#the zoos in my state are actually from what i understand VERY high-end and VERY good with their animals

[uncanny-tranny]

Learning to internalize the message above, but art is in all of our bones. If you feel afraid to create art because it won't be "good enough," it's worth it to explore why you feel that fear. Creating art is one of the basic impulses of people, and if you want to create art, then you absolutely must.

[just-dreaming-marvel]

Out Of Time ~ 30

MASTERLIST

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Word Count: 1,550ish

Summary: The Stark Expo begins.

Tony had drunk and partied all night and day before the opening ceremony of the Stark Expo. Y/N, Pepper, and Tony were currently on a jet, flying to the expo. Tony was going to arrive there via Iron Man suit. Y/N nervously bit the inside of her cheek as her and Pepper watched Tony throw up. She was nervous about Tony using the suit. Y/N had called Fury for help a few weeks ago, and sent him the information JARVIS let her see, but hadn’t heard anything back. Fury had told her that he would handle it, and she trusted that. She just didn’t understand why she hadn’t heard anything yet.

Tony and Y/N had been on the rocks as of late. Y/N kept asking what was wrong and Tony kept denying that something was wrong. So he ended up pushing her away. Which was actually hurting the both of them.

“I’m not going to make it,” Tony whispered into the toilet bowl. “Oh my, gosh,” he groaned, throwing up. “I’m not going to make it. Oh gosh!” He threw up again. “I’m serious. Give me a little space.” He waved towards Pepper and Y/N who were leaning against the doorway of the jet bathroom, watching him suffer. “I can’t—“

“Get up,” Pepper commanded, obviously done with his dramatics. 

“Oh, gosh,” he groaned again. “I can’t go through with it, I’m telling you.” Tony slowly sat up, leaning against the wall.

“We don’t have time for this,” Y/N exclaimed. “We have to go.”

“Oh gosh,” Tony closed the toilet lid, “you don’t want to see that.” He flushed the toilet before standing up and using the doorway to hold himself up. “Where am I?” He panted. “Do I look weird?”

“You look like you look everyday,” Pepper said. “You look like you have a hangover.” Y/N and Pepper began guiding him towards the doors.

“Mist me with a Sheen thrower, will you? I literally almost just died in there. Give me some toast, give me some crackers. Ginger ale, anything. Give me some Advil.” Tony made his way to a seat.

“We don’t have Advil,” Y/N said. “We have Motrin.”

“Motrin?” Tony faced Y/N. “I’m telling you there is something seriously wrong—“

“Yes, there is something seriously wrong—“

“—with giving a grown man Motrin!”

“—with you! It’s a brand name!”

“I’m not on my cycle, Y/N!”

“It’s ibuprofen!” Pepper added.

An alarm began beeping and a man started talking over the PA, notifying them that it was time for Tony to jump. Pepper grabbed Tony’s arm and pulled him up.

“Abort mission!” Tony shouted. “There it is!” Tony pointed to an oxygen mask connected to the wall, stumbling towards it as Pepper tried to guide him. “Abort! Tell him to stop saying we’re dropping.”

“We’re not—“ Pepper began as Tony grabbed the mask and continued shouting.

“I am not doing this mission!” Tony stuffed his face into the mask. Y/N simply stood back and rolled her eyes.

“We’re not aborting the mission. Do you have any idea the level of coordination it took for the DOD to approve this?”

“We are over the drop zone, Tony!” Y/N exclaimed, done with the way he was acting.

“What?” He turned around to face her.

“Yes!”

“Let’s do this, baby,” he whispered, huskily, before walking over to the ramp. The two women followed, stopping beside Tony. He quickly turned and grabbed Y/N by the arms. “I know I can be selfish sometimes. And I know I don’t say it enough.” Wow, was Tony Stark actually going to thank her? Apologize? Or at least saw something nice? “But how’s my hair?” Or not.

“You’ve said that before,” Y/N rolled her eyes.

“I know, but this time, I mean it. Is it piece-y enough? Do I need more product?”

“Yeah, you’re looking good,” Pepper said from behind Y/N.

Tony dropped Y/N’s hands and walked to Pepper. “You like the wind-blown look?”

“Yeah.”

“Okay, give me a smooch for good luck. I might not make it back. This is heavy stuff.”

Pepper brought the Iron Man helmet up to her lips, which she had been carrying around the whole time, and made out with it for a few seconds, before throwing it out of the jet.

“Go get ‘em, boss,” she smirked at him.

Tony ran towards the end of the ramp. “You complete me,” he stated as he jumped.

Y/N watched as Tony flew, a little sick to her stomach. She had been working on her fear of heights, but she still was ready to ever have to jump from anything too high again. Pepper watched Y/N carefully, as they went back into the jet and sat down.

“What’s with you two?” Pepper asked. Y/N immediately looked at Pepper, confused. “You guys seemed to be more annoyed with each other than usual. Did something happen?”

“Nothing’s happened. It’s just Tony being Tony and me doing my job.”

“Are you sure? Did you two… I can’t believe I’m going to ask this… Did you two sleep together?”

“No! I’m more professional than that! Plus, he’s been too busy screwing any model that simply breathes in his direction.”

“It’s true. I thought he was getting better, but then… I think this whole Iron Man thing has gotten to his head,” she sighed.

“We’re hovering just off the ground outside the Expo,” a man said over the speaker, as he lowered the jump. 

The women stood up and walked to the edge of the ramp. They both jumped out and made their way towards the dome that the stage was held in. 

“I’ve got to talk to a few people about vendors,” Pepper said once they were in the building. “Happy should be back stage waiting for you.”

“Thanks.”

Pepper gave her a small smile before walking the opposite direction Y/N was headed. When she got back stage, Y/N realized that a video of Howard was playing on the screen. She froze, looking at a video of her long gone friend. He was older in the video, then when she had known him. But he was still handsome.

“Hey,” Happy’s voice broke her out of her trance. “Tony’s ready to go.”

“Okay,” she nodded, following Happy towards the staircase. She noticed Tony was already there.

“How’d I do?” Tony asked her.

“Didn’t get to see it,” she responded. “But I’m sure it was great, Boss.”

“All right, it’s a zoo out there,” Happy stated. Tony threw his jacket at the man. “Watch out.”

Happy and Y/N walked on either side of Tony, as they pushed their way through the crowd of reporters and screaming fans that were lining the back halls. They had to keep both the crowd and Tony in control. Women were throwing themselves at him, kids wanted posters signed, and reporters keep shouting questions. For Y/N, it seemed to take ages for them to get out of that building. Once they reached outside, Y/N took in a breath of fresh air. 

“Very mellow,” Tony stated as they exited the building.

“That wasn’t so bad,” Happy agreed with Tony.

“No, it was perfect.”

“Look what we got here,” Happy unlocked the car waiting for them out front. Y/N noticed a women with an envelope in hand, leaning against the car. “The new model.”

“Hey, does she come with the car?” Y/N rolled her eyes and huffed, causing Tony to glance her way.

“Let’s certainly hope so,” Happy stated.

“Hi,” Tony greeted the woman, holding his hand out.

“Hi,” she responded, shaking his hand.

“And you are?”

“Marshal.” That’s when Y/N caught a glimpse of the envelope and caught on. “Pleased to meet you.”

“Irish,” Tony kept walking around the car. “I like it. I’m on the wheel. You mind?” Happy shook his head while removing the roof. Y/N sighed when she noticed that their were only two seats. “Where you from?”

“Bedford.”

“What are you doing here?”

“Looking for you.”

“Yeah? You found me.” Tony cleared is throat while getting into the car. Happy gave Y/N a small look of apology as he got into the passenger seat. The two men had obviously talked before, and Y/N was allowed to come with. “What are you up to later?”

“Serving subpoenas.” She handed him a letter.

“Yikes.” 

“He doesn’t like to be handed things,” Y/N stated, taking the letter from the woman.

“Yeah, I have a peeve.”

“I got it,” Y/N stated.

“You are hereby ordered to appear before the Senate Armed Services Committee tomorrow morning at 9 am,” Marshal said.

“Can I see a badge?”

“You wanna see the badge?”

“He likes the badge,” Happy said.

“You still like it?” She questioned as she showed him her badge.

“Yep.” Tony started the cars engine. “How far are we from DC?”

“DC?” Y/N repeated. “About 250 miles.” 

The tires squeaked as Tony drove off. Y/N shook her head and sighed. This man was just too much for her sometimes.

next chapter >

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[lovelivingmydreams]

A story by heroes and villains

Virgil Anker: better together

Virgil learns to accept help from others.

“Ugh! I am done!” Virgil glanced up from his assignment to see Roman let himself fall back into his chair with relief. Their first study session had gone rather well. They should probably reserve one of the discussion booths next time. The poor librarian had needed to remind them to be quiet multiple times. They’d just had too much fun. But Virgil could understand Roman’s exhaustion. It was time they wrapped things up. “Give me a sec, I have to finish this thing for English,” he muttered absentmindedly as he focused once more.

“Want me to read it trough for you?”

Virgil looked up in surprise. “You don’t…” he started. He didn’t even know why he was feeling like he’d done something wrong right now. Picani might be able to help him figure it out during their session after Virgil got back from his trip to the zoo with uncle Thomas tomorrow.

“We’re here to help each other Virgil. If I didn’t want to help you I wouldn’t offer. I thrive on being of help to my friends. It’s no trouble.” Right. Roman was like that. For everyone, not just him. It was okay to let him help. Virgil found himself smiling a little sheepishly and nodded. “Alright. You can read it when I’m done,” he allowed quickly turning back to his work.

When he finished his essay he looked up to find Roman in the zone. Which was excellent. It made it easier to sneak up on him. Apparently those with ADHD were extra susceptible to his cloak. Did he have proof for that? Well it was more of a hypothesis, but he had no means to test it. It made sense though.

And Roman had yet to prove him wrong.

Virgil cloaked himself, moved to stand right next to Roman and looked over his shoulder. It looked like he was designing a fashion line. Trans girl dresses, Pansexual messenger bags… as well as formal clothing inspired by broadway and Disney characters it seemed. He dropped his cloak.

“Seems I’m not the only one who can draw up some clothes.” Virgil had to stifle his laughter when that observation nearly made Roman jump 4 feet in the air.

“Will you stop that!?” he hissed.

“Not a chance,” Virgil chuckled as he picked up Roman’s sketches.

“This looks good though… You ever thought of becoming a fashion designer?” he suggested casually, allowing himself to imagine starting a brand with Roman someday.

“You are a genius!” Roman exclaimed, making Virgil’s heart jump.

He played it cool though. He’d gotten good at that over the last two years. Pretending that Roman’s smile didn’t turn his insides upside down. “It’s the least I can do. I sent in the designs like you said… I’m kind of excited.” He was. He hoped to catch a glimpse when he went out tonight.

“I’m sure next time you see DreamPrince on the news he’ll be wearing your design.” It was nice, having someone believe in him like that. Other than his dads that is.

“We’ll see,” he smiled as he handed Roman his laptop.

“Well,” Roman announced after a while. “I think you can hand this in with confidence Virge.”

Virgil felt himself relax at that. Roman wouldn’t say that if he didn’t mean it.

“So… I recall something about pizza? I’m starving!”

Virgil chuckled and lead the hungry Hispanic to the restaurant he’d suggested.

Virgil reminded himself over and over that this wasn’t a date, but it was very hard. Especially when, near the end of their meal Roman suddenly started acting nervous. “So… Um… There’s this… Shoot wait a minute,” Roman got up and picked up his phone.

“Si mama…? Que?” Virgil watched Roman look at his watch and jump.

“Perdona! I’ll be there soon.” With that he hung up and took out his wallet. Rambling all the way.

“So sorry Virge! Time got away from us I’m afraid. I swear I intended to give you that ride… Can you call your dad… You know what? Just use the change to take the bus or a cab or something alright? My treat! I’ll call you later!” he promised as he tossed down a few bills before rushing away. Leaving Virgil behind a little stunned. Maybe it was a family thing? It looked urgent.

He took the bus as it was cheaper and there was a stop in his new street.

The house was nice. Though Virgil wasn’t used to it yet. Especially now, when his dads weren’t home, it felt weird being here. Luckily he didn’t plan on staying too long.

He texted his dad while getting dressed. By the time he left the house, he got a reply.

“Don’t wait up. Patton and Thomas say hi. Thomas wants to remind you of the trip to the zoo tomorrow.” Virgil smiled, he didn’t know uncle Thomas was going to be there too… Maybe these projects were just poker nights with the boys. He might have to ask them about it when they got home.

Regardless, duty called.

Virgil was starting to think that he might need to do take a break from turning in evidence for a bit. The criminals were getting agitated.

“I say we attack now! They are weak! We can take them down easily!” he heard one guy suggest. No, turf wars were a bad idea. Clearly he hadn’t thought about maintaining the power balance enough. Good thing he was about to even the playing field again. All these idiots had to do was get caught on his camera with something very illegal, preferably saying the bosses name or any clue the police could use for some kind of big bust.

The leader of this troupe seemed rather well respected. Virgil had learned to spot the difference between the ranks, and if this guy wasn’t answering to the big guy himself, then he was pretty close.

“Boss says we have a truce until the rat is found,” The big dude in question stated.

A truce? Was he that much of a threat? Should he feel flattered or scared?

The tugs argued back and forth a bit more and Virgil was seriously considering just getting out of here. Maybe he could trip up some lower tier members. Or go back to helping lost travelers for a while. Just enough to make the higher ups relax again. They wouldn’t rebuild their ranks too much if they thought it was an inside job or something. Right?

And if they’d realized someone was giving the cops everything they needed to stop them, they wouldn’t plan anything major for a while. Unless the boss was stupid.

Suddenly Virgil saw a figure descend from the roof. He made a hero landing, straight from a superhero movie.

Virgil’s eyes widened. It couldn’t be…

“Do you gentlemen have permits for those weapons?” Dream Prince asked with a deep, booming voice as he rose up, wearing the full costume Virgil had designed. Including the cape. What was he doing here? Stupid question. He was government sanctioned. The chief was on the news a few days ago claiming him as one of theirs.

Which meant she probably asked him to look for Virgil. Does that woman never give up?

The gang was confused by his appearance. One of them calling the young hero ‘prince clown’. Virgil was too far away to see it, but he was willing to bet the clown in question was not too pleased with that.

With a gesture from the leader the gang was silenced. “Sure kid,” he said in a voice that made Virgil stand on high alert. “Got mine right here.”

Or find the stories of Logan and Roman in the Master post

Before Virgil could react in any meaningful way, Prince had shielded himself with his cape and the leader fired at least four rounds at him. The hero was unharmed though. The sounds of bullets falling to the ground the only evidence that they had ever left the barrel in the first place.

“Well now you just pissed me off. This is brand new!” Prince complained as he dropped the cape. And Virgil had to admit, it looked very cool. “I suppose you won't surrender peacefully?” he deduced.

The sound of guns being armed was his only answer. Which was stupid. That was already shown not to work. But sure, shoot with more guns. Don’t actually use your brain or anything. Prince let out an annoyed sigh as he hung his cape from a water pipe. “Fine.” And just like that, he sped towards the criminals through a rain of bullets.

It seemed like he had it handled, and Virgil was pretty sure that he would notice he was there no matter how well he cloaked himself if he got involved. And if he was here to look for him and bring him in for whatever the chief had planned…

Still, he couldn’t make himself just stand by.

He jumped in and helped disarm the criminals and caught a few punches, Prince seemed unlikely to dodge. Pretty soon he felt like Prince was adapting his fighting to his presence which told him that he was in fact spotted.

Soon the gang was down on the ground and their disassembled guns were on a pile on the floor. Virgil returned to the shadows once the sirens lit up the alley.

Prince donned his cloak once more and walked up to where the leader laid, showing off his boot.

“So… how does it feel to get your butt kicked by a guy in heels?” Virgil’s eyes widened as he saw Prince show off the boot. He was wearing the heeled boots? Sure he pulled them off, but that wasn’t a smart move. He couldn’t have had that much time to practice with them yet. Virgil sent the design on Tuesday. Unless… Maybe he’d worn heels before? That was a possibility. Though crime fighting in heels couldn’t be comfortable… Still, it did make the whole thing extra cool, Virgil had to admit.

Suddenly Dream Prince looked up at him and gave a playful wink. So he had noticed him. And he could see him even though he was cloaked right now… Or not quite. He wasn’t looking directly at him. So he knew he was there, just not where exactly.

“Good job Dream Prince. We've got it from here,” one of the police officers who’d come to make the arrests told Prince. The young hero turned to him and bowed.

“It's my pleasure to be of assistance to the police of this fine city.” While he turned around he made a gesture with his hand. Virgil could tell he was being asked to follow.

Part of him wanted to run the other way. But he was curious.

He wanted to take a good look at the costume. He wanted to scold Prince. He wanted to give him a message for the chief. Maybe find out what she wanted from him.

So he followed him all the way to a rooftop.

The city lights illuminated Prince from the back, his cape floating in the wind.

Virgil wished he could take a picture. Roman would love this.

Prince took a step forward and bowed for him. He was really sticking to this Prince thing huh?

“Greetings Phantom. I must thank you for the assist now and three months ago. I am Dream Prince, he/him if you please. A pleasure to officially meet you.” So he had figured out when they’d met.

Virgil couldn’t help a chuckle. He was still cloaking himself. He’d never talked to someone like this before so he had no clue if and how that affected his voice.

“Phantom huh?” Hmm. He kind of liked it. Sure it confirmed that prince was here due to chief. But it was a cool nickname.

“Sure you can call me that. He/him… mind telling me what that was about? I thought you officials weren't let of your leash unless you could be responsible enough to not get yourself killed?” Did he sound a bit catty? Maybe. Was what Prince did idiotic? Absolutely.

Prince didn’t seem to agree. “Says the guy who has half the criminal underworld out for his blood.”

Virgil looked away. Damn. He’d hoped Prince was going to live up to Virgil’s original nickname for him. But he was no idiot.

“Do you have something against the program?” Prince pressed.

“No I…”  Virgil tried to steady himself. It wasn’t Prince’s fault that he was pissed at his boss. “Sorry I’m just pissed at the cops for sending you, I guess,” he admitted reluctantly.

“Yet you chose to follow me up here?” Okay, so he really should give this guy more credit.

“Um… Well… I just…” He couldn’t tell him he was curious about him. That would give away interest on his part and he was not ready to let anything personal slide. He hated being put on the spot like this. Damn, this was not helping the stoic, mysterious guy aura he was going for.

“You interrupted my stake out!” he recalled. Right, one of the reasons he was mad at Prince. The lecture he’d interrupted with his observations.

“Do you know how long it takes to work my way up the ranks? First I have to find a low level runner, then I follow him to his boss, that guy to his and so up the ladder I go. I was getting real close to the big guy of this group. And now…” Sure, he had been thinking about needing to go more low profile for a while to let the rumors simmer out. But still.

“I apologize,” Prince replied sincerely with another bow. It was hard to be mad with this guy. Perfect hero material. “I merely intended to help. They were talking about killing you.”

He appreciated the concern really. But he overlooked one crucial detail.

“And now there is a price on your head! The leader of that little club is like two steps away from the big boss. They won’t be happy with you taking him in.” He couldn’t let him get himself on the bad guys’ list. Not because he thought he needed to protect him. Or maybe a little. When had he started feeling responsible for Prince? Was this how his dad felt? Why he’d tried to keep him from being overly self-sacrificing as a kid?

“You got dirt on them?” Prince wondered.

Virgil rolled his eyes. “Yes… But that’s not the point. They have no clue about me. Not really,” just some guesses and rumors. “But you are out in the open.” They’d know who to go after with him. “This is not your kind of mission Royal pain. And now that you are out, you can’t expect me to hold your hand any longer…” Virgil got distracted when Prince crossed his arm and smirked smugly. “You’ve been looking out for me all summer huh?”

That smug little… Fine he got him there.

He rolled his eyes with a scoff, trying to dismiss the statement. “It’s not like I came looking for you.�� He just… Did the right thing when they met up.

Prince was the one dreaming if he thought he felt any kind of responsibility towards him. He was just trying to… To be someone he could be proud of. That was why he was doing this. To not feel week and useless. To help people, even if he couldn’t always help those he felt closest to.

“Still… Thank you…” Prince said gently, about to step forward again. But then he cringed and clutched his head. “Ow!”

The young hero sounded more annoyed than in pain.

He pressed a finger to his ear. Communicating with whoever was on the other line no doubt. “One. Loud. Two. Rude! I am in the middle of something! And did you seriously remotely reactivate my com?” Virgil could hear him hiss in the communication device, dropping the regal persona completely. Virgil bit back his amusement.

“I am fine, not a scratch on me,” Prince replied annoyed. “I’ll call you when I’m done here.” And then he seemed to take something out of his ear. He was so lucky Virgil wasn’t a bad guy or he’d just made it a lot easier on him to take him out.

“Sorry,” Prince sighed. “My mentor is… intense at times.”

“Mentor?” Virgil wondered. He’d heard about the GTA program and it’s monitors in the past. But mentors… that sounded a bit more one on one than just people who told you what to do.

“One of the people helping me practice my powers, test my limits. Comes with the program. It’s not just a babysit and a nice suit,” Prince joked.

“Oh…” Virgil didn’t know what to say to that. It was… Something he’d been wanting for a while now. For a way to test all that he could do. To figure out the shield, push the limits of his cloak and try and use his healing for others. Someone to help him strategize, to talk with when he’d had a tough night. But unless he was ready to come clean with his dad, that was out of his reach.

“Listen, I admit I was sent by the chief. But I didn’t come here to recruit you. I wanted to thank you and tell you… If you ever need someone to talk to, to help you figure something out… I’d be more than happy to oblige. No need to tell me your name or anything about yourself.”

Virgil looked at the offered hand. Maybe, it wasn’t impossible after all.

He considered his options. But it seemed like there was no catch to this offer. So he closed the gap and shook his hand.

“I’ll see you next time,” Prince offered kindly before letting go and running straight of the rooftop as if there was a walkway just for him.

Virgil smirked. Maybe he should wrap it up for tonight. Prince and the other heroes had the area covered. He’d collect the information he had on the tugs that were arrested tonight. Next time he saw Dream Prince, he’d hand that information to him.

If things went well… This could be a good partnership.

End of this part. Meet Janus and learn his side

@cirishere​ @hestianerd1 @moonlightshow00 @naturallyunstablegamer @alias290 @meowthefluffy @frida0043 @angelic-cali @selenechris @theblackveilinreverse

[you-are-crazy-beautiful]

S3 thoughts after complete rewatch

Please give me your thoughts and ideas. I’ll be blunt. Season 3 is bad. Really bad. There is absolutely no continuity between s2 and s3. I was joking that even though it’s meant to be set 6 months later, it could really be anytime after. I even would think I was watching an episode in the middle of a season if I was just shown 3x01 with no info. I feel that there is also a complete disregard to the tone of the show, despite Suzanne stating how it’s important to keep that. I do feel that Suzanne talks the talk more than she walks the walk. 

1.       When asked about the multiple POV Suzanne stated ‘those two women as the lynchpin relationship of the show. Their journeys are always at the spine of the story’. ‘all of them (new characters) have a really exciting energy, and really challenge the main characters’. I would argue completely against Eve and Villanelle and their relationship being the focus of this season. There are times and whole episodes when I feel there is almost a disconnect from each other. These two are absolutely, unhealthily addicted to each other. I think the amount of scenes they have together is perfect and almost the usual, but when they aren’t together, you know they are never normally far from each other’s mind. I would especially say I find it strange after V has finally got the kiss she has been waiting for 3 seasons, which would make her devotion go even more through the roof, she only has one Eve related moment (the cake) before phoning Eve after seeing each other at the train station in ep 7. They could have nearly sunk them!

·       Konstantin and Carolyn even overshadowed Eve and had more character development this season. Besides from Dasha, I would also say the new characters hardly gave anything to the plot such as Aubrey, Paul, and Geraldine. It even took me a while to remember these characters names. Paul you could take out of the season and nothing would change except that Carolyn wouldn’t have had another person to shoot in 3x08. I think Geraldine was a good character to have for Carolyn to show how she personally grieves, but why did they keep having the same scenes again and again? What the heck was that thing with Geraldine and Konstantin? I’m still unclear on how Dasha and Villanelle’s relationship came about and what happened. How old was Villanelle? How long was Dasha her mentor for? It seems like they forgot that they had Konstantin saying to V in 3x02 about Dasha doing something to her and the way Villanelle attacked Dasha upon seeing her again, that they just quickly wrote the hospital scene in 3x08. I was so confused what was happening. Did they mean Dasha shot at Villanelle because ‘she wasn’t ready’ as in emotionally or physically? Did Dasha actually manage to shoot her? Didn’t they allude to Konstantin being the one to recruit her from the prison in s1, so how did she not stay with him? How did she escape Dasha? It seemed random that Dasha just happened to die when Konstantin was there, when he said she was going to die in the hospital. I thought he had done something, but apparently not?

2. When asked what she was most excited about the audience seeing, Suzanne said Villanelle and Eve’s journey. This is her quote about Eve. ‘Similarly with Eve, we really get to see deeper layers of Eve, and her really coming to terms with the person she is now. She’s forever changed because of what happened to her and what she’s been through, and it’s really about seeing her now, this new version of herself, and her acceptance of herself, which is very exciting and really takes her into new places’. I really just have to laugh. Where is it? It is absolutely ridiculous how little Eve was developed and ignored this season. When you guys do a rewatch, I highly recommend to at least watch 2x08 before going into s3 because it really just highlights the difference and how nuts it is that they dropped Eve by so much! I really don’t understand how it’s even possible. Coming into the show there are many ways you could go wrong. However, it’s not like it’s an easy thing to cut out the lead of your show! Especially when that character had the most exciting things happen to them in the finale of s2. The things I was most excited about going into s3 was seeing how Eve was coping with knowing she has the ability to kill someone. I can’t believe they did not bring up that Eve had killed someone once in the whole of s3!!! Like @kassies​ stated, it’s like Suzanne just took one line and things she liked and disregarded everything else. Suzanne practically said in the BBC sounds podcast that she had this idea of mummy issues, which personally I don’t think there is any evidence of except the fact V is attracted to older women, like most wlw are. If anything there is more evidence she would have daddy issues with her history of castrations and the many times she comments that she finds it strange that Konstantin hasn’t tried to have sex with her. After the line ‘most of’ her family were dead she stated she could go down that route! She practically wrote the whole season just based on this. She hasn’t even taken the quote correctly, as like others have pointed out, most of her family were actually alive and it was only her dad who was dead. I loved episode 5 originally but on my rewatch with the whole season it really seemed strange. When I first watched it I thought the next episode was going to be largely devoted to Eve so I wasn’t so bothered that it was a whole V ep. However, considering Eve was hardly given anything in ep6, I really don’t see how a whole V episode was needed. The annoying thing was this season could have been the best yet. With Eve and Villanelle both discovering themselves and meeting at the end. It was that, but with hardly any Eve content and I feel they are so lucky they managed to pull it off in the last 2 eps, and that’s largely down to what s1+2 accomplished. Again, ep5 just seems like a way for Suzanne to explore her mummy issues story, as there is nothing really juicy or pivotal for the plot. Why not really show how the twelve have had their eye on V since she was little. Have the mum saying a man told her V was dead, as Konstantin did with Anna in s1? It would have added so much more to the twelve. Especially when the big thing about V this season is her wanting away from the control the twelve have on her. Why not show just how much?

I actually had no idea what Eve was thinking for most of the season and from what I do know and think is based on what I know of this character from the previous 2 seasons. Maybe this is just me not getting it, but I thought Eve was in the kitchen because she was in denial and I kept waiting for her to get a breakthrough and embrace her true self. It wasn’t until Sandra said Eve was actually showing strength by working in the kitchen, and by saying ‘no’ to working in the front, that I was like ‘oh’ that’s what it’s meant to mean. I actually feel so sad for Sandra because I can’t imagine what she must have been thinking with Eve’s treatment this season. I actually feel there are even moments in the season that delibrately stop Eve’s development. For example that lazy line of ‘lucky those tourists found you’. How? I know irl it’s a tourist attraction, but in the show they had to break into a tunnel to access it. I also don’t like the scene with Jamie. You could say it highlights the line in the finale ‘I think we all have monsters’ but I feel like it invalidates just how different Eve and Villanelle are from other people. Jamie taking his kids to the zoo when high is hardly the same as Eve hacking a man to death with an axe. 

 This is already so long, and I could go on and on, but I’m just going to point out  some issues and plot holes.

. Kenny’s death was meant to be the biggest storyline of the whole season and what got Eve back into the story. However, she only looked into his death in ep3 and never again. Carolyn didn’t even really look into his death and all we got was constant scenes with her and Geraldine. Why couldn’t we have gotten Eve and Carolyn doing real detective work like in s1 as was implied was going to happen in ep3? I don’t even feel like they actually thought through his death as it was ‘solved’ by Bear who despite apparently not thinking Kenny had commited suicide from the beginning and wanting access to his phone, apparently did not think to check a camera he had set up until weeks later?! I don’t think it’s possible Kenny fell off the roof as in ep4 when Eve chucks the cake, the wall comes up near to her chest. You could not fall off that. He also would have screamed when falling. I also don’t even know how the twelve knew Kenny was looking into the accounts. Especially if they knew Kenny was looking into it, and knew money was being taken, how did it take them so long to kill the accountant? Laura could develop this in s4, but I feel as though it was Suzanne’s job to follow through with this storyline. 

. How did Konstantin know what V looked like as a baby? Where did he see the photo? Why did they make a point to highlight that she was with someone in the photo and Konstantin really didn’t seem to want to tell her, yet the next episode he handed over her family right away? As much as I love Villanelle’s journey, on a rewatch, the family story seemed to almost come out of nowhere in ep3 and then the next episode she had the information and went home. Why not introduce the idea in ep 1?

. How would Puyter know that it was his sister? Upon immediately seeing her he knew it was Oksana. I don’t think it says how old they were, but he is younger than V, and we saw how old she was in the pics, I really don’t think he would recognise her, especially when he thinks she is dead. 

. Why is there not pictures of the dad? Even if the mum was saddened by his death as she really seemed to love him, why would she not have any photos? Also with how much she seems to be scared and despise V, why would she keep the photos of her? Did the dad die while Villanelle was still there or is she just taking he’s dead as he’s not there. I thought they were going to reveal that the dad was still alive and part of the twelve but nope.

. Why was Rhian so scared of V at the train station? I know she’s the demon with no face, but Rhian was ready to be moving into Villanelle’s shoes, and you can even see V is struggling to kill her, so why does Rhian act so scared and back herself onto the edge of the platform? That moment feels so disgenuous to me and at one point I though Rhian was acting. 

. How did Carolyn know Helene and that V was working for her? Is it a plot hole or something to be explored in s4?

. Why was Eve acting like she didn’t know Villanelle was responsible for the Catalan murder in ep4 when we know she can tell V’s kills after a sec (as seen in ep6) and even after Carolyn had shown her the photo and said it was V?

. They didn’t even seem to give much attention to Eve’s scar or wound. It was not where it was in 2x08. I know they said that they were going to move around where she had been shot, but when Suzanne was asked why the scar was different she said she wanted it to seem like Villanelle went for the kill shot, despite saying in other interviews that she doesn’t think Villanelle did try or want to kill Eve. The scar’s even so weird. I’m no expert, so that it maybe how they look, but it doesn’t even look like a bullet wound. Would the bullet not have left a round mark? 

. Why did they keep Niko around for so long? I personally loved where Emerald had taken it in 2x07 and was excited to see where Niko was. Maybe he was up for the murder of Gemma. It would have been another good opportunity to see Eve's skewed morals. A part of her being flattered that Villanelle killed Gemma as sort of revenge for stepping on Eve. Instead it got completely swept under the rug in 3x01 too by Niko saying mi6 said she killed herself. What happened? How did they find him? It doesn't even make sense now why V killed her. However, I would say there was also something symbolic about him ending up in a rehabilitation retreat because Eve and her actions has 'broken' him. It was quite powerful for his character to tell Eve he deserved better than her. Because he does. He basically told her to p*ss off there. Why make the little time Eve is being given to another ep where she chases him down, for him to get brutally attacked in a way that is so ridiculous that he would survive it borders on a soap opera. I thought the reason he survived was to give a big Eve moment of her saying her acceptance that she can't have a normal life. Instead they just had the same convo as 3x01 with him telling her to p*ss off. Then a scene with Eve looking at him and leaving. What is going on in her head? Why are you not giving her anything? We didn't even get to see her dealing with the act happening.

. This brings me onto the point of it. It could of had so much impact, yes it was cool because Eve knew it wasn't V, but there could have been so much more given to it. Such as Dasha saying to V in the lift in 3x07 about her having someone waiting for her back home, how Dasha has just destroyed the thread between the only person V cares about. It would have made V hitting her with the golf club so much more delicious.

. Villanelle saying to Konstantin that she didn't want him to die in 3x07 and looking upset. Yet in 3x08 she looks almost excited about the fact he's about to be shot?

. It also annoys me so much that Raymond was just discarded and we still know nothing about the twelve. I thought this season was really going to dive into them, but we don't know anymore about them than we did at the start of the season. After rewatching 2x08 I really wish they had explored the twelve thru Raymond. If you wanted to give Konstantin more why not have him in with the twelve and the consequences of 2x08? Raymond saying 'Some would say I'm a real somebody'. 'They will take you apart for this'. 'After today a lot of people are going to be angry'. How high was Raymond? The implications that V+E were in so much danger after killing Raymond. Then it's 6 months later and Dasha just says they've been watching V for months. Were they watching Eve? Who knows nobody cares about Eve this season😒 Why bring in new members of the twelve like Paul, make brand new stories such as Kenny's death and the money, to just kill Paul and not resolve them.

I really don't understand how the twelve haven't killed V yet. She screws up all the time from s1 onwards. I get she is amazing at her job but they have others such as Rhian. Why do they let her get away with it? It was confusing me so much this season. I thought they were going to make her dad a member of the twelve and that's how she's protected.

. The title cards and intro. By now you might all be thinking she's just tearing everything apart. Trust me, there are moments of s3 I love and that is why it's so frustrating. Laura's 3 eps are some of my fave of the show so fingers crossed that means good things for s4. I felt she grasped the original tone of the show. So speaking of staying true to the show, I don't understand why they were changing the format of the title cards. Sometimes it was funny 'p*ss off forever' and 'this is bullshit'. Yet, it also really threw me off because it's not what usually happens. I'm all for new things being tried, yet I actually find myself questioning what wasn't changed and what was kept original? The names coming up in 3x04...I can't even. This is more of a personal take as I know some people really liked them, but when it was coming up 'Eve' I was just sitting there thinking 'I know that's Eve. I've been watching her for 3 years'.

Why was there only a title sequence in 2 episodes? Suzanne got asked and said that it was only ep2 and ep7 that felt right. I mean...I'm pretty sure it could have worked in all of them. I loved the title sequences so much, and was so excited when that drop fell and they started in ep2. Then I was so confused when none of the next ones had it. Episode 7 is one of my favourite episodes of the whole show, and that title sequence is just *chef's kiss*. My point really is that it came across to me as an experiment as they only did certain things in one episode and never again, and it made me uncomfortable.

[ayamari-no-goshi]

Verboten 2 | (T)

ff.net | AO3

Fandom: Danny Phantom (DP)

Summary:   AU. When Danny was five years old, he went missing for 2 weeks. In the years that follow, his family tried to make sense of what happened, only for the truth to be discovered years later.

Warnings: rated T for violence, mentions of death, language. Be prepared for some very weird things

Parings: Danny/Sam

Notes: originally uploaded to Ff.net. Cross-posted to AO3 and tumblr. This fic is very heavily inspired by folklore surrounding mysterious wilderness disappearances

Chapter 2

“I’m honestly surprised your parents allowed you on this trip, Danny,” his friend Sam mentioned as they and their other friend, Tucker, packed their bags onto the bus.

The now seventeen year old Danny shrugged as he focused on trying to make sure his bag wouldn’t be squished in the luggage compartment of the bus during the trip. He brought a foldable telescope with him in case he had a chance to stargaze, and he didn’t want it to get broken.

His school, Casper High, had some sort of deal with one of the local National Parks. The school was allowed to camp at the park at a reduced rate as long as the students helped the Forest Rangers with some minor tasks. Both parties considered it a win-win situation as the Park Service received some extra hands, and the school was able to pride itself on the survival and conservational experiences its students received. Technically, the trip was voluntary for seniors, but the teachers indirectly pressured the students to participate.

“To be honest, I’m more surprised they convinced Tucker to go,” Danny eventually replied after he was satisfied with the location of his bag.

“You’re telling me!” Tucker whined as he waited for his two friends while he fiddled with his PDA. “My mother actually threatened to stop making her meatloaf for me if I didn’t go! They said, “It would be good for me”. Can you believe that?”

“I think a little bit of hiking do you some good.” Sam poked him in the stomach for emphasis.

As Tucker shouted in protest, Danny and Sam exchanged a glance. Tucker did not like the outdoors, and he was very vocal about it. His world primary consisted of technology, and while it was amazing what he could do with his handheld and twenty minutes, his physical prowess was lacking.

“But seriously, Danny,” Tucker injected after he finally fended off Sam, “how did you convince your parents to let you come?”

Danny shrugged as he headed towards the door of the bus. Shouts from the teachers made it clear they would be boarding soon. “It seems like the school board managed to somehow convince them. All I know is that they had a meeting with them to raise concerns and to tell them I wasn’t going to go, but they came back stating it was fine. It must have been one heck of a persuasive argument.”

“That’s because my mother was involved.” The boys glanced over to see Sam angrily kick a rock out of the way. Her parents were often a taboo topic. “I thought I told you she was on the school board. I don’t know the full details of it, but I know she was preparing counterarguments to objections.”

“I’m honestly surprised your parents are so gung ho about this trip. You’d think they’d consider camping beneath them.”

“It’s because of the prestige. They can brag that their daughter and their daughter’s school has ties to a government agency.”

While Danny raised an eyebrow, he admitted it seemed petty enough of a reason. Sam’s parents were very wealthy and liked to show off their wealth, much to their daughter’s dismay. They often argued with her regarding her appearance, music tastes, friends, after school activities, and other issues as they believed their daughter’s choices reflected poorly on them. However, they were usually fine with their daughter’s activism regarding conservation and animal rights as long as she didn’t go too far with it, such as the time she tried to stage a break out at the local zoo.

Their conversation ended as the boarding began. The three somehow managed to get the back of the bus, which allowed them to continue to talk without interruption. Most of the other students tended to avoid their group. They didn’t know why until one of the band members, Mikey, once asked Tucker how he put up with being so close to Danny. Confused, Tucker asked him to elaborate.

According to Mikey, a lot of the other students felt unnerved by Danny. As polite and quiet as he tended to be, there was something odd about him that no one was directly able to pinpoint. Mikey said he thought it could have been his eyes, citing how at times it almost seemed like Danny saw the world in a slightly different way than the rest of them. Tucker just laughed it off and explained that Danny had a traumatic event as a child so he often seemed unusually reserved. Mikey seemed to accept that answer, and afterwards, at least some of the students involved with the band were more open towards Danny.

The Fentons moved to Amity Park two years after Danny’s disappearance, so the majority of the student body was unaware of the event. If he was honest, Danny would never have told Sam and Tucker what happened, but his parents’ eccentricities forced the issue.

When his parent’s found out about Sam’s activism the first time she and Tucker visited their house, they made her swear she would not take their son into the woods with her. When he was finally allowed to take them to his room after Sam promised she wouldn’t, he hesitantly explained why they were so intense. His friends were very understanding, though they were just as puzzled about the entire thing as he was. Tucker even offered to hack into the old case file if Danny ever decided to look into it.

Sam did mention that it did help explain why they sometimes caught him staring off into space. She figured he was probably traumatized by something he couldn’t quite remember. Danny mentioned his sister once told him something similar, but he honestly didn’t remember anything that happened.

What he never admitted to his friends was that he knew why he sometimes seemed distant. Ever since his disappearance, he sometimes saw figures out of the corner of his periphery. Usually, he thought it was another person, but when he tried to check, whatever it was had disappeared. More recently, however, the figures seemed to let him glimpse them for a second or two. He could never make out anything other than the vague shape as a person. Since no one else seemed to notice them, he figured it was some weird sort of paranoia due to a repressed memory.

….

About a half hour after they left, Danny received a voicemail from his parents. He had forgotten he had put it on silent, but there was no way he could call them back while he was on the bus since Mr. Lancer was the chaperone for his bus, and that man was a stickler for the rules. Instead, he made a mental note to call them back as soon as he had permission as he clicked the play button.

His mother’s voice sounded absolutely frantic. “Daniel, you call me as soon as you get this! I don’t know what came over us, but we never should have let you go without some sort of protection. I should have never have let you go. If the teachers won’t let you call us, jest remember to never be the last or first in line, and never, under any circumstances, go anywhere alone. And, this is important Danny, if anyone you don’t know offers you food, don’t take it.” His dad could faintly be heard in the background talking about some sort of weaponry he made.

“And here I thought only my mom could sound like that. What was that about?” Sam asked. Her raised eyebrow told him she wasn’t going to let it drop until he had an answer.

“I think my parents finally realized I was going into the woods,” he replied as he put his phone away.

“I thought you said they were fine with you going,” Tucker chimed in while he rummaged through his back for a snack.

Danny didn’t immediately answer. He glanced away for a moment before finally he decided to open up about something which had been bugging him. “I know this is going to sound crazy, but my parents almost seemed like they were in a daze after that school meeting. They were so adamant I was not going to be allowed to go on that trip, and then they just changed their minds and stopped voicing their concerns. It was so weird that I actually called Jazz.”

It was true. He had called his sister at collage because of how out of character it was. While Jazz understood his concern, she reassured him one of the teachers or other parents managed to ease their concerns, and/or they realized some of their worries were silly and unfounded. He tried to tell her there was something more to it as she couldn’t physically see how off they were, but she just told him he was being paranoid and to enjoy himself.

Tucker whistled. “It must have been weird for you to do that.” Both Sam and Tucker knew full well how Jasmine “Jazz” Fenton tended to overanalyze almost everything. As a result, Danny often tried to avoid asking her questions regarding why a person would act in a certain way. The resulting explanation was often too lengthy to be interesting.

“As weird as that is, do you really think anyone in Amity would do something like drug or hypnotize your parents?” Sam argued.

“I… I don’t really know. Look, I never told you guys this,” Danny sighed as he steeled himself, “but, there has been a second incident prior to us moving. Our old house had a wooded area behind it. It wasn’t dense or anything, and you could see in it for like a half mile… but, according to my parents, and Jazz confirmed it, I went missing again for several hours in those woods. I don’t remember saying this, but they said I mentioned something about my playmate from the forest in Arkansas payed me a visit. There’s been an unspoken worry that this guy is following us for some reason.”

Neither of his friends said anything for a while until Sam spoke up. “That’s really messed up, but do you really think that’s the case? How would this person be able to find you? Do you even know what he or she looks like?”

He shook his head. “You know my parents are big names in fringe science. It’s possible he found us that way. I know that it’s really unlikely… It… It’s just… it was too weird, you know? With how my parents go on and on about other dimensions and being spirited away, them just suddenly changing their minds went against everything they believe.”

“Don’t worry, Danny. You’re with us and a bunch of other students. We’ll keep an eye on you.”

“And if something does happen, Sam can chase off the bad guy with those boots of hers. Ow!” Tucker glared at Sam as he rubbed his shin. “That was a compliment.”

She just snickered which caused the two to start bickering. The familiarity of it helped ease some of Danny’s worries. He knew he was just being paranoid, and that it was very unlikely anyone did something to his parents. It was just that he couldn’t shake off his uneasy feeling.

….

Their camp ground was in the Cuyahoga Valley region which was on the outskirts of the Allegheny plateau. The hills in the area were rolling due to the plateau and ancient glacial activity, but they were nowhere near as large as the ones found closer to the mountains in the next state over. Like many forests in the plateau, it was surprisingly old and dense.

Danny was unsettled by it. The hardwood trees blocked out a large percentage of the sun which cast permanent shadows on the area. Not only was it unlikely he would be able to stargaze, he kept thinking he saw something peek out from behind the trees. Chalking it up to paranoia, he decided to focus on the interior of the bus until they reached their destination. He didn’t need to freak out this early in the trip.

Due to the amount of students, the school split them into groups of about thirty and split them around the park. His group was sent to a series of cabins near one of the ranger stations. There were five or six assigned to each cabin. Thankfully for Danny, Tucker was also assigned to the same cabin.

After Mr. Lancer told them some general rules, they were told they had an hour to settle in before they would met up for lunch. The unpacking was fairly uneventful, though Danny was dismayed to learn some of the football players would be in his cabin. Most of them tended to leave him alone, but the one, Dash, liked to bully him. It was strange since he was the only person aside from Sam and Tucker who would come anywhere near him. Thankfully, other than a warning to keep his weirdness to himself, the football players decided to ignore him and Tucker.

He unpacked fairly quickly, so he decided he had enough time to try to contact his parents. Stepping outside, he tried to make a phone call. Someone picked up on the other end, but the signal must have been poor as the call was extremely choppy. After several minutes of trying to figure out what she was saying, he told her he would ask the Rangers if they had a land line he’d be able to use before he ended the call. He frowned as he checked the bars on his phone. There signal was strong enough that the call shouldn’t have been that choppy, but it was a cheaper phone since he had a bad habit of breaking them, so that could have been the reason.

They ate lunch at a mess hall in the camp complex. It was a fairly modest meal, but the beef and gravy was surprisingly good. Danny mused it was probably because his parents often experimented with cooking which often created strange results. He was also surprised that there was a vegetarian option available for Sam, but the school must have called ahead to let them know.

When they were finishing up, Mr. Lancer announced that one of the Rangers had an announcement. Danny glanced over to see a stern man, possibly in his late thirties, move towards the front of the room. He was fit and weathered, but every once in a while, there was a haunted look in his eyes.

The ranger, Rusty, gave the group a rundown of the general rules. He then paused for a moment before he spoke again. “This is unprecedented, but we are going to need your help for a search for a missing person.” Murmurs of excitement ran through the students. “This is a serious matter, and I request you pay attention. We have our search and rescue people and volunteers out right now looking for a twenty-two year old male. He is Caucasian and was last seen in a red jacket and blue jeans. He goes by Aiden.”

“Because you are not properly trained,” Rusty continued, “I only ask that you walk along the nearby trails for a couple hours in groups of two or more. Each group will be given a walkie-talkie. If you see or hear anything strange, call it into us. Don’t go off the trails. We don’t need more people getting lost today.” He fell silent and seemed to argue with himself for a moment before adding, “If you hear what sounds like screaming, particularly a woman screaming, call it in immediately. Large cats sometimes make that kind of sounds, and we definitely have Bobcats around. Luckily, they tend to avoid people, but we do like to know when we have signs of them.”

Twenty minutes later, the teens separated into their groups. Each group was provided a map, compass, and walkie-talkie. Rusty took them to a large map posted outside the Ranger station and explained a little about the area. The trails he wanted them to take circled the surrounding area and were well marked. Before he let them go, he again warned them to report anything off, but did try to reassure them by letting them know other rangers would be regularly sweeping the area.

“Well, isn’t this a reassuring start to our trip,” Tucker sarcastically mentioned as he tried to figure out the map.

“It can’t be helped,” Sam told him as she ripped the map out of his hands and corrected it before handing it back to him. “They must be desperate if they’re asking students to help.”

“Hey, I’m not used to replying on handheld maps.”

“You could try bringing it up on GPS,” Danny mentioned as they headed towards the one trail.

“That’s a great idea!” Tucker fiddled with his PDA for a moment before turning back to his friend. “Are you okay, dude? You sound a little off.”

“Oh, I guess this would hit a little too close to home,” Sam mentioned as she examined his expression.

Danny sighed as he glanced away from her. “Kind of. Even though I don’t remember it, I was in this exact same situation before. I hope they find the guy, at least for his family’s sake.”

The trio fell silent as they began their walk on one of the easy trails. They didn’t see anything out of the ordinary, though Tucker complained starting about halfway through the hike. Sam tried to distract them by identifying some of the local flora, but it only worked for so long.

By the time they made it back to camp, it was almost dinner time. Danny was glad to be back around the group. Although he never mentioned anything to his friends, he felt as if he was being watched the entire time. The trees seemed oppressive at times, and he was honestly surprised he didn’t have a panic attack while they were on the trail.

After dinner, he asked Rusty if there was a phone he would be able to use. Rusty told him that he would have to wait until the morning because they needed the line for the search. Danny understood and thanked the man.

Before he had a chance to head back to his cabin, Rusty called out to him, “While you’re here, make sure you never go off on your own.”

“I know. I mean, my parents drilled that into me for years,” Danny admitted with a shrug.

Rusty examined him closely before stepping closer and whispering, “You’ve witnessed something strange in the past. I can tell by the look in your eyes and how tense you are. In any heavily wooded area, the more open you are to the unusual, the more likely it might show up again.” He walked off without another word. Unnerved, Danny returned to his cabin and waited for his friend.

Tucker still wanted to complain about the amount of walking they did when he returned to the room, which prompted a discussion regarding how in the world Sam was able to enjoy things like that. Danny was about to bring up what the ranger told him when the football players burst into the room. Normally, Danny would just ignore them, but this time, he was intrigued by their excited whispers.

“Hey dweebs,” Dash addressed them, much to Danny and Tucker’s surprise, “did you hear what happened?” An evil grin appeared on his face when they told him they didn’t. “Kwan overheard the rangers talking earlier. You know that guy they were looking for?”

“Yeah,” Danny answered, “Did they find him?”

“Yeah, but he wasn’t alive.”

“Wait, what?”

“You heard me. They’re saying he’s dead.”

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- End of chapter notes :

The Cuyahoga (Ky-ah-HOE-ga) Valley is a real place. I chose it for some very specific reasons. 1) The forests in that area are extremely large 2) I’m fairly familiar with the landscape and weather as I grew up in another part of the Allegheny plateau 3) The parks in that area are a bit unusual as you have a mix of privately owned and government owned areas which I’m using to my design as there’s more leeway with what they can and can’t build in those areas 4) some old towns have been “swallowed” by the national park including one famous “helltown”

The Allegheny (Al-ah-gain-ie) plateau is one part of the Appalachian Mountains, which are said to be the oldest mountains in the world. You don’t really have the high peaks or rock terrain associated with other ranges since they’re so worn, but there are a lot of hills, valleys, creeks, and streams. There are also a lot of coal mines since it’s a coal rich area. What’s also very strange about the plateau is that you can be in a town or suburbs, but within 15-20 minutes, you can be on the outskirts of a deep forest. There are also some swamps and marshy areas within the plateau as well.

Also, a lot of the names for natural landmarks in the Allegheny plateau originate from the tribes who originally settled there. There are even some burial mounds in the Cuyahoga area.

[thevindicativevordan]

Terra-Man

I created a section for Superman Rogues in my Superman masterpost so I feel obligated to actually write about a character for there. But I don’t really want to dive into the nuances of Lex or any of the big guns just yet, so how about we talk about a guy most people don’t even know exists?

Terra-Man friends! The Pre-Crisis version was created by Cary Bates, Curt Swan, and Dick Dillin. Based on Clint Eastwood’s “Man with No Name”, he was a child of the old American Wild West, with his father killed by an alien. Young Tobias Manning was then adopted by said alien out of guilt. The alien took Tobias with him out into the cosmos, trained him, and crafted high tech weaponry for him that resembled weapons used by 19th century cowboys. He was also gifted with slowed aging that gave him nigh-immortality. Tobias killed his alien guardian and struck out on his own as an interstellar criminal, taking the name “Terra-Man” to homage his Earth roots. His Pre-Crisis fights with Superman varied between him being treated as a bizarre gag villain and a deadly serious threat.

Spoilers: The guy who ages up Superman is Tobias. He actually comes across as a legitimate threat in the story, using preptime to outwit Clark repeatedly:

And it was the first time I had read a story with Terra-Man in it that made me go “this guy could be a legitimate threat”. Of course Bates had more creativity in his pinkie than a lot of creators produce in their entire careers, and the Post-Crisis revamp of Terra-Man really sucked:

They got rid of his cowboy hat (a creative felony if I ever saw one), and revamped him as a businessman who had a crisis of conscience over the environmental damage he was causing, and thus set out on a crusade to protect the environment. They kept the high tech weaponry, and gave a lot of it an ecological spin, he had gadgets that allowed him to drain Superman’s solar levels to make him susceptible to weaponry, but the background motivation has aged poorly. Given the current environmental state of the world, more people would probably cheer this version of Tobias on as a hero (just look at Green Arrow or the Poison Ivy fans!) than want to see Superman beat him up. Also he still talked like an old school cowboy for some bizarre reason? Or maybe that was just how writers thought every Texan talked.

Anyway he ended up getting ripped in half by Black Adam and basically has been gone ever since as far as I’m aware:

 So he’s been absent for two whole reboots now, New 52 & Rebirth, so I feel entitled to give my idea for how to make him work as a Superman Rogue. First up: his design. None of the ones I posted above really worked for me, none of them look “cool”, and if Venom and Carnage have taught us anything it’s that 90% of why some villains stick around is that they look cool. The Pre-Crisis one is too plain looking, he looks generic, the Post-Crisis look lacks a hat and the cowboy theme and is thus unacceptable. Luckily there’s already two very cool looking sources to draw on for a new design:

Guy front and center is Terra-Man from the Legion of Superheroes cartoon, and my first introduction to the character. His backstory was heavily modified for the show, but he was a stone cold badass, forcing Imperiex and Superman X to team up to beat him. Think Cad Bane from The Clone Wars by way of Terminator and you basically get the gist. I honestly wouldn’t mind just straight up taking that design and adding the mustache of the comic version. But there’s another source to draw from:

How the hell this guy never caught on I’ll never know. Maybe because Morrison never gave him enough badass moments during their Action run? But Nimrod has a very cool design, and he also has some crazy weapons like a gun that shoots telepathic bullets, he already feels somewhat like a Terra-Man revamp to me. I’d take the idea of a helmet/full body suit and the crazy high-concept tech weapons from Nimrod & Pre-Crisis Terra-Man, and combine it with the color scheme, basic outfit and hat of the animated Terra-Man. That would be a really cool design that would get people interested in Tobias I feel.

Second off: the name. Maybe I was just dumb as a kid, but I was always wondering why animated Terra-Man never used his earthbender powers. He clearly had them, why else would he call himself Terra-Man and not Space Cowboy? In the interest of retroactively justifying my young self’s stupidity, I propose a new name: The Terran. I think that does a better job of conveying what his deal is, that he’s a former resident of Earth aka Terra who has gone out and made a name for himself in the cosmos. Think of the children who will no longer be confused about why he’s not throwing boulders at his foes. I rest my case.

Third and finally: The motivation. Why does this guy show up on Earth? What’s his deal? Why does he hate Superman? Well I think there’s some easy justification in explaining why he would finally return to Earth in the first place by making him a hunter like Nimrod was. Terran is out to hunt the most dangerous creatures of a species for sport and profit. Guess who has an Intergalactic Zoo in his Fortress, containing last members of extinct species some of whom posses hides or organs that would fetch high prices on the galactic black market? That’s an easy way to justify why the two would first come to blows, and where the root of the contempt for each other would begin.

But that would only be the beginning. See there’s some very interesting twists on the Superman concept with Tobias. He inverts a lot of the core components of Superman. He’s a human who was abducted and adopted by aliens as a child. He got his “powers” from his alien father, and his “name” from the aliens he worked for and killed. He’s a human straight out of Earth’s past, a literal Man of Yesterday. I think you could do some very interesting stuff by contrasting the two, and one of the big ways to do it would be to make Tobias Manning gay.

Yeah yeah get your jokes out of the way but hear me out: Tobias is from 19th century America, not exactly known for it’s tolerance of homosexuality (or anything non-WASP really). Part of why Tobas stayed away for so long then was that he felt alienated from his home planet. He thought he would never be accepted there, and thus stayed away and tried to carve out a life for himself in space where at least no one looked down on him for who he loved. So when he finally comes back and sees the way things have improved he’s overjoyed. Finally he can be himself among his own kind, he doesn’t have to stay away from Earth anymore, he can stay here and reconnect with his heritage. But then he runs into another barrier: He was raised according to 19th century American norms as a kid, then by alien norms for the rest of his life. He has zero in common with regular humans in the 21st century DCU Earth. His speech is antiquated and peppered with alien words no one understands, marking him as odd. Nobody shares any of his interests, and his job, which would’ve been cool and badass in the 19th century, now invites disgust in everyday conversations. Tobias may have been a human born on Earth, but he was born in the Wild West and raised in space, and he’s become totally alienated from the rest of humanity.

Enter Superman, an alien born on another planet but perfectly able to live amongst humanity since he was raised by them and educated in their modern standards. He’s white-passing and straight, and those two attributes help him be accepted. It would absolutely piss Tobias off that this alien is viewed as more human than he is, is accepted where he is not, and that would fuel the fires of resentment. So when he and Clark cross paths, Tobias is out for blood. Not just to beat/kill Superman, but to embarrass him, humiliate him, make him the outcast for everyone to point and gawk at. Also killing one of the last Kryptonians would really help cement Tobias’ reputation as a stone cold badass hunter which doesn’t hurt either.

On Superman’s side, part of him would absolutely despise Tobias for being a poacher, for hunting and killing endangered species, for trying to kill or humiliate him. He’d be put off by Tobias’ 19th century ideal of manhood and enjoyment of killing, something Superman wholeheartedly abhors. But on the other hand he would absolutely empathize with Tobias’ frustration. Clark has felt alienated from humanity at points himself, but also recognizes that he was lucky to look and be like he does given where he landed. He’d want to try to reach this guy, to connect with him, given how much he can sympathize with the longing for a place where you can be yourself without fearing rejection from others. Whether he would ever succeed is anyone’s guess.

I realize the possible pitfalls in making a prominent villain, who is also a cowboy gay, but I do think what I have here is an interesting way at looking at the very concept of “alieness”, a topic often explored in Superman stories. I’d add a prominent gay member to Superman’s supporting cast as a counterbalance too, either to the Daily Planet or the Metropolis Special Crimes Unit.

So yeah that’s how I’d revamp Tobias into the Terran.

[mikaa-mina]

At Garden’s Edge- ch8: A Day in the Life of a Newt(on Pulsifer)

The lights are too bright, and Newt can’t quite hear what the lady in front of him is saying over the cacophony of beeps. His head also feels quite.... strange. He’s pretty sure that it’s not supposed to feel like it’s floating half a foot above his neck while also feeling like it’s stuffed full of cotton.

Some of the beeping suddenly stops, making it so much quieter in the ER, and Newt can finally understand what the nurse is asking. He tells her he thinks he’s fine, only he managed to hit something in the middle of the road with his bike and that sent him sailing towards the curb, which his bike tire hit at the wrong angle, and that quite firmly ejected him from his seat. And actually, he’s not at all quite sure how he got here, or why he’s here.

The nurse comes closer before he realizes she’s holding a tablet to enter his information in. By the time he realizes, it’s too late.

There’s a sound much like a mosquito hitting a trap lamp with a bright Bzzt! and then tablet goes dark in her hands. Newt grimaces.

It snowballs from there.

She shushes his apologies and uses the flip hospital phone that they use now instead of chargers/beepers to call the nurse station and request a backup one. It, accordingly, powers off halfway through her phone call. She shakes it with a frown and grumbles about the board of offices being cheap with their equipment, turns a sunny smile on him, and brightly says “well, I’ll just take down the basics and get your vitals while we wait. Do you have records here?”

“Uh. Maybe?” probably, “Which hospital is this?”

“The Brugmansia Hospital.”

“Oh! Yeah. I was born here. Uh. I changed my name though. Still Pulsifer for the last name though, figure there’s probably not too many of them around,” he laughs nervously, overly conscious of how awkward he is and how unable he is to do anything about it.

She still smiles, ever professional, and jots down his information. “First name?”

“Oh! Right. Sorry. It’s Newton now. Newton Pulsifer.”

“Thank you Newton, now I’m just going to take your vitals now.”

“Oh- I, uh, don’t really think-”

It’s too late, she’s come up to take his temperature with their new wireless, laser thermometer and it promptly errors out. It continues to error out no matter how many times she restarts it. The heavy seed of dread in Newt’s stomach grows larger. This is exactly why he tries not to go to places like this.

“I’m sorry. Uh, do you happen to have something maybe not, uh, electrical?”

She gives him a funny look for that and he shrinks back.

“Well. Let me get your blood pressure and o2 readings.”

Newt looks dubiously at the machine setup she wheels over to him. Miraculously, it goes okay when she wraps the cuff around his upper arm, and even when it starts. Everything avalanches when she puts the wireless o2 reader on him. Immediately everything in his room fritzes out, the lights even flickering before coming back, but all of the machines are still down or in the emergency boot up system restart.

“Oh bugger,” he sighs under his breath, quietly enough that the nurse fretting over all the technology can’t hear how resigned and unsurprised he is.

The avalanche continues when a nearby nurse ducks in and his tablet powers itself off. The smartwatch he’s wearing starts having three different alarms go off on it, and then there’s some shouts of alarm from outside Newt’s room that he’s really not sure that he wants to know what they’re about.

There are four people in his room now, in varying states of bewilderment and frustration, trying to figure out why everything’s malfunctioning in his room while also trying to get it back up and working. No one’s listening to Newt when he tries to explain that if he could just leave, it’d get better, but then, he’s mostly used to being ignored at this point.

More and more people trickle into the room, Newt spots the tech support guy he wished to be, frowning and scratching his head as he looks at everything. And then he looks at Newt.

A quick mumble about using the loo and Newt escapes out of the room, IV still attached to the weird metal stand and his arm but at least they’re not electronically powered. Just good engineering and reliable gravity.

He figures if he can put enough distance between him, and the rest of all that technology crammed into one small spot, that everything will boot back up just fine. And if not, Newt could write out exactly how to fix it.

So he heads to the loo, because now that he’s made the excuse, he figures he might as well try and also he’s betting on there being a whole lot less fancy technology in there. If only he could actually find said loo. Or any loo, really.

He’s waylaid by a small girl about ten minutes into his wandering of the halls.

“Oh. Hullo there.”

The girl is missing three teeth, has brown hair, and is looking at Newt as if he’s the newest attraction in the city zoo. Under her stare, Newt almost feels like one.

“Wut’er you doing?”

“Er... looking for the loo.”

She looks at him, looks in the direction he was heading in, looks back at him and matter-of-fact-ly says, “you’re going the wrong way.”

He blinks at her, which she takes as permission for her to reach up and grab his hand and start pulling him in the other direction. Bewildered, he followed.

And thus began a brand new game called “Lead the Newt” which had a revolving cast of characters, all under the age of twelve, each insisting they knew where the loo was, and each hiding him from sight any time an adult employee came near.

This scavenger hunt of a game ended at, not a loo (which made Newt extremely grateful he didn’t actually need one), but at a recreational sort of room. There was an old tv in one corner, an open treasure chest filled with costumes and toys, and a few bookshelves. The floor was spongy beneath Newt’s feat and looking down left him staring at brightly colored interlocking foam mat puzzle pieces.

For some reason, all of the co-conspirators find him funny, and really the only tech he might fry in here is a rather old tv that looks like it’s been outdated so many times it can’t recall if it’s outdated or retro at this point, so all in all... This is probably the safest room for Newt to be in. And certainly more interesting than the loo.

And that’s how he finds himself, an hour later, dressed in a paper hat of some kind (its supposed to be a jester’s hat) leaning against his iv pole, making elaborate gestures with his free hand, and telling terrible terrible jokes to a kid in a paper crown and to the amusement of the other kids around him. It’s most certainly a bizarre scene, but no one has commented on it as of yet and due entirely for the fact that the secondary game they’re all playing is ‘Hide the Newt’ any time an adult wanders by. Closets, corners, and blankets have all been heavily featured by now in this game.

So Newt can hardly be blamed for jumping near out of his skin when, after telling a particularly bad punny joke, he hears an adult’s laughter. So he jumps, jerks, and tries to turn to face the voice all in one motion and ends up somehow practically hogtieing himself in his iv cord and going down.

He ended up in a heap of limbs, metal pole, and iv cord wrapped all around him, and his glasses hanging half off his face. “Oh bugger...”

There was a snickering above him from the adult voice and the children alternating between giggles at his fall and joyful cries of “Crow Crow!”, “Mister Crow!”, and “Miss Crow!”. As Newt struggled to untangle himself, with the help of a few kids who both made things worse and better in turns, the other children began pleading with the Crow? Crow?? to pleeeeease let them keep Newt.

The stranger is crouching down to the kid’s level by the time Newt gets mostly upright, and they look a lot like they’re trying very hard not to laugh. “Now. However did you magpies manage to steal a whole person?”

Laughter sounds and they’re throwing themselves at the redhead and the two bags they set down. As the majority are immediately distracted by the prospect of sweets and the passing out of them, the stranger turns to Newt and raises an eyebrow high above dark sunglasses and says, “well? How’d they manage to kidnap you?”

Before Newt can respond the kids answer with excuses that pile over one another ranging from “he just wandered in!” to the actually mostly truthful “he was lost so we were showing him around!”.

“Oh really now?” they seem to be biting back laughter as they continue, “he was lost so you decided to help him by keeping him here?”

Some of the kids looked abashed while others look outright proud of themselves and to Newt’s surprise the stranger threw back their head with a short bark of a laugh before grinning as if proud of them.

Just in case he was reading the situation wrong, he’d done that with people more than a few times, Newt tried pushing through his embarrassment and awkwardness with an “It’s, uh, alright. Really. It’s been kind of fun, actually.”

“Ah. Yeah, they really grow on you.” The Crow glanced at the kids with a mischievous look, “like a fungus.”

Groans and laughter sounded before all of a sudden a shushing and pointing as an adult was seen wandering their way. Before Newt could blink they had him hidden out of sight shoved in a closet between some coats, puppets, and something slightly sticky that he had no intention of exploring further.

He could hear the somewhat muffled conversation of the kids pleading with The Crow to keep their secret before a new adult voice joined the conversation. The voices dropped away a bit, except for the nervous kids right in front of the closet attempting to whisper between each other, before he can’t make anything out at all. He waits, nervousness beginning to creep in because just how long was he supposed to stay in the closet? Actually, about that, he’d really had enough of closets and hiding in them. Terribly stifling and awful and much better really to be out of them.

Eventually there’s the sound of foot falls coming closer and closer to the closet and for a moment Newt’s heart picks up, certain that he’s about to be found and get in trouble. Then the doors are opened and it’s the red headed stranger who jokes, “ready to come out of the closet?”

And Newt’s still full of nervousness and it expresses itself by making him immediately blurt out “already did that once really. Was sort of hoping to not have to do it again.”

There’s a pause where the red head stares at him and the realization that he’s said that out loud crashes over Newt who flushes hotly. “Oh gods, I said that out loud...” and then The Crow tilts their head back and laughs.

“Been there, done that!” They agree with a grin and reach in to pull Newt out. “C’mon, ‘parently they’ve been running a missing patient code for half an hour looking for you.”

Newt relaxed fractionally, “you figured all that out from the nurse in five minutes?”

“Nah. Heard about it when I snuck in through one of the back windows. ‘s right beside one of the break rooms.”

“Oh, okay, that makes- wait. Did you say window?”

But they were already talking to the kids, “Alright you mischievous little magpies, you had your fun but we need to get him back now.” A chorus of “awwwws” and “but!!but!!”s sounded off but The Crow continued on, “if he’s here, he probably needs some help to get better, and I’m sure once he’s feeling better he’ll come say hi again.” Here they glanced over at at Newt expectantly, so Newt nodded since it seemed expected, and then they continued, “alright, so say bye to...”

“Newt.”

The Crow stilled, tilted their head to the side and asked disbelievingly, “really?” as if they didn’t also have the name of an animal.

“Yeah.”

“Alright magpies, tell Newt bye.”

There’s goodbyes and promises to come back and right as they’re leaving the first girl that had caught Newt comes up to The Crow and, in a whisper so very loud she might as well be talking, says “you hafta be nice to him!”

“Oh do I now?”

She nodded furiously, “he doesn’t ree-lize his jokes are reeeeally bad!”

The Crow seemed to choke on something before spluttering into a laughter the kid shushed them for.

“Sorry, sorry,” they managed, fighting back their grin and not looking sorry in the least as they chanced a quick glance at Newt.

The girl frowned, “you’re not sorry at all!”

“I am, I am!”

She looked unimpressed but when bribed with an extra pastry she let it, and them, go.

They’re on their way back to the nurse’s station (Newt didn’t even know what room they put him in) when he breaks the silence to ask, “is your name really Crow?”

“To the kids, yes. You can call me Crowley.”

“Oh. Nice to meet you Crowley. Did you really come in through a window?”

Crowley grinned at him, “trade secret.”

[worryinglyinnocent]

Fic: Pure (3/?)

Summary: Belle wanted to wait until marriage before she had sex for the first time. It was the one thing that still stuck in her mind after leaving her small town upbringing steeped in religious doctrine and abstinence culture. When her wedding night comes, however, the purity ideals of Storybrooke’s sex education are hard to shake off, and making the transition from virgin to sexually active is more difficult than she anticipated. With the help of a patient husband, Belle begins an intimate journey into understanding her body, her desires, and her identity as a woman.

Rated: E

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[One] [Two] [AO3]

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Pure

Three

“So, how do you want to spend our first evening in New York?”

They were meandering their way back to the hotel after an excellent meal, Aiden’s arm around Belle’s shoulders. There was certainly enough nightlife in New York to keep them entertained; after all, they were in the city that never slept. Belle didn’t want to go out, though. They had tickets to a Broadway show for the next night, and they’d already done a lot of walking today. What she really wanted to do was go back to their room for a cup of tea and some more kissing. She’d been sneaking kisses from him all day, and he had been providing them readily.

They had chosen New York for their honeymoon. Whilst Aiden would probably have been happy to take Belle on a round-the-world trip if she had expressed such a desire, Belle had wanted to explore more of New York ever since their flying visit the previous spring when Neal had been looking at colleges. He’d decided to stay in Boston in the end, but Belle had thoroughly enjoyed her time in the Big Apple; she wanted to see it at her leisure, without fitting in university visits around it.

Aiden didn’t fly well, so most of the journey had him pretending to be anywhere other than on a plane whilst Belle read and re-read her travel guides, picking out all the places she wanted to visit and drawing the most efficient routes around Manhattan on her map, to take in the maximum amount of tourist attraction for the least amount of walking.

She didn’t think that she was going to be able to see everything in the week they had booked, because a small part of her was hoping that they’d spend a decent amount of time in their hotel room as well. She was still nervous about what was to come, but something inside her had sparked back into life, the same spark that she had always used to feel before the wedding, whenever she saw Aiden with his tie off and the top few buttons of his shirt undone, exposing that lovely sliver of neck.

It was the spark that she had always tried to deny in the past, or at least put off until they were married. Now, she didn’t try to push it down. She still wasn’t entirely sure whether she ought to be feeling it or not in the first place, but she was married now. Sex wasn’t sinful anymore, so she was using that loophole to beat her snide voice into submission.

She thought back to the analogy that Aiden had taken such great pains over this morning. If she was Jefferson’s vintage convertible Mustang, then the ignition had just been switched on and she was purring.

There had been such a thrill in checking in as Mr and Mrs Gold, and Belle hadn’t been able to stop grinning all the way up to their room to dump their bags before heading out to begin their touring. They’d spent the rest of the afternoon exploring Central Park and the zoo, and now that night had fallen, Belle was still feeling buoyed up on the high of exploring new places and finding hidden gems.

Going back to the room would be a reminder to both of them of how come they were in New York in the first place. They were on their honeymoon, and there was going to be sex involved at some point. Aiden had said that he would wait for as long as she needed, but Belle didn’t want to keep putting it off, or she would never take that leap.

It wasn’t something to be gotten over with, but perhaps it was something that could be gotten started. She could take a leap of faith with Aiden. She knew that he would never do anything to hurt her; he had proved that admirably last night even if he hadn’t done so tenfold during their relationship thus far. She trusted him to know what he was doing even if she didn’t know what she was supposed to do, and she had even less idea how she was supposed to feel.

She was already in ignition, so maybe it was time to take the plunge and get started on the maintenance before she got into gear. Amazingly enough, the car analogy was really helping.

They had reached their hotel by this point, and Belle realised that she hadn’t actually given Aiden an answer to his question, several minutes ago by now.

“I think that we should just take it easy tonight,” she said. “Go back to the room, have some tea, get an early night.”

She left it dangling, hoping that Aiden would pick up on it.

“Oh, Belle.” He pulled her in closer and kissed her forehead. “You never fail to be remarkable.”

They entered the hotel and made their way back up to their room. They hadn’t unpacked earlier, just leaving the bags in Belle’s eagerness to get their exploration started, and it took them a while to get things sorted out and comfortable before they were sitting on the bed with their tea, channel hopping. Belle glanced down at the nightdress folded on the end of the bed. She’d not intended to wear it more than once, but she didn’t want the memories of last night to taint it for her. Even if everything had turned for the best in the end and she had gone to sleep happy, she would always remember the fear and frustration she’d felt unless she could make some more positive memories with it.

Aiden grabbed the remote and the TV winked out, leaving them in as much silence as there ever was in New York.

“What are you thinking about?” he asked. “You keep looking at your nightie.” He reached across and closed his hand over hers. “We don’t have to do anything.”

“I know. And I love you for that. But what if I do want to do something? You said this morning that the first step to conquering your fears was to name them, and I’ve done that now. So… What’s the second step?”

She’d ultimately been worried about the pain, but Aiden had assured her that it didn’t have to hurt. The other things she could deal with in time, but she didn’t want to remain a virgin forever. She wanted Aiden; she’d wanted him for a long time, and now she could finally have him, and not have to worry about hurting at the end of it.

“Well, shall we start by getting into bed?”

“That sounds like a good idea. At least whatever happens then, we’ll be nice and comfy.”

Aiden snorted with laughter and sat up to start unbuttoning his shirt. Belle grabbed her nightdress and was almost into the bathroom when she stopped.

“Belle? Everything all right?”

“Yeah…” She came back to the bed, pulling her hair over her shoulder. “Unzip me?”

She felt his lips brush over her shoulders and the top of her spine as he pulled her dress zip down, and she looked back at him and he raised his eyebrows at her. “Good?”

She nodded. “Yes. Very good. I, erm…”

The slight tilt of Aiden’s head prompted her to go on, and she turned around to face him fully, slowly pulling the dress down off her shoulders to leave her in bra and panties. Somehow, the act of undressing in front of him felt so much more intimate than just being naked with him. It was an act of vulnerability, uncovering oneself piece by piece in the gaze of another person.

Aiden smiled, a wolfish little smirk at the corner of his mouth, but his eyes were still soft and kind as he took her hands and kissed her fingertips before bringing them to his remaining shirt buttons.

“Fair is fair,” he said.

Belle’s hands were shaking a little in anticipation as she unfastened the buttons, and once his shirt was off, he made quick work of his trousers too, before resting his fingers on Belle’s waist and bringing them slowly up towards her bra band.

“May I?”

Belle nodded. He’d seen it all this morning, and she wanted him to see it again.

He reached around to unfasten her bra and pulled it off her, gazing at her bare breasts for a moment as the cool air hardened her nipples, and then he was laying her down on the bed again, holding her close like they’d done this morning before they caught their flight. Belle pulled her covers up to their waists, pressing in close.

“I think the first thing to do,” Aiden said, punctuating his words with kisses, “is to find out what you like. What makes you feel good?”

Belle shrugged. “I don’t know. Masturbation was up there with sex before marriage as one of the big no-nos. Touching yourself was as bad as having someone else touch you. There was always the worry that you’d get a taste for it and start seeking out such carnal pleasures elsewhere.”

Aiden sighed. “I’ve heard a lot about your town and its ideals over the last couple of years, but even now, I still don’t know whether to laugh or cry when I hear about some of the things that they taught you.”

“Believe me, this isn’t the half of it.” Since nice girls didn’t talk about sex, they also didn’t really talk all that much about sex education and what twisted version of it they might have received. Now that they were commencing on this voyage of discovery together, it was inevitably going to start coming up a lot more. “Considering I had a teacher who firmly believed that the clitoris did not exist because it served no practical purpose as a sex organ, we might have a long way to go.”

Aiden snorted, burying his face in the pillow to muffle his laughter.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry. I really shouldn’t laugh at the abysmal state of Storybrooke’s education, especially considering how it’s affecting you now, but like I said, the other alternative is crying.”

“It’s all right. I may be a virgin but I’m not completely naïve. I am completely aware of my anatomy and how it all fits together. I’m just not as sure how the various bits of it like to be touched.”

She remembered the first time she’d looked at herself in the mirror, trying to angle her little compact so that she could get a proper look at what was between her legs. She’d locked herself in the bathroom and sat with her back against the door as a double safety measure against anyone coming in, but she’d still felt certain that someone would be able to tell what she was doing in there. It had been after biology class with the inked-out textbooks, and she had been curious to see for herself what was down there.

Even though she’d just looked and not really touched, she’d been convinced for weeks afterwards that she was going to hell just for that; that what she’d done was somehow tattooed on her forehead like a scarlet letter, visible to everyone except her. She hadn’t taken another look until long after she’d left home and she was trying to trim her pubic hair. She was twenty then, and sharing a flat with two other girls, both of whom were far more open-minded than the entirety of Storybrooke’s population put together and who brought their lovers home to bed regularly, but she still waited until they were both out of the flat, and she still locked herself in the bathroom and sat back against the door to guard against intrusion. With two years of what she termed the Real World under her belt, she hadn’t felt quite as much shame as she had done the first time, and she’d allowed herself a little more exploration. She’d found her clit properly that time, and the touch had nearly given her a heart attack.

It was only now, coming to terms with her burgeoning sexuality and, moreover, being allowed to come to terms with it, that she could recognise the feeling of intense and sudden pleasure for what it was.

Aiden kissed her again. “Well, we can find out together. So, where shall we start?” His fingers were dancing up and down her side, just grazing the side of her breast, and Belle felt her nipples pebble into hard points.

“Where you are right now seems like a good place,” she whispered. Aiden smiled, tracing one fingertip down over her breast and circling it around her nipple. Belle squirmed under his touch, allowing herself to just give in to the sensation and enjoy it.

He kept teasing her nipple for a little while, then skimmed his hand lower, down over her stomach to rest on her hip. Belle wriggled again. The spark of desire was back, and it was burning hotter than ever, railing against every instinct that told her she shouldn’t be feeling it. She wanted Aiden to touch her, to do all the things he’d talked about this morning to make her ready for what came next.

He slipped his fingers under the waist band of her panties and she responded by pulling them off entirely, kicking them out from between the sheets. A hand cupped her ass, fingers tracing along the line where her cheek met her leg.

Belle wondered whether this counted as sex. When she had been at high school, there had been all sorts of whispered conversations in the halls and the quad about what constituted going all the way, and whether you were still technically a virgin if you had done this or that thing. They weren’t heard often, after all, they were good girls and they didn’t talk about sex, but occasionally these things would find her way into her hearing, and they stuck with her. Certainly, in the eyes of the town, being naked in bed with someone and having them touch a place normally covered with clothing and considered obscene if seen without, well, that was definitely a black mark against one’s purity credentials even if nothing further came of it.

His hand slid back up her body again, coming to cover her breast and rub her nipple against his palm, and she gave a little gasp, but then the touch was gone; his arm resting lightly against her waist, nothing sensual in the gesture apart from the fact she was naked.

“How far do you want to go, Belle?” Aiden asked. “I’ll follow your pace, but I don’t want to push you too far before you’re ready.”

Belle sighed.

“I don’t know,” she admitted. “I know last night you said that this wasn’t something to get over with, but maybe I’ll stop overthinking it all if I just go for it.”

“As much as I admire your plucky attitude towards everything else you’ve shaken off from your conservative childhood, I don’t think it’s necessarily the best idea here.” He kissed her forehead, then her nose, then her lips. “I don’t want either of us to do anything that you might regret. Maybe it’s better to take our time.”

“I know.” Belle sighed. “I want this. I really do. I want to stop thinking about it and just enjoy it. More than anything I want to shut up the little voice that tells me I shouldn’t want it. It’s just not as simple as telling it to be quiet.” She paused, trailing her fingertips over his neck and shoulder. “What do you want?”

“This is about you, sweetheart, not me.”

“Not really. Sex involves two people, right? It’s all very well working out what I want and what I like, but what about you?” She bopped his nose. “Fair is fair, after all. We can’t have me having all the fun and you doing all the work.”

Aiden laughed. “Have I told you lately that you’re remarkable?”

“Yes, but I’m not averse to hearing it again.”

“You’re remarkable, and I love you.”

“I love you too. And I’d like to touch you.”

It wasn’t that she’d never touched him before. They’d been together for three years and Belle was a tactile person. Hell, just this morning they’d spent half an hour cuddled together in the nude. But touching him with the express intention of eliciting a pleasurable response, well, that was definitely new.

“All right.” Aiden rolled over onto his back, taking her hand in his and kissing the palm as his other arm snaked around her shoulders. “Shall we keep things above the belt for now?”

Belle nodded. They had plenty of time and it wouldn’t do to get ahead of herself. Better to take things slowly now and be sure that she was ready than to go too far too quickly and start freaking out again.

Aiden placed her hand on his chest and gave her that little smirk again. “All right then. Go wild.”

She danced her fingers across his skin, mimicking the same patterns that he done to her. She grazed over his nipple, grinning when it tightened under her touch and he gave a sharp hiss, twitching against her hand. It was good to know that he was just as sensitive as she was, and it gave her a little boost of confidence. If Aiden found the same things as she did pleasurable, then it gave her something to work from. Now all she had to do was work out what she liked. Probably best to keep exploring Aiden for now.

She moved across to repeat her touches to his other nipple, and he wriggled again. Belle let her fingers still.

“That’s good?”

“Oh yes. That’s good.”

She snaked her hand lower, over his belly. She knew that he was conscious about beginning to gain middle-age weight there, so she hoped that she wasn’t drawing undue attention where it wasn’t wanted. She dipped a finger into his navel and his entire body jerked in response, which would have been alarming had it not been for the expression on his face, obviously trying very hard not to laugh. Belle bit her lip as a thought occurred to her.

“Are you ticklish, Aiden?” Oh, she could have so much fun if he was.

“Yes. A bit.”

She wondered how she’d never known this before, and then decided that she’d had no reason to. She’d never been this intimate with him before. Over the coming days, they were both going to be learning all kinds of new things about each other’s bodies. Hell, Belle was going to be learning all kinds of new things about her own.

“On no account are you to use that against me,” he warned. There was a gleam in his eye, and she Belle knew that he already knew that his words would be entirely in vain. So, naturally she started tickling him, and then he was trying to bat her away, and then his fingers were on her own ribs and making her squeal, both of them descending into fits of laughter until Aiden finally silenced her with a kiss, his hands cupping her face and carding into her hair, the tickle war over with no clear victor.

Belle sighed with happiness, cuddling in close against Aiden’s side and bringing her hand back to his chest. It felt good to be able to relax and have fun like that, and she trusted Aiden not to go too far. Her main concern was pushing herself too far in her desire to get going. Maybe she could get Aiden to help her set the boundaries, and they could go just a little further each night, building up and up until they went all the way. That seemed like a sensible way of going about it. That would give her time to stop worrying about it hurting, and time to shoot down the voice that kept telling her that this was wrong.

Surely something that felt so good couldn’t be wrong.

[bngtanah]

DBBG |Graduation Day

summary: Sam & Erin are university students who share a cheap one bedroom apartment above a shitty takeaway restaurant. Due to the limited space, they’ve grown accustomed to sharing just about everything, including the occasional kiss. pairing: Jung Hoseok (Samuel Park) x Named OC characters: meet the cast. genre: fluff, suggestive themes word count: 2.5k chapters: o1| o2| o3| o4| o5| o6| o7| o8| o9| 10| 11| 12| 13| 14 warning: mutual pining, making out, groping/heavy petting, childhood friends to lovers(in a sense, moonlight talks.

A/N: If anyone is actually interested in my multi-chapter fic, this is just a little flashback chapter that I couldn't get out of my head.

**Bolded speech denotes that the characters are speaking English.

16:04:00 PM

Samuel was nervous. Not because today was the day he'd been waiting for since he enrolled in Highschool, not because everyone in the auditorium where he was currently seated expected him and 152 of his classmates to begin their transformations into adulthood. It wasn't even because they volunteered him to be the representative of the graduating class, meaning he had to be the one to lead nine other students in presenting rice cakes to their teachers and hope that he didn't trip over his own two feet.

The only source of stress for Samuel on his graduation day was because his best friend was nowhere to be seen.

"She said she'd be here" Sammy muttered to himself as he lifted his head to look at the section his parents were sitting in once again. Erin's family sat in the same row, but there was still an empty spot where Erin was meant to be. Both sets of parents and younger siblings waved when they noticed him looking, they gestured for him to pay attention to the speaker instead of looking up at them every five minutes. Sam exhaled and reluctantly obeyed, turning back to the speaker up ahead of him just in time to be called up to the stage.

"You know he can't see you if you're crouching behind that pillar the entire time" James Anthony, Erin's father, whispered toward her as she tried to sneak another glance at Sammy walking toward the stage.

"I know Dad, that's why I'm hiding," She replied "I want to surprise him- Oh look! He's going on stage, aw he looks so cute in his uniform. Stop looking back here before he notices me."

James chuckled softly and leaned back into his seat, he'd given up trying to understand why his daughter did the things she did a very long time ago. Life for both of them was simpler that way.

"What are they doing now?" He whispered to Ariana, his wife, but she looked just as confused as he was.

"It looks like they're giving the teachers food? They didn't do that at Pumpkin's graduation did they?" She stated, referring to Erin.

"I don't think so."

"It's an old tradition," Sam's mother, Subin, interjected in a whisper, leaning over Erin's empty seat "Students give presents to teachers after an academic achievement, I think this is the first time they've done it here, though."

"Ooh..." James and Ariana sighed simultaneously.

The Anthony's couldn't have been blessed with better neighbours than Park Jooheon and his family. Moving to South Korea as a black family was hard enough to begin with but moving to an area where they were the only foreigner family made the first few months in the new country almost unbearable. James only knew a few Korean phrases since he frequently travelled back and forth from Texas for business but his wife and three young children knew none of the language at all. They hated being away from their friends, surrounded by people that looked at them like they were animals in a zoo, it was miserable.

That all changed when the Parks moved in next door. Subin and Jooheon Park were Korean by birth but had lived in California for most of their lives, their children were born there and if not for the deteriorating health of Subin's father they probably would have remained there. Both families took an immediate liking to each other and suddenly life in South Korea for the Anthony family wasn't so bad.

The ceremony ended with a thundering applause and the students quickly filed out of the auditorium after the faculty had left. The parents and family members in the audience began making their way toward the entrance to wait for their fresh graduates.

A few minutes later students began trickling out of the school's entrance, covered in flour and grinning from ear to ear.

"I'm free!" Sammy yelled at his family's direction as he all but ran towards them. Once he reached the group, everyone took their turn giving him words of encouragement and congratulations. As happy as Samuel was to be surrounded by so many people who cared for him, his face fell when he noticed one face that wasn't in the crowd.

"So.... I guess Erin didn't come?" Sammy asked, sounding somber as he glanced around the group and fully noticed her absence.

James and Ariana exchanged a short awkward glance. They didn't want to lie to him since they could see Erin quietly approaching him quietly from behind.

"Yah! You didn't think I'd miss your graduation day did you?" Erin exclaimed as she wrapped her arms around his shoulders from behind, pulling him closely against her. Sammy, utterly startled, screamed at the sudden contact but his momentary fear died down the second he heard Erin's voice. Sammy was sure he had never been happier than he was as that moment, all the disappointment he was feeling earlier melted away the second he felt Erin's arms around him. Then again, he was always happy when Erin was around; and even more so when she was touching him.

He spun around as quickly as his body would let him and wrapped his arms around her waist, his smiling face burrowing into the crook of her neck. "I thought you couldn't come," He said mumbled against her skin softly. Erin grinned and carded her fingers through his hair "Don't be silly, I would never miss this."

Subin and Ariana shared a knowing smile at the affectionate display and Jooheon cleared his throat nonchalantly to subtly remind the pair of "friends" that their hug was rapidly leaving friend territory.

Erin was the first to detach herself and step backward, making Sammy reluctantly let her go. "I really am proud of you," She said with a genuine smile as she pressed her palm against his cheek. Sammy nuzzled his face against her hand, humming softly like a kitten while still gazing down at his best friend with nothing but admiratioin in his eyes and mouthed a silent 'Thank you' 

"Well, Ariana and I didn't spend all day cooking to let it go to waste, who's hungry?"

Hours passed by, and before anyone noticed the sun had set, and the night was setting in. It was too late for Erin to take the bus back to Seoul so she stayed with her parents for the night, even if that meant waking up at the ass-crack of dawn so she wouldn't be late for her first class the next day.

Erin had already been asleep for over an hour when she heard her cell phone chirp the first time. She ignored it, at first, reasoning that if it was important, the person would call her instead of texting. Exactly five minutes passed before her phone began ringing.

"Yeah?" She answered groggily.

"I can't sleep," Samuel said, responding to a question Erin didn't ask.

"Guess what I was doing?" She yawned.

"Let's go to the beach."

"Sammy what the hell..." 

"Come on, it'll be fun!" He whispered, even over the phone Erin could tell he was giving her his most convincing smile.

She groaned and argued but rolled out of bed and got dressed, regardless. Not too long after they hung up Erin was awake and shuffling barefoot through the sand, hand in hand with an overly excited high school graduate. 

"The sky is so beautiful at night..." Samuel finally said as he stopped walking just a few feet from the shoreline, Erin was still half asleep and only grunted in response. 

"Erin.... can I ask you something?"

She nodded since her head was pressed against his shoulder and she still didn't feel like making full sentences.

"What's life like after graduation?"

Erin chuckled softly, glancing up at Samuel who was still looking forward at the waves rolling in.

"Is that what this is about? You're worried about what your life will be like now?"

"It's just...." Samuel shuffled awkwardly from the balls of his feet to his heels, "Up until now all the big decisions have been made for me you know? Now it's all up to me and I just want to make my parents proud of me.... I don't know if I can."

"You know your parents will be proud of you no matter what you do with your life. They love you,"

"Loving me isn't the same thing as being proud of me" Sam grumbled and kicked his foot against the sand.

"Come here," Erin sighed and grabbed his hands, pulling him back toward the dry sand. She took a seat and patted the ground next to her.

"Are you planning on selling drugs?"

Samuel smirked and shook his head.

"Your body?" Erin asked in a soft whisper, leaning forward with her eyebrow quirked upward.

"No," Samuel laughed and playfully nudged her shoulder.

"Then nothing else matters. As long as you're doing something that makes you happy and you're doing it to the best of your ability I can guarantee that Jooheon and Subin Park will support 100%. You know that."

Samuel considered her words for a few seconds then nodded, curling up his lips so that his dimples were prominent. "You're right"

"Of course I am..... Just promise me you'll stay happy alright?"

"Yeah...."

"Promise!" Erin repeated and hit him gently on the arm.

"Aish, I promise!" He hissed sharply even thought her hit didn't really hurt "When did my noona get so smart?" Sam simpered and gingerly pinched Erin's cheek. She tried to swat his hand away, but Sammy dodged her attack and launched a counter of his own. Reaching forward, Sam moved his fingers against Erin's sides to playfully tickle her which made her double over with laughter. Erin wasn't overly ticklish, but she was tired and possibly delirious which made her lot more sensitive than usual. Samuel found himself laughing at her amusing reaction as well, her head and upper body fell backward bringing Sammy right along with her. He hovered above her and peered down at her beaming face, it alarmed him just how much he wanted to kiss her at that moment.

Of course, he was already aware that Erin was beautiful, Samuel noticed that from the second he'd laid eyes on her. But this was the first time he was conscious of how much he was attracted to her. Her dark brown hair sprawled out over the sand in spiraling waves around her head as her laughing subsided and her chest rose and fell beneath him Sam was frozen in place above her.

"Are you okay?" She asked and reached up to move the hair that obstructed her view of his face, allowing her index finger to trail along his jawline before resting gently on his chest.

The warmth of her hand permeated throughout his skin, burning a lick of fire throughout his body and that single little touch was all it took to make Samuel lose total control of his senses.

His hand moved upward from her side to cradle Erin's chin. Confusion washed over her face, but any uncertainty about he was planning to do next left her the moment he began moving closer and she did nothing to stop him. Nervously he pressed his lips against hers and Erin's eyelids fluttered shut as she was overcome with a desire she didn't even know she possessed. Her mouth opened slightly and Samuel took that as a sign to continue. He tilted his head to deepen their kiss, his tongue slipping past her lips and tentatively caressing and massaging against hers.

Erin moaned softly and the sound only made it more difficult for Samuel to be sensible about the situation and stop himself before things got out of hand. Instead, the passion between them intensified, his hands began roaming her body freely as Erin's hands travelled underneath his t-shirt and her nails ran down the measure of his back with a light pressure.

The two separated momentarily, racing to catch their breaths as both of them stared the other down like they were seeing each other for the first time. Some awkwardness was expected, but that wasn't quite what they were feeling at that moment. Samuel was the first to smile. His fingertips trailing over her flushed skin, and Erin soon followed and traced the pad of her thumb over his bottom lip before their lips melded together again and Erin felt something stir in her that she was sure she’d never felt before. Her arms wrapped around his neck and she pulled him even closer, her legs parting so that he was slotted between them.

Sammy put all he had into the kiss now, no longer nervous or awkward about kissing her. It felt nice to be like this with his best friend; tongues massaging and bodies wrapped up in one another. He groaned as her nails pressed into his back again, and unconsciously his hips pushed forward to grind against her core as Erin matched each one of his slow strokes with a movement of her own.  He continued to kiss her with passion and fervor, his arm now supporting her lower back and his other hand held the back of her head. Sam slowed down the pace of their kisses, pulling away with her bottom lip caught between his teeth.

Erin's fingers rifled through his hair, a pleasurable moan tumbling from her lips as his mouth kissed a trail down her neck, nipping and sucking the skin there. “You are so beautiful” Sam complimented in a delicate voice as his hand moved from her back to smooth down her side, gripping her hips. His praise made Erin grin and she opened her mouth to respond, but her breath caught in her throat when she felt his hand move beneath the band of her sweatpants to rub outside her panties and stroke the sensitive nub at the apex of her thighs.

The sound of footsteps behind them made Erin's eyes shoot open. A flashlight shone brightly on them and they both froze.

"Yah, perverts! What are you doing down there?" The voice wasn't familiar which mean it was probably a security guard and luckily not one of their parents.

"Oh shit, oh shitshitshitshitshitshit" Samuel panicked and scrambled off Erin's body while she pulled her hoodie over her head to cover her face.

"What do we do?" Erin asked before she felt Sammy grabbed her hand and interlace their fingers.

"Run."

[hey-hamlet]

BNHA AU Ideas : University Professors (in Love)

Also on AO3!

TL;DR:

Due to a long-standing feud between various Law and Science professors, the students from those respective degrees don’t get along very well. What better way to foster some good (or at least non-violent) relations between departments than to start a new science-in-law degree? 

Too bad the Law and Science professors - Yamada Hizashi and Aizawa Shouta, respectively - working on the course together hate each other's guts. 

(Well, until they fall in love.)

Oh and Izuku and Hitoshi are sleep deprived first years running on noodles and Redbull, but what else is new?

this is at a big ass, top tier university

all might is like, the david attenbourgh of this universe but he got injured on set and moved to teaching, he's not that relevant i just wanted to include him because hes a good man

so, aizawa is under all might in the science faculty hierarchy, but not by much considering how young he is. aizawas the animal physiology teacher and does shit tones of research with zoos and shelters for husbandry studies

now, the two big draws of this campus are like the wet sciences and their law section, but the whole campus is pretty swish: like if gatton and st. lucia were connected with land but still as weird as the other.

Now none of you know anything about my uni, so imagine not quite an Ivy League school, but still one of the fancier collages in your state, with a redneck agricultural campus slapped on. But the rednecks are liberals.

Now imagine they are run by the same people

so one of the law lectures retires and they get a new one! its mic! and now aizawa is already pissed. hes dealt with mic before riding his ass in ethics committees and honestly just making life harder for him than it had to be

and the university tells him to reduce the hostility between the two sides of the campus, they are going to be holding some law classes in the animal side and vice versa and aizawa is piiisssssedddd

and then they fucking, start a new animal science/law degree about animal ethics law and aizawa is flipping his fucking lid because all might is already the vet science-vet tech degree co-ordinator and since aizawa is so new, hes the highest-ranking person to not be a degree coordinator

so of course, hes the new degree coordinator

but oh no, nezu isnt done

hes coordinating with mic, and they are the two primary lecturers for the two first, second and third-year compulsory subjects so aizawa is having a mini breakdown rant at allmight in the staff room when mic bursts in to say hello

allmight shoves aizawa in the cupboard and nervously chats to mic as aizawa tries not to make a noise from where he was quickly shoved into a cupboard of skeletons. hes internally saying sorry to the skeleton of that one tutor who donated himself to the uni. mic leaves, allmight helps him out and aizawa is just caught between pissed and flustered tbh

so the science people band together to allow aizawa to drown his sorrows in the nice food on the other side of the campus

and they have fucking, disguised aizawa

hes in one of nemuri's wigs, a pair of sunglasses from snipe and one of the nice lab techs named inko gave him a big puffy coat

and so this pack of science nerds is penguin huddle sprinting to the one ramen shop they all love, trying to hide aizawa from nezu, hizashi, and other random law students/lecturers hes pissed off

so allmight swears he sees hizashi but its nbd he only waves

so they get there, and all give aizawa sympathetic looks and buy him his lunch even though he insists he has money. inko the lab tech is there too bc i love her and she is aggressively mothering aizawa

when they are done they run back to the science side because no one has the courage needed to stop a hoard of sprinting scientists. also: nemuri is the chem lecturer and you should know that

its like the middle of the school year when this starts, so aizawa and hizashi have to scrap together this degree real fucking quickly

even though the both of them have Opinions about the other, they refuse to let their students suffer bc of how poorly planned this was so they knuckle the fuck down and bust out 1.5 years worth of content before the end of the year. they dont do much in person, mostly just emailing

aizawa is softer on mic bc they guy isn't horrific over email. unknown to him mic has developed a full-on crush on this guy

hes like, crying to joke "hes just,,, he wants to do good for his students you know? he isnt just a lecturer for the research money,,, he c a r e s,,,"

the whole god damn science faculty is mothered by the head lab animal tech, inko and they see her fretting about one day, and its turns out this whole fucking time shes had a son and didn't want to say anything bc she didn't wanna impose

(yagi has a big ol crush on her but nbd)

and so shes surrounded by all these nerds asking ab izuku and how old he is, and what he likes to do and they've never seen her happier rambling about her son. She tells them she let slip ab the new degree a little early, and izuku wants to be in it so badly and everyone is real soft

hes graduating next year, so thats even more motivation for aizawa to buck up and make this degree work bc he knows one of the kids now, and from what inkos told him, the boys a good kid

the entire faculty has already adopted izuku

one thing she hasn't mentioned ab izuku is that hes got chronic fatigue syndrome

aka izuku is constantly exhausted, his immune system is a bit shit, and hes in chronic pain that isnt affected by painkillers, other symptoms can just like, pop up, its pretty not understood

anyway, thats the reason izuku wants to get into animal law, not vet practise, bc hes not sure he'll always be able to physically pick up the animals and he doesnt wanna do them like that

anyway, its near the end of the year and its time to set the OP threshold. I have 0 idea how you guys get into uni, but an OP is basically: your grades are ranked, then your subjects are ranked, then your school is ranked by a fancy test. Your OP is the score from 1-25 you get with all that jazz. 1-5 is like: you can do almost anything. 1 is like doctors, vets, law. 1-15 is pretty respectable, under than you might need to do a little fuckery to get into a course.

mic is pushing for like, 10, bc its a new degree

but aizawa isn't having that. op 2 or he wont sign off on it and mic doesnt understand why and aizawa just turns towards him

"im not having animals suffer lower standards than humans. standard law is an op 1. vet science is an op 1. im already making a concession here."

mic swoons a little tbh, they eventually agree on op 5

anyway, izuku has an op 2 so its nbd for him, inko is so proud of her boy! aizawa has a little "thank fuck" moment bc he really did want this kid to get in bc he sounded like a good kid. also, mic's nephew shinso is in the first class! aizawa is actively trying not to remember the kids name so he isn’t a dick to him for 0 reason

there is like a grand total of 80 people in this degree which honestly isnt that bad

super high rate of externals tho, so there are only 50 students on campus

20 students in the campus dorms

izuku is one of them, he was gonna get in anyway but they put him in and gave him a nice first floor room bc making the poor guy walk up and down stairs for no reason is just mean

hes in self-catered bc while hes not super picky, hes allergic to some stuff, and some other stuff makes him sick, so no dining hall

shinso is his nextdoor neighbour. hes in self-catered bc he put his form in late and thats the only spot they had left! he cant cook so save his actual life.

so, mirio is the ra and hes a big soft 4th-year vet, he works out to give the dogs hugs

amajiki is his neighbour he has a cat - i mean - very loud fish (aka: no pets other than fish allowed)

when mirio likes people, he just,,, puts a cat in their face, and insists its a fish until they get it

that cats name is guppy i don’t make the rules

ok so, izuku and shinso meet and bond a bit in freshers’ week (think hazing, but gentle, with loads of games and forced bonding), but shinso is intimidated bc izuku is smiley and social and has loads of friends

and that does a 180 when he gets back to his room after a late-night walk, seeing izuku crying in the kitchen as he waits for the kettle to boil because a hot water bottle is the only thing that might stop his arms from aching

and shinso like, hides bc he gets not wanting people to know what's wrong but from then one he is SUPER protective of izuku

anyway, end of the week izuku confesses that he has chronic pain so he might be a bit grumpy sometimes and shinsou has to be like "oh its nbd" when one day he almost smacked their other neighbour with a piece of frozen steak bc he was making too much noise in the morning when izuku got to sleep really late

on the weekend they play videogames and make popcorn as the other kids go home, and they get visited by inko and Hizashi

inko is mothering izuku and has two very fat rats in her arms that she dumps on him and he lights up

see: izuku isnt allowed pets. but no one said anything about inko

so she got the two softest, dumbest, babiest rats shes ever seen and they live on her desk now. and shinso is like "SONs" and they have rats in their jumpers while all 3 of them play mariokart

hizashi stops by to help shinso cook bc he admitted hes only been eating frozen shit. izuku is gently telling him off bc he could have helped! but shinso is like "no i needed to maintain my cool vibes" so hizashi gently grabs izuku, sets up the two chairs like fluffy thrones and they order shinso around the kitchen like hes a servant

shinso is loosing his actual mind laughing and so is izuku. they force him to make katsu curry and eat it in the kitchen on their thrones while shinso sits on a shitty box fridge. there are more chairs left, hes being extra

so, first day of classes, they have principals of law first, izuku drags his pained ass out of bed and he and shinso make their way to class, both freezing fucking cold holding mugs of hot drink

they sit down

the lecturer is mic

izuku is losing his shit and shinso is like "oh yeah didnt i tell you?" and izuku is trying not to cackle/punch him. he waves sheepishly at mic who waves back with great enthusiasm

mics first class is just

KAHOOT

it’s not even law-related, it’s just random bs animal facts

shinsos name is c a t s and hizashi is losing his mind bc izuku set his name as d o g s r b e t t e r

the lectures r live-streamed so the external students can join in real-time and monomas on the other end like s n a k e

hizashi is losing his actual m i n d, everyone just has variations of their favourite animal

also pwease during this lecture mic is just chatting w the students ab whats going to happen, sees izukus mug of tea and says

"ok and just so everyone knows, please feel free to eat and drink in my lectures, just dont let anyone know i said that

"sir this is being recorded"

"shhhhh"

pls bakugous that one asshole that whips out a full course meal and starts distributing it amongst his squad. bakugo is just a plain law student, but there are some plain law students taking this course as an elective

mic honestly looks bakugo in the eyes, and orders pizza for everyone but him. hes standing in font of the mic so its fucking recorded too. izuku is cackling

ok so, they have an hour break and go to the cafe, inko crashes and smuggles them outside, and gives them the rats

inko and izuku aren't super well off financially bc they are saving for a service dog and its EXPENSIVE, even tho inko makes ok money, husband divorced her bc izuku was sick, izuku has issues, was bullied in school, has had cfs for ages

so inko has these rats bc she "liberated" them from the end of a cosmetics trial she heped nemuri run and nerumi stood infront of the secruity camera and closed her eyes

anyway, next lecture is aizawa's

shinso has vaguely heard ab the guy from hizashi and desperately wants to sit in the back row. izuku has heard ab the guy vaguely from inko and desperately wants to sit in the front row. izuku wins bc they walked in through the lower door and shinso doesnt wanna make the guy walk up all those steps

aizawa walks in, nicely says hello to shinso, izuku and the over kid in the front row, tells the people in the back row that if they think he cant see or hear them from there they have another thing coming, and immediately starts talking ab how many people working in animal-related fields and in law are depressed

izuku raises his hand, while shinso is aggressively trying to pull it down

"yes, kid?"

"what if you're already depressed, professor?"

aizawa pauses, turns off the mic and loses his shit quietly behind his desk, shinso is red and trying to hide, izuku looks proud of himself. aizawa gets himself together, coughs, and turns the mic back on

"seems we had a bit of a technical difficulty, continuing on"

and the whole room loses their shit, and aizawa is grinning like an idiot but his voice is the same pissed monotone as usual

just have to Be There for aizawas lectures like everyone who doesn’t show up is like :///// idk why y’all like him so much he’s kinda boring and izukus like No you have to Be There

in Person

everyone thinks the guy is a boring old man who keeps breaking his computers. in reality, hes like 26, really tired, and keeps losing his shit so hard he turns off the mic so No One Can Know

one time he walked in in hot pink leggings and when he asked "any questions?" ochako (a vet tech student in the class) ask "sir where did you buy those because they look amazing" "the internet, ochako. any other questions."

and bc you cant hear the students all the externals are trying to work out what the question was. it becomes a meme

last day of lectures they all show up in matching leggings. aizawas soft but he Refuses to show them. they fucking found the site he bought them from, all of them have pink leggings in increasingly vibrant shades

shinso's are like, lilac

izukus are eyebleeding, highlighter pink

anyway! mic likes to share the tea from behind the scenes

and so they learn ab the "really sweet department head with a crush on a lab tech" and izuku loses his shit. puts his hand up, and mic says "yeah?"

izuku clambers out of his seat, asks mic to turn the recording off, takes the mic and stares down the class

"that lab tech in my mum and shes smitten for this guy. totally smitten."

'ooOH SHIT REALLY?"

izuku just grins and nods

"ok class, extra credit. can we go through this uni's stance on dating co-workers. anyone who gives me a quick, sighted explanation of whether or not we can hook these two up gets 5% of their final mark, no questions asked"

fuckin, izuku is so on board with this, and tells hizashi he'll leave the assignments on inkos table at home if he wants, the whole class gets so fucking into it

anyway, after all that jazz izuku spots yagi and inko out for coffee together and reports it as a win, the class cheers

as an aside: hizashi is very open ab the fact hes one of 2 degree coordinators but he hasnt mentioned the second

its also very obvious he has a crush on the second, and that hes a little older than them (hizashi is 32, shouta is 26) now, literally no one thinks aizawa is the other

bc hes 26, and wears fucking pink leggings to lectures. hes like, hes baby. hes so small, so young, takes his cat to class in a backpack

its literally only the externals who think he could be bc they think hes like 50. aizawa has the curse of just having great fucking bone structure, hes really god damn hot. half of their love letters pages is people thirsting over him and hes so mad ab it. he doesnt brush his hair and wears dumb clothes but apparently, that makes him relatable or some shit

anyway, hizashi is off-topic talking ab the lab tech that mothers the other course coordinator and shinso sees izuku perk up

they guy has been looking out of it all morning bc hes having a bad day, but wanted to go to lectures. anyway, after the lecture hes scrambles over to hizashi and asks

"oh my god is the other coordinator professor aizawa”

"damn, what gave it away"

"mum mothers him because he never eats and he apparently looks like hes barely 20, which is false, but thats mum for you"

once they get out of lectures izuku is like

"shinso. shinso"

and shinso looks lost

"you know what this means, shinso""

"no. no i dont"

"MATCH MAKING TIME"

[surveys-at-your-service]

Survey #254

“i hate that it seems you were never enough; we were broken and bleeding, but never gave up.”

What’s the best gift you’ve ever gotten? My late dog Teddy. Well technically, it was a container of puppy chow behind the tree, but in essence, him. Has there ever been a person you regret ever being friends with? I don't think so? Do you think you have a good understanding of love? Yes. What do you want to do on your honeymoon? Relax and enjoy quality time w/ my spouse somewhere great. Do you think Medical Marijuana should be legalized? Yes. If you were forced to dye your hair another color, what color would you get? At this current time, silver. What do you think of your parent(s)? I love them, a lot. Who do you talk to on the phone most often? Actually talk, Mom. But I text Sara more. What’s a song that makes you feel happy? Uhhh "</code>" by MIW came to me first. What celebrity would you like to meet? M-M-M-mARk What is your favorite clothing store? I can't really say. I like Hot Topic's content most, but they're really not all that broad in size range, so it seems unfair to say them. What’s a good idea you’ve had recently? Hell if I know, I don't make those. Do you like to wear high heels? No. What are you most excited about right now? Nothing. Would you like to live in a different country? If so which one? Honestly, if it didn't mean leaving Mom behind, I'd go to Canada by now. Recent events have me fucking livid with America's healthcare system. What’s your favorite song from a movie? Like, it was made for the movie? Man, I dunno. Probably something off Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron, though. The soundtrack is magical. Where would you like to volunteer? Realistically, I don't know. A zoo would be incredible, but I handle heat incredibly poorly and also canfuckingnot pick up feces or touch vomit. So, that takes a big chunk out of what volunteers can do there. What’s the last song you listened to? "Another Life" by MIW is on repeat right now and I need to turn it the fuck off because I'm in a bad PTSD episode. Do you like being alone? Sometimes, yes, but not for too long. How do you find new music? YouTube recommendations, usually. What’s your favorite city? I don't have a favorite. I've only ever once been to an even remotely impressive one: Chicago. What’s the last YouTube video you watched? Some tarantula one. I'm fucking addicted to tarantulas now and need a Mexican red knee like now. Once we (hopefully) move, I'm gonna at least try talking Mom into it. Where are you going on your next trip? I don't know. If you had to make a six-hour cross-country journey, would you rather take the train, fly or drive? How come? Fly, if I had the window seat. It's relaxing. How long do your earphones tend to last before the connection goes and you have to replace them? Considering I'm like, constantly using them, Mom says they die fast, judging by how frequently I let her know I need a new pair. She got me a big box of them for Christmas, even. I've got one extra pair left. If you could dye your hair any color in the world, assuming it would look perfect with your coloring, what would you pick and why? Pastel pink bc aesthetic. Are you a fan of musicals? If you are, what ones have you seen live and which ones would you like to see? No. Have you ever had to give up something you were addicted to? Did you actually succeed? Yes. Have you ever had to work (or study) with someone that you really didn’t get along with? How did you deal with it (ignoring them, being nice, etc.)? Maybe at some point, idk. Have you ever had any problems with your wisdom teeth, or have they been taken out already? No. Which one of your senses would you miss the most if you lost it? Hearing, probably. That'd feel so lonely. Do you find your mood changes when you’re hungry or tired? Does eating or sleeping automatically cure you of a bad mood? I can definitely become irritable if I'm extremely hungry and/or tired. Sleeping helps me with a lot of problems, lmao. What’s the stupidest fight you’ve ever gotten into? Did you make up with that person or did you end up losing them over it? Oh idk. Probably something RP-related as a kid. Have you ever gotten really bad travel sickness? Has this put you off travelling or going by certain modes of transport in case it happens again? No, thankfully. What’s your opinion on prostitution? Should it be legal and regulated, or is it something that needs to be gotten rid of completely? I don't support it. Just leaving it at that. If it was a case of prostitution or being evicted from your home, which option would you pick (assuming you’d tried everything else to make money first)? Evict me. Morally, prostituting would kill me. I have family who thankfully I know would let me stay with them. Are you into piercings and tattoos? If not, do you judge people who are, and vice versa? Hell yeah, so I obviously don't judge people who are. What’s your opinion on places like Seaworld? Do you think keeping whales and dolphins in such small enclosures is cruel or a necessary evil? First: I'm not very educated on how similar *all* Seaworlds are. But in regards to keeping whales, it's inhumane as all fuck. They are WAY too big to be held in such a small space for our goddamn amusement. I support zoos who do what they do for conservation and educational purposes, but from my memory of Seaworld, that's not their primary concern. Who is one person that you no longer hang out with? Why did that association end? My former best friend. There's a novel on why I don't associate with her anymore, but the top reason would be she's just a drama magnet that does no wrong. Wonders why her life is so insane and tumultuous while never looking into herself as the potential reason. What was the last item you put into your pants pocket? I don't really wear pants with pockets, but I'm sure in the last case, it woulda been my phone or money. Who was the last person to endanger your life, whether it was accidentally or intentionally? Well I'm certain it was accidental, but idk what the most recent situation would be. What was the last thing you started over on? Job searching, I guess. What was the last task that you completed? Does eating breakfast count? Esp. when you really didn't want it but needed it? Have you ever failed at something extremely important to you? If yes, what? Ah, what a timely question. I dropped out of school for the third fucking time a few days back. When was the last time that you wanted time to move faster? Last night in my regular routine of waking up in the middle of the night twice/thrice. I sleep so poorly that I just want the morning to come at some point so it's "normal" for me to be up. ^Slower? Hm. I dunno. I don't have much reason to want time to slow lately. When was the last time you felt impatient with someone? Currently w/ Mom, but it's at a low level and probably isn't fair feeling impatient in the first place. Who was the last person that you called a “bitch”? I don't know. Probably playfully, anyway. ^Who, if anyone, was the last person to address you by that term? I also don't know. When was the last time you questioned whether or not you were making the right decision? Every time I make one lmao. Has a boy-/girlfriend ever suggested that you might want to lose some weight, or that it might make you look better? lol wow no. What is your idea of “too big” when it comes to weight? Once it comes to a point of infringing on your ability to function normally. ^How about “too thin”? Same as ^, really, it just goes in the opposite direction. Have you ever experienced an overly clinging boy-/girlfriend? Yeah, we lasted two weeks lmao. What is the most annoying thing your family members do on a daily basis, if anything? I only live with Mom, and she doesn't regularly do annoying stuff. With which family member do you get along with the least? The best? Least, my grandma. We've gotten kinda better though now that she's dying. Best, Mom. ^Why do you think that you don’t get along well with that family member? We have very, very averse beliefs and standards. Who is someone that you wish would be there for you more often? My sisters, honestly. Shit's going on with them, I always reach out to let them know I'm here. Something's wrong with me, I never hear a word. Have you ever felt like someone abandoned you? If yes, explain? BIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIITCH- How often do you find that you are bored? Daily, nearly at all times. This is gonna sound pathetic, but I tend to be so bored so regularly that I experience passively suicidal thoughts now and again because I just feel being dead would almost be more exciting. That's something I'll never act on, but yeah. I have mega bad anhedonia. What activity has the best chance of holding your attention for a long period of time? Hm. Playing a game, maybe. Or if I'm watching a really good video on YT. Have you ever decided that you like/dislike someone based on their survey answers? Yup. What previews did you see at the last movie you saw in theaters? Hell if I remember. How many things are you a fan of on Facebook? Wow, a fucking lot. Back in the day I would "like" lots of those pages that just had funny/relatable names, and man does it pay off (usually) now. I Got The Memes. Do you have more friends on Myspace or Facebook? Probably Facebook? I don't really remember the friending process on MySpace besides the "top 8" thing that destroyed friendships, lmao. Have you ever been to a movie that sold out? Maybe? Idk. Have you ever been to a midnight movie? One. What’s your state’s weather usually like this time of year? Too fucking hot. Do you get those leg cramps in the middle of the night? No. What movie last made you too scared to go to sleep? *shrug* Is your cell phone a qwerty (full keyboard) or no? Yeah. What was the last website you logged onto (besides the one you’re on)? PetSmart to apply for a position as pet trainer. I hate chain pet stores, but whatever, I'm desperate. What’s your home page? Google. Do you have split ends? No. When you’re on a laptop, do you hook up a mouse or use the touchpad? I prefer to have a mouse. If you’re learning a language, what year are you in? I'm not anymore. Do you think you’re done growing or will you grow a couple more inches? I'm sure I'm done. What’s your mom’s mom’s name? Cecelia. Have you ever encountered a creepy neighbor? OKAY at my old place where I used to ride my bike all the time, there was this old man way down the road that liked to talk to me but he creeped me out so much that I started turning back before I got in sight of his place. Do you like the foam soap or the liquidy soap? Foam. Do you tend to lean towards bright colors or more subtle colors? Bright. Do you use British spelling even though you’re not British? No; I even change it in surveys a lot, lol. When was the last time you attended a barbecue? I don't have a clue. I don't like them. Can you handle movies involving lots of bugs and insects? Yeah. Are you borrowing books from anybody at the moment? No. What is one similarity between your parents? Christ... they seem incomparable by this point. Do you keep scissors in your kitchen? If so, where? Yes, in the drawer beside the fridge. When was the last time you used a payphone and who were you calling? I've never used one. Have you met everyone who lives on your street? No. Do you have a boyfriend? No. When did you last write out your name? Recently for something at school. Do you like being kissed on the neck? Yeah. What friend can you tell everything to? Sara. Would you be shocked if the last person you had feelings for texted you? No. What if you had a baby with the last person you texted? We're both cis females so physically can't. And neither of us want kids. Who knows your biggest secrets? Mom, Sara, Jason. Do you have any hickeys on you? No. Is there anyone you wish you could fix things with? Yeah. Who is someone that puts up with you no matter what? My mom. When was the last time you cried? Two days ago I sobbed for a good while. Can you honestly say you’re okay right now? Not really. Is there a girl you would do anything for? Anything? No. Is there a boy you would do anything for? No. Who IMed you on Facebook last? My friend Ian, but I haven't read it yet. What color was the last swimsuit you wore? Black. Have you ever been to an auto show? Yooo I remember as a kid, my family went with our friends to a monster truck show, I think it was? I was so not digging it and wanted to go home the whole time. What was the last thing you cooked for dinner? I had one of those Banquet microwavable dinners last night. Spicy chicken and mac 'n cheese. It's fuckin GOOD and really filling. Do you live in the city/town you were born in? No. Have you slept for longer than usual today? No, I slept terrible. Have you ever smoked a cigarette? No. Have you consumed alcohol today? If so, what? No. What’s your go-to website when you’re really bored? YouTube is my general go-to. Who was the main cook of your Thanksgiving meal last year? My sister. Do you have a passport? If so, how many stamps do you have in it? No. Have you ever been dumped really harshly? WHEEZE Have you ever taken classes for a musical instrument? Yes. Have you ever been on vacation with someone other than your family? Yeah. Do you live with your parents? With my mom. Can you do a blackflip, or anything else of that sort? No. What moment in your life have you been most scared? The night of the breakup, particularly when Mom dragged me back inside and I just literally melted. Do you have any exes you can’t stand anymore? What happened to cause you to feel that way about them? No. Do you ever make your own surveys, or just take them? I just take them. Have you ever actually thought you were pregnant? Were you? Yes, but it was entirely illogical, so I obviously wasn't. Anxiety and being terrified of pregnancy is fun. Are you more of a phone or a computer person? Computer. Do you like to cook, or do you prefer when other people cook for you? I don't cook. How old do you think you’ll be when you move out on your own? Who the fuck knows anymore. Do you have a job? If so, where do you work? If not, do you want one? No; yes. Have you ever ripped your pants in public? I don't think so? Do movies such as Saw and The Grudge scare you easily? No. How many best friends do you have? What are their names? One; Sara. What’s the craziest thing you’ve ever been dared to do? Did you do it? No clue. Can you drive? I mean I can, but I'm terrified of it, and my permit is expired anyway. What do you consider to be a good grade? What do you consider to be a bad grade? B; C and below. Have you ever had a teacher who hated you? No. Can you remember who your grade 5 teacher was? Did you like them? Yes, I adored them both. Do you know anybody that has severe allergies? Multiple people. Who was the last person you slow danced with? laskdjflka;jwe What’s your favourite song at the moment? Ah shit man idk. Do you prefer headphones or earbuds? Earbuds. Headphones aggravate my ears. Do you ever ride the city bus? How much does it cost you? We don't even have one here. How do you get to school? N/A What is the last book you read? Did you enjoy it? The first Wings of Fire book, and yes, very much. Do you scream out the answers while watching game shows on TV? Scream, no. I'll say them sometimes, though. Who in your life do you care about more than yourself? Mom, Sara. Jason, probably, as much as I hate to admit that. Would you ever consider adopting a child with a severe mental illness? HYPOTHETICALLY, if I even wanted kids, yes. I'm very empathetic and care a shitload about mental health, so I think I'd be a very good cheerleader for them. Which wild animal would you most like to have as a pet? Again hypothetically, a meerkat, but I DO NOT support them as pets and get very upset when I see them as such. What bill do you hate paying the most? I don't have any. When is the last time you got drunk and danced on a bar? Never. If you could move anywhere and take someone with you, who and where would it be? Sara to the mountains of NC. Favorite non-sexual thing to do with girl/boy? Play games together. Who from high school would you like to run in to? A handful of people.

[shuwuwua]

farmboy!joshua

in which your first time in the rural countryside–crap internet, 20 minute drives to the nearest grocery store, random deer in the roads, and all–is not bad. not bad at all. (aka joshua and animals and being very soft) [fluff]

word count: 3k

disclaimer: not all rural areas are the same. you can get high speed internet. (just not in my personal experience lmao)

you were born, raised, and spent most of your livelihood in the same city

a proper skyscraper sort of city, not a “it’s bigger than a town so i guess we have to call it a city but the tallest building here is still only 4 stories high” city

your family wasn’t really one for vacations but this summer your parents decided to switch it up and spend a few weeks with your relatives who live in the countryside

and although you’ve been skeptical as to what’s possibly worth spending that long in the boonies, you figure it’s been a while since you saw those relatives and don’t say much against it

you’ve tried unsuccessfully for the past few days to avoid nature by browsing YouTube, but it’s proving difficult with your relatives’ lack of surfable internet

they finally suggest you go to the petting zoo

and you snort a little at first bc it’s not your ideal pastime but you suppose that’s what you gotta work with now in the boonies

so you drive to the nearby petting zoo. you exit your car.

and your hit with the Smell™ (of dried grass and poop, to clarify)

and you’re like. oh yeah. i’m definitely in the countryside.

you proceed.

as you walk up the path to the main buildings, you see some of the larger animals around you. horses. cows. the pigs are outside feeding at this hour. you’re kind of in awe because you’ve never seen a Live Cow and,,, they’re kinda cool how they’re so chill and they look sorta Smooth like they’d be really pettable and you wonder if you’d be able to milk one or smthn

but you’re getting a little ahead of yourself.

you open the barn door. and are immediately hit with more Smell™

you wonder if it’ll attach to your clothes. you figure you will deal with it later.

there is something else to deal with at the moment.

“wait, no–lucky! come back!” someone yelps as they rush around in front of you, chasing what seems to be a ball of fur that moves at the speed of light

or a puppy. same thing, really. 

that someone takes a giant leap of faith, only to just barely miss the pup and end up face first on the floor, which you can’t imagine being the most sanitary of surfaces

you look away in search of the flurry of fur. you can’t see it, but you can definitely hear it. unfortunately, it doesn’t sound like it has a collar, so you prepare yourself to scoop it up completely rather than grabbing its collar. as expected, it runs into your direction and you launch at it...

success!

lucky squirms in your grasp, barking and sniffing at your shirt. they must decide that you’re an agreeable human, because they start trying to lick your face

“wow, you caught him!” you look up at seemingly the body from earlier

and like,, not to exaggerate but is this what looking at an angel is like?

the boy you’re looking at looks back with such bright eyes and with a gaze full of affection, although after a second you realize the affection is probably for the dog. he has the best smile you’ve seen in a good while, because people you pass by in the city don’t smile that much. he just radiates Warm and Good and is probably great for business, because he’s just as cute as the puppy who is still going at your chin

“i… yeah, guess i did. uh, you kind of have straw all over you” is what you settle on saying to him, because out of all the things you noticed about him, your brain decides that the straw and dirt still sticking to his cheek and various parts of his shirt were the most acceptable features to point out. while they weren’t the more flattering options, they probably saved you from the complete AWKWARDNESS that would have come from mentioning his eyes or beaming smile or really anything else bc the straw and dirt were the only flaws.

“oh!” he exclaims, straightening up and brushing off his shirt

“… here too,” you say, grasping lucky in one arm as you move your other hand to your cheek

of course, he wipes at the wrong side.

“the other side”

“right. ok. am i good? sorry, that’s not a great first impression.” 

he still has a smear, but you decide it’s probably not going to budge and he’ll figure it out later. and he has no clue what a great first impression it was. clearly. “no, it’s fine.” 

he continues to smile at you and you’re still crouched, clutching lucky. lucky then decides to yelp because he’s tired of the severe lack of attention, which snaps you back to the situation. 

“oh, right.” you stand and give lucky back. 

“here he is!”

once lucky is back in the boy’s arms, he immediately starts to lick at his jaw. the boy sighs and pulls a treat out of the pocket of his apron, waving it around lucky’s face. “what are we going to do with you?” 

he turns back to you. “sorry about that, lucky is a very excited young pupper, as you just saw. the most problematic of all his siblings. anyway, i’m joshua! welcome to nabiya petting zoo. is it your first time here?”

you nod. “er. it’s actually my first time in this area, or in this part of the country, really. i’m from a pretty big city.”

“oh! well, a bigger welcome, then. i hope you enjoy your stay.” 

he rubs lucky between his ears. “isn’t it nice to get away from the busy urban life sometimes? i’ve always thought it’s really relaxing around here.”

“yeah, it seems… nice so far,” you say loosely, reflecting on how you haven’t really seen enough to come to that conclusion

he still has that warm smile. “i’m going to put lucky in his pen. hm… you’re the only one who’s come in so far today, so i could show you around if you want?”

“yeah, sure! i haven’t seen a lot of these before,” you reply, going down the list of animals at the side on the wall.

“ok, i’ll be right back!”

when he comes back y’all walk around n look at things and he asks you if you want to hold or feed some animals and you take everything pretty well, more than even you expect

you look at the normal domestic sort of animals like a litter of kittens, and the pen with lucky and his other pupper brothers and sisters

typical farm animals like pigs and sheep

sheep are not as fluffy as you imagine, they’re actually kind of gross looking if they haven’t had a bath recently

nonetheless you find them kind of cute, and you even pet one of the rams, aptly named… sam the ram

something tells you joshua was responsible for the name

you guys go out to the field and observe some turkeys strutting around

“huh so that’s the thing you see in clipart, the thing hanging off their faces”

“yeah it’s called a snood”

“LOL huH”

“only the dudes have snoods”

“um”

“during mating season, female turkeys pick male turkeys with longer snoods. you could say they’re in the snood for love.”

“please stop”

y’all spend a lot of time with the rabbits bc “bunnies are my favorite animal” says josh as he crouches next to a brown fluffball of a bunny, petting it

it’s just such a Good n Wholesome scene you can’t help but let slip “wow ur so cute”

he looks up, but his expression says he is otherwise unbothered

“sorry, what’d you say?”

“i SA ID the buNNY is sO cuTE” panics

“oh” joshua says. “alright” he turns back to the bunny, a tiny smile on his face

before you know it, 4 hours have passed and your stomach is letting you know dinnertime is approaching, so you bid josh farewell and wonder if you’ll ever see him again because that was a hecking nice 4 hours

you find yourself coming back again two days later lmao

today, joshua is putting out slop for the pigs. he grins at you. 

“hey again. what brings you back so soon?”

you find some excuse like “ykno i just bonded with sam the ram so well i had to come back, we’re bros now” and josh just laughs softly at you

“ok. you wanna look at some horses today?”

“whoa. o-okay.”

when he brings them out ngl you’re kinda intimidated bc like,, they’re some toL bois.

one time you saw a pony at the state fair but that was smol n cute and walked at a pace of 3 miles an hour

but these horses?? threatening. now you understand where the horse in horsepower comes from

“hey, don’t look so scared. they’re harmless!” the black stallion chooses that moment to snort and buck a little. 

you gulp.

“no, really.” he pets the stallion. “snuffles has never hurt anyone.”

you blink

“,,, snuffles ??”

joshua gives you a hard stare. “7 year old me thought that was an appropriate name and today years old me still thinks it’s fine”

you raise your hands to say “ok man ur turf ur way”

joshua clears his throat dramatically and turns back to ,, snuffles. “so aNyway, i brought snuffles out because i think he’s the best for a beginner to ride, and i’m assuming you’ve never ridden a horse before.”

“yeah i haven’t… wait did you say we’re gonna riDE them??”

“yeah, we don’t usually let people do that but i feel like you need the whole farm experience so you can go home and tell your friends the country isn’t just yeehaw and old town”

“but like… isn’t this just proving the point of old town? you literally have the horses in the back.”

“however, my hat is not matte black. i don’t even have a cowboy hat. or Wrangler. or anything else the song mentions. just the horses.”

“ok joshua if it makes u happy i will take snuffles to the old town road”

he gives u a big :D

he instructs you on how to mount the horse and stands behind you in case you start falling but thankfully you don’t so we don’t have to go over any kind of cliche

~ gripping of the waist for balance ~

or

~ catching you in his arms ~

scenes

: ))

“hey, good job! give snuffles some pats or something.” you reach a hand out to stroke the side of snuffles’s face. he whinnies a bit. Well frick, you think, that was kind of cute.

joshua decides he’ll walk some laps around with you before letting you actually ride snuffles by yourself. after you seem to be comfortable, you guys walk/trot around some and that’s how the rest of that afternoon goes :)

picture this with me

the sun is low in the sky

and y’all and your horses are just looking out over the hill

skin lookin immaculate bc it’s the golden hour

a massive grin you don’t even realize you have on your face.

and then you gotta go home, as your stomach reminds you again.

over your stay at your relatives’ place, you visit the petting zoo more times

you and josh become pretty comfortable with each other

he always has a lot of time to spend with you bc people don’t come that much this early in the summer, and in general they don’t get a huge amount of traffic but that’s okay financially bc the petting zoo is just a side thing, it’s mainly his family’s farm

and so you learn more things about him and his family from your times together, you guys sometimes sit around with some lemonade and hold some bunnies. lucky has also taken a liking to you, so you hold him a lot.

joshua tells you about his parents having always wanted to live peaceful and healthy lives, eating their own produce, moved to the area before he was born and it just expanded into the farm.

so although no one lives on the farm, they live pretty close by and he spent most of his childhood around all the animals.

you wonder if he was born with the soft, patient, and gentle nature needed to care for all the animals or if the animals shaped him to be that way.

but on top of that, he really loves spending time with them. even though he’s there basically every day, he never seems tired of his job.

“but what about you though? i’ve never really been that far from here, so i wonder what a big city is like.”

you trade your chaotic urban stories for his peaceful rural ones, and he trades his farm accident horrors for your memories of solidarity in the city.

you tell him about all the great food, countless different flavors of restaurants and a bubble tea chain every few blocks

you tell him about the convenience, the variety of transportation and the proximity of things, like basic groceries

the crowded sidewalks, the crowded metro, the crowded shops

the neon signs that light up the night, the period of quiet and calm somewhere around 3 in the morning, when you can open the window and hear the city nightlife in its most muted yet most raw state.

not only has time in the countryside made you appreciate it more, but also your home life more.

while you’re still wrapped in your memories, joshua smiles softly at you from the side. lemonade long forgotten, ice long melted. “that sounds really nice. your stories make me want to visit you in your hometown some time.”

huh. he could’ve just said visit the city, but he said visit you in your hometown. joshua has such a way with making the conversation personal.

you process what he said again and think about what it’d be like if he came. you could take him to all those places you raved about… it’d be like…

,,, a bunch of dates really. your brain frazzles a bit at the thought.

“… yeah! … that’d be pretty cool.”

and that’s how your afternoons pass these days. lemonade at the side, bunnies in hand, breeze passing through hair.

eventually josh asks you if you want to hang out like… nOT at the petting zoo

and you’re like whoa ok what’s your idea

and he’s like “can you meet me at watchtower hill tomorrow at 8pm?” 

he thinks about what he just said and quickly follows with “i know that’s kind of a really late time, but i promise i have no nefarious intent! oh, shoot that makes it seem like i do. i really don’t i promise! i just wanted to show you what the sunset and night sky are like in the countryside. oh, i just spoiled it…” he flashes you an awkward smile and some finger guns. “yep, that’s what we’re doing! no nefarious activities.”

you grin at him. “calm down dude, i didn’t think like that in the first place. i’m usually out even later at home anyway.”

he rubs the back of his head and laughs it off with you.

you do meet the next day at 8pm. he brings some midnight snacks that his mom made. except they’re not really midnight snacks, because you’re not trying to stay out there until midnight (spoiler: you do, because y’all yak a lot)

you guys sit on your jackets, watching the sunset. it’s the kind of temperature that’s says it was mad hot during the day, but now that the sun is going down, it’s cooled into a pleasant room temperature with an occasional warm breeze. 

for once you all don’t say much, because it’s nice to just share the moment. 

you reflect on how you’ve come to experience the area recently. most of it was the petting zoo, but sometimes you’d take up some of joshua’s suggestions about the area and report back to him how the experience was later on. 

looking out at the sun that bleeds out into the blueish black night, you think that it’s been a pretty good time here, and maybe it does have an edge on city life.

as the last of warm colors finally seep out of the sky, the moon takes over the night and the stars become more apparent than you’ve ever seen before.

seriously, it’s a scene out of a movie. you know, the wide screen shot of the protagonists staring at the sky, mystified. the panorama over the constellations that twinkle down at you, a little gift from the galaxy.

“i’ve never seen the sky like this. all the twinkling lights in the city come from the streets, and the buildings. which are pretty in their own way, i think. but Mother Nature… is really something else,” you say.

“yeah,” he says, looking at you as you’re still in awe at the sky. “something else.”

a few more moments pass, but it’s a timeless night as the sky is frozen in space.

joshua lays back on his jacket.

“hey,, maybe this is sort of crazy but.”

you turn to him, raising a brow.

“it’s been really, uh.. it’s been. really awesome getting to know you. i’ve just kind of… seen the same sorts of things all my life. the same sorts of people. i mean! of course, everyone is unique in their own way but! you know.” he takes a glance at you. “rural folks, urban folks. there’s a difference. so I’ve really enjoyed talking with you. uh, i mean i enjoy talking to you regardless of if you’re from the city or not!”

he puts a palm to his face and sighs. from behind his hand, he says, “i just like you.”

“i like you too, joshua! you’re a really great guy.”

“no, not like that. i mean. i like you.” he finally removes his hand.

you blink a little. and finally burst into a grin. “yeah. i like you too. you’re a really great guy.”

it’s his turn to blink

you lie back as well. he slowly starts to smile next to you

the stars above shine on.

yeah. this is a life you could get used to, too.

a/n: i stole the snood puns from a website i was reading sry website. hope you guys enjoyed and i had a lot of fun writing joshua this way (he’s all squishy, not exactly canon i would say lol)

[mrsjaxtellerfan]

Coming Home (Jax x OC) (Chapter 6)

Hey! New chapter! Cowritten with @lookprettyliveclassyplaydirtyyt. Hope y'all enjoy!

Warnings: cursing, fighting

Chapter 6:    

I rolled over, almost falling off the bed, before feeling Opie’s arms constrict around me so I don’t fall.

“You can’t leave yet, babe.”                  

I positioned myself against his chest, and went back to sleep. When I woke up again, there was a very awake little person between me and Opie trying to wake me up. I was laying on my chest, Opie on his back. I rolled over, and off the bed. I landed on the floor and it knocked the wind outta me. I never realized how high off the ground his bed was.

“Mommy!! Are you okay?” I hear. I open my eyes and see my little girl hanging over the side of the bed, looking at me with wide eyes.

“I’m fine babe.” I sit up and rub my eyes. Opie was still sleeping and he had to go to work soon. “Do you want to go help me make breakfast for Opie?”

“Yeah!!”

We had just finished breakfast when Opie walked into the kitchen.

“There’s my two favorite girls.” He says going to give Sophia a kiss on the head before pecking the side of my head.

“We made you breakfast, daddy!” Sophia says, smiling up at him.

“Thank you, Sophia. Thanks babe.” He says looking at me before pulling me in for an actual kiss.

“Sophia, we have to get you ready for school.”

“I don’t want to go to school, Mommy. I don’t know anyone there.” She says, pouting and running off.

“I’ll get her, why don’t you go get ready.” Opie says, pulling his kutte over his shoulders.

“Wait, Ope. I think I know how to make this work. Kindergarten is a half day. Tell her that if she goes to school for the half day, we will have lunch with you at the clubhouse.”

“They don’t feed her there?” Opie asks

“No, it’s only half day, 8-11. She doesn’t even get a nap.” I walk past him, leaning up to give him a quick kiss and going to grab some clean clothes of my own. I put on some mascara, concealer, color corrector, because red skinned af, and a nude lipstick. I was looking in the mirror, pulling half of my hair back so it was out of my face, when I saw the hickey Opie left on my collarbone. I smiled thinking about what happened last night as I finished my hair.

“She’s ready.” Opie says walking in with Sophia holding his hand, dressed as a superhero.

“You’re so cute babe!” I told her as I bent down to hug her.

“Daddy told me that I was his favorite superhero since I’m so brave at night. He told me that even superheroes have fears, but that they can co-con-conquer anything. He also said you were taking me for lunch with him after school.”

I smiled up at him from the floor. “Alright babe, Opie is gonna follow behind us, make sure we get there safe, walk you in with me. But he won’t be there when I pick you up. I’ll be there right at 11.”

“Okay mommy.”

I help her into the truck and buckle her into her seat. “Did you have fun at school, babe?”

She nods her head yes.

When we pull in, Gemma comes to greet us.

“How was her first day of KG?”

“I don’t know, she hasn’t told me anything. I asked her if she had fun and she shook her head yes, but that’s it.”

Gemma set her down on the ground.

“Daddy!” She yells, running toward Opie once she sees him, completely bypassing Jax. He squats down and wraps his arms around her tiny frame

“Are you gonna tell her?” Gemma asks me after witnessing the scene unfold.

“I want too, Gemma, but I don’t know how much of it she’ll understand. Opie is good for her right now. We took her to the zoo the other day, and she was riding on his shoulders, holding his hand, she would walk in front of us, but turn and look over her shoulder to make sure we were still there. Hell, when a peacock was walking toward her, she came running back to us and Opie picked her up, promising he wouldn’t let it hurt her.” I sighed. “Gemma, I need to tell you why I left Hershey.”

I pull her into the office, closing the blinds in the process, before pulling my shirt up to reveal my mostly healed bruises and some of the scars left over. “Sweetheart…” Gemma trails off.

“I’m safe Gemma. My plan was never to come here, but I’m glad I did. I’m glad Sophia has found her people.” I say, giving her a hug before making my way out of the office and heading toward Opie who was watching Sophia.

“Hey babe.” He says, giving me a kiss.

“Hey. She tell you how school was? All I got was a head nod.”

“No. She didn’t tell me anything.”

Jax walked out of the clubhouse at that moment.

“Ariana, can I talk to you for a second?”

“No, Jax.”  

“It wasn’t a question.” He grabs my arm and drags me away.

“You’re hurting me, Jax.”

“I don’t care about that right now. Why is she still calling him daddy? Why is she scared of birds? Is that a hickey on your neck?”

“You shouldn’t care. I don’t have to answer any of those questions, Jax.”

“She’s still my kid. I deserve to know everything.” He said.

“Maybe so, but I’m her mother and I decide what you get to know and when and honestly, I’m not ready to tell you every or anything at all. She started Kindergarten today.”

“She’s so grown up.” Jax says, tearing up a little. “Why is she dressed as a superhero?”

“She was scared this morning, so Opie told her that she was his hero, and hero’s sometimes have to do things that scare them.”

He sighed, running a hand through his hair. “Ari, I know you hate me, but I’m sorry I was mean to you. I really shouldn’t have been, especially not in front of Sophia.”

“I forgive you, Jax. But I’m not apologizing to you, for anything. You had a chance, and you messed it up. I don’t care how long it’s been, I am not going to let you come in our lives and mess up the system we have. It’s great the way it is.”

“Are you ever gonna tell her the truth?”

“I want too, but I don’t know how much of the truth she’ll understand right now, Jax. Opie is good for her right now. We took her to the zoo the other day, and she was riding on his shoulders, holding his hand, and when she would walk in front of us, she would turn and look over her shoulder to make sure we were still there. Hell, when a peacock was walking toward her, she came running back to us and Opie picked her up, promising he wouldn’t let it hurt her.”

“That should be me, I should be doing that, not Opie. You shouldn’t be keeping her from me. I deserve to get to know her.”

“That doesn’t matter Jax. You had a chance to prove you wanted to be a family and you blew it. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to go wrangle the children.” I leave him standing there heading back to Opie, still watching Sophia run around with Juice and Half-Sac chasing her, playing dinosaur.

“You guys ready to get lunch?” I ask wrapping my arms around Opie’s waist.

“Yes!” Sophia yells before running off toward the clubhouse.

“Sophia! Where are you going?” I yell after her.                

“To ask Juice if he wants to come too! He’s my friend, mommy! Hi Jax!” She yells, running past him.

“Want to ask Gemma too?”  I shout after her.

“JUICEY!!!! Wanna get some sandwiches?” Sophia yells running into the clubhouse                  

“Yeah, I’ll be right there.” She runs out of clubhouse, but stops.

“Opie?” I ask, looking up at Opie.

“Yeah, what’s up babe?”                                    

“I think she’s scared of him.” I say, nodding my head in the direction of Happy, or Howard. I don’t remember. Sophia is standing there looking at him, stepping back until she’s against the wall. I see her looking for me, but she can’t see me and begins to cry.

“I’ll get her.” Opie says, pulling away from me, to put himself between the small child and the biker.

“Daddy.” She hugs his legs, her voice breaking.

“Are you okay, princess?” He asks, picking her up and walking toward me.

“Yeah. I was just a little lost, and I couldn’t see you or mommy. I was going to ask that man to help me find you guys, but I’m little. I can’t talk to strangers, and he scared me.” She says, nuzzling into Opies neck.

“She okay?” I ask once Opie wraps his other arm around my waist.

“Yeah, Hap just scared her, and she couldn’t see us.” He says, looking down at her face and wiping away the little tears.

“Ariana.” Gemma says, coming up next to me, Opie walked away, toward his brothers.

“Hey Gemma. Sophia wanted to know if you wanted to get lunch with us. We were going to get chicken, but she told Juice we are getting sandwiches. So, I guess that means we are going to Subway.” I say, looking to see Chibs braiding Sophia’s hair, her giggling away.    

“I have a lot to do here, baby. How about you guys come over for dinner on Sunday.”  Gemma states leaving no room for discussion.  

“You mean Sunday dinner? Have I ever missed one, Gemma?”

She looks at me with her resting bitch face.

“Okay, don’t answer that. We will be there.”  

Sunday rolls around uneventfully, but I just  can’t seem to shake my nerves of being stuck in a room with Jax.                                    

“Sophia, are you ready to go see Gemma?” I ask her from my spot on Opie’s lap.

“Yeah, I just have to put on my shoes.” She runs to get them after Opie asks her to, her little dress fluttering behind her.                                                                                                      

“Well, I’m glad she likes that dress,” I say moving off of Opie’s lap. “I hated dresses when I was her age.

“Oh, I remember alright. You wouldn’t leave them on. Gemma used to argue with you like no other. I can’t even count the amount of times I saw your underwear seeing as how you couldn’t sit like a lady.” Opie laughs, looking at me sitting properly now.                    

“Remember when she would safety pin the zipper so I had to pull it over my head?”

“I remember you begging Jax to help you take it off, because it kept getting stuck on your big head.”

“And then Gemma caught us trying to get it off, and we somehow roped you into it, and that was the end of it. We agreed on skirts after a few years, but I much prefer to wear shorts. Do you remember her face when she caught us. She was so concerned”  I say looking down at my pencil skirt.

“I don’t know I kind of like you in a skirt.” Opie grins running his hands up my exposed legs.

“Well, maybe I’ll wear them more often then.” I say. before kissing him and getting up to help Sophia buckle her shoes.

“Hey! Come in, come in.” Gemma ushers pulling me in for a hug before picking Sophia up.

“We brought dessert Gemma! Mommy let me help make it, and then I helped daddy with the dishes while mommy took a nap because she had a headache.”

“Kids man, they know everything.” Opie says, walking in to grab a beer and watch the game, leaving me in the kitchen with Gemma.

“How are things going with that, sweetheart?” Gemma asks.

“They’re good. Opie is a good dad. He helped me take her to school on his day off, and it was the first time the teacher didn’t have to pull a crying kid out of our arms. I think she’s adjusting well.” I say.

“That’s good. Have you thought anymore about telling her? Or letting Jax see her?”

“Gemma, leave it alone, please! I need time.”

“We go’ a problem.” Chibs says, walking into the kitchen.

“What is it?” Gemma asks.

“Sophia ‘s having a bit o’ a breakdown.”

“Where is she?” I ask Chibs, hoping this is all a simple misunderstanding.

“In da spare room. Opie took the little lass in there, but she’s asking for you. Fair warning, Jax ‘s in there too.”

“Thank you, Chibs.” I say and walk into the spare room with Gemma following behind me. Opie is sitting in a chair trying to calm her down, so I squat down on the floor.

“Baby, what’s wrong?” I ask taking her from Opie.

“Mommy, the birds, they tried to get me.” She sobs, burying her face in my neck.

“Baby, the birds are in a cage, they can’t get you. I promise.” I say looking up at Gemma when Sophia’s breathing finally begins to even out. I hand her back to Opie and stand up. “You gonna stare at me, Jax, or are you gonna ask the obvious question.”

“Mommy, where’s Juicey? I want him to hold me.” Sophia says.

“He’s in the other room. I’ll take ya, let’s let mommy and Jax talk.” Opie says, him and Gemma make to leave the room with Sophia before being stopped by me speaking up.

“Opie, I think you should stay for this, Gemma can get Juice.”

“Okay, go with Gemma, baby.” Opie says, handing Sophia to Gemma.

“Make sure you come back, Gemma, you need to hear this too, and also maybe Clay. Just in case you guys ever need to watch her here.”

“Okay, I’ll be back.” Gemma states leaving the room with Sophia.

“I’ll be right back, I need to tell Tara I’ll be a few.” Jax states, making his way to find Tara, leaving Opie and I alone.

“You sure you wanna tell them?” Opie asks, sitting me down on the bed wrapping an arm around my shoulders.

“They need to know. Gemma, because I slipped up and told her, and if I trust anyone to babysit, it’s her. Jax, because I’m never gonna hear the end of it if I don’t, and Clay, because he stood in as my dad for so many years.” I say, cuddling into his side. Jax comes back in Gemma following behind. He scoffs seeing Opie holding me.

“Don’t be an asshole, Jax.” Clay states, walks into the room.

“Why was Sophia crying because of the birds, sweetheart?” Gemma asked.

“Darren, my ex, was abusive. He never hit Sophia, but she would see it, he was emotionally abusive toward her and mentally, but never physically. Anyways, when he would come home drunk, he would beat me. He had this big, black bird tattoo on his back and Sophia would see that, as he beat me, so now, every time she sees a bird, she thinks he is going to hurt me.” I pull my shirt out of skirt and lift it up, showing the scars on my chest and back. “She is terrified, and there isn’t anything I can do, that anyone can do, and it’s all my fault.” I sit down in the chair, put my head in my hands, and sob. Gemma squats down pulling me in for a hug.

“You knew and you didn’t tell me!” Jax yells accusingly at Opie.

“I didn’t think you’d care, with the way you’ve been acting toward Ariana.” Opie fires back, rubbing my back.

“What the fuck is wrong with you?” Jax exclaims, pushing Opie only to have Clay step between them.

“Knock it off, both of you.” Clay says.

“I need to go check on Sophia.” I get up and walk out of the room, tucking my shirt back into my skirt as I do.

“Mommy! Juicey let me dress him up!”

“That’s… Wow. Juice, purple is definitely your color.” I look around the room at all the guys, dressed up in one way or another, especially Happy.

“Don’t they look pretty , mommy?” Sophia asks looking up at me.

“They sure do! I bet if you ask nicely, Opie will let you put a bow in his hair.” She goes running into the other room with a pink bow.

“Where did she get the dress up stuff?” I question, looking at the room of men dressed in pink and purple bows or crowns.

“We all brought her stuff.” Juice shrugs.

“You guys didn’t have to do that.” I said to him.

“We wanted too. It’s not very often we get to have a little girl running around.” Happy replies, adjusting his purple feather boa.

“Jax, can I dress you up, too?” Sophia asks coming back into the room holding Opie’s hand, a pink bow in his hair.

“Um…” Jax trails off looking at the room of men. “Yeah, sure darlin’, anything you want.”

“You get the purple crown! You seem like a purple princess.” Sophia exclaims, putting the crown on his head, and a bright pink feather boa around his neck.

“Clay, you’re next.” Gemma says, putting a feather boa around his shoulders.

“Please! Let me make you pretty!” Sophia exclaims, running up to Clay, being pulled up in his arms.

“You got it princess.” Clay says as Opie hands her the last two bows, leaving one for Gemma, and asks her which one.

“Pretty pink for Clay! Red for Gemma! Mommy, will you give it to Gemma?” She says, holding the bow out to me.

“Jax, can I talk to you outside?” Tara, whom I forgot was even here, asks with a pissed off expression.

“Tara, you need a pretty boa!” Sophia exclaims, running toward the brunette.

“Sophia.” I say to her, and she stops and looks at me. “Do I get a bow?” She turns and runs toward me

“Yes!”

“Jax, what the hell is all of this?” Tara asks once they are outside.

“What are you talking about?” Jax asks.

“You left me, to deal with your daughter, whom I didn’t even know existed until a few weeks ago, and here you are, with a purple tiara in your hair, acting like nothing is wrong.”

“You don’t get it, Tara. I left to deal with my daughter, because she is MY daughter.”

“Why would you sleep with Ariana of all people!? You know she was in love with you!” Tara yells.

“We were drunk when it happened. I don’t regret it. I have a beautiful daughter because of it. I regret making Ariana feel like she had to take her away from me, like I didn’t want her.” Jax yelled back at her.

“How can you say that? You have a choice to make. Me or them. I can’t keep playing games with you, Jax.”

“I can make it work. I can make it work with you and them. I can be her dad, and Abels, and you can be in my life. You can’t make me choose.”

“What about me, Jax? What about I want? Does any of that matter to you?”

“Of course it does, but if you are asking me to choose between my family and you, well even though I hate to say it, I will always choose them. That little girl in there is my blood, I’ve missed enough of her life and I’m not about to miss more because of you. You chose to leave, Tara. Maybe if you had stayed, things would be different, but you can’t come in here and give me this kind of ultimatum.”

“Then I’m done. You made your choice, don’t come knocking at my door when you decide you don’t want to be dad.”

“That won’t happen. I want you to stay, Tara, get to know Sophia, you might like her. Just give this a chance.”

“I can’t.”

“Please, Tara? I need you.”

“If you needed me, then you would do what I ask and leave them be.”

“Is this about Sophia, or are you jealous of Ariana?”

“You have always paid more attention to her! It has always been about taking care of her! You never had time for me in your life. I’m not going to sit idly by while you go back to the woman you’ve been in love with since I’ve known you.”

“I had to take care of her. You know I think of her like a sister.”

“It’s obvious to everyone except you and her. You love her.”

“No. I love my daughter. Now please come back inside. If you’re that worried about it, I’ll ask Opie to reign her in, leave you alone.”

“It’s not about her being around me, she hasn’t done anything to me, it’s about the fact that you are so blindly in love with Ariana! You sit here and pretend like you aren’t, but literally everyone knows you are! Honestly, I think you are starting to believe the lies you have been telling yourself. Does it make you feel better? Having me, but trying to get her! You wouldn’t have reacted the way you did to her and Opie if you weren’t in love with her!”

“I reacted the way I did because she is letting my daughter call him Daddy.”

“You seriously don’t see it, do you, Jax! Ariana doesn’t care because she hasn’t corrected her. Why can’t you just let it go? She doesn’t love you!”

“My daughter is calling another man daddy, who knows how many others there could have been? I am going to be in her life, whether she knows I am her dad or not.”

“Gemma wants to know if you guys are going to come back inside and eat, or make my kid starve all night.” Opie said, sticking his head out the window and looking smugly at them, smiling.

“She’s not your kid.” Jax says to him, walking in the door. “You coming back in or not?” He asks, looking back at Tara.

“I’m leaving. Don’t bother coming by.”

“Alright, whatever.” Jax replies shutting the door behind him, making his way in to find Sophia.

“I want to sit by Jax!” Sophia yells, bounding up to him grabbing at his legs.

“Not tonight, sweetheart.” Opie says. “Jax is upset, he might make you sad, but I bet he would be willing to join us for lunch tomorrow.” Opie looks up at him

“She can sit by me if she wants to, Opie.” Jax states, pulling Sophia up into a hug. “Of course I’ll join you guys for lunch too.” Jax says, hugging her.

“Let her sit by him, Opie, there’s no point in fighting it.” I state, putting my hand in his, and giving him a kiss on the cheek. “He just has to make sure she eats an entire plate that I make her, or she doesn’t get dessert.

“Fine.” Opie huffs, Jax sending him a satisfied smirk.

“Yeah, Opie, let her sit by me. I’ll make sure she eats all of her food, scouts honor.” Jax says, with one hand in the air and winks.

“Sophia, Gemma got creamed corn, your favorite.” I say to her, smiling.

“Yay!” Sophia exclaims excitedly and claps her hands.

Jax carries her over to the table, grabs her booster, and puts it in the chair next to him. He sits her down in it, and I put her plate in front of her. “Jax, you might have to…”

“Cut her chicken for her, I know.” He says, cutting Opie off.

“I don’t want carrots, mommy.” Sophia wines, just like Jax used too.

“You need to eat your carrots, Sophia.” I state.

“Mommy, I don’t like carrots.” Sophia says, pouting.

“Too bad. You’re going to eat them anyway.” I tell her.

“You know Sophia, I don’t like carrots either. How about we suffer through it together?” Jax asks, putting carrots on his plate as well.

“Okay, carrot buddy! That’s your new nickname, but only I can call you that, okay?” She says, looking up at Jax, batting her eyelashes at him, just like I used to when we were younger and I wanted something.

“Okay, darlin’, you can call me whatever you want.” He says, falling for it, just like he used to with me. Maybe he wouldn’t be a bad dad. No Ariana, you’re with Opie, and you and Sophia are happy. Don’t mess this up, especially not for someone who could never love you.  Opie loves you, this is good for all of us.

“Jax?” Sophia says.

“Yeah, darlin’?”

“Pinky promise me you won’t leave. You’re one of my best friends.” She says.

“I pinky promise.” Jax states, holding his pinky out to grasp her much smaller one.

“Where did your friend go?” Sophia asks after shaking pinkies.

“She had to go, uhm, to… Work. She had to go to work. She’s pretty busy at work, I don’t think she will be around much anymore. She helped save Abels life you know?”

“She did? That’s so cool! I want to help change peoples lives!”

“You will, sweetheart.” Jax says looking at her adoringly as she eats her dinner. “You already have changed lives, and I am sure you will continue to.”

“Gemma, can I call you grandma? I don’t have a grandma, but I want one. Everyone else in my class has one.”

“Oh, of course you can, baby! Nothing would make me happier.” Gemma says, beaming.

“Would that make Clay my grandpa then?” Sophia asks.

“Pops. Not Grandpa.” Clay replies, smiling at her.

“I’m not to sure I like where this is going.” Opie whispers to me.

“Just let it be for right now. If it becomes a thing, we can set some ground rules.” I whisper back to him. “I just can't help it, she’s so happy, Ope. That is all I want for her.”

“Fine.” Opie sighs, I know we are going to argue about it later. Dinner finishes without a hitch, Sophia excitedly talking Jax’s ear off on the floor.

“Ready?” I ask Sophia.

“I don't want to leave. I want to stay with grandma Gemma!”

“Opie, what do you think?” I ask, looking at him, trying to diffuse the situation.

“It isn’t his choice, it’s yours.” Jax states from his spot on the floor with Sophia.

“Mommy, you can stay too, and daddy.”

“No sweetie, we are going to go home. You sure you wanna stay?”

“Yes!!”

“Ask Gemma.”

“Grandma, is it okay if I stay the night? Jax can take me to school tomorrow.”

“Jax, can I talk to you for a minute?” I ask.

“Yeah. Sophia, give Opie a hug before he takes your mom home.” He gets up off the floor and we go into the spare room.

“You can stay with her tonight, but you don’t get to tell her anything. You are her friend.”

“Of course. Thank you!”

“Don’t make me regret this, Jax.”

“I won’t, I promise. I can take her to school.” Jax says, pulling me into a hug.

“You have to sign her in. You and Opie are emergency contacts, and I will put Gemma down as one too when I pick her up tomorrow. When you sign her in, make sure she knows that I will be picking her up. And Jax, can we keep this between us. Opie doesn’t need to know you are staying.”

“She’s my daughter, Opie has to get used to that fact. He doesn’t get a say in what happens between our family.”

“Jax, please. Just for right now, and you can’t strap a booster seat to your bike, so you’re going to have to drive her to school in the death cage. She has to be there at 8.”

“Okay, I’ll let it go for now, but we need to have a talk about this.”

“Thank you, Jax!” I pull him into a hug before heading back in to hug Sophia.

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[prettywordsyouleft]

Dad! Kang Daniel A-Z

So I see a lot of those NSFW A-Z’s of idols and decided to try something different and do Dad! Daniel A-Z. I hope you like this, it was a bit of fun for the afternoon! These are just my thoughts, not what I expect Daniel to do in the future lol!

I’m open to writing actual Dad! Daniel fictions in the future too, if you’d like something more than scenario based!

AFFECTION

Daniel is very affectionate with his children. He loves cuddling with them, and was sad when the older girls started to grow out of enjoying his hugs constantly. He loved the feeling of being their security blanket, and relishes it whenever they let him now.

BIRTH

He was there throughout every birth. He couldn’t imagine letting you go through it all alone. Anything you needed, he got you. The type to come with a bag of snacks that he knows you like, but eats them himself because he’s grown nervous. After the first child he had a little more understanding of what was going to happen, but since each delivery was different, he would still find himself questioning how to be your biggest support. Wanted to cut the umbilical cord of your first child but felt too hesitant. Definitely did it for the others.

CONSISTENCY

Daniel is mostly consistent and follows through with your mutual parenting regime. If he’s really tired he’s most likely to give in then, and so you try your best to make sure he isn’t left alone when in that state - after your daughter convinced him to buy her the expensive doll house you had told her she couldn’t get, you weren’t prepared to take any further chances.

DAD SKILLS

Understanding how to communicate well with each of your children depending on their age and stage. Changes his language to suit their needs and all your children have always felt at ease because communication for needs and wants flows easily.

EDUCATION

Hands on approach more so than with books. Likes to set up fun experiments in the weekends to teach and play with. Very interested in sports and helps his children with them. Likes being involved in the school as much as he can and fosters a program for performance. Your children that are in school are all pretty well known because of their Dad and are very proud to point out their Dad whenever they see him at school too.

FUN

Has almost as much fun playing with some of the toys and activities as your kids do. Is known as the fun Dad within the neighbourhood and at school. The type to not batter an eye through an intense pretend tea party with the girls, and gets really into eating all that yummy pretend cake that it makes you laugh.

GETTING THROUGH PREGNANCY

Daniel was always supportive. The type to get up and buy you the thing you’re craving at 3am even if he’s just rolled into bed an hour ago. Was always worried when you suffered from morning sickness, even after the first born. Went to every scan and read pregnancy books with you in preparation. Knew when to comply and challenge your hormonal behaviours well.

HOW MANY

Four. You wanted two, he wanted three, somehow you ended up with an extra. Three girls and a boy. Whilst Daniel was thankful for his son to not outnumber him alone, he loves raising little girls and is pretty chuffed to be known as the Daughter-Daddy within your group of friends. Does a lot of rough and tough with his son, after years of tea-parties, he’s all too happy to have a son to experience new adventures with.

INTIMACY

Despite having children, your intimacy is still pretty decent. The kids groan cheekily whenever they see you both kiss, but hugging is constantly something Daniel does with you regardless. The kids all love it, snuggling up for movie night is a family favourite.

Your sex life isn’t as active as it once was, about 1-2 times a week. Which when you think about it, with four kids, it’s pretty great to be that active still!

JOB

Daniel’s idol life continued through the first baby, but after that he opted to run his own company, helping train idols with the knowledge that he gained through a very successful career. He still managed to do spot performances with WANNA ONE for anniversaries, and with his fellow MMO members, but he knew with four kids, and his age, he needed to find something more stable and city-based. His schedule was still packed, but he ensured he made time in it for activities with his family too.

KID FREE TIMES

You both made a point to have date night every fortnight where you went out for the night. Admittedly you both messed up in the beginning, still talking about the kids, but after setting the rule not to discuss anything parenting wise, your date nights became something you both looked forward to a lot.

Whenever the kids were in bed and you both were home you’d just cuddle up and catch up with each other and waking up in the morning without a kid(s) in between you was rare, but very well received (and an easy way to get in one of those more intimate sessions – normally quickly with the thrill of getting it out of the way before being disturbed to start the daily grind, hah!)

You were both looking forward to the times where your kids could go on camp, but it was a wee way off to have all four out at the same time.

LIMITS

Since he works with large groups of young people every day, loudness is never a problem for Daniel. Nor is bustling activity, because he could just lay there and supervise if he was feeling a little tired. However what he couldn’t handle was the children fighting. He literally struggled with seeing them argue or physically hit each other, it really got under his skin. He would come down on them all pretty hard then, almost regretting it as soon as his harsh words left his mouth. He would often feel pretty low after it too, turning to you for support and building himself back up as a parent.

He also found the department store with four kids all wanting this that and another thing as well; all too overwhelming and either buy them everything or nothing at all to deal with the environmental chaos.

MUM ONLY

Daniel was pretty hands on with most things, but the one thing he couldn’t deal with is sickness. If one of the kids was sick, he panicked so much that your calm and collected approach was the one chosen in the end. He’d always flitter outside the door worriedly asking you how they are every few moments, and when your second daughter broke her arm falling off her bike he was an absolute wreck. He really is emotional for his kids. Funny thing, he could take very good care of you if you’re sick. Which with four kids, when it made its rounds, you were very grateful you had him for nursing you back to health.

NUTRITION

Loves making meals for his family with you. As a unit you’re both big on meal prep. Looked up good healthy kids snacks and most of the time insists on them. But also the type to blow their entire diet and throw them on a sugar high at least once a month as a treat. Uses ice-cream as a bribery tactic often. When your eldest daughter had her first dental check and had early tooth decay signs in one of her baby teeth (lol), Daniel insisted on a month long stringent of eating well, until the tooth fell out and he realised that brushing twice a day and eating well in moderation was better than preventing pretend cake at the tea parties. The girls had been very anti-Daddy during that stage.

OUTER VILLAGE

Very close with Seongwoo’s, Jisung’s and Minhyun’s families especially and every summer would organise a vacation together. Would turn to Minhyun for a lot of parenting advice, even when you were the first out of the group to give birth. Good thing Minhyun’s full of sound knowledge!

PETS

You still have three cats and although he wanted more, it was hard for Daniel to share his cats with his kids. They would pull their tails and Daniel would just about dive on them to protect them. Spent a lot of time teaching the children the importance of respecting animals. Takes them to petting zoos often whenever he feels like there’s just not enough paws at home. Tried to convince you along with your third daughter that another cat would match the number of kids, but you didn’t buy into it so three it remains.

QUALITY TIME

Despite his schedule, Daniel insists on quality one on one time with his children. He takes each girl on a Daddy date which they all love, and often goes out with your son to play. Tries to read to each child before bed in the weekends, though your eldest now reads to him and puts him to sleep instead, oops.

REPRIMANDING

Daniel isn’t the type to like telling your children off. He’d rather negotiate and find a happy medium than scold and take things from them. He’s a sucker for their tears too, but overall if he has to; he will give them consequences and will stick to them too. Usually the harshest when he finds them physically pushing one another around, and he really has no time for disrespect in his household.

SPOILED?

Yep. The “perks” of raising three princesses means they all have princess rooms and all the things they generally wanted, except the knight in shining armour (Daniel is not prepared for this stage and often worries about it even though your eldest is only seven lol). His son has the latest games, a bunch of bikes and skateboards and the backyard is full of play equipment to entertain them for hours. The type to think of his children (and you) and buy little gifts whenever he travels. Hates when you purge the toy room as much as the kids do. He tries to be modest but the fact is, the kids have him whipped, sigh.

TECHNOLOGY

Prefers your kids to have fresh air and exercise over being in front of devices. You mirror these thoughts and were very conscious about how much time they got in front of technology. Is freaking out about when puberty hits, since your eldest is already asking for her first phone.

UNCLE

Known also as the fun uncle. Invites all the kids over in the weekend and lets them play on all the fun things at your house. Believes in child play being the best time of your lives and really instils this in all children he crosses paths with. Sungwoon is always whining to you that his son loves Daniel more than him. Comes up with crazy over the top children days with Jaehwan and you’ve given up trying to calm them down.

VALUES

Believes a family that talks about how much they love each other is the type to have a good constant flow of communication. And so he always makes sure everyone is talking well to each other, and it’s why he gets so upset when the children pick on each other.

WHAT CHANGED MOST

You wonder where your homebody of a husband went, but having kids truly made him want to make life as magical as he could for them. Even though he loved staying home, he’d always be pottering around the house doing something with them. It was somewhat a plus, because it meant you could do your own things when he was home, and allowed you some much needed me-time, but the change could still throw you off some days.

X-FACTOR (TALENTS)

Was very into seeing what talents your children would have early on and supporting it immediately. Your kids had gone through various hobbies like they had their underwear at times, but eventually you found that your eldest loved dance, your second child was in gymnastics, third loved horse riding, and your son was playing soccer and hockey. Daniel was very attentive to any need they had for pursuing their interests and was a very proud Dad with all their achievements.

YEARNING

Daniel’s life dream from here is almost complete. He’d love to move to the country one day, to let your children run free, but he likes the city life too, knowing how accessible it is for good education and amenities. Admittedly he’s happy with his four kids, but now and then, especially since Daehwi’s got his first kid on the way, Daniel can’t help but envision you pregnant again, he loved rubbing at your baby bump whenever you were pregnant.

ZZZs (SLEEP)

The kids’ bedtime starts at 7pm and the older two have until 8pm which is generally the busiest time of the night, considering it’s you putting all of them to bed alone because Daniel’s still at work. You have a routine in place which thankfully works, and you’re able to get a few hours peace to yourself until bed around midnight. Daniel is generally home around 10pm. In the weekends you both aim to sleep in, but due to poor sleep schedules from being an idol, Daniel still rises to his current schedule. Which is great because weekend cartoons with the kids is one of his favourite morning pastimes.

[simplycarrie]

yeethaw and welcome to ‘sierra drops a muse because she’s bored’ i’m your host sierra. and i’m here to introduce you to my smol kid Carrington, who might i add broke my streak of space names but whatever. also i’m 110% sure this bio is going to be a) long and b) something v different from what i usually do

╰☆╮ HALEY LU RICHARDSON ─ CARRINGTON ‘CARRIE’ ALDERIDGE-SANGSTER identifies as CIS-FEMALE and uses SHE/HER pronouns. they’re a SINGER-SONGWRITER/ACTRESS, and they’re only TWENTY ! they’re said to be WARM-HEARTED, but also DOGMATIC. i guess that’s why they’re known as THE FERVOUR in the tabloids. ( florence welch / lauren jauregui )

the baby doll + the contingent — aka her early years [ infant to 12. musings: 01. 02. 03. 04. ]

carrington amelia elizabeth alderidge-sangster was subject to the same cruelty as her half-sister anastasia, getting the longest fucking name possible. although she doesn’t go by carrington, both her friends and family call her ‘carrie’

she was born june 30th making her a cancer: ‘ the crab. cancerians are seen as sensitive and emotional, and in fact they are. they’re the cry babies of the zodiac, though they’re a lot tougher than people give them credit for. they’re maternal and caring and empathetic as all heck, with a tendency towards traditional values- deep down, they want the white picket fence. along with virgo and libra, they’re one of the most romantic of the signs.’ but this information won’t be relevant until later

was v spoiled as child, and got basically anything she wanted? caused her to be a bit of a brat as a kid and she constantly needed validation from others. she had the picture perfect childhood if we’re being completely honest

always wanted attention, always needed to make sure that she knew other people were aware that she needed their attention

then she was shipped off to le rosey to follow in her sister anastasia’s footsteps and boy oh boy thing changed for her

the sovereign + the opulent — aka her teenage years [ 13 to 18. musings: 01. 02. 03. 04. ]

remember how i said that carrington was very needy and constantly wanted validation? yeah just about the moment she stepped foot on the lush green grass of le rosey she changed

was immediately the girl who was colgate smiles and perfect posture on school brochures, brandishing a tennis racket beneath a blurb about the institute’s proficiency in churning out well-rounded pupils, but underneath? she was the devil’s reincarnate of blair waldorf.

although her sister was two years ahead of her but left a reputation behind with her, and so in turn carrington was immediately popular, and she used it to her advantage

mixing in her family’s pre-established wealth ( which she flaunted at literally every opportunity she got ) with new-found popularity carrington ruled the school brandishing a fashionably velvet fist

she was bitchy to everyone, she disregarded other people’s feelings was callous and abrasive, and didn’t care what anyone had to say about her ( because she’d end up ruining their reputation and smiling in their face afterwards )

although her family wanted her to be like anastasia playing tennis and being the model student ( which she was for her first year ) she ended up finding her passion for music, quickly joining and leading le rosey’s school choir

carrington was smarter than anyone ( including herself ) gave her credit for, she aced all of her classes, and was on the road to becoming le rosey’s next valedictorian

then, she met him. the supposed ‘love of her life’. the one who was so close to making her soften and lose track of her studies, and just run away with him. until, she found someone ‘better’ stabbing him in the back, and promptly sashaying away from the damage

though leaving him was perhaps the biggest mistake she ever made, the ‘better’ thing she found turned out to be much worse. she was abused emotionally and physically, and they had sex whenever he felt like it.

suddenly she was with child, and in a panic she called stas, who took her to get an abortion without her family knowing, to this day stas is the only person knows about her daughter that never came to be, supposed to be named cornelia anastasia daphne alderidge-sangster

finally senior year approached and not wanting to break her facade carrington continued on her studies, and when she graduated she was given the honor of valedictorian ( along with winning prom queen at both her junior and senior prom )

the fervour + the fallen angel — aka the current years [ 19 to present. musings: 01. 02. 03. 04. ]

carrington had plenty of offers to go to college, but the one she settled on was the juilliard school in manhattan, new york she earned her aa in both acting and vocal arts, and also has full intentions of returning to juilliard in the spring to achieve her ba in those same two things

of course carrington’s talents didn’t go unnoticed, she was quickly offered a netflix show which is currently recording it’s first season, being one of the top rated netflix comedies/dramas ( think ‘one day at a time’ and ‘brooklyn nine-nine’ )

she’s very different from when she was a teenager, after her mother fell ill, and her step-father passed away she’s become very sensitive to the feelings of others, and her own feelings, she’s very maternal and will try to protect everyone, no matter how atrocious of a job she does

she’s very much a hopeless romantic, she’s read each and every single one of stas’s books at least five times, and she wants a love so deep she won’t have enough words in the english language to describe it

falls in love with just about anyone, no matter how bad they are for her, you could do something as nice as hold the door open for her, and immediately she’s falling head over heels for you, thinking about you, and planning your wedding together

wanted connections: ( there’s a lot skskksks )

familial —

half sibling - [ musings: 01. 02. 03. 04. ] anastasia daphne margeurite sangster. when they grew up carrington was a bit of a brat, and they didn’t get along to well, but after spending so many years together they’ve not only become sisters, but also best friends.

romantic —

high school sweethearts - [ musings: 01. 02. 03. 04. ] the boyfriend that she met and dumped at le rosey, she was in love with him, truly she was, and maybe a huge part of her always will be but she like to think that ship has long since sailed.

long distance relationship - [ musings: 01. 02. 03. 04. ] an online relationship; something that actually lasted for a good while? he would’ve still been at le rosey so they’ve never met in person but something soft where they called and skyped all the time but over time things fizzled out because she got so busy with his school and work.

secret relationship - [ musings: 01. 02. 03. 04. ] although carrington still isn’t out as bisexual, this was always the case, at one point she had to hide the relationship between her and the girl she loved, which is perhaps why it ended, but despite it all carrington will always love her to some degree.

toxic relationship - [ musings: 01. 02. 03. 04. ] carrington probably got cheated on by this person, and dumped multiple times, but there was something about them that just made her keep coming back for more, and she did every single time. until one day, she just didn’t. Or maybe they didn’t come back, or maybe she moved on, either way they haven’t spoken since.

pr relationship - [ musings: 01. 02. 03. 04. ] carrington is essentially america’s sweetheart, i mean imagine an heiress, turned singer-songwriter, and now a house favorite sitcom star, where’s the blemish in her status? that’s exactly what happened when their agents set these two up, i mean after all, how hard can faking a relationship be?

skinny love - [ musings: 01. 02. 03. 04. ] carrington has an extremely bad habit of falling in love with people, the only twist is this time this person fell back, except carrington is much too afraid to admit to herself that they’ve moved their relationship past being ‘just friends’ and so she doesn’t.

unrequited crush - [ musings: 01. 02. 03. 04. ] like i stated previously carrington has a really bad tendency to fall in love with those who don’t want her back, and this time is obviously no different, she’s probably never told them about her crush, and has absolutely zero intention to do so, but we all new york has a funny way of making people confess.

fwb - [ musings: 01. 02. 03. 04. ] carrington is far from being known for her sexual prowess, but she is known for getting her heart broken, and that’s exactly what happens every time these two hook up. carrington tries convincing herself that it’s normal, and most of the time she’s successful, but every now and then she can’t help but wonder if they should stick to being just friends, after all she gets attached far too easily.

platonic —

squad - [ musings: 01. 02. 03. 04. ] oh gosh these four have been inseparable from the moment they met, sure they fight but in the end, no matter what, they promised each other that they would stay friends until the very end.

best friend -  [ musings: 01. 02. 03. 04. ] after being the devil’s reincarnate throughout high school, carrington kinda pushed away the idea a best friend, she simply shrugged off the thought of finding someone who could understand herm and then suddenly she found them, her best friend, she loves them to bits and pieces, and somehow they just feel like an extension of her, nowadays carrington could never imagine going about life without them.

roommate - [ musings: 01. 02. 03. 04. ]  carrington has a fairly big penthouse, alright more than fairly big, and to keep herself from getting lonely she got a roommate, and about a billion animals for, although their house looks like a zoo, carrington actually loves her roommate? they’ve seen her at her highest and lowest points, and have decided to live with her dumbass through it all, they don’t even have a problem with the millions of animals living with them, honestly where would she be without them?

good influence -  [ musings: 01. 02. 03. 04. ] carrington is known for her impulsive decisions and irreversible actions, but with this person by her side the world seems like it’s at carrington’s fingertips. she’d probably rank them very high on the list of the best things that have ever happened to her, right next to anastasia and hot cheetohs.

bad influence -  [ musings: 01. 02. 03. 04. ] carrington has never been one for parties, maybe it’s the fact that she’s not old enough to drink, or that she’s a hermit half the time, but she’d much rather hang out by herself taking pictures of her pets, and going on her own little adventures around new york. but with them, her adventures seem to be hard to remember, and parties seem so much more fun.

unlikely friends -  [ musings: 01. 02. 03. 04. ] carrington is probably the exact opposite of this person, personality wise, fashion wise, but yet despite the odds these two are still friends, and she actually enjoys it? sometimes she wishes she was outspoken and brash as they are, that she could learn to distance herself so easily, but they constantly prove themselves to be one of the closest friends she has.

frenemies - [ musings: 01. 02. 03. 04. ] one minute they’re insulting each other, the next they’re getting mani-pedis and getting brunch together. no one can quite tell if they love or hate each other most the times, not even them.

enemies -  [ musings: 01. 02. 03. 04. ] it’s just every little thing this person does just irritates carrington, for one reason or another, and at this point she’s given up trying to be cordial, or even pretending to be.

ex-best friend -  [ musings: 01. 02. 03. 04. ]  maybe they were best friends back in their le rosey days or maybe they met and immediately clicked but somehow in some way it just stopped. and carrington hates knowing that people don’t like her, plus they were really close and carrington really thought maybe she could glue their friendship back together, or that somehow if she held on tight enough then her best friend would stop slipping from her fingers, but it turns out the tighter you grip something, the easier you lose it, she definitely still misses them, and still probably accidentally texts them from time to time.

[fairyqueennerd]

NALU prompt-7- Freedom

Lucy was in a fairy tale, she was like Rapunzel enclosed in her chambers forever. Her father had grown overprotective for her after her mother died, it was caused by some genetic disorder and prevention was the only cure for it, so she was enclosed in her room.

She was home tutored and was friends with all the maids who were named after the celestial sign. During her early childhood she owned a dog named plue but her dad suspected that it might cause her some allergy and initiate the genetic reaction and turned him away.

Being alone she had developed a habit of fantasying about the world beyond, she always asked all the maids what they saw? how other people were? Though the small window in her room she could see the hills and a speck of town far away.

“How nice it would it be to go there for once.” She sighed.

Most of the maids were living in the house too. Virgo, Leo and Taurus were the one who went out frequently and Leo was the one that brought few people back, mainly at a time that her father was out of the town.

That was how she met- Gray, Cana and Karen. Though their visits were not so frequent, whenever they came they brought something for her and lots of pictures. She was glad for the developed technology so she could talk to her newly made friends.

  Someone was at her home, and he was pretty loud, Leo must have brought someone else this time. Excitement filled her and she ran out of her room, down the stairs to meet this person.

“It’s huge, Dude you scored high.” He was saying patting his back

When Lucy reached there all she could see was tuft of pink hairs.

“Pink?”

“Huh! It’s Salmon girl.”

They locked eyes for a second and Lucy decided she did not like this person, disappointed she started climbing the stairs to her room.

“Lucy Wait.” Leo called her out and she turned back to act polite.

“Lucy this is Natsu Dragneel”

“This is Lucy?” Natsu exclaimed.

“Yes, pink head.” She simply stated.

“Are you dumb? It’s salmon and not pink.”

“I get you the first time”

“Didn’t feel like that.”

“Humpp”

He stuck his tongue out at her.

“It seems you are getting along well, excuse me I have work to do.” Leo said and left.

Both glared at each other for a few moments, Lucy sighed and said

“let’s go up.”

“I am no going anywhere with you.”

“suits yourself, stay here”

She started going up the stairs and soon enough she heard his little footsteps behind her.

“Weren’t you not coming with me?”

“Shut up.”

When they reached her room, they made grumpy faces and were not talking to each other looking away.

Finally, it was Natsu who broke the silence- “Sooo, whatever I heard about you is that true?”

At this she jerked her head towards him- what did he heard? Her being alone? Her disease probability? Her fantasy?

“you write awesome novels?”

“Eh!”

“Gray told that the only novels he could read is yours.”

“Oh! So he really did sneak into my stuff.” She emitted an evil aura “you are done Gray.” She whispered, and Natsu visibly paled.

“Poor him. Well can I have a look at them.”

“Obviously not”

“Knew you sucked at writing, ice steak is just stupid for liking it, or was it an evil trap to bore me to death.”

“You do remember the author of the book is still standing here.”

“As if that matters.”

Before he could analyse what happened, he was slammed on the wall via a Lucy kick. God what force it contained, she looked fragile but she was strong. And suddenly beside him was a pile of books.

“Have a look”

He cautiously took one out of the pile and read a few lines and he didn’t even realise that he was nearing the end now.

“God Luce this is awesome.” He kept the book aside and started shaking her emphasis.

“Okay I got it now stop shaking me.”

“Actually, I think this way it is good to watch someone read your book, you get to know what the flocks like.”

“Well, where did you get the idea of zoo on top of a mountain?”

“It’s just my fantasy and I think it worked on you, you are being less mean to me.”

“I was mean to you?” he shrugged and continued “you are awesome Luce.”

“Who is Luce now?”

“Obviously you dumbo.”

“Hey!” she protested and punched him lightly on the shoulder to which he laughed and said “I like it better that way and am going to call you Luce from now on.” He ruffled her hairs.

She pouted and blushed a bit.

For the next few hours they played board games with him telling her everything that was happening in their town, his classes, his brawl with Gray, his interests in boxing, the famous food and the beautiful places there. Nobody had told her about such things in so much detail, while making her laugh so hard that she had to clutch her stomach to prevent it from bursting so it was evening and Leo came in to take Natsu back.

“Hey Luce, it was fun today I will be coming a lot now.”

“I would love that Natsu.”

“Wow, you actually hit it off?” Leo asked and both of them glanced at him and then at each other and grinned widely.

  After their first meet Natsu used to call her every weekend, and when ever her dad was not around all of her friends came in and they had a reunion party which was every 3 to 6 months. Now her friends included Erza, Jellal, Levy, Mira, Wendy, Juvia, Lisanna, Gajeel too.

She was very happy and everything was going smooth noow she her friends were entering high school and so she was. All this was happening without her dad’s knowledge but it was not accepted by fate. One day when her Dad was out for the meeting there was a storm and the meeting cancelled and he came home, and that exact moment they were having their reunion and shouts, music, drinks and food was all over when her dad entered her room which was immediately followed by a pin drop silence and wide -eyed audience.

“Shit! Dad”

“Lucy, come to my study. RIGHT NOW.” it echoed in her room, she was so terrified that tears started forming in her eyes and soon enough rolling down her cheeks and then with a loud thud the door was closed.

“Lucy, everything would be fine you don’t worry.” Natsu was immediately beside her, soothing her back and hugging her tightly. Soon she hugged each of her friends as if she was seeing them for the last time and emotionlessly walked towards her Father’s study.

“Dad”

“Lucy, my darling daughter what am I seeing? Why did you do this? Everything I was doing was for your protection and with this step are you trying to tell me that I did wrong? I don’t wish for your well-being?” He eyes were also moisten.

“No dad, it’s not like that I just wanted a normal life that all the kids out there are having, exploring, making friends and enjoying.”

“But I did try to make your life as normal as possible, was it not enough? If you had something you should have told me.”

“Dad-“

“You do understand that I don’t want to loose you too.”

“Yeah dad I understand.”

“Well if my darling wants this then we would make it a 6 months reunion and I would be included too.”

“Thank you, Dad, I love you a lot.”

“Love you too darling.”

  She cheered along with her friends that now that his father had accepted it would be more fun. But, again there was a turn of events, suddenly she fell ill, severely and her dad blamed it on her meeting with her friends though others were trying to explain it had been going on for years now. He didn’t believe hence Leo was fired and all her friends were banned from entering the Heartfilia property.

She was cured within a week- time but, missed her friends badly she was so used to them that this was not acceptable to her. She tried talking to her father but he rejected everything she wanted to say for her own safety, and even banned her from using the phone, now she was restricted entry to all places except her room.

It was week to go for her birthday and Virgo informed her that Natsu was there at her Father’s work place and reasoning with him but he is adamant.

  It was her Birthday. She was turning 18 but she was not happy at all this could be a day of their reunion and here she was sulking near her window, she nearly screamed when someone jumped in from her window if not him shutting her mouth with his.

“Happy Birthday Luce.” He said after parting.

“Thank you Natsu. But, how come you are here?”

“I am here to take you away.”

“Huh! Shut up Natsu it is my home why would I leave?”

“I want to free you from these restrictions so come with me.”

“Natsu, Dad-“

“Luce, believe in me.” He hugged her tightly, god how much had he missed her.

“He wrapped his arms around her waist and jumped from her window, though it was at a height they landed smoothly. Then she noticed the rope hanging from her window. They and got inside a car, her dad’s car for that matter and left in a fast drive towards the gate.

“What in the world is going on? You want it to look like I escaped from a prison?”

“Well you did escape.” He laughed.

“That was not funny.”

“Well you must me knowing the deal I had with your dad.”

He blank face made him blink in surprise and he started giving her the details.

“Well since the strict security was added we couldn’t meet you, so I went to meet with you dad explaining him how he was not providing you the freedom to live your life as you wish and killing you inside day by day, but your old man stuck to his point that if you were in front of him then he would never loose you.”

“So I challenged him, that if I managed to take you out of the Heartfilia property before your birthday was over, he would give you your freedom.”

She gaped at him, he did so much for her?

“Well to make the plan successful first we kidnapped your dad and his car then I came in the security didn’t suspect the car and Gajeel’s wall climbing tools and technique came in handy.” He nervously laughed.

“Where is my dad?”

“He is with Mira, she must be trying her level best to give him a piece of her mind.”

She was relieved and soon enough she was with all her friends and her dad celebrating her birthday in the restaurant preferred by all. She never imagined her birthday would end up like this. It was like her fantasy had come true, and she was living in her dream world, happily.