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ghoulfuckersincorporated · 4 months

Note

something tells me our ghoulie would be fond of period sex (i’ll go to horny jail now)

Bloodletting

Pairing: Cooper Howard/The Ghoul x Female Reader

Word Count: 2,839

Warnings: smut (18+), blood play, bloody cunnilingus/bloody kisses, period sex, masturbation (male), rough sex, creampie, biting.

Notes: Can't lie, this was my immediate thought watching him tear into that bloody chunk of meat for the first time. I usually try to include at least a little plot, but this is basically all porn. Very fun submission to write; thank you! Please save a good seat for me on the bench in horny jail, I'll be in promptly.

Fun fact: orgasms can help relieve period cramps for some people.

Today had been a poor choice of start point for this long walk.

Normally, trekking across the bombed out western seaboard was strenuous and uncomfortable enough, the deadly sun baking seemingly the entire planet to a crisp, the cloying dehydration, the constant danger that something or someone was around the corner, ready to eat you. It was a far cry from the safety and monotony of the vault you'd grown up in. Usually, you were able to find lots of beauty on the surface, plenty of things to appreciate. But right now everything was just awful and uncomfortable.

Menstruation was such a nightmare topside. The proper products were apparently incredibly difficult to find anymore, leaving you to make the best of things with old torn pieces of clothing and less-than-ideal medical supplies. But these things didn't provide the absorption you'd long been accustomed to, and you kept having accidents the last few days, the result of a heavier-than-average flow. Normally, these things wouldn't bother you, but it was insanely annoying to constantly feel as if you were bleeding through basically the only clothes you had, doubly so when there was no place to clean them or bathe yourself most of the time. Besides, these pants chaffed terribly when they were damp.

Months back, you'd made the choice to ditch the vault suit. It was surreal and sort of sad feeling, packing away what had truly been a symbol of your identity for so long. However, it attracted far too much attention and caused trouble when people assumed they could take advantage of you, so you'd opted to start dressing like a proper Wastelander, boiled leather armor and denim pants. Right now, however, you desperately wished you'd been wearing the suit. The absorbent liner would have saved you some of this embarrassment.

The old ghoul had been telling you some story or another as you mounted a steep hill, your mind tuning in and out in frustration. You were sweaty, cramping, bloated, and bleeding on yourself, and all you wanted was a chance to clean yourself up and sit down for a minute. Eventually, the two of you came across what looked to be the abandoned skeleton of an old repair garage, just barely maintaining its tall stance against the horizon. As the two of you began to pass it by, you paused.

"I need to stop for a bit." you said, frowning at him as he turned his gaze to the position of the sun in the sky and back to you, confusion plain on his face.

"Whassa' matter?" he asked, "You're not usually this pussy about the sun anymore. Been long enough."

He was right, you were usually able to soldier on better than this. Today wasn't one of those days, though.

"I need like ten minutes alone, okay?" you snapped, short of patience. "I just...need it."

Your companion held up his hands in a silent, play-offended gesture of surrender, stepping aside to let you walk into the ramshackle little garage.

"Ten minutes!" he called teasingly behind you, prompting you to roll your eyes despite him not being able to see it.

Dropping your bag against the wall, you quickly toed your boots off so you could shuck your pants to the ground, groaning quietly at the bloody mess between your thighs. Digging some dirty rags out of your bag, you checked the spare canteen you kept undrinkable water in. Almost empty. You wanted to cry.

You could always ask Coop for some of his, since he was prone to drinking from questionable sources. He might even give you some, close as you'd become lately, thanks to a night of whiskey and Jet by the fire that had led to other forms of entertainment.

But you'd rather not have to explain this to him. As you did your best to scrub away the rusty red covering your skin, you wondered if he even remembered that this was something that happened to women. You had no idea what you were going to do with your pants.

Apparently, time had slipped away from you, as he appeared suddenly in the doorway a moment or two later, already speaking to you like he'd been standing there the entire time.

"It's been fifteen minutes, girlie. I'll have you know--" came his halted snark, quickly cut off as the two of you made eye contact, as he took in your nakedness below the waist. You felt a creeping sense of panic, a desire to flee out the broken window to your side. Neither of you said a word, and after a moment, he stepped forward towards you, softly gripping your wrist in his hand and holding it up to examine it. His honeyed eyes flicked back and forth between the soiled rag in your bloodied hand and where you'd been attempting to clean yourself up, briefly moving over to where your pants lay crumpled up on the floor.

"I'm--" you began, wanting to explain that you were fine, but you were quickly and decisively cut off from speaking when he lifted your bloody fingers to his mouth, sucking them between his lips with an obscene sigh. Your jaw fell slack as you watched him lick them clean, feeling like you were having some sort of erotic fever dream you'd wake up from any moment. Your hormones must've been working in tandem with the sun to drive you crazy.

However, it only continued to escalate as he seized you by the wrist, dragging you a few feet forward towards the rickety, grimy couch that leaned against the back wall, shoving you just enough to make you sit right in the center, a stale plume of desert dust filling the air around you as he rucked your hips up against his chest, your calves hooking over his shoulders. One of your flailing, still-socked feet knocked his hat clear off his head, sending it tumbling down to the floor, but he didn't even seem to notice, too preoccupied with running his hands along your inner thighs, smearing through the patches of drying blood there with fascination.

Your whole face burned white-hot, but you continued to watch him closely as his hands converged at your mound, one thumb tracing lightly over your now-swollen slit, just barely grazing your bud and drawing a hiss from between your teeth. However, instead of touching you there again, as you'd hoped he would, both thumbs traced down the line of your labia, parting them softly and spreading you open for his hungry eyes to see.

This new kind of attention made you squirm a bit at its intensity, the movement making your abdominal muscles clench just right to draw a trickle of warmth from between your legs, your face reaching supernova in embarrassment, but before you could pull away, he dove forward, his mouth sealing itself over your cunt and lapping wildly. The feeling was electric and ticklish and sent you clamoring to grab onto anything for leverage, letting out a screech that was half giggle and half moan.

He had done this before, gone down between your legs and licked and tasted and teased you until you couldn't handle it anymore, and always with great enthusiasm (and more than a little smugness, frankly), but never with a hunger like this. His thick tongue traced back and forth along your folds, seeking out every sanguine drop before dipping back down to your entrance, the wriggling muscle slipping inside with ease, drawing out another cry from you.

You were on fire, being teased more than you could handle; his tongue felt amazing, but largely avoided where you really wanted it to be, leaving you pushing and grinding your hips against his face as best as you could in your strange, folded over position. With one proper swivel, you managed to brush your clit against the bony ridge that sat at the top of where his nose would have been, scraping just right and sending you bucking right back at the same angle. The rough way you pushed against him was met by his hands curling under your ass, attempting to yank you even closer to his face as you felt that knot in your gut begin to tighten.

"Oh god, Coop, I'm gonna cum." you gasped, nails digging into his scalp as your thighs pulsed around his head. The older man, typically quite silent for most of the performance, let out a rather loud groan at that, and the sound was enough to push you right into a tense, crying orgasm, your little mewls ringing off the ancient concrete walls. If he were any other man, you'd worry about smothering him between your damp thighs, your scrambling hands pressing into the back of his head.

Fortunately, Cooper Howard wasn't just any man.

He continued to fuck you with his tongue through your climax, dragging it out for what felt like minutes. However, once you finally came down from that euphoric peak, he didn't stop, his tongue continuing to slather across you in full, wide strokes, his fingers moving up to tease at your oversensitive clit.

This, too, he had done before, this beautiful torture of keeping you constantly on the verge of a new orgasm despite still riding the wave of your current one. You both loved and hated it, feeling like every nerve in your body was alive with electricity, but simultaneously on the verge of pain from all the sensation. Presently, you loved it a lot more than you hated it, feeling the tight, cramping muscles in your belly relax just a little with your release. Glimpsing down at him once more, you could see that he'd tugged his hard cock free from its confines, jerking himself enthusiastically.

The ghoul's lips wrapped back around your clit, long, nimble fingers probing your saliva-slicked entrance. Two of them slid inside to the hilt before you even really registered their presence, causing you to hiss at the slight burn of the rad-rough flesh against your sensitive insides. The suction on your bud soothed the burn, allowing you to relax, and soon a third was added alongside the first two, quickly pushing you into another sudden and intense climax, washing over you like a tidal wave as he stretched you. When he eventually pulled his hand away, it was half-covered in red.

You were still trembling hard as he quickly worked his way back down your thighs, swiping up anything he may have missed. The sensation of his tongue running along your plush flesh made you giggle, earnest and breathless, but the sound was immediately cut off with a whine when he suddenly turned and viciously sunk his teeth into the meat of your inner thigh, not hard enough to break the skin, but damn near.

This, he had never done before.

Of course, you knew the man was intimately familiar with sinking his teeth into human flesh, but feeling them against you didn't frighten you as you expected it might, the sensation exhilarating and primal. The searing, pinching pain made you squeal, and one of his ungloved hands jammed up against your lips to silence you, filling your nose with the smell of iron and gunpowder. Come the morning, you'd be sporting a gnarly bruise there. The knowledge sent another hot tremble down your spine.

Unlatching his jaw from your leg, he pulled himself up to his full kneeling height, right even with you, a wild look in his eyes you weren't sure you'd seen before. So often he had the brim of his hat to obscure them, but now they stared, wide and glassy, into your own.

His fingers fisted into the already wild hair at the back of your head, pulling your forward into a passionate, metallic-tasting kiss. You could feel the way your face attempted to stick to his where he'd smeared your blood around your mouth with his hand. Quickly, he began to lean forward over you, pressing you into the mildew covered cushions as he pulled himself on top of you. The dry-rotted frame of the couch groaned loudly in protest at the additional weight, squeaking and sighing out curses as he repositioned your legs along his hips, falling right into place to rub his throbbing prick against you. Another throaty noise left you, strangled and awkward, but you were past being able to be embarrassed right now.

It distracted you just enough when the old cowboy dropped his head into the crook of your neck, his lips dancing along your pulse point, that you didn't tense when he pushed his way inside you, burying himself nearly to the hilt in one push. Both of you let out soft, satisfied groans as you stretched taut around him, clenching hotly already after all the attention he'd given you, his heavy breathing in your ear making every hair on your body stand on end.

For a short moment, he allowed you to adjust to his girth, warm hands pushing your shirt up to expose your breasts to him. His bare hands felt like they were everywhere, swiping affectionately against your face, tugging and pinching at your nipples, eventually settling into your hair, holding your head steady and forcing you to look at him as he began to fuck you. It didn't take long before he had you built right back up, the rub of his pelvic bone against you too good.

"Go on, gimme one more, baby. I know you can." he huffed, his warm breath tickling you just right. His thumb was suddenly strumming against your puffy, sore clit again, and tears brimmed in your eyes as your muscles seized once again, whimpering almost pitifully as you gave him what he wanted.

"Attagirl." he praised, running the blunted edge of his teeth along your throat as your body tugged at him. Your breathing was hard to control, making you see spots as he shifted your calves back over his shoulders, basically folding you in half once more as he pulled himself up higher and began to rut into you in earnest. The blunt head of his cock slammed into your tender cervix like this, making you jump and whine, but your legs only tightened around his shoulders, pulling him closer as he used your body to get himself off.

Suddenly, there was a loud crack, and the entire couch frame collapsed into a plume of dust, even worse than before, making you screech in shock. Cooper, however, seemed to barely notice, his pace not even slowing as he shifted you a few inches away from a busted 2x4 sticking out in your direction, pressing you harder into the cushions that were now trapped beneath you. Nevertheless, he did seem to be making sure you were okay in his own way, his wild eyes and insistent hands checking over every visible inch as he continued to pump between your thighs. When he dropped his mouth to your breasts, you throbbed around him, cooing as he sucked and nipped at your breasts.

"Fuck." he growled at the sensation, his hips slapping against you even harder, but in less coordinated strokes, his head heavily dropping back into the crook of your neck again, his entire weight resting on you now.

As you felt him begin to throb inside you, signaling his own release, you also felt those strong teeth latch onto the sensitive skin where your neck met your shoulder, digging deep into the smooth muscle as you screamed. You could hear your lover groaning loudly as he gave you a few more rough strokes, his teeth keeping firm at your neck as he pulsed every last drop of himself inside you. Beyond the pinching pain repeating itself, you could feel the burn of him sucking hard on the flesh between his teeth, trying to mark you up as visibly as possible. Remarkably, this was enough to push your oversensitive body into one last muted orgasm, leaving you shuddering against his chest.

Once his teeth released you, his strong arms wrapped around your body, carefully flipping you so that you laid across his chest, the leather of his clothing sticking eagerly to your sweaty skin. No one said anything for a few minutes, his fingers dancing along your spine, tracing the outline of the bite on your shoulder and earning a small whimper, which he chuckled at. Things were strangely blissful.

"Yeah, I think I'm gonna need another fifteen minutes, boss." you sighed eventually, snuggling your face against the smooth leather of his vest and breathing in the smell of violence and sex.

"You can have ten." he responded, drawing a look from you until the hand that had been kneading away at your ass cheek slipped down further, rough fingers teasing at your abused entrance once more, pushing what was leaking out of you back inside.

"Oh? And what happens then?" you asked, trying hard to keep your hips still against his sinful hand and failing.

"Then we're going again."

#men who jerk off when they eat pussy go to heaven #cooper howard #the ghoul #cooper howard smut #cooper howard x reader #cooper howard x you #fallout tv show #fallout prime #submission

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sailor-aviator · 1 year

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Don't Hang'em Til Noon Masterlist

Pairing: Jake "Hangman" Seresin x Reader

Summary: Jake "Hangman" Seresin is a notorious leader within the Dagger Gang of the old western territories of the United States. You, a recently orphaned socialite from the eastern seaboard, find yourself swept off to live with your older brother who has set down roots in said western territory. Determined to to make the best of your situation, what will you do when said outlaw sets his sights on you?

Series CW: Swearing, violence, period related violence and swearing, slow burn, fluff, (eventual) smut, enemies to lovers in a way, suggestive language, references to prostitution, firearms, etc. Chapter specific warnings will be included.

A/N: This is gonna be my first ever fanfiction series that I've ever written. Kind of excited for it, not gonna lie. Anyway, started this blog because I have very specific needs for fanfic, and apparently I've gotta do everything myself, so...enjoy. This work is also being published on AO3 under the username sailor_aviator.

All posts related to this series will be tagged as "DHTN" and "Don't Hang'em Til Noon"

*Denotes smut

Meet our heroine!

Last updated: 11.27.23 (Complete)

Masterlist || DPU Masterlist || Fan Art || Moodboards || Playlist 1 || Playlist 2 || Jake "Hangman" Seresin Tag List

Series;

Prologue

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five*

Chapter Six*

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine*

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve*

Drabbles;

Jake with his newborn

Scout gets the laundry

Jake teaches Scout how to play baseball

Scout and Jake spend Christmas together

Scout finds Jake asleep

Scout and Jake wake up

Pregnant sex with Jake*

Jake gets hired on as a ranch hand

You call Jake "baby boy" in bed*

Isaac's attack from Jake's POV

The morning after Chapter Six

Scout talks to Jake while he sleeps

Jake carves the horse for Scout

Jake thinks about his and Scout’s fight

Jake's POV while being arrested...

Penny and Mav talk about Jake and Scout...

Scout meets Sarah and Billy

The jail scene from Jake's POV...

Tom and Jake's Relationship...

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todays-xkcd · 1 year

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Running for office in Minnesota on the single-issue platform 'dig a permanent channel through the Traverse Gap because it will make this map more satisfying.'

Dubious Islands [Explained]

Transcript Under the Cut

[Title:] Dubious Islands of North America [Subtitle:] And the waterways that separate them

[A map of mainland North America, down to the Panama isthmus. It is internally separated by various waterways, given labels or otherwise.]

[Separating land approximating Nunavut (with some Northern Territories) from neighbouring Canada:] Mackenzie Athabasca Churchill

[Comprising the much of the remainder of Canada, much of the northern United States (including Alaska), additionally separated by:] Columbia Snake Madison Missouri Chicago

[Unlabelled, some of the Great Lakes and the channel past Quebec] [An incursive gap near the central point, from the north:] Nelson Red [An internal label, with arrow:] Traverse Gap [An incursive gap near the central point, from the south:] Mississippi [A separate fragment of land south of the Madison, in the western half of the land-mass, bordered to its south by:] Yellowstone [A small fragment off the southen part of the western edge, an arrow and a label:] Chehalis/Black Lake

[Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and parts of the adjacent US, disconnected by:] Champlain Hudson [Label with an arrow on the east coast:] Cape Cod Canal

[A small triangle of territory, further isolated by:] Erie

[Most of the Eastern Seaboard of the US, additionally divided off by:] Tombigbee

[Fragment of land shorn from the northern part of the eastern edge, label with arrow:] Chesapeake and Delaware Canal [Fragment of land shorn from the tip of Florida, label with arrow:] Okeechobee Waterway

[Strip of land west of the Tombigbee, bounded also to its west by:] Mississippi [Fragment of land immediately to its south, with a nearby label and arrow:] Atchafalaya

[The remainder of the continent; comprising much of the US, all of Mexico and various central American territories, with a final tip of the eastwards-bending isthmus:] Panama Canal

#xkcd #xkcd 2838 #dubious islands #webcomics

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visit-new-york · 8 months

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The Great Blizzard of 1888, Madison Avenue and 40th Street, New York City.

The Great Blizzard of 1888, a winter tempest that battered the Atlantic coast of the United States from the Chesapeake Bay to Maine in March 1888, left an indelible mark in history. Inflicting over $20 million in property damage in New York City alone and claiming the lives of more than 400 people, including about 100 sailors, the blizzard was a catastrophic event along the Eastern Seaboard.

Following a mild winter, a convergence of a western snowstorm and a southern warm front gave rise to one of the most severe winter storms in American history. The onslaught commenced on the night of Sunday, March 11, with New York City accumulating 10 inches (250 mm) of snow by Monday morning. The storm persisted, eventually enveloping the city in a 22-inch (550 mm) snow blanket, while other regions experienced staggering accumulations of 40 to 50 inches (1,000 to 1,250 mm). Relentless high winds, coupled with temperatures well below freezing, intensified the perilous conditions. New York witnessed winds averaging 40 miles (65 km) per hour, gusting up to 80 miles (130 km) per hour, resulting in the destruction of power and telegraph lines and colossal snowdrifts reaching heights of 50 feet (15 meters).

Despite the escalating weather, many New Yorkers unaccustomed to blizzard conditions attempted to navigate the city for work. As the situation deteriorated throughout Monday, workers found themselves stranded on the streets, trains, elevated transit cars, and at their workplaces. With closures affecting shops, government offices, courts, Wall Street businesses, and even the Brooklyn Bridge, people sought refuge in overflowing saloons, hotels, and prisons.

The profound impact of the blizzard led survivors to gather annually until 1969 to commemorate its anniversary. Recognizing the vulnerabilities exposed by the storm, officials implemented measures such as placing power and telegraph lines, as well as public transit, underground. The Great Blizzard of 1888 became a transformative event that reshaped urban planning and disaster preparedness in the years to come.

#new york #newyork #nyc #new-york #new york city #ny #urban #manhattan #city #usa #United States #buildings #travel #journey #outdoors #street #architecture #Great Blizzard #visit-new-york.tumblr.com

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whencyclopedia · 21 days

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American Revolution

The American Revolution (1765-1789) was a period of political upheaval in the Thirteen Colonies of British North America. Initially a protest over parliamentary taxes, it blossomed into a rebellion and led, ultimately, to the birth of the United States. Rooted in the ideas of the Enlightenment, the Revolution played an important role in the emergence of modern Western democracies.

Origins: Parliament & the American Identity

In February 1763, the Seven Years' War – or the French and Indian War as the North American theater was called – came to an end. As part of the peace agreement, the vanquished Kingdom of France ceded its colony of New France (Canada) as well as all its colonial territory east of the Mississippi River to its victorious rival, Great Britain. While this left Britain as the dominant colonial power in North America, this newfound supremacy came at a cost, namely a massive war debt. To offset the debt, the British Parliament decided to levy new taxes on the Thirteen Colonies along the eastern seaboard of North America. Much of the war had been fought defending these colonies, after all, and Parliament decided that the colonists should help shoulder the empire's financial burden.

Prior to this decision, Parliament had adhered to an unofficial policy of 'salutary neglect' when dealing with the American colonies. This meant that, despite their royal governors, the colonies were largely left to manage their own affairs, with colonial legislatures overseeing governance and taxation. The influence of these legislatures often equaled if not eclipsed the power of the colony's royally appointed governor. Due to differing foundational and developmental circumstances, each colony maintained its own identity – the Puritan society of New England, the Dutch origins of New York, and the tobacco economy of Virginia, for example, all influenced the formation of their colonial identities. Despite viewing themselves as separate from one another, the colonies were loosely bound by their shared ties to Britain and had united in common defense multiple times during the last century of colonial wars.

At the same time, the American colonists considered themselves Britons, and proudly so. After the Glorious Revolution of 1689, and the constitutional reforms that went with it, the British were viewed as the freest people in the world; they were guaranteed a right to representative government (Parliament) as well as the right to self-taxation. The colonists believed that these 'rights of Englishmen' extended to them, as befitting of their English blood and allegiance to the English king; indeed, many of these rights were echoed in the colonies' own charters. The idea that Parliament could directly tax the colonies, therefore, went against this notion; since no Americans were represented in Parliament, Parliament had no constitutional authority to tax them (i.e. taxation without representation). Parliament, of course, disagreed, arguing that the Americans were virtually represented, as was the case with the thousands of Englishmen who owned no property and could not vote. It was this fundamental disagreement over the Americans' rights and liberties – expressed in the guise of taxation – that lay at the heart of the American Revolution and the birth of the United States.

#History #ValleyForge #StampAct #GeorgeWashington

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zponds · 1 year

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Having revealed my OCs from from the Burlington Route, Chicago & Northwestern, Milwaukee Road, Chesapeake & Ohio, and Baltimore & Ohio… I do have more OCs from nine additional railroads, and they are the…

Union Pacific ✅

Southern Pacific ✅

Northern Pacific ✅

Great Northern ✅

Santa Fe ✅

Norfolk & Western ✅

Southern Railway (USA) ✅

Seaboard Air Line ✅

Atlantic Coast Line ✅

Illinois Central ✅

Gulf, Mobile and Ohio ✅

Missouri Pacific ✅

Rock Island Railroad ✅

P.S.: a ✅ will show that I’ve completed the specific railroad.

#union pacific #southern pacific #northern pacific #great northern #santa fe #norfolk and western #southern railway #seaboard airline #illinois central #thomas and friends #thomas the tank engine #ttte #ttte oc #the genie team #gulf mobile & ohio #atlantic coast line #missouri pacific

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incorrectbatfam · 2 years

Note

All the places the batfam was banned from

Dick

Damian's parent-teacher conferences

The HBO writer's room

An almond farm in Manteca, California

Victoria's Secret

Jason

32 U.S. states + Puerto Rico

6 countries

Downtown Tokyo

Comm. Gordon's office

Ra's Al Ghul's hot tub

The Phantom Zone

Other-dimension Jason's safehouse

Every Pizza Hut in Ontario

15 feet of any Confederate statue in South Carolina

The Ford dealership in Tallahassee

Riker's Island

Alcatraz

Club Penguin

Tim

The original Starbucks

Wayne Enterprises boiler room

Brentwood Academy biology department

Madripoor

Damian

Outback Steakhouse

West-Reeve school debate team

Steph's apartment bathroom

USDA regional inspection office

Every BP gas station on the Atlantic seaboard

Duke

Gotham High model rocket club

Gotham High acapella choir

Gotham High ventilation system

Cullen

Harper's work table

A meme subreddit

A furry Discord

A Minecraft battle royale

His part-time job after ghosting instead of formally resigning

Stephanie

Oktoberfest

Every Gotham restaurant requiring a dress code

50 feet of the Mona Lisa

The Manor's wine cellar

Planet Fitness

A Harry Styles concert

Cassandra

A falafel cart

Justice League snack storage

The local tarot reader

A bus stop in Hong Kong

The Vienna Philharmonic

Barbara

The Apple Store

The Microsoft Store

Amazon HQ

The backend of all Google sites

Best Buy

The Pentagon

Twitter

Harper

A Home Depot in Wisconsin

Yellowstone National Park

A free pottery class

Gotham City Hall

Carrie

The Tootsie Roll factory

Boy Scouts (not because of gender)

The duck pond at the park

A Barnes & Noble in Boston

Webkinz.com

Kate

A soccer stadium

A Dairy Queen in Houston

A rest stop near Reno

Death Valley

Alfred

The Kremlin

The British Museum

The Vatican

Selina

Most museums in Gotham

Times Square

Buckingham Palace

A mini golf course

Netflix studios

Bruce

The kitchen

Kate's garage without her present

Mars

Batburger without someone else accompanying

A Justice League conference room

The Batcave when injured

Build-A-Bear

Best Western

Jason's safehouse

Facebook Marketplace

Diana's invisible jet

The GOP

Stark Industries break room mini-fridge

Near any animals on Kent Farm without Clark's supervision

#ask #anonymous #batfamily #batbros #batboys #batgirls #batkids #batsiblings #batfam #batman family #dc comics #headcanon #tw food mention #marvel

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ltwilliammowett · 8 months

Note

What are the advantages of fore and aft rigs vs square rigs?

Hi,

The fore and aft rig, or schooner rig, required only a small crew, and was generally used in the coastal and fishing trades. Ships with this rig could point higher into the wind and were usually more maneuverable when working in the changing winds along the coast. The rig was not limited to coastal schooners, and big fore-and-afters could be seen plying across the Western Ocean bound for European ports, the West Indies, or South America.

The square rig was normally an offshore rig used by vessels making long ocean passages and taking advantage of the prevailing wind and current patterns of the globe. These ships varied in size from the small handy brigantines and brigs of a couple of hundred tons to the great full rigged ships and barques of over two thousand tons. The square rig was also seen in the coastal trade, where brigs plied their trade up and down the eastern seaboard.

I hope it will help you and have a nice day

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joshsindigostreak · 1 year

Text

I See Hell in Your Eyes

Chapter Three

"But pack your heart, you might need it."

Josh Kiszka x Vampire!Reader

Authors Note: Listen, this chapter is a complete behemoth but I promise its worth it. I had so much fun writing this. I hope y’all love it just as much as I do. Shout out to @gretasmokerising @sinners-go-to-drink-the-wine and @losfacedevil for being complete angels and giving me amazing feedback and not letting the imposter syndrome take over!! Love y’all 🩸🖤🩸🖤🩸🖤

Word count: 9075

Warnings: Detailed depictions of blood, swearing, you know the drill.

You tried, and failed, to control how wide your eyes got as he said his name. On this side of the country, their last name was said in whispers, rumors, petty gossip even. Out west, they were feared. If you had friends head that way and disappear, you could bet money on them being picked off by a Kiszka. For Vampires especially, you had to be careful where you slept during the day. One of their usual moves was striking while the sun was out, and depending on which one got to you, determined how they killed you. Allegedly, one of them really, really liked the sound of Vampires sizzling in the sun, like an egg on a sidewalk. It was probably the most painful way to die. It was slow, it was brutal, and he wanted you to feel it. Sick bastard.

While you never truly heard what their first names were, you did hear plenty of stories of a set of twins who worked together up and down the western seaboard. As you locked eyes with Josh Kiszka himself, you hoped he wasn’t one of them. If one was here, the other one was probably close by, and you didn’t need to find out which one was the more trigger happy twin.

Josh tilted his chin, a smirk slowly replacing the snarl around his mouth. He hadn’t pulled the last name card in a while, but seeing the look on the Vampires face was worth it. The wide eyes, the little gasp she tried to hide, it always felt good to remind them of their place. Lectures from his father about how Vampires viewed themselves as Apex Predators and that it was their job as hunters to humble them. He was always taught to look at Vampires and other supernatural creatures as pests; populations they had to control for the betterment of the ecosystem. Little needed to be said now that his name was out there, he could see the understanding in your eyes, the worry starting to form between your brows.

You opened your mouth to speak, but he cut you off, hissing out your name, “Yeah…I know about you too. Allegedly turned in the 1690s, when we were still the colonies?” He raised his eyebrows at you, watching as your expression hardened at his words, “from what your file said, you kept a low profile for most of your ‘life’ but you ran into trouble during the ‘20s in…Atlantic City, was it? Yeah that Nest you were a part of at the time had a trail of bodies too.”

“It was prohibition…you’d be surprised at how desperate humans can be for a little booze.”

“Almost as desperate as Vampires are for blood?”

You rolled your eyes, “that's not a fair comparison and you know it. Humans don’t need alcohol to survive.”

He ignored your reply and continued, “...after the ‘20s you circled Europe for a few decades, spent a good chunk of time in Canada, but seemed to disappear off the map towards the late ‘90s until you popped up in this city a few years ago-”

“My favorite color is purple, was that in there?” You smiled, cutting him off. A lot of his “facts” about you were off, or flat out wrong. You would’ve laughed had it not been for the knife at your throat. He rolled his big eyes at you, and you couldn’t help but be amused at how he was almost cute when he was annoyed.

“Can we get back to the reason why I have you against this tree?”

“I just figured you had a thing for pushing girls up against trees.”

“Girls, maybe. Vampires? No.”

“A shame, you don’t know what you’re missing,” you teased. Josh twisted the blade against your throat once again, this time flattening the metal against your skin, searing into the flesh underneath it. “Ah! Ok ok, yes newbies being stupid,” you sucked in breath through your teeth, “hate to break it to you but we don’t exactly keep files on each other like you hunters do with us.”

“Yes but I know Vampires love bragging about their kills. They had bounties on me and my siblings' heads when we were children.” His eyes flickered at the memory of the Vampire that broke into their house and had lifted his twin up off the floor by his hair. The way the creature had sneered at the two of them, and practically salivated while it described taking them back to its Nest to feed off one while the other watched. That was the night he learned just how hated his family was, and the image of his brother trying to wriggle out of the Vampires grasp mid air haunted him for weeks.

As his eyes started to trail off, you could see he was deep in thought about something. The thousand-yard-stare was starting to creep over his face, and it made you pause. For a brief moment, you almost felt sorry for him. But your sympathy was limited when you factored in the knife at your throat. His fucked up childhood didn’t justify half of the shit he and his family had done.

In the silence, an annoying realization hit you. In order to get this asshole off your back you had to find whatever Vampire was leaving the alleged bodies all over the place. He wasn’t going to leave you alone until he had another suspect to harass and interrogate. It almost made your brain itch at the mere thought of working with a hunter of all things but if it got the job done then so be it. You could leave the city afterwards and never see him again. That was the plan.

You thought back to what you had said, about how newly turned Vampires are sloppier when it came to feeding. As you said, these things weren’t common talking points between Vampires. Bodies happened. It was part of death. But if someone had just turned someone and let them loose with zero guidance, that could turn into a problem quickly. The city you currently resided in was relatively quiet, creatures kept to themselves and the various truces between species were kept with little fuss. It wasn’t perfect all the time but the balance was a lot better here than in the bigger cities.

It dawned on you, “have you ever been to a Blood Den, Boy Scout?”

This snapped Josh out of his ruminations. A Blood Den? He recalled his grandfather had raided one a few decades ago. They were “public” places Vampires could feed on humans, and wipe their memories afterwards. Because of this they were hard to track down, especially in the bigger cities.

“No…not officially.”

“You’re in luck then! If there’s any place a bunch of Vampires are going to sit around and potentially talk about their killing sprees it would be there. Sometimes we get a little chatty after feeding. I can ask around while we’re there.” Your bright tone completely masked the gravity of what you just suggested.

“What and have me pretend to be a Vampire? They’d see through that instantly,” Josh countered.

“Exactly. You wouldn’t be pretending to be anything. You’d be my…human companion…for the evening.” You centered your gaze at him, arching an eyebrow as he took in your implication.

“No. Absolutely not. You are not getting a free meal off of me while you play detective.”

You tilted your head in annoyance, “Ugh, relax. I wouldn’t have to feed off of you at all. The place I’m talking about has private rooms for feedings that we can “excuse” ourselves to after I ask questions. The private rooms are soundproof for obvious reasons. No one will know we’re just sitting there waiting to leave. You just have to play along and try not to slap cuffs on people trying to enjoy their dinner.”

Josh chewed his lip at the thought, weighing his options. It could lead to the big break in his case he had been searching for, but the idea of this Vampire being in the driver's seat while he was undercover made his skin crawl. “And how do I know you’re not just leading me in there to get bled dry by you and your friends?”

“As fun as that sounds, if you go missing I don’t need the rest of your family showing up here and completely destroying the peace around here. I know your family's methods, and I’m in no hurry to be on the receiving end of them.The quicker we find out who's being sloppy, the quicker we can never see each other again. I’m not exactly going to enjoy babysitting you all night either.” You sighed, “and besides, Dens have protocols. If I take you there as my human, no one can lay a fang on you without my permission. So all you’ll have to do is sit there, look pretty, and let me do the talking.”

“Fine. Let's go and get this over with.”

You tutted at him, “Oh no we can’t go tonight. It's almost Blue Hour! We wouldn’t have time to get ready and the Den is probably nearly empty by now.”

“Get ready?”

“Oh Boy Scout, it's a classy place. You can’t just show up in khakis,” you said, giving a pointed look at his outfit. “If we show up dressed to the 9’s it’ll sell that you’re my human, even more.”

He huffed in annoyance, “Fine. Tomorrow night then.”

“Perfect. 1 AM? We can meet here in the park. Same tree? But not against it, it’ll ruin my hair.” You replied with a small smile.

At this, Josh finally released his grip on you, taking the knife away from your throat and slowly backed up a few feet. It was slightly jarring, you hadn’t realized how warm he had been until you felt the rush of cold from his absence.

“Ok. 1 AM. Don’t be late,” he said, resigning himself to your plan. As much as he didn’t want to, he’d have to trust you a little bit in order to get anything done.

“Wouldn’t dream of it,” you leaned off of the tree and started to walk away, before throwing a look back over your shoulder at him, “Wear something black.”

At this you sped off, leaving him alone in the park. He watched you leave, trying to process your entire exchange. As he turned to go home, he could feel the adrenaline start to pump through his system at the thought of being in the literal lions den with you.

~!~

Your stiletto heels clicked against the sidewalk as you made your way to the spot in the park you agreed to meet Josh. Your dress was simple: a black bodycon number with an asymmetrical hem that went from the top of your knee on one leg to mid thigh on the other. You always had a good night when wearing that dress, and you hoped the luck would continue as you broke several protocols by bringing in an undercover vampire hunter into a Blood Den. The price of being caught doing was almost unknown, as you couldn’t recall this happening before. Your kind was very protective about their “public” places to exist. Bringing humans back to any Nest got old, and feeding in darkened alleys could be risky. It was nice to be able to let your shoulders down in a Den and have a “normal” evening.

Rounding the corner, you found your “date” for the evening standing under a street lamp. He was a good boy, he listened when you told him to wear something black. He looked very proper in the all black suit he was wearing, the color contrasting beautifully against his skin. He had his phone in his hand, and he was tapping a message onto the surface, before shutting it off and slipping it into his pocket. He hadn’t noticed you coming towards him yet, and for once you got to observe him in the wild. The light from the street lamp was cascading down his figure and you noticed he had reshaven down the sides of his head, making the skin visible and fresh looking. He looked beautiful, and the amount of effort he had put into his appearance tonight pleased you greatly. Who knew hunters had the time for a proper skincare routine? You could tell he was deep in thought, his eyes were fixed on the trees across the path from him. The wheels were churning in his head and you almost smiled at the way his brows slowly knitted together. You caught yourself wondering what he was thinking about, or if he was nervous about tonight. He would be in good company, as you were nervous as hell too. He was still such a wildcard but you hoped he could use all the self control he had to play along like you needed him to.

Your heels crunched on a stray leaf, which made Josh look up and take you in. Unblinking he looked you up and down as you approached. His own breath betrayed him by getting caught in his throat. He wasn’t supposed to look at you and think anything positive, he was raised to view any Vampires attempt at vanity to be another lure for their prey, or at best, a warning. His father always compared it to how the most poisonous frogs had the prettiest colors. And yet, there you were, slinking towards him with that ever present smirk on your face. A smirk that had invaded his dreams, causing him to toss and turn for most of the night before. Blurry images of you flashed before him in his mind's eye: your eyes narrowed at him, the surprising warmth of your skin beneath his hands, your breath on his face, and finally your mouth twisted in a smile, giving him a perfect view of your sharp teeth. If he could have tried his brain for treason, he would.

Most of the time, when a Vampire was in his dreams, it was normally scenarios where he’d have to save his siblings, or himself. They always ended the same, with the Vampire on top of him with a stake shoved into its chest. He could always see the color drain from the creatures’ face mere inches from his own, feeling the death rattle leave its lips and caress his face. It was his default setting, being the hero in his own stories. He was reliable that way, and he was raised to know it. His father had always pulled him aside to explain his responsibilities, and he knew his younger siblings weren’t subject to the same pep talks.

At last, the two of you made eye contact, and you slowed your walk to a stop. Like the hunter before you, your brain betrayed you with quiet thoughts of what this night would be like in another life. If you were both human? If you were both Vampires? If you were anything else? You knew this wasn’t a real ‘date’. To be honest, you hadn’t been on a proper date in years, maybe even a decade. You were ok with being alone. Sure, you had your flings here or there, but anything beyond that had you running. Romantic entanglements weren’t the most ideal in your world. Plus, life was too long to be attached to someone like that. You had to focus. This was a means to an end. A way to get this obsessive little shit to focus on some other Vampire, and you can go back to your mostly drama-free life. He would fade into your memories of other hunters you’ve encountered over the decades, lost in a sea of faces you can sort of recall. You’d hope you’d remember his eyes at least…or the gap between his teeth, or that deep dimple on his left cheek, or even the scar-

“You clean up nice...for a Vampire.”

You blinked at him, immediately snapped back to reality and your default amused expression slipped on your face. “And you own something other than khakis…I like it,” you said mirroring how he looked you up and down.

Josh rolled his eyes at you as he left the warm glow of the street light and made his way to you. “So where are you taking me?”

You smiled even wider at him, “oh just one of my favorite places in this city. You’re going to love it!” He winced with a skeptical look on his face, “It won’t be that bad! Just listen to everything I say and keep your mouth shut, got it?

“You don’t know me very well-”

“-and honestly I’m ok with that but I do know a hunter like you won’t be stupid enough to run his mouth around a bunch of Vampires who would love to use him as a cute little juice box.” You wanted to desperately boop his nose at the end of that but held back. As annoying as he was, you loved messing with him.

But your smile faded slightly, and you faced him fully, “there is one thing I need to make clear before we go.”

“...and that would be?”

“You have to promise me you won’t come back and raid the place like your family is known to do. I know I can’t Persuade you to forget like every other human that goes there, so you have to give me your word you won’t leak the location.”

Josh almost looked offended by your words, but then he realized that in any other situation that's exactly what he would have done. He could almost feel his fingers itching to reach for his phone to text Jake location details, something he had done many times in the past when they scouted out Nests in other cities. Agreeing to your terms would go against everything he was taught, every natural instinct he had, but if he wanted his answers, he’d have to say yes.

“Fine. But I also have one condition.”

“Name it,” you said, keeping your gaze steady.

“No feeding on me when we get there, even if you get hungry or want to blend in better with your friends.”

Your smile returned to your face, “like I said last night, I didn’t plan on doing that anyway. I’m just going to tell anyone who asks that I already fed before we got there, and that we just wanted to come by and relax. People do that all the time! You just get to sit there and look pretty.” This time you didn’t fight it and you reached out and slid your finger down the adorable bump in his nose and lightly booped the end, causing his brows to furrow instantly as he pushed your hand away.

“Ok, ok, can we go now?”

Rolling your eyes, you turned down the path in the direction of the Den, “Ugh fine, but please lighten up a little before we get there. It's only a few blocks away.”

The two of you walked down the path, eventually making it out of the park and into the downtown streets. This part of town was relatively quiet, especially at this time of night. It wasn’t downtown where all the human clubs were, or where all the bars were clustered together and the streets were full of people. No, this area housed the local Mom and Pop stores, devoid of chain businesses and tourist traps. It was very quaint, and unsuspecting.

Neither of you spoke as you walked down the sidewalk. Beyond your petty banter, you found it hard to make small talk with a hunter. What was there to say? So instead you just observed him out of the corner of your eye. His jaw remained clenched for most of the walk, hands in his pockets with his eyes set firmly ahead of him. Up close you could see a tiny red mark above his ear where he had probably nipped himself with the clippers he used to shave down the sides of his head. The mental image of him standing in front of the mirror, concentrating hard on getting both sides even almost had you stumble in your heels. Shaking your head slightly, you pressed onward, glad you were almost to the Den.

Beside you, Josh was observing you just as much. He kept it subtle, as he was taught. He could assess a situation purely out of his peripheral vision, and this skill was only heightened when he had Jake with him. He listened to the way your heels clicked in a confident rhythm on the sidewalk, and how you never looked down at your feet or the ground once. He noticed how even with a neutral expression on your face, the corners of your lips were upturned into a slight smile, as if you walked around with an inside joke with yourself. Or how your eyes shined constantly, the wheels in your head were always turning, and you didn’t hide it. He caught himself wondering what you thought about, what made you tick, what did you do with the centuries worth of memories, what were those memories, who did you have memories with-

“We’re here.”

Josh snapped out of his thoughts, and looked up at the building you had stopped in front of. The fluorescent, “Lakeside Rx” sign illuminated the sidewalk, with a smaller sign underneath detailing, “Open 24/7”. A pharmacy? What the hell?

“Umm…I don’t think-”

“Follow my lead, ok?” You looked him in the eyes, giving him a look to assure him you knew what you were doing. “Once I open the door, you’re my Human. You do not speak unless spoken to or prompted by me. Just listen and observe. Any Vampires you interact with will probably assume you’ve been Persuaded to be there and won’t remember anything once we leave. Its standard protocol. Since you…clearly, can’t be Persuaded by me,” you resisted the urge to roll your eyes at the memory, whereas Josh resisted the urge to smirk at the thought, “you’re going to have to play along and pretend you are. I know you don’t want to, but for this you’ll have to trust me.”

Josh sighed and nodded his head, instinctively he didn’t want to put this much trust in you, but something deep down made him feel uncharacteristically calm about the situation. Maybe it was the way you were looking at him, or the warmth of your hand as you placed it on his arm in reassurance, or maybe it was because you were the first Vampire he’d ever met that seemed motivated by something other than insatiable hunger and blood lust? He couldn’t pin it down but he did as you said and dutifully opened the door for you like a gentleman and followed you inside.

The overhead lights of the pharmacy flickered slightly as you made your way through the aisles. Everything looked normal and well stocked, not even a layer of dust on the shelves or various products around the store. This confused Josh even more as he followed you to the back of the store, where the prescription drop off/pick up desk was located. Even that looked completely normal, even with the singular employee he had seen throughout the entire establishment looking through prescription bins with her back to the two of you.

This was your time to shine, and you could hardly contain yourself at this point. You had seen the complete confusion on the hunters face and you wanted to laugh but you had to keep up your ruse. He really had no idea. There were so many things that humans weren’t privy to. That amount of blissful ignorance was almost enviable.

You confidently stepped up to the counter, and tapped the bell stationed on the desk. At the shrill sound, the pharmacist snapped her head up and turned around, giving you a warm smile as she walked up to the counter.

“Hello, what can I help you with,” she greeted in her best customer service voice.

You smiled, knowing your next line, “I believe I have a prescription ready for pick up?”

The pharmacist tilted her head and placed her hands delicately on the edge of the counter, “can I get your date of birth?”

You smiled and nodded, “of course.”

“Alright, you can enter it here…” she gestured at a number pad sitting next to the bell.

With zero hesitation your hand flew to the number pad and punched in your actual birth date, year of 1673 and all, pinky all but slamming the enter button as you finished.

The pharmacist turned to the computer to her right and smiled at the information you submitted, “excellent, you can pick it up at the back counter.”

“Thank you so much,” you replied with a matching smile before turning on your heel and heading for the hallway to the left of the pharmacy window.

Josh was so mesmerized by the interaction that he almost forgot his cue to follow you down the hall but quickly recovered and took long strides to catch up to you. He had so many questions running through his head but knew he couldn’t ask you anything right now. The two of you passed a couple doors for some bathrooms, along with a couple of water fountains, which made Josh even more confused as to what “the back counter” meant but he followed you along, the only sound being the clicking of your heels echoing throughout the hallway.

There was a door at the very end of the hallway, which Josh figured was your destination due to where you were headed but you instead stopped in front of another plain gray door to the right, just before the end of the hallway. There was no signage or even a window on the door, just chipped paint and a worn out brass doorknob.

You swiveled your head in the hunters direction, smirking, “wanna see a real party?”

Josh opened his mouth to speak, a little unsure if he was supposed to answer, when a loud clicking sound was heard from the other side of the door. You reached out and twisted the handle, pulling the door open to reveal a darkly lit hallway lined with ornate vintage wall sconces, the walls themselves decorated in a red and black wallpaper in a damask pattern. Josh nearly kicked himself for not figuring it out. Of course they’d have a speakeasy-style entrance to their Blood Dens. He started to file away this information in his head, but then remembered the deal he made with you outside. He’d have to keep this secret, even from Jake.

You stepped into the hallway, allowing Josh to follow behind as the door shut behind the two of you. To be honest, you had left the human world as soon as you stepped into that “pharmacy” in the front of the building, but now that the door to the “back counter” was shut, you were completely immersed in Vampire territory. This was your world, and you felt your shoulders relax the further you walked. The hallway took a sharp left turn and before you was a set of stairs descending down, the sconces continued to light the way.

Just before you stepped off the landing to begin your descent, you gave him one last look before softly slipping your hand into his. He was your Human now, and as such you had to show it as much as possible. Granted, most Human Companions in Dens weren’t romantically involved with the Vampire that brought them there, but a lot of them were, and 9 times out of 10 if you presented that way you were mostly left alone. If you weren’t, it was common to “share” humans throughout the night. The Vampire equivalent of a blunt rotation, or sharing food off of your plate. You had partaken in said practice more times than you could count, but not tonight. Josh was off limits, not only because of the deal you made with him but because…well he couldn’t be Persuaded to forget any of it, and it would be too risky! Yes, that was it.

He looked down at your hand slipping into his, and he didn’t fight the grip you had on him. Once again, he was surprised at how warm you were, and how soft your skin was. While you had your classic smirk on your face, the slight tremor in your fingers told a different story. It didn’t take his impeccable observational skills to understand you were nervous. It hit him just then that you were basically committing an act of high treason by consciously bringing him with you tonight. Not only because he was a hunter, but he was a Kiszka on top of that. One wrong move and both of their heads could easily become trophies -and warnings- to Vampires and hunters alike. Keeping that in mind, he gently gave your hand a squeeze as he followed you down the stairs, matching your grip with his. You were doing this, together.

The stairs turned and twisted, taking you at least two more levels down. As you descended, music met your ears. It wasn’t the strong bass you’d expect at a typical club, but every Blood Den was different. This particular Den leaned into “the old world” aesthetic that a lot of their patrons were nostalgic for. Classical music, a mix of candlelight and gas lamps, antique furniture, this was where you could leave the modern world behind and fully relax among other Vampires.

As you finally reached the bottom of the stairs, the familiar atmosphere greeted you. You were now in the main “chamber” of the Den, where most people gathered during the night. On the right hand side of the room was a traditional “bar” where one could sit and get a blood-infused drink if one was alone.

Humans didn’t even know what they were missing with Vampire cocktails. Instead of human liquor being the main ingredient, here it was blood. Vampires were always aware of different blood types among their prey, and there were centuries old descriptions and books of different blood profiles based on location, age, and overall health of human subjects. But it wasn’t until humans cracked the code to blood typing in 1901 that the science of it really took off. It was similar to how humans classified different types of wine. The thought of an A-Negative Manhattan had your mouth watering, you needed to take the edge off and calm your nerves.

Throughout the room there were multiple antique chaise lounges and matching couches. Vampires and their human companions were scattered amongst them, some in groups of four or five and some just one on one. Each group was in various stages of feeding. Directly in front of you and Josh was a couple where the female vampire was straddling the male human, fangs firmly planted on his neck while she fed. The man had his head thrown back in ecstasy, smiling softly while his hands gripping her thighs. Josh wanted to be disgusted but knew better than to let it show on his face. He stared at the couple curiously, was…was the human enjoying that? Is that possible? He had rescued plenty of humans in his time as a hunter and they never seemed happy to be in the clutches of a Vampire. Most of them were scared shitless, and grateful to be free of their tormentors. This was entirely new to him.

The human let out a moan and the Vampire chuckled against his throat, inadvertently spilling some blood down his neck and into his shirt. Josh hadn’t realized his mouth had been hanging open until he felt the tip of your finger push his chin up to close it.

“You’re staring…,” you whispered into his ear.

Dumbfounded, Josh turned to you with wide eyes and opened his mouth to speak but you squeezed his hand again, letting him know he didn’t have to explain himself. It was so amusing to see him react that way, like an Amish kid seeing a laptop for the first time.

“Let’s go find a seat,” you led him over to an empty corner booth, sliding around to the middle so the two of you could get a good vantage point to the room. The table was isolated enough to allow for quiet conversation, and Josh wanted to use this precious time to ask at least a few questions, but before he could get a word out a male server appeared at the table, focusing entirely on you. Now it was his turn to slip into character. He turned to you and gazed at you with the best heart eyes he could muster, even going so far as to sliding closer to you, completely invading your personal space.

“Can I get you started on a drink this evening?”

You smiled and licked your teeth before answering, “an A-Negative Manhattan would be amazing.”

The server threw a sideways glance at Josh, who was blinking slowly at you, resting his chin on his hand. You respected how hard he was committing to the bit. “Anything for…?”

“Oh no he’s fine,” you turned to look at him, he was so close you could feel the heat of his cheek next to yours, “...maybe some water,” you said firmly, hoping he’d get the hint to dial it back a little.

The server raised his eyebrows in judgment, humans were so fucking weird. “Right…I’ll be right back with those.”

As the server scurried off to the bar, Josh continued to stare at you. He was even closer than when you were walking down the street together. The last time he was this close to you was when he had you against that tree in the park, and he was noticing details he hadn’t before. Were your eyelashes always that long, or was it your mascara? He fully took in the profile of your nose and found himself admiring how perfect it looked with the rest of your face.

You scooted away from him just far enough to regain some space. Though you found yourself slightly disappointed you could no longer feel his breath fan down over your neck and bare shoulder.

“Easy, Boy Scout.”

“What? You said I had to sell it.”

“Yeah but don’t overdo it, we can’t have anyone get suspicious,” you warned.

Josh gave a sweeping glance at the rest of the room, noting the various states the humans in the room were in. If their eyes weren’t closed in pleasure from being fed on, they were gazing adoringly at their Vampire partners, as if waiting to be bitten again. “I don’t know, I think I was blending in just fine…”

You rolled your eyes because he was right. But still, you thought spitefully, you didn’t want to give him the satisfaction of knowing that. “All I’m saying is, less is more because I don’t want anyone to start asking questions while we are trying to ask questions, got it?”

“Fine,” he relented before going quiet for a few seconds. A few very short seconds before he whispered, “do…do humans really enjoy being bitten?”

You briefly considered messing with him further but decided to give him a straight answer for once, “some do. It honestly depends. I’ve fed on people who just stood there and took it, but I’ve also had a few who got really into it. Every once and awhile I can get an “arrangement” if you will where I can regularly feed on the same human, mainly out of convenience.”

Josh felt a pang of jealousy course through his system that he did not expect.

“...but the problem with arrangements like that is they often become really messy and I just don’t have the time for the fallout. I haven’t had a “regular” in years.”

Before he could reply the server from earlier appeared again at the table gently placing both glasses down. Josh used your distraction as you thanked the server to let himself exhale the sigh of relief at your confirmation you didn’t have any current “regular” humans. Why the fuck was he even thinking about that? Get it to-fucking-gether, Kiszka, he chastized himself. He glanced down at your drink, it looked relatively normal, but the obvious dark red hue reminded him that the whiskey it contained was accompanied by blood.

As if you could sense his question, you informed him, “A-Negative pairs really well with whiskey. Robust but not overpowering, gives you a great buzz. It's a shame you can’t find that out for yourself with your…humanity and all.”

Josh gave you a flat look, “I like my humanity just fine.”

“Suit yourself…though a hunter turned Vampire would be hilariously ironic.”

No it wouldn’t, Josh thought darkly. That was a train of thought he did not want to entertain. The consequences of that…no. Being turned was something his father refused to speak to any of the kids about. The emphasis was always on destroying whatever Vampire you had in front of you before that was even a potential thought. He did have a memory however of overhearing his parents talk about a raid his father had conducted. He wasn’t supposed to hear it, he had just snuck downstairs for a snack out of the kitchen when he walked by his fathers study and heard the gruesome details. Just before his father had killed the leader of the Nest, the Vampire had taunted him with the possibility, using his younger brother Sam as the example but what made it more depraved was that Sam had just turned 4.

“Oh my god, Monica!” his thoughts were thankfully interrupted by you cheerfully calling out to a woman that was passing by the table.

“Hello!? How long has it been, 7 years?!” Monica, the tall, willowy Vampire with chestnut hair nearly shrieked your name as she threw herself into the booth to give you a hug. She had a man with her, but from what Josh could see he was also a Vampire, but there was something off about him.

“Bitch, I told you to call me after you came back from Italy,” you squealed and giggled into her hair.

“I know, I know! But I was just too distracted by this one,” Monica beamed and turned to pinched the cheek of the man who stiffly sat beside her.

“Who is this, then?” You questioned as you toyed with the metal skewer the cherry garnish of your drink sat.

“This is Ethan…,” she gushed, “I met him while in Italy, actually! He was a human companion to a friend of mine at the time and we were all out to dinner together and we just hit it off! Eventually he ended up becoming my human companion for an entire summer but I just realized…I couldn’t let him go.” Monica leaned towards you like she wanted to tell you a secret, “I ended up turning him last fall,” oh, it was a secret all right. Turning someone wasn’t a taboo by any means, but like you had told Josh the night before, your species was very selective about the process. Turning your regular snack wasn’t unheard of but…it wasn’t the classiest thing either.

But you used this to your advantage, “So he’s only about a year old? How has the adjustment been?”

“He’s been wonderful, haven’t you sweetie?” Ethan nodded with a tight-lipped smile.

“We’re still working on the cravings and the self control but we haven’t had an incident in a few months now.” Monica explained while Ethans eyes were trained on Josh specifically, and you felt how tense Josh got next to you because of it. You kept your attention on Monica while she prattled about how being a Maker was going for her and slowly slipped your hand under the table and firmly gripped your hunters knee. You gave it a good squeeze, signaling that you also didn’t like how Ethan was staring at him. “...but enough about me, who is this?” Monica gave a pointed look at Josh.

“Oh this is my human companion tonight…isn’t he pretty?” You looked over your shoulder at Josh, flashing your teeth in a smile.

“Oh he’s very pretty…where did you find him?”

You chuckled, “would you believe it I found him near a dumpster?”

Monica let out an obnoxious laugh, “oh my god how random! Well, I hope you keep this one around, he’s too cute.”

The music playing over the speakers abruptly stopped, and coming out of one of the side doors was a man who walked over to the piano in the corner, dramatically dusting off the bench before sitting down and starting to play a soft melody. Both you and Monica jumped at the sight, knowing what it meant. Your friend immediately started pushing her boyfriend out of the booth, looking pale and skittish. “Well it was lovely seeing you tonight! I’ll definitely call you later!” She gave you a weak wave while she grabbed Ethans hand and scurried off to one of the doors along the back wall, where the private feeding rooms were.

Josh turned to you confused because what the fuck was that all about, but he answered his own question when he saw…him. Weaving his way around the lounges and tables, was a Vampire that was easily 6’5”, dark hair and olive skin, his presence was massive. Every Vampire, even the ones mid-feed would look up at him as he passed.

Dimitris Nikolou. He was the owner of this Blood Den. He was at least 200 years older than you, but you suspected it was a lot more than that. You had known him very well over the years, it was his Nest you turned to when you were caught in the Atlantic City raid in the 20s, and he had accepted you with open arms, in exchange for your loyalty. You didn’t serve him, but should any rival Nests decide to start shit, you knew which side you had to take. He and a blonde, statuesque woman made their way over to your table, Dimitris’ eyes lighting up when he not only recognized you, but when he saw Josh.

“It has been far too long since I’ve seen you here,” he announced before sliding into the booth…behind Josh. His human companion slid in next to you, effectively trapping you and Josh in the middle of the corner.

“Dimitris, lovely as always,” you greet with a smile.

“Oh Darling, after all these years it's just Dimitri to you, you know that,” he replied fondly. He turns to give a proper look at Josh, more specifically, his jugular, “Now…who is this lovely creature you’ve brought with you?”

You squeezed Joshs knee once again, this time for your own reassurance, and to funnel your nerves to anywhere else but your face. “This is my human companion for the evening,” you said politely.

“What a catch…such striking eyes.” You hated the way Dimitris’ eyes were raking all over Josh, but you couldn’t do anything about it. “Does this human companion have a name?”

You felt your throat start to close, there was no way you could even give him his first name only, that was too risky. You had to play it off, “I think his name was…William…I found him outside of a restaurant and decided to bring him here.” You could see the wheels turning in Dimitris’ head and your grip on Josh tightened.

He turned back to Josh, “Well William what are we going to do with you?” Once again he was staring at Joshs neck, “I suppose a little taste of him won’t hurt, would it?”

You interjected almost too fast, “No no, he’s mine for the evening, I quite like this one.”

“Of course he is but he just looks so delicious, we’ve always shared haven’t we, darling?” He gave a look to the woman next to you, who immediately extended her wrist underneath your face. “Oh, ignore my horrible manners, this is Yvonne. I found her while scouting a new Den location in Chicago. She’s A-Negative as well, that's your favorite if I recall?” His eyes sparkle at you, triggering the memories of the bodies you shared the last time you occupied one of his Nests.

The thing about rules is that they only work if everyone plays along with them. Vampires like Dimitris played by their own rules, and were prone to rip the proverbial rug out from under you at a moment's notice just to make a point.

“So what do you say? A companion for a companion?”

There was no way out of this, and if you could have grabbed Josh by the collar of his shirt and drug him out of there, you would have. Instead, you’re both trapped in a booth with someone who could destroy you both with barely a flick of the wrist.

Josh has been politely silent this entire time, keeping his eyes focused on you. He wasn’t sure if the worst part about this was the fact he was about to be fed on for the first time in his life, or if it was because he was about to be fed on by someone other than you. He felt a strong hand coil around his neck and gently tilt his head to the side, his eyes never left yours. He watched as you weakly grasped Yvonnes wrist, bringing it to your mouth. Your fangs descended from your gums as you bit into her skin, and before he could even register his own thoughts on that, he felt similar fangs pierce the skin of his neck. His ears instantly started ringing, the sensation burning a lot more than he expected it to. He quickly realized that the actual action of having your blood sucked out of you wasn’t what hurt, but the entry wounds made by the fangs, which still burned. Having your blood suddenly start flowing in the wrong direction was…different. His body felt heavier yet he was beginning to get light headed at the same time.

Your eyes were locked onto Josh and Dimitri, distracted to the point where you were barely feeding off of Yvonne. Slowly, you detached from her wrist and placed it on the table, which visibly disappointed Yvonne, who was enjoying the whole thing. Your hand inched forward under the table, desperate to make contact at least with Joshs hand that was limply lying between the two of you. After a few agonizing seconds your pinky brushed against his, and you tried to put every emotion you could into that action, to let him know you were still here. His eyes were starting to droop, a sign that Dimitri was nearing the threshold of too much at one time for a human.

“Dimitri!” You yelped almost too loud.

Dimitri popped up off of Joshs neck in surprise, but after looking at Josh himself he saw the state he was in, “I do apologize…his blood is very…different than what I’m used to. It's got almost this…spice to it? It's almost familiar to me but I can’t quite place it. ” He grabbed a handkerchief out of his coat pocket and dabbed his mouth before nicking his finger to heal up the neck wound with his own blood. Given his age and experience, there was hardly any mess on Josh to clean up, and what little there was he wiped away with his handkerchief before handing it to Yvonne to mop up her wrist.

“He is…very special,” you agreed, inching even closer to Josh who was starting to slump against the booth wall. “I really hate to cut this short but I reserved one of the private rooms for tonight and I’d really like to take him there now.”

Dimitri licked his lips and nodded, suddenly willing to play by the rules now, “I do remember seeing your name on the books for tonight! Right, well we’ll get out of your way, darling. It was lovely seeing you again. Don’t be a stranger, you know you’re always welcome here.”

“Thank you…Dimitri.”

“Always, darling.”

With that Dimitri and Yvonne slithered out of the booth, finally leaving you and Josh alone. You couldn't bring yourself to move until you saw the pair settle down on a couch next to another couple, seemingly about to repeat the process with them. This was your chance, and you quickly grabbed Joshs hand and hauled him out of the booth. He was weak, and he needed food to replenish what he just lost. Thankfully he could still walk and you were able to make your way to the back wall where the doors to the private rooms were. The door Monica and Ethan had entered still had its “occupied” light on above the frame, but the door on the far side was open and waiting. Turning on your heel you beelined for that door, shutting it behind you and clicking the lock before pushing Josh himself against the back of the door, your forearm barred across his chest, anchoring him to the wood. You had wanted a chance to reverse the roles and shove him against something like he had done to you twice, but you hated how it happened tonight.

“That was so fucking stupid…,” you gritted out through your teeth, frustrated not at Josh for once, but at yourself.

“It's ok..” Josh finally spoke, his voice softer than you had ever heard it.

“No, it's not ok. If I hadn’t stopped him-”

“But you did…that's what matters.”

You met his eyes, those big brown eyes, and for the first time in a long time you felt your own well up. You moved your arm from his chest and cradled his face in your hands. His eyes were still droopy, but they were fixed on you.

“You need to eat something…,” you whipped your head around the room to find the mini fridge they always stocked with food for the humans to eat after feeding. It was a small courtesy to prevent any liability issues. Taking his hand, you lead him over to the antique couch in the middle of the room, gently sitting him down before crouching down in front of the mini fridge, grabbing a bottle of orange juice and a bag of chips. You shoved both items into his hands, not caring if the combination didn’t taste good. The faster you got him well enough to walk so you could get out of there, the better. Josh ripped open the bag of chips and unscrewed the top of the orange juice, wincing at the flavor combo but eating it anyway. As he worked his way through snacks you sat next to him, staring at him to make sure he was eating it all.

After a few minutes of silence, you finally said, “I am…so fucking sorry Josh. I thought he was still in Chicago, I didn’t know he was going to be here and I definitely didn’t know he was going to do that. I know that was your one deal breaker tonight and if you end up giving the location to your brothers I underst-”

“I won’t go back on our deal,” he cut you off, voice sounding a little stronger than before.

“But you said-”

“The deal was you were not to feed on me, and you didn’t. That creep doing it was an unforeseen circumstance, but at the very least you stopped him before anything happened. You could’ve let him finish me off and got rid of me so easily, but you didn’t. You got me back here and made me eat something,” he downed the remaining orange juice, “I might not know all the ins and outs of your world, but I do know the risk you took by bringing me here, and it won’t be forgotten.”

“I just-”

“No, now we get out of here and think of our next move. Your friend with the newbie? We need to talk about that. He was two seconds from launching himself across the table had Count Chocula not made his grand entrance.” There it was, the humor that let you know he was feeling better. His face wasn’t as pale as it was, and while he still needed time to recover, he was well on his way. “I don’t think she was telling the whole truth about there not being any ‘incidents’ recently.”

You nodded, agreeing with him, “can you walk?”

“Yeah I think I’m ok.”

“The exit is through that door,” you pointed at the solid black door in the corner, “it leads to a set of stairs to take us back to street level.”

Josh tested his legs and stood up slowly, you quickly helped him all the way up and stood in front of him, making sure he didn’t fall back. A few deep breaths later, he nodded at you and the both of you exited through the black door. The stairs to the street were at the end of the hallway, and as you started to ascend a new panic ripped through you. On the second landing, the faint early morning glow of sunlight was creeping down the stairs. Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit. You couldn’t believe that much time had passed down there. Another stupid move on your part. Josh felt you retreat down a few steps, before looking ahead and seeing what you were backing away from. Without hesitation, he ripped off his suit jacket and draped it over you.

“My place isn’t very far, we can get there quickly if we’re careful.”

You stood there, stunned by his actions, just like how you could’ve easily gotten rid of him in the Den with Dimitri, Josh could’ve led you to your very death with little effort, but he didn’t.

“Ok…” Securing his jacket over your head and arms, you restarted your ascent up the stairs, hoping he was true to his word in his place not being very far.

“Come on…I’ve got you…” was all he said as he led you up to the street, and into the sunlight.

To be continued…

Tag me List: @lightmylove-gvf , @dannyandthekiszkas , @gretasmokerising , @sinners-go-to-drink-the-wine , @wideminded-dreamer , @runwayblues , @wildbluesorbit , @llightmyllovee , @rhythm-of-space , @sacredthefran , @writingcold , @alwaysonthemend , @wetkleenex-gvf , @josh-iamyour-mama , @lightsofthe-living-gvf , @gvfcinema , @sacredthethreadgvf , @losfacedevil , @jakekiszkasbuttsweat , @shutupdevvie , @hearts-hunger , @gretavanfleetposts , @andromeda-raine-gvf ,

#josh kiszka #josh kiszka x reader #greta van fleet #josh gvf #my fics #i see hell in your eyes #🩸🖤#enemies to lovers #slow burn

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peonycats · 7 months

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Hey, so as a person who has in my unpublished works a story wherein APH Greenland is minorly featured, after I saw your post complaining about Greenland's current characterisation in fanworks, I realised that my story 100% fits all the things you were complaining about. And if it's not too much trouble how would you characterise Greenland in a way that is less problematic?

Or do you have any reccomendations for resources I can use to educate myself about Greenlandic culture?

So, I will preface this with the following:

I AM NOT INDIGENOUS. I AM NOT INUK. YOU SHOULD GO ASK SOMEONE INDIGENOUS OR BETTER YET, SOMEONE WHO IS GREENLANDIC INUIT.

However, in this post, I will primarily give some guidelines that are generally applicable to any nation personification of color that has experienced colonialism/imperialism by a Western nation and is still dealing with its legacy. Keep in mind that what you're asking for is a lot, however- we're touching on topics of national anthropomorphizations in political cartoons, the depiction of the colonized, particularly the indigenous, and the relationship between the colonized and the colonizer.

Don't make Greenland America and Canada's relative.

Don't make Greenland Denmark's kid, biological or otherwise.

Don't use sensitive contemporary issues in Greenland for fandom content.

Don't Make Greenland America and Canada's Relative

Every time I've seen this come up, this is usually justified one of two ways-

a) Greenland is related to America and Canada because the Vikings set up the first European settlements in continental North America, so they would be related via their Norse heritage. b) Greenland is related to America and Canada because America and Canada have a native parent, and Greenland is a sibling of that native parent.

To head things off- The first one is bad. See my next section for the issues of making Greenland a child of the Nordics/Nordic ancestors.

The second one almost always carries the implication of that the native parent of America and Canada is some kind of nebulous pan-American "APH Native America" personification; the issues with having the many indigenous peoples of the Americas as similar and interchangeable enough to warrant only one personification to represent them all are obvious, I should hope.

The slightly more plausible alternative is that America and Canada's native parent represents some Inuit group, and through that, Greenland is their sibling. Even if more plausible, we run into the same issue of turning a group into a monolith- there are many different Inuit groups, all with their own unique histories and cultures. Though Inuit groups may be more related than all Indigenous Americans to each other, they are still not a monolith, and determining their relationships to each other shouldn't be resolved with a blanket solution of "they're all related, nuff said."

If we want to dig into the weeds of historical accuracy, it makes no sense for America to have Inuit heritage, seeing as the United States began as the Thirteen Colonies in the Eastern Seaboard of the modern United States which doesn't overlap with the traditional lands of the Inuit. The Alaska Purchase was not made until 1867, hundreds of years after the establishment of the Thirteen Colonies.

I would also like to point out another issue I’ve seen with many “Auntie/Uncle Greenland depictions” in the fandom. Whenever you do see such depictions of Greenland in the fandom, almost never do we see the creator of such interpretations shedding light on any other indigenous characters (particularly ones not related to the USA and Canada). Therefore, such depictions are exceptionalizing and exalting an indigenous character above all other indigenous characters because they have more of a connection to major Western countries.

Overall summary: The primary issue with making Greenland related to America and Canada is that Greenland is never allowed to exist outside of their links to these two. If you want to depict Greenland with respect, the most basic thing you can do is to not reduce Greenland into a tool for you to better characterize America and Canada and flesh out their background.

Don't make Greenland Denmark's Child, Biological or Otherwise

TW: racist caricatures of black, Latino, Native American, and Asian people

So first some quick historical background: Norse settlement of Greenland began around the 900s-1100s and died out sometime between 1450 and 1500 due to a variety of environmental and sociopolitical reasons. The surviving Norse settlers most likely either left or assimilated with the local Inuit populations, so there is some genetic legacy, but 85-90% of the population of Greenland today considers themselves Greenlandic Inuit.

For the following centuries, there were sporadic interactions between European whalers and the local Inuit. It was only until 1721 that another attempt at colonization was made, this time by the missionary Hans Egede, who founded a trading company and Lutheran mission near present day Nuuk, with the express permission of the Kingdom of Denmark-Norway.

Greenland took on a special status in both Danish policy and imagination, a far-off land that was "vulnerable" to other nation's influences and in need of Danish protection. In line with that thinking, the Danish state held an exclusive monopoly on Greenland's resources and all trade with Greenlanders. It pressured Greenlandic Inuit to stay in their occupations of hunting and fishing so that Denmark could maintain access to resources Greenland provided, mainly animal products from local wildlife the Inuit hunted.

Additionally, the Danish also tightly regulated interactions between the Danish colonial population and the local Inuits. For a time, intermarriage was strictly controlled, limited to only Danish men and Greenlandic women of mixed descent and had to be approved by the colonial administration. When the US wanted to build military bases on Greenland for military purposes during WW2, a major concern of Greenlandic authorities was minimizing contact between the US soldiers and the local Inuits.

Of course, Greenland didn’t stay this way forever. Against Denmark’s wishes, Greenland did open up and become further integrated into the global economy and order of nations, and to this day a lot of Greenlanders have a Danish ancestor somewhere in their family tree.

However, to make Greenland (substantially) related to the Norse is to do a disservice to the hundreds of years of Greenlandic Inuit culture that already existed and then continued to thrive for hundreds of years in the absence of continued Nordic contact and influence. It implies that the ethnogenesis of the Greenlandic Inuit was kicked off by the Norse settlers, when in reality, the Greenlandic Inuit are largely descended from the native Thule people and later waves of migration of other Inuit people from modern day Nunavut and Nunavik. To make Greenland the child of Denmark is worse, and stands in stark contrast to the fact that compared to other nations and their settler colonies (think, England and America), Denmark heavily controlled Danish migration to Greenland and wanted to keep Greenland isolated and contained.

Now, moving past the issue of historical accuracy, there's been a long history in political cartoons starring national anthropomorphizations of allegorizing international relationships as familial relationships, or "mentor-mentee" relationships, especially when it comes to colonizer-colony relationships.

REPORT FROM THE FILIPINES Send more soldiers -Otis Uncle Sam: Balm in Gilead! Well, thank heavens both my new daughters haven't got the same disposition.

'School Begins', cartoon of Uncle Sam teaching a class in civilisation to pupils labelled 'Philippines', 'Hawaii', 'Porto Rico' and 'Cuba'

In these cartoons, the colonized is portrayed as child-like, infantile, in need of the US's benevolent guidance to be "civilized." After all, if the relationship between the colonizer and its colonial possessions was like that of a parent and their children (or a teacher and their students)- well, children need their parents, so therefore, the colonies need the colonizer and its guidance, right? By doing so, it portrays the relationship between the colonizer and its colonies as a necessary, benevolent one, one done for the benefit of the colony, and masks the inherently exploitative, unequal nature of colonialism.

To make Denmark a parental influence on Greenland, then, is to replicate the same paternalistic attitude Denmark took to Greenland as a colonial possession in need of guidance and direction, and possibly whitewashing the toll Danish colonization has taken on Greenland. Even depictions of Denmark and Greenland that emphasize their “little brother/big brother” relationship are problematic, because they fall into the same colonial rhetoric of Greenland "needing" Denmark's civilizing guidance.

Moreover, sensitivity is another concern for depictions of Greenland. At the risk of speaking for groups I do not belong to, having a child Greenland be raised by Denmark and the other Nordics (esp if Greenland has a negative relationship w them) hews a little too closely to the real life kidnapping of Indigenous children from their families to be raised instead by white families, in an attempt to remove them from their heritage and culture. Unless you're actually Greenlandic Inuit or indigenous, I don't think this is your story to tell.

Don't Use Sensitive Contemporary Issues in Greenland for Fandom Content

Don't use sensitive contemporary issues for fandom content, especially as an outsider. Don't be like the person I saw making angst headcanons around Greenland's high suicide rate.

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