Tumgik
#who literally does not have to allow them to stay but does anyway out of the goodness of his heart fr
Text
Notes- Sing me to Sleep Zhongli & more
Return to File
Recovery date: September 23rd, 2024
Description: hi again! i'm back for something else, maybe way more fluffier than the angsty one :) so, what do u think abt a reader who literally can't sleep without hearing their beloved's voice? i'm kinda like that, except that i listen to songs, and seriously, its super annoying without my earphones ;-;
anyway! what do u think about zhongli, al haitham, cyno, xiao, and any others u want? tysmm <3
-⭐️ anon
Notes: This work was recovered in conjunction with researcher ⭐️, we thank them for their contributions. You're back! Hello again! This one is definitely fluffier, just... maybe a touch of angst. If you squint.
Back to directory
Tumblr media
Zhongli
Has sooo many stories to tell
More than happy to talk until you fall asleep
Also reads you poetry from Mondstadt
When you’re apart he genuinely feels bad and wishes he could be with you
But once you’re together again he’ll tell you all about what you missed
Makes sure you know that you could wake him up in the middle of the night and he wouldn’t care
Your comfort is a top priority for him, don’t ever forget that
Al Haitham
Pretends to hate it
But it also really works out
He has to read grant requests and the like, and you want to hear his voice
Starts to use how fast you fall asleep as a ranking tool
Sure, the whole goal is for you to fall asleep
But sometimes they’re so good you want to hear more, so if you ask about it the next day he seriously considers approving it
Not even sure he realizes he does that, he just sees the paper the next day and thinks of you
If you fall asleep before the end of the first page, the author lost your attention and honestly he’s getting tired too
In the end, it’s no extra effort and even if it was he wouldn’t mind
Cyno
His work is classified so at first he has no idea what to talk about
At first he tells you about Cyrus, and his days in the Academia
One time he told you about how he met Collei
Then he ended up talking about Lisa, which led to him talking about Mondstadt
Eventually he realized he could just talk about TCG
You aren’t awake enough for him to tell you jokes, he also doesn’t want to make you laugh and keep you up
He’s away often, and it sucks
Sometimes he’s not even out of the city, but he gets home so ungodly late that staying up isn’t a good idea
Only Tighnari knows he’s trying to acquire a new Fontainian invention that allows you to record and replay audio
Xiao
The easiest person to be with for this
All you have to do is call his name and he’ll be there
At first he offers to play his flute
Surely that would be nicer than his voice
But you insist, and he’s at a loss for what to say
Ends up talking about the Yaksha
After that first night he asks Zhongli and the other Adepti for stories you might like
No matter where you are, call his name and he’ll tell you stories until you fall asleep
20 notes · View notes
themoonking · 2 years
Text
i will never understand why peter jackson decided to make the dwarves so awful when they stay in rivendell. this is a conscious change that gives nothing. they’re our main characters that we’re supposed to like, WHY would you make them rude and discourteous to their host(s) for literally no reason?
because bestie elrond is bestie elrond, he’s letting 14 guys he’s never met stay in his house as guests, and the company responds by starting a food fight, bathing in a fountain, tearing up furniture to start a fire, et cetera et cetera. it makes them look like awful people who love being destructive at worst, and complete fucking idiots who can’t see what’s wrong with their behavior at worst.
7 notes · View notes
mrpenguinpants · 1 month
Text
You are all I long for, all I worship, and adore.
— It's strange seeing your future selves being so close when you thought you both hated each other guts.
— Jing Yuan, Dan Feng (& Dan Heng) + Sunday
[Masterlist]
Suspend your disbelief for the timeline of lore, please.
Update: When I originally wrote this, I wanted to do an entire "Fly Me to the Moon," series of fics based on time travel. Hence the title. Shout-out to that one person who was waiting for me to write Sunday. I didn't, but I see you. It will happen soon.
Tumblr media
Jing Yuan
This is the worst. The absolute worst thing ever. In the entirety of your living long life, this is the absolute worst moment so far. Were all the good times leading up to this moment? Did the Aeon's have some sick agenda, or were you randomly selected to be messed with today? If you had the option of eating literal trash bags for the rest of your life or continuing to live in this moment, you'd rather chew your own arms off. Maybe if you start now, you can save your future self the pain and humiliation of succumbing to...whatever this is.
"Aw, you were so cute when you were younger,” you - at least you think it’s you. This stranger wears the same face as you although a bit older. Perhaps alien would be a more fitting name? - this stranger coos as they cup Jing Yuan's face in their hands. Pinching cheeks with barely any fat on them with the sweetest smile you never knew you could even make. Jing Yuan, one of the seven Arbiter-Generals of the Xianzhou Alliance's Cloud Knights who stared down an actual Lord Ravager, looks two seconds away from bolting like a scared cat. He hasn’t moved an inch since this started and honestly, as mortifying as this is, it’s way worse for him than it is for you. So naturally, you’re turning a blind eye and holding Yangqing hostage from saving his precious general of sweet words and praises.
”I see we didn’t get along at this point in time,” a deep voice muses above you from a man you’re very blatantly pretending to ignore. An older Jing Yuan stands beside you, amused at his younger self having a barely contained stroke. If it wasn't bad enough that a future version of yourself suddenly appeared, Jing Yuan just had to follow. Always a nuisance no matter his age. Maybe if you hold your breath, you’ll pass out and everything will blow over. It sounds less painful than trying to eat yourself from the outside in any way. Before you can start, a hand, heavy yet somehow gentle, is placed on your shoulder. “I don’t recommend trying to self-induce a suffocation. Nor attempt any cannibalism on the self either.”
Okay. That’s creepy. Do senior citizens suddenly gain mind-reading powers? You’ve heard the story that if a man stays a virgin until he’s 30, he'll become a wizard. You let out a huff of amusement at that thought, maybe that’s what’s happening. That amusement gets cut short when you realize that somehow, you fell for this 30-year-old virgin. You refuse to accept that out of spite. That story was meant for short-life species anyway.
“For all intensive purposes, I’m choosing to believe this is a nightmare and the first step to waking up from one is to induce pain,” you answer blandly, your grip on Yanqing finally waning as the boy sprints in for the rescue. Only to get swept up in the storm as your other self switches her attention to the kid. Sticky fingers and starry eyes have Yanqing disarmed before he can even lift a finger to summon his ice sword, falling prey to the musing of a Xianzhou auntie. Nevertheless, Yanqing does his job correctly because it allows Jing Yuan to finally escape as he stumbles over to you and his other self.
"How far the mighty have fallen," you snicker behind your hand at how ruffled Jing Yuan looks. His hair is a bit fluffy from how many times your future self ran their hands through it, and his cheeks are a bit pink. Probably from all the pinching. There's even a deep chuckle next to you to accompany your words as Jing Yuan coughs into his fist before straightening up properly. You can see Yanqing being given sweets behind his back and that alone buys the kids complacency.
"My apologies for that," Jing Yuan says as the older Jing Yuan simply laughs in response. Unserious and unfretted in everything.
Huh, now that you look closer. He has laugh lines.
"It is I that should apologize. We have disturbed your schedule with our, ahem, compliments," Other Jing Yuan chuckles once again, as if the fact that he has time traveled into the past was a small "disturbance". Aeons, you hate this guy in every form.
They go back and forth, talking in that faux politeness that never truly goes anywhere before you finally had enough of this. You're not sticking around for this tea-time pleasantries any longer than you need to. It's the exact reason why you left your position as the "Divine Foresight Counselor" and passed it off to Qingzu as soon as you could. Unfortunately, you're going up against two Jing Yuan's, so the moment you shift your shoe to take a step back to remove yourself from the conversation, two pairs of golden eyes snap to you. One is smiling, the other is frowning.
"Heading off?"
"Where are you going?"
You look between the two, older and younger, and you can feel your head beginning to hurt. You let out a sigh, rubbing your forehead, before ultimately picking the lesser of two evils. If you have to look into those love-stricken soft eyes one more time, you might actually pass away.
"Out. You don't need me here anymore do you, General? Or do I require your dismissal now?" you ask bluntly, turning to the Jing Yuan you're used to. The one who's supposed to be in this timeline. "If you need anything, I'm sure Diviner Fu would love to be of assistance."
You don't bother to wait for Jing Yuan to say anything, pivoting on your heel and marching out of the Exalting Sanctum. You glance at your other self, a bitter feeling rising in your chest when they look at you disapprovingly. You can tell they want to say something but one brief look to the side, where the two Jing Yuans stand, and they close their mouth and turn around. Regardless, there's no reason for you to stick around longer. As long as the time travelers stay within the exalting sanctum, no one will know they ever appeared in the first place.
As you near the exiting doors, nodding to the guards on each side, you spare one last glance back. Your sudden departure hasn't halted anything and Jing Yuan is speaking to both his other self and you. Yanqing huddles close, one of his hands in your other self's hand, as he tries his best to participate in the discussion. Realistically, you should set aside your petty pride and march back to help. Do something other than running away and letting everyone else pick up the pieces for you. But the doors are already open and you need a sweet drink desperately.
There's been a growing sour taste on your tongue every time your Jing Yuan stares longingly at the other you.
Dan Feng
There isn't a single word to describe the situation you're in right now. Strange? Uncanny? Just super weird? You've seen and done a lot of weird things in your long life, but this is the absolute weirdest thing that has ever happened to you - and you've seen a star collapse before.
“If you keep making that expression, it’ll stick on your face,” Jing Yuan muffles his laugh under his hand, keeping up with your brisk pace as you not-so-subtly run away from the situation thrust into your hands. A tactical retreat you call it. You give Jing Yuan a pained grimace for a brief second before focusing straight ahead again.
“Jing Yuan, I will make sure your promotion to General is riddled with paperwork,” you say straight-faced. He knows you’re lying, you adore your pseudo-nephew too much to do that to him, but it does make him jolt and respectfully keep his mouth shut. However, in exchange, it makes the third pair of footsteps all the more louder. The source of your current predicament and Jing Yuan's amusement. You peer over your shoulder at the young man just to make absolutely sure that you're not hallucinating. A tall, slender young man with blue eyes, fair skin, and black hair stares right back at you before quickly averting his gaze back to the ground. Even with his unique coat and clothing, he has the splitting image of that old lizard. Even though this stranger is younger...and without a stick up his ass either.
He said his name was Dan Heng. A "traveling guard" for the renowned Astral Express. He had sworn on his life that he was telling the truth but that didn't change the fact of who he looked like. If Jing Yuan hadn't been there to vouch for him, then you would have attempted to throw him off the Luofu yourself. According to Jing Yuan, he found the young man "asleep" under one of the ginkgo trees, but otherwise wasn't doing any harm to anyone. He had just appeared with no way to return to where he came from.
At least you have one thing in common: you both don’t want to be here.
"So, are you a distant relative? Is this your first time visiting the Luofu? Oh! Are you here to visit him for vidyadhara business?" Jing Yuan spitballs one question after the other, his barely contained excitement shining through. He had slowed his pace to walk side-by-side with Dan Heng, illustrating the differences between them. Jing Yuan barely reaches Dan Heng's waist, the standard cloud knight uniform looking plain compared to the other's elaborate coat. Teal clashing with blue. Although, they match in their one red accessory flapping in the wind.
Dan Heng awkwardly coughs into his hand, before giving Jing Yuan a rather embarrassed look, "I don't think it'd be wise for me to say anything. If you have any questions, you should ask my teacher..."
Dan Heng shoots you a look as he says the word 'teacher', to which you raise an eyebrow right back. You've never seen this specific man in your life, let alone taken on any students. You don't even like kids that much unless their name is Jing Yuan and even, he isn't fully nestled in your heart. But that's another weird thing about this whole situation. This mysterious "teacher" apparently came along for the ride, yet the man won't spare a single detail about them. Vague descriptions that could be for anyone but wouldn't be a definite confirmation. All in all, it's been a headache and not something you wished to do on a bright and sunny morning. It's frankly out of your pay grade to be babysitting wandering travelers, even if they look like the High Elder.
“We’re here,” you call out, abruptly stopping your near sprint as you feel two bodies collide into your back. One has the decency to step back with an apology while the other clings to your arm as he peers around your waist.
"The forge?" Jing Yuan questions, tilting his head almost fully sideways as the three of you look up at the unassuming blacksmith shop.
"Yep, we're visiting the only adult of the group. Come on, Yingxing should still be inside," you say eyes forward but your arm reaches behind you to hold onto the retreating body of Dan Heng, who has been quietly trying to step away as soon as you confirmed just where you were. Jokes on him, you're the master of running away from your problems- retreating. You're the master at tactical retreating.
Although it’s muffled, you can hear some commotion going on inside. Maybe an unruly customer who didn’t read the fine print and is now venting their frustration? You share a look of confusion with Jing Yuan as you strong-arm Dan Heng into coming inside.
Entering the store, it looks relatively normal? There's nothing out of place or anything to show there was a scuffle, but the argument is getting louder sounding from the back of the store, into the forge. Which is strange for two reasons. Firstly, Yingxing may not be a dragon but he guards the forge with his life. Secondly, the only other people allowed in aren't even in the area. A mutual understanding passes through the three of you, Dan Heng finally giving up on trying to escape with the death grip you have on his arm, and you all tip-toe to the back door. Jing Yuan being the smallest reaches the door first, his head peeking out, your head above his as you squint into the room, and Dan Heng above yours with a look of defeat.
“You selfish old lizard! I’d outta cut your tail off right now for all the trouble you caused you senile son of a-“
"Please calm down, this is still the High Elder you're speaking to!"
What you see is something you'd never expect to see, and you need to reiterate that you've seen a literal star collapse. An older version of you is being held back by Yingxing as they throw threats and cusses at Dan Feng, who looks relatively unbothered by the promises to maim him.
“Teacher!”
Dan Heng, who has kept the most monotone voice imaginable since meeting him, suddenly pushes himself forward. A small "ah!" comes from Jing Yuan as he flops onto the floor from the sudden movement. A spear you've definitely seen before materializes in his hand as he goes to swing at Yingxing, only to be parried away by an identical spear. If you thought the tension between your first meeting with Dan Heng was rough, this feels like the Aeons themselves are fighting against each other. Yingxing and the other you have gone slack in surprise as two vidyadhara's who share the same face are kept at a standstill. Two cloud piercers pointed at each other, poised and ready to strike again, the air growing more humid with sticky beads of water vapor suspended in the air. Well, if you had any doubts about Dan Heng looking way too similar to Dan Feng, this pretty much confirms it. They're the same person.
Your eyes slide to the other you.
A falling star has nothing on this.
Sunday
There's something off about this entire situation, and there are enough oddities to begin with, but there's just something that doesn't sit right with you. Was there such a thing as a second puberty? Is that what a "mid-life" crisis was? Aren't you supposed to dye your hair and buy a sports car when that happens? Because the person walking next to you is certainly not you. They're too...peppy.
When you first saw the "future you", you had assumed they were a figment of someone's imagination. A dream perhaps? In Penacony, it would definitely be possible, but who would want to dream of you? The other you didn't seem that weird either, just a bit older and more well-mannered, but otherwise exactly the same. They had greeted you cheerfully, even coming up to shake your hand because "it was the polite thing to do when greeting friends.". You didn't know how to react to that wording so you brushed it aside. Maybe in the future, you're some big shot? That's kind of exciting to imagine.
"So...any idea how you got here?" you ask, turning to the other you. It's kind of funny that you're escorting yourself but you doubt the future you remember's the winding pathways the Bloodhounds take to the main base. Although your boss is quite nonchalant, Gallagher has always had a steady head on his shoulders. If you can't figure out a way to fix this time travel business, he can at least play damage control.
"I'm not entirely sure. I was about to set out to welcome some new friends on behalf of my husband, and then I was suddenly here. Oh, I hope he isn't upset with me for disappearing," your other self hums, a hand on their cheek, before quickly jolting up, "Ah, I guess I should say our husband now."
You let out an awkward laugh to match their giggle. Although your future self doesn't look that much older than you, it seems you managed to get hitched with someone great. They always seem to slip the word "husband" into every sentence, heck- you're making new friends because of him. Your mother would weep tears of joy learning that fact. Although it does make you curious just who your supposed husband is. The only man you see more than once in your life is Gallagher, and respectfully, he's not your type. But then who else? Perhaps one of the patrons? You've heard the news that the IPC sent a handsome gambler with beautiful eyes. Perhaps that's who you've fallen in love with? You don't want to ask because you don't want to mess up the timeline and frankly, you don't want to ruin the surprise. To be honest, even though you never thought about marriage, it kinda makes you giddy knowing that in the future, you seem to love your husband so much. A bit too much but it's probably the honeymoon phase train never stopping.
You still can't help but shake the feeling that something is horribly wrong.
There's just the slightest sinister curl in their smile. As if they're secretly laughing at the expense of everyone while keeping on an angelic facade. It's unsettling and makes chills down go your spine when it's your face that does it. The only time you've felt this sense of unease was when you accidentally stumbled into Gallagher's private meeting with the Head of the Oak Family. The Halovian had simply smiled, inquiring who you were and holding his hand out for you to shake. Your fingers had just brushed against his white glove when Gallagher stepped in, gripping your wrist hard enough for bruises, and forcibly pushed you out the door.
"Someone not important."
That's what your boss had said. You thought he spoke so harshly because he was pissed at you for possibly giving the Oak Family a bad first impression. He pretended it never happened and you never brought it up, afraid he might fire you from your job.
"I don't mean to pry, but are you alright?"
You blink, shaken out of your thoughts by your future self's question. They smile at you kindly, a slight tilt to their head as they wait for you to answer patiently.
"Oh! Sorry, I kinda spaced out there for a bit..." You let out an awkward laugh. Your voice sounds weak even to you, but the other you just nods in understanding. Perhaps it's because it's technically you that you're talking to, or that feeling of foreboding, that you feel like you need to explain yourself, "I guess I haven't been sleeping well. Gallagher has me running errands on the other side of Penacony in preparation for the Charmony Festival. Between you and me, I think he's dumping his errands on me so he can slack off."
Your lighthearted chuckle tapers off when the other you doesn't respond in kind to your joke. In fact, bringing up Gallagher's name has completely cleared their face from that prim and proper mask. Leaving behind a blank expression with disinterested eyes before a blink, and there's that same smile smeared on.
"You speak rather fondly of him. It seems I'm farther into the past than I originally thought," they mumble to themselves. Although you pick up on the words easily, you double-take just to make absolutely sure those words came from them. Sure, Gallagher isn't the most traditional-looking boss but he's not a bad person. Especially not to you. When you were looking for a job, he was the one to approach you out of the blue to work under him as a Bloodhound. If he never showed up, you would have most likely wasted away as a paper pusher for one of the families. He's always forgiven your mistakes and always offered to escort you home even though you can take care of yourself. So why is your future self so unfriendly to someone you currently hold in high regard?
"Oh uh...did something happen between us and Gallagher? I mean, I always suspected I'd get fired but I don't know, I always thought we got along. I mean, he has been acting a bit weird since that Oak Family Head came around but he's probably just stressed, right? Oh wait- I don't think we should be talking about this. I don't want to start a butterfly effect, especially so close to the festival-" you muse only to get interrupted.
"If I were you, I wouldn't trust that dog so easily," your other self spits with so much venom that you take a step away. Is it possible that you misjudged how close you were with Gallagher? Your other self talks about him as if he had betrayed them on a personal level. This shouldn't be possible because you and Gallagher have a strictly professional relationship. Unless you potentially knew him before you arrived in Penacony? To be fair, your memory gets a bit hazy looking back but you're sure you would remember someone like Gallagher.
"Wha- Hey, I don't know what happened but you shouldn't call him a dog-"
"We're here."
You stop in your tracks. What? We're here? You look up and realize that you've completely walked off the beaten path and happened upon a door. In fact, if you remember correctly, this was the door you stumbled into when you first met that Halovian. When did it become your other self escorting you rather than the other way around? You thought they wouldn't know these back alley pathways anymore.
"Why are we here?" you ask tentatively. Realistically, you know nothing bad will happen to you, at least not physically. You're their past. Whatever happens to you will affect them. A small scrape here will become a scar for them later.
"You haven't been sleeping well correct? I remember when I used to have headaches all the time. But you'll be okay now, he'll make things all better. While it's a bit early, I'm sure you'll understand. You are me after all," they smile sweetly, taking your hand in theirs as they pull you in front of the door.
"Come now, let's go meet our husband. He's been eagerly waiting for you for a long time."
---
Small author's note: I fell into a pit and wrote way too much. If I didn't cut it off, this fic would take another year to finish. That's why there's no real ending, lol.
532 notes · View notes
ofstarsandvibranium · 5 months
Text
A Day in the Life...
Fandom: Marvel (Actor AU)
Pairing: Bucky Barnes x GN!Reader
Summary: You're hired to be famous actor, Bucky Barnes' social media manager. This is probably the best and worst job you've ever gotten because Bucky gives you free reign of his social media but also...you may or may not be crushing on Bucky aka your boss. Based off my imagine here.
A/N: this is 3,180 words because i refused to break it up into parts. anyway, ENJOY!
Tumblr media
You press record and begin to narrate, "A Day in the Life of a Social Media Manager for a Super Big and Popular Actor *Working Title*"
You face the camera to you and continue to speak, "Bucky had some morning meetings but I wasn't allowed to film. So now here he is doing his daily workout."
You pan the camera to him and he says, "Hi," with a shy smile.
You snort, stopping the recording, "What?"
"This is..." he gestures to you and your work phone, "awkward."
"Then don't make it awkward! And hey, you said I had free reign! I asked your followers what they'd like to see and they say they want a glimpse of your daily life."
His brows furrow, "Didn't you just say this is a day in the life of a social media manager?"
You shrug, "The poll was tied to seeing your daily life and my daily life working for you. So I just decided to put the two together. Anyway, the title is a work in progress. We'll see how this does and go from there. Anyway, just ignore me. I'm not even here."
Bucky gets back to his work out. He has an outdoor and indoor set up. Because the weather was nice, he decided to do his workout outside...shirtless.
He goes to the lifting station, picking up some weights. You begin to narrate again, but this time in a Steve Irwin impression, "Right. Now watch as the esteemed actor gets ready to work out his arms in preparation for an awesome movie that I'm not allowed to mention."
Bucky lets out a chuckle, dropping the weights and looking back at you, "You filming a nature documentary now?" he rests his hands on his hips and smirks at you in a way that makes you want to melt.
You give a playful yet dramatic sigh, dropping your filming arm down, "Are you this difficult with your directors, Barnes?"
He shakes his head, "Nah. None of my directors have been as dorky as you."
You stick your tongue out at him, "Fine. I'll leave you to your workout."
"No, hey, I was joking! Don't leave me!"
You shake your head, "It's fine, Bucky. I'll leave you to it. I'll chalk up some other videos we could do. Also, the getty images from last night's premiere are up. Did you want to look through them before I post?"
He shakes his head, "I trust your judgement." he turns around, his bare back facing you. You stay and watch as he do a few arm curls and immediately rush back into his home.
"Get it together, Y/N," you mumble to yourself, leaving your boss to his workout.
________________________
During Bucky's fitting for New York's Fashion Week, you were allowed to take some behind the scenes pictures. You have a few candid ones of Bucky standing in front of a mirror, his stylist fixing his collar, and him looking at the different shoe options.
Then you included some goofy ones where he copies a pose of a mannequin, a selfie of you two showing of your shoe choices (his being very fancy and yours being your regular sneakers), and then a selfie of him wearing a pair of sunglasses without a lens.
You posted all of them after fashion week was over and his Instagram followers were LOVING it.
bbarnesfan: STAHP. he's so adorable.
xbucky-muncher: he went from serious to dork. get you a man who can do both.
notyouraveragebuckyfan: ok but him and his social media manager are so cute together???
bbarnesfan replies: they're literally bucky's employee. don't be weird.
notyouraveragebuckyfan replies: i'm just saying! they seem like they have great chemistry! have you seen the tiktoks and reels of them together?
"How come you put the candids and the selfies all in one post?" Bucky asks as he looks through the latest post you made.
You're scrolling through the analytics of the last tiktok you two made, one where he guesses if one of his characters said a specific line or it's made up.
You take note of the demographics, the comments, etc. to be mindful of for the next posts you make.
Without looking up from your laptop, you answer, "It shows people the different sides of you. How you take things seriously but you can also have fun with it."
He hums, "Lots of people think we look cute together." He says this in hopes of getting some sort of reaction from you.
You continue to work, not looking back at them, "Don't pay attention to those comments. The internet will make up all kinds of stuff."
Bucky's shoulders sag a bit as he replies, "Yeah. You're right."
You'd been working for him for almost a year now. He doesn't see you every day like he did when you first were hired on. Now you only come over twice a week to go over analytics with his team and to shoot some content. Most of the time, you work from your place and Bucky's been feeling more lonely ever since.
Your presence brightened his day and you provided a breath of fresh air on his busier days. He genuinely enjoyed your company and liked making content with you. He liked learning more about you, having meals together, and just being with you. He thought that maybe there was something there between you, but then he'd be reminded that you're his employee and he's your boss. It can't work out.
But there were some glimpsed of hope. You'd look at Bucky a certain way or make a comment that seemed a little more flirty. It had to mean something, right? But whenever Bucky tried to push a little more, you'd pull away and he hated it. It was so complicated.
He wanted you as more than an employee but his team clocked him on his feelings and told him not to fuck it up because you've helped Bucky's image immensely.
He can't fuck this up, not matter how much his heart yearns for more.
___________________________
"Hello, hello!" you greet Bucky, handing him his coffee as he lets you into his home. You've been working for him for over a year. It's one out of the two days you come over to do work with him.
His stylist, Michael, was nice enough to bring some clothes over for a TikTok video that you had which was "My Social Media Manager Picks Out My Next Event Outfit".
The next event that Bucky needs to make an appearance in is his friend, Nat's, movie premiere. The dress code is very formal so it's no surprise to see various kinds of formal wear.
What does surprise you is that you see a rack of clothes that you know wouldn't be for Bucky.
"Um...what's this?"
He grins widely at you, "Clothes for you to choose from."
Your brows shoot up in surprise, "Excuse me?"
"You said you've always wanted to go to one right? You're coming with me."
"As your social media manager?"
"You're not working the event. You're going as my plus one."
"Uuuuhhh..."
"You don't have to, but I was hoping to bring you as, ya know, a thank you for all the amazing work you've done for me this past year."
You can't help but snort, "Bucky, c'mon, did all of your usuals reject you or something?"
"You're the only person I've asked right now. Come on, Y/N, please?"
You want to. You really, really want to. But these past few months, you and Bucky have been toeing the line between a work relationship and something more. You're not sure if going as his plus one to the premiere is a good idea, especially since even more people have been commenting on your chemistry.
But Bucky's looking at you with those gorgeous blue eyes and he's pouting and he looks so cute, so how could you say no?
"I'll think about it," you reply and it seems to appease Bucky because he smiles again and says, "Okay. But I really do hope you'll go. It'll be fun, plus you've met Nat. She thinks you're cool."
You scoff, "There's no way Natasha Romanoff, the hottest and most popular actress right now, thinks I'm cool."
He shrugs, "Everyone thinks you're cool. It's hard to not like you, Y/N, trust me," he gives you a wink and it makes your cheeks warm up, "Anyway, so let's see what we got."
You wordlessly nod, going over to set up your work phone to begin filming.
________________________
You think you did really well with picking out Bucky's outfit. It was a royal blue velvet jacket with a black bow tie, and black slacks. Even Michael was impressed with your choice.
Even though you weren't working tonight, you still took some pictures and clips just in case. You took a video of the reveal of your look tonight and can't help but feel bubbly inside when Bucky wouldn't stop looking at you.
To distract yourself, you decided to take candids of Bucky getting his hair done after you were finished getting ready. He kept making funny faces at you, making you laugh.
After you both were ready, you took some mirror selfies, obviously, and sent them to Bucky afterwards.
You're in the car on the way to the premiere when you get a bunch of texts and notifications from people:
Wanda: I KNOW YOU SAID YOU WERE GOING TO THE PREMIERE BUT YOU DIDN'T SAY AS BUCKY'S DATE!
Pietro: good luck tonight! use protection! ;D
Carol: since when are you dating bucky barnes???
You unlock your phone but see a notification that Bucky tagged you in a post you didn't know he was going to make.
It was the mirror selfies you two took, with the caption: got the most gorgeous date on my arm tonight.
You immediately turn to Bucky, eyes narrowing, "James Buchanan Barnes."
"...I don't like how you just used my government name like that."
"Why would you post those selfies of us?!"
He shrugs, "Because we look great."
"And the caption?"
"It's true. You're gorgeous."
You groan and pinch the bridge of your nose, "Your publicist and manager are gonna kill me."
"No, they won't."
"They hired me to make sure your online presence is good and won't jeopardize your career."
"Nothing's gonna happen, Y/N."
"People already assume we're together because of how well we work together. It was fine to let them speculate because but that post will make things even worse."
"How?"
"People will think I'm a gold digger? That I got this job because we're sleeping together? I don't know! The internet makes up all kinds of fucked up reasons and I won't be able to get work ever again!"
"But is it so bad that people think we're together?"
"For you, it won't be bad. For me, it could be. So, please, Bucky, delete those photos before even more people see it."
Bucky's jaw clenches and mumbles out, "Fine. I'm sorry," he takes out his phone and you watch as he deletes the photos off his instagram. Tonight was supposed to be fun, but you're sure you just ruined it.
____________________
The entire night was awkward. Bucky did his best to still include you in conversations he had with friends and colleagues, but you felt the tension between you two. You did your best to enjoy it as much as you can. You saw Nat for a brief moment where you hugged her and congratulate her. She said she wanted to chat later but you didn't really expect much. This is her premiere and she has other priorities.
She proved you wrong, however, during the after party where she pulled you to an area for more privacy.
"Hey, how are you?"
"Um, good. A little overwhelmed, but, uh, tonight's been...fun."
She tilts her head and narrows her eyes at you, just like her character did in the movie, and you can't help but let the truth spill, "I freaked out on Bucky on the way here. He posted pictures of us that insinuate we're together and I don't want it to result in me getting fired and potentially never getting a job like this ever again."
"Yeah, I saw that before he deleted it. You guys looked cute. Also, are you two not dating?"
"What? No! He's literally my boss!"
She shrugs, "Could've fooled me. Anyway, there's something clearly going on between you two, right?"
"I, uh, I don't know what to say. Do I have feelings for him? Yes. But will I act on them? No. Again, he's my boss, I'm his employee. I really like this job too, so I can't risk anything."
"I feel like there's a 'but' coming."
"...but he's so amazingly funny, smart, hot, understanding, compassionate, and I just love spending time with him. It's so fucked, Nat.
She nods in understanding, "I know, hon. I'm gonna say the most cliche thing ever, but listen to your heart. I'm sure you'll find another job just as fun as this one, but to be with someone you click so well with? That doesn't come often."
"Hey, you okay?" Bucky comes up from behind, placing a hand on your hip and looking at you with concern.
Nat flashes him a smile, "Just wanted to catch up with them, but I've hogged up your date long enough, Barnes." she turns back to you, "Think about what I said, okay? Enjoy the rest of your night and thanks for coming," she hugs you and heads back out to the party.
Bucky nods to her and stands in front of you, "Did you want to stay longer or are you ready to go?"
"I think I'm ready to go for the night."
"Alright." you follow him out to the front where you wait for the driver to pick you guys up. He stands beside you with his hands in his pockets, wearing that gorgeous outfit you chose.
"I'm sorry again about the pictures."
"Thank you, I'm sorry I attacked you like that."
He shakes his head, "Don't be. I get why you did. But, um, we're good?"
You nod, "Yeah, Bucky, we're good."
"Good," he gives you a shy smile and then points at the upcoming car, "Our ride's here." As soon as the SUV pulls up, he opens the door for you and lets you go in first. He follows and the drive home is in silence.
_________________________
You're working in your little alcove at Bucky's when he approaches you, "Hey, I need to talk to you about something."
You turn in your chair and look up at him, "This doesn't sound good."
"It's good and bad."
"Um, okay?" you clasp your hands together in your lap in anxiousness.
"So...I'm hiring a different social media manager."
Your heart drops, "Wh-What? But-But I thought I was doing well. Your team said I was doing a good job. What happened?"
"You are, but lemme also add that there's another job already waiting for you."
"Bucky, I'm so confused right now. Are you firing me? Or contracting me to someone else?"
"I'm firing you because I can't date an employee."
You straighten up at his statement, "Excuse me?"
Bucky steps closer to you, reaching out and grabbing your hand, "It's just...shit, Y/N, you gotta know how I feel about you right?"
You bite your lip in nervousness, "Maybe."
He lets out a long sigh and run a hand through his cropped hair, "Listen, I like you. A lot. That's the real reason I wanted you to come with me to the premiere. I love spending time with you and I've been so much happier since you've started working for me. To be honest, I didn't know how much longer I could keep myself from wanting to be with you. So to still make sure your professionalism was in tact, I reached out to Nat to see if she was in need of an amazing social media manager and, luckily, she was."
"I'm gonna work for Nat? Nat wants me to work for her?"
Bucky nods, "She does. So you'll be working for her which means I'm not longer your boss. Which means...will you go on a date with me?"
Fuck it. Fuck it all. You held in your feelings for Bucky for so long and now you've been given a loophole to be with him.
"I like you too, Bucky. So much, I didn't say anything, obviously, because I wanted to remain professional, but fuck did you make it hard to not fall for you."
Bucky snickers with a smirk, "I can say the same thing about you." His thumb caresses the back of your hand and it feels so right.
"Have you actually hired someone to take over for me?"
"Not officially, but I have some applicants already. Why? Do you know someone?"
You nod, "I do. She just graduated college with a degree in communications with a concentration in social media. I can have her send in an application, but I one hundred percent vouch for her. She's done great work."
"Alright. I trust you, but I don't think I can find anyone who works as well as you do."
"I fucking hope not. Or else you might leave me for them!"
"Never," Bucky replies confidently with a softness in his voice and adoration in his eyes.
"So...about that date..."
_______________________
"Come with me to work for a popular actor!" Kamala narrates her latest TikTok.
"So Bucky is working on a new movie with Natasha Romanoff so for promo we're filming a bunch of different content!" Nat and Bucky wave at the camera.
"After filming all of that, they're off to a photoshoot. Here are some of the potential outfits they can wear." the camera pans to several racks of clothing.
"There's a lunch break and here's my lunch versus Bucky's lunch," Kamala's plate is pasta while Bucky's roast chicken, "The boss needs to bulk up for another role so he needs a lot of protein."
"And that's all that I can show you for today. Until next time, bye!"
You scroll to the comments and they're immediately flooded with"
you're not y/n???
wait, did y/n quit?! did bucky fire them?! no!
what happened to y/n?!
and so on.
You snort and show Bucky, who was cuddling you from behind, "I told you people would notice."
He peers over your shoulder to look at your phone, "Kamala actually had an idea for that."
_________________
"A Day in the Life of an Actor's Social Media Manager. Part...whatever. So we're doing more promo stuff for Bucky and Nat's new movie. But this time I'm also working with Nat's social media manager, Y/N! We're doing a What's in the Box Challenge and here's a clip of Bucky freaking out."
"IT'S MOVING! WHY IS IT MOVING?!"
"Also look at Bucky and Y/N. They're so cute together. And yes, guys, they're totally dating now which is why Y/N no longer works for Bucky. ANYWAY..."
519 notes · View notes
dootznbootz · 3 months
Text
Odysseus always trusted Penelope. He was ordered to lie to her and it hurt him to do so. Penelope was distrustful of this stranger until she had absolute solid proof.
There are way too many people talking about how "Odysseus lies to Penelope. What a prick!" and it makes me sad/mad as that's not the case at all
The whole "Odysseus usually always has a reason to lie" maybe upcoming essay aside, He was literally commanded by Athena to not tell anyone. And it was with Penelope that he had the hardest time keeping up the act with. Not only because she's smart af and figured him out almost immediately (that essay coming soon too) but because he was trying to keep himself from crying with her.
I think people forget that he is disguised to look like someone else completely. If a random man claimed to be your missing husband, wouldn't you be scared/freaked out?
Anyways, the 3 most important people in his life are Penelope, Telemachus, and Laertes. He lies to all three.
Telemachus: Lied by letting Eumaeus answer him and still under the orders from Athena, did not cry or reveal himself until Athena allowed him to. (I read it as him being in shock. Last time he saw him, Telemachus' hand could only wrap around one finger and now he's as big as him. a bit shocking to say the least)
Laertes: He teared up seeing him but still decided to question and test his father, not by the order from Athena.
Penelope: He was trying so hard to keep from crying, tried to noodle his way out of lying to her, Under Athena's orders. still couldn't help but basically flirt with her.
Also to get this outta the way: No, it wasn't a matter of trust. He is shown to trust her right away. As this happens even before he gets the chance to speak with Penelope.
Staunch Odysseus glowed with joy to hear all this— his wife's trickery luring gifts from her suitors now, enchanting their hearts with suave seductive words but all the while with something else in mind.
(Book 18, Fagles)
If Odysseus does not trust her, why is he so happy to see her "flirt" with the suitors? It's because he KNOWS what she's doing and knows she doesn't actually want them. If he didn't trust her, he would be upset by this.
Now for the "it hurt to lie to her" bit.
Athena's command:
"Tell not a single person in the palace, man or woman, that you are back from your wanderings; but endure all vexations in silence and submit yourself to the indignities that will be put upon you.'
(Book 13, Rieu)
If you are my son—truly of our blood—                                            let no one hear Odysseus is back home. Don’t let Laertes know or the swineherd, or the slaves, or Penelope herself.
(Book 16, Johnston)
And the people he did reveal himself to, he only did so after being given permission by Athena.
Athene spoke to him. 'The time has come,' she said, 'royal son of Laertes, Odysseus of the nimble wits, to let Telemachus into your secret, so that the pair of you may plot the downfall and death of the Suitors and then make your way to the famous city. [...]
(Book 15, Rieu)
He talks to Telemachus before talking to Penelope.
I’ll stay here, so I can stir the servants even more— and your mother. As she laments, she’ll ask for each and every detail.”
(Book 19, Johnston)
Odysseus is already sweating about having to lie to her
The next part would honestly be me just inserting almost ALL the text for this so I'll go into a summary. It's all in Book 19.
Penelope asks him where he's from. And instead of answering, it's a tsunami of compliments. Calling her flawless. Comparing her to a king. etc, etc,
Probably because he couldn't help himself and had to babble about how wonderful she is Who wouldn't? before finally ending with "Please don't ask me where I'm from. It makes me sad."
Penelope, probably overwhelmed by his praise, immediately goes into how "her beauty left with her husband. It did not. And where did you say you were from again?"
"Fine! I'm from Crete..."
And we all know that as soon as she starts crying, after a lovely description of how her tears "melted", he talks about how hard it was for Odysseus to hold in his OWN tears. Lying to her and being unable to comfort her was painful for him!!!
But though Odysseus' heart was wrung by his wife's distress, his eyes, hard as horn or iron, never wavered between their lids, so craftily did he repress his tears.
(Book 19, Rieu)
Even with him revealing himself to Euryclea, when she cried out to Penelope, Athena made sure she didn't hear! It's most likely that he wouldn't be able to tell her even if he wanted.
She spoke, and her eyes glanced over at Penelope, anxious to tell her that her husband had come home. But Penelope could not see her face or notice, for Athena had diverted her attention.
(Book 19, Johnston)
He desperately wanted to be with her again. Literally daydreaming about it!
At those words Dawn rose on her golden throne in a sudden gleam of light. And great Odysseus caught the sound of his wife’s cry and began to daydream—deep in his heart it seemed she stood beside him, knew him, now, at last …
(book 20, Fagles)
Clearly doesn't trust her. /sarcasm
It's PENELOPE that has trouble trusting him. And rightfully so! While she was very certain that was her husband, there was so much going on and of course, she's cautious! He looked like an elderly stranger at first, why is he hiding from her? He somehow took out all those men with only a little help, Athena isn't telling her anything, Helen was kidnapped and she did not want that to possibly happen to her too, etc.
He even understands her cautiousness to be reasonable.
As she spoke, lord Odysseus, who had borne so much, smiled and immediately spoke to Telemachus— his words had wings:   “Telemachus, let your mother test me in these halls. She will soon possess more certain knowledge. Right now I’m filthy, with disgusting clothing on my body. That’s why she rejects me and will not say I am Odysseus. [...]
(Book 23, Johnston)
He even trusted her completely to take care of everything while he was gone before. And he does again when he wakes up and goes to see his father. Telling her about how she too wise to need instruction
Odysseus (and Penelope as well) is well-known for his cunning tricks and how his loyalties are often blurred but one thing that is for sure about him is that he trusts and is loyal to Penelope full-heartedly. He spent every day missing her and their son and wanting to go home to her. The only moment we see his trust in her waver is during the Treebed scene, (which is what she wanted to test).
They are "like-minded". 😭
394 notes · View notes
mythicmanuscripts · 2 months
Note
(I’m not sure if this counts as poor bdsm etiquette but if it does tell me so I can try and make it better)
Literally just thought about it but the brothel ladies using aegon as a sort of way to get their anger out as they cant do it on their other clients. Practically abusing him and degrading him so badly but he takes it cause they praise him after and he thinks it’s the only love he deserves. It’s sort of talked about in the brothels that if you need a way to release your anger aegons the one to do it on.
But then he meets his love and it all turns around and he realises how bad that treatment was and how much he deserves to be pampered like the pretty prince he is and be
Oh my god I love this!! So while this is absolutely what I had meant by bad BDSM etiquette, I realise I was a little too vague about it in the rules. I am more than happy to write anything in to do with characters having experienced bad BDSM etiquette in the past with someone else. What I won’t write it the reader having bad BDSM etiquette because don’t want that stop of thing promoted. As you all know, I have a weakness for angst and anything to do with bad relationships in the past really makes for some of the best angst. Apologies for the confusion there! I’ll update the rules to be clearer about it after I finish this.
Anyway, there is angsty sub!aegon below the cut but fear not, it ends happy :))
So there are two scenarios that I think this would work with. The first is just that Aegon went to the brothels until he let you and was shown how he deserves to be treated. The second is when you’re already married to Aegon and you two fell into something akin to a dom/sub relationship and Aegon craves full submission so badly but he bring himself to ask you about this because he’s so scared you’ll reject him and so instead he goes to brothels where they mistreat him and then you find out when he came to your quarters in. This ask seems to be hinting more towards the first one so that’s while be discussing here, but I’m happy to share some thoughts about the second idea and to hear your own thoughts about it so let me know!!
Anyway, on to this specific idea.
Firstly, as we all know Aegon is a bit of a slut, but only because he so desperately wants to please and be told he’s good. He enjoys the sex, sure, but there’s plenty to aspects of it that he doesn’t enjoy but he does even anyway because it means he’s doing something that someone actually likes, even if that someone is just a brothel worker he’s paid.
I think that Aegon would have originally gone to the brothel workers for affection and care and love but well… he can be a little pathetic. He can be very whiney and teary eyed and very very needy, just a weeping pathetic little thing who needs someone to care for him.
But when this side of him comes out with the brothel workers, they call him pathetic and laugh at him, because they’re not used to this kind of thing. Aegon freezes, but then the workers seem to enjoy humiliating him? So he just lets them, and he lets them push it further and further and further until eventually he’s gained the reputation of someone all the sex workers can abuse.
When it’s over, he always just crawls to them and tugs at their clothes, trying desperately to be allowed into their arms. Some of them let him, most of them don’t. But they do all say he did well, some even stroke his hair or wipe away his tears.
That’s what he comes for. That’s what he pays for, just that moment of praise.
Of course he always feels horrific when they leave, because no one ever gives him the proper aftercare he needs. Well actually, he doesn’t even know what’s what he needs. He just knows that even though he loves the praise and love, he feels awful once they leave?
Secretly he wishes they’d stay and help him recover. He wishes they’d wash his hair and kiss his forehead and let him cuddle into their arms, maybe even give him a soft hand job. But he never asks for that, because he’s too scared to see the rejection and disgust on their faces.
When he marries you, he doesn’t tell you about what he does at the brothels. He knows you know he goes to the brothels, but he’d never tell you what actually happens there because he’s so sure you’d refuse to give him an heir entirely.
I think maybe you’d start to see his submissive side when you try to be nice to him? He quite literally bursts into tears the first time you bring him a cup of warm milk for the kitchen the night after he told you he’d been having in trouble sleeping. And not small tears either, he’s literally sobbing into his cup of milk.
He starts to spend more and more time with you, because he realises how much he loves just talking to you? You make him feel all warm and safe and sometimes even loved, so he’s always following you and listening to your every word.
The first time you initiate sex, the first time it’s proper sex and not just trying for an heir, he basically melts into you? He’s just so pliant, and he’s so so so happy when you immediately start to lead him and direct him rather than trying to make him get back in control.
You weren’t planning on going as gently as you did, but then when he was laid out before you, you knew that gentleness was what was required. Cause he’s just… so open? He’s laying on his back, breathing hard and whining every time you touch him his crotch. He’s letting you play with him without even a word of protest, and so you promise yourself that you’ll keep him safe.
You ride him and you hold him when he cums and when Aegon realises you aren’t leaving immediately, it makes him cry again. You wipe his tears and kiss his head and tell him he was so good.
He goes stiff then and looks up at you, all teary eyed and confused.
“Good?” He asks, his voice so so soft, “but I…you didn’t hit me?”
You try to ask what he means by that but he’s far too out of it, so instead you end up just shushing him and cuddling him until he calms.
Once you start giving Aegon the pillow princess treatment, you can’t stop. He is just perfect for it. When he realises that you’ll never hurt him, he’s practically always free use for you. He gives over his entire body because he knows you’ll make him feel good.
Needless to say, he stops going to brothels.
308 notes · View notes
flowersdiceandlove · 3 months
Text
Headcanon that WWX always wanted a family. Like this was not only his biggest dream while he grew up, but also could literally not imagine his life otherwise. He’s a romantic and always used to daydream about having a wife and kids. That one of the reasons that it took him so long to figure out his sexuality and feelings for LWJ is bc of this bc he always thought that you have to have a wife in order to have kids. You have to get married and be husband and wife to have children. Obvi he knows that people have kids out of wedlock and cheat, but he can’t imagine himself doing that. He wouldn��t disrespect a woman by taking her virginity before they were married or let her be shamed by having a baby out of wedlock. He never thinks to solidly on the who his wife might be and it stays a distant fantasy. 1) bc he’s in love w/ LWJ and can’t actually imagine himself w/ anyone else even if he doesn’t realize his feelings. 2) bc he thinks that whatever wife and kids he does have will be bullied by Madam Yu and (even if he doesn’t think of it for himself) he doesn’t want to subject an innocent woman and child to such treatment.
On the same note, I also headcanon that he wants A LOT of kids. He wants a really big family. He wants bio kids w/ his wife if they’re able (he knows fertility issues are real and wouldn’t pressure or fault her if they can’t conceive) but he also wants to adopt. Like adopting is a dealbreaker for him. His wife has to be able to love any adopted kids as much as bio kids. He feels like this may be a dealbreaker for a lot of women bc of all the pressures of bloodline and blood related family. The reason I headcanon this is bc since his parents died when he was so young and the Jiang took him in, he never really had a family he could call his own. (Your own feelings on the Jiang family aside there is no way he was actually allowed to call them his family or siblings growing up) All he wants is a family he can be a part of and call his family, not just reading between the lines. And the reason he wants to adopt is bc he lived on the streets for years before JFM took him in. He knows what that’s like and he wants to help any child he can if he has the resources to care for them. So his solution is to adopt them and give them the family he always wanted.
And I ALSO headcanon that when he was like 13ish, Madam Yu gathered all the male disciples around that age gave them a serious talking to about having sex before marriage (this is where he gets most of his ideas about not disrespecting a woman and shaming her by having sex before marriage since that’s how Madam Yu words it). It’s terrifying bc Madam Yu is terrifying and she was threatening them with Zidian and the discipline whip should they ever bring shame to their clan in such a way. (She’s extra harsh bc of her feelings about JGS and how he treats her sworn sister) Along w/ the fear inducing lecture, she arranges for all the boys to work in an orphanage/Jiang Clan nursery/something for like a week or a month so they can see how much work babies and kids are. AND (this is my fav part of this headcanon) WWX ends up LOVING IT!!! He cannot get enough of this kid and baby thing. It totally backfires on Madam Yu bc while all the other boys are very put off of fooling around for fear of knocking a girl up and ending up w/ a baby, WWX is totally starstruck thinking about his future kids. Even after the mandated time that Madam Yu made them work there for, WWX keeps going back to play w/ the kids and help out. It gets to the point that Madam Yu ends up punishing him for spending too much time there instead of training. But he just loves taking care of kids so much that he keeps sneaking (that’s right sneaking) out to do that. She ends up needing to literally ban him from those places, but he sneaks in anyway since he loves it so much. The people who are supposed to be the ones turning him away just turn a blind eye and don’t tell Madam Yu bc 1) WWX and the kids/babies both love it so much. And 2) they really need the help, so why would they turn away another set of hands? Especially when that other set of hands is just so good with them? As such, WWX is great at caring for kids and not just entertaining them. He never turns away from a dirty diaper or sick kid. He’ll clean up as much kid mess as you need him too. (This is even more true after the whole demonic cultivation thing bc after that he has seen far more gross and nauseating things than in his youth)
That’s all I have on this for now, but I think I still have enough ideas to make another post. Let me know if you want me to continue this.
Part 2
200 notes · View notes
judasgot-it · 3 months
Text
Friends to Lovers
Tumblr media
"I've been in love with you for years now, thanks for noticing dumbass."
Scenario: You literally do not get the hint. Jouno nearly wants to beat you to death because of this, but unfortunately for him, he likes you.
2.5 K words
For the last few years, your life had been relatively simple. Despite having an 'exciting' job, you were stuck doing the same shit basically every day until you died.
Work out, have monthly surgeries, question criminals in completely legal ways with government oversight, and investigate and capture terrorists. Maybe kill them, since you were a completely legal government entity and were allowed to do that.
Same shit as always. It was a rinse and repeat, the only difference was how and where you did it. But it was going to stay the same - something you were going to do until you died.
Just like how your love life had stayed the same - hopeless and stale.
No one could really blame you, now could they? You had a crush on the same coworker for years, and it seemed like you'd get over it when you died.
So basically never.
It sucked.
You wanted to cry sometimes, thinking about how much you liked your coworker's stupid face.
Everyone said he was an asshole, and yes - he was. But not to you.
Saigiku let you call him by his first name, and was nice enough to give you the homemade lunch he couldn't eat. No one was convinced on how good of a cook he was, but that was fine - you were ok with not sharing what Saigiku gave you.
If he was here, you would be able to compliment him and see how red his face gets. It hurt how much of you smiled at the thought, how embarrassed he is that someone liked his cooking.
"Thinking about Jouno again?"
Tachihara looked bored, watching you as if he was observing a bird on a telephone wire.
You swallowed, tasting the onigiri in your mouth. God, Saigiku was a really good cook.
"How'd you know?"
"You're always thinking about him. It's embarrassing." Teruko glared two holes through you; as if you had tried to touch Fukuchi in some way.
"What? No I don't." Maybe just a little bit.
"Right. And who gave you that?"
Tachihara walked closer and inspected the bento box you'd been consuming for the last ten minutes. You tried to shield it from his gaze, feeling as if his eyes were going to melt it.
"Why does it matter?"
"Jouno doesn't give me homemade lunch."
"He almost let me starve once. I'm the vice-captain, and he let me starve! So why is he giving you his lunch?"
Teruko reached her fingers around your body and snatched some rice, not caring if she made a mess as she shoved it in her mouth. Like a sticky, copper-smelling child, she chewed out loud, making sure you heard her crime.
You cringed a little, while Tachihara tried not to gag as he watched her lick her fingers loudly. She really was twelve years old.
"Well it's just because he didn't want it to go bad, that's it. Doesn't mean anything."
It was something you kept telling yourself everytime he did something sweet to you - that it could mean anything, and most likely it meant nothing. Saigiku was a strange man, and he wasn't likely the type to go around and show his feelings so blatantly.
Right?
"He once threw his drink at me."
Tecchou finally spoke up. He looked like he was bored, despite recounting one of the many common war stories that was interacting with Saigiku when he was upset - which was always, when it came to Tecchou.
"I don't think he would have offered it to you anyway, Tecchou. No offense, but that's just yours and Saigiku's relationship..."
"That's another thing! You call him by his first name! It's like you're his girlfriend or something."
Teruko was laying on the punches, nearly spitting in your face as she throughout her accusations. It made you want to hide - he would never like the idea, and you would rather die than lose what you two currently had. It was the closest you could get to being anything like that anyway, so you wouldn't want to ruin it by overstepping a boundary like that.
"We're just close!"
"So close that you have sex together."
That made you nearly choke. Tecchou didn't even bat an eye, instead staring at the floor as he continued his pushups on the meeting room floor.
"We do not have sex together. What made you think that?"
This was it. You were going to die, and it was from choking caused by sheer embarrassment. Where was Saigiku when you needed him?
"Then why were you moaning in his office yesterday?"
"I was showing him how women fake orgasms. Like a good friend does."
The conversation was fresh in your mind - he was saying that he had never had a woman fake an orgasm, of course, you had to prove how easy it was to fake it. It had you both on the floor in laughter, because it was a little ridiculous; even if a part of you wished that it was real.
Hiding those thoughts from him was a little difficult, but it was easy when you hid it under the gauze of laughter.
"That's not a normal friend conversation..."
"We're just that close."
That might have been your favorite part of being with Saigiku. Even if you would never be with him, you could always have him in that close bond.
You were close. That was it. Close, like friends.
-
"Y/n."
Saigiku's voice was deeper than it usually was - either because he was tired, or because the phone distorted his voice to a deeper pitch. Maybe a mix of both.
"Saigiku. How are you?"
"Dying. That mission was awful, I don't know why Fukuchi would make me do it alone."
"I wish I could have gone with you-"
"You would have died. Literally. I would rather it be me than you." His voice was so serious, you wish you could slap it out of him. Or kiss.
"Shut up! You don't know that."
"I do. You need a big strong man to protect you, considering how you can't even walk with your own two feet."
"I only tripped one time, dickhead. Also, sexism isn't a cute look on you."
You could hear how he huffed with laughter. He must have been dead on his feet - he could last so much longer when he bantered with you. The man had petty insults on you for days, saved up for the most random conversations between the two of you. This call could have lasted hours.
"Y/n. I'm coming over to yours. It's closer to the train station."
"This is the warning you're giving me? I'm in my pajamas, you know?"
"I'd rather have you in nothing at all."
And what the hell do you say to that? A noise came out of your throat, but there weren't words to accompany it. You were left there standing by your kitchen table, where you'd left your phone to charge, when Saigiku had waved his temporary goodbyes.
He said those kinds of things, and it was impossible to know if it was a joke or genuine.
It left you a little nervous, cleaning up your apartment for his arrival. You weren't messy, per say - but compared to him, you were a disaster.
Saigiku was a man who kept his apartment organized with mathematical precision. Even with the job he had, the dishes were clean and the laundry was always folded. He owned exactly fourteen pairs of everything, so he could keep his clothes in a perfect dry clean laundry rotation.
He was a bit of a psychopath, in that aspect.
You, on the other hand, looked like a mess. God forbid you had clean laundry that wasn't ironed to perfection. Maybe you were a little messy - eating off of paper plates once and a while, and leaving soap residue around your bathroom.
The man never failed to notice, and he would gladly make it a spat between the two of you. Sometimes you left it messy on purpose, just to see him fold your laundry and do your dishes - domesticating Saigiku was a funny sight, especially when he was still arguing with you.
But tonight he was tired. Maybe in the morning, you could force him to make you breakfast.
Right now? You'd give him the peace of mind of having clean dishes to eat off of.
Because you were a good friend, you had to remind yourself.
There was nothing to the feeling of seeing him behind your front door. His warm smile meant nothing, and neither did the hug he gave only to you in moments like these.
The extra long second between the two of you, where he swayed his feet and put his nose against your hair - it was nothing special, because you were just two close friends greeting each other after a bad day of work.
If Saigiku had looked at you with his eyes, he probably wouldn't have shown you anything special in there either. Ignoring the feeling in your body at every touch had become second nature, because you knew that he felt nothing for you.
He only lingered because he cared about you. Nothing more.
-
"Did you have sex with Jouno finally?"
"Why would you think that?"
Tachihara merely stared at you - he looked exhausted, as if you had told him the same unfunny joke for three years straight.
To be fair, even you were sick of your pining. It was stale and old, to be after the same man with no results.
"You walked in with him today?"
"That's because he slept over at my place. He's done that a lot - nothing special."
The ginger looked at you as if you had grown two heads, but really, it was nothing new, and he knew that. Letting a man like Saigiku spend a night at your place?
There was always something to it. You were lying to yourself, but you didn't want to break the charade and hurt yourself.
"Is it?"
"He doesn't like me."
"Don't say that-"
"He doesn't. Trust me, if he did, I would have noticed already."
Last night you had fallen asleep on top of him, and neither of you had said anything. You had stayed like that for maybe a minute, or possibly ten - nothing was said about heartbeat, and nothing was said about how your hands were in places they didn't belong.
He had gotten up, and woken you up with breakfast; like a disgruntled housewife. No other man in your life had ever done that for you, but you weren't going to let yourself think it meant anything special.
"Are you sure?"
"Positive." The doubt that sat in your stomach was dutifully ignored as you went back to your work, trying to focus on it.
The feeling went to the back of your mind once again. It didn't even exist, really; as long as Saigiku wasn't there or in the conversation, you could ignore those pesky little feelings practically forever.
"Are you thinking about me?"
The blood in your body practically burst as you felt two hands wrap themselves around your shoulders. It was a gentle hold, firm as they squeezed through your uniform.
They were familiar and warm, reminding you of the feeling from last night. It was relieving to feel it there again, even if it was embarrassing to know how much you truly missed it.
"Always am, Saigiku. Always am."
There was hacking from across the room, but you ignored it as you leaned against the man behind you, hitting his chest with the back of your head gently.
"You should be. I've never stopped thinking about you."
"Really?"
"Always on my mind. You're like a disease."
Despite his words, his voice sounded gentle, as if he were speaking through cotton and silk.
"What kind of disease?" Once again, you were trying to swallow the disappointment that built up inside of your chest - you loved him, but you were delusional to think that he would love you back. He was just teasing.
"The stupid kind that I love."
"I'm not stupid! Asshole!" You reached up to slap him, stopping just short of his face. He grabbed your wrists, entangling your arms with yours and swaying your body together as he shook his head.
"Yeah, you are."
"Am not."
"Y/n. I love you."
Saigiku's face was close to yours, and you could feel how he smelled your hair like the freak he was.
I love you?
"Fucking hell don't make me repeat it. Isn't it obvious?"
"Oh...I love you too?" You almost wanted to cry, because what the fuck was going on. It was hard to even let yourself think in the moment, because the man was taking up your space and was saying words you wanted to hear-
This couldn't be real. Maybe you were under attack, because this felt too good to be true.
"Not as a friend. I mean in the 'I want to go back home with you' kind of way."
"We already do that." You didn't know why you said that - you were waiting for his face to twist into a grimace, or for an annoyed groan to sound. But instead, he kept a smile on there, waiting patiently.
"Get the point. I want to kiss you. And do the other things boring couples do."
"...Oh."
You spun your chair around to face him properly. There was the chance to breathe again, without smelling his fancy cologne and the smell of fireworks on his uniform.
"Why didn't you tell me sooner?"
The man before you sighed. It was a low whine, a sound you never expected to hear from him.
"I did tell you. I've been telling you every day. You just don't notice anything. Seriously, do you think I would wake up and make breakfast for just anyone?"
Saigiku leaned in close as he said this, his lips close enough to yours that you could see how smooth they were.
Reaching your hand up, you brought it to his face, carefully tracing lines across his smooth skin.
"Sorry."
Pulling him in closer felt embarassing - it was something you had imagined, but having him in your hands right there had your limbs nearly falling apart.
You expected a kiss, like your fantasies; but instead, his arms wrapped around you in a tight hug, dragging you up from your chair like a cat and up into his arms, standing with him. Your legs felt weak, and there was an embarrassed feeling creeping up as you pressed your body weight against his.
"You should be sorry. I thought you were doing it on purpose."
"And if I was?"
"Then maybe I'll let you go. Seriously, why can't you stand?"
He was swaying the both of you gently, his arms locked firmly against your waist and holding you gently. His body was warm and smelled like him, protecting you from the AC and the overwhelming smell of the building.
"Because I fell for you, Saigiku."
"Yeah, I'm dropping you."
Despite this, he held you for longer than was socially acceptable.
This was for my valentine's event, remember that? remember how i have an event? that im supposed to be writing for? haha me neither.....yeaaaa me neither.
sorry to the people who requested. im slow as helllllllll. also you can still request by the way haha
261 notes · View notes
marciabrady · 1 year
Photo
Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media
Despite poor commentaries throughout the years that seem to be based on prior critiques rather than the actual substance of the original 1937 Princess, Snow White is a very admirable character and has a myriad of positive qualities that make for a great role model. Apart from coping with losing both of her parents at a very young age and being, not only abused by her only parental figure left but also, forced into slavery- by someone who practices magic, no less, someone she had no chance against- Snow White also has a business intelligence. She never, ever expects the dwarfs to take her in out of the goodness of their hearts and just naively depend on the kindness of strangers, nor does she wait for her Prince to save her while she’s stranded in the middle of the woods without food and shelter. 
Actively seeking out a place of refuge, she finds the empty cottage and quickly decides to work for her stay. She identifies a gap she can fill, and applies the skills of cooking and cleaning she’s mastered- not because they’re traditionally feminine activities and this movie is trying to turn back feminism, but because it’s the only trade she knew as a result of being forced into servitude from childhood by another woman- to an environment that’s in dire need of these abilities. With this, she barters an exchange for room and board and convinces a roomful of seven men, who start off not liking her and ascribing their own misogynistic views onto her, in mere minutes to accept her as their equal, as someone who they’re not simply taking pity on and allowing to stay with them, but as a contributing member who earns her keep just as the rest of the house does and is just as worthy of respect. What’s more, Snow White manages to accomplish all this and improve the quality of her life drastically in exchange for the same services she would have been doing anyway if she never left Queen Grimhilde’s castle.
So, in conclusion: by escaping her abusive household and conquering her fear in the forest, Snow White picks herself back up on her feet- after she’s nearly the victim of a homicide- and goes out into the world. She creates a new life for herself by finding a home and shelter, and quantifying her marketable skills to gain effective employment. She never throws around her status as a Princess nor does she expect a pity handout from others. She literally crafts a position for herself that makes her just as worthy of inhabiting the cottage as the Dwarfs by merit of her own hard work and skill- not her beauty, or her privilege, or her birth right as a Princess- and gains their respect, while still being comfortable asserting herself when they try to test her or disregard her authority as their equal. Through her insurmountable ability to rise above her circumstances, her sheer survival skills, and the fact that she literally creates a job for herself to sustain her livelihood, Snow White is a modern woman.
992 notes · View notes
confusedraven1 · 1 year
Text
Tumblr media Tumblr media
i absolutely love that jim is the one to keep the heart of stede’s crew alive while ed did everything he could to destroy it.
one of the first comments ed makes to stede’s crew in season 1 is “everyone’s covered in rope!” so what does jim do? literally covers themself in rope, to remind ed that, as long as they’re alive, that hope and love isn’t going anywhere.
not only that, but, in the bible, rope is a symbolism for trust and security. jim became a secure place for the crew to tie themselves to while just trying to stay alive.
of course, i then had to look into why they have a fishing net around their shoulders as well, and found The Fishing Net Parable from the Book of Matthew (13:47-52):
"Once again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was let down into the lake and caught all kinds of fish. When it was full, the fishermen pulled it up on the shore. Then they sat down and collected the good fish in baskets, but threw the bad away.”
“This is how it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come and separate the wicked from the righteous and throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
jim amputates izzy’s leg, despite having never done it before. they quite literally separate him from the rotten bits to save his life.
jim says, “he was your friend.” they separate ed from who he was before from who he’s allowed himself to become, not to punish him, but to remind him of the consequences of his actions.
jim tells izzy point blank, “you’re in an unhealthy relationship with blackbeard.” they aren’t trying to break them up; they’re just bringing to light whats true so things can (hopefully) get better.
jim shows archie that, just because pirating is normally done a certain way, doesn’t mean it has to—they separate archie from the toxic belief that “that’s just how things are, it’s just life,” and “why save him if he’s a dick?”
jim tries to separate the idea from the crew that ed is fine, because they immediately recognize that things are about to get much worse: “so, do we think he’s better?” “FUCK no!”
jim immediately says, “wasn’t the wedding thing a bit over the line?” they know they’re all pirates and have questionable morals anyway, but knows it was fucked up of them to massacre a wedding, an event that’s supposed to be joyful and full of life and beginnings, not death and destruction. they’re, again, dividing up the way things are vs. how they could (and should) be.
ed tries to pin them all dying on jim cause they wouldn’t kill archie, but they bite back with, “you would’ve done it anyway!” they know exactly where the lies are, and separates them from the truth, and ed can’t deny it.
jim separates themself (and olu) from the bounds of monogamy through their honesty. olu is still their best friend and lover and family even though they found and did things with someone else.
jim holds out their hand for olu to take when they’re escaping the red flag. olu’s interest in zheng yi sao isn’t bad and jim’s not trying to separate them, but is trying to keep together the things that are good: their family.
(later addition, edit) jim is also the one that “kills” ed. they’re the one to make that final choice, to say, “it’s you or us.” jim’s actions and choices entire first two episodes led them to that moment, like it was the “final judgment” of blackbeard.
jim is the rope and net of the crew. they’re trust and security and honesty, everything that stede was trying to get the crew to understand from day 1, everything stede is always trying to embody (and i dare say is starting to succeed at).
Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media
481 notes · View notes
wantonlywindswept · 5 months
Text
adopted baby Guard Din idea that I am never going to write
because it would involve logistics and quiet moments and idle life which I am very down for reading but cannot for the LIFE of me actually sit down and write
So the war ends, Palps is outed as a Sith and an asshole and dies somehow, and the Senate eventually decides that the clones do count as people and thus are allowed to leave the GAR if they want. Give the bureaucrats another few years and they might even give out backpay and citizenship, so long as you stay in the service--wait what do you mean the entire Guard is resigning. What do you mean they've already left orbit?? WHAT DO YOU MEAN THERE ARE NOW MILLIONS OF FILES ON THE HOLONET ABOUT THE SENATE'S SHADY DEALINGS???
Guard, collectively: lol cya suckers
Fox is of course one of the last ones out, and since this was all planned on the down low, everyone's been split into groups so they can take commercial flights, since they're not about to be accused of stealing ships. (They also leave their weapons and their armor behind, in a giant macabre pile in the middle of Corrie HQ. Even their helmets, their faces, they discard: it's time for a rebirth.)
He and Thorn and a few other Corries have a stopover on some tiny station, waiting a week for a delayed transport to arrive, and in the meantime they're approached by some locals who just fled the planet below. Separatist remnants attacked their homes, forcing them to leave everything and everyone behind; can the big strong clones do anything about it?
The Big Strong Clones: Oh shit we finally get to kick some Seppie ass? Sign us the FUCK up.
The eager group does not include Fox, who could not care less about the Separatists and would very much like to finally catch up on his sleep. Unfortunately that means that the group that goes down to the planet is Unsupervised.
(Thorn does not count as supervision. Thorn, bereft of Senate oversight, has finally allowed his Inner Chaos Gremlin to fully emerge. Thorn needs more supervision than the shinies.)
Thorn, three days later, waking Fox from half-hearted sleep by dropping an entire natborn child on him: Hey boss, look what we found! None of the refugees claimed him, so we called dibs. Can we keep him? Fox, staring at the child: ...
Din, staring back: ...
Fox: ...no..?
Din: *sad but understanding big brown eyes*
Fox: Nevermind this is my child now.
Din has gone from two parents to one parent and hundreds of overprotective brothers.
Eventually his group makes it to their destination, Din in tow. I am uncertain of what the destination is but it is a planet that is as far away from Coruscant that the Corries could find. I am tempted for Tatooine not because I like Tatooine (I share Anakin's loathing of sand and deserts) but because Luke's description of Tatooine in ANH was 'if there's a bright center to the universe, this is the planet the furthest from'. 
Corries, hearing that: Fuck it sounds perfect. 
Anyway they make it to Tatooine, there is probably purchasing of some shitty land/buildings that nobody wants out in the wastes bc crime, scum, villainy, etc, but it's not like they have problems taking care of anything that tries to mess with them. 
Where did they get the funds?
Shh don't ask about it.
Stone takes up moisture farming. Thire takes up farming-farming. Thorn shoots gleefully at anything that shows up unannounced within a ten-mile radius. Literally everybody dotes on Din. There are a surprising amount of peaceful days.
Eventually some dumb shiny goes: Hey don't kids need friends? Shouldn't we set up some playdates for him or something?
The shiny is not called dumb for asking the question, but they are called dumb for thinking that the question would only ever be taken rhetorically. Fox disappears for two weeks and then comes back with a black eye and a yowling hissing Boba tucked under one arm, looking stupidly pleased with himself.
(Boba is also pleased to be back with people he knows will keep him safe. Boba will not admit to this under threat of death or dismemberment. Boba is a SERIOUS SCARY ADULT BOUNTY HUNTER.)
Boba also decides he will be Mortal Enemies with Din, which after about ten minutes of meeting him morphs into If Anyone Hurts Din I Will Kill Everyone In This Room And Then Myself because all clones be the same, really.
Din has gained another brother/bestie. (Or potential future boyfriend, whichever floats your boat.)
Somehow they still end up overthrowing the Hutts.
Officially the GAR knew and knows nothing about the Guard leaving Coruscant as soon as the metaphorical paint was dry on their sentient status.
Unofficially Fox's batch harangues him every single day for photos of his new kid(s). They eventually show up unannounced, demanding time with their nephew. (They are shot at by Thorn.)
Din gains five new uncles.
The batch proudly show pics and holos to their battalions. Din gains millions of new uncles.
Fox finally gets a full night's sleep.
172 notes · View notes
suzukiblu · 14 days
Text
WIP excerpt for Cheshire behind the cut; Billy adopts Conner and it actually goes pretty good! (( chrono || non-chrono ))
Lynn gives him a funny look a couple of times, for some reason. Billy hopes he’s not, like, being weird or getting in the way. He just thinks it’s kinda cool to watch somebody cook, and it’s Lynn’s first time, even, so–well, that’s kinda cool too. 
Maybe he should be taking pictures, actually, since it is Lynn’s first time cooking and he’s got a phone he could do it with now anyway, but Lynn might think that was weird? Like, baby pictures are usually of literal babies who don’t really have an opinion on being cooed over and stuff, that’s all. 
. . . well, it’s probably not too weird to take pictures once the food’s done, Billy figures, sneaking a speculative peek at the oven. People do that, right? That’s a thing people do. 
Even though it’s his first time cooking, Lynn definitely looks like he knows what he’s doing. Billy figures that makes sense, ‘cuz Lynn doesn’t walk or talk or move like he’s new to any of that either. He’s careful and deliberate about it, but not, like, really awkward about it. Like . . . it’s unfamiliar, maybe–not reflexive, maybe?–but Lynn clearly still knows how to do it all. 
So like–Cadmus taught him some stuff, at least, Billy allows grudgingly. A little bit. Definitely their priorities were stupid, though. 
No stories, even. 
Assholes. 
Lynn seasons the potatoes–mostly with the olive oil and garlic, but a bit of salt and pepper too–and then puts them in the oven. He gets the asparagus seasoned too–more olive oil and garlic–but doesn’t put it in the oven with the potatoes, just sets its pan aside and moves onto mixing up a little . . . sauce, Billy guesses? Like, kinda? The mustard and brown sugar and more garlic all went in it and not much else, but it looks like a sauce once Lynn’s done with it, which is also when Billy realizes he stopped helping him to just watch him and is immediately embarrassed. 
“Um, what next?” he asks quickly, glancing towards the recipe again. 
“The glaze goes on the salmon,” Lynn says. Okay, Billy thinks; not a sauce, then. Apparently not a sauce, anyway. Unless glazes are a kind of sauce? Billy doesn’t actually know, come to think, it’s never really come up before. 
. . . Solomon is really letting him down here, actually. Can the wisdom of Solomon not cook? 
Admittedly the wisdom of Solomon thinks of pottery when Billy thinks “glaze”, mostly, but– 
Focus. He’s focused. Definitely he’s focused. But also Lynn is already holding the little bowl of glaze for the salmon, so he’s not sure how to be, like–helpful or anything without being weird or pushy or getting in the way or anything and– 
Um. 
“Okay,” Billy says very awkwardly, hiding his hands behind his back and only wringing them a little while they’re back there. It’s fine, he figures. Lynn can’t see it, so yeah–it’s fine. 
. . . probably, anyway? Does Lynn have X-ray vision, or . . . ? Well, actually, does Lynn know if he has X-ray vision, even, or– 
Yeah. Um. Billy should probably, like, concentrate on dinner for right now. 
So he concentrates on dinner, which mostly means concentrating on following Lynn around the kitchen–it is such a big kitchen, geez–while also trying to stay out of his way. Lynn glazes the salmon, or maybe sauces it, and then sets it aside with the asparagus and starts washing the dishes they’ve used so far–well, the dishes he’s used, mostly, because Billy hasn’t done very much there, admittedly–and then Billy really doesn’t know what to do. He rereads the recipe a couple times, but he’s not actually sure how closely Lynn’s actually following it, he’s realizing? Like–he’s kind of following it, yeah, but not, like, exactly following it? 
Or maybe Billy just doesn’t understand recipes. Because, like, that might also be a thing? 
That’s probably a thing, yeah. 
“What’s a ‘tsssp’?” he asks curiously, frowning at the recipe. 
“. . . uh. You mean a teaspoon?” Lynn asks, looking up from the dishes with a frown of his own. 
“Maybe, I guess?” Billy squints at the page. The wisdom of Solomon, again, is not proving helpful. Like at all. 
Well, he guesses kings probably don’t cook, considering. And definitely they don’t cook in modern American measurements, if nothing else. 
“. . . it’s a teaspoon,” Lynn says, still frowning. He looks–weird, a little. 
“Um–sorry,” Billy says, a little worried about that. “You okay?” 
“Am I in trouble?” Lynn asks, his voice going sort of–tight, sort of.
“For wh–” Billy starts to ask in bemusement, and then realizes–oh. Duh. “You’re not in trouble. I’m not gonna get mad if you know stuff I don’t or, like, if you tell me you think I’m wrong about something. Especially if I am wrong about something. Which, yeah, um–I don’t know anything about cooking, so yeah, definitely I’m wrong about any cooking stuff. I don’t even know if a glaze and a sauce are the same thing or why you only put the potatoes in the oven?” 
“. . . potatoes take longer to cook,” Lynn says slowly, watching him warily as he says it. “Glazes go on while you’re cooking. Sauces go on after.” 
“Oh!” Billy says, brightening a little. “That’s cool, I didn’t know that! Uh–well, yeah, I guess I already said I didn’t know that, obviously, that’s–um. Cool.” 
“. . . sure,” Lynn says, staring blankly at him for a moment. Then he turns back to the dishes and goes back to washing them. Billy should probably be the one doing that, actually, since Lynn did pretty much all the cooking and all. And like, he’s like four days old, that’s really early to be letting him wash knives and stuff, even if he’s knifeproof and all. Like, it’s the principle of the thing and all.
145 notes · View notes
callsign-muffin · 22 days
Text
Heal Together: Chapter 2
(Bradley 'Rooster' Bradshaw fic)
I'm like completely overwhelmed that anyone has even read the first chapter of my fic, well alone liked and/or reblogged it! Thank you guys so much!
This chapter is a little bit of filler, just a heads up. But I hope you all like it anyways.
Masterlist
Word Count: 2.0k
Tumblr media
There were a lot of people surrounding Rooster’s bed, they all introduced themselves but the only thing he could really think about was how scared he was for them to pull this tube out of his throat. The doctor told him that there’s always a chance he might not respond well and they’ll have to place another one. And good god, that was the last thing he wanted. The sedation medications, being unable to talk, having to have his throat suctioned constantly, and listening to the never ending sounds of the machines were his own personal hell. And the prep before this was its own level of horrible. They put a vest on him that shook him violently to loosen any crap that had built up low in his lungs while he was intubated. Then they deep suctioned the shit outta his throat, it was so uncomfortable but Y/N promised it was all to help him and keep him from getting sick again and having to be intubated again.
He looked over at Y/N and prayed that she could say something to make him feel better. All of his friends and Mav were still on the aircraft carrier in God knows where, so Y/N was the only familiar face. He guesses he could’ve called Penny, Mav’s girlfriend, but it’s a Saturday morning, she should be spending time with Amelia and getting ready for another crazy night at the Hard Deck.
“So what’s gonna happen is: I’m gonna sit your bed up really high and place a pad under your chin since a lot of gunk might come up with the tube. That’s completely normal.” Y/N explained calmly, “Brent, the guy on your left, is the respiratory therapist. He’s gonna ask you to cough a few times and on the last cough, he’s gonna pull the tube out.”
Bradley nodded, looking her straight in her beautiful, expressive eyes.
“Your throat’s gonna hurt and feel really dry, you probably won’t be able to talk for a little bit.” She continued, “But I’m gonna stay here and monitor you, listen to your lungs, suction out any more gunk, and maybe we can try swabbing your mouth with water to help with the dryness until you’re cleared to drink. Does that sound okay?”
The young doctor at the bedside scoffed, “Do we really need to have this much dialog? We have other patients to get to, Nurse.”
Y/N’s face hardened, “I am well aware that you all are busy. However, I’m not going to allow anything to happen to Lt. Bradshaw without his full informed consent, so I’m making sure he knows exactly what we’re doing. It’s his right.”
The older doctor smiled at Y/N, “This is why nurses are so important, they fill in the blanks for the patients. As physicians, we can get caught up in the science and the technicality of things but nurses are the people who remind us to remember that we’re taking care of the whole person.”
The young doctor rolled his eyes.
Y/N smiled at the older doctor and shot the young doc a look that said, Bite me, bitch. She then looked at Rooster and asked, “You ready?”
Rooster nodded slowly, he was so scared.
“It’s okay that you’re scared.” She placed a comforting hand on his shoulder, “But you see Brent, the one literally doing the damn thing to you? He’s not scared and I’m not scared ”
Brent smiled, “Not one bit. And all of those docs in their fancy white coats, they OK’d me to do this. That means they’re not scared either.”
Rooster felt a rush of calm wash over him, Y/N trusted these people, so he had no reason not to as well.
“Ready man?” Brent asked.
Bradley nodded.
Y/N sat the bed up so that he was sitting tall and placed an absorbent pad under his chin, “Let’s do it!”
“Give me a few coughs, Lieutenant.” Brent instructed.
Rooster coughed uncomfortably, it felt so weird with this thing on his throat.
“One last big cough.” Brent said.
With his next cough the tube was out and Rooster couldn’t help but continue to cough and dry heave. All the doctors’ eyes were glued to the numbers on his monitor, the only one looking at him was Y/N. 
She wiped all the spit and nastiness off of his face carefully and talked to him quietly, “That’s it, let it out. You’re doin’ great.”
A few moments later the older doctor said, “His oxygen sats look great. Let us know if anything changes, Y/N.”
Y/N nodded, “Will do. Can I get a standing supplemental oxygen order? Just in case his sats start to decline.”
“Of course, Carl– I mean… Dr. Parks will put those in for you right away.” The old doc looked over at the very displeased younger doctor.
Once the doctors all assessed him and felt okay leaving the room, it was just Rooster and Y/N. He gestured towards his white board, there was no way in hell he could talk yet.
Y/N happily passed it to him and proceeded to start her own assessment, listening to his lungs with her stethoscope.
That young doc is an asshole. Rooster wrote.
Y/N snorted, taking her stethoscope out of her ears and setting it to rest around her neck, “For the sake of professionalism, no comment.” 
Can you call Maverick and tell him I’m okay? 
“Yeah, of course.” She pulled a pen and a slip of paper out of her scrub pocket, “Just write down his full name and number.”
█ ✪ █▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓█ ✪ █
“Hi Captain Mitchell, this is Y/N and I’m Lieutenant Bradshaw’s nurse today.” You tried your best to sound as not nervous as possible. You always hated sitting at the nurses station and calling family members on the phone, usually because it was to give bad news or tell them to come to the hospital quickly to say goodbye. At least this time it was something positive.
“Oh my god,” The man choked on the other end of the line, “Is– Is he okay?”
“Yes, he’s fine. I’m sorry for scaring you.” You fiddled with the long phone cord, “He’s actually doing great. We took him off the ventilator about an hour ago and he’s breathing really well on his own. He’s working with physical therapy now, they have him out of bed and sitting in a chair.”
You could hear the joy in the man’s voice, “That’s incredible! Oh my god! I can’t wait to tell everyone, we’ve all been so worried. Can I speak to him?”
“Not quite yet, he’s not able to talk yet and will be hoarse for a little while.” You explained, twisting from side to side in the swiveling chair,  “But I can see if we can charge up his phone so he can text you and call when he’s able to.” 
“Thank you so much for the update, Y/N.” Capt. Mitchell gushed, “I usually have to call first for updates but this was such a great surprise.”
“Well one of the first things Bradley asked me to do for him after his extubation was call you and let you know that he’s okay.” 
He let out a happy sigh on the other end of the phone, “Did he really? That’s so good to hear. Tell him I’ll be home soon and my first stop will be to see him.”
You nodded, “Will do, Capt. Mitchell. You have a great rest of your day.”
“You as well, I know you’re taking great care of him.” And the call cut off right there.
“Ooooh look at you, big shot.” You couldn’t help but smile seeing Bradley sitting up in a chair and channel surfing on the crappy hospital TV.
Bradley picked up his white board and marker from the table beside him, Did you talk to Mav?
“You mean Capt. Mitchell?” You confirmed and Bradley nodded, “He said he’ll be home soon and his first stop will be to come see you. But hopefully you’ll have busted out of this joint before then.”
Bradley raised his eyebrows and scribbled, You think so?
You shrugged logging into the computer by his bed and starting to organize his 3pm medications, “I mean, I can’t say for sure. I know that you military dudes can’t tell people exactly where you’re going or when you’re coming home on your deployments. But if things keep going as well as they are, it seems like a good possibility you could be transferred to a step-down unit and then hopefully discharged in the next week or so.”
Bradley started writing again, I don’t want to go to another unit. I want to keep you as my nurse.
You giggled, “Well that is incredibly kind of you to say, but the best part of my job is seeing patients get well enough to be transferred to a lower acuity unit and then eventually discharged.”
Bradley pouted and drew a big fat frowny face on the whiteboard.
“You were a lot less sassy with that tube down your throat, Bradshaw.” You teased as you crossed the room with his meds, hanging them on the IV pole and programming the pump.
Pumping me up with poison? He smirked as he wrote.
“Nah, just antibiotics to treat that pesky infection that almost killed you and brought you in here.”
Damn, I was hoping you were gonna say they’re steroids to get me yolked. He flashed a mischievous grin at you.
You scoffed, “I took a pledge when I finished nursing school not to harm my patients and I considered giving them drugs that would shrink their balls and give them breasts doing harm.”
Bradley snorted and let out a hoarse laugh. Though it was very quiet, you could tell it was a great laugh.
“Hey Y/N, I’m taking room 4 back from you.” Carly, the young nurse from the morning, sat in the empty chair next to you at the nurses station.
“Oh great, do you want a full report or are you good with just the updates?” You asked, pulling out your notes from the day.
She clicked her pen, “Updates are just fine.”
“So the biggest news is that he was extubated today.” You grinned.
“Really?!” She gasped, “I’ve been pushing for that but the resident kept saying no.”
“Parks?” You inquired.
She nodded and sighed, “Yeah, have you met him?”
“Unfortunately.” You rolled your eyes, “I think he shares similar feelings about me as I do him.”
“I hope you gave him hell.” She giggled, “I’m still a new grad, so I don’t have enough experience under my belt to push back very much.”
“Well if he gives you any grief on your shift, don’t let it get to you. He’s also a new grad doctor, he’s also still learning.” You assured her then went on to finish your report.
“Hey Bradley, I’m headed out for the night. Carly’s gonna be taking care of you and I’ll be back tomorrow.” You entered the room with Carly by your side.
“Thank you…” Bradley croaked, “For everything…”
Your heart melted a little bit, you knew it took a lot of effort to get the words out, “You are more than welcome. And I’ll see you tomorrow. Hopefully we’ll get you transferred to a less intense unit.”
Rooster pouted and did a big thumbs down gesture.
You giggled, “That’s a great thing, Bradshaw. You don’t wanna be stuck in the ICU with me forever.”
He sassily rolled his eyes.
“Carly and I are gonna sign off some meds and check your lines.” You said, “And don’t give my girl too much sass tonight; she will be reporting back to me in the morning.”
Rooster scribbled on his whiteboard, No promises.
90 notes · View notes
kedreeva · 2 months
Text
Went to see "Twisters" tonight and it was thoroughly enjoyable!
Some spoilers below the cut
Okay first of all, I'm extremely excited to say that they don't push a love triangle despite there being a girl MC and two main guys. One of them is an old friend who remains firmly an old friend, with no indication that he has romantic feelings. Like they get to be actual friends!!!!! And the other, while potentially a love interest, had just as much potential to be a friend instead, and in an extremely important (to me) way they do not kiss! I was shocked, actually. I expected them to pull out a "gotta have a kiss to appease the amatonormative folks" but nope! Not even in the little mid credit blurb. He stays the night at her childhood home with her and nothing happens. Like not even an awkward moment of tension, they don't even show them going to bed I don't think.
And I feel this to my bones, she was allowed to be the star. She changed her old friend's mind and gave him a chance to choose doing the right thing and he did it because he cared about her opinion of him and wanted to be who she thought he was. And the other guy found out she had dreams/goals of doing something and instead of taking them or doing it for her, he said what can I do to help you, and she chose to let him help her. It was so softly done!! And this guy, he was a full on attention hound with a YouTube channel and loves showing off and he's taking a press guy into the storms to do a story about how awesome he is at tornado wrangling. But when it comes down to it, he tells the reporter she's the real story AND SHE IS!! The article gets written about her instead!
The beginning was. A lot. You get introduced to the storm hunting group, and then immediately 3 of the 5 get killed and the MC almost does, all because she miscalculated. But you know what? She a) keeps her trauma and b) continues doing meteorology stuff, just from a safer distance. Like it's very clear that tornadoes are still this girl's passion, something she loves with every fiber of her being, but she's also been traumatized by losing her boyfriend and two of her closest friends (not to mention her dream project) and nearly her life, in one go. And even still it is something she literally can't stay away from, she still takes a job involved with them through data analysis, and you can practically feel it killing her at the start. The way she lights up at the mention of studying them more closely like she had wanted to, and that excitement immediately chased out by fear. It was nicely done.
They did a really nice thing with the music as well- PERFECTLY captured that kind of moment where the rest of the world drops away and all you can perceive for a moment or two is this thing you love so much it feels like time stops to let you love it more. Except she's looking at weather. At winds moving or clouds or tornadoes. Which is so cool of them to have done for her. This girl loves one thing and it's fuckin WEATHER.
The "villain" of the story is understated and they really don't waste time going into detail about it, which is great because the MC isn't really interested in finding out more about the real estate mogul capitalizing on the devastation. She just doesn't want her friend working for them anymore. She finds out he is, she draws a line in the sand and tells him he should be doing the right thing not the easy thing, and her friend takes her objection seriously and alters his behavior. And that's all the more they really get into that side of the story. Why waste time on it when there's more tornadoes to show? This movie did what Godzilla: King of Monsters failed to do- showed us the monster as much as possible and actually I do care about the people still because none of their problems were irrelevant, none of them were problems for the sake of having problems.
Anyway this movie was enjoyable to me. If you like weather phenomena, storm chasing, chaos, and actually interesting interpersonal relationships, go have a watch!
136 notes · View notes
Note
HII!!! CAN U GET A FLUFFY ONESHOT WITH DOTTORE(WEBTOON VER) PLSSSS.... like he has a huge soft spot for you but REFUSES to acknowledge it when ppl ask... and he can never stop staring at reader IDK im down horrendous for him
Stay
Dottore (webtorre) x Reader
Tumblr media
Of course you can. Thanks so much for requesting something from me it rlly means so much you're my fav person rn😭🖤
I'm just calling him webtorre so hopefully that's fine.
Tell if you like it or not 😋
_____________________________________________
You've been Dottore's lover for a while now so of course you're allowed to wander around the lab since he gave you special permission to. Obviously in the lab it would be impossible not to meet his clones. They're everywhere, lots of them. You've met segments that look identical to him, segments in his Akedemyia days and even segments that are children
In your opinion though your favorite segment is when Dottore was in his early fatui days. This version of Dottore has gained your affections quite easily and if you're not with Prime everyone's second guess is him. His name is supposed to be Theta but you gave him a nickname, Webtorre. He pretends to hate it though.
You love Webtorre very much. He's much more wild in terms of Prime, but he's quite funny. He has this "hee hee, ho ho" laugh and it makes you giggle every time at his sharp toothed smile.
You find that he's quite affectionate too, in more strange ways that is. Often, you notice that if you're in the same room with him, he can't stop staring at you. If you ask he'll say you're being delusional but you know that those beautiful, red eyes have been locked on you the whole time.
Throughout harbinger meetings, or while you roam the lab. There is always a pair of eyes on you. Webtorre loves to look at you. He won't tell anyone else that not even you, his darling. However he just can't seem to drag his eyes away. You're not stupid you know he's burning holes into you but you don't say anything.
Believe it or not you like his staring. How he can't look away even if he wants to. He gazes at you like you're the most important thing to him and you love it.
You love the way his attitude changes from you compared to other people. To other people Webtorre is a terrifying segment of Dottore. Who experiments on people and tortures them just for the fun. Webtorre shows ill intent or aggression to other people, but never to you. Never you.
He looks at other people with angry eyes and furrowed brows, or a look of intrigue because he plans to dissect them. Not you though. When he looks at you it's the literal definition of "his gaze softened".
Webtorre is quick to deny the claims that he has a soft spot for anybody, much less you. Waving the claims away, but if anyone were to take a chance on you because of his denial? You'll find that the person has gone missing and you might even find parts of them in jars the next day.
So while Webtorre does deny the claims and rumors, everyone knows not to touch you, much less look at you unless they want an angry harbinger in their path.
**********************************************************
You let out a big sigh, slumped on Prime's office desk. He's left for some big mission again. Which leaves you here alone and bored. What do you do when you're bored? Bother Webtorre.
So that's what you do. You wander down halls and rooms looking for him. The lab is actually quite large and branches off to even more places, you often get lost. You open a door to a smaller lab and finally spot fluffy blue hair.
"Webtorre! I've been looking for you my love, are you busy?" You say in a sing-song voice and walk over to him.
He grunts from his seat, "Of course I'm busy" but he pats his lap anyways, demanding that you sit with him. And who are you to deny? You slide on to his lap and lie your head on his shoulder. He's always acting like such a grump but he never denies you of anything.
You shiver from the lab's AC. Even though you're in the freezing winters of Snezhnaya, Webtorre loves keeping the rooms cold. He's quick to move his coat around you though so you can warm up. He doesn't need it, he has his own heat source. His heat source is lumped in his lap right now.
You yawn and shove your face into the crook of his neck, while he scribbles away in a notebook. It's an early morning and you're still sleepy. Webtorre smiles and shows his sharp rows of teeth. "Tired, my love?"
When you nod he starts rubbing his hand through your hair. "Then sleep, I'm not moving anytime soon."
You hum and close your eyes. You could use some sleep but you enjoy just relaxing here. Plus it's hard to sleep when you can feel his gaze locked on you, and when he's playing with your hair. You enjoy it though so you say nothing to halt his actions.
It's not until another presence walks in the room that Webtorre goes back to being a grump. He doesn't push you away or anything he just goes back to his huffy-puffy attitude. You smile to yourself and keep your eyes closed.
"Oh? Look at you Theta. You're getting soft, I see" you hear Pantalone's voice tease. He takes a step closer to you but is quick to take a step back when Webtorre's eyes snap to him.
"I'm not going soft, they fell in my lap" he huffs and looks back at you. It is undeniable how his gaze softens though. "Don't call me that, my name is Webtorre you incompetent oaf" you fight off a giggle.
"Don't be so polite, Webtorre. That one is always clinging to your side... Or maybe it's the other way around?" Pantalone chuckles raising his hand to his mouth.
"I don't cling to anybody, idiot. You're a blind fool if you think that's what's going on. Obviously they're the ones clinging to me" he rolls his eyes. "It's not your business anyways, get out before I put you on a lab table" Webtorre snarls.
Pantalone laughs but he leaves anyway. You are trying to hold yourself together so you don't start having a giggling fit into his neck. Webtorre isn't dumb though he knows you're awake.
It's amazing how fast his claws are put away and he stops his hissing. "Oh, what's so funny my dear?" He smiles and grips your waist.
You hum tapping your lips, "I think we cling to each other don't you think?" You tease him and look up at your lover's face.
"Ugh you're just as dumb as Pantalone, be quiet and go back to sleep." He huffs and tries to shove your face back into his neck.
You laugh, knowing he's just trying to hide his blushing face. "Noooo, you cling to me just as much Doctor" you giggle, and start giving little pecks to his face.
Webtorre groans and stares at you, "... Maybe" he grumbles. He pulls you closer against him and fixes his coat back on you. "Now shut up and sleep before I kick you out" you giggle but willingly lie back down into his chest. You know he would never push you away. You're his darling after all.
__________________________________________________
I hope it isn't too short and I hope you enjoyed it 🥰
238 notes · View notes
luvhughes43 · 10 months
Note
how does her injury happen/her brothers reaction
im going to be writing an in-depth fic for this aswell but with finals the next two weeks i dont have a lot of time! so here's some thoughts!
the injury itself happens during one of her competitions. it's her first season without her abusive coach, and so the pressure was on blake to win because her old coach was notorious for producing winners.
anyway! she agitates her back (which is an injury she's always had troubles with. she sprained it and it never properly healed due to her training) during her short program. she doesn't tell anyone about the injury because she needed to prove she could win. so she competes anyway...
everything's going fine in her long program, until shes almost at the end. she has a short sequence of jumps and she lands the first one fine, until she moves onto her next jump and completely falls out of it.
she falls on her back and shes literally sobbing out in pain on the ice clutching her back. she tries getting up but can't, and thats when the medical team rushes out.
reactions!
jack: actually freaking out. thats his twin! as soon as he sees that shes slow to get up hes rushing his whole family out of their seats so that he can get to her.
when he finds out how serious the injury is hes so upset. hes not allowed to see blake right away, and so hes literally cursing out loud in the hallways.
quinn: hes in shock. he doesnt really say or do anything right away, just sort of letting jack order him and everyone else around. when he finds out its serious, his hands are shaking but he tries his hardest to stay collected for jack who's literally panicking
luke: blake is luke's second mother! when she cries, he cries. and so when he hears her sobbing on the ice he's tearing up and immediately asking his family if she's going to be okay. he doesn't really know what to do when the doctors tell them its a serious injury. he just sits with blake and tries to distract her from the pain/realization that she may not be able to skate anymore. they watch tiktok's or something on his phone.
258 notes · View notes