#so lately its been abcs

[wikiangela]

tease tidbit tuesday

it's Tuesday somewhere so starting it off early lol

after 7x09 I had like 4 new ideas (plus maaaany more non-episode related ideas, istg lately there's so many, I don't know what to focus on lol my brain feels loud, and I feel like I'm writing a hundred things at once, I've been a chaotic mess this month istg) but for now im trying to focus on this one fic, and trying to finish whatever this is before the next episode

for now, here's a bit of bucktommy at the medal ceremony after the encounter with gerrard

___

He could punch Gerrard in the face. He really wants to, and if it was a couple years ago, he probably would – but he’s at a work event, the guy is a Captain, unfortunately, and Buck just got a medal, he’s not risking his job right now. He’s not the same impulsive kid he was seven years ago. He’s heard enough stories from Chimney and Hen, and recently some vague ones from Tommy, to know that he hates their old Cap. Tommy seems to want to open up to Buck, to let Buck truly know him, but talking about that past, about himself back then, about the whole environment is not easy, and Buck gets that. They have time to get to know each other, neither of them is going anywhere. Buck’s certainly not planning to, and when Tommy says he isn’t, either, Buck finds himself trusting him, which is very new but so exciting.

“It’s- well, it was to be expected.” Tommy shrugs, his face a careful, neutral mask that Buck’s just starting to learn to see past, then sits down when they approach the table, putting his plate down – they’re sharing it with Eddie, Marisol and Christopher, but the three of them are still at the buffet getting food. Buck takes a seat next to him, then scoots his chair closer – close enough that their knees touch, but far enough that they still appear professional. “It just threw me off. Actually, threw me twenty years back for a moment.” he huffs an unamused, bitter laugh.

___

no pressure tags: @shortsighted-owl @eddiebabygirldiaz @watchyourbuck @loserdiaz @ladydorian05 @diazpatcher @monsterrae1 @weewootruck @spagheddiediaz @rainbow-nerdss @epicbuddieficrecs @pirrusstuff @nmcggg @rogerzsteven @bidisasterevankinard @giddyupbuck @sunshinediaz @honestlydarkprincess @911-on-abc @jesuisici33 @steadfastsaturnsrings @buddieswhvre @fortheloveofbuddie @daffi-990 @hoodie-buck @aroeddiediaz @thewolvesof1998 @exhuastedpigeon @underwaterninja13 @spotsandsocks @hippolotamus @your-catfish-friend @dangerpronebuddie @neverevan @loveyouanyway @tizniz @theotherbuckley @diazsdimples

[simptasia]

why didn't charlie call claire "luv". why didn't he throw out a casual luv at his friends. he's a northerner what else is he good for

[authorwithissues]

Looks like it's time to graduate from a student bank account to an adult bank account

[chaosisalwayscrying]

NSFW ABC’S

⇥ synopsis : nsfw abcs for chris (my man)

⇥ warnings : smut/suggestive themes

⇥ extra : this is also late but my mom has not left me alone long enough to actually write these on time 😭😭

⇥ masterlist !

⇥ taglist !

A = Aftercare (what they're like after sex)

   hes so good at aftercare!! like he is so so gentle. asks before pulling out and SPRINTS to get a rag to clean you up with, or if youd prefer he turns on the shower and helps you get clean before dressing you

B = Body part (their favorite body part of theirs and also their partner's)

   chris loves his hair, he loves how you tug on it as hes eating you out, and he loves the way you play with it when hes draped on your chest

    chris loves your ass and hips. he loves the way your ass jiggles when you walk up the stairs from his room, loves the way it bounces when you ride him, and he loves seeing his handprints on it

C = Cum (anything to do with cum, basically)

   never used condoms, youve been on bc since chris suggested starting to have sex. he obviously asked you about condoms multiple times in the middle of sex, scared youd changed your mind and he just forgot (bless his heart)

D = Dirty secret (pretty self-explanatory, a dirty secret of theirs)

   LOVES LOVES LOVES when you blindfold him. loves not knowing whats gonna happen, he also loves how it heightens his other senses

E = Experience (how experienced are they? do they know what they're doing?)

   had 2 bodies before you, so he had some experience under his belt, but he still asked you what you were comfortable with

F = Favorite position (this goes without saying)

   doggy and reverse cowgirl. backshots are his absolute favorite thing ever because he can easily smack your ass and grip your hips hard as hell. he also loves watching your ass bounce as you bounce on him im reverse cowgirl, turns him on so bad

G = Goofy (are they more serious in the moment? are they humorous? etc.)

   nothing is serious to chris, hes cracking jokes left and right. only sometimes will he let it be more serious

H = Hair (how well groomed are they? does the carpet match the drapes? etc.)

   hes shaved not bald. has DEFINITELY let you use wax to make designs in his hair 😭😭

I = Intimacy (how are they during the moment? the romantic aspect)

   can be romantic but doesnt do it often, hes not very good at it. praises you to the max to make up for it when hes trying to be more serious 😇

J = Jack off (masturbation headcanon)

   he did it a LOT before you got together, but now that youre together he doesnt as much anymore. you do enjoy sending him nudes so he can send you videos of him jerking off in return tho

K = Kink (one or more of their kinks)

   mommy kink ‼️ he calls you ma outside of the bedroom anyway, but if hes feeling like being a sub hes whining out mommy every other word and LORD ITS HOT

L = Location (favorite places to do the do)

   anywhere. if matt and nick are gone, hes a big fan of bending you over the kitchen table. in public he will literally follow you into the dressing rooms and press you up against the mirror

M = Motivation (what turns them on, gets them going)

   literally anything. if its a serious situation hes not even thinking like that, but accidentally look at him the wrong way and hes hard, squat to get something, hes hard, change in front of him, hes hard. (bless his horny little heart)

N = No (something they wouldn't do, turn-offs)

   brat taming, doesnt like the idea of punishing you or having you act a certain way 24/7

O = Oral (preference in giving or receiving, skill, etc.)

   this man could happily spend a year of his life buried between your legs. will literally eat you out until youre spent beyond belief. he doesnt mind you sucking his dick but he would much rather have you bouncing on it.

P = Pace (are they fast and rough? slow and sensual? etc.)

   fast and rough 95% of the time, but he can absolutely be slow and sensual if thats what you want. his pace depends all on you, you say go faster? hes going faster immediately. you say slow down? hes slowing down without a complaint and pressing a kiss to whatever bit of exposed skin he can

Q = Quickie (their opinions on quickies, how often, etc.)

   LOVES LOVES LOVES QUICKIES. at a party? youre going to the first bathroom he can see without a line. at the mall? dressing room. at a restaurant? bathroom.

R = Risk (are they game to experiment? do they take risks? etc.)

   chris isnt opposed to experimenting, hes down to try most things once, but he does have a list of hard nos.

   however, he will take as many risks as he possibly can that youre ok with

S = Stamina (how many rounds can they go for? how long do they last?)

   3 or 4, doing so many sports as a kid paid off because he has an insane amount of stamina. can go three rounds without even faltering, sometimes the fourth isnt possible cause he gets tired, but if hes REALLY horny he can go for four

T = Toys (do they own toys? do they use them? on a partner or themselves?)

   he owns none but you own a dildo and vibrator. he likes using them on you to tease you, and he likes watching them use them on yourself

U = Unfair (how much they like to tease)

   chris loves to tease but if he can see you arent feeling it he stops without you having to say anything (hes observed all your signs during and not during sex so he can read you like a book)

V = Volume (how loud they are, what sounds they make, etc.)

   sort of loud. if hes giving you backshots hes grunting and groaning but hes not being quiet about it, and if youre riding him, hes moaning and groaning and whining loud

W = Wild card (a random headcanon for the character)

   saw a tiktok about this couple doing a clone-a-willy, and very eagerly asked you if you would what that 😭 (clone-a-willy is this thing where you make a silicone mold of your dick and mail it to the company to make a dildo out of and they send it back)

X = X-ray (let's see what's going on under those clothes)

   CHRIS IS THICK. he isnt too long but the thickness makes up for it. definitely needs to stretch you before even thinking about putting his dick in you 😭

Y = Yearning (how high is their sex drive?)

   9/10, dude is ALWAYS HORNY, but he knows when to be serious and can go from 9/10 to 0/10 real quick

Z = Zzz (how quickly they fall asleep afterward)

   falls asleep so fast, but he would never let himself fall asleep before you were both back in bed and comfortable.

⇥ TAGS !

@sturnioloshacker @rac00ns-are-c00l4 @hertvgirl @cupidzsq @sturnnie @leah-loves-lilies @billkaulitz0630 @sturniolololover @stqrnstars @cicicinquistausa @tylerthecreatorsrealwife

[tangspeakpod]

The Kellogg's Brand Boycott and How It's Going So Far

In late February 2024, Kellogg’s CEO Gary Pilnick suggested that households with tight budgets save money by eating cereal for dinner during an interview with CNBC. Understandably, Americans didn't react too kindly to the suggestion. Federal data shows that Americans are spending more on food than they have in the last three decades. Many who heard Pilnick's remarks noted that Kellogg's brand cereal has risen by 17% in the last year. Angered consumers on TikTok called for a three-month boycott of Kellogg’s products.

(Story continues below the image.)

As far as I've seen, most of the current news on this boycott has been on social media or not at all. Sure there has been some coverage since the first week of March here and there. My guess is because Kellogg's is a major American advertiser who spent $756 million on marketing in 2022. Of the $64.5 million Kellogg's spent on TV advertising that same year, CBS, NBC, and ABC were the leading networks to receive that bounty and you can read about that here. Hence, why the links I shared above ain't from any of those outlets. They are not trying to screw with those ad buys by actually being impartial.

What I especially love is how content creators didn't just tell folks to stop buying Kellogg's. They gave boycotters helpful tips on alternative brands to buy in lieu of Kellogg's here, here, and here. They also offered DIY recipes for Cheez Its, Rice Krispies, Pop Tarts, and Frosted Flakes.

While, the boycott is not technically supposed to start until April 1st (and last through June 30th), folks (like me) have already stopped shopping and Kellogg's and Kellogg's is suddenly going nuts with special offers and changes in marketing tactics like these, these and these. We will check back in a few months to catch up on the boycott and social media developments. -Tangentially Speaking

[renthony]

From the article:

Michigan was where the protest vote movement first emerged during the nominating race. Pro-Palestinian organizers in the state, which has a sizable population of people of Middle Eastern and North African descent, urged voters to cast uncommitted in a rebuke of Biden's support of Israel's campaign against Hamas fighters in Gaza, where tens of thousands of people have been killed so far, according to the Hamas-run health ministry there. The war was sparked by Hamas' Oct. 7 terror attack. "In a democracy you are told when things are not going right, you use the ballot box to send your message," Michigan state Rep. Abraham Aiyash, who supported the uncommitted movement, has said. Approximately 101,000 votes were cast for uncommitted in Michigan in late February, about 13% of the total and enough to win two delegates, according to ABC News' count and estimate. "Our message has been clear," a strategist and spokesperson for Listen to Michigan, one of the groups behind the uncommitted campaign, said after the vote. Reacting to those results, a senior Biden campaign adviser previously said in a statement to ABC Chief White House Correspondent Mary Bruce that "we understand that it's an emotional, painful, difficult situation for a lot of people. President Biden shares the goal of many of the folks who voted uncommitted, which is an end to the violence and a just and lasting peace. That is what he is working towards." Uncommitted organizers said after Michigan that advocates from Minnesota and Washington state had reached out, seeking support for similar efforts in their states, which also allow uncommitted to be on the ballot. Minnesota, another state with notable Muslim and Arab American voters, held its Democratic primary on Super Tuesday and uncommitted got about 46,000 votes, or 19% of the total, receiving an estimated 11 delegates per ABC News' tracking.

[technowoah]

THE ABCs OF JASON TODD (w League of Assassins!reader)

⚠︎:unedited, mentions of violence, swearing????

A for Adorable

Jason finds it adorable when you relax. Its kind of cliche, but you're tense 24/7 so when you relax its like seeing an angel from heaven treat herself. He walked in on you treating yourself to a nice bubble bath with scented candles Stephanie gave you for Christmas and music playing and everything. He made his presence known and left you to your solace.

You find it adorable when he smiles, or laughes. Or when he tries not to smile or laugh. You're blessed to hear his laugh and see his brightness of a smile. He'll restain his smile and finally give in and smile. Makes your day brighter and your heart soar. That little twitch in his lips finally breaks into a smile.

B for Bliss

Jason loves nights with you. Anytime at night no matter if its falling asleep next to you or patrolling at night, late night naked swims at the lake under the moon, dimly lit galas he begrudgingly goes to to only dance and banter with you. You're like the moon to his world he felt like he lived his best moments at night, or in the dark, so he loves to share the dark with someone who lights up his world.

You love that he lets you into his arms and life. His arms are inviting and hes the only one who he lets inside of his arms. Whether is on a rooftop or in your shared apartment watching movies. Your bliss is in his arms with kisses lost between eachother. Even when you dont want to be touched he'll still annoy you with touches. He loves to see you exhausted with his teasing and you secretly love it.

C for Children

Jason dosent think he'll be a great dad. He grew up with a shit mother and father so he believes his expertise would funnel into his own actions. You continue to tell him that he is not the same as his father. And when he continued to berate Bruce for his actions against him and his brothers he thinks that his actions would rub off on him.

Honestly he would never let his children get into vigilante buisness. Even if you both are vigilantes. He protects you with his life and vice versa. If both of you are loose cannons he coulr never deal with 2 or 3 other people.

Hes already stressed enough with hie own work and whenever bruce calls him so he dosent think he'll have time for children.

Jason secretly wants to have kids with you. No matter what your job is vigilante or not. But its ultimately up to you. And I mean when he works his own shit out too.

D for Dangerous

LOA! Reader (Leauge of Assassins)

People think that Jason is the most dangerous one and they are right. You are mostly the calm one but once someone threatened you are Jason's body guard. You lose all compassion for anyone that threatens Jason or you. You both can get terrifying, burning cities for eachother, Bruce's no-killing rule has nothing on you two.

Being apart of something so sinister, both of you have no filter.

Jason's enemies are hesitant about laying a finger on you. Knowing all hell would break loose with

When Jason gets hurt, you see red, crimson. You always makes sure to make the people who hurt him pay. You becomes the worst version of yourself, you hate that version of yourself but it just comes out and you actions start to give you quite a reputation of being downright cruel when Jason gets hurt.

Jason snaps when he sees you hurt, guns already in his hands. He knows she can protect herself, knows she can kill him with a flick of her hand, but he doesn't care. He doesn't want to see you hurt, he wants you happy and healthy by his side and he'll take a whole town down if he has to.

E for Everything

(You're My Everything - The Temptations)

That is Jason's favorite song. He had heard that song been played by you when you were both cleaning up the house. The first time he heard the song, he didn't think too much about it until the 3rd time he heard it from your playlist. Now oncr he heard the lyrics he is 1000% sure if you two get married he will play that for yall first dance.

Anytime he plays that song you know thats his way of saying what he never could. That's his way of being vulnerable. Those nights where you both are swaying on the fire escape to this song. When he claims to be "practicing for when he gets dragged to Bruce's galas" you know he means "I wanna spend time with you cause I love you"

When my way was dark and troubles were near

Your love provided the light so I couldn't see, girl

Just knowing your love was near when times were bad

Kept the world from closing in on me, girl

I was blessed the day I found you, gonna build my whole world around you

You're ev'rything good, girl and you're all that matters to me

F for Forbidden

Jason didn't want you around him at all. His job was dangerous and didn't want you to get kidnapped or killed. He never wanted you around his apartment, his brothers, or even around him when he had his mask off. But slowly he found himself following you at night just keeping an eye on you making sure you're not in any danger and sooner or later he let down his walls and surprisingly, to him, you accepted him scars and all.

(LOA! Reader)

You were both killers, it wasnt meant to be and the Wayne family had their ups and downs with the Leauge so Jason Todd and a warriors from the Leauge of Assassins wasnt so much of a shock. Its Jason Todd. And you were already breaking free of the Leauge already so to rebels coming together to unite and fight crime wasn't normal, but wasn't a shock.

Honestly your relationship in the beginning was filled with other people doubting you, but you both proved them wrong.

G for Grace

(LOA! Reader cause I love them sm)

He loves seeing you in your traditional clothing, he had to wear them one time, but you look like a true queen in them.

You walk with your head held up high, and every step is precise. You walk and act with a grace that he loves to see. Every move is calculated, like the warrior you are.

Jason loves to see both sides of you. Your fighting, dominant side and your calm, loving vulnerable side. The good and the bad, hes so lucky

You loves to see him with a gun in his hand. You how he could go from a loving devoted boyfriend to Red Hood. Every move is done with calculative intent. You love the way he moves when he fights.

You're so happy that you can see both sides of him, the good and the bad.

H for Home

Jason is your home and you are Jason's home. Home is wherever the other person is no matter where. Simple as that. Jason didn't need to go back to the manor when he had you in his arms. This home he made with you had to be the best one he has had in a while. Loving, caring, trust filled home.

I for Impression

Jason isnt the best at first impressions. But he can read a person at first glance. All the detective work he indulged in. He couldn't say he loved you at first sight but he was definitely intrigued by you. Wanting to know more and more. Either fate was working for him this time or he just did it himself.

You knew Jason was a hunk. His muscles moving as he walked, the shirt that was just a little bit too tight, his hair, his walk, his gaze, you wanted more of him. To know what he was like, how he lived, what his personality was. You wanted more. And he did too.

J for Jealousy

Normally people think you would be the most jealous of the two of you, but Jason dominates that field.

He cant stand to see other people look at you like an object. Makes his teeth clench and a vein pop you would think he was gonna pass out from turning red. He hates it when people come up and flirt with you when you're clearly not interested, and if they dare touch you pray for them.

You like how jealous he gets cause the sex is so much better. He's usually rough, but now he's all fired up and 10x rougher.

Jason remember vividly you almost broke a girls hand because she reached up to grab his white streak. Jason couldn't pull you off the girl, I mean he wasn't gonna try to anways. It was hot to him

Kisses

Jason always makes kisses so enticing. Kissing him everytime give you butterflies like your first kiss with eachother. Pecks, makeouts, neck kisses, hand kisses leaving you wanting a imprint of his kisses on you. He loves giving you hickeys and biting you making sure you leave satisfied, you cant have him kissing you all the time so that would do.

J loves kissing you as much as you do him. Spending the morning with slow kisses is the best way to start the morning making him want to stay inside with you. His favorite pastime is kissing you on the forehead, as a way of saying "i love you" or "i got you"

L for Love

There had not been an official "I love you" but if you can remember correctly you said it first. Jason had never been in love before to feel love, this feeling was new to him. He was caught by surprise when you said it, he was in love with you yeah, but he didn't say it yet saying it outloud was foreign like another language. He loves you and you love him he knows that but he needs constant reassurance. Tell him you love him often because he cant love himself some days.

M for Memory

(Loa!reader maybe????)

Jason and you had found this secret place, this place with a lake and a waterfall, you both knew it wasnt in Gotham, but you two travel there all of the time. No bathing suits just you two enjoying the quietness in the dark, the moon and stars, and the extra lights you both brung, lighting up the water as you both swam through. No words had to be said, just light touches, kisses. Memory like this keep coming and going just them together and their love.

N for Nonchalant

He tried to be nonchalant with you he really did, but it didn't work. Anything you did would gain a reaction out of him. He was the nonchalant bad boy of the Waynes but with you he couldn't put up that front. He tried, but now he wouldn't allow himself to. He tried to be flirty you would match his energy and catch him off gaurd. His favorite thing is to do when no one is looking is to kiss your temples until you laugh, he couldn't keep up his stone cold persona around you as much as he tried. He couldn't

O for Overwhelming

Once out of the Lazarus pit Jason was not loved, he couldn't accept any love given to him either. Even when Bruce continued to love him despite his killing streak hr could never accept that someone as torn and broken as him was able to be loved.

When Jason gound you and you gave him as much love in your hear as you could, he as overwhelmed. Going back and forth with himself if he should run away, or stay because he loved you as much or arguably even more than you.

Somedays he teared up to himself as his mind raced between the people he killed, the mistakes he made, and how you loved him unconditionally made him wanna bawl. He dosent deserve this, or does he.

His heart ached. But with love nevertheless

P for Possessiveness

(Loa!reader 🤭)

His insecurities had slowly dissappeared as he spent more of his time with you. He devoted his life to you as you do him and your country.

He was very possessive of you, and you are possessive of him as well.

If looks could kill you have killed over 5 other people. Hating the thought of someone else getting his bear hugs, his kisses, his body, his mind, his ups and downs, makes your skin crawl. He already knows you would stand up against his own family for him (because you already have, putting a sword against Bruce's neck multiple times) he knows you would burn the world in a heart beat.

Meanwhile he has killed for you, even when you havent known. Anyone who hurts you physically as apart of their job, he doesn't care what happens to them. He hates the idea of other people seeing your laugh, seeing your intimate side where you open up to him. His skin crawls when he knows that you could find so much better than him, but you stick by his side and he does you. Loving you to the afterlife where you will meet again.

Who doesn't want a badass warrior by their side?

Q for Quiet

He used to love the quiet and you did as well. You two were seperated before you two met and now you both cant get enough of eachother. You both hate being away from eachother, but you both have duties, but when you two are together the room is filled with lively talk, sounds of kissing, music, something always to fill the silence. Yeah call yall clingy, cause yall are, and hes proud of it. He'll wait till you get home, but to fill the silence he'll play your favorite song until you come to fill the silence once again.

R for Realization

(Loa!reader cause I said so 😌)

Jason realized he loved you when it was a rainy day. He took you out on his motorcycle during the rain without helmets, your laugh and rain ringing in his ears is peaceful. He also realized he loved you when you two met again. Sneaking away together because of the Leauges track on you and Bruce's disdain for the Leauge. He called you Romeo and Juliet with a hint of Bonnie and Clyde.

You loved him on the same day, the freedom you both felt believed that you both can be together you can both be loved. He loved you, and you loved him. It felt like the brightest of lights clicked in your minds. It was beautiful you loved. You were loved. He loved. And he was loved.

S for Sunset

The sun was orange. Orange is the color of unity. The both of you were sitting on the fire escape of his apartment. The orange waves blanketed over the both of you. Both of you unified under the sun. Complete and calm after a hard days work the orange completes the day, making you both see the beauty of that day no matter how hard or deadly it was, you both were alive and in that you both sent a silent "I love you" that glowed in the orange of the sunset.

T for Traitor

(LOA!reader)

He wasnt able to see you, and you weren't able to see him. Months and months without physical touch or sight. The Leauge was more strict with your freedom you had priorities, they didn't want you to love Jason. Especially Jason. The bat family didnt have the best umm....reputation with the Leauge of Assassins. But once you and Jason got together the Leauge called you a traitor at first you had to fight, but Jason fought by your side. The bat family wanted Jason to be happy, but they were still cautious. He stayed by your side. The Leauge kept you at your high rankings even though some did not approve of your relationship waiting for an "I told you so" moment, but that would not happen.

U for United

The world could not be against Jason anymore. He died, came back to life, tha5 couldn't be enough could it. The world tried and tried again to take you from him. Many times they tried and every time they failed. He wouldn't let you go and you would let him go. One day he wouldn't leave your side during a gala because he knew there was an evil presence.

Communication is a huge thing, no matter how big the fight is Jason wants to talk it out, he wants to fix things with you, find a solution together. He also made a pact with himself to make sure youre happy, and his forever. He wanted to make sure your relationship lasted the longest. When the topic of marriage came up he was happy, he didn't care if it was official or not, he really wanted to spend the rest of his life with you marrige or not, but he will happily marry you in a heartbeat.

He already has a ring for his soulmate, his backbone, his lifeline, his support, his lover.

V for Vampire

Biting. Jason loves when you bite him and he calls you his little vampire. You love making marks on his skin, claiming him to be yours and after those moments you love to stand back and look at the artwork you've created on his body, while wears them like a medal.

Bruce stopped over while he wask taking a shirtless nap. When Jason opened the door Bruce couldn't stop looking at the hickeys all over his chest. It wasn't embarrassing to him at all.

Jason loves biting you as much as you love biting him, hes a giver after all but Imma get into that in the next letter

W for Worship

Like I said before Jason loves giving 10x more than what you give him. He lobes your body, your mind, and soul. He worships the ground you walk on. The top of your head to the soles of your feet. You loved making him feel loved as well worshipping his body and mind by touches, kisses, licks, and appreciating, listening to his mind.

Making sure you feel loved and appreciated is his life's job. You are his priority and if you dont feel like it then he believes hes doing a bad job. But you always assure him that if he was you would tell him.

You made it your mission to make him realize that it wasn’t just him worshiping your body, but that you worshiped him as well. That he was just as important as you are to him, and that you cherished him.

X for X-ray

Yall hearts grow so much bigger for eachother. Hearts aching for eachother when you both are apart, you know that feeling of "I dont deserve this" and it feels like your heart is heavy. Thats how your hearts feel. Glowing and full of love for eachother. Beating for eachother.

Y for Yours

Will you marry me?

Will you...do me the honor - fuck

I would be the happiest man alive...

He couldn't get it right jesus christ. No matter how hard he tried how would this broken man staring at the mirror get you to take his hand in marriage.

"Love what are you doing?" You came into the room and he immediately shoved the ring into his pants pocket.

"Nothing." He murmured but you immediately knew so you walked over and wrapped your arms around him and he did the same to you.

"I love you Jason. I hope you know that."

"I love you too."

He could go a lifetime without proposing. It didn't matter. He loved you no matter what. Married or not.

"you still wanna get married one day?" He asked cautiously.

"It would be nice. Theres no rush. As long as I have you forever I'm fine." You smiled up at him and he couldn't be happier.

Z for idfk what to put here

"Jason"

"Yes beloved"

"I love you"

you mean so much to me, I love the way you talk, your mind, and the love you give me. You are not broken, you are loved by your family and me Jason. I love you now and your history. I dont care what you did before all I care is what you are to me now. Jason I know you would never hurt me, i love you more than you love yourself. You are my everyday, my everything.

"I love you too"

You are the love of my life. I need you around me you are the light of my life, the sunshine to my darkest days and my guardian angel. You are the best thing to happen to me and I thank the heavens everyday for you being in my life. You are the sun to my moon lighting me up each night. Thank you my love for believing in me. Thank you for loving me and in return I give you my life, me soul, my love

[nsyncat]

OK, so this is my first post EVER since I joined Tumblr like ten years ago. Always been a lurker, enjoying all of the wonderful things here, the gifs, fics, ships, art, all the knowledge and all the amazing heritage posts, but never posting and hardly reblogging, I don't know why, was always afraid I would make a mistake or reblogg incorrectly...

Anyway, the reason this is my first time posting is because THAT amazing moment that happened a week ago, and I've been losing my mind ever since, and unfortunately I have nobody to share this excitement with that will understand... So I had to get it out somehow, and here seems like the perfect place to do so.

I don't know if anybody will read this or pay it any attention, but never mind, I just have TO. GET. IT ALL. OUT!

So I've been a loyal fan of 9-1-1 this past six years, got hooked to these kind of first responders dramas, also Station 19 and then of course Lone Star. I fell in love with the writing, the drama and action, the characters of course, the emotional and moving stories, both of the regular cast and the people in the emergencies (am not afraid to admit that I cried more than a few times, especially when I was pregnant... woooh, that was a tough season for me).

Anyway, like everyone else, got invested in Buck's storyline and of course hopped on the Buddie train in season 2. And obviously there was something between them, and the fandom always clowned themselves that "in the next season SOMETHING is going to happen!" and I always wanted to believe it, and also fooled myself a few times but always was the cold harsh realist and realised it was not going to happen... But enjoyed the ride nonetheless, read amazing fics, saw wonderful fanart, read interesting breakdowns and analysis.

And then 704 happened and I'm not joking or exaggerating, my life changed!

Confirming that Buck is Bi was amazing! I'm ashamed to admit that I really thought it won't happen, EVER! So I still can't believe it actually happened (thank you soooo much ABC!) and like a lot of you, I've been on cloud nine this past week and can't wait for tomorrows episode (also not from the US), literally counting down the hours.

And look, I love Buddie, I really do, but I fell in love with TEVAN (my favourite one yet) 😍 and been OBSESSED with them this past week. Just from those few moments between them and what we barely know that is going to happen the next episode, I truly fell in love with them and really hope they make it as far as they can. I think its an amazing thing for Buck and also CANT. STOP. WATCHING THE KISS! The actors did an incredible job, especially Oliver, also with his spoken support of the storyline and his love for Buck. Such a KING! So this whole thing is huge.

And I have a one-year-old, my life is hectic with taking care of a little human being, a hubby who is also very busy, work, family and a million other things and this past year with a heavy heart I kinda neglected reading fics, and it was my main hobby, my escape, my one and constant thing in my LIFE since I was 12. I do read here and there, but not like I used to, reading hours and hours and into the night, multi chapters and long oneshots, in multiple fandoms, and now whenever I do get to read something once In a blue moon I'm not fully invested or enjoying it because either I'm tired or have something else more important to do. And unfortunately, eventually I noticed that I lost this fire, the passion in me and it left me sad and heartbroken...

And then something incredible happened. Ever since that earth-shattering kiss, the fire and passion came back! Holy shit! I've been reading and ENJOYING fics nonstop this whole week, I can't concentrate on work thinking about everything and reading in-between tasks, I use every single free minute I have to search new fics and scroll through the tags, I go to sleep late because I need to read just one more fic(!!!) even tough I have to wake up very early in the morning and I DON'T EVEN CARE. I'm thinking about it sooo much and imagining new scenarios in my head, and feeling giddy and happy, in a good mood a lot of the time, more optimistic, knowing I have a new and exciting place I can "escape" to, like I had in the past.

Its not that i'm not happy, I have an amazing son and a wonderful husband and I cherish every moment with them, but these are hard and difficult times and life can be hard and stressful and I'm a different kind of happy... So these past few days have been nourishment for my soul and my mood, it sounds so silly but its true! I'm feeling a bit like my old self and it's amazing.

And if someone did read this or did pay attention and got to this point, sorry for the long rant and thank you so much for the patience and understanding 🙏 I love you and wish you a wonderful weekend and happy Buck's-first-date-with-a-man day! 🥰

So I want to thank, from the bottom of my heart, ABC, Oliver, Lou and you crazy lot for resurrecting my old fangirl self 😌 I'm so grateful for all your posts, your takes, your similar enjoyment and of course your amazing fics you're writing and sharing 🩵

[wildlife4life]

Fuck-It Friday

Tagged by @watchyourbuck @theotherbuckley @lover-of-mine @wikiangela @spotsandsocks @hippolotamus @devirnis @buddierights @cal-daisies-and-briars @daffi-990 @tizniz and @disasterbuckdiaz You all so awesome! Thank you!

Getting to this kind of late because I have been catching up on a lot of online class work today. But I'm all finished for the day and it is still Friday where I live. So here is a very short snippet from NFL Buck, continuing a bit from my WIP Wednesday post. (All things NFL Buck). Enjoy the sadness?

"How long does he have?" Buck asks. Eddie swipes his thumb across his partner's knuckles, soothing himself and Buck. "Less than 6 months." he murmurs. More tears flood into those ocean blue eyes, "Fuck. Fuck that's no time at all." Evan rips his hand away, pushes to his feet and begins to pace the expansive living room, "Damnit. We need to be there, sooner than later, but I don't have off days for almost two weeks. Can you even ask for more time off?" The question seems to be directed towards Eddie, but Buck is ranting and rambling more to himself. Eddie doesn't answer, just watches the distraught man walk around the room, trying to find a way to fix everything. Cause that's what Buck does. Try to fix things, its an aspect that makes him a great quarterback. With Red's diagnosis and being in the height of the NFL season, there wasn't anything that can be fixed. Eventually Buck would come to same conclusion, he just needed the time to process and understand. Eddie just needed to patient, be there for when Buck accepts this isn't something he can fix, and help prepare them both for what is to come with Red.

Um...sorry? Buck can't fix everything, we all know that, but that doesn't mean he won't try and Eddie will be patient as always. Hope you all enjoyed!

Tagging just share: @try-set-me-on-fire @jesuisici33 @fortheloveofbuddie @exhuastedpigeon @monsterrae1 @diazsdimples @aroeddiediaz @giddyupbuck @rainbow-nerdss @loserdiaz @thewolvesof1998 @bekkachaos @eddiescowboy @eddiebabygirldiaz @spaceprincessem @athenagranted @evanbegins @elvensorceress @malewifediaz @911onabc @911-on-abc @hoodie-buck @ladydorian05 @bigfootsmom @thekristen999 @spagheddiediaz @rogerzsteven @honestlydarkprincess @bitchfacediaz @buck-coded @prosperdemeter2 @lemonzestywrites @gayedmundodiaz @transboybuckley

[thewolvesof1998]

Tease Tidbit Tuesday

Tagged by the wonderful @watchyourbuck @giddyupbuck @spotsandsocks @wildlife4life @hoodie-buck @exhuastedpigeon @hippolotamus @wikiangela @malewifediaz @disasterbuckdiaz @daffi-990 @jamespearce9-1-1 @theotherbuckley

I thought I would take inspiration from some of my mutuals and give you a tease of multiple fics:

Alright, Cowboy, Go Get 'Em (Masterlist of posts about this fic):

Eddie sits up and wraps his right arm around Buck’s waist, using his grip to help him bounce. The closeness allows him to place kisses on Buck’s chest and lick at his salty skin and bite nipples and suck marks onto his pec. He adorns Buck with his marks until he’s a panting, whining mess, unable to anymore more than roll his hip in a desperate grind.  “Ed’s please” Buck begs “What do you need baby?”

Bank Robbery Fic (prev snippet):

“-listen to me you son of a bitch, you can ask for all you want but make sure to add a medkit because if she dies because of you, I will make your life a living hell.”  Buck’s phone slips from his hand as he turns towards the speakers where a voice he would know anywhere, even in his sleep, just came through. Eddie. Eddie is in the bank.  Buck is lunging forward before he ever makes the conscious decision to move. He feels arms grab onto his coat and then there's a body in front of him. He smells Bobby’s cologne and arms wrap around him as he collides with Bobby, halting him in his tracks.

Pirate AU (previous snippets):

“You’re new,” A deep voice says and Eddie turns to look at the man. He’s got blondish-brown hair that is curling in the humidity, a pink mark above his eyebrow and at the corner of his pale blue eyes that almost seem to shift colour like the sky before a storm. He’s got the start of a beard that frames lips as pink as his mark. They look pillow-soft and sinful and he’s wondering what they would feel like under his before he can think better of it. He’s wearing a white shirt, its loose fitting, the buttons undone to improper level and sleeves rolled up to his elbows displaying strong forearms and ink.  “What?” He asks, dragging his eyes away from the man’s arms.  The guy chuckles, “I haven’t seen you here before.” “I’m new to town,” Eddie manages to get out without embarrassing himself further.

No Nut November (previous snippets):

Buck’s been babysitting Chris a lot lately now Eddie’s been going on more and more dates with Marisol. He loves it but he does miss his best friend, if it wasn’t for work Buck’s pretty sure he’s seen Chris more than Eddie this month. If he didn’t know better he would say Eddie’s avoiding him, but he wouldn’t do that, he has no reason to. It always gets like this when they date, they see less of each other but that's completely normal. This is just the anxious voice in his head making him worry about something he doesn’t need to.

Halloween Fic (previous snippet):

“These are my favourite jeans of yours,” Buck slides his hands around and squeezes Eddie’s butt, “Your ass looks amazing in them,” He lets go and slips his hands around the front, his fingers graze against Eddie’s straining dick before going to for the button, “So I’m going to be nice and not destroy them.”  Eddie is only a little bit disappointed, would have loved to see Buck use his strength to seamlessly tear the denim but that's pushed out of his mind as Buck swiftly undoes the jeans, pulling them down, along with Eddie’s underwear, until he can easily step out of them. Buck’s hands slide up his thighs and around to squeeze Eddie’s now bare ass. Buck kneads the skin, pulling it taunt and apart until Eddie can feel cold air against his hole.

tagging: ​ @eddiebabygirldiaz​ @spotsandsocks @try-set-me-on-fire @jesuisici33​ @bekkachaos @buddierights @911-on-abc @shitouttabuck @911onabc @spagheddiediaz @your-catfish-friend @loserdiaz @ladydorian05 @king-buckley @chaoticgremlinwholikescheese @fortheloveofbuddie @steadfastsaturnsrings @mangacat201 @eowon @rainbow-nerdss @nmcggg @pirrusstuff @evanbegins @sammysouffle @smilingbuckley @carrierofthepaperclips @jeeyuns

[bestworstcase]

do you have theories about how the aura transfer machine is going to inevitably come into play

this is timely, because i’ve been chewing on it quite a lot lately.

let’s talk about the rule of threes!

the basic idea is that important things in stories often come in threes. narrative triads are a staple of fairytale/folklore in particular, which makes it very salient to the rwby narrative. often, you’ll see the rule of three described as a pattern where a thing happens a certain way twice, and then once more differently (aab); there are other configurations. abc/cba or abc/abc is pretty common in fairytales—think the “questing hero does a kindness to three entities and each repays with a favor later on” structure—and simple repetitions (aaa) or progressive triplets (a-A-A!) aren’t uncommon either.

the rule of threes gets cited a lot in discussions on the maidens and the ATMs in particular. this is a little thorny because maidens come in fours, not threes; i think rwby is taking advantage of this mathematical problem to develop multiple interlocking triads. we’ll call this the Fourth Maiden Exclusion Principle. 

our first set of triads occur within each season. the seasonal triads, if you will. all of them—so far—follow this basic pattern:

fragile -> false -> freed

where the first maiden is introduced in a vulnerable state, the second maiden is either literally false (not really a maiden) or perceived as illegitimate, and the seasonal arc ends with third maiden removed from ozpin’s hierarchy and separated from her vault. thus:

amber -> pyrrha -> cinder

(spring) -> vernal -> raven

fria -> penny -> winter

the last spring maiden is unusual in that she’s a posthumous character, but she’s described as having been “a child” who ran away because the responsibility was “too much for her” and raven says she was “weak” and “scared.” we also know that raven mercy-killed her.

so the question to ask here is whether the summer maiden will repeat this pattern. if i’m correct about the Fourth Maiden Exclusion Principle, the answer is “no.” our triad is [fall-spring-winter] and our excluded fourth, in this case, is summer. 

[SIDEBAR: the maiden arcs are following the gifts in reverse order (choice -> knowledge -> creation -> destruction). the seasons being “wrong” is a misdirection. thank u.]

our second set of triads interlace the maiden arcs. we’ll call them the perennial triads (laugh!). there are three Big Ones. 

the first is the presumptive ATM triad, which might be drawn in two ways: 

[amber-fria-(summer)] + (spring) 

or

[pyrrha-winter-(summer)] + raven.

the former being three maidens fed to the machines, the latter recipients of machine transfers. the triad is [fall-winter-summer] and the excluded fourth is spring.

the second is the triad of maidens cinder tries to Get. i will discuss my reasoning for bracketing it like this in a bit, bear with me:

[amber-raven-penny] + (summer)

and finally, the third is the triad of maidens who got eaten by the fairytale, as it were:

[pyrrha-(spring)-penny] + (summer)

note that these last two match the seasonal triad-of-triads: [fall-spring-winter] + summer. This Is Important.

but before we get into the weeds of the Machine Question, we first need to sketch out why i don’t think cinder is going to go after the summer maiden. for the benefit of newcomers and in case this breaks containment, Mainly. it boils down to:

salem’s going to beacon next.

it is established in V4 that a) the crown is still in its vault, b) salem believes the vault is at beacon, c) the vault is Hidden, and d) salem has someone [summer rose] stationed at beacon to search for it. in V8, salem notes that The Situation Has Not Changed; she is preoccupied with gaining access to the lamp so that she can use it to discover the crown’s location. (<- the first thing she asks oscar is where ozma hid the crown; she asks for the password to the lamp only after confirming that oscar doesn’t know.) having been frustrated in her effort to wring the location out of oscar and with the lamp now out of questions, her obvious next move is to go to beacon.

she is also two for two on relics swiped after someone else—not cinder—opened the vault, and two for two on cinder Almost Fucking Dying at the hands of other maidens. she’s realizing that her opponents will open those vaults if she squeezes them hard enough, and the sword presents an obvious temptation for vacuo’s defenders; she also won’t be able to access the crown at all if cinder dies. the skeleton-key plan is a wash.

and, with the coalition in vacuo galvanized by the imminent existential threat of another massive attack, the strongest next move for salem is to do nothing: quietly go to beacon, search for the crown, and run out the clock while her opponents wait. the longer she can draw this out, the shakier that coalition is going to get as people get complacent or start to doubt that an attack is coming at all. 

(it is also something of a toss-up whether salem plans to launch another assault; she hit beacon and atlas with overwhelming force to take ozpin off the board, but for haven she planned a covert infiltration.)

so salem has a lot of compelling reasons for going to beacon, and none for rushing to vacuo. further, the end of V9, the epilogue storyboard, and the second rwby x jl film collectively indicate that at a minimum, salem will not be in vacuo at the top of V10. a V7ish scenario where salem doesn’t arrive until the end of the volume is not out of the question (although i do think she’ll be in V10, just at beacon). 

and she will, of course, want to keep cinder close, both for the purpose of opening the beacon vault and because she will need to manage cinder’s ongoing rebellion very carefully. cinder may not Like This, but a) she she swanned away from the winter maiden without a backwards glance because she Doesn’t Care About The Power That Much, she just wants to Win The Power Struggle With Salem, and b) the vault and the relic of choice and being The Only One Who Can Do This are going to appeal to her too, again for power struggle reasons.

and since the skeleton key plan is a wash, it’s likely that salem will try to ease cinder off the idea of Getting the summer maiden so as to avoid risking a repeat of what happened in atlas. that, plus the nascent villain->hero arc developments involved in returning to the choice arc, taper cinder off the maiden hunting such that i do not think she’s going to be a central player in the summer maiden arc. (or obsessed with winter, for that matter.)

the summer maiden arc, sans cinder

okay. here we go!

in order for the ATM triad to eventuate, as i believe it will, someone in vacuo is going to need a reason to pull that trigger. at beacon and in atlas, the reason was cinder. cinder is also the reason both of those transfers failed. because cinder is probably Not In Vacuo, the ATM triad is almost certainly the a-a-b pattern; the negated pair both failed because cinder deliberately provoked them for the purpose of gaining access to the maiden, so i think the likely reversal here is that a machine transfer initiated in a non-crisis situation will succeed. 

this is a puzzle, because the ATMs are unequivocally Not Good. every single character in the story is on the same page about this; even ironwood regards it as a necessary evil. there is an asterisk here for pietro because the only person harmed by his use of the machines is himself and he made the choice freely. but in any other circumstance, using the ATM is wrong, because That’s Murder. so the decision to use an ATM in vacuo to transfer a maiden is not one that can be made lightly.

thus we have to consider what circumstances could lead to that decision, and to do that we need to zoom out a little.

let’s assume the CFVY novels are both canonical and relevant to the narrative of the show proper, as RH was to V9.

i submit that there are two (2) possible summer maidens hinted at in before the dawn. one of them is sun’s cousin, starr sanzang, who appears briefly at the end of the book and has an “uncanny sense” for the weather.

the other is gillian asturias.

she and her twin brother, jax, are the leaders of a virulently xenophobic nationalist movement called the crown; they believe themselves to be direct descendants of the defunct vacuan monarchy, all the way back to malik the sunderer, first king of vacuo. their “evidence” (such as it is) is a crown-shaped birthmark supposed to be had by every member of the royal lineage. gill’s, however, is actually a brand,implied to have been done to her by her father when she was an infant.

gill is the power behind the crown. her semblance siphons aura; in the novel, she uses captives as batteries to make herself virtually invincible. on the battlefield, she glows with a brilliant iridescent light—brighter than the moon. 

their mother—luna asturias—developed some sort of sickness during pregnancy that caused her aura to rapidly deplete and gradually waste away; she died due to complications during an emergency c-section. jax was born with the same condition; gillian’s aura was “elevated” from birth. their father believes that her semblance manifested before she was even born and ate her mother’s and brother’s auras. 

right before the climactic battle, there is a brief skirmish with gill and her lieutenant, carmine, in an abandoned dust mine, which ends with the kids deliberately triggering a cave-in by blowing up a vein of dust. this is the result:

“Did it work?” she asked Octavia. Octavia shook her head. “I think we got Carmine, but just before everything came down on our heads, Gill flew backward and out of the cave.” “Carmine’s telekinesis,” Velvet said. “She used it to save her friend at the last second.”

then, during the actual battle:

He heard gunfire and then Dust bullets exploded against Gill, amped by Coco’s Semblance. Gill stepped back, swatting at her face as though the explosive rounds were no more annoying than bugs.

if you wanted to hide a maiden in plain sight in a canonical ancillary novel, this is how you to do it. 

gillian is extraordinarily powerful. flying, being surrounded by visibly glowing haloes, and banishing bullets with the flick of a hand are all Maiden Things—and also Gillian Things carefully given plausible deniability through the eyes of POV characters who don’t know about the maidens and interpret what they see as effects of a semblance. 

gillian herself is stridently opposed to the use of dust for reasons; if she is a maiden, she has compelling political and ideological reasons not to use the dust-like elemental magic that comes with being a maiden. if she started lobbing fireballs, everyone would assume she was using dust to do it, and that would make her look like a raging hypocrite. but covertly using magic to augment what she can do with fifty people’s aura? sure.

and the summer maiden is the maiden of destruction. the asturias family identity revolves around descent from a man named malik the sunderer. her fanatic of a father BRANDED HER with the mark of this legacy as an infant. her dead mother who sickened and died in childbirth is named for the moon. 

when ozma ended the great war, he did it in vacuo, the crown on his head and the sword in hand. jax asturias is the leader of the crown, the twin with the real birthmark, the mind of the operation. gill is the power—very literally the source of his strength, because she lends him some of her own aura, and metaphorically his shield and his sword.

and furthermore, the lesson taught by the summer maiden in the fairytale is “don’t view the world at a distance; take an active part in it and the events around you.” gill’s backstory very closely mirrors salem’s in one key way—their mothers die in childbirth, and their fathers see them as the cause—BUT. where salem’s father locked her in a tower about it, finn asturias  chose differently:

“[Gill’s semblance] had caused us so much pain, but I couldn’t blame her, an unborn baby, doing what we all do: trying to survive. Over the years, I taught her to control her Semblance, and over time we unlocked her true ability—she doesn’t just sap Aura from others; she can transfer it, too. It turned out her power, which had seemed like such a curse, could be a force for good as well. She had a large reserve of Aura already, and so she shared some of it with her brother. And he began to thrive.”

throughout the novel there is also a recurring thread of other people (theodore, finn, rumpole) remarking on how much promise gill had and how she could have been a great huntress—if only she hadn’t stuck with her brother. once jax’s mind-control semblance is found out, everyone assumes that he’s using it to keep gill under his thumb… but he isn’t. his semblance straight up does not work on her, possibly because her aura powers it. 

so gillian embodies the summer maiden’s lesson in two different ways; her father made a Huge Point of making sure she could take part in the world (instead of isolating her as salem’s father did), and gill bucked everyone’s assumptions about what she should do, actively following her own ambitions instead of passively accepting the expectation placed on her. 

gill is alive and in custody at the end of the novel. (jax likewise, although his memory was at least temporarily wiped.) if she’s the summer maiden, that ticks the box for summer being the excluded fourth in the seasonal triad-of-triads; she is not, in any sense except moral, fragile.

and gill as the summer maiden throws an interesting curveball at the Machine Question: what to do with a maiden who can also absorb the auras of fifty people to turbo charge her abilities, when that maiden is a reactionary nationalist who led a violent insurgency a few weeks ago and the only thing keeping her in jail is that she loves her brother and he’ll die without her? what do you do with her when you expect salem to rock up with another legion of grimm any day now? 

maybe you look at a machine meant for ripping aura out of a person to put in somebody else, and then look at her brother who has almost no aura of his own, and see a way for everyone to win? it isn’t like gillian asturias has any objection to transferring her own aura to her brother. she’s spent most of their lives doing exactly that, because she loves him.

the only difference is that the ATM can make that transfer permanent.

it won’t kill her: partial transfers are possible, and she’ll still have her ability to siphon aura. 

it might strip her of the maiden power, and—because the magic will only cleave to a woman—there is at least a chance that something like what happened with amber, pyrrha, and cinder can be deliberately triggered with gillian’s willing cooperation. transfer half gill’s aura to jax while gill focuses on an eligible candidate (cough, starr, cough), and maybe you can convince the magic to separate from gillian’s aura, leave her and jax, and hop into the chosen heir instead, just as it would if gillian died.

the reasoning is sound. gill would probably agree to do it for her brother’s sake; she and jax already share her aura, a permanent split between them would give them both an average amount of aura, and the transfer being partial would keep their consciousnesses separate, thus avoiding the Ozma Problem. all the thorny ethical problems involved in using the machines are avoided, and the magic’s rules are bent (gill lives) but not broken (the machine triggers an ordinary transfer), which reduces the risk that the magic will resist or break free. 

and if it does go wrong, the most probable outcome is that the magic ends up split between the asturias twins—which is not ideal, but you’ve also earned some goodwill from both of them by helping jax and you can maybe pitch them on an enemy-of-my-enemy alliance to defend vacuo from salem because they sure as fuck aren’t about to join her.

this is a) the only scenario where i can plausibly imagine RWBYJNOR et al deciding to use the ATM to transfer a maiden, and b) the only one i can imagine succeeding without having dire repercussions. 

the other possibility—one i think is all but guaranteed if gill isn’t the summer maiden—is that a villain uses the ATM to steal the maiden power, with dire repercussions. 

and in either case, as long as we’re prognosticating interminably on the summer maiden arc, we might as well think about what the shape of the V10 narrative arc might look like if salem isn’t in vacuo. 

the first point to address here is how inadequate tyrian is for the job of leading the operation in vacuo. he is extremely good at indiscriminate killing and quite bad at everything else; watts was in charge in V7 because watts is a competent strategist. tyrian lacks focus and discipline. in the short term, he’ll start and spread fires; in the longer term, if salem intends to bide her time, she needs someone reliable.

summer rose has been holding beacon against vale’s huntsmen for the last year or so whilst searching for the vault. she’s been with salem fourteen years. there is no question that salem both trusts and relies on her. even if it weren’t a binary choice between her and cinder, she’s the obvious pick. once salem arrives at beacon, she can take over the operation there, send summer ahead to handle vacuo, and keep cinder safely away from any other maidens.

the strategic end of salem’s operation in vacuo is to retrieve the sword from the vault under shade academy. she is undoubtedly prepared to deliver a siege and capture shade by force, but as with haven it’s more likely that Plan A is to do things quietly.

summer also has an immediate personal interest in accomplishing this goal without an open assault (her daughters are leading the defending coalition) and, given the level of autonomy implied by salem handing off beacon to her for a year+, probably broad latitude to make the tactical decisions she deems best.

so summer’s priority is finding the summer maiden and getting her to open the vault. she herself is probably not an eligible maiden candidate—she’s in her forties—so maiden-killing is out. her options are to persuade the summer maiden, or capture her and steal the magic if she can get her hands on an ATM. 

meanwhile, the crown is in shambles with the asturias twins in custody and the vacuo coalition holding strong in the face of the assumed-to-be-imminent threat, plus morale bolstered by team RWBY and jaune’s return. but the cracks still show. vacuans have always been hostile to outsiders, and the refugees are putting an enormous strain on the already-impoverished kingdom, even with aid pouring in from vale and mistral. the crown’s core supporters are people who believe that allowing refugees into vacuo will weaken its defenses, and the longer this drags on, the more they can capitalize on tensions to stoke dissent. 

gill and jax are bound to escape or get broken out by their loyalists sooner or later. if gill is the summer maiden, and summer identifies her as such, then getting the vault open might be as simple as posing as a huntress disillusioned by the “weakness” of the powers that be and telling gillian about the sword. 

the tricky part is getting the sword away from gillian, because a summer maiden who can drain aura and wields the sword of destruction is a walking nuke. summer might be able to pull it off if her semblance is along the same lines as ruby’s: have gill open the vault, rush the sword, cut her down before she can react. otherwise, cutting a deal—the sword in exchange for salem leaving vacuo alone—might work, because salem’s stated motive in the broadcast is to destroy the huntsman academies and that is also what gill wants, so summer could make a credible argument here that salem is a potential ally to the crown. 

if gill is not the summer maiden, then the crown is still potentially useful—a nascent civil war will distract the coalition and if the crown rebels again and wins, they’re probably going to be easier to persuade or manipulate into opening the vault (and jax can control the summer maiden, if it comes to that). also, adding the imminent threat of a civil war to the imminent threat of salem attacking puts more pressure on the coalition to risk using the sword.

the other thing summer might do is eschew the cloak-and-dagger routine altogether and take a gamble on approaching her daughters to open negotiations; this is, to put it mildly, a risk. but a very high-reward risk.

IN SUMMARY.

gillian asturias -> starr sanzang. probably.

summer rose is here and she’s not going to, at any point, Be the summer maiden but she is going to Cause Problems On Purpose.

one of the ways the summer maiden arc will be Different is that summer rose has some things to unpack (what happened to the last spring maiden That Night)

the vacuo ATM is either for the asturias twins OR someone (summer or jax) is going to do a murder OR there is no ATM, there’s just gill and her ability to (temporarily) steal the maiden power via aura, in which case it’s starr -> gillian -> starr and we might see magic-thieving conflicts between gill and winter or raven also.

if the ATM gets used for any other purpose than making gill’s and jax’s aura-sharing deal permanent it is going to be Very Bad. 

maybe the real crown was the reactionary insurgents we foiled along the way?

[wellcollapse]

fuck it friday

i’m pretending its still friday. here’s some of my new WIP (affectionately titled Unhinged Buck) for y’all because it’s all i can think about rn!!

Eddie presses up behind him, hand splayed against his back. The edges of Buck’s vision are blurry, and he thinks Eddie might be holding him up, keeping his body from sinking down into the ground. He’s not sure. He just knows that they’re close enough that Buck can feel Eddie’s breath on his neck with every word that slips out of his mouth. (He wants to be closer. He wants to feel the vibrations of Eddie’s throat against his lips. He wants the pressure of Eddie’s hand to curl around his spine, tethering himself to Eddie in a way that can’t be undone. But he can’t have any of it. He knows he can’t. So he stays still, balancing himself against the point where Eddie’s thumb digs into his spine, planting his feet firmly on the ground and anchoring himself to the hard, cold earth, and he listens.) “How’s the driver?” Eddie asks roughly.  Hen shakes her head. “He’s gone. He was drunk — I definitely smelled alcohol on his breath. But his neck was bent pretty badly in the crash. He died before we could attempt to extract him.”  Buck grits his teeth. “Good,” he spits out, leaning further back against Eddie’s warm, warm body. He sways slightly to the side, and Eddie tightens his hold on Buck’s arm. “Good,” he murmurs again. Behind him, Eddie lets out a low hiss. Buck blinks, turning around to face him, taking in the slight scrape on Eddie’s brow bone and the dirt on his turnouts. He takes in the way Eddie’s worried eyes meet his, the soft honey-brown soothing the insistent pain in Buck temple. It’s a nice view, and Buck gives him a lazy, satisfied grin back. There’s no need to be worried. After all, Eddie is alive. He gets to go home, to the 118, to Chris, to his—  No.  Buck blinks. Eddie is alive. He gets to kick off his dirty shoes in the locker room and pull on the freakishly clean pair he always keeps in their locker — the one that Eddie only ever wears on drives back home from work. Eddie denies it, but Buck knows. He could recite Eddie’s every unsavory habit from memory alone, and he knows that those shoes have only ever seen the floor of a glass-walked locker room and the inside of a pickup truck. Today, Eddie gets to gently toe off those shoes, hide them in the top right slot of his shoe rack, and trek down the hallway to greet Christopher with a hug that he’ll shy away from, too old to let Eddie indulge in those small acts of love. Chris might cave eventually, though — even teenage moodiness hasn’t been able to curve Chris’s fierce love for his father. Eddie is alive, and tonight will end in a ruffle of his son’s hair and a twin chorus of I love you. Tonight won’t end in Chris reliving his worst nightmare. And it’s not just Christopher, Buck thinks — who knows how many lives were spared the moment Hen pressed two fingers against a still pulse; how many children were spared from the kind of blinding grief that Christopher faces every day. Who knows how many parents will laugh with their kids over dinner, how many bleary-eyed twentysomethings will show up late to work because of traffic, how many people will get to marry the love of their lives now that Hen has marked the body and moved onto the next patient. Eddie will get to do all of that and more, because he’s alive. Buck’s mouth ticks up in a smile. No, this was no loss. 

tagging some writer mutuals and a few people who were interested in this idea: @loserdiaz @captain-hen @jeeyuns @likegoldintheair @shitouttabuck @housewifebuck @antibyler @cal-daisies-and-briars @alliaskisthepossibilityoflove @911-on-abc @elvensorceress @eddiebabygirldiaz @wildlife4life

[ivan-fyodorovich-k]

I will be curious to read the vituperative denials of the validity of this article's analysis, which is pasted below the cutoff:

“Are you better off today than you were four years ago?” That question, first posed by Ronald Reagan in a 1980 presidential-campaign debate with Jimmy Carter, has become the quintessential political question about the economy. And most Americans today, it seems, would say their answer is no. In a new survey by Bankrate published on Wednesday, only 21 percent of those surveyed said their financial situation had improved since Joe Biden was elected president in 2020, against 50 percent who said it had gotten worse. That echoed the results of an ABC News/Washington Post poll from September, in which 44 percent of those surveyed said they were worse off financially since Biden’s election. And in a New York Times/Siena College poll released last week, 53 percent of registered voters said that Biden’s policies had hurt them personally.

As has been much commented on (including by me), this gloom is striking when contrasted with the actual performance of the U.S. economy, which grew at an annual rate of 4.9 percent in the most recent quarter, and which has seen unemployment holding below 4 percent for more than 18 months. But the downbeat mood is perhaps even more striking when contrasted with the picture offered by the Federal Reserve’s recently released Survey of Consumer

The survey provides an in-depth analysis of the financial condition of American households, conducted for the Fed by the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago. Published every three years, it’s the proverbial gold standard of household research. The latest survey looked at Americans’ net worth as of mid-to-late 2022 and Americans’ income in 2021, comparing them with equivalent data from three years earlier. It found that despite the severe disruption to the economy caused by the pandemic and the recovery from it, Americans across the spectrum saw their incomes and wealth rise over the survey period.

The rise in median household net worth was the most notable improvement: It jumped by 37 percent from 2019 to 2022, rising to $192,000. (All numbers are adjusted for inflation.) Americans in every income bracket saw substantial gains, with the biggest gains registered by people in the middle and upper-middle brackets, which suggests that a slight narrowing of wealth inequality occurred during this time. In particular, Black and Latino households saw their median net worth rise faster than white households did—though the racial wealth gap is so wide that it narrowed only slightly as a result of this change.

A big driver of this increase was the rising value of people’s homes—and a higher percentage of Americans owned homes in 2022 than did in 2019. But households’ financial position improved in other ways too. The amount of money that the median household had in bank accounts and retirement accounts rose substantially. The percentage of Americans owning stocks directly (that is, not in retirement accounts) jumped by more than a third, from about 15 to 21 percent. The percentage of Americans with retirement accounts went from 50.5 to 54.3 percent, a notable improvement. And a fifth of Americans reported owning a business, the highest proportion since the survey began in its current form (in 1989).

Americans also reduced their debt loads during the pandemic. The median credit-card balance dropped by 14 percent, and the share of people with car loans fell. More significantly still, Americans’ median debt-to-asset, debt-to-income, and debt-payment-to-income ratios all fell, meaning that U.S. households had lower debt burdens, on average, in 2022 than they’d had three years earlier.

The gains in real income (in this case, measured from 2018 to 2021) were small—median household income rose 3 percent, with every income bracket seeing gains. But that was better than one might have expected, given that this period included a pandemic-induced recession and only a single year of recovery.

The picture the survey paints, then, is one of American households not only weathering the pandemic in surprisingly good shape, but ultimately also emerging from it in better financial shape than they were going in. And that, in turn, points to the effect of the U.S. policy response to the crisis: Stimulus payments, enhanced unemployment benefits, the child-care tax credit, and the moratorium on student-loan payments boosted household income and balance sheets, helping people pay down debt and increase their savings. In the process, these policies mildly narrowed inequality.

The U.S. government’s aggressive response to the pandemic, including Biden’s stimulus spending, also helped the job market recover all its pandemic-related losses—and add millions of jobs on top. The resulting tight labor market has been a huge boon to lower-wage workers. In fact, because the Fed survey’s income data end in 2021, it understates the income gains for the bottom half of the workforce, and the shrinking income inequality they’ve produced.

Hourly wages for production and nonsupervisory workers (who make up about 80 percent of the American workforce) rose 4.4 percent year-on-year in the third quarter of 2023, for instance, ahead of the pace of inflation. And this was not anomalous: Arindrajit Dube, an economist at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, crunched the numbers and found that real wages for that same sector of workers are not just higher than they were in 2019, but are now roughly where they would have been if we’d continued on the upward pre-pandemic trend.

The reason for this is simple: Low unemployment has translated into higher wages. As a recent working paper by Dube, David Autor, and Annie McGrew shows, the tight labor markets of the past few years have given lower-wage workers more bargaining power than in the past, leading to a compression in the wage gap between higher-paid and lower-paid workers. Of course, that gap is still immense, but the three scholars found that the wage gains for lower-paid workers have rolled back about a quarter of the rise in inequality that has occurred since the 1980s.

So what should we take away from the Survey of Consumer Finances data, and from Dube, Autor, and McGrew’s work? Not that everything is fine, but that public policy and macroeconomic management matter a lot. Enhanced unemployment benefits, the child-care tax credit, the stimulus payments—these things materially improved the lives of Americans and helped set the economy up for a strong recovery. If the policy response had been less aggressive, the U.S. economy would be in worse shape now. This is something you can see by looking at Europe, where economies are growing far more slowly and unemployment is higher, while inflation is no lower.

Key to this story is the fact that lower-wage workers in particular would be worse off, because they have been among the chief beneficiaries of the low unemployment created by the robust recovery. It’s a useful reminder that stagnant wages are not an inevitable result of American capitalism: When labor markets are tight, and employers have to compete with one another for employees, workers get paid more.

So, even allowing for the high inflation we saw in 2022, no one could really look at the U.S. economy today and say that the policy choices of the past three years made us poorer. Yet that, of course, is precisely how many Americans feel.

Although that pessimism does not bode well for Biden’s reelection prospects, the real problem with it is even more far-reaching: If voters think that policies that helped them actually hurt them, that makes it much less likely that politicians will embrace similar policies in the future. The U.S. got a lot right in its macroeconomic approach over the past three years. Too bad that voters think it got so much wrong.

[squareallworthy]

Triangle Tuesday 3: The orthocenter, the Euler line, and orthocentric systems

Previously, we have looked at two different ways to mark a point in a triangle. First, we drew cevians (lines from the vertices) to the midpoints of the sides and found that they all cross at a point, which is the centroid. Then we tried drawing perpendiculars to the sides from the midpoints, and those all met at the circumcenter. And you could do this with any point on the side of a triangle -- draw a cevian to it, or a perpendicular from it, and see what happens.

This time, though, we're going to do both. That is, we're going to work with the cevians that also form perpendiculars to the sides. These are the altitudes, which run from a vertex to the nearest point on the opposite side, called the foot of the altitude. The three altitudes all meet at a point H, and that's the orthocenter. (The letter H has been used to mark the orthocenter since at least the late 19th century. I believe it's from the German Höhenschnittpunkt, "altitude intersection point.") Anyway, let's prove that the orthocenter exists.

Theorem: the three altitudes of a triangle coincide.

Here's a very simple proof that the three altitudes coincide. It relies on the existence of the circumcenter, which we already proved before. Given a triangle ABC, draw a line through A parallel to the opposite side BC. Do the same at B and C. These lines cross at D, E, and F and form the antimedial triangle (in blue).

Then the altitudes of ABC are also the perpendicular bisectors of DEF. We proved before that perpendicular bisectors all meet at a point, therefore altitudes do as well.

That was easy. Let's do it again, but in a different way. It's not quite as simple, but it includes a large bonus.

Theorem: the three altitudes of a triangle coincide at a point colinear with the circumcenter and centroid, and GH = 2 GO.

Let's take triangle ABC, and let F be the midpoint of side AB. Then mark two points that we already know, the circumcenter O and the centroid G. We'll also draw the median (green) and the perpendicular bisector (blue) that run through F, leaving the other ones out to avoid cluttering the picture.

We already know from our look at the centroid that G cuts segment FC at a third of its length, so GC = 2GF. Let's extend segment OG in the direction of G by twice its length out to a point we'll label H, so that GH = 2GO.

Now consider the two triangles GOF and GHC. By construction, their two blue sides are in the ratio 1:2, and the same for their two black sides. They also meet in vertical angles at their common vertex G. So by side-angle-side, the triangles are similar, and it follows that HC is parallel to OF, and therefore perpendicular to AB. So H lies on the altitude from H to side AB.

By analogous construction, we can show that H also lies on the other two altitudes. So not only have we proved that the altitudes coincide, but also that O, G, and H all lie on a line, and furthermore that G is located one third of the way from O to H, in any triangle.

This proof is due to Leonard Euler, and the line OGH is called the Euler line. Not only these three points but many others as well fall on this line, which we will get to later on.

Let's look at some more properties of the orthocenter and the feet of the altitudes. I'm just going to look at the case of an acute triangle for now, and show how this extends to the obtuse case later.

Theorem: two vertices of a triangle and the feet of the altitudes from those vertices are concyclic.

Proof is easy: the two right triangles AHcC and AHaC share segment AC as a hypotenuse. Therefore AC is a diameter of the common circumcircle of AHcC and AHaC (following from Thales's theorem).

(Incidentally, look at the angle formed by the blue segment and the altitude CHc. It subtends the same arc as angle CAHa, so (by the inscribed angle theorem again) they must be equal. That's not a part of this theorem, so just tuck that fact away for a moment.)

Theorem: a vertex, the two adjacent feet of the altitudes, and the orthocenter are concyclic.

Same idea, but now the right triangles are AHcH and AHbH, and AH is the diameter of the common circumcircle.

(And incidentally, look at the angle formed by the new blue line and the altitude CHc. It subtends the same arc as HbAH, which is same angle as CAHa. So those angles must be equal too. Since both angles between a blue line and the altitude CHc are equal to the same thing, they are equal to each other. Again, not a part of this theorem, just something I wanted to note.)

So those are some interesting concyclicities, but now let's look at the pedal triangle of the orthocenter, which is called the orthic triangle.

Oh, hey, it's made up blue lines, just like the ones we were talking about. And we proved that the two longest blue lines make equal angles with the altitude between them. By symmetry, we can prove the same thing about all the angles made by the blue lines. So that means

Theorem: two sides of the orthic triangle make equal angles with the altitude between them.

Another way to say this is that the altitudes are the angle bisectors of the orthic triangle. And I admit that was kind of a roundabout way to introduce the orthic triangle, but I think it makes the proof of this property easier to follow.

Two other properties of the orthic triangle immediately follow from this:

In an acute triangle, the inscribed triangle with the shortest perimeter is the orthic triangle

and

In an acute triangle, the orthic triangle forms a triangular closed path for a beam of light reflected around a triangle

which are two ways of saying the same thing.

But those two properties only hold for acute triangles. What happens to the orthic triangle in an obtuse triangle? Let's push point C downward to make triangle ABC obtuse and see what happens. To make things clear, I'm going to extend the sides of ABC and the altitudes from line segments into lines. Here's the before:

And here's the after:

The orthocenter has moved outside of triangle ABC, and two of the altitudes have their feet on extensions of the sides of ABC rather than on the segments AC and BC. The orthic triangle now extends outside ABC, and certainly isn't the inscribed triangle with the shortest perimeter any more.

But look at it another way. We now have an acute triangle ABH, and the line HHc is an altitude of both the obtuse triangle ABC and the acute triangle ABH. Meanwhile, lines AC and BC have become altitudes of ABH.

So what we have is essentially the same acute triangle with two swaps: point C trades places with H, and Ha trades places with Hb. That means that our two theorems about concyclic points morph into each other as triangle ABC switches between acute and obtuse. Here's an animation to show the process:

And this is why I didn't bother with the obtuse case above -- each theorem of concyclicity is the obtuse case of the other.

So if we can just exchange the orthocenter with one of the vertices, what does this mean for their relationship? If you are given a group of vertices and lines, how can you tell which one is the orthocenter and which one are the vertices? Well, you can't.

Theorem: Given an acute or obtuse triangle ABC and its orthocenter H, A is the orthocenter of triangle BCH, B is the orthocenter of ACH, and C is the orthocenter of ABH.

The proof comes from consulting either of the "before" and "after" figures above. Take any three lines that form a triangle, red or black. The other three lines are then the altitudes of that triangle. The three feet are where a red and black line meet perpendicularly, so they are the same for all four possible triangles, which means all four share the same orthic triangle.

(Of course, if ABC is a right triangle, then we get a degenerate case, as you can see from the gif at the moment when C and H meet.)

Such an arrangement of four points is called an orthocentric system. Of the four points, one is always located inside an acute triangle formed by the other three, and it's conventional to label the interior one H and the others ABC.

Orthocentric systems pop up all over the place in triangles, so expect to see more of them as we go along. Now, let me do one little lemma about altitudes, and then I'll show something cool about orthocentric systems.

Lemma: the segment of an altitude from the orthocenter to a side of the triangle is equal to the extension of the altitude from the side to the circumcircle.

We can show this with just a little shuffling of angle identities. Extend altitude CHc to meet the circumcircle at C'. The angles CAB and CC'B, labeled in red, subtend the same arcs, so they are equal. Triangle ABHb is a right triangle, so angle HbBA, in blue, is complementary to it. The same is true for the right triangle C'BHc, so the two angles labeled in blue are equal. Then by angle-side-angle, triangles BHcH and HHcC' are congruent, and segment HHc = HcC'.

By the same argument, we can show that triangle AHHc is congruent to AC'Hc, which leads us into the next bit.

Theorem: all the circumcircles of the triangles of an orthocentric system are the same size.

The blue triangle has the same circumcircle as triangle ABC. From the foregoing, the blue and green triangles are congruent. Therefore their circumcircles are the same size as well. The same argument works for ACH and BCH.

So here is an orthocentric system with its four circumcircles.

The four circumcenters O, Oa, Ob, and Oc form another orthocentric system, congruent to the first one.

If you found this interesting, please try drawing some of this stuff for yourself! You can use a compass and straightedge, or software such as Geogebra, which I used to make all my drawings. You can try it on the web here or download apps to run on your own computer here.

An index of all posts in this series is available here.

[firstkanaphans]

AkkAyan should get more than just cutesy prompts. Would you write L for them?

[L]eaving hickies on them

Akk was about three seconds away from putting his hand down Aye’s pants when Aye stopped him.

“Akk, baby, hold on,” he said, breaking their kiss. Akk had him pinned down on the bed and despite his protestations, he looked thoroughly ravished. His clothes were disheveled, his hair was an absolute mess, his lips were red and swollen. Good. That had been Akk’s intention. “I have to go. I’m supposed to meet June in five minutes to work on our poli sci project. I told you that.”

“Reschedule,” Akk said. He kissed him again. 

Luckily, Aye was an incredibly easy person to distract. Show him even a little bit of attention and he folded like a wet napkin. He tangled his fingers in Akk’s hair and kissed him back. 

Akk thought they were actually getting somewhere this time—that Aye had finally given up the ridiculous notion of leaving—but when he reached for Aye’s belt a second time, Aye once again pushed him away.

“Akk,” he scolded playfully. “I’ve already rescheduled on her twice. The project’s due next week. I have to go.”

“You can be a little late,” Akk said, leaning in for another kiss, but this time, Aye stopped him before their lips could meet.

“That’s what you said last time and then you fucked me for two hours straight, so forgive me if I don’t believe you.” It was as if saying the words aloud finally connected the dots in his head. He gasped and then shoved Akk off of him so that he could sit up. Reluctantly, Akk sat as well. “Akk Pipitphattana, are you stalling me on purpose?”

“Of course not,” Akk said petulantly. 

“Oh my god, you are. Why?!”

Akk tried so hard to bite back the words, but they spewed out of him anyway. “I don’t like you hanging out with June, okay? She has a crush on you.”

Aye’s eyes widened comically. “Akk, I’m gay.”

“Yeah, but she’s not.” 

Aye’s disbelieving smile turned into a smirk. “Oh my god. You’re jealous,” he said.

“No,” Akk denied even though it was very obviously true. 

“You’re jealous,” Aye repeated, grabbing the collar of Akk’s shirt by one finger and forcibly pulling him closer. “And you’ve been seducing me to keep me away from her.”

Akk looked up at the ceiling, feigning ignorance. “That doesn’t sound like something I would do.”

Aye took Akk’s face in his hands and forced him to look at him. “You’re jealous,” he said for the third time. “Admit it.”

“Fine,” Akk snapped, swatting Aye away. “I’m fucking jealous.”

Aye was clearly very pleased by this turn of events. He preened. “Just how jealous are you?”

“I’m not playing this game with you,” Akk said, moving to get off of the bed. Aye had teased him enough for one night. But before he could climb off, Aye dragged him back down so that they were in the same position they had been when this conversation started: Aye laying on his back with Akk hovering above him. Akk’s eyes tracked helplessly down to Aye’s lips and Aye licked them as if he knew exactly what Akk was thinking.

“I want you to show me how jealous you are,” Aye said. The humor in his voice had faded and in its place was raw desire. 

Akk didn’t need to be told twice. He kissed him, using the kiss as an outlet for all of the anger and frustration he had been feeling ever since Aye told him his plans for the night. He kissed him hard enough to bruise and when Aye bared his neck to him, Akk kissed that too, nipping the skin and then soothing it with his tongue until he could feel Aye’s moans reverberating through his lips. And this time, when Akk reached for the zipper on Aye’s pants, he didn't stop him.

When Aye finally left the apartment a little while later, he was very, very late for his study date and his neck was decorated in fresh lip-shaped bruises that no one—not even June—could possibly ignore. Akk let his boyfriend go, his jealousy sated, and instead fell asleep in the same bed where they had just made love, thoroughly satisfied.

For the Fluff Prompt ABCs

[talltalesandbedtimestories]

“Let You Off With A Warning” - Beau Arlen x Reader

Part of the “Guardian of the Gulch” Series

Rating Teen

Beau Arlen x Reader (eventually)

Tags: Fluff and Flirting

Word Count: 1900

There's a new sheriff in town. And he just so happens to have parked his RV in your campgrounds. What's a park ranger to do with all that Texas charm strutting around on a fine pair of bow legs?

I'm participating in @jacklesversebingo and this part will fill my "Food as Bonding" square.

Image created in Canva (credit for photo used: ABC/Michael Moriatis)

Corey’s eyes are ready to roll right out of his eye sockets. He slumps over the counter, office phone pressed tight to his ear.

“Absolutely.” He enunciates every syllable. “Yes. I can see how that would be quite an intrusion.” Those stubby fingers snap to get your attention. 

You’re finishing up your checklist after vehicle patrol. When did fireworks become an every night of the week event for days prior to the Fourth? The annoyance can become dangerous in Black Sandy State Park. Especially when bored kids and drunk adults get it in their heads to light things on fire on campgrounds during drought conditions. You’re figuring that’s what the call’s about. Things had been relatively quiet so far that night.

You had hoped they were going to stay that way. All you wanted to do was clock out in the next five minutes, get home, and catch up on “The Bachelor” episodes filling up space on your DVR.

“We’ll have someone head over and take care of it.” Corey smiles at you.

You groan back at your Park Manager. You’re the only other someone.

~

You head to the campsite that phoned the office first. It’s a husband and wife with a large brood. They’ve got every creature comfort under the sun - or in this case, moonlight - in their parcel paradise by Hauser Lake. The Class A motorhome makes you wonder what kind of house they left behind. 

The wife is the one running her mouth at you even though the husband had called to lodge the complaint. You try to wrap your head around the noise she’s harping about and how it’s possibly bothering the four kids. All of the children are laser-focused on handheld devices. They don’t even look up when mom asks them to corroborate how annoying the sound from their neighbor is. 

If you had your way, you’d block all WiFi access in every part of Black Sandy. 

After the requisite pleasantries, you turn and trudge through the shadows to the lodger who’ll be getting a talking to. Though not the talk Mrs. Devonshire is expecting.

You adjust the cap on your head. The voice emerging from one solitary speaker is muffled and mono on your approach. The silver Airstream is curvy and sleek. A standout that manages to sparkle even in the dark.

Its owner sits in a lawn chair. He’s watching some old time western projected onto a white sheet tautly stretched between two poles.

His eyes have cottoned on to your movement seconds ago, you're sure of it. His day job requires him to be hyper aware of his surroundings at all times.

“To what do I owe the honor of a house call this late, Ranger? Raccoon invasion? Dump station on the fritz?” He stands to greet you. An open beer dangles from his fingertips.

“Nothing that exciting, Sheriff.” The Bachelor’s got nothing on this specimen. The handful of times you’ve crossed paths, you are never quite prepared to be in this man’s presence.

“I’m not on duty. Call me Beau, remember?” He grins to confirm the allowance of such informality.

You sigh. “Afraid I am on duty. And have to request a favor.”

He nods and tilts his head over to the Devonshires. “Let me guess? I’ve done something to upset Linda.”

You raise an eyebrow. “How’d you know?”

“I had her figured out as soon as she waltzed over to introduce herself bright and early this morning before I left for work.” His lids widen in emphasis. “Ten minutes of my life I’ll never get back. Is she about to release the kraken?”

You chuckle. “Just turn down the volume on your movie a smidge, please.” You pinch two fingers together. “We’ve never had a complaint about you before, so no worries. We’ll let you off with a verbal warning this time.” You grin.

He’s amused at that. “Mighty kind of ya. Well, let me do it right in front of you, so you can put it down in your incident report.” He strolls over to the speaker and dials down the knob. “Perpetrator immediately complied with the request.” He announces, a little on the loud side. “In case Linda’s watching.”

You stifle a laugh. “I’m guessing she doesn’t know you’re the Sheriff of Lewis and Clark County?”

He shakes his head. “How would she? I don’t think I got five words in this morning.” He lifts the lid of a green cooler with the toe of his cowboy boot, bends down and pulls out another beer bottle. He has a bounce in his step on his way back to you. “But, you know, I don’t reckon it would’ve even mattered. She still would’ve had Larry make the call.”

“How’d you know Larry called?”

He shrugs and offers you the beer. “Lucky guess.”

You wave a hand. “On duty, remember?”

A tip of his wrist has him checking his watch. “You getting paid time and a half? It’s almost nine.”

You smile at how well he catalogs information and smooth talks with all that easy Texas charm. By your second run-in with him he’d found out your work schedule and how important it was for you to stick to it. He even had you fess up, somehow, to your penchant for reality TV, especially shows of the love competition variety. You grab the beer and twist off the top. The beer tingles down your throat in a welcome swallow. “It’s all your fault I’m still here.”

“Well, then, let me make it up to you. Sit a spell.” Before you can register, he’s snapped open another lawn chair near his own. He presents it with a flourish.

“I guess I should hang around for a bit. Make sure you don’t get yourself in more trouble.” The chair settles into the dirt under your weight.

“Not the first time it’s been suggested I need a chaperone.” He sits alongside you.

You nod at the movie. “What’re you watching?”

He stares at you, disheartened. “Really?”

“I don’t do westerns.”

“Pale Rider. Clint Eastwood. It’s a classic.” His head shakes. “Kids today.”

You scoff. “Kid?”

“You can’t be more than 25,” he states with complete earnestness.

“You don’t need to butter me up, Beau. I already said you’d get off on a warning.”

“How about some bribery then, just to ensure nothing ends up on my permanent record.” He nudges a bowl on the tiny circular table in your direction.

It’s hard to make out the contents. You squint. Light from the projector brightens up the scene for a moment. “Oh, you found them.” You pull out a cherry and tug at the fruity flesh between your teeth to release the stem.

“I did. Saw ‘em at a farmer’s market in town. You were right. Flathead cherries are amazing.”

“Hm.” You concur and indulge in the sweetness. “So good.”

Beau snickers. “You two need some alone time?”

“So good,” you repeat. “First pick of the season reminds you of what you’ve been missing all year.”

He nods and grabs a couple for himself. “That’s what the guy at the stand was spoutin’.”

Beau Arlen has only been the sheriff for a few weeks. But you agree with the assessment that most have of him. He’s an affable and acceptable substitute while Walter Tubb recuperates. Arlen’s smart and ingratiates himself easily with everyone in the county. He knows those that keep things running in Helena by their first names already. And as you are someone that secures and protects a part of state land in the county under his jurisdiction– well, you get to share a beer and some cherries with him tonight. 

The conversation is light and dances about with no rhyme or reason.

“What’s your favorite meal to eat back home?” He asks with great interest. With an angling of his head upward, he shoots a cherry pit out of his mouth like a mini cannonball into the shadows. You think he’s intentionally aiming in the direction of the Devonshires. “Like, the kind that needs your undivided attention?”

“Easy. Grilled salmon and roasted asparagus with mashed potatoes.”

Beau takes a swig. “Found anything comparable here?”

“Not yet. Doubtful it’ll be anything close to what I could get back home in Oregon.” You course correct and try not to be too hard on the place you’ve called home for the past two years. “But, you can fish a decent dinner out on the lake.” You thumb at the water behind the trailer. “The trout and perch are tasty.”

“I haven’t gotten around to fishing in Hauser yet.” He sighs.

“Seems like every time I turn on the local news, something major is going on in the area. Most of it ain’t good.”

“Tell me about it. I thought this would be a slow drip favor of a job for a friend. I was saying to Hoyt today that a dam holding back all the crime must’ve burst as soon as I got here.”

You make a note to give Jenny Hoyt a call. You haven’t hung out with her or Cassie in a bit. It’s time to catch up and get all the details you can about the new sheriff in town. “Well, what crime has Helena committed when it comes to your favorite meal back home?”

“Oh.” Beau’s lips flap as he releases air from his lungs. “Haven’t found a good T-bone yet. Tried grilling a couple myself but I don’t know, just not the same. What I wouldn’t do for a melt in your mouth steak with some buttered corn on the cob and a baked potato topped with sour cream and chives.” He licks his lips with a far away stare.

You grin at how fond his expression is over the memory. You kind of wish he’d stare at you like that for even a second.

Some soft pops ricochet in the night air. You both sit up at the sound.

“Fireworks.” Beau states. You nod and then wait to see if anything can be seen in the distance lighting up the sky. It quiets again after some seconds. “You better get home before you can never leave,” Beau decides. You open your mouth to protest. He only shakes his head and cuts you off. “Hey, if Corey’s got something to say about it, just tell him the sheriff can pinch hit if he needs backup.”

You smile. “Not sure if that’ll fly coming from me.”

“Then you tell him to call me if he needs confirmation.” He nods and this time the smile he gives you is fond and, dare you think it, a bit flirty. “Besides, you’ve got a bachelor waiting for you at home, doncha?”

The laugh bubbles out of you. “I doubt he’ll be any better company.” You purse your lips at the confession that gave more of your thoughts away than intended.

He stills at the compliment and takes it in for a long beat. The smile that curls up is soft and sweet. “Thank you.”

“Thank you.” You rise and leave the half drunk beer on the table. 

Beau rises as well, always the gentleman. 

“Have a good night.” You hurry out the words to match your steps.

You don’t dare turn to look back at the sheriff. You can’t stop grinning like a giddy school girl.

His voice, low and warm in the summer night, draws out, “You have a good night as well.” He adds, “Ranger.”

Read Part 2 Here