#was one challenging pose to figure out let me tell

[f1byjessie]

A PICTURE IS WORTH A THOUSAND WORDS ━━ LN4.

sometimes the right words are hard to come across, and sometimes everything you need to say can be captured in an image.

( lando norris x photographer!reader )

━━ part four.

“Saw McLaren posted pics of the new car,” Jack says in lieu of a greeting when he sees you after the weekend. He picks up his pace and crosses the distance to meet you where you’re fumbling with the keys to your “office”, and then he takes a few of the many equipment bags you’re attempting to juggle, saying as he does so, “You take any of those or no?”

You laugh, “Ah, no. They actually hire on a whole studio crew that does that. They’ve got lights, green screens, special camera lenses, the whole lot. The post-production on those photos is mad though.” You get the door unlocked and usher him inside, “I got to sit in on it once, and it’s crazy how much work goes into getting just a couple week’s worth of promotional content.”

He sets your bags down where you direct him to and then offers you a snarky grin, “Still probably would’ve looked cooler if you took ‘em, to be fair.”

It makes you laugh again. Jack seems to be good at that, and it feels nice to get along so well with someone you work with. You’ve found a surprising friend in him. At the end of your conversation on Friday, you’d exchanged numbers and he’d made you promise to reach out if you needed him for anything. You hadn’t, but he’d still sent you an unflatteringly angled picture of Kyle Walker from after their match against Newcastle, followed quickly with━ “use this in the next media drop thx,” and the chatter had gone from there.

You set down your own bags. “Well, thank you. Pretty sure it’s not as fun as this job, though.”

And you mean it. You’ve had opportunities to switch over to studio photography, and though you respect the people who do it and the unique challenges it poses in its own right, there’s nothing like being upfront and personal with all the action, getting to see the athletes in their element and know them on a level that goes beyond an hour or two shoot. You wouldn’t trade it for the world.

“Wait,” you pause, hands stopping just above where you’re ready to start sorting through your equipment, “since when did you keep up with Formula One?”

Jack shrugs. “I don’t. But you work for that team, yeah? So I figured I might as well see what they’re all about.”

“Well, if you need something to do during the summer, let me know and I’ll see what I can do,” you tell him, resuming your sorting. “They give me extra tickets for each race but they usually end up going to waste.”

You don’t bring up the falling out you had with your parents at eighteen when you told them you were going to pursue photography or the fact that you haven’t really talked to them in years because of it. You also don’t mention that due to the strenuous, near-constant traveling and the strict schedule of your job, your friendships are limited to the athletes you work with and the other McLaren staff that travel with you━ all of whom have passes of their own, for obvious reasons.

Jack, thankfully, doesn’t ask about it either. Whether he’s made his own assumptions or respects that it’s probably a sore subject, he leaves it alone and the two of you carry on in companionable silence.

You get your equipment unzipped from the bags and organized across the room per your system, guiding your temporary helper with pointed fingers to where it all should go.

The silence is only broken again when he asks you a question. “You got a favorite driver?”

It’s so out of the blue that you nearly jump, startled by the suddenness of it against the quietness of the room. But then you laugh and shake your head. “Officially no, but just between the two of us, me and Lando started at the same time so he’s got a special place in my heart. He’s also my best friend.”

Jack raises an eyebrow, “Oh yeah?” Despite the persona he puts on, you think he secretly loves gossip. “How’d he take the news about you being with Ward, then? ‘Cause I’d have some choice things to say to any friend of mine if they got with a prick like that.”

You purse your lips, divert your gaze to avoid Jack’s eyes, and shrug, fiddling with the neck strap of your camera as you do so. “I don’t know.”

“You ‘don’t know?’”

You shrug again and feign checking over the settings as if your camera’s aperture is suddenly the most interesting thing in the world. “He hasn’t been picking up my calls,” you start, “or answering my texts since the paps released the pics, so.”

When you glance back up, Jack’s making a face. “So, your best friend finds out you’re dating a total bellend, and instead of asking you about it or at the very least taking the piss, he ignores you?”

When he puts it like that, you feel a bit stupid for being more sad than you are angry.

All you can do is shrug.

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You decide that if Lando gets to be petty, then so do you.

The thing is, you’d told Lando you wouldn’t replace him with any of the guys from Manchester City, and you’d meant it━ you still mean it, despite your frustrations and annoyances with him telling you otherwise.

But if he’s going to play games, then so are you.

Technically you hadn’t started the relationship with Garrett willingly, but Lando doesn’t know that, and even if you had that doesn’t give him the right to go about ignoring you. You’ve been supportive when he’s gotten girlfriends━ you even ate greasy pizza, drank cheap wine, and cried watching The Notebook together when he ended his long-term relationship back in 2022. He could at least pretend to be supportive, or better yet he could pick up the fucking phone. 

As pathetic as it sounds, you’d let him yell at and berate you if it just meant he’d answer your calls. Because having Jack around to gossip with and shoot the shit is nice, and he really does help you not feel so alone at Etihad Campus, but Lando’s your best friend and he has been for years now. There’s nobody that understands you as well as he does, even if he is a twat half the time, and what you need now most of all is that particular Lando brand of annoying to cheer you up.

The door opens, drawing your attention from where you’re scrolling through McLaren’s newest posts. Garrett stands in the opening.

The memory of that night still lingers like a bad taste in your mouth, bitter and unpleasant. You’ve managed to avoid him for the most part in the time since then, ignoring the looks he shoots your way out on the field or in the weight room, and lucky enough that his meetings with the physio team keep him preoccupied so that he can’t seek you out in between training sessions. You’d known it was inevitable that you’d have to face him, but that doesn’t stop the dread from pooling in your stomach when you see him standing in the doorway with his arms crossed and an eyebrow raised as he surveys the makeshift office you’ve done up for yourself.

“They couldn’t find you an actual office?” He comments, looking disdainfully towards your desk and the large Manchester City logo emblazoned across the front.

You shrug, wishing he’d just get to the point. “I’m only here for a few months. Doesn’t matter much to me. What do you want?”

He takes a step farther into the room and closes the door behind him, taking his sweet time to cross the distance toward the seats. When he’s finally lowered down into one, he looks up to you with a nonchalance that fills you immediately with anger.

“I’m making some amendments to our agreement,” he announces.

“Like hell you are.”

He raises an eyebrow. “Did you seriously expect people to believe we’re a couple if we never actually do anything to give off the impression of being a couple?”

You scowl. Obviously, you hadn’t expected to just skate by on the coattails of pictures from a single night. You’d known from the very beginning that you would eventually need to make another public appearance together at the very least if you wanted to keep the paparazzi fed and encourage the idea to the media that you’re in a committed relationship with one another. You’d just been hoping you would’ve had more time until then.

“I’m not an idiot, Garrett,” you grumble, crossing your arms in your seat. You had been looking through pictures from the day’s morning practice, but now you think having to look at any more of Kevin De Bruyne’s grinning face will make you lose your mind when you feel the furthest thing from happy.

“Obviously,” Garrett scoffs. “But you’re the one who said I get one kiss and nothing more. Newsflash, love━” your scowl deepens, “━couples do more than just kiss one time.”

“So what are you suggesting?”

He pulls his phone from the pocket of his joggers and swipes across the screen for a few moments of anticipatory silence. “Well,” he finally says, “it’s the sixteenth now. We haven’t got a match until the twenty-sixth. Go on a date with me this weekend.”

You can’t say no. There’s no plausible excuse for you to get out of it, and deep down you know the only way you can get rid of Garrett is to just do what he says and hope the media make their conclusions about his change quick enough that you can ditch him before the summer break.

At least during the Formula One season, you can use traveling as a reason to get out of dates. When the Champion’s League starts back up he’ll be traveling around Europe a bit more than he is now, and there’s always a chance you could be in the same country at the same time, but the likelihood of your schedules aligning is slim and that means you’ll be safe from any ventures out into public.

But for the time being, you’re stuck.

“Okay,” you reluctantly agree.

He claps his hands, a deceptively cheerful grin on his face. If you didn’t already think of him as the worst prick you’ve ever met, you might’ve found it charming. It’s the same smile he used to flash at you in your first week when he was trying to cozy up and ease his way into your good graces. The sight of it makes you sick to your stomach, now.

“Great,” he rises from his seat. “We’ll do some shopping, get some lunch━ make a full day out of it.”

At this point, you don’t care what he has planned. You just want him to leave you alone so you can try to at least pretend like you’re gonna finish the rest of the work you need to get around to.

Garrett’s made his way to the door and has his hand reaching for the handle when he turns back around and gives you a smirk. “Might wanna work on your happy face, though, love,” he comments, gesturing towards you with a nod of his head. “‘Cause if you look like that in front of the paps they definitely aren’t gonna be very convinced that you love me.”

Just to spite him, you let your scowl deepen. “I don’t need your advice. I know how to handle myself, Garrett.” You say his name like a curse━ like the very feeling of it on your tongue causes you pain.

If he notices, he doesn’t comment. His face turns thoughtful, but there’s still the smugness painted across his features that makes you so unfathomably annoyed. “You must be pretty familiar with the paps if you’re always around those drivers, yeah?” He knows the answer to his question already, so you’re not sure why he’s even asking.

He stays silent, though, like he’s genuinely expecting an answer, so you shrug your shoulders. “Obviously.”

“Obviously,” he repeats back to you.

His laughter is all you hear echoing in your ears even once he’s long gone.

Until your phone starts to ring and Lando's name flashes across the screen.

━━ tags: @maih23 @urfavnoirette @leclercsluv @f1luvur @formulaal @a-disturbing-self-reflection @starlightpierre @chezmardybum @marshmummy @405rry @sideboobrry11 @d3kstar @mcmuppet @happylittlereader @casperlikej @5starl1ght

━━ a/n: cliffhanger hehe~ also, i promise we're getting to ACTUAL formula one stuff soon

[catoslvt]

Duncan Tarun (tdi) x Reader

You replace courtney in this sorry ☹️

Challenges are weekly, so I don't need to watch the show 24/7, to figure out who's out first, etc, soz zxx

I stand at the edge of the boat, my heart racing.

I'm only here for one reason, to win, and maybe to make some friends, but mainly to win.

As it begins to pull up to the island, I notice a big crowd of people there already, probably more than half of the contestants, if not all of them, I'm not close enough to see yet.

As the boat stops at the dock, I grab my bags and climb out, where Chris greets me.

"This is y/n!" He exclaims as he motions to all of the other contestants, and a few of them wave whilst some roll their eyes, but I approach the group anyway with a smile, before fitting myself in a gap next to a really pretty girl with green / midnight blue hair and a short boy.

"Nice hair." I tell her, and she smiles widely at me, before an extremely attractive boy arrives on the dock, and I notice almost everyone swooning for him, but my attention is grabbed when a ginger girl begins to arrive, screaming her head off, she must've been excited because she jumps out of the boat before its even docked, whacking her head and chin full force off of the dock, which causes me to let out a small laugh.

Once Chris has helped the girl, he clears his throat.

"First things first, we need a group photo for the promos, everyone to the end of the dock." He announces as I walk with the girl and the short boy.

"I'm gwen." She tells me with a smile.

"I'm y/n." I introduce, and the short boy next to me smiles at me.

"I'm Cody." He says, and I just nod at him before I stand at the edge of the dock, staring down at the water.

As we all pose, gwen and I wrapping our arms around each other, Chris holds up his camera.

"Okay.. three..two..one." He begins, but he quickly lets out a large 'oops!'

"Okay, forgot the lens cap. Okay, hold that pose.." He yells again.

"One.. tw- no wait, cards full. Hang on." He says and I let out a small groan.

"Jesus, do you want me to do it for you?" I call to him earning a small laugh from the group, but Chris just shakes his head, but I did earn a small smile from him.

"Come on man, my face is starting to freeze." A girl I haven't been introduced to yet groans.

"Got it! Okay, everyone, say Wawanakwa!" He yells to us, and we all begin to say it, but the dock breaks beneath us, sending us all plummeting into the water.

"Okay, guys, dry off and meet at the camp fire pit in ten." Chris announces, and as Gwen and I climb out of the water, I stare at her.

"He totally planned that, right?" I ask, and she lets out a small laugh as she nods her head at me.

As we all sit around the fire pit, Chris begins to talk.

"This is Camp Wawanaka, your home for the next eight weeks. The campers sitting around you will be your cabin mates,your competition and maybe even your friends." He says as we all look around each other, smiling at each other whilst a fairly attractive boy up the back just glares at each other, earning a slight eye roll from me.

"The camper who manages to stay on Total Drama Island the longest without getting voted off will win $100,000!" Chris exclaims before the same boy from earlier storms to the front, a slight grin on his face.

"Excuse me, what will the sleeping arrangements be? Because I'd like to request a bunk under her." He coos as he points a finger at Heather, I think that's her name anyway Gwen told me it is.

"They're not Co-ed, are they?" She asks, and Chris stares at all of us.

"No, girls, get one side of each cabin. Boys get the other side." He explains and Linday puts up her hand.

"Excuse me, Kyle, can I have a cabin with a lake view since I'm the prettiest?" She asks, her voice deafingly squeaky.

"Okay, you are, but that's not really how it works here. And it's Chris." He states, and Gwen looks at me with a shocked look on her face.

"That sounded really creepy." She mouths and I nod in agreement.

Suddenly, the two girls Sadie and Kadie who would look like fraternal twins from afar begin to cry in case they're not in the same cabin and Gwen scoffs.

"This cannot be happening." She mumbles, and Owen pulls her and Tyler into a hug by the neck earning an eruption of laughter from me.

"Here's the deal, we're going to split you into two teams. If I call your name out, go stand over there." Chris instructs as he points a finger to the back corner of the fire pit.

"Gwen, trent, Heather, Cody, Lindsay, Beth, kadie, Owen, leshawna, Justin, and noah! From this moment on, you are officially known as the screaming gophers!" He exclaims, and I stare at gwen as she walks away, feeling slightly lonely at the fact the only person I've spoken to so far is in the opposite team.

"The rest of you over here, Geoff, Bridgette, dj, Tyler, Sadie, izzy, y/n, Ezekiel, Duncan, Eva, and Harold, move move move!" He exclaims, and I stand up and force myself to walk over to the other side of the fire pit.

"But Kadies a gopher! I have to be a gopher!" Sadie screams, and i walk over to her and place my hand on her shoulder.

"Sadie, is it? Come on, it'll be okay." I say as I lead her over to our team, trying to drown out her and Kadies screaming on how this isn't fair.

I let out a large laugh when I heard our team name.

"Oh, come on? The killer bass? Who came up with that." I mutter under my breath, and Bridgette laughs before Chris begins speaking again.

"Alright, campers, you and your team will be on camera in all public areas during this competition. You will also be able to share your innermost thoughts on tape with video diaries anytime you want. Let the audience at home know what you're really thinking, or just get something off your chest." He says with a smile, and I nod my head, I'll probably be in there a lot.

"Alright, any questions? Cool. Let's find your cabins." He says, not really giving us time to ask any questions though.

As he leads us to the cabins, I audibly gasp at how small they are.

"Gophers, you're in the east cabin, bass. You're in the west!" He exclaims before ushering us into the cabins, where I slap my hand over my mouth when I see its bunk beds.

"Y/n, do you want to share one with me?" Bridgette asks and I nod at her.

"You can take the top if you want, I don't mind." She offers as I set my bags down on the floor at the bed she's standing at.

"Thanks." I say with a small smile.

As Bridgette and I walk outside, the same dude that was glaring at everyone at the campfire approaches us, his names Duncan I'm pretty sure.

"Nice piercings." I say, raising my eyebrows at him, and he smiles slightly and goes to say something until blood curdling screams come from the other teams cabins, and we all run over.

"Man, that white girl can scream." Leshawna says and we all let out small chuckles before we look in the cabin to see Lindsay ontop of a chair pointing at something crawling around the floor.

"What is it!? Kill it!" She screams, and Dj looks at the floor and lets out an even higher pitched scream as he throws himself at a bed, breaking it instantly.

"That was my bed." Gwen states as she stares at her now broken bed, and I let out a laugh from beside her.

"Just come sneak into our cabin." I say with a joking nudge to her side and she smiles.

As everyone tries to kill the cochroach, making us all scream, Duncan just storms in with an axe and slams it into the floor, cutting the cockroach in half, atleast it did the job I suppose.

"Well, that's one way to kill a cockroach." Gwen says with a small chuckle, and I nod in agreement.

"Hey, now you've got a dead cockroack and a dent on your floor." I say to her, and she just laughs.

As I stand behind gwen in the line for food, Duncan stands behind me, and I can turn to him.

"Not got your axe now, hm?" I ask with a laugh, and he just rolls his eyes before I turn away again.

"Listen up, I serve it three times a day, and you will eat it three times a day. Grab a tray. Get your food and sit your butts down now!" The chef yells, and I raise my eyebrows slightly, taken back by his attitude and sterness.

As he piles food onto our plates, I stare at the food, unsure if it's actually even food, as I walk over and take a seat next to Bridgette, and Duncan raises his eyebrows as he walks over and sits down directly infront of me.

"Yo, my man. Can we order a pizza?" Geoff asks Chris and chef quickly throws a knife at him, missing him by inches, which makes my eyes widen in shock.

Surely this isn't safe.

"Your first challenge begins in one hour." Chris exclaims before he walks out, and we all let out little 'oooo's of excitement.

As we all stand at the edge of the cliff, I regret getting excited.

"Okay, your first challenge is simple. Your first task is to jump off this 1000ft high cliff into the lake." Chris begins, and we all just shrug.

"Sounds easy enough." I whisper to Gwen.

"If you look down, you will see two target areas. The wider area represents the part of the lake that we have stocked with psychotic, man-eating sharks. Inside, that is the safe zone, which is your target area, which we're pretty sure is shark free." He tells us and leshawna shakes her head in total disbelief.

"Excuse me?" She quizzes.

"For each member of your team that jumps and actually survives, there will be a crate of supplies waiting below. Inside each crate are supplies that you'll need for the second part of the challenge, building a hot tub!" He exclaims.

"The team with the best one gets to have a wicked hot tub party tonight. The losers will be sending someone home. Let's see, killer bass. You're up first." He then finishes and as Bridgette and I move closer to the edge, our faces both change in fear.

"Oh, wow. So, who wants to go first?" She quizzes, and our whole team stays silent, Duncan even turning his back to us, and a million thoughts race through my head.

I mean, if I go first I get it over and done with, meaning over peoples screaming won't put me off.

"So, who's up first?" Eva asks and Duncan stares over at me.

"Ladies first." He coos and I furrow my eyebrows.

"Fine, I'll go." I say with a shrug as I approach the edge of the cliff, staring down at the water below me.

As I jump, I actually begin enjoying it, not letting out a single scream as I land in the smaller target, a boat coming to whisk me out of the water almost instantly as I happily climb on, looking back up at the top of the cliff to see Bridgette leaning over and shooting me a thumbs up.

Then Tyler goes, landing on the buoy, letting out a painful groan as he slides off it, causing me to slap a hand over my mouth.

Then Geoff goes, letting out excited screams without a care in the world, Eva following straight behind, Duncan falling close behind too as I stare at him with a small smile on my face as I watch how unfazed he is by this, almost as if he goes cliff diving every other weekend.

Ezekiel comes close behind, too, still wearing his shoes and hat for some reason, but I decide not to quiz against it, and we all clap and cheer from the small sandy area not too far away, even Duncan smiling slightly.

Then Harold comes down, landing on the water in the splits.

"Good luck trying to conceive with him." I mumble to Eva, who smiles slightly, but Duncan is the one who laughs.

"I didn't know you could laugh." I tease with a sarcastic smile.

"I didn't know you could he funny." He teases back, giving me the same smile.

I then realise bridgette, Dj, and Sadie haven't come down yet, which confuses me slightly, why aren't they coming?

But then my jaw drops when both Sadie and kadie jump down from the cliff.

"No fucking way did he let Kadie move into our team." I gasp to myself, which means either Bridgette, Izzy or Dj swapped into the Gophers, and I wouldn't care who did along as it wasn't Bridgette.

But I realise the rest of our team chickened out, as the other team begins to jump.

The screaming Gophers won the challenge they actually won, which means we have to drag our crates back to the camp, and we've got a decent amount away from where the crates were first placed, when Sadie, Kadie and Tyler all decide they need to pee, making me groan in annoyance.

"We're never winning this." I grumble to Eva and bridgette, who both nod in agreement.

Once they all eventually come back, we begin pushing our crates again, my arms beginning to ache from the weight of mine, but yet again Sadie and Kadie slow us down by itching themselves.

"You guys are way behind the other team. Like way behind, what's the problem?" Chris asks and I roll my eyes and point at them.

"Their butts are itchy." I groan in annoyance.

"Did you guys squat down when you peed in the woods?" Bridgette asks, and I try not to laugh at her chicken hat, but it's almost impossible.

"Yeah?" Kadie says.

"Did you happen to notice what kind of plants you were squatting down on?" Bridgette continues to ask.

"They were kind of oval shaped and green and all over the place." Sadie answers, put I zone out of their conversation as I continue to push my crate back to camp.

"Need help?" Duncan asks as he casually strolls over to me.

"Where's your crate?" I gasp and he points smugly over to Dj as he pushes a crate.

"Had to let the chicken do something." He says with a small laugh, and I move over slightly so there's enough space for Duncan to help push my crate.

"I didn't actually expect you to jump off of the cliff first." He admits, and I turn to him and smile, secretly being grateful for his help, as my arms don't ache as much from pushing and we're definitely getting closer to camp.

"Neither did I if I'm gonna be honest." I tell him with an awkward laugh.

"I'm Duncan, by the way incase you didn't already know that." He says and I feel his eyes on me.

"I'm y/n." I introduce with a smile.

Duncan and I are the first to make it back to camp, I collapse to my knees in exhaustion and decide to wait until the rest of my team are back to start doing stuff, and when we start building our hot tub, it's obvious what team wins.

"Congratulations screaming Gophers, you guys have won the challenge!" Chris exclaims, and I let out a small sigh.

"Gophers, you're safe from elimination, and you get to use this awesome hot tub for the rest of the summer, killer bass. What can I say? You lost, and I'll see your sorry butts tonight at the campfire for elimination." Chris says before walking off.

"So uh, what do we do now?" Kadie asks as our team all sits around the dinner table, eating whatever concoction chef has made for us.

"We have to think of someone to eliminate?" I say as if it wasn't obvious, and I can see Duncans' growing smile from beside me.

"Well, I think it should be either Bridgette or Dj." He says, and I shake my head.

"Not bridgette, she's my only good friend on this team, gwen is on the other team." I beg, and Duncan just smiles at me.

When Ezekiel says something really sexist, it's a bit obvious who we're gonna vote.

When he said that boys were better at sports and stronger than girls, I wanted to twist his stupid little head off of his shoulders, I mean, he's annoyed me ever since he got on this team, and he creeps me out. Especially when he was picking his nose and staring at me.

"Dude, you've got a lot to learn about the real world." Duncan says to Ezekiel after I told him why we all voted for him.

"Killer bass, at camp marshmallows represent a tasty treat that you enjoy roasting by the fire, but at this camp, marshmallows represent life. You've all cast your votes and made your decisions. There are only ten marshmallows on this plate. When I call your name, come up and claim your marshmallow. The camper who does not receive a marshmallow tonight must immediately return to the dock of shame to catch the boat of losers, which means you're out of the contest, and you can't come back Ever." Chris states, and we all just stare at him.

"The first marshmallow of the night goes to Geoff." He says, and Geoff runs to Chris and grabs his marshmallow.

"Tyler." Chris then says and Chris lets out a victory cheer as he collects his marshmallow.

"Kadie, bridgette, Dj, Harold, Sadie, Duncan." Chris continues and I suddenly stare up at the group.

Why is it now between Ezekiel and I, when there's one marshmallow left.

Suddenly, my heart begins to race, and I think I feel myself sweating.

"Campers, this is the final marshmallow of the evening.. y/n!" He bursts, and i stand up extremely happy as I collect my marshmallow from him, stabbing my marshmallow with my stick as I begin roasting it over the fire.

I wake up and rub my eyes, letting out a small groan as I roll over, falling off of the top bunk with a large thud, waking up basically all the girls who weren't already awake from the foghorn.

"Are you alright!?" Bridgette yells, and I sit up and shoot her a thumbs up.

"I forgot I wasn't at home. My beds a lot bigger than that, and it's closer to the floor." I tell her as we both let out small laughs, before Eva clears her throat.

"Are you sure you're okay? You bumped your head pretty hard." She states and I turn to her with a large smile.

"I'm sure I'm fine, I fall so much I'm really Clumsy." I say before Chris screams for everyone to hurry up and get out, so I quickly scramble to get changed before we all line up outside, and I speed walk to Gwen were I stand next to her.

"I hope you're all ready because your next challenge begins in exactly one minute." Chris yells, a little too enthusiastically, and Owen quickly panics.

"Oh, excuse me, I don't think that's enough time to eat breakfast." He says as she shakes his head, and chris sort of nods as if it was the whole point of this.

"Oh, you'll get breakfast, Owen. Right after you complete your twenty kilometre, run around the lake!" He yells, and Eva's eyebrows furrow as she lunges at Chris trying to hit him, but Duncan holds her back.

"Oh, so you're funny now!? You know what i think would be funny?" She exclaims.

"Eva, calm down it won't be that bad." I call to her.

Don't get me wrong, I like Eva, but her temper scares me so badly, and I've only known her for a week, but she is nice when she wants to be.

"You're enjoying this, aren't you?" Eva quizzes Chris, and he looks at us all with a smug expression as he points to his watch.

"A little.. you have about thirty seconds." He then says, and Eva's brows furrow as she tries to lunge at him again, but duncans grip on her is too strong.

When the run begins, I suddenly realise how warm it is, and I'm really not in the mood to run, like don't get me wrong, I enjoy running and I'm good at it, but not when it's extremely warm and I'm just up but I walk beside Gwen to begin with, and we both laugh at how other people are running as if they're being chased by a mad psycho serial killer and I tell her about my fall earlier.

"Pick up the pace people, if you're not back for dinner tonight, you don't get to eat!" Chris exclaims as he drives past us on a scooter, and gwen and I both look at each other before we take off in a sprint.

I'm really happy I signed up for Total Drama Island because i met gwen, and I've not had a friend like her ever, I hope we'll still stay in touch once the shows ended.

Gwen and i make it back to the cabin shortly after, and burst in the door panting and almost falling too our knees out of exhaustion.

"Sorry Chris, I think you've mistaken yourself for my P.E. teacher." I growl as I go and sit at the table with people from my team, and Chris lets out a small laugh.

"I could have more than one career." He jokes and I let out a small laugh.

"Is one of them being a major pain?" I quiz and his laughing stops as he just shakes his head at me, but he smiles anyways.

"Clear a table now!" Owen screams as he barges into the cabin and drops noah on it, quickly giving him cpr as gwen stares. I'm shocked, leshawna walking in close behind.

"Where were you, Harold!? We lost!" I scream, and he just shakes me away before gwen lets out a squeal.

"Wait a minute if they lost.. that means we won the challenge!" She yells happily and her full team begins celebrating but Chris quickly shuts them down.

"Woah there, hold your horses, guys. That wasn't the challenge." Chris denies and I stare at him with pure anger, are you seriously telling me I just sprinted for nothing?

"What did you just say?" Gwen gasps, taking the words right out my mouth as I slam my head down on the table extremely outraged.

"Who's hungry!?" Chris yells and as I sit up I see a large table full of all sorts of foods, and usually I'm a picky eater but after I've ate the shit that chefs been making, I'm not so picky anymore.

I stand up and happily run to the table, staring down at all the food, and instantly we all begin eating, nobody caring about the usual table manners we'd normally have, and once we've ate the full table, I can practically feel a full food baby growing inside of me.

"Okay, campers, time for part two of your challenge." Chris yells through a megaphone.

"I thought eating was the second part." Owen gasps.

"What more do you want from us?" Gwen also gasps and Heather nods in agreement.

"Weird goth girl is right, haven't we been through enough?" Heather exclaims and I glare at her for insulting gwen.

"Uhm, let me think about that. No!" Chris screams through the megaphone.

"It's time for the awake-a-thon!" He yells, and I stare at him and gasp. He's just made us run and then eat ourselves to the brink of explosion, and now he's going to make us stay awake.

"The what-a-thon?" Owen asks confused and I turn my head to him, how stupid can one person be.

"Don't worry, this is an easy one. The team with the last camper standing wins invincibility." He announces, and I groan, I am not surviving this one.

"So, what you're saying was the 20k run and the turkey eating frenzy were part of your evil plan to stop us from staying awake?" Gwen asks and chris nods.

"That's right gwen!" He exclaims with an evil smile.

"Move move move!" He then yells, and we all leave the cabin, gwen grabbing me as trent approaches her.

"So, how long do you think it'll be before everyone's out cold?" He asks, but he's mainly asking gwen.

"About an hour give or take." She answers but as Owen walks past us I shake my head.

"Probably less." I say as we walk out the door.

It's been eleven hours, and everyone's still up, but it's clear we're all tired due to the dark eyebags we've all grown to get, but the thing is I'm not even that tired to be honest, but the tiredness kicks in once Owen passes out from lack of sleep, and I instantly realise I am extremely tired.

"This is so boring." I sigh to Duncan who is now somehow sitting beside me, although minutes ago he was nowhere to he seen.

"Atleast the fun people are still awake." He says with a slight nudge to my shoulder earning a small smile from me.

"This has to be some sort of illegal." I then say to Duncan and he just shrugs.

"I mean, we did agree to doing weird stuff like this, plus I've done worse and gotten away with it, so im sure they can too." He tells me, and I cross my arms.

"I wish I could go back in time to tell myself not to do it." I groan, and Duncan nods in agreement as I turn to look at him, and he lets out a small chuckle.

"Heard you fall earlier." He coos and I roll my eyes.

"Yeah, from the top bunk while I was still half asleep." I add, and he raises an eyebrow.

I'm assuming we've almost been up for 24 hours now, and I've came to the conclusion that if I walk around then I can't fall asleep, I mean I'm keeping my brain occupied aren't I?

"Y/n, you have to sit down. You're going to end up killing yourself." Duncan calls and I shrug him off.

"At least i'll die active." I argue, and he just rolls his eyes as he continues to watch me walk around.

Looking back, I totally regret walking around. It made me so much more exhausted, but I didn't want to fall asleep, not yet atleast I don't want to be one of the first people out.

Bridgette, izzy, noah, Sadie, Harold, and kadie are all all sleeping now, and honestly, I'm extremely jealous, but no way am I falling asleep on national TV.

"Congratulations, campers, you've made it to the twenty four hour mark, time to take things up a notch, fairytales." Chris yells as chef walks in wearing a lamb costume whilst carrying a harp, and i know this won't be good, so I begin jogging on the spot, trying to do anything that'll help me stay awake because at this point I'm desperate.

As Chris begins to read the fairy tales in his monotone voice, chef starts playing the harp, and I can't help but let out a small laugh to myself at how insane he looks.

Tyler and Geoff almost instantly fall asleep, and I panic, i have to stay awake otherwise my team will lose, and I do not want to vote another player out.

We very slowly hit the forty hour mark and I find myself back next to Duncan, and we both try to spark up a little conversation.

"The first day when you said 'nice piercings' to me, were you saying it to be mean? Not that I care or anything, I just want to know." Duncan asks as we move to sit on the floor facing each other.

"No, I meant it. They're cool. I wish I was brave enough to pull something like that off." I tell him with a genuine smile, and he shrugs.

"I mean, you never know unless you try, right?" He asks, and I shrug, I suppose he's right.

"My parents would never, they'd kill me." I gasp and he laughs.

"That's one of the reasons why I did it." Duncan tells me, and I laugh and stare at him.

"Oh, big Mr. criminal rebels against his parents." I joke as I rub my eyes, trying my hardest to stay awake now that I'm talking to Duncan.

"Give me a break." He groans, but I can't help but see the smile he's trying his hardest to conceal.

"So, how's life for you outside the island?" Duncan then asks desperately, trying to keep the conversation going as it's keeping us both up.

"Well, I go to school during the day and at weekends I work at a small coffee shop near my house." I answer and he scoffs.

"God. Do you actually care about your education?" He asks, as if it was even a question, and I let out a small laugh.

"I mean, it probably sounds boring or whatever, but I want to be a history teacher when I leave school, I love history." I tell him and he rolls his eyes so I gasp.

"Oh come on, then Mr Big hard criminal, what do you want to be when you grow up?" I ask, and he raises his eyebrows.

"A professional criminal." He answers, and I can't really tell if he's joking or not.

"Nope. Now you can't be one because you've just ruined your plans on national TV, I wouldn't be surprised if you're whisked away back to juvy after saying that." I tell him with a joking laugh which he returns.

"Wouldn't be the first time." He tells me and I stare at him confused, suddenly now extremely intrigued.

"What've you gone to Juvie for?" I question, and he smiles at the fact I'm actually interested.

"Fights, vandalism, petty theft, just the boring stuff, you know?" He asks with a small chuckle.

"You act as if going to Juvie is an everyday thing." I say with a horrified look before he starts a different conversation.

"Why did you sign up for Total Drama?" He asks me and I think for a second.

"I mean, for the experience, I suppose, I don't really do stuff like this and to make friends on the show, I guess. I don't have many friends back at home. What about you?" I respond and he nods.

"To get out of juvie, also for the money, but then again I'm not guaranteed to win anyway am I?" He answers, and I nod. He has a fair point. Whoever wins is completely luck based, apart from challenges anyway.

But my attention is grabbed when Owen walks past us butt naked, and we both let out large laughs, and I'm surprised it didn't wake the other already sleeping contestants up.

"Even when you're dying of exhaustion, you're still pretty." Duncan says to me and I look at him as I begin blushing with a small smile on my face, but I say nothing and look away trying to hide my blush.

"You've got a boyfriend back at home, don't you? Sorry." Duncan quickly says, and i shake my head as I turn to him.

"No, I don't, I just don't handle compliments well, plus you're not too bad yourself." I reassure you, and he nods as he begins smiling again.

We eventually hit the fifty-one hour mark when everyone looks at Justin, who's just been staring out into the forest, unmoving for the past probably, fifty hours, I'd say.

But when gwen pokes his face and his actual eyes open, revealling that he painted his eyes on I let out a horrific gasp.

"Holy shit." I gasp to myself.

"His eyelids are painted, I saw it!" Eva screams, and everyone turns to Justin as chris begins to walk over to investigate, but he's still out although it was impressive.

We finally hit the eighty five hour mark, and honestly, i know duncan inside out, i could answer any question about him. it's insane, and that's when Duncan leans close to my ear as he points to Harold.

"Do you want to see something funny?" He whispers and I nod and Duncan quickly slips away before he comes back with a cup of water and places Harold's hand in it, instantly making him pee himself I snort with laughter as I slap a hand over my mouth trying to quiet myself.

"You're so sad!" I whisper yell to Duncan through my laughter.

Heather, gwen, Trent, Duncan Eva, and I are the only ones left, and I hope they all fall asleep soon so I can finally shut my eyes.

"Alright, you six stay with me. The rest of you go get a shower for heavens sake you stinK!" Chris yells to everyone who's now eliminated.

"I didn't want it to come to this, I said that to Chef Hatchet last night, I said 'chef, I don't want it to come to this!' But darn it, these campers are tough, so I've come up with the most boring, sleep inducing activity I can find." Chris yells and I furrow my eyebrows.

Honestly. What can be more boring than sitting awake for eighty five hours straight with hardly anything to do apart from talk to Duncan and gwen, and as much as I wasn't complaining, I was going to kill the other contestants just so I could sleep, I mean seriously how is it possible we all stayed up for that long? But I don't mind staying up with Duncan. He's really nice once you get to know him. I think I like him a little.

"The history of Canada, a pop-up book. Chapter one, the beaver and a real fine hat." Chris says putting on the same monotone voice from earlier as he pulls out the book, opening it up and I let out a massive sigh as I go to throw my hands up outraged, I realise Duncan and I are sitting as if we're glued shoulder to shoulder together and I find myself blushing.

Eighty six hours in now, Chris is still reading, Eva and Heather are asleep now so it's just two remaining from each team.

As chris continued to groan on with that silly monotone voice, I was due standing up and ripping that silly book from his hands and beating him to death with it.

Gwens pov 😜

As trent falls asleep, I look towards y/n and Duncan to see how my competition is holding up, and that's when I watch y/n fall asleep, her head landing on duncans shoulder as he turns bright red clearly oblivious on what to do, and he stays like that for a solid ten minutes until Chris closes the book.

"Bathroom break, any takers?" He asks and I watch as duncans leg bounces up and down as he clearly needs the toilet.

"I've held it this long, sweetheart, I could go all day." He scoffs to me and I raise my eyebrows as I stand up.

"Yeah, but can you hold it for another ten chapters?" I coo, and his face goes ghostly white, and he goes to jump up, but y/n let's out a small tired groan, and he looks at me.

"Gwen, swap places with me, we can switch back once I'm done." He begs and I nod my head as we carefully switch places, me being careful not to wakeup y/n, but chef comes quickly to pick her up and take her to her cabin so she can sleep on her bed for a little while.

Back to ur pov

When I wake up, i only hear Eva screaming and throwing things around in our cabin, but I'm too tired to care so I instantly fall back asleep, being awake for eightysix hours changes you I swear.

As I sit next to Duncan at the bonfire falling in and out of sleep, he has to shake me to make sure I stay awake from time to time, and each time I open my eyes to his extremely tired smile, but I think its cute that he's still trying for me, could Duncan like me back?

I know it's insane that I've now got a crush on Duncan when I've only known him for a week, but after spending eighty six hours talking to him straight, it changed my perspective on him, he's sweet.

I'm not even listening to what Chris has to say, really. I'm too tired, I'm only listening for my name, which is said third, so I happily stand up and grab my marshmallow, sticking it on my stick as I hold it over the fire till its a perfect golden shade, and I blow on it for a few seconds and begin eating it, letting out a small gasp when I realised I did it perfectly, and as much as I'm sad that Eva was voted out anyway, I'm kinda glad. Her temper was too much for me.

"I definitely do like Duncan, I think he's really nice to me anyway, and that's all that matters, right? But he can't like me. He's probably just acting like this with me, so I fall into a fake alliance like what Heather is doing with Lindsay and Beth. It's cruel but smart." I say to the camera in the confession booth toilet thing, I'm still not too sure what it even is at this point, before I rake my mind trying to think of what else to say, but there's nothing really, so I open the door and climb out, walking straight Into Duncan.

"Woah there, princess, watch your step." He coos as he places his hand on my shoulders.

"Watch where you're standing." I coo back as I motion to how he's right infront of the door.

"Maybe I wanted to hear what you were saying." He says, and I feel my face drop. He's joking, right? He has to be joking.

"It's meant to be confidential!" I gasp as I stare at him.

"Confidential, but you're saying it to a camera which broadcasts it to live TV? Cmon y/n I thought you were smarter than this, you want to be a history teacher!" Duncan argues and I roll my eyes but I can't help but smile at him.

"It's not an act, by the way." He says as he grabs my chin with two fingers and forces it up to look at him, and I turn bright red before he lets go and begins climbing in our make do confession booth.

"I'll see you at dinner, princess." He then coos as he slams the door, and I stand and stare at the door for a minute. Surely this isn't happening.

As I walk back to the cabins, I see gwen walking over to me with a large smile on her face as I approach her and I quickly grab her wrist and drag her into a area only slightly into the forest, but its far away from everyone so nobody can hear, and I let it all spill, everything.

"Wait, so Duncan heard you confessing you like him, and now he's flirting with you?" She asks with a small laugh and I shrug.

"I don't know if I could say it was flirting.. more like teasing?" I answer and she shakes her head.

"Y/n, come on, how blind are you? He's so into you." She says as she grabs my shoulders and shakes them violently, shaking up my brains, but we both laugh anyway.

"So what should I do about it?" I then ask, and she smirks.

"At dinner, ignore him. Come sit with trent, and I, make him talk to you." She states and I nod slowly taking all this in.

And at dinner I do exactly that, I sit next to gwen, trent sitting directly infront of us as we eat chefs food, and honestly I've grown to like it and I'll definitely miss it when I have to go home, but I think I'm going to miss everything about the camp, even maybe Chris and Heather. Maybe.

All throughout dinner, I can feel duncans eyes on me, and gwen confirms it when she nudges me.

"God y/n, I'm surprised your head hasn't exploded with the way he's staring at you." She whispers and I smile and look up at Duncan, who continues to stare at me even now that I've noticed his staring, and he doesn't even look embarrassed that he's been caught and instead he just waves and I wave back, and gwen motions for him to come sit with us and honestly he flies off of the table he's sitting at and practically runs towards our table taking the seat infront of me.

"I couldn't handle another minute of Sadie and kadie talking." He groans, and I smile.

"Yeah? Try sharing a bedroom with them all night they sit and giggle about best friend stuff." I say, furrowing my eyebrows, and gwen nudges me.

"If we're ever invited back once this season is over, we should beg Chris to let us on the same team so we can do that." She gasps and I widen my eyes at her as I nod.

"Yeah, smart idea." I agree and Duncan and trent both shake their heads.

"Please don't." They both beg in usion and gwen, and I let out small laughs.

Once dinners over, we all decide to walk to the firepit, seeing as we don't see anyone walking in that direction, and once we get there, Duncan grabs my hand.

"You guys wouldn't mind if I borrowed y/n for a moment?" Duncan asks, but he doesn't even wait for an answer as he drags me down to the bottom of the dock of shame where he stands infront of me, and I can't help but imagine how many people are watching this right now, but I mean it's not really my main concern at this exact moment of time.

"I do actually like you, and I know it's hard to believe seeing the sort of situation we're in right now, but I really do." Duncan quietly tells me, his big Mr criminal ego suddenly dissapeared.

"Well, you listened to my time with the camera so you know I like you too." I tell him as i shake my head.

"No, but y/n, I mean I like you, like no matter what happens on this island, I want to leave it being in a relationship with you." He continues and I just laugh.

"Duncan?" I ask.

"What?" He replies.

"Shut up." I say with a small laugh before I lean up and kiss him.

[chaotic-mystery]

Mr. Peña

Pairing: Boss!Javi Peña x assistant!f reader (technically the photo is not from season 3 but I fully see season 3 Javi and his stressed ass needing an assistant.)

Summary: you stop by your boss’ house to drop off intel and he’s persistent about how you got said intel.

Warnings: SMUT. MDNI, this is an 18+ blog only. Power imbalance, boss/assistant dynamic, flirty work relationship hinted at, pwmp, oral (m receiving) gagging, choking, spit, sassy Javi calling you cute but not like that, dirty talk, talk of posing as a call girl, smoking, specifically Javi smoking while you suck his dick. No use of y/n! If I missed anything let me know!

Authors note: this is my submission to @iamasaddie and her Pinterest challenge with the moodboard she made for me! I love this idea and I’d love to do one soon. Thanks @pedgito for beta reading as always, here’s a cookie 🍪 wc: 1k

“Here’s what you missed today, Mr. Pena. We’re not sure where the other friend is at right now but a couple of guys are going through phone call recordings to see if they mentioned anything.” You say as you toss down the file to the current case you’d been going over all day to help Javier with. Just starting at the Embassy as an assistant wasn’t your goal but at least it got your foot in the door, to one day be a DEA agent.

Javi was standing on the other side of the small kitchen counter with a glass of scotch in his hand, tucked against his chest. He never made it back to the office after lunch time due to checking leads but he called just a little while ago to let you know you needed to swing by and drop everything new that you and some of the other DEA agents found while he was gone. Even though you were just an assistant, he made it very clear you’re his number two while he’s not in the office and to treat you with respect.

“So who found this one? He was someone we could never get a ping for the cellphone records.” Javi holds up the photo of the scumbag drug dealer and looks at you.

“Oh, that was me, Mr. Pena. I blocked caller ID and I pretended to be a um…a call girl?” It came out as more of a question but how were you supposed to confidently tell your boss that you got a drug dealer's goon on the phone while you posted as a phone sex worker.

“A call girl? Remind me what that is.” He squints at you and takes a sip of his drink as he waits

for you to clarify.

“It’s when you pose as a uh..sex worker.” You gulp awkwardly.

Javi chuckles. “What did you say to him to make him stay on long enough to get a ping?”

“I was just telling him the stuff I think you’d normally hear if you were on the phone to a call girl. Ya know..” You look away from him and your face grows warm.

The ice in Javi’s cup clink around as he sets it down on the counter to his side.

“Like what?” He persists and you finally give in, hoping he’d drop it.

“Just about how needy I was and I was looking for some fun, stuff about how I’m sure his dick is big…how he’d make me scream until the sun came up…” The lump in your throat becomes more apparent and Javi breathlessly chuckles, hand coming to his hip while he smooths his mustache. A small part of you didn’t mind talking like this to Javi, he would tend to stare at your ass when you’d walk away from his desk, or something so small as giving your hand a squeeze if he’d have to slip past behind you.

“I knew you’d figure something out, you’re so smart. You must’ve had him going good, but where did you learn to talk like that? Never pegged you for a dirty girl like that. What else did you say to him?” Javi picks up the file one more time as he leans on the island, mindlessly flipping through sheets and sheets of intel. With the dim lighting you notice his face was a slight shade of red, probably thinking about what you just said.

“Think I could suck your cock so good your head would spin?” The confidence in your tone makes you stand a little taller as Javi’s eyes keep going over papers, a small smirk on his lips.

“What’d he say to that?”

“I don’t know, I’m asking you…sir.”

The folder lowers and Javi’s eyes meet yours, the room falling silent but your heart beating in your ears.

Javi gets close to your face and he cocks his head to the side.

“You think you could handle me? That’s cute.”

Reaching out to grab his belt buckle, you give it a tug to show him you mean what you say.

“There’s only one way to find out, Mr. Pena.” You innocently say as you lower yourself to your knees. Javi sighs deeply as he grabs his pack of cigarettes off the counter and lights one, putting it between his lips while you tug down his pants.

You waste no time getting his cock into your mouth and Javi groans loudly at the feeling of your tongue swirling over the head.

He takes a puff of his cigarette and pulls it from his mouth, looking down at you. “How long have you been wanting to suck your boss off, hm? Look at that cock in your mouth, fuuuuck.”

You don’t answer with words but you shove his cock deeper down your throat and hold it there as long as you can before you gag and release, pulling back slowly.

Javi moans as he runs his hand against your head, jaw clenching at how good it feels before he puts the cigarette back in his mouth.

You jerk him off as saliva spills down the corners of your mouth and your mascara starts to run.

“Every time you’re on the phone in your office yelling at someone I can’t help but get excited. I love when you’re aggressive, Mr. Pena. So fuckin’ sexy.” You whine and slap the tip on your tongue before taking all of him in your mouth once more. The way your dirty words flow from your mouth catches him off guard, causing him to toss his head back in pleasure. More curse words with your name wrapped in the mix come out from him in moans and you grab his hip to hold him steady as you bob your head back and forth.

Javi leaves the cigarette between his pink lips while he steps out of his skin tight jeans and ditches the half buttoned shirt. “Get up, because I’m not done with you yet.”

He spins you around and puts your arms behind you, guiding you in the direction of his bedroom.

“Walk.”

[eustasskidagenda]

hello im so excited that your ask box is open and youre taking requests! i dont request things often, so this might be a but of a weird concept, and i apologize if its too detailed. however the idea literally wont leave me alone. orz;;

maybe eustass kid has a crush on a somewhat reserved reader whose slow to open up and he hasnt quite realized thats what hes feeling until they stop on an island and meet readers childhood friend. they show a whole new side of themself with said friend by laughing openly, making stupid jokes, being much more physically affectionate. basically reader acts close with an old friend and kid gets jealous about it.

i dont mind if you do a oneshot, drabble, or headcanon, im just curious about your thoughts on this :3 thank you so much and i hope you have a great day!

Hello dear anon! Sure, I'm always happy to write for my pookie. It was fun to write, and it makes me smile a bit because Kid is such a mess, I love this angry tulip. Hope it will match your expectations. ☆

☆Kid with a s/o slow to open up

CW : g/n reader, a bit of cursing but fluff overall

WC : 700

Kid has always been loud. Whenever he's angry, he needs to shoot at someone. What can he say? His heart is filled with emotions, boiling and exploding like a thousand sparks. That's why you're a mystery. Always calm. Not letting others know what's on your mind. What makes you so quiet? He can't tell. 

Just like the moon and the sun, you are polar opposites. And yet, as the sun always chases the moon, he's always looking after you. And he's everything, but not discreet. Asking loudly for almost all of his crew what they think about you and why you are so reserved. 

Sure, he's used to introverted folks. Killer is one of them. But here's the difference: he can second-guess every word, thought, and breath of his best friend. He could probably achieve all of his sentences. And even through the mask, Kid could also guess the exact expression on Killer's face. 

Killer, who is likely aware that Kid has a small crush on you.

Kid is genuinely frustrated. Loudly frustrated, obviously. He needs to feel in control of everything and hates when he doesn’t have a full-understanding. Usually, he fails to notice reserved people because he's taking all the attention. But there's something about you: your slight smiles, the flash in your eyes, the way you're always listening to others but never talk about yourself. He can't tell why, but it keeps his mind alert. 

Perhaps you pose a bit of a challenge. Kid would never give two flying fucks about you if you were easy to see through. He's always looking after you because you're still a mystery. Sure, at the beginning, it was just to try to figure out who you really are. But now, it turned into something bigger. He hasn't noticed it yet, that’s all. Kid sucks with feelings. Feelings are actually something he hates because they make him feel weak. It puts his loved one in danger. Showing your weaknesses to enemies is a foolish move, Kid knows that perfectly.

However, everything is about to change. He decided to stop on that island for the day. For the first time, you asked to avoid robbery or harming anyone around. 

"Ugh, we're pirates, y/n" Kid doesn't want to look like a nice guy. He's a tough, rude pirate. He has a reputation to uphold. For him, the only good way to open a path is by violent means. Kindness? For what? If he's still alive today, it's because he toughened up and decided to never show mercy to anyone. 

"Fine, fine, I won't kill those people." Heavy sighs. But he wants to understand. He needs to understand. And finally, he's about to understand. 

Because suddenly, you're smiling heartily and running towards those scumbag strangers. What. The. Fuck. It's like seeing the sun after an eternity of blizzards and grey clouds. You're a bright light, a true sunshine. A burst of joy. You're joking, laughing, talking, and talking a lot. You never said more than two sentences in front of him, and now you're chatting endlessly with those strangers and hugging all of them. 

He's pissed off. Are those random people with terrible sense of style and ugly make-up better than him? The great Eustass "Captain" Kid? No way. 

"Guys, here's my captain, Kid. Kid, here are my childhood best friends."

Kid's face is a mess of angry scowls and boiling with frustration when they say hello. Why aren't you smiling as warmly when you're with him? Why is his heart pounding so hard, almost painfully in his chest? And damn, is it the cold or are his cheeks completely red? 

Poor Kid is both flushed and flustered. His first reflex is always exploding when he feels something. "Do you have a problem with me?" Barking through gritted teeth. 

He's ruining the happy-shitty mood and he doesn't care. 

So now, try to explain that you don't have a problem with him. Good luck, he's very stubborn. But once he's more or less calmed (because he's still pissed off), he still can't understand why his heart is racing at the sight of your soft, warm smile.

He wants to see that side of you more often. He wants to be part of those privileged people allowed to know the real you.

Yes, maybe he has a crush on you.

[autisticlancemcclain]

Keith comes over for Lance’s fifteenth birthday. Hunk is still in Hawaii, but he Skypes, and the three of them talk for two hours. It’s nice.

After Hunk hangs up, Lance decides he wants to make his own birthday cake. Keith decides he wants to help. Neither of them have ever baked by themselves before, but they figure it can’t be too bad.

And it isn’t – they make their way to Wal-Mart, buying six boxes of Betty Crocker’s yellow cake mix, because they don’t know if the box is telling the truth and it really does make a whole cake, so they figure a few extra boxes won’t hurt. They also buy eleven cans of icing, along with a bunch of blue food dye and sprinkles.

The next thing they do is try to put everything together. (They do, at this point, realise they have way too much shit. They only end up using two boxes for the cake, and one to eat the batter. And Lance will take no criticism on that – cake batter is fucking delicious.) That goes pretty well, too – they measure the ingredients and mix ‘em together. Easy. They even remember to grease the pan.

The… troubles, so to speak, come when they pop the cake in the oven and set a timer. Lance hoists himself up to sit on the counter while Keith does the dishes, because Lance is the Birthday Boy™ and is thus exempt from chores.

“In what world does being alive on a certain day mean you don’t have to do dishes,” Keith grumbles. Lance sticks out his tongue.

“In this world, where I am currently Queen of the Day, and you are subservient to me. Scrub the dishes in silence, mullet.”

Lance watches as the challenge visibly sparks up Keith’s spine. He straightens immediately, hands stilling. The sounds of scrubbing cease. Keith turns slightly to him, eyes dark and narrowed.

Lance gulps. He’ll deny it until his dying breath, but something stirs in his gut.

“What was that?” Keith asks carefully.

Lance has never been one to back down, even when he’s knee-deep in a pile of trouble. Especially not to Keith’s bitch ass, as objectively attractive as it may be.

“I said chop chop, get to work.”

Keith moves so fast he’s practically a blur. Water splashes everywhere, but Lance hardly notices. He’s too busy shrieking at the top of his lungs and vaulting over the counter. He sprints up the stairs, on all fours like an animal.

“Someone’s never seen a horror movie,” Keith growls, voice closer than Lance thought he was, and Lance chants in his head that it is not hot, it’s not, it’s lame and stupid and horrible and Keith is the worst. He is.

Lance finally makes it up the stairs and tears down the hallway, swinging into Veronica and Rachel’s bathroom and slamming the door shut milliseconds before Keith can follow him in. He turns the lock, panting heavily as the adrenaline hammers through his veins. The doorknob jiggles for a few seconds, as Keith turns the handle, but then stops abruptly. Footsteps fade as Keith walks away. Lance narrows his eyes. Since when does Keith give up so easily? (Once, Lance lied and said that he’s never once posted an embarrassing picture online and he has been carefully curating his online image his whole life. Keith pulled an all-nighter tracking down his old Tumblr account from when he was 11, and he didn’t even have his name on that thing. To this day Lance has no fucking clue how Keith found it, and lives with the constant shame that Keith has seen a picture of him posing in his room at like 3 in the morning, in front of his old Naruto poster, crossing his eyes and sticking out his tongue with the caption ‘im SO random XO RAWR XP’. If he thinks about the situation too much he feels like crawling into the nearest ditch and letting nature take him, so he shoves it quickly out of his mind, because it is his Birthday and he refuses to feel shame on his birthday.)

Suddenly the footsteps return, rapidly this time, and the handle jiggles again. A mounting horror washes through Lance as he remembers, abruptly, that the locks in his house are weird and every single one of them can be opened from the outside with a coin. Lance barely has time to even squeak before the door slams open and Keith comes barrelling through, colliding with him and sending them both tumbling to the floor. By the time Lance orients himself again, Keith is straddling him, pinning his shoulders to the ground and smirking at him.

“Who’s queen now, huh?” he taunts.

Lance swallows.

He swallows again.

He desperately prays his cheeks aren't as red as they feel, but he doubts God loves him that much.

“What’s the matter?” Keith asks, leaning closer. “Cat got your tongue?”

Lance isn’t even sure his brain is still working, let alone his fucking tongue. All he can feel is the length of Keith’s body pressed against his, the tensing of his muscles as he pins him down, the borderline fucking smoulder in Keith’s expression, two inches from his face –

A shrill beeping noise makes them both jump. They look around, then look at each other. What the hell is –

“Is that the smoke detectors?” Keith asks, and then they look at each other in horror.

“The cake!” they yell at the same time, and quickly untangle from each other and sprint back downstairs to the kitchen. The stove is billowing grey smoke, and a lot of it. Lance grabs a dishtowel and starts waving it back and forth, hoping to dispel some of it.

“Open the windows!” he shouts, and Keith rushes to comply. While he does that, Lance holds the towel in front of his face, slipping on an oven mitt with his other hand, and carefully opens the oven door. More smoke blows in his face, and he coughs, eyes burning. He blinks to clear them, and sighs in relief when he doesn’t see any flames. He carefully grabs the glass baking dish.

“Can you open the back door?” he asks. “I’m gonna set this outside, see if that clears the smoke a bit.”

Keith nods, and Lance rushes over to set the pan down on the concrete stairs. Luckily, the glass doesn’t crack. They go back inside, closing the screen door behind them, and take a moment to stare in hopeless silence at the hazy kitchen in front of them.

“So much for that cake,” Keith says.

“Mamá is going to kill me,” Lance breathes. “I am going to die at fifteen.”

Keith grimaces. “Maybe we can scrape off the burnt parts?”

Lance thinks back to the block of char currently sitting in the backyard, and imagines him and Keith with a butterknife each, desperately scraping off the black in a vain attempt to find even a sliver of edible cake before Mamá gets back from work, and the image is so ridiculous he bursts out laughing. Keith was already cracking up a little at his own damn suggestion, and loses it when Lance doubles over. That’s how Mamá finds them, in a smoke-filled kitchen, leaning on each other, struggling to breathe from both their laughter and all the fucking smoke.

“Lance, must you make a mess every time you have a friend over,” she sighs, and Keith and Lance just laugh harder.

“You and Keith are cleaning this kitchen from top to bottom. No exceptions. I don’t care if it’s your birthday, or that Keith’s a guest. He’s here enough that that’s hardly true, anyway. Dios.”

She walks away muttering, and Lance doesn’t even correct her about his and Keith’s friendship status. He finds that he truly doesn’t want to.

To be fair, Keith is about to spend the next couple hours helping him scrub the kitchen after they basically set it on fire. That’s something friends do, he’s sure.

[eschergirls]

It's been 2 weeks and it's almost Halloween so it's time to announce the winners of the spooky October caption contest!

We had a lot of submissions and they were all really good, so like last month, I'll pick 3 winners (in order) and 3 honorable mentions.

Each winner will get to choose a prize if they wish (but you don't have to, you can just participate for fun too.)  The prizes are extra Steam codes that I've acquired through bundles over the years and I figure that giving them out for contests would be fun.  If you won and want a prize, please contact me. Honorable mentions can get a prize if any of the winners decline (I will contact you if that happens).  

Anyway here are the entries, as usual, grouped by the platform they were submitted on:

Fedi/Mastodon:

Dollcomics: Even with insurance, a comic book heroines back surgery always cost an arm and a leg Ordinating Aether Show: Sex (as depicted in an abstinence-only textbook)

Disqus:

Demma10: "... But it's the pelvic thrust, that will make you go insane (and lose your hips or limbs). Let's, do, the (battle) time warp, again." P J Evans: "Die, cursed arm, DIE!"

Tumblr:

atomicmosaic: perspective so bad I can't even tell whose ass is supposed to be whose atomicniire: "thank god this flying body part is covering up my massive boner" auronlu: "Internal organs!" she thought, hacking and chopping in such a frenzy of despair that her vertebrae rattled like the overtaxed joints of a 1980a snake puzzle. "If I can't have any, why should they!?" elkian: Gloria hates it when the sound stage gets double-booked, but she is scheduled to rehearse 2 hours of opera practice and no amount of zombie gorefest is going to stop her, goddammit! fyrenwater: "No, I said PUMPKIN carving, not bumpkin carving!" glidingisindeedfaster: "I’LL BE THE FIRST ONE IN THE WORM POSE CONTEST AND YOU GUYS CAN’T STOP MEEEEE" harukami: The halftime show got weirder every year. karltface: But it was just as she had feared: despite adopting ever more ridiculous fighting styles, her skill was so great, there was no threat, no challenge, no pride in any fight. The genie had been right to laugh. milkawa-and-co: "Come on ! Killing 1200 zombies with the Butt Thrust Spell and the Golden Sexy Armor is the last succes I need to platinium this game !" silveraptor: “TV Tropes calls this the ‘Interplay of Sex and Violence’ I call this ‘what happens when a comic book artist mixes up their Work and “Taxes” folders’.” swanfink: "And it's the pelvic thruuust~ That really drives you insa-a-a-ane~!" thecomicsrack: Plasticine Lass v The Evil Dead thevikingfish-nimhrodell: "Ohhhhh, I'm in the fight,  my hips don't lie, I'm stabbin' to kill this guy.  Put him in traction, after i hack him. Mauling zombies, yes, this is perfection!" vis-a-vi: "Please turn your attention to the figure on the left wielding a club. Note that he has no nipple on his left side. Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk." zombiemollusk: me and the boys havin a wild gore-gy

The honorable mentions go to: Dollcomics, @fyrenwater, and @zombiemollusk

The runner-ups are:

In third place: @thevikingfish-nimhrodell

In second place: @harukami

And the winner is... Ordinating Aether Show: Sex (as depicted in an abstinence-only textbook)

Congrats to the winners and thank you and a Happy Early Halloween to everybody who submitted a caption!  The captions were also really good this month too!

Please stay tuned for a new caption contest in November!

If you won and would like a Steam code as a prize, please message me with which prize you would like.  If you came in 2nd, message me with 2 choices in order of preference...  I'll give you your top choice that hadn't been taken by the other winners. (To clarify, every winner only gets 1 prize, but winners other than the one in first place should give me their list of games in order of preference so if one is taken, I'll give you the next on the list.  It makes it easier for me to hand out the prizes.)

If the winner or the runner ups don't claim a prize, then the honorable mentions get a prize if they want one.

The Steam codes I have available as prizes are for: Aragami, Cook, Serve, Delicious! 3, Hotel Giant 2, I Am Fish, Ittle Dew 2+, My Time At Portia, Riot: Civil Unrest, Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun, Survivalist, Trifox, Tunche, and Uncertain: Light At The End.

[aheathen-conceivably]

1, 10, 12, and 25! - lgl

LGL always a joy in the inbox 😊

1. What’s the last screenshot you’ve taken for your story?

Trying to get them spoilers here, huh? 😜

The last screen I took was actually while testing some pose edits. It is a blessed photo, so please enjoy (and speculate)…

10. Is your story fully planned or are you still working things out? is there a definitive end?

Kind of, definitely, and yes.

More specifically, I have a number of specific details planned out. I always like to ramble about how it’s like scaffolding being built toward the sky. The higher you go the less the structure is there, and you can see all the cracks and still need to figure out how to actually get to the next solid point, which is where the inspiration and flexibility comes in. But overall, yes, I have the final scene of the story written. Imma need a whole ass team if I’m ever gunna get there at this rate though 😅

12. Do you actually play the game or do you just use it as a storytelling medium?

Specifically in the Darlington save? Probably like 20/80 at this point. I play between story shoots to kind of mimic the arcs, so it’s more me just imitating my own story in gameplay vs. actually playing the game and letting it influence my writing at all.

25. What inspirations have you drawn on for your story?

Goodness, gracious. Everything? If that’s a fair answer? 😅

Movies I love, books I read, history I’ve studied, songs that hit, fellow storytellers, tropes that make my brain itch, personal experiences, the color of the sky sometimes, a single word my husband says. Honestly? Fun times out here when you’ve got the Darlington brain rot.

To narrow it down I think that the 1890s/1900s were more inspired by my own aesthetics and decades challenges in general, and things got a little more personal around 1910 (which is why I usually tell people that’s when I start to really like the story). Those years were heavily inspired by Downton Abbey and Titanic (of course). And as broad stroke inspiration, I’m sure y’all know I’m fond of the “it glitters so brightly you don’t even see the tragedy until it’s too late” vibes that Titanic has (cue my other favorite films Cabaret and Moulin Rouge).

The 20s are inspired by New Orleans, I cannot state it enough. By everything I felt in my years there and everything I learned during my MA. More specifically, it was heavily drawn from Mister Jelly Roll and Empire of Sin. We also have some Gatsby in there, of course 😉

Now in the 30s I’m really having a blast, because I feel like I’m pulling inspiration for all the previous decades (Gatsby references coming when?) as well as hinting toward future ones (a certain littlest heiress and her obsession with the Wizard of Oz comes to mind). Combined with that is so much rich inspiration for this decade itself, coming heavily from Route 66: A Cultural History and The Grapes of Wrath specifically , as well as broader ideas of Americana, country and blues music, and the symbolism/beauty of the desert.

This decade has also really made me realize just how much inspiration I draw from place, and how it not only influences my style of descriptive writing (which in and of itself is inspired by Anne Rice), but also makes me so interested in how a location and its history influences people and the path of the story. I feel like it grounds me not just in a time period, but how that time period may have been different in specific locations and how different characters react to those factors.

[runnning-outof-time]

Free the Slave | Tommy Shelby x Reader

Request: no - written for @little-diable ‘s 14k Follower Celebration

Pairing: Tommy Shelby x Reader (AU)

Summary: (Y/N) becomes blinded by opportunity when mysterious preacher, Thomas Shelby, comes into her town that she doesn't see the bigger picture of what's going on at first. But when she’s shown it, she becomes even more intrigued.

Warnings: smoking, discussion of an attempted hanging, impersonation of a religious figure

Word Count: 3832

A/N: I’m…not exactly sure what this is. I struggled to write it because it’s so different from anything I’ve tried to write before, so I appreciate the challenge you posed, Chi (which congrats by the way 14 thousand followers is unreal!!) This is also the story that this moodboard was inspired by…I hope it lived up to the expectations. Enjoy! :)

A/N 2: the storyline in this is loosely based off of the show Damnation (which I really need to finish)…I pulled some plot points from it. It’s also inspired by KALEO’s song Free the Slave - I pulled a lot of the lyrics from the song and incorporated them into the story.

PLEASE LET ME KNOW WHAT YOU THINK!

Comment/Message me if you’d like to be tagged in future stories similar to this one!

"Dark days are coming," Thomas Shelby spoke in a firm, ominous tone as he looked out at the people who had gathered before him, "whether you want them to or not. They're coming for you; coming for everyone in this room. You will have to make the choice on whether you want to fight or take shelter and hide. But before you choose, remember this: he who takes shelter is often forgotten about...it is the man who fights for what he believes in that gets to tell his tale," he paused then, hearing sounds of agreement coming from the crowd.

Hearing these reactions spurred him on. This was what he craved; the response from those who so easily subscribed to his word. He held a confident expression as he looked out at the congregation, which was still buzzing over the words that he said. He knew that he had them in the palm of his hand.

"Those dark days are almost here!" his voice cut through the talk of the crowd, bringing the attention back on him, "it will soon be time for us to stand up and fight for what we believe. The day of reckoning is almost here. So I ask all of you...is your conscience clear?" he ended by raising his eyebrows as he asked the question, panning across the crowd one more time. "Think on that," he left the crowd with a parting sentence, leaving his sermon open for the next time he'd step up on the pulpit and speak.

He stepped away from it and was immediately stopped by members of the crowd who were eager to talk about what had just been said. Tommy didn't say much. Instead he nodded along as he listened to the excited conversations; something inside of him churning as he realized just how into his word these people were. He'd never met a more receptive crowd in all of his travels.

A woman standing in the corner of the room caught his eye as he 'listened' to another person drone on about their take on his sermon. He could care less about how they received it. All that mattered to him was that they listened. But this woman...she interested him.

And she stuck around; waiting until all of the other churchgoers spoke to the man who'd just delivered a moving sermon before she decided to approach him herself. "Preacher Shelby," she started off as she stopped in front of him.

"Hello," he greeted her with a nod of his head.

"I was really moved by what you said in your sermon today," she said to him, and unlike all of the other conversations Tommy had stood through before this one, he listened, "people around here are too afraid to be upfront and confront their fate. What you said was right...we can't just let it overtake us. We must do something about it."

"I'm glad to hear that you found meaning in my sermon," Tommy started, a sense of poise in his voice, "too often people hear the truth and want to run away from it."

"I won't run from it," she told him in an assured tone, her words making a look of intrigue form on his face. There was something about this woman. "Preacher Shelby, I think I can help you," she said then, tilting her chin slightly upwards to show the confidence that she had.

"You think so?" he questioned her, his eyebrows raised. She only nodded, biting at her cheek to contain the grin that was threatening to form on her lips. "What's your name then?" he asked her, his lips parted slightly as he awaited her response.

"It's (Y/N)," she happily shared with him, "(Y/N) (Y/L/N)."

"Well, (Y/N)..." he started off, giving her a once over before continuing, "I look forward to speaking with you in the future."

"As I with you, Preacher Shelby," she allowed her grin to surface, and it stayed present on her face as she stepped backwards, leaving the conversation so that she could turn and exit the meeting house.

Tommy watched her leave, even more so intrigued now than he was before. He didn't get too long to look at her fleeting figure though as another man had approached him and wanted to get into the deeper meanings of what he'd just spoken about...oh if that man knew that there weren't any to begin with.

It took twenty minutes until he was finally able to leave the meeting house. His car was the only one left in the lot, which made the slip of paper sitting on the driver's seat catch him completely off guard. He instantly reached for his revolver that was tucked away inside his jacket, brandishing it and doing a sweep over the land; making sure nobody was waiting to ambush him.

He opened the car door once he found that the perimeter was clear, grabbing the paper and opening it. There were two sentences written on it: meet me by the riverside later on today...I have things to tell you. — (Y/N). Tommy pursed his lips together as he read the note over again. What things could she have to tell me? he wondered to himself, looking up again to make sure that he was still alone and hadn't been drawn into a trap. The land around him was still empty; no trap had been set, which meant that this woman actually wanted to talk with him. And he was interested.

He got into the vehicle after stuffing the note into his jacket pocket and started it before lighting himself a cigarette. He then took a long drag and exhaled the smoke slowly before putting the car into drive and leaving the lot.

——

(Y/N) was already sitting on one of the rocks positioned by the river when Tommy's car pulled up to where she told him to meet her. She watched as he shut off the engine and exited the vehicle. "I'm pleased that you showed up," she stated as he walked over to where she was sitting.

"I'm interested in what you had to tell me," he said to her, his statement holding truth. He was curious about her.

"Have a seat," she told him, moving over on the rock so that there was enough room for him to sit.

He nodded before sitting in the empty space. He looked at her then, and when she said nothing, he began speaking, "what is it that you wanted to tell me?" he asked, cutting right to the chase.

"I need your help," she kept her first statement vague.

"With what?" he took the bait, his eyebrows furrowing together as he asked the question.

"With what they've decided to do to a man in town," her answer was still vague.

"What are they doing with him?" he asked another question, his patience slowly wearing thin. She asked him to come out here...he shouldn't be the one prying for answers.

(Y/N) took a deep breath, ready to explain everything now that she saw he was genuinely interested in what she had to say. "You may or may not know that there's a strike happening in town. The men are protesting the low wages and terrible conditions. A man named Harvey was asked to come back...the bosses told him that they'd give him an increased pay if he broke the strike and returned. He's hesitant, but he has to...he's got two young children to feed and another on the way. His family couldn't keep living on nothing. He was desperate."

"The point of this is...?" Tommy trailed off, a slight amount of confusion present in his voice. Why was she telling him this?

"They're going to hang him, Preacher Shelby," she dropped the bomb, her voice dire, "he's an honest man, and yet they're going to hang him. They say he isn't guilty, but that someone still has to pay. And they won't be pleased until it happens because they want to make a statement...to show everyone what happens if you stray from the cause."

"Why're you sharing this information with me?" he asked her, still trying to figure out where he fit into this situation. Sure, it shocked him to hear that this innocent man was going to be hanged for trying to provide for his family, but at the same time he'd personally taken down men for far lesser offenses.

"Because they'll listen to you," she wasted no time in answering him, her eyes showing how much emotion she had invested into this predicament.

"How can you be sure that they will?" he asked her another question.

"I saw how they listened to you today, as you spoke about the dark days that are upon us. I saw how they lined up to speak to you afterwards. They were moved by your words. What you say holds weight in their minds. They'll surely listen if you tell them that what they're doing is unjust. You just need to get them to see sense," she continued with her pleas, making a strong case for why he should stop them.

Tommy took a deep breath, fingers itching to pull the pack of cigarettes out of his jacket so that he could let the smoke clear his mind. He had little care about these workers' movement...their struggle wasn't affecting him, so why should he go and stick his neck out for a man he'd never met? But yet (Y/N) pleas were weighing on his mind. He wondered for a moment if that was because they solidified the fact that his plan was working, or if it was simply because of the woman who was making them. He'd met few like her in all of his travels.

"Say you'll help me, Preacher Shelby," (Y/N) spoke again after a few silent moments had passed. Her voice had gotten even more desperate in the time that had passed without a decision being made. She hated that she was stooping this low to a man who she'd just met earlier that day, but she had exhausted all of her other options. "Say you'll help this honest man and his family."

"What'll be in it for me?" he asked her then, tilting his chin up slightly as he asked the question that had been burning a hole in his mind since she made her case. It had been hard for him not to ask this earlier...everyone was motivated by something after all.

"Anything," she blurted out without second thought, "I'll give you anything you'd want if you can help this man."

Tommy clicked his tongue at her words, shaking his head slightly. Stupid girl, he thought to himself, making foolish deals with people she hardly knows. "It isn't smart of you to put the word 'anything' out on the table, love," he told her, "someone might just hold you to it," his words were said as a warning, hoping to get her to realize what she'd done.

"I'm desperate," she didn't take it back.

"I can see," he pointed out.

"Will you help me, Preacher Shelby?" she asked him again, no care for his ominous comments present in her words.

She's persistent...I'll give her that, he thought to himself as he thought her statements over. It was unlike his choices in the past, but something was telling him to help her. "I'll help you," he made up his mind, his words making her grab onto his hand and squeeze it out of appreciation.

"Thank you so much, Preacher Shelby. You have no idea what kind of service you is doing for this man and his family," she said to him, sharing her praise for his decision, "thank you," she uttered her thanks and squeezed his hand one last time before letting it go and fighting the embarrassment that was bubbling up in her from making such a brash decision to grab him.

"When is this happening?" he asked her, now wanting more details about the event he'd agreed to stop.

"I...I'm not sure yet," she hesitantly answered him, sheepishness present in the apologetic smile she sent him. She didn't think she'd get this far.

Great, Tommy thought to himself, wanting to bring his hand to his face in frustration, I've agreed to this and she has no bloody clue of the finer details.

"I could get you the information though!" she jumped to tell him before he could back out of the deal. "I mean it, I can find everything out and tell you as soon as I have it," she added, her desperation present once again.

"Ok," he nodded, making her sigh in relief. She was happy to hear that he was still interested. "I'm staying at the inn; room 273. Come there when you find any information," he told her then, hoping that she wouldn't question the fact that he didn't have a permanent residence in the town.

"I will," she nodded as well, "thank you so much, Preacher Shelby," she expressed her gratitude once again.

"Thank me when it's over," he told her, his voice unintentionally holding a grim tone.

——

(Y/N) rushed down the hall of the inn, intently looking at each of the number plaques until she found the one she was looking for. She'd visited this room only a few days ago, but today it felt like she couldn’t get to it soon enough.

She knocked on the door the instant she got to it, and after trying four times, it opened. "Preacher Shelby," she panted, having not quite caught her breath yet, "thank you," she added once she trusted her voice again.

"For?" he asked with furrowed eyebrows, slightly surprised by seeing her at his door.

"You told me to thank you when it's over," she reminded him of their conversation by the riverside, "it's over, so thank you."

Tommy nodded as what they spoke about came back to him. "There's no need to thank me, love...they backed down quickly once I reminded them that judgment would be brought upon them and they would be condemned for hanging an innocent man," he gave her a rundown of how things unfolded.

"So you'll forgive them, Father?"

"Why?" Her question surprised him.

"Because they know not what they do...they're only working for their cause. My goal was to make sure that my brother stayed alive. I didn't want them to be condemned," she said to him, her stomach doing flips at the idea.

"Your brother?"

"That man was my brother," she told him, nodding slightly to accentuate her point. "You stopped them from hanging him. He was able to go back to his family because of what you said."

"Condemnation is up to God to decide," Tommy told her, "have a good day, (Y/N)," he moved to wrap up the conversation, starting to close the door between them.

(Y/N) stopped it before it could latch. "Wait, Preacher Shelby," she said, sticking her arm between the door and the frame.

"What?" Tommy asked as he opened the door again.

"I want to follow your cause...to help out in any way that I can," she said to him, her eyes locked onto his as she spoke.

Tommy furrowed his brows at her statement, letting it sink in before he stuck his neck out into the hallway so that he could look both ways; checking to see if it was clear. Upon finding it empty, he grabbed her forearm and ushered her into the room. (Y/N) gasped at the suddenness, but didn't try to pull away. Instead she followed him in, letting him shut the door behind her before he moved to lean against the chest of drawers sitting on the opposite side of the room. Nothing was said as he grabbed his pack of cigarettes and took one from it, rolling it across his bottom lip before bringing a lighter up to strike it.

(Y/N) watched as he took a drag and exhaled the smoke slowly, letting it billow out around his face. The way he looked at her from across the room made her shudder involuntarily. It seemed as though he was sizing her up, and he was now surrounded by a darker presence, one that she'd never aliken to a man of God. It confused her slightly, but overall made her more intrigued by him.

"Did you hear what I said before, Preacher Shelby?" she asked him, breaking the silence that had fallen between them. "I said that I want to be invested in your cause...to support you fully. I offered you anything in return for helping my brother, and that offer still stands, although I don't think I could ever be able to repay you for it."

"You don't want to do that, (Y/N)," he told her, speaking in a low voice that caused another shudder to course through her. She saw that he was now gripping the top of the dresser, his knuckles white.

"Why not?" she asked, playing the innocent part to continue to - hopefully - get more answers out of him.

"Because I'm not the man you think I am," he started vague, looking her over once before he continued, "I'm no preacher, and I'm certainly not one who's cause you should invest your time into."

"Why shouldn't I?" she asked another question, still not deterred by his ominous answers.

"I'm a bad man, (Y/N)," he admitted, pushing himself away from the dresser so that he could take a few steps in her direction.

"You saved my brother's life. You must not be so bad," she pointed out, not backing down from him even though he was becoming more daunting with each step he took in her direction. She wasn't afraid though. He almost wanted to laugh at how innocent she sounded.

"Words weren't what got your brother spared...it was my actions that did. I threatened those men; told them that they'd face a worse demise than the man they'd accused if they went forward with it," he told her of how things really went down, moving closer to her as he spoke.

"I don't care how you did it," she said to him, holding her ground.

"You should," he responded, standing toe to toe with her now.

"I don't," she insisted, taking a moment to look him over. She could see his striking blue eyes now. The ice in them was evident and staring into them did not reveal what he was thinking. It did make her more entranced by him though; she’d never seen eyes that blue in her life. "I'm tired of living this life...I'm tired of having no say. You accepted my invite, listened to me, and then brought justice where it was needed. That stands for something. I want you to free the slave in me; to free me from this hell that I've been tangled up in," she said then, her eyes staying locked with his as she watched them flit down to her lips before trailing back up. Seeing that made a fire ignite inside of her, "you don't scare me, Mr. Shelby," she said to him, dropping the religious title but still addressing him formally.

"I don't?" he asked her, his eyebrows raised as he held his intent gaze on her.

"No," she shook her head ever so slightly, a grin ghosting on her lips, "you excite me," she admitted then, her eyes locked with his, watching for how he'd react to her confession.

A grin teetered on his lips as he heard what she had to say. "Excite you?" he questioned, humming to himself before he continued, "I do bad things, (Y/N)...it'd be wise of you to rethink what you've said," he warned her.

"I said I'd give you anything," she reminded him, holding her ground even though she felt like she was going to combust on the inside. These things he was saying were meant to ward her off, but they only made her want him more.

She'd had her eyes on him from the moment she entered the meeting house he was speaking at. No man she'd met in the past had ever come close to the way he was making her feel at that moment. Her learning of his true persona made him even more enticing; now she was just waiting for him to make a move, because it seemed as though he was sizing her up in the way that she'd been doing to him.

His eyes roamed her face once more before he finally spoke again, his words cutting the tension like a knife, "so then tell me, (Y/N)...where's your savior now, eh?" he asked her, his eyebrows raising as he waited intently for her response.

"He's right in front of me," she wasted no time in telling him before she couldn't resist herself any longer and went forward with reaching over to take hold of the sides of his neck so that she could collide their lips together in a haste kiss.

It didn't take long for Tommy to take over, moving her back so that she was pressed against the door, his hands gripping onto her hips as he kissed her with the same amount of intensity that she was putting into her efforts. Her hands roamed up to his head, knocking the peaked cap off so that she could grip onto to the longer stands of his cropped haircut. They kissed until their lungs were burning, and (Y/N) was the first to pull back for air, giving him the opportunity to press a few kisses to her jaw.

"Is there something other than preacher that I can call you?" she panted out, bringing her knee up to brush against his thigh, her actions making him groan in response.

"Tommy," he shared his name in between the kisses he'd been pressing against her skin.

"Tommy..." she tried it out for herself, loving how it rolled off of her lips, "I said I'd give you anything, Tommy...just free the slave in me, please," she finished her statement with a satisfied sigh before his lips found hers again.

"Be careful what you ask for, love," he cautioned her, but his words fell on deaf ears as she was already too far gone to heed to the warning.

It was too late to turn back now. There wasn't anything that he could say or do that would make her stray from him. She realized that she was getting involved with a man who was surely closer to the devil than he was to God, and that notion alone excited her. She was invested, and he was going to free the slave in her...starting with making her feel things she'd never felt in her life.

Tagged: @mgcldydrms @the-anxious-youth @cloudofdisney @look-at-the-soul @elenavampire21 @mrsalwayswrite @julkaamazing @evita-shelby @lilyrachelcassidy @notyour-valentine @shelbydelrey @december16-1991 @onlydeadcells @peakyswritings @just-a-blackhole @watercolorskyy @strayrockette @peakyduchesss @alexxavicry @captivatedbycillianmurphy @yummycastiel @dark-academia-slut @tommystargirl @stevie75 @lyarr24 @signorellisantichrist @zablife @anotherblinder @midnightmagpiemama @cillmequick @rangerelik @dandelionprints @letal-y-poetica @itscheybaby @gypsy-girl-08 @insanitybyanothername @depxiety @raincoffeeandfandoms @dragons-are-my-favorite @acewritesfics @forgottenpeakywriter @cilliansangel @cljordan-imperium @areyenotfondofmelobster @little-diable

MASTERLIST

Listen to the song Free the Slave by KALEO HERE.

[uniquexusposts]

Her || Charles Leclerc

Main characters: Charles Leclerc x OC Genre: fan fiction, fluff  Story type: novel  Part: 4/? Word count: 2379 Co writer: @mistrose23

Story summary: Matilde Jørgensen, the new Scuderia Ferrari team principal, faced the nerve-wracking challenge of reviving the team's fortunes and aiming for a championship. Leading a historic team as a 'newbie' and separating her work and personal opinions posed a significant challenge. The big question: is she capable to do so?

Previous chapter

Chapter 2: From Friends to Rivals

Matilde found herself in unfamiliar territory as she sat on a relaxing stool in the airport lounge of the airline she was flying with today. It was the first time she sat in an airport lounge - a lounge for business class, because usually she flew economy as that was all she could pay for. And since she wasn't a 'Head' of a department, or someone that important, she flew economy with her team. And now as team principal, she sat in a lounge, between people with money and probably a status. Nevertheless, her flight was delayed. Whether you sit in a lounge or at the gate, the impatience level feels the same.

A teasing remark snapped her out of her contemplation. "You won't make friends with that look on your face, ey."

The new team principal looked up and she was greeted by her best friend and ex-colleague. With a playful response, Matilde countered: "It's a good thing that I am not waiting to make any new friends," Matilde replied and sat up. "Hello, darling."

Gemma sat down on the stool in front of her. "Finally," she breathed, the weight of the past three weeks hearable in her words. "What a week, well, three weeks; testing, racing, everything." She looked next to her and saw two people joining them by sitting down at the two seats next to them.

"Hello," GP smiled, Max Verstappen's race engineer.

"Hey, hey," Hannah chimed in and sat down, she was the Head of Strategy.

Matilde looked at her former colleagues, now rivals. A smile grew on her face. "Now I finally get to experience how it feels to be important," she teased. "You get fancy shit."

"Do you know how extremely hard we work?" Gemma replied with a mock-offended expression on her face.

GP smirked. "All you get to do is listen to Max during interviews," he said to Gemma.

A collective laughter enveloped them. As the amusement settled, Matilde added her own remark. "Oh, right, and the husband has the toughest job ever here." She looked at GP.

They all laughed.

"But Matt, let's debrief. Tell me about your week." Hannah's tone shifted, steering the conversation toward a more serious topic.

Matilde's expression took on a thoughtful cast, the weight of her new role evident in her gaze. "It has been a rollercoaster," she began, a note of exhaustion and determination in her voice. "And I am still on it." She looked at them one by one, figuring out if she could speak out loud about her thoughts. These three people were close to her during her time at Red Bull. Matilde joined Red Bull at the same time as GP, she was Hannah's right hand and Gemma became a really close friend. "Honestly, I have more respect for Christian now. It's only been a week, but I have no idea what I'm doing or what has happened."

"Why?" Gemma asked.

"I still have to process everything." Matilde took a deep breath. "I got here and I became Kim Kardashian."

"Yeah, of course. Binotto gets sacked and a day later you're here," Hannah remarked with a hint of playful scepticism.

"What's up with that?" GP curiously asked.

Matilde pressed the corners of her mouth down and threw her hands up in the air. "I don't know. Honestly, I'm just as surprised as you are. I mean, the deal was as good as done, but I was expected to start after the summer break. That's why I stepped down last year after Zandvoort, because I was already talking with Ferrari. But it's quite a red flag, isn't it? The fact that they let him do testing..."

"What do you expect from Ferrari?" Gemma said, adding a note of realism in her tone. "The team's as red as their livery."

GP looked disapproving at Gemma. "Don't let her regret making this decision, Gemma," he said.

"A new clown entered the circus. I hope I can keep up the act," Matilde blurted. "And stay for longer, make some changes, understand the deeper issues of this team and their philosophy, perhaps win some races. No, but I can't really say what I think of it yet, I still have to process everything, but so far, it's overwhelming and busy and nice."

GP took a sip of his cappuccino. "Woman is still in shock. And the team?"

"Tough crowd," she answered. "Exactly how I expected them to be. Stubborn, old-fashioned, but they're kind so far. It's different from Red Bull, with different people and team spirit."

"And Leclerc and Sainz?" Hannah asked.

"Can't really tell yet, honestly. They were both quite distant, Leclerc more than Sainz. But it's the first week, I don't know. I can't make assumptions already." Matilde took a deep breath. "But I don't have the same vibes, yet, as I had with Max and Checo - I can't really compare them with each other, but it feels like I have to earn Leclerc and Sainz's respect first."

Her friends exchanged knowing glances, understanding the feelings Matilde was experiencing.

"It's the first impression that counts the most," GP said, adding his perspective. "But like what?"

Matilde paused for a moment. Could she share this? But on the other hand, the race had passed and they had gathered the data already. And they spoke as equals rather than competitors. "I know the strategy is not my job anymore, I have a team for that. I can have an opinion on it and I have to keep it to myself, but..." Matilde let out a groan of frustration.

"Let me guess, you had a strategy in your mind and they didn't want to use it?" Hannah asked.

Matilde pressed her lips into a thin. "The jokes we made about the strategy at Ferrari?" She let out a breath. "Exactly that."

"Oh, boy," Gemma mumbled.

"Let's say there may be a reason why we didn't make it on the podium," Matilde replied and put on a professional smile. "I am not used to leading a team yet, I still have that team player inside me and I want to stir during the briefings, but I have other things to do."

Gemma grinned. "What was your strategy?"

Matilde only looked at her, not saying a word.

"Softs, 15, softs, 35, hards," Hannah filled in. "And what did you do?"

"Sainz had softs, 13, hards, 31, hards. Leclerc had softs, 13, hards, 33, hards," Matilde explained. "The result? Fourth and fifth position. It worked, I'm not denying that. I don't want to say this, but I'm convinced that if we used the strategy I proposed, we would have been in a fight with you. We could have pushed harder." Matilde shrugged. "But fine, first race, new team, new team principal. It's fine for now."

GP nodded in agreement. "But hey, don't be harsh on yourself. You managed to get points. It was almost a podium."

Her response was candid, her aspirations were set high. "It could have been a podium."

GP smiled. 'Look at you, there's that winning mentality.'

Matilde smiled as well and blushed a little bit.

"Your first times are always a bummer, they always suck. You can be satisfied, you didn't get a DNF for one or both cars," Gemma said. "All right, work aside. Are you going to the UK or Italy actually?" She turned the conversation towards her travel plans.

"Italy. My dad and brothers moved everything from Northampton to Modena. So I'm curious to see where I will end up, to see what Ferrari managed to get."

Gemma smirked. "Did you ask them to find you a place? Team principal commands at its finest."

"Gotta make use of my position now," Matilde replied playfully. "No, they offered to help me find a place. I was like: sure, you do you. I haven't seen any of it yet. I only know Italy as a holiday destination, not as a living situation."

The conversation continued, blurring the lines between their professional analyses and friendly banter. Matilde asked about their weekend and they talked about multiple situations within the Red Bull team.

Time, however, was slipping away. Matilde looked at her watch and sighed. "As much as I love spending time with you, my flight won't wait forever."

Gemma raised an eyebrow, a playful smirk on her lips. "Well, well, look at her. Our very own high-flying team principal on a tight schedule."

Matilde rolled her eyes with a chuckle.

"Yeah, we wouldn't want the mighty team principal to be late for her flight. Wouldn't want the plane to take off without her," GP chimed in.

"Hilarious, guys."

Hannah smiled. "We're just one garage away. You know where to find us," she amusingly smiled.

With a final exchange of smiles and hugs, Matilde turned and walked toward the exit of the lounge. She made her way to her gate and stepped on the plane, leaving the first weekend behind in Bahrain.

* * *

As the taxi navigated the surroundings of Emilia-Romagna, Matilde gazed out of the window, inspecting and observing the scenery that would now be her daily backdrop. She was tired. The flight from Bahrain was long; the time went slow. Since it was a day flight, she barely slept. She had a stop in Istanbul, but luckily she still made it to the planned flight to Bologna. It was almost evening, meaning she could jump into her bed once she got to her new place.

Seated comfortably in the backseat, Matilde pulled out her phone. As the taxi continued its journey, she navigated through various news articles and opinion pieces that were written about the Bahrain Grand Prix. She was no stranger to the media within the world, having spent years in the world and she got used to it, but this time it was different. The headlines were about her - Matilde Jørgensen, the new face of Scuderia Ferrari.

She read the articles with a mixture of curiosity and determination. The critics had their say about her, like they had about everyone on the grid, but this time, it was her. And only her. They were curious to see how a relatively young woman would handle the pressure at Ferrari and how she would lead the team without the knowledge of being a team principal. They spoke about her welcome, her decisions so far, the strategy choices and the team management during her first race weekend. Some praised her audacity to step into such a high-pressure role, while others (the most) questioned her lack of experience as a team principal. The highs and lows of the race weekend were analysed in black and white by experts and wannabes.

Matilde's lips pressed into a thin line as she read through the critics. She finally understood why famous people never read things about themselves, and she was only a team principal. Each word was a reminder of the immense responsibilities she had undertaken. She might be new to this role, but she was ready to learn, fail, adapt and prove herself.

Her attention alternated between the articles and the passing scenery. She had entered the city, her new home. With a final glance at her phone, she set it aside. Matilde was ready to take in her new city. But one sentence kept on repeating itself in her mind:

"Jørgensen is too present during the race."

The criticisms would always be there, people always had an opinion on something, no matter what or who you were.

As the taxi finally pulled into Matilde's street, her heart quickened. The taxi slowed and she took a deep breath as the taxi stopped. The driver told her that they arrived. Matilde paid for his services and got out of the car, being welcomed by the Italian air. The driver got her suitcase from the truck and gave it to the woman. Matilde thanked him once again.

She stood before the entrance of her new apartment building. Her gaze traced the building; the building had a timeless charm over it, a blend of classic Italian design and modern functionality. She walked to the front door and pressed on the bell of her apartment: number 6.

"Ja?"

"Det er mig: Matilde," she smiled, saying it was her, since her family was already at her new place.

"Oh, Tilly! Kom snart ind," her dad happily said, saying she had to enter the building quickly.

With a smile on her face, she entered the building. The entrance was roomy and just beautiful. She was welcomed with the scent of aged wood and fresh flowers. The lobby was a graceful fusion of traditional elements and contemporary aesthetics. It was like she had entered her Pinterest board. She walked up the stairs to her apartment on the third floor.

"Velkommen hjem," her dad welcomed Matilde home as she entered her place.

A warm feeling entered her body when she heard the Danish language. "Dad," she happily said and flew into his arms.

The reunion started when Matilde's two brothers appeared in the living room as well. Lars and Jens were happy to see their little sister, especially after this week, they were extremely proud. Viggo was a proud father too, of course. Matilde asked about how they moved her household from the UK to Italy.

"That's a worry for later," Lars smiled. "Go explore your new house."

Jens proudly smiled. "We tried to style it, and you can change it later, obviously, but this is what we thought was cool."

"Oh, it's amazing, guys. You are angels. How can I thank you?" Matilde placed her hands on her cheeks and didn't know where to look.

"By giving us paddock passes," Jens widely smiled.

Lars looked playfully, but disapprovingly at Jens. "Too early, dude."

Matilde hit Jens on his chest and rolled her eyes, shaking her head afterwards.

The apartment exuded a modern, yet classic and cosy ambience. It was weird to see her furniture standing in the space. She walked through her apartment and was surprised in every room she entered. It was a two-bedroom apartment, it wasn't big, but it was just her and she didn't need much space. The living room was small, but cosy; her couch just fitted in the space.

"This is amazing. Thank you so much. Wow." Matilde looked at her family. "It feels like we are on Buying Blind," she laughed, still perplexed on seeing her new apartment. 

Next chapter

[firefly-ghoul]

WHAT HOBBIES I THINK THE GHOULS HAVE

This is my first time writing head-canons so be nice to me please! Anyway let’s get on with the hobbies!(if you see grammar errors no you don’t:3)

Aether

I think aether bakes but he takes it SO seriously. He has a journal of carefully curated recipes that he has spent YEARS perfecting. Aether has a special spot in his recipe journal for all the ghouls favorite type of cake and he makes them birthday cakes every year. Aethers favorite thing to bake is cookies. He makes big batches of cookies and gives them to his band mates on designated movie nights. He loves decorating cakes with the sisters of sin who work in the kitchen.

Sodo

Sodo dose glass work as a job and hobby. he helps make and maintain all of the stain glass around the ministry with a small group of sisters. He hand picked each sister both experienced and inexperienced with glass work. He teaches them everything he knows and enjoys helping them with learning curves and the difficult parts. He’s glass making studio is located directly underneath the abbey. But hobby wise sodo loves making glass sun catchers. Sodo also enjoys makes little glass figures and gives them to the siblings and older children. Since sodo is a fire ghoul when he works on glass he heats up his hands and is able to work without a blow torch. I personally headcanon he can breathe fire so he definitely uses that to help him.

Mountain

Mountain is soo obviously a plant dad but this man also does pottery! No one can tell me otherwise! His favorite things to make are cute pots for all his plants! He also makes vases for all the flowers he collects from the garden. He takes a day off every week and goes into to Forrest surrounding the ministry and forages for clay. He comes back completely covered in mud and grinning like a mad man. He makes everyone mugs for special occasions like birthdays and holidays. The thing he is most proud of is a pomegranate tea set that took him months to make. He very proudly drinks tea out of it every morning before heading out to work in the gardens

Phantom

PHANTOM IS A DND NERD! He and a group of siblings play dnd together every week. He plays as a vampire elf bard and is very proud of his character. He was very nervous when he first started playing dnd but the more he started playing the more confident he got with the siblings encouragement. He totally hasn’t almost tpk his party because he tried to fight a family of yetis by himself. (Totally not based on personal experiences) He loves dice! He is a dice goblin and has hundreds of dice. He is vary superstitious about his dice. His favorite set of dice are a set Swiss got him that are purple with bat on the 20.

rain

Rain obviously does water colors. Rains favorite thing to paint is landscapes he especially loves painting beaches. He also loves painting flowers. he sometimes going to the ministry gardens and painting all the flowers he sees. Rain like to take a day and hike to the middle of the woods and paints what he sees. He doesn’t paint people a lot but when he does he likes to have a live reference so he will ask some of the ghouls to pose for him. He likes when mountain model for him because he doesn’t move around like some (cough cough Aurora and Swiss cough) of the the ghouls. Rain gets very shy and blushes bright blue when anyone compliments is art.

Swiss

this kreecher (affectionately) explores abandon places and grave yards. He sometimes tries and finds cryptids (As if he isn’t one.) and ghosts. Swiss will bring ghost hunting equipment with him when he goes to places he’s already explored to spice things up. Swiss’s favorite tool is the spirit box. He finds the response’s form the ghost so funny. One time swiss took aurora with him to an abandoned hospital to hang out. He challenged aurora to stay in a room by herself for five minutes with the spirit box. She absolutely freaked when it started to talk to her (he didn’t tell her what it was meant for) and booked it back to where Swiss was. Aurora never never went ghost hunting again.

aurora

Speaking of aurora I think aurora embroiders. cirrus originality taught her simple things she aurora ran with it. Aurora has a lot of energy so she sometimes have a hard time focusing when something doesn’t grab her attention or when she doesn’t have anything to do with her fidgeting hands. So when she first started embroidering she was like “this something that takes my focus AND i have something to do with my hands…THIS IS THE BEST THING EVER!” She makes the most beautiful beaded plants. She will embroider a plant on every pare of pants she has. Also enjoys making embroidered patches for everyone. Makes all her friends pride flag patches.

Sunshine

My girl sunshine rollerblades! She has a pare of bright orange skates with light up wheels. She has gotten told of by sister imperator many times for rolling around the ministry to fast but she never listen. She sets a day off every week to put wd40 on her wheel bearings. She is very serious about taking care of her skates she treats them like they’re her babies. She knows so many tricks and definitely will teaches anyone who asks her how to skate and do tricks. Her favorite trick is skating backwards because is makes sister imperator nervous that she’s gonna bump into someone or something.

Cumulus

Cumulus loves puzzles so much. She challenges her self to start a new puzzle every month. her favorite types of puzzles are ones that have cute animals on them. Her comfort puzzle is a 900 piece puzzle with all kinds of kittens on them. She hosts a puzzle night in the library that everyone is invited to. She brings a 1000 piece puzzle and some snacks and she and everyone there works on the puzzle together. One time for her birthday all the ghouls got together and each got her a puzzle. She cried happy tears because she felt so loved. When she finished all of those puzzles she mogpoged framed them and hung them on her walls. they make her smile every time she sees them.

Cirrus

I think cirrus does photograph. She enjoys more dark and macabre themes so she often goes to the gave yards to take pictures. Cirrus joins Swiss on his explorations to capture the dark beauty of abandoned places. On the rare occasion she will photograph people but cirrus prefers taking pictures of places rather than people. One of her favorite things to photograph is the stained glass windows all over the ministry. Gets up before sunrise to get the best photos of the morning light shining through the glass.

[sardonic-the-writer]

taunter 7 but not anything with fighting just jack and reader when they've just met and reader is challenging jack to tell them something juicy 👀

- 🌱

prompt seven: “you’re… boring me.”

"Oh come off it love, I'm not gonna tell you how I got it."

Dozens of eyes along The Pearl wandered back and forth between two figures in front of them like a match of intense tennis, the entire crew silently watching as a man with ratty hair and a fellow crew member walked in fast circles about the deck. Occasionally one of the men in the crowd would silently wisper something to another before going quiet, all but enraptured by the interaction occurring in front of them.

"Damnit, Captain, this would be so much easier if you would just tell me alteady!"

It had been an hour or two since you had set off after the heels of your captain—Jack Sparrow. And it had been about an hour or two of him of avoiding questions that slipped from your mouth, all of them being about the tattoo on his right ankle.

You'd seen all of his tattoos before. From his signature sparrow to the one of a compas between his shoulder blades. He didn't have one spot of ink on his skin that he hadn't already shown off to you. Or at least that's what you'd thought.

"Jack—" You struggled to keep up with his long strides, the both of you practically speed walking at this point. "—you're going to have to tell me eventually."

"Oh yeah? Why's that." He was avoiding your gaze while walking in that weird fashion of his, looking anywhere but at you.

"Becuase, you're boring me. And eventually I'll give up on this—"

"Yes! That one! Do that one." He loosely pointed at you and flashed a smile.

"—and get you drunk later so you'll tell me what that tattoo is. And possibly some other stuff you don't want me to know."

"Ah." Jack paused, blinking. "Not that one. Don't do that one."

"So, we've come to an agreement then?" You stopped, now in front of him and blocking him from going anywhere else, smiling with a twinkle in your eyes.

"When did you get so good at tricking people into giving you stuff." Jack squinted at you, playing with a peice of his hair carelessly.

"Pirate." You reached up to tap the side of Jacks hat. "Remember?"

"Mmmm alright then. But I'm taking some of your rum from your hammock as a payment for entrusting you with this secret."

You stood up a bit straighter, smile bright with antici as he hoisted up his pant leg to show you the spot of ink on his ankle.

It wasn't much. Just a small design of a heart, which made your smile dip a little.

"A heart? That's it?" You looked back up at him, a bit of the light in your eyes gone at the new discovery.

"Right that. My ex–wife insisted that I get it."

You froze.

"Ex–wife!?"

"Not so loud love!" Jack shushed you violently, now suddenly very aware of the crowd he had garnered, reaching out to you with his hands like he wanted to clamp one down over your mouth.

"Ex–wife. You. Jack Sparrow. With an ex–wife." The words felt foreign on your tounge.

"Is it so heard to belive I could catch myself a dame?" He queried, striking what was probably meant to come off as an attractive pose, but ended up looking like a drunk trying to dance.

"Yes!"

"Ouch. Blow to the ego that was." He frowned at you a little, parodying your shocked expression sarcastically.

"You're neva gonna let this go, are you?" He sighed.

You just quickly shook your head no silently, mind already filling with questions.

"Well bugger."

[duusheen]

Hi! So I’ve been following the Pollock legacy since the start & I absolutely love your way of storytelling/gameplay! I’ve always been curious if you follow a specific legacy challenge or if it’s all randomized for each gen? I’ve been wanting to get into a legacy myself but I completely suck at storytelling. So any tips/advicr? Love your blog!!

heyaa!! First of all, omg thank you so much! I really appreciate your kind words 😳 and thanks too for sticking around from the very beginning lol 6 generations of Pollock… wow 😫

aaanyway! this is kinda long so ☝🏽🤓

Ngl it took me a while to figure out how I wanted to tell my sims’ story because I’d probably wither away and die from stress if I had to do 100% storytelling (I truly admire those who can seriously), and I’d most likely get bored if I went full-on 100% gameplay simmer. This balance works for me, half storytelling, half actually playing the game (because, let’s be honest, if you don’t create a story in your head, this game sucks)

So that brings me to the following tips:

Create a story! Give your Sim context, build a backstory in your head—their origins, their childhood, their personality. Even if you can’t or don’t want to write it down or showcase it in gameplay, it’ll help you connect with that Sim, who you know so well. You know their flaws, strengths, and secrets (even the dirty ones 😳)

Tell your story! Whether through gameplay, storytelling, poses, animations, random facts—whatever you’re comfortable with! It doesn’t have to be 100% one way or the other. Go wild! It’s your story, and you tell it however you want.

Look for inspiration! Other challenges, simmers, movies, TV shows… even your own chaotic life(?. Whatever works. This will help keep you from getting stuck and keep things interesting. You can also ask for help from the people here. (I promise they’re all very kind and willing to throw ideas your way if you need them!)

The most important thing: It sounds cliché, but have fun! If you’re not enjoying it, you won’t want to stick with it, so try to have a good time, do whatever you want, and enjoy it!

Try everything. Not all players like to follow a challenge strictly. Some prefer more flexibility with the rules, while others need clear objectives to play. It all depends on your playstyle and what you feel comfortable doing.

Ask (respectfully) for a Sim! If you’re not feeling attached to your own Sims, you can always ask one of your mutuals to make you one. I love playing with Sims that others have created, knowing they put love, dedication, and time into them (sometimes, if you’re lucky, they’ll even give you a backstory to work with), motivates you to give them the best Sim life possible!

Now in my case, for example, I started doing the Globetrotter Challenge (just kidding, I started with the Human Enough challenge, but shh). I made Wilde, took him all around the sim world, and at some point during the challenge, I grew attached to him. He had a personality, likes (he had a boyfriend someone made for me, my first friend in the community), and it felt wrong to just leave him forgotten in a save file. So I kept playing. Now, I’m not following any specific challenges or rules (except the ones I make myself), though I have a Jiminy Cricket in my DMs with whom I conspire every day to make life miserable for my sims (and hers lol)

[punsmaster69]

21/DEC/20XX

"I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, AND THE MENACING FRISK,"

(he rolled the 'r' in frisk's name, too.)

"CHALLENGE YOU!!"

the two of them struck a back-to-back pose i'm sure they've practiced before; snowballs readied.

"Oh you're ON!!!"

undyne dragged alphys with her.

immediately, paps and undyne were on opposite sides of the yard, making snow walls for defense.

"Should we join them?"

yesterday took it outta me. couldn't keep up with 'em if i wanted to.

"...naahh."

so me and tori watched from the sidelines as the chaos broke out.

——

flowey's out of his pot at the moment.

was yesterday, too.

goes back in it at the end of the day.

that's fine and all, but he definitely just tripped frisk with a vine.

tori didn't notice it happen.

...should i say somethin'..?

.......nah.

they can work it out.

——

frisk pelted him in the face with a snowball.

somehow, this led to an agreement.

not argument.

agreement.

they're teamed now.

——

"They are having quite the time, it seems. Even Flowey has joined."

mettaton joined alphys and undyne's team to balance it out not long after.

"You can't go underground!"

"That's DEFINITELY cheating!!"

"And what?! I'm supposed to LET you-"

flowey disappeared and reappeared from the snow to dodge an incoming snowball from undyne.

"THAT!!"

"You can't do that! It's totally cheating!!"

"When you're throwing those things with murderous intent I can."

"Besides! It's not cheating just because YOU can't stop missing, fish face."

"Oh, that's IT!! YOU'RE GONNA EAT THOSE WORDS!!!!!"

"Yeah?"

"Well YOU'RE about to eat SNOW!"

——

tori decided to go in early; says she's gonna start on dinner.

we watched frisk get bowled over into the snow by a concerningly large snowball. they sprung back up like a... well, spring.

right back into action instantly.

"...Perhaps I should warm up some cocoa while I'm at it."

"Make sure they do not freeze, will you?"

"i'll keep an eye out."

——

is it still considered a snowball fight if it's turned to them just launching increasingly large mounds of snow at one other?

——

hmmm.

y'know.

i was up pretty late last night...

and this snow's pretty soft here.

think i'll sneak in a nap.

——

"WAIT, WAIT!! TRUCE!"

i heard footsteps get closer, but they missed me by a few feet.

"I SAID TRUCE!!"

a muffled sorry.

"SANS."

"SANS!"

"...SANS??"

opening my sockets, i didn't see any more with them open than i did with 'em shut.

i felt snow fall into them.

"REACH OUT A HAND IF YOU'RE ALIVE."

"OR AWAKE."

shoving my arm upwards through the layer of snow,

"AH! THERE!!"

the sound of crunching snow under boots stopped right beside me.

papyrus grabbed onto my hand and pulled me up.

there was a lot more snow around than before, and it was still falling even still.

"no wonder i got buried."

"IT PICKED UP QUITE SUDDENLY."

"ARE YOU ALRIGHT?"

"yeah. i'm good."

four figures dotted the snow-covered yard.

"...uh."

"where'd flowey go?"

"he's not under all that, is he?"

"FLOWERY HAD TO GO INSIDE ABOUT FORTY MINUTES AGO. THE SNOW WAS GETTING TOO HIGH FOR IT TO STILL BE SAFE FOR HIM."

frisk, lifting their legs up high to step through the snow, made their way over.

"How was it under there?"

"snowy."

"I mean, yeah."

undyne lifted alphys onto her shoulders, and mettaton made use of his heating function to make a path for them.

"What was it like being buried alive?"

"was too asleep to tell it was happening in the first place, so i really couldn't tell you."

"I THINK IT'S BEST IF WE GO INSIDE NOW."

"UP YOU GO."

in a similar fashion to what undyne had done to alphys, i was raised onto papyrus' shoulders.

copying that, mettaton carried frisk.

"INSIDE, EVERYONE!!"

——

"...i know you're excited, but you've gotta stop kicking me, kid."

"Whoops. Sorry."

frisk is a weird kid who's favorite food happens to be stew.

their favorite drink also happens to be hot chocolate.

(it changes to chocolate milk in the warm seasons.)

needless to say, they're enjoying dinner.

tori's a real good chef.

i'd hate to imply that anyone could be better than my bro at cooking, but...

he has some competition in the ranks for sure.

even flowey's shut up by her cooking.

——

papyrus added a basket of blankets and pillows to the living room earlier this month, and i'm seeing their purpose now.

feeling pretty cozy in here with the blankets and all.

especially with everyone huddled around mtt like a furnace.

[anony-man]

Chubformers drabble #15!

Character: Devastator (six in one! Heehee)

Word count: 560

The transformation of Devastator was an impressive achievement, and one the Constructicons managed to do seamlessly every single time. At least, it had been that way up to a point.

Theories were still up in the air about who was responsible for the most recent gain in Devastator’s mass, but one thing was for certain: the shift from war-ready Constructicons to soft, fattened gluttons hadn’t happened overnight. As it stood, each member was more than content to blame the other for their slow and steady downfall.

Their struggle (or Devastator’s struggle, more specifically) had begun that morning. After Megatron—face bright and frame shaking with poorly concealed anger—came bursting into their private habsuite to tell off the six lounging mechs for overindulging in the energon rations yet again, the combiner team had been let off with a warning: form Devastator by nightfall, or they were benched for the foreseeable future.

This posed quite a few issues, of course, with the main problem being that Devastator hadn’t been formed in… well, weeks. Maybe even months, if they recalled properly. Still, orders were orders, and the group of Constructicons grumpily pushed themselves up from where they were curled up together on the couch.

For a group of bots who frequently combined into a larger being, the process was pretty simple. They’d done it for eons, of course. By then, their frames were practically made to connect. However, what they soon realize was that an increase in weight (and size) among each member of Devastator would, in fact, cause quite a few issues in performing a seamless transformation. How they hadn’t come to this conclusion before, given the fact that most of the group had become far too fat for their altmodes, was a mystery.

“No, no, no!” Mixmaster spat. “You’re doing it wrong. Devastator’s arms shouldn’t be that long!”

“It won’t fit any other way,” Hook said from somewhere below him. “I… umph-! Stop moving!”

“Both of you shut up!” Came Bonecrusher’s roaring voice followed by the sound of a pained squeak from Long Haul. “Everyone stop talking for a second. Let me focus.”

It was challenging to move when his fat frame had been squeezed into place, but Mixmaster managed to free himself just enough to whip around and glare in Bonecrusher’s general direction. As if he wasn’t already struggling to keep them from falling apart, his subordinate just had to prove himself to be another source of distraction. Mixmaster grumbled under his breath, a soft and low sound that almost went unnoticed.

Well, nobody but Long Haul noticed, and he just had to say something.

“We’re screwed, aren’t we, Mixmaster?” The Constructicon said.

“We are not! Just… just give me a second! I’ll figure something out.”

Mixmaster gave a grunt of effort, desperately struggling to squeeze himself into place—along with the rest of Devastator. If they could just reach that sweet spot, then…

The sound of creaking metal suddenly split the air, followed by the pained cries of more than one bot. It was then Mixmaster realized the whole ordeal was never going to work, having looked down long enough to see the five other Constructicons lacked in just as tightly, guts spilling free and mesh straining against tight plating, threatening to pop free at any given moment.

Frag it all, they were totally screwed.

[girldragongizzard]

Chapter 3: Joel

By the time Joel wakes up, I’ve bitten through the ballistics webbing that has bound him, and through the cable of the radio tag that was wrapped around his front left ankle. Or wrist. Whatever you want to call it.

He wouldn’t have been flexible enough to bite it himself, and he couldn’t have clawed it off without hurting himself. But my teeth and jaws made quick and easy work of it without even bruising him.

So, as he’s coming to, I’m sitting upright at a respectable distance from him and looking off to the side. Which puts one eye on him, and the other on our surroundings. Perfect relaxed standing guard pose. From his position, the burning helicopter is behind me. I may have gone out of my way to make sure of that.

And watching him wake up is a little like watching a dog come to after surgery at the vet. He’s a little goofy and a little unaware of his surroundings at first, just trying to figure out how his body works again. And he makes it to his feet before he really gets a good take of his surroundings.

And then he sees me posing with the burning helicopter behind me, and tenses up. He shakes his head a little to clear it.

Having guessed well with my encounter with Harold and Ginnie, I decide to try a similar tactic, and I drop to a loafing position and slowly close my eyes. But then, I add in the word, “Yes.”

Just, straight up, pure positivity.

He clearly decides that I’m absolutely not a threat, which is good, and he turns around this way and that, making sure no one else is around. Fortunately, the humans had managed to get completely out of sight by the time he woke up, so he doesn’t have any immediate targets to attack. But he’s obviously suspicious, because there’s the helicopter but no sign of them.

Oh, I wish I could say, “come with me,” or, “fly.” But, I’ve got to do that with body language.

I let him stomp around a bit more, and watch as he circles me to examine the helicopter.

When I call it a flaming helicopter, or say that it’s on fire, it’s probably important to visualize it right. I can expel quite a bit of burning fluid from my chest, for a creature that has the same rough weight as a large man. But I can’t exactly coat a whole helicopter in it, and I concentrated it on one spot. You know that photo of a duck that looks like its head is on fire that’s been circulating Facebook for a few years? The effect is like that.

The damage I’ve done to the chassis and rotors is by far much more evident than the flames now, especially since my biological napalm is starting to burn itself out. It’s just, I’m a fire breathing dragon, and I’m proud of that!

Joel sniffs most of the wreckage just like a dog might do. And then he sniffs the air and turns to peer northward.

“No,” I say, anticipating his intentions. “Peace.”

He yawps quite loudly in response.

I don’t give him a challenge in return. It was clear to me that he was shouting at the humans who’re somewhere north of us, and I don’t want to fight him.

Also, he can have this mountain now if he really wants it. I’m headed home.

I get up, walk past him and the helicopter, downhill a little ways but toward home, and then pause with wings partially outstretched and look back at him.

“Go. Yes,” I say, hoping that makes some kind of sense to him. But mostly, I’m just getting his attention and relying on my body language.

And then, I just take off.

I care about him, I realize. I want him to come home. I like the idea of having him live near me. He’s part of my city, and leaving him here to fend for himself is not appealing to me. Especially since I want to stick it to the assholes who dragged us out here. And I think he can be a valuable ally in fighting what’s happening back home.

But I can’t explain that to him right now. I can’t explain much of anything, even my plan on how to get home, which is simply to keep flying and to eat what we can on the way. I can’t even tell him he gets first dibs on any food.

I can only hope he follows me.

Which he does.

Not right away, though. It takes him a bit to decide what to do and what his priorities are, but he eventually takes off after me. And instead of circling to watch and be sure, I just keep going and glance over my shoulder occasionally to see what he’s doing. He doesn’t catch up, but he doesn’t fall too far behind, either.

What he can’t seem to do, after a bit, is make the same altitude as I can, and he’s not made for soaring.

I’m still really baffled that he can fly at all, honestly. His anatomy does not look flight worthy to me. But there he is, plodding along behind and below me, and I don’t bother to outpace him.

We are going to have to weave through the mountains to get home. But I think that’s going to work out OK, even if it makes us take longer. A mid morning stop at Ross Lake should be good for him, and we can rest and sun ourselves on the dam before following the river a ways.

I’m not sure about my geography, or what river that is. I just know Ross Lake, because it’s big and notable and has that dam, and we camped near it when I was a kid. I’m pretty sure the river it lets out into is going to take us south of Fairport, but it’ll be the fastest way to where better food is, and it’ll be low enough for Joel to fly along it, and we can always drink the water.

On the other hand, though, if we hit any towns or cities, we might encounter other dragons.

Shit.

“Shit,” I say.

Well, first things first. A dip in the lake and a hunt for some food for Joel.

Unfortunately, when we get there I’m considerably more discouraged, because Joel is clearly wiped out. And he ends up sunning himself on the dam before doing anything else. And this trip is going to take even longer than I’d hoped.

I circle and soar for a little bit, resting in the air, to get a good look around. I note that Harold and Ginnie’s camper is still in its spot. And so are the other campers across the lake from them. And I don’t see any other birds that I feel like I can catch and eat.

I wonder if I’ll ever get big enough to eat a deer or something like that. Part of me wants to, but part of me really doesn’t. I’m a nice size for living amongst humans, honestly. Anyway, it’s not something anyone has a lot of control over, and I’ll be as big as I get, eventually.

And then I make my way over to the dam and come in for a landing next to where Joel is resting.

The moment my feet touch the pavement, however, Joel gets up, shakes himself off, and then takes a big flapping leap out over the lake behind the dam and plunges right into it.

Well, that’s one way to get a drink, I suppose.

So, I crawl over to that edge of the dam and settle down to watch, wings outstretched in the sun to soak it up.

I can’t really see him, he goes deep and far out enough that the reflections of the sky on the murky water make it impossible to see much below the surface. But I watch for him.

If he can exert himself and hold his breath this long on that short of a rest, maybe I don’t have to worry too much about our progress after all. We’ll just have to stop frequently for five minute breathers, and maybe more food.

I wonder what he eats.

For having just fought a group of eight humans with four guns and a helicopter, it’s a quiet and lovely day, actually. And sitting here in the sun for a while is doing good for my owl, which feels like it’s finally really starting to settle and digest with those two rocks I swallowed after it.

There are whisps of cloud and the smoke column from the forest fire, and smaller birds are chattering lightly at each other, and really not much else going on. Maybe the lap and splash of water occasionally against the wall of the dam. Maybe fish jumping, but I never catch a glimpse of them and I’ve got good eyesight for that.

There’s the blue sky above me, the murky water reflecting that below me, and green tree covered mountains all around. So much green!

And I have a moment to let my mind wander and the thought of green reminds me of the experiment Chapman did with me just last week with the Pantone Color Matching booklet. And I finally pull up short about colors and really have a puzzle on my mind about them. I’m a little bamboozled that I didn't think about this before, but I’ve had so much else on my mind I guess I just didn’t pause to consider it.

There is definitely a color I see as a vibrant orange.

I see it on myself in a few places, what I’d call a flame orange, here and there. And my new purse, which Chapman gave me, is the same color.

But when I looked at my radio tag yesterday morning, and Joel’s radio tag this morning, I saw a dull, dark green, and thought, Ah yes, the human orange. I almost have a memory of glancing at a Pantone color that was marked as orange but appeared a dull green to me.

But I don’t remember noting what my own orange was labeled when I was looking at the chart. I hadn’t been startled by the differences in colors until I’d gotten to the huge swaths of greens.

So, now I’m wondering what my orange looks like to humans!

I’m so stymied and bemused by this train of thought, I totally miss the other thing I could be worrying about, which is what happened to my purse and the tablet and magical amulet that was in it.

That’s probably going to occur to me later, though. Watch out for that moment. I’m sure it will be rough.

Maybe right about when my brain is going to latch onto that problem and worry it down to the bone, though, there’s a huge splash further out as Joel surfaces, lifting his head fully into the air and working his jaw to swallow something properly.

He’s eating a fish!

Oh, that’s great! If he can take his fill of fish here, we’re probably set for the rest of the way home.

—

Joel seemed reluctant to leave the lake, but once I set out again he begrudgingly followed.

And it doesn’t take us long along the river until we find another, much smaller lake, which he dives right into.

This one also has a dam with a small community of houses and a couple industrial buildings below it, and I seem to recall that it’s called Diablo lake.

I want to keep moving because I’m concerned that there’s another dragon here.

I soar and circle to keep an eye out while Joel swims and tries to find a few more fish.

Then he suns himself on the dam for a little bit, drying off enough to fly, and then we’re off again.

And from there, I guess I just let him decide when to rest on his own. And usually I circle to rest in the sky and watch while he does that. Occasionally I join him on the ground, when I feel safe about it, and he lets me.

I can’t say we’re becoming companionable, or even comfortable with each other’s presence. But we do seem to be on the same page, with the same plan, and I’m noticing little ticks of non-verbal communication between us that seem to go smoothly and are understood well.

He twitches his ear if something bothers him, for instance. And, if either of us gets up and stretches, and then faces downstream, it’s a clear message that we’re ready to keep moving.

Also, the fact that he doesn’t rest for too long, and half the time is the one to tell us when to head out, indicates he wants to get back home as badly as I do.

I like that.

But, because we’re not great conversationalists, this is giving me a lot of time to think to myself, and my mind is turning toward what I’m planning on doing when we do get home.

I just can’t assume that destroying that chopper and stranding that team will put a stop to the campaign to relocate dragons. However that’s happening, it has to be stopped either legally, through edict from the Mayor or something like that, or by utterly destroying the means to do it. And the latter is what I want to do, emotionally speaking.

But, I’m probably going to want to check in with Chapman and Rhoda first, and let everyone know I’m home. Which means I’ll need my tablet, and…

Oh.

Yeah.

Haa that, like, been lying on the roof this whole time, discarded when I was kidnapped? Or does Equisetum Wildlife have it? Or did they throw it away?

Oh, shit. Was it on the chopper?

I didn’t see it in the chopper, but I wasn’t exactly looking for it specifically. Well, I’m sure I would have recognized my bright-orange-to-me purse, though.

My purse with my tablet, my magical amulet to disguise myself as human, and my debit card, SNAP card, and enhanced Washington state ID. I also had a change of human clothes near the access hatch of the roof.

Imagine what a person could learn from all of that if they really thought about it.

I nearly fall from the sky in rage and horror.

I definitely let out an anguished squawk.

Joel yawps back, and I knock a few times as I work to regain my composure.

But I keep going and he seems to accept that.

If I find out that my purse has gone missing, or that my tablet is destroyed from exposure or something, and that Daniel Säure is behind the dragon abductions like I think, I’m pretty sure I’m actually going to eat billionaire. I just might do it.

—

A trip that would take a family car around six to seven hours via highways and dirt roads, if the roads went far enough, takes us nearly eighteen hours to fly, and we come in over the water to Fairport well after sunset.

I fly right over Joel’s territory to get to mine, and he drops easily and wearily to his to land in Bayside Park where we last fought side by side against the Sheriff and the police.

Shortly after he lands, he lets out his loudest yawp.

I wait until I’m landing on my roof to consider returning mine, but by then our surrounding neighbors are returning their cries, in the middle of the night. So, I add mine to theirs near the end.

We don’t do the full morning circle, where we each take turns leading the call and response song. But everyone hears that we’re both back, and it feels really good.

Nothing of mine is left lying on the roof, but I’m too exhausted to care.

I led Joel out of the mountains following the Skagit river and then through farmland, between cities and towns to avoid other dragons we didn’t know as best we could. The winding flight was long, and there wasn’t much opportunity to rest for the last leg of it. I think we may have flown nearly 250 miles.

Maybe a little less. I’ll need to map it out on my tablet, if I can find it.

But I pass out pretty fast once I settle down.

—

The next morning, Joel is the first to cry out and start the dragon song of roll call instead of me.

It’s usually me.

I feel a little taken aback that he beat me to it, but not exactly insulted. I’m more just absolutely ready to make it known that we’re still here, and I start the next round.

It does make me wonder if he started the song first thing for the mornings that I was gone.

What day is it today? How long has it actually been?

I need my tablet.

I need my purse.

[ask-healthy-light]

Though it had barely been more than a couple of hours since Luna had last spoken with her Daughter, she swiftly realised she had missed a lot when Nuntius erratically started to dance around in front of her, telling her about what Nox and Grim feared Boom's goals were; for when they spoke about the Marauders, and their goal to do as little harm as they could, he expressed a wildly different plan.

After she briefly turned aside to think about what terrible idea Boom had in mind, Nuntius told her that the Green Unicorn had promised the sky-blue Kirin, the Unicorn Captain, and Nox, that he would do his best, but also, warned them that violence was inevitable; but what neither Nox nor her Kirin friend realised was that the promises he gave them had been fouled and twisted, by a dark presence.

The only one of the three to whom he spoke, who noticed something was off about the words he spoke, was the Lord of the Empire himself, and he wrote back to the Empire under the guise of reaching out to his Family; but within the letter, he had written in secret a warning to let them know about the danger the chaotic Unicorn posed to their company, which the Young Dragon had only just deciphered.

While Luna remembered that Spike had received a letter, and that he had spent a while explaining to Eclipse what Shining had truly written to them, he also admitted that he did not recognise one word in particular, but he would find out its meaning later; but now she knew the word referred to Boom, she placed her hoof on her face with a deep and frustrated sigh over not helping him figure it out.

But she shook off her disappointment in herself, and promised to berate herself later, as she would now not find any relief in realising that the strange amalgamated word referred to the green-coated Lord of Explosions himself, the Nature-coloured Detonator, or the "Detonature"; and she turned back to Nuntius to ask the little Wisp what followed after Spike had discovered the meaning of the word.

In quick succession, Nuntius let her know that the letter written by the Two-Headed Alicorn and the Young Dragon made it to the East, but it was destroyed, tossed into fire before the Captain got the chance to read it; and now that the Green Unicorn knew that he and his closest Family were aware of his twisted words, he would keep an even closer eye on any messages that their company sent hither.

By some luck, or unluck, an uneasy feeling washed over Nox only shortly after she took the place of the Green Unicorn, and watched over their group for the night, which was when Grim and he appeared, both to warn her about what she had missed, and to guide her to the best outcome; for although even a message through the Void could be heard by the Green Unicorn, they were safe in the Spirit Realm.

It would be a great challenge for him to frequently carry messages from his Mistress to her Mother, and back again, but Nuntius swore to Luna that he would help them both as best he could, which made her smile warmly, and sweetly thank him for his dedication; but she also quietly asked him to avoid exhausting himself or his Flame, and to take plenty of time to rest after each trip back and forth.

Especially now, since he had managed to find her in both Realms, she asked him to wait for at least a little while before travelling back to Nox, and to wait long enough with her before he came back, just in case; for she worried that he would extinguish his Flame if he flew around too much in such a short time, and she knew not what would happen to him in this case, but she also did not want to.

Although she could tell that the little Wisp greatly desired to return to his Mistress, she let out a quiet sigh of relief when he slowly flew over to nestle underneath her wing instead, tickling her awfully as he came to a rest; but before he sat entirely still, his Flame grew larger as he twirled and wiggled around to ask Luna one last question, which swiftly brought a bright blush to her face.

As a shy and embarrassed smile grew upon her face, Luna nervously chuckled, before she asked him:

"Please, Nuntius, promise me you won't tell Nox about Frost and me… Not yet, at least…"

(Thanks for reading! And if you enjoyed, please reblog! Thanks in advance!)

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Featuring: Nox Lunarwing from @nox-lunarwing Boomlord from @thedumbguywithaheart43 Solar Eclipse and Twilight Sparkle as Twilight Eclipse from @asktwilighteclipse