#(it kept crashing during recovery)

[hayridetoo]

that one vocaloid song or whatever

[formula-nyoom]

Hi! I’m currently recovering from a pretty bad hip injury and am doing physical therapy right now. PT’s been really hard and hurts my hip like hell, so I was wondering if you could maybe write about either a McLaren or Ferrari driver (your choice) who’s going through it after a hip injury and is just having a really tough time, but all of the drivers (especially Lando, Charles, Carlos, Oscar, and Daniel if that’s okay - I know it’s a lot hahaha) are there to reassure her and cheer her on.

If you don’t feel comfortable writing this, I totally understand! I hope you have a nice rest of your day/night! :)

A/N: Hope I did ok with this one. Midterms prevented me from working on this but I tried to finish this as soon as possible. Hope you enjoy it.

Realistically you should be grateful that you can still walk after the massive crash you went through in Jeddah. Well “walk” is a loose term. Having to go through physical therapy and making sure your hip heals properly, you’re not able to put any weight on your foot and have to use crutches to walk. The combination of that and the lingering pain has not made the recovery process easy. But thankfully, you were only the reserve driver for Ferrari, which means you didn’t have to rush your recovery.

“How are you feeling?” Charles asked as he packed your bag for the day while you laid on the bed in your hotel room. Him and Carlos had been helping you throughout the week with getting around the Australian circuit and you were very grateful for your fellow teammates' willingness to help.

“I don’t want to walk or move. I don’t want to go anywhere.” You said.

 “I could carry you if you’d like.” Carlos said. You shook your head.

“And risk you pulling your stitches? You just got cleared to get back in the car and we both know Ferrari can’t afford to have Bearman drive right now.” You told him. 

“Please at least let me carry your stuff or drive you to the track. I'm the whole reason you got hurt.” Carlos said. 

 “No you're not Carlos. It's my own fault I crashed.” You said. You could tell that Carlos felt guilty about you having to fill in for him and then crashing during the race, but you kept trying to reassure him that injuries like yours came with the job of being a race car driver. The only person to blame for your injury is yourself, not the teammate you were filling in for.

 “But if my appendix didn't burst, you wouldn’t have been in the car.” Carlos said. Charles rolled his eyes.

 “Ok, the two of you can assign blame all you want for the rest of the day, but right now, we have to get to the paddock.” Charles said. “(Y/N), I will help you get down to the car. Carlos, you can carry her stuff.”

Charles helped you get out of bed and get situated with your crutches while Carlos grabbed your bag and the two helped you get down to the hotel lobby. 

~~~

You had barely made it past the paddock entrance and the fan barricades before everything started to hurt. You knew that navigating the paddock was going to be difficult but you didn’t expect to have to stop and rest everytime your hip decided to flare up with pain. You had already told Carlos and Charles to go ahead of you, not wanting to slow them down. They were hesitant to leave you behind, but you assured them that it’s better they make it to the team meeting on time than have them constantly wait for you. 

 “Hey (Y/N)! How are you doing?” You looked up from leaning on your crutches to see Daniel and Oscar approaching you. They seemed to be in high spirits with it being their home race. 

“I’m doing ok. I’m trying to get to the Ferrari garage but I’m having some difficulty.” You said, motioning to your hip.

 “Let me help you then. I’ll give you a piggyback and get you there in no time.” Daniel said.

 “Are you sure? I don’t want you to risk anything before your home race.”

 “Nonsense. Plus it’s better than you having to walk all the way on crutches.” Daniel said with a smile that was hard to say no to you. You reluctantly agreed and handed your crutches to Oscar before climbing on Daniel’s back. 

“C’mon, I’ll get you to the Ferrari garage.” Daniel said. Oscar followed you two and the three of you started conversing on your expectations for the upcoming race. You did admit to Daniel that the piggyback was much better than walking. Without the crutches, your hands were free to wave to fans as you passed and that helped improve your mood. 

“Oh, (Y/N). My gran made these for the McLaren team and I grabbed you one as a get well soon gift.” Oscar said, handing you a nicely wrapped pastry. 

 “Aww, thanks Osc.” You said. You unwrapped the pastry and took a bite. It was delicious and you smiled. 

 “Oh my god. Oscar, can your gran send these to me every time I get injured? I can already feel my hip healing.” You said. Oscar chuckled.

“I’ll let her know you liked them. But promise me you won’t get injured just for the sake of my gran’s baking.” Oscar said.

 “I promise.” You told him. 

~~~

“What if I don't recover from this?” 

It was late at night. You and other drivers were at a club celebrating Carlos’s win, but you had to step out to get some air.

 “You will. And after you've recovered, you'll win the next race you're in. It's a basic guarantee now with Carlos’s win.” Lando said, who had decided to join you outside to make sure you were ok. 

“I won’t be in another race for a long while. Either Charle’s appendix needs to burst or Kevin needs to get more penalty points for me to be in another race this season.” You said. 

 “Well with the way Magnussen drives, I think you’ll actually have a shot again this season.” Lando said. The two of you let out small laughs, knowing that statement was sort of true.

 “I have to be fully healed before they let me get back into the car.” You said, your smile slowly dropping. “With how everything keeps hurting, especially after physical therapy, I can’t help but feel like that’s not a possibility.” 

“Hey, look at me.” Lando moved your head so you could look him in the eyes. 

 “I know my words can’t automatically heal you, but I need you to know that this pain will eventually pass. You’ll heal, and you’ll get back in that car.” He said. He placed his arm around you and pulled you close to his side without trying to aggravate your injury.

 “And when you do get back in that car, you’ll win that race. Proving that nothing can stop you.”

The smile returned to your face and you pulled Lando in for a hug.

 “I can feel myself getting better already.”

[nimuetheseawitch]

SGA Summer Vacation Recs

So, a few weeks ago, a friend asked for longfic recommendations to read while on vacation, and I did not really realize how many I was recommending at the time. Seemed like a good idea to make a post about it.

Time in a Bottle by astolat, 14K (not originally on my list because it was too short, but it's too perfect for a summer reading list, so I added it), McShep, Rated E, Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings To see a World in a Grain of Sand / And a Heaven in a Wild Flower / Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand / And Eternity in an hour.

The Long Dark (series) by @logicgunn, 141K, McShep, Rated G-E but the first is M, Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings An astronomical event causes two strangers to crash land on a remote island in the frozen Canadian north. Cue a fluffy slow burn in a survival setting.

Lord John Sheppard Versus Earth by LitGal, 61K, McShep, Rated M, Graphic Depictions of Violence Canon diverged before Jackson found Atlantis. The IOC stepped in and decided to make things more efficient. A gene testing program brought Major John Sheppard into the program earlier, but budget constraints and international treaties have kept Dr. Jackson out of the antarctic. So now John has to find his own team--and his own geek--or he's in danger of being stuck in the mountain forever as a light switch. However, as the universe changes, fate forces some things to return to proper form, and other things… they get wildly out of control. John isn't sure how he came to be Earth's enemy, but he's going to have to deal with the cards he's dealt.

Teamwork by onthewaters, 24K, McShep and others, Rated E, Graphic Depictions of Violence There is an Earth where things have turned out a little differently, and the people who go to Atlantis aren't quite the ones we know. AKA The one where Rodney is a Mountie.

The Doctor and the Sheppard by @hero-in-waiting, 70K, McShep, Rated E They've been in Pegasus for a year before Rodney is finally allowed to go off-world to meet with the mysterious leader of a group of allies against the wraith. The first meeting goes well, sending them down a path none of them could've foreseen, and leaving Rodney with thoughts of the mysterious leader with his bright eyes and dark hair.

The Hard Prayer by Rheanna, 30K, McShep, Rated M One year after the end of the world, John meets another survivor.

In Sickness and in Health by @a-storm-of-roses, 31K, McShep, Rated E "So I told a little lie, just to get you back to Atlantis. It was the only way, so try not to get too mad. I told them we were married.” When John suffers a major, life-changing injury on Earth, Rodney must pretend to be his husband to ensure his return to Atlantis. As he struggles to navigate recovery and accept his new reality, John must also come to terms with his new role as Rodney's husband and the new dynamics in their relationship. A story of healing, recovery, loss, love, and acceptance.

Enigma by sgamadison, McShep, 32K, McShep, Rated E, Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings During an off-world mission, a piece of Ancient technology transports Rodney and John on a one-way trip to a deserted airfield. Working together to get back, it takes a vivid dream to make Rodney realize what's been in front of him all along.

Bridges by bussaiko, 52K, McShep, Rated E Engineer Rodney McKay went to North Carolina's Crystal Coast to help his sister design a series of bridges. He hoped to rebuild his career following a professional disaster; he didn't expect to be drawn into the small community of Athos Island, where he found friendship and perhaps something more with helicopter pilot John Sheppard. But when Rodney tries to learn more about John's past, what he discovers might tear them apart. (non-Stargate AU)

Apocalypse Rising by sian1359, 81K, McShep, Rated M, Graphic Depictions of Violence The Goa'uld are not the only ones who covet Earth.

Zen and the Art of Jumper Maintenance by Indybaggins, 39K, McShep, Rated M The one where Rodney gets sucked in and John… follows. Featuring a quirky John, Rodney in orange robes, crazy Ancient-worship, sheep milking and jumpers that aren't broken but need to be fixed anyway.

Black Helicopters (series) by whizzy, 141K, McShep, Rated T-E but the first is M, Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Screw the bet. Rodney was going to prove the existence of extraterrestrial intelligence. Oh, and incidentally, he might just catch the United States Air Force with their pants around their ankles.

Pegasus Purgatorio by MrsHamill, 127K, McShep, Rated E, Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings It is difficult to write a paradise when all the superficial indications are that you ought to write an apocalypse. It is obviously much easier to find inhabitants for an inferno or even a purgatorio. (Ezra Pound) Yeah, I'd say that about covers it, Ezra. John and Rodney are left behind when Atlantis (and, by extension, Pegasus) is evacuated. While returning to the Milky Way, they decide to bring a few friends along.

What A Wonderful Bunker You Would Make by ocdindeed, 50K, McShep, Rated M Summary in simple words: Rodney is recluse and John has a kid. Summary in not so simple words: Rodney McKay has given up on the world, living a simple life up on a mountain devoid of people. He likes it that way, at least he did until a kid with a full head of dark hair ambled up his dirt driveway and changed his sequestered life forever. (AU - Set during SG1 & Pre-SGA timeline.)

G******, Tramps, and Thieves* (series) by auburn, 372K, McShep and a whole lot more, Rated T-M, Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con, later fics Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Vala Mal Doran and her partners, renegades Jehan abd-Ba'al and Meredith McKay, hijack the Tau'ri ship Prometheus and leave the Milky Way behind in search of the Lost City of the Ancients, Atlantis.

*I censored this title due to a common racial slur

[childofthewolvess]

A crash course introduction post on me and my practice!

Hi friends! My name is Audra (she/her or he/him), I'm here to share my stories and meet other practitioners! I'd love to make new friends. I write a lot of longer content in storytelling musings as a form of worship and practice (link to my masterpost of all digital grimoire content).

21 year old professional author of YA fantasy, naturalist, and poet. I teach about nature for a living for all ages as a tour guide and environmental educator!

I am autistic and disabled. That, however, does not stop me from yapping 100% of the time. Though I'm extraordinarily talkative and love making friends, please be patient with me and use tone tags when you can. I'm really bad at responding to people, I promise I didn't intentionally ghost you, I just have no concept of when a conversation ends. You'll hear me talk once in awhile about my service dog or PTSD awareness!

Eclectic witch, omnist, and Norse/Hellenic polytheist—I've been a devotee to Loki for over two years now, and new devotee to Aphrodite! I worship these two for the most part, but just began deity work with Apollo and Ares. I believe that all spiritualities and religions have truth to various individuals, and that deities are energetic extensions of the Universe. So, basically, The Universe > Earth/Mother Nature > Deities > Spirit Guides/Familiars > Entities > Ghosts.

I also have two wolf familiars I work with gifted to me by my ancestors, they are my spiritual companions. The wolves have been with me since I was a kid! I've devoted my entire life to the wolf. The best term I've found for this is calling myself a wolf spirit worker, as I not only work with my two familiars, but have had contact with numerous wolf spirits over the years. I'm currently working on my animal communication and psychic skills with the wolf. The wolf is also my special interest.

Scorpio Sun, Scorpio Moon, and Pisces Rising—I was born during a solar eclipse in Scorpio.

I have been a practicing witch for 7+ years, taking a break last year to focus on my mental health and recovery from trauma. I have ADVANCED EXPERIENCE (6+ years) with: tarot, divination, spellwork, sigils, spirit work (only with familiar/animal spirits, but over 10+ years of experience in this realm), and writing rituals; INTERMEDIATE EXPERIENCE with: astrology, cosmic/moon magic, deity work, and energy work; BEGINNER EXPERIENCE with: herbalism (learning), shadow work (learning), potions/tinctures (developing skill), dream work/astral travel (developing skill), shapeshifting (researching), and heathenry (researching).

We are BABY WITCH FRIENDLY up in this house!!! 💅💅

I talk a lot about spiritual psychosis and spread awareness about its signs and dangers in spiritual and religious communities. I am a survivor of spiritual psychosis and a witch with OCD. If this is a trigger, please be very wary of following me, as I post frequent content about spiritual psychosis prevention.

This blog is safe for minors to follow, as long as it is kept in mind that I am an adult and I will only interact with other adults. I do not post any NSFW or adult content, so I don't mind if minors follow me considering the above. This is mostly an educational blog of my practice and religion. All of my content and reposts are safe for all audiences, and appropriate trigger warnings are listed. I will answer asks from minors if it's advice or questions to do with my practice or craft! :) However, I do politely ask that MINORS DO NOT DM ME. I also will NOT follow back if I see "minor/under 18" anywhere on your profile, this is my own personal preference.

I now offer familiar spirit readings! Check out my Ko-Fi if you're curious in getting a familiar spirit reading, communication, confirmation, or any other service to do with familiar spirits!

Please don't be afraid to say hi! I'd love to speak to other witches and share experiences and stories! My asks and DMs (adults only for DM) are always open <33 Cheers!

(header is a photo of my familiars by this artist that I commissioned!

UPDATED: 06/17/2024

[callsign-dexter]

From Exes to Lovers

Request: Hi ☺️ Could i request a Connor Rhodes imagine for my bday tomorrow? Maybe where the reader is his ex and also a nurse at the med. One time you get in a terrible car crash and get to the ER where Connor gets called to save you. You nearly die during the surgery but he saves you and stays with you all the time till you wake up. Then he keeps caring for you during your whole recovery and you slowly start getting your old feelings back, so you decide on a second chance for your love. Hope this is ok ❤️

Pairings: Connor Rhodes x Nurse!Reader

Warnings: angst, fluff, car crash, inaccurate medical talk, implied cheating but not really

A/N: Happy birthday to the anon who sent this request in!

Frist Installment: Exes to Lovers

Second Installment: Lovers Forever

Masterlist

You don't know how it happened. You had the right of way. The light was green. Some drunk person had run their red light and t-boned you as you were crossing the intersection. They had hit you hard enough that your car flipped 4 times until it landed thankfully upright but in the other lane. Glass was everywhere. You're pretty sure you had a concussion from hitting your head on the steering wheel and the window. You for sure had broken bones. But then the pain came especially around your abdominal area. The other driver had died on impact. How did this happen you ask? Well, this is how.

You had just gotten back from visiting your friend, Hailey Upton, and her husband, Jay Halstead, you were ranting about Connor Rhodes, your now ex-boyfriend, and that you had caught another woman texting. You had dated for 3 years. He was also coming home later than normal. So once you stormed out you went straight to their house crying. It was a huge fight. Luckily for you, you had kept your apartment.

It was getting late and you just wanted to go home and eat a pint of ice cream and watch some cheesy sappy movie. You didn't have to work that night or the next day which was great. That also meant you didn't have to see Connor tonight or tomorrow, you were a nurse at Med. You loved him you really did but you couldn't stand a cheater and weren't going to tolerate it. As you were driving you came to a stop at a red light, while stopped you answered some texts and then put your phone down. As you started to drive you noticed headlights coming to you on your left and they were coming fast. The next thing you knew metal was hitting metal and then your car was flipping. Your head hit the steering wheel and then the window. The airbag deployed hitting you and breaking your nose and throwing your head into the headrest.

Your adrenaline was wearing off and then all the pain hit you and you moaned in pain. There was glass everywhere. You felt blood running down your face and into your eye. You felt the most pain in your abdominal area. You carefully looked down and saw glass puncturing you. You tentatively touched it but knew better than to yank it out. You couldn't hardly breathe. All of sudden you felt another impact and you were being pushed into a telephone pole wrapping your car on the passenger side. You blacked out.

You only came to when you heard your name being called by a voice but didn't open your eyes. It sounded underwater. You wanted to answer but couldn't you just wanted to sleep.

"Y/N it's Kelly. Can you hear me?" Kelly, your other best friend asked but you didn't respond. "Y/N I really need you to open your eyes." He said and you tried oh you tried. You slowly started to crack them open. "There we go." He said once he saw them open.

"Kelly?" You asked slurred.

"Yea it's me. You were in an accident. We're going to get you out and to Med. Ok?" He asked and you groaned and your eyes begin to shut again. "Hey hey no no keep those eyes open." He said but your eyes were already closed. "Y/N, hey. Open those eyes for me, please." You actually complied this time. "There we go. How are you and Connor?" He asked not knowing of the situation.

"'Roke up." You said slurring your words that shocked him.

"Why did you two break up?" Kelly asked as he shouted orders to his team.

"Cheated." You said slurring your words again and then your eyes rolled into the back of your head and your head lulled to the side and Kelly caught you. This freaked Jim out but he had to keep calm.

Everyone worked with ease and carefulness but quickly to get you out. They all saw the damage and knew you would be critical. When they got you out they put you on a backboard and a gurney and loaded you up and you were on your way to Med.

When you got to Med you were unconscious and couldn't hear anything. You were breathing but barely and it was labored. You went to your little paradise where Connor and you never broke up instead you got married and started a family one boy and one girl, it was perfect.

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

Connor was having a good night, well as good as one can have when one breaks up with another. He had been heartbroken when you pulled away from his kisses and started to pull away from him. The fight kept playing in his head. You had been the one to break up with him. You had seen a text from another girl on his phone but what you didn't know was that the other girl was a married woman jeweler who was setting his grandma's diamond in a set so he could propose to you. The reason why he was coming home early was because he was making details on how to propose and where making sure it was perfect.

Connor was in the ED when the ambulance came rolling in. He didn't look up considering it was a normal part of ED but when Maggie gasped he looked up and his face drained. "Maggie please tell me that is not Y/N." He said almost pleading.

"I'm sorry Connor. Take her to Trauma 2 and make it fast." She yelled and she turned to Connor.

"Let me go." Connor said and Maggie looked hesitant. "There are no other available doctors at the moment. Let me do it." He pleaded.

"Fine." She said and he rushed in and started giving orders.

Connor was supposed to be getting off shift when you rolled around but now he just couldn't make himself leave. Not with knowing you were in major surgery to fix your abdominal aorta that glass had found itself embedded in.

They wheeled you into surgery where he scrubbed in. "Ok guys, she is one of us. We have to save her but we handle it just like every other surgery." Connor said and they nodded. They got to work. Everything was going smoothly until one of the surgery techs noticed a drop in stats.

"Dr. Rhodes. Her O2 is dropping and he looked up.

"Ok start bagging her and get those stats back up." He said and they nodded. Once they got your stats back up. But then your heart rate started to drop. The machine alerted them. He looked up and then looked down. It started lowering when he took the glass out and he started to move faster.

"Heart rate is dropping." The tech said and before anyone could say anything you started to flatline "She's flatlining." The tech said.

"Start compressions. I'm holding this aorta off so she doesn't bleed out." Connor said and that's what they did. "Give me a clamp." He demanded and they did and clamped off the aorta and had his go at compressions he was about to have them shock you but then your heart rate came back up. "Ok let's finish this quickly and get her into recovery." He demanded again and they did just that. "Just hold on, baby. I'm gonna get you out of here." He quietly told you and everybody else pretended not to hear him. "When she gets out of recovery and into a room let me know." He said and they nodded.

4 hrs is how long it took to repair the aorta. He was an absolute wreck. But he had stayed calm while doing the surgery. He had gotten changed and then went to the doctor's lounge and waited when one of the surgery techs came in to let him know you were out of recovery in a room. He asked what number and when they told him he was up and going to you. When he got there he looked at you and regretted everything. He pulled the uncomfortable blue plastic chair by your bedside and sat down. He grabbed your hand and stroked your knuckles, and every now and then kissed them. He just had to wait for you to wake up.

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

A consistent beeping is what woke you up. You had slowly opened your eyes but quickly slammed them shut when they met with harsh light. You then felt a weight on your hand and looked over to find the black haired, blued eyed man that you once called your boyfriend. He was sleeping and looked so peaceful but you needed to wake him up. "'Onnor." You said sleepily and he stirred until he woke up and at first he looked confused but then saw you were awake.

"Baby." He sighed out in relief. Your scrunched your nose up.

"I'm not your baby anymore, Connor. We broke up." You said and rolled your eyes which hurt. He sighed he wasn't going to fight with you, especially since you just got out of surgery. "What's the damage?" You asked moving due to uncomfortableness. He sighed.

"You have 4 broken ribs, a concussion, your abdominal aorta was torn but I was able to fix it. You have a hairline fracture on your right ankle. A sprained left wrist. Multiple cuts from the glass and a lot of bruising." He listed what was wrong and you stayed silent.

"What about the other driver?" You asked

"He was drunk and died on impact." He told you and you nodded.

"What about my car?" You asked again, you loved your car.

"I'm sorry. It's totaled. You'll have to get a new one." He said and you nodded and let a tear slip. "Are you ok?" He asked truly worried.

"Yea. I'm just going to miss that car." You said and he chuckled and smiled both of which you loved.

"We'll get you a new and better car." He said.

Dr. Goodwin came into your room and you looked up and smiled "Hi, Nurse Y/L/N. How are you feeling?" She asked.

"Sore. Just found out my beloved car was totaled." You said and everyone chuckled and smiled.

"I'm sorry to hear that. I'm came here to let you know you're going to have the next few weeks off to recover with pay and Connor is going to be allowed a few days off." She said and you looked confused.

"Why is that?" You asked her.

"Since you have nobody here he decided to be the one to look after you." She said

"That's not necessary. I can look after myself." You tried to defend yourself.

"You had a major surgery and will need someone to look after you. Connor volunteered." She said and you may not have liked it but agreed.

You spent a week in the hospital making sure everything was then you were released in Connor's care.

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

When you got to his apartment that night after your release it was slow going but he was ok with that. He was and has always been so patient with you. You hated that you broke up with him but you couldn't stand a cheater. You both got into the apartment and he had to settle down on the couch while he pampered you and got the bed ready and made you something to eat. He truly was the sweetest man ever. "If you need me for anything during the night wake me up, and I mean anything." He said and you nodded.

"You got it." You said. The two of you stayed up and watched some TV and you ate what was allowed. When and if you wanted to get up he was there helping you. You knew now why you first fell in love with this man.

This went on for a few weeks and your old feelings started to come back and you started to fall in love with him again. When he went back to work was the hardest but you managed and if you need something he said to call him, Hailey, Jay, or Kelly. You didn't call anybody because you were perfectly fine. You and Connor had been texted throughout the day. Most of your wounds, sprain, and fracture had healed. You still had stitches but they were due to come out soon.

One thing was on your mind and you couldn't get it off of your mind. That was why did he cheat. When you didn't text him back one day it was when he was finishing his shift and it was worrying him but stayed calm. Once out of the hospital he got into his car and drove home. He found you sitting outside on the terrace. You didn't hear him come in so you jumped when you touched you. "I'm sorry, Baby. I didn't mean to startle you." He said and you hadn't been correcting him when he said it. "What's wrong? You didn't text me back." He said and you sighed as he bent down looking at you.

"Why did you cheat?" You said just coming out and saying it.

"Baby, I didn't cheat on you." He said and you glared at him.

"Don't lie to me." You said and he sighed and hung his head.

"I'm not. Just hold on. Don't move." He said and you did what you were told, to be honest you were still sore and you didn't feel like moving.

"Don't walk away from me. Who the fuck is Samantha?" You yelled out after him but he returned with a black velvet box.

"I didn't cheat on you. Samantha is a married woman-" He started but you cut him off and threw your hands up which pulled on your stitches but you didn't care.

"So you cheated on me with a married woman? Why were you coming home so late? I loved you and still do." You said you hadn't noticed the black velvet box.

"You didn't let me finish. Samantha is married woman jeweler that was helping me set my grandmother's diamond into a ring. I was coming home late because Hailey and Ava were helping me pick out a perfect spot to propose that night you stormed out. Also you still love me?" He asked and you nodded your head.

"Yes. I still love you." You said and he kissed you. You gladly kissed him back.

"I love you too. I was going to make this special but with how you look under these lights and the sunset now is as good time as any. So, here it goes. Y/N Y/M/N Y/L/N I have loved you since the beginning. I have loved you since I laid my eyes on you. It was love at first sight for me. I knew you were the one right then and there. You are so special to me and when we broke up it broke me and when I saw you come into ED I was petrified. I don't want to lose you again. I want to grow old with you and have a family with you. So, will you make my dreams come true and make me the happiest man on earth and marry me?" He finished and was already kneeling on one knee as he pulled out the ring, it was a cut cornered princess cut with one diamond on each side, it was perfect. The way it glimmered under the light made it all more beautiful. You were crying and then you nodded your head.

"Absolutely, I will marry you. It'll make me the happiest woman in the world." He smiled and put the ring on your finger and gently grabbed your face and crashed his lips into yours. Everything was perfect.

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

When you were allowed to back to work you went with Connor and you were holding hands, everyone took notice of that. You both got changed and started your shift. You were told if you needed a break than you take it. The stitches had been removed but you didn't have your normal energy back just yet.

As the two of you walked out he left you at the desk and kissed you. "I'll see you later, fiancé." He said with a smile.

"Yes you will my soon to be husband." You smiled and he left. Everyone came up to you.

"So I take it you're back together." April said and you nodded and showed them the ring.

"More than back together. Engaged." You said and everyone squealed in excitement, the same way Hailey had done when you told her. They asked for details and you gave them. As they were talking to you, you saw Connor walk by with Will and Ethan and he smiled at you and winked which you returned.

Yea, everything was going to be ok. You had the man of your dreams and were about to start a life with him. It was perfect. You were finally in paradise.

Tag list:

@kmc1989

@els-marvelvsp

@atarmychick007

@nyx2021

[smoooothoperator]

hiii lauraaa!! im just gonna say first things first and once again, Congratulations on writing an amazing series!!🥳✨️🫶🏼💗

I've been dedicated in reading and catching up and heads up, i may spam you with imagine plots soo sorry not sorry hehe😅😭

diving head first: I'd love to know abt the proposal + wedding details like whether lando proposed or violet proposed or maybe both🤷‍♀️😉 (like one of the tiktoks where the couple proposed at the same time), whoever proposes, what was their THE MOMENT when they knew 'this is it' (context: like jake and amy from b99 if you have watched), etc and etc.

i may have ranted in more detail but just wanted to share my pov of the idea. I'm sooo excited to see how this takes place! (ps: no pressure on writing asap!! take your sweet time pleasee! its always worth the wait to read😭😭😭)

okie now! byeeeeee loveee youuuuu mwaaahhhhh take care and happy race weekend!!🫂😉🫶🏼✨️ xx

Sorry it took me too long! Right now I'm very very very focused on reading that I really forgot that I had to write this HAHAHAHA

But I hope you like this!

He always knew he wanted to marry her. At first it was a joke he used to tell himself or his friends, that he was going to marry Violet no matter what, that he would put his last name next to hers. But it was only that, a joke and he barely though about it as something more.

But the day he had her, the day she said she loved him, he immediately knew he had to make that come true, that he was going to love her until his last breath. Days with her were like a new adventure he was dying to explore.

Lando started the search of a ring for her during the honeymoon phase of their relationship. He was so naive, so on love. He found himself countless times looking at rings everytime he walked in front of the jewelries Monaco, making screenshots on his phone of the ones he liked, picturing Violet with that ring on her finger.

But then the crash happened. He had to focus on her, on her recovery and making sure she was comfortable. And during that time with her, he came to the realization that he has to love the present and enjoy every second with her, enjoy life with her. But it made him realize, too, that he wanted to be next to her forever, now for real.

A year turned in two, two in three, and their love never stopped growing. They filled their house with souvenir of every places they visited, and their dogs were like their kids, always going with them to Lando's races.

It was a day he went out around Monaco with Max when he stopped right in front of the jewelry he always looked at. Max looked at him and smirked, nudging him and walking inside of the store. That day, he held Violet close to his chest, and while she was sleeping peacefully, he was staring at the ring inside elf the box, smiling widely.

He planned it, he kept the ring for months, and even if sometimes he decided to not wait and propose right in tbe moment, he waited for the day.

They went back to that city of snow, the city their favorite writer got inspired to write their favorite books. He thought it was perfect, Max and Pietra were with them, as well as their dogs.

"You know she will suspect if she find us recording, right?" Pietra sighed, looking at him.

"She won't" Lando nodded. "I have it planned, don't worry guys"

Lando had it pictured in his mind, he has been thinking and dreaming about this day since he bought the ring. When he's going to kneel, what words he's going to speak.

But it wasn't as easy as he thought.

His first attempt ended up with a fail. He wanted to go for a walk with the dogs and making sure that Max and Pietra were some meters away, with their phones in their hands making sure to record everything. But it ended with them screaming in a panic attack because one of their dogs decided to go explore to the wood. Thankfully they found the dog, covered in snow and the day ended with them cuddling the black dog in front of a fire and making sure he didn't freeze.

His second attempt was planned while they slept. It had to be something simple, no surprises. He has to make sure that their dogs are near, that the ring is in the box.

But at morning, when everything he wanted to do was cuddle her, he found Violet already in the living room making lunch for the day that was planned on the ski resort. So maybe that was the perfect moment to ask her.

He made sure he had the box with the ring in the inside pocket of his snow coat, sometimes having the need of patting his chest to make sure that the box was still there.

"Babe, you okay?" Violet asked worried, watching how he was always rubbing his chest. "Did something happen?"

"Oh? No, no! Why do you think that?" he frowned confused.

"Well..." she smiled looking him. "You can't stop touching your chest. Are you nervous because we're going to the red zone?"

"What?! Me?! My second name is danger" he scoffed, talking with a high pitched voice.

"Sure" she laughed, kissing his cheek.

Lando swallowed thickly and turned his head slightly to look at Max and Pietra, somehow panicking and moving his hand side to side under his chin.

"Abort plan, abort plan" he mouthed, making his friends chuckle.

He never thought that proposing to hercould be that hard without making her suspect.

He normally has a lot of patience, he had to get high levels of patience to love with two puppies and train them. But this? This is ending his patience levels.

The four of them spent the day skiing while their dogs were at a dog daycare place. And once they finished and got back with their dogs, Lando was too quiet on the way back to the house. And when they were finally there, he went immediately outside, grabbing his phone and texting Max.

Lando: Okay, this is the last chance. I'll stay out for a while, if she goes outside to talk with me, follow her.

Max: I never imagined proposing would be this hard...

Lando: Try it, then we'll talk 😩

Lando stayed out of the house, looking at the ring inside of the box. It doesn't have a big stone, in all his hers dating her he discovered that she doesn't like big jewelry. And the ring is the perfect definition of what she would wear everyday.

Rhysand and Feyre, their dogs, walked out of the house and stayed with him, cuddling him and trying to keep him warm, or trying to give him a reason to go back to the house.

"Hey, what are you doing outside? It's getting cold" Violet smiled, leaning on the door frame.

"Oh-" he wasn't ready. "C-can we talk?"

"There's something wrong?" she asked worried, walking towards him. "Lando, are you okay?"

"Well, I'm nervous" he sighed.

Violet started to panic. Nervous? Why would he be nervous? Is he going to break up with her?

"W-what?" she mumbled, swallowing thickly.

"I just wanted to do it before, but everytime I tried to talk with you, something happened" he said.

"Oh..."

She could feel her vision getting blurry, not noticing the confusion in Lando's face.

"Baby, why are you crying?" Lando asked, holding her hands.

"You are going to break up with me, it's that?"

"What? No!" he laughed, pulling her close to him. "No! I'm actually going to do another thing"

She didn't feel him kneeling in front of her, grabbing the box inside of his coat. But when she finally understood what was happening, he didn't even need to say a word before she threw herself into his arms.

"You gave me a heart attack!" she exclaimed.

"I'm sorry, baby" Lando chuckled, holding her.

"But... Yes" she whispered. "I will marry you, idiot"

[batsplat]

“the issue was that valentino had thought that he could fix that bike - and while obviously he did influence that project, it was still several years away from being particularly close to being fixed. those two years are all about frustration, of trying to make changes to the bike and nothing working... which was enough to make valentino willing to accept yamaha's terms as long as he could get back to a point where he was competitive again. because he had begun to doubt himself, because after two miserable years of injury, a bike that oscillated between throwing him off and just being slow, the tragedy he and the sport suffered at sepang 2011... well, more than anything else, he just wanted to enjoy himself again”

sorry to copy whole chunks of your work into your inbox and idk if you meant it to sound this way or if it’s an accident but reading this part you could have also been talking about marc’s last years at honda (heartache! my god, my chest twisted) and his switch to ducati and it’s rather interesting… that this happened at almost the same age for them… through almost the same situation………. idk, as different as they sometimes seem, it’s almost like they are meant to be viewed as two versions of the same

(x) maybe a teensy bit on purpose lol

yeah, look, obviously there's plenty of notable differences between the two situations - from how serious the injury was to the personal tragedy valentino went through during that time to the disparity in their ages (three years doesn't sound like a lot but in this sport it kinda is). personally, I didn't really doubt that much that marc could be a title contender again, but from the way he speaks about it, talking during this last presser that he was considering retirement at assen last year... look, some of the stuff early this year was expectation management and of course he's perfectly capable of lying about this stuff, but he very obviously did have some serious doubts about the extent to which he could be competitive again. this is the thing, right... he just hadn't been able to fight at the front of the field for so long, plus he was on a bike that is just ideal for slowly stripping away the confidence of a rider. if you're constantly unexpectedly crashing because you just can't trust the feedback you're getting from the bike, that's just psychologically incredibly tough to deal with (incidentally broadly an accurate description of the ducati during the early 2010s)

which is where the parallels with valentino really do come in, don't they... it's the confidence, the way for the first time in their careers, it's really been systematically stripped down... all this self doubt, the way they're struggling to find themselves again. of course, they'd both gone through rough patches before - the 2006-07 period for valentino, 2015 for marc. they've had a few knocks, it's not as easy to shrug off injuries any more, they know there's no guarantee they'll measure up to the riders they once were. I compiled valentino talking about marc's injury here, but most relevant is how he compares it to his own 2010 injuries. so you have this in july 2020:

I think it's interesting that valentino acknowledges that it helped he knew his title charge was over after the broken leg, to force him to give it up and just focus on his recovery. it's easier, right - if he'd been in marc's situation, it's entirely possible he would've tried to race the following week too. I also think this is an interesting way of framing his actual recovery process, where he *checks notes* still came back way sooner than everyone expected,leading to speculation he didn't really believe his title charge was over - plus kept delaying surgery to the shoulder to the off-season even though it was very obviously hampering him, which then continued to be an issue the following year. like, okay, great job, you didn't try to ride a motogp bike WITH A BROKEN LEG, but also "I only thought about getting better" doesn't quite match up with your actions buddy

as valentino acknowledges, the sport does have a history of near-miraculous comebacks... I feel like these days people only remember 2010 and not the 2017 knock-off

and of course marc's ill-fated decision has to be seen within this context. the ways in which he was influenced by the comebacks from other riders in the past (the most famous of which is probably jorge assen 2013) and by how he himself had a habit of somewhat improbably recovery timelines after constant off-season surgery. from the vale race recs post *wink wink* *nudge nudge*:

valentino also compares his own mugello injury with marc's in september of 2020:

so you also get valentino agreeing with the parallel between honda's situation in 2004 and 2020. of course, the situation in 2004 wasn't as dramatic for honda - but in both cases, they went into that season fully expecting to win that title and instead found themselves underperforming and losing

moving on to comparing the injuries: valentino says his initial injury was worse, but it was marc doing the crazy fast comeback that really fucked him over (which is all true). he talks about why it's so tough... the "physical side" of the pain when you ride the bike but also "on a mental level if you have any fear". how this leaves a "mark on all riders". not particularly hard to draw any parallels here, he's already doing it for us

and lastly in november 2020, again with reference to his own 2010 injury:

talking about how eventually it becomes not just about the career but also about quality of life... how it was a tough period for him because he was just in constant pain... "sometimes you need time"... again, not really much to add, is there. the following years are a brutal double whammy of sorts: not only are you attempting to recover from your worst career injury, not only are there massive reasons why you're suffering (chronic pain, personal tragedy), but also you're suddenly uncompetitive in a way you've never been before in the premier class. you know there's a real possibility your time at the top of the sport is over... that even if you get back on a competitive bike, there's no guarantee you'll be able to come close again to being the rider you once were. you've ridden a bike that's gradually sapped your confidence, your ironclad trust in your own ability to be able to master any bike... you've spent so much time away from the top positions, and you've also made way more high profile mistakes that you had at any stage of your career. for valentino, the most memorable one is obviously jerez 2011 - which, yeah, you can write it off as just a dumb error in the wet, but it's not the kind he'd make if he didn't see this as his one chance to get a big result this early in the season with the crap bike and the crap shoulder (this is 'ambition outweighs talent'). for marc, it's silverstone 2021 (as martin says afterwards, "I hope he can learn from this one and improve for the future", which is great snark lol), portimao last year (y'know, the home crowd booing him)... arguably aragon 2022 the first lap, but that one's not quite as bad a misjudgement (admittedly, he maybe should've called it a day after the first collision). obviously, valentino was never a particularly crash-prone rider until he got on that ducati - but it's worth remembering marc wasn't really known for this kind of error, where he was collecting other riders and causing them both to crash. all of this isn't fun! it's also just kind of humiliating! they're used to so much success, and now they're getting barely any of that - while also occasionally having to go around apologising to other blokes for annoying errors they weren't really making back in the day!

then from marc's end, you've got this quote from 2014 (credit to this post):

of course, knowing marc, there's no way he's not thought about the parallels between his current situation and valentino's back in 2013. and, look, obviously it's not one to one. valentino was three years older back then, his injuries were serious but considerably less so than what marc went through, the competitive landscape looks completely different now than it did in 2013... but this isn't about drawing direct comparisons, it's more about the associated feelings for both of them... all this self doubt, all this pain, the way they just weren't having fun any more... this is the first order of priority, rediscovering the joy. personally I reckon they were being more or less sincere at the start of that journey in not primarily thinking about securing more titles. of course, that changes once they realise they can be competitive again... but while the doubt remains, it's not the main thing they're concerned with

that's the fun thing about qatar 2013, isn't it? there's no point in valentino's entire career where he would have been less invested in whether he ended up winning or losing a fight like that. the whole point wasn't the end result, it's that he was even capable of fighting like that again... of having fun again, battling with a top rider, with the star of tomorrow. given his weekend up to that point, he wouldn't even have been expecting to do so right before the race! really, beating marc in that race was just a bonus. in a different way, the same thing was obviously true of marc: making his debut in the premier class and immediately getting to fight his hero, ending up taking his first ever premier class podium. because of some cruel alchemy of timing and circumstance, you've managed to capture them both at the precise moment where they really are just happy to be there, made their first fight with each other a moment of pure, undiluted ecstasy. such a sweet moment for the pair of them, where they found themselves able to fight each other and had every reason to relish it. you really couldn't have scripted it better

and like you say, they are two versions of the same rider! it really does feel like their careers should be read in conversation with each other! obviously valentino frequently acknowledged this himself early on, saying it wasn't an 'exaggeration' to call marc 'the next valentino rossi'... the ways in which marc had modelled himself after valentino, including of course copying some of his most famous overtakes. beyond their rivalry and conflict, there is also continuity between the pair of them. their entire feud hinges on how it can feel like a blessing to face another version of yourself... but it can also become a curse. the reason why they grew so close in the first place and why things got so ugly between them is fundamentally the same. neither of them have ever really forgotten about the similarities between the pair of them either. mutually inescapable until the end, I fear

incidentally, for context, here's what valentino was actually saying at the end of the ducati years. first of all, he pays casey his dues for being able to succeed on that bike:

you'll note that while he says the experience hadn't broken him (though "I don't think so" isn't particularly firm either), he does talk about how psychologically tough riding that ducati was. also, like I mentioned in the post that this one is a follow-up to, the really big frustration is not even about the riding as much as it is in the utter failure in bike development terms - where nothing they did actually worked:

he describes this as his first wrong career choice (although in other places he has also defended this decision), while also paying credit to his ducati team. crucially it followed on from all these rolls of the dice that had worked, the most major ones being probably the switch to yamaha and later the switch to bridgestones:

he says he's uncertain about whether he'll be able to fight for titles and even race wins again, stressing the importance of the valencia test (which is when he knew he was in serious trouble back in 2010):

and he talks about being the number two rider back at yamaha (while of course flipping it around again to ensure he's putting pressure on jorge):

same principle as with marc, some of this is expectation management and avoiding putting too much pressure on himself, cf marc's constant talk about being content if he could just fight for those 'top five top six positions' again (lol). but crucially valentino didn't know what would be possible

he does also talk a bit about his successors to the seat:

the thing about the ducati during this time, right, is that it was a very bad bike. honda decided to be a bit more dramatic about this post-2020, but these are two broadly analogous cases of massive decline for a manufacturer that had recently won a championship. casey came in for 2007 as a 21 year old insanely talented rider who wasn't too familiar with another bike (certainly not one as friendly as the yamaha) and was able to do something special with that capricious package... but he also talks in his autobiography about how ducati became far too complacent once that title had been won. it's not just mystery illness that explains the progressive decline in his results at ducati during the following three years - it was hubris from ducati, their refusal to listen to their riders while preferring to insinuate their riders simply weren't following the right diet or just weren't exercising enough. valentino switched to this poor package at an age at which adapting to a new bike is just categorically harder, and he failed in making any real progress with that bike for the following two years

that being said, at the end of the day ducati's situation back then isn't a million miles away from what you've seen with the honda - albeit in a different era where this performance decline wasn't punished quite so badly in championship standings because the margins now are a lot slimmer. casey did the equivalent to what marc did in the late 2010s, and put a somewhat evil but obviously fast bike into championship contention for two of his four years at ducati. he jumped ship at the right time, valentino jumped onto it at the wrong time and swiftly realised most of the ship was by this point underwater. look, just some interesting context imo! feel free to ignore. if you're interested in a more in-depth read about what was actually wrong with the bike in 2011, here you go - the short version is "front end feel". which is of course the ideal way to ruin confidence... if you can't trust the feedback you're getting, you can't trust yourself, simple as

[aphroditestempleimagines]

Mortal - Chapter 2

A Geto Suguru x fem!Reader fanfiction

Words: 1871

Warnings: abusive household

Summary: Mimico and Nanako get into a horrible car accident after a drunk night with their friends. Geto is called to the hospital where he discovers you, a human plagued by a cursed spirit, who saved his two precious daughters' lives from the fire.

Chapter info: After the burns you suffered when saving Mimiko and Nanako from the crash, your father, disgusted by your skin, brings you to a temple where a miracle healer is known to work. Little do you know the monk you are meant to meet is none other than Suguru himself.

"They're going to open a new cat cafe in Shibuya!", Nanako excitedly shoved her phone to Mimiko. They sat together in their futons, the floor around them filled with various curiosities Geto had brought to keep them entertained during recovery.

"It looks so cuuuute!", Mimiko squeeled.

"Nanako...", Suguru sighed as he put some of the various books and board games back in their place, "I don't see what's so exciting about a place with so many of those monkeys"

"But it will have so many kittens as well!", Nanako turned the screen of the phone towards him.

Suguru smiled at the small basket of kittens that lay among pink pillows in the middle of the brand-new cafe. Nanako slid her finger on the screen and changed the picture with one of the countless cat-paths that ran along the walls of the establishment. "Focus on getting well and we'll go", he ruffled the girls' hair with his large hands.

"We are already better, we could go now", Mimiko pouted.

"Your cursed energy is still pretty drained from healing", said Suguru, "If the worst happens you won't be able to defend yourselves". He gave a warm smile to the girls' frowns. "It's only one more day", he promised before getting up, "Now, I’m going to work. Behave"

The day passed slowly. Time after time a human would show up in the large audience chamber and plead for salvation. It was not unusual for these people to have curses latched on them, in which case Suguru fully exploited his technique to gather more power for himself. Neither it was entirely uncommon for him to crush one of these vermins like a bug for his own entertainment, after they had no curses nor money to offer him.

"Filthy monkeys", he murmured in disgust when a mother and daughter left earshot, "Do we have anyone else?"

"Just one more pair is waiting"

"Fine", Suguru let out an exhausted breath,Bring them in"

His eyes widened as they fell upon your slumped form, walking shyly next to a man. Your hands were still covered in bandages, your face had a few scars. You kept your eyes low and disinterested as you walked towards him. He wondered whether you'd recognize him if you lifted them up. No. It did not matter. Your body was plagued with a number of parasitic curses, more than the day he saw you in the hospital. You had come to the temple for one reason only, just like all the rest of your weak kind.

"Greetings your Holiness ", Suguru had forgotten about the man who escorted you. The man had a strange aura about him; he was leaking cursed energy constantly, much like all humans, yet it gathered around you to create more curses to plague your body. "I would like you to help fix my daughter", the man said.

"Fix?", Suguru repeated the word.

"Look", you winced as the man grabbed your arms to show Suguru. He pulled away the tidy bandages to expose your blistered skin. "She went and got herself like this", the man complained, "She was already ugly as it was, now no one will want her"

Suguru clenched his fists as he forced a smile on his face. "Of course I can do that", he said getting on his feet. He walked towards the man and placed his arm between him and you. "Come let's talk some details in private", he guided him away into another room.

"Thank you", said the father, "She's already such a disappointment honestly. She's becoming an old maid, she should be married by now but you know how women are now. They want careers and money and forget their place"

Suguru could feel a twitch creeping up to his eye. He had to stay calm. "Of course. I understand", he placed his hand on the man's shoulder. It would be easy to kill him. His fingers trembled in excitement at the thought. His eyes dared the man to utter more of his depraved opinions even though the man never noticed them. "Please wait here for a bit", Suguru pulled his hand away.

His gaze turned into stone as soon as he turned to walk back to the hearing room. He wanted to kill this man more than anything else but he wanted to make sure what your reaction would be. He did not want you panicking and causing commotion around his newfound home. He did not want to have to silence you too.

He slid the door closed behind him. Your head lowered, your gaze was focused on the little soda embroideries on your socks.

"I never expected a woman who ran straight into a fire to remain so silent", he let his critisism be known with a stern voice.

Your eyes seemed surprised as they met his scolding gaze. "It's you..."

Suguru walked towards you. He gestured to your wounded hands and you gave them to him to examine. His touch was soft and careful as it unwrapped the bandage to check the blisters underneath. He raised his gaze to the scars on your face. "Do you mind?", his hand hovered over your skin. You nodded in approval. He pulled your hair away from your cheek. He took out a small handkerchief and wetted it on his tongue before bringing it to your face. His hand held yours so you would not pull away when you tried to avoid it. The cloth scrubbed your make-up off the slight purple taint of a bruise.

"These are uh....these are older", you said.

"I can see that", his voice brimmed with disgust and rage.

He lowered his hand to stand over your shoulder and summoned the lot of your curses in his command. They turned into dust, forming little black and gold marbles in his palm.

"How does that feel?", he asked.

"Huh?", even with just saying that you felt the tremendous amount of weight that was removed from your body, "Oh. Wow! What did you do?"

"That is my secret", Geto smiled.

You stopped to observed him. "Why did you do that?", you asked.

Suguru frowned in confusion. "I'm sorry?"

"Why did you help me?", you said, "I thought...I had a feeling you didn't like me"

She was right. She had seen right through the fake joyous expression he put on to please those around him. His smile faded away. He did not know what to respond as he was not himself sure of why he had helped.

"Look at it as repayment", his fake smile returned, "For saving my daughters".

Yes. That's what it was. Just repaying a debt to a lowly human. He was the sorcerer, he had to honor his debts, even to a monkey like you.

"Now let me take a look at your arms-"

His arm wrapped around your waist to guide you to a table at the other side, but as he touched you your body winced in pain. Suguru's smile fell once more. He took heavy breaths. If your face was marked then your body had to be too.

"Please. Lift your shirt", he kept his lgaze on the ground as he gritted his teeth.

You took a few moments to answer reluctantly "I don't want to".

"Are there more bruises?", Suguru fisted his hands. You shook your head. "So, there are", Suguru surmised.

"It's okay", you told him, "I'm used to it"

Those simple words flipped Suguru off like turning a switch. He saw the twins locked up in a cell, the whole town pointing their fingers toward them as they sent people to torture them. He saw Haibara, his body splayed on a table, never to cheer anyone again. He saw Riko, her wholesome smile beaming on her face before a bullet split her skull.

"Mr monk?", your voice pulled him out of his thoughts. Your eyes were examining him in confusion.

"It's Geto. Suguru Geto", he muttered as he massaged the bridge of his nose.

"Oh. Then Geto-san. Tha-"

"How much do you hate your father?", Suguru asked with a murderous gaze, "Do you loathe him? Would you like to be free of him?"

Your brows furrowed. "I don't think I like your tone", you challenged his gaze.

Suguru was surprised to see the fire behind your eyes. Where had it gone, he wondered, when your father stood next to you. "Apologies", Suguru smiled, "I see what you could have thought. I only meant to offer you a room here at the temple so you'd be able to escape the house"

"O-oh", you stammered, "I don't think he'd let me leave". You had tried to get away from the house before. Gathered money to rent a place outside Tokyo for a while. Until your father found it and took it for himself, saying that a good daughter takes care of her parents.

"I shall handle that", Geto smiled, "I'll just say I need some time to...heal...you as he put it. I guess it is not a question of if you want to anymore..."

He buried his hands in his sleeves and gave a slight bow before turning away to the door. It was not long before he reached the man in question. Suguru forced a pleasant expression in his face. He thought about killing the man right then and there but he surmised that would shock you enough to run away. And he could not have that. He needed you there, close to him, so he could protect you like he could not protect all the others. But still, he could not leave that bastard walk out unscathed.

"Sir", Suguru smiled as he returned to your father. He threw his hand over the man's shoulder. "I'm afraid this will take a little while", the curses he had gathered from you were released to plague the man s body, "She'll be safe with us at the temple. You can come visit in a few days"

The man's breath turned laboured by the curses' weight as he was guided outside. "A...alright...as long...as long as you bring results I guess"

Geto smiled at him until he disappeared under the stairs of the courtyard. He hastily pulled out his disinfectant and sprayed it around his body and even all around the room.

"All done!", he said as soon as he returned to the room.

"Your eyes widened. "Seriously?", you exhaled in disbelief.

"Of course. Come now, i'll see you to your room"

He guided you by the hand to a guest apartment he kept. He ordered one of his servants to fetch you some things from your house that you wanted and provided you with everything else. He bid you goodnight before returning to his room.

He leaned back on the wall. He looked at his hand, your warmth still lingering between his fingers. What on Earth was the matter with him? Why did he help you more than it benefitted his goals? You were a monkey. He should not care whether you lived in peace or despair. Yet there was something about you that reminded him of his days in school. Something of Satoru. Something of Shoko.

Something of Amenai.

[reminiscingtonight]

Get Got

Rose Lavelle x Morgan!Reader

Word Count: 1.5k

A/N: The way Alex’s Snacks episode instantly inspired a couple fics...

[WOSO Masterlist]

Rose has been squirrely since you got up this morning. 

After your late night in LA you decided you deserved to sleep in a bit, given your practice had been moved to the afternoon. This meant that Rose, ever the morning person she is, was already up and running around the house by the time you graced her with your presence.

Blinking owlishly, you yawn out a “good morning” and give her a kiss when she presses a warm mug of coffee into your hands. 

“Sleep well?” she asks, fingers toying with the ends of your hair. 

You hum in response, not missing the way her feet are tapping at the ground around you. The last time she was this full of energy she kept you in bed for nearly an entire day, only letting you out of the room when you finally tapped out, body fully cramped out by all of the pleasure she was happily giving you. But given that you had to be at training in less than an hour, you knew neither of you had time to work out all of her energy. 

Rose hasn’t seen much of the field after returning from camp with a bit of a leg problem, so it made sense that she seemed to have so much energy. What didn’t make sense is the way she keeps switching through the songs on your brief drive over to training. Or the way she can’t seem to sit still in the locker room. 

Even Megan seems to be taken off guard, throwing her sock at Rose’s forehead the third time your girlfriend runs a lap around everyone as you all change into your workout gear.

“Have you listened to Sammy’s podcast yet?”

Her comment comes just as you trudge onto the field, lightly jogging your warm up.

You shake your head, laughing at the crinkle between her eyebrows. “Babe, I’ve been with you all morning.” You briefly remember your sister telling you something about finally being invited onto your friends’ podcast, but to be honest you hadn’t really planned on listening to her episode until later in the week during your free time. Obviously you wouldn’t plan on skipping it, but the two of you had your own lives, not everything you did had to revolve around each other.

Before you can ask Rose about her question, Sonnett’s crashing your solitude, throwing an arm around each of your shoulders. “How are my favorite midfielders on this fine April day?”

“Don’t let Lindsey hear you say that,” you snort, shrugging the blonde’s arm off of you.

Sonnett looks like she’s about to say something else, but a quick elbow into her gut by Rose quickly shuts her up. You frown, tilting your head in question at your girlfriend, but she pretends not to notice, starting on a random tangent.

You don’t have a chance to question either of them, as Laura’s quick to call in the team and start doling out exercises. 

By the time someone else brings up Sam and Lynn’s podcast, you had already forgotten about Rose’s weird behavior.

It’s near the end of practice. Half of the girls were already back inside, getting iced and doing a quick recovery session. You and some of the others had stuck around to help clean up the field before heading their way. 

Sofia slinks up next to you, handing you one of the cones on the ground. You give her a nod in thanks, quick to move onto the next cone. 

“Did you know you’re dating an evil mastermind?” Sofia chuckles.

You’re not really sure what prompted her to say that, but you can’t help but laugh and give her a grin. “Tell me something I don’t know. Rose is an evil mastermind but at least she’s an evil mastermind who loves me and wouldn’t dare to prank me lest I make her sleep on the couch.”

You love Rose for so many reasons. Like almost too many to count. But that girl was a bit of a monster when it comes to pulling pranks on all of your friends. The couple of years before you officially began dating was a bit rough, you not ever knowing if you would be met with “friend” Rose or “in a pranking mood” Rose every time you saw each other. It’s been three years since, and “girlfriend” Rose was much more likely to treat you to chocolates and flowers than try to pull a quick one on you.

“What a shame her leniency doesn’t extend to the rest of your family.”

When you look at her with a confused face, Sofia’s quick to meet your expression with one of her own. “I’m assuming you haven’t listened to Alex’s Snacks episode yet?”

When you shake your head, she’s quick to pull out her phone. You’re a bit amused to see the episode sitting paused in her Spotify, but she must’ve been listening to it before coming to practice.

Sofia rewinds a little bit, having nearly finished the episode already.

You’re greeted with your sister’s raspy voice as she presses play. 

It’s all the typical stuff you were expecting. Some talk about Taylor Swift, Alex’s favorite songs from her album, Rose’s obsession with Taylor Swift conspiracies--

And that’s when you hear it.

“Yeah, but you can’t ever trust what she says. Like do you think she’s telling the truth?”

“Hot take, you can’t trust Rose.”

By the time Alex’s done detailing her run-in with Rose and Sonnett during camp, you’re laughing so hard that you have to wipe tears from your eyes. 

It’s often a rarity for you to not be in camp, but you had missed this past one due to a slight injury that’s been healed since. Everyone’s been home for a couple of days now, but this is the first time you’re hearing about any pranks being pulled against Alex.

“Did she actually--” you question, still trying to catch your breath. 

Sofia nods, still grinning like crazy. “Alex got a little pouty when she realized they were playing her.”

Sometimes Rose and Alex’s relationship made you want to laugh. When Rose first met your sister she was terrified. Not even dating yet at that point, you had to reassure Rose time and time again that Alex didn’t hate her. And look at them now. Now most times you have to reassure Alex that Rose didn’t have it out to get her. 

It’s all done in good spirit, but it looks like you’re going to have to convince Alex not to eye your girlfriend with distrust again the next time you’re all in the same room.

The two of you are still joking about it when you roll into the recovery room. 

It’s a bit cute how Rose perks up when she sees you, hands instantly making a grabby motion. Sofia takes one look at the brunette before breaking out into laughter again, pushing you towards your girlfriend before going to the other side of the room. 

Rose frowns after the defender, unfortunately still stuck in her compression boots. She opens her mouth to question Sofia, but you press a kiss to her forehead before she can say anything. 

Your kiss does its job, pulling Rose’s attention back to you. 

Although she looks up at you lovingly, she’s quick to narrow her eyes at the amusement dancing around your face. “Okay, what did Sof tell you.”

“Babe, you and Sonny need to stop tormenting Al.”

“Alex needs tougher skin,” she snorts in response, instantly knowing what you’re referring to.

“She got got!” Sonnett adds, throwing her arms up in celebration. 

You roll your eyes in amusement. “Go away, Son.” You turn back to Rose. She’s looking a little smug at successfully fooling your sister again. “Don’t go acting like you weren’t terrified of her when I was introducing you as my girlfriend for the first time.”

“Alex is scary,” Rose nods. But the smirk is quick to come back. “Until she isn’t.”

Sonnett lets out a hoot in agreement, giving Rose a fist bump. 

Sometimes you wonder why you’re friends with literal children. 

And then you remember that children are fun to fool with too, and it makes everything so much better. 

“You know, she’s not wholly convinced that you aren’t dating me as some way to prank her.”

It takes a second for your words to sink in, but when they finally do, Rose is sitting up in alarm. “Wait, what.” 

You let out a hum as you stand up to go to your own table. 

“That’s a joke, right?” she nervously chuckles, unable to go after you while she still has the boots on.

With your back to her, you don’t have to worry about hiding your grin. All she can see is your shoulders as you shrug, making your way to the other side of the room. 

“Babe! That’s a joke, right?!” Rose’s half terrified voice follows after you. 

Alex is going to have a field day when you tell her about this later.

[taylorswift-imagines]

Second chances

Pairing: Taylor Swift x (female) reader

Warnings: None

Requested: No

Plot:

Taylor is rude the first time you meet but quickly has a change of heart

***

This happened every time you were about to board a flight somewhere, you are always the punctual type of person and you hated to be even just a minute late.

You were rushing more than you should because you were afraid of missing your flight. However, what you didn’t know was that there was going to be a special guest on the same flight. The guest being your all time idol and not to mention secret crush, Taylor Swift. You didn’t know you’d be getting the life long dream of meeting the pop star, but it didn’t go as it you had it in your head.

Had you known you were going to be meeting her today, you wouldn’t have left home without putting on your makeup. You had at least made sure that you looked decent instead of letting yourself go out looking like a lazy person. The reason you left home without makeup was because you had decided it would be easier to plant it on during your flight. Hardly anyone knows this, but you you had a slight fear of going on planes after surviving a plane crash nearly five years ago. Everyone thought you had quickly overcome your fear, not knowing it took a lot of time and therapy for you to feel comfortable stepping on for another flight once again. Taylor’s music has played a big role in your recovery process, and you hoped that one day, you’d get the chance encounter to thank her while telling your story of survival.

You were rushing through the crowded airport and had blindly bumped into someone, both of you tumbling to the floor. You quickly got up and offered a hand to whoever it was you had run into, wanting to help them up as you took full responsibility for this incident. But as you looked to see who it was, you couldn’t help but stare, hardly daring to believe you were looking at Taylor Swift. As you continued to stare, you were taken by surprise when she unexpectedly come out as rude to you, it stung to say the least.

“Don’t you know it’s rude to stare? Especially for an adult woman like yourself? Hasn’t your mommy ever taught you that?” Her voice was like ice.

The cold tone frightened you into silence as you continued to offer your hand out to her. But Taylor harshly smacked it away, pulling herself up before giving you a glare as she walked away ahead of you. It was such a shock to you that she would just do that to someone she hadn’t even met yet that time seemed to stand still around you. When you got the call to board the plane and take your seat, you were unaware that Taylor was sitting next to you until you hear her scoff before saying something off the grid.

“You again?”

It was obvious she wasn’t happy to see you, so you didn’t say anything back and kept your mouth shut until the plane started to take off.

Something that helped you to calm down on flights was humming a favorite song. The song you favored at the moment was ironically’Never Grow Up’ by Taylor swift and you started humming it. That only seemed to bother Taylor more as she waved a flight attendant over to where you both were seated. What she says next, is completely unexpected and takes you by surprise and hurts you just a little more. You listen as Taylor asks the flight attendant if she could change to a different seat. Looking over at the flight attendant, you realize she was one of those who survived that same plane crash, you were both on the same plane five years ago.

“May I have a different seat? My neighbor here is being a pest and inconsiderate by humming too loudly.”

“Of course.”

You didn’t get in trouble, but you had to hold back the tears that were threatening to spill as Taylor was being so harsh.

But then again, she was unaware of your story and didn’t know how you felt about planes. Still, what she said had stung your racing heart. Now that you were by yourself, you could continue to hum while drumming your thumbs nervously on the armrests. Strangely enough, it was than Taylor’s attention was directed back towards you, but for different reason this time. Looking back at you, she couldn’t help but notice how your face had gone pale after the plane hit turbulence. Seeing the condition you were in concerned Taylor and asked the same flight attendant to check on you, little did taylor know, you didn’t have to be checked on to know. The flight attendant went on to explain how you were both victims and survivors of the plane crash that took place five years ago.

Feeling guilty, Taylor moved back over to you and you were surprised. Feeling this was a second chance, you tried staying till and quiet, not wanting to up set Taylor again. But Taylor reassures you after giving you her hand to hold onto the rest of the flight as she gave you an apology.

“I’m sorry.” she said.

You nod your head, accepting her apology as the flight continues smoothly.

Taylor had healed you on that flight, giving your confidence back.

She was truly your hero.

***

@taylor-loves-you

[moonlit-midnight]

Like the ocean loves the shoreline

Characters: Azul Ashengrotto, Jade Leech, Floyd Leech.

Genre: Hurt Comfort, Platonic Fluff, Friendship.

Summary: In which your best friends saw you at your worst many times, but they will always love you even after the waves stop crashing the shore.

Warnings: Reader is a female, and is half mermaid half human. Mentions of mental disorders and bullying.

—

Floyd knew it was getting worse for you again.

You might be a master at fabricating cheerful smiles, forcing laughter and pretending to be happy, but you cannot fake your illness.

Your attempts at masking your depressive state was in vain because he was quick to caught on your self-destructive behaviors.

He didn’t fail detecting your constant procrastination, refusing to take your medication at times, and your recent compulsive activities such as gaming from 12 midnight until 4 in the morning.

Your happy-go-lucky public façade masked your anguish, but Floyd could clearly see the distress in your eyes and your difficulty to manage your negative emotions in private.

“There you are, starfish.”

Floyd caught you one Sunday midnight, sitting in the dimness of the eerily quiet lounge, crying with a cereal bowl on your lap.

“Why are you looking for me?” You wiped your tears with the sleeve of your oversized purple hoodie which belongs to Floyd.

“Just wanted to check on you. Looks like you’re taking a break from your unhealthy gaming sessions.” He said in a serious tone, eyeing your untouched cereal.

“Guess I’m busted.” You sniffed, setting the bowl down on the table.

“You don’t have to endure it alone. We’re here for you no matter what.” Floyd brushed the tears rolling down your pallid cheeks. “I know that you’re so tired of relapsing, but you’ll get better one day. Remember that recovery is a journey, not a destination.”

“I know.” You nodded, a hiccupped sob escaping your lips.

The teal-haired merman smiled at you before his strong arms carefully lifted you in a bridal carry. You let yourself snuggle against him as he carried you to his room.

There was no way he would let you sleep in your room tonight.

He was sure that you would slip out of bed at 1 or 2 in the morning to continue your gaming until the sun rises.

Your unhealthy ways of coping might not eventually come to a stop, but Floyd would be there to help you step by step until you see the light again.

★ —

Jade knew that you were sleep deprived and being haunted by your past nightmares again.

Your thick concealer might perfectly hide the dark circles beneath your eyes, but if he looked a little closer, he would fully notice the anxiety, the exhaustion and the fear that swirled deep in your eyes.

His suspicions were confirmed when you asked him if you could stay over at his room for a a few days.

Every time your horrid and dreadful nightmares came back, you would seek comfort from none other than Jade.

There was something about him that put you at peace.

“Can’t sleep, my precious pearl?”

At the sound of his calm yet concerned voice, you stopped tossing and turning.

“I’m scared.” You inched closer to him, cuddling his side.

“Don’t be afraid,” He let you bury your face on his chest, his left hand gently cradling the back of your head. “I’ll fight your bad dreams off and chase away your demons if they come to get you.”

“Thank you, Jade.” You murmured, listening closely to the steady rhythm of his heartbeat like a child holding a seashell to their ears.

In a matter of minutes, you fell asleep and the terror gnawing your mind for the past two weeks was slowly lulled to slumber.

“I’m always here for you.” Jade whispered as he kissed the crown of your head.

★ —

Azul knew that you were being bullied and oppressed again.

He noticed that you wouldn’t leave the classroom unless he was with you.

He noticed how you would constantly grab his hand to rush back to the dorm during dismissal time, how you kept your distance when walking the school hallways, and perpetually avoiding people’s gaze in the lounge and the cafeteria.

He found you one late night, crouched down on the cold marble floor in the corridor of the dorm.

You were sobbing, head hanging low and shoulders shaking with every sob escaping your lips.

You didn’t notice that Azul was there until you felt him wrapping his warm coat around your trembling figure, and his gloved hands cradling your tear-stained face in the most gentle way.

Your body felt sluggish and worn out, so you slumped against the silver haired merman, your delicate arms looped around his neck.

He placed a firm hand on your waist to keep you steady while his other hand patted your back to soothe your tremors.

Once your crying stopped and your mind calmed, you spilled your heart out.

The same bullies were bullying you once more.

You thought it won’t happen again after your three best friends; Azul and the Leech brothers threatened your oppressors many times, but you were wrong.

Those jerks wouldn’t stop bothering you over things that didn’t concern them.

They would pick on you when nobody’s around, and they would rudely question your sanity for hanging out with Azul and the twins.

Well, the three mermen were your real friends and your companions for as long as you could remember. Only the ones who were truly close to them were allowed to see their true selves and the goodness of their hearts.

Your bullies knew nothing. It was none of their business, so you weren’t obliged to answer their stupid questions or respond to their insults.

“Did they hurt you physically?” Azul asked anxiously, blue eyes burning with anger.

It caught his attention that you’ve been wearing pants instead of skirts recently.

“Y-yes,” You weakly nodded.

Days ago, a few of your bullies secretly followed you to the swimming pool club which had no members but you.

You were in mermaid form when you took a swim when they jumped on you out of nowhere.

They poked your scales and tugged at your tail, it was painful that it left marks of wounds and bruises on your human legs.

Azul was absolutely appalled and aggravated by these lunatics.

“Leave this to me. I’ll teach them a lesson they’ll never forget, and I assure you no harm will come your way ever again.” Azul tenderly stroked your hair as he whispered his promise.

★ —

After a year and a few months, your mental state and physical health were both improving bit by bit.

Your moods were getting better, and your heavy heart was starting to feel lighter again.

Although you still had moments of failure, your state of mind was stable and at peace at last.

It was all thanks to your efforts to better yourself, to lead a healthy lifestyle and your bravery to strike back at your illnesses. 

Besides, you didn’t endure it alone. Azul, Jade and Floyd were there, always ready to lend you a helping hand and supporting you in your long journey to healing and recovery.

Your three best friends were like a sunrise and a bright blue sky, always giving you hope.

“Guys, she’s really getting better.” Floyd barged into the VIP room while he was on his shift.

“She’s finally laughing, isn’t she?” A smile graced Azul’s face, peering up from the stacks of papers he was sorting alongside Jade.

“She is.” Floyd nodded enthusiastically, beckoning the two boys to follow his lead.

Exiting the VIP room, they made their way to the kitchen.

There you were, sitting comfortably on the floor, watching your favorite comedy show on your phone.

Your face was glowing beautifully, and your head was thrown back each time you laughed, a laugh no longer fake or forced.

Azul, Jade and Floyd observed you from the doorway, their hearts lighting up with joy and gladness from seeing your genuine happy self again.

It felt nice hearing you laughing cheerfully and smiling brightly without a care in the world once again.

“Care to join me, guys?”

The three mermen jumped on their spot, your sweet voice snapping them out from their daze.

Your eyes was focused on your phone, but you could sense Azul, Jade and Floyd watching you with their affectionate gazes.

“Sure thing.” They said in unison as they joined you sitting on the floor.

The four of you were huddled together, leaning into one another as you continued watching your favorite comedy show.

Then and there, you would giggle and laugh heartily alongside the boys.

Your laughter was like a mellow tune playing on a warm spring afternoon, and the boys relished the happy and delightful sound.

Slowly, slowly but steadily, you were finally blooming like a spring wildflower after all these hardships.

[desktop-writes]

Static on the Screen | 02

--The Big Fish Leaves it's Small Pond--

<|AO3|Gala Au|SotS|>

(<- Part 2 of 14 ->)

[1|_|3|4|5|6]

{TW: Legal Dehumanization, forced imprisonment, corrupt government agency}

[Words: 8,338 ]

*Note: For any overarching triggers, please click on the Gala Au tab at the top. For warnings regarding this specific fic, please click on the SotS tab.*

They said they were sick.

At the time, it was a reasonable response to the question of why they couldn’t leave town. People were only just starting to recover from Spectra’s ecto-bug-induced sickness. It would have cause mass hysteria -and then mass death once people burned up from the ever-increasing power- if it reached the greater public. The people of Amnity Park had put faith in their government to do what was needed and went about their day. There were still people who were recovering that needed tending to.

It was two months after the sickness that things went back to almost normal. Different stores opened back up. School had started once again. People were healthy enough to go outside and do things. The only thing different was the bubble that had encased the town during their recovery. It was still up. When asked when it would be removed, the Ghost Investigation Ward told them that it was ��none of their concern” and to “move along”. When pressured by the local press for an official statement, the only comment they would put out is that “Amnity Park as a whole is still infected” and nothing else.

Tucker, Danny, and the previously infected Casper High students held a high level of doubt and an even higher level of disbelief that they would outright lie about this. Casper High was Spectra’s target after all and had infected the students the worst, but even they were healthy by then. Dash and the rest of the football team were able to attend practice just as they were before. The cheerleaders could make it through their routine without passing out from exhaustion. There was so much proof against their statement that it was laughable, but they stuck to their guns -literally, in most cases- and hunkered down on their official statement, refusing to look at even the most obvious of facts.

The town couldn’t tell anyone about the blatant abuse of power either, due to the government agency cutting them off from the internet and cell towers. Every home Wi-Fi router was wirelessly disabled and confiscated to ‘repair’ them—anything to keep the town away from exposing their power grab. Any computers connected to the internet at the time ended up crashing and had to be factory reset. Tucker was glad that he kept his most important files on both a flash drive and an offline computer for that reason.

During the two months, Tucker wasn’t able to get in much contact with Sam or Danny. Sam, along with Jazz, had one of the worst cases and it took the full two months to recover. Her parents didn’t allow visits so as to not set back her recovery. On the other hand, Danny was taking on the caretaker role for Jazz and was helping her with her newfound liminal abilities while Jack and Maddie were down in the lab making who knew what. They could get in a sentence or two in if they met picking up their family’s portion of food for the week, but nothing else.

He didn’t just spend the two months doing nothing, though. He got to work on the technology problem. Tucker was thankful that he had modified his computer to the realms and back, meaning - with some code- he could easily change his VPN to say his computer is in a different city, just to check if it was an computer error or it was a Guys in White scheme. Lo-and-behold, it was another one of the GIW’s power plays. He had find that out when he was able to connect to a library’s free Wi-Fi in Springfield. He quickly changed it back to not rouse suspicion and get his computer confiscated for ‘repairs‘.

The next time he met up with Danny, he slipped a note into his hand asking him to get him some ectoplasm straight from the realms and an old Wi-Fi router. Telling him that they had cut off the access to the internet, but he had an idea on how to get it back. All written in ghost speak. They continued their conversation, Tucker asking how Jazz had been recovering and Danny asking the same about his parents, who were recovering well. For them, it wasn’t anything worse than a bad head cold. With the confirmation of recovery from both ends, they parted ways.

Three days later, Danny - as Phantom- dropped off a bag containing 4 9mm test tubes of pure, straight-from-the-realm ectoplasm along with a lightly scavenged router and a note from Sam telling him that she’s getting better and to keep working on getting a way around the internet block. He opened the router, located where the GPS antenna was, and removed it just enough to connect it to his online computer. From there, he made sure that the antenna was operational.

After the confirmation, he disconnected it, put on proper protective equipment, and opened one of the four tubes. Using an old paintbrush, Tucker spread a layer of ectoplasm on the antenna like it was thermal paste, letting the ectoplasm sink in to the hardware. He continued taking it apart and applying ectoplasm to every component, making sure they would still work in the realm and not end up fried, wasting his hard work. With all the pieces coated, he reassembled it into a cohesive piece of machinery

After cleaning up his work area, he put the contaminated gloves, goggles, and paintbrush in a tub of water with 1½ tablespoons of blood blossom-infused water to decontaminate them. While they were decontaminating, he took a shower and worked on some school work tht he was behind on before the shutdown. While he didn’t want to do any homework, he didn’t want to start a game and forget about the tub.

After 20 minutes, he put on a separate pair of gloves and mask to take the items out and let them dry for 10 minutes. He took the tub of solution and diluted it with enough water that the pink color disappeared, fully dissolving it and rendering it inert, then dumped it down the bathtub’s drain. He rinsed out both tubs to ensure none of the solution lingered before placing the plastic tub in the very back of his closet, underneath the shelf holding his lead-lined box for things like dried blood blossoms and ectoplasm.

Still wearing the gloves, he put the reconstructed router in the same bag Danny had dropped off hours ago with a note stating to put the router in the realms, close to the portal’s entrance, and turn it on. He had tested it to make sure it worked using both his PDA, which contained realms-sourced ectoplasm, and his dad’s old phone that he was gifted when he got a new one, which contained ambient ectoplasm. When turned on, only his PDA could receive the signal, albeit weak, while the old phone couldn’t even register one existed. After zipping the backpack up, he took off the mask and threw it in the small trash bag by his desk, followed by a wad of gloves. He tied the grocery bag up and placed it in the kitchen trash for him to take out the next day.

The next day, he repeated the same process. He took apart an older laptop of his and coated the internet receiver in a layer of ectoplasm along with a few crucial parts to ensure it would function and interact well with the ambient ectoplasm, just as it did before. He checked to make sure it was operational and could be connected to the router before cleaning and disinfecting everything he used.

With a second grocery bag in hand and backpack on his back, he went to take the kitchen trash out. He then snuck his way out of his backyard and into the Fenton’s. Spotting a tree close to a window, he decided to climb up to it. Settling on a sturdy branch, he moved the bag to his front and scooted his way to the window, which led to Jazz’s room. Once there, he knocked in code light enough only Danny could hear - as far as he knew - to let him know it was Tucker.

He immediately handed the bag over once the window opened. He took a look at Jazz to see how she was recovering and gave Danny a nod and a message of Glad-Recovery-Look through their bond. Danny gave him a nod in return and responded with Protective-Healthy-Thanks. With that, he moved away from the window while Danny closed it. Coming back down the tree, Tucker thought himself lucky he didn’t get caught by Maddie. He’s always had bad luck, and Maddie was the sterner of the two Fenton adults. He didn’t want to get tangled in the questions of why he was at their daughter’s window at 7 in the morning. The answer would have led him to imprisonment by the GIW for going against them as he was not a great liar when put on spot.

He came through the back door not even five minutes later. His parents were still asleep and wouldn’t be up for another couple of hours. He went back up to his room and worked on connecting his old laptop to his database, putting up firewall after firewall and puzzle after puzzle to protect both the computer and what he considered his greatest creation. He continued this cycle of upgrading his tech until a month and a half later, when everyone was healthy.

During those two months, there wasn’t even one major ghost attack, leaving him on edge. It wasn’t until they met up again that he figured out why. According to Danny, the rest of their rouges found out what Spectra did and decided to wait to come and play fight until they were healed. Even Skulker had agreed, claiming “the hunt wasn’t fun if they couldn’t fight back.”

He never once tried to connect his newly upgraded laptop to what he called the Ecto-net router, even after Danny had given him a thumbs up 5 days later. He wanted to wait and do it when everybody was there. It was an extensive project he accomplished with a little help from Danny, and he wanted his friends to witness it’s completion. The day came two days after the Guys in White’s official statement.

Danny had sat on the edge of his twin bed, an arm wrapped protectively around Jazz, who sat next to him but turned towards his computer desk. Sam had pulled the wooden chair that came with his desk out of his closet and sat on his other side. The air was filled with Anxious-Hope-Suspense-PleaseWork as he opened his laptop. He went down to the toolbar and clicked on the time and date, then turned on the Wi-Fi. He clicked on the router’s name -which looked like random letters and numbers-, imputed the password, and waited. The wait took about a minute, but it was the longest minute of his life.

When the signal connected, they celebrated quietly. What they were doing could be considered an act of treason if they got caught, and while Tucker room wasn’t bugged -they had checked every hangout-, his parents were still not in the know. The Team didn’t want to give away what was happening to them yet. To double check, he went to Google and searched for something random. Sure enough, it pulled up the search result. They sat in silence for a minute, just soaking up the feelings of Proud-Joy-Excitement that surrounded them. The silence was broken by Jazz a couple of minutes later.

“What’s our next step?”

“What do you mean?” Tucker asked in confusion.

“What do we do now that we have access to the outside world?” Jazz rephrased. Tucker hadn’t thought about that. He had been so focused on getting to this point that it never crossed his mind.

“I vote we get in contact with the Justice Leauge. This was what they were made for, after all.” Danny piped up from the bed.

“We’re trying to be secretive about this, remember? Plus, they have connections to the government. Ya know? The people who are holding us hostage. I say we bide our time and collect some information. That way, we can use it against them if need be,” Sam interjected. Tucker had to agree with Sam on this. It’s too risky to trust someone who works with the government at the moment. He turned the Wi-Fi off and put the laptop up in his closet while he listened to Danny and Sam quietly argue about what to do.

“Guys! Sam is right. We can’t trust the Justice League at the moment in case they are working with the Bozos in White. Plus, Danny, even if we did send a message and they did arrive, the GIW would know someone was able to get around their internet block.” Tucker interjected. Danny had a thinking look on his face for about two minutes before nodding.

“Another thing,” Jazz introjected, “ If we have more information, we would more than likely belived and look better as a hero team to the other heroes than with out.” With that, they went and started the whole reason they had even came over in the first place. Him and Danny trying to beat Sam at Doomed.

He hooked up his gaming system to the tv while Sam and Danny pulled the three pillows on his bed to the ground for them to sit on. They loaded up Doomed with local multiplayer and played for about an hour and a half, Danny and Tucker almost beating Sam twice before she came up from behind and stole first place from them. Jazz had never liked first person shooter games and had brought a psychology book that she had checked out from school to read.

Eventually they went home, as Sam’s parents were being overprotective of her due to her health scare, and Jazz had decided someone needed to pull their parents out of the lab and into a bed before they became ghost themselved due to overwork. When they left, Tucker spent some time with his parents, playing board games and watching dvds. He helped his mom with dinner, then went to his room. School was officially starting the next day, and he needed to be ready for what it may bring.

It was three days later that they showed their true colors.

He had gone out for a walk before starting on his homework. His mom said that he needed some more sunlight after staying cooped up in his house for two months. So he was at the park, taking in the needed sunlight before his homework. Weirdly, he was really eager to get that done. Afterward, he was going to see if he could get into the Guys in White’s personal database to start their data collection mission. All was going well for him.

That is until he heard people shouting.

Most of the voices he didn’t recognize but one stuck out to him as the shouting grew louder. Over the rumbling of tires and the whirring of guns, he could hear Danny’s voice. He was ready to brush it off. Danny didn’t like them helping him when it was his parents he was trying to escape from, for some reason, and they tried to respect that but some situations are unavoidable. Especially if they join in mid-fight. He was ready to turn around, go home, and prepare the med kit to help nurse his wounds. When Tucker had asked why he went to him with this instead of Jazz, who had gotten her first aid certification online, he told him that he didn’t want her to see what Jack and Maddie had done to him and have her worry over something that would take three days max to heal.

As he turned around, he was met with a different vehicle barreling down the street. There was no cheesy logo on the side of the van - and it looked like a van, not a homemade tank- instead it read G.I.W in a very official-looking font. Agents hung out of windows holding Fenton rays and were taking shots at his best friend. All the while, shouting insults and threats at him. he made the mistake of catching one of the agent’s face when he froze. He remembered that face. they were the one who had handed him food not even a week ago. That same face that had smiled so warmly now had a cruel look of pure hatred as they and the rest of their team hunted.

He needed to run, to get away. He needed to get to somewhere safe, but he was so rooted in his spot that even Undergrowth would have a hard time pulling him up. Internally, all hell broke loose when they got close enough he could hear the sizzling of a gun charging up. He booked it. He was running so fast he would have been proud if he had realized it. But he didn’t. The danger was close. The danger had the ability to kill him. So he kept running, even while his senses heightened and anything that wasn’t panic shut itself down.

He doesn’t remember how long it took him to get home. He held no memory of if he had slammed the front door, nor of going up the steps. All he knew was that he needed something, no somewhere, safe. It was only when he had reached his room that he let the tears that had started to gather in his eyes fall. His room was his safe place, filled to the brim with the technology that he had upgraded and spent so much time with.

He couldn’t break down like this in front of his parents. They didn’t know that Danny was Phantom. They didn’t know he was a part of a hero team. They didn’t even know that he had committed treason three days ago under their roof. He tried to stop his tears as he fell to the floor beside his bed but his efforts were wasted. They wouldn’t stop. He couldn’t stop hearing the words the agents had shouted.

Freak.

Scum.

Monster.

The last one hurt him the most. If Danny was considered a monster for being a ghost, then what was he? He had almost the same amount of ectoplasm in his system. Was he a monster? He couldn’t be, right? Monsters destroy everything around them. They hurt and cheat with no remorse. He can’t be a monster. He just can’t be.

His hands started to shake while he gripped his hair, his beret having been knocked off during his dash home. Tears continued to fall as his breath started to quicken. He bit his lip to try and keep his parents from finding out. He was curled up trying to take a breath. He was a coward. He should have stayed and helped, instead, he ran and left his best friend with new enemies that they knew absolutely nothing about. He’s a bad friend. He shouldn’t even be able to be a part of the team. A hero wouldn’t run. A hero would help. He had no business being a hero. He kept spiraling till he ended up passed out on the floor, unable to make it to his bed.

He was exhausted the next day. He had missed his alarm due to not setting it before he passed out. He had to wear a new beret and it sat weirdly on his head all day. He forgot his PDA due to his rush to school. He still felt on edge from his anxiety attack the night before and nothing was helping him.

It felt wrong to talk to Danny. Danny could have fully died and Tucker would be at fault for leaving like he did. His guilt tripled when he caught a glimpse of a bandage on Danny’s arm. That wasn’t there the day before. Would it have been prevented if Tucker was there to help? He adverted his eyes to the ground, mentally wishing he had his PDA or even just something he could fidget with to distract him.

It was the end of the school day when the routine changed. The three of them would normally go to either Nasty Burger or, if Danny couldn’t go that day, the park to walk around before going to his house to play Doomed or some other game and do homework. They couldn’t play at Danny’s cause his parents would cannibalize any game system he ended up getting and Sam’s parents thought the video games were for boys and would throw it out the second they found it. Tucker had walked out of the high school’s doors unable to remember what they had done his last class. All he wanted to do was go home and forget yesterday had even happened.

Sam was walking ahead of them. It was weird, as the three had always walked home together unless one of them was sick or just not in school that day. Maybe she heard about what had happened and decided that he wasn’t worth her time anymore. Maybe she was breaking off the friendship and hoping he would take the hint. Tucker squeezed his backpack straps harder than he was before at the realisation.

He was snapped out of his thoughts by Danny’s arm wrapping around his shoulder with casual affection. As much as Tucker hated to make the connection, he could see the ways Jack and Maddie had an effect on him. Danny could be loud in his affection, much like Jack, but also knew when someone just needs him to be there, like Maddie. That didn’t change after he died, thankfully. If anything, it was turned up to 11 with his protection obsession.

Danny didn’t say anything while they walked down their street, just kept his arm over Tucker’s shoulder.It was tight enough that had a grounding pressure but loose enough that he could escape from it easily. They passed his house and walked to Fentonworks, up the stairs and into Danny’s room. He hung his backpack on the hooks on the door, so his leftover lunch doesn’t come back to life. When he turns back around, he’s met with Danny with his beret in his hands. It was dirty and had two or three holes, completely unwearable now. Tears formed in his eyes as that had been the straw that broke the camel’s back. He collapsed to his knees with a sob, tears now obscuring his vision fully.

Arms circle around him while he cries and apologizes. Apologizes for not helping; for being a coward. They kept spewing from his lips as the arms still held him. The body the arms were attached to was saying something, but Tucker could hear it over his own voice. it wasn’t until he felt the NotMad-ItsOk-Safe-Safe through his core that his verbal spiral stopped and he started to calm down. It was hard to lie though the bonds.

Danny was truly not mad at him.

A couple minutes later, Tucker pulled away from Danny. He brought a hand to his eyes to wipe the tears away. He took a few deep breaths before he stood up again and got off the ground. He went over to Danny’s bed and sat on the edge, the burnt berrete still in his hands. He twisted it back and forth anxiously while Danny pulled up the office chair that he had gotten from dumpster diving a couple years back.

“I don’t blame you for not helping yesterday, Tucker.” Danny had started. Tucker had opened his mouth to refute the statement but was cut off by Danny continuing. “ You didn’t even have anything to fight humans on you at the time. There was no way you nor Sam could help. I wouldn’t want you guys to either. i had the ability to at the very least protect myself and I don’t want you guys being injuered or worst because I couldn’t help.”

“But heroes don’t run away from problems. They face them head-on.” Tucker knew it was a weak counter argument but he was grasping at straws at this point. By the look on Danny’s face, he could tell too. It was just, he couldn’t comprehend the fact Danny didn’t blame him even though he absolutely should. Danny should be able to trust his friends to have his back instead of running away.

“ That’s the thing, though. All the heroes we see probably had mentors or were at least adults when they started. We’re just a group of teenagers trying to protect our town from being turned to rubble. We barely have any adult help. We’re just teenagers. We shouldn’t have to be the ones fighting. We should be able to work with the adults instead of against them. We’re still young and are going to have trauma responses to what we’re going though. I refuse to let you think I blame you for this.” Danny had refuted.

He was right. Tucker knew that for a fact. It was wrong that they had to sacrifice so much and couldn’t even place a single ounce of trust in the people who they should be able to trust the most. They should be able to call for help - hero help- without worrying about the potential consiquinses. There was alot of shoulds in the world though and no amount of hoping would get them magically done. A sense of determination filled him at that thought. The best way to help like he’s needing to is by gathering information.

“I’m guessing you talked with Jazz. Because, no offense, that was a little too emotionally intelligent comming from you.” Tucker joked lightly, trying to lighten up the mood. Danny put a hand to his chest like he was clutching imaginary pearls and breathed in a highly dramatic and full of false offense gasp.

“Me? Emotionally stupid? Never.” Danny started dramatically, a little bit of laughter peaking though at the end, which caused Tucker to snort and they fell into full-blown laughing fits. They could barely get a word in until they calmed down and that had taken forever. When they did, Danny continued what he was saying while wiping a tear from his eye. “Of course, I went to Jazz. She’s, like, the holder of the brain cell. Which, ya know, rude. I deserve some time with the brain cell once in a while.”

“ Danny, last time you had the brain cell, you ended up dead. Me on the other hand…”

“Tuck, I can name 5 reasons you shouldn’t have the brain cell, ever.”

They continued to banter like that the rest of the night, or at least till Tucker had to go home. They had done their homework while the portal underneath their feet hummed lightly but welcomely, like it had continue to do since Pariah Dark was defeated. He went home when Jazz got off of work around 7ish. He didn’t know why Jazz still worked or how she still had a job, with all the stores that had originally opened starting to close back down.

He’s just glad his parents hadn’t asked about yesterday when he got home.

The next day was better than the pervious one.

He was able to wake up early enough that he held a proper service for his damaged beret, which he had named Bettie, and eat breakfast with his parents. His PDA, which he named Beitrice, sat firmly in his pocket while his newly-contaminated laptop was in his backpack. He hadn’t thought of a name for his laptop yet, but it would come to him eventually. He had tried to do some digging in to the databases from his bedroom last night but he was too far away to get in. He was planning on going to Nasty Burger afterschool to try and get a better connection.

When he whispered his plan to Sam and Danny, only Sam had offered to come with. Accoriding to Danny, his parents had drug him and Jazz out of bed in the middle of the night to show them some invention and, along with the back to back nightly fights, he was exausted and was planning on going into a “mini coma“ after school that day. Both he and Sam wished him good luck with that as the bell rang signaling the end of lunch.

They split ways after school, Danny leaning heavily on Jazz as they walk away. They both seemed even more tired, if that was even possible. He and Sam went in the oppisite direction and headed to the local fast food joint, if you could even call it that at this point. When everybody had recoverd, Nasty Burger and the local grocery store never really oppened back up and became teenage hangout spots. Of course they had the employee only sections triple locked so nobody would try to rob the place, but he would bet 20 bucks that nobody had any intention on doing so. They would end up loosing the hangout space if that happened.

They took their normal seats in the corner , which was perfect to hide what they were doing while still being in range of the Ecto-net router, the GIW’s wifi signal, and his own offline computer. it was a perfect little sweet spot. He started to attempt and get into the GIW’s files while Sam turned into a combonation of a barrier and a gaurd, blocking peoples view of what they were doing as unsuspitiously as possible.

He and Sam may get into fights - nobody could forget the meat vs vegetable arguement they had last year- but she’s always had his back and covered for him when he needed to do his tech thing. He, of course, returns the favor as best as he can, though it can sometimes be found lacking. They were a team, though and though. They weren’t really chaotic together, though he knew she enjoyed the chaos he and Danny bring into her life, it was more filled with silent support. Unlike Danny and Jazz, they had never grown up around all the weirdness that was the Fentons and Ghost, so if one of them just needed a break from the crazy, they knew the other would be there.

It had taken about 30 miniutes to get in though the wifi network, but he had gotten in. The pages whole color scheme was a hospital white, giving him a slight shiver down his spine, with a multitude of tabs lining the top of the page. The tabs held labels like ‘Data and Stats’ and ‘Projects’. He made sure his laptop was muted before taking a screenshot and sending it to his main computer. He continued taking the screenshots; going though all four tabs and sending them to the computer. Until he came across a conerning project in the last tab.

They had named it Project Open Invitation and it was marked completed. He took screenshots and saved photos before reading more deeply into it. From what Tucker could gather, it had been completed around the the end of the first month and talked about a law inwhich they had admitted to commiting both voter and government fraud and bribing alot of officials to be able to get the law to pass and be enacted so quickly. He mentally tried to remember the laws acronym as he continued to skim and screenshot. he was finshed 15 minutes later.

For the next hour they worked on homework, until he felt a slight chill in the air. While Tucker did get powers from his liminality, neather he nor Sam had gotten a full ghost sense like Danny. For them, it was something akin to getting a chill up your spine. The closer the the ghost was the bigger the shiver. They packed their things in thier bag as quick as they could without rousing any suspition then headed for the door. They knew the routine by heart now so neither of them had to talk though any of it. Once they were a good distance away, they slipped into a near by alley and put in their comms.

“Phantom, do you need help?” Sam whispered in ghost speak.

“Nope, just forgot about a schedueled playdate with Youngblood is all.” he had responded in kind. It was then that the ghost alarms rang and they seen the GAV barreling down the road. With a quiet “Faex”, Danny’s end of the line went quiet. Tucker breathed out a sigh. He always hated this part, walking away from being there for Danny. Judging by Sam’s sigh, she felt the same. Atleast they knew who he was fighting against this time, even if it was his parents.

“ I still belive we should go a help him, no matter what he said.” Sam slightly complained. He could feel the Fear-Nervous comming off her.

“It’s still one of his boundries though.” Tucker matched her with a feeling of ItsOk-HeWillBeFine.

“Still think its stupid.”

“Just because you think that, doesn’t mean you cross it. Now, come on. You can help he patch him up.”

They ran to Tucker house, about 15 minutes away from the alley they were at. They greeted his Mom, as his Dad was still at work, and went up stairs. He grabbed the first aid kit from deeper inside his closet. It doesnt look like what a normal first aid kit would look like. It was in a dented metal lunch box with some superhero imprinted on the top. It was, also, covered in hazard and ghost stickers they had found online. Some of them were special stickers, as they were either shiny, glowed, or were textured.

He opened the box and got out the all the usuals for when this would happen. Burn cream, gauze, and medical tape in hand, he moved out the closet just in time for Danny to float in though the wall. Tucker took in the state he was in. There wasnt many injures, thankfully. What catches his attation is the large burns on his forearms. There are three large burns, two on his right and one on his left, clearly made by an ecto-blaster. Surrounding the them is smaller burns, most likely spash back. Besides the burns, smaller cuts and scrapes littered any exposed flesh.

Sam lowered Danny on to his hardwood floor as he set the materials. He handed Sam the gauze as Danny detransformed. Tucker put on a pair of medical gloves and started spreading burn cream on the wound. They definetly needed to be looked at by a profeshional, but they didnt have that oppertunity. So they double-padded the gauze while wrapping it in medical tape sparringly. He hoped that they would heal by tomorrow, but he wasn’t holding his breath about it. The smaller ones were cleaned out but not covered, as they were working on the paycheck of someone who worked part time.

After cleaning and bandaging the burns and putting things away, they managed to get Danny to take a nap in Tucker’s bed. It didn’t take much to convice him, thankfully. After Sam left to tell Jazz about Danny’s whereabouts, Tucker got started looking though all the screenshots he had sent. He was surprised that he could even get to them. They were all interesting in some fashion and were being transcribed into their database.

The database was his baby and his best coding work to date. Multiple layers of codes and encriptions were cencased in layers apon laylers of ectoplasm-enriched code. It held everything close to the four of them, every adventure and weakness and connection they ever had. He heavily gaurded it with an AI he had made. Its soul objective was to tear apart any opperating system that had no ectoplasm in it at his command. It was truely his favorite creation. He trusted it to hold both the transcriptions and screenshots behind the the locked tab.

The Guys in White held unusual infromation in their database. The health records he could see, they were apart of the CDC after all, but things like ‘ Ectoplasm Rating’ were confusing to him. How would they even measure that. Thankfully, each slot was blank, so he had some time to prevent the scan. He went back to what interested him at Nasty Burger. Project Open Invitation.

According to them, Project Open Invitation was step one of a larger project to eventually take down the Meta and Ailiens Protection Act. They were hoping the new law law they had proposed would create the slippery slope they needed to get it rolling. They kept referncing the law all over the place. They called it the Ectoplasm Contaminatin and Control Acts, or the ECCA for short. They were slipped into a bill about how to properly contain and despose of radioactive materials. It was signed by Lex Luthor for probabley not good reasons. Luthor and Vlad had the same frootloop vibes.

Just as he was going to look up the Act on his PDA, Sam walking in the door. She took her boots off by his door before pulling up the same wooden chair she used the other day. With a light huff, she fell into the chair and leaned forwards. He went about connecting his phone to the ectonet router. With it connected, he went and searched for the act.

“ So, what are we looking at?” Sam asked.

“ Some thing big. And bad, real bad.” Tucker was still looking while he talked. “ From what i could gather, their end goal is to get rid of MAPA. They had already completed the first step. Now if i could find the bill they keep refernceing then I could figure out how to turn this against them.” He contininued his searching vigrously while Sam took a look at what he had found.

“ Try looking at recent bills about how to dispose of radioactive material. “ Tucker took her sugeestion and looked it up. Sure enough, a bill was bearly passed a month ago about how to properly dispose of and contain radioactive materials and mentioned ectoplasm. He scrolled up to the top and started screenshotting everything. He quickly turned the wifi off on his PDA and sent the screen shots to his lap top.

He and Sam read though the law together, Sam puting some of the legalese into language he could understand. It starts simple; a bill talking about how to protect the enviroment by containing toxic materials and attempting to dispose of it as cleanly as possiable. It was honestly a bill he could see Sam standing by so far. What shook them to the core is what it said to do with affected people or towns.

If a person registers at a 5 or above on the Ectoplasm Contamination Scale and has no meta gene, he or she shall become governmet property and are to be handed over to the Ghost Investigation wawrd. If a town shall have 60% or more of its population register at or above the acceptable level, the town shall be quarentined to a nessasary dregree accoing to the Ghost Inestigation Ward as to not spread the contamintion.

A quiet “shit” left their mouths as the same time as they processed what they just read. Sam stood and sarted pacing and curinsing under her breath. He knew they both were radiating Terror-Distress but their was no way to stop it. Tucker was still with shock. HOw to you prosses the fact that you no longer have rights.

“ We need to tell Danny and Jazz. They definitly would be affected by this.” Tucker wispered from from his seat. He doesnt think his voice could go higher at the moment, so he was thankful that Sam had sensitive hearing.

“ I’ll go get Jazz. You wake up Danny.”

Before he could even respond, she was back out his door, leaving her boots in his doorway. He peeled himself off the chair and went to wake Danny up. It took a good ten muinutes, but he was up by the time Sam got back with Jazz, still rubbing the sleep out of her eyes.

“ What is so important that you woke us up at,” Jazz aquinted at the clock in his room. “ 6:30 at night?” Sam and Tucker exchanged glances. This was real now.

“ We went to the Nasty Burger after school, liked planned, so Tucker can get what he needed digitally.” Sam started. She turned to look at Tucker.

“ What we found was disturbing to say the least. Their plan is to destroy meta and alien protection laws and use them as test subject or soldiers. And according to the new law, us and atleast 60% of Amnity Park are considered non-sentiant and government property.” Tucker watched their faces as they took in the information. Tears formed in Jazz’s eyes as Danny stood up the angryiest he had ever seen him.

“That’s not going to happen.”

“ How can you be so sure about that, Danny?! How?!” Sam raised her voice.

“ Because I’m going going to raze those fuckers into the ground for every thinking they could touch my people.” Danny responded to her in ghost speak. Only Sam or Jazz could get though to him now, and seeing as Jazz couldn’t at the moment, Sma stepped up. Tucker went to comfort Jazz. He’s carpmentalized the information already, ready to be unboxed at a later date. Prephably alone.

He put an arm around Jazz and pulled her close. All he could do was tell her “ they were going to do something about this. Even if they have to contact the Justice Leauge.” Tucker didnt pay attention to the arguement in front of them. He was busy thinking.

What’s going to happen next? He had no idea. He wished that he had some sort of direction to go. But he could tell that something big was on the verge of happening and hoped that it was good. With their luck, it probley wasn’t.

Danny and Sam’s arguement had ended some time ago and they ended next to the two of them, Sam leaned against his other side and Danny on Jazz’s other. They ended up falling asleep like that, all curlled up together. Protecting eachother in their sleep and being there when one of them has envitably a nightmare.

It’s been two weeks since they had found out about the ECCA.

Alot had happended between then and now though. The morning after they had a conversation about the information they had found out , and they came to the conclusion to let Danny take control of patrols and for each of them to carry at least a wrist blaster of something to defend themselves. They found and stole the prototype Jack and Maddie was making to scan people and get their ecto-levels. Val ended up being fully inducted into Team Phantom for her own protection, as rates a 5.25 on the ecto- scale. The one of the only reasons it was even considered was because of her progess on her view on ghost and her wilingness to go the non-leathal route when taking in ghost since becoming an honorary member.

Just a pretty hecktic couple of weeks.

The whole team had taken to hanging out his room daily. It was a relief to to see them safe and not taken. Sam and Val had taken to playing stardew valley on his playstation while Danny worked on homework and Jazz was at work at the local library. He had been working on making sure that their readings always read under the legal limit when a loud and repetive dinging came from his desktop computer.

He quickly put his laptop to the side and headed to his desk. Lightly, he pushed Danny out of the chair and pulled the keyboard to him. He swiftly hopped on to where his AI was holding off against the outside hacker. Adreniline flooded his veins as he pounded his fingers against the keys of his keyboard. After a hot minute, he was able to lock the person on the otherside out of thier computer. With a bit of code, he threw up a chat box.

I dont reconize your system. Who are you? What are your affiliations?

A minute later, there was a responce.

It has been a while since someone had bested me. You should be proud.

Redirection, he reconized. they were probley wanting to throw him off balence. He gave them one more chance.

I wont ask again. Who are you and what is your affiliation?

He waited longer this time. After two minutes of no typing, he decided to help them speed up.

You have one minute to respond or else I will destroy your system.

He didn’t even have to wait for a reponse after that.

I go by the name Oracle while online. My employer may need this information. Can you unlock my computer?

Tucker sat back in awe at the admission.

He had just beat Oracle. He, bad luck Tuck, had just be The Oracle, the myth of the hacking forms and insperation to hackers everywhere. Deep down he wanted to fan boy at the experence but there were rumors they worked with the bats. Despite everything, they can be let loose without supervision.

Only if i monitor your actions

Deal.

He unlocks their computer and watched as they started reading the rouge descriptions. It was then that they decied it was the best time to ask their burning questions.

“ So Tuck, what was that dinging noise.” Danny asked.

“Just an alarm for an attempted breach.” He awnsered as he watched them scan though each profile, settling on a few as iif reading them closer than the others. He files the ones they stay on for later.

“Who was trying to get in?” Sam questioned.

“It was the Oracle.” He lightly gushed while he watch them finsh the rouges list and venture on to the incidents tabs. He still couldnt belive that the oracle was lookig though his database. That he may have vital information for Batman. He watched as they read battle after battle, greatful that they had chosen codenames instead of personal ones. It was only when they started hovering over Danny’s tab that he lock them out and pulled up the chat.

Phantoms off limits.

Phantom had to be, no matter how much he wanted to let someone on the outside know. It was to much of a risk to let Phantom’s secerts to a person he hadn’t even met face to face. He wasn’t risking it ubtil he was 200% sure it it wouldn’t blow up in his face. The response came a minute later.

Your Phantom’s guy in the chair, right? I can help with that.

It was a simplified veresion of what he did but they were basicly right. Val and Danny were thier main fighters while he, Sam, and Jazz provied backup. Alot of his backup was tech related but it was still backup. Pushing that aside, why would they want to help him out. He was just a small town tech nerd. Plus people always wanted something in return, so unless he knows what the catch is he can accept it.

Whats the catch? Nobdy would do that for free.

You seem to know alot about ghosts. We have had a few show up in Gotham here recently. Help me debrief the others tomorrow and we can talk more about what the mentorship would look like.

He though about the offer. Talk to the bats and gain a mentor. It wasn’t that simple in reality. It wasn’t only his secrets that were kept in there. He couldn’t be the only one to make this desion.

Let me talk with my team.

He could feel their couriosity as he turned his chair. He took a deep breath and rested his chin on his entwined fingers. He looked at all three of them, leaving the suspense hanging in the air.

“ Oracle wants to mentor me.”

“ Are you serious? They want to mentor you?” Sam exclaimed. He nodded in confermation. “ What did they want in return?”

“ Just to act as a consultant on ghost for the Bats. They said that some of them had showed up in gotham so, yeah.”

“ I heard some rumors in the realms about three other halfas from Gotham. Appaerntly they are young too, older than me for sure but younger than Vlad.” Danny introjected into the conversation.

“ From what I’ve been told, city spirts were picky with who they let in though.” Val said.

They continued the converesation for about an hour and ended up on acceptence but with limitations, like staying out of their lock servers. He turned around and awnsered the awaiting question while waving is freinds bye while they leave. It was about 7 o’clock now so Jazz was off work and it getting late.

Your not getting anymore access, but I accept.

He unlocks their computer again before working on intergrating a chat option and removing the locked pages on Oracle’s copy of the database and puting it on their computer. They had stayed on long enough for him to put it on there and tell him what time was best for he consultation then logged off. He apperiated the quick log off; he was tired and need to eat before bed. It was then that him mom called him down for dinner. They offered to watch a movie after dinner, but he said that he was tired and went to bed, preparing to tomorrow.

[bulkyphrase]

Steggy Rec List

I meant to have this done at the beginning of the month in time for @steggyfanevents' Steggy Month but...that didn't end up happening ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

It is still April though! Please enjoy some of my favorite fics about Peggy Carter and Steve Rogers, my favorite canon couple.

A Second Chance At Keeping Him Safe by @buckywiththegoodhair86 (Teen And Up Audiences, 69,126 words)

Summary: Peggy always wished there was more she could have done to save Steve. Then Howard finds the Valkyrie, and somehow, miraculously, Steve is still alive in the wreckage. But when Steve wakes up, they realize that not all of him survived the crash. He doesn't remember anything. At all. But Peggy wanted another chance to keep him safe and now she's got it. And she's not going to fail this time.

Fraternization by @doctorhelena (Teen And Up Audiences, 3,424 words)

Summary: As if Carter and Rogers weren’t bad enough separately. Phillips is getting too old for this.

More below the cut!

Coffee Talk by @indiefic (General Audiences, 1,435 words, No Archive Warnings Apply)

Summary: Jack Thompson is sick of Peggy Carter thinking she can do whatever she wants. Also available as a podfic read by blackglass

Mind the Gap by @indiefic (Explicit, 27,106 words)

Summary: Set in 1974. Peggy is the fifity-five year old director of SHIELD and Steve's been found and thawed out. The series started as a drabble on Tumblr. Chapters have been updated so they are in chronological order.

Midnight Oil, Weaponized Aphrodisiacs, and Other Ignoramus Inventions by @indiefic (Explicit, 8,416 words)

Summary: General McGuinness stole one of Howard's more sinister inventions, Midnight Oil. Now the toxic compound is on the loose and America's golden boy has been exposed. Agent Carter to the rescue.

Twice Shy by justanotherStonyfan (Explicit, 13,976 words)

Summary: "What can I get you?" he said. "Hmm," she said, deciding what excuse to use as she pressed herself full-length against him in the darkness, as she slid herself upright beside him and pressed cool fingers to the center of his chest. "I'm…." She drew out the words, as though she were still considering what to tell him, what justification was needed, and Steve kept his eyes closed. He knew she could see him regardless of the lack of light. "…thirsty?"

6th and Williams by quigonejinn (Teen And Up Audiences, 1,453 words)

Summary: An hour passes, and so does the rain.

The Struck Bell by quigonejinn (General Audiences, 1,426 words)

Summary: Jean Grey inside Steve Rogers's head.

The Next Guy by @roboticonography (Teen And Up Audiences, 11,460 words)

Summary: "It’s the one subject that’s never open for discussion: Peggy’s grand love affair with Captain America. It’s not exactly a secret—in fact, it’s become something of a legend within the SSR. Everyone and their dog has a version of the romantic tale, pieced together through third-hand eyewitness accounts and wild speculation. There’s only one person Daniel wants to hear the story from, though, and she ain’t talking."

No Other Man by @roboticonography (Mature, 11,391 words)

Note: This is a sequel/companion to the previous fic

Summary: Peggy looks after a defrosted Steve during his recovery. But there are things she hasn't told him...

All Day, Every Day by @roboticonography (Mature, 21,143 words)

Summary: Steve is on his mission to return the Infinity Stones when his quantum suit glitches, and he finds himself sliding sideways through alternate realities, encountering different versions of himself. None of whom are particularly happy to see him. Can he do this all day? Time will tell!

if this is home by Siria (General Audiences, 17,145 words)

Summary: Steve keeps waking up in the wrong place.

Everything Old is New Again by Siria (Teen And Up Audiences, 8,460 words)

Summary: So maybe a job as an SSR desk clerk wasn't as glamorous as punching out Hitler more than two hundred times, but it still put a roof over Steve's head and food on the table.

[errythinisblue]

“The early bird gets the worm”

Ruben Loftus Cheek x Y/N

Summary: An early morning at Cobham Training Centre takes an unexpected turn…

Warnings: SMUT (it’s not my fault this man is SO fine!)

This is kind of a sequel to “Baby steps”

gif credits to @moosiala

It’s been two months since you and Ruben took your relationship to the next level; two months have passed from that night at his house, the night where you finally confessed your feelings to each other, the night of your first date… the night where you two fell in bed together, well more like on the sofa. His sofa.

Two months later you still found yourself thinking about that night, and smiling like an idiot as you did so. You were missing Ruben like crazy, him being in Madrid for the Champions League game was making it impossible for you not to think about him, especially while you laid in your bed all alone; but at least you knew you were going to see him later in the morning, when the boys would be back in Cobham, and that was enough of an energy boost to get you out of bed.

You arrived at the training centre an hour earlier than usual; apart from those of the players, there were just a few cars in the parking lot but you didn’t mind, you were more than okay with it. You parked your car at your usual spot, and as soon as you got out of it you took your computer bag and your sports bag out of the trunk. You entered the building and left your computer in your office, locking the door before you made your way to the swimming pools.

You wouldn’t usually take up on the opportunity to take a swim at the training centre, seen as the boys would use the swimming pool for their recovery sessions during the day, and even when they weren’t using it you would always be too busy with work, so you never got the chance to take advantage of the privilege that you had as an employee.

But today there was clearly no sign of the boys, not yet at least, and your working schedule was not as busy as it would usually be, seen as you did the majority of your work the night before while you were at home watching the game on the tv.

You were quick in changing out of your Chelsea uniform and into your sporty black Nike bikini set, not wanting to waste any more time as you only had an hour or so before you would have to clock in; then you took your towel out of the bag and walked out of the changing rooms to the swimming pool. You didn’t know it was so peaceful this early in the morning, you would have been more than glad to come here to relax a bit before work otherwise.

A giggle escaped your lips as you slowly entered the water, ‘Of course it’s peaceful,’ you thought, ‘without those smartasses, every corner of the training centre is!’

You slowly started to move your limbs in the water, trying to get your body warm enough to endure the physical strain; but it wasn’t long before you started swimming fast, lap after lap. Freestyle was your to go stroke, it kept your muscles engaged and it freed your mind, easing the stress you had been feeling since last night’s defeat.

How am I supposed to face Ruben now?

I’m his girlfriend, what do girlfriends do in this case?

What if he’s in a bad mood and doesn’t want to see me?

As all these questions were crowding your thoughts, you swam faster and faster, until you felt like you were almost out of breath… but then, suddenly a body collided with water, and you halted your movements, raising your face above the water and coming up for air.

The face you saw emerging from the water made your heart flip, Ruben was back. He was back and he didn’t even give you the time to realize it before he crashed his lips on yours is a much needed kiss.

“I missed you so much.” he whispered against your lips, pecking them over and over as if he would never have enough.

“I missed you too,” you told him, out of breath by the physical exertion and the strength of his kiss, “I didn’t expect to see you so soon!” you smiled up at him as you wrapped your body around his.

“I might have told you a while lie,” he softly smiled, “I wanted to surprise you…”

“Well you surprised me indeed babe,” you said as you kissed his cheek, “I’m sorry for the game though.” you pouted, coming to the conclusion that those words were the only ones to say.

“Yeah me too,” he sighed, “but we weren’t at our best, that was to be expected…”

“There’s always the second leg…”

“But it’s gonna be a tough game.”

“Every game is tough for us at Chelsea,” you chuckled, “don’t you agree??”

“You’re right,” he smiled, “but tell me, what are you doing here? I had to run around like a mad man to find you. I never knew you enjoyed swimming?”

“Well that’s because I never had the time or the chance to take a swim before today,” you shrugged, “I came in early this morning so I could take the chance…you know, the early bird gets the worm.”

“Lucky me we were ‘early’ too, then…” he smirked as he pressed his body close to yours, “What time do you have to clock in?”

“In twenty minutes actually,” you whimpered as your back touched the cold pool wall, pushed by Ruben’s bigger frame “why are you asking?”

“Just curious…” he smirked once again, “You know, the boys are leaving to go home so nobody would interrupt us if we…”

“You just came back and you’re already asking for sex?!” you gasped.

“Hey I told you I missed you!”

“Yeah you only missed me for sex.” you pouted, making it look as if you were really disappointed with him.

“No,” he breathed as he stroked your cheek, “I missed all of you, I missed my goofy best friend first… but then I missed you for sex too yep.” he joked, earning a glare and a slap on his shoulder from you.

“Ouch!”

“You know what??” you said with resolution, “I didn’t miss you at all. I only missed your dick.”

“You did, hm?”

“Yeah,” you nodded, pulling his face closer to yours, “you better make good use of these twenty minutes then.”

He didn’t say anything, he just trapped your lips in a bruising kiss while he touched all over your body: he exposed your breasts, freeing them from the confinement of your black bikini top and he latched his mouth on your soft skin, earning a soft whimper from you. As he did so, his hands went underwater to free himself from his shorts, before he moved your bikini bottom to the side as he entered you fully with one thrust.

“Hello there…” he smirked at you, as you leaned your forehead against his, “Missed me?”

“Fuck Rubes,” you sighed giggling, the coldness of the tiled wall long forgotten “I missed you.”

“So it’s not just my dick you’ve missed, is it?”

“You sure you want to hear the answer?” you said in a moan, as his hips pushed harder into you already, splashing some water out of the pool.

“I only want to hear the sounds you make while I fuck you,” he whispered in your ear, “I need to hear how good I make you feel.”

“Fuck baby,” you breathed, feeling lightheaded both from the previous exertion and from your naughty rendezvous, “you feel so good, God I love you.”

“I love you too babygirl,” he smiled before he kissed you, “I love you too.”

“‘m so close Rubes, don’t stop…” you moaned, “Please…”

And he didn’t, he didn’t stop at all, if anything he started pushing his dick deeper and deeper into you, while he couldn’t keep his eyes off you: you were looking like a goddess, his own goddess.

“Don’t hold back baby,” he groaned, on the brink of his high just by watching you fall apart right in front of him, in his arms, “let go, cum for me…”

His words, his rough, deep voice, they created a perfect mix, a mix that caused your orgasm to crash on you like a tidal wave. Your body was left tingling from the pleasure, and you kissed your boyfriend’s full lips as you came down from your high.

“What about you?” you asked him, looking at him through hooded eyes.

“What about me?”

“You didn’t cum, mister…” you smirked, whimpering as he moved inside you.

“Not in the pool.” he shook his head.

“Then sit here…” you patted on the edge of the pool at your back, “I’ll take good care of you.”

“Promise?” he smirked as he sat where you told him to.

“Oh I do,” you mused as you swam between his thighs, with your eyes on his throbbing dick, “I promise.”

Ruben threw his head back when he felt your mouth take in his cock, a string of curses leaving his lips as he panted. Your lips sucked on him, while your hands stroked what didn’t fit your mouth.

“Such a perfect mouth you have baby, fuck!” he whined, looking at you as his hand caressed the back of your head in a gentle invitation to take more of him into your mouth; you complied, wanting to give him the same pleasure he gave you, and when his cock hit the back of your throat he was a goner.

“Goog God, fuck baby I love you. Oh fuckk!” he moaned as you swallowed everything he gave you.

“Welcome back baby.” you looked up at him smirking, leaving an open mouthed kiss on his thigh.

“If this is my welcome back at work, I can’t wait to get you home.” he sighed, disappointed about the game but definitely happy to be back home.

[becauseplot]

Hi thinking about my post-osnf au again, the same one I use in my fic Still Feel. Have some rambles. Spoilers for osnf finale (obv).

(And I guess spoilers for like,,,, tiiiiiny itty bitty details from opd? Nothing story/lore relevant but I thought I’d put it there in case people are trying to go into the next season completely blind, which I can respect. I’m the same way lol.)

Thiago survives destroying Santo Berço, but he’s gravely injured to the point where he’s not going to be well enough to travel for a while, and while no one in Equipe E wants to leave him alone, they need to report to Veríssimo ASAP. Thus, Liz hands over her investigation notes to the boys and stays in Carpazinha to once again sit vigil at Thiago’s bedside, and the boys (with Ivete) travel to São Paulo to meet with Veríssimo.

Time passes. Thiago, slowly, gets better. And though he’s finally well enough to travel back to São Paulo, he still needs support in his recovery. Plus, his apartment isn’t great for his condition, as it’s on the fourth floor and sometimes the elevator breaks down.

Liz, meanwhile, now lives in a two story house. One bedroom is used for her actual bedroom with her mother’s old bed (queen sized) that she sleeps in; the other she turned into her office. There is a room downstairs that’s intended to be an office, but she decided it was too small for her purposes and turned it into a storage/guest room where her old bed growing up (twin) is kept. That’s where Thiago ends up staying during his recovery. Eventually, he just moves in altogether.

Even once Thiago is able to traverse stairs with less difficulty and starts to share Liz’s bed (to help deal with his disorienting dreams of the Symbol, and simply because they want to), the spare bed downstairs is still used semi-frequently. Sometimes Thiago’s knees lock up or his pain is too much or his body gets too tired, and stairs are his worst nightmare. Sometimes the upstairs gets too hot for Liz to comfortably sleep, especially with another person in bed with her. (Or sometimes Thiago sees that Liz has overworked herself and doesn’t want to disturb her sleep in case he has a nightmare of the Symbol.) (Or sometimes Liz comes home having stayed out too late and drank too much and doesn’t want to deal with the stairs or Thiago’s scrutiny, or much less his concern.) Or sometimes one of them just needs some space.

Whatever the reason, the spare bedroom is always open for whoever needs it, whenever they need it, typically with no questions asked.

(Even Joui will crash on it sometimes. It often happens when he’s in the middle of or returning from a solo mission, like surveillance or an arrest. His go-to excuse is “I was tired and your place was closer,” and that’s true! Usually! Mostly! A good deal of the time! At least half! And it has nothing to do with the fact that his studio apartment is tiny and lonely—it’s practical for his purposes and also all he can afford right now—and that his fridge has no food in it! And he always cleans the bedsheets and the kitchen for them before he leaves, so it’s a good trade-off anyhow!)

[thekristen999]

Newest:

Fight In the Shadows  33k

The 118 are summoned to a distant location in the desert, become trapped, have to fight for their lives, and Buck and Eddie finally realize they've been pining for each other for years. Now, if they can all make it out alive.

A Light in the Darkness 1k 

Post-apocalyptic vibes, future fic.

Whose Attention? 6k 

Tommy didn’t spend days chasing Buck. Or Tommy's pursuit of Eddie and the craziness that ensures whenever they're around his best friend.

Follow You Into The Dark

Buck kept a firm grip around Eddie’s arm as he was guided down hallways. They’d both experienced something like this before during the Academy: cadet’s exercises where both teammates were blindfolded and forced to depend on the other to escape burning buildings. This wasn’t unlike that experience, except of course this was real and Buck’s freaking eyes were swollen shut and Eddie was concussed and deaf.

(Or a serial arsonist terrorizes the city, plunging Buck and Eddie into a dangerous game of cat and mouse.)

Cutting The Ties That Bind -Complete Evan Buckley was a businessman, he had meetings and deadlines like everyone else.

Occasionally, he got threatened, but it was usually all hot air and ego. That all changed the day his breaks were tampered with. Enter Eddie Diaz, security specialist, who was not easily impressed by Buck’s expensive suits or financial conquests. That was okay. Buck enjoyed a challenge. AKA The Mafia AU.

bro·ken  

Summary: Forced to take shady side jobs to pay his bills, Evan Buckley doesn’t think he’s ever seen such rock bottom. Until he meets Eddie Diaz, a man even more desperate and alone. Season 3 AU. 

9-1-1/Buddie

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Healing/PTSD

Hold the Pain, Release Me   6k  Eddie is encouraged to explore art therapy.

Buddha's Arrow  4k. Buck helps Eddie navigate chronic pain.

Hand Covers Bruise  7k Eddie character study.

Are You With Me?  27k Eddie and Buck navigate a relationship post Eddie Begins.

Trying Hard to Remember, Trying Hard To Forget 25k Post shooting. Eddie and Buck shared a trauma, but undergo different healing paths. Struggles of recovery.

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Hurt/Comfort

A Light in the Darkness 1k Post-apocalyptic vibes 

Tick...Tick...Boom    4k. Call gone wrong.

Beside You In Time  2k Post shooting. Pain meds.

Stand By Me 2k  Post shooting. Missing scene. Hospitals

Nothing Burns Like The Cold 2k Buck and Eddie get trapped in a freezer. 

Crash Into You- 3k Eddie gets struck by lightening. Medic!Buck (written a year ago)

There Goes My Hero, He's Ordinary  7k Post Eddie Begins.  Medic!Buck. Near drowning/Hypothermia    

We're In This Together Now  5k Meth lab fic. Medic!Eddie

Alone In The Dark With You 14k  Buck and Eddie get trapped in a cave-in and things go from bad to worse. Medic!Eddie Medic!Buck

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Action/Adv or Drama

We’ve Got Fun & Games   7k The Team competes in local Amazing Race  Challenge. Hijinks ensue.

Misadventures In The Great Outdoors  8k Camping trip from hell. (Action Humor)

The World Is On Fire And No One Can Save Me But You  6k Eddie and Buck get caught in a riot.

The Shape Of Water 9k T.  How water has influenced Buck’s life. Backstory. Medic!Buck

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AU

We Found Each Other (Over There) 46k  Epic WWII AU.

Lost  5k  Alt ending to The Searchers. Christopher is not found right away.

Whatever It Takes To Find You  5k   Eddie Begins AU.  Buck is a Pararescue (PJ) specialist sent to rescue the downed chopper.

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All Fic Links:

9-1-1/Buddie Fic

H50/McDanno Fic

Daredevil Fic

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Coffee Fund :)