#Group of Interst
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dzthenerd490 ¡ 5 months ago
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File: Left 4 Dead
SCP#: AKY
Code Name: Green Flu
Object Class: Keter
Special Containment Procedures: Samples of SCP-AKY are stored in six separate vials and placed within a biohazard box locked within a freezer at the Level 4 Section of the on-site Biohazard labs. Any testing must be approved by at least one Level 5 Clearance Foundation staff member. Testing using the Site-AO city simulation testing area must be approved by the Site Director. 
During a containment breach the freezer in question will activate a secret paralysis gas bomb that will activate upon the freezer being opened stunning any enemies but leaving SCP-AKY undamaged in any way. The bombs will only be deactivated after the containment breach is cleared. If they are activated, they must be replaced immediately by Foundation technicians after the breach is cleared. 
Description: SCP-AKY is a strand of rabies genetically altered supposedly by Group of Interest: Neo-Umbrella though there's nothing official to confirm this. Group of Interest: PENTAGRAM was involved with SCP-AKY supposedly trying to buy it on the black market. PENTAGRAM refused claiming and instead pinned blame on Neo Umbrella saying they were involved without giving evidence. They also stated they had their own virus that worked better which turned out to be SCP-AGL.
SCP-AKY infection is seemingly no different to SCP-008-A which is a variant that causes adrenaline to spike in the body and brain allowing the infected to run and attack the non-infected with greater speed and strength. Like SCP-008 infection starts off with normal symptoms that only get progressively worse until the host dies and becomes a zombie. Once a zombie their skin will become deathly pale and oddly their eyes will glow an unusual shade of yellow or orange.  This process can take anywhere between 5 months to 5 minutes. However, the main difference is that SCP-AKY is obviously a virus, and like any virus it has the potential to mutate rather easily depending on the circumstances. 
Like normal viruses SCP-AKY can mutate when an error has occurred when they reproduce after destroying host cells. However, in SCP-AKY’s case errors are more likely to occur not with just errors in the cells but with other factors including the environment. For example, if a host was wearing protective clothing or even armor before infection, they will be able to know that the armor protects them and be sure to keep it on their body even as they are chasing non-infected. Then there are hosts that have been infected in wild and open areas and thus learn to use the environment to their advantage. There have even been reports of them walking on all fours like animals. 
However, when chemicals and extreme physical and mental conditions are taken into account the variations can be much more extreme. There have only been nine recorded variants that exist because of this each one has been labeled SCP-AKY-1 through SCP-AKY-9.
SCP-AKY-1 is an obese variant, covered in boils and lumps of fat yet is still able to move around and even run if it desires. Spits infectious and blinding vomit at non-infected and will explode, releasing infected blood everywhere if it is killed. Possibly the result of someone accidently eating SCP-AKY infected meat or the result of poor eating choices such as eating too much processed, chemical, and artificial foods. MTF units refer to it as a Boomer. 
SCP-AKY-2 is oddly always a hooded infected that seems to be no different to the common infected but is extremely dangerous. Possibly an athlete while they were alive and as a result have become an athletic zombie. Able to quickly and quietly climb on walls, run faster than the common infected, and even jump up and down from buildings. Despite its strength, it prefers to use stealth in order to take down the non-infected. It is often referred to as a Hunter. 
SCP-AKY-3 is the strange result of someone who smoked heavily before SCP-AKY infection. Not only does their head bloat with several disgusting boils but their tongue extends out like a tentacle. With this new tongue they are able to latch onto non-infected, like a frog catching a fly. Though it takes them a considerable amount of time to drag the person back, their tongue wraps around the victim making freeing themselves impossible without help. They possess an odd defense mechanism where when they die their head explodes into a disorienting gas resembling the smoke that smokers puff out after lighting a cigarette. It is often referred to as a Smoker.
SCP-AKY-4 is another odd mutation seemingly the result of someone who does constant labor either on a farm or working at a low wage job. It seems because of their repetitive and back breaking work they become buff when infected but not in a natural way. Only one arm, typically the dominant arm, becomes large and so is that side of the chest and the legs but not the head and the other arm. This allows the infected to charge at anyone with great speed and force but not just charge at them, they can also grab them and crush them into a wall or the ground. It is often referred to as a Charger.
SCP-AKY-5 is a disgusting and almost goblin-like instinct that has a hunch back and slightly muscular build with large hands, all fingers with sharp nails. These infected are rather unusual as they don’t try to bite or even kill the non-infected, just manipulate them. They either like to trap them by grabbing them and throwing them over ledges or into trap holes close to where they hide. Or most curiously they will jump onto the back of an uninfected and force them to run around either off a cliff or into a horde of infected. It's unknown what causes this infection but concerningly due to the type of clothing of the infected, the fact that almost all of them appear male, and that they like to control the bodies of the living, its heavily implied they were criminals of sexual assault while alive. Though there is nothing concrete to prove this. They are often referred to as a Jockey
SCP-AKY-6 is a rather disgusting infected that grows a long neck, a slightly bloated stomach and an extended mouth that spits acidic and infectious slime at the non-infected. Its heavily implied that those who become this variant were heavy drinkers resulting in SCP-AKY mutating their stomach and by extension the acid it produces with the alcohol and other toxic substances they might have consumed. They are referred to as a Spitter.
SCP-AKY-7 is quite possibly the result of a host taking steroids and many other performance enhancement supplements and drugs upon infection. The result is a hulking monstrosity with massive mussels and the strength to throw cars, rip apart buildings, bend steel, and pull apart concrete structures and throw the pieces like projectiles. These instances are rather rare but extremely strong and able to easily kill a human with a single hit with the sheer force of its punch alone. They are referred to as a Tank
SCP-AKY-8 are the most anomalous in their origin, the only thing that remains consistent about them is that they are always women, always wear very little clothing, and are always deathly skinny yet have elongated claws like fingers and incredible strength. It is believed they are created when a woman under intense emotional stress and anxiety is infected. The evidence is in the fact that they are always crying and insolation when spotted only aggravated when someone looks at their face. Oddly, like SCP-096 they can be avoided so long as one is careful to not see them or be seen by them. They are referred to as a Witch
SCP-AKY-9 is quite possibly the most anomalous mutation though that’s mainly due to the fact that no one knows what they look like. All that is known is that during the initial containment and cleanup of SCP-AKY infection only one appeared and it wiped out the entirety of Mobile Task Force Zeus-10 “Necromancers” which were argued to be the most equipped of all the MTF units assigned to deal with SCP-AKY. The sole survivor was badly injured having lost his dominant right arm and right leg. He also receiving several fatal wounds all over his body leaving him with his left face gone, one of his kidneys ripped out, his right lung badly damaged and reduced in size as a result, and his vocal cords damaged beyond repair. He retired form an MTF unit even after receiving artificial organs and limbs for his losses. Though while he was receiving mental counseling it was made clear he couldn’t talk about the SCP-AKY-9 instance without having another mental breakdown. Instead, he merely drew a picture to help us visualize the instance. 
This is the picture.
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SCP-AKY was discovered in 2009 when an outbreak occurred in the city of [data expunged], Pennsylvania. Originally thought to be a new flu and nothing more, it was called by the public the Green Flu due to it causing the infected to puke unusually green vomit upon infection. However later at random times with random hosts they started dying and becoming zombies as well as random SCP-AKY variants. The entire city and surrounding cities were placed under quarantine before the infection could spread far. The Global Occult Coalition had control of a majority of the quarantine with the SCP Foundation acting as support. In exchange for offering MTF units to support the GOC Strike Teams the GOC allowed MTF units to take samples that could later be contained. The entire containment of SCP-AKY is known as one of the best corporations between the Foundation and the GOC. 
Due to the mutative and often unpredictable properties of SCP-AKY it was decided by Administrative Staff to have it contained at Site-AO. Like with many widespread Weaponized Viral Anomalies, Site-AO’s unique testing area allowed the Foundation to discover many interesting aspects about the pathogen, please see Addendum X-15 for details. However, it should be noted that it's still debated if SCP-AKY should even be considered a Weaponized Virual Anomaly as its unknown what exactly the rabies virus caused it to mutate. It was merely a rumor that MTF units saw people in strange clothing taking samples of infected SCP-AKY hosts as Foundation satellites did not pick up anything. However, if it truly is the work of Group of Interest: Neo Umbrella before they became public like many believe then it's possible, they got their hands on the SCP-AKY-9 instance. If this is true, it would explain the anomaly's disappearance but also prove to be a worst-case scenario.
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SCP: Horror Movie Files Hub
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bacchuschucklefuck ¡ 8 months ago
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space sweepers but they're delivery people and are at no point on screen through the entire movie
#fantasy high#riz gukgak#kristen applebees#gorgug thistlespring#adaine abernant#fabian seacaster#figueroth faeth#the bad kids#half tempted to say these names are forum handles they use so much it pretty much became their professional names lol#I keep them teenagers bc its funnier that way#no real lore I just like drawing this. but I do think abt how theyre all weirdos too also bc thats funny to me#riz is a huge conspiracyhead who does everything by hands. he has a casio fx-570 in mint condition. nobody knows how he's maintaining it#he is nonetheless Really Good at his job. which somewhat tracks bc it's a job that requires keeping up with interstation conflicts#and new policies and an obsessive amount of planning. but he is Too Good at it. and also he dresses like that#kristen has the atomic engine that theoretically lets her unmake and remake matters with her mind. but it consumes a huge amount#of energy so it's mostly useless. she's still a cult survivor also#gorgug lives his entire life on a ship with his parents who quit a cushy deal maintaining a space station bc he wouldn't be allowed on#the low gravity let him grow very tall but also his oxygen saturation is pretty bad so he's got breathing support#fig is a robot who just found out she's a robot like two months ago. she's been assuming everyone's a robot like her and she's been feeling#very betrayed by her mom lying about that part. she's on a body mod spree which is rough bc system-specific parts are expensive#and so is adapting random parts to her system#fabian's still a pirate captain's son. can't say anything that'd be able to get the vibes across clearer than that#adaine went to tech/business school. she put her monthly allowance towards an ecoterrorist group in her academy which turned out to be an o#and she's currently wanted by UTS. more than fabian. which makes him slightly mad#she's also acquired a passion for low-tech weaponry on the way. she likes ice picks and cleavers#I think up all of this for no reason except that once again the idea of all these people being 1/teens and 2/on the same ship to be posties#is hilarious to me. esp. if they were in a forum group chat beforehand
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realnyhiphop101 ¡ 2 months ago
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38 Spesh “Interstate 38” Era
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mostlysignssomeportents ¡ 1 year ago
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Surveillance pricing
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THIS WEEKEND (June 7–9), I'm in AMHERST, NEW YORK to keynote the 25th Annual Media Ecology Association Convention and accept the Neil Postman Award for Career Achievement in Public Intellectual Activity.
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Correction, 7 June 2024: The initial version of this article erroneously described Jeffrey Roper as the founder of ATPCO. He benefited from ATPCO, but did not co-found it. The initial version of this article called ATPCO "an illegal airline price-fixing service"; while ATPCO provides information that the airlines use to set prices, it does not set prices itself, and while the DOJ investigated the company, they did not pursue a judgment declaring the service to be illegal. I regret the error.
Noted anti-capitalist agitator Adam Smith had it right: "People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices."
Despite being a raving commie loon, Smith's observation was so undeniably true that regulators, policymakers, and economists couldn't help but acknowledge that it was true. The trustbusting era was defined by this idea: if we let the number of companies in a sector get too small, or if we let one or a few companies get too big, they'll eventually start to rig prices.
What's more, once an industry contracts corporate gigantism, it will become too big to jail, able to outspend and overpower the regulators charged with reining in its cheating. Anyone who believes Smith's self-evident maxim had to accept its conclusion: that companies had to be kept smaller than the state that regulated them. This wasn't about "punishing bigness" – it was the necessary precondition for a functioning market economy.
We kept companies small for the same reason that we limited the height of skyscrapers: not because we opposed height, or failed to appreciate the value of a really good penthouse view – rather, to keep the building from falling over and wrecking all the adjacent buildings and the lives of the people inside them.
Starting in the neoliberal era – Carter, then Reagan – we changed our tune. We liked big business. A business that got big was doing something right. It was perverse to shut down our best companies. Instead, we'd simply ban big companies from rigging prices. This was called the "consumer welfare" theory of antitrust. It was a total failure.
40 years later, nearly every industry is dominated by a handful of companies, and these companies price-gouge us with abandon. Worse, they use their gigantic ripoff winnings to fill war-chests that fund the corruption of democracy, capturing regulators so that they can rip us off even more, while ignoring labor, privacy and environmental law and ducking taxes.
It turns out that keeping gigantic, opaque, complex corporations honest is really hard. They have so many ways to shuffle money around that it's nearly impossible to figure out what they're doing. Digitalization makes things a million times worse, because computers allow businesses to alter their processes so they operate differently for every customer, and even for every interaction.
This is Dieselgate times a billion: VW rigged its cars to detect when they were undergoing emissions testing and switch to a less polluting, more compliant mode. But when they were on the open road, they spewed lethal quantities of toxic gas, killing people by the thousands. Computers don't make corporate leaders more evil, but they let evil corporate leaders execute far more complex and nefarious plans. Digitalization is a corporate moral hazard, making it just too easy and tempting to rig the game.
That's why Toyota, the largest car-maker in the world, just did Dieselgate again, more than a decade later. Digitalization is a temptation no giant company can resist:
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c1wwj1p2wdyo
For forty years, pro-monopoly cheerleaders insisted that we could allow companies to grow to unimaginable scale and still prevent cheating. They passed rules banning companies from explicitly forming agreements to rig prices. About ten seconds later, new middlemen popped up offering "information brokerages" that helped companies rig prices without talking to one another.
Take Agri Stats: the country's hyperconcentrated meatpacking industry pays Agri Stats to "consult on prices." They provide Agri Stats with a list of their prices, and then Agri Stats suggests changes based on its analysis. What does that analysis consist of? Comparing the company's prices to its competitors, who are also Agri Stats customers:
https://pluralistic.net/2023/10/04/dont-let-your-meat-loaf/#meaty-beaty-big-and-bouncy
In other words, Agri Stats finds the highest price for each product in the sector, then "advises" all the companies with lower prices to raise their prices to the "competitive" level, creating a one-way ratchet that sends the price of food higher and higher.
More and more sectors have an Agri Stats, and digitalization has made this price-gouging system faster, more efficient, and accessible to sectors with less concentration. Landlords, for example, have tapped into Realpage, a "data broker" that the same thing to your rent that Agri Stats does to meat prices. Realpage requires the landlords who sign up for its service to accept its "recommendations" on minimum rents, ensuring that prices only go up:
https://popular.info/p/feds-raid-corporate-landlord-escalating
Writing for The American Prospect, Luke Goldstein lays out the many ways in which these digital intermediaries have supercharged the business of price-rigging:
https://prospect.org/economy/2024-06-05-three-algorithms-in-a-room/
Goldstein identifies a kind of patient zero for this ripoff epidemic: Jeffrey Roper, a former Alaska Air exec who benefited from a service that helps airlines set prices. ATPCO was investigated by the DOJ in the 1990s, but the enforcers lost their nerve and settled with the company, which agreed to apply some ornamental fig-leafs to its collusion-machine. Even those cosmetic changes were seemingly a bridge too far Roper, who left the US.
But he came back to serve as Realpage's "principal scientist" – the architect of a nationwide scheme to make rental housing vastly more expensive. For Roper, the barrier to low rents was empathy: landlords felt stirrings of shame when they made shelter unaffordable to working people. Roper called these people "idiots" who sentimentality "costs the whole system."
Sticking a rent-gouging computer between landlords and the people whose lives they ruin is a classic "accountability sink," as described in Dan Davies' new book "The Unaccountability Machine: Why Big Systems Make Terrible Decisions – and How The World Lost its Mind":
https://profilebooks.com/work/the-unaccountability-machine/
It's a form of "empiricism washing": if computers are working in the abstract realm of pure numbers, they're just moving the objective facts of the quantitative realm into the squishy, imperfect qualitative world. Davies' interview on Trashfuture is excellent:
https://trashfuturepodcast.podbean.com/e/fire-sale-at-the-accountability-store-feat-dan-davies/
To rig prices, an industry has to solve three problems: the problem of coming to an agreement to fix prices (economists call this "the collective action problem"); the problem of coming up with a price; and the problem of actually changing prices from moment to moment. This is the ripoff triangle, and like a triangle, it has many stable configurations.
The more concentrated an industry is, the easier it is to decide to rig prices. But if the industry has the benefit of digitalization, it can swap the flexibility and speed of computers for the low collective action costs from concentration. For example, grocers that switch to e-ink shelf tags can make instantaneous price-changes, meaning that every price change is less consequential – if sales fall off after a price-hike, the company can lower them again at the press of a button. That means they can collude less explicitly but still raise prices:
https://pluralistic.net/2024/03/26/glitchbread/#electronic-shelf-tags
My name for this digital flexibility is "twiddling." Businesses with digital back-ends can alter their "business logic" from second to second, and present different prices, payouts, rankings and other key parts of the deal to every supplier or customer they interact with:
https://pluralistic.net/2023/02/19/twiddler/
Not only does twiddling make it easier to rip off suppliers, workers and customers, it also makes these crimes harder to detect. Twiddling made Dieselgate possible, and it also underpinned "Greyball," Uber's secret strategy of refusing to send cars to pick up transportation regulators who would then be able to see firsthand how many laws the company was violating:
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/03/technology/uber-greyball-program-evade-authorities.html
Twiddling is so easy that it has brought price-fixing to smaller companies and less concentrated sectors, though the biggest companies still commit crimes on a scale that put these bit-players to shame. In The Prospect, David Dayen investigates the "personalized pricing" ripoff that has turned every transaction into a potential crime-scene:
https://prospect.org/economy/2024-06-04-one-person-one-price/
"Personalized pricing" is the idea that everything you buy should be priced based on analysis of commercial surveillance data that predicts the maximum amount you are willing to pay.
Proponents of this idea – like Harvard's Pricing Lab with its "Billion Prices Project" – insist that this isn't a way to rip you off. Instead, it lets companies lower prices for people who have less ability to pay:
https://thebillionpricesproject.com/
This kind of weaponized credulity is totally on-brand for the pro-monopoly revolution. It's the same wishful thinking that led regulators to encourage monopolies while insisting that it would be possible to prevent "bad" monopolies from raising prices. And, as with monopolies, "personalized pricing" leads to an overall increase in prices. In econspeak, it is a "transfer of wealth from consumer to the seller."
"Personalized pricing" is one of those cuddly euphemisms that should make the hair on the back of your neck stand up. A more apt name for this practice is surveillance pricing, because the "personalization" depends on the vast underground empire of nonconsensual data-harvesting, a gnarly hairball of ad-tech companies, data-brokers, and digital devices with built-in surveillance, from smart speakers to cars:
https://pluralistic.net/2024/03/12/market-failure/#car-wars
Much of this surveillance would be impractical, because no one wants their car, printer, speaker, watch, phone, or insulin-pump to spy on them. The flexibility of digital computers means that users always have the technical ability to change how these gadgets work, so they no longer spy on their users. But an explosion of IP law has made this kind of modification illegal:
https://locusmag.com/2020/09/cory-doctorow-ip/
This is why apps are ground zero for surveillance pricing. The web is an open platform, and web-browsers are legal to modify. The majority of web users have installed ad-blockers that interfere with the surveillance that makes surveillance pricing possible:
https://doc.searls.com/2023/11/11/how-is-the-worlds-biggest-boycott-doing/
But apps are a closed platform, and reverse-engineering and modifying an app is a literal felony – several felonies, in fact. An app is just a web-page skinned with enough IP to make it a felony to modify it to protect your consumer, privacy or labor rights:
https://pluralistic.net/2024/05/07/treacherous-computing/#rewilding-the-internet
(Google is leading a charge to turn the web into the kind of enshittifier's paradise that apps represent, blocking the use of privacy plugins and proposing changes to browser architecture that would allow them to felonize modifying a browser without permission:)
https://pluralistic.net/2023/08/02/self-incrimination/#wei-bai-bai
Apps are a twiddler's playground. Not only can they "customize" every interaction you have with them, but they can block you (or researchers seeking to help you) from recording and analyzing the app's activities. Worse: digital transactions are intimate, contained to the palm of your hand. The grocer whose e-ink shelf-tags flicker and reprice their offerings every few seconds can be collectively observed by people who are in the same place and can start a conversation about, say, whether to come back that night a throw a brick through the store's window to express their displeasure. A digital transaction is a lonely thing, atomized and intrinsically shielded from a public response.
That shielding is hugely important. The public hates surveillance pricing. Time and again, through all of American history, there have been massive and consequential revolts against the idea that every price should be different for every buyer. The Interstate Commerce Commission was founded after Grangers rose up against the rail companies' use of "personalized pricing" to gouge farmers.
Companies know this, which is why surveillance pricing happens in secret. Over and over, every day, you are being gouged through surveillance pricing. The sellers you interact with won't tell you about it, so to root out this practice, we have to look at the B2B sales-pitches from the companies that sell twiddling tools.
One of these companies is Plexure, partly owned by McDonald's, which provides the surveillance-pricing back-ends for McD's, Ikea, 7-Eleven, White Castle and others – basically, any time a company gives you a hard-sell to order via its apps rather than its storefronts or its website, you should assume you're getting twiddled, hard.
These companies use the enshittification playbook to trap you into using their apps. First, they offer discounts to customers who order through their apps – then, once the customers are fully committed to shopping via app, they introduce surveillance pricing and start to jack up the prices.
For example, Plexure boasts that it can predict what day a given customer is getting paid on and use that information to raise prices on all the goods the customer shops for on that day, on the assumption that you're willing to pay more when you've got a healthy bank balance.
The surveillance pricing industry represents another reason for everything you use to spy on you – any data your "smart" TV or Nest thermostat or Ring doorbell can steal from you can be readily monetized – just sell it to a surveillance pricing company, which will use it to figure out how to charge you more for everything you buy, from rent to Happy Meals.
But the vast market for surveillance data is also a potential weakness for the industry. Put frankly: the commercial surveillance industry has a lot of enemies. The only thing it has going for it is that so many of these enemies don't know that what's they're really upset about is surveillance.
Some people are upset because they think Facebook made Grampy into a Qanon. Others, because they think Insta gave their kid anorexia. Some think Tiktok is brainwashing millennials into quoting Osama bin Laden. Some are upset because the cops use Google location data to round up Black Lives Matter protesters, or Jan 6 insurrectionists. Some are angry about deepfake porn. Some are angry because Black people are targeted with ads for overpriced loans or colleges:
https://www.theregister.com/2024/06/04/meta_ad_algorithm_discrimination/
And some people are angry because surveillance feeds surveillance pricing. The thing is, whatever else all these people are angry about, they're all angry about surveillance. Are you angry that ad-tech is stealing a 51% share of news revenue? You're actually angry about surveillance. Are you angry that "AI" is being used to automatically reject resumes on racial, age or gender grounds? You're actually angry about surveillance.
There's a very useful analogy here to the history of the ecology movement. As James Boyle has long said, before the term "ecology" came along, there were people who cared about a lot of issues that seemed unconnected. You care about owls, I care about the ozone layer. What's the connection between charismatic nocturnal avians and the gaseous composition of the upper atmosphere? The term ecology took a thousand issues and welded them together into one movement.
That's what's on the horizon for privacy. The US hasn't had a new federal consumer privacy law since 1988, when Congress acted to ban video-store clerks from telling the newspapers what VHS cassettes you were renting:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_Privacy_Protection_Act
We are desperately overdue for a new consumer privacy law, but every time this comes up, the pro-surveillance coalition defeats the effort. but as people who care about conspiratorialism, kids' mental health, spying by foreign adversaries, phishing and fraud, and surveillance pricing all come together, they will be an unbeatable coalition:
https://pluralistic.net/2023/12/06/privacy-first/#but-not-just-privacy
Meanwhile, the US government is actually starting to take on these ripoff artists. The FTC is working to shut down data-brokers:
https://pluralistic.net/2023/08/16/the-second-best-time-is-now/#the-point-of-a-system-is-what-it-does
The FBI is raiding landlords to build a case against Frontpage and other rent price-fixers:
https://popular.info/p/feds-raid-corporate-landlord-escalating
Agri Stats is facing a DoJ lawsuit:
https://www.nationalhogfarmer.com/market-news/agri-stats-loses-motions-to-transfer-dismiss-in-doj-antitrust-case
Not every federal agency has gotten the message, though. Trump's Fed Chairman, Jerome Powell – whom Biden kept on the job – has been hiking interest rates in a bid to reduce our purchasing power by making millions of Americans poorer and/or unemployed. He's doing this to fight inflation, on the theory that inflation is being cause by us being too well-off, and therefore trying to buy more goods than are for sale.
But of course, interest rates are inflationary: when interest rates go up, it gets more expensive to pay your credit card bills, lease your car, and pay a mortgage. And where we see the price of goods shooting up, there's abundant evidence that this is the result of greedflation – companies jacking up their prices and blaming inflation. Interest rate hawks say that greedflation is impossible: if one company raises its prices, its competitors will swoop in and steal their customers with lower prices.
Maybe they would do that – if they didn't have a toolbox full of algorithmic twiddling options and a deep trove of surveillance data that let them all raise prices together:
https://prospect.org/blogs-and-newsletters/tap/2024-06-05-time-for-fed-to-meet-ftc/
Someone needs to read some Adam Smith to Chairman Powell: "People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices."
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If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:
https://pluralistic.net/2024/06/05/your-price-named/#privacy-first-again
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Image: Cryteria (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HAL9000.svg
CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en
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aphomic ¡ 2 years ago
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D.oppo is a very anxious, meek, and insecure person; he dislikes confrontations a lot and has a tendency to apologize all the time for the smallest things out of a sense of inferiority but that doesn't make him someone who despite all, still manages to finds a way to view the world as sunshine and flowers; to that? no, he is not that type of character. to him, he faces these adversities and they in exchange turn him more..... sour- he has very cynical and pessimistic views of the world because of the very intense, competitive, and toxic working environment he is stuck in, and that he finds no way of solving. His boss and coworkers both treat him terribly and he often gets overworked to the pulp, so being surrounded by such a terrible environment contributes to how much of his everyday life is simply tainted in Gray colors
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shitty-check-please-aus ¡ 2 years ago
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What we need to do is convince all the disney adults in america that high speed rail would be a preferable way of getting to disneyworld compared to driving or flying. We could maybe harness their fondness for the monorail or something, but this is a group of people that has time, income, and passion that we could leverage. If we could direct 5% of the enthusiasm they have for limited edition popcorn buckets into calling their representatives and demanding high-speed interstate rail, we could get it by 2030
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ozarkthedog ¡ 10 months ago
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𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐥𝐲 𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝
summary: the world crumbled before you could experience the touch of another. Joel does his best to keep you innocent for as long as he can.
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pairing: Jackson!Joel Miller x afab virgin!reader.
warnings: 18+ mdni. established, undefined relationship. PUSSY RUBBING. fluids galore. just the tip. perv!joel. unspecified age gap. fingering. dirty talk. overstimulation. male masturbation. FEELS. Joel is a conflicted old man. reader is able bodied. no Ellie. w.c. 2.9k
an: i watched a porn clip and instantly went rabid thinking about jackson!joel.
-> follow up to a glimpse of heaven but it's not necessary to read the first part.
𝐌𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐋𝐢𝐬𝐭 ⋅ 𝐅𝐢𝐜 𝐍𝐨𝐭𝐢𝐟𝐬 ⋅ 𝐉𝐨𝐞𝐥 𝐌𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐫 𝐌𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐋𝐢𝐬𝐭
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Like most of Jackson, the house you share with Joel is quiet and calm when night falls. Rain softly patters against the window as you lie in bed, wide awake. Another night of fruitless sleep under your belt.
You huff irritatedly, your hand collapsing against the mattress as you bitterly kick your bedspread onto the floor. Your oversized shirt clings to your body, your skin dewy from the exertion, and you're close to crying. Your limbs are wrought and overworked after hours of touching yourself with no orgasm to show for it.
Your hand won't cut it; it isn't enough. It can't reach all those sensitive spots that make you float among the stars.
Warmth pools in your abdomen as you think of one that's the perfect size.
A hazy hue of yellow light pours under your bedroom door as it spills from the room across the hall.
Joel.
It takes a long time to get to know someone, but they tend to meld with your soul once you do in one way or another.
From the start, Joel was intimidating. He was so frayed around the edges that you were afraid he'd completely unravel in the middle of your journey. He didn't seem to care for your company as the two of you traveled across the plains to Jackson, hesitation poisoning every fiber of your being, but you kept on with the strange man since no one else was willing to trek across the states. You desperately needed a new life, a fresh start away from the Boston QZ, and Jackson sounded like the perfect spot.
Over time, Joel opened up, conversing little by little as you drove for miles across the now barren US. Usually, after you had a close call with raiders or the lone gunman, he'd go silent, the weight of protecting someone other than himself sinking further into his soul, consuming that much further.
What you never expected was for him to be your first touch.
Sweltering tension slowly grew like a wildfire. Catching each other's curious stares, lingering fingers, and salacious banter until, one night, he slid a cautious hand into your panties. He claimed your untouched sex when you confessed over a roaring fire and a bottle of whiskey that you'd never been with another. His weathered hands were gentle as he sunk his fingers into your core, watching with rabid fascination as you came for the first time, gasping from his touch.
The following day, as he drove you across the interstate with the sun slowly rising, he made sure you knew that wouldn't happen again. "I'm much too old. Don't wanna waste your time with a mean ol' grump like me."
You didn't bring it up again.
One month after settling into Jackson, picking bedrooms, and deciding who would do which chores, Joel had his first taste of you.
It wasn't supposed to happen.
You chewed your dinner slowly in the modestly sized dining room across from Joel. You were so lost in thought that he was concerned enough to ask what was wrong.
"What does it mean when a man eats you out?" you naively pondered, causing him to choke on his veggies.
Joel had never looked so red before as he took a long drink of whiskey. You instantly apologized, explaining that you overheard a group of women conversing while you tended the communal garden.
He raised a hand, curbing your frantic rambles. "S'ok. Figured you'd be learnin' things. Just didn' think I'd be the one you'd ask."
"But I trust you."
His jaw twitched at your words.  
Later that night, Joel fell to his knees at the edge of your bed and tossed your legs over his broad shoulders. "Never tasted a pussy so sweet," he mumbled against your glistening folds as you ran your fingers through his graying curls. You came multiple times on his tongue, grinding his whiskered jaw while he hungrily lapped at your soaked folds like he was dying of thirst.
You didn't bring it up again.
It's warmer in Jackson now. The sun hangs longer in the sky. Snow boots and jackets are stowed away until the next freeze.
You slink from the warmth of your bed and pad sockless across the hall. Lightening flickers brightly under the starry sky. The night rain storm slowly whirls through the city, soaking everything in its path.
Joel's door is open. A soft smile tugs at your lips; it's his way of saying he's still up. He keeps it ajar while he reads before rolling onto his side and bidding goodnight to the world.
Three soft knocks alert Joel from the guitar-building manual he's currently reading. Dread clouds his mind for a moment, wondering why you'd be knocking on his door at this time of night, but he takes a deep breath and grounds himself in the softness of his bed.
"Yeah?" he calls out. His tone is rough around the edges after a long day on patrol.
You poke your head around the door with a timid smirk. He looks at you over his reading glasses before marking his spot and laying his book on the side table.
You don't say anything as you stride into his room. He notices your oversized shirt swaying at your knees before you climb into his bed and curl against his side like a cat. 
He drapes an arm around your shoulder, unconsciously pulling you closer.
"'Nother bad dream?" he questions with a low rumble.
You shake your head. "Can't sleep."
You nuzzle your face into the crook of his shoulder and feel him nod, understanding the endless struggle for a night of peaceful sleep. It's improved since moving to Jackson, but the dreams never end.
Silence fills the bedroom except for the soft pitter-patter of rain against the roof. Joel leans against the headboard, sighs through his nose, and lets his thoughts drift. He's content to sit with you in his arms for as long as possible, even if that makes him selfish.
He wonders if you hope to find someone to settle down with, someone less ridged and mentally maimed, someone less him.
The thought drives a stake through his heart.
He'd be crazy to say he didn't love being around you. Your laugh and lopsided smile took the first brick out of his impenetrable fortress when you spied a deer and her calf frolicking in an open field in Kansas. From then on, it became easier for him to let his walls down.
When you came to him with those big doe eyes and urges about wanting to know what it's like to be touched and desired, he gave in each time despite his reasoning.
He would masturbate each time after getting his hands on you, also thinking about the early days when he'd catch glimpses of you changing or the time he first saw you naked while showering at the YMCA. 
He's still trying to figure out what to make of you. Friends? Lovers? He certainly didn't mean to fall head over heels. Love had no place in his heart, but he'd be a fool to say he wasn't extremely fond of you.
"Can you make me feel good again?" your lithe voice broke the silence.
Joel stops breathing. Your question doused him like a cold bucket of water. He knew this would come back and haunt him.
His hand curls tight around your shoulder as he wrestles with the devil on his shoulder. "Told ya we shouldn't keep doin' this, Sweetheart," he reasons, trying not to break your heart.
"But I can't make myself feel as good as when you've done it. I've tried!" You whine, burying your face into his chest.
"S'not that I don't wanna," he admits, soothing your soft cries. "S'just, you're too precious to do that wit' someone like me."
You lift your head and brazenly brush your lips against the exposed skin of his collarbone, earning a low groan as he curls a large hand around the back of your neck. He tugs you away from his skin, your lips still forming a tight 'O', and pins you with a stern gaze.
"Joel, it hurts." Your watery eyes and trembling bottom lip are his downfall.
"Lay back, Sweetheart, and spread your legs," he orders with a husky tone.
You don't make a noise; too afraid he'll stop if you do. Your cunt beats against the gusset of your panties as you lay on your back, spreading and bending both legs at the knee, just like he taught you.
A warm breath fans down your face as he shifts down your body before kneeling between your legs and tracing teasing fingers over your covered mound. His nails lightly scratch along the worn cotton, making you suck in a frantic breath. He slips a practiced hand beneath the crotch of your panties and deftly explores your folds, gently rubbing small circles on your clit after wetting his fingers with the arousal that's pouring from your cunt.
"Oh, she's achin' real bad, huh?" he groans as your opening clenches beneath his wandering touch.
"Joel, please, I need-" You gasp, hips wantonly grinding against his hand, desperate for any type of friction.
The muscles in his jaw ache. It's only natural you'd be wanting more.
Before he thinks twice, Joel draws his cock out from his sweatpants. Your stomach cramps at the sight as it smacks against his belly; he's massive.
His cock hangs heavy between his thighs like a solid, dangerous threat. It weeps from the dusky tip, shiny liquid dripping from the crown as he squeezes his hand around the girthy base peppered with dark gray, wiry hair.
"Got somethin' that'll make you feel good, sweet girl." he grits, tapping his cock against the covered crux of your pussy. It thwaps devastatingly against your clit, forcing a gasp from your lips as mind-numbing pleasure races up your spine and leaves you staring dumbly up at him.
"S'that what you need? Need my cock to keep 'er from achin so bad'?" his cock is searing as it lies in wait atop your panty-clad mound. You swear you can feel his blood pumping steadily into his shaft.
He cautiously thrusts his hips, sliding his length along your cotton-covered mound. Your slick arousal seeps thru the material, wetting the thin cotton and creating a sensuous touch as he glides along your cunt.
He shoves your shirt up over your chest, exposing your breasts to his hungry gaze. He licks his lips, "Such'a beauty."
Your cheeks flame at his words. Having such a man say things about you makes you lightheaded.
Joel groans as your panties practically are now see-through from your combined fluids staining the cotton, "Oh, baby." You whine at his pet name. "I got ya. Keep those legs open, just like I taught ya. S'good girl."
He keeps a steady pace, sawing back and forth over your extremely soaked mound. Your puffy pussy lips stick to the soaked cotton, leaving nothing to Joel's imagination. He glides easily along your slit, your juices smoothing his path until your arching your back and chanting his name like a prayer.
Watching you orgasm under his touch is enough to drive him wild. He throws all sense of logic out the window. He's okay with being selfish again.
"Let's get these off, yeah." He hooks two fingers under the elastic and slides your panties off before his words register in your euphoric haze. "Feel even better without 'em."
He swallows hard at the sight laid out before him. The sheets splay and curve around your naked body, making you look like an ethereal being sent to test his limits.
"Gonna give 'er a kiss, Sweetheart," his deep timbre vibrates your body as he draws close and touches the bulbous tip of his cock to your exposed folds. Blood rushes to your cunt instantly, bordering on the edge of pain. You cry out from the intense contact, and arousal slips freely down your crack as he traces his cockhead up and down your soaked slit.
"How's she feel?" He anchors his head, looking down at you from under his lashes.
"S'nice," you half whisper, half moan. The wanton bliss slowly consumes you the more he rubs against your sticky folds, keeping a hand locked around his girthy base, his crown glistening with your combined arousal.
Your eyes tear open, back arching like a bow, when he cants his hips and taps his cock square in the center of your cunt.
"M'not gonna fuck you, sweet girl, wanna keep you whole," he declares, holding true to his word despite the overwhelming need to claim you.
He can't be the one to sully you. "Ain' much left'a this world that's as sweet n' pure as you."
Your core quivers as his dusky, throbbing crown glides along your glistening seam. He tentatively explores uncharted areas, brows furrowed with concentration, fighting with inner demons who want to claim, corrupt, and mold you for only his touch.
His name leaves your lips with a mess of desperate, frustrated moans, "Please, Joel."
He snaps out of his haze. He's done almost everything he can to keep you safe and protected in this new way of life. He'll be damned if he doesn't grant you anything you ask for.
"S'hurtin' somethin' fierce, huh?" He grunts, angling his hips until his cock lines up with your fluttering hole. "Bet she needs somethin' big'er than fingers to ease 'er throbbin'."
His cock catches on your opening, forcing a hiss through his clenched teeth. As tight as you are, he can't stop from pushing into your warmth. He blocks out any sense of reasoning that's shouting from the back of his mind as he slowly nudges his cock into your weeping, inviting hole.
Joel goes brain-dumb momentarily, watching in immoral awe as your core ever so slowly swallows his fat tip and breaches your quivering hole, forcing a raspy whine from your throat.
So warm, safe, and wet.
Joel's never felt anything like you. He wants to bury himself, slide his cock as deep as he can, claim every inch, endlessly fill you with his cum, and keep you only for him.
You frantically reach for him, hands clutching the air as he rubs a callous thumb over your clit while keeping a steady hold on the base of his cock.
"S'all she's gonna get," he states, returning to his senses and hissing when your cunt tightens. "S'just the tip."
A soft begging whine bubbles from your lips as you extend your arms, needing something solid to hold before latching onto his wrists.
Your hips move on their own, desperate to feel his length completely shunted in your velvet warmth, but brute hands envelop your hips and pin them to the bed.
He shakes his head, salt and pepper curls fraying across his forehead. "Don' be greedy now." He tuts, narrowing his gaze down at you.
A garbled mess of nonsense tumbles from your lips as your fingernails dig into his muscular, hairy forearms.
"I know. S'big, huh?" He lands a solemn thumb on your clit, rubbing tender circles around the tiny bud. "Stay wit' me, sweet girl. Wanna feel you come on my cock."
Your mind spins. It's all too much, and yet, not enough. Your head tosses from side to side, and you're frantic to survive, breathing hard and fast, waiting for the drop to come and, at the same time, never wanting it to come.
"Don't I deserve it? Keepin' you safe all this time." Joel muses, stroking his cock in time with his teasing thumb. His eyes never leave where he's splitting you open. He's barely penetrating you, but it's enough to know if he had, you'd be struggling to take him.
"Come on, Sweetheart. Let go f'me," he urges, his touch growing faster. Severe, tightly drawn circles tease you closer to the edge.
Your stomach flips. A heaviness settles in your throat, your heart lodging in the tight confines, your blood pumping faster and faster. A lithe whine slithers free, escaping into the dimly lit room and burrows into Joel's mind.
His jaw clenches, and a dark growl rumbles from his chest, "Thatta' girl. Make'a fuckin' mess'a me."
Your dripping hole quivers and throbs around his swollen tip as you come with a silent scream, body locking taut, trying its best to engulf his length entirely.
Joel curses, jerking his length with long, steady tugs and rubbing his weeping, cream-covered tip around your soaked folds before his spine goes straight, and he yanks his cock from your core, curling in on himself and spilling his seed all over your belly with a deep, gravelly moan.
You sag into his sheets, spent with a shiny thin layer of dew and white ropes of spend painted across your abdomen.
"Shit." Joel curses, breathing heavily as he holds himself by his hands, which press into the mattress by your head, keeping you locked beneath him.
You hold his studious gaze. His dark eyes ruminate, tinged with mood, as his gaze drills down into your very core, threatening to demolish your soul. You resign that this was nothing special. Just another night you won't talk about again.  
Joel eases off of you with a grunt, his bones aching from the tension despite the brief, pleasurable relief, and tucks his cock back away into his sweatpants. He shuffles to the bathroom momentarily before returning with a damp washcloth.
He wipes the cloth over your belly and between your thighs, cleaning the combined arousal from your skin before chucking the rag into the hamper with a sigh.
"I know," you mutter, grimacing as you roll onto your side and sit up, tugging your shirt down. "I won't mention it again."
A solid, warm hand on your shoulder stops your retreat. "Stay," Joel whispers with soft, yearning eyes. "I wan' you to stay, sweet girl."
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feel free to scream at me -> 💌
reblogs & comments are extremely appreciated! follow @ozzieslibrary for new fic updates!
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ilikeevilblondes ¡ 3 months ago
Text
World’s Worst Chauffeur
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18+ MDNI!
Summary: Joel Miller, your dad's best friend, ends up getting roped into picking you up from a party. Without the key to unlock your house or anybody to let you inside, Joel offers to let you sleep at his place for the night. Needless to say, the both of you don't do a lot of sleeping.
TL;DR: You convince old man Joel to dick you down.
W.C: ~6.2k
Warnings: dbf!Joel, unprotected p-in-v sex, praise AND degradation (whoops), big fat age gap (Joel is around 50, reader is 21), daddy kink for a sec soz, aftercare, slight size kink, cunnilingus through panties, cunnilingus, dry-humping, couch sex (no outbreak!)
AO3 link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/62586064
Note: hey y'all, trying my hand at joel miller smut because i saw an edit of pedro pascal and literally licked the fucking screen protector, so i guess that's god's sign of telling me to write filthy shit. anyway, hope you enjoy! wrote this instead of a politics essay #yolo
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“C’mon, Joel.” Your dad sighed, meeting his best friend’s eyes with a pleading gaze.
“Look, I—”
“Just this once. Please. I really can’t get out of this meeting, the board would kill me. Especially with the damn FTC breathing down our necks.”
You were visiting your hometown for Spring Break. Tomorrow night, there was going to be a party in a town fifteen minutes away from your own—one that you had been invited to. Your dad was supposed to give you a ride home, but as always, there was some last-minute work emergency. So, Joel was his solution.
The aforementioned solution frowned, crossing his large arms over his plaid torso.
“I got better things to do than chauffeur your little girl.” Joel shrugged.
That was, in fact, horribly untrue. His agenda for that night consisted of re-watching one of the Die Hard’s and drinking a nice, cold Coors.
“I’ll owe you one.” Your dad insisted.
“Desperate ain’t a good look on you, buddy.” Joel cracked a small smile.
Your dad ignored this jab.
“Joel, we’ve been friends for almost two decades. You’ve let me borrow your car, helped me paint my house more times than I can count, and even bailed me out of jail when I sped down the interstate.” He counted the feats off his fingers. “But picking my kid up is where you draw the line? Come on.”
Joel inhaled through his teeth.
The real reason he maintained his firm stance on not giving you a lift home was, really, a bundle of three smaller reasons.
One, ever since you turned eighteen you’ve made it painstakingly and increasingly clear you wanted to get in his pants.
Two, you were a huge flirt.
Three, he wasn’t so sure he could keep on resisting. But he had to. For god’s sake, what kind of a friend would bone his friend’s daughter?
Hopefully, not him.
“I–” Joel began but was shortly interrupted.
"I’m not taking ‘no’ for an answer. You’re picking up my kid. She has no one else, and I don’t trust her friends to be sober enough to get her home without getting in some kind of drunk-driving accident."
He levelled Joel with a firm look.
"So, are you picking her up, or should I expect to see her name in tomorrow’s obituary because one of her little buddies got behind the wheel after doin’ a keg stand, or a gazillion games of beer pong or I don’t know—fuckin’ ‘Cheers to the Governor’?”
Your dad stared him down with an expectant look.
Joel took a second to process this.
He rubbed a hand over his face, squeezed his eyes shut, and then met his friend’s stare with a sigh.
“Fine.” Came through gritted teeth.
Your dad patted him firmly on the shoulder. “Thank you.” He chirped happily.
———
And so, there Joel was.
Leaning against his old Chevrolet, idly spinning his keys around his finger, and staring at the front door of the party.
Several kids filtered out; stumbling into worn Honda Civics with disgruntled parents waiting in the driver’s seats, or with their arms interlocked and their sides almost melded together, giggling off to god-knows-where.
When you came out, you were part of the latter group.
Some blonde-haired boy—tall, but not too tall—was holding you close to him with a stupid smile on his reddened face. You mirrored it with a stupider smile of your own.
He whispered something into your ear that made you laugh and was promptly leading you in the opposite direction of Joel. But Joel was both keen and quick to intervene.
“Goin’ somewhere?” Joel called out, crossing his arms.
You froze and turned your head to lock eyes with none other than Joel Miller. Your neighbour, your dad’s best friend, and more importantly, your long-time crush.
“What are you doing here?” You arched a brow, slipping away from your friend and nearing him and his truck.
Your friend followed after you and settled by your side, resting an arm that hung a little too comfortably around your shoulder.
“Evenin’ to you, too, sweetheart. And to answer your question, I’m pickin’ you up.” Joel stated simply, then tossed a quick surveying look to the guy next to you. “Who’s blondie over here?”
“Daniel.” Blondie blinked and stuck out his free hand, glancing at you. Under his breath, he muttered, “you told me your dad couldn’t give you a ride.”
“He’s not my–” You started, but were immediately cut off by Joel.
“Get your hand off the girl, will you, Derek?” Joel narrowed his eyes at him, a dangerous look underlying his seemingly casual tone.
Daniel immediately did so, going so far as to step a pace back from you.
“It’s Daniel.” He coughed awkwardly. Then added, “sir.”
Joel ignored him—or, at least, didn’t show any sign that he had heard his correction—and turned around.
“Time to go home, young lady.” Joel said lowly. He opened the front passenger door, and upon finding you in the same spot as you were standing before he had turned his back, continued with, “that wasn’t a suggestion.”
You mumbled a quick ‘goodbye’ to Daniel and hopped inside the truck.
“Good girl.” Joel sighed, closed the door with a bit too much force and walked around the front of the car. He spared a few seconds to glare at your friend before sliding into the driver’s seat.
Suddenly, the engine thrummed to life and the two of you were headed down quiet suburban streets in the late hours of the night, leaving what's-his-name in the dust.
The air had been thick with a tension neither of you could describe and was further blanketed by a heavy silence broken only by the hum of the engine, the faint skid of tyres against asphalt, and your own rapid heartbeat pounding insistently in your ears.
Not five minutes had passed before Joel spoke up.
“Who was he?” Joel asked casually, his eyes still focused on the dimly-lit road ahead.
You sank further into the cracked leather of the front passenger seat.
“A friend.” You shrugged, not looking over at him.
Joel hummed a non-committal noise as he carefully took a turn into a side street, the truck slowly crunching over loose gravel. His grip on the wheel remained firm, but his eyes flickered over to you.
“Your daddy let you out of the house like that?”
You huffed out a short laugh and looked down at your choice of partywear; a low-cut top and some tight-fitting jeans. Not necessarily the most vulgar apparel, in your humble opinion.
“No, actually, he called the cops on me for indecent exposure, but I managed to escape.” You spat out sarcastically.
Joel didn’t find your comment funny. Or rather, there was no indication on his unwavering poker face that he had found it funny. Or was experiencing any emotion at all other than slightly tired.
The two of you sank into yet another silence.
“I’m not a kid, Joel.” You said after a minute or two.
“Like hell, you ain’t.” Joel scoffed.
“I’m in college, I can dress how I like.”
“Is ‘how you like’ a prostitute?”
You turned to face him fully, your arms crossed and your brows furrowed.
“That’s both slightly misogynistic and completely off-base, don’t you think?” You snorted, then smiled smugly to yourself. “Plus. Admit it, you like it.”
That threw him off-guard.
For the first time that evening, Joel showed a sliver of emotion. His eyes widened slightly as he opened his mouth, quickly closing it, and then opening it again to say, “what the fuck are you going on about, kid?”
“You were definitely staring at my tits.”
Joel was even more taken aback. First, by your absolute gall, and second, by your accuracy. He may have snuck a peek at your cleavage, but in his head, it was very discreet. But, fuck, did they sit perfectly.
“You’re drunk.” Joel shook his head.
“You didn’t deny it.” Your smile grew. “But yes, I am a little tipsy. Not drunk, though.”
“I noticed.”
“Just say the word, Miller, and I’ll flash you the twins anytime you like.” You leaned over the control arm, your eyes travelling along his tensing frame.
“Fucking Christ.” Joel breathed. He kept his eyes fixed on the road but released a hand from the steering wheel to rub the lower half of his face.
This. This was why he didn’t want to do this favour for your father. You were already a handful while sober. And you had been a handful ever since you started college—making throwaway yet entirely flirtatious comments, pressing your tits against his chest a bit too much while you lingered after a hug, and wearing the tightest clothes known to man.
And now drunk? You were literally throwing yourself at him.
The worst part was that he couldn’t control his body’s reaction to you. In fact, his jeans felt a little tighter the closer you got.
Fuck, he was more than twice your age and here he was getting a hard-on—
Joel was suddenly violently snatched from his internal monologue when he felt your hand ghost over his lap.
“That’s ‘cause of me, isn’t it…? I can help with that.” You whispered, your tone almost pleading as your fingers gently traced over the front zipper of his jeans.
“Honey, sit back down.” Joel said slowly. His eyes remained intently glued onto the road.
Jesus Christ, he was fucked.
“Joel,” You practically whined.
Jesus Christ, he was so fucked.
“You’re drunk,” Joel said, more to himself than you as some sort of ill-justified dismissal.
“Tipsy.” You corrected helpfully, yet not retreating back to your seat. “But not really.”
Before he knew it, Joel was pulling up in front of your driveway, his grip on the steering wheel deathly tight.
Joel sighed. “You’re home.”
You glanced out the window disappointedly.
“No shit, Sherlock.” You replied.
Joel muttered something to himself under his breath and got out of the car, quickly appearing by your side and opening the door for you.
“C’mon, sweetheart.” He nodded toward your house.
You got to your feet indignantly and marched up to your porch. Joel followed after you, leaning against one of the support beams of your front awning as he watched you dig through your purse.
After a few moments of your struggle, Joel cleared his throat.
“What?”
“Can’t find my key.” You frowned.
“I’ll call your dad.”
“Not home. And won’t be, ‘till tomorrow morning. He’s in the city for some work emergency, remember?”
Joel ran a hand through his salt-and-pepper hair, visibly mulling something over, judging by the crease in his forehead.
“And you don’t got a spare key lying around somewhere? Under a flower pot or a welcome mat or shit like that?”
You shook your head.
If Joel were a better man, he’d have caught the glimmer of an ulterior motive dancing in your mischievous eyes. He would’ve brought up the spare key given to him for emergencies—this would’ve constituted as such. And he certainly wouldn’t have said what he had next.
“You can stay the night at mine.”
You blinked up at him, your hand frozen in the opening of your purse.
Joel straightened up, taking his weight off the support beam.
“Or you can sleep outside. Up to you.”
“I’ll take option number one.”
A few minutes and a trip across the road later, Joel had wriggled his key through the entrance lock and opened the door, inviting you inside.
Joel’s two-story craftsman was cosy and lived-in. The leather couch facing a moderately-sized flat-inch was slightly worn, the coffee table was cluttered with magazines and empty cans, and standing by its lonesome in a forgotten far corner of the living room was an acoustic guitar. More importantly, his house smelled like him; like warmth and vetiver and wood.
You had been a guest at his house on several occasions, but such instances had always been with the company of your dad.
That evening you found yourself free of his presence and, coincidentally, free of a conscience.
However fortunate your moral freedom was, it was only partially incited by your father’s absence. The four lukewarm cans of Lone Star you had chugged at the party may have had more of an influence on your risqué behaviour, because you sure as hell weren’t pushing Joel down on his leather sofa and straddling his lap with complete sobriety.
Joel let you take control, placing his big hands on your waist like they were always meant to be there while you moulded yourself against him, and met your lips with equal fervour when you smashed your mouth against his.
He sighed into the kiss and gripped your waist tighter as you slipped your tongue past his lips, ignoring the slight scruff of his greying stubble rubbing against your jaw.
But it was when you began slowly rocking your hips against the tenting figure in his jeans did he suddenly remember himself and wrench his face away from yours.
“Shit.” He panted, his pupils dilated and his chest heaving as he zeroed in on your kiss-swollen lips and your half-lidded, desperate eyes.
Why the fuck did he just do that? ‘That’ being the act of letting you kiss him, but he was just as equally angered with himself for stopping.
“We shouldn’t.” He shook his head, but his eyes were focused on your pretty, slightly parted lips.
“Why not?” You sighed, leaning closer.
Joel took your chin in his hand and held you at a safe distance.
“You know fucking well why.” Joel’s voice rumbled deep with frustration.
“Give me a reason.”
“I’ll give you three: you’re drunk, you’re barely eighteen, and your father is my best friend.”
You huffed out a noise of annoyance.
“I’m a little tipsy at worst, I’m twenty-one, thank you, and my father doesn’t have to know.”
Joel’s lip twitched. You were very persistent. He didn’t even know why he was arguing with you, he just knew he had to resist whatever fucking temptation this was.
“I’m old enough to be your father, too.” Joel frowned.
“But you’re not.”
“You should want someone your own age.”
“But I don’t.”
Joel inhaled through his teeth, subconsciously nearing your face once more. “This is so wrong.”
“Just once, Joel.” You pleaded, your eyes flooded with need.
“Fuck,” Joel shook his head, his brows furrowed as he once again lost himself in how pretty your lips looked; all puffy and raw. All because of him. “Honey–”
“Just this once.” You whined prettily.
At the sound, Joel unconsciously rocked up into you. Your hands immediately went to grab his shoulders to steady yourself; feeling a little lightheaded from the mere singular action.
Joel’s grip on your waist tightened.
“Fuck.” He said again, breathing slowly.
Being as old as he was, Joel never expected to relive the days of his brazen youth when his only major problem in life was cumming in his pants after a pretty girl had barely touched him.
His dark eyes finally met yours.
You held your breath.
“Just this once?” He said.
“Just this once.” You confirmed.
“You won’t … you won’t try anything again?” Joel’s eyes dropped back down to your mouth and his thumb gently traced your bottom lip. His other hand slipped from your waist to the bare small of your back from underneath your blouse.
You didn’t trust yourself to speak, but you shakily nodded your head.
Joel didn’t believe you.
But, fuck it, he captured your mouth in another hungry kiss anyway, closing his eyes and holdiing you against him.
He was definitely going to hell, but he would gladly do so just knowing he had felt heaven against his lips.
And, fuck, was that an unforgettable taste.
Joel gently trailed his chapped lips down your jaw, your neck, and lingered on your pulse point, all while one hand held you by your nape and the other against the skin of your lower back, idly caressing the base of your spine with his thumb.
Instead of the white-hot passion that had initially been the catalyst for this heated night, this moment was charged with an underlying tenderness. And all you could do was throw your head back and accept his tentative indulgence.
Though by the way Joel unintentionally bucked his growing bulge against your clothed mound as he peppered the crook of your neck with open-mouthed kisses, you could tell his delicacy was largely imbued by whatever ounce of restraint he inexplicably retained and was, by no means, a testament to his true nature.
He was holding back.
“Joel?” You whispered, carding your hand through his hair.
“Mmm?” He hummed into your skin, his eyes closed in bliss.
“I want…” You began, the words dying in your throat.
What did you want?
Well, his cock, definitely. More specifically, inside of you, but you’d cross that bridge when you came to it.
“Words, baby.” He pressed a final kiss onto your neck and pulled away the slightest distance to meet your gaze. His eyes were wrecked with lust; half-lidded and almost entirely swallowed by his dilated pupils. He softly took your face in the hand that was formerly resting against your nape. And when he spoke, his voice was low and rich with that sweeter-than-molasses Southern drawl. “Try that again. What do you want, honey?”
“You.”
“And you have me, don't you?” Joel said distractedly, his thumb lightly tracing your lower lip. His soft, umber eyes momentarily dipped down to your mouth as if he was debating on kissing you again.
And he was. Fuck, those lips of yours.
“No, I…” You breathed, your hand coming down in between your two bodies and palming his rock-hard erection through his denim. Joel hissed. “Can I suck you off?”
Joel’s eyes widened. You certainly held no room for subtlety.
“Fuck, honey.” He huffed. “Really know how to get to the point, don’t you?”
“Can I?”
Joel hummed.
“Can I be perfectly candid, sweetheart?”
“You have my blessing.” You arched a brow.
“If you so much as breathed on my dick right now, I think this night would come to a quick and rather �� anticlimactic finish.” Joel sighed, breaking into a small smile. In true dad fashion, he then added, “pun not intended.”
You granted him the reward of a snicker for his antics. Then, you leaned close to his ear, letting your breath tickle his skin.
“If I had known that all I’d get from you was a dry-humping makeout sesh, I’d have stuck with Daniel.” You sighed, as casually as you could.
Without even looking at him, you saw the jealousy morph onto his aged face.
“Get on your fucking back.” He said, his voice measured, yet somehow equally unhinged.
You stilled, not expecting that much of a reaction from him.
“I said,” Joel met your gaze, his eyes holding a dangerous promise. “Get on your fucking back, young lady.”
And that was how you found yourself lying against the arm of a sofa older than the Great Depression with your jeans discarded in a wrinkled pile somewhere and your legs spread around the owner of said ancient sofa.
Joel crouched down in front of you, with one of your legs perched on his shoulder. He pushed your shirt up past your belly button and kissed a path down to the waistband of your panties.
His hand slid up your knee, then your thigh, and then stopped right against a particularly damp spot in your underwear.
“This for me or Daniel?” Joel hummed against your lower stomach, his stare flickering up to your face.
You bit your lower lip.
“You.” You said softly.
And then Joel lowered his head and kissed the patch of arousal. And then he kissed it again and again, basically frenching your cunt through your underwear. You could feel the pressure of his tongue against your swollen clit, sliding, only by a small margin as restricted by your godforsaken panties, in between your folds—
“Say that again for me, honey? Didn’t quite hear you.”
“Fuck–” You gasped at the feeling. “You, Joel!”
“That’s what I thought.”
To your displeasure, Joel stopped whatever the fuck he was doing and his eyes found yours once more.
“Need me to eat your pussy now, sweetie?”
Yes, fucking please.
You might’ve said that out loud, judging from the pleased chuckle Joel let out.
Before you knew it, Joel slid your panties off your legs (pocketing them secretly—only to wash them on your behalf, of course, nothing dirty at all on his part) and then consequently salivated at the sight of your bare cunt.
Fucking gorgeous.
“Oh, honey.” Joel sighed, barely hiding his eagerness.
“It hurts…!” You breathed, your eyes flickering down to your pulsating core; dripping wet and throbbing in anticipation of him.
“Aw, it hurts, does it? I’ll kiss it better, hm? Is that what my pretty girl wants?” Joel cooed in a falsely-sweet tone.
He then held you still by the firm grip on your waist and leaned down right in front of your slick seam.
Joel tutted as he took in your desperate scent.
“So wet for me.” He mumbled, more to himself than you.
Without warning, much less another word, Joel dipped his head down to plant a kiss directly on your swollen clit, lapping at the swelling bud.
You gasped and a hand flung down to grasp his salt-and-pepper curls.
Joel smiled against your cunt and moved further down, his tongue lazily sliding through your folds and flicking inside your velvety walls.
In response, your grip on his hair tightened and you whispered something close to his name. Or God’s. Or anyone’s, really, you were teetering on the edge of unconsciousness from the sheer intensity of the situation, you could’ve been reciting the Pledge of Allegiance, for all you knew.
“Mmm... fuck, you taste good, baby.” He mumbled against your heat.
Suddenly, Joel pulled away with a wet ‘pop’ and his eyes met yours. Upon seeing your lust-blown face, he smiled through his scruff—a slight shine evident around his mouth from your slick.
“Good?” Joel mused, his thumbs tracing gentle circles on your hips.
You nodded deliriously and pulled him back up by the collar of his shirt—why the fuck was he still fully dressed—to taste yourself on him.
His lips moved hungrily against yours as he licked into your mouth. You were so consumed in the kiss, you barely noticed the sound of his belt unbuckling or his zipper sliding down.
It wasn’t until you felt the tip of his cock nudge against your seam that you noticed you were, very possibly, actually going to fuck your dad’s best friend.
Or rather, he’d fuck you. As long as you were fucked, you were fucking happy.
Your eyes flickered down to his length.
“Shit.” You gasped.
You always knew Joel to be a big guy; from his broad shoulders to his massive hands—no doubt incredibly useful in his line of work as a contractor. But seeing his fucking cock? You were still somehow surprised.
“Joel, I…” You blinked. “You’re so…”
Big. He was so big.
“Oh, c’mon baby, I know you can take it,” Joel said against your lips, his breath warm against your skin. “We’ll go slow at first. That sound good?”
You nodded.
In hindsight, he should’ve worked you with his fingers first. That would’ve been the first thing he’d done after tasting your delicious fucking pussy, but he got lost in how good you felt against his mouth, he was too excited to feel how you’d stretch around him.
“That’s my good girl.” Joel hummed, satisfied. “I’ve got condoms upstairs, if–”
“I have an IUD.”
The four little magic words which really meant, please Joel, fuck me raw.
Ever the gentleman, Joel planned on doing exactly that.
“Then eyes down, sweetheart. Want you to watch how I fuck you.”
Obediently, your eyes dragged down to the sinful sight of Joel taking his cock and slapping it a few times on your pussy, before just barely sliding inside. His weeping tip easily disappeared inside you, along with an inch or two, aided by the arousal coating your entrance.
He wasn’t even halfway in, but the thickness of his cock was unlike any other you’ve felt before. And, possibly, too much for you to take.
“Too big.” You whined.
Above you, a wicked smile grew on Joel’s face.
“Too big? D’you just say it’s too big? Well, tough luck, sweetheart, ‘cause I ain’t stoppin’.”
Joel continued to push forward, thrusting shallowly in, retreating, and then feeding you a little more of his length at a relaxed pace.
“My good girl can take it, can’t she?” He murmured, kissing the corner of your mouth. He mumbled indifferently in between tasting your sweet skin, “after all, you were the one begging me so sweetly to fuck you a little while ago. Would be a damn shame if you couldn’t follow through with your own request…”
“I can.” You affirmed, squeezing your eyes shut from the overbearing sensation of being filled by him.
“Attagirl.”
And then, to test your claim, Joel finally buried himself all the way to the hilt, his balls slapping obscenely against your ass from the movement.
“Daddy–!” You gasped, your nails digging into his back.
Joel’s lip quirked upward in a small, amused smile.
“‘Daddy’, huh? Should’ve figured.” He tutted, gently caressing your cheek with his thumb. “You want daddy to stop?”
“N-No!”
“Then take it—” Joel thrust into you, his tip deliciously kissing your cervix. “—like a good girl.”
And then he began a steady pace. Not too slow, but fuck, did he hit deep.
You could’ve sworn you were seeing little cartoon stars dancing around your vision from the plane of pleasure you found yourself on; otherwise known as being dicked down by Joel Miller, apparently.
“Fuck, you’re tight.” Joel winced, his hips stuttering.
He really should’ve stretched you out with his fingers first, but there was no way in fucking hell he was going to pull out now. Not with how perfectly your cunt was wrapping and crying around him.
In fact, you felt so good, Joel was starting to feel a familiar sensation in his lower stomach that alerted him of how close he was to prematurely spilling inside you. Turns out, his unintentional celibacy (circa the fucking creation of MySpace) had a bigger impact on him than he would’ve liked.
“Yeah? Do I feel good, daddy?”
Fuck.
Joel’s dick twitched.
If this really was going to happen ‘just once’, Joel was damned set on, firstly, fucking your brains out without coming early, and secondly, making you reach your end before he reached his. Ladies and gentlemen, chivalry was alive and well in the twenty-first century.
Thinking intently about the starting lineup for the Cowboys game that Sunday, Joel began to pick up the pace, reaching places you’ve never been aware of until that precise moment.
Mesmerised by both the slight outline of his dick in your stomach and the sheer sensation of his heavy length, you took it upon yourself to encourage a quicker speed and moved your hips in time with him.
“Mmm,” Joel inhaled sharply, locking eyes with you. “Look at you, prettly little slut. Tryna fuck me back too, huh?”
Your walls clenched around him at his words. Mean as they were, his tone was still as sweet as honey.
“‘S okay. You take what you need, babygirl.” Joel dipped his head down to suck at your pulse point as he continued sawing into your drooling cunt.
“Need more. Please.” You all but whimpered.
“My baby needs more, hm?” Joel muttered against your neck, nipping at a freshly-made hickey. You yelped in response, but Joel only grinned as he muttered to himself, “she’ll get more. Filthy fucking whore.”
And then Joel sped up his thrusts, going in and out, in and out, at a brutal pace. Salacious, wet sounds filled his living room every time he shoved his fat cock inside you. That, combined with the unabashed moans spilling from your mouth, made the whole affair seem borderline pornographic.
Not that Joel was complaining, because you sounded pretty as a peach.
“Joel!”
“Fuck, that’s it, Joel!”
“Oh, Joel, you’re fucking me so well!”
Your moans came in tandem with every stab of his cock, blabbering desperate words of praise as your walls fluttered around him.
Joel sucked in a breath.
“Yeah, that’s it, baby, scream for me. Let the neighbours hear who’s fucking you so well, hm?” Joel lazily kissed your jaw. “You close, pretty girl?”
Unable to sound anything other than nonsensical syllables or his name or ‘daddy’ upon nearing your climax, you simply shook your head in an eager nod.
So Joel kept on mentally listing the fifty states to keep from joining you, and maintained his rapid pace.
“Go on, sweet girl, come on my cock. Let go, honey, I’ll catch you. ‘M right here.” Joel murmured sweetly, caressing your flushed cheeks. A total juxtaposition to the ruthless pace his hips were setting.
In and out. In and out.
In. And. Out.
And then his hand trailed down your bare stomach, lightly spidering over the faint outline of his dick jutting in and out of you, and settling on your very sensitive swollen bundle of nerves. His hand then began generously swiping at your clit as whispered sweet words of praise into your ear.
You clutched his bicep with an iron grip as you felt your high approach.
“Joel, I’m…!”
“Yeah, come on daddy’s cock. You’re so close, baby, just let go.”
And so you did. With a scream that reached God in the high heavens above, your walls clenched around him and you were nearly knocked out from the overbearing sensation of your intense orgasm.
Joel fucked you through it, unrelenting in his devoted momentum, his tip finding your cervix with every other thrust. And he continued fucking you through it, even after the last waves of your high, letting out low groans of pleasure.
When he saw your eyes refocusing, he slowed down for a moment, as reciting the ABC’s backwards was hardly working to calm his hard length.
“Don’t stop…” You mumbled, a bit sadly.
“Baby, I got no plans of stopping anytime soon, don’t you worry.”
And to prove his point, Joel kissed your right ankle and hitched your other leg over his shoulder, practically splitting you in half as he reached deeper inside you.
If he was gonna come, so were you. If the last thing he’d get to do on this godforsaken planet was send the pretty girl bent in half underneath him into two soul-shattering orgasms, he’d die a satisfied man.
Did he also want to show off and possibly ruin you for all men? Maybe.
Fuck, yes, he did.
He wanted you to be fucking addicted to the way his cock stretched your velvety walls, because he sure as hell was.
Screw the ‘just this once’ bullshit. He was gonna fuck you every damn night from now on, if you’d let him.
“Feels so good, Joel…” You whined pathetically.
Joel hummed in a self-satisfied sort of way and began pushing up your shirt to reveal your bouncing tits and leaned down to take a pebbled nipple in his mouth, licking and sucking at the nub, and nipping at the surrounding sensitive skin.
“Oh!” You gasped, jerking your head back.
Joel took it as a sign to continue, showing the exact same attention to your other nipple and maintaining his deep and rapid thrusts, causing the springs of the couch to whine in protest with every jut of his hips.
You let out a strangled moan.
“Joel—! Joel, it’s so…!” You panted, tears collecting in your eyes from the overstimulation.
“Shh, it’s okay. Almost there. Almost there, baby.” Joel tutted, gently swiping away your tears with his thumb as he continued to fuck you like he was an interior designer from the way he strived to rearrange your guts. “You gonna be good and come around daddy’s cock a second time?”
Your walls tightened in response and you let out a breathy whimper.
“Good girl.” He smashed his mouth against yours and swallowed your moans, his lips moving in time with his hips. “Where do you want me to…?” He mumbled against your lips, his breath mingling with your own.
“Inside.”
“Fuck, babygirl, you sure?”
“Miller, I said, inside.” You made a point to fuck yourself onto him with deep movements of your hips, displaying your intent.
“Yes ma’am.” Joel smirked, absolutely fucking pussydrunk.
With that, Joel caught your lips in another searingly intense kiss, licking into your mouth as his thrusts continued to ram into your cervix while you held onto the couch for dear life.
And if that wasn’t enough sweet torture to your poor body, Joel moved one hand above you, gently laced his fingers with yours, and brought it back down to lay flat against your clit.
“Play with that pretty pussy, baby.” He whispered against your skin, his hand moving yours encouragingly. “Need you to give me another.”
With a shaky nod, you acquiesced, toying with your clit like you had a million nights before.
Except this time, instead of imagining it, you really had Joel fucking Miller in between your legs, sawing into your cunt like he wanted to break it.
“That’s my good girl,” Joel’s mouth twitched into a slightly proud smile against your skin.
It took Joel half a dozen more stabs into your slick mound before his hips began to stutter.
And then it took three more before he buried himself completely inside, and, with a gasp of your name accompanied by an appropriate expletive, painted your walls with hot ropes of his come.
“Fuck, daddy!” You moaned, your back arching off the sofa.
At the same time, for the second time that night, no less, you felt yourself reach another mind-blowing orgasm, your walls greedily sucking him in further and shaking around his thick length.
He continued to fuck his come into you with a few more slow, but deliciously deep rolls of his hips, before he stilled inside you and fell on top of your heaving chest, letting your legs fall back onto the beaten old couch, too.
It took a few moments for both of you to steady your breaths.
“Was that … okay?” Joel breathed, staring at you with furrowed brows, and gently tucking a stray strand of your hair behind your ear.
“I think I blacked out for a second there.” You smiled.
Joel laughed and kissed the corner of your mouth. Smug as ever, he muttered, “I take tips.”
“That’s funny, since I just took yours.”
You almost felt Joel roll his eyes.
Joel slowly sat up, gazing down upon the absolute fucking mess the two of you made; both your arousals leaking out of your mound and coating your thighs in a light sheen.
Tenderly, he began to pull out, wincing from both the feeling of leaving your warmth as well as the sight of your come and his collecting around his cock in a shiny ring.
“Sit tight, baby, I’ll get you something to clean you up.” Joel pressed a kiss to your collarbone, tucked himself haphazardly back in his jeans, and disappeared off into another room.
If he had stayed a second longer, you would’ve said something that testified to how hard he had fucked you, since you weren’t sure you could move anyway.
Joel returned a minute or two later with a damp towel and began to softly wipe away the remnants of your dalliance, delicately caressing your hip with his other hand.
“What a gentleman.” You purred, watching him with a stupid grin on your fucked-out face.
Joel threw the towel aside.
“You think so, sweetheart?” He hummed, leaning down to give you a quick, affectionate kiss.
“Never had this level of aftercare.” You admitted, laughing slightly.
Joel gently manoeuvered the two of you so you laid on your sides facing each other on his surprisingly roomy sofa.
“Still regret not goin’ with that Daniel boy?” He smirked, taking your chin in between his fingers and tilting your face toward his.
You swung your bare leg over his hip and pulled him closer. “Not at all.”
“‘S what I thought.” Joel hummed happily, bumping his nose against yours.
“And … y’know what I said about this being a one-time thing?”
“Mhm?”
“We’re definitely doing this more than once.”
“Thank fucking God.”
4K notes ¡ View notes
aquaholicsanonymousworld ¡ 2 months ago
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Ok ok now flip the wrong husband idea. Intimidating/grumpy resident who’s close to and clearly Jack abbotts fav resident, the med students think they might be secretly together only for her to actually be Robby’s gf/wife 👀
Wrong Attending
Pairing: Dr Michael "Robby" Robinivich x Attending!Reader
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She was terrifying. That’s what the med students whispered behind clipboards and in the corners of the nurse’s station.
Dr. (Y/N), third-year resident. Surgical precision in her tone, her incisions, and her sarcasm. Always serious, always focused, always somehow two steps ahead of the attending she was assisting. If she barked an order, you followed it. If she gave you a look, you apologized before even figuring out what you’d done.
Jack Abbott adored her.
He never said it, but it was obvious. She was his golden resident. She scrubbed in with him more than anyone else. He taught her the most complex techniques with the kind of softness he didn’t extend to anyone else. He even brought her coffee when she had a long case ahead — Jack Abbott bringing someone else coffee. It was enough to start rumors.
“She’s totally his girlfriend,” one of the med students said as they wheeled a post-op patient back to recovery.
“Girlfriend?” another scoffed. “Try wife. You think anyone else could get away with back-talking him like that and not get reamed for it?”
She passed by just then, sleeves rolled up, surgical cap still on. She gave them all a pointed look as she walked through.
The students fell silent. Guilty. Terrified.
Later that day, the ER flooded.
A pile-up on the interstate. They needed hands. All hands. She was already pulling on gloves before anyone called her name.
She was hunched over a trauma bay, blood on her scrubs, one hand in a chest cavity when—
“Hey,” a voice said behind her. Lighter. Familiar. “Jesus. You didn’t answer my texts. You okay?”
She glanced up, annoyed. “I’m working, Robby.”
Dr. Robby. The senior attending. Golden boy of the ER. Charismatic. Bright-eyed. Sunshine in scrubs. Or maybe that's just how she saw him.
He blinked. “You’re elbow-deep in a thoracotomy and I’m the one getting attitude?”
She didn’t answer. Just turned back to the trauma.
The med students, standing nearby and wide-eyed, watched in confusion.
Dr. Robby stayed there, leaning against the glass, watching her with something oddly fond in his expression.
She finally stepped back after the patient stabilized, ripping her gloves off and walking to the sink.
Robby handed her a towel.
“Can I help you?” she asked flatly, drying off.
“Just wanted to see if you were alive. I made you dinner.”
“You’re ridiculous.”
“And you love me.”
“You’re lucky I do.”
One of the students behind them dropped their chart.
Robby turned, startled, and blinked at the frozen group of baby doctors staring at them.
“…What?”
One of them finally managed: “Wait. You’re dating Dr. Robby?”
She raised a brow. “You say that like it’s a crime.”
Robby looked smug. “Jealous?”
“No,” one of them muttered. “Just… we all thought it was Abbott.”
Robby paused, then laughed so hard he doubled over.
She sighed, shoved him with the towel, and muttered, “I need a nap.”
“Or,” Robby grinned, falling into step beside her, “you could come home, shower, and let your very loving, very charming boyfriend feed you tortellini.”
“…What kind of tortellini?”
He smirked. “The homemade kind. You’ve been on my mind all day.”
The students watched them go, stunned into silence.
One turned to the others. “That’s gotta be the biggest plot twist in this hospital.”
The others nodded slowly.
Jack Abbott walked by a moment later, glancing toward the hallway they disappeared into, then at the med students. “What’s with the faces?”
One said weakly, “Sir, did you know she’s dating Dr. Robby?”
Abbott blinked. Then snorted. “Of course I know.”
“…You’re not mad?”
“Why would I be mad?”
“We thought she was yours.”
Jack gave them a look so dry it could sand furniture. “I have a wife, you morons.”
Then he walked off, chuckling to himself.
1K notes ¡ View notes
mystic-writings ¡ 11 months ago
Text
we’re just fine | daryl dixon
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PAIRING — Daryl Dixon x Fem!reader
SUMMARY — after the fall of the prison, you find yourself in alexandria, alone. two months later, your family finds their way back to you. 
WARNINGS — angst, canon-typical violence/situations, pregnancy, fluff 
WORD COUNT — 5,000
NOTES — idk what happened to me all i know is i blacked out and then this was made. enjoy i guess
masterlist | navigation | requests are open!
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Despite the pure monotonous routine you’d gotten used to during your two months in Alexandria, you couldn’t say that it wasn’t sometimes extremely boring. Your only saving grace was the mealtimes you had with Aaron and Eric at the end of the day. At least they had the sense and experience outside the walls to be able to carry out a conversation that wasn’t about what food you were eating or how the weather was. 
It was why you hated when they went out on recruitment runs. As their roommate, you felt awkward being in the home by yourself when they left the walls; as though you were intruding. You felt that way in a lot of aspects. An intruder on a perfect life that these people had grown used to in the wake of the apocalypse. A life where their only worry was whether or not Aiden and Nicholas would find the right ingredients for the food they’d planned on cooking during their supply runs. 
But there was nothing to be done aside from making a meal for one, eating alone with only a soft classical music CD to fill the silence, and to wait for the couple to come back home so you would have normal people to talk to. 
You were glad for them and the runs they went on, though. Or they never would’ve found you, and you’d likely be dead in a ditch by now. 
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Your hand shook as you gripped the handle of your blade, wide eyes searching the pharmacy for any signs of walkers, or people. Being on the road alone for as long as you had been was making you feel like you’d gone crazy. Maybe you had already. 
Sweeping the small aisles, you found no signs of life. Most of the shelves were already empty, likely having been raided during the early days. Still, you grabbed whatever was available to you, shoving it into your bag before ducking into a corner, knees pressed to your chest as you rooted around for one of the final few cans of food you had left. 
You’d been rationing out what used to be a plentiful supply for a few weeks now. One can of food per day, nothing more. A lot of what you had was thanks to the traffic blockages on the highways and interstates you’d wandered along on your way out of Georgia. What used to be two cans a day for almost three weeks turned into one for the past week and a half, bordering on two. 
The lack of food wasn’t your only issue anymore. With no signs of life from your former group, you had every reason to believe that they were all dead. Logically, you knew they weren’t. You’d seen some of them escape in the firefight, yourself included. But without any real way of tracking them down, they were as good as dead. Not to mention the sudden and constant fatigue that the southern sun seemed to give to you, making traveling more difficult than you had originally planned. 
Even with no end in sight, no real indicator that the man you called your husband was still alive, and no true hope for your future, you still persisted. You found places to sleep for the night, whether in abandoned cars or gas stations off of turnpikes. You found just enough food to supply you for a few more days if you managed to stretch it thin enough, and you kept going. 
Just as you were about to crack open a can of corn, the crunching of glass and shuffling of footsteps alerted you to the body that had just entered the pharmacy. Its footfalls sounded too heavy and spaced out to be anything but a human. 
Gripping onto your knife, you held your breath and gently placed the can on the floor. With your bag still on your shoulders, you kept your body crouched and your ears peeled, moving around the person — no, people — moving around the pharmacy. 
“I’m telling you, we’ve already been here. There’s nothing left to take,” a voice reasoned. 
The footsteps ceased for a moment, and you paused, praying they hadn’t heard you. “I know. Doesn’t hurt to check, though, right? I mean, we can’t exactly go back empty handed. Aiden’ll have something to say about it.”
“But we aren’t out here for supplies,” the other stressed, “we’re out here for people, remember? New members?”
“I know,” their partner chuckled, footsteps resuming as they rounded the last aisle. You ducked between the shelves closest to the door, hoping to just outrun them and not have to fight them. There was a pause, a palpable beat, before he spoke again. “But I think we might not be coming back alone.”
A cold chill ran through your veins at the former’s words. He knew you were in here. He’d seen your can of food, or heard your shuffling around the pharmacy. In an instant, you were at your full height, eyes wide as your fingers clutched your knife tighter and you ran, against your better judgment, toward the pair. The blond was the one closest to you, his back facing your front. With as much energy as you could muster, you hooked your arm over his shoulder, dragging him to your chest as you pressed your knife to his throat. It wasn’t hard enough to do any real damage, but you knew that if you absolutely had to, you’d apply pressure. 
“Who are you?” You spat, hand shaking as it gripped the knife. “What do you want?”
“Woah, woah, calm down. It’s okay. We’re not here to hurt you.” The brunet immediately jumped into negotiation mode, putting his hands in front of him. The position reminded you of Rick, oddly enough, and your heart twinged as you adjusted your grip on the knife. 
“Then what are you here for?” You spat. “Like you said, there’s nothing worth taking here.”
The faintest of whimpers escaped the lips of the man you held hostage, dragging both yours and the brunet’s attention to him. “We’re just—” the blond gulped. “We’re recruiters. We have a camp not too far from here. A safe one. We’re looking for people to join us. People who have— have experience, out here.” 
His words, as stuttery and fearful as they were, confused you. 
“I’m Aaron,” the brunet said, keeping his arms up in surrender as he slowly slid the backpack from his shoulders. “That man you have is my partner, Eric. Everything he’s saying is right, and I can show you. I have pictures and a brochure in my bag, if you’ll let me get it.” 
Hesitantly, you nodded. Even if he had a weapon, most of your body was blocked by his partner — Eric. There was a highly likely chance that he wouldn’t try to harm you while you kept his friend in your grip, however weak it was becoming. 
Slowly, Aaron reached into his bag, pulling out exactly what he said he would. With Eric still in your grip, he showed you pictures of the place he and his friend called home — Alexandria. “Look,” Aaron sighed, stepping back a bit. “You seem like someone we could use. You have experience that we lack. Plus, it seems like you’ve been out here by yourself a while. We have walls, food, running water, and proper shelter. And if you decide to come with us, our leader, Deanna, will interview you. If she allows you in and you don’t like it, you can leave any time you want. We won’t keep you there if you don’t want to be, okay?”
With a shaking nod, you let go of Eric, nudging him toward Aaron, who enveloped the other man in a tight hug. “I— I can leave if I want to, right?”
“Of course, you can. No one will stop you, and that’s a promise.” 
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It took a bit of getting used to, but you were glad that Aaron and Eric had found you that day. You’d been skeptical of things in Alexandria for the first few days, but you warmed to the entire situation a lot easier than you thought you would. You supposed it was because of how things were at the prison, but even then you weren’t alone.
Aaron and Eric, while not pushing the topic often, had managed to get to know enough about you and where you came from before they’d found you that they considered you a close friend. 
You’d only told them the briefest of answers. That you were with a large group in Georgia from the beginning, that you’d been with one of them for most of that time — even, at some point, considering yourselves to be married, though the symbol you’d had to show it had been lost months ago — and then another group came along and took everything away from you, simply because they could. 
The safety and privacy that the couple provided was something you were more than grateful for, even if you were sure you wouldn’t be able to have it forever. 
Because while Aaron and Eric, along with the rest of Alexandria, provided a structure and a sense of normalcy for you, you couldn’t shake the grief that fell upon you every time you were alone. 
The thought of Daryl being out there, combing every inch of Georgia for you while you were so far away, was enough to bring you to tears. It was another thing to think about the possibility of his rotting corpse roaming the woods in search of something living to eat. The thought that you’d never see him again, dead or alive. That you’d just push through life — however much longer that would be for you — without him, even though he promised you’d never have to go through something like that. 
The thought of your baby never knowing who their father was, and their father never knowing who they were, either. 
You could go an entire lifetime without ever seeing Daryl again, and the idea of it nearly killed you when he was still around. It hurt a hundred times worse now that it was practically a reality. 
The night passed without word from or the arrival of Aaron and Eric. It was common for them to be gone a while at a time — this particular trip lasting almost a week — but you hated sleeping in the house by yourself now. You were so used to waking up to Eric clattering dishes in the kitchen that waking up midday when they were gone only proved how fatigued you seemed to feel nowadays. 
Waking up to a knock on the door wasn’t unusual as of late, but it was certainly unpleasant. You were, however, grateful for the fact that when you were given a room at Aaron and Eric’s, it was on the first floor. 
Rolling out of bed got harder and harder with each passing week, but you managed it anyway. The knocking persisted, and you sighed as you made your way into the living room, shouting out, “I’m coming!”
The knocking ceased, and you pulled on the fabric of your shirt before answering the door, only to find Jessie. “Oh, hey,”
“Hi, hon,” she smiled, and you felt bad for being upset at her moments before. “Pete sent me over, said you were supposed to see him this morning?” 
“Oh, shit, Jessie I’m so sorry,” you said, brushing some stray hair from your face. “I overslept, normally Aaron—” 
Jessie smiled warmly, reaching out and putting a gentle hand on your arm. “I understand, Y/n, no need to worry. Just get dressed and head over to the infirmary. It’s not like Pete’s in any real rush.” 
“Alright,” you nodded, bidding Jessie goodbye and closing the door as she headed down the porch steps. 
Padding your way through the home, you went back to your room, pulling on some fresh clothes before freshening up in the bathroom. Routines like these were simple, but they kept you sane. You’d had something a little closer to it at the prison, but it was nowhere near as nice as it was in Alexandria. 
After eating a small breakfast, you were out of the house and on your way to the infirmary. The streets were quiet, as always, and the sun was anything but forgiving. People smiled and waved, and you did the same, even if you didn’t know half of the people in this place. Even after being here for two months, it was hard to remember such trivial things about so many people. Plus, putting names to faces was never one of your strong suits. 
Stepping into the infirmary, you were grateful for the burst of air conditioning that fell over your body. Smiling, you greeted Denise and Pete, the former of the two sitting on one of the beds as she pored over the book in her lap. 
“Alright, let’s take a look at you. Sound good?” Pete smiled, and you nodded back. 
While you hauled yourself onto the bed, Pete readied the ultrasound equipment. Pulling back the loose shirt you wore, your eyes glued themselves to the obvious, albeit still small, bump you were sporting. 
“Hey, I’m about four months along now, right?” You asked, eyes darting up to Pete, who confirmed with a nod. “That means you can see the baby’s gender, doesn’t it? I remember hearing that somewhere,” 
Pete chuckled, powering on the machine and taking the gel from its holster. “Most of the time, yes. If you want me to look around for it, I can do that. After I make sure everything’s okay.” 
“I really wanna know,” you said, wincing at the cold gel making contact with your skin. “It’d mean a lot. Then I can go full nesting mode. And so can Aaron and Eric, really.” 
The ultrasound went off without a hitch. According to Pete, your margins were clear, and everything looked healthy with the baby. It was always a relief to hear. There was little room for error with these things now that you had scarcely little supplies to work with. Finding the ultrasound machine early on in the apocalypse was a miracle in itself. 
“Okay…” Pete hummed, the wand moving and pressing over your skin. “The kid’s giving me a hard time with this one. And…” he pressed a few buttons, eyes focused on the screen before him. You watched his features intensely, as though his expression would give the answer away before he could say it. Pete’s eyes broke from the screen as he smiled, lifting the wand. “You’re having a little girl. Congratulations.” 
Your heart swelled, a wide smile overtaking your features as Pete handed you a towel. “A girl,” you whispered, eyes locked onto your belly. 
Before you were able to stop yourself, you were once more reminded of the likelihood that you’d never be able to share this with Daryl. Tears welled along your waterline as you sat up, swiping the scratchy cloth across your belly. Whether Pete noticed or not, he made no indications. You were thankful for it, and for him leaving the room to put the ultrasound equipment away. 
When he came back inside, he pulled Denise from her books and into the kitchen to talk, but you paid no mind to them. They were talking too low for you to listen in, anyway, and you were too busy trying to quell your emotions on the makeshift examination table to want to eavesdrop. 
By the time you were ready to leave, Olivia entered the infirmary, eyes scanning the room before landing on your frame. 
“Y/n, they’re on their way back,” she smiled, and you nodded gratefully. 
“They’re okay?”
The woman nodded. “Eric’s a bit banged up, hurt his leg I think, but otherwise they’re fine. And they brought a group. They should be getting here soon.” 
Exhaling a relieved breath, you slid from the bed, bidding goodbye to Denise and Pete as you followed Olivia onto the street. You walked side by side in silence, mulling over what she’d said. 
“You said they brought a group?” You asked, following Olivia up the steps to the house that held all of your inventory. “How many?”
Olivia huffed, brows cinching. “Deanna said it was a big one. That they had a lot of weapons, been on the road a while.” 
Your eyes widened. “A while as in the entire time, or?”
“Not sure,” Olivia shook her head. “All I know is I gotta get the weapons cart to the gate, if you wanna help?” 
“Sure. Should probably be there to get Eric to the infirmary, anyway,” you decided. 
And, sure enough, Aaron helping a limping, sweating Eric through the gate was the first — and for now, only — glimpses of the new group you would get. Aaron smiled apologetically as he spotted you, tucked out of view from the newcomers. 
“What the hell happened to you?” You said, looking pointedly at Eric, who grimaced as you took his arm from Aaron. 
“Roamers,” he sighed. “It’s broken, I think.” 
“You think?” You asked, eyeing the bruising flesh. “I can tell it’s broken. Come on, let’s get you to Pete.” 
Aaron thanked you as you wrapped an arm around Eric’s waist, helping him up the road and back into the infirmary. 
As Pete worked to wrap Eric’s ankle, you couldn’t help but ask questions about the trip. 
“It was a disaster,” Eric groaned. “There were roamers everywhere. Plus, this group, they’re headstrong. Been out there a while.” 
“How many of them are there?” You asked. “Olivia didn’t tell me.” 
“Fifteen,” Eric hissed, squirming as Pete positioned his ankle properly. 
Your eyes widened, throat going dry. “Jesus,” you huffed. “That many of them and they’re still going?”
“With a baby,” 
“Oh my God,” you gasped. Your mind flashed with images of baby Judith, heart clenching. The fall of the prison meant that you never found out exactly who made it out alive, and you never dared to venture the thought of whether or not she did. “They must be some lucky sons of bitches.” 
Eric laughed. “Not only are they lucky, but they’re tough. And really close. I think, once you get used to them, you’ll like them. They remind me of you when we found you.” 
“So, scrappy, hungry, and tired?” 
“Yeah, pretty much,” Eric laughed, and you couldn’t help but do the same. 
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“If you need me, I’m four houses down.” Aaron pointed, Rick and Carl following his line of sight. “If I’m not there, Eric or Y/n probably will be.” 
Carl’s eyes snapped back to the brunet, a mixture of confusion and skepticism floating within them. “Y/n?”
Aaron’s brows furrowed at the boy. “Yeah. She’s a friend of ours, came here a few months back. Why?”
“We, uh…” Rick stepped in, a hand scratching at his beard. “We used to know someone named Y/n. that’s all.”
“Oh,” Aaron nodded, stepping away and heading back home, where you and Eric were sitting at the table, sandwiches in hand as you giggled about something he wasn’t aware of. 
Upon his entrance into the kitchen, you stood excitedly and hugged the man. “Glad you’re back okay,” you said, heading back to your chair. “I heard the group you brought was tough.”
“Yeah, they are.” Aaron chuckled, still mulling over the puzzle pieces in his head. “You said you were with a big group before, right?”
“Yeah, why?”
Aaron huffed, glancing at his shoes. “I brought up your name to one of the new members — just a name, nothing else — he said they used to know someone with the same name.” 
Your heart stuttered in your chest, limbs freezing as you were bringing the sandwich to your mouth. Clearing your throat, you forced yourself to put the food back down, looking up at Aaron with shining eyes. “This man, what’d you say his name was?”
“Rick. Rick Grimes.” 
If your heart had been fluttering before, it was banging like a drum in your chest now. Your stomach fluttered, your hand coming to rest on the swell of your belly, hoping to quell the anxiousness. 
“Where are they?” You asked, and Aaron’s mouth only remained agape. “Aaron, where are they?”
“Down the street,” he finally said, voice cracking. “The house on the curb, the one you said you liked.” 
Within moments, your food and friends were abandoned as you practically ran from the home, shooting down the porch steps and down the street. You were thankful that no one was out and about right now, or you were sure they’d think you looked crazy. You didn’t even register a person in your path until you’d already bumped into them. 
“Oh! Y/n, are you alright?” Jessie asked, her hands on your shoulders as her eyes searched your wild ones. 
“‘M fine, Jessie.” You muttered. “I’ve gotta go.”
You gave the woman no time to respond before you were wriggling out of her grip and hurrying down the street. Up more steps, you were greeted by the charming yellow door of the home you’d wished you lived in, knuckles rapping frantically and unyielding on the wood. 
The door finally, after what felt like decades, creaked open. Your heart stopped in your chest as you took in the sight of your husband’s best friend, clean shaven and hair dripping from a recent shower. 
Rick’s eyes flooded with tears as they met your own. In seconds, you were pulling him into your arms, grateful that you weren’t the only survivor of the Governor’s wrath. 
You sobbed into his shoulder, gripping tightly to the clean white shirt he wore. “Rick,” you croaked, “is he—” 
“He’s fine,” Rick whispered, heart breaking when your sobs worsened out of pure relief. “He’s just fine.” 
When you finally found the strength to let go, Rick led you inside. “We thought you were dead,”
“There were times I wished I was,” you said, taking a seat at the edge of the couch. “I was by myself for just over a month. Found some train tracks, lost ‘em, then stuck to interstates, mostly. Got lost in the woods, found a small town, and from there, Aaron and Eric found me. I’ve been here for two months.” 
Rick huffed a laugh, disbelief filling the sound. “Sounds like you had one hell of a trek.”
“I had a car, for a bit.” You shrugged. “Walkers ruined that part. I crashed it into a tree. Stuck to walking after that.” 
“When did you…” Rick glanced down at your swelling belly, forcing a laugh from you. 
Shrugging, you smoothed your hand over your belly. “Four-ish months ago. Didn’t find out until I got here. Been terrified ever since, really. Not knowing if Daryl was out there, if I’d see him again.” 
“You’ll see him soon,” Rick assured you. “He’s talking to Deanna now.”
“And the others?” You asked. “Beth? Judith?”
“Judith is just fine,” Rick said, eyes leaving yours as he sighed. “Beth got caught out in Atlanta. A woman in a hospital killed her.”
Your stomach churned at Rick’s words, guilt crushing your lungs and bile rising in your throat. “Oh, my God,” you whispered, pressing your fingers to your mouth to try and stop yourself from throwing up. 
Rick nodded, resting a hand on your knee. He watched you stand, your arm resting over your belly, beginning to pace the floor before him. 
“I have to… I need to go see the others. Daryl.” And without another word, you were leaving Rick behind in an unfamiliar home, nearly running down the familiar path to where Deanna and her husband lived. 
The group milled about in the small courtyard in front of Deanna’s house, hidden behind the brick walls that fenced it in. Everyone was either sitting or leaning against something, sticking to a tight group, and completely blocking your path to the inside of the home. 
With your mind so set on seeing Daryl, on simply getting close to him again, you failed to register Carol saying your name. Once again, you were pulled from your thoughts only when someone was right in front of you. 
This time, Carol was pulling you into her arms, her grip on your body tight. You hugged her back, despite the sweat and grime that covered her. Soon enough, Glenn, Maggie, Michonne, and Sasha had joined her. You were surrounded by your family, all overwhelmed at your presence, but happy nonetheless. 
When you finally requested to be let go, they obliged, and you finally spotted Judith in the arms of someone you didn’t know. Relief flooded you, seeing the baby healthy and happy as she could be. 
“What happened to you?”
“We thought you were dead!”
“Are you okay?”
“Guys, I’m fine, I promise.” You chuckled through tears. “I’ve been here almost the whole time, and I’m perfectly healthy. The doctor said so this morning.” 
You smiled as Carol’s eyes drifted from your face to your belly, shock overcoming her features, before her smile matched yours. She said nothing, but you were sure everyone else was either figuring it out or partially aware, just based on the interaction alone. 
A loud scoff echoed from the porch door, followed by low, gravelly muttering. Your heart stopped at the familiar voice, before thrumming in your heart like a rapid drumbeat. There, walking with careless ease, picking at his thumbs, was your husband, covered head to toe in layers of dirt and grime. You choked a sob as the group seemed to part around you. 
“Daryl,” you croaked, just loud enough for him to hear it. 
Daryl paused at the top of the steps, his eyes locked onto yours through the hair he’d let grow too long. In a flash, he was down the stairs entirely, rushing to pull you into his arms. You met him in the middle, colliding with his body and bringing you both to the ground. With one hand cupping the back of your head and the other splayed between your shoulder blades, Daryl cradled you close to him, rocking you as you clutched to the leather vest on his back tighter, sobbing in his embrace. 
“I thought ya were dead,” he whispered, fingers digging into your back. “I thought I lost ya,”
A choked sound escaped you as you shook your head. “Never,” you promised. “You could never lose me.” 
“Yer necklace,” Daryl croaked, tucking his face into the side of your head. “I found it, on the tracks in Georgia. Thought ya were gone…” 
“It fell.” You said, words hushed and shaking, as though they were a desperate plea. “Walkers were coming for me, too many for me to take on myself. It snapped off in the fight, I couldn’t go back for it.” 
By the time you felt okay enough to stand on your own, everyone had departed from the courtyard, likely into Deanna’s home. With a vice grip on his arms, Daryl helped you stand. His eyes raked over your face, tear-stricken and flushed with emotion. No matter the state you were in, Daryl could never see you as anything other than utterly beautiful. 
“You’re okay?” You asked, hands gently brushing the hair from his dirt-caked face. “You’re not hurt?” 
Daryl shook his head, leaning into your delicate touch. Hands smoothed over cloth, over skin, dedicating the feeling of your body beneath his touch to memory. He watched your eyes flutter closed as he did so, relishing in the slight pressure of his palms against your skin. They slid down your hips, your waist, and Daryl’s brow furrowed. He’d committed your body to memory long ago — every curve, every bump, every scar. Slowly, and with a hand that was less steady than it had been a moment ago, Daryl’s fingers drifted delicately over your front, eliciting a small gasp when he found what he’d suspected. 
The sound forced your eyes to open, meeting the bright blue of his own, widened in shock. Immediately, your stomach churned and you pulled your bottom lip between your teeth, a habit you’d been unable to shake since high school. 
“Daryl?” Your voice shook. 
“Yer…” he breathed, eyes darting down to where the backs of his fingers rested, the slight swell of your stomach confirming what he’d been about to ask. “When’d you… did you know?”
“No, no…” you whispered gently, shaking your head. “I had no clue when… I didn’t know until I got here. I suspected it on the road, but… no, I didn’t.” 
A shaking breath fell from his lips. “And yer okay? Yer both— both okay?”
“We’re just fine,” you smiled, resting your palm on his cheek. “I promise. Your girls are just fine.” 
Daryl’s breath caught in his throat, a new wave of pure emotion rolling through his body. It seized his muscles, freezing him in place as he struggled for breath and blinked away tears. Girls. He was going to be a dad. He was going to have a daughter. 
“Ya have no idea how much I love ya,” Daryl muttered, his head dipping low, forehead resting on your shoulder. 
“I think I have a clue or two,” you joked, voice as soft as you could make it.
Daryl scoffed, lifting his head and pressing his lips to yours. It was short, shorter than you would’ve liked, but it carried as much love as all the other kisses you’d shared and stolen with the archer over the years. Still, he was here, and he was safe, and so were you. Nothing else mattered except that. 
The horrifying reality you’d thought yourself to be in was nothing but that — a mere thought. For now, you and Daryl were safe. Together. As a family. 
And you knew that, as he slipped the necklace back onto your skin, this time on a leather rope tied tight, there was nothing either of you wouldn’t do to stay that way. 
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forever taglist: @mazerunnerrose @theboldandthebootyful @miraclesoflove @heliads
daryl dixon taglist: @katrina765 @hp-hogwartsexpress @ellablossom @alexxavicry (open!)
taglist form here!
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wretcheddthing ¡ 2 years ago
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i have a Quastion for horizon fans do we have any references on the carja or oseram writing systems i’m not gonna sift through google i just wanna know if it’s replacement symbols for the roman alphabet or if someone at guerrilla got to make an entirely different writing system
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midniqhtt ¡ 16 days ago
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james buchanan ‘bucky’ barnes
masterlist • marvel • 05/29/25
˚‧⁺ ・ ˖ · ୨ৎ recs six
one I two I three I four I five
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𑣲 friendly banter I @wwinterwitch
sam asks for your help on a mission. you're reunited with him, JoaquĂ­n and Bucky. the last one really likes to banter. you think it's just a friendly exchange. it's actually a bit more than that
𑣲 friendly introductions I @/wwinterwitch
bucky unexpectedly shows up at your apartment, and he's brought a few people with him
𑣲 a place for yelena I @eufezco
after disappearing for weeks, consumed by her own darkness, yelena shows up in your house unexpectedly and decides to reach out to you and bucky, her best friends, just to find out that you're pregnant and you wanted her in your baby's life.
𑣲 in the middle I @ama3003
Being caught in the middle is always hard.
𑣲 everything’s just perfect I @/ama3003
You're Bucky's ex-wife and you always seem to be there whenever he needs you.
𑣲 thunderbolts? I @ang3ltine
An unexpected surprise awaits you when Bucky shows up at your house with a group of strangers
𑣲 alone in this shitty world I @starktonyx
After Yelena’s sudden outburst, the group scatters around the streets of New York. And, as if this wasn’t already the weirdest day of your life, you find yourself reaching to comfort the last person you ever thought you'd feel sorry for, John Walker. And Bucky is as confused as you are.
𑣲 would you still love me if i was a worm? I @/starktonyx
A stupid little question turns into a makeout session. Your teammates hate to see it, except for one.
𑣲 small circles I @aquaticmercy
Bucky Barnes is still getting used to modern dating… and hates that you have to work with your exes.
𑣲 interstate love song I @/aquaticmercy
Bucky tells the team he saw his Hydra days in The Void. You are the only one who knows him well enough to know he is lying.
𑣲 meet me halfway I @/aquaticmercy
Bucky has to recruit the love of his life to save New York from the void. He doesn't know if she wants to ever see him again, though.
𑣲 patron saints of nightmares I @/aquaticmercy
Bucky needs to go on a mission, so he asks the rest of the team to take care of his girl.
𑣲 elevator, baby! I @/aquaticmercy
The team thinks Bucky has a crush on the tower’s interior designer. They don’t know that they’re already married.
𑣲 not exactly a secret I @navybrat817
You and Bucky are really good teammates... and more.
𑣲 don’t look or touch I @/navybrat817
Bucky isn't having a good day and John suffers the consequences.
𑣲 hit to the head I @/navybrat817
Bucky doesn't think he needs medical attention after a hit to the head, but he's glad he met you.
𑣲 for better or for worse I @helaintoloki
You want a divorce, but Bucky needs your help for one last mission. Luckily, marriage is all about compromise
𑣲 grumpy!bucky I @lovebugism
the one where bucky wants to kiss you but the rest of the thunderbolts won't seem to let him
𑣲 in the suit?! I @delicatebarness
𑣲 you or nothing I @feathersandferns
when the Thunderbolts enter the void, Bucky goes missing. You take it upon yourself to find him, venturing into his deepest pockets of his shame.
𑣲 midnight confessions I @jobean12-blog
A late night gives you the opportunity to flirt with Bucky and the next night he comes right back for more.
𑣲 drawing the line I @fireinmoonshot
Bucky Barnes has messed up big time ... he just doesn't know it until he sees you and realises he really should've checked his texts.
𑣲 super soldier domesticated I @writingcroissant
Domestic scenes with Bucky Barnes, because Bucky Barnes deserves to be happy.
𑣲 the one that got away I @writing-for-marvel
When Bucky enters the void, he expects his memories as The Winter Soldier to haunt him, or perhaps even death itself, instead, he finds himself face to face with you the night you broke up.
𑣲 congressman!bucky I @bruisedboys
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marvelwitchergilmore ¡ 4 months ago
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Tornado Nightmare
Summary: Tyler Owens x Fe!Reader -> It's no secret you and Tyler didn't get along. But when you have a nightmare and you trust him to help you, things begin to change.
Disclaimer: I don't know how this one is considering I took a break in between writing it, but I hope you enjoy it ❤ Mostly fluff, enemies-is to lovers, Tyler takes care of reader, Wrangler shenanigans, becoming unlikely friends, light swearing, mentions of nightmares. Not Proof Read.
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It was no secret you and Tyler didn’t get along. It wasn’t anything personal…or maybe it was? It had been so long since you’d both met, you couldn’t remember the exact moment you’d both gone from being strangers to being…well, whatever the hell you called two people who shared the same friendship group and work colleagues but never seemed to be on the same page with each other. 
It had been one petty fight after the other. Which tornado to chase, whose data was clearer in the field, what way to cut the film in order to make the best trailer, which motel to stay at, which restaurant was better, which screw to use to secure down the bar along the top of the roof. It had also been a lifetime of constant heated glances and disgusted faces when you both spotted each other despite knowing you’d be meeting. 
In fact, it didn’t take long before Tyler banned you from his truck. Sometimes you’d piss him off by touching the rim of the flatbed when the others were sitting on the back of it in the evening. 
But he was also banned from stepping foot on your porch. If he wanted inside, he’d have to find a way in through a window. The only time you’d let him step foot on it was when he threatened to pee on your lawn. 
For the others it was annoying; at first. But, when they realised Boone had been playing a secret game with both yourself and Tyler, your rivalry with each other became a form of entertainment. 
Counting how many groans Tyler would give in a minute when you talked, how many eye rolls you’d do until you’d get eyestrain. There was also a bet going on each day for who would crack first and start the long needed argument of the day; you or Tyler. 
So far, you were winning in that department. There was just something about Tyler that got under your skin even when he wasn’t around. Most of the extra argument you had with him had started with yourself against, well, yourself. 
However, there seemed to be an accepted concept that only you and Tyler were allowed to fight each other. If anyone else wanted to argue or start something with you or Tyler, away from those working as a Tornado Wrangler, they’d get an earful. 
The others had seen it. 
Twice in a bar in Arkansas where Tyler had stepped in front of you after two different men on two separate occasions started to get a little more physical with their opinions. Despite what your feelings were for each other, you were still a part of Tyler’s team. He and the others could fight you on different opinions – verbally, never physically – but others had to know where to leave their opinions. 
And three times in diners up and down the interstate. Granted, two of those occasions were because of one specific StormPar analyst who clearly didn’t get the message the first time round; but the second was a complete stranger who called Tyler some things that didn’t agree with you. Not only was he attacking Tyler for his job, but he was indirectly attacking your profession. So you stood up for him, and the other Wranglers. And, indirectly, StormPar. That part you hated, but at the end of the day, you all had the same job. 
But one day, the rest of the Wranglers were met with a scene they never in a million years thought they’d discover. 
You and Tyler, in a kitchen together. Your kitchen. Where the knives, and scissors and other kitchen utensils that could have been used as a weapon were kept. Cooking. Dancing. Talking. Laughing. 
Together.
“Should…” Kate looked around at the others to make sure they were seeing the same thing she was. “Should we do something?”
Dani gave her a similar expression. “I..I don’t know what’s even happening right now.”
“You are seeing what I’m seeing, right?” Boone asked, unable to take his eyes from the kitchen window and backdoor. 
“Uh-huh.” Was the main consensus. 
“Good,” Boone almost whimpered. “Good. Just wanted to check.”
“Do we just…go in?” Lily asked but Dexter held out his hand. 
“N-not yet. I want to see what happens. We might not see this again.”
So they did. For ten solid minutes. 
Neither you or Tyler had heard or seen them, so you just continued cooking. Obviously, they’d noticed a slight difference in both you and Tyler in recent weeks. There were less fights. There wasn’t always complete agreement, but since no fight was made, acceptance was the only thing left to do. 
But never had they expected the recent silences to lead to…whatever the hell was happening to you and Tyler. 
Whilst watching you and Tyler in the kitchen, Lily and Kate let out two small gasps which they managed to cover up with the help of Boone and Javi. 
Tyler had touched you. Walking behind you to get to the stove, he’d laid a gentle hand on your hip, guiding you to the side as you reached into the cupboard. And you didn’t yell. You didn’t curse him out. 
In fact, you smiled. 
You both smiled. 
The rest of the Wranglers continued to watch on in intrigue. 
Meanwhile, inside the kitchen, both you and Tyler had no idea of what spectacle was going on outside. 
It had been an odd transition for you and Tyler; going from arguing over almost every little thing to civil understanding and preference of each other. 
And it had all started weeks previously in a crappy motel room in Oklahoma. 
“I’m telling you, we’ve stayed here before. The owner hates me.” Boone said as he lifted his bag from the back of Tyler’s truck. 
“No she doesn’t.”
“She does! Man, I’m telling you, the lady hates me.”
You opened up the passenger door to Lily’s car and stepped out, laying your hand on the roof of the car. “And why would she hate you?”
Boone got a little sheepish. “I dunno. She just does.”
“Maybe because the last time we stayed here you did a cartwheel into her trash cans and woke the entire motel.” Dani pointed out. 
“It could have been raccoons.” 
Tyler laid a hand on Boone’s shoulder. “No raccoon can scream ‘help, I think I’ve made a banana split with my elbow’.”
Moving towards the office, yourself and Kate booked into the last rooms available before handing everyone their keys. There were two twin rooms so Boone and Tyler took one and Dani and Kate took the other. That left you, Lily, Dexter and Javi to the other single rooms. 
Since your room was on the second floor with Tyler, Boone and Lily; Dexter placed your bags by the bottom of the stairs. 
And Tyler was about to carry yours up when you got there before him. 
“I can carry my own.”
He lifted his hand away and picked up Lily’s instead. “Alright.”
You started making your way up the stairs, Tyler hot on your heels. “You know, it’s okay to accept help sometimes.”
“I’m aware.”
“I would have left it outside your door.”
“I don’t need your help. I can do it on my own.”
Tyler held his hands up in surrender, the bags over his shoulders. “Okay. I’m just saying I won’t hurt to just accept help every once in a while.”
You reached the top of the stairs. “But I didn’t need it. I’m a grown adult, Owens. I can carry my own stuff.”
Twenty minutes after getting settled you headed back down to the trucks and sat beside Dani and Kate. The rest of the night went as smoothly as normal. Laughter, stories, petty arguments over how to make chilli, more stories, discussions over which tornado to chase the next day, disagreements over which one to choose, shared hatred for StormPar and not wanting them to get one up on the Wranglers, a few more tales and jokes from Boone before he spotted the owner walking across the parking lot which forced him into hiding in the back of Tyler’s flatbed; all before finally going to bed. 
But as you drifted off into a seemingly dreamless sleep, there was no way to prepare yourself for what you would wake up to. 
Tyler Owens in his pajamas. 
Boone had started snoring almost the minute his head hit the pillow. Sometimes Tyler was envious of how deeply Boone could sleep. Some mornings it took both himself, Lily, Dani and you to wake him up. 
It was usually the only time in the morning where you and Tyler didn’t argue over how to wake Boone up. You’d bicker with him about being unable to wake Boone up before you’d walk into the room and realise why. 
The first time it happened, you’d both bickered in hushed tones over how best to wake him up and that maybe Tyler hadn’t tried hard enough. Then you came to an agreement. 
Dani and Lily went and grabbed a duvet and some extra sheets to lay on the floor before Tyler counted to three and lifted the mattress from underneath Boone with you. 
It was the only thing other than a true tornado siren that could wake him. 
Tyler on the other hand…he was a light sleeper compared to Boone. Though, most people would be light sleepers compared to Boone. 
Usually it took a good twenty minutes before Tyler would be able to fall asleep and if he heard anything out of the ordinary, like trash cans falling, alarms going off, doors opening or closing, or something heavy hitting the ground, he’d wake up. 
And that was why he found himself looking around his room in the darkness when he stirred awake before he heard something heavy hit the ground before a glass smashing on the ground followed it. 
It wasn’t in his room. Boone was still snoring. The lamp was still on his bedside table. The same went for Boone. 
Then something popped into his head. 
The only room he shared a wall with was yours. On the other side was just a very dense wall. 
Then in the silence, he heard a voice. Your voice. 
Whipping the bedcovers from him, he pulled on a pair of pajama bottoms and darted out of his room, trying his best to not wake Boone in the process. He couldn’t alert everyone. For all he knew you were still awake and had dropped one of the box files off your bed or something. 
But when he stood outside of your room, there was no light in the window and the curtains were drawn completely. So he knocked lightly, but you didn’t answer. But your voice was a little louder. You sounded…stressed. Panicked. 
So he tried the door handle and when it opened after the third try, he made a mental note to let the owner know the door locks were still shitty. Then he opened it up. 
You felt like your entire body was being crushed underneath the rubble you’d found yourself caught in. Children were screaming and crying for their parents, the sky just kept growing darker until the wind that was howling started roaring together like every King of the Jungle had decided to descend on a small town and take out each building that stood, one by one. 
But just as the pressure of the air started forcing your lungs to your spine, a gust of air was let into your lungs again as you shot up and found two hands on your arms. 
Your legs kicked around, trying to find familiar ground. All the while, your entire body had gone from fire hot with clammy air to freezing cold with the amount of sweat that was being attacked by fresh air. 
And just as you came to realise where you actually were, you came to recognise the voice that the extra set of hands belonged to. 
“Hey, take it easy. Take it easy, it’s me.” Tyler told you. “It’s me, it’s me, it’s me, it’s me. It’s Tyler. Look at me, it’s me. Take it easy.”
Finally setting your feet on rough carpet, your vision managed to focus in the dark and you found Tyler in his pajamas crouching on the floor in front of you. 
“Tyler?”
“Yeah,” his voice was soft as he spoke to you. “It’s me. I heard a thud. Are you okay?”
You looked at him but you couldn’t find the words to answer him. Your entire body was shaking from the shock of reality and from the nightmare you’d just been trapped inside of. 
“Sorry.” Tyler quickly apologised. “That was a stupid question. You don’t have to answer that.”
You didn’t know what to do, so you just held onto his hand. 
“You’re shaking.” Tyler whispered. “Here.” 
Standing up, he reached for the top blankets from your bed before he wrapped it around your shoulder, tucking your hair behind your ear before kneeling back on the floor. 
“Just, take some deep breaths.” Tyler took hold of both of your hands. “Follow me. In, and out. In, and out. That’s it.”
“I’m sorry.” You eventually spoke, but Tyler just looked at you both concerned and confused.
“You don’t have to be sorry for anything. Was it a nightmare?”
You swallowed thickly as you nodded. “Yeah.”
Tyler had never heard your voice as weak as it was when you said that. 
“Do they happen often?”
You shook your head before taking a deep breath and tucking your hair back behind your ear. “They used to, but I haven’t had one in a while.”
“Do you want to talk about it?”
You shook your head, unable to bring yourself to use words. So Tyler just nodded. “Okay. That’s okay.”
Then he went to stand and instinctively, you reached out for his hand. “Don’t…don’t leave. Not yet. Please?”
Looking up at you, Tyler’s expression softened. He could still feel your hand trembling in his, and he could see the fear in your eyes at the thought of being left alone in that moment. 
Tyler shook his head as he stood. “I’m not going anywhere. Come here.” 
Leaning up, Tyler pulled you into a hug and within an instant, you hugged him back. He could feel your fingertips making imprints in his back as you held onto him for dear life. And then he did something that he wouldn’t think about until long into the afternoon the next day. 
He pressed a kiss to your head as he leaned back before he stood and sat next to you on the bed. There, he placed a comforting arm around you as he pulled you inside his side and he pressed a small kiss to the top of your head. 
Then he saw the time on your phone where a weather warning notification popped up. 
“We should try and get some sleep. I’ll stay with you. Let me get you some water.”
You didn’t say a word, but you were thankful nonetheless. 
Tyler pressed a third kiss to your head before he stood and helped you back onto your bed where he lifted up the bed covers before letting them float back down on top of you before he moved towards the bathroom, collecting and replacing your lamp onto your bedside table and grabbing a fresh glass from the tea and coffee station on your desk. 
Tyler sat on the edge of the bed beside you as he handed you the glass which you took with a shaky hand. He took it back from you before putting it down and getting into bed beside you. 
He didn’t say anything else other than; “You’re safe.” when he clasped your hand in his between you both in your bed. 
Waking the next morning, your hand was still in his. 
“How’d you sleep?”
Looking up from where your eyes were focused on your hand in Tyler’s, a small smile gracing your face before you could stop it, you were met with Tyler. 
And, for a moment, all sense of ability to talk left you. If someone would have told you that waking up next to Tyler Owens wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world, you wouldn’t have believed them. 
“Good.” You eventually answered him, your voice in a whisper. “Thank you for staying.”
Tyler just smiled. “Don’t mention it.”
You felt yourself smile before you looked away and back at your hand that was still in his. Feeling his fingers float over your skin before he pressed a small squeeze to your hand, your squeezed back. However, just as you felt yourself move closer towards Tyler, his grip getting a little steadier in your hand, a knock came to your door. 
“Y/n! Come on! You’re gonna miss it!” 
Kate’s voice rang through your room before she ran next door and banged on Boone’s door. 
“Boone! Tyler! Come on! Javi’s got a reading! Hurry!”
You and Tyler sprung from your bed and ran towards the door whilst Boone was slowly dragging himself from his bedroom, unaware that Tyler wasn’t in his room with him. 
You and Tyler squinted in the bright light of the morning before looking down the hall and seeing Boone shuffle out of his room wrapped in a blanket. “Tyler, man, Kate-” He yawned. “Kate’s calling.”
“Man, I’m here.”
Boone opened his eyes. “Oh. Kate’s calling.”
With a small sigh, you walked towards the balcony and looked over the edge. “Kate!”
She ran out from underneath it, a wide excited smile on her face. “Come on! Before we miss it!”
Both yourself and Tyler looked at each other before looking at Boone. 
“I’ve got him. Just get dressed.”
You nodded and ran back into your room, hearing Tyler force Boone back around to get dressed. Three minutes later you threw the door open just as Tyler and Boone left their room. 
“Guys! Come ON!”
“Alright, alright, we’re coming.” You said as you walked down the stairs. 
Boone yawned again. “What time is it anyway?”
Tyler looked at his dash. “A little after seven.”
“Seven?!”
Kate was rushing behind you, shoving different things into the van. “Y/n, you go with Tyler. I want to catch the data on this one.”
You didn’t have time to respond, but Tyler caught the look of growing fear in your expression. 
“It’ll be okay. You’re safe.”
Taking his word for it, you nodded before hopping into the back of his truck behind his seat whilst Boone crawled into the passenger seat, starting up the video to complain about the time of day but ultimately what they were doing. 
Kate ran past his window in a rush explaining what she and Javi had found. 
Looking in his rearview mirror, Tyler spotted you. 
“It’ll be okay. There’s a harness and-”
You looked at him and nodded. “I trust you.”
Tyler didn’t know what else to say, so he just stayed quiet and smiled. You’d never actually said those words out loud, that you trusted him. You’d also refused to go in his truck with him – even before he banned you from it. 
But he believed you. 
Because you meant it. 
If you didn’t trust him, you wouldn’t have agreed to Kate’s offer. If you didn’t trust him, you wouldn’t work with him. 
Deep down, if you didn’t trust him, you wouldn’t have asked him to stay. 
Twenty minutes later, you were all heading towards the town before taking a sharp right and heading straight towards the rolling crop fields. Then you went off road. 
It was bumpy to say the least. Shaking you all in your seats, Boone tried to get some usable footage out of it before you turned to the radio for Kate’s next instruction. 
“Watch out for a dip. Apparently one of the farmers tried to dig a mine out here.” Javi called out over the radio just before you spotted it. 
“Tyler, watch out for the dip!”
“On it.”
Turning the steering wheel, he should have avoided it. But apparently it was a lot wider than it seemed, sending you all rocking out of your seats and back again twice over. In the meantime, your hand had gone from holding onto the back of Tyler’s chair to hold you steady, to holding his shoulder to pull him back down. 
“Hold back, guys.” Tyler called out over the radio. 
“You guys okay?” Lily asked. 
“We’re fine.” Tyler lifted his hand and rested it over yours that remained on his shoulder, his thumb stroking at your knuckles. “Just shook up. Kate, you got any sign of that tornado.”
Two days later, everyone was back at Kate’s farm and you had driven home but not before leaving something by Tyler’s door. 
However, a few hours later, a familiar truck started pulling up your driveway and towards your home. 
Sitting on the porch swing, you were backlit by the warm lights of the living room lamps whilst Tyler was swimming in the blanket of the night sky and stars. 
“What are you doing out here?”
“Could ask you the same thing.” Tyler said before he stopped, six feet short of your porch. “I got your pie.”
“I made it as a thank you,” you said. “You…you didn’t have to stay when…when you did.” Your eyes fell from his gaze to your hands as you picked at your fingers. 
“You don’t have to thank me.” Tyler said as he shook his head, walking forward some more until he was walking up the steps of your porch. 
Then he leaned against the wooden pole. “Do you want to talk about it?”
You looked away again, back at your hands. “They’re nothing.”
“Y/n…” 
With a few moments of silence exchanged in between your shared look with Tyler, you eventually let that wall down. “They’re nothing big. Really. They can just be…intense?”
Tyler waited and listened to every word you wanted to say. 
“I used to get them more but in the last couple of years they’ve just been as common as regular nightmares. Just a little more intense.”
“Does anyone else know?”
You shook your head. “You’re the only one.”
“What about Kate?”
You shook your head. “No. It just…never came up. The other night was the first time it’s been like that for a while.”
“Are you sure?”
You nodded as you looked at Tyler. “It was about all of us. We got trapped by an EF-3 but it just kept growing until I was under it. When you came in, a pile of rubble had just been dropped from the tornado.”
“Does something trigger them?”
You could only shrug. “They just kinda appear on their own, I guess.”
Tyler could see the weight that you carried on your shoulders because of it. The way your entire body seemed tense whilst you tried to force it to relax. The way you picked at your fingers, trying to force away the memory of being in that nightmare. 
Looking around your land, he got an idea. 
“Come with me.”
“What?”
Tyler turned around and ran down your porch stairs. “Come on.”
“Tyler-” You had to stand to see him as he ran off back towards his truck. “What are yo- Where are you going?”
Holding something in his hand, he ran to his flatbed before running off towards the side of your house and into the grass field. 
“Just come on!”
With a small huff of curiosity and slight worry that Tyler had completely lost the plot, you ran over and followed him before you found him removing his boots and socks. 
“Tyler, what are you doing?”
“We’re dancing.”
“What?”
Tyler just held a wide grin on his face as he set the tape into the player. 
“You need to relax; get out of your head. So, we’re dancing.”
You looked down at his feet and back again. “Barefoot?”
“Are you gonna keep fighting me on this, or are you gonna join me?”
Pressing play, he turned the dial up and ran out into the grass. You had two options; leave him on his own and remain on the sidelines. Or, take your shoes and socks off and join him. 
You chose option two. 
Curling your socks up inside your shoes and leaving them by his boots, you went out into the short grass field and joined him. 
And you just…
Danced. 
Leading you in a two-step, Tyler spun you around the grass until you found yourself in a fit of giggles. You didn’t know how long you and Tyler danced, but it was long enough for the songs on his tape to transfer towards slower songs that meant you and Tyler were slow-dancing under the stars whilst barefoot in the grass. 
With one of your hands clasped in his, a hand on your waist and your hand on his arm, Tyler leaned into you. His cheek resting against your temple, you both swayed gently with the breeze all the while, blades of grass softened under your feet. 
“Tyler?”
He hummed. 
“I know you said I don’t have to thank you-”
“Y/n.” You could hear the smile in his voice as he said your name. 
You leaned back to look at him. “No, I mean it. You’re the first person to ever do this for me, and given our track record, nobody would have blamed you for ignoring me completely.”
A small smile graced his lips. “I’d never ignore you, Y/n.”
“But no one would have blamed you.”
Tyler just shook his head before turning you out and around, then pulling you back in. “If I ignored you, I’d never be able to thank you for the pie. How did you know apple was my favourite?” 
You felt yourself laugh. “Tyler, I’m being serious.”
Holding you back in his arms, Tyler nodded. “I know. But so am I. I’d never ignore you, Y/n. You’re too important to me.”
“I thought we hated each other?”
Tyler just shook his head. “I’ve never hated you, Y/n. You might have been the biggest pain in my ass for a while, but I never hated you.”
“Not once?”
“Not once,” he confirmed. 
You felt your heart sink a little with guilt. “Now I feel bad.”
Tyler just chuckled. “Don’t be. We were a thorn in each other’s side. Besides, I think it’s been giving the others some pretty good entertainment.”
“You know about Kate and Boone, too?”
Tyler gave you a confused look. “I was talking about Javi and Dexter. Wait, what happened with Kate and Boone?”
“They’ve been running some kind of bet on us for months.”
“Really?”
“You haven’t noticed?”
Tyler shook his head. “No.”
“Why do you think Kate keeps making scores in that little notebook of hers?”
“The blue one?”
You shook your head. “The brown one.” Then you remembered. “Why? What’s happening with Javi and Dexter?”
“Just whisperings. I can’t believe they’ve been keeping score.” Tyler paused for a moment. “Who do you think’s winning?”
Laughing, you pushed Tyler away before he took hold of your hands and pulled you back in with a twist. 
After that night, things started to change between you and Tyler. There were less petty arguments, but some more purposeful ones remained in order to make sure Kate was, in fact, keeping score. 
She was. 
There were also less intense glares, more silent conversations being had, even when a rodeo crowd separated you both. 
And then something else was added into the mix. 
You couldn’t quite place what it was but it was…something. Something that, each time you locked eyes with him, it made your heart jump inside your chest. Something that made you want to see his smile more, and hear his voice more. Something that made you want to be surrounded by him. 
What you didn’t know was that you weren’t alone in the feeling. 
Each time Tyler saw your smile, heard your laugh or felt your hand by his, his heart seemed to want to explode inside his chest. Of course, he wasn’t a stranger to the feeling. He’d had the same feelings for you for a while. 
The first time it happened was when he’d seen a genuine smile spread across your face when sat around the campfire by his truck when Boone was attempting to reenact Lily’s middle school cheerleading solo. 
He’d seen you smile before – though it was rare – but he’d never seen…you. In the glow of the campfire, joy in your eyes and smile, he knew he would wait a thousand lifetimes just to see you smile like that, again. 
Since dancing with you barefoot in the grass, Tyler had only seen your smile more. 
Which only made him fall faster. 
It all came to a head one evening. He’d just parked in your driveway, walking up the steps of your porch when you opened your front door with two tins of paint in your hands. 
You’d been painting your porch since the weather was nice and no storms were expected to develop over the next few days. Since he had some time free, he offered to help.
And sat on the grass, hours later, watching the clouds roll by in the sunset; your fingers and arms splattered with white paint, you and Tyler talked. 
Until, eventually, you both walked over to the tin bucket and began to wipe the paint away. 
“It’s not coming off.”
“Come ‘ere.” Tyler took your hand in his before dunking the cloth into the water and wiping away the stubborn paint on the edge of your palm. 
It was then that the world seemed to get quiet. There were no loud noises from up above, there were no incoming tornado warnings or people bustling about during the rodeo. There were no teammates trying to keep score of words or tones. 
There was just you and Tyler. 
Whether he kissed you, or you kissed him, first would be up for debate later. But until then, all you wanted was to be with him. To have his hands in yours. To have his lips on yours. To have his arms wrap around you in such a way that, for the first time, ever, you felt stable. All noise was drowned away, all worries cut their ties from your mind until all that was left was pure happiness. 
Which brought you to the moment all the Wranglers had agreed to come to your home for the day to take a break from the data, and the science. and the dragging of time being sat on the phone with different companies whose interest only ran so far into meteorology. 
“What time are they supposed to be getting here?”
You looked at the clock on your kitchen wall. “They should have been here twenty minutes ago.”
Tyler’s brow furrowed. “I’ll give them a call.”
And so he did. 
Which resulted in the Wrangler’s time of being super secret spies, being over. 
491 notes ¡ View notes
rainrot4me ¡ 8 months ago
Text
Rain’s Kinktober 2024 - 04
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Masky x Gender Neutral Reader - In the Car/Road Head
SMUT WARNING MINORS DNI
TW: Blowjob, road head, praise, car sex, pleasing, codependency, obsessive traits, clinginess, trauma responses, brief mentions of abuse, soft sex, kinda fluffy
Tag: #rainykinktober2024
Words: 2.2k
A/N: Made Masky kind of soft in this… I like it.
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The two of you had been riding out this empty interstate for miles, another thirty or so left to go. Thick night air rushed through the cracked windows, the heavy thud of music sounding through the old speakers of the beat up truck.
Masky had been driving the whole time, left hand gripped tightly onto the wheel as you nudged uncomfortably close to his side, his arm wrapped around your back. It was an older model truck without the console, perfect for you to get close to him.
You couldn’t help that you had grown codependent. Every proxy had their bad traits, yours was just slightly more annoying than others.
When The Operator first introduced you to the others, you were stiff, fresh out of whatever hell-hole mental destruction the others had also experienced. It was only normal you resisted the rest of the group at first, they knew you’d come around.
What no one really expected was just how closely you did come around.
It was near obsessive now. You always needed to be touching or holding onto Toby’s clothing, the boy quickly becoming flustered and uncomfortable and moving you onto someone else. Hoodie and Kate didn’t take it well either, grumbling when you asked to hold their sleeves or shoving you off when you crawled too close.
The only one who could really tolerate it was Masky, taking the brunt of your clinginess out of understanding from his own messed-up tendencies. Trauma was no stranger to the man, so if he could offer you some relief from yours when no one did him, he wouldn’t mind it too much.
He was always willing to scoot over in bed to let you crawl in, or wrap yourself in his heavy jacket to ride out a panic attack. The others teased him for being soft, but you knew it was because he understood better than they ever could.
Knees pressed to your chest, you clung to his warmth, the chilly night air blowing your hair due to a lack of available A/C. Masky kept his gaze straight, tired eyes scanning the empty asphalt.
The mission the two of you were coming back from was less than enjoyable, a murder job for a group of college kids writing a report about paranormal activities linked to murders in the area. Just their luck, The Operator didn’t quite appreciate being called ‘paranormal’. They were just unlucky, a bunch of kids too brave and vulnerable deep in the woods. It wasn’t a reach to say both you and Masky didn’t enjoy being tasked with this.
You especially, still coming down from a mild panic attack that the man beside you had to ease you through. You sniffled, his hand rubbing against the side of your arm.
“Doin’ alright?” He glanced down at you, tired gaze meeting your puffy eyes before resuming back on the headlights out front. The engine rumbled, tires rattling against the potholes littered on the road. You were getting closer to the backroad leading to the mansion, the treeline becoming familiar.
Your chest still hurt, and panic still rattled in your mind, but you nodded anyway. Masky still rubbed your arm, your head resting on his shoulder as you took long, labored breaths.
“Sorry…”
“Never had a problem before, why would I start now, mouse?”
That nickname always did it for you too, bringing you back down from whatever hysterics you found yourself in. Masky was just accustomed to taking care of you along with himself now, the extension a second nature to him.
Despite how often you fed into it, you really did feel bad for being so pitiful.
You reached your hand across his chest, wrapping your arms around his neck and hugging him closer. He adjusted, letting his hand rest on the small of your hip and holding you closer. Your nose nudged into the crook of his neck, his smell flooding your senses with that familiar comfort you’d grown to love.
Your interactions had never been sexual, always a comfort for the two of you. But now in the solitude and emotional stir of the night, you couldn’t help the flutters that grew in your gut when Masky’s hand reached further to rub the side of your thigh. His scent was just so nice too, with dried sweat from his overextension earlier thick on his skin. You couldn’t help but push a soft kiss on the underside of his jaw.
You just wanted to thank him for always being so kind.
“Hey, now-” You felt him tense for a moment, glancing down at you as your hands clung to his shirt, trying to pull him impossibly closer.
“Sorry…” You kissed his neck again, taking deep breaths each time to fill your senses with him. Maybe it was toxic, maybe it was codependent, or even obsessive- but you couldn’t help how safe he made you feel. Was it so bad to want him to feel that way too?
He didn’t resist when you let your hand slide down his chest, fisting against the fabric of his shirt as your lips cling to the side of his neck, leaving sickly sweet kisses. He shuddered when your hand dipped to the waistline of his jeans, shifting as his foot settled a little heavier on the accelerator. His hand gripped your waist tight, the knuckles on his other fist turning white while wrapped on the steering wheel.
“Mouse.” He huffed when you let off of his neck, laying your head back on his shoulder. Despite his warning, he watched eagerly when you began to undo his belt, shifting his hips up to give you easier access.
“Let me thank you…”
“For what?”
“Being so nice to me…”
His grasp hugged your hips closer, your fingers fiddling with his zipper and tugging it down. You pushed a hand past the band of his boxers, a quiet gasp leaving his lips when you wrap it around his limp cock.
Your cheeks are flushed, the warmth of your bodies pressed close as you slowly stroke him to life, his length slowly growing in your grasp. You could feel Masky loosen up, his body relaxing into your touch as his gaze constantly flickered from the road to your hand.
“You don’t need to do this, mouse.” He groaned when you rubbed your thumb across his tip, his thigh jerking and stuttering the speed of the truck. The cool air had goosebumps rising across his skin, his now-hard cock pulsing under your fingers.
“I want to.” You whispered, a quiet excitement rushing through you at his willingness. Masky huffed, rubbing against your hip as he tried his best to focus on the road.
Pushing your legs out, you scooted over, his eyes following you as you leaned down to rest against his leg. Pushing his boxers down, you tugged his cock out, the sight making you gasp quietly. You were nervous, but Masky’s hand reaching to push your hair from your face eased you.
You leaned in, hand fisted tight onto the base of his length as you pressed your lips to the divot of his cockhead, letting spit dribble from your lips onto the tip. He groaned above you, right hand collecting your hair and fisting it out of the way.
Giving a gentle kiss against his slick tip, you let your lips part, his head pushing into the warmth of your mouth. You try to take all of him too quickly, pushing your jaw wider to nudge his twitching cock against your tongue.
“Shit.” His fingers tighten in your hair, a gentle nudge pushing you down further and making you choke quietly. He’s immediately tugging you back up, your fingers clinging against the fabric of his jeans as you come up for air.
“Easy, would ‘ya? You ever even done this before?” It didn’t matter, all you knew was you wanted to make him feel good, and that little curse he let out earlier was exactly what you were looking for. You pushed your head back down, taking a deep breath as you wrapped your lips back around his tip.
Masky groaned, letting his hand off the wheel to push his hair back, glancing down at you with heavy eyes. You bob your head lightly, swiping your tongue across the divot of his tip to tug little huffs from the man above you. Eyes fluttering shut, you try to take more each time, relaxing your jaw to push more of his thick cock into the warm wetness of your throat.
You choked a little each time, straining when you felt his tip shove against the roof of your mouth in a way that made Masky twitch inside you. Good, he was enjoying it, it felt good. Slobber builds around your lips, sucking your cheeks in to make his hips stutter and twinge up into your mouth. Tears well on your waterline, little droplets slipping down your cheeks each time.
“Easy. You’re doin’ good. Doin’ real good…”
Your gut fluttered with excitement, pressing your head down all the way till your nose is flush against his pelvis, his pubes tickling the side of your face. You held your eyes closed, trying your best to stay relaxed as you gagged around him, his tip pressed against the tightness of your throat. Even still, he smelled so good.
Masky was moaning, taking shaky breaths as his hips jerked lightly up into you, cock bobbing against the back of your throat. You wanted to be good for him, to make him feel as good as possible, so you stayed, grunting and choking as quietly as you could while bobbing in rhythm with him.
“Fuck, ah- Good, mouse, just like that-”
His cock gleams with your slobber as you slide back up to his tip, running your tongue across his slit to collect the stout taste of his pre. You push back down, taking all of him quickly to pull right back up again, sucking his entire length.
Masky groans loudly, hand fisted tight into your hair and tugging you up and down, taking deep breaths every chance you can get. His praises ring in your ear, keeping you eager to please him as you rub your tongue across the bulging veins running up his length.
It’s so hard for Masky not to look at you, pre and spit collecting sloppily at the corners of your mouth just out of his view, eyes flickering between the beautiful view and the boring road ahead. He huffs, jerking the steering wheel to the side and running the truck onto the edge of the road, pressing the breaks quickly to bring the truck to a stop. You’re jostled, keeping a tight grip on his leg as you keep on with your pace.
Throwing the gear in park, he can finally wrap both of his hands into your hair, leaning back to get a good view of your flushed and teary face swallowing his cock down willingly. He moans through parted lips, shifting his hips to fuck up into your mouth and groaning every time your throat tightened around his tip.
“Oh fuck. Gonna cum, hah- Gonna-”
You let your jaw completely relax, taking restraint away from your neck to let him have control, to let him fuck you how he wants. It’s so sloppy the way your spit glistens down his length, using your swollen mouth as he pleases. And you’re so eager, so willing and pliable for him.
Masky’s moaning out, your eyes rolling back as he pushes your head all the way down, gagging you down onto the entirety of his length.
“Yeah-”
When he cums, you’re trying your best to swallow every drop, puffy lips wrapping tight to drink him up. He hunches over your head, stuttering his hips to milk every drop into your throat as your tears and spit dribble onto the fabric of his jeans.
He’s finally pulling you up when you reach a hand to grip his shirt, hitting your fist against his thigh when you begin to choke for air. Masky tugs you up, wrapping his hands around your cheeks to take a look at you.
You’re flushed, his fingers wiping away your tear soaked cheeks and brushing his thumb over your lips. You lean into his touch, tired eyes fluttering closed as he’s pulling you close and pressing his lips against yours.
You gasp, cupping your hands over his as you just breathe in the moment. It feels like forever when he’s finally pulling away, your tired body taking its comfortable place back against his side as he zips his jeans back up, buckling his belt.
When you start back on the road, Masky’s arm wraps around your back, tugging you closer than before. You smile, leaning your head on his shoulder and breathing him in again. The thud of the music and the familiar bumpy ride ease you both back in.
Maybe you were obsessive, and annoying, and clingy, and even just a little codependent. But Masky had gladly taken you and all of those traits along with him. It was only right that you thank him.
And he’d gladly take that, too.
Thank you for reading!
Comments and reblogs are appreciated! 𐚁₊⊹
Thanks to my wonderful editors: @h3llw1 and @solarbites!
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beuxwhoyouare ¡ 4 months ago
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Wrecked
Gabe wasn't feeling the vibes to go out but he had to. All of his friends were getting together to celebrate one of their birthdays so against his better judgement he went out. In true fashion anytime you're around your best friends they can change a moment of tiredness into hyped excitement. And that's what they did. While horrendously underdressed for the occasion Gabe was thankful he went out that night to be surrounded by the love of all his friends despite a crumby day at work.
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Gabe and his friends drank and danced the night away, leaving the club around 2 am. The group took Lyfts back to their homes leaving only 2 of them left in the vehicle as they got on the highway. Black ice developed in the colder weather causing the 2 cars in front of Gabe's Lyft driver to swerve in an attempt to avoid crashing. The car hit the cement median. Several vehicle attempted to stop but a pile up formed on the interstate after their crash.
A few feet behind them, a vehicle carrying a prisoner being extradited got caught in the wreckage. The guards driving, dying upon impact. Gavin was caught after months on the run for several murders but now this had to be fate. The doors of the armored vehicle flapping open in the cold air. His distraught lanky self going into fight or flight quickly stripping his prison wear. He quickly searched for another nearby vehicle with passengers that had passed out, pulled on spare clothes from their trunk, and pretended to pass out inside a nearby vehicle in an attempt to hide his true identity.
Hours later, Gabe woke up in the hospital reeling in a panic from the traumatic moments before the incident. A nurse calmed him down as she told him he'd been out for only an hour since his arrival. They continued to check on him as he tried to collect himself mentally, calling out for his friend. The medical team assuring him that they would search for his friend in the sea of hospital rooms.
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Minutes of waiting turned to hours and eventually he passed out.
Gavin woke up around the same time in the same hospital. Fiddling with something he found in his pocket, he found himself in a room with several others passed out. He got up quietly before peering out into the energetic ER filled with rushing medical providers and crash victims. He knew that he may have escaped for now but the cops will surely be looking for him soon.
He quickly began searching for victims with private rooms and and ID he could snag. Several officers walked into the ER to begin taking statements from anyone awake about what happened. Gavin overheard one telling a nurse that they were also searching for an escaped convict. Knowing full well that he was already being hunted he ducked down and quickly crawled into a nearby room.
He was panicking trying to figure out a way out of the scenario he finally pulled the item he’d been fiddling with out of his pocket when he examined it closer. An arrowhead looking rock with a symbol etched into it glowed in his hand. He didn’t think much of it amid his ongoing spiral.
Gabe woke up in his bed noticing Gavin looking at something in his hand. He began freaking out at the stranger in his room as Gavin lunged at him using the sharp rock-like item to threaten him. Gavin told Gabe to calm down or he would harm him. In an attempt to scare him into complicity, Gavin prodded the rock into Gabe’s neck and once it came into contact with both of them it a gust of wind broke out in the room. Two abstract auras flew out from the two men before getting sucked into the body opposite of where they came from, before the wind stopped and shot them apart.
Nurses and a cop rushed into the room. The cop recognized Gavin and began to cuff the blonde man. Nurses came to check on Gabe but he had apparently passed out. The cop places Gavin in custody and began walking him out of the room as he groggily reawakened.
“Wait. Where are you taking me? I’m still looking for my friends?” the escaped prisoner panicked.
“Friends? Gavin Topp, you’re under arrest again for murder. You don’t have any friends left here.” snickered the cop.
As the cop continued to drag the prisoner to a nearby cop car, the prisoner caught his reflection in a glass door. That’s not his face…his stomach sank….that’s the stranger from his room?!
Gabe’s friend rushed into the room to check on him after the nurses alerted him he was there. Witnessing the cop take the convict out of the room, Gavin grinned as he watched his former body being dragged out of the room. A sense of relief washed over him as he started to piece together what happened. Confirmed to him as Gabe’s friend walked into the room asking him if he was okay enough to head home.
Gavin pretended to still be shaken by the nights events asking for Gabe’s friend to take him to his new home. Eventually they arrive to Gavin’s new home as his friend leaves him to get some rest. Slowly Gavin looked around the apartment discovering something new everywhere he looked. That’s when he located the restroom. Gavin grimaced at his new reflection in the mirror.
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The blonde white murder convict savored his new Cuban Puerto Rican dark brown curls. His shorter stature was met with muscular firmness that was deceivingly hidden under oversized sweats.
In his excitement, he began unsheathing himself from the cloth confines. Taking in his new muscles and tattoos with awe. He flexed and tried poses he had always seen big buff guys do in tv shows and movies. When he dropped his sweatpants he was shocked to find a slutty brief thong underwear.
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He’s gotten away with murder and now he wanted to get away with taking advantage of this bussy. The convict gave into the body’s urges, animalistic like fervor washing over him as he pulled off the sweats before pulling down the thong.
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Using one hand to stroke his growing pole and the other sliding in digit after digit to poke and prod his new hole, Gavin began giggling to himself with satisfaction before graduating to moans. In his mind he kept replaying the moment he saw the real Gabe realize his life had been stolen. Gavin gaining perverse satisfaction from that moment and his new life as a fine Latino man. Before he knew it everything came to a climax. Rope after rope shot out as he continued to buzz with residual impacts of the moment. Gavin using his new horned up tongue to like everything he could clean from the mess he made.
He passed out after the traumatic day only to be woken up bright and early by his new phone vibrating with a FaceTime call.
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Gavin scaring himself with his own reflection as he answered. Gabe’s friends wanted to take him to the beach to help him get his mind off the trauma from the night before. Gavin couldn’t wait to continue to whore himself out on the beach, elated at the offer to go to the beach. Hanging up the call, Gavin scavenged through all of Gabe’s clothing to find a swimsuit…only to find two options.
Instead of making up his mind himself he asked the group chat with all of Gabe’s friends. What do yall think? Black or lime?
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Well what do you think?
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lunajay33 ¡ 1 year ago
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Precious🩵
Summary: Reader gets separated from Daryl at the start and finds a farm with a wonderful family, she finds out she’s pregnant and one thing leads to another and a new group settles onto the farm
•Masterlist•
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I waited for Daryl at our little house in the small town we grew up in, I had been gone to the city for the day when everything happened, I was able to find a car and drive back home praying that Daryl would be there waiting for me but I knew it would be a long shot, I waited for a few days until the food ran out and decided if I was ever going to find him again then I’ll have to go find him myself
So I pack up my bag with essentials, clothes, water, snacks that were left over and weapons for Daryl’s hunting collection, I drove for what felt like forever no signs of human life only blood and rotting corpses who some how took over the earth
I came to the interstate seeing the cars upon cars piled up blocking my way so I turned around hoping to find a back road to get around when I spotted a sign “Greene’s Farm” if the farm was still standing maybe it could have some food or more water, as I pulled up the drive way to a large white farm house people filtered out, it felt surreal to see people, live people
I got out of the car as the came down the stairs, it was an older man a girl around my age and a younger blonde, then what seemed to be an older couple and a younger boy
“How’d you find this place?” The man with the white hair asked
“I’ve been on the road looking for my husband, I got turned around in the road and saw your farm sign, I just need some rest” I say as I run my hand down my belly
When I went to the city when everything happened I found out I was pregnant and I was over the moon about finally starting a family with Daryl but now I’m scared, scared about delivery, this baby never meeting their wonderful father
The man noticed my movement and his harsher demeanor changed to one of pity
“Come dear we’ll get something set up for you”
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They let me settle in the spare room after feeding me some eggs and fresh fruit, the house was cozy and they are lovely people but I can’t help that feeling in the pit of my stomach, the feeling I always got when Daryl would be gone too long, he always soothed me even if he didn’t talk much he showed me comfort with actions of love and care
Whenever he scrounged up enough money he’d buy me little gifts, he got me a silver necklace with a bow on it which I never take off, I never got a wedding ring because I refused and said we should keep the money for the future and that I don’t need some diamond to show my love for him
“Knock knock” I look up to the doorway and see Maggie standing there with a wide smile
“Daddy wanted me to check on you, well both of you”
“Oh yes I think we’re okay, I only found out about two weeks ago”
“That’s when you first had symptoms?” She asked as she sat next to me on the bed
“Yeah, the nausea and a little bump”
“I’d say you’re about two months pregnant then, signs only show up later, does the father know?” I shock my head feeling my heart clench in pain
“I never got the chance, I don’t even know where he is but somehow in my heart I believe we will find our ways back to each other” she ran a comforting hand up my back and smiled
“You’ll find him sweetheart you never know what might happen!” She said before she left the room giving me space to finally rest
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It’s been 2 months now on the farm and it was peaceful for some reason this farm has gone untouched from the world that’s filled with death, I haven’t stopped looking for Daryl, every other day I’d search farther and farther out but there was no sign, as I was walking back to the farm I saw two men and Otis running through the field, I got back to the house and Maggie told me of everything that was happening, Otis accidentally shot the boy who Hershel was working on now
I sat outside on the steps as the young boys father came out obviously in shock covered in blood, he sat next to me completely disheveled, I took a rag I had in my pocket and wiped some blood he smeared on his face
“Hershel is a good surgeon and a great man, your son is in good hands” my words seemed to calm him down and what he needed right now was a distraction it seems
“I remember when my wife found out she was pregnant with Carl, we were young but I was excited this little life was gonna be born, so how far along are you?”
“About 4 months now, I’m not sure if it’s a boy or girl, I got separated from the father when I found out but I’ve kept looking, I know he’s out there, he’s a stubborn man but god is he strong and pretty smart too”
“Yeah I know the type, got a man like that back in our group, we lost a little girl and he’s been looking for her day and night”
“Maggie should be back soon she must have found your group by now, it’ll be okay” almost as if she heard me I see her horse ride up the field with cars following, then I hear the rumble of a motorcycle and it brought back so many memories I had with Daryl, when he’d work on his bike I’d sit with him, when we’d go for a drive at night together, moments I kept dear to my heart, zoned out in nostalgic thought I didn’t notice the group coming to the steps
“Y/n?” The grumble to the voice that I fell in love with, I look up to see him standing there just as the day I last saw him still as handsome, I couldn’t stand up fast enough before I was pulled off the stairs and into his arms
“I can’t believe it’s you, I looked everywhere, I missed you so much Daryl” I cried into his shoulder as his group was most likely watching this moment unwind
“It’s me sunshine, I found ya” he pulled back and we just looked into each others eyes for some time before he looked me over stopping abruptly on my belly
He opened his mouth but he seemed to be at a lose for words
“It’s yours if that’s what you’re wondering?”
“My baby?” He asked placing his hands on either side of my bump
“Yeah our lil baby Dixon”
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After everything settled down and people set up tents I decided to stay with Daryl since they were using my room for Carl, I was sitting across from him on my sleeping bag and he couldn’t take his eyes off my bump
“Do you want to feel?” He thought for a moment before he nodded, I lifted my ivory dress just above my belly feeling his warm hands caress my bare skin
“How did this happen?”
“Well remember that night you came back from the bar with Merle and I was wearing my pink sundress you love” realization dawned as a blush crossed his face
“Yeah that’s how it happened” I laugh missing how easily it is to embarrass him
“Where have you been?” I asked as we laid next to each other
“Found a camp outside of Atlanta with Merle, idiot went and got himself stuck on a roof don’t know where he is now, then we went to the CDC and that was a bust then that leads to now finally some sanity with ya”
“I’m just glad you didn’t get bite, the farms been secure so I haven’t had any troubles”
“And ya never have to with me ‘round”
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It’s been 6 months and Daryl and I had a beautiful 1 month old baby girl, it was painful giving birth but with Daryl by my side it made it a bit easier, hopeful
She was a wonderful little thing, barely fussy, brown hair light blue eyes just like Daryl, and he was over the moon about her he praised me over and over for giving him such a gift he treasured
We were able to move into the house to make it more comfortable for the three of us, we named her Lily because Carl thought it suited her perfectly so we just went with it
I walked into the room seeing Daryl sat on the bed with her in his arms her little hands reaching to pull on his now grown out hair, I sat beside them curling up to Daryl’s side
“She loves you so much D”
“Not as much as I love her”
“You know I think she’s your favourite”
“Nah she loves us both sunshine, I love ya”
“I love you too Daryl, forever”
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