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chiefdirector · 9 months

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Promising | Tim Bradford | The Rookie

Tim had experienced many awful things in his life but none would be considered worse than this. The moment he had found his wife again, she had been snatched from his grasp leaving him helpless to aid her once more. If he had believed in a god he would have thought that he was being punished for some past sin.

But he wasn’t.

No matter how much he blamed himself at this moment there was nothing he could do but wait. The paramedic in the back of the ambulance told him that she would most likely be fine, that on first inspection there seemed like there would be minimal damages. Tim had wanted to believe them, but with every hour that (Y/N)’s surgery dragged on Tim believed them less and less.

The idea that he had come so close to getting her back almost killed him, and had he not had the chance that she may return to him, he felt like he would've died then and there. He had waited this long, he could wait for her for these last few hours, no matter how torturous they felt. She would return to him soon enough, he had enough hope to believe in that.

-----

Professionalism was normally one of Sargent Grey’s areas of expertise. The man had decades of experience with the public and felons alike who pushed the lines of crime and morality alike. But as he stood across from Regina Diaz he could not help that every fibre of his being wanted to bring down every article of the law on this woman, and he was determined that she would never breathe a lick of fresh air again.

He was furious as to what she had done to the department, and to his officers. The damage she had caused was unfixable, and the Bradfords, as well as everyone in the Mid-Wilshire Division would be forever changed because of her. And yet, she sat tall and arrogant despite the cuffs keeping her attached to the table. The maroon scrubs she wore did not seem to deter her confidence at all. Grey clenched his jaw, before taking a seat opposite the woman who had caused so much grief.

“So where should we begin?” Grey flipped the file he held open and thumbed through the pages, trying to not show any weakness for Diaz to exploit. “The very apparent drug operation that me and my officers caught you in, red-handed may I add? Or how about the contant threatening of my officer’s well being for the last two years? Or how about the assault with a deadly weapon charge for that same officer you have been threatening?”

Regina smiled, “Hmmm… They're all good options, but maybe we should start within your department instead. After all, I couldn’t do all this without a little help.”

-----

It had been a while since Tim had watched his wife sleep. In the early days of their marriage, when work took a mental toll on him, he would stay awake far into the early hours of the morning, watching her chest rise and fall as the room was gently lit from the rising sun peaking through the curtains. It had relieved some of his anxieties, knowing that she was there and she was alive, and now, even after all this time and torment, he found the same comfort yet again.

He used to spend hours just watching her peaceful face, wondering what she was dreaming of. Could it be hot beaches with white sand, maybe it was a winter’s night at home, or could she be possibly dreaming about him, about the two of them together.

It felt oddly comforting to watch her sleep again, even if it was from the most uncomfortable hospital chair ever made. If Tim ignored the tube coming out of her arms and the incessant beeping from the machines by her side, he could pretend for a moment that they were back home and she had fallen asleep in their own bed. If he closed his eyes for a moment, he could pretend that none of this ever happened at all.

But Tim didn’t want to ignore all of the hospital equipment, no matter how daunting it was to see, as it meant that his wife had returned to him. And he didn't want to pretend it didn't happen at all, because even though he had lost and grieved her, he had her back now, and he knew just how much she completed him. No matter how much Tim had loved her before, it had only grown tenfold since he saw her again. Despite the blood and the medical equipment attached to her, she was safe, she was almost home, and most importantly she was alive.

-----

“And why would I believe you?”

“Because, Sargent, it doesn’t make sense otherwise, does it now.” Regina said, not letting her smile waver once. She could tell she was getting under Grey’s skin, and she enjoyed it thoroughly. But she couldn’t toy with him forever, as fun as she may find it, she needed to be on the court’s good side, and that includes cooperating with the authorities. “How did two detectives fall off the face of the earth and their case worker didn’t know where they were all day? Riddle me that.”

“I can’t, but I'm sure you already know the answer, don't you Ms. Diaz?”

“I think it’s time we brought in my lawyer, if we are going to negotiate that is.”

-----

(Y/N) shifted slightly in the bed as she tried to shake off the familiar feeling of sleep mixed with some form of medical cocktail. She had woken up in a hospital numerous times during her career with the LAPD, but none ever felt as disorientating as this. Her body felt slow and her chest felt heavy. Gently, as not to cause any more damage to herself, (Y/N) moved her head to assess her injury. From the sharp pains from the movement and the vague memory she had from before she lost consciousness, she could tell that her shoulder was thoroughly messed up. But as she went to look at it, her eyes wandered down to her chest, where the weight was radiating from. The pressure came from her husband’s head resting on top of her. He looked so peaceful asleep, as if nothing could have ever burdened him. She could vaguely remember seeing him at the Diaz house, but now she had the time to take him in fully. He had a new scar on his hairline, it was pale and faded, he must have gained it not long after she had left on her assignment. His shoulders were still hunched over, even in his sleep he carried his stress there. His arms had gained more definition, and so had his hands. All of these changes were to be expected, (Y/N) knew how much this would have hurt him, exercise was always an escape for him.

What she didn’t expect though was to find his left hand bare of any jewellery. He had taken off his wedding band, and a good while ago too. He bore no tan line or indentation to indicate he had worn the ring recently. She understood why he would have done that, she knew that she couldn’t have expected him to wait for her all this time but it didn’t cause her heart to sting any less.

She wanted to let him rest, but if the roles were reversed, and it was Tim in this bed, she would have wanted to be awakened immediately, even if he had moved on with his life. Slowly, as not to scare him awake, (Y/N) lifted her good arm and positioned herself to run her fingers through Tim’s head.

He roused quickly, clearly a trait he had never gotten over since (Y/N) had last seen him. Groggily, he looked around the room to find what caused him to awaken, although the realisation came to him quickly as he snapped his eyes to meet (Y/N)’s. “You’re awake,” he stated, as if it wasn’t obvious, but (Y/N) chose not to comment.

“Yeah, I uh… woke up a few minutes ago. I thought that you would… you would want to know I'm awake, so you don't need to worry anymore.”

“What? Why wouldn’t I worry? (Y/N) you mean everything to-”

(Y/N) smiled sadly, “You don’t have to lie to save feelings, Tim. You’re not wearing your ring.”

“Oh.” Tim said, trying, and failing, to suppress a soft laugh, only stopping completely when he saw (Y/N)’s saddened expression. Quickly, he reached down his shirt to pull the chain he wore over his neck and unclasped it, letting the band fall into the palm of his hand. “I wore it on a chain. It… hurt to see it every day but not to see you. But I couldn't live without it, hence the chain. That way, even though I couldn't keep you, I could keep it close to me, close to my heart.”

(Y/N) watched as the gold band slipped back into its rightful place. She didn’t know what to say, there was a thousand and one things that needed to be said, yet not a word spilled from her lips. Tim watched as her eyes darted to one side, he knew it was one of her tells. “Shh, it’s okay baby, you don’t need to say anything right now, we can talk later. I’m here, and I’m not leaving you. Not now, not ever.”

“Promise?”

“As long as you promise you won’t leave me again. I don’t think I would survive that, losing you another time.”

“I promise.”

Part Seven | Part Nine

Series Masterlist | Masterlist

Tags: @xceafh @kmc1989 @buba424 @salty0cracker

Tags are open :)

A/N: Have a merry christmas if you celebrate, and if you dont i hope you have a great festive season. Enjoy this extra long chapter, i couldn't help myself lol.

#tim bradford #tim bradford x reader #tim bradford imagine #the rookie #chiefdirector #bottom of the river

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piglet26 · 8 months

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Top Five Reylo Scenes

Before I start I do want to add why Reylo means so much to me. Recently I went through a really deep depression and part of what pulled me out of it was Reylo. I was able to write essays and do analysis about this OTP. Rewatching the films and focusing on theirs scenes helped get my mind off of some pretty deep stuff. I was also able to receive love and connection through the Reylo community. It's meant a lot to me! Also, I know that Tumblr is very supportive to anyone going through a tough time and directing people to self help lines. If you are going through a time that is really dark or challenging I Love You in Reylo.

Now my top three scenes is tough cause I love them all, but if I had to focus on an order to the game I'd say........

5 " You Need a Teacher"

“There’s a history in Star Wars of the attraction between the light and dark…”

Truth be told I'm surprised this scenes ranked as high as it did with me because I do not like that she beat him. The more I thought about it I realized why I did want to rank it. There is something raw and dirty about them here. The look of sheer amazement he gives her after that lightsaber flew to her was everything. The force theme beginning to play. Then when she lit the lightsaber and he was like "oh, you wanna duel? ok, let's duel then." The moment they found the force together with their faces beautifully lit up. It really is great.

There is nothing violent really about their fight, like I don't fear for their lives. Resembling the scene where Kylo Ren said could “take whatever he wants” and “Don’t be afraid, I feel it too” while looking at her lips. The chemistry took me by complete surprise and I shifted in my seat uncertainly watching this the first time. Surely I shouldn’t like a murderer and a villain with Rey, but I couldn’t help it. This very chemistry, though probably amounting to less than ten minutes of actual interaction between each other, leaves the audience with a hungry desire for more.

Reylo and Anidala could be mirrors of each other with Anakin falling to the Dark Side because of his selfish love for Padme and Kylo coming back to the Light because of his selfless love for Rey.

When Kylo is with Rey, he is calmer, and calculating. For Kylo, the seduction is to the Light. However, when Rey first searches out the Force with her feelings, she immediately ends up in the Dark Side, and is unafraid to take what she wants from it. In battle, she is furious, screaming and bent on destruction. As I mentioned above, Anidala and Reylo could be the Force’s attempts at balancing itself. Where Anidala was destined to fail, Reylo is destined to prevail and finally balance the Force.

4 "You'll turn........I'll help you"

“The Abduction,” the song in TFA when the “bridal carry” happens, has a very similar ascending line of notes to a recurring theme in Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet overture.

I love everything about this. The infamous elevator scene. Reylo once again dominates the screen in The Last Jedi, easily rendering Finn’s growing romance with Rose bland and tedious in comparison. Rian Johnson is a Reylo stan so I stan him. This is the first time Rey and Kylo are physically side by side since she tried to kill him in the forest on Star killer Base. It's the most sexually charged body language! They spiffed up for one another. She’s changed her clothes, put on makeup and decided to leave her hair down. His hair is freshly washed with a spritz.

“Ben” She’s using his real name now and like in every scene with her now he's calm. He hates his name, but when she says it he hears her. She's appealing to his true nature, or, what she believes it to be. It's possessive as well. He is HER Ben. The way he tried not to have a reaction to her until she said his name. He's trying to stay blank and not give away what he intends to do, but none the less has a reaction to her.

Rian Johnson basically confirmed that Kylo / Ben wanted to kiss Rey in the elevator scene. It’s canon so I am prepared to fight. Not to mention, Johnson tells us that Adam Driver, as Kylo / Ben, seriously considered kissing Rey in this scene. He is, indeed, staring at her lips in the elevator with the most intense eye contact.

Reylo speaks to me, and many others, on a spiritual level. Like many stories of both maiden and monster, Reylo shows us what it means to be a heroine. A heroine reaches her hand out to monsters and says: you deserve love and compassion, no matter the mistakes you’ve made. We're in a movement where women are tired of "fixing" men and I'm here for it. I honestly think that's why so many woman found it difficult that Reylo is not soft and sweet.

3 ........Ben?"

Adam Driver says Kylo Ren can’t help but harbor admiration for Daisy Ridley’s Rey in the Last Jedi. “I think there’s something familiar there, as well as something to be feared, or something… that he (Kylo) can’t quite place.”

Let me go ahead and say that I'm going to cheat.... I'm including the novelization in this because that mixed with novel is what gives me life. TROS brought such mixed Reylo emotions. We got great stuff! In small doses *eye roll* In the novel. She was glad to see him. Glad to be with him in this moment. It was the greatest gift she could have given him. His heart was full as Rey reached for his face, let her fingers linger against his cheek. And then, wonder of wonders, she leaned forward and kissed him.

The way Rey sits in wonder...... never mind she was borderline dead..... Ben is there, really there and she's just staring in wonder. Ben is looking at her in painful awe and relief. They are both almost child-like in their affection. The way Rey hesitates, after years alone, it takes her a moment to work up the courage for her first kiss. Ben just lets her take her time. The way he waits patiently for her to work up the courage and then the moment the kiss, he pulls her to him like she is the air he breathes for his first kiss. Oh! The smiles. Seriously?! Ben and Rey are happy! There was fireworks, champagne and pussy power! Rey’s hand. Ben gave his very life essence to Rey because his love is that absolute.

And let’s not forget the novelization of TLJ had this quote “They will never have to be alone again”.

Now this is where things get messy as hell. Adam was on the set of Tatooine..... but as they cut that ending. Daisy stated regarding the ending “the crew was shaken in a way I had not seen before. and I thought, ‘my god if this is people’s immediate reaction when the scene isn’t even ready, imagine what it will be like to see it in the movies, with the John Williams soundtrack and all that." When Ben faded into the force...... no one felt anything for a moment then there was just confusion and disappointment. You cannot nor will you ever have me believing that this janky ending was the real deal.

2 "Join Me.......... Please"

“He (Kylo) sensed his and Rey’s destinies were intertwined, but how?......"

The Throne Room Proposal! Kylo premeditated in the purest Sith way regarding the murdering of his Master for his bae. Then he gives Rey a furious speech on killing the past in a bid to win her over and fulfill his dark Queen fantasy. “You come from nothing, you’re nothing—but not to me,” Kylo tells Rey, in one of the most beautifully twisted declarations of love ever uttered in a family blockbuster, before quietly pleading with her to join him like he’s the most desperately lonely person in the universe. The duo’s visions of their future together—Rey sees Kylo turning to the Light, and Kylo witnesses Rey joining him in the Dark. However, upon Snoke’s death, the bond still stands. Kylo offers Rey a place at his side and his hand in marriage, but it is the proposal of an awkward boy, grasping desperately at a relationship he has only begun to understand.

And you can see it in her face, that she’s torn, there is a part of her that wants to take his hand, not to rule the galaxy, that’s not her ambition, but to simply stay with someone who truly understands her as well. But it’s the ‘please’ Adam Driver showed that Julliard education with that one word. Both actors just brough it. You can see how far they've come and yet still so far away from each other.

1 "You're Not Alone.......Neither are You"

“When Rey feels rejected by Luke Skywalker, who also sees parallels between the power in her and the abilities of his estranged nephew, the old Jedi master inadvertently pushes the two towards each other.”

You knew it was coming. In TLJ, Kylo is at his most sympathetic and tempting; Rey at her most understanding. Both are outcasts because of their power, they are both lonely, whispering to each other comfortingly “you’re not alone” and “neither are you.” Kylo sees more in Rey than she does within herself. He also challenges her as an equal. Ben ultimately encourages her to not only expand her mind, but in embrace her womanhood. It is no wonder that Rey goes to him. After experiencing Luke and his failings as a master and failing to find the answer's she's been looking for....... Rey ends up relating to Kylo. Kylo, for once, has put the whole of misery and life lessons into something productive.

When we find them alone in a dark hut, slowly lean towards each other, and very hesitantly touch hands in a scene fraught with romantic tension. Notably, the Force music plays during the scene, signaling their relationship’s importance. A tear crawls down Rey’s face as the two connect and understand each other on a level so deep that it is reminiscent of sex, and causes Luke Skywalker to pull the ultimate Dad move and blow up the hut.

As Rey and Kylo develop their bond we see the force attempting to balance itself. Yin and Yang....... the imagery littered throughout the sequel trilogy is drawn heavily from those belief systems. We see continuous parallel shots with Rey and Ben to represent this duality. Both are presented in contrasting surroundings that represent the duality of the masculine and the feminine. In many shots half of their figure is bathed in light and the other half is bathed in the darkness.

This connection is as spiritual as it is romantic. As Jason Fry explained, romance is merely the analog we have in the living force for this deep spiritual bond.

#reylo #star wars #rey star wars #ben solo #ben solo deserved better #rey skywalker #kylo x rey #kylo ren #ben solo x rey #my otp #otp #star wars reylo #reylo au #reylo prompt #reylo art #disney star wars

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cozage · 1 year

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The Daughter's Return: Part 12

The Morning After

Part 1 | Next Part | Table of Contents | Read this on A03

We did it folks! We made it to the end of the first act! I hope you enjoy!!! Thanks so much for sticking with me through this little journey (and if you're new here, I suggest you go all the way back to Part 1 and start from there!)

Word Count: 6.7k Characters: female reader x Portgas D. Ace CW: they’re just being cute and flirty once again

You woke with a start, a loud bang echoing nearby. It took you a second to place where you were and why your body ached. The mission, the ball, Garp, running through the woods, the files, Ace.

“It’s okay,” Ace whispered. His strong arms were still wrapped around you, your head still against his chest. “Just sunrise artillery from the Navy Base.”

You nuzzled deeper into his chest. You didn’t get cold, but you liked the warmth he emitted. “How’d you sleep?”

“Didn't,” he said.

“What do you mean you didn’t?”

He lazily traced lines across your back, deep in thought. “I kept watch all night.”

You snorted. “That was stupid.”

“What if the Navy found us?”

“We would’ve heard them.”

“What if they were sneaky?” He tickled your sides, making you let out a joyous laugh and jerk away from him.

You quickly curled back into his chest once you were sure his assault was over. “We still would’ve heard them.”

Ace hummed. “What if a candle knocked over and caught the place on fire?”

“We’re made of fire, idiot.”

“Oh yeah.” He pulled you closer, so that you were almost completely on top of him. “Guess that’s true.”

“We should get up,” you noted. Marco would be waiting for you at the shoreline.

“Five more minutes,” Ace begged. His fingers swirled along your back, enticing you to stay longer.

You sighed, snuggling closer to him. You didn’t want to get up yet. You just wanted to stay here with Ace, in your own corner of the world.

“Hey, listen,” Ace started, breaking the silence after a few minutes. “I’m really sorry about last night.”

Your heart dropped. Was he already feeling remorse about your time together?

“What about it?”

“I sacrificed the whole mission and your safety because I didn’t tell you about my connection with Garp. I’m sorry for putting you in danger. That won’t happen again. That was really stupid of me.”

“That was really stupid of you,” you agreed, a wave of relief washing over you. You couldn’t even be mad at him anymore. You were furious last night, but it all seemed so trivial now. “Just, please promise me no more secrets from now on, okay? Especially ones that are important like that. And no more lies.”

“Okay,” he sighed, rubbing your back. “Then there’s something else I probably should tell you.”

His voice sounded more guarded, as if he were anxious. Your head jerked up, meeting his eyes. “What?”

Ace gave a hard swallow and sat up, pulling you along with him. Your heart started to quicken again, wondering what could be making him so nervous.

You could tell he was trying to muster courage, so you didn’t rush him. Your hand reached out and grabbed his, giving it a squeeze of encouragement.

“I lied the other day.” Ace finally said, his words rushing out. “I don’t want us to be casual. I want to be only yours, and you be only mine. I know I said I don’t like the whole exclusive thing, because I like freedom or whatever. But when I’m with you…God when I’m with you, I feel more free than I’ve ever felt in my life.

“I just…I wanted to tell you.” He paused for a moment, giving a hard swallow. “I don’t expect you to feel the same way, but I couldn’t keep it in. I hope it doesn’t make things awkward between us, because I want you in my life, whatever I can get. If you don't-”

“I do,” you said, squeezing his hands tighter.

“You do?”

“Of course I do!” You pulled him in so your forehead touched his, the smell of campfire flooding your senses. “Portgas D. Ace, I want to be yours and only yours.”

“And I’m yours,” he mumbled back, pushing his lips against yours to seal the deal.

You stayed tangled in the bed sheets, embracing each other fully, until the sun was brightly shining through the curtains.

You finally pulled away from him, trying to get up. “We should head for the coast,” you said. “Marco’s probably getting impatient.”

Ace groaned, grabbing your arm and pulling you back to him. “Five more minutes.” He dotted your forehead with kisses between his words.

“You said that five minutes ago. And the five minutes before that. And the five minutes before that.”

“And I’ll say it again in five minutes.”

You giggled and pinched his sides, forcing him to release you. You quickly jumped out of bed, pulling the covers along with you.

“Hey!” Ace desperately reached for the duvet, but you managed to yank it from his grasp.

“Up!” you shouted, throwing the blanket across the room and walking into the closet. “Come on! We have to go!”

Ace puckered out his lips in a pout, but he got up and sulked across to the closet, trying to find an outfit to wear.

“Let’s go as a couple on a mid-morning beach stroll,” you offered, looking through the sundresses that the owner of the house had left behind. There was a checkered white and yellow dress that caught your eye, and you grabbed it.

“So I just need to wear shorts and some flip-flops?”

“And a shirt.” You didn’t need another repeat of last night. You could hear him groan, but he didn’t put up an argument. You browsed the woman’s shoes, and picked out a cute pair of white-flowered sandals. They were a size too big and they weren’t very practical, but after running in heels last night, you weren’t afraid of anything. You retreated out of the closet and into the master bathroom to change.

The dress was a perfect fit, and you twirled around in front of the mirror to check all of the angles. It was comfortable and easy to run in, but still complimented you in all the right ways. The only thing you were missing was a sun hat to cover your face and a beach bag to hold your things.

You quickly combed your fingers through your hair, trying your best to tame the flyaways and knots that had formed overnight, and then you walked out of the bathroom. Ace was waiting for you in an unbuttoned dark blue floral shirt and tan cargo pants. He looked so handsome standing there, you couldn’t help but smile.

“What?” he asked, a pink hue from embarrassment spreading across his cheeks. He looked down at himself, as if he was afraid he had forgotten something.

“Nothing.” You walked up to him and wrapped your arms around his neck, giving him a soft peck on the lips. “You just look nice.”

“As do you.” Ace gave you another, slightly longer kiss. “A life like this wouldn’t be too bad.”

You laughed and broke away from him to go find a bag. “We’d both be bored and you know it.”

“I know, I know.” His voice sounded like it had a hint of longing.

As you dug through the closet, you couldn’t help but think of a life like this. You used to scoff at the idea of an island life, but maybe Ace wasn’t wrong. The two of you in a small cottage together, never having to look over your shoulder or be afraid of the Navy discovering your hideout. Maybe you could even have a few local friends, like that girl at the bar. Life could hold a slower pace. It didn’t sound so terrible with Ace by your side.

But you loved your life of adventure on the sea, and you couldn’t imagine that being taken away from you. The beauty in life was the thrill of the chase. You can’t have that as a law-abiding island citizen. Besides, the Navy would never just look the other way if they ever saw you or Ace strolling the streets casually. You’d never be free from those wanted posters. Even if you wanted a quiet life, the two of you could never have it now. It was better to just push that delusional thought away and focus on what you did have.

You were deep in thought when you came across an oddly shaped box. Curious, you opened it and found the perfect hat to complete your outfit. You squealed out in joy as you placed it atop your head, admiring the look. It was a straw hat, similar to the one Shanks used to wear when you were a kid. But this one was much higher quality, with a wider brim and a dark blue ribbon with a bow, almost the same shade as Ace’s shirt.

“Everything okay?” Ace asked, walking into the closet. He laughed upon realizing the source of your excitement. “Cute hat.”

“Isn’t it?!” You beamed at him, satisfied with your find. “It’s perfect!”

“Reminds me of Luffy,” he noted. “He’s got one like that.”

“You need a hat too.” You flipped over to the husband's side of the closet, looking through the options.

“I have a hat!” Ace scowled. “The orange one, remember?”

“I mean right now! To cover up that hair! And your face! The Navy got a better look at you than me, after all.”

You found a plain yellow ball cap that was only a few shades off of your dress, and handed it off to him.

“Yellow isn’t really my color,” Ace said, taking the cap reluctantly.

“Too bad.” You pointed to your hat, and then to his shirt. “Our hats match the other one’s outfit. It’s like a couple thing.”

Ace groaned. “Please tell me you’re not that kind of girl.”

Your eyebrows knitted together in irritation. “What kind of girl?”

“The kind that’s gonna make me wear certain things because we're a couple and we have to match with everything we wear and do.”

“Idiot!” You hissed, smacking his head. “This is our cover story! To slip past the Navy and meet Marco?”

Ace gave you a blank stare, looking between his cap and you in silence. It was clear he had forgotten that you all were on a mission, not a vacation.

“Just put the hat on,” you grumbled, turning back to look for a beach bag again.

After a few moments, you found a decent-sized tote that would fit your dress and the files you had collected. You quickly shoved your items in the bag, and Ace extinguished the remaining candles around the room.

You checked yourself over one more time in the bathroom mirror, and realized there were welts and bruises up and down your neck and chest area from last night’s activities. You fished out some of the concealer Whitey had left you, and did your best to cover them up.

As you worked, you let your mind wander again. You wondered if there was a place you could be safe enough to live a quiet life. The islands your father protected had to be somewhat safe, especially if you were there. Perhaps the Navy would leave you and Ace alone if you didn’t cause any trouble. You had only just begun your adventure with him, but you couldn’t help but enjoy the simplicity of a home, a space to call your own.

Ace popped his head into the bathroom, breaking you from your thoughts. “Ready?”

You didn’t do as well as Whitey did, but most people probably wouldn’t notice the bruises on your body. Smoothing out your dress, you tried your best not to think about the what-ifs. You were a pirate, and so was Ace. You would live as pirates, and die as pirates. There was nothing more to it.

“Yeah.”

You grabbed the house key and left behind the sapphire necklace you had worn the previous night, just in case the family returned home again. You wanted to give them something for allowing you to stay in their house, even if they had no say in the matter.

The two of you slipped out the back door and locked it, hiding the key where you had found it before.

“Where do we go from here?” Ace asked, looking around. The little street was completely empty, no people to be seen.

You pointed to the left. “That’s north, so let’s head that way. Stay on the paths, though.”

The two of you walked silently on the sidewalk. There weren’t many people out, and the ones you passed would barely make eye contact with you. The Navy must’ve sent out some kind of vague warning to keep people off the streets. It was smart.

Ace’s bounty poster was up all throughout the town. You hadn’t noticed that detail yesterday evening, which made you unsettled. Thankfully his poster wasn’t a good representation of how he looked now. The blonde hair helped, but his bounty picture looked a few years old at this point.

“I was seventeen in that picture,” Ace mumbled, reading your mind. “I didn’t even have my tattoos yet.”

“How’d you rack up a bounty that high when you were seventeen?”

“I didn’t. I started out at 10,000 or some low number. It kept growing over the years, but the picture never changed. Not sure why.”

You laughed. “It helps us now, at least. Kind of funny that they have such a high bounty on the picture of a kid, though.”

“You’re one to talk! The little braided pigtails and the tongue sticking out at the camera is such a cute look on you.” Ace grinned at you, and you groaned. Your old bounty poster was at least five years old now, probably more than that.

“They thought I was dead,” you whispered. “It’s different.”

“You don’t even look threatening in your picture. Three hundred and thirty million berries for a child is insane.”

You sighed, kicking a pebble down the sidewalk. “Not when you’re a Newgate. That name has gotten me more of a reputation in life than I could ever give myself.”

“Maybe for the Navy.”

“For everything,” you said. “For my position, my ideas, my upbringing, even my devil fruit powers. It always ties back to my father and my name.”

Ace shook his head. “Not true.”

You shot him a look. “What do you mean, not true?”

“Everything I heard about you was your own,” Ace said. “I didn’t find out you were a Newgate until I saw your bounty poster. Sure people make snide comments sometimes, but you got to where you are now because you’re good at what you do. Not because of your name.”

“Well yeah.” You had to agree with him there. “But I only got that opportunity because of my na-”

“No.” Ace’s voice was more forceful now. “Names have nothing to do with it. Blood has nothing to do with it. You are where you are because of the choices you made. Not because of who your father is.”

You could tell this was a sensitive subject for him, so you chose to let it go. He was right, after all. Even if you didn’t always feel that way.

Instead of answering, you laced your fingers through his and the two of you resumed walking in silence until you reached the coast. You had passed by a few low-ranking Naval Officers as you walked through town, but none of them had stopped you.

But the coast was different. It was slightly secluded and was crawling with Naval members of much higher ranks. There were still civilians on the beach, but Officers seemed to be checking IDs before they’d allow anyone past them.

“Fuck,” you hissed under your breath, and Ace’s grip on your hand tightened.

You kept your casual pace, walking down the street that ran parallel to the beach. There didn’t appear to be a good option. You couldn’t even see the ocean to see if Marco was waiting for you.

“This way,” you whispered, leading Ace off into a dense patch of trees. You needed a better vantage point. You needed to look for Marco’s boat. If he was there, you could make a better plan.

The two of you moved through the woods as quietly as you could, aiming for the top of the gentle slope. When you got to the top, you peered out across the horizon, until your eyes fell upon a small fishing boat.

“Do you have binoculars?” you whispered, but Ace shook his head.

“They’re back at the rendezvous point, I think.”

It was all or nothing, then. If the boat wasn’t Marco, you all would be in deep shit anyway. You pulled out your compact mirror, trying to catch the light that fell between the tree branches.

“It’s weird, isn’t it?” Ace asked, looking around.

You aimed the mirror at the small fishing boat, moving it slightly from side to side to signal it. “What is?”

“There were so many high-level officials. Admirals, Vice Admirals, even Sengoku. But we haven’t seen them yet.”

“They’re here,” you assured him. The man on the fishing boat got up and turned to look in your direction. After a few moments, the boat started rowing toward the dock nearby.

“They’re hiding,” you continued to explain. “Waiting for us to make an appearance. The island is about 10 miles of shoreline, so they’re probably evenly spaced throughout it. Sengoku and the two admirals that are here are likely in the middle of the island, waiting for an official report to come through so they can get to the scene and capture us.”

“Can they get here that fast?”

“Sengoku can.” He was one of the few navy men that really scared you. You could escape from Akainu and Aokiji- in fact, you had once before. You hadn’t seen Kizaru last night and suspected that he wasn’t on the island, which was the best outcome. You’d take Akainu and Aokiji over Kizaru any day.

But Sengoku was not someone you ever wanted to encounter again. Once had been enough, and thankfully you hadn’t been his target. Since you had acted with civility and he respected your father, he had let you off with a warning. But that had been when you were just a child. You doubted he would give you the same grace now.

Your eyes stayed on the boat as it rowed closer. A small blue flame was burning at the front, and you breathed a sigh of relief when you finally saw it. Marco. You were almost to safety.

“And how do we beat him?” Ace asked. “Sengoku?”

You referred back to your old strategy compendium. “As long as he hasn’t been told directly to target you, he will usually leave low-level pirates alone if they’re not causing problems. He just wants to get his job done.”

Ace bit his lip, deep in thought. “But he’s been told to target us. And we have been causing problems.”

You gritted your teeth, frustration and fear rising. “I know.”

“So how do we-”

“I don’t know, Ace!” you cried, looking at him in desperation. “We’re screwed if he finds us, okay? I don’t have a plan!”

“Hey.” Ace’s arms immediately wrapped around you, pulling you tight against him. “It’s okay. We’re almost home and we’ve got each other. We’ll make it.”

You let him hold you for a few moments, trying to calm yourself down. It was a short distance between the forest and the dock. If you timed it right, you could sneak out without ever alerting the guards. You could escape without them being the wiser.

As the row boat got closer, you realized there were three members aboard. Kala and Mihal must’ve made it to the boat already, which was good news. You were likely only going to get one go at this. You also noticed that the boat had been fitted with a new engine, an addition that Ace seemed to be thrilled about.

“I can use my flames to power that,” he said. “Pops had it built custom for me. We’ll be able to fly out of here.”

“We just have to get there,” you mumbled. Your eyes scanned the shoreline, and your dread mounted as you watched two Officers begin to walk toward the little dock Marco was heading towards.

“Get ready,” you grabbed his hand and crept to the tree line, crouching to remain more hidden. “We’re going to have a short window of time.”

The two navy men stood, waving to the boat. You could hear them calling out, demanding to see forms of identification from each member. Marco continued drifting in at a slow pace, pretending to rummage around for an ID.

Once Marco finally got close enough to the dock, you pulled Ace’s arm. “Let’s move.”

The two of you walked briskly to the little dock, trying your best not to draw attention to yourself. It was only thirty yards. You were so close.

“I’m telling ya, I don’t carry an ID on me! You’ve seen me out here all morning!” Marco yelled to the officers. “Why would I-”

“I’m sorry sir, then we’ve got to call it in. Just protocol. We’ll get the Fleet Admiral down here and we can sort it out.”

“I don't think that's...” Marco’s voice faltered when he saw you and Ace coming towards him.

The man pulled out his snail transponder. “Hello, Fleet Admiral? This is section 2-0-6-B-5. We’ve got a situation.”

Seconds. You had seconds to act. You sprinted as fast as you could, Ace right on your heels. In a panic, you grabbed the transponder and pushed the man into the ocean. Ace followed suit, shoving the other Navyman into the water. The two of you jumped onto the boat, not even bothering to look back.

“Come in section 2-0-6-B-5.” Sengoku’s eager voice was on the other end of the line, and your stomach did flips. “What’s your status?”

The engine roared to life, Ace fueling it with every drop of power that he could. The boat took off, the tiny dock and the island getting smaller by the second.

“2-0-6-B-5.” The voice was angrier and deeper now. You suspected it was Akainu. “Give your status report! Right now!”

Everyone’s eyes were on you, waiting to see what you would do. Ace gave you a playful grin and nodded, encouraging you silently.

You pressed the snail transponder button, your voice echoing through the speaker.

“You lose again, Akainu. Better luck next time.”

A smile appeared across your face at the thought of his reaction, and you were certain he could hear your smug attitude across the transponder.

“Newgate?!” Akainu shouted. “Somebody get Garp over here immediately!”

You could hear roars of anger and frustration as the chaos ensued, and you quickly disconnected the snail so you couldn’t be tracked or contacted again. You threw the connection device into the ocean, pride swelling in your chest. It had been close, but there were no casualties or injuries, which means it had been an overwhelming success as long as…

You turned to Kala. “Did you get the photos of the documents?”

“A walk in the park.” She grinned, handing over her snail to you. “We were in and out in 20 minutes. Took the Navy a little too long to realize Ace probably wasn’t acting alone. By that point, we were already out and setting off the flare.”

You let out a sigh of relief. “Good to hear. Glad it was a success.”

“You scared the shit out of me,” Marco said, shoving you lightly. “I heard on the hacked transponder that Ace was captured. And then Ace was free. And then he was gone and had taken a prisoner with him. I never heard anything about you! What the hell were you doing?”

“Wait, they never said anything about me?” you glanced at Ace, confused. Surely the Navy should know by now. Garp should’ve told them when you escaped.

“Nothing,” Mihal said, and Kala nodded in agreement. “You must’ve played your part pretty damn well. No wonder Pops calls you for infiltration work.”

“You were amazing!” Kala gushed. “That slap sounded and looked so real! How long did you guys rehearse that?”

“The slap was real,” Ace groaned, but he was smiling down at you from where he was. “She did it with no warning, too. Incredible thinking on the spot.”

Marco glanced between the two of you, eyes narrowing in suspicion. “I think I’m going to need a recap of the night.”

“We will,” Ace assured him. “When we get back to the Moby Dick. We’ll give everyone a briefing of what happened.”

Marco kept trying to catch your eye, but you refused to look at him. You knew he would be able to read your face to learn whatever he wanted to know, and you didn’t want to deal with the repercussions of last night quite yet.

Instead, you curled up on a small part of the boat and opted to take a nap. You had gotten good sleep last night, but you had been up quite late. And between all of the running and adrenaline rushes, you were starting to feel very drained now that you were safe.

You dreamed of a small stone home that overlooked the sea. You felt safe here, on this hidden island away from the world. It felt like the home your father always told you about when you were young. You were standing at the front door, calling out to a group of people that were playing in the surf of the ocean. A man, who you quickly realized was Ace, and two small children. You couldn’t help but smile, watching them run up the hill to your home, the toddlers struggling to keep up with the man you were so fond of. This was your little family, you suddenly realized. Your slice of paradise, the people who you would live and die for.

And then, on the horizon: what you had thought were clouds were actually sails, the crest of the Navy proudly displayed. Your joy quickly turned to horror, and you turned and ran inside to grab anything to defend yourself.

As you walked through the threshold, your home became a concrete room. Shackles on the wall suddenly tied to your wrists and pulled you in, clinging you to the wall. You were trapped. The sound of an iron gate slammed behind you.

“Did you really think you could get out?” A calm voice came from behind you. Sengoku. “Did you really think you could escape from the Navy? I won’t be so forgiving this time, I’m afraid.”

“Please,” you sobbed, turning to face him. “I just want to live a normal life. Just me and Ace. Please.”

Sengoku’s face slowly morphed into Akainu, and you flinched from the heat he was emitting. Normally you burned hotter than he did, but today was different. The sea prism cuffs made you feel his full effect, and you realized why so many people were afraid of him.

He grinned down at you, pure hatred in his eyes. “You’re going to get exactly the life you deserve,” he growled. “It’d be a fitting end for a magma girl to be burned at the stake, don’t you think? And we have just the man to set the flames.”

Ace appeared next to him, looking at you with such disgust that you shrank into the wall. If looks could kill, this surely would’ve been the end for you. He was dressed in a Navy outfit, just last night. But he was colder towards you, as if he were a stranger now.

“Did you really think I cared about you?” he goaded, laughing in your face. “You need to wake up.”

You couldn’t help the tears that fell from your eyes now. The shackles held you so tight, you couldn’t even wipe them away. “Ace-”

“Y/N. Wake up,” he said again, his voice still full of anger. “Wake up!”

You opened your eyes with a start, letting out a soft sob. Ace’s big, dark eyes stared at you in concern, his hand resting on your face. It was a dream. Of course it was a dream.

“You okay?” He tucked a strand of hair behind your ear. “You’re crying.”

“Fine,” you mumbled, pushing away from him and finally wiping at your eyes. “I’m fine.”

“Bad dream?” His arm reached out for you and you flinched away from him, causing him to hesitate.

“I just want to be alone right now.”

“Well, bad news about that…” Ace gave a nervous chuckle. “We’re home.”

You looked up at him in slight alarm, your heart spiking. “Home?”

He pointed upward, and you realized you were sitting in the shadow of something massive. You turned around to find the Moby Dick in front of you. Home.

“Why don’t you go to my room and take a nap? I’ll go debrief Pops and then tomorrow we can have a full debrief with everyone together. You look even more tired than you did when you fell asleep.”

“No.” You shook your head and wiped at your eyes. “I’ll be fine. It was just a bad dream. ”

“Do you want to talk about it?”

“No!” you snapped. He looked hurt by your harshness, and you tried to rephrase it in a gentler tone. “Sorry, not right now. Maybe later, if that’s okay?”

“Of course,” Ace said immediately, a smile returning to his face. “Whenever you want.”

You gave a silent nod and stood to grab the rope ladder. You climbed one rung before you turned back to him.

“You’re not a secret Navy officer, right?”

Ace gave you a momentary blank stare and then burst into laughter. “Do you think I’m smart enough to pull that over on you? A pirate’s life is the only way for me.”

You gave him a nervous smile and started climbing again, trying to ignore the dull ache in your chest. You could trust Ace, you knew that in your bones. He would never betray you. It was just a bad dream.

But if a pirate’s life was the only way for him, then the first part of your dream was just as unrealistic as the second part.

“There she is!”

Thatch pulled you over the railing of the ship and the other commanders gathered around to greet you. As you planted your feet on the ship, you remembered why you loved it here. Everyone’s smiling faces, glowing with pride at your accomplishment. There was never any envy among you and your adoptive siblings. Ace was right. This was home.

Ace joined you on the deck, and the group of commanders and strategists began walking to the meeting office where you knew your father was waiting for you. Ace seemed to get more nervous the closer you got to the briefing room, but you were excited to share your successes of the previous night.

You chose to sit between Ace and Kala since you knew that you all would be doing most of the talking. After everyone was seated, Ace began his recap of the evening. It took everything you had not to interject or add extra details, but you didn’t want to appear disrespectful.

“We ended up deciding that Team A would become the distraction team while Team B would move to retrieval. The distraction-”

“Why?” your father interjected. He was never afraid to question decisions.

Ace turned to you, unsure how to respond.

“There was an altercation with a Rear Admiral,” you admitted.

Whitebeard’s eyes narrowed. “What kind of altercation?”

“I was dancing with him, and he offered to give me a tour of the house. I accepted but failed to inform Ace of the change in plans. He thought the Rear Admiral was taking me away, and quickly intervened. It drew the attention of the higher-ups, so we changed plans.”

Your father watched you and Ace very closely, looking for any signs of a lie. But you had told him the truth. Mostly, anyway.

“And what exactly was this distraction?”

“She slapped me. Hard. It hurt pretty bad,” Ace said, rubbing his cheek at the memory. You had to cover your mouth to keep yourself from giggling, but the rest of the table wasn’t so polite and burst out into laughter. Even your father cracked a smile.

Once everyone settled down, you continued the story. “I implied that he had made some kind of derogatory comment and got him taken away by some high-level officers and-”

“And then they took my shirt off and saw my tattoo!” Ace shook his head, chuckling as he remembered. “That really threw things into chaos.”

“Where were you?” your father directed the question towards you, and everyone turned to look.

“Oh.” You gave a shrug. “I was being questioned by a few Navy people about the man I came with and such. It wasn’t much of a big deal.”

“Nobody recognized you?” Marco asked. He sounded shocked.

“My wanted poster is old and discontinued,” you explained. “And I had a good cover story.”

“You didn’t answer the question,” your father said, and your cheeks tinted in embarrassment.

“A Vice Admiral recognized me as he was speaking to me privately, but it appears he didn’t notify anyone until after we had left the island.”

Your father’s eyes widened. “Who?”

“Monkey D. Garp.”

You could hear a few sharp inhales around the room. Even your father looked startled, but his gaze was now on Ace.

“How did you escape that?” Thatch asked. You could tell the group was holding you in a newfound respect, but you hadn’t done much. You were fairly certain Ace appearing was the only reason you weren’t rotting in a cell now.

“Ace,” you said. “He burst through the window and shocked Garp, and the two of us made an escape. We hid out in an abandoned house until morning, and made our escape.”

A few whistles and whoops of congratulations came from around the table, but your father’s gaze on you was clear. He’d let you lie now, but you were expected to tell him the truth later.

“That’s one hell of a re-entry back into the pirate world,” Namur said. “They don’t even know why, but a woman they thought was dead and the second division commander wrecked a Marine Ball for no reason, and then escaped off the island riddled with Marines without even being noticed.”

“Oh actually, they probably do think we had a reason for being there.” You reached into your bag, grabbed the files you had collected, and slid them across the table to your father. “Four files, mostly unimportant. But they think they know what we were doing there.”

Your father picked them up. “Have you examined them?”

You nodded, listing them off on your fingers. “A report on a country in Paradise under the control of a warlord. One about Roger’s late life. A falsified RA attack, and a rookie report.”

Your father nodded. “Could be useful, if put in the right hands.”

You shrugged. “Interesting reads for curious minds.”

A strategist from the eleventh division, Omri, reached for a file, but your father shoved them under some other papers he had. “I’d like to look at each file first before I distribute them. Kala and Mihal, please tell your side of the story now.”

Kala spoke most of the time, but the report was fast. Your father didn’t ask any questions, surprisingly, but she was very thorough in her report. She knew what was important and what wasn’t. You could see yourself getting along with her if you got to know her better.

“Then the mission was a success,” your father said after Kala was done. “I’m glad to hear. Good job on everyone’s hard work to get it done. A celebration is in order for tonight. Everyone is dismissed.”

Everyone let out a closing cheer and started to get out of their seats. There were chores to be done and meals to be cooked, and you wanted to see those naval schematics to fine-tune your plan.

“Division two leaders, stay behind.” Your father’s voice made your skin tingle. You were certain you’d have to answer a lot of questions, some you really weren’t looking forward to.

A few of the commanders laughed as they left the room, but you and Ace stayed seated. Neither of you spoke, waiting for your father to ask the first question. You weren’t about to offer up more information than what he asked, and you were sure Ace felt the same.

After a prolonged silence, he finally spoke. “Would you like to tell me what really happened last night?”

Ace stiffened beside you, proving that there had been some kind of lie that had been told. You silently cursed him. He’d have to get better about acting under pressure if he was going to stick around.

“Garp knew who I was, but based on the intel I collected, he didn’t inform anyone of my identity until after we left the island.”

“Go on.” Your father watched you, his eyes flicking to Ace occasionally to see if you were telling the truth. Ace was like a walking lie detector around him. That would be troublesome if he asked the wrong questions.

“He brought my bounty poster into the room when he spoke to me. I believe his goal was-” You hesitated, but a nod of encouragement from Ace allowed you to keep talking. “His goal was to lure Ace into the room. He was sure that Ace was waiting outside, and he positioned himself to make it appear as if he was hurting me. Ace came through the window, the three of us spoke for a little while, and then Ace and I escaped without further problems.”

“What did you speak about with Garp, exactly?”

Ace cleared his throat. “About how he wanted me to be a Marine.”

You shot him a look. “And that you didn’t tell me your grandfather was in the Navy.”

This news didn’t seem to phase your father. “And after that? Then what happened?”

You nodded, getting back to the information you had to share. “Marco said that there was only ever a report that Ace grabbed a hostage. And the next morning, there were plenty of posters for Ace. But I didn’t see any for me.”

Whitebeard nodded. “So the Navy doesn’t know you’re alive? Good.”

“Well…” You gave your father an embarrassed smile. “I might have revealed it as we were leaving the island.”

Your father scowled at you, clearly irritated by your decision. “I told you to stop burning boats as you leave places. It gets messy.”

“I didn’t! But…hypothetically, I may have sent a message with a Marine Transponder Snail to Akainu telling him better luck next time.”

Your father stared at you for a few moments, trying to decide whether to scold you or laugh. You had to admit, it was a pretty stupid blow of your cover, but it was such a hilarious way to reintroduce yourself to the Navy you weren’t even mad about the increased risk you had given yourself

“You’ve got to watch that Admiral,” your father finally said, giving a light chuckle. “He’s cocky, but he’s got a temper that burns hotter than yours.”

You scoffed. “Too bad he doesn’t have the power to match it.”

Your father really laughed now, and you could feel the tension melt away again. You and Akainu were similar in all of the worst ways, but you had always been better than him. Which meant you had to mess with him whenever you could. And you almost always had your father’s support when you messed around with the Navy.

“Okay, you two can go.” Your father wiped a tear from his eye and you smiled.

You started to get up and head for the door, but Ace stayed seated.

“There’s one more thing you need to be aware of, Pops,” Ace said. The tone in his voice made you stop in your tracks.

“Ace-”

“We’re dating.” Ace was staring at his hands, too afraid to make eye contact with you or your father. His words brought fluster to your cheeks, and you could see your father’s eyes widen in response.

Whitebeard’s eyes flashed to you, dangerous and stormy. “Out,” he commanded.

“But-”

“Out!” His haki began to roll over you in waves, but it didn’t affect you like it used to. You just rolled your eyes and exited the room, praying that you’d still have a boyfriend after their conversation was over.

You waited for five minutes, and then ten. Ace still hadn’t come out, and you had started pacing the deck outside the office in anticipation. You were so anxious, you didn’t notice Marco standing nearby until he spoke.

“Ace has been in there an awful long time,” Marco said, causing you to jump.

“I don’t want to hear anything,” you grumbled. “You’re only going to make it worse”

“You know you’re off limits, right?” Marco asked, walking over to you. “Pops has never outrightly said it, but the commanders are supposed to leave you alone.”

You laughed dryly. “Only if they know what’s good for them. I could take any of them any day.”

“Not in a fight. I mean romantically, dummy.” He ruffled your hair, causing you to shoot him a look. “Commanders are to leave the Princess alone. It’s the unspoken rule.”

God, you hated that nickname. You could feel your blood boil at the mention of it. Your father had called you that when you were a kid, and certain crew members let it take on a meaning of its own; one that painted a much less kind image of you. Marco never meant it maliciously, but the name still made you angry regardless of who said it.

“And what if the Princess pursued the commander?” you hissed, throwing venom into your words. “Then what?”

Marco shrugged, leaning back up against the wall. He pointed a thumb at the door and gave you a slight smirk. “Guess we’ll have to find out together.”

You didn’t respond to him. You were too worried to come up with any more witty responses. So you paced back and forth again, fiddling with your fingers. Waiting.

After an eternity, the door creaked open. Your eyes quickly found Ace’s dark ones, lit up with mischievous glee. A smile spread across his face as he walked toward you, ignoring your glare.

“What is wrong with you?” you hissed. “Why did you do that?!”

“So I could do this!” He wrapped you in his arms and gave you a quick kiss on the lips, bringing an instant blush to your cheeks.

“Gross!” Marco called out, startling you both. You had forgotten he was there. “No more of that please!”

You stuck your tongue out at Marco, but Ace gave you a big kiss on your cheek, causing you to shriek and erupt into a fit of giggles.

“Great,” Marco scoffed, but there was a smile on his lips. “This ought to end well.”

“It will!”

And it could have. It really could have.

Part one is complete!

What Now?

Tag list! @taeyoge @teiza @tojislawyer @trafalgardnami @bloopbopsblog @dancingnewcat @dxestyi @flooofity @nyxthedragon01 @deadsnothere @h-rhodes1598 @morgyyyyyyy @trafalgardvivi @fiestynatureweeb @frogpogjoghurt @beepboopcowboy @ms-portgas @luvyallbabes

(if you'd like to be included in the tag list, just comment or send me a message!)

#one piece #one piece imagine #one piece scenario #one piece x reader #one piece x you #portgas ace x you #portgas ace x reader #portgas d ace x reader #ace x y/n #ace x reader #portgas d ace #portgas d. ace #✧˚ace✧˚#cozage

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theyanderespecialist · 7 months

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Base Yandere Viper Headcanons: Mother (SNAKE) Hen (Headcanons) (Kung Fu Panda)

[Hello, My Sexy Muffins! I am back with a new chapter/Update! This one has Yandere Viper Base Headcanons and I hope that you all enjoy this!]

(Disclaimer: Viper is a SENTIENT Snake and you are also a SENTIENT Snake)

(Disclaimer Number Two: Viper is Not Yandere In Canon, this is just for fun and not to be taken seriously at all! Simping for fictional characters and yanderes is fine, just do not be illegal or gross about it! Yanderes are NOT Ideal partners to have In Real Life! Also, remember to separate fiction from reality and headcanon from canon!

Thank you, and Happy Lunar New Year!)

Once again please enjoy this!]

-Base Yandere Headcanons with Viper From Kung Fu Panda-

.Viper is a very kind-hearted Woman.

.She is also one of the furious five.

.She also has at least two sisters.

.She fell for you hard when you worked at the temple.

.Studying to become a master in martial arts.

.She needed to have you as her partner and she would have you no matter what.

.She is so loving, warm, kind-hearted, and affectionate with you

.She makes you smile all the time and loves to make you laugh.

.She is a bit of a mother hen yandere where she would make sure that you eat enough, get enough rest

.She wants your mental health and physical health to be taken seriously.

.She is the type of yandere to hover around you and try to make you see that she is the one to you~

.She does not like cruelty or injustice so with rivals she does not torture them.

.Instead, she kills them with one strike. She does not care what she has to do, they will not be getting in the way of her love for you.

.She also deals with rivals with zero hesitation she will strike down on them, ending their lives.

.She is a patient yandere and wants the best for you, even if the best for you is not with her.

.But she is SO going to threaten the life of any partner you have, to make sure they never ever try anything to hurt you.

.And if they do they will be dealt with so fast and so swiftly that they did not even see it coming.

.She is also the type of yandere to stay by your side and take care of you.

.She also worried if you are strong enough to be a martial arts master. It constantly worries her.

.Though she has faith in you and has empathy if you a struggling.

.She would finally confess to you and ask for you to be hers.

.Most likely under a beautiful tree as the blossoms are in bloom.

.If you accept her love she is more than excited and she cannot wait to Marry you and have you as her spouse.

.If you turn him down, well she would ask why, and if you say you are with someone else?

.She will do her best to respect it, but if her rival crosses the line he is so dead.

.If you say you do not see her like that, then she knows that she has to work harder and make her intentions and desires more clear.

.So that way, one day you will be hers and hers alone.

[YASSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS another chapter is done! I hope you all enjoyed, and stay sexy, all of my sexy muffins!]

#yandere #yandere viper #yandere kung fu panda #yandere headcanons #headcanons #kung fu panda #kung fu panda viper #viper #viper x reader #reader #gender neutral #gender neutral reader

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denimbex1986 · 1 year

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'Before I saw the Barbie movie, I was resolutely against ever seeing the Barbie movie. Despite the fact that as a child I loved Barbie, who I interviewed regularly for important radio segments in her coral peach ball gown, I decided that the last thing I needed was 90 neon-coloured-Margot-Robbie-filled minutes of a film which would obviously have nothing new to offer me; a grown-up feminist woman who stopped idealising the problematic Barbie aesthetic decades ago.

But then the reviews from angry men started rolling in. You only had to be vaguely near the internet after Barbie’s release to hear the resounding roars of the mostly middle-aged; outraged that such an abomination against “all men” could even be allowed to exist. The reviews began to read like dreamy promotional soundbites: “An alienating, dangerous and perverse film”, “They won’t be happy until we are all gay”.

These men were really, really wound up about this film. They loathed it. They were spitting fury at Greta Gerwig for creating a piece of such obvious, glaring, “anti-men, feminist propaganda”.

And so, when I was asked by one of my teenage children if I would be up for a day of “Barbenheimer”, I said “yes”: newly salivating at the potential of a project that could cause this much delicious backlash.

I decided I would swallow my aversion towards sustained exposure to powder pink, get Barbie watched, then chase it all away with a good dose of brooding grey, historically accurate cinema. Despite the promise of those furious reviews, I still expected to enter and exit the cinema despising Barbie and in awe of Oppenheimer.

During the five hours of media and popcorn consumption that followed, a chain reaction set in motion that left me changed. It made the vitriolic reviews of Barbie, calling Greta Gerwig’s masterpiece “anti-men”, even more comical. The irony was bright and clear to me: Oppenheimer is anti-women.

And the thing is that Oppenheimer is not different to most films. Because most films are anti-women.

We just don’t take to the internet to rage about it because we’re used to it; desensitised by the decades of cinematic women who exist only to paint their lips red, bare their breasts and give the important male protagonists something to play with.

Is Barbie anti-men? Oh, I hope so (it isn’t, it’s anti-patriarchy), but also, frankly, I don’t care. Because if it is – after decades of movies made by male directors like Oppenheimer’s Christopher Nolan, it has good reason to be.

And it does what it so brilliantly does within the sparkly, imaginary bubble of an entirely fictional world where the male characters it side-lines are literally plastic dolls, all called Ken (except Alan); fake toys who simply can’t even breathe. Anti-women films like Oppenheimer on the other hand, sideline or completely erase very real, flesh-and-blood women who lived whole lives and made significant contributions to our world.

So, if you’re a man who has watched Barbie and felt angry or irritated or just plain strange while watching the depiction and treatment of the Kens – then welcome to cinema. That is what it feels like to be a woman watching Hollywood movies most of the time.

But here’s the thing – that poor Ken doll you’re lamenting over, is not Leona Woods; who at 23 was one of the youngest female scientists the Manhattan project employed. Ken, unlike Leona, was not present at the first nuclear chain reaction and Ken did not have to do what Leona did – which was to conceal her pregnancy until two days before her baby was born. Ken is also not Elizabeth Graves; a scientist entirely essential to the project’s success who was completing an experiment when she went into labour and did not stop the experiment until it was finished, timing her contractions with a stopwatch. Let’s see Christopher Nolan make a three-hour-long film about that.

Neither Woods nor Graves feature in Oppenheimer, which, like so many anti-women films, manages to assume such an air of authority that it can leave us assuming that its astounding lack of female representation must be down to its admirable commitment to historical accuracy. I’ve heard the cries – “It is called Oppenheimer after all. How much do you expect it to worry about its women?” And perhaps it’s true – you can’t very well expect a film about the very intelligent physicists who tackled the science behind creating the atomic bomb to change facts just for representation can you?

No. But you can and should expect such a film to accurately and fairly represent the female scientists who were, in fact, right there – alongside Oppenheimer and his men, ensuring the Manhattan Project’s success. Perhaps it might have been appropriate if viewers left the three-hour epic clear in the knowledge that Kitty Oppenheimer didn’t only drink herself to distraction while taking care of screaming children and dropping a hip flask out of her handbag at every possible moment; she was also a trained botanist who was employed at Los Alamos to take blood and test the levels of radiation exposure of her colleagues.

More than 600 women worked on the Manhattan Project at Los Alamos alone, yet the only female scientist given any recognition in Nolan’s world is Lilli Hornig, who speaks only briefly, mostly in opposition to the bomb’s use. And what about Charlotte Serber? Who Nolan depicts as Oppenheimer’s secretary, completely erasing her vital work as scientific librarian for the project’s “secret library” and who, with no formal training, became the only female group leader, overseeing a staff of 12 people while also risking her safety in counter-espionage efforts.

Oppenheimer doesn’t only fail the Bechdel test, it fails to represent the real women who contributed so significantly to that morally fraught turning point in history. Those women were physicists, engineers, chemists, mathematicians. They existed. And, as is so often the case, many of their achievements have been forgotten and remain unrecognised, by both history and cinema.

As I continue to emerge from my Barbenheimer experience, researching the lost women of the Manhattan project and occasionally still basking in the disgust of all those angry men who need to hate the work of art that is Barbie, it becomes ever clearer: anti-women is the benchmark of mainstream filmmaking and some people are simply unable to deal with the plastic Manolo Blahnik being on the other foot.'

#Barbenheimer #Oppenheimer #Barbie #Margot Robbie #Greta Gerwig #Leona Woods #Elizabeth Graves #The Manhattan Project #Kitty Oppenheimer #Los Alamos #Lilli Hornig #Charlotte Serber

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mwolf0epsilon · 9 months

Text

What Love Looks Like

This is a long one...

Caprichoso, walking around the mess hall with a food tray full of green nutrimush while looking for a place to sit: Uh, I guess Dogma must still be on shift...

Clearcut, sitting with a group of 501st vode before noticing Caprichoso: Over here Capri.

Caprichoso, glancing over and beaming: CC! Hey! -sitting down next to the older trooper- Thanks, this place is packed!

Hardcase, chuckling: That's usually how it is during midmeal! Lots of very hungry troopers lining up to get the best slop!

Clearcut, noticing the enormous pile of food on the other's tray and looking slightly nauseated: Capri, please tell me you're not planning to eat all of that in one sitting...

Caprichoso, grinning: Sure am! But I promise I won't get too excited and choke this time. I'm just not used to being allowed to eat so much of my favorite grub without having to slap someone's hand away.

Clearcut: I am still not quite sure how the green veggie paste is your favorite. It's too sweet for my own taste.

Hardcase: How, for real? The sweetness is what makes it good!

Caprichoso, looking at Hardcase: You. You get me! All of the other options taste so bland! But this one tastes so good...

Hardcase: Hear hear! Green mush is the best mush!

Jesse, laughing: Man... I wish you'd been assigned to the 501st. You would have fit right in immediately!

Caprichoso, surprised: Wow, you really think so?

Fives: We know so. You're what? Around Tup's age group? Pretty sure if you'd been deployed at the same time you would have made the cut.

Jesse: Yeah, maybe then we would have all just fit where we belonged instead of dealing with... Some troopers.

Tup, frowning but staying quiet:

Hardcase, pausing as he glances up at Jesse with a somewhat puzzled look:

Clearcut, also pausing but looking noticeably uncomfortable:

Caprichoso: ... What do you mean?

Jesse: Hm? Oh, you know. Just some conflict you don't really need to worry about.

Caprichoso, noticing Tup's unusually quiet demeanor and the pinched look on Clearcut's face: ...

Caprichoso, crossing his arms: No, carry on. What was that supposed to mean?

Jesse: ... Ok, I'll be real with you. You? You get us. You fit in just right. Better than you do with the 105th.

Caprichoso, frowning due to this being a particularly sore topic for him: Yeah...?

Jesse: Well, there's a trooper who's the exact opposite. And he proved that on Umbara.

Caprichoso, adding 2 and 2 together: I... You're talking about Dogma aren't you?

Tup, focusing on his tray clearly unwilling to participate in this conversation:

Fives: Yeah, it's about Dogma. He doesn't really fit with the rest of us.

Jesse: He doesn't act like a vod, is what Fives means. Which is a huge problem.

Tup, looking up at Jesse with an angry look on his face:

Jesse, raising his hands in defense: I mean, I'm sure he's plenty brotherly with you Tup. But that's you. With everyone else he's a stuck up shabuir that wouldn't hesitate to rat anyone else out for his own benefit, just like he did on Umbara.

Caprichoso, slowly beginning to look angry: Umbara was a stressful situation. You saw what Krell was like, do you really think you were anything but lucky back there?

Fives, offended: Lucky?!

Jesse: We were anything BUT lucky! Krell nearly killed the entire battalion! Made us kill each other for his own sick amusement! Sent Fives, Hardcase and I to be executed via firing squad which Dogma manned! And then when evidence cropped up that he was a bastard, Dogma STILL sided with him! Hells he pointed a blaster at the captain! At Tup! He's no vod!

Caprichoso, furious: You were lucky, because that was ONE campaign with Krell. The 105th on the other hand experienced all that and worse CONSTANTLY! And let me tell you, when your entire deployment is based on survival of the fittest, you have to do some pretty crappy horrid things to live another day...

Jesse, trying to find an argument for this: Vode stick to each other! No matter what!

Caprichoso: Really? So you never met a vod on Kamino that never picked on someone else because they were favored by trainers? You never got angry at your own batchers because you felt like they could do better and were slacking in sims? Never met some other older vode who thought they knew better than you just because they were more experienced?

Jesse: ...

Fives, recalling how it used to be for Domino Squad back on Kamino: ...

Hardcase, trying to figure out how to get everyone to calm down before this gets any worse: Err... Maybe we should...

Caprichoso: I read the reports. I read what happened on Umbara. I read them because I knew from the moment Krell left to lead the 501st, that something bad was gonna happen. And I can tell you from both an inside and outside perspective that all of the things Dogma did he didn't do for himself.

Clearcut, sighing because he knows Capri isn't going to let go:

Caprichoso: He was scared, sure. We all were scared once we realized Krell was a demagolka shabuir who didn't really care for us unless we were useful or entertaining in some way. I watched good vode be reshaped into... Into something unrecognizable under his command. My brothers who I love so much and who I wish loved me just as much as Dogma loves you miserable bastards!

Tup, opens his mouth:

Caprichoso: Keep your mouth shut, you lost the right to say anything the moment you let that piece of osik lieutenant drag your twin's name through the mud! For all that I've heard you moan and bitch about my twin being a jerk, you're no bouquet of roses!

Tup, flinching: Ah...

Fives: Hey don't talk to Tup like that!

Caprichoso: Or what? You'll go off on some suicide mission and jeopardize the lives of your vode like you did on Umbara? Get off your high fathier ARC trooper, you've got no idea how to work in a team and it shows. The stunt you pulled on Umbara only got you a firing squad execution, one which according to records should have fallen to your coward of a captain to lead... Not Dogma.

Jesse: The captain would never--

Clearcut: ... He would.

Jesse, turning to look at Clearcut in surprise: Uh?

Clearcut: ... Sargeant Slick.

Hardcase, wincing: ...

Caprichoso: Also on that note. The firing squad. Curious how Dogma chose the best sharpshooters and a medic to make damn sure you lot didn't feel a thing once you got taken out. Very cruel of him uh? Following orders from someone who wasn't opposed to punish an entire battalion for someone else's disobedience, and yet still making damn sure it was as mercifully a clean shot as possible...

Jesse, at a loss for words: I... You don't...

Caprichoso: I don't get it? Sure I do. Surviving under Krell taught me something valuable. That if you plan to act against an oppressor, you make it your mission to put the only target on your back. Not on your vode's. And yeah sure, I'm louder, I'm angrier, I'm ten times more insufferable than Dogma. But I can recognize something you definitely don't seem to be able to unless it's your brand.

Fives: And what's that?

Caprichoso: What love looks like. And it certainly isn't wishing that your little brother was in a battalion where he would have been abused into submission or into outright hate and hostility towards his own crew.

Caprichoso, getting up: Urgh, I'm not hungry anymore... Your opinions are so disgusting I'd rather starve than eat with you. I don't get what Dogma sees in you poodoo-brained karkers at all, he really would be better off on his own. -storming off furiously-

Jesse, Fives, Tup & Hardcase, watching Capri leave the mess hall: ...

Clearcut, sighing sadly due to this conversation having derailed so quickly: ... I've never met a kih'vod more stubbornly loyal than Capri. He won't be letting go of this newfound grudge anytime soon.

#star wars #the clone wars #arc trooper jesse #arc trooper fives #clone trooper hardcase #clone trooper tup #clone ocs #105th battalion #krell's battalion #clone trooper caprichoso #clone trooper clearcut #when capri told dogma they were gonna be the best of friends he really meant it #he basically imprinted on him and is now furiously loyal towards him #mostly because since he's so used to Dogma's specific brand of love language he understands that the other isn't as stuck up and selfish as #most assume him to be... In fact Capri understands that Dogma's expression of affection is very unique among the 501st because they're all #typically loud and extremely vocal about their affections rather than subtle and quiet like Dogma #so seeing Dogma get slandered and disregarded as 'not vod-like' really grinds his gears because he can SEE how much Dogma loves his brother

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hex-is-vexxed · 5 days

Text

My warrior ocs!! (Not all of them tho ;;)

StreakPaw/StreakPelt/TenStar!!

She is the main cat in my warriors AU, coming from a “cursed” family line her story is wrought with loss and hardship. Her parents, brother, and mentor are all killed by the same cat, her estranged cousin CawThroat (later CawStar) deputy of RiverClan. When she is first killed (by CawThroat bc of course) her family gives her a second life, making her the first cat to receive another life without being a leader. She feels all of it, it is not a rejuvenation, it is an unnatural resurrection, and she hears the screams and yowls of her furious family line. Her second chance was given to her in battle, so cats of both RiverClan and ThunderClan (along with some WindClan allies on Thunder’s side and ShadowClan allies on RiverClan’s side) witnessed it happen. This causes a huge amount of discourse and questions of faith through all the clans, why did she deserve another life? How was this even possible? Is StarClan playing favorites? She is more isolated than ever from her clan, bitter and traumatized she dedicates herself to revenge on CawThroat (who became leader in the same battle). On a stormy night when tensions are high between RiverClan and ThunderClan and a battle is brewing, StreakPelt finds her opportunity to strike and kills CawStar, with his nine lives he comes back but she strikes again and again, leaving him running in retreat from the battle with only five lives left. His clan starts to doubt his authority and strength as a leader, as well as fear StreakPelt for her strength and hatred for their clan.

Many moons pass before StreakPelt is able to strike again, CawStar having only three lives now as two were spent in petty battles with RiverClan’s once ally turned enemy, ShadowClan. When a dispute over SunningRocks turns violent, StreakPelt is first on the scene, hoping her revenge will finally be settled. CawStar cowers in her presence, running from her and begging his clanmates (who have since turned against him as he is a weak leader) to help him. She finally kills him, fulfilling her mission of revenge. When she returns to camp she slumps in a patch of sun, blood soaking her fur, and sleeps for three days.

With the help of her best friend RockTail, she learns to live for more than just hate and becomes a much happier cat. When whitecough runs through and weakens the clan she is strong and helps to pick up the pieces, being made Deputy when CoolFoot passes from infection. RockTail dies of whitecough, but when once she was consumed by hatred spawned by grief, now she is able to mourn her friend without becoming bitter.

When she becomes leader she is named TenStar for being the first cat to have been granted ten lives (her first of course on that fateful day so many moons ago). She is a powerful leader, ruthless in battle but a worthy negotiator, she is beloved by ThunderClan.

NightPaw/NightFall

NightPaw is StreakPelt’s second apprentice (between her resurrection and revenge on Caw). She is fast and agile, a quick learner, and eager to impress her mentor. Slightly older than DapplePaw, he is made an apprentice first, but when DapplePaw is made StreakPelt’s third apprentice the two are pitted against each other. StreakPelt did not want to be a mentor at all, and though she was somewhat “happy” to teach NightPaw, when she was given another apprentice alongside him, she become cruel. DapplePaw and NightPaw once friends are turned against each other. DapplePaw fueled by his insatiable desire to make StreakPelt proud is constantly trying to get one over on NightPaw. NightPaw is torn between wanting to become a warrior before DapplePaw and trying to fix their friendship. She begins to hate StreakPelt and DapplePaw by extension, and when DapplePelt is made a warrior before her even though she is one moon his senior, she is furious. After the fateful battle with RiverClan where StreakPelt takes four of CawStar’s lives NightFall is made a warrior. At her naming ceremony DapplePelt approaches her, apologizing and asking for her forgiveness. She is hesitant at first, but as he explains how he knows he was wrong to be so cruel, she find it in herself to forgive him. They are not instantly friends again, but over time, the two finally learn to trust each other again.

DapplePaw/DapplePelt!!

DapplePaw is eager to impress his mentor and clan, even turning against his best friend to do so, but once he becomes a warrior and is no longer at StreakPelt’s side or under her influence, he realizes that NightPaw deserved better. He feels guilt for being named a warrior before the older cat, that in some ways he was the one holding her back. He realizes his admiration for StreakPelt blinded him to what was right and wrong and he wants desperately to fix it. When NightPaw goes into battle against RiverClan he is stuck guarding the camp worried sick about him. When NightPaw returns he is so relieved he runs to him and nuzzles him, NightPaw is shocked and awkwardly backs away from him but in his heart he feels happy for the affection. After her naming ceremony, NightFall and DapplePelt have a long discussion about their apprenticeships and decide to give their friendship another go.

When TenStar is made leader she names NightFall as her deputy, praising her in front of all the clan for her continued loyalty and apologizing for her unorthodox and cruel apprenticeship. NightHeart is a beloved deputy and DapplePelt is proud.

That’s all I have so far!! RockTail/CawThroat & the rest of StreakPelt’s fam/loved ones ref sheets are in the making still & this story is still a work in progress.

#art #warriors #warrior cat art #warrior cats designs #warrior cat oc #warriors oc #warriors ocs #warrior cat ocs #sketch #characters art #original character art #original characters #character sheet

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bitegore · 2 years

Note

“what is a "gender", I am a car”

for the wip ask game?

okay so that wip is my fic where I take a human anthropologist and throw them at the various Decepticon combiner teams as a device to analyze shape-as-gender through the lens of a whole bunch of aliens who don't really grok human gender but sure do have their own social roles as defined by the way they're shaped, in ways that some like and find comfortable more than others. Which makes it sound, like, deep, or like I have a point to make, but actually it is also just a stupid shitpost running on women-and-gender-studies software.

The structure I got is pretty simple, too, it's four vignettes (four teams) with a set of five interludes in between. The human anthropologist is a graduate student in the newly-created branch of the humanities labeled something along the line of Human-Alien Sociology, and she's here to ask why there's no girl Decepticons. She gets to get onto the Nemesis to have a free pass to interview Decepticons because Megatron is trying to woo the physics branch at her college so he can steal their hadron collider for Schemes.

quite a bit more below the cut :D

(Interlude 1 is the intro: the Human is here to interview your team for an experiment! Let me know when that's a good time :D this interview is just answering questions (cue an audible sigh of relief from Scrapper, who is used to Shockwave's style of experimentation) and it shouldn't take too long :D. scrapper says come back later because we're busy. human is like aight and goes to bother someone else)

First the Stunticons are up, because they're a bunch of idiots who don't have any work they're trusted to do and who also know jack shit about Cybertronian gender (not built on Cybertron) and who comparatively know the most about human gender (they watch TV sometimes; i did not say a lot). Featuring: arguments over which pronoun is "the cool one, for cool people", featuring different definitions of "cool", and Racecar And Woman Is The Same Gender, I Know Because I Watched Fast And Furious

(interlude 2: "hey advisor, it's me, I need some uh... advice. Um. The Decepticons don't have women. No, not like they left them back on their homeworld, I think they have... yeah I. Let me fax you my notes, I don't think they know what a woman is. ........Yeah I don't know what to do with this. I'm still here so I'm going to finish the interviews but-- what do you mean, it can't be that bad? I'm writing a paper about feminism in the Decepticon Army, and if they don't have-- look, just read the papers when I send them to you. They had an argument about which pronoun eats the other ones. I don't know what to do with this. Thanks, bye, talk to you later")

Then the Combaticons, whose collective gender is "military" and who don't care to explain that much, with a side of "hey human. this isn't technically against the rules to tell you. have you ever heard of loyalty coding. hey. we're bringing this up for no particular reason. make sure you put it in your paper. what does it have to do with us? uh :| haha, nothing :| hail megatron". The human anthropologist finds them very frustrating because they are really not that interested in explaining how their job is their shape is their identity and their current shapes are NOT the ones they're used to (see: g1 combaticon intro episode, Onslaught's line, "why are we in these crude corpses" and Blast Off's "I wouldn't want to be seen by anyone I know in this getup", the premise doesn't like that much), so they keep changing the subject, and their answers are really vague anyway because they keep expecting the human anthropologist to Get It and she absolutely one hundred thousand percent does not.

(I have to put something here but I still haven't decided what. Maybe just Anthropologist calling a friend back in the US going "hey, can you do me a solid? You got a line to the Autobots, right? as part of your exchange program? Yeah I'm having a weird one and I'm not sure what to make of it, can you get them to define some terms for me?")

Then the Terrorcons, who are barely cooperative at first because they're not really that interested in Megatron's approval and don't care that much about the project, but who also are full-fledged Cybertronians who nonetheless have a sort of different cultural and social role than the others, being not just combiner team members but also guys who turn into animal-looking things instead of vehicles. The vast majority of them are Not Even A Little Bit Interested but Hun-grr, Sinnertwin and after a little while of discussion Rippersnapper are willing to actually have one-third of a productive conversation. Human anthropologist has to tell them to stop making cracks about eating her first, though.

(interlude: phone call from Scrapper: "Yes you can come talk to us now." Hang up. Phone call from Soundwave, 'research coordinator': "why are you on the ship. What on earth are you up to." VERY HURRIEDLY hang up. Phone call from advisor, who was called by Soundwave. "DId you tell them you were in the sciences?" "THE SOCIAL SCIENCES!" "oh honey no they don't know what that means. you should probably leave" "but i just got the go-ahead to talk to the last group" ".......girl, you are going to get killed in real life, you are going to get seriously injured" "no i'm not the maneating space dinosaurs said they really liked me and Sinnertwin is walking alongside me as we speak" "............well, uh... Good luck I guess. You can't do any research if you die, so try not to do that.")

Finally the Constructicons, who are normal ass Cybertronian people, do an interview. They explain some misconceptions the anthropologist has picked up and are very confused as to why this is the experiment but perfectly happy to talk. Weirdly happy to talk, actually. Everyone but Hook is like really excited for some reason, and they keep stealing glances at this sourpuss surgeon in the back and then using him as examples in their descriptions of simple and basic things about Cybertronian gender. This is because Scrapper only agreed because he's frustrated with Hook and knows Hook is going to be pissed about wasting this much time on something this stupid and it's funny to everyone else because they all get along fine but it's still fun when Hook is being a bit of a prat to be a bit of an asshole back. This one is minimally bullshit compared to the others but the joke is largely in the form of:

then of course the final interlude is the human anthropologist taking their complete array of notes to their advisor. who looks through the approximately 40 pages of hastily-scribbled notes about Cybertronian gender conception, at least half of which is transcribed arguments between two idiots who dont know what "she-her pronouns" actually denotes and is trying to figure it out. The advisor is like [strained smile] yeah our department is women's studies. Uh. Yeah I know you're doing an inter-departmental thing but please take this to someone else. This is like. This is not our business. Maybe take this down the hall to the guy who does that newfangled "queer studies" thing in hir free time, I don't know what to do with this". end scene.

all this because i think "attack helicopter" could be a coherent gender for a robot that turns into an attack helicopter. and i wanted to make a shitty transphobic joke about the robots in the kind of way that would piss off every homophobic transformers redditor bro and tf2005 guy at once

#red replies #mildlykatkashi #wip ask game

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duran-duran-less-official · 1 year

Text

Actually, ever since that anonymous mutual (whose identity I still don't know) asked me to recommend them some Duran Duran, I've been mulling over the answer in my head. I think, broadly, there are

Six Tiers of Duran Duran Song Appreciation

and I kind of want to explain my previous answer in this context, because there's a LOT of hidden gems over Duran Duran's career, and some are more hidden than others. If you actually want to go on a deep dive into Duran Duran's music, this is a guide to how deep you're going.

Note: these songs exist on a spectrum of awareness vs. subjective quality, so the tiers are approximate, and the whole thing is iceberg-shaped.

Tier 1: Signature songs.

These are the ones everyone knows. All of these are on the Greatest album released in 1999. This is where you find Hungry Like The Wolf, Rio, Girls on Film, The Reflex, A View To A Kill, Ordinary World, Notorious, basically any song that people are likely to have already heard without knowing it was a Duran Duran song.

Tier 2: Singles that got overshadowed by bigger singles or were on unsuccessful albums.

A lot of these are still on the Greatest album, but aren't quite as familiar to the general public. Again, this all exists on a spectrum, but you'd find things like Careless Memories or Come Undone at the top end of this tier and Electric Barbarella at the bottom end. All singles post-1993 are on this list, and singles post-2000 aren't even on the Greatest album. Ever heard Falling Down ft. Justin Timberlake? Ever heard someone recommend it?

Other standouts in this tier include I Don't Want Your Love, Skin Trade, and inexplicably, White Lines (Don't Do It) featuring Grandmaster Flash, The Furious Five, and Melle Mel.

Tier 3: Songs that Duran Duran fans will always recommend as hidden gems.

This is a large tier, and taste is subjective, so the waters get even muddier here. Most of these don't have their own pages on Wikipedia, so you have to scratch beneath the surface to find them. The Chauffeur is the undisputed king of this tier, being both a universally beloved song in the fandom, and having its own music video, but not being a single. If there's a song on an album that slaps, but was never released as a single, Duran Duran fans will say "You HAVE to listen to this!" right after you've finished listening to Greatest. When I answered the anonymous ask, I was mostly operating in Tiers 1 and 3. Definitive songs, and definitive underappreciated songs.

There's a fair few songs that occupy this tier, depending on taste, and some of the standout ones include My Antarctica, Beautiful Colours, Finest Hour, Night Boat, and Paper Gods.

Tier 4: Regular rotation songs.

These are the songs you need to dig fairly deep to listen to, like in most contexts you're listening to a whole album and stumbling on these in between the songs you know. You aren't, like, avoiding them or anything, they come around every so often, but one time you sit up and say "damn, this is good actually, how did I sleep on this one for so long?" This is where I'd put songs like Friends of Mine, Vertigo, I Take The Dice, and anything major that Duran Duran side-projects Arcadia and Power Station made back in the mid-80s.

Tier 5: Songs you have to dig deep for.

Duran Duran have been around for 40 years now, and it's understandable that you skip over songs from time to time, or just forget they exist. Discovering those is like discovering all-new material, but you've got to turn over every leaf to find them. This is where I'd put Cry Baby Cry (Red Carpet Massacre Japanese Bonus Track, 2007), and anything else from Arcadia/Power Station.

Tier 6: Songs even Duran Duran fans don't like.

Hey.

Do you like the song Bedroom Toys (Astronaut, 2004)? ... Yeah, okay, I kind of like it too.

Do you like the song Dirty Great Monster (Red Carpet Massacre, 2007)? I ... can't help you there.

Do you like Duran Duran's cover of 911 Is A Joke by Public Enemy (Thank You, 1995)? You are lying.

#Duran Duran #rant

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sofoulandfairaday · 1 year

Note

Can you tell us more about The Death of Regulus Black, The Prophecy, and the Hurt/Comfort??? ❤️

Sure thing, my dear!

Ch.36 - The Death of Regulus Black 1979. Still unwritten. I already know that it will be more than 10K words long. I haven't yet decided if there is one last Bella-Voldemort scene before everything goes downhill. Regulus disappears in late August; N.E.W.T. results still haven't come. The Noble and Most Ancient House of Black is on the verge of collapse after the tapestry in 12 Grimmauld Place confirms his death. Bella already knew, though. She had asked the Dark Lord to call him through the Dark Mark and He had told her he felt no connection there at all. Like a severed cord. Walburga is in hysterics. This cold, haughty woman is crumbling to pieces. She is not the only one. Bellatrix is mad with grief; Cissy too, maybe even more so, but Bella can't help but feel personally responsible because she was supposed to look out for her baby cousin (she had sworn to do so when Sirius had left and Orion and Walburga say nothing to refute this). Walburga is also convinced that Voldemort is responsible for her son's death. As everyone descends upon n°12 to try and make sense of this tragedy (and decide what the fuck happens now since Sirius is a traitor and there are no Black heirs left), Bellatrix is alone without the Dark Lord by her side (and her aunt is being Very Mean). Both Barty and Rabastan, who had loved Regulus, are not doing well at all. In all of this, Rodolphus ditches his mistress (the Lestranges aren't exactly living together at the moment) because his wife needs him (and his little brother too, although Rod doesn't know that they were more than friends). She is NOT happy about it at all. The task of consoling Bella is left to her estranged husband because the Dark Lord is nowhere to be found at the moment and the Lestranges' marriage starts to improve. Before leaving Grimmauld Place, Bella goes up to Reggie's room in search of answers, a trail, anything. She only finds a series of journals that Kreacher is attempting to destroy. Later, she asks the Dark Lord if he was responsible for Regulus' death and he denies any involvement. The scene is from his pov and we get confirmation that no, it wasn't him, but at the same time he really doesn't care what happened to the boy who was a mediocre Death Eater at best and a weakling at worst. Once again he is not the centre of Bellatrix's world and he is (irrationally and selfishly) mad at her for it. (#thegirlsarefighting, once again) [I've debated on whether or not to give him an on-screen death or not, between chapters 35 and 36, and while I might write it in, I am more inclined to say no at the moment. I feel there are hundreds of Reggie death fics, since that's basically the only bit of character info we get on him in canon; it's already been done, time and time again, and I wonder if I can make it more impactful by having it happen off-screen]

Ch.40 - The Prophecy February 1980. Severus Snape goes for a drink at the Hog's Head (where he might or might not have a side hustle selling dubious potions/poisons) and overhears the first part of the prophecy. He then goes to his best bud Lord Voldemort to tell him what he heard. Suffice it to say, he does not take it well. Harry's birth is about five months away. Do you know who else's birth is about five months away? Draco Malfoy's. Narcissa is absolutely terrified that the prophecy could be about Draco and she gets into a furious argument with Bellatrix, who is always on the Dark Lord's side. Horrible things are said. In the end, Bellatrix says something along the lines of 'I would gladly give any child of mine up to the Dark Lord' and Cissy is like 'Even if it means their death, Bella?' and well. Rodolphus is not pleased with the answer. He goes to see Elizabeth (did I mention that's his mistress' name?) who is tutoring Severus at the time (in potion-making; loooong story). She feels guilty about things that have happened in the past and makes an effort to be there for Rod but at the same time, she is pissed because lately he seems to only seek her out when he wants to bitch about his wife and how poorly she treats him. [this chapter is unwritten, it hasn't been completely fleshed out yet and to be honest I don't really love it; I have a clear picture of how it begins, which I like, but I'm not sure of any of the other scenes. I hate filler chapters. I want it to be snappy/interesting but I can't figure out how to make it work. Bella's fight with Cissy and Rod's bitching to Elizabeth are both scenes that don't really progress their characters/have happened before, so they might get scrapped. I also have no idea what to do with either Rabastan, Evan or Barty in this chapter because I suck at side-plots and this story is in desperate need of them. So this chapter might get entirely re-written based on story needs; in all of this, Voldemort still has no idea what his last Horcrux should be] Hurt/Comfort is not even a draft, just a file with jotted-down ideas in my WIP folder. It's Bellamort. It's explicit. It's basically smut-with-psychological introspection where Voldemort tries dominatrix therapy. I have a very clear idea of their sexual dynamics and in this story I wanted to subvert all of them. I wanted to make him submissive and her dominant. I also wanted to explore his childhood trauma (and give him sexual dysfunctions in the meantime??? who knows, it's like three lines of meta and that's it). I can't see him being into humiliation, honestly, but I can see him having a fucked-up relationship with pain. Anyway, good stuff. If I ever get around to writing about it again.

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rametarin · 6 months

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Absolutely furious.

So, it snowed. About 8-9 very heavy, wet inches of snow. But the thing is, we are at the end of winter. Like, the absolute tail end of winter. Last storm of the season kind of winter. That snow we have now is the last snow we'll get until the mid or end of next fall.

I shoveled out the sliding glass side door where the fam parks the cars and the front door we don't use much because we don't park there.

A day after the big storm, mom wants the entire deck shoveled off. I pointed out, "There's not a day this week it's forecasted to be below freezing. It will melt by itself. There's no reason to shovel it, because it'd be a waste of my time and energy."

That selfish bitch still wants me to go out and shovel it. Because to her, it's not about function, or necessity, or safety, or caution in the face of future winter storms. It's about power. Any opportunity for that rancid cunt to demand I do something on threat of homelessness and pennilessness, she does. Even if it serves no purpose beyond the sheer joy of threatening me with consequences for not entertaining her petty bullshit.

I want to strangle her. If I had any option that wasn't throw myself in a dumpster and eat shit to spite her and therefore fuck up any possible future whatsoever, I'd leave. I am so fucking fed up with her selfish bullshit.

Shoveling off that deck would serve nothing and no one and just be a pain in my ass. But it's not her that has to shovel it, so she reasons there's "no reason NOT to."

Yes, there is. Doing work you don't need to is pointless and exhausting, and the attitude you can just force someone else to do meaningless work because you can punish them for not, is just an abuse of power.

And you may be like, "pfft pussy, it's JUST a little bit of labor. Go do it, make her happy."

No. You don't understand. People like this are not satisfied by that. Because at the same time it's exploitation to do a petty task they don't want to do (and she never does, by the way. She never did. She's old and has always felt entitled to her sons doing everything for her) it's also a power play. If they can get away with abusing you for petty labor once, they want to keep doing that and keep threatening you with consequences for not doing it. You have to challenge them, or they'll get more and more egregious and entitled and daring with their threats.

There was a time when she threatened to start charging me $20.00 every time I showered. And I take five minute showers, so it's not like I was running up her hot water bill. That served no purpose than to draw a line in the sand on my life necessary routes, and dare me to pass over it, knowing I had no choice and she could set whatever terms she wanted. That was a threat to start showeing fewer times a week or she'd justify screaming about how I was "stealing her money" (yes, robbed of that context to the people she screamed that to. As if I was just reaching into her purse and yanking out fistfuls of dollars, not that she considered me showering to be theft from her.)

Narcissistic pieces of shit like this do not get satisfied by compliance, they see you're reacting submissively and weakly to their demand and then start coercing and extorting more, knowing you have no way to lash back out at them and are unable to avoid doing what they want. They'd shit down your throat if they could get away with it and you would participate, if only to keep the peace.

Living with people like this, sometimes you have to make the choice between just swallowing the shit to keep the peace, or refusing to comply and thus enabling them to have their histrionic bitchfit where they threaten you with homelessness and do their big soapbox lecture about how childish you are, how lazy you are, how you'll never amount to anything, "because you won't put effort into anything."

Meanwhile those same selfish pieces of shit want you to devote all your time and all your energy to their gigantic worthless NOTHING, just for their fun and profit.

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heavysunsky · 2 years

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Transporter jason statham movies

To prove that “The Transporter” series is the essence of this discussion I will give example for each of the core features mentioned below coming from “The Transporter” series. It means, that before Transporter Jason was clearly British character, but after the success of the first part, this feature is evaporating more and more with every new movie. Interestingly, “Britishness” was an important part of his persona, but in my view, it was consequently disappearing and his creations were modeled on American style. The same reviewer describes Jason Statham as “one of England’s rising generation of laddie stars ” (note that despite mentioned “ Lock Stock and Smoking Barrels” Jason played in “ Snatch” directed by the same actor, which is pretty much the same kind of movie.) It give the impression of how Statham was perceived before he reached the top. Luc Besson, called “French one-man film industry” by Dave Kehr in his review of the first part of Transporter for “The New York Times” is responsible for the script. But we all know the story and the pattern is the same in every movie. Series of films consisting of three parts where Statham is a major actor tells the story of ex-serviceman who works as a messenger for criminal organizations. After all, Han Lue has a score to settle Shaw shouldn't be sleeping easy after what he did to the beloved character.We come back from the dark side of the Moon (and cinematography) to discuss the principal movies in Jason Statham’s career. Therefore, Fast & Furious fans should hopefully anticipate being reacquainted with Deckard Shaw at some point later down the road. He also expressed interest in returning to the regular F&F universe. In an interview with Collider, Jason Statham showed enthusiasm for Hobbs & Shaw 2, though the action actor admits that the script needs to come together before he signs on the dotted line. But when can we expect to reunite with these high-speed knuckleheads? For now, we'll have to wait and see, but Statham is game. Suffice to say, we haven't seen the last of Luke Hobbs and Deckard Shaw. A sequel hasn't been officially announced, but Hobbs & Shaw did better-than-decent business, pulling in nearly $800 million worldwide. In the vein of Tango & Cash, this ludicrous spectacle was more winking and sardonic than previous F&F movies it relied heavily on the rough-and-tumble star power of its A-list lead actors. Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw, was a big-budget showcase for its lead actors and producers, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson and Jason Statham. How about that?Ī high-testosterone, push-and-pull buddy/frenemy spin-off adventure centered around two rip-roaring side characters from the Fast & Furious universe, Hobbs & Shaw, a.k.a. Since it's currently in post-production, though, it's not impossible to presume that we might be getting two Jason Statham/Guy Ritchie movies in one year. Right now, we don't know when we can expect to see this new movie, which is reportedly titled Five Eyes. While the plot sounds like a million other movies in the increasingly expansive spy genre, this one should hopefully benefit from the long-standing collaborative mojo shared between its lead star and experienced filmmaker, along with the spunky energy and quick wit that's typically found in the filmmaker's better films. It's a mismatched pairing that might prove to be equally as volatile - perhaps equally as explosive, too. During this perilous mission, our loner agent must learn to collaborate with a top-notch CIA agent (Aubrey Plaza). The actor and director will reunite once more for an untitled action-thriller that will feature Statham as an M16 agent who gets recruited by a global intelligence alliance to track down and stop the sale of deadly weapon technology that threatens the world's annihilation. There was an extended delay between 2005's Revolver and this past weekend's Wrath of Man, but we won't have to wait quite as long for the next team-up between Jason Statham and Guy Ritchie. Untitled Guy Ritchie Film - TBD (Post-Production)

#Transporter jason statham movies

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green-ville · 2 years

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They are not getting the attention they deserve, so this happened. I don't know why but I love writing these types of characters that are just sass x sass. So I hope you enjoy!

Minors DNI, 18 +

Summary: Phoenix and Hangman have known each other a long time. There was no doubt in either of their minds that what they felt for each other was hate, loathing, and disgust, and only that. Right?

Warnings: hate sex.

_______________________

It started in the Academy.

"What's your name sweetheart?"

"I'd stop now if I were you."

"Oh ho ho, she bites?"

"No, she scratches."

"I'd play nicer if I were you sweetheart. It'll pay off later to be on good terms with the top of the class."

"The only thing you'll be on top of is a table after a few too many drinks."

"So that's how it's gonna be?"

"That's how it's gonna be."

"Then I'll see you later. If you make it."

It continued well into their Academy days.

"I'm surprised you've made it this far Phoenix. Credit where credit is do," he had an infuriating grin and she wanted to take that toothpick in his mouth and jab it into his neck. "You deserve that name birdbrain."

"How long'd it take you to come up with that bagman?"

He whistled. How the hell did he do that with the toothpick? "Five seconds."

"I'm not surprised you're quick."

He gave her a low look, eyes dragging down, height towering over her. He had his hands in his pants. The pockets, that is. It was important to clarify in regards to him.

"Funny, I've never had that complaint before. It's always, 'no, please, not another one, I can't handle another one, God – no – stop –.'"

"Yes, please, stop. My ears are bleeding."

"Don't worry Phoenix, all you need to do is ask and I'll show you the same good time."

"Oh, you'll leave?"

"If you want me to leave you to your own hands, sure. I'm just saying, maybe if you finally got with a guy that could make you cum your flying might actually be decent."

He turned with that infuriating smirk and left.

She couldn't stop watching him during class. When they flew. Afterwards in the gym. Payback commented on it once with a sly wink. She elbowed him in the gut and scoffed, saying she did it for entertainment. It was like going to a show and watching a show pony prance.

That's what she said. It didn't change the fact that she watched him an unnecessary amount.

His beiges fit well. His workout clothes fit even better.

Natasha Trace had never been one for horses, but she had been thinking about riding a lot lately.

She thought she was saved from this when they had successfully made it through the Academy. Her ego was bruised, she was furious. Jake Hangman Seresin was top of the class. Her only redemption was that she'd never have to see the infernal man again.

Of course she still celebrated getting through the Academy. It was hard as shit and she had got second place. Even if she didn't get top of the class, she had beaten most of the other pompous asshats that thought she'd flunk out.

They went to a bar and her plan was to get wasted. With her ever growing tolerance of alcohol, that would mean a lot of drinks so she forwent the beers and headed straight for a round of shots.

One, two, three, four, who will I score?

She used to have a nonperverted mind. Then she joined the Navy.

She slammed the final shot glass down and turned to her friend Payback, arms raised and they clapped hands, cheering.

"God I hope I don't remember tonight."

"If that's the goal then another round!"

A chuckle brought forth the bane of her existence. An arm wrapped around her shoulder and she was squeezed into a strong side. Immediately her grin wiped off her face, replaced by a displeased line.

"Well if it isn't Phoenix and Payback. Payback, I gotta warn you. If you're trying to get with Phoenix, I'd bark up a different tree. This one doesn't play nice."

She elbowed him in the side as hard as she could. He was laughing as he backed off and when the bartender came with another round of shots, she all too eagerly grabbed that first one, knocking it back to get through the conversation.

"Funny, she played very well last night."

Phoenix winked at Payback. "C'mon Payback, you know how I feel about my business being shared. And even though I know Bagman would be all too interested because it's the closest action he'll get, I'd prefer it stay between us."

Nothing had happened between them.

"The closest action I'll get?" Bagman laughed, snatching up one of Phoenix's shots. He drank it slowly, unaffected by the burn that had Phoenix drinking them quickly. His Adam's apple bobbed. He didn't spill a single drop and she wished he had had a reaction. She wished he'd wince or something just to make him seem human and not perfect.

But no.

This affected her in a way she would never admit.

"Phoenix, I hope you didn't expect me to wait for you to finally state the obvious. A man has needs." He plucked out a toothpick from thin air, sticking it between his teeth with that cocky grin that probably got him everything he wanted.

"And I need to get out of this," Payback responded, throwing back a shot in hopes of clearing his mind of hearing their conversation. He grabbed his final shot, having done two more when she wasn't looking, and parted ways.

Hangman took his place, leaning against the counter with a grin.

She could smell his cologne. It didn't help the situation.

"You've departed my company."

"If you had just played nice we could've had a civilized conversation."

"Please. You tried to get in my pants right away with your comments. Think pushing away Payback will help? Think again."

"I would but I don't second guess myself. Maybe if you're ever top of any class you'll learn to trust your instincts."

"My instincts say to knee you in the balls for stealing my shot."

"I care about you Phoenix. Lightweights like yourself can't handle all of this otherwise you'll be on the floor passed out before nightfall."

"What a saint. You were actually just looking out for me. How can I ever repay you?"

"Tell me my eyes are pretty?"

She snorted and grabbed her next shot. Hangman grabbed the final one. He held it out to her and against her better judgement, she clinked together.

Phoenix never turned away, continuing to stare him dead in his green eyes that had her stomach knotting, and she suffocated all her tastebuds as she slowly drank that shot. It burned and she wanted to wince but her pride was too great. As slow as he drank, so did she.

She swallowed slowly too, making that refreshed sound afterwards.

They set their glasses down together and she noted that he hadn't spilled a single drop even with that stupid toothpick in his mouth.

Her confidence was faker than reality TV. She set money on the counter.

"Bye bye Bagman." She grabbed the toothpick from his mouth, staring him dead in the eyes, and stuck it in her own.

The power she felt in that move? The power she felt as she walked away, knowing he didn't stop watching her? The power she felt at having the last words?

Indescribable.

Her annoyance at seeing Jake Hangman Seresin again after the Academy? Indescribable.

She had been called back to Miramar. She'd never pass up that chance, you kidding?

Life was kidding because when she walked into The Hard Deck, there he was. All six foot whatever, blond, green eyed, man.

Natasha Trace had gotten over him. She was already annoyed that there was something she had to get over. It took a few people but she succeeded. He was no longer the thought that helped her fingers out at night.

And now he was back in her life, clearly returned for the same mission she had returned for.

"Do my eyes deceive or is that little Miss Natasha Trace?"

He wore a grin to accompany his toothpick. His gaze lowered and rose, just missing her own observations.

Her lips flattened, arms crossing over her chest. "Fanboy," she addressed one of the men behind her. "This here is Bagman."

"Hangman."

"Whatever. Be careful of his flying," she continued. "As Payback will attest, he likes to leave people out to dry."

He gave a low whistle. "You're off your game Phoenix. Where'd they put you to soften you up so much? Laundry room?"

"Clever. Fanboy, do you wanna know why Bagman is such a remarkable guy?"

Hangman's brow arched. As if he needed to be any more infuriating.

"Educate me."

She grinned. "He's the only guy I've known to ever brag about finishing first."

His grin dimpled his cheeks. There was snickering behind her. "And by that she means, I finished first in class."

"No, no I meant exactly what I said."

"You are practically begging for a lesson, aren't you?"

She wore a grin to match his. "What can I say, I love to learn. Now I just have to go find an adequate teacher."

That was their last conversation together, last night, which brought them current.

"You'd think they'd give the avian callsign to an aviator that actually knew how to fly halfway decent."

He was trying to piss her off. She was walking away, more like storming off. Their workday had finished and he, Bob, and her had just finished their 200 push-ups. Her arms burned, her shoulders were tight, her stomach was taut. She was hot everywhere and she wanted a cold shower.

Phoenix scoffed. "That's rich coming from someone that abandons their wingman 'just because!'"

"I won't always be up there to protect you sweetheart," even his voice boiled her blood. "You need to be able to fly without someone watching over you."

"I can fly solo perfectly fine jackass, but when I have a wingman up there and he just decides to not help me, that's where I get pissed."

"God," he smirked, an action she didn't see but she did hear. "It's so easy to rile you up."

She spun on her heel and jabbed a finger into his chest. He had been directly behind her, rendering her action smooth and sharp. She glared up at him and his brows rose, surprised she was facing him.

"Guess what hotshot, you're playing the wrong game. You think Captain Mitchell wants someone like you flying the mission? No. He cares about everyone coming back and you continuously prove that you are incapable of caring about your teammates."

She smirked. "Sweetheart."

Natasha Trace thought that was the end of their conversations for the night. She got to the locker room, she showered, she changed into non smelly clothes, and she seethed on her bed, staring up at the ceiling. It wasn't an uncommon position for her to be in.

The anger wouldn't ease out of her muscles. She was all rigid and begging for an object to punch. She desperately wanted that object to be Hangman.

Sure. She would admit it now. He was a good pilot. But this mission required teamwork and he wouldn't know the meaning of the word even if it blew him off. That was saying something considering it was probably his favorite pastime.

He was just trying to throw her off her game by insulting her. She had five older brothers, she was in the Navy; she could handle insults. She was furious that his got to her so easily.

God she wanted to –

There was a series of knocks on her door.

Two, pause. Two, pause. Two, pause.

It fit him too well for it to not be him.

She shoved off her bed, a scowl on her face, an unquenchable desire to sock him in the face balling her fists. She opened the door with every intention of committing some form of assault.

The intention flew out the window right away. She didn't even have a window.

He was looking down at her and there was just something.

He had just come from working out, wearing a shirt that was so well fitted he had clearly bought it a size smaller. His hair was sweaty, swiped away from his face. His cheeks were flushed and his brows were knit. His shoulders were wide and strong and his veins were prominent on his arms from dehydration. To top it all off?

Those damn green eyes.

Neither would later admit to making the first move. This was because they both stepped forward together. He grabbed her and brought her up, she wrapped her legs around his waist and fisted his hair.

The kiss was all force and heat and anger. Blindly she shut the door and he wasted no time shoving her up against a wall. Pressed against the wall and him, it had a fire burning its way straight down.

"I hate you," he said between kisses, hands groping her ass with the intent of leaving bruises.

She pulled at his hair, bringing his face half an inch away from hers. Her head tilted, both of them sharing ragged breaths. "I could watch you die and not bat an eye."

His mouth was on hers again and her legs brought him closer. She didn't stop pulling his hair, teasing that line between pain and pleasure she knew, she just knew, he'd like to frequent.

His tongue was in her mouth and her thoughts spiraled out of control. One hand grabbed her chest and her breath hitched. She ground down as best she could with her hips and he pulled away, going to her neck.

Hot kisses along her clean skin. Sharp nips of his teeth she'd end up screaming at him tomorrow for. He kneaded her chest and she scratched his back, nails just long enough where he'd have marks of his own tomorrow.

"I hope you're better in bed than you are in the air."

"I hope you understand teamwork better in bed than you do in the air."

"I understand teamwork in bed very well Phoenix. There may not be an 'I' in team but there sure as hell will be a me in you."

She scoffed, rolling her eyes. "It's no surprise your flying is shit. Your balls are so blue from not getting laid with pick up lines like that."

"You say that and yet, here I am, picking you up."

Literally.

She rolled her eyes with a lack of snippy answer.

"Awe, no sarcastic response?"

"I'm taking pity on you Bagman. I mean, you looked so desperate standing there at my door. Did you workout to try and get me out of your head?" She taunted, frown faux and antagonizing. "How long have you been thinking about me Bagman?"

His head came in close, his lips ghosting up her neck until they found her earlobe. They nipped and her eyelashes fluttered.

"Since you took my toothpick and put it between your lips baby."

Her arousal shot to an unholy amount. The only thing that could save her now was a bath in holy water. A long bath.

That was well over a year ago.

"I thought about picking you up and taking you against the bar right then and there, but you walked away," a chill ran down her spine and it sure as hell wasn't from being cold. She was so far in the opposite direction that the heat was crawling up her chest and leaving her flushed like she had run a 5k in full gear. "Do you even know how hard that got me Natasha?"

He knew what he was doing. Damnit he really did. She should've laughed at his weakness in thinking about her but it had the exact opposite effect. He was admitting it to get her riled up and it worked.

He sacrificed a pawn to checkmate her king.

Her nails scratched their way up into his hair again. He had called her by her real name and that could've been a sin by itself.

"You gonna show me or are you just gonna leave me hanging like you did at that bar Seresin?"

The bar, not earlier today in the air.

He chuckled. "Don't tell me, did you want me to follow you?"

"I did take your toothpick Seresin. How much more obvious can a girl get?"

"You little. . ."

She kissed the side of his jaw and whispered into his ear, "ruin me Lieutenant."

"Mother –" he cursed and they were turning. She attacked his neck, grinning as she pecked and nipped. Her eyes were shinning and then her back was on her bed again. He boxed her in on top but his hips stayed attached to hers and he rolled into her.

Her hands found the hem of his shirt and they stopped kissing just long enough to remove that layer of clothing. They reattached and her tongue slipped into his mouth this time, her nails dragging up and down his muscled back. She felt the chill that ran down him and grinned into the kiss.

He pressed more into her and she tightened her legs around him. His size was expected and she wished he'd hurry it up already.

One hand found her chest again and he grabbed her through her shirt. He kneaded her and thrusted at the same time, and her breath hitched, kiss breaking.

"You gonna take off my shirt anytime soon?"

"There's a process sweetheart." His lips ghosted her neck again only this time they trailed down. To the front of her throat. To the top of her chest, the part uncovered by her tank top. Her breathing was shallow, her nails in his hair and scratching. Messing it up even more. "A manner in which to do this to get you absolutely shaking beneath me."

"You're setting quit the expectation Lieutenant."

"And I have every intention of delivering, Lieutenant."

Alright, him having a rank kink made sense. She didn't realize she had one too. Maybe it was just because it was from him and never in a million years did she think he'd actually call her by her title. Of course, he had unsarcastically used her first name earlier already, so really. . .

His hand left her chest, slipping down. Fingers featherlight and leaving a trail of tingling nerves. Further down. The waistband of her shorts. Eyes directly on her as they slipped beneath. It was an unbreakable look as his fingers found the band of her underwear. Ignoring them. Finding a wet mess.

And he grinned.

The bastard grinned.

"Ask 'who made you this wet' and I kill you right here right now."

"Why would I need to ask when I know? It's hard to miss how you look at me."

"And how do I look at you?" He had found her clit and rolled it between two fingers. Her cheeks were traitorously hot.

"Now now, don't play dumb Phoenix, it doesn't suit you."

Her next words died in her mouth when he moved down and those two fingers went inside her. Pushing all the way in. His thumb finding her clit and adding pressure.

"You look at me like you want to fuck me."

"Wanting to fuck you and thinking fuck you are two different things."

"And you blur the lines beautifully." His fingers curled and then they were gone. His hand retracted entirely from her shorts and her tank top was being pulled up, above her head. She didn't sleep with a bra on. Her hips rose as he took off her final two pieces of clothing, rendering her naked and him half dressed.

He pressed into her fully, arm slipping beneath her waist, and she didn't understand what he was doing as he rolled them over. She finished on top and he was grinning up at her, hands settling on her hips.

"Well what are you waiting for? Scoot up sweetheart."

Oh.

He slapped her ass to move her along.

Words failed her again and she scooted up. She was sitting over his chest. His arms moved around her thighs and moved her the rest of the way up and then she was sitting over his face.

He brought her down and his tongue found her quickly. One long, slow lick down the middle.

She had been eaten out before, that wasn't the thing. It was the position. Who the position was with. The build up to getting into this position.

His hands were tight on her to keep her still and her breathing was shallow. Her stomach curved in beneath her ribs and her hands pressed against the wall to keep her up.

Two fingers returned inside of her and her eyes shut. They pushed in and out languidly. He sucked on her clit and scissored her. She clenched around him and he chuckled, the vibrations only aiding the process.

It was slow. He was taking his time. Building her up until breathing was a necessity she struggled with. Her forehead was knit and the sounds that came from her mouth were shutters, whispers, curses.

She wanted to move her hips but he was too strong. She wanted him to speed it up but an eerie blissful peace had settled in, clashing terribly with the growing desire for the knot to break and allow her release.

Then it started. A flicker in her abdomen. She clenched and cursed, whispering that she was close. Whispering for him to keep going, just like that. Her hair fell and stuck to her forehead and when it hit, her back curved, her head moved back, facing the ceiling, and her muscles tensed like she was going to slam her fists into the wall.

He kept her where she was, sucking as she came, fingers never stopping their lazy ministrations.

She cursed when it was over and finally relaxed, stomach puffing out. She moved down and kissed him right away, hands on his face before they moved into his hair, pulling. Her tongue pushed into his mouth and this time he fought back.

Natasha pulled away first, kissing his neck as she scooted down. Her nails trailed down his sides. She kissed his chest. Right above his waistband.

She pulled those down with his underwear. They were thrown off and she grabbed him in her hands. She spit on the red tip, locking gazes with him up until the point she downed him. His hips jutted and she held him down, gently squeezing his balls with her other hand.

He cursed and she hollowed her cheeks. She pulled back and downed again. He reached her throat and she pressed her tongue against him. This time as she pulled back, her tongue trailed his length, following a vein.

Her hand moved from keeping his hips down to grabbing him, twisting up and down, squeezing, circling the top.

Seeing him like this made her thighs flex. The v of his hips. The largeness of his arms as the bent, hands resting behind his head. The veins that weren't going to stop being prominent until he drank some damn water. If this was what she got from it, then she hoped he never drank a glass again.

Her mouth enclosed the tip, her tongue swirled. Her hand was right beneath her and they went to the base together and held. Remaining perfectly still. Slowly, dragging, she pulled off him again and repeated that process, only she went slow to the bottom as well.

He cursed her name and she didn't change a damn thing until he was coming undone in her mouth.

He grabbed her hair and pulled her up. They flipped again, this time his hands on her wrists and forcing them above her head.

Another action that made sense.

He moved to holding her with one hand and she could've resisted, really, but for the moment she complied. He lined himself up. One leg hooked around his lower back.

He thrust in and she jolted forward at the force.

Her lips were parted and her throat was burning. Her eyes were shut up until the point he told her to look at him.

Ordered it between those sharp and fast ruts that could very easily alert the entire hallway of what was going on.

He stopped moving and she whined. His hand grabbed her jaw and forced her to look straight ahead. She opened her eyes now, finding his burning down at her. She clenched and his pupils blew.

"Look at me when I fuck you."

"Sir. Yes. Sir."

Pointed. Articulate. Every synonym in the book and he rammed into her, the words feeding into his ego in a manner she'd regret later, but was grateful for now.

Having an egotistical man in bed was fantastic, really. They had a lot to prove if you knew the right cards to play. You had to feed a little while also coming off as unaffected other times.

It resulted in great sex.

She'd be sore tomorrow but she'd be satisfied and she could feel it building already.

"Let me touch you," she breathed out, the words cut off each time his hips reconnected with hers.

"No."

"Let me touch you, please."

"Fuck."

Her wrists were let go and her nails were on his back. His body hovered closer to her and her other leg came up, wrapping on top of the first. It angled her hips up and drove him deeper and that was where the spot was. The great spot that had her gasping and digging her nails into his back.

Her body was on fire. She felt like she had just come out of the shower again, dripping wet only this time with sweat. And other things.

It flickered again and a half smile was on her face. Elated, euphoric, ease washing away her age lines. His head hung into her shoulder as she clawed his back and he was beginning to stutter.

"C'mon, c'mon, right there, fuck, that's it Jake."

The use of his name had been intentional. She had saved it for right at this instance and she had never loved her timing more than now.

When she came again, it was to hard and fast thrusts. It was to a mouth biting down on her neck. It was to her legs tight around his narrow waist and her nails indenting his muscled back.

When he came it was the same way, seconds behind her. Following through with her.

His breathing slowed down and brushed over her hot skin. Her legs uncurled and he slipped out of her.

He plopped down beside her, a feeling of fullness settling in.

Her heart pounded. The sweat laid thick on her and she wanted a shower again.

She said as much.

"Shower?"

"Now Natasha, if I recall correctly, I said you'd be shaking, and you're not shaking yet. That means we're not done. If you must shower now, understand this. You'll be taking several showers throughout the night then."

And she rolled her eyes. "Egotistical cocky prick."

"You flatter me sweetheart."

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