#so now i wonder if there will be ranch hand campers!!!!

[tricoufamily]

KIT KIT KIT KIT KIT KIT KIT KIT KIT KIT KIT KIT KIT KIT KIT KIT KIT KIT KI KIT KIT KIT KITK ITK ITK ITI

[troped-fanfic-challenge]

JATP ROUND TWO FICS!

We received seventeen (17!!!!!) Fics for the Second Round of the JATP TROPED Event! These fics were fluff-filled and super fun, and we loved to see how you all challenged yourselves with the theme, tropes, and pairings!

Please try to read as many fics as you can! Take some notes, leave some kudos/comments for the authors, and help us vote on the winners!

Voting will be open until May 14th at 11:59pm EST! Vote here:

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/BZ3W5FT

Please rank ALL the fics in each question based on the USE of each trope, the theme, the fics overall, and the two bonus polls (best setting + most unique pairing)! Your #1 spot should be the best answer and your last spot the least likely answer for the question. The Best Overall Poll will determine who will be writing in the Final Round! We ask that you please rank EVERY fic, so we can avoid technical difficulties! A reminder that you must include a Tumblr or AO3 username/URL, and you may only vote once, we will NOT count multiple votes by the same person.

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Okay, Campers, Rise and Shine! (Rated T) [Julie x Luke]

Summary: When Reggie launches a particularly ill-advised prank war at HGC Ranch, Luke's fully prepared to take it in stride.

When the days start looping, though, he begins to suspect that this might all be a little bit above his head.

In other words, he's at least 78% sure that the time loop isn't a direct result of Reggie's pranks.

Maybe 77%.

Oh, well.

At least he's not in it alone.

(The Groundhog Day meets Gravity Falls meets Summer Camp meets The Author's Own Distaste For Prank Wars AU that no one asked for. Ever. At all.)

Starting To Forget (Just What Summer Ever Meant To You) (Not Rated) [Flynn x Carrie]

Summary: Last summer didn't end on a positive note for Carrie Wilson - she and her girlfriend broke up on the last night of camp, and she's been miserable since. But it seems that the universe is intent on having her fix that this summer. Even if that means she has to live through the same day over and over and over again until she does.

Creative B.S. Was No More, Was No Less (Look Around, You're Gonna Miss What You Found) (Rated T) [Alex x Luke, Flynn x Reggie]

Summary: The midnight men move again

Don't know when

Best friends forever

In trouble again

Here's to you, here's to me

Over the rafters and we're free

--- Over the Rafters, Rick Schiffman

***

Alex and Luke go undercover on a mission to a summer camp in order to find a talisman that could endanger the camp and all the kids. While there, they bond with the kids and make peace with the fact that they broke up.

While Alex and Luke are away, Flynn accidentally fucks with time.

bitch but like romantically (Rated T) [Flynn x Carrie]

Summary: The dining hall’s exactly the same as it has been for two mornings now, and Flynn doesn’t hesitate to poke Willie twice on the nose and whisper “pancake” on her way past their seat.

His eyes widen and he whips his head around to follow them, excitement glimmering in their eyes.

“Really?” they blurt. Flynn rolls her eyes and nods.

~

or: flynn gets stuck in a time loop. {for troped jatp round 2}

down by the bay (Rated T) [Alex x Willie]

Summary: Over time, Camp Phantom has simply become known as a selective summer camp: one that took only the kids that Caleb saw promise in. And Caleb wasn’t exactly lying. He really did take only the ones he saw promise in, he simply looked for different traits than others might.

For example, say, hypothetically, a boy who could see the future. Or, hypothetically, a girl who could interact with ghosts. Or, hypothetically, a boy who could summon objects to him with a simple thought. Or, and this is completely hypothetical mind you, a boy who could manipulate time.

Those might be some traits that Caleb saw promise in. Just, like, as examples.

Time will tell (But only if you do it right) (Rated T) [Flynn x Carrie]

Summary: Carrie had been acting a little off for a week or so, but Flynn was pretty much known for seeing something in nothing, and that was probably what they were doing then. If something was going on, Carrie would tell her eventually.

OR

Who knew all it took was a little bit of miscommunication to mess up time itself?

and so it begins (Rated T) [Bobby x Reggie]

Summary: It’s the first day of their second week at Camp Carolling (they’re spending an entire month, and they’re getting paid to be there!) when Reggie gets a little lost in the woods. During this misadventure into the woods, he finds an egg shaped rock, an inhabited cabin that may or may not be riddled with signs, and something that might be magic. He probably doesn't get paid enough to discover magic.

or, when they were thirteen years old, four boys met at camp carolling and eventually became a band that almost became something legendary. now, all four boys are coming back as counselors, three boys in one band and one boy in his own solo act.

so begins the reunion, though it doesn't go how any of them imagine.

Porcupine Day (Rated T) [Bobby x Ray x Rose]

Summary: It’s been fifteen years since Trevor broke up with Ray and Rose and they’re... not fine, but managing. But when Trevor to adds insult to injury and buys the camp across the lake from the one they once owned together, the two camps become locked in a bitter rivalry. With neither side willing to set aside their pride and work out their issues, the universe decides to settle their fates itself.

Day After Day (After Day After Day) (Rated T) [Alex x Willie]

Summary: When Alex met Willie just after their senior year of high school, they spent a wonderful three months dating before their relationship ended in a blaze of glory. Now, four years later, they meet again as counselors at a summer camp. The only problem? Alex keeps reliving their first day together. The day that Luke had declared "Prank Day."

This is not how Alex pictured his summer going.

clocks move faster (it's all we're after) (Rated G) [Julie x Luke]

Summary: Julie likes it when her friends are happy, so when she realizes she's stuck in a time loop, she uses her knowledge to make sure everything works out for everyone... except she conveniently forgets to factor herself (and Luke) into the mix.

Touch of Magic (Not Rated) [Alex x Luke]

Summary: When everything stands in Luke and Alex’s way of getting to be with the people they love, they have to repeat the day over and over until they can get the happily ever after that they want.

The play's the thing (that goes wrong) (Rated T) [Alex x Willie]

Summary: Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow creeps in this petty pace from day to day for Macbeth, but not so for Alex and the production of Hamlet that he is directing and starring in. And while he's stuck repeating the day of the performance over and over, mishaps of all kinds befall the cast.

anything, anything (for another run with you) (Rated T) [Alex x Willie]

Summary: The moment Alex steps foot in Camp Greenwood, he knows that this summer is a bad idea.

He knows it as soon as he sees tan skin, long hair, and a tie-dyed crop top at the check-in table.

Willie.

-

the camp counselor/exes/prank war/time loop fic of your dreams (unless you read all of the other troped round 2 fics lmao)

there’s a glorious sunrise, dappled with the flickers of light (Rated T) [Julie x Luke]

Summary: What comes next happens in slow motion. Luke’s foot catches on the last rung of the ladder. Julie watches as he stumbles a step forward, barely catching himself before falling on his face. The ladder clatters to the floor below. The trapdoor, no longer propped open by it, falls closed with a loud thunk, the lock clicking into place. They’re stuck.

“Luke!” she exclaims loudly. “Look what you did!” Julie drops to her knees in front of the trap door, desperately trying to fit her fingers between the wood and the stone to pry it open again. Of course it doesn’t work.

“What?” he snaps back. “I wouldn’t be up here in the first place if it weren’t for you trying to fuck us over.”

or: ex-best friends Luke and Julie, working as camp counselors at rivaling camps, find themselves stuck in a time loop

the daughter of apollo (Rated T) [Julie x Luke]

Summary: (the JATP x Camp Half Blood AU that nobody asked for)

maybe the world isn't ending (maybe it's been postponed) (Rated G) [Julie x Luke]

Summary: Alex runs his fingers through Willie’s hair. “I think it’s best to just leave them to their own prank war at this point. Let’s not forget that time Julie put hot sauce in the coffee pot and my mouth was on fire for an entire hour.”

“You’re exaggerating, Alex-”

“I most certainly am not,” Alex cuts Reggie off.

“Or how about the time Luke tried to put glitter in Julie’s bed,” Carrie joins in, “but got my bed instead? I can appreciate some glitter, but even I know when enough is enough.”

“Suffice it to say,” Willie finishes after they’ve passed around a dozen or so more memories of pranks from the summer, “we’re all done being your collateral damage. Whatever Julie has planned for you tomorrow, Luke, you’re on your own.”

-

It's the last day of camp and Julie has one more prank planned for Luke. He just doesn't know what it is.

Here We Go Again (Rated T) [Julie x Luke]

Summary: Julie blinked as she stared at the place Euterpe had disappeared. What did that even mean? What journey? Old places and lost faces? What was she talking about? But before she could dwell on the questions swirling around in her mind, the sky full of stars began to move, shifting in place and descending until they were all around her. Julie felt her feet leave the ground as she rose up and up. One star in particular was burning brighter than the others, growing bigger in front of her.

It grew and grew, until the light was blinding and Julie had to throw a hand up against the harsh light. She closed her eyes as the light surrounded her and then she was falling. Falling down, down, down.

[the-ghost-king]

time for me to share a good™️ headcanon: will and nico love to steal each other’s clothes but their massive size difference makes it so obvious that they’re doing it. nico’s shirts are almost croptops on will and will’s sweaters are practically a dress on nico bc will is like 6’2 and nico’s like 5’5

Anon! Anon! Yes, you. You get it.

I don’t really know what you wanted as a response to this but I felt inspired for the first time in some 10 months so I gifted you a one shot below the “read more”. I’ll also upload it to Ao3 with a link in the notes...

Anyhow Anon, I hope you enjoy it! I got a little off topic but reflective fluff is always good!

If you would have asked Will what he wanted out of life as a kid you probably would have gotten an answer that was something like “a chance to actually go and live life as it was meant to be” or maybe “to be happy, pretty, and stupid”. 

He didn’t dare to hope for more, demigods didn’t live long lives, and being involved in a major battle at thirteen didn’t do wonders in regards to establishing confidence in your survival. As for the “pretty and stupid” part of his answer, it wasn’t that Will had ever hated being smart, he just hated the disconnect different intelligence levels caused in peer groups and society; being smart was hard, sure for school purposes it was nice, but that intelligence means you’re constantly thinking and so often so much of the world seems so dull and petty. Will had been lucky enough to be blessed with decent looks, moving through the world was made easy in at least that regard, but he wished he could live without thinking so much because so often he could only see so much awful in the world. 

Thirteen year old Will wouldn’t have dared hope for anything more, he wouldn’t have dared hope for anything else more than a decade or so of normal life beyond camp and a chance at an easy life for those few years. When fourteen year old Will got a depression diagnosis he wouldn’t say he was surprised, he would have been annoyed but he hadn’t really felt much of anything in years. (”Atypical depression” The doctor had said, “likely clinical”)  A few different types of anti-depressants and a few months of therapy things started feeling okay, better at least. Fifteen came and went, he tried to go off the pills and didn’t quite get there, but his dose got lowered which Will supposed was nice. 

In the months of early 16, Nico di Angelo stumbles into his life; exhausted and melting under the pressure of the universe, he makes friends with death. It isn’t much, but Will remembers him from when they were kids back before any major fights. He remembers hearing about Nico running off and he felt bad for not having made a continued effort to get to know him. He felt bad when he left after the Battle of Manhattan too, they’d prepped bodies for their departure together and Will had gotten hung up in the infirmary (he had been one of the last Apollo campers and he was the only one with medical training). In some ways, Will supposed he was making up for those lost years when he didn’t have time to befriend Nico as he would have liked, it made him feel like he was at least trying.

In the beginning things were undeniably rocky, Nico was constantly hooked to machines just so Will could guarantee he wouldn’t die overnight. Even on Nico’s first night in the infirmary he had struggles with sleep, the bed wasn’t comfortable enough and after trying a large variety of options Will had hauled Nico and all of his equipment out to the porch on the back of the infirmary and they slept there for those three days (which turned into two weeks), wrapped up in jackets and in a pile of blankets beneath camp’s fall skies.

Within a few months, they fell in love. 

Okay listen, people can call Will ridiculous all they want- but love at first sight is real and he experienced it. He didn’t know it but the day he met Nico and looked into the dark browns of his eyes, he thought something about how his eyes looked like ash from the fireplace at Mama’s house, or how they looked like the soil that his windowsill plants grew from. If you would have asked Will what he thought of Nico the very first time they’d met, he would have told you something about how his eyes were “big, dark, and round like a baby cow”. What Will really meant is that Nico reminded him of the family ranch house he grew up in, he meant he looked like home. 

At the time Will just hadn’t known that was what love felt like, but when he figured it out one day teaching Nico how to play Hold ‘em on the back porch of the infirmary with a light breeze and setting sun as they settles down for bed; he knew one thing, he didn’t want anything more than to make Nico happy and he hoped that he could be a part of that more than anything.

It took a little longer for Nico to come around, he had his own demons to battle. Internalized homophobia, even in small doses, is a real downer to say the least, let alone when you’re fighting demons you’ve manifested for some 15 years. The biggest struggle however, was probably in all honesty the fact that Nico was so goddamned oblivious. After spending years alone with limited human contact at best, and having spent so many years desperately wanting Percy to notice him, and being met with negative reactions, Nico didn’t know what love looked like anymore. How had he been supposed to know he was in love with Will?

There was a lot of subtle back and forth, would the other even be interested in a guy? It ended one day with an unplanned kiss followed by a declaration. Will called it the best mistake he ever made, neither of them really thought it was a mistake.

It was days like today that only proved that.

Will had woken up to Nico’s face on a pillow next to him. He’d fallen asleep with his hair pulled back in a ponytail, and some of his smaller hairs had fallen loose in the night and now framed his peaceful face. The first rays of golden sunlight fell through accidentally left open curtains, and Will reached out to brush a stray piece of dark hair and place it behind Nico’s ear. 

He woke up to a morning more beautiful than he would have ever hoped for at 13, and he would always be glad for that. He would always be grateful for how far he had come in not quite a decade. At just twenty-two he was 4 years into medical school, and three years married to Nico and he truly believed he was one of the happiest men in the world simply because he made Nico happy.

In time, Nico too would wake up. 

First with a huff, and then a grumbling noise of annoyance as he rubbed his face with his arm as though trying to block out light before half-asleep Nico seemed to accept his fate and wake up fully. 

“Good morning”

“How long have you been up?”

“Awhile”

Nico made a knowledgeable humming sound, perhaps he was just acknowledging Will’s response or perhaps he was saying ‘of course’. 

A few kisses, a short conversation, and a couple of “I love you”’s later, they got out of bed.

Nico's was wearing Will's high school hoodie that was a bit too short on Will anymore like it was a dress on him. The hoodie went down to Nico’s knees, he's got his own black shorts on because Will's just fall off unless he ties them really really tight. He's got black socks pulled up almost to his knees, there’s a little gap between the end of Nico’s shorts and the start of his socks. The hoodie goes down an inch or two past his short pockets, and he goes outside to grab the mail with a pair of unlaced combat boots on his feet. He's got his skull ring on his middle finger of his right hand, and his left hand holds a simple wedding band which glint in the light as he opens the front door. His hair is pulled up into a messy ponytail, some of it is up some of it is down, there's tons of flyaway hairs which frame his face since he hasn’t fixed it sense getting out of bed.

Call it a cliché, but Nico looks like Heaven personified without even trying. 

Sure, everyone looks nice in a suit or a dress, but how many people can roll out of bed without doing their hair wearing a decade old hoodie and look like they belong in a magazine spread?

Will is wearing one of Nico's looser shirts, on Nico it comes down past his hips and a little onto his thighs, on Will is he so much as lifts his arms a centimeter it reveals his hip bones. He doesn’t really mind, he kind of likes it to be entirely honest. Will can remember being just a few inches shorter than he is now and fitting fairly comfortably in Nico’s clothes at the time, they had never worried whose clothes they grabbed back then. Nico had finished his growth spirt and Will had thought he was done only two inches taller, it didn’t matter whose clothes were whose because everything fit well enough.

That wasn't quite the case now, Nico had stayed at his casual 5"5 while Will had shot up and extra six inches to 6"2 and ruined his own chances of sharing clothes. Such as right now he was sure he was wearing his own sweats, because he had specifically had to get a pair last night despite Nico's having been more accessible. Anytime he's actually managed to get a pair of Nico's pants comfortably on in the last few years, result in him wearing pants that are more like compression shorts or capris than pants.

Will was just happy he could wear some of Nico's larger shirts and hoodies still, the fact that Nico preferred to sleep in lots of clothes and typically baggy clothes meant Will had some options when it came to wearing his husbands stuff.

Will has also managed to steal a pair of Nico's socks, they're a taller pair on Nico (he buys winter wear so often because he's cold always) but on Will they gather a little awkwardly around his ankle. Will doesn't usually wear socks but they had gone to bed without the heat on and apparently the cold had set in over night and you could definitely feel it on their apartment floors.

The clothes would be a bit stretched out from him, it was something Will can remember being worried about after his second growth spurt, but Nico doesn't mind, He's assured Will of this time and time again, he says something about "aesthetic" and "alternative". Will doesn't really know, he's never cared much for fashion but he'll take Nico's word on it. 

The truth, although it's something Nico would only admit in their bed late at night when it was so dark you could barely see his face, and arguably a little drunk as well, was that he actually enjoyed the way the clothes fit better after Will wore them. He found some sort of comfort in the way the shoulders of his shirts would be just a little too wide on him, it was one of those small acts of love, it wasn't one Will entirely understood but both of them got their own sort of enjoyment out of Will stretching out Nico's sleeping clothes some so they went with it.

Will turns his attention from Nico walking out the door to the coffee pot on the countertop.

Will doesn't like coffee much, he likes the social aspect of getting a cup more. Nico had introduced him to it, he’d been drinking it for years by the time they’d left camp. It reminded him of home and he grew to like it for such reasons, and although Nico would consume just about anything with enough caffeine in it Will needed creamer to enjoy coffee to any amount. 

They were both honestly probably more tea people, but they never seemed to remember to buy any. Will will try to remember to write it down on the grocery list later, but Nico has walked back into the kitchen, climbed up on the counter next to Will and now he is looking at him; and Nico is always a distraction that's worthy of taking, Will will definitely forget to write down tea for their grocery list and the week will start over with more coffee in the house and no tea.

Nico’s fingers grip the countertop and he swings his legs a little bit back and forth from where he sits on the black granite, his white gold rings set against the counter in contrast. Will's worn out blue hoodie looks grey with age, the little printed letters are cracked and peeling on the back of it, his last name can still be read in white though. 

Will knows the cliché about your lover wearing your name is often unhealthy and overly possessive, but he likes seeing Nico with his name because it feels like a gift. It’s like he’s given Nico a part of himself and Nico accepted it with pride, and Will loves that, he loves him and Nico being little pieces of each other.

Nico is smiling at him, and leans just so, Will turns in acknowledgment of the gesture, and moves so he’s standing to the left of Nico. Nico crosses his legs at the ankle and leans towards Will laying his head against Will where his neck and shoulder meet. Will leans forward and buries his face into Nico’s hair, comfortable and a little sleepy still.

"Coffee?"

"Mhmm."

"Good."

Will isn't the best cook, for fucks sake he's not even someone who could be considered a good cook, but he can handle this. Nico taught him the basics when they were still living at camp, Will failed every time, he ended up going home for a short period for Christmas break and begging his mom "teach me how to make eggs" he left off the bit about impressing Nico but he knows she knew. When he came back Nico had just smiled at him, "you practiced huh?"

Will hadn't gotten better at making much else, some eggs, toast, coffee and he could boil water now too! He had burnt lots of stuff over the years, plastic containers in the microwave, a plastic ladle they had on the stove top, at least 100 failed attempts at grilled cheese. Will was honestly just happy he hadn’t blown up any microwaves since he was a kid... 

Nico had come home to many of Will's failed attempts at making him various things, sometimes the food was underdone other times it was bits of inedible char. Will did try, he really did, but the heat was always too high or he would end up distracted, or he would use sugar on accident instead of salt. Will did actually try, but his best attempts still often left something to be desired, so he often was the one doing dishes.

Most notably one time Nico had come home to him attempting to pan-frying some fish.

It had been supposed to be a surprise, it was Nico's birthday, and Will had had the day off of class even though Nico hadn't. He figured he would have surprised him; it had been back in their first apartment, not quite as nice as this one. A cheap tiled cream counter top that Nico had literally cringed at when seeing it the first time, the cabinets had somehow been cheaper than a set from IKEA and it had become an inside joke to them.

He had walked in the apartment to see smoke coming off the pan with a bit of flame still coming off it, and a large piece of charred fish stuck to the bottom of one of their frying pans.

"Hey dumbass, what did you do in here?" 

People thought they were an odd couple, Will could see that. The whole parallel people drew between light and dark and optimism and pessimism and such between them, none of those people were really correct though. Will and Nico were more similar than they were different. At the end of the day it didn’t really matter what people said, Will liked Nico, he loved him in all honesty- he'd never heard the word "dumbass" said with so much affection.

Nico was hard for most people to read, years along had left him struggling emotionally in some manner; he did his best to hide most of his emotions, cloak them so heavily that sometimes they were even unrecognizable to Nico himself. 

The most obvious example of this in regards to Nico was how "shut up" often meant "I love you", "idiot" was synonymous with "darling" in some ways. Don't get Will wrong, Nico could be very affectionate, but pet names came with hesitation for him in the early days; Should he use Venetian, Italian, or English? Masculine words that were romantic had been hard for him to say as well... But everyday he grew and got better, and Will was proud of him every time he called Will “dear” and didn’t hesitate before or after. 

Nico had started masking his emotions at some point during his time at Westover, whatever he had done there hadn’t been much more than how much the average person masked their feelings, but when he started training with Minos Nico had doubled down on keeping his emotions secretive. Minos hadn’t been kind or safe in any sense of the word, emotions were what he used to manipulate Nico all that time, it was no wonder Nico developed such a strong sense of apathy towards anything overtime. 

Nico could be affectionate, he could be the most loving person to ever exist. Nico’s emotions were sort of like secrets, if you stayed awake late enough into the night you would only come to know him then, such was the nature of him. He often whispered so quietly his wants and needs into the dark, there was some sense of fear tied to Nico’s vulnerability and he handed off his worries each night to the stars soft glow. Nico often refused to talk openly during the day, but at night apologies and truth always came, he had known what he had wanted earlier he had simply been to afraid of the rejection to acknowledge it, Will is glad that with the years the worst of such things is over; it is unlikely to be something Nico will ever fully grow out of, such is the nature of humanity, but progress is a virtue.

Such times not only resulted in Nico’s acknowledgement of his wants and faults, but also garnered the most affection from Nico. Nico couldn’t always communicate in an effective manner verbally, which was still a process they were working on, but he did his best. Nico’s act of love was like that of a small bird, he gave you small things that seemed insignificant until you realized he had only ever told you such things. Will fell in love with him for it, it wasn’t just about the way he would describe the wallpaper in his childhood bedroom, it was the fact that nobody knew anything else about Nico’s childhood bedroom. 

Will had never truly understood the concept of “touch starved” until he met Nico, he had known the definition sure, but he had never truly witnessed it. Nico never asked for touch, but it was the way he leaned into it, the way he sought it out; pressing up against Will’s hand like a cat stretching trying to get a little more contact somehow, trying to make the touch last just a bit longer so he could savor it properly. It was literally starving in some manner, starving for contact that wasn’t a goodbye or a hit, just for wordless contact. When he grew comfortable he gave affection fully, there was a joy in holding Nico’s hand, knowing that he felt safe enough not to worry about the effect a few extra seconds of prepping for a fight that holding hands would add.

Nico didn’t show affection in big ways, and that was more than okay with Will; they were laid back in comparison to most, he’d have sought the comfort of placing soap bubbles on each others head in the tub a hundred times over a night on the town. Nico’s affection was something quiet and almost secretive, unknown to anyone it wasn’t directed at; it was the way he would lead Will out of a room to kiss him, or the quiet way he whispered “I love you” into Will’s ear when in public.  

Will supposes in the early days “shut up” became “I love you” in order to avoid being seen as weak in some manner, in order to avoid acknowledging what he really wanted to say and having Will not respond in kind. Will didn't mind, they weren't an overly affectionate pairing- banter was common, almost everything they did was turned into some sort of game, the term "boys will be boys" definitely applied to their relationship of 3am pillow fights, late night discussions about what order the Christmas ornaments had to go up on the tree in, and whenever they wrote thesis papers for living room debates over the best Disney villain.

Will honestly preferred it that way, he preferred having the little moments reserved for solely them. He preferred the aversion to sappy clichés, the way a lover could say your name with exasperation and a smile that meant the whole world. He had seen what some other couples had, quick kisses in lines at cafes, holding hands across the table, and calling each other pet names they’d made up that were somehow ten times worse than the original- and Will didn’t want that. 

It wasn’t that what those couples had wasn’t love, it just wasn’t love in a way Will could understand, it wasn’t love Will felt from those sort of exchanges. He didn’t understand the idea of “butterflies in your stomach”, love wasn’t nerves, love was like coming home after a long day, love was the way someone could say your name like it was divine, love was the way someone would smirk at you when you were missing the point, love was not being afraid to cry in front of them,  it was knowing you could show up to them with any problem and instead of leaving you they would research the ins and outs of it in all their entirety. 

The coffee maker makes a sound, Nico lifts his head of off Will’s body and the deep browns of his eyes are like the freshly turned dirt of fields in planting season, and Will feels like there’s a garden growing in his chest that Nico feeds. Nico sits straight on the counter and pulls his legs up and sits cross legged on the counter as he pulls out his hairband, and runs his fingers through his hair before pulling it back up without all the flyaways. 

Will moves towards the coffee machine, pours it into two cups, and sets one on the counter beside Nico before making his way to the fridge to grab creamer. Nico’s watching him right now, but there’s no need for talking; there will be talking in a minute. Talking about Will’s schedule for the week, talk of whatever project Nico is working on right now, talk of what they should do for dinner the rest of the week, little sweet nothings, and eventually they’ll make their way to the couch to watch some tv and maybe later in the day they’ll play some sort of game or something as well.

So yeah, maybe "light" and "dark" were polar opposites and some people would have walked out on the word dumbass rather than immediately loving it, but Will liked it- everyday was a game of sorts, a new adventure, all with Nico who he loved. Coming home from work wasn’t necessarily about the place Will lived but knowing Nico would be there for him to see was the point  of going home, home was wherever Nico was and some small part of Will hoped eternity was real in some manner.

Will remembered when Michael had died thinking nothing could possibly get worse, and in some ways he was kind of right; he had ended up with some sort of demigod style fairy tale ending with the man he loved, and that was ten times better than anything fifteen year old Will would have hoped for.

[katehuntington]

Title: Ride With Me (part nineteen) Fandom: Supernatural Timeline: 2008 Pairing: Dean x Reader Word count: ±7500 words Summary series: Y/N is a talented horse rider who is on her way to become a professional. In order to convince her father that she deserves the loan needed to start her own farm, she goes to Arizona for six months, to intern at a ranch owned by Bobby and Ellen Singer. Her future is set out, but then she meets a handsome horseman, who goes by the name of Dean Winchester. A heartwarming series about a cowboy who falls for the girl, letting go of the past and the importance of family.  Summary part nineteen: The Flagstaff Horse Fair is about to kick off, but not without a hitch. Warnings series: NSFW, 18+ only! Fluff, angst, eventually smut. Swearing, smoking, alcohol intoxication, alcohol abuse. Mutual pining, heartbreak. Crying, nightmares, childhood trauma. Description of animal abuse, domestic violence, mentions of addiction. Financial problems, stress, mental breakdown. Description of blood and injury, hospital scenes, character death, grief. Music: ‘Fortunate Son’ - Creedence Clearwater Revival, ‘Backwoods Company’ - The Wild Feathers.  Follow ‘Kate Huntington’s Ride With Me playlist’ on Spotify! Author’s note: Prepare for cuteness and a bit of angst! Thank you @kittenofdoomage​​, @girl-with-a-fandom-fettish​​, @manawhaat​​ and @winchest09​​ for helping me. I especially want to thank Kay, who has beta’d Ride from the very beginning, but needs to take a break from Tumblr to focus on school. I will miss her dearly, but I’m super thankful that Mana is willing to take over. Also a special thanks to @jules-1999​​, who has offered me her knowledge about rodeo events like these.

Ride With Me Masterlist

     With a black bumper-pull trailer in the rearview mirror, Dean’s beloved ‘67 El Camino rolls up Interstate 17. The windows are down, allowing the wind to wash in, like waves crashing onto the beach on a hot summer day, the cool air welcome and refreshing. 

     The Gold Canyon Ranch caravan left around three o’clock, the column of three pickups and trailers now heading towards Flagstaff, Arizona. Bobby and Jo lead the company in his powerful Ford with an impressive gooseneck in tow, which currently accommodates five horses. Benny follows in his four by four, with three horses on board another large trailer, facilitated with a small living quarters. Dean is the last wagon of the train, Meadow and one of his calmer geldings in the back, and Y/N beside him in the passenger seat.

     The cowgirl is soaking up the scenery, the hills that flow next to the highway, the mountains in the distance, the blue sky above them. The tall saguaros that dominate the landscape at home are swapped for ponderosa pines, dusty desert for green grasslands. The forest is already beginning to change color, autumn painting deciduous trees in shades of yellow and orange. It’s remarkable how different her current surroundings are from the Phoenix area, only two and a half hours south. 

     With Fortunate Son by Creedence Clearwater Revival playing on the old cassette deck of the classic car, Dean drums against the steering wheel to the rhythm of the song. He absently hums along, mouthing a few words every now and then. When he glances aside, a small smile forms on his lips. The woman, who managed to calm him after the disturbing news Bobby delivered, is breathtaking without even trying. Loose strands of hair have escaped her ponytail and dance in the playful wind, her maya blue blouse fluttering against her Arizona sun-kissed skin. She looks at the world through her shaded Ray Bans, lost in thought and wonder.

     He returns his gaze to the road as he reaches for her, laying his hand on her knee to get her attention, softly rubbing his thumb over the denim. Awoken from her daydream, she glances over, but doesn’t say anything. Instead, she lays her hand over his, warmed by the touch.

     “Nervous?” he wonders, dropping her hand just long enough to turn down the stereo before he laces their fingers together once again.      “A little bit,” she confesses.      “Don’t be. You’re gonna do fine,” he reassures. “Besides, your class ain’t till tomorrow.”      “I’m not nervous about riding.”      The wrangler moves his focus from the asphalt to his girlfriend. “What about then?”      She’s quiet for a second. Shy, just like she was the first time they met. “Just… This is your scene. People know you, and I don’t know anyone.”      He smirks, lightly. “Concerned about former flings?”       The cowgirl shrugs, half admitting her insecurity.      “Yankee, you have nothing to worry about. Hey…” He squeezes her hand, glancing over again. “I’m with you, okay?”

     A smile breaks through the surface as Y/N glances at the handsome wrangler she gets to call hers, his green eyes making a silent promise. For a guy who claims not to be good with words, he’s doing a pretty great job. She takes a breath when he concentrates on the road again.      “So, how are you going to introduce me?” she wonders.      “As my girlfriend,” he returns, matter-of-factly, cool confidence sitting on the edge of his mouth. He honestly can’t wait to introduce her as his.

     Y/N is unable to hide her contentment, the corners of her mouth creeping up further as she gets lost in the sight of him. There it is again; that tingly feeling, his confirmation breaking down the doubt bit by bit.      “What about Bobby?” Y/N checks. “He still doesn’t know.”      “Believe me, Bobby will be too busy strikin’ deals and sellin’ horses. He’s not gonna notice us,” Dean states, not concerned about his uncle. “It’s gonna be fine, you’re gonna have a blast, trust me.”

     After shooting her that grin she’s loved from day one, he glances past the trucks and trailers in front of them. They drive by a large sign made from stone and wood, that says ‘1882 - Flagstaff, Arizona’, the city up ahead and Humphreys Peak in the backdrop. The caravan turns onto I-40 going west, before taking the exit a couple of miles later.

      When they come over the hill, the competition grounds come into view. Flags reach skyward and wave proudly in the Western breeze, the stars and stripes alternating with the state flag of Arizona, the American Reining Horse Association, and many others. There’s the main arena, several training areas, stables, and amusement rides, complete with hundreds of trucks,  trailers, and RV campers filling the fairgrounds. Observing the scene, it becomes clear to Y/N that this isn’t just a local show.

     Dean was right, this is the perfect practice run for her and Meadow, but the sight of the large event has her stomach in knots. Right, those lovely performance nerves that never fail to torment her. She hopes she can survive tomorrow and still be able to eat without throwing up, because it wouldn’t be the first time that the highly strung feeling she experiences right before a ride has her physically sick. 

     The Gold Canyon Ranch caravan enters the show grounds, Bobby following the directions of the parking officer. After a short drive, they park the trailers next to each other on a large field, adding to the rows and rows of pickups, trailers, and even semi trucks with pop out living units.       “I’ll check in with the stable manager,” Jo announces when they get out of the cars, heading over to the stable office to check which boxes are assigned to them.

     Y/N picks her hat off the seat and pushes it on her head, leaving her shades on the dash now that she doesn’t need them anymore. She opens the hatch of the black trailer behind Dean’s Chevy, peeking inside. Meadow greets her with a slightly nervous neigh, eager to get out now that they’ve stopped moving. Lovingly, her rider pets her nose, trying to calm her a little, but the spirited mare begins to scrape her hoof on the rubber coated floor, nonetheless.      “She okay?” Dean asks.      “Yeah, she just wants to get off the trailer. I’m going to unload her, let her graze a little,” she says, attaching the leadrope to her halter. “Could you get the lid?”

     The wrangler nods and walks around to the back, opening the latches as Y/N unties her horse. The cowgirl pushes the divider away and gently leads Meadow down the ramp. The beautiful bay Quarter Horse takes in her surroundings with large eyes, alert and ready for action, belting out another loud neigh to announce her arrival. She circles around her owner, who can’t help but laugh at her cocky attitude; she could have sworn her granddad bought her a mare, and not a stallion, even though Meadow behaves like one at times. Eventually she drops her head and cuts a few bites of grass, before pulling up her head again while chewing, staring at another animal in the distance.

     “She really is a character, ain’t she?” Dean laughs, watching the pair.      “Sure is,” her owner chuckles, rubbing the mare’s withers. “She knows it’s showtime. She can feel it.”      Y/N crouches down to remove Meadow’s travel leg protection while Dean holds the feisty horse, glancing in the direction of the stable office, from which Jo returns.      “Tent B. Box sixty-four to seventy-three,” the ranch owner’s daughter informs. “Let’s unload.”

     Within thirty minutes the ten stables are ready, the heavy trunks installed, the tack rooms decorated and the horses unloaded. Y/N does her bit, rolling the wheel barrow from the truck to the stables with hay bails and wood shaving bedding, but it’s clear the Gold Canyon crew has taken this many horses to a competition before. Benny, Jo, Dean, and Bobby operate like a well-oiled machine, although the head of the ranch is moving a little bit slower these days. 

     Y/N tapes a form to the stable with Meadow’s name and an emergency phone number when Dean comes back from the water point, a full bucket in each hand. He and Benny have been going back and forth a couple of times now, supplying the ten horses. When the head wrangler walks by carrying the water, she’s distracted from the task at hand. Watching his shoulders work under his plaid shirt, she can’t help but get a little lost in the view. His biceps flex against the fabric, back strong and firm while he transports the heavy buckets with steady steps. God, he is good on the eyes.

     “Are you gonna continue to drool over my cousin or are you gonna come with me to the show office to pay our fees?”      Y/N’s eyes shift to Jo, who’s leaning against the stable door with her arms crossed in front of her chest and an amused smirk on her lips. Without a doubt, the blush that fires up her face is hard to miss.       “Let me get my bag,” she says, straightening her back and turning to the head wrangler. “Dean, is the car still un--”

     Before she can finish her sentence, her boyfriend has dug up the keys to the El Camino from his pocket and tosses them to her. Y/N catches them skillfully.      “Awww, so you can read each other’s mind now, too?” Jo comments, earning a glare from Dean, causing her to shrug. “What? It’s dead cute!”      “I’m not cute!” Dean counters, his face contorting as if she just called him something foul.       “No, you’re a tough, manly man. We get it, Cowboy.” She passes him, patting his shoulder. “Keep tellin’ yourself that.”      “You keep tellin’ yourself… somethin’,” he stammers, struggling to stand up to the reputation Jo is undermining.

     She walks on, laughing, not even granting him another look. Bothered with his own unimpressive reply, the wrangler watches his cousin catch up with her father. God, sometimes he wishes he could shut her up without having to deal with her sassy attitude.      Annoyed, he turns back to Y/N, who can’t hide her amusement as she steps closer. He eyes her, which only causes her to chuckle.      “I’m not cute,” he underlines.

     The cowgirl smirks and pushes him into the tack room, out of sight and safe from Bobby’s judgement. She takes his hat from his head and leans in, connecting her lips with his. The kiss is short and sweet, but it’s long enough to make Dean’s head spin. When she parts from him, he opens his eyes again, taking her in as she places his Stetson back over his tousled hair.       “You’re adorable,” she says.      Dean half pouts while furrowing his brow, still trying to establish that he is neither cute or adorable, but breaks character when his girlfriend smiles widely before she spins around. Fine, maybe he is turning a bit soft, but it’s all her doing. 

     Jo joins Y/N with her father’s wallet in hand, the two friends almost skipping to the exit of the stable, joking and laughing as they go. Dean watches the pair and shakes his head, not missing Benny’s wide grin coming his direction. The lovebirds might have stayed out of the ranch owner’s line of sight, however, Benny had a clear view of the endearing interaction. He’s leaning against a tack trunk, arms crossed in front of his broad chest, blue eyes sparkling with mischief and playful judgement that’s impossible to miss.       “Get it over with,” the head wrangler mutters. “Got anything to add to that?”      “Nah, I reckon the gals made their point,” the Southerner chuckles.

     “So, you two are still doin’ good, huh?”      Jo glances at Y/N from the corner of her eye while pushing her father’s wallet into her back pocket. She leans against Dean’s car, careful not to scratch it, knowing that all hell is going to break loose if she does.      “Surprised?” her friend counters, picking up her bag from the front seat, before closing the door.      “Just checkin’ if the woman-oholic isn’t suffering from tremors, hallucinations, insomnia,” the cowgirl states.       Y/N grins at that, pushing the strap of her bag on her shoulder, ready for her friend to lead the way to the show office. 

     “He’s not, don’t worry,” she claims, very much aware that Jo is just toying with her. “He’s been really wonderful, actually. I honestly didn’t expect him to be so attentive and sweet.”      “No one did. Hell, I don’t think even Dean knew he had it in ’im. Guess you bring out the best in my notorious cousin.” She hooks her arm around Y/N’s neck, pulling her in for a side hug.

     On their way over to the show office, Jo is greeted by multiple familiar faces, asking her how she's doing and the ranch owner’s daughter returning the question in a quick exchange. It becomes clear to Y/N that this isn’t just Dean’s scene, but Jo’s as well. 

     She soaks up her surroundings, glancing left and right as they walk up a two story building, a little further up the slightly hilly property. Stalls are lined up along the boulevard, selling all sorts of things, from horse gear to fashion and interior design. It’s not incredibly busy yet, the people waiting in the short lines for the food stands mostly riders, trainers, and horse owners. The organisation is probably expecting a bigger crowd on the weekend.

     A ferrier is hammering a loose shoe under a horse’s hoof, the large animal waiting patiently until the job is done, while a promoter tries to sell a new tractor to an interested party. Cheers roar from one of the arenas, excitement heard in the voice of the commentator, who echoes over the terrain through the speakers. The smell of cotton candy when they pass a concessions truck reaches the cowgirl’s nose as she watches children having fun riding a Shetland pony from the local riding school.

     Content, Y/N smiles, because apart from the temperature, the atmosphere on this show isn’t different from the events she’s been to when she was still living in Freeport. The nerves she felt in the car earlier seep away with the familiarity, excitement taking its place. Before she came to Gold Canyon Ranch, she was buried under pressure and books, working on her thesis around the clock. The last competition she rode was the State Championships. God, she missed this circus. This life. This is where she belongs, not behind some desk, no matter how good the salary.

     “Jo Singer, it’s good to see you again, my dear,” the woman behind the counter in the show office says, recognizing the blonde cowgirl instantly. “How are you and your family doing?”      Reading glasses balance on the tip of the nose of the kind secretary, who smiles at both the girls. Her ash blonde hair is short, and worn in a fashion you would expect for a lady in her sixties.      “Good to see you too, Mildred,” Jo returns, pulling Bobby’s wallet from her pocket. “We’re okay. How are the boys?”

     Y/N glances at her friend from the corner of her eye as the two acquaintances make small talk. She noticed the hint of doubt in her claim that everything was fine with the Singer family, followed by the quick counter question to avert the attention back to the woman on the other side of the desk. Aware that the information Dean shared with her is confidential, she didn’t discuss it with Jo, even though she wanted to. While she didn’t want to get the head wrangler in trouble, she was also unaware of how up to date the youngest Singer actually is. Now that she heard the slight hesitation, however, she’s getting the idea Jo knows more about the ranch’s financial struggles than her bubbly and carefree personality leads on. 

     “How many horses are you competing, hon?” Mildred asks, pushing her glasses up her nose as she searches for Jo’s name on the competitors’ list.       “Two. I’d like to pay for Dean as well, and one entry for my friend here. She’s riding one of ours.”      “Winchester, right?” the secretary checks, crossing off names.      Jo nods, picking at her father’s credit card. “Yeah.”      Mildred flips the page until she finds the one on which the riders filed under the letter ‘W’ are listed.      “Four horses for Dean? Your cousin has a busy weekend ahead of him,” she chuckles, warmly, and looks up at the young woman that accompanied Jo. “What’s your name, sweety?”      “It’s Y/N L/N,” the intern answers. “I’m competing two horses, one of my own. I’d like to pay for Meadowsweet separately.”      “Not a problem.” Mildred focuses on the blonde cowgirl again. “So that's an entry fee for seven horses, plus the stable fee for nine. Y’all brought two horses for auction, am I right? I remember because I had your father on the phone just this morning.”      “Yeah, we do. Do we have to pay to enter the auction too?” Jo wonders, nervousness lacing her tone.      “Yes, the auction entry is 200 dollars for each. After the sale the amount will be settled, together with the commission,” the elder woman informs. “Entry fee is three bucks per horse, stable fee is fifty each, so that will be 877 dollars in total.”

     Jo takes a breath and offers Mildred the card. The normally confident cowgirl seems on edge all of a sudden as she watches the secretary swipe it. Several seconds tick by while they wait for the machine to accept payment, and apparently it’s getting on Jo’s nerves. Y/N’s friend fiddles with her father’s wallet, tension coming off her in waves. Then the machine bleeps, a long high tone cutting through the heavy silence.

     Mildred looks up at the blonde rancher, sympathetically. It’s in her eyes and Jo’s heart drops to her gut before she even speaks. “I’m sorry. It’s declined.”       “W - what? No, that - that can’t be,” Jo stammers. “Can you try again?”      The kind lady swipes the credit card a second time, even though they know it’s not going to make a difference. The same message appears on the small screen, followed by the monotone beep. The sound is interrupted by the door opening and closing, two other competitors now entering the show office, getting in line to pay as well. Jo curses under her breath.

     “Any other way you can pay, darling?” the secretary asks, kindly.      “Uh - I have…” She leafs through the banknotes with trembling fingers, counting the money, her face turning red. “I have 300 dollars. I’ll check if there’s more in the truck--”      “I got it.” Y/N steps closer to the counter, pulling her wallet from her purse.      “What? No, c’mon,” Jo objects.       But her friend isn’t taking no for an answer. “It’s not a problem. I’ll sort it out with your dad later,” she assures, handing over her own card. She returns her attention to Mildred again. “Could you add my fees as well?”      “I sure can. That will be 930 dollars,” the elder woman states, changing the number on the terminal before swiping the credit card. 

     This time it beeps three times, confirming payment without a hitch.      “Alright, all good to go. Good luck on your runs, ladies,” Mildred says, cheery, trying to clear the awkwardness with her warm smile.      “Thank you,” Y/N returns genuinely as Jo gives the woman behind the desk a nod.

     The girls exit the show office, Jo pulling her hat over her eyes a little deeper to mask her flustered face. The redness slowly starts to leave her cheeks again after a minute, as they walk down the boulevard in silence. Y/N isn’t sure if she should say something, and so decides to give her friend some space. Her mind is going over the incident, however. A maxed out credit card; that can’t be good. The writing on the wall is applied with a paintbrush, the black letter getting bolder the more she learns about the suffocating situation. Her mind hasn’t stopped reeling since her talk with Dean in the cafeteria earlier this morning. There has to be ways to tip the scale. 

     Jo eventually speaks up, voice clipped with embarrassment. “I’m sorry ‘bout that. My dad will pay you back.”       “I know,” Y/N responds, not doubting it for a second. “It’s no big deal, seriously. No reason to apologize.”      “Still... Thanks,” the blonde cowgirl utters, embarrassed nonetheless.      It’s now Y/N’s turn to wrap her arm around her friend’s shoulder, hoping the gesture will ease Jo a bit.      “That’s what friends are for, right?” she comforts her. “Come on. Let’s head back. What’s your starting time?”      Jo glances at her watch. “Eight thirty. Thirty minutes after the opening. So that gives me an hour and a half.”      “Better ready your horse then,” Y/N smiles. “You’ve got barrels to race.”

     “Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome on this Friday night to the eighteenth annual Flagstaff Horse Fair!”

     With Y/N’s hand in his, Dean walks up the bleachers, as if he’s afraid to lose her in the crowd. Plenty of people have settled down in their seats already, only a few spots left now that the opening ceremony is about to begin. She’s glad he’s keeping a hold on her, though, because once again she feels slightly overwhelmed by the number of strangers who all seem to be very much aware who her boyfriend is. 

     Several times Dean was held up on their way over to the main arena, by acquaintances, former and current clients, old friends and forgotten faces. She could tell he was doing everything he could to ease her nerves, his hand on the small of her back, engaging her into the conversation by introducing her. Yet she felt relieved when the ring came into view, hoping to find a time to take a breather from keeping up appearances and pretending she’s comfortable amongst new company. 

     “Dean!”      Y/N almost flinches at the female voice calling out for the cowboy. For a brief second Y/N shuts her eyes and takes a breath; guess she needs to keep her mask on a bit longer. She turns to face two women, who greet the wrangler, the one with dark, boy cut hair the first to embrace him.      “It’s so good to see you again,” she says, warmly.      “Hey, Jody.” Dean returns the embrace, genuinely pleased to see her too, before he directs his attention to the happily smiling blonde. “Donna, it’s been a while. How are you doing these days?”      “Hiya, handsome. I’m doing just fine, thanks.” The woman with a strong Minnesota accent pulls him into a tight hug as well, pressing her dimpled cheek against his. She backs away, her delighted eyes bouncing from him to the girl behind the cowboy. “Are ya gonna introduce us to this lovely lady?”

     Dean adjusts his hat and reaches for Y/N, his hand slipping behind her back when he nods at the brunette. “That’s Jody Mills - she takes horses off our hands regularly and finds us buyers - and her business partner Donna Hanscum. Good friends of mine, good friends of the Ranch.”       He then gently pulls her a little closer, the pads of his fingers lingering on her hip.      “Jody, Donna, this is my girlfriend Y/N,” Dean responds, unable to hide his proud smile. 

     Both women share the exact same reaction, their jaws dropping to the floor. If Y/N wasn’t so nervous, she would have found it comical.      “Shut the front door!” Donna exclaims. “Are you tellin’ me that Dean Winchester is off the market?”      Dean nods, his grin not faltering. “I’m spoken for.”      Delighted, Jody laughs. “Well, I didn’t think I’d live to see the day.”      “Took you long enough,” Donna jokes, teasingly pushing his shoulder, before she winks at the cowgirl next to him. “You must be one heck of a gal if you managed to tie this one down. C’mere!”

     Before Y/N can escape, the woman with the vibrant personality pulls her in and gives her a warm hug as well. She can’t help but to chuckle, because both Donna and Jody seem like sincerely kind people. The warm welcome eases her, helping her to feel more comfortable amongst these new friends.      “Why don’t you sit with us?” Jody suggests, after Donna lets go. “Because I wanna hear all about this miracle woman.”

     They take a seat and Y/N soon engages in conversation with Dean’s friends. Contently, he watches his girl, listening to her enthusiastic voice as she tells them about their meet cute. Dean chuckles at the memory himself; never in a million years could he have guessed he would be where he’s standing now, together with the then so timid and slightly prissy intern. She opened up like a wildflower in spring, blossoming into the carefree spirit that years of studying and discipline hid away. 

     Damn, he fell hard for her, didn’t he? She isn’t the only one who developed; because Jody wasn’t wrong. He too never expected to be able to commit, to be faithful to one woman, yet he can’t even imagine being with anyone else but her now. She taught him to look further than tomorrow. He has to admit, he has been thinking about the future more in the past week than he has in all the prior years combined.       His thoughts are interrupted by the commentator, who’s voice echoes through the speakers, mentioning the sponsors of the event.

     “We thank you for comin’ out here this weekend. Folks, right now I would like to ask Alex Jones to enter our arena floor with the Stars and Stripes of the United States of America.”

     Dean glances at Jody, who proudly watches her adopted daughter trot into the ring on a palomino. She’s dressed in a red shirt, blue and white fringe on her sleeves and chaps playfully dancing in the breeze. The end of the flagpole rests on her stirrup, the American colors fluttering in their wake. The crowd rises to their feet as the flag is carried in, respectfully doffing their hats. 

     “As we gather in the spirit of the Old West, let us be reminded of the part that the horses we cherish have played. They offered our forefathers safe travel, partnership, and the freedom to roam this great land. The same unbreakable bond between man and horse still remains today, as we ride for our country. We ask you to remain standing for the playing of the national anthem.”

     Y/N holds her hat by the brim and squares her shoulders, following Dean’s example when he places his right hand over his heart. A calm falls over the bleachers, every single soul watching the flag with the same steady reverence that only blue-collars truly can. The riders in the warm up area are standing side by side, facing the Stars and Stripes, and even the younger inexperienced horses seem to pay their respect.

     “Oh, say can you see by the dawn’s early light      What so proudly we hailed at the twilight’s last gleaming?      Whose broad stripes and bright stars thru the perilous fight,      O’er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming?”

     The hairs on her arms rise up as Y/N softly sings along. She knows every word, taught in school of course, but it’s more than that. She believes them. And since she was a little girl, she has dreamed about the Star-Spangled Banner. She imagined it would play while she was standing on the highest step of the podium at the major events: Congress, the Derby, and who knows, maybe one day at the World Equestrian Games. It’s a long shot, maybe, but a goal nonetheless, one she will continue to chase until the day comes that she fulfills that dream. 

     “And the rocket’s red glare, the bombs bursting in air,      Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.      Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave      O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?”

     The cowgirl and her horse began circling as the end of the anthem neared, speed increasing. Alex is galloping along the boarding of the arena, the Stars and Stripes flaunting proudly, standing tall. After the last note, the crowd cheers and claps, rallying the rider on as she takes the flag out of the arena at high speed. 

     “Give it up for Alex Jones!” the commentator encourages. “Now, Ladies and Gentlemen, get comfortable, take a load off your feet, take a seat, and get ready. We’re gonna kick off the competition with Barrel Racing for three year old horses. Let’s ride!”

     “Jo is sixth, right?” Y/N checks as they sit down.      Dean nods, leaning his elbows on his knees, watching his cousin in the warm up pen. “Yeah, after the drag.”      “Smooth footing. Could work in her advantage,” Y/N notes, linking her arm with his. “I was wondering; why don’t you teach Jo?”      The wrangler snorts. “Because she would claw my eyes out.”      His girlfriend laughs now, leaning into him and sweetly resting her cheek against his shoulder.      “Hey, we’ve tried, but we just fight like cats and dogs. It ain’t a good fit,” he chuckles.

     The first horse and rider combination shoots from the holding box and the audience’s motivating cheers rise from the stands into the Arizona air. Being a good sport, Dean claps too.       “Ever raced barrel, sweetcheeks?” Donna wonders, leaning forward to make eye contact with Y/N.      “Once or twice when I was a kid,” she admits. “You?”      “Oh, you betcha!” the cheery blonde states. 

     The rules to the game are quite simple. Three barrels are set up in a cloverleaf in the arena and the horse and rider pair need to cleanly negotiate the pattern. The cowgirl who’s the fastest without knocking over any barrels wins. It’s a thrilling sport to watch, perfect for a horse’s speed and agility when the rider knows how to bring it out in them.

     The second rider kicks off, setting a better time that pushes her up the board. The third follows, knocking over the second barrel, landing the poor girl a five second time penalty.

     Y/N keeps an eye on Jo, who gets instructions from Bobby. The ranch owner’s daughter is riding a mare called Sundance, who she started up about eight months ago, being the first person to ever ride her. The young horse had her first practise run a couple of weeks ago, but today is her show debut. The atmosphere of a big competition like this can be quite daunting for an inexperienced horse, but Jo prepared her well.

     The fourth goes wide around the first barrel and swerves to the third, wasting valuable time. Number five has a clean run and betters the leading result; 17.13 seconds is the time to beat.      A tractor enters the arena and the crew removes the barrels, white spray paint indicating where they need to be put back once the sand around it is dragged. When the footing is smooth again, the barrels are placed back.

     “Next up is Joanna Beth Singer with Sundance. Now, this young lady knows how to ride, with multiple wins under her belt, so let’s see what she will do with this youngster today.”

     Y/N moves to the edge of her seat, her heartbeat picking up. She might not be the one competing, but sometimes being the person on the sidelines is more nerve-wracking than actually being the one in the saddle.      Bobby walks with his daughter to the entrance of the arena, the young mare next to him already bouncing with excitement. Rousing music only adds to the exhilarating atmosphere surrounding them, the spectators waiting for the thrilling ride that is about to start. The second Jo’s father lets go of the rein, Sundance bolts away, locking on the first barrel like she has been doing this all her life.

     “And she’s off! Look at that speed, people!”

     “C’mon, Jo!” Y/N encourages, joined by Dean, who has gotten on his feet in anticipation.      The crowd cheers when the fast horse turns sharply. Focused, Jo pushes her heels into the bay’s flanks, hands towards the mare’s ears, guiding the youngster through the pattern to the second barrel. They are making good time.      “Smoke them, Jo! You got this!” Dean shouts, voice lost to the crowd that seems to favor Jo and Sundance.

     The clock ticks; eight seconds, nine, ten. Sand clatters against the metal as the eager horse cuts the third obstacle, so tight that you could barely fit a piece of paper between her boot and the barrel. It starts to tip, and Y/N grabs Dean’s arm when the drum almost tumbles over, but Jo pushes it back with her reins in hand so that it stays upright and the audience erupts. 

     “Yeah! Bring it home!” Y/N squeals, excitedly.      At full gallop the two shoot back to the gate, Jo flat on the Sundance’s neck, the energetic horse accelerating until they pass the finish line. The clock stops at 16.35.

     “Folks, if that ain’t horsemanship, I don’t know what is. What a ride and what a horse! Jo Singer and Sundance are in the lead!”

     Dean grins proudly and whistles on his fingers, glancing down at his girlfriend, who is still applauding excitedly.       “Dean, is that mare for sale?” Jody checks, the trader clearly interested now that she has witnessed the talent.       He chuckles. “Depends on your offer.”      “Fair enough. I’ll go have a talk with Bobby then,” she returns, aware that for a horse like that, she needs to raise the stakes.      “We’ll walk with ya,” Dean states, glancing aside when Jody’s friend doesn’t follow. “Donna, you comin’?”      “I’ll meetcha guys later. I’m gonna watch some more runs with Alex.” She nods at Jody’s surrogate daughter, who just sat down in one of the first rows. 

     They say goodbye and the wrangler places his hand on Y/N’s lower back as they walk to the stairs and get down from the bleachers. She can tell he’s trying to play it cool, but she senses his relief. Jo delivered and just secured more than just a place on the podium with that solid ride. The buyers are going to be lining up for Sundance, which means they can keep the price high. It’s a win Gold Canyon Ranch so desperately needs. The cowgirl bumps her shoulder against his, drawing his attention. The smiles they exchange say enough, she knows what’s on his mind, and he knows she understands.      “I’m gonna see if I can catch Jo. It was really nice to meet you, Jody,” she announces, shaking Jody’s hand before turning to Dean. “See you in a bit?”      He nods and meets her in a sweet, short kiss, before she runs off to the stables. His gaze stays fixed on her, lovingly, until he loses track of her in the crowd. Only then does Dean notice Jody’s knowing smirk.      “What?”      “You got it bad,” she comments, an earnest laugh falling from her lips.      He tilts his head, nodding; there’s no denying it. He’s known Jody for a while, and even though they only see eachother every now and then, he considers her a dear friend. 

     “She’s amazing, really. It’s all still kinda new, though,” he admits, comfortable enough to let some of that softness show. “Oh, which reminds me... Bobby doesn’t know yet. So could you not mention it?”      The raised eyebrow and judgemental look she sends him says enough. Jody stares him down as if she’s about to use her mom-voice, causing Dean to slightly cower.      “She’s the intern and it’s kind of a touchy subject. I wanna time it well so that he doesn’t bite my head off,” the cowboy excuses.       The woman who is tough when she needs to be, turns soft now, rolling her eyes slightly.      “Fine, I won’t tell him. Don’t wait too long, though. It’s Bobby, he wasn’t born yesterday. He’s going to find out sooner than later,” she reminds him.      “I’ll tell him soon,” he promises.      “This is a big first for you, ain’t it?” The female ranch owner smiles at him warmly, apparently amused with the somewhat uneasy behavior of the cowboy.       “It is,” he chuckles, rubbing the back of his neck. “But it’s good. Never thought I’d say it, but I could get used to this.”      “I’m glad you’ve met someone, Dean. You deserve a slice of that apple pie life.” 

     Dean smiles at his boots, knowing she means more with those words than would seem so at the surface. From a young age, even before Dean moved in with the Singer family, she has kept a watchful eye on him and his little brother whenever they were at the same shows and rodeos. Even though she’s only a few years older than him, she was always taking care of others, protecting those who needed it, and apparently she sensed the Winchester boys could use some support. To be honest, she wasn’t wrong. She has seen a few things, picked up on the tell signs. That knowledge adds to the weight of her kind message.

     “And if you ever are in the need of advice only a woman can offer,” she continues, “may it be suitable birthday gifts for the lady, or choosing an engagement ring, you know who to call.”

     Dean’s eyes widen, glancing aside at the fierce woman, walking beside him. He thought about what is to come, but he didn’t think that far ahead. Especially with her internship ending March next year, he’s slightly careful to presume she is going to want to stay with him. Yes, he will fight for her, but he can’t predict the future. Who knows what will happen when she’s due to leave.      “Whoa, let’s not get ahead of ourselves here,” he laughs. “We only just started dating, y’know?”      “Yeah, I know, but she’s a keeper, I can tell,” Jody counters, sure of herself. “Give it some time, I’ll remind you of this conversation at your wedding.”

     The cowboy chuckles, but doesn’t contradict her. Jody Mills is a smart woman, one who usually is right. She can read people, and despite the small age difference between the two of them, his caring friend often mothers him with her wisdom. He can’t believe the thought crosses his mind, but it flashes through his conscience nonetheless. I hope she’s right.

     He doesn’t want to dwell on it too long, though, because the glimpse of what he secretly hopes one day will come true, takes him by surprise. Somewhat daunted, the wrangler redirects the focus.       “I’ve haven’t spoken to Gabe in a bit. How’s he doin’ these days?” 

     There’s a hint of guilt in his voice, even though he tries to suppress it. Gabriel had worked at Gold Canyon since 2005, until Bobby had to let him go last year. The head wrangler felt horrible, especially since he taught Gabe the ropes when it came down to training horses, and getting fired was the last thing his friend ever expected. Just like with Ash, he would have done anything to prevent the lay off, but their boss didn’t have much of a choice.       Thankfully, Gabe got a job as a horse trainer at Jody’s ranch. They kept in touch, but over time the calls came and went less frequent. Lately, it’s been quiet, though, and the woman next to him looks up at him stunned, a mixture of remorse and empathy in her eyes.

     “You haven’t heard?” she asks, appalled.      Dean shakes his head. “Heard what?”      “Oh, honey, I’m not sure how to tell you this,” she starts, averting her gaze to the ground, as if she’s trying to find solace in the dirt underneath her feet. “He had an accident earlier this week. He’s in hospital.”      The wrangler snaps his eyes at her in shock, a frown puckered between his brows. “W-what?”       “Yeah, he--” she pauses, shaking her head as if she still can’t believe it, “- he was working with a stallion, quite a special case. He turned aggressive and Gabe got trampled. He suffered multiple fractures in the vertebrae.”      The head wrangler stops dead in his tracks, causing his company to turn to face him. In shock he stares at Jody before his gaze drifts off, the unpleasant surprise still evident, though. Not sure what to say, he moves his hand to his face, tracing his stubble as he tries to digest the news.      “Fuck…” he stammers. “Is he - he’s gonna be ok, right?”

     “The doctors haven’t given us much yet. From what I’ve heard, the first tests showed very little reflexes, but there was still a lot of bruising and swelling. They hope to be able to get better imaging soon, but right now it’s not looking good. He most likely damaged his spinal cord; he can’t move his legs,” Jody explains, observing the disoriented man before her with sympathy. “I’m sorry, Dean. I know he is a friend of yours. Honestly, I expected you would’ve gotten a call from his brothers.” 

     The cowboy still stares at nothing in particular, unable to grasp what he just learned. “We - uh, we didn’t talk as much as we used to. Kinda fell out of touch after he left Gold Canyon.”       Jody nods at that, the endearing smile that was there when they were talking about his newfound relationship now gone. The corners of her mouth are drawn down, the worry and guilt aging her in a matter of moments.      “It’s really tragic. Honestly, I feel awful. It happened on my land, the horse was my client’s.”      “Hey, this is not your fault, you hear?” Dean replies, gently gripping her upper arm. “These accidents can happen. We forget sometimes, but we still work with thousand pound animals who have minds of their own. It’s dangerous, and he knew that.”

     Jody swallows down the guilt and turns to slowly stroll to the warm up area, not walking away from it entirely, but giving herself something to do. Dean adjusts to her pace, shoulder to shoulder with the rancher.      “I found him in the pen. He was screaming in pain,” she tells. “Of course I happened to be the only other person on the premises. Donna was delivering a horse to a new owner.”

     Shaking his head, Dean glances aside. Damn it, he wishes she didn’t have to go through that. Waiting on an ambulance must have been horrible. Dean knows Jody treats her staff like family, their bond much like the dynamic between the Singer family and their personnel. Dean cares about those he works with deeply, he would never forgive himself if an accident like that would happen to a member of the crew.       “He’s gonna bounce back. Gabe’s a tough one,” he soothes, hoping to offer at least a little comfort.      “Yeah, I hope so.” She sighs as they reach Bobby, who is having a conversation with two older men on the sideline, without a doubt doing business. “I’m gonna talk to your uncle. See if we can come to an agreement on that horse.”      “Better get in there fast, before he sells her to someone else,” Dean advises, after which he turns around. “See you at the party tonight?”      “Depends on how much money I spend at the auction, but I’m certain Donna will drag me there anyway,” she says, doing her best to pull together a playful grin.

     Dean watches Jody step up, politely interrupting the negotiation, not even a bit intimidated by the possible buyers who have already named a price. She’s tough, something that he has always admired. The woman stands her ground in a man’s world of horse traders, runs her own ranch and built her own network. An extraordinary person, who always has his back. He carries nothing but respect for her.

     As he makes his way to the stables, tipping his head to the people he knows on his way over, his thoughts go to Gabriel. Jody is not the only one who feels guilty about his current condition. He just told her she shouldn’t blame herself, so why is it that he wishes he would never have let his good friend go? Maybe if Gabe had stayed, he wouldn’t have broken his back. Maybe if he had taught him better, he would’ve still been able to walk. 

     He shakes his head, trying to dismiss the notion. But like a mosquito the mental picture keeps patronising him, buzzing into his ear, draining him and stealing the wrangler’s peace. When he nears the stable tent B, he picks up pace, however. Because he knows that the one person who will calm his mind and make him feel better with just her smile is right around the corner.

Thank you for reading. I appreciate every single one of you, but if you do want to give me some extra love, you are free to like or reblog my work, shoot me a message or buy me coffee (Link to Kofi in bio at the top of the page).

Read part twenty here

[hopecountysfavhoe]

‘Cold’ Chapter Ten

Word Count: 2,927

Rating 18+

Spring time in Hope county was wonderful, finally after all those cold, dark months the weather was getting warm. The trees around Holland Valley was getting greener by the day, farmers' fields were growing tall with hay. Birds that had migrated down south for the winter were slowly returning to give Montana back their sweet serenade. But, the warmer weather meant the Peggies were getting active again.

The cult had been hammering the Resistance for over a month with planes, boats, trucks, anything they could get their hands on. John has tried to take his ranch back, and was almost successful until the Deputy blew up one of his planes. Tensions were rising as the Resistance gained more and more members. Both sides were getting antsy but neither side was making any ground.

The Deputy's health wasn't what it used to be. Over the winter she'd gotten even skinner and had pneumonia for two weeks. Adelaide forced her to stay at her and Xander's place while she was sick. Which had absolutely no affect on Adelaide constantly flirting with Xander, quite graphically. The Deputy hated feeling like she was taking advantage of Adelaide and Xander's hospitality but anytime she talked about leaving Adelaide would lock the front door and hide the key in her bra.

So she stayed until she recovered. In that time she discovered that cookies were just about the only thing Adelaide could make without burning, under cooking or over-salting it. She loved Adelaide but it was a major relief for the Deputy to get out of that house.

     The people that most often noticed that the Deputy was getting weaker was Kim and Grace. Both of them could see how worn out she was. After the pneumonia she still felt tired for the rest of the month, making it harder to concentrate and function. Sharky noticed too but anytime he'd say anything to the Deputy she just shook her head and told him she was fine. The daily hammering of the cult was really hard, not only on the Deputy's body but also on her psyche.

     She would get irritated faster, became more ruthless, and let her anger control her before she'd finally calm down. It was dangerous, especially to anyone that crossed her, and everyone could see that.

     One particular day the Deputy had to have some alone time, and the Whitetail mountains were the perfect place to have some. So she trudged off alone and just parked her truck on the side of the road somewhere. She made her way through the woods, not really knowing where she was going. All she knew was that if she had to hear Hurk and Adelaide argue or Grace and Jess bicker or Sharky and Hurk arguing then she would probably flip out and she wanted to actively avoid that.

     The Deputy found a nice little lake to sit by, and so she sat. She didn't feel like fishing, she actually only felt like sleeping, but she knew she wouldn't be able to just sleep. Jacob was pretty upset with her for shooting down his helicopters last week so she'd been keeping her eyes peeled for any hunters.

     Even if she had to look over her shoulder every two seconds it was nice to get away from everything. The mountain air was refreshing but the Deputy knew that wasn't enough. She was tired, she just wanted the fighting to be over. She knew she could never leave so she had to stay until the end, whenever that may be.

     She caught her reflection in the clear water. She looked like hell. Her nose had a big partially-healed gash across it, she had a black eye, a busted lip and dirt on her face. She certainly looked how she felt, but she just dipped her hands in the cold water and wiped off her face, hoping it would help with the swelling.

     Snapping her out of her thoughts was a hail of gun fire. She heard screaming in the distance and knew there was trouble. Of course there was trouble, why wouldn't there be trouble?

     The Deputy followed the sound of screaming and found a bloody scene. Two of Jacob's hunters had their weapons drawn on two civilian campers, another one was dead at their feet. The Deputy crouched down and got out her sniper rifle, hoping she'd have enough time to pick those two hunters off before they killed anyone else. She could hear the civilians pleading for their lives, they begged for the hunters to let them go. That sound, that sound was what haunted the Deputy every night. That was the sound of the people she couldn't save, and the people that she did save that didn't want to be saved.

     She lined up her rifle and aimed right for the hunger on the left. The sound of the gun going off made the hunters react, but not in time for them to run. They were both dead in less than twenty seconds leaving the civilians confused but grateful.

     The Deputy stood up from her cover and made her way over to the civilians. She shouldered her rifle and checked the hunters' pockets for anything useful.

     "Who are you?" The civilians asked. It was a dad and two kids, only the son was the one that had been killed.

     "That's not important, come on you guys need to go." The Deputy ushered and checked the son's pulse. Nothing.

     "W-we don't know where to go!" The daughter exclaimed, she couldn't have been older than 14. She stared at the Deputy with horror in her small eyes, not only horror that those hunters had killed her brother but by how casually the Deputy and killed them.

     The Deputy kept her head on a swivel, keeping her eyes open for any Peggies that might have been close by. "Listen, anywhere is better than here. Take him and get out of here before it's too late." She ordered and the people seemed weary to take her advice.

     She looked like hell and that was helpful in the civilians' decision making. The Deputy hefted her gun, keeping guard over the boy's body while they quickly packed their campsite into their pickup truck.

     One of the hunter's radios crackled. It was a check-in, great now when they didn't respond the Peggies would now something happened to them and would send in more.

     "You guys may want to hurry up, we've got Peggies inbound." The Deputy pressured the people and they shoved everything they could into totes in the back of their truck. The Deputy could hear a truck off in the distance and got antsy. The people finished packing away their things and went to go move the boy. "I got his shoulders." The Deputy said and shouldered her rifle again. She hooked her arms under the boy's armpits and lifted in sync with the dad. They brought him to the truck and laid him in the back.

     The Deputy turned to the people. "If you follow this road until you reach the highway then you'll be good to leave the valley, don't stop for anybody, not until you're a long way from this place. Promise me that you won't stop, turn around or slow down until you're in the clear?" She asked and the dad nodded wearily. He looked towards the back seat where he son laid, and to the front seat where his daughter was crying.

     "I wish I'd never come here." He admitted.

     The nearing sound of tires screeching made the Deputy nervous. "Me too. Now you guys need to go." She opened the door for him and helped him into the truck. She shut the door behind him. "Remember follow this road, no stopping. I'm sorry." The Deputy apologized to the people and stepped away from their truck. She waited for them to drive away and ducked off into the woods, trying to run away from the sound of Peggies.

     She'd stolen the radio off of one of the dead hunters so that she could hear where they were. The found the campsite but after no one was there they fanned out, trying to look for someone on foot.

     When the Deputy decided she was far enough away from the Peggies she stopped by a rock. The Peggies has stopped talking on the radio, that hopefully meant that they were too far away from the Deputy for her to be able to hear them.

     When she stopped moving anger over took the Deputy. Hot tears rolled down her cheeks as she crouched down to the ground. Those hunters murdered an innocent kid, someone who didn't even have a connection to this place. The Deputy cursed and punched the ground, finding it helped release her anger she kept punching the ground, ignoring the pain that was flourishing across her knuckles.

     Punching didn't help with the tears or with the Deputy's anger towards the Peggies. All it did was wear her knuckles raw. "Fuck this place...fuck this place." She kept muttering over and over again, pressing her hands to either side of her head. Flooded with memories of other dead bodies the Deputy couldn't handle it. She screamed into her sleeve, still being careful not to attract any Peggies. Her anger quickly turned to sadness and immense sorrow. The guilt that hung on her shoulders weighed her down so much she could barely breath.

     Everything she did, everything she has done, it hasn't done a damn thing. She hasn't stopped the cult, she just made it more difficult for them to move. She hasn't brought peace back to the people of Hope County, if anything she'd brought about more suffering. She felt totally and completely useless.

     She was crying when the radio next to her crackled. "Do you see her too?" A voice asked.

     Immediately it was scorned. "You dumbass, what if she has a radio?" She did have a radio and the sound of it made her grab her pack off the ground and book it.

     She ran out from the behind her rock and instantly gunfire broke out around her. Bullets whirred over her head, all trying their best to strike her but she was too fast. She dashed across a clearing and dove into the trees. As she ran she could hear the sound of shouting and orders being barked to follow her. She kept running until she realized what happened.

     She'd ran right into a steep mountainside with no way out. The walls of the mountainside were sheer rock that would be impossible to climb, but when she turned around she could hear Peggies closing in. She was trapped. She could try to fight her way through but with the number of Peggies it would be unlikely she'd survive.

     However, the alternative was surrender and there was no way in hell that would happen. So the only other option was fighting. The Deputy got herself ready and grabbed her automatic rifle, hoping that and her pistol would be enough to keep the Peggies at bay. She backed up to the wall and tried to look for any Peggies hiding in the trees.

     Everything was quiet, until ten Peggies leapt out of the trees. The Deputy opened fire and tagged two but they got up and kept fighting. Their numbers were immense and overpowering but the Deputy was angry. She didn't stop shooting until her clip ran out then they pounced on her.

     She tried to fight them off with her bat but one hit her from behind with the stock of his gun. Another hit her across the face with a pipe. They landed kicks on her chest and her stomach and her back knocking her out completely. She couldn't even fight back enough to yell, all she could do was stop fighting.

     She woke up in a dark room with a bag over her head. Her arms were tied down to a chair and so were her legs. She tried to tug against her restraints but to no avail. Her whole body ached, her head pounded in her skull. Her ribs were sore and she could taste blood. She didn't even have to remember being out in that forest to know that she had the shit beat out of her.

     Her breaths came out with a tattered rattle. She sat in waiting, waiting for what she assumed to come true.

     "You're finally awake." A familiar gruff voice walked into the room.

     Just as she thought, it was Jacob. She couldn't see him through the bag but she could hear his heavy boots making their way over to her. He put a hand on either arm of the chair, squeezing into her forearms. In an instant the bag was ripped off her head, revealing Jacob's face only a foot away from hers.

     He studied her face, she didn't know what he was looking for but she glared right back at him. "You look like shit." He admitted, a hint of a grin on his face.

     "You can thank your boys for me." She growled and Jacob let out a small laugh.

     "You don't know when to quit do you?" Jacob asked rhetorically, steeping away from her chair. "You also don't know how to not do stupid shit alone." He continued and the Deputy just sat there in silence.

     Jacob turned away from the Deputy, turning back to her when he walked to the edge of the room. "Deputy, do you have any idea how bad you are at decision making? You prioritize every life above your own, you never act to survive you always act to serve. That is why the Resistance is taking advantage of you." He monologued and the Deputy didn't meet his eyes. "Look at you, you're broken. Your body is failing you, you take every bullet for those people and they still ask you to do more. They ask you to do everything because you are strong, because they are weak."

     Jacob walked slowly closer to her, intensifying his words to match his presence. "How long are you going to last, Deputy? Hm? How long will it take you to realize those people don't give a shit about you?"

     "I'm doing fine, Jacob. Are you sure you're not talking about yourself-"

    

     "Stop!" Jacob raised his voice. It was the first time she'd ever heard him shout when it wasn't at his men. He took a moment to compose himself and looked back at the Deputy. "You know I have cameras all over this region, you know I can watch your every move, so why do you still lie to me? Why does it matter so much to you that you pretend everything's ok when it's not?" His tone was angry but not like he wanted to hurt her. His anger sounded more like...concern?

     "I made promises." The Deputy defended herself and Jacob shook his head.

     "Your promises aren't special. Do you know what happens if something happens to you? Those people will mourn the loss of your help, burn your body, and then find someone else to replace you. You are not part of some family, you're a fighter that's doing their dirty work. Don't you get tired of it? Tired of the fighting?"

     To be honest she was sick of fighting. Her body was failing her and she was tired all the time but she couldn't let Jacob get into her head.

     "I'm in this fight till the end." The Deputy said, irony was overwhelming when she broke out into a coughing fit. She spit blood out onto the floor and gave Jacob a death glare.

     "You're in over your head, Deputy. And I'm going to prove it to you. When you finally fall, I'll be right here waiting." Jacob walked over to her, pulling the music box out from behind his back.

     "No...no more trials." The Deputy begged and Jacob leaned down to her eye level.

     "I'm the one that decides when this is over." He said and cranked the music box. He opened the lid and Only You poured out like a cancerous oil. The Deputy tried to fight back against it but couldn't, her ears couldn't bear the sound of it.

    

     She was standing alone in the middle of a room. Her gun hung by her side, blood dripping down it's barrel. She had done it, she'd completed the trial. Her body screamed at her the whole time, begging her to stop, but she didn't listen.

     "Very good, Deputy. You've done-" Jacob's voice was cut off by the Deputy crumbling to the ground. Her body did the giving up for her, she didn't even have to do anything. Her legs gave out, and her body didn't have the strength to do a damn thing about it.

     A door opened and Jacob walked in. "Deputy?" He knelt over to her body, pressing two fingers into her neck to check for a pulse. It was there but it was faint. Jacob shouted for a medic and stepped back.

     A medic scrambled in with a medikit and started dressing her wounds, stabbing her leg with some sort of pain reliever. The medic was too scared to ask why Jacob would be trying to save this one after so many others had died, honestly questioning Jacob's judgement was probably a death sentence. So he just did his job and ordered a couple of Peggies to carry her out of the room.

[starryviolentine]

Camp Paya (A Pre-Apocalypse Story): Chapter 2/?

Part three of the “Pre-Apocalypse Adventures” Series

Chapter 1 (here)

“For the billionth time, I’m sorry,” says Therissa, patting her weepy roommate on the head and giving her the most sincere, apologetic smile she can muster. Unfortunately, nothing she’s doing is having any effect on Brody’s sullen, teary-eyed pout and she turns to Violet for assistance. “V, do something, please?”

But Violet just stands there with her arms crossed. “You made her cry, so you fix it.”

“Brody, come on…” 

A nearby counselor with a megaphone calls out that it’s time for the campers to head up to the cabins, so Therissa reluctantly redirects her attention to the rest of her cabin group. “All right, if everyone’s got all of their stuff, let’s get moving.” The teen hoists her own duffel bag over her shoulder and waves at the six tweens to follow her. As they make their way up the dirt path to the girls’ cabins, Therissa finds that she still remembers the layout of the camp and recognizes the buildings they’re passing on the way. “For the newbies, that’s the mess hall, and that shack behind it is the infirmary. Sports stuff to the left.”

The other girls trail a few steps behind Therissa, but Violet keeps Brody company at the very back of the line. She’s more interested in observing her new cabin mates than looking at their surroundings. Becca and Amy have already paired off and are walking side by side, chatting with a level of familiarity that gives her the feeling that they already knew each other before camp. And Violet knows Erin from a few of her classes at Ericson’s, though she’s never really talked to her before. The last girl, who’s sporting a headful of poofy red curls, appears to be the youngest from her short stature and rosy, chubby cheeks. What was her name again? Ruby? Checking out the girl’s fiery hair again, Violet wonders if Ruby’s parents chose that particular name on purpose.  

When they reach a three-way fork in the road, Therissa leads them down the path on the very left, and soon they arrive at Cabin Four. Samantha is already there with her half of the cabin members, and she waves at Therissa, who gives her an awkward smile and a nod in return. 

“Well, this is it,” Therissa declares, gesturing with an arm towards the front door of their rustic, wooden cabin. “Home sweet home.”

The moment the girls step inside the cabin, Brody’s eyes widen and her whole mood changes in an instant. As she turns in a slow circle, taking a careful look at every inch of the room, her face lights up and she grins widely. “Wow, Vi, bunk beds!”

“Um, we have bunk beds at school, remember?”

“But not in a cabin!” Brody twirls around once more before rushing over to the window and peering outside. “Therissa, look! You can see into the forest!”

Therissa smiles at Brody, thankful that she seems to be back to her normal self again. She sets her bag down on the only single bed in their half of the room and instructs the others to choose their sleeping quarters, as well. “Okay, you guys can pick your own bunks. But I swear, if you start fighting over them, I’m going to choose for you.”

So long as it’s not on the floor, Violet doesn’t really care where she sleeps, but her friend is quick to claim the set of bunk beds directly across from Therissa. Brody is about to start unpacking her things on the bottom bunk, but Violet stops her and asks if she wants to take the top instead. “I always get to sleep on top at school,” she explains.

“Really?” Brody asks, positively beaming. “Thanks!”

After everyone has settled in, Samantha comes into their half of the room through the archway near the front door. Leaning on the wall with her arms loosely folded, she waits for Therissa to notice her before speaking. “You guys ready to head out? Lunch is in ten minutes.”

“Uh, yeah, I think so,” answers Therissa, nearly stumbling over her words, having been caught off guard by the sudden presence of the other teen. Clad in a sporty top and airy running shorts high on her waist and long, dirty blonde hair tied in a tight ponytail at the top of her head, Samantha carries herself with such poise and confidence and it’s clear that she was born for this type of leadership role. The complete opposite of her. Just being in the same room as Samantha is making Therissa feel severely underqualified and very out of place. 

It’s embarrassing. 

“Great, I’ll get my girls.” With a charismatic smile, Samantha extends a hand while looking directly into her co-leader’s eyes. “Therissa, right?”

 “That’s me!” Mouth moving on its own accord, Therissa blurts out the affirmative in an unnaturally chipper voice that sounds nothing like her own. Regretting it immediately, she weakly shakes Samantha’s hand. “You… Samantha?” The pressure to try and make herself look good in front of her co-leader backfires horribly because Therissa momentarily forgets how to speak. She inwardly cringes, wanting to slap herself across the face. Hard. Samantha’s melodic laughter rings through the room and Therissa could just die.

“Yeah. Sam,” she replies, eyes twinkling in amusement. “Me… Sam. Meet you outside?”

Therissa is completely aware of the fact that she just made the biggest fool out of herself, but all she can do now is try and shake it off. Turning to her cabin group, she clears her throat and tries to redeem herself by putting as much authority into her tone as possible. “Okay, everybody up. Leave your stuff. We’re going to the mess hall.”

Other than the gym and the horse stables, the mess hall is the biggest building at camp with a capacity of over two hundred in just the dining area alone. In the back is a spacious kitchen equipped with all the appliances and cooks needed to provide three buffet-style meals and snacks every day, seven days a week, to all of the campers and staff at Camp Paya. By the time Therissa, Sam and the other residents of Cabin Four arrive, there’s already a long line of people out the door. Luckily for the hungry campers, the queue moves relatively quickly and everyone is inside the building within a few minutes. 

Violet, standing on the tips of her toes, teeters back and forth as she cranes her neck to try and get a look at what’s on the menu this afternoon. Unable to see over the shoulders of all the taller kids ahead of her, she gives up and squints at the trays of the campers who are already seated at the tables. The saucy, red dish looks like some kind of pasta. “I think there’s spaghetti,” Violet tells Brody, still scanning the tables for other recognizable dishes, “and it smells like there’s garlic bread, too.”

“Yum,” Brody says. “Do you reckon they have meatballs?”

“Save my spot, I’ll go check.”

Stepping out of line, Violet creeps closer to the front, leaning this way and that in order to see behind the constantly moving row of campers picking and grabbing and scooping from the buffet table. Scrunching her nose up in distaste at the sight of the enormous bowl of ranch dressing next to the salad bar, Violet side-steps farther down the line, keeping her eyes peeled for meatballs… and chicken nuggets, while she’s at it.

And there’s good news and bad news. 

The good news is that there are definitely meatballs in the spaghetti sauce, so Violet turns around to go and tell Brody.  

The bad news is, in her rush to do so, Violet doesn’t pay attention to where she’s going. She walks head first into someone’s path, bumping into their tray and nearly knocking all of their food onto the floor. The apple juice in their glass rocks dangerously, threatening to spill over the edge. Thankfully it doesn’t, and Violet breathes a sigh of relief that they managed to avoid a potential catastrophe. But she’s still utterly embarrassed. She chances a peek up at the person she bumped into, praying that she hasn’t already made an enemy on the very first day of camp.

It’s a girl, maybe around her age... just taller. Glacier blue eyes. Vibrant red hair that reaches down to the middle of her shoulder blades. Violet doesn’t recognize her from any of her classes, nor from seeing her anywhere around school. But then again, she doesn’t know very many of the other kids at Ericson’s to begin with. Resisting the urge to flee, Violet forces herself to mumble a quick apology, hoping it will be enough to remedy the situation. 

The girl adjusts her grip on her tray and curiously watches Violet for a moment, but then she gives her a lopsided smile. “No worries.” And just like that, she turns away and disappears down one of the rows of tables. 

It takes one plate of pasta, three halves of garlic toast, and forty-five minutes of silly lunchtime chat with Brody for Violet to finally forget about the incident. After everyone has fueled up, the campground tour begins. For the next couple of hours, the cabin leaders bring their groups around the entire camp to get a more detailed look at what sorts of activities are available. With the exception of the few days per week with a special, predetermined schedule, the campers have the freedom to select any activities they want for each of the four time slots on their daily schedules. 

They start by the lake and work their way up the path, the counselors naming each of the buildings they pass. Occasionally, the campers are brought inside to view one of the special displays set up within. There are samples of artwork and crafts laid out on tables in the art studio, and a videotape of past performances playing on a boxy television in the middle of the dance studio lobby. In the gym, a few coaches and instructors give demonstrations of the different sports the kids can choose from.

Back outside, the tour resumes, taking everyone past the athletic fields and circling back around to the swimming pool. The campers are brought farther down the path to the garden and stables, where they get to meet and even pet one of the horses. And then, for the last stretch, everyone heads up the path by the climbing wall and the ropes course, where the counselor at the head of the line announces that the final two demonstrations of the day will be held at the archery and rifle ranges just up ahead. 

And Violet practically skids to a halt, face growing pale.

While the other campers continue along the path, the blonde stays right where she is, feet planted firmly, unmoving, on the earthy ground beneath her. It only takes a split second for Brody to realize that her friend is no longer by her side, so she backtracks a few steps, raising an eyebrow in confusion. “Archery, Vi. Didn’t you say you wanted to shoot arrows and stuff?”

But Violet doesn’t answer. 

“Vi? What’s wrong?”

Despite Brody’s best efforts to figure out why Violet is suddenly refusing to budge, she doesn’t have any success. As the seconds tick by, the two of them fall farther and farther behind, but Brody just can’t get her friend to move or tell her anything. A feeling of panic bubbles up inside her chest at the thought of getting left behind, or lost, or maybe even in trouble for not keeping up with the rest of the group. 

So, Brody does the only thing that comes to mind under this kind of pressure.   

She yells for help.

[chronicparagon]

Past (from Halsten)

@skullboysfinale

PAST - Your muse learns about something that frightened my muse as a child.

He meant no harm. 

He meant no harm, and she knew that. Harmony trusts Halsten with all her heart. But what was meant to be something pleasant became a source of terror.

Pure terror that is so intense, it chilled her blood. 

 The minute the flames sparked to life in the fireplace, Harmony’s silver eyes widen in horror. Flickering embers of red, yellow, and orange ignited memories of a small girl, a child writhing in pain as the weight of the burning branches pinned her to the scorched earth. Her lungs ached from the dark smoke. The desperate cries for help as the flames lick at her skin. 

Burning, searing, blistering. Inch by inch and layer by layer. 

The flames were eating her alive. She remembers. She remembers it all. She was only a child back then. 

She was only a child with death merely inches away from reaping her soul. The wildfire digs into her flesh like death’s scythe piercing her back, aiming for her heart. She remembers the pain, the heat, the smell of her own body burning and rotting. Though she was still alive, her own body was decaying.

The little girl from Harmony’s memory screams, just like she’s screaming at this very moment. The woman burst into tears, frantically shaking her head from side to side. 

“NO! NO! NO!” An ear-splitting screech fills the cabin, her body curling tight into the corner. “DON’T LET IT GET ME! NOT AGAIN! NO MORE! PLEASE, NOT AGAIN!” Shaking violently, her hands shield her face. Oh, it was such a sight. The sight of fire burning in the fireplace made Harmony, once excited to spend the weekend in the mountains with Halsten, crumble to a quivering, weeping mess in seconds. A blubbering, undignified, screaming mess.

“Not again, not again, not again, not again, not again!” 

He’s seen them before. The doctor has seen the scars marring her smooth skin. Dark, scarred tissue from her right shoulder down her arm. They never seem to disturb or bother Halsten. She was so afraid that he would reject her for her imperfection. But...She could never bring herself to confess. 

He never knew how Harmony got the scars. Fear of losing him kept Harmony silent. Those were the marks left behind by fire. The screams and tears did not cease until he doused the fire with water, leaving the couple in darkness. She was absolutely petrified. Her cries faded to soft sniffling and sobs when his quiet reassurance brought her back to the present. She’s no longer a small child, and she is no longer alone. 

Yes, she’s nowhere near the land that she loved so much. It was her home, her paradise. The once lush forest that would have been her tomb of ash and burnt timber. Now a young woman with her lover, but the sight of the fire made her feel so small and she hates it so.

Minutes tick away with the couple sitting on the cabin’s floor in the dark. Only the pale moonlight was their source of light. Harmony’s trembling form crawled onto Halsten’s lap, her arms wrapped around him tight. Tears stained his shoulder.  She’s so scared to let him go. She’s too scared to lose her anchor to reality and safety. Time marches on and soon, Harmony falls silent, deep breathing to further calm herself. 

Shame creeps into her heart. 

How shameful. How sad. 

This was supposed to be a romantic weekend in the mountains. They had everything planned out. She was so excited and here she is now, falling apart in front of the man she loves on the trip’s first night. Over a fireplace. 

How shameful. How sad indeed. 

“I...” Harmony finally speaks, her voice hoarse from the crying and screaming. “I’m sorry...I’m so sorry, Hal.” She doesn’t lift her head from his shoulder. She’s too scared to see his expression. Is he disturbed? Disgusted? Upset or disappointed?

No, she shouldn’t think of him like that. She loves him for his imperfections and believed it’s mutual. He deserves an explanation. No sense in hiding it now. 

“I never told you. I wanted to for so long, but I got scared. I shouldn’t be but...I can’t explain why I am.” Slowly pulling away, her eyes now a little red from the tears. Ugly crying has never been a pleasant sight.  “Where I used to live. I was out..,In the woods, a little way’s from the reservation. Lived in the house I was born in. My parents had a small bison ranch too. Used to play in the woods by the house.” She can barely remember the wonderful memories of simpler times. They have burned away in the fire like her home and her own body. 

“I was little when it happened. Someone got careless. A camper left their campfire going. They were long gone before it happened. The fire touched the trees, and it grew.” She couldn’t help but laugh a little, all to hold back fresh tears. “Wildfires are something. When they start, they take over everything in minutes. The flames eat everything they touch. You never know it’s coming until it’s too late.” Muscles tighten in her body, her heart racing once more than she recalls that day. 

“I couldn’t get away on time. I had a horse at the time, Mojave. I remember her running from the fire. The sky turned red, then black. It was Hell. I urged her to go faster and faster. Then, a burning tree fell. It scared Mojave, and I fell off. I rolled onto my stomach, hoping to get back on my feet and catch her. But my horse ran. She just kept running. That was when...Burning branches fell on me. I couldn’t get out. I...I tried so hard to get out, but I couldn’t! I was too weak!” Harmony draws in a sharp breath, her bang hide her eyes. 

“If it wasn’t for my dog. Sedona was her name...I don’t think I would be here today. She saved me. Got help after pulling me out. I was in water. That’s all I can remember.” There is more to the story. So much more, but that didn’t matter now. “That’s how I got them. These...Marks. It was from fire. Wildfire. It got out of the woods and burned my home and took my family’s bison. We lost everything.” Those were hard times that she doesn’t want to recall. 

“I don’t know why, but I can’t be close to fire. When I’m near it, I remember. I still get nightmares on some nights. It never leaves me alone.” She lowers her head and her hands reach back to gather her long hair in a loose ponytail with a hair tie that was around her wrist. Strands were sticking to her tear-stained cheeks. Harmony looks back at Halsten.

 “Those scars didn’t seem to bother you. You never ran from me at seeing them and you never asked about them. I can’t tell you how happy I was when you didn’t reject me for the marks. I thought that it’s a new chapter of my life and maybe, I’ll get better. The memories will finally go away.  But they’re still here...I’m so sorry. You might think I’m weak. I really messed up. I didn’t want to mess this trip up and fail you.”

[aion-rsa]

Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous Ending Explained

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The following contains spoilers for Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous.

Netflix and Dreamworks’ newest animated series, Jurassic: World Camp Cretaceous, takes the mythology of the Jurassic World franchise and focuses on a group of teen characters, surviving among the dinosaurs when the park’s safety features fail. Under the conceit that the park’s newest initiative is a camp for teens, a diverse group of young adults arrive to experience the wonder of living dinosaurs. But when, midway through the series, everything goes wrong, the kids are left on their own, forced to evade a carnotaurus and the incredibly dangerous Indominus rex. 

Not knowing whether a second season is planned, the final episode ends in a completely different place from where viewers might expect. While no second season has yet been announced, it’s clear from the final moments of the last episode that the story isn’t finished. While that may have left viewers feeling unresolved, the show is certainly enough fun for watchers to hope the characters will return for a second season, revealing how they put their survival skills to good use.

Catching the Ferry

While the first three episodes do a lot to establish the characters and the setting, as well as how it fits into the franchise, it’s episode four that really ramps up the stakes toward Camp Cretaceous’s ending. In episode four, the Indominus rex escapes its enclosure, and everything falls apart. “Assets” (dinosaurs) all over the park are on the loose. The kids, after returning to find their camp buildings destroyed, decide to make their way to the main park. After trial and error, they discover that it looks like the park has been abandoned.

And then, at the end of episode six, the alarm sounds. Episode seven begins with the evacuation order: “All park goers must report to the south ferry docks for immediate evacuation. Last ferry departs in two hours.” The timer is on, and the kids have to cross a park filled with hostile dinosaurs to make it off the island.

Once that goal is set, everything becomes about speed and distance. With one injured camper (Yasmina, previously the fastest among them, hurts her ankle in a fall), one slow camper (Ben, who just isn’t as athletic as the rest of them), and one baby dinosaur (Bumpy, the ankylosaurus the kids saw hatch, who imprinted on Ben, and whom Ben won’t abandon), speed is a challenge. Add to that a carnotaurus that seems absolutely hell-bent on attacking these kids, and that goal seems almost impossible.

And yet, the kids keep that sense of hope that they’ll make it. Right up until they don’t.

After an epic final battle between the campers and their carnotaurus nemesis, they finally exit a sealed building out onto the docks and into the sunshine. It’s that sunshine that seals their doom: the two hour limit would have put them on the docks at night. They’ve lost so many hours in their trip across the park, running from predators, counting on vehicles that abandon them in the wrong parts of the park, that morning has arrived, and the park has evacuated without them.

But the campers have been through so much that they refuse to give up. “They’ll be back for us, won’t they?” asks one. Darius, who has become the de facto leader of the group, answers, “Of course they will. And until then, we’ve got each other.” Their belief—and what they’ve already survived—promises these viewers that the campers will make it until someone arrives.

Or, possibly, they’ll build an entire civilization of their own while the grown ups are gone. Take that, Lord of the Flies.

Ben’s Fall

“None of the kids are going to die,” I promised my ten year old as we binged the last four episodes of Camp Cretaceous, all the while thinking, Come on, Dreamworks, don’t let any of these kids die…

As part of the Jurassic World franchise, there are no surprises in Camp Cretaceous having a body count, even though it’s aimed toward a younger audience. Over the course of the eight episodes, several adults are killed or eaten by therapods—without ever showing the bodies on screen. There’s no real blood or gore, but the intensity of the action is high enough that younger viewers won’t need anything more to get their adrenaline pumping.

In the second to last episode, Ben, the shiest camper, who’s least likely to take risks, saves the day. He crawls along the top of a speeding monorail to drop into the engineer’s car and stop the train from colliding with a stopped car. It’s a huge moment of triumph for Ben, and it’s immediately followed by a pteranodon shattering the glass of the train car and knocking Ben out the window, about to fall to his doom.

When, at the beginning of the final episode, Ben’s hand is firmly gripped by Darius, who’s trying to haul him back into the train, you can almost believe he’s going to make it. There’s a second when their hands slip, but Darius grabs Ben’s wrist with both hands, and the music shifts. Everything’s going to be all right.

Which is when the show goes for a one-two punch: a pteranodon knocks right into Ben, and Darius just can’t catch enough of his friend to keep him from plummeting from the tracks. The kids stare in horror from behind a crouched Darius as Ben hangs in the air, still reaching up for the train.

Worse, when the kids abandon the train (because it’s taking them away from the south docks), they lose track of Bumpy, Ben’s ankylosaurus. They debate: do they go back to look for Ben and Bumpy? Do they keep heading toward their only hope of escaping the island? What’s the moral choice? It’s a deep moment for younger viewers, knowing that there is no right answer: of course it’s the right thing to go look for Ben, but if it costs everyone else their lives—especially if Ben has already died in the fall—then they can’t afford to make the right choice.

So the campers leave Ben and Bumpy to their fates, hearts heavy with regret, while they continue their escape.

But, thank you Dreamworks, I did not lie to my ten year old. In the final moments of an intense last episode, after the rest of the campers are somewhat safe and the screen has gone dark, the animation continues, and Bumpy appears on screen, hurrying to Ben’s side. The boy lies still… but then his fingers twitch. Roll credits.

It’s possible that Ben will rise from this accident and become an antagonist determined to get revenge on the rest of the teens for abandoning him. But it’s equally likely that the campers will go out to look for him, now that they’ve lost the time crunch, and there will be a happy reunion for all. Only season two can tell us!

Sammy and Manta Corp

Although readers familiar with Michael Crichton’s Jurassic Park books may peg BioSyn as the company most likely to try to undermine InGen’s control over Isla Nublar and the science behind Jurassic World, the company that’s outed for corporate espionage in Camp Cretaceous is Manta Corp (possibly Manticore). In an effort to gain access to the technology being developed by Dr. Wu for InGen, Manta Corp blackmailed camper Sammy to become a spy. Sammy, a gregarious Latina who loves her huge ranch family and seems determined to become friends with everyone, is the least likely character to become a spy. She’s over the top, not under the table. And yet, it’s exactly those qualities that force her to spy in the first place.

Sammy cares deeply—for her family and her friends. Her family supplies all the meat used by Jurassic World, but they had to borrow money to get to where they are. And the people behind that money—Manta Corp—are determined to use every advantage to gain access to InGen’s technology. They tell Sammy’s family to send her to Camp Cretaceous to spy, or they’ll call their debt.

Sammy’s family refuses. Sammy sneaks off, determined to save her family from ruin.

When social media star Brooklyn catches Sammy spying in Dr. Wu’s office (more successfully than Brooklyn herself, who is caught), she doesn’t dwell on it. But when Brooklyn realizes she has video proof of Sammy’s spying, and her phone suddenly vanishes, Brooklyn is determined to call Sammy out.

Sammy’s equally determined to deny everything.

But when the stolen phone is discovered, broken, falling out of Sammy’s pocket, she has to face facts. She confesses everything, and loses the friendship of the camper she admires most.

At the end of the season, all the campers look well on their way to forgiving Sammy, but what will happen with Manta Corp? Will they arrive on the island, looking to retrieve whatever information their spy left behind? Or will they consider Sammy a loss, and look for another way to gain access to Isla Nublar? Odds are good that the threat of Manta Corp isn’t finished, and the teens will have to face them again in the future.

The Rescue

While this is probably the least precarious loose thread in Camp Cretaceous, viewers may wonder about the fate of Brooklyn’s social media channel, a major concern for a chunk of the series, will recover from the Internet randos who declare her “over.” When the superstar disappears, lost after the evacuation, will her fans come to the rescue? Will her disappearance be the thing that makes her a superstar again, or will she fade into obscurity? Likewise, Kenji’s wealthy family doesn’t seem to care much about him when he’s around, but when he’s missing, odds are good they’ll spare no expense to rescue their kid.

The most guaranteed team dedicated to rescuing the Camp Cretaceous campers is that of Dave and Roxie, their counselors, who’d intended to leave them for just forty-five minutes, and instead were never able to get back to them during the evacuation. Dave and Roxie do their best through the entire series to keep the teens out of trouble—an impossible proposition, even if the whole island hadn’t been evacuated. Remarkably, as the counselors follow the signal of the lost teens around the island, they never encounter the difficulties their campers do. Where the campers see the carnotaurus and have a dramatic encounter, Dave and Roxie see it off in the distance and manage to avoid an encounter entirely. When we last see the counselors, it’s on the back of an evacuation boat, with Roxie demanding that the security officer turn the boat around. Roxie, in fact, almost gets into a physical altercation with the security officer before Dave pulls her back. If anyone’s definitely determined to come to the rescue, it’s those two counselors, and even a mosasaurus won’t be able to stop them.

The faith that Darius pretends to have in those final moments—that of course someone will return for them—isn’t misplaced. Someone will be back for the kids.

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

And until they return, at least the campers have each other.

The post Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous Ending Explained appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/2RBOZq1

[writingonjorvik]

Can We Discuss A New Housing System?

Ok, so if you remember playing SSO around the launch of Jorvik City, you know we’ve been teased for a proper housing system for a while now. Some of you may still have some furniture (arguable) in your inventories and closets like myself. It’s also one of the most popular feature requests right now from players, as least in my polls. But what would an SSO housing system even look like? And how could it be blended into the existing story.

So, obviously, I have some ideas on that, and I going to try blending it into the story, because I think having a “home instance” house kinda situation could be a good way to deliver background story information (like retcons to characters and just passive character building). However, there are a lot of mechanics involved too, so I’ll strive to write about all parts of this equally. And also, this is a HUGE suggestion, but I figure I’d write it out in its fullest so I can get more feedback on the idea too.

I have, however, had some thoughts on the actual questline for this, so I’m going to dabble with writing those as well. They’ll be indented quotes to keep it clear. But I want to have the story itself lead, so I’ll start with quotes and expand after into the individual ideas as they show up. So here we go.

I imagine you’d get a general quest notification for this to start, just on your map. I’m going to put it at level 18 unlock, or after the service at Doyle’s Abbey. I think this makes a good late game initiative, and a project to work on while waiting on quests, since you do also have your current home stable as a temporary housing space.

Baroness: Player, I have a task for you of the utmost importance. 

Quest Accept

Good! I expected nothing less from you. Now, to the matter at hand. I own a small piece of land that recently has...seen less use. Have you heard of Horse Island? It’s a lovely place. Originally it had been opened to help local stables in Jorvik keep their horses active during the off-seasons when many of our campers go home.

However, when talented craftsmen John started to move to Jorvik, many stableowners hired him to update their own barns. You may have as well. While I certainly appreciate his work with my stables here, I have to admit that his arrival was effectively the closure of Horse Island.

And that’s the problem. I can’t leave the island alone as is. There are a number of structures there and I would like to reopen it as a park. Or I have another offer for you.

Quest End.

Baroness: Would you like to hear my offer, Player?

Quest Accept

My family and I owe a great deal to you. You’ve been beyond helpful here at my vineyard and with my son’s stables, you’ve been...discrete about my ex-husband, and you brought my grandson home. Some might even consider these deeds exemplary. My title as a Baroness may be more formal than my ancestors, but I can recognize a hero of Jorvik when I see one. 

It’s not an easy gift, but I would like to gift Horse Island to you. However, if you accept this gift, then there are some requirements you’ll have to meet to live there, much less your horses. Like I said, the island has been all but abandoned and will need some serious repairs before anyone can live there safely.

Quest End.

Baroness: Are you interested?

Quest Accept

Wonderful. Then the deed is yours. I have a ferry chartered for you and an associate to head to Horse Island to begin repairs. You’ll find them in New Hillcrest.

Quest End.

(Item Get: Island Deed)

Now, this doesn’t mean you’ve unlocked Horse Island as a home stable yet, but you do own it. This would unlock a first stage of the housing process, where it’s pretty much unusable outside of building it. Your current home stable would still be your home stable until it reaches “Stage Two” so to speak, but you have access to to Horse Island moving forward as a visitable and intractable map.

I’ve made up an NPC for this for fun, but they’re basically going to become your bookkeeper for the island, and the hub for updates, info boards, and quests on expanding it. Their name is Aiden (more or less a nod to Aideen and there’s good reason once we get into later stages), a fem-butch presenting young person who kinda doubles as an Isabelle for your island and a construction worker until you bring on John (if you want to). They have a Clydesdale (I like the dapple rose grey for them) named Amber.

Upon arriving in New Hillcrest:

Aiden: Oh, you must be Player. The Baroness told me you were coming. Me? I’m Aiden. I’ll be helping you get Horse Island back on its hooves.

Player 1: Nice to meet you. What do you know about Horse Island?

Player 2: Huh, you’re a little young for contractor.

Aiden: You won’t meet anyone who knows Horse Island better than me. It’s why the Baroness asked me to help. My parents used to work there, taking care of horses. Grew up on the island myself. I learned everything I know from them, plus a double major in college. If anyone can help you get this island back to a living condition, it’s me.

You ready to get going?

Quest Accept

Aiden: Good, let’s get a move on.

Quest End.

At this point, you actually reach the island. It’ll start with the original island design, a tropical/Hawaii style island (can we discuss Jorvik’s biodiversity later, actually), though this is ideally something that you’ll be able to change. If it doesn’t start with this design, I think it should be an optional biome as a reference for long term players from when Horse Island was around before.

At release of it, I’d think Horse Island should just be one island, but eventually I think adding additional smaller islands would be a good way to continue expanding the island and adding options to its development, while still keeping the theme of the overall island.

The main island has three parts: a small village kinda area with a broken down barn and buildings, three big paddocks, and a trail area. If this carries over functionality from the current home stable system, then this would be a great way to have private trail rides/races you could make, with each biome having a slightly different layout of the three main areas, but we haven’t gotten to that yet.

After you arrive, there’s a ferry point you can unlock that will rotate to South Hoof and New Hillcrest (really like the ferry system and I think it should be expanded), as well as a trailer/boat to transport back to Jorvik. On arrival, there’s not a lot you can do outside of explore, though it should be incredibly difficult since the island is incredibly damaged and hasn’t been maintained.

After arrival, Aiden will wait for you by the ferry to continue the quests.

Aiden: Aideen, the place has seen better days. Sad to see it like this. But, no time like the present. We’d better get to work. Well, Player, you’re in charge here. Want to scout out the damage?

Quest Accept

Aiden: Alright, follow me.

Aiden leads on a loop around the island to the major points. Following dialogue should be overlayed as you reach each location to keep the ride going.

Aiden: The beaches used to pretty open. There are other islands around here too. Maybe once we get things set up, I can look into some boats to visit other islands. Long ways off though.

Ah, this forest used to be so fun to ride through. I remember having friends over and building races through the woods together. Maybe we can get it cleaned up and open it again for you and your friends.

These paddocks need a lot of work. Don’t worry though. Once we can get them patched back up, they can hold, ten, twenty horses at a time. We can start small and build them out.

This place used to be filled with life. My parents and I used to live over there. Might be a good idea to get some cabins set up first. I’m fine camping until we do though. Supposing you’re fine headed back to mainland for some food.

With just you here, I don’t think we’d need a lot of shops. Same time, I’d like to see folks living here again. Maybe a few shops, open the place for tourists. That is, if you don’t mind people in your backyard.

That’s the biggest building on the island. I know it’s not mansion, but it should be a comfortable lodge once we finish with it. Nice place to hang your hat at least.

Last stop. This barn is going to need a lot of work. Come on, let’s clear out a stall for Amber and Player’s Horse.”

Quest End.

At this point, the farm opens up a lot of quests Rescue Ranch style, where you can pick up to-do’s from Aiden and then go do them like dailies. Some should be limited to make it feel like you’re making progress over a few days, but until you get to Stage Two of the island, I definitely think you should be able to grind through some smaller quests to make the island livable relatively easily.

I do also really like the idea of adding a Harvest Moon-esque gifting system for foods. I think this could be a good way to test a potential trading system while also delivering on more character development and a use for food. It’ll work on the same kind of system as Harvest Moon, where NPCs have favorite foods and hated foods, but it’ll mark in your journal as you go which is which. Giving Aiden food they like will reset daily tasks for the island as well as build your relationship with them. Eventually once the island is in a later stage, other NPCs can come visit and you can gift them foods too to get bonus dialogue and quests.

The first to-do you get is to go into the stable and clear out two stalls. Aiden will idle around the stable, but each time you interact with something in the stable, they’ll move to the next location and work on hammering walls or sweeping as you go until the to-do is done. Finishing this will also open a caring location on the island.

Aiden: That’s already better. Don’t have to sleep in the rain anymore. Now, there’s a lot to do, so let’s talk about a few of the more important projects.

Quest Accept

Well, to start we need to get some houses built. One for you, one for me. I don’t mind camping, but this is Jorvik. Weather can be all over the place. Next, we need to make a space for any other horses you want to have on the island. The barn should be our next goal. I think those are two good projects to start. Come talk to me and I’ll let you know what you can do to help.

Quest End.

This is Stage One of the island. It’s about building the most basic of necessities; your house, Aiden’s house, and the barn. I think dailies should add big chunks to the progress bars, but there should also be smaller to-dos to speed up the process if you want to grind through it. There’s already going to be a lot of money sink into this island, so Stage One to-dos are either clearing spaces, repairing walls, or gathering wood from the forest (this won’t clear it). There’s no shillings or SC required, though once you’re halfway through this stage, Aiden will let you know that they’ve gotten in touch with a suppler that you can order supplies from, much like the shop for building the bridge to the Harvest Counties, to speed up construction.

At the end of Stage One, you’ll get another quest from Aiden.

Aiden: Now this is starting to feel a little more settled. It’s definitely not the island I remember. Don’t think Horse Island fits it anymore. How about giving it a new name?

Quest Accept

Prompt: Name the island using a naming thing like club naming system. If you don’t want to name it, it’ll either stay as Horse Island or as your Player’s name’s Island (i.e. Amelie Eveningstorm’s Island).

Aiden: Hm? Island Name? Yeah, I think that’ll do. Alright Player, Island Name it is. I think it’s time you can call this place home.

Quest End.

After this, you’ll get a prompt offering for you to set your home stable at your island. Once you do, it becomes your home stable permanently and all other home stables become closed (this would be cool if the stables got a small redesign after for you, but that’s minute). This ends Stage One. The island is a functional home stable. You can go in your barn, which will reflect whatever home stable upgrades you had before hand and work like the home stable does now, though the invite a friend will temporarily disabled. On your island, Aiden will offer to upgrade your stable instead of John unless you hire him later.

So, by the end of Stage One, these are the features you have unlocked:

Caring station

New home stable

Supplies shop

Ferry to South Hoof and New Hill Crest

Trailer point

Ability to rename the island

Inn/hotel (Aiden’s house)

Your house (single room)

Barn customization

House customization

Like I said, this release would mean a lot of new features. I think at least with releasing it in stages, the first/second stages can be released, and then later stages can be released to continue expanding the island. However, no small part of those features should be customization. Stage One unlocks basic customization. We’re not to biome changing yet. Right now you can update the appearance of your barn on the outside, maybe some things on the inside, the exterior of your and Aiden’s house, and the inside of your house with basic furniture. I don’t think your house should ever be that big, maybe like three rooms total, or like start with the size of Herman’s interior, then Dr. Hayden’s interior, and then move up to a two story cabin with a big first floor and a smaller room upstairs. But we’re not there yet either, just the first basic house.

Starting Stage Two:

Aiden: Alright, we’ve got the basics all here, Player. Now we need to start on getting the rest of the island open. This is going to be a lot more work, and there are some permits that we’ll need to pick up, so you may want to pick up a day job while we’re at it. And dinner too. Ready to hear the damage?

Quest Accept

There are three big areas on the island. The village here needs to be restored. I’ll let you decide what buildings you want to put up, but I think opening a few shops and having some private classes eventually might be a good start from going in the black on running this place. Yeah, you’re going to need to pay me eventually to keep working you know. I’m kidding. I’ve got room and board. But why don’t we start with some shops here. Could get some tack sold for your horses, clothes with your name all over it, and food for the horses.

Next is the forest area. There are plenty of good trails in the area, we just need to get them opened up again. After that, I can build some jumps for you and we can set up courses to train the horses. Good idea to keep them active. I’m no professional like yourself, but I could probably lend a hand there. Or you can use the trails we make to ride with rides. Your call, after we finish.

Then there are the paddocks. We have a small one here in the village, but I’d like to have that for training. No, I want to fix up the bigger ones down the path a bit. Good place to let the horses have some time outside. Like I said, let’s start small and get all of the paddocks fixed up enough to have ten or so horses in there first, then we can talk about expanding them for more.

There are a few other odds and ends that could use some work. The beach could use some cleaning up. If you do, we can expand the docks for more tourists to come visit, or to come practice their riding here if you still want to do lessons. Need to hire someone for that. You’ll also be able to visit some of our island neighbors if you like. Might be a good change of pace, or you’ll get some inspirations.

Oh, and I have some ideas on how to expand your house. Let me know if you want to make it bigger.

Quest End.

At which point, Stage Two starts and all of these dailies and to-dos become options to start working on. Now, it should be important to say that I think the shilling limit should be removed because any projects moving forward need a “permit” to start. It’s basically a shilling sink to give more purpose to collecting them in game (still with Star Coin options, but definitely with shilling options too), though they would start low (1,000 shillings for the food stall as an example) and build up to higher prices based on the benefits. So things like the food stall and expanding the docks to make your island visitable will be relatively cheap, but things where you can make money, like from the training options and stores, will be a little more because you get a return on them. After you buy a permit, you’ll get dailies and to-dos to actually build it, ranging from a day to a week to build without buying extra supplies.

Now, let’s dive into some of these features. Shops I think should sell very basic tack and clothing, but I do think a basic icon system would be great where you can generate an icon (pick a background, foreground, and a symbol with your island name beneath it from a list of presets). Other players should be able to come to your island and buy these too, which is one of the ways you can make money back, as any part of the shillings, and even Star Coins, you make from people buying on your stores should come back to you. I think this balances out with how many players there are playing SSO, but it could always use fine-tuning to decide what that ratio is.

The island would also have some basic customization, like preset locations where you could slot in different styles of buildings, benches, plants, so on. I don’t think a full drag and drop system would work with SSO on a large scale, maybe just in your house, but I do think there should be some options you can put in places to make it feel customized, or on a basic grid system.

Aiden will train your horses (a max of five a day, randomly selected from non-maxed horses) for about a 1000 exp a day once you restore the forest area. Additionally, you’ll unlock a race that you can build. I think this should be pretty simple, with preset slots where you can put in jumps and turns along an existing course and set of pathways. The more jumps you buy, either in quantity or quality, and put in, the more exp you get from the race. Additionally, other players visiting your island can pay shillings to get that exp themselves for their horses. Another way to make money. The race would also be open for free to just go on the leaderboards, where you could optionally put in a sum of money every day for the winner for people who pay to enter.

Additionally, once you get the forest restored, Aiden will also offer to restore the paddock in town to make dressage, jumping, or western events which can be set up much the same way. You can buy extra course boards to swap out all three tracks and make them available like the cross-country tracks as well, or maybe build another paddock for it.

The horse paddocks are really just for a fan-favorite request, having open paddocks to see all your horses. There are three paddocks on the island to start, and once they’re repaired you can have ten horses in each, and then twenty once you expand them. I imagine that there could be a number of pathing loops you could set your horses on, and they’ll just walk around or stand in the paddocks on those preset tracks to make it look a little more active. It would be cool too if any horses not in your stables would be rotated into the paddocks at random every day. 

Beach repair is small and should be pretty quick. It opens up letting people visit you and you to visit other islands with another dock. That’s about it. I’m debating whether you should be able to see other people on your island if it’s a random person visiting you, but eh. Guess that’s up in the air. It may have to be mandatory because of systems.

And making the house bigger I already covered, so I’ll skip it for now.

So, by the end of Stage Two, you should have these features:

Caring station

New home stable

Supplies shop

Ferry to South Hoof and New Hill Crest

Trailer point

Ability to rename the island

Inn/hotel (Aiden’s house)

Your house (double room)

Barn customization

House customization

Village customization

Race maker

Horse food stand

Cafe

Tack shop

Clothing shop

Training paddock

Expanded docks

Horse paddocks

Horse trainer (Aiden)

It’s also at this point that some NPCs will start to come visit you and that gifting system will open up further.

Now, Stage Three:

Aiden: This place has really come back to life. Can’t believe how much it’s changed. Thanks, Player, for letting me be a part of it. Means a lot.

From here on out, the projects I got for you are just to make Island Name better. Add some ease of access for you and our guests. Let me know when you want to discuss the details.

Quest Accept.

Great! Well, we could use a vet for starters. No one’s hurt, but hate to see something happen and not be able to handle it. Also, with you working all day, it would be nice to have another hand taking care of the horses. I know Maya’s offered to help. Maybe make it more permanent than what she does now. Oh, and someone to train the horses better. I don’t mind working a few every day, but I’m not a professional. Might be able to run things faster if we had someone here.

If you don’t mind, I’d like to build a space for myself. I know it’s not my island, but I’d appreciate a space. I can’t be here running the place all the time, so a garden or something to unwind would be nice. What do you mean that’s still work?

Oh, I saw this spot on the back end of the island. Might be a good training spot for your druid business. Yeah, I know about that. Don’t worry, stays on the island.

I got another blueprint for your house too, so let me know if you want to add anything else.

Let me know when you’re ready to get started.

Quest End.

Stage Three is about building convenient functionality on the island. Most of these are straight forward. You get a vet, an upgraded version of Stable Care (either cheaper, bigger blocks of time, or you can buy with shillings, if not just permanently hire Maya), and there’s a secret area only you and people in your party can enter, more or less to be used for a training area with druid magic, supposing something like a mastery system was added, but it could also just be used to expand existing druid training. There could be some other easy additions like a notary for changing horse names, access to the Lifetime store, and a riding club point.

There was some discussion in the WOJ Discord about changing the daily care system so that instead of constantly having to care for your horses, you build bond with your horse while leveling them, and it’s permanently at max after that as a meter of how close you are instead of health. If that’s the case, I think Maya could still be there to increase bond for you, supposing you could hire a trainer separately to skip levels, maybe bond is related to caring for the horse, which Maya would handle? I dunno. This system is designed around the system as is.

The build for Aiden is just to be nice. There’s no bonus for it, it just builds an area of Aiden.

At the end of Stage Three, you’ll have:

Caring station

New home stable

Supplies shop

Ferry to South Hoof and New Hill Crest

Trailer point

Ability to rename the island

Inn/hotel (Aiden’s house)

Your house (second story)

Barn customization

House customization

Village customization

Race maker

Horse food stand

Cafe

Tack shop

Clothing shop

Training paddock

Expanded docks

Horse paddocks

Horse trainer (Aiden & regular trainer)

Vet

Updated Stable Care

New area for Aiden

Secret druid space

Notary

Access to Lifetime store

Riding Club Master

Stage Four is kinda my last full stage idea and it focused on opening the island up to future expansions easily by adding magic options. I think crafting would go hand in hand with SSO, and particularly this entire system. Further stages could be able adding functionality to that kind of system, like opening gardens to farming supplies for crafting, but for now, I’ll leave that up in the air and focus on just this last stage with what we have in game right now.

Aiden: This is turning into a real destination, isn’t it, Player? Almost magic to see how much this place has changed since we started on it. Hey, speaking of magic, I have an idea.

Quest Accept

Aiden: Listen, I know you and your friends are, uh, magical. I mean, this whole island gives you away, if you ask me, but I’ve also seen your friends around. And I know about the druids. Not going to tell or anything, but I want to help if I can with that business. Seems important.

Now, what if we brought some of that here to Island Name. Might help set us apart. I can cover up any of it that matters to our guests, like that secret space we have already, but maybe we could expand it a little for your friends. Use it to change up the island, add some more space. Up to you. Let me know if you want to get started.

Quest End.

Stage Four adds a lot of magic to the island, and it also is the ground work for future updates. It’s finally at Stage Four we get that biome changer I talked about, as well as the option to form more islands, which you can add more functions to later. I think a lot of druid things can be added at this point, like portals to the Secret Stonering and Pandoria, as well as a magic race mode to the cross-country race like what we have in the Cloud Kingdom.

It also would be cool at this point if you could have a library you could build to reference lore material we’ve collected, which would probably be pretty useful for quests moving forward.

It feels like Evergray, Avalon, or Rhiannon should step in for this stage, if not all of them for different features to help with the magic parts. Personally, and if it’s not obvious by the podcast, I really like these three characters for building the druids out as an order, and I think this would be a good way to develop some of the druids’ recovery stage, as well as our powers as the PC.

In total, the features Stage Four would end with are:

Caring station

New home stable

Supplies shop

Ferry to South Hoof and New Hill Crest

Trailer point

Ability to rename the island

Inn/hotel (Aiden’s house)

Your house (second story)

Barn customization

House customization

Village customization

Race maker

Horse food stand

Cafe

Tack shop

Clothing shop

Training paddock

Expanded docks

Horse paddocks

Horse trainer (Aiden & regular trainer)

Vet

Updated Stable Care

New area for Aiden

Secret druid space

Notary

Access to Lifetime store

Riding Club Master

Portals

Library

Biome changer

Island additions

Magic race mode

Connections to main story (optional)

And that’s...everything for now, I think? That’s a lot, but this feature would be massive and I wanted to go really in depth with it even if I couldn’t make graphics this time around like with the masteries. I think it’s still really important that SSO is combating price bloat in the game, and this might be a good way to change that up by giving shillings more of a use. Generally, I wanted to design it around the ideas of end game content for players looking for a reason to get on SSO more, and also to create more player made content to continue that idea.

So, yeah. What are y’all’s thoughts on a system like this?

[docholligay]

Set Fire to the Rain

@rhiorhino‘s prompt was “Tell me literally everything about Yael so here is the beginning of their lives intertwining. I hope you like it. 

Mercy’s mother had told her, that everything existing had its opposite. That light could not exist without the shadow, that the land was made real by the sea, that good could only persevere if there was the wall of evil to climb, and this was why so many things we would rather not have were present in this world.  That all these things were present in all humanity, as well.

Like many things her mother had said to her, it had not quite clicked into place until she was much older.

She had been thirteen, and did not understand these things, staring into a fire as other children who had lost just as much as she had warbled Hebrew songs off key. She looked down at the nametag on her chest, bearing a simple “Angela” and the small flags of the languages she spoke.

She’d stopped trying to correct the pronunciation of her name. It was mostly English spoken here, and she imagined it would be the same as she went into the international medical community. It didn’t matter anyway.

They put the languages they spoke, but not any city or country, seemingly noting that they were nothing but orphans and refugees from their own lives, gathered up here by kindly adults who had lost just as much. One of the summer camps where they would tell their donors was a place to ‘let kids be kids’ and forget their problems, but that all of them knew was a place to let them remember their problems, to let them cry and feel without any uncomfortable people scrambling for words to say.

A place where they could learn to be this, as well.

Being a Jew was always about juggling many identities at once.

Her junior counselor settled down on the log next to her, not much older than her but a few years out from her own tragedy. She was not tall, but she had a hungry leanness to her, her auburn hair tied back simply in a low braid, tied with a leather thong at the end, streams of it whisping around her face even still. She wore a beat up leather cowboy hat that somehow looked right on her head, as preposterous as it might have looked on anyone else’s, and her counselor’s t-shirt hung loosely over the buckle of her belt.

Yael, her name tag said, though one of the other campers had told Angela that was really her middle name. She’d only started using it last year. Angela understood. In the way that it felt easy to let go of the sound her name had made on her parents’ lips, she imagined it must be so simple to slip into another name entirely.

There was the name of who you were before, and you were after.

Abraham had done no less.

Yael leaned forward wordlessly, staring into the fire as the singing went on around her. Angela looked over to her. The fire looked at home in her eyes, and it was true that for the rest of Yael’s life, Angela would never see it die out. Her family’s ranch was always burning in her eyes, and because it never left her vision, she never saw the flowers that grew later.

Well, that would not be entirely true. She would see them again, when she took the ranch back from those that had swooped in after the tragedy, but by then she would not be a creature that could work the earth, only burn it herself, and it was her own, second, tragedy that Yael would be reflective enough to realize that was true. That she had been made into something else.

Fire warps and twists even the strongest metal sometimes, it seems.

“You doin’ alright?” Her voice stretched out long and lazy.

Yael had been uncommonly kind ot her. Angela hadn’t even wanted to be here, had shaken her head and said she would just stay at the tiny room in the shared apartment where she carefully tried to mete out her parents’ money and make it last till she got through all her schooling. But her professor insisted. She was so young, however old her education made her seem, and she needed to be with others like her. There were so many young Jews who had been hard-hit lately.

Yael had somehow seemed to know this, and sat next to her on the bus up to the mountain, smiling as she looped a bunch of flowers she’d picked from the field, one over and around the other, until she’s made a crown, and plopped it onto Angela’s head with a grin. Did that when were kids, she’d said, as though it were a lifetime away.  Yael hadn’t asked anything about where she’d come from or what she’d lost. Everyone’s story was similar enough, she seemed to figure. It would be years before she heard Yael’s.

There was something in them both, that drew them together, even more so than being in the same box as everyone at this camp.

Angela nodded, hands clasped in her lap, a woman by Jewish tradition but feeling so very much a child.

Yael picked a stray bit of wheatgrass and gnawed on the end of it thoughtfully.

“You sure ‘bout that?”

There were many things that Yael would be accused of,.over the course of her lifetime, and the regrettable fact was that most of them were true, but no one would ever accuse Yael of lack of observation, or the ability to delude herself or accept delusion.

“I am afraid.”

Angela hadn’t meant to say it. People had told her how brave she was almost daily, and she wanted it to be true, she wanted to be fearless and bold and the unstoppable prodigy they all believed her to be. But when she sat in her room, alone, and the night crept in, she did not feel brave. She did not feel like a prodigy. She felt like a little girl, who was without anyone now.

Yael considered a moment, still chewing on the end of the weed. She never looked over to Angela, as if they were have a conversation in parallel, instead of revealing anything to each other.

“Think we’re all afraid, from time to time. Be stupid not to be. Sides all that,” she plunked another blade of grass and whirled it around her finger as she flicked an eyebrow, “they like us scared.”

Sometimes Angela struggled to understand Yael. Angela’s English was very good, but Yael drew words together, and left some out, and said even questions as if they were statements. The ahs and uhs and the aggressive r sometimes got tumbled in her head, and she had to think for a moment, a dialect her mother had never prepared her for.

She would laugh, so many years later, when the difficulties of even Tracerian English were nothing to her, how she found entirely new ways not to understand Yael. For Yael not to understand her.

“I do not…” Angela took a deep breath, blinking back tears. “I am wanting to be a doctor. To repair the world. To help. Only… only I am only having little money.”

“Thought school was free in Europe. S’where you’re from, right?” Yaels’ forehead furrowed, and the question came out half-offended.

Angela shook her head sadly as one of the adult counselors started a new song, about going into the unknown, without the promise of anything, but the hope of everything.

“It is very,” she could not stop herself, “not expensive, only--the house was destroyed when they--and I have to rent a room--I do not know--”

Yael placed her hand on Angela’s knee, gave it a pat,and shook her head, still looking into the fire. “I get it. Alright now.”

They sat in silence for a moment, and then Yael joined in the song, softly but with a sense of steel and powder behind it, as if she was making a promise to herself that she’d sign in blood. Angela sat, looking at her feet, wondering where they would go, looking at Yael’s hand, wondering where it would lead her, looking at the edge of the fire, envying its ability to burn. She did not burn. She had seen enough of burning, and would not embrace it.

She may never go to school, and she may never change the world, but she had sworn, picking through the rubble of what had once been her life, that the world would never change her.

Yael took the wheatgrass out of her mouth and tossed it into the flame, where it alit immediately, twisting as it burned.

“Tired of bein’ afraid. I’m gonna make them scared a me, is what I’m gonna do.”

Angela put her hand on Yael’s, and Yael looked at her for the first time, their bright blue eyes siblings but never twins, two halves of the same whole.

“You’ll go.” She said it not as a note of hope, but as if she were giving a command. “You get in, I’ll take care of it.”

Angela’s face contorted in confusion. “What? I...I do not understand.”

Yael withdrew her hand, turned her gaze back to the fire, and sighed. “I have plans for this comin’ year. You give me your address in, where is it?”

“Switzerland.”

“Right,” she nodded, “You tell me where it is, I’ll do my level best to help you. Might be scattershot, but I will make it my solemn duty.”

Yael had been uncommonly kind to her, from the day she had stepped onto the bus, and Angela had not known why. There was no reason that she were any more or less deserving than any of the children here, for they were all still children, even Yael, who gave herself such adult responsibility and bearing.

Do be a Jew was to question, her father had said.

“Why?” she half whispered.

Yael scoffed. “Because I think you can be something I ain’t strong enough to be, Angie. Because someone's gotta be your left hand.”

They sat, watching the fire crackle and pop and burn, sending bits of light out into the darkness, even knowing they would likely be extinguished, the fire still had to try. Yael and Angela sat next to each other, for maybe the last time in their lives before Yael would always sit across, and sang, and were children for one more moment.

Everything existing had its opposite, her mother had told her, and when Angela was a woman not only by tradition, but by experience, she would come to understand that opposites were not only black and white, but the blue of a healing rain and the orange of a blazing fire.

Yael would be hers.

[troped-fanfic-challenge]

AUTHOR REVEAL of the JATP ROUND 2: FLUFF FICS!

The Tropes:

Exes

Time Loop AU

Camp Counselors

Prank Wars

————

Okay, Campers, Rise and Shine! (Rated T) [Julie x Luke] by nik_knows_nothing

Summary: When Reggie launches a particularly ill-advised prank war at HGC Ranch, Luke’s fully prepared to take it in stride.

When the days start looping, though, he begins to suspect that this might all be a little bit above his head.

In other words, he’s at least 78% sure that the time loop isn’t a direct result of Reggie’s pranks.

Maybe 77%.

Oh, well.

At least he’s not in it alone.

(The Groundhog Day meets Gravity Falls meets Summer Camp meets The Author’s Own Distaste For Prank Wars AU that no one asked for. Ever. At all.)

Starting To Forget (Just What Summer Ever Meant To You) (Not Rated) [Flynn x Carrie] by bi_magic

Summary: Last summer didn’t end on a positive note for Carrie Wilson - she and her girlfriend broke up on the last night of camp, and she’s been miserable since. But it seems that the universe is intent on having her fix that this summer. Even if that means she has to live through the same day over and over and over again until she does.

Creative B.S. Was No More, Was No Less (Look Around, You're Gonna Miss What You Found) (Rated T) [Alex x Luke, Flynn x Reggie] by @americanhoney913

Summary: The midnight men move again

Don’t know when

Best friends forever

In trouble again

Here’s to you, here’s to me

Over the rafters and we’re free

— Over the Rafters, Rick Schiffman

***

Alex and Luke go undercover on a mission to a summer camp in order to find a talisman that could endanger the camp and all the kids. While there, they bond with the kids and make peace with the fact that they broke up.

While Alex and Luke are away, Flynn accidentally fucks with time.

bitch but like romantically (Rated T) [Flynn x Carrie] by @screamin-amuseum

Summary: The dining hall’s exactly the same as it has been for two mornings now, and Flynn doesn’t hesitate to poke Willie twice on the nose and whisper “pancake” on her way past their seat.

His eyes widen and he whips his head around to follow them, excitement glimmering in their eyes.

“Really?” they blurt. Flynn rolls her eyes and nods.

~

or: flynn gets stuck in a time loop. {for troped jatp round 2}

down by the bay (Rated T) [Alex x Willie] by @sunsetcurbed

Summary: Over time, Camp Phantom has simply become known as a selective summer camp: one that took only the kids that Caleb saw promise in. And Caleb wasn’t exactly lying. He really did take only the ones he saw promise in, he simply looked for different traits than others might.

For example, say, hypothetically, a boy who could see the future. Or, hypothetically, a girl who could interact with ghosts. Or, hypothetically, a boy who could summon objects to him with a simple thought. Or, and this is completely hypothetical mind you, a boy who could manipulate time.

Those might be some traits that Caleb saw promise in. Just, like, as examples.

Time will tell (But only if you do it right) (Rated T) [Flynn x Carrie] by @malecacidd

Summary: Carrie had been acting a little off for a week or so, but Flynn was pretty much known for seeing something in nothing, and that was probably what they were doing then. If something was going on, Carrie would tell her eventually.

OR

Who knew all it took was a little bit of miscommunication to mess up time itself?

and so it begins (Rated T) [Bobby x Reggie] by @comeonpeters

Summary: It’s the first day of their second week at Camp Carolling (they’re spending an entire month, and they’re getting paid to be there!) when Reggie gets a little lost in the woods. During this misadventure into the woods, he finds an egg shaped rock, an inhabited cabin that may or may not be riddled with signs, and something that might be magic. He probably doesn’t get paid enough to discover magic.

or, when they were thirteen years old, four boys met at camp carolling and eventually became a band that almost became something legendary. now, all four boys are coming back as counselors, three boys in one band and one boy in his own solo act.

so begins the reunion, though it doesn’t go how any of them imagine.

Porcupine Day (Rated T) [Bobby x Ray x Rose] by @wr0temyway0ut

Summary: It’s been fifteen years since Trevor broke up with Ray and Rose and they’re… not fine, but managing. But when Trevor to adds insult to injury and buys the camp across the lake from the one they once owned together, the two camps become locked in a bitter rivalry. With neither side willing to set aside their pride and work out their issues, the universe decides to settle their fates itself.

Day After Day (After Day After Day) (Rated T) [Alex x Willie] by hufflebibin

Summary: When Alex met Willie just after their senior year of high school, they spent a wonderful three months dating before their relationship ended in a blaze of glory. Now, four years later, they meet again as counselors at a summer camp. The only problem? Alex keeps reliving their first day together. The day that Luke had declared “Prank Day.”

This is not how Alex pictured his summer going.

clocks move faster (it's all we're after) (Rated G) [Julie x Luke] by @willexxmercer

Summary: Julie likes it when her friends are happy, so when she realizes she’s stuck in a time loop, she uses her knowledge to make sure everything works out for everyone… except she conveniently forgets to factor herself (and Luke) into the mix.

Touch of Magic (Not Rated) [Alex x Luke] by @williexmercer

Summary: When everything stands in Luke and Alex’s way of getting to be with the people they love, they have to repeat the day over and over until they can get the happily ever after that they want.

the play's the thing (that goes wrong) (Rated T) [Alex x Willie] by @madeline-kahn

Summary: Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow creeps in this petty pace from day to day for Macbeth, but not so for Alex and the production of Hamlet that he is directing and starring in. And while he’s stuck repeating the day of the performance over and over, mishaps of all kinds befall the cast.

anything, anything (for another run with you) (Rated T) [Alex x Willie] by @aroacethetic-shitpost

Summary: The moment Alex steps foot in Camp Greenwood, he knows that this summer is a bad idea.

He knows it as soon as he sees tan skin, long hair, and a tie-dyed crop top at the check-in table.

Willie.

-

the camp counselor/exes/prank war/time loop fic of your dreams (unless you read all of the other troped round 2 fics lmao)

there’s a glorious sunrise, dappled with the flickers of light (Rated T) [Julie x Luke] by @tonightthestarsalign

Summary: What comes next happens in slow motion. Luke’s foot catches on the last rung of the ladder. Julie watches as he stumbles a step forward, barely catching himself before falling on his face. The ladder clatters to the floor below. The trapdoor, no longer propped open by it, falls closed with a loud thunk, the lock clicking into place. They’re stuck.

“Luke!” she exclaims loudly. “Look what you did!” Julie drops to her knees in front of the trap door, desperately trying to fit her fingers between the wood and the stone to pry it open again. Of course it doesn’t work.

“What?” he snaps back. “I wouldn’t be up here in the first place if it weren’t for you trying to fuck us over.”

or: ex-best friends Luke and Julie, working as camp counselors at rivaling camps, find themselves stuck in a time loop

the daughter of apollo (Rated T) [Julie x Luke] by @the-most-beautiful-broom

Summary: (the JATP x Camp Half Blood AU that nobody asked for)

maybe the world isn't ending (maybe it's been postponed) (Rated G) [Julie x Luke] by @tmp-jatp

Summary: Alex runs his fingers through Willie’s hair. “I think it’s best to just leave them to their own prank war at this point. Let’s not forget that time Julie put hot sauce in the coffee pot and my mouth was on fire for an entire hour.”

“You’re exaggerating, Alex-”

“I most certainly am not,” Alex cuts Reggie off.

“Or how about the time Luke tried to put glitter in Julie’s bed,” Carrie joins in, “but got my bed instead? I can appreciate some glitter, but even I know when enough is enough.”

“Suffice it to say,” Willie finishes after they’ve passed around a dozen or so more memories of pranks from the summer, “we’re all done being your collateral damage. Whatever Julie has planned for you tomorrow, Luke, you’re on your own.”

-

It’s the last day of camp and Julie has one more prank planned for Luke. He just doesn’t know what it is.

Here We Go Again (Rated T) [Julie x Luke] by @kybee1497

Summary: Julie blinked as she stared at the place Euterpe had disappeared. What did that even mean? What journey? Old places and lost faces? What was she talking about? But before she could dwell on the questions swirling around in her mind, the sky full of stars began to move, shifting in place and descending until they were all around her. Julie felt her feet leave the ground as she rose up and up. One star in particular was burning brighter than the others, growing bigger in front of her.

It grew and grew, until the light was blinding and Julie had to throw a hand up against the harsh light. She closed her eyes as the light surrounded her and then she was falling. Falling down, down, down.

————

All the Winners can be found here.

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We hope you all will join us for Round 3! The prompt drops at Midnight tonight!

[vorsakhal]

♞ | @zcldrizes​​ | Plotted Starter! | Modern Verse

Their family had held this ground for generations now. One of the longest running breeders left in the country, their Stallions were brought from across the waters as much as within them and they had never failed to meet expectations. 

Thankfully Drogo rarely needs to deal with those who seek the bred. His sister is more capable at handling people than he is, his preference is for the stables. Grooming, cleaning, training. Breaking in stubborn mounts as needed and seeing the trust that forms after. He is good at that. Good with the horses that warm to him quick as morning. He is less good at this. 

The girl looks at him like she might have a knife to his throat any second though he highly doubts it. She’s trembling like a leaf, more likely to fall over before she could knock him down but he edges back all the same, eyeing her warily as the his youngest brother leans about his shoulder in curiosity. 

“How did she get past the security?” 

Drogo tilts his head at her and notes how she sways attempting to keep them both in sight. Blood loss? No, she didn’t seem quite to that level. Maybe an intoxicated camper who had fallen in to their territory? Odd though, most knew better than to tresspass. The rich liked their horses well kept, too shoot was not uncommon. 

“I have no idea. Irri is out asking now, Qhonno is looking for holes in the fences. Do you think she’s here too steal? Got caught?” 

Drogo gives a rough sound in answer as Rakharo reaches over his shoulder, the water pale full and seeping into his shirt before he rolls his eyes and takes it from him, reaching back to press his elbow hard into the others stomach. 

It’s a possibility but none of the Khalasar have missed their rounds or duties. None of the usual watch are acting oddly and none of their alarms have gone off, the electrified fences were all untriggered last he checked.

No. He doubted it.

His brother is being his usual self, acting like he’d never seen a girl before. They each had their days to leave the ranch and Rakharo went to the city more than most, he was no idiot and the girl was injured, tired, if his guess was right potentially high as well. She needed medical help not a balless rancher oggling her. 

“Go and get me the first aid kit, you idiot. Tell Irris to come by. There are too many men here. We don’t want her to have a heart attack and die on us.” 

Dark eyes follow his brother as he stumbles back sheepishly and gives a mock salute as though they follow the flag at all. They’d been here long before the Khal family aren’t likely to move, tradition too seeped into their blood by now.

There is more at hand than handling his family however and Drogo turns slowly again to her. He doubts she can move in this state, not without throwing up and choking most likely. She needed to sit, breathe before she reached a panic attack. Perhaps they had startled her as much as she him, the Ranch is a large stretch of land, to some it might just seem an empty farm until they reach the inner stables. In the dead of night it’s no wonder someone would think to come for shelter, or to steal. 

That is to be determined when she can speak without looking an inch from death. 

He keeps his movements slow and for a moment is startled by how much it feels like trying to calm a furious wild mare. It’s almost enough to make him laugh if she didn’t seem so skittish, instead his brows draw down. Letting her see both of his hands as he inches forward, offering one of them freely.

“I am not going to hurt you, I will help you sit up now, if you let me. Do you know your name, where you are?” 

[katehuntington]

Title: Ride With Me (part ten) Fandom: Supernatural AU Characters series: Reader, Dean Winchester, Bobby Singer, Ellen Singer-Harvelle, Jo Singer (Harvelle), Benny Lafitte, Garth Fitzgerald IV, Castiel Novek, and many more. Timeline: 2008 Pairing: Dean x Reader (eventually) Word count: ±6500 words Summary series: Y/N is a talented horse rider who is on her way to become a professional. In order to convince her father that she deserves the loan needed to start her own farm, she goes to Arizona for six months, to intern at a ranch owned by Bobby and Ellen Singer. Her future is set out, but then she meets a handsome horseman, who goes by the name of Dean Winchester. A heartwarming series about a cowboy who falls for the girl, letting go of the past and the importance of family.  Summary part ten: Y/N is about to go on an adventure. Good thing she has her friend Jo to help her pack and her crush Dean to guide the way. Warnings series: NSFW, 18+ only! Fluff, angst, eventually smut. Swearing, smoking, alcohol intoxication, alcohol abuse. Mutual pining, heartbreak. Crying, nightmares, childhood trauma. Description of animal abuse, domestic violence, mentions of addiction. Financial problems, stress, mental breakdown. Description of blood and injury, hospital scenes, character death, grief. Music: The Man With The Harmonica - Ennio Morricone, Hide And Seek - Gareth Dunlop (end scene). Check out ‘Kate Huntington’s Ride With Me playlist’ on Spotify! Author’s note: Thank you @kittenofdoomage and @girl-with-a-fandom-fettishfor helping me. You girls are awesome betas. Thank you for your endless patience!

Ride With Me Masterlist

    “Wait, you’re not planning on bringing all that with you, are ya?”     Y/N’s eyes leave the three pairs of boots from which she still has to choose. Not to decide what two sets to leave behind, but which to wear and which to pack. Jo stands in the doorway of her tiny room, staring at the bed, which is covered in flannels, shirts, tops, several hats, jeans, jackets, sweaters, towels, socks, matching underwear, swimwear, a makeup bag, and a toiletry bag. Even a hair iron and of course her phone charger lay amongst the collection of items that one way or another are going to have to fit into her bag.

    The season is coming to an end now that September has reached its final days. It’s time to move the two-year-old horses down from the summer reservation. Bobby had asked his intern if she wanted to come along and of course she blurted out ‘yes!’ before he could even finish his sentence. She was so excited about the trail ride and started packing immediately. This is going to be quite an experience, especially for a show rider like herself who usually sticks to riding in a fenced arena.     It’s a good thing that she started gathering her things early, because she has been contemplating what to bring for over an hour now. She’s the kind of girl who pays extra for exceeding the luggage weight limit on her flights, so no wonder she’s having it tough choosing what to bring.

    A little helpless she looks over at Jo, who’s waiting on her response.     “I was planning on bringing this, actually,” she returns, hesitatingly.     “Damn… poor horse,” the blonde cowgirl comments, eyeing all her friend’s stuff.     “Too much?” Y/N assumes.     “Just a tad,” Jo scoffs as she walks in. “And what the hell are you bringing the entire electronics store for?”     “It’s just my charger and my hair iron. I will look like birds are nesting on my head if I don’t straighten this out,” she objects, holding out the strands of hair that have escaped her ponytail.     “And you can’t have that with Dean around.” The ranch owner’s daughter crosses her arms in front of her chest, knowingly frowning at her friend.     Y/N tilts her head and glares back, but fails to come up with a decent counter, because she’s not wrong.     “Shut up,” she mutters instead.     “By all means, pack it.” Jo shrugs as she turns back to the door. “But unless you tie a generator behind that horse of yours or find a cactus with a plug, you ain’t charging a damn thing.”     “Wait. What?” Y/N responds, confused.

    Jo sways around, her blonde braid hanging down from one shoulder. She narrows her eyes, trying to understand how her friend could be so oblivious to the fact that there won’t be any electricity where they are going. “What did my old man tell you exactly?”     “That we might have to spend a couple of nights out camping,” Y/N recalls, trying to remember his exact words.     “Have you ever been out camping, city girl?” Jo wonders, her tone indicating that she has figured it out.     Now Y/N crosses her arms defensively. Just because she comes from a wealthy family, doesn’t mean that she has never been on a trip back to basics.     “I have, as a matter of fact,” she returns confident.     “Let me define ‘camping’,” Jo kicks off. “I’m talking ‘bout the sleeping-in-a-tent, no-shower-for-days, cooking-your-own-food-above-a-fire kind of camping. Not the kind where you park the luxurious double axle camper nice and close to the restaurant and the power station and get that satellite working as soon as possible so y’all can watch Netflix.”

    Y/N opens her mouth to claim that she is not that kind of person, but has to admit her loss. She’s right, down to the double axle camper and the satellite TV.     “So, no electricity? No shower?” she asks, intimidated by the matter, a trace of panic in her voice.     “Nope,” Jo confirms, amused. “Better start prioritizing. Let me get my saddlebags, you can use those. Everything that doesn’t fit in there except for your sleeping bag, is not comin' along for the ride.”     “Alright,” Y/N agrees reluctantly, nonetheless grateful for the help. “But how are you going to pack if I have your saddlebags?”     “Simple: I’m not. I’m staying home,” the ranch owner’s daughter says.     Astonished, the intern looks at her. Wait, her friend isn’t coming on this trail? The thought actually scares Y/N a little, because Jo has been there to guide her since she picked her up from the airport over a month ago.     “Are you kidding me? Why?”     “Someone has to run this joint while y’all are having fun. Usually, the stable crew guards the castle, but with Ash gone…”

    Y/N drops her head, her mind going out to the former cattle worker. Ash left a week ago. Bobby gave him two weeks' notice but said he was free to go anytime. The loyal employee showed character and stayed as long as Bobby could afford to keep him. But after those fourteen days, Ash had no choice but to leave. Everyone was sad to see the quirky fellow go. The exchange of hugs between him and every member of his working family was moving to witness.     “Dad offered to stay behind by himself, but he’s getting too old to work that hard,” Jo explains. “Garth and I will make sure everything runs smoothly here.”     “What about me? How am I supposed to function without my conscience?” Y/N pouts.     “You’ll be fine. You got Dean to hold your hand the entire way,” Jo mocks.     The worried cowgirl chuckles. “That’s the whole problem now, isn’t it?”     Jo gets up and intends to leave the room to get the saddlebags. She halts in the doorway, though, offering good advice. “Just remember: don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.”     “He’s your cousin. Of course you’re not going to sleep with him,” Y/N returns smartly, pulling a laugh from the blonde cowgirl.     “See my point?” she returns, winking back before she leaves the room.

    Thirty minutes later, Y/N is packed and ready, but sacrifices had to be made. Obviously, the hair iron and phone charger didn’t make the final cut, but neither did her shampoo, conditioner, and moisturizer, since she won’t be able to shower anyway. Her makeup didn’t fit into the bags either. It hurts to leave it all behind and she already feels insecure about spending days with the others wearing a blank canvas of a face. Sure she isn’t as fresh at the end of a working day as she was at the start of it, but so far she has been able to keep her hair and makeup in check. Now she won’t even have a mirror to judge how tired and ordinary she looks without a brow pencil and mascara.     “You’re all set.” Jo, who is on her knees on the wooden floor fighting with the saddlebag, secures the last strap, shifts her weight back on her heels and places her hands on her narrow waistline.     “I owe you one. I would have never managed alone,” Y/N says, appreciating her friend’s help.     “You know you can count on me.” She shrugs it off after getting up. “I’ll lend you my raincoat and my gloves too. Never sure if you’re gonna need ’em, but if the monsoon decides to throw a curveball at ya, you’ll be thanking me.”     She pops out of the room again, as excited for the intern as Y/N is herself. Jo’s bubbly personality has her smiling even after she leaves. It’s funny how it feels like they have known each other for years and yet it was only a month ago that she got into the pickup truck at the airport. One month ago, this challenge started. Her dad tries to hide the surprise in his voice every time she phones him to tell him how much she is enjoying her time here. He probably expected a plea for money. That, or a one-way ticket back to luxury and easy work.

    Y/N looks at one of the pictures that she nailed to the wooden wall. It portrays her family; Mom, Dad, and her three brothers surrounding Y/N at her graduation ceremony. Sure, she misses them, but she is starting to become a part of this ranch family too. That’s how it feels anyway: accepted, wanted… even loved. Her eyes hover over the picture frames and other decorations that she used to spice up her room a little. Many of the photos show Meadow, some snapped during shows, others at home in the fields. Won belt buckles and ribbons are trophies of their success together, each memory a highlight of her partnership with the special Quarter mare. Y/N remembers when she won every single one of them.

    “You’re not getting homesick, are ya?”     She startles, jolted awake from her daydream, and turns her head to face her handsome supervisor. Dean leans against the doorpost, and judging by the amused expression, he has been standing there for longer than a second. Dear Lord, she got so caught in recalling past victories and happy memories, that she didn’t hear him walk up to her room. The sight of him has her lost for air, even after recovering from the scare. He stands on one leg, the other bent and crossing his back foot, resting on the nose of his boot. Fringe from his worn chaps fall down over his jeans, a dark brown Stetson to match it. Dressed in a red plaid buttoned shirt and a denim jacket over it, he looks even better than he did this morning. The handsome models in the old Marlboro commercials have nothing on him.     “Don’t worry. I’m not going back anytime soon,” she responds before Dean can call her out on staring. “Besides, this is beginning to feel a lot like home, too.”     The wrangler glances at the wall next to the bunk bed and lets his eyes roam over the photos, ribbons and buckles. He smiles at a goofy picture of her and her three older brothers.     “I like what you’ve done with the place,” he compliments.     Y/N smiles at that. “Well, I am going to be staying here for a while. Might as well make it cozy.”

    He grins, his green eyes catching the rays of sunlight coming through the window. Specks of gold stand out amongst the apple green, his pupils adjusting as they flick over the captured moments. They stop when he notices a photo taken during a prize-giving ceremony. He recognizes Meadow instantly, her trademark white face is hard to miss. She stands proudly with a white and blue sash hanging from her neck, event sponsors standing next to the horse, presenting the prizes won while smiling at the camera. But the person who smiles the brightest is Y/N, who sits squarely in the saddle with a wide grin on her face and sparkles in her eyes.     “You won the State Championships,” he says impressed, reading the footnote. “That’s pretty damn impressive.”     Y/N lights up but stays humble. “Meadow was on fire. It was the ride of my life.”     “I bet it was.” Dean watches her for a second, admiring, while she reminisces over the highlight of her riding career. Then he glances at his watch briefly. “We leave at ten. You’re all packed?”

    “She is now,” Jo interrupts, holding out a rolled-up sleeping bag and neatly packed raincoat. “Gloves are in the pockets.”     “Thanks, Jo.” Y/N takes them and looks over her shoulder in search of her saddlebags. Dean instantly moves in to pick them up, since she has her hands full anyway.     “I got it,” he states, lifting her luggage over his shoulder.     “Oh, how noble of you!” Jo teases her cousin, not at all impressed with his manors. “What are you gonna do next? Buy a white horse?”     Y/N snorts, but quickly straightens her mouth into a thin line to silence herself and hide the sign of amusement. Luckily, the wrangler is too busy countering her friend, as he follows the two girls into the living room.     “It’s called ‘being nice’. You should try it sometime,” Dean snarls.     Before the ranch owner’s daughter pushes open the front door, she looks over her shoulder. “Would you like to hold the door for her too?” she suggests, a challenging smirk on her face.     “Would you like to shut your piehole?” Dean fires back after rolling his eyes.

    Y/N giggles at the bickering, and opens the door herself by pushing it with her foot. If she didn’t know any better, she would think the two are siblings. Maybe not by blood, but they spent a great deal of their childhood together in the same house, at least that’s what she understood from Jo. Over the years, the youngest Singer figured out that she might not be able to beat her older cousin when it comes down to strength and speed, but verbally she stands her ground just fine. Now is no different, because Dean might have had a comeback ready, Y/N doesn’t fail to notice the color on his cheeks. He carefully glances at her from under his hat, the cowgirl smiling back reassuringly before she descends down the stairs.

    At the tack up area, the Joshua tree stands tall, offering meager shade to the horses and humans underneath its branches. It’s rush hour. Benny and Garth are readying the horses, assisted by the three riders that are coming along for the trail. Dean was against bringing people along on such a long and potentially dangerous ride, but Bobby said the tourists paid good money and were experienced, so eventually, he agreed. Eight horses are tied up to the rails around the yucca tree. Six of them will be ridden, the other two will be the group’s packhorses. Y/N spots Joplin amongst them, the feisty mare that has grown on her over the past weeks.     “She’s yours for the next couple of days.” Dean points her out, heading over to the dark horse with Y/N’s baggage. “Since the two of you get along so well.”

    Delighted, she faces the mare, who pushes her soft nose into the folded raincoat in her arms, sniffing up the aroma. Y/N likes the little dark horse. She is not easy, has different ideas about what the pace should be, and can get very offended when her rider tells her otherwise, but there’s something about her attitude that the intern appreciates. She’s fast, tireless from the second her rider puts a foot in the stirrup, to the second he or she gets off. The Quarter is perfect for a trail like this. It didn’t cross her mind to bring Meadow for the ride. The reining horse, which is used to train on smooth arena footing, would most likely injure herself on the uneven rocky slopes and narrow paths. The hours under saddle would be much longer than regular training too, and Y/N does not want to confront her four-legged best friend with a task that she isn’t up for.     Dean swings the saddlebags over Joplin’s back and straps them to the saddle. He mounts the sleeping bag and Jo’s raincoat that he takes from the intern on top, his fingers briefly brushing against hers in the transfer. The tingling sensation lingers on the surface of her skin where he touched her, causing her to be the one who is flustered now. The wrangler carefully glances over as he secures the baggage. She feels caught, but his expression is soft and comforting; he felt it too.

    “Okay, y’all! We’re goin’ in five!” Benny shouts loud enough for everyone on the square to hear with his Southern accent thick on his tongue. “If you have to use the john or forgot to pack clean undies, now would be your last chance to do so.”

    Last preparations are made by the crew. Benny secures his lasso to the horn of the saddle with a leather rope strap, while Dean consults his uncle one more time before departure, the two of them looking at a map of the Superstition Mountains. Then Dean folds the map and shoves it into the inside pocket of his jacket, after which he walks over to Ted Nugent, the big brown gelding that he will be riding for the upcoming days, since his favorite buckskin is out with a tendon injury ever since that rainy morning when the cattle broke out.  Ellen walks up to her nephew and hands him a paper bag which, without a doubt, contains something delicious.     “Made you some pecan tassies for on the road,” she says. “Wouldn’t want you to miss my baking too much.”    “Thanks, Ellen.” Dean gives her a grateful nod and puts the tassies in his saddlebag.     “Be careful out there, alright?” she presses, clearly worried about the quest that lies ahead for the wranglers. “Bring them back home safely.”     “I’ll take care of the bunch. I promise,” he assures comfortingly, gently pulling her into his chest after which he gives his aunt a kiss on her hair.

    Ellen and Dean aren’t the only ones who exchange a few last words before the group leaves.     “Okay, grasshopper. This is it,” Jo’s voice sounds from behind Y/N.     She spins on her heels in between the horses to meet the ranch owner’s daughter, who folds her arms around Y/N and hugs her tight. Happily, she returns the embrace before Jo pulls back and holds her by the shoulders.     “Stay away from chollas if you don’t want Joplin to turn into a two-year-old who never had a saddle on her back before. And if the horses get nervous and you hear a rattle, get the hell out of Dodge, because there’s a rattlesnake within a few feet from you. Check your–-”     Y/N cuts Jo off, because she has heard this before from either her or Ellen.     “I know, I know. Check my boots for spiders and scorpions before I put them on and keep the tent closed,” she fills in.     “Not just to keep out insects and reptiles, but horny cowboys as well,” Jo adds.     Y/N snorts. “I’ll handle him. I will miss you, though.”     ���I’ll miss you, too, sis,” her friend returns, smiling.

    They say goodbye while Dean unties his gelding and gets on swiftly, overlooking the group from the higher point of view.     “Y’all ready?” he asks the company of six.     When the riders cheer, he takes the reins with one hand and pulls it gently towards him, an aid for Ted to backup and move away from the other horses. The excitement rises noticeably, comparable to what one would feel when on an aircraft just before take-off and on its way to a new destination. Some of the animals start to get restless in the thrill, Joplin included. Y/N doesn’t waste any time and pulls the safety knot in order to free the mare, then puts her left foot in the stirrup and pushes herself off the ground with her right, swinging it over the back of the black horse.     “Good luck, y’all,” Bobby wishes the six men and women.     “See you in a couple of days!” Jo calls out.

    Y/N waves at the people staying behind, a bright smile spreading from ear to ear. Looking forward to the adventure that will come next, she straightens herself in the saddle and faces the vast landscape. She might be twenty-four, but she feels more like a seven-year-old going on a field trip. In front of the rider, a pair of alert ears belonging to Joplin point forward. Beyond that view, the promontory of the Superstition Mountains stretches out. The sun has risen from behind the ridges in the East hours ago, already warming up the valley with its strong rays.

    Dean watches the young woman, consumed by a different kind of scenery as his horse follows the path. In the past few weeks, she has grown more comfortable in her role as a wrangler and a ranch hand. The daily routine is starting to become her second nature and the people she works with are her friends now. He wouldn’t have guessed it at first - and he’s quite sure she herself wouldn’t have guessed it either - but she fits in perfectly. The rich girl from upstate with a master’s degree under her belt feels at home surrounded by a bunch of country folks in the dry desert lands of the south west. Who would have thought that? Dean smiles, content; something tells him that this trip will help her blossom even more.

    She could almost hear a harmonica play the theme from Once Upon A Time In The West, and she’s still waiting for tumbleweed to roll across the path. Cacti reach for the sun, their arms outstretching upward, like the giants are growing actual limbs. It’s a nice variation to the evergreens that she is used to, back in Maine. The rain that came down two weeks ago has laid a blanket of green over the dry lands; it’s amazing how nature can change in a matter of days. Jo warned her about the sun, and with good reason. Over the last month, the intern slowly but surely got used to the extreme weather circumstances that Arizona offers, but she has never been on a horse during the hottest hours of the day. It might already be late September, but the heat is blistering. She could use a shower right about now, and just the thought of not being able to take one for the next couple of days grosses her out. The temperatures weigh on the female rider, more than she thought it would, but her partner Joplin doesn’t seem to mind much. Her neck and shoulders are sweaty, but she still dribbles impatiently every now and then, eager to cover more ground.

    Dean leads the group, guiding them from spring to spring. The group left the Hieroglyphic Trail about three hours ago, which ended at a small creek and a poor excuse for a waterfall. They took a break there and had a few of Ellen’s delicious pecan tassies while the horses drank. Now, they are well on their way to Willow Spring, but the trail isn’t getting any easier. As they conquer the steep slopes, the pace slows down. Y/N is amazed at how the horses are able to maneuver on the rough terrain, which consists of loose pebbles, slippery boulders, and cracked volcanic rock. One misstep could severely injure the large animals, but they seem to be aware of that. Joplin proceeds agile and fearless, almost like a bobcat, and her rider learns quickly to let her take care of the drops and jumps. She doesn’t need guidance, the mare knows the way. All Y/N has to do is sit tight and move along with her to maintain the balance.

    “How y’all doing back there?” Dean is looking over his shoulder, his free hand resting on the cantle of the saddle.     “We’re good!” one of the tourists assures.     His name is Brad, the young guy riding next to his sister Macy and their buddy Jonathan. The head wrangler chatted a little bit with the three members of the group and they turn out to be good company. The trio is traveling across the country, enjoying a gap year from college. With Brad and Macy’s father being a rancher in Colorado, they know their way around horses. Jonathan is a little less experienced in the saddle, but he’s managing just fine. No doubt about it, though, that he’s going to be left with a serious muscle ache in the coming days.         The leader of the pack shifts his eyes from them to his intern, asking her the same question silently. She nods, smiling reassuringly at her handsome supervisor, telling him in the same language that she’s doing fine. Content, Dean smiles back and winks at her before he straightens himself.     It’s a good thing he’s not facing her anymore, because Y/N is sure that about a hundred butterflies hatched from their cocoons in her stomach, the feeling triggering her to take a shuddering breath. She huffs, annoyed with the response he triggered. Just look at him. He’s infuriatinglygorgeous, looking way too good on his horse, in those darn chaps, wearing that darn western hat. A part of her wants to dislike him, just for being so distracting. But she can’t be mad at him, not really. Just a glance her way with that grin and she’s a complete goner. Y/N watches as the cowboy catches up with Benny, slowing his horse down when they are side by side.

    “Tell me, Chief, how are things between you and the intern goin’?” the Southerner wonders, making sure the woman in question is unable to pick up on the conversation.     Dean looks aside at his best friend, amused by his curiosity. “It’s not going anywhere, really. Things are good as they are,” he claims.     “Oh, c’mon, now. Did she turn you down again?” Benny guesses.     Dean eyes him. “She didn’t turn me down. I just didn’t make my move.”     The wrangler next to him seems to need a second to process the information. Dean Winchester didn’t make a move on a girl he likes in 0.2 seconds? That’s a new one. “Wait a minute. So you two haven’t even…?”     “We’re just friends, Benny,” Dean claims, aware how terribly unconvincing it sounds the moment he pronounces the words.     “Horse shit. You didn’t pass up Casey to be ‘just friends’ with the gal. You called dibs,” he reminds the head wrangler. “Besides, I see the way you look at her. You don’t look at a pal like that.”

    Dean shakes his head, remembering the arrangement well. It’s not like he can deny he made that deal with the farrier, despite that it felt wrong to do so. But back then when he claimed her in order to keep his notorious friend away, he was still clueless about the affection he felt for her. The affection that steadily grew stronger to the point where he cares more about what’s best for the free young woman than what he wants for himself.     “So what, Benny?” He shrugs, hoping his friend would let it go.     “So what? I know it’s a little dusty here in the desert, but did you get sand in your eyes?” Benny returns, perplexed.     “Look, I know she’s awesome, and yes, I wouldn’t mind hooking up with her, but I can’t, okay?” Dean claims.     Unable to understand the math behind his choice, the broad-shouldered ranch hand throws him a look that somewhere between dirty and confused. “Why not?”     “Well for starters, Bobby will kill me if he finds out, since he took me aside to specifically forbid me to pull anything. Secondly, she’ll only stay for six months--”     Benny interrupts him, however. “Invalid, Chief. Bobby told you before to quit bouncing around with clients and staff and it never stopped you then. And since when is six months too short for you? You usually get bored with your lady friends after a--”     The cowboy from the South stops mid-sentence and Dean can almost hear it click in his mind. Oh, boy. Benny has figured it out. Even though he tried to make up excuses in order to avoid being confronted by his best bud, there’s no way of dodging that bullet now.     “Well, fuck a goat and call her Nancy! You’re in love with her,” Benny announces, shocked.     Dean raises his eyebrows at the rider next to him, then scoffs and looks away, trying to act like the very idea is ridiculous. “That’s - that’s just… Y-you’re insane,” he stutters, unable to flat out deny it.     Benny starts to laugh out loud, apparently very much amused with his discovery. “I can’t believe you walked straight into that love trap!”     “Would you keep your voice down?” the rider next to him hushes.     The farrier looks over the back of his horse at the intern, but she’s about thirty yards behind them talking to Macy, clueless what the two wranglers leading the group are discussing.     Dean stays quiet for a few long seconds, trying to decide if he is ready to admit that she means so much to him. “She’s a nice girl, Benny. I don’t wanna hurt her,” he claims.     “Oh, c’mon now! You’re seriously telling me you grew a conscience all of a sudden? You used to love ‘em and leave ‘em without a second thought.” Benny has crossed his wrists over the horn of his saddle, the reins loosely between his fingers, as he looks aside to catch anything that would indicate what’s going on in his best mate’s head. It’s clear that he’s astonished by the shift in his demeanor.     “I’m gonna ignore the urge to ask you who you are and where my friend is,” the Southerner chuckles. “But is it really just her heart you’re scared to break?”     Dean ponders, trying to make sense of the odds and ends that scatter his thoughts. Benny is not entirely wrong. It terrifies the wrangler to give in to these emotions. Is that maybe the true reason why he didn’t kiss Y/N that night under the Joshua tree? Or when she came looking for him after he had that argument with Ash? Maybe it’s a bit of both.     “How long have we known each other? Fourteen, fifteen years now?” Dean recalls.     “Give or take,” Benny confirms, looking down at the trail as he moves his hand over the mane of his horse in order to steer it a little wider around a boulder.     “Do I seem like the kinda guy who does that? Fall for a girl? I liked the way things were, no attachments and all that,” the head wrangler continues, confused.     “That’s the thing about falling in love, Chief. It happens to the best of us and always at a time when you least expect it. It hits you like lightning and you’re toast before you even got a clue why you’re feelin’ so crispy,” Benny says wisely.

    The head wrangler glances at his companion sideways, reading into his words. It almost sounds like the Southerner knows what he’s talking about.     “You’ve been there,” he realizes.     “Oh, I’ve been there. I’ve been beyond falling in love, I loved her with my whole damn heart,” Benny acknowledges, smiling at the memory. “Her name was Andrea. We were both eighteen. She spent the summer with relatives in Louisiana and I was a lost cause from the moment I laid eyes on her. A Greek Goddess, and I ain’t exaggeratin’. She was pretty as a peach! Kind, funny as hell, too.”     “Since she’s ain’t here, I reckon it didn’t end well?” Dean assumes again.     “It didn’t; she went back to Greece and I moved here because everything reminded me of her at home,” his friend tells him.     “You know you just proved my point, right?” the head wrangler says, a hint of triumph in his voice trying to mask the sadness in his eyes. “If love always comes to bite you in the ass, why even bother?”     “‘Cause the heartache ain’t the clue, brother. What I had with Andrea was so good, so pure, I wouldn’t have missed it for the world. Even if I knew what I know now, how it would end, I would take that plunge again without a doubt in my mind.”     Dean huffs, unable to believe that. “Despite that she left you?”     “Fuck, yeah,” Benny states. “Better to love and to lose, than to not have loved at all.”

    Dean is quiet now. The path narrows and he holds Ted back a little, merging behind Benny’s horse. As he lets his friend’s words sink in, he glances down the slope at the intern again. She’s several yards down the steep hill, focused on Joplin as she rides her up the trail. Her braided hair already has strands peeking out from under her hat, and he is sure if she had a mirror she would fix the mess, but he loves it. He loves it when the wind rustles her locks, or when the desert dust smudges her skin. Once again that feeling overcomes him, the feeling of a lantern being lit in the pit of his stomach, warming his body as it slowly rises through his core to his chest, where the heat lingers. It feels so good, but there’s a catch to the sensation. It comes with the emotion that creeps up on him when he lays awake at night thinking about Y/N; fear. The fear of her leaving him after her internship. The fear of her reaction if he would let her witness the scar tissue that lays thick on his soul. The fear that this love will consume him, just like the love for Mom consumed his father. The fear of failing her. But now that the true meaning of Benny’s message dawns on him, another kind surfaces. It’s a thought that he hasn’t had before, and as it pops into his head, the question reverberates louder through his mind than all the others. What if he misses his chance? What if there are only so many opportunities to win her over?

    He straightens himself before she looks ahead and spots him staring, and he closes his eyes and tips his hat forward. Shit, you’ve been so worried about losing her that you forgot that in order to lose her, you have to have her first, he thinks to himself. A sigh slips from his dry mouth, reminding him how thirsty he is. He reaches for his water bottle from his saddlebag, pulls out the cap with his teeth and gulps down the water, knocking his head back as he takes a few swigs. Nope, he’s not dehydrated. In fact, he’s still having these contradicting thoughts. When he slips the bottle back where he took it from, his eyes wander down the path again, this time looking straight into hers. As he tries to decide on his next move, he holds her gaze as she smiles up at him. Dean wasted two shots already; what if it’s three strikes, you’re out? If he fucks this up, at least he tried, but if he won’t give this a try at all, he’ll beat himself up over it for the rest of his life. Either way, failure seems to be inevitable.

    Then he remembers something. Something that he was taught at a very young age. He had just turned four when he took a fall off the neighbor’s Shetland pony. It was the first time he had rode alone without his mom holding the miniature horse and the naughty pony took advantage of that situation. The Shetland picked up speed and bucked once, sending him straight into the dirt. After making sure that her son was okay, he recalls his mom picking him up.     “You wanna give it another go?” she asked.     “No…” he said.     “So that’s it? You never wanna ride again?” she questioned again, her voice gentle.     Now he was quiet, not sure how to answer that. “I don’t wanna fall off,” he mumbled eventually, looking down at the ground.     “Falling is a part of riding, sweety. It’s a part of life. It’s okay to fall,” she told him.     “But it hurts,” he said, rubbing his scraped elbow. “And it’s scary.”     “Yeah, sometimes falling can be very scary,” Mom acknowledged. “But you won’t get any better if you stop trying. You have to face what you’re scared of, to grow. You know what they say about falling?”     He shook his little head, waiting for the elaboration patiently.     “You have to fall off seven times before you'll become a good rider,” she says.     “Seven?!” he repeats, eyes wide.     “Seven,” Mom pointed out. “But you know how he becomes a great horseman?”     Dean shook his head again and listened eagerly. All that he wanted was to become a horseman, so this was the time to pay attention.     “A good rider becomes a great horseman when he falls seven times and gets up eight.”

    The wise words always stuck with Dean as he grew older. He remembers when he was twelve and got back to his feet after his seventh crash landing, this time from a young bronc. He was a horseman now, because he got up beaming, and brushed the dirt from his jeans. Every time when life beat him down, he did the same. Sadly, Mom wasn’t there to see her son become a horseman. She was long gone by the time he reached that age, but her life lessons will never be forgotten. Life is filled with setbacks. No one walks this journey without encountering them. For some that one setback is enough reason to give up and never become good at anything, for others, it’s a way to push through. And yes, getting up and trying again is not easy. But Mom taught him to look fear in the eye and get back in the saddle anyway, because quitting will definitely not get him anywhere. Whenever he hit the ground, literally or metaphorically, he would think of that memory. Now is no different. Mom was right; he has to face what scares him in order to grow.

    Dean slows down his horse, pulling the bit just enough to stop Ted, giving the horse behind him a chance to catch up. When Joplin comes alongside, he glances at the rider from under his Stetson.     “Hello, Cowboy,” she greets, a small but delighted smile on her lips.     Dean chuckles at that, his eyes not leaving hers.     “Hey, beautiful,” he returns.     The compliment brightens her eyes even more and heats up her cheeks. The trail barely allows the two of them to ride side by side, their stirrups touching occasionally. He aches for her knee to brush his like he would crave rain after a long desert ride. When the denim of her jeans does rub against him, it leaves him electrified. And then he realizes that Benny is right, too. It is better to love and to lose, than to not have loved at all.

Thank you for reading! I appreciate every single one of you, but if you do want to give me some extra love, you are free to reblog my work or buy me coffee (Link in bio at the top of the page)

Read part eleven here

[dancingwithdylan21]

Single

Summary: Stiles tries to plan a camping trip for his son and the reader doesn’t make it easy for him.

Pairing: Daddy!Stiles x Reader

Prompt: “Hot, gorgeous, beautiful…whatever you want to call it.”

~

Stiles never planned on braving this world as a single dad, hell he never planned on being single again. He married the love of his life nine years ago, only to discover that she was an adversary in disguise.

Once Stiles’ home life became unstable, he knew it was inevitably heading down a rocky road. Leaving was a tough decision because of his son Drew but it turned out being the best thing for everyone.

So that’s how Stiles ended up here, here being a charming ranch styled house in the middle of a California suburb. Not a day goes by where he’s not thankful for having the strength to rebuild his life.

Although it definitely helps that Stiles’ supportive parents and best friend Scott live close by. It helps that he grew up playing on the same dirt that his son is now. And it helps that his sporting goods store became wildly successful, allowing him to do what he loves.

“Alright, Drew. This is your last hurrah before school starts so make it count.” Stiles plops down at the kitchen table with a pen and pad in hand.

Stiles promised to take his son along with some friends on a camping trip, so he needs to nail down the details. Two full days of roughing it with a bunch of eight year old boys. Should be a piece of cake, right? Lord help him.

“What do you want to know, dude?” His mini me sasses with a mouth full of grilled cheese.

Drew’s personality entertains his father but it also scares the shit out of him a little bit. The similarities between them are endless and Stiles knows to expect a pain in the ass troublemaker in the years to come.

“Not including you, me and Uncle Scott…there’s five people on the list. Is this everyone that’s going?” Stiles slides it over and immediately he’s met with scowl.

“Mikey can’t go which stinks because he really wants to. I want him to go too.”

“Mikey’s the new kid that lives a street over right?” Drew nods his head.

“What did he say?”

“That his aunt said no.” Drew says delivering a familiar Stilinski pout.

“His aunt? He lives with her?”

“Yup.”

“How come she said no?”

“She’s really old.” Drew shrugs finishing off his glass of milk.

“I see. Sorry, buddy.” Stiles chuckles focusing on his list again.

“Can you talk to her?”

“No way.”

“Pleaseeeee.” Drew begs with big puppy dog eyes that resemble his father’s.

“Son of a bitch.” Stiles huffs under his breath, he glances at the clock hoping to use the time as an excuse but he can’t. It’s only 3pm. Fuck.

“You owe me, kid!” Stiles jumps up from his seat deciding to get this unpleasant task over as soon as possible.

Turning the radio up in Roscoe, Stiles backs out of his driveway and heads over to Mikey’s house. He’s always tried to be a hands on parent but this shit isn’t his cup of tea. He rather not get involved with this kind of stuff if it’s not necessary. According to the sad look on Drew’s face today, apparently it’s necessary.

Stiles knocks a few times on the blue painted door in front of him, he takes a deep breath hoping that Mikey’s aunt doesn’t have a hearing problem. Really old people give him the creeps so he wants to bolt out of here as soon as possible.

The front door swings open to reveal a delicious looking woman around his age and she’s now staring back at Stiles. Shit. Does he have the wrong house? Or maybe it’s the right house depending on how he looks at it.

“Oh hi…I’m looking for Mikey’s aunt. Is she home?”

“What did he do?” You automatically answer with a tired sigh.

“Huh? Nothing. I’m Drew’s dad. Mikey and Drew have been hanging out ever since he moved here.”

“I see.” You give the handsome man a quick once over and you notice he’s doing the same to you. You’re not sure where this is headed but you have a fresh pizza waiting for you inside and you’re starving.

“I can come back if she’s not here.” Stiles adds awkwardly, reminding him of being back in high school. What the hell? Nowadays, he’s usually in his element when he’s around a girl like you.

“You’re looking at her. I’m Y/N.” You reply watching his face twist in confusion.

“You’re…really?” Stiles asks skeptically.

“Yes. Why would I lie about that?” You see his mouth open and then close, he looks unsure on how to proceed from here. Wonderful. This is going nowhere fast.

“Drew told me that you were really old. So I was expecting someone totally different. Like a great aunt or something.” He finally answers sheepishly.

“I guess 30 is pretty old.” You cast your eyes down, fixating on your bare feet. Hm you really need to get a pedicure.

“I’m 34 so how do you think I feel?” Stiles gripes making your head snap up.

“Ancient.” You smirk pointing out some gray hairs on his head.

“You’re hilarious.” Stiles deadpans but you can tell he’s actually amused with your teasing.

“I know. So what’s up?” You wonder leaning against the door jam as you cross your arms.

“I’m taking Drew and a few other kids on a camping trip next weekend and I heard you told Mikey that he can’t go.”

“That’s correct.” You answer right away offering no reason why.

“Well I know the boys have become friends since you guys moved into the neighborhood. And they both really want to go on the trip…I can change the date if that’s the problem.”

“Has Drew ever been to your house?” You retort, surely catching Stiles off guard judging by his expression.

“Uh I don’t think so. He always comes over here now that I think about it.”

“Exactly. I don’t know you and there’s no way in hell I’m letting my nephew go off with a random stranger. Into the woods no less.” You explain firmly.

“Well first off…I’m awesome, Y/N. And second you could always come with…”

“Do I look like a camper to you?” You interrupt with wide eyes.

“Am I supposed to assume that you’re not? Just because you’re really attractive?”

“Attractive?” You dryly question making him raise his eyebrows. That’s not the type of response he’s used to getting.

“Hot, gorgeous, beautiful…whatever you want to call it.” Stiles starts to feel slightly embarrassed under your gaze. It does’t help that you barely batted an eyelash at his remarks.

"Um.” You give Stiles a tight lipped smile, racking your brain on what to say next. You notice his whole demeanor has shifted and you strongly suspect that it’s your fault. You’ve never been one to accept compliments that well especially from men.

“Ya know what…no worries. Maybe Mikey can come another time.” He says politely, already walking backwards away from you.

“I’ve only been Mikey’s guardian for about six months now. I don’t know what the hell I’m doing.” You admit out of nowhere. Your words make Stiles freeze and you instantly wish you kept your mouth shut.

“I don’t either. Trust me. I’ve just had my kid longer.” He smiles warmly.

“ I can see where you’re coming from, Y/N. I guess I’m just used to everyone knowing each other around here.” Stiles studies your reaction wondering if he should offer an idea that comes to mind. And he decides why the hell not.

“Listen…I don’t blame you for being weary about this kinda thing. It’s better to be safe than sorry especially in today’s day and age. But I think you’d change your mind if you got to know me…” Stiles trails off.

“Well I…”

“How about you and Mikey come over for dinner? Tonight?” He cuts you off praying it doesn’t make things more uncomfortable.

“Hamburgers and hot dogs? And I’ll have my best friend Scott come too. He’s going on the camping trip as well to help me with the kids.” Stiles sees you hesitate but surprisingly you agree to his suggestion.

“I can…”

“How about 7pm? Sound good? Sweet! I’ll see you there.” Stiles rambles not letting you get a word in before adorably tripping over himself as he tries to walk away. He wants to leave before you get a chance to change your mind.

“I am so in over my head with this one.” Stiles whispers to himself, he sends you a quick wink then drives off in Roscoe to go buy hamburgers and hot dogs.

~

Masterlist 

[dancingalone21]

Single - Part 1

Summary: Dean tries to plan a camping trip for his son and the reader doesn’t make it easy for him.

Pairing: Daddy!Dean x Reader

Word Count: 1,419

~

Dean never planned on braving this world as a single dad, hell he never planned on being single again. He married the love of his life nine years ago, only to discover that she was an adversary in disguise.

Once Dean's home life became unstable, he knew it was inevitably heading down a rocky road. Leaving was a tough decision because of his son Drew but it turned out being the best thing for everyone.

So that's how Dean ended up here, here being a charming ranch styled house in the middle of a Kansas suburb. Not a day goes by where he's not thankful for having the strength to rebuild his life.

Although it definitely helps that Dean's supportive parents and brother live close by. It helps that he grew up playing on the same dirt that his son is now. And it helps that his sporting goods store became wildly successful, allowing him to do what he loves.

"Alright, Drew. This is your last hurrah before school starts so make it count." Dean plops down at the kitchen table with a pen and pad in hand.

Dean promised to take his son along with some friends on a camping trip, so he needs to nail down the details. Two full days of roughing it with a bunch of eight year old boys. Should be a piece of cake, right? Lord help him.

"What do you want to know, dude?" His mini me sasses with a mouth full of grilled cheese.

Drew's personality entertains his father but it also scares the shit out of him a little bit. The similarities between them are endless and Dean knows to expect a pain in the ass troublemaker in the years to come.

"Not including you, me and Uncle Sam...there's five people on the list. Is this everyone that's going?" Dean slides it over and immediately he’s met with scowl.

"Mikey can't go which stinks because he really wants to. I want him to go too."

"Mikey's the new kid that lives a street over right?" Drew nods his head.

"What did he say?"

"That his aunt said no." Drew says delivering the famous Winchester pout.

"His aunt? He lives with her?"

"Yup."

"How come she said no?"

"She's really old." Drew shrugs finishing off his glass of milk.

"I see. Sorry, buddy." Dean chuckles focusing on his list again.

"Can you talk to her?"

"No way."

"Pleaseeeee." Drew begs with big puppy dog eyes that resemble his uncle Sam's.

"Son of a bitch." Dean huffs under his breath, he glances at the clock hoping to use the time as an excuse but he can't. It's only 3pm. Fuck.

"You owe me, kid!" Dean jumps up from his seat deciding to get this unpleasant task over as soon as possible.

Turning the radio up in Baby, Dean backs out of his driveway and heads over to Mikey's house. He's always tried to be a hands on parent but this shit isn't his cup of tea. He rather not get involved with this kind of stuff if it's not necessary. According to the sad look on Drew's face today, apparently it's necessary.

Dean knocks a few times on the blue painted door in front of him, he takes a deep breath hoping that Mikey's aunt doesn't have a hearing problem. Really old people give him the creeps so he wants to bolt out of here as soon as possible.

The front door swings open to reveal a delicious looking woman around his age and she’s now staring back at Dean. Shit. Does he have the wrong house? Or maybe it's the right house depending on how he looks at it.

"Oh hi...I'm looking for Mikey's aunt. Is she home?"

"What did he do?" You automatically answer with a tired sigh.

"Huh? Nothing. I'm Drew's dad. Mikey and Drew have been hanging out ever since he moved here."

"I see." You give the handsome man a quick once over and you notice he's doing the same to you. You're not sure where this is headed but you have a fresh pizza waiting for you inside.

"If she's not here I can come back." Dean adds awkwardly, which is something new for him. What the hell? He's usually in his element when he's around a girl like you.

"You're looking at her. I'm Y/N." You reply watching his face twist in confusion.

"You're...really?" Dean asks skeptically.

"Yes. Why would I lie about that?" You see his mouth open and then close, he looks unsure on how to proceed from here. Wonderful. This is going nowhere fast.

"Drew told me that you were really old. So I was expecting someone totally different. Like a great aunt or something." He finally answers sheepishly.

"I guess 30 is pretty old." You cast your eyes down, fixating on your bare feet. Hm you really need to get a pedicure.

"I'm 34 so how do you think I feel?" Dean gripes making your head snap up.

"Ancient." You smirk pointing out some gray hairs on his head.

"You're hilarious." Dean deadpans but you can tell he's actually amused with your teasing.

"I know. So what's up?" You wonder leaning against the door jam as you cross your arms.

"I'm taking Drew and a few other kids on a camping trip next weekend and I heard you told Mikey that he can't go."

"That's correct." You answer right away offering no reason why.

"Well I know the boys have become friends since you guys moved into the neighborhood. And they both really want to go on the trip...I can change the date if that's the problem."

"Has Drew ever been to your house?" You retort, surely catching Dean off guard judging by his expression.

"Uh I don't think so. He always comes over here now that I think about it."

"Exactly. I don't know you and there's no way in hell I'm letting my nephew go off with a random stranger. Into the woods no less." You explain firmly.

"Well first off...I'm awesome, Y/N. And second you could always come with..."

"Do I look like a camper to you?" You interrupt with wide eyes.

"Am I supposed to assume that you're not? Just because you're really attractive?"

"Attractive?" You dryly question making him raise his eyebrows. That's not the type of response he's use to getting.

"Hot, gorgeous, beautiful…whatever you want to call it.” Dean starts to feel slightly embarrassed under your gaze. It does't help that you barely batted an eyelash at his remarks.

"Um." You give Dean a tight lipped smile, racking your brain on what to say next. You notice his whole demeanor has shifted and you strongly suspect that it's your fault. You've never been one to accept compliments that well especially from men.

"Ya know what...no worries. Maybe Mikey can come another time." Dean says politely, already walking backwards away from you.

"I've only been Mikey's guardian for about six months now. I don't know what the hell I'm doing." You admit out of nowhere. Your words make Dean freeze and you instantly wish you kept your mouth shut.

"I don't either. Trust me. I've just had my kid longer." Dean smiles warmly.

" I can see where you're coming from, Y/N. I guess I'm just used to everyone knowing each other around here." Dean studies your reaction wondering if he should offer an idea that comes to mind. And he decides why the hell not.

"Listen...I don't blame you for being weary about this kinda thing. It's better to be safe than sorry especially in today's day and age. But I think you'd change your mind if you got to know me..." Dean trails off.

"Well I..."

"How about you and Mikey come over for dinner? Tonight?" He cuts you off praying it doesn't make things more uncomfortable.

"Hamburgers and hot dogs? And I'll have my brother Sam come too. He's going on the camping trip as well to help me with the kids." Dean sees you hesitate but surprisingly you agree to his suggestion.

“I can...”

"How about 7pm? Sound good? Sweet! I'll see you there." Dean rambles not letting you get a word in before adorably tripping over himself as he tries to walk away. He wants to leave before you get a chance to change your mind.

"I am so in over my head with this one." Dean whispers to himself, he sends you a quick wink then drives off in Baby to go buy hamburgers and hot dogs.

Part 2

~

[josephlrushing]

Luno Air Mattress Enables Car Camping at Its Finest

Are you a camper? Some people are, some people think they could be, and some people are not. I like the idea of camping, but when I think about sleeping unprotected — except for a sheer nylon tent barrier protecting me from wild animals, snakes, bugs, and the elements out in the middle of nowhere — it freaks me out, no joke. Car camping, though? That’s a possibility; with the Luno Air Mattress, it’s now possible, safe, and, most importantly, comfortable.

I’ve never been much of a camper; in fact, the one time I went tent camping was in high school. The family that took me chose a spot not far from the campground’s shower and restroom facilities, so it wasn’t too bad — even if the ground was hard (even with a roll-up sleeping pad), and I was afraid of bears. Plus, it rained, and that wasn’t fun at all.

My husband, on the other hand, grew up camping with his brother and father; he tells me regularly that he would love to take me, and I say, “Yeeeah, that sounds fun, but can we wait until it’s cooler?” In the 12 years that we’ve been together, we’ve never been camping — probably because I purposely don’t bring it up, and he knows me. It’s not that I don’t enjoy being in the great outdoors. I enjoy hiking, driving jeep trails, and seeing sights that many don’t have access to, but again … wild animals, snakes, bugs, and the elements out in the middle of nowhere. I like to have a bed to sleep on and access to a shower and toilet. Kev, on the other hand, has frequently been camping in the past few years. He doesn’t think anything of loading up all of his gear to sleep in a tent at various blacksmith gatherings in different states (even if he has to fly there to do it), and he just loves it. He has a tent, sleeping pad, sleeping bag, all the other gear, a proper gear bag to store it in. He sends me photos on his trips, and while it kind of looks like fun, I still shudder at the thought.

It wasn’t until I heard about the Luno Air Mattress that I thought maybe I could give camping another try. As they say on their site, the perks of car camping include:

Adventure: Your own two feet can get you places, and a bike might take you a few miles further, but a good set of tires are boundless.

Romance: Movie theaters are cheesy. Dinner dates are dull. Car-camping balances intimacy with adventure, comfort, and excitement.

Community: With all the travelers and digital nomads zipping across the country, it’s never been easier to make friends and feel at home on the open roads.

Affordability: Booking hotels, cabins, and Airbnbs take a hard bite into your budget. A few Luno Life essentials are a one-time investment that last a lifetime.

Safety: Nylon tents give you the illusion of safety. In your vehicle, you get the real thing. Weather or wildlife, you can rest easy knowing you’re covered.

Comfort: You can get the outdoor experience without the backaches, bug bites, and grumbling belly.

To get started and to see if the Luno Air Mattress will work in your vehicle, Luno Life’s site has a dropdown menu that includes all of the SUV models their beds will fit. Luno Air Mattresses are available for over 1800 vehicles, so if you have an SUV — even a smaller one like my Jeep Wrangler Unlimited or a Toyota Rav 4 — there’s bound to be a match.

Each Luno Air Mattress is designed for maximum comfort and support; they are made from a tightly woven fabric that has been laminated with a durable PVC coating. The set includes base extenders that go in the passenger footwells to support your head or feet, depending on which way you prefer to lay. Since this is an air mattress, you can make them as firm as you’d like, or you can adjust their firmness by letting a little bit of air out until the bed is softer. The kit comes in a storage bag that includes the Luno Air Mattress, two base extenders, a 12V air pump, and built on the side of the storage bag, there’s a pocket labeled “mattress repair kit,” which includes a repair patch. All Luno Air Mattresses have a one-year warranty.

This is what the back of my Jeep looks like with the rear seats up; there’s not a lot of room.

Included in the storage bag are two base extenders, the Luno Air Mattress, and the DC air pump.

There are some SUVs with features that may cause issues with getting the Luno Air Mattress to fit perfectly. If your SUV has captains chairs in the middle seat section, for instance, that can cause a hole underneath the mattress where there should be a flat surface for support. Back center consoles and high front consoles can also cause issues, as can side-folding seats, large row gaps, or cargo gaps. But let’s say your SUV, like mine, has seats that fold relatively flat when the front seats are scooted all the way forward. Everything should work properly in that case. Luno Life says that their mattresses will comfortably sleep up to two people who are 6’2″ with a combined weight of up to 600 pounds; Kev is 6’1″ and I am 5’11”, and together we are nowhere near that weight limit, so that was a good sign. But I still wasn’t sure that the two of us could comfortably fit, much less sleep in the back of my Jeep. It doesn’t look that wide, even if it is long enough! But we’d soon know for sure.

Kev and I took a recent four day trip to Terlingua, Texas; while there, we decided it would be the perfect opportunity to set up the Luno Air Mattress and try it out. One of the handy features about my Jeep is that I don’t have to remove the rear seat headrests to fold the seats down, they just flip up, but that simply means that the Luno Air Mattress would have to stop at a point before them. Of more significant concern was my high center console that butts into the back seat area just a bit, but we didn’t know if it would be a problem until we actually blew up the air mattress and tried to make it fit.

My Jeep has what should have been a handy DC outlet in the rear area that I thought would be perfect for running the included air pump. This was the first time since I had bought the vehicle brand new that I’d ever even tried to use the port, so it was a bummer to find out that it was dead; I’ll be getting that checked the next time I take it in for service.

We didn’t need the included base extenders as we had no gaps to fill, so Kev laid out the Luno Air Mattress in the back of my Jeep, and we were pleased to see that the fit was nearly perfect; it was even sized to be slightly wider in the rear seat area, which was a bonus.

Kev used the front DV port to charge the air pump, and it worked perfectly; it took just a few minutes for each side to be fully aired up.

You’ll notice that the “head” area of the mattress in this photo is inclined a bit, and Kev was already starting to grumble about how that was going to be a problem.

And it was after I had taken this photo of the 4″ air mattress all made up for sleeping that I realized we just needed to pull the mattress down the extra 5″ or so (that you can also plainly see in this photo) so that the air mattress’s end would be at the edge of the Jeep’s cargo area (sometimes, I just amaze myself). That left only the smallest bump in the middle at the very top of the mattress from my dratted center console. Seriously, the center console is just big enough to rest one person’s arm, and the storage area inside is nothing to brag about anyway; I don’t know why it needs to be so protruding! But I digress.

With the mattress now flat enough for comfortable sleeping, Kev and I crawled in — fully expecting to be squished together. That didn’t happen. Our pillows made the small center console bump disappear; it was quite comfortable!

We had plenty of room to spread out; it felt like our air mattress was just a little bit smaller than a full-size bed. We have the back door of the Jeep open here to enjoy the view of the Christmas Mountains at Terlingua Ranch.

If you are Jeep camping by yourself, you’ll feel absolutely spoiled by all of the room — and there will be plenty of space if you bring along your large dog.

Being able to camp in your car means that you can stop when you want and enjoy everything you see — whether you are on a long highway trip or a camping specific trip. You’ll be protected in your metal vehicle while sleeping, so you won’t have to worry about “psycho trail people” with knives attacking you (one happens to feature prominently in a book I’m currently reading, so my mind immediately went there), wild animals, or any of the other things that can happen when sleeping on the ground inside a flimsy nylon tent. If it is colder outside, you can roll up all your windows and use your blankets to stay warm. If it is warmer, you can crack the windows and let the cross breeze cool you down. Obviously, this won’t work when it’s scorching outside, but you’re not going to catch me camping when it’s that hot anyway. Like many popular camping destinations, in Terlingua, there are places where you can pay a fee to use their showers and restrooms. On the road, there are bathrooms at just about every exit, and many commercial truck stops have segregated showers you can use. This is an inexpensive way to get away from it all or go cross-country without dealing with hotels or multiple coronavirus vectors. 

You might wonder what you’re supposed to do with all the stuff that you have in your car while you are camping inside it and using the storage area as your bed. Well, that’s where roof racks, the front seats, and the front seat footwells can come in handy. My Jeep doesn’t have a roof rack yet, so we use a removable metal cargo carrier that plugs into my Jeep’s trailer hitch (similar to this one); it’s where we keep our coolers and other large things, and it is easy enough to add or remove. Our bags go in the front seats, and there’s extra storage in the front footwells. You just have to look at things a little bit differently, but if you are setting up a traditional campsite, the only difference would be that you’re sleeping in your car versus in a tent, so you could place your coolers on the ground by your hammock or by your vehicle.

I have the first version, and the Luno Air Mattress 2.0 is now available. The differences between the two versions aren’t huge, but they do show Luno Life’s dedication to offering a long-lasting, easy to use product.

Maintaining the Luno Air Mattress is very easy. When you are ready to pack up and go, it quickly deflates and stores in its storage bag; the bag can be kept in the back of your car — ready for your next adventure. If your Luno Air Mattress gets dirty, Luno Life recommends that you never put the air mattress in the washing machine. You can simply clean it off with a hose or in a bathtub — you don’t want to forget to close the valves while washing it because you don’t want to get water inside. For spot cleaning, you can use Formula 409, BioClean All-Purpose Cleaner, or other general household cleaners.

These are some strange times that we are living in, and for whatever reason, you might find yourself wanting (or needing) to sleep in your car at some point. Maybe you need to travel to another state, but you don’t feel comfortable getting on a plane or staying in hotels, or perhaps money is tight, and paying for a place to stay isn’t an option. Maybe fires are raging in your state, and you want to know that you’ll have a place to sleep should you have to evacuate. Or perhaps you’re attending a festival, and you want a safe place to sleep and leave your gear while you enjoy yourself. There’s something comforting about having metal walls around you as you sleep on a comfortable bed, and you can have that with a Luno Life Air Mattress.

The Luno Air Mattress retails for $224.99, and it is available directly from the manufacturer.

Source: Manufacturer supplied review sample

What I Like: Everything you need for a quick set-up is included in a handy storage case with a strap for easy carrying; The Luno Air Mattress is 4″ thick, adjustable, and very comfortable; Bring along your pillows and blankets for a super comfortable night’s sleep; Perfect for anyone who doesn’t feel safe or comfortable sleeping inside a tent — you can lock your vehicle’s doors at night when you are sleeping, which adds a tremendous sense of security; Easy to disassemble and store; Easy cleaning; Patch kit included; Safe for pets

What Needs Improvement: May not work with all vehicles — it just depends on your SUV’s seating and console situation

The post Luno Air Mattress Enables Car Camping at Its Finest first appeared on GearDiary.

from Joseph Rushing https://geardiary.com/2020/09/17/luno-air-mattress-enables-car-camping-at-its-finest/