#then again. maybe it’s because it’s not yet clear which one’s gonna be the main one?

[beardedhandstoadshark]

The 196 tag isn’t trending anymore :(

[macfrog]

ride it, cowgirl cowboy like me chapter ten

hey dudes. anyone up for some dbf? i seriously can't thank you guys enough for all the love y'all show this series. blows my mind every time. i have been super excited for this chapter for a WHILE. might be my fave so far. who knows. you can grab chapters 1-9 on my masterlist and also my ao3 if ur feeling fancy. love u all sm!!!!!! ✨💘💫

pairing: dbf!joel x fem!reader

summary: joel picks you up from a girls’ night. you’ve plans for when you get home

warnings: 18+ (minors dni!!!) reader isn't an astrology girlie (sorry), more pining beCAUSE, alcohol consumption + a mention of the devil’s lettuce, very quick bit of unwanted touching, even quicker bit of protective joel, soft!joel, softdom!joel, one tiny mention of daddy, protected piv sex this time (feeling conservative slutty max will return), reader rides him into the sunset, age gap (reader is 23, joel is 48), cursing

word count: 6.7k

series masterlist | main masterlist | playlist

You lazily drag yourself over and over Joel’s dick, each stroke drawing you nearer and nearer to your high. When your body starts to falter, you feel him shift, and open your eyes to see him leaning over to the nightstand. His fingers grip the rim of the black cowgirl hat you’d worn that night. He lies back, flat against the mattress, and reaches up, placing the hat on top of your head. You smile. Joel speaks in a low, gentle, but commanding whisper. “There you go, cowgirl. Show me how it’s done.”

You never believed much in the power of the universe. Astrology, moons, manifestation. Whatever. None of it ever really meant much to you. You knew your star sign, knew which cool little symbol resembled you, and that was about it. Everything past that was…confusing and, frankly, a little overwhelming.

However.

If the universe were to send you a sign, one huge, fluorescent, multi-colored, in-your-face sign, that it was on your side…this weekend might just be it.

Your dad’s downstairs, finishing up packing for his work trip. His departure is imminent. Sarah’s been in Nashville since last night. A series of texts she sent you at 3AM riddled with spelling errors and heart emojis tell you she’s been having a pretty good time so far.

You are Joel are…alone. All by yourselves. For a whole…twenty hours.

Can’t have it all, I guess.

Your eyes skim down the texts you sent him this morning, texts he is yet to reply to.

You: Merry Christmas!!!

You took his non-reply for confusion – he is almost fifty, maybe he doesn’t get the joke? It’s a pretty lame joke, anyways. Very lame. If your thumb hovers over the send button before you press it, it’s probably not that great a joke. And your thumb had most definitely hovered. So, you’d followed it up.

You: As in, today’s the day

You: I don’t mean it’s actually Christmas

You: I mean like, happy ‘we’re finally gonna be alone again’ day

You: Never mind

“Hello?” Anna’s voice cuts through your train of thought. “Are you even listening to me?”

You drop your phone, shaking your head clear of Joel. “Yep. Sorry. Just didn’t catch that last part. You froze.”

The image of her on your – pretty fucking dusty – laptop screen rolls its eyes, knowing you’re lying. “I don’t know whether to go with the pink or the black boots,” she says.

“Ain’t your dress yellow?”

Her head falls into her hands. She throws herself down onto her bed and slides her laptop closer. “That was, like, ten minutes ago. I’m goin’ with the pink strappy one now.”

“Pink does say rodeo.”

“Fuck you,” she snaps through a giggle. “Remind me what you’re wearin’, again.”

“Black hat, black boots, black dress.”

“You’re so boring.”

“Thanks. Really looking forward to our night out.”

Anna snorts and then stands back up, strides over to her closet and resumes rummaging. “Black jacket, too?” she calls over her shoulder.

“Uhuh,” you reply, glancing back down to your phone. “Although – it has rhinestones. And tassels. Not so boring after all, huh?”

Anna’s silence drags your eyes from the text thread back to your laptop screen. She’s frozen in place, twisted around with a dress in her hands, jaw on the floor. “Show it to me. Now.”

“Hold on,” you roll over and off your bed, your shoulder stiff from the position you’d been lying in, “I think I left it downstairs.”

“Tell your dad I say hey!”

You pad down the carpeted stairs in your socks, toward the sunlit hallway.

“Dad, have you seen my– Oh, fuck.”

As you round the corner at the bottom of the stairs, glancing over your left shoulder to the front door, your chest knocks into something hard. Steady. Strong.

Something you recognize the feel of before you’ve given him a proper look.

“Mind your step, baby,” Joel says, and your heart leaps.

“What the fuck are you doin’ here?” you whisper, peering around his body to look for your dad.

“He’s out front,” Joel tells you, then takes your shoulder and reels you in against his chest. “’m just here to help ‘im with his GPS.”

He plants a kiss on the top of your head and gives you a squeeze. Your head rests safely on his chest, arms link at his back. If you didn’t have plans tonight, and if your dad wasn’t, like, ten feet from you guys right now, you’d never let him go. Just follow him around, vice grip around his waist, surrounded by the smell and feel of him.

Not that that means anything. You’d do other stuff, too. You’re not…you know.

Your dad’s voice streams in through the open door and Joel releases you.

“It ain’t for workin’, Joel, I’m about to throw it at the f– Hey, kiddo.”

“Hey. What’s the matter with your GPS?”

You lean in to the tiny device in his hands. Joel’s elbow comes up to rest on your shoulder.

“Just won’t connect to the car. Every time I plug it in, it just…” He lifts his hands, screen loose in his fingers, and hands you a bewildered look.

You look at him, expressionless. “Why don’t you just use your phone?”

“Because I paid almost a hundred bucks for this thing, and I’ll be damned if I’m– Alright,” he stops himself, eyes shutting in exasperation, “I already explained this to him. I ain’t justifyin’ myself to the two of you.”

Joel’s laughing behind his hand, pretending to scratch his nose when your dad stalks off to the kitchen and throws the device down, snatching the instructions off the table.

The pair of you follow, both still trying to swallow your laughter. Joel wanders around the table and sits down beside your dad, fumbling with the screen. You dive into the coat closet at the bottom of the stairs and fish out your bejeweled, tasseled jacket.

“You lookin’ forward to your girls’ night?” Joel asks, eyes flitting up and down the leather jacket in your hands.

“Mhm,” you reply, opening your mouth to continue when your dad butts in.

“S’posed to be a girls’ night, but that boy Sam’s crashin’ it, ain’t he?”

“Well, we asked him.” You shrug. “It’s his night off.”

Your dad scoffs, shaking his head to Joel, who looks up to you with a confused expression. “’s the big deal with that?”

“Oh, wise up, Miller. He’s only goin’ ‘cause of…” He wags a finger in your direction, and a smirk peels across Joel’s lips.

“Is he, now?”

“Uhuh,” your dad replies, intense stare still on the instructions in front of him. “Makes no damn sense. I plugged it in using the cable they gave me in the box. Stupid thing…”

You shake your head to Joel, who’s still looking at you, bemused. He knows you and Sam are just friends. Also knows your dad is the most oblivious theorist to walk the planet. Just aiming his gun at the wrong target, is all.

“I’m gonna let you two get back to…that,” you say, turning to head back upstairs. “Anna says hi, by the way.”

Your dad’s eyebrows rise once, his eyes never lifting from his GPS. “Hi, Anna.”

“Hey, Anna,” Joel echoes, smirk on his lips.

“Not to you,” you throw back, hopping up the first step. You hear his chuckle as you disappear.

----------

Anna’s reaction to your jacket in person matches that over Facetime: a deafening squeal. A squeal which she repeats almost every damn time she sees you throughout the night.

“So – fucking – cute!” she exclaims for the fifth time, fingers dancing through the tassels. “And it goes so well with your hat.”

You sip on your cocktail, nodding enthusiastically, pushing your eyebrows up underneath the brim of the black cowgirl hat on your head. Trying to match her energy. Your mind’s elsewhere.

Joel texted you a few hours ago. Told you to have a good night, said something about Sam, but you were stood right next to the dude, so you quickly locked your phone and slipped it back into your clutch.

Now, standing with your back against the wall of Franks, watching Sam play pool with Eve, you feel safe enough to read over the message.

Joel: Have fun baby. Be safe. Tell Sam good luck from me.

You squint at the screen, pulling it away from your face and leaning back in to read it over. Good luck? The fuck does he mean –

You: Good luck??

He replies almost instantly.

Joel: Yeah. Good luck winning you over. Took me, what, a week?

Oh, fuck off. You roll your eyes and throw your phone facedown onto the table where Anna and Kara sit, about twenty minutes deep into a conversation you missed the beginning of.

Your attention turns to the room before you – brick-walled, metal dome lightshades hanging over each pool table. Glass-paneled door to your left leading back through to the main bar. For being a tiny bar on a backstreet, Frank’s is pretty lively. There are bodies everywhere, bumping by each other, drunken arms slung over shoulders, hips swaying with the soft rock song blasting from out front.

You imagine your dad here with Joel, maybe Hank and Bill, too. Playing pool, beer bottles resting on the felt while they take their shot. Or sat on the rooftop, sipping on a whiskey. Talking about you and Sarah. What does Joel say about you when you’re not around?

And what does he want to say, but can’t, ‘cause it’s your dad? What does he think, and bite back when it bubbles to the surface?

Your straw gargles, slurping up the last few sips of your drink. You lean over to Anna and Kara, holding your empty glass up.

“Another?”

They both shake their heads, and you nod, turning on your own back to the bar.

You squeeze between two older women, both dressed smart and sharp. One of them – clutching a Manhattan – shifts out of the way as you pass.

“…one more conversation with him about squash,” she tells her companion, “and I am gonna blow my brains out…”

You edge over to the bar and slot into a free space, propping your elbows up on the wood. One of Sam’s coworkers – her name escapes you – notices you and shuffles over, smiling sweetly.

“How you doin’?” she asks, running a damp cloth inside a tumbler.

“Good,” you reply. “Could I just get a Bud, please?”

“Sure thing,” she says, and reaches behind to grab one. You slide her a note and she hands you change, and then you’re on your way back to the pool room.

As you slink by the two women, a weight knocks into your shoulder, almost sending your beer flying out of your hand.

“Sorry,” a rough voice sputters on your left, and you glance in its direction. Some broad dude in a tight t-shirt.

“’s fine,” you mumble, clutching your hat; a smell of weed choking your throat.

He passes by behind you, one hand lingering a little too long on your waist, and you saunter back over to Anna and Kara.

“That dude stinks, right?” Anna whispers behind a cupped hand, and you snort.

“He smells like he’s having a good night.”

“We’re talking about Romeo and Juliet over there. We’re basically third, fourth, and fifth wheeling,” Kara says, nodding over to Sam and Eve, who’re finished their game of pool and have now graduated to darts.

“I don’t…think that’s a thing.”

“Eve asked me if Sam was single earlier,” Anna says, lifting her straw to her red lips.

“What?” Kara spits out, choking on her drink. “Eve has a boyfriend!”

Anna giggles. “He’s kinda an ass, anyway. Look at them, they’re so sweet.”

“You say sweet, I hear morally wrong.”

“Who says it’s morally wrong?” you chirp, alcohol pushing the words over your lips before your brain’s had time to stop them. Your fingers clutch your phone, still laying on the table where you left it. “You?”

“Uh, it’s cheating, dude. What if Nick found out?”

“’s not that big a deal,” you reply, phone screen lighting your face in a blue hue, “they’re just having fun.”

Anna points to you, lifting her glass. “Here’s to havin’ fun, I guess.”

Kara lifts her own reluctantly and they clink, but you’re distracted. Already typing a message to Joel. Bored. Drunk. Morally wrong.

You: What you doing?

Joel: Watching TV. What you doing?

You: What ya watvhin ?

Joel: None of your business. Go get another drink. Looks like you’re not drunk enough.

You lift your head with a giggle, almost ready to turn your phone around to Anna and Kara and say, look what the dude I’m sleeping with just text me. And then, thankfully, your good sense kicks in and you bring the screen closer to your chest.

You: Kinda bored. Wanna come home now please

Bored, horny. It all means the same.

Joel says he’ll be at Frank’s in twenty minutes. You rest your chin on your palm and watch as Sam cheers Eve for hitting bullseye.

“I think they’re cute,” you whisper.

Anna and Kara are already preoccupied, taking photos of one another across the table. Kara leans into you and you smile, flash blinding your hazy eyes for a few minutes afterward. A few more pictures, couple boomerangs of your glasses cheersing, and then your phone’s vibrating.

Joel: Outside. No rush.

That last part is where he’s wrong. There most definitely is a rush, and it’s in the form of the heat that starts to pool between your legs.

“Alright,” you shimmy off your barstool and stretch your back. “My ride’s here.”

“What?” Anna almost screams, her hand slapping down on the table. “You’re leavin’?”

You nod. “Sorry, babe.”

“Don’t babe me, traitor. It’s, like, midnight.”

“Uh, it’s, like, almost 2AM. I’m tired. I don’t know how y’all do it.”

She sighs, conceding, and agrees to walk with you to the front door. Kara and Eve stop off by the bar to grab another drink. Sam holds the door open for you and Anna and you’re hit by a wave of cold night air, instantly cooling your hot, sweaty skin.

“Is that…Mr. Miller?” Anna asks, mouth falling wide open.

You glance down the street and notice his black truck, parked up by the curb. “Mhm,” you reply, “my dad’s out of town, so he’s picking me up.”

“Can he take me home, too?”

Sam snickers. “Wow, Anna. That’s just…Wow.”

She shrugs, lips closing around her straw as she stares at Joel’s truck. Something inside you lurches at the idea of Joel sitting there, his eyes glued on you, watching everything you do, everyone around you. And then again at the thought of Anna and her doting gaze on him.

“Alright, I guess that’s my cue to skip.”

Anna pouts. “One more drink?”

“I’m good, thanks,” you scoff, patting her head affectionately. I got business to attend to.

You give her a quick kiss on the cheek and Sam wraps an arm around your shoulder, giving it a squeeze before you’re wandering off toward Joel’s truck.

“Hey.” Something – someone – hooks around your elbow, and you turn back. It’s that same guy who stank of weed.

“Hi,” you reply, as sweet as you can, but trying to loosen his grip.

“Saw you inside, you out with friends?”

“Mhm. I’m just leavin’, my–”

“Few of us are headed upstairs. You wanna come?”

You glare at him a few seconds, before yanking your arm from his grasp. “Nah, no thanks. I’m leaving. Have a good night.”

You stagger off, feeling his eyes on you as you go. Joel’s truck headlights switch on, dazzling your eyes, and you quickly click around to the passenger side, throwing yourself in beside him.

Joel doesn’t say hey, doesn’t squeeze your thigh, doesn’t even look at you when you settle into the seat. Just asks –

“Who’s that kid?”

“Uh…not sure. Bumped into ‘im in the bar.”

“He give you trouble?”

“No,” you lean over the console, pulling your seatbelt over your body, and flash him a tipsy grin, “thought that was my job. Givin’ trouble.”

Joel doesn’t reply. Doesn’t take his scowl off the dude outside Frank’s, either. Your eyes meander across to his hand, locked in a tight fist around the wheel. Your smile drops.

“Joel. It’s fine. Can we go?”

When you lift a hand to the crook of his elbow and he feels your warmth on his skin, he tears his gaze away and it lands on you. Soft, gentle. His lip isn’t curled anymore. His brows lift.

His eyes watch your lips as you whisper the words to him.

“Want you to take me home.”

“’s go, pretty girl.”

----------

Joel refuses, no matter how many times you ask, how hard you bat your eyelashes, how many promises you make, to stop by a drive thru.

“Please?” you ask one last time before he’s pulling in to his neighborhood.

He shakes his head. “Look at that, we’re already home.”

“I ain’t takin’ no for an answer, Miller, not until the engine’s off. We’re still driving.”

He doesn’t reply. Just pulls up in his drive, cuts the engine, and looks at you. Shrugs. “Oops.”

“Fuck you,” you groan, sliding down in your seat. “I’m starvin’.”

“Make you a big breakfast in the mornin’, how’s that sound?”

“Wanted a Big Mac, but whatever.”

Your fingers fumble for the door handle, clicking it open. You roll out of the truck and stroll around to meet Joel at the driver’s side. He snakes an arm around your shoulders, steadying you as you walk up his porch steps and into the house.

“I’m fine,” you murmur, glancing around his living room.

“Alright,” he says, tossing his keys and kicking his boots off.

Your eyes settle on the TV screen, paused. Probably around the time you text him. There’s a crowded hospital room onscreen, doctors in dark blue scrubs, all surrounding someone lying on a bed, someone who looks pretty familiar…

“Is that…fuckin’…Grey’s Anatomy…?”

Joel chuckles, peeling your jacket from your shoulders.

“That’s Meredith! When she–”

“She fell in the damn river,” Joel mutters, placing the tasseled leather over the back of his couch. “Derek had to go in after her. Intense stuff.”

“Right? I told you it was good!” You smack his arm. “I can’t believe you’re watchin’ it without me.”

“I ain’t watchin’ it,” he protests, “it was just on, ‘n I needed something to keep me awake. I’m still rooting for Meredith ‘n George.”

“We can watch it from the beginning.”

“Yeah?”

You nod, moving over to him. “And then I can be over here all the time, and you can make me all the grilled cheese I want, and we can lie in bed and…do stuff.” Your chin rests on his chest, flashing him a toothy grin. Hands swinging in his at your side.

Joel’s eyes narrow, but there’s a smirk on his lips. “You’re drunk.”

“I’m not drunk. I had a couple drinks. I’m not drunk.”

“H’many fingers am I holdin’ up?” Joel asks, raising his fist. You punch it away.

“Ha-ha,” you say tonelessly, and wander away from him.

“Baby,” he calls you from behind. Sure, you’re tipsy, and he can be a cocky asshole – especially when he has to take care of you, but that’s a sound you’ll never get tired of hearing. Baby. You’re his darlin’, his sweet girl.

You spin around, very nearly losing your footing, and he’s standing with an arm out, ready for you to take.

You smile dumbly. Meander over, and take his strong hand in both of yours, wrapping your fingers around two of his to let him reel you in against his body.

“C’mon,” he whispers, as you lean against his frame. “Let’s get you upstairs.”

You follow him up, knowing where he’s leading you. You’ve spent more time in there the last few weeks than you have your entire life.

His room is cool, not cold, but comfortable. It’s Joel all over; the muted colors, the décor, the smell that calms you as soon as you stumble over the threshold.

He sits you down on the edge of his bed and kneels, pulling your boots off one by one.

You giggle.

“You laughin’ at me?”

“You’re like my own personal tr…No, not trainer. Wait. Personal ch–”

“Chef?” he says, snorting. “Not chef. Try again, soberhead.”

“Oh, I dunno.” You throw your arms up as he sits your boots against the wall, then stands and takes your hat off.

“This,” he says, placing it on the nightstand at your side of the bed, “is very cute. I like it.”

“I’m cute, too, y’know,” you whisper, pouting.

He smiles, and leans down to give you a quick kiss on the lips, pointer finger under your chin.

“The cutest.”

“Ha!” you roar. Joel twists around you to undo the zipper at the back of your dress. “Joel Miller thinks I’m the cutest. Take that, Anna…”

He laughs. When he unzips you, he pulls the dress off your bare chest and down your legs. You don’t shy away, used to the idea now of him seeing you naked. Used to the idea of him seeing you in any vulnerable state; drunk, or naked, or in a sobbing mess on day two of your period.

You notice, even though you’re a tad dizzy with what alcohol is left in your system, that his eyes linger on your panties a moment before he turns and grabs a tee from a chair.

And something inside you ticks.

“Joel?”

He’s pulling the shirt over your head. It smells like him. Intoxicates you much more and much quicker than any drink you could order from Frank’s.

“Mhm?”

You feed both arms through the sleeves, swallowing the question you were about to ask. He’s standing up now, telling you to get into bed.

He walks over to his dresser and begins removing his own clothing. He only sleeps in boxershorts. Your eyes track him as he yanks his t-shirt up over his toned shoulders; fingers undo his belt, unzip his jeans. Everything is discarded to the side for now; he has something more pressing to attend to.

His best friend’s daughter, laying in his bed, a pool of wet forming in her panties.

He just doesn’t know it yet.

As he slips under the covers beside you, you pull off your underwear in one quick movement. Joel doesn’t seem to notice, or so you think; his arms immediately take hold of your waist and pull you against his body. You’ve gotten into the habit of sleeping pressed against his torso, his thigh between your legs. Joel settles comfortably with you draped over him, and lets out a deep sigh.

“Joel?” you whisper again into the darkness, growing braver.

“Hm?” he replies, starting to fall asleep.

You toss ideas over in your head. None of them good, you’re sure, but you’re getting desperate. How he can’t feel your damp core on his thigh, you’ve no idea.

But then, maybe he can? Joel doesn’t miss anything, especially not where you and your…arrangement are concerned. Can he feel you? Is he deliberately ignoring it?

Maybe he has something up his own sleeve?

“I…was just wondering…”

“Wondering what, darlin’?” His voice is muffled, spoken through unmoving lips. You glance up at his face. His eyes are closed.

You grow more desperate.

“…wondering what your body count is?”

You ask it as innocently as you can, your voice wavering on the words body count. It gets him, though, as his eyes blink open a few seconds after you say it.

“I ain’t tellin’ you that. Go to sleep.” He closes them again.

“I wanna know.”

He ignores you.

“Joel,” you moan.

He calls you by name now, and you’re not sure if you’re pissing him off or turning him on – or both.

“Go. To. Sleep.”

“I’m not tired, though. Not yet.”

In response, Joel lets go of his hold on you and rolls over without another word. It’d sting if you weren’t soaking wet right now, and didn’t have a strong hunch he was hardening under the sheets.

“Joooel…” you whine, sitting up on your elbow. No use.

You take hold of his shoulder and tug him back toward you, rolling him onto his back. Like a deadweight, he remains frozen.

“Ugh,” you groan, and drag yourself on top of him, knees either side of his waist, ass hovering. When you sit back onto him, your core lining up with his crotch, your suspicions are proven right.

He’s hard.

Not as hard as he can get, as you’d like him to be, as you’ve felt him before…but he’s hard.

“Joel…” you mewl into the darkness, starting to grind your bare center over his boxers. The friction feels good, so you apply more pressure.

“If you don’t stop that,” Joel’s voice finally grumbles, “I’ll be sleepin’ downstairs.”

“Sex in the living room sounds good to me.”

His eyes open. “We,” one hand comes up to point between the both of you, as if he doesn’t expect your sobering self to understand which pairing he means, “are not having sex. No sex tonight.”

You sigh, shoulders dropping dramatically.

“Huff all you want, baby, it is not happening.”

“Why?”

“Why? Because you’re a few drinks too deep and it’s three in the morning. I’m tired, it’s been a long night waitin’ for you, I–”

“So let me make it up to you. I ain’t even drunk anymore.”

“No?”

“Nuh-uh. Could count any number a’ fingers you put in front of me.”

“Funny.” He closes his eyes.

“Joel.” You drag your hips again. If anything, he’s harder than he was when you first sat down on him. “I had a few drinks, I’ve sobered up. C’mon…”

You bend your waist and lower yourself to align your lips with the side of his head, peppering the skin under his ear with soft kisses.

“I wanna ride you, daddy.”

This gets him. His eyes open again, staring up at the ceiling. His hands slowly come up to rest on your hips.

“Don’t– That’s low, even for you, kid.”

You giggle and straighten up. When your hands lightly trace down his chest, onto his midriff and follow the trail of hair to his boxers, he doesn’t stop you. Just watches from beneath hooded lids, tensing at each point your fingers touch.

You raise your eyebrows, watching his expression for any sign to stop, and it never comes. He remains in place when your fingertips hook around the waistband of his underwear, slowly pulling down.

Joel breathes in deep when you reveal the tip of his cock, springing up to rest on his lower stomach. You feel your core clench. If he’s not inside you in the next five minutes, you might scream.

Well, you’ll be screaming either way.

You look back into his eyes and tilt your jaw, asking for permission.

“Go on,” he whispers.

Your hands take him eagerly, pumping up and down his shaft, and his head falls back onto the pillow with pleasure.

“Uhuh,” you mumble, focusing on his solid dick, but desperate for more. You give him a gentle squeeze and a groan passes his lips, his grip tightening on your body.

You let go of him and grind your hips along his length, folds coating his shaft in your wetness. Joel’s humming, watching as you pull yourself up and down him.

Then, you lean forward, and your hands take hold of him again. You give him a couple more strokes, eliciting a deep groan, and then line his bare cock up at your entrance, practically foaming at the mouth to sink down on him already.

“Woah, woah,” Joel takes hold of your wrist, “slow down, cowgirl. I gotta get a condom.”

You huff as he leans over to his nightstand and opens the drawer. “Don’t want one, Joel, I’m on the pill.”

“No way, baby,” he says through a chuckle, silver wrapper in his fingers. “We already did that, one too many times.”

“So just pull out?”

“Nope.”

You sigh, frustrated.

Joel holds the packet out to you, smirk on his face like he doesn’t expect you to take it.

So, you do.

You steal it from him and tear the wrapper, fishing the rubber out between your two fingers. Pinching the top, you roll it down his shaft and pump up and down for good measure.

“Ready?” you ask, head tilted, cocky smile on your lips.

“Wait, wait,” he whispers, shoulders lifting off the mattress. He lifts the hem of your shirt, telling you, “Off,” before pulling it over your head, exposing your bare breasts.

He stares you down; legs wide open, straddling him, completely naked, nipples hardened, figure silhouetted against the slivers of light peeking through the shades from the streetlights outside. You’ve never felt so confident, mounted on top of Joel fucking Miller.

His eyes roll back and his head falls against the pillow. “Fuckin’ – knock yourself out, baby.”

You steady yourself with one hand on his chest, the other taking hold of his cock and guiding it to your entrance. You push his head through your folds a couple times, and Joel hisses at the feeling, before you sink down.

You stop after the tip the first time, but it draws the same reaction from you both. Joel groans even louder than before, and you moan as you push yourself back up.

Then, without warning, you sink the whole way down.

He’s so deep it brings tears to your eyes, so big that he’s stretching you out more than you thought possible, hitting all the right spots already before you’ve even begun.

Joel’s eyes are screwed shut, his grip on your hips digging into your skin so tight it almost hurts. His jaw is tight, holding back what you can only imagine are the neediest moans he could sound.

So, you decide to draw them from him.

You lean forward and begin bouncing, feeling his thickness pull out and push back into you, both hands on Joel’s chest now for balance. You’re whimpering, the burn of his cock stretching your tight cunt so good and borderline painful at the same time, but you don’t stop.

“Good girl, good fuckin’ girl,” Joel moans, opening his eyes to watch you ride his dick. “’attagirl, just like that.”

“Joel…” you cry, letting him bottom out each time, feeling his balls slam into your ass with each bounce.

“Yeah? You like that? Tell me, baby, use your words.”

“So – good – Joel – oh!” you shout.

“Such a good fuckin’ girl for me, huh?”

You fight against the urge to close your eyes; the pleasure between your legs and the knot beginning to tighten in your stomach are all you can see, hear, feel, but you want to watch him some more. You want to see what you do to him.

You lean forward even further, moving your hands to the pillow either side of his head, so you’re directly above him now. One of Joel’s hands comes to the back of your head, pulling you down until your foreheads are together, moans escaping your mouths only to be inhaled by the other.

Joel speaks to you quieter, through gritted teeth.

“Like ridin’ me, do ya? Like the way it feels?”

“Mhm,” you moan back, and he brings a hand down to slap your ass. You yelp. “Fuck…”

“You look so good, baby, so good. Such a fuckin’ whore for me, hm?”

Another stinging spank pulls a whine from you so filthy, so loud that you’re sure the neighbors will hear, even at this hour. Joel smirks back, resting his hand back on your hip, where he has a grip of you.

Then, he bucks his own hips, pushing into you deeper than before, so deep you see stars. Your mouth falls open in a silent moan, panting through the searing pain so good that you never want it to end.

“Joel – I’m gonna – fuck, I’m gonna cum!”

“That’s it, sweet girl, cum all over me. Let go, baby, I’m here.”

That does it. The coil snaps, your walls clench. Joel lets out a guttural moan as you throw your head back and ride him through your orgasm. He coos you through it, squeezing your hips, whispering, That’s my girl, doin’ so good, baby as your body rocks back and forth on his cock.

When you come back down to earth, your lids heavy and breathing staggered, you swear your body can’t take anymore. You feel so fucked out that you’re not sure you can sit up straight on top of Joel.

But he’s always been able to read your mind, and this is no different. He pulls himself up and into you, propped up with one strong hand on the mattress behind his back, the other wrapping around your waist. His cock is still buried deep inside you.

“Joel…” you whimper pathetically. “Can’t do it anymore…”

“That’s okay, baby, we’re gonna do this one together, alright? I got you. Can you do that for me? Just one more?”

You link your arms around his neck and lean into him; his strong form doesn’t shift, just takes on your weight and keeps the both of you upright as he starts to bounce you on his length again.

You’re overstimulated; your cunt swollen, fucked-out, drenched in cum, but Joel makes you feel so good that it’s impossible to let him stop. Your arms pull him in closer to your chest to steady yourself, and his groans echo in your ear.

“Good girl, that’s– that’s it, so fuckin’ tight for me, pretty girl.”

When it all becomes too much to take – Joel’s hand squeezing your waist, your clit rutting against the bottom of his stomach, his fucking cock buried so deep inside you that you swear you can feel him splitting you open – you push him back down onto the bed.

Once when you still lived in New York you read something in a Cosmo about spelling the word ‘coconut’ with your hips when riding a guy. You’d tried it a couple times with hookups, and it’d never done anything for you. They’d never done anything for you.

But here you are, nearing your second orgasm, on top of someone making such a mess of you that you brain can hardly compute to spell coconut, never mind your hips being able to round the shape of the word.

You lazily drag yourself over and over Joel’s dick, each stroke drawing you nearer and nearer to your high. When your body starts to falter, you feel him shift, and open your eyes to see him leaning over to the nightstand.

His fingers grip the rim of the black cowgirl hat you’d worn that night. He lies back, flat against the mattress, and reaches up, placing the hat on top of your head. You smile. Joel speaks in a low, gentle, but commanding whisper.

“There you go, cowgirl. Show me how it’s done.”

It’s all you need. It’s all it takes, by this point.

You brace yourself against his chest again, positioning yourself just right, and bounce on him until your vision starts to blur.

The noises slipping out of Joel’s mouth each time your bodies connect at the base of his cock push you closer and closer; every groan and whimper which passes his lips makes you sink your hips down even harder, pushing him deeper and deeper with every bounce.

“So – fuckin’ – big – inside me,” you slur, and Joel moans in response.

When he takes your hips in his hands again, you know he’s there. He’s just waiting for you to fall first.

You give in to him, feeling yourself close around his length, throwing your head back in pleasure as your second orgasm washes over you, igniting every inch of your body.

Joel’s groans meet yours as you lean forward again, slowly rolling your hips to coax him through his own orgasm. Watching him release, buried deep inside, he looks so good that you feel like you could cum again just at the sight.

You feel his cock start to go limp inside you and when he opens his eyes, panting, you smile sweetly at him.

“Fuck, darlin’.”

You giggle, hips still driving gently against his. “Good?”

“So good, baby, did so well. You’re gonna be the death of me,” he whispers with a trembling breath, taking your waist in both hands and giving it a tight squeeze. You roll to the side, letting his cock slip out of you, condom full of his seed.

You tumble onto the mattress beside him, both heaving, moaning messes. Your chests rise and fall in sync, fingers tangling and untangling by your sides.

Then Joel gets up, and wanders over to the bathroom, where you watch him through the open door as he pulls the filled rubber from his soft dick. He bins it, then runs a facecloth under the faucet, dabbing it across his own forehead as he makes his way back over to you.

You can’t hide your grin as you watch his naked form approach; tan lines where his t-shirt must end, dark hair decorating his arms, legs, chest, the base of his cock. He sits at the edge of the bed, arm outstretched with the flannel in hand.

You go to take it from him, but he doesn’t loosen his grip. Just pats it over your face gently, soft gaze on yours, your fingers intertwined around his wrist. Your eyes fall closed, the cold cloth a relief against your warm, sweaty skin.

“Feel nice?” he whispers.

You nod in response. Your chest swells at how soft he’s being, how tender. When he stands to throw the flannel back into the sink, you almost find yourself reaching out to hold him down.

He climbs over you, springing back down onto the mattress with a heaving sigh.

You prop yourself up and shimmy over, positioning yourself on top of Joel, chest-to-chest. He looks down and smirks, running a lazy hand across your cheek.

“You’re so good to me,” he mumbles.

You tilt your head with a smile and lay down on his chest. You can hear his heartrate slowly calming down. His fingers twist through your messy hair.

“I have no idea what you’re laced with,” he says, “but you got me.”

You smile. “Yeah?”

Joel nods. You shift positions, adjusting your aching hips safely between his thighs. “You hurtin’?” he asks.

You nod. “Mhm. But I like it. It’s you.”

Joel’s hands run through your hair and his fingertips trace your shoulders. His touch is so light it almost tickles. You turn your jaw and kiss the back of his hand.

“My dad gone, Sarah out, free house…” you mutter.

“Hm.”

“So, you invite your mistress over.” You lift your head, smirking at him.

Joel’s chest vibrates with laughter. “You ain’t my mistress.”

“Oh really? What am I, then?”

“I am not having this conversation at 4AM, kid. Ask me again tomorrow.”

You’d think of something to throw back at him, messing with him, but your entire body aches, and your heavy eyes are starting to fold closed with how sleepy you suddenly feel.

You pull Joel’s sheets over yourself, turning your back to him. Joel instantly follows suit, pulling up right behind you, your back tight to his chest, his thighs cupping the back of yours, then slipping one between your legs.

His arms lock around your torso under the sheets. Safe. Secure. Nothing can happen to you as long as he’s got you.

“Ten,” his voice mumbles against the back of your head.

You turn so your ear is pressed against his lips. “Huh?”

“Ten. That’s my number. Includin’ you.”

Oh.

He doesn’t ask to hear yours. You wouldn’t mind if he did, but he doesn’t. You don’t think he’s telling you to hear yours in exchange. He’s telling you because you asked. He’s telling you because, whether in attempt to turn him on or simply to know something about him that you didn’t before – something nobody else knows – it mattered to you.

He’s telling you because you matter to him.

You nuzzle back into him a little, a form of reply, and, as you start to fall asleep, you feel him place a gentle kiss to your ear.

----------

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[britcision]

As promised, part two!

First Chapter:

Part One of this chapter:

————————

So That Just Happened part 2

In the bathroom, Jason turned the hot tap on as high as it’d go and stood over the sink, breathing in the steam. He just… he just needed to clear his head. Get his thoughts straight.

Sleep for the next six fucking weeks and make Pitty someone else’s problem, ideally.

The weight of Frostbite’s gift sat heavy in his pants pocket and he pulled the case out, shaking a single glowing ice chip into his hand. The rising temperature of the bathroom didn’t affect it at all, which didn’t surprise Jason.

He considered putting it under the stream of hot water but didn’t bother.

Frostbite said not to use them too much, or get too dependent on them. On the other hand, fuck today. So much.

He crushed the shard in his hand and shoved the pieces into his mouth. This time it tasted like ozone and limes, and stung the inside of his mouth. In a good way, though.

The rush of energy was the same, and Jason would swear he could feel his frayed edges slowly closing over. Not a real substitute for food or sleep, but sure as hell beat coffee.

He had a couple dozen more ice chips, which he tucked away in the medicine cabinet behind the mirror. The mirror wasn’t supposed to have a cabinet, but it had been easy enough to make one, and so far none of his siblings had found it yet… if they even found this apartment.

(None of them would have been able to resist commenting on the collage he’d made across the back wall of their most “interesting” family photos. Or the little batburger figurines of each of their alter-egos.

Jason had made sure he got the worst ones on the market, and knew their exact positions. If a single one shifted, he’d know.)

It was on the outer edge of Crime Alley, far from the heart his family all expected him to hole up in, and the rest of the building was a completely unremarkable old library which had been abandoned before Jason was born.

Getting himself a well secured home had been easy to slip into the renovation plans; he’d had Bruce “buy” the building through Jason’s funds to start restoring it, keeping it well removed from Red Hood’s name. It was the first project he planned to put his own name on, now that he was officially alive again.

The Catherine Todd Memorial Library.

The building itself wasn’t open yet, the main part of it still being remodelled, but the needle drop off and exchange was already running from the front entrance.

This was home, as much as anywhere ever was. More than anywhere had ever been since Wayne Manor.

Jason tensed against the anger, but nothing rose this time. The ecto-ice had given him a flood of energy, the same almost static clarity, but he still felt drained. Like there was no anger left in him.

It would have been nice if it felt good.

The steam had fogged the mirror now, collecting in the air even against the bathroom’s fan. Shutting the tap off, Jason closed his eyes and sucked in a few more deep, fortifying breaths.

Maybe the ecto-ice had been a mistake. All he wanted to do was fall into bed and sleep, but he wouldn’t be able to for at least a few hours now.

Patrol was out of the question. His body may be revitalized and humming with energy, but his head wasn’t in the game. Even Lady Gotham’s embrace couldn’t pull his scattered thoughts together.

What he needed was some mindless TV, some stupidly indulgent junk food, and a blanket. He’d heard… well, things about the new Sex and the City spinoff. Not exactly good things, but things.

Carrie Bradshaw’s not-problems could be the perfect backdrop to a night in.

Alfred would probably send him cookies if he asked. This being an emergency and all. Although… it wasn’t like they could explain the nature of the emergency without the whole ghost reveal.

… Probably still worth a try though.

His Red Hood phone was still at the safe house he’d slept in, but at least one of his spares for his civilian life should be in the apartment somewhere.

The steam had mostly cleared too, leaving the mirror only slightly foggy around the edges. Jason gave it a careful wipe down out of habit; dots on the mirror didn’t usually bother him, but… he’d put Catherine’s name on the building. He wanted to keep everything in it nice.

(Which was why a lot of stuff was unused.)

It wasn’t until he opened the door that he realized he really hadn’t said anything to Danny before disappearing.

Would he have left? Fuck, that’d be the obvious choice, wouldn’t it? Getting dropped off just inside a stranger’s door, and then they just walk away from you into the bathroom.

Shit, Danny had probably left. That… Jason didn’t know how to feel about that, and the empty hall only confirmed his suspicions.

On the one hand, he really wasn’t up to more talking. He didn’t even want to think about everything that had happened today, and especially not whatever the hell was lose in his city, trying to feed his rage. He couldn’t handle one more gentle reassurance that it was okay to be angry.

On the other hand, he really, really didn’t want to be alone. The noise from the TV and the snacks would cut it in a pinch, but the only thing he actually wanted right now was company. Quiet, nonjudgemental company.

He hadn’t told any of the bats about this safe house. Not even Bruce’s contractors knew he’d snuck it in. He’d wanted it to be safe from them and from everyone else, and now he could keep his fucking secrets at the cost of being alone.

A little heavy handed as a metaphor.

… Fuck, Alfred couldn’t even bring him cookies without knowing where he was.

He turned away from the hall and made for the bedroom to grab the spare phone, though he wasn’t sure who he’d message anymore. Just as he was debating the merits of messaging Cass and getting her to do him a delivery, a noise from the kitchen caught his attention. Hope rose, slowly and uncertainly. Had Danny not left?

… Why was Danny in his kitchen, when he was a self professed fire hazard?

Caution and concern flaring right alongside that hope, Jason backtracked and hurried to the kitchen.

**

There were not enough dirty dishes.

There was like, a mug, a coffee pot, and two plates. Really, Danny should have been done in minutes and fidgeting for something else to do.

But then he’d been looking for where to put the plates away, and he’d found a really impressive spice cabinet. Right next to the stovetop, made sense he guessed, though personally he preferred to keep the damn plates where they’d be used.

He’d perused a couple of labels on the little jars, mildly amused by how many he absolutely could not even guess at. What the fuck was “marjoram”? Or “zataar”?

So the logical thing to do had been open the jars for a sniff.

All well and good. He didn’t recognize most of the smells either, and couldn’t imagine why you’d put almost half of them in any kind of food, but some of them smelled really good.

But then he’d found the garlic powder.

Danny did not cook, as a rule. Sam cooked, mostly from spite, and she always used fresh smashed garlic. Danny’s youtuber chefs mostly said the jarred chopped stuff was fine, but what the fuck was garlic powder?

And what garlic powder was, was pungent. Really, really strongly scented, and super light. Just opening the jar had puffed up a cloud of the stuff, and Danny had been about to sniff it anyway and took a bigger huff than he intended.

And then he’d sneezed.

And now Jason’s entire kitchen was dusted in garlic powder, including the dishes he’d just washed and left on the counter while he found their homes.

So Danny panicked.

Trying to dust the garlic powder off the counters with his hands only got more of it into the air, and he wasn’t falling for that fucking trap again, no sir. He went ghost again and stopped fucking breathing is what he did, then grabbed a garlic covered towel and tried to wipe the powder into a pile.

No dice.

But Danny was a professional superhero. He calmed himself down. He stopped panicking. He went looking for a dustpan and brush like a sensible adult.

And then he heard the bathroom door open, froze like a deer in the headlights, and reflexively jerked straight off the floor.

Because right, he had fucking ghost powers.

At least he already hadn’t been breathing. Luckily, Jason seemed to need something from the other side of the apartment since his footsteps pretty much immediately moved away, and Danny let out another relieved breath.

He could still fix this. This would be fine. He could telekinetically pick up all the garlic dust, and throw it in the trash because a lot was on the floor and the rest was on him and also Every Other Surface On Earth, and buy Jason more tomorrow.

Before Jason came back from wherever else he was going and realized Danny was a fucking menace. Focusing hard, Danny let his aura suffuse the room and focused on the garlic powder. Willed it to lift off whatever it was touching, and come towards him.

Of course, some of it was now on the clean dishes, and in the mug. Which fell over as Danny pulled its powder coating away.

Jason’s footsteps immediately stopped. And then began hurrying towards him.

And maybe Danny panicked again, just a tiny bit, but the good news was he did not ice over the whole kitchen! He’d grown so much since Ghost Puberty Part 2 Electric Boogaloo! He was totally in control!

He just iced the dishes to the counter and froze the floating garlic powder, which was why Jason appeared in the doorway to see Danny floating like a fucking dumbass in the middle of his kitchen, surrounded by sparkling ice crystals.

Danny raised both hands immediately.

“I can explain.”

**

So the thing about Spiderheck. The really big pain in the ass thing. Was that every round was super unpredictable, even when you weren’t playing with superheroes trying to adapt their actual abilities to spider bodies.

There really was no way to know what would be a long or short round.

Tucker had tried a couple more times to “fall” early on, only to be promptly followed by one or both of his fellow competitors.

The good news was, they were at least all tied up for now, so he’d gotten more time without anyone asking questions. The bad news was, it was match point. Whoever took this next one, if they didn’t all tie, it would be time for another set.

Aaaaand Conner and Tim were still having fun, and insisted they were just warming up, but Tucker was sweating anyway. He didn’t even know spiders could sweat.

Ancients, had he actually fucked up using his powers for the first time in years when he was trying to show off for Red Robin and Superboy?

He was going to look like a fucking newb. An absolute amateur.

And that was assuming that no one had come looking for them and noticed the empty room and still going game on the TV. Would Batman think he’d kidnapped Red Robin?

Who was Tucker kidding, he totally would. Bruce was paranoid as hell, and while he mostly seemed to be aiming it at Danny, that was probably because he hadn’t realized Tucker was liminal. Did the GIW even know about liminals? There probably wasn’t much documentation for him to freak himself out about with.

Of course, in this case he wouldn’t be wrong. Tim would be trapped. It’d just be because Tucker was a dumbass, not a malicious force. At least Tim and Conner would almost definitely believe him.

Aaaand he’d never live it down. It was only a matter of time before they both noticed he wasn’t really trying to win anymore too. He’d kept up, but that was mostly by accident. He just had a lot of practice being inside the game levels.

A lot of them could kill all the players on their own, no PVP required.

He felt like an absolute caveman when the answer finally came to him, and it wasn’t even his own idea.

Because the last level had been one of those “kill all the players” levels, and all three of them had managed to be thrown into lava close enough that the computer didn’t count a winner.

Tim and Conner groaned loudly before bursting out laughing, because of course that was what happened at their dramatic finale, and then as they’d spawned in again Tim turned to Tucker.

“Hey, can you pause before we get into this one? I just wanna catch my breath a second.”

Which, for a nanosecond, felt like the absolute end of the world, because he didn’t have his controller buttons. Because he was a dumbass.

Luckily, it also snapped him back to his senses, and reminded him of the very first time he’d put Sam and Danny into a game with him. They’d made the same mistake, not leaving anyone their actual console controls, and Danny had begun trying to actually physically break them out before Tucker worked it out.

They were his fucking powers. He could always pause them, whatever they were doing; all he had to do was close his eyes and blank out for like, a minute.

He’d been collapsing in despair that first time, and Sam had kicked him over, sat on him, and demanded he take a nap, and then they were all back in their bodies like nothing had happened.

Keeping them inside the game was the part that was difficult; it was an act of focus, and sure it felt automatic at this point because he did this all the time now, but it was still something he had to actively do. Sure, technically, he wouldn’t be controlling the game from the inside, but they’d be back in their fucking bodies in the real world.

Where the actual console controls were. And then he could reload them in, and not forget his overrides this time, and everything would be fine.

Luckily, while his brain was techno-linked, he was processing in computer-time, not people-time. There was barely a pause after Tim asked the question and the answer came, tension leaving his body so quickly he almost sagged.

He even sounded a little giddily relieved to his own ears as he answered, laughing and already shutting his eyes.

“Well, kinda. Let me just pop us back out, we should probably check the time too. Hang on.”

Luckily, this stage did not seem to have any instant death traps. Tim and Conner fucked around with the crates and the platforms for a couple of seconds while Tucker reached inside, deliberately pulling his disconnect instead of waiting, and then they were all back on the couch, controllers in hand.

He’d never been so happy to see his own hands. Or the Start button, which he promptly hit to pause all three spiders before Tim and Conner’s could swing to their deaths. Even if that would give him the win.

Tim and Conner shifted beside him, getting used to their bodies again. Tucker took the lead there, setting his controller down and stretching his arms up behind his head, the phantom sensations of extra limbs already beginning to fade.

“It stops feeling weird pretty fast, but it helps if you move around,” he explained brightly, still high on that buzz of relief.

Conner made a noise of agreement, standing and stretching his arms over his head, which made his shirt ride up. Tucker had the good sense to turn away quickly, before he got hypnotized.

Not quickly enough that Tim didn’t notice, but Tim Drake-Wayne remained the very coolest person on planet Earth and didn’t say anything. He just grinned knowingly at Tucker and rolled his shoulders, stretching out his neck.

“Okay, that was really cool. Not even a little bit the same, but really cool.”

Tucker grinned back, sheepish but still just happy he didn’t get caught.

“Yeah, there’s always the skill barrier where you can’t do the button combos, but I still feel like it helps? Y’know, understanding how the characters move and stuff.”

“I’m just glad you picked up the TTK that fast,” Conner cut in with a laugh, now bending down to touch his toes, blessedly while facing them.

Tucker swelled with pride.

“I mean, it wasn’t all that complicated. You explained it really well,” he said totally calmly, totally cool, definitely not fawning over the actual demigod in the room.

He didn’t exactly get why Conner shot Tim an entirely triumphant grin or why Tim rolled his eyes, but he wasn’t gonna worry about that. Tonight, he was batting a thousand.

He’d be tired getting back to class tomorrow, and he couldn’t exactly tell his classmates he’d been hanging out with Tim Drake-Wayne and being carried home by actual Superboy, but this was still the best week of his life. And Tim had already been talking about getting him an internship.

His life really could not be finer.

**

Jason took the mess well. Probably because Danny had a) already been working on it and b) panicked like a startled duckling and explained at a mile a minute, getting the order of events completely wrong at least twice.

Having the garlic powder iced over definitely helped the cleanup too. Jason grabbed a garbage bag, Danny floated what was in the air in, and they both took damp cloths to hunt down any stray garlic powder hiding in crevices.

Danny rewashed the dishes, but Jason dried them with a fresh towel and showed him where everything was. All in all, it was a blissfully domestic moment after a genuinely fucked day.

He could feel an unasked question waiting on the back of Jason’s tongue while they cleaned up, the shape of anticipation and something that wasn’t exactly fear, or even anxiety, just a low grade avoidance. Danny didn’t push it.

That seemed like the right answer too, because when they’d finished and stared at each other awkwardly for a long moment, Jason sighed and rubbed the back of his neck.

“Look, I know you’ve got school tomorrow. If you’ve gotta head out…” he trailed off, resigned-tired filling his aura.

Danny raised both hands to cut him off.

“Hey. I can fly across this city in like, fifteen minutes. It’s not even half eleven yet, so if you want some company I’ve got nowhere else to be. We can talk about whatever, play some more MarioKart, or I can just make you some cocoa and go if you need space?”

Jason didn’t physically sag with relief, but that was probably because he’d already been holding himself carefully to hide the tension. Didn’t matter, because everything else about him screamed it as he raised an eyebrow at Danny, glancing around his kitchen.

“I’m not leaving you alone in here again until you’re Alfred-certified,” he declared sarcastically, and Danny grinned back.

“Ah, so never again. Good to know. It’s probably for the best, I’m a lousy cook for anything I don’t have to wrestle to the ground.” Not that he was any better at cooking it after he’d won the fight; he was just pretty good at the fighting part.

Jason’s eyebrow twitched and then he chuckled, shaking his head and pointing out of the kitchen.

“Tell you what, I’ll make you some cocoa while you go turn the TV on. Remote’s on the end table.”

That sounded like an invitation to stay to Danny! So he hadn’t totally fucked by not booking it out of Jason’s haunt at top speed; good to know.

And maybe he did physically sag with relief a little, because expressing your emotions was cool actually and everyone should totally be doing it more. And it was more fun in ghost form; he actually sunk til his feet almost touched the ground.

Didn’t go all the way when he remembered he was still in his boots. Jason’s other apartments had been pretty well lived in although still generally tidy, but this one was almost pristine. Whether it was new or he was just more careful here, Danny could take a hint.

He gestured quickly at his body while Jason pulled a cartoon of milk from the giant, gleaming blue-black fridge that looked mostly empty.

“Sure, uh… mind if I change?”

Jason blinked, which was fair since Danny had been a ghost for the past couple hours, then nodded.

“Not at all. There’s also some sweatpants and stuff in the bedroom if you wanna get more comfortable, but I don’t have as much of Tim or Dick’s stuff here so you might be stuck in mine,” he added a little shyly, and Danny’s grin widened as he remembered his new favourite shirt.

“You have five minutes to hide any other great soup shirts before I take you up on that,” he teased and Jason grinned back.

“Nah, go for it. I’ll only be a little longer than that with the cocoa though, so don’t do too much snooping around.” It didn’t sound like an actual warning, but he’d also already turned back to what he was doing… which already looked way too complicated.

He had a saucepan for crying out loud. Like Danny couldn’t see the electric kettle and fancy coffee machine. Tempted to stick around to watch just for curiosity, Danny floated back to the front door to change back and drop off his shoes and coat instead.

And hesitated.

Jason had given him permission to go to the bedroom. Change out of his jeans and jacket. He didn’t actually need to; the jeans were pretty comfy, well worn in, but they did have some built up salt, slush, and yuck from walking and driving around Gotham’s streets around the ends.

It was possible the suggestion had been more for the sake of Jason’s couch than Danny’s comfort.

He could just go intangible and let the dirt fall through, but that’d leave a pile which while technically being more contained would still be more mess. And sometimes it was hard to tell what was dirt and what was pants, since they weren’t exactly “his” either way.

He could just do laundry when he got home.

Luckily the bedroom door was open, so Danny didn’t have to poke into any of the other doors from the hall. Just like at his other apartment, there was indeed a separate set of six drawers with Jason’s siblings name on each drawer.

Well, “Dickhead”, “Timbo”, “The Purple One”, “Cass”, “Demon Brat”, and “Best Sibling”. Snickering to himself, Danny considered taking a picture. Or asking Duke what he’d done to be “Best Sibling”.

Unlike the other apartment, each drawer was mostly empty though. Just a pair of sweatpants about the right size, a hoodie, and a shirt that Jason had definitely assigned rather than getting one of theirs. Although Danny didn’t doubt Dick would own a Nightwing hoodie in the least.

The My Little Pony shirt for Damian was… well, Danny didn’t know him well enough to say.

With the clothes that might actually fit located (and honestly Cass’s were probably actually his best bet), Danny snooped through a couple other drawers to see if Jason did have any other fun shirts to steal.

There was actually depressingly little; Jason had plenty of clothes here, just like the other apartments, but all of them were… respectable. Plain. Block colours, simple patterns, normal people clothing.

Danny was just about to give up when he popped open the bottom drawer and stared in awe.

Jason’s regular wardrobe (from Danny’s admittedly limited experience) was kinda basic; plain shirt, sexy jacket, plain pants. Extra sweaters given the weather, but he did also have a pretty good collection of graphic tees with various swearwords usually featured boldly.

Where what had to be the complete collection of every Wonder Woman shirt ever made fit in, Danny wasn’t going to try and guess, but he knew good taste when he saw it.

Unfortunately, if he stole one of those, Jason was probably gonna want it back. Most of them were clearly worn, and just as clearly carefully cleaned to keep them nice. Danny wasn’t good at keeping things nice.

Somewhat reluctantly, he shuffled back to the siblings’ dresser and stole Cass’s hot pink paw print sweats, Steph’s 1000% bootlegged Sex In The City misprint shirt with the purple sparkle dildos painted over the girls, and the Nightwing hoodie. Never let it be said he could put together an outfit.

Fingering the shirt, he made his way back out and to the open plan lounge, his own clothes tossed carefully onto his shoes by the door. Jason had told him to put the TV on… and the worst he could do was say no.

Pulling up the streaming services, Danny went looking for And Just Like That. Mostly for curiosity’s sake, to be honest. He could probably sneak a trailer before Jason got back, just as a sample.

As if summoned by his thoughts, Jason appeared just as Danny found the right service, two steaming mugs of incredible smelling cocoa topped with a mass of whipped cream in his hands and a large bowl of popcorn, skittles, and smarties in his other arm.

Danny couldn’t even complain about not getting to have nice things, because if that wasn’t the epitome of a fantasy walking into the room he didn’t know what was. Hitting pause quickly, he hopped up to take the bowl for purely altruistic reasons.

Definitely not for an early handful, no matter how Jason raised his eyebrows at him. The handful was Danny’s reward for being a good citizen.

“Hey, that smells fantastic! Your family is gonna ruin me for shitty cafe hot chocolate,” he teased through a mouthful of candy.

Jason rolled his eyes but smiled, switching both mugs to one hand to set a trio of coasters on the coffee table. Danny reluctantly relinquished the bowl to the third if only to grab his cocoa and take a sip as Jason sniffed.

“Hot chocolate is to cocoa what instant coffee is to fresh,” he said snootily, like those were words that meant anything. Danny just stared at him, whipped cream on his nose purely for comedic effect.

Until Jason leaned in and wiped it away with his thumb, and Danny’s brain shut down. Unfortunate, since Jason started talking.

“So, uh… you a Sex and the City fan?”

“Huh?” Danny kept staring, pretty sure words had meanings until Jason jerked his thumb in the direction of the TV (which was huge and gorgeous because of course it was. This was the rich son of a bitch apartment Danny would expect of… okay, not a Wayne, it was still way below that level of fancy, but at least someone making a good chunk of change).

Then he shook himself out of it, grinning.

“Oh! No, never seen any.”

Jason cocked his head, eyebrow raised again.

“Then why…”

Danny shrugged, settling himself comfortably back into the couch. He was going to sound like a crazy person anyway, he might as well be comfortable.

“I listen to The Worst Idea Of All Time on my way to classes. And when I’m welding. It’s a couple of guys from New Zealand who watched Sex and the City 2 every week for a year, and a bunch of other stuff. Like, uh… Grown Ups 2, We Are Your Friends, oh and the first Sex and the City movie.”

And, sure enough, Jason looked appropriately baffled.

“What, all at once?”

“Nah, different years. They never did the actual show, but they’re doing commentary on all of the episodes of And Just Like That now that they’re out since they did both movies, which were after the show. Why, did you watch the actual show?”

Jason nodded slowly, and Danny snickered.

“The show’s not canon for the Worst Idea boys. Brady the Rat King is though.” And yeah, he probably could be explaining this more like a sane and reasonable person, but that just made the podcast sound worse.

This time it was Jason who raised both hands, even relinquishing his cocoa to do it.

“There are too many questions, so I’m just gonna start with “why?”” He was already smiling though, so Danny was going to take that as a good sign.

He shrugged cheerfully.

“Schadenfreude is the leading theory from the boys, and to be fair it is fun watching them suffer through the worst movies they can find. They’re both professional comedians though so it is actually really funny, and they’re really positive. Every watch has to have a shining light, which is something you actually liked about the movie that week. I did that with one of my lecturers last semester, a real blowhard, and it helped. Mostly it’s just the aural equivalent of comfort food; nothing challenging, no thought required, just two good soft boys making up crazy stories about movies every week.”

Jason was actually listening, pursing his lips as he considered what Danny was saying. Privately, Danny suspected having actually watched Sex and the City might work against him… although he might have been dead when at least one of the movies came out.

Finally, Jason sighed.

“So you’ve just watched the movies, and none of the show?” He asked, in a tone which told Danny exactly what he thought of the movies. So he might like the podcast after all.

Danny grinned and grabbed another handful of popcorn.

“Nah. They actively discourage us from watching them, even when they do directors commentary. And Just Like That isn’t getting the full season treatment though, so I kinda wanted to take a look just to see the outfits.” A stroke of inspiration struck him, and Danny dropped some of the popcorn into his cocoa.

Getting it back out again was not as easy as he’d have liked, but he got two pieces that were heavenly and was content to let the third wallow under the whipped cream where it had retreated.

Jason totally was not laughing at him, because he was a gentleman. It was the brilliance of Danny’s answers that had him smiling like that, for sure. And when he was sure he had Danny’s attention again, he pointed at him.

“Okay, we’ll watch And Just Like That tonight. But you have to come over and watch the original series at some point too,” he added quickly.

Danny pouted but considered it. He didn’t even know how many seasons there had been. Time for a counter offer.

“Only if you try the podcast.” Which was a totally reasonable offer and absolutely no reason for Jason to make that face as he nodded.

“Fine. I’ll give it a shot on my way to work. Happy?”

“Deeeeee-lighted,” Danny cackled, holding out a hand to shake. Which Jason obligingly shook, then nodded to the couch.

“No spoilers, okay? Unless there’s good hats. I’m just going to run and change.”

He even came back bearing a fuzzy throw from the end of the bed, which he dropped on Danny’s head and imperilled his precious cocoa. It was mostly empty by then though, and then Jason even refilled it for him, so Danny graciously gave him a royal pardon.

Jason graciously told him to shove it up his ass and settled in, and Danny swiped the remote for his impertinence. Long day now finally behind them, it was looking to be a much better night.

**

Taking a quick glance at both his League communicator and both of his phones, Bruce dismissed about thirty messages from Harley. He might have liked to talk to her earlier, and probably would actually message her back to talk later.

It had only been for a matter of minutes, but even a second of believing that Jason had died again… no. He knew he hadn’t handled it well. If he actually slept tonight, he had no doubt it would be even worse than usual, and plagued by nightmares.

Fortunately for him, he had a new case to distract himself with… or rather, a new direction for his existing case.

Diana was right; she usually was, in matters of the heart. He had to trust Jason, and trust that Jason knew what he was doing with this business in the Infinite Realms.

A year ago, Jason likely wouldn’t even have involved Bruce in the conversation, if it happened at all; he’d have dropped the evidence on Dick or Duke, or just gone around trying to blow up a rogue government agency on his own. That he had brought this to Bruce showed a lot of progress in their relationship. It gave him a reason to hope.

He would have to try and reward the trust Jason had shown in him, rather than punishing it. A proper apology, just between them… if Jason would speak to him.

A few days to give Jason time to calm down would probably help. And, if he was truthful, for Bruce to put his concerns to bed.

He may have been… hasty in leaping to conclusions about Danny Fenton. It wasn’t like him to become so entrenched in an opinion without checking it from at least a dozen more angles; the Mansons and Vlad Masters could only know so much.

Diana had been right again; he had to get to know Danny, to put his fears to rest. He trusted…

Okay. When it came down to it, he didn’t exactly trust his children not to lie to him about the dangers of a potential friend. There’d been one too many secrets-turned-disasters. But he could trust them to fact check and rat each other out if they truly believed their siblings were making a serious mistake.

For the joy of an “I told you so”, if nothing else.

Cass’s first impressions in her debrief had been illuminating. A little more discussion with her and perhaps Steph, their views were often varied enough that between them a very comprehensive picture could be built.

Talking to Danny himself again… Bruce knew himself well enough to know that wasn’t a good idea yet. It would have to happen eventually; he suspected he also owed Danny an apology for his behaviour, although no one else had mentioned it. Which was perhaps another sign of how badly he’d failed Jason.

No, he had to level his opinions on Danny first, make sure he could keep a clear head. Returning to the cave, he made his way directly to the batcomputer and sank into its familiar embrace.

Tim likely hadn’t had time to make the updates that would allow them to read through Amity Park’s data directly, but Tucker Foley had provided them with a respectable amount of downloaded data. Bruce could begin his researches there, and make some travel arrangements as well.

If he couldn’t get into Amity Park digitally, physically would have to do. Likely as Brucie Wayne rather than Batman, although repairing the town’s relationship to the Justice League was a worthy goal while he was there. And while people wouldn’t be as open to giving him information about Danny face to face, he could pick up some native tech and make his own adjustments. That should let him get past their unique protections.

And a better look at these ghosts, and an understanding of what exactly the Justice League Dark were so concerned about.

Hands pausing on the keys for a moment, Bruce briefly considered messaging Constantine again, or Zatanna. He should at least inform them that he was planning to go to Amity Park in person.

After a moment’s consideration, he sent a brief message to Zatanna. As unprofessional as it might be, Bruce knew himself well enough to know he just wasn’t up to spending any more time with Constantine at the moment.

Zatanna could brief him on any necessary etiquette just as well, with far less dramatics. A little space between himself and Constantine could only help as well. Honestly, a few days away from Gotham and all of his current headaches could only be a good thing.

Harley might even be proud of him.

——————

So here we have it! Also, by the way, that nexus thing is actually canon in the DC multiverse, and it is so much fun

[rox-of-iu]

i was looking for my chem notes and instead found a sketch I made back when cultivate chapter 16 dropped.., (this is obviously not the same scene as there, but just something that remained rent free in my head,,, so this is uhhh idk maybe another reunion just later in the future where beloveds figured it all out finally and are more bold haha)

this was originally supposed to be a properly made comic but unfortunately, that is just not feasible at this point in time. but I didn't want to sit on the draft for the next few months or so, so I decided to throw it quickly together to make it a bit more legible and share it as it is haha (and to clarify im not gonna finish it any more than this. most likely. sorry)

the fic is yet once again cultivate by @neonghostcat

if its not clear what its supposed to be (which, fair) its supposed to be the reunion when LQG comes back from CQ but with a twist (ha!) because I'm weak like that for characters doing the spinny spin o(-(

so frame one is LQG standing somewhere nearby the homestead, perhaps the main gate or wherever, and gets spotted by SY who in turn stops in his tracks on his way from the lower terraces, and the rest hopefully is legible enough haha

-

↓the original sketch that i found + bonus on the right: jokes on SY now that LQG has him snatched he's not letting go. he can work with one hand just fine.

[ronearoundblindly]

Sneak Peek!

a Steve Rogers x Avenger!Reader excerpt

Summary: Steve reaches his breaking point when you return to the field after severe injuries.

Warnings for a touch of the spice and a vicious/hot argument. WC ~550 *This work is not in final edits yet. All mistakes are my own.

“You’re not my superior officer, and if you think for one second I did anything wrong out there, go ahead and report me. From where I’m standing, I did the work, got cleared for duty, helped out the team, and stopped you from being shot in the head.”

“Fine," Steve shouts, arms crossed over his chest, "but quit acting like a selfish coward.”

“A what?”

“You heard me.”

“If you’re gonna throw a hissy fit every time I get a scratch—“

“THREE BULLETS IS NOT A SCRATCH.” He tries—he visibly, painfully tries—to keep his cool one last time. “You weren’t ready,” he concludes, judge, jury, and executioner all poured into one star-spangled package.

“Say’s who?” You’re stepping closer, getting in his face because this is bullshit and unfair. “Last time I checked, you’re not a doctor, and you should be thanking me for saving your ass—“

“It’s not your job to save me.”

“We have the same job, Steve! We are both perfectly capable of—“

“I know that,” he barks.

“Do you? Because you don’t seem to think I can’t handle myself." You push weakly at his chest like it's a game. "Maybe you need to walk it off, buddy.”

Oh shit. You’ve done it now.

“Walk it off?! WALK IT OFF?!”

Steve charges like a bull seeing red, crowding you against the far wall, a derisive finger pointed at your heart.

“You were injured. You didn’t make contact. You went dark for days, and you could have died. Alone. Out there. Who knows how long it would have taken us to find you. No—“ he cups your chin in a tight pinch “—you want to talk about a job? It’s protocol to check in. It’s common courtesy to let me know you’re alive, and it’s goddamn rude to ignore your own safety.”

There’s a deep line of frustration carved between his brows. His nostrils flair as he waits, daring you to refute him.

“Well, isn’t that the pot calling the kettle black.”

“Excuse me?”

Steve lets go of you, smacked away by your cutting tone.

“Oh, whatever, Rogers,” you taunt, rolling your eyes. “Play martyr all you want, but we both know you don’t have the authority to bench me.”

“Like hell I don’t,” he growls, grabbing your wrists and throwing your arms above your head. He weaves your hands through the cargo net behind you. The loops are tight and complicated in seconds, he’s so fast.

You can’t wriggle away.

Steve roughly throws the zipper of your uniform down, letting the jacket hang open to show nothing but your sports bra.

“Let’s see how you like feeling paralyzed—“ he dexterously undoes your belt “—exposed—“ your pants and underwear are yanked down to your ankles “—and afraid.”

His last word thickens the air on the jet. 

How can this man launch you into unbridled lust in the space of two syllables? Who. Fucking. Cares. How.

Steve’s fingertips teasingly glide over the swell of your breasts, brush down your belly, and tick their way in a casual walk between your legs.

“Maybe I should leave you wondering how it’ll all play out, leave you wondering if I’ll ever touch you again, wondering if…”

“Yes,” you breathe.

a/n: Tentatively planning to have this done to post on Sunday since the original was a 'Sweet Sunday' ask. Per usual, don't quote me on that, but I got a huge chunk done today which was likely the hardest part. Thank you to all those who sent messages of support! I won't let you down 🫡

[Main Masterlist; Old Dog, New Tricks; Ko-Fi]

Tags: @supraveng @1950schick @patzammit @whiskeytangofoxtrot555 @yiiiikesmish @ashesofblackroses @bucky-fricking-barnes-reads @fallinallinmendes @deandreamernp

[skygemspeaks]

okay so after seeing all of the first three episodes again last night with friends and falling even more in love with the cast than before, i finally got around to episode 4 today. some thoughts:

i can't gush enough about the set design, it's all absolutely gorgeous. i was completely in love with the little clearing where young zoro and kuina have their match, just seeing the sunlight filtering through the trees...it really gives off that kind of nostalgic, romantic feeling that you get when you think back to a simpler time in your life. and of course, kaya's mansion is gorgeous! it doesn't look like yet another generic rich person mansion. it has character! i loved all the wall art in their dining room, i like the orderly yet cozy cluttered feeling of the kitchen, i love how it all feels lived in, like it has a history

talking more about the technical aspects, i love the costume design too! i like the slightly too clean look of the marine uniforms - it brings notice to the fact that these are new cadets who don't have much fighting history. i like that both nami and sham get to wear practical clothes! no stupid high heels for nami! no short shorts!

i didn't mention this last time, but i LOVE jacob's version of usopp. it's crazy that they managed to find a guy who can do usopp's over the top facial expressions in real life. they really lucked out with this entire main cast, i can't imagine literally anyone else playing our beloved straw hats. i hope we can see at least one more season, and i hope i adore robin and chopper just as much as i love these the east blue crew

as sad as it is, i'm glad that it seems like merry really is dead. i like this more brutal direction for the live action, because it feels like there are actual consequences for them, and i like that you can't take for granted that just because someone survived in the manga/anime, it means they'll survive in the live action too

the child actors are a little stiff, but i think they're really doing a good job given how young they are! young zoro's actor was definitely doing a better job that kojiro's. he sold his grief over kuina's death very well

speaking of koshiro, i still fuckin hate that dude. he did kuina so dirty with his sexism, convincing her she had no future as a swordswoman, making her believe that she could never stand up to men.

i think having koby and helmeppo show up at kaya's mansion and inevitably get duped by kuro was a good choice. it lets koby get a little more experience in a leadership position, and more than that, it helps establish usopp's distrust of the marines. from the beginning he was always interested in the romantic view he had of pirates because of his dad, but seeing that the marines failed him, even after they said they would help him, and that they didn't believe him no matter how much he begged them to, it helps establish a reason for him to go along with the pirates when they invite him to. the marines didn't do shit to protect kaya, but luffy and his friends did everything they could. they loved kaya, maybe not as much as usopp, but they wanted her to be safe.

side note, it's kind of hilarious to think about helmeppo trying to kill luffy, and then going back to the ship and finding out that he's garp's grandson 💀💀

when we are! started playing in the background as the going merry set sail for the first time with her crew...i cried, i'm not ashamed to admit it. gosh, i missed her, and i miss the first opening. it's so nice to see her get to go on more adventures with her crew in this new medium! i know some people were unhappy with her figurehead, but i just adore it, it suits her crew well

luffy's little shit-eating grin when kaya just gives them merry for free, and nami being just SO exasperated because he's gonna be so insufferable now, it made me laugh so hard! i love these idiots

when usopp and luffy were arguing about which one of them was captain, and nami just burst out laughing? and then zoro started chuckling too? that was so healing! they've already had good chemistry so far, and they've shown loyalty, but it's so nice to finally see zoro and nami kind of starting to admit that they do like these people they've become friends with, and it's nice to see that they're coming around to how much they care about luffy

i was a little iffy about them doing the garp reveal at the end. my first instinct was to be really annoyed by it, but after thinking on it for a moment, it honestly does make sense. in the first place there wasn't really a plot reason to put off the reveal until post enies lobby anyways. and then you also have to take into account that it would be a huge success if we ever even get a second season, let alone reaching post enies lobby. so it's not ideal, but i'm not too upset at them about it. ALSO, seeing zoro, nami, and usopp's reaction to the news was fucking hilarious. i hope we get some good dynamics in the next episode! i want to see garp call luffy his idiot grandson. i want that funny family dysfunction.

[canonicallysoulmates]

Another year has come and gone, and y’all know what that means, it’s time to look back at some of the j2 moments 2022 has given us. 

We start the year with the boys excited at the opportunity to work together again, with Jensen set to join Jared on the Walker set to direct an episode! When asked about it during Dallascon in February Jared said that he couldn’t wait, and that the most exciting part for him was going to be getting to introduce a lot of the cast and crew to one of the people who helped him grow up and helped him learn how to do what he does, and that he would be showing Jensen off on set. And show him off he did! But let's not get ahead of ourselves...

March and April were packed with j2 goodies from the Walker set!

We got the boys in matching shirts ❤️:

Some social media husbandness:

"You can direct me any time" We know, Jared. We know 😏

The cute fun of Jared getting Jensen a different chair back for each day he was there directing:

When asked what it had been like to work together again the boys were sweet and sentimental answering, that it was like they never stopped.

And Jensen saying about his shorthand with Jared that: "There’s nobody else I can do that with. He and I have that, and we’ll always have that. That’s not something that fades away."

Y'all know I'm not gonna forget to mention that Jared gave the cast and crew a whole speech, on Jensen's birthday, telling them about how important Jensen has been in his life! 💕 

March also gave us not one but two public date nights! One to a UFC fight:

And the second when Jensen took Jared to The Boys EW party!

Before we continue I feel like I'd be remiss to not take a second to mention that April ended on a scare because Jared did have a bad car accident which we found out about through Jensen, who is the person Jared gave permission to reveal the news. So, let's take a second to be thankful for our boy's health and well being🙏

Continuing on to happier things, and the rest of the year....

We got matching husbands at the CW Upfronts:

So handsome 😍

We love a supportive hubby:

In Jared’s third appearance on Rosenbaum's podcast he gushed about Jensen saying the most beautiful stuff like:

About introducing Jensen to the Walker cast and crew:

Making it clear that he loves and belives in Jensen:

And these are just snippets, this man gushed about Jensen several times, and for like 5mins and he would have done it for longer if Rosenbaum hadn't stopped him.

During the gold panel of Orlcon Jared was struggling with the heat so Jensen got him a fan for the main panel:

He's always taking care of his boy 🥰

He also had some lovely things to say about Jared producing his own show post-spn, saying that he doesn’t know many people in their profession personally that is more well equipped than Jared to do that job and he’s doing it now with grace and dignity and talent and success.

During Torcon Jared was all emotional, and he even cried, and at one point somebody in the crowd shouted at Jared to not start crying again so Jensen jumped to his defense saying he could cry if he wanted to.

Because of work Jared was not able to join Jensen at JIB but distance is not gonna stop these two and we still got some lovely moments like how Jared described Jensen: Jensen’s loyal, strong, and kind like a lab. He’s not as boisterous but he’s down for anything and he can do anything. He’s always up to work hard, he’s a loyal friend, a loyal family member. So he’d be like a lab you can count on him, he’s always gonna be there for you. 💕

And Jensen saying that Jared completes him 💞

Which he tries to play off and acts all bashful about yet a minute earlier he was talking about Jared's farts saying how he doesn't miss them and then going “maybe a little bit”. Its been months and I still haven't been able to process this because do you know how much you have to love someone to miss their farts? This is both cute and gross.

September gave us date night!

x

There was this soft moment during Kansascon:

Jensen shared that he has told the story of how he and Jared met on the Big Sky set 🥺

This is not really a hat thing but I'm really proud of them for this so I'm taking a second to include it, they got honored by the former mayor of Lawrence, Kansas! They were presented with a proclamation that Lawrence, Kansas is the official hometown of Sam and Dean Winchester, and they even got license plates with Jared’s saying Lil Bro and Jensen’s saying Baby.

Jared got sick with covid, again, so he was not able to attend Vancon but Jensen was thinking of his boy 😭:

During Phoenixcon we got a glimpse as to how they handle their currently long distance relationship with the boys answer basically boiling down to them being used to having to be away from loved ones and having to go long stretches without seeing someone they hold so dear but when they are together they are present in the moment.

We end the year with flirting, heart eyes, fondness, the boys making each other laugh and this:

Btw, this was Jared's reaction to a fan saying that men who choose Ryan Gosling - which Jensen did - tend to be more romantic.

We also got the reminder that Jared and Jensen share underwear😏

And that my friends are some of the j2 moments 2022 gave us!

Much like years prior, I hope this post acts as a little beacon of positivity and a reminder of the love that these two men continue to share. May 2023 gift us with even more wonderful moments💌

Happy New Years! 🥂

[valiant-portabella-pirkko]

ok so I actually completed SotO's new story chapters on day 1, but I've taken a little while to put my thoughts together on it. some of it's good, some not, but I did my best to be fair and direct on it.

so anyway here we go, major spoilers under the cut!

The Good

I like the map, I like the writing direction, I like the lore. I liked most of what we got, honestly. dungeon fixes, customizable character screen backgrounds, bugfixing the new 'green circles' mechanic, and adding a mount ley-line toggle are also all huge things that people have been wanting, and I'm very very glad they listened.

Peitha is shaping into an absolutely fascinating character too, and it's getting a lot more obvious why she connected to the Wayfinder so quickly... they feel very much cut from the same cloth, two strong leaders fighting to make their worlds better. and yet they're also burdened by the weight of that choice, and the sacrifices that must be made for their vision to be made into reality.

moments like this hit me like a bag of bricks; there's so much going on in the Kryptis homeworld. it's fascinating starting from the perspective of the Ward, seeing them all as just these vicious invaders... to now finding out they have names, ambitions, homes, maybe even families. we're told time and time again that their motivation is fear. the Wanderer, Irja, the little grunts we kill en masse to power the beacons, even Heitor herself.

'There's a version of this world where she joined us.'

like... just thinking about that. man. a version where Heitor hadn't lost hope so completely that by the time we come along, Peitha informs us that she wanted to die-- if only because she knew that at least we'd make it quick. it's horrifying to think about on its own, but the reality that it didn't have to be that way makes it so much worse.

it's... such a clear illustration of why their world has to change. they're fighting and dying to preserve the status quo not because it brings them comfort or privilege, but because they've been living in hell for so long that they don't believe an alternative exists. for as alien as the Kryptis seem to us, we're every bit as alien to them.

it feels like there's a really solid direction here, and I hope that it continues being solid through to the end. I could talk WAY more about my feelings on the story, but I'd better keep going.

I also like the Convergences; they're fun and I hope they survive. having public vs private instanced content seems to cause issues with publics staying populated long-term though, which... concerns me. I STRONGLY prefer publics just because you can bring Jade Bot protocols in, which makes it easier to travel freely and keep boons.

and now that I've dug into all that, uh... let's get to the less fun stuff.

The Bad

there's a lot of things to like about this release, but there's also a lot to... Not. the main 'drop' for Convergences outside of raw essences are Concealed Unstable Kryptis Essence Coffers... lootboxes which can only be opened with an Unstable Kryptis Motivation, which at the moment costs... upwards of 10 Gold per pop if you buy them off the TP. the only other way to get them is grinding tier 2 and 3 rifts, and good luck getting one because they're RARE.

I do not like this direction, for a LOT of reasons. the biggest one should be pretty obvious: it's making a portion of the victory rewards inaccessible to players who can't shell out the gold or the rift farm time to get the keys OUTSIDE the Convergence. the other is that the rewards aren't even worth 11 Gold anyway, so the coffers are dropping rapidly in price while the keys stay high. at this point it's arguably better to just sell the keys on the TP than to ever actually use them. the market on these is gonna get wacky I'm sure.

I don't want to see that become a trend. just.......... no.

the other main gripe I have is that... there's no portal of entry in and out of Inner Nayos. no, really. you can't get in and out at all without porting one way or another. it's right next to the Wizard's Tower but there is no entry point connecting these two maps. I thought I was going insane at first so I turned on the story again while in the Wizard's Tower to see if it'd point me towards a door. nope! it just sticks the story star icon on the Inner Nayos map and calls it a day.

aside from making travel in and out unnecessarily irritating and costly, this also means that you can't easily get alts into the dang map without a TP to friend. otherwise you have to do the story on them, whether you're ready and willing to or not.

I don't like that shift either, and really hope they remedy it when the 'under construction' gate opens in the future. that said, that should have been made available as soon as you finish the story.

and now the final segment, you know where this is going.

The Ugly

it's... short. really, really short. like, no, really. I finished all the story chapters in an hour and a half tops. now at maybe three, four days in I already have enough mastery points to top off the last mastery in the new line. I've map completed the new zone twice. both of the new Vault tasks are done. everything went so so so so fast.

and for reference: this cycle is going to last even longer than the last, based on the Vault reset time period.

additionally, the weaponmaster training underwent a stealth change: the new weapons can no longer be equipped on characters under level 80. this was not listed in the update notes. while that didn't affect me, it does seem kind of cheap to pull the rug on that when a lot of players were using that to level their characters since, well... a lot of core weapons just aren't that great. I can't really blame anyone who would rather use weapons that don't hit like a wet paper towel.

there have also been some... interesting bugs on release, of which the biggest one was unlimited hero's chests per day from the Inner Nayos meta. some people got a month's worth of chests in one day before they turned the chest drops off entirely to fix it.

they're back now, but that was still... something to behold.

I've also heard rumors that the new Legendary Kit from the Vault may be bugged; some players are reporting opening the kit and getting nothing out of it. I can't confirm how frequent that issue is, but... yeah that's a little concerning. I'll hold onto mine for now, just to be safe.

Overall Impression

despite the many sore points mentioned, overall I'm... okay with it. I like what we got, but I wish there was more there to like. from the much smaller Vault selection, to the shorter story, to the single-waypoint but otherwise very cool map that feels like it could have more going on in certain areas... I dunno.

but on the other hand... if my biggest complaint is that I like it enough to want more of it, that's an alright problem to have when we know we're going to get more. I'd be more worried if what we got was a miserable slog and I didn't even want to return to the maps-- and in fact, the opposite is true! I want to return to the map frequently and I want more to do in it-- and mostly I want easier access to it.

my hope is that the slowdown is an indication of resources being put into other backend work, such as the dungeon fixes, the character select screen, and so on. because, realistically, if they can fix up the core more, that would streamline their workflow a LOT and make it easier and quicker to work on things in the future.

I guess in short, my impression is... tentatively optimistic.

that's all I've got on it for now, maybe I'll talk about story more in-depth in the future though because boy I do have a lot of thoughts on that-- which... is part of why I had to redo this post like 6 times. it kept getting way too long and rambly over story. (oops)

[what-do-1000-swords-look-like]

Buck and Eddie standing together at the end of the grave speaks volumes.

Buck putting flowers down while Eddie makes the sign of the cross in blessing.

Eddie: "We're all gonna die alone." (notice he says this after Buck tells him what Natalia said)

Eddie: "That was a beautiful thing Natalia did for her." -> I see you, Eddie

Eddie: "Really? Dating someone you rescued? You know that never ends well." (like I said, she's Ali all over again, but she's also Taylor and Ana)

Love Eddie's eye roll btw.

Buck: "There's something different about her. I feel like she sees me."

"You know, like she sees me for who I really am and what I've been through."

"I think she might even see more of me than I see in myself."

Considering what we saw happen on his date with Natalia and how this whole setup is happening, it's obvious Buck is trying to force something here that just isn't reality. This could be the result of the trauma he went through, but he had better immediate chemistry with Taylor when meeting her on an emergency. This isn't where Buck is supposed to be headed (meaning what his endgame will be) and the show is going to great lengths to showcase that. Which is why we have this scene (and Marie being Eddie's Thomas from 2x08 which doesn't surprise me that Eddie is thinking of the long-term future and Buck is still not thinking big-picture yet, not completely).

And sure enough:

Eddie: "Look, I know we razzed you about your whole math skills, maybe I even tried to get rich off of 'em, but to be honest, you haven't been the same since it happened." -> not only is math mentioned again (Buddie) but it's made very clear that Eddie sees how much Buck is floundering & considering what Buck just said about Natalia (who thinks his experience was really cool and exciting) but we didn't see her seeing into him like this, the show is telling you who really sees Buck the way Buck just described

And Eddie has his own realization and looks down at the grave. "But how could you be?" -> he hasn't been the same since Shannon died and he knows it

Buck: "The truth is I still don't know how to act. I am different, but I feel like I have to try and be the same old Buck. Mostly for the sake of everyone else." -> as we already knew, Buck is being performative with Natalia (aka flirting like the same old Buck would do & dating a woman he met on an emergency) & Eddie pretty much called it

Eddie: "You know, you don't have to be anything for anybody. Nobody is ever the same, from one day to the next. Experiences like this, they change us." -> not only is this the absolute truth, he's giving Buck (and himself) permission to be different and not be the same ol', same ol'

Eddie: "So what changed in you?"

Buck: "When I woke up in that hospital, I felt like I had gotten away with something."

Eddie: "You cheated death."

Buck: "My life could have ended. Right then and there, but it didn't. That has to mean something, right?"

Eddie: "It means you're one lucky guy."

Buck: "I don't think I'm gonna get that lucky again."

Eddie: "Well, maybe you don't have to. Lightning doesn't strike the same place twice."

Buck: "Which is why I have to make the most of every single moment. 'Cause from here on out, it's all a gift."

So not only do we have Buck and Eddie being paralleled to two out of the three main couples this episode (Maddie and Chim go through the auditing together, Bobby is there for Athena when her suspect dies unexpectedly) but we get this scene. And this scene is SO important. Not only from what I mentioned above but also the very scene itself happening. Eddie and Buck have admitted to the audience that they're different and they were standing together at a fresh grave (recent death -> old versions of themselves/their journeys) and had an emotionally intimate moment. When Eddie said Buck didn't have to perform, Buck jumped at the chance to speak his truth. Eddie asked what changed in Buck and we find out, but Buck also didn't ask Eddie this because through Athena, we found out Eddie has more questions than answers. And we've watched him get answers the past two seasons.

This is why when people say 'oh KR is separating Buddie' and 'Buddie will never happen' I shake my head. Because Buddie has been there all along and strengthening to lead to what we're hoping for, for some time now and this scene literally just doubled down on Buddie AGAIN. The same episode where it looks like Buck might have a new love interest, they're already telling us 'don't get comfortable, this is not here to stay'. By Buck's own words, he's being performative and trying to act like old Buck. In the same conversation he talks to Eddie about Natalia. And then they added how Eddie saw the real Buck in contrast to Buck thinking Natalia sees the real him and how it's important to him.

Literally, I almost expected some heart eyes to pop out in this scene or some sort of self-realization, that's how impactful this scene is for Buddie and how blatant it is. And a full episode after Eddie shot down his own date who mutually agreed.

At this point, we might get Buddie sooner than we think. I get the feeling Natalia will be the last ditch effort/pit stop before we get there.

[bonny-kookoo]

Jungkook: 𝐄𝐍𝐄𝐌𝐘 (4)

In which he doesn't snap at all at the fact that you're gone because of him, and now yet again a hostage. He shot the guy by accident- totally by accident.

Tags/Warnings: Mafia!Jungkook, Hybrid!Reader, mute!reader, Angst, Fluff, Slight humor, Crime and violence, mentions of kidnapping, graphic description of adult content (violence, smut, Jungkooks questionable interrogation tactics) strangers to lovers

Additional chapter warnings: angst, guns and violence, okay JK lowkey highkey scary in this one ngl, fluff?

Chapter Length: mid/long

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"What the fuck do you mean you can't find her?!" he barks down into his phone, Yoongi on the other end sighing.

"Theres no trace of her at all. She probably slipped out when one of the cars left." he explains, making Jungkook scoff to himself as he ends the call.

He knows it's his fault- that's whats making this one hundred times worse.

He'd gone to bed last night assuming that you would sleep in someone else's room or maybe the couch in the main living room area they all used- but when he'd woken up this morning to find you and apologize, no one could tell him where you were.

And after sending out Yoongi to look for you, it was official: you vanished.

A call from an unknown number should worry him- but considering the chance that you might've somehow found a way to contact him, he picks it up regardless- though the male voice definitely does not belong to you.

"Lost something?" the man says, making Jungkook clench his jaw. "Squeaky little thing. She's fun to play around with, isn't she?"

"it's gonna be fun kicking your knees inwards if you don't tell me where she is right fucking now." he als rather calmly, thought its clear that the man has hit a nerve.

"As if I'm that stupid." he says. "A life for a life Jeon, you know the rules. You've been acting mighty tough lately." the man says, and Jungkook can make out steps in the background. "Someone needs to remind you of your place, kid."

And it doesn't bother him at all, well aware that he's kept the conversation long enough already for Hoseok to trace it back- when he hears a whimper in the background.

"Did you get it?" Jungkook asks hoseok when the call ends, and a small yes is all he needs before he locks the phone in anger, opening the drawer of his desk to take out his gun.

Jungkook has accumulated a slight name for himself by now. While most people way older than him in this business simply call him a kid, they also know that he's somewhat of a wildcard. What he says, he will most likely do- by now known to stick to his words when making threats. He's not shy about violence-

Especially not in cases like this.

When he finally bursts through the door uncaring of any noise he's making, it's evident that his brain is basically short-circuiting as he shoots twice into the man he assumes was a security guard. You're in a cage, locked up like some animal, and it just further induces his rage because how fucking dare he.

"Eyes shut." he says, gun pointed straight at the man that had called him earlier, mocked him, called him a kid and made fun of you. Much to his surprise (and also shame, because how can you still be like this after what he'd said to you?), you comply, closing your eyes tightly inside the little cage you're in. "Hands over your ears." he instructs further, and you nod, doing as he told almost immediately.

He looks at you for a second, as if deep in thought-

Before his heavy combat boots kick into the leg of the man that had been sitting in his chair, frozen in shock of how quickly the situation had turned on him. He cries out in pain, as jungkook leans down, gun moving from the guy's temple downwards, slowly. "Now, that's no reason to shout, yet." he almost coos, before he starts to grin, making the man starts to visibly panic. "but let's give you a reason to, hm?" he taunts, before his gun stops right over the man's crotch. "you pissing yourself yet?" he jokes, before something clicks, gun ready to shoot. "Guess that'll be hard after this." he chuckles, before a shot rings out.

It's what he does. That and much more, to make a statement. To paint a warning sign.

He doesn't clean anything up, simply shoots the lock to the cage as many times as it needs to break, before picking you up. You're still luckily doing what he told you to do throughout the entire car ride, until he sits you down inside the open trunk of his car back home, his hands slowly pulling your hands away from your ears. "It's alright, you can open your eyes again." he says, and you do as he told.

He really feels weird every time you look at him.

"I'm sorry." he sighs, sitting next to you in the trunk for a moment. "I.. There's no excusing what I said. I was childish and overreacted. I just.. Seeing you so at ease around everyone but me.." he says to himself, noticing the dark red splotches now on his clothes.

Because you're seemingly sniffing the air, checking up on him.

"did he hurt you?" he asks, and you freeze for a second, before you make a pinching motion with your fingers. "A little?" he asks, and you nod. "Where?" he urges,though he tries to stay calm for your stake. You take your tail into your hand, before slightly pulling on it- something he understands right away. "Fucking cunt." he cusses under his breath, making your eyes widen scandalized.

He can't help but laugh at it.

"Listen- I'm the worst person you could be around." he informs you. "all of us are. You'll never be 100% safe here." he says. But this time, you don't accept it. You don't run away.

This time, you start to move, sitting right down in his lap, arms crossed stubbornly.

"I'm trying to tell you that you should probably find someone better right now." he says with a playfully raised eyebrow at you. You however just turn around, clinging onto him as he has his arms stretched out awkwardly, not used to so much physical affection at once. "why?" he wonders, and you shrug.

At first, you really thought he hated having you around. That he just felt pity, that he didn't like you, that it was better for you to run away. But he came back for you. He went out of his way to get you back. He actively made the decision to save you.

He wants you. He just.. Doesn't know how total with it all- and neither do you. But maybe that's exactly what you both need.

So instead of verbally answering, you simply tap the spot right over his heart twice, before you point to yourself. And you swear the tips of his ears turn red as he clumsily hugs you back, nodding.

"yeah." he admits. "maybe you did somehow weasel your way in there."

[eomma-jpeg]

Wait wait talk about millynai version of the undine au

YOU DO NOT NEED TO ASK ME TWICE

SO squid here (@noaafishfieldguide) introduced me to the idea of an undine (sea creatures similar to mermaids) and an alternate mermaid au essentially to sea foam (WHICH EVERYONE SHOULD READ BY THE WAY) where vash is the mer,,,, and it dives more heavily into fantasy !!!!

so squids original version of the au involves amnesia and is vashmeryl centric AND it involves an unwanted engagement between Milly and King Nai (the story has Milivio as the end goal)

but me.... being me decided what if that engagement was unwanted but,,,,, then they actually spent time together,,,, and then they fell in love

soooo here are some fun millynai undine au ideas (a story squid and i lovingly call along the ocean floor)

Milly is a half-elf princess of a riverside kingdom

Nai is the undine king of the neighboring ocean kingdom

Milly, the poor girl, is the youngest of a bunch of siblings, so naturally most of her older brothers are kind of duking it out to try and win the crown

Milly just anticipated to live her life in semi obscurity because shes the youngest of ten and doesn't have shot at the crown or at being bothered

she just wants to enjoy her life with her friends, make the kingdom a better and safer place, and do right by those around her

that is,,, until her brothers get the grand idea to marry her off

milly's older sisters (and some of her brothers) were all married-- some arranged-- but milly never intended to be married to a royal,,, but at the most recent political meeting and discussion they announced her engagement to a foreign royal

milly wasn't consulted, informed, or even told WHO IT WAS GOING TO BE

and because they know milly will be unhappy with this sudden change of plans, they keep her essentially under house arrest

milly sneaks out to clear her head and is just,,, so frustrated !!!

the marriage isn't an awful prospect to her. its not that big of a deal because her whole goal in life is to help the kingdom, and if this is what it is then so be it,

BUT THEY DIDN'T EVEN CONSULT HER

they didn't talk to her or get her opinion on which arrangement might be best AND THEY HAVENT EVEN DECIDED WHO YET,,, JUST THAT THEYRE GONNA MARRY HER OFF

milly also knows if the marriage pays off and the kingdom benefits, whoever suggested the idea is guaranteed the crown

so on her walk to clear her mind on the river banks, milly is angrily stomping about and kicking dirt and water,,,,, only to see something in the dark of night

and its a body

she rushes over to help the man, but she is ill prepared !!! to do that !!!

milly is a princess not a nurse !! she's well trained in the political and diplomatic arts ! (and maybe some martial arts) but not saving a man

and yet,,, she does all she can anyway

then,,, she realizes she recognizes this man,,, he's the king from that undersea kingdom.... THE ONE THAT WAS COMING TO VISIT THIS WEEK

so milly tries her best to help him, blah blah blah she breaks his rib, he yells at her and passes out again, and Milly wraps him up in her dress and carries him back to the castle

CUE MANY SHENANIGANS

This is the main idea for the first chapter (which i have written lol) but here's the subsequent plot ideas

nai is trapped in the castle with an injury hes having trouble healing by himself (some dumb magical weapon that he was attacked with)

eventually he gets better (meryl drops by to fix him) and returns to the sea

and then promptly returns with his twin brother........ who turns out to be the one betrothed to Milly

Milly and Vash play nice but they both don't,,, they dont want this

BUT because of the engagement and new relations between the kingdoms,,, the twins hang around for a few weeks,,,

and Milly gets to see Nai

well,, she finds him in a variety of places

mostly her places,, but she doesn't mind him hanging out there. those secluded spots in the garden or by the river are nice for a reason

but milly is the only one nai kind of knows in the castle, so they subconsciously drift toward one another during boring meetings and diplomatic mounts

and milly ofc goes to visit the undersea kingdom and i have a whooooollllleeeee design planned out for undine milly do not worry

but yeah,,, milly and nai tend to hang out with one another,, despite the fact that milly and vash are the ones that are engaged...

and uhhh perhaps nai starts to develop some,,, feelings,,,

because milly may be silly and naive sometimes but shes strong and convicted and kind and she knows the ins and outs of her kingdom and she is incredible at those political meetings and her hair and her lips and... and.... oh no

and sooooo he decides to speed up the wedding process so that he can be rid of those feelings

but it doesnt work....................

and then theres a ball to celebrate the couple and the unification of the kingdom and oh gosh the wedding is so close and milly is just going to be out of reach and even though she'll be family it wont be the same and I-

Nai takes milly out into the hallway during the ball to talk with her

Milly,,,, is exhausted

the night has been long, everyone is trying to talk with her or dance with her or congratulate her and while she is a social butterfly, she has a limit for political pleasantries

and now nai is trying to talk to her but he seems so flighty and nervous and she cant figure out whats going on

and then,,, he says "Don't... don't marry Vash"

and milly is SO LOST because he is the one whos been moving up all the dates and insisting that they get married ! nai would have them married right now if he could but he cant and...

oh

oh

it clicks in Milly's brain

and she confesses, "I don't want to marry Vash"

and then nai kisses her

and suddenly all those previous moments where he was acting weird and she felt those strange flutters in her guts are all aligning and she cant believe how happy it all makes her

AND THATS ALL YOU GET,,, BUT THIS IS TOO MUCH ALREADY BECAUSE I HAVE A PROBLEM

but lets just say you can look forward to hidden relationships, secret pining, military coups and broken families, as well as Milly looking hot in a flowy white shirt AND as a mermaid

[fatratbabyy]

hi! i really love your designs, the colours are always really well done anf the characters are full of life.. and i love how your rewrites give the characters complexity and make them really interesting to me, much more so than canon(though i am a fan of some ideas introduced there, they don’t quite turn out in ways that make sense to me)! i’ve been wondering a few things about helluva troupe for a while however and hopefully the answers aren’t spoilers, lol.. in HT, what is Fizz’s involvement with the ‘troupe’ and what is stolas’s involvement too.? i wish you much luck on your work as it is lovely to see! (also apologies for my silly username)

Thank You!

Thank you so much that means a lot!! waaAahee! It makes me happy to see people interested 🥺👉👈

With Fizz it's,,, a bit Fuzzy, because hilariously he's the whole reason I made this AU among other things But I ended up makinh him a sorta side character antag again because while originally he was going to be part of the main crew from the start of HT's storyline, as I went along in trying to write I saw some cool hcs about his star clown days and so I thought to use the more canonized view- mostly in that he's a star clown during the events of HT instead of dropping the show life to join Blitz in I.M.P. That previous version is why you see him in the I.M.P references- and hinty hoo that ol version isnt completely null and voice to the current HT

ANYWAY so yeah- While Fizz isn't as much a main character as he was he still has a great deal of importance to the story and themes I want to express in HT. When it comes to him and the Troupe itself, I could best describe him as one of the biggest foils or parallels to the main cast. Just,, he's this golden image that represents their every want fulfilled. For Blitz especially given their thick history heehooo. (That's not to say this 'golden image' is entirely as it seems btw...)

Now it sounds much like canon I know but I like to think I'm taking a different direction with it- It's not really just the "haha you suck with relationships, fuck, shit, pénis im doing better look at my good relationship" nonsense cuz for 1. Fizzarozzie does nOT exist anymore- its Mamzie now 😊 (Mammon + Ozzie) and 2. The themes with Fizz and really most of HT has less to do with the melodramatic romance "will they wont they" of Stolitz (which isnt really a thing either) and more the struggle impoverished and oppressed peoples experience with success, failure, identity, community, family, status, history, trauma, etccc. Specifically, because I am an indigenous person from Canada, a lot of the themes are drawn from my own experiences, knowledge and history as an indigenous person. Though with execution, creative liberties were taken to make the fact they're in Hell clear btww-

That very likely did nOT answer jour question but i amn,,,stoopi 😭😭😭 simpler answer i suppose maybe by chance would be Fizz is an eventual antagonist to I.M.P. Specifics and how it happens and wheNNN?? Im still not sure yet if im honest- been really busy the last year or so and so Ive hadnt had any time or energy to work as much on writing all the things! ;u; thats probs disappointing to hear cuz plaNNing and all is important if you're gonna post story stuff at all,,, but !! I do hope to work more on the story this year so i can wrap up all these floating ideas into a Concrete line of stuff cuz truly all im missing is the middle pieces. Maybe an HT comic will be real this/or next year! 👀🏃

ANYHOOT ONTO STOLAS! i rambled a bit too much about Fizz cuz im still figuring him out- Stolas might be a bit shorter cuz his role is sweet and simplisticerr.

So, Stolas is an antagonist. He and Blitz still have an exchange sort of deal, but the deal is Blitz gets to keep the grimoire for I.M.P if he handles Stolas' "errands" and gives it back on the full moon with ofc none of the uh,,hawny stuff, obv. Blitz kinda keeps this deal under wraps from the rest of I.M.P because for him, it hurts his pride to admit he's in need of some big guy's help. And Stolas is somewhat aware of this. And so, Stolas is this looming, cruel threat that Blitz carries the burden of cuz he's stubborn as fuck whilst the rest of I.M.P remain ignorant.

Some bonus notes that dont really have to do with Stolas involvement with imp but jus how stuff ive changed with his canon influence the story diff than canon; so, Stella isnt a thing anymore. In general the Goetia work much differently- majority of the Goetia being the children of Ozzie instead of Paimon (who is Stolas' sibling now btw too) and the Goetia being thousands of years old instead of fucking 30- Also! While Via is existant she is but a baby instead of a moody teen,, ties heavily with Stolas' motives and how he operates as a character, royal, and Goetian and felt it would work better with how HT Stolas is as a character than it would otherwise.

Also no worries about the username! I dont like canon stolas much either lol,,;

I apologize if this didnt answer much 😭 feel free to let me know if you wanna hear about somn else gwahgh 🏃

[grayblacklight]

Ok so as easy as it is to focus on the how the plotline with Chloe's neglectful mother was basically just dropped in favor of trying to make her a flat, one dimensional, irredeemable villain (and failing, because the writers aren't even good enough to do that without her being outright OOC, and even then she's usually tricked/peer pressured/being stupid like everyone else), there's actually an entire second source of significant potential trauma that the show just ignores. Like, Marinette is traumatized because Chloe shoved her in a locker a few years back (which has never come up until now?) Fair enough, but it looks really freaking weird when you treat this seriously, and ignore all the times that Chloe was a damsel in distress, and an akuma's main target. Clearly there's no way any of that had an effect on her, and the fact that she "deserved it" or "it was her fault they got akumitized" (you know, because Chloe is famously the one making people evil with butterflies) means we shouldn't worry about it. Definitely not a cycle of abuse here. Clearly Asstruck is the greatest writer ever.

No, it's time for another round of "can you write Miraculous Ladybug better than the writers of Miraculous Ladybug?" and today the contestant is ME. And boy would it be embarrassing to be the first person to lose at my own gameshow.

So things start out normally; Chloe acts out, and inadvertently gives Hawkmoth an easy shot at a temporary slave. She gets kidnapped - is a bit more clearly terrified because she is a HOSTAGE - and it turns out the akuma was someone she upset earlier. Obviously that's gonna bother her, but Ladybug saved her! A real life hero, a person she can look up to, and is willing to help someone without any expectations or social obligations, and is just generally really cool! And a catboy was there too I guess! (Ok we can save my closeted/hasn't figured herself out yet lesbian Chloe ideas for later).

Besides, maybe it was a fluke, bad luck, it surely wouldn't happen agaaaand it happened again. And again. And now people are starting to blame her for it, that she brought it upon herself, and she believes them. She tries to be more careful and considerate, to help people when needed - but she doesn't know how. She comes off as sarcastic and condescending, and often her help goes wrong. And that leads to her getting captured again, and again, and again. She becomes paranoid, nervous, anxious, and that causes her to snap at people, suddenly and without clear warning - and Hawkmoth takes notice. He starts spying on her because she is practically a conflict farm that he didn't even realize he had sewn, but is more than happy to reap. Or at least he is at first... After all, as Alphys from Undertale once said, you start to root for someone when you watch them on a screen.

For once, Gabriel Agrest has his conscious start to weigh on his again, as he starts to see that the effects of the damage he causes that Ladybug can't magically reverse, the hell he is putting this girl through, a girl that was once close to his son that he had known since she was in elementary school. When he sees her, he can't even look her in the eyes, won't even address her, tries to ignore her because he can't bring himself to face her... And that's just another person giving Chloe the cold shoulder.

And then, the season finale, in a moment of weakness, bad timing, and poor judgment, after Ladybug saves Chloe, she explodes at her. It's happened way too many times, it keeps looping back to her, something needs to change, Chloe needs to do better.

And naturally, she starts to cry.

"I'M TRYING!"

"YOU AREN'T TRYING HARD ENOUGH!!!"

"I DON'T KNOW HOW!"

"IT'S NOT THAT HARD!!!"

The breaking point, even Ladybug has turned her back on her. This is when Chloe gets Akumitized, she wouldn't let it happen before because Ladybug was one of the only things she could cling to after she pushed so many others away, if not by her behavior than by the fact that she is a danger magnet, she wouldn't let herself be used against her. After all, you can only have your life saved by someone so many times before you start to feel like you owe them something.

For Marinette, kindness comes easy, so she doesn't understand why Chloe is struggling. And because she and Chloe are still enemies at school, (perhaps at one point Chloe tried to extend a bridge and apologize, but Marinette understandably doesn't trust her and thinks it's a trick) so she didn't see those efforts herself. Marinette now has unintentionally pushed someone too far, due to the limits of her knowledge, social skills, and factors outside of her control- the very thing she had, without realizing, just condemned Chloe for doing. Chloe just had those variables skewed against her favor.

After being defeated, this time there's no talk; Chloe immediately runs away. Throughout the next season, Chloe starts avoiding people altogether. She doesn't want anyone to get hurt because of her; not that this actually really affects the rate Hawkmoth can create new Akuma's, as by this point he's gotten over his guilt and has had the idea to manipulate people into conflict himself. Marinette meanwhile is by this point the new popular kid, due to her kindness and success over the course of the series, reversing the original status quo. This leads to enough jealousy that Chloe gets Akumitized, after which she decides to ask her father to have her homeschooled until Hawkmoth is stopped for good.

Lonelier than ever and with the uselessness of her father and the neglect of her mother being even bigger issues than before, it's only a matter of time before she finds herself outside; alone, cold, and depressed. Only then does she meet the master (who is competent in this AU, so instead of picturing him, think Sensei Wu from Ninjago) who decides to comfort her, and finally, her efforts are recognized.

"Thanks, but no. I... I Don't want to hurt you."

"Oh my, that's not quite the response I expected. What makes you think you're so dangerous?"

"I... Keep making people upset. And then they get Akumitized... I've tried to do better but"

"Well, you aren't Hawkmoth are you?"

" N-no?"

"Then it's not your fault people are getting Akumitized. And believe me, he hasn't stopped causing trouble just because you became a social recluse."

"!"

"But I can see how hard you're trying - you have become a person who is willing to put the needs of others before your own. Heh, A few short years ago, and I would have thought myself crazy for even considering this"

"?"

"Do you want to stop Hawkmoth?"

"M-more than anything..."

"Here, this is the bee Miraculous. It's the same type of artifact that gives Ladybug, Chat Noir, and even Hawkmoth their powers, although also entirely unique. The Kwamii will explain more"

"W-what?!?"

"Listen. There's two things you need to know. First off, Hawkmoth must never get his hands on both the Cat and Ladybug miraculous. He intends to use them for a wish, and the consequences of doing so are dire. Got it?"

She nods

"Second, you must keep your identity a secret, to everyone. If you don't, anyone could take the miraculous while you're not transformed- including Hawkmoth, who would use it to further his own goals. If your identity is revealed, to ANYONE, you must return it to either me or Ladybug immediately."

She takes a moment to process everything, then nods again

"Good. Go back to school, start again fresh. You need people you can rely on, and something tells me your parents aren't it"

"Ok... But... Why? Why me, after everything?"

"Because I believe that anyone can be a good person if they try. And I've seen with my own eyes that you are willing to try. And I believe that you can be a good hero, because you care, even if you don't know how to show it. You may stumble a bit at first, but everyone makes mistakes. Just keep moving forward... I believe in you"

[plentyoffandoms]

Main Masterlist ♡ Top Gun Maverick Masterlist ♡ Bradley "Rooster" Bradshaw Masterlist ♡ For You Masterlist

Just like all my other stories, this has not been proofread, but please enjoy.

Warnings: Some swearing. Hope you all like it.

Also please don't come at me for not knowing Naval terms or their training. This is just fiction.

Gifs & photos do not belong to me.

Just a short chapter. Next one will be longer.

Rooster's POV:

I know Pete is right. That I have to talk to YN because this maybe the only chance I will ever have.

I may lose her and she will never know that I have always loved her and that she is the one for me.

That us breaking up all those years ago was probably the biggest mistake of my life, but I was young and didn't realise at the time what I had.

The love of a good woman who knew I had these amazing dreams and ambitions. But those ambitions got in the way of our life together.

It was like my heart was leading my feet because I found YN and Angel studying the map of the area.

I could feel my palms getting sweaty and I quickly wiped them on my pants. I risk my life every single time I fly, but yet this is making me nervous?

Angel noticed me first and nudged YN's side. YN looked at her and then noticed Angel wasn't looking at her.

She turned her head towards me and I saw her say something to Angel, who smiled and stood up.

Angel walked past me and she quietly said good luck to me. Which had me stunned. Not expecting that at all, I didn't say anything back to her.

"You gonna stand there all day or you gonna join me?" YN called out, with a gentle smile on her face.

"You never were patient were you?" I teased as I sat down next to her. She turned her body so she was facing me.

"Nah." She said back to me.

I turned my body so am I facing her now. My arm on the back of her chair and I am leaning into her slightly.

"YN...I have something to tell you and I am not good with this stuff." I can't believe I am having a hard time trying to tell her how I feel.

She placed her hand on my cheek and her thumb was rubbing against it.

"You don't have to say anything Bradley." She calmly said to me.

"I do because one of us may die tomorrow and I can not live with myself if I do not tell you how I feel." She removed her hand from my face and placed it in her lap.

"And how do you feel Bradley?"

I took a deep breath and I opened my mouth to speak but nothing came out.

I cleared my throat and tried again.

"I love you." There I said it.

"I know Bradley. You have always told me you have because I am your Baby Mama."

"No, that isn't the reason. I have always loved you. From the moment that we really met, I fell in love with you."

YN's POV:

"No, that isn't the reason. I have always loved you. From the moment that we really met, I fell in love with you."

Him saying that brought back the first time I met him.

It was a few months into our training and I would see the cocky man around.

The other women would swoon whenever he would throw a simple wink their way, but not me.

I grew up around these cocky bastards and didn't have the time of the day for them. But for some reason, the two of us got in trouble and got put on kitchen duty.

We couldn't stop arguing and it was driving the others up the wall. The two of us got put in the supply closet and got told to work out our problems.

But we sat there for about ten minutes and didn't say a damn word.

"Look, let's start over. The name is Bradley Bradshaw." He held out his hand and I looked at it and then his face.

I sighed and shook his hand. "YN LN."

"LN?"

"Before you ask, yes. He is my Dad and the other one is my brother." I remember Bradley giving me a genuine smile when I said that.

After that day, the two of us became acquaintances. We would acknowledge one in another in passing until we just became friends.

Then after he went on a date with some random woman, I realised that I liked him, but I didn't want to ruin our friendship. So I went out with a someone.

I found Bradley leaning against my car, after my date, angry.

"Couldn't even tell me you had a date?"

"You didn't tell me Bradshaw." He snorted at that.

"Didn't know I had too."

"And neither did I." I calmly said back to him.

Next thing I knew, we were in the backseat of the car making out. After months of trying to hide our feelings, they came out that night.

"Bradley, I don't think this is the time or place." I said to him.

"It is because one of us could die tomorrow. I love you YN LN and I always have. I messed up all those years ago. I should of fought for us."

"I could of tried harder." I pointed out. Not wanting him to take all the blame.

"No YN. You tried to talk to me. You tried to tell me how you were feeling and I just pushed you to the side."

"We can't change the past Bradley." He laid his hands on top of mine that are in my lap.

"But we can start over if everything works out tomorrow. I want to take you out on a date. I want to know who you are now YN."

"Bradley, I can not have my heart broken by you again." I was staring into his eyes. The same eyes that I have dreamed about over the years when I haven't seen him in so long.

For the past six years, we haven't even been in the same state but we would call one another or video chat.

"I will do everything in my power to make sure I am the man you need YN." His tone was sincere.

I leaned into him and placed my lips against his in a gentle kiss. He cupped my cheek in his hand and he deepened the kiss.

The two of us ignoring the world around us.

That was until someone cleared their throat. Bradley and I jumped apart from one another and I looked to see Angel standing there, with Phoenix.

The two of them were smirking at us.

I cleared my throat and gave them a small smile. "Want to get back to the map Angel?" I asked her.

"Yes please."

"Let's go Rooster. Maverick needs to see us." Phoenix said to him.

Bradley kissed my cheek goodbye, and he whispered that he will see me later. He stood up and the two of them left Angel and I alone.

She went to say something but I cut her off.

"Not a word out of your mouth."

Matteo 'Comet' Marchetti's POV

I have no idea how much longer we can hold on. I am starting to lose hope that we will be rescued.

The four of us have been beat and tortured to the edge but none so worse than Nick.

Jamal has been trying to clean his wounds every chance he gets so they don't get infected.

But Nick is just barley holding on.

If we do get rescued and Nick doesn't make it, just the thought of telling his Mom, who has been like a Mom to us all, made me want to throw up.

I remember him telling me how she didn't want to follow in the family footsteps. That not to follow in the steps of his Father and Grandfather.

"What do you mean?" Kyle asked him as he heard us talking.

"You know that photo of Goose?" We nodded yes.

"He is my grandfather." I remember hearing the story of how Nick "Goose" Bradshaw died.

"That means your Dad is Rooster Bradshaw?" I asked. A proud smile came over his face as he answered.

Just the thought of telling his Dad actually had me throwing up in the corner.

I didn't notice the paper slide under our door, but Kyle did as he was sitting next to it.

He opened up the folded paper. His eyes got real wide and got up. He showed Jamal what it said first.

Then I felt his hand on my back and he I lifted my head to look at Kyle. He showed me the note.

'Help is coming tomorrow.'

I couldn't stop the tears as I thought about us finally getting rescued. I limped towards Nick and I got down on my knees next to him.

"Just hang in there buddy. We are going home." I said to him.

Part 4 ◇ Part 6

Tag List: please let me know if you would like to be added to the tag list. @cashwheelersgirl89 @mavericksicybabe @blindedbyyourgrace17 @luckyladycreator2 @txtxdxxr @bespinnn @n3ssm0nique @mads-weasley @labellapeaky @calsjack @teti-menchon0604 @someone-pls-kill-me @seasonswinter @hope-love-equality2 @arianna-bradshaw

[jemmo]

desperately trying to forget about the preview for next week's his man 2 eps and focus on the adorable junsungho date we finally got, but it's all my brain wants to dissect over and over. once again, seonwoo why? i absolutely don't understand what his goal in this show is or if he genuinely is even interested in anyone because i honestly don't feel an ounce of sincerity from that man. he went on a date with yoonghee out of politeness, and his main goal was to see if he could overcome their age gap right? yet, he's the one who kept bringing it up. it's also the way yoonghee kept asking him questions and giving him opportunities to give him some kind of clarity, but seonwoo just gave him roundabout answers in return. it annoys me that seonwoo keeps trying to string yoonghee along without cutting him off completely because he needs that attention and 'support' from him as he always says. on another note, he keeps saying sungho is "special" to him and okay maybe he is, but if so, why does it look more like he just wants to shake him up again when he noticed sungho's attention shift away from him a little? it just seems to me that not receiving a voice message from yoonghee and sungho must've hit seonwoo way too hard and he needs that validation back. sigh. i know we don't see everything that goes on in these hour long eps, but i feel like it's definitely enough for us to be able to get a grasp of their personality and character, and seonwoo is clearly playing with so many people's feelings. i just don't know what to expect anymore because seonwoo is going to continue playing these mind games with that big ego of his. god, i swear, the absolute mood swing i had from being excited and happy over sungho's voice message to my face literally falling as that preview played. this week of waiting is gonna be torture as always.

oh dear anon i am trying so hard not to think about the preview, or about seonwoo watching sungho and junsung cook and asking questions about their date and his reaction, or seonwoo calling sungho, bc sungho and junsung have such a good thing going on, and yet we and them can’t just be left with the memory of a nice date bc seonwoo has to ruin it by sticking his nose in again. im trying to be so reasonable when I watch it and not just shit on him for everything he does, bc maybe he does truly like sungho, I mean since their date he has called him consistently, but then you have people out here like hyungjin saying i shouldn’t have gone out on a date with anyone else so as not to give a wrong impression to them or the one person I like (even tho he left the message for seonwoo but that’s something else), and yet seonwoo goes out with yonghee for whatever reason, obligation, pity, curiosity, so he can’t be so committed to sungho as to shut down all other options yet, which at this point i feel like the people who are genuine are starting to be committed about who they like, but seonwoo just has to keep all these options open even when it appears he’s committing to sungho. and i don’t want to say that’s bad at the face of it, after all if sungho doesn’t go with seonwoo, it’s good to not have closed off every other option; i don’t like to subscribe to the belief that just bc you are devoted to going for one person, that your feelings are better or more worthy or anything, bc at the end of the day it’s sungho’s choice. what does annoy me is the lack of clarity with which seonwoo approaches every situation. I think the only time he’s only been kinda clear about anything was when he talked with junsung about exploring other options, but at least from what i recall, he’s never been clear to sungho and said I like you but I’m gonna keep talking to other people bc I don’t know how sungho then sees the situation, does he think seonwoo is committed to him or does he know about the other people he has ties to and would that change how he feels??

and I’m trying hard not to talk about him and yonghee’s again bc I’ve already ranted so much, but I will focus on that line he said at the end of their date, that he relies on yonghee bc his feelings never change. which is what he keeps on saying, that he gets support from yonghee and that he’s important. none of these are inherently romantic things and the thing is I think yonghee intents them to be romantic but seonwoo doesn’t see them that way, or more accurately he sees that intention but the way he is grateful for it isn’t romantic in return. and I can’t get over how fucked up it is to string someone along and use their affection as a comfort without giving that person any clarity in return. he’s literally using yonghee’s feelings to make himself feel better, feel reassured and comforted, and the reason why he won’t clarify his feelings and say there’s no romantic affection in return is bc he’s scared to lose yonghee’s affection bc it comforts him to much to know he’s so strongly and unwaveringly liked by this person. it’s literally what he wants the most, to be liked so much, and that’s why he can’t reject him even though there’s little to no way I think seonwoo feels anything romantic for him. like is that not fucked up?? to use someone like that??? to not give them that cutoff so they can move on to someone else just bc you want to feel good about yourself??? it’s the way yonghee is so sincere and genuine with his feelings and seonwoo is so plainly disingenuous in return. it’s the way he asks yonghee nothing about himself outside of his feelings for him, let’s yonghee spill his heart and says nothing in return, how he asks yonghee to ask him questions but gives him half baked answers that don’t give him enough to give him any insight on how he feels, but enough to keep him wondering. like it feels cruel, it feels like someone older making light of a young persons feelings as nothing but childish affection, and I don’t want to see yonghee being looked down at like that. I said before how seonwoo feels complicated looking at yonghee bc he has this confidence that comes from youth and less experience and fear and wishes he could’ve had that youth, but it’s bc I think he views it like that that he sees his feelings as childish, bc he is wistful for a time where he could’ve had this childish crush and felt like they were the most special thing in the world and been so bold and forward about it. and bc he doesn’t take those feelings seriously is another reason why he doesn’t reject him outright, bc he doesn’t think it warrants it even tho yonghee is putting his all into this. I don’t usually like to shit on age gaps bc age isn’t just a number but it’s also not a be all and end all, but it’s situations like this where they bother me, bc you can feel the imbalance, you can feel that the issue linger in the air where it doesn’t in other parings where a gap still exists. and i think yonghee’s youthful sincerity doesn’t match with the life experiences seonwoo has had, but also doesn’t match with the lack of emotional maturity he seems to have despite his age, and altogether it’s just so messy and not right and I can’t even say it’s good tv anymore bc I’d much rather see yonghee move onto other people than be stuck here. like sure seonwoo, make mess, it’s fun, but when it stops being fun and starts actually messing with people, that’s when I’m gonna start getting mad.

[marengogo]

BANGTAN MYTHOLOGY - 1: Careless Whisper …

El Toro - by Bonobo  [Black Sands]

[Music is a very big part of my life and I’m MOSTLY INCAPABLE of writing without music, so I just thought I'd share what I am listening to while writing this]

–🐺–🐺–🐺–

Welcome, Welcome,Welcome! 

Welcome to the first chapter of this new series, which I cutely like to call 「Tanogy」 (short version of Bangtan Mythology). A series where we will take well-known or I-had-no-idea “Jikook Myths”, and through thorough research, conducted by yours truly Marengo, who has a certified research fetish, not even gonna lie at all, educated guesses, and careful speculation where necessary, we will try and figure out if this Myths are “Nice, Keep Going!” (aka they are real facts), or “... Poison Apple” (aka they are NOT real facts), or even “Who, Are, You?...” (aka we still can’t tell if they are, or not, real facts). All clear? Perfect, so …

The first Tanogy is a Jikook one and it’s the following:

I’m sure we’ve all … read this before. Read because I couldn’t find any auditory proof of this ever being said, even though in the only piece I found where someone provided some sort of non-reliable source, said source was said to be a radio interview, hence, you’d want to at least hear it.

This particular “Radio source” tweet was from November 8, 2017, one of Jikook’s most famously believed anniversaries or simply GCFT for others but with a little bit of research you will see this sentence appear in many years, months, days all quoting the same sentence but still nobody really knowing where it came from. So, as I kept digging and I found out that the quote I screenshot at the very top, like the following, and many others all was posted on May 21, 2016 and were all reblogs from a blog named: 95HYYH.

95HYYH - They made their post on May 19, 2016:

Needless to say, being this the only seemingly relevant clue I had as I started my trail, I found this fact very interesting and decided to run with it probably being the main source of where the rumor started. Because of the 95 in the handler name I assumed that they might have been VMIN biased but still maybe thought jikook were a thing? Like many of us do with all our different biases. I was right on that, however as I still couldn’t find any actual reason, or source, on their blog I began to wonder “what happened on May 19, 2016?...”.

So I went on the bird app, which is usually bad for many things but I find it unfortunately excellent with regards to impromptu info of the time, it a basically a history book of seldom fact but mostly BS and besides BTS being spotted all over Norway/Sweden, for Bon Voyage 1, there seemed to be a bit of crumbs for VMIN very cute ones, but didn’t research their veracity and indeed Jikook … but it had nothing to do with our Careless Whisper.

VMIN crumbs on May 19, 2016:

JIKOOK crumbs on May 19, 2016:

That Jikook selca made the rounds that day and as I was reading through all the posts I found this one, of someone translating a PD who had described how this pic came to be. I thought it was really cute, so following is the link if you are interested:

So all that was, well and good, but I reached a halt and to be honest with you I was ready to call it a day considering 95HYYH the person that started it but not knowing why. Yet, as I am an insufferable perfectionist or at least i like to think my self as such, TRUST, I’m hella sloppy me all around I decided to make a one last, deeper, research and I found the following tweet dated June 23, 2015. … The game was afoot yet again LOL! 

Keeping my calm, I was excited AF I began to check through the bird app to see if something relevant to Jikook had happened on this particular date, but NOTHING, NADA, なんでもない, ZILCH had happened that was relevant to the Careless Whisper and before I could finish asking myself another questions, the proverbial Newton’s Apple hit me in the head and I was brought to think of this moment:

LIGHTING BULB MOMENT part 1 Visual Kings who? I only know Min Yoongi:

LIGHTING BULB MOMENT part 2 (different angle):

This moment is often used in many jikook edits and it comes from SINCHON (신촌) FANSIGN which happened May 15, 2015. 2015 is what triggered this memory, also the fact that they were talking about sleeping probably whispered to the synapses in my brain that if anything, it would have been connected to this period in time. 

… Now before we move on, during my search of the 2015 SINCHON fansign I found the following “jikook”, cause really it is JK and JM is also there, clip, which I found so cute, so I am sharing with y’all 🥹🥹. For the record, I could find any upload of the full fansign, there is a lot of HQ pictures but I’m guess that at the time people were not yet invested/capable rightfully so to fully film ANY BTS fansite:

Getting back on track, as I found nothing with regards to our Careless Whispers on the May 15, 2015 though I could have continued with my other trailed which would have eventually given me my solution 😬 I thought of looking through interviews prior to 2015 and found nothing. Then I’m not sure why I decided to look at the bird app feed between May 15, 2015 and June 23, 2015, but I did and following is a bit of summary of how it was in that almost month:

Still nothing as to where it all generated. Knowing the answer now in hindsight, I wonder if I couldn’t get to this answer earlier because I was trying to find it confirmed or because I didn’t know the actual whole sentence until I found that 95HYYH and then believed it was a conspiracy or most likely I felt like i was a spy in some mystery and didn’t want the search to end so quickly. So back I went to my original trail and you guessed it; a couple of searches later, I found the answer. The originally tweet that started it all back in January 16, 2015:

And so it is that I am confidently going to declare our first Tanogy as:  

“... Poison Apple”.

NGL, this was hella fun, as I also got to know things of the Jikook of the past that I actually didn’t know. That aside, there is something fulling about going in search of truth and getting results regardless of them being what we hoped for or not; the truth is the truth and if you keep looking for it hard enough WHILE KNOWING YOUR BOUNDARIES, NOT OVERSTEPPING PEOPLE’S RIGHTS TO SAFETY AND RESPECTING EVERYONE’S PRIVACY eventually you will find it.

Always respectfully yours 💜🫰🏾,

Marengo.