#what do you mean he has to socialize and spy on some guy instead of doing his general routine

[aloraaki3]

y'know what, fuck it.

I AM GOING TO WRITE A FIC SO OBSCENELY NON CANON THAT NO ONE WOULD EVEN THINK TO READ IT AND I DON'T CARE

[resowrites]

Special Brew - oneshot.

Summary: Henry’s interview gets gatecrashed…

Pairings: AU!Henry Cavill x Reader/Wife!OC, Interviewer

Warnings: fluff, banter/British humour, fake interview, language, dialogue heavy, nondescript reader/OC body type/appearance, hastily written/lightly proofread.

WC: 2221

A/N: Hi folks I know it’s been a while, work’s nuts these days. This is very rushed and was meant to be longer (I wanted to base it on something I’d written previously) but for the sake of just getting something uploaded I decided to post as is. Sorry I can’t post regularly anymore but I hope you enjoy all the same - R x

Remember, this is pure fiction (as in completely made up), and not in any way meant to reflect reality. My work must not be copied, reposted, or translated elsewhere. Gifs/pics not my own. Thanks for visiting!

Special Brew - oneshot.

The following is an excerpt from an article that can be read in full here.

— It's at about the halfway mark in my interview with the 41-year-old Hollywood actor, Henry Cavill, when I notice his attention is caught by something offscreen. 

"Where did you get that?" I think I hear 'the fridge, you dickhead,' in reply. He grins. But instead of resuming our discussion about his upcoming role in the rebooted 80's classic, Highlander, he starts gesturing for someone to join him. It fails. So seconds later his partner is pulled onto his lap despite some very loud protestations. He tells her it's her fault for taking his last tin of lager. She tells him she needs it more. What then follows is an almost a four-and-a-half minute squabble - yes I actually timed it - which ends with Henry relinquishing the can on the proviso that if he has to be interviewed, she does as well. I don't take offense but soon wondered if that was premature: 

"Who's interviewing you? The Telegraph?"

"No, The Guardian--"

"Wouldn't the Telegraph be more interested?" He gestures in my direction.

"Well, I assume Mark is all the same!"

"And how long have you been keeping this poor bastard?"

"We've not even been chatting half an hour!" 

"Oh… have you got a second question for him?" I smile. The 35-year-old financier first met the actor in 2015 and they were rumoured to have married in 2022. Not that either of them, his publicist, or even various social media accounts provide much in the way of confirmation. This seems to stem more from a desire for privacy where possible than anything else. Though it must be said, at first glance they make for an incongruous pair. She catches me peering at her still towel-wrapped hair, Celtic jersey, and joggers combo and wastes no time striking first:

"That's a nice shirt--"

"Don't be cheeky, just 'cos you could have made more of an effort--"

"It's my day off! At least I don't look like an undercover policeman." Is she referring to Henry or myself?

"I don't know, stand up," I laugh but he just rolls his eyes. "Has he apologised for Aryglle yet? To be fair that was actually my fault, I wanted a new kitchen." This lays the ground for what is arguably one of the most chaotic interviews I've experienced in a while.

"Do you see what I mean, Mark? It's not that she wouldn't be media trained, it's that she couldn't." Now she rolls her eyes.

"See, he thinks he's being slick by making me look bad--"

"I'm the one who does that?!"

"So he looks better by comparison--"

"Is that right? And what was wrong with Aryglle?!"

"Nothing! It's the best thing you've ever done. Even if you didn't mean for it to be." She coughs to try and cover a laugh. I ask for her thoughts on his most recent box office offering (Guy Ritchie's spy action comedy, The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare) but for a split second, the title escapes me.

"You mean The Manly Ministry of Something?" Henry tuts and grabs back the can. I dare to question if she has a low opinion of the profession in general. "No, it's more to do with the actors themselves." How so? "Well, considering they're usually the biggest gobshites you'd think it'd be great craic hanging out with them--" he quickly interjects.

"Who are you calling a gobshite?!"

'What do you mean?"

"You know fine well what I mean!" Henry turns back towards me and continues. "Even her own mother took me aside a couple of weeks after we started dating to try and warn me--"

"She never! What did she say?"

"Do you really want to discuss that right now?!" It can't be that bad then, I respond. He shakes his head, despairingly. "Oh no, just that she once walked on stage at a school assembly and instead of graciously accepting an award, pretended to trip so she could drag every single trophy off the display table!"

"… Can you tell he went to a private school?" I almost spit my drink out.   

"What do you mean?"

"Do you not realise how tame that sounds?!"

"But that was just the first month you were there!"

"Then I deserved an award--"

"Hang on, she also told me that when you had an after-school detention on your birthday, you climbed out the window of the room you were being supervised in--"

"Normally I'd just get on the bus and go home so that time they gave me a personal escort--"

"And then refused to come down from the roof unless they gave her a birthday cake!" Laughter rings out between our two screens. "In the end, they had to call the fire brigade and she became the reason why their school couldn't properly open their windows any more--"

"I also got a ride home in a fire engine so, hands down one of my best birthdays." Henry sighs. I wonder aloud how this contrasts with his own experiences of school. 

"Er, I mean I was a bit of a goody-two-shoes, so I felt a bit intimidated by that sort of thing." 

"He still is." He now chokes on his drink. Does this mean they wouldn't have crossed paths as kids?

"Nah, she'd have bullied me then as well." They both laugh. So she hasn't mellowed at all in the intervening years?

"I would say I have, yeah… you do as you get older." Henry's eyebrows hit the ceiling.

"Oh right, so I just hallucinated that night at the Bafta’s then?" She clears her throat and takes a large swig from the can. Is this why she doesn't typically attend red carpets with him?

"Ugh, I'd rather shit in my hands and clap--"

"That and the fact you're a fucking liability!" She shrugs as he explains. "A few years ago, I made the mistake of dragging her along to the after-party--"

"Well, that explains why I didn't fucking remember. Why did I have to come? You didn't win anything you were just presenting--"

"Oh fuck off! I even promised to take her on holiday for a couple of weeks if she at least tried to behave herself--"

"'Cos that's a good incentive--"

"And Jesus Christ, never again. If I wasn't blackballed in this industry before, I was that fucking night--"

"No, it's 'cos you won't take acting lessons." Henry smirks and tries to cover her mouth this time.

"At least I didn't go up to a circle containing Judi Dench, Helen Mirren--"

"Look at him dropping names! And it's Dame Judi…"

"And last but not least, the Meryl Streep--"

"You know, of Mama Mia…" A laugh escapes me before I can stop it. 

“Only to ask them where their cauldron was!" 

"But that's the great thing about being a nobody, you can say whatever want--"

"You're not a nobody--"

"No, I'm your plus one…" They howl with laughter. "The best thing is to underdress slightly as well so they think you're staff, the reactions are even better." And what was the response? "None of them heard me." He snorts.

"Judi just burst out laughing--"

"Judi! Like they're friends! Yeah, well she saw us arrive together so I think she was onto me."

"Luckily she's got a robust sense of humour…"

"Not like that other one. Oh, what's his name? You know… the one that says he'd rather be making shoes?" Sir Daniel Day-Lewis?

"Yeah, she asked him if he wanted her to go look for his top hat." I can feel my own jaw drop.

"That's how he reacted! Oh God, I'd give my left tit to relive it…" I ask where Henry is when these interactions go down. "Usually trying to find the nearest exit--"

"Is it any wonder!" 

"But we were only there twenty minutes--" 

"And he wasn't even the first Daniel you managed to piss off!" And who was that?

"Dan Snow." The broadcaster? Henry glances heavenward, exasperated.

"No, Jon Snow - and she means Kit Harrington. She got talking to him and somehow things managed to go south even quicker than usual." I can see how referring to him instead as the 50-year-old historian might have that effect. "No, it wasn't that, it was when he asked whether she was enjoying Game of Thrones--"

"Which is presumptuous isn't it?" For once even I'm at a loss for words. 

"And so she asked him if that's the show with dragons and when he said 'yes,'" he starts cracking up, "she went 'then, no.'" I don't think I've ever seen a man look so crestfallen - not even when you accosted Sam." Mr. Rockwell? I'm assuming that took place while Henry was still on the Argylle press tour?

"Oh yeah that was a gas, I waited until we were a bit better acquainted--"

"So the poor sod had his guard down--"

"And on the last day, I asked if he'd sign a picture for me. I think he assumed it was for a friend or something so he wasn't expecting me to thank him for gifting Henry his picture to put above the toilet--"

"What's worse is that it was that still from The Green Mile, you know? Literally, the first one that pops up on Google!" This anecdote puts me in mind of a similar story I heard on the grapevine during the first season of Netflix's The Witcher. Against my better judgment, I ask him if knows what I'm talking about and immediately his eyes flash in recognition.  

"Yeah, and it pains me to say that's also true."

"What is?"

"Your stunt at the Witcher premiere…" For a moment she looks genuinely confused. "Don't pretend you can't remember!"

"Remember what? I wasn't even there!"

"And even that didn't spare me!" 

"Oh I can't fucking win Mark, all I did was try and bring a smile to his face 'cos I knew he was sad about me having to work that night--"

"So naturally you had an 8x10 still printed of me with Orlando Bloom's head (as Legolas), photoshopped on top? Which, by the way, you could have just messaged me. But what did you do instead? You made dozens of copies and had my bodyguard hand them out to fans for me to sign." She waits for a beat.

"But how long did it take for you to notice?" Gentle reader, when I tell you this is one of only a handful of occasions I've ever laughed so hard in an interview, it's because I want you to know how rare that's actually been over a 35-year career in entertainment journalism. Still, I imagine that if she was brazen enough to taunt some of Hollywood's most influential stars, far worse shots have since been fired.

"Oh yeah, why don't you tell Mark how you recently mouthed off to Aaron Taylor Johnson?" Even she begins to look sheepish. 

"Yeah, but I was only trying to make conversation." Henry's head falls into his hand. She snickers. What on earth happened? "Honestly, nothing. I just said I hoped he really was being considered for Bond ‘cos he looks great in a suit." I hardly know how to respond. "Now that I think about it, he probably just thought I got you two mixed up--"

"Stop it right now!"

"What? You bought me in on this interview!" This of course is true and seems to serve a more serious purpose the longer our conversation continues. That he adores her is plain - his eyes never leave her. But it's the fact she can keep making him laugh, even under the scrutiny of being interviewed, that seems to make all the difference. Is that the key to the success of their relationship? "Well, that and the fact he's gone for six months out of any twelve--"

"So all the messages saying you miss me is just lip service?"

"Oh alright, it's cos he's got a huge… heart. Almost as big as his bank balance." Henry's legs are suddenly thrown in the air. At first, it seems he lost his balance, but judging from how quickly he then chases her from the room, I assume it was she who pulled the lever on his office chair that sent him hurtling to the floor. 

A couple of days later, I received a brief email from her which apologised for them both having 'christened more than a couple of ships' that day and explained how she was grateful that even though she 'had a lot of baggage' before they met, Henry refused to give up on her. She signed off with the following; 'His biggest problem is his limited self-belief. But seriously, he's admired because, in a professional and personal life full of arseholes, he's still, as Virginia Woolf said of her husband right before she died by suicide, 'entirely patient and incredibly good'. I'll never be drunk enough to say that to his face so I've cc'd him in.' I double-checked and saw that she had indeed emailed him as well. It's an oddly moving, albeit characteristically funny postscript and one that underlines her devotion to him no matter what. We should all be so lucky.

The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare is on Amazon Prime Video.

To be updated on when I post please follow @resowrites and turn on post notifications.

@fanfictionaddiction99 @luclittlepond @caffeinatedfestivalsheep @summersong69 @ushijimbo @livesinfantasyland @jackjanira @thearcana-moonlight

[gayassbish]

Genshin Guys as Your New Bestie. Highschool AU

Genre: Platonic of course and very much so crack

Reader: Gender Neutral | References to “girly pop” in Childe and Kaeya’s Part

Characters: Diluc, Zhongli, Childe and Kaeya, Alhaitham, Bennet, Xinqiu and Chongyun, Xiao

Diluc-

The kid who raises his hand and asks a bunch of questions, but still manages to not come of nerdy, but intelligent. He doesn’t talk to anyone in class and some other kids in class thinks he’s arrogant cause of it. Like “he’s too smart for us vibes.” You, on the other hand, know better than to trust the rumors and actually get to know his ass. That is lie, I can’t imagine anyone walking up to his emo self unless you’re the most extroverted person on the planet. He also definitely plays chess online in his chromebook 24/7.

Butttt you do end up sitting next to him as your seating arrangements change every semester or so. You say hi like a normal person and he sorta just grunts?? Terrible first impression, but you realize he’s very kind. Always picking up your fallen pencils, sharing homework answers with out you asking, and you end up getting a long pretty well once you find your stuff in common.

P.S. He’d 100% drive you around everywhere

Zhongli-

A popular dude cause he’s handsome ig and the fucking valedictorian. Plus he manages to know everything without coming off like a know it all, so he is generally well received by everyone and helps basically everyone out. Has a 10000 IQ and a calculator for a brain too. Probably wears granny glasses.

So… you’re at your part time job and notice him coming in. You immediately hide cause you don’t know him like that (yet) and don’t want to be remembered as “oh they’re the person who works there.” One of your coworkers helps him out instead while you secretly spy and realize he’s not as smart as he looks?? He is very much so only book smart and has no street cred what so ever. He looks so lost as to why he can’t take whatever y’all sell now and pay latter. He honestly gives your coworker a hard time. (rip coworker </3) You eventually help out and he recognizes you!! You learn he has an excellent memory and actually knows your name. And viola now your the person who he can go to for financial means. Have fun!

P.S You drive him everywhere…

Childe & Kaeya-

They’re those loud kids in the back who don’t shut up. I want to say they’re pant saggers but I know I would get canceled. (They so are though.) Anywho, you end up being forced to sit next to them and they like start flirting of sum shit idk?

But you’re girly pop and you don’t take that crap. After you put them in their place and educate them on how they shouldn’t talk to anyone that way like some cat calling NPC, they start to really respect you?? Well to be fair you don’t know if they’re scared of you or are just putting on an act.

Y’all get closer as you stop a lot of fights that happen between them and do your best to quiet them down in class.

And they kinda just drag you to places. Once you lost a bet and were forced to go shopping with them. (If you didn’t show up, they threatened to upload a photo of you sleeping in class onto their social media.) At the mall… Childe started to pick fights with the security guard (he claims it’s the other way around but we both know it was him) and Kaeya DOES NOTHING?? He just records the whole thing while giggling like an idiot. Y’all get banned from the mall. They do nothing but apologize on the way to your house (they picked and dropped you off.) It didn’t work cause you didn’t talk to them for a month after that.

P.S. Kaeya actually has really good fashion taste and was the one the blackmail you because he wanted to Project MakeOver you??

Alhaitham-

He’s an obnoxious, self-centered asshole to everyone and you do your best to avoid him until you’re stuck together for a group project.

Even though you know to the rumors about him, you still introduce yourself like a person with manners would… BUT he cuts you off. Immediately orders that he will do the project by himself entirely. And while you would usually take that deal (cause who wouldn’t, let’s be honest) you CANNOT stand the disrespect from this MAN. You guys start arguing until the teacher has to break it up between y’all and fucking Alhaitham is just like “I’ve never been so embarrassed infront of a teacher,” as if he didn’t start the fight. smh

Anyways, it’s really rough between you guys and it’s now presentation day. After you guys present, Alhaitham turns out rather pleased with your part, and though he would NEVER admit it to you (or even himself) you actually did better on your part than he would’ve if he went solo. At the end of class, he apologizes for being so cold at first. He explains how he hasn’t had the best group partners and almost always does all the work. He asks if you’d be okay working together again.

P.S. If you said yes, y’all would turn into an unstoppable duo. And if you said no THEN GOOD. He needs a lesson.

Bennett-

You definitely decided to just look after him once you saw him drop his phone, bag, papers, and himself down the stairs multiple times. You’re basically his bodyguard atp. You literately carry around extra bandaids cause of him omg. You guys have a bunch of classes together so it’s easy for y’all to get a long. You help protect him from bullies (Bennett just attracts the worst kinds of people) and he starts to think you’re his lucky charm.

Basically starts to worship you?? Invites you to hang out in his friend group of misfits featuring Razor, Barbra, and Fischl. They play DnD during lunch too and drag you into it. Honestly it turns into a cult with you as their leader. At the end of the school year, the five of you pull a bunch of pranks on the kids who were messing with Bennet.

P.S. The cult had a name: Lord Y/N’s Pimps. Barbra came up with it because she thought calling someone a pimp was a form on endearment… the name ended up just sticking.

Xingqiu & Chongyun-

They’re those fucking kids who won’t shut up about Harry Potter or Star Wars or sum shit. Luckily for them, you can be just as geeky. You fit in pretty well with them.

Y’all met after you went off on them for spoiling the new Star Wars movie and eventually bonded over your love for those space ninjas. You get invited to watch movies and join the arcade with them 24/7. You join in on Xinqiu’s bullying of Chongyun and in turn actually out smart Xinqiu. So it balances out. They love you cause they probably get tired of each other after a lot of their own fights, but you’re always there to ground them <3

P.S BY FARRR the best people to go trick or treating with on halloween.

Xiao-

The kid who never got out of ‘emo skater boy phase’. A lot of people think he’s cool, but he doesn’t have many (tbh any) friends for two reasons. One, he’s hard to approach, and two, he’s socially awkward as fawkk.

You guys have been going to the same school for years, but never actually talked to each other until you saw him playing The Legend of Zelda on the switch. You ask to watch and he kinda just scoots over without saying anything. Weird, but you bring up how nostalgic it is to see people from back in the day to when everyone still wet their pants to how they’ve changed now. Xiao just kinda mumbles in response. He actually doesn’t want the conversation to end and sorta just awkwardly asks how you’re weekend was on a tuesday…

Once you learn he’s not as scary as he looks and is secretly a big giant marshmallow on the inside, you guys get a long pretty well. Then when he gets more comfortable with your presence, he’s so much more less awkward (a sign that he trusts you) and his real personality will start to blossom. You guys go to the park a lot and feed the ducks (WITH real duck food, may I add, and not the nasty expired bread). You guys play on the swings and exchange playlists/sound recommendations.

P.S. You wonder if he actually knows how to ride a skateboard because he’s one of those skater boys who actually just brings a skateboard with them everywhere while they never use it?? Like we get it. You have legs for a reason but then why bring the skateboard if you’re just gonna walk.

And you get closer to them all once they trauma dump on you </3

A/N: My first post wowowow | 11/01/2023

[blorbologist]

Cat's Cradle, Chapter 14

Ch1 ... Ch13

The kittens, now old enough to go without food for a little more time, are somehow even more of a torment on Percy’s nerves than they were before. 

“Vex!” he calls, shrill. “We have fugitives!”

“They’ve started learning to walk, Percy,” she tosses back. From the kitchen, given how she echoes. “Of course they’ve escaped. They can’t get far.”

“Velcro was in the middle of the floor!”

He does not have to hear her sigh to know she makes it. He assumes she pads down the hall, slips over the babygate silent as ever, because she appears in the doorway. Finds him sitting on the floor with his convict in his lap, the tiny blue tom wiggling viciously as he tries to resume his grand exploration of the room. 

Percy, in turn, is greeted with Vex in an apron. Which is half of why he avoided cooking with her to instead give the kittens supper, because good gods is it a cute look on her. The kiss the chef reads like an invitation, or an instruction manual. A recipe for disaster. 

“We’ll need a box,” he declares around the lump in his throat, plopping Velcro back in the basket. Or trying to - the kitten clings, wailing in outrage, until Percival relents and lets it sit in the crook of his leg. Corralled, for now. 

“Or a playpen,” Vex muses, tapping the spatula to her lips. Her eyes flit to something, not Percy but past him, and she grins. “I’ll leave you to figure that out yourself. I’m sure you can manage, my clever man.”

She leaves him fumbling long enough for Velcro and Spanner to stumble out and mewl in surprise at how cool the floor is. 

--

With a soft playpen set up, Percy feels a lot better about leaving the kittens unsupervised, even if only for short bursts. 

Such as an impromptu brunch with friends. It is a rare stroke of luck, for time off to line up so adeptly. Perhaps easier, without Vax’ildan’s graveyard shifts leaving him dead tired all day or Keyleth’s numerous projects tripping her up. Emptier, too.

“Okay,” Scanlan is saying, sipping loudly on a mimosa. “But you’re sure it’s alright? Kaylie says she hasn’t seen your truck at the workshop in, like, a week.”

“You have your daughter spying on him? Creepy.” Grog makes a show of scoffing, shoveling pancakes into his mouth. Despite the attention on him, he makes to swipe the french toast off Pike’s plate before she dissarms him with her own fork. 

“No - she’s just invested, alright? Won’t stop talking about that shitty day.” Scanlan shivers. “Not that I blame her - I’d be pretty fucked up, too.”

Pike hums in agreement. “Is the cat doing okay? You said her name was…?”

“Curio.” Percy takes a bracing sip of his coffee. “Recovering well from the surgery, seems eager to get out of her crate and stretch her legs. Those she has left, at least. I worry she will ruin the stitching if given that freedom, however.”

“Oy, here’s a thought-” “Manners.” Scanlan rolls his eyes, finishes chewing and swallows before continuing: ”Why don’t we stop by? I mean, you and Vex won’t shut up about these guys, and I don’t know about you guys but I could use some cute in my life. And chicks dig kitten pics.”

Percy hesitates.

So far, these kittens have been theirs. Vex’ahlia and Percival’s little charges, in their own little world. Sure, they had brought them to the vet, and Kaylie’s keen eye had saved Curio’s life. They certainly shared more than enough pictures and videos for all their friends to know many kittens by name. 

But there is something about inviting others into this little nest that has a part of him bristling.

Grog tilts his head. “I’d like to,” he admits. “Wouldn’t it be good for them to, like, meet more people? Help them get more specialized.”

“Socialized, Grog.” Pike pats his knee. 

Percy nudges Vex, who has been slipping into a food coma. She’s so exhausted it pains him to see. “Vex’ahlia, dear, what do you think?”

She stifles a yawn against her hand. “I don’t mind either way,” she admits. “If you guys do come over, though, keep it down - I think I’ll be having a nap, if that’s alright.”

Even the goliath of a man, all tattoos and muscle, seems to read the reluctance in Percy’s gaze. “I’ll be gentle with them,” he promises. “I can be real gentle with the little things.”

Percy sighs. Smiles. “That’s true, yes.” 

--

“When we said little, I didn’t think - woah,” Grog breathes, eyes blown wide and enraptured by every little hair on the kittens’ heads. He and Pike are both on their knees peering into the playpen. Bleary from their nap, the litter is content to wiggle and chirp. Even the one in Scanlan’s hands is well-behaved.

“Hah! Look - he’s spitting at me.”

Or perhaps not, but that’s a perfectly reasonable reaction to Scanlan. 

“She,” Percy corrects with a glance. 

“Ohh, I like them spicy.” He only evades getting an elbow in the gut when Pike stops herself, clearly remembering the precious cargo he holds. 

Having Scanlan for scale really puts into perspective just how small these kittens are - even in his hands they’re fragile, even without a tremor beneath them they wobble. Percy’s heart lurches in his chest when they move - but no, Scanlan’s just sitting more comfortably, with his back to the bed. 

He offers a finger from his free hand for greeting. The verdict is ‘disgusting, I hate it’ until he scratches under that impossibly small chin. “What a cutie patootie. What’s her name?” asks Scanlan.

Pike, peering now over his shoulder, glances between Percy and the kitten. “That’s Bauble, right?” She beams when he nods, pleased they remembered. 

“You can hold one, if you’d like,” Percy offers as Scanlan declares, “I’m gonna get Kaylie a kitten.”

“No - no, you’re not.” He swallows his snappy tone - half the kittens are sleeping, and so is Vex. “You can’t just give someone a lifelong commitment.”

Grog giggles - all head turn to find he’s stuck his hand in the playpen, where a curious Ratchet is clumsily batting at it while Screwdriver watches wide-eyed and hopelessly confused. 

“Ain’t that what happened to you?” says Grog. “With Kaylie?”

Scanlan rolls his eyes. “I was joking. Wasn’t I?” He rubs his nose into Bauble’s fur. “Oh, wow, she smells like cuteness! And kind of milky?”

Percy relaxes a little as Pike leans over to get a good sniff of kittendown too, scooting into Scanlan’s side for a better angle to coo and cuddle. 

That does bring up a thought he’s completely neglected up to date. The kittens are… goodness, not quite two weeks? Two more months and they’ll be old enough to adopt out. How in the hells is he going to find enough homes - good homes - for six kittens? And Curio, too. If matching a half-dozen cute, playful little cats will be a challenge, how will they possibly get someone willing to take on a disabled, probably traumatized adult cat? 

He can practically feel his blood pressure spike. Percy carefully leans over the edge of the playpen to pluck Screwdriver (still watching Grog’s hand with something like awe) and settle her in his lap. His hands are shaking, but so is she, so it’s fine. 

(What if they choose wrong? What if the owners can’t care for the needs of the shaky kittens? Gods, Screwdriver wobbles so much - what if she falls, what if they let her outside, what if -)

“Oop, gotta tinkle.” Percy’s hand jerks up to see Grog stand and dust off his hands. He coos when Ratched stumbles after him, mewling. “Aww, I’ll be back. Where’s the bathroom Percy?”

“It’s to the right, Buddies,” Pike says, delicately running her fingers from Bauble’s head to her little pointy tail. Scanlan’s eyes are on her, not the kitten, and he looks quite like the cat that got the cream.

“Thanks, Pikey!”

Screwdriver mimics his glance up at Grog, which - yeah, sweetheart, he is very big, hm? Percy makes sure to lavish her with extra pets for her bravery. There’s nothing to be scared of, it’s Grog. 

And then Percy remembers, and scrambles to his feet, clutching her to his chest.

“Wait! Don’t go in the-”

He hears the bars of Curio’s crate rattle from here and breaches the doorway just in time to see Grog sheepishly shut the door behind him.

“Guess I’ll hold it in,” he says.

[corpse-water]

Can we get Vesser Zol's entire backstory/personality? As a treat?

don't mind if i do...

vesser and tivea zol are twins born into middle class corpus life. their parents hadn't really expected twins and, seeing children more as an investment rather than people, kind of set them up against each other? vesser and tivea were never very well socialized as their parents didn't see much of a point in that and they also really weren't allowed to build up any kind of sibling relationship. so they grew up more or less seeing each other as enemies. vesser leaned into robotics as a source of companionship and tivea leaned into ships and ship manufacturing for the same reason (she loves ship cephalons).

more under the cut because this gets long.

(here they are.)

as vesser got older, he found that he was very good at fraudulent business deals. deals that could often leave his competitors financially crippled or, worse, shelved. and vesser tended to prefer shelved or Permanently Indebted because, hey, less competition for him. vesser was, for a lot of his history, kind of a shitty guy! in fact he didn't really care about people for a lot of the time unless it gave him a one up over someone else. and this is how he takes his sister out of the running, basically. signs a couple bad deals under her name and winds up getting her pretty much kicked out of their family home and sent to work at corpus dry docks for the rest of her life.

with what vesser sees as his main competition basically taken out of the game, he continues to make huge waves in corpus business. he's a market hawk. he's mean, cruel, and just general a real asshole of a guy. on his way up in the ranks, he makes a lot of enemies and doesn't think to rub elbows with anyone. it's here, with a lot of people plotting underneath of him, he meets kurtzel.

kurtzel (any pronouns) is a corpus spy who works part time as a hired service. vesser likes them immediately because kurt is very open and considerably nicer and more affectionate than other corpus. but while kurt and vesser know each other, they're gathering information on him. because, you know, he's an active threat to a lot of people. but they start feeling increasingly bad about it because vesser is Like That mostly because of corpus dogma and all that. so they keep withholding the info they've gathered on him until they're blackmailed into giving it over.

^ the face of a man about to be shelved.

vesser zol is arrested and put in jail while his business partners figure out what exactly to do with him. vesser has a big problem where he cannot, under any circumstances, Shut The Fuck Up and winds up digging himself into a much bigger hole. so, his business partners decide to do something much worse to him and partially shelve him. it's cost effective! they don't need a whole cell for him anymore. they can just repossess his arms and legs and store him in a box. hook him up for processing power.

he spends some time in there. ruminating. until one day the corpus prison gets raided by a team of steel meridian grineer. they pop open the box thinking it's ammunition and instead they find the Most Miserable Man Alive in this box. they grab him and steal him away to their base on earth where vesser is given mechanical arms and legs.

unbeknownst to vesser, the man who keeps visiting him and looking over him is this particular team's tenno buddy, arrioe. he's Pink Rhino. written by @tenuit (these guys fall in love)

(yes those are ayatan earrings).

vesser is... a Huge Asshole to the grineer team that rescued him. in part because he doesn't think they can understand him and in part because he's just like that. he needs to be sat down and told that they Do, in fact, Understand Him and everyone kind of thinks he's an asshole. which makes him feel bad enough that he apologizes.

vesser starts helping steel meridian after some time recovering and takes direction under captain bahj, the team's leader. vesser is their tech guy and builds them ospreys and moa in order to help around on base as well as out in the field.

vesser and captain bahj (bahj is also written by tenuit) talking MAD shit.

it's at this point that the corpus decide to save face with this particular little man and tell vesser's remaining family members that he's dead. his parents hold a funeral for him (where they basically sell all of his old stuff and robots) and tivea is... weirdly devastated. but as that post implies, they eventually run into each other again. things are different now and tivea has her own list of connections and all including her cephalon buddy, hypnon (written by @crowtatoes ). they're actually able to have a sibling relationship with each other now but there's a lot of like negative feelings they still have towards each other after their childhood and all.

they find that they also have another sibling, eventually. half sibling but he's the result of their father's affair with neighbors when they were both still very, very young. his name is enax (also tenuit's) and he's very very very into orokin technology. mostly for the biomedical field.

their relationship with him is also very complicated and fraught with... not so great feelings.

REGARDLESS, vesser zol eventually is a good guy but he's never particularly nice. he's poorly socialized and has the tendency to say the quiet part out loud. he has this uncomfortable tendency to say something really hurtful without thinking about it? and then cringe at himself when he tries to make up for it. he never has an easy time or relationship with his family and his siblings and even his other personal relationships are complicated further by his inability to communicate sometimes.

he tries very, very hard but he will never really make up for the things that he did in his past. even though the people around him tell him that he didn't deserve to have Box Time as a punishment for the things that he did, he still feels like maybe... that might have been the right choice. he doesn't know if he would have stopped otherwise or would have chosen to stop on his own since it was benefitting him.

he's an asshole but he has the tendency to be very charming and funny. he's the kind of person to kind of act like a dick but go out of his way to do something very nice for someone else just because he can and he's able to. he just really has difficulty talking with people and making those connections with other people but by god he is doing his best.

also he's trans.

that's vesser zol!

[casliveblog]

Custom Toonami Block Week 133 Rundown

Spy X Family: Yor Briar is an extremely socially awkward young woman who just happens to professionally murder people in her free time. Because this is a weird 40sish police state where people can be excluded from school for not having two parents, Yor is getting looks for being Christmas Cake and having legit threats of being thrown in jail as a spy because she dares to be unmarried because that���s just how paranoid the government is even though you’d think Spies could just as easily make a family pair to fly under suspicions and in fact Loid says they very easily could do that if so many female spies weren’t being arrested for being single which is like five layers of ironic and weird. But yeah they meet up by chance and Anya’s able to read their minds to give enough of a ‘oh woe is me for being the child of a single parent with my dad so utterly attractive and available’ that any normal person would assume was him giving his daughter creepy coaching but Yor is the right level of gullible and intense to not think anything of it. Loid agrees to the The Wedding Date plot to pretend to be her bf so she doesn’t get fucking thrown in prison and also more importantly so her brother doesn’t feel bad but he has a thing on the night of the thing because drama and shows up late. Yor feels like she’s been stood up but the chad Loid just comes to the party dripping with blood like ‘Yeah I’m Yor’s hus-boyfriend’ in a scene that actually kinda laugh and clap out loud as well as standing up for her when her coworkers imply she was a sex worker and he’s just like ‘life’s rough bro so what?’ in like the chaddiest thing I’ve ever seen. Now that Yor’s got legit feelings for him as well as still having the whole prison/brother thing hanging over her head she proposes to him in the middle of a high speed car chase, as you do. Yor’s just hilariously oblivious to the whole situation like even when they’re fucking being shot at and blowing people up she’s like ‘wow doctoring is bloody’ like she’s an assassin so I guess this is just what she thinks life is like, we’re not exactly dealing with the most well-adjusted people in either case and it’s funny as fuck so it’s fine.

Inuyasha: It’s the epic conclusion of the Sesshomaru’s fanfic waifu filler arc. Sara gives Sesshomaru Tessaiga and he’s just like ‘bitch did I ask for your help?’ and bolts while Kagome shatters Sara’s jewel that was turning everyone into glass so that’s not a problem anymore. Sara tells her backstory again and turns out right after Sesshomaru got his arm cut off he was kinda not feeling great on account of bleeding out and getting beat up by your brother, both of those will do a number on you. Her dad was like ‘fuck if my daughter’s gonna be a furry’ and sends the whole kingdom to kill Sesshomaru but it’s basically like that ‘1 billion corgis versus the sun’ fight, no matter how many you throw it’s not gonna do shit. So yeah Sara’s dad goes crazy since his whole army was killed by a one armed bishie and burns the whole castle down. Sara for some reason is still in love with Sesshomaru because he saved them the first time even though he murdered them all the second time because I mean look at the guy what’s a few murders between fangirls. Sesshomaru and Sara meet up in the woods and she explains how she’s Naraku’d herself, Inuyasha and Co. show up a bit later and turns out the demons possessing her have hijacked her to kill Sesshomaru instead and for some reason Tokijin doesn’t work because it’s like a hate curse so a sword of demonic hatred only lets them multiply more which sounds like bullshit especially when Kagome’s Sacred Arrow doesn’t work. but it does result in Sesshomaru getting to use the Wind Scar for the sake of putting a human soul to rest so that’s pretty cool and we get a fittingly ‘whatever’ ending from Sesshomaru so it’s fine.

Yu Yu Hakusho: Yusuke’s still fighting Sniper while the rest of the gang use Seaman to get a lock on Sensui’s cave. Yusuke’s still running from knives and bullshit until Sniper throws a fucking fuel truck at him which is weird because it’s not like it’s a bullet skidding down the street after him it’s actually physically driving towards him with nobody manning the pedals put still steering and shit so idk how that works exactly. Eventually Sniper says ‘fuck it’ and grabs a straight up gun to shoot the tanker and explode it right behind Yusuke but we’ve hit the contractual amount of time since Hiei’s last appearance so he’s able to step in and save the day dramatically. Since Sniper doesn’t have targets on Hiei and the man is literally faster than a speeding bullet it’s a piece of cake for him to take Sniper out which is kind of a shame because I like Sniper’s powerset and wanted to see Yusuke overcome it but seems like he just got a bad matchup. Yusuke wants to go rush off against Sensui but Hiei’s like ‘bro an oil truck just exploded on you and you have no plan’ so he takes his shirt off off-screen and they have a good old fashioned knuckleduster DBZ fight without any named techniques just a lot of auras and punching, it’s pretty cool ngl. Hiei says that’s enough and he’s glad Yusuke hasn’t lost his edge but to remember that Sensui isn’t like Toguro and isn’t gonna be all Goku ‘lemme fight you at your best’ and let him suffer enough emotional damage to power up so he needs to be able to pull enough strength to win without it being orchestrated. Yusuke and Hiei haggle for a bit with Yusuke being like ‘come on let’s go save Kuwabara’ and Hiei’s like ‘but I don’t LIKE Kuwabara’ like yeah if it was literally anyone else you’d have a better chance of recruiting Hiei but Yusuke manages to bribe him with a potential copy of the Chapter Black tape and/or destroying all the annoying fodder demons that are gonna come bother Hiei if shit hits the fan so the gang’s all back together agin.

Jujutsu Kaisen: We pick up roughly where we left off and Gojo shows up to beat Evil Yuji up and apparently his superpowered evil side isn’t that big a deal because Yuji’s just the right level of yin for Sukuna’s yang and all of his yelling and shit amounts to what’s basically intrusive thoughts so he can let him out but doesn’t have much problem putting a leash back on him. Gojo gives him the deal that he’s gotta die for eating the cursed finger but in the meantime they plan to use him as a human garbage disposal and get rid of as many of the fingers as they can before he turns evil and dies or they execute him whatever comes first. Yuji agrees and eats a second finger and packs up to go to magical high school because it’s not a shonen without magical high school, though in this case that mostly seems to be window dressing where ‘high school’ means ‘magical military base that houses teenagers and sometimes has classes I guess’ which is good for me because honestly I kinda find school settings really boring at this point. He interviews with the principal who beats the shit out of him with some Cursed Hello Kitty dolls until he gives him a proper shonen protagonist motivation. And it’s a pretty cool philosophy because yeah if Yuji was just doing an Uncle Ben thing and only fighting because he promised someone else that’s how you end up as Batman and become a fucked up loner crucifying yourself on the duty you promised someone else and as an anti-curse school they kinda wanna put a cap on building more magical resentment across Japan. Yuji admits that it’s kind of enlightened self-interest because while he is fighting to save people he wouldn’t be able to live with himself knowing bad things were happening and he was the only one that could’ve stopped it so he won’t regret giving it a shot even if he fucks up major because trying is better than wondering what could’ve been. Luckily Yuji’s class is only three people big so we’re like if Naruto’s graduating class was ONLY Team 7, speaking of which Nobara is here and I love her already.

Chainsaw Man: We’re just slowly excavating Denji’s standards from ten feet under the floor now they’re only like seven feet under the floor since he can actually eat and shit now. Makima takes him in and gives her whole kinky pet speech and Denji’s like ‘well dog’s better than trash and there’s boobs involved so sure’. This episode is honestly really briskly paced, I get this was probably like five chapters in the manga but I feel like we would’ve gotten separate episodes for all of this if this was ten years ago before seasonal anime was a thing. Denji settles in and is introduced to his Sasuke analogue which I guess every anime needs a generic-looking Sasuke guy given Jujutsu Kaisen also has one. Speaking of which this part of the episode is a lot like the second episode of that one since it involves Denji getting his ass kicked with the whole ‘if you’re not ready for this fuck off because the rest of us have tragic backstories to develop’ and whereas Yuji gave a small twist on the standard ‘I’mma help and that’s never wrong’ shonen protagonist deal, Denji’s just ‘fuck off bro’ and kicks him in the balls which I feel like Naruto would be a lot shorter if more people gave Sasuke a kick in the balls when he needed it. Then Makima sends them off on a REAL mission to beat the dumb minor antagonist that’s in the second episode of every anime after the first episode blew the budget making a cool-looking but weak villain for the protagonist to unlock their powers on. And there’s a whole big long speech about how Aki wants to murder everything because devils killed his family and Makima gives him boners and Denji doesn’t have a vengeful bone in his body but is also less altruistic than he seems since he just wants the porn and resolves to making touching boobs his shonen protagonist resolve thing, slowly excavating those standards, like we’re still six feet below the floor at this point but he’s in the mindset of wanting to have a goal at least. Anyway the last bit is getting introduced to our third girl member of Team Seven (this really is just like JJK) but unlike JJK we actually get to see her in action this time as she uses Suitengu’s Blood Sephiroth powers from Speed Grapher to smash the… Sea Cucumber Devil… because apparently people are afraid of that, idk every time I hear a random Devil I just think of the Sock Puppets scene from the Simpsons and wonder when we’re getting the Sock Puppet Devil. Anyway Power is basically all the worst parts of all the Konosuba girls put together and people are here for it.  

Ranking of Kings: The lion’s share of the episode is devoted to Kage’s backstory to explain why he’s so drawn to Bojji’s soft boi routine. Kage was a victim of your standard anime family genocide and saw his mom’s corpse dragged around in front of him while being protected by a foreign noble and making a b-line for presumably the kingdom the series takes place in. Given he’s less than half a foot tall and got no money he’s kinda SoL until this big thief dude comes and gives him some food and gives him the ol’ Cinderella treatment which is still better than what he had and that even escalates to actively participating in robberies given he’s a living shadow. He desperately latches on to the like 0.0001% of kindness the dude shows him (seems to be a common theme carried over from this week’s Chainsaw Man) and even after the dude has sold him out for an amount of gold that looks like way less than what he was helping him steal so I guess he just did it to be a dick, Kage still literally shadows him until he dies in a barroom brawl and seems like the dude has the smallest amount of regret for how he treated Kage before he dies. Back with Bojji he’s still kicking his little brother’s ass but everyone’s like ‘DODGING!? WHAT THE FUCK BEAT HIS ASS BRO’ because apparently the people are more viking meatheads than in Vinland Saga and they don’t understand any form of combat that isn’t big swords smashing into people. Kage puts together that Bojji having to be observant enough to read lips because like one guy in the whole kingdom bothered to learn sign language means that he’s really good at predicting movements and reacting. His instructor’s like ‘yo you can’t be king unless you face him head on’ and Bojji tries and gets absolutely fucked up because apparently dodging is cowardly but continuing to smack someone until you’ve broken every bone in their body after they already fell down is chad work I guess. Bojji’s got the full Anakin Skywalker treatment and only has one working limb atm but wants to keep training and Kage’s like ‘bro you’re fine just how you are everyone else can fuck off you fight your own way’ which isn’t at all a metaphor for how education systems streamline divergent people into a standardized method and then shit on them for not being a fish that learned how to fly.  

Vinland Saga: The English are dicks (shocker) and attack a Viking colony on Bath Day because Vikings are just like ‘let’s all drop our weapons and get naked one day a week what could possibly go wrong anyone who’d abuse that is an asshole’ and turns out they killed the King of Denmark’s sister and Vikings love an excuse to fight so they come to recruit Thors to fight for Denmark because fuck England (I think ‘Fuck England’ is probably one of the least controversial things a historical period piece can say so we’re good even though the Vikings are kinda dicks too). But yeah turns out Thors was a deserter from the Denmarkian Viking army because he was like ‘you know what I think people don’t like being murdered’ and these guys are like ‘well if we’re gonna go fuck England up we better go get that guy that faked his death and ran away because he was really good at killing people’ and they make it clear that if he refuses they’re just gonna go kill the whole village. So Thors agrees to go to war with one ship from the village and Thorfinn is being a whiny little pissbaby about not getting to go because he’s like eight and Thors is just like ‘bro war is just a made up thing countries manufacture to grow their power, you personally don’t have any reason to kill anybody and killing people is awful anyway’ which is pretty enlightened for an old timey Viking. Still the Street Fighter lookin’ dude that came to recruit Thors is rocking up to Askeladd to go kill Thors after he sets sail which idk why they didn’t just jump him in the village and kill him there where they have hostages but idk maybe they want him to kill a few Englishmen first.

[imarawbu]

After I sent that message I was unsure how F would respond and so far he has not responded or done anything. Good. I think he is most likely going to keep pretending it's not him. They've only reached out twice since May, one time F called my husband wanting to meet a few days after he sent the message he sent. My husband didn't meet him. Then at Eid his wife messaged me about coming and getting qurbani meat. Obviously I wasn't going to show up alone and they weren't even there when we finally did, it was just F's mother who apparently didn't even know we'd been invited. I think both were attempts to reach out to us. However nothing has been done since then. I made it very clear with him that he better not contact or interact with me again. That means no invites to his mom's as well. If they invite, I'm going to refuse to go and blow them off like he has done to us a couple of times where he's said he will come and makes up a last minute excuse or say he can't come and makes up something. I know this because his mother once confirmed this that we had invited and they decided to eat out some place instead, then she realized what she said. But it's not like I didn't already know.

Anyways, after I sent the note I had been debating on blocking his wife's accounts on the platform where all this happened. I eventually did and just left her on my daughter's private Instagram. I knew if I blocked her there she'd notice but I wanted her off of my account and him as well by extension. She is still on two others of my social media and I'm deciding what I want to do about those.

I really do anticipate he is at least going to call my husband and try to make some sort of plan, maybe it will take a few days but he's going to try and I will outright have my husband make some excuses as to why we can't go.

As for his mother and his wife. As long as he doesn't try anything with me, I will not say anything to them- they probably won't ask me either- but he can explain to them if they really want to know. I think at this point his mother has been told, probably by him, what's going on, at least that's the impression I got last time I posted something and she responded to it on social media. The last time I met her, she clearly didn't know and she didn't ask me either.

After she blew me off when I made her a bridesmaid for my wedding celebration and couldn't even be bothered to do my henna when she had promised and insisted on doing so. Plus her behavior with her daughter in law, I started distancing myself. F was also making drama as well. So I've lost most of the respect I've had for them since it's obvious how they consider me since I got married. They saw me as some dumb, mentally ill, white woman who wants to be Muslim, but can't do anything. It's just been getting worse and worse over the years and this was the final moment.

I very honestly don't understand a couple things though. If you are a man and obsessed or whatever about some other woman you knew but had no interest in marrying at any point, who, as the misogynist that you are, don't see her as on par with real Muslim women and if she didn't have a relationship with your mother or claimed she was strictly Muslim, you'd probably have tried to get involved with her. You are also married with your second daughter just having been born. why would you think it's a great idea to send a cruel message to this woman when you know her marriage is failing. You know details of her relationship with this guy and it's pretty sad but reasonable this is happening as she said it is. You decide to shame her because she talked about her ex husband in private (your wife told you) to the point of it seeming like a personal insult to you, and then tell her she doesn't know what she's talking about, and then patronize her by saying what a Muslim should do, zero empathy or understanding for her situation. Why risk your little spying- whatever over making sure she knows you know about stuff about her ex husband and that you have zero sympathy for anything she's gone through. To make sure you tell her "life is hard" and dismiss hardships for women related to childbirth as if you aren't familiar with them. Why tell on yourself like this and ruin the relationship and think she's not going to know it's you, especially with your bad English and all the details you gave. How conceited can you get.

[djarindroid]

Love and Duty

Pairing: Cassian x Reader

Summary: Part three in my lil Stuck series- Cassian has been cleared to go back out on missions and spends his last hours at the base trying to show you how much you mean to him.

Warnings: NSFW! Smut with feelings! Oral sex (F & M receiving),  unprotected penetrative sex (only suitable for ages 18+)

Word Count: 3,621

Comments: Smutty part three to the Stuck series I've started, debating whether to leave it at this or write some more for these 2 🤔 I also would like to give a shout out to @mylovelies-docx , I haven't stopped thinking about Cassian calling the reader Princesa since reading 'Social Cues' and I've incorporated it into this fic, you were truly doing gods work when you did that 👑

It was finally here, the day that Cassian thought he’d be pleased to see arrive, but now it had, a heaviness settled over him instead of his expected joy. He’d been cleared to fly and his first mission had already been assigned, scheduled to leave early the following morning. 

His main thoughts during the mission briefing were of you. He didn’t want to tell you he was leaving, in fact he didn’t want to leave you at all. You’d quickly become such a stable part of his life and he wasn’t ready to go yet. He wished he could have even one full extra day with you but he just had the night.

Cassian had never left a briefing so quickly, desperate to spend his remaining hours on base by your side. His heart pounded in time with his feet as he all but ran to your quarters. As he rushed to you, his mind was filled with the memories of the times you’d spent together. It had only been about 4 weeks since you first met, but Cassian knew he would treasure every moment you’d shared. From your meeting, to your trip off base, to the late night caff sessions, not to mention the both of you sneaking out into the surrounding jungle to explore.

He froze outside of your door, his mind conflicted. The need to see you was fighting with the fact he was going to have to give you bad news. He had no idea when he’d be back, no idea when he’d see you again. But the desire to hold you prevailed and he found himself knocking loudly.

The door whooshed upwards and there you were, beautiful as ever. For a brief second Cassian completely forgot the reason he’d practically sprinted across the base to see you. You pulled him into your quarters with a hug, the door closing as he stepped over the threshold. He wrapped his arms around you, feeling the soft wool of…wait, he looked over your shoulder and realised you were wearing his jumper. He smiled into your neck and stroked a hand over your back, he adored the fact you were in his clothes.

‘I’ve been looking for this,’ he teased as he pulled away from your embrace. He took you in as you looked down to his jumper. It was too big on you, coming down to cover the top of your thighs, with the sleeves dwarfing your arms. 

‘Sorry,’ you played with the sleeves, ‘I forgot to give it back the other night.’ He thought back to the two of you laying outside, you were pointing out all of the different planets and constellations you could see from the base. Despite the chill in the air, you didn’t once complain, but as a light mist rolled in Cassian silently removed his jumper and placed it over you. You paused briefly in your explanation as you thanked him and drew the jumper closer to you.

You went to start taking it off but he quickly stopped you, ‘Keep it on, it looks good on you.’ You flushed at his words, still not used to the easy way Cassian complimented you. 

As a silence fell over you, a dread settled over Cassian. He knew what he had to tell you but he wanted to keep pretending that he wasn’t a rebel spy, that he was just an average guy that could lead a normal life. His expression clearly gave him away as he noticed a frown beginning on your face.

‘Is something wrong Cass?’ you stepped closer, closing the small space between you. Worry was etched on your face as you reached up to cup his cheek. He leaned into your touch, taking a brief second to enjoy this moment before he burst the bubble the two of you had created.

Meeting your eyes, he knew he had to tell you in that moment or he’d never get it out. ‘I’ve been cleared,’ was all he could bring himself to say.

‘Oh,’ your face had dropped slightly but you were trying to hide it for Cassian’s sake. ‘When do you go?’

‘In the morning,’ he sighed as his hands rested on your waist. ‘I’m sorry,’ he added in a whisper.

Your hand cupping his cheek made its way to the back of his neck, as you gently played with his hair you said, ‘I thought you’d be excited to get back out there.’

He took a deep breath as he thought about it, his brain was struggling to settle on one emotion. On one hand he was able to go out and do the one thing he felt like he was put into this galaxy to do, but on the other hand he’d finally found someone that made him want to stay. He’d never even considered settling down, he was constantly eager to be out doing whatever he could for the resistance. He was so confused about how he felt and he was unsure how to tell you.

Sensing his difficulty you softly said ‘You know I’ll be here when you get back right?’

He smiled down to you, you deserved so much more. You deserved someone that could be here for you, not someone who could just leave you for months at a time. ‘Maybe we should just run away,’ he half joked as his hands slightly squeezed your waist. ‘Just say the word.’

You giggled lightly at his suggestion, knowing he’d never go through with it. You rested your free hand on his chest as you continued his joke, ‘where would we go?’ 

‘Anywhere you want,’ he brought his forehead down to your own. ‘I could show you the whole galaxy.’ Cassian closed the distance between you and pressed a kiss to your lips. He pulled away just enough to look into your eyes and whispered ‘I will always come back to you.’ He felt you smile as he leant in to kiss you again. 

‘And I will always wait for you Cassian,’ he felt your lips move against his between kisses as you spoke. He was so overcome with emotions that he felt like he could cry. He still couldn’t believe how lucky he’d gotten. He would thank the maker everyday that he’d sprained his wrist because that had brought him to you.

Knowing that you cared as deeply as he did lit a fire inside him, he ran his hands up the side of your body until he was cupping your face, pulling you into him and deepening the kiss. He poured all of his adoration into it. Your hand on his chest gripped his shirt to steady yourself. Your lips moved in sync as the connection between the two of you intensified. His touch was so gentle but filled with longing, your warmth keeping him grounded as the kiss continued.

It was as if everything else had melted away, nothing else mattered apart from the two of you. Lost in the feeling Cassian found himself desperate to feel every inch of you. His hands roamed down your sides, searching for your warmth. He grabbed at the bottom of the jumper, moving it up enough to allow him to feel you. You moaned into his mouth as his large hands explored your bare skin.

His touch fueled something inside you and you rushed to begin unbuttoning his shirt, wanting to feel his body. You fumbled with the buttons, struggling to undo them as your mind was too clouded from the kiss. Cassian pulled away briefly and quickly ripped the shirt over his head. He crashed his lips back into yours as your hands reached out for his exposed body.

You explored every inch of him you could reach, feeling the hair on his chest and the scars that littered his body. The groan he let out as you raked your nails down his back had you utterly intoxicated with him, you were eager to get him to make that noise again. Placing your hands on his chest you guided him backwards until the back of his knees hit your bed and he fell onto it.

Cassian looked up at you standing above him, a flicker of vulnerability in his eyes. The room was filled with a thick tension, anticipation was coursing through both of you. You leant down to him and placed a quick kiss on his lips. The way Cassian tried to follow your lips as you moved away caused you to giggle lightly. You leaned further in, kissing along his jawline. You nipped and kissed your way down his neck until you sank to your knees before him, your lips leaving a trail of kisses down his chest.

His mind was consumed with a rush of pleasure, time ceased to exist as his mind was clouded with nothing but the thought of you. Every kiss, every caress sent shivers down his spine. He was suddenly pulled back into the moment as he felt you pulling the zipper of his trousers down, his eyes snapped down to yours.

You looked up at him through your eyelashes as you cooed, ‘let me take care of you.’ Cassian knew he’d trust you to do anything if you carried on looking at him like that. He hissed as you pulled down his trousers and boxers, releasing his already hard length. You kept your eyes on his as you wrapped your hand around the base of his cock, ‘will you let me take care of you?’

He nodded and his eyes fluttered closed as you slowly stroked up and down the entire length. You continued to pump him with your hand as he leaned back onto his elbows, his head falling back as he lost himself to the feeling.

You took advantage of him breaking eye contact and licked a slow stripe from the base of his dick to the tip. He groaned as you swirled your tongue carefully around the swollen head, you revelled in the sound and desperately wanted to hear it again. You engulfed the head in the wet heat of your mouth and let out a satisfied hum upon hearing Cassian moan again. You continued to stroke him with your hand as you began sucking the tip.

Cassian gathered his mind enough to look back down to you and what a sight you were. Your red, swollen lips wrapped around his cock as you worked him into your hot mouth. He knew he wouldn’t last long as he watched you pull off of him to flick your tongue over the slit. He murmured your name and rasped ‘fuck, you’re too good to me.’

Cassian practically growled as you pushed your lips further down, taking him deeper into your mouth. He couldn’t stop his hips from bucking up as you hollowed your cheeks and began slowly bobbing your head up and down his entire length. His head fell back again as he succumbed to the feeling, moaning uncontrollably. He’s so close already, he’d be embarrassed if it were with anyone else.

‘Fuck,’ he gasped as you took him fully into your mouth and swallowed around him. You pulled almost completely off of him before sinking your lips back down and repeating the action. He panted out your name, maker he’s close but he didn’t want this to end so soon. ‘Fuck stop, stop,’ he brings his hands to your head, and you pull of instantly, looking up at him with a slightly worried look. He calms you quickly and runs a hand through your hair ‘was too good, don’t want it to be over yet.’

‘Wanted to take care of you before you go,’ you rub your hands up and down his thighs as you confess to him. 

Cassian felt like his heart skipped a beat at your words, he was done for. He knew deep in his soul that no-one else would ever compare to the way you make him feel. He wanted, no, he needed to make you feel even a fraction of how good you were making him feel. He surprised you by pulling you up by your arms and flipping the two of you, so you were laying on your back and he was straddling your waist.

Wasting no time he leaned down and began kissing your neck. A soft sigh escaped you as his lips traced along your jaw. Cassian tried to pour every unsaid word into each kiss, portraying a yearning that he couldn’t convey to you with words. His hands gripped your waist, rubbing gentle circles into your skin with his thumbs. His touch ignited a fire within your core.

He kissed his way up to your ear and as he reached between you to begin sliding your shorts down he whispered ‘it’s my time to take care of you now princesa,’ you flushed at the pet name, ‘want to give you something to remember me.’ Your breath stuttered as he fully pulled your shorts off and settled down between your open thighs.

Cassian was obsessed with the feel of your skin, your thighs surrounded his head as he placed gentle kisses on them. He slowly and carefully kissed his way up towards where you were now desperate for him. With each ascending kiss he could feel his urgency building, the longing to worship you in the most intimate way. 

He heard your breath hitch with anticipation, your body instinctually arching towards him. He wrapped his hands around your thighs to keep you in place and his lips finally reached the destination he’d been longing to taste. His tongue delved in, savouring the sweetness. He relished in the whimper you let out as he flicked his tongue over your clit. 

Cassian looked up at you as he completely indulged, alternating between circling and sucking your clit. Watching you fall into blissful pleasure wearing his jumper was almost enough to make Cassian cum right there. Your fingers made their way into his hair, intertwining with his locks and pulling him closer, urging him to carry on. 

Each flick of his tongue and stroke of his lips brought you closer and closer. Cassian kept his gaze focused on you as he watched your eyes drift down to meet his own. His steady pace and your intense connection had you writhing and trying to grind down onto him. 

Locked into Cassian’s gaze, that reflected all of the passion and hunger within, you found yourself teetering just on the edge. You were hardly even aware of your own moans and your repeated chant of his name. Your entire body was alight, your free hand gripping onto your bed sheet so hard you were sure it could rip, it felt as if you let go you would float away.

Cassian knew you were close, he gripped your thighs harder and pulled you impossibly closer. He moaned as he continued lapping at your pussy and suddenly you were there, tumbling over that edge, calling out his name as you came. The moans he let out vibrated through you, heightening the feeling. You’re falling apart and Cassian isn’t slowing down, he’s guiding you through and absolutely basking in the sound of his name falling from your lips over and over.

He reluctantly pulled away as you let out a whimper, he didn’t want to push you too far. As he crawled back up your body he watched as you tried to steady your erratic breathing, a smile was gracing your face and he tried to burn this moment into his memory. Your eyes drifted up to meet his and he returned your smile as he dipped down to kiss you.

Without breaking the kiss you sat up slightly and reached down to the bottom of the jumper you were still wearing. You slowly peeled it up your body, along with your undershirt, baring more and more of your skin. You reluctantly broke this kiss to allow room for you to completely remove your clothing, leaving you just as bare as he was. 

Taking advantage of Cassian’s distracted gaze, you grabbed his shoulders, swiftly switching your places. He landed on his back as you swang your leg over his hips. He chuckled at the sudden change but quickly shut up as he looked up at you. You looked like a masterpiece, he was stunned that someone so beautiful could even exist in this galaxy, it shouldn’t be possible.

You carefully lowered yourself and the two of you moaned in unison at the feeling of his cock pressing flush against your pussy. You rolled your hips, slowly grinding along his thick length, coating it in your slick. Cassian’s hands instinctively gripped onto your hips, squeezing you as you rose back up on your knees slightly. 

Neither one of you broke eye contact as you aligned the tip of his dick to your entrance. He couldn’t stop the gasp he let out as he finally found his way inside of you, watching in awe as you slowly lowered yourself, taking inch after inch of him. You were so tight, wet and warm, your pussy practically dragging him in. Your hands came to rest on his chest as your hips came flush with him, his cock now fully inside of you.

You stayed like that for a moment, taking the time to get used to the feeling of his thick cock sitting deep inside. Fuck this feels spectacular, no-one had ever made you feel like this before and you knew no-one ever would again. Every inch of you felt as though it was on fire, goosebumps covered your body as Cassian praised you.

‘Fuck, look at you,’ the grip he had on your hips became bruising. He felt like he had died and gone to heaven. You brought your lips to his and licked into his mouth as you rolled your hips, moaning into his mouth at the feeling.

You rose again, fully bracing yourself on Cassian’s chest and began a steady rhythm, rolling your hips. You shiver around him, your pussy clenching down on him with every roll. ‘That's it baby just like that,’ Cassian growled, not taking his eyes off your face. His hands roaming over the curves and dips of your body.

As your moans became louder you leant up slightly, pulling your hips up and then dropping back down. Cassian’s head slammed back into the cushions as he let out a stuttered gasp, you repeated the action and whimpered out his name ‘Cass, it feels good.’

His large hands came round, grasping at both of your tits. ‘You’re too good to me princesa, always treat me so nicely,’ he pinched and rolled your nipples between his fingers as you continued to ride him. ‘You’re taking me so well baby, fuck I’m going to miss you so much.’ You looked down to him as he cupped your cheeks and pulled you into a messy kiss.

‘Fuck Cass, gonna miss you too,’ The way you were angled now, practically laying on top of him made it quite difficult to continue your actions. ‘Cass please, I need you.’

‘I’ve got you princesa,’ he planted his feet on the bed below you and began to rut his hips up into you, the new angle making him reach deeper than he had before. You muffled a cry into his neck as he built up to a relentless pace. ‘Need to hear you baby, don’t hide,’ He grunted in your ear and you let out an unfiltered cry.

He knew you were close, he could feel your pussy rhythmically clenching down on him, he was close as well. A primal urge to feel you cumming around his cock had him desperately thrusting into you harder. ‘Look at me, fuck, please look at me,’ Cassian begged. The moment you pulled back to look into his eyes, Cassian felt a wave of emotions crash over him. Everything became so crystal clear to him at that moment and before he had time to think rationally about anything, the words were already spilling from his lips.

‘I love you, maker, I love you so much,’ he watched as your eyes widened. ‘I’m always going to come back to you, my perfect girl.’ He was grinding deep inside you now, perfectly hitting the spot inside you that had you fighting for your eyes to not roll back. ‘Cum for me, I need to feel it, maker, love, please cum for me.’

Overcome with emotions you find yourself opening your mouth in a silent scream as your pussy grips down hard on him as you crash full force into pure pleasure. Tears prick at the corners of your eyes as your body shakes through your orgasm.

That’s it, Cassian finally lets go and his cock goes rock hard and pulses as he cums deep inside you with a low groan of your name. Your pussy milking every drop it can has Cassian clamping his eyes shut as he rides out the feeling.

You fell to Cassian’s chest and his arms wrapped around you, holding you as close as he possibly could. He was content, and could happily lay in the moment forever but he could feel your lips moving against his collarbone. He planted a kiss to the top of your head before saying ‘baby, I can’t hear you.’

Your eyes stayed shut and from the sound of your steady breathing Cassian could tell you were trying to fight off falling asleep. He softly stroked a hand through your hair as you mustered up the energy to talk louder. And then he heard it, four words that he would think of for years to come.

‘I love you too.’

[jancys-blue-bayou]

What did you mean when you said that S4 retcons stuff from S1? Like Vecna most likely being responsible for everything?

I mean the Lab flashbacks as a whole and how it feeds into Vecna/001. In s1 we see El refusing to use her powers on a cat, and Brenner then being completely shocked when she uses them on the guards instead. We see how she first hears the Demogorgon in the Void while she's on the express mission to try and find and listen into a Russian guy, as she is a project developed as a weapon in the Cold War. The sounds they hear makes Brenner curious and next time they make El go into the Void he treats it as a groundbreaking moment as they make first contact with another dimension. Brenner seems motivated by exploring this unknown thing, it's completely new groundbreaking scientific discoveries they're doing. He's also continuously amazed by El's powers (van flip). We see El barely speaking English and having an extremely limited grasp of normal social dynamics from being raised in a confined lab environment, throughout the season she basically learns how to function as a real person, not a lab experiment, through her escape into society and meeting the party. El's powers are inferred to have come from her mother being experimented on while pregnant.

In s4 they go "welp you know what El opened another interdimensional portal in 1979 and sent 001 there and Brenner knows how powerful she is but welp she fell into a coma after and conveniently got amnesia too and forgot not only that she sent 001 into another dimension but all her language skills, knowledge of social dynamics since apparently the lab was like a bullying schoolyard rather than the sterile lab environment shown in s1, and all memory of the other test subjects (but she starts to remember her mom and Kali in s2). Brenner says he always "sensed" that Henry was "out there somewhere". Henry apparently was born with his powers for no as yet motivated reason. All this retcons s1 to me. The amnesia coma excuse is a lazy retcon that's like straight out of some two dime daytime soap opera. It's not a Clever Dramatic Reveal. It's just Remember Season 1? Yeah We Didn't But Wanted To Write This Now Instead So Here You Go. Because with the amnesia coma excuse you can just do whatever. Yeah you can handwave it all you want with that Brenner doesn't directly negate anything he said in s1, that he may always had his 001 thing underlying the official mission to develop super spies, but watch s1 again, it's all played like that in the strive to develop weapons in the Cold War scientist discover ways to develop telekinesis in at least one special test subject and an unplanned side effect is that they accidentally discover another dimension, and out of scientific curiosity decides to make first contact. S1 Brenner does not appear to be "searching for Henry *somewhere out there*" they're trying to spy on the Russians and in doing so by accident discovers the Upside Down.

They also retcon Hawkins history with the whole Creel house thing. Yes they have the loophole that Hopper in s1 just listed when the last suicide and last missing person case was. But still, what's meant by that scene in s1 is that Hawkins is a small town where nothing remotely dramatic ever happens to the point where a child going missing and a man apparently committing suicide is enough to shake up the police chief and bring those facts up. Also it's so dumb that very inquisitive Nancy has apparently never heard of the Creel murders even though it would surely be local legend and the jocks in s4 refer to the Creel house as "the murder house" implying just that local legend, that somehow completely escaped Nancy fucking Wheeler.

They started messing up Hawkins in s3, like the proportions of the town. Like it's super weird when Nancy and Robin meet late in the season and Nancy explicitly doesn't know who Robin is — they go to the same high school and are in the same grade! I don't know if it's realistic for a town of Hawkins size to get a mall that size either but maybe it's not out of the realm of possibility, I don't know. Either way I feel like they lost the concept for how big or small Hawkins is in s3, like they started treating it as a bigger town than it is. Hawkins been estimated (by the size of downtown, town in general, there appearing to be only one middle school and high school etc) to have a population of about 10-15 000 people, idk to me it feels like they're trying to cram way too much in it in s3 and s4 with that in mind. But the Creel house takes the cake.

[soulmate-game]

part 2 (of that new bio!dad fic)

Dick whipped his head over to Bruce, who could feel the heavy gazes of all his children as if they were physical. If they had had heat vision like Clark, he would have already been reduced to a puddle of mush. Bruce shifted, the only sign of his discomfort, but he recognized that the middle of a gala was no place for this discussion. There were too many busybodies trying to listen in for the latest gossip. So he plastered on a smile that he couldn’t quite feel, and held a hand out to Marinette. He was careful to keep a good distance though, and left the choice for contant purely up to her.

The young woman looked down at his hand, then back to his face. Damian had been shocked silent by what she had to say, and perhaps even more by the all too telling way that Bruce hadn’t so much as implied that she was lying, and the look he was giving her was making her a little uncomfortable. Yes, she hadn’t planned on interacting with her father more than just the years-overdue confrontation she had just done, at least not while at the gala… but her plans always left room for improvisation. She could make this work.

With a soft sigh, Marinette extended her own hand— half the size of Bruce’s, he noted almost immediately with a rush of illogical fondness— and grasped his lightly. She couldn’t help but notice the way his impossibly blue eyes brightened, no different than her own when she was particularly happy, or the way his mouth twitched with a barely suppressed beam. Instead, he controlled himself enough so that the only smile he gave would look professional and entirely in character to the nosy socialites still spying on them, and led them out onto the dance floor.

What everyone else saw was the unfairly charming Bruce Wayne giving his young guest of honor a simple dance. Just a basic swirl around the floor that every other social elite had learned when they were five. Clearly he was taking it easy on the self-made girl, who probably didn’t have experience with such dances. Humoring the accomplished young woman with his approval for a moment before he would slink back to his family or patrol the crowds and make the necessary greetings and meaningless chatter.

What his family saw was Bruce taking time to slow his steps, not for Marinette to keep up but rather to prolong the event. What they saw was the grace in Marinette’s steps as she never once faltered, and that Bruce was careful to take his cues from her instead of the other way around. He only led the dance in technicality, Marinette had all the real control.

What they saw was a father’s first dance with his daughter.

“Eighteen,” Dick whispered, eyebrows drawn low. “She said she’s almost eighteen.”

“Well, that lines up doesn’t it?” Jason asked gruffly, his own gaze never leaving the dancing duo. “We were planning on doubling up your big thirtieth birthday party as your eighteenth adoption anniversary,” he reminded his brother, who just made a slightly distressed noise in the back of his throat. Whether it was at the reinforcement of his adoption coming only months after Marinette being put up for adoption, or the fact that he was turning thirty, nobody could really tell.

“Hurt,” Cassandra spoke up from behind them, looking incredibly concerned as she watched the dance. “Uncertain.”

Stephany rolled her eyes, fidgeting from her quickly building energy. Anger was making her restless. “Of course she’s hurt. Bruce replaced her, with a boy he knew virtually nothing about, not even that long after she was born. How do you think that made her feel, when she found out?” Stephany let out a little growl, grabbing a flute of champagne from a passing server and downing it in one gulp. She ignored Dick protesting that she wasn’t of age yet, which made her wrinkle her nose. “Only one more year, Dickhead. Get over it, I need the buzz.”

“Well,” Barbara sighed and maneuvered her wheelchair around the group so that everyone could see her. “Nothing we can do right now but be supportive and watch Bruce like a hawk so he doesn’t make this worse,” she stated easily, not looking even the least bit ruffled by the news despite the disturbed glitter in her eyes.

“... Guys,” Tim spoke up, not looking at any of them. “Who wants to volunteer for Damian duty?” At first glance, it might seem like Tim was thinking about his own first disastrous meeting with the younger boy. Once everyone paid attention though, they could see that the truth was that Damian had snuck away and Tim was pointedly looking at a slightly hidden-away staircase to the second floor.

“Shit,” Dick muttered, but before he could say another word Jason shoved him back and started towards the stairs.

“No, not this time Dicky. I’ll talk to the brat.”

Back on the dancefloor, Bruce and Marinette broke away without any fanfare at the end of the song. If Bruce tried to hold her eyes for a moment too long, nobody noticed besides his observant children, and two of Marinette’s protective friends.

Then, just to make sure that nobody caught on with the help of hindsight, Bruce said something vaguely polite and praising, which Marinette accepted with flawless, distant poise. And they went back to their own groups, Bruce quickly noting that two of his sons were missing. He raised an eyebrow, about to ask why when a presence behind him caught his attention. Unlike Marinette and Chloe, this newcomer was not at all trying to hide their approach or be sneaky about it, even though Bruce couldn’t hear any footsteps that were close enough to belong to the mysterious entity. Closing his mouth, Bruce turned around only to be greeted by yet another vaguely familiar face. Bright green eyes bore into his, unreadable.

“Mister Wayne,” the newcomer greeted, voice warm but stiff. If the Waynes hadn’t all had years of recognizing when a person was only pretending to be cordial, they never would have suspected that the boy was anything but pure-heartedly happy to be there. But they did have that experience, and thus they instantly honed in on the very well-hidden fact that he had a bone to pick with them. Or, more probably, with Bruce.

He cut an impressive figure, for all that he was lithe muscle instead of bulk. Hair that was lighter than Chloe’s, less like cloth-of-gold and more like sunlight glinting off of wheatfields. It somehow hung in gravity-defying tufts, yet perfectly arranged to evoke a calming aesthetic. Like the fluff of a long-haired cat, almost, and it looked just as fluffy and hypnotizing. It contrasted with his emerald eyes, impossibly vibrant in their gleam. And the suit he wore was decidedly top-notch, much like the other two they had met from his class. He was daring, in a dark silver suit that slightly shifted in the light, green accents that matched his eyes standing out strikingly against the collars and trim, and coiling in tantalizing swirls at the cuffs. The lining of the suit jacket was done in a dark green that could almost pass for black in the right lighting, adding a layer of both drama and mystery as it peeked out at the back of his collar, the insides of his sleeves if he moved just the right way, at the bottom hem of the jacket when he turned or bent just so. And with his notoriety in the modeling world? He always knew exactly how to move or place himself to get the reactions he wanted. And he was clearly showing off the craftsmanship of his suit just then as he faked adjusting his cufflinks and lifted his head just the right amount to both look challenging and let the dark green on the back of his collar flash in the light in such a way that Bruce and those nearest him wouldn’t be able to miss the brief reveal of color.

“Adrien Agreste,” Bruce greeted back, eyebrows pulling down in slight confusion. Normally the topic of clothing was far from his genuine interest, but in this particular case it was an intriguing, and possibly even concerning, observation. So he said next; “That suit is not of your father’s usual style of design.”

Adrien scoffed, straightening out his suit’s jacket and making the obsidian buttons glint. “Of course not. I’ve started my rebellious phase— or, well, I finally started being blatant enough about it that my father noticed anyway,” the way his lips curled was decidedly not very attractive, but painted a vivid picture of a son who despised the way he was treated. Adrien quickly wiped the distasteful expression away and replaced it with a camera-ready smile. “I’m wearing one of Marinette’s designs, much to his chagrin. She insisted on making this for me as soon as she heard that my father was planning on sending me in a white suit.”

Bruce quickly caught on, and sighed. How long would the gala go on for, again? He didn’t remember what time it was anymore. “Your friend Chloe already got a pretty clear warning in. I suppose you know as well?”

Adrien’s grin darkened with mischief, and he nodded all too happily. “Of course! Marinette told me almost as soon as she found out, a few years ago. You see, we had to put down a very solid rule about secrets between the two of us. She has a bad habit of trying to shoulder the entire world’s problems and not tell anyone about it, if you don’t pay close enough attention,” his voice was deceptively light but his eyes were hard, warning. “And let’s just say, I have a lot of experience with bad father figures. I can recognize them a mile away by now. The signs of neglect, of apathy,” his eyes suddenly lightened when he saw how Bruce’s throat visibly caught, how the man didn’t seem to realize he had stopped breathing. Maybe he was being a little to mean, Adrien thought. So he let the dark slip out of his eyes, and his smile turned more genuine. “You don’t have those signs. You looked at Marinette like you were both the happiest and most miserable man in the world at the same time. But you can’t change what you did to her, Mister Wayne. If you want some advice from Marinette’s oldest friend?” Adrien held out a closed fist.

Bruce took a second to realize what was happening, too busy trying to recover from his situational whiplash and wave of relief. Once he caught back up to the present, however, he held out his open palm and let Adrien drop something into his hand.

To his shock, it was a pen, engraved with the name he recognized as Marinette’s biological mother. He also recognized it as a popular model of pen-knife. He raised his eyes to Adrien, who winked.

“Marinette doesn’t know I had this made. And she has a lot of tricks that might surprise you, but what she wants more than anything is stability. If you try to give her that, show that you care and you want her safe— and then prove that you’re gonna stay— then maybe you can repair the damage you’ve done. It won’t be easy though, Mari is the single most stubborn person I’ve ever met. And I grew up with Chloe.”

Bruce closed his hand around the pen, swallowing a lump in his throat. He couldn’t quite figure out why, but Adrien’s faith in him and his help… somehow felt significant. He nodded to the young model.

“Not to worry, I have experience with stubborn,” he glanced back at his other kids with a small smirk. None of them were the least bit repentant. “And I do want to stay. Thank you for the advice.”

Adrien shrugged. “Don’t thank me. If you hurt her again, you’ll never see my revenge coming. It can be rather… catastrophic,” with that ominous threat, Adrien bowed dramatically and turned to leave and do some rounds charming the elites. Bruce tucked the pen in one of his hidden pockets, but stayed silent after that. He had a lot to mull over.

—*—*—*—*—*

Damian leaned on the railing of the balcony, looking out over the gardens behind the gala’s venue. He was glaring at nothing, and his hands trembled from where they gripped the rail. It was five minutes, a little longer than he had expected but not that odd considering everyone’s distraction over Marinette, before he heard the glass doors behind him creak open.

“Yo,” Jason greeted, knowing it was better not to catch the boy off guard. None of them were good with surprises anymore, for good reason. It was always best to announce their presence before they made someone react violently on accident. Damian’s shoulders relaxed a little— not a lot, but enough for Jason to notice. The older man sighed, walking up and leaning on the rail next to his little brother. “What’s on your mind, kid?”

“That could have been me,” he almost instantly blurted. It was still hard talking about his feelings, but certain things were easier with Todd. This was, apparently, one of them. “If Mother hadn’t kept me a secret.”

“I don’t think so,” Jason disagreed, shrugging. “There are several big differences here. For one, Marinette was born three years before you were. By the time you were born, he already had Dick and he would have only been a year, max, away from taking me in. Which means he already had built up his problem with taking in kids, and nothing would have gotten him to give up a chance at raising you. With or without Batman getting in the way.”

“But then why—” Damian growled. “Why did he give her up?”

“Because he’s an idiot,” Jason remarked bluntly. “You know how he is. He didn’t have a kid at the time. Hell, Bruce would have only been twenty-two back then. He only adopted Dick on impulse because Dick reminded him of himself, but before all of that shit? He probably made a million excuses about not being able to raise a baby and be Batman at the same time. About his life being too dangerous for a kid. Which, yes it is, but that clearly didn’t stop him later.”

“She’s older,” Damian muttered, this time softer.

“Yup.”

“Her mother wasn’t an assassin, probably. She designs. I hate to admit it, and you are never to repeat it to anybody, but her work that we’ve seen so far is impressive. She can clearly charm even the most stuck-up of gotham’s upper crust.”

“Yeah,” Jason agreed neutrally, his eyes never leaving Damian.

“Father won’t need me. He already doesn’t have much patience—” Damian was cut off by a flick to the nose. “Hey!”

“Not my fault you’re being stupid,” Jason defended himself. “Look, B’s actually been real patient with you these past few years. I mean, when was the last time he yelled at you? Or told you that stupid ‘justice not vengeance’ line?”

Damian opened his mouth, then closed it. After another moment, he replied; “Almost two years.”

Jason nodded. “It might take him way too long, but he can still learn new tricks. Especially after that mess with Heretic, he’s been trying really hard to be better to you. He still screws up, because I think we all know by now that he’s a bigger mess than any of the rest of us and that’s an accomplishment, but he’s trying. He doesn’t keep you around because he needs you. He’s got plenty of us around if all he wanted was soldiers— though none of us would stick around if we thought that’s all he wanted.”

Damian flexed his jaw. He was still the most violent of the kids, besides Jason. He saw Bruce rubbing his forehead or pinching his nose far too often at some of his decisions or comments. He was stubborn, impatient, reckless.

But hadn’t Bruce himself told him on several occasions that he wasn’t trying to make him a perfect soldier? Hadn’t Bruce himself said that he just wanted Damian to grow into himself?

It was just really hard to swat away those stupid voices in Damian’s head. Voices of the past, mostly, old dialogue he had never actually forgotten. That he merely pretended had never affected him. The “you’re too violent”s, the “that’s not how we behave, Damian”s. All the old lectures, the old fights. They echoed like stupid little gremlins of doubt.

“...Marinette has his eyes.”

“Don’t beat yourself up over something like that,” Jason’s voice was soft, but gruff at the same time as he cuffed Damian over the head. “You didn’t choose to be born, idiot. And despite being a little demon, none of us would reverse it, You’ve saved all our skins at least once. And besides,” he nudged Damian a little with a grin. “You’re not half bad, nowadays.”

Damian chuckled. “That makes one of us.”

“Hey!”

@peterxwade24 @mizzy-pop @maskedpainter @ladybug-182 @khneltea @itsmeevie01 @fusser90 @woe-is-me0 @lolieg @moonlightstar64 @jayjayspixiepop

[sundayswiththeilluminati]

Continued from this post, Part 3 of my discussion of Essek Thelyss in the context of real-world espionage. This time: what happens to espionage assets in the long run? Do they break contact, and why? What might have been in store for Essek?

At the treaty meeting Essek tells Ludinus to his face that he wants no further contact with the Assembly, not even to learn what the Assembly discovers via their own beacon. He’s far from the first asset to try to sever their relationship, and it ends in one of three ways: they don’t manage to break contact, they break contact but voluntarily return, or (rarest of all) they end the relationship permanently. 

Most attempts don’t go beyond option 1, because intelligence agencies are not in the business of respecting their assets’ choices. Handlers are skilled in keeping the upper hand in their asset relationships and will take any further opportunity to gain leverage by compromising the asset. For instance they’ll often pay for information even if the asset hasn’t requested it, because money changing hands makes it far harder for an asset to frame their activities positively to their own side if they attempt to confess (”You expect us to believe they were blackmailing you when you got $10,000 to hand over the secret manual?” etc.) And when push comes to shove most people aren’t willing to accept the severe punishments for espionage. An asset’s threat to confess is more likely a negotiating ploy than a serious option.

Some assets, especially nervous or ego-driven ones, get the carrot: the KGB did a strong line in awarding secret medals to convince them they were doing important, well-regarded work and that the KGB would protect them - not an empty reassurance, as highly-placed moles like Aldrich Ames warranted elaborate ops involving double and triple agents to avert suspicions. And some assets get the stick: the handler tightens the screws using whatever leverage they’ve gained, implies that they’re already “too far in to go back,” or gives some time for those who were blackmailed into spying to think about the consequences of exposure.[1]

Those who get as far as option two, breaking it off and later returning, are usually driven away by fear but back by finances. Fantasy spies have all sorts of motives but in real life the majority are in it for the money. Assets, as you might imagine, make bad choices. About half start selling secrets just to stave off massive debt from overspending and poor financial decisions (the rest feel underpaid.) So even if these assets stop temporarily, the circumstances that drove them to espionage in the first place are still very much present. In these cases all a handler has to do is shrug and say, “You know where to find us.” Infamous FBI mole Robert Hanssen broke off contact with his Russian handlers when the Soviet Union collapsed, fearing he might get outed in the chaos, but linked back up with them just 10 months later when, surprise surprise, he needed some cash.

And then there are the rare handful who stop completely. There’s a bit of survivor(?) bias here because anyone who passes along secrets, breaks off the relationship before being caught, and manages to get away with it is by definition someone we don’t know about. Those who do manage to break contact long-term are usually able to do so because they left the situation that gave them access to interesting secrets and therefore the controlling agency determined they were no longer a useful resource and not worth pursuing. But even if an asset stops working for an agency, they’re far from forgotten - and far from off the hook. Names and evidence of their espionage would be kept on file for potential use as blackmail, leverage in state-to-state negotiations, or expendable material to prove bona fides in ops involving fake defectors or triple agents. A surprising number of spies are caught/outed years after their espionage ended.

Very few assets permanently sever their espionage relationships the hard way: making a genuine confession and accepting punishment. But it’s not unheard-of, especially if the espionage was brief and the asset believes the damage can be repaired. In 1989 Army signals analyst Michael Peri disappeared from his post in West Germany along with a portable computer containing numerous classified documents. Eleven days later he returned to his previous post with the computer and voluntarily confessed to the theft and sort-of defection to East Germany. When interrogated, Peri - who had been a model soldier until that point - said he felt overworked and underappreciated by his superiors, though he couldn’t entirely explain his decisions either to leave or to return (a sexy female Russian agent might also have been involved). He received a 30-year sentence.

Marine Clayton Lonetree, a guard stationed at the US Embassy in Moscow in 1985, was blackmailed over an affair to hand over details on the embassy compound for a year, but his conscience finally got the better of him and he confessed in late 1986. Being a Marine he faced the very real prospect of death by firing squad, but the court martial ended up giving him a 30-year sentence. It was later reduced to 15 after the Marine Corps Commandant wrote a letter to the Navy Secretary on his behalf attributing the young Marine’s actions not to treason or greed but to loneliness, naivety, and poor judgement.[2]

Going back to Essek’s case, he’s already in the minority of espionage assets because he doesn’t want money in return for the secrets he passes along; though the knowledge the Assembly promises him in return fulfills a similar desire, Essek doesn’t need that knowledge to pay off the equivalent of debt or to maintain his lifestyle. He has no pressures at home that force him to continue spying. With the beacons returned, the fall guys in place, and their tracks seemingly covered, he tells Ludinus that all he wants is to be rid of the entire affair. That rules out option one (he sincerely means to cut the Assembly off) and option two (he won’t be driven back by need.) 

Essek is also in an unusual position in that the worst of the damage he caused is repairable - just return the beacons.[3] A secret, once compromised, can’t be un-compromised. If an asset hands over a cipher machine they can’t fix the situation by stealing the cipher machine back; the foreign agency they sold it to has already studied the machine and learned its secrets, meaning it’s now effectively useless. But returning the beacons restores what the Kryn lost. While keeping dunamancy secret gives the Kryn a tactical edge, and I’m sure the Dynasty would prefer to keep the magical soulstones of their elite hidden from their long-time rival, the beacons don’t need to be secret to work. Essek therefore has a much better chance than most to simply repair the damage, cut off his handlers, and try to forget the whole affair ever happened. He might even think that, now that the Assembly has their own beacon, they’ll have no further use for him and will just leave him alone.

But from the Cerberus Assembly's perspective, this fruit still has plenty of juice in it and they risk nothing by continuing to squeeze. Now that they have their own beacon Essek’s knowledge becomes even more valuable. He has access to hundreds of years of dunamantic spellcrafting - and more importantly the rite of consecution, since the Assembly were probably after beacons in the first place to make themselves immortal. If Essek is caught, it’s treason for him, but the Assembly doesn’t suffer; they were doing it for the good of the Empire, learning about dunamancy to help the war effort. So if he refuses to keep spying voluntarily for the Assembly, they’ll just have to find another way to motivate him. 

As part of evaluating Essek before recruitment, Assembly operatives would have noted that he’s, well, highly motivated to save his own skin. Ludinus’ goal therefore becomes to make Essek see further espionage as the only way to stay alive. So instead of confronting Essek then and there, Ludinus shrugs and goes, “Okay. Sure.” Then he activates the Volstruckers, maybe leaks a little info to the Dynasty about a traitor in their midst, and sets up Essek to stew in fear, feeling isolated and attacked from both sides - targeted by the Assembly for his defiance, under suspicion from the Dynasty, unable to ask for help because of his crimes. Ludinus sits back and waits for Essek to re-establish contact on his own. Of course Ludinus didn’t know that the M9 had confronted Essek and gotten him to confess, making a return to spying impossible even if he tried.

While Essek’s motives revolve around ego, frustration, and rebellion, his situation is more like those of people who end up defecting because they’re unable to pursue their careers or live as they want to back home. He has virtually no social/family ties to leave behind, no loyalty to Dynasty authority, and no religious fervor to defend the Luxon, while the Assembly promises him the company of like minds and free rein in his experiments. Assuming no intervention by the M9 I think Essek would have ended up defecting to the Cerberus Assembly. If he did it early enough in the story he might have even joined the Volstruckers to complete the narrative foil transformation.

If the crew had confronted him at the treaty but not offered mercy I think he would have defected purely out of fear, thinking the Assembly were the only people who could protect him from both the Dynasty and the M9. He was already on edge watching the guy he'd set up to take the fall getting walked away in chains and with the Assembly's Wind of Aeons ship right there it would be the ideal time to make the move. Assuming the treaty confrontation went as it did (the crew makes him confess but lets him live) but the M9 hadn’t shown up in Eiselcross, Essek would likely have fled the outpost and gone into hiding in a bid to outrun his crimes (and probably gotten caught two weeks later given how awful he was at being “Dezrain Thane.”)

Essek is far from the first recruited asset to regret what they did even as they kept doing it. Those who can sell out their nation and not feel even a pang of guilt are thankfully thin on the ground. Most start off doing what seems to be a favor for a friend - or accepting a favor from a friend who wants to help with their “financial difficulties” - and end up so deep they can’t see any way forward other than to keep handing over secrets. He’s one more in a long line of those who compromised information out of frustration, especially through the appeal to shared professional interests (that’s how industrial assets tend to be recruited.)

But he’s also in a much better place to make up for it than most assets. Since he primarily compromised property, not secrets, returning said property can (somewhat, mostly) repair the damage done, which goes a long way towards buying leniency from the powers that be. And now I’m realizing that this post actually needs one final part, which is: how do you try someone for espionage, and should you charge them with it in the first place?

[1]  While spy dramas love sexy blackmail, and handlers will happily collect it to leverage against a balky asset, it works far less often in reality as a main reason for espionage. Social penalties for extramarital affairs pale before actual legal penalties like the death sentence for treason. On the other hand, those with foreign relatives are sometimes coerced by threats against those relatives.

[2]  Lonetree’s case for leniency got a boost in 1994 when Aldrich Ames was finally caught and some serious breaches of embassy security that had been attributed to Lonetree were found to be Ames’ work instead. In 1996 Lonetree was released after having served 9 years total.

[3] Although I did just think of a really messed-up Cerberus Assembly plan: consecute a handful of completely loyal Volstruckers, kill them, and send the beacons back so said agents will be reborn in the Dynasty and work to undermine it from within. How fucked up would that be?? Campaign 3 plot hook anyone?

(This accidentally turned into a series on Essek & IRL espionage: Parts 1, 2, 3, 4)

[dreamwritesimagines]

Burn The Witch 4 - Making Believe [Bucky Barnes x Reader]

A.N: Thank you so much for your wonderful support and feedback my loves ! ❤ Here’s the next chapter, I hope you like it as well and please let me know what you think! ❤ Thank you! ❤❤❤

Warnings: Enemies to lovers, fake dating, mentions of blood, sex, violence, death, manipulation, language, guns, knives.

Summary: A lot can happen in a coffee shop. 

Series Masterlist

Considering all the missions your superiors had sent you, this wasn’t the first one to make you end up with a gunshot wound, but it was the first one that you were assigned to seduce the target and ended up with a gunshot wound as a first impression.

Now that you had met Bucky, the next step would be easier. You just hoped he wouldn’t suspect something was up like General kept warning you about, so you had to make sure to memorize every single detail of your cover story.

Instead of being a trained assassin, you were now working in a milkshake shop.

Instead of having lived there your whole life, you were now clueless about the city since you had recently moved there.

Instead of liking horror movies, you now loved rom-coms.

New identity, new apartment, new car, new everything. It was as if the real you had never existed, but none of that was your biggest issue right now.

It was your new uniform for the milkshake shop.

“Jesus Christ,” you muttered to yourself, looking in the mirror before fixing your skirt. Even after a week, you still weren’t used to wearing it, the uniform was some sort of a retro diner waitress costume with red and white stripes, cinched waist and a white apron over the short skirt. “I’m going to kill whoever picked this after I’m done with the mission.”

“Y/N?” Chloe called out from the living room, “Come on, we need to go over everything for today.”

You ran a hand over your face and walked to the living room to find your two best friends sprawling on the couch. Keith let out a laugh as soon as he saw you in that outfit, but managed to hide it by pressing his fist on his lips while Chloe kicked at his boot.

“I didn’t say anything!” He held up his hands, “Will you break my phone again if I take a picture?”

“Yeah,” you pointed at him, “I will, so don’t even.”

“We need to go over the plan,” Chloe said, “Today is the day you accidentally run into Barnes, he’ll be at that coffee shop.”

“How do you know where he will be?”

Chloe scoffed, “Hello? I’m a genius hacker?”

Keith sat up straighter, turning the pages of your file.

“Okay so,” he said, “You guys will probably make some small talk, let’s have some practice. Pretend I’m Bucky, how will you talk about yourself?”

“We don’t need to practice it, it’s not my first rodeo,” you reminded him “I got this.”

“Y/N, no offense but he isn’t some clueless civilian okay? The guy was going after targets before you or your parents were born for that matter. The tiniest mistake could tip him off.”

“He has a point.”

“Fine,” you sighed, fixing your nametag, “Let’s practice then.”

Keith took a deep breath and cleared his throat, “Look at that, we ran into each other again.”

You frowned at his deep voice, “Bucky doesn’t sound like one of those robots in the Terminator, Keith.”

“I’m in the zone, just go with it,” he said as offered you his hand, and you shook it.

“Yeah, hi again.”

“I haven’t seen you around here before.”

“Oh that’s normal, I just moved here. A month ago.”

“You just moved here?” he repeated “Really? Did you get used to the city yet?”

“A little.”

“I bet your family misses you.”

“Not really, I grew up with my grandmother. She passed away last year.”

“Any siblings?”

“No.”

Keith raised his brows, “Can you be less specific?”

“Keith—“

“You’re not acting like a civilian right now, you’re acting like a spy who has been forced to socialize and he will see right through that,” he told you. “You have to give him more details, civilians talk about themselves a lot.”

“It’s true,” Chloe said, “Once I was in this speed dating thing and just- don’t ask. They don’t stop talking about themselves.”

Keith pursed his lips only for a moment, stealing a look at Chloe before turning to you,

“Let’s try again. Any siblings?”

You rolled your eyes, “Unfortunately not. I’m an only child but when I was a kid, I kept begging my parents for a sister. My mom asked me what would happen if I got a brother, apparently I went like “but mommy, you can give him back then!””

“There we go, embarrassing childhood memories,” Keith grinned, “Good idea.”

You checked your wristwatch, “I gotta run,” you said, “You guys can see yourselves out.”

“I was actually hoping I could stay a little more,” Chloe said, “To make this place look a bit more appropriate. I suppose you’ll bring him here at some point?”

You pulled your brows together, looking around. “Yeah, so? There’s a bedroom.”

“Ever the romantic, this one,” Keith said and Chloe shook her head,

“Y/N, he needs to see something personal otherwise he might get suspicious.”

You pursed your lips, deep in thought, “You mean like sex toys?”

“Oh Jesus…”

“Contrary to popular belief, when people say they want to see something personal, they don’t refer to sex toys.” Keith stated helpfully, “That being said, we’re all screwed if you end up falling for a civilian, you have no idea how to act like one.”

“I meant personal as in stuff to make your place look more homely,” Chloe explained, “Things from your cover’s past that show him we didn’t fabricate this whole identity.”

“Even if we did,” Keith mumbled under his breath and she nodded.

“Even if we did. He needs to see something personal when he comes here, like…” she motioned at the walls, “Like your childhood pictures or your art projects from when you were seventeen.”

“I was learning how to use a pencil as a knife when I was seventeen, Chloe.”

“Exactly. Just let me handle it, I’ve been watching so many makeover shows lately.”

You shrugged your shoulders, “Knock yourself out,” you said, “I have milkshakes to fill, see you guys later.”

“Go get him tiger!”

“You got this!” Chloe called out as you walked to the door, “Just be confident and your milkshake will bring all the ex-assassins to the yard!”

You let out a small laugh, then closed the door behind you before throwing your shoulders back and going down the stairs.

                                                         ***

Approaching the target as your training taught you had to have certain steps. You couldn’t just implant yourself in their life, you had to wait until they thought it was their choice to include you in their lives. Sometimes it took more time than you had patience for, but in the end it was worth it.

Seeing that Bucky Barnes was no civilian, every single step had to be checked twice.

Well the uniform would help the mission, at least a little.

A distracted target was a good target.

You lowered the binoculars before pushing them into your purse and fixing the apron wrapped around your waist. Bucky was sitting with Sam at the coffee shop and they seemed to be in a deep discussion, not even aware of what was going on around them. You took a deep breath and approached the door before you pushed it, then slowly made your way to the barista.

“Hi, can I get a cappuccino please? Small.” You smiled at her and went to the counter on the right to wait for your order. Out of the corner of your eye you could see Sam looking at you with a frown before saying something to Bucky, nodding in your direction. You kept your eyes on the counter, rocking back and forth on the balls of your feet before you scratched around the tape of the bandage over the bullet wound absentmindedly.

Come on…. you thought Come on, approach me already, just come here….

“Here you go, miss.”

“Thank you,” you said, taking the cup off the counter before you started pouring sugar into it just to stall, and finally heard someone clear their throat behind you.

Bingo.

You looked over your shoulder and turned around, your jaw dropping.

“Come on,” you let out a giggle, “Is this real?”

Bucky smiled slightly and pursed his lips together as if he wasn’t familiar with the gesture, “Uh…hi.”

“Hi!” you said, your voice way too high pitched for a moment, “Wow. We meet again, my hero.”

His smile widened and he rubbed the back of his neck, “How’s your arm?”

“Healing,” you ran a finger over the tape of the bandage, “I didn’t die, that’s something. But the doctor said that was the worst bullet wound he had ever seen in his life.”

Bucky frowned, “Wait, really?”

“No, I’m just trying to look badass,” you admitted, making him chuckle, “They didn’t even think it needed stitches.”

“Ah,” he said and motioned at your uniform, “So you’re a…?”

You scrunched up your nose in what you hoped to be a cute manner and shot him an abashed look, “I know. I thought the exact same thing when I first saw myself in it.”

“I doubt that,” he mumbled more to himself and you tilted your head, batting your lashes.

“Hm?”

“Nothing,” he said quickly, “So the uniform?”

“I work at this milkshake shop just around the corner,” you said, “Apparently retro shops are popular nowadays. It’s supposed to look like this pin up style— can you tell me what’s wrong with the dress so that I can tell the owner what a ridiculous idea it is?”

He opened his mouth and closed it again, looking you up and down, “I don’t- it’s-“ he stammered “You know, it was such a long time ago. I think it looks perfectly fine.”

“Does it?”

“Absolutely.”

You grinned at him, “Well in any case, you should drop by sometime. Milkshakes are better than the uniform, I promise.”

“Yeah?”

You nodded, “Yeah! I would’ve invited you sooner but by the time I was done at the hospital you had already left, and they also told me you paid for the whole thing and the taxi, so…”

“Don’t worry about it,” he waved a hand, “It’s nothing.”

You bit down on your lip, “If you don’t mind me asking,” you said softly, “Why did you leave in a hurry? I mean obviously you didn’t have to stay, I’m sure you’re very busy and—“

“No no, it’s nothing like that,” Bucky cut you off, “I just didn’t want you to think you owed me anything, that’s all.”

“Huh,” you clicked your tongue, “I see. I was wondering what the catch was, didn’t have to wait that long. That’s good to know.”

He raised his brows, amused for some reason, “What’s the catch?”

“You’re too much of a gentleman.”

“Is that a bad thing?”

“Not really,” you taunted him “Just unfamiliar.”  

His gaze lingered on you as you took a sip of your coffee, keeping your eyes on him.

“I hope you got home safe though,” he said after a beat and you thought for a moment.

“I did, and now I know to stay away from dark alleys in New York,” you said, “Lesson learned I’d say.”

“You’re not from around here?”

“I- no, I actually moved here just a month ago,” you said, “I grew up in a small town, we didn’t really have robbers or anything. And I managed to get mugged within the first thirty days in a big city. A true New York experience, I feel like I belong here already.”

“Your folks must be losing their minds if you attract trouble that fast in the city.”

“No one is losing their minds, it’s just me,” you said and when you saw his quizzical glances, you felt the need to explain. “I grew up with my grandma and I lost her a year ago, so…”

“I’m sorry.”

“Ah it’s okay,” you said, “She wouldn’t want me to live in sadness, she told me that herself. You can’t focus on what ifs, you know? We just decide what to do with the time left for us and that’s it. Past would drive all of us crazy otherwise.”

He looked almost surprised at your take on loss and when you saw the soft light in his eyes, you knew you had just hit jackpot.

“You’re a glass half full kind of person, huh?”

Nope, I’m more of a “use the glass as a weapon” kind of person.

“Yeah,” you said, “There are enough pessimists in the world, and they don’t need me within their ranks. No one really did anything nice by thinking the worst anyways.”

“Oh you were definitely not raised here.”

Your jaw dropped, “You know what Mr. Barnes, I’d take that as an offense but lucky for you, you saved me the other day, so I’ll let that slide.”

“Mm hm,” He looked like he was struggling with himself not to laugh, “Lucky me.”

You narrowed your eyes at him playfully, then checked your wristwatch.

“I should probably go, my boss cares a lot about punctuality,” you said, “But is it okay if I gave you my number?”

He stared at you for a couple of seconds as if he couldn’t believe you.

“Wait- really?”

“I mean I was going to wait until you asked me, but apparently you’re too much of a gentleman,” you joked as he hastily grabbed his phone from his pocket and handed it to you. You typed in your number, then saved it.

Y/N (The Milkshake Girl)

Bucky tilted his head, his brows furrowed, “What, you didn’t think I’d recognize your name?”

“Well it’s better to be safe than sorry,” you joked, “Besides you should really come by sometime. We have the best chocolate milkshakes. It’s on the house.”

He smiled, “I will.”

You took a step, then held your breath and turned around as if you had just remembered something.

As if it wasn’t all practiced.

“But not after 4 on Mondays and Wednesdays,” you said, “I volunteer at the soup kitchen then.”

That light in his eyes was almost gentle, as if he was worried he could hurt you just by looking at you, but couldn’t stop himself from doing so.

“I’ll see you not after 4 on Mondays and Wednesdays then,” he said and you giggled, then turned around and walked to the door. Sam was watching you with a small, proud grin on his lips so you waved at him and left the coffee shop, still holding the warm cup tightly in your hand.

As soon as you were sure you were out of their sight, you dropped the smile, exhaled a relaxed breathe and grabbed your phone to touch the contact on the screen.

“I’m sorry, our delivery service is down right now,” the voice said and you scratched around the tape on your arm before telling her the code;

“That’s okay, I can wait until the rain stops.”

There was a click on the other line and soon enough you heard the assistant’s voice.

“Hello?”

“This is Shrike, put me through the General.”

“Of course, a second please,” she said and you tossed the cup into the garbage can, then General’s voice reached you.

“Shrike?”

“Sir, I just called to inform you that I’ve contacted the target for the second time,” you said, “Everything is going according to plan, my report will be on your desk by tonight.”

“He didn’t suspect anything?”

“No sir.”

“Okay,” he said, “Don’t move too fast, alright? We don’t want to spook him.”

“Of course.”

“And Shrike?” he said, “Good job.”

A smile lit up your face, “Thank you sir,” you said and hung up, closing your eyes and leaning back to the wall.

“Okay,” you whispered to yourself, “You got this, he’s just another target. Let the games begin.”

Chapter 5

[quicksandblock]

something I’ve noticed about Techno (mostly the character but also slightly the actual person) is that he doesn’t seem to understand how powerful he is compared to other people.

Take the festival for example. When he was up on stage getting peer pressured, part of his nervousness was social anxiety but he was also genuinely afraid of the audience members. He thought that if he didn’t do what Schlatt said they would come after him and his life would be in danger.

Immediately before that, Techno had spent four minutes underwater to prove how unkillable he is as a joke. He had the Axe of Peace, he had his brand new rocket launcher, he had some of the best armor on the server, he had stacks of food and iirc he had some golden apples and maybe potions on him as well. He could have taken every single person there in a fight. But his assumption was that everyone else was as well prepared as him, ready to kill at a moment’s notice, even if they didn’t look it. He assumed that everyone there was potentially on a level with him and his life was in danger. He’s normally very good at assessing risk and judging people’s skill, but in situations like the festival that goes out the window and he takes it for granted that every one of his opponents is as dangerous as he is.

He’s done this in other situations too. One example is that random person who followed him to Antarctica on SMP Earth - he attacked a peaceful person, potentially an ally, just because he assumed they had the power to be a threat and since he didn’t know if they had the motivation to want to harm him, he wasn’t going to risk it. Just some random guy who iirc didn’t even have full armor and Techno assumed he was a dangerous assassin or spy and responded with full force.

What this means is that his power doesn’t have the peacekeeping effect that it could. If Techno had realized that he wasn’t in danger on that stage, the Festival massacre would never have happened. If he was more confident in his ability to defend himself, others wouldn’t be able to use him as a tool as much as they do. But instead his paranoia makes him vulnerable and even irrational.

His paranoia has also saved him many times, though. Without it he wouldn’t have been as prepared as he was at the Festival. You have to wonder how he formed a mindset like that - what kind of backstory he had, so that he now assumes everyone he meets might be out to get him and everyone could be strong enough to kill him.

Technoblade lives in a world where the strong survive and violence is the only language, and by living in it he makes it come true around him.

[true-blue-megamind]

What Makes Hal a Great Villain?

Okay, I’m saying it upfront: this one is going to get a little dark and very real.  Potential triggers for harassment, stalking, sexual predation.  Nothing graphic or heavy, of course, but if these are especially highly sensitive subjects for you, please proceed with caution.

Also, SPOILER ALERT for anyone who has not yet watched the animated awesomeness that is Megamind.  (If you are that person, the DVD is on sale on Amazon, and the movie is available to stream on NowTV.  Go watch it.  I’ll wait.)

We all know Megamind is an awesome protagonist--multi-layered, relatable, and surprisingly complex-- but, truthfully, his antagonist is just as interesting.  In fact, when compared with other animated villains of the early 2000′s, he’s by far the most memorable... and the most terrifying.

Many may question my assessment.  I mean, let’s be honest: this guy doesn’t exactly look like the face of evil.  But make no mistake: Hal, who later becomes Titan, is an extremely scary person.

I don’t want to leave readers with the impression that this character is one-sided, however, so before we get started on just what makes this fellow complete nightmare fuel, let’s look briefly at a few of the other reasons that Hal makes a fascinating Bad Guy.

One of my favorite things about Hal’s character arch is that it defies expectations.  Superhero comics have a long tradition of Average Nobodies who somehow receive extraordinary powers and go on to save the city.  Or the world.  Or the universe.  You get the idea.  Many comic book fans, upon watching Megamind for the first time, probably expected Hal to do the same, but he doesn’t.  In fact, he goes rogue, choosing to use his newly-obtained gifts for wanton destruction.  Thus the film inverts the established trope.

Like the protagonist he faces, (and is thankfully conquered by,) Hal is complex, and his true nature reveals itself slowly.  I’ve heard some people say that they actually felt a bit sorry for him in the first scene he appears, as he awkwardly tries to express his feelings to reporter Roxanne Ritchi.  At first he seemed like nothing worse than a socially inept and sexually frustrated nerd.  Only as the move progressed, and the aforementioned viewers saw his creepiness more clearly, did they begin to revile him.  One of the many clever things about the movie is that the gradual development provides audiences with the experience of slowly getting to know the characters.  While Megamind is the somewhat anarchical Goth who worries you a little at first, but whose heart of gold has you loving him once you really understand him, Hal is that guy you really, really regret talking to at a party.  You know, the one who quickly starts sending your internal Creep-o-Meter off the scale and persistently follows you around for the rest of the night.  This is, indeed, part of what makes Hal disturbing; just like real villains, he hides in plain sight, wearing the guise of an ordinary fellow.

Which brings us back to the scary part.  Even before he gets superpowers, Hal is bad guy deep down.  He’s a creep and a stalker.  He harasses Roxanne at work and keeps pestering her for a date no matter how many times she says no.  Either consciously or unconsciously, he assumes that she’s shallow, and that once he has a muscular body and a bevy of godlike abilities, she’ll fawn on him.  The idea that he himself might be the problem never seems to occur to him.  In fact, he seems to feel that she will then owe him her affection.  This is because, even before becoming Titan, Hal appears to have an overblown sense of self-importance and an unrealistic concept about what he deserves.  (I go into detail about that in an earlier post, Megamind and Identity, which you can read here.)  The fact that he doesn’t get what he feels is his right seems to have created a deep-seeded bitterness in him that rises to the surface once he obtains power.

But Hal really is the problem.  His combined possessive harassment and complete lack of empathy are exactly why Roxanne neither likes nor trusts him.  And she’s right to feel that way.  Almost immediately after gaining his powers, now feeling that he is above society’s rules, Titan begins revealing just how terrible of a person he really is.  He uses his supervision to spy on Roxanne while he and Megamind (disguised as Space Dad) are in the park, and that must not be the only incident because he later tells Roxanne: “I know everything about you.”  This is just before he grabs her off of her balcony, without her consent, and begins throwing her around like a rag doll, terrifying her and putting her life in real danger because, apparently, he thinks she’ll be impressed.

Yeah.  This guy is pretty much human garbage.

Once he finally understands (more or less) that Roxanne really means it when she says she’s not interested, Hal/Titan reveals himself to be a man-child.  He  begins by using his abilities for selfish and criminal reasons, essentially stating that he doesn’t feel heroism is worth his time.  When he learns that Megamind has been dating Roxanne, (albeit in disguise,) he reacts with violence.  This is because Megamind, like Hal himself, is an outsider: unpopular, unwelcome, and considered unattractive by most of the population of Metro City.  In Hal’s mind, this revelation highlights the fact that none of these factors were the cause of Roxanne’s rejection, leaving only he himself to blame.  (In fact, the movie contrasts Megamind, who, although imperfect, respects Roxanne’s wishes and intelligence, with Hal, who basically views her as an object to be won.  Again, you can read more about that in Megamind and Identity.) Hal can’t handle that.  He can’t accept it.  So instead he turns his rage on the city as a whole.  (This is despite the fact that, deep down, Hal knows he is the problem, hence why he rejects his identity as Hal and fully embraces the new one as Titan.  That’s illustrated by his final line before abandoning Roxanne on Metro Tower: “It’s Titan, not Hal!”)

Hal abuses his power, and society suffers as a result.  Even then, however, Hal/Titan still tries to lay claim to Roxanne.  He accuses Megamind of “stealing his girlfriend,” and later tells Roxanne: “Let me guess, after seeing how awesome I am, you’ve come to your senses.”  All the way to the end, Hal still can’t quite seem to accept that reality is not following his design.

If the idea of a man who lets power go to his head, objectifies women, won’t take “no” for an answer, and reacts violently when denied what he feels he’s owed sounds familiar, that’s because it is.  Humanity has a huge problem with these sorts of behaviors, ranging from sexism and sexual predation to unfeeling abuses of power.  The Sarah Everard case in London, and the fact that several officials essentially blamed the victim, asking why Sarah was walking home alone rather than asking why some guy felt he had the right to attack her, is the most recent well-known testament to this, but it’s sadly far from the only one.  A.J. White said it best in his YouTube video, The Terror of the Incel Superman, when he expressed that news archives are full of stories about women being murdered by the sort of overgrown boys who can’t accept their refusals.  And although men of that sort do not have the ability to fly or shoot lasers out of their eyes, some of them do rise to social and political power.  They are Hals. 

That is exactly what makes this character so especially scary.  Unlike more farcical supervillains, he is based upon something that truly exists.  Preternatural abilities aside, Hal is terrifying because he is very real.  Let’s just hope our world will see more Megaminds willing to stand up to them. #BeMegamindNotHal

[yourfavouritetragedy]

I was adding onto the DSMP Actor AU post, but it turned into Wilbur musician AU, haha rip me, and I only know SBI anyways so here’s a separate post. (It goes back to actor AU at the end.) It’s hypothetically still in the same universe though, and obviously inspired by it. If anything’s phrased weirdly, it’s cuz this was originally an addition to that. 

tbh I kinda adhered to their IRL careers too much compared to the OP but whatever it’s fine. 

Also frick the “Dream SMP” for not having a better title lmaooo

Wilbur is an indie artist really on the come up

Your City Gave Me Asthma was pretty good for a first release, popular with both new fans and fans of his acting.

He had starred in a short mystery/thriller-ish series that started off disguised as a normal sitcom: Chilly in Lincolnshire {Editor Wilbur ARG}

It had a prominent release because of Jack Massey’s involvement and previous fame, but production was abruptly scrapped before it tied everything up with a bow on top, so to speak. It’s still unclear if this was actually planned in order to tell the story the way they way wanted. 

Even before that, critics had mixed reviews, either applauding the storytelling and acting or calling it “irrationally confusing, an amateurish attempt to box unconventional storytelling into a conventional medium.”

Also SootHouse was a sitcom that achieved a cult following during the two seasons it ran before cancellation. Either you’re a fan or you’re never heard of it, and people constantly forget Wilbur was in it. 

(He was a few other old shows on his resume too. Wilbur always focuses on the newest project, so everyone always forgets about what he was in before.) 

Maybe I Was Boring EP was initially just bonus tracks on his website, but his fans liked it so much he gave it a wider release

In between, he had a few comedy songs go viral on youtube. Everybody was so confused when they realized it was the same Wilbur as musician/actor Wilbur. He laughed about it in an interview, saying “How many Wilburs do you know?” 

That’s when it came out that “Wilbur Soot” was actually a stage name. (”Ha, fair, only one.” “Make that zero-- my name’s not really Wilbur.”)

He kinda disappeared after that?? Didn’t do anything, really inactive on social media. It was semi-confirmed that he was both working on his mental health and prepping some stuff (music, auditions).

But anyways he just released a series of singles, combined into Digital Love {E-girl trilogy}-- he’s transformed his image yet again, but this time he does take ownership of all his past ventures.

The release of Digital Love bridges the end of SMP Earth and the beginning Dream SMP. 

But before that there was MCC and the other stuff.

They are shows where celebrities team up do stuff-- you know the type 

but Minecraft Monday is still inexplicably Minecraft Monday. Some Youtuber just managed to get all these up and coming celebrities to play a Minecraft tournament. 

And that’s where the Sleepy Bois (minus Tommy) met IRL so that’s where they meet here. 

SMP Earth, like Minecraft Manhunts, is also a former show they were on. I’m going to call it World Domination. Don’t @ me; I know that’s trash lol. 

They and the Dream Team met up because of their shared fanbases and were even talking a crossover, but it didn’t really work that well for the stories so they scrapped it

They make a non-canon cross over episode anyways {no IRL equivalent, I think}

Everybody loves the cons. Everytime there’s a con, five friendships are made and eight ideas are created. 

Techno backstory time

He’s done a lot of long running, though not exactly popular, serials and sitcoms: Blitz, Survival Games, and Sky Wars. 

Winstreak: 1000 {Bed Wars 1000 winstreak} was so popular they made a second season, but it never got as big as the first. He worked nearly exclusively with Hypixel Studios. 

He was doing lots of random content for their new Sky World universe {Skyblock} -- the small studio was big on experimentation -- , when a fictional documentary, The Great Potato War, went proper viral. 

They made two sequels WHILE he was doing those celebrity team challenge shows and then World Domination, and they were actually good sequels.

Got a reputation for being shallow and a sell-out, but he makes a joke of it so much he gets away with it and constantly self-promos.

Also a kinda scary to work with for the first time because of how single-minded he can get, but once you realize how socially awkward he is it’s okay.  

Now that’s he’s in a lot of stuff with worldbuilding, he practically has the wikis memorized. 

Tommy mainly did limited series and movies before World Domination, where he met the SBI.

He’d had been a fan of Wilbur for a while, and was super star-struck at first, but got over it really quickly in his Tommy style

He still is a total fanboy at concerts and whenever a new music video drops. “I’m friends with the guy! I know him, Wilbur Soot!” “Tommy, you’re famous too.” “Yeah, cuz I’m practically in the video!” “No--” 

Wilbur takes Tommy to one of his concerts and he’s so hyped the entire time, especially to go behind the scenes and on the stage. 

Sometimes he gets stressed about the pressure of being a child star, but Techno, Philza, and Wilbur promise to stand by him and they make him feel protected 

One time Wilbur’s drunk and almost hands Tommy a drink before swearing and going, “You’re a bloody child! You can’t have that! God, what would Philza think?” Tommy’s not sure whether to be relieved or disappointed. 

Philza laughs at the story and actually lets Tommy try a little in a more controlled, responsible situation. Tommy texts his mum first, and then hates the drink anyways. (”This is rubbish! I am a man, but I’m not drinking this!” Techno: “Alcohol is disappointing. I drink orphan’s tears instead.” “Techno WHAT--”)

Philza had been the star of a zombie apocalypse show: Golden Core 

He did canonically die to a child zombie in the movie version. Yes, they made a movie version of the TV show, because the Golden Core franchise actually has had many other shows {other hardcore series}. 

Everybody tries to get the child zombie props near him because of that (they’re puppets)

He’s done a lot of other things, like in the original actor AU post, but none of them came close in popularity. 

He gives the rest of the SBI the knowledge he’s gained from being in the biz for so long. 

There’s also a running joke about SBI meaning “Spy Boys Incorporated” and them starring in a comedy spy movie

The fans would very much actually like this to happen. There’s so many fanons for it (maybe I’ll write one....) 

Back to the DSMP. Maybe I’ll call it Dreamland or smth. 

Wilbur constantly asks Tommy if he’s okay after any difficult scenes

Especially when they were hanging out together a lot in the exile arc.

All the brother scenes were cut because Wilbur kept breaking down and crying in them.

Sometimes people actually ask Techno and Tommy if they’re actually brothers. Tommy tries to go along with it half the time on the basis of “it’s be funny,” so there’s a subset of casual fans that genuinely don’t know. 

After Alivebur was killed off, Wilbur was going to leave the show to concentrate on his music

But he missed the SMP and hanging so much that he just showed up on set one day saying “I’m a ghost now,” and everyone just rolled with it

Alivebur was so popular that, seeing that Wilbur was willing, they decided to bring him back for Season 3. He’s been avoiding doing heavy scenes, but he still seems really invested and like he wants to come back to the show.

Wilbur talks with Techno about writing and lore a lot

it’s one the few times Wilbur actually seems like the older one

Wilbur attempted to get a D&D group going in the cast, but the show was already close enough, with the amount of improvisation they can get by with

Tommy’s Pigstep cover happened, but the background was Philza clapping barely in time with just Wilbur on bass instead (and of course Techno’s “BAHP”s)

It was a charity stream. They had put on their costumes (clothes only) for a previous goal. 

This one was simply called “We rap.”

Some people were almost disappointed that Tommy was the only one actually rapping, but he was so funny it made up for it. 

Okay I spent the whole morning on this and it got way too long but I think I’m finally out of ideas. sorry haha hope you enjoyed! ^_^

[midnight-in-town]

Why Jane is a demon

Back to Mey & Ran’s investigation we go: since I have some time, I want to do a recap post on why I think Jane is a demon and is also possibly John Brown, Victoria’s aide. 

This sums up different posts that I previously wrote on Jane and on John being supernatural [x][x] and also possibly the main attacker behind the massacre at the Phantomhive manor, 4 years ago. 

Premise

First of all, to replace the context: Heathfield was “looking to replace his wife” who died in a carriage accident along with their daughter. 

Whether or not we think this was just a big lie, so that he could appeal to young women with a lower social standing in order to have intercourse with them (while UT maybe promised to eventually revive his wife or something), it’s clear that Abby and at least another servant used to be a part of the Aurora Society and were the ones driving this whole blood collect operation.

Meanwhile Jane was hired as a security guard...

 ...which means that she’s unrelated to the Aurora society. 

Notion of a job contract between Heathfield’s household and Jane

That’s the simplest clue: many readers noticed the way Jane talked whenever she referred to her job in the manor:

&

At some point, she also said that she would never do more on a job than what was directly asked of her (it was mistranslated in English so I won’t add the panel) and this all sounds very typical of demons speaking about their contract.

In other words, Jane stuck to her contract like glue, up until the operation was dismantled by Ciel’s allies. We’ll get back later to why a demon would give up when she could have easily defeated at least Mey. 

Jane’s behavior towards Baron Heathfield

Also something many readers noticed, as in, Jane lacked a lot of deference towards “her master”. 

This could be explained by the fact that she, as a demon, has no respect for him as a human (remember, Seb sees humans as grasshoppers & their soul as food). Besides, it’s very hard to be the master of a demon: our!Ciel does a rather good job, considering the wild and mocking beast that is Seb. 

So it’s not hard to think that Heathfield didn’t have it in him to correct & control Jane’s behavior towards him (if he even cared to do so in the first place).  

Parallels to S1 of the anime

As much as I kinda dislike admitting it (since I’m no fan of the anime), this arc was rather reminiscent of the one with Angela Blanc and Henry Barrymore. As we know, Angela eventually turned out to be a fallen angel and also Ash Landers, the Queen’s aide. 

So, while I’m really not sure angels are meant to appear in the manga, Jane being supernatural and having a “male counterpart” (named John) that we already met would be in tune as a parallel. Which leads me to the second part of the post.

Jane = John? 

As I linked to above, it is my belief that John Brown was hinted to be supernatural and even possibly a demon (instead of, like, a Shinigami or Angel). 

So, if John is indeed a demon, then it is likely to think that his master and holder of the contract is Queen Victoria and, in that case, one can wonder what was the point of “Jane” entering a contract with Baron Heathfield. 

Too many demons can spoil the soup

Unlike Shinigamis who are introduced in almost every arc (we get it, Yana), I’m personally against the possibility that Jane could be a third demon (assuming John is indeed one), because that’d mean introducing a pretty powerful character with literally no agency after Mey & Ran’s investigation, when we are far into the story and the plot is complex enough as it is. 

Yeah, storytelling-wise, it doesn’t sound like a good idea.

Besides, if Jane is a demon who only was in a contract with Heathfield, then...

...one can wonder what he even paid to have her summoned. That’s why this explanation makes not much sense, I find, considering the household seemed to have no idea at all about Jane being possibly supernatural.

Whereas if we’re considering that Jane already was in a contract with someone else, then it gives her a lot of agency + it means that meeting Heathfield and entering a very secondary contract with him would not have needed fare for the crossing (making the process even more simple). 

Why the presence of a demon at Heathfield’s manor

If we’re considering that John = Jane, then Jane would have been gathering intel on the blue sect’s operations for her real master: Queen Victoria. 

After all, remember that discussion between Victoria and Brown at the end of the Weston arc? 

Victoria clearly was interested in UT’s bizarre dolls (because she wants Albert back? Because they’re great war weapons?), so if she’s slightly aware of what’s been going on since ch140 and the real!Ciel’s return, then it’d make sense that she’d send her precious aide to gather info for her. 

And what Jane discovered is that the Bizarre Dolls need blood (amongst edited records and episodes) to function properly and long enough. 

As for that possible secondary contract that she made with Heathfield: we don’t know what it was about (maybe getting to eat the dead maids’ soul?), but it doesn’t nullify the contract with Victoria, seeing as Seb confirmed multiple contracts are possible.

Why Jane didn’t try to fight for long against Mey and Ran

If she’s a demon, then she theoretically had the strength to escape Mey’s gun and win, but there is a main explanation as to why she gave up: she didn’t want to be found out as a supernatural being. 

After all she was facing Ran & Mey and:

Ran showed that she was indeed strong as hell, which makes it interesting to ponder if she’s also a supernatural being or a strength-enhanced human (like Finny)

Mey is Ciel’s staff (and if Jane = John, it’s possible Jane would have known about that fact), so Jane proving to Mey that she was more than human would mean Ciel & Seb would get to hear about it and I’m pretty sure Jane/John wouldn’t want that. 

Another additional possibility is that Jane had gathered enough info, as her original mission requested, and she had no reason to stay longer (except maybe to eat some more souls, as per her contract with Heathfield, who knows). 

Ending word: what about the other investigations?

There is a lot at stake here and, as we know, UT definitely needs stopping. 

So it’s interesting to think that we possibly saw the Queen’s side gathering info on the situation through Jane, while Ronald (definitely representing the Shinigamis’ Organization) just made his appearance during Bard & Lau’s investigation. 

While Ronald’s arrival is definitely bad news (because it means people are going to die and for all we know Bard might be one of them), it makes one wonder who we’ll meet next if we get to read about Finny & Snake and Ciel & Seb: finally one of the remaining star lords? another government’s spy (France? Since UT went there some time ago)?

We’ll see!

Anyway, sorry for the long post, I hope it managed to convey my thoughts a little more clearly than my old posts. Don’t hesitate if you guys have any question!