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fractualized · 8 months

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Three Jokers Are Not Better Than One

(or, cheap twists don't make a good story)

Would you look at that? It's time to bitch about Three Jokers!

(spoilers for a 3-year-old comic ahead)

Gotham War got me into hater mode, so I figured it was time to take a second look at Three Jokers, written by Geoff Johns and drawn by Jason Fabok. I first read it when the issues came out, and I thought it was possible that the story isn't as bad as I remembered. I don't know why, since for the past three years I've been haunted by the possibility of it being deemed canon.

Of course, at the time of conception, Three Jokers was intended to be canon. Johns set up the premise in the Darkseid War storyline of the 2011 Justice League run, in issues published in 2015/2016. Batman takes control of the omniscient Mobius Chair, and he tests it by asking who killed his parents. Then he asks a second question, which Hal Jordan presses him on several issues later.

[Justice League (2011) #42 & Justice League (2011) #50]

Four years later, when Three Jokers was set to be released towards the end of 2020, Johns did at first confirm it would be canon despite being released via Black Label, where books are not meant to be part of the larger continuity. In later interviews, however, this assertion got walked back in favor of saying the canonicity is up to each reader, which is kind of a wild thing to say. "Look, this story merely proposes that one of our most popular characters has actually been three different dudes the whole time, which totally has a negligible impact on how that character should be seen and has interacted with the world. Take it or leave it!"

But then, DC's idea of canon has been pretty squiggly of late, especially with the increasing multiverse shenanigans. In the final issue of Dark Knights: Death Metal in 2021, the reader is told, "with our past finally set, myriad new futures are opening up. And as hypertime heals, we'll likely experience flashes of them– and even alternate pasts– in pretty epic fashion." Infinite Frontier followed, with a press release declaring, "When our heroes saved the Multiverse from Perpetua in Dark Nights: Death Metal, everything was put back where it belonged… and we do mean everything. All the damage from all the Crises was undone [....]"

I have a lot of thoughts about this, revolving around what the heck does it mean for storytelling and how we should understand characters that apparently, somehow, everything is canon? How are we supposed to take this as anything other than the omniverse being an excuse for DC Editorial to wave off responsibility for a legible timeline? "Batman can be in two places at once because, uh, the Monitor sneezed?"

But this too-long essay is about Three Jokers, so I'll narrow my concern: if character histories can simply change with a multiversal glitch, in whatever overwrought way those are usually explained to us, then it sure feels like it doesn't matter that Three Jokers was published under Black Label. It sure seems like, at whoever's whim, Three Jokers can still get locked into the main storyline. I mean, Zdarsky still hasn't explained what that three Jokers shit in Batman #135 is about. On the other hand, we know that the explanation for the two Jokers in The Man Who Stopped Laughing does not involve the multiverse, and Joker is supposed to reunite with Batman over in Zdarsky's story when that story closes out, so… I actually have no reason to be confident that means anything.

"But why would Three Jokers getting canonized be so bad?" you may ask if you've never read Three Jokers (or if you fully enjoyed it).

Speaking for myself, it starts with the premise: taking a character and saying, "actually, this is not one complex guy but three different guys, which fractures the character's motivations and relationships over the last several decades." When that character is one you enjoy very much, this twist is not fun. It's a fundamental change to who they are.

Then five months before the release of Three Jokers #1, Johns and Fabok did an interview with Entertainment Weekly. Some things the pair said raised red flags:

1) Three Jokers' story would focus on the trauma that Barbara, Jason, and Bruce suffered at Joker's hands, per Johns. "If you suffer some trauma, you don’t just get over with it and move on with your life, it changes who you are. Sometimes it changes you for the better, sometimes it changes you for the worse. You can heal right, and you can heal wrong. That’s really what the book’s about: Healing right, healing wrong, and surviving."

2) Johns also said of the story: “It goes back to the beginning when Batman first encountered the Joker, but it’s also The Killing Joke and A Death in the Family that speak to the book and that we’re building off emotionally." And Fabok mentioned that the book's look would be based on the aesthetics of The Killing Joke: "I really want it to feel like it could be a spiritual sequel, at least artistically."

These remarks foreshadowed a disconnect. A key part of The Killing Joke itself is that both Joker and Bruce experienced terrible trauma ("one bad day"), but in responding to it, they made different choices: broadly, Joker choosing to hurt people versus Bruce choosing to help people. Johns excluding Joker from his comments about trauma felt like a sign that he ignored a key part of the character, despite Joker being a core part of a new tale "emotionally" inspired by TKJ.

(We're setting aside "you can heal right and you can heal wrong" for now. Ohhh, we'll get back to that.)

Johns' blind spot was confirmed a few months later when he was quoted by the DC Nation Twitter account: "There are very few characters that are, to me, as irredeemable as The Joker. There is nothing in him that is good."

Wow, what close analysis from Mr. Emotional Build.

Look, I don't need Joker to be redeemed or woobified. (Ask me about the "Pushback" storyline from 2004 and hear my gnashing teeth crack a filling.) But I would like the full breadth of his character acknowledged, especially when you're claiming you're writing about trauma, especially when you're creating a "spiritual sequel" to one of best known Joker stories (if not the best known one).

Then Three Jokers finally came out, and over three months it proved to be neither an examination of healing nor very interesting, at least not in an enjoyable way. What it has to "say" about trauma, for any of the characters, is no different than the limited conclusion made in previous Batman books: mainly the drumbeat of fighting off the darkness by being a bigger person— or at least not killing your enemy. Making Joker into a role played by three different people adds nothing; it amounts to little more than a gimmick.

Hell, even as a gimmick, it's flawed. Theoretically, the three Jokers represent phases of personality the Joker has embodied over the years— but the representations we get don't make sense. Here they are summed up in Book 3:

Sorry, what? The Criminal is less interested in theatrics? In what time period was the Joker ever not interested in making a big show of things in one way or another? Maybe this is supposed to be an "early" Joker in terms of the Rebirth/InfiniCrisisDarkCarnateTier/whatever more recent conception of him, but I'll wager that's not what people think about when they think of Joker at his start. They think about Golden Age Joker doing goofy shit and laughing maniacally. They're not expecting this morose man.

The other thing is that, in Book 1, the narrative "assigns" each of our three protagonists to a Joker: Bruce to the Criminal, who appeared at the start; Barbara to the Comedian, who shot her; and Jason to the Clown, who killed him. Now at first I thought Johns was saying one Joker took over after another, but since Barbara's attack and Jason's death happened 9 months apart in 1988, which are not different Joker eras, I think we're supposed to see them as sort of… cycling on and off depending on the needs of the scheme? Maybe? But the descriptions above are still confusing. Why am I supposed to see the Joker who got carried away with the fun of beating Jason with a crowbar and successfully blew him up as less sadistic than the other one?

Johns does appear to lampshade this confusion in the middle of Book 1, when we get all three Jokers in a cabin in the woods. The Clown and the Comedian have this exchange:

This and a later panel with the Comedian actually imply that he and the Clown are interchangeable, even though they're supposed to be different. So are they or not? Is there an actual reason we need three Jokers, or did Johns just think it was a neato idea and then spend four years trying to figure out a "layered" justification for it?

The other thing about this cabin scene, and about the Joker trio largely, is that it should be fun and it's not. There should be chaos! Zaniness! At the very least, all the narcissism in the room should generate a competitive friction, make their interactions more dynamic. (Really it should generate bloodshed and end with one man standing within like ten minutes, but I'll grant the choice to save that for Book 3.) Instead it's almost mundane. The cabin isn't even decorated! It's dark and dreary, like the Jokers are dark and dreary. If we're gonna have three Jokers, can't they at least be Jokering with each other?

The same thought comes when I consider the very beginning of Book 1. It all starts out like a typical Batman story: three deadly crimes are committed in one night, the Joker seemingly responsible for all of them, and Bruce, Barbara, and Jason are drawn together as they try to figure out what's up. Of course, thanks to the Magic Chair, Bruce already knows there are three clowns, but Barbara and Jason are thinking that Joker is working with two look-alikes to create confusion. And considering the basics of what happens in this story, what the Comedian's larger plan is meant to accomplish, why couldn't this have been written with just two look-alikes? I mean, yeah, it would require Johns to forget about his continuity bomb, but maybe the story would have been better (and shorter). Again, the creation of other Jokers isn't doing much for what the plot is getting at. The three crimes that start us off would still serve the function of reminding Bruce of how Joker's been a constant in his life. The taunting of a convincing Joker look-alike is enough to set off Jason's anger and sadness about what happened to him, and his fears of what he could become. The climax with Joe Chill would have to be redone, but the threat of him being Jokerized isn't the crucial plot point; the Comedian's film of him is. Bruce doesn't even have any substantial thoughts about there being three of his nemesis.

But, alas, the story goes how it goes. And as it goes, we also see that Jason behaves more cruelly in his search for Joker than Barbara and Bruce. For example, Jason attacks and threatens one of Joker's victims to get information, feeling justified because the guy has a rap sheet, while Barbara scolds him and Bruce tells the victim, "I'm sorry this happened." What I find notable about this is that while comics regularly present Jason as hot-headed and Barbara as reasonable, Bruce… uh… If you gather a random selection of Batman comics, you'll find that his level of violence is all over the place. This story, however, requires a more somber Bruce, whose violence is more reactive, because Jason and Barbara serve Johns' dichotomy of "heal right" versus "heal wrong." We can't have Bruce on the sadistic side of the scale fucking that up, and besides, Jason's long been the posterboy for healing "wrong."

That notion comes to a head at the end of the issue. The heroes have encountered and subdued the Clown at the aquarium when Jim Gordon calls. The GCPD found another Joker, and Bruce leaves Jason and Barbara alone with the Clown to assist.

Goodness me, who could have predicted Jason might kill a restrained Joker? Not Bruce, who absolutely should have. Barbara is there to talk Jason down, sure, but what else is the Clown gonna do but needle Jason to kill him?

The Clown cackles then, declaring that Red Hood is his Robin, for the very reason of his violent impulses and how much he upsets the Bat, and of course Jason shoots him in the head, because oof.

Honestly, on this second read I found this scene a smidge too oof. Jason was a determined little Robin, dedicated to saving his awful mother to the very end, and him cracking and declaring that he'll work for a criminal… I don't know. I don't think it's impossible, but it feels superfluous. I don't think such a reveal is necessary to get Jason to fire. I think the Clown focusing on how the new Red Hood is actually quite similar to the old, as well as how Jason matters less than the neverending battle between Batman and Joker, is enough emotional stress to get to the same end result.

But that's a minor quibble; we've got bigger fish to fry! Such as the specter of the "healed right/healed wrong" dynamic that reappears as Barbara and Jason argue over the Clown's corpse.

Barbara leaves angrily after this, but man. I wish the story overall took more cues from this scene, that in a Black Label story we could stray from the simplistic idea of how a Good One would save Joker and a Bad One wouldn't. I want to explore Jason's assertion that Barbara didn't do her best to uphold Bruce's one rule. I want to know if maybe she's tired of being the fucking Good One.

Hell, let's go further: what if we were surprised by Barbara killing the Clown before Jason could? The Clown's taunting about Jason could have gotten to her too. We could have a story about how being put on a pedestal as a Good Victim is a cage, about Barbara struggling with falling from that position, about Jason feeling unsure if he should commend her for an act that obviously hurts her or comfort her for something he would have done himself. That's an actual examination of the struggle to process violent trauma— that you don't need three Jokers for!

But the story we have never gets back to Jason's suggestion that Barbara let the murder happen, not in this issue or the following two. This issue just ends with Jason hoping that the Clown was the actual Joker and that he didn't kill the wrong guy, which is a pretty "LOL oh yeah" line when you remember that he and Barbara don't know there are three Jokers yet.

Book 1, truth be told, isn't that bad. On my reread, I started to wonder if my only real issue with the story is that it's not as engaging as all the hype insisted it would be.

Then Book 2 starts, and goddammit. GODDAMMIT.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: why can we not have more DC writers having fun with Joker's multiple-choice backstory? Why did Johns read The Killing Joke and decide his interpretation would be this?:

Ugh. UGGGHHH.

I don't recall the issue, but there's these panels that circulate sometimes of Harley Quinn encountering Joker in Arkham or prison, in which they exchange words about their relationship and he's a creep and she kicks his ass. I have no problem with Harley kicking Joker's ass. He deserves it. My problem is that those panels play out like an empowerment scene in a generic Lifetime movie. My problem is that it doesn't have the flavor of Harley and Joker. My problem is that it's lazy.

And that's my problem with what Johns does with Joker's backstory in TKJ. He could take it anywhere, and he goes gritty without an ounce of nuance. Because hey, this is Joker, and "there is nothing in him that is good," right? We'll just ignore that one of DC's all-time classics, the one this garbage is ✨inspired by✨, has Joker reflecting on a past for which he is an unreliable narrator, but in which he laments how his comedy dream put his growing family in a bad spot, in which he desperately aligns with shady people so his family can be secure, in which he's devastated by losing the only person he has in the world and their growing baby. And these memories could be distorted or entirely fake, but what's interesting in TKJ is that Joker never tells anyone else about them, even in his big speech to Batman. The flashbacks are not part of an attempt to manipulate anyone or convince them his world view is correct. It's a tale in Joker's head that, regardless of the truth, deeply affects him. It's what drove him to go to horrendous lengths to prove his point, even if the point is wrong.

But fuck that, right? We're going lazy! We're going cheap! We're going with the Jeannie backstory, but actually Joker was only terrible to her. The Comedian fondly fantasizes about terrorizing her and their son, because he's 100% an abuser, because he must have always been that way, with not a single appealing quality that we need to reckon with as we so often do with toxic people in real life. Even the freaking stutter Joker had as he struggled with stand-up comedy is given to Jeannie. Seriously?

I cannot emphasize enough: fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck this "take."

On the other hand, when the Comedian is brought out of his stupor, we do finally get something super funny:

At least we'll always have this panel of Joker eating cat food.

The Criminal only interrupted the daydream because he's mad the Clown is dead, and the Clown was so eager to be dead I thought it was part of their plan buuuuuuut I guess not. Then we jump to Bruce figuring out that the "Joker" that Gordon cornered is just another victim, a dead judge. Barbara appears to tell Bruce what Jason did, and they discuss it over comms on the road.

Bruce, shockingly, says that they can't really do anything about what Jason did.

Pretty sure the guy who batarang'd Jason's throat rather than let him kill Joker would have a more intense reaction than this?? Or any reaction other than sober understanding? Maybe Bruce is still coping with finally dealing with three Jokers at once and will flip his shit when this all resolves. Or maybe he's just thinking, "it's okay, I still have two emotional support clowns left!" I don't know. He's so weirdly passive in this story.

What's more aggravating, though, is the other aspect of this conversation, that Jason "healed wrong." It would be one thing as a pat judgment Bruce is making, but we know from that interview that Johns positioned "healed right versus healed wrong" as the story's theme. It's not good. It's way too glib a framing for evaluating how people who've gone through trauma are dealing with it, in any context. Sure, there are better and worse coping mechanisms, better and worse outcomes, but healing is an ongoing process that can be so individualized. Reducing it to "right" and "wrong," saying that one is "strong" and implying that the other comes from some sort of deficiency… I hope Johns just spoke poorly and he does understand that it's not that simple.

Now, is it a stretch to apply that critique to Jason killing criminals at his whim? Sure, deciding that you personally should play the role of judge, jury, and executioner is not a good way to deal with trauma. But that's not exactly what's happening here. This "healed right versus healed wrong" framing is being applied to Jason Todd going after the Joker. Obviously, I like Joker, but can we be real about this? Can we be real in a Black Label book, the imprint where comic books (allegedly) have room to take things more seriously? Can we take the question of, "In this fictional world where Joker is an unstoppable fatal mayhem machine— now THREE machines— is it completely out of bounds for someone to finally kill him?" and be like, "Errr…not really?" When this story explicitly denies Joker even one teeny redeeming human quality, are we seriously still going to say, "Well, you know, if Jason takes the life of the man who murdered him and millions other people, because he doesn't want him to kill more people, which Joker will absolutely do and we all know it, doesn't that say something awful about Jason?" Are we really??

Plus the judgment about healing is put into the mouth of a man who— say it with me!— regularly dresses as a bat and beats the ever-loving shit out of people because his parents were murdered. Toning Bruce down in this particular story doesn't hide that.

Although, what I think is intended as a flawed assumption on Bruce's part is his other line, "Jason's suffering." It implies that Barbara still isn't, but we are shown Barbara reflecting on her paralyzation, even now when she's "strong" and has healed "right." And the story will get into this a bit later, but it absolutely does not let Barbara and Jason escape the dichotomy. To the story's detriment, their interactions go in a wild direction, but we'll get to that.

First, Bruce and Barbara's investigation leads them to Blackgate, because the fingerprints on the murder weapon for the dead judge belong to none other than Joe Chill. However, we learn that Chill has been in the medical wing for two months because he's sick with cancer.

Meanwhile, Jason's investigation leads him to a closed athletic center. The pool inside is filled with the chemicals stolen from Ace at the start of the story, as well as dozens of pale naked bodies with green hair. Jason's attempt to contact Barbara is interrupted when one of said bodies bursts to life and grabs his ankle, asking for help. Jason reacts with hostility, kicking the poor guy, and I'm not sure if it's because he's unnerved by a room of floating Jokers or if it's pretty normal for him to not keep his cool even for the sake of an obvious victim of a horrible crime. A Gotham City vigilante can't be that shocked by one guy being alive in a pile of bodies, can they?

But that's all setup. When the guy falls unconscious, the Criminal and the Comedian ambush Jason and drag him away, one saying, "He'll be perfect."

It's a line that meanly gets your hopes up, poking at a subject that could make all this more interesting.

Jason awakes, strapped to a chair and as naked as the bodies in the pool. The Criminal says he and his pals have spent a lot of time trying to find the perfect candidate for a new Joker, and he repeats the question of what's up with Jason taking on the Red Hood moniker.

It seems that, like DCAU Tim Drake in Batman Beyond before him, Jason Todd will be transformed into a fourth Joker! But it won't only be because it will wreck the Batman. It'll be because Joker already sees himself in Jason. This is something new to explore! There are places to go here; other comics hinting at Joker's past point to him having a childhood not dissimilar to Jason's, of growing up on the street, experiencing abuse, and learning unpalatable ways to survive. We could see Jason struggling with the possibility that he has more in common with Joker than he wants to think about!

But we won't. Inexplicably, the Criminal turns around and says that despite their similarities, despite Jason hating Batman as much as he does, despite the Comedian (presumably) saying Jason is perfect, and despite getting Jason ready for the pool, Jason actually isn't good enough, not "bright" enough. (Because all the Jokers we have in this dour story are so bright?)

And then the Comedian just beats the hell out of Jason (saying it's more fun than the first time, in another annoying nod to how he and the Clown are the same damn Joker) and says they're leaving Jason alive because maybe he'll prove them wrong and he'll become a new Joker after all? But the current Jokers aren't really going to go for it. Their interest is just abandoned.

The point is only to freak Jason out, so when Bruce and Barbara arrive, fight a horde of Jokerized victims, and find Jason alone and naked and vulnerable, he does not react well when Bruce tries to ask if he's okay. Jason turns on him and blames him for setting him on this path, for leaving him in the dirt, for replacing him easily. He lashes out at Barbara too, asking if she's going to lock him away, but ultimately it's easier to take comfort from her.

A direct reference to Return of the Joker here, focusing on the shadow Batman casts over the lives of his partners, the responsibility he bears in how Joker targeted them to hurt the Bat, and how poorly he offers comfort himself.

It does segue nicely into the next scene, when Bruce and Barbara get Jason to her apartment to rest. Bruce leaves to keep investigating, and Barbara is pissed because this is the exact lack of support that contributed to Jason going his own way. Support is highlighted again when Jason wakes in Barbara's room and looks around.

Aside from Barbara seeking out books to deal with her physical and mental struggles after Joker's attack, the old calendars show the help she received from her father and health professionals.

And this scene does get into something that's missing from TKJ, in which Bruce tells Joker that no, not everyone will retreat to madness like he did. How we react to trauma is greatly affected by the resources available to us.

This scene is nice. It's nice to come from the action to some place quiet and for someone to say this Jason, something he's wanted to hear. It's late in coming, but it's pain validated.

And then Johns fucking ruins it.

Man. Just. Ugh. Yeah, I know people seek comfort in moments of vulnerability, but… the reader knows. The reader knows moments like this aren't included to be like "oh, this was an isolated blip of human behavior! The story won't call back to it later!" Johns apparently wants Barbara/Jason to be a thing. And if you want a solid reason for that… well, we don't get any good ones.

Meanwhile, Bruce is in the cave, and I'm only mentioning that because these folder labels are incredibly funny:

Then the issue ends with Joe Chill kidnapped from Blackgate by the Comedian, who has a video camera and asks him to talk about why he really killed the Waynes. Dun dun dunnnnnnnn! Is that a twist on the way?! Well, yeah, but not really the one you think and it's incredibly stupid.

Finally we are at Book 3. Jason is suited back up, and he and Barbara have met up with Bruce in the cave to figure out how the Jokers plan to create another, better Joker.

Soooooo Jason and Barbara had that whole conversation. Jason was shaken by what the Jokers said to him. But now he's completely back on track. Allllllrighty.

Jason and Bruce then have an argument rehashing everything that Barbara said she was sorry Jason experienced, with Bruce saying of course he'd love to kill the Joker, and Jason pointing out that he obviously hasn't. Jason also says he thinks the only reason Bruce isn't turning Jason in for killing the Clown is to protect Batman's identity. Barbara just tries to de-escalate with her doe eyes. They're back to the status quo, and it sucks, which is the point. When they try to get back to the investigation at hand, Bruce pauses and attempts to apologize.

And again, with this blatant TKJ reference, it feels like we need to dig into the parallels between Jason and Joker! They both insist it's too late! They won't take help! But surely Jason isn't as far gone! There's something to chew on here.

But nah, this story is heading toward a big ol' revelation, foreshadowed here:

🎶 Why the fuck you lyin'? 🎶

Finally they get the alert that Joe Chill was kidnapped, and on investigating his cell, Bruce finds a bunch of letters addressed to… himself, Bruce Wayne. He seeks out the prison reverend.

Which is unintentionally hilarious, because in the storyline that started this whole three Jokers nonsense, there's a Batman Darkseid War one-shot where Joe Chill's behavior does not remotely align with this.

Lol comics are fun.

In the middle of Bruce investigating the letters, we get Jason being all repentant with Babs again.

You just said? You totally were?? Gonna kill more clowns??? How is this supposed to come off as genuine? Granted, Jason doesn't try to kill the other Jokers after this, but the apparently impetus for reversing course is... uh... we'll get there.

Anyway, among Chill's letters are tickets to the Monarch Theater, so the heroes all head over for whatever the Jokers have set up for them, which of course includes another horde of failed Joker zombies. During the fight, the Comedian's interview of Joe Chill plays on the screen, and the Criminal reveals they have Chill tied up in a chair suspended over a vat of green chemicals.

As Chill on screen explains that he killed the Waynes out of hatred and envy for how much they had, and how much he regrets his actions, the Criminal explains that he considered both Jason and Barbara as strong candidates for the new Joker. And wait. WAIT. Mr. Johns, sir, are you telling me it crossed your mind to write a story in which Barbara becomes the new Joker? That's so much more interesting than the bullshit we're getting! Imagine it: Barbara dealing with the dissatisfaction of being the "good, strong victim" and just losing her shit. You could combine that with how uneasy Jason is with his similarities to Joker, and maybe Jason is the one who convinces Barbara to turn back. This is Black Label! This could've been anything! Anything!

But we've got Chill. And the Criminal goes on to say the reason he wanted to make a new Joker at all:

Are… are you? I'm pretty sure Joker is pretty well fucking defined. He's a murderer with a very dark sense of humor who is obsessed with Batman. That's been a pretty good through-line.

Also, Joker pretty clearly means a lot to Batman, as that middle panel with Jason seems intended to remind us, but the Criminal does clarify that he wants to be "everything" to him, which is why he's pulling Bruce's parents' murderer into all this. I guess I can't blame him for reaching for the stars?

Cue big fight scene. The Chill recording continues to explain his regret, and soon the theater is on fire. Batman saves Chill and knocks the Criminal unconscious. Chill thinks Batman is going to kill him, but Bruce saves him from a falling brick wall instead— before the Criminal revives and tries to set off a bomb to kill them all, maybe. There's a BOOM flag sticking out of the dynamite a few panels later, after the Comedian shows up and shoots the Criminal in the head. TWIST!

The Comedian surrenders, and after a scene with Jason picking the most awkward time to suggest he and Barbara try being a couple and Barbara looking pissed she has to tell him no, we jump to Bruce and the Comedian in the armored police car.

As a batjokes shipper, looking at these pages is weird, because they are good food for the brainworms. The Criminal wanted to engineer a Joker who meant the most to Batman, but the Comedian wanted to be that Joker. It's a weird plan, considering that Joker prefers Batman over Bruce Wayne, so he would be more likely to not want to heal Bruce's wound lest the healing lead to less Batmanning, but still. This crazy plan is all about maintaining Batman's attention.

But I can only enjoy these panels out of context, not just because I'm pretty weary of insanely elaborate plans that manage to work out, but also because there's just so much to hate in the rest of the story, especially the real twist that closes it out.

Before we get to that, though, we're thrown back into the Jason/Barbara nonsense with a very gross letter he writes to her.

"Dear Barbara, I want to make a change. But I can't do that without you. I know I've come across cold and distant…"

1) Look, love can help people heal. Barbara could be a good friend advising Jason on what might help him. She could help bring him back into the batfam fold. This letter is not that. This letter is pushing someone to be in a romantic relationship with you for the explicit purpose of getting them to heal you. That's not how love works. That's using someone as a tool. It's supposed to be sad that Barbara never sees the letter but it's good, actually. Don't put that shit on her!

2) This romance came out of freaking nowhere and now we get Jason insisting he can simply stop being Red Hood for the sake of it— but only for the sake of it, apparently! Does Jason think his worldview as Red Hood is an impediment to healing or not? This is just surface-level melodramatic nonsense. And I wish that was the point, but no. Again, the letter getting swept away is presented as sad.

3) Speaking of which, who tapes a confessional letter that exposes your vigilante identity to a door where anyone can see it? You'd slip it under the door at least. Johns couldn't figure out any other way for the letter to vanish? Get out of here with this contrived nonsense. There should've been panels of Jason rereading the letter, realizing how unhinged it is, and throwing it away himself.

4) Is the "Funtime Cleaners" guy in his purple uniform supposed to be Joker? Or representative of Joker's influence on their lives? If yes and it's him, he's a goddamn hero. If it's symbolic, what does that mean, that even when you reach out to others… elements out of your control will keep you alone? 'Cause that sure is bleak for a book allegedly about healing.

With all that done with, now we get to the big twist, the dumbest fucking part of this story, the end, the takeaway. Of course it involves more crimes against The Killing Joke, which I'm increasingly convinced no one at DC has actually read in the past thirty years.

Bruce drives up to Alaska, and we get this reveal.

Do the kids still *headdesk* nowadays? That's what I'm doing. There will be a blood stain.

1) So Bruce has known the Joker's identity, or at least the Comedian's, basically the whole time. We're just retconning that the Joker question he asked the Magic Chair wasn't for information; it was a second test question. And all this is in the face of Bruce lamenting many times over the years that he doesn't know who Joker really is, of him lamenting it in The Killing goddamn Joke. "I don't know him, Alfred. All these years and I don't know who he is any more than he knows who I am. How can two people hate so much without knowing each other?" We're just. Fucking excising that. A line alluding to Bruce's motivation for visiting Joker in TKJ's opening scene.

2) We're rounding out the lazy revisions to the TKJ backstory with some copaganda! Geoff Johns doesn't think it's possible for Joker to have been anything but a horror to his family, but he does think it's possible that random officers in the friggin' Gotham City Police Department— in early Batman lore no less, when they were at their most corrupt— would fundraise for a "lady" they clearly don't know to get her out of the city to safety. Also, what was the plan for when Joker asked to see his wife's dead body?? Congrats, you've come up with something dumber than "Pushback."

3) This scrawls more highlighter on how bad the premise of there being three Jokers is, because the flashback in TKJ happens before Joker starts out. Like that's how Bruce always recalls it; he didn't meet the Joker until after what happened at Ace Chemicals. So isn't Jeannie then actually the Criminal's wife? Because the Criminal is the one who behaves as Bruce remembers Joker was at the start. So is the Comedian obsessed with the Criminal's wife for some reason? Or is the Comedian actually the first Joker, and the Criminal came later and used to be more wacky? What is going on here?

Under all these questions, per the final page, the point of Three Jokers is still visible: ultimately, his victims matter more than he does. But that's a hilarious point to a story that revolves around three of the guy, with very little payoff to the gimmick, and when part of the plot is that the heroes still shouldn't kill him.

And again, just because a story makes reference to healing, it doesn't mean it's "about" healing. The most we get is the knowledge that Barbara and Jeannie received support from other people. There's no discussion of how long it took either of them, of why Barbara came out the other side not wanting to kill Joker, of anything Jeannie has done since she left Gotham. The possibility that Jason could find connection is promptly throttled by a forced romance. It's implied that the Comedian's plan worked for Bruce, as we see Bruce at Chill's deathbed, holding his hand, and at Chill's grave. You might be interested in Bruce's thoughts as he juxtaposes Chill's repentance against the fact that his parents are still dead, so you can assess if this really would affect the feeling of loss that drove him to his lifelong mission, but you won't get them. The "how" of healing is up to the reader— who is never asked to extend the same thought process to the Joker. And you personally do not have to give a crap about Joker, but again, if this book is supposed to be about responses to healing, about Jason's response versus Barbara's, then taking an actual look at Joker feels relevant!

So there we are: fourteen pages of me venting my little heart out, hoping the premise of Three Jokers never gets looped into canon. I'm well aware that my personal attachment to a character means nothing against DC's incentives to promote stories with Big Twists (and endless events and multiverse bullshit), but then again, those incentives are based on what people will buy. So if I can add to the voices saying that Three Jokers is bad, and you should not spend your money on it or books like it, maybe I can be one vibe of many that keeps the Joker as one single bat-obsessed murderclown...

Though if not, I can always retreat to older comics. I still have plenty of those to get through.

#three jokers #the killing joke #batjokes #batman #joker #bruce wayne #barbara gordon #jason todd #analysis #my jibber-jabber #tl;dr three jokers is just usual batman stuff with a dumb gimmick #and jaybabs thrown in for the lulz

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andrea-lyn · 1 year

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ATLA recs post take 2 (electric boogaloo). Am I totally unsurprised I have enough for a third post at some point? Nope. ANYWAY, enjoy another round -- once again predominantly Zukka, though there’s some f/f in this round!

ATLA Recs #2

i wanna be still with you by tristanyvaine

Handwritten letters sent back and forth do not a love story make. Or. Maybe they do, in the case of a certain Fire Lord and Water Tribe warrior who happen to fall in love over sending letters to each other at least.

keeps me up late at night by midnights

Fifteen years since the war had ended, and still Zuko remembered every step of the way as if it were yesterday. More than anything, he remembered Sokka. He'd been in love with him then, and he still was.

ft. ambassador sokka, fancy parties, pining zuko, and two oblivious fools

the brightest you've ever been by panthalassas

Azula folds herself into the lotus position and empties her mind. Then Yue places her hands on either side of Azula's face, and her mind fills back up again. Or: Yue notices Azula is lonely. Turns out, Azula's ready to feel some emotions.

real love baby by verdanthoney

Five times Zuko and Sokka pretend they aren't in love, and one time they don't.

OR,

Sokka initiates a friends with benefits relationship between them, and Zuko keeps coming back for more.

Seasons in the Sun by burkesl17

Ambassador Sokka's first year in the Fire Nation, a story for each of its seasons. With thunder, assassins, blossoms, poison, politics, volcanoes and a baby dragon. Also falling in love.

Or: four parties, four assassination attempts.

Please Return if Found by CSHfic, VSfic

When Sokka sees a “lost pet” poster near his apartment for an actual, literal dragon, he thinks it’s a joke.

Right up until he finds the dragon sitting on his couch.

Nobility by hikuni

Book 3. Sokka/Zuko. Set after The Boiling Rock Pt. 2, Sokka and Zuko explore the Western Air Temple, where Sokka tries to get Zuko to talk about girls, marriage, and maybe even a future for the two of them.

Worship the Ashes by meregalaxiesandgods, patentpending

All Azula wants is for things to go back to the way they were – her father on the precipice of conquering the world, her own position secure at his right hand. Now, the only secure thing is her, trapped in a gilded cage in her brother's new Fire Nation. Lonely and adrift, Azula would do anything to make it end, until an unexpected connection rekindles a light she long-thought had burned to ashes. But falling for Suki isn't something Azula can let herself do, especially with the world as they know it threatening to crumble around them.

Or: Azula goes to therapy, has an identity crisis, stops actively trying to kill her brother, makes a few friends, and falls in love along the way.

No Quiet Life by JustGettingBy

Zuko's not sure when it started. It would be easy to say it started with Boiling Rock, or with the Western Air Temple. But whenever it started, his crush isn’t about to go away anytime soon.

“It’s not too late, ‘Lee’. We could steal a boat. Sail across the high seas until we hit the horizon. Spend the rest of our days living off the land.” He brandishes his arm as if to show Zuko the untapped potential of their future as wild hunters.

“No, Sokka.”

Sokka shrugs. “Well, it was worth a shot. When you’re up to your eyeballs in expense reports, don’t say I didn’t ask.”

Zuko’s mouth feels very dry. “I won’t.”

virtues uncounted by bloobeary

fire lord zuko visits the southern water tribe eight years after the war ends

based on that text post

Will We Last the Night by CSHfic, VSfic (My absolute fave of the canon rewrites for its wildly IC enemies-to-lovers feel)!

Chief Arnook never assigns Sokka to protect Princess Yue, so he goes to fight the Fire Nation with the other men. When the moon dies, and the ocean spirit takes its revenge, Sokka is caught standing on the deck of a Fire Nation ship. Sokka should have drowned… and he would have drowned, if not for a certain Fire Nation raft fleeing the North Pole.

[An enemies-to-lovers season 2 rewrite, where Sokka is separated from the gaang during the Siege of the North, and travels the Earth Kingdom with Zuko instead].

Ashes Inside When You Finish Your Song by Muncaster

Sokka writes lyrics for his sister’s band. Zuko plays piano and is unnecessarily nice. Fellas, is it gay to write love songs about your friend and his golden eyes?

(AKA, a modern band AU featuring The Gaang, crappy software equipment, homoerotic lyrics, and the realization that maybe, if you think about a guy every night before you sleep, you just might be in love with him.)

Relief Next to Me by wilteddaisy (taotu)

Sokka thinks Ozai’s beach house is pretty awesome. Slightly less awesome is the couch he has to sleep on, as is accidentally getting into Zuko’s bed. At first, that is.

#atla #atla fic recs #atla recs #zukka recs #avatar the last airbender fic recs

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foundmywei · 2 years

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Boreo Fanfic Recs

Here are my favorite boreo fics, I will be updating this as I read more. Enjoy!

(last updated on 12/05/23)

Masterpost

sunday morning (and i'm falling) by thenewgothicromance

post-canon

(11,424 words | Not Rated | Chapters: 1/1)

“How long will he be staying with you?” Mrs. Barbour asks him one evening, when he mentions that Boris will be picking him up after dinner.

“I’m not sure,” he tells her, keeping the details, as always surrounding Boris, as vague as possible. “Just until he figures something else out.”

Mrs. Barbour clicks her tongue at him.

“You have such a kind heart, Theo. Be careful you don’t let him take advantage of you.”

you are my sweetest downfall. by punkrockdog

post-canon

(22,530 words | General Audiences | Chapters: 1/1)

There's nothing wrong with sleeping with his best friend of almost ten years on a regular basis.

If Theo tells himself this enough, he might start to believe it.

a symphony of love in several movements. by theweakestthing

post-canon

(29,364 words | Mature | Chapters: 5/5)

It reminded him of the version of Musée Rodin’s The Kiss that sat in the Tate’s collection, pockmarked and scarred from sitting in a parlour among soldiers during the war, but still standing as a testament to the carnal desires of two lovers. Twisted around each other, hands on the bed between them, their positions almost exactly mirrored that of the sculpture. The thought that together they could be a work of art pushed Theo forward.

Alternatively titled: Theo Decker needs to get his shit together.

the red sun by thefinnkinnie (orphan_account)

vegas era

(2,705 words | Not Rated | Chapters: 1/1)

Theo slid his tongue across his lower lip, considering the choice. Sober, he would be safe. These thoughts in his head, about Boris, about feeling for the first time since the museum, they would disappear, tucked away in some fold of his mind, and Theo could sink back into his soft non-existence. He was nearly there anyways, close enough he could taste the gray on his tongue like cotton balls. It would be so easy.

And yet.

something in a major key by boxedblondes

post-canon

(7,454 words | Teen And Up Audiences | Chapters: 1/1)

“Why the fuck is it so busy?” Boris asks some hours later, twinkling lights a messy rainbow swirl around them, late December cold starting to eat a hole through Theo’s less-than-ideal camel’s-hair coat.

“It’s four days until Christmas, you idiot,” Theo says. “You should have had your weird holiday epiphany like a month ago.”

sound formed in a vacuum may seem a waste of time (it’s always been just the same) by theparadigmshifts

post-canon

(3,750 words | Teen And Up Audiences | Chapters: 1/1)

The year after Amsterdam, Theo follows his conscience; Boris follows Theo.

Neptune by pavlikovskyslittlebird

post-canon

(40,202 words | Mature | Chapters: 14/14)

Post Amsterdam, canon divergent, book and movie references.

Theo tries to figure things out while buying back the changelings.

"I must be a poster child prodigy

Thread by thread I come apart

If brokenness is a work of art

Surely this must be my masterpiece

I'm only honest when it rains

If I time it right, the thunder breaks

When I open my mouth

I wanna tell you but I don't know how

I'm only honest when it rains

An open book, with a torn out page

And my inks run out

I wanna love you but I don't know how"

Neptune-Sleeping at Last

Selling a Fake by argylemikewheeler

post-canon

(35,522 words | Explicit | Chapters: 3/3)

Theo didn’t fly home right away; he stayed in Antwerp and together, he and Boris flew back to New York. They start over, two troubled teenagers all over again. They’ve replaced scorching Vegas summers with chilling New York winters. It was never about the place anyway.

They’re together-- they’re something-- but Theo still struggles to be open to strangers passing by.

(PLUS an extended part two/epilogue to give us more comforting boyfriends and less internalized homophobia for Theo!)

overlap by rosekings

Antwrep

(12,886 words | Teen And Up Audiences | Chapters: 1/1)

“Promise me you’ll come. Eventually. Just…come see me. Sit still with me for a while.” He holds back everything else he wants to say. Get a place with me. Run the shop with me. Laugh and make dinner with me. Let me wake up next to you every morning and not have to worry if I’m never going to see you again.

“I promise.” Boris says it like it was already obvious, something that didn’t even need to be said. “Of course I promise.”

You're coming back and it's the end of the world by BalalaikaPattycake

post-canon

(89,940 words | Mature | Chapters: 17/17)

We spent hours joking and laughing at the bar over a bottle of vodka, our heads together, just like we had done as boys. Trying to convince myself that the only reason I was holding my hand on his shoulder, giggling in his ear, my face mere inches away from his, was because otherwise he wouldn't hear me over the music, even though he was the one doing most of the talking. I had been drinking considerably less than normal over the past few months, so it didn't take me long to start feeling disoriented and weirdly courageous, the mass of people around me blending into each other, becoming unidentifiable like droplets of water in an ocean, with only Boris standing out as a steady beacon of light.

Set after the book ends, Theo and Boris meet again after a year and half.

And Nothing Has Changed by WhyDoesEverythingHappenSoMuch

Amsterdam

(8,361 words | Mature | Chapters: 1/1)

“Potter, maybe you have one more drink and then try and tell me you are ‘not in the mood.” He raised a hand again, but before the waitress saw, I grabbed him by the leather-clad forearm and pulled his hand back down.

“Boris, I'm engaged.” I tried again in vain to make him understand the significance of that.

“Sure, but you are here with me, drinking with me, and you are going to get to know some very good girls with me.” I hadn’t realized, but somehow his fingers had ended up laced with mine.

___

Boris and Theo's first night in Amsterdam they wind up in a bar and Boris can't seem to get off the topic of how unfair it is that Kitsey is cheating. Boris thinks Theo should have his own extramarital fun too.

To quote Donna Tartt, "matters progress"

to remember your mouth, how it tasted true by nosecoffee

post-canon

(6,422 words | Teen And Up Audiences | Chapters: 1/1)

(i don’t smoke except for when i’m missing you)

Theo got it into his head that the cigarettes would start the chain reaction that would send them to early graves if they weren’t careful, all spouted into the darkness of Welty’s room, while Boris perched on the windowsill.

And yet, he had grinned and put out his cigarette on the ashtray there, and said, “Then of course I will stop.”

Which was so lovely at the time. It was significantly less lovely when he found Boris smoking in the bathroom three days later.

Repression is just a Love Language Best Ignored (Looking at you, Decker) by Lemonyfreshness

post-canon

(92,031 words | Mature | Chapters: 16/16)

It's a year after "The Incident," as what Theodore Decker liked to call it, that one strange turn of events in which his childhood best friend had come to reconvene and it had been interesting to say the least...But now he was back in the real world. And broke. And high out of his mind. And depressed as ever. Theodore Decker isn't one to naturally listen to reason but maybe he will when once again his morally-grey best friend with attachment issues comes back to save the day. Or at least try in his own way. Wish him luck.

Find Other Muses by deadspy

post-canon

(38,844 words | Explicit | Chapters: 6/6)

Theo folds and unfolds the old postcard from Boris. GREETINGS FROM KANSAS! it reads, same as it always has, but now it just feels like a taunt.

Ten years after Amsterdam, Theo and Boris find themselves, and each other, in the most unlikely of places.

philophobia. by theweakestthing

post-canon

(36,292 words | Mature | Chapters: 11/11)

philophobia [ fil-uh-foh-bee-uh ]:

(n.) (from Greek "φιλέω-φιλώ" (love) and "φοβία" (phobia)) the fear of falling in love or being in love. The risk is usually when a person has confronted any emotional turmoil relating to love. This affects the quality of life and pushes a person away from commitment. A negative aspect of this fear of being in love or falling in love is that it keeps a person in solitude. It represents certain guilt and frustration towards the reaction coming from inside.

Theo knows what the problem is, but that doesn't mean that he's going to do anything about it.

Little Bird by redborya

Amsterdam

(19,376 words | Teen And Up Audiences | Chapters: 6/6)

With The Goldfinch retrieved (and returned) Theodore Decker is left in Amsterdam wondering where to go and what to do from there. It seems simple enough at first. Return to New York, marry Kistey, and continue on his life as he had before. Boris, however, suggests the complete opposite.

The Before, After, and Forever by makkachincrossing

post-canon

(13,893 words | Explicit | Chapters: 4/4)

“The attack at The Met… That wasn’t the first explosion it had survived.”

“No?”

“No, a gunpowder factory exploded nearby Fabritius’ studio, killing him and destroying nearly all of his paintings,” I took a breath, unsteady. “But The Goldfinch… The Goldfinch survived.”

A hand on my shoulder. Long fingers, a firm squeeze, grounding me to earth. “You survived too, Potter.”

I looked to him, eyes aching behind my glasses.

“Life exploding around you. You survived. You, too, are Goldfinch.”

corrina, corrina by curlymcclain

(12,821 words | Mature | Chapters: 1/1)

canon-divergence, boris follows theo to new york

Seeing him here, in New York, surrounded by the deep browns and golds of Hobart and Blackwell, is so alien to me I have to repress the urge to pinch myself like a child would after a dream. It looks incorrect, him standing here. Like someone has taken a pair of scissors to my memories of him, cut him out of his rightful place on the abandoned playground, and pasted him sloppily into a corner of my life where he doesn’t belong. Has it only been a few weeks? It feels like ages longer, like it’s been a decade, like we’re different people trying to see what exactly we liked about each other so much way back when.

But then he says it again- “Potter.”- and that feeling vanishes as quickly as it arrived.

“You came,” I say dumbly.

He gives a cheery smirk that I don’t believe. “Promised I would.”

fragile (that much he could admit) by successsionhbo

(12,592 words | Explicit | Chapters: 1/1)

post-canon

Theo has been having nightmares after his trip to antwerp. Boris comes for a visit

heaven help the fool by BucketofWater

(12,140 words | Teen And Up Audiences | Chapters: 2/2)

vegas era + post-canon, soulmate AU

He knew why. He wished that he did not but deep down he knew. They both did, at one point or another. Maybe not in words, but it was between them all the same. The way that they knew that the sky was blue and how the sun-warmed sand burned like fire. Theo loved Boris and perhaps, although he was a fool to believe it, maybe Boris loved him a little bit too.

Alternatively: the soulmate au in which every significant person in your life leaves a smudge of colour on you.

I've got the story of us written (on my skin) by Thegoldenfnch (I_write_fanfiction_sometimes)

(18,017 words | Mature | Chapters: 5/5)

all eras, soulmates AU

My mother didn’t like to talk about the marks. I still don’t know if it’s because hers had all failed her (her first love didn’t love her back, her life-friend died, and her Life Partner, well, Dad didn’t believe in soulmates) or if it was for some other unknown reason. Maybe she just couldn’t answer the questions I’d asked, like why mine were all the same. After I was around eight I stopped asking, and by the time I was ten I’d stopped telling people. They never seem to know what to say. It was only when I got older —after my mother died, but before my dad came back— that I realized why. People never know how to react to what they view as a tragedy.

------

or: No one talks about soulmarks, Theo is in denial about many things (as he usually is), and Boris never says the things that actually matter

A retelling. Now with soulmarks.

a study in inevitability by EdieFalcoRising

(14,523 words | Explicit | Series - 3 works)

post-canon

One time Theo leaves, one time Boris leaves, and the one time they make it work.

And twice more our paths crossed through the night by liminalweirdo

(2,506 words | Mature | Chapters: 1/1)

Antwrep

Takes place immediately after the end of the novel, in Boris's flat in Antwerp. Theo muses on the things they did as teenagers, and the tension between them finally reaches its breaking point. Almost.

I'm not living/I'm just killing time by lolneptune

(19,359 words | Explicit | Chapters: 3/3)

post-canon

Of course he had seen the journals. Pages and pages of rambling accounts, an encyclopedia. How could I have hidden it from the one living person who knew me?

So cruelly you kissed me by foundmywei

(4,096 words | Mature | Chapters: 1/1)

post-canon

The biggest problem with the two of us had never been whether or not we knew that we loved each other, but rather whether or not we would choose to be with one another.

Even after Boris and Theo start sleeping with each other, they struggle with talking about what they are and their feelings. Well, until an incident of jealousy forces them to.

a spring memorandum by yowler

(42,706 words | Mature | Chapters: 4/4)

WWII AU

In the dark where no one can see, Boris presses his lips to the thin knot of scar tissue over Theo’s wrist. It’s a request; for forgiveness, for absolution, for something neither of them has a name for.

“But you are alive,” he says, “you idiot.”

(Theo and Boris meet during the war.)

the letter in the drawer by shamefulshameless

(4,136 words | Teen And Up Audiences | Chapters: 1/1)

post-canon

Before he left Amsterdam, Boris found an envelope with his name on it. He’d wanted to open it in Antwerp, but he was so caught up in it all- his wound and Theo’s illness and the high and the movies, all of it so strangely different and yet exactly the same as when they were kids- that he put it out of his mind. He didn’t want anything to interrupt them. Now, it’s like the envelope has expanded in size, every day growing bigger and bigger and threatening to crack his bedside table in two. He doesn’t know what’s stopping him, but whatever the letter contains, he knows Theo doesn’t want him to know about it. It could be nothing- there’s always been so much innocuous bullshit that Theo keeps to himself for no good reason. Or it could be something. It could be something that Boris would be content staying oblivious to. There are lots of things like that.

Uncle Francis to the rescue by foundmywei

(32,582 words | Mature | Chapters: 8/8)

post-canon

“Oh! By the way, how is your man doing?”

I blinked, confused. "My what?"

"Your man? About 5'9, dark curly hair, gorgeous green eyes, looked vaguely European…?"

"Excuse me?" He couldn't mean…

"You know, the guy who whisked you away from your engagement party?" Mr. Abernathy raised an eyebrow suggestively.

Or, how Francis accidentally ended up becoming Theo's unofficial uncle and got involved in the stupidest love drama of the 21st century when all he wanted was to learn some juicy gossip.

#boreo #boris pavlikovsky #theo decker #the goldfinch #boreo fanfic #boreo fic #boreo fanfic rec

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autumnpeaches · 2 years

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and now i see daylight. | travis hackett x fem!reader

SYNOPSIS: After surviving until dawn six years ago, you’d never imagine having to survive another monstrous event… until now. You’re heading to Hackett’s Quarry this summer to be a counselor with two of your newest friends, only you don’t make it right away to camp like you thought you would.

TW: canon typical violence??

TAGS: multi-chapter fic :), slight slow burn???, strangers to lovers, angst, hurt/comfort, age difference, older man/ younger woman, slight references to until dawn, slight mention of until dawn characters

A/N: hi all!! i've been hyperfixating over the quarry recently and travis lately so!!! i thought this would be a fun write !! it's been a while since i've gotten back into writing and publishing my fics, but i hope you all enjoy !! (also posted on my ao3 account :D)

CHAPTER I CHAPTER II

PROLOGUE (LINK TO AO3)

08:00 | JUNE 24 — YOUR APARTMENT (context: you’re reminiscing about the past few years as you pack for Hackett’s Quarry)

It has been about six years since you’ve gotten those claw marks on your face.

Six years since you’ve endured the incident at Blackwood Mountain.

Six years since you’ve survived until dawn.

After the incident, everyone went their separate ways. You still kept in touch with all of them, though. Even Josh. Kinda hard not to keep in contact with them when everyone is in a group chat lol

You couldn’t find it in yourself to be angry at Josh. He was never the same after the loss of his sisters. Yes, the prank he pulled was hella messed up, but… as twisted as it was, you understood his reasonings. He was still your friend, and… it was good to know that the rescue team was able to find him in the end.

Currently, you’ve moved to New York to do your studies. Two years have passed since you’ve earned your bachelors.

Originally, you were nervous about the aspect of attending college states away from home. Mainly at the idea of meeting new people. The scars across your face didn’t help to ease that anxiety.

You received a great deal of stares from people, but you grew used to it. Because of your scars, people often left you alone. It didn’t matter much to you because that made it a whole lot easier to focus on your studies.

It wasn’t until your last year did you meet Laura and Max.

If you were to describe Laura, you’d say she’s studious, determined, and independent. It amazed you that she put 100% effort in everything, sometimes going beyond that. She reminded you a bit of Emily; there’s more to her than just her wit and brains. Max, on the other hand, lacks ambition at times and can be a little too reliant on his girlfriend. But… his friendly nature and humor makes up for it..

Both of them became good friends with you, and honestly, you were glad for the company. Although you had an appreciation for spending time alone, you were still susceptible to feelings of loneliness. Especially since all your friends were back home. Sure there were phone calls and video calls, but… it just… didn’t feel the same as being there with them in person.

Despite being older than the two by approximately three years, the three of you kept in touch after your graduation. Considering that you all lived in the same state, it was easy to meet up often.

Recently, Laura suggested the idea of volunteering at a camp for summer in Upstate New York, a place with more rural landscapes. She mentioned it would be a good add on for everyone’s resumes and that the three of you should sign up together.

At first, you were hesitant to accept the idea.

Reason number one: the last time you spent time in a rural place, you almost died.

Reason number two: every summer, you’d be booking a plane ride home to visit your friends and family.

However, after texting the group, they all encouraged you to take the opportunity. It wasn’t like you were never going to see them again.

Little did you know, this summer was going to be the next biggest ride of your life.

#the quarry #the quarry fic #travis hackett x reader #travis hackett #slight slow burn???#slow burn #strangers to lovers #angst #hurt/comfort #age difference #older man/younger woman #slight references to until dawn #slight mention of until dawn characters

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oveliagirlhaditright · 1 year

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Blood Moon

Summary: In season three, Snyder once again enlists Buffy's help in taking kids trick-or-treating for Halloween. Buffy, this time, decides to dress up as Sailor Moon. In needing sometime to unwind before spending some time with the munchkins that night, Buffy stops by the mansion to see her favorite vampire. Thinking she looks pretty cute as Sailor Moon, and that Angel might appreciate the sight, she shouts, "Happy birthday!" to him as she bursts into the place... not knowing that Halloween is actually Angel's birthday, and this is how she's about to find that out. Based on "Buffy The Last Vampire Slayer" listing Halloween as Angel's canon birthday.

"Happy birthday, Angel," Buffy said somewhat shyly, as she strolled into Angel’s mansion in a Sailor Moon costume. Truth be told? As far as Buffy knew, it wasn't actually Angel's birthday. She had no idea when that day was, unfortunately—as there were still some things from his human life that he wasn't comfortable discussing. But she thought that Angel might, in some capacity, enjoy seeing her dressed in such a way, which was why she was saying the turn of phrase.

The actual day was Halloween, hence why Buffy was dressed up (and she'd chosen Sailor Moon for a few reasons. One, because a cute little girl who she had rescued at a comic book store had said that Buffy reminded her of Sailor Moon (1), which had then gotten Buffy to research the manga and to come to the same conclusion herself. And two, because on the off-chance they got turned into their costumes again this year, she wanted a superhero who could always handle things at the end of the day).

Anyway… Buffy was definitely hoping that Angel would think she looked cute like this, hence her lame "happy birthday" comment, to give her something to enjoy before she was once more under Snyder’s scrutiny in a few hours. But as Angel seemed to look at her with puzzlement in his eyes and nothing more, she was very much starting to regret the whole thing.

"How-how'd you know?" Angel gasped, after he'd blinked at the Slayer a few times.

And Buffy was about to ask “how she knew what?” When it suddenly dawned on her what Angel's question must have meant. She gasped, as she all but tackled him into the couch. He had been standing in the center of the room to hug her, no doubt, but now in her enthusiasm, Buffy was pretty much straddling him atop the sofa in his living room. "Angel, you’re saying Halloween is your actual birthday? Why didn't you ever tell me?!"

Suddenly, Buffy felt heartbroken that she had nothing to give Angel on his actual birthday here. Nothing but her love. Sure, she could give him a late birthday present, but it wouldn’t entirely be the same.

Buffy was about to berate Angel, for letting things become uneven between them this way (where he would be a better boyfriend than she a good girlfriend, since his birthday presents to her would be on time), when Buffy noticed just how intently he was looking at her.

“And you’re really debating telling me something heavy here, aren’t you?” Buffy surmised.

And Angel laughed once at that. And had smiling eyes for just a moment—even going as far as to calling Buffy the “Champion of Love and Justice, indeed--before he seemed to settle back into his despair. “It wasn’t because I thought birthdays were irrelevant after becoming a vampire that I didn’t tell you, Buffy. Please understand that. It wasn’t even the clichéd idea that we vampires moreso celebrate the dates we were sired…

"Though celebrating birthdays for hundreds of years can get confusing and tedious," Angel seemed to add as an afterthought.

"Though that's still not the main reason you left me in the dark?" Buffy asked, drawing circles on Angel’s red, silk shirt with her index finger. She wondered if it had to do with his birthday being on Halloween: the day demons never went out on, because they hated how commercial everything had become. Had Angelus feared everyone would think he was somehow commercial, if they knew when his birthday was?

Sighing heavily, and looking everywhere but at Buffy, Angel admitted in a voice that was small and very out of place for him, "Once my father had deemed me a disappointment in his eyes, he said it was only fitting I'd been born on Halloween, the devil's day and all that… and he was right."

Buffy knew she must have heard wrong. She had to have. Because while she knew that there hadn’t exactly been any love lost between Angel and his father, for a parent to still say that to their child… Even in much harder times, Buffy couldn’t make sense of it in the slightest.

And even Angel himself! Buffy knew that he could brood with the best of them, but he was working so hard for redemption and to prove that he was worth something. Even on his worst days, how could he ever believe something like that about himself? Buffy wanted to believe that he didn’t. But taking one look at how he was so still now, that Buffy knew could actually be the sign of an anxiety attack, she knew it was the truth.

"Angel, that's horrible! I can't believe your father would say that to you! He's dead wrong! He's always been dead wrong about it!"

"How can you say that, Buffy?" Angel countered, turning beaten, tortured eyes onto her. "Look at what I ended up doing to them. He must have-"

While Buffy had gone to just laying on top of Angel before, she was once again straddling him now, and leaning above him so she could peer directly into his eyes. Running a gentle hand over his face as she tried to sooth him, the Slayer whispered the following—as a warm glow from the fireplace settled on the both of them, "Don't you dare tell me he must have somehow seen the future and known you would become Angelus, Angel. That's just impossible. He was being abusive towards you. And you're taking something a demon did, that you're making up for every day, to try and justify those unfair words spoken to a child.

"From now on, we are going to celebrate your birthday on Halloween. And aside from this Sailor Moon costume that I'm totally wearing for you and not because I got roped into taking kids trick-or-treating by Snyder again, notwithstanding… what would you like for said birthday?"

It was clear that Angel was thinking about it—whilst he squeezed Buffy’s hip tightly and seemed to purposely smooth a careful kiss onto the little crescent moon that was on one of her red choker--but the moment that Angel got a guilty look into his eyes, Buffy knew what her vamp was going to try and articulate here. Before he could, Buffy pulled away from him the slightest bit and snapped, "And don't dare say you don't deserve anything from me because of last year, when you weren’t yourself. Or that I give you enough already, as sweet as that would be."

Angel laughed for Buffy’s sassiness for just a moment—something Buffy definitely appreciated—and then pulled her into a kiss that instantly had this Serena melting for her Darien (2). It had been far too long since the two of them had been together like this, Buffy thought, as she tried to not get too lost in the feeling of Angel's claiming kiss, and home. The two of them tried so hard to be virtuous, and not do anything to bring about Angelus. But how could those actions be deemed good when this was so right? Buffy wondered, just as Angel nibbled on her bottom lip once and she moaned.

But all too soon he was pulling away from her and getting up, even—removing temptation, Buffy suspected—and rifling through one of his drawers. If she peered closely, she thought that maybe he was looking at some of his drawings in them?

"I would like for my birthday… a thing of post-it notes."

Buffy stared at Angel for a long moment, thinking that he had to be joking with her, of course—even though her Angel was usually so sober—because who would ever ask for that for their birthday, but while he continued looking at her expectantly, and then in a bashful way, Buffy realized he must have been serious.

"Angel… I know you probably haven't really thought about what you'd want as a gift for a while, but I swear I can splurge way more than tha-"

But thankfully, Angel cut Buffy's somewhat insulted words off with a finger to her lips. "There's a part of me that's always wanted to try my hand at animation… Though to do that, you need to know how to use a computer, which I really don't. But you can somewhat imitate the affect with post-it-notes: in making a flipbook and I'd like to try it. And it would mean a lot to me if you could help me make that dream come true," Angel told her earnestly, dear God, almost doing the puppy dog pout, so that Buffy couldn't refuse him.

This still hardly seemed like enough of a gift for him to Buffy… Even if she went to an art store and asked if they had special post-its for artists, or anything like that, she was still skeptical about it, but she couldn't turn this dream of Angel's down, now that she knew it was a dream of his. But maybe she could do more with it.

"In the name of the Moon, that’s how I’ll heal you," Buffy promised the love of her life… And okay, she somewhat hated the cheesy words as soon as they were out of her mouth. Maybe the DIC dub of Sailor Moon wasn’t that great. Though in its defense, she didn’t think even it had ever been as silly as what she had just said.

But Angel didn’t seem to mind. If anything, he seemed charmed by it all and sealed their promise with a kiss. And being a girl very much in love, Buffy loved it when he ran his hands through her hair as they made out:

Buffy hadn’t actually bought a wig for this costume, but had rather done her hair up in meatballs as best she could. And while her hair wasn’t nearly as long as Serena’s at all—if anything, it was as long as Rini’s—Angel seemed to love her just the way she was, like he always did. Like she did him.

…

Buffy did make good on her promise to Angel, but she did something else, too. Though she knew she was probably the world's most terrible artist, she thought she might get points for effort. So, what did she do? She made her own animation flipbook… it was supposed to depict when she gave Angel a bracelet when they'd been fighting the Sons of Entropy (3), but Buffy thought it probably looked more like a stick figure attempting the hula.

"I don't know," Buffy explained lamely, as she handed him both presents, as they both stood in front of the fire at the mansion. "I just thought that maybe, for your birthday here, it might be nice to reference both presents I've given you so far. It seems really stupid now. I know my drawing sucks," Buffy said all but depressed.

The next thing Buffy knew, Angel was moving in her direction. And her Slayer senses were going absolutely crazy for it, thinking that an angry vampire was trying to attack her—and she nearly prepared herself to go on the defensive—but then she was in his arms as he was trembling. And Buffy remembered where she was, and just how vulnerable the creature in her arms was and just how much she loved him.

"Angel?"

"Thank you, Buffy. Just thank you. Whenever I think I can't love you any more than I already do, you prove me wrong."

"And I’ll always be here to do that for you, Angel," Buffy said gently, kissing her vampire’s ear. And she embraced him a moment longer, before they both sat down in front of the fire to examine Buffy's little animation together.

Before Angel left, he drew his own one in the post-its that Buffy had given him: the time that he had given Buffy her claddagh, thinking it was only fitting that since Buffy had drawn the time she had given him a bracelet that said "always," that he depict when they'd shared rings and promised each other forever. He'd given this to Buffy; and as she'd looked over Angel's gorgeous line work and colors as they moved, she imagined she'd never loved a possession more.

And, yes, even in the long years that she was temporarily without him, did it give her comfort.

Author's Note: (1) That happens in one of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer High School Years comics.

(2) I know that their names are Usagi and Mamoru… but in the time the Buffy seasons take place in, Buffy would most likely know them by what the DIC dub called them: Serena and Darien (and their daughter from the future as “Rini”).

(3) This is a reference to the Buffy books “The Gatekeeper Trilogy,” and Buffy did give Angel a bracelet there.

This whole thing is based on how in Buffy The Last Vampire Slayer, Angel’s birthday—on his wedding certificate to Buffy—is written to be on Halloween. I may not like quite a few things about that series, but that’s cool. And it got the muse inspired to write this whole thing.

For a while now, I’ve thought about Buffy dressing up as Sailor Moon for Halloween, mainly because they have so much in common. And then it combined with the above idea and this fic was born.

I also feel like Angel would know about Sailor Moon, perhaps (which I clearly went with here), because he read a lot—so maybe he’d come across the manga—had been to Japan in the past (so I feel like he maybe knew Japanese, like he knows so many languages—so perhaps he could even be reading the manga in its original language)… and, well, Sailor Moon is so like Buffy. So, if for whatever reason, he ever started the first volume, I feel like he would continue on, because he’d be like, “Oh my gosh, she reminds me of Buffy.”

I do have an idea for a sequel to this, I think, so hopefully we’ll see that soon!

#bangel #buffy the vampire slayer #canon #canon compliant #hurt/comfort #fluff #all the fluff #season 3/series 3 #season 3 #series 3 #mine #my work #shanna's various forms of art #buffy summers #angel

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bonesandthebees · 8 months

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hello bee, question. are you abel to like sum up what's happend to q!Phil last month? if not, it's completely fine it's just that im super confused bc I was busy the entire of September

oh man I am NOT the right person to ask because I was literally out of the country for the majority of september so I missed a lot of stuff. even though I've been trying to catch up the gist of what i know is after the eggs went missing phil kept desperately trying to find his kids. he found a book (??) in a chest (???) in his kids room with coordinates (???) that said not to bring anything with him, and he thought it might take him to where chayanne and tallulah were so he went there and cucurucho trapped him in what's essentially a giant bird house for a week. when he came back he first was in the bird cage but found it the door had suddenly unlocked and walked outside to see cucurucho standing there who told him to wake up before he forgot how to.

then he woke up back in his base like nothing had happened. he began to question if that entire thing was real or not, and has since been questioning his own perception of reality! black concrete with signs from chayanne and tallulah keep appearing, phil also found black concrete structures in chayanne and tallulah's favorite places with chests that had very blurry pictures of the two eggs in them. birds seem to keep appearing around phil (??) and he can't tell if they're real or not. and now most recently since jaiden has started showing off her wings he realized that hers never got clipped like his did. he canonized that he wears his backpack all the time as a counterweight, since his wings are much lighter than before after they were clipped by the federation so he feels off balance all the time.

if i'm wrong or i left important stuff out someone feel free to correct me like I said I have not been keeping up that much as of late especially during september

#ask #anon #q!phil

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jerzwriter · 2 years

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Tobias & Casey... My future plans...

Some of y'all know - the ADHD has been off the charts, and I've been stressing out because I have too much open and don't know what to do next.

Quick background: Generally, I believe fanfic doesn't have to be linear. But when it's a couple that isn't found in canon, there is no baseline; I have to create it. My intention was always to write Tobias & Casey's story chronologically. Well, that didn't happen.

It started during the holidays last year. I wanted to write holiday fics, and frankly, I wasn't even sure the fandom would still exist during the holidays in 2022, so I wrote. I brought the Carrick girls in and fell in love with them, so I wanted a little more. Then there were asks and prompts, and - before you knew it - their story was all over the place, and this isn't even taking AUs into account.

I recently started the series about their baby & wedding stories, Kind of for the same reason. I got a lot of asks about these topics, and, well, with the fandom thinning, I figured let me write it while there are still 10 people who care. lol

But as a discussion with a friend revealed, no one even knows how they finally got together. As I looked back, I think I need to make people understand why there was a connection to each other, even though the rocky beginning of their relationship ended up with Casey dumping him. So here is what I have planned:

I'm going post a timeline for them. Not the scribbled in my notebook for my own use timeline, but something pretty and organized one that will be posted here. I'm also going to update my Meet My MC, create a Meet Tobias (since, face it, he's really an OC), and I'll make little ones for other OCs in their world.

Since Casey & Tobias already told her parents the big news, then he stopped to "tell" his late father on the way to his mom's house, I will finish that and have them tell Vivian. But, after that, I'm probably going to pause that series and go back to the Their Start series.

Their Start is currently in the Book 2 timeline right before the attack. Casey broke up with Tobias, and he's wigging out because he cares that she dumped him. This has never happened to him before. He's desperate to get her back, but she's not biting. But she just gave him the slightest bit of hope (and immediately regretted it). He's walking around happy, believing there is a chance, but then she never calls, so he's deflated. That's when he learns about the chemical attack at Edenbrook. So I'm going to go back to the attack (that rhymes) and bridge at least the bones of their story up to where they got engaged, and then I'll take it from there.

There may be one-offs (for asks/events), but I will try to limit them until I finish this bridge.

As far as series go, I'll be wrapping up Friends * (I'm hoping to do it in one more part, but it may be two), and I CAN NOT WAIT to delve into "Where It Goes From Here" when that's over.

Why am I sharing this? T/C is not my more popular pairing, and I'm sure some of my beautiful anons are already penning a "you're so narcissistic" message... but this helps me formulate my thoughts. Also, while T/C have a small following, they are loyal and enthusiastic. I've always says, my readers matter, even if they are a smaller group. Lastly, this is what I always say it needs to be about... WRITE WHAT MAKES YOU HAPPY. WRITE WHAT YOU WANT TO READ. Don't worry too much about the rest. So, if you made it this far, thank you. I really appreciate it and can't wait to get more to you. I'm only tagging some of my bigger T/C fans here. Thanks for your love & support! 💕💕

@a-crepusculo @animesuck3r @annfg8 @annoyingmillenialnewbie @coffeeheartaddict2 @crazy-loca-blog @inlocusmads @jamespotterthefirst @jennieausten @liaromancewriter @lilypills @lucy-268 @mysticalgalaxysstuff @onikalover @peonierose @peonyblossom @potionsprefect @quixoticdreamer16 @secretaryunpaid @trappedinfanfiction @icecoffee90 @jerzwriter-reblogs-asks

#tobias carrick #tobias carrick x f!mc #tobias x casey #future plans

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missameliep · 2 years

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Safe - Chapter 4: Hope is a weird thing

Book: Wake the Dead

Characters: Troy Hassan; Brynn and Malia Jones.

Rating: M (see notes bellow)

Word count: 1.6k

Summary: Troy Hassan reminisces about his childhood, life at the Tower and hopeful days, when he was gifted friendship and love.

Notes:

English is not my first language;

Troy Hassan and Brynn belong to Pixelberry;

Pre-WTD events;

I threw canon through the window, I had written this part already when I read the last chapter and I'm actively ignoring how Troy and MC met and keeping my version because it fits the plot and the relationship better;

Just like the book, the entire series is rated M because of triggering subjects: throughout there are mentions of death, trauma and violence compliant to canon; readers discretion advised.

The sisters who were rescued by the scouts’ team were finally cleared and joined the other kids at the collective room. Brynn and Malia were their names. At bedtime, they huddled in the upper berth assigned for the eldest of them. They were ten and five years old, and wary of loud noises like him. Many kids at the Tower were not. Why would they be? They were brought to the colony before the outbreak, their eyes never contemplated what happened to the outside world or the face of a real zombie. They fear zombies in theory as much as they fear dragons, and Troy is almost sure the latter are not real.

Malia, the younger sister, didn’t speak for days and quietly followed her sister like a shadow.

“Trauma”, a doctor said one morning scribbling down on some paper when all the orphaned children were queued and examined.

Troy didn’t know what trauma meant and assumed it was a disease common in this New World, considering how many times the word flies from the doctors’ mouths.

Late at night, after most kids were fast asleep, whisperings were heard coming from the berth across from his. Malia spoke in the lowest tone possible to her older sister.

Sisters always speak to each other, don’t they?

It appears so.

Troy listened to them, Brynn’s voice morphed into a calm and affectionate tone lulling her little sister.

He wished he had a sister too. Or a brother.

Brynn smiled when Troy got closer to her sister one morning after breakfast and handed an improvised doll made from a piece of cloth and rubbish discarded by the scavengers. It was the best he could do with the material found and his limited manual abilities. In fact, it was hideous. He thought about throwing it away and almost dropped the idea entirely half-way from the door to the place the two girls were sitting together.

But perhaps they could laugh about it? Laughing is good.

“It’s a doll,” he said holding the hideous thing in front of the little girl’s face. “For you.”

Malia stared at it in awe and thanked him not with words – it would take a few more attempts until she finally spoke to him –, but with her eyes and a wide smile.

They would be friends; he knew that ever since.

And Troy was right.

They became inseparable.

So far, their friendship outlasted that excuse of a doll she carried around.

The Jones’ sisters quickly became Troy’s favorite people.

In fact, they became sort of his family.

Unlike Troy, Brynn is quiet and far too no-nonsense for a ten-year-old. Seldom one would see a smile and any happiness transpire, making her warm brown skin glow – he’s one of the few who had the privilege. Some older kids say she is one of the prettiest girls in the colony, but she prefers to ignore that sort of attention. Most of the time, she keeps to herself. Miss Little Goody Two-Shoes. Discreet. Resourceful. Loyal. Tough. The toughest person to have around. She will do anything for Malia; and so much more than Troy deserves to keep him out of trouble.

Troy became Brynn’s little brother. Sort of. She'd never admit it out loud.

Even when he and Malia started getting into too much trouble, despite her sister’s warnings, Brynn did not turn her back on him. Often, he would be in the receiving end of Brynn’s glares and scolds, but he doesn’t mind if she is hard on him, because it means she cares. She wants to protect Malia, and he gets that. If he had a sister or a brother, he would do that too.

Troy is two weeks older than Malia, but she’s taller, better at hide-and-seek and, despite the physical resemblance, she's nothing like her sister Brynn. Malia is her own person. Clever. Effortlessly funny. Whenever she’s around, you’ll laugh until your tummy aches. Kindhearted. Despite repeating she does it for personal gain, she loves drawing the residents of the colony. Their gratitude makes her emotional and he knows how many sheets of the little notebook she carries around were spent on perfectioning the portrait of Mrs. Gonzales and her son Willie, who got bitten by a drone on his first mission as a scout. Malia didn’t charge for it and her eyes glistened with tears afterwards, which she fiercely denied and tried to divert the subject with a game of tag.

Once she found her tongue, Malia could speak almost as much as Troy. She’s a big mouth, that’s for sure, and never knows when to shut up no matter how many times she gets into trouble. So full of opinions. He loves it about her, how she always speaks her mind and always keeps her head up. Unlike him. In fact, he loves many things about her, even the annoying things she does or how awful her musical taste is.

Malia doesn’t remember much from the Old World; she doesn’t remember her dads, the two old retrievers her sister misses deeply or their house. Therefore, her world is Brynn and Brynn alone.

As time went by, however, it seems that it expanded to include Troy, which made him happy – as much as a boy living the end of the world could be.

From the stories he heard, the Tower used to be some sort of secret military facility, and in the first months after the outbreak most who lived there were the military and their families, many of which arrived right before the outbreak reached the US. The years changed this and everything else. There was twice as many people living there now, but many more could be welcomed considering all the empty bunks and rooms.

Troy was nine years old when a group of adults arrived at the Tower. They came from some colony at the West looking for shelter after the rainy season.

Amongst the new arrivals was tall and scrawny looking Mr. Lee, with his unkempt beard, quiet voice, and even quieter laugh. The man was in his early forties and used to be some kind of teacher at a big school or something, but now it seemed he was the one who needed to be taught – at least about the ways of the New World and the Tower.

Some people said he went a little crazy after the death of his spouse; others said he was a subversive, whatever that meant.

Troy thought he was the coolest adult around.

Mr. Lee wanted to teach kids about art and music, like it was his mission in life. He loved movies, old Hollywood and told them about musicals. The idea of people singing instead of talking was ridiculous, therefore Troy became obsessed with it and might have started pretending to be the protagonist of his own musical just because… He would sing about everything and nothing at all, and Malia eagerly mimicked this habit simply to annoy the hell out of people, especially Brynn. Good times!

Like most good things, it didn’t last...

With a religious fervor, Mr. Lee proclaimed the beauties of the Old World none of which kids like Troy had seen, and insisted that kids should be taught about it – music, art, history… In one of the assemblies, he shared his ideas. Half the presents booed and used stronger words to shut him up; there was no time to lose with Old World nonsense. The other half remained strangely silent. Later, Troy learned what they feared.

Soon, there were no more assemblies, fewer debates, and plenty new rules.

Why would anyone need the meetings when Marcus Blackstock was such a competent leader? Adults often said this kind of thing to each other and to the kids.

After that evening, Troy cannot remember the last time he saw Mr. Lee. Officially, it was said he had chosen to leave, there were rumours that he was banished… Some were sad for a while, others grateful to have a mouth less to feed, specially one from a troublemaker. Soon he was forgotten, like so many were over the years.

It was not the strangest thing that nobody ever questioned – at least in public – the Tower’s teaching methods: kids learning to fight and survive, the bare minimum of math, writing and reading to be resourceful workers. No one wants you to bring the wrong supplies or drink bleach and miss your shift.

Obedience was taught at school – a lesson lost on him and Malia.

Discipline and punishment go hand in hand in the Tower.

Vigilance increased and the same surveillance cameras pointed at the outside world were installed in the hallways too. Just another toll for Blackstock’s protection.

If you’re following the rules, you need not to worry, right? Who needed privacy or any of those Old World’s fancy schmancy anyways? People need order and protection, they said.

Around that time were implemented new rules and the first orders to destroy every reminiscence from the Old World that was not catalogued as weapon, amno, food, medicine, fuel, or other useful resources in the descriptive list afixed at the supply room Troy started helping when he was eleven.

It was a shame, really.

Troy often looked through the discarded items, searching amidst shredded pictures and ripped albums for something that could have belonged to his family. He did that for years, even after Mr. Deniz told him the scavenger teams never went that far and even if they did, the houses they lived would have probably been looted by now.

But hope is a weird thing, isn’t it?

Watching the rare home-made videos that were smuggled into the Tower, usually mistaken by porn, became something he looked forward to, even if it wasn’t his family. Despite the bad lighting, unflattering angles and people speaking over one another, it was one of those few chances to have a real glimpse at what life used to be like, how people sang at birthday parties or cheered silly things like a little kid who would not fall on their butt.

Going through this stuff made him feel like that dude with the fedora and whip recovering artifacts from ancient times... even though this stuff was from just a few decades ago, plenty of them were as mysterious and unfamiliar as if they were from like Ancient Egypt or something. And did he crave that knowledge? Abso-fucking-lutely!

#playchoices #choices wake the dead #wake the dead fanfic #troy hassan #choices fanfic #wtd troy #wtd fanfic #wtd mc #malia jones (wtd mc)#brynn jones (wtd sister)#pre-canon

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rollercoasterwords · 1 year

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☕️

Okay, I want to know your feelings about Jegulus. Do you see this ship as canon in any way? What is appealing and what can be not good about it, in your book?

hahaha boy oh boy well. hm lots to unpack here let's see.

i mean first off full disclosure right off the bat i am currently. writing two jegulus fics. so! clearly i do enjoy the ship in certain contexts and think it can be quite compelling. when i first heard about it i had very little interest but i was drawn in by, of course, the opportunities for angst and tangled relationship webs and also further exploration of the dynamic sirius has with his brother.

when it comes to canon, though, i tend to be a bit iffier about jegulus. i've never written jegulus in a canon-compliant universe and don't really have a desire to, but i have read one or two interpretations of their relationship that i enjoyed. but what i enjoy about their dynamic in canon is, predictably, the angst, and the exploration of the darker aspects of regulus's character and how james deals with that darkness. and of course the pain of jily later on down the line if regulus is watching james move on and fall in love with someone else <3

in general, though, i mostly enjoy jegulus in aus. and to be honest...i don't even really read much jegulus or seek it out. like, i have 212 hp fics bookmarked on ao3 (i bookmark fics i've read + enjoyed + want to be able to find again later) and only 7 of those are jegulus. and 2 are background jegulus lmao. so!

as for what is appealing about it. i like looking at regulus as a character who has a bit of a skewed moral compass and gets tangled up in fucked-up shit and doesn't realize he's in over his head until it's too late. i think that character creates a really fun setup for all sorts of different storylines. and i like exploring james as a character who feels an intense pressure to be like...this paragon of goodness, whose goodness is then challenged by his entanglement with regulus and the lengths that he's willing to go to for a person who he knows is just...kind of fucked-up and has done fucked-up things. like which of our own morals are we willing to sacrifice in the name of love? that question really compels me in the jegulus dynamic. and of course the messy relationship between james + sirius + regulus, exploring the black family home dynamic more and the ways it shaped sirius + regulus differently, james as a focal point of like...escape and goodness that they both turn to, in a way that sort of tugs him in different directions...honestly i just think there's a lot that can be really compelling about the ship!

that being said. what can not be good about it....well. look. everyone is allowed to enjoy this ship and these characters in whatever way they want. of course!!! however. since u ASKED. i am taking this as license to be a little bit of a hater <3

i have of course already written my rambling little philosophical essay on what i think went wrong with the jegulus fandom, so i won't go in depth on the confluence of factors that turned jegulus into such a cesspit. however i will say that the reason i don't really seek out jegulus fic very much and tend to just stick to like...reading the stuff my friends write bc i know i can trust them lmao is because i think that many of the things i find compelling about jegulus in the first place sort of get stripped away in a lot of popular fanon. like if regulus isn't morally bad in some ways i do feel like...that is just not the character i'm interested in. if there is no darkness or angst to it....well. it is not my cup of tea xx also an unpopular opinion i have is that i do not particularly want regulus to have friends lmao like i just am not really a fan of the little group of friends that has been created for him...i'm so sorry but i do not think pandora and regulus black would hang out xx and i am a barty + evan hater so i simply have no desire to read about those guys either xx

the last hater note that i will add. i cannot STAND seeing timothee chalamet's face everywhere thanks 2 the jegulus fandom. i absolutely need people to stop acting like regulus was a gorgeous little twinky model (NOT! that i think timothee chalamet is gorgeous. people act like he's the paragon of divine beauty tho). sirius is the only character in my book who u can get away with fancasting as a celebrity the rest of them....well they are all just guys. timothee chalamet is also simply my parasocial enemy i want to grind that man into dust simply for the way people foam at the mouth over him when u can walk into any intro creative writing course at a liberal arts college and find five men who look exactly the same. and that's my two cents on that!

#ask

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ssawboness · 2 years

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do tell about Percy and the ghost they are haunted by

GAH i'm so glad you asked!!!

tw/cw under the cut: cannibalism, murder, talk of paranoia and delusion, etc. it all reads as much edgier than i intend it to be, but i can assure you the rest of the universe that i've placed the two in is MUCH less serious than this.

for anyone that doesn't know, this is percy! they're nineteen years old and was a medical student throughout the years leading up to their untimely but ultimately deserved death. they're my tf2 medicsona, and most of the other characters involved with them are also mercsonas to some degree, besides (most of) team bastille. the floating thing depicted as coming out of the lettering is kenneth, kenny for short, their first victim and ex-roomie turned poltergeist.

i developed a week-long hyperfixation on cannibalism and its cons, alongside associated diseases, and in that dark period of my interests, the temporary stain on god's green earth that we now all know and love to be percy emerged from the depths.

to put things simply, percy is a cannibal. they're deeply delusional, stemming from severe trauma and other unnamed mental issues, and their incessant desire to consume humane flesh and organs alike stems from a paranoia harbored deep within their brain since early childhood: as human lives are so short and the last caches of australium were emptied out just before they were born, they've deluded themself into thinking that the only way to keep themselves going... is to consume human hearts.

their paranoia festered strongly in their later teenage years, as the stress of coming of age was getting to them, and dorm life in college was just as lonely as they'd expected it to be when they entered. much to their chagrin, they and their roommate didn't get along, only exchanging a few words every morning or asking where something went, effectively isolating them even further. this drove them to their breaking point, and they finally snapped, committing their first murder; the scar on their face, accompanied by permanent nerve damage and an even more permanent ghost roomie, was the result of a fierce struggle. it was thoroughly planned; had they been caught for it, they would have been charged for first degree murder in a polite open-and-shut case. however, they weren't, for... obvious plot armor reasons.

kenneth, having been diagnosed with creutzfeldt-jakob disease only a month before being murdered, could only laugh from the grave as percy consumed his brain and as a result contracted kuru.

following the canon chronological string of events, percy doesn't live long after the symptoms start showing. maybe they die in just a month, maybe it takes five years of haunting for the illness to finally begin to fester and take control of their brain. who knows? it's all convenient for comedic timing.

backstory aside, let's talk about kenneth and percy's dynamic. before that, however, i should mention that i cannot see them being in a romantic relationship, unhealthy or not, to any degree. if you want to interpret it that way, sure! but just know they have no romantic chemistry because they genuinely hate each other and also i am smiting you where you stand.

after showing my boyfriend the concept art i'd done of my scoutsona whilst at work, his immediate thought was that of a comparison between percy and benrey from hlvrai. he's not entirely wrong, but i only realized the similarities a moment too late, so it's too late to change it i suppose. this was also before i'd decided that all my mercsonas' character roles would be correlated to each other in one way or another, for, again, comedic effect.

kenneth was also kind of fucked up, but instead of dissecting animals and eating them, he just hung out with other guys and got stoned when he didn't have to attend a lecture. he never saw much point in life, being a by-the-books historical nihilist, so he sought to enjoy himself as much as he could before it came to a close, which was much sooner than he'd have expected it to be.

this being said, what would be his motivations for staying back on an earth that never treated him kindly instead of sleeping for all of eternity, or better yet, playing checkers with whatever god was in whatever afterlife he was destined to go to?

the answer? spite.

being a ghost and all that, bystanders can't see kenneth, so he strives to make percy look as utterly insane as possible in public: yanking his hair, loudly singing in his ear, or just generally being a nuisance. he floats around being a cunt all day, but once percy dies, he'll probably be left alone. maybe not the best choice for your all-of-eternity afterlife vacay, but he'll find a way to make it work.

thank you again for the ask! i'll expand on the rest of the less gritty aspects of the team bastille universe lore if prompted.

#stoop.txt #long post #stoop asks #stoop ocs #my ocs #percy #kenneth #team bastille #tf2 #tf2 ocs

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tachiisms · 2 years

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Hold up, I'm only just now realizing this, Siri Tachi went undercover and did all that as a PADAWAN? I mean I guess she's from the pre-clone wars era where padawans could go still into their late twenties before Knighting but damn!

yes, so as far as we know, Siri went undercover while she was a Padawan. (she was 23* when she went undercover, so she was younger than Obi-Wan was in TPM when he's still a Padawan.)

I say 'as far as we know' because like I mentioned in the post that I'm assuming is what prompted this, the 'cover' that Siri would be able to fall back on if anyone ever found out her name, was that she left the Order as a Padawan. here's the passage from Path to Truth where Obi-Wan is narrating to the reader what happened when Siri left the Order two years prior to the events of this book:

"Her loyalty to Adi Gallia was unquestioned until they had fallen into a severe disagreement. Adi Gallia was known for her intuition, but not necessarily her warmth. She had taken the most severe path a Master could — she had cut loose her Padawan without recommending her for full Jedi status. Furious, Siri had left the Temple abruptly. Obi-Wan had tried to find her, but she had cut off any contact with the Temple. She had wandered the galaxy. Without her Jedi family, without any ties, she had fallen into bad company. And now she was using her skills to work with Krayn. It was an astonishing transformation, but Qui-Gon had taught Obi-Wan that he should not be surprised by the dark forces that battled within every being. Siri had battled her dark side and lost."

sooo yep! Padawan. (since as said in the previous post, I find it highly doubtful that there would have been any secret Knighting before she left, especially since she wouldn't have been able to secretly take the Trials before she left or anything.)

*I say 23 because that's what all the context clues point to except one, which personally I think is just a math error (which Jude and her editors have from time to time when listing specific numbers in time jumps lol). all context clues (except that one) point to Siri having left to go undercover right around the time of the Phantom Menace. the one that doesn't fit is that there's a prequel that says it takes place when Anakin is 7, and then a "six years later" time jump, which would mean that Anakin's 13, four years after The Phantom Menace, but that doesn't make sense with everything else we know, which is: -- Obi-Wan narrates that Anakin doesn't know that Zora used to be Siri and that Siri had been a friend of his, and everything we see of Anakin interacting with Siri/Zora is that he doesn't know who she is/has never met her -- Adi says that it's taken her two years to get to the level she's gotten to as Krayn's second in command, so if she's been undercover for two years, but there have been four years since TPM, it seems extremely implausible that Anakin wouldn't have met one of Obi-Wan's oldest friends (and at one point while Siri and Anakin are locked up together after he blows her cover he comments that he thought she hated Obi-Wan, based on the one interaction he'd seen, so he clearly has no idea that they'd been friends) --Siri takes Ferus Olin as her Padawan after returning from her undercover mission, and Ferus is a year/year-and-a-half-ish older than Anakin, and since canon at that time was that Initiates had to be chosen as a Padawan before age 13, if Anakin's 13 in Path to Truth, then Ferus would already have aged out or had a different Master and there's absolutely no indication of that anywhere in any of Jedi Quest or Last of the Jedi (whereas if Anakin is 11 in Path to Truth, then Ferus is 12, and Siri still has time to pick him when she gets back)

so it seems pretty clear that either the initial age of 7 should have been 5, or that the 6 years later should have been 4 years later, and that that was just a math error.

anyway that's probably way more than you were looking for here but this is what happens when you ask me questions! :)

#anonymous #I know right: /damn/ siri #(I love reminding people about how young she was at this time. and reminding myself.)

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lavendaers · 7 months

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i've finally gotten to a point in my life where i'm not afraid to speak. where my shadow no longer haunts me. and i don't want to lose that freedom--not again.

was that alva bratt? oh no no, that was just juliette ferrars, a canon character from shatter me. they are nineteen years old, use she/her, and are not aware that they are not actually from Washington DC. too bad they can’t stray from this city for long.

how long has your character been here: at least a year

what is your character's job: college student

where has your character been pulled from in their fandom: going right after the last book

has any magic affected your character: yes, no memories

and any other information you might find useful for us and the other members to know: ok going to go through a couple of things. some bullet points on things jullette has gone though. her touch is lethal, but she's gotten to a point where she can control it and can actually touch people without hurting them. she's also super strong and can punch the earth and cause an earthquake. badass short girl. but here is her wiki page.

she's had this kind of lethal touch for as long as she could remember. the people that raised her would mistreat her, her classmates wouldn't go near her because everyone knew that she was dangerous.

she only knew her touch could hurt someone, she never knew if she touched another person long enough, it could kill them.

not until she was 14 years old. there was a little boy. he had tripped and fell and his mother was ignoring him so juliette attempted to help him and didn't realize what was happening until it was too late.

she's then locked up until the age of 17. she's completely alone and only has a notebook that she stole to write her thoughts in.

she then gets a roommate and she realizes later, she knows him. i can't remember how long he's there for before some soldiers come one day and she thinks she's going to be killed. turns out adam was a soldier and she's introduced to warner, who wants to use her as a weapon.

she finds out that adam can touch her and through everything going on around her, it feels nice. especially since she hasn't felt another person's touch in such a long time. she and adam escape after a couple of weeks, but when it happens, she realizes that adam isn't the only one that can touch her. warner can too.

gonna ghost over what happens, but they end up with a bunch of people who also have powers. turns out, adam has powers and that's why he can touch her, but they're starting not work and her touch is starting to hurt him. he even ends up needing medical attention because of it.

they end up taking warner aka aaron now, hostage after juliette shoots his father in the legs. shit goes down at this moment okay. turns out aaron and adam are actually half brothers. yeah.

everyone finds out that aaron can touch her too. adam and juliette broke up before this but he's refusing to let go. even though her touch is hurting him now. juliette gets a lot closer to aaron and figures out why he is the way he is. they have moments, even make out before he leaves. but aaron has powers too. adam can disable others powers and aaron can take them and use them.

there ends up being this big fight and julliette is taken by aaron and adam's dad's soldiers and bombs the place all there people are at, killing hundreds before he shoots julliette in the chest.

she almost dies but there are these two healer's and though they can't touch her, they can touch aaron and he can use their power to save her and he did.

she's back in the compound when she wakes up and freaks out a little bit. but aaron helps a lot. when she decides that she wants to kill his father, he's ready for it. he hates his father a lot, but he can't kill the man. he explains a lot of what happened while juliette was there before and why he was so interested in her cause while she can't touch people, his mother has an issue where she can't be touched. she can't even move because of the pain it causes her. she's both the source of the power and victim.

i'll stop here because this is just where i stopped in the third book but please read these books. i need to scream.

#hw: intro #* juliette ferrars \ introduction.#shatter me spoilers #shatter me spoilers tw #spoilers #spoilers tw

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writingformyblorbos · 2 years

Text

It's cloudy above (Part 1) [next chapter >]

Steven Grant × gn!Reader (possible Marc × Reader and Jake × Reader in the future) Summary: You spot the cute man from the bus while buying groceries and try talking to him. A strange encounters takes place later on. Word count: 2.2k Warnings: Mugging, canon-typical violence (death, guns, you know the drill), swearing in Spanish, not proof read (taking risks is my speciality not really). a/n: This is my first fic in a loong while, but I wanted desperately to write something for Steven and make a shameless self-insert. I just love him so much. Also, I don't think I'll want to see the word mushroom in a long while. Lastly, I want to apologize in advance if i got the intricacies of London's public transport wrong, I tried to do my best as a foreigner with the most research I could. I hope you enjoy:)!!

It was late in the afternoon on Sunday, and you had gone to your nearest Tesco to stock up on groceries. You were on the vegetable isle, looking for some items from the shopping list on your phone. As you were reading what the next item on your list was, you couldn’t help but notice a familiar figure out of the corner of your eye. When you looked up, you saw the back of a man with curly hair you swore you could almost recognize. When he turned around, you couldn’t believe your eyes. ‘Could it be? There’s no way,’ you told yourself. But it was. It was him; the cute guy from the bus you had a crush on.

You would see him often on your way to work, always having dark bags under his eyes, adorned by the messy curls in his head. He seemed like the shy type, and the poor man always looked totaled, like he hadn’t had a good night’s rest in a long while, often falling asleep on the bus; there was even one time he screamed and looked frightened, which was weird, but you figured was because he'd had a nightmare. Who doesn't dream a clown is chasing them every now and again? You didn’t know that much about him, only that he would get off on Trafalgar Square and that he was a person keen on history and other intellectual stuff, judging by the hieroglyphs on his phone case and the kinds of books he would occasionally read on the bus to keep himself awake, poetry and history books of the sort —always wearing his reading glasses, of course— yet your little knowledge of him and his generally disheveled appearance didn't stop his sharp jaw, his curly hair, his beautiful brown eyes, and his intriguing interests from drawing your attention, leading you to develop a crush on him. He was the whole package, after all (smart and handsome).

But one day, he stopped boarding the bus. You figured he'd gotten a day off or he was sick, but days turned into weeks, and eventually, it had been a while since you'd last seen him. Maybe he'd switched jobs or had moved. Either way, he wasn't a part of your life anymore.

Or so you thought, up until today, seeing him going about his errands. You stared at him in disbelief. He still looked as tired as ever, you could even say he looked more tired, like he'd been working out an entire week non-stop. You wanted to ask him so many things, but there was no way you could ask him why he no longer took Bus 24 without sounding like an absolute creep. You contemplated on whether it was better to leave him alone or if you should try talking to him, but this feeling in your gut told you this might be your chance: what if you never saw him again and just lost the opportunity of a lifetime? So, you started brainstorming any kind of small talk you could spark up in the supermarket without it being awkward. Then bingo! He was holding two packets of mushrooms: one was a packet of normal mushrooms, and the other was a packet of sliced mushrooms, and he was looking at them indecisively. You could help him and go from there?

You felt absolutely ridiculous, but you had to. Your conscience would never leave you alone if you didn't. So, you mustered up all the courage you could and made you way towards him. You took a deep breath, trying to stop your hands and legs from shaking, and said:

"If I were you, I'd get the sliced ones."

"Sorry?" he asked, a bit startled by the sudden comment.

"Oh! I just, I would get the sliced mushrooms. They really help you save up time. Unless you have skewers, then you can just..." —you gestured your hands as if you were pricking an imaginary mushroom with your imaginary skewer— "stick it in the mushes and slice them".

He looked at you a bit confused, but you could also see a glimpse of surprise in his eyes.

"That's quite impressive, seems like you know your mushrooms," He chuckled, leaving the normal mushrooms in the bin they were. "I don’t happen to have skewers back at home, so I guess I'll just take the sliced ones, more practical. Thank you"

"No problem," you smiled.

Great, what now? That wasn't the most captivating conversation starter you could bring up. Perhaps it was a stupid idea to try talking to him, 'he probably thinks I'm a weirdo for talking about mushrooms' you told yourself, so you decided to turn around and get back to your business.

"Wait!" You heard from the dark-haired man, "do you happen to take Bus 24 in the mornings?"

No way. There's no way he actually recognized you. Now that you thought about it, what if he thought you were stalking him? I mean, you weren't, but anxiety often leads you to the most extreme trains of thought.

"Uhh, yeah! Yeah, I do," you answered, nervously waiting for him to get angry.

"That's mental! I remember you. You watch videos of cute animals, yeah?" He immediately looked flustered, like he regretted what he'd said, "I mean, not that I eavesdropped on what you were doing on your phone. I only saw it once."

You were relieved he wasn't angry, but also a bit amazed he'd remembered that small detail. He said he didn’t eavesdrop, but that was clearly a lie. Watching cute animals was a must in your daily commute to work though. You could see he was a bit embarrassed by his comment, so you tried to reassure him.

"Oh no, no worries. I once saw you reading a book on Ancient Egypt, right?" he affirmed with his head and seemed to be a little less afflicted, so you tried breaking the ice a bit more. "My name is (y/n). (y/n) (l/n)" you said as you offered your hand for a handshake.

He shook your hand back, with his big, calloused hands, "Steven Grant. The Steven is with a 'v'"

Steven. ‘A pretty name and very fitting,’ you thought. He indeed looked like a Steven.

"It's nice to finally know your name, Steven with a 'v'".

“Likewise, (y/n),” he nodded back, and you both stayed silent for a while, smiling and blushing.

"Well, I'll see you around then. Cheers!" he waved off. There he was, again, slipping through your fingers, like sand on the desert. Come on, had you really gone through embarrassing yourself by talking about mushrooms to just see him walk off? Steven was such a mystery, but one you wanted to know oh so desperately. It was now or never, you had to try to ask him out, or at the very least get his phone number.

"Hey! Uhm..." You called out. Steven turned his head and looked at you with those gorgeous eyes of his that made you feel all jittery inside.

"I was wondering if, I know we just formally met, but..." you started fidgeting with the keys in your pocket, trying to get the words to come out of your mouth, "Could we exchange numbers? I would really like to see you again, and I know this place that makes amazing pastries, so maybe... we could go out?"

That was it. You shot your shot. The ball was in his court now. There's nothing else you could've possibly done. It was only up to fate if—

"Yes, I'd love too."

Your eyes probably shot out of your face, similar to a cartoon, because of the way he looked at you, with a tiny bit sweet grin on his face. You were absolutely over the moon. He said yes! You swore you would’ve danced in the middle of the veggie aisle if it wasn’t considered something weird to do.

Still, you managed to stay calm on the outside and exchanged numbers with Steven. Finally, each one went on about their shopping. But on your way home, you couldn't help but feel butterflies in your stomach thinking about the next time you would see handsome Steven Grant again. Hopefully, it wouldn't be too long.

By the time you’d finished placing the groceries in their place, the sun had gone down, adorning your windows with London’s city lights.

You were sitting on your couch, scrolling through your social media. One of the hottest topics of the moment was the latest hero-related incident: some people started dropping dead for no reason in Cairo, which would be shocking news if the world didn’t seem like it was on the verge of ending every couple months. Apparently, a cult had been behind the attack, and there were two heroes involved. One was a woman with curly hair and her suit had golden wings, people started calling her the Scarlet Scarab, and there was this other man with moon motifs who seemed to be able to go from a full-on costume with cape to a fancy suit; people hadn’t come up for a name for him, yet. If it was up to you though, you’d call him the Moon Shifter, or something along those lines. You were glad you weren’t in charge of naming superheroes.

Tired of reading about this latest tragedy, you stood up and opened the nearest window to admire the nocturnal landscape, a cold breeze hitting your face; it felt oddly comforting. You glanced around the street. Nothing was out of the ordinary, just the usual noise of cars passing by. You felt as though the city was luring you out of your flat to go on some moonlit adventure around its streets.

You figured you wouldn’t be going on an adventure, but you sure as hell were starving and didn’t feel in the mood to cook, but there was a Chinese restaurant not far from your place you could get some takeout from. Determined to get your dinner, you grabbed your coat, a pair of shoes, your tote bag, and headed out into the windy streets.

As you were walking to the Chinese restaurant, you felt someone was staring at you from a distance. When you were about to turn around, someone on a moped snatched your tote bag from your shoulder and drove off.

“Hey!” You tried chasing the person with your belongings to no avail, they were long gone. Your first thought was to call the police, but your phone was inside your tote, along with your wallet. You scooped your faced and whined in desperation, feeling this empty hole in your chest. You figured your best course of action was continuing your trip to the restaurant and ask if you could borrow the phone to call the police, so you continued making your way to the restaurant in resignation.

CRASH!

There was a loud noise not so far from where you were. Weary of your surroundings due to what had just happened, you cautiously made your way to the noise. You poked your head towards the alley where it came from and, to your surprise, saw the same moped that had just mugged you crashed into a garbage container. The guy was in the floor, pleading for his life, and in front of him was a figure with a white cape who remained silent.

The caped person only took a step forward, retrieved a gun from his waist, directed it to the man, and said in a raspy voice:

“Mejor ruégale al diablo, pedazo de mierda”.

You covered your mouth to stifle the tiny yelp that escaped your mouth when the shot was fired. You felt the urge to throw up as you saw the man lay lifeless on the pavement.

“Ahí está, Jonsu. ¿Necesitas que me ocupe de alguien más hoy?” The man said nonchalantly to the air, as if he hadn’t just killed a man. Silence followed. Was he expecting someone to talk back to him? Then, he growled in desperation, “¿Qué? ¡Pero Harrow está muerto, tú mismo viste que lo maté!”

It seemed he’d gotten a response, but he wasn’t too happy about it. After a few moments of the wind talking to him, he turned around, looking directly at you.

Shit! You hid from him on the outer corner of the alley. You could hear his steps drawing nearer, but you stayed frozen in fear. He was probably going to kill you for what you’d just seen. Then, the footsteps stopped. You slowly opened your eyes and got a full view of the man. It was the superhero from Cairo, only his costume looked slicker, less mummy-like.

“This yours?” he asked with his thick accent, reaching your tote bag towards you. You nodded.

“Be more careful,” he warned as you grabbed your tote bag from his hands.

As soon as you had a hold of your bag, you made a run for it. After all, you’d just gotten mugged and had seen a man get shot, so you definitely weren’t going to stick around to chit-chat with the superhero in front of you. After running for a bit, you made it to the Chinese restaurant. You opened the door and slammed it shut, letting out a sigh of relief.

“Are you alright?” the person at the register asked. You made your way towards them and slumped down in the counter, head burried in your arms.

“Can I get the large combo?”

Another a/n: Tysm for reading! I am going to be working on a follow up to this fic, so look foward to that. I am planning on making this a Marc × Reader and Jake × Reader series , and maybe even add Layla into the mix because, lke I said at the beggining, I live vicariously through the fanfics I write and I am a bisexual disaster who would really like to be in a poly relationship with all of them.

#moon knight #moon knight series #moon knight disney+#moon knight fanfiction #moon knight fanfic #moon knight fic #moon knight x reader #moon knight x y/n #moon knight x you #steven grant #steven grant x reader #steven grant x you #steven grant x gender neutral reader #jake lockley #jake lockely x reader #jake lockely x you #jake lockley x reader #jake lockley x you #jake lockley x y/n

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spaghettificationandpretzels · 2 years

Text

The Reaper and The Death Angel Part 31

This will be the second last to the last chapter where the sexual violence of season two will be a large part of the story, as always triggers will be put between XX. Happy's getting a lot more back story, there's also a lot of highly unrealistic change to the canon, if I give the reasons it will spoil future plans.

Series Masterlist

Part 30 Snippet 4 - The Charming Gazette

Contains: Brief discussions of sexual assault and past domestic violence, angst, hurt/comfort, smut (fingering, P in V), murder involving a child, forensics. Follows the plot of 2x11 and 2x12.

6.3K words

Comment if you want to be tagged.

The only good Nazi is a dead one

"I wanted to tell you, but I'm not going to apologise for keeping her confidence."

Jax nodded, "you did the right thing, keeping her secret. You had no choice."

You nodded, "I would have kept it even if I had the choice, it's not my place to tell her story. What are you going to do about Zobelle? I don't think your dad's book covered something like this."

Jax shook his head, "if Gemma had been beaten and almost gang-raped on John's watch, he'd have written a whole different book."

Knock knock knock.

Jax took his gun out of his kutte, you both went to get up but Jax put a hand on your shoulder, "it's alright, I've got it." Clay and leaning on the wall when Jax opened the door.

"Sorry, I know it's late."

Abel was crying, "he needs food, I'll get him." Jax shook his head, "I've got it, just bring the bottle in." You nodded and went to the kitchen while Clay and Jax went into the nursery.

You waited a little while before going in, it seemed they had worked something out. You knocked on the door and handed the bottle to Jax, turning on your heel and walking away, "stay, please."

You were shocked that Clay asked. "I'm sure you know a lot more than we do."

You nodded, "I have the files in my car, some of the Anvil guys and I have been doing surveillance and recon since it happened, I know everything there is to know about all of them."

Upon seeing the file, they decided to wait till tomorrow at church to go over it. Clay left with another apology and a promise to do better by both of you.

"I'm sorry y/n."

You tilted your head, "why are you saying sorry?"

His eyes were downcast, "you've been doing everything these last few months, raising Abel, working, doing all of this, your book. I feel like I've been neglecting you."

You shook your head, "I like to stay busy Jax, it keeps me sane."

He closed his eyes, "I….I."

You cut him off, "it's done Jax, I knew what I was getting into when I started this. Things will slow down and go back to the way they used to be and you can make it up then if you feel the need. Until then, I need sleep, I have a very big day tomorrow."

*****

"Good morning beloved." You were already up and dressed when you woke Jax up, "I won't be at the Clubhouse for long, I have another thing tonight so I'll be home early morning."

Jax blinked the sleep out of his eyes, "I'll meet you there."

You waited outside the Chaple while Jax and Clay told the Club what was done to Gemma, about twenty minutes after they went in, Sam came out and got you.

"Over the last two months, I've collected enough evidence for you to be able to bring Zobelle down." You handed each of them a file.

"Zobelle and Weston get most of their muscle for a faction of the Aryan Brotherhood. Weeks before this started, I got a call from a shot caller who I met when I did my thesis, all he said was that I needed to watch my back, when I asked for clarification, he said it would take me calling in my favour." They were all listening intently.

"I saved his life, I didn't even mean to do it and I told him as a much but he went on a rant about being an honourable white man and while I never planned to cashing it in, I had to."

You continued, "I spoke to him just after Gemma was attacked, he didn't tell me much, only that Weston was on a short leash and most shot callers hated him because he had no problems recruiting sex offenders into his ranks which goes against the AB by-laws." You shrugged, "he won't cause problems for you if you kill Weston, and he'll make sure no one else does."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

You took a deep breath, "Zobelle has sanctioned gang rapes in every place he's landed, Weston has always been the leader but it's different men everytime." There was a sharp inhale from someone.

"Two of the men who assaulted Gemma are already dead, one of them was one of the men that attacked me, the one I didn't allow to speak, and the other the was the one that died from that bee sting that was in the paper. Before you go off, this was done to Gemma, I asked her if she wanted him dead and she said yes."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

No one protested, "another thing before I leave, I think Zobelle might be working with the feds. I can't do too much looking because it will set off alarm bells but I'm willing to bet he is."

Clay smiled, "any way we can prove that?"

You nodded, "if Zobelle is arrested they will have to intervene."

A resolve came over the table, "thank you."

The sentiment was shared by everyone, "as much as I would like to stay and help, I got a call while I was waiting outside, hikers found a child's body in the woods, I need to get to the scene."

****

The little girl had gone missing in Texas, when you talked to the mother, she insisted it was the father that did it. She wasn't really coherent after that. You were filing the paperwork for the cops when Happy arrived.

"Umm, Mr Lowman at the door for you."

Poor Travis, that man was a saint, "thanks T, let him in." A few seconds later, Happy was at your office door.

"Hello, you don't normally come for a visit, is everything ok?"

He didn't say anything, "is it your mum or aunt?"

He shook his head, "you doing ok?"

You nodded, "as ok as I can be. It's you I'm worried about, you have been very quiet these last few weeks, even Sam brought it up."

He rubbed his face, "it's a lot to deal with."

You sat down next to him, "I imagine this is bringing up some very unpleasant memories." There was a flash of surprise on his face.

"I did a pretty extensive background check before I moved. I know you're father, if you could call him that lived with you on and off. I also know that your mother had multiple trips to the hospital when he was living with you. However, each time something happened to you, he left." Happy swallowed.

"I also know that he was killed in what appeared to be a gang shooting when you were sixteen. But I don't believe that for one bit, the way he went indicates that it was very personal, broken fingers, shot multiple times after death, whoever killed him was filled with rage." His head dropped.

"I don't blame you for protecting your mother, and I know there's a very deep, dark part of you that worries you're just like him. But I also know you've never killed a woman, and all the women at CaraCara and the Club hang arounds love you. None of this is your fault and you can't blame yourself for what's happened." His head fell against your shoulder and you reached up to rub his scalp.

"I know it comes from a good place, and the anger you're feeling now seems righteous but it will just cloud your judgement." He was too far into his own head to listen.

"The reason I'm so hardcore on inmates' rights is because of what I experienced when I wrote that paper. I worked in the three gang units most of the time, but when it came time to write a clinical sexology paper on sex offenders, I went to a different pod. It was in the same building as the gang pods just down a long hallway." He seemed to be listening a little more now.

"Whenever I would go back to the gang pods, I would get questions, my answers would often be followed by some violent fantasy one of them had about getting inside the unit."

He nodded, "then a riot broke out and they did get inside. I've never seen so many rival gangs working together, I could hear the screams for the other end of the building. I thought the violence would stay in the pod but I was wrong, I went to get something for the commissary which had been broken into, on the way I walked by a bathroom." Happy had an idea about what you were going to say.

"When I looked in, four men were skinning a child molester alive. I locked eyes with one of them and kept walking, it felt good, I felt vindication for the victims that monster had left behind."

He swallowed, "what I'm trying to say is that I understand why you've been feeling so off, but there's a reason they say revenge is a dish best served cold. Your anger won't help, calm calculation is far more terrifying than rage."

He sat up, "thank you."

You smiled, "feeling better now?"

He nodded, "yeah, Jax is lucky to have you."

He stood up with you and you gave him a hug, "you know my number, if you want to talk about anything, I'm here."

Without another word, he left.

****

It was later in the day when you got home, Jax jumping as you walked into his bedroom. There were some boxes already stacked in the corner but he was busying himself gathering his guns.

"Hey, I thought you were at work."

You shrugged, "it seems pretty open and shut. A father kidnapped his little girl, she had a medical episode and died. The cops already suspected him so my work's done until the test are back."

He nodded, "did you see my mum?"

You shook your head, "no Happy stopped by to talk about some things but I talked to her over then phone, she's pretty numb. I'll keep an eye on her until I have to leave for the other thing."

Jax smiled softly, "thank you."

Jax walked up to you, picking up your hand and bringing it to his lips, "I love you."

You smiled, "I love you too." Jax walked away, you stopping him before he could get out of inside voice range, "do you want me to take these boxes to my place?"

"Please Darlin."

****

You went to T-M to see your brother, only to be greeted by Tig, "hello, is Sam here?"

He shook his head, "out with Jax looking for Weston."

You nodded, "thank you." You were about to leave when Tig pulled you into the garage then into the Clubhouse.

"You don't like me very much, do you?"

You took a deep breath, "I will not lie to you, the answer is no."

He crossed his arms over his chest, "why?"

You straightened up, "because you're a disloyal coward. Not only did you go after a member without the Club's approval but you killed his wife because you couldn't stand to look your friend in the face before you shot him in cold blood."

You put up a hand when he went to defend himself, "Stahl didn't pull the trigger, Stahl didn't choose to not identify the target before firing the gun, Stahl didn't keep the truth from Opie, you did." He was taken aback by your frankness.

"I imagine Clay let you know that I knew?"

He nodded, "I found your hair, it popped on the database. All I can say to you is that I betrayed my most sacred morals on your behalf and now you are indebted to me. I'm not going to tell you to tell Opie, you need to come to that on your own." He looked lost in thought.

"Do you know the fable of the scorpion and the frog?"

He nodded, "I can't fault you for what you did because I believe it's in your nature, you didn't kill Donna by mistake because you loved Opie, you killed Donna by mistake because it's in your nature to be weak spined."

You turned when you heard Opie's bike, "speaking of the frog."

He stopped you from walking away. "I wanted to talk to you because I'm going to tell him, now in fact, I just wanted to know if you thought of me the way I think you do."

You nodded, "I probably think far worse of you than you know, Mr Tragger, but perhaps if you choose to take full responsibility for your actions, you will change my mind. If part of me didn't think there was some good in you, we wouldn't be having this conversation." With one last look, you left.

Tig swallowed and took a deep breath, walking over to Opie as he was fixing the old bike he found on the highway. Tig didn't know where to start, after a brief mention of Gemma he asked Opie why Donna was driving the car that night.

Opie clued in pretty quickly, then Tig fully admitted it. He thought back to what you said about Stahl not being the one to pull the trigger but there was a part of him that didn't want to admit that it was his fault so he went for the middle ground.

"Stahl put bugs in your car, made you look like a rat. Clay and I didn't want to bring it to the Club, we were worried about it ruining the charter so we decided to deal with it ourselves."

Opie didn't care, he was punching Tig like he was trying to kill him. Tig for his part, did the honourable thing and took each blow. Jax pulled into the lot and stopped it before it could get worse.

Once Opie had walked away Tig went into explaining what had happened, "I had to tell him."

Clay was mad, "tell him what?"

Tig was looking at the grey sky, "that I killed Donna."

There was a charge in the air, Jax ran off to stop Opie from killing Stahl and the rest of them stood around staring at Tig and Clay. Chibs out a firm hand on Tig's arm, "I'll clean you up."

****

Sam had turned up at your office just after you did, "'Tig said you were looking for me?"

He nodded, "yeah, after what just went down, everyone's staying away from T-M."

He sat on the couch, "that's understandable, have you seen Ope?"

He nodded, "he just got back, he went after Stahl but he didn't do anything." You breathe a sigh of relief.

"I don't blame him if he hates us, we did keep it from him."

Sam nodded, "I know, why did you want to see me?"

You smiled, "I need you to keep the Club distracted tonight, nothing serious I just want them away from Mainstreet for a few hours around midnight."

Sam nodded, "I can do that easy, I'll just say you're doing more recon on Zobelle and don't want to spook him."

You clapped your hands, "great."

Sam shook his head, "what are you planning?"

You smiled again, messing around with the papers on your desk, "all will be revealed."

Sam shook his head, "how did it go with church?"

Sam took a deep breath, "Opie doesn't want it to escalate, he says he's staying."

You rubbed your face, "he's a better man than me, I would have shot both of them the moment I had the proof. He has every right to hate us for keeping this from him."

Sam nodded, "I know."

You titled your head, "are you hiding something?"

He smirked, "Piney almost killed Clay."

You could hold back the smile, "good for Piney."

Sam went over to the table and got himself a cup of coffee, "Your recon panned out, it looks like Zobelle might be looking to work with another Club."

Sam handed you a cup, "who?"

"Calaveras MC, Alvarez hates the guy but he isn't willing to do much more than voice his support for the Club to be gotten rid of."

You waved your arm "this is too much for me, I can't put out that fire too."

Sam nodded, "yeah, this is Clay's bed, he's going to have to lay in it."

"Agreed."

****

Sam had put dinner on the table, it was pretty quiet for most of the meal, "how was work today?"

You shrugged, "the case was rough but the father confessed just after he was arrested, I'll be into the next one in two days once the paperwork clears."

"Did you and Lyla get the distribution contract?"

Ima nodded, "yeah, four more paid porn sites are taking on the Saffron Sisters."

Sam smiled, "what about the underwear line?"

She shook her head, "it's been put on hold because of a problem with the fabric production, we're trying to secure another American manufacturer."

"Have you asked Francine? She might be able to hook you up with someone."

Ima nodded, "good idea, I'll go with Luanne tomorrow."

Sam chimed in, "if she does give you the option, it's a bonus that you can say it's all small business based."

Jax laughed, "since when did you all become business people?"

Sam chuckled, "nah, I think that's just y/n and Ima." The rest of the night was very much the same until Derek's car horn sounded outside your front door.

"Well lovelies, that's my ride, I'll be back at around three. Don't wait up."

****

"Oh hello."

Aden was in the backseat waiting for Derek to talk to you, "I thought we could use the extra pair of hands."

You drove Jacob Hale's office under darkness, waiting until the street was empty to get out and start. It took a matter of minutes for it to be done. There was no need to worry about cameras, small chips on your shirts caused CCTV within a certain range to show nothing but static.

You got home just after two-thirty, Jax was awake rocking Abel back and forth when you went into the shower, "I thought I told you not to wait up."

He chuckled, "I didn't want to but Abel did, he's such a momma's boy." You towelled off your hair and took him from Jax's arms.

"Don't listen to him little one, he's just jealous because you're a cool baby and he's a boring adult."

Jax shook his head, "did you do what you needed to do."

You nodded, "yeah, you might want to take Mainstreet to work tomorrow, there's a surprise along the way." Once Abel had calmed down, you put him back into his crib and went to bed.

"Good night y/n."

"Good night beloved."

*****

Jax was a little excited when he woke up, running downstairs to shove breakfast into his mouth while Sam chastised him about getting the hiccups. Ima was glued to the paper, reading it with an increasingly angry expression.

"What is it Darlin?" She shook her head and closed the paper and passed it to him, the front-page story was pretty to the point.

"Fascists at our door."

Jax sped through the article, he had read enough of your books to know that you at least wrote the draft.

"On the second of September 1945 World War Two ended and the world celebrated as the Nazi scourge was wiped off the face of the planet, but this is not the case in our small town. A place where there are people from all different walks of life, including a Holocaust survivor and his decedents, come to live a quiet, small-town life, Charming is now host to a group of violence Neo-Nazi and their supporters."

There were four photos of Ethan Zobelle and his men, surrounded by Nazi propaganda.

"Worse still, one of Charming's most promising sons is leading the charge, Jacob Hale." Another photo of Hale shaking hands with more than one of the men.

"Is this the man you want as our Mayor?"

Jax smiled, yelling a quick goodbye and kissing Ima on the cheek before getting on his bike and driving up Mainstreet. When he drove past Hale's office there was a huge crowd gathered out front, he parked his bike and got off, the group moving aside at the sight of his kutte.

He didn't know whether to smile or jump for joy, the whole front of the office was covered in blown-up photos. Jacob shaking hands with Zobelle and his men, pictures of the men next to their rap sheet filled with hate crime convictions and violent offences. Close-ups of their racist tattoos and photos of Zobelle and his men throwing up the Fascist salute with Hale in the crowd.

The last few photos really took his eyes, David Hale punching his brother, David Hale arresting some of Zobelle's men and two of him leaving Weston's place waiting for CPS to arrive.

At the top of the door, in messing red spray paint, was a statement that really hammered it home.

"A Nazi collaborator works here."

The people were enraged, he could overhear some of them talking about going to Impeccable Smokes to send a message. Jax got on his bike and headed to T-M, when he got there, everyone was reading The Charming Gazette and talking about what they saw at Hale's office.

Clay came up smiling, "I guess we'll never have to worry about Hale developing Charming."

Jax shook his head with a smile, "no, we won't." Jax went into the dorm and called you.

"Did you see it, did you see it?"

He laughed at your childish tone, "yeah Darlin, I saw it."

He could hear a soft squeak over the line, "yay! As much as I would love to brag, I'd rather do it in person tonight."

Jax shook his head, "alright, keep your secrets. I love you, I hope you know that."

"I love you too Jackson, now get out there and have fun, I'm sure Hale will come crawling for PR some time today."

****

The whole incident was the talk of the town, Jacob Hale started his day by being greeted at his door by his brother and some deputies, "something has happened at the office, we're here to take you there safely."

When he got there, the people milling around started jeering and spitting. David raised his voice, "we're not going to stop you from exercising your first amendment rights but you need to clear a path."

It was the same story with Zobelle but he had his goons standing outside four abreast, he pulled Weston aside, angrily ranting in the back.

"Do we know who did this?"

Weston shook his head, "no but I know what happened to the two men we sent to Teller's bitch's house." He pulled an envelope out of his pocket, opening it to show a tanned tattoo, a Norse symbol. There was a note along with it.

"The only good Nazi is a dead one."

Zobelle shook his head, "I thought we tracked their phone to the Mexico border?"

Weston nodded, "we did, there was traffic footage of them in the car at the border."

Zobelle rubbed his face, "it seems we underestimated all of SAMCRO's women. We need to change plans, the people of Charming no longer want us here."

Weston left without another word.

Jacob Hale's day only got worse, when it was clear the photos weren't just going to come off, he went to hire the local pressure washing company but was turned down. His lawyer said suing The Gazette would just make him look even worse since they had proof which meant it wasn't deformation and half his investors had cancelled by midday.

David, on the other hand, had already been thanked more than once. One person even asked if he and his brother were really related. Unser had pulled him aside and asked if he knew who did it, he had an idea after thinking back to your comment about handling his brother in public, he was sure it was you, but he wasn't going to say that.

There was no way he wouldn't make sheriff now, no matter what his brother did.

****

"Nazi scum at the door for you y/n."

You weren't surprised, "Hale?" Travis gave an affirmative grunt, "check him for weapons, thoroughly, then send him in." It took a little longer for Hale to arrive at your door.

"What do you want?"

He walked in, doing his best to ignore the death stares from the other staff, "I….I. Did you have anything to do with this?"

He showed you the newspaper, and you shook your head, "no, nor did I have anything to do with what happened at your office."

He took in your nasty smile, "again, what do you want?"

He shook his head, "stop wasting my time, I warned you what would happen and you didn't listen. What happened is your fault, now get lost or I will be responsible for what happens next. I'm sure the Feds would love to know where your money is going."

You pressed the intercom, "please come and remove this man from my office, I can't stand to look at him one moment longer."

****

The second Jax got in the door, you were being picked up and kissed, "you are a genius woman, I think that was the most amazing thing I've seen in years."

You smiled and returned the kiss, "which Hale showed up first?"

Jax rubbed your nose with his, "David, he just came to ask if we knew anything, then he apologised again for even thinking about working with them."

"What did Jacob turn up for?"

Jax smirked, "he wanted to borrow detailing equipment, half of Charming were there bringing their grievances about him to Clay so it didn't go over well." You put a hand on his arm, gesturing for him to help you get dinner ready.

"It won't matter, he'll need a special solvent to get both the paint a glue off. Did Jerry call Clay?"

He nodded, 'yeah, Clay and some of the other guys made comments, they're going to be published tomorrow. Did you make one?"

You nodded, "yep, I even mentioned that I brought my concerns about Zobelle and the League to both Hale's and only David listened. I can't wait to read the story." Jax wrapped his arms around your waist while you made the sauce, "it will help with the charges too, I imagine the people of Charming are far more supportive of the Club's actions now?"

Jax kissed your neck, "yep, we got it all day long, some people are going to write letters of support to the court." As you got dinner on the table and Sam and Ima wandered in, Jax whispered in your ear, "I hope you're not planning on any more fun tonight, because I need to thank you for all your hard work."

****

The night was enjoyable, Ima had to leave the table more than once to talk to Luanne about more movie requests "sorry about that, we've been getting a lot of requests since we expaned."

They cleaned the dishes while you fed Abel and put him to bed. Jax was waiting for you when you got to the bedroom, pulling you into his lap as you climbed into bed.

"I missed you."

You giggled, "it's been like a week."

He leaned down and kissed your neck, one of his hands coming up to stroke your nipple through your shirt, "you know I can't get enough of you."

You shifted further into his lap, pressing your chest closer to his, "you're very warm."

Jax lifted his eyebrows, "yes, and your hands are very cold." You smiled and ran them over his belly under his shirt, Jax twitching away from you before taking his shirt off and bringing your hands to kiss his lips to kiss them.

You leaned back slightly so Jax could pull your top off, his lips wrapping around one nipple while his fingers brushed the other, you sat and on your knees for a moment to pull your underpants off, Jax's free hand going to your centre.

"Shit, you're wet, I guess you missed me too."

You giggled and kissed his cheek, "truth? Last night kind of got me going, I forgot how intoxicating adrenalin can be" Jax smirked against your skin, his middle and index fingers making lazy circles around your clit.

He slid two fingers inside you as you wrapped your arms around his torso, his fingertips were rubbing your G-spot with practised expertise, his lips never leaving your skin.

"Jax please, I want you inside me."

He smirked against your skin, his fingers rubbing a little harder, "I am inside you Darlin."

You turned your head a bite his skin, "I want your cock inside me." He pulled his fingers out, sucking them into his mouth before shifting so he could take off his boxers.

"I can do that." Jax wrapped his arm around your lower back and helped you lift yourself up while his other hand held his cock in place. You pressed your lips to him as you slid down, the hand on his cock moving to your clit.

"That's it." Jax hands never left your skin, his lips moving from yours to your neck at random, your chests were pressed together and your hands clutched his back.

One of his hands moved over your crow, his fingertips rubbing gently. "I love you so much."

You were holding onto him like a koala, your hips moving in time with his, "I love you too Jackson."

The fingers on your clit sped up and you tighten your arms around him, "fuck you feel so good."

"Jax, please."

He buried his head in your neck, "I know Darlin, I'm right behind you." You moaned into his ear, Jax grunted as the sweet sound reached his brain.

His breath caught in his throat as you contracted around him, "fuck."

His fingers sped up further, "come on, give me one more." You were powerless to deny him, your nails digging into this skin as you peeked again.

His teeth met your neck as he came inside you, he was breathing heavily, his forehead pressed to yours. "Shit I missed you."

You lifted your hand, brushing hair off his face, "I missed you too." You rubbed your noses together, Jax smiling softly, "I love you."

"I love you too beloved." Jax got up and got a cloth to clean you up, throwing the blanket over you once you returned from the bathroom.

"Are you packed for the lockdown tomorrow?"

You nodded, "all packed, I've basically got an OR in my bag."

He laughed softly, "it will all be over soon and things will calm down. Nothing else is going to happen to you, I promise."

You nodded and kissed his neck, rolling over to lay your head on his chest, "I know, we're all going to be ok."

****

There was a rush to get to the Clubhouse; you, Lyla and Ima arrived a little early to help with the food and drink. Soon enough, the Clubhouse was full of people and music was playing over the speakers.

Jax signalled for the music to be cut off and Tig yelled out, "EVERYBODY, LISTEN UP." Clay walked to the middle of the room and cleared his throat, "I wanted to welcome you all to Club Reaper, I'm glad you made your reservations early because as you can see, we're all full."

He continued talking up the Club and after the show with Jacob Hale's office, everyone was supportive. With a shout and a round of applause, they left for the chapel.

The plan was simple, convince the Irish that Hayes and his kid were the rats and not Chibs. Next was talking to Weston, it took all of Jax's self-control not to kill the man the moment he saw him.

"It seems your great white hope only cares about one colour, green. He's dealing heroin with the Calaveras."

Weston screwed his face up after Opie made a comment about the guns, "you're talking out of your ass."

Jac shook his head, "I followed Zobelle and some of his guys, they met with Salazar and left with a duffle of heroin." The conversation went on, becoming more and more heated, then Opie was pulling Jax away.

"Say hi to your kids for me."

*****

To say O'Phelan was unimpressed was an understatement, he was already in shit with the kings but his right-hand man turning rat was just the time of the iceberg. Needless to say, he caved to SAMCRO's demands without protest.

He had to come up with a plan so he didn't face the same wrath that Hayes was going to, it was just a matter of how he was going to swing it.

*****

"Hey Kip, how are you feeling."

He had stopped by the Clubhouse to get something to eat with his medication, "disappointed."

You put a hand on his shoulder, "I'm sorry it turned out like that, medical technology is always adapting and advancing soon enough, the VA will be signing you up for another kind of implant. It's just a matter of waiting."

He nodded, "I don't know if I want one, I thought it would change how I felt about getting blown up but other than looking differnt, I felt the same."

You nodded, "all that matters is that you're happy."

To your surprise he hugged you, "thank you, for you know, always being nice to me."

You returned the hug in earnest "no worries Eddie."

****

To Weston's rage, they were right. After killing everyone at the warehouse, he went off to get revenge for all the lies he was told. But Polly pointed a gun at his face and he didn't get his righteous vengeance.

To make matters worse, he was called to the station, his children were being taken from him.

Jax was there when he arrived, standing off the side smugly. "I see your kids are taking that little trip I arranged."

Weston managed to keep his anger under control, "son of a bitch, you wanna kill me, time and place."

Jax smirked, "access road, timberland, eight o'clock, your ten best against mine."

Jax got within breathing distance of him, "either you or me, goes home in a bag."

"I'll be there."

****

Jax breathed a sigh of relief, even after Chibs and Jimmy'o butted heads, they still got their guns and went to put the rest of their plan in motion. ATF showed up right on time, looking around for the Irish and their guns, they found nothing but two deads rat in a crate.

"Can we go now?"

Bobby snarked, "maybe we should wait for gold PD, file some assault charges."

Just before they left, Chibs sat a bloody mouthful on the floor, "you hit like a girl."

****

Everyone was standing in the lot, you were talking to Jax in a hushed tone, "do whatever you need to do to come back to me my love."

He nodded, kissing you softly, "everything's going to be ok." With one last kiss, he left you a climbed on his bike, your brother giving you a soft nod as if to say, I'll look after him.

Gemma pulled you, Lyla and Ima into her arms, kissing Lyla and Ima on the cheek, "it will be alright. Let's get everyone inside."

****

The sun had set by the time they got out there, the air was buzzing with tension so thick it could be cut with a knife. It was just like they had expected with the Ayrayns pulled up, there was way more than ten of them and they were armed to the teeth.

"Whatever happened to ten on ten, no weapons?"

Weston snarled, "fair is for losers, I'd like to win."

Jax smirked, "yeah me too." He waved his head and Tig whistled, then Niners, Mayans and the triads were coming out of the bushes just as armed.

"Put your weapons down."

Weston signalled and the guns were dropped, "let's just stick to the plan."

With a war cry, the two sides met. It was a bloody fight, blows were traded back and forth and the sound of fists hitting flesh filled the air. Jax considered snapping Weston's neck, Sam had shown him how to do it with speed and precision but he thought back to what he had added on at the end.

"I don't like to do it that often."

"Why?" Sam smiled.

"Because it's very quick."

Just as Jax felt some kind of relief from his burning rage, the cops showed up, "this isn't finshed." Weston took the shove, "I'm not going anywhere."

Hale was angry but let them go, so they put the second part of their plan in motion and headed to Zobelle's. The place was a bit of a mess when they got there, Unser was already waiting in the store, the windows having been broken by angry residents.

It didn't seem like Zobelle was there at first but after Clay put a gun to his daughter's neck, he came from the back, "Poly, Poly." Tig grabbed his and Opie pulled him in front of Clay.

"What do you want?"

Clay sounded calm, "to talk, outside Charming."

But Zobelle wasn't having it, "if you want to kill me, do it here on Mainstreet." Clay was fine with that, shoving Zobelle to his knees.

Then Hale showed up, his chest puffed out. "I got this deputy, there's been no crime here." Hale looked over the scene, after a moment of thought, he turned on his heel and started to leave.

"Officer, my daughter and I are in possession of illegal narcotics. There's a load of them under that cash register in the centre drawer." The officer looked under the drawer and pulled out a foil-wrapped block.

"It's here."

Zobelle yelled his demand, "there arrest us, do it." Hale hauled Zobelle onto his feet, the other snarling at him as they were walked out. Jax leaned in close just before they left.

"We're going to kill you." He meant it with every fibre of his being.

Part 33

I hope everyone liked it, it's another chapter that's a bit all over the place but if I included every plot point in each episode, it would will a million words long. Season 2 concludes next chapter.

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sunwoo-hoo · 3 years

Text

↣ the boyz reaction to s/o feeling stressed

↳ a/n: hello my lovelies! we are back with another tbz reaction! side note, with every reaction i get it’s going to be canon with my ‘as your boyfriend series’ so keep that in mind when requesting. this is for the lovely anon who requested this. i hope you enjoy it. ☻ 18+ due to language

↳ genre: fluff? slight angst? i don’t even know someone tell me

↳ requested? yes

↳ send me your requests here!

↳ word count: 3.4k

↳ the boyz x fem reader

「 Lee Sangyeon 」

you normally weren’t one to get stressed out often but when your job decided to give you a promotion you weren’t expecting the extra workload it would bring

you got assigned to one of the major projects your company was working on and slowly but surely you felt your energy draining with each day passing by

even though sangyeon was extremely busy as well he was worried about you

after coming home from a long day of practice sangyeon noticed when you weren’t in the front foyer to give him his welcome home kiss like you usually did

as he walked to your bedroom he saw you sitting by the desk typing away at your computer

as he made his way towards you he squatted down slightly to give you a warm cheek kiss

“hey baby, how about you take a break huh? you’ve been working so hard, let me cook something for you” he insisted

“hmm? oh.. okay, i’m sorry sangyeon, work has been driving me up the wall lately i didn’t mean to shut you out” you mumbled

he gave you a small smile as he stroked your cheek before replying “don’t worry about it baby i just don’t want you to overwork yourself” he said

during your break sangyeon is cooking you dinner, listening to all your troubles and even trying his best to help you with your project. by the end of the night expect a lot of cuddles and kisses.

「 Jacob Bae 」

stress was something you’ve always experienced, especially being a university student finishing your final year

jacob was super supportive of your dreams always helping you study in any way he can

sometimes even distracting you to get your mind off it so that you wouldn’t burn out

but as final exams were just around the corner you were so stressed to the point that you cried and threw your book across the table in frustration

jacob turned his head and quickly took notice since he was only a couple of feet away reading a book which he swiftly set down and rushed to your side

“oh babe, don’t cry please, i promise it’s going to be okay” he whispered as he wiped your tears away

you completely broke down sobbing uncontrollably onto jacob’s sleeve as he held you close giving you hushed praise

“how about we go and rest for a little? a nap would be good for you” he softly asked as you simply nodded

jacob helped you up as you made your way to your bedroom where he made it relaxing as possible turning on the air humidifier and lighting a lavender candle. he also made sure that the curtains were closed so that the room was dark enough to fall asleep to

soon enough your drifting into a calming sleep in jacob’s arms.

「 Kim Younghoon 」

it had been 3 months since you’ve started dating kim younghoon, your relationship was everything you could’ve dreamed of. it was absolutely perfect with no flaws what so ever.

with all that in mind you started to wonder why you both hadn’t exchange i love you’s. you knew younghoon felt strongly for you, always making sure you were taken care of, constantly hugging and kissing you.

the whole situation started to stress you out and make you second guess everything

you loved younghoon but you had to admit you were a bit apprehensive on saying it first, since you didn’t know what younghoon’s response would be.

he could’ve said it back, or worse, not say anything at all.

one evening when younghoon was sleeping over your place you decided then and there that you were going to muster up your courage and finally say the three words you’ve been stressing over.

as you both were watching t.v his arms draped over your shoulders you looked up over at younghoon who was fixated on the drama that was playing. you cleared your throat

“younghoon.. i have to tell you something… something i’ve been wanting to tell you for awhile now” you announced hesitantly

as he looked over at you he adjusted his body to fully look at you face on

“really? i actually have something to say as well” he replied

your ears perked as you continued “how about we say it at the same?”

he nodded smiling before counting down “3…2…1..”

“i love you” you said “i’m in love with you” he whispered

you breathed the biggest sigh of relief before sliding in his lap giving him the softest kiss as you felt younghoon’s arms around your waist

「 Lee Hyunjae 」

your relationship with hyunjae was many things, exciting, passionate, intense. never in a million years would you think it would be stressful, or let me rephrase: you never thought it would be this stressful

you received a text message from hyunjae one afternoon saying that he needed to talk to you and that it was important

at that moment your mind was going through so many options on what it could be, your thoughts becoming worse and worse.

oh god is this it? he wants to beak up with me

did he cheat on me? i’ll fucking kill him if he did

oh my god what if he’s not in love with me anymore?

as your mind was going a mile a minute you finally broke out of your daze when your friend who you were out to lunch with told you that it probably wasn’t all that bad and that you should trust hyunjae.

when the evening finally rolled around you went to visit hyunjae just right when he got home from practice.

“hey baby” he smiled giving you a peck on the lips, giving him a small you replied “hey” back as you two sat on the sofa

“so what’s going on?” you asked as you were rubbing your palms against your knees trying to get rid of the sweat

hyunjae instantly noticed your anxious aura and grabbed your hands holding them tightly giving them a kiss

“well, we’ve been dating for almost a year now and i think it’s time.. for you to meet my parents” he said proudly

you blinked a couple of times as your brain still hadn’t registered the information he just said

“i want them to meet the girl i’m madly in love with” he continued

when you finally heard his words your first instinct was to hit hyunjae’s arm

“ah! hey! what was that for?” he shouted rubbing his arm

“jesus christ hyunjae i thought you were breaking up with me!” you shouted back

he laughed grabbing your waist pulling you close on his lap putting his head in the crook of your neck “i could never” he whispered giving your neck a light kiss

「 Lee Juyeon 」

to say that you were having a bad week was the understatement of the year.

it all started when you caught the flu, you felt horrible. it was constant sneezing, throwing up, runny nose, all of it.

you started to feel stressed when juyeon risked his safety getting sick to take care of you. you especially didn’t want him getting sick when the boyz comeback was nearly a month away.

you told him that you could take care of yourself, but juyeon didn’t take no for an answer.

you had to admit even though you were sick you couldn’t deny that you loved having juyeon with you 24/7 he was being the perfect boyfriend getting you tea, wet cloths for your forehead, and making sure you took your medicine every night.

“open your mouth, good girl” he praised putting the spoonful of medicine in your mouth

“you know if i wasn’t sick you would be saying those exact words another way” you teased coughing slightly

juyeon smirked and kissed your forehead in response

slowly but surely after a week you were starting to feel better but then your sickness hit juyeon as predicted delaying the comeback for nearly two weeks.

「 Kevin Moon 」

it was a hard month for kevin, the boyz comeback had just started and he was stressing over all the performances and interviews wanting to make sure that each one was up to his standards

it was so bad that all his stress levels were slowing creeping up on you making you become stressed yourself

it was starting to effect your relationship and you knew you had to do something quick before you and kevin would get into a fight you were not mentally prepared for

the comeback was closing in on it’s last week and you had decided to make one evening extremely special pampering kevin.

you decided to make his favorite meal, wearing your sexy yet tasteful red dress, with your black lacy bra and matching panties for later activities.

as kevin walked into your apartment he noticed you immediately smiling at your attire

“hey babe, what’s all this?” he asked pointing to all the candles and dim lighting

“what do you mean? can’t i do something special for the man i love?” you replied innocently walking up to him giving him a soft kiss on the lips

as kevin deepened the kiss your back found it’s way to the cold wall behind you as kevin started to trail kisses along the side of your jaw making his way down to your neck

you were excited it wasn’t often that kevin was a dom but you had pressing matters to attend to first

“k-kevin wait… i want to talk first” you whimpered as he finally reached your sweet spot

kevin stopped immediately to your words and gave you a quick peck on lips before nodding

you grabbed his hand and made your way to the dining table where the food was most likely cold by now and sat down on the chair

“kev, i just wanted to talk about how you’ve been so stressed with this comeback and everything it’s.. it’s starting to effect our relationship” you mumbled

he sighed and agreed “i know it has, and i’m so sorry for that babe” he said grabbing your hand as he continued “i’ll promise to be better about it, you know that i don’t want to ruin what we have. i love you”

you smiled feeling 100 times better about the situation giving kevin a kiss on the cheek

you lightly laughed as you pulled apart “the dinner is totally cold now by the way”

“let’s just order a pizza, it probably wasn’t that good anyway” he teased before you shoved him playfully in response

「 Choi Chanhee 」

what was suppose to be a relaxing day off spending it with your boyfriend choi chanhee it drastically changed into a nightmare

you both decided to spend the day shopping for some new clothes together

at first you thought it was a cute idea, thinking you would get matching couple outfits so that you can coordinate for the upcoming summer season

but it quickly turned into a stressful day when chanhee wanted you to try on every shirt, every dress, and pants, you were starting to regret this little outing until you finally snapped at him

“love, you would look so cute in this why don’t you-”

“no!” you yelled quickly covering your mouth at your sudden outburst in public

chanhee gave you a puzzled look not expecting your sudden change in mood

you quickly apologized not wanting to start a fight in public, pulling him to the side of the store where it was secluded from prying eyes

“chanhee… i’m sorry it’s just i’m tired i thought this would be fun but it’s stressing me out, it’s all too much” you sighed looking down at your shoes

chanhee pushed a strand of your hair behind your ear and lifted your head up with his index finger

“oh love, don’t apologize i should be the one apologizing i’m sorry for being excited, i just wanted to have a fun day with you, let’s go home okay?” he reassured kissing your temple

「 Ji Changmin/Q 」

you had it all planned out, you were going to introduce your friends to your wonderful boyfriend ji changmin

you ultimately thought that they should finally meet him after dating for nearly 4 months

at first you had no idea why you decided to wait this long, considering you already met all the members and were close to each of them

you were extremely nervous and stressed for their first interaction you just wanted everything to be perfect with smooth sailing

changmin was going to meet two of your closest friends who were also a couple themselves

it was a chilly fall day when you all decided to meet up at a nearby cafe changmin’s hand in yours trying to warm it up blowing on it while pressing kisses

“don’t worry babe, it’s all going to work out fine” he smiled easing your nervousness

when you finally made it to the cafe your friends were already waiting and quickly made introductions

they easily took noticed when changmin ordered your drink he knew you loved and paid for everything with his card as your friends gave you hushed whispers

“wow, he’s such a gentlemen” she gushed “yeah, and he even knew your order by heart” he replied giving you a thumbs up

you smiled when changmin returned with both of your orders giving you a cheek kiss when he sat down

to your surprise the conversation between the four of you went smoothly changmin easily wooing them with his charms and cheerful aura

your friends especially had a million questions when it came to his idol life out of general curiosity

changmin didn’t mind at all answering every single one with ease even laughing at the humorous ones

your heart melted at the interaction when you realized in the end you had nothing to worry about

「 Juhaknyeon 」

you knew juhaknyeon always loved your home cooking as he was always excited whenever he came home from practice knowing he would have a hot meal ready for him

but this time was different, you weren’t just cooking for him but cooking for his parents who so happen to be visiting you two

you met juhaknyeon’s parents before who were very down to earth and humble people always making you feel welcomed

but you had to admit you were a bit stressed trying to live up to the expectations

it was less than a couple of hours away before they would be arriving and you were running around the supermarket with juhaknyeon on your tail

“babe, slow down your gonna run out of energy” he grunted breathing heavily

“juhak you don’t understand your parents opinion mean the world to me, i want them to love my cooking” you said looking down at your hands trying to decide between the beef or pork belly

juhaknyeon gave you a side hug pulling you close “they are going to love whatever you make, because i love it too” he promised kissing the top of your head

when you finally made it back to the dorms and cooked up a storm that would’ve fed all 11 members juhakyeon��s parents finally made an appearance

after the quick greetings and the light scolding from juhak’s mother telling him to keep his room neater she finally took in your food spread

“wow! it all looks amazing [name] i’m sure it taste wonderful too” she smiled warmly pinching your cheek lightly

when you all finally sat down to eat you anxiously waited for juhakyeon’s parents comments

after a couple of bites juhak’s mother proudly exclaimed “it’s delicious [name] really! everything taste amazing, i’m so happy our son found someone who can feed him like this” she praised

you bowed your head thanking her for her positive comments as haknyeon grabbed your hand under the table squeezing it giving you a wink

「 Kim Sunwoo 」

you loved your mother dearly, but she was starting to text and call you nearly everyday about when you and sunwoo were finally going to get married

even though you loved sunwoo and were dating for a year and half you told her that it wasn’t a good time yet. sunwoo had major responsibilities when it came to his idol life

not to mention that you and sunwoo were still very young and just wanted to enjoy being together before you had to tackle even more responsibilities like marriage

you were laying in bed when you got off the phone with your mother after another hour long call

you sighed staring at ceiling fan feeling pressured and stressed when sunwoo walked in the bedroom

“hey babe, have you seen my adidas hoodie?” he wondered as he saw you looking emotionless at the ceiling

he hovered over you waving his hands across your face trying to get your attention

“hm? oh sorry it’s behind the door in the bathroom” you mumbled

sunwoo swiftly climbed on top of you resting his chin on your chest “what’s wrong babe? who was on the phone?” he asked

you hesistantly replied “it’s just my mother, she keeps wondering when.. well.. she keeps asking when we’re getting married” you laughed lightly

sunwoo smirked “oh really? close your eyes” he instructed

confused you did as you were told as you felt sunwoo get off you hearing the sound of the dresser opening

“okay now open” he said as you saw sunwoo with your own two eyes on his knee with a black velvet box in his hands

“sunwoo oh my god, don’t do this to me i-i’m” you stammered as you felt your hands begin to shake

he smiled and open the box where you saw a gorgeous sterling silver infinity ring with a small diamond in the middle

“[name] this isn’t an engagement ring, it’s a promise. a promise to always love you and cherish you, and to always respect you. i am going to marry you one day, when we’re both ready. i’ve never loved anyone as much as i love you” he vowed putting the ring on your finger

you then felt the tears flow grabbing his face with both your hands giving him a longing kiss falling back on the bed with him on top of you

as sunwoo began to take off his shirt that’s when you saw his necklace with the same infinity symbol as your ring

you smiled as you grabbed his necklace pulling him back down for another kiss

「 Eric Sohn 」

it was official you wanted to kill eric, he knew you were afraid of heights. yet he manage to persuade you on getting on an airplane to go to okinawa for a weekend getaway trip

you loved that he put so much thought into your weekend, making sure to pick the nicest hotel with a view by lots of restaurants and attractions

but you were beyond stressed, the only time you’ve been on an airplane is when you were little and moved to seoul from america, you barely remember the experience sleeping the entire trip

your body was shaking as you walked up the ramp finally boarding the airplane going to your seats

eric put away your luggage above the overhead bin and took the window seat hoping you would feel more comfortable being in the middle

as you took your seats your heart started to beat extremely fast and you started to breath heavily

eric took your hands in his “babe i promise it’s going to be okay flying is one of the safest ways to travel” he promised rubbing the side of your arm trying to calm you down

you nodded “no yeah your right i need to face my fears sometime” you bravely said

when the flight finally took off your nerves managed to subdued until you hit mild turbulence which freaked you out all over again

eric quickly grabbed his sleeping mask putting it over your eyes and large headphones with loud music trying to mask your senses which worked wonders as you lay your head on his shoulder

he held your hand tightly when you finally landed getting off the 2 hour flight

as you made your way to the hotel you were in awe of okinawa absorbing all the buildings and the mass of people walking by

you looked at eric “thank you eric this is amazing, i don’t think there’s anyone else i would trust to help me face my fears” you said bashfully

he leaned over and kissed your jaw “anytime babe” he murmured

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