Tumgik
#but people were making it out to be the most disturbing and gruesome thing ever
matan4il · 2 years
Note
I'm sorry but I'm totally laughing at Eddie's confused, shy "Did you"???
It makes Canon something I have long thought. These dudes keep their dating life separated and sexual talks. It's almost like that "They aren't my type ", "Not mine, anymore ", was a subconscious pledge to each other.
Like Buck and Eddie are 15s out of 10s. Have hero type jobs. Yet they never go to clubs to wing man with each other.
By comparison Hens inquiry into him not using his hand was handled more comfortably then Eddie's clearly we never speak of these things.
And isn't that just such a slow burn romantic trope. The awkwardness between 2 people circling each other for awhile not wanting to acknowledge the others relationships. The physical/sexual aspect of each other. Being a little uncomfortable about it.
Hi Nonnie, thank you for the lovely ask!
I mean, yes! We’ve seen it even since s2, they only talk about their romantic life when they absolutely have to. Eddie had been sleeping with Shannon for almost two months before she shows up at his place of work in 210 and makes him wish the ground opened up and swallowed him whole, which is when he feels compelled to explain himself. But not to bot of his colleagues who were there and heard his wife, only to Buck. And interestingly, Buck pretends with him at that point. We know from his talk with Chim he actually is quite disturbed by everything that went down (and most especially by Eddie not sharing anything... I don’t think he wanted to talk about sex, he just didn’t wanna feel left out by Eddie), yet when Eddie does talk to him about the whole thing with Shannon, Buck plays it like he’s cool with everything. Maybe because to a degree, he really is just happy to be included by his work husband, and he doesn’t need more, especially not the gruesome details. But he ends up giving absolutely no sign of his earlier distress, and no real advice. He’s just a sounding board. After that, we only ever get Buck and Eddie talking about either love life when it’s Buck helping Eddie realize he should break up with Ana in 502 or Eddie implying to Buck there’s a reason he’s hiding from Taylor in 518, helping him reach a similar conclusion of his own. Basically, they don’t really talk to each other about their love life ‘coz when they do and actually do something other than nod along, they convince each other to break up with whoever they’re with. Eddie and Buck either don’t wanna talk about it ‘coz of how they secretly feel about each other, or they hold up a “Break up with your girlfriend!” sign right away. And yes, it is very romantically coded.
Hope you have a great day! And here is my ask tag! xoxox
127 notes · View notes
cyarsk52-20 · 10 months
Text
MENU
FEATURES
14 rock and metal songs that are legitimately terrifying
From Pink Floyd to Rammstein, these bands have seriously freaked out their fans…
Tumblr media
October 28, 2021Words:Kerrang! staff
When we decided to ask the internet recently, ‘What is the scariest song that you have ever heard?’, we were met with quite the mixed response. Some smart-arses jokingly referred to tracks by the likes of Cliff Richard, Aqua, Celine Dion and Justin Bieber, while others took the question much more seriously (thank you – we appreciate you people), and revealed the horrors they experienced diving into rock and metal bands’ dark sides.
Whether it’s the gruesome lyrics and disturbing subject matter, the way in which the words are actually delivered, or simply just some creepy-as-hell instrumentation, there’s plenty of music out there that doesn’t simply just increase the heart rate and causes hair to stand on end, but is nigh-on impossible to listen to.
So dive in – if you dare…
Black Sabbath – Black Sabbath
Peter via Facebook: “Put that song on while all alone in a cabin in the middle of the deep woods a dark rainy night in November…”
Slipknot – The Virus Of Life
Laura via Facebook: “Scariest, making you uncomfortable as hell: The Virus Of Life. It creates an atmosphere, everything is wrong: the lyrics, the melody, the screams… I love it but god does it make me uncomfortable and sick.”
Korn – Daddy
Kïrstïn via Facebook: “Probably the most fucked up song I’ve ever heard yet so heartbreaking at the same time.”
Tumblr media
Slayer – Dead Skin Mask
Jskellington07 via Twitter: “Actually scared me the first time I listened to it, I was home alone and blasting Seasons In The Abyss for the first time and this little girl’s voice came through the song and scared me, I actually stopped the song as it scared me so much!!”
Megadeth – Sweating Bullets
Weston via Facebook: “First time as a kid hearing Sweating Bullets by Megadeth gave me chills. The video didn’t help either.”
Nine Inch Nails – Closer
Maksymilian via Facebook: “Closer by Nine Inch Nails. This disturbing tune and the lyrics always give me chills.”
Tumblr media
Guns N’ Roses – Civil War
Lotto via Facebook: “I told my younger brother that the opening guitar part to Civil War by Guns N’ Roses was the song you hear before you die, so I used to play it on my acoustic guitar in his room while he was sleeping. Wish I’d had a video of the freakouts.”
Faith No More – Jizzlobber
tavisallen via Instagram: “Jizzlobber by Faith No More off of Angel Dust. Every aspect is scary: the sampled intro, the dissonance in the keyboards, the brutal drumming, the chord progression, the bass fills, the lyrics and how they are delivered, and the organ/choral ending.”
Rammstein – Wiener Blut
schoof.rita via Instagram: “Wiener Blut by Rammstein because of Till’s voice and creepy atmospherics of the song.”
Tumblr media
Every Time I Die – Moor
Brandon via Facebook: “More so creepy and unnerving than scary, but still. Moor by Every Time I Die. Can’t remember the last time something sent shivers down my spine like that song did the first time I listened to it.”
Suicide Silence – And Then She Bled
Joe via Facebook: “No lyrics, just an instrumental with the phone call from the lady whose friend was attacked by a chimpanzee and her face was ripped off lol.”
Avenged Sevenfold – A Little Piece Of Heaven
Cris via Facebook: “Watch the whole music video and listen to the lyrics itself. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not the typical creepy thing, it’s more than that and much more serious. The riffs are quite good and the rhythm of the song made it scary asf.”
Tumblr media
Mr. Bungle – Dead Goon
Aaron via Facebook: “Dead Goon by Mr. Bungle. Hands down. Loved Bungle since age 12, and that song in particular sounds like circus music from hell.”
Pink Floyd – Careful With That Axe Eugene
RichMyself via Twitter: “There is a scream in the middle which curdles my blood every fucking time.”
Read this next:
Slipknot: The inside story of Vol. 3: (The Subliminal Verses)
The 20 greatest Korn songs – ranked
The darkness and despair behind The Downward Spiral
Check out more:
Nine Inch NailsSlipknotGuns N' RosesAvenged SevenfoldEvery Time I DieMr. BungleKornSuicide SilenceRammsteinBlack SabbathSlayerFaith No MoreMegadethPink Floyd
NOW READ THESE
Sent from my iPhone
3 notes · View notes
adultswim2021 · 2 years
Text
Tumblr media
Metalocalypse #19: “Dethstars” | December 10, 2006 – 11:45PM | S01E19
Oh, wow, there’s a movie coming out called BLOOD OCEAN and it stars our boys “the Metalocalypse guys”. But, will it be good or will it be “just okay”? What if it’s BAD? What if it’s SO BAD IT’S GOOD? 
What’s more important is: How is the episode? I couldn’t call this a classic, but it’s solid. I’d throw this in the good pile, but it’s not super essential. It plays out how you think it would, roughly. Dethklok prove to be terrible actors. Skwisgaar in particular is so unintelligible he requires dubbing. Murderface is maybe the best actor of all them, and his screen-presence is quite the acquired taste. The episode opens with him doing a guest spot on an 8-Simple-Rules-esque sitcom, where he arrives at the door with the oozing carcass of the family dog. He maladroitly delivers his first line by shouting it, and then delivers a more subdued “Uh, this isn’t your DOG, is it??”. It’s a terrible line-reading, but it technically qualifies as acting. You couldn’t say the same for his band mates’ performances.
The opening scene, by the way, is probably the most memorable bit. I am saying this, because I remembered it. The other scene in this that I remembered was the interview with the legendary older actor, whom Pickles commits manslaughter with a forklift. It’s a fairly gruesome scene, but pretty standard stuff in the realm of Dethklok thoughtlessly destroying treasured people, places or things. This scene might have been more impactful and funnier if they managed to get a real-life older movie star in this role. Imagine if Gene Hackman were in that scene instead, playing himself? I guess the show usually avoids that sort of thing. All cultural references tend to go through an in-universe filter. But for that one scene, an exception to the rule would have strengthened the humor. Not to be a backseat comedy driver, but I’ll be damned if that particular shoe doesn’t fit.
There’s also a disgusting, fat, abusive movie producer who seems very clearly modeled on Harvey Weinstein. It’s slightly disturbing to watch him slap around his young woman assistant, but as we know the more real-life alternative could be so much worse. It wouldn't be Metalocalypse if it shied away from the horrible and destructive nature of man’s ego. It is a very smart show and I am very smart for liking it.
The final scene is the premiere and the movie is, of course, awful. But after its debut screening, Dethklok unintentionally blow up the oil rig where the film is having it’s premiere (it’s also a setting in the film). This is as they are flying away from said rig in their giant metal helicopter (Speaking of helicopters, I wonder if Gallagher ever got to see this show? May he RIP) Only a few post-film reports make it out, by vapid, paid-for journalists who claim the film is brilliant. Presumably, the only print in existence is on that rig, and the headlines the next day read “GREATEST MOVIE EVER MADE DESTROYED”, with nobody alive knowing how bad the film is except for Dethklock themselves.
MAIL BAG
Anonymous refers to my review of Antenna:
Stand-Cup is pretty funny. Anyway do you like the music of Dido?
FUCK no, dude, that is older sister music. Besides her music video for THANK YOU is a rip-off of Pixar’s Up. No, I have not looked up the dates for either of those things to make sure that I’m right about this, and I also didn’t watch to the end of the video to make sure she takes off with her cute house in a balloon like she should. I can’t do stuff like that. It’s not punk rock doing stuff like that
2 notes · View notes
icharchivist · 2 years
Note
I think in general granblue is getting more bold with bloody and gruesome scenes lately? Like if anything I think the evokers having so much death and murder on most of their stories served as some sort of turning point for the game on that aspect. I started playing shortly after they were released back in 2019 yet I don't remember seeing old content/stories having so much. Blood
That's my theory at least.
yeah definitely, it's just, wild to see how far they go
i think i remember them mentioning that the real test was Belial, they mentioned that they considered him the riskiest thing they've done and not just because of the sexual innuendos (since yknow, Lucifers gruesome murder, the torture of Halluel&Malluel ect), and the fact he's been this heavily accepted means they could push it a little more
Generally it's sharp, if an event is before 2018, it's pretty censored, but after 2018 it got more and more bold.
The Evokers certainly added to it, it showed just how far they could go, Lobelia especially... yeah.
One thing also that makes it really obvious is like, i remember reading Earth!Siegfried's 5* which was released before 2018, and Sieg gets stabbed in it, and it's only shown with a shaky sprite and a bit of struggling from Sieg, but that's about it. Compared to the SIEGFRIED event where Sieg gets in a bad shape and he's covered in blood with sound effects to accentuate it, a new agonizing sprite, and the whole thing lasting a while... yeah.
i also remember in the "extra shocking" stuff a violent death in The Art of Mercy which was downright horrifying to see in sprite.
That said yeah i really think the whole Ferdinand thing pushed gbf in another era of how badly they can push it, because god Tikoh's FE is genuinely one of the most disturbing thing i've ever read, and it carried over in Marionette Stars.
And..... In between Tikoh's FE and Marionette Stars, it's when GBF went from being a +13yo game to a +16yo game
The rating for the game changed, a bit right in time for Marionette Stars and so for everyone, not just people with Tikoh's unit, to be able to experience Ferdinand.
there HAS been child murder before though, of course, just thinking about it again there's a pretty gruesome one in SIEGFRIED too. But Shannon's was the first one that came to my mind because of how really disgusting and disturbing the whole thing was DLKFJDLKFJD
Usually there's like, an unspoken rule of "not actually killing children" when horrible things happen. GBF is becoming a liiiittle comfortable with killing children now.
So yeah, those past few years have def been more risky. They came out and said that Belial being accepted meant they felt they could get away with more gruesome stuff and there's been progressively more gore and disturbing things ever since, and now that their game is properly rated for an older audience, they're going ham with it.
I DID find tHIS particular children death to be particularly horrifying! They're not pulling any punches anymore man 😭
2 notes · View notes
ultraericthered · 5 months
Text
Anime Update V2 Last Post
Vinland Saga S2 - None this time. The second half of this second season will begin for me next year.
Hunter x Hunter - It was Spiders VS Ants in the two episodes I saw recently. That's right, the Phantom Troupe returned and this time they actually got up to some good, fighting against an invasion force of Chimera Ants that were besieging a city and taking its population before Zazan, the would-be new queen, who does one of the most disturbing, absolutely heinous things I've seen done in this entire series by twisting these poor people into inhuman slaves forced to fight for her in their constant agonized state of Body Horror. I was rooting for the Spiders to take her and her underlings out, and seeing her true form be so hideous and creaturesque came as no surprise. Also felt for Kalluto as she starts fearing she might be out of her depth with this group, and the way they kill all the enslaved people after making them fight them to the death, to ensure they die like men rather than animals, was surprisingly moving and decent of them. In dire situations, even the bad guys can be the good guys!
Fate/Stay Night: Unlimited Blade Works - So Saber has taken a new vow and is now technically Rin's servant, but that doesn't much matter when, after a trippy confrontation within the Unlimited Blade Works dimension, Archer abduts Rin and holds her hostage for both Saber and Shirou to fight to retrieve. Shirou arranges a meeting with him at Illya's villa, so that's where Archer decides he'll hold his former master. It also turns out Rin has become well aware of Archer's past, and which heroic spirit he really is, in a way that pretty much spells it out for us but without the name actually being spoken. And then Shinji and Gilgamesh show up, looking to have Rin for their own needs, and Archer agrees to let them have her only once Saber and Shirou are dead. As Saber and Shirou make their way to the villa, they're joined by Lancer, still on their side and wanting to save Rin.
Symphogear AXZ - Finished the season with its last three episodes and yeah, this one really was not as strong as the previous ones. The weird shit that happened pushed the boundaries even for this series (Adam's an android? Gungnir is a "God-slayer" that can absorb Divine Power? Hibiki turns into a cocoon? Saint-Germain's fellow alchemist friends didn't fully die only to then die for real along with her in a big heroic sacrifice? The sacrifice happens at all because fucking America launches a goddamn nuclear missle?), but that itself really was not a big problem. I could still roll with it and enjoy the show. The actual problem is, well, just look at the Wikipedia summary for the last episode of AXZ and its length compared to literally any episode of the series ever. It feels to me like the main conflict of this season was more simple and low-key in execution than what came before, so then the really complicated stuff all had to get shoved into these very last episodes, which leaves this season feeling very notably imbalanced. Hopefully, XV will fare better.
Eureka Seven - With Eureka having fallen ill and her body turned to putty, Holland goes out to find a preist who could use spiritual arts to help in her recovery, but only after making "it's for the money/for me and the crew" excuse rather than being open about how much he cares about Eureka, leading to him and Renton coming to blows yet again and more despicable abuse of an actual child by the belligerent manchild. Renton's own efforts to help out in the Nirvash end up going catastrophically wrong for him (he has to take human life in a very gruesome manner and take an actual good look at what the consequences of being a soldier look like), and the show briefly turns into Evangelion again, complete with Renton screaming his lungs out in a very Shinji-esque fashion. This traumatic experience put on top of Holland's abuse of him and how unable he feels able to really connect with Eureka and the Nirvash no matter how much he wants to, leads to Renton deciding he's had enough and is calling quits on working with Gekko State. So while Dewey is recruiting some old acquaintances of his - a mercenary pair (that's also a married couple) - for his efforts to crush Gekko State, Renton is wandering, all alone.
And with that, I close the lid on 2023 and can look forward to my third and final rebranding of these posts once the new year's come!
0 notes
sasquapossum · 1 year
Text
Muse-ette #1: Relating
When my mother died, she left behind a ton of poetry. And essays. And letters. Which is kind of weird, because shouldn't the recipients have the letters? Were they ever sent? Was I reading copies? I suspect so, but can't be sure. All of this was mixed in with medical stuff, legal stuff, and AFAICT printed-out receipts for every single thing she had ever ordered online. "A ton" might not be hyperbole.
A couple of weeks ago, I went back to Michigan to sort through the boxes and boxes and boxes of paper, separating the important stuff from the junk. I was particularly interested in getting the poetry all together, and most especially the "Muse-ettes" that I remembered delivering for her in my childhood. The first one is from 1973, when I was eight. Here's a sample, below the fold because this is going to be extra long even by my standards.
People in My World I do not move among people - I walk among props, and masks. I do not converse with people but with actors. The uniquely beautiful person behind each propped-up mask hides from me. Dare I tear away the carefully fashioned masks to find the people who hide from me?
The formatting and even the typography are often essential to these poems, BTW. This was written a few years after she left my father, and the church that had been her whole life until then, to raise my brother and me away from both ... yet we already see the theme of alienation that runs through so much of her work. This second selection starts another theme.
If I Suffer If I suffer they all pass by with eyes averted pretending they do not see my pain. I am an outcast if I suffer. I have brought it on myself, or I am weak, or I am childish, they say. It may be so, but let him who is perfect condemn me. My suffering angers some. The sight of my pain disturbs them. They would rather be blind than bear responsibility for what they see.
I think this might resonate with some of my disabled friends. Pain and people's reactions to pain were ever increasing themes right up until she stopped being able to write. Some of her last works were too gruesome to read, let alone post. She had horrible headaches for a long time - she used to say one headache that lasted a decade - and the treatments for those introduced their own problems which she seemed to think were even worse. I had thought that the headaches were still a few years in the future when this was written, but reading it now makes me wonder.
The "let him who is perfect" line also hints at something else in her writing: religion. Does that line have a biblical sound to it? An echo of "let he who is without sin" perhaps? I did find some of her very early poems, from when she was still with the church, which surprised me. I don't have them with me right now, but they were effusive in the way that much religious poetry (and music) tends to be. The phrases and cadences might have been retained, but the tone is very different in our third and last selection.
Touch Me Each man walks alone in a crowded world - untouching and untouched. "Live and let live" is the motto. Hell-born, no doubt. "I don't want to get involved" is the universal password. I've been told there was a man named Jesus who touched people - even lepers, and dirty people. I'm not a leper, or dirty, but . . . I wonder . . . Would He have touched me? It doesn't matter now I guess. They say some prigs killed Him. Why? What's wrong with a man who loves? I heard this Jesus had some followers who were supposed to represent Him when He was gone- to be His hands, His feet, His lips. Where are they? I haven't seen anyone like Him, touching people. Hey, somebody, (if you're there) touch me.
I find it interesting that she still couldn't shake the habit of capitalizing He, Him, etc. Old habits die hard. You can also see hints of ideas that are probably visible in my own writing - the loathing of hyper-individualism and (in the previous poem) fake meritocracy, for example. I am my mother's son, after all.
1 note · View note
magicalberserk · 1 year
Text
The Nonliving
Name: Maria Adesso 
Nicknames: Rhea, R-43A
Age range: any ages 20+, most likely to be 27-40s
Hair: light brown/dark blonde, bobcut, curly/fluffy, side bangs. Can turn white and shorten.
Eyes: blue-green/teal, can change to yellow 
Skin: fair, changes to navy blue
Body type: busty hourglass, "thin" waist, 5'11"
Sexuality: Bisexual, male/masc lean
Bio:
Maria was the second oldest to a large family. She's got a big softspot for children and because of this, was studying to become an elementary school teacher. She grew up in NY, had a normal and fulfilling childhood, and graduated highschool with above average grades and a nice group of friends.
A few short months into her second year of college, she was kidnapped and tested in an illegal lab by an organization called Pius, trying to create a bioweapon. The bioweapon was the virus R-43A (codename Rhea), designed to mimic cells, avoid detection, and kill as quickly as possible. It essentially succeeded, but to do so it had to copy the nucleus, DNA, and RNA. So when it reached her brain, the virus copied all her knowledge and memories, taking on her form and conciousness.
Maria suffered through dehumanizing and painful testing before she discovered some of her useful abilities and escaped. She was forced to live a life on the run, never again to see anyone who ever knew her. Pius had tracked them down, erased their memories, and gave some (including her family) new identities, so she'd never find them.
Concerning the actual event of Maria's escape, she had started a riot upon escaping by letting all the other subjects loose. This would prove to be a fatal mistake, as the lab, along with everyone in it, would be destroyed in the chaos with Maria as the sole survivor thanks to making it outside before it all came crashing down.
Personality:
When not running from Pius, she prefers to be alone and go sight seeing, as well as read. Despite prefering to be alone, it's for the sole reason that she feels like she has to be. Maria is lonely, and enjoys socializing when she can. As a result of Pius, she has claustrophobia as well as nosocomephobia from being kept in a tight cell and trauma related to labs/doctors (though, is fine with medical procedures in a different environment), and better enjoys the simple pleasures of freedom. Back in college, she was a very sociable, mother-hen type friend and that part of her bleeds through should you come close enough. She still longs for the old days, when she used to care for children and go to parties, and shopping, and girls night-outs. She doesn't/didn't care for anything too crazy, or nights lasting too long, but she is an extrovert who loves caring for others.
The best way to describe Maria, most soon after escaping Pius, is broken. The practices and experiments used on her were dehumanizing on her best days there. She's almost constantly in an existential crisis, trying to decide if she's alive, or not, or if she's even real. Part of the reason she doesn't sleep is because when she tries, she has nightmares of Pius. The only thing keeping her alive are the happy memories of her family and stubbornness against Pius having her or her body to experiment on. Despite most definitely wanting to die on some days, she also wants to outlive the people of Pius out of spite.
Much longer after her escape, she'd end up a much happier person. Depending on the events of the rp or leading to it, Maria would be much of the same person as she was back in college. However, this Maria would lack the sense of naivety she used to have and be eerily desensitized to gore and bodily functions. She has the social skills to keep from disturbing other people with this part of herself, but it also makes her feel slightly disconnected and she'll forget to react when something gross/gruesome happens.
Abilities:
Maria can transform into her virus form, which is an alter ego dubbed "Rhea". In virus form, Maria is a dark blue humanoid monster, with a lean and toned build, no sexual organs, sharp teeth, thin white hair, pointed ears, and claws on her hands and three toed feet (similar to a bird in design). She technically isn't alive, despite having a human mind and sentience. Rhea can shut off the basic human functions she mimics, which when running will trick her brain into believing the body is dying or dead. Which will leave her permanently braindead. This means if one were to want to kill her, they'd have to destroy or remove her head. Other abilities implied or otherwise include:*
•Ability to shut off nerves and feel no pain
•Near eternal endurance
•Biological immortality (can only be killed by outside force destroying head or curing virus)
•Being completely uneffected by harmful illness, poison, or chemicals (unless corrosive or related to cure, etc.)
•healing factor (can be trained to increase speed of process)
•No need for normally basic needs such as food, water, oxygen, sleep, blinking, etc.
•Reattachment/regeneration of limbs
•Prevent any form of bleeding
•Manipulation of natural chemicals generated by her body (example: increase adrenaline at will)
She's not a trained fighter, but if it comes to it she prefers straight forward sneak attacks. If it were to come to one on one combat, she'd be all about ending it as quickly as possible, whether that means playing dead or knocking the opponent out fair and square. Or in a usually rare case, finishing the job.
*Not all her abilities are immediately accessible for rp use. Depending on the circumstances or setting in her personal timeline, she can have all, none, or only some of these abilities.
Tumblr media
0 notes
a-room-of-my-own · 2 years
Text
Most of you, I suspect, will be unfamiliar with the work of self-professed ‘horror author’ and trans woman Gretchen Felker-Martin.
Latterly a little-known film and culture writer, Felker-Martin’s name reached wider circulation this week following the recent release of a debut novel — although not, it must be said, for the quality of the writing.
Called Manhunt, the book is set in a post-apocalyptic future in which a deadly virus wreaks havoc and turns people into zombies.
So far so mainstream — if you like that sort of thing.
Yet delve a little deeper, and Felker-Martin’s work is highly disturbing for reasons that go much further than the characters and plot, which centres on two transgender women hunting down and killing ‘TERFs’ in a battle for survival.
TERF is shorthand for ‘trans-exclusionary radical feminists’ — the highly derogatory term used by trans rights activists for anyone, but almost exclusively women — who insists that biological sex is real.
I am among them, while the term is also repeatedly used against Harry Potter author JK Rowling for her passionate defence of this fundamental principle.
Now, Felker-Martin has apparently seen fit to exact a deeply unpleasant fictional revenge, depicting the successful writer’s gruesome death after being crushed by a burnt-down castle.
I will not dignify Felker-Martin’s underwhelming prose with any further detailed description, save to say that it is full of misogynistic bile of which you can get a flavour via one of many enthusiastic promotional tweets put out on social media.
‘Try my novel Manhunt. Trans dykes fall in love and f*** and murder TERFs, feral men maraud in the wilderness, JK Rowling dies, etc,’ she has proclaimed.
So here we are, arrived in a place where a mainstream publisher — Manhunt is published by Tor Nightfire, an offshoot of publishing giant Macmillan — sees fit to release a novel featuring aggressive and violent fantasies about a living, breathing woman.
Sadly, I can’t say I am surprised. In some ways it is a natural extension of the world in which we now live, where women (and it is nearly always women) are routinely threatened, physically harassed and attacked for their views.
A world where self-styled ‘activists’ can call for their rape and murder and do so standing outside the house where they live with their children, as they have done to JK Rowling.
All while maintaining that they are the victims and we the oppressors.
Now it is being set down and marketed as ‘entertainment’ — and this makes me sick to my stomach. Let us pause for a minute to contemplate the outcry if a female author dared to depict a real-life trans person being crushed to death, the fate that befalls JK Rowling in Felker-Martin’s novel.
In fact, we can do more than imagine. Last year, JK Rowling published Troubled Blood, one of her Cormoran Strike series, which she writes under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith and was immediately accused of transphobia. She had employed the simple fictional trope of allowing her killer, on occasion, to disguise himself as a woman to commit his crimes.
Never mind that he is not the main villain of the book, nor is he ever portrayed as trans or even called a ‘transvestite’: the howls of outrage and victimisation were immediate, along with calls to boycott Rowling’s work and for bookshops to withdraw it from the shelves.
Where are these bleeding hearts now, when depictions of grotesque violence against women are being glorified by another author and her acolytes?
But then I know first-hand the hypocrisy of publishing houses, who seem to have no problem selling books by everyone from drug dealers to murderers — and indeed delightedly basking in the promotional opportunities they afford — but who draw a line at female authors who have done nothing more than speak out in support of women’s sex- based rights.
Two years ago, having produced a proposal as well as a sample chapter of my book on modern feminism, I was wooed by three separate publishing houses, wined and dined by their representatives and told that they were desperate to be the ones to take it to market.
Yet when they subsequently took it to their acquisitions department, all were each told the same thing by the virtue-signalling hipsters with beards and their blue-fringed colleagues: that they would leave their jobs in protest if they dared to publish a book by ‘transphobic’ Julie Bindel.
They all caved in, leaving me to sink into a deep depression from which I struggled to emerge. After years of being ‘de-platformed’ at university debates, disinvited from events at the last minute and often requiring a police escort at those I am ‘allowed’ to attend, this felt like the final nail in the coffin of free speech, reason and women’s rights.
In fact, my story had a happy ending. My agent was then contacted by a male publisher at Little, Brown, which published the book last year. It has since sold extremely well, vindicating their decision.
Many other female writers, among them children’s author Rachel Rooney, have not been so lucky — hounded for doing little more than tweeting in support of sex-based rights and, in Rachel’s case, choosing to leave the world of publishing.
It is a chilling depiction of the double standards — and doublethink — our society now finds itself in. One in which feminists are labelled oppressors in clear contradiction to the evidence that is around us.
I have spent 40 years campaigning for the rights of women, and I know now, as I have always known, that our morgues, our rape crisis centres, and our domestic violence shelters all tell the real story about who are the perpetrators of violence and who are the victims.
The truth is that you don’t hear reports of trans activists being attacked by women, feminists or otherwise.
Far from it. All of us, including JK Rowling, have spoken out in support of gender non-conforming people.
507 notes · View notes
starbuckie · 3 years
Text
𝐬𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐬 𝐜𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠
Tumblr media
pairing(s): college!peter parker x reader, dark!steve rogers x reader, dark!sam wilson x reader, dark!bucky barnes x reader
words: 8.1k words
warnings: DARK!FIC, SMUT 18+ (unprotected sex, foursome turned fivesome, gangbang, non-con/dub-con, daddy kink, oral M and F-receiving, spit kink, degredation kink, praise kink, creampie), age-gap (reader is in her early 20s), cheating, angst, there’s like zero fluff
summary: peter should’ve made it back to the tower for date night on time, or maybe just before he found his girlfriend being fucked by three other superheroes.
a/n: eee my first dark fic! im so so happy with the way this turned out, and even though it was a pain in my ass for nearly three months, im so hapy to share it with y’all. this idea was brought up by an anon from @mypoisonedvine’s saturday sleepover a few months back, but i switched up tony and sam bc i didn’t like the tony and peter stuff. hopefully my smut has improved from the first time i wrote it in january, and just a reminder that in no way, shape, or form do i condone rape of any kind. there’s a large difference from the page and the real world. i try to put all tw’s in the tags and warnings, but if there was something i missed please tell me. thank you to my lovely bestie @mermaidxatxheart for beta-reading(i have no fucking clue what i’d do without your help). feel free to leave a comment or two and reblog, but don’t repost anywhere or i will hunt down your ass. thank you again and please please enjoy <3
main masterlist || mcu masterlist || sebastian stan characters masterlist
Bucky wasn’t planning to fuck Y/N as soon as he saw her.
It started with a faint mention, something Tony had thrown around along the lines of, “Parker’s bringing his girl down here tomorrow, don’t be an asshole”. He didn’t give a damn what Tony said or how he acted around Peter’s girl. Years of being thrown between gruesome mind-wiping and being half-dead, asleep in a freezer would do that to a man.
So the next day when Peter brought his girlfriend in, he was scratching his ass like a fucking ape and downing a beer with a messy bun at the nape of his neck, until he actually saw her. Neat hair, even neater laces with a sweet smile but a body that could kill. Didn’t matter that she was bundled under Parker’s hoodie and a pair of jeans- he could always admire a pretty dame, but Bucky could see that she was beyond that. It was as if God had intentionally made the one being, the one ethereal creature beautiful and angelic enough to be a sin away from him, so that he couldn’t touch her. Because she was young, and in her twenties, and that shouldn’t have even been the first two things that popped up in his mind because she was also Peter’s girlfriend.
But then she had the audacity to stick her hand out, a shy grin and twinkle in her eyes as she gave her name. It sounded so pretty rolling off of her tongue, and he wondered what it would sound like while he groaned it into her cunt.
Y/N. 
So, yeah, maybe Bucky wasn’t planning to fuck her as soon as he met her, but it was pretty damn close after.
-
Steve Rogers was one of very few men who said they had the pleasure of banging nearly every woman on the north side of Manhattan. Bucky indulged in the fact that the man who had once been too shy to do so much as meet a gal’s gaze was now “a dollar whore”, but he was more than happy to keep that title if it meant he could continue to get off in the nearest woman’s mouth everyday. 
Every time he walked down the streets of New York with just a simple ball cap and jeans, he could feel stares on his back from what seemed like miles away, girls on every street corner just waiting for him to take her into the nearest public bathroom and fuck them dirty. CEOs, baristas, girls fresh out of getting master’s degrees with stars in their eyes and big dreams, until he shattered them by making them gag on his cock and scream his name into bedsheets. Or tile floors. He didn’t care as long as they were screaming. The girls of this century were just too delectable to turn down. He didn’t discriminate. His dick had been in women of every height, stature, hair color, and he had quite the variety throwing themselves at him as well.
And then Tony ruined it all and sat him down with a simple explanation that the image of Captain America was being tainted with disturbing stories of girls being fucked in the ass and thrown on their knees in dirty bathroom stalls. The blond was beyond pissed when the billionaire told him to stop dicking around, but he couldn’t do anything else if he wanted to keep his title and job. In a new century, even if he’d had a few years to adjust, he was still absolutely oblivious when it came to anything outside of aliens and sex. There was nothing left for him outside of being an Avenger, so reluctantly he agreed to keep his number of conquests to a minimum, and most definitely inside of the tower rather than out on the street.
However, inside of the tower seemed to be no problem at all when Peter brought his girlfriend over, all smiles and straight A’s, and that’s when Steve realized that he’d yet to fuck a bright, little college student. He could see himself stripping her from the innocence in her eyes, loosening up her pussy with his thick cock against the wall in his room.
Surely Tony couldn’t reprimand him for spending a little time trying to bond with Peter’s new girl, right?
-
Sam Wilson was a simple man. He had a job, a well-paid one at that, somewhere to live, a girlfriend, or a woman to keep him company, that’s for sure- but for once in his life he was seeking out something other than missions, something that would keep him busy when he was feeling bored, something like-
Pleasure, and he knew that he’d finally found what he was looking for the moment Peter brought his girlfriend through the elevator doors on the fifty-sixth level of the Avengers tower. She’d shaken his hand so daintily and spoke so politely that if he were to see her without any backstory, he’d think she was another innocent, dim-witted college student, breaking her bank account every Saturday morning and naively believing that her relationship would last longer than a few months. But by the things Parker had told him, she was much more than that.
Was it shitty of Peter to tell his teammates, the people he worked with, how Y/N was in bed? By the majority’s vote, probably, and by Sam’s strict conduct of his own morals, definitely, but when Peter’s girl looked like that and he was so incredibly bored with his routine? 
Well, fuck, Sam had never been happier that the Spider-kid had told everyone how his girl gave head.
Peter brought his girlfriend in daily after that, and every one of her visits, she grew less shy and more friendly, and the Falcon saw each of his friends gape at her growing comfortability with a wolfish demeanor. It started with the water incident with Steve in the kitchen, where he so clearly spilled water on her already thin, white camisole with intention. Sam couldn’t say he was upset though, after all Steve had offered him and the rest of the Avengers quite a show when he tried to clean up her shirt, taking his sweet, sweet time to fondle her tits as subtly as he could, his eyes staring at her pebbled nipples poking through the material. He could see Bucky hiding his boner under his cereal bowl on the couch that day. 
Then of course, he’d been no better than America’s sweetheart himself when he greeted Y/N with a hug that in hindsight, was a little too enthusiastic. His large hands squeezed into the pockets of her back pocket, and if the college student found anything weird with it, she didn’t say so, but Sam graciously palmed the round globes of her ass in his hands, feeling the muscle clench under his fingers. Oh, how he’d never hugged someone that tight ever before in his life. Maybe he would’ve gotten a bit further than squeezing her ass had it not been for his own girlfriend standing behind him, ready to introduce herself to Y/N.
Bucky, well, Sam could admit that Bucky had the most guts out of all of them. Though the super-soldier was normally well-reserved and polite, the dark glint in his eyes the day he met Y/N let him in on the secret that he had a much dirtier mind than most thought. It had been movie night that time, and he barely even tried to cover up how much he wanted the girl, his hands resting all over her as they watched Inception. Hardly a movie to get so riled up over, yet Bucky’s hand still inched its way up her thigh, his rough fingers gently carressing the flesh until they started to lightly trace the apex of her thighs. 
If she noticed anything then, she didn’t comment on it, doe-like eyes just marvelling at the screen in great intrigue. It was only when Peter’s arms wrapped around her a bit tighter did she scooch away from Bucky’s touch, with a small apology and shy grin. 
That only made his dick harder.
On the other side of Bucky, his super-soldier counterpart tapped his knee gently, forcing their blue eyes to meet each other. No words had to be said between the two, three men when they looked over to Sam, because they all recognized that look they saw in each other's eyes; predatory, dark, nearly voracious in the way they all wanted to be balls deep inside of Y/N.
And they would get there. No matter how long it took, they knew that the ultimate prize of tearing their prey apart would be more than worth the wait.
-
“Hey, babe, I’m gonna be a little late. Ned and I got stuck back in the lab, so we’re gonna need to stay until eight or nine. Can you make it to the tower by yourself alright?”
Peter’s concerned voice made Y/N smile gently as she trudged along the rainy streets of New York. He always loved to worry about her, especially when it was dark and gloomy out, but she could handle herself pretty okay. By pretty okay, of course meant she could kick ass like no other twenty-something year-old, but she wasn’t one to brag. Y/N readjusted the Kate Spade purse on her shoulder with her right hand, attempting to keep her umbrella over her head with the other. “I’ll be fine, Pete, just go finish up and get back to me. I’m gonna be waiting in your room at the tower before you go off on that mission this weekend.”
A small sigh came through the speaker, “Okay, I’ll try to get back to you soon. I love you, Y/N.”
“I love you too, Pete.” 
“Oh,” she could hear the shy but no less mischievous smile that was taking over his face, “I left you a little present on the bed, make sure you open it before I get back.”
Y/N’s face heated at the implication. “Peter Parker, you dirty little-” He ended the call with a laugh, and she huffed out a small chuckle at his childish antics.
The walk to the Avengers tower would have been nice, had it not been for the downfall of rain, making everything mushy, socks being absolutely soaked through her sneakers by the time she arrived. The receptionist at the front desk, Jenny, if Y/N remembered correctly, stared at her a little oddly, probably not expecting to see the young college girl in such a state of disorder, but it didn’t affect her at all. She confidently strutted up to the elevator, pressing in the floor number where all the rooms were located. Y/N scrolled through her Twitter feed on her phone while classic rock blared through the elevator with the constant shuffling of people moving in and out. Seven minutes and thirty-two seconds later she was sprinting down the halls with soggy shoes and damp hair, her cold body screaming for warmth.
Peter’s room was the farthest down the hall, and the room was fairly empty. He rarely stayed at his room in the tower, preferring to stay with his Aunt May or keep Y/N company in Brooklyn. When she entered the room, she saw a plain white shirt and a pair of socks strewn upon the carpeted floor, but what really caught her eye was the red box wrapped in a pink bow on the bed. Deciding it would add more suspense if she opened it later, she quickly hopped in the shower, letting the hot water warm her freezing, rigid muscles under the spray. 
Peter didn’t have all the products she’d usually use before she knew they were going to have sex, so she had to make do with the half-used bar of Irish Spring and his small travel-sized bottles of shampoo and conditioner, promising the fresh, breezy smell of citrus and mint. It was a quick process; two squeezes of shampoo, shaving with the green soap as best as she could without cutting herself, one squeeze of conditioner. A fuzzy towel sat waiting for Y/N on the rack, with the Spiderman symbol as a prank gift from her to her lovely boyfriend, and without a second to let the heat leave her damp skin, she wrapped herself in it, quickly hopping out to the bedroom again.
The lingerie she set out on the bed was a deep set burgundy color, with lace decorating the delicate corset and the trim of the satin panties. The packaging really did not do it justice. Y/N grinned at the new set, one that she knew would happily be torn from her body later. A shiver ran through her as she let the cold air fall over her skin, carefully slipping the lingerie on. It was a damn shame, really; the set was quite nice, and she reminded herself to buy more of the nicely suiting color for their nights together. 
Click.
Y/N’s heart thumped with anticipation as she heard the door open and she took a quick moment to ready herself. Hair in perfect style, legs stretched along the length of the bed to make herself look as seductive as possible, a small smirk thrown on her pouty lips.
But in the darkened room, it wasn’t Peter’s shadow that appeared. Three men, three tall, bulkier men’s shadows appeared at the foot of the bed, and horror washed over her as she realized who they were. “Goddamn, dolly, I’ve imagined what you would’ve looked like under those sweaters, but this is much sweeter than I expected.”
The sinister face of Bucky Barnes came into her view, just a sliver of moonlight lighting up his pale skin. His eyes raked over Y/N’s uncovered skin, and goosebumps appeared as she tried to cover herself up under his predatory gaze.
“W-what are you doing here?” She whispered worriedly. Sam and Steve flanked the bed on either side of her, plastered sickly sweet smiles on their faces, providing her with a false sense of security that made her heart scream in fear. Though she wasn't making any noise, her lungs felt like they were going to give out, her throat closing up like an allergic reaction. 
Her head whipped every which way in robotic movement, her brain seeming to fail her as she scanned the room for an exit. Several moments of shortened breaths, cold air chilling her body, before she came out of her freezing shock to realization.
“Why are you here? Please, get out, just g-get out!”
A calloused hand pushed away Y/N’s left arm that covered her tits, and Steve groaned at the sight of her pebbled nipples. “God, baby, they’re as pretty as I thought they’d be. Been trying to feel them up all week, but you knew that, didn’t you?”
Saturday the week before at lunch when he’d spilled water over chest and tried to clean her up. Sam’s friendly hug that became a bit less friendly when his hands slipped into the back pockets of her jeans. The movie night on Monday when Bucky’s hand caressed her thigh a little too close to her core. All of their touches began to make more sense, and her eyes filled with tears at the realization. 
“Please,” she begged, tears blocking her vision, “I promise I won’t tell anyone, not even Pete, but please just go.”
“You just don’t get it, do you?” Steve asked. He grasped her chin roughly, his face close enough to hers so that she could feel his fiery breath on her lips. “We’re not leaving, sweetheart. You’re gonna let all three of us play with your pretty little body, and you’re gonna make the prettiest sounds for us, alright?”
Y/N shook her head violently, too afraid to make noise, but also bold enough to make one last attempt at freedom. The hand that held her chin quickly moved to slap her cheek, and she hated the way the sting made heat stir in her lower belly. She tried to shy away from their touch again, but Bucky’s face simply held the same smirk as he trailed his vibranium fingers up and down her leg. 
“Oh, come on, Y/N, don’t act all shy now. Peter has been telling us how good you’ve been to him and don’t think he hasn’t told us about your little childhood crush on little ol’ me. Been wanting to fuck you ever since.” Bucky’s hand quickly left her body, instead moving to palm over the bulge in his pants. “Fuck, sweetheart, got me real hard just thinking ‘bout your pussy swallowing my cock. Bet you’re gonna be a sweet, obedient girl for me, right?”
Fire started to course through Y/N’s veins, and with all the power she tried to dampen it down with, it seemed to push through her body that much more dangerously. She despised the fact that she could feel herself growing wet for the three older men, but God, she had never felt the need to be filled up as badly as she did in that moment.
“You’re a bit of a slut, don’t you think?” Sam mocked. He kneeled on her right, his eyes fixated on her panty-clad pussy, a wet patch already forming on the soft satin. It really didn’t help that three of her teen celebrity crushes were eyeing her nearly naked body like a piece of meat. “I mean, look at you, already growing wet and needy for three cocks. Is that what you want, honey? Parker not treating you good enough?”
She hesitated. Goosebumps rose across her skin at the sinister tone of his voice, like he already knew it was true. And it was true and she hated that Sam was right, but as amazing as Peter was a boyfriend, it was clear from the vibrator hiding in his apartment’s bathroom that he was not amazing in the sheets. Every time, she held hope that it would be better, that she would finally get to stop faking an orgasm before he rolled out of the bed with a filled up condom, but she knew deep down inside of her that it wasn’t happening anytime soon. Y/N forced herself to nod weakly at Sam’s questions, and Bucky chuckled. “Oh, you poor dolly, we’re gonna have so much fun with you. Treat you better than that little boy ever could.”
All it took was a whimper, a nearly audible, deadly silent whimper that managed to squeak its way past Y/N’s throat, and the three men took it as permission to ravage her body however they pleased.
Steve made quick work of his pants as Sam lifted her chin to kiss him, his tongue hot and heavy against her mouth, coaxing her lips open. The sound of belt buckles hitting the floor shamefully turned on Y/N even more. Panic coursed through her senses, her mind wanting to scream for them to stop, but her body knew her too well as she felt a wave of slick run down her thighs. Cold metal digits slipped under the waistband of her panties, moving to her wet folds, and she whimpered into Sam’s mouth at the touch. 
“You look so nice, baby, so pretty all laid out for us like this.” Bucky’s hands pulled down her panties as Steve pinched her peaked nipple through the lace, laying lavish, open-mouthed kisses down her torso. The cool air hit her pussy when Bucky’s hands pulled her legs wide open, fully exposed to the three men ready to use her against her will. “Knew you’d be so wet for us, sweetheart, just look at you. Dripping all for your daddies,” Steve murmured against her skin.
Hot breath fanned over her cunt before they rolled her over on her stomach, someone’s hands forcing her up onto her knees with her face smashed into the cotton pillows. She could feel two rough human hands pulling her ass cheeks apart, spreading her ever wider for their view. “Would you look at that, boys, look how fucking hot she is for us.”
Sam’s thick finger ran through her folds, the calloused pad of his finger just teasing her clit before landing a harsh smack to the inside of her thigh. Her moan was muffled through the mattress and she prayed they wouldn’t hear how being treated like whore made her wet like nothing else. 
Hot slick dripped down her thighs, a pool of it staining the pristine sheets by each knee. It was quite a sight, Steve, kneeled by the bed as his face hovered next to her ear, whispering filthy things into her ear as Bucky stroked his hard, leaking cock right next to him. Sam’s lips were making their way up the inside of her right thigh, cracked skin gliding across her sticky flesh. “Oh, baby,” he purred, “you smell so good. Bet you taste even better, don’t you, little girl?”
His tongue reached the apex of her thighs, finally licking a stipe up her center with no warning. Y/N sobbed into the comforter below her, mascara stained tears marking up her face. Two fingers edged their way between the bed and her face, forcing her head upwards and arching her back. Steve’s face was caught in a dirty smirk above hers, lip pulled taut between his teeth, until he saw the tears trailing down her face. “Oh, sweetheart, you look so desperate like this.” His fingers traced her smeared lip gloss around her lips, before opening her lips harshly. “Open up, you dumb baby.”
Y/N forced her jaw open wider, just enough to watch a string of Steve’s saliva drip into her mouth. The thick spit pooled on her tongue and she tried hard not to grimace in front of him, in hopes that he wouldn’t make her- 
“Swallow it, sweetheart.” He saw the hesitation in her eyes, how her lower lip trembled at his words, but he just laughed at her. “Now.”
The warm saliva slid down her tongue and more black tears ran down her face as she obliged his orders, finally gulping it and cringing at the taste. Steve loved the way her face screwed up in displeasure, how she still had the audacity to pretend she hated what they were doing though she was moaning and whimpering with Sam’s tongue attacking her entrance.
“What do you want, sweetheart? We might give it to you as long as you use your words.” Bucky taunted lightly.
Y/N stared up at the brunette, staring menacingly down at her with his cock in hand. “Please,” she whimpered.
The three found it woeful, the way she could barely get a full sentence out as Sam went to town with his skilled tongue, but even with that onslaught, a simple please wasn’t enough for them.
“Please what, honey,” Sam moaned from between her legs, “you gotta use your big words or we’ll never know what you want from us.”
Steve and Bucky nodded in fake-agreement even though they all knew exactly what she wanted and where. 
“I don’t-” her widened eyes glanced into Steve’s, blown-out and teary. “I don’t want anything, not from you.” She lied through her teeth harshly.
Sam removed his head from between her thighs and Y/N immediately whined at the loss of contact almost hilariously. “You don’t want anything, little girl?” 
The air felt static, every hair on her neck rising in the pressured silence. The angel and the devil clawed at her heart, each trying to show her what was right. And she wanted to sin, God knew that she would love nothing more than to let that little greedy part of her take over, but she’d already cheated on Peter and that damn good part of her conscience stole the wheels of her brain.
Slowly and shamefully, she shook her head, though the downright dirty monster inside of her wanted the men to ignore her words and keep assaulting her body. 
“That’s a shame, baby, I thought we were having fun.” Sam sighed. He met Bucky’s gaze on the side, and though they seemed to be in resignation with her wishes, their eyes twinkled devilishly. He positioned his body over Y/N’s kneeled over form, his bare chest glued to her sweating back as his hands ran up the sides of her ribcage and to her front, just barely grazing over her sensitive nipples. “You mean, you don’t want me to touch you here?”
He pinched the darkened buds and she had to use every ounce of self-restraint to not collapse at the sensation. His calloused hands moved back even further, tracing down to the stretch of skin just above her mound, swiping a finger across the skin delicately. “How about here? Or even,” he brought three fingers around her body, over her ass, and into her glistening cunt again, just rubbing along her entrance, not daring to go further in. Y/N couldn’t hold in her reaction to his prodding anymore, his teasing chipping away all of her dignity and pride in a few simple touches. 
“Yes, please, please, use your fingers,” she blurted against her will. Where shame should have washed over her, there was only lust, raging red and coursing through her body so forcefully that she felt braindead. “Put your fingers in me, daddy, please.”
The pet name rolled off of her tongue so easily and she was barely ashamed of how it made her feel. The name especially shocked the three men, who smiled even wider with their cocks harder than before at the little slip up. “That was all you had to say, dolly, gonna have your daddies make you feel real good,” Bucky laughed.
Sam finally plunged his thick fingers knuckle-deep into her cunt as Steve’s mouth captured hers, effectively swallowing her scream with ferocity. The long digits scissored and swirled inside of her, pressing against new unexplored areas that she’d never even gotten to with her own fingers. White dots danced along the front line of her vision as teeth clashed against hers and though it’d been mere minutes she already knew she was close and the men did as well.
“I can feel you clamping around my fingers, honey,” Sam taunted. His lips were moving sinfully around her ass, planting sloppy kisses and drooling all over her skin while he fingered her deep. “Are you gonna come soon, baby?”
“Yes, daddy, I’m so- fuck,” Y/N panted into Steve’s mouth, “m’ so c-close.” The blond bit her tongue hard enough for her to taste blood and she yelped as she heard Sam and Bucky laugh. 
“Watch your language, dolly,” Bucky sneered from the side of the bed. His hand was rapidly moving around his cock, corkscrew motions edging him towards the brink of pleasure. 
“Little girls like you don’t get to use big swear words,” Sam’s face was still buried between her legs, his soaked fingers pulling out of her cunt only to rub at her little pearl of nerves in circles. His tongue still lapped at her dripping entrance and he could feel her tight hole start to pulse as her breathing picked up. “Oh, baby, you’re getting close, aren’t you?”
Y/N was hesitant to answer at first, the sweat on her body seeming to cool immediately in fear of what would happen if she messed up. But after five seconds Steve stopped kissing her, gripping her chin and staring into her eyes deeply. He looked as debauched as she felt, with his rosy lips swollen with spit and cheeks tinged with pink. “Are you gonna answer daddy, sweetheart?”
That knocked her into shape real fast.
“Yes, daddy, I’m so close. P-please let me come,” she whimpered. The whine in her voice pleased the two men, and Steve went back to exploring her mouth before she felt something poking against her asshole.
“Gonna let daddy put his cock in you, little girl?” Sam asked gently. His words had panic coursing through her system, a chilling realization like water being poured on her head and she began to wiggle around, trying to free Sam’s hand from her hip. Her arms weakly pushed at Steve’s chest, trying to push him as far away as he could, but the men only laughed at her flailing limbs. Y/N wanted to scream no to them, and despite her contrasting love-hate relationship with Sam’s fingers inside her cunt she knew it was time to go. It was laughable how much she would continue to say that to herself for the rest of the night. 
But Sam managed to sense her panic, knowing exactly what the issue was before harshly spanking her and effectively stopping her struggle. “Don’t worry, baby, I won’t come inside of you. I’m not risking knocking up a whore with my kids, I’ve got more dignity than that.”
He led the leaking tip of his dick down her crack, rubbing it along her slick entrance before pushing in with a groan. “Oh my fucking God, that is so hot.” Bucky admonished from the side. “Gotta get in on that soon.”
Steve chuckled against Y/N’s lips, pulling away with a strand of saliva connecting them. He adjusted himself up so his dick was centimeters from her face, a knee propped up on the bed for balance. “Gotta wait your turn, Buck, we all want a piece of her.” He noticed the way Y/N’s eyes were transfixed on his cock, the red mushroom head smeared with precome along the slit, nearly purplish veins standing out prominently on his shaft. Yeah, he couldn’t even deny that he was big because he already knew how many girls had dropped down on their knees for him. “Go ahead, sweetheart, open up those pretty lips for me.”
Almost too excitedly, she dropped her jaw, allowing him to slide his cock into the silky warmth of her mouth. As his hips started to thrust into her mouth, Sam’s started to do the same into her cunt. Both men moaned in tandem with their movements as Y/N’s worries faded away to the back of her mind as they stuffed her to the brim.
“You can come now, baby,” Sam nearly ordered, “go and cream on daddy’s cock- fuck, I know you’ve been waiting.”
It was a harsh bump of his head against her G-spot that sent her over the edge, walls clamping down with ferocity and milking him for all she was worth. Y/N reeled in the sunlight infested warmth that coursed through her body as she finally let go, whining around Steve’s dick as he continued to abuse her throat with long, deep thrusts. 
Bucky was still holding his orgasm off, fondling with his tight, heavy sac while his dick remained a painfully hard mess, glistening with precome. “I’m so glad I got to see you come, dolly, look so fucking pretty when you do.”
She couldn’t deny the little skip of her heart at the praise, just a few simple words that made her feel like a good little girl. But no, God-fucking no, she wasn’t supposed to let them make her feel this way. Guilt washed away that warmth in her chest just as quickly, knowing that her boyfriend was just waiting to come back to see her, finishing up his studies so that they could live their lives out together after college while she was getting her pussy and mouth absolutely wrecked by his co-workers. 
As soon as Y/N got her brain thinking straight again, Sam started moving inside of her again and she garbled out a strangled cry. “If you thought we were done here, baby,” Sam laughed, “you’ve got a lot left ahead of you.”
“We’re not leaving until all of us have come, brat.” Steve’s palm gripped the back of her skull roughly, pushing her head so far down on his dick that her nose was squished against his abdomen. “Greedy little bitch.”
Both men started to thrust into her again, and just like that she was back to being absolutely lost in desire and lust like the bitch in heat she was until there was a sudden shift in the air. So much that the sweat on her body began to cool her skin, Sam’s hands still gripping her hips so tightly she knew they’d leave marks that she would have to hide when she wore her favorite low-cut shorts. 
Bucky’s eyes seemed to drift from her tits moving with each movement of her hips, checking behind the door as if there were something lurking there, but she was too afraid to see for herself. If she stopped she would get spanked, and they’d probably prolong her second orgasm even further, and her pussy couldn’t handle any more subtle teasing.  
“Hey there, Parker, why don’t come on out here?”
But that, that was what made the hairs on Y/N’s neck rose, dread filling her to the fullest as she realized the implications of Sam’s words.
Peter had seen everything. Peter, her boyfriend, had seen three of his co-workers, three men who she barely knew, fuck her deep into his mattress. Peter, her boyfriend, had watched her get fucked into his mattress, without trying to stop them whatsoever.
She couldn’t tell if it was the guilt of cheating on her boyfriend or the freezing realization that he hadn’t done anything to stop the three men that hurt more. 
Yet Peter still walked from behind the door, dressed in a NYU hoodie and a pair of khakis slung low on his hips, just drawing attention to the sizable bulge that stretched out his zipper. His umber eyes, normally full of so much joy and love, were possessed by the same lust and darkness as the three men, as much as he tried to hide it behind a shyer facade. 
His eyes were trained on the tightness of how Y/N’s pussy was gripping Sam, her lips glossed over with come and spit wrapped around Steve’s dick. The girl stopped in her movements, her eyes no longer full of tears for just being gagged, but as soon as her mouth came to a halt around the base of his cock, the blond slapped her across the face. A sharp crack echoed around the room and though she couldn’t see him, she heard Bucky’s feral growl of pleasure at the whorish treatment she was receiving. 
“Didn’t say you could fucking stop, sweetheart, keep working on daddy’s cock.” No more words needed to be said as Steve gripped her hair once more, forcing himself farther back into her throat to the point where she couldn’t breathe. Sam’s thrusts were quickening, closer and closer to release as the sounds of the girl struggling to breath made his balls tighten. 
“Fucking shit, baby, you feel yourself squeezing my dick? I bet you like teasing daddy like that, don’t you?” One of his hands were brought down on her ass in a quick smack that resonated with Bucky, who was staving off his orgasm for something much sweeter than his hand. She was moaning raucously around the dick stuffed in her mouth, the vibrations sending jolts of pleasure up every nerve in Steve’s body as he came with the tip of his dick nearly being swallowed by Y/N’s throat. There was barely any time for her to fully down the thick come in her mouth before Sam was threatening to orgasm. “I’m gonna come so soon but you better fucking not, little girl, you hear me? Gotta let your daddy come before you, you ungrateful little bitch- oh.”
It was a really fucking close call, Sam’s dick pulling out of her with one quick movement before spilling pearly ropes of come onto Y/N’s spine. A high whine escaped her mouth, clit throbbing as she was so, so close to coming, and she was too far into her crazed pleasure to realize that she was letting three older men, men who fought to defend the universe from evil, use her as an over-glorified fleshlight. 
She couldn’t really blame them for calling her a cockdrunk whore. 
Bucky sauntered over to the bed, eyes trained on the pool of come centered around the base of her spine before flipping her over onto her back with his large hands and shoving three vibranium fingers back into her hole. She gasped and held onto his forearm as he continued to fingerfuck her to her second orgasm, eyes screwed shut in a delirious haze of contentment for being filled with at least something again. 
“Bucky, Bucky, Bucky, please-” Steve slapped her along the face, correcting her words immediately. “Daddy, daddy, please let me come.”
Bucky chuckled, tweaking one of her nipples with his flesh hand as he hovered over her face. “I don’t know, dolly, you’ve been a little naughty, callin’ me the wrong name, not listening to Stevie’s orders- don’t think you deserve to get what you want.”
A muffled whimper escaped her swollen lips, and he sighed in surrender. “Okay, dollface, go ahead and come on my fingers. Let me see how you wet ‘em up real good.”
Y/N’s hips bucked into his metal digits with finality, come leaking out of her cunt and soaking the sheets below her. Her sweat-glazed skin shone even against the darkening sky, and all Bucky could do was chuckle at how her chest rose quickly as she tried to catch her breath. He thought about teasing her clit again, just circling around the little bud of nerves to get a rise out of her, but he decided against it. Sam probably had better plans for her anyway. 
On the other hand, Y/N’s orgasm was starting to wear off as she noticed the hardened stare from the edge of the room. Her boyfriend.
“Peter, I…” Y/N made eye contact with him, suddenly noticing how mousy he looked in his own bedroom. 
“I nearly forgot you were here, Parker,” Sam smirked darkly. “Why don’t you come over here and fuck your little whore. I’m feeling a little generous today.”
Steve and Bucky nodded with the same infuriating smugness as Sam. The brunette boy opened his mouth to object to the degrading statement, but when he met his girlfriend’s eyes nothing needed to be said. There was no escaping this. Nothing he said mattered to the three older men, because really they had already gotten everything they wanted right in front of their disgusting, perverted eyes. 
He unbuckled his belt, letting the weight of it drop his khakis to the floor. Maybe if he’d known he would be forced into join a fivesome later that night he’d have picked any other boxers but the Ducktales one, but no one seemed to say a word about them, rather focusing on what they were failing to conceal. 
Peter’s cock had always been admirable to Y/N by its length and God, definitely its thickness. Curved upwards towards his abdomen with a vein running along the left side up to the bulbous head, it was definitely more than average. It was really just a shame he didn’t know how to use it well enough.
His shirt was pulled over his head just as quickly, and if Y/N knew any better she would say that he was excited to get to fuck her in front of the three men. He placed himself in between Y/N’s parted legs, standing in the same position as he had so many times before.
But when Y/N cried out in pain and pleasure as he slid into her, Peter knew that this time, it was different. This time three men, men that he used to trust with his life, stood on either side of him and his girlfriend and jerked their hands up and down their cocks as they watched her get fucked relentlessly. It wasn’t sweet, it wasn’t romantic, but he couldn’t really think when his thick cock was stuffed inside of her stimulated pussy, juices and come leaking out of her abused sex. 
“Go faster, Parker,” Steve instructed, his face contorted in pure pleasure. The pace of Peter’s thrusts sped up, and he threw Y/N’s ankles over his shoulders, hitting deeper inside of her, with the sound of her sobs only turning them all on more. “Oh, right there, shit, shit, shit-”
Steve came first, a low groan escaping his lips as streams of come landed on her tits, still bouncing with every movement of Peter’s hips. 
“Open up,” Sam gritted through his teeth, and Y/N obediently opened her mouth to let his bitter come coat the inside of her throat, some of it landing on her face and neck. The string of curses he let out made Peter thrust even faster into her, and he hated, absolutely despised the way it turned him on to see the three men use his girlfriend to their pleasure. But soon enough a hand pushed against his chest away from Y/N and he reluctantly pulled out.
“Move aside, kid,” Bucky instructed, “Wanna come inside of her.”
As he lined his gigantic cock up with her entrance, her eyes widened with fear. “No, please, I didn’t take my pills, I can’t- I won’t, please not inside-”
“Shut the fuck up, you slut.” Bucky’s fingers came to slap her clit harshly, and she cried out in pain. “You’re gonna be quiet and let me come wherever I damn want, right?”
He punctuated his last word as he thrust inside her, filling her up to the hilt with his girth. She was too drunk on the feeling of her cunt being filled up to argue again. It was painful, extremely so, even though two different cocks had been inside her overstimulated pussy already and Bucky stretched her out wide, his cock thicker with veins to hit every pleasure point. With her legs tossed around his tapered torso, he slid out until his very tip was left in her, then slammed back in with a small moan. The head of his cock relentlessly pounded into her cervix in a nearly soundless tempo and all Y/N could hear were her own gasps of pleasure, jaw-dropping moans that made drool slide back down her throat in her laid down position.
She turned her head to the side, and though her vision was bleary through the tears, she could see Sam and Steve watching Bucky fuck her while Peter, her boyfriend, her sweet, sweet boyfriend, was caught up fucking his hand to the sound of Bucky’s balls slapping against her ass. 
“Fuck, ‘m not gonna last much longer, dollface.” Bucky gasped. “You gonna come soon? You’re gonna come for daddy one more time. I think you’ve got a third one in you, you little fucking slut.”
“Shit, shit, daddy, please ‘m almost there,” Y/N wailed absentmindedly. A thumb came down to circle her clit quickly and she felt the coil in her stomach grow tighter and tighter, until she finally let out a high whine, finding her release as Bucky’s cock pulsed inside of her, ready to come just as easily as her. Her pussy clenched around his cock as she rode out her orgasm, fingers grasping at the sheets in order to find some sort of grounding. His come painted her walls white, and Bucky could’ve sworn there was no better feeling than feeling his blood warm in every vein as he finally let go. With stunted groans, his hips slowed its rhythm, lost in watching how his cock disappear into Y/N’s pussy, her slick juices coating his dick each time he pulled out. 
“Ah, fuck, dolly, you did so good for me. Pussy tight as a fuckin’ vice.” Bucky hugged her limp body close to his sweaty chest, letting his dick soften inside of her for a good few moments before pulling out. He tossed Y/N back onto the bed below him, barely even caring to clean the come dripping down her ribcage and out of her cunt before grabbing his boxers from the cabinet next to the bed. 
Steve was already buttoning his jeans up, checking the notifications on his phone before shoving it back into his pocket. The blond seemed to have better things to do so soon after, rushing his way to the door before pausing where Y/N laid to watch come drip out of her pussy. One more time he pushed Bucky’s come inside of her abused entrance, watching as it oozed out from behind his digits. “Look at you, fucking full of of his come. Such a goddamn whore,” he muttered under his breath.
Those were the last words he said to her before patting Bucky on the shoulder and leading him out of the opened door. 
Maybe Sam was a bit more kind, or affectionate at least. He was already dressed but visibly hard again beneath the thick denim of his pants, and he made sure Y/N knew it, taking her left hand and placing it over his dick. “You still got that effect on me, honey, even when you’re all fucked out like this.” He dragged his fingers through the thick ribbons of come that coated her chest, bringing them up to her mouth so she could taste. Even though she was more than exhausted, she wrapped her tongue around the two fingers that were pushed past her swollen lips, sucking them clean with a tired vengeance. Satisfied with her work, he kissed her chin one more time before leaving without so much as another word, slamming the door shut on his way out.
Click.
It ended exactly the way it started, the lock jostling into the doorknob just as easily as the high of Y/N’s final orgasm slipped away.
Stifling silence suffocated the room around them. Peter refused to meet her eyes, just as much as hers did his. She laid motionless on the bed with him standing at the foot, his dick soft and if she narrowed her bleary eyes just a bit, she could see how his knees were shaking. Neither of them were able to say anything, losing the ability to converse as soon as the three men left the room.
“Peter,” her voice was throaty after the rough fucking she took, “C-can you please get me a drink?”
The brown-haired boy looked down to meet her face, and she could finally see the reason that he had hid it from her. His eyes were red and bloodshot, snot running from his nose with tears running down his cheeks. She’d been so caught up in the after haze of the sex that she didn’t even notice how his bare chest was heaving so deeply, nearing hyperventalation. 
But still, he grabbed his boxers, pulling them over his weakened legs clumsily. “Y-yeah, what kind do you want, Mr. Stark has a ton-”
“I don’t care.” She cut him off firmly, a sharp tone in her voice as she rolled over on her side. Y/N tucked her knees to her chin, fingers running over the side of her neck which was marked with bruises and scratches. “I don’t fucking care.”
Without another word Peter slipped out of the room quietly, knowing better than to try to talk to her about what they had been forced to participate in. It wasn’t as if there was much to say anyways.
Rain pattered against the window. It was only six o’clock in the evening. Cars honked and beeped and Natasha’s Igor Stavinsky record played for its fiftieth round of the day, and to anyone else in the tower it was a normal night. Normal, just like the ones spent sitting on the couch with Bucky’s hand creeping up her leg or Sam’s hands groping her ass, but this time they’d made a move. 
The silence was far too much to handle, the unspoken truth of what she’d done with Bucky, Steve, Sam, and Peter finally hitting her, knocking the air out of her lungs as she suddenly struggled to breathe. Gripping her face, clawing at it like a goddamn wolf, Y/N began to cry. Silently at first, gradually growing into heartbroken sobs, she let her trodden pride carry her voice wherever it wanted to go. 
The men’s whispered words haunted her mere moments after they’d left the room, but most audibly she could hear a faint husk of a voice, Sam’s low moan in her ear looming in the dreadful silence of the room:
Thanks for sharing with us, baby.
2K notes · View notes
sonofthesaiyans · 2 years
Text
Nifa Deserves Better
Yep, it’s finally time for another one of these. And it’s time that another minor member of the AOT crew got some love. 
Before we had Lynne, Mina, and now this time we have a shoutout to another criminally overlooked character, Nifa. 
Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media
Truth be told, I know almost nothing of this character. I don’t think I even saw the episodes she appeared in from back in the Uprising Arc. But I know people who have a very strong soft spot for her, and so it’s only fair that she get the love she was denied due to her short time in the story. 
Nifa is another dedicated and efficient member of the Survey Corps, and served as a close confidant to both Hange and Levi once things started to get ugly in the capital city. She’s focused and she’s efficient, and a needed source of reassurance during what was an escalating situation where the Titans were not even the main enemy. 
If anybody remembers Nifa, it was the especially gruesome way she was taken out. And the less that’s said of it the better. Needlessly brutal and disturbing to dwell on. Hey folks, did I ever tell you I couldn’t care less about fucking Kenny Ackerman? I have no idea what role he even serves in the story and to be brutally honest, I forget he even is in this most of the time. So yeah, it makes it easy to hate his guts for what he did to Nifa and her comrades. 
But she should not be remembered solely for that, there’s plenty of “nice girls” on Titan who should NOT be remembered for how they went down, whether their deaths be justified or..........UNJUSTIFIED, as is so often the case with this bullshit artist masquerading as a writer (And “artist” is really being generous for that matter....) Rather they should be remembered for what they gave and the potential they should have been able to realize before going down in battle. Nifa is another such soldier who’s presence could’ve invited a lot of possibility, even if not necessarily as a mainstay, like fellow nice girls Sasha and Historia. 
Nifa is described as the “most stylish” in the Survey Corps. Well, she certainly does have a unique look to her. Definitely a cutie as most of the Titan girls are. And an equally approachable personality where she really was a needed support system to the squad, most especially Levi. Probably something he needed after what happened to Petra who.......oddly enough, is compared to Nifa in a lot of the fanart I was sifting through. I dunno if I see the resemblance, but certainly not bad to be compared to the beloved Petra Ral, right? 
The ones who seem to like Nifa seem to really value her short time around, and she certainly could’ve been another interesting member to watch if she had stuck around. Well for anyone who wanted to see her in the newer SC uniform, you’re welcome for the fanart I stumbled into above. Who knows what else we might have had with Nifa? I do wish more people would join me across the fandom in demanding an answer to that and all those I have already mentioned before. Because these characters truly deserve SO MUCH BETTER. 
So a little love for Nifa folks, she deserves some. Give your hearts to Nifa. 
I sadly don’t know much about her VA, Madeleine Morris. But if anyone here knows any of her other anime roles, do tell me what you recommend from her selection. 
All fanart belongs to their respective artists. Now to figure out who’s next for this series. 
54 notes · View notes
altruistic-meme · 3 years
Text
AFTG fic recs
Hi all! I just wanted to share some of my all-time favorite fanfics for aftg, for no real reason other than I want more people to read them and send their love to the authors :) 
Under a readmore because it got. A little long. But please enjoy!
WIPs
Dangerous Habits by LovelyLittleGrim ( @lovelylittlegrim )
Andrew has run into problems while on undercover jobs before. None of those problems were anything like the troublesome runaway that is one Nathaniel Wesninski
Aka: the fic where Andrew is undercover as a hitman for hire and Neil is the guy who hires him. Things get complicated from there.
Undercover Andrew? BAMF Neil? Hitman AU?? Absolutely. I’m in love. The story is just *chef kisses*
Chapters: 8/9
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic depictions of violence, past rape/non-con, Drake Spear (who is his own warning), Butcher Neil, 
--
Negotiations by elesary ( @elesary )
This is what Andrew Minyard knows: his brother is dead, killed by a petty Raven prince who has never learned to keep his hands off of Andrew's things. His brother's daughters are his responsibility, a job that is made infinitely harder when their shitty grandparents want custody. Nathaniel Wesninski is a liar, but he might be the only way to avenge Aaron and protect his nieces. All Andrew has to do is watch Nathaniels - Neil's- back as he carves out his own life and identity from everyone who thinks they own him.
Andrew has always been good at upholding his end of the bargain, has he finally found someone willing to uphold theirs?
This fic has got me fucked up, honestly. I’m emotional over it. It’s fantastic.
Chapters: 11/?
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic depictions of violence, attempted sexual assault, Butcher Neil,
--
the upper hand by plantelty ( @plantelty  )
Shortly after losing his mother, Neil arrives in the small town of Palmetto, South Carolina, alone in the world and with an impossible plan to carry through.
At the age of eighteen, Andrew ends up helping a boy stage his own death.
-
Just two fucked up boys learning to trust each other during the course of a summer, but also: multiple references to songs, twinyard angst (Nicky tries his best), The Plotting of Neil Josten's Gruesome Demise, and shit hitting the fan in a variety of ugly ways!
The cliffhanger has got me on the edge of my seat, but it is 100% worth the read and the wait for the last chapter!! 
Chapters: 10/11
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Canon typical violence, 
--
The Butcher’s House by Fire_Bear ( @fire-bear )
Andrew thought something was odd with the house the Foxes had to move into after their Athletes' House had been burnt down. He just wasn't prepared for what was actually wrong with it.
For this was a house full of monsters.
Ghost story! Ghost story! Ghost story! I literally think about this fic every other day, it’s fantastic. 
Chapters: 6/?
Rating: Teen and Up Audiences
Warnings: character death (major or minor is unclear), injuries, 
--
Promise of an Unbroken Boy by elesary ( @elesary​ )
Neil is caught by the police with Mary's burning body and is sent to juvie in Oakland where he is assigned to share a cell with one Andrew Doe, who promises him Exy, if only Neil will tell him all of his secrets. With no access to tinted contacts and hair dye, he agrees, it's only a matter of time until he's killed after all. What does he have to lose?
But Andrew's found someone who knows what a promise means, and he'll be damned if he lets that go without a fight.
Ngl this is definitely in my very top favorites -- I LOVE the idea of Neil and Andrew meeting pre-series, and this fic just BLEW my expectations for that plotline out of the waters
Chapters: 14/?
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic depictions of violence, Underage, attempted rape/non-con, canon-typical violence, 
~~~~~~~~~
Complete
The Nameless Monster by kanekicure ( @kanekicure )
Nathaniel Wesninski wants nothing more than to see his father dead and buried. But when his father promises him the title of The Butcher, Nathaniel quickly realizes that his destiny of following in his father's footsteps is closer than ever before.
So of course, when he gets forced to go undercover for the Baltimore police, he starts seeing what living could truly be.
-
Andrew Minyard is a newly recruited police officer for the worst precinct in Baltimore, who is dedicated on hunting down the notorious Butcher and his unnamed underling. But when Neil Josten is thrown into his midst as his civilian consultant; he starts to realize some things don't quite appear as they seem.
I love the story telling -- the secret identities, the plotting, everything.
Chapters: 14/14
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic depictions of violence, Butcher Neil, implied/referenced rape/non-con, implied/referenced child abuse, implied/referenced slef-harm (I believe there is a scene that is somewhat detailed on this subject), some characters also get drugged at one point, 
-- 
that’s just something people say by nanatsuyu ( @theoctopusnods )
Neil makes the mistake of stealing the wrong car. Andrew makes the mistake of offering a ride to a liar. They both make the mistake of turning the whole affair into a road trip ‘home.’
Gonna be honest; the summary does not give a big idea as to what is in store and i am SO GLAD I gave this one a try so i’m telling you that you will be too
Chapters: 24/24
Rating: Teen and Up Audiences
Warnings: implied/referenced child abuse, panic attacks (somewhat grahic descriptions of)
--
The Story After You by kanekicure ( @kanekicure )
Andrew Minyard does not understand how Riko Moriyama landed Neil Wesninski.
How the snot-nosed, small dick, rich brat, second son of the Moriyama family who also just so happened to own the largest EXY gear and merchandiser company in the world “RAVEN” - had landed smart mouthed, quick witted, stupidly blue eyed Wesninski, was beyond him. Well, unless Wesninski was a gold digger, but Andrew doubted it.
-
Or; how Andrew Minyard says he doesn't get into messy situations, until he meets Neil and suddenly he is in the most messiest possible situation ever imagined in his life - oh and also, he might be becoming a homewrecker.
Ok I am behind bc I haven’t read the final chapter of this but!! I love the story, it’s very emotional and moving, and I love the characterization in it.
Chapters: 10/10
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Abusive Riko/Neil, abusive relationship, implied/referenced rape/non-con, implied/reference child abuse, implied/referenced self-harm, graphic depictions of violence, some descriptions of injuries/scarring, 
-- 
This Complicated Life by 5a5b5p5 ( @andrewsbutterflyknife )
“This is exactly why I don’t want you and Andrew to meet,” Aaron says grumpily. “You two would get along far too well.”
Neil grins. “I just like pissing you off,” he says, “It’s not my fault your brother does such a good job at it.”
Neil doesn’t expect much from his Sophomore year of college, but when he becomes a waiter at the Palmetto Bistro, his life gets a whole lot more interesting. As it turns out, maintaining friendships new and old as well as navigating an interesting relationship with the head chef of the restaurant—who just so happens to be his best friend’s twin brother—is a lot more complicated than he’d thought it would be.
A much more light-hearted fic than most of the others! Includes a secret relationship, and also chef Andrew >>
Chapters: 10/10
Rating: Mature
Warnings: 
--
When I Fade, Keep Me in Your Memory by demesh 
Neil Josten has a secret: he can flicker out of existence.
He can vanish with the turn of a thought; click his fingers, and suddenly he’s not there anymore. Invisible and untouchable, he becomes a living ghost.
Having promised his mother never to let his ability go, Neil teeters the line between faded and real, a person and an echo. He can’t risk getting hurt.
But then, one day, someone sees him when they shouldn’t be able to.
 A (flower-shop) AU about how a faded and lonely Neil finds it in him to become someone real.
Another fic that I need to catch up on ;; but anyway it’s amazing and I love Neil’s ability in it, it’s so well explained and well-written about
Chapters: 12/12
Rating: Teen and Up Audiences
Warnings: mentions of past abuse, panic attacks
--
12 Ways to Woo a Minyard by NikNak22 ( @knickknacksandallthat )
Neil is a math nerd who, by a stroke of dumb luck, falls into a group of friends that are the closest thing to family he’s ever had. So, when he tells them about his new mysterious crush, he shouldn’t be surprised how immediately they come up with a plan to help win them over. One they insist that if Neil follows it, he’ll have them falling for him in no time. But things don’t always go to plan – or do they?
Nicky wants to set him up with someone else. Matt and Jeremy are confused but supportive. Allison and Seth offer lewd suggestions, while Dan does her best to keep everyone in line. Jean and Renee know something, Aaron doesn’t really care, and Kevin just wants Neil to join the lacrosse team.
But one thing’s for certain – whether Neil’s successful or not, everyone’s got money riding on this.
The romance-trope-filled fanfic of my dreams. Sometimes you just need a fic of pure joy -- this is that fic. 
Chapters: 14/14
Rating: Mature
Warnings: 
--
finders keepers by moonix ( @annawrites ​ )
Andrew meets Nathaniel through a scavenger hunt app. As their team takes part in a hunt that sends each of them to creepy, abandoned places alone to solve clues and gain points, Andrew and Nathaniel begin a little treasure hunt of their own. The anonymity of getting to know each other in small increments, never meeting face-to-face, allows them a level of intimacy neither are used to. Meanwhile Renee’s friend Neil is acting weird whenever Andrew shows up…
This was one of the first fics I read for aftg!! And BOY what a great start!! All of the little pieces and parts that work together, and just the scavenger hunt itself is fantastic! (I also REALLY wanna know if there is an app like this out there because I would be down to do that)
Chapters: 8/8
Rating: Mature
Warnings: (these all come from the author:) “mentions of historical abuse in a mental asylum, mentions of suicide, mentions of murder and kidnapping, morbid facts, creepy abandoned places including a haunted house at a theme park with disturbing rooms, special appearance of a creepy clown doll, fatphobia and some introspection on body image/complicated relationship with food, mention of self harm scars”
-----
Scared to Live (But I’m Scared to Die) by Major_816 ( @major816 )
Neil Josten goes to the Nest for Andrew, but he stays for a lot more.
~
"I'm sorry Coach," he muttered.
"For what kid?" Wymack shifted. "You've got to give me something to work with here."
Wymack watched the thin traces of sorrow as paper exchanged hands and he was looking down at a contract with the Edgar Allan Raven's.
"I signed them Coach, I'm sorry."
~
The one where Neil doesn't come back from Winter Break.
It is VERY dark, and is one of very few fics that I have actually been almost unable to read one of the scenes, so DEFINITELY pay attention to the warnings -- both these, and the ones provided for each individual chapter. I did go through the fic to collect as many warnings as I could find in the chapter warnings, but be sure to take care of yourself.
Chapters: 36/36
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: rape/non-con elements, implied/referenced rape/non-con, discussions of rape/non-con, canon-typical violence, graphic descritions, physical abuse, panic attacks, descriptions of injuries (often graphic), psychological warfare, dissociating, psychological torture, physical torture, use of knives, alcoholism/alcohol abuse, pain-induced delirium, rape/non-con, emotional self-separation, suicidal ideation/thoughts of suicide, emotional distress (which sums up the whole fic and also me while reading it), handcuffs/chains used as restraints, referenced/implied abuse towards animals, vomitting, begging, excessive use of painkillers, drowning, waterboarding, physical restraint, mutilation of an animal, mild hallucinations, non-con drugging, sleep deprivation, starvation, humiliation, the Butcher, 
Also one of the first fics I read and 100% my absolute favorite fic!!! Which is adfjhsd a little worrying, considering, but it is what it is. Anyway. This fic absolutely wrecked me, and while it is technically complete, there is a sequel in the works! So! But I am so so excited for the sequel, and I am working on rereading this. It’s amazing. 1000/10.
138 notes · View notes
cinnamonest · 3 years
Text
I’m pushing out another one of my long-since-drafted things to the queue bc I’m trying to start keeping the queue active 24/7 and fill more asks but have this in the meantime
//dark shit, like the blood gore violence kind of yandere not the hot kind, brief animal death, gruesome slow npc death, gore, violence, blood, decaying/putrefaction mention
I'm really bad at judging what's mild versus severe when it comes to gore/blood bc I tend to underestimate, I think this is kinda severe? Let me know which it is actually pls so I have a better idea for the future ---------------------------------------- I mentioned a while back in the corpse disposal post and murder methods post that Razor can be... Brutal to say the least, but to expand more on the concept I feel like there's a big potential for a sort of gap moe with him, a duality that seems to contradict itself. Because in many ways he's a sweetheart, always trying to find things to make you happy, often smiling with those wide, excited eyes, physically affectionate with nuzzles and the like. But the other side of that, he's not actually aware of how... desensitized he is. You notice it early on and it catches you off guard a bit the first time it happens. Some poor little animal you two see struggling, like a bird stuck in a tree, and you urge him to go get it and he nods and says ok. Grabs it, and just as you're about to thank him and let it go you hear its little bones snap under the crush of his grip with a final pained chirp. There, he got it, see? Now you two can eat it together. That was why you wanted him to grab it right? To kill it? Why else? He looks down and realizes oh, it's still twitching, so he reached a hand up and twists its neck. There, now it's dead, he says with a beaming smile. But it falls and he tilts his head when he sees the shocked look on your face. What's wrong? Why are you so upset? You soon learn a lot of the animals don't... die immediately. The little things the wolves drag back are still kicking and struggling, still making noises as they tear into them to devour. It makes you sick to your stomach when you witness it, tears come to your eyes. He knows you don't like it and warns you, but... he doesn't understand why? Why does it upset you like that? He doesn't get it. It's a gnawing awareness in the back of your mind. You start to pick up on his... lack of reactions to certain things. You were once in the church getting healing for a minor wound of his when another group of adventurers came rushing through the doors, desperately begging for help for their friend they were carrying... some guy seriously injured, gored by a boar. The sight is burned in your mind forever, the organs spilling out of his split gut, the shivering and wide, bloodshot eyes, the blood bubbling out of his mouth with choked horrific groans and the way his body convulsed involuntarily. The most horrid thing you'd ever seen. And you were pretty certain it was that way for everyone. Everyone in the church was gasping, some people were retching and trying to hold back sickness, people ran out of the room as they were unable to handle the scene, tears were in everyone's eyes, and as the man wailed in agony from them setting his dislocated bones, you watched the bystanders cringe and wince. Every person in the vicinity was visibly horrified.... except for one. Razor's face was neutral. Curious. He leaned in closer to get a better look, eyebrows raised. He doesn't flinch at the sight of organs spilling onto the ground and the man starting to convulse and foam at the mouth as his eyes roll back into his head. And then, after a moment, he asks if you're ready to leave, says he feels better now and that man is really loud, he doesn't like it. His voice doesn't even have the slightest hint of a wavering or discomfort. When you come across a man in the woods caught in a bear trap, you can barely stand to look at it. Just hearing the cries for help had you shivering, and the sight of the pooling blood and utter agony on the man's face had you gasping, hand over your mouth as you tried to look away. ...Razor didn't seem to mind, though. He just undoes the trap and, without giving the man any warning, yanks it apart, pulling the spikes from his legs. As he does, blood shoots out and splatters on his face. He doesn't flinch, nor when the man screams. He does finally seem to react to the pained groans the man makes. But... It's not like your reactions. He's not flinching and grimacing, drawing in sharp breaths and tensing up, eyes watering in pity and shock like you. Instead, his eyes narrow and he puts his hands over his ears as you stoop down to help the poor man. His eyebrows furrow. He almost looks... Annoyed. He draws his foot back as if he's about to kick him, but freezes with realization when he looks at you, as if he forgot you were standing there, and puts his foot back down. You're certain he wasn't actually going to do that, of course. You're not sure why he did that, but... He wouldn't do something like that, even in a moment of dissociation from his human awareness. He does volunteer to be the one to go get help, though, getting away fast, but for some reason you sense it was more out of irritation at the noise rather than horror at the whole thing. Perhaps the worst was the decomposing body, that day you took a walk in the woods together. He smelled it first, nose wrinkling up in disgust at the putrid smell. But it was strong enough that you smelled it soon after. He says having dead animals this close to the residence of the pack is not good, they all hate the smell, so he can try to move the carcass of whatever animal it is... but it's not an animal, it turns out, once you finally find the source, collapsed at the bottom of a cliff from where they most likely fell to their death. Well, it's kind of a stretch to say it still resembles a human either, but you can tell from the general shape. It's more just like a glob, putrefied and rotting flesh falling off the bones. It shocks you so much you fall backwards, but he just moves closer. Ugh, too far rotted to move, he can't do anything about it, he realizes as he gives the decaying mass a kick and watches the blackened flesh slide off the bones. Oh well. ...In your shock, it takes you a moment to realize how... unbothered he seems. Mildly annoyed by the smell, but his expression is neutral as he looks at one of the most horrifying sights you've ever seen, he just yawns as he walks away from it and says you two should get away from the smell, it makes his head hurt.
The events all linger in the back of your head. A growing sense of wrongness, a dark, cold dread that settles in your stomach as the occurrences slowly grow in number, one after the other, each time you notice the complete lack of any sign of disturbance on his face, in his voice or body language. You ask him once, one time when you get the courage to ask such a... potentially offensive question. Don't you... feel anything when you see things dying? When they're in pain? He nods. He gets what you mean. The feeling when you watch something die. Hungry, right? Oh, no? Maybe you mean the irritation, a kind of angry feeling, what's the word... impatient...? Because the thing is taking too long to die and he wants it to go ahead and die already. Or maybe you mean like when that man was injured? When something is dying but it's not something you wanna eat? Yeah, he has a feeling then too. Um... kind of like anger... you taught him the word once... annoyed? They make so much noise, and he doesn't like loud things. When that man came into the church... he didn't like how loud it was. Why didn't they just kill him, since he was making so much noise...? He doesn't get it. When things annoy him, he kills them, like loud birds and biting bugs. He kinda had an urge to just... reach out and make the man stop screaming, just twist his neck like he does small animals when they make too much noise. But he's smart, he says, he knows the other people might get mad. Yes, he uses the word "might," not "would," as if it was a mere possibility. So it doesn't really come as a surprise when the same attitude applies to the people at his own mercy, the people that get too close to you and end up dragged out to the woods. It's that same knowing dread in your gut, and while it horrifies you as much as it always has, you wouldn't have expected anything else. Maybe some people would feel bad about what they're doing, they would want to go ahead and get it over with, they couldn't take the begging and agony the other party is in... but not only is he totally unbothered, but if he kills him now, he says, the blood will go all over the ground, and that's bad, his lupical like eating the blood in things. So he just snaps the man's bones, that way he won't run away. It's hard to describe the excruciated noises that come out of the other's throat when he does. It's unlike any noise you've ever heard a human make, that kind of pain. The sweat that pours from the other's skin from the agony, the way his mouth hangs open even when he can't scream anymore, the trembling and muffled begging as he moves to the next limb. You tremble and cry. You shiver uncontrollably, you whimper for him to stop. Your eyes widen when he grabs each limb and you close your eyes and sob and grimace and cringe with the snapping sound. Razor, on the other hand, stays just as neutral as before. Face blank and empty, as if performing any other mundane task. He doesn't flinch at the snapping. His expression is unchanging at the sound of screams and the groans as he drags the still-living figure behind him by his shattered ankle all the way back home. When he finally goes to look back at you, he tilts his head at the look on your face. Why do you still look upset? There's no blood yet... isn't it blood that makes you upset? Maybe not? Maybe it's the sound that bothers you? Yeah, you flinch whenever the man groans in pain, so it must be the sounds of the dying things that you don't like, it annoys him too really. Ok, that can be fixed... sound comes from the throat right? Well, he left his claymore a ways away so, it'll just take a second, the guy is thrashing a bit but eventually he holds him still enough to get his teeth latched around his throat and just... bites down. The sound is a squelching, crunching sound, one that you'll never forget, it makes every hair on your body stand on end and your skin crawl. He pulls back with the mass of bleeding flesh and tracheal tissue in his jaws and spits it out on the ground. There, see...? You can see the blood on his teeth reflecting the light as he smiles. He's not making noises anymore, so... why do you still have that look on your face? Is it because the body on the ground is all... spasming and convulsing like that? Well, uh... that'll stop soon, probably. At least it's nice and quiet now. He gets it, really, he doesn't like loud noises either.
137 notes · View notes
thewildwaffle · 3 years
Text
Friends With Monsters - Part 1
Requested by a user on ao3. I’m putting “Part 1″ on this because I already know I’m coming back to revisit this crew in the future. ***
One would perhaps think that as the first mate, the captain might deign to give Geta the slightest hint of reasoning for their latest addition to the crew. Or at least, that’s what First Mate Geta Erenti thought.
Adding an arzhi?! To the crew?! Did the captain want everyone to die a gruesome death?! The incidents at the Oshe’al Belt weren’t so long ago that they’d been lost to memory, and the arzhi had played a major part in the brutal battle, both in space and planetside warfare. They were large and imposing, on average standing head, shoulders, and chest above even the tallest biet, human, or thrishal. They were covered in short fur, spikes, and dense muscle that tore relentlessly through ground troops, and reacted quickly with any manner of weapons or at the control of a fighter ship. There were members of this very crew that had been part of the battle. There were even more members of this very crew that had lost people they knew in that battle. And yet when Captain Stern Bauer sent her the updated ship roster, there was an arzhi on the list of new recruits. Not only that, but they were listed as a new ship medic! Geta went immediately to find the captain. He was on break in the mess hall, eating a bowl of brenntar like he hadn’t a care among the stars. “Captain Stern, sir, do you have a moment that I could speak with you?” The Captain sighed and put down his eating utensils. “I think I already know what you’re here to talk to me about and I would like to point out that the roster has already been posted and the new recruits are already en route to our coordinates. No, there is nothing I can do to change that, and even if there were, I wouldn’t.” Geta held her beak shut tightly before a few words escaped that she’d regret saying. She’d served under Captain Stern long enough to know to hear and recognize the tone of his voice. He’d made a decision and that was that. “But why?” Geta finally said once she felt she could contain herself once again. “Why would you put together the roster with… with them on it without at least consulting me?”
“I’ve made plenty of rosters on my own before. You and I both know you would have taken issue with Arzhi Fehl’s inclusion.”
“Of course I do! And for good reasons! At least then I could have perhaps pointed out that having an arzhi aboard this ship could lead to a multitude of issues with the rest of the crew.” Captain Stern stared at her with a gray/green striped face that did not betray any emotions. “I am aware. It was not a decision I made lightly, but I have my reasons for accepting their application to the crew.” He paused to return to his meal briefly to take another bite and chew as Geta looked like she was on the verge of bursting. He’d served with her long enough to recognize the expressions she made when she was trying to hold back her rather… lively emotions. He smiled and finished what was left of his meal. “As captain of this ship, I have full authority to reject or accept new recruits to this crew. I realize you have every right to be upset with me for breaking protocol by not involving you with this last round of recruits, and for that, I do apologize. Although,” he broke his stoic expression to smile mischievously, “one might say I could blame my upbringing on that.” Geta’s tail twitched as a mixture of amusement and annoyance broke through her formal demeanor. He always did that when she caught him bending rules like this. It was a very human thing to do, and while Captain Stern was no human, he had been raised by one. “With all due respect, you can’t keep using that as an excuse to ignore protocol, sir.” “That’s probably true, Geta,” Captain Stern began calmly gathering his things and cleaning up his eating area. “But my ‘bending of the rules’ in deciding the arzhi onto our crew by myself isn’t the only reason you’re here, is it?” Geta clenched her clawed hands so tightly, she almost cut into her calloused pads. She struggled against the swirling torrent of emotions she felt, but she knew it was becoming a losing battle. “Why an arzhi?” She kept her volume down at a reasonable level, but the anger leaked through her voice more than she’d like when talking to a superior, even one as familiar and close to her as the captain. “Why bring such a monster in among our crew?” Having gathered all the mess from his meal, Captain Stern paused and sat silently looking at her expectantly. Geta knew the look. She sighed and slowly unclenched her fists. Her shoulders, she realized were also pulled in tightly and she took a moment to release the tension she’d been holding. The captain smiled ever so slightly and gestured to an empty chair and waited for her to sit before responding. “This is not a decision I’ve made lightly. And again, I must, perhaps less jokingly this time, partially blame my upbringing. You’re aware that when humans first arrived on the galactic scene, they caused quite a stir.” After a few tiks, Geta realized he was waiting for a response. “I’ve heard the stories, yes.” Of course, she had. Everyone knew the stories. Humans, with all their terrifying strength, conquering tendencies, and devious innovations had become somewhat of a power force after making their debut to the galactic community generations ago. Captain Stern continued. “Their ferocity and curiosity scared many at first, but for all that, one of the most curious of their abilities was their capacity of pack bonding. As dangerous as their potential seemed, they wanted to make friends and they were very good at doing so. They could form bonds with anyone from any race after being in close proximity for any length of time.” Geta sat back in her chair and sighed. “Sir, if I am understanding what you’re getting at here, do you mean to say that you’re letting an arzhi aboard the ship because you were adopted by big scary humans and turned out alright?” Captain Stern smiled and stood from his seat with his meal tray. “Something like that.” With a slight nod of dismissal, he left her to stew in his words. Geta watched him leave the mess hall and continued staring long after he disappeared from sight. The captain may biologically be a rerlut, but he certainly had the human stubbornness and charm down to an art. She had to admit though, there were a lot of his strange human traits he’d picked up that made him a fantastic captain. She trusted him completely, but she’d be hard-pressed to say that she wasn’t at least a little apprehensive of this latest decision. The captain seemed to be heavily relying on making connections between the humans’ past with the arzhi. She shook her head. Perhaps she could help and be sure to assign a few of the humans on the crew to help the new recruit get acclimated. *** Captain Stern followed the sound of yelling toward the med bay. The ship’s new recruits had arrived only four solar cycles ago and there’d already been two incidents on report. He was on his way now to make sure there wasn’t a third made. Medical Officer Arzhi Fehl had been just as big and as imposing as everyone expected him to be. When he first stepped out of the shuttle he’d arrived on, everyone was sure to give him plenty of space. That lasted for the first solar cycle. The first altercation hadn’t involved any physical blows, but it would have if Geta had not been there to break it up as quickly as she did. Afterwards, his First Mate had made sure there was a rotation of human crew mates accompanying Fehl at all times. It was a good idea. The humans had stayed out of the Oshe’al Belt battles for the most part, so they held no inherent animosity to the arzhi. What’s more, the humans also held a lot of influence and respect aboard the ship. Having them associated with Fehl’s presence seemed to have an effect on both the new and veteran crew mates. The next report had been less serious, but threats had been made and duties disturbed. As he rounded the final turn to the med bay, he could make out voices. He noted that none of the angry yells were in Fehl’s deep tone. That was something at least. It took the reception room’s occupants a few tiks to notice his presence, but once they did, everyone fell silent. “What is the meaning of this?” He kept his voice low and even. It was the same voice his mother used when he would get caught getting into big trouble. He was told it was slightly terrifying, so he only used it when he really needed to. No one answered at first. He gave them a moment to realize he was expecting an answer. Finally, someone, an older ehot engineer named Irubin spoke up. “It’s not right.” Captain Stern shifted to better look at the crew mate. Irubin’s scales were weathered with age, but not so old that they had lost their rich, dark orange color. A few scales were missing here and there. Especially along his scars. Scars that the Captain knew had been inflicted on Irubin when he was a young soldier fighting planet side at Oshe’al. “Would you care to elaborate, Ehot Irubin?” The engineer looked uncomfortable. “It’s not right that he’s here,” he pointed at Fehl as if everyone didn’t already know who ‘he’ was in reference to. “He’s a monster. They’re all monsters and we shouldn’t be subjected to sharing a ship with them. He’s probably planning on killing us all once we’re not expecting it.” In the corner of his eye, Captain Stern saw one of the humans, Victoria step forward. “You can’t know that? How could you-! Why would you even-?! You don’t know him! Fehl is a sweetheart, which you’d know if you took five minutes to try to talk to him like a civilized-” Captain Stern held up a hand. Victoria, paused in mid-rant, dipped her head and stepped back again. He noted that she stood a little closer to Fehl this time as if she was moving to put herself in between the arzhi and everyone else. “I know what you’re trying to do, Captain, sir,” Irubin said with much less vitriol in his voice this time. “And what is that?” Irubin looked uncomfortable like he’d maybe wished he hadn’t said that aloud. “You… you’ve been assigning humans to be with him so they’ll pack bond and get the rest of us to… to just… be okay with having him here.” Captain Stern hummed a moment and scratched his chin. “Of course I have. I figured it was the most obvious and sensible thing to do in this case. Humans are capable of forming bonds and friendships with almost anyone, but,” he paused to look over at Fehl and Victoria and then returned his gaze to Irubin, “they only do so with those they feel safe with. Humans are famously intuitive on these sorts of matters. Do you mean to tell me that you’re questioning the humans’ judgment?” Irubin’s short ears bent back. “No, of course not, I-” “And what’s more,” Captain Stern continued, “are you questioning my judgment? Do you think me an incompetent captain of this crew?” His ears went all the way back against his bent neck. “I, I would never, sir. Of course not.” “Good.” Captain Stern straightened his posture and let his shoulders casually drop. “If you and your companions would be so kind as to meet me in my office for a few mentiks. I’d like to discuss the matter here a little more in depth. Perhaps we could brainstorm some ideas together to make sure that understanding is something the rest of the ship shares.” Although he kept his voice lighthearted and level, it was clear that the invitation was in fact an order. The engineer nodded respectfully and was followed out by two other very sheepish looking crew mates. After a moment, only he, Fehl, Victoria, and a small booka sitting on a bench remained in the room. As Captain Stern finished watching the others leave, he turned to look at the fiery cat-like alien expectantly. “Uh, I, I have an appointment with medic Fehl, but if this is a bad time, I can reschedule.” Captain Stern smiled and shook his head. “That shouldn’t be necessary, Churra. I do hope you’ll allow me to delay Medic Fehl just a few more mentiks though?” With a dip of the booka’s head and a slight darkening of fur, Captain Stern returned his full attention back to Fehl. The arzhi medic stood a good head and shoulders above the captain, and a voice in the back of Stern’s mind reminded him that the fears that some on the crew had for the new crew mate were most certainly founded. Not only were arzhi large, powerful, and quick, but they seemed to exude an air of dangerous predator around them. That was, Stern realized, until you got to the eyes. While the rest of them seemed deadly, the eyes were soft and kind. And in Fehl’s case, a little apprehensive and unsure. “Captain, sir, I apologize for this whole mess, and that you had to get involved. I know you’re busy and-” “Don’t worry about me, keeping crew mates in line is part of my job,” Captain Stern waved his hand dismissively. “Another important aspect of what I do is make sure crew mates are adapting well to their new positions. Is there an empty med room available that we can talk alone for a moment?” There were plenty, and the captain and the medic took the first one they found. It was a simple check-up room. A bit small with Fehl’s bulk inside, but not so much that it was uncomfortably cramped. “I’ll keep this quick Fehl, since I know you’re busy,” Stern began. “First off, and I know I said this to you in your arrival interview, but thank you for coming here and being part of this crew.” Captain Stern noticed how Fehl shifted a bit uncomfortably and paused. He waited as the arzhi medic mentally worked to put his words together. “Sir, I… I don’t mean to sound ungrateful, but… well I put in many applications to… I don’t even remember how many ships. I know why I was denied so many times, but I wanted this position so badly I just kept trying. And then you… I never expected a Coalition crew... I mean, after the war…” “The war has been over for solar cycles. There’s been peace and trade between our governments. There certainly were no rules that said I couldn’t hire you to my crew.” Captain Stern took a seat and motioned for Fehl to do the same. “That being said, I am not ignorant to the fact that my feelings on the matter are not a popular take with everyone aboard.” “So why accept me on board? My kind has a well-earned reputation of violence, even amongst ourselves. I’m sure most captains threw out my application as soon as they saw my species listed.” “Well for starters, let’s not forget you are quite a skilled medic with an impressive record. Anyone with half a brain would be foolish to ignore that,” Stern chuckled before he quieted into a thoughtful look. “I was always taught to see individuals as they were, not as stereotypes given to a lump sum. As for Ehot Irubin and the others, I’m hoping this will be a teaching experience for them. It’s high time they got over their fear.” “Their fear, sir? Fear of me, I assume?” Captain Stern gave a slight nod. “Of you, partially. Though mostly, I think it’s their fear of facing the future without the prejudices the past has given them.” Fehl thought about it a moment and nodded. “Is that why you assigned humans to help, what was the saying they used... ‘show me the ropes?’” “I put together your schedule since you got here and I know for a fact you’ve had more than just humans as chaperones while you get settled.” “No, but it’s mostly been, humans.” He looked up sharply, “Not that I mind, of course, they’ve been great and I really appreciate them! I’d heard stories about them before, but I’d never been around them before.” He lowered his head and voice slightly as if worried Victoria might hear them from the waiting room down the hall, “Are they always so nice, or is that just part of their duties?” Captain Stern laughed. It seemed to break some shell of apprehension that Fehl had been feeling as a smile broke out over his face and his eyes lit up. Stern noticed that the arzhi smiled like humans and he himself did, with exposed teeth and wide grins. It gave the captain a small swell of affirmation that his decisions to this point had been right. “Medic Fehl, I can’t speak for how all humans are, but I can assure you that the humans aboard this ship are just like that. I wasn’t kidding earlier when I said humans have a great sense of intuition. If they like you, the rest of the crew will come around in their own time and way as well.” Fehl dipped his head low. “Thank you, Captain.” “You’ll do fine, Arzhi Fehl. I’m glad you’re here and am expecting great things on this ship. Aller anfang ist schwer.” Fehl blinked in confusion. Noticing, Captain Stern sighed, “That last part didn’t translate for you did it?” “No sir.” “It means all beginnings are hard. Your translator’s database doesn’t have Earth German integrated. It’s the language I was raised with. Sometimes it fits a situation better than my own native Nort Rerlutti. You must have Earth English, Hindi, and French integrated already, otherwise you wouldn’t be able to understand the humans on the crew.” “You’re bilingual?” “I actually learned several Earth languages before I was old enough to be fitted with my first universal translator. My mother was insistent on that being part of my education.” The captain stood and smiled at the medic who was still taller even while seated. He took in the expression on the medic’s face and smiled. “Do you have any more questions, Medic Fehl? I do need to get back to my office to have a conversation with a few of your crew mates that are waiting for me.” “Captain, if I may ask… you were raised on Earth by humans. Is… is that why you gave me a chance? Are you hoping I can help my people lose our stigma as the humans did theirs? I’m worried… it’s a lot to... I’m not sure if I can.” Captain Stern rested a hand on the medic’s tall shoulder reassuringly. “You worry about your duties as a medic, I’ll worry about the rest. Remember, aller anfang ist schwer.” “All beginnings are hard?” “That’s the way. Now, back to work. I believe you’ve got a booka out in the waiting room to see.”
262 notes · View notes
kales-salad · 2 years
Text
Top Ten Most Gruesome Hannibal Death Tableaus imo
After looking at other people’s top 10 most gruesome Hannibal (NBC) deaths lists and disagreeing with them, I felt the need to make one myself. So, here is, in my opinion, the top 10 most gruesome deaths in the NBC show Hannibal.
Disclaimer: I have only seen the first two seasons, oops. AND THERE WILL BE SPOILERS FOR THE FIRST TWO SEASONS!! SO PLEASE WATCH OUT!!!
10: episode 1.11 Rôti
Tumblr media
I feel like this is a very minor death that many people probably forgot about after a day or two, but when I was looking through the episodes and scraping this list together, I was reminded of it and I am once again slightly disturbed. Something about tongues themselves gross me out, so just seeing his tongue poking out of his neck is even worse.
9: episode 1.02 Amuse-Bouche
Tumblr media
And to think that this was only the second episode, my god. This is the episode that made me realize that what I was getting into, wasn’t going to be the most pleasant thing ever. But overall, I enjoyed this episode and I think that’s because it was so obscure and, at the time, I didn’t realize that the show would have many more obscure things such as this, but it definitely talked me into staying and watching the rest of the show!
8: episode 2.08 So-zakana
Tumblr media
Lord, where do I even start with this one? It had not only a girl in the horse, but a bird in the girl. It was all certainly peculiar. That being said, I will admit, this one was probably one of my favorite episodes in season two, I’m not sure why, but it is definitely up there.
7: episode 1.09 Trou Normand
Tumblr media
The human totem pole is definitely something that I think everyone would be grossed out by. It is literally a bunch of rotting human parts all tied together with a boy who was freshly killed to top it all off.
6: episode 1.08 Fromage
Tumblr media
I think this one is pretty understandable, and I’m honestly giving it seconds thoughts with having it this low. I mean, the kid got a cello shoved down his throat so his killer, Tobias, could catch Hannibal’s attention, what isn’t gross about that. And, Tobias didn’t just kill this kid, he has also killed many victims before who were not mentioned, but were hinted at when you found out that the strings that were said to be made out of animal guts were actually made from humans.
5: episode 1.05 Coquilles
Tumblr media
I think this one was probably the first one that I was like “holy shit!!” during. I remember seeing some other things before this episode that I thought were unpleasant and thinking that it couldn’t get any worse than that, but oh boy, how wrong I was.
4: episode 2.06 Futamono
Tumblr media
I’ll be honest, this was definitely one of the more creative ones, I will give Hannibal credit for that. It was honestly the last thing I could’ve expected. Most, if not all, of the tableaus the killers in this show create always amaze me with how clever the writers of Hannibal must be. They obviously put quite a lot of thought into it.
3: episode 1.10 Buffet Froid
Tumblr media
This one is mainly up so far because I felt that it could happen in real life and because I never actually got over the childhood fear of monsters being underneath my bed. This was probably my biggest fear for a while after I watched it. Plus, I feel that it is quite gruesome and is deserving of a place so high.
2: episode 2.05 Mukōzuke
Tumblr media
Next is Beverly Katz’s death. This one was definitely hard to watch since Bev was one of my favorite characters and not only was it sad to see her die, but hard to look at with all of her insides showing. No matter who it is, I’d rather not see them in a state like this.
1: episode 2.02 Sakizuke
Tumblr media
Number one for me is definitely James Gray’s mural made out of humans. I’m not sure whether it was the actual mural itself that got me on this one, or if it was the scene with Roland Umber ripping himself out of the mural that got me, but whichever one it was it got me good.
I'll be honest, this was way harder than it should've been, but I enjoyed it nevertheless.
14 notes · View notes
sillyguyhotline · 3 years
Note
17. “How is any of this ok?” with Joe and Sara maybe?
dude im gonna be completely honest i havent written anything in like a month so i think the quality isnt gonna be great but here goes nothing
God, Sara missed the feeling of home.
Every semblance of familiarity and comfort she’d once found in the town she’d grown up in, the house she’d spent her childhood running through, now felt chillingly foreign.
Perhaps it was the heavy burden of knowledge weighing fresh upon her shoulders: ASUNARO’s corruption seemed now to peer slyly around every corner, no matter where she went. She still didn’t know how much of the town had rotted away under its grasp, how much of the town its poison had pervaded… but she was probably better off not knowing.
Whatever was left of Midori, that miserable mix of pulsing blood and electronic emotion, had been ground to bits inside that coffin… but Sara couldn’t ignore the creeping fear that his burning, ever-present gaze would appear out of nowhere and terrorize her again.
But he wouldn’t. The death game was over, and they’d promised they would never hurt her or any of her loved ones again.
Most of the loved ones she still encountered day-to-day, gruesomely blood splattered and sitting like corpses propped up hastily in a corner, would be safe no matter if ASUNARO was fresh on her tail or a thousand miles away. What a cruel price to pay for safety, to never be hurt again.
They still lived on if Sara closed her eyes tight enough, if she listened to the twisting words of the hallucinations and let them convince her she was monstrous. But the second she dared to open her eyes, she knew they’d be dead again. Life worked in terrible ways, and that was all there was to it.
Joe’s house had always been a second home to her, ever since the two of them became friends. Joe was the farthest cry from Sara in terms of social interactions- it had taken at least 3 months for Sara to trust Joe enough to invite him over, but Joe had insisted she hang out at his house the very same day they became friendly enough to exchange more than a sentence with each other.
There was a certain sort of comfort to the warmth of his house, the constant scent of cooking food pervading the air and the little trinkets scattered in every corner. No surface of his house went without decoration, in its silly little way. It was full of pictures, too, some carefully framed and some dangling from the wall by pushpins, but Sara got the sense that none of the photos went unloved. Most of them were occupied by an orange-haired man, often carrying a younger Joe (back when he was still sporting that atrocious crew cut). Sara always assumed it was his dad, but thought it would be impolite to ask… particularly when the weeks stretched on and Sara had yet to meet that mysterious orange-haired man.
Eventually, pictures of Sara began to join the collage on the wall- pictures taken as she butchered yet another pop song during karaoke, or when they went out to get food, or when she mistakenly sat down on a traffic cone during gym (after many protests from Sara, he took that one down). As silly as the pictures were, and as obvious as it was that Joe had waited for the most embarrassing moments to take them, it was sort of sweet in a way.
Joe’s mother was always kind to her, though there was a constant weariness in her eyes that Sara always felt a bit uneasy about questioning. Sometimes she’d let the two of them cook things in the kitchen, but more often than not they’d go up to Joe’s room and screw around in there, with video games or music or the 50 times Joe tried to persuade Sara to climb out the window and sit on the roof with him before she finally agreed.
As rare as it was for Sara to agree to sit on the roof, it was even rarer for Joe to agree to study with her, much to Sara’s chagrin. Joe had always walked a fine line between passing and failing, but Sara had to admit he walked it well. When she did manage to convince him to study, though (usually the day before final exams), they’d sit on the cushy couch in his living room and somehow manage to bother each other as much as possible while feigning concentration.
The couch hadn’t changed after several years- Sara could tell that much the minute she sat down on it and avoided the urge to break eye contact with Joe’s mother. It was still well-worn, a couch that likely should have been replaced at least a decade ago but had never really been disposed of. Loose threads were protruding from the cover, drawn out from years of visitors fidgeting with them.
Sara shifted uncomfortably in her seat, the slight motion making her sink deeper into the couch’s soft cushioning. She’d only spent one minute in the house and was already sweating, whether from the heat of the home or the thousand-yard stare of the woman sitting across from her.
Ryoko was there, too, sitting to Sara’s left and gazing listlessly at the well-trodden carpet beneath her feet. …Ryoko.
Sara cast a hesitant glance around the room, duly noting the photos covering the walls. Not a single one of hers had been taken down, but several more photos had appeared with Joe’s beaming face featuring prominently in them. Joe’s presence was always enough to fill a room even when he wasn’t speaking; it took a lot to fill in the gaps left by his absence.
God, she missed him.
The wind whistled against the window-screen; Sara had memorized the familiar creak of the wooden window frame being lifted up to welcome in the mild autumn air. Sara had always thought of autumn as a beginning- she loved summer as much as any other kid, but as the haze of the weather began to wind down she was quick to grow impatient and look forward to the school year, to being productive again. Joe had always disagreed with her.
“Fall is the literal death of fun,” he’d complained once, walking home with Sara after finishing the first week of school. “Couldn’t they have pushed back the first day of school by, like, another week? You think if we got enough people to sign a petition, they’d give us an extra week of summer?”
“Oh, come on, we both know even if you had an extra week of summer you’d just be complaining a week later,” Sara had teased back.
The death of fun. It certainly felt like that, Sara decided. She’d never feared the looming darkness of fall and winter quite so much before. But now, she supposed, there was no sunshine who’d weather it with her.
“Well… Sara?” Joe’s mother spoke up, voice hoarse with the sound of repressed tears in her throat. Sara recognized the sound all too well.
There was no resentment in the woman’s eyes when Sara made eye contact with her. No anger, no frustration, nor had there been any in her measured motions when she welcomed Sara into the home. It didn’t take any words for Sara to tell that there was no blame to be foisted upon her.
She was still Joe’s best friend.
“I’m sorry to have dragged you out here on such short notice.” The woman’s voice was weak. “I don’t know all the details of what happened, of course. Haven’t heard anything, aside from the little tidbits the police told me when I dropped by the station.”
Sara’s shoulders stiffened at the mention of the police, at the idea of them pleasantly answering her questions as though they weren’t just as complicit in that tragedy as ASUNARO had been.
“And…” the woman glanced down at her hands, toughened from a lifetime of working. “I know something terrible happened to you. The circles under your eyes are darker than midnight, I know it’s so selfish of me to be dragging you out here, but… I haven’t slept a wink for weeks. Been so worried about Joe, and about you too.”
She nodded in the direction of the black-haired girl who hadn’t spoken a word the entire time. “Ryoko’s been worried about the both of you, too. Your parents weren’t answering the door, so she went to me. I hope you’ll forgive the two of us for disturbing you, Sara, but… you have the answers the police won’t give us, don’t you?”
God, her gaze was piercing.
“...Yeah. Yeah, I do.”
It was taking everything in Sara’s power not to look at the vacant seat to her right. If Joe was there, he would have been laughing and lightening the mood, completing the circle that had been left so jarringly empty.
But they wouldn’t have been having this conversation if Joe was there.
Ms. Tazuna nodded slowly. “This means the world to me, Sara. Don’t forget that.”
Sara did her best to muster a smile. “Don’t worry. I won’t.”
The woman gave another nod, eyes defocusing as though even now, she wasn’t quite sure why she was there. “Alright. Alright. Well, then…” She cleared her throat uncomfortably. “Guess I should get right to the point, yeah? Is he… is… how is he…?”
So she still hadn’t quite let go of that little thread of hope, even after seeing Sara return home safe and alive with no best friend in tow. Who was Sara to judge? When hope was the only thing to cling to, it only made sense to cling to it like a lifeline.
Sara twisted her hands, the same old nervous habit she’d had for years, and wondered briefly if she’d picked it up from Ms. Tazuna. How terrible it was, to carry the news that nobody, much less any mother, ever wanted to hear.
“I… I’m sorry, Ms. Tazuna. He didn’t make it out alive.”
Sara hadn’t expected the hush that immediately fell over the room. She’d expected immediate tears, the grieving cry of a mother in pain. Instead, the room became muffled, still as a painting captured in time.
Slowly, Ryoko looked up from her bitten-down fingers, eyes rimmed red already. Ryoko had always been an emotional person, the only person Sara knew who could fluctuate from full-on sobs to cheerful giggles in less than a minute. Sara was so unused to the look that was now filling her eyes- cold, solid misery. As though there were no tears in her eyes left to cry, no more tragedies to bemoan. Just a deep and horrified comprehension of just how many things in her life had gone wrong.
And, slowly, Ms. Tazuna began to cry.
Tears had become so uncomfortable for Sara to bear witness to. Was it selfish of her to look away? It couldn’t be, not when every raw sob reminded her of the art student seeing her first (and certainly not last) death, of the broken sibling openly weeping over apologies gone unspoken, of the unknowing siblings screaming their throats out with pleas for death so the other could survive.
Especially not now. Not when every tear rang in her mind as a reminder of cold tubes piercing her best friend’s chest, of his corpse slumping and falling in a pool of blood, because oh god he wasn’t supposed to have lost so much blood, how was he supposed to live without it, of the clickclickclickclickclicking rising in volume while her attempts to save him grew feebler and feebler.
Her hands were bloodstained, no matter how many times she tried to scrub them clean. Those dreadful hands of hers had failed her, failed Joe, failed the women sobbing openly in front of her.
She swallowed back the apologies that always rose in her throat as Ms. Tazuna rushed to sniffle back her tears.
“I… god, I… he’s really gone?”
Sara couldn’t bear to look her in the eyes. “I’m so sorry.”
“Please… please tell me it was a peaceful death. He didn’t… suffer too much, did he?”
The resounding wave of clicks flooded her mind. “It was as peaceful as I could make it. I… he smiled at me, right before he died. I’d… very much like to think that means he was happy when he died.”
“What happened?” Ryoko’s voice came out rough, the first of it Sara had heard in weeks. “Joe told me, after our date, that he was going to walk you home, and then neither of you showed up at school the next day. And now… it’s been three weeks? And Joe… Joe’s dead? What the hell happened, Sara?”
“God,” Sara mumbled, mesmerizing herself with the twisting motions of her own hands. “I’m not sure if you’d even believe me if I told you. I don’t even know if I believe what happened myself.”
“I’d believe anything.” The sentence was firm. “I just want to know what happened.”
Sara nodded wearily. The familiar weight of her bright orange ponytail was notably missing- the day after she’d escaped, she’d demanded the hairdresser cut her hair short and crisp. She shuddered every time she thought about the ponytail brushing against her neck as she spent each argument screaming and protesting for her life. Even worse was the memory of how carefully Joe had styled her hair, forsaking his usual clumsiness to braid every strand with a remarkable tenderness. She didn’t want to remember any of it- even though, as the locks went cascading to the floor, she was reminded starkly of Keiji’s bleach-stained trauma response.
“For some reason, something to do with the mafia, we were kidnapped. And pulled into a death game. There were twenty of us, including me and Joe. I- I’m not going to get into all the specifics. It’s going to make me sick to my stomach if I do. But… they made us play this sadistic fucking game to narrow down the competition. Based on cards. Joe drew a bad card, and… they executed him.” Something in Sara’s throat tightened as she finished speaking, and she fell silent.
“Just like that?” His mother’s voice came out as a hoarse whisper. “How… how’d they kill him?”
“I’d rather not say.” There came the gushing sound of blood pulsing through the tubes. “He didn’t suffer too long” - she hoped - “but it was a gruesome way to die. I don’t want to think about it, please understand.”
It took a moment for his mother to register the words and nod, face still painted with horror.
“Why… how did the two of you even end up there in the first place?” Ryoko spoke up again. “You said something about the mafia? How the hell are you two connected with the mafia?”
“I don’t know how I am,” Sara responded immediately. “It must be something with my family. I couldn’t control any of this, I swear, but… Joe wasn’t meant to end up there at all.”
Ryoko paused. “He… he wasn’t meant to end up there?”
Sara swallowed back the lump in her throat. “The game… it was something that was being prepared for ages. There weren’t just a few ragtag kidnappers behind it, there was an entire organization. Even the police were involved. They ran AI tests, hundreds if not thousands of them, trying to calculate who’d be the most likely to win. And… when all the numbers came back, the person most likely to win… was me.”
She spread her arms wide, baring her sins and her cruelties to the world, and in that moment felt distinctly like the angel of death Keiji had branded her to be.
“They needed something to drag me down, I guess. Make the odds more balanced. So they dragged Joe into this fucking mess. I guess they thought that him being there would keep me steady enough to make everything fair.” A cold hand, dripping with tendrils of phantom blood, caressed her chin with a lethal grip. “...They were right.”
Ryoko’s gaze had gone cold again. “So Joe died just because you cared about him? What the fuck kind of death sentence is that?”
Sara shook her head numbly.
“Why did it have to be him?” The heartbreak in Ryoko’s voice was clearer than day. “So many people love you, Sara, why did it have to be him? Hell, I’m your best friend too, aren’t I? Why couldn’t it have been me? I’m a much worse person than Joe ever was, I deserved to be in his place way more. Couldn’t they have killed me instead?”
Sara winced at the growing desperation in her best friend’s voice, the raw crack she knew all too well. It should have been me, it should have been me, it should have been me. Sara could have almost fooled herself into seeing a crisp aquamarine when Ryoko’s hair flashed into the light.
“Ryoko… it could have been.”
The girl fell silent.
“They had files on you too. They knew how close we were, they knew how much you meant to me… but Joe was in the wrong place at the wrong time. And they fucking killed him for it.”
Oh, how she wished she could go back to that balmy early-autumn night, see the smile on Joe’s face and listen to his lighthearted laughter again. The desire to keep one’s friend safe had become a crime deserving of a death sentence.
Ryoko’s eyes remained locked to Sara’s, devoid of any dullness. In the look they exchanged was a deep, sinking understanding, one that had nauseated Sara to the core the first time the realization struck her.
It was by no crafty strategy that Joe had died instead of Ryoko, no favoritism biased against the kindest person either of them would ever know. It was a simple, terrible twist of fate. Ryoko could have taken his place had she done something as inconsequential as offering to walk Sara home instead.
But she hadn’t.
It took everything in Sara’s power to avoid wondering what would’ve changed if she had.
“How is any of this okay?” Ryoko broke the silence weakly. “They killed him- they could have killed me, too. He was seventeen. Seventeen. How did anybody let this happen? How did this happen, Sara?”
“I- I don’t know.” Ryoko’s wrath was simmering; even though Sara knew truly that she wasn’t the subject of the anger, she still felt scalded. “I miss him so much, Ryoko. I watched him die, and nothing in my power let me save him. I miss him, Ryoko, I miss him every waking minute of every day. We were supposed to escape together and get out safe and pretend this never happened, but…” the tears were beginning to well up again. She couldn’t bear the thought of breaking down in front of anyone, especially not over him.
“I’m going to go make some coffee,” his mother interrupted suddenly. She’d been noticeably quiet, but the still-fresh streaks of tears painted down her cheeks told the story she didn’t need to vocalize. “Some coffee, and some snacks. And we’ll keep talking from there, alright? Do you guys have your phones?”
The two girls nodded uneasily.
“Please… find any pictures you have of him. I want to make this wall as bright as possible.”
Without any other words, she hurried out of the room, and it fell to silence once more. Outside the window, the cool autumn breeze began to stir the leaves in the air, gusting forward to brush against Sara’s cheek just as the hallucination had done mere minutes ago.
And the Tazuna household began to feel more like home again.
68 notes · View notes
You Better, You Better, You Bet - Chapter 9
As Long as You’re Mine
Ron Speirs x Juliet Fletcher
Tumblr media
Summary: Juliet Fletcher reaches a breaking point in her life. When she is at her absolute lowest, she meets Ron Speirs, and something happens between them that neither of them will ever forget.
Word Count: 4.1K
Tag List: @vintagelavenderskies @how-are-those-nuts-sarge @iilovemusic12us @hesbuckcompton-baby @tvserie-s-world @whovian45810 @50svibes @cagzzz107 @evelynshelby @piano-isnt-my-forte​ If you’d like to be added, let me know!
A/N: Hope you guys enjoy this update!
Warning(s): None :)
Chapter 1  Chapter 2  Chapter 3  Chapter 4  Chapter 5  Chapter 6  Chapter 7  Chapter 8
AO3 link
Chapter 9 let’s go!!!
“Okay, how does this sound?” Juliet asked Ron, who sat on her bed as she put together her story of the trial. He was careful not to recline, lest he disturb her pages of notes carefully organized atop the quilt. “Meredith Fisher confessed to the murder of six-year-old Peggy Lee in front of the courtroom before her trial began. Mrs. Fisher was arrested and charged with the murder in September of last year. Her lawyer, Mr. Harvey Cooper, originally planned to plead not guilty, but in a shocking turn of events, Mrs. Fisher herself admitted to the jury she killed Peggy Lee before even opening arguments could be made.” 
“I’d read that,” Ron replied. 
Juliet huffed and looked around her room at the Blue Boar. Papers littered the floor, pens were nowhere to be found, and her typewriter was mocking her. Now that the trial was finished - with such a dramatic twist - she was hard at work, trying to ensure she reported it just right. An impossible task, it felt like.
“Okay, but would you read it because I’m your girlfriend or because of the writing?” she asked. 
“The writing,” he told her. “It’s simple, it explains everything.” 
“It feels a bit long for the lead,” she said. “Perhaps I should put the bit about her arrest in the nut graph.” 
“That does feel more like background information,” he agreed. 
She pulled a pencil from behind her ear, scratched out the sentence, and began again. “So, it’d go like this - Meredith Fisher confessed to the murder of six-year-old Peggy Lee in front of the courtroom before her trial began. Her lawyer - I’m gonna take out his name and have that later - so, Her lawyer originally planned to plead not guilty, but in a shocking turn of events, Mrs. Fisher admitted to the jury she killed Peggy Lee before even opening arguments could be made. Then I’ll go into when she was arrested, the details of the murder, then the evidence the prosecution had prepared, and finish with her sentencing date. How’s that?” 
“I think it’s perfect,” he said. 
She chewed her lip. “Should I use the word shocking? I don’t want to tell the readers how to feel.” 
“When she confessed, what was the first thing you heard?” he asked. 
“Gasps,” she answered. 
“There’s your shock,” he said. 
Juliet had to concede that point. Ron almost didn’t believe her when she told him the story. The judge had barely gotten the words “How do you plead?” out before Meredith let out a wail like wounded animal and confessed to the whole gruesome thing. She sobbed that she was sorry, but she knew she had to be punished. She wasn’t safe. And truthfully, Juliet felt bad for her. It was truly one of the most pitiful things she’d ever witnessed. 
But the one thing Juliet could never forget, the image that would stick with her for all her days, was the look on Peggy Lee’s parents’ faces. The Lees watched, dignified, proud, yet misty eyed as the person who killed their daughter begged for mercy. Their grief was profoundly felt, despite their stately manner. They said nothing. They did nothing. And they spoke to no one upon their exit from the courtroom. 
“Jules?” 
Ron’s voice brought her back to the present, his hand on her shoulder making her turn to look at him. 
“Sorry,” she said, shaking her head. “Just...it’s so unfair. If anyone had a right to be screaming and crying it was the parents.”
“They must be very English,” he said. 
“Oh, they were proper English,” she agreed. “Stiff upper lips and all. The mother did at one point hide her face in the father’s arm, but other than that, they were stoic.” 
“Thinking about including that in your story?” he wondered. 
“God, no,” she replied. “I’ll mention that they were there and offered no comments, but this isn’t that kind of article.” 
“Just the facts, huh?” 
“As usual.” 
“Juliet.”
“Yeah?”
“The article’s gonna be great,” he said.  
“How can you be so sure?” she asked. 
“Because you care this much,” he said. He accentuated the point with a kiss to the top of her head. “I’ve got a staff meeting. Are you alright here?” 
She nodded. “Yeah, I’m fine. Thanks for being so patient with me.” 
He kissed her again. “I’ll see you tonight.” 
“See you later, Ron,” she returned. 
With that, he left. Juliet started trying to condense the lead again, still feeling like it was too long. There had to be a better summary. But it was a lot to try and fit into one sentence, so she resigned herself to making it more than one line. She hadn’t chosen a headline yet, either, but she usually liked to write the article first. That way she could pick out the singular most newsworthy part and headline with that. As she organized further, the phone rang. 
“Hello?” she answered. 
“Juliet, it’s Lottie.” 
“Hey, Lottie, how are you?” Juliet asked. 
“Fine, same as usual,” Lottie returned. “Otis just rang and told me about the trial. I hope you’re hard at work.” 
“Absolutely,” Juliet assured her. “I’ve nearly got the lead down. I’ve just got to get the facts organized. I’m thinking of doing a follow up story about the shortcomings of Operation Pied Piper, since Cooper’s little tidbit did prove to be true.” 
Sad as it was, Harvey Cooper was right. There was no process for vetting the families agreeing to take the children. The committee had been in such a hurry to evacuate, they had not even considered that some children could end up in more danger than they were at home in the cities. Juliet found the whole thing fascinating, and it could open up a conversation about war time protocol - be meticulous or swift? 
“I think that’ll be fine,” Lottie said. “But have you gotten any war news? I know I wasn’t enthusiastic about it initially, but you’re the only reporter I’ve got with the Airborne.” 
Juliet bit her lip. While the prospect of war news had originally driven her to accept the Peggy Lee story, she found herself conflicted about it now. Her relationship with Ron threw a wrench in it. 
“I think it’s a conflict of interest for me to cover the Airborne,” she said. 
She could practically hear Lottie’s eyes roll. “Oh, come on, Juliet, don’t be absurd.” 
“It isn’t right, Lottie!” Juliet insisted. “I’m in an intimate relationship with one of the soldiers, there’s no freeing me from bias there.” 
“You could use it to your advantage,” Lottie said. “Obviously, you can’t use him as a source, but couldn’t he lead you to the right person?” 
“I can’t ask that of him,” Juliet said. “I don’t want him to get the wrong idea.” 
“What wrong idea?” 
It was something Juliet had already put a lot of thought into. As badly as she wanted to cover the war - and it did seem like things were ramping up even more in Aldbourne - she was hesitant. She had actually considered asking Ron for a source and then immediately hated herself for it. She would not use her relationship to get ahead in her job. She couldn’t. It just wasn’t right, simple as that.
“That I’m using him,” Juliet explained. “If I ask him to get me a source, he might worry that it’s the reason I entered the relationship, and that’s not the case.” 
Lottie sighed. “So, you just want to give up on covering the war?” 
“I didn’t say that,” Juliet returned. “I’d be happy to cover something else once I get back to London, but-”
“Forget it,” Lottie cut across her. “Just focus on the trial for now and then Pied Piper, if that’s what you want.” 
“Lottie -” 
“Good afternoon, Juliet,” Lottie said harshly, hanging up before Juliet could protest any further. 
She sighed, hanging up as well, and sitting back in her chair. She had a feeling the conversation wasn’t quite over, but she’d hear more about it on her next trip home. For now, she wanted to focus on what happened at the trial. The sentencing would be in another few weeks, so she needed to get this done. 
***
Ron was right of course. The article was published and the London Pursuit sold the most copies it had in years. It surprised Juliet a little, but perhaps people were tired of war news and what better than a dramatic murder trial for a change of pace? It was morbid, sure, but Juliet knew she’d handled it as well as she could. 
Lottie called, absolutely elated by the circulation numbers. And honestly, Juliet was thrilled too. She found Ron later that day and leapt into his arms as a display of her unmitigated excitement. She’d done it, and done it well! It was cause for celebration. So they went to London for the weekend - staying with Nancy of course, since she would have had a fit at missing an opportunity to see Ron - and they went to a nice dinner, champagne and everything. Juliet could hardly believe her luck. Everything was going so perfectly. 
And that night, as they lay together in the afterglow, she looked at his face and knew she loved him. The kind of love she read about in books and poetry. The kind that crooners sang about on the radio. She’d found it. It was scary enough to admit to herself, but she determined that she would - one day soon if the opportunity presented itself - admit it to him. 
He caught her gazing at him. 
“What is it?” he asked. 
“Nothing,” she replied. “I’m just happy you’re mine.” 
***
The sentencing hearing was not as interesting as the trial itself, but Juliet was relieved to report that Meredith Fisher was going to prison for life. There would be no chance for parole, either. So justice was served. 
However, Juliet couldn’t help but notice the look on Mr. Lee’s face. Mrs. Lee had not come for the sentencing, so it was just father. When the judge announced Meredith’s fate, Mr. Lee only closed his eyes and let out a long breath. He nodded, put a hand over his heart, and inhaled again. A single tear rolled down his cheek. It made Juliet look away so that he could have that moment for himself. To take in whatever feelings came to him. To remember Peggy and take some solace in that her killer was going away. 
“I thought I’d be happier,” Juliet told Ron as they prepared for bed that night back at the Blue Boar. “But it still just feels...rotten.” 
“Nothing can bring the girl back,” he said matter-of-factly. 
“I know,” she replied. “But I just....I suppose you’re right. What else could anyone have hoped for in this situation?” 
“Right,” he agreed. 
“I’m also grateful we didn’t have to hear that lawyer make that ridiculous argument in a courtroom,” she said. “I don’t think I could bear the looks on the parents’ faces at that.”  
“That would have been awful,” he said. 
“Even so, it feels rather anticlimactic,” she said. “Especially for the prosecution who spent months putting everything together.”
“They still got the result they wanted,” he pointed out. “So what does it matter?  
She shrugged at that. She still felt unsatisfied, as if there was something more to be done. Even though logically, she knew there wasn’t. She would write an update for the paper, and that would really be the end of it. That was when it hit her. What was really upsetting her was that now that this was over, there was no more reason for her to be in Aldbourne. Especially now that she didn’t want to cover the Airborne. It meant that she would go home to London, in turn reducing her time with Ron significantly. And that was a dreadful thought. 
***
“What do you mean you aren’t coming back to London?” Lottie cried through the phone. “What about the Pied Piper story?”
“I reckon it can wait,” Juliet said, entirely unconvincing, but she hoped Lottie was buying it. Her reasons for remaining in Aldbourne had nothing to do with her job and everything to do with the man she was in love with. “And maybe with some time, I can find my own sources on war news.” 
Lottie remained silent for several minutes. “So, you’ve just changed your mind all of a sudden about covering the Airborne?” 
“Not completely,” Juliet lied. “I...I’m just not sure I’m quite finished here. And what if there’s something else about the Peggy Lee story that comes up? I could -” 
“Give it a rest, Juliet,” Lottie groaned. “I know you want to stay for your boyfriend.”
“That’s not -” 
Lottie cut across her protests. “Please do not insult my intelligence by suggesting otherwise. You want to be near him.” 
“You don’t sound quite as sympathetic as I hoped,” Juliet said, giving in. 
“You have a life in London, Juliet!” Lottie reminded her harshly. “You have a job to do, your mother is here, and you want to put everything on hold for some man?” 
“He’s not just some man!” Juliet argued indignantly. “He’s...different from any man I’ve ever known. And what we have means more to me than anything I’ve ever known.” 
She glanced down at the necklace that sparkled against her skin. A constant reminder of how much she meant to him as well. 
“Oh, come off of your cloud, will you?” Lottie snapped. 
“Lottie,” Juliet said seriously. “The whole time I was with Arthur, did you ever know me to put him before work? Or my family?”
“No, so why is this Ron fellow -”
“Because it is different,” Juliet emphasized. “This is it, Lottie. He’s the one.” 
That seemed to stump her. “Has he...proposed?”
“No, he hasn’t,” Juliet said. “I don’t even care if he does.”
Lottie scoffed. “Don’t be ridiculous, you can’t just carry on living in sin.” 
Juliet rolled her eyes. “Could you please pay attention to what's important here? There’s a man in my life who I genuinely see a happy future with and I just...I want to focus on that. Is that so wrong?” 
“I suppose not,” Lottie sighed, and Juliet inwardly celebrated a moment of victory. “But I can’t pay you if you aren’t working. At least be making the proper phone calls to follow this Pied Piper story. Conduct interviews of other families there who have taken in children from the cities. Part of the story is there if you know where to look.” 
“No problem,” Juliet said. “You’ll be glad to know I’ve already begun. I’ve got an interview with the Barnes family next week, who are housing a little girl. I’ll ask them about how the process went for them.” 
“Perfect,” Lottie said. She paused for a beat. “And, Juliet?”
“Yes?” 
“I really am happy for you.” 
Juliet smiled softly. “Thank you, Lottie.” 
***
Spring fully thawed the winter out by the time April arrived. Aldbourne was rather charming in bloom. But Juliet wasn’t sure if it was the flowers or that she was in love. She found herself humming a lot more than she used to - these days she didn’t even need food to start a merry tune in the back of her throat. She had more energy, despite spending rather long nights in Ron’s arms. And she found her enthusiasm for work - even though her priority shifted - a great deal easier to come by as well. 
The interview with the Barnes family went splendidly. They were also housing a couple of lieutenants from the Airborne, though they were not in Ron’s company. Juliet only exchanged brief greetings with them, as they were heading to work just as she was entering the house. She nearly melted at the connection they had formed with the girl - Ann - which was clear in their goodbyes to her for the day. She seemed particularly close to the tall redhead. 
Juliet told Ron about it that evening over drinks. 
“Yeah, that’s Winters and Welsh,” he told her. “Good officers.” 
“Do they spend much time here?” she wondered, indicating the Blue Boar.  
“Welsh does, but Winters doesn’t drink,” he said. “He spends most nights there with the family.” 
“I can tell,” she said. “I mean, it was seriously precious. She hugged his knees and he patted her on the head and I think I fell a little bit in love with him for a moment.” 
He scoffed. “Good luck, I think he has a girlfriend.” 
“Has he?” she questioned. 
“Yeah, the nurse,” he said. “She works for the regiment.” 
“You lot have your own nurse?” 
“She’s got some connection to Colonel Sink,” he said with a shrug. “I’ve never actually met her.” 
“And what about the other chap?” she asked. “Welsh?” 
“He’s engaged,” he told her. “Her name’s Kitty.” 
“You know that but not the name of the nurse?” she questioned. 
“I only know because Harry never shuts up about her,” he said. “The whole regiment knows at this point. Hell, I wouldn’t be surprised if the Krauts knew.” 
She giggled. “I think that’s sweet.” 
“It’s obnoxious.” 
“You mean, you don’t brag about me to the whole regiment?” she teased. “Romance is dead.”
“Sorry for your loss,” he retorted as he took a swig of his drink. 
“Not as sorry as I am,” she returned. “Now I’ll have to spend God knows how many hours in mourning.” 
“At least you look good in black,” he said. 
“My saving grace,” she agreed with a smile. She paused for a beat. “Seriously, you don’t talk about me at all?” 
“I do if you come up,” he told her.
“And what do you say?” she wondered.
“Whatever’s relevant,” he said. 
She rolled her eyes. “You’re impossible.” 
“I prefer not to broadcast my personal life,” he said. “All they need to know is that you’re mine.” 
She smiled as she leaned over to kiss his cheek. “That’s true.” 
***
April was drawing to a close. Juliet stood in her room, preparing to go and interview another Aldbourne family about their process in fostering a child from London. These interviews were restoring the bit of faith she’d lost in covering Peggy’s story because most of the families were very kind, and doted on the children. They were proud of doing what they could to ensure the future of England. And the children were mostly happy. What happened to Peggy was a tragedy and an outlier. 
She was just getting ready to leave when Ron entered her room. A grim shadow of doubt on his features made her smile disappear as fast as it had come. Something was wrong. He definitely had bad news. 
“We’re moving out,” he told her. 
She had expected this at some point, but she still blinked in surprise. Her shoulders drooped as the reality of it percolated through her.  
“Oh,” she said. “Well...when?” 
He hesitated. “This is off the record -” 
She scowled at him, momentarily offended that he felt the need to clarify. 
“Everything between us is protected, Ron,” she said sharply. “You and I are always off the record unless stated otherwise.” 
“Sorry,” he said quickly, picking up on her tone. “I know that, I just -” 
“When?” she demanded again.
“End of May,” he said. “I don’t know when we’ll be back.” 
The if hung in the air, but remained unsaid. This was it. The moment she had been dreading since she met him. Well, maybe not that long, but since they had started getting to know each other there in Aldbourne. The war was taking him from her, like it took everything. 
“I see…” she trailed off, her annoyance easing up. That was sooner than she had hoped and she didn’t want to waste any precious time being angry at him. “Um...where - wait, I can’t ask you that.” She bit her lip. “When - oh, no, you’ve just told me, that’s right -” 
“Juliet.”
“Yes?”
“Wait for me.” 
Once again, Ron failed to disappoint her. Despite all the reassurance, she worried that when they shipped out, he would take the opportunity to break it off with her. Instead, he was asking - in his way - for a commitment from her. She held his gaze for a long moment, waiting for him to say more. But he didn’t. 
“You really want to stay together?” she asked. 
“Yes,” he said assuredly. 
“Oh, thank God,” she sighed, and she threw herself into his arms for a kiss. 
He returned the kiss with enthusiasm, his lips fiery and desperate against hers. As if he were leaving the following morning instead of a couple of weeks. But Juliet wanted the intensity. She wanted to savor every touch, every kiss, every moment she had before he was gone. She also wanted to let him know that she absolutely would wait for him. She would do anything he asked of her. She just wanted him. Forever, if possible. And if the war robbed her of that, she would at least have the memories of kisses like these. Of nights in his arms. Of his unwavering dedication to her. 
***
The arrangements were made for Juliet to return to London once Ron and the rest of the Airborne were off. On his final morning in Aldbourne, they of course made love again, only it was the after that they relished even more. Juliet etched into her brain the feeling of his embrace, the warmth of his skin, the sound of his voice. She wished desperately that she could freeze time and hold onto him for just a little longer. She had found something so wonderful and now it was being dragged away from her. 
“Jules,” he said, voice low as if there might be someone listening on the other side of the door. 
“Yeah?” 
“We’re going to France,” he said. 
She blinked and adjusted her position so she could look him in the face. “France?”
He nodded. “I wanted you to know.” 
She couldn’t explain why that felt more intimate than anything they had just done in her bed. 
“Why tell me now?” she asked, curious. 
He swallowed, his eyes fixed on the ceiling, but his arm gave her shoulders a squeeze. 
“Trust,” he said. 
She pressed her lips tenderly to his chest to let him know how much she appreciated his trust. There was no longer a need to specify on or off the record. His statements were privileged. Anything he told her would remain between them. 
For a fleeting moment, she considered telling him right then that she loved him. Because if he was going to France, there was a chance he would never come back. And shouldn’t he know just in case? But her heart told her to play it safe. If she didn’t tell him now, perhaps whatever power there was would protect him enough so that she could say it later. If there were still things left to be said, hopefully that would keep him alive. 
There were no guarantees, of course. All they had was each other and their promise.
That afternoon, the trucks began rumbling out of Aldbourne. Juliet walked Ron as far as she was allowed. Her chest felt tight as the impending goodbye hung in the air. She hated this. It was too painful. How could it be that the very war that brought them together would also be the reason for their parting? What was fair about that? Nothing, that’s what. 
A kiss from Ron drew her out of her thoughts. He held her firmly against him, almost as if he were afraid she would disappear right out of his grasp. When they parted, they were both breathless. 
“Be careful,” she said. 
His eyes searched hers. “You too.” 
Her brain was practically screaming at her to tell him now just what she felt. But she was too afraid. Too afraid it would doom him. Too afraid he wouldn’t say it back. Or even worse, say it only because of the passionate nature of the moment. It had to be when they weren’t so desperate. When they really meant it because whatever was coming was not a threat. 
“I’ll write,” she told him. 
“I’ll respond when I can,” he returned. 
She nodded. Her throat was dry and thick. The lack of tears in her eyes surprised her. How could she not be crying when she could feel her heart breaking so badly? She kissed him again. Just to prolong the last moment where he was only hers. 
“Stay safe,” she told him. 
He nodded. 
With one last kiss, they said goodbye without saying it. Juliet went to the train station and headed home to London. And Ron went to war. 
20 notes · View notes