#Shutterbug Adventures

[mangus-khan-blog]

FOTD - 07162024

PHOTOGRAPHY – COLOR Yesterday, before the sky opened up and unleashed all kinds of nastiness, it was a beautiful serene day. Though, it was a little on the hot, I pulled out my phone and took a few shots. It felt good.

[blueshadesfandomstuff]

https://archiveofourown.org/works/51724006

Shutterbug and Seaglass part 2: Hugs and Hoodie Thieves

Transcribed under the cut for those who do not want to change website.

“Mom! Where’s m' red hoodie? M' green one’s in the wash and m' black one still feels rough!” Jason looks up just in time to make eye contact with Catherine as she pops her head out of the living room. She looks mostly nonplussed but there is something on her face. It kinda looks like she’s laughing at him but hiding it. She and Timi are on drink break after Bug’s lesson, because Bug is a little sick and his mom hasn’t been well lately either, so it shouldn’t be a bad time to ask her questions. “What?”

“Do ya mean tha red one with tha Robin R we picked up at the thrift store on Kane an’ Gloster?”

“Yeah! I don’t have another red one now. Remember I grew outta' the one with tha stars on!”

“Oh! I’d forgotten ya’d grown outta' one. Did we donate it yet?” Jason scrunches his face up. What’s that got to do with his missing hoodie?

“Uhhh… I think it’s still in m' closet actually” Catherine smiles and Jason can’t help but smile back, it’s always nice to see his mom openly happy. She’s not been exactly sad lately, but she’s been unwell and lethargic, plus it seems like it’s harder for her to remember things. She forgot the rent until Mr Sands came and knocked on the door yesterday. Luckily it wasn’t very late, but she usually remembers and delivers it to him early. Mr Sands was worried for her and that makes Jason worry too.

“Go grab it please Glass, Love.” Jason almost argues but it’s not like he’s freezing yet, he’s just cold because he was sitting for a while, and this won’t take long. So, he goes and grabs the old hoodie from his bedroom. He’s kinda sad he doesn’t fit this one anymore, it’s really cool and has all the constellations of the northern hemisphere and labels for each one hand painted on with fabric paint. It would have made more sense for it to be on a black or navy hoodie but maybe this one was the only one the person who donated it had? Either way it was still cool – he hopes the next kid who ends up with it appreciates it! He worked hard to keep it in good condition so they could donate it again. He doesn’t mind having a Robin one, Robin is cool, but it’s Bug that likes Robin the most and Jason is scared his dad is going to have a fit because he hates Batman.

Jason returns to the living room to where Bug and Catherine are sharing a cup of tea. Well, that explains why he can’t find his hoodie – Bug is wearing it. Now he knows why his mom was laughing at him, he was in here earlier listening to them sing and he didn’t notice! How he didn’t is beyond him. While he isn’t super tall for his age he is the third tallest in his class and he is broader in the shoulders then most of his friends. Bug is younger, and very small for her age, so a good-sized hoodie that can fit layers under, for him, swamps her and goes to almost her knees. She smiles timidly at him, though it brightens once she knows he isn’t annoyed at her.

He rolls his eyes internally but keeps his expression friendly. He knows Bug is a clothing thief when she loves people, even stealing shawls from her mom and beanies from his mom, so it’s really a compliment, even if it doesn’t feel like it sometimes. While it does usually annoy him when she nicks his stuff it’s only because he doesn't have that many clothes to spare – his parents aren’t rich like hers - but it’s obvious that his mom gave her the hoodie because she was sick and asked him to get the hoodie that doesn’t fit him anymore so they can swap. He’s not mad at her. Nothing is wrong here. “Here Bug, be snug’n’a rug with dis one – I need that one back.” Bug rolls her eyes but obligingly takes off his hoodie and passes it to him, tugging on his old one. Catherine just laughs at them both.

On Bug the constellation hoodie still a little big, just long enough to sit at the tops of her thighs, which is good because it usually his larger stuff she nicks first so she can hide her hands and face in the excess fabric. It became cute once Jason realised that she wasn’t stealing his stuff to keep or to keep it away from him, she just borrows it when she doesn’t feel good. Emotionally or physically doesn’t matter, Bug craves hugs the minute she feels unbalanced. Also, she calls anything she steals ‘free hugs’ and it’s really hard to be cross with someone for stealing you stuff when they want it because it’s like a hug from you. Jason pulls her in for a hug anyway. A hug on a hug has to better, right? She does sound really sick too, her breathing is slightly whistle-y and she’s warm enough he can feel the slight warmth through his hoodie when she tucks her head under his chin.

“Mom I think Bug actually has a fever” at his concern, Catherine snaps her attention to them. She sits up from where she had relaxed back after putting the TV on. Sitting up and beckoning Bug forward, and Jason steers her straight to his mom, using the grip he takes on her shoulders. They both ignoring Bug’s self-assessment that she ‘feels fine’ and Catherine rests the back of her hand against Bug’s forehead. They both know Timi will lie about how she is both because she doesn’t want to miss seeing them and because her dad gets annoyed if she misses too much school or to many activities, it doesn't matter how sick she is either.

Jason knows last time Bug was sick with strep throat Jack Drake did something to punish Timi that had Mrs Mac and her mom fussing over her for days and Jack and Janet had had a major fight over it. Jack left the country without Janet the next day which left Bug in a panic. Janet even brought Bug here when there was no lesson planned because Timi and had just been confirmed not infectious and had wanted to see them. Janet Drake had arrived carrying Timi in on her hip, which she never does normally. Timi had been so confused as to what was happening it was all she could talk about to Jason while they watched a movie together.

Janet stayed home for two whole weeks before Jack called, they worked out their fight, and Janet left to join him somewhere in the world. Jason kinda hates that she left, yeah Bug was mostly better, but she was so sad to see her mum go! Both her parents expected her to get back to lessons right away too. She didn’t even have time to catch up with school first! So yeah, now Jason and Catherine tend to ignore Timi any time she doesn’t look well but says she’s fine – if they can catch the illness early enough Bug won’t be sick as long and Jack Drake won’t have any reason to be angry! At least Janet did organise for Jason to be able to pick up Bug’s school work on days she’s sick now and she walks home with him to stay with them on the two days a week she doesn’t have other activities after school plus her lesson days.

“Hmm, ya do feel a littl’ warm, time ta check yer temperature with tha thermometer. Nope! No arguments young lady! I am not going through tha fainting episodes again! Last time was tha third time and that’s three times too many, little love!” Catherine bustles off, leaving Bug looking upset and sullenly silent in her wake. Jason pulls her to sit on the couch with him, bundling her under his chin before she can hunch into herself and get really upset. He breaths in the familiar smell of Timi’s conditioner and rocks gently when he can feel her breath hitch – looks like she’s feeling too sick for his plan on hugging her early to work for stopping her being upset. Oh well the hugs are needed anyways.

“Bein’ sick happens to everyone Bug, s’not ya fault.” Jason tries to soothe, he’s not as good at it as his mom is but he’ll give it a go. Bug hiccups against him, turning and burying her face in the crook of his neck and wrapping her arms around him too. He fights being tickled by the sensation of her bangs rubbing against his skin. Jason leans sideways, laying them both down and letting Bug cry herself out a little – he’s done his best but sometimes the only option is to get the hurt out. She’s way quieter when she cries then he is when he’s upset and that feels wrong somehow. His mom says kids aren’t meant to be quiet. He stares at the TV but most of his attention stays on Bug and his mom moving around the kitchen.

His mom bustles back with the thermometer, humming a little on her way over, but it takes both Jason and his mom cajoling Timi to get her to sit up and have her temperature taken, even with him still holding Bug close, she wants to cling and burrow. As soon as the thermometer is done, Bug turns back into the crook of Jason’s neck again. Jason was right though; she does have a fever but not too bad yet. Catherine insists on her taking kids liquid cold and flu medicine and Jason tries not to make any faces at the thought of the vile pink medicine. They can’t afford the nice tasting one unfortunately, but Bug needs it, so he’s determined not to give any hints that it tastes bad.

It doesn't work, of course. Now they have known each other for a while Bug can read him scarily well. Sometimes she can read him as well as his mom can, and his mom can work out what he’s feeling by hearing him sigh in another room! She untucks to read his face before turtling in the hoodie, letting the neckline of it rise till it’s almost to her nose. She would have to argue with Catherine and win to not to take the medicine though so there is no likelihood she’s getting out of it. She huffs and he suspects she read that off his face too.

When Catherine returns with the vivid pink syrup and a glass of water Timi takes both with no complaint but a face after the cough syrup, which his mom guiltily laughs at, Bug looks like she swallowed a lemon! Jason waits till she empties the glass before tucking her back into his side. He used to be super protective with this time, it was meant to just be for him and his mom, but Bug only adds to the evening, so slowly he’s learned to share. Catherine insists Jason stay put as a Bug pillow while she makes dinner but after that they all watch The Question Game together and Jason and his mom call out answers and encourage Bug to too if she knows any. She does – and once she gets her confidence up, even answers a couple of the triple Threat questions and then quite a lot of the trivia questions on Shopper's Bazaar .

During TV time though Bug gets more and more hoarse – looks like she has laryngitis on top of whatever lurgy this turns out to be. Catherine makes her and Jason honey tea, watching Timi worriedly when Bug isn’t looking. By the time Mrs Mac turns up to take her home, Bug is fast asleep resting against Jason, so instead of waking her up he carries her down to the car and clicks her into her seat-belt on the front passenger seat. Mrs Mac will have to wake her to get her inside but at least she can sleep a little longer first. Catherine mentions that she isn’t well again and Mrs Mac sighs but ruffles Jason’s hair and thanks him when he offers to pick up Timi’s homework again. His mom hugs him too when they’re back inside. He blinks up at her in question and she smiles.

“Yer becomin’ a fine gentleman, my Seaglass, don’t change fer anything!” he’s glad he makes her proud.

[lacepockets]

A Cornet fanart to celebrate the complete release of the Marl Kingdom/Rhapsody series on Steam!!

These games have been so important to me for most of my life. I've adored Rhapsody since I was a kid, and I was so sad to find out that it was the first game in a trilogy but the others didn't make it to the west. Eventually I learned Japanese and I imported the other two games, but I'm still so happy that they finally have English releases after all these years ♥

[transmorolians]

@kirbyofthestars

Part 4: Friendship is Unbreakable (2/2)

- i couldn’t decide whether to have Stray Cat exist in this au or just have Clandestine make the air bubble bombs himself, so it’s really up to you guys. Schrodingers Stray Cat

- the reason Lucky Stars came to Morioat is a little different, since he doesn’t exactly have clairvoyant abilities like Joseph does they don’t really have a reason to bring him there, so he mostly just comes to connect with his son (friendship is magic)

- Clandie was impaled by the arrow, which made his magic go haywire and automatically do anything it could to protect him, which led to all the timey-wimey stuff

- the reason i changed the ambulance thing is cause everything in mlp is horse-drawn, so they definitely would’ve stopped before running over him lol

[junedenim]

the shutterbugs

because it lasts forever

part 1

warnings: very smutty, very fluffy, slight slapping, chow town, blowie vill, piv palace, flash warning, recording warning

word count: 4k

You're standing in front of the produce, strawberries to be specific. One hand on the small shopping cart, the other on your chin. You're contemplating the strawberries. They aren't in season but they look perfectly sculpted, painted in a daunting red, designed to grab your eyes.

Then you hear the click. There he is. Alex. His tiny camera sitting in his hand. His brown leather jacket crinkles as he drops the camera down from his eyes, revealing his face. He plays the shy innocent card—bashful smile with those enamored brown eyes staring straight at you.

You giggle at the familiar sight. "God, you're like glorified paparazzi. You never leave me alone with that thing." You swat your hand at him and gaze back upon the strawberries.

He comes closer to you, one of his hands landing on your shoulder. "How could I?" He lands a kiss upon your cheek, gentle and soft.

You lift a carton, examining it. "Should I get strawberries?"

He pulls back, landing a hand on the small of your back. "Get whatever you want, love."

"I don't know if it'll be a waste of money." You tilt them in your hand trying to decide. It's easy for him to get lost in you in moments like this. That's why he takes pictures of all these little things. You make everything seem fun. The idea of the grocery store is a joy to you and something that was such a pain in his day, you make an adventure out of it, not only with his photography but with your behavior. 

"All eat 'em if you don't like 'em, so get 'em," Alex insists.

You hum, tapping your chin before exclaiming your decision, "Okay!"  You place them in the cart and start your stroll again. He lags behind to capture a picture. "Alex," you whine, "don't make me do all the work."

He snaps a shot of your frustrated face—nose wrinkled up, hand on your hip—before putting the camera away and taking over for you by pushing the cart. 

Things came easily in your relationship. He felt it was something you both just relaxed into the inevitability. In other relationships, this would have caused him trouble. He’s been called uncommunicative and taciturn for a time or twenty—something inherited from being a natural perceiver hidden behind the camera.

But this time was different. It was like a puzzle piece had fallen into place. Part of him slotted into part of you and that missing gap was no more. Maybe he’s becoming soppy, he’s been accused of that by some, including you—though that is more a teasing flirt than ridicule. 

He doesn’t mind. He takes it all with a shrug of his shoulders like yeah, no shit, how can you not be in love with her? 

*

Alex finds it weird that you, as a model, think having pictures of yourself is egotistical. He won’t pride himself and say he’s the greatest photographer of all time and he doesn’t have an altar dedicated to his work but he thinks homes are supposed to have pictures of loved ones. He reasons you’re a loved one so he should have pictures of you. He tries to convince you of this when you’re moving in.

You refuse every picture. He scrolls through each one trying to get you on his side. You shake your head at each one. There are the grocery shopping photos. There are the photos of you by the ocean wearing only bottoms (fair enough, if your parents ever visit). There’s one of you doing laundry, pissed off he was getting in your way. There’s the one when you painted his bedroom walls. 

You told him no person should have stark white walls. It makes you insane and the walls get super dirty. So, you painted them yellow with a bandana tying your hair back and a sunshine smile on your face. He asked you to move in that day.

“I’d like to have you around more often,” he said, standing on the ladder, perfecting the lines between the wall and the ceiling.

You giggled. “But I’m here all the time already.”

“Maybe you could live here all the time,” he offered plainly.

So, now there’s your clothes next to his clothes and way too many shoes on the rack and you have this weird powder you put in all your drinks that makes the water green. He had a taste of it once and almost vomited. But he sees that shade of green everywhere now because he thinks of you everywhere now. He likes the sight of your body next to his body.

The bed is warmer now and his house is starting to gain personality now, covered in colour and books and artwork, no longer looking like an asylum’s padded room. The world just seems to brighten up. He always found that to be cheesy, the way those people who aren’t in love roll their eyes when someone gushes, but he gets it now. As if the world was blurry and you’ve shifted it into focus.

Sometimes he feels crazy. He desires you violently. It’s kind of his every waking thought and he knows that’s crazy because it makes his heart beat really quickly and he’s aroused by just the thought of you. That’s certifiable. 

But then one time you straddled him in the morning. He had just woken up, barely had enough time to open his eyes before you were all over him. He never considered that he may want him this intensely too. Enough to crawl all over him during your first wink of the day. You’re uncontrollable. You’re licking up his body and you’re making him feel like he’s dead and you are the gates of heaven, slowly opening to him.

He reaches down in between the two front gates, runs his fingers through you. He brings it back up to his mouth just to taste it because he’s never tasted something quite so sweet. “They should make that into a lollipop,” he says.

“Shut up.” You hit his chest and he can tell you’re hungry for it. You would usually laugh at something like that but you’re horny, rubbing your cunt along his thigh, soaking your wetness on him. 

He puts his hands on your hips and stops your movement. He has you groaning and writhing against his hold. He’s hungry too but it’s nice to see you starve. “I was gonna give you a blowjob,” you say, “now I’m not so sure.”

Alex pouts. “You don’t behave well enough to give me a blowjob.”

You lean over him, your hair making a curtain around the two of you. “What do I behave well enough for?” Fuck. You’re whispering seductively, your breathing making love to his breathing, and it’s unfair when you have a voice like that. “What? Are you going to spank me?”

No, he doesn’t have the nerve for that. He doesn’t ever want you to hurt, even if you ask for it. Also, he thinks he’d be bad at it. Like it would be too soft or too half-hearted or he would rather fuck you within an inch of your life than smack you around. Fucking you sounds really fucking nice.

“Do you want to spank me?” He counters.

You straighten and laugh at him. It’s ruthless but he likes the feeling. You sober when you see his face. “Wait. Are you serious?”

He shrugs. “Yeah. Hit me.”

You giggle nervously. “Like on the ass?”

“Wherever you want.” He does mind pain if it gives you pleasure.

You scoot down so you’re sitting on his thighs. “What if I kick you in the balls?”

He blushes and chuckles. “If you want, I would like to still have working function of my dick and I think you would too.”

You put your hand on his cock over his boxers. You press down on it placing pressure but not hurting him. “I wouldn’t kick you that hard.”

“I’ve seen you work out. I think I’d have to get a new set.”

You tilt your head back in laughter. Then, you pounce, laying your mouth on him, covering yourself over him. You kiss his bare chest, a straight line down from his Adam’s apple to his pubic mound. You bite into the waistband of his boxers, teething on them. Then, you drag until he pops out. 

You sit up again. “Should you roll over now so I can smack you?” You’re touching your lips together to reduce giggles.

“Don’t make fun of me. It’s natural sexual desire.”

“I’m not making fun of you.” Despite the insistence, your laughter bubbles up. “Swear.”

“Uh-huh,” he sounds. He can barely be heard over you losing it.

To hell with this, he thinks. He lifts his hips and rolls until you’re on your back and unable to breathe because of the shock. “I could blow air on you and you’d fall over,” he says.

You smirk. “I’m already laying down.”

He groans and ground his head into your stomach. It would be annoying if you weren’t so cute. 

His mouth is right there, kissing just above your clit. He would tease you if he wasn’t voracious. He sticks his tongue in and you crack almost instantly. Hands to the roots of his hair, yanking as if to scalp him. It hurts and he loves it because it’s a sign of your uncontrollable gratification.

“Higher,” you command, so he goes higher. He sucks right on the clit, pucker his lips out to tweak it, to put his tongue on it, to turn it in his mouth. He goes harder with each of your moans.

Alex traces his fingers up your leg until he reaches the middle of you. He runs his fingers through and then pushes in, fucks you with his fingers because he wants to be soaked by you. He wants his fingers to prune with the taste of you. 

You wanted more and now you think you asked for too much. It’s overwhelming and you’re beat red and you just woke up but you’ve never felt more exhausted in your life. But you don’t want him to stop. You want to dissolve into his hands.

You weren’t inexperienced when you met him but you were young and you had never felt lovemaking like this before. Sex was something to make guys like you. Sex was to make babies. Sex was something to fake your way through in the hopes of maybe, one day, that boyfriend will figure out how to make a girl cum.

Men are more appealing when Alex is included with them. Before men were gross, stuffy, stuck-up beings with only a handful of good ones that were either taken or related. You wake up smiling every day because you realize you’re one of the people you used to be jealous of. You’re consumed by the idea people look at you guys together and are green with envy. He’s one of the taken ones now and he’s taken by you.

And then you cum and it all goes white, those thoughts in your head. It’s the only time in your life when you don’t think it all. And then you spend the rest of your day replaying it in your head. You knew orgasms were good but you understand now why all guys think about is sex because it feels like that’s all you think about now too.

When you can see again, he’s lying on top of you, brushing your hair off of your face. He’s smiling and not in the pride way, but in the plain old happy way. Because making a woman cum isn’t an achievement for him. He’s never struggled with you and you doubt he’s ever struggled much since he figured out where a woman’s clitoris is. 

The urge suddenly possesses you because the thought has been ticking in your head since he mentioned it. You slap him. Clearly across the face. It barely makes a noise but it puts a red mark on his face. He squints his eyes and shakes his head before he’s able to process everything.

You’re laughing below him, clearly sheepish by the action and waiting for his response. He can’t think of anything to say. He didn’t think you’d actually do it and he’s kind of stunned, but, you know, incredibly turned on.

“Do you still want that blowjob?” You ask, a slight blush on your cheeks like you’re a schoolgirl with a crush. He lets out a breathy laugh. You feel the way his stomach rubbles, tickling up against your skin. Sometimes you’d like to rip him limb from limb, other times, you’d like to just stare at his softness.

He rubs his nose against yours, his mouth hovering over yours. “You can if you like. I won’t object.” He’s kissing you gently like a cushion for your soul to rest on.

You nudge him to signal him to roll off of you. When he’s on his back, you assume your previous position straddling his legs. You take him in your hand, squeezing him slightly before putting him in your mouth. He’s half-hard. You like the way he feels when he’s soft like you have to work for it. Sometimes you like to feel him when his dick is in its resting position. The slight window into his natural body.

For better or worse, he arouses quickly. You take the compliment and suck him off. You lick his shaft because it always gets him kicking his legs and he’s fighting against your body resting on top of his legs, unintentionally brushing against your pussy. 

You kiss his tip, treating him delicately after the harshness inflicted on his face. You want to treat him right and make him squirm from the lightest touch. You mouth your way down his cock and begin to stroke him with one of your hands.

He curls his toes and squeezes his eyes shut, despite how much he wants to look at this. He wants to capture every moment of this. He wants someone to transmit the whole scene into his brain to replay over and over again. He sees why people become sex addicts and he might even be one because he wants to stay buried in this. He pets your hair back before fisting it, cumming, jerking up, and shaking his legs. He can’t help but mutter, “Fuck.”

He opens his eyes and sees you wipe your mouth after taking every drop of him. He tosses his head back. “Fuck.”

*

You like watching him take pictures. You don’t often get to center in on him because you’re usually the one he’s taking photos of, but every once in a while he’s able to take you with him. You fake being an assistant and sit in his chair and watch him work. You’ll get him a bottle of water to play into the act but other than that you simply watch him.

He leans a certain way depending on how good of a photo he thinks it’ll be. If he’s standing straight up, he hates it. If he’s all the way forward, willing to get on the ground for the photo, he’s completely in love, swooning for the photo (you know from experience that he likes getting on his knees, at least for you).

It’s probably not the smartest thing for you to be on set with him because he’s easily distracted. It’s hard to pull his attention away from the camera but he’s beginning to understand the beauty of his own eyes. It’s much sweeter to look at you than whatever person is before him.

People used to ask him how he didn't fall in love with all these beautiful models. Before you, he had always viewed this as work. He keeps work and pleasure separate. What a fool he was because mixing pleasure with work was the best decision of his life. But nobody else has had that ability. You drive your personality into the photo. Your gaze only turns any picture into art. He thinks whoever said eyes are the windows to the soul was only referring to you. Everyone else is just a model, nothing else.

This doesn’t do well when he’s on a professional photoshoot and he’s distracted every two seconds by you—your laugh, your eyes, your smile, the way you leave to talk to Jerry (because nobody else ever wants to talk to Jerry).

He has two models yell at him for getting distracted but he doesn’t understand how they can blame him. How are they not staring at you? 

He’s a fool who should never bring you to work again but can’t bear to leave your side. He has an attachment issue.

*

Alex gets an idea. This can either be the smartest idea ever or the dumbest one. This one might be the first to lie somewhere in the middle.

“You want to make a sex tape?”

“An artistic film,” he says because he’s a pretentious prick who claims everything you do is art. It’s flattering but sometimes you want to brush your teeth in peace.

“A porno.”

He purses his lips. “An erotic film.”

You furrow your brows. “Do you jerk off to photos of me?”

He stands up and collects your plates from dinner, silently.

You gasp. “You totally do. You perv. I never gave you permission to do that!”

Alex chuckles. “What did you think I was doing with nude photos of you?”

You follow him to the kitchen sink. “Admiring their aesthetic quality.”

“Believe me, your tits are very aesthetically pleasing.”

You smack his arm and walk down the hall.

“Hey! Where are you going?”

You don’t bother to turn back and walk straight to the bedroom. “To prepare for my porno debut.”

*

The sex tape, or whatever you want to call it, doesn’t happen until the weekend. Alex wants to shoot it on film because he’s a weirdo (he admits it) and you want to get cute lingerie because you're self-absorbed (you admit it). You’re two peas in a pod.

“Are you rolling?” You ask him as he sets up. “Oh, god, that was the most pornographic thing I could have said.”

“Relax,” he commands. You’re on edge, he can tell. 

In an effort to put you at ease, he walks over and lies on top of you. He wraps his arms around you and holds you to him. He digs his nose into your neck and breathes you in. He told you once that you smelled like what he imagines clouds smell like and cherries. It puts him at ease and his body in this position calms you. It’s familiar and there’s no reason to be performative.

“Do you ever wish that film could capture smell?” He asks into your skin.

“When there’s cookies on screen, yeah, but what if someone farts or just smells bad?”

He chuckles and looks up at you. His smile is joyous and there’s something about this being for only you—the smile and this film. It makes this idea of his even more interesting because it’s not about sex, it’s about these little in-between moments.

Each move is delicate. He’s always been a smooth lover, even when he’s harsh and raw, his touch is always soft. He parts your legs and drags your underwear down. He takes his shirt off and you unclip your bra. He stands off the bed to take his pants off. 

“Film is expensive so we’re gonna have to go quick,” he says. It leaves you cackling and already out of breath.

“That’s up to you. You’re the one who drags things out for so long.”

Alex joins you back in bed. “I can’t help it if I last long.”

You squint. “I didn’t say that. It takes you a long time to make me cum.”

He leans over you, pushing you down against the mattress. “I know that isn’t true.” He moves closer and closer. It would be threatening if his eyes weren’t so swoon-worthy. You want to kiss every inch of his face. You’d give butterfly kisses to his eyelashes. You’d make love to every last inch of him.

He’s fast, but in a controlled manner. His hips meet yours and he lines himself up with your core. He eases in slowly as you engulf his cock. He hums at the wetness and you moan at being open. Sometimes it feels like the first time all over again. Sometimes it feels like you’ve been doing this all your life and you’ll do it for another hundred years. Either way, you don’t mind, both feel this good.

“Should we be loud?” You ask.

Alex smirks. “You’re already loud.”

You roll your eyes. “I mean so the camera can hear us.”

He’s moving in and out of you now. “I don’t think it’ll have a problem hearing us.” He thrusts straight into, knocking your head against the wooden headboard, eliciting a moan from you. He knows every move in the book. He could write a manual on you to fuck you.

You push against his shoulders. “Should we do a sexier position?”

His grin is shit-eating. “Like what?” You’d slap him again if you didn’t think he’d enjoy it so much.

“I don’t know. Should I ride you? Or doggy? What way do you want it?”

“Whatever way you want it.”

You prop yourself up on your elbows. He’s still moving, albeit slowly, but still pleasantly. “I don’t know that’s why I asked you.”

“Alright.” He pulls out of you and it aches. It isn’t right, he should always be there. It feels like a part of you slipped out. He flops onto his back beside you. “Go to work.”

“Facing you or the camera?”

“Me.”

“But the camera won’t be able to see my boobs.”

“But I’ll be able to see your boobs.”

“But does future you want to see my boobs?”

“Every me wants to see your boobs.”

“So, I should face the camera.”

“No, I still want to have sex with you, not the camera.”

You giggle and don’t say anything else. You want to give yourself over to him. The whole point of this was to commit your sex to film not have sex for the film. You sink down onto him and rock against him. It’s quick because you want it to be, not because the amount of film calls for it.

It’s the perfect sight for him. Some people like sunsets or the ocean, he likes your body. He doesn’t care if it’s naked, clothed, or covered by bubbles in the bath, every part of it is poetic. He’s a bit self-conscious about him being on film. He isn’t used to being in front of the camera. But he so desperately wants you committed to filmic memory. He’s terrified one day you’ll leave or he’ll get dementia or amnesia. He wants to remember every second of this. 

You arch your back and throw your head back. You’re shaking. His hips buck up, slamming into you, finishing you both off. You land on top of him and this is his favourite part, other than the incomparable act of coming for a man, this is his second favourite. He wraps his arms around you, still inside you, and holds this moment in his arms. 

The physical thing will always be better than any photography or piece of film. Only here can he feel your laughter and see your smile and smell that cloudy scent and feel the touch of your delicate, little hands. Only here can he kiss every bit of you while resting inside you. He feels you as you slowly fall asleep. He whispers, “I love you,” only for himself to hear, but you know it just as well as he does.

*

The film cuts off right around when you straddle him. Something is better than nothing. You can always do it again. Neither of you mind.

*

a/n: sigh, the long-awaited part 2. is it as good? probably not. but it's the most smut i've written in a while i feel like (two scenes in a fic, very impressive for me as of late, i am no longer a prude). i wrote the first part of this fic back in september and now here we are in march with 3.3k words more. anyway, take a picture, it'll last longer. and someone please take more pictures of alex. please & thank you!

[604to647]

Hold On

1.3K / Detective Tim Rockford x fem!reader

Summary: You wear Detective Tim Rockford's leather holster.

Warnings: 18+ Content (MDNI please). Established relationship, nicknames as usual (Shutterbug, baby), breast worship, wee bit of thigh riding.

A/N: Inspired by @mrsmando's Tiddy Talk™️ yesterday, this is my case submission for Tim being a boob guy🫡 Kindly let me know if you're convinced 😂😂 This is, of course, our The Rockford Portfolio couple, but can be read as standalone.

Dividers by @saradika-graphics as always / Series Masterlist / If you're interested in more Adventures of Tim Rockford's Holster, may I suggest @ghotifishreads' drabble?

It had actually been somewhat difficult to pull off your little surprise for Tim.  First, you had to wait for him to be off work; it was a rarer occurrence than it should be, with Tim often working late and sometimes going on weekend stakeouts, thereby taking that leather gun holster of his with him.

Then, when Tim was at home, the two of you were hardly ever apart – not wishing to do anything other than enjoy each other’s company, either quietly or voraciously.  Sure, you could have asked him to give you some time alone to set-up, but then he would have known that he had something coming.  And you wanted this to be a surprise, surprise.

The opportunity finally came in the form of an invite to Officer Chu’s bachelor party; Tim had hummed and hawed about going, but you encouraged it enthusiastically.  Not wanting to give away your hidden agenda, you simply reminded Tim of that time when Officer Chu sat in a hot patrol car with him for eight hours so they could get photographic proof of Grandma Ursula’s lab and he had agreed he should go for a few drinks.

When you receive Tim’s text that he’s heading home, you make your way to the bedroom to get ready; giddy at the imagined look of awe that you hope to see on Tim’s face soon.

Taking Tim’s gun holster off the bedpost on his side of the bed, you run the thick, firm straps through your fingers and visualize them framing your boyfriend’s equally thick chest.  As you warm the supple leather under your thumb, you think about how it stretches across Tim’s broad back, and the image blossoms a different type of warmth in your core.

Tim wearing this leather holster is like a siren call to you; just seeing it wrapped taut around his tight frame at the end of a long work day makes your mouth dry.  You never fail to compliment the way he looks in it or tell him how much it turns you on.  Once, when you had slipped your soft hands under the straps to provide some relief where they had started digging into his weary shoulders, cooing the usual sentiments about how hot his holster looked on him, Tim had whispered back that he bet it would look even better on you.

It was there for just a second, but you had filed the dark, hungry look that flashed in Tim’s eyes when he let this confession slip, away in the back of your mind - waiting for just the right moment to test out his theory.

Stripping down to nothing but the black lace panties chosen specifically to match the dark hue of Tim’s gun holster, you slip your arms through the shoulder straps and adjust it so that the small back harness sits comfortably between your shoulder blades.  Pulling the arm straps on both sides over your naked breasts so that they touch in the valley of your chest, you give the various clips and loops a few adjustments, including moving the empty firearm sleeve so that it sits snug under your left breast, before completing the look by using a silk scarf to securely fasten the two sides of the holster together in front. 

Tying the fabric so that it looks like a big bow, you pull the knot so it sits securely on the leather that snugly hugs your plush curves.  Giggling to yourself as you climb onto the bed, you sit back on your heels and wait.

It’s not long before you hear the familiar dropping of keys in the key bowl, accompanied by the soft call of hello from your unsuspecting man.

“In the bedroom, Detective!”

“Tonight was fun, Shutterbug.  Thanks for making me go.  Chu’s fiancé was wondering if y-”  Jaw dropped and words stuck in his throat, Tim marvels at the sight before him: you and your soft curves bare and trussed up for him in his department regulated gun holster, the very one he wears to work everyday and trusts to keep his firearm close and handy, offered up on the bed like a naughty present.  As he stalks towards you, his eyes rake over your tits sitting on display for him, bordered by the bold leather in a way that’s reminiscent of art hung in a museum.  Tim lays down on his stomach and army crawls his way to you at the top of the bed; when you rise on your knees to meet him, he sits and holds you firmly by the waist so he can behold all of you before him.

“Surprise,” you whisper.

Tim looks at you with disbelieving reverence and asks a question he knows will never be answered to his satisfaction, “What did I do to ever deserve you, baby?”

You want to tell Tim that he deserves the world.  That he dedicates himself so selflessly to the protection of this city that he’s earned the right to have all of his dreams fulfilled, and that you’d happily give him anything and everything so long as he never stops looking at you the way he’s doing so right now.  But you don’t tell him anything because your mind goes completely blank when Tim dives forward and takes one of your breasts in his mouth.

He kisses and nips, taking as much of your soft skin into his mouth as he can and sucks so hard he knows he’s leaving marks; Tim comes up only for air and to lave his tongue soothingly over the already reddening spot before opening wide to devour and decorate you again.  The other side of your chest is hardly safe from Tim’s worship.  His meaty hand kneads and gropes your supple breast, pulling and pushing the pillowy flesh every which way that the constricting leather you wear allows.  You welcome every bruising caress and cry out for more, more, more with your wanton moans.  Eyes closed and mouth full, Tim’s own feral noises are muffled and smothered by your chest; you feel rather than hear the evidence of his pleasure vibrate throughout your entire body.

Even without the benefit of sight, Tim ravishes and wrecks you, expertly guided by his intimate familiarity of your most delicious parts.

His hand finds your hard nipple and he teases it with his thumb before pinching and rolling the aching peak between his fingers.

His tongue twirls and flicks your nipple until it’s swollen and shiny, only to nibble it between his ever so gentle teeth.      

Time loses all meaning as Tim repeats and alternates these mind-numbing patterns on both of your heaving breasts over and over until you’re positively howling above him.

Pulling you closer so that he can bury his face even deeper in the most gorgeous pair of tits he’s ever laid eyes on, Tim feels you start to grind yourself down onto his leg; smiling against your skin when your arousal leaks through your panties and onto his pants.  He places his hands on your waist to help guide you to the pleasure you seek and pulls back to watch your tits bounce in his face.  You cry and moan, whining his name as you chase that perfect friction on his thigh, all while Tim is hypnotized by the show your luscious curves and his leather holster put on for him. 

You come with a wail of his name and a hard yank to his soft brown curls, shuddering as you press Tim’s face to your chest so he can lick and mouth you through it. 

“So?” you coo breathily, chest still rising and falling as you come down from your high.

Tim peeks out from between your tits and cocks an eyebrow at your mischievous grin.

“Do I look better in your holster than you, Detective?”

Lust blown eyes twinkling with his own mischief, Tim lifts his head with a smirk, “Gotta see it and you in a couple more positions first, Shutterbug.”  Giggling, you watch as he takes your hands and places them on the holster straps where they lay right below your collar bone; the last thing you hear before Tim tugs your legs out from under you and you’re knocked onto your back is a low baritone command practically growled: “Hold on.”

[stargazer-sims]

Non-Sims Interests

I was tagged by @igotsnothing - thank you!

I have a lot of interests outside The Sims. In fact, I'd say The Sims is fairly far down my list of interests at this point...

Writing - I love writing. It's my longest consistent hobby; I've been doing it since I was a child, and I've been honing my craft over the past 4-plus decades. Writing is always something I come back to, no matter what else I'm doing. I think there are times in my life when my writing was better than it is currently, but there are definitely also times when it's been harder and both my motivation and execuation have been worse than they are now. I wrote a murder mystery about 20 years ago when I was in law school, and I tried to write science fiction, but my favourite genre to write has always been general fiction/literary fiction or "slice of life" if you prefer.

My dogs - I have two chihuahuas named Eden and Sailor, who I'll admit I spend way too much money on and way too much time thinking about. I love spending time with them and going on adventures with Eden in particular (because Sailor is a diva). I used to have a Boston Terrier named Grace who lived to be 15, and she was my soul dog. There was no adventure she wouldn't go on with me, including camping, sailing (she had a life jacket), airplane travel (no sedation required), outdoor concerts, and the Canada Day fireworks. She LOVED fireworks and was never afraid of the noise. She always tried to jump up and "catch" the lights and it always seemed like a huge game for her. I miss her.

Photography - I got bitten by the shutterbug in the mid-90s when I was studying journalism and took a photography class as part of my program. (a class, incidentally, that the general manager of our college didn't think I could do because I have low vision). I turned out to be better than mediocre at photography, and I loved it! I've won a couple of amateur photo contests in the intervening time, but mostly I just enjoy taking photos for fun. I photograph my dogs, various insects and flowers, scenery and my action figures. My favourite genre is macro photography and artistic photography.

Action Figures - I collect action figures and I really enjoy taking photos of them. I have a lot fewer now than I used to, but I still like the ones I have. My current favourites are my 1/12 scale DAMToys FunMan series figures. I have the entire collection of those.

Hiking - I am an avid hiker/walker. I like doing the Trans-Canada Trail system as well as going on hikes in wilderness areas or provincial parks, and I also just enjoy walking around the city or on the beach. It pairs well with my other interests of photography and hanging out with my dogs.

Cooking (and eating) - I love food, and I always enjoy trying new foods at restaurants or events. I also love to cook, and I will often try new recipes at home.

Fiber and textile crafts - I like knitting, sewing and weaving. I learned those skills, as well as cooking skills, from my late grandmother. I have way too much self-made knitwear. I may have a slight hat addiction, and I like making mittens too. Socks are my nemesis! This year, I'm planning to knit myself a sweater-coat.

Other interests of mine include reading, Pokémon, Build-A-Bears, video games (especially Nintendo) and generally being a 10 year old trapped in a 48 year old's body XD

__________

I have absolutely no idea who's already done this, but I'm going to tag @nakasumi-sims @jessy-the-martian-girl @cawthorntales @lindyloosims @dandylion240 @enkisstories and @enniewritesathing

As always, participation is optional. Only do it if you feel like it =)

[bjfinn]

NEW & IMPROVED MASTER LIST

GUARANTEED TO WORK OR YOUR MONEY BACK!

(TERMS & CONDITIONS APPLY 😜)

Since my first attempt at a Master List seems to have gone completely on the fritz now (probably because I changed my URL after doing the links!), I've made a new one.

I've also added the title of each story in its own tags in case this sort of thing should happen again -- that way you can just look for the one you want to read by searching for the title in the hashtags, or to find all of them together: #bjfinn writing or #bjfinn poetry.

Also, I'm starting to draw again! You can find my art at: #bjfinn art

STORIES

Beetlejuice

1. Three Ghosts and a Baby (AU)

2. Imaginary Friends (AU)

3. Hellhound

4. Beej on a Hot Tin Roof

5. Demons Have Feelings, Too

6. Birds of a Feather

7. How to Train Your Demon

8. Shadow Work

9. A Day at the Beach

10. Star Light, Star Bright

11. Movie Night

12. Turkey Day

13. Tango Argentino

14. Midnight Musings

15. Mommy Dearest

16. Spores

17. Shutterbug

18. Misinterpreted

19. Harry's Quest

20. Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

21. Mother's Day

22. Rampage

23. Truth or Dare

24. Goth and Ghoul

25. Father's Day

26. Lily

27. Healing Circle

28. Petey

29. The Trial of Otho Fenlock

30. Alphabet Soup

Foul Play

1. The Egg-Man

2. PopChat

School of Rock

1. 'Tis the Season

2. Something Special

3. Double Date

Spamalot

1. The Horned One

Crossovers

1. One Last Chance (BJTM/SoR/Deadbeat)

2. High Noon at the Gardner Hotel (BJTM/Deadbeat)

3. The Ghost and Mr Finn (BJTM/SoR)

4. Book of Shadows (BJTM/SoR/TWoE)

5. Holiday Plans (BJTM/SoR)

6. Chaos and Candy Canes (BJTM/SoR)

7. The Great Christmas Potato War of 2023 (BJTM/SoR)

8. Candid Confessions (BJTM/SoR)

Candid Confessions (Version 2.0)

9. Together Forever (BJTM/SoR)

10. Somebody to Love (BJTM/SoR)

11. Beej, Book and Candle (BJTM/TWoE)

12. Partners (BJTM/Deadbeat/SoR)

13. Ghost in the Museum (BJTM/Deadbeat/SoR)

14. The Babysitter (BJTM/TWoE)

15. Nowhere Man (Foul Play/Deadbeat)

Non-Fandom

1. Just Cloth and Stuffing

POETRY

1. An Cú Dubh (The Black Dog)

2. To Sleep

3. The Might of the Fight

4. Holes

5. Bang in the Night

SONG PARODIES

1. Deck the Halls

2. The Supermarket Blues

3. The Ides is Nigh

4. The Senators' Picnic

5. Summertime

TV COMMERCIAL PARODIES

1. That's the Way the Cookie Crumbles

2. You're Not You When You're Hungry

ANECDOTES

1. Salad Days

2. One is the Loneliest Number

3. Big Tipper

4. Yes, We Have No Bread Today

5. Under Pressure

6. A Cashier's Life: Shopping Etiquette

7. Shelter from the Storm

8. Too Good to Beet Root

ADVENTURES IN COOKING

1. Pua'a Kālua (Hawaiian Pulled Pork Shoulder)

2. Bagún (Irish Bacon)

3. Síoróip Úll (Homemade Apple Syrup)

4. My Mother's Marinara Sauce

5. Tofu Crumbles (Vegan Mince)

FOOD REVIEWS

1. Zagnuts

2. Dubai chocolate bar

[alloutofgoddesses]

WIPS of Fics From 2023

These are fics I started reading in 2023 that I will be (hopefully) continuing to read in 2024!

Dark Matter by mysterycyclone - When Thanos snaps, the souls of those he takes end up in the soul stone. However, Spiderman had managed to break off a piece of the stone, and ends up in an alternate dimension with superheroes he’s never heard of and ghosts in his head. (Peter Parker meets the Bats AU - 43 chapters)

Peter the Pizza Guy by Irisen - Dr. Strange’s spell has unforeseen consequences. Peter Parker, suddenly in a different universe, now must figure out how to survive in the most dangerous city in America - Gotham. (Peter Parker meets the Bats AU - 36 chapters)

In for a Pound by Cdelphiki - Damian Al Ghul-Wayne is given to his father as an infant. Dick Grayson is eleven. Bruce Wayne is out of his depth. What happens now? (Damian joins the family early AU - 6 works)

no grave could hold my body down (i'll crawl home to her) by loungemermaid - Finnick survives the mutts, but only just. Adjusting to a body missing large parts of itself and a pregnant wife, Finnick lives on. (Finnick Lives AU - 11 chapters)

Tomorrow Will Be Kinder by bellablue27 - Peeta and Katniss grow together after the war. Currently on hiatus but I'm holding out hope that one day it returns. (Post-Canon Fic - 17 chapters)

take these broken wings and learn to fly by fishingclocks - Dick Grayson loses his parents. Bruce Wayne can’t help but try to rescue the boy from himself. The Batman has a new target. (The Batman 2022 Post-Canon Fic - 17 chapters)

Minefield by coyote_nebula - The Bats love each other. They just have a hard time showing it. (The Waynes and their extended family go on connected adventures - 16 works)

Shutterbug by goldkirk - Tim Drake is good at what he does. He runs a blog, weaves his way unseen throughout Gotham, and he doesn’t need his parents. Unfortunately for him, his neighbors disagree. (AU where Jason lives and Tim can’t catch a break - 9 works)

Wayne Family Social Media AU by tiredofsatansbullshit - Everyone needs a good social media fic from time to time. The Bats, the Waynes, and various others have a very active online presence. (14 works)

A Nest We Can All Call Home by A03time - Dick, Jason, and Tim are orphans who found each other on the streets of Gotham. When Jason decided to steal from Batman of all people, everything changes. (The Robins Meet Before They Meet Bruce AU - 6 works)

How Dare The Robins Sing by CountDyscalculia - Tim Drake has severe dyscalculia. It doesn’t matter though, because Batman needs a Robin and he’s ready to do whatever it takes to get him one. (Tim Drake refuses to ask for help for currently 25 chapters)

Check My Vitals (and tell me I'm still alive) by scrappedyonder - Tim is a metahuman successfully keeping the secret from Batman, his mentor. That is until Red Hood nearly dies and Tim takes matters into his own hands. Now that Jason knows, it’s only a matter of time until Bruce knows as well. (Metahuman AU - 3 works)

straw-verse by deargalileo - Alfred makes a friend out of his young neighbor. Silly straws are heavily involved. (Tim joins the family early AU - 3 works)

buy back the secrets by sundiscus - Conner Kent doesn’t know Robin’s secret identity. Tim Drake does know Superboy’s secret identity, making it super awkward every time Superboy saves Tim Drake. (TimKon fic - 4 chapters)

what's past is prologue by Icestorm238 - Dick Grayson remembers an alternate life before most of its events happen. He uses this knowledge to do everything in his power to change fate. It’s not as easy as he thought it would be. (Canon Divergence AU - 5 works)

the unfridging of jessica more by winterfire22 - Jessica doesn’t die when the yellow-eyed demon comes after her. It changes things - drastically. (Canon Divergence AU - 3 works)

[thelampisaflashlight]

Shutterbug

[That photographer Dew AU I mentioned from last night. The origins of Dew's hobby and his first encounter with something... strange. Dew joins Ghost on tour as a guitar tech only to uncover the band's gimmick is more than meets the eye. Not suitable for younger audiences.] Below the cut.

He supposes it started when he was young, maybe eight or so; Dew's father had purchased a new camera and had, on a whim, gifted his old one to his son, assuming the boy would fiddle with it for a time and then do as he often did with old, broken things and take it apart to better understand how it worked.

Instead, something had awoken in him the moment he held that old camera in his hands.

The weight of it slung around his neck had felt comforting, familiar, like it was always meant to be there, and something about viewing the world through its lens had lit a fire in his chest.

Dew had been small for his age, and failed attempts at enrolling him in various sports activities had proven... emotionally scarring if not also physically.

So a hobby that got him to go outside didn't seem all that bad, especially not to his parents, who had made it no secret that their marriage was falling apart, and that, perhaps, having something to do away from home while they sorted out the details of their impending divorce would be a good idea.

And, indeed, photography had been an excellent escape for Dew.

But over time Dew's outdoor adventures, taking pictures of wild growing daisies and frogs by the creek in the woods behind his house, would be replaced with other interests and hobbies that kept him locked up in his bedroom for hours on end.

Music may not have been his first love, but it was his greatest, and his desire to engage with it on all levels had thoroughly trumped his desire to trek through fields of tall grass in the early morning to capture pictures of the sunset in the park across from the small apartment his father had moved into when his parents finally did separate.

His camera would make its home in a shoebox in his childhood bedroom at his mother's house, buried under a haphazardly sewn quilt made of old band t-shirts and a box of action figures and other bits and bobs he'd cast aside as he grew up.

So why, after so long, was he yearning to hold that dusty old thing again?

Well, like so many others, Dew had fell into the trap known as nostalgia as he was cleaning his room.

He'd come to visit his mother for a short period of time, preparing to go on the road with a touring band as a guitar tech, and something had drawn him upstairs to his old bedroom despite having made his bed on the couch in the living room.

The upstairs of the house had been largely untouched for years now, his mother having moved into the room that had once been his parents' home office after a bad fall had left her with a prominent limp that made walking, let alone climbing the stairs, quite taxing.

Normally, he wouldn't bother going up there at all during his visits, wanting to stay on the same floor as his mother just in case she needed his help grabbing something, or if she called out to him because she was cold and needed another blanket, or simply wanted to be parked by the window to watch the birds... but it was late, and the older woman had long since gone to bed.

There had been an itch.

A desire to immerse himself in his past, if only for a moment, to pick through bits and pieces of his childhood so he might feel at least a little homesick while on the road.

To feel like he had something to miss while he was away, and not the other way around, as he had come to see hotel rooms and crowded tour buses and vans more like home than his real one.

Stepping into his bedroom after all those years had felt like opening a tomb, and he had treated it as such up until he realized, as if having completely forgotten, that it was his bedroom and he needn't be so cautious or respectful with the things left inside of it.

He'd flopped down on his old bed and found the sheets smelling a little dusty, but otherwise clean, and stared up at his ceiling, at the glow in the dark stars littered across his ceiling, at the stickers plastered over the blades of his ceiling fan...

Closing his eyes, he breathed in the room.

And with that, he'd sat up and gotten to exploring.

His closet was the last place he looked through, for no reason in particular other than that it was easier to explore everything that was left out in the open first before opening the door, but the moment he did, he felt that itch again.

Stronger now, urging him to reach for the pile on the top shelf -ignoring the large, padlocked chest on he floor, which he knew was full of "contraband" he preferred not to unpack at the moment- and reach he did...

"Aw, shit-"

...spilling everything onto the floor with a loud thud that he prayed his mother couldn't hear from the other side of the house.

And there, mixed in with his ninja turtles and matchbox cars, on sat on top of the pile unscathed, was his camera.

.

.

.

"God, my fuckin' dick is going to freeze off if we have to stand around waiting for the bus another goddamn minute..." Alpha bitches, gritting his teeth and hissing as another cold breeze weaves through the gathered band members and crew.

He's been complaining ever since the got off the plane, and while Dew understands his displeasure, he's trying to make the most of his time, occupying himself by fidgeting with his camera, making sure nothing had broken during travel.

"Say 'cheese', bitch." He says, aiming the camera off to the side and clicking the shutter button, earning a startled yelp from the lead guitarist as the flash goes off.

"If my hands weren't so cold, I would strangle you." the other man threatens, prompting Dew to stick out his tongue, "You little brat-"

"Al, lighten up a little, if you're so cold, come stand next to me," Omega huffs shaking his head at the others' antics, opening his coat slightly so Alpha can shuffle inside, "and, Dew, don't rile him up, it's too early."

"Sorry, Meg." Dew apologizes, then, in a moment of either bravery or stupidity, raises his camera again and snaps a picture of the two men huddling together.

"Dew-"

"It's for my scrapbook!"

Omega sighs, and rests his chin on top of Alpha's head, swaying them both back and forth to soothe the seething guitarist in his grasp, "I'm starting to wonder what sort of scrapbook you're making, considering the pictures you've taken so far..."

Dew gives a devilish grin, recalling some of the more scandalous photos he'd taken during the tour thus far, photos he couldn't wait to have developed in the dark room he'd thrown together in the second bathroom of his apartment...

The one that comes to mind first is one he's particularly proud of, considering grabbing the camera had been an after thought, but the image of Omega getting absolutely dominated by Mist had been too delicious to pass up, even if he had had to crawl to retrieve it because of how jello-like his legs had become thanks to the man currently having to be rocked like a cranky infant.

"Those images are strictly for the spank bank." he says, turning his camera towards Mist, who shoots him a smile, posing a bit, "My scrapbook's for... I dunno, I haven't really settled on a theme yet, but so far it's mostly pictures of truck stops and food."

"I was wondering why you were taking glamour shots of your microwave breakfast sandwich..." Omega hums, "How can you tell how the pictures are going to come out?"

"Just have to wait and see." Dew shrugs, "I can check the ones on my other camera since it's digital, but half the fun of using film is waiting for the results."

"Ever capture any ghost pics?" Mist asks, rolling her eyes when Dew gestures broadly at them all, "Not us, you nerd, I mean, like, paranormal activity style shit."

Dew thinks for a moment, "Hn... Uh, well, this one time I was taking pictures in the park and saw- Oh! Hey, the buses are here!"

"Thank fuck-"

.

.

.

Dew has been hunkered down in his bunk for the last half an hour or so, idly scrolling through albums on his digital camera in order to find some "paranormal activity style shit" for Mist to look through the next time they have a chance to sit down and shoot the shit again, but nothing has really jumped out at him as being even remotely spooky so far.

He'd gone back to the very first photos he had taken on his camera when it was brand new, cringing at accidental selfies from when he was trying to figure out how to navigate the menu, and one intentional dick pic to try and see the birthmark on his inner thigh for fear that it might of gotten bigger.

The spoiler alert on that one was that it hadn't, he'd just never seen the full thing before because of the angle, and the only reason he'd become aware of how large it actually was was because one of his previous partners had spread him out in front of a mirror and he had panicked at the sight of it.

With a sigh, he switches to his most recent album, filled with pictures from the tour so far, expecting to find nothing of note, before letting out a startled gasp at the sight of something grotesque staring back at him through the screen.

"What the fuck..."

It's a picture of him standing next to Alpha, except something is very wrong with his face, and he doesn't mean that in a rude way, it's just...

Alpha's face is... floating?

It looks faded out, blurry almost, but it seems like it's sitting lower than it should be.

Dew zooms in and tries to figure out what could have caused such an odd distortion.

Maybe Alpha had moved or bobbed his head?

But surely Dew would have noticed something like that sooner, right?

He taps the picture and moves it into another folder he labels, "For Mist" deeming it weird enough to show his friend later on, and returns to scrolling, only to pause again when he finds a group photo of the band huddled together under the awning of a restaurant.

All of their faces, even some parts of their bodies, are distorted and off the way they were in his picture with Alpha.

He frowns, disappointed, "Man, I really liked that one..."

As Dew flips through the rest of his pictures, the only ones that seem messed up are the ones with the ghouls in them, all of his other photos are crystal clear, even the ones he took of Terzo are still intact.

"Huh..." Dew drags the images into the new folder and decides to take a couple test shots of his face and the inside of his bunk to test and see if there's any kind of distortion going on, but all of them come out fine.

Deciding it must have been a glitch or the result of his own shaky hand movements, Dew snaps one more picture of himself and tucks the camera back into his bag.

"Weird." Dew yawns, "I'll figure out what's wrong with it tomorrow."

[mangus-khan-blog]

Macro Monday - 07152024

PHOTOGRAPHY – COLOR

[blueshadesfandomstuff]

Shutterbug and Seaglass Part 7 (for now): Mission to Save Batgirl's Ride

https://archiveofourown.org/works/54511972 - For anyone without an Ao3 account or who don't want to move website the fic is linked below the cut!

Jason wakes up to someone knocking on his bedroom door. It’s Sunday! He doesn’t have to be up early on Sunday, right? Holy fuck he’s tired too! Last night Batman and Robin finally finished their newest case and took out all of Penguins’ newest little money-spinning schemes he’d inflicted on the Narrows – a medium, lower-to-just-on-the-higher-side of middle-class, neighborhood pinched in between the working-class slum of The Cauldron the much more medium to quite upper-class New Town, giving the suburb it’s hour-glass shape for which it’s known and named for.

Penguin’s ploy this time had been at least a dozen pyramid type schemes that were just inscrutable enough to look like legitimate businesses until a hapless victim is in the trap and it can spring – demanding more than they can give in penalties for not meeting impossible quotas or not pulling in enough people so they too can be exploited until they’re all penniless and then it squeezes even harder insisting on loan options to pay down the debt that would make even a Diamond District loan shark flush at the audacity. Worse was the applicant pool so far – predominantly young people and teenagers with no knowledge of business contracts and no hope of freeing themselves once ensnared.

Then there was the laughably labeled ‘relief’ for the victims, available only after paying at least 50% of their accrued debt, (of course) where the victim is forcibly employed as a pig-packer in Gotham’s derelict and dangerous Warehouse District for almost no pay. It’s fully across town, and across two bridges to another of the islands that make up Gotham Proper, from the Narrows and difficult and dangerous to get to with little to no cell coverage and no parking options, limiting people to a very long series of bus trips, which might also be the point. Given the Penguin’s less then auspicious dealings with the other rogues of Gotham these victims would likely ‘end up in the wrong place and time’ - as the news segment would put it - with Scarecrow or worse, Hugo Strange or Professor Pyg, all rouges with a known love of human experimentation and abandoned warehouses.

These being exactly the rouges that who would pay happily pay Penguin for more victims, especially victims who would be difficult to track and take an age to even be reported as missing. Even without the horrible chance of being caught in a loathsome experiment these schemes had the potential to turn entire neighborhoods of mildly to extremely comfortably middle-class people into a desperate ravening hoard as they lost their ability to afford even their moderately comfortable lifestyle and defaulted on their home loans – turning a huge mass of people into desperate, first-time criminals - which are the most dangerous and unpredictable kind.

Unlike the usual run of the mill version of these Pyramid or Ponzi schemes that were ever popular in the Bowery, Robbinsville or the Cauldron - the areas usually called Old Gotham, these schemes had been lent the legitimacy of outstanding members of the Narrows more affluent community lauding them as excellent opportunities – either because they had been tricked or because they had been paid off. The legitimacy given to the schemes meant that schemes didn’t just have to just be stopped, like usual, they had to be annihilated and have the trust in them so heavily betrayed that they were poison and a new, smaller conman circling in the waters, couldn’t just take the schemes, dust them off, and implement them anyway. Batman had been against the schemes just because the schemes were illegal and wrong, rather than because of any better reason he cared to admit to – like their ability to implicate tens to hundreds of people who had no aspirations to crime and would pick up a criminal record.

The problem with Batman is he would want, as always, to bring in as many ‘offenders’ as possible to get them ‘off the street’. Jason, on the other hand, knows that most of the ‘offenders’ in a Pyramid scheme would have felt they had no other option but turn to recruiting to try and survive the ordeal and that ‘off the street’ for the vast majority of ‘offenders’ in this sort of situation actually means back on the street in a few days to weeks to months to years with even less legitimate job prospects and even more desperation then before because they now have a convicted felony on their record! Bruce seemed to think that his charity work of soup kitchens, shelters, food pantries, food drives and fair work schemes for minor felons totally offsets his Batman take-downs, but they don’t – they only help in minor ways and only with needs (though the provisos can be dangerously restrictive too).

There is no help for the loss of dignity and self-determination that comes with having a criminal record, and it would be far better to not take people’s ability to pay for comfortable living for themselves at all if possible. Thus, Robin and his faithful Robin proxy (Bug in a hooded Robin shirt or jacket and occasionally a domino) had to get involved and get involved early – working their usual beat of getting as many ‘middlemen’, go-fers and victims out as possible, while also discouraging people from getting caught AND discrediting the businesses so they couldn’t just pick a new area of the Narrows and start re-recruiting immediately.

The problem for Jason this time around was, unlike the denizens of Old Gotham, Robin wasn’t trusted by the adults of the Narrows and couldn’t discredit the business directly like he could in the poorer quarters of Gotham. Wearing his colours did nothing so Jason and Bug had had to make major changes to their pre-work and instead of the usual carpet-bombing information approach of warning everyone they could of the upcoming arrests (leaving only the guiltiest holding the bag) they made their warnings the teenage targets directly, as that was the only demographic Robin had any sway, before swapping Robin’s strident PSAs for quieter, civilian work in skate parks, arcades, community hubs, salons, churches, PTA meetings, community BBQs and malls.

Spreading the seeds of mistrust needed to totally kill the ventures carefully to the adults of the Narrows through the community as quietly but quickly as they could was a lot of work and effort, with them having to visit several venues a day for weeks. Unfortunately, Jason had the wrong accent for this sort of networking heavy, reputation-based cloak and dagger work and had to rely instead on Shutterbug to lead the charge. Timi had come through though, in spades, using a special version of her ‘Gotham’s Princess’ routine she pulled at galas – this one polished, specially weighted and worked to perfection to call to every social climber, faux-riche, pretentious Karen, society poser and anyone else stupid enough to believe that more money made you worth listening to like a siren does to sailors – except this was to save them all, not kill them, so Jason’s metaphor might need work there.

Anyway, shitty metaphors aside, Tiny Timi with her New Town accent (the next step up the social ladder for the social climbers of the Narrows), trust-able smile, sweet demeanor and obvious willingness to be a mouthpiece for the advice of her maverick, business prodigy parents and their ‘success story’ business had been much more effective at convincing the adults of the Narrows then Robin ever could be. She could gossip in salons that her parents were wary of the sound-looking investments coming up – wasn’t it worth a much closer look if Janet and Jack Drake of the extremely successful Drake Industries thought it suspect?

She could mention, off-hand, light and appropriate for small talk, at community barbecues that Janet always counseled her workers to check their employment contracts for worrying loopholes. She could flutter her lashes in pretty, picture perfect, confusion at the parents waiting to pick up their children at the skate parks and cinemas because ‘upper class families always insisted their kids should focus on school, only’ and her father ‘instituted a careful set of chores to teach her responsibility, rather than insisting she get a part time job’ – assuring them all that Jack thought it to be an integral part to giving her the key to her future success.

She could kvetch with kids that Robin couldn’t reach around a giant pile of Batburger fries in the food-courts of the many malls of the Narrows about unreasonable parental expectations and then imply their parents were fucking them over by encouraging them to work for these schemes. She could flash the expensive Cellini classic Rolex (the one she normally never wore but they don’t know that) Janet insisted on getting her for her 10th birthday, boredly checking the time while touring properties ‘looking for surprise investments for mommy and daddy’ all the while suggesting to small fish promised profit by Penguin that profit was all well and good but they’d lose their community standing as soon as Batman and Robin showed up – Could they survive the neighborhood turning on them? Finally, and almost as importantly, she could expound with careful, cultivated flattery to parent groups and HOAs that she was just so worried that the ‘tone of the neighborhood’ could be ‘lost’ if the businesses went ahead.

When Batman and Robin swooped in to make arrests in the emergency meeting Penguin held that night, Saturday night, the only people there to take into custody were the organizers, key players and the Penguin himself - too busy castigating his ‘lazy’ staff for their obvious failure take advantage of his perfect opportunity - to notice the Bat and Bird until it was too late and he’d implicated himself and the meeting surrounding him - again. Jason’s so proud of Bug he could burst, and he’ll be supplying her with her favorite coffee order before school every day this month if he can swing it! This process of getting out anyone he could of the criminal groups Batman and Robin were investigating was a lot of the work Jason’s version of Robin does before Batman wraps up a case – not that Bruce knows, or at least not that he comments he knows, and Bruce loves to point out that he’s aware of things his children try to keep hidden, especially if he’s sure his children didn’t want him to know.

He definitely doesn’t know Jason has Timi’s help or that Bug knows the identity of Batman, Nightwing and Robin at all. It was certainly a surprise to Jason that she knew, and he’d been bat-stalking with her before! Jason’s really not looking forward to that little revelation because it will be coming sooner rather than later. He’s been working his ass off at summer school so he can go to college at sixteen like Big Bird did, but while he’d much rather stay in Gotham then move, it’s still going to be harder to find time to spend with Bug unless she’s an official support for the vigilantes of Gotham or a vigilante herself as he’ll be at college while she’s still in high school (most colleges in the country won’t take earlier then 16 no matter how much money you have).

Jason has been lining up his arguments too, because he doesn’t want to go to Princeton or even Cornell, he doesn’t want to leave and anyway - bigger, fancier schools are less important to someone who wants to become an English teacher and teach in impoverished schools in the Old Gotham. Jason wants to go to Gotham U. Bruce might hate that or he might be fine with it, it’s impossible to tell but what he’ll certainly hate is Timi joining them on patrol and Jason looping her more into the nightlife. Too bad, old man, Jason is not living without Bug. She’s too important to Jason, end of discussion (and no he really doesn’t want to analyze why – it makes him feel weird, so he’d much rather focus on finding a way to keep her with him).

So, that was Jason’s Saturday night and most of the past month for him and Bug. Bug may have been in the pilot seat this time, but Jason was with her every step of the way. It was a lot of work and thus he feels thoroughly justified at sticking his head under his pillow and groaning when there is a knock at his door at… He checks his alarm clock. 8:00am on the dot on a Sunday morning?! He made sure he had no plans today! He even double checked with Alfie (who is probably the only one who knows about including Bug in his extracurricular Robin work, as he’s the one who drives or picks up Jason and Bug when the bus, train or taxi isn’t going to work.

Heck he might even know about Bug knowing the secret, Jason had never braved checking with him) and Alfie had assured him he could sleep in this morning. Who’s out there making Alfred wrong? Can he hit them and make them go away? Please? The answer to who is being a blue and black drama-ridden bird much like the Raven Nevermore and tapping, as of someone gently rapping, rapping at Jason’s chamber door on the bleak September morrow is firmly answered when Dick gets tired of knocking and tumbles through the door to flop on top of Jason dramatically, whining. Jesus Christ that’s annoying!

“Fu-dging hel-ck Big Bird cut tha histrionics already! The heck do ya want at ass o’clock ona Sunday mornin’?”

“I need help Littlewing – I made a dumb promise and dug myself a hole I don’t know how to get out of!” Is whined as Dick roots around, still on top of Jason, to get comfortable. Being a little brother is mostly a good change but just occasionally Jason laments that he isn’t an only child anymore – especially times like this. With great restraint, considering the whinging lump on top of him is a vigilante and he doesn’t have to be this nice, Jason digs his elbow into the side of Dick’s ribs to get the giant drama-llama to stop shifting on him as it’s pulling down his sleep shorts and to get his fat-bird-ass off him enough to breath easily again – Jason hates being the smallest of the Bats!

“That’s par fer the fu-fracking course with ya Dickybird but what didja do this time?” Jason is the best little brother - Honestly! Why else, aside from brotherly love, would he put up with this bullshit?

“Uuhh… Well, you know how Babs’ car was trashed at her uni last weekend?” Oh, Jason has a very bad feeling about this. The idiots trying to steal her ride – a classic and gorgeous custom painted, banana yellow, AMC Gremlin - couldn’t bypass the security on the car and had actually started to disassemble the whole damned engine when Babs had caught up with them and proceeded to kick righteous amounts of ass. Then she’d had to have it towed to the apartment she’s renting near Princeton’s campus, and then Jim Gordon paid to have it brought back to Gotham. Neither she nor her father are mechanics though and can’t afford to fix her bespoke little classic car any time soon.

“Yeah, ‘course I remember. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Barbie fly inta town so ready fer a Batgirl Beat-down Bonus-round before n’ tha was straight up ‘cause she hadta take tha bus home b’fore she could beat ‘er anger outta Two Face’s new lil’ minions. What. Did. You. Do?”

“I maaaay have promised I could get her car fixed for her birthday.… Except I can’t. I'm not mechanically savvy enough to put the parts they took out back in alone and I don't have anyone to help me anymore and I don't have a safe space to put the car while I work on it. Plus I’m not using Bruce’s credit card right now, even if I could steal it from him. My first paycheck doesn’t come in for another week and a bit and mechanics are waaaaay more expensive than I thought they would be!” Oh, if that isn’t just fucking typical with Dick and Bruce! Barbie’s birthday is the weekend after next. Why does he have to deal with these two stubborn jackasses again?

Right, adoption, that’s why. As of a nine month-ish ago he became Jason Peter Todd-Wayne and Dick is now Richard Johnathan Grayson-Wayne. Everything was lovely for three whole months before and a whole month after the court date with Dick and Bruce finally getting along again but it sadly didn’t last. Dick, now he has graduated with a degrees of sport science/Health and physical education from Cornell along with earning his USAG certification and his First Aid certification AND a three-year mentorship from the men’s and woman’s gymnastic coaches at Cornell has moved on to his first job as a gymnastics coach for under-12s in New York with a well-known and well-regarded gym. So far, all good – Bruce was very proud that Dick finished college, unlike Bruce, while still managing to lead the Titans in New York. He was also proud that Dick and had chosen to honor his birth parents and life at Haly’s circus by teaching a whole new generation of gymnastic athletes.

What hurt Bruce’s feeling and started the mother of all stalemates and an ongoing war between the two - which has spooled out to now with Dick waking Jason up for help - is that Dick chose to keep his name unhyphenated on his degree certificates and at his work. At work Dick has chosen to be coach Grayson, not coach Grayson-Wayne or (as Bruce would prefer particularly) coach Wayne and Bruce reacted to that like a five-year-old denied treats rather than a twenty-nine-year-old father of two – he straight up demanded Dick have the certificates reissued with the hyphenated surname and to change his work badge to just Wayne for the slight of just choosing just Grayson and Dick, understandably, refused. Dick’s point: That he wants to be seen as his own man – and the man his parents raised - rather than be seen as riding on his adopted father’s very long coattails to an easy life with easy success is being tragically ignored.

What’s more, while Dick is proud of Bruce adopting him and Jason and is happy to accept having Bruce as a second father figure on paper, Dick is only ten years younger than Bruce and has always chafed at the father and son dynamic Bruce insists on as he sees Bruce as more of an older brother with Alfred as the patriarch of the family. Bruce on the other hand has decided this is all Dick being ungrateful and unreasonable so he can be unreasonable in return and if Dick wants any support he’ll have to apologize and do as Bruce demands. Thus, a stalemate and a series of very chilly patrols as Batman and Nightwing, on the occasion Nightwing is even willing to step foot in Gotham, as well as a chilly atmosphere in the manor itself as Alfred is livid at Bruce’s choices. Not ideal. Not been a fun time to live through. Not Dick’s fault though, not about Bruce at least.

“Well I don’t know anythin’ ‘bout cars, aside from which tires are worth bank! Any chance ya can take it ta Earl or maybe Marva n’ slip it inta the Bat workload without alerting tha emotionally constipated idiot who’s name rhymes with moose?” Jason snarks, and really Bruce deserves it. He’s been insufferable.

Earl and Marva Cooper are the mechanics who created and upkeep the Batmobile as a thank you for Batman saving Earl from his previous employer who wanted to silence the talented mechanic over his misgivings on their newest car – which flaunted safety regulations, but the company had paid off the regulators. While they’re loyal to Bruce for helping them and tell him a lot – they’ve made exceptions before both for Dick and Alfred previously, though that was for less nefarious reasons like for Bruce’s birthdays and Christmas presents. Dick’s already shaking his head though he does gift Jason a smile at his snark at Bruce.

“I already tried that, but Bruce has been on Earl’s case about everything just in case I try and slip something past him for my Mockingbird and I want to wait a bit before I call down the wrath of ‘God’. It’ll be the only way to win against the head of steam Bruce has built up.” Dick sighs, at the end of this life his soul is escaping. Jason sympathizes – it’s been rough.

Dick’s pride and joy is a little 1990 Mazda Mx-5 sports car named Mockingbird that’s painted a matte baby blue – an unusual choice that highlights it’s more vintage lines but also a bitch to keep in good condition. The car often draws attention without even trying, effortlessly, much like Dick himself. He and Bruce fixed it up together so of course Bruce is trying to use that avenue to get his way – like that doesn’t further poison the well with his eldest. Alfie’s gonna be (even more) pissed! Dick driving an unsafe car or having to resort to public transport in New York because of spite won’t be acceptable to their grandfather. Alfred is already upset that Dick lives alone and works in New York while still only being nineteen, let alone Bruce purposefully endangering him further to get his way in an argument that shouldn’t have happened. He doesn’t blame Dick for wanting to save up Alfie’s ire though – Bruce is too stubborn for it to work unless Alfred is angry to the point where he loses all composure.

What to do they do about Babs’ car though? …Wait. Welp! It looks like he’s going to get a head start on paying for those coffees for Bug today! She’ll need at least two to be useful anyway. Bug needs caffeine to wake up most of the time to the point where getting between Timi and any source of caffeine, when she feels she needs it, might result in you losing a finger or two but watch particularly if it’s coffee and especially if it’s coffee in the morning. Strong black coffee – preferably, though she does usually prefer fancier ‘fruity’ blends. While Jason has been living at Wayne manor, he has occasionally been the supplier of Timi’s substantial coffee order so she can help him catch up with any homework that the Robin mantle makes him neglect from time to time.

Bruce would have a fit and reduce Jason’s time in the mask if he’d knew but while Jason isn’t the cleverest person in the family or even the cleverest of the people he knows, even outside of people who are vigilantes, he is more than clever enough to cover for himself most of the time. BUT if he can’t, he goes to Shutterbug, usually on a Sunday morning and usually with a thermos of coffee pilfered from Bruce – who also mainlines caffeine like it could go out of style any second but it’s not half as cute when he does it. That’s not an option this time though, not with Bruce spitefully monitoring everything.

“Well I hope ya can afford a couple of tha largest coffees at that bougie place on Gloster and Weaver wit’ tha Japanese syphoned stuff cause we’re gonna haveta go begging ta the only freshman AP student doing Automotive Repair Extension in alla Gotham Academy.” Dick blinks nonplussed after this statement before cracking a grin.

“Baby Bird does Auto Repair Extension? Shouldn’t she just be in Auto Shop as a freshman? I thought Repair Extension was for seniors only?”

“Yup! Lucky for you Bug is just that good! But it will cost serious caffeine – she was up late last night on our study IRC helpin’ me deal with Mrs. Melville’s last minute ‘pop quiz’ on Monday.” Jason emphasizes his point with jazz hands. Dick groans, probably both because he’s going to have to spend money and because he remembers the extremely horrible Mrs. Melville – the ever crotchety and mean-spirited Economics teacher at the High school section Gotham Academy and the bane of Jason’s current experience and Dick’s previous experience at the snooty school. Melville’s specialty is giving fucking essay answer ‘pop quizzes’ every fortnight including the first two weeks of year nine. She’s a handy excuse but Jason wishes she didn’t suck quite so much.

“But where are we going to even put the car for her to work on?”

“Ah, that’s the best bit! Rather than havinta upkeep a ‘garden courtyard’ tha Drakes converted tha back courtyard of their town house inta’a workshop an’ fly their mechanic – whose fu-dging Dale Gunn, by tha way – inta fix their precious babies when needed. Timi’s bin learnin’ at Dale’s hip since she was a little kid – like almost as young as I met her, little.” Dickie whistles impressed and finally lets Jason up to have some space to get showered and changed.

Dale Gunn was once the Mechanical Engineer for the Detroit based members of the Justice Society, which was the foundation framework used to create the Justice League though many of its members chose to retire rather than join with and fight alongside the JL. A few have remained on through - just in less active combat roles or other assisting roles. Dale is mostly retired but is still the senior partner of a very well-regarded shop in Detroit called The Auto Armory that he founded with his eldest son Marcus. His youngest son Allistair has now taken over the job with the JL and is one of the few people that lives almost full time on the Watchtower – Batman’s gift to the Justice League – a large space station in Earth’s orbit.

When not in orbit – dude lives almost full time in fucking space that’s so fucking cool – at the Watchtower, Allistair works with several JL affiliated Titan members in New York too. Dale has promised Bug more than once that if she can get the automotive chops, he’ll consider letting her apprentice with him and Marcus and when Jason met the man – who was already well aware of who Jason is at night – he upgraded that promise to apprenticing with Allistair if Jason ever let Bug in on the secret. More fool them both because she’d already worked it out as an itty-bitty bat stalker anyway. Jason hasn’t mentioned the conversation yet but will eventually. It’s looking more and more like he’ll be joining the Titans in the next few years, and there he might be able to sneak Bug in and get her involved in the Titans and with Allistair directly – bypassing some of the hissy fit Bruce is going to inevitably have once he knows Timi worked out their secret identities. He’ll be lucky to get out of the storm himself, but he might be able to shield Bug. It’s not her fault she’s too smart.

Jason showers in his pretentious marble and chrome en-suite bathroom with it’s ridiculous pure white towels (changing bedrooms wouldn’t help, every bathroom in the manor is like this and Alfie prefers white sheets and white towels, heck at least this bathroom doesn’t have a Jacuzzi as standard.). He then fixes his tangled-by-sleep curls and flipping off his reflection as he goes, then dresses – judging by Dickie’s linen shirt and jeans, it’s just cool enough for long pants but not cool enough for long sleeves, so he goes with black cargo pants and a green short sleeve henley.

He deposits his keys and the now attached-via-carabina Drake house keys into his pocket then spends some time finding his wallet where it had fallen off his bedside table and half under the bed, then heads out of the family wing towards Alfie’s kitchen. The manor might belong to Bruce, but the Lord and Master of the kitchen is Alfred Pennyworth and Bruce has been banned from the kitchen in a cooking capacity for years. Dick doesn’t stay anywhere else in the manor for long, so he doesn’t have to clash with Bruce as much, so that’s where he’ll be and also breakfast sounds sooo good right now.

Stepping into the kitchen, Alfie in his usual almost clairvoyant timing, sets Jason’s favorite mug (it’s a Wondergirl mug he found at a flea market when he was visiting Dick in New York – who also sent the photo on to Donna much to Jason’s embarrassment but it turned out to be worth it because Donna signed it for him before he came home.) filled with a really nice Lady Jane Grey tea they’ve been enjoying, on the bench of the breakfast bar, pouring himself a cup as well but in a far more proper teacup and saucer. The dandelion pattern on Alfie’s cup suggests he is more pleased then he has been lately, the cups with the nettle pattern are when you really must watch out for Alfie’s temper and have been out frequently recently. Dick, also seated at the bar, is happily tucking into a plate of shakshuka with what smells like extra harissa, a more then half-finished cup of his favorite mocha, doctored as usual with whipped cream and marshmallows, beside him in his favorite superman mug.

“Good morning, Master Jason, breakfast will be ready shortly – bacon and eggs on toast is acceptable, yes? After your long month of work and now a surprise early morning, I think you might need the extra protein.” God bless you Alfie, you always have the best ideas!

“Good mornin’! Bacon and eggs sounds perfect, like always Alf�� Alfred gifts him a full smile and Jason returns it and then enjoys his tea for a moment. Dick breaks the peace after he’s finished chewing his mouthful and swigged the last of his mocha.

“Mmm yeah sorry for the surprise – Babs was telling me about the bust you and the Bat pulled off last night, Littlewing. Funny thing – only the organizers and old Oswald were there, how lucky for Batman and Robin. Or how lucky for Batman alone I guess cause the littler-and-far-cuter Bat thinks he had some unsanctioned help for a certain ‘little birdy’ running his ass off for the whole month, while maintaining his summer school A+. That was some good work Littlewing!” Huh Babs got it too… Welp, that’s what happens when Batgirl is watching Gotham he guesses and whatever Batgirl knows Nightwing is privy to more often than not, even with Dick and Kory now being together. It took Babs a bit to get over it, but they seem to be friends again. It’s nice.

“Thanks, Big Bird, gotta do the legacy proud somehow. Queen B come up with a name fer when she’s keeping her watchful eye on Gotham all the way from her well-earned throne in Princeton yet?”

“You could work half as hard and still do that legacy proud Jaybird, and no, not yet, though your suggestion of Pythia, Dione or Fate’s string have been carefully considered – she says it’s almost right but not quite.”

“Hmm… Did ya suggest just using oracle yet? It’s simpler and hasa decent ring ta it.”

“Oooh thematic! She’ll be pleased about that aspect, and we could all match her with different divination titles when we use the network, which would be fun – but you should send it to her instead. She misses you and she gonna start withholding book suggestions soon if you don’t reply to her IRC messages soon!” Shit! Jason knew he’d forgotten something! He’s almost through reading The Business by Ian M Banks – which she suggested he read - so he’ll critique what he’s read so far, that should help smooth things over with Babs.

“I’ll message her from Bug’s – she has the better computer for it and you’ll both be busy.” Alfie pops Jason’s plate down in front of him and he sighs in pleasure at the four over-easy eggs and the heap of bacon with just a bit of toast and thanks his guardian angel grandfather – just what he needed! Alfie is magic! Dick too murmurs his thanks at the fresh mocha Alfie delivers him resplendent with whipped cream and mini marshmallows.

“You are most welcome Young Masters – as a final thing to help your busy day - here.” And with a flourish Alfred produces a smallish tin of ground coffee and a bag of gourmet marshmallows from… somewhere. Before continuing.

“Miss Timianna’s tastes generally run expensive with coffee and while you’ll probably be able to acquire something to suit, traversing Gotham Proper in a tow truck with Miss Barbara’s car on it will be difficult enough let alone racing against the clock to keep the coffee from over extracting. Also, this is the Elida Natural from Panama that I procured after she enjoyed the blueberry notes in the Ethiopian blend so much last time. The Elida has a much wider range of fruit notes. I wanted to treat her for all the help she’s been giving you, Master Jason, with your studies while you were fighting the good fight this month." Well if Alfie knows Bug is in on the secret - he's not sharing, so that's nice. Jason lets a soft relieved breath out while Alfred continues, unruffled as always.

"While any marshmallows would be welcome, I’m sure, these have a better, less artificial flavor and came in rosewater flavor – just do me the favor of making sure she eats some sort of proper breakfast first. I have had the coffee carefully roasted and just finished griding enough for six cups so it will be fresh. Before you ask: No Master Wayne doesn’t know I bought the bag and I have no intention of telling him I did so.” Oof! Alfie’s bringing out the big guns if Bruce has been reduced to Master Wayne! Yuuup Alfie’s pissed with Bruce! Luckily judging by the dandelion teacup it’s only Bruce he’s upset with and given he has every right to be, Jason’s gonna cheer Alfie on from the sidelines but first.

“Thanks Alfie! I’ll be sure ta let’er know – she’ll be touched ya thought’a her!” Alfred smiles again and sets about cleaning up. Bug loves Alfie too and often helps him out with cleaning tasks or cooking after school if she doesn’t have homework to complete but Jason does. She’d want Jason to thank him in addition to the message she’ll likely send later as well her thanking Alfred in person. Bug’s etiquette is top notch and heavily drilled in like that.

Jason suspect that Alfie already considers Timi family even without Bruce’s approval since Bruce still regards Timi very aloofly and with cold suspicion - “Just be careful she isn’t using you for the Wayne family status Jaylad!” Blah, blah blah. That’s fucking bullshit B and you’d know that if you listened to Jason at any fucking point! Alfred had been appalled and a little angry to find that Bug does most of the cooking herself now because Mrs. Mac been made to pull back more now Timi is ‘old enough to look after herself’. Twelve seems a little early for that frankly – especially as this summer the Drakes also began insisting that Timi do the grocery shopping too.

Mrs. Mac had to go back to being purely a house-keeper, stopping in three days a week only to clean and maybe make meals those evenings rather than the hybrid job she’s had for years where she was available to Timi most of the time and cooked her dinner – Bug’s been managing her own breakfasts and lunches for a couple of years already. Alfred immediately set about helping Timi with meal planning effectively and arranged for a delivery of groceries twice a week to the Drake townhouse using the Wayne paid shopper who visits the farmers markets, gourmet deli and butcher to get in the best produce for the manor. Bug says she hasn’t been this full all the time in years – which she doesn’t think is an alarming statement for some fucking reason!

Jason plows through breakfast with gusto – Alfie’s cooking is the best and he’s almost always hungry at the moment – hopefully this means a growth spurt is due! He does miss his mom’s cooking sometimes though. He’ll cook some of her recipes for lunch and dinner for Bug and Big Bird today – that’ll scratch that itch! Big Bird and Jason depart after loading the dishwasher with their tableware, hugging Alfie and telling him they’ll likely be gone all day and not to worry about them for lunch or dinner, getting out while the getting is good and before Bruce can be up and awake enough to restart his fight with Dick, or just saying anything else stupid. It doesn’t take much with both Alfie and Dickie on hair-trigger tempers and for such a smart man, Bruce says a lot of stupid things, all the time.

Jason and Dick set out the game plan while driving into Gotham Proper in Mockingbird. Dick is going to drop Jason off at the Drake townhouse so he can start operation Wake Bug while Dick heads to the Gordon’s flat and meets the tow truck driver who will transport Barbie’s Gremlin over, apparently it’s called Brum (named for the titular car of a kids show - a miniature Austin 7 and it’s wacky adventures in the English countryside), probably riding with the tow truck and leaving Mockingbird in the Brum’s place. If Timi can get the car finished today – neither of them knows how likely or unlikely that is – then they’ll swap the two cars back, before Big Bird drops him back at the manor and then heads back to New York.

If she can’t get it finished, they’ll bus it back to Mockingbird instead. Sound plans made just in time. Jason hops out of Mockingbird, with his precious cargo of coffee and marshmallows, while Dick slows down just enough that the maneuver is mostly safe, while still being a bit of a thrill. Dick takes a moment to snap a finger gun and a wink at Jason and Jason returns double barrel easily, even if one is partially obscured by the coffee container – it’s so easy to tell they’re both bi sometimes, the memes just come at will!

Jason manages to get up the stairs and inside without dropping his keys, which is a more common occurrence then it should be for a trained vigilante, puts his shoes into the hall cupboard and wanders into the almost sterile kitchen of the Drake townhouse. The Drake’s home is set up with the typical layout for a townhouse like this – you enter into a central hall that includes the stairwell. A low ceiling split level room is to the right of the hall – in this case a pair of offices for the lord and lady of the house, set above the garage and the kitchen is on the left with the living room in an extension at the back of the house through the door at the end of the hall. In the basement is the garage with access to the shop beyond, Timi’s dark room, Mrs. Mac’s old living space, a powder room (read toilet with a sink in the room, and a shower in an adjacent room) and a laundry room with access to the small bit of the backyard, not converted into the car workshop of dreams, for drying clothes the few days of the year there is enough sunshine but low enough humidity.

Then on the second floor is the family bathroom, in theory but it really just belongs to Timi. The rest if the floor is Timi’s room, a guest bedroom and a small sitting room that Timi has crammed a desk and a desktop computer into one of the corners and the top floor is Jack and Janet’s master suite, which is apparently huge and has a balcony with glimpses of Giordano botanical terraces – Gotham’s most popular choice for wedding pictures as the green-space is set at the very top of several staggered-in-height buildings, the shortest of which has New Town’s registry office, thus free from most of Gotham’s opportunistic, carnivorous wildlife.

Like the bathrooms of Wayne manor, white marble is everywhere in Drake family home and makes up most of the flooring and tiling of the first floor. The furniture is sharp, angular and clean-line modernist white and black, mixing with stark black cabinetry, white wainscotting, white drapery and – thank fuck because white would be a nightmare – black carpets in the few places that are carpeted at all. The upper floors swap the white marble tile for ebony timber, except in the wet areas where the marble returns. It’s a monochrome world, aside from the antiques and artifacts on display and pops of chrome and stainless steel here and there. Timi’s Robin mug, sitting by the sink, is fluorescently bright by contrast.

Jason doesn’t know how Timi deals with the lack of colour honestly! It’s so fucking boring and difficult to keep clean! Even the mug is an imposition and the only scrap of bright colour to be seen here before reaching Timi’s bedroom. The mug was bought by Catherine at a local bizarre, and Timi loves it enough to break her usual habits of making sure not to advertise she has a love of Gotham’s protectors as it might call attention to her stalking habits. All the other dishes and drinkware in the house are white, except for Janet’s personal mug – which is black with silver art-deco patterns but that’s tucked away into its home cupboard right now.

Jason gets coffee going in the – white enamel and chrome – single serve espresso machine after washing out Timi’s mug from, judging by the set stain, two or three days ago and then pulls out another white mug for the second round, pausing to finger-wave at Janet’s mug and chuck the used grounds in the opulent and shiny stainless-steel bin while he does. Taking both upstairs when they’re finished to Timi’s room, pushing open the ajar door with his foot. He places one coffee on her desk and turns to survey his soon to be wake-up victim.

The main part of Timi’s room contrasts with the rest of the house only a little because otherwise Jack would have a fit – and that’s not just hyperbole, he proved it the day he came back to see coloured paint cans in the garage after Timi and Jason painted originally, just after Timi’s 9th birthday, where he threw a fit of toddler proportions and Janet sent them inside because he couldn’t actually be reasoned with. That was not long before it was decided that Timi would be shipped off to Brentwood – but the main part of the room wasn’t the space they painted. This main part came later, after Timi came home from Brentwood, when they were together again.

The walls, above the black wainscotting, are wallpapered with a black and white wrap-around panorama of Gotham from atop Drake Industries that Timi took herself, but the Neon signage has been recolored, adding pops of neon rainbow colour to the space – a cheery little counterpoint to an otherwise very dramatic image. All of Timi’s furniture is low-line so not to interrupt the image more than the curtained windows and the door openings already do, even her wardrobe which is a half hanging style. All her furniture either came in black or has been painted black to match and keep it cohesive but all the pieces in here are far less sharp angled and modern with most being replicas or actual vintage items featuring more mid-century rounded shapes and tapered legs. The carpet is black, as is the wicker clothes hamper though splashes of colour can be seen through the weave.

This room originally came with a small (for an opulent house) walk-in closet with a twin pocket sliding doors, but Timi likes sleeping in enclosed spaces, preferably also away from the light her white curtains can’t keep out and likes the idea of being able to close away her bed from prying, judgmental eyes because – as she’s had to purchase the bed clothes and maintain them herself – her bed and pillows are a riot of colour, heck her whole sleep space is. The fitted sheet, flat sheet, each pillowcase, blankets, duvet and all her pajamas are all bright and have differing patterns and colours – by design.

She bought the sets and mixed them all together to purposely achieve this effect. This was the space they painted for Timi’s birthday and Jason’s still proud of how it looks even three years later. The walls and ceiling of the ex-closet are painted dark blue with dark clouds sponged on over gold and silver speckles – giving an impression of a cloudy night sky and fireflies or stars with the overhead light replaced with a celestial chandelier of sorts, though it’s the smallest one he’s ever seen, with hanging crystals moons and stars that refracts the light into thousands of little rainbows when it’s on.

The bed sits horizontal in the space and on the left side, where end of the bed is, one wall is dedicated to her long hanging space, obscured by a thick Turkish prayer rug hanging from a curtain rod to protect her dresses and other long things from the sleep mess, the back wall is a collage of photos including Bug, Dick and the Graysons and another of Bug, Jason and Catherine and a newer one of Bug, Dick, Babs and Dick out for burgers after school last year. The other wall is home to four floating shelves with her fiction book and DVD collection and other favorite ornaments.

The bed takes up almost all the floor space, to the point that she had to put the bed frame together in the space to get it to fit, except for the long hanging space on one side wall and her bedside table near the headboard (adorned with her bedside lamp and her laptop) in the small walking space in front of the bed that, at the moment, is being taken over by a bright orange beanbag she’s also stuffed in here. It looks like the nest of a fantasy race of bird-people. Timi is curled up loosely in the middle of the double bed in bright pink sleep pants and a clashing turquoise top, tangled with her lilac flat sheet – dead to the world.

Timi has a few modes when she wakes up and it took him a long while to puzzle through how to get each version – though it’s still not sure-fire, even after all this time, but there are some consistent results he can get. The answer was stunningly simple once it was all laid out, it’s all got to do with how you went about waking her up and how busy/tired/overworked she was when she went to bed – all versions transition faster with caffeine but he doesn’t have enough data to know what happens when she’s not been busy as Timi has been busy the whole time he’s known her. As a few examples: If you insist on her being up and doing rapidly, you get a stunningly grumpy little ball of a human who’s prone to lashing out and being huffy and annoyed. If you wake her very gently you get a confused but gentle shuffling zombie. If you wake her up with physical affection, you get a literal cat who just wants attention – which is his favorite and the one he’s goes with whenever he can.

His favorite version is one he’s going for today, Dick will be a while so he has time, and this should net him a cuddly Bug that’ll get more coherent as the caffeine kicks in. This should put her in the most amenable mood possible to deal with the manual labor being thrust on her, even though she’s just worked her ass off, all because Big Bird was a dumb-ass. He has no doubt they’d convince her eventually anyway as she loves Babs too – turns out her tutor during the years they weren’t being schooled together was Babs when Babs was doing community hours at the library in New Town south. Babs thinks she’s adorable if a little awkward, but that’s not a deterrent to Babs. After all - if she can deal with Bruce’s misanthropy, a little awkwardness is a cake-walk and nets her a very cute and loyal little friend who can code almost as well as she can.

He puts the coffee, in her Robin mug, on her bedside table and sits on the edge of her bed before turning to face her, hooking up his leg and tucking it so it goes into a lotus position while the other foot stays on the floor and calling to her cajolingly. Her response is to roll towards him, curling round him once she runs into him, before she works out scritches could be happening and repositions so she can lay her head on his thigh with a sleepy little yawn. He can’t help his snort but does, obligingly, bury his fingers in her silk-soft hair to rub gently at her scalp. After a little bit of scritches Bug heaves herself up uncoordinatedly so she can get more of an actual hug going but he uses her lack of coordination to turn her and then pull her into his lap, back against his chest – not what she’s looking for and she takes a surprised breath followed by a more confused and mournful noise - but settles when he actually holds her, hugging her around the middle. Her head lolls on his shoulder, blinking blankly. He valiantly ignores the weird feeling that he’s been experiencing around her lately.

“Sorry Bug but I actually need ya help. Dickie’s gonna be here soon. He was a dumb n’ said he could get Babs’ car fixed for’er Birthday but he can’t afford it n’ he and Bruce are still doin’ tha thing.” Not particularly descriptive but he finds Bug can get with the program more easily if he gives her something to go on and a goal – like being awake in time for Dickie to get here.

Bug makes an ‘I heard you’ noise then brings up a hand to rub at her right eye, which is usually a sign that she’s aware she needs to get with the program. Jason picks up her coffee and hands it to her, making sure she has a grip on the mug first before he lets it go and then wraps his arms back around her so she can process. She sips and then sighs in satisfaction.

“Alfie coffee?” Huh.. A whole-ass question! She’s doing well today!

“Yup, bought it just for ya n' sent me with a box a' pre-ground. I’ve made ya two cups.”

“mmm… Th’n’ks. Gonna need it. M’tired.”

“Yup, that’s okay though I planned fer it. I wish we’d both had time ta rest but c'est la vie”

“mmm... That’s kay. Glass... Best” is mostly muttered but she shows she mean him to hear her when she turns enough to gently bop into his cheek with her forehead before going back to her coffee. Best what? Who knows – Bringer of coffee most likely. He’s probably smiling like an idiot. Sleepy cuddle-Bug is inconvenient as hell but she’s also very sweet and affectionate so he forgives her instantly.“Dickie here soon?”

“Yup, said he’d text when they’re a couple a' minutes out wit' tha tow truck n' Babs’ yellow Gremlin”

“Uhoh. Wh’t happen t’ Brum?” Jason snorts – of course she knows what Babs named her car. Timi, who had started taking long pulls from her coffee in response to Dick being here ‘soon’ stops to turns confused purple blue eyes on him, humming a questioning note.

“Sorry, I didn’t know until today that she named 'er car that. A couple a' idiot car-jackers broke inta tha student lot at Princeton. God only knows why; I can’t imagine a lot filled wit' more car alarms. They picked tha Gremlin – probably ‘cause they were hoping fer easy pickin’s. Babs got tha alert n' came out ta find’em disassembling tha engine ta try n get tha security off. Queen B had a field day n’ then her Dad had ta tow it back ta Gotham n’ she hadta bus it back here ta get the rage out.”

“Car-j’ker aren’t as smart as you us’ally Glass, hck most folks aren’t ‘s smart as y’. Batgirl beat-em-up after huh?” Huh… Jason needed to hear that semi coherent sentence, judging by the way he can feel himself melting into a pile of goo. He hugs her a little tighter. It’s not that Dick, Babs and Bruce think he’s stupid exactly, they know as well as he does that he’s reasonably clever but he just doesn’t think as quickly as they do, can’t make the same snap deductions they can, and while they try not to judge, he is the butt of their jokes sometimes (Babs and Dick) and criticisms often (Bruce). Ah well onto Batgirl Bonus Beatdown.

“Oooh~! Boy did she ever! Both tha carjackers n' then back ta Gotham, when she came home. T’was like watching a tornado with martial arts trainin’! Two-Face’s new goons weren’t lookin’ so crash hot afta, that’s fer sure.” Bug snorts but continues drinking. Once she finishes she turns a little to rest her forehead against his cheek again, this time as an extended press for a little while, until she can finally will herself to speak.

“mmm… like th’ cuddles but haveta get changed” which she pairs with a hilariously dramatic, mournful whining tone. Jason does his best to swallow his snerk. She’s ridiculous.

“Tell ya what, ya get dressed an’ I’ll carry ya downstairs, make ya breakfast n' let Dickie in myself. Are ya parents cars in tha garage? Also where’s tha button for tha garage door again?”

“hmmm…. Bre'fast. Kay.” She turns to look at him a moment again and he can’t quite help kissing her on the forehead. She hums, pleased, before adding “Cathy day?”. Jason’s eyes tear up a little – he still misses his mom so much it aches like a punch from Bane some days. How Bug picked up on him wanting to cook the recipes his mom did, he has no idea but he’s grateful. He nods, unable to speak. Bug clumsily pats the arm he still has slung round her middle gently. “S’kay t’ miss ‘er. I do too. Maizena th’n plz? I ev’n have cream – it came the shoppin’ yes’day so it’s still good. Mom’s car parked outta tha way, Dad’s car at tha’ airport. Shou’be able ta go straight through. Button to tha left side a’ door wh’n lookin’ at tha door fer th’ shop. Wheel jack t’ get Brum in easy on tha shelved in that main garage by tha tool boxes.”

“Well – that’s my marchin’ orders. I’ll give ya five minutes?”

“mmm y’s pleas’, answer Babs if y’ bored. Think ya fr’got las’ week.”

“Will do. Ya have 'nother cup’a coffee on yer desk” With that Timi hauls herself upright and he pops up too, heading out the door and closing it behind him. Standing for a moment to breathe through the sting of missing Catherine, God he’d almost kill for even another moment to see his mom! Jason then heads for the computer shoved into the upstairs living space. It starts up quickly and he logs into Bug’s profile. He’s long memorized the password – flatteringly it’s the date he first flew as Robin – Bug proud of him for keeping the legacy of Robin alive. He pulls up the IRC chats and logs in as himself before sending a quick review of The Business and the suggestion of the name Oracle to Babs. She isn’t online right now as she’s probably sleeping in after a long week of classes – she’s going for her master’s in computer and library sciences.

Just as he’s logging back out of the computer and shutting it down Bug shuffles out of the bathroom, having obviously washed up to wake up more, clutching the two coffee cups and dressed in light weight wide leg jeans with an embroidered dragon on the hip in grey and a butter yellow scoop neck tee that’s also has a dragon emblazoned on it in black. She’d bought both along with a backpack, funky sneakers with elastic instead of laces and a green silk shirt for Jason (also with elaborate embroidery but this time a pair of dancing fire-foxes because she’s a dork but she’s a sweet dork) during the casework.

They all came from a struggling but funky independent clothes store in the back of a shopping arcade in the Narrows called Dream Glow, and she wanted to support the little business. She looks far more awake then he thought she’d be by this point – no wonder Alfie only gave him enough coffee for six cups, she probably shouldn’t have more than that in a day if it’s caffeinated enough to wake her up like this, though it could be because Dick needs her help – she’s still a little star stuck when it comes to Dickie, it’s kinda endearing but also a little annoying that he has to cajole her but she’ll fight her natural reaction to waking up for Big Bird.

Still, she did just spend a month working with him in the Narrows (bought him a cool shirt and more than a fair share of their lunches during that time too) and woke up, without complaint, for the cost of cuddles and caffeine so it’s not like he doesn’t have her full effort or affection either. He reminds himself of his current mantra – He will not be jealous of his brother’s influence on his best friend, it won’t end well ever, and he really doesn’t want a sibling relationship with Timi… He’s not sure what he wants from her and he’s going to keep his mouth shut until he works out what’s up.

Also, her waking up means he doesn’t have to carry her downstairs and she steals his phone, promising to let Dick in and get Brum into the shop if he’s still willing to cook her Maizena – which yes, he will, because it means she’s eating breakfast, and he did want to dip into his mom’s cooking today. Plus, he was honest with Dick earlier – cars are very pretty but he likes motorcycles better and doesn’t know much about cars aside from which tires would get him fed for a while. Maizena is easy too and he easily gathers the ingredients including the corn flour which the name of the dish comes from. Maizena is a French brand that makes particularly pure corn flour, and it quickly became a globally recognized name.

His mom made it slightly differently than other recipes he’s read since with egg yolks, equal parts cream and milk and dark brown sugar for sweetness – adding to the richness and a little protein and deepening the vanilla, nutmeg and cinnamon flavors and he follows his heart and the old routine and makes it that way now. He ends up making enough for both him and Bug and a little left over – maybe Dickie might like to try it? He contemplates the egg-whites left behind for a moment before deciding to make pavlova right now so it’s ready for desert tonight, Arroz con Calamares for lunch and Asopao de Pollo for dinner, as it was always Bug’s favorite of his mom’s dishes and gives him excuse, along with the Arroz con Calamares, to make sofrito which he has always loved the smell of.

His perusal of the fridge earlier revealed that Timi not only has an abundance of cream – heavy, drinking and whipping as Jack likes cream in his coffee and his desserts – but also Calamari which is Janet’s favorite, a kilo of chicken thighs and more fresh vegetables, herbs and fruit then he suspects she knows what to do with considering her parents aren’t set to return till just before Christmas, a recent but sudden itinerary change that obviously fucked up her meal planning and food ordering. Jason hates Jack most of the time, he’s a horrible human being and a worse father but Janet also has her moments sometimes. Like when she makes plans to leave her twelve-year-old daughter home alone for an extra two and a half goddamned months! Right! Pavlova is a small challenge and a good use for much of fruit that’s in her fridge so that’s what he’s making – get the anger from the Drake dramaTM out on the egg whites before he switches to the ridiculous white KitchenAid mixer that’s here.

A little while later Timi and Dick enter the kitchen chatting about upgrades Dick might get for Mockingbird if Bug can install them – she’s a little hesitant to promise anything but looks please to have obvious fodder for birthday and Christmas gifts. Jason has just finished taking meringues out of the oven for the second time – after the rest - and is starting to clean up to get ready for the next round. Timi takes in the kitchen for a moment before she breaks off her conversation with Dick.

“Glass – You know I am never going to complain about you cooking in this pointlessly tricked out kitchen, especially when I’m going to get to eat it and doubly so when I have acres of food to use and no-one to use it on – and - I know you don’t think of it, BUT put the things you’re not going to use again in the dishwasher and save yourself some time!” He’s had this argument with Timi so many times! Yes, dishwashers are an amazing invention but he’s far to used to handwashing if he’s cooking – and too in the zone with memories of his mom - and far too impatient to re-learn a new routine now!

“Yes, oh mistress a' nitpick, I like bein’ ‘old fashioned’. Now sit’cha ass down ‘n eat ya Maizena.”

“I will! But it’s my kitchen, I should be helping. I’ll take over drying or do you want me to wash?” God-damned ingrained manners bullshit! Nope!

“Sit!” He insists, ignoring the huffy pout he gets for it and pointing with the spatula he just finished washing until Bug does as she’s told and sits at the breakfast bar. Jason ignores Dick as best he can, but he can feel the fucking Cheshire grin being pointed at him but fuck it! He has a stand-off to win and with Alfie safely too far away to hear him he returns to the natural swearing dialect he’s always had. “Try eatin’ before ya run a million miles per fuckin’ hour fer once, ya fucking ‘diet conscious’ protocol-droid-wired little shit!”

“Rude!” He rolls his eyes so hard he might have strained something only to have the look dished right back and Dick breaks into giggles that Timi also quickly catches. Jason snorts.

“Wanna try some Maizena Big Bird? It’s basically breakfast custard. Ma mom used ta make it fer cheap on lean days, but she made this version when she could – especially on cold mornin’s.”

“Uh, yes. Sign me the fuck up! That sounds excellent!” colour Jason unsurprised at Dickie being game for breakfast custard. Timi laughs at Dick’s enthusiasm and Jason allows himself a chuckle before he serves up for the three of them. Distributing bowels and joining Big Bird and Bug at a right angle, so he can see them both and talk. He will admit that it does feel good to sit down for a bit but he doesn’t need to rest for long honestly

They all sit in silence for a moment, and he preens internally that his food earns what Catherine called ‘the silence of enjoyment’ before getting curious about what’s been happening while he was flinging egg whites around.

“So whats tha 4-1-1 'n Brum?” Dick smirks a little at the anachronism – people probably don’t say that anymore, but his mom always used to and his mom was… kinda cool. Not hip and certainly not ‘with it’ but she was cool!

“Rough estimate's about 40 hours – all the important parts are there and none of them are in bad condition, but I’d like to clean everything up a little bit and change the oil, plus the right break-pad is a little worse for ware and some of the spark-plugs need a replace and since Babs has a long commute from Princeton to here regularly I want to make sure she’s safe as I can. Also, the A/C unit is leaking, kinda shit, and doesn't have a heat option so that that would be good to fix going into winter.” Timi rattles off like the tiny robot she can be sometimes. Well, good thing they have just under two weeks then!

“Looks like we’ll be bussing back to the Gordon’s huh Littlewing?” Jason shrugs, unbothered but Bug pulls an unimpressed face.

“Or I can get you a taxi and you don’t have to deal with fresh piss that always finds its way to the floor of the busses that run the 93206 route?” Ah fuck, Jason somehow always forgets that the New Town to Coventry Bus route passes by the piss-peddler taverns on 49th street heading into the docks. Bud-light is like their best beer, and their best seller is Natural Light. It takes a lot of Natty Light to get the level of shit-faced dock workers like to be after a long week – it’s always nasty as soon as the sun goes down.

“Ah, I can’t manage the taxi on top of paying you for the parts you still need Baby Bird.” Dick interjects.

“Because I’m so strapped for cash Dick? I can cover it – even if it’s just for now. You’ll be getting your full paycheck soon anyway if you’re really worried, you can pay me back then but no pressure. Congrats on the job by the way! Aviator Flare is one of the top gyms in Brooklyn right now!” Jason looks at Timi for a moment. She does get a massive allowance, it’s true, but auto-parts for a classic car run higher than her usual costs. At his raised eyebrow she grins unrepentantly before pulling her wallet and revealing Jack’s Platinum card with a joyful little flourish.

“He left it” Dick tuts and starts to make unimpressed brother noises, but Jason just waits. The timing is too good for there not to be a punchline. Or what Timi thinks is a punchline. Jason sometimes finds the punchline a far more literal then joke. As in he finds himself wanting to punch something or particularly someone. Where the fuck did Timi have to run to, to save Jacks ass this time? After a moment, he cuts across before Dick can start his ‘I’m worried about your choices tirade’ as Timi doesn’t know Dick well enough to know it’s coming.

“Where did he leave it this time?”

“Oh you know, just on the floor of the Rose Café men’s room.”

“In a men’s room again? Janet must be pissed.”

“Yuuup – Behold!” She flicks her phone out of her pocket, flicking it open in a very well-practiced move, opens a message and slides it over to Jason who scoops it up and angles it so both he and Dick can read, and they both let out amazed whistles.

Low and behold there sits a text message from Janet responding and thanking her daughter after Timi probably bussed over to the Rose Café just to pick up Jack’s card, again. She certainly doesn’t need to frequent the very ass-end of the Diamond District otherwise! The language is banal – after all Janet considers herself a lady and ladies don’t curse or use harsh language (according to Lady Drake anyway) - but the explicit instruction for Timi to use the card for anything, which is in bold and underlined, up to five thousand dollars to make her extra couple of months of unscheduled time alone ‘fun’ is still an effective sucker punch even in the blandest language imaginable.

The money is officially Timi’s too, and firmly in addition to her normal allowance and any gifts, anything she doesn’t spend right now goes into her personal savings account when Janney is home and can organize the transfer. It seems Jack brushed off losing the card, claiming they could afford any charges that they couldn’t block and then he’d just get a new card when they’re home and now Janet feels it would do Jack some serious good to have a ‘sharp lesson’ about not losing the credit card that doesn’t have a limit on it, all of the time! Which is sorta fair, this must be the thirteenth or fourteenth time in the just last six months alone that Timi has had to get out to somewhere esoteric in Gotham and even Blüdhaven or New York a couple of times to retrieve the card, but five thousand dollars is a ridiculous limit just to teach Jack a lesson.

Timi’s usual, generous, allowance is about $500 a month spending money (not including groceries, normal house sundries, house bills, her phone bill or school supplies - those things she has own access to the Drake’s main account that Janet watches it like a hawk- like so closely she can quote, at will, dollar amounts she’s unhappy with kind of closely) as long as she maintains her grades, doesn’t overspend on her phone bill or drive the other bills to high, does all the tasks, lessons and projects expected of her and maintains the house to Janet’s exacting standards.

So, Janney must be beyond pissed to push her to this extreme – she usually tries to keep the peace if she can with Jack, but she’s obviously decided he can go fuck himself. What did the fucker do this time? Jason pulls the phone back out of Dick’s view and clicks up a little to see what’s got Janney so pissed and is unsurprised (but deeply enraged, deep down where he can hide it) to find it was Jack who changed their itinerary at the last minute to for a high profile dig at Vesuvius, which according to Janet’s messages is almost impossible to get into, so Janet doesn’t want to miss it, without consulting or even mentioning it beforehand to Janet.

Janet hadn’t even known they were on the waiting list for the dig and had resigned herself to the next wait-list this time next year because they needed to come home as they’d already been away since the just after Timi’s birthday in July and had another four month trip before that, by the time the new year rolls around they’ll have been in Gotham about a month and a half to two months total this year. Jack originally didn’t want to be home until the new year, but Janney put her foot down insisting they be home with their child for the holidays and the re-start of business in January.

BUT the itinerary change was after Timi had shared the major effort she’d gone to planning a dinner for her parents’ arrival home and had arranged, with Janet’s help, a private tour of the world renowned Musée National de l’Automobile, the world's largest classic car museum for Jack’s birthday last weekend – out of her own money. Fuck’s sake. At least Janet agrees that all Timi’s hard work shouldn’t be disregarded like it has been and has made some in-roads to apologize and treat her daughter for her thoughtfulness and the utter inconvenience she’s had to put up with.

Timi likely will reorder this same or a similar grocery load for when her parents come home in late December as she’ll be looking forward to seeing them – and no matter how much Jason doesn’t think they deserve her loyalty, she shouldn’t have to work so hard for them. He could be helping her. Maybe he’ll try learning Alfred’s squid-ink Calamari dish, it has a fancy name he can’t remember right now, and sneak over to give Timi a hand. Bruce insists on them all being home for Christmas but with how rocky everything is Jason suspects he’ll manage it. The squid-ink pasta dish Alfred makes should have enough richness to keep Jack as happy as he’ll ever be willing to be (while not globe-trotting) and it would suit Janet tastes too, especially if he asks Alfred to pair a good wine with it. Plus, it would be nice to spend some time together cooking. Timi is a huge help to Robin and to Jason at school but it feels like that’s all he sees her for anymore – when he needs her help with something - and that’s not the proper recipe for a good friendship. She deserves better from everyone, but he can only control himself, so that’s where he’ll start.

Plan in place Jason snaps back into the conversation to find Timi has convinced Dick all will be fine. Of course, should he really be surprised? Timi’s a master at manipulation and even if she only limits herself to being nice when dealing with friends, the experience still makes itself known. He’s just watched her weave stories from whole cloth with whole parts of the Narrows, convincing Dick that she wants to do work that she absolutely would like to do for Babs wouldn’t be hard. She also happy as a clam to talk about Mockingbird and what Dick does and doesn’t like about the car. Dick doesn’t have a chance to talk cars often – it’s always been just him, Bruce and Alfred who know about cars, even the rest of the Titans aren’t big car people with maybe the exception of Roy Harper, but Dickie and Roy can be a bit on again, off again and keep their rivalry up to the point they regularly piss each other off. That’s one of the many reasons they been frenemies with benefits several times, usually when they both find themselves single again.

Maizena finished, Jason pops up to make another round of coffee, and sets up Timi’s special brew in a normal mug – so Dickie doesn’t tease her for the Robin mug – beside the machine before running a more normal brew for couple of cups for him and Dickie and then goes hunting for the cocoa and other bits and pieces for Dick’s preferred mocha. He delivers these to twin thank-you-s and happy smiles and then explains lunch and dinner plans, making smiles even wider and Dick actually rubbing his hands together gleefully – he must miss Alfie’s cooking something fierce if he’s that excited for Jason’s stuff - before realizing Timi got up and put all the tableware in the dishwasher why he was doctoring Dick’s mocha.

He rolls his eyes at her and flicks her nose, but keeps his smile - stubborn but sweet little shit. She just puffs her cheeks at him in return before Dick and Timi head out to do what work they can on Brum today. He’s just contemplating where to start next when Timi darts back into the kitchen to press a kiss to his cheek, missing slightly and catching the corner of his mouth, before she darts back out with a slightly pink face. He stares after a little dumbly for a few seconds, as the weird feeling he’s been getting round her kicks back in again but stronger then it’s ever been. Shit. He really needs to actually work out what that’s about!

[catastrophic-crisis]

My toys...

Welcome to the cute yet painful grind of claw machines! You can try your hand at trying to nab cute goods yourself by playing the demo yourself, or, if it pleases you, trying to escape the Circus.

If you want a more combat-focused claw machine, Dungeon Clawler is another claw machine roguelike deckbuilder with a demo out now!

Plenty of games have released in the past week or so, so to recap a few:

(Sunset Hills, a furry novelist adventure point n' click from the same publisher as Woolly Boy, it has a 10% launch discount and its demo is still up!) (If you like banter, Tactical Breach Wizards has you blasting, tactically, enemy wizes out of windows. 10% launch discount.) (Arco is a Western tactical RPG that has you fighting off colonizers with a “simultaneous turn-based” combat system, and is looking to get some more eyes on the game! 10% launch discount. Sound familiar?)

The GMTK game jam is live with the theme "built to scale", and is currently in its voting period! Why dontcha explore some cool lil ideas and help rate some games?

(Shutterbug is an insect photography game where the game window itself is part of the gameplay - resizing the window and moving it helps to frame your buggy subjects for the perfect picture!) (Overflow is a simple math game that has you testing your number skills to create large numbers using the tiles you're given.) (Hyperscale Red is a plundercore game that makes use of the newly open source (as of last week) game Anodyne 2 to say something about games as you scale a giant Mario, of Super Mario fame.) (Little Big Space Clicker is a cute clicker/idle game where you upgrade your retro game console and expand your little digital universe.)

(Gigantic, a MOBA that seemingly returned from death with a new release, is free on Epic right now and promises no micro-transactions. People like it, I hear.)

[toon-romantic]

My Top Episodes

Once In A Blue Moon

Beauty Is Only Smurf Deep

Vanity Fare

Smurfily Ever After

The Adventures Of Robin Smurf

The Hundredth Smurf

S-Shivering S-Smurfs

The Mr. Smurf Contest

The Smurfs Springtime Special

My Smurfy Valentine

Baby's First Christmas

No Reflection On Vanity

Smurfing In Sign Language

Christmas Special

The Big Nose Dilemma

Hats Off To Smurf

The Smurf Walk Cafe

Speak For Yourself, Farmer Smurf

Willpower Smurfs

The Golden Smurf Award

The Magic Stick

Marco Smurf And The Pepper Pirates

Smurf A Mile In My Shoes

The Masked Pie Smurfer

Poet's Writer's Block

Jungle Jitterbug

Tailor's Magic Needle

A Float Full Of Smurfs

Lazy's Slumber Party

A Circus For Baby

The Abominable Snowbeast

Jokey's Funny Bone

Educating Bigmouth

Cave Smurfs

Smurf Box Derby

Grouchy Learns To Swim

The Smurfic Games

The Smurflings

Puppy

It's A Puppy's Life

Firefighting Smurfs

Never Smurf Off 'Til Tomorrow

Smurfette's Rose

The Smurfette

A Maze Of Mirrors

Spook-A-Smurf's Eve

Smurfette's Sweet Tooth

The World According To Smurflings

Stuck On Smurfs

The Fake Smurf

Breakfast At Greedy's

Vanity's Wild Adventure

The Pussywillow Pixies

'Tis The Season To Be Smurfy

Romeo And Smurfette

Shutterbug Smurfs

Soothsayer Smurfette

Prince Smurf

Stop And Smurf The Roses

Gargamel's Sweetheart

All Creatures Great and Smurf

The Royal Drum

Good Neighbor Smurf

Sweepy Smurf

Timber Smurf

Sassette's Tooth

Chlorhydris' Lost Love

Baby's Enchanted Didey

The Clumsy Genie

The Smurf Odyssey

[bitmeddler]

Writing Wrap 2023:

Below is my Newt Geiszler / Hermann Gottlieb fanfic round-up for 2023. It summarizes all my Newmann fics published in 2023 as well as a preview of what’s to come in 2024!

2023 total published word count: 31,479

Chasing the Rabbit: 5,373 words, rated T At a crossroads regarding his own encrypted personnel file, Hermann must decide whether or not to confirm his long-held suspicions about an event in his past. A story of old wounds, new beginnings, drift compatibility and a shared history with Newton that goes deeper than either of them could have imagined.

Shutterbug: 10,872 words, rated E Post Operation Pitfall and part way through the Black Velvet Rabbits’ world tour, Newt and Hermann find themselves once again in Berlin where Newt jumps at the chance to fulfill a fantasy or two Hermann didn’t know he had. A sexy, standalone sequel to ‘Compositions’ involving a pair of black rabbit ears and a camera.

Something Borrowed: 13,172 words, rated T Newt and Hermann are asked to be in the bridal party for Tendo and Alison’s upcoming wedding alongside Mako and Raleigh. Between planning the stag do, setting up the wedding photoshoot and writing a best man speech, who’s got time to finally admit to your long-time lab partner how you really feel about them? A wedding-centric Newmann getting together story (side pairings: Tendo / Alison; Mako / Raleigh).

Strikethrough: 2,062 words, rated T When Hermann seeks his feedback on a print interview about their joint contribution to Operation Pitfall, Newt jumps at the chance to get the love confession from his labmate he’s been waiting on for years by writing it himself. A mixed media tale of an eager xenobiologist, a flustered mathematician and the very, very liberal AWESOME interview edits that finally take their relationship to the next level.

Total WIP word count: 78,000~ words and growing:

All of the below are works in progress and the word count will increase (especially the two AUs). My new year’s resolution for 2024 is to post the two one-shot WIPs and start releasing chapters for both longer AU fics, plus anything else that pops up!

Soon-to-be-released secret santa fic: word count, title and rating under wraps to keep it a secret... but it’ll be posted very soon and I’m very excited~

We Don’t Talk About the Bachelor Party: currently 8,000~ words, rated M A sequel to ‘Something Borrowed’ elaborating on the events of the infamous bachelor party night…

Hermann Gottlieb Consulting Detective: currently 62,000~ words, rated M Victorian-era AU, Sherlock Holmes pastiche: When Hermann Gottlieb, the world’s only consulting detective, receives a letter from American doctor Newton Geiszler, their correspondence sparks the joint investigation of a series of happenings that take them into the fog shrouded world of the capital’s criminal underbelly. A Pacific Rim adventure mystery set in the gas-lit streets of Sherlock Holmes’ Victorian London.

Nameless: currently 8,000~ words, rated M Historical + mythical creature / selkie AU: After a personal tragedy and irreparable fall-out with his family, Hermann Gottlieb leaves the comforts of his life in London to exile himself to a tiny town on the coast of Scotland. When he encounters a mysterious, green-eyed stranger without a name, he is soon drawn into a world of magic and legend where an underwater war for the fate of humanity is being waged between the selkie folk and beasts known only as the 'Deep Ones.'

[finderbridge]

Asia's Cleanest River- Umngot River of Meghalaya

Tucked away in the pristine landscape of Meghalaya lies a hidden gem—the Umngot River. This serene river, often touted as one of the clearest in the world, is a sight to behold. Flowing gracefully through the small town of Dawki, near the India-Bangladesh border, the Umngot River presents a picture of unspoiled beauty and tranquility.

As you approach the river, the first thing that captivates you is its crystal-clear water. The riverbed is visible even at considerable depths, giving the illusion that boats are floating on air. The clarity of the water, combined with the vibrant green surroundings, creates a surreal, almost magical ambiance. The reflection of the blue sky and lush greenery in the water is a photographer’s dream, making it an ideal spot for nature enthusiasts and shutterbugs alike.

Boat rides on the Umngot River are an unforgettable experience. The gentle lapping of the water against the boat and the panoramic views of the surrounding hills and forests create a calming effect, allowing you to disconnect from the hustle and bustle of daily life. The local Khasi tribes, who live along the river, add to the charm with their warm hospitality and rich cultural heritage.

Visiting the Umngot River is like stepping into a natural paradise, where time seems to slow down, and the beauty of nature reigns supreme. It’s a must-visit destination for anyone seeking peace, adventure, and a deeper connection with nature.

Check out the various ways to go there: