#all things Scottish

[moderndaypandora]

i recognize that simon and edwin meeting and parting in hell is narratively very good and provides closure for all. but imagine if simon had agreed to try and escape with edwin. and charles doesn't have time to really question it, because anybody who likes edwin is aces in his book and it's hell, they need to leave. (edwin, out of courtesy to their third companion, puts his plan to confess on hold until they've escaped.)

suddenly the edwin harem of "supernatural boys who all hate each other but are attracted to that negative rizz" gains another member, and at some point edwin is going to have to mention that simon was the boy who sacrificed him to hell.

the chaos. crystal's bitchy commentary. charles going from friendly smiling to clutching his cricket bat. niko's whispering "200k slow burn schoolboy rivals to lovers" with heart eyes. it'd be chef's kiss good. edwin fleeing to his books and praying that nobody, but especially not the cat king, finds him because there has been SO MUCH emotion already. hysterical.

[ingravinoveritas]

Some absolutely stunning new pictures of David in Macbeth.

[froopa-coopa]

spending some time in Scotland, obv had to sketch jmart again on their scottish honeymoon

[winethorn]

sorry it’s only english

♡

[david-tennant-in-chairs]

Scot got your tongue?

[annelise-draws]

Don't let go.

[juni-ravenhall]

sso loading screen text "remember that knowledge is power".... imagine the power if the writers knew the lore of the game

[edsbacktattoo]

god I love one Mr. Nathaniel Buttons. he's so wonderful to me. man has a set of metal teeth "in case he needs to chew through some poor fucker's throat". he's got another set of teeth that are made of wood. he is canonically a cannibal, he can talk to birds, and he wants to fuck the ocean. he's also a witch. incredible.

[quotidianish]

More antics of the blu mercs! Didn’t expect such a warm reception to these silly little headcanons at first, and I’m working up the motivation to finish the rest of the team (failing)

some sillies..

[isthatafuckinggayangel]

I wanted to continue this thing that I wrote for @cod-dump (hope you don’t mind me tagging you lmao), just kinda expanding upon the concept of Nik being Soap’s father and getting into more of the meat in the idea, so here

~~~

Explaining to Ghost and Gaz everything that had gone on between Nik and Soap, their relationship and all, was exhausting. The number of questions they had took forever to get through and made Soap think a little too hard about what why his mother had caused this.

At the same time though, it made him realize he needed to call her to get all the information straightened out here. He needed to know why she did it. Why she separated him from his father.

So, a few days after he had gotten everything sorted with Nik and the team was on the same page with everything, he made the call. He had both Ghost and Nik sit in on the call with him, he couldn’t get himself to do it without some support and he needed to have Nik there to make sure any lies didn’t slip passed him. The trio were sat around the dining table in the common room, Nik and Ghost on either side of Soap. He pressed the call button and made sure it was on speaker, holding it in his left hand still.

“Tha e math cluinntinn bhuat a-rithist, John. It’s been too long since ye called!” She answered the phone with.

“Sorry ‘bout that. It’s been quite busy out here, so I haven’t had the chance.” Soap rested his forehead in his palm and Ghost ran his hand along his upper back in a soothing motion.

“Is there somethin’ goin’ on, a chuilein? Ye sound a bit upset.”

“Yeah, um, I’ve been thinking a lot and had a few questions fer you, if that’s alright?”

“Of course, it is! Ask away.”

He took a deep breath then went for it. “Why did you tell me my da abandoned me?”

There was silence on the other end. The seconds stretched for what felt like forever.

“Well, that’s because he did. He made it very clear to me that he didn’t want to speak to any of us, and as much as it pained me, I knew we had to respect his wishes.”

Soap saw Nik’s fist clench out of the corner of his eye and looked up, seeing an expression of barely concealed rage. Soap set his phone on the table, reaching over and grabbing his father’s hand to try to help calm him.

“Ma, do you remember what he does for work?”

“…What do you mean, John?”

“I need you to be honest with me. Why did you lie?”

He was met with more silence.

“I dinnae lie, John.”

“Ma. I’m givin’ ya one more chance to be honest. I need you to take it.”

“I don’t understand, I’ve been honest-“

He let out a sigh before laying it all out. “I met him again, Ma. Ye seem tae have forgotten what he does fer work. We work together now. I read his journal, ma. I know what you told ‘im. I know you lied to both of us. So why? I just wanna know why you did it.”

“It’s a very complicated situation-“

“Bullshit. I know a complicated situation when I see one, and this is not one.”

“John-“

“Не лги нашему сыну, Elspet.” Nik growled. He’d clearly had enough of her avoiding the question she’d been asked.

“Nikolai, I-“

“You will answer the question the boy asked. You will not disrespect him or diminish his intelligence by acting as though you do not understand what he is talking about.”

They were once again met with silence. Ghost moved closer to Johnny, wrapping his arm around his shoulders and holding him against his side.

“I was tired. Your father’s job took a toll on me, on our family, and I couldn’t handle it anymore. The entire time you were away from me, every summer, I was so scared his job would follow him home and I wouldn’t know because you were so far away. I needed to have you close to make sure you were okay. That you were safe. I couldn’t think of anything else to be able to do it.” She paused. “Look at where that’s gotten us now. You enlisted for the same damn job and now ye work together. Guess it couldn’t truly be avoided.”

Soap was seething. While he understood being afraid for your child’s safety, he couldn’t get passed the manipulation. The lies. The fact that she didn’t just explain that that was the problem. He could have kept up with phone calls, letters, something so he wouldn’t lose his father. And yet, this was the decision she had made.

Nik squeezed his hand and Ghost hugged him a bit tighter.

“John?”

A deep breath. “Thank you for your honesty. I’m gonna need some time to process all that. I’ll call you again soon, yeah?”

“Yeah. I love you, John.”

“Love ye too, ma.” He hung up the phone and rested his head against the table. “Christ, that sucked.”

“Are you alright, love?” Ghost asked.

“I’ll be alright eventually. Just gonna need some time.” He picked his head back up and looked over at Nik. “You alright? Cannae exactly be easy for you to hear either.”

He gave a light nod. “I’ll be okay eventually, малыш. It will take time, as you said, but it will be fine.” He squeezed Soap’s hand again and Soap did the same back. “У нас все будет хорошо.”

~~~

Translations

Tha e math cluinntinn bhuat a-rithist, Johnny. -> It’s lovely to hear from you again, Johnny.

A chuilein -> my lad

Не лги нашему сыну -> Don’t lie to our son

Малыш -> little one

У нас все будет хорошо -> We will be okay

Apologies for any incorrect translations, the Gaelic is done with google translate and the Russian is a different translation app, so chances are there’s something wrong with it. Let me know if you have any corrections on it!

[safyresky]

the only way i would EVER call ten FOURTEEN is if they let David Tennant just be Scottish this time

[ingravinoveritas]

Someone shelving a DVD of Staged series 1 and 2 in the LGBTQ+ section of a shop is entirely too accurate and will never not be hilarious...

[futurequibblerjournalist]

mary aileen macdonald < 3

the truest girl's girl

[mildcicada]

[david-tennant-in-chairs]

In honor of Dragon Con this year, let's celebrate David and his favorite type of chair

Credit to DavidTennant Daily on TikTok

[the-ace-with-spades]

Relating to this post, a snippet of the different first meeting/secret identity au fic (I think I'll stick with exhumation as the title):

The MacTavish House, Erskine, Renfrewshire, Scotland December 2017

Johnny got a call on Christmas Day.

Unknown number, with the Greater Manchester code at the beginning. He missed it, busy helping his Da and sisters with the tree decorating, but when the notification showed up on his Samsung, he felt something heavy drop from his throat to his stomach.

Simon hadn't been answering his texts, yesterday and today.

He was doing, well, not well, but better. He knew he was cleared to go back to work, finally, even if on a limited duty for a couple of months, but he was still having the PTSD episodes, still wasn't sleeping, still was on a constant high-vigilance and it didn't sit right with him. Even months later, everyone was worried about him — his mum, Tommy, Beth — but John wasn't sure they actually understood the extent Simon's issues run. John had opted to ignore it, for the sake of not arguing with Simon, but Simon's family seemed to have a very distorted image of him, like he was this invincible man capable of holding them all together, solving all their problems and never really needing much care himself.

It was easy to fall for the image — Simon, the unmovable wall of a man, standing guard over all of them — and John had fallen for it himself, just to have it shattered when Simon walked away from his grave after whatever happened that had him declared MIA for almost six months. The Simon that came back seemed the same now, to anyone who didn’t look closely, but John knew something died in him in the time he grieved his disappearance.

He loved him all the same.

It didn’t matter if he had nightmares through the nights they were in the same bed, it didn’t matter if he stayed awake and unmoving under John’s arms, it didn’t matter if he spaced out and stared at people’s faces like he could see their bare bones smiling at him, it didn’t matter if he kept scratching at the gnarly scars, opening them again and again. He was still John’s Simon.

He hadn't felt good about leaving him alone for the three days he’d be in Scotland, but it was his first Christmas back since he came—back, and Simon wanted to spent it with his family and not John’s and insisted John went, seeing as he didn't have many opportunities to meet his family much either.

“Promise I’ll try to meet your ma for Easter,” he had told John. He wasn’t sure how much of that promise would actually be kept — John didn’t think Simon would be doing that much better by Easter.

It was just three days and then John would be back in Manchester with the G Squad during the day and Simon during the evening.

He tried to find a quiet place. Impossible with half of their family in his parents’ house, but after shushing one of his nephews out of the living room and sending off his ma back to the kitchen after a couple of, “Yes, A’ll tell him ye’re sending love, ma, even though Am not even callin’ him reit noo,” and a promise to help her season the meat. He stood in the corner, not too far away from the Christmas tree, watching the snow moul their empty laundry line.

He called back the Manchester number.

It kept on ringing and ringing, and he was about to give up when he heard, “Detective Sergeant Wright speaking.”

Chapter 1 will most likely also have those scene headings:

Interrgoration Room, Unnamed Base, New Mexico, USA January 2018

(which is Price & Ghost)

Unnamed Joint Base, Classified Location, Urzikistan October 2022

Unspecified Location, near Verdansk, Kastovia March 2021

(Soap joining the task force)