news just now.”

“Oh,” Steve says, nodding. “That’s good. Still, are you gonna be alright?”

“Yeah, that’s very kind of you…?”

“Steve. Harrington.”

His face twitches at Steve’s name, but settles into a smile. “Thank you, Steve. Your mother must be proud of you.”

“I dunno about that.” Steve blushes. His mother worked hard to make sure he could get along alright, but she would be upset with him for being nosy. For being noticeable.

“Well, I’ll be out in a minute. Meet you at the register.” He slaps his thighs and gets to his feet, and Steve slips from the backroom.

🫂🫂🫂

Benny doesn’t push. Not that first time. After what happened to Terry, he knows to be careful. But now he knows it. Remembers Marsha Harrington from the lab, one of the kinder nurses.

She must have gotten Steve out, but clearly not very far. Brenner might still know where he is.

But his boy is free.

And closer than he thought.

He calls Wayne Munson, asks to come over that night. Benny needs to make a plan.

🫂🫂🫂

Benny brings burgers and fries over to Wayne’s after he closes up at 10. Wayne’s out smoking on his tiny porch, and immediately pulls him into an apple-cinnamon hug.

He lets himself cry again, being held by his closest friend. Wayne lets him cry, holds off on asking questions.

Once Benny’s cried himself out, they go inside, Wayne grabs a couple beers, and they sit at the kitchen table. “So,” Wayne starts, “Tell me what happened.”

Benny does.

“And you’re sure it’s him?”

“Yeah. It ain’t just that it feels right. It’s Marsha Harrington.”

Benny takes a deep breath. Wayne already knows the basics of what happened, about the weird experiments and the drugs, about the isolation and giving birth too doped up to know up from down. About Terry and Claire, Danny and Paula, the other omegas in the program. His friends.

But he doesn’t know as much about the doctors and nurses that surrounded them. The scientists.

Benny’s talked about Brenner, but not this. He blows out his held breath.

“I always hoped I’d get Marsha’s rotation for blood draws. Could barely feel the needle go in when she did it. She was gentle.”

He tells more, neglecting his food, how Marsha held him after Brenner said the pup didn’t make it. “Too small, such bullshit, I could feel him inside me; my family has big babies.” Wayne smiles at that, looking up. “But Marsha was kind, said to hold him in my heart. That a mother knows…”

And he did. He does. He knows his boy, and now he’s seen him, Benny feels a mix of joy-pain-terror over it all. “Maybe she still works there, or maybe she started to lose faith then. Somehow, she got him out of there.”

“She must know you live in Hawkins now.”

“Probably.”

“Do you think she’d talk to you?”

“I dunno.”

“So, what do you want to do?” Wayne takes a swig of his beer, his food mostly eaten, while Benny’s is practically untouched.

“I wanna hold him.” Benny rubs at the tears in his eyes. “But I don’t want to scare him. He’s half-grown as it is.”

Wayne gets up, goes to put his arms around Benny, puts a wrist by his nose to calm him. “Want me to ask Eddie about him? They’re close enough in age he must know some things.”

“I… Yeah, please. God, Eddie probably hates him.” Even keeping his distance, Benny knows the Harringtons are rich as sin.

“Far as I can tell, the only thing Eddie bothers hating is the hospital. And sometimes his daddy, when he ain’t idolizing him.” Wayne steps back, wraps up Benny’s untouched burger, and puts it in the fridge. “A lot happened today. You should rest; hopefully it will all be clearer in the morning.”

Benny nods, happy to follow Wayne to his nest, to be held like he’s precious as he falls asleep.

🫂🫂🫂

Eddie’s cutting math class, hanging at the Hawkins High smoking patio, when one of the Hawkins Middle side doors opens. He recognizes Harrington from his hair, even fluffier than normal because he keeps running his hands through it and rubbing at his neck.

His polo is darkened with patches of sweat.

Eddie drops his half-smoked cigarette, grinding it out with his heel. He runs over to the younger boy—still a pup, but it looks like that won’t be true much longer—hands held up to show he may be an alpha but he’s not a threat. “Hey, you okay there?”

“No,” Harrington whines, tugs at his shirt. “Think m’dying.”

Taking a quick sniff, Eddie picks out the honey-sweetness of omega, and grins. “Not dying, presenting. Want me to take you to the nurse? Have her call home?”

Harrington shakes his head. “Dad’s out of town, and my mom has some lunch thing… Nobody’s home.”

At least he’s with it enough to know that.

“I could still take you to the nurse, she’ll have… stuff to help—”

“No! Please, don’t take me back in there.” Harrington looks about to cry, only to double over in pain, like he’s been punched in the stomach.

Eddie reaches out on instinct, squeezes his shoulder. “It’s gonna be okay,” he soothes.

It’s like saying it makes it true, triggers the perfect thing to do in his brain. Harrington is still pretty short, just clearing five feet tall. “Do you think you could balance on my handlebars? So I can get you somewhere better than this? Somewhere comfortable.”

Harrington nods, and Eddie smiles.

He guides him to the bike rack, pulls out his own bike and holds it steady as Harrington gets situated. Biking with the extra weight is hard, but it doesn’t take long for Eddie to get them to the omega he trusts most in the world: his Uncle Wayne.

“What the hell, Ed?” Wayne asks from the doorway.

“No one at home,” Eddie pants, still catching his breath. “You wouldn’t wanna have your first heat at school either. Told Harrington I’d take him somewhere safe.”

“Harrington?” Wayne looks startled. Eddie starts to worry.

“You can call me Steve,” Harrington says with a pout as he gets off the bike.

Wayne nods. “Steve, come on in. We’ll get you comfortable, but you’re gonna want something from your mom’s nest, the scent will help.”

“Mom doesn’t have a nest, she’s a beta.”

“Oh. Then we’ll get you set up in mine. D’you wanna shower? Deal with the… mess?” Eddie knows Wayne is being delicate.

That he doesn’t want to say that Harrington’s underwear is full of the aftermath of his pussy opening up. It might not be yet, Eddie’s not sure. They don’t go too in-depth on the timeline in health class.

The grimace on Harrington’s face, the quick nod, says it’s already happened.

Wayne gets a hand on Harrington’s back, helps him inside as he stares at Eddie. “Head back to school. Stop in the middle school office to let them know Steve went home.”

Eddie digs his toe into the ground. “Okay…”

“And stop skipping Algebra! You wanna graduate, don’t ya?”

“Yes.”

“Good.”

Eddie watches as Wayne’s attention turns fully to Steve, feels a spike of jealousy, then pushes it away as he turns to bike back to school.

🫂🫂🫂

Steve feels better after the shower, and Munson’s uncle left him baggy sweatpants and a t-shirt. His skin still feels too hot. Itchy. He pulls on the sweats and tightens the drawstring, but leaves the shirt as he wanders from the tiny bathroom.

“Hey, kiddo, let’s get you settled.”

“Thank you, Mr. Munson.”

“Wayne is fine. Ya thirsty?”

Steve nods, suddenly aware of how dry his tongue is.

“Yep, your body is gonna run through fluids pretty hard for the next day or so. C’mon, pup.” Wayne places a hand between Steve’s shoulder blades and guides hin to a cozy nest of blankets.

There are shirts and pillowcases tucked into the sides. The whole room smells warm, like cinnamon rolls with sticky glaze. The homemade kind, spicier and sweeter than the ones from the tube that his mom makes on the weekends. Or… Used to make. They don’t do family meals much anymore.

Wayne helps Steve into the nest, makes a shushing sound when Steve whines at being left alone. “Just getting you that water, pup.”

Steve nods again, wriggles down in the nest, and breathes deep. He feels better almost instantly, his nose pressed against a plain, white undershirt. Right there, the scent of apples cuts through the cinnamon, and Steve relaxes, melts against the blankets. He feels safe here, protected. Like he’s being held.

He wants to be held. Wants his mother.

Steve wishes he was little again, that he could be wrapped in a blanket and held in her lap.

His mother hadn’t held him like that since he started school. Since he stopped going to the daycare with the colorful playroom.

His mother is not a cuddler.

Steve wants to be cuddled. Desperately.

Wayne comes back with his water, and Steve sits up. His skin drags on the blankets, sweaty. Wet.

He drains the glass and Wayne sets it aside. He sits in the nest with Steve, pets his hair. “How are ya feelin’, kid?”

“Okay. Better. It’s nice here.”

“Good. That’s good. Do ya know when your mother should be home? So I can give her a call. Let her know where you are.”

“Four. I think?”

“Okay. Until then you rest.” Wayne pushes back Steve’s hair from his forehead.

Nodding, Steve nuzzles back against the apple-y shirt again, and starts to purr.

part 2

[hometoursandotherstuff]

What a lovely 1963 Mid-century modern in Hammond, LA. It has 4bds, 3ba, $372,500. Of course, I love the pink door.

Nice entrance hall. The floors look perfect and I like the white brick wall. Look at the original sconce.

Spacious light-filled living room. Access to the patio.

Beautiful fireplace wall.

There's a dining area that's very roomy and can fit a larger table.

Then, a half wall with storage separates it from a family room in front of the kitchen.

Neat is the original kitchen. From here you can see that the fireplace is double-sided and also faces the family room.

Look at this- there's an original oven in the corner.

Nice bedroom with a wall of closets and a door to the yard.

Nice bath. Looks original.

This bedroom has a tiny deck.

Bath #2 is larger and is also original.

The hallway to the bedrooms has a nice big closet.

Here's a cute guest house.

It has a kitchenette- look at the adorable original little fridge- it even has a freezer compartment.

Now, here's a cool bath. They redid the tile, but kept the beautiful blue pedestal sink.

This is a little odd- the bath is right behind a curtain, otherwise it would be right out in the open.

There's a nice covered patio in the back and a beautiful yard.

A little garden in the corner.

Cute shed.

The .33 acre lot goes way back beyond the guest house.

[rockkandii]

Overwatch heros pet headcannons

Tank edition!

(minus Winston and Hammond)

Junker queen: she's always wanted a dog, and after being introduced to a new game by y/n she decided on the one she wanted. A German Shepard! She did a ton of research on them and got one from a shelter with only three legs, she ended up creating a junker leg for it and help from mercy getting it attached safely. She named him Dogmeat, based on her new favorite game, fallout 4.

Orisa: she wasn't big on the idea of having a pet, due to the fear of her size being an issue for such a small creature. However that changed when she encountered a Boston terrier puppy on a mission last spring. The small dog was full of energy and refused to leave Orisas side even when she tried to shoot it away. But eventually followed her onto the airship where she gave him and wanted to take care of them. She eventually named him Winston after an animated short film about a Boston terrier that another overwatch agent had shown her. (Much to Winston's confusion.)

Ramattra: He has an ant farm that was gifted to him from y/n after he mentioned his fascination of the tiny creatures. He cares for them dearly, and is often dozing off just watching them work throughout their colony in his office. He's not named them, as there is far too many, but when he's observing them you can faintly catch him mumbling their job titles with praise.

Reinhardt: He's got a sweet old golden retriever he rescued from a shelter, she was twelve when he adopted her and no one seemed to want the older dog which broke his heart. He was told to expect maybe another good year or two before the 'inevitable', however she's turning sixteen in a week now. Her name is Tillie.

Zarya: she took in an adult cat from a fellow agent that had sadly fallen in battle, one she was relatively close to. The cat was a nebelung and quite pampered, however he seems to adora Zarya as much as she does him. An elegant grey ball of fluff that constantly curls up to her side after her training sessions or missions. His name is Pietro, and for some reason he does not seem to like Ramattra.

Roadhog: he has two rats, one is a light cream color with a darker brown splotch on his right side. And the other is white and black spotted with little streaks of brown by her tail. Their names are junk and pile, and he found them in a box in the rain while on a mission. No one really noticed at first when he had gotten back on the airship until they were about halfway back to base and realized he was holding his hands out and just staring at was in his palms. Every now and again you'll see him walking around base with them on his shoulders and they just sit there and observe.

D.va: she has a bunny, it's actually one that she unintentionally saved while on a raiding mission against Talon. She ended up in moira's lab which had been abandoned when the alarms were set off, and it was the only one that seemed to be left in the room inside a cage where it was scared and hiding in the corner. Her name is June and she enjoys occasionally riding in D.vas mech with her. June absolutely hates hearing the name Moira now.

Sigma: he has a betta fish, specifically an alien betta. Sombra noticed that sigma had been pretty lonely while doing research in his lab on his own. So she surprised him with a whole betta setup, and made sure he knew everything that was needed to take care of it. It was a brilliant green color and sigma was overjoyed when she presented him the fish. He adoringly named her plutonium, and spends hours upon hours just talking to his betta fish about all of his research and findings and hypotheses. Plutonium does respond by swimming in circles whenever he gets excited and if she's bored she floats upside down.

[wyrmoftheweb]

they should have let mr hammond be eviler in the jurassic park movies. i know they didn't because they wanted to be sucking and slurping on corporate balls but they should have at least given him his fucked up unethical tiny elephant that lives in a cage forever and gets sick all the time that he brings to meetings

[chaoticdesertdweller]

In this circa 1900 photograph, boys and girls are ice skating, probably at Rogers Pond on the Tayloe - Rogers Place near the homeplace known as "Buena Vista." On the reverse of the photo the children are identified from left to right as follows: Madison Dunlap, Jennie Watts (Jean Watts), Dan Royer, Rebecca Macdowell, Stuart Royer, Mary Stuart Cocke, Mary Churchill, Tiny Bransford in white dress, Dick MacDowell, Alice Izard, unknown individual, Tom Bransford, and Lynn Hammond.

[mylevisdontfitanymore]

MyLevi'sDon'tFitAnymore Masterlist 2:

📢All stories are 18+ they are kink content BUT "teen and up" doesn't have any mention of sex, "mature" mentions sex, and "explicit" has specific detail about sex📢

emotional eater Bucky (answered ask) rated M, Steve Rogers × Bucky Barnes, stuffing/weight gain/hurt & comfort

free use Ransom for Andy's pleasure (answered ask) rated E, Ransom Drysdale × Andy Barber, intox kink/stuffing/free-use

Natasha made into a babymaker by Steve and Bucky (answered ask) rated E, Steve Rogers × Bucky Barnes × Natasha Romanoff, intox kink/alcohol consumption/roleplay pregnancy/breeding kink

Bucky is too fat for Steve to lift him (answered ask) rated E, Steve Rogers × Bucky Barnes, weight gain/immobility

Steve accidentally rehydrates astronaut food in his belly (answered ask) rated E, Steve Rogers × Bucky Barnes, stuffing/inflation/intox kink/alcohol consumption

Laurie secretly fattening Andy (answered ask) rated M, Laurie Barber × Andy Barber, stuffing/weight gain

Beanbag belly Steve (answered ask) rated E, solo Steve Rogers, immobility/stuffing/weight gain

TJ gets bloated and stuffed by Andy and Ransom (answered ask) rated M, Andy Barber × Ransome Drysdale × TJ Hammond, alcohol consumption/intox kink/stuffing

fourth installment of werewolf Steve (answered ask) rated E, Steve Rogers × Bucky Barnes, stuffing/bloating/animal play/intox kink

Andy picks up TJ after binge drinking + a short second addition (answered ask) rated E, Andy Barber × TJ Hammond, alcohol consumption/dubious consent/no consent/intox kink

more magic doll Bucky (answered ask) rated E, Steve Rogers × Bucky Barnes, magic weight gain/rapid weight gain/stuffing

athlete Steve bloated on protein shakes + more + again (answered asks) rated teen & up, Steve Rogers × his basketball team, bloating/slight dubcon

muscle-chub Bucky and tiny Steve (answered ask) rated E, Steve Rogers × Bucky Barnes, weight gain/stuffing/tight clothes

Steve's champagne shake up (answered ask) rated E, Steve Rogers × Bucky Barnes, bloating/alcohol consumption/burping

Steve ruins his perfect dorito ratio (answered ask) rated E, Steve Rogers × Bucky Barnes, muscle-chub/weight gain/tight clothes/stuffing

chubby bunny (drabble) rated teen & up, Steve Rogers × Bucky Barnes, festive Easter stuffing

Easter egg dying (drabble) rated teen & up, Steve Rogers × Bucky Barnes, festive Easter stuffing/microphilia

Bucky turns into his college's mascot (answered ask) rated teen & up, Bucky Barnes, alcohol consumption/intox kink/bloating

Steve jerks off to Bucky's belly (answered ask) rated E, Steve Rogers × Bucky Barnes, stuffing/burping

Malcolm In The Middle inspired feedee TJ (answered ask) rated mature, Andy Barber × Ransom Drysdale × TJ Hammond, intox kink/alcohol consumption/dubcon

Steve and Bucky dosed with gluttony pollen (answered ask) rated mature, Steve Rogers × Bucky Barnes, rapid stuffing/magic weight gain

Bucky as the gluttonous party centerpiece (answered ask) rated E, Steve Rogers × Bucky Barnes, intox kink/alcohol consumption/stuffing

more beer belly Steve & food baby Bucky (answered ask) rated E, Steve Rogers × Bucky Barnes, stuffing/weight gain/intox kink/alcohol consumption

mechanic Steve & diner cook Bucky (Tumblr drabble) rated teen & up, Steve Rogers × Bucky Barnes, stuffing/weight gain/tight clothes

Sebastian's bulk & Chris's orders (Tumblr drabble) rated E, Sebastian Stan × Chris Evans, hurt & comfort/weight gain/stuffing

Bucky sleepwalks & Steve encourages the gain (answered ask) rated mature, Steve Rogers × Bucky Barnes, stuffing/weight gain

drinking just to soak up the alcohol with spongy food (answered ask) rated teen & up, nonspecific pairing, intox kink/alcohol consumption/dub con/stuffing

super spoiled Bucky & masseuse Steve + part two! (answered ask) rated teen & up, Steve Rogers × Bucky Barnes, stuffing/weight gain/fat shaming

bottom heavy Chris Evans (Tumblr drabble) rated teen & up, Sebastian Stan × Chris Evans, oblivious weight gain/weight gain denial

thunderbolts Bucky looking... thick (Tumblr drabble) rated teen & up, Steve Rogers × Bucky Barnes, weight gain/tight clothes

Bucky as Steve's living beer brewery (answered ask) rated E, Steve Rogers × Bucky Barnes, intox kink/alcohol consumption/burping

baby weight (ao3 fic) rated E, Steve Rogers × Bucky Barnes, sexual age play/stuffing/weight gain

extra baby weight (answered ask), rated E, Steve Rogers × Bucky Barnes, sexual age play/stuffing/weight gain

[neonthewrite]

At Odds with Himself

Today's prompt, "Dream", gave me some trouble. I decided to cheat a little, by writing about an AU that originated in a dream that @creatorofuniverses had, none other than the Doppelganger AU. This AU is characterized by there being two very different versions of Colfax, one a wizard and one a thief. They get along about as well as you'd expect a strong personality like Colfax to get along with himself.

~~~

Coco blinked rapidly, wavered on his feet. “Was that a dizzy spell, wizard? Really?!” he griped, putting his hands over his eyes as he tried to regain his sense of equilibrium. He knew the wizard had a number of tricks up his sleeves, but it was odd to have magic, real magic, actually turned on him. Sure, he’d been pushing the guy’s buttons since arriving in this strange world, but he didn’t know what he’d expected when Colfax finally snapped and aimed a spell his way.

Colfax’s words echoed in his head in that eerie mimic of Coco’s own voice, words the wizard had invented himself for his spellcasting. A faint fog around him dissipated as the spell finished its course. Wisps sank into the well worn stones of the floor.

Stones that, Coco realized, were a lot wider than he remembered. In fact, there was suddenly a lot more space around him than he remembered there being in the wizard’s tower room. The nearest shelf, before only a foot or two away, was several paces from him. He tilted his head back, taking in the suddenly castle-like height of a simple bookshelf.

Whirling, he found other vaguely familiar furniture standing so much bigger than he remembered. He hadn’t been in this renaissance faire world all that long, but he had spent plenty of time all over the castle. He knew what the place looked like. The workbench, the charts on the wall, the window, they weren’t supposed to loom so high overhead. He was like a toy discarded on the floor.

Coco’s heart jumped to his throat. This wasn’t right. It couldn’t be right. The world had warped beyond recognition in the most frightening way. He turned his head this way and that, taking in details he never thought he’d see. As recognition crept up on him, he began to think he might have underestimated this crazy world.

“No way …”

“Don’t act so surprised,” a voice, familiar but not, rumbled overhead like a mild storm. “You were repeatedly warned that you’d face consequences if you kept trying to steal from me.”

Coco turned to the source of that voice, tilting his head back to meet the eyes of a man who stood as a giant over him. The face was normally a mirror of his own, a bizarre double that had grown up in fantasy land instead of the world Coco knew. He was the reason Coco needed to go by a nickname around here‒all to keep anyone from confusing him for the socially-inept wizard that spent so much time playing around with magic.

It was hard not to tease a guy like that, a version of himself that had never bothered to learn how to read people. Had never learned how to hold a basic conversation. He had never needed to blend in, to steal and lie just to keep his family fed. Really, Coco nicking a few golden coins here, some odd little magical implements there, were just practice. Teasing. A fun way to pass the time while stuck with an insufferable mirror of himself.

Now, though, he had a couple regrets. He held up his hands as if calming an agitated horse. “Come now, Colfax. Fella. Isn’t this a little drastic?”

Colfax narrowed his eyes. It was a chilling expression, full of all the intensity Coco might expect out of a Colfax, especially one who never bothered learning to tone it down. His heart fluttered in spite of himself.

The tower that was Colfax-the-wizard shifted, took a step forward. Coco’s gaze dropped to the footstep that covered all too much ground towards him. Seeing a giant coming his way cut right through his thoughts, sent an instinct for survival jolting through him more powerfully than any police chase.

He pivoted on one foot, already aiming himself for the door. It stood impossibly tall, too many paces away, but there was more than enough space beneath it to escape if Coco could just make it that far.

After that … no ideas leapt to mind just yet, but for now the important part was to get away from himself.

Behind him, the giant wizard started muttering something else in those made up words of his. Coco’s heart did a flip and the hairs on the back of his neck stood up. Something was coming, and he had no intent of waiting around for it. On some kind of instinct, he juked to the side and did a quick somersault, changing his trajectory for springing back to his feet. To his side, he saw something bright and quick dive into the floor where he’d been an instant before.

Wizard-Colfax wasn’t discouraged. He took a few more steps. Coco felt them, each and every one, through the floor. They rumbled beneath his frantic steps, so casual compared to him running for his life.

“C-Colfax! Can’t we talk about this?!” Coco called, still making his bid for the door. It was his only chance if the wizard had moved on to slinging spells around.

“Tried talking,” Colfax replied, his voice cold. “You refused to listen.”

He wasn’t precisely wrong. Coco swore and shook his head as he ran. He wasn’t about to convince the guy of anything now. He had happily bothered him, tried to find ways to get under his skin. And it had finally worked.

More spell words echoed overhead. Coco’s chest tightened and he prepared to make another dive out of the way. Just as he did, though, a thick fog washed over the floor, overtaking him with more speed than any vapor should be able to. He stumbled. The room around him was lost to his sight and he grabbed the cowl that hung loose around his neck, frantic hands holding it over his face just in case the gas was dangerous.

A scoff rang out overhead. “Don’t be so dramatic. I’m not poisoning you.” Colfax’s voice no longer came from behind him. It came from somewhere to the side. Coco glanced uselessly in that direction before turning the other way to get some distance.

Not three paces later, he tripped on something that appeared as if from nowhere in the fog. With a yelp, Coco toppled forward, hands shooting out to catch himself. Rather than stone, however, they met a pliant surface, something almost leathery. It radiated heat, and while the fog retreated as fast as it had rolled in, he came to the horrifying realization of what it was.

A hand. A hand so similar and so different from his own. Coco stared in shock at a lifeline longer than his torso, felt a heavy pulse beneath his own hands.

The vertigo of falling onto a giant hand was soon replaced by real vertigo as that hand shot into the air. Coco tried to flinch back into motion, only for the fingers and thumb of that hand to spring closed on him as if released from a trap. He was pinned all too securely in a fist as the floor dropped away.

Colfax-the-wizard stood from his kneel, dark eyes fixed dispassionately on Coco. Coco could only twist enough to catch that look in the corner of his eyes, and his body shuddered as the helplessness really sank in under his skin. “You got me,” he said, his voice a lot weaker than he hoped for. “I know when I’m beat. I’ll take the bounce, if you just put me right I’ll leave you to it‒”

“And let you go terrorize the rest of the castle?” Colfax cut him off. He turned and the dizzying speed of his pivot cut off any protests. “No, you need some time to yourself.”

He approached his workbench, scattered with all kinds of magic implements, crystals and tools and herbs and the like. Coco imagined being pinned like a bug on a board and squirmed while his stomach did flips. “What are you plannin’, mind if I ask?”

“I don’t mind,” Colfax dismissed, stopping before the workbench. For a long couple seconds, he scanned his various supplies before grabbing a jar from the back of the bench. A few fragments of leaves remained at the bottom, and when he maneuvered the large cork out of the top a faint but bitter smell almost immediately filtered out.

Coco thrashed, but couldn’t do a thing about Colfax holding that open jar underneath where he was suspended in his grip. Before dropping him in, though, Colfax nodded at him. “This will keep you out of trouble. Be grateful it isn’t the dungeons.”

“Grateful?!” Coco sputtered. “C’mon, Colfax, don’t‒” his voice gave way for a yelp as the grip around him released and he felt, for a small instant, the terror of freefall. Even knowing the jar was there to catch him, he couldn’t help but twist in fear, reaching to catch something, anything. And then he landed in a heap on a glass floor, the real floor looming so far below him.

When he looked up, Colfax was already fixing the large cork in place. More of those spell words got past the cork and some kind of magic seeped into the jar, and then no sound reached him at all.

[pocket-lad]

AOH my god has this been done before wait. Huge Adelaide “death” scare (not dead !! Never . But def roughed up and unconscious) I’m unsure where this could fit into any of the amazing fics u made but we need Ian inconsolable , I want this man in tears almost if that man even cries. All the angst. (then the insurmountable relief and softness when she wakes up lol) You characterize him super well, I’m so curious to see what you could possibly do with this idea..

Let's tear this man down >:)

~

Alan marched into the bunker with Ellie, intent on locating a gun or two to take these raptors out. And then they were out of here for good. It was a shame he also had some devastating news to deliver - news that might get him killed by something other than a dinosaur.

It all happened in the blink of an eye. They were in a large clearing, maybe a mile from the visitor’s center, when a herd of Gallimimus wheeled directly toward them. It was so fascinating, the way they flocked like birds. He honestly could have sat there all day.

But they were very large dinosaurs, and he was in charge of three exhausted, vulnerable people. Urged on by Adelaide, Lex, and Tim, Alan sprinted back the direction they came, each hand holding onto a child for dear life.

A big log rested on the grass ahead, and it offered as good of protection as any. Without slowing down, he and the kids leapt over the side then pressed their backs against it, waiting for the dinosaurs to pass. But as he did so, he felt the infinitesimal weight on his shoulders disappear and a faint scream filled the air.

When he realized what it was, it was too late. Alan’s head whipped around to locate Adelaide and catch her, but the moment his eyes landed on her was the moment of impact.

Before her body could tumble off the side of the log, Alan gathered her up and held her close to his chest so that they could wait out the herd. She wasn’t moving.

The dinosaurs disappeared, but Alan was too scared to pull Adelaide into the light. He sat there, blinking and breathing, nothing more.

“Dr. Grant?” Lex said, worried by the sudden shift in his demeanor.

That was all Alan needed to pull himself out of it. He slowly extricated his hand from his chest and laid his palm out flat.

Adelaide laid limply in his hand, her limbs bending every which way and her hair splayed out across his palm. Alan floated her around, trying to get a good angle to see if her chest still moved. When he couldn’t see anything, he held her up against his ear. He didn’t hear anything, either. He had no way to know if she was breathing.

“Is she okay?” Tim asked.

“I don’t know.”

***

Malcolm was going to kill him. There was no world in which Malcolm didn’t kill him. Alan couldn’t say he didn’t deserve it. It was now a matter of how to break it to the man.

The first thing Alan heard when he entered the bunker was, “Where are they? Where is she? Are they okay?”

The only sound that followed was the hum of the emergency lights.

There was no point delaying the inevitable. Ian, Ellie, and Hammond watched Alan intently as he reached into his chest pocket and pulled out an impossibly tiny person. Ellie already knew what was coming. She couldn’t bear to watch, yet somehow she couldn’t force herself to look away.

Alan held Adelaide out on his palm.

“What - what - what’s this?” Ian asked.

Alan closed his eyes. “Ian, you have to understand-”

“No, no, no, no, no, no, no, you bring me - you bring me Adelaide right - right now.”

“Ian-”

Ian quickly snatched Adelaide from Alan’s hand and held her up to his own eyes. If her chest was moving, he sure couldn’t see it. In an effort to quell the sudden burst of anger and sadness and fear and guilt, his jaw tightened so hard he thought his teeth would shatter. He slowly raised his gaze up to Alan. “What happened?” he seethed.

“We were running and I jumped over a log. She fell from my shoulder and I couldn’t catch her in time. I’m sorry.”

Ian looked Adelaide up and down, his eyes flickering back and forth in disbelief. She was so small, even smaller when she wasn’t awake to try to make herself look bigger. Even collapsed and unconscious, putting no effort into holding herself up, she was still so light. He gently nudged each of her limbs into place so that she at least looked comfortable. They moved all too easily under his fingers. 

“Della,” he whispered. “Della, come on. We’re going to get out of here, Della. Adelaide, come on.”

“Ian-” Ellie interrupted, tears welling in her eyes.

Ian ignored her. He held Adelaide to his chest. Maybe his rapid heartbeat would wake her up. She complained that it did that sometimes when she slept in his pocket. He frantically pulled her away to check. Still asleep.

The sound of clanging metal caught his attention. Dr. Grant was in the middle of pulling a couple guns out of storage. He didn’t even look bothered by the circumstances. Ian’s face turned red as an unbridled rage bubbled up in his chest.

Without thinking much about it, he shoved Adelaide at John Hammond, who instinctively reached up to hold her. Ian would need both of his hands for this. He lunged from the table directly at Grant, relying solely on his one remaining good leg. He more so fell into Alan, but grabbed him by the shirt collar and pinned him against the wall with his body weight. The gun clattered to the ground. “What the hell is wrong with you?”

“Get off of me!”

“You killed her. You son of a bitch, you bastard, you killed her.”

Alan couldn’t procure a response in his struggle to get the tall, heavy man off of him. With the help of Ellie, he was finally able to push him away, back toward the table he came from. If it wasn’t for Malcolm’s wilting leg, Alan wasn’t so sure he would have won that fight.

His clothes rumpled and his patience growing thin, he regarded Malcolm as he leaned against the table, panting. He looked in bad shape.

“I am sorry, Ian, I really am. But those kids are out there and we have to go find them before something happens to them, too.”

Ian wasn’t listening. He shot up - Grant’s irritatingly calm voice was all that was needed to prompt a round two - but Ellie eased him away again. His leg screamed in pain. He slowly slid down the side of the table and slumped to the ground. His conversation with Hammond came rushing back.

“She’s three inches tall, John!”

“And who brought her here?”

Ian had been too eager, blinded by his pride. He wanted to be the one to show Adelaide the world. She told him she didn’t want to come here. She was scared to leave the house, to travel far away, to be around a bunch of unknown giants. She was so scared that a human would take her away. Ian laughed it off at the time, thinking she worried too much, and that if he showered her it wasn’t so bad, maybe she’d open up more. He thought he knew what was best for her. He should’ve listened.

From the beginning, it was painfully clear that it was only a matter of time before someone got hurt. The park was doomed to fail, perhaps even catastrophically, and when dinosaurs were the main attraction…He just couldn’t imagine the ones to get hurt would be him or Adelaide. But the systems that fail don’t reward those who predicted their failure. Failed systems don’t discriminate. They take down everything in and around them.

“Give her here,” Ian muttered numbly. Hammond nodded, gently handing her over. Adelaide’s head lolled from side to side as he did so. She looked the same. Still unmoving. Still unconscious.

In the heat of the moment, Hammond was the closest and only option. If Ian was going to beat the hell out of Grant, he didn’t want Adelaide’s delicate body anywhere near the fray, so he pushed her into Hammond’s hands. Ian trusted Hammond, in most aspects, about as far as he could throw him, but he trusted he would keep the borrower away from harm for a few minutes. He trusted him with the task more than Grant, at least.

Ellie bent down to Ian’s level and rubbed his arm in reassurance. Then she was off with Alan to do something. Save the kids, maybe? Ian wasn’t paying attention.

His eyes bored into Adelaide for an eternity, searching for any sign of life. If he stared long enough, he was bound to catch a twitch of her hand or a flicker in her eyes. She was bound to wake up.

For once, Hammond didn’t say anything. He didn’t have any smart comments or consoling words, and for that, Ian was grateful. If Hammond opened his mouth, he was going to get hit.

A single tear leaked out of Ian’s eye and trickled down his cheek. And then another. And another. He wasn’t crying. He didn’t cry. His face didn’t contort and his breath stayed relaxed, but the tears built up too much and the dam broke.

One landed on Adelaide, drenching her face and shirt. Ian moved her out of the way.

It was his duty to protect her. She was always so confident and full of life, it was hard to imagine she wasn’t as durable as any other human. But she wasn’t. She was tiny and fragile. Ian forgot that, or maybe he ignored it. Either way, his blindness got her killed.

What was he supposed to do now? Take her back to Texas? And then what? Adelaide would be gone forever, with nobody to remember her except the few people who made it off this island.

“Why don’t we get you into the car?” Hammond suggested. Ian’s tear soaked face and dead eyes made Hammond falter for only a second before he continued. “They may need a pickup when they’re done.”

Ian didn’t want to move. But the world kept on moving whether he wanted it to or not and Adelaide deserved to go home. It was time to leave.

Hammond carefully helped Ian to his feet and supported him as they made their way to a Jeep. Not once did Ian look away from Adelaide. Not when they left the bunker, not when they left the building, not when Hammond situated his leg in the Jeep, not when they pulled up to the visitor’s center.

Not until he heard Dr. Grant’s voice. “Mr. Hammond, after careful consideration, I have decided not to endorse your park.”

Ian glared at him, and in their brief moment of eye contact, he saw the guilt plastered all over Grant’s face. He’d live with that guilt for the rest of his life. Good.

The presence of the people around him slowly came to his attention. Ellie and the kids stared at Adelaide.

They were worried. Maybe sad. He knew that. But the way they stared wasn’t like the way he stared. It was an invasive stare that would make Adelaide undoubtedly uncomfortable if she was awake. Instantly, Ian closed his hand around her and held her to his chest so that they couldn’t gawk anymore. They didn’t deserve to look at her anymore.

“Dr. Malcolm, is she-” One of the kids asked.

“Yeah, yeah, um…she’s…” He took a shaky breath.

“What are you going to do?”

“I uh, don’t know. What do you think I should do?” Ian asked. When he looked up, he saw it was the girl talking. Lex.

“Um…”

“No, really, cause I haven’t - I haven’t the foggiest idea.” The intensity built as he spoke. What kind of ridiculous question was that, anyway? What are you going to do? Kill John Hammond and Alan Grant and tear this whole island to the ground. That’s what he was going to do.

“Let’s leave them alone, okay?” Ellie suggested quietly.

Alan helped Ian into the helicopter when they arrived. He climbed in and pulled his hand away from his chest. Maybe this time…

But still she laid there, as dead to the world as before. Her face was slack, her body bruised and bloody. And there was nothing Ian could do to fix it. There was always something Ian could do to fix it. There was nothing Ian could do to fix it. 

Alan spoke. “Ian, believe me, I never-”

“Just - just don’t.”

“I did everything I could-”

“Hey, uh, I said DON’T.” Ian’s voice boomed throughout the interior of the helicopter. The space fell into an uncomfortable and agonizing silence. They lost so many people, but to have one of the dead trapped inside with them as a constant reminder…

Ian blinked away the oncoming tears as he slammed his head back against the headrest, studying the ceiling. He absently stroked Adelaide’s arm. He always liked to feel her in his hand, to know she was right there, safe with him. She was always safe in his hands. If only he had kept her with him when he lured the T-Rex away. But no, she just as easily could’ve gotten herself killed there as well.

Ian handed Adelaide off to Alan the previous night because he knew he would watch after her. Because Alan was a dinosaur expert and an all around smart, level-headed man. He would take better care of her than Ian could. Logically, the choice he made was sound. So why did just looking at Grant bring on such bitterness and hate? Why was he filled with so much regret? Why did it hurt so bad?

The world passed them by. Pelicans flew alongside the helicopter, uncaring and free. Hammond regarded the mosquito trapped in amber that sat atop his cane with detached interest. Alan and the kids fell asleep. Ellie watched them, wishing she could take a picture. Ian didn’t feel anything, save for the cold, lifeless weight in his palm.

A loud gasp for air accompanied by a large spasm in Ian’s hand drew everyone’s attention.

Adelaide was soaking wet and disoriented. Her back protested her startled jump into consciousness, a sharp pain radiating up her spine, through her neck, and into her head so that she could hardly move.

She tried to recall the previous events. There was a field. Dinosaurs. Running. She was thrown into the air and then…nothing.

She was in a hand. It was warm and spongy and she could feel the life pulse beneath her. Whatever they were doing and wherever they were now, Adelaide almost thought it was better she didn’t know. Almost.

Ian’s mouth fell open. If he couldn’t believe Adelaide was dead an hour ago, he sure as hell couldn’t believe she was alive now. But she was. She may have been extremely hurt, extremely scared, whatever, but she was alive, and the gaping hole in his chest left behind by her death flooded with relief so strong it was nearly tangible.

Ian regarded the borrower with the same intensity he did when he first snatched her out of Alan’s hands. His eyes jumped back and forth, searching not for a sign of life this time, but for a sign that she was hurt. His hand stayed motionless, frozen due in part to shock.

“Adelaide,” he breathed.

Adelaide blinked her crusted eyes open. Just lifting her arm to wipe the gunk away sent another flare up her back. She could have sworn that that was Ian’s voice. But she was probably dreaming again, and to get her hopes up would be to have her hopes dashed. Again.

“Ian?” she whispered tentatively, still unable to see through the haze.

Air came at her fast, and before she could brace herself, Adelaide was pressed into dark fabric, held tight by the hand. No matter what dinosaur they were running from, she did not want to be in this position. She thought Alan understood that.

Not only that, but it hurt. Whatever caused her to black out, it did a number on her body, and there was no way it could stand this pressure for much longer. She wiggled around as much as her poor body would allow, pushing and shoving along the way.

Adelaide thought she felt something along the lines of a laugh come from the Bean with the way the chest abruptly contracted and expanded and the way she could hear the expulsion of air through the giant lungs.

Why would he laugh? What was going on?

Gravity forced her into a prone position as the hand pulled her up into the air, and light emerged all around her.

They were not on the island. At least, they weren’t in nature. The world around her was metal. And the person holding her was not Alan. It was Ian. Ian was alive.

“Oh my god!” Adelaide cried.

“Oh my god yourself!” Ian said.

“Oh my god yourself! Ian!” She scrambled to an attempted stand but settled for a seat. She surveyed the palm around her, grabbing his thumb with both hands and pulling it close. She ran her hands along the skin. It was real. He was real.

The thumb suddenly sprouted a mind of its own and pushed inward, nudging Adelaide’s shoulder. She flinched but remained unbothered because it was Ian Malcolm, alive and in the flesh. A large drop of water splashed down next to her.

Adelaide just nearly dodged it, the quick movement hurting her back. But that wasn’t the issue. The issue was the water itself. It was a tear... Ian was crying? Crying wasn’t something Adelaide thought he was even capable of. Something must’ve gone horribly wrong, but she couldn’t think of anything so bad that it would make him cry. Who died?

Instead of asking any helpful questions, the one that came out of Adelaide’s mouth was, “Is that why I’m wet?” It didn’t escape her notice that she was still soaked from the torso up. Not only did Ian Malcolm cry, but he cried on her. Gross.

“Della, we thought you were dead.”

“W-What?” Adelaide had blacked out a number of times in her life, most of them being around Beans. Something about the toll of living in a constant state of fear…Regardless, it wasn’t unheard of for her to go unconscious from time to time. Before she could ask why they thought this time was any different, Alan’s voice came from across the helicopter.

Right. There were other people here too.

“You fell when we were running from the Gallimimus,” he said, and for once it was the giant who had trouble maintaining eye contact. “I couldn’t catch you in time. I am so, so sorry.”

“No, you don’t - you don’t get to talk to her,” Ian said.

Adelaide jumped in. “Woah, calm down. I should’ve held on better. That’s my fault.” She shifted her focus. “Thank you, Alan, for watching over me.”

“Don’t thank him,” Ian scowled.

“I can thank him if I want to thank him!” Adelaide shouted, but doing so caused another flare in her back. Ian’s thumb returned, gently resting on her chest. The weight forced her to lie down, which she assumed was his intention. If she had the strength to fight it, she would have, but laying down did feel nice.

Alan watched the pained movements. “You hit the ground hard. I’d take it easy if I were-” His advice was cut short by a glare from Ian.

Adelaide rolled her eyes. “It’s okay. We’re okay. We’re going home.” She slowly scooched over until she was resting up against his chest, relishing in the soft fabric of his shirt and the heat that human Beans seemed to have an endless supply of. “You know I’m never letting you out of my sight again?” It was only partially a joke.

Ian chuckled. “Oh, you think I’m going to let you out of my sight? Cute.”

Adelaide’s body vibrated in time with his voice. “I am not cute,” she insisted.

At the same time, she curled her body up even further against his chest, pulling her legs close and feeling the slight rise and fall as he breathed like the gentle rocking of a ship. As the minutes passed, she paid attention to his heart rate while it progressively slowed down. He really was worried about her.

Ian watched her settle in. Adelaide was correct - she wasn’t cute. She was absolutely adorable. And absolutely alive. And they were absolutely going home.

[jurassicparkworkersunite]

Compy Survival Tips

Marco Villalobos-Gonzalez is eager to share with you tips on surviving a compy attack. He has written the following advice:

First off, never feed them. They are pigeons with venom and they will devour you once the chips are gone.

Second, considering investing in denim and khaki so their nasty little jaws don’t penetrate your skin.

Third, avoid ever venturing near the habitat at night. Our fences have certain weak spots that the compies like to utilize to escape and hunt in the dark. You do not want the compy to ever mistake you for food,. especially not at 12 A.M.

Fourth, always have your shock prod ready. Yes, the compies are tiny. No, they are not babies (they actually eat those, unfortunately), and you can shock them in self-defense.

Fifth, DO NOT SHOCK THE COMPIES FOR NO REASON. I heard of some Dieter guy getting eaten by being a douche, so DON’T DO THAT.

Sixth, always have a buddy walking with you in the forests on Isla Nublar to avoid a compy gang-up. Make sure to check each other for compies with the same vigilance you use to check for ticks. By the way, they aren’t necessarily teaming up, as much as they all want to eat you at the same time. Therefore, that buddy and you should stand on a high spot, like a large rock, and make a lot of noise and wave your arms if they do show up. Keep doing that until they leave, AND MAKE SURE THEY LEAVE BEFORE YOU LET YOUR GUARD DOWN. They won’t risk a meal if they think they’ll get squished.

Finally, please know that our boss (cough*idiot*cough) Hammond did not provide locations with anti-venin on the park maps so far. Please consult park staff for this information before going on any tours, since apparently we are incapable of keeping our visitors safe, let alone the workers.

Now excuse me - I’m probably about to lose my job for having the basic decency to try to keep you safe. That’s the work culture here at -

***

Hi again, it’s the JP team. Marco got fired for insubordination, so he couldn’t finish writing his thoughts. Luckily, none of the higher-ups know about this blog - except Muldoon. He’s completely fine with what we do, so long as we promise to give him a blog post in the future. Who knows? Maybe we will :-)

[justplainwhump]

Seat 2B

Dany faces Geoff.

Next installment of @wildfaewhump and I's Just A Fling AU. The perfect Geoff, Peyton and their mentioned friends are Vic's characters and they penned a lot of this piece.

[Just A Fling Masterlist]

Content / warnings: Intimate whumper, whumpee meeting whumper in public, past trauma and not ideal coping with it, mentioned serial killings, mention past noncon drugging and assault, sexually derogative language, mention of BBU-pets; pretty frank discussion of past noncon.

2B is Dany's favorite seat on most long distance flights. Best class available, be it First or Business or whichever names they came up with. Aisle, meaning she can get out without the need to talk to anyone. Second row instead of first so there's a bit more air in front of her instead of a wall. 

She's gotten it for this flight as well, the way home after some intense days of preparing and ensuring the final acceptance of their newest freight terminal. It's been a success. Another one. Dany is good at her job, and she knows it. 

She leans back in her plane seat and opens her laptop to check on the press release the company is about to send out, tuning out the busy noise of the last passengers boarding and filing to the back of the plane.

"Excuse me, Madam" someone next to her says, half bored. "I'm 2A."

She's not sure if its his voice that sets her off, the smell of his cologne, or his looming figure, some inches too close to be entirely polite, but her whole body is on alert suddenly.

Geoff Cortlandt.

"Oh. Ms Hammond," he says, eyebrows up. "Hadn't recognized you, fully dressed."

Dany's hand, halfway to the tray table, freezes mid-air. Geoff's gaze feels heavy on her skin. Even without looking up, the smug amusement radiating from him is almost palpable.

She sets her jaw and reaches out to pick up her laptop and slide back the tray table to let him pass. "Mr Cortlandt." 

"Just kidding," he whispers, as he squeezes past, too close for the amount of legroom the plane offers, and pauses, his mouth next to her ear. "You were not actually memorable undressed, either."

"Peyton saw that differently." It slips out, before she can think twice, her voice perfectly even. She's taken seminars on it, on her way to becoming the negotiator she is today - quick comebacks, how to deal with low blows. 

Paying back in turn ranks very low on the list.

And it is downright stupid, when it's about the exact thing Peyton's tried to warn her about in his very own, very inappropriate manner. 'We were getting pretty close. And I was… distracted by you. In a way that wasn’t working for Geoff.'

Geoff freezes for a moment, and she thinks she sees a muscle in his jaw twitch, before he breaks into an easy smile. "Well, he's luckily left that behind him now, didn't he?"

He slides into his seat next to her, just as a flight attendant leans into their row. "Can I offer you a drink before take-off?"

"Champagne," Geoff says smoothly. "For both of u-" 

"Vodka for me," Dany interrupts. She'll have to sit through this. She's not going to fold, not again, not after she panicked at the tennis match and let him have it. "Straight."

The attendant lifts his eyebrows, but doesn't say a word, while he prepares a plastic flute of champagne for Geoff and then bends down to the bottom of his cart to hand Dany a tiny bottle of Vodka and a glass. 

"Well, then." Geoff waits until the attendant has left for the next row, before he raises his glass. "Cheers, Ms Hammond. Go on. Drink up. We both know you're more fun once you've got a little liquor in you." 

"We both know it wasn't just liquor. We both know it wasn't fun." Dany screws open the cap of her bottle and pours it into the glass, pausing before she looks at him again. "And we both know you walked away. Is it just like that? Do you always just happen to get away with it?"

He smiles, and it's shaped like it should be charming. It's not. It's just empty. "I'm here, aren't I? Makes you wonder. Is it really possible for someone to do 'wrong'? Or are we just afraid? If right and wrong were the immutable forces we treat them as, wouldn't it be impossible for us to do wrong?"

Dany chuckles dryly and shakes her head, then downs the vodka in one go. "I didn't say anything about right or wrong, you started that yourself. My degree is in psychology, not philosophy." She puts the glass down and grimaces. "Pretty sure you, Mr Cortlandt, are an interesting case for both fields."

He laughs a little in return, and it makes her stomach churn. "I like that." He sips too, his eyes wandering over the cabin, before he turns back to her, shifting in his seat to pull up one knee and cross his opposite ankle under it, leaning in like they're good friends. "So," he says. "What did you like most about fucking Peyton?"

"There's a reason you and I were only intimate when I was unconscious, Geoff, and that's because I don't fucking want you in my bed. Not physically, and not mentally either." She smirks and tilts her glass at him. "You'll never know."

His grip on his glass is tight, but he doesn't retreat, and his smile doesn't drop. If anything, it gets more dangerous. "Fair enough. You know-" He glances around like he's about to share a secret. "There was this one time, he and I. We had a little bit of a threesome, there was this girl. We had her between us, on her hands and knees like a whore, she was so hot for it. Peyton has this way he angles his hips- her whole body seized. She wasn't really my type, but the way she looked right then, coming undone for him with my cock so deep in her throat she couldn't breathe... I almost had to keep her." He takes a deep breath and smiles brightly. "Anyway. I can only imagine he was a great lay for you too."

Dany can't breathe. Couldn't then. Can't now. It is her, it was her, the woman caught between them, betrayed, helpless, powerless. Images she can't remember, but dreams of anyway. 

She has to get away. Her hand flies to her waist, unbuckles the security belt, and she staggers to her feet to escape towards the restroom.

"Madam," someone yells, and before she can flee, a stranger is over her, presses her back into her seat. "You cannot get up, Madam, we're in the middle of takeoff, are you insane? Mr Cortlandt, Sir, could you please take care of your friend? She's endangering everyone."

There's more hands on her, Geoff's hands, on her shoulders, wrapped around her own hand, and he's talking over her, her own voice stuck in her throat. "Of course, I'm so sorry about her. She's a nervous flyer. You'd never want everyone on the plane in danger because of you, would you, Dany? We're going to get through this together, I promise. You just need to put your seatbelt back on."

"You got her?", the other man asks sharply.

It's all too much. The shaking of the plane, the hands all over her, the images, and Geoff, Geoff, Geoff, he's next to her, he's over her, he's inside her, 'my cock so deep in her throat that she couldn't breathe', she's dizzy and nauseous and nothing makes any sense.

"No," she whispers weakly, "No, I don't want this, please."

He's not leaving. His hands are on her hips now, almost tender, pulling at the seatbelt, locking her back in. "I know, but there's nowhere else to go. You're just going to have to endure. I'll stay right here with you the whole time, alright? You're not getting rid of me." 

Louder, to someone else, he adds. "I think I've got it from here. Thank you for your help."

The plane's rattling gets heavier, then stops, as it raises from the runway, pushing her back into her seat even deeper. 

Dany's whole body is trembling. Tears are catching in her lashes, but she's not even able to cry. "Why?" she whispers tonelessly.

Geoff whispers in her ear, one arm around her shoulders. "Why not? You were just a fling."

-

They stay like that, Dany locked in her seat, caught in her own body, Geoff leaning in over her, holding her hand in his like a friend would, until the plane has reached cruising altitude and the seatbelt lights turn off with a little ping.

Only then does Dany manage to shake her shoulder and brush his hand away from her. 

"I hate you."

Geoff settles back into his own seat, the grin on his face satisfied and smug. "Whatever helps you sleep at night." He pulls out his phone and opens his picture gallery. "Hey, want to see pictures of my pets?"

She can only shake her head tiredly. "I want you to die" 

"You first, princess." 

It's almost casual, almost like smalltalk, but it cuts deep. Peyton's words ring in her ears. 'If we hadn’t done what we did, you would be dead. Pieces of your body would have been hidden from here to Georgia, and no one would ever have found you.' Geoff had been ready to kill her. He'd not, he'd found another way, but he'd been close. 

"Don't call me princess," she says, even though she knows it's hollow and empty and he'll do whatever he wants anyway. It's easier to reply to that part of his line, than acknowledging the meaning of the other. 

He leans closer again anyway, swiping through pictures of a young Philipino person, sultry eyes thick with mascara and shadow as they watch the camera from repose in a king-sized bed. "This one's Lourdes. They're my latest, just got them a couple weeks ago. I always like to have one picture when they're brand new." He swipes again, and the next picture shows someone with similar features. This one, a young man, is hollow-eyed and clearly frightened as he sits stiffly on an ornate couch, hands clasped tightly between his knees. "See? They just... lose that spirit, after a while."

She doesn't want to look at his phone, but it's not like she can go anywhere. Pets are people, she thinks, she's said it so often, but she doesn't now. Because if anyone is aware of this, she's sure it's him. That's why he's showing her these pictures. Because they're people and because he enjoys to make them miserable. 

Like he enjoys to make her miserable.

You first. 

"You kill them," she says flatly. "Don't you? That's what you're going at with flashing this photo gallery at me." 

He glances around, as if to make sure no one is taking an undue interest in their conversation. "What a horrible thing to say! I love all of my pets. And they're all still with me in one way or another. But I wouldn't expect you to understand that bond, since you have none of your own. You're not very caring, are you, Dany? You flit through life without ever really taking anyone with you. It's why I didn't like seeing Peyton get caught up as your latest infatuation. You would have moved on eventually without a drop of care for what it did to him."

"I did move on," she says, carefully. There's something about the way he's phrased it that rubs her wrong. "He moved on, even before I did. Without a drop of care. You made sure of this." She chews her lip, processing what he's said. "What difference would if had made, if I had 'cared' for him?"

His phone screen darkens as he puts it away, voice turned into an angry hiss. "He deserves better! He actually liked you. 'Dany this' and 'Dany that'-- he sounded like he was twelve, discovering Emiliana all over again. And all you wanted was his dick."

His sudden anger is frightening. Still, it's more manageable than whatever mood that was he's been in before. "All he wanted was my body," Dany hisses back. "He didn't care about anything else. He didn't even care about my consent, for fuck's sake. And, he's married. He didn't deserve better. He just didn't deserve anything I ever gave him. He even handed me to you, to shove your fucking cock into me. What the fuck more did you want? For me to actually love him? Or for him to only have eyes for you?" 

"Please," he rolls his eyes. "His marriage is as real as the tits Valerian's always going on about getting someday. What I want--" He breaks off to smile, as the steward passes down the aisle. "What I want," he resumes in a whisper, plastering on a smile again, "is for you to be forgotten so entirely that it's as if you never existed. But I'd settle for getting off this plane."

Dany laughs, sudden, harsh, almost broken. She doesn't bother putting up an act, just stares at Geoff plainly, waits for him to meet her gaze. "You wouldn't ever get that," she says then. "Whatever Peyton does or does not forget about me, the problem is yourself, Geoff. Because wherever I am, whatever you do to me, you, you will remember there was someone else in Peyton's life, someone he couldn't get enough of, even while he had you." The corners of her lips pull up, almost a grin, but it's too desperate. "Which means you always lose."

The armrest creaks under his grip. His grin is a macabre stretch of lips over teeth. "Have a pleasant flight, Ms Hammond. Wherever you're going after this, I hope you reach your destination safely." 

He slips out of his seatbelt and grabs his jacket with clipped, angry force. 

This time, when he passes her, he keeps his distance. 

Dany doesn't turn around, when he passes her to go towards the back of the plane, just hears a whispered apology to someone else and the re-buckling of a seat belt. 

He's in front of her, when they disembark, walking away from the plane, from her with long, determined strides. Dany pulls out her phone. She still has Peyton's number. She never even bothered to block him. She's pretty sure he didn't either. 

*You're the one in danger, Peyton. You know he can't stop. And you're the centre of it all.*

*He'll kill you.*

*Take care.*

She puts the phone down and looks through the huge airport windows at the cloudy sky outside, before she adds,

*Or don't. I don't actually care.*

The messages are marked as read right away. He doesn't reply.

-

Just a few hundred meters away from her, Peyton Montgomery looks through the windows of his car, spotting the tall figure of his best friend stepping out of the airport doors. 

A quick flick of his thumb deletes Dany's messages. 

Geoff would never hurt him.

When Geoff gets into the car, Peyton's smile is as easy as ever.

[flashfuture]

Thinking about Namor in Secret Empire: Brave New World putting Toro and Jim Hammond into an underwater prison. I wonder if he was there remembering when he put a tiny Toro so small he couldn't even reach Namor's chest into an underwater cell and gave the little boy pneumonia. Because Namor gives Toro the explicit reasoning he couldn't see him die again and Toro saying he's ridiculous. I wonder if Toro recalled even through intense delirium how Namor had him taken out of his cell and given medical care. If Jim knew something was once again wrong with Namor because he'd never endanger the kids not really