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brf-rumortrackinganon · 7 months

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I was wondering at what point do you think the Sussex’s reached the point of no return, and when the actually penny dropped for H and M (actually do you think he realises that somethings are literally unforgivable even now.) Obviously we probably know a small fraction of what was happening behind the scenes, and the beloved son making a new life is studiously polite, even if many think KC3 would have his son back in an instant.

So it's a few things for me. I think the Oprah interview and Philip's funeral got the ball rolling; the Platinum Jubilee was the "make or break" moment; and The Queen's funeral was when the penny dropped.

Here's the long version...

First, the Oprah interview and Philip's passing/funeral. Here's a super quick timeline of what happened:

2/16/21: Philip enters hospital to receive treatment for an infection.

2/20/21: Charles is papped leaving Philip's hospital looking upset and very emotional.

2/28/21: First promotions of the Sussexes' interview with Oprah debut in the US.

3/1/21: Philip is transferred to a different hospital to receive treatment for his heart condition. Paparazzi photos of him being transferred via ambulance are published, immediate criticism.

3/3/21: Philip has a heart operation. Palace says it went well.

3/5/21: Philip goes back to the first hospital. Meghan tells people she thinks the palace is making up or using Philip's health to silence them and keep them from releasing the Oprah interview.

3/7/21: Oprah interview broadcasts in the US.

3/8/21: Commonwealth Day Service; Oprah releases new clips cut from the final edit of the broadcast; the interview is broadcast in the UK.

(This is just a small piece of what was happening in those days. There was a ton of other stuff going on too.)

I think Meghan leaking to her friends, who talked to reporters, that they don't think Philip is as ill as the Palace reports was the beginning of the end for them. Okay, so maybe the palace wasn't keeping Harry fully updated on everything that was happening as it happened, but the signs were all there that it was a serious hospitalization.

(And I do believe that that leak about Philip's health is why Harry flew immediately to Charles after the King's cancer diagnosis. Karma served him hard with their public on-the-record denials of how ill Philip and The Queen were so now Harry wanted to do the right thing and go see for himself what was really happen.)

Then there's the whole Oprah interview altogether, which many in the firm - family members and courtiers alike - didn't receive well. Using today's measure of "Piers is what Camilla thinks," then if he was hopping mad over it, then she and the family were hopping mad.

Then Philip died and the way the Sussexes behaved - among them: Harry preempting much of the family with his statement about Philip, Harry's demand to wear his uniform, Harry dicking up the procession, Meghan telling everyone the flowers on Philip's casket were from her, Harry allegedly confronting William and Kate about the Oprah interview, the Sussexes using the family walk for olive branch PR, and (if Harry is to be believed) the Harry-Charles-William peace summit in the Frogmore gardens after the funeral - was the final nail in the coffin about what privileges or support the Sussexes would get from the BRF.

Especially when you consider that on February 19, 2021, the Palace announced that the Sussexes had declined to return and the one-year trial/review was terminated as of March 31st. So on April 9th when Philip passed away and the Sussexes began asserting precedence and privilege, they had no right to any of it. They were non-working royals, bottom of the totem pole.

(Then seven weeks later was the whole Lilibet fiasco and we all know how that went.)

I think the Sussexes' behavior and attitude around Philip's funeral, plus the Lilibet debacle (which we didn't fully learn about until after The Queen passed) directly led to certain decisions for the Platinum Jubilee, which became the "make or break" moment for everyone, not just the Sussexes.

The Sussexes saw the Platinum Jubilee as their chance to relaunch and rebrand as royals because they needed the royal glow to make their soon-to-be-released projects successful and well-received. The firm saw the Platinum Jubilee as a chance to rein the Sussexes in to their new status as "family members" vs "royals."

And, well, we know what happened at the Platinum Jubilee:

The Sussexes were kept away from the Cambridge family.

They weren't allowed in the Trooping carriages and the Trooping balcony.

They weren't invited to the Trooping rooftop party with the rest of the family or to the cousins' lunch afterwards.

They were scheduled to take the "Minor Royals Motorcoach" to the service of thanksgiving.

They were booed on arrival (and departure) at the service of thanksgiving.

They weren't included in the official procession with Charles and the Cambridges.

They were seated on the other side away from the working royals and demoted to the inside of the second or third row "after" Beatrice and Eugenie, instead of being on the aisle.

They were not invited to the post-service of thanksgiving guildhall reception/luncheon and had to do the walk of shame to the car by themselves. (Hence the boos.)

No one went to Lili's birthday party.

Meghan didn't get her "Lili meets Lili" picture with The Queen and Lili.

The Sussexes knew it was game over for them from there. The Platinum Jubilee wasn't the "make it" moment they needed and they didn't get anything they wanted. We know they got nothing they wanted because they threw a hissy fit and left early than planned, suggesting they felt very snubbed.

So I think that was the point of no return as far as the firm was concerned - if the Sussexes could behave themselves at the jubilee and the public was accepting of their presence, then the firm could've worked with them. But the Sussexes didn't behave (Meghan's photo stunt with Peter and Zara's girls, missing their pick-up for the service of thanksgiving, and Meghan's stunt rolling down the car window after a whole fuss about security) and the public made their feelings very, very clear.

I think the Sussexes were probably in denial with how badly the jubilee went, and that's why the interviews Meghan did later that summer were bitter and venomous towards the royal family. I also think the way they were treated at the jubilee weekend also informed some of the things they did and said in the Netflix docuseries as well.

So while the Sussexes were fully aware that they were out after the jubilee (I don't remember now who said it, but there's the famous quote "You never really know if you're in with the royal family, but if you're out, you definitely know") I don't think they understood the impact of what being "out" meant, though. I think they thought they could continue using the BRF for PR as they always did and that The Queen/Charles would always welcome them back with open arms because that's what they always did.

Which is what led to the penny dropping with The Queen's passing and funeral. It's clear that Harry thought he'd be given precedence and priority as The King's Son. which didn't happen. He made demands for it, still didn't happen. He tried to take it by force with the Netflix walkabout, still didn't happen. He caused a PR ruckus to get the public to demand it, it still didn't happen.

I do fully believe Harry was grieving at The Queen's funeral and her committal service. But I believe he was grieving the loss of his royal status a bit more than the loss of his grandmother that day, judging by his body language throughout the day. He knew it was all over then and there, and that bitterness came through in his interviews for Spare, when he demanded that the BRF needed to apologize first and his "they know what they did" comments.

I kind of feel like Harry saw the coronation as a test, where he felt "If I go and they treat me well, it'll all be fine but if I go and they treat me horribly, I'm never coming back again." And, well, the latter happened and he went straight from Westminster Abbey to the airport to go home, which was as big a tantrum as the one they pitched at the jubilee to leave early. And if Charles hadn't announced his cancer diagnosis, or if he didn't have cancer at all, I feel pretty confident saying we wouldn't have seen Harry in London until the May service of thanksgiving for Invictus Games.

#ask #brf #sussexes #in this essay i will

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lemotmo · 21 days

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wanted ali and your opinion on this just oliver's complete lack of care for anything BT and like he doesn't hide it. If BT was gonna be this big thing why hasn't Oliver liked or interacted with anything BT related since April and he only interacted then because of Bi Buck but now he completely ignores it and yet he still interacts with Buddie stuff and has his latest being liking Buddie fanart like spare me the BS excuse of he ignores BT to protect Lou like that's such a bullshit excuse.

Hi Nonny! I have gotten a couple of asks like this in my inbox. I will only be answering one of them, because they are all about the same subject. Thank you for understanding!

Anyway, I discussed your question with Ali and we both agreed on this, so I'm going to answer this for both of us if that's okay for you.

Here's what Ali had to say about this:

"Oliver is the one who everyone should be paying attention to. The show cannot force him to care. But he is under contract so he would be obligated to promote what they requested him to promote. Clearly no one is demanding he promote B/T.

He and Ryan are very aware that anything they 'like' is going to make the fandom rounds. He clearly wasn't trying to hide it."

So basically, Oliver knew it was going to be noticed, but he still proceeded to do it. I mean... it's the same with Ryan watching those Buddie edits and the great Buddie rewatch videos on Instagram. He knows everyone can see it and it will be screencapped, but he doesn't care. Otherwise he wouldn't venture into those accounts in the first place.

This actually reminded me again of Ryan saying in that season 7 interview that 'if Buddie would happen it would be baby steps, and only IF' and half an hour after the article dropped he posted a picture of himself climbing stairs with the caption 'One step at a time', which he then swiftly deleted 10 minutes later. By then a few people had screencapped it already.

And what about Oliver's 'like' of that 7x10 Buddie screencap with the 'thumb thumb thumb thumb...' caption. He was completely silent throughout 7b and vanished from social media, only to come back to 'like' that one Buddie post and disappear during the hiatus.

If we look back at it, Ryan and Oliver have been doing things like this all along. We always chuckle and say: 'Oh look at Oliver and Ryan geeking out over Buddie again.' But in reality it has become a pattern by now. They have done this before and they'll do it again.

Now whether or not all of this actually means anything is up for you to decide. I see these things as definite signs in the right Buddie direction because they are such blatant choices to make, but I'm sure there's fans who see it as just some random 'likes' on posts and we shouldn't look too deep into this.

To each their own I guess. 🤷‍♀️

But... if you couple all this to the joint Ryan & Oliver interviews during season 7, where they talked about Buddie all the time? I mean...

😏😏😏

You know? 😉

#nonnies galore #buddie speculation #anonymous blog I love #911 promo speculation #Ryan and Oliver's social media habits #there is a pattern there #ryan guzman #oliver stark

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captain-hen · 2 months

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The tommy phenomenon is so weird to me. Like Ive been in fandoms before that are very take what you can get (if that makes sense) but we’re still doing this in 2024? With a show with such great queer relationship standards? And its specifically the tommy part thats crazy because the one thing that makes bucktommy actually kinda work is oliver’s acting end of 7x04 - 7x06. And the reason why it didnt continue to work (for me) was the complete lack of development for tommy and their relationship past that. And im not even opposed to them getting more development its just right now theres nothing that sets tommy apart from ali or natalia (and like I get all that stuff with the bucktommy endgame stans rooted in misogyny. But still. Demand more !!)

it's soo baffling lmao. why am i, as someone who doesn't like this ship, advocating for them to be written better 😭 tommy's entire character at this point is just the definition of go girl give us nothing because the show has side-stepped every single opportunity to make him deep or more interesting. and this is a show that we KNOW is capable of making us fall in love with/sympathize/root for characters who appear on screen for the emergencies for five minutes! it's literally not that hard! the fact that they're doubling down on the love interest treatment™ for tommy says SO much. but a good chunk of this fandom is incapable of relating to women/poc in any way or even seeing them as people so of course a blank slate of a white male character is suddenly the deepest and most interesting of all the minor characters up to now. Somehow.

#neethu answers #anon #fandom discourse

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mayisgoingnuts · 19 days

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lowkey, spill the beans on LavenderCrook. They look cute^^

KAJSJS HOORAY!!! OKAY SO,, IT'S A BIT LONG I HOPE YOU GUYS DON'T MIND

PS: My name headcanons for Fat Thief is Oliver and for Thin Thief is Louis + They're brothers to me!!

Tagging @articus-icecream cuz IT'S YOUR FAULT GEAHAHSJKSJSJ/pos

Lila and Oliver met purely by accident when she needed help with something, most likely a very casual place such as a supermarket where Lila was too tired to even make sure that the co-worker gave her the right charge and he corrects them so they'd pay the rest. It'd stay like that, but he tried to talk to her a little more because 1. She looked pretty tired and perhaps needed some help and 2. She was very pretty overall,,

She ended up not accepting any help but did offered her number since they had a nice conversation, and slowwly they were talking more and more, going from texts, to seeing each other, to Lila actually inviting him over! He'd do it aswell but his house is MISERABLE and Louis didn't even know about her-

Either way he was getting closer to her, consequently to Skid aswell, BUT lying regards a few things on his life such as telling Lila that he works in a simple store and NOT telling that he's a thief, and a lot more like his house, family, etc, he was just scared that it'd startle her.

AND FINALLYYYY after lots of trust and talks and helps, they fell for each other. Took longer for Lila to accept and let her fears aside but once it happened they started dating, and it was just what she needed. Just wholesomeness, someone there to help with the house and her son, and he's just a normal guy!!! Apparently

Yea, no. Just like the cult demanded, both of the thieves began to steal Lila's house after Skiddad's stuff, which Oliver did tried to avoid and resulted in NOTHING but himself being scolded. He felt super guilty already for stressing his girlfriend even more without her knowledge and the DOUBLE of guilt upon finding out that the oh so traumatizing husband that she had was actually his leader.

Oliver began to be even more affectionate and caring with her to try compensating how much of an ASS he's being (despite doing it unwillingly), to the point where he gave up and told Louis about her since he was spending more time outside than at home without even updating Louis. His brother keeps telling that he has to tell her the truth to not upset her but Oliver is way too scared for that. If Lila ever finds out that Oliver knew all of those things and never told her she'd try her best to understand his side of things but also be completely devastated that once more she has been betrayed by someone she loved.

#may useless rambles #istfgGGGGG #/pos #they are DOOMED #SINCE THE BEGINNINGGGG #I might talk about FT's relationship with skid #....ifnyou want... maybe #giggles #spooky month #fat thief spooky month #lila spooky month #fat thief x lila #lavendercrook #rarepair #rareship

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lover-of-mine · 5 months

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Oh, we're accused of being fetishists by those who jump the ship for just 2 horny kisses with a date that left Buck alone in the middle of the street and who didn't even want to make an effort to accommodate a themed party

And they are so angry with buddie shippers cause they just have like 5 minutes of scenes to prove that there's something significant with BT in comparison with buddie who have 6 years showing love, fondness and all in between with just looking at each other eyes

No, but seriously, people accuse us of being fetishizing and weird about queer relationships and ON THE SAME BREATH they turn around and say shut up and enjoy the way Oliver is making out with a guy. Demand a bt sex scene. The show doesn't even do fullblown sex scenes. And somehow I'm the weird one. I don't know about you guys I'm not on the buddie ship to watch Oliver and Ryan make out. Maybe that's what makes me weird. Also, seriously, since I'm going all out now, I understand from a plot perspective why Buck was walking around the hospital with his face covered in soot, but from a person perspective, T letting Buck walk around like that is the equivalent of me kissing someone with red lipstick on, getting it all over their face and then not warning them. Shows me a lack of care since T knows Buck is not fully out. Maybe that's just me tho. I will be staying over here with buddie in matching costumes and getting drunk in hotel rooms while also enjoying the way that Buck was responsible for getting things done at the venue and getting stuff for Maddie and that Eddie was doing that with him in full husband mode. Buddie love is real and the block button is my best friend.

#911 #i really need a tag for asks #anon 😌#anti bucktommy

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blues824 · 1 year

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Guess what I'm back asking for more remarried empress I'm beginning to feel like Oliver twist asking for more soup your writing is to good.

🌈Remember the request of the douma mc getting pregnant along side with navier imagine if the baby looked exactly like the original douma from kny

💐How would everyone react to her child looking like a carbon copy of her but it's a boy and got kosiar blonde hair.

🌈Imagen her calling him douma and kosiar accepting it because it's a beautiful name and ask where she got the name from her saying a vision brought her to the name.

💐Every one believing that she is now a actual child of the gods and seeing the little baby douma makes her stronger than ever.

🌈Her and navier children playing together until one day the 3 children get kidnapped by rattrash because she got mad that navier got pregnant and the douma mc also she was her "friend " after all until navier told her lies.

(not that she whoud not do stuff like that she send assassin to kill navies parents and got reveti kidnapped and put in to slavery where she got saved by sovieshit )

💐Imagen the douma mc going on a full rage rampage because they people that made her feel human got taken away and she knows its rattrash using her power to take revenge.

🌈Showing the bill of sell (rattrash her slave serteficate) and forsing her father the high priest do the peternety test on Ian (her first son ) and Alan Rimwell and rattrash and it coming out that her baby is also Alan his child.

💐How would everyone react to the wrath of lady douma and how she just humiliated rattrash in the eastern empire because she tried to take away the children that makes her feel something.

🌈Her later on getting her son back and becoming her" jolly "old self again like she didn't make people feel her wrath like nothing happened.

(Dark art dark stories)

Major spoilers for the novel.

Sovieshu

He agreed that what Rashta did was not acceptable by any means, but demanding that the High Priest do a paternity test on the young child and Rashta was not anyway for a Holy Lady to be acting. That was, until the results came in and the child was in fact Rashta’s and Alan Rimwell’s. Then, he demanded that she, her daughter, and Alan do a paternity test and the results came back positive.

The Emperor’s whole world was crashing down around him. You then presented the certificate of Rashta’s slavery, and Soieshu was absolutely furious. It was then that he realized that he was the infertile one between him and Navier, and that’s why they never conceived a child while they were married.

As an act of remorse in the place of his Empress, he made sure that the children were safely returned. Rashta was promptly arrested, and as you and Kosair were holding your son and Navier and Heinrey were holding their twins, Sovieshu judged accordingly and sentenced his wife to death for her crimes.

Rashta

She was jealous that you just got to live your life in peace and joy and she had to suffer for every little thing. So, she sent someone to kidnap your and Navier’s children. What she didn’t know is that those children (even the twins) were the only people who made you forget your past, and once they were gone you were back to your insane self. You were just much more angry.

So, you demanded paternity tests done on both Ian and Glorym, and the results came back with Alan Rimwell being the father and Rashta being the mother. You showed the results as well as the certificate of slavery to the press, and everything she built crumbled. She grew hysteric, and you just laughed.

Once you had your son and Navier’s twins back in your arms, you calmed down a bit. However, Sovieshu was not finished with his wife. Everyone, including herself, knew that she would be tried for each of her crimes. Heinrey and Navier took the children out of the courtroom before the High Priest condemned Rashta to death for the charges against her.

The gasp she let out as she saw your evil smile was one of complete fear. Later, in her cell as she was waiting to be brought out for her execution, you visited her one last time. You whispered to her, “You shouldn’t have stolen my son, you bitch. Maybe you could have continued living a lie”.

Navier

You heard her gasp and scream, and you ran out to see what had happened. Come to find out: the children were gone. You asked her what had happened, and she explained that a man had come in and stolen them and had pushed her down before she could see her face. However, you knew that this was Rashta’s doing (she was the only one who held no respect for you). Thus, your wrath began.

Navier and Heinrey were distraught, but you and Kosair were enraged. You decided to let everything spill out about the Empress of the Eastern Empire. Paternity tests concluded that Glorym was not a valid heiress to the throne because she wasn’t related to Sovieshu. Then, it got out to the people that not only did she have children before marriage, but she also was a slave since you showed the certificate given to you by Viscount Lotteshu.

Eventually, you were able to find the children and get them back (and have a meal, but we don’t need to talk about it). You placed bunches of kisses all over your son’s face, but you knew this wasn’t over. So, you put your son into your sister-in-law’s arms so she could take him out of the courtroom until it was over.

Both you and Navier testified against Rashta in court, and your adoptive father was acting as judge. He still judged impartially, believe it or not. It was the jury that concluded the Empress was guilty of all charges and should be sentenced to death. The High Priest signed the papers, and she was condemned. The children were now safe.

Heinrey

This man was about to wage war with the Eastern Empire until he got his children as well as his nephew back, but you pushed him aside (gently, of course) and said that you would get them back even if you needed to kill someone. You technically did, metaphorically speaking.

He just watched as you quickly wrote to the High Priest before you prepared to leave for the Eastern Empire. You told him to start getting ready as well, as you knew that the current Crown Princess of the E.E. was not Sovieshu’s biological child. You were going to keep it a secret, but Rashta decided to steal your son.

At the dock, the Emperor was standing there with the children. Heinrey was honestly pretty good as long as he knew that Rashta was getting what she deserved for stealing members of the Royal Family, but you wanted to see the Empress dead. So, you opted to stay and let the others go back to the Western Empire.

It wasn’t until you came back that he heard each and every single one of the charges that were pressed against Rashta, and it was all because of you. You did feel bad about Glorym and Ian, since they would never be able to see their mother (in Glorym’s case, again). You told Sovieshu that if the pain ever became too much, he could send the baby girl to you and you would raise her. Heinrey was just surprised that you really exercised the wrath you had to condemn the former mistress to death.

Kosair

Upon finding out that not only were his niece and nephew gone, but also his own son… it’s over. You and him were angry, and understandably so. However, you were much more powerful than he was, so as he was preparing bags for you two to get going, you quickly sent a letter to the High Priest that demanded a paternity test be done on Glorym to see if she was truly Sovieshu’s daughter.

Lo and behold, she wasn’t , and the evidence was used in the trial against Rashta. Navier and Heinrey were sitting with the children on one of the benches in the courtroom as you and Kosair testified against Rashta. It was clear who was going to win, but everyone was entitled to a fair trial.

When the verdict was reached, you grasped onto your husband’s arm as the jury stated the Empress of the Eastern Empire was going to be sentenced to death. Right after everyone was dismissed, you both were finally reunited with Douma and it was the happiest you have ever been before.

Then you had to start the process of sailing back to the Western Empire. One could consider it a cruise with how much everyone relaxed at being with their children once again. But, you became very paranoid, and you hated to leave your son out of sight for even a second. Kosair understood, so he suggested that when you got back home, you both could sleep in the nursery until your fear was conquered.

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slashingdisneypasta · 4 months

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Wayne Jackson x Reader || Oneshot

Plot: Lyle demands that you find some nice clothes for Wayne so that he can be seen with him in public and not be embarrassed. Simultaneously, you're dealing with a particularly bad Tinder match sending you eggplants.

You help Wayne to be presentable and Wayne helps you to make a wierdo leave you alone.

Warnings: Sexual references as well as mentions of dick picks.

*I wanted to write for Greasy and Wheezy Weasel... but also Jim Bickerman... this is the natural conclusion XD

Tagging: @masqueradeball and @slxsherwriter

"Ooookay, look... " You feel like a master chef judge except theirs no cake, there's just Wayne. Disappointing. "The outfit is fine, you cant go wrong with a clean shirt and jeans." Clearing your throat, you turn promptly to the men's jackets section of T.K. Max, wondering to the medium section and giving the choices a quick overlook. "You just need a good coat- because this jean jacket and hoodie combination is not it. You're a 60 year old man not a 19 year old drug dealer, dress like it."

"Thought I was."

"No."

Giving a sigh as you look through the options, because this is absolutely not what you would like to be doing today (Though, it still beat answering the phone right now), you pick out a few of the coats and hand them over to Wayne. You choose a coat in off-white, too, but pause. You look at him and screw up your nose in a wince, considering what he does for a living. He shakes his head. No. Bad idea. Put it back.

Shame; he'd look good in white.

"Anyway, we'll also pick up a few more shirts and jeans because you cant live on a rotation of 3 to 2 ratio. No. We might get you a haircut too, and maybe- "

"God. You wanna shave me, too??" He cuts you off, and you hear the exaggerated sarcasm clear as day, but still give him a deeply unamused.

"No, the beard's sexy." You say bluntly, feeling your phone buzz in your back pocket and fighting off a frustrated sigh; knowing exactly who it was from. "-Thats your only redeeming feature right now. Don't say crazy stuff like that!, because I do not have the patience for it today."

The man gives you a sheepish shrug, but looks wholly shut up. "... jeez... You're a real ball a' joy, today."

You feel the tell-tale buzz again, and let air whisper out from between your lips in frustration. "... you have no idea."

"Great." Wayne rolls his eyes, clearly annoyed at this whole situation just like you. And you get it- if your cousin said he was embarrassed of you and demanded someone else take you out and dress you at the crack of dawn on a Saturday then you'd be pretty damn annoyed, too. You're about to offer an olive branch, ask if he wants to get something to drink before you start, but then a mischievous vulgar grin spreads across his rough-looking face and immediately you groan. Before words even come out. This goddamn man- "... Hey, I do like to hear ya think I'm sexy, though. How about that, huh?"

Without a word, you deadpan-point him towards the changing rooms.

Its a couple of hours later and- to be honest- you are in a better mood, now. This is definitely better then answering your Tinder messages, at least. For sure.

At first all the two of you did was argue, until you marched him out of the store to get a coffee. You found, after that, that you were both far more likeable people with a caffeinated/sugary drink in your hands. You got along a lot better, then.

After a few try-on's, you both agreed on a plain old grey long coat. not quite a trench coat, because he's creepy enough you think, but nothing fancy either, with nice deep pockets. That feature particularly made him happy, and you couldn't blame him. Pockets make you happy, too. You didn't think about what he might want to put in the pockets, though he did try to tell you. You didn't want to know.

"No- but wait, see here?? I could totally fit a- "

"Thats okay Wayne, I don't need to know."

"B- "

"No."

*Huff* "Suit yourself. ... Hm, but I might even be able to get me in here some- " This man chose to look up and wriggle his eyebrows at you, almost causing you to choke on a laugh. Almost. "You know."

Okay, you're not made of stone. At this you did snort; shaking your head. "No, I don't know."

"... you wanna?"

"Nope."

Now Wayne was just trying a few pairs of jeans (He offered to let you in so you could 'help him'... you politely turned that oh so very kind and beyond charming offer down with a 'no you're a big boy; I have the utmost faith in you that you can do it' and an encouraging pat on the shoulder), and while you sat outside the changing rooms with the coat hung over your legs and a basket half full with some more shirts in various cobalt hue's, you finally see fit to open up your phone for the first time in the day and... oh, boy.

You wince.

"Yep," You mutter, shaking your head and shifting to make sure no one was around to see. "Thats a penis."

God, what is wrong with men?

'U gotta send me some now' the guy, Brandon, texts you then seeing that you were online. 'Thats fair'. You groan. Oh no you do not.

When Wayne comes out of one of the changing rooms, tucking his shirt into his new jeans, you quickly switch off your phone and lower it into your lap. A second ago you were having a good day (A good day! With crazy Wayne of all people!), but now... aghhh, you just wanted to go home. Be alone. Lament over the fact that, at this rate, you're never going to find a man you have any kind of real chemistry with. "- that looks great." You say quickly, flashing a kind smile and getting up. "We'll get a couple of those. Its all on Lyle, anyway. Come on, lets ring up. You wanna get Taco Bell on the way back?- "

"Uh uh uh," As you're attempting to walk by Wayne and head for the registers, he grabs you by the crook of your arm and stops you right there. "What just happened here?"

Taking a deep breath, you cross you arms and face him; never mind the proximity he set. "Nothing. We've been out for hours, and I'm tired."

"You are not." He growls, then you peer and watch a sly grin spread across his face. "You cant lie to a liar, sweetheart, trust me. But hey," Suddenly he plucks your phone right out of your hand, making you yelp and go wide-eyed. Oy- "lets see for ourselves what the problem is, huh?"

"No, no, no- " You reach for the phone as soon as you see it, but he turns around.

Your phone comes to life and, holding the device just out of your reach (Well, you could move and grab it, but at this point you're frozen out of mortification), Wayne flicks to the most recently opened app. Then the photo's slide across the screen again and your nose wrinkles. "Ahhhh... " You roll your eyes deeply. You can imagine the nasty grin on the dirty old man's face without even seeing it. "... So? You gonna uhh... repay the favour, or not? Hm??" He chuckles. and you groan.

"What do you think?" You ask his back, rubbing your face.

"Well I'm sure I don't know- "

"No! The answer is no!"

"Heheh,.. " Suddenly an odd calm settles over Wayne, and you hear rather then see the phone shut off. Then there's a consoling tone in his voice that makes you nervous. "Alright, we can go. I'm all done here, after all, aren't I? Nothin for my Cuz to be embarrassed about anymore, hm? Lemme just put my old pants back on."

"Okay... thank you... ... hey, wait, gimmie back my phone, first- "

"Not just yet."

... that sure makes you nervous.

For the few moments you're waiting for him you tug your bottom lip between your teeth, worried. You just want your phone back! You want to delete. Tinder. damnit.

When Wayne's in there for a few moments too long, you awkwardly approach and knock on the door. "... Way- "

He opens the door almost as soon as your knuckles hit the surface, startling you, and hands you the phone back with a terrible, satisfied look on his face.

... you squint. "What did you do."

"Nothin'." He tells you back, noncommittally; shrugging and adjusting his pants as you open up your phone and navigate back to Tinder.

...

..- "OH." Immediately you turn off your phone all the way again and cross your arms, fighting to urge to throw it. THATS not gonna give you nightmares at all. After a moment, your eyes flick to Wayne grinning proud. "... why."

"Well he aint gonna bother you no more now, is he?"

"The concept of your penis does seem to have that effect on people." You say... but cant help it. You laugh, shaking your head; more an inappropriate cackle then a laugh, really. It feels good. "Come on lets go,.. Flaccid, and everything. Very sexy, Wayne."

"I thought so." He's still grinning with pride, and that only makes your giggles worse.

"Move it, Jackson."

You did end up getting lunch on the way back, opting to eat in the parking lot on the hood of the car, and you're still sipping coke when you pull into Wayne's driveway. He lives with Dale, its the only way the two of them can afford a semi-decent place with the wages that Lyle pays them, and as you slowly roll over the driveway you see Dale's motorbike in the open garage. He must be working on it today.

When Wayne pipes up from the passenger seat, you turn and watch him while chewing the paper straw in your taco bell cup. "Welll, this has been sorta fun, sweetheart. Coulda been more fun," He gives you a meaningful look and you shake your head, but grin with the straw still between your teeth. He clears his throat, opening the car door. "But, eh, not bad."

"Not bad??" You ask, teasing. "My company is just 'not bad'??"

There's a wicked look in his eye and on his face. "... yep."

"Ass."

"Never claimed to be anything else, did I now?" With that light-hearted but very true remark, Wayne turns to get out of the car- but a crazy split-second urge has you putting down your drink and stopping him.

"Wayne?- "

"Huh?- "

When your lips meet in a deep kiss with the old bastard you didn't even know you wanted until then, you feel every nerve in your body light up. Its slow and a little dirty, and you love it. You didnt know you could be kissed like this. So when you pull back you cant help the smirk that matches his.

"... well, now I think you're company's a lil better, Y/N." You snort, at that. "What? I manage t' seduce you with that photo? Hm?"

You roll your eyes and give a sigh. "Good lord- "

#this could be a fic STRAIGHT outta 14-year-old hannah's repertoire #so much fun XD #need to write more creepy men charming reader with just their creepy charms again XD #Wayne Jackson x Reader Oneshot #Wayne Anthony Jackson x Reader Oneshot #Wayne Jackson x Reader #Wayne Anthony Jackson #Wayne Anthony Jackson x Reader #Wayne Jackson #Oneshot

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dootznbootz · 10 months

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Eh, have some Odyssey headcanons

This is nowhere NEAR all of them as I like "revealing" headcanons while writing. I'm also just a very "fluffy" person so heads up! :D

Mentioned it in a different post but Odysseus is very affectionate with his loved ones (overtly so. almost demanding in how he'll just kind of drape himself across you) Even as a kid he was like this. Often just hugging them and/or climbing up them to cuddle. It skyrockets with Penelope, as he was overwhelmed with emotions for her when they first met and that hasn't stopped. Lots of little kisses and nuzzles and cuddling. Almost always clinging to her in some way. He's strange about being touched with basically everyone else though. While he's still caring for his friends, you never know if he's fine with a hug or not. Often times he'll just give you a look of "Don't even think about it" mostly at poor Menelaus as I headcanon him as the most physically affectionate. Lots of slaps on the back and big hugs He's a little hot and cold like that

Adding to that, with Penelope, with said little kisses that he gives a lot of, he's fine with "losing" or "yielding" to her with everything but that. He's always trying to "have the last laugh" or you know, the last affection. He's perfectly fine admitting defeat to her with everything else but this. It's probably something he doesn't even realize that he does. He loves being doted on and pampered by her but also unconsciously thinks "you're getting smothered. As soon as you stop moving your hands through my hair. I'M gonna smother you" Get adored, Penelope. (●♡∀♡) I am living vicariously through these dummies.

Laertes always had a "green thumb" even before he left the palace to work in the fields. He always liked plants. If you know how J.R.R. Tolkein writes, basically nonstop about ferns and undergrowth and such, that's Laertes. If you go on a walk/hunt with him, he'll often just look at plants and be happy and likes to study them. He was very picky about how plants are arranged on the property. He's a bit more quiet and "gruff".

Odysseus definitely mostly takes after his mother in almost everything. Her humor and mischief, her looks, even learned to woodcarve from her. She and Penelope get along great and she's definitely the "life of the party". (it's MY headcanon and I can do what I want!!!) While Laertes loves his trees and plants, it's even better when he can share that knowledge and passion with his wife who creates something entirely new with that plant (aka wood). "That's walnut you know. Did you know it blahblahblahblah".

Ctimine actually takes a lot after Laertes but mostly in the "kind of quiet" way but she's the type to make one-liners that make everyone in the room laugh. (that she gets from her Mother. I actually want Laertes to be kind of awkward lol) It's a "she doesn't talk much but when she does. You should listen because she's fucking funny." She actually likes plants as well. (as a child she would find out what stuff tasted horrible and then dare Odysseus to eat it. And ofc he did it basically every time. "Eat a raw Olive, idiot. >:) " ) and probably was more into herbology and its uses. When Odysseus comes back, she and Laertes want to know every detail of the Lotus and the Moli Root.

Penelope has a sweet tooth! Also, I have her quite short despite being a Naiad as I have a headcanon that like a lot of fish, water nymphs grow to the size of the body of water they're in. Or in this specific case, BORN in. Penelope was born in a creek/stream🥲 Her mom dove into the nearest source of water and that was it. (kind of goes along with her duck myth) She also canonically says the most out-of-pocket shit (remember the sneeze of death???) she's a "weird girl". She has been "weird" since the beginning. Weird girls are hot as fuck, you cowards!

Penelope: One time, I fell asleep at the bottom of the river and I woke up to a catfish trying to eat my arm. Mom and I killed it and ate it afterward. Odysseus, twirling his hair and giggling: You showed that catfish who's boss. You're so hot. Please be my wife

(That's all you're getting on her. The Wife of all time will be getting her own headcanon post all to herself because she deserves it. I am doodling lil hearts around her face. *I am shot by Odysseus*)

This'll probably be my most unpopular one but yeah. Odysseus isn't the shortest of the Achaean kings. He's actually taller than average (great grandchild of Hermes genes and his mom is tall. Laertes is shorter.) and while shorter than the other kings. The title of the shortest goes to Diomedes. I love the thought of this absolute killing machine being the shortest in a "He's small? What can he do?" and then he just fucks everything and everyone up. He's a chihuahua. Small, full of rage, "loud of warcry", and always wanting to fight. >:)

That's all for now. Honestly, thank y'all so much for being so sweet. It really means so so much. I was kind of afraid I was too "fluffy and soft" to make content for the Odyssey fandom as while yes, they've all done monstrous actions and I definitely still plan to have them steal, lie, barter, fight, etc. I kept getting worried if I was just making shit too soft you know? Too fluffy. Too "romantic". I have him sneak into a garden and cut someone's flowers for his wife but would he even do that?? Is that too nice of him?

I wear my heart on my sleeve and in my writing, I'm the same way. :D Just how I am! And I'm having fun!

#btw. the joke with the catfish is also because those fish are fucking disgusting. gummy bottomfeeders. 2x the grossness for the wife #And Odysseus still loves this hot woman as he should #I'm sorry for the babbling at the bottom! I'm just really happy and really appreciate you all😭#my headcanons #I guess??? idk #I have already gotten one “He wouldn't fucking say that” anon a while back and I just got squashed😅#I didn't post it because...yee #I didn't mean her calling him a dog in my fic as in “dog-eyed” like the insult??? like blhe slkdjf #BUUUUUT I'm just gonna chill and do whatever the fuck I want now. and no longer worry too much :D I got my homies ❤#Mad rambles #shot by odysseus

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rogueshadeaux · 9 months

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Chapter Twenty-Nine — Paper Trail

“We don’t know enough yet to make any assumptions.” Dr. Sims said cooly from the kitchen, like he himself was trying to hold back from demanding answers from the universe. “Maybe we’ll get lucky and find something in the files today. If not, hopefully the tests will tell us something we missed.”

6k words | 30 min read time | TRIGGER WARNINGS: Illness, medical procedures [mentioned], racism, abuse, lore. so much lore.

⚠ AUTHOR'S NOTE: There are a lot of imbedded links on this chapter! Some are very low quality, as I had to work with what I could screenshot off of Youtube. If only SPP compiled their stuff in one place like a normal game company. Anyways enjoy!

I woke up to Dad sitting on the floor next to the couch, calling my name gently. “Jeanie, wake up,” he hummed. “C’mon, I made coffee.”

“Do I have to?” I grumbled, face still in the cushions.

Dad and I had stayed up for nearly two hours after I had walked back into the house and talked about everything; the guilt, the anger, the truth. He wasn’t as mad at me as I thought he was—while he was upset, he didn’t blame me for it. Any of it. “Jean, you don’t know what to do o-or what’s going on,” he reassured me, “I can’t get upset at you for that. I just want you to be careful.” He wanted nothing more than for me to trust his judgment. And maybe I needed to; Dad knew what he was doing. I’d be safe if I listened to him, right? I had to trust him.

But it was hard, when we both kept hiding things from each other.

So I extended the olive branch first, and told him the truth; the pain in my back when I use my powers but how it eases when I’m in water. He listened intently to it all, simply nodding along. “I’ll tell Eugene in the morning,” he eventually decided, “We’ll figure it out, I promise,”

Maybe it was wrong for me to not say anything about Mom as I was huddled into his chest, but I wasn’t sure I could get through that conversation without becoming a blubbering mess. And besides, maybe that was simply meant for me. No one else.

The heart-to-heart led to us falling asleep on the couch, my head in Dad’s lap as he reclined back. Apparently I exhausted myself in my sobbing so much that I didn’t know Dad slipped away in the morning. Not until he woke me up at least. “Eugene needs to give you a look over and we…we need to talk to you about something too.”

That got me to turn to look at Dad through my curtain of hair. He was crouched holding two cups, Dr. Sims standing behind him with his arms crossed.

This was gonna be fun.

Dr. Sims assured me he knew enough basic medical care to know if I was okay. “Or at least, if something is wrong,” he added, looking me over. “Double majored while in college, I just never took the MCAT.”

I had no idea what that was, but nodded like I did as he checked my pulse, timing it against his watch.

He looked over my scars, checked their stitches. The hole in my neck was barely touched but he at least seemed satisfied by how it looked under its clear wrapping, which I was beginning to think was just saran wrap taped down. “Your dad said it hurts when you use your powers?” he asked me, examining the scar on my side. It was settling into a nice purple, bright against my skin.

“It’s — it’s not really a hurt,” I started, trying to downplay it. Dad was looking at me too intensely for me to be comfortable with just admitting the fact. “It’s almost like I feel sore when I do, in between my shoulderblades.”

Dr. Sims nodded, hand coming around to my back. “Right here?” He asked, pressing between my shoulder blades. My hand tensed around the coffee mug as I nodded, trying not to wince as he palpated the area.

“Yeah,” I eventually said.

Dr. Sims hummed, moving his hand away from my back. “And does it hurt while you use your power, or after?”

I shrugged. “Both? But it only hurts while I’m using it if I do it for a long time. Otherwise it’s usually this, like, twinge after.”

He nodded, moving to the table to type out some notes on his open mini-laptop. Dad sat back down on the couch beside me, one hand staying wrapped around the coffee mug while the other came to wrap around me.

I didn’t like that. He would give out affection often, sure, but holding? That usually came before bad news.

Dr. Sims picked up his laptop and brought it close, sitting on my other side. “Jean, we got your test results back.” He began.

My heart stopped. “Already?” I asked meekly. Dad’s arm pulled me a bit closer to his side as I slightly turned to face Dr. Sims better.

Dr. Sims nodded. “I pulled some strings.”

I waited a moment for him to continue. “So then…what did the results say?” I asked. I hated that he wouldn’t start explaining without my prompting.

Dr. Sims looked at the computer. “Well, the good news is that there’s nothing wrong with you genetically,” he began. “In terms of chromosomal makeup, you and Brent look perfect.”

I nodded slowly. “That’s…that’s good,” I glanced over my shoulder at Dad. “But then,” I looked back to Dr. Sims, “Why am I not healing?”

Dad’s arm squeezed around me gently. “That’s where the bad news comes in.” He said softly. “You know how we took samples of the stuff on your leg?”

“Yeah?”

“The results came back abnormal,” Dr. Sims said. “We’re not sure what that means yet, though. Once we’re done here with Mr. Dunbar, I want to take you to the nearest Accredited hospital to do more tests.”

I had to suppress a groan. More tests. “What would — what’re you looking for?” I asked.

Dad took over the conversation. “Well, answers. We now know Augustine’s tar, one hundred percent, is what’s making you sick. We just need to know how, and why.”

“Mr. Dunbar already got in contact with someone who can examine the tar for us. He just left to mail it. They’re in Boston, so it will take a day or two to get the sample there — but I know this person. She’d be able to uncover any secrets we wouldn’t be able to see.”

“And we need to make sure you’re okay, too.” Dad added. “See if anything’s changed since the last time we took blood, check your scars. Your arm could probably use a check-up too.”

“And I want to examine your conducrine gland, with your report of pain,” Dr. Sims continued. “I want to take a quantification assay and make sure you’re making enough proteins, and double check that you’re not having any complications. Maybe an MRI.”

I nodded once. “Okay.” I said, like I wasn’t both confused and dreading everything.

“Until then, if you have any more pain, you tell us, okay?” Dad practically demanded. Dr. Sims got up from his spot on the couch to set his computer back on the table, grabbing his empty cup and heading to the counter to get more coffee.

There was something I needed to know, though. “Did Mom’s com–conducrine gland ever hurt? When she was sick?”

I could feel Dad’s arm around me tense. “It did,” he said.

“So it’s happening to me too? I thought my test results came back normal, genetically.” I looked at Dad. “If it happened to Mom too, then how…”

A shadow crossed over Dad’s face as he scowled. “We’re wondering the same.”

The hot cup did nothing to warm me as my blood ran cold. They both seemed angry at the idea that Mom had something put in her, too — and I didn’t like the fact that despite reassuring me they’re not sure what the cause could be, they both seemed settled on a reason to blame.

Brent eventually stumbled downstairs looking refreshed after resting, which was a relief unlike any other as the image of his lifeless body began to lose its harsh edges in my mind’s eye. Dad managed to find and burn some eggs and turkey bacon as we waited for Zeke to return, and for a brief bit, it almost felt like I could pretend that everything was normal. That we were on some trip in a less-than-stellar rental and this was just breakfast after a night spent gaming or binging a movie series Dad insisted was fantastic.

Imagining was all I could do to keep from dwelling on the what ifs.

Zeke eventually came back — and then stepped back out, bringing in muddied ammo box after muddied ammo box. “They’re weather resistant,” he explained to Brent when he gave Zeke a bewildered look. “Which is needed when you live in a swamp. Good for hiding stuff.”

Dad crouched low and pulled his briefcase out from under the loveseat couch, saying, “I brought everything I could. Some stuff got damaged in Betty’s old storage unit, but I managed to salvage most of it.”

“Is that why you brought the briefcase?” Brent asked, glancing over at me. We had a bet going on what he was intending to do with it. “I thought you were just gonna start going back to work,”

Dad’s smile was half hearted. “Nope. Everything in here’s from my adventures,”

The way Dad sarcastically said adventures suggested it wasn’t the fun kind in the movies.

Dr. Sims began working at his computers at the small table, the mini-laptop perched precariously on his lap as the other two shared the liminal space of the wood. Dad sat on the couch between Brent and I and opened up his briefcase, revealing a hell of random stuff; dozens of crumpled and folded pieces of paper, random little shreddings that almost looked like trash. There was some flier that was badly taped together and newspaper clippings, notes upon notes in Dad’s scratchy handwriting layered in margins of scrap paper and what almost looked like…

“Comics?” I blinked, pulling up the creased stacks of paper. “Did you make a comic?”

I looked up at Dad in time to see him grimace. “No.” He said, flat. “Those were all clues some crazy killer left me while she tried to frame us all.”

I looked back down at the artwork in my hands. “Oh.”

“But there’s—“ Brent began flipping through the papers Dad shoved in his hands. “There’s DUP documents in this?”

Dad shrugged. “I had to hack into their database to get some answers. She was Augustine’s favorite lackey.”

“Always leads back to that bitch,” Brent murmured, glancing over at me.

“Brent.”

“Oh c’mon Dad, you can’t keep getting onto me about it,”

“Help me organize all this,” Dad commanded, ignoring Brent completely. “I printed out everything I didn’t have a physical copy of so this is…it’s gonna be a lot.”

“How the hell are we supposed to organize this?” Brent asked, incredulous.

“There’s serial numbers on them all,” Dad said, pointing to a row of one on a DUP document in Brent’s hand. “Find the connected files if you can.”

“Delsin, come here for a second,” Dr. Sims said at the table. Dad promised to return and help but asked that we get a head start while he was going over something with Eugene.

The comic wasn’t really a traditional one, but almost some sort of manga; a story about a rabbit that lost her family in an attack, and was safeguarded by a large dragon before being locked away. The art style was immaculate, I had to admit — but I didn’t get how some story with a dragon was supposed to be a hint, unless this version of the Zodiac Killer was hiding some code in the shading.

Brent nodded my way as I looked over the first page again. “What does that say?”

I shrugged. “Nothing much. Just a bunch of drawings.”

“I meant the back.”

“The—” I cut off, flipping the page.

Death is just a passing phase. I’ve danced with demise, and let me tell you, he’s a bad dancer (always stepping on my toes). But I’ve learned to embrace the macabre — to navigate its twisted depths. Conduits and “normals” are at a crossroads, and if we don’t look both ways, we’ll all get run down. All I want — all I’ve ever wanted — is harmony between people. Follow my lead and I’ll show you the trail of bodies. Seek out the corpses and you’ll find the truth decaying within.

“...Oh.” I said meekly. This had to be what Dad was talking about. Some twisted manifesto by a serial killer.

I flipped over the others, and each of them had something on their backs — some, notes, others, puzzles. “Hold on,” He said, leaning forward. He grabbed the second page of the manga. “‘If you’re trying to get into the DUP, I’ve been there. In fact, I died there.’” He read off. “Look, there’s that serial number thing Dad was talking about.”

I read off the row of numbers. “Do you have this file? Starts with, uh—” I glanced down again, “3485?”

Brent muttered the number to himself again and again as he flipped through the pages in his hand. “Here,” he finally said, pulling one out from the middle of the pile. It was a statement issued by Brooke Augustine herself on the death of a Conduit detained at Curdun Cay in a death by a thousand paper cuts — literally. Suicide by dozens of cuts created by paper doves. “Jesus Christ,” I murmured, imagining the pain. I read over the memorandum again, pointing to its first sentence, “There’s a number here, do you have a file for that one?” I asked Brent, “Ends in 2606,”

“I was just looking at that,” He said. “Fuckin’ — here. Some girl named Celia.” He looked over to Dad, who was behind Dr. Sims, reading something on a screen. “Who was Celia?”

“Paper conduit?” I asked, incredulous. She could control paper! Or, did — at least with enough control to kill herself.

Dad glanced over. “She’s the one that made those drawings.”

I blinked. “Guessing she also did the murders?”

“Yep.”

“How’d she get out?” Brent asked. “This says she died,”

Dad breathed deeply, Dr. Sims waving him off and letting him return to our side. “Augustine faked her death to sneak her out of Curdun Cay. Killed some random guard."

“But why?” I asked, looking up from the row of manga strips.

Dad didn’t answer — not at first, at least. He sighed deeply before reaching into the briefcase for a manila folder, opening it and peeking past the flap to check its contents. He nodded once before reaching in to start pulling out photocopies of pictures, laying them out facing us.

“Jesus,” Brent muttered.

I wasn’t prepared for it to be 90% bodies and death, of someone pinned to a billboard or being held against a wall by dozens of paper doves, bloodied and beaten and dead. “I need you both to look at this,” Dad said, looking up at us with a serious expression. There was barely any emotion in his face now, eyes peering at us like we were on the stand. “Augustine and Celia did this to keep up the narrative. Killed people that had ties to your mom and Eugene to make it look like it was them seeking revenge.” He leaned forward slightly. “And Archangel bombed COLE to try and get me to show myself. There are people out there that will see you as nothing more than a chance to hurt someone else. Nothing more than something to keep the story going. These are the kind of people I’m trying to keep from hurting you.” He looked between Brent and I. “Do you understand?”

I swallowed hard, forcing my eyes to peel away from the imagery of death and look somewhere, anywhere else. I wasn’t prepared for that. Bodies. A path painted in bloodshed long before I even had the chance to walk it, and littered with fresher meat for the sacrifice of someone else's cause. It felt so hopeless; was this really all there was? All there could be?

Looking away wasn’t a good idea, because my eyes moved from casualty to casualty as they landed on a picture of Mom next to some detective agency’s logo.

My hand was moving to pick up the file before I could even blink, bringing the black and white photocopy close to my face. I swear, if I concentrated hard enough, I could make her eyes move, almost see how she would bring her chin up and cock her head to the side like she did in the hallucination.

And this time, I wasn’t too sad while looking at the picture. Zeke was right; was it wrong to treat it as a fact even if there was a good chance it wasn’t? Maybe it was better, knowing the hallucination was just that and yet still being able to be a bit indulgent.

I forced my eyes off of Mom’s photo to the blurb under it, reading through the information this random detective agency had. “Wait,” I murmured, rereading a single line again and again. “Dad? This thing says Mom’s parents wanted to…wanted to talk to her again.”

Brent’s head snapped around to look at me. “What?” He demanded, snatching the page out of my hand and swatting me away when I tried to take it back. “Holy shit, that’s Mom,”

Dad meanwhile did nothing more than sigh hard. “We did hear from her parents. Shortly after we did the whole gender reveal thing.” His jaw tightened at the memory. “It didn’t go well.”

Brent lowered the page, brow knitting closer together as he looked up at Dad. “What do you mean?” he asked.

I put down the manga drawings in my hands, giving Dad my full attention too. I had always wondered, if we had a mom, where her side of the family was. I understood Dad was an orphan, he never shied away from that fact; but he never elaborated much on Mom except that her brother passed. I never found the courage to ask about grandparents on that side, either. Brent had once, and the scowl was enough to make me realize it was something he never intended answering.

Until now. “We had met somewhere in downtown Seattle, which was probably the first mistake. They both didn’t want to be in such a liberal area, and it didn’t help that Lifeline was protesting a lot more after the mass Curdun Cay release. Your mom was still on trial for her murders—”

“While pregnant?” Brent asked, eyes widening.

Dad shrugged. “All of us were. You think they were gonna let all of us go without a fight? There’s a reason the Akurans found your mom so easily.” He inhaled hard, trying to bleed the anger out of his voice. “They weren’t happy about the publicity of the trial. Add that on top of your mom having children with someone that wasn’t white, and the fact that they refused to apologize for turning Abbs in to the DUP and…well, why keep them around?”

“Jeez,” I hummed, glancing back down at the page in Brent’s hand, Mom’s face staring back at me upside down. I couldn’t think of much else to say but that, other than wishing I could’ve somehow supported Mom during that time. Her parents wouldn’t even say sorry for giving her away to the government!

Brent could form more words than me. “None of the shit she went through would have happened if they didn’t try to sell her in the first place,” He bit, angry at their audacity.

Dad nodded. “You would think they’d feel bad after everything that started coming out about Curdun Cay — the experiments and all that. But these are the same people Abbs told me didn’t think conversion therapy was a bad thing, so I guess they just saw it as another form of that.”

“Assholes.” Brent spit.

Dad didn’t reprimand him that time.

“Let’s just go through these files.” He finally decided. “Jean, get together all the F.A.N numbers from the back of those drawings. Brent, start throwing things in piles by person or facility or whatever.”

I snuck a chance at reading more of the manga as I scribbled down everything I found on a torn bill envelope Zeke passed over to me; it was Celia’s life story, pieced together by the files and clues connected to it. A girl who lost everything like so many others right here in New Marais before being found by a dragon and locked away in some cells carved into the side of a mountain. There was imagery of the child rabbit being torn in half as a being more sleek and pure colored rabbit, which I had to guess had to be her ‘death’ and rebirth, if the note on the back was anything to go by. In fact, I died there.

It never showed how she escaped, but the next page did show three others as they rushed away from the dozens of wyvern pursuing them — it took me longer than I’d admit to realize who they were. The next page spoke the representation clearly though; ‘Inazuma…vengeance now her drug of choice.’ The peahen was slaying shady looking shrews with needles slinging away from their hands.

Mom.

The next page featured a rooster named Ushinatta who had ‘went back to playing games’, the rooster opening its huge wings and calling down hens to peck at some bullies. That had to be Dr. Sims.

There was a third guy, though, that I realized I didn’t know.

Kemuri. Some sort of lizard…or maybe a gecko? “Who swore he’d never harm anyone” the page read as the gecko attacked a caravan driven by an elephant. There were three people that escaped that van, weren’t there? Mom, Dr. Sims…and someone else.

I lifted my head and was about to ask Dad when Brent said, “Here, this dude matches the drawing,” under his breath, handing me another DUP file. An incident report, in fact:

Despite our best efforts to isolate the detainees in as safe and thorough a manner as possible, two ward-mates developed a relationship that threatened to undermine the careful work being done with both: inmate 007-3171-8404 began looking out for 056-7339-2606, warding off any bullies and establishing a friendship. RESOLUTION: Inmate 007-3171-8404 was relocated to the maximum-security ward, due to his history of escape attempts and insurrection. Monitoring of inmate 056-7339-2606 has been increased ever since she used her daily paper privilege to create the attached image:

A full body drawing of the gecko was photo scanned with the DUP file, creased lines doing nothing to hinder the artwork.

My new friend was taken away today, the words under it read, It was my fault, I’m sure. I was just trying to be nice…just like he was nice to me. He told me I reminded him of his daughter. And now, just like my real parents— He’s gone.

“You got anything on this 8404 inmate?” I asked Brent. Dad was busy organizing a bunch of little tags, not even registering that we were talking.

Brent’s side of the floor looked way more organized than mine; perfect piles of paper with shredded clippings on top of each one, numbers or names scribbled on top. “Yeah, uh—” Brent’s eyes scanned the piles in front of him before he reached out, snatching the page away so fast that the clipping on top of it fluttered off somewhere. “Here. You plan on organizing the comic thing, by the way?”

“Fuck off,” I murmured, nearly laughing when Brent’s head snapped towards Dad as he waited for the reprimand, and balked when he saw it wasn’t coming. I stuck my tongue out at Brent before looking at the inmate file, trying to keep my snickering as quiet as possible.

Hank Daughtry. Apparently some guy that was a criminal before puberty, who’d rob or break out of jail every chance he got — but never harmed a civilian when he did. Curdun Cay was the first place to keep him in place. At least, till that military vehicle.

The power section, though, held all of the answers I needed; he could wield smoke. Embers and fire, too, if the paper was to be believed. I could hear the echoes of Dad’s voice in the back of my head: “She thought the guy I got smoke from told me about her plan — the breakout and DUP funding, all that.”

Betty had said Dad helped bring down her warehouse when he first got his powers. The first power. Smoke.

But that didn’t explain why Dad was so quiet about this guy. Why, before this moment, I had never heard of him. “Dad?” I asked.

He tore his eyes away from the newspaper clipping in his hands. “What’s up?”

“What happened to this Hank guy? You know, after Seattle?” I glanced down at the file again — there wasn’t even a picture of the inmate on this one. There was a wall of blacked out text at the bottom of the file, though. “Did he not help you guys?”

Behind Dad, Dr. Sims stopped typing, looking over to where we sat. Even Brent stopped to see what Dad was gonna say.

“He didn’t.” Dad said simply, jaw clenched. “It was just me, Eugene and your mom that took on Augustine.”

Brent blinked. “What, did he not want to?”

“I wouldn’t have let him if he did. He was a piece of shit, anyways.”

I glanced down at the inmate file; moral code, immense self discipline. Whatever issue Dad had with him sure didn’t seem to match the document. “What happened to him?” I asked.

“Does it matter?”

Dad’s voice bit with a ferocity that wasn’t usual from him unless we were in trouble. “I mean,” I scrambled to say, the tone activating the fear of getting grounded in me, “I guess not? I was just wonder—”

“Then there you go. It doesn’t matter.” Dad inhaled deeply before continuing, “If Daughtry’s files don’t have anything useful in them, then do me a favor.”

“What?”

“Throw them in the trash.” Dad said flatly, moving to get up. He left towards the kitchen where Zeke was messing with the discarded stuff from another ammo box, roughly grabbing the stale pot of coffee to pour a cup and drink it black in one go like it was a shot.

I looked over at Brent, bewildered, who was already turning back to face me with his eyebrows shot up so high they were close to disappearing into his unkempt hair. He mouthed What the fuck? at me and all I could do is shrug, taking the rest of the papers in Daughtry’s pile to look over. May as well double check them before they became landfill food.

Not that there was much left in his pile; There were three more pages with no more than three paragraphs on the largest one, each following reports of Daughtry possibly being seen somewhere in Seattle after he broke out blowing up cars in an attempt to assassinate that asshole senator who was caught years ago saying something about how Hitlers policies at least were keeping people safe in that leaked audiofile as he admitted to trying to replicate them for Conduits.

One of the bullet points on the results of the DUP’s investigation caught my eye, though: no residual signs of Ray Sphere radiation detected. Radiation? Why would there be radiation in the middle of downtown Seattle? “Does anyone know what ray — Ray Sphere radiation is?” I asked the room.

Over in the kitchen, Zeke’s head popped up, looking to Dad for a moment. Whatever he was trying to ask, Dad gave him permission with a shrug of his shoulders. “The Blast in Empire City was from a Ray Sphere.” Zeke began. He took a moment to dig in a box before pulling out one of those leather journals that always looked a little too light brown to be real, brass metal corners of the journal catching the light as Zeke flipped it open. “The First Sons made it.”

He began walking towards us with the journal as he flipped through pages, humming when he landed on what he wanted to show us. “Here. Journal’s useless in some spots ‘cause it’s written in code, but this is what the thing looked like.”

He flipped the journal over and held it out for me to take; the page was a sketch, one side full of components, the other what they all looked like pulled together into one device.

Brent snorted beside me when he scooted over to look at it, and I knew it was because we were thinking the same thing. “It’s shaped like a Death Star,” He said humorously, looking at me with an eyebrow raised.

“Just as powerful, too.” Zeke responded. “Thing blew up six blocks and killed thousands.”

That shut Brent up real fast.

“But I don’t—” I cut off, looking down at the drawing. The etchings beside each piece were all code, the only one highlighted being a jagged piece of rock. “Why would the DUP look for Ray Sphere radiation at an explosion site? Unless they thought someone was trying to take out Seattle.”

Dr. Sims moved off of the barstool, walking over. “May I?” he asked me, giving a nod of thanks when I handed the journal over. He perused the page and then looked at Zeke. “Where did you get this?”

“It was Wolfe’s,” Zeke answered.

That one word was enough to make Dad’s head snap up, and he turned around. “Raymond Wolfe?” He asked.

Zeke shook his head. “Sebastian, his brother.”

“Oh,” Dad said flatly. “The First Sons scientist. Great,”

Zeke shrugged, gracefully brushing off Dad’s disapproval. “Hey man, sometimes you have to be willing to drink the poison if it means you find out how it would kill someone. We used this to figure out how the RFI worked.”

Dr. Sims flipped through the next few pages, eyes lighting up. “I know this code,” he murmured, before looking up at Dad and Zeke and repeating the words. “I know this code — it was in one of the DUP files I stole. I could decode this journal,”

“Y’think it would have anything that would help us in it?” Dad asked.

Zeke looked over his shoulder. “Wolfe was the First Son’s top scientist. If there’s anyone that might have information, it would have been him.” Zeke shrugged. “I reckon it’s worth a shot.”

Dr. Sims snapped the journal shut, nodding. “I’ll move upstairs to the spare room, I’m going to need the space.” He said decisively. Each laptop was put in rest mode and shut, stored away at a speed I didn’t know what possible out of someone so lanky. “D, come get me if you all make any progress down here, okay?”

Dad looked at Zeke. “Do you still have the stuff from the runaround with Wolfe?”

Zeke turned to face Dad fully, watching Dr. Sims disappear up the stairs. “No, I gave it all to Alessia. She might still have it, if we’re lucky.”

Both Brent and my head shot up. “Wait, like, Aunt Sia?” I asked, looking at Dad.

Alessia was known to the world as the chairwoman of COLE and an old ringleader of Project Sanctuary, the nationwide underground anti-DUP movement. In those seven years the DUP had control and were hunting down Conduits to bag and tag, Alessia was trying to sneak Conduits over the border, stage protests, and…well, give the DUP a hard time. If it involved picketing or slashing tires, she was there, coordinating the attacks.

We didn’t know her as that woman for the longest time, though. To us, she was Aunt Sia; the woman who would watch us when Dad had to go take an exam while he was in school, or needed a break. A babysitter that cared so much about us. The cool lady who brought these fancy Japanese candies every time she’d come over and would take us to things like renaissance faires. I remember her teaching Dad how to braid my hair and making huge masterpieces out of legos with Brent, indulging me by declaring every little drawing I made a masterpiece. She had moved away six or seven years ago and we really only got to see her when there was some big COLE event near Portland.

But I was surprised to find out that she knew Dad as Delsin and not just Damion.

Dad’s eyes wandered off as he thought. “I…I could call her, see if she still has anything from then.” Eyes snapping back to Zeke, he added, “You’d have to show me how to make calls with your setup, though,”

“‘Course, it’s in my shed. C’mon, I’ll show ya,”

Zeke was heading towards the door with Dad hot on his heels, who only stopped in its frame to turn to Brent and I and say, “Take any notes on anything you don’t understand, okay? Maybe we’ll figure something out.”

He was gone before we responded.

“You think this was what he did the whole time?” Brent asked, looking at me and holding up the stack of files he hadn’t gone through yet. “Just reading files and shit?”

I shrugged. “Don’t know. Last I heard he was attacking innocent civilians and killing random passersby.”

Brent rolled his eyes. “How he dealt with all of this without killing someone, I’ll never understand.”

We worked in silence for a while, me taking the time to finish the story and begin to piece it to its pieces of evidence; Saisei had found a new friend, a bird with two heads, and it wasn’t hard to make the connection on who that was supposed to represent. He would tell her stories, and they would laugh for hours on end, the page said, largely contrasting the story Dad had told us. It had to be some sort of mockery thing; I send you running around, and you try to figure out why I’m a psycho. What a laugh!

But the dragon came down, disapproving of their banter. I fail to see the humor, it said, to which the two-headed representation of Dad replied look harder before beginning to fight her. The personification of Augustine. An epic battle of good and evil…but the roles were debatable the page read, like I was supposed to sympathize with Augustine as she fell to Dad’s talons.

I wasn’t ready to read the little bunny call Augustine’s character Mama.

“Look at this shit,” Brent murmured, handing me a page. It was an email log between two people. “Does this make sense to you?”

It made a lot of sense, too much sense, as I read the first message title: Purotekutā to me (“Saisei”).

I explained the comic to Brent as we reread the email chains together, the pieces of the truth falling in place. “Augustine asked her to stay in the shadows, that she can’t protect Celia.” I looked at Brent, bewildered. “D’you think she adopted Celia? Like, as her own kid?”

“Well she calls Augustine Mama in this thing—” he waved around the stack of stapled manga, “So I’m guessing so. Or whatever fucked up version of ‘family’ they were playing up there in Curdun Cay,”

“‘You have done everything I asked and more, but unless he can be controlled, Delsin is our enemy.’” I read from the email chain. “‘He is blinded by his power, he thinks he’s invincible. But without walls, without his brother, who will protect him?’”

Brent scoffed. “What a bitch. I should have killed her when we were fighting in the Sound.”

“Think that’s crazy, you should read the last entry on this thing.” I said, offering the paper with the email chain. “Celia messages Augustine saying something about needing to know whose purpose was stronger and that’s why she didn’t try to help her.”

Brent shrugged, taking it. “Raise a lunatic, and don’t be surprised when you’re eventually their victim.”

“Augustine really made everyone her pawn,” I hummed. “Mom, Dr. Sims, this chick. How much of it do you think was to protect Conduits?”

“Not enough, considering she lost.” Brent huffed.

#infamous second son #infamous #infamous erosion #delsin rowe #sucker punch productions #Eugene Sims #Fetch Walker #hehehehehehehehehe #Celia Penderghast #Brooke Augustine #Zeke Dunbar #God I wanna say the OC too but I know Gab's nosey ass reads tags first so I CAN'T #But heho #I forgot literally every other tag. pretend they're here.

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brf-rumortrackinganon · 7 months

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How do you know from whose PR articles are coming from? Can’t it be that the publications are just writing them themselves?

Recently, there have been articles about how Kate feels lonely without Meghan. It’s clickbait obviously. The article just talks about how they could’ve been like Diana and Sarah, but then continues to says that Kate has been successful in the rf because of her inner circle. Where do you think this is from?

Also, during the BAFTAs, William asked one of the nominees about her experience filming, saying they must have had fun. It was completely innocent and was said in a politely engaging in a casual conversation kind of way, but the Daily Mail spun it to look like a “gaffe” because the film was about a girl who was raped. I stumbled upon a sussex squaddie’s tiktok talking about it and although the account acknowledges it was a spin, he also says “William must have made some enemies” meaning there must be someone trying to make him look bad. Do you think that’s true? I thought maybe it’s just the dailymail stirring stuff to punish William for keeping himself and Kate away from public eye these days.

Honestly, this is the thing that drives me insane with royal watching. It causes paranoia. And most royal watchers begin to hate on certain royals just because they assume certain narratives are coming from that royal’s pr even though we have no proof.

You sound like you might be new to the analytical side of royal watching. That's okay!

The only reason I mention that is because if you've been a royal-watcher since before Meghan, you would have noticed a very distinct, very obvious shift in how the royals are covered and discussed in the media after Meghan came in (2016/2017). This happened because Meghan had her own PR, strategy, and comms people, Sunshine Sachs and Gina Nelthorpe-Crowne among them, promoting and marketing instead of relying on the BRF or just doing it herself personally as all the other royal girlfriends/married-ins did. And we know Meghan kept her LA team even after moving to London and getting married; it was confirmed in one of the royal books. I think it was Bower's Revenge.

How do you know from whose PR articles are coming from? Can’t it be that the publications are just writing them themselves?

It's in the details. Here are a few.

If the article is talking about apologies or olive branches, it's from the Sussexes. They're the only ones who've demanded apologies and olive branches, ever since the Oprah interview and including in Harry's Spare interviews.

If the article is discussing several members of the royal family but Meghan is listed first, it's her PR. If the article uses titles, it's from the BRF. If the article uses their first names but William and Kate are first, it's just the publication writing.

If the article is about Meghan and it's on a random topic (like that beauty article the other day about her magical hair) or it appears randomly (like when she otherwise hasn't been in the news), it's her PR. Publications aren't going to randomly write about someone unless there's cause, and cause is usually a pay incentive.

Now, People will also take stories from the BRF too, especially and mostly about Kate. Usually any long-form article about Kate that includes "close sources" or "palace insiders" quotes, it's from Kensington Palace/William's PR.

People and US tabloids also regurgitate stories from other media. If you see similar articles with near-identical quotes, that's their own writers, not usually sourced from someone's office.

Everyone also has preferred journalists that they give info to and will seek out for stories. For Meghan, it's Scobie (though she doesn't seem to be talking to her anymore, probably because she's pissed about the Dutch Endgame leaking the names) and Gayle King. For Harry, it's Bryony Gordon. For the BRF, it's usually one of the Richards, sometimes Rebecca English. For Camilla, it's Piers Morgan. (I track some of this in my Timeline series.)

If an article is about Charles and talks about a new idea or a new initiative, it's from his PR. We call them trial balloons - Charles is notorious for using the public reaction to these ideas to decide what to do.

If the piece is overly critical of Kate in comparison to Meghan, it's usually from Meghan's PR. If Meghan's name is listed first, then it's definitely from her PR. If it's bashing the Waleses children or criticizing Kate's parenting, it's from Meghan's side (though she's been very careful lately not to have her name directly connected to those stories).

If the piece is overly critical of the Waleses/Cambridges while simultaneously full of gushing praise for the Sussexes, it's usually Sussex PR.

I don't believe that William/KP briefs against the Sussexes anymore but back when they used to in late 2018/early 2019, you could tell when it was KP speaking versus the publications reporting - e.g., stories about concern for Harry's mental health were William and KP.

There are also key phrases that each principal royal like to use. Like you'll hear "keen" a lot with Kate - that's Kensington Palace speaking. "Olive branch" is Meghan.

There's also a very specific way that the writers refer to insiders/close sources, especially for William/Kensington Palace, but I'm totally blanking on that right now.

There are other ways to tell whose PR has sourced a story. These are just the ones off the top of my head. If anyone else can think of others, please share them!

Kate feeling lonely without Meghan is from Meghan-friendly associates. Meghan might be shit when it comes to public service, but she really knows her shit when it comes to PR and media. She knows that for maximum effect, she needs an affiliation to Kate. That's why she wears outfits similar to Kate's. That's why she styles her hair in big bouncy Chelsea blowouts. That's why she tries to be kid-friendly like Kate. She needs Kate for the attention she can't get on her own. Meghan needs Kate. Kate doesn't need Meghan - she's shown us that over and over again.

Anything that connects Meghan to Diana is also from Meghan. There was a whole PR campaign back in 2017/2018 when she was trying to convince Harry's world that she was royal material about how she was just like Diana. So Meghan (and Harry) also uses Diana for the attention boost.

However, anything that mentions Diana and Sarah together, that's not Meghan. Those are from the reporters themselves. Meghan so obsessively wants to be Diana that Sarah is the last person she wants to be associated with or compared to. Meghan thinks she's better than Sarah.

Kate being successful because of her inner circle is KP. Kate herself rarely speaks through PR - she's content to let William and their comms team speak for her. (Which I suspect is one of the reasons why Meghan immediately disliked her; Kate has no interest in using all this fame she has for her personal benefit where you know it's Meghan's dream to be that famous.)

Nah, it's just the Daily Mail stirring shit up. It goes back to the old adage "if you won't give me the news, you'll be the news." It's not really punishing William so much as using William for clicks, attention, and traffic, which is how digital media makes their money. Everyone does it and everyone understands that to keep their media coverage positive, they need to give the reporters something to write about. It's an unofficial pact that the palace has with the media.

William and Kate do understand this but it's not their priority to do something just for the optics and media coverage. I suspect this approach largely comes from how they were both treated by the media and paparazzi - they both understand that the interest in them is organic due to their positions. It's very 'if you build it they will come' so they don't necessarily worry about media and press coverage the way others in the BRF might.

(I do think they're a little too extreme with how media-averse they are. On the one hand I understand it because maybe they do have legitimate PTSD from how they were treated by the media and they seem to be closer to the Elizabeth/Philip style of monarchy with royal mystique and palace intrigue than the Charles/Diana/Camilla style of royalty and monarchy with transparency and open coverage. But on the other hand, they're public servants living in publicly-funded and publicly-subsidized estates; they need to be pulling their share of the weight and that means needing to be seen by the public on a regular consistent basis doing regular, consistent service. This is a lifetime commitment, not a "in 20 years when I'm King" commitment. Obviously exceptions apply when there are health concerns at hand, like there are now, but they can't alawys lean back on health concerns - not when Charles has cancer and is still seen regularly by the public.)

And that's fine! I don't think it's paranoia though - it's more stan culture to me, where the more consumed you are by your favorites, the more obsessive you become about how they're treated by others and covered in the media. At the end of the day, it's all parasocial relationships. The celebrities we favor, pay attention to, follow - they have no idea we exist and they have no idea how consumed by their life we are. Collectively, sure, they get it but individually? No. They have better things to do and they think we have better things to do.

That's why I think it's healthy to take a few steps back, look at everything more objectively, and ask exactly the kind of questions that you're asking.

As for not having proof about certain narratives, to an extent you're correct - no one is going to explicitly come out and take responsibility for saying certain things or causing certain drama. But they have subtle ways of showing their hand and giving us the proof. You just have to know what to look for and, barring that, just wait for the royal books. The books fall on a spectrum with deeply researched and investigated (like Tom Bower) on one side and biased reporting (like Scobie) on the other. If you read more of the 'biased reporter' books, those authors are falling over themselves to defend their sources and when they do that, they throw everyone else under the bus and end up confirming rumors or spoiling someone's PR game.

#ask #brf #in this essay i will

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apoptoses · 2 years

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tell us more about this niche stuff on your brain bestie <3

how dare you act like my first grade teacher dragging me into confession on my own blog

putting these behind a cut for explicit content, only click if you want to know too much about me lol (also these are things i want to write, if anyone is inspired that's awesome but please don't lift the concepts word for word or anything)

-I really want Daniel to be like, washing the dishes or something and he fumbles a glass and cuts his hand horrendously. And he's bleeding everywhere and tells Armand to just put the blood on it and heal it already. But Armand doesn't. He gets the sewing kit out and sits Daniel down and makes him experience the erotic agony of having the cut sewn up with perfect stitches, and Armand licking up the blood that ran down his arm. And then while he's all confused and turned on Armand gets him off (and is mean and keeps pressing on the cut and making it bleed in the process). Then when Daniel comes he finally heals the cut and takes the stitches out.

-Armand gets a hold of a speculum. The metal kind that's cold and intimidating. It's not even hot and sexy doctor roleplay, it's all extremely weird and clinical but goddamn if Daniel doesn't get off on it. (maybe this takes place in actual doctor's office with the bed with stirrups and everything, armand is shameless about breaking into places, i haven't decided yet)

-Armand being a creep and demanding to hold Daniel's dick when he pees, and gradually escalating that in various locations until he manages to do it to Daniel in the bathroom of a bar

-The thing in call me by your name that I told you about, where Oliver puts his fingers down Elio's throat when he's drunk? Yeah, Armand has to do that to Daniel before I die. I don't care if I'm the only one gross enough to be into it, it's just gotta happen.

-That other thing I told you about where if you nail someone's prostate at the right angle it pushes against their bladder and the urge to go is intense and hard to control? Yeah, Armand needs to exploit that on Daniel too. It's his choice, let it happen or don't come at all, and the clock is ticking here.

-Armand wants to go to a bath house. Naturally, Daniel getting bent over and offered to strangers for free use ensues while Armand sits there in his towel and pets his hair.

ha ha I could go on but these are the best of the worst, if anyone is into any of these pls let me know in the comments and encourage me and they'll get written sooner rather than later ♥

#apoptoses answers

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lover-of-mine · 3 months

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Your blog today has been so eye-opening. I have not been aware of half of what has happened because the block button was my friend when the other side got so nasty. I'm still not holding my breath he's gone. But when you bring up what makes Oliver and Ryan comfortable. It's not so far-fetched to believe that now we know they hang out here they see and read us. And if they saw LFJ cameos creating the personal attacks on Ryan and the distortion of Oliver's storyline. Well, yeah. I can see why LFJ seemed so tense in those BTS shots where he sat there pouting after he spoiled the medal ceremony. Did he get a talking, too? He seemed loathe to engage with the cast. Maybe he thought building up a fandom would secure him space, and instead, he caused chaos. Because it's definitely his fans causing the trouble. None of us went to send hate on the pride post because we aren't that mean. I guarantee their side won't be kind when they post a Buddie IG soon.

Anyways... I guess now I'm looking at it more clear eyed. If Ryan, Oliver and Tim saw this going down I could see them pulling the plug. Especially if the other side tries to turn Gerrard into a Tommy centric story.

Okay, look, Oliver or Ryan alone do not have the type of pull necessary to force Lou to shut down the cameo. Someone talking to Lou after he spoiled the medal thing? Possible. Someone talking to him because every controversy in the fandom lately has his name in the middle and people keep using stuff he said to back them up, including harassing cast members? Extremely possible. Because here's the thing, a controlled ship war is good for business. If it wasn't triangles wouldn't be so popular. The thing here is when one side is getting fuel from an actor who's getting paid to say stuff that goes against the actual promotional stuff they are putting out. Oliver and Ryan may talk a lot about Buck and Eddie's relationship, but they never gave specific and detailed storylines that don't align with show. The cameos add a layer of complications that no one wants to deal with, because it's leading to cast/production members being harassed for not following up on shit they never promised. It's one thing when fandom chaos is just fans being chaotic. When the justification all start looking like "oh but so and so said that in this video" you have a marketing problem in your hands. I guarantee you that even if Lou wasn't told to shut down, he saw the light and shut it down on his own, abc pr people are looking into just adding stuff to everyone's contract to stop all of their actors from doing the type of cameo he was doing anyway because that creates a pr aspect they cannot control. So they stop having control of their own narrative. No one officially promised more Tommy. In fact most of the interviews we saw during 705/06 had them talking about how they were not sure if he was gonna come back because they were still filming, and didn't have all the scripts. The one interview with Lou and Oliver barely talks about them. But then Lou comes out in full gear talking about bt thriving it created an expectation that people are demanding while citing someone linked to the show. And even though he has no creative power, he's the face the audience knows. Most people don't know Tim's face. Why would people take him seriously when the guy they are seeing on screen is saying something else? Obviously, they're gonna try to get control of that back, and getting there talk would explain why he doesn't have the level of "goofy" moments with the cast in the bts stuff.

I do believe that if when promo starts, people start actively attacking Oliver and Ryan if they choose to use both of them together to promote the season, focusing on their comfort is more likely than ignoring it and hoping people will forget about it. Buck and Eddie are the main characters and I've never seen the show do shit that implies they want their cast to be uncomfortable.

And I don't blame Lou for the cameos, like, that's smart as hell. He upped his exposure, the character acceptance, forced himself into another season. I applaud him for using his tools for his gain, it's a business. No one told him not to do it beforehand and he went for it. There's a lot of shit going on using that as fuel, but no one could've predicted the CHAOS this ship would bring. This fandom has been a monoshipper fandom forever. It was buddie or die. I don't think anyone involved expected people to flip. So they don't know how to handle it. In the end, I guess we have to wait for the season to evolve.

#i do believe that if he keeps getting used for attacks on the show people Tommy's stay might end up being cut shirt #but we'll have to see #911 #i really need a tag for asks #anon 😌#spy network

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dove00 · 7 months

Text

Born To Run

Hi!! This is inspired by a post by @miadeardn ! Basically, Spider-Verse AU with the flash family. I own nothing DC and Spider-Verse owns. Warning: non graphic death and fights. Please let me know if more tags need to be added. Stay safe and enjoy!

“Wallace! You better be ready!” Ace winced as he was most certainly not ready.

“Coming, Aunt Iris!” He called back.

He ran to get ready and tried to not have a grumpy face. Avery always teased him because of it.

Today was the day he was visiting his aunt’s boyfriend at his job. Something about an olive branch. Yeah, sure.

Wallace smiled and denied the offer for a ride. He’s fine taking his bike.

Finally making it to CCPD, he made his way (with some trouble) to Barry’s office.

The weather decided to match his mood because it started raining hard.

Great. Now he needs to ride home with Barry…which was probably his aunt’s plan. Wallace almost wants to ride his bike in the rain just out of spite but he pushes those thoughts from his mind.

“Hey.” He called out to Barry, who closed his laptop quickly.

Wallace tried not to let it bother him. Really.

“Hey!” Barry exclaimed then winced at how loud that sounded. “Hey. How’s it going?” Barry checked his watch. “Ah. It’s 12. Right. I’ll grab my stuff and we can head to lunch and then I can show you around. There’s this great place down the street—“

“It’s raining.” Wallace pointed out.

Barry paused then turned to the window as if he was shocked to see rain. “Oh.”

“Yeah. Oh. It’s fine. I ate before I came here.”

Barry smiled but his eyes were still on the window.

Great.

Wallace walked to the window as thunder rolled. Barry put a hand on Wallace’s shoulder.

“There’s something you should know.”

“If you’re cheating on my aunt, I’m—“

“I’m not!” Barry exclaimed and then became more quiet and moved his hand away. He walked away to stand by the desk, leaving Wallace alone at the window. “I’m not. Wallace, I’m—“

Wallace didn’t get to know what he said next because a bolt of lightning struck the glass and hit Wallace in the chest, sending him flying back into a rack of chemicals.

Wallace woke up. He felt like he was out for ten minutes and thirty years at the same time.

“Hey. Good to see you’re awake.” Barry said.

“This is somehow your fault.” Wallace groaned. He and Barry were at Terrific Tech if any of the lab coats were anything to go by.

“Not entirely untrue, I’m afraid. I was trying to get faster to stop someone and it seems—“

“Faster? Stop someone? Dude, you’re a Crime Scene Investigator! Who are you going to…” Wallace trailed off. No way. “You’re…”

“I’m Flash, Wallace. I have superspeed and it seems so do you.”

“…what?!”

Mr. Terrific made his appearance that moment. “For someone who took a bolt of lightning to the chest and fell onto chemicals, you healed really fast.” He joked. Wallace didn’t laugh but Barry did.

“Does aunt Iris know?” Wallace demanded.

“Don’t be mad at her but yes. I waited to tell her longer than I should’ve but she knows.”

Wallace sat.

Barry moved to do…something when his phone rang. He frowned a bit and answered it.

“This is Flash—“ Before Barry could get the whole sentence out, the other person quickly spoke.

“It’s Grodd. He’s doing it.” Those last three words had Barry’s eyes widening.

“I’ll be right there.” He hung up. “Stay here.” He said to Wallace and then turned to Terrific. “Let’s go.”

They were gone in a flash.

Wallace waited a whole five minutes before he decided he’s not going to wait on the sidelines for answers. He’s getting them now.

Wallace doesn’t know where Grodd is doing evil stuff but he pulls out his phone and opens social media.

A gorilla attack in downtown Central City by The Flash Museum according to multiple users.

Wallace gets up and falls on his face.

Okay. So. He probably should get his balance. He was unconscious for a while.

Wallace gets up and he means to run to grab his bike that he hopes isn’t still at the station but instead he makes it across the hallway in a second.

Oh.

Guess Barry wasn’t joking.

Wallace looked down to make sure his clothes weren’t burned off and was surprised to see him in some sort of costume that felt stronger than regular clothes.

Okay. Downtown Central City. Flash Museum.

Answers.

Wallace runs and he is grateful he knows the city so well on bicycle that he makes it to The Flash Museum in under 10 minutes.

He stops on the way to grab a party mask. He paid for it but he wished they had something other than a purple masquerade one. It is not his favorite color.

Wallace stops at the museum’s steps and thinks of what to do. His thoughts are interrupted when Barry comes flying out of the doors and hits the ground hard.

Barry looks up to see him and his eyes widen. He grabs Wallace and runs him about 400 feet away. He looks like he wants to run further but his lack of calories won’t let him. He crouched behind a large piece of concrete and drags Wallace down.

Grodd, a giant gorilla, came out of the museum laughing. “You think you can stop me?”

“Stay here.”

Wallace grabbed his arm. “Are you crazy? He’ll kill you.”

“The league is working to make sure his device doesn’t work and I’m keeping him busy.”

“Flash!” Grodd called. “Where are you, coward?!”

“Stay here and please, Wallace, listen to me this time.”

He’s gone before Wallace can say anything.

“Looking for me, buddy?” Barry sounds out of breath but he still says it.

Wallace chances a glance on the side of the concrete.

Barry is losing.

Grodd hit him again and again. Barry falls down.

Wallace makes a move to do something but Barry shakes his head a bit.

“Even now you think of your love.” Grodd taunted. “You hope someone will be there for her—whoever she is.”

Aunt Iris. He has to be there for aunt Iris.

Wallace stops moving.

“Goodbye Flash. You can rest knowing you were a worthy adversary.”

One final hit—

Barry is gone before Wally can do anything.

__________________

The funeral for The Flash was filled with people and quiet.

Nobody said much on the televised ceremony.

The funeral for Barry Allen was not as full of people but full of stories.

Avery came to pay respects and check on Wallace but he was more worried about his aunt Iris.

Wallace wants to tell her that Barry’s last thoughts were of her but he doesn’t know if that would help much.

Avery put a hand on Wallace’s shoulder. “I’m so sorry.”

“I was there.”

“What?”

He realized he didn’t want to keep this from Avery.

“I need to tell you something.”

After he was done, she looked at him like he grew two heads.

“It’s the truth.” He shrugged.

“I didn’t know you were like me.”

“Like you?”

She nodded.

Wallace tried not to feel hurt. “You’re a speedster?”

“Shh. You don’t know who’s listening. Yeah. I got hit by lightning and Barry…he was helping me.”

“Oh. So he’s fine with you in the field.“

“Hey, no. No. He didn’t want me to be in the field. I—“

“Where were you? If you had speed, you could’ve helped.”

“Wallace.”

“No! I’m sick of everyone lying to me and leaving me in the dark! You, Barry, aunt Iris. I’m sick of it!”

Wallace felt the lightning under his fingertips and he ran in the other direction.

He is back at The Flash Museum looking at all the damage when he realized he had run across the city.

He sits down on the ground in front of the statue of The Flash.

“I’m sorry.” Wallace whispered. He doesn’t know what he’s apologizing for—leaving the lab, blowing up at Avery, being at that window when Barry was supposed to get faster.

Maybe for all of it.

He put his head in his hands when he heard someone call out, “Hey. What’s wrong?”

Wallace whipped around and got up lightning fast. He put up his fists.

The person looked incredibly unimpressed.

She’s wearing all white with gold lightning bolts.

Great. Another person Barry trusted before Wallace.

“Who are you?”

“Lightspeed and I’m not from this universe.”

Wallace started to get dizzy.

“You didn’t eat yet today, did you?”

Wallace opened his mouth to answer and he stumbled a bit.

Lightspeed swore a bit and disappeared. In a few seconds, she was back with some food.

“Sit down.” She ordered. Wallace did.

They began to eat in silence.

“You’re from another universe? Like that Jay Garrick comic Barry was obsessed with as a kid?”

“No idea who either of those people are.” Lightspeed shrugged. “A portal opened and I had nothing better to do than jump in it.”

Wallace gave her a look. “You fell through it by accident.”

Lightspeed looked away. “Yup.” She looked back at Wallace. “So, what do I call you?”

“Me?”

“Yeah. You’re a speedster, aren’t you?” She looked at the statue. “Are you the next Flash?”

“No!” He exclaimed then quieted down.

“I didn’t mean to offend.” Lightspeed offered.

“I know. It’s fine. I don’t want that.”

“You can call me Ace.”

“Ace?”

“Nickname. I don’t want to give my name.”

“Right. Of course. Sorry Wallace.”

“What?! How?!”

“I know your doppelgänger on my Earth.” She explained.

“Wait. I just realized. How do I know you’re telling the truth?”

Lightspeed thought for a moment that didn’t last long. She stood up and took the trash. Then she was back and offered a hand to Wallace.

“Let me show you.”

This is such a bad idea. This is such a bad idea. This is such a bad idea.

He took her hand and they both ran.

They went to look at a fancy looking house.

“Whose house is this?” Wallace asked.

“My doppelgänger’s house.”

They watched as a person who looks a lot like Lightspeed without the mask argued with a man.

“I’ve been watching them for a while. Ever since I fell here.”

“When did you fall here?”

She looked at him. “Two weeks ago.”

“Who’s he?”

Lightspeed looked away. “Her husband. Rick.”

“Alright. Unless you’re a twin, you’re not from this Earth.” Wallace admitted.

“Only child.” Lightspeed promised.

“We should head back.”

There was a sound and air moving.

“Oh, boy.” Lightspeed said, sounding tired. “Someone has been following me for a while now.”

Wallace was immediately on alert. “Who?”

“No idea. Let’s go.”

They ran back to The Flash Museum to see Avery in all purple with a lightning bolt.

“A friend of yours?” Lightspeed wondered.

“Best friend.” He said then turned to Avery. “What’s going on?”

“I told your aunt that you needed some time.”

“Thanks.”

Silence. Wallace knew it wasn’t comfortable like it usually is with Avery.

“Sorry.” They said at the same time and then laughed.

“Have you been following Lightspeed?” Wallace asked.

Both said no.

“The one that’s following me is someone different—someone who’s familiar.” Lightspeed admitted.

“Let’s go somewhere more private.” Avery suggested.

They all ran, just missing someone watching from the shadows.

Aunt Iris immediately checked on all of them when they came back to the house.

“We need to stop Grodd.” Wallace said.

Everyone paused and then looked at him.

“The Justice League is handling it.”

“Like they handled whatever he was planning? My bet is that is what opened the portal.”

“I doubt it. If it was just me that came through the portal, then—“

“That’s a pretty big if.”

Lightspeed opened her mouth when the doorbell rang.

Everyone stood, immediately on alert.

Aunt Iris pushed through all of them and checked the door. She gasped and opened it to show a girl who looked to be around 13. She has red hair, green and brown eyes, and a determined expression. She’s holding up a boy with black hair and brown eyes who is leaning on her.

“Hi aunt Iris! Have you seen our parents?”

______________

To say everyone was shocked would be the understatement of the year.

Aunt Iris shook out of it the fastest and led the girl and boy into the house.

The girl brought the boy to the couch for him to heal up. Aunt Iris didn’t even seem to mind the boy was bleeding a little on her couch.

She told Wallace to get the first aid kid but Wallace couldn’t move. They called her aunt Iris. That shouldn’t be possible.

“Wallace.” Aunt Iris said and that got him moving but then the boy’s injury healed immediately.

“What the—“ Lightspeed started but then looked at the girl and stopped.

The girl didn’t seem to mind and laughed. “You’re funny, mom.”

Everyone paused and Lightspeed’s eyes widened. “It was you that had been following me.”

The girl nodded.

“I’m Irey. Dad always said I have to be careful who I share that with but you’re family, so it’s fine.”

“Dad?” Lightspeed echoed.

The girl—Irey’s face fell a little. “He, um. He died when we were 9.”

Aunt Iris put a hand on Irey’s shoulder.

“I’m okay, aunt Iris. But Jai and I need to—“

“Jai?” Wallace said. “Like Jay Garrick?”

Irey nodded. “Dad and Mom named me after his aunt and Jai after Poppy.”

Wait.

Before Wallace can fully freak out, Jai says something from the couch, “Grodd.”

The room goes silent once again. Wallace is getting tired of the silence.

“How does he know that name?” He demands.

“We have a Grodd on our earth. He’s a bad guy.” Irey answered.

“Why is he thinking about Grodd right now?”

Irey bit her lip. “Uh.”

“Who injured him?” Wallace pushed.

“Wallace.” Aunt Iris said.

“I just want answers.”

Wallace didn’t mean to step forward but he feels so lost and confused and maybe if he gets answers, the feelings will go away.

Irey stepped in a way that blocked Jai from him.

Wallace took a step back, surprised and ashamed. He wasn’t going to hurt anyone, especially not a kid who is barely conscious.

“This was a mistake.” Irey said and moved to grab Jai.

“Wait.” Avery said.

Irey ignores her and tries to pick up her brother.

“Irey. Hang on a second.” Aunt Iris tries.

Wallace says nothing.

Lightspeed went beside Irey and went to the girl’s eye level.

Irey didn’t meet her eyes but Lightspeed spoke nonetheless.

“My name is Linda Park and I know you’re probably really strong but I think you need a little help.”

Irey frowns. Clearly, like Barry, she doesn’t love asking for help.

Like Wallace.

“Think of it like this.” Lightspeed, Linda, starts. “How far do you think you’d get with him like this?”

“He’s healing.” Irey said almost immediately but she stopped moving.

“I understand that. Wallace is just as confused as you are.”

Irey turned to Wallace, who offered her a small smile.

Irey said and did nothing for a long moment and then she smiled back.

“On our earth, Grodd was talking to someone from another universe. A different version of himself. We fought him as a portal opened. I ran through it with Jai.”

“That was dangerous.” Aunt Iris said.

“Yeah, you’d probably say that on our earth, too, but they don’t call me Impulse for nothing.”

“Impulse?” Avery wondered.

“My other name. He’s Surge.” She pointed to Jai, who started to sit up.

“Worst headache ever.” He complained.

The oven beeped. Aunt Iris moved towards the kitchen. “That’s dinner. Good thing I made a lot.” She said the last bit quietly.

Wallace followed her to the kitchen. “How long did you know Barry was Flash?” He asked as she pulled the food out.

Aunt Iris sighed tiredly. “A month after we started dating. He told me two months in.” She had a sad smile. “He always had to disappear and I noticed. I am a reporter, after all. We notice the small things.”

“And you never said anything.”

“I knew he would tell me when he was ready.”

Aunt Iris put a hand on his shoulder. “I’m proud of you.”

Wallace frowned. “There’s nothing to be proud of. If I wasn’t at that window—“

“You were trying to connect. You wanted to help Barry when he fought Grodd. You’re helping all those people in the living room. You know, sometimes Barry didn’t like his powers—he was always worried of hurting someone. I knew he wouldn’t. He’s too good. You’re good. It’s good that you were at that window. It may not always seem like it but it is true.”

Wallace felt tears come. “I’m sorry.”

“You have nothing to be sorry for.” She promised.

They hugged.

Aunt Iris pulled back and wiped a few tears away. “Okay, let’s go eat some food.”

“What about after that?”

“After that, I have a surprise.”

The food was delicious and everyone was silent as they ate. For once in a long time, it wasn’t an awkward silence.

“It’s getting late.” Aunt Iris said after they rest a bit and put all the dishes in the dishwasher.

Jai and Irey looked up and at each other.

Jai said, “We don’t have a bedtime on our earth.”

Irey nodded. “We’re 13 ½ so yeah…”

They’re both terrible liars.

“Nice try.” Linda said.

“You’re on this earth so you’re going to bed.” Aunt Iris said.

Wallace snorted. It’s been a while since he was their age and had a set bedtime.

“Wallace.” She said while not looking away from the twins.

“Oops.”

Avery snorted which made her laugh harder.

Jai and Irey said Goodnight to everyone and Wallace took them to the only guest room.

Irey fell into bed and immediately fell asleep, obviously tired from the fight with Grodd, the trip, and dinner. Jai stood still.

“Hey, man. What’s wrong?”

“What if…What if we fail? What if we can’t get home? What if we’re trapped here? What if—“

Wallace went to Jai’s eye level. “None of that. We’re gonna win. Do you know why?” He asked. Jai shook his head. “This earth’s flash had a saying: We’re running together.”

Jai smiled. “Uncle Barry said the same.”

Wallace wanted to ask more but Jai looked more tired. “Head to bed. We’ll talk more tomorrow.”

Jai nodded.

Wallace left the room and saw aunt Iris walking up the stairs. “So. What’s the surprise?”

She took him to the attic. “When I first heard what happened, I knew you would want to help. It’s just who you are. You can’t go around wearing Terrific Tech and a party mask all the time. So…”

She pulled off a red sheet to reveal a case. In the case was a silver top and black pants suit with a red lightning bolt in the middle.

“I couldn’t come up with a name for a long time. How do you feel?”

Aunt Iris turned and Wallace put the suit on.

It fit perfectly. Wallace looked at her. She smiled. “We’ll have to think of a name.” He said.

Aunt Iris nodded. “Go to bed.”

“Aw, man.”

The next day, Wallace woke up to someone falling on his bedroom floor.

He was immediately awake and putting his hands up.

“Woah, man. That was a really bad fall.” The guy wasn’t even looking at Wallace.

“Uh, hey.” Wallace said.

The guy turned and he looked just like aunt Iris and Barry, which is insane and Wallace doesn’t think his brain can handle anymore.

“Hey, Wallace, I’m Bart. Your doppelgänger says hello.”

Wallace stared at him.

Bart shrugged. “Anyway, we have to stop Grodd before he takes over the multiverse, so if you can stop staring and start moving, that would be great.”

Wallace was shocked into moving when he heard a yell outside and they both walked out of his room.

“Uh, aunt Iris.” Irey called. “I think Grodd opened the portal again.”

Irey and Jai walk out of the guest room with a woman with dark hair and eyes.

Linda and aunt Iris are talking to an older man with a red shirt, blue pants, and a helmet and a man beside him in white and blue.

There’s a blonde woman and a person with silver hair talking to a woman with black hair, brown eyes, and a purple shirt and a man in green.

“I think we need some introductions.”

They introduced themselves over breakfast. The woman who fell into the guest room is Meena Dhawan, Jay Garrick is the man with the helmet and Max Mercury was beside him, and the blonde is Jesse Chambers, the silver haired person is Jess Chambers, and the people they were talking to are Jenni Ognats and Jules Jourdain.

“You’re Impulse, too?” Irey asked, looking excited. “Cool!”

Bart chuckled. “Yup.”

“Looks like we got a lot of help to stop Grodd.” Avery said.

_____

Jay told them that it was his earth that the versions of Grodds were meeting but they can only meet for a small amount of time.

“Why?” Linda wondered.

“It’s why I think the portal only brought us. The Speed Force. Think of it as the force that gives us our powers. If Grodd wants to be here for longer periods, they need the Speed Force to do it.” Max answered.

“How do we find the portal?” Jesse asked.

Avery answered, “I think I know someone who can help.”

Hartley Rathaway looked less surprised to see this many speedsters and more amused.

“Hello.”

“Hey.” Avery greeted him. “Your rats go everywhere. Do they know where Grodd is?”

“Now that you mention it.” Hartley played a note on his flute, calling some rats. He picked up one. “This one is a new one and he talks.”

“Cool!” Jai said.

“Yeah, until it’s 3 in the morning.”

“I’m from a universe of talking rats. I like to see the world—“

“That’s nice. These people do need to know what you know. You won’t answer me.”

The rat looked at all the speedsters and answered immediately, “Gorilla City.”

“What?” Wallace said.

“No, he’s right.” Aunt Iris said from the communication device she had them wear. “I’m seeing on camera Grodd going through a boom tube.”

Wallace looked around.

Aunt Iris continued. “Tech that can take you to different places. It probably doesn’t work for what he’s planning.”

The rat spoke up. “He needs speed.”

“We gotta go.”

“I know where it is.” Avery said. She turned to Hartley. “Thanks.”

They all ran.

Getting to the city was easy. Grodd broke down the barrier.

“Stay on communication devices.” Aunt Iris said.

Avery nodded. “Jai, Irey, get the civilians to safety. Jess, Jules, find a way to turn the barrier back on. Grodd—any version—doesn’t leave here without us. Once you’re done, come help the rest of us.” They all heard yells. “Grodd has an army but he needs at least one of us alive. Hit them when you can, find Grodd and the portal, and don’t get caught. Everyone good.” They all nodded. “Let’s run.”

Everyone set off to do their jobs and Wallace ran, taking down a lot of Grodd’s soldiers. He found a room with a man inside a cell.

The man’s eyes widened. “You need to get to safety.” He said. There was a power stopper around his neck. Scars and bruises littered his face and body that wasn’t covered by a shirt and pants.

“No way. I’m not leaving you here.” Wallace tried to phase but he couldn’t. He hadn’t been able to get that one yet. Okay. Old fashion way. “What’s your name?”

“You look like someone I know.”

“Cool.” Wallace noticed the hesitation to give a name. “I’m not going to hurt you. I just want to help.”

“I’m Wally. Wally West.”

Wallace paused for half a second and then resumed. “Nice to meet you. I’m Wallace.”

Wally’s eyes told him that the older man knew.

An explosion shook the building. Footsteps came. Wallace didn’t have the door unlocked yet. In his defense, he’s never done this before.

“You need to go.”

Yelling.

Wallace looked out the window to see a barrier surrounding the city.

The door flew open revealing Grodd throwing Linda into the room.

She got back up and raced at him.

Wally was up so fast you’d think his speed was there. “Wallace. Listen to me. You have to phase.”

“I…can’t.” Wallace admitted.

“I used to not be able to either but you can do it. Just imagine your molecules are vibrating.”

“What?”

Grodd threw Linda again.

Wally shook. “Please. Wallace. Please.”

Wallace closed his eyes and tried again as Linda began to lose the fight.

No.

He won’t lose another person to Grodd.

The glass broke and with it, the collar fell from Wally’s neck as Grodd threw Linda in their air.

Wallace blinked and suddenly Wally was running so fast he jumped off the wall and went into the air, using momentum. He caught Linda and brought her down safely.

For a moment, they were staring at each other but Grodd was still frozen. Wallace got the idea their mouths were moving but nothing else.

Soon, time started again.

Both Linda and Wally were on their feet. Wallace was ready. He raced cuffs onto Grodd and knocked him down.

Grodd laughed. “You’ve stopped me from leaving but you haven’t stopped me from using one of you and killing the rest.”

More of his soldiers came into the room with guns pointed.

They all raised their hands but Wallace saw Linda smile at him and touch her communication device.

“I think we need a bit of impulsivity.” She said calmly.

Nothing happened and then the building shook.

“Sir?” One of the soldiers called anxiously.

“Shoot them!” Grodd ordered. “We can use one of the others.”

“Get away from the center of the room.” Bart’s voice said from the device.

They all ran in different directions, all moving away from the center of the room.

Jesse and Jai burst through the floor and clap their hands at Grodd and his army, sending them flying back. Irey and Bart came in with a gorilla.

“Long story.” Irey said. “That’s Solar. He’s got it from here—“

She stopped when she saw Wally.

“Jai.” She called.

The boy came over and his eyes widened.

“Dad?”

“Are we from the same universe?” Irey wondered. “Because if we’re not, you should tell us now and—“

“It’s me.” Wally said simply.

They rushed and hugged him.

“No! No! No!” Grodd said. “I killed The Flash.”

All the other speedsters came.

Wallace said, “No, you killed a Flash and you’re going to go away for that but don’t ever forget that we are running together.”

_____

“I think you should be the next Flash.” Wallace told Avery once they made it back to Central City.

Avery paused. “What about you?”

“I told Linda the truth. I don’t want it. You stepped up. Like I said, you won’t be the only flash but you should be a flash.”

Avery hugged him. “I love you.”

“Love you, too.” He hugged her back.

Sending everyone home was certainly a time. Jay, Jesse, and Max made a new portal by lunch. Jai and Irey said goodbye to everyone and went through the portal with Wally first. They had a lot of catching up to do, especially with their mom. Before they went, he hugged Wallace.

Soon, it was just Linda. Aunt Iris and Avery gave them space after saying their own goodbyes.

“You think of a name, yet?”

“Yeah. Burst.”

“I like it.” Linda smiled. “Are you guys going to be alright?”

“Yeah. Are you?”

She looked at the portal. “I talked to that Earth’s Wally. I told him I met my Earth’s Wally, but I didn’t think anything would come of it. I was scared, I think. I don’t want to feel pressured just because we’re together in another universe…but the idea of never seeing him again…”

Wallace smiled. “I think you know what you have to do.”

Linda wiped a tear away. “I told my doppelgänger to not give up on love before I came back to the house.”

Wallace’s eyes widened. “What did she say?”

“Oh, she screamed but she also is starting to look after her mental health starting with a divorce.”

“That’s good.” Wallace said.

Linda cracked a smile. “Stay safe, Wallace.”

“You, too, Linda.” She ran through the portal and Avery turned it off.

“Is anyone else super hungry?” She asked and they all laughed and went inside.

______

Eventually, everything went back to normal.

Avery was accepted by the Justice League as Flash even if people still sometimes suck about it.

Aunt Iris won a Pulitzer for reporting on the Grodd event.

Everyone from their trip made it home safely and Wallace even has the communication device that Max fixed to work with the Speed Force to talk to everyone.

Even Hartley changed sides fully, beyond just helping from time to time with Avery and Wallace’s help. Mostly because he wants to change.

As for Wallace, he’s been going out as Burst and fighting all sorts of rogues.

He visits Barry’s grave more than the flash memorial with a promise.

He’s never running alone.

#dc comics #the flash #flash family #wallace west #avery ho #iris west #iris west allen #linda park #others appear #but don’t want to crowd their tags #gorilla grodd

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