#after I get done writing up all the space marine stuff

[skitariiposting]

I'm hoping to get into 40k soon and really like the admech, but am dogwater at painting minis. Any advice besides practice?

Admech is one of the best factions for being dogwater at painting minis! It's a faction built out of metallic scrapped together gremlin beings! Color palletes are amorphous! Blemishes are in character! Mistakes blend in because they're so wild and out there! I can not recommend a better faction for someone who wants to get better at mini painting than admech! (Besides, maybe blueberries, but those are boring.)

Okay. So. Advice stuff:

My tenants of painting minis is this:

I. Your first draft will always be bad; that's why it's the first draft and not the final draft. (This one applies to a bunch of stuff outside of painting, too)

II. Thin your paints. three thin layers are infinitely better than a layer that's too thick. You can always put more paint on, but you can't take it off.

III. Table ready painting quality should be for arms length away, not up close.

IV. Ask questions and do research. YouTube and Google are your most powerful tools.

V. Nuln oil fixes all problems. (Unsure if this is serious advice or not. I could write a thesis on Nuln Oil at this point, but I may also be slightly biased.)

All of this is second only to practice practice practice.

Which... yeah. I get it. Practice is the answer nobody likes because it's the answer everyone gives, and it's usually the suckiest answer. But, sadly, there isn't any real way to bypass experience and muscle memory.

The best way I can suggest to go about getting started in mini painting (and how I got started) is to find four or five minis that you dont strongly care about how they turn out and give them each a solid attempt to the best of your abilities. (For admech in this case, do some skits first or nab a couple space marines off ebay and go to town on them before the precious cog fellas) Don't spend too much time on them, but don't rush them. Just casually paint them best you can. After that, study them. Figure out where the weakest bits are and then study how to improve those bits on youtube or Google or ask around online about them. Then try to take all you've learned and tackle a mini you really want to do!

The easiest way to get better in mini painting is finishing minis. Whether you deem them good or bad is irrelevant because every time you finish a mini, you're one more mini smarter than when you started! That's why I recommend doing 4 or 5 that you don't really care if you do well on first, just to get a feel for what you're doing and getting some experience down.

At the end of the day, if this feels like too much effort and you feel stressed/can't be assed to do research, there's a secret option that many don't consider:

Just paint them. Paint them best you can, and then they're done. Don't worry about it.

It's a hobby, it's all for fun! You're supposed to have fun! The only critic you have to worry about is yourself, and if you just do it because you want to rather than fearing what others think, you'll have far more fun painting and you'll have a completed army in the end! Which is more than most "pro" painters can say.

(I've got 2000 points of admech printed, and I've spent one or more days painting ONE mini on multiple occasions, I'm nowhere close to having my army done, you could easily have a leg up on me just by having yours done. The only reason I *do* spend more than one day on a mini is because I find it fun to do so. If that doesn't sound fun, cool, don't do that. )

I hope this helps, and if you do get into admech painting: please send pictures! I'd love to see them!

[starberry-cupcake]

I spent the past week re-reading a novel I started to write when I was 17 and abandoned a couple years after.

I had written it in notebooks because my first novel (that I wrote when I was 14) got lost in computer mess ups. I had decided to drop that one anyway because a friend at school made me feel insecure when she kind of mocked it for being self-insert-y/wish fulfillment-y. This would be something the fic world would also advice me strongly against.

Anyway, I knew where the second one was all along but I was afraid of re-visiting it ever since I abandoned it, like 14 years ago? not sure when exactly. I guess I was partially afraid of the cringe and partially afraid of finding that it wasn't that different from what I do now.

I think that many years studying in spaces that undervalued the kind of fantasy narrative I enjoyed and pushed me to fit more conventional boxes for what is published more successfully in my country had a bit on an effect on my perception of my younger self.

The editor side made me hyper aware of mistakes and issues, so I started to be more and more reticent to enjoy the process and even afraid to start them, if I judged them unworthy from the get-go.

The literary workshops that were always focused on contemporary fiction (no fantasy, sci fi or horror) intended me to fit more commercially viable molds where I live and "push me out of my confort zone" (words I was told many times in them) so much that I became afraid that going back to what I enjoyed would mean sacrificing "progress".

In the past few years, I noticed these things, been working on them and decided to finally sit down and write a sci fi fantasy project I've been marinating in my head for ages.

There's one thing from that second teen novel I had written that I wanted to keep, so I took the notebooks out from their box and read them.

Imagine my surprise upon finding out that I had written over 400 pages before abandoning it.

Contrary to my fears, reading it was a pretty great experience. It was a product of a teen me and all but I was so invested and I had so much fun writing it.

However, as cool as some concepts were and as wide a world I had built and character roster I had accomplished, I realized upon reading it back that is was very...impersonal.

It was drenched in things I liked and enjoyed in media, and it had some ideas of things I thought were interesting to work with, but I didn't see myself reflected in it. There was some stuff, there always is in art, but I think I had taken the criticisms on self-insertion so hard that I left out all of my experiences and perceptions of self.

I shoehorned in a lot of things and I can tell and remember how some of it was doing what I thought had to be done in a story like that. I had gone so far off the extreme of "no self-insertion" that I didn't see myself reflected in my own imagination.

The names sounded foreign, the spaces looked foreign (now there's thankfully more fantasy that isn't Euro-based or US-based but at that time it was rare), the bodies were unlike mine, the identities were different from what I experienced myself at that time and even now.

I know we all do this and I know it's not a bad thing to reproduce what you admire and like but, as cool as the story was for something I wrote in my teens; for the most part, it felt as if it could have come out of anywhere, not necessarily from me. If that makes any sense at all.

It was actually better than I remember it being and I can see in its progress an interesting development of me as a writer. I cherish the characters and story and will take that bit I remembered for something new. But I can't help but feel a bit sad.

Sad for the 14 year old I tried to tone down for being wish-fullfilment-y and self-insert-y, to the point of not seeing in her a story worth telling. And sad for the 17 year old because I spent all this time hiding her in a box and afraid of the cringe she might have created.

They were both cool fun imaginative girls and I'd like them to come with me in my new journey with this new project. They were "young and unafraid", but mostly unafraid, and that's something I admire from them.

[kinetic-elaboration]

November 26: Some More Writing Thoughts

So I used my huge vacation to write one (1) scene in my Time Loop fic that (appropriately enough) simply will not end and while this is objectively depressing, I do like the scene I wrote and I do feel pleased with myself for having written it, especially since it had been weighing on me for a very long time. So I feel optimistic. There are 9 scenes left in the fic: 4 in this chapter and 5 in the next. The remaining 4 in this chapter… are divided into 4 sections but should flow together pretty well, so I have this wild idea that maybe over the weekend I’ll do a big marathon session and write a lot of that at once.

If not, that’s fine. I’m not saying this to make promises or to put expectations on myself or whatever. I’m releasing myself of all artificial deadlines for this story. It’s the priority fic, I’ll work on it until it’s done, but getting to ‘done’ will take as long as it takes. My hope is to finish by the end of the calendar year—but again, if that doesn’t happen, such is life.

Anyway, the reason that I’m saying all this is that, as a treat, I’m letting myself think about the creative future again. I’m… in that liminal space, Sunday night, about to go back to work, but it’s the weird time of year. Everyone’s on holiday mode, no one really cares, it’s dark all the time, there are a lot of events—and I need to think about stuff like gift shopping and so on, and all I really want is to be cozy. I’m going to try to take this longer-term liminal space to re-settle myself (something I’ve been trying to do for months, sort of all year, sort of longer than a year, but the definition of being a human being is to be always optimistic I suppose) and maybe I’ll get writing done too and maybe before too terribly long I can move on to other projects.

And what will those projects be? I’ve been staring at the WIP List again. This is a habit of mine that is like… very strange, because it’s enjoyable and stressful at once. It always feels like it will be more productive than it is. Mostly it’s just staring at a list I’ve half-memorized and going… yeah, I’d like to work on that? But not now. The stars aren’t aligned. And then saying that over and over until I start to feel dizzy.

I have an old Jonty fic from like 2017 that I want to finish because I like what I have for it but it is just not a complete narrative that I could post as is. And I had an epiphany a while ago as to how to finish it in a fairly simple and clean way and I wrote down some notes. So I feel like… it will not be simple and easy because it has been a long time and it will be intimidating to get back into the story and try to match up the new text with the old. Also the story is peak 2017-me and I just don’t really think or write that way anymore. But I have this idea that it’s like a weekend-project or maybe something I work on intensely but in shorter chunks for a week, where I read over everything I have, think some more on the details of the remaining scenes, and just write them. In other words, it involves some prep work but if I devoted some discrete chunks of time to it, it’s a manageable task.

And the other story on my mind is the Millamy Road Trip I’ve been referencing a lot. As I mentioned yesterday, I’m pretty close to a workable outline for the first chapter, and though I do think it needs a little more work and to marinate, it’s a very promising next project after Time Loop is finally done (which will happen!! It will happen someday, impossible as it seems now!). This is a comparatively newer project to a lot of the other ones on the list… which is to say it is not new, but since I started planning it for serious, it’s grown and developed a lot, and all of that work has been more recent. I feel like that should make it… easier? Or at least a good balance to the Jonty fic, which is definitely from way back in the vault.

I just… hmm, I want to post things. I want to post things and I want those things to be old projects and I have this idea that this will provide me with a sense of accomplishment. It’s not really that simple, but that’s the fantasy of it. I also sometimes like imagining what I will work on farther down the line, a longer to do list, even if I know that planning even two projects ahead of the current one is probably a bad idea.

I need to get back into SGAU—that’s not in the writing stages unfortunately so I should probably bring it back into active rotation as soon as Time Loop is complete. And after Ch1 of the Road Trip AU, maybe one of my horror stories? Maybe a chapter of some other multi-chap idea? I don’t know. I just don’t know.

[acornminiatureslog]

I wanna talk a bit more about my marines and the chaos marines I’m now working on after I got hit with a couple fun ideas while waiting on replacement printer parts.

For background, my space marine chapter, The Hounds of Terra, are something I came up with to spice up how Primaris marines work in the lore, and give me a chance to make badass ladies in space.

Intro

When Abaddon destroyed Cadia and the great rift split the galaxy in twain, one of the many hidden caches of Cawl’s primaris marines came under siege by the forces of chaos, and the attending techpriests were forced to activate the marines they had in stasis.

The siege went on for decades, with the attrition wearing on the loyalists. Specifically, the traitors quickly adopted tactics that made it more and more difficult for the apothecaries to recover the geneseed of fallen primaris marines. As the number of astartes shrunk, the tech priests took desperate action, pulling a batch of flawed geneseed from stasis. This geneseed was previously abandoned due to its mutations, but was preserved due to an interesting characteristic: it would only take hold and develop in female aspirants. In need of the aid, the tech priests began creating astartes with this geneseed and youths from civilian population. These new marines were effective, but looked upon with disdain by the other marines present, who referred to them as dogs, or hounds. They were given the most dangerous assignments and little support holding the line, but they found success, often out of spite, but more often because they new the fear the civilians they protected had to endure.

By the time relief finally arrived and broke the siege, the only marines left standing were these women. When the acting leader, Resia Avidon, went to meet with the envoys of the Indomitus Crusade with full intent of hiding her and her sisters’ oddities. The attending tech priests, eager to see how this project of theirs would develop, agreed to aid in the ruse.

The result was the Crusade designating the beleaguered marines as a full ultima founding chapter, gifting them a Battle Barge, Beneficia in Terra, and granting them time to gather their forces before joining in the war to beat back chaos in service of the Imperium. The chapter chose the name The Hounds of Terra, firmly declaring their loyalty and turning the insult hurled at them into a badge of honor.

Silver Cog

This was only a stopgap measure though, as despite their official induction as a chapter, they had no acceptable geneseed they could send to the vaults on Mars. This issue was solved when The Hounds of Terra had a chance encounter with a drifting strike cruiser. On board, they found the remnants of a chapter known as the Silver Cog, a firstborn chapter that had been reported missing two millennia ago. Their leader, Captain Valos Tetys, shared a tale in which their chapter had been lured into a trap, allies turning on them, only his strike cruiser escaping, their navigator sending them on a blind jump through the warp. Tetys feared that the hidden traitors within the imperium might still seek his chapter’s destruction, and wished to hide their true identity. Sensing he was a fair and reasonable man in a tough spot, Chapter Founder Avidon proposed an idea to Tetys: to integrate their chapters under the banner of The Hounds of Terra, the Silver Cog gaining the fresh start they desired, and The Hounds of Terra gaining a source of geneseed that would pass muster on Mars.

(Irl, this is my reason for lady primaris marines coexisting with my love of HH relic units. It is convoluted as fuck, but I kinda cobbled all of this together over time, and I like it. All the convolution gives me a couple different angles to work with when it comes to justifying matches against other Imperial armies.)

Potassiar

It was in the following decades when The Hounds of Terra established their working relationship with other imperial elements in the sector, and their reputation as steadfast hoarders. The chapter adopted a policy of gathering up any arms, armor, or relics they found, and if they were unable to reach the original owners, simply incorporating it into their own stores. In particular, this practice is how they have built up their terminator units, of which the chapter has four full squads. This practice also extends to spacecraft, with the ships of the Hounds of Terra often returning from naval engagements and long range patrols towing the hulls of lost and damaged naval ships. In return for the many hulks they have kept in circulation over the years, they have been gifted a handful of additional strike cruisers, and several escort vessels, which in turn, aid in the return of more lost hulls.

Of special note is the relationship The Hounds of Terra built with the minor forgeworld of Potassiar. This was the nearest base of the Adeptus Mechanicus to the cache-world The Hounds of Terra were birthed upon, and many of the surviving tech priests transferred to Potassiar after the chapter’s founding. The presence of respectable orbital facilities and these familiar faces within the priesthood led to Potassiar being a frequent resupply point for The Hounds of Terra as they warred against the great enemy. It was here that they dropped off many naval hulls and any arms and armor they recovered, yet could not return or fit into their own armory. The greatest collaboration came when a space hulk of respectable size materialized within the outer reaches of the Potassiar system. The tech priests immediately sent word, and captain Tetys himself led the full force of the chapter’s terminators to claer the hulk ahead of the mechanicus’ work prying loose ancient hulls. This aid was lent for the favor of the mechanicus in constructing a proper flagship for The Hounds of Terra, with a suitable hull being selected from the hulk by Captain Tetys.

At the hip’s completion, it was slightly larger than a standard battle barge, but only truly differing in the addition of expansive manufacturing and repair facilities, as well as a set of main engines salvaged from a battleship. Chapter Founder Avidon and her honor guard were brought to the dockyards for the final blessings, and named the ship Avidon’s Might. It was at this moment that the chapter was betrayed.

The skitari forces of the Potassiar tech priests ambushed the chapter founder, alongside a force of nurgle-blessed heretic astartes. Between a small force of loyal mechanicus elements, the chapter founder’s honor guard, and the terminator forces of the first company, The Hounds of Terra were able to hold off the traitors until the Beneficia in Terra was able to arrive and escort Avidon’s Might out of the system. Unfortunately, the traitors succeeded in assassinating the Chapter Founder, sending shock waves throughout the chapter.

Promotions

After the death of Resia Avidon, Captain of the third company, Olympia Vilaris, was elected by the gathered captains of the chapter to bear the mantle of chapter master. This led to Sergeant Vylane Zaporozia getting promoted to captain of the third company in recognition for her actions in the recovery of Avidon’s Might.

Aaaand that’s almost all the main skeleton of my Space Marine lore. There’s details from the various campaigns I’ve played them through, and still a bit more until where they’re currently sitting, but this is already getting way too long for one post. Feel free to send in asks if you’ve got questions on my giant space ladies!

[galkyrie]

if you’re open to talking about fates’ rn, i have. questions. okay. i get why jason’s hurt and unsure and still needs space yes but. the interaction with tim just doesn’t fit with how he talked barbara and bruce about it?? i just don’t see how he can hurt tim more? like, even unintentionally, and with tim being kinda an idiot, i’m not really able to see how jason said all that. (and i wanna add a massive thank you for actually writing this brilliant chokehold of a story that’s driving me mad)

Hi, thank you for reaching out! I usually don't comment for like a week after since I know people don't read stuff immediately, but I'll just put the plot-relevant answer under a read-more so hopefully nobody who cares about spoilers will read it without realizing:

The key between those conversations and the one with Tim is the layer of separation. Talking to B and Babs about him has different context than talking to Tim about it- it's fresh, he's been having a hard time processing it because (and this is totally a situation of his own making) he doesn't have all the information- just a bunch of anxiety and hurt. And, thanks to Tim's habits- nobody else has many answers that'll be at all helpful either.

But talking to Babs is a step removed from the source, y'know? And she's easily the most reliable when it comes to remaining logical for interpersonal drama that doesn't involve her. He can talk about this whole mess and try to see the bigger picture. It's easier to take a step back when it's not Tim looking him in the face as he acknowledges that some of this hurt is his own fault. Basically, he can play at being in a place where he's being reasonable about this.

And with Bruce- he can redirect some of the anger he has about *waves hand at entire situation* because Bruce's pattern of leaving Tim to handle shit he personally emotionally doesn't want to deal with because he will is something he can find some high ground on, even when he's acknowledging his own role in that hurt. It still has that distance, and he knows he has a point. But even this is lashing out- even if it feels righteous (and even if Bruce totally deserves the 'what the actual fuck, man?' conversation.) Barbara directly asks him not to do anything rash and he disregards it because of emotion and does what he thinks will get him answers and feel best about doing it- he's not thinking clearly here either.

It's not until Tim shows up uninvited (even if not entirely unexpected, because of course Tim's gonna jump to a conclusion and take his chance to see if Jason is passively reaching out) at what could be considered a literal monument to the relationship they were building while Tim was withholding information (justified or not, he was) that him being unreasonable is nakedly exposed. He's not in a place where he's been reasonably sifting through information and trying to see Tim's point of view. He's been marinating in how hurt he is. And he dumps all of that in Tim's lap without any intention of hearing him out, after Tim realizes his mistake and tries to leave.

It's definitely not like, fair of him to have done and is a recipe for regret and hurt. I just thought it was how he'd handle it (poorly) so soon after getting his shit emotionally rocked by the revelation and having his passive avoidance of actually talking to Tim about any of this interrupted by the man just literally showing up.

[takerfoxx]

The Owl House, Season 2, Episode 13, "Any Sport in a Storm," First Impressions!

Well, I suppose this was bound to happen sooner or later. Time to possibly upset some people.

Please, go easy on me.

Okay guys, no recap this time. If you're reading this, then you've already seen the episode, so let's just jump right into it.

I’m going to be honest, but I feel like this might be the weakest episode of this season. Like, it wasn’t bad by any means, but it definitely felt pretty awkward and disjointed.

For one, the pacing was really off. I know they have to cram a lot into these episodes so there’s often not a lot of time to let things marinate, but at least the other episodes built up momentum toward an established goal. Here, it seemed like they took a bunch of ideas that they didn’t have any other place for, strung them together, snatched up a bunch of background characters we haven’t seen for a while to fill in the spaces, and worked out how they can get them to connect afterward. Like, we already had a sports episode that ended with a big game, and that was the climax of that episode. Here, there’s a whole new sport that’s even more Quidditch-like than Grudgby is (awkward) and it happens in the middle of the episode and doesn’t seem to be of all that much consequence by comparison, and then it’s off to the Emperor’s Coven stuff. I mean, the animation of the game itself was really good, but it just seemed to happen and then it was over.

Also, why did Professor Hermonculus suddenly have his own team? And why would he take Willow leaving his class so personally to such a ridiculous level?

Also, people changed their minds from one extreme to the other really quickly! From Hunter going “Yay, torture!” to “I must risk everything to save my team!” and Darius switching from despising Hunter to suddenly giving him his full respect and support. Like, sure, it can be explained away if you tried, like how Darius mentioned how much of a push-over Hunter is at the beginning of the episode to explain why he respected him only after Hunter grew a spine later, but there were a lot of these sudden shift in this episode that it got really noticeable.

As for the Luz and Amity sideplot, well, at least they didn’t overshadow their friend’s plot like they did in the Gus episode. But even so, it still felt pretty…superfluous, I guess? As if in, “Oh, we need some explanation for why Amity got her hands on these books, so let’s just bring back Tibbles!” So if Amity was the only person to ever buy those books, why advertise a meet-and-greet in the first place? I get baiting them, but that didn’t seem to be Tibbles’s aim at all. He just looked ready to write the whole thing off.

…

Why hadn’t he done that by now? And why is Mattholomule and Tiny Nose (sorry, Tinella Nosa) even involved?

Ugh, I hate complaining so much about something I like. Like I said earlier, this episode wasn’t bad, it just wasn’t that good compared to the rest of the season. It felt like one of the lesser season 1 episodes that would just make me go, “Huh,” before moving onto the next. Maybe it’s because season 2 has just been churning out banger after banger, so suddenly getting one that just doesn’t work for me feels a lot more jarring than it would have otherwise.

Plus, things have been kind of stressful for me as of late, and The Owl House has really become my end of the week pick me up, so maybe that’s why I’m more disappointed than I would be otherwise.

Which isn’t to say there isn’t a lot of good here. Like I said, the animation on the actual game was really good, with a lot of creative flying tricks used.

And as awkward as I found their arc, it was still adorable to see Hunter make friends. Him and Willow isn’t a pairing I saw coming (sorry, Hunter X Twins shippers), but now that I think about, they do have a lot in common in being made to feel left out and inadequate. Also, I got a laugh in seeing Viney as part of the team, seeing how she was another crack ship for Hunter that pops up a lot. And Skara joining Willow’s team almost immediately after Moringmark dropped that comic about her having a crush on Willow and her SWOLENESS got a laugh out of me. Though when did they become friends? I know Skara was nicer than Boscha, but this still seems like a big leap.

Speaking of which, that Penstagram looked like it was right out of that very comic. Lol at Eda basically stalking Raine’s profile.

As throwaway as the Lumity subplot felt, I do love how much of a thing their relationship is so now everyone knows about it, to the point where Boscha finds it annoying. And it was fun how it poked fun at all the theorizing that fans do. Honestly, the author being Luz’s mom from the future never occurred to me. But it makes sense, right?

RIGHT?!

Okay, speaking of which! Y’know how Hunter and Darius talked about the previous Golden Guard, and how Hunter wanted to wear his sigil?

Look familiar?

Yeah, okay.

I wonder about that previous Golden Guard. Was he also a Grimwalker? Like, a previous clone of Belos’s brother? Is Belos just going through them one after the other? But Darius insinuated that the previous GG had magic, which a clone of a human ought not have. Was the previous GG a full witch but Belos offed them and replaced them with Hunter once Hunter was created, and that was why Darius resented him so much?

While I found his sudden turn jarring, Darius was the scene-stealer here. Always great to have Kestone John ham it up, and I really enjoyed him being someone who just wanted to clock out and go home. Like, he wasn’t even going to take those kids to the coven, he was just going to drop them off at the school and hurry back home because screw it, it’s supposed to be his day off. I wonder if this is leading to more of him and Hunter having an actual friendship. And I love how petty him and Alador are at each other.

So yeah, a lot to like, but I felt the way it all fit together to be weird and awkward, and it just didn't do it for me.

Oh well, they all can't be slam dunks.

[the-cult-of-russo]

Hues of Gold

Pairing: Billy Russo x Reader 

Request : do a billy russo x reader with the reader having an art job and them meeting due to that somehow

Warnings: none 

A/N: Here it is, my first Billy x Reader. I'll be getting to the prompts in my inbox too but still feel free to send me more requests. You don't need to pick from the prompt lists, if you have an idea then just send it on over. Nothing is off limits and I write for every type of Billy. S1 Billy, S2 Billy, pre-show Billy, all the AU Billy's you can think of lmao Gimme them all.

You tilted your head a little, eyes sweeping across the paint on the easel in front of you. The piece was coming together nicely. You'd started at humble beginnings with your artwork as a street artist. You hadn't been able to afford art school and you didn't feel like people needed to if they just felt it. And you did. You'd been a hit with your expressionist art and before you knew it, you were getting wealthy clients and more money. Now you had your own little studio with an apartment on top. It wasn't flashy but it was yours and you loved it. The work you thought was good enough for your new clients would go up on your website, they'd buy them and then you'd send them off to their new home. It was simple and you got to spend every day painting to your heart's content. 

You bit your lip as you mixed two golds together to get the perfect shade you were after. Some of your pieces were weirder than others, others being more realistic or using average colors. Some of them were darker in theme or used more vibrant colors with looser shapes. It was all dependent on how you felt when making it. The one currently being worked on wasn't finished by any means. Oil paint often required many layers and getting it to dry in between time. But if someone was to gauge your mood by this one, well… they'd say you were most likely sexually frustrated. It was a naked woman laying on her back on rumpled sheets, just her torso and a bit of her leg to leave the rest to the imagination. Her male counterpart was pressed up against her as the bodies melded together, his hand gripping her thigh. The colors you'd picked for this were hues of red, orange, yellow and gold, making it look like the couple were set ablaze. The epitome of passion. It was coming along nicely. 

Your work cell rang breaking you from your thoughts. You gave your hand a quick wipe on the ratty towel next to you as you picked it up, answering with your full name. 

"Hi, I'm lookin' for some art and I've heard you're the girl to go to," a smooth voice came through the phone. The fact that someone recommended this guy to you made you smile. It always did. It meant people were pleased with your work. 

"I am. Have you checked the website? That's where my current pieces are," you murmured softly.

"I did but… I haven't really found the one yet. And a friend of mine tells me you've got a bunch of exclusive stuff at your studio," he replied.

You glanced around your studio. He wasn't wrong entirely although you wouldn't call them exclusives. You'd call them rejects if you were honest. Your new clientele were more demanding and it made you second guess your pieces more often than you'd like to admit. This led to many of them finding a home in your studio instead. You were unsure who the man's friend was as typically you didn't have people come to the studio. It was a very rare occurrence and you couldn't imagine him being interested in any of these pieces. But a customer was a customer.

"You're more than welcome to come down and look at them. I'm not sure you'll find what you're looking for though, I've kept them offline because they're in the reject pile," you snorted wryly. His smooth chuckle was soothing as it hit your ears and you nibbled on your lower lip.

"Well I'll be the judge of that," you didn't know what he looked like but you could hear the smirk in his voice. You told him the address before hanging up.

You were a little nervous of someone coming into your space and judging the art you'd already deemed not worth putting up for sale, but you decided to roll with it. It was too late now and it wouldn't be a good look for your business to tell the guy he couldn't come. You decided to continue the piece you were working on to keep your mind occupied, having no idea just when the man would decide to show, or if he would at all. 

It was an hour later when the large wooden door knocked and you called out that it was open. You stood up and wiped your hands on the towel again, not that it helped much. You were sure you had paint on every part of you, it was half the fun of making art. The man walked in and you were a little surprised by just how handsome he was. He was dressed to the nines in a suit with his hair slicked back, the sides shorter than the top. He certainly looked like your usual clients but you couldn't remember any of your fancier clients ever bothering to call you, never mind actually coming to see your other pieces. 

The smile he shot you was disarming and you replied in kind as you walked over to him. You reached out your hand to shake with his before retracting it rapidly when you noticed just how much of a poor job the towel had done. He seemed amused if his chuckle was anything to go by and you snorted.

"Uh… welcome. Feel free to look around. I haven't really got prices for these since I wasn't gonna sell them so I'll settle for whatever," you shrugged with a smile. Anything was better than nothing that you were getting by keeping them here. Besides, you were pretty sure he wouldn't even like any of them. 

You didn't want to crowd him as he looked around so you went right back to your easel and sat on the stool. He walked around leisurely, stopping at each piece and looking at them. Your eyes kept flitting to him without meaning to, you weren't sure if it was how attractive he was or the nerves of having someone assessing your work this way. Maybe both. He didn't strike you as an art kind of guy honestly. Most of the rich clients weren't, they just wanted a statement piece for their walls for people to talk about. There wasn't anything wrong with that of course, but you'd be a liar if you said you didn't miss it back as a street artist when people bought a piece simply because it spoke to them and they loved it. Onwards and upwards though, right? 

"So… who's the friend? That told you I had stuff here?" You asked after a moment, unable not to because your curiosity was getting the better of you. He glanced over at you from where he stood and smiled. 

"Curtis," he replied. Your eyebrows raised a little with that information. You'd met Curtis back when you were a street artist and he bought something for the group he was running. He was a nice guy and he checked in every so often with you. You wouldn't say you were friends but you really liked him and you had some good conversations. You couldn't imagine Curtis being friends with this man though.

Noticing the shock on your face, the man chuckled.

"We served together when I was in the marines. He's a good guy, one of my closest friends," he supplied. 

"You were a marine?" You hadn't meant to ask like it was such an absurd notion but it came out anyway. You just hadn't expected it He looked amused though and he nodded.

"Yeah. When I got out I set up my own private military firm, ex military people with no purpose. I give 'em somethin' to fight for. A brotherhood. We're doin' pretty well," he had a bright smile on his face, gesturing to his suit when he said they were doing well and you found yourself smiling back. 

"You must be really proud. It's amazing that you're doing that for them. I mean… I never served or anything but Curtis tells me about some of the guys from his group sometimes. I bet you really help them," you said sincerely. You had no clue what it must be like to serve and you knew you didn't have the stomach for it. But some of the things Curtis had told you had made you sad and you were impressed that the man had set up something like this on his own. Something to help others just like him. He shot you another smile before going back to looking at the artwork and you couldn't take your eyes off him. 

Figuring he'd catch you looking at him, you forced yourself to focus on adding more gold to the art you were working on. You weren't sure how long had passed until he spoke again and it startled you. You'd almost forgotten he was there.

"This one is… interesting. I like this one," he mused, eyes on the work on your easel as he stood beside you. Your cheeks tinged a little pink at the phrasing he used but you recovered quickly. 

"Thanks. I like this one too but… it won't end up on the website. The last erotic piece I put on there apparently offended people," you said with a wry grin. He laughed, the sound low and short but his eyes went to you then. Holy shit, his eyes are… wow. 

"Well it definitely doesn't offend me. How long will it take to finish?" He asked as his obsidian orbs went back to the painting.

"A couple of days at most. It's almost done and then it needs to dry and be sealed," it was nice talking about your work with someone, even as mundane as when it would be complete. You missed that interaction since you got the studio.

"I'll take it. How much?" he flashed you a smile that made your stomach flip around on you and you bit your lip with a smile back. 

"That's up to you," you shrugged. You never bothered putting prices on pieces you knew you wouldn't sell and you hadn't expected to sell this piece. Even the prices on the website felt too much for you but it was born from the first wealthy clients and what they thought your pieces were worth. You just rolled with it, it wasn't like they'd miss it, right? 

He hummed, the sound deep in his throat as he got out his wallet. You mused he must want it mailed to him when it was done for him to pay now rather than later but you were happy it was cash and not card. He handed you some bills and you counted it quickly, eyes widening as you blinked up at him.

"I can't take this. This is more than the pieces online," you frowned, holding out the money back to him. He stuffed his hands in his pockets, shrugging his shoulders.

"You said it was up to me," he replied with an easy smirk. Would you really sit there and argue with him about getting more money for it? No. But you were shocked he thought it was worth that much. 

"I… thank you, sir," you smiled, stuffing the money into your pocket. 

"Billy," he clarified, smirk still in place. 

"Billy," you corrected with a shy smile. Something glittered in his dark eyes as you tested the sound of his name and he raked his teeth over his lower lip. Despite the fact you'd already given him your full name on the phone, you gave him your first name again  and he mimicked you as he tested it out. Why did it sound so good coming from his mouth? 

You cleared your throat, his intense stare was getting a little too much and you stood, walking over to the big table against the wall, grabbing a pen and pad. 

"You can leave your details, I can mail it to you when it's done," you handed them to him and he twirled the pen around in his long fingers with ease.

"I'll leave my number. I'd like to come pick it up when it's done, if that's okay?" He asked as he scribbled his name and digits down. 

"Are you sure? It's not an issue shipping it out," you replied as he passed you back the pen and pad. 

"I'm sure. It gives me an excuse to see you again," he smirked, dark eyes boring into yours as your cheeks turned pink. He chuckled and with that he was out the door and you were left stood there gaping where he went. Did he really just…? 

You stood there a moment longer, a smile working its way onto your face before you shook your head and sat back down at your easel. You glanced at the painting before setting to work and getting it finished. You couldn't wait for it to be done so Billy would come back. He was intriguing and you found yourself thinking of him as you continued your work. 

[maliby]

Diagnosis: Love (Bonus ending) | Poly route

word count: 4.7k (HOW TF DID I WRITE SO MUCH I DON’T EVEN NEED BACKSTORY)

warning: filth, explicit language, explicit sex scene, unprotected sex, cum play(?), spanking, double sausage play (wink wonk)

summary: Y/N is the new nurse at NCT Hospital - the best hospital in the  country. She was expecting it to be a big step in her career, but 'Bad  Boy' Doctor Johnny Suh and 'Valentine' Pediatrician Jeong Jaehyun take  her by surprise.

The bicycle ride from your house to Jaehyun’s was a blur to you - the city lights blended together in streaks of color, faceless people passed you by and the vehicles all became big blocks of metal. Your mind was so focused on Jaehyun and this favour he asked of you that not even the chilly air of the night was being registered by your brain.

It had been well over a month since you’d had contact on a deeper level with either Jaehyun or Johnny. You’d seen them at the Hospital - despite your best efforts to avoid the areas you knew they would be at - but simply just smiled at each other; sometimes you would even say a ‘hello’ or wish them a good day, but that was it. It’s not that you minded having contact with them - it’s the exact opposite. You were scared you were going to cave. 

You thought about the two handsome doctors day and night. You reminisced about all the times you had spent together, all the sweet words you had whispered to each other, all the times you got lost in one another’s eyes and all the times they made you scream in pleasure - you missed them. You wished you could just pick one of them and get this torture over with but you couldn’t.

Just the thought of going to Jaehyun’s home alone at night was making you a little nervous. Yes, he would leave right away, and yes, you wouldn’t be spending time with him but at the same time, you were. It was one thing to see him in a hallway filled with people during work hours, it was a whole other thing to see him alone at night in his home. No matter how short your meeting would be, it could quickly evolve into something more. One soulful stare, one lingering touch, a whiff of his cologne, and you were sure you’d lose your whole willpower.

And what about just being in his house alone? Marinating for Lord knows how many hours in his whole existence? Thinking about all the moments you had spent with him there, imagining him going by his day, feeling his presence. How were you supposed to be there and remain strong?

You parked your bike on the rack right in front of his building and locked it, saving up the key in the little backpack you were carrying. When you turned, you couldn’t help but look up to his place, the light coming up from his living room making the little butterflies in your stomach flip up and down. 

You walked to the entrance and searched for the button that rang to his house, immediately pressing it. The door buzzed open and you walked in.

If the ride here went by in a blur, the one on the elevator felt like pure torture. With each floor you would get more nervous; it was like the mini you who was controlling your brain was looking straight out of your eyes to the changing numbers on the little screen and cranking up the ‘nervous’ button bit by bit. 

You couldn’t stand still. You kept on changing the leg you were leaning on and twirling the ends of your hair until the soft ding from the elevator caught your attention. You briefly checked yourself on the big mirror behind you, fixing any stray hairs, and left.

All the way up there, you had assumed you’d have a couple more seconds to mentally prepare yourself before you eventually knocked on the door and met with Jaehyun, but he took you by surprise when you noticed him smiling at you, door already open. 

“Hey,” he said with his deep honey voice, fully gaining your attention. Your eyes met with his longing ones and you felt your guard begin to crumble, but it wasn’t until he flashed you both of his dimples in a sweet smile that you felt your inner sirens go off.

“What’s up Jaehyun?” You decided to act casual about it, after all, it was the best way to kill the evident sexual and romantic tension between the two of you. Your whole approach, though, backfired when Jaehyun presented you with his damn seductive chuckle. You panicked, and in your state of inner panic, you acted rashly and practically ran inside his house, walking right past him.

“Where’s little Jisung?” You asked while you removed your sneakers, your heart now calming down a bit as you changed the subject.

“In his room, probably.”

“Probably?” What the hell did he mean by that? Didn’t he know where the boy he considered as his own son was? That wasn’t like him.

“Yeah, most definitely.”

Jaehyun was acting weird but you decided not to pry, you just wanted him to go tend to his affairs and give you room to breathe. 

“Alright,” you neatly placed your shoes right next to the door and got up, looking right at him, “you can go now. I’ll take good care of him, don’t worry.”

You expected him to give you his thanks, pick up his stuff and leave but Jaehyun stayed put, his eyes fixated on you. Your heart picked up his pace once again. This was exactly what you were fearing the most, he was taking advantage of the moments when you’d have to interact and he was starting to make you anxious. “Jaehyun?”

“I missed you,” he softly confessed, his hand seeking yours.

“Jae…”

He took one step further, the smell of the cologne you had gifted him for his birthday hitting you right in the face. 

“Didn’t you miss me?”

He took one more step and now you were practically touching, the heat emanating from his body caressing yours.

“Mmh?” 

His hand was now on your cheek and you couldn’t help but lean into his touch. God, you missed him so much. Would it be so bad if you just gave in one time? Just this once-

“Yes.”

He smiled.

“I think about you day and night,” he confessed, making your heart dance. “I think about your smell, your hair, your eyes, your smile...your lips,” his lips were now a hairsbreadth from yours, temptation giving its best to pull you in, “your sweet lips...God, I miss kissing you.” His other hand was now running up and down your side, sending shivers straight up your spine.

“Jaehyun…” you whispered into the microscopical space that separated you from him. 

“Y/N…”

You wished more than anything that he would close that fucking space between the two of you and take your lips. Was it so bad that you wanted to cave just once? Was it so bad that you wanted a fucking break from everything? You were so done thinking and deciding that, for once, you just wished someone would take the burden off of you and decide for you. 

“Can I kiss you?” He asked as he tenderly ran little circles with the tip of his nose on your cheekbone.

You didn’t answer, you simply closed the space between you too and kissed him. Your hands snaked around his neck, pulling him closer. You missed him so much. You wanted to tell him you also thought about him day and night. You wanted to tell him you thought about every little aspect that made him who he was and you thought about all the time you had spent together but you couldn’t. You couldn’t because you also thought about someone else, and that wouldn’t be fair to him, just like this kiss wasn’t.

“Jaehyun, I can’t do this. This isn’t fair to Johnny,” you reminded him, your inner voice cursing at yourself for breaking up the kiss.

“I was starting to think you had forgotten all about me,” Johnny’s voice sounded from the hall, making you question if you had imagined everything, but you hadn’t.

“Johnny?!”

“Dude, we agreed you would only come out after I gave you the signal,” Jaehyun told him, leaving you all kinds of confused.

“Yeah, and was I supposed to stay hidden while you fucked her?”

“I was not going to have sex with her, it was just a kiss,” Jaehyun defended himself, but not even you believed him. The way he was kissing you was anything but innocent.

“Excuse me, but can somebody tell me what the fuck is going on here?” You asked, getting back the attention of both men. “Didn’t you have an emergency at the hospital?” You asked Jaehyun before you turned to Johnny who was now standing right next to his friend. “And you? What the fuck are you doing here?”

“Ouch,” he commented, pouting at your question. “Don’t tell me you don’t want me here baby.”

“It’s not that, it’s just-”

Seeing your confusion Jaehyun stepped in, ready to clear everything up. “Y/N, there was actually no emergency. I’m sorry I lied.”

“No emergency?! So Jisung…?” You trailed off, trying to make sense of everything.

“He’s not here. Only us.”

“Why would you lie to me like that?” You raised your tone, the sting of the lie making you feel used. “Did you bring me here just to try to have sex with me?!”

“No, no, no, I swear it’s nothing like that,” he quickly defended himself, a worried look on his face. You knew Jaehyun wasn’t that type of guy, but things weren’t looking that great for him.

“We’re here to help you,” Johnny spoke, leaving you even more confused.

“Help me how?”

“Have you decided who you’re going to pick?” Johnny casually asked, leaving you a bit stunned at the bluntness of his question.

“No…”

“Then Jae and I have a proposition we’d like to make you.” For some reason, his smugness was making you uneasy.

“What proposition?”

Jaehyun noticed your defensive state and immediately intervened, his calm nature easing you down. “Well, me and Johnny have been talking a lot. Mostly we started by confiding in each other about our feelings for you, seeing as only he could understand what I was feeling and vice versa.”

You were glad he was telling you this. If there was one thing you were worried about with this whole ordeal was that you would damage their friendship, but seeing as they were so open and understanding about it took a big weight off of your shoulders.

“Then, one day, we went out for drinks and the conversation reverted back to you, as it always does.”

“Only this time, it got way more, should we say, personal,” Johnny said in a slightly suggestive tone. You knew right away what he was talking about and you couldn’t help but feel your cheeks heat up.

Sensing your defensive attitude from before was all gone Johnny took one step closer to you, his fingers running up the expanse of your arm, leaving a trail of goosebumps behind.

“We talked about our most hidden desires,” he briefly paused before he moved to your back and whispered next to your ear, “about you.”

You swallowed.

Heat radiated from your core, your thighs pressing up together. Did you want to know what dirty things they talked about doing to you? Of course you fucking did, but luckily Johnny told before you could ask.

“We came to the conclusion that we wouldn’t mind...sharing you.”

Everything stopped.

Did you just hear that right? Did they want to...share you? No, you must be dreaming. It can’t be true. “You want to...share me?”

Jaehyun came closer to you, locking you between him and Johnny. “Yes.”

“Didn’t you ever fantasize about having us both at the same time?” Johnny asked, his body now completely glued to yours. He placed both of his hands on your hips and pressed a light kiss on your neck, fueling your imagination.

In fact, you had fantasized about it innumerous times. How could you not when you were in love with two equally hot guys? It was inevitable. Sometimes you’d be fantasizing about one and the other would just pop in, and others you’d go straight for the both of them. 

“Yes,” you confessed as you backed into his body, his semi pressing right into your ass.

Johnny chuckled. “I knew it.”

“H-how would it work then?” You asked, lust overpowering you.

“However you want baby,” Jaehyun said, his body now also touching yours. “Whichever way you feel more comfortable, Johnny and I will be here for you.”

“Are you two gonna get with each other?” You asked. It was not that you minded, you really were just curious. Your question though seemed to amuse Johnny.

“Do you want us to?”

“Only if you want to.”

“We’ll just go with the flow, how about that baby?” Johnny asked, his breath fanning your neck as he ground he’s now hard cock into your ass.

“Mmm, sounds good to me.”

“Then what do you say honey,” Jaehyun’s lips were now a hair’s breadth from yours, perfectly mimicking his actions from before, “will you be ours?”

You didn’t give it much thought - you didn’t have to. This was the perfect solution for your dilemma and the fact alone that you didn’t have to break anyone’s heart was good enough for you and exactly what made you lean in and kiss Jaehyun.

The kiss was a desperate one, a mixture of lip-sucking and tongue-swirling, the occasional biting of your bottom lip, leaving you breathless. 

Meanwhile, Johnny and Jaehyun seemed to be working as a team - one was removing your jacket while the other was lifting up your shirt, exposing more of your skin to their touch. Jaehyun then broke the kiss to pull your shirt over your head while Johnny took that opportunity to unhook your bra, sliding the straps right off as soon as your arms were free.

“Look at these fucking boobs,” Johnny said from beside your ear as he palmed the both of them, like a rack putting them on display for the both of them. “They’re so beautiful,” he said while squeezing them together and jiggling them up and down.

Your cheeks were tinted red as you noticed the way Jaehyun’s eyes followed the movement of your bouncing tits, his teeth catching his bottom lip as prey. 

“Look at those perky nipples,” the Doctor in front of you leaned down until he was eye-level with your chest, his fingers causing you to hiss by flicking your sensitive buds. “They make me wanna suck on them…” His face got even closer to your breasts, his warm breath hardening your nipples even more, “would you like that baby?”

“Yes,” you breathed out, your voice sounding more desperate than you intended. 

Jaehyun smiled before he attached his mouth to one of your nipples, Johnny squeezing your boobs nice and firmly to present them as an offering to his friend. The paediatrician’s tongue softly swirled around your nipple to coat it in his saliva before he placed it in his mouth and sucked. The sensation was so good that you couldn’t help but bury the back of your head into Johnny’s chest, a moan escaping your lips.

The hands of the man behind you suddenly released your breasts - Jaehyun then taking advantage and groping them by himself - and travelled further down until they reached the hem of your jeans. One of his hands then went straight to your button and unbuttoned it, giving room for the other hand to slip under the jean fabric and palm your core, the middle finger directly above your clit pressing with a bit more force.

“Fuck, you’re completely soaked,” Johnny cursed. You knew he was very affected by your wetness because he pressed his erection with particular force into your ass, his breath faltering.

Johnny pulled down your jeans a bit, exposing your ass to his covered crotch, and collected the front of your panties between his thumb and index finger, creating a wedgie that applied a delicious amount of pressure to your pussy.

“Mmmh, Johnny,” you moaned as he sucked on your neck, working hard to leave a mark.

“I missed the way you moan my name,” he confessed while he placed his feet between yours, motioning you to open your legs. “I thought about it every fucking night while I was fisting up my cock.”

At this moment Jaehyun turned his attention to your neglected nipple, making you moan once again, “Jaehyun.” This action didn’t stop Johnny though, who continued to profess dirty thing in your ear.

“I thought about your tight little pussy wrapped around my cock.” He pulled your panties to the side and ran his middle finger up and down your folds before he whispered: “I bet you’re still as tight, aren’t you baby?”

“Yes, just for you.”

Johnny smiled. His finger travelled up and down one more time before it sunk right into your hole. “As tight as I remembered.”

“She’s a good little girl isn’t she?” Jaehyun’s head emerged from your breasts, your eyes immediately focusing on his spit covered lips, wishing the glistening substance was the one between your legs. One of his hands let go of your breast and travelled further down to your clit, joining Johnny in the pursuit for your orgasm.

“Fuck that feels so good,” you whined.

“Look at you sucking my fingers right in,” Johnny said after he added another one of his long digits inside of you.

Soon enough both of them picked up their paces - Jaehyun rubbing at your nub and Johnny finger fucking you. You were so starved of their touches that it didn’t take you long to reach your orgasm. In no time you were squirming and contorting, fresh new batches of your slick spilling right to their fingers.

“That’s it, baby, let it go for us,” Johnny cooed into your hair as you finished screaming incoherent sentences.

“I missed watching you cum,” Jaehyun confessed into your lips, lightly pecking you as you recovered your breath.

“And I miss watching you cum,” you sheepishly said as you pulled him closer by the hem of his pants. You then turned around and used your hand to do the same to Johnny, placing them side by side. You worked on unbuttoning Jaehyun’s pants as you tip-toed to deliver a sloppy kiss to Johnny’s lips. Once Jae’s cock was free you slowly dropped to your knees, your eyes never leaving Johnny’s, and pulled his sweats and underwear down, his cock hitting you right in the face.

“Look at these two big beautiful cocks, all for me.” You licked the tip of Johnny’s cock as you pumped Jaehyun’s, a string of grunts leaving their lips. You placed the taller man’s cock in your mouth and sucked, your eyes locked on the way he was observing you, his teeth biting his bottom lip so tight that you thought it might draw blood.

“That’s it, use that pretty little tongue of yours,” he said as you swirled your pink muscle around him, head bobbing up and down.

After a while, you switched cocks, giving more of your attention to the paediatrician. You gave him the exact same treatment you gave to Johnny: tongue swirling and head-bopping until he was using his hands to bury your head further down. 

Then, completely driven by lust, you took both cocks and pulled them in together, both leaky tips touching each other. You looked them both in the eye and placed both of their members in your mouth, stuffing it full.

“Fuck, you’re so fucking dirty baby,” Johnny said as he observed the way your tongue swirled around both him and his friend’s cock, clearly enjoying it.

“That feels so good,” Jaehyun moaned, leaning his head back as you played with their ball sack.

“Alright, enough of that,” Johnny pulled your head back by your hair, a string of saliva connecting both their cocks to your mouth. “I need to fuck your little cunt before I fucking explode.”

“I’ll go get the condoms.” Jaehyun turned to leave before you grabbed his leg, looking up at him with puppy-like eyes, “no. Do me raw.”

You didn’t need to say anything further, in a matter of seconds Johnny was picking you up off of the ground and carrying you bridal style to Jaehyun’s bedroom. Upon your arrival, he threw you on the bed and placed himself on top of you. He then removed your ruined underwear, along with the jeans and opened up your legs. When he had you just like he wanted, he grabbed his member and ran it up and down your folds a couple of times, collecting your slick before entering you.

You gasped. You had had the help of your loyal vibrator for the past month on the most lonely nights but it just wasn’t the same - you needed the real thing.

Before you noticed, Jaehyun was kneeling right beside your head and placing his dick near your mouth, the feeling of his cock on your skin taking you by surprise. You turned your head and placed him in your mouth, his cock still wet from your previous blow job.

“That’s it, my beautiful girl,” he praised, giving you a loving smile as he moved a lock of your hair out of the way. 

“Suck my co-” Jaehyun’s words were cut short when Johnny started moving inside of you, eliciting a deep moan from out of you.

“Fuck you feel so good,” the man between your legs said as he supported himself by the palm of his hands, his torso right above yours.

You couldn’t say anything, you could just moan, but you didn’t mind. You loved being like this, stuffed full in both of your holes. You wanted them to use you and make a mess out of you, filling you with both their cum. You craved for it.

Just like he was listening in on your inner thoughts Johnny picked up his pace, his hips slapping against yours in such a brutal pace you were sure you’d be sore tomorrow. “Baby I’m getting closer,” he confessed, the loose strands of his brown hair dangling back and forth as he banged into you.

You didn’t answer him, your mouth too busy pleasuring Jaehyun. Instead, you snaked your hand between your bodies and started playing with your clit, giving you the boost you needed to catch up with him.

“Fuck, you’re so fucking hot Y/N,” Johnny mumbled as he watched you play with yourself as his dick railed into you.

“Shit,” Jaehyun mumbled, “by the way she’s moaning into my dick I think she’s almost there.”

“You should feel how tightly she’s squeezing me right now, I can barely hold on- fuck,” Johnny cursed as you came around him, your walls contracting tightly around him. Jaehyun removed his cock from your mouth, giving your vocal cords the liberty to scream Hail Mary.

“Fuck Johnny,” you yelled as you clawed at his buffed up arms.

“Shit, I’m gonna-”

Johnny’s dick twitched inside of you and released his milky cum, filling you up like you so desperately wanted. He then fell right on top of you, his heavy body squishing you tight.

“Get off of her Suh, you’re gonna kill her with your weight,” Jaehyun said as he pushed Johnny off of you, his limp dick falling right off from you. His cum quickly started to leak from inside of you, making you close your legs tightly in an attempt to keep it in.

“Shut up Jeong,” Johnny protested from beside you, making you smile. “Are you okay Y/N?”

“I’m perfect,” you smiled at him before you turned to Jaehyun to deliver him that same smile, “I’m ready for round two.”

“Are you sure beautiful?” He said from above you, his dimples giving you all the energy you needed.

“Yes,” you pulled him by his arm so his face would get closer to yours. “I want you,” you assured him before you gave him a soft kiss.

“I want you too,” he smiled, “so much.”

“Then come and get me,” you winked at him before he placed a small kiss on your forehead and moved to the end of the bed.

“Come here baby,” Johnny whispered from beside you, patting his chest and signalling you to get on top of him. You did as he wished, getting between his long legs and sticking out your ass to Jaehyun, your head laying right on Johnny’s pecks.

“What a fucking sight,” Jaehyun said as he caressed your ass. Then he noticed a trail of cum running down your thigh, collected it with his finger and stuck it right inside you, “you’re gonna save every little drop of our cum inside your pretty pussy aren’t you?”

“Yes.” 

Because your ear was pressed into Johnny’s chest you could hear his heartbeat and by the way it just accelerated, you knew the idea of having both his and his friend’s cum inside of you excited him. You smiled.

Jaehyun didn’t waste any time - the poor man having been teased this whole time - he collected the mix of your arousal with Johnny’s cum with his cock and entered you, his name spilling right from your mouth, “oh Jaehyun.”

“Fuck, you’re so tight.”

“Jaehyun, fuck me,” you basically purred, making Johnny laugh.

“So fucking needy, aren’t you?” He grabbed you by your chin and pulled your face closer to his so he could give you a sloppy kiss.

“Yes. Oh, Fuc-”

Taking your request into consideration Jaehyun sprung into action. He didn’t waste any time, he gripped your hips and gradually picked up his pace, much to your taste. Meanwhile, Johnny slid himself a bit down (so his mouth would be at the same level as your chest) and started sucking at your sensitive nipples, adding that extra level of pleasure.

“Fuck, Jaehyun, just like that,” you said as his rhythm turned into an animalistic one.

You knew it wouldn’t be long before for you to be spiralling down in your orgasm, the way both of them were taking care of your body being almost too good to handle.

“I missed your fucking pussy so much. God, it feels so good,” he confessed before he spanked your ass, the sound of skin slapping on skin echoing in his room.

“Jaehyun…” you moaned into the air before Johnny reached for your clit, provoking your third orgasm of the night not long after, “shit, shit, shit.”

“Fuck, I’m gonna cum,” Jaehyun warned before he spilt inside you, your orgasm clearly triggering his.

“Fuck,” you cursed as Jaehyun removed himself from inside of you, only the mix of their cums left inside your clenching pussy.

“You did so well baby,” Johnny confessed to your chest, leaving small kisses here and there as you tried to regain your breath. He pulled you in closer and rolled you around so you were on your back. He then left a trail of small kisses from your chest right until your pubic bone, taking his time to observe the mess between your legs. 

“Come here Jae,” he instructed his best friend who was panting on the bed.

“Look at that pretty pussy filled with our cum,” Jaehyun said between breaths as he ran a finger between your folds.

“Can you show us all that’s inside baby?” Johnny asked, his finger tracing calming patterns on your thigh.

“Yeah.” You opened up your legs wider and let go of all their cum, the milky substance running down your folds and falling straight on Jaehyun’s bedspread.

“Fuck,” Jaehyun said.

“You’re such a good girl for us,” Johnny added, making you smile.

“I’m so glad we can just be together, I was so terrified that I had to break the heart of one of you…” You confessed, both of them immediately joining you in bed to shower you with hugs and kisses.

“Hey, hey, everything’s alright now. You’ve got us - the both of us - no matter what, okay?” Johnny said, softly kissing you on the lips.

“Yes beautiful, nothing else matters right now.”

“Good,” you said before you tried to gain the courage to tell them something more, something you’ve been wanting to say now for a long time. “Johnny? Jaehyun?”

“Yes?” They both said, their loving eyes fixated on you.

“I love you, the both of you,” you confessed while interchanging looks with them both, your heart beating like crazy.

“We love you too,” they said.

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

This is it guys. Tbh I think this is the canon one for me, don’t mind my JohnJae biased ass 😂. Thank you for supporting me all the way through this series, hope you stick around for my future contente! Until next time,

Love,

Ana 💜

Tag list: @ncitybub @noisek @nuoyii @sleep-is-all-i-seek @dirtyzens @sktbzc0re @erisxczenie @lauraneuuh @jjhmk @heheimsoft @notbeforelong @cryingforjae @94ser0da @hmneighbors @yixing-jaehyun @koalabi-tch @raven-rin @johnnyyjsuh @johnnys-sunflower @atletino @cacaubs @born5sos

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[commander-kirschtein]

College!AU headcanons for the 104th

masterlist

Eren Jaeger:

Degree: some sort of humanities subject. I’m torn between history and geography (I can see him only going though because of pressure from his dad/Zeke because they both went so he feels like he has to.)

Would definitely get some tattoos whilst at uni as well as growing his hair out (”haircuts are too expensive for college students.”)

Needs coffee every morning else he feels like death (pulls way too many all nighters to get work done - Mikasa is not happy with this habit.)

Probably wakes up 10 minutes before a lecture and just legs it - he sets alarms but he tells everyone they never go off (he’s lying he presses snooze every time.)

Mikasa Ackerman:

Degree: languages !! Which ones though I’m not sure? I feel like she’s a polyglot so would already be fluent in French and Spanish so would chose to have a degree in one of them alongside something more challenging - maybe Russian or Japanese ??

Would maybe join a creative writing/poetry society, she likes to write in her spare time as a way of expressing her emotions as she finds opening up a bit of a struggle.

Before going to college, she’d take a gap year to do some travelling. Has all of her adventures written down in a diary that she often reads once she starts college.

The queen of houseplants. She has so many, they all have names and she’d never dream of letting any of them die.

Armin Arlert:

Degree: astrophysics or marine biology (I know Armin loves the ocean but he is also a space nerd don’t argue with me) BUT another option could be artificial intelligence ?? He just thinks it’s interesting.

Loves a good group study session. He finds he takes in information better if he talks to people about it and tries to explain concepts (be warned if you ever ask Armin about his subject - you will be there for hours.)

Probably the only person who does all the reading for his subject PLUS the additional reading. He doesn’t even see it as a chore because he likes to know as much as he possibly can !!

Would suggest that everyone in his lectures makes a group chat where they can send notes, thinking that other people will send theirs so he can make sure he got all the info down - nope everyone is just stealing your notes Armin I’m sorry.

Jean Kirstein:

Degree: could definitely see him studying modern history with politics, don’t ask me why I just see it.

Left handed, he knows the struggle of writing something only for it to be smudged seconds later and his hand covered in ink

Will pull out his guitar at any given opportunity. The king of playing wonderwall (it’s a crowd favourite and everyone ends up singing.)

You know Jean is stressed if he’s rubbing/touching his face a lot - and drinking lots of black coffee (he doesn’t like the taste but thinks he’s cool and tough for drinking it.)

Sasha Braus:

Degree: culinary science.

Never has a pen. If you sit next to Sasha in a lecture she will always ask for a pen (a pen which you will never see again I’m sorry - in fairness, you won’t want it back because she’s chewed the ends of it.)

If you have a shared living arrangement with Sasha you have been blessed. She loves to cook !! (Kinda a given with what she’s studying) and is always willing to make dinner for everyone (she will make a mess though so be prepared to do the cleaning up afterwards.)

I can definitely see her joining the choir or even being in a musical theatre production! She’s a great singer, albeit not the best dancer but she has the energy and spirit and that’s what’s important.

Connie Springer:

Degree: something like hospitality and tourism (he’s got such amazing people skills! he would be great at this and has the right energy for it.)

This boy would live on instant noodles if it wasn’t for him sharing a place with sasha. and the most erratic eating schedule (“what do you mean I can’t eat breakfast at 3pm??”)

Has a massive crate of energy drinks from cosco. Goes through said crate way faster than should be humanly possible.

His laptop is covered in stickers (many are random ones he’s collected and slapped on but he got some of Sasha and Jean making stupid faces that he put on there too - Sasha found this hilarious, Jean was not impressed.)

Marco Bodt:

Degree: English language with drama.

Musical !! Theatre !! Society !! This man is a triple threat, but honestly he prefers to be part of the chorus because he doesn’t like the pressure and stress of having a main part.

The best person to have with you on a night out. You’re throwing up? Marco will hold your hair back. You need a lift home? If sober he’ll take you and if he’s been drinking he will get you a taxi and come with to make sure you get back safe. An absolute angel <3

The most likely person to become an RA. He also volunteers to help with many of the events on campus and would probably be part of the student association committee.

Historia Reiss/Christa Lenz:

Degree: she seems like a psychology gal to me. Probably would take psychology as a degree and then would go on for a masters in something more specified like educational psychology.

You know she’s got a stationary set up to die for. highlighters in every colour, all of her notes written in gorgeous handwriting, her desk is super organised !!

You’d never see this girl going to a lecture or seminar in casual clothing - she’s always dressed up even if the rest of the students are in what looks like what they wore to bed the night before.

Likes to take the lead in group projects. Can’t stand missing deadlines so is very organised (has a very cute diary too where she writes important stuff down.)

Ymir:

Degree: sociology or philosophy.

Definitely a last minute assignment writer, will always ask to borrow notes because she didn’t do the reading.

Sells stuff on depop as a way of making money through college. she makes badges and well as some really cool resin earrings (proudly worn by her gf Historia.)

Sits all the way at the back of the lecture hall so she can go on her phone (to message Historia obvs.)

Bertoldt Hoover:

Degree: film studies with English language

I can see him being a techie for the theatre at his uni. he does the lighting and sound for the annual musical !! (trips over cables and bangs his head on lighting bars all the time but still loves doing it.)

Because of his degree, likes to hold film screenings for his friends. In another post I hc that Reiner won’t shut up during movies and Bert is probably the only person who can deal with Reiner’s constant commentary.

Drank for the first time in college and did not enjoy the experience. He’s definitely a puker and has decided instead he will be the big brother friend and make sure everyone gets home safety and will watch the drinks whilst they go dance.

Reiner Braun:

Degree: some sort of engineering (I’m thinking chemical??)

Becomes a bit of a gym rat once getting to college. Also joins a lot of societies because he likes to be sociable and will often drag Bert along too (why can I see these two going to like ping pong club or something. whoever loses has to buy the takeout that night.)

Is going broke because of his daily caramel frappchino from starbucks (all the baristas know him by name.)

Okay but Reiner owning a motorbike ?? Sign me up. He’s the coolest kid on campus.

Annie Leonhardt:

Degree: biochemistry.

Annie isn’t much of a social person and keeps her circle small, but she realises things are going to be pretty boring if all she does is stay in her room, so she ends up joining the girls soccer team.

A very tidy person to live with. will probably tidy up after everyone because she cannot stand the mess - but be warned if this happens all the time she’s not afraid to confront her roommates about it.

If she’s stressed about assignments, her sweet tooth comes out big time. her biggest guilty pleasure is white chocolate and she always has a bar before an exam or a big essay is due.

[human-do-a-worm]

Ramblings of an Old Soldier Part 2/?

Part 1 can be found HERE

The next day, the Unkall boy came back to the old soldier, sitting on the bench where he normally does, reading his data tablet. The boy had a rather happy look on him today.

“Ah, you’re back. I take it that my story wasn’t quite enough on its own then?”

“Not quite mister. It turned out to be more than enough for my first paper. After I turned it in, my teacher said I could go ahead and write the rest of my papers for the course since I had found a primary source willing to share their experience.”

“I see. How kind of your teacher. Back when I was in school, they would have told us to stuff it.”

“So, what other stories do you have to tell?”

“How about my time in the cycle after the Martian campaign?”

“That sounds wonderful. Let me start my recorder.”

The Unkall child pushes a glowing button on his data tablet, and a blue dot appearing on the screen indicated that the recording had started

“It was less than a month after the battle on Mars; that’s one twenty-fourth of a cycle in standard units. Reconstruction had begun on mars, and the war fleets which were now all massed around Terra had been split into five groups. Group Solar and Group Lunar were the two largest of the fleets, and as such were classed together. Group Pangea, Group Gondwana, and Group Oceana were the three smaller groups, and were classed together as well. The fleets were organized in this way by Grand Admiral Demetrius, to ensure that no one fleet would have to stand against the enemy for too long a time.”

“Since I’ve brought him up, I should probably tell you a bit about the Grand Admiral. Remember what I was saying about the preparations for the battle on Mars. All the meticulous planning done to move the civilians back to Terra, and keep morale up while being an effective fighting force? Well, that came from Demetrius, and was only slightly modified by individual units as the orders were passed down the chain. His odd decision making turned out to be one of the most valuable things that humanity had, because nobody could anticipate his plans; especially the Vrumoids. He was only a rear admiral, but after his commendation, and the first victory in the war, He was immediately promoted.”

“Back to the war now. The battle plan was simple. Keep a constant pressure on the enemy, working in a single spot, pushing the enemy back system by system, and planet by planet. Where to stop would be figured out as the fleets went along. This seemed to work very well. In most systems, Groups Solar and Lunar rarely had fire a single shot. The Vrumoids would either flee or be destroyed by one of the smaller groups before the heavy guns of the heavy class ships could be brought to bear.”

“The reconquest continued almost flawlessly until there was a single human world left to reclaim. Rexorb VI was nothing more than a rock when humanity last saw it, but after looking upon it, the armada called for the command group; Group Regal; to come and take a look. At first sight of the data scans, Demetrius broke down with laughter. Failing to find the humor in this situation, his second in command asked him what was so funny.” “These poor bastards. They’ve made this planet up to be just like Mars, hoping we’ll make the same mistakes they did. Have they never been told that it’s a bad idea to try using the tactics someone created against them? They’ve made themselves the easiest targets possible for us, and what’s even better is that they did it on a mining world. There were only a few housing units on that planet, and its riches lie deep inside. This is the perfect opportunity to try a new idea.”

“With that, preparations were made swiftly, and with much laughter all around. On the back side of Rexorb VI’s moon, groups Solar, Gondwana, and Oceana moved into position, mounting themselves with their primary propulsion systems poised to drop the moon from its orbit.”

The boy spoke up

“Didn’t the Vrumoid forces on the planet notice what was happening?”

Laughing, the old man responded

“Nope. That was a benefit of only showing the enemy one small and one large battle group at a time. According to Vrumoid intelligence recovered after the war, The defenders on Rexorb VI simply thought we were just deciding how to invade properly. They had no idea Demetrius was crazy enough to consider crashing the moon into the planet, and they would have to have been crazy to even guess that the rest of the fleet would just go along with it. I know Demetrius was expecting to do some explaining to the others.”

“The High Admiral may have been absolutely insane, but he wasn’t heartless. He ordered a shuttle to take one squad and an emissary to give them one final chance to surrender. They of course, believing a ground war lay ahead, refused. That was the last mistake that the Vrumoids ever made when dealing with humanity. Exactly one planetary axis revolution after the shuttle returned to the fleet, all the pushing ships’ engines fired up. Each of the ships had worked out their individual point of no return for propelling the moon towards the planet, and had an order to pull off at what their captain deemed a safe time before reaching their point of no return. By the time the last ship pulled off, The moon was going faster than its own terminal velocity.”

“When that moon hit the surface of the planet, the entire thing cracked like a geode. After observing this from one of their comm stations, the Vrumoid Empire rushed to set up peace treaty negotiations. Of course, who was the Terran representative by unanimous vote from the United Terran Council? None other than High Admiral Demetrius. They figured that if nothing else, he could get the Vrumoids to leave humanity alone. But what he got us was something so much greater.”

“As you might have learned in class, our home system and colonies were entirely located within an isolated part of Vrumoid space. We had no knowledge of the Galactic Council Alliance, at least until one of the Vrumoid delegates at the negotiations made a mistake and asked one of his compatriots what the council would think of their actions if they ever found out. After learning that there were other intelligent species in the galaxy, Demetrius demanded that humanity be granted a swath of planets and territory directly to the territory of another GCA member.”

“This single achievement is what brought humanity forward. Demetrius did what no other Terran could do; he found sentient life that wasn’t actively trying to kill us, and he made sure we could get to them with ease. If it weren’t for him, we would have never known the GCA existed, and likely would have been either wiped out or enslaved by the Vrumoids after they rebuilt their forces.”

“Of course, after we made contact with the council, and they saw what we were able to do to a far more technologically advanced species, they demanded to see our battle reports and to speak with all the commanding officers. I remember standing there by High Admiral Demetrius’ side.”

The young Unkall spoke up ecstatically

“You were a commanding officer?”

“Sure was kiddo. Leading the charge of those bikers on mars was one hell of a brave thing, and Demetrius took note. When he got the chance to promote one of his soldiers to an admiral under his command for Group Solar, he spoke loud and clear to us and said “Where’s that crazy bastard that volunteered to charge a platoon of enemy tanks using nothing but motorcycles and bombs on sticks? I have a job for you!” That was the day I was no longer a simple marksman, I was an Admiral, and a damn good one too. My group didn’t lose a single vessel to the enemy.”

“I still remember the day I went down on that rock the day before we cracked it. The Vrumoid commander must have been watching the video recordings from when I charged the tanks, because the moment I walked into the room and she looked up at me, she looked all sorts of shaken up. When I told her that this was her last chance to accept a mercy never offered by her empire, a chance to surrender; she simply said that surrender would never come until she and her warriors no longer stood upon the planet. If only she knew the irony in those words.”

“I remember being at the peace conference, and although Demetrius had only been seen rarely by the Vrumoids, mostly in transmissions intercepted from Mars to Earth, they had seen me plenty. I think I scared them more than Demetrius did, because when I talked about how my motorcycle wasn’t out of fuel yet, they started agreeing to our demands.”

Curiously, the boy tapped something into his data tablet

“Wait a minute, are you saying that you’re Admiral Sturm?”

“Indeed I am. Admiral Jakob Sturm, service number 6556-0293-422-41, former commander of the Terran expeditionary fleet codename Solar. I proudly led my sailors, soldiers, and marines through some of the harshest battles that humanity has faced, and kept my fleet intact. I wasn’t lying when I said that I didn’t lose a ship in my group to the enemy. And after serving 10 cycles in service of my species, I left honorably.”

“So what did you do after you left? I’d imagine being an admiral is a hard job to top.”

“You’re right, admiral is a hard job to beat. I served as an ambassador of Terra for a cycle before I returned to the stars. I found some of the others from back on Mars that charged with me on that day. We were a mercenary group. We mostly took escort contracts or welfare and security for anyone we deemed especially needy. We did good work for a few cycles, but then I had to give it a rest.”

“That’s around the time your name stopped appearing in records of both the GCA and Terran reports. What happened?”

“I’ve been talking for too long. I think you might be able to get a few pages out of what I’ve said today. Better to not burn up all your content at once, right? I’ll be here again tomorrow, like I always am. I’ll tell you more then.”

“If you insist sir. I’ll be here.”

“Until then, take care. I may be old, but I still expect people to stick to a schedule.”

With that, the boy stopped his recording and went home. To meet someone as important as Admiral Sturm, who seemed to have vanished from most records 8 cycles ago, was entirely unexpected. Unexpected, but it will certainly make a wonderful paper for his teacher.

[valdomarx]

Inseparably Entwined

Stargate Atlantis, McKay/Sheppard, bound together, 2k, rated M

-

Elizabeth pinches the bridge of her nose. "What did you two do now?"

"We. Uhh. We found another Ancient device."

"And, instead of cataloguing it for a hazmat team to investigate, as per protocol, you decided to play with it?"

“To investigate it,” Rodney corrects. “Like the competent professionals we are.” John punches him in the arm.

Elizabeth's lips purse into a thin line. "And then you accidentally activated it?"

John winces. "And then we accidentally activated it."

"Of course you did. And its effects are…?"

"Non lethal," Rodney says, a bit too quickly. 

Elizabeth mumbles something that might be don't bet on it under her breath. "Non lethal, but…?"

John shifts his weight and stares at a point behind her head. "McKay and I have to stay within ten feet of each other at all times or we both pass out."

For a moment there is stunned silence. Then the sound of Elizabeth's bark of laughter fills the office and spills out into the gate room.

-

Carson waves a hand. “You’re both going to be fine. It looks like the bond is only temporary.”

Rodney fidgets. “How temporary?”

“I couldn’t say. A few days, maybe a few weeks?”

“Weeks?” John chokes out. “Listen, doc, we need you to fix this -”

Carson cuts him off. “I’m sorry, son, but I’ve got more important things on my plate right now.” He looks pointedly around the infirmary which is admittedly full of marines being treated for combat injuries, Athosians coming in for checkups, and troops of medical staff organizing vaccinations for off-world groups.

John deflates. “So we’re stuck with each other?”

Carson pats him on the shoulder. “Good luck.”

Rodney looks up at that. “Hey!”

-

“Absolutely not.” John recoils in horror. “We are not sleeping in your room.”

“But all my stuff is in there.”

“Your room is disgusting. If you think I’m sleeping on the floor among half-finished bags of cheetos and bits of drones, you are sorely mistaken. It’s a wonder you haven’t attracted the Lantean equivalent of rats.”

“I’ll have you know the bags of cheetos are almost entirely finished.”

“Rodney -”

“Alright! We’ll sleep in your oh-so-tidy quarters. Military spick and span, no snacks or useful bits of machinery in sight.” Rodney rounds on him, waving a finger in his face. “But if I get an inspired idea in the middle of the night and can’t find a circuit board to test it on, know that it’s your stubbornness that is robbing humanity of another of my great concepts.”

John hides a smile. “I’ll have to find a way to live with myself.”

-

When the doors to John’s quarters slide open, Rodney’s jaw drops.

“Hey! How come you have a bigger bed than me?”

John shoots him a smug look. “I upgraded after the last attack. Benefits of command.” It was one of the very few benefits of command he was willing to take advantage of.

“Oh, that’s how it is, hmm? We’re living in a military dictatorship here, with all the best perks and boons given to the highest ranking officers? Never mind that it’s the scientists who do all the actual work, who discover new technology and solve the problems, oh no, let’s give out the biggest and comfiest beds to the military guys, as if that’s fair -”

“McKay!” he interrupts. Rodney looks like he’s having fun, gearing up for a good rant, but John honestly can’t take it right now. “Go to sleep, I’m begging you.”

Rodney huffs, clearly saving that rant away for another time. “Fine.”

-

John is woken up for the third time that night by Rodney fidgeting on the floor and sighing dramatically. 

“What is it, McKay?” His voice is testy. He doesn’t love having his sleep interrupted.

“I can’t get comfortable. A sleeping bag on the floor is bad for my back.”

John stares at the ceiling and counts to ten. He looks at the ample space next to him and calculates his best odds of getting some sleep tonight. “Come here and share the bed with me then.”

Rodney eyes his mattress dubiously. “I’ll have you know I require a very firm mattress, for spinal support, not that I’d expect you to understand -”

“For god’s sake, get in the bed. It has to be better than the floor.”

A moment’s pause. “Yeah, alright.”

It’s been a long time since John slept next to someone. His rare hookups have mostly involved sneaking out in the middle of the night, and even when he was married they slept in separate beds most of the time. 

Sleeping next to Rodney is, surprisingly, not awful though. Sure, he steals all the covers and moves around all the time and, of course, he snores, but John finds that he strangely doesn’t mind. 

-

John has seen Rodney under fire, seen him at his best, seen him happy and sad and angry and bored. But he’s never seen him first thing in the morning before.

“Whazzat?” Rodney’s eyes barely open. His expression is one of overriding confusion. “Whzz going on?”

John stifles a smile at his resident genius. He’s been up for an hour already, showered, done his laundry, and cleaned his space. He’s also decided to play nice and share his secret.

“Here,” he says, and hands a mug of freshly brewed coffee to Rodney. “Just don’t tell anyone I snuck coffee and a kettle into my personal effects, or the scientists will raid us in the middle of the night.”

“Coffee!” Rodney is still radiating confusion, but he hones in on the cup of coffee like a laser. A blissful smile passes over his face. “You brought me coffee.”

“I did.”

“You’re wonderful.” Rodney takes the coffee and cradles it like something precious and rare.

-

After a day and a half doing paperwork in the lab because they can't go off-world, John has reached the end of his rope. 

"I'm going to the gym," he snaps. "You can either come with me or we'll both end up in the infirmary when I try to go there alone."

Rodney glares and is clearly about to start arguing when Zelenka elbows him. He sighs dramatically but agrees that they can take an hour away. 

While they're both in the gym and John needs a sparring partner, he figures he might as well teach Rodney some self defense. The idea of Rodney needing to defend himself makes something unpleasant twist in his gut, but he pushes that away and argues they should make the most of this time and do something productive. To his surprise, Rodney agrees, and they run through some basic drills and defensive maneuvers. 

Rodney is bad at this, frankly. He's all elbows and poor coordination, but he's trying. 

John is feeling magnanimous, and he knows the value of a bit of positive reinforcement. So when Rodney steps forward and attempts a clumsy hip throw, he leans in and lets himself be thrown. 

Rodney looks astonished that actually worked, before delightedly pouncing on John and pinning him to the floor.

"Got you," he says, face pink and grinning wickedly. 

John's heart picks up, somehow distracted by Rodney's heavy weight on him and the sharp brightness of his smile. He swallows thickly. 

"I guess you do."

-

“Geez, Sheppard, how long does it take to have a shower?” Rodney’s voice carries through the bathroom door. “I want to run some simulations on the city’s power systems with Zelenka.”

John’s cheeks flush and he tries to tune Rodney out. “Just give me a minute, will you?”

“What are you doing in there anyway, jerking off?”

John goes very, very still.

“Oh my god, you are!”

“Shut up, McKay.”

“No, no, don’t let me stop you. You go ahead and enjoy yourself.”

“I hate you.”

“I’m not judging. It’s perfectly natural. And hey, maybe it’ll help you chill the fuck out for once.”

John scowls, gives up, and shoves his dick back in his pants. “I will kill you in your sleep.”

-

John is used to having to drag McKay around after him on missions, so in some ways their new situation isn’t entirely unfamiliar. 

Tac vests are useful for that; full of hand holds he can grab when he needs McKay to get down under cover or to stop him from wandering off to look at some shiny piece of technology. When Rodney is in uniform, he can grab the collar of his shirt, though Rodney complains that it creases the fabric horribly.

So John finds a compromise. When he has stuff to do and Rodney is dawdling, he grabs his hand and steers him in the right direction. After a while it becomes second nature - whenever there’s danger or something important is happening, he takes Rodney’s hand and they set off to deal with it together.

If any of the marines find it funny to see their commander holding hands with the head of science during a crisis, none of them dares to mention it.

-

John is carefully, carefully tending to his hair. Just the right amount of product, to spike it just the right amount to look effortless. He tweaks and ruffles, tugs and shapes. This is an art form which requires judicious maintenance. 

“Oh, for the love of -” Rodney grabs the tub of hair wax out of his hands. “We’ll be here all day. Let me.”

He steps forward and slides his hands into John’s hair, ruffling it vigorously. His fingers are firm on John’s scalp and he tugs just on the right side of too hard.

Rodney steps back and surveys his work. “That’ll do.”

John glances in the mirror and sees a chaotic, wild mess. He looks like he’s run a marathon, with his pink cheeks and mussed hair, or like he’s rolled out of bed after a night of passion.

“Rodney! I can’t go out like this.”

“Oh, shut up. You look smoking hot, like you always do.”

That’s… What? What does that mean? Why the hell would Rodney say that?

“Come on,” Rodney is saying, already on his way out the door. John has to run after him, cheeks still flushed.

-

They find a rhythm.

John gets up first and puts the coffee on while he showers. He’s given up on trying to tidy Rodney’s side of the room, so he lets the piles of circuit boards and screwdrivers sprout up where they will. Once Rodney is up they get breakfast at the mess, then he spends the morning doing paperwork and writing reports in the science lab while Rodney works. They meet Teyla and Ronon for lunch, then he spends the afternoon drilling the marines while Rodney taps away at a laptop. Evenings, they bicker over which movies to watch in their quarters and throw popcorn at each other.

Elizabeth even agrees to let them travel to the mainland, and then to go on low-stakes reconnaissance missions. 

It’s… comfortable, he realizes. It works.

That thought makes something twist in his chest, and he doesn’t know why.

-

“Morning, sunshine.” John pours Rodney a cup of coffee.

“Mmm.” Rodney is still sleep-rumpled, but he struggles upright and smiles softly. “Morning.”

As he hands over the coffee, Rodney catches his wrist and holds him there. He looks down at the mug, then back up at John. John notices in an abstract way that his eyes are very, very blue.

“Thanks,” Rodney says, and pecks him on the lips.

Right. Okay. That’s a thing. That’s a thing they’re doing now.

John is still processing as Rodney gets up and heads for the shower. “I’ve got a meeting with Miko this morning,” he says over his shoulder, normal as ever, “so we might have to push our gym session back by half an hour -”

He keeps chattering away while John sits on the bed and has a minor crisis. Did they… do they… but that would mean…

By the time Rodney is out of the shower, John has made a decision. 

He doesn’t allow himself to overthink it, he just takes Rodney’s face in his hands and kisses him deeply. Rodney’s arms tighten around his waist and his tongue slips into his mouth and oh. Oh yes. That’s good.

John’s a little breathless, a little dizzy. “Are we really doing this?” he asks.

Rodney’s face scrunches up in amusement. “I think we’ve been doing this for weeks.”

Yeah. Okay. That’s a fair point.

The tense feeling that’s been winding around his chest uncoils, and in its place is nothing but blooming warmth.

“I guess we have.”

-

EPILOGUE

“Carson.” Elizabeth looks up from where she’s frowning at a tablet and gives him a polite nod. “Thanks for stopping by.”

“Any time,” Carson says, and means it. “What can I do for you?”

“I was hoping to get an update on the situation with John and Rodney. We really do need them to get back on full duty soon.”

“Ahh.” He’s been carefully avoiding that topic. He takes a breath. “To be honest with you, the bond between them wore off days ago. They could go their separate ways now and be none the worse for it.”

Elizabeth’s eyebrows fly upward toward her hairline. “And you haven’t told them yet?”

“See, at first they were in the infirmary every day asking for an update. But they haven’t been in for over a week and -”

“And?”

“They seem…” he pauses, contemplating his choice of words, “... happy.”

Elizabeth’s mouth twitches into a quickly suppressed smile. “That may be, but you have a professional responsibility.”

“Aye, you’re right. I’ll go and tell them the effects of the device have run their course.”

“Well…” Elizabeth looks thoughtful. “You have a professional responsibility to give them accurate medical information when they ask for it.”

Carson sees where she’s going with this. “And until then?”

Elizabeth shrugs and gives him a sly look. “They do seem happy.”

[flimflamfranky]

Please show me your AUs

*slams down the heavy tome* i hope you are ready for the can of worms you’ve unleashed. also, i’m sorry for any hopes i get and subsequently dash.

so, in no particular order, we have: - klabaturerman franky. now this one i have done things for but i still wanna. do more. like, him interacting with the merry, and the crew learning what he is, that sort of things. - related to this, is a more general sea spirit/fae franky au, just cuz i like fae stuff. i do have some art ideas for this, i just. haven’t done any of them yet. - supernatural frobrobin au, where franky is a (recently turned) werewolf, robin is a vampire, brook is…brook, and they’re all trapped in a magic mansion by some curse. and it’s just them growing close and bonding and trying to break free. also, ghibli vibes. - speaking of ghibli…howl’s moving castle au. featuring franky as sophie with a curse that turns him into a perceptually broken robot, and robin as howl, but with her canon backstory with the government. also has luffy as calcifer, usopp as merkel, brook as turnip head, and nami/crocodile as a weird split version of the witch of the waste (with croc as the villain and nami as the redeemed version). - a pacific rim au, expect it takes place in a post-apoc version where the kaiji have basically won. starts with luffy, usopp, and chopper finding an abandoned jaeger and decided to pilot it. not sure abt the plot on this one, but it does have franky as a disillusioned former jaeger pilot/engineer. - my franky/blueno au, which is being run by vibes and little else. pretty canon-compliant, but with blueno and franky becoming friends (and possibly more) and then dramatically falling out after the reveal. i initially described it as enemies to lovers, but really, it's lovers to enemies. no happy ends here, boys. - several, count ‘em, SEVERAL franky/rosi aus, cuz i got way to into them and had a lot of ideas and then. never did anything with them - main one is them having a meet cute in water 7, before rosi goes undercover with doffy and before the whole sea train thing happens (rosi’s about 24yo, franky’s 21). it’s basically just them bonding and being cute before going their separate ways. - the other one is a sprawling splitting mess of an au that has the two meet as kids on the streets and becoming fast friends. then they get found by sengoku  and becoming marines, with rosi training with sengoku and franky becoming vegapunk’s protege. I had one idea where they were close to saul, and after the arrest of olivia became disillusioned with the marines and helped her escape, and then joining her try to save ohara. another branch is rosi still going undercover with doffy, but with franky in tow, and that whole she-bang happening, but with franky, rosi, and law all escaping alive. plus a bunch of minor plot threads that i'm forgetting. again, it's a mess. - various frobrobin aus set in the early-mid 19th century (20s-50s mostly) with mobs, romance and political intrigue. - a roleswap au that i have bits and pieces of written, i’ve just never finished it. unfortunately doesn’t have jinbe in it cuz he’s just too hard to swap with, and i started this before he joined. - i’ve written a summary of this before, but my rouge adopts franky au that ultimately leads to franky being a big bro to asl. - a disney's beauty and the beast au, where robin is the “beast” (cursed child who has been outcast from society and became a monster to survive with a flower motif) and franky is the “beauty” aka belle (intelligence child of an eccentric inventor whose ostracized by the town and willing to sacrifice himself to save another). has lucci as an altered gaston and the straw hats (+ others) as various cursed castle residents. - an arc style idea (not really sure if it counts as an au) where franky gets kidnapped and experimented on by the government. basically my whumptober comic, but in long-fic form. - pokemon aus! i’m mostly entertaining these two: - one piece but with pokemon, and how the straw hats met their various pokemon partners. - and a pmd au with the straw hats as the pmd starters (this one is a drawing, so i might actually finish it) - and i do wanna do something with pokemon gijinka, i just

haven’t given it much thought. - an au where law convinces franky to join his crew bc doffy has been trying to muscle in on water 7 and law is basically like, "we both hate this guy, let's team up". this one is very shaky, but I do still love the idea. - a subnautica au? hear me out. it has the straw hats as space pirates that infiltrate the aurora right before it gets shot down, and they end up trapped on the alien planet. they get split into three main groups: franky, luffy, usopp / robin, chopper, jinbe, sanji / zoro, nami, brook. and they all basically try to survive and find the others in their own ways.

- an au where the crew stops at a weird marriage theme island and franky and brook get married by accident. which is a problem cuz this marriage is ~magic~ and psychically bonds them together. so the crew has to figure out how to undo it. also features frobrobin and zosopp. - a cookie run crossover au, with the straw hats as cookies. pretty basic, expect i, like with most things, went overboard and then never finished it. - and some zosopp aus! - a superhero actor au, where usopp is a new actor playing sogeking in a new kids show and zoro is the main villain, and they fall in love. - an au where usopp is a tengu that guards a small forest (but mostly plays harmless pranks) and zoro who is a lost woodsman, and they become close and fall in love. And also maybe save the forest from a rich jerk along the way. - a gurren lagann crossover au, where usopp is simon and franky is kamina, with all the angst that implies. i really like this concept, but I haven’t actually finished gurren lagann, so… - a leverage au, where the straw hats are a band of thieves that help people out. basically taking canon and sticking in a thief/modern au. - you know those one piece rewrite aus? i have one of those, surprise, surprise. starts with gin joining the straw hats with sanji and quickly branching off from there. other big changes include: - jinbe getting introduced super early and helping the straw hats with arlong, and then becoming an ally until he later joins - brook getting swept back to the beginning of the grand-line and meets the straw hats when they first arrive. gets to reunite with laboon before decideding to join the straw hats to finish his old crew’s journey. - a delay in loguetown means that croc succeeds in taking over albasta and the straws hats help vivi overthrow him (with robin working with cobra in the background to betray croc); ends with vivi joining the straw hats bc she publicly allied with pirates - franky running from water 7 with the blueprints and ends up working for doflamingo. He gets sent to check in on croc (and search for robin) after he takes over alabasta and ends up kicking it with the straw hats and eventually deciding to betray doffy and join them - there’s like. a lot more, but if I do ever end up writing it I don’t wanna spoil all of it. - but im probably not, cuz this would be looooooong. *lets out a deep breath* and that’s about it. and if anyone wants to steal any of these ideas, please do, i would love you forever.

[imbeccable-writes]

So I know we all want Yakko to go unhinged on Salazar, but how do you think he (and maybe Wakko too) would react if he found out Dot’s matrons weren’t so nice to her while she was in their care? :}

this got a little long lmao, so I'm gonna put it under a read more.

So here's the thing. with the way I'm writing dot, she probably wouldn't say anything about where she'd stayed. Like, she'd say it was in Burbank and maybe she'd joke about the food being horrid or something, but she wouldn't go into the details about just how horribly she was abused. She learned early on that if she was in any way an "inconvenience", then everyone she ever loved would abandon her and hate her, and even though she has evidence to the contrary (Marin being the prime example, but also the other kids), it's hard to unlearn internalized worthlessness.

And the thing is, Dot doesn't actually know if Yakko and Wakko love her. Of course WE know, being the writer and readers, but she hasn't seen them in years. She tells herself they love her because that's the only thing that's keeping her going, but there's a difference between saying and believing. Deep down, for a good part of her life, Dot wasn't sure they cared about her at all. And even once they're together again, she isn't sure if they love HER or the IDEA of her. And she's terrified of what would happen if the the latter were true.

All this to say, that it would take a lot to get it out of Dot anything that happened to her at the orphanage. Yakko and Wakko would be worried about her, because it seemed like she's sort of walking on eggshells (metaphorically) around them, but it's hard for them to bring stuff up either, because none of them really know how to interact with one another. It's been so long, and only one of them really remembers the Before Times, and even then it's still blurry. Maybe she's just like this. Maybe it's just nerves. Maybe it'll pass.

It doesn't, of course, because for those first few months to a year, she's just waiting for the other shoe to drop. I'm not quite sure what the catalyst would be when Dot finally tells them about what happened, but I do know Yakko would be filled with rage and Wakko would be genuinely surprised (bc in his experience all matrons are so nice and welcoming) and also angry (bc how dare they hurt his darling little sister so? he's gonna throw hands). And they'd probably both immediately start making plans to find and drive Leslie and Deb bat shit insane, and Dot would just be so... confused.

Because like, despite her better judgement, she finally let herself vent and cry about her horrible childhood, half of her tears due to the abuse and half of her tears due to the total and utter conviction that she was going to lose the last of her family after this because she couldn't keep herself happy enough, couldn't keep in the hurt and pain and tears... and then it just didn't happen. Yakko and Wakko had listened patiently, and had indeed grown more and more visibly angry and emotional the more she talked, but it wasn't directed at her. on the contrary, it was at the people who hurt her. They wanted to track those people down, wanted to make them pay for hurting her, and as much as she wanted that, she didn't understand.

Yakko would probably notice her flabbergasted expression and ask about it, and she'd tentatively ask, "You're not... mad?"

and he's like, "Uhhhhh, sister sib, I think you'll find I'm pretty darn pissed"

and she's like, "No I meant- I meant at me."

And Yakko would be stunned silent for a moment or two, having not expected that, before he'd blurt, "Of course not, no! Why would we be?"

"Because!" and she gestures in the space between the three of them like it held all the answers to her problems. "Because I broke! Because I- I let you know I was hurting, I let you see me crying. Why arent- Why aren't you mad at me?" And she's genuinely confused and it's making her tear up again - everything makes her tear up lately, she's just so sensitive, what's wrong with her -

"Dot," Wakko said suddenly, and she looked to him. "We aren't- it's not your fault that that happened to you."

Dot's breath caught in her throat.

"Yeah, it-" Yakko cut in, "It's all your guardians' fault. They were supposed to take care of you and they did a pretty horrible job of it." Dot couldn't stop trembling. "We're not mad at you. You did the one thing we wanted you to do, and that was to trust us with the stuff that hurts. We're here for you, always. We- We love you."

"So much," Wakko added, and it was the last straw.

Dot burst into tears again and launched herself at her brothers. They caught her and held her tightly between them, making sure she knew that they weren't going anywhere.

And as for Dot, well... she hurt, so so much, but for once her tears didn't feel horrible and painful. She cried and cried and cried, but it was in relief, in gratitude, because a weight had just lifted off of her shoulders, because they loved her. Her brothers loved her and herself alone, not some picturesque sister they barely remembered, but just her. They didn't pull away when her tears hit their fur - on the contrary, they seemed to hold her impossibly closer the more her tears fell.

And she couldn't seem to stop, either. Now that she knew it was okay, it seemed all the tears she'd held back over the years had come flooding back, pouring from the never ending stream of her eyes. But that was okay too. Yakko and Wakko weren't going anywhere, and for once, she let herself believe that.

They both let themselves cry a little too, over the horrible thing that'd been done to their sister. They listened to her cries and sobs, and wished with all their might that this hug could just... take it all away. All the hurt, all the pain... But of course that wasn't realistic.

There was something they could do, however.

Yakko and Wakko met eyes over Dot's head and saw a similar fire of fury and grief swimming in the other's. They were going to track down Dot's old guardians if it killed them, and would definitely change the rating of the main fic once they did.

Such violence should be kept to an Explicit rating.

-

OOP I ENDED UP WRITING A DRABBLE LMAO. my bad.

thanks for the ask though, gabby! I had fun with this

[thelastspeecher]

Pirate AU - Shore Leave

A coupla times this week I randomly got inspired to write some Pirate AU stuff.  And I got some good news yesterday, so I decided I’d post the stuff I wrote.  Like a gift to myself, that kind of thing.

So here’s some more Pirate AU content, but most importantly, some Pirate AU Stangie content.  Plus a bit of bonus Shermie content.  Enjoy.

(For context, this takes place a few years after this ficlet.)

——————————————————————————————

              “Thanks for watching the kids, Maria,” Stan whispered. “You can head home.”  Maria got up from the kitchen table.  On her way out, she tsked at Angie.

              “You know better, mija.  Be smarter and faster next time.”

              “Of course, Maria,” Angie said.  Maria shook her head disapprovingly one last time, then left.

              “Sit down, you gotta get off your feet,” Stan instructed his wife.  Angie obediently took a seat at the table.  Stan sat next to her.  “Angie.”

              “It’s a good thing I’m pregnant,” Angie said jovially.  Stan scowled.

              “Then we must be defining ‘good thing’ differently,” he growled.

              “If I wasn’t pregnant, I wouldn’t have been able to delay ‘em hangin’ me,” Angie said.  “Without that, you ‘n the crew wouldn’t have rescued me from the clink in time.”

              “You got caught pirating!” Stan snapped.  “You were about to be hanged!  Yeah, you were able to delay it this time, but next time?” Silently, he thanked whatever deity he believed in that day that they had come back from the rescue mission late enough the kids were asleep.

              Don’t want ‘em to see their parents fight. And judging by Angie’s already frustrated expression, this was definitely going to be a fight.

              “There won’t be a next time.”

              “You’re damn right.”  Stan met Angie’s eyes squarely.  “‘Cause you’re giving up piracy.”  Angie’s eyes flashed with anger.

              “You have no right-”

              “To what?  Want my wife safe?  Want my kids to grow up with both parents?  Angie, I can’t- I can’t live like this anymore!  I can’t watch you go to sea, knowing that you might not come back.  I love you too damn much to let you keep throwing your life away like this!”

              “This is the first time I’ve been caught,” Angie said, but her voice lacked some of the bite it had earlier.

              “Now that it’s happened once, it’s gonna happen again.”  Stan reached out and took ahold of one of Angie’s hands.  He rubbed the back of her hand with his thumb, feeling the thick scars from years of piracy.  “There are some injuries that, when you recover from ‘em, you’re never the same. You’ve had a lot of those.  It’s already started catching up with you. You know that.”  Angie looked away.

              “I…”

              “Give me a single reason you can’t leave piracy.”

              “You know my reasons.”

              “They were reasons you had when you first started. But they don’t matter anymore, Ang! Your name – your real one – got cleared. You’ve got a family and a home. You’ve got money.  Give me a reason that still applies.”

              “I…”  Angie looked down at the floor.  After a moment, she sighed.  Without saying a word, she got up and walked away.

              Shit.  Did I overstep?  Stan started to get up.  No. He sat back down.  Give her a bit of space.  You know how she is.  When a few minutes had passed, Stan couldn’t hold himself back any longer.  He followed her outside.  In the light of the full moon, he could see her talking to Dan. He walked over.

              “Thanks fer savin’ me,” Angie said quietly.  “Not just- not just tonight.  All those other times.  I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t fer you.”  Wordlessly, Dan enveloped her in a hug.  “Take good care of her, Dan,” Angie said, her voice cracking with emotion. They broke apart.  Dan ruffled Angie’s hair, nodded at Stan, and began to walk down the road that led to town.

              “What was that about?” Stan asked.  Angie’s shoulders shook.  “Ang, is everything all right?”

              “No!  I’m- I’m pregnant, I’m sure it’s twins again, I was almost hanged tonight, and I just gave up everything I spent most of my life buildin’ up!” Angie snapped.

              “You…”

              “Dan’s goin’ to run Sweet Viola fer a few months before easin’ her out of the game.”  Angie’s head drooped.  “This pirate king is hangin’ up her crown.”

              “Angie.”  Stan tilted Angie’s chin to look into her eyes.  Eyes the color of the sea.  “Thank you.”

              “You never thank folks,” Angie mumbled.

              “That’s how you know I’m serious.”  Stan grinned.  “And you’re not giving up all the shit you spent so long on.  You’ve still got me.  You’ve still got the kids.  All five of ‘em.”

              “No, darlin’, it’s definitely goin’ to be six,” Angie insisted.

              “What makes you so sure?”

              “A woman knows.”

              “If you say so.”

              “That’s no way to talk to yer captain.”

              “You just gave up your ship,” Stan pointed out. Angie looked away.  Stan wrapped an arm around her shoulders.  “I’m just kidding, babe.  You’ll always be my captain.”

              “Damn straight,” Angie muttered.  “By the way, I might be givin’ up piracy, but I ain’t givin’ up thievery.”

              “Good,” Stan said.  “I’m gonna need your help to keep the shop stocked.”  Angie managed a soft laugh.  The two stayed outside.  Their home was atop a seaside cliff, from which they could see the dark ocean reflecting the pale moonlight.

              Angie buried her head in Stan’s shirt, crying, as her ship disappeared over the horizon for the last time.

-----

              They walked past a shop with a number of nice dresses in the storefront window.  Promptly, Danny and Daisy made a beeline for it, cooing over the fancy fabrics.  The whole family was in town to run a few errands.  Stan glanced at his wife.  Angie wasn’t happy she had been dragged out of the house, but Emmett refused to go anywhere without her.

              “Mama, look!” Danny said excitedly, pointing at the dresses.  Angie forced a smile.

              “Yes, dear, they’re very nice.”

              “You should get it!  It would look so pretty on you!”

              “She’s got a point,” Stan whispered to her. Angie sighed heavily.

              “It would be nice to have some more clothin’ options.  I noticed the other day that I don’t have many dresses.”

              “What are you talking about?  You’ve got plenty!”

              “Yes, fer this!”  Angie gestured to her enormous baby bump.  With how big she was getting, Stan had finally begun to agree Angie was likely right, that they were having twins for a third time.  “But after I give birth?  Most of the clothes what ‘ll fit me were fer workin’ on the ship.”

              “So, something that a nice housewife wouldn’t wear,” Stan said.  Angie nodded. “Well, want me to treat you to somethin’ nice?”  Angie rolled her eyes.

              “I don’t think even you can steal a whole dress in public without bein’ caught, darlin’.”

              “I wasn’t gonna steal it.  I was gonna buy it.”

              “Buy it?”  Angie put her hands on her hips.  “Who are you and what have ya done with my husband?” she asked, aghast. Stan laughed.  “It’s prob’ly expensive.  I’m fine.”

              “After the kids are born and you’re back to normal, I’ll get you somethin’ fancy, okay?” Stan said.  He held out his arm.  Angie took it with a smile.

              “All right.  If ya insist.”  She leaned in to talk quietly.  “Darlin’, in all seriousness, yer okay with buyin’ somethin’ rather than stealin’ it?”

              “Ang, I haven’t done much crime ashore.  Only small stuff I know I can get away with. I didn’t wanna risk getting caught and leaving the kids all alone while you were at sea.”

              “…Right.”  Angie sighed again.  “I keep forgettin’ how little I’ve been on land with you ‘n the kids.”

              “You’ve got plenty of time to catch up on everything.”

              “Yes.  Since I’m now permanently on shore leave.”  Angie raised her voice.  “Girls, leave the dresses alone, we have to go to the market.”  Reluctantly, Danny and Daisy abandoned the dresses and ran back to their parents.

              “Papa, I wanna piggy-back ride,” Daisy whined.  From his perch atop Stan’s shoulders, Emory blew a raspberry at his older sister.

              “Emory’s got littler legs than you do,” Stan said. Daisy crossed her arms.

              “Emmett’s walking just fine!” she argued, gesturing at Emmett, who was holding Stan’s hand.

              “What have we talked about?” Angie asked patiently. Daisy pouted.

              “Being a good big sister,” she muttered.  Angie ruffled her hair.

              “Don’t worry, honey, when we get to the market, you can do some more pocket practice,” she cooed.  Daisy’s eyes lit up.  She nodded. The family continued walking down the street, Danny and Daisy running ahead eagerly.  Stan grinned cheekily at Angie.

              “You’re getting lazy, having the kids pickpocket for you,” he teased.

              “I’m too pregnant to be quiet and get away fast,” Angie said.

              “Fair.”

              “I’m glad that even if yer not willin’ to do much crime lately, yer not extendin’ that to the kidlets.”

              “It’s a lot easier to brush off a six-year-old taking something than a grown adult.”

              “Mm, true enough.”  Angie smoothed the fabric of her dress.  “Once I’m shipshape, I’ll get to restockin’ the shop, darlin’.”  She smirked.  “I’m damn fine at sleight of hand.  Not to mention, no one would accuse the sweet housewife of larceny.”  Stan chuckled.

              “I knew I married the right woman.”

              “Mama, what’s larson?” Emmett asked abruptly. Angie smiled at her son.

              “A grown-up word ya don’t need to worry ‘bout.”

              “Like ‘damn’,” Emory said helpfully.  Stan and Angie grimaced.

              “…We should probably work on cleaning up our sailors’ mouths if we wanna avoid attracting attention,” Stan said quietly. Angie nodded.

              “Agreed.”

-----

              Shermie walked up to the unassuming house.  A large sign outside read “McGucket’s Marine Antiques”.

              This is the right place, then.  Good.  Being a merchant, Shermie had to spend a lot of time away from his family, so he made sure to bring back souvenirs from each trip.  This trip, to a small town called Gravity Falls, had been woefully bereft of potential souvenirs.  As such, he’d been relieved when a local told him about the store on the edge of town full of fun and sparkly things.

              “Ma’am,” he said politely to the woman sitting on the porch, supervising two toddler boys playing on the front lawn.  On either side of her was a basket holding a young infant.  The woman looked up at him curiously.  Recognition flickered in her eyes.  She opened her mouth to say something, but before she could, one of the infants began to fuss.  The woman quickly began to soothe the infant.                 Shermie ducked into the house.  The room he was in looked like a proper shop.  Shelves lined the walls, groaning underneath the merchandise.  Some larger items, like a rusted anchor, were set on the floor, with price tags that seemed far too high to Shermie.  Two young girls in the corner giggled to each other as they picked through a box on the floor full of even more small items.

              “Welcome to McGucket’s Marine Antiques!” a voice boomed. A familiar voice.  Shermie’s eyes widened.  He turned.  Behind the store counter was a face he hadn’t seen in over a decade.

              “Stanley?” Shermie croaked.  His little brother gaped.

              “…Shermie?”

              “Stan, what are you- how- you-”  Shermie ran his hands through his hair.  “The people in town said the man who ran this store was named Stan McGucket, not Stan Pines.”  Stan grimaced.

              “Yeah.  Uh…” Stan looked over at the girls in the corner.  “Danny, Daisy.”  The girls looked up.  One had the distinctive Pines nose.  “If anyone comes in, go get your ma and have her handle the customer.”  The girls nodded.  “All right, Shermie, come with me, I’ll answer all your questions.”

              “You better,” Shermie mumbled.  Stan pushed open a door located behind the counter. Shermie followed him into the house proper.  The living room they walked into was cozy and nautical-themed, full of décor that looked like it came from a ship.  Stan gestured to a couch.  Shermie sat down.  Stan sat in a chair across from him.

              “The people in town said this place was run by Stan McGucket because it is.”

              “But how-”

              “I’ll tell you everything, but first, what do you know?” Stan asked.  Shermie raised an eyebrow.

              That’s…interesting.  Stan’s careful dodge reminded Shermie a lot of how his brother would construct lies as a teen.  He would ask what someone knew, then build his lie around that information.  Asking first allowed him to avoid contradicting something known to the person he was lying to.  Hopefully he’s not lying to me now.  I’ve fallen out of practice seeing through Stan’s lies.

              “You were captured by pirates over a decade ago,” Shermie said, deciding to take Stan at face value.  “At some point after you were captured by pirates, Stanford disappeared at sea.”  Stan nodded.

              “Yeah, that’s right.”  He sighed.  “Ford actually caught up to the ship I was captive on.  I got free in the fight, but Ford…he…”  Stan looked down at the ground.  “Well, I didn’t see his body, so I’m holding onto the hope that he’s still alive.”

              “Stan…”

              “The people in town know me as Stan McGucket ‘cause that’s my name now,” Stan continued, talking over Shermie.  “While I was captured by pirates, one of them decided he liked my name and took it.  I didn’t like the idea of sharing a name with a pirate, so I took my wife’s last name.”

              That smells like a lie.  Shermie’s brain caught up with what Stan was saying.  Wait, what?

              “You’re married?” Shermie asked.

              “Yeah.  You saw Angie – my wife – outside.  At least, I hope you did.  She said she was watching four of the kids out there.”

              “I…”  Shermie kneaded his forehead.  “Okay. Now I need to know how you met your wife.”

              “After I escaped from the pirates, I decided to stay at sea to look for Ford.  I didn’t- I didn’t wanna come home without him, y’know?”

              “Yes, I do,” Shermie said quietly.

              “I managed to get a spot on board a merchant ship where her brother, Lute, was first mate.  He was looking for her after she got captured by pirates.  Eventually, we found the ship she was on and rescued her.”

              “You…you rescued your future wife from pirates?” Shermie asked, dumbfounded.  Stan nodded. “Why am I not surprised?”  Stan smirked slightly.

              “We both stayed at sea as merchants,” he continued, “and fell in love pretty quick.  After we had the first set of twins, I decided to move ashore with ‘em. Angie, she, uh-”  He laughed quietly.  “She decided to keep sailing.  Even after we had another set of twins.”

              “Really?”

              “What can I say?  I married a free spirit.”

              Makes sense Stan would find someone like himself.

              “When she found out she was pregnant for the third time, though, we had a long talk, and decided that she’d move ashore with me permanently.  I like having her close by.”

              “I’d imagine having her help with the kids would be nice as well.”

              “Eh.  We’ve got some former crewmates in town that love watching the kids,” Stan said with a shrug.  “That’s why we settled here.  With that help, keeping track of the kids wasn’t what I was concerned about.  I missed my wife.”  There was something more, though.  A haunted look lingered in Stan’s eyes.

              “You were worried about her safety,” Shermie said. Stan looked away.  “I can’t blame you.  It’s dangerous to be a merchant.”

              He’s already lost his twin to the sea.  Of course he doesn’t want to lose his wife, too.

              “Yeah, well.”  Stan cleared his throat.  “I’ve got Angie on shore with me now.  We’ve got six great kids.  Life’s pretty good.”

              “Yes.  I can see that.  Mom will be relieved to hear you’re fine.”

              “She’s gonna show up within a week of you telling her,” Stan mumbled.

              “Can you blame her?” Shermie asked.  Stan shook his head.

              “Not after having my own kids, no.”  The door opened.  The woman from outside, who Shermie now knew to be Stan’s wife, Angie, poked her head into the room.

              “Darlin’, should I be plannin’ on an extra person fer dinner?” she asked.  Shermie tried to hide his surprise at Angie’s strong accent.

              “No need,” Shermie said, getting up from the couch. “I need to be going back to my ship before long.  But before I head out, I should do what I came here to do.”

              “What’d you come here for?” Stan asked, getting up as well.

              “To buy something for my kids.”  Shermie raised an eyebrow.  “Might I be able to get a family discount from my little brother that disappeared for ten years?”  Stan sighed heavily.  “If I get a good deal, I might forget to mention you to Mom for a few days…”  A twinkle appeared in Stan’s eye.

              “Make it a week, and I’ll see what I can do.”

              “Deal.”

[famouskittychild]

Cheeky Mandos - ...and we're off

(Sorry I had a terrible writer’s block in the past 6-ish weeks - I went from reading fanfiction and being inspired by other’s visions to “I’ll never be able to write anything like these and I’m useless” in a single day :( I’m getting back into the groove finally, so I’m hoping to post more soon.)

There will be 18+ content (in the coming chapters soon) so if you are a minor, please don't read further.

Also the characters will be quite open and relaxed about things like gender, attraction, sexual activities, relationships etc, so if you prefer your Din (and their partner) possessive and/or monogamous , this won’t be a good read for you!

***

This pairing is  Din Djarin x gn reader / tall reader.  I’m short (and cis and woman). There’s so many short (and female) reader stuff out there, I wanted to write for people on the other end of the “why is your height not normal” / "definitely female" spectrum. If I make mistakes or you have advice, or ideas you'd like to see, please tell me!

Word count: 4267

Summary: You’re an armourer and some shiny guy just showed up.

First full piece/chapter/course! In which people seem to catch things. Thoughts? Viruses? Dropped facts? Who knows!?? Also contains a dilettante’s attempt at space electronics and some barely-canon-reminiscent Mando world-building. Still no spiciness sorry, marinating is a long process :P

Rating: T for some mentions of heavier topics.

CW: Mentions of mandalorian history, playing somewhat loose with canon lore (as in, my SW knowledge is patchy. sorry.)

Author’s note: I tried to find more info but it seems like the mandalorian alphabet doesn’t have names for the individual letters so I used aurebesh (also I liked the little Dorn(e) meta in there). And sorry for the bad puns. They’ll keep coming.

Prologue

One - ...and we're off

***

You aren’t worried about taking a stranger on board, you’ve done that plenty of times before. You hope he’s willing to put in the effort himself, too, just as he promised at the assembly.

The stranger leaves behind his ship, saying a friend will come to pick it up together with whoever might want to join the cause. You spot him from the cockpit as he walks over with a repulsor pallet in tow. He stops for a moment when your droids surge past him, busy at their pre-flight tasks, before moving on towards the ramp.

All his baggage is a satchel at his hip and a small bag on his shoulder, and two large crates of weaponry. You put him up in the spare cabin, the one that had been Sal’ee’s, your former apprentice, before she went on to be a journeyman. He stands in the middle of the room, staring at the two cots on opposite sides of the room, the lockers, the fresher in the corner.

“All mine? Where will you sleep?”

You don’t understand the surprise in his voice.

“Over there” you show him, pointing at the cabin opposite from his. It’s much more lived in, some of the blankets and trinkets and pillows visible through it’s open door. “There’s a third cabin that I mostly use for storage but has more fold-up bunks in case I need to transport more people. That’s rare though.”

“Ohh.” He nods, then turns to look around his room again. “Okay. I thought all of these rooms were cargo space.”

You smile, and quickly think through your to-do list. You’ll have to rearrange your schedule somewhat but it’s not that big of a bother.

“Come on, I’ll show you around the ship.” Before he gets lost in its cavernous interiors, you might add - but you don’t. If his reaction to a separate cabin and his current ship - an old ARC170 - is any indication, he must be used to very cramped quarters.

***

Your trusty Brick, a beat-up YV 929, is armed to the teeth and ugly, just as you like it. The ship is a scavenged one, gutted from most of its original factory issue armaments, engines, and even wiring. It was perfect for your former master when she found it at a scrap heap: she wanted to rebuild it herself, deliberately piecemeal; panels sourced form here, engines from there, concealments added. She modified the inner workings of the engines so that the power lines could be redirected to a concealed forge.

That forge is your pride and the main reason you haven’t settled at a permanent place yourself. When your master retired from travelling, the ship passed to you, and you continued her mission of offering your knowledge and expertise to those of your people who otherwise had no access to an armourer.

…

The next standard month is spent with adjusting, both for yourself after getting used travelling alone again since Sal’ee left, and for the stranger who found himself a passenger on someone else’s ship. Apparently he used to live a very similar life to yours, with the exception that he was a hunter not a craftsman.

You travel together, share meals, research the places you are directed to. He joins in the effort that is maintaining the ship. Still - he is very taciturn at the beginning, keeping his words to the bare minimum. The first few days it feels as if you are still on your own aside of your droids. By the middle of the month, he progresses from short answers, through sharing information, to willingly starting to tell stories; but you know that chatting will never be his defining feature.

His armour seems to fill the spaces of the Brick’s corridors. You feel as if it’s not him who has the presence, but that set of glinting, perfectly made handwork of an armourer you already admire. Some of the pieces were sourced elsewhere, you can tell by the different shapes and designs; they seem haphazard and mismatched compared to the rest. Most of the set is the work of a single person. On those, there’s not a single uneven line, a broken curve, an edge at the wrong place. The angle of the panes of the metal, the ridges, the simplicity and elegance of them all - you have to hold yourself back from touching them, to admire them. You would give a lot to hold those pieces in your hand, to study them, to analyse them with your eyes and hands and with your tools.

You’re a master, yes. But so much knowledge was lost. So many masters gone, with their knowledge and their workshops. Apprentices became heads of Forges in the absence of the more skilled. The survivors still to this day have to piece together half-remembered lessons and forgotten details, experiment with techniques that were known before but the methods got lost as decades of civil war and occupation and murder kept eroding your heritage.

Sometimes a set of armour comes along that is just made in a way you never had an opportunity to learn. Often the person who forged them is long gone. Not the stranger’s armourer though. As far you can tell, she’s alive. Or at least was, when he last saw her. Not too long ago; though your usual method for guessing forging dates is mostly useless as it is based on the condition of the suit’s paintwork. Which he doesn’t have, so you can only guess from the small amount of scratches. You try to ask once, but whilst he’s forthcoming with general stories, he doesn’t go into details.

It’s a common theme with him. He talks about people and planets and events, and leaves out a lot - and you don’t even notice it first. Only when you try to glean information about his armour do you realize how well he fuzzes over those facts and nuances. It’s only up to the peculiarities of Basic and its use of gendered pronouns that you know his Armourer is a woman, or at least he considers them so. He doesn’t even tells you his own name, and when you ask your Elder in one of your communications, she tells you he didn’t gave it to them either. You keep introducing him as a friend, and that is the end of it for a while.

***

The visits to this first few coverts with him are… interesting. You can see him fidgeting from the corner of your eye. He always follows half a step behind and off to a side, as if not wanting to be in your way. He keeps quiet and doesn’t mix much, and around small children and droids, he is positively withdrawn. He only comes alive when he talks about his mission.

You had learned early on during your apprenticeship that keeping the helmet on is a safe bet when meeting with unfamiliar mandalorians. That led to later getting in contact with his type of believers too, despite their notorious secrecy even from the rest of the People. When you tell the stranger about that, he immediately showers you with questions, but you can’t give an answer to most of them. You never met with anyone from his particular covert, or heard of it. No name, no description seems familiar. It’s painful to watch his shoulders slump after daring to hope.

During the course of the month spent travelling, he gradually comes to be more social. He starts to stand and walk beside you. He doesn’t withdraw to the background anymore; he can actually be quite chatty if approached the right way. Droids still make him stop, though he warms up to kids in his own way. He’s good with them, at least in your opinion, though you know some would still call him aloof and distant. He isn’t a cuddler, nor does he crouch down to ask cutesy questions. He juts sits nearby them, and in that way of children having a good sense about adults, they know he’s trustworthy. They go up to him to chatter, to hand him a toy to hold, to ask him to fix a latch on their boots; than they go back to play.

He teaches you too, inadvertently at first during everyday conversations and later by his own volition, about his Way. About his Creed. It keeps throwing you off how much it differs from most that you had met before. Not even meeting briefly with people who followed the same Way as him could prepare you for the details that he does share. The degree of strictness, the loyalty, the barest bones Old Tradition beliefs and their willingness to follow them is very rare amongst the People as far as you can tell. Their devotion earns your respect.

At other times, your jaw hangs open and you can’t believe you are talking to an adult roughly around the same age as yourself, who by his own admission had spent three decades living as a follower of the Creed - not knowing about things children are thought through plays and songtime. His ignorance is so staggering, your admiration towards his unknown Armourer wavers. How could she keep so many things hidden from them? Why not talk about your own history? Your greats? Your artefacts?

About the many other who would call them vod’e, siblings?

You are an armourer, a craftsman, a person who makes a living by making things with your hand. You’re not a leader, or a scholar, or someone who decides what to tell your people. You do have a status within the community, but that is a status of service. From what the stranger says, their Armourer was a leader in every aspect: elder and lorekeeper and moral guide and more. All in one. It is something you can see developing from the old songs and histories amongst groups who take tradition more literally.

You are good at observing people, even at copying their habits to make them feel more comfortable with you, but less good at determining their underlying motives. The reason you think of him as “the stranger” even after travelling with him is because it’s so hard to figure out what drives him. There’s a melancholy to him that overrides the more typical mandalorian fight-readiness or aggression. You see how he gazes off to the distance sometimes, turning his head to the side and freezing. How he keeps to himself when he can. But you can’t tell why. Grief? Regrets? Determination to change? Planning something greater and being preoccupied with that?

He doesn’t pick fights to test you. He spars with you when you invite him to, he helps when you ask, and often even without it. He’s polite and considerate; he keeps conversation to practicalities and interesting stories, and doesn’t bother you with anecdotes or insistent questions about trivialities or your private life. He even does the dishes.

He’s deadly boring in his reliableness.

You are used to being on your toes around people all the time. When you meet a new group, it’s all unknown people. With ones you had already visited, the problem is having to remember them. They remember you of course, the ‘wandering armourer’; and surely you remember them too.

What is worse, when people stay the same but you don’t remember them, or when they change and you just can’t place them?

He becomes a good excuse after you’ve been to several coverts together. It’s interesting to notice how your dynamics change even further once you two get into a comfortable routine. You start to retreat to your forge and tools, and let him take all the attention. And he doesn’t just talk about his mission anymore, or lets little ones play around him whilst he’s quiet. He converses with people about news, about their children, about weaponry. You have more time to focus on your work.

Sometimes, people ask you what do you think of his mission. You tell them that you will follow what your clan decides, and that’s mostly true. It is something people don’t often debate, at least.

He quickly becomes a part of your everyday life. You are content with your usually solitary travels. You know that your family, your clan and your friends wait for you at home. They message you and you can find the time that suits you to message back. You don’t miss the constant hubbub of the covert most of the time. But now that you have someone that is not a droid, someone who is your equal in every aspect, on board again, it’s not even lonely anymore.

***

“So what’s up with you and droids?” you ask one day, after you got back from a covert and are safely in hyperspace to the next destination. You tinker with your astromech’s navigational systems. Poor 2-T keeps bumping into walls and crates. Again.

The stranger looks at you and your droid, than over at Mouse who for a change isn’t zooming around at foot level.

“Bad memories.”

“Gunk sat on you?” You tease. You hope it’s just something silly and not him having some sort of snobbish organics-are-better philosophy. He is quiet, and you focus on your work. He’ll talk if he wants to, that much you know already about him.

Inside the body of your astromech, a rivet from stars knows where is stuck between two circuit boards and blocks the access to a short-circuited piece of wire.

“Kriff. Toots, this will take a while, sweetie. Can’t access that kriffing panel.” He chirps back something and you read the translation on the small display. “No, it’s not that. My hand can’t fit in that small space. Let me find those pliers… should be in that other drawer somewhere.”

You search in the chest of tools, and despite your usually good organization, you can’t find them amongst the droids’ tools where their place is.

“Let me help.” The stranger’s voice beside you makes you jump. He can be awfully quiet. “Sorry. I think I might’ve put them back into the wrong drawer. I used them the other day when I fine-tuned that scope.”

He points at another drawer, where you keep your fine electronics stuff. No wonder he mixed them up. He stands beside Tootee a bit awkwardly until you find the tool.

“Here! No problem by the way. “ You turn back to him and to the droid, than have an idea. “Do you mind a bit more help? You can say no if you don’t want to work with the droid, I’ll understand.”

He doesn’t object yet, so you go back to 2-T and show the stranger the area you’re working on. You see him lean closer in your peripheral vision.

“That’s where I need to get that burned piece of wire out and install a new one, but first, I need to get that rivet out of the way.” You point at the root of the problem, than explain your plan, pointing out each part in turn. ”If you could hold those using this, than I could get here, remove this, with that tool, than have to get those bundles out of the way too, so than that wire there could come out. Easy.”

You look up at him, and his helmet is way closer than you expected. You can almost see your reflection in that black visor as it stares back at you for a second, and you almost apologize again, when the stranger starts to speak.

“Just have to hold the wires to the casing, or pull them like…” he moves his hand in the air, showing what he means.

“Hold them to that panel, there, with the pliers, so I have room to access the rest.”

He thinks for a moment, than he starts to tug one of his gloves off.

“You don’t need to take that off, just hold the pliers” you tell him, but he shakes his head.

“No, I can fit my hand in there, I’m pretty sure. If not we can try it with the tool.”

You realize that this is the first time you see his skin. Than it occurs to you that he might very well misunderstand this whole situation. You just asked him to hang his hand inches from yours in an enclosed space; inside a droid nonetheless, just after you basically told him you noticed he has a problem with them. It would be so easy to get caught up in there, to touch his hand, and hush it up as coincidence. Especially now that he took his glove off as well. He might even think that it was a careful plan of yours: have an area to work with were your slightly larger hands don’t fit but his might.

Your fingertips already tingle from knowing you can’t make mistakes. Which means you’ll probably do. He reaches between the panels and gets to the part where you got stuck. He wiggles his fingers a bit and scrapes around.

“Ha, found some wires. Are these the ones you need out of the way?”

You peer down into the quagmire of electronics, trying to find the best angle to see everything.

“Yes, those are the ones. Just hold them like that.” You try to focus on what you are doing, but after those earlier thoughts, your hands are jittery. You somehow manage to remove the obstructing rivet, than find the burned out part and replace it without accident, the stranger patiently holding things out of your way. You direct him here and there, occasionally stumbling as it’s a lot of instructions, or at least a lot of “could you please” and “thank you”. It gets particularly awkward when you stumble over the lack of name spectacularly.

“Could you pull those the other way, so they aren't that taut, please? Thank you, you. I mean thank you.”

“Din. Din Djarin.” Your head snaps up while the rest of your body freezes. “I should have told you my name sooner, but I’m so used to not telling it… and it just became more awkward to bring it up as time passed. I apologize.”

You close your mouth that of course was hanging open in surprise, than shake your head.

“I thought at first that I missed it when you said it so I was ashamed that I didn’t remember.” That did happen before, and it was one of your greatest worries about meeting new people. “I actually asked my elder. Sent her a comm. So when she told me you went nameless, I didn’t wanted to demand it.”

He doesn't answer right away. His voice is softer when he speaks a bit later.

“Thank you. For being considerate.”

You smile and try to wave it off. Which results in your hand slipping and pawing at his, still motionless and stuck in the inside of the astromech.

“Oh shucks, I’m sorry… didn’t meant to.” You withdraw your hand quickly, and start to look for your tools to cover your mistake.

He doesn’t seem bothered, luckily. You calm down, reminding yourself not to behave like you drank one too many glasses of your cousin Ree’s home-made tihaar, and finish the repair.

“You can let those go now, I’ll finish from here. Thanks for your help.”

“You’re welcome, any time.”

He sits back on a nearby crate and watches you work for a while, ignoring Mouse zooming around the room. You’re surprised a bit: you didn't expected him to stick around. And than he starts to ask about 2-T. How long you had him, is he temperamental, can you install a vocoder on astromechs, and why not. His tone is somewhat cautious, his voice stiff, like someone asking about a dangerous predator. You remember how you asked him about his distance with droids, but don’t want to push that question. He already told you his name today.

…

By the time you finish with the rest of the repairs, clean Tootee up and tidy around your workplace, interrupted by having to leave hyperspace and land at a spaceport, it’s the middle of the night in local time. You planned to have a nap and search out the local covert just before dawn.

You go to the galley to have a bite before turning in, and the stranger - Din, you remember, although his last name is less clear - is cleaning up some dishes. There’s another bowl in the middle of the small table, covered by a plate.

“That’s for you, if you’d like to have it. Used up the last of that spice mix we got” he tells you as you enter. You sit down and stretch your legs out one side. As you take the plate off from the steaming bowl, you think about how nice it is to find warm food on the table and not having to cook your own all the time.

“Thank you.” You pull the bowl close and take the spoon that he put beside it. You swirl the soup - it looks very good: clear broth with lots of veggies and other fillers in it - and gather your thoughts. “So ummm… I want to ask something before it gets awkward again.“

He finishes piling the bowls and cups and sits down on the seat opposite. You blurt the question out before you might change your mind.

“What was your name again? Din, that was clear, but the rest… sorry but it sounded something like “jarring”?”

He chuckles, and it’s a clear sound even with a vocoder, no snort or sigh to distort it.

“It’s Djarin. Dorn-jenth-aurek-resh-isk-nern. Djarin.” You nod, a bit embarrassed, and he continues. “Don’t worry, you aren't the first to ask. Probably not the last either.”

“Thanks for being patient. I’m not the best with names, to be honest.”

He tilts his head.

“Is that why you are always so focused when someone introduces themselves? I can ask them to repeat their names for me too if you want to, than both of us can try to remember them.”

You blink at him.

“That’d be…” Unnecessary, and don’t bother, and it’s not your job, you think - but stop yourself. That would actually help. No shame in accepting it. ”That would be nice. Thanks.” You are good at a few things, like making things with your own two hands. Not gaping when something surprises you, or remembering faces or names, any names, not just people? Nah.

You tuck into your soup, and the two of you sit in companionable silence. You wander if Djarin sits there because he wants to, or if he’s waiting for more questions from you. You asked a lot from him during the last few hours, and he was really kind with all his help and telling you his name and not being bothered when you misremembered it.

You are halfway done with your meal when he stirs. He leans forward with his lower arms on the table, and takes a deep breath. You wonder what his question will be - you commit to answer whatever it might be. He deserves that after today.

“So you asked earlier about me and… droids, right?”

Your hand with the spoon stops in the air. You weren’t expecting this question, at all.

“Yes…” You want to say he didn’t have to answer. But you already told him that. You’re sure he remembers that too - since he brought the topic up again. “Yes, I did.”

He shuffles on his seat a bit, and looks out to the side like he sometimes does. You lower your spoon and eat, letting him gather his thoughts.

“When I was a kid… I don’t know how old you were then, but during the war. The Clone wars.” You nod, understanding what he’s getting at, and he continues. “We were… the place I lived came under attack. Some separatist battle droids. Mandalorians saved me.”

You swallow your soup. That was the shortest possible description of someone having their entire life and probably everyone they knew ripped away from them and finding a new way of life for the decades to come.

“I’m sorry” you say, because really, what else is there to say. He nods, and gazes off again. Than he shrugs his shoulders, as if he wants to shake the weight of the past from them.

He gets up, and walks around the table on his way out. He stops beside you for a moment and hesitates, and you almost turn towards him to ask what he needs when you feel him squeeze your shoulder. Than he straightens and steps away.

It’s warm where he squeezed it, and you remember how long ago it was that someone touched you.

You need to talk to your friends asap, and hug at least some of them. He turns back from the door.

“Get some sleep before dawn, all right? Have to be sharp to remember all those new names.” You don’t see him wink but you’d bet he does behind his visor. You scrunch your nose at him and pout before smiling, and he dips out of the galley.

Your hand is still hovering in the air, holding the spoon, while you listen to his footsteps getting more distant as he walks down the corridor to his cabin.

It’s just your luck that you don’t need your wits the next place. It’s only two people with the same, simple name and you met both of them before.

[honey-dewey]

How each of the boys deals with beach/ocean shenanigans

Because my life goal is to be a marine biologist and my only place of true peace is the ocean and limiting me to 100 words is fucking cruel. So I just wrote until I felt done. Not 100 words each, obviously, but entertaining nonetheless. 

Permanent Taglist: @phoenixhalliwell @star-wars-hell

Din Djarin: 

Okay so did anyone else see how Din dove in The Heiress? Because that was beautiful. He probably learned to swim late, after he joined the Covert, but once they put him in a pool, he refused to get out. He's an amazing swimmer, even with all that beskar on. 

But we aren’t here to talk about that. We’re here to talk about what happens when you beg him to take you to a water planet because goddammit you’ve been on nothing but dry desert planets or dry ice planets or dry city planets for the longest time now and if you don’t get to put your feet in the water soon, you might kill him. 

He doesn’t understand the appeal. Sure he’s seen the ocean. Woo-hoo it’s a bunch of water. But the way you go peaceful with wonder when you mention it, he’s ready to take a break too. And hey, maybe Grogu can finally see the ocean. So he finds an ocean planet and sets course. And because he’s a stubborn bastard, he won’t tell you where you’re going. 

When you step off the Crest and immediately find nothing but slowly crashing waves and soft shell studded sand (that is black as obsidian because remember, we’re not on earth) you almost cry. Stripping out of your shoes and rolling your pants up to your upper thighs, you wade out into the water, completely ignoring Din’s warning to be careful, he doesn’t know what’s in the water. 

You don’t know how long you stand there, the water licking at your thighs, the soft drag of the waves rolling over and over, the way your feet slowly sink into the blackness of the sand, grounding you to this one spot, this one moment. Eventually, you find that you have a companion. 

Din’s not a wide ocean kind of guy, but for you, he’ll take the armor off (but not the helmet) and come stand beside you, his pants rolled up as well. His are tighter, so the rough edge gets slowly soaked in water, but he doesn’t mind. 

Half an hour of mindless and relaxing standing around in the water later, and you’re ready to explore. Scooping Grogu up and putting him in a baby carrier across your chest, you begin to look for suitable shells to keep aboard the Crest. Again, Din is confused, but doesn’t question it as you walk up and down the same stretch of sand, occasionally bending down and happily pulling a gorgeous shell from the clutches of the water. He wouldn’t be at peace here if he was alone, but you sure as hell would be. Still standing in the water, listening to you babble back and forth with Grogu, the waves occasionally kissing his hands, he thinks that maybe, just maybe, he could find peace in your peace. 

Marcus Moreno:

Marcus is not an ocean person, but he’s not not an ocean person, y’know? Sand irritates him, the air smells funny, and it’s usually loud. But he likes the water. If it could be a quiet pool it would be better, but the ocean works too. 

And then he’s put on a boat with you, a still-learning water Heroic (think like. Aquaman), and things change. 

At first, he hates it. A boat that’s tipping constantly may be your thing, considering how much you look like you belong, but it sure as shit ain’t his. You try to teach him some stuff, shouting over the crashing of the waves, but he’s trying too hard not to throw up to really pay attention. 

Then everything settles. The water stops tipping, the boat is still, and you quietly tell him there’s a pod of humpbacks outside. 

He’s terrified when you jump into the water, no oxygen or gear or anything. It’s only when he remembers you can breathe underwater that he stops losing his mind. And when the whales start to breach? Yeah he’s gone. He’s all smiling and laughing when you breach right alongside the whales, and when you get back on board the boat, he’s so incredibly excited. 

So next time, you tell him you’re right above one of the biggest groups of migrating hammerhead sharks ever. He reacts less kindly to that one, even when you dive and tell him it’s perfectly safe. They won’t hurt you. But looking down to see you surrounded by hundreds of great hammerheads, just swimming lazily beside you? Yeah that’s surreal as fuck. 

Max Phillips: 

Ah yes. The resident vampire who hasn’t been to a beach in almost a decade. He can’t go out in the sun, what makes y’all think he’d actually enjoy the beach? Nope, he is not risking his life so he can feel some sand. 

But the beach during the day is completely different from the beach at night, and you are determined to prove it. You blindfold Max, at the expense of many dirty jokes, and drive him to the beach. 

He can smell it before you can, the salt in the air that drifts through the windows and promises all will be right with the world. Then you guys hear it, the soft crash of waves on the shore, the gentle buzz to the air. Finally, you stand Max on the empty beach and remove the blindfold and he can see it. Night darkened waves, the shifting water turning the full moon into a shattered mosaic of light glimmering on the waves. 

For the first time in a long time, he lets himself drown in sensation, in tranquility. It’s been ten long years since he forgot he wasn’t a human being anymore, but with the water licking at his bare feet, he’s completely unaware of his deadness. All he can feel is sand and water and salt and you, holding his hand and looking out with him. 

He’s determined to stay there all night, but you insist on walking, occasionally bending down to grab a shell you see in the darkness. Max is definitely at an advantage here with his night vision, but that’s nothing a flashlight can’t solve. By the time the sun begins to peer over the horizon, you and Max are fast asleep in bed, a small jar of sea shells on your bedside table. 

Frankie ‘Catfish’ Morales: 

When I tell you I was excited to write Frankie, oh boy. See, I headcanon him to be like me. Enamored with the ocean since before he can remember. It’s always, always, made him wide eyed with wonder. Aquariums are his safe space, and his favorite animal, above every other living thing on the planet, is sharks. 

He finds peace in knowing they exist, seeing something so powerful be so docile. You’re a marine biologist, and you end up taking him on a caged shark dive. He’s ecstatic, practically vibrating as you take the boat way out where you’re bound to find something good. 

And you do. Everyone else on your team, along with Frankie, is cage diving, but you’re just out there, swimming freely alongside huge Great Whites. They’re so beautiful, and Frankie nearly cries when you coax said shark to the side of the cage so he can run his hand over the shark’s wide belly.

His next dive is a general reef dive, just you and him. Beaches aren’t his thing, there’s too little activity, so you take him out on a reef. He’s smiling the entire time, swimming alongside fish the size of his arm and manta rays with a wingspan bigger than his. But the best part is the reef sharks. Black Tips, no longer than four or five feet. They crowd Frankie and make him laugh as he actually pets their bellies. Suddenly, he’s surrounded by sharks who all want the same thing. Scritches. 

His third dive is open ocean, and you don’t tell him what you’re diving with. He gets in the water, turns around, and immediately starts to cry tears of joy. His favorite shark, his absolute favorite, is swimming lazily behind him. The Whale Shark. It’ll be hell to get him out of the water later, but in that moment, you want nothing more than to see that smile, wide enough to show off his dimple. 

Jack ‘Whiskey’ Daniels:

Jack Daniels is not an ocean person by any means. He’s an open fields kind of man, where he can look up at the Montana night sky and feel like he’s two inches tall, surrounded by mountains and plains. But his latest mission with you takes him to Hawaii, and he ain’t mad about it. 

The first few days, you spend hours on the beach alone. Jack stays indoors, not able to be persuaded out with you. Finally, he’s forced to go to the beach with you because of the mission, and he complains all morning long. You simply roll your eyes and put on your bathing suit and floppy hat. 

Beach time lasts much longer than anticipated. The target won’t be there for a while, but you wanted to relax before working, so you settle in a beach chair with a nice book and get to reading while Jack grumbles about sand in his shoes. 

BUT, dear reader I would be cruel if I made Jack unhappy, so while he may not be a beach person, he is very much a you person. Once you stand to go shelling, wrapped in that teasing black and white swimsuit and flowy white cover up, he’s by your side with minimal complaints. 

Turns out, Jack Daniels’s whip quick reflexes are good for grabbing shells before they’re stolen by the water. You and him get an impressive collection going, eyeing your target the entire time. By the time you have your intel, Jack’s actually enjoying himself and almost doesn’t want to leave. 

The next morning, he’s red as a tomato from sunburn and vows to never go to the beach again. You laugh, and you and him spend the day indoors, sorting through your shell collection and rubbing aloe on Jack’s red shoulders. (Yeah he’s going shirtless all day. You ain’t mad about it.)

Ezra: 

It’s a headcanon of mine, and I’ve mentioned it before, that Ezra grew up an orphan. He lived in a state house until he was 18, which is when he began to prospect. He’s been all over the galaxy, but never been to a water planet. Long story short, he’s never seen a beach. Or an ocean. Or anything bigger than a small pond. 

After the Green, you decide to spoil him and take him and Cee to an ocean planet for some time off. He has no idea where you’re going, but he’s excited nonetheless. 

The planet is almost 90% water, with vast underground caves and beautiful beaches. You land on one of those beaches and when Ezra steps out of your transport pod, he immediately starts to cry. 

Cee’s seen an ocean before, but it’s been a while, so she immediately rushes past Ezra and jumps into the water. Watching her splash around in the gently crashing waves is like bliss, and it makes you smile. 

But Ezra, oh boy Ezra. He’s transfixed, standing with the water lapping at his ankles and his face slack as he takes in the vastness of it all. Eventually, you convince him into the water. He can’t swim, so you guide him out to a safe depth and hold his hand tight as he floats on his back. He’s so calm, so at ease that it’s almost scary. 

That night, he doesn’t want to go inside. The setting sun makes the ocean orange, and you finally manage to get him in. You pop a window open to allow the salty air into the pod, lulling you to sleep and putting Ezra at ease. 

Shane ‘Dio’ Morrissey: 

Dio will literally never admit he loves the beach. Never. He’s a bad boy! He can’t love anything! 

Except for sea turtles. He really fucking loves sea turtles. He can name all seven species by heart, he’s got a beautiful teal blue bracelet that he wears all the time that has a turtle bead and he got when he ‘adopted’ a green turtle, he has two turtle tattoos, and he’s absolutely a huge turtle geek whenever you take him to the aquarium.

Which is how you learn he’s that in love with turtles. You take him to an aquarium on a date, and he sits in front of the turtle tank for almost an hour. It’s actually kinda cute. 

So you take him to the beach, a beautiful beach with not many people and, according to the locals, is a turtle nesting site. You and Dio mess around for a while, until the night falls and you sit him in the back of your truck. He’s almost mad you won’t let him leave, at least, right up until the turtles come out. 

He’s a kid in a candy store, all lit up and giddy as the turtles come out to lay their eggs. It’s a dream for him, and when one of the locals asks if you two want to say hi to the turtles, he’s up immediately. 

Two months later, you and Dio return to the same beach, eager to help the baby turtles into the water. Yet again, the outer hard boy shell falls away, leaving you with the soft and giggly Dio that you adore. 

From that day on, your phone background is a photo of Dio holding one of the baby turtles, a warm and genuine grin on his face. 

Javier Peña: 

What makes you think Javier has time to go to the beach? He hasn’t been in literal years, ever since he headed to Columbia. 

But, when he’s home? You manage to get him some time off and take him out to the gulf for a few days. It’s crowded, sure, and that sets his anxiety off big time, but he’s in Texas, not Columbia, and you’re by his side the entire time. 

You manage to find a nice spot away from people to relax on, laying in the sand for hours. No stress, no mess, no looming threat of death, no nothing. 

In the evening, once most of the people go away, you and Javier start to walk along the shore, holding your shoes and each other’s hands. Javier picks up a beautiful multicolored shell, all dappled with beiges and whites and hints of purple. It’s gorgeous, and you immediately slip it onto a necklace you were wearing. 

You manage to one up Javier when you find a brown shell. On the surface, it’s not much. But under the setting sun, it’s beautiful, streaked through with lighter browns and shining ambers. You hand it to Javier, and he immediately tells you it’s boring. At which you tell him it reminds you of his eyes, a deceptively simple brown at first, and then a mesmerizing whiskey amber once you study them. 

Yeah, he tears up at that. 

Maxwell Lord: 

Yet another man who is not a beach person. He hates sand so much he’ll forgo the entire beach experience, because as we all know, he a drama queen. However, unlike Jack, Maxwell is loud about his dislike of the beach. 

Finally, he gets dragged out for a business opportunity and has to spend almost four whole days at the beach. You best be ready for the entire month leading up to the trip to be a whole bunch of complaining. The plane ride out is blissfully quiet, and when he sees the beach, he’s no longer completely insufferable. 

However, you quickly learn that while your dear Max is not a beach person, he likes the ocean. He’s all for getting on a boat and spending the day on the water. Which is exactly what you two do. He’s sensitive to the sun, but he’ll sit in it with you if you want. 

Eventually, you convince him to get in the water. You expected him to be a decent swimmer, not great but not horrible. But then he jumps into the ocean with no life vest and you’re freaking the hell out until you watch his form. He’s a damn natural. And he’s so happy it’s almost scary. He’s in the water for almost an hour, and when he comes out, it’s only for a quick snack. 

That night, you two sit on the beach, much to Max’s complaining. But he’s beside you and his hair is still stiff from the saltwater, so he’s happy, despite the whining.