#you get out in tumblr jail 4+/7 days of the week

[caffeiiine]

I am an Angel >:3

(I’m in Tumblr jail)

AGAIN????

@im-a-chunky-potato more evidence for the impending witch trial

[itwoodbeprefect]

911 season 7 episode 4!! we've arrived!!

the only reason that i understand this long opening section is playing on the bachelor is that i've watched jarvis johnson talk about it before. thank you jarvis johnson.

the i'm taken but he's not scene. buck has a rule. eddie looks confused. hmmm.

fjdkf "hey joey." while watching the previous episode i said buck was bisexual character number 2 this season (after norman) but i may have been wrong. he's number 3, after norman and chimney.

i mean, admittedly i've never seen a single episode of the bachelor firsthand, but it seems to me like they'd LOVE for something like this to happen. nobody got seriously hurt, it's extremely dramatic and big, lots and lots and lots of free press - what could be better for reality tv?

buck is so pumped to be getting the tour!!

"i guess that night was the most fun i'd had since getting struck by lightning." "you need to raise your bar, kid." fjdkfd. lines that could have worked word for word in a katherine hepburn/cary grant screwball comedy.

fjdkfjdkfj he's just using getting struck by lightning as a point of reference! "ah." is the right response, i think, tommy.

he could give buck lessons if he wants!! honestly i could quote every line of this conversation as notable and fun. i'm having a ball watching this actually happen with audio, instead of looping chunks of a few seconds. (not that there's anything wrong with looping chunks of a few seconds. i love looping chunks of a few seconds, looping chunks of a few seconds are tumblr's liveblood.)

tommy has "something" (a person) "that" (who) should be arriving right now, actually. fjdkf. early practice for when eddie ends up crashing their date next episode

also, dear god, eddie's giant truck. forgot about that thing.

fjkdf. this poor man, watching his best friend and unknown crush fly off together. admittedly not into the sunset, but to vegas nonetheless

waffles!!! bobby and athena made it through a cruise on a sinking ship and now there's someone breaking into their home making waffles

harryyy. i was just thinking about him during the last episode!

ohhhh. he didn't just shoot up into the sky, that actually is a harry recast. interesting

okay, so apparently (x) marcanthonee reis was "sort of ready to move on". assuming that's true, fair enough - for anyone, but especially for a kid playing a role on tv.

ravi's "who's tommy?" is totally fair, and then he gets rewarded for his patience in being totally excluded from buck and eddie's weird jealous bff conversation by getting sent down a sewer. rough day, man

"both like watching half-naked men pummel each other" is certainly a set of words. it certainly is.

not for nothing, but is eddie blind, or is he just enjoying winding buck up a little, being at the center of some (as he would probably assume) friendship jealousy? because buck is. not being normal about this. at all.

buck thinking he's getting invited to the bar trivia thing and being asked to babysit.... i fully knew that was coming, but it's painfully awkward either way. also, dear god, eddie has already asked his girlfriend to babysit his kid twice this week. hmmmmm.

the AIR QUOTES. had to replay that three times, it's excellent, i adore this. the way he says it is SO good

the little WIGGLE at the second set of air quotes. GOLD

"get this! [star wars opinion]" jfkdfjk. possibly the funniest 911 has ever been

on his fridge! eddie has a day calendar! underatakeoutmenu

IT'S CIRCLED. WHAT DON'T YOU GET, MADDIE.

maddie's "with a little heart around it?" line is exactly as good as it seemed in all the gifs. wonderful, amazing, life-changing stuff

uh oh, harry in trouble!

yeah. so. the woman on this home break-in call absolutely shot her son, didn't she?

she did. we needed a nod to athena's recast son subplot.

that's athena's cop side coming out when she tells her son in a weird roundabout way that people are going to pee on him in jail. if buck and eddie sounded like a classic screwball, this is more tango & cash.

OH. we ARE getting into the athena-is-a-cop part of it.

oh my darling. you are being SO weird about this (affectionate).

insane amazon prime sponsorship just right in the middle of jealous bisexual weight lifting. what is happening

oh my god. oh boy. oh no

i mean, oh YES, but there's just oodles of secondhand embarassment to go around here. love you though buck, go for it, don't let me stop you

chimney innocently asking what that is buck is heartbrokenly cuddling..... and getting roped into this insane musclebound love triangle. poor chimney, you did nothing wrong.

also though. eddie giggling on the phone and fully and blatantly ignoring buck for that entire scene? there's just so much going on here. everyone's in love with tommy and his cool helicopters.

i was genuinely sort of hoping the athena-breaking-the-news part of this woman-shot-her-son case would remain implied. very sad. only misery here.

buck bullshitting his way into pretending this is totally just his attempt to bond with his future brother-in-law is very funny. nice try, my boy

the face of a chimney realizing he's been tricked :(

chimney calling himself a basketball beard...... chimney is cleverer than he even knows, i think.

i saw the post @redgoldblue reblogged pointing this out, but. yeah. that IS a whole montage that's just a very long top gun reference. playing with the boys!!!

also, in light of that...... buck & eddie's infamous "you can have my back any time" was also a top gun reference. (specifically, a reference to "you can be my wingman any time."/"bullshit. you can be mine.", as in, this right here.) we all agree on that, right? i've never seen anyone mention it, but that might just be because i only really see 911 content when it happens across my dash, so. we do agree? because. buck&eddie first bonding moments related to top gun.... buck&tommy arc starting with top gun basketball..... i'm just saying. i am. just saying.

sitting here open-mouthedly indignant that buck dragged chim along and then doesn't even let him play. chimney deserves better even in the middle of a dramatic understandably self-centered sexuality crisis

he bucked that up!! oh my god

big sister maddie is Good. i like that

a few minutes to go in the episode and there's a knock at buck's door! who might that be? maybe he ordered something else off of amazon prime (which is canonically really quick and convenient and you don't even need to sign anything).

the way tommy says "evannn." is so good

the fact that it's the terrible fake mouth static over the radio that got buck's attention is amazing. meet cute: we fly into a hurricane and you badly pretend your radio isn't working when someone tries to talk sense into us

🌈🎉🌈🎉💖

yes 🥺 he is free 🥺

gifs are good and wonderful but there are some things they just can't possibly do justice due to the limitations of the medium and just. seeing buck's quiet wide-eyed response to tommy kissing him and this Big Revelation he's having is definitely one of those things that need to be watched as a full scene with audio. oh gosh

saturday!

just lovely lovely good very sweet stuff! it's nice. but, like, nice - in a wonderful, good, heartwarming sort of way. god. the distance we've come - incredible.

[vegacoyote]

I posted 8,501 times in 2022

That's 5,460 more posts than 2021!

11 posts created (0%)

8,490 posts reblogged (100%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@bunjywunjy

@swirlingflight

@stellarrrluna

@inktail

@proserpine-in-phases

I tagged 354 of my posts in 2022

#unreality - 27 posts

#goncharov - 14 posts

#tumblr classics - 14 posts

#nice - 3 posts

#freya - 3 posts

#borb - 3 posts

#nope - 2 posts

#ice pick joe - 2 posts

#youtube - 2 posts

#baby yoda - 2 posts

Longest Tag: 139 characters

#pump up its value by using your fox news bully pulpit to convince your gullible & insecure viewers that it’s the only thing with real value

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

Currently am on the many sleeping drugs plus cold medicine and they are stirring my eyes around in a talky way so helllo how are you? I have been reading about komodo dragons with their heads in buckets and also people having hypothermia debated with the ice-water dunked and that all makes for a weird clacking noise in my stirry brain cocktail.

I appreciate the tungls yes I do. They keeps all my various ideations to a dull roar.

5 notes - Posted September 24, 2022

#4

My dog is an underwear thief.

8 notes - Posted September 12, 2022

#3

15 notes - Posted April 27, 2022

#2

Can we see the puppy

Yes, absolutely!

Here’s Freya milliseconds before realizing She’s Bored and It’s An Emergency

And here she is immediately after:

See the full post

32 notes - Posted April 7, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

You know what I wanna see? A story about Gotham centered on, like, Gotham paramedics, social workers, legal aid & pro bono lawyers, stuff like that. Emergency services that aren’t the cops. People who help people past the point of ”OK who needs to get punched and/or arrested?”

Think of it, that shit would be wild. Like, how long does this city go between crises where entire city blocks get hit with aerosolized amphetamines? Someone has to deal with that shit.

Look, my sister’s a social worker, and she was telling me about this meme her coworkers found on facebook, some pro-cop bullshit where it was like, ”Well what if there’s some 200 pound naked guy running screaming down the street, you wanna send a social worker after that guy?” And every one of them was like, ”Uh. Yeah. That’s it, that’s the job.”

And like, not that the job doesn’t attract its share of bullies and abusers- I’ve been on the wrong end of shitty social workers before and it sucks- but at least it’s a profession that generally considers it a failure if the client ends up dead, injured, or in jail. At least there’s a potential there for stories that show the humanity of the people who would otherwise only show up to get rescued or have the crap beaten out of them.

Like. Tell us about a homeless shelter in Gotham. Tell us about a food kitchen. Who are the regulars there, and why? Who works there? What’s a day treatment meeting look like in a place where the supervillains cook up a new Crazy Debilitating Gas every week, some of which can fuck your shit up permanently?

What about people just trying to get to work in a situation like that? I bet after a while they just started selling gas masks at corner bodegas. (Probably mostly shitty ones.) Average Gotham Citizen has got to have so much PTSD about it.

I heard somewhere that DC has an editorial rule that goes, ”Gotham always gets worse,” and like. How can you hear that and not feel crushingly depressed? If you can’t tell a Batman story where Gotham gets better, where’s the space in there for hope? Isn’t that what escapist fantasy is supposed to be about? And ”Gotham never gets better” says the opposite of that, it says, ”There’s no escape, nothing gets better, let’s go watch some more civilians get blown up and then punch someone about it to show we care,” and that’s. Terrible. Like 40 cakes worth of terrible, OK?

318 notes - Posted June 18, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

(Year in review thing, couple days late.)

[xxgalacticambitionsxx]

I posted 3,889 times in 2022

That's 3,889 more posts than 2021!

275 posts created (7%)

3,614 posts reblogged (93%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@exist101

@moonamite

@is-the-owl-video-cute

@kittieshauntedourfantasy

@boiledegghole

I tagged 1,611 of my posts in 2022

#poptropica - 592 posts

#binary bard - 165 posts

#dr hare - 81 posts

#ringmaster raven - 50 posts

#rumpelstiltskin poptropica - 44 posts

#red baroness - 32 posts

#space - 26 posts

#director d - 21 posts

#myron van buren - 20 posts

#red queen poptropica - 19 posts

Longest Tag: 140 characters

#i think there should be pop characters as sexymen because it would be so fucking jarring to go onto the sexypedia and see like bard or raven

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

love how the plots of some poptropica islands are just absolutely off their rocker

under a read more because, wow, this really got away from me

this shark has been eating people so you gotta make it go honk mimimimimi

this furry really wants carrots and also w o r l d d o m i n a t i o n so you explode his rabbot. leaving him stranded in space- wait isn't this a kid's game?

this guy is bald and he's really mad about it

man who kind of looks like dimentio from super paper mario kidnaps a princess to marry her (ew) so he can become king of the universe so you leave him to die in a dimension of his own creation- wait isn't this a kid's game?

zeus is a very bad man and you need to go kick him in the shin

OOO PIRATES

lady with very strange hair tries to kill you over bigfoot

greg you are horrible at watching over your younger brother. be better

small time

this guy almost kills a bunch of people because he is mad at a whale

vampire kidnaps lady because he thinks she's his wife

the olympics

SALERNO COME BACK

oh we're making the villains not evil, that's good- OH GOSH DARNIT IT'S ZEUS AGAIN

this guy tries to steal a baseball card

you need to shrink down and go inside this man to get rid of his disease because he put it on his freaking poutine

capitalism!

RAVEN I'M SO SORRY I DIDN'T MEAN-

Is- Is this The Most Dangerous Game? Isn't this a kid's game?

Comicon

This girl with an incredibly hard to spell name, just, really doesn't wanna be royalty

oh hey this one's based off the graphic novels!

Oops, you get framed and have to break out of jail!

Amelia Earhart's angry German ex really doesn't want to lose this race

reality tv island but worse

this guy is stealing happy endings and you gotta say his name three times to banish him- just kidding! you freed him you utter fool

oh crap you were turned into a villain for a few minutes, that was, that was unexpected. Also you get a choice for the ending so get ready for ✨crippling doubt that you made the right decision✨

THAT CAT WAS THE GODDESS BASTET? also i used to have a cat named Bastet

19 notes - Posted September 26, 2022

#4

i put so much effort into this it's unbelievable

also if this gets to 50 notes i'll make it my profile picture for a week

25 notes - Posted November 18, 2022

#3

Super Paper Mario fucked me up because i can no longer react to similes in a normal way

"She was as sweet as cotton candy on a beautiful spring day" Like, yeesh Dimentio, take it down a notch

52 notes - Posted October 10, 2022

#2

Laplace’s Angel (Hurt People? Hurt People!)

Reblog if you agree!

106 notes - Posted September 27, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

victor frankenstein wasn't even a doctor he was a college student why the hell do we even call him that

16,825 notes - Posted October 16, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[moodymelanist]

Multi-Chapter Fics

Here Comes the Bride (complete)

Modern AU, 7 chapters

Mr. & Mrs. Archeron (complete)

Mr. & Mrs. Smith AU, 7 chapters

Moodboard by @eldestdaughterr

Fanart by @generalnesta

Paint it Red | AO3 / Tumblr (complete)

7 chapters + epilogues

Modern Vampire/Vampire Hunter AU

Moodboard by @tangledinmysoul

Fanart commissioned by @starksravings

Moodboard by @lady-nestas

Into the Setting Sun | AO3 / Tumblr (in progress)

7 chapters + epilogue

Sequel to Paint it Red

Can’t Help It (complete)

Nessian being a toxic train wreck

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Moodboard by me

All The Wisest Women | Tumblr / AO3

What if Nesta went Under the Mountain?

Human!Archerons

In progress

Where The Light Won’t Find You | Tumblr / AO3

What if Nesta went to the Court of Nightmares?

Eventual evil!Nessian

Fanart commissioned by @melphss

In progress

I Guess It's Half Timing (And The Other Half's Luck) | Tumblr / AO3 (complete)

Modern AU

Nessian has a one night stand and they decide to keep the baby

10 chapters, updated once a month to follow along with Nesta's pregnancy in real time

One-Shots

The Last Sketchbook

Just Play Along

Cheers / Tumblr Version [1,000 Followers Celebration]

The Love Club [Secret Santa Gift]

The Only Exception [SJM Romance Week]

It’s Close to Midnight [Part 1] [Part 2]

My Fire Was Fate With You [Sapphic!Nessian]

Coming Soon

Multiverse Nesta Shenanigans

Drabbles

The best meet-ugly you can think of for nessian. No seriously, what is the worst way to meet your future soul mate

The snow storm makes it impossible to go outside, so let’s build a blanket fort and spend the day in there

Modern au where Nesta gets those butt crack leggings to see cassians reaction like those tiktoks

Daytime vampire snuggles

Modern AU Cass as a bartender trying to hit on Nesta

Nessian pirates AU

Nesta convinces Cassian to try yoga, but it’s really just sex positions he puts her in 😏

Nesta texts Cassian something EXTREMELY dirty while they’re hanging out with their friends/family

Girls night ends with Cassian & Azriel having to bail their girls out of jail

Nessian grocery shopping

Nessian going book shopping

Protective!Cassian

Drunk Nessian, Part Two, Part Three

Boxers Tiktok trend

Cuddling, extra fluffy™️

Cassian packs Nesta’s lunch

Cassian gets Nesta’s name as a tattoo, Part Two

Nesta has a bad day

Nessian cooking together

Cassian kills a spider for Nesta

Pregnant Nesta, Mother Hen Cassian, Part Two

Jealous Cassian

Cat vs Dog discussion

Cassian doesn’t want to cuddle

Batboys as geckos

Nesta is a barista at Cassian’s favorite coffee shop

Winter Soldier!Nesta AU [1] [2] [3] [4] [5]

Furniture Shopping

Soft Movie Night

Pool Party & Shots

Nessian at Sephora

Cassian admiring the curve of Nesta’s back on a sleepy morning

Touch Starved!Nesta [1] [2]

Nesta supporting Cassian for a big presentation

Scarlet Witch!Nesta

Surprise Baby

Nessian trapped in an elevator

Nesta passes the bar

Nessian’s picnic gets rained on

Cassian getting his wisdom teeth removed

Nessian Week 2021 Masterlist

Nessian Week 2022 Masterlist

Back to General Masterlist

[wildshadowtamer]

inspired by @aboutiroh, @azu1as and a few other tumblr blogs’ thread about Child!Zuko being Firelord at 7 years old.

In this AU, everything’s set 8 years in the past and the comet arrives early.

Feel free to ask questions about this in reblogs/asks.

More in-depth explanation below. (warning: long)

It starts with Sokka, who has stolen a kayak and gone fishing with his sister. Sokka is 7 while Katara is 6, meaning their father hasn't left yet and their mother is still alive. Katara tries to practice her water-bending while Sokka hunts with his spear, things go almost-canon until Katara canonly yells at Sokka, instead she gets scared and loses control of her bending, resulting in the iceberg breaking

Once they find Aang, a still twelve-year-old boy, they bring him home along with Appa and explains what happened to their parents. Kya is worried and Hakoda gives them a talking to due to the kayak-stealing.

Zuko, having already gotten his scar at 8 years old bc Ozai's just Like That, has been banished along with Ursa and Azula, who is not old enough to hate her brother yet, so she tried to stand up to Ozai and got banished as well Of course, Iroh and Lu Ten are there, however the burning of Iroh's 8 year old nephew's face made both of them realize jut how cruel and coldhearted the Firelord is and just how messed up the fire nation in general is.

So, their on a boat. Lu Ten, Iroh, Ursa, Zuko and Azula. A big family of banished 'traitors' They get down to the south pole so Iroh can study water-bending and thus create the lightning redirection technique. However, Zuko and Azula find Aang, Sokka and Katara, hear about their quest to the northern water tribe, and decides to join. The adults on-board decide to let them, as Iroh has already figured out Zuko's destiny to help stop the war, no matter what age. Ursa stays with Kya and the water tribe while Iroh and Lu Ten head to Ba Sing Se.

General Zhao is the one hunting for the avatar, and since he's Like That, he doesn't care if the Avatar and his friends are literally 4-12 years old.

They get captured by Kyoshi Warriors, but their like 7 year olds, and since Sokka hasn't quite gotten the sexism in his head yet, he doesn't get mad about *girls* beating him up, he's just mad he got ambushed so easily. He gets a childhood crush on the 7-year-old Suki, but is bad at the whole 'socializing' thing so he tries to bully her and gets his butt royally whooped.

At some point along the way, the Gaang picks up Toph, a 4 year old girl who was playing with badger-moles and *still* more badass then all of them combined.

Azula and Zuko get Sibling Bonding after seeing how Sokka and Katara bond, and actually become really good friends.

Eventually, they get to Ba Sing Se and settle down for a few weeks, planning their next moves and all, until they realize the Dai Li are up to something. Soon, Zuko and Katara get captured, Iroh hears of it and comes to the Gaang for help w(ith Lu Ten, of course) Zuko explains to Katara how he got the scar, burned after speaking up to his father after Ozai threatened a servant, and the two bond over their loving mothers and siblings.

However, instead of Azula chasing them down, it's Mai and Ty Lee, angry about being abandoned by Azula when she got banished. (Mai is 7, Ty Lee is 6) Zuko refuses to betray his friends and family, and neither does Azula. However, when their having the big fight in the crystal caves, a lightning bolt reflects off a crystal and hits Avatar State Aang in the back, killing him.

Iroh, after seeing how dangerous it is for Zuko and the Gaang, decides to go back to the Fire Nation with Mai and Ty Lee, leaving Lu Ten to look after this gaggle of toddlers.

After a week or so, Aang wakes up on a fire navy ship, with the Gaang and parents on-board. The crew is: Zuko, Azula, Aang, Katara, Sokka, Toph, Suki, Hakoda, Bato, Kyo, Lu Ten and Ursa. However, Aang runs off into the storm and canon generally goes on from there.

The Fire Family becomes a thing, Sokka somehow convinces the principle he is in fact an adult and definitely not himself and Zuko in adults clothing. (Sapphire Fire is Katara and Suki in a dress) However, things go wrong at the Eclipse and the adults get captured, Ursa, Zuko and Azula get to speak their mind to Ozai as Iroh and Lu Ten forces him to stay against the wall. The Gaang, along with young Teo, The Duke and Haru, travel to the Western Air Temple. Mai and Ty Lee, after having a very stern talking to by Iroh, ask to join the Gaang, to which they accept after an apology from both of them to Azula, Aang and Zuko specifically.

From there, Aang mostly masters all four elements, they go watch that god awful Boy In The Iceberg show, Aang talks to his past lives and Ozai eventually gets defeated by a bunch of children and toddlers.

Who does Zuko and Azula fight at the end, you may ask? Zhao. Everyone was so busy worrying about the comet and Ozai, nobody had even realized Zhao didn't die at the NWT, simply thrown into the ocean and got rescued by a ship. And, turns out, learnt to generate and shoot lightning somewhere along the way. and everyone knows Zhao isn't above harming a bunch of children.

in the end, Zuko ends up jumping in the way of the lightning bolt, but survives and Zhao gets thrown in jail to rot some more.

And yes, Zuko does become Firelord. in fact, Lu Ten becomes his advisor while the Kyoshi Warriors are his personal guards. Iroh doesn't take the throne, but becomes the most popular tea shop in the Fire Nation after making the Jasmine Dragon a multi-nation Tea Shop chain. (Some trusted Earth Kingdom friends of Iroh and Lu Ten become the managers of the original Jasmine Dragon shop)

[snowdice]

Masterpost (Old)

This is an old, slightly broken Masterpost, but I might not remember to change all the links. The new one is here.

If you would just like to see all of my writing, I tag everything with #adriana writes on my blog. Click here for everything in chronological order of my posting. Click here for my AO3 account.

Completed fics are marked complete in their summary. You can click on the universe tags to read fics for that universe in chronological order of my posting.

The Prison You Deserve: (Complete) Virgil should have known better. Trying to help only ever ended badly for him. After a misunderstanding, Virgil gets thrown into the most infamous prison across all of the kingdoms, where the most evil criminals are thrown to get what they deserve at the hands of nightmarish creatures from the void. Luckily (for once) Virgil really didn’t deserve it. Trusting that this isn’t just a cruel trick and he isn’t actually going to be tortured though is going to take a while. (In which Patton is a eldritch horror, telepathic nightmare, and still is the sweetest thing on the planet and off it.)

AO3 Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8 Bonus Features

Road Trips and Missing Persons:  Patton was just getting groceries. The next thing he knew, there was a knife at his throat and he was an unwilling uber driver. Virgil’s on the run after the murder of his dad, and it’s not just his paranoia that’s telling him he’s being chased down. He has to get somewhere safe, somewhere he can trust, and all he has is a couple of stories from his dad and a name: “Green Bellow Foods and Dispensary.”

AO3 Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8 Part 9 Part 10 Part 11

Mismatched High Heel Shoes: (One-shot: Complete) The boys are having fun. (This was for the #magpie500 event.)

Tumblr

Cops and Not Robbers AU

You I’ll Come Back For: (Complete) They’d met in a jail cell, you see, but unlike now Patton had not been anywhere near trapped, not that Virgil had been aware of that fact. He’d just seen his sweet little cell mate who’d clearly not done anything to deserve being on that side of the bars. Virgil had said “What did you do to get stuck in this joint?” and Patton had started crying. It had taken zero lies and five hours for Patton to coax out the information he’d needed. He’d thought when he’d pranced up to the bars and told Roman he was ready to leave that the absolutely astonished expression which was quickly slipping into fury would be the last thing he’d ever see of the man whose crimes numbered enough to keep him in prison for the rest of his life. He’d escaped during his transfer to federal prison. (This was a dice fic. It also appears below!)

AO3 Part 1 Part 2 Part 3

Mistaken Identities: (One-Shot: Complete) Roman was just walking out of an ice-cream shop when an unfamiliar man’s irate voice made him pause mid lick and look up. “Dammit Remus, I told you to meet me two blocks that way and you’re getting ice cream?” | Now as an identical twin, especially one with a brother who had a… certain personality, he wasn’t exactly unused to this sort of thing happening. So, he promptly opened his mouth to say, “Oh no I’m not…” | “Remus, I don’t care right now,” he interrupted. “Get in the car.” | “But-” | The man snapped his fingers and a hand descended on his shoulder. “Get him in the car.” | Roman meets Deceit and later Logan when he is mistaken for his brother who is apparently doing SOMETHING with his life.

AO3 Tumblr

A Bloody Handkerchief:   (One-Shot: Complete) Dee and Roman help Logan move and Dee finds something from their past.

AO3 Tumblr

Cuffed Universe

Tea, Cookies, and Handcuffs: (Complete) Logan finds a strange man on his property and of course invites him in for tea.

AO3 Tumblr

What Remains Universe

What Remains of Us: (Complete) Virgil was young, but smart. “How are we going to do this?” he asked. “You’re 12. You can’t get a job or a house.” | “Remember when dad used to read us The Boxcar Children?” he asked. “It’ll be like that. Well, not exactly; there aren’t many old train tracks around, but we’ll find something. I even found an old copy of the book in the $.10 bin at the bookstore. The ending’s ripped out, but we’ve got the part where they figure out how to live in the woods. It’ll be like a guide.” | Patton and his little brother Virgil go on a “hiking trip” after the aunt they’d been living with hit Virgil.

AO3 Tumblr

Remains of Memories: (Complete) Patton is about to graduate high school. As his life changes, he figures it’s time to confront some memories with the people he loves.

AO3 Tumblr

Touch Me Gently Universe:

Touch Me Gently: (Complete) He had a total of four soulmarks: not an unheard-of thing, but rather rare. There were purple fingerprints on his wrist, looking like a day-old bruise from where someone had grabbed him too hard. What his mother had seen when he’d entered the kitchen was actually two soulmarks that overlapped slightly: a light blue one that darkened his lips and a yellow handprint that covered the lower parts of his cheek and jaw. The ring finger and the tip of the pinkie hit his lip, mixing with the blue to look like a sickly greenish-yellow bruise. What his dad had seen peaking out of the top of his t-shirt was a dark blue mark in the shape of fingers around his neck. Roman had been overjoyed when he realized what the marks were after the initial confusion. His parents had been a little less enthusiastic. (Roman meets his soulmates one-by-one and it’s not at all what everyone assumed when they first saw his soulmarks.)

AO3 Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Bonus Features

Never a Chance to Hate You: (Complete) Logan picks Dee up for a date early in their relationship. Dee reflects on how his perceptions of his soulmates changed once he met them.

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Is There Anything Left of Patton? (Zombie AU; One-Shot Series)  (Complete)

Logan has a secret in his basement. Three months into living with him, Virgil finds that secret. He almost wishes the secret was a simple as he first thought it was. Almost. AO3 Link

Something Left

Someone You’ll Never Meet

Food You’ll Never Eat

Things You’ll Never Do

There are Things You Have Lost

There Are Things That Are Missing

And There is a Question

Is There Anything Left of Patton?

And There is an Answer

But What Does It Mean?

One More Dance  

One More Chance

When There Is Something Left 

Bonus Features   End Credit Scenes

Dilemmas (One-Shots Series)

“But that doesn’t make any sense!” he yelled.| “Patton,” Remus said evenly.|“It doesn’t!” he screamed turning on him viciously. “There’s a big difference between not being sad someone’s dead and… and… and no! No! I wouldn’t be okay with seeing someone I hated die. I wouldn’t!”| “Yes, you would,” Remus said, standing up himself. He pointed an accusatory finger at him. “You would! And you know you would! Do you think you are the only one who can get a read on another side when functions cross? Those thoughts in your head are my domain and I knew exactly what you were feeling when I asked that question!” Virgil was forcibly summoned immediately, eyes wide. Patton and Remus have a philosophical discussion and then will have to deal with the fall out. (AO3 Link)

Moral Dilemmas

Ethical Reasoning

The Dangers of Stereotypes 

When I Can Say I Love You: (Complete) In a world where their very existences are illegal, let alone their relationship, Patton and Logan share a moment discussing what they wish their world could be.

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The Horror of Stereotypes: (Complete) There had always been a certain stereotype about people like him for as long as anyone could remember. After the Heart War of 1963, those stereotypes had been legalized and places like this had been created to enforce the universal truth: everyone had a soulmate. One soulmate. No more and no less. At least they were supposed to. When Remus’s brother gets arrested because of his two soulmarks, Remus risks everything by infiltrating the facility he legally should be in as well due to his own two soulmates to save him. There he meets Logan and it turns out they have a lot in common: they both got hired this week, they both have two soulmates, and they’re both here for the same reason. Oh. And as it turns out, they’re each other’s soulmates too.

AO3 Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Bonus Features

Labeled Universe (A Superhero AU)

Sometimes Labels Fail: (Complete) Logan was good at labels, at categories. Logan sorted the citizens of his city into 6 different categories in his mind: heroes, villains, vigilantes, criminals, government authorities, and civilians, and knew how to deal with each. But… but what was he supposed to do with him. Virgil was just trying to survive, though he didn’t think the part of him that compelled him to throw himself into fights whenever he saw the superhero Bluebird struggling had gotten the memo. His English teacher was right; he really was stupid. When the villain criminal… when Shadow Caster gets injured while throwing himself into the line of fire for Logan, Logan can’t find it in himself to turn him over to be arrested. Luckily, he knows a doctor very, very well. Virgil is going to get kidnapped adopted by the end of it.

AO3 Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Bonus Features

Sometimes Labels Shift (Post Sometimes Labels Fail Stories)

Here’s a timeline for these fics with some commentary.

Mini Fic Series: One Two Three Four Five Six Seven Eight Nine Ten Eleven Twelve Thirteen Fourteen Fifteen Sixteen Seventeen Eighteen Nineteen Twenty Twenty-One Twenty-Two Twenty-Three

Two Dinner Plates: (Complete) A muscle ticked in Logan’s jaw and Virgil tried not to flinch. “We seem to be coming from fundamentally different philosophies on how food should be distributed in a family structure.” In which we finally actually talk about Virgil’s thing™ with food. It goes about how one would expect it to.

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Back to School: (Complete) It’s Virgil’s first day back to school after everything and he has some adjustments to make.Aka a blatant excuse to enact the hug Virgil initiative.

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Sticky Note Pandemonium: (Complete) There were also sticky notes on the kitchen counter, the refrigerator, Virgil’s backpack, and even the oven, not to mention every wall. There was even one sticky note stuck on Logan’s butt.His husband had gone on a rampage.

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Arguments and other ‘A’ Words: (Complete) Logan and Virgil have a row. Virgil’s new family has a weird way of fighting.

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The Things We Haven’t Talked About: (Complete) Patton and Logan have noticed some concerning behavior from Virgil in their month with him. Beyond the flinching and haunted look in his eyes courtesy of his last foster father, there’s something else of concern for Patton and Logan and they really aren’t equipped to deal with it. They enlist some help from a couple of friends.

AO3 Part 1 Part 2

Wind Symphony: (Complete) Patton and Logan are still trying to figure out how to be parents and are worried about strange behavior coming from their new son as of late. Logan takes measures to figure out what is wrong.

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Coffee and Cinnamon Rolls: (Complete)  Remy meets his best friend/bosses new child and immediately has the must protect at all cost urges.

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Virgil’s Birthday:  (Complete) Virgil has his first birthday with Logan and Patton and he’s going to get everything he ever wanted.

AO3 Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5

Punishments: (Complete) Virgil gets into a fight at school. At home, everyone has to deal with their individual hang ups when it comes to punishments.

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Family Game Night: (Complete) The boys have a nice family game night. Patton gets to deal with figuring out how to not let them cheat with their superpowers.

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Family Science Night: (Complete) Dumb science nerd father and his curiosity-killed-the-cat idiot child play with electricity and superpowers.

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We Need to Put a Bell on Virgil: (Complete) Patton and Logan lose Virgil.

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Pumpkins, Corn, and Caffeine: (Complete) Remy steals Virgil to take him to a pumpkin patch. (A Labeled Universe Fic)

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Vengeance is Soft: (Complete) Logan sighed. Patton was a wonderful man: kind, gentle, and empathetic. He listened and took into account other’s perspectives and feelings on every issue and always did his best to make people feel at east. Patton while sick was an absolute monster. | Patton’s friends and family deal with him while he’s sick and here’s the thing about Patton. Patton is a hypocrite.

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First Week Fics: A collection of fics about Virgil's first week with Logan and Patton in the Labeled Universe.

AO3 Part 1 Part 2

The Importance of Practice: (Complete) Virgil attempts to perform a simple light manipulation trick during training. He fails. (?)

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Lessons From a Book: (Complete) Virgil cannot get anywhere in his training. He guesses he finally manged to piss Logan off.

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Divestment of Childhood: (Complete) Now, the thing about Virgil was, he knew how to sneak out of a house in the middle of the night. He was very, very good at it. If sneaking out of places was something one could go to college for, Virgil could easily get a PhD. He knew all of the tricks. He did none of these things.Virgil runs away from home.

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Virgil’s Culinary Abilities: (Complete)  Patton’s running late so Virgil cooks dinner.

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Relabeled; Refiled (Prequels to Sometimes Labels Fail)

Coffee Shop Meet Cute: (Complete) Is this what falling in love felt like or was Patton just about to pass out from exhaustion? Patton and Logan’s first meeting in the Sometimes Labels Fail Universe.

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Coffee Shop Incident Report: (Complete) Patton and Logan’s first meeting in the Sometimes Labels Fail Universe, but what Logan put in his files about it afterwards.

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The Things We Never Mentioned: (Complete)  “Believe it or not, academia and relationships are not mutually exclusive.” That was likely true, Logan knew. It was also not the problem. The problem was his ability to move things with his mind, a blue suit he kept in his bag, and the mountains of red files he kept hidden in his apartment. No one knew that Logan was Bluebird, the cities resident superhero. He hadn’t even told his parents and he wasn’t planning on doing so. Sharing such a secret with anyone was a danger to everyone involved. He refused to do so. At the same time, he knew that starting a romantic relationship with anyone who didn’t know the truth, was unfair to that person. Inevitably they would find out and there would be a disastrous fallout, but beyond that, starting a relationship on a foundation of lies was a horribly cruel thing to do to another person. These two conflicting rules Logan followed had never posed an issue for him before recently, but…But he did like Patton.

AO3 Part 1 Part 2 Part 3

Logan’s 25 Step Plan to Ask a Boy Out: (Complete) “No! Logan look,” she said. “He likes you and you like him. You don’t need a list or a plan or schematics for this. Just walk up to him and ask him out before you hesitate so much that he thinks you don’t like him anymore.” | Logan’s eyes widened. “Is that something that can happen.” | “Oh god, this is hopeless.” | How is Logan so good at, but simultaneously so bad at this?

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Facts on White Chrysanthemums: (Complete) Logicality first kiss in the Labeled Universe.

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Gaps in His Files: (Complete) Logan Berry has learned many things the last 10 years: a lot of math and physics, a bit of humility, and how to be a hero being just a few. Through his education, his experience teaching, and his exploits as the superhero Bluebird, he’s changed in a lot of small and large ways. He has recorded these changes in well-organized documents and files. He’s even had to create two new file designations: a red one for files about his moonlighting at Bluebird, and a light blue one dedicated to his boyfriend, Patton.When Bluebird is targeted by a memory device and all of those 10 years of progress suddenly disappear, Patton Sanders and Logan’s extensive files are left as his only resource to get those memories back. But what is Patton supposed to do when there are clear gaps in his files? And what does he do when he is one of them?

AO3 Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8 Part 9 Part 10 Part 11 Part 12 Part 13 Part 14 Epilogue

Remy’s Follow Up Questions: (Complete)  Remy sees Patton for the first time after the closet freak out.

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First Anniversary: Logan and Patton go on a trip for their first anniversary.

AO3 Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5

Board Games: (Complete) “You’re really going to seduce me to win a monopoly game?” he asked.  | “Is it working?” Logan likes to cheat at board games. Especially at Monopoly.

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The Origin Story of a Yapping Mop: (Complete) Virgil was not the first living creature Logan carried in his arms to Patton. This is how they ended up with a dog.

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Illusory Records (Janus’ story (with a lot of Remus))

A Life That is Yours: (Complete) Decades before he was known the well-known and semi-respected vigilante Deceit, Janus makes a choice. He hopes it is good for the both of them.

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Deceit’s Follow Up Questions: (Complete) So what, if his actions could possibly be construed to look like they were in some way related to helping Bluebird. Maybe an outside might think he was in some way angry about what had happened to the superhero, but that wasn’t what was happening. It just… hit a nerve; it wasn’t a big deal. It did not mean he liked the man. It barely meant he respected him. Ugh. When had he started respecting a superhero?

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Illusions of Grandeur… Or Perhaps Just Illusions: Remus is training to be an undercover super-agent, but training is boring. So, being Remus he… finds some “fun” (read trouble) with the city’s resident vigilante.

AO3 Part 1

Other

Party Time Boredom: (Complete) Emile is bored at a party, but Bluebird suggests he go talk to a boy.

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Roll the Dice Event

1. Buckets of Roses: (Complete) As far as anyone knew, Logan was supposed to be in class right now. Which begs the question of why and how Roman is now in his room with him. (“And now that I have explained why I am currently in my own dorm room, would you care to explain why you are here?” “Not, um, not particularly.”)

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2. Touch Me Gently: (Complete) He had a total of four soulmarks: not an unheard-of thing, but rather rare. There were purple fingerprints on his wrist, looking like a day-old bruise from where someone had grabbed him too hard. What his mother had seen when he’d entered the kitchen was actually two soulmarks that overlapped slightly: a light blue one that darkened his lips and a yellow handprint that covered the lower parts of his cheek and jaw. The ring finger and the tip of the pinkie hit his lip, mixing with the blue to look like a sickly greenish-yellow bruise. What his dad had seen peaking out of the top of his t-shirt was a dark blue mark in the shape of fingers around his neck. Roman had been overjoyed when he realized what the marks were after the initial confusion. His parents had been a little less enthusiastic. (Roman meets his soulmates one-by-one and it’s not at all what everyone assumed when they first saw his soulmarks.)

AO3 Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Bonus Features

3. Markups: (Complete) Roman leered down at him, clearly incredibly pleased with himself. “You,” he said as Logan did his best to swallow down the rest of his laughter, “have been criticizing my work all day. Which is basically like you’ve been criticizing me. So…why don’t I return the favor?” He wiggled the uncapped pen in front of Logan’s nose. “You wouldn’t dare,” Logan said lowly. (Logan and Roman do some editing.)

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4. Moral Dilemmas: (Complete) “But that doesn’t make any sense!” he yelled.| “Patton,” Remus said evenly.|“It doesn’t!” he screamed turning on him viciously. “There’s a big difference between not being sad someone’s dead and… and… and no! No! I wouldn’t be okay with seeing someone I hated die. I wouldn’t!”| “Yes, you would,” Remus said, standing up himself. He pointed an accusatory finger at him. “You would! And you know you would! Do you think you are the only one who can get a read on another side when functions cross? Those thoughts in your head are my domain and I knew exactly what you were feeling when I asked that question!” Virgil was forcibly summoned immediately, eyes wide. Patton and Remus have a philosophical discussion and then will have to deal with the fall out.

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5. You I’ll Come Back For: (Complete) They’d met in a jail cell, you see, but unlike now Patton had not been anywhere near trapped, not that Virgil had been aware of that fact. He’d just seen his sweet little cell mate who’d clearly not done anything to deserve being on that side of the bars. Virgil had said “What did you do to get stuck in this joint?” and Patton had started crying. It had taken zero lies and five hours for Patton to coax out the information he’d needed. He’d thought when he’d pranced up to the bars and told Roman he was ready to leave that the absolutely astonished expression which was quickly slipping into fury would be the last thing he’d ever see of the man whose crimes numbered enough to keep him in prison for the rest of his life. He’d escaped during his transfer to federal prison.

AO3 Part 1 Part 2 Part 3

6. The Horror of Stereotypes: (Complete) There had always been a certain stereotype about people like him for as long as anyone could remember. After the Heart War of 1963, those stereotypes had been legalized and places like this had been created to enforce the universal truth: everyone had a soulmate. One soulmate. No more and no less. At least they were supposed to. When Remus’s brother gets arrested because of his two soulmarks, Remus risks everything by infiltrating the facility he legally should be in as well due to his own two soulmates to save him. There he meets Logan and it turns out they have a lot in common: they both got hired this week, they both have two soulmates, and they’re both here for the same reason. Oh. And as it turns out, they’re each other’s soulmates too.

AO3 Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Bonus Features

7. Remains of Memories: (Complete) Patton is about to graduate high school. As his life changes, he figures it’s time to confront some memories with the people he loves.

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8. Tea, Cookies, and Handcuffs: (Complete) Logan finds a strange man on his property and of course invites him in for tea.

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9. A Mystery in a Mask (but Not Out of It): (Complete) Roman accidentally sleeps with a co-worker, but since his job is being a superhero and they all wear mask, he’s not sure which co-worker. Also Patton got kidnapped.

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10. Pumpkins, Corn, and Caffeine: (Complete) Remy steals Virgil to take him to a pumpkin patch. (A Labeled Universe Fic)

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11. Where Ghosts Live: (Complete) Logan meets three ghosts on the way to his destination. All of them have different things to say.

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12. The Death of Benji (Complete) A crime has been committed in the mindscape. Patton and Janus investigate. Virgil semi-reluctantly helps.

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[kmomof4]

For the fic-writer meme: all of them! 😁 and if you wanna pick five to ask Hollye, I’ll ask the other five lol 😂😘

HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!! Our secret is out!!! Yes, @hollyethecurious you were right! We conspired to get you to answer all 10 of the questions!!! There is more than one way to de-fur a feline, dontcha know! 😁

Anywho... Hollye also asked for #6, and @snowbellewells asked for 5, 7, 8, and 10.

I’m sorry it took me so long to get to these. It’s been a busy week and I really had to think about some of these! But without further ado, here we go! Under the cut, unless Tumblr ate it.

1. What’s your personal favorite thing you wrote this year? 

My personal favorite fic I wrote this year is a tie between Of Darkness, Vampires, and Soulmates, The Moon... Tells the Sea, and State of Emergency: Code White. The first two both written for last summers CSSNS. I don’t have to tell you, Kayla, how much I loved your artwork that inspired TMTtS, but that fic was just so EASY to write. Your artwork just told the whole story and all I had to do was write it down. I want to say that it only took me a couple of weeks to write, once I really sat down and started writing, in the midst of lockdown and the school year coming to a close. And then had to wait like 6wks or something to post it!!!! That was REALLY tough!!! ODVS is a favorite because I loved the premise so much and how hard it was to actually write it. I started working on it in earnest in November of last year, but didn’t finish it until April. I came dangerously close to giving up on it several times but @hollyethecurious and @profdanglaisstuff were the ones who made sure I didn’t. So just by sheer fact of what it took me to finish it makes it a favorite. And finally SoE: CW was a favorite because I wanted to write it for a year before I finally sat down to do it. And while it was hard in that it was entirely out of my own head, I was so happy with how it turned out.

2. What’s your least favorite thing you wrote this year?

Least favorite fic was probably Chosen, Protected, & Saved, written for the CS Movie Marathon.  I wasn’t finished with it when my posting date came around, and so I feel like the ending floundered a bit. I wasn’t overly thrilled with it.

3. Which of your fics was most different from what you usually write?

I will have to say Of Darkness, Vampires, and Soulmates, linked above. Just about everything I had written up to that point was inspired and/or heavily influenced by some other type of media, either book, movie, or show canon. This was really the first fic that came entirely out of my own head. I don’t really count Arise, My Love because it was basically PWP, just with vampires. This was the first fully fleshed out and plot driven fic out of my own head. There we go, that’s better. It was also the darkest thing I had, and still have, ever written.

4. Which of your fics this year was most successful?

By kudos on ao3, The Moon... Tells the Sea, linked above, sitting at 75. I’m not gonna try and determine the most successful on Tumblr...

5. Which of your fics do you wish was more successful?

I wish that Of Darkness, Vampires, and Soulmates, linked above, had been more successful. Of all the fics I’ve written, that one was the hardest and took the longest to write. So I wish that more people had read and enjoyed it. But I also know that supernatural and vampire fics aren’t on a lot of folks “must read” lists, so I try to keep a balance between that wish and that knowledge.

6. What’s your favorite piece of dialogue you wrote this year?

Off the top of my head, I’d have to say this scene from Ch2 of Chosen, Protected, & Saved, linked above. This scene in the movie, The Golden Child, is what inspired the entire fic.  

Emma and Killian somehow made it through customs with the dagger after arriving back in the States. The only thing they could figure was that since the dagger itself was magical, it was magically shielded from anyone but magic wielders.  As they exited the arrivals gate, he startled when he spied the man from his dream, the Dark One, coming toward him followed by several Boston police officers. He sauntered towards them, making a show of the gold tipped cane he carried. He was dressed differently than in his dream with a long greatcoat, in what looked like crocodile skin. Killian felt a chill run down his spine. The coat matches his smile, he thought.

“That’s the man. Killian Jones. If he doesn’t return my property, I want him arrested.”

Killian’s heart raced. He drew Emma’s attention to their adversary as his mind furiously tried to figure out how to get out of the coming confrontation. An idea came to him suddenly and he elbowed Emma, whispering to her to let him do the talking.

“Welcome home, Mr. Jones. You have something for me?” he asked, holding out his hand with a smug smile on his face.

Killian stared into the face that he had only seen in a dream. He looked at Emma, naked fear on her face, at the cops behind the Dark One, and then back at the man or demon before him. He couldn’t help the smirk that broke over his face as he anticipated playing the Dark One like a fiddle.

“I’m sorry, Rumple,” he loudly lamented, reaching for the lapels of the man before him. The Dark One stared at him, utterly taken aback. It only took a moment however, before his face grew red with extreme irritation as Killian released him and turned toward the crowded terminal. “Everyone,” he shouted, drawing the attention of all the people hurrying to catch their flights, “I should be punished. I have stolen from my brother, Rumple.” The Dark One’s jaw clenched with annoyance as Killian continued with his theatrics. Emma looked at him as if he’d lost his mind. “Officer,” he continued, pointing at the officers behind the Dark One, “It is your duty to take me in. Please,” he moved toward them holding his wrists out in front of himself, “I am ashamed of myself. I should be arrested.” He walked down the line of officers. “I should be flogged. I don’t deserve to walk among free men.”

Killian repeated his tirade until the Dark One grabbed his arm, motioning toward the officers in a placating manner. “Let me have a word with him, please.”

Killian felt himself being pulled away from the officers, so he turned his attention to Emma and raised his voice once again.

“Emma, I am a swine. You must know what kind of man I am, before we go any further in our dalliance. I am a wretch. I don’t deserve to live.” He winked at her and saw her fear and confusion morph into reluctant amusement. She shook her head as the corner of her mouth lifted in half a smile. He finally turned toward the furious Dark One before him.

“How long do you think you can keep up this miserable masquerade?” he hissed, his eyes blazing with his wrath.

“Well, until I get arrested.” He grinned cockily at him. “Or until you realize the rules of evidence in this country.” The Dark One raised his head slightly and Killian could just see a trace of unease in his eyes. He turned serious. “See, if I get arrested, they take me and put me in a jail cell. And then they take the knife, because it’s a stolen object, and they put that in a little room, and they put ‘Exhibit A,’ a little sticker that says ‘Exhibit A’ on it.” He mimed putting a sticker on something. “And the knife sits in a room and I sit in my room until the trial commences. And that can be anywhere from a month to a year. So if you get me arrested, there’s no telling when you will get your knife.” Killian broke into a wide grin at having the upper hand, thoroughly enjoying himself as he watched a vein pulse in the Dark One’s forehead. He could just imagine what the demon’s blood pressure was at this moment.

“You have no idea who I am, have you?” he sneered.

“Why, yes,” he exclaimed. “You’re my brother Rumple!” He let out an amused chuckle as the Dark One struggled to keep his rage under control. “Look, I know exactly who you are,” Killian’s eyes turned hard and his easy going smile disappeared, “Dark One.” The man before him nearly turned white in fury. Killian’s heart skipped a beat, but he plowed ahead, his own anger coming to the surface. “But, here’s the thing. I. Don’t. Care.” He punctuated each word with a poke to the demon’s chest. “I do care that you kidnapped Henry, though.”

“I could destroy you,” he snapped his fingers in the air, “just like that.”

Killian’s eyebrow raised in bored amusement. “Well, we’ll see about that.” He turned and looked back over at Emma and the officers still waiting off to the side. “Look, I am not going to be giving you this knife. And you do not want to get me arrested. And I will find Henry,” he sneered and snapped his fingers in the Dark One’s face, “just like that.” He patted the demon’s cheek. “See you soon.” He turned back toward the crowd, all smiles and held his arms out as if he wanted to embrace them all. “My brother has forgiven me! Emma, Brother Rumple has forgiven me!” He turned back to the seething Dark One and clapped him on the shoulder in an awkward embrace. “Dear Brother, thank you, thank you, thank you.” He then kissed him loudly on the cheek in a final taunt before releasing him and leading Emma into the crowd.

7. What’s your favorite piece of description or narration?

@searchingwardrobes betaed The Moon... Tells the Sea, linked above, and she told me that it was the most descriptive thing I’d ever written. That comment put me OVER THE MOON. And when I went back and read it the other day, I had to agree. I spent a lot of time describing the woods, Emma and Killian in their wolf forms, and just the general setting. It was so gratifying to hear that from a fellow author that I GREATLY admire and enjoy. I am also very proud of the Prologue of Chosen, Protected, & Saved, linked above, when I described Henry’s room before he is kidnapped.

8. Which fic this year was most fun to write?

I’d have to say that I had the most fun writing either The Moon... Tells the Sea, linked above, or the second chapter of Somewhere Out There. They were both relatively easy to write and I loved how they both turned out.

9. If you could go back and change something about one of the fics you wrote this year, what would it be?

I would change the circumstances around posting Chosen, Protected, and Saved and I’d probably work on the final battle more. I just wasn’t that happy with it.  

10. What, if anything, are you going to try to do differently in your writing in the new year?

I’m gonna try and make more time to write. Since writing Chosen, Protected, & Saved, linked above, I’ve hardly written anything. I love reading and flailing more than anything so writing is very easy to set aside when I’ve got a lot of reading on my agenda, but I’m also bad about putting it on a back burner when RL comes calling. I think just setting the boundary of “I’m gonna write for one hour today” would go a long way toward keeping my mood up and help me get the fics I’ve got notes on in my docs actually written and posted. So we’ll see how that goes.

Thank you all for the asks @allons-y-to-hogwarts-713, @hollyethecurious, and @snowbellewells! Love y'all!!! 😘

[kayliemusing]

30

1: Name - Kaylie

2: Age - 23

3: 3 Fears - Spiders, failure, loss

4: 3 things I love - Reading, writing, Taylor Swift

5: 4 turns on - Kindness, nice hands, humor, someone who has a really warm heart.

6: 4 turns off - Arrogance, moustaches lmao, narcissism, basket ball shorts *shudders*

7: My best friend - Her name is Megan (but also my mom lmao)

8: Sexual orientation - Heterosexual

9: My best first date - I have never been on a date.

10: How tall am I - 5'2

11: What do I miss - My childhood mostly

12: What time were I born - 2:45 pm

13: Favorite color - Red, but sometimes a nice summery, pastel yellow

14: Do I have a crush - no

15: Favorite quote - I have so many that I can't say my utmost favourite, but one that I always think about is from Richard Siken "He was pointing at the moon but I was looking at his hand." I'm not even sure how this is supposed to be interpreted, but I just love the detail of this. Of someone looking at the moon and pointing at it, but you're looking at their hand because you're that consumed by them and also they're like your moon. anyway-

16: Favorite place - My house lol

17: Favorite food - Cheesecake

18: Do I use sarcasm - Yes, but very dryly

19: What am I listening to right now - Nothing actually. I'm just sitting in the quiet.

20: First thing I notice in new person - I used to think it was physical, like eyes or their smile, but I think it's actually their demeanor. i.e., confidence, if they're laid back, talkative or quiet, etc. Or even just how they handle things. Like when I'm at work and I meet a new co-worker I'm always noticing how they are with people.

21: Shoe size - 6.5 US but I can manage a 7 US too.

22: Eye color - Grey

23: Hair color - Ashy blonde, but I usually get it highlighted to be a brighter blonde

24: Favorite style of clothing - I'm super into the French girl vibe right now (elegany, classy, ribbed sweaters tucked into high waisted jeans or dress pants, a blazer thrown over and a nice gold necklace) but I'm also really into a summery boho look (flowy maxi dresses and skirts)

25: Ever done a prank call? No

27: Meaning behind my URL - On this account, it's just my name and then 'muses' because this account is just me talking to myself tbh. My main account is called autumnsletters which is just a combo of my fav things: autumn and handwritten love letters, and finally, my embarrassing taylor swift account is called sixteenavenue which is a lyric from her song I Think He Knows where she mentions her heart skipping down sixteenth avenue.

28: Favorite movie - I feel like i don't have one answer bc I always have a different answer to this question lmao. I think it's called A Christmas Carol (the 2009 version w/ Jim Carrey). It just makes me feel cozy and warm inside. Also: Clueless.

29: Favorite song - All Too Well by Taylor Swift I think.

30: Favorite band - Of Monsters and Men

31: How I feel right now - I actually feel really happy today, which is a change lol. I had an awful week last week, but over the last couple of days I've just felt more creative and happier.

32: Someone I love - My mom

33: My current relationship status - Single

34: My relationship with my parents - Excellent.

35: Favorite holiday - Christmas

36: Tattoos and piercing i have -0 :'(

37: Tattoos and piercing i want - I want to get my ears pierced again bc the holes grew over. Low key want a nose piericing and low key want a tattoo on my collarbone (or somewhere around there)

38: The reason I joined Tumblr - Because everyone else had it and I felt left out LOL

39: Do I and my last ex hate each other? - I don't have an ex

40: Do I ever get “good morning” or “good night ” texts? - No

41: Have I ever kissed the last person you texted? - No i've never been kissed rip

42: When did I last hold hands? - never but it's ok bc i can hold my own hand

43: How long does it take me to get ready in the morning? - Depending on what I'm doing. If I showered the night before and I'm just doing a very low-maintenance look, roughly 15-20 mins. On a normal day in which I shower in the morning and am trying to actually be presentable, roughly an hour.

44: Have I shaved your legs in the past three days? - Have YOU shaved MY legs? No. Have I shaved my own? Yes

45: Where am I right now? - My room

46: If I were drunk & can’t stand, who’s taking care of me? - Most likely I'm not drunk, but IF I WAS, it would be my friend, my mom, or my sister (my sister would probs make fun of me and film me tho tbh)

47: Do I like my music loud or at a reasonable level? - Loud if I'm jamming with nothing else to do but sing along. If I'm trying to do something, I'll turn it down bc I can't focus with loud music (especially if I'm trying to write something/talk to someone/text someone)

48: Do I live with my Mom and Dad? - My mom bc my dads dead

49: Am I excited for anything? - My sister and I are going to Banff in about three weeks so I'm excited for a getaway.

50: Do I have someone of the opposite sex I can tell everything to? - No

51: How often do I wear a fake smile? - I work in retail so

52: When was the last time I hugged someone? - I don't know. I think I hugged my mom at some point this week lol

53: What if the last person I kissed was kissing someone else right in front of me? - Bye bye babyyyy

54: Is there anyone I trust even though I should not? - my cat

55: What is something I disliked about today? - I had to go to work

56: If I could meet anyone on this earth, who would it be? - Taylor Alison Swift baby

57: What do I think about most? - Probably Taylor Swift.

58: What’s my strangest talent? - I can make stomach gurgling noises with my mouth closed.

59: Do I have any strange phobias? - Nah, pretty generic ones

60: Do I prefer to be behind the camera or in front of it? - Behind the camera

61: What was the last lie I told? - Some lady asked if a product was good and I said yes so I wouldn't have to help her find another one

62: Do I prefer talking on the phone or video chatting online? - Neither what the hell

63: Do I believe in ghosts? How about aliens? - Neither

64: Do I believe in magic? - No

65: Do I believe in luck? - No

66: What's the weather like right now? - It's calm, but a little cloudy. It was really warm and sunny earlier, but it's gotten a little grey.

67: What was the last book I've read? - I just finished this series called The Winner's Curse by Marie Rutkoski and it was so good but so stressful omg. Still 5/5 stars.

68: Do I like the smell of gasoline? - Yes

69: Do I have any nicknames? - Not really, but sometimes my coworkers call my Kayls

70: What was the worst injury I've ever had? - Oh my god when I was like 10 I fell during grounders and the bar hit me right on the cooch. Most painful event of my entire life.

71: Do I spend money or save it? - Spend it bitch

72: Can I touch my nose with a tongue? - No

73: Is there anything pink in 10 feet from me? - yes!! my blanket!!

74: Favorite animal? - I love hippos and I don't know why.

75: What was I doing last night at 12 AM? - Reading on my phone to avoid sleeping so I could prolong not going to work

76: What do I think is Satan’s last name is? - Devil. Kind of like Satan The Devil is his full name

77: What’s a song that always makes me happy when I hear it? - Shake It Off

78: How can you win my heart? - Learning Taylor Swift's entire discography for my sake

79: What would I want to be written on my tombstone? - tbh I really don't know

80: What is my favorite word? - Wonderstruck

81: My top 5 blogs on tumblr - n/a

82: If the whole world were listening to me right now, what would I say? - stream fearless taylor's version

83: Do I have any relatives in jail? - no

84: I accidentally eat some radioactive vegetables. They were good, and what’s even cooler is that they endow me with the super-power of my choice! What is that power? - Healing

85: What would be a question I’d be afraid to tell the truth on? - N/A

86: What is my current desktop picture? - it's a misty forest

87: Had sex? - no

88: Bought condoms? - no

89: Gotten pregnant? - no

90: Failed a class? - yes

91: Kissed a boy? - no

92: Kissed a girl? - no

93: Have I ever kissed somebody in the rain? - no but it's a dream

94: Had a job? - I've had two so far

95: Left the house without my wallet? - Yes, sometimes I do it on purpose so I can make my mom pay for something lmao (chill i'm talking something small like candy)

96: Bullied someone on the internet? - no

97: Had sex in public? - no

98: Played on a sports team? - no

99: Smoked weed? - no

100: Did drugs? - no

101: Smoked cigarettes? - no

102: Drank alcohol? - yes

103: Am I a vegetarian/vegan? - no

104: Been overweight? - I feel overweight, but technically no

105: Been underweight? - No

106: Been to a wedding? - Yes

107: Been on the computer for 5 hours straight? - Yes, but not since I was younger. I'm mostly on my phone now.

108: Watched TV for 5 hours straight? - Oh yeah lmao

109: Been outside my home country? - No

110: Gotten my heart broken? - Yes

111: Been to a professional sports game? - No

112: Broken a bone? - No

113: Cut myself? - Yes

114: Been to prom? - Sort of. I'm Canadian so I had grad.

115: Been in airplane? - No

116: Fly by helicopter? - No

117: What concerts have I been to? - Jonas Brothers when I was about 10 lmao and Marianas Trench when I was 15

118: Had a crush on someone of the same sex? - No

119: Learned another language? - Tried to

120: Wore make up? - Yes. I do work at a makeup store.

121: Lost my virginity before I was 18? - no

122: Had oral sex? - no

123: Dyed my hair? - not a funky color, no

124: Voted in a presidential election? - Sort of; I voted for a prime minister

125: Rode in an ambulance? - Yes

126: Had a surgery? - No

127: Met someone famous? - No

128: Stalked someone on a social network? - No

129: Peed outside? - No

130: Been fishing? - No

131: Helped with charity? - Yes

132: Been rejected by a crush? - No bc I never fessed up to any crush lol

133: Broken a mirror? - No

134: What do I want for birthday? - A jewelry box

[drawing-way-outside-the-lines]

2020 Simblr Goals

I was tagged by @thornsofpeace​ and @studiok2sims​ thanks guys! :) Actually I didn’t know Thorns had tagged me until after I deleted my blog?

I totally take the chance to turn this into my New Years post, and also to turn it into an explanation post.

So here we go:

Last week I was once again fiddling to try to make everything fit on my old blog. But the more I tried to cram everything in, the more tags I was deleting, and the more I felt like my blog was turning into too small pants after a Christmas dinner! Through December it had been harder and harder to find space for me on my own blog, and I was finding it difficult to force myself to enjoy my Tumblr time. And it shouldn’t be like that, forcing. The last push was when I saw I was tagged in this 2020 tag thing, as I sat down to analyze what I wanted to do for the upcoming year with my blog, I realized I was a completely different place now as a Simblr, than I was at the start of 2019 when I made my Enchandycorn blog, after Enchantedunicornhideout was sucked up in Titty Jail, back in December 2018.

I realized that to be able to do my Simblr the way it would fit me now, I had to make some major changes, which would make me lose old tags.... or I could start over. The last one seemed to reason more with me, and cause lest OCD, so I simply hit the delete button, before I could chicken out and get stuck with limiting myself within the frames that were now too small for me and my blog. I apologize that I “left” without a word, but it was that or I would chicken-shit it X10 and never do what had to be done. I have spent a couple days setting up this new blog, and yeah.... lots of old stuff will be reposted... lots of new as well.... Lots of people I somehow have to remember and refollow... but it’s all good. New year, new start, new Simblr. So without further ado... I wish a most wonderful twentytwenty to all of y’all, and I hope the year will treat you as nice as possible, and that we will share lots of fun times on Tumblr... if Tumblr lets us! As for my 2020 goals: 1) Finish building up my Woeford AU gameplay game

2) Actually play my Woeford AU game

3) At some point start up two other worlds I wanna play

4) Return to my never ending project of giving everyone houses in my “main storyline”

5) Collaborate on something?

6) Figure if this is the year I finally share some of my story on a more serious level, not just bits and pieces every 6 months?

7) Learn to convert and/or mesh

Not tagging anyone since I don’t really follow any at the moment, but if you see this, and want to do it... feel tagged by me! And for being such great followers through 2019.....

Thank you guys!

[loquaciousquark]

Talks Machina Highlights - Critical Role C2E56 (March 26, 2019)

Gooooood evening, everyone. @eponymous-rose is taking a well-deserved break, so I’m stepping in to ruin reputations and botch direct quotations all over the place. Here to give us the appropriate gravitas and fear for the evening is the Chamber of Chairs:

Tonight’s guests: Liam O’Brien & Marisha Ray. Dani flips Liam off to start the show and it’s pretty funny. “What did I doooo?”

Tonight’s announcements: Last night was the season finale of Between the Sheets, featuring Ashly Burch, who is shockingly short in person. The VOD’s up for subscribers now, and it’ll be posted on YT tomorrow for everyone else. The Ashley Johnson episode will be up soon! Yay! Remember, no new episode of CR this week, and no new episode of TM next Tuesday as a result. Normal CR broadcasting resumes April 4. The Kickstarter hit $8 million today. Liam: “Oh boy oh boy oh boy it’s fine it’s fine IT’S FINE.” The final goal is $8.8m with 23 days to go, and a behind-the-scenes filming of the theme song was posted today on the KS. The video’s actually pretty cool & features Ashley in a feather boa!

Anyway! Episode 56: The Favor

CR Stats! This was the shortest episode of this campaign at 2h19m15s of gameplay. Only Shopping and Shipping from C1 was shorter. This episode tied for the fewest spells cast in one episode (six) and all were cast by Caleb. Over the 44 episodes & 136 days the M9 had the dodecahedron, they gained 25 fragments of possibility and actually utilized 13. 

Liam and Marisha talk about having a timer in the office: “It has been 27 days since the last Holy Fuck ending.”

None of them thought Matt was going to cut it off at that point, but when he explained he wanted Taliesin there for the next part, it made sense to all of them & they all agreed it was for the best.

Beau has four thousand thoughts racing through her head right now. One of them is excitement about getting to learn the Kryn more, but she’s also terrified. Henry interrupts with the most adorable baying howl and he walks offstage. What a good pupper.

Liam describes the moment as everyone frozen in amber as they wait for the next episode. Beau will figure out something to her advantage between now and then.

Marisha likens this moment to the Emon attack and the Lorenzo fight with Molly in terms of emotional shock. Brian remembers Sam was in a tux that night; Marisha: “I knew it was going to be a funeral tux.”

There’s another question about how Marisha/Beau feels about the dodeca handoff, and both Liam and Marisha start laughing about how this entire TM episode is just going to be about the ramifications of Caleb’s decision. Liam: “No regrets,” but he understands there’s going to be a lot of fallout. They talk about how the ramifications will depend on how public the Krynn make their gift: will it be parades in the streets, a handshake and dismissal from a private room, etc? What if there was a Dairon-type spy in the room who’ll tell people they don’t want to know about their actions? They’re eager and afraid to see the fallout.

Brian points out everyone could see on Travis’s face he would rather have gone to jail, but further discussion is derailed by questions.

The group had discussed the possibility of handing off the dodecahedron in the past, but he hadn’t considered ever handing it off until the last sixty seconds when “everything was going to shit. It was more mathematical than anything. It felt a lot like Avantika. We’ve got a plan, the plan’s broken, but we can get away, no, we can’t get away, now this is changing--I don’t want someone outside our group to control the situation if I can act first, if I can punch first. Everyone’s trying to negotiate and it’s failing, I don’t want to give up this thing either, I don’t want to die, I don’t want to die, here’s--this.” Caleb wanted to save the group. He wouldn’t have taken the gamble even two minutes earlier. Then, suddenly as it began to work, he & Caleb began realizing that not only did it work, but it worked very well and now his brain had split into two: “oh, thank God, I care about these people, I can save them,” and “how do I use this to my advantage.”

Caleb was quiet through most of this episode because he really wanted to discuss several things in private with other group members--that’s what he was thinking about for most of this.

Dani points out everyone expected physical travel between this fight & the audience with the queen where there would be downtime to discuss things. None of them expected immediate teleportation.

If Beau had been in a position to stop Caleb from giving up the beacon, she would not have stopped him.

Beau was wincing as Nott & Jester asked questions they should have already known the answers to. Liam points out it’s the war room in Dr. Strangelove--only the most powerful people would have been there. Beau dislikes authority but doesn’t think she’s stupid enough to have gotten herself seen as an obvious traitor.

Everyone revels in Matt’s Caduceus impression.

GIF of the Week: Liam pulling the dodeca out of the haversack by Will D. Brian singsongs “Travis is tilted~, Travis is tilted, look at his face~” over the GIF playing. Haaaaaahaha, poor Travis.

Liam: “I think I’m just in the shithouse.” Marisha: “You blew the shit whistle.”

Brief hilarious aside where they discuss Tetanus Terry (ft. on Travis Willingham’s YeeHaw Game Ranch) & Caleb Widogast getting fully replaced by Terry as a backup character if he gets assassinated.

On a scale of 1-10, Beau is following Dairon’s advice to a 7. She’s trying not to get attached, not to die, to listen, to not get impatient, to not be biased. She’s probably going to get closer to people than Dairon would suggest, but thinks she’s trying pretty hard.

It wasn’t cathartic for Caleb to renounce the Empire like this. His parents were very pro-Empire, and now that he’s on this journey to atone for his parents’ deaths, he’s done exactly the last thing his parents ever, ever wanted him to do--walked into the heart of the enemy and gave them everything they wanted. (Brian, Liam, & Dani briefly rag on Tumblr still having faint life somewhere. “Female-presenting nipples” comes up. It’s funny and also very sad.)

Brian discusses how it’s a big moment, but it’s not a victory for the group. Caleb was just shooting for a short-term immediate solution. Marisha: “It feels like a sitcom bait-and-switch. Nah, it’s cool, guys, we’re gonna pretend to be waiters and we’ll sneak into the kitchen,” but then they sneak into the kitchen and the cook laughs that the sous-chef is out today, and “now we’re in over our heads!”

Brian reveals dramatically that last night he came out as a supporter of Liam for President of D&D Beyond. Liam: “Beneath all the chicanery & hair product, there is common sense."

Liam & Marisha talk about the difference between Nott/Caleb’s original first podunk jail and this potential maximum security prison.

Caleb imagined the BDSM straps over his shirt and coat. Apparently most of the fanart generated this week has failed to include them. 

Both Marisha & Liam VEHEMENTLY agree they hated not being able to be main parts of the Brightqueen talks. They also talk about how they both are far better at CHA than Nott & Jester, though they point out in fairness that Matt’s told them he always adjusts the social DCs based on the arguments they make.

As far as the slavery part of the disguise, Marisha: “Marisha has laughed at every piece of fanart. Beau was surprised. Beau’s gonna have a talk.” She (Beau) felt they had discussed the costumes, the pretense--but not the bullying & active degradation her group put her through. It was huge, an eye-opening moment for Beau in a way she (Beau & Marisha) absolutely did not expect. She never thought they would abuse their status over her in that way.

They discuss how on a meta sense, they all knew that the scene was just Travis and Laura trolling them and having fun at their expense, but at the same time it’s still happening in game and will have in-game consequences. Marisha: “It’s like at a party where your good friend starts getting a little too drunk and starts making fun of you a little too much--it’s a little too real.”

That said, one of Marisha’s favorite fanarts from this week was Beau (as a table) swearing under her breath at Jester with her feet up. It’s an interesting juxtaposition.

Fanart of the Week: The Brightqueen by Nikki Dawes.

Beau does not feel she’s betrayed anyone by being present at this event. She knows where her allegiances lie, so just because this happened doesn’t mean it’s changed anything about what she believes. That said, she has no love for the Empire. She’s very personal with whom she cares about. She doesn’t have as much obvious disdain as Caleb does--she’s just more indifferent.

Caleb has a high CHA that he just doesn’t use anymore, because the people he knew with high CHA that used it did so to do bad things. Liam thinks when Caleb was young he was very gifted, charming, and attracted people to him; now it’s all gone. He can hold it together like a sandcastle by the tide for an hour, but in the end it always washes away.

On Nott speaking for the group: Marisha always likes hearing Sam talk. In some ways Marisha felt it was the same thing she used to get for Keyleth-- "why are you talking? You shouldn’t be talking. You shouldn’t be the talker.” Everyone should have their own voice, regardless of the scores on the page. “Your stats are there to influence the effects of what happens; they’re not the Bible. They’re not law.” She reminds us Vex once entered an arm-wrestling contest with a strength of 7.

How does Beau feel now that Caleb’s made another huge decision without consulting the rest of the M9 (i.e. Bowlgate)? It’ll play out in game. It’s a big deal. Liam admits he loves it. “The whole point is conflict resolution, so you need conflict.” He loves things like this, like the Astrid letter, because it opens opportunities to explore characters. In some ways it’s the same thing: they were in an impossible situation and Caleb sees it as protecting his friends, but that’s not how it read to anyone else. Marisha points out that once again he made himself the authority to make this huge decision without discussing it with anyone else in the group.

Marisha and Liam start talking about the decision more, decide it should wait for the game, but then keep talking despite themselves. Marisha points out that on top of his (once-again) unilateral decision, his speech was also framed selfishly (”I did this thing, I brought this back to you,”). To her, it still feels like the same thing with Caleb deciding things with major consequences for the rest of the group without their input, though she admits it’s colored by their (Beau’s & Caleb’s) history. Liam talks about how in the moment he was scared of deception checks, so he just tried to be as truthful as possible--nothing he said was false because he was only speaking for himself. He could not have spoken for the group & still been truthful. It’s a really interesting dichotomous discussion, both of them talking about what they felt in the moment versus how it came across to everyone else.

Liam feels it’s more like seeing someone dying in front of them & wasting time discussing whether they should do CPR or not, rather than him making decisions for the whole group. Marisha’s face obviously disagrees (so do I, ahaha). Liam also thought they were going to continue the episode & talk more, which would have kept it from being as much about him. This is gonna be super interesting when it actually plays out, for sure.

Once again, no new CR this Thursday or TM next Tuesday. Most of the rest of the programming will stay the same. This Tuesday’s Mame Drop will feature Max James of CR production fame.

We end on this eldritch horror:

"Weuuuh, Caleb knows best! Caleb will make the decisions for all of us in this D&D game!”

Aaand we’re out. Stay turnt.

[dark-and-twisty-01]

This has to be the saddest podcast I have ever listened to and I wanted to share this with you because I haven't come across many cases like this where the innocent have been executed for crimes they did not commit. It hurts knowing that Carlos died in pain and couldn't ask for help due to the drugs in his body. The botched execution lasted for 11 minutes whilst Carlos was promised a peaceful death by his last friend who he had asked to hold his hand, he wasn't allowed to hold his hand so he held his leg reassuring him.

Carlos DeLuna was arrested, aged 20, on 4 February 1983 for the brutal murder of a young woman, Wanda Lopez. She had been stabbed once through the left breast with an 8in lock-blade buck knife which had cut an artery causing her to bleed to death. From the moment of his arrest until the day of his death by lethal injection six years later, DeLuna consistently protested he was innocent. He went further – he said that though he hadn't committed the murder, he knew who had. He even named the culprit: a notoriously violent criminal called Carlos Hernandez.

At his 1983 trial, Carlos DeLuna told the jury that on the day of the murder he'd run into Hernandez, who he'd known for the previous five years. The two men, who both lived in the southern Texas town of Corpus Christi, stopped off at a bar. Hernandez went over to a gas station, the Shamrock, to buy something, and when he didn't return DeLuna went over to see what was going on.

DeLuna told the jury that he saw Hernandez inside the Shamrock wrestling with a woman behind the counter. DeLuna said he was afraid and started to run. He had his own police record for sexual assault – though he had never been known to possess or use a weapon – and he feared getting into trouble again.

"I just kept running because I was scared, you know." When he heard the sirens of police cars screeching towards the gas station he panicked and hid under a pick-up truck where, 40 minutes after the killing, he was arrested.

At the trial, DeLuna's defence team told the jury that Carlos Hernandez, not DeLuna, was the murderer. But the prosecutors ridiculed that suggestion. They told the jury that police had looked for a "Carlos Hernandez" after his name had been passed to them by DeLuna's lawyers, without success. They had concluded that Hernandez was a fabrication, a "phantom" who simply did not exist. The chief prosecutor said in summing up that Hernandez was a "figment of DeLuna's imagination".

Four years after DeLuna was executed, Liebman decided to look into the DeLuna case as part of a project he was undertaking into the fallibility of the death penalty. He asked a private investigator to spend one day – just one day – looking for signs of the elusive Carlos Hernandez.

By the end of that single day the investigator had uncovered evidence that had eluded scores of Texan police officers, prosecutors, defense lawyers and judges over the six years between DeLuna's arrest and execution. Carlos Hernandez did indeed exist.

Liebman's investigator tracked down within a few hours a woman who was related to both the Carloses. She supplied Hernandez's date of birth, which in turn allowed the unlocking of Hernandez's criminal past as the case rapidly unravelled.

With the help of his students, Liebman began to piece together a profile of Hernandez. He was an alcoholic with a history of violence, who was always in the company of his trusted companion: a lock-blade buck knife.

Over the years he was arrested 39 times, 13 of them for carrying a knife, and spent his entire adult life on parole. Yet he was almost never put in prison for his crimes – a disparity that Liebman believes was because he was used as a police informant. "Its hard to understand what happened without that piece of the puzzle," Liebman says.

Several of the crimes that Hernandez committed involved hold-ups of Corpus Christi gas stations. Just a few days before the Shamrock murder he was found cowering outside a nearby 7-Eleven wielding a knife – a detail never disclosed to DeLuna's defence.

He also had a history of violence towards women. He was twice arrested on suspicion of the 1979 murder of a woman called Dahlia Sauceda, who was stabbed and then had an "X" carved into her back. The first arrest was made four years before DeLuna's trial and the second while DeLuna was on death row, yet the connection between this Hernandez and the "phantom" presented to DeLuna's jury was never made.

In October 1989, just two months before DeLuna was executed, Hernandez was setenced to 10 years' imprisonment for attempting to kill with a knife another woman called Dina Ybanez. Even then, no one thought to alert the courts or Texas state as it prepared to put DeLuna to death.

Hernandez himself frequently told people that he was a knife murderer. He made numerous confessions to having killed Wanda Lopez, the crime for which DeLuna was executed, joking with friends and relatives that his "tocayo" had taken the fall. His admissions were so widely broadcast that even Corpus Christi police detectives came to hear about them within weeks of the incident at the Shamrock gas station. Yet this was the same Carlos Hernandez who prosecutors told the jury did not exist. This was the figment of Carlos DeLuna's imagination.

Many other glaring discrepancies also stand out in the DeLuna case. He was put on death row largely on the eyewitness testimony of one man, Kevan Baker, who had seen the fight inside the Shamrock and watched the attacker flee the scene.

Yet when Baker was interviewed 20 years later, he said that he hadn't been that sure about the identification as he had trouble telling one Hispanic person apart from another.

Then there was the crime-scene investigation. Detectives failed to carry out or bungled basic forensic procedures that might have revealed information about the killer. No blood samples were collected and tested for the culprit's blood type.

Fingerprinting was so badly handled that no useable fingerprints were taken. None of the items found on the floor of the Shamrock – a cigarette stub, chewing gum, a button, comb and beer cans – were forensically examined for saliva or blood.

There was no scraping of the victim's fingernails for traces of the attacker's skin. When Liebman and his students studied digitally enhanced copies of crime scene photographs, they were amazed to find the footprint from a man's shoe imprinted in a pool of Lopez's blood on the floor – yet no effort was made to measure it.

"There it was," says Liebman. "The murderer had left his calling card at the scene, but it was never used."

Even the murder weapon, the knife, was not properly examined, though it was covered in blood and flesh.

Other photographs show Lopez's blood splattered up to three feet high on the walls of the Shamrock counter. Yet when DeLuna's clothes and shoes were tested for traces of blood, not a single microscopic drop was found. The prosecution said it must have been washed away by the rain.

There appeared to have been an unseemly scramble to wrap up the crime scene. Less than two hours after the murder happened, the police chief in charge of the homicide investigation ordered all detectives to quit the Shamrock and allowed its owner to wash it down, sweeping away vital evidence that could have saved a man's life.

The exceptionally lax treatment of evidence continued even beyond the grave. When Liebman asked to see all the stored evidence in the case, so that he could subject it to the DNA testing that was not available to investigators in 1983, he was told that it had all disappeared.

Having lived and breathed this case for so many years, Liebman says the most shocking thing about it was its ordinariness. "This wasn't the trial of OJ Simpson. It was an obscure case, the kind that could involve anybody. Maybe those are the cases where miscarriages of justice happen, the routine everyday cases where nobody thinks enough about the victim, let alone the defendant."

The groundbreaking work that the Columbia law school has done comes at an important juncture for the death penalty in America. Connecticut last month became the fifth state in as many years to repeal the ultimate punishment and support for abolition is gathering steam.

In that context, Liebman hopes his exhaustive work will encourage Americans to think more deeply about what is done in their name. All the evidence the Columbia team has gathered on the DeLuna case has been placed on the internet with open public access.

"We've provided as complete a set of information as we can about a pretty average case, to let the public make its own judgment. I believe they will make the judgment that in this kind of case there's just too much risk."

As for the tocayos Carloses, Carlos Hernandez died of natural causes in a Texas prison in May 1999, having been jailed for assaulting a neighbour with a 9in knife.

Carlos DeLuna commented on his own ending in a television interview a couple of years before his execution. "Maybe one day the truth will come out," he said from behind reinforced glass. "I'm hoping it will. If I end up getting executed for this, I don't think it's right."

I highly suggest listening to this podcast by Morbidology, I follow them on Tumblr and they're amazing and I share a lot of their content on my Facebook page. So maybe check them out and give them a follow. Their tumblr is @congenitaldisease

[k-u-z-u]

Can we please get a 1-100 answers so we dont need to recheck what you already got asked and just see everything.

1: 6 of the songs you listen to most?

Decalcomanie by MamamooDrama Club by Melanie MartinezNurse’s Office by Melanie MartinezShow And Tell by Melanie Martinez Detention by Melanie MartinezMake Me Wanna Die by The Pretty Reckless

2: If you could meet anyone on this earth, who would it be?

@sangeki-x

3: Grab the book nearest to you, turn to page 23, give me line 17.

Haha on page 23 there is only an illustration.

4: What do you think about most?

Things that worry me. 

5: What does your latest text message from someone else say?

”Slow”

6: Do you sleep with or without clothes on?

With clothes.

7: What’s your strangest talent?

I can paint my nails with my non dominant hand perfectly. (Can you tell I’m not special at all?) 

8: Girls… (finish the sentence); Boys… (finish the sentence)

Girls are amazing. Boys are awesome. 

9: Ever had a poem or song written about you?

Omfg yes both I hate being rude, but they were so cringe.

10: When is the last time you played the air guitar?

Few weeks ago I gues. :’D

11: Do you have any strange phobias?

Is cleithrophobia strange? 

12: Ever stuck a foreign object up your nose?

No.

13: What’s your religion?

Christian.

14: If you are outside, what are you most likely doing?

Working or going to school. Sometimes shopping. 

15: Do you prefer to be behind the camera or in front of it?

Behind it.

16: Simple but extremely complex. Favorite band?

Mamamoo

17: What was the last lie you told?

“Yes, I will go to a doctor.” 

18: Do you believe in karma?

Yes.

19: What does your URL mean?

It’s a nickname for my name with random letters.

20: What is your greatest weakness; your greatest strength?

I’m just weak generally, I’m not strong at all lol. 

21: Who is your celebrity crush?

UGH MELANIE MARTINEZ! 

22: Have you ever gone skinny dipping?

No lol.

23: How do you vent your anger?

I cry.

24: Do you have a collection of anything?

Hm nail polishes.

25: Do you prefer talking on the phone or video chatting online?

Texting only.

26: Are you happy with the person you’ve become?

A little bit.

27: What’s a sound you hate; sound you love?

Hate: Everything too loud

Love: Melanie Martinez’s voice hehe

28: What’s your biggest “what if”?

What if I wasn’t this insecure and shy.

29: Do you believe in ghosts? How about aliens?

Ghosts maybe, aliens no.

30: Stick your right arm out; what do you touch first? Do the same with your left arm.

Right: wall

Left: nothing

31: Smell the air. What do you smell?

Nothing.

32: What’s the worst place you have ever been to?

A place where I worked before.

33: Choose: East Coast or West Coast?

East.

34: Most attractive singer of your opposite gender?

Idk I’m gay.

35: To you, what is the meaning of life?

Sometimes I’m not even sure if there’s meaning of it.

36: Define Art.

K-12 The film :)

37: Do you believe in luck?

Yes.

38: What’s the weather like right now?

A bit cold.

39: What time is it?

7.35 pm

40: Do you drive? If so, have you ever crashed?

I can’t drive.

41: What was the last book you read?

Eastern by Martin Kay

42: Do you like the smell of gasoline?

No.

43: Do you have any nicknames?

I don’t like nicknames.

44: What was the last film you saw?

Amélie

45: What’s the worst injury you’ve ever had?

Slitted my forehead.

46: Have you ever caught a butterfly?

No.

47: Do you have any obsessions right now?

Eating and listening to music.

48: What’s your sexual orientation?

Straight.

49: Ever had a rumour spread about you?

Oh yes.

50: Do you believe in magic?

No.

51: Do you tend to hold grudges against people who have done you wrong?

Sometimes.

52: What is your astrological sign?

Aquarius.

53: Do you save money or spend it?

Save some and spend some.

54: What’s the last thing you purchased?

Bracelets.

55: Love or lust?

Love.

56: In a relationship?

-

57: How many relationships have you had?

3

58: Can you touch your nose with your tongue?

I can’t.

59: Where were you yesterday?

At home.

60: Is there anything pink within 10 feet of you?

Yes, my Cheshire cat plush.

61: Are you wearing socks right now?

I wear them 24/7.

62: What’s your favourite animal?

Cat.

63: What is your secret weapon to get someone to like you?

Haha does anyone even like me?

64: Where is your best friend?

TOO FAR AWAY, IN AMERICA @sangeki-x

65: Give me your top 5 favourite blogs on Tumblr.

@sangeki-x@oteayim@anime--irl@a-laa@mavia-nna

66: What is your heritage?

Um mental breakdown.

67: What were you doing last night at 12AM?

Listening to music.

68: What do you think is Satan’s last name?

Eh...?

69: Biggest turn ons?

Respect and loyalty. 

70: Are you the kind of friend you would want to have as a friend?

No way.

71: You are walking down the street on your way to work. There is a dog drowning in the canal on the side of the street. Your boss has told you if you are late one more time you get fired. What do you do?

SAVE THE GOD DAMN DOG!

72: You are at the doctor’s office and she has just informed you that you have approximately one month to live.

a) Do you tell anyone/everyone you are going to die?

Yes.

b) What do you do with your remaining days?

Probably would spend it with people who are important to me.

c) Would you be afraid?

I wouldn’t care much. But I guess in that situation I would think otherwise.

73: You can only have one of these things; trust or love.

Trust.

74: What’s a song that always makes you happy when you hear it?

Decalcomanie by Mamamoo

75: What are the last four digits in your cell phone number?

5932

76: In your opinion, what makes a great relationship?

Honesty, loyalty, communication.

77: How can I win your heart?

Be nice to me and to other people. Be a good and kind person. Care about my bullshits, care about me. Accept me the way I am. Don’t lie to me. Don’t try to control me. Feed me. >.>

78: Can insanity bring on more creativity?

Yes.

79: What is the single best decision you have made in your life so far?

That I started to play league. I met so many awesome people there. Even though most of them aren’t part of my life anymore, I’m still happy I had the chance to know them.

80: What size shoes do you wear?

EU 39

81: What would you want to be written on your tombstone?

“Was an awful person, deserved to die.”

82: What is your favourite word?

“Valley”, sounds so good imo.

83: Give me the first thing that comes to mind when you hear the word; heart.

That I don’t have one and I just break everybody’s heart who get close to me.

84: What is a saying you say a lot?

”I’m hungry.””I’m dying.””I’m crying”“I don’t wanna go.””I want chocolate.”“I’m sorry.”“I’m annoying.”

85: What’s the last song you listened to?

Meggyfa by Tamás Horváth

86: Basic question; what’s your favourite colour/colours?

Blue and black.

87: What is your current desktop picture?

Bewitching Miss Fortune splash art.

88: If you could press a button and make anyone in the world instantaneously explode, who would it be?

Me.

89: What would be a question you’d be afraid to tell the truth on?

This question lmao.

90: Turn offs?

Lack of hygiene

91: You accidentally eat some radioactive vegetables. They were good, and what’s even cooler is that they endow you with the super-power of your choice! What is that power?

Teleport pls.

92: Where are your parents from?

Hungary

93: You can erase any horrible experience from your past. What will it be?

Can’t I erase my whole life?

94: You have the opportunity to sleep with the music-celebrity of your choice. Who would it be?

If it’s like a sleepover, definitely Melanie Martinez. :’D If “SLEEPING” ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) then noone.

95: You just got a free plane ticket to anywhere. You have to depart right now. Where are you gonna go?

Japan

96: Do you have any relatives in jail?

I don’t have.

97: Have you ever thrown up in the car?

Never.

98: Ever been on a plane?

Yes.

99: If the whole world were listening to you right now, what would you say

I love you bitch you are perfect the way you are.

[let-it-raines]

Betting on the Bullseye (Part 9)

Summary: Emma Swan loses a bet that means she has to ask her celebrity crush to be her date to her office’s annual fundraising gala. Killian Jones is that celebrity crush. She expects all kinds of humiliation and for her dignity to be completely lost. What she doesn’t expect is for him to say yes.

Rating: Mature

A/N: Hope everyone has been having a good weekend! If not, I hope it gets better soon!

Found on AO3: Beginning | Current

Found on Tumblr: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9

Tag list: @nikkiemms @resident-of-storybrooke @wellhellotragic​ @bmbbcs4evr @onceuponaprincessworld @jennjenn615 @mayquita @captainsjedi @teamhook @skyewardolicitycloisdelena91@branlovesouat @dreadpirateemma @kmomof4 @ekr032-blog-blog @galaxyzxstark @lifeinahole27 @andiirivera @ultimiflos

“Well, yes Mr. Jackson, I totally get what you’re saying – ”

“ – I don’t think you do, Ms. Swan. You said that our funding would go toward something high profile.”

She pinches the bridge of her nose, taking a deep breath to keep herself from breaking down in the middle of her office while on an important phone call. Or to keep from yelling every damn obscenity she knows at this man.  “I understand, sir. You donated your money, which is something we are eternally grateful for and has helped us and the children more than you know, and you have a right to request how you want your funds used. But we consider upgrading our counseling offices to be high profile. There’s a plaque with your name on it just inside the door.”

“A plaque,” Mr. Jackson spits, his voice dripping with disdain. “I did not donate over a million dollars for a plaque. I was under the impression that I would also get some sort of publicity from you and Killian Jones.”

If she wouldn’t get fired, she’d tell Mr. Jackson to fuck off. She knows that there are people in the world who only “do good” for their own benefit, but calls like this make her feel like her blood is actually curdling within her veins. Seriously. What did he expect? Some sort of worldwide clap on the back for donating to an underfunded children’s shelter. What the actual hell?

“Mr. Jackson, Mr. Jones was only at the gala as a favor. He was promoting our shelter out of the kindness of his heart. He does not have any legal ties to us. But I promise you that I will look into your complaint, and I will see what we can do to make you happier with your donation, okay?”

He huffs, probably wondering if he can take back the money he’s donated even though it’s been months, but she knows that he can’t. If the money hadn’t been such a great thing, she’d suggest they give it back so as not to have any association with him. But what’s done is done, and they’re not exactly in the business of returning funds.

“Fine, but I’d like to talk to the head of your department next time to let him know how difficult it’s been dealing with you.”

“I’m sure she’d be glad to speak to you. Have a good afternoon.”

She hangs up the phone and throws her head back before rubbing her hands up and down her face, fingers massaging her temples from that headache of a call. She’d pass along Mr. Jackson to Mrs. Ramirez any day of the week. He’s got to be the biggest asshole she’s dealt with all week, and she really hopes he won’t call again.

He will, but a girl can hope.

She listens to the rest of the messages she missed at lunch, the cupcake she bought for herself going uneaten on the corner of her desk, before returning as many calls as she can. No one calls all day, but she takes an hour to go out and buy a salad that’s not stale and suddenly everyone calls. Seriously, don’t these people take lunch breaks too?

Maybe Mr. Jackson has just soured her mood, but she’s ready for today to be over. The last week has been not-so-great. She’s not expecting everything to be sunshine and roses all of the time, but she’d like for work to not be a hell hole and for kids she once mentored to not end up in jail. There’s apparently been a few, more so than just Alex, and she had no idea. But everyone is right when they tell her it’s not her fault. She does the best she can, and these kids probably do too. Even when they’re placed in good homes, they’ve been through so much that they just don’t trust adults or authority figures. And as sad as it is, the many outweigh the few. She’s doing good work and trying her best to help kids who were once like her.

She came out of the system, damaged by not broken, and that’s honestly what she wants for others. A realistic happy ending.

That’s totally a thing. It’s like ballet flats instead of glass slippers even if both will probably make your ankles bleed. So maybe sneakers would be better. Who doesn’t love sneakers? She’d like a happy ending with sneakers.

Her cell buzzes on her desk, and she reaches over to grab her phone, remembering her cupcake (because that’s totally what goes with a salad) and swiping a bit of icing before swiping open her home screen.

David: I’m grilling out tonight if you want to come over.

“Yes,” she moans, her lips stretching into a smile for the first time since before lunch. She loves when David grills, and she could go for a few beers and whatever it is he’s grilling. And she went to the gym this morning, so she doesn’t have to suffer through that before eating.

Her day is looking up.

She should probably stop getting so excited over food, but her cupcake and food cooked outside on a grill are infinitely better than her salad.

Emma: I’ll be there.

She uses her key to walk in David and Mary Margaret’s front door, the smell of the grill permeating throughout the house even though she knows they’re cooking it in the backyard. She picks up shoes and toys on her way into the kitchen, dumping them in the basket they keep next to the staircase, before heading out back.

Mary Margaret is chasing after Leo who is chasing after Wilby. The dog almost seems to know what’s happening, stopping his running when Leo gets too far away and speeding up when Leo’s toddler legs get a little too close. It’s some kind of weird, perfectly domestic game, and when she looks to her left, there’s David standing at the grill wearing an apron that say Kiss the Cook.

Yeah, sometimes the Nolans are a little too much.

But she loves them and the way that they feed her, so she walks over to David and kisses him on the cheek (it’s what the apron commands after all) before lifting the grill’s lid and seeing that he’s simply cooking hamburgers and hot dogs.

“Why the hell did I smell barbeque when I walked in if it’s just hamburgers and hot dogs?”

“Nice to see you too, Emma,” David laughs before clapping her on her shoulder. “And it’s because we had the stuff for pulled pork sandwiches, but when I lit the grill for the first time, the fire got a little too enthusiastic and charred it. So Wilby is eating it now.”

“Ahh, yeah. The dog probably did that on purpose. We don’t call him Wiley Wilby for nothing.”

“I don’t think the dog knows how to mess with a propane tank. And no one has ever called him that.”

“Yes, but people…and dogs go to serious lengths for a pulled pork barbeque sandwich.”

“Emmy,” Leo screams when he spots her, and she immediately turns to see him running toward her instead of after the dog, the hood of his vest flopping behind him while his sandy blonde hair does the same thing.

“Hey, kid,” she greets, squatting down and opening her arms so that he can run directly into her. She loves her little buddy – and loves being his favorite person outside of his parents if she does say so herself – and she gets a little thrill with the way he gets excited to see her. It makes a girl feel good. Leo reaches her, and she immediately scoops him up in her arms, smothering kisses all over his face while he giggles against her.

“E-emmy. Emmeeeey,” he laughs, the sounds coming out on stuttered breaths while he squirms in her arms until she lets him rest. When he does, he cups her face and plants a kiss on her cheek like he does with his parents. “You tickle, Emmy.”

“Whaaat?” she overexaggerates, recoiling her head and raising her eyebrows. “Am I tickling you? I don’t think so. I’m not silly, am I?”

“Silly goose,” Leo giggles while his fingers find her earrings and mess with the dangling tassels.

Mary Margaret finally catches up with them, her normally perfect hair curling around the edges while she catches her breath. “Hey, Emma,” she breathes, stepping up and giving her a side hug all while Leo babbles on. “I’m so glad you captured this one because I am so done with kids today. At work and at home, my God. I can’t believe I’m having another one. I must be crazy.”

Emma’s mouth falls open at Mary Margaret’s words and the way she just let them slip. She must have had an usually bad day if she’s being loose lipped like that. It’s not that Mary Margaret is great at keeping secrets, but she’s been great at keeping this one.

At least verbally. Physically, not so much.

“Finally,” she groans, thankfulness at not having to hold her tongue on the subject anymore outweighing her happiness for Mary Margaret and David. She’s been happy for them for weeks. Now she wants to celebrate.

“Finally what?”

“Marg, you’re having another baby. You just let it slip even though I totally already knew.”

Mary Margaret’s jaw drops while her eyelids flutter like she’s trying to process how Emma could possibly know that she’s pregnant. “Did I…oh, shit, I did.”

“Language,” David laughs, looking over at them and shaking his head back and forth. “We can screw Leo up. He’s the first. The new one gets us as experienced parents, so we have to work on the language.”

“Nice, David. That’s totally how to be a good parent.” “You’re the one who cursed in front of the kid when he’s in the repeating stage.”

“Mommy and Daddy are so silly, kid,” she sighs to Leo who’s watching his parents talk with hyper focus.

“Yeah,” he sighs, sounding like the most mature toddler in the world. “Put down, Emmy. I go play.”

She listens, knowing that Leo is the boss, and places him on the ground. He takes off immediately, running out into their small backyard and entertaining himself by running in circles. Weird, but you do you, kid. It’s then that she embraces Mary Margaret, squeezing tightly and holding her arms around her shoulder while rubbing up and down her back.

“Congratulations, Momma. How happy are you?”

“So happy,” she sighs into Emma’s neck, her voice sounding light and airy, before pulling back. “How long have you known? How did you know?”

Emma shrugs, not really sure of an exact time, but that doesn’t matter here. “A couple of weeks. You stopped drinking. You were taking naps. Your boobs are huge.”

“They’re glorious,” David adds in, and she and Mary Margaret both scrunch up their noses.

“How far along are you?”

“Fourteen weeks. I’m due in the middle of September.”

“Speaking of buns in the oven, dinner is served.”

“That’s a grill, David. Not an oven, but I applaud your dad jokes.”

It takes some corralling, but they all make it inside the eat, the early evening air still too chilled for them to sit outside. Even if David ruined the actual barbeque, her cheeseburger is still good. Of course, she doesn’t have super high standards for those even if they are her favorite food. The only ones she won’t eat are McDonald’s because, come on, it’s stale bread and processed cheese. At least their fries are good.

She’s really got to stop eating junk food. Maybe that should be her New Year’s Resolution…in the second week of April. Yeah, she’s totally not late. It’ll be, like, a spring resolution or something.

David regales them with stories from work even if she’s not sure homicide investigations can really be fun stories, but she kind of finds them interesting. In another life she might have been a detective. Maybe not for homicide, but she’s sure she could find something she’s interested in…and maybe not talk about in front of a two-year-old so he’s not going to daycare babbling about blood and gunshot wounds.

That would be quite the thing to hear from the kid.

Killian texts her throughout the dinner and even though she wants to answer as it’ll likely be the only time he’s free with his insane filming schedule as he wraps the show up, she tries to stay in the moment with her friends. She’s sure they wouldn’t mind, would probably encourage her to talk to him, but she’s making a conscious effort to balance her life here and her relationship that stretches out over the country. She thinks she’s handling it pretty well, her few breakdowns to Mary Margaret and Ruby as well as Killian put aside, but as time slowly inches by, she can’t wait until Killian is here next Monday.

It’s so different being with someone without really being with them, and as many nights as she goes to bed wishing Killian were here with her, she honestly thinks it’s helped her a hell of a lot. She knows that she’s bad at relationships, that things haven’t really worked out for her in the past, but she’s learning that those weren’t all her fault. She’s dated a hell of a lot of assholes. Really, she’s pretty sure all of the jerks in the world have some kind of communication network, and her number is at the top of their list.

But she’s trying. She’s willing to open herself up to vulnerability even if that scares the hell out of her. It helps that she’s in deeper than she has been in years, and even then, something about this one feels different.

Maybe it’s because how they met is so ridiculous, but this seems destined to either end up in flames or as that realistic happy ending she was thinking of earlier.

Killian can help her wear her sneakers.

That sounds weird, but it works for her…in her own head. She’s definitely not saying things like that out loud.

“So how’s work going, Ems?”

“Ugh,” she groans, throwing her head back and rolling her eyes, “don’t even get me started.”

“Hey, KJ,” she begins after the sound of his voice message ends, “I’m sorry I missed your calls today. It’s been a week, but it’s Friday so yay, I guess. Um, anyways, call me back when you can. Hope you’re having a good day of shooting. Only three days left, babe.”

She hangs up the phone, putting it down on her kitchen counter and shuffling through her cabinets for something to snack on. It’s as she’s moving empty box after empty box, a few mismatched Tupperware containers in between as well as other random items that should not be in her kitchen cabinets (hello random nail polish that was definitely not this color when she bought it), she realizes that she has to clean her apartment. Like, really clean it. And wash her sheets. Definitely that. And probably wash some of her nicer bras…after digging them out of the bottom of her drawer.

Shit. She has so much to do, and she really doesn’t feel like doing it.

She should also probably buy some food Killian likes. He did that for her. It’s only right. And maybe she doesn’t really have any food in her apartment after not going to the grocery store this week, so she kind of needs the food for herself too. Nourishment and all that.

Is she nervous? Is that what this mixture of excitement and anxiety and stopped up throat with a bubbling stomach is? Is that nerves or excitement or anticipation? Maybe it’s a sign she should go to the hospital. The stomach bubbling thing sounds bad. She should probably go to the hospital for that.

Taking a deep breath, she calms herself down. She is excited for Killian to be here and anxious with how slowly time seems to be passing. It’s…something in the back of her mind is telling her that them being in the same place after five weeks apart will mess things up, but she knows that’s not true. Killian is different. This is different. And she wants it.

She wants it so much.

The proximity and nearness of him coming back to Boston has just freaked her out a little in what is definitely nervous anticipation.

He’s somehow made his way under her skin in the past five and a half months, and as terrifying as it is to think that he could up and leave any time he wants, she’s still convinced that this is a good one. He’s a good one, and she wants to keep trying.

So channeling her inner neat freak Killian, she cranks up the music on her phone before emptying out her cabinets, throwing away every bit of trash or stale cereal that she can find. She organizes her mugs and cups as well as her Tupperware, and after all of that is done, she moves onto wiping absolutely every surface in her apartment down. It’s not necessarily messy, but there’s definitely dust in a few places and the throw pillows on her couch scattered across the floor. But after two hours she has most everything wiped down, put back in its rightful place, and she has two bags of laundry to take to the laundromat sometime tomorrow.

Her phone buzzes in her back pocket, and she reaches for it, finding Ruby’s name on her screen.

Ruby: Do you want to come over tomorrow night?

Emma: To go out or stay in?

Ruby: Stay in. I’m having a killer period, and I want to watch movies and eat chocolate.

Emma: I’m not on my period, but I totally agree.

Ruby: Soul sisters for life, Emma Swan.

She’s in the middle of texting Ruby back when her phone starts ringing, a picture of she and Killian on the beach popping up before she slides her finger across the phone and can hear his voice.

“So KJ and babe in one message, Swan. Don’t I feel special?”

Wait. What? What is he talking about? Has he officially lost all of his marbles? Is he experiencing some kind of sleep deprivation? Is she? Are all of the cleaning fumes going to her head?

“W-what are you talking about?”

“Hey, KJ,” Killian says, using the voice she’s learned he uses when learning a new script, “I’m sorry I missed your calls…blah, blah, blah then some other words…then you said that ‘there are only three days left, babe’. I got two nicknames from you in one message. I feel special.”

She feels the heat rise in her cheeks, embarrassment beginning to sink in. She had no idea that she even called him that. She doesn’t hate it. It’s just not something that she was expecting. It happened so…naturally. Her bubbling stomach starts up again before calming, something warm and comforting settling there instead.

Good. That’s probably less medically concerning than a bubbling stomach.

“I…shit. Did I really call you babe?”

“You did, my sweet cheeks.”

She snorts, shaking her head back and forth as she walks down the hall to her bedroom, opening the door and plopping down on her bed. “Okay, sweet cheeks is out. I will break up with you if you call me sweet cheeks.”

“Why, love? You do have such a delectable arse. I’d think sweet cheeks was appropriate.”

“And April nineteenth is the day that Emma Swan breaks up with Killian Jones for his use of awful nicknames.”

“A day that will live in my mind forever, sugar mama.”

“A sugar mama is something totally different.”

Killian laughs, something deep and low, and her body physically aches for him to be here. Two and a half days. It’s not long in the slightest. Nervous anticipation. Nervous longing. It’s all the same thing.

“Alright then, babe,” Killian drawls out, and she can practically imagine the smirk he has on his face. “In all seriousness, I’m sorry I missed your call. And that you missed mine. Was today any better than the rest of your week at work? I’m still willing to publicly embarrass Mr. Jackson since he seems to want to be associated with me.”

“I don’t want to get fired and live on the streets, so that doesn’t seem like our best option.”

“You make a good point, love. But seriously, you have any other work stuff you want to talk about? I’m always here for your venting pleasure.” “Venting pleasure sounds like some kind of hella creepy sex act.”

“Did you just say hella?”

“Maybe.”

“You totally did.”

“You have no proof of that.”

“My bloody brilliant mind remembers all.” “Your bloody brilliant mind is full of itself.”

Killian barks out a laugh, the sound loud in the speaker, and she wishes she could see him. “God, I fucking miss you, Swan.”

“I miss you, KJ, but in less than three days, you’re going to be crashing in my bed for an undetermined amount of days.” “Speaking of that, we’ve got to talk about this plan.”

“What about it?”

She spies her clothes sticking out of her small closet, jackets and sweaters falling off their hangers, and she puts the phone on speaker before getting up and beginning to straighten her clothes. This cleaning adrenaline is definitely going to wear off at some point, and she just knows it’s going to be when she’s emptied out her entire closet and has her clothes scattered across her bedroom.

“So, I’ve looked at my schedule, and I can definitely stay until the fifth. That’s nearly two weeks, and I was wondering if you wanted me to get a hotel.” “Why the hell would you get a hotel?”

She stops moving her clothes so she can hear him better, trying not to let him wanting to stay in a hotel get to her.

“Because I wouldn’t want you to get sick of me after us bunking together for two weeks.”

Oh. That’s not at all what she thought. He’s a good guy, she reminds herself, wishing she didn’t have to do that. The inner voice should not be in her head at all, and she knows that. “Killian, that’s ridiculous. I haven’t seen you in over a month, and our last goodbye wasn’t exactly great. If you want to stay in my apartment for two weeks, you can stay in my apartment.”

There she goes. That’s more Emma than whatever weird Jiminy Cricket inner voice she has going on. “Yeah?”

“Absolutely. We’ve got things to do.” “Oh really? Like what?”

His voice is deep, salacious, and she almost says the dirty joke he’s reaching for. But she doesn’t, instead she says what comes to mind next. “Oh, you have to meet the firing squad. There’s no way they’re going to let you come here and not interrogate you. I told them not to, a lot actually with all of the Liam shit, but they don’t listen to me.”

“I shall wear my bullet proof vest then. But seriously, Swan, I’m excited to meet the rest of your friends. Bloody terrified but excited. And I imagine it’ll go much better than you meeting Liam.”

“You’re really weird if you’re excited to meet them.”

“Weird with a giant crush on you.” “Aw babe, you have a crush on me. That’s so embarrassing.”

“I appreciate and applaud your Parks and Rec knowledge. It makes you so much hotter.”

“Good. I have a lot of it.” She really does. She makes as many pop culture references as the Gilmore Girls. Hell, she just made a pop culture reference while talking about making pop culture references. “So what are you doing? Are you not on set?”

“I am, but I’m in between scenes. I’m technically supposed to be reviewing my lines, but I’m talking to you instead.”

“Rebel.”

“Undoubtedly.”

“It’s probably why you wear a leather jacket when you live somewhere that’s constantly sunny.”

“Oi,” Killian bellows, his voice taken aback at her insult to his precious jacket, “you’re one to talk.”

“I live in Boston. It’s cold all of the time.”

“And your jacket doesn’t do a thing for you. It does a few things for me, but it doesn’t do anything to keep you warm.”

“Kinky, KJ,” she laughs, thumbing at said red leather jacket in her closet.

“You may be the first person to ever call me kinky.”

“Well, you never forget your first.”

“Hey, that’s my line, Swan.”

She hears a loud banging in the background, the sound she’s come to associate with Killian having to go back to set. Disappointment settles in her stomach while the laugh lines on her face begin to fade. But she gets it. He has to work, and she definitely can’t begrudge him for that. “You gotta go?”

“I have to go, love,” Killian sighs. “I’ll call you tomorrow, okay?”

“Okay. Bye, KJ.”

“Bye, Swan.”

Like she knew it would, her desire to clean fades after their phone call ends, and she’s left with clothes strewn across the floor and on her bed. So she spends the night cuddled up in bed even with the clothes keeping her from sleeping in her usual position, and when she wakes up on Saturday, she lazily starts putting things away, spending so long at getting her apartment back to normal that she completely forgets to go grocery shopping and go to the laundromat before heading over to Ruby’s.

So she sets several reminders on her phone, making sure that there’s no way for her to forget, and heads over to Ruby’s to curl up under blankets with chocolates and popcorn and whatever Ruby wants while she’s having a bad period. It turns out that it’s watching bad action movies with even worse romantic plots and CGI, but Ruby can make anything entertaining, making up her own commentary and mercilessly talking about how Tom Cruise’s front teeth aren’t aligned with his face. She’d never noticed it before, but now she can never unsee that.

Victor comes over with Tai takeout around ten, dropping it on the coffee table in front of she and Ruby, kissing Ruby’s forehead, and then settling down in Ruby’s armchair while they stay on the couch. Eventually Ruby does get up to go sit with Victor, settling down on his lap and curling herself into him while his arm wraps around her shoulder and rubs up and down her skin. They’re sweet, which is not something Emma would have ever really described Victor as before. He’s always been a little odd, sometimes a little too out there, but he’s good for Ruby, and she’s thrilled that her friend is so damn happy.

Oh God. Is she officially turning into Mary Margaret? She thinks she might be. Though there is a little jealousy over the fact that she doesn’t get to do that quite yet, but she continues to think to herself, two more days. That’s all. So maybe not Mary Margaret levels quite yet.

When Ruby starts snoring, she takes that as her cue to leave, making her way back to her apartment and promptly falling asleep too, that warm feeling that’s beginning to feel familiar settling in her stomach again.

Emma’s got a bounce in her step all Monday. She loves her job, even with how rough it’s been lately, but she’s never quite this happy walking the hallways after updating Mrs. Ramirez on their financials and upcoming projects. But today is different. There’s no one yelling at her on the phone, and she’s not getting any updates on kids she once helped out ending up in jail or in more bad homes. Mostly, though, it’s because she knows that Killian is on a flight somewhere over Arizona making his way to the east coast.

Yeah, something like that will definitely make her feel a little lighter.

“Your grin is freaking me out, Ems,” Ruby groans when she stops in her office after finishing counseling a kid. “You look like you’ve inhaled laughing gas or something.”

She shrugs, trying to downplay her eagerness. “I’m having a good day.”

“Yeah, that’s because you’re going to get laid tonight, and you know it.”

“I don’t know it.” Ruby raises an eyebrow, her gaze never straying from Emma’s. “Okay, so maybe I know it.”

“Exactly.” Ruby picks up the picture frame Emma has of she and the Nolans on her desk. “Use protection, though. I can only handle one pregnant friend at a time.”

“You say this to the girl who doubles up on birth control and condoms. Also, Marg is not an annoying pregnant woman.”

“Ems, I know this. I’m talking about for my bank account. I can’t afford two baby blenders.”

“I know what you’re saying, but I really feel like you should rephrase calling a small blender for baby food a baby blender.”

Ruby shrugs, shaking her head back and forth before putting the frame back down. “You know what I mean. I’ve got back to back appointments for the rest of the day, but tell Killian I can’t wait to see him after you guys finish doing the horizontal tango until you can barely walk at work tomorrow.”

“I can’t believe you counsel troubled children.”

“I am damn good at my job, Emma Swan, but we can talk about that later.” Ruby walks out of the room blowing her an overexaggerated air kiss and waggling her eyebrows in a way that’s so similar to Killian that she can’t help but giggle into her hand.

The rest of her afternoon passes at a snail’s pace, but eventually the workday does end and she’s able to go running on the treadmill at the gym, making quick work of everything before sprinting the few blocks home and showering, knowing that Killian should be landing soon. She offered to pick him up at the airport like he did to her, but he told her he’d take a cab, not wanting her to bother with the traffic or interrupting too much of her day to deal with him.

She’s brushing her hair out, already dressed in leggings and a t-shirt, when there are three knocks at her front door. She practically flies out of her bedroom, tripping over a pair of shoes that didn’t make it in her cleanup of the apartment, and quickly walks down the hallway before unlocking the latches and swinging the door open to see Killian standing there with a smile on his face and her swan mug in his hand. He holds it up, sticking it out between them.  

“Did you forget something in California?”

[splendidlyimperfect]

Sting's entire life changed when he was eleven years old and his best friend Rogue told a secret that he'd promised to keep. Taken away from the father who abused him and the best friend who'd tried to save him, Sting tried to start a new life with his uncle. But the trauma wasn't easy to escape, and eventually Sting turned to drinking to forget the things that hurt.

Now he's an adult, and he hasn't been sober in years. But when drinking nearly kills him and a near-stranger saves his life, Sting has a chance to turn his life around, and maybe become the man that Rogue deserves to love.

Chapter Summary: Sting's trying to move on with his life, but he can't stop wondering why his dad hurt him.  

Chapters (8/?): 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 Rating: Mature Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Relationships: Rogue Cheney/Sting Eucliffe, Natsu Dragneel/Gray Fullbuster, Natsu Dragneel & Sting Eucliffe, Sting Eucliffe & Weisslogia Characters: Sting Eucliffe, Natsu Dragneel, Rogue Cheney, Gray Fullbuster, Weisslogia (Fairy Tail) Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Implied/Referenced Drug Use, Past Child Abuse, Unhealthy Coping Mechanisms, Trans Character, Trans Sting, Friendship, Childhood Friends, Sting-focused story, Sting is a disaster, Natsu's a great friend, Rogue tries to do what's right, Tumblr: FTLGBTales Series: Part 2 of i'm still standing

**TW for flashback to physical abuse

-----

frac·ture | \ ˈfrak-chər noun :  the act or process of breaking or the state of being broken

.

vi spring age thirteen

.

A few weeks into the summer after grade eight, Sting wakes up to shouting.

He yawns, sitting up and rubbing his face as he tries to pick out who is saying what. It sounds like Uncle Wes, but Sting’s never heard him yell before, so it seems unlikely. Sting quickly pulls on a sweater, then cracks the door open and peeks down the stairs.

It is Uncle Wes. He’s standing in the front entrance, talking who whoever is outside. He’s not yelling anymore, but Sting can still make out what he’s saying.

“Get out,” Uncle Wes says. His voice is hard and fierce in a way Sting’s never heard before. “I don’t know what the hell you think you’re doing.” There’s a pause, and he adds, “I don’t care if you’re my brother.”

Sting freezes, fingers wrapped around the banister as the words slowly sink in. He’s about to take a step forward when the voice on the other side of the door gets louder.

“Just lemme see her.”

Sting’s heart stops and he can’t breathe because the last time he heard that voice everything was broken, and his head hurt and he couldn’t stop crying and—

“You lost that right a long time ago,” Uncle Wes growls. “You know you’re not allowed to be here. Get out.”

Everything’s going blurry and Sting sits down hard on the top step, shaking as the world falls away around him. He tries to ground himself – that’s what his therapist keeps saying, but every single thing she’s ever told him slips away as he struggles to keep breathing.

“I’m her fath—”

“You are nothing,” Uncle Wes says. There’s a loud bang and the sound of splintered wood, and Sting bites back a terrified scream, wrapping his arms around his legs and pressing his forehead to his knees.

Go away, he thinks desperately, wishing he were brave enough to open his eyes. Please don’t hurt me. I’ll be good. I’ll be quiet. Please.

“Just let me—”

“I told you to get out.” Uncle Wes’ voice is the quiet kind of angry that leaves Sting with a low, thrumming panic in his chest. His arms ache where he’s digging his fingernails into the skin, and the pain is the only real thing right now. “I will never let you hurt him again. Ever.”

Continue reading on AO3

“Him? I didn’t—”

“Save your bullshit for your parole officer,” Uncle Wes growls. “You might have some people fooled, but I was the one who picked him up from the hospital. I know what you did, and don’t you dare think for one goddamned second that I’m ever going to let you anywhere near my nephew.”

When the other voice start shouting, the tiny part of Sting that’s been holding onto reality snaps, and he’s eleven again, terrified and hiding.

Please, he thinks desperately as tears slip down his cheeks. He wants Kelly to find him and hug him and tell him it’s going to be okay.

Sting’s not sure how much time passes – the shouting stops and the door slams, and after that he doesn’t listen. Eventually, he hears someone coming up the stairs and he presses himself against the wall, heart slamming against his chest so hard that he can’t breathe. Something touches his arm and he flinches, bringing his hand up to cover his face.

“It’s just me,” a gentle voice says, and Sting hears the stair creak as Uncle Wes settles down next to him. “I’m so sorry, he’s gone now. Are you okay? ”

Sting shakes his head, trying to stop shaking – it’s like every piece of him is trying to escape in different directions. He holds his breath and grinds his teeth and bites the inside of his lip, but none of it works. Eventually he peeks up at Uncle Wes, who gives Sting a sad smile and opens his arms.

Sting hesitates for only a second before accepting the hug. “You’re safe now,” Uncle Wes murmurs as Sting cries against his shoulder, curling up against his chest. “I’m so sorry. He’s not allowed to be here.”

“Wh-why…” Sting can’t make words yet, just focuses on the gentle weight of Uncle Wes’ hand on his arm. “He’s… I…”

“I’m sorry,” Uncle Wes says again, kissing the top of Sting’s head. “He’s not in jail anymore, but he has someone called a probation officer that makes sure he follows the rules. One of those rules is that he’s not allowed to come near you, and he’s going to get in trouble for being here.”

Sting rubs his face with the back of his hand as the pounding in his chest starts to come back to normal. He lets out a shaky breath, then asks, “why was he here?”

It’s not the question he expected to ask, but the fear in his chest is slowly shifting into a barbed, burning anger.

“I’m not sure,” Uncle Wes admits, pulling back and brushing Sting’s hair out of his eyes. “But that doesn’t matter, he can’t come here, and he can’t see you.”

Sting rubs his face and pulls away from Uncle Wes. His skin feels raw, stretched over the wrong body, everything sharp and aching.

“I wanna be alone,” he says quietly. Uncle Wes nods, standing up and reaching out to help Sting up. Sting stares at the outstretched hand, then shakes his head and pushes himself to his feet.

“I’ll come check on you in a little bit,” Uncle Wes says, taking a step back down the stairs. “Maybe we can get pizza tonight?”

Sting doesn’t say anything, just rubs his arms and heads back down the hallway to his room. His mind is a jumbled mess, fear warring with a sudden, dangerous fury that sparks and burns through him.

He spends the rest of the weekend hiding in his bedroom. Uncle Wes tries to coax him out a few times with offers of pizza and movies, but Sting just shakes his head, curling up on the bed and staring at the wallpaper.

His dad isn’t in jail anymore.

Uncle Wes had talked to him about it a few weeks ago. He’d tried to explain things like plea bargains and sentencing, but it had all gone over Sting’s head. In the end, all that had mattered was that Sting’s dad knew the right kind of people, and even the scar on Sting’s forehead wasn’t enough to keep him away.

Let me talk to my daughter.

Sting can’t remember the last thing his dad said to him. Everything about that day is hazy – whenever his therapist asks about it, all Sting can feel is pain and nausea and a low, thrumming sense of terror. He knows that his dad yelled and swore when the police came, but before, when he’d hurt Sting, he’d been quiet.

The silence had been cold and terrifying, and when Sting closes his eyes and forces himself to try and remember, he nearly throws up. It’s not like a memory in movies – there’s no timeline to it, no clear image of what happened. Instead it’s pieces. Bits of things he’s pushed away for so long.

The front door clicking shut. Dad’s cold, dark eyes. Sunlight glinting off the broken glass. Trying so hard to be quiet. Dad’s hand in his hair. His head hitting the coffee table. Bright sparks of pain. The TV screen shattering. Fingers tight around his wrist. Heart rabbit-thumping as he hid in the closet, trying to be small, trying to be quiet, trying to be good.

Sting growls in frustration and sits up, throwing his pillow across the room. It knocks his pile of books to the floor, and Sting stares at them, picturing tearing out all the pages and ripping the covers to pieces.

He wants to break something like his dad broke him.

Instead he grabs his other pillow, pressing it against his face while he screams. The anger burns through him, hot and jagged, and no matter how many tears soak the fabric, it won’t go away.

Why? The word circles through his head, repeating over and over until it overwhelms him and he punches the mattress. Why did you hurt me, why didn’t you love me, why wasn’t I enough, why, why, why?

Sting tosses the pillow aside and flops back onto the mattress, staring up at the ceiling as something determined settles into his chest. His dad is terrifying, but he’s the only one with answers, and Sting finally has a chance to find out.

~

When Uncle Wes goes to sleep, Sting slips out of his room and creeps down to the kitchen. Uncle Wes’ phone is sitting on the counter charging, and Sting stares at it for a long time before picking it up and opening Uncle Wes’ contact list. He scrolls through it, searching for his dad’s name. He doesn’t expect to find it – Uncle Wes hasn’t talked to Sting’s dad since he went to jail, and even before that. But his number is saved there, and Sting clicks on it before he can change his mind.

He doesn’t have time to feel afraid because his dad picks up after the first ring and growls, “thought you told me to fuck off.”

It feels like being slapped. Everything in Sting tenses and he nearly hangs up.

“What do you want, Wes?” his dad asks.

Sting sucks in a shaky breath, then whispers, “dad?”

There’s a long silence on the other end of the phone. Sting’s convinced that his dad can hear his heart pounding – it’s slamming against his chest so hard he can barely breathe. He sinks down to the ground, pulling his knees to his chest and pinching the back of his arm to keep himself from crying.

“Abbey?” his dad says eventually.

“Yeah,” Sting says quietly, even though he hasn’t heard that name in over a year. He looks over at the stairs, listening carefully for any movement from Uncle Wes, but the only sound in the house is the dishwasher running.

“Does Wes know you’re calling me?”

Sting shakes his head. “No,” he says. “He said you weren’t allowed to see me.”

His dad sighs, and Sting can picture him rubbing the bridge of his nose and staring at the ground with his jaw tense and lines on his forehead. “I’m not,” his dad says eventually. “But I want to.”

The nausea comes back immediately, filling Sting’s stomach with bile that he can taste at the back of his throat. He forces himself to say, “me too.”

“Can you come to the park?” his dad asks, and it takes Sting a second to realize that he’s talking about the park next to their old home. Crocus is over two hours away by bus, but Sting knows where Uncle Wes’ wallet is, and he can walk to the stop from their house.

“Yeah,” he says. He presses his forehead against his knees. Part of him thinks he should just ask his dad now, on the phone, but Sting needs to see his face when he answers the question. Sting just needs to know. If he hurries, he can make it there and back to the house before Uncle Wes wakes up.

“Okay,” his dad says. His voice is soft, suddenly, and Sting clutches the phone tighter to keep his hand from trembling.

“I’ll be there in a couple hours,” he says, staring out the window at the cloudy, moonless sky. “See you soon.”

As soon as he hangs up the phone, Sting runs to the bathroom and throws up. He shivers, spitting the taste out of his mouth and wiping away the sweat on his face with the sleeve of his hoodie. He can’t stop shaking, can’t stop thinking about being eleven and throwing up in the closet because his head hurt so badly he could barely see.

Eventually he picks himself up off the floor and runs the tap, splashing his face and rinsing out his mouth. Then he stares at himself in the mirror for a long time. Eventually he combs his hair to cover his scar, then takes a deep breath and leaves for the bus stop.

~

Sting makes it to the park without throwing up again. He shoves his hands deep in his pockets to keep them from shaking, and every time he closes his eyes and opens them again, the lights around him blur. It’s like he’s floating behind everything; a ghost of someone who isn’t afraid.

He drags the terrified, furious pieces of himself over the sidewalk cracks, across the dirty asphalt and the plants growing through the concrete. When he sees the bench where he used to meet Rogue in the mornings on the way to school, something cracks in Sting’s chest and he starts to cry, desperately wiping at his eyes with the sleeves of his sweater.

He can’t cry. Not now. Right now, he needs to be brave, because he needs to know why.

A hand drops onto Sting’s shoulder and he pulls away quickly, spinning around and stumbling backward as his heart pounds against his ribs. It takes him a second to realize that the hand is attached to a person, and that the person is his father.

“Abbey?”

His dad looks the same. Nothing’s changed in the last three years except the graying stubble on his chin. Sting stares at him, a rush of anger flooding through him as all the moments he’s been trying to avoid catch up to him.

“I…” Sting tries to say something, but he can’t quite breathe around the mix of fury and fear. When his dad takes a step toward him, Sting scrambles backward, nearly tripping over a crack in the sidewalk, and catches himself on the arm of the park bench. His dad’s movements are uncoordinated, and it takes Sting a second to realize that he smells like beer.

Everything Sting had planned to say is instantly gone, determined resentment replaced by terror, and instead he whispers, “I’m sorry,” because that’s all he’s ever said to his father. I’m sorry, I’ll be good, I’ll be quiet, I promise.

“His nephew,” Sting’s dad says softly, and his eyes widen as he finally puts the pieces together. “You’re a…”

“Please,” Sting begs, digging his fingernails into his palms as he takes short, shallow breaths. All he wants to know is why. “I won’t… I didn’t do anything wr-wrong, I was trying to be quiet and I don’t understand why you…”

“You think you’re a boy,” his dad says, ignoring the way Sting’s stumbling over his words. He reaches out for Sting’s arm and Sting pushes himself further back toward the bench, but his father’s fingers close around his wrist. Suddenly Sting is six and crying, eight and hiding, nine and begging, eleven and not knowing what he did wrong.

“I…”

“What the hell has he been doing with you?”

“Nothing,” Sting says, trying to keep his voice steady as he tugs at his dad’s grip. “Let go of me.”

His father’s face is cold, and he tightens his grip on Sting’s wrist. Shadows play across his cheeks from the dim light of the streetlamps, making him look sharp and dangerous. Now that he’s closer, it’s clear that he’s been drinking – his eyes are red and the look he’s giving Sting makes the scar on his forehead hurt.

“Why?” Sting asks, every muscle in his body tense as he tries not to pull away. If he fights back, it’ll just be worse.

“Why what?” his dad mutters, and Sting can’t stop crying.

“You…” Sting swallows, then rubs at his face with the sleeve of his hoodie, trying to keep the tears from spilling down his cheeks. “I jus —”

“Stop it,” his dad snaps, tightening his grip on Sting’s wrist until it hurts. It always hurts. “You’re so goddamn emotional. Always crying about stupid shit.”

grow up

stop crying

don’t be such a baby

“I’m n-not—” Sting starts, but his dad interrupts, yanking him forward and hissing, “Shut up.”

Sting squeezes his eyes shut and turns his head, but the blow he’s expecting never comes. Instead, the grip on his wrist loosens and he stumbles, hitting the back of his legs against the park bench. When he looks up, a police officer is standing there, one hand on his dad’s shoulder.

“Is everything okay here?” she asks, and for a second Sting thinks it’s Kelly. A desperate part of him wants to hide behind her, but then he realizes that it’s not her, and he’s not supposed to be here, and his dad looks like he’s going to run.

Sting’s breath catches as he stares at his dad, and the realization settles in his chest, cold and sharp – there is no reason. There is no why. His dad didn’t hurt him because he was too loud, or because he didn’t do the dishes, or because he didn’t come home on time.

There is no why, and it’s never going to change.

“We’re fine,” his dad growls at the same time that Sting whispers, “Help.”

[1112lw]

Every question!!

SDFFSDFG DAM OK SIS

LONG POST AHEAD IF U LITERALLY WANNA KNOW ME PERSONALLY JUST READ THIS LMFAO

1: Name: Arche/Jupiter, my close friends know my real name so!

2: Age: High school has just been done so try to guess

3: Fears: Heights, oral presentations, the dark

4: 3 things I love: Drawing, men- concept art n stuff like that

5: 4 turns on: Oh here we go- uhh thighs, messy hair? when they give u The Look or when they. say things i will not talk about here HHGBDF n uhhh Arms 👀👀

6: 4 turns off: weird macho attitude, overly confident bullshit, being selfish and fuckboys in general

7: My best friend: not sure what this means but my bff is named Daphnée n i love her and ive known her my whole life so 

8: Sexual orientation: homosexuale

9: My best first date: :))))))) as if

10: How tall am I: sigh. I’m 5″4

11: What do I miss: sometimes i miss the feeling loved ig

12: What time were I born: 12:19

13: Favourite color: pink!

14: Do I have a crush

15: Favourite quote: My senior quote!! “if what doesn’t kill us makes us stronger, I’m telling you I’m immortal”

16: Favourite place: well? my room ig? I like my yard too

17: Favourite food: ugh ramen,,,korean dishes are TASTE as fuck but i also like classic ass spaghetti so like lol

18: Do I use sarcasm: does it look like i dont

19: What am I listening to right now: dr.phil LMFAO

20: First thing I notice in new person: Hair and eyes!! also how they laugh

21: Shoe size: Like. a 7-8 in women’s 6 in men’s 

22: Eye color: Hazel/Golden yes bitch let me be special

23: Hair color: it’s either dark brown or golden brown idk

24: Favourite style of clothing: bruv its either kpoppie fuckboy or uwu skirts pastels

25: Ever done a prank call?: no i have anxiety

26: Meaning behind my URL:

27: Favourite movie: rise of the guardians and HTTYD

28: Favourite song: Comeback Home (BTS cover)

29: Favourite band: looks in the camera i dont know nan molla huh

30: How I feel right now: I’m fine im hungry

31: Someone I love: shoutout to my babeys in my server ily

32: My current relationship status: Single(tm)

33: My relationship with my parents: theyre fine ig just a bit tired

34: Favourite holiday:

35: Tattoos and piercing I have: Ear piercings? that’s it

36: Tattoos and piercings I want:

37: The reason I joined Tumblr:

38: Do I and my last ex hate each other? I sure hope not?

39: Do I ever get “good morning” or “good night ” texts? A bit ig?

40: Have I ever kissed the last person you texted? Literally no

41: When did I last hold hands? Like last Friday

42: How long does it take me to get ready in the morning? 20 minutes

43: Have You shaved your legs in the past three days? no i havent shaved in like months

44: Where am I right now? in my room, in quebec, canada

45: If I were drunk & can’t stand, who’s taking care of me? bitch i sure hope my friends would

46: Do I like my music loud or at a reasonable level? fuck my ears 

47: Do I live with my Mom and Dad? yeah

48: Am I excited for anything? yeah? yeah

49: Do I have someone of the opposite sex I can tell everything to? ig? always

50: How often do I wear a fake smile? just at work tbh

51: When was the last time I hugged someone? not long ago i cant tell but my friends r cuddle monsters so 

52: What if the last person I kissed was kissing someone else right in front of me? i havent kissed anyone so 

53: Is there anyone I trust even though I should not? lemme think uhhh no not rlly im not dumb 

54: What is something I disliked about today? i woke up n i thought i had school lol

55: If I could meet anyone on this earth, who would it be? oh john cock i want to be ur best friend

56: What do I think about most? i daydream 24/7

57: What’s my strangest talent? uhhh i can put my thumb behind my hand?

58: Do I have any strange phobias? trypophobia, if thats “weird”

59: Do I prefer to be behind the camera or in front of it? depends on what the video is, mostly behind

60: What was the last lie I told? idk answering to my deadname

61: Do I prefer talking on the phone or video chatting online? online

62: Do I believe in ghosts? How about aliens? I slightly believe in ghosts? also aliens GOTTA exist so 

63: Do I believe in magic? i think!

64: Do I believe in luck? yeah

65: What’s the weather like right now? very pretty i filmed a video outside!!

66: What was the last book I’ve read? L’Étranger d’Albert Camus in french class

67: Do I like the smell of gasoline? yes my dad’s a mechanic

68: Do I have any nicknames? a lot a lot

69: What was the worst injury I’ve ever had? bitch @ my birth #neverforget 

70: Do I spend money or save it? i have 40$ in my name right now

71: Can I touch my nose with a tounge? no

72: Is there anything pink in 10 feet from me? yes highlighter

73: Favourite animal? cats or otters

74: What was I doing last night at 12 AM? FBISDFD NO WE DONT TALK ABOUT IT

75: What do I think is Satan’s last name idk he can have any last name he wants!!!

76: What’s a song that always makes me happy when I hear it? everytime i start hearing “waiting for you anpanman” or “i just wanna go home” 👀👀

77: How can you win my heart? aaahh. be a twink. b fashionable. b funny. cheesy. pls romance me like a npc in the sims 2

78: What would I want to be written on my tombstone? s(he) died smh

79: What is my favorite word? cunt is SUCH a satisfying word

80: My top 5 blogs on tumblr? oh great uh honestly cant be fucked 

81: If the whole world were listening to me right now, what would I say? please have brain. PLEASE

82: Do I have any relatives in jail? i sure hope the fuck not?

83: I accidentally eat some radioactive vegetables. They were good, and what’s even cooler is that they endow me with the super-power of my choice! What is that power? either invisibility or mind reading

84: What would be a question I’d be afraid to tell the truth on? ahaaa “what are your intrusive thoughts”

85: What is my current desktop picture? my lesbian sims getting married LMFAO

86: Had sex? no

87: Bought condoms? no

88: Gotten pregnant? NO

89: Failed a class? i think yeah maths last year

90: Kissed a boy? :(((

91: Kissed a girl? no

92: Have I ever kissed somebody in the rain? no

93: Had job? I have a job rn so 

94: Left the house without my wallet? yeah when i go to school

95: Bullied someone on the internet? define bullying?

96: Had sex in public? virgin squad

97: Played on a sports team? yeah

98: Smoked weed? no ew

99: Did drugs? no ew

100: Smoked cigarettes? NO EW

101: Drank alcohol? yep 

102: Am I a vegetarian/vegan? no i’d die

103: Been overweight? i’m twig

104: Been underweight? i think i was underweight when i was young? i was very Small

105: Been to a wedding? yes very long boring

106: Been on the computer for 5 hours straight? bruh. everyday

107: Watched TV for 5 hours straight? probably?

108: Been outside my home country? ONCE

109: Gotten my heart broken? TWICE !

110: Been to a professional sports game? yesss canadians game!!

111: Broken a bone? no

112: Cut myself? not technically 

113: Been to prom? SOON SOON SOON SOSOSNSBFSHDD

114: Been in airplane? once

115: Fly by helicopter? i am not rich bitch

116: What concerts have I been to? noneeee- WAIT NO MARIE MAI

117: Had a crush on someone of the same sex? not sex but for the purpose of pretending i have a penis yes plenty

118: Learned another language? yeah!! i learned english, i almost learned spanish and i’m trynna learn korean now

119: Wore make up? i try!! but i’m not super good

120: Lost my virginity before I was 18? not 18 yet but it’s goin that way

121: Had oral sex? as if 

122: Dyed my hair? i wishhh

123: Voted in a presidential election? I WISH THE ELECTIONS R ONE MONTH B4 MY BIRTHDAY 

124: Rode in an ambulance? nope

125: Had a surgery? yes at a week old 

126: Met someone famous? i think yes but i was super small

127: Stalked someone on a social network? define stalked?

128: Peed outside? yes

129: Been fishing? YES

130: Helped with charity? i think? we do volunteering so 

131: Been rejected by a crush? not directly

132: Broken a mirror? no 

133: What do I want for birthday? boyf......boy..boyff

134: How many kids do I want and what will be their names? oh man uhh maybe 2-3, i dont know their names yet honestly

135: Was I named after anyone? MY DAD NAMED ME AFTER A FUCKIN CLIENT HE MET. as for my actual name now I named myself after my fav video game character. lit

136: Do I like my handwriting? yeah!!

137: What was my favourite toy as a child? bitch hot wheels

138: Favourite Tv Show? hells kitchen,,,,judge judy,,,anythin like that

139: Where do I want to live when older? honestly i wish i could just live in japan or tokyo, or new york? but i will most likely end up in montreal 

140: Play any musical instrument? i used to play the clarinet last year!!

141: One of my scars, how did I get it? the one on my knee, i scratched my desk with my knee 

142: Favourite pizza toping? my dad makes AMAZING sea food pizzas,,,

143: Am I afraid of the dark? a lot

144: Am I afraid of heights? A LOT

145: Have I ever got caught sneaking out or doing anything bad? idk prolly? im a bit of a goody two shoes or however u spell it

146: Have I ever tried my hardest and then gotten disappointed in the end: dont we all

147: What I’m really bad at: organizing my anxiety n shit i get overwhelmed

148: What my greatest achievments are: finishing high school 

149: The meanest thing somebody has ever said to me: honestly has to be that time someone dug up my vent post about being dysphoric to try to say i hated myself with some dumbass DySphorIa Is SelF HaTRed argument

150: What I’d do if I won in a lottery: pay my parents’ debt off, buy 284223$ of BT21 merch, pay my whole college/uni and transition

151: What do I like about myself: idk i like how i literally do not give a fuck anymore and ive learned to love myself instead of trynna care

152: My closest Tumblr friend: @peptobismol-official​ @ace-landofthesun​ @dorkalisious​ and ana but idk her @ anymore :((( ana pls

153: Something I fantasise about: we dont talk about that

154: Any thoughts on the paranormal?: lit. please stop crawling in my ceiling !

ok now that u know my whole biography. go doxx me ig. bye bye