#we had a donation drive in school where everyone would donate food and clothes and the school would take care of

[protect-namine]

typhoons are scary but common that evacuation and relief efforts part of our culture now. but man. they're also so beautiful. like, just as a weather phenomenon. very deadly but so, so beautiful...

[ellocat-poemyourpainaway]

I took my daughter back to school today.

My heart split open

Like the veil rent in two

And out spilled buried dreams; the guilt of a job badly done; and so, so much love.

Love so rich pure and true, it ran blue. Not red.

“My children all

Write poetry.”

I remember crying to Kristina that she deserved better than me one wine tipsy night in her college town, in the back room of a little apartment loft,

Downtown by the greasy pizza place.

She had driven down with her friend and snatched me up to be with her, I’d had my heart broken, and she didn’t want me to be alone. She is thoughtful and generous like that.

A sensitive caring soul.

“You deserved better than me”

I sobbed.

She’d just cuddled and hushed me-

An actual angel.

I’d wanted to put her up for adoption, I’d wanted her to have more than what I could give her. But I couldn’t do it.

I was selfish.

I couldn’t give up my baby.

It haunts me. To this day.

The ghost of the life I thought she deserved.

“I’m sorry I didn’t protect you from him.”

Sorry to all my children. Even to the one that was me.

“My children are all kind.”

I remember her holding my head on the stairs, patting my hair while I cried,

And saying

“Don’t worry mommy, it’ll be ok”

She was only three.

“My children are all smart.”

I remember Naomi telling us she wanted to be a police officer when she grew up, so she could keep her dad out of trouble.

“My children are all free spirits and free thinkers”

I remember laughing at her laughing and

So she’d laugh at me laughing, and we’d just be on the ground in tears holding each other and laughing,

Hysterically, at nothing.

“My children are all hard working.”

We never had enough money, our furniture is all donated or salvaged. We never had enough of anything. So they make sure they do now.

“My children are all grateful.”

Evan got a job in high school, just to buy his own food,

So he wouldn’t have to feel guilty at the cost of my grocery bill.

He appreciates every little thing you do for him. He is the sweetest most understanding boy.

“My children are all compassionate.”

They may look like money, but they know what poor feels like, In their bones,

In their teeth actually.

12 root canals- and we had to get Medicaid and go to the cheap dentist, an hour away, just so I could afford to fix their teeth.

Just so they could sleep pain free.

The pain would keep them up at night.

We’d drive to the poor part of the city, With homeless people canvassing the parking lot for loose change.

There’d be lines of people who looked like washing their clothes was a hardship, let alone finding any.

My children would never make anyone feel small.

They know the real ants are bullies that play on superficial mechanisms like money or looks to put anyone under their thumb.

“My children are savvy to the cons of classist group think meritocracy.”

They know that people are people and deserving of humanity.

They are savvy to a lot of things they shouldn’t be.

They watched their clean cut, athletic, good looking father manipulate and use everyone around him.

Because he looked like money,

People were nice to him.

But he wasn’t nice.

Not to anyone -not nice where it matters.

Not nice on the inside.

Oh-he had great manners,

Like talking to crème brûlée or a Lemon meringue pie.

He was what my mother called “a sliver tongued devil”

But he was ugly and broken on the inside.

He used, bullied, lied.

And people treated him like a prince.

“My children are wise and shrewd,

Robbed of the luxury of naivety.”

They’ve been baptized in reality and their eyes, no longer blind, can see

With the clarity an eagle would envy.

My children shouldn’t have to be so vividly present and familiar with the ugliness in human nature,

But “my children are resilient and rich in ways most people can never be.”

They’re rich in kindness, compassion awareness, forgiveness.

They’re the most tolerant and forgiving people I know.

They even forgive and tolerate me.

I’m rich

because they love me.

[mushrubes]

28 | Two days later

I was made for lovin’ you

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Pairing : Eddie Munson x (they/them) Henderson! reader

Summary : It had been two days after the ‘earthquake’, what happens when the group get some surprise visiters and a familiar voice is heard in the school?

Word count : 1.2k

——————————–

"Y/n? Talk to us..." Robin tried but got no response, Y/n just blanking them and placing the box into their car before walking back into the house to get another. "How much longer do we have to keep this from them..." Nancy whispered, it causing her pain to see Y/n like this. Robin nodded as Steve shook his head. "We have to wait until we get into the school, it'll be better..." he assured, biting his tongue and shushing them as Dustin came over. "Someone order a pizza?" Karen questioned, gaining all five of their attention, Y/n now back out and leaning on the car door. "Pizza?" Dustin questioned, looking at the bright yellow car approaching them, 'surfer boy's pizza' scribbled on the sides and on the sign on top. They all collectively gasped as they saw who stepped out. First Jonathon and a new person they'd never met, then he helped Eleven out, then Mike and then Will. Y/n felt tears come to their eyes and they watched everyone reunite - Mike with his mother and Nancy, Dustin with Will and Eleven and Nancy and Jonathon. They felt a pang of jealousy struck them as they watched the couple, Eddie’s last moments flooding their mind making them get into the car and slam the door so everyone else didn't see their tears. 

They wiped their tears away, hitting the wheel out of anger and hissing at the sudden pain, glaring at the dashboard as it read 'Friday'. They were in there for about five minutes before Dustin, Steve and Robin all climbed in and they took off, driving off to the school to drop off all their donations. The ride was silent, Steve and Robin feeling guilty about having to keep a secret from the siblings, knowing they were currently in pain and in mourning. The only thing you could hear was the occasional deep breath and the low volume of the radio, softly playing 'I was made for lovin you' making Y/n smile sadly. They had arrived at the school, each of them taking in a box or two and heading inside to the hall where people had set up stalls for food, water, clothing, toys - whatever they needed due to the 'earthquake'.

"Uh, so these are blankets and sheets, and some...some clothes and...and some kids' toys and some food." Robin explained, the other three nodding along with her as the volunteer smiled kindly at the group. "Wow, it's already so organized - we appreciate that. Do you want a tax receipt for it?" the worker asked, all of them looking at each other unsure. Y/n cleared their throat and stepped forward. "No, I don't think we need one. Thank you, though. But...is there anything else we can do to help?" they spoke up, the worker once again smiling at them, appreciative of the generosity. 

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

"Hey, Dustin. Hang on." Y/n said, noticing Wayne over at the board, putting up a new missing poster for Eddie as the old one had been drawn on. They quickly placed the tray down before running over, Dustin following. "Mr Munson? I'm Y/n Henderson, this is my brother Dustin. Can we talk?" they asked, Wayne shaking his head and turning to face him, looking up from the ground. "I can't imagine we got anything to talk about. My nephew is innocent, he's still missing. I'll out up as many posters as I need until he's found. Good day to you." he finished as Y/n took a deep breath. "We were with him. We were with him when the Earthquake hit." they informed him, their voice wavering as they walked over to him carefully. "And... where is Eddie?" he questioned, Y/n biting their tongue. Wayne sat down on the free bed, seeing the guitar pick necklace in their hand, Y/n sitting with him and Dustin. "I wish everyone had gotten to know him, really know him...because they would of loved him. Mr Munson, they would of loved him. Even in the end...he never stopped being Eddie. Despite everything, I never even saw him get mad. He could've run, he could've saved himself. But he fought, he fought and died to protect this town... The town that hated him...that didn't deserve him. He isn't just innocent...Mr Munson, he's...he's a hero." they finished, Wayne turning to look at them.

"You think I'm a hero?" a voice called from behind, making the three of them tense up. There's no way, no way that was him. Wayne turned around first, letting out a heavy breath as he met eyes with him and immediately standing up, pulling them into a hug. "You...you absolute idiot." he mumbled, the hug being reciprocated. Steve and Robin joined, standing in front of the siblings. Dustin was next to turn around, Y/n shaking their head before holding their head in their hands, Steve and Robin chuckling. "You...but we saw you-" Dustin stuttered confused but hugging the male anyway who laughed at his reaction. "Thank Steve and Nancy, the doctors said any later and I probably would of ended up dying." he chuckled, Dustin grinning, happy to have him back. "Well, I guess I can take those posters down now." Wayne smiled, picking his bag up. "It's also very nice to finally meet the Hendersons Eddie always talks about" he teased, the metalhead groaning. "Wait! I'll come help!" Dustin called, running after Eddie's uncle and going to help while Steve and Robin went back to volunteering to give them some time to themselves.

Y/n hard the footsteps move from behind to in front of them, feeling him crouch down in front of them. "I'm hurt Y/n/n, I thought you'd want to see me." he joked, resting his hands on their arms. "You can't ignore me all day, sweetheart. We have our date at eight, remember?" he managed to get out before Y/n tackled him into a hug, knocking the air out of him. "You...you son of a bitch, Munson! I thought I had lost you! You absolute idiot! And what on Earth were you thinking? Risking your life like that-" they rambled on as he rolled his eyes and pressed his lips to theirs, shutting them up and wrapping his arms around their waist. "I promised you a date and I don't breaky my promises, especially not with a pretty person who's mine." he teased, his face bright red and the massive stupid grin they adored plastered on his face. They pecked his lips again and wrapped their arms around his neck. "Still my cheesy loser I see." they joked back, Eddie nodding. 

"I love you, so much." he said in between kisses before they broke away, needing air and their foreheads touching. "How come there's no one in here trying to kill you?" they half teased, now remembering he was wanted for the murders. "The police came in while I was in hospital, we spoke about it and the murders also kept happening while I was in there, so they released proof I was innocent." he cheered, Y/n beaming even more and swaying them both side to side. "That's amazing!" they breathed out. Eddie also grinned mischievously, making them tilt their head. "Nancy may have also somehow convinced them Jason could be a possible suspect." he exposed, Y/n letting out a gasp. "No fucking way! He died though! Lucas said the gate split him in half!" Y/n informed him, it now being Eddie's turn to gasp.

"Wait, what!?"

[olivia-anderson-fanfic]

Another One?!, Part 3

First > Previous > Next

Marinette took one long, deep breath.

“What the fuck, Adrien?”

Adrien gave an awkward smile that made her want to forgive him… but, no, she must stay strong.

“It’s a cool car!”

She clicked her tongue. “Yes. Yes it is. But none of us can drive.”

“We have to learn at some point, though. Dick is going to uni soon, and it’s not like we can homeschool him for that. And there is no way I’m going to let him take the bus.”

Marinette winced. Okay, fair point.

Adrien must have realized that he was convincing her, because he chose that moment to bring out the pout.

Kwami…

She clicked her tongue once to show she was still irritated but nodded that he could have it.

He grinned and turned to look over his shoulder. “Told you I could convince her.”

Dick popped out of the bushes with a whoop.

Betrayal.

~

“WHY THE HECK DID I GET THE FAST CAR --?!”

“WHY THE HELL ARE YOU ASKING ME --?!”

“STOP YELLING AT EACH OTHER AND WATCH THE ROAD --!”

“PULL OVER IT’S MY TURN TO LEARN TO DRIVE --!”

“WE’RE GONNA DIE WE’RE GONNA DIE WE’RE GONNA DIE --!”

~

Marinette glared at the three new driver’s licenses they had all somehow scammed their way into getting, then turned her gaze on Dick.

“I love you but if you flunk out first semester I will stab you.”

He smiled and wrapped his mom in a hug. “No, you wouldn’t.”

“Bitch, try me.”

Dick wasn’t fazed, squeezing her tighter.

She huffed and reluctantly hugged back. “Okay, fine, maybe not, but I will not be happy.”

“I love youuuuuu.”

“Love you too, sweetie.”

~

Adrien sighed as he looked at his kid’s grades so far. He’d been scared of this. College was a lot of adjustments already, and to add to that he was going straight from homeschool to normal classes and the school wasn’t giving him nearly as much help as it should.

Dick was stealing anxious looks at him out of the corner of his eyes, his legs drawn  to his chest on the couch.

Adrien reached out and ruffled his hair gently. “It’s fine. We’ll get you a tutor, okay?”

He didn’t suggest changing majors. Dick wouldn’t do it if he did, though he wished he would. It’s law school. Everyone knows that you can’t have a life and still go to law school, jobs and stuff are supposed to be put on hold when you go and there was no way Dick was going to stop vigilantism anytime soon. But…

“Also, try playing a game on your computer or doodling while you’re listening to the lecture. That might help you stay focused.”

Dick nodded with a tired smile.

“And you’re going to have to cut down on vigilantism so you can do homework and go to classes. You don’t get to choose your own schedule anymore.”

“Nooooooo…”

~

Marinette yawned, rubbing her eyes. It had been a long day for her. She’d done patrols for a good fourteen hours, and then Nygma had decided to use that exact moment to pull a death trap out of nowhere.

So, when she’d finally finished everything for the day she was tired and soaking wet (because, for some reason, he thought it would be cool to see if she preferred death by electrocution or drowning). She’d called for her husband to come get her because it was winter and she wasn’t all that interested in walking through the snow in damp clothes.

Now she curled up in the car, getting the front seat and both her and Adrien’s jackets wet. She didn’t care as she pressed as close to the heater as she possibly could.

Adrien brought the car to a stop and looked over, pressing a kiss to the top of her head. “Do you want to wait in the car while I get him?”

She nodded, closing her eyes.

She felt a set of keys drop in her lap and pressed the lock button, sinking into the chair.

And then, a few minutes later, she heard something outside.

She peeked an eye open blearily and looked around, expecting to see Adrien and Dick drumming their fingers on the windows to be let in. A frown made its way across her face when she realized that they weren’t there.

She sat back up slowly and her eyes landed on a flash of red on the side opposite her.

She unlocked her door and poked her head out, carefully making her way around the car to investigate…

A person was trying to steal their hubcap.

She groaned softly and rubbed her eyes, then got into a fighting position.

The person looked up at the sound and she winced mentally when she saw they had a crowbar.

They shot to their feet and raised the weapon.

“Marinette?” Called Adrien.

She looked up on instinct, a bad idea when you’re fighting someone.

She took a crowbar to the stomach and groaned, doubling over. They leaned down to grab the hubcap and then attempted to make a break for it.

It didn’t work, obviously. Dick caught the person by their hoodie when they tried to rush past him.

They twisted in his grip and hit Dick in the side with their hubcap and, when he stumbled a bit in surprise, swept his legs out from under him.

Adrien scowled as he tackled the person to the ground. Then he stopped suddenly, his eyes going wide. “This is --!”

He never got to say what the person was, though, because they had socked him. The person had been wearing a lot of rings, so that hurt even more than it usually would. It was a wonder that Adrien didn’t black out or, at the very least, fall back to cradle his jaw.

The person must have been counting on this because they cursed and reached out to shove Adrien off of themself, but he caught their arms.

With a bit of awkward shuffling he had managed to pin them to the ground, arms tucked beneath him and legs swinging wildly in an attempt to keep Dick and Marinette back.

He needn’t have worried, both of them were pretty incapacitated. Getting hit with a metal instrument tends to do that to people.

Dick recovered first because his blow had been softer and to a less vulnerable part, and he crawled over to Marinette… who was currently listing off every swear that she could think of from her spot on the ground.

They leaned against each other for support and then lifted their shirts a little bit to check for blood. Thankfully, the things the person had used were blunt, so they would only have to worry about bruising...

Still hurt, though.

“— fucking asshole of a person I will fucking stab their cul stupide —!”

“Mari, stop cursing, it’s a kid,” hissed Adrien, who was now covering the kid in question’s ears.

“Oh really? Let’s see you get hit by a goddamn whatever-the-fuck-that’s-called --!”

The kid, who could apparently still hear despite her husband’s best efforts, supplied the name of the object he’d used: “Crowbar.”

“Oh, you absolute --!”

Dick covered her mouth so she could curse without the kid hearing it too clearly.

Eventually, she ran out of curses. Her shoulders slumped.

Adrien and Dick nodded to each other and removed their hands.

Adrien carefully clambered off the kid, though he made sure to hold onto their hands to make sure they wouldn’t a) attack again or b) just run off.

They looked him over and Marinette cringed. Definitely a street kid, if the ragged clothes and bruised skin was any indication.

“It wasn’t personal,” the kid said, looking between the three of them anxiously. He must have realized he wasn’t getting away, because he had stopped subtly struggling against Adrien’s grip. “I just needed money.”

Marinette nodded. “Sure. What foster or adoption system are you in? We can up donations.”

(She was still annoyed about the whole ‘hitting her with a crowbar’ thing, obviously, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t going to help out a bunch of kids in need.)

The kid’s eyes widened and then he gave a bitter laugh. “I’m not really in one, it’s safer on the streets.”

Adrien frowned. “Sorry? Why? Don’t you want a roof and food?”

They rolled their eyes. “Sure, I’d love that, but it doesn’t exactly happen.”

The three frowned at each other.

Adrien thought for a minute, then shrugged. “How about you stay with us?”

“Huh?” Said both Marinette and the kid.

“We have room and money, and Dick is probably going to leave soon anyways because of college. Why not stay with us?”

Dick hesitated. “I’m probably not leaving, actually, but you can stay if you want.”

Marinette and the kid looked met each other’s eyes and deemed themselves the only sane ones present, because honestly what the fuck?

But then the kid’s eyes strayed to the pearl necklace Adrien had gotten her the year before, to the car, to the designer bag Dick was carrying…

“I wouldn’t mind. What about you, mom?” He said, giving Marinette a cheeky grin.

She closed her eyes so she wouldn’t get puppy-dog-eyed from all sides.

Could Adrien, just once, ask her before randomly adopting kids?

Well, she guessed she should just be glad he didn’t try and adopt the entire foster system. She should probably say yes before he actually tried...

“Fine. Fine. We’ll adopt another one.” She pursed her lips together and then gave her husband a pointed look. “No more after this, though, got it? We’re too old for this stuff.”

“We’re not that old!” Complained Adrien.

She clicked her tongue.

“Fine. I’m not that old.”

Marinette scoffed and threw the keys at him. He caught them without even blinking.

Dick smiled and opened the car door for the kid, who seemed more than a little hesitant to get in the car with strangers. Apparently curiosity won over self-preservation, though, because the kid did end up getting in the car.

“Right, what’s your name?”

“Jason…”

“Cool! I’m Dick, and these are my adoptive parents, Marinette and Adrien.”

“... is no one going to talk about why your mom is soaking wet?”

“Why our mom is soaking wet, you mean.”

Jason frowned. “Sure… why?”

“She fell in a well.”

Adrien nodded as he started to drive. Marinette groaned and sunk into the front seat again.

Jason, poor kid, just looked confused.

“How the fuck…?”

~

Adrien was well aware that Jason didn’t trust them.

Fair enough. How many other people see a random kid stealing their hubcaps and then say ‘yeah, screw it, I’ll adopt them’? He figured they must be the only ones.

The kid seemed genuinely surprised when they pulled up to their house. Adrien wasn’t sure he wanted to know where Jason thought they were taking him.

Marinette had taken a quick shower, changed into some warm clothes, grabbed a cup of coffee, and then took Jason out shopping. Dick rearranged his room to accommodate another person.

And Adrien…

Adrien glared down the kwamis.

“Alrighty. We made the mistake last time of not telling you not to show yourselves to Dick, because we thought that was implied. We’re not doing that again. You are not allowed to in any way help Jason find out that you exist or that we are Chat Noir, Ladybug, and Robin. Got it?”

He made sure to see every kwami nod that they understood and then gave them some leftover macaroons to eat.

Good. So that disaster would be averted.

He heard a loud “Oh! My word!” from the next room and sighed.

New disaster.

He ushered the kwamis back under the floorboards and then rushed over to Dick’s room.

He walked in to find him frantically scraping a part of the wall that had been previously hidden by his bed.

Adrien crossed his arms. “Hey, buddy, whatcha got there?”

Dick turned around slowly, eyes wide and full of panic. “Uh…” He leaned back as casually as he could (it did not look like a comfortable position at all but that’s not the point here) and flashed a brilliant smile. “Adrien… Dad… Dadrien... have I ever told you how much I love you?”

“Not nearly enough. What did you do?”

“I…” He looked away. “... should probably get ahead of this. Don’t get mad, please?”

“We’ll see.”

Dick slowly scooted away from the spot and Adrien sighed deeply.

Because on the wall, in crayon, was a bunch of doodles.

But, upon closer inspection, he realized they were doodles of Chat Noir and Ladybug and a tiny little person with black hair.

Do not think it’s cute do not think it’s cute do not think it’s cute --.

He took a few deep breaths before turning to Dick. “Go get some cleaning stuff. We have a few hours before Mari gets back.”

He mumbled a thanks and then rushed out to go find cleaning supplies.

Adrien snapped a photo while he was gone.

~

Marinette and Jason were struggling.

It was hard to get this kid to buy anything at all, she had tried to get him just another hoodie and he had taken one look at the price tag before flinging it as far away from him as he possibly could.

Man, how was she supposed to get him a mattress if this was how he was going to react to a bunch of ten dollar hoodies?

She would have thrown her hands up in frustration if that wouldn’t have disturbed her coffee. “Fine. We won’t buy anything. Do you have anything we can bring?”

Jason hesitated, then shook his head.

Okay, an obvious lie but she wasn’t going to call him out on it. He was probably still wary of them and their kindness and wanted to keep that backup open. She understood.

Well, she didn’t understand because she’d never been in that kind of situation, but she would respect it.

“Fine. You’ll have to live with hand-me-downs. Are you alright with that?”

Jason relaxed a little, nodding.

She gave a tired smile.

She’d have to do something about Dick’s sleeping arrangements, she’d probably create a hammock or just let him sleep in their bed (it hardly ever got any use, anyways) for the time being. Eventually, Jason might warm up to them enough to let her buy him stuff, and she’d wait for that…

Or he’d run away. But, hopefully not that.

Jason ducked his head and pulled his hoodie up to hide his face and Marinette glanced around. People were staring at them. Fair enough, she doubted that the scruffy hoodie and weathered jeans were making people trust the kid. Still, she stepped towards him and gently grabbed the sleeve of his hoodie to say he was hers.

He cringed almost imperceptibly at her touch. She frowned a little bit, she knew all too well what that meant, but didn’t say anything.

She opted to just glare at the people giving them odd looks, daring any of them to say anything.

They didn’t. Good.

She looked down at the kid and tipped her head to the side.

“I’m going to just shop for the family and you can eat that stuff, okay?”

Jason still looked like he wasn’t happy with it but he nodded.

And, so, she took him to the grocery part of the store. She did what she said she would, shopping for things they would need over the week, but she also watched Jason carefully to see if he liked anything.

The kid clearly knew what she was doing, because he spent most of his time watching her with a neutral expression, but occasionally she’d catch his gaze lingering on a specific product for just a second too long and she’d drop it into the cart.

He couldn’t say anything. He had no proof that they never ate… whatever the hell a Chef Boyardee was.

She found he was mostly looking at cheap, instant meals but that was okay. He’d learn.

She was a baker’s daughter, after all. Everyone in her house would learn what good food was eventually or die by her hand.

~

Adrien fell back on the couch and groaned. “I have to homeschool another kid!”

“Sucks,” said Dick, who was applying a princess bandaid to a shallow cut on his cheek that he’d gotten that night (the goon who had missed had been pissed that their aim was off... but then pissed themself when the two older vigilantes advancing on him made him realize he had bigger problems).

“It does! I get one kid into college and then I suddenly get another kid to teach!”

Marinette sat on his stomach and he wheezed a little. She didn’t pay this any mind, though. “Maybe you should have thought about that before you adopted another one.”

“He said he felt safer on the streets than in a home! I couldn’t just not adopt him!”

She gave a noncommittal hum.

“Dick! Agree with me!”

The person in question just turned on the TV and started flipping through channels.

Adrien sighed. He was now talking to what may as well have been an empty room. He looked around for the kwamis but they were very determinedly avoiding eye contact while chowing down on their foods of choice. Still, he at least had one person-god-whatever that had to listen to him:

“Plagg.”

The cat kwami gave a long sigh before looking at him. “Adrien, please don’t make me give you my opinion on this. You’re not going to like it.”

He pouted. “Honestly, though, it’s messed up. Is the system really that bad?”

“Yep,” said Marinette.

“Mhmm,” said Dick.

“And aren’t either of you, I don’t know, concerned about it?”

“You guys already donate a bunch of money, what else can you do?”

Adrien frowned, reaching out and pulling his wife down to lay next to him so they both could be comfortable.

Marinette lifted her arms slightly so he could wrap his arms around her and nuzzled into him a little bit (Dick made a gagging noise in the background). “This isn’t really our type of thing, Chaton.”

He nodded reluctantly…

And then gasped.

“But what if it is!”

“What?” She said warily.

“I mean, we’re in Gotham. Everything is connected to crime here! What if the foster and adoption systems are messed up because the mob or something has something to do with it!”

“Did you stretch before that reach?” Asked Dick as he changed the channel.

Adrien huffed. “M’lady, c’mon, I make sense, right?”

She thought for a minute, and then closed her eyes. “Alright, Chaton, if you really want you can go investigate it. If it’s our kind of thing, then we fix it. Okay?”

He beamed.

~

Marinette was… tired.

So, when she walked into the kitchen and found Jason flinging cabinets open at random and Dick swinging from a ceiling light, she just continued on to the coffee machine.

“WHERE THE FUCK IS THE TRASHCAN?!”

“Language,” Dick murmured absently. He hooked his legs over the light fixture and lowered himself down to open the cabinet beside Marinette, revealing... the trash can.

Jason stared at the cabinet in shock. “But… I opened that one… I know I did…”

“You have to be upside down to access it,” said Dick seriously.

She started up the machine. “Sweetie, don’t tell him that. He’ll break his neck.”

Jason slowly discarded his plate in the trash can, eyes locked on it as if it would disappear if he didn’t keep it in his sight at all times. “Why don’t you just have the trash can out…?”

Dick grinned. “Rich people thing. Can’t let people know you live here.”

“What?”

All he got was two shrugs. They didn’t really understand it either, they just didn’t care enough to do anything about it.

“I hate rich people,” Jason decided eventually.

“Same.”

“Including you.”

“Same.”

Adrien had chosen that exact minute to walk in and was now looking on in horror as Marinette brought an entire coffee pot to her lips and Jason dragged the trash can out into a reasonable place and Dick attempted a trapeze act on the ceiling light.

“I…”

“Morning,” said Marinette, sending a wave.

Adrien looked at the three of them for a few moments before sighing and sitting on the counter.

“Morning.”

~

Listen, if nothing else, Adrien had faith (... in humanity, religious faith is kinda weird when you have a god living in your jewelry).

This faith had never done him any good but it was there.

So, he had to hope that the problems with the system were things that he could fix as Chat Noir. Otherwise, he’d have to just accept the fact that the system didn’t care about its kids. He couldn’t do that.

The world was evil... but surely it couldn’t be that evil.

Unfortunately for his dreams of fixing everything, he found out that he needed to go to university for at least four years in order to get in. He couldn’t wait that long! People were suffering now!

Good thing he was rich.

Listen, Gotham is messed up. He’s been doing his best to fix it but, dang it, if everyone else can exploit it then he can, too!

(But only to help people. His moral compass was a roulette wheel and using his money to benefit solely himself was one of the lines he wouldn’t cross.)

Dick gave him a jealous look as he held up his new, definitely legitimately earned degree.

And then Jason had stepped into the room and frowned confusedly.

“You’re a social worker?”

“Am now!” He chirped.

“New?”

“Yep! I’m hoping to make it better, if I can.”

Jason gave a tiny laugh. “Oh, so you’re NEW new.”

Well, that wasn’t encouraging.

That night, he managed to catch Marinette before she could head off for patrols. “Do you think what I’m doing is useless?”

“A little bit but…” She leaned up and pressed a kiss to his lips. “I knew what I was getting into when I married you. I love you, Chaton.”

He frowned a little bit but returned the kiss and whispered his “I love you, too, M’lady.”

“Would you like me to drive you to work?”

He smiled and let her lead him along. That would be good. If he was driven to work then he could get someone to pick him up ‘late’ and give him time to snoop around.

Well, not today. The staff would know if it was his first day. He’d have to give it a month or so before he snooped. But it was good to start that kind of routine early.

When they pulled up to the orphanage, Marinette locked the doors before he could get out.

Crap.

He gave his wife a careful smile. “M’lady?”

“Listen to me: you are not allowed to adopt any of the kids.”

“But --.”

“Nope. No kids. We already have two when we said we were going to have zero. It has to stop.”

He sighed, leaning back in his seat. “What if… what if they’re about to age out?”

Marinette paused. He could see the gears turning in her head as she bit her lip, considering it.

Then she shook her head. “If they’re about to age out you can give them money and support to start out. That’s. All.”

He pouted a little but accepted this answer. It would have to do.

He heard the doors unlock and stepped out. He looked up at the building and suppressed a cringe. It looked like the kind of orphanage that you see in movies that always have an evil director. This was a good thing for him as Chat Noir but a bad thing when you consider that there are actual kids living there.

Adrien stepped inside, all too aware of his nerves.

After all, he was technically unprepared. Did he know basic medicine? Was he good with kids? Did he know how to teach even kids with challenges? Yes to all of that. Still, he couldn’t help but worry that maybe the four years of college that were asked of him could have taught him something that he would need.

Relax, he told himself.

This did nothing, and really only served to make him more anxious, but hush.

He was given the day to tour the place, and he was originally disappointed. Surely, this couldn’t be it. All the beds were crammed in one room! Some of the beds didn’t even have fitted sheets!

But then his mind wandered to Jason. They never found him asleep in any of the beds, instead finding him passed out with a thin blanket in the corner or, at best, in an armchair. He hardly ever slept alone, either, usually opting to choose whatever room had two or more people in it to sleep.

He had to remind himself that these kids were likely on the streets for at least a few months of their lives, and likely would have adapted to that.

It didn’t make him feel any better, though.

Adrien didn't let any of this show on his face, instead smiling as he introduced himself to the kids he passed. A few gave wary looks, others gave awkward smiles, and some didn’t even seem to notice him.

He didn’t know what he was expecting. He was their new teacher, people usually aren’t all that eager to meet those.

He hoped he could help, though.

~

Marinette clicked her tongue when she found Jason reading in his current favorite hiding space: under Dick’s bed.

“Sweetie, you’re going to get squished under there.”

He didn’t answer, probably because there was a flashlight in his mouth.

She leaned down to see if she could figure out a way that he could stay down there without getting hurt and scrunched up her nose at a smell.

“Is there… are you keeping food down there?”

Jason finally looked at her, his eyes wide. He quickly moved in front of the stash so she couldn’t get to it and pulled the flashlight from his mouth to speak: “It’s mine.”

“It’s spoiled,” she said, shaking her head. “You can hoard food if that makes you happy but at least make sure it’s something that won’t go bad, please. How about cereal -- no, actually, the kid would kill me if I gave you that… what about nutrition bars?”

“Those aren’t actually that healthy, you know.”

She gave a tiny shrug. “You’re right, they’re not, but they don’t spoil quickly and they have at least some kind of nutritional value.”

He hesitated, then reluctantly pushed the stash of food in her direction. She sifted through it to pull out any food that was still good, and then handed that over.

He looked at the tinier pile and then gave her a tiny smile.

“Thank you.”

She nodded. “I’ll go out and get some nutrition bars.”

His eyes widened. “You don’t have --.”

“Don’t worry about it. I was already going to start buying them to try and wean your brother off of cereal. This is just an added bonus,” she lied so he wouldn’t feel guilty about using her money.

He looked reluctant but still nodded.

She beamed and stood again, the spoiled food in her arms.

She yelled to Dick that Jason was under his bed again so he needed to be careful, then put a sticky note on his bed and door so he’d remember, then tossed the food.

And then she started towards the store.

~

Teaching all day and then coming home to teach another kid was… something.

Good thing Adrien had the patience of a saint from years of schooling Dick.

Jason groaned and fell back on the couch, covering his face with the textbook. “This is soooooo boring. I already know this stuff!”

“The test you took says differently,” said Adrien as he closed his copy.

All he got was another groan.

He sighed and closed his eyes. Whatever. He was exhausted. He’d take the night off. “Alright, fine, you’re bored. What do you want to do?”

Jason lifted the book from his face so he could send his dad a confused look.

“You have to enjoy something. Y’know, a hobby or something?”

Jason’s face reddened a little and he nodded, toying with some of the rings on his fingers. “I have one... but you can’t laugh if I tell you.”

“I wouldn’t.”

He mumbled something that she couldn’t make out, and Adrien frowned. “Sorry?”

He took a deep breath and then whispered his answer: “Iliketoread.”

It took a moment for his brain to catch up, and then he felt a wide smile stretch across his face. A kid? That reads?

He pushed himself up to his feet.

“I have a library card that’s been gathering dust for the past few years. C’mon.”

Jason raised his eyebrows. “It’s been gathering dust? Why?”

“Uh… let’s just say I’ve been kind of busy with other things.”

“That sucks.”

He considered this, his head tipping to the side, then he nodded. “It does. I should read more.”

“You should.”

Adrien laughed a little. “Have any suggestions?”

Jason’s eyes lit up.

~

Marinette hummed absently as she stepped into the kitchen and then frowned as her eyes flicked between Dick and Jason, who were looking very intensely at a plate.

She stepped closer and rolled her eyes. It seemed they were dividing up the last cookie from her baking session last night.

Was she concerned that they had managed to eat all the cookies in the few hours since she had finished them? A little. But not that concerned. At least she knew they were getting calories.

But now she was just amused. Because they were using a ruler and a pencil and paper to figure out what exactly half was.

Dick seemed to finish his math first, because he picked up a knife and positioned it over the cookie.

“Careful!” Said Jason.

Marinette snickered. “Boys, I may have a solution for you.”

They looked up with confused expressions.

“I can… you know I can just make more, right?”

Jason looked like he was going to protest... but then Dick swiped the cookie and stuffed it into his mouth. He watched on in horror for a few moments before his face hardened.

“You live up to your name, Dickwad.”

Dick gasped. “Rude!”

“Oh, so I’m rude? You want to know what’s actually rude? It’s --.”

Marinette grinned as she sipped at her coffee. She’d intervene if things went too far but, for the time being, she was perfectly fine just watching.

Jason’s eyes found her and he brought a cheeky grin to his face. “Hey, mom, if you’re going to make cookies then Dickwad can’t have any, right?”

“What? No! Mari -- Mom -- Mominette!”

“Mom!”

“Mom!”

She tried not to laugh at the chorus of ‘Mom’s as she started pulling down ingredients.

~

After a month and a half of gaining the trust of the orphanage staff and kids, he managed to sneak into the director’s room and look through the financial records.

He snapped pictures of every page and then slipped out through the window.

When he got home he pulled the pictures up on a bigger monitor and started looking over them with Dick and Marinette at his side.

The longer he looked the more he frowned.

“It’s not an evil plot. I don’t know what to do when it’s not an evil plot,” he said eventually.

Marinette rested her head on his shoulder. “Of course it’s not. Even if criminals benefit from the system being broken, they don’t need to do anything to keep it that way. Even good cities have terrible adoption and foster systems.”

“There has to be something we can do!”

She and Dick exchanged exhausted looks.

“There has to be something we can do.” He repeated, frowning. “We’re rich!”

“We don’t have enough to beat out a mob boss in political donations, Chaton, much less a bunch of them.”

He sighed.

Marinette slipped her hand into his and was silent for a while, trying to think of a way to cheer him up. She squeezed a little tighter and he looked over with a raised eyebrow.

“Hey, speaking of mob bosses, the kid and I have been closing in on one’s location. You want in? You always like beating them up...”

“I guess it has been a while since we’ve done that…”

They had been about two seconds away from just pushing the emotions down like they usually did, but then Dick had gasped and pushed himself to his feet.

“We can’t fix homes, but we can always make things easier when they leave.”

“We already agreed to give them money when they age out, sweetie.”

“Nonononono not like that!” Dick was pacing, now. “You guys know a lot of people, right?”

“I do…” said Adrien carefully.

“Then use that! Help them get into the fields they want to get into.”

“That’s…” Adrien pulled out his phone to translate the word to English. “... nepotism.”

Marinette shrugged absently. “We kill people, Chaton, this is hardly the place to draw the line. I can probably get them into the designing world if I wanted.”

“I could do circuses or law.”

Adrien sighed and closed his eyes. He figured he should just be glad that they were trying to help.

“... I can get modelling and any other field that I know someone in… I’d need to make some calls...”

~

The happiness that came along with finding a solution, weak as it was, lasted about a month.

Marinette smiled and wiped some blood from her husband’s cheek so she could give him a kiss.

“Feel better?”

“A little,” he admitted.

She smiled and tipped her head back to look at Dick, who was tying up the last of the henchmen. “You’ve had faster times, sweetie.”

“I would’ve gone faster if you were helping instead of ‘french kissing’ over here.”

“We weren’t --!” She clicked her tongue when both of the guys started laughing. “You’re hilarious. C’mon, we need to get out before the cops get here.”

They slipped out into the streets as sirens blared in the distance and detransformed.

Marinette hummed lightly as they made their way through back alleys. After all, their detransformations only got rid of the suits, not the blood… it would look a little weird if three people covered in blood were just walking through the streets.

Adrien opened the door for them, and she stepped inside…

Only to go pale.

Because Jason was up, watching a show. He had probably woken up and decided to wait until people were back to sleep. The three vigilantes went completely still, save for the quiet squeak of surprise that left Dick’s lips.

Jason looked over and his eyes widened.

“Uh… we can explain?” Said Marinette.

He screamed and scrambled off the couch as quickly as possible and made a mad dash for the kitchen.

The three vigilantes looked at each other, then followed after him.

Her eyes searched the kitchen and found him hidden under a table...

Oh. He had a knife. Fun.

Adrien pushed Dick behind them.

She held up her hands placatingly. “Sweetie…”

“NO! WHAT THE FUCK?! NO! I KNEW YOU GUYS WERE TOO NICE TO BE TRUE BUT WHAT?!  THE FUCK?! MURDERERS?! COME ON!”

Adrien sighed. “I… we aren’t… well… we kind of are… but...”

“Not helping,” Dick muttered.

Marinette bit her lip as she considered what to do to make Jason relax, then groaned. “Tikki. Spots on.”

Somehow, Jason’s eyes went wider when she transformed.

“WHAT THE FUCK WHAT THE FUCK WHAT THE FUCK?! YOU GUYS ARE VIGILANTES?! ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!”

Adrien sighed.

The other two transformed as well.

Jason had gone into shock…

Progress?

They detransformed now that they had shown him the truth.

“Now that you know that we won’t hurt you, can you… put the knife down? Please? That’s the good knife and --?” She felt the glares of the other two vigilantes on the back of her head and winced. “Okay, maybe not the most important reason why... knives are sharp. We don’t like sharp things. They hurt.”

The kid did, in fact, put down the knife. This was probably just because he was stunned and on autopilot but at least he was no longer armed.

Marinette carefully walked over and picked it up off the ground. A pout made its way onto her face as she looked at the blade. It had scratches on it…

She saw Adrien’s disapproving look and huffed, tossing it into the sink a few feet away and then turning to the kid next to her.

“This wasn’t how we wanted you to find out…”

The boys made their way over as well and they all sat in a wide circle around the kid. They didn’t want him to feel alone but they also didn’t want to crowd him.

“We didn’t really want you to know at all, we just wanted to be a stable family for you,” explained Adrien.

Jason was emerging from his shock slowly, his breathing was picking up.

Marinette peeled her jacket off and draped it over his shoulders gently.

“We promise we won't force you to be a vigilante. In fact, we’d probably feel better if you weren’t one. You’re a kid,” said Adrien.

“But,” added Dick. His parents glared at him but he continued anyways: “If you want, then we won’t stop you. You’re old enough by our family standards, so we can’t really stop you if you want to. Just tell us and we’ll get you a miraculous that suits you and some training.”

She clicked her tongue disapprovingly.

Dick gave her a bit of side-eye. “What? It’s not like we would be able to stop him if he wanted to be a vigilante. I’d prefer that he at least be safe… -ish.”

Jason curled up in the jacket and closed his eyes. “Can I have some time to think about it? About… everything?”

“Of course, sweetie.” Marinette scooted away a little so he could get past her and he rushed out.

The three watched him go in silence. They heard the front door slam behind him.

She closed her eyes. “Sweetie, go after him? Make sure he doesn’t get hurt.”

Dick gave a quiet “Okay” and transformed. With a shrill note, he was gone.

Adrien and Marinette were left alone.

She felt him crawl over to her and pull her into him.

“He’ll be okay,” said Adrien softly.

She bit her lip and then buried her face in his shoulder.

~

Over the next few weeks they heard people in the house.

He made sure to never acknowledge it. It could be Dick coming back for food or to grab some homework to do while watching over his brother, or it could be Jason.

He always hoped it would be Jason… but now that it actually was he felt a surge of anxiety.

Firstly, Marinette wasn’t home. Nygma had just announced his most recent death trap to the city and she’d had to rush out to deal with it.

Secondly, Dick had a class at the moment.

Thirdly, Adrien was just really tired. He’d spent the entire day teaching, of course he was tired. He wouldn’t be at the top of his game.

This was probably an intentional move on Jason’s part. It was a good idea to take precautions, Adrien would have been proud if he wasn’t so nervous.

He looked up from his spot on the couch and gave a careful smile. “Hey, Jay.”

Jason hesitated and then disappeared to the kitchen. He came back with a knife.

Ah. Great.

Adrien knew he could beat a child with a knife, that didn’t mean he wanted to.

Jason sat on the couch opposite Adrien and pointed his knife at him. “I want to ask some questions.”

“Of course. Anything.”

He nodded and lowered his knife ever so slightly. “Okay… why did you adopt me?”

Adrien frowned a little bit. “You were a kid that was so desperate for money that you were stealing a bunch of rich people’s hubcaps. I couldn’t not adopt you.”

“There’s a lot of people like that. Why me? I attacked you. There had to be better, safer options.”

“I…” His frown deepened. This was true. Why had he felt so drawn to Jason in particular? “I guess it could have been Marinette’s luck? One of her side-effects is that she has really good luck. I wouldn’t be surprised if we adopted the exact kid that was perfect for our family.”

Jason nodded a little bit, though he looked skeptical.

Fair enough. Adrien was also a little skeptical of his answer. He had a theory about what was going on but it wasn’t like he’d ever be able to prove it.

“Next question: what did Dick mean when he said that I was old enough to be a vigilante ‘by your standards’?”

Adrien winced a little bit. “You said you’re about thirteen, right? Well, Dick and I started at twelve and Mari started at thirteen.”

Jason gave him an incredulous look, then apparently got over it. “Oh. Okay. And… why did you start doing this?”

“Uh… odd question…” He pursed his lips. “It’s hard to explain. I… had an image to keep up and Chat Noir was -- still is, actually -- my outlet for me to be myself in public. Mari, I think, was more or less thrown into the life and then, when she finally had an out, couldn’t imagine herself without it. Dick wanted to get revenge on the person who got his parents killed and then decided to keep going.”

He frowned. “You make it sound addictive.”

“Oh, yeah, it definitely is.” Adrien sighed. “There’s a lot of reasons why we didn’t tell you but that was one of them. When you start you don’t stop. We made that mistake with Dick, we’re hoping that you’ll not do it.”

Jason set the knife down, finally. “But you wouldn’t stop me if I still wanted to?”

He winced. “No. If you wanted to then we’d give you a miraculous -- powers -- and you’d get to go out and fight crime.”

“You trust me?” He said with a laugh.

“Should I not?”

He rolled his eyes. “I grew up on the streets. Most people don’t.”

“Jay, no offense but I’m not scared of you. You could have stolen from us or attempted to hurt us at any point over the last few months and you didn’t.”

“You’re vigilantes! It’s not like I could have done any of that!”

He shrugged and stretched out lazily. “You’re right, you wouldn't have succeeded. But you didn’t know that. You thought we were just some really trusting rich people.”

Jason considered this with a frown, and then he looked at Adrien. “I want to be a vigilante.”

He groaned a little bit but nodded. “Fine. Take off your -- Mari’s -- whatever -- THE jacket and the hoodie for a minute so I can see who should train you?”

The kid looked a little uncomfortable but he did comply.

Adrien frowned at all the tiny scars but didn’t say anything as he carefully examined his build. Definitely closer to him than Marinette or Dick.

He would take up the physical aspect of training, then.

“Right, how much do you know about self-defense?”

~

The four of them sat on the floor, sifting through the different miraculi for ones that could protect Jason in battle.

Marinette hummed to herself as she sifted through her pile.

After a minute, Dick held up the turtle miraculous. “This one can keep him safe -- wait a minute, why didn’t I get this one?”

“Didn’t match your fighting style or personality,” said Adrien absently, his head tipping from side to side as he considered the miraculous.

“If we want to give him that one then he’s going to need a different weapon. What would you like, sweetie?”

Jason thought for a minute, staring at Wayzz.

Then his eyes lit up. “Can I have a gun?”

“I…” Began Marinette, then she shrugged. “Actually, we could probably use another long-distance fighter on the team.”

“And it keeps him a pretty safe distance away from the fighting…” Agreed Adrien.

Dick hesitated. “But guns are pretty lethal. He isn’t an adult.”

“Damn, that really is going to come back to bite me, huh?”

Jason frowned. “What? What’s going on?”

“Basically, we have a rule that says kids aren’t allowed to kill,” said Adrien, sending his wife a tired glare.

She gave him a tense smile in return. “Killing people messes you up, so we’re trying to keep you guys away from it.”

Jason hesitated a little bit. “I’ve kinda… already…”

The three others’ eyes widened and they gave each other nervous glances. Jason couldn’t seem to finish, and they didn’t ask him to. They could guess what he was trying to get at.

And they didn’t know how to respond. Their problem had been with introducing kids to murder, because they knew that it was something you never really came back from… but he’d already done it...

They figured that, from the way he said it, he had probably had no choice in the matter and was regretting doing it…

“I guess… we let him kill if he wants?” Said Adrien slowly.

Dick scratched his head. “I guess?”

The three of them shrugged at each other. It was probably -- no, definitely -- not the right decision but they really didn’t know what to do.

“I think he’d look cute with pistols,” said Marinette after a few minutes of silence.

Adrien, who was the only other person who had seen the turtle miraculous’s suit, nodded his agreement.

Jason transformed for the first time.

Dick nodded as well. “Pistols would be cute.”

~

Adrien smiled as he watched Jason mess around with his new powers.

There wasn’t much to them. They created a force field around an item or person of your choosing that held for as long as you stayed awake…

Still, he was proud of him. Baby’s first powers and all.

The three older vigilantes were casually throwing things and hitting the forcefield in an attempt to break it, and Jason was holding up surprisingly well.

“So, what’re you going to call yourself?” Adrien asked as he drummed his staff on it.

Jason thought for a minute and then smiled. “How about… Green Helmet?”

Marinette hit the force field too hard and the cane came back to hit her in the head, which could not be helping her growing headache.

She pursed her lips tightly as she lowered herself down into a chair. “You… you have a hood.”

“I disagree.”

“You can’t -- I’m literally a designer! My word is law! That’s a hood!”

“Nope.”

“Chaton! Tell him that’s a hood!”

Adrien sighed. “It’s a hood,” he agreed.

Everyone looked at Dick, who was beginning to look like he’d rather be anywhere else. He eyed the door out of the corner of his eyes as if wondering whether he could get away before they caught him.

He must have come to the conclusion that he couldn’t get there in time, because he gave his answer:

“It… could be a helmet if he wants it to be…”

Adrien rolled his eyes as the family erupted into an argument over what constitutes a hood versus what constitutes a helmet.

~

Marinette hummed lightly as she made brownies (she had faith, okay? No one was helping this time so it should work). Jason was sitting in a chair nearby, head resting on the back of it as he watched her.

“What’s wrong, sweetie?” She asked. It was normal for Jason to watch her cook, he liked to keep his eye on food when he could, but he seemed almost… anxious. She could hear the gentle clinking of his rings as he messed with them.

“I… I want to buy something,” he said.

She dropped her bag of sugar into the bowl and hissed a string of curses as she looked at the now definitely ruined batter. Sure, she could technically go through and try to fix the ratios by adding more of everything else, but that would make enough brownies to feed a whole army --.

Wait a minute, what had he said?

Her eyes flicked to Jason. “Sorry? You want to buy something?”

He nodded with a tiny smile. “It’s a little expensive, I’m sorry, but… could we?”

Marinette was willing to buy a car if this kid asked, because he was ASKING HER TO BUY SOMETHING OH MY GOD, but she played it cool with a tiny nod.

“Sure, sweetie, let me just see how much it costs.”

He pulled up a picture on his phone and showed it to her.

It was a hardcover copy of an illustrated version of a book he liked. For forty dollars.

Okay, so he wasn’t asking for much, but it was still something! An improvement!

She smiled. “Sure, sweetie, I’ll get it next time I head out, okay?”

Jason beamed.

~

Adrien rolled his eyes when Dick flung himself across the couch dramatically.

“This isn’t faaaaiiiiir,” he whined.

He looked at his wife pleadingly and she clicked her tongue before lifting Dick’s head so she could sit down. She ran her fingers through her kid’s hair in an attempt to soothe him.

“He already knew a bit of self-defense when we met him so that was fine and we even gave extra time on training in his powers and with guns. We literally have no excuses for bringing him on at this point.”

“But I had to train for three years! He only had to do one!”

Jason grinned. “Maybe I’m just better.”

“Jay,” said Adrien exhaustedly.

“Or the favorite,” he added, his grin somehow growing.

“Jay!”

It was a good thing that Marinette had had a hold on Dick, because if she hadn’t he probably would have launched himself at his brother.

“You weren’t of age, he is,” she reminded him. “If you’d been old enough a year in then we would have let you do crime fighting, too.”

This was a lie, Dick had not been at all prepared after a year of training, but it made the kid smile so at least that was good.

Adrien stretched out from his spot in the window. “Right, we let Dick choose his first mission, what do you want to do first?”

Jason broke into a wide grin.

“There were some people who gave all the homeless kids trouble…”

~

They’d tracked the gang’s activities to a warehouse and had filed inside.

Adrien had helped Marinette carry their kids to the trusses above them (neither of their weapons had an easy way up, though they made mental notes to get them some kind of… grappling hook, maybe? It was a work in progress idea).

Dick shrouded them in shadows and muted the squeaking of their boots on the metal as they slowly made their way to the gang.

Adrien stretched his shoulders a little bit and then dangled his legs over to prepare himself for the jump down. Marinette and Dick copied his stance.

They looked at Jason, who gulped a little before copying the stance.

They hopped down as a family…

Because nothing says family bonding like murdering a bunch of gang members.

~

“Hey?”

Adrien looked up and frowned, alarm bells ringing in his ears. Jason was shuffling from foot to foot anxiously from his spot in the doorway. An anxious kid? This couldn’t be good...

“Yes, Jay?”

Jason messed with his rings.

“Since I’m going to be… here for a while, can we take the car to pick up my stuff?”

Adrien would have pinched himself to check if this was a dream if any of his dreams were ever this nice.

He dropped the book he was reading onto the bed and pushed himself up. “I -- wow! Okay! Of course!”

Jason gave an awkward smile.

Adrien tried not to smile too much as he followed the kid’s directions.

Mainly because this might dredge up bad memories for Jason, and he didn’t want to be too caught up in his euphoria of the kid genuinely accepting being part of the family to notice that he was shutting down.

But, to his surprise, Jason actually seemed just as excited.

They pulled up to a mostly abandoned looking greenhouse and Adrien raised his eyebrows slightly.

“What? I could grow myself food! It was good,” Jason defended himself.

He gave a smile, rolling his eyes. “Sorry, I was just trying to imagine you eating vegetables.”

Jason huffed a little bit and then held up a hand for Adrien to wait. He crouched down and then, after a bit of pushing, popped a pane of glass out of place. He set it down and then crawled through.

There was a bit of rustling inside and then the door swung open.

“Behold! My humble abode!”

Adrien raised his eyebrows as he stepped inside. ‘Humble’ was definitely the word for it…

His eyes scanned around and he had to hold back a frown at how little Jason had. There were a few plants. A bunch of vines and leaves had been piled together to make a makeshift ‘bed’ with a few blankets thrown overtop. A few random clothes were strewn about, all in varying states of shabbiness.

(There was also a bucket in the corner. Adrien was deciding to believe that it was for washing clothes.)

The only thing that Jason had really ‘had’ was the entire nook dedicated to books.

Adrien and Jason grabbed everything of importance to him and put it in the back of the car.

And then they started on their way home.

~~~

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1010

survey from diggitydoo

Have you ever felt a baby kick? Yes, when my mom was pregnant with my brother. What color pants/shorts are you wearing? I’m only wearing a duster gown; no shorts underneath. I just got it last night, actually - my mom wanted to donate clothes to victims of a recent fire incident in Manila and so she asked my sister and I to sort through our closets for clothes we were willing to give away. My sister ended up giving away a comfy-looking duster gown that she never even wore and even smelled brand new to boot. It ended up in my hands, ha. But apart from that we gave away a lot of stuff that aren’t old uniforms or costumes (which is what most people tend to ‘donate’, ugh), so we just hope they end up with people who really need them. When is the last time you did something truly fun, and what was it? Last night I went on our org’s Discord server and we played Jackbox games for around an hour or so. It was my first time to socialize again after around two months and I really, really needed that moment. I even met the org’s newest roster of applicants for this semester, which was neat. :) What was the scariest moment of your life? Men terrorizing me or near-car crashes I’ve had.

Have you ever heard of Leonard Cohen? The name is familiar, but that’s the most I know.

Pancakes or flapjacks? I guess pancakes, since I don’t even know what flapjacks are. What kind of computer are you on? It’s a laptop. Do you eat Chinese food? If so, what's your favorite dish? For sure. Pork buns or minced pork with eggplant. With century egg on the side, yum. What are you usually doing at midnight? Either passed out or desperately trying to sleep because I don’t want to lose any more hours of sleep and risk being cranky for the whole of the next day. Have you ever developed feelings for a friend, but you were already with someone? No. The worst thing that’s happened was being someone’s ball date (and unbeknownst to me, they apparently had feelings for me at the time) while I was already with someone. If so, how did it turn out? He figured it out by himself, which I still feel bad about. But the timing was super off and I just couldn’t find a moment to sit him down and set the record straight...ah well. It was just super complicated at the time. Give me your brief definition of love. My favorite love-related quote is “Love never says ‘I have done enough’” and for the longest time, that has been my guiding principle when it comes to it. Definitely a tad bit cheesy, but telling myself that over and over makes it easier to continue loving the people I care for and be patient with them when they’re being asses. Gab included, then and now. What is the most beautiful part of the human body, male or female? It differs for everyone but I’m a thigh girl through and through. What kind of shoes do you wear? Uh...various ones? I have sneakers, flats, heels, flip-flops, probably a couple more kinds that I can’t place at the moment. What is the worst thing you've ever done when you were really angry? Resorting to physical violence. I was a kid constantly exposed to violence in my old home, and at the time I genuinely thought that’s how most things were settled or pacified. I still feel like shit about it to this day, and my backstory isn’t an excuse at all; but the past is the past and I’ve been trying to make up for it by being a much more gentle angry person in the last few years. Are there any pills you take on a daily basis? If so, what? Nope. Do you like the smell of coconuts? For some reason I can’t stand anything coconut (which is a damn shame considering I’m Filipino) but I love dishes with heaps of coconut milk in them, like curry. That’s the one coconut-related thing I enjoy, but otherwise I’ve never learned to appreciate the taste and smell of buko juice, coconut shavings, coconut pies, and everything else coconut. What is the heaviest you think you can lift? From what my old PE class showed me, around 70 to 80 lbs. Do you take Tums? Idk what that is so I guess I don’t. Have you ever walked on a pier at the beach? I’m not sure if I’ve been to a pier before. I bet it feels wonderful and freeing and I’d love to visit one; but I also can’t keep myself from associating piers with the recurring image of Jennifer Connelly’s character standing on one from Requiem for a Dream. How about under one? No. At what age do you first remember feeling butterflies in your stomach around someone? Not sure if it was 11 or 12, but it was definitely one of those years. Do you feel that way around anyone now? Yeah, if they allowed me to see them. But I’m shut out now so I haven’t had that sensation in a while.

Do you ever talk to yourself or think deep thoughts while on the toilet? No. Do you ever sing to yourself? Sure. I’m sure most people do every once in a while. What is a sound that relaxes you? Ocean waves have never failed. How hard has it been to reach your main goal in life? ‘Main goal’ sounds so overwhelming; I make it a point to avoid one overarching goal and instead make little goals and plans here and there depending on where I am in life. Do you remember the song about hoes in different area codes? Never heard of it. What is your main heritage? Filipino. What kind of pickles do you prefer, if you like pickles? I hate pickles. What kind of cheese do you prefer, if you like cheese? Mozzarella and feta are my faves, but I love cheese and am willing to be adventurous when it comes to it. If you could have a sea creature as a pet, what would you want? Eh, they can stay in the sea where they can actually survive. I don’t exactly have the best track record when it comes to keeping fish as pets. How about a farm animal? Probably pig. So, do you have hoes in different area codes? No, and ew. What is the most annoying song you can think of that came out recently? Haven’t been exposed to a lot of new music lately and the songs I do get to hear on the radio whenever I drive are actually pretty good. This totally doesn’t answer your question but my favorites so far have been Birthday by Disclosure, Kehlani, and Syd; and Plain by Benee, Lily Allen, and Flo Milli. What is a song that you hate to admit you like? Any Kanye song I like. What inspires you to get off your bum and do something productive? Not wanting to go into another downward spiral. Do you ever use Urban Dictionary? Extremely rarely. I only do when there’s a new slang I’m completely unfamiliar with. Do you find the definitions on there to be generally funny or stupid? Stupid for the most part. I find them too immature or vulgar, but that’s one of the points of the website so I guess I’m just not in their target audience lol. What comes to your mind when you hear the word 'transformation'? Uh, the Transformer robots.

What was something you regularly played with as a child? My cousins’ toy soldiers.

Have you ever given in to peer pressure? Eh, a few times. If so, what did you do? I’ve been pulled to drinking sessions here and there when I really shouldn’t be drinking because I had an important test tomorrow or something else was happening the next day that was just as significant. What part of your body have you had the most problems with in your life? Teeth, I’m pretty sure. I’ve had braces, needed a tooth extracted, gotten a cavity, and gone through a severe toothache.

Do a lot of people check you out when you're in public? Idk I never look around because being aware of it would just freak me out and make me feel like I’m naked. What is a good name for a turtle? Would depend on their personality. And this applies to all kinds of pets, at least for me. I don’t decide on their names until I have a good grasp of their attitude. Can you imitate any accents well? If so, which one(s)? Stereotypical Filipino mom and valley girl. Do you like having your ear nibbled on? Sure. What makes a good kisser a good kisser? I’ve only kissed one person so I’m not the best judge for this; but I always like it when my lower lip is tugged or grazed on. How many times a year do you have a family thing? This is a little vague for me. Do you mean get-togethers? Giant-ass reunions? Movie nights? Game nights?  What are the best things to put in a smoothie? I only like one kind of smoothie and it’s sold by a local joint – and I think I’ve already shared this before but that smoothie of theirs that I like has “apple, banana, cinnamon, oats, coco sugar, chia seeds, greens, and soy milk,” according to their menu. So I guess those are the best ingredients for me, ha. Do you ever eat with your eyes closed and just focus on the taste? When I find something extremely delicious, yeah. What do you dislike most about where you live right now? For the most part I can’t wait to get out of suburban residential villages. I’d love to finally experience living in a condo in a super busy and active city. Has anyone ever given you a rose/roses? Yes.

Are you watching your weight? Not really. I’m trying to gain pounds though, if anything. I haven’t eaten much in the last two months. Have you ever become really good friends with someone you found online? I trust y’all with my life, so that’s one. Apart from Tumblr, the best friends I made were probably the people in the AJ/Punk fandom, back when I had a stan account on Twitter. I don’t remember most of their names now and we fizzled out pretty quickly when both parts of the ship left WWE, but I look back on that period with fondness. Those people made high school a lot easier for me. What makes your best friend your best friend? She doesn’t care whether I’m on top of the world with happiness or completely self-destructive and crying my eyes out; she has always been present. Do you have a drunk uncle? *rolls eyes* We don’t wanna open up that can of worms... Do you hear weird noises in your house at night? Nope. What is something you do that is generally more like something the opposite sex does? Based on personal experience and not to come off as sexist, but it’s liking wrestling. I have never met a girl in real life who has even the most remote interest in pro wrestling or can tell me who Hulk Hogan is. And the ones I’ve had discussions with - from shallow/casual to in-depth - have all been guys. Seeing girls who are into wrestling is like finding a rare Pokemon, at least in real life. What is the girliest thing you do, if you're a girl? Idk. What is the coolest tattoo you've ever seen? Probably the spork tattoo of Josh, a crew member from Good Mythical Morning. It’s just a line tattoo. Of a spork. On his arm. But he managed to make it so goddamn fascinating lmao; and apparently, as I learned just now, it has a pretty touching backstory to it too, which makes it a million times cooler. Have you ever created anything artistic that you're proud of? If so, what? I’ve never finished any of the crafts I bought. Never finished a coloring book page much less an entire coloring book, a painting, a gem painting...it’s something I’ll have to bring my butt to do one of these days. I can’t imagine how fulfilling it would feel. Do you only eat the middle of the oreo, if you eat oreos? I eat the whole thing but I honestly find Oreos too sweet and I’ve always much rather preferred Oreo-flavored stuff instead of the actual cookies.

Do you know anyone with a huge ego? My mom. If so, is there anything else about them you actually like? She’s fed me for 22 years and gave me an education, I guess. Though it’s something I appreciate more so than like. Have you ever used a racial slur, even jokingly? Probably as a dumb kid, when historical context wasn’t a thing to me yet. I still wince thinking about it, but I suppose what matters is being better and more responsible moving forward. Do you have any friends who are more like siblings to you? Angela and to some extent Andi. 

If so, what about them do you like most? They are both understanding when it comes to me - almost to a fault. What do you like on your hotdogs, if you eat hotdogs? When you say ‘hotdogs’ here, it refers to the sausages itself. The sandwich kind of hotdog isn’t super popular here. What is everyone else in your house doing right now? My siblings are still resting in their rooms; my dad is preparing for work, I think. What is the most money you've ever had at one time? Something like P10,000 or P15,000 when my mom needed me to pay for something in cash. How long do you think it would take you to run a mile? Idk, maybe 10 minutes. I won’t be fast, that’s for sure. Look down. What do you see? My legs and the pillow I’m sitting on. What is a subject that makes you uncomfortable? Right now, probably my failed relationship. I haven’t gotten to the sharing stage yet and remotely thinking about it gets my voice all shaky. What is a subject you can talk on and on about and not get sick of it? Paramore. What kind of mood were you in most of today? It’s only 7:52 AM. My only mood so far is just woke up. Has anyone ever walked in on you naked? Yeah. Because people in this damn house never knock. Tell me an inside joke you have with someone. The word ‘ariba.’ What is the worst thing someone could do to you emotionally? Break my trust. So simple but it packs a punch. What is the worst thing you've ever done to someone emotionally? Idk if I’ve ever been that aggressive. When I want to do something destructive towards someone I always end up asking what it would feel like if the action was done to me, and it’s always been enough to sway me away from doing the thing. How do you feel now about the first person you ever dated? Sad. How about the last person (your last ex)? Same person. What is the best invention ever invented? Air conditioners.

What is something that needs to be invented? Portable air conditioners. What always makes you burp? My burps come randomly. What are you doing tomorrow? It’s my last weekend before my new job, soooooooo...I’ll be bumming around for my last two days of freedom.

[coffeefairy]

Writer’s Month August 2020 - Day 8

Day eight of the challenge, still late, because I am a still a helpless procrastinator

Day 8, Prompt: Eight

Fandom: Voltron: Legendary Defender

Ship: Sheith

Rating: Teen and up

Summary: Lance throws a party to celebrate that he and his roommates are going to be friends - for infinity. At the party, Keith meets destiny. Or as he introduces himself, Shiro.

Veeeery loosely based on the New Girl dynamic but not close enough to call it an AU.

Excerpt:

“Ta-da!” Lance stepped back and revealed the decorated room behind him.

Keith tilted his head. “The theme of the party is...eight? Eight what? Why?”

Pidge peered around Keith to see. “Did you realize it’s your age in emotional maturity and decided celebrating reaching it?”

“It’s not eight, it’s infinity. We’re celebrating we’re going to be friends for infinity!”

Keith grimaced and shrugged, Pidge made a gagging noise and Hunk shushed them both.

Tags: first meeting

Infinity

“Ta-da!” Lance stepped back and revealed the decorated room behind him.

Keith tilted his head. “The theme of the party is...eight? Eight what? Why?”

Pidge peered around Keith to see. “Did you realize it’s your age in emotional maturity and decided celebrating reaching it?”

“It’s not eight, it’s infinity. We’re celebrating we’re going to be friends for infinity!”

Keith grimaced and shrugged, Pidge made a gagging noise and Hunk shushed them both. 

“Guys, Lance has worked really hard on this party.”

“God knows why,” Keith muttered under his breath and Hunk elbowed him. “Yeah, yeah. There’s beer, right?”

Walking into the apartment he had to fight his way through streamers, balloons and even past a pinata. Behind him he heard Pidge point out that at least half the balloons said “Happy Eighth Birthday!” on the backs. Lance shot back all the balloons were tilted ninety degrees, which clearly made the eight into an infinity sign.

Going about tapping the keg, he realized with a shock that they had all lived in this loft for eight years. Moving in right out of high school, the building deep enough into a sketchy enough area that he could afford it, he and Lance had spent the first days emptying it of the previous tenants’ rubbish. Once it looked presentable - essentially bare, but not the drug den it had clearly once been - they’d posted an ad for the two spare rooms. Pidge had arrived, narrowing her eyes at the print out in her hand. She’d believed the apartment was shared by women. Not that it mattered to her, she stated, as long as everyone left her alone to study. Hunk had seen the open plan kitchen and promised muffins on the spot. Lance had shaken his hand, welcoming him to the apartment.

And that was...eight years ago. The apartment had changed over the years. It had furniture, for one. Adding to it through donations, or a purchase when someone had some cash to spare. Keith had bought the coffee table because he refused to use a tray balanced on his knees to eat in front of the tv. Lance had replaced the couch at some point because the first one - inherited from Pidge’s grandmother - was ugly as sin, covered in large roses and wearing some kind of furniture skirt with bows on it. Hunk had picked up appliances on Gumtree, installing them one by one himself. Keith had used the printer at work to blow up some large scale pieces he’d done. The joking picture he’d drawn for Lance for his 21st birthday of them all as superheroes held pride of place. 

He hadn’t really thought about it but they’d all changed, just as the apartment had. Lance, his one and only friend from high school, still loud and animated, but instead of the messy haired loudmouth he’d been, he was now a tidy, suit-wearing marketer. Hunk, who’d finished his degree in mechanical engineering, had worked in the field for three years before pursuing his real passion - cooking. His own restaurant had just celebrated its second birthday. Pidge, still the same height as when she moved in, to her chagrin, had finished her PhD in astrophysics and found her place at the Observatory where her father and brother worked. She’d taped “Dr.” in front of the K. Holt on the door to mark the occasion. 

Though if he was comparing, the one who’d changed the most was possibly himself. 

Leaving high school he’d never imagined he’d want to go to university, or that he’d ever know what he’d want to do. It was Lance, who had drunkenly filled in his application to art school, attaching blurry cellphone pictures of what Keith deemed his “doodles”. Lance who had pushed him out the door to the interview to “just see what it’s about”. Now, Keith had just heard from his publisher his comic book, Voltron: Legendary Defender, had been renewed for another run, with more zeroes attached than Keith had ever dreamed he would make from his art. In truth, he didn’t think any of them needed to live together for financial reasons anymore. But there had been a time when his part-time job and scholarship money didn’t stretch to everything a month would need, when the other three had quietly “made too much food” or “felt like overpaying on gas this month - I did have a few long showers”. Just as he had when Lance had been between jobs, when Pidge didn’t have enough time to work in the last two months before her PhD was due, when Hunk had struggled to make ends meet at his new restaurant. 

Sipping his beer, he woke from the reverie to realize people were arriving. He recognized a few of Lance’s work friends, some of the people from the Observatory, Pidge’s brother, staff from Hunk’s restaurant. 

Lance came beelining over.

“Keith, Allura is here! She came!”

As his friend was in love at least twice a month, Keith just hummed.

“Allura, Keith! The woman who owns the model agency we give a lot of business to.”

Memories of this particular woman being a recurrent topic of Lance’s he obediently looked to where Lance was indicating. A tall, slim blonde was talking to Matt - who looked like he’d never finished Standing Like A Human Being 101. Awkwardly hunched, he laughed entirely too loudly at something the woman had said. 

“I need you to talk me up to her if you speak - nothing big, you know, how I’m a model employee, earn three figures, drive a Range Rover, and that from what you can tell through my bedroom door I can make a woman have an out-of-body-experience.”

“If she’s with you in bed, she’ll wish she was out of her body,” Keith joked automatically.

“Keith, focus!” Lance tugged at his shirt to stare into his eyes. “She’s the most beautiful woman on the planet, she’s smart and she’s funny. She came to this party and I have a chance to make this work.”

Sighing lightly, Keith put his beer down. “Lance.” He put his hand to his shoulder. “Remember that none of what you listed me to say matters. You’re a good guy, you take care of your friends, even when they don’t want you to. You’ve been my mom, my partner and my friend for years. You don’t need to brag about whatever car you drive if you could just believe that the people who love you, love you for you and not for being cool, or suave or whatever epitaph it is you’re always pursuing. Just go talk to her and be yourself.”

Lance blinked rapidly. 

“Don’t cry, man. If you do, I take it all back.” 

Lance kept blinking, sniffles starting.

“Stop it. I’ll tell Allura you’ve got syphilis if you cry.”

“You wouldn’t dare!” The tears sank away and Keith breathed a sigh of relief. “Besides, first I need you to distract Allura’s date.”

“She brought a date?”

“She brought some guy who looks like he models. They’re probably just colleagues.” Lance’s voice was high pitched with his own disbelief. “In any case, it shouldn’t be a hardship for you to talk to him, just don’t drool on him too visibly. I don’t want Allura to think my friends have no class. Even if they don’t.”

“Hey, watch it. Remember I can tell anyone, at any point, you sing Backstreet Boys in the shower.”

“They have an underrated emotional intelligence in their songs!”

Keith snorted, “As if “I Want It That Way” isn’t about a breakfast egg order.”

Lance drew a deep breath, about to go on a tirade. Then he deflated, narrowed his eyes. “Later. We’re doing that later. Now I am going to talk to Allura, because the guy is coming over here for a drink. Distract him for as long as you can!” Lance hissed the last bit under his breath and slipped away. Keith shook his head. Parts of Lance were certainly not older than the eight years Pidge had claimed.

“Hey, could I get a beer?”

Keith turned around and choked on his beer. There could be no doubt that this was the date Lance had described because he looked like an underwear model - however sadly clothed at the minute. Parts of him punched through Keith’s nervous system like lightning flashes, splayed across his retinas in shining technicolor. Wide shoulders, biceps coiling out of a t-shirt as a gift to mankind, narrow hips showing off jeans to their best advantage, a jaw that could cut glass at an angle that made Keith’s mouth go dry with its wish to latch on like a barnacle to a ship and never let go. Dark hair, soft and shining, stubble that made Keith’s stomach clench, and eyes that edged somewhere between silver and mercury.

“Ah…”

He had to take another moment for the speech to get turned into coherency in his head through the interference of his hormones screaming “Gimme, gimme, gimme”.

“Of course. Beer. Sure.”

Standing behind the kitchen island laden with drinks, next to the keg, he realized he looked like he was there to serve drinks. Setting his own cup down he pulled a fresh one from the stack and poured. Bracing himself to turn his eyes back on the god standing in his kitchen, he turned back. 

“Here you go.”

“Thanks. I’m Shiro.”

“Keith.” 

Keith saw that one of the sideways eight balloons hovered behind Shiro like a halo. Suddenly it did look like the sign of infinity.

[lubbuthedigitalnomad]

A PERFECT PLACE

Happy Bob Marley BD (it was Feb. 6), Tibetan New Year (Feb. 12) and Valentine’s Day week! I hope you and yours are happy and healthy. Communications from America say that things are a little less crazy now that the election is over. That’s good. Even the most pro-American Asians were thinking we went a little wacky!

With any luck, folks in the USA will continue to take deep breaths and calm down. With a little effort, things will become less hateful and more loving as both the reds and blues start to realize that working together is the only way things will ever work at all. With that sentiment in mind, this week’s 1000 words are from the Fearless Puppy On American Road book, and about a time and place that remembers the more beautiful part of the American experience.

Once something changes, it can never go all the way back to what it was. In many ways, that is a good thing. We can preserve some better parts of the life we already had while allowing room for new and improved ideas. Insisting that both those new ideas, and the parts preserved from the old, are employed as actual improvements that benefit the vast majority of us has become the non-negotiable, essential responsibility of each and every citizen. Like it or not, it seems we will have to stay actively, consciously, and intelligently involved in order to insure success.

Please be well & stay well. Love, Tenzin and the Nepali Crew

FEARLESS PUPPY WEBSITE BLOG

FEARLESS PUPPY ON AMERICAN ROAD/AMAZON PAGE

REINCARNATION THROUGH COMMON SENSE/AMAZON PAGE

FEARLESS PUPPY ON AMERICAN ROAD WEBSITE

Rural Vermont

Helpfulness. Tribalism at its best. Everyone works together on everything. Lives depend upon each other in temperatures well below zero.

Hitchhiking is no longer just getting from here to there while barely knowing my host. Nearly every ride establishes or increases a friendship.

More cows per square mile than people, more open space than cows, and more forest than open space. Pronounced seasons and cycles. Cold, white winters. Muddy springs. Vibrant green summers pulsating with life that knows it only has a few months to do what needs to get done. Rainbow autumnal foliage so brilliant that guests come from continents away to view it. Streams clean enough to drink from.

Eggs come from happy chickens — not from the cruelty of large “animal production” warehouses.

Everyone waves hello to anyone driving by.

There’s always time to speak with whomever you meet at the General Store or Post Office. There’s always time. No hurry. Life comes first. Being is more important than doing (once the doing gets done).

The only store in town is the size of five closets but has everything — food, hardware, videos, clothing, beer, and more. A giant empty cable spool acts as a table around which to enjoy coffee, home- made donuts, and the company of neighbors. A best friend makes maple syrup. Everyone grows incredible gardens.

I have spent a lot of time with four other people and five beers staring into the open hood of a pickup truck that was not in need of repair.

Wood keeps you warm three times — once when you chop it, again when you carry it in, and the third time when you burn it. Overflowing abundance lives here. Some folks want more. Few need more.

Theater groups that produce professional-quality plays thrive in the forests of nearby vest-pocket towns.

The purity and clarity of omnipresent Nature rubs off on its human inhabitants. Crime, violence, and assorted hatreds appear only in newspapers and on TV stations. No one here has seen those things in person.

The Town Treasurer has a sign on his office explaining, “It’s very hard to get away with anything in a town this small.” Live and let live. If it hurts no one, it’s legal.

Resourcefulness is a way of life. Anything you need can be built from left over parts of things that you don’t need anymore. If you don’t know how, someone will show you. They’ll be happy to help — even happier if you bring a beer to say hello and thank you.

Deer hunters and trout fishermen deny slaughterhouses and corporate supermarket chains their abuses and profits. Unprocessed foods, hard exercise, low stress, clean air, and clean water deny the medical industry their profits from unnecessary surgery and drugs.

Awe inspiring natural beauty excludes land developers and their profit-over-people motivation. Their concrete and steel are not welcome here. The industrial decay that would lead to profits for a large assortment of unethical folks in fancy suits is denied entry by the conscious decisions of simple, intelligent farmers in overalls.

There will never be a Wal-Mart or a crack house here. There are many guns. They are never used for anything but hunting food. People are constantly helping each other to build a barn or house, dig out snow and mud, care for the children, cook, clean, weed the garden, and feed the animals. Anything that can be done at all is usually done by a group, even if it’s actually a one-person job. Folks enjoy each other’s company. Except in the most extreme circumstances, everyone deserves inclusion.

Parties get thrown together instantly for no other reason than that someone feels like being the host.

On a Tuesday, my friend Mike told me that he was having a party at his house on the following Saturday.

“What’s the occasion, Mike?”

“The occasion is that I just came up with the bright idea of having a party. I’ll get out a side of venison and buy a keg of beer. Tell everyone you see to tell everyone they see. If anyone wants to bring more food and drink, that’s good. If not, we’ll be fine with what we’ve got, I figure.”

“OK, Mike. I’ll get everyone but the assholes informed.”

“Inform the assholes too, buddy! Who knows? Maybe if they got invited to more parties, they’d figure out how to act better and wouldn’t be such assholes.”

It was hard to argue with Mike’s logic, but then again it is hard to argue with much of anything in a clean, friendly village.

During those years of having a home community and base station, a lot of work got done elsewhere. Rest time there made hitchhiking across nearly every inch of road in Northeastern America possible. I probably hitchhiked as many miles regionally during this period as the number of miles that were traveled in all the previous cross-country trips. Each full month of whistle stops working for environmental groups and charities included many towns and cities. It included talking to independent business folks all day about various causes, sleeping wherever possible, and celebrating whenever plausible. At the end of road tours like that, staring at mountains in between long naps was more of a necessity than an option. It is a lot easier to burn yourself up on the road when you know that a perfect place to revive is waiting for you.

The focal points of the road binges included Greenpeace, Citizen’s Awareness Network, and self-organized efforts to help support a Mexican orphanage, raise awareness and funding for American homeless folks, and help the victims of a very severe African famine. The results varied. My little part as a team member in the environmental efforts worked consistently for over a decade at each. The orphanage and homeless projects I organized worked minimally. The famine relief effort worked very well. It involved a governor, two senators, labor unions, school systems, businesses, major league sports teams, rock bands, and more. Thousands of people in the Northeastern section of America gave massive help.

This is a short chapter, but it covers a long period of years. Eventually, my good friend who allowed me this cabin in paradise had to liquidate his properties. This put me back out on the street at age fifty. But for a while, my life was as close to normal as it had ever been. It included long term friends and neighbors.

Those years seem to have gone by very quickly.​

About the Author

Doug “Ten” Rose may be the biggest smartass as well as one of the most entertaining survivors of the hitchhiking adventurers that used to cover America’s highways. He is the author of the books Fearless Puppy on American Road and Reincarnation Through Common Sense, has survived heroin addiction and death, and is a graduate of over a hundred thousand miles of travel without ever driving a car, owning a phone, or having a bank account.

Ten Rose and his work are a vibrant part of the present and future as well as an essential remnant of a vanishing breed.

Follow him on Facebook, Doug Ten Rose

Travel Adventure Books can be an excellent gift to your friends and family, buy from Amazon.com

#traveladventurebooks #keepreading #kindlebooks

The books Fearless Puppy On American Road and Reincarnation Through Common Sense by this same author are also available through Amazon or the Fearless Puppy website, where there are sample chapters from those books. Entertaining TV/radio interviews with and newspaper articles about the author are also available there. There is no charge for anything but the complete books! All author profits from book sales will be donated to help sponsor an increase in the number of wisdom professionals on Earth, beginning with but certainly not limited to Buddhist monks and nuns.

If you missed the Introduction to the new book that will be titled Temple Dog Soldier, or would like to see several chapters of it that are available for free online, go to the Puppy website Blog section. This is a book in progress. You will be reading it as it is being created! Just like you, I don’t know what the next chapter is going to be about until it is written. As the Intro will tell you, this is a totally true story — and probably the only book ever written by and about a corpse journeying completely around the world!

[just-some-random-blogger]

One Million In One Day | 7

 GOT7 SugarDaddy!Jackson Wang x Reader + Park Jinyoung x Reader | Part 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 ? Characters: GOT7 Summary: His mother’s final wish is to see him be happy in a relationship, knowing that Jackson would be fine when she left him. But, damn, he didn’t have time for relationships, especially not since he was busy running his father’s billion dollar empire, thus the compromise: you. Word Count: 1k+ Warnings: Temper tantrums, stalking, TYPOS, etc.

Preview | Alternate Moodboard | Chapter 8 Teaser

A/N: I’m back after 2049 years. thank you for hanging in there uhm HAHHA

You’ll never believe it, but it was a success.

I blew a million in twenty four hours, and it was mostly used up on buying unnecessarily expensive clothing for my family and friends, and family friends, and friend’s family, and family friend’s family, and friend’s family friends, and paying off debt.

Needless to say I have acquired many expensive things and bought so many things I’ve always wanted to buy. I ended up donating all the clothes I did not really particularly care for to a charity, and a few couple bucks as well.

Another needless thing to mention is that I have never thought impulse buying would be so stressful, yet oddly relaxing at the same time.

Today I drove to school with Mark, whose car I payed off by the way.

It was no big deal. It wasn’t like it was a Ferrari. It was a Ford he had initially bought anyway. Unrelated note, I even bought his dog a Gucci cape.

Nari also knows about my engagement because of how many things I brought home at once. I thought it would be bad if I told her, but oh my goodness she was probably too supportive over everything that was going on.]

The funny thing about today is that I don’t have pocket money.

Mark and I laughed about it so hard.

I���m not worried though. I bought food at home anyway, and can walk back from school or hitch another ride with Mark.

Mark and I walked to class together, and on our way I saw Jinyoung.

I called for him and waved my hands, ready to run up to him. When he didn’t react, I figured he couldn’t hear me, so I just jogged up to him, knowing Mark would follow anyway.

“Jinyoung-ah,” I called once I was in front of him. I was taken aback when he grunt and pushed past me. I knit my brows and went in front of him once more, raising my hands to my sides to block his path. “Jinyoung.”

He scoffed and rolled his eyes, placing his hand on my shoulder, pushing me away, “Don’t talk to me.”

I felt my stomach drop at his words. By then Mark was here, pulling a face out of confusion. “Ya, what’s up?”

Jinyoung whips his head back and snaps, “What’s up?! What’s up is that I can’t trust my friends because they lie to me and go behind my back.”

I pull my head back, “What? We don’t lie to you Jinyoung!”

“Ha!” Jinyoung heaves in annoyance, “That’s another lie!”

At this point, he’s practically fuming red with anger. Mark tries to make him calm down by placing a hand on his shoulder but this only makes Jinyoung snap and shove Mark off. “Don’t you two dare talk to me in class.”

I huffed and let him walk away. Mark and I turn to each other, “He couldn’t be talking about... the money, right?”

Mark knits his brows deeply and shakes his head, “I don’t think Jinyoung would be upset about something like that.” He turns to me, “What’d you do?”

I pull my head back, “What’d I do? What’d you do?”

“I don’t do anything, remember? I literally sleep all day everyday. You on the other hand have a sugar daddy,” Mark says, whispering the last words.

I give him a look and slap his arm, “Shut up, there is no way he knows about that.”

Mark shakes his head, “Whatever you say, darling.”

Gosh, I hate it when Mark starts making sense.

All throughout the class, I couldn’t focus on Mr. Choi talk about truth. Instead my eyes were basically burning a hole behind Jinyoung’s head. It didn’t mean he turned back at all however.

STFU TUAN: he’s ignoring my texts

I huff and turn to Mark who was across the room due to the fact we arrived late and there were no longer any seats.

I try to text Jinyoung as well.

My heart skips a beat when my phone vibrates, but alas, it’s only Mark sending me a picture of myself from across the room.

STFU TUAN: u are so whipped

STFU TUAN: i feel so bad

I roll my eyes and ignore his text.

STFU TUAN: don’T VISIBLY IGNORE ME TOO!!!

At this point, Mark is blowing up my phone with keyboard smash. I huff and roll my eyes. I should not have paid for his phone bill.

Once it gets too much, I decide to finally reply too him. I open my phone only to see that I received a text from another contact.

Jackson Wang: Are you available today for a date?

I turn to Jinyoung, and suddenly, everyone in the room is standing up as apparently class was over. I scramble to my feet and look to see if Jinyoung was still there, but knowing how he gets when he’s upset, I catch him when he’s almost bolted out of the door.

I huff and find Mark walking towards me.

“So what’s the plan?” Mark asks once he’s in front of me. I huff and turn to my phone when it vibrates again.

Jackson Wang: Are you busy?

“Who’s that?” Mark asks and I ignore him to reply.

Me: i still have classes

“Oh my gosh, is that sugar da--” “I told you just call him sugar!”

Mark’s eyes widen and then he gets all smug, “You slick.”

I roll my eyes.

Jackson Wang: What time to you finish?

Me: about two hours from now

Jackson Wang: ALright.

Jackson Wang: Meet me here *photo attached*

Jackson Wang: Or should  i pick you up?

Me: Its fine ill go by myself.

---

“Over here,” I hear a voice say when I enter the restaurant. Upon seeing a sharply dressed Jackson Wang smiling, I couldn’t help but smile back as I walked over to him. He stands from his seat by the window and greets me when I get close enough.

But the hug I was expecting, turned out to be a kiss on my cheek. I feel my cheeks burn slightly.

Jackson pulls away and smiles, “Sorry.” He speaks in a low voice, “I think there are a few people hanging out here, trying to make sure you’re my real girlfriend.”

I raise my brows and move my head slightly to turn back, but Jackson cuts me off my saying, “Dior looks good on you.”

I freeze upon hearing that and stutter, “How-how’d you--”

“You get used to it. Also, there’s a subtle logo around here?” Jackson says, rubbing his chest, which makes me mimic and realize he’s been looking at my-- “Have you eaten yet?” he asks, breaking my train of thought.

I look at him and expect him to speak again, but find myself trailing off a “No,” instead.”

“Oh you haven’t eaten lunch yet?”

He then escorts me to the counter side and we stand to look at the menu... I guess. Jackson has his arm over my shoulder. He leans in. I feel goose bumps form around me when I feel his breath against my neck. “Don’t be concerned about them though, they’re just sent by some nosy relatives or friends.”

Once he pulls away, I clear my throat and find myself turning to him. Once his eyes meet mine, thinking of him seeing my probably flushed face made me panic and hide it... on his chest.

Jackson chuckles, and decides to embrace me and coo, “So sweet.”

He sounds like a natural. He must’ve had tonnes of girlfriends... or tonnes of fake ones. I can’t help but feel all sour over that, which is why I pull back and turn to him, “I want some chicken.”

He nods, “Then chicken you shall have.”

After ordering, we go back to our seats and I get a picture of just how pretty this restaurant is. Jackson notices me looking around, and so he asks, “You like it?”

“Yeah, it’s so instagram aesthetic.”

He laughs a little too amused at that, and so I turn to him with a questioning look. Jackson smiles, “I’m glad you think so, because I’m just about to take millions of photos of you and post them on instagram.” With that said, he pulls out his phone, “Of course, it you don’t mind.”

I hesitate to answer but find myself thinking I probably don’t have a choice. I then nod and do a peace sign, which makes Jackson squeal in pleasure, “AH CUTE!”

Jackson then pulls out his phone and takes rapid-fire photos of me. The shutter on his phone goes off so many times, I got all flustered as I was only striking one pose.

“Should I...” I say, changing poses.

“You’re doing great, sweetheart.”

I turn to Jackson behind his phone and give a dumbfounded look, “You’re not helping.”

Jackson doesn’t care and continues taking photos. I purse my lips and raise my hands, “M’kay, that’s enough photos for now.”

Jackson chuckles then begins to shake his head with a pout, “Nuh-uh, we have to take a selca first.”

I raise my brows at him and he begins to walk over. He then bends down and puts his forehead against mine, free hand going to my neck. He gives a smile to the camera and says “selca!” I turn to his phone and find myself visibly uncomfortable.

I try to give a smile, but I end up screwing my eyes shut and breaking away with a nervous laugh.

Jackson straightens up at that and chuckles at my reaction, “Alright. That’s enough for now. Don’t want you turning into a tomato on me.”

After eating, Jackson and I decided to walk around, arm linked together.

“How did you get here?”

I turn to him to see him looking down on me. “Taxi,” I quickly reply and turn away.

Jackson nods, “You should buy a car after this.”

All at once, the anxiety of spending money comes back, and then I find myself thinking of Jinyoung. I sigh, “I can’t drive.”

Jackson nudges me slightly and gives an amused face, “I’ll teach you.”

I can’t help but smile at him and shrug, “Alright.”

Jackson feels victorious and agrees, “It’s a date.”

At this point, we end up in this pretty neighborhood with pretty front yards and pretty porches. I couldn’t help but audibly note on this, “Look at that pretty house!”

“You’re prettier.”

I snort and shove Jackson when he says this. He chuckles and sidesteps due to impact. And because we’ve broken away, I got to look back behind us. I noticed that there were a bunch of guys who I recognized where from the restaurant.

I tense and move back close to Jackson, “They’re following us.”

He shakes his head, “Don’t mind them. We’re not doing anything wrong, except probably being young and in loooove.”

I cringe at Jackson and pinch his side. Yet again he seems awfully amused with himself. “If this is what it’s like dating you, I’m glad I’m not.”

Jackson pouts out in a frown, “Meanie! Also too bad because we are dating.”

I narrow my eyes at him, “Yeah, yeah, only until you’re tired of me though.”

The man’s demeanor visibly shifts, “That’s... not a nice thing to say.”

For a moment we look at each other and stop our walking. I suddenly feel bad for saying such a thing, though it may be true. “I...” but Jackson’s screech of a laugh cuts me off short, “Your face!”

I let out a breath and contort into annoyance, “well harty-har-har.”

Jackson is still catching his breath when I start walking again.

“Hey hold on.” 

Once he catches up with me, he places his hand on my shoulder again, “So tell me about your day? Has it been good, I mean, beside going out on a date with me.”

I want to give a sassy reply, but when I think back at what happened with Jinyoung, I end up saying something else, “It’s bleh.”

The man frowns, “Why is that? Is business math killing you.”

I can’t help but chuckle, “No... it’s fine.”

“NOOO TELL ME!”

“Jackson, it really isn’t.”

“Tell me!” Jackson exclaims in a screamo voice and I turn to him with an annoyed expression, “Geez, fine. I had a fight with my best friend.”

“Hmmmm, is it... the Jinyoung guy.” Jackson says warily.

My heart skips for multiple reasons at the thought that he remembers that. I nod in reply.

“Do you want to talk about it?”

“Honestly, he’s probably just being a drama queen. It’s his specialty. Doesn’t mean I’m not concerned though. He just as an awful way of coping, and his temper doesn’t help with it.”

Jackson nods upon hearing this, “Well, don’t worry too much about him then. You said he does this a lot so I’m sure he’ll come around.”

I nod at his words and he give me another pout, “hey, don’t go frowning on me.”

I proceed to force a smile. Jackson coos at this and pinches my cheeks, “Aw sooooo cute!” He then looks far off behind me, “Hey, you want some ice cream.”

I perk up like a child on Christmas morning. He laughs as I nod with enthusiasm. I proceed to run off to the stand. Jackson takes an opportunity to take a photo of the incident. When I turn back and see what he is doing, I cover my face and yell behind my hands, “Stop it!”

Jackson laughs lowly and says to himself, “I really can’t.”

Support me on ko-fi

Wanna see a teaser for chapter 8 cos i write v slow thank u for understanding that i just cannot do this on the regular lol asddffhekel

[lovemesomesurveys]

What is a recurring thought on your mind today? lol it’s 5 in the morning and I’m thinking about getting more egg rolls for lunch. I had been craving them for awhile and finally had some last night and now I want more. Have you had any confrontations with anyone lately? No. What is the last charity you donated to? A cancer research charity. Do you feel all fuzzy and good when you do a good deed? It does feel good to do good. Don’t ya just hate foot cramps? I wouldn’t know, but I get stomach cramps and they’re not fun at all, so I imagine a foot cramp isn’t either.

Would you say you have an infectious laugh? I don’t think so.  Shouldn’t you be doing something else right now? Sleeping, but c’mon when do I ever go to bed before 7 or 8AM anymore? Do you have anything planned for the summer? Couldn’t do anything this summer. I’m so glad we’re in August though and summer is almost overrrrrr. What is something you worry about often? Health related things. Constantly. Are there any mountains nearby where you live? No. Did you like to collect frogspawn as a kid? No.  Do you walk fast or slow? I’m a fast wheeler I’m told. Do you keep birthday cards or throw them out? I keep them. I don’t get very many anymore, though.  Would you consider yourself healthy? Both mind and body. Nope, not in any way. Do you play any team sports? Nope. If so, which position do you play? - Does sitting in waiting rooms drive you insane? Yes. I’m very impatient and the waiting just makes me more anxious. What form of public transport do you use most often? I don’t take any public transportation anymore, but I used to take the bus sometimes in college. Would you consider yourself an adrenaline junkie? Ha, no.  Do you ever go onto ‘failblog’? I’m not familiar with that. Have you ever been arrested? If so, why? No. Do you ever put sticky notes around the place to remind yourself of things? No. I use the reminder app on my phone and/or write it down on my marker board. Would you eat a spider for $50? Absolutely NOT. Nopeeeeeee. Would you rather be a kangaroo or a koala? Koala, I guess. What is a common slang word from where you live? ”Hella” used to be a very Californian thing, but everyone says it now so I don’t know. Do you keep your fingers on the home keys when you type? I don’t type the proper way. I’ve been on the computer and typing since I was a kid, I even took a typing class, but I still don’t type the proper way haha. How I type works for me, though, sooo. *shrug* Are you easy to talk to? People have told me that. Can you juggle with more than two items? I can’t juggle. I couldn’t even tell you the last time I tried to juggle. Has anyone ever assumed you can’t speak English? No, but people have assumed that I speak Spanish. Do you live in a rural or an urban area? Urban. At airports do you ever worry your luggage won’t arrive? It crossed my mind. Do your parents ever call you ‘pet’ or ‘sweetheart’ etc? Not those two specifically, but other terms of endearment. We have our own that we’ve made up for each other as well. If so, does it annoy you? No, not at all. Do you like jalapenos? I loved ‘em, but I can’t eat spicy food anymore. :( What other windows have you currently got opened? Just this one. What woke you up this morning? I haven’t gone to bed, yet, but when I get up it’ll be well past morning. I don’t even go to bed until the morning. :/ Who else is in the same building as you? My parents, brother, and doggo are home as well. Would you like a penny farthing bicycle? A what? Your name? Stephanie. Would you ever consider visiting Ireland? Sure. Would you like to visit Venice? Yes. Did you ever eat leaves when you were a kid? Uh, no. I wasn’t the kid who played in leaf piles or played with/ate dirt or anything.  What is the largest body of water near your hometown? California is near the Pacific. Do you have any flags in your house? Yes. Are there any ‘keep off the grass’ signs where you live? Not in my neighborhood that I know of, but yeah some public places in town do. Have you ever walked on the grass with such a sign? No. Are you double-jointed? My thumbs are. At school which area of science did you prefer: biology/chemistry/physics? I managed to get by in science, but it wasn’t my favorite. Which did you prefer between geography/history? History. Have you ever had a main part in a play? No. Are there any musical instruments in the room you’re in? No. Can you name a difference between RNA and DNA? Uhhh. I’m blanking. Do you know anyone who owns a farm? No. Have you ever driven a tractor? No. Does the smell of the countryside bother you? It’s quite pungent, ha. I guess if you live out there you get used to it, but anytime I drive through the country I just gag. Do you drink more water or juice? Water. I don’t drink juice at all.

Sweater weather or tank top weather? Which do you prefer. Sweater weather, most definitely.  Have you ever kissed a Zachary? No. Do you hate when people try to embarrass you? Uh, well yeah. Do you like in October when a bunch of haunted places open up? I don’t go to any, but yeah. I just love spooky season in general. Did you tell someone you loved them today? Not so far. Do you watch the show Ghost Adventures? No. My dad watches it, though, so I’ve seen parts of it here and there. What color are your curtains in your bedroom? Dark blue. Are you superstitious? I do the knock on wood thing, but I think that’s really just out of habit. Is there a cat in the room you’re in right now? No, I don’t have a cat. What’s your favorite thing to do on the weekend? I don’t do anything different from weekdays. All my days are the same. Do you have your license? No. Do you still watch cartoons? I still watch Rugrats, Doug, and Hey Arnold. And animated movies. Do you like to cook? Only ramen. Do you drink? Nope. Do you smoke? Nope. Where do you buy your clothes? Hot Topic, Boxlunch, Adidas website, and Kohl’s.  Do you enjoy going to the movies? Yes. I miss being able to go. Are you still in school? Nopeeee, I’m done. Do you like cupcakes? Yes.

What makes you sad? A lot of things. I’m also just a sad, sleepy, sensitive soul as I like to say. Are you an animal lover? Yes. Are you hot-headed? I’m not quick to anger, but I do get irritated and frustrated quite easily. Do you have any siblings? I have 2 brothers. Are you afraid of snakes? YES. Do you have any pets? Yes, I have a doggo. <3 What color are your eyes? Brown. How bout your hair? I dye it red, but it’s naturally dark brown. How tall are you? Like 5′4. Who do you live with? My parents, brother, and doggo. Is there anything you want to ask anyone right now? No. Do you have kids? No. Do you love your family? Yes. They’re my world. What color hair do you prefer on the gender of your choice? I don’t really care. How bout eye color? Blue and green eyes are gorgeous.  Do you have a job? If so, what? No.  What is your dream job? I don’t have one. :/ What did you “wanna be” when you were a little kid? A teacher. What’s your favorite kind of movie? Psychological thrillers, horror, drama, romcoms, comedy, some action/adventure, /sci-fi... I like a variety. Are you gay, straight, bi, lesbian, asexual, or not sure? Straight. What kind of music is your favorite? I like variety. Do you play any instruments or sing? What kind? No. Have you ever been to a concert? If so, what was your favorite one? Yeah, several. I enjoyed them all, concerts are just awesome. It’s a cool experience.  Are you more negative or more positive? Negative. Well, for myself. I can be positive for others. Have you ever been depressed? I have chronic depression. How are you feeling, dear? Tired and crappy. Mhm and how’s the weather where you’re at? It’s 6AM and it’s already 64F.  Okay and have you been healthy lately? No. Are you in middle school, high school, college, graduate? I’m done with school. What is/was your favorite class? English was always my favorite and then in college I was able to take psych courses, which is also what I majored in, so I liked those. Have you made any life altering decisions lately? No. Where is your favourite place to get pizza? This local place.

Do you have any physical traits that are bothering you lately? My hair.

What is the closest store to you? A grocery store. Do you have any songs currently stuck in your head? Not at the moment. Have you made a CV? No. I had to Google what a CV was.  Where is the last place you applied for a job? (If you have) I haven’t. Are you photogenic? Nope. Are there any concert venues where you live? Yes. Are you annoyed at anyone these days? I’m always annoyed with myself. Which continent would you most like to travel to and why? Europe. There’s a ton of places I’d like to visit. Have you ever/would you ever do volunteer work? I’ve done a lot of volunteer work. Do you know anyone that has died in a road accident? No. Do you know which career path you want to follow? No. Are there a lot of tourists where you live? No. There’s not shit to do or see of interest here. My state is a touristy state, though. Any plans for your next birthday? This year I obviously just stayed home, but my family made it nice. My brother got me coffee, breakfast, and a coffee cake from my favorite place, my mom, brother, and I watched this new creepy movie, You Should Have Left, then we just hung out until dinnertime, which was my fave, Wingstop, and then I opened presents.

Do you have to use public transport often? Not at all anymore, but when I was in college I had to take the bus sometimes. Does your house have an alarm? Yes. Have you ever asked someone out on a date? No. Whose grave did you last visit? My dog, Brandie, is buried in our backyard. My dad made a really nice gravesite for her. What’s something someone can do that makes you melt? A guy that can play the piano. What are you listening to right now? An ASMR video  If you won a lot of money on the lottery, what would you buy first? The first thing after paying off debts would be a new house for my family and I. What’s your greatest fear?  Death, disease, bugs, clusters. <<<< SAME. Gaaaaah the last one just made my skin crawl from seeing the word. Those are just a few of many fears for me. Has anyone upset you in the last week? Yes. What’s the best thing about you? I like my cheesy, corny sense of humor. What’s your favorite drink? Coffee. What are you going to do tomorrow? Same stuff I do everyday. What are you craving? I want more egg rolls like I had last night. How did you sleep last night? I don’t ever feel like I slept well. I never wake up feeling well rested. Does that really happen for people cause I can’t relate.

What was the first thing you thought this morning? I haven’t gone to bed, yet.

If your favorite food gave you pain, made you have acne, etc., would you still eat it? I’d just have to eat it less often and less of it. Unless it made me really sick or something or was very intense and unpleasant. Like I can’t have spicy food at all anymore except for the weak hot sauce that has like less than 2% of anything, but even that I can only have a little bit of. I can’t drench my food in it, just light dips. It sucks cause I used to be obsessed with spicy food, and I used to eat really spicy stuff.

Have you ever been judged on something you wore? Yeah.

Are you a timid person? Yes.

Think QUICK what word begins with c? Coffee!

Are you a funny person? I think I have my funny moments and now and then and trust me, when they happen I make sure to own ‘em cause they’re rare haha.  Be honest, do you go for looks more or personality? Personality is the most important, looks only go so far. Personality goes on a much deeper level and who a person is matters a lot more to me than their looks. That being said, I can’t say looks don’t matter at all. I also want to add that a good personality can add to someone’s attractiveness. 

Ever been so upset but didn’t understand why? Yeah. I get these moody moods that are sometimes triggered, but there’s a lot of times where they seem to just come on out of nowhere. I suppose it’s the depression, but like I can be having a decent day and then suddenly I’ll feel my mood changing and nothing in that moment changed that would seem to cause the sudden change. I just feel it coming on and once it does, I can’t stop it. My emotions very much control me. 

Are you a flirty person? No. I can be if I’m interested in someone and I’m comfortable around them enough to be flirty. Though, it’s probably subtle. 

Are you homophobic? No.

Ever had a rumor spread about you? No.

Has anyone ever pulled your pants down in public? Nooo. 

Ever had the ‘birds and the bees’ talk with your parents? Yeah.

How would you react if someone said you ruined their life? Wow. I would feel extremely bad and shitty to say the least.

Are you a sympathetic person? Yes. I’m also very empathetic. 

Ballet dance or hip hop dance? If I could, I would have tried hip hop. What’s currently bothering you right now? My stomach. 

What is the most athletic you’ve done? When I had to participate in my adaptive PE classes. That’s literally the only time.

Do you remember the first conversation you ever had with the person you currently have feelings for? I don’t have those kinds of feelings for anyone at the moment.

Do you like to drink herbal tea? Yeah, now and then. I’m not a big tea drinker.

If you’re home alone, do you still close/lock the door when you use the bathroom? No.

What your favorite thing to have on toast? Butter.

Has anyone ever hung up on you? Yeah, but only like telemarketers and wrong numbers.

Have you ever been to a concert? Several. Hasn’t this come up a couple times? Maybe I’m getting the surveys confused, I’m tired.

Can you speak more than one language? If so, what other language(s)? Not fluently, just some Spanish.

Are you talking to anyone right now? No.

If so, how do you feel about them? -

Do you know anyone who skateboards? Not anymore.

Do you ever sing when you’re alone? Yeah.

What’s the stupidest song you’ve listened to today? I have’t listened to any stupid songs. I don’t listen to music I’d consider stupid. Are you listening to music, currently? No.

How do you feel about the song? - When someone teases you do you frown or give an amazing comeback? My family and I playfully tease each other and sometimes I’ll come up with something funny and clever to say, but there’s times where I’m just like             -____- and say like, “har-har very funny” haha or something lame like that. Do you think you can sing? I know I can’t sing well at all, but I still like to anyway to myself.

Do you have any talent? No.

Do you think you’re better looking than some other people? No.

Do you like dancing? I like head bobbing and moving my shoulders/arms/hands, ha. And sometimes I attempt (very badly) to do some TikTok dances haha. Privately, though. I’d never recored myself and share it with the public, major yikes. 

What’s your favorite zoo animal? Giraffes.

How is your hair currently styled? It’s up in a messy bun. 

How long are your showers (on average)? Like 30-40 minutes.

East or West? West.

What did you do last night? Binged some Step by Step on Hulu until 1AM-ish, then I made my ramen and watched some YouTube videos while I ate, then I played some Animal Crossing for a bit, and then I scrolled through Tumblr for awhile, and then I did some surveys and listened to ASMR, which is what I’m still doing now.

Do you like your music loud? I like it at a comfortable volume. Some songs I have a little louder than others, just depends.

What are you allergic to? Tangerines. I also have seasonal allergies.

Do you ever stay up late just to be awake I have insomnia, but yeah I do stay up later than I should. Like, I could attempt sleep a little sooner than I do.

What do you want to name your children? I don’t want to have kids.

Would you ever write a letter to someone you haven’t met yet, like your future spouse? Nah.

Did the last movie you watched make you cry? No. It was a psychological thriller, it was trippy.

Are you a good swimmer? Nope, I can’t swim.

What are you always thinking about? Health stuff. 

Is science your favorite subject? Well, psychology is a science. When you’re really worked up, what do you do to relax? Listen to ASMR.

Would you rather spend the day watching movies or on an intense hike? Uh, watching movies. Definitely. I can’t go hiking anyway, but I wouldn’t want to do anything intense or outdoors.

Did you ever try the cereal Special K? Yeah, there’s nothing special about it.

Think of the last person you kissed, was it memorable? Yeah.

You have the choice of being poor but happy, or rich but miserable. Which is it? Poor and happy. 

Do you think girls with short hair are less good looking than those with long hair? Uh, no? There’s a lot of beautiful people with short hair and there’s a lot of beautiful people with long hair.

[ericsonclan]

Rainy Day at the Diner

Summary: Ericson's Diner experiences a rainy day where all of the staff gets stormed in and has an impromptu sleepover.

Read on A03:

It was raining hard that morning at Ericson’s Diner.

Louis ran inside out of the rain, a sopping wet newspaper doing little to protect him. “It’s raining!”

“A brilliant discovery as always, Louis,” Prisha noted dryly from the bar.

“Morning, Lou,” Clementine said, coming over and patting his damp dreadlocks. “You don’t own an umbrella?”

“I do, but I lent it to Violet once and she never gave it back. It looks like you had one though,”

Clem nodded. “Yep. Prisha and I were talking a while back and she mentioned that she always kept a spare umbrella in her trunk in case she ever got caught out in the rain. I took her advice and did the same. The spare’s still in my trunk if you want it,”

“Aaw, babe, that’s sweet to offer,” Louis said, giving her a quick peck on the cheek. “You’re always looking out for me. I think I’ll be good though. Not planning to go out anymore with it pouring like that. Think I’ll text whoever hasn’t come in yet and tell them not to bother. You’d have to be crazy to keep on driving in weather like this,”

As soon as the words had finished leaving his mouth, the front door to Ericson slammed open. Violet strode in, clothed in a poncho she’d clearly constructed from trash bags. “made it for my shift,”

“Vi, are you alright?” Prisha exclaimed, rushing forward to check on her girlfriend. “What in God’s name are you wearing?”

“Made it myself,” Violet said with a small smile, doing a 360 to show off the full ensemble.

“What happened to the umbrella I lent you?” Louis asked, his nose scrunching in apprehension.

Violet shrugged. “Lost it,”

Louis rolled his eyes. “Once this storm has blown over, you and I are going umbrella shopping. And we’re each buying like ten extras,”

“Nah. I think my trash poncho works just fine,” Violet strode over to the bar, hopping up onto one of the stools. She immediately slid off the seat and plopped onto the floor. “Actually, maybe you’re right,”

The kitchen doors opened and Ruby walked out, Omar close behind her. “Goodness me, it’s ragin’ out there! Marlon just dropped by with a shipment. We told him to come wait inside for the rain to calm down before trying to drive anywhere else,”

“Mitch is here too,” Prisha added. “He came in early to fix that light that blew out in the staff room. Brody’s in there helping him,”

“So the people we have here…” Louis said, counting on his fingers, “Are me, Clem, Vi, Prisha, Ruby, Omar, Marlon, Mitch and Brody?”

“Oh, Aasim’s here too,” Ruby answered. “He dropped by to see me, but ended up staying when the weather got so bad,”

“Alright, here’s what we’re going to do,” Louis said to the group. “I’ll text everyone who’s not here yet and tell them to take the day off. We change the sign in the window to closed and then…” he patted against the nearby wall for a drumroll. “We throw the best slumber party ever! Who’s in?”

Suddenly, a large branch came flying against one of the nearby windows, smacking against it loudly as thunder boomed. They all jumped in fright.

“Tiny change of plans,” Louis said, raising a finger. “First we storm proof the restaurant, then we throw the best slumber party ever!”

They all set out to their given tasks. Mitch came out to the front and directed everyone in how to reinforce the windows and doors to make sure nothing broke and no water got inside. Ruby and Omar made food for everybody. Clementine got ahold of her father and confirmed that A.J. was safe. He would be having a sleepover of his own with Willy and Tenn as their school had gone on lockdown due to the storm conditions.

Once everything was safe and secured, they sat down at the booths and tables in the dining area, playing games and eating snacks. Louis had his trusty pack of cards on him, and the staff room was also stocked with several board games they’d accumulated from staff donations and thrifting adventures. Violet broke out her blanket stash that she kept at the restaurant for “emergencies”. It turned out the diner made a pretty cozy haven away from all the worries and cares of the stormy world outside.

There were a few phone calls that came through on the main line. It was mind-blowing that there were people out there who thought that since they couldn’t make it out to get food, delivery options were still open to them. When Louis’ explanations that no, they didn’t deliver in the first place, and certainly not in these conditions fell on deaf ears, Violet was more than happy to chew out the delusional callers before wishing them a less than pleasant day. Eventually the phone stopped ringing as the phone lines had gone down, a fact that normally would have been distressing, but the blissful quiet was enjoyed by all.

By noon the rain was still pouring. The forecasts had said to expect rain into the night, so this was no surprise. Ruby and Omar decided that personalized pizzas were the way to go for lunch. Everyone was able to make theirs just as they liked and mercilessly tease each others’ topping choices. Once everyone’s pizzas were ready, they settled down to watch a movie on Louis’ old laptop that he kept in the manager’s office. After much heated debate, they settled on Toy Story, a perennial classic in everyone’s eyes. They all snuggled up together with their blankets and bags of rice, potatoes and other produce for pillows, commenting throughout the movie on what their favorite parts had been growing up and applauding every time Woody, Buzz or the rest of the toy crew had a victory.

They decided to continue the trend of comfort food into the evening, working together to make an enormous pot of mac’n’cheese. The power cut out shortly afterwards, so there were several minutes of scrambling around in the dark looking for alternate light sources. Using the flashlights on their phones, they made their way over to the bar where Prisha had a supply of candles that they occasionally used on holidays like Valentine’s Day and during Christmas to brighten things up. Candles were placed at every table and booth and all along the bar, casting the restaurant in a warm, dreamy glow. They ate their mac’n’cheese at the bar, enjoying a few rounds of drinks as they played a lively round of truth or dare. Laughter filled the restaurant as the evening winded down.

When it was time to sleep, there was a short debate on how they should do things. At first it was suggested by Aasim that for propriety’s sake they should probably stick to men and women sleeping separately.

“Screw propriety,” Violet muttered. “Who are we trying to impress? I say we all do whatever we want,”

Louis wrapped his arms around Clementine from behind, his face nuzzled against her ear. “I wouldn’t mind snuggling up with Clem tonight,”

Clementine giggled. “Funny, I was about to make a similar suggestion,”

“Then we pair off,” Prisha said matter-of-factly. “The only problem with that is it leaves Brody alone with Omar, Mitch and Marlon,”

“Actually…” Brody jumped in, “Mitch and I have sorta been seeing each other for the past few months. We didn’t want to say anything till we were really sure it was official, but.. yeah,”

Mitch looked surprised for a second before a large grin spread across his face. “Fuck yeah! Making it official!” He and Brody high fived before Mitch wrapped his arm protectively around her waist. The group applauded them happily, congratulations being given all around.

Louis looked to Omar and Marlon. “Guess that makes you two cuddle buddies!”

“Sounds fine with me,” Marlon answered, warmly placing a hand on Omar’s shoulder. Omar returned the gesture, nodding placidly.

Thus the sleeping arrangements were set. They pushed the center tables back, clearing an area large enough for all of them. Candles were blown out and people used their phones for light as they settled down to sleep. Louis offered his arm to Clementine as a cushion in place of the rice sack. Prisha and Violet curled up in each other’s arms, forming a snug cocoon. Ruby and Aasim each had their own sack of flour to rest their heads on as they lay side by side. Brody and Mitch had moved a bit father from the group, a table standing between them and the others. Occasionally giggles would erupt from the two that everyone hoped was just early relationship jitters. Marlon and Omar settled down with their backs touching, quickly falling asleep. There were whispers amongst some of the pairs as they wound down from the events of the day. Eventually they all drifted off into peaceful slumber, content in the warmth of each other and the pleasant atmosphere of the diner. It had truly been a perfect sleepover, a wonderful way to be stuck inside on this very rainy day.

Series this work belongs to:

[barnesthesarge]

Safehouse

Bucky X Reader

Summary: You’re a nighttime vigilante, and become something between friends and more with the Winter Soldier. There comes a day you’ll have to take off your mask though. TAKES PLACE AFTER THE EVENTS OF ENDGAME

Warnings: Swearing, angst, fluff!!

IF YOU’D LIKE TO SUPPORT ME AND MY WRITING PLEASE CONSIDER DONATING TO MY KO-FI (: ENJOY!!

The familiar THUD of Bucky joining you on the rooftop was more than welcome, “Hey Nov, hungry I hope?” You grinned as he sat beside you, he handed you a cheeseburger that you happily accepted.

“Stopping crime does leave one hungry.” Bucky was the closest person in your life, and yet he didn’t even know your actual name.

“I figured, plus its prime-midnight snack time.” He bumped shoulders with you, pulling his hair into a bun. “What’ve you achieved so far?”

“Stopped a jewelry heist, a bar fight, and took a nap against that wall over there.” You shrugged, “How’s avenging?” Bucky’s world was much different from yours.

“Same ol’.. Can’t legally tell you much, took down another HYDRA base, can’t tell you where. Unless you want to join the Avengers.” He winked at you and you rolled your eyes.

“Too much for me personally, its the fact I get to do this on my own terms, and that I can stop little things from hurting people worse. I like it down here Buck. Have you seen Steve lately?” You changed the subject off the Avengers job opportunity again.

“Today actually, yeah.” Bucky rolled his shoulders and moved his legs so his thigh would be touching yours, “He’s still an old bastard. Don’t tell anyone though.” You chuckled and leaned against his shoulder.

“No one knows I’m Novan, I’m not a credible source.” Bucky’s arm was around your waist, holding your hip.

“Just like I know you’re Novan, but somewhere in New York, you’re someone else.” He sighed, “Are you ever gonna even tell me what you actually do for a living?”

“I work a couple jobs.” You drummed your fingers on his knee, “I didn’t go to school, so I take what I can get without a degree.”

“You can be my personal assistant if you want, I’ll pay you handsomely.” You elbowed him in the ribs and he groaned, “What? You act like it would be awful, maybe if you want a better pay, and one job, you can come be an Avenger, we get our own floors to ourselves.”

You heard a commotion down the street and looked at Bucky, he nodded and you both jumped off the roof and through the portal you conjured. You landed down the street in front of a corner bank, where a couple men were using crowbars to break open the ATMs.

You used your purple magic to sound the alarm, while Bucky took on two of the men. You took down the other one by making a portal under one of the fallen crowbars and making it land on the thug’s head. Once all three of the thieves were knocked out, you both ducked out of the bank and escaped to another rooftop.

“God you make it so easy.” Bucky cupped your face and pressed a quick kiss to your lips and you kissed him back. “Please joi--” You kissed him again and he tried to reach for your mask.

“Quit that!” You smacked his hand away and he grumbled.

“I just wanna see the face of the badass girl I like kissing.” He pouted.

⫸ ⫸ ⫸ ⫸ ⫸ ⫸ ⫸ ⫸ ⫸ ⫸ ⫸ ⫸ ⫸ ⫸ ⫸ ⫸ ⫸ ⫸

The bookstore was never crowded, so it was a good time to watch the news and see if anything new popped up. You sometimes texted Bucky, but he often had meetings and other avenger stuff that needed to get done. It was nice that he never actively tried to track you down, he established trust between the two of you, it was relieving to have someone to talk to about superhero stuff.

You pulled your phone out and sighed, when a loud explosion shook everything around you, the glass windows shattered and shelves fell over, spilling books and display items. You flew back and hit the wall behind you, groaning loudly.

“Is there anyone in here?” The familiar voice called, you whined in response and Bucky weaved through debris and jumped over the counter, landing beside you. “Hi miss, there’s currently a HYDRA attack going on, and I’m trying to evacuate the surrounding blocks. How hurt are you? Can you stand?” 

You rubbed dust from your eyes, Bucky didn’t recognize you thankfully, “Mhmm.” You replied and let him help you to your feet.

“Cool, that’s great, you really scared me for a second, I’m Bucky, what’s your name?” You touched the back of your head and looked at your hand to see blood.

“Y/N.” You mumbled while he helped you through all the scattered pieces of shelves and glass, “I’m okay Buck-y-you can leave me now. Go help everyone else.” 

“No can do, you’re injured Y/N, come on, come this way.” You pulled your arm from his grasp.

“No no, my car is this way, I can just--” You grabbed the wall to stop your swaying.

“You can’t drive like this, do you even have your keys?” He teased, grabbing your forearm.

“I’ve had worse, goodbye Bucky.” You pulled from his hold again and started back down the littered sidewalk, you could hear more booms in the distance. 

“No Y/N, just come with me, why don’t you tell about yourself?” You heard the distant moaning of someone in danger and didn’t hesitate to go right into one of the destroyed shops, finding a woman trapped underneath the rubble, “Here I got this Y/N.” Bucky reached her first and you used the opportunity to slip out and stumble to your car.

You drove straight to your apartment and put on your suit, ignoring the pain in the back of your head, slipping on your mask. You teleported to one of the neighboring buildings and helped Bucky from the rooftop, but there was too many men and you saw them take him down, trying to drag him onto a ship. you jumped from the building and opened a portal, landing behind them. You heard mechanical wings behind you but ignored them as you opened portals below the HYDRA agents’ feet, watching them fall to the ground from a high place. 

You ran to Bucky’s side and Sam Wilson himself landed beside you, a gun pointed at you, “Who the hell are you?” He demanded.

“A friend of Bucky’s.” You replied, staring at him hard until he lowered the gun.

“Bucky doesn’t have any friends.” He replied and you rolled your eyes, and the HYDRA jet turned on, “However for the time being I’ll allow you to help, because we kinda need to get out of here, they want him to make him the winter soldier again. You mind teleporting us somewhere safer?” 

“How far?” You asked as the ramp opened up again and more agents began to flood out.

“As far as possible, they aren’t gonna stop!” He raised two guns in each hand but the floor beneath you three opened and you fell to the ground in front of an old farmhouse you grew up in. “Where the hell are we!?” Sam yelled, guns still raised.

“My safe house, welcome to Montana.” 

⫸ ⫸ ⫸ ⫸ ⫸ ⫸ ⫸ ⫸ ⫸ ⫸ ⫸ ⫸ ⫸ ⫸ ⫸ ⫸ ⫸ ⫸

You and Sam both lugged Bucky inside, everything had remained untouched but now dusty, you set him on the couch and held his face in your hands, “How do you know Bucky? And who even are you?”

“Well..” You took your mask off and set it on the table, “I’m Y/N, but Bucky knows me as Novan. We met on a rooftop like nine months ago and sometimes fight crime together.” You knew it was only the tip of the iceberg, but Sam didn’t need to know about the make out sessions, or the cuddling on rooftops, or late night talks, or all the epic team-ups.

“You’re Novan? The vigilante?” You nodded. “I sent Bucky to find you nine months ago and you’re telling me that you two have been friends ever since? He was supposed to make you join the Avengers or stop crime-fighting.” 

“Bucky tried, give him some credit, it isn’t everyday you run into an enhanced that teleports..” You shrugged and felt around his scalp for any blood.

“You like him, don’t you.” Sam crossed his arms and you felt a blush creep up your neck. “He must like you if he didn’t bring you in.”

“Well yeah, that’s why we’re friends. I take care of the crimes the Avengers don’t have time for, and the crimes that police take forever to solve.” You touched the back of your head again, the small cut had scabbed over.

Sam started taking off his combat gear, “Thanks for taking us far, they won’t catch up anytime soon. Does this old place have food by chance?” 

“Um..” 

“Or maybe clothes? Possibly a shower?”

“Slow down, yes there’s clothing, and a shower, I’ll have to get some food though, it’s been a while since anyone has been here.” You led Sam into your brother’s old room, “Can you pull some clothes out for Bucky too please?” He nodded and you went back to Bucky’s side. “Hey Buck, its Nov, everything is okay and you’re safe, I’m gonna get us some food.” 

Sam came back out wearing a graphic t-shirt and pants that were too short for him, “Maybe you can pick some clothes up?” He looked embarrassed.

“Sam, you can also check in the master bedroom, the closet will have more clothing, any requests for food?”

⫸ ⫸ ⫸ ⫸ ⫸ ⫸ ⫸ ⫸ ⫸ ⫸ ⫸ ⫸ ⫸ ⫸ ⫸ ⫸ ⫸ ⫸

When you came in, lugging several bags of groceries, Bucky was still laying on the couch unconscious, Sam was sporting a pair of your dad’s old dress pants and had laid an outfit out for Bucky, “There’s more stuff in the car if you could help me.”

“Jesus what year is that thing from?” Sam looked at the rust bucket of an old car sitting out front.

“I don’t know, the 70′s?” You plugged the refrigerator in and started unloading the bags. 

After you both ate freezer meals, you showed Sam to the working shower, “We should probably let the water run for a lil’.” The water ran brown for a couple minutes before it became clear and Sam deemed it good enough.

“Hurt Barnes and its your head.” He threatened.

You glared at him and went back out to the living room, Bucky hadn’t even moved. You sighed and sat on the floor, leaning against his large shoulder, Sam cleared Bucky, saying he was only knocked out and would wake up tomorrow, but that didn’t change the fact that now two avengers were going to know your name and your secret identity.

⫸ ⫸ ⫸ ⫸ ⫸ ⫸ ⫸ ⫸ ⫸ ⫸ ⫸ ⫸ ⫸ ⫸ ⫸ ⫸ ⫸ ⫸

You were up early the next morning and went outside to clean the old family car to keep your mind off the fact Bucky would be waking up today, and then he was going to know what you looked like, and your name, and know that he met you the same day. The front door opened and Sam stepped out, he had a mug of coffee in his hand and a muffin in the other.

“Mornin’, Bucky should be waking up any time now.” You put the hose down and nodded, looking at your feet, “Does Bucky even know what you look like?”

“No.” You answered, “He doesn’t even know my name.”

Sam pursed his lips, “And you still want me to trust you with both of us?” 

“He’ll know me Sam.” Sam nodded in response.

“That thing looks better cleaned like that.” He went back inside without another word and you turned to finish the car. By the time you finished fifteen minutes had passed, you went inside and heard voices.

“Sam where are we?!” Bucky’s voice was panicked, “Someones here.” His loud footsteps echoed over the squeaky floorboards. You felt your whole body stiffen and his crazed eyes on you before you could even react.

“Bucky hey hey, calm down buddy.” Sam grabbed Bucky’s shoulders, “She’s friendly, and saved our asses. I believe you two have a history?”

“Yeah, I saved her out of a bookshop that blew up, and then she disappeared.” Bucky had a knife in his hand.

“N-no, Buck its me, its Novan.” He pulled away from Sam and took a couple steps towards you.

“Nov?” He put the knife into a holster and waited, you shyly nodded, “Is your name actually Y/N or did you lie?”

“Yeah its Y/N. Why else do you think I tried getting away from you yesterday?” Bucky sighed and nodded.

“Okay. So where are we?” You bit your cheek.

“Montana.” You replied, Sam left the room to leave you both alone. “How did we get here? And who’s house is this?” Bucky looked crestfallen. “I opened a portal, and this is my house, it’s just a bit outdated..Does your head hurt? You got hit pretty hard, and I bought some pain pi--” “I’m fine.” He answered curtly. “Are you mad at me or something? Because trust me I don’t find this ideal either, and I didn’t want to tell you about who I am or take off my mask unless it was my choice and I didn’t really have one and--” “Stop making this about you. Who’s house is this? There’s bedrooms with kid stuff and you don’t have kids.” Bucky grumbled, hand on the hilt of his knife. “This is my house Buck, my family and I used to live here.” You sat down, “If you could please not ask anything about them it would be great, Sam asked me to take you guys somewhere safe and far from New York so I did as I was asked. You were unconscious and right now I might be marked down as dead or missing in New York because I’m here and not at work and the bookstore is--” “No one is asking you to stay!” Bucky grumbled, “You have the means to leave so why don’t you just go. Sam and I can handle this from here, we don’t need you Y/N. We won’t trash your family home or whatever, just leave.” Your heart stung, the closest person you had didn’t want you around, “Oh.” You managed, “Yeah that makes sense.” You walked past him and said bye to Sam, wishing him luck. You didn’t spare a glance at Bucky, instead you went straight out the front door and into a portal leading to your apartment in New York. ⫸ ⫸ ⫸ ⫸ ⫸ ⫸ ⫸ ⫸ ⫸ ⫸ ⫸ ⫸ ⫸ ⫸ ⫸ ⫸ ⫸ ⫸  That night you found yourself patrolling again, trying to think about anything but Bucky, maybe he was disappointed in the way you looked, or maybe he was mad you left him in New York to get your car. The list went on forever, but you couldn’t help the sting of thinking maybe he thought you were less than average looking. Bucky had always said he didn’t care what you looked like, that he knew you deep down and that was what he liked so much about you. You were so deep in thought you didn’t notice the figure standing on the building across the street until he hit you with a tranquilizer, and you tumbled over into a heap on the roof. ⫸ ⫸ ⫸ ⫸ ⫸ ⫸ ⫸ ⫸ ⫸ ⫸ ⫸ ⫸ ⫸ ⫸ ⫸ ⫸ ⫸ ⫸ “Where did you send them?!” He demanded again, you groaned as he tased you again. Your body was too weak to teleport, and your mind was almost ready to begin to give in to what the man wanted to know, where Sam and Bucky were. He asked again and sent another painful shock up your spine, your brain was so fuzzy.“I se-sent them to--” You groaned in pain, “To this beach house i-in North Carolina.” You choked out and he shocked you again. “You’re going to give us the address, and hope for your sake that they’re there.” He grabbed you by the arm roughly and put you back into the holding cell designed for someone as strong as Bucky. You pulled yourself off the floor and against the wall, pulling your knees to your chest as one of the guards watched your struggle with amusement, you swore the second you’d get your powers back to kill him right after the one who tortured you. The agent came back, this time with his boss, “She says they’re in North Carolina.” His boss opened the door, a large gun attached to his hip.“North Carolina, huh? What’s the address?” He sneered at you, kicking your shin, you whined in protest. “I need you to show me a map, and I’ll give you the address, it was a house we broke into. It’s not exactly beach season right n--” He slapped you and you reeled to the side. “Get a map.” He ordered the other agent, “I only want the address, not your reasoning for choosing it. Now why don’t you tell me why you aren’t with them?” You looked away shamefully, why on earth were you protecting Bucky? “I’m not an Avenger, this wasn’t my business, I just got mucked up in it, see what good it gives me to help Avengers? You think I want this?” You spat at his feet and he bent over once more, when the agent came back. The man in charge gave you a warning look but brought the map down to your eye level, handing you a pen.You dragged your eyes along the map until you found the little vacation town you visited as a kid, circling it, “That town right here, it’s on..” You studied the map closer, “Its on Cedar street, the only house on the street, you can’t miss it.”The boss eyed you for a moment longer and handed the map to the other agent, “Get this to the pilot, now.” He bent down to your eye level, “I think you’re more useful than you let on.” ⫸ ⫸ ⫸ ⫸ ⫸ ⫸ ⫸ ⫸ ⫸ ⫸ ⫸ ⫸ ⫸ ⫸ ⫸ ⫸ ⫸ ⫸  You were left on the ship with the annoying guard while all the other agents surrounded an empty beach house, and once they realized this was just a decoy, you were gonna die. It would be your final resting place, the same as your families’. The accident that killed them and gave IGH permission to mutate your DNA. Now you would be buried with them, and hopefully get to rest. You waited for what felt like ages, with no chance of your powers kicking in anytime soon. You began to hear several gunshots and furrowed your eyebrows, “They’re killing them?” You asked the guard and he laughed.“There’s no need for the soldier anymore, we have you.” He grinned maliciously and then there was a hole in his head. His body slumped over and you gasped in horror at the amount of blood leaving his body, “Nov thank god!” Bucky rushed in and broke the door open with his left arm.“Bucky?” He helped you up and you didn’t dare to meet his eyes, “How’d you find me?” “Sam and I came back to New York and I felt bad so I looked up where you lived and saw you weren’t home so I knew you were out Nov-ing it up and I saw you get shot and taken away so we followed in the Quinjet.” Bucky pulled you out of the cell and helped you walk to their jet. “Why did you take them here?” He asked and you looked away.“My family is buried here and I knew they were gonna kill me when they discovered that I lied, and I’d rather be buried with my family.” Bucky wrapped his arms around you and you didn’t move. “Y/N they wouldn’t have killed you. You heard that guard, they were going to keep you and use you as an assassin.” He paused, “I’m sorry about your family, I didn’t know.” You didn’t know what to say so you didn’t speak, and Bucky let you go, “I’m sorry about how mean I was back in Montana, I was upset that you didn’t get to do things on our own terms and I took it out on you. Thank you for saving me from HYDRA.” Sam came in and smiled at you.“Hi Y/N, nice to see that you aren’t dead. FRIDAY take us home.” The jet started and took off, Sam eyed you and Bucky and went into the medical room. “It’s whatever.” You mumbled, “Is there any food or water on this thing? I’m dying.” Bucky stood up without another word and grabbed a water bottle and a bag of chips, he sat away from you and didn’t say anything for the rest of the flight. You ended up falling asleep and not remembering ever getting home. When you got up the next morning Bucky was in your living room laying in the couch.“What’re you doing here?” Every muscle in your body protested every movement you made. “Making sure you’re alright.” He answered softly, he got up and guided you to sit down, “Let me make you breakfast.” You leaned back again the couch with no objections. “I thought you were being a dick because you thought I was ugly if I’m being honest.” You spoke up, Bucky looked at you and raised his eyebrows. “Y/N, you’re quite literally the prettiest thing I’ve ever seen, shut up.” You leaned your head back and looked at the ceiling, Bucky moved to stand above you and chuckled at you, “Havin’ fun there?” “My muscles hate me from all that shocking.” You frowned and Bucky bent down to press a soft kiss to your forehead. “You should’ve just given us up.” He rubbed the sides of your face affectionately. “I’ll keep that in mind next time I help you two hide.” Bucky grinned and went back into the kitchen. “Don’t worry doll, I’m here taking care of you until you’re better, Mr. Captain America himself gave me time off.” He winked at you and you rolled your eyes. “You better, like you said I should’ve just given you up.” Bucky glared at you playfully and walked a plate with an omelette.“I’m forever in debt to you Nov.” Bucky smirked at you and went back into the kitchen to get something for you to drink.“That’s nice to hear, you’re a good kisser.” ⫸ ⫸ ⫸ ⫸ ⫸ ⫸ ⫸ ⫸ ⫸ ⫸ ⫸ ⫸ ⫸ ⫸ ⫸ ⫸ ⫸ ⫸  You groaned in complaint as Bucky rolled over, nearly crushing you in the process, “Buck.” You tapped his head with your palm. “Buck get off your killing me.”“Mmm you’re a good pillow.” He hummed and moved to get comfier.“Bucky you literally weigh a ton, get off me.” You felt much more awake and portal-ed him onto his side of the bed.Bucky opened his eyes and looked at you, “That was the meanest thing you’ve ever done to me!” He turned away from you, taking all the blankets in the process.“Worse than the time I teleported bird poop on your motorcycle for April fools?” You moved to spoon him and get back under the blankets. “Much worse. Even if the motorcycle is my baby.” He scooted himself back to be more up against you. “What am I, chopped liver?” You buried your face into his short hair and sighed. “No, you’re just mean.” You giggled on his head and felt him laugh. “Fine. You can use me as a pillow, just gentler please?” You let him go and rolled back onto your own pillow and Bucky squirmed to snuggle into the crook of your neck and wrap and arm around you. You caged him in your arms and ran a hand through his hair slowly, “That’s more like it, you can be my baby again.” You rolled your eyes, “You know we have a mission briefing in an hour, right?” Bucky buried his face farther into your neck. “You also know that if we’re late again Sam won’t let us go on missions together anymore, right?” Bucky whined.“Five more minutes? Keep playing with my hair Nov.” You bit your lip in satisfaction and continued. “Five more minutes.” You said sternly, knowing Bucky would somehow turn the next five minutes into fifteen, and that you’d be ten minutes late to the briefing from getting distracted together in the shower. You also knew that it didn’t matter, because Sam knew you and Bucky made a great team, and that’s why you were celebrating your six month anniversary of officially dating when you got back from the mission. “I love you Y/N.” Bucky mumbled sweetly, pressing a tiny kiss to your neck. “I love you too Buck.” ⫸ ⫸ ⫸ ⫸ ⫸ ⫸ ⫸ ⫸ ⫸ ⫸ ⫸ ⫸ ⫸ ⫸ ⫸ ⫸ ⫸ ⫸ Fin !! A/N: I’ve been wanting to write this for a little bit now hehe, I hope you guys enjoyed it!!!

[loykba]

Barangay Interview and Community Walk

Our NSTP’s final requirement for this semester is to conduct a Barangay Interview and Community Walk where we would have a chat with a barangay official who is in charge of Barangay Disaster Risk Reduction Management (BDRRM), ask them if my barangay is ready when disasters strikes, and explore my community where disasters would be detrimental to each and everyone, the most susceptible, and the safest place to go when a disaster will, has, and had strike.

I invited my father’s good friend (my dad works at our barangay) to our house, Mr. Mario Rances, because he is the head of the BDRRM and asked him a couple of questions whether our barangay is disaster ready and if it can help its citizens in rising again despite the casualties. I asked him where would disasters greatly impact in our barangay when flood, fire, and earthquakes happen. I asked him these because our barangay has many informal settlers in it and not all houses are made of stones, so fire’s could spread quickly, flood’s can destroy houses, and it can make evacuation or escape hard or impossible because of panicking people. 

He said they usually gets info from our main LGU, Malabon City, about the incoming disasters than can affect our barangay. And it is also a common practice in our community when there are violent winds, no birds flying, and no stars at night, an incoming hurricane or hard pouring rain is on its way so our barangay usually gives announcement for evacuation. My barangay is prone to floods because our barangay is the catch basin of every barangay in Malabon and the improper waste management of our community which clogs the drainage, so that even if rain pours, even just a drizzle, there would be flood.

And he mentioned the streets that are vulnerable to these:

Flood - M. Dick St., Sanchez St., Espiritu St.,

M. Dick St.

Sanchez St.

Espiritu St.

He mentioned these streets in susceptibility to floods because these are the catch basins of the waters coming from the higher places from our community.

Fire - Espiritu St., Kaingin St. (I & II), Bustamante St., M. Dick St. (Avha), Gov. Pascual (Barrio Makike)

Kaingin St. (I & II)

Bustamante St.

M. Dick St. (Avha)

Gov. Pascual (Barrio Makike)

These places are susceptible to fire because the houses are very congested and are made of light materials which easily catches fire and are highly flammable. These are where the informal settlers settle.

There was a fire on both Espiritu St. (Riverside) and M. Dick St. (Avha) where there are reportedly 50-70 households are affected and 5 deaths are reported at the Riverside incident.

Earthquake -  M. Dick St. (Avha),  Gov. Pascual St. (Barrio Makike),  Kaingin St. (I & II)   

As he stated earlier, these are the most affected when it comes to escaping due to narrow pathways or exits. Because when disaster strikes, its man for themselves. They would focus on getting out there alive and not care about other people.

These disasters affects the marginalised in our community because most of them relies on every day wages (jeepney and tricycle drivers) so that they can feed their whole family. So if they did not pasada on that day, they could not feed their family for today. They would resort to being in debt to sari-sari stores to buy their food for that day.

He stated that there are safe places against the disasters awaiting to come to our barangay. Because these places are the highest places in our barangay, the houses in there are made of stone or materials not that flammable, or the houses are far apart. These are the places he stated:

Flood - Gov. Pascual St., Sisa St., Celia St., Cripsin St.,            Kaingin St. (I & II), Bustamante St., Villarba St.

Sisa St.

Celia St.

Crispin St.

He stated that these streets are found in higher parts of our barangay which makes them less susceptible to floods.

Fire - Sisa St., Villarba St., Crispin St.

Villarba St.

These places are not susceptible to fire because the houses found in these streets has a fire wall (a wall that blocks fires from spreading), houses made of stones or materials that are less likely to catch fire, and each house has spaces between them, they are not congested.

Earthquake - every street

He told me that every street in our barangay is almost safe because we don’t have high rising homes (usually up to 2nd floors) so evacuation and exit is easier and our barangay is not in the fault line.

The problems that our barangay has faced are high levels of floods, the lack of equipment to help (they have help from the DRRM but there are other places that also needs help, sometimes they are the ones that need more help than us), lack of help from the residences (making their homes as shelter for others, food, clothing, etc.), the lack on quick response and relocation sites (barangay, barangay court, barangay multi-purpose hall, and Tinajeros national Elementary and High School Campus) because these places cannot accommodate every resident that needs relocation in our barangay.

Mr. Rances told me that our LGU has recently mandated that each barangay of Malabon should document and show the equipment available for the incoming disaster which then are evaluated if it is enough to help each and every resident the barangay is covering and if it can work perfectly and efficiently. Our barangay has complied to the evaluations required by the Malabon Council which requires our barangay to have e.g. life vests, rubber boats, and signages (where it states the fault line, relocation area, where is it safe to pass, etc.) and our barangay has the Tinajeros Fire and Rescue and Tactics, a team or department of 20 volunteers and more that reponds to disasters and helps in rescuing those who are in need of help during disasters.

Our barangay has a calamity fund which is enough to support the families affected of these disasters for their food during and after the disaster and some monetary help for them to start anew if ever they are greatly affected by it. They also plans ahead if ever the disaster occurs, where would be the relocation site for affected families, estimated affected families, where would they start for the search and rescue, where they would pressure the residents to leave their homes for relocation, and their hotlines and phones (the barangay council and tanods) are always ready to answer for help.

Our community helps hand in hand if disasters strikes, where we would help other families to put their household appliances to an upper floor or ground and we cook more food so that we can share it with other families affected by disasters, but the barangay council and staff and tanods are the ones that direct us where to go for safety, what to do during disasters, and helping us keep calm and tell us everything will be alright because they got everything planned.

This is the Riverside I said that was burned down by the fire, there are houses built on there again after a few months even though our barangay has relocated them somewhere else. They said that this is where their life was, where they work, it would be hard for them to relocate because they would leave their life in here. They would prefer to live in this unlivable place (no drainage, illegal settler) than to live in a place where they would not be scared because their house is made of stone and would not be easily destroyed by any disaster.

The safest places would be in the Villarba St. out of every streets in my barangay, because this is on eof the most highest place in our barangay and most houses are made of stone, and there are apartments available here that a family of four can live in. So one can live in there safely and comfortably.

I’m proud of my barangay for this, they are upgrading our roads and canals. They upgrade our canals by digging them deeper so that it can accommodate more water. They also has a clean-up drive for our canals, implements strict segregation of trash, and has a daily dump truck that picks up trash from the residents, where each places has a specific day for the dump truck to pick up their trash like the coding scheme for vehicles.

For me our barangay is disaster ready and we, the residents, know what to do when disaster strikes because we are briefed by our barangay on what to do if we are affected. But mostly each and everyone of us should have discipline to lessen the impact of these disasters. Never throw trash anywhere to not clog or fill the canals with trash, listen to the news about the hurricanes and earthquakes, always unplug electrical devices when not in use to avoid fire, ALWAYS be careful when using fire (for cooking, candles), evacuate immediately when told to evacuate the premises, and follow the safety guidelines (duck, cover, and hold, stop, drop, and roll, don’t go near electrical devices when there is flood, etc.)

No one wants to live in a house where they do not feel safe and comfortable but the people that live in these dangerous places cannot live or move to a different place because they do not have the money to move. They are compromising because this is the only place they could afford to live in with their wage. Even if they want to move, they can’t. Honestly, our barangay is helping my community in anyway they can to prevent these disasters affect them greatly, but for me I would implement a kind of starting business for these families so they can afford to move or improve their houses. If not, they can offer some help in making their houses more less likely to be destroyed by disasters. But every Filipino also experience this, the want to live on a better place but they cannot because of their circumstances. I demand for the Government to help the marginalised in making their homes safer for them to live in, to use the donations and funds given to them to help the affected families and not to put it in their own pockets or eat it happily with their own family. They are put there by the Filipinos because they trust them that they would help in times of need.

During my interview and community walk, I cannot help but to feel thankful. A 2nd child born to a middle-upper class family. Someone who can afford to go to a prestigious school, eat 3-times a day, and sleep in a comfortable bed. That the house I live in is safe from disasters, i can sleep during the hurricane and flood without ever thinking we should get out of here because our home is washed away by the flood, sleeping soundly that our house are made of stone and nonflammable materials. The things I took for granted which other families would kill to have, that I was blessed to live in this kind of house. So for me to pay it forward, I would help in any way I can, the people who needs help during disasters. That by not throwing candy wrapper on the street would be a big help for our community to not get easily flooded. 

We live in a 3rd world country dominated by the marginalised. Where sleeping in the road despite high floods and heavy rains is common. This should be an eye opener to everyone, not just the government. That our country can never move forward because most of us are living poorly. That until the rich cares, the poor will always be poor whatever they do and even if they work harder. That until the lyrics of the songs “Tatsulok” by Bamboo and “Upuan” by Gloc 9 feat. Zelle are relevant and rampant in our country, we WILL always be a 3rd world country.

[purplesurveys]

656

Where is the last place you had a kiss? My girlfriend’s couch. I normally wouldn’t kiss her inside her house but we were alone, so it just happened. What did you eat for breakfast yesterday? I skipped breakfast yesterday and went straight to having a macchiato, which was a horrible idea considering I had a badddd hangover. My body made me pay for it soon enough when my stomach started unusually heating up, so I bought a sandwich by around lunch to help it feel better. When was the last time you were at an amusement park? 2013. I don’t like amusement parks so when my friends make plans I don’t go along with them. Two weeks ago I was at a school fair which kinda has the same amenities as an amusement park, but I guess it’s not the real thing so it doesn’t count. When was the last time you cried out of physical pain? Last Wednesday. My friend Leigh was trying to demonstrate for me the concept of just-noticeable difference by pinching the skin on my hand. I don’t like feeling pain anywhere on my body, so when she started amping up her pinching I had to yell out. Have you ever done anything to Support the Troops? No. Can’t relate.

Do you donate blood? Nooooo no nope. I just said I didn’t like feeling discomfort on any part of my body hahaha and getting pricked is the worst sensation for me. I wouldn’t be able to donate blood even if I wanted to either – as far as I know you have to be of a certain weight to be qualified, and I’ve never met that requirement. Are you wearing two shirts? No. It’s never too cold to be wearing two shirts here. The only time I had to really do this in a local sense was in Sagada. That weather was b r u t a l. It was the first time my dad turned on the heater in our car and I didn’t even know Filipino cars came with heaters lmaaaaaaao. This was a very long way of saying no. Have you ever owned the socks with toes on them? Never have. What were you the last time you went trick or treating? I went as my best friend at the time, Sofie. I didn’t have time (and wasn’t as extroverted as I am now) to come up with a detailed costume, so I went as her – black dress, eyebags, winged eyeliner, and thick hair that was never combed. It had the least effort of all my friends’ costumes, but I got the most compliments on social media lol. What's your favorite morning activity? I am so not a morning person, and I just like sleeping/lying in whenever I can. Can you cook? I am hopeless in that department. Is there a lot of laundry in your hamper? No. My mom’s laundry day is Friday, so it’s basically empty the whole weekend. When do you think you'll have children? In a little less than a decade, honestly. I’m pretty firm in my decision to have kids; it’s my biggest dream if anything. I mean I’m also willing to wait until I’m in my 30s because god knows how expensive everything is rapidly getting these days, but I just know I’ll end up having kids one way or another. Can you point out constellations in the night sky? No. The only thing I can safely point out for you is Orion’s Belt, and that’s because it’s essentially a giveaway lmao. What was your favorite part about studying ancient Greeks and Romans? Nothing. It’s one of my least favorite topics. The only thing that got me to enjoy them for a brief period was the Percy Jackson series, but when I finished the books my interest in that world waned fast. Have you ever eaten a gyro? Nah, but close enough – I’ve had shawarma. What's your favorite flavor of Tootsie pops? Mmmm not really a fan of Tootsie Pops, or like candy in general. What's the last thing you bought at a mall? If I remember correctly, I got a toasted siopao in Coffee Bean. Where did your mom go to high school? She went to Colegio de Santa Rosa in Makati. What's a subject you would never major in? Philosophy. My college curriculum required me to take one Philosophy elective, and not only was it the worst experience ever, but I got my second-lowest mark in college from that class. Is there someone who you can turn to for money and not be ashamed? No. I hate asking for money, even from my parents. When's the last time you took a bubble bath? A little over a year ago, probs. I love bubble baths when I manage to get settled in one, but because I’m usually in a hurry when I take showers, the concept of staying and relaxing in a bathtub is a little weird to me so I never do it haha. Have you ever swam in a river? I have photos of me when I was 1, my mom, her sisters-in-law, and their kids (my cousins) swimming in some river.  Are there any dirty clothes underneathe your bed? No. I know I could be messy, but that’s just disgusting. What food do you love the smell of while it's cooking? Curry. What food do you hate the smell of uncooked? I just hate the smell of wasabi in general. Your #2--what's their occupation? Your #3--what color are their eyes? Your #1--what cartoon character would they be? Your #4--are they allergic to anything? All Myspace questions that I’m skipping, lmao. Has a bee ever stung you? No. That’s like one of my top 3 fears so I never allow myself to be near bees or wasps. If there’s any nearby I run the fuckkkkk away. Where did you last go camping? I have never been camping for real. In what month do you start Christmas shopping? Last year I had some stuff ordered by early November – but those were gifts for just my girlfriend. I bought everyone else’s gifts like a week before Christmas. Have you ever slept in a bed with someone with bad BO? I’m sure I have; I just don’t let it bother me because no one’s breath is supposed to smell great in the morning lmao. Do you have a favorite flavor at Baskin Robbins? I have never had Baskin Robbins and I dunno if I will, because it’s just so expensive. Philippine suppliers looove bringing foreign brands like Shake Shack and Baskin Robbins over here and slapping insanely high prices on them just so they’re seen as high-end lmao, it’s sad. Are there fast food wrappers/cups in your car? No not at the moment. If anything there are old receipts. Do you read the newspaper? Very seldom, but given that I’m a journalism student, I encounter newspapers a lot because they’re everywhere in the college. What search engine do you use? Google. Have you ever posted a question on Yahoo questions? Nope. But the website is useful and I just look for people asking the same question I have at the moment. Have you ever been on a dating website? I made a Tinder account a few years ago just to observe it and just for fun. I never needed it but I was curious, so I joined it but I used a fake name and a photo of a cat I saw in school as my profile picture so that no one knew who it was. Have you ever had a crush on a celebrity of the same sex? Save for CM Punk, I’ve only ever had crushes on female celebrities. What kind of flowers would you plant in your garden? I dunno, I’ve never felt interested in growing flowers...or a garden, in general. Would you rather have a flat tire or overheated car? Flat tire. As far as I know that can be fixed a little more easily than a completely overheated car. What's the safest form of transportation? Private car, lmao. That’s really your safest bet in this country. Do you believe that kids should be taught abstinence? They can be taught about it so they’re aware of what it means and asks of them, but kids should also be reminded that at the end of the day it’s an option that they can choose to take or not. When's the next time you'll go to the grocery store? I only ever go when my dad is home because he likes having us along, so maybe in a month or two. When's the last time you went to Chuck E. Cheese? Never. What's your favorite cheese or cheese flavored food? Mozzarella sticks. Do you like black licorice? It’s decent, at best. I won’t spit it out, but it’s not my first candy of choice either. Can you count to 100 in another language? Two, Filipino and Spanish. We use Spanish when referring to currency, so that’s why it’s easy to memorize. Like I’d say I have labing-limang (fifteen in Filipino) notebooks, but when I have to say fifteen pesos, we say it as kinse (fifteen in Spanish). Idk, it’s a weird quirk with Filipinos but yeah. What's the nearest thing to you that can bounce? I don’t think there is anything bouncy in the living room at the moment. Do you hate cleaning? If I have to do it I get lazy. But when I actually want to clean, it can be relaxing. Do you clear dishes in the garbage disposal or in the garbage can? My mom takes out the garbage. Do you watch anything on the E! network? I don’t think our cable comes with E! so the only times I get to encounter it is when we’re staying over at hotels. I like having Keeping Up With the Kardashians on when we do have that channel. Have you ever tried out or thought of trying out for American Idol? I loved the show during its peak days, but I never had the desire to join it. Where's your car keys? Upstairs, on my bedside drawer. Did you keep any momentos of high school dances? From my high school ball, yes. I still have my old gown, photos with Mike, the instrument he used to ask me to ball (a Starbucks cup with the proposal written on it by the barista), and my old corsage. I like keeping stuff like that around so that I don’t forget, not because I still like him lmao. My prom could fuck off, and I have nothing from that night. Do you still have clothes from your high school dances? I have no idea. My high school prom dress disappeared after a while, but I still have my ball gown. The last person you laid in bed with said... I don’t know what you’re referring to but our last conversation was her telling me to drive home safe. Can you touch your nose with your tongue? I can’t. Which celebrities would you want to hang out with at a bbq? The Friends cast. Do you think you could do better drawings than Napolean Dynamite? I have never seen the movie. What are you doing on Superbowl Sunday? Isn’t it over already? I saw my aunts and uncles post about it on Facebook so I’m pretty sure it’s over. Anyway, I don’t care for football. Ever been to the original 13 colonies? No. Have you ever been to a concert that got out of control? Not really. The most ‘rebellious’ thing that ever happened was at my One Direction concert. The organizers made the stupid decision of holding the show on FLAT concert grounds and not a stadium, for a concert that probably held 10,000-20,000 people. Can you imagine holding that on just the GROUND??? Anyway, my sister and I had the third best tickets which was supposed to bring us to the semi-front, but it turned out to be so far from the stage. Everyone from my section all the way to the back resorted to standing up on the monobloc chairs which really isn’t allowed, but duh it’s One Direction and we wanted to see them. Harry had to call us out and ask us to get down from the chairs and just stand on the ground for our safety, but we kept protesting until they just gave up and continued the show. What's the last thing you watched on tv? Titanic, but we watched it on Netflix. I haven’t seen cable TV in a whiiiiiiile.

Whose show should be cancelled? 13 Reasons Why. Do you like Lindsay Lohan as a blonde? It doesn’t bother me. When's the last time you ate fruit? Last Friday I tried some of Laurice’s green mango with bagoong. Can you jump rope double dutch? Nope. I know jump rope but I never went that far.

[helenatroynonato]

DRRM KWENTUHAN

           Last November 29, 2019, Chairman Ramil Barrientos of Barangay 432, 52 years old, and I had a talk about the disasters that struck his barangay and the hazards that are still present there. In his 16 years of serving barangay 432, there were several times that the place was disturbed by tornadoes, floods, and fires. After these disasters, Chairman Barrientos took care of his people by donating food, clothes, and materials that are needed to rebuild the houses of those who were affected. For incoming calamities, he mentioned that he gets news about it from the shows on the television and/or radio, but, in cases of fires and earthquakes, his constituents text or call him about them.

           At barangay 432, there are two main hazardous places: the ‘maisan’ and ‘looban’. These two are considered to be the most damaged when a calamity strikes because of 1) materials carelessly lying around the area (old wood, plastics, garbages); and 2) wooden side-by-side houses. If ever there is a fire, it would spread easily because of how most of the houses do not have a firewall and/or it is made of easily-flammable materials like wood. Additionally, there are people who illegally connect to electricity and people who still use candles that sometimes are left unattended. However, these are not entirely their fault – even though they might want to move to a place where they could be free of these threats, they cannot because they do not have the money. Chairman Barrientos said that these disasters do not have grave effects to his people because they are hardworking and that trait could make them bounce-back once again.

           In our kwentuhan, Chairman Barrientos said that during the disasters caused by typhoons, the safest place around the barangay are the schools: Moises Salvador Elementary School, General Licerio Geronimo Elementary School, and Trinidad Tecson Elementary School. Though, when it comes to earthquakes, the safest is the University of Santo Tomas’ field (as adviced by NDRRMC).

           According to Chairman Barrientos, there are three main hindrances to the community’s development: 1) drugs; 2) gambling; and 3) squatters. He said that these three are obstructions to the barangay. Even though they try to enforce cleanliness, order, and peace, there are still hard-headed people who do not follow the rules and regulations.

           Barangay 432 prepares for calamities by conducting and/or participating in seminars about disaster risk reduction and management, take the disaster preparedness and risk reduction and management training that the barangay officials would attend in Antipolo this coming December 2 to 6. Furthermore, the officials have installed alarms around the barangay so when they announce something, everyone could hear it. Also, they have two-way radios, boats, fire extinguishers, and generators.

The chairman, his committee, and all the officials in the barangay, with the help of the tanods and the police, take charge whenever there are calamities. There are also volunteers that help them get things done, like the people from the Sampaloc Hospital and some firefighters.

Though the community leaders try their best in organizing their barangays, there will always be setbacks that would slow down their progress. It could be the calamities and disasters, the geographical location of the barangay, or even the people. Actually, I think the people either make or break the community – even the smallest of the small contributes to the barangay, whether he/she knows it or not. Moreover, I think that instead of adding more rules and regulations, they should focus more on how they would implement the current ones in the way that is comprehensible to everyone.

In all honesty, this problem is common in the whole Philippines. Its citizen has a lot of history of being indifferent to the rules. This is a major problem – when a disaster strikes, they do not know what to do because they did not do what their leader (or any professional for that matter) has told them to do.

After the kwentuhan and community walk, I have realized how lucky some of us are because we have a roof over our heads and four concrete walls around us that could protect us from the calamities and disasters that could hit us. Also, I have realized how far we are to the goal of being a stable country because we have yet to provide all the basic necessities needed for living to everyone, like food, water, clothing, and houses.

Based on the facts above, we need to address the issue of disasters in our country because we are an archipelago – we are more prone to typhoons than any other country out there. Meaning: we have to be more prepared when it comes to disasters because of the high chances that it could hit us more frequently. We can address it by starting small – barangays should start the movement, followed by towns, then by provinces, then by regions, and then by the country as a whole.

As a member of this nation, these are some of the concrete solutions I could suggest to address the vulnerabilities: 1) arrange a weekly clean-up drive to the barangays; 2) lower the rates of the electricity and water so people will not be pushed to get these things illegally; and 3) give free houses to those who have none so they will not have to create a make-shift house out of easily-flammable materials. To increase the capacities of my own community, I could: 1) plant more fruit-bearing plants; and 2) attend seminars about DRRM then tell our community about what I have learned.

 Hazardous Places

These places are what they called ‘maisan’ and ‘looban’. The ‘maisan’ is where most vendors get their supplies of corn and the ‘looban’ is where most of the residents live.

Safe Places

These three schools are the safest place in their barangay. During disasters, residents evacuate here until it is safe again to go back to their own houses.

[suckitsurveys]

The last time you were at a diner, what did you order? Oh man I could go for some diner food right now. I can’t remember, maybe chicken strips.

Do you usually buy souvenirs when you go to amusement parks? Not really. I guess it would depend. If it was one I’d never been to before I probably would.

When you last watched a movie, did you watch it alone or with someone? I watched Monster’s Inc with my niece, sister, and grandmother a couple weeks ago. Are you happy with your weight? No.

What’s the dress code for your job? Do you like it?: I think there is one in place but it’s not super enforced. It’s my understanding that you have to wear your company provided safety shoes and “labor” appropriate clothing like jeans and tshirts. Apparently we aren’t supposed to wear hoodies? But fuck that.

Does your job allow piercings or tattoos? Yes.

How often do you wash your hair? Every few days.

Do you want to get married? If so, what color will your dress be? I did get married. My dress was blue.

Ever had a caricature done of yourself? How much was it, and were you satisfied with it? 
 Nope.

Do you like peanut butter and fluff sandwiches? No.

Last color you painted your nails? They are currently yellow. I’m getting them silver holo chrome on friday and I am SO excitedddddddddddddddddd.

Last time you got a hair cut? I got 2 inches cut off about a month ago.

When you want to buy coffee, where do you go? I don’t really order coffee.

Did you try McDonald’s new smoothies? What do you think of them? I loved the blueberry pomegranate ones.

What are some things you like fashion-wise that most people don’t? I don’t know.

What are some trends you dislike that everyone seems to love? Eh.

Ever been to Gaia Online? Do you have an account?: No.

Where can you usually be found on a Friday night? Depends. Usually at home.

What do you think of underage drinking?: Honestly as long as you are not driving and you are not overdoing it, I don’t see an issue with trying it.

What’s your relationship status? Are you happy with it? I’m married and yes.

If you got married and then got divorced, would you want to re-marry? I don’t know.

If you could dye your hair any color right now with absolutely no restrictions, what color would you dye it? It’s pink but it’s not really the color pink I wanted it to be. I really wanna do turquoise next.

What shoes do you usually wear in the summer?: flip flops or Birkenstocks. I need a new pair so bad :(

What’s your favorite amusement park? The Wilderness indoor water park if that counts.

Do you like rollercoasters? I do. I haven’t been on one in a while, though.

How old are your siblings? 
39.

Would you ever enlist in the army? No.

Are you afraid of public restrooms? No.

What perfume do you wear? I have a few body sprays.

How often do you use lotion? I try to every night on my hands.

Do you play video games? If so, what kind? Eh, not often. Just games on my phone if that counts.

How old is your oldest and youngest friend?: My oldest friend is my sister and my youngest friend is Ellen.

Do you donate your old stuff to Goodwill? I used to.

Would you buy used clothes? Sure.

Do you wear jeans? 
 To work mostly.

How many hours do you usually work a week? 40.

How old were you in 1999?: I turned 10 that September.

Last time you were at a job interview? How did it go? For this one. It went well apparently.

What’s one place you’d NEVER want to work at? 
 A slaughter house.

How many kids would you want? 0.

Do you wear lipstick? If so, what color? 
 Redddddddddd.

Do you use Tumblr? What do you normally post?: No what is Tumblr.

How often do you wear skirts? Never.

Was your first Green Day album American Idiot? No. I’ve never owned a Green Day album.

Do you do your own laundry? Yes.

Do you get paid weekly or bi-weekly? Bi.

Did you tease freshmen in high school? 
 Yeah, but only ones that were my friends lol.

[charsimatic]

All the super detailed questions for Faye please

YES. PLEASE. I am all for this!

My bby. 

1. What’s their full name? Why was that chosen? Does it mean anything?

“My name is Faye Elizabeth Ross. I’m not sure why my mom and dad chose my name, other than my mom liked fairies and my grandmother’s name was Elizabeth, for the middle name. I like it, though!”

2. Do they have any titles? How did they get them?

“Uh…titles? I’m a daughter, sister, aunt, friend, fiance, and mother. Do those count?”

3. Did they have a good childhood? What are fond memories they have of it? What’s a bad memory? 

“I LOVED my childhood, most of it anyway. I remember my mom and dad taking me and my sisters to Six Flags one summer. I was maybe 3? 4? So I couldn’t ride all the big rides Mads and Jaymie were riding cause I wasn’t tall enough, and I was SO mad. So my dad put me up on his shoulders and took me to go get ice cream. We hid it from my sisters!

Everyone knows the bad memory, but if you want me to refresh it, the last thing I remember seeing is trees rushing up towards the window.”

4. What is their relationship with their parents? What’s a good and bad memory with them? Did they know both parents? 

“My relationship with them was great. I have lots of memories where I was giggling and laughing and smiling, I was just an overall happy kid.”

5. Do they have any siblings? What’s their names? What is their relationship with them? Has their relationship changed since they were kids to adults?

“I have two older sisters, Madlaina and Jaymie. When we were kids, Mads and I didn’t get along AT ALL. I think it was the age difference. She tried to boss me around and I wouldn’t take it, and that would piss her off! She’s 11 years older than me. Jaymie and I have always gotten along. Jaymie was thrilled to have a little sister, and treated me more like a delicate baby doll and loved to play with me. I went to her for advice for everything. Since becoming adults, my relationship with Mads has gotten better, but she’s so busy with her career I hardly ever get to see her. We try to talk every day though!”

6. What were they like at school? Did they enjoy it? Did they finish? What level of higher education did they reach? What subjects did they enjoy? Which did they hate?

“I was pretty average, I think. I listened, but I got busted for talking. I got a detention for fighting another girl on the playground once, cause she called me a dumb blonde. I enjoyed it, and I did graduate high school, which was a challenge, because I had Sophia in my senior year. I decided not to go to college to focus on her, but now that I’m getting married and everything and will soon have FIVE kids to support rather than one, I’d like to go back to school for something.” 

7. Did they have lots of friends as a child? Did they keep any of their childhood friends into adulthood? 

“I was pretty outgoing, so I made friends easily. Keeping them was harder, especially after the accident. They didn’t know what to say to me. Two of my friends stayed in my life for the long haul- my fiance, Freeman, and my best friend AND maid of honor, Braylee! The three of us hung out all the time as kids and have always been close. I don’t know what I’d do without them.”

8. Did they have pets as a child? Do they have pets as an adult? Do they like animals? 

“We had a dog growing up named Missy. She was a lab and the sweetest dog ever. She died when I was five, though, she was old. I now have a dog with my family.”

9. Do animals like them? Do they get on well with animals? 

“I think so, my dog seems to love me! I also had an asshole cat, well, my sister did, who wouldn’t leave me alone when I lived with her. He was SO rude, but he loved me.”

10. Do they like children? Do children like them? Do they have or want any children? What would they be like as a parent? Or as a godparent/babysitter/ect?

“I LOVE children and I LOVE having children! While they drive me insane on a regular basis, they also bring me incredible joy and they are FUNNY.

I try to be as laid back as possible with my kids, but my anxiety has been bad lately with Freeman’s job, so I think that went out the window.”

11. Do they have any special diet requirements? Are they a vegetarian? Vegan? Have any allergies?

“Nope.”

12. What is their favourite food? 

“Food in general. Especially right now. Pregnant with twins? I’ll eat anything you put in front of me.”

13. What is their least favourite food?

“KALE. Who in their right mind eats that stuff?”

14. Do they have any specific memories of food/a restaurant/meal?

“My mom’s tater tot casserole. She made it for all of us, usually on Sunday’s. All three of us have the recipe, I just haven’t had the chance to make it yet. It is SO. GOOD.”

15. Are they good at cooking? Do they enjoy it? What do others think of their cooking?

“Eh…I’m getting better, since I have to cook for the kids most nights right now, whenever Freeman is on a job or working late. I used to absolutely suck at it.”

16. Do they collect anything? What do they do with it? Where do they keep it? 

“I don’t, really. Unless it’s deer things. I like deer.”

17. Do they like to take photos? What do they like to take photos of? Selfies? What do they do with their photos?

“When you have young kids, you have more photos than you know what to do with.”

18. What’s their favourite genre of: books, music, tv shows, films, video games and anything else

“Romance, romance, pop and country, comedy and drama, romance, and eh, I don’t really play video games.”

19. What’s their least favourite genres?

“Horror. And rap. Enough said.”

20. Do they like musicals? Music in general? What do they do when they’re favourite song comes?

“I LOVE musicals! I’ve made Freeman watch a few with me too! I’m always listening to music- when I’m cooking, cleaning, driving, whatever. And I dance. Badly. I make it a point to dance as terribly as I can. My kids hate it.”

21. Do they have a temper? Are they patient? What are they like when they do lose their temper?

“I was very quick to anger for a while, and sometimes, I still can be, but I’ve been actively trying to take a deep breath or walk away if I can until I’m not as angry anymore. I cry when I lose my temper and start screaming.”

22. What are their favourite insults to use? What do they insult people for? Or do they prefer to bitch behind someone’s back?

“I playfully insult my sisters. I’ll call them bitch, asshole, stuff like that, but I really don’t like to actually insult people.”

23. Do they have a good memory? Short term or long term? Are they good with names? Or faces?

“Next question. Sore subject.”

24. What is their sleeping pattern like? Do they snore? What do they like to sleep on? A soft or hard mattress?

“I sleep okay now, but for a while after the incident I slept like absolute shit. I tossed and turned and had nightmares every night. Now, with two almost preteens, a toddler, and twins in my tummy? I sleep like the dead.

Also, I like to sleep on Freeman.” *Grins*

25. What do they find funny? Do they have a good sense of humour? Are they funny themselves?

“I find a lot of things funny, and I think I have a pretty good sense of humor. I don’t know if I’m funny, but I make people laugh cause I can’t get through a joke or story without cracking myself up, and that makes other people laugh, so.”

26. How do they act when they’re happy? Do they sing? Dance? Hum? Or do they hide their emotions? 

“I sing, dance, hum, smile, I get really loving and cuddly, too.”

27. What makes them sad? Do they cry regularly? Do they cry openly or hide it? What are they like they are sad?

“Uh, what doesn’t make me sad? You know those EVIL commercials they play to try and get you to donate to animal shelters? Water works. I don’t really hide it, unless it’s something big that I’m not ready to explain to my children. I get really mopey or irritable, and I get angry at myself for not being able to snap out of it.”

28. What is their biggest fear? What in general scares them? How do they act when they’re scared?

“Losing my family and children. It’s happened before and they had to give me a tranquilizer.”

29. What do they do when they find out someone else’s fear? Do they tease them? Or get very over protective? 

“Middle? I dunno. I try to help them if I can, or try to soothe their fears.”

30. Do they exercise? Regularly? Or only when forced? What do they act like pre-work out and post-work out?

“I do exercise. I gained a LOT of weight in the hospital and hated myself, and I’ve finally gotten to a place where I’m happy.”

31. Do they drink? What are they like drunk? What are they like hungover? How do they act when other people are drunk or hungover? Kind or teasing?

“I don’t really drink, but I’ve gotten tipsy a couple times with Braylee over girls night.”

32. What do they dress like? What sorta shops do they buy clothes from? Do they wear the fashion that they like? What do they wear to sleep? Do they wear makeup? What’s their hair like?

“I’m a mom, I dress like a mom!” *Laughs* “I try to find things that are 1- on sale, 2- cute, and 3- comfortable. Bonus if it can be easily washed because I’m clumsy and, again, I have a toddler.”

33. What underwear do they wear? Boxers or briefs? Lacey? Comfy granny panties?

“Comfy granny panties if I’m lounging around the house or it’s shark week. Lacey when I’m uh…” *Clears throat* “I’ve also been known to wear Freeman’s boxers, but that sorta…drives him wild…so I have to be careful.”

34. What is their body type? How tall are they? Do they like their body?

“Slim but curvy. Curves came after kiddos. My dancer body is all but gone.”

35. What’s their guilty pleasure? What is their totally unguilty pleasure? 

“Guilty pleasure? Dance moms. Sorry not sorry, I’m sucked into the drama and I love critiquing the dances. Unguilty pleasure? Chocolate. Who doesn’t love chocolate?”

36. What are they good at? What hobbies do they like? Can they sing?

“GOODNESS no, I can’t sing. But I do still like to dance a bit, and bake.”

37. Do they like to read? Are they a fast or slow reader? Do they like poetry? Fictional or non fiction?

“I read every night before bed. I’ve been reading forever, so I read pretty quickly. I like fiction. I don’t really like poetry.”

38. What do they admire in others? What talents do they wish they had?

“I wish I could sing! My niece, Emily, can sing, but she doesn’t plan on doing anything with it, which makes me sad. 

I admire truthfulness, kindness, and a soft heart. That’s hard to keep.”

39. Do they like letters? Or prefer emails/messaging? 

“Freeman and I leave each other little love letters all the time!”

40. Do they like energy drinks? Coffee? Sugary food? Or can they naturally stay awake and alert?

“Coffee, and I drink it throughout the day because I’m trying to keep up with Caleb, organize the girls schedules, and get them to and from their sports and stuff. I just started driving again, it was a necessity.”

41. What’s their sexuality? What do they find attractive? Physically and mentally? What do they like/need in a relationship?

“My sexuality is Freeman!” *Giggles* “Look at him. That’s what I find attractive. He’s hot. He’s also incredibly loving and caring, hilarious, and a fantastic father to our children. He’s also..” *Breaths and blushes, fanning herself* “Amazing. In bed.”

42. What are their goals? What would they sacrifice anything for? What is their secret ambition?

“I want to raise my children to the best of my ability and make sure they’re healthy and happy. I would sacrifice anything for them. And my secret ambition? I’ve been thinking more and more of opening a cafe…”

43. Are they religious? What do they think of religion? What do they think of religious people? What do they think of non religious people?

“I believe in God. He’s saved me and my family quite a few times. I don’t…think anything of non-religious people? Believe whatever you’d like, it’s not harming me or anyone else.”

44. What is their favourite season? Type of weather? Are they good in the cold or the heat? What weather do they complain in the most? 

“Season, summer. Weather, a good mix between sunny and rainy. I’m better in the heat, and I complain when it’s too cold!”

45. How do other people see them? Is it similar to how they see themselves? 

“I don’t know how others see me. I hope they like what they see!”

46. Do they make a good first impression? Does their first impression reflect them accurately? How do they introduce themselves?

“I just try to be myself and be approachable.”

47. How do they act in a formal occasion? What do they think of black tie wear? Do they enjoy fancy parties and love to chit chat or loathe the whole event?

“I don’t mind dressing up every now and then. It makes you feel good. Pretty. But I usually can’t wait to kick off my heels and curl up in my pjs as soon as we get home!”

48. Do they enjoy any parties? If so what kind? Do they organise the party or just turn up? How do they act? What if they didn’t want to go but were dragged along by a friend? 

“I like having friends over, but I’ve never really been a party-er”

49. What is their most valued object? Are they sentimental? Is there something they have to take everywhere with them?

“A shirt of my mom’s and my dad’s watch. They’re both in my closet, in a safe.”

50. If they could only take one bag of stuff somewhere with them: what would they pack? What do they consider their essentials?

“Clothing for daytime and sleeping, shoes, sunglasses, chargers, first aid kit. And a book. And a sippy cup!”