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ztarvokwrites · 30 days

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Dracule Mihawk - Actions Speak Volumes

a/n: yo yo yo! had this scenario in my head for a few days n decided to write abt it before i lose my train of thought haha! here u go <3

synopsis: it's only when you finally snap that he realises just how much you're hurting, thus he does everything he can to make it up to you.

reader is gn!

warnings: none, just angst, fluff, comfort, maybe a bit of sexual tension at the end if you squint hard enough.

word count: 1,626

Your actions as of recent have been nothing short of frustratingly annoying. After Mihawk returned from a 3-month escapade for only the best supplies for the Guild (he does not trust Buggy’s lackeys), you’ve been acting uncharacteristically cold towards him. Alvida knows what’s bothering you, yet refuses to tell him why you’re suddenly so ice cold, a harsh and bitter contrast to your warm and kind personality that he adored so much.

“You should already know that, seeing how you’re so perceptive of everything,” She says as he asks once again what your problem is. His eyes are on you as you silently help Cabaji set up some weapons in case they need to battle the Navy again. “But, if you can’t see they’re hurting because of you, you’re dumber than I thought.”

“And what exactly did I do to them, may I ask? All I did was go out for supplies,” Mihawk responds sharply, looking at the young woman beside him from the corner of his eye. Alvida looks at him, dumbfounded at the density of the former Warlord. She grunts, putting her hands on her hips.

“Yeah, for 3 whole months without telling them,” Exclaims the woman, brows furrowing as she looks towards you, arms folding over her chest again. “Honestly, I’m surprised they’re still with you considering how bad you’ve been treating them!”

This made his head snap towards her so fast that Alvida jolted back, eyes wide in fear. His golden eyes, usually cold and unfeeling, look surprised at her statement. Surely she’s bluffing, right? Mihawk can’t recall treating his partner poorly. Sure, they might’ve had a little argument here and there, but he was still devoted to them.

“...What makes you think I am treating my beloved so poorly?” He asks, his cold voice holding an edge of offence to Alvida’s accusation.

“Well…” Alvida hesitates, voice weak for a moment before she continues speaking with confidence. “You haven’t been spending much time with them, your attitude towards them is just downright mean, you brush off their concerns like they’re a waste of time, and-”

“Alvida,” You interrupted, walking up to her with your arms folded. “Stop complaining, would you? Me venting to you when I’m drunk doesn’t permit you to go to Dracule about our relationship troubles. This is something between Dracule and I, so keep your nose out of it.”

Dracule.

You’ve never used his first name before, let alone with such… Unfathomable coldness. Mihawk stares — no, gawks at you, his stoic expression faltering slightly into one of pure confusion. Was what Alvida said true? When your eyes meet his, he watches as you narrow your gaze, a silent command for him to speak to you privately now that he knows too much. His gaze holds your own for a few seconds until you walk away. Following you, he tries to strike up a conversation, but you shoot his attempts down with a simple, “We’ll talk when we’re in private, so be quiet and follow me.”

And so, in uncomfortable silence, Mihawk follows you into your shared tent, staring at you with his arms crossed as you sit at the table. You speak first before he can even open his mouth, airing out your grievances and spilling your heart to the man, knowing he can shrug it off like before. You speak of the neglect as of late, how he has been nonchalant and uncaring towards you, how you’ve been feeling unloved by the man and how you’ve been constantly put aside now that you’ve all formed the Cross Guild.

And perhaps you’ve seen this coming — no, you have seen this coming; the way he deflects and tries to downplay how badly he’s been treating you because he simply refuses to believe it. Of course, this turns into an argument that eventually gets heated, as tears sting your eyes and threaten to spill down your cheeks. You’re practically screaming at this point, desperately trying to get him to see your point of view.

“For once in your life, Dracule,” There you go again, using his first name as if it were venom on your tongue. “Think about me! Think about us! Instead of your top priority being disappearing without a trace for months on end, making me worried sick about you — you should be prioritising what this relationship means to you because this means everything to me! You mean everything to me!”

Mihawk goes silent at your outburst, his arms unfolding and resting by his sides as his attention falls on you. He’s not focused on what he refuses to believe anymore, he’s only focused on you. Only you. It’s like his world stops once he sees your grief-stricken face, your tears finally escaping your tear ducts and caressing your cheeks as they drift down to your chin, your lips pulled into a tight frown. His face remains stoic as he listens, finally listens to you.

Oh, how he wants to hold you in his arms and apologise, but he doesn’t. He just lets you yell at him and open his eyes to the truth… But you’re gone once you’re done speaking, you're pushing past him and walking out of the tent to get some well-deserved air. The former Warlord steps out of the tent, trying to see where you ran off to, but you are nowhere to be seen.

It’s then that he decides he’s going to make it up to you. He isn’t a fool, he knows he hasn’t been as affectionate as of late, and this argument has made him realise just how much he’ll lose if he loses you. Mihawk certainly doesn’t want to lose you, not after all you’ve been through together.

Throughout the day, he gives you your space but finds little things that remind him of you as he explores what Emptee Bluff’s Island has to offer. Whether it be flowers or your favourite drink in the town that’s opposite Buggy’s Town, he soon returns with three or four bags of gifts and groceries — ignoring the questioning looks on peoples’ faces as he casually carries the heavy bags to your shared tent with ease.

As the week progresses, he slowly starts giving you these gifts in secret, leaving them in your chair or your side of the bed in the morning. Whenever you’d see them, your heart would skip a beat and ache with confusion before a small blush would rise to your cheeks. You know he’s a man of few words, so you are glad he is acknowledging you like this.

Finally, the time comes for the perfect last gift — a romantic dinner under the stars, far away from the chaos of the Guild, even if it was just for an hour or two. You show up wearing your best outfit, a little nervous as it’s been a while since the argument and neither of you have properly talked since. It’s not hard to find the spot, as the candles on the grass illuminate the blanket that you find your partner patiently sitting on. A small pang in your heart strikes as he lifts his head, his golden eyes meeting your gaze and scanning over your outfit.

You can almost see it, the way his eyes light up behind his cold exterior upon seeing you dressed up like this. Honestly, it makes you flustered the way he just stares at you before motioning you to come forward and take a seat beside him.

“...I thought I’d treat you to something special tonight,” Begins Mihawk, pouring you a glass of wine as you sit down beside him. With a small smile, you take the glass from him and have a sip. “...I’ve been thinking about what Alvida had exposed to me, and what you said during our latest quarrel about a week ago.” A lump forms in your throat as you swallow the sip of your drink, feeling dread fill your stomach. There’s a small silence that overtakes you both as you avoid his gaze, looking up at the stars as he looks at you with those piercing eyes.

“...I don’t want to lose you like I almost did before,” Mihawk continues, staring at you as he puts his drink down on the blanket, his hand gently touching your forearm. “So let me make it up to you. I’m sorry, I promise to never make you feel unloved ever again.” You avert your gaze from the stars, finally looking towards him with tears glistening in your eyes. The hand that rests on your forearm now caresses your cheek, wiping away a stray tear that dares to slide down your flushed skin with his calloused thumb.

“...You’re an asshole sometimes, Mihawk,” You respond, your tone slightly playful yet mixing with a twinge of hurt. “You don’t notice how much you hurt me until it’s too late, and you’re a man with so few words that it surprises me you argue back… But, somehow, you eventually find the right words to say and I come crawling back to you. But I’ve noticed that this time, it’s different. Your actions have spoken volumes louder than your voice has, and it…” You stop rambling once you take in the way he’s looking at you.

The way a small smile barely tugs at his stoic lips, the way his golden eyes soften and pupils dilate as he takes you in. You blush, yet he finds himself smiling just a little more, his thumb gently rubbing your cheek. The two of you find yourselves leaning in, and for a moment you think your lips are going to collide, but instead, Mihawk opens his mouth to say, “Would you like to see what I’ve prepared for this evening, my dear?”

starnote: i'm sleepy :)

dividers by @/ saradika!

#ztarvokwrites #one piece #dracule mihawk #op mihawk #one piece mihawk #mihawk x reader #hawkeye mihawk #cross guild #dracule mihawk x reader

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antimonyandthyme · 9 months

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omggggg can’t wait to see you start to explore more of vettonso!! i’m absolutely love these two old men trying to comfort each other:))))….

here you go anon :)))))))))

“Slow down,” Fernando said.

“If we were still racing, you’d complain I was being slow in front of you on purpose. Traffic.” Seb seemed to be having fun enunciating the r all funny. “Look at all this traffic. Look at all these idiots.”

There was nothing to be done; Seb on the grid was insufferable then, and Seb in retirement was insufferable still. Except if you got Fernando drunk, he’d admit under duress that Seb wore all the insufferable-ness much less like an armour now and more like a very comfortable second-skin. It suited him, and Fernando had no business trying to peel that off him. And anyway, it was Fernando’s own fault for agreeing to this.

“We’re not racing though,” Fernando said. Just to say something back.

Seb tapped the wheel with a forefinger. Some of the grid found it impossible to translate their racing skills to the real world where the majority of driving took place. Where there were lights, pedestrians, and yes, traffic. Thinking about Charles and parking always got Fernando chuckling. But Seb could have been moulded to the frame of the car. He was made of things Fernando had no words for. And he was stuck behind a RAV4 going 80 in the fast lane, and he looked ready to slice the offending vehicle in half.

It was something Fernando believed he could do. Slice a vehicle in half. That was what happened when you started spending time with Seb. You started believing in the crazy.

“We’re always racing,” Seb said. “To the next destination, to the next chapter. No matter how hard we might try to dig our heels in.”

“Oh my god,” Fernando said. “It’s just a new house.” It’s just retirement, and I’ve been through it once already. “It’s not—it’s not anything. It’s just—”

“A new house,” Seb said calmly. “That I’m going to look at with you.”

“Not because we’re husbands.”

“Not because of that,” Seb said, giggling. “Can you imagine that?”

Yes, Fernando nearly said, and then was instantly mortified. He’d survived crashes at 300 before. If he unbuckled his seatbelt and took a dive out of Seb’s moving Ferrari, he might just survive that too.

Seb took his silence for offence. “I mean,” he said belatedly. “Not that—I can’t imagine you as, you know? I just meant, you know?”

It wasn’t very often, especially now, when they were no longer edging each other around track corners, that Fernando could see Seb sweat. He was going to make the most out of it. “I know?” he said, tone blander than a slice of white bread.

“You know what I mean,” Seb said. He threw his hands up, then remembered he was in the fast lane with some slow goose less than a car length ahead of him, and quickly repositioned them back on the steering wheel. “It’s not that we couldn’t be. Fuck. Nando. I’m sorry, okay? I didn’t mean—”

“So you’re going to see this house with your not-husband,” Fernando said, gleefully drawing it out.

“Nando—”

“And you’ve talked to the realtor, you’ve set it all up. You’ve cleared my schedule.” That was the thing, Seb had. He made sure Fernando had no excuses for skipping out on looking at houses on this fine Wednesday evening. “Even though you couldn’t possibly imagine me as your husband.”

“Nando,” Seb pleaded.

“And you’re driving me there in your red Ferrari.”

The Toyota in front of them slowed down for no apparent reason, and Seb was forced to slam his foot on the brakes, and then lay a nightmare on the horn.

When the noise finally died down: “Seb,” Fernando said, and made sure to inject as much delight as he could in his voice. “Am I to be your kept woman?”

It took a glorious moment.

“Oh my god,” Seb gasped, relief evident in every unclenching muscle in his body. “You arsehole. I thought you were—angry at me, I thought—you fucker. You fucker, you scared the shit—oh my god. I hate you.”

Fernando was too busy losing it on the passenger seat. His stomach was hurting from how hard he was laughing. He was clenching the side of the car door for support. It was funny how far down retirement could fling you, to the extent that he’d move to the one thing far removed yet still connected to the sport he was trying to excise from his flesh.

This one thing that was the only person Fernando could think of that would take house viewing so seriously. The red Ferrari spoke volumes. The weaving around the Toyota and the cheeky finger out the window even more.

Ah, fuck. He’d gone all silly, deciphering car language. Seb’s influence was going to bend him all wrong, and then bend him all right again.

“If the house is painted something stupid, I’m walking away on sight.”

“Sure,” Seb said cheerfully. “Even though I wouldn’t live by your definition of stupid.”

Fernando snorted. This was going to go all sorts of wrong. Seb’s hand was on the gearstick. Fernando curled his hand atop there.

He found he didn’t quite mind.

#athy texts #vettonso #fanfic #rpf

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thequietkid-moonie · 1 year

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Hey there, so about that old post you made about wizard reader and Tesla hcs, it actually gave an idea of a request if it seens interesting enough to write it. So, in middle age people also thought scientists were wizards and witches (especially if they tried explain certain phenomenous like the earth shape and rotation around the sun wich physics now explain, or the origin of live that biology studies till this day). Then i can see a reader who tried proceed with their studies in those times while alive but ended up facing a bit of a cruel fate for such "heresy", but in a twist of events they were brought to Valhalla just like the future scientists in our history including Tesla. So in this kind of scenario considering they were more from a physics field, but still found time in their live to know a few other areas such as chemestry (wich they would probably know as alchemy instead) and biology, would you have any headcannons for them envolving Nikola, Marie Curie if you write for her and maybe Beelzebub? Considering how good is your writting i can only imagine how amazing this would turn out to be.

Scientist!Reader

[ HEADCANONS ] [ Tesla, Marie, Beelzebub ]

[ Records of Ragnarok / Shuumatsu no Valkyrie ]

Oh my dear!! I didn't know my writing was sooo good 🥺🥺 I hope you like this and don't dissapoint you ><

I didn't know if you wanted romantic or platonic so i tried to keep it neutral

From now on i declared me a simp fan of Marie Curie

Nikola Tesla

Tesla is a man that had dedicate all his life to his studies, wanting nothing more than share all his knowledge to the world, so if he has the opportunity to meet another scientist he won't even think twice, not matter if you work on another field of science

It doesn't matter too much if you two meet by casuality or that you approached him, he is just happy to talk to you. Also, for him it isn't really a bad thing if you just hang out once, just being able to talk to you and know more about you work just like he share his own with you makes him happy, but if you want to keep contact and even become friends he gets excited

Although, once you two become friends expect for him too be more interested on your work and him to talk about his own, he is always so excited to know about your work as much as he loves sharing his own. Besides, if you work on another field he will be asking you a lot of things about it, he is always excited to learn new things and having a specialist who can teach him just making so ecstatic that he can't help

Most of the time you two always talk with letters or even hanging out together, he doesn't have problem for one or another and is always excited when he gets yours news

Tesla had never liked when people call him a wizard or what he does is magic, all his efforts are motivated for his love for science and the memory of his brother (that he holds close to his heart) so when people say that is magic he take it as a personal offence, and he will complain a lot about when talking to you (specially when just happen), you could try to calm him down but it won't work so is better if you just hear him rant about how is science and not magic, however if it bothers you too then will be the two of you complaining and aggresibly talking about all your own studies

Tesla end up having a pretty long life and even when he had some troubles he is pretty satisfied of it, however it wasn't the same for you since you had died some time ago, either victim of others or from your own experiments, that will afect him but won't really stop from his work, prefering to keep your memory as a motivation to continue with his work (just like he did with his brother)

Once he wake up in the Valhalla he just take a moment to apreciate everything before starting to investigate his surroundings and planing to continue with his work. Finding him again would be just as when you two first met, meeting by accident or you approaching to him, in either case he will be ecstatic not giving you even time to finish whatever you were saying before hugging you tightly (may even hold you and spin around out of excitment)

Just as always he will ask you non-stop different things, about what you have done all this time and about this place as well as telling you everything it happened after your dead, and is until he is finally done with knowing anything and everything it happened when he start thinking on resume his work

If you had already started working again in the Valhalla he ask you about your improvement and ask to see your place of work, if you hadn't is not really a trouble because he is planning to do so and, of course, he invite you to work with him, together once again

Marie Curie

Since Marie was a toddler her parents had always instilled in her the importance of the studies, and she just end loving studing and learning all she can

Even when Marie loved studing and investigation just for being a woman the world were making things difficult for her, still she just never give up and always found a way to get away with it, so she will never overlook the opportunity to meet another scientist

Even when she doesn't give importance in the gender the time where you two live do it, that is why at first she just act polite when talking to you, however for the love you two hold for science will make it easy for her to warm up with you and start to be friendly

If you two don't work on the same field of science she will take this opportunity to know more about that field, at first will be a little shy to ask about it and just ask some things when you start talking about it, but the more time you two pass together the more confidence she gets so at one point she will ask you more. On the other hand if you work in the same field of science is not a problem to her, taking the opportunity to talk a lot about it with you and your ideas (and this time without being too shy at first)

She is always happy to recive news about you, and even when she loves knowing about your work and ideas she is always up to talk about other things. Also, when she start to open up more with you she start to complain about how society is so unfair whit woman, leaving them with almost no option just for their gender

Marie is always curious and searching for more knowledge, so she is always excited to know more about your work, at first she is just happy to hear what you like to share, but the more time you two pass together the more she start to ask you for details about it and about your improvements, just like she does too, at first just share her work in a pretty superficial way but as you two get closer she trust you more with her work and give you details

Also, when you two get a closer relasionship and you win her fully trust is when she start telling you about her investigation with radioactivity, since is a pioneering research she prefer to talk about it in person with you so she can express her ideas and hypothesis better (along with introduce you to Pierre since they are working together)

Marie end up dying due to high exposure to radioactive materials so we can tell that she died by her own investigation, however she didn't regret it since she enjoyed all her life doing what she loved. If you encounter a similar fate before her she will be really affected for losing you, she had grow to care a lot for you and it would take her some time to continue, but she is completly sure that you were happy for the life you had so she decide to continue with her work with the memory of you close to her heart

When she wake up in the Valhalla she was really surprised, it took her a long time to realice what is happening because she is taking a lot of time to appreciate her surroundings, a little nervous to move from where she is because she doesn't even know where she is, but brave as always she brush off her worries and start looking around

When you two meet again she will be shocked, recognizing you in an instant and still freezing on the spot, it doesn't matter if you were the one who approached to her or her finding you she still freeze, slowly reacting by calling softly your name before running to hug you in a emotional and thighly hug

Without being able to calm down she separate from the hug minutes after and looking to all over you she asks you what you were doing there, passing hours that felt like a single moment talking about everything that happened after your dead and the place you were in

Marie doesn't think on continue with her work imediatly, so if it isn't your idea she will be the one who brings it up after enjoying the peace and beauty of the Valhalla and your company a little longer

Beelzebub

Beelzebub has never been really interested in others, not humans nor gods, and since everyone just avoid him and even hate him he just doesn't see why even try to approach to anyone

He could be consider an scientist for the work he taked after meeting Hades, but still he is mainly focused on create someone stronge enough to kill him

That is why, for you to meet it has to be totally by your hand, maybe on day you are lucky enough and meet him, either casually or intentionally, or maybe you get into troubles (while trying to investigate something) and you end up meeting him, either way he doesn't really care about you (although if you were causing problems he may give you a warning)

Even when he can be consider a scientist he isn't interested in other's work either, so you have to be stubborn and insist, probably by hearing the rumors about his work you end up interested, still he find your insistence annoying

It could get the point that either you manage to sneak in his laboratory and he, tired of it, just let you be or that, again tired of you insistence he let you see what he is working on with the condition that you leave him alone, although once he let you in you weren't planning to leave

He finds you pretty annoying at first and may even threaten you if you don't leave him alone, but as time pass and you still insist on being with him and seeing his work he just give up and let you stay (he isn't going to accept it, but your interest on him and the admiration you have for his work flustered him)

He won't really talk much with you, essentially just answer whatever questions and curiosity you have for what he does, if you give him suggestion he most of the time just hum or ignore you, but in reallity he hear what you say and even really consider some of them

He doesn't ask you about your personal life or about when you were alive but if you want to talk about it he won't stop you, again it seems like he doesn't pay attention to you but he actually does and end up pretty interesed on your previous life and what you investigate back then, he even mentally make a comparation between your human life and the gods culture and knowledge (not to judge, he just find it curious)

He really didn't expected that back then people accuse you of been a wizard/witch or say that what you did was magic, it surprise him but at the same time he doesn't find it strange, what surprise him the most is that even existed a threat against scientists for the heresy (humans could be as cruel as gods, huh?), that is when he gets more interesed

He doesn't express it but he likes to have you around and end up really liking hearing your stories and ideas, and, even when he never let the two of you get a close relasionship, he had made clear that you are free to come over his study whenever you want if it help you continue with your investigation

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youcouldmakealife · 5 months

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LBTE: Jared (128-129)

The fucking Scouts, man. And we end the Jared on the move arc. Next up: Bryce on the move arc!

If you want to read along, series page is here.

128. Outclassed

Jared drives home half-asleep, finds a very sleepy Bryce on the couch waiting up for him.

“Go to bed,” Jared says, pokes him up to their room and then follows suit.

Bryce wanted to stay up and celebrate with him. In reality he just ended up getting poked into bed in the two minutes before they were both snoozing.

He wakes up at ten-forty five — the latest he’s gotten up since the postseason started — to a kiss to the forehead, a cup of coffee handed to him, the immediate awareness that the Nucks did it, they’ve got at least another round to battle through. As ways to wake up go, it’s pretty fucking great.

Bryce is so good at husbanding, especially now that it’s his offseason: full time husband and covert Canucks fan until training starts.

Bryce isn’t offended by Jared living hockey, and it’s actually helpful as hell to have him right there beside him. Bryce watches the earlier Avs games with him, arm slung over Jared’s shoulder, making smart observations, has advice for Jared before and after every game. It’s like having a game tape coach and a husband all in one, it’s terrific.

Full time husband. Hockey smarts included.

It’s a hard fought, ugly series that takes a few of the Canucks with it, Dmitry unfortunately one of them — Jared guesses the line’s still cursed, though he’s selfishly glad he’s not the latest to fall victim to that — but the Canucks scrape out a win in seven, and they’re going to the Western Conference Finals, which is an incredible fucking feeling.

Yay!

Jared can’t say he’s surprised by who they’re going to be facing.

He can’t say he’s particularly pleased about it either.

Such a quick fall from yay.

“Okay,” Bryce says. “Here’s the lowdown about the Scouts.”

“Fuck the Scouts?” Jared says.

“Fuck the Scouts,” Bryce says. “But seriously.”

I mean, basically.

And then Jared’s getting something that isn’t quite a rant but is basically an insider report on pretty much all of the Scouts, because Bryce is clearly still pissed about that series, and he’s got a MENSA level hockey IQ. He was up against the first line, which Jared isn’t going to be facing much if at all, but he was apparently paying very close attention on the bench as well, and at a certain point Jared starts taking literal notes on his phone, trying to keep up.

When holding grudges comes in handy.

“Hey!” Jared says, torn from strategy. “You talking about my new Premier?”

“Holy fuck,” Stephen says after a moment. “No offence but if you voted for him him I’m kicking you out of our house right now.”

Jared takes no offence. “Obviously I didn’t fucking vote for him,” Jared says. “Dude’s a corrupt megalomaniac with an oil rig where his heart should be.”

We now interrupt your story for political propaganda. But like — from a policy standpoint, every statement here is accurate, up to and including the oil rig heart (Jason Kenney resigned in disgrace only to be replaced by someone worse somehow -- the conservative way -- and is now on the board of directors of an energy company. No one could have possibly foreseen this.)

“Are we talking about Kenney?” Bryce complains. “Politics are boring.”

“Politics are how we were able to get married, B,” Jared says,

Of note that Jason Kenney was virulently homophobic.

(He still is, I'm sure, but now he isn’t making homophobic policy decisions -- that’s the job of his successor!)

“These kids,” Gabe says to Stephen. “Bet they don’t even remember when gay marriage was legalised.”

“I do,” Bryce protests. “Sort of.”

Jared shrugs. “I was a little kid?” he says. “I wasn’t really paying attention.”

Jared once again hurting Stephen with his youth. Gay marriage was legalized in Canada in July 2005. Jared was 6. Bryce 9. Gabe and Stephen 14.

“Get out of my house,” Stephen says, but he says that all the time, and Jared no longer listens to him. Well, he probably genuinely meant it if Jared was a UCP supporter, but obviously Jared isn’t — he was raised by hobgoblins, not actual monsters. “Now let’s do Ford.”

God, let’s not — I’ll be here all fucking week.

“While I enjoy trashing Doug Ford as much as the next Ontarian,” Gabe says.

Not so much that they didn’t vote for more! Not going to lie, I’m still coping pretty hard with the fact the majority of my fellow Ontarians either voted for this guy a second time, or didn’t bother to get off their asses because his opponents weren’t ‘inspiring’. Is that on the Ontario Libs and NDP too? Yep. On ‘Rae Days’ BS and Liberals always talking strategic voting, but only if that means NDP voters vote for them? Sure. But for fuck’s sakes, everyone who didn’t vote essentially cast a ballot for everything Ford has done since, including the multi-billion dollar racketeering he’s being investigated for by the RCMP. But Rae Days.

Okay. Off my soap box.

“Stephen’s a lot,” Bryce says, all blink-y about it. Stephen isn’t even being extra Stephen, he’s just normal level Stephen, but then, Jared probably has a higher tolerance for snide, since he so often is himself.

Inoculation!

Though you’d think Bryce would be used to it too, considering who he’s married to. Maybe he’s just got immunity to Jared’s particular brand of it after enough exposure.

Jared and Stephen are similarly snide but not identically, Bryce only has Jared immunity. He gets very blink-y around Julius too. I’d say he has Erin immunity too but Erin isn’t even a hobgoblin with Bryce unless he dares suggest she and Jared have any similarities whatsoever, in which case she proves his point for him by getting extremely huffy about it just like Jared does.

“I believed you,” Bryce protests. “But he’s so — mean. He told me my hair was stupid.”

The first time Stephen calls Bryce’s hair Disney Prince hair. Bryce hasn’t realised it’s a compliment, as Stephen says it in a mean voice.

“His hair’s stupid,” Bryce mutters. “And he called me a cradle robber! And kept calling me Coach Bryce!”

I mean…

Jared was there for that, but he thought it was more because Bryce was like, coaching them through strategy. In hindsight it is more likely Stephen pointing out that Bryce was, in fact, Jared’s coach when they met, albeit tenuously. Jared really never should have told Stephen that. He’s never going to let it go.

Jared also understands a little better why Bryce scowled at him when Jared joined Stephen in calling him Coach Bryce.

Still fucking dying that Jared accidentally joined Stephen in roasting Bryce.

“You make a very good coach though,” Jared says, putting a soothing hand on Bryce’s arm.

Bryce scowls.

He knows you’re about say something mean, Jared, he’s been inoculated!

“Just don’t sleep with any other prospects, I’d be super—” Jared breaks off to protect himself from a half-tackle from Bryce, laughing as Bryce gets a jab in to his side.

Jared’s true love language: play wrestling.

“No PDA on the Markson-Petersen property,” Stephen says.

Jared opens his mouth, considering Gabe kissed Stephen right in front of them like twenty minutes ago. Bryce went adorably pink about it.

Literally the first time Bryce has personally witnessed two guys kissing (I mean, not involving him, obvs), and it’s people he KNOWS. Low key a big moment for him.

“He’s so mean,” Bryce mumbles. “That wasn’t even PDA, I wrestle with Chaz all the time.”

Jared would raise an eyebrow, but he thinks he’d get tackled again. Plus he also used to wrestle with Chaz all the time. Chaz loves a good wrestling match. Jared’s wrestling matches with Chaz have a distinctly different tenor to them than his grappling with Bryce, particularly when Bryce decides he isn’t going to let Jared win. Stephen was maybe not off about the PDA part.

Chaz’s love language is also play wrestling, but not like that. Bro love. Bruv.

Jared hears a lock click, though he’s not too worried. Gabe will intercede if he has to.

Spoken like someone who has frequently locked doors on his little sister, who had to be let in by Don or Susan. Or been locked out by said sister. Or, you know, the time they were both locked out by their mother so they couldn’t eavesdrop on Bryce asking for their blessing. A family affair.

“I know,” Jared says. It’d be bad walking into a series thinking you didn’t.

“We didn’t,” Bryce says.

Another win for the brain to mouth filter!

The Scouts are a juggernaut, but the Canucks are no slouch either.

The Scouts are better.

Every fucking time. Dynasties, man. (They haven’t even won their first Cup at this point; they’re going to be so much more annoying when they’re winning their third.)

Jared hopes it’s the Caps and Raf scores the game winning goal and does a fly by giving the finger to Williams and Simcoe. That doesn’t sound like a particularly Raf move

Robbie, though…

…but Jared’s not exactly being reasonable right now, all raw scraped nerves and hurt and a fucked up shoulder from a hard hit by Angelopoulos that probably should have sidelined him, but didn’t because it was the playoffs.

The first injury of Jared by a main cast member from a different series. But not the last.

Jared does his stupid painful exercises for the stiffness, gets out of packing anything because, well, shoulder, so it’s Bryce who’s doing it while Jared supervises and occasionally insults his packing decisions just to get that huffy Bryce sigh.

Yet another love language: intentionally bugging Bryce.

Jared’s in his parents’ kitchen with Erin when he hears the whoop from the living room, Bryce and his dad, mom lost under how loud they are, and him and Erin shuffle out to watch the Caps surge over the boards to dogpile their goalie.

Bryce and Don bonding on Team Fuck the Scouts.

Grace is clutch, and the group chat has a number of pictures of the partying the next morning. There’s a picture of Raf and Chapman looking absolutely shitfaced and more than half-asleep that’s particularly good, and Jared makes sure to save it for the purpose of mockery. Another very unflattering one Raf and Kurmazov the Senior, and Jared saves that one to send to Dmitry so he may use it for the purposes of mockery.

Look, Jared’s putting aside his feelings for Dmitry to help him be an annoying little brother, bless. Also that picture of Raf and David is adorable.

the salve of falling asleep in the same bed, of Bryce hitting his alarm immediately and trying to sneak around in the mornings so he doesn’t wake Jared up, Jared pretending he’s still asleep so Bryce doesn’t feel guilty, Bryce probably pretending he actually thinks Jared’s asleep

The softest game of deception devised since peek-a-boo.

129. Sabbatical

Summer’s — summer’s summer.

Very eloquent, Jared. (He doesn’t know how to describe the bone deep relief he feels falling asleep with and waking up beside Bryce, mixed with the grunt work of training, tempered by the fact he’s doing it with some of his favourite people, and they all get to hang out together after(!), Jared has a friend group(!) but also he’s not playing hockey which low key makes everything feel kind of off. So. Summer’s summer.)

Grace has cut her hair really short, and Raf’s done the opposite, letting his grow out, and Ash got a tattoo — her and Bryce bitch about the pain for a bit — but they’re basically all the same as they were a year ago, all feel like home to him even though Calgary only gets to be home in the offseason.

Grace looks great, Raf looks low-key terrible (Cup. Parties. plus the whole road to the Cup in the first place, man is battered.) and Ashley’s tattoo is fire. Not literally, thank fuck; that’d definitely make Chaz getting traded more awkward.

Jared goes up to Edmonton to visit Julius when he pops in for a week for dumb media stuff

I like that it’s completely unclear whether that’s Jared editorializing with ‘dumb media stuff’, or if Julius has been referring to it that way himself.

while Bryce has a ridiculous staycation thing with Erin — that’s code for renting a hotel suite all of a couple blocks from Bryce and Jared’s place for no purpose other than splashing around the pool, and Erin dragging Bryce from store to store and Bryce not even looking at price tags before handing the cashier his credit card, but Bryce was insistent on Erin getting something for her high school graduation, so whatever. Jared and Julius do absolutely nothing while Jared’s there except eat and watch TV and bitch about media and tell each other when they find something funny on the internet. It’s great.

The First Time Erin Makes Twitter Incoming. And Julius and Jared entirely oblivious in Edmonton (this is before Erin and Julius get together, for the record)

It’s honestly such a sweet thing for Bryce to do for Erin’s graduation, and frankly it sucks that it blows up in his face. Bryce did nothing wrong! (For once, says Dave.)

After their anniversary — Bryce buys him too much as usual, Jared does too this year, most currently living in a box in their closet that Bryce goes slightly pink looking at, and he looks often

Jared’s stinginess once again not applying to sex toys, which Bryce appreciates.

— they fly back so Jared can sign the lease and move some stuff out of Elaine’s and and Bryce can visit with Elaine and Gordie and Gail for a bit, do some early birthday stuff with them.

This is the other half of the sex toy sentence, what a fucking segue, Jared. Sex toy reference right before wholesome times with the Marcuses.

Jared’s new apartment is in a good location, not far from Gabe and Stephen’s house, which is pretty much perfectly placed between the practice rink, arena, and airport.

It's in Shaughnessy. Canucks practice at the University of British Columbia (they don’t have their own practice facilities). Triangulation was not by distance, but average commute in traffic and not in traffic (yes, he made the drives, and yes, he bought a real life stop watch and Stephen made fun of him incessantly for this. Does he not have a stop watch on his phone? Come on Gabriel. Gabe would argue, correctly, that he should not be on his phone while driving).

Also he fudged his results and picked somewhere closer to UBC because Stephen was going there at the time, or he would have likely gone for Mt Pleasant or South Main. Stephen is aware. Gabe is aware Stephen is aware. It is not discussed. They like their house, no plans on moving.

Getting a house around there will run you a couple million bucks, because Vancouver, so Jared, known opposite of a big spender, has decided to rent an apartment.

Jared can absolutely see Gabe doing that. Appreciates that Gabe did that. Jared was just google mapping it, Gabe’s test seems like better data.

He FUDGED THE DATA FOR LOVE, JARED. IT IS ALL A LIE.

He likes his place, likes it better when Bryce is in it, helping him put together a dining room table he’ll probably never use,

I am not sure if this dining room table even appears in the story again, it is so underutilized. Generally they eat on the couch (or at the kitchen island, but that's just coffee and breakfast, mostly). If paperwork needs to be done it gets used. That's about it.

“You are literally going to spend the next two days with me,” Jared says when Bryce looks particularly kicked puppy as Jared packs his laptop, which was an anniversary present he did not actually need. At least Erin appreciated getting Jared’s barely even past warranty old one as a university present.

Bold of you to assume that wasn’t Bryce’s plan all along so you aren’t all ‘you can’t buy Erin a laptop, Bryce’, ‘you’ve given Erin more than enough already, Bryce’, ‘stop buying my horrible sister things, Bryce’.

“I can pout whenever I want to, you’re not the boss of me,” Bryce mutters.

“That’s not true,” Jared says. Jared is very much the boss of him and they both know it.

Bryce appreciated his anniversary gifts.

“Nope,” Jared says when Bryce’s hands start creeping under his shirt. “I need to get this done, I don’t want to get halfway to Vancouver before I realise I forgot something important.”

“Flames are going to be in Vancouver in two weeks,” Bryce says.

“No guarantee you’d be playing that game,” Jared says.

“If I’m not I could send it with Chaz,” Bryce says, and before Jared can protest that Chaz might not either, “Canucks are in Calgary right after too.”

Jared doesn’t know if it’s Bryce being stubbornly logical or the fact that Bryce said all of that while unbuttoning and unzipping Jared’s shorts that sways him. Obviously a combination.

‘Keep talking workarounds for possible setbacks, baby, that’s so hot’. But like. Unironically.

After the first leg of the trip they land up in the best hotel you can get in the dead land between Revelstoke and Kamloops, which is not saying much

It’s in Sicamous and it’s a Best Western.

Mere years ago he was lucky if it was a hotel instead of a motel and he was stuck with an asshole roommate who talked in his sleep, and now he’s turning his nose up at a three star hotel.

It’s technically a four star, Jared, you gigantic snob. Also it looks nice enough, honestly, so either it’s been renovated and upped a star since I checked, or I was being lazy in my Revelstoke to Kamloops accommodations due diligence.

“How hard will you judge me if I ask to get back in the car and keep driving?” Bryce asks. “Because Salmon Arm has a decent hotel.”

“How far’s Salmon Arm?” Jared asks.

“Twenty minutes, half an hour?” Bryce says.

Salmon Arm does NOT have a four star hotel. This is a downgrade from that Best Western in Sicamous. As it is now. Possibly not back when I was doing research.

Bryce waits in the car when Jared gets their room, which ends up being a really fucking good call because the front desk clerk is clearly a big Canucks fan, recognises Jared before he even hands her his credit card. Jared texts Bryce a frantic ‘shelter in place’, getting a bunch of question marks in reply, and then he has to go out and sneak him in a side entrance lest he have to explain why he’s sharing a room with one king bed with The Enemy, so that’s great. This is a great trip. Jared’s really enjoying this trip.

THIS is a non chain inn. It’s kind of dated, but like, fine.

“Quit grumbling and tell me what you want from room service,” Bryce yawns.

Jared quits grumbling long enough to order a club sandwich, then resumes grumbling.

I genuinely remember looking at a room service menu for accuracy but now there is no room service. So either I am making this all up or they’ve gone downhill. But then, this was written in 2020, when more places may have had room service for pandemic related reasons. It DOES have an in house restaurant, unlike all other Salmon Arm-y places, so it very possibly did offer room service.

This is bothering me now. I am bothered. Petty grudge against Salmon Arm unlocked.

“Summers gave me a few excuses if things were like, asked,” Bryce says. “Mutual friends with Chaz, met years ago at a camp and still hang out, stuff like that.”

“That’s all true, though,” Jared says.

“Yeah but isn’t like, ‘we’re super in love’,” Bryce says. “Which I think was the part Summers wants to avoid.”

Dave has very low expectations about Bryce’s ability to make up a story, and I think that is extremely fair, to be honest.

“Would you be cool with me coming out to my team?” Jared says. “Not like the level of what Gabe knows or anything, just like, not hiding the fact I married a dude.”

Bryce is quiet. “Can I think about it?” he asks finally.

“Yeah,” Jared says.

“I know you — you can come out to anyone you want to, that’s like, your right,” Bryce says.

“I know,” Jared says.

“I need to think about it,” Bryce says.

This is so much progress! Bryce not reflexively saying no! Bryce acknowledging that Jared has autonomy in how he represents himself to others! Actually thinking about it!

“Yeah but I’m a BC boy now,” Jared says.

“I’m a BC boy,” Bryce mutters.

“Nope,” Jared says. “We swapped.”

“You can’t just be a BC boy,” Bryce says, sounding genuinely agitated. “You have to earn it. And you can’t be a BC boy: you don’t even like sushi.”

I love you and the things that bother you, Bryce Marcus.

“Your teammates,” Bryce says, and Jared looks up from his phone. “If you want to tell them you can. Like. The husband thing not the—”

“Not the you being my husband bit,” Jared assures him.

“Okay,” Bryce says, blows out a breath, then another one.

“You sure?” Jared asks.

Bryce takes a hand off the steering wheel to give Jared a so-so.

PROGRESS!!!

“Can we take this exit?” he asks.

“Uh,” Jared says. “We’re like an hour away.”

Bryce gives him a glance.

“I told you to piss when we got lunch,” Jared mutters.

“And you were right and I was wrong,” Bryce mutters back.

Married. Also — end of yet another arc.

#liveblogging the end

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rhysdarbinizedarby · 9 months

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Rhys Darby on Hollywood’s Writers Strikes

BY CHLOE DAVISON (July 15, 2023)

Writers turn their pens from scripts to protest signs; The Writers Guild of America (WGA) are striking. Waving signs that read “pay your writers or we’ll spoil Succession” and “I told ChatGPT to write a sign and it sucked,” the WGA are picketing for contracts that guarantee job security and fairer pay. These infamous strikes prevent writers from creating new content, and since entering this strike on May 2nd, Saturday Night Live and Late Night Shows have halted filming. More Hollywood production disruptions are inevitable unless a deal is struck.

I sat down with actor Rhys Darby, who zoomed in from LA, to discuss how the writers strikes might affect us here in Aotearoa. The Auckland-born actor is a true Kiwi success story. Originating in stand-up, and starring in the breakthrough Kiwi comedy series Flight of the Conchords, Darby’s comedy has since infiltrated Hollywood. Starring in the blockbuster Jumanji and queer rom-com Our Flag Means Death alongside Taika Waititi, Darby is making us proud over in Hollywood.

These writers are fighting the good fight, though the quiet question of “what will happen to my telly?” can be heard in hushed tones among audiences. We audiences may resent the disruption to our favourites, but I wonder: why do we rely so much on American productions, do we not have our own media identity? I fear not.

Darby shares in the consensus of support for the WGA: “It’s about fairness in the industry starting at the grassroots level, which is the writers.” He fears without writers, the Kardashians are our standard for good television. “Without the writers, there’s nothing happening. We’re watching Kardashians, no offence against them, but we’re basically going back into reality.”

Darby suggests that the reason we in New Zealand are invested in the writer’s strikes, and why we feel impacted, aligns with the reason for the strikes. WGA have historically striked at times of change in the industry. 2007’s strike allowed writers to generate revenue from internet-distributed media, ‘81 and ‘85 centred around the financial distribution of home video. This time writers are picketing for fair residuals from streaming services.

Darby thinks “the world’s become way smaller than it ever has in the past,” thanks to the internet. “We are all watching the same kind of stuff, thanks to streaming services.” Because of this, there’s no longer a physical barrier between international media, presenting one global stage for which media to be judged. Perhaps streaming services are a modern Silk Road, a shared network. Hollywood’s pinnacle, the Oscars, might just reflect this, having awarded the Oscar for best picture to a non-English film, Parasite, for the first time in 2020.

My question still lies unanswered: Why is New Zealand’s media identity so weak? Why are our consumption habits so Americanised? Darby has the answer. He says, “It’s a real battleground for like— ‘Is this Kiwi or is it actually American what we’re making, how many New Zealanders are in it?’ Well, I can tell ya, there’s a lot of crew that are Kiwi because we’re very good with our crew.” He cites the sitcom Wrecked, “that was an American production, American writers… it was I think 90% New Zealand crew.”

“We’re hard-working people, and we’re utilised a lot, and so people forget about that… they think of writers, they think of actors, but they wouldn’t think of the rest of the industry that are working behind the scenes to make these things happen.”

Micah Winiata, one of these backstage Kiwis, shares similar ideas. He says that “physically being on set you can notice the behavioural differences with crew. In broad strokes, Kiwis get stuck in and do the job and complain less, and Americans (typically) like productions to go through unions, following the rules to the tee.”

When speaking with Rhys, his wife, producer and publicist Rosie Carnahan, interjects from offscreen, “I was just gonna say they need to continue to be competitive with filming rebates as well.” Rhys replies, “so we need to be more competitive with filming rebates to attract productions to our country. I came up with that, not my wife.”

The New Zealand Screen Production Grant (NZSPG) grants international productions in New Zealand a cash rebate of up to 20% of production costs. This rebate, though not as competitive as other nations, does serve to attract productions to New Zealand, and may account for the significant Hollywood presence in New Zealand, yet no national media identity.

Economically, New Zealand differs heavily from Hollywood in terms of funding. New Zealand media entities are overwhelmingly government-funded; this has pros and cons. Winiata is for it, saying “New Zealand can fund and create films which may not even have any international commercial value, but are culturally valuable for the nation unlike America, where it is solely profit driven; if there is a market and an audience there is money to be made. The structure of this funding means we can create taonga for future generations to come.” Winiata values this taonga, reflected in his own work such as TIAOI (2021), a silent documentary he produced, and set in his hometown of Tauranga Moana.

However, by building a national media identity on the foundations of government dollars, these dollars are biased, political, and shielded. It’s almost a dangerous premise: where does government media cross the line and become propaganda? Darby thinks that maintaining a cultural bubble is New Zealand’s pitfall, “it’s a competitive world, but it’s really important for us to tell our own stories. And have them relatable… that’s the key, is to have them relatable to the wider world so that it gives them more life.” He cites Apple TV’s 2020 comedy-drama Ted Lasso as an example of cross-cultural appeal and success. “At the end of the day, it just needs to be relatable.”

New Zealand may not be synonymous with Hollywood just yet, but we are far from absent from the big screen. You’ll simply have to stick around for the credits to see us.

source: Tear Away NZ

#rhys darby #ofmd #our flag means death #interview #sag aftra #sag aftra strike

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samynnad102687 · 25 days

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Quiet in the library

@struttingstag April 5th Prompt: Quiet in the library | 1530 words James/Regulus/Sirius | Warnings: NSFW, blow jobs

James was at the library studying with Regulus for the third day in a row. Regulus wasn't studying though, he was just making James study since he had his NEWTs coming up in a month. It didn't help that Regulus kept biting his bottom lip every time James got the answer correct, which happened quite a lot and the longer they sat there the tighter James' jeans became.

"Reg... if you keep doing that, I'm going to end up launching over this table to ravish your neck until we can get to our secret room," James whisper-yelled across the table after he slammed the transfiguration book closed.

"Aww, baby," Regulus cooed. "Am I distracting you?"

"You know you are." James scoffed as he rolled his eyes.

"Well, maybe having you ravish me in the library is my end goal. Did you ever think about that?" Regulus asked as he batted his long lashes at him and James had to adjust himself in his seat.

"You're the one who wanted me to study." James threw his hands up in the air in frustration.

He didn't know how much longer the blood flow was going to continue to go to his brain before it all travelled south in a hurry. Regulus laughed quietly before he stood up and walked around the table to stand behind James and whispered in his ear as he ran his hand up and down James' chest.

"Ten more minutes and I'll let you do whatever you want when we get back to our room. Okay?" James nodded dumbly.

Regulus straightened and started to walk away.

"Where are you going?"

"To get the last book that you need."

Regulus disappeared into the stacks a minute later. James was trying to calm his body down so he could focus. He could wait ten more minutes. Right? James was about to open the book in front of him again when Sirius appeared and plopped himself down in Regulus' chair with a huff. James gave him a confused look before he started speaking.

"I don't get it," Sirius said as he looked around for a second before he locked eyes with James again.

"Get what?"

"What's so special about Reggie? Well, no, I know what's special about him but why him and not me?" Sirius complained. "What does he do better than I can?"

"What are you talking about?"

"We have been best friends for years and we've done stuff in the past, right?" James nodded. "So why him?"

"Well, for one," Regulus smirked from behind Sirius, who nearly fell out of his chair at Regulus' sudden appearance, "I'm better at sucking cock than you are."

"You are not!" Sirius gasped as he put his hand over his heart in offence.

"Pretty sure the noises you were making the last time I sucked you off prove that I am." Regulus shrugged as he sat down next to his brother.

"That's beside the point," Sirius pouted before he turned away from Regulus, who was quietly laughing, and back to James, who was trying to hide his smile behind his hand.

"Is that why?" Sirius asked, gesturing to Regulus.

"I mean, he is quite an expert at it but that's not the only reason," James replied with a shrug.

"Told you," Regulus taunted as he stuck out his tongue at Sirius who was still pouting.

"What if I prove I'm better?" Sirius asked suddenly with a determined look on his face.

"What?" James choked out. He wasn't sure if he heard him correctly. "Better at what?"

"Sucking cock."

"You really think that you're better than me?" Regulus scoffed as he rolled his eyes.

Now see, James loves Regulus. He really does but he has also fantasised about Sirius in the past. They had done some stuff but it never went any further than making out and fondling each other over their clothes. They were teenage boys who just hit puberty and they were curious. James didn't know what to say. He looked at Regulus for a minute with the question on his tongue but Regulus seemed to have already read his mind.

"It's up to you, Jamie," Regulus said nonchalantly as he leaned back in his chair and gestured to his brother with a lazy wave of his hand.

"So what do you say, James?" Sirius asked hopefully.

"What? Now?"

"Yeah. I mean you're already worked up," James glared at Regulus before looking back at Sirius. "Why not let me help you out?" Sirius finished.

"We're in the library," James remarked aghast.

Regulus stood up and walked around the table again to whisper in James' ear.

"He's not going to let it go until you let him suck you off. Plus, if you let him do that, I'll let you tie me up later. I know how much you love doing that."

James could feel his cheeks heat up and he was sure the three Hufflepuff girls could see it from across the library.

James nodded slowly as a soft 'okay' fell from his lips.

Regulus grabbed his hand to pull him up from the table. James went willingly and followed Regulus without hesitation. He didn't know where they were going but he didn't care.

"Are you coming?" Regulus called back to the table where Sirius was still sitting with a confused look on his face.

Sirius jumped up so fast that he nearly knocked the chair over and walked quickly over to them. By the time they stopped, Regulus had dragged them to a secluded part of the library where they kept the outdated books that they refused to get rid of. Regulus pushed James into one of the armchairs before he ran his hand up James' chest lightly and positioned himself behind the chair but close enough to keep his hands on James.

"Let's see what you got, brother."

Sirius nodded and dropped to his knees with a thud and started to release James' cock from its confines. It sprung up quickly once his jeans and pants were pulled halfway down his thighs. Regulus started to run his ring-clad fingers through James' hair, tugging gently at the roots. James' heart flipped in his chest at the prospect of having both brothers at the same time.

"What are you waiting for, Sirius? He's willing and I can already see him leaking from the tip," Regulus scoffed as he ran his lips along the helix of James' ear, making him shiver with anticipation. "If you don't hurry up, I'm going to kick you out and take care of him myself."

Sirius didn't waste another second and swallowed James down in one go, gagging slightly. James moaned at the sudden wet heat and Regulus put his hand over James' mouth.

"You have to be quiet, baby. This is the library remember," Regulus breathed into James' ear and James nodded before he let out another muffled moan into Regulus' hand.

Sirius started to swirl his tongue around James' cock as he bobbed his head faster and faster. James was starting to see stars at the corners of his vision. Was he better than Regulus? James couldn't tell. He was good with his tongue, James would give him that. He could feel himself crawling to the edge and peering over it. He was teetering and when James went to tell Sirius that he was close, he was cut off by another muffled moan from deep in his throat.

"You're close, aren't you, baby?" Regulus asked, always in tune with James' body.

James nodded as he closed his eyes for a second to focus on the feel of having Sirius between his thighs and Regulus behind him. Regulus removed his hand after another rather loud muffled moan and replaced it with his lips, swallowing the moan that followed.

"Quiet, Jamie. You need to behave if you want your treat," Regulus whispered seductively into James' ear, causing his whole body to shudder and his hips to buck up into Sirius' mouth before he spilt down his throat with no warning.

Sirius swallowed every last drop, licking James clean before he pulled off with a smug grin.

"So?" Sirius asked. "Who's better?"

"I- I don't know," James replied as he looked between the brothers.

James was still coming down from the high of his orgasm as Regulus put him back into his jeans. Regulus was trying to hide his own smug grin as Sirius scoffed and threw his hands up in the air. James was sure if Sirius had a chance to prove it by himself then James might be able to make a decision but he was still reeling from having them both at the same time. Could he have them both at the same time?

Once James had calmed his body down, Regulus grabbed his hand again and pulled him along back to the table to pack up their stuff. Sirius was trailing behind like a sad puppy.

"Good boy," Regulus whispered into James' ear after he pulled him in for a kiss after they left the library.

If the three of them ended up in James' and Regulus' room, that was nobody's business except their own.

Also posted on Ao3: Library Surprises

#marauders fandom #dead gay wizards #regulus arcturus black #james fleamont potter #marauders fanfiction #regulus x james #sirius orion black #james x sirius #james x regulus x sirius #Stag microfic

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scotianostra · 1 year

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January 8th 1697 Edinburgh student Thomas Aikenhead was executed in Edinburgh.

This is a cracking, if sad tale, and shows you how religious beliefs can be a blight on our history.

So who was oor Thomas, a villain?, a murderer?, a smuggler?, or some enemy of the state? No Thomas’s crime was blasphemy who took the lord’s name in vain…….this would be comic if it wasn’t for the tragic fact that he was executed, unlike the man in Life of Brian, who uttered the words Jehova, Thomas complained that he wished he was warming himself in hell rather than that chilly night walking past the recently built Tron Kirk on Edinburgh’s Royal Mile. Well that’s the simple story that the tour guides that take you round the Old Town will tell you, there is a bit more to it so I will bore you with a bit more of the detail. Thomas Aikenhead came from a well-to-do family in Edinburgh, his father being listed as a surgeon but more probably an apothecary, a dispenser of herbs and potions. Both his parents were dead by the time he became a student at Edinburgh University at the age of 16 or 17.

His mother had been a daughter of the manse, and you would think that would have made Aikenhead wary of challenging the established religion of the time, namely the all-powerful Church of Scotland, especially while still a student and under the constant gaze of professors, lecturers and, as it turned out, his fellow students.

These were the dying days of a curious period in Scottish history. Aikenhead would have been four when the ‘Wizard of the West Bow’ Major Thomas Weir was executed in 1670. Weir was by day an extreme Calvinist but by night an incestuous Satanist and it takes no great leap of reason to see that an impressionable young boy might well have been affected by the trial and execution of a local celebrity that lived not far from him.

The 1680s was also the ‘killing time’ for the Covenanters when many died because of they worshipped their same god in differing ways!

Thomas was a keen student and an avid reader, he may or may not have known and Edinburgh bookseller, John Frazer, who had been prosecuted after admitting either reading, or being in possession of Charles Blount’s Oracles of Reason a book I know nothing about but gather it relates to Deism, which questioned the existence or more importanyly, non-existence of God or Satan, Frazer had repented ad as it was a first offence was sackclothed and jailed in the old Tolbooth for a number of months.

Anyway, Thomas had a friend, well he thought he had a friend, Murdo Craig, but Murdo, on the sly had been keeping notes on Aitkenhead, and his dalliances with blasphemous ideals, we know that because they formed a large part of the indictment against Aikenhead.

“Nevertheless it is of verity, that you Thomas Aikenhead, shakeing off all fear of God and regaird to his majesties lawes, have now for more than a twelvemoneth by past, and upon severall of the dayes within the said space, and ane or other of the same, made it as it were your endeavour and work in severall compainies to vent your wicked blasphemies against God and our Saviour Jesus Christ, and against the holy Scriptures, and all revealled religione, in soe far as upon ane or other of the dayes forsaid, you said and affirmed, that divinity or the doctrine of theologie was a rapsidie of faigned and ill-invented nonsense, patched up partly of the morall doctrine of philosophers, and pairtly of poeticall fictions and extravagant chimeras, or words to this effect or purpose, with severall other such reproachfull expressions.”

That was just for starters. Sir James Stewart of Goodtrees, the Lord Advocate of the day, had taken a personal interest in the case and he decided to throw the whole lot of Craig’s testimony at Aikenhead who was arrested in November, 1696, and charged under the Blasphemy Act of 1661 which carried the death penalty. He also charged Aikenhead under a more recent act, which made it a criminal offence to ‘deny, impugn or quarrel’ about the existence of God.The prosecution papers go on to record

“You have lykwayes in discourse preferred Mahomet to the blessed Jesus, and you have said that you hoped to see Christianity greatly weakened, and that you are confident that in a short tyme it will be utterly extirpate.”

For Mahomet, read Muhammad, could young Thomas be an Islam convert in 17th century Edinburgh, I very much doubt it, they just needed to make an example of the young student, and he knew by now that he was in very great trouble and protested in effect that he was guilty only of the sin of being youthful and had been led astray by the books he had read. He claimed to have repented of his anti-Christian beliefs and was once again a good Presbyterian. In this way he seems to have thrown himself upon the mercy of the court, but there was no mercy. On Christmas Eve, 1696, a jury found him guilty. Sir James Stewart asked for the death penalty and it was granted and “pronounced for doom,” as Scottish judges were still saying well into the 20th century in capital punishment cases. Aikenhead pleaded for his life to the Privy Council emphasising his youth, his dire circumstances, and the fact that he was reconciled to the Protestant religion. There was some support for the death sentence to be commuted from at least two councillors and two Church of Scotland ministers, but the General Assembly of the Kirk intervened, demanding that Aikenhead suffer

“vigorous execution to curb the abounding of impiety and profanity in this land”.

In his last letter to friends, written in the Tolbooth prison in Edinburgh as he awaited execution, Aikenhead at last gave a plausible explanation for his conduct – that he had been a disappointed seeker after truth. He wrote:

“It is a principle innate and co-natural to every man to have an insatiable inclination to the truth and to seek for it as for hid treasure. So I proceeded until the more I thought thereon, the further I was from finding the verity I desired.” In truth, in a repressed society the student had just gone too far in rejecting the doctrines of Christianity calling it “feigned and ill-invented nonsense”

Aikenhead went to his death on January 8, 1697, hanged on the scaffold at Shrubhill between Edinburgh and Leith. It is said that before he died he proclaimed that moral laws were the work of governments and men. In his hand as the noose was plced around his neck was the Holy Bible. The execution angered many people for many years afterwards. The great English historian Thomas Babington Macaulay wrote an account of the hanging and called the execution “a crime such has never since polluted the island.”He continued: “The preachers who were the boy’s murderers crowded round him at the gallows, and, while he was struggling in the last agony, insulted Heaven with prayers more blasphemous than any thing that he had ever uttered.”

There was other evidence of church authorities being present as Aikenhead died. He was the last man in Britain to be hanged for blasphemy.

According to Arthur Herman in his book “How the Scots Invented the Modern World: The True Story of How Western Europe’s Poorest Nation Created Our World and Everything in It”, the execution of Aikenhead was “the last hurrah of Scotland’s Calvinist ayatollahs” before the dawning of the age of reason in the Enlightenment.

Now we can all rejoice in The Enlightenment but a full 30 years later in the small town of Dornoch in Sutherland, Janet Horne was put on trial for the “crime” of having a daughter whose feet and hands were misshapen and who had herself given birth to a son with disabilities. She was the last woman in Britain to be burned at the stake for being a witch, her death bringing to an end the “burning time” when perhaps 4000 Scottish women were executed for the crime of witchcraft.

I thought I would add a wee bit more about Shrubhill in Leith, as most of us usually only regard Edinburgh’s Old Town, The Tolbooth, and Grassmarket as sites where executions took place. I can’t find out why Aikenhead was taken to, at what at the time, was a different town for his executions I did however find records of several taking place at the site, now student accommodation, but the site of Edinburghs tram workshops and powerstation, but beforehand not many know that it was the site of he gibbet known as the Gallow Lee, literally the “field with the gallows”,

Bodies were buried at the base of the gallows or their ashes scattered if burnt. The most famous of those that met their end here was perhaps Major Weir, the Wizard of the West Bow.

1570- Two criminals strangled and burned to death.

1570 (4 October)- Rev. John Kelloe minister of Spott, East Lothian (near Dunbar) strangled and burnt for the murder of his wife

1664- Nine witches strangled and burnt

1670- Major Thomas Weir, the self-confessed warlock, strangled and burnt for witchcraft (almost the only self-confessed witch executed).

1678- Five witches strangled and burnt

1680- Part of the body of Covenanter David Hackston was hung in chains after his execution at the mercat cross in Edinburgh for the murder of Archbishop Sharp in 1679.

1681 (10 October)- Covenanters Garnock, Foreman, Russel, Ferrie and Stewart hanged and beheaded. Their headless bodies were buried at the site and their heads placed on the Cowgate Port at the foot of the Pleasance. Friends reburied the bodies in the graveyard of the West Kirk (St. Cuthberts). The heads were retrieved, placed in a box and then buried in garden ground at Lauriston. They lay there until 7 October 1726 when the then owner, Mr Shaw, had them exhumed and reburied near the Martyrs’ Monument in Greyfriars Kirkyard.

1697 (8 January)- Thomas Aikenhead, a 19-year-old theology student at Edinburgh University became the last person to be executed under Scotland’s blasphemy laws (and the last in Britain to be executed for that crime).

1752 (10 January)- Norman Ross, a footman, hanged for the murder of Lady Baillie, sister of Home, Laird of Wedderburn. The body was left to hang in a gibbet cage “for many a year” and became a local ghoulish tourist attraction.

Post mid 18th Century the Nor’ Loch was drained and the city expanded to the north by the building of the New Town with stone quarried from nearby Craigleith quarry. In such building sand was needed to add to the lime mortar and Gallow Lee proved to be just what was needed. The owner of Gallow Lee charged the builders to cart away the sand, containing the ashes and other remains of thousands of victims.

As with all good stories there has been a drama set to the events, I Am Thomas: A Brutal Comedy with Songs was performed at the Royal Lyceum Theatre in 2016, before going on a short tour, it received mixed to positive reviews from critics. Read one of the reviews here https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2016/feb/17/i-am-thomas-aikenhead-play-told-by-an-idiot-simon-armitage-blasphemy

#scotland #scottish #edinburgh #blasphemy #religous zealots #executions #history

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pandorafallz · 2 months

Text

Vampire AU | Rumors and Mishaps

“How ya feeling?”

Harper was looking better but still clearly very weak but she was awake and not looking to be overly groggy. Jake wasn’t allowed to remove his face mask and there was no physical contact which he figured was agreeable given the circumstances. She looked remarkably small in her bed but that was probably given the size difference in his avatar. It was a little weird; she was so stern-faced and seeing her like this was… different.

“Like someone cut me open and stole one of my organs.” Harper mused, licking her dry lips.

Jake snorted a little as he seated himself comfortably on the cool floor. “Well, in our defence, it was killing you. I’d rather steal your organs and have you live to complain about it.”

“Oh, you’re looking for a kidney next? My spleen?”

“You offering?”

Harper rolled her eyes but she was smiling a little. “Thank you. I…appreciate that you all came to help me. Mo’at too.”

The Tsahìk in question was present, but situated in the corner of the Rolab with Eliza and with a new collection of freshly plucked herbs; clearly educating the doctor on what they were and how to make it into a viable paste.

“Humans gotta have each other’s backs out here.” Jake said, “Especially when you’re sick. We gotta have compassion and community…. And someone has to drag Zeke off the floor when he’s fainted.”

“Hey! I hear you, you know.” Zeke was by one of the monitors, the window painted over so it was a little dark but he looked to be busy with some science scans of a plant.

“Good,” Harper remarked.

Zeke tore his eyes from the screen and then poked his tongue out in their direction. “Look, no offence, Trin, but I don’t want or need to see your guts. Some parts of the women’s body should remain under their skin.”

Harper rolled her eyes softly.

“I saw you rub at your side when we were moving the shacks, was that…this?” Jake asked, nodding to her side. “Why didn’t you say something? We could have had you checked out way sooner.”

Harper sighed heavily. “Honestly…I thought it was my menstrual cramps. A bad month. Plus, I’ve toughed it through pain before. Didn’t think much of it and…didn’t wanna bother anyone.”

A slight tisk from the Tsahìk echoed, a little muffled from her mask. “Pain is often a sign that something is wrong. Ignoring it will not make it go away. What would have happened if this rupture happened at night?”

“You know, I can absolutely see you trying to clamber into your bunk bed in complete denial about the worst pain you’ve ever experienced before in your life.” Zeke mused, “Be like ‘na, I’m good, I’m good. Probably gotta sleep. Yep, sleep will solve this…just gotta…’” He went far to mime a little crawling motions then his hand to his side as he slouched in his seat dramatically. “And you crawl your way across the module floors like some cryptic eldritch horror then heave your way onto the top bunk with the quiet hope your insides don’t pop out.”

Harper remained quiet for a moment, looking very unimpressed but… a little guilty, “Yeah. That sounds like me.” She admitted after a moment, running a hand through her hair.

“The fact you live with a shit ton of concerned people probably would have raised the alarm sooner.” Jake said, “I doubt you could have gotten up a ladder.”

Harper poked her tongue out playfully. “At least it worked out for me and it didn’t happen at night.”

“But we could have been too late.” Jake leaned forward, the tube of his mask hitting the edge of the gurney’s support frame at the motion. “No one wants that for you or anyone. Any strange pain, you get checked out, okay? Something small can turn into something big. Too many people on Earth have died because they thought it was something small and that it could go away in time, that even their doctors sent them away without a check-up.”

Harper looked away, mostly to her hands. “Okay.”

Jake nodded. “Good.” He rose up to his feet, to leave now and to let the woman rest. No need to disturb her anymore and no doubt the others were gonna swing by.

“Actually, Sully,” Eliza moved away from her work, “In a few days, I want you back here in your human body. I want to run a physical.”

Jake frowned at the doc in confusion. “What, Why?”

“Unlike Harper who felt she was in pain, you can’t feel pain lower than your waist. I want to check and make sure you’re not dealing with anything you can’t feel...or ignoring if it feels minor. Appendix first but paraplegics are prone to pressure sores, kidney stones, muscle spasms and urine tract infections.”

From the look passing from Mo’at, it was a clear sign he wasn’t gonna get out of it either. Neytiri was gonna drag his tail if he tried to do training instead.

“Okay, fine but no prostate check I had that before I left.”

Neytiri was waiting outside when he got out nor was she alone. Ashely was in her avatar as well in nothing but some very short shorts and her avatar tank that…looked to have been cut down to just about cover her breasts. Around her waist, she had a hand-woven belt from strumbeast hide with a few side pouches. She had a few decorative pieces on like an anklet and an armband. Her braided hair was pulled back from her face. An odd mixture of Na’vi and human attire. He hadn’t noticed it before.

“All good?” He asked, eyeing the avatar a little as he picked up his bow from where he had left it.

“Ashelysloan will be joining us on this hunt.” Neytiri stated, “She needs to hunt for both her camps while Harper is recovering. I wish to see her progress since Tsu’tey will not be about. He’s got another patrol to run. Slinth has migrated out of our territory fully now and now the real danger has passed for the sky people to really start their machines.”

Jake nodded but he couldn’t help but hide his disappointment that he’d have to share this time with someone else with Neytiri. Still, he knew putting it aside was necessary; this wasn’t about him. They were also in their domain of the woods so…made sense. He could respect it.

“Any progress?” Ashely asked.

“Not much, the seeds we’ve planted in advance have settled well and waiting for the machines to pass over. It will be a glorious stop.” Neytiri grinned a little as she spoke, clearly enjoying the thought of what was gonna happen.

Seeing her happy made Jake feel very… happy too. He couldn’t blame her for that, any chance at slowing the sky people was good.

“Looking forward to it, got it.” Ashely nodded, reaching for the nearby tree stump and collecting her bow and arrows she had resting in it. “What are my chances of Zeke helping me butcher my kill?”

Jake sniggered a little, while Neytiri rolled her eyes with a titter but instead of answering, led the way to start their hunt.

Neytiri hadn’t been wrong about Ashely’s capabilities which had been a firm reminder to Jake to actually pay attention to his follow avatar drivers and their skills; between training with Neytiri and sitting in a circle with the bead makers and weavers, Jake hadn’t seen much beyond when they had come to him or crossed paths.

Their feet running, even as a group were near quiet, practised steps with stepping off from making obvious tracks was still on Jake’s mind but with Neytiri, it looked second nature enough that it didn’t look like she had thought about it any more.

Ashley was the one leading the hunt, bow out but they were tracking the same thing, he could smell it in the air but while he struggled to follow it, his fellow driver seemed to pick up more. He took note of how she touched a few leaves, watching the response from the environment to pick up the scent again. He watched how the plants reacted too, sniffing carefully before her ears perked. He listened out before he heard it; the soft tugging sound of grass and hefty breath.

Ahead, Ashely’s bow form was perfect with how she crouched in the undergrowth and her steps were quiet in her crawl. Her draw was quiet and he noted how her breathing was even as she lined up her shot, even her tail paused before she let go of the string and the arrow was gone.

Barely a second later, her prey—a yerik—dropped without a sound and the herd scattered.

Ashely jumped swiftly from the bushes and both Jake and Neytiri followed at a distance but the woman didn’t need to put the creature out of its misery; the arrow instantly killed it with a shot straight to its nasal cavity in its chest.

A clean kill.

He didn’t need to be an expert to see that.

“<I See You, Brother, and thank you. Your spirit goes with Eywa, your body stays behind to become part of the People>” Her words were spoken fluently as her hands rested upon her kill before she straightened up and pulled out her arrow softly from its body.

“Well done,” Neytiri remarked, impressed. “It didn’t suffer.”

Ashely smiled. “I’ve always had a good aim. I’ve studied their anatomy; their chest and nasal cavity is an immediate kill spot… or their head but that’s a smaller target.” She leant over the yerik thoughtfully, rubbing down its spine of soft fur. “I need to take this back, I wanna start butchering and getting the meat marinating. We’re having potato and Yerik strew and this is gonna be wonderful!”

Jake found his mouth watering a little at the thought. Strew did sound great and…potatoes. God, he missed potatoes.

“When can we start trades?” He asked, helping with grabbing some vines from Neytiri to help weave a basic sledge to drag it with little harm.

“How long until the weed’s done?”

“The first batch is grown but it’s drying out right now. Nadine learned the hard way of trying too soon. Once it’s dried out, we’ll get portions made up. We’re also germinating new seeds so there may be some you can grow here.”

Ashely hummed in interest. “I’ll talk to the others.”

Between the three of them, the yerik was sledged back up towards Ashely’s camp since they had wandered closer to that side of the forest and she pulled out a woven tarp to lay it on.

“Need some help?” Jake offered.

“I’m good, thanks. “ Ashely declaimed, “Do you want the skull once I’m done?”

“I will take it.” Neytiri said, “Our Bone shapers will often recraft these to make ornamental jewellery or tools.”

Jake hummed in consideration. “Maybe I should give it a try? Bone shaping? I’ve only ever made bone beads but nothing fancy.” Morgan had definitely seemed more interested in the art the last day or so, maybe it was in part the fact he had a ton of skulls he wanted to put to use now. Their camp had a lot of bones as well since crafting was slow going with their low numbers. The flesh of their hunts was gone quicker than the rest of it. Sure, Kim had given some to the Kung camp for frames but they still had a ton that was building up.

“I suppose… but it’s far more active than bead making. It’s a more significant process than just shaping bone. The bones come from our butchers. They’re cleaned, separated and checked. Any bones too small to be useful for a craft or damaged will go to the bead makers. Those that aren’t claimed by weavers for clothing or dye are then returned for the bone shapers to craft and create.” Neytiri explained, rising to her feet. She bid farewell to Ashely and led him back into the trees for his own hunt.

He followed her lead with a tight grip with his bow as he went. But Jake was quick on the mark to understand her concern on the matter and why he hadn’t been properly introduced. It was easy to figure it was on the same lines as the leather workers and tanners. Bead making and weaving were stationary and in a way easier suited him in his human body, as the same was making arrowheads and dyes.

With more active work, getting up and moving often would be his difficulties in his chair; the terrain would be harder to navigate with roots and getting in and out of his chair to sort through bones would become tedious. Still, he knew without a doubt that they would find ways to accommodate his disability if asked.

“I’d still like to give it a try. Plus, I can still have my Dreamwalker. Some days I’m not training if you’re too busy with your tsakarem duties. Plus, I know how to clean bones and organise them. N’deh is…very strict in making sure we respect our kills and their gifts. I don’t need that much training in that regard in bone shaping.”

Neytiri hummed softly. “We’re heading back to Hometree for this afternoon. If you can secure a good hunt.” She challenged.

Jake huffed but nodded.

After watching how Ashely was able to move much more, Jake really began to try and soak in and replicate how Neytiri moved as well; he had seen how she had moved and had tried to copy it but…he had always had that distraction of just…her. Watching her but not…paying attention to the details of what she was doing.

He followed as she ran, along the tree and up into the higher branches, mirroring her jump and swing across the gap and putting trust in both his body and her (and hoping he didn’t slip so high up). Unlike his end of the forest, they had far more large mushrooms and big leaves that were bigger than him, allowing for a quick and safe descent from the tree tops.

Jake however didn’t make a graceful landing but he was down, winded but ready to carry on with a grin at the incredulous look Neytiri gave him as his gracelessness before she rolled her eyes.

“Skxawng.” She muttered.

Jake just laughed, collecting up his bow.

Soon enough though he let himself get serious and take the lead, pressing his senses out with soft sniffs to see if he could pick up a scent. He stepped in a way that mirrored their training and became near silent but he found the tracks of a yerik after a few minutes and with a scent to follow so he began his journey. His arrow ready and his bow out front.

The sense of anticipation built as he heard the sounds ahead, the clear sounds of something moving about; grazing the foliage ahead. His eyes locked on carefully as he caught sight of his kill-to-be so he remained close to the land, his bow taking aim as he lined the arrow towards it’ main body; a shot to its middle would kill it better than a shot to its shoulder. He had no clear angle to hit it in its instant-kill spot on its main body so he had to make do.

He pulled back the string, the effort pulling the sore muscles but he ignored that; he had to impress Neytiri with this… he had to show her he was learning.

Jake let out a breath as he let go, the arrow singing through the air and with a thud, the yerik went down with a cry. He made to dive forwards to offer a prayer and to properly kill it but a hand suddenly grabbed his tail, a hand coming to slap across his mouth. The noise bubbled in his throat before the reason for Neytiri’s sudden turn of behaviour became clear.

A team of three heavily armed SecOps officers promptly seemed to appear through the treeline and close enough to notice the yerik as it tried to get up. Jake’s heart rocked in his chest. In part in complete surprise of the RDA patrol but the ache came for the pain he had delivered to the yerik; a non-instant kill and one he couldn’t put out of its misery without revealing himself. It didn’t deserve that pain…

Neytiri pulled him back and he begrudgingly followed silently. There was the sound of a gunshot and the yerik’s pain was ended. He let the prayer run through his mind but he didn’t turn back.

They didn’t stop for a while. Neytiri had been swift in getting him back to the far outskirts of Hometree, she didn’t stop until she was shakily kneeling in the foliage beside the river, taking steady breaths.

“That was too close.” She breathed.

“I know.” Jake couched next to her. “We could have been caught.”

“No, you could have been caught.” Neytiri corrected. “I…I thought for a second that…you could have been killed uf you went I—I can’t have you taken away like that. Their weapons are strong and we were…so underprepared.” She shook her head. “We were careless.”

“The RDA must have changed their patrols. Smaller teams. We should report this to Eytukan.” Jake’s hands came to her shoulder, hoping to offer her some support. While his heart still sang, he felt calmer. Or maybe it hadn’t quite sunk in yet. Either way, he’d freak out about it in a bit.

“Yes.” Neytiri nodded vigorously. “Yes. But… we need to make sure that…they don’t recognise you. Your Dreamwalker. You…you need to look Na’vi. Like Kimgreene and Jerome. Blend in with us so they don’t immediately see you as a Dreamwalker.” Her hand came to his bicep but he could feel the tremble in her touch.

Jake blinked, surprised but also touched by her conviction. “Let’s…just focus on one thing. Telling your father. We…can discuss that with the others. They’ll need to know about the new patrols first.”

Neytiri’s brow pulled in but she nodded, taking a moment and patting his hand of comfort to gather herself. “Okay.”

As she went to rise, he tugged her a little to keep her from going up, unable to help himself to ask. “Are you okay, Neytiri? You look very shaken.” To put it politely. Something felt wrong and he could see…familiar signs of stress.

Neytiri scoffed, though her eyes were sad. “I’ll be fine.”

“But you’re not okay right now?” He rubbed soft circles with his thumb into her skin, “If it’s private, you don’t have to tell me, but… I’m here if you want to talk.”

Neytiri sighed softly. “It’s… reminded me of…the surprise we had of the soldiers at the… school. Their…guns. Their clothes.... Them. I know it’s…silly; they weren’t looking for us but… I feared for you.”

Jake nodded softly in understanding. Her own…trauma had come back to haunt her. “You’ve been triggered. Very normal for the pain the sky people caused you and it’s okay to not be okay. We can still stay back and wait. I am here with you. The sky people are far away.”

“We need to tell my father.”

“Given where they are, they’re too far from even Harper’s camp to come across them, barely anyone’s there and they’re really fuckin slow in the forest. We have time. Let’s go to your private spot just for a little while. We can radio the groups from there.” He offered. “Let me look after you, Tiri.”

Neytiri stared at him for a moment in the quiet debate, her expression torn a little but after a moment, her shoulders relaxed and nodded. “Okay.”

Quaritch sighed thoughtfully as he looked through the latest reports on his desk. Having spent the last hour signing off each one now to fully process the arrest report. The shit ton of former SecOps crew from the other base he had ankle-tagged into a portion of the MineOps facility and put to work in the mines until the new ship of cargo and passengers was available and new space to send them back. There was little space to actually lock them up so he had to put them somewhere and be of use. Selfridge wasn’t the one to waste the manpower until then but Quaritch made sure to keep security tight on the prisoners.

Each one had been stripped of rank, their pay cut to prisoner’s pay (to avoid the argument of forced or slave labour), dressed in orange to stand out as a working prisoner and a side room was converted into a large area dedicated to their shared sleeping quarters since they had little rights to private quarters that fully working members of staff had. It kept them together, which had its own concerns but, it meant they had little ways of privately talking to plan mutiny or escape.

This soon led him to discover hidden talent in Corporal Henrik’s. The soldier had easily dismantled a few attempts a few prisoners had about trying to gang up and had managed to outfight an entire group without even a bruise was something. Even after that, she was surprisingly…very good at keeping them all in line so he assigned her the night shift with the prisoner group with Z-dog and a few others.

He was very impressed at this unexpected turn of events.

In all honestly, Angela Henrick had been known to be very cocky, arrogant and very little care for animal life on Pandora. He knew she had personally killed a few animals and sent a trophy photo back to Earth a few years ago which really picked up some interest.

He had initially thought she was very shallow and his opinion had not changed on that… but she had clearly been hiding a level of skill to look lesser. He wasn’t fond of that play with him and his crew. His teams. He liked knowing where to put people based on their abilities to maximize efficiency. The fact he knew she was fucking Trina Shen was a big enough clue that she liked her secrets.

So he intended to capitalise on her presence. Her sexual relationship seemed to keep Shen occupied and on task when she was at the mech bay updating their tech or at the computers with the software development. With the Soldier’s keen senses and surprising ability to keep twenty-seven former soldiers in order every night, he wondered what else she was capable of.

If she was good enough and if her attitude was worked on, she could be put onto his team. He was still two members down since Mansk and Walker were at Frontier West for now. He just needed to make sure her talent wasn’t underestimated or overestimated so, he planned to subtly put her through some tests on the matter.

A matter for later.

Quaritch was glad to put the last report down and shove it in a draw.

With that problem more or less resolved at this base, he didn’t have to worry. Aside from Harding who had recently had her surgery for her synthetic voice box installation completed. Selfridge had overridden him on the matter since there was little evidence of that the other prisoners had at the other base and he was a little peeved that she was in Hell’s Gate for the recovery.

Still, he couldn’t do much about that but sulk but he was sure he could get his fellow Colonel back to Frontier West to be someone else’s problem…or maybe at a smaller site. The Mines? Her new voice would certainly go far.

His inbox was still blinking away, but he couldn’t see anything labelled as important or urgent so he got up. There was a lot he typically did when not dealing with bullshit admin stuff that did require his attention as Head of Security. Patrols, checking in with his team on their patrols and other heads, making sure the current headcount of people was still accounted for, the typical Head of security stuff. When that was sorted, or if he needed to vent his frustrations, then he worked himself in his gym.

He was just stepping out of the elevator when a sudden redhead appeared in front of him.

“Fuck!” He hissed stepping back and barely restraining the reflex to punch her in the face as he startled, taking a second to register who it was. “Why… are you redheads coming out of nowhere? You’re just as bad as Augustine!” he said, quickly composing himself.

“Apologise, Colonel. Dr Augustine wanted to keep you on your toes in her absence.” Captain Hale smiled but didn’t look too amused which he was thankful for at the very least. “I need a favor.”

Quaritch grunted nodding her with him towards the gym. “What sort of favor?”

“Business. Obviously. The MineOps has issued several complaints and no action has been taken. Selfridge himself hasn’t done squat and I’m afraid the men will start a strike. Again.”

Quaritch’s head tilted as his mind absorbed that information and what that meant. He could read between the lines here and what that could mean. “You mean more will defect?”

“Possible, but I’d rather get ahead before they consider it over stopping work. More soldiers will only upset my men. Your position as Selfridge’s right-hand man and head of security can do more to prove to my miners that they’re not gonna wind up dead if you help me.” Captain Hale spoke.

He let out a heavy sigh as he began to select the weights to add to his barbell. She wasn’t wrong, he was head of security but even he had some limits. MineOps was her domain and he could provide the soldiers needed to keep people in. The Mine was very out in the open; easy enough that one group had bailed and while he had patched that hole up, he knew the risks of another was great.

“I know this puts you in an awkward spot but there’s a lot of stories going around. I can’t quash them and it…makes my men nervous. Raina Kung’s death has recirculated and the soldiers are cautious about the security of the mine.” Hale continued. She reached for one of the larger weights before he could and took it from the shelf.

“Stories?” Quaritch looked at her with a frown, eyeing the weight plate. “What sort of stories? What of Kung’s death that’s got them spooked?”

Hale’s head tilted a fraction curiously. “You…don’t know how Raina Kung died?”

“It was years ago. I was in Medbay at the time. I read the report it was an accident on a patrol along the mine’s watch tower.” The scars along his right bicep had been deep from a tangle with a viperwolf and he had been sleeping off a fever and on heavy antibiotics at the time. It was an open and closed case.

Hale’s eyes narrowed. “The towers hadn’t been safety checked in a while so things that should have been checked every three months hadn’t been checked in over a year. Raina Kung died when a safety support rails came loose from the top of the watchtower. She leant on it, fell forwards and… her head got caught in the barbed wire from the fence underneath and she was…effectively hung. Wanna guess who found her?”

Quaritch groaned a little. “Major Kung…” which explained a lot more now of the woman’s shredded loyalty to the RDA. Before his son’s birth… he perhaps wouldn’t have been able to see it but now, he had had a baby, even if he wasn’t involved; to come across his body in such a gut-wrenching fashion…it was enough unease that made him feel a little sick. He was just a baby. Bright and drooling, yellow curls and always gnawing on something on the times he had seen him. His child. He couldn’t imagine him… dying.

“She would have survived the fall, a bit with broken bones if the barbed wire hadn’t been there. Lesser gravity. But, there’s more.”

“More?” He dreaded to think a little about what that meant.

“Raina Kung was…nineteen at the time of her death. She was not twenty-one.”

Quaritch took a heavy breath. “Why…is that important?”

“Because Bree Kung is still sixteen years old, Colonel. The age they got here. They’re twins.” Hale said, “Her true age has been leaked; someone found out by looking at their bones. Many soldiers and miners have kids; kids that are her age now. They empathise more with Major Kung more now and… I’m sure you can imagine how they’re feeling towards the RDA and their lack of safety procedures. No action leads to unrest. I need help. Help that doesn’t lead to defection.” She flipped the 20 kg weight plate in her fingers very casually, like it wasn’t made of cast iron.

Quaritch nodded once. “I’ll look into it.” He was gonna be bothered continuously as well, by both Hale no doubt and his work ethic.

“Good. I’ll check in with you later. Now, if you want Selfridge to act, get Raina Kung’s autopsy report and maintenance schedules for the watch tower. He can’t lie past that evidence of negligence.” Hale suggested, then yes the disk in her hands. “Here, catch.”

She tossed the weight to him as she twirled out but he grunted as he caught it straight to the sternum, knocking the wind from him in the process.

Parker liked to think he was having an OK sort of day. No word from Augustine about any run-ins with the natives and he knew—or hoped—sooner or later the blue monkeys would get curious to get in touch or that Augustine would do more and wander in and get noticed. With the new guy, he should really help her case to interest the Na’vi. Sooner that connection could be made, sooner he could have her work the natives out of that tree and sooner they could really set to work on getting the new mine open.

He was still getting some resistance from Captain Hale about MineOps’s daily quota not being reached and some survey data about the river being a problem but the way he saw it; they could easily get the river sorted by setting up a basic damn and redirecting the river away. Again, he could only get that started when the tree was empty.

But he knew those problems would be solved sooner or later.

He was content that his inbox looked well-tended to by his assistance in handling some of the lesser important data. Complaints went to them to handle unless they marked it necessary for his eyes and the news they had sent weren’t that urgent so he let them rot in his inbox for now.

Allowing him the time to play with his putter and watch in satisfaction as his ball made its way to his mug.

“Selfrge, a word.” The skinny man spun around to see Quaritch stroll in, his head high, jaw tense and looking mildly inconvenienced. A folder and a stack of papers were in the man’s arms.

“More defectors?” Parker asked, abandoning his putter to the side of the nearest desk and ignoring the annoyed titter from the desk’s attendant. He had better things to worry about.

“Not yet.”

“Then…why are you here?” Parker frowned, closing the door after him and adjusted the privacy settings of his office. “Something happened?”

“Something like that.” From the pile in his arms, he pulled out the folder and dumped it onto his desk. A Medical Report.

Parker frowned cautiously, using the end of a pen to push the folder page open before he squeaked at the sight.

A dead soldier’s face upon a gurney; her neck torn bloody with barbed wire sticking out from her flesh and her eyes clouded over white with death. Blood coated the woman’s lips and the tilt of her head was…off. Like her neck was broken. His stomach churned, dropping the lid back over and barely refrained from gagging.

“What. The. Hell!” he demanded angrily at it.

Quaritch’s face was intense as he suddenly leaned across his desk. “You’re really, really making my jobs difficult, Parker. Cutting back expenses that are necessary for the safety and well-being of our people. You keep undermining me with this bullshit because it’s getting really hard to get people to stay when all they see is this!” he thumped a hand to the file on the desk. “Our home is meant to be as safe as we can possibly make it. I am meant to keep them safe. I cannot do that if you keep cutting back corners and getting people killed. Infrastructure needs check-ups. Like the watch towers, like our fences and like our mines.” He dumped down the other pieces of paper heavily onto his desk. “I can’t keep losing my soldiers to your cut corners. So, I will be blunt when I say this; Authorise safety procedures back with MineOps, Parker. People notice the bodies that are piling up and nothing being done.” He pulled back the autopsy cover purposely. “People might actually think the jungle is safer than our home so stop making it easier to justify their reasons for defecting. Rumours are spreading so get your ass in gear.”

#avatar #avatar au #avatar james cameron #grace augustine #jake sully #avatar rda #mo'at #neytiri #neytiri te tskaha mo'at'ite #eytukan #miles quaritch #parker sefridge #tsu'tey #omatikaya #ashley sloan

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therivergirl · 2 years

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Conversations at the CATS Hideout, chapter 1

King already slept on the bed, occasionally stirring, but his dreams seemed to be peaceful.

Lilith and Hooty slept on the floor and they seemed comfortable, so, aside from Eda throwing a blanket over them, nobody thought it was necessary to move them.

Former BATTS led Steve to their bedroom, Derwin happily remarking how he is no longer the only guy in the room and earning a glare from Katya and Amber that made certain he was going to regret his remark. They could hear the four laughing about something and they decided to let the young rebels have their fun. They deserved it.

Eber was somewhere outside, as they preferred sleeping under the stars.

This only left Luz, Eda and two mutinous coven heads.

Luz, having taken a break from palisman carving to have dinner, sat on the carpet with a half-empty bowl, absent-mindedly stirring the stew that has already grown cold. She stared at the chunks of vegetables that went round and round as if they held the answers to all the questions in the universe.

Eda was discussing strategy with Raine and Darius, the latter of whom rubbed his temples at half of Eda's suggestions.

"For Titan's sake, how did you escape the Emperor's Coven for over two decades with plans like those?" he sighed.

"Hey, don't knock my methods, they clearly worked! It's all about the execution, baby!"

"Stealing outdated uniforms?" Raine raised an eybrow at her.

"Hey, whose side are you on, Rainestorm?" Eda frowned in offence.

"I'm not picking sides, I just thought that the infamous Owl Lady would at least indulge in the proper heist," Raine teased and the two stared each other in the eyes.

"At least I don't go on heists in my everyday outfit! Come on Rainstorm, that shirt looks good on you, but change it up for when you're a rebel vs a loyal head of the Bard Coven!" she air-quoted the last words, but Raine did not even hear them, their brain stuck on that shirt looks good on you, as they blushed.

"Ugh, enough of you two flirting, we have an emperor to overthrow, you also want to carve a palisman with your apprentice, oh and we only have two days!"

"Oh, relax cape-boy-"

"Please, don't refer to me like that" Darius said tiredly.

"-with all of our head in the game, our skills and allies will figure something out," Eda finished her sentence.

"Um, Eda, speaking of your apprentice," Raine nudged her, pointing at Luz.

Ete turned and noticed Luz's glum disposition. She sighed, "I knew that one talk I had with her was too easy, you two work further, I'll go talk to her and try to get her to get some sleep," she said, yawning herself.

"You seem like you could use some sleep too," Raine pointed out.

"Nah, I'm fine, I can go without sleep for a while," she yawned again.

"Eda..." Raine started but was interrupted by Darius.

"Before this turnes into another flirtatious squabble-"

"Hey!" came a unified complain from Eda and Raine.

"-we could all use some sleep. Lilith and the...tube, seriously what is that thing?"

"Hooty. That is Hooty."

"I know his name, but what is he?"

"Hooty," Eda answered again.

"You know what, never mind. My point was, those two have the right idea, we should all have a shut-eye. The two of us are tired as it is, and we need you in a top shape as well, Owl Lady," Darius said genuinely, all the jest gone from his voice.

"There is a reason he wanted to ask for your help as soon as we formed the CATS," Raine said.

"The name..." Darius grumbled.

"Ah, really, didn't know you think so highly of me, cape-boy," Eda joked.

"You two are impossible to deal with! I'm off to get my beauty sleep!" Darius stomped over to one of the bedrooms in the hideout, but not before snapping at the four younger members in the other room to go to sleep. They only continued to laugh, which did not improve Darius' mood.

Raine yawned, "He is right, though,"

"Off to get some beauty sleep too, Rainstorm?" Eda teased.

"Ah, it's already too late for me," they said, blushing.

"Hey, don't knock yourself down already, you still got it," Eda smiled, making Raine's blush grow deeper.

"Heh, right," they stumbled over their words. "I'm off to bed. You and Luz should too."

"Aye, aye captain, as soon as I see what is troubling her. Speaking of we should..."

"In the morning, we'll talk in the morning. Good night, Calamity." Raine said, disappearing behind the same curtain.

"Good night, Raine," Eda said after them then turned her attention back at Luz who was still sitting absent-mindedly in the corner.

She walked over to her kid and sat on the ground, grouching, "Curses, you're growing old Owl Lady," she said with a bitter chuckle, but Luz barely paid her any mind. Eda frowned, looking at her kid. "What's wrong kiddo," she said, startling Luz.

"Oh, Eda. I didn't hear you," she said, "Where are Raine and Darius?"

"Both went to sleep. Something else on your mind? And don't eventry to lie,"

Luz sighed, suddenly looking very sad, "I'm sorry," she said.

"What?" Eda was taken aback, what was Luz apologizing for.

"I got us in trouble, I didn't listen to you, I got us captured. If it weren't for Raine and Darius we would have...you would have..."

"Hey, hey, none of that, ok?" Eda pulled Luz closer to her for the second time that night.

"But-"

"No buts," Eda rubbed circles on Luz's back, "If anyone should apologize it's me,"

"What?" Luz pulled away from the hug, "Why? You did-"

"Nothing wrong?" Eda snorted, "Yeah right. And the ocean on the isles is the perfect temperature for a swim!"

"Eda..."

"Listen, Luz. I should've told you the truth from the start. Or at least before we left to get King's bunny. I'm sorry."

"I know," Luz leaned back on Eda, "But that is not what bothered me the most. It was...the thought of you sending me away." She took a deep breath and Eda wanted to add another apology right away, but she knew Luz had more to say and so she didn't interrupt.

"I just," Luz continues, "Mum wanted to send me to camp. Which, I understand better now, and then I got here and I love it here, but I have no idea when I'll see her again. But I have you, and King, and Lilith and Amity and Willow and Gus and...you guys are what keeps me going, you know. But the idea of you also sending me away, of not having you guys around...it hurt. It hurt even more than thinking you don't think I could do this, though that hurt too. I get you want to protect me, but...I can't lose you too. Not now," she wiped of the tears from her eyes, but new kept coming.

Eda's heart broke and she pulled Luz even closer, stroking her hair, "I'm sorry, kiddo. I really am. I'm sorry I tried to force you to leave, that I even used my harpy form against you. I just..."

"I know, you wanted to keep me and King safe," Luz smiled trough tears, "I get that. Apology accepted."

"Luz," Eda pulled away from the hug for a moment, keeping her hands on Luz's shoulder and looking directly into her eyes, "First of all, it goes without saying but that apology at the beginning, is accepted, not that you had to apologize. And I want you to know, I didn't want to send you away because I think less of you. I think the world of you, ok? I thought less of myself, because I can't keep you overachieving little but safe, and-"

Luz wrapped her arms around Eda's waist in a rib-cracking hug, "Don't say that. You are amazing, Eda. And you keep us safe."

"Yeah, kid," Eda wanted to return the hug but she had to be able to breathe first, "you know, you don't have week noodle arms like you did when you first came here."

"Oh, oops," Luz said, loosening her grip, "Sorry. Anyways, I know what you'll say. We're kids, we shouldn't bother with fights and overthrowing emperors and stuff, but, this isn't an ordinary fight. If this goes bad, it doesn't matter if we are safe somewhere else, we might all be hurt regardless."

"I know. And I'm glad to have you by my side, kid," she yawned again, "Man, I'm sleeping with my eyes open."

"Yeah, I think part of my brain is already asleep..."

"Ugh, I hate to admit but cape-boy is right, we should all get some shut-eye. Come on," Eda got up, gesturing for Luz to follow her.

They went to their room with the tripple bunk bed, King already having taken the bottom bunk.

"Look at that little guy," Eda said, smiling.

"He seems to finally be at peace," Luz added softly. "Um, Eda?"

"Yes?"

"I know they gave us this," she gestured to the bunk bed, "so we would each have our own bed, but, King is always sleeping next to me anyways and...could I sleep next to you tonight?"

Eda smiled warmly, "What, all three of us snuggled on that narrow thing? I mean, I had worse sleeping arrangements in my life..."

"Hmmm, Luz thought for a second, then pulled out a plant glyph and placed it on the floor. She took a deep breath before activating it and, a few moments later what looked like Eda's nest, but smaller and greener, appeared in front of them. "Huh?"

"Wow, you're really something kid," Eda said, impressed, "At least we won't run out of beds any time soon with this new trick, even if we manage to round up more recruits in the next two days."

Luz gently picked up King, who lazily opened one eye, let out a small squeal, and fell back asleep in Luz's arms. Eda grabbed the blankets and sheets from the bunks and arranged them into the nest, "Come on, or I'm hogging the whole thing for myself," she joked, sprawling over the nest.

Luz climbed into the nest, lying down next to Eda, putting King between them.

"No more blankets to serve as a cover?" Luz asked, feeling around the bed of the nest.

"Just one, and I warn you, I'm a blanket hog," Eda snickered, wrapping it around herself.

"Eda!" Luz chided, pulling on the blanket.

"Hey, you're the one that wanted to share the bed! But wait, I have an idea," she focused for a moment and her wings sprouted from her back, "I might end up needing a few vials of elixir if I hold this on for the whole night, but it'll be worth it."

"Eda..." Luz said, her eyes wide.

"Not a word more, sleep now, kid," Eda said as she pulled the girl closer. For a moment it seemed like Luz was about to argue, but instead, she wrapped her arms around King and then snuggled against Eda who proceeded to wrap her wings around both. King, feeling the warmth even in his sleep, let out a satisfied sigh.

"Good night, Eda," Luz mumbled, already drifting off the realm of dreams.

"Good night you two," Eda said, "my babies," she ran her hand through Luz's hair and then patted King's head. Good night to you too, she said to the owl beast, before wrapping her wings even tighter, her harpy form, or at least part of it keeping her kids safe.

There was a long, hard road ahead of them and the future was filled with uncertainties. But for one night, they were safe in her embrace

----

So...this was supposed to be just a short drabble. But, of course, it turned into a whole thing and I might have plans to write a few more conversations.

I know my title is about as creative as drawing a long, straight line, titles are the hardest part of fics for me, so we have to deal with this one.

#the owl house #toh #luz the owl house #eda clawthorne #toh eda #toh king #king the owl house #king clawthorne #eda the owl mom #toh darius #toh raine #bits of reada #fanfiction

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lunarsun12 · 19 days

Text

Seomghwa Therapy Session

Masterlist

From the previous episode (click here to see the previous episode). Taehyun and Hyuka has enough of Beomgyu getting away with everything. They decided to call their uncle senghwa, asking to live with him. To make Soobin and Yeonjun appreciate them.

After the two left, Beomgyu angel facade has vanished. He has been terrorising them and Soobin has been complaining nonstop to Seonghwa.

Seonghwa decided to fix their family problem, by offering his therapy.

Will Hyuka and Taehyun come back home..?

Soobin and Seonghwa Private Chat

Today 16:00

Soobin🍞: Seonghwa, please tell Kai and Taehyun to come back home!

Seonghwa🌸: You always say, I need to control my children and now look at you now

Soobin🍞: We got played by Beomgyu all this time! How am I supposed to know he was plotting to get rid of them!!

Soobin🍞: After those two left, he started to be a menace! Luckily for me I wasn’t there but according to Yeonjun, he locked Yeonjun in our bedroom and made him late for work

Seonghwa🌸: Don’t your child has a job?

Soobin🍞: errmmm we don’t talk about that, every job he has. The employer was like take him away something with scaring the public…

Seonghwa🌸: Just grab your husband and child. I will create a chat to sort your mess out

10 mins later…

Seonghwa created the chat:

Superhero Seonghwa To The Rescue

Yeonjun🦊: Seonghwa?

Seonghwa🌸: H-hi

Hongjong🏴‍☠️: Hello, Yeonjun…you stay away from hwa

Yeonjun🦊: Aishhh, i said his name!

Soobin🍞: Oh the irrespon- ah I mean hey Hongjong rare to see you here

Taehyun🐯: Why are we here, Kai is with me! As I think Jongho took his phone away to play games

Beomgyu🐻: Why are they are here! They better not come back after all the effort I did!!

Soobin🍞: Kai and Taehyun we are really sorry for not listening to you all about Beomgyu! We really love you!

Yeonjun🦊: Yes! Who know that sneaky brat can be so smart

Beomgyu🐻: Not my problem…should have used a brain old man ha ha ha

Taehyun🐯: Why can I hear his windshield laugh over the phone

Taehyun🐯(Kai): I actually like seonghwa Eomma! He is sweet, he gave me a cookie!

Soobin🍞: He is not your Eomma! I am!!

Seonghwa🌸: You kids said, they were unfairly treated because you two. Literally didn’t do anything when Beomgyu did his evil deeds

Soobin🍞: We were fooled!! He knows how to play with our strings

Seonghwa🌸: They were upset as one you two said you never loved them! That must have hurt

Hongjong🏴‍☠️: ooooooo

Soobin🍞: Yeonjun you big mouth!

Yeonjun🦊: What? I was angry in the moment! Kai broke my favourite teacup!

Taehyun🐯(Kai): It still hurt…

Hongjong🏴‍☠️: ahhhhh

Beomgyu🐻: You two stay at old man Seonghwa house! You are ruining my vibe here!

Taehyun🐯: Like we wanna stay here! No offence to uncle seonghwa, he is noisy at 5am with his vacuuming and as well somone called wooyoung trying to adopt Kai as his next son

Taehyun🐯: We are not coming back! Until beomgyu swear on our hit man bang chair. To take all of the punishment

Seonghwa🌸: What so special about that chair?

Yeonjun🦊: The chair has magical power, if one of us made a promise. We have to oblige or else misfortune will happen

Beomgyu🐻: I’m not swearing on anything!! You can’t make-

Few mins later…

Heuningkai🐧: Wow this family has a magic chair! I want one!!

Seonghwa🌸: NO! I mean maybe another chair Jongho

Heuningkai🐧: I’m not Jongho, I’m San!

Seonghwa🌸: where is jongho?

Heuningkai🐧: Jongho got mad and dropped Kai phone on the sofa. I picked it up to give it back to Kai. I have been watching this whole thing all this time

Soobin🍞: Finally got beomgyu to sit on that chair and making him say it

Taehyun🐯: Okay, we are coming home! Kai let’s go

Taehyun🐯: Kai?

Heuningkai🐧: Taehyunnnn! Save me, some two grown man is trying to hug me and keep on saying cuddle lock

Taehyun🐯: We will be back later after I save Kai

Soobin🍞: Thank you Seonghwa!

Hongjong🏴‍☠️: where’s my thanks? I have been helping

Soobin🍞: You still haven’t left ah ha ha

Seonghwa🌸: Hongjong you literally texting ooo and ahhhh. They did it on their own!

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marinerainbow · 6 months

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//A Kitty Shiny friendship snippet! This is them at the salon.

Shiny: *getting her nails filed* So, what's that school of yours like?

Kitty: *shrugs underneath her blowdryer* It's okay I guess.

Shiny: Any cute guys?

Kitty: Some of them but I don't wanna bite. They're not my type.

Shiny: Bad apples in the barrel huh?

Kitty: Don't even get me started! Their way of a good time is chugging beer in the back of one of their rich dad's trucks and putting leaves down each other's pants. They're just a bunch of mouth-breathers.

Shiny: Fun rule about men, honey. You could have the smartest guy in the room and put him with five other smart guys and they'll still end up doing the dumbest thing you can think of.

Kitty: Oh yeah? What's our rule?

Shiny: That we mature 14 years into existence and they mature 40 years into theirs.

Kitty: *laughs* Yeah that sounds about right.

Shiny: You know you're alright, when Poppy told me she had a human friend I got worried. No offence but, you guys are such sticks in the mud.

Kitty: I'll be the first to agree with you, someone at the institute drew a bear on a unicycle once and let him loose through the hallways. Everyone loved him and he loved the attention. Faculty heads didn't. "Relocated" him to ToonTown. He'd never even been there.

Shiny: That's so sad, but I'm not surprised it happens everyday. I wouldn't even be allowed in some of the salons north of Brentwood. Actually I was once.

Kitty: What happened?

Shiny: Apparently they didn't appreciate me mixing the make up pallettes around and replacing them with something more vibrant. Freaking depressing hole that place was. Oh and they got mad when I sharpened the acrylics, don't get mad at me when you don't have a weapon when walking at night, Ma'am, I tries to warn you. They aren't the night life types anyway, they're the white wine and profiteroles on a Hamptons vacation types.

Kitty: *snorts* I know the ones. We had a guy's Mom come in to complain once. About how it was unfair her little darling got suspended for vandalising a studio because his girlfriend dumped him, saying he was just a kid, he was nineteen.

Shiny: Sounds like a rube.

Kitty: He was.

Shiny: Well your hair is looking great!

Kitty: Thanks, it's always been hard to style. My Mom used to have a heck of a time with it.

Shiny: ...You miss her huh?

Kitty: Every day...

Shiny: I don't know you as well as Pops does but I'm sure she'd be real proud of you. You grew up into a beautiful, strong-willed chick.

Kitty: *nods* Thanks Shiny. And your nails could slice open a pickle jar.

Shiny: You say the nicest things!

I love this so much!!!!

You got Shiny's character on point here! She absolutely would try to 'spice things up' for Uptown gals. She's only looking out for them! Who wouldn't want a weapon that hides in plain sight? I can definitely see them having this conversation. Meanwhile the salon employees are probably looking at Shiny like "Who let this crazy witch in here?" XD

And just- as usual, Kitty is perfect. She is so nice and awesome. It's no wonder so many toons like her ^^ if Shiny ever heard about that date prank that got pulled on Kitty, she'd have some words to say to the douche

I raise you; Kitty, Shiny, and Poppy all go to the movies to watch some re-running cartoons. I can assure you, that will not be a boring evening XD

#you know what finger armor is? some of them kind of work as daggers #Shiny woukd go fricken insane for that XD #asks #other peoples oc's #my own OC's #Shiny Weasel #WFRR #who framed roger rabbit #disney #Poppy #(since shes mentioned)

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mariacallous · 2 years

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Metropolitan police officers suspected of serious criminal offences including sexual assault and domestic abuse have been allowed to escape justice, a damning review has found, with the force’s leader admitting that hundreds of racist, women-hating and corrupt officers have been left in the ranks.

Massive failings in how Britain’s biggest force roots out wrongdoing were exposed in a report by Louise Casey, which found “systemic” racism in the Met, and misogyny.

One officer faced 11 claims including sexual assault, harassment and domestic abuse, but remains in the force, the report found.

The new Metropolitan police commissioner, Sir Mark Rowley, said he may still not have the power to remove him, and will ask the government for the power to reopen past cases.

Rowley said he was appalled by the findings and apologised to officers and members of the public who had been let down, and said the number of officers and staff being sacked each year, between 30 and 50, was “massively under-engineered”, and he estimated there are hundreds of officers in the Met who should be kicked out of the force.

“You have to come to the conclusion there must be hundreds of people that shouldn’t be here, who should be thrown out,” Rowley said. “There must be hundreds who are behaving disgracefully, undermining our integrity and need ejecting.”

Lady Casey was commissioned by the Met in the wake of the kidnap, rape and murder of Sarah Everard by a serving officer. This was her interim report purely focusing on the Met discipline system, and complaints from officers and staff about their colleagues.

It reveals Met officers and staff trying to fight toxic colleagues were betrayed by the force’s discipline system, and fear an “anything goes” culture.

The findings are among the worst faced by any police force and Rowley said he felt shame and anger reading the report, and conversations with female and ethnic minority staff about their experiences had left him in tears. He added the report showed the Met had been “too weak” facing down wrongdoing in the ranks.

Black officers were 81% more likely to face disciplinary action and new ethnic recruits were over 120% more likely to be fired than white counterparts, who were in effect shielded by a system that was broken.

Worse may be to come, with Casey’s full report due next year as is another report ordered by the government, and with other major scandals likely to become public.

The report shows officers and staff being fobbed off when they complain of wrongdoing, and reluctant to do so because they fear nothing will be done or reprisals – and Casey said they are right to feel so.

Casey said: “There are moments when I have looked at the cases with people I’ve listened to and I have wondered what exactly would constitute gross misconduct in order to get them out of the force.”

Casey looked at data and cases from 2013 onwards and among her findings were:

About 55% to 60% of allegations made by Met officers, staff or their families receive a no case to answer decision, higher than in other forces.

For discrimination allegations less than three in 10 are upheld, the same for sexual assault and sexual harassment claims against colleagues. Casey said: “This leaves many officers and staff in the Met to conclude that discriminatory behaviour is in fact not a breach of professional standards and adds to the sense that ‘anything goes’.”

Supervisors are putting officers and staff off from raising concerns.

Since 2013, 1,809 officers and staff had more than one allegation against them and only 13 (0.71%) had been dismissed.

Many misconduct cases are dealt with by overstretched local units without proper training.

Local surveys of officers in 2021 found between 22% to 47% had experienced unwanted sexual advances or touching, sexism and misogyny.

The report follows others that highlighted serious wrongdoing and demanded reform, most notably the Macpherson report in 1999 that found institutional racism helped the racist killers of Stephen Lawrence escape justice.

Casey said: “Sadly [more than] 20 years after Macpherson, there remains a clear racial disparity and systemic bias throughout the system, and within that there is clear evidence of misogyny.”

Rowley said progress had been made but was “grossly insufficient” and said: “I can only apologise unreservedly to the officers and members of the public who have been let down in this way. We failed as a police service to show zero tolerance for racism, misogyny, homophobia and ableism and that shames us and clearly previous claims of being an organisation that shows zero tolerance have been premature.”

It was the defensiveness and widespread perception that the previous Commissioner Cressida Dick was in denial that led to her ousting in February.

The Guardian understands Rowley was aware while Dick was commissioner that the things were going badly wrong in the Met. He said the Casey report highlighted failings, prejudice and corruption worse than he feared.

The London mayor, Sadiq Khan, who ousted Dick believed she lacked a robust enough plan to deal with scandals engulfing the force, said: “I was concerned that a serious cultural problem had developed within the Met which was allowing racist, sexist and homophobic behaviour to be downplayed or left unchallenged. The interim findings of this review not only confirm my concerns, but reveal a situation even worse than feared.”

The home secretary, Suella Braverman, announced a review of how toxic officers are allowed to remain in forces, saying: “Culture and standards in the police must improve. And where an officer has fallen seriously short of these expectations, demonstrable, public action must be taken.”

Rowley accepted the findings in full and promised urgent and sweeping reforms, including a boosted counter-corruption command, as revealed by the Guardian last month, and a trawl through past allegations to see if those who escaped sanction can be ejected.

He said changing the culture was necessary and committed to building an “anti racist” service.

Rowley said the courage, determination and heroism of the majority of officers was reasons for hope and he vowed big and radical changes: “I am determined to take this and I am optimistic we will succeed.”

The force is in special measures after confidence during Dick’s time in office crashed to 49% on one key measure after a series of scandals that threatened the force’s legitimacy.

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thecallahanlegacy · 1 year

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Maribel Regan, RR, Faces Backlash Over Journalism From Fellow Royal Reporters And Others

Newly hired Royal Report journalist Maribel Regan faces backlash from coworkers and journalists across the nation for her ‘groundbreaking but reckless’ project with the Royals

Article by Haley Garr, RR Royal Report

Close-up of Maribel Regan, RR, posing with Queen Elizabeth, Queen Gloria, and King Alexander

A few days ago, Regan published her article on Simlandovia’s new annual Royal Charity Banquet, which is supporting the charity Better Shelter run by the King and Queen of Eastland..

The article, described as ‘introductory level’ yet ‘well done for a newbie’, had some information PRRs [Professional Royal Reporters] took issue with.

“She could have explained when the bridge was built, why it was built, where it was, etc.”

“I just don’t know why she didn’t explain the unofficial abdication rule any further. Idk, it’s just something I would have done.”

However, regarding the information in the article, many staff, including Veteran Royal Reporters, came to Regan’s defense.

“She was reporting on a charity, nothing else. Nowhere did she have to write about the Eastland royal family’s reasons for moving,” PRR James Pitt said in a social media post.

“Not sure what the fuss about Regan not explaining the Unofficial Abdication rule’s history is about. The story behind it is newsworthy and shocking enough for it’s own article.

“Idk what anyone is talking about, and idc, but the person complaining about how the article was written has actually never written their own like that before,” PRR Madeline Cathie posted as well. “I know exactly who complained about not writing the history of the bridge, and I know damn well they’ve never put that much thought and effort in their own publications. So why hate her for it?”

But despite the controversy of the writing, Royal Report staff on both sides of the coin had reasonable concerns for the project. Specifically, towards Paulo Grodon, the Hattenburgh’s Royal Guard.

RR Maribel Regan seen being escorted by Paulo Grodon, the Royal Guard, Knight, Tutor, Photographer, and Portraitist

“She’s not even a PRR yet!” one journalist complained. “I’ve been doing this since Generation 1, and I’ve never been allowed to meet them. EVER!”

“The charges need to be pressed,” a PRR reports. “There are charges for royal guards with poor judgement, and regardless of this being the first offence, action must be taken.”

“Paulo’s job is to keep the family safe, and a freshly hired amateur reporter was let into the palace of our government. What could have happened if she was a fraud? A poser? What if she was undercover and going to steal from or harm the family?”

There were also some people blaming both Grodon and the Hattenburghs.

“Usually, you have to be a PRR to have an in-person meeting with anyone in the royal family. This was strange of everyone to let this be the exception.”

“Her Majesty has every power to decline meeting with someone. She’s given an extensive background check of each person before accepting or declining a meeting with them. Surely she saw Regan’s newbie status. She didn’t question it at all?? She didn’t ask why a newbie was going to have an in person meeting with her? She didn’t suggest an alternative, like a phone call?”

“Her Majesty has a kind heart, which I understand, but this could have been a fatal mistake easily. Anyone can make a fake background check, anyone can send you an edited background check. She could have deleted information before mailing it to the Guard.”

“Knowing the Queen, she must have figured that everyone starts from somewhere, so she wanted to give her a chance. I don’t blame her one bit. If anything happened, Paulo would have still been there. Doesn’t he stand guard at the exits?”

Regardless of where these Royal Reporter staff members stand, it’s clear that citizen’s may feel the same.

#sims 4 #sims 4 story #sims 4 legacy #sims 4 family #sims 4 simblr #sims 4 royal story #sims 4 royal legacy #sims 4 royal family #sims 4 royal simblr

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who-is-shades · 3 days

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raz dnd 37

zen is so drunk sksksk. now their arguing. android only does nerd shit with zen and doesnt party xD zen complains he never wants to try new things with him and until zorbolt came back he just stayed inside. wheatley is trying to sneak away wtf xD

zen asks the bartender to give him something? he gives him a small white orb and zen eats it! it sobers him?! senna is giving parsley a play by play xD zen places a hand on wheatleys shoulder and tells him to sit back down, they need to talk. parsley is taking his sweet time xD

zen puts a hand on android and reminds him he loves him and so does the rest of the family, but he can be quite overbearing. android takes offence xD hes not talking about just this quest hes been like this before cause of his trauma! big brother mentality. zen called him judgey and android scoffs xD

that time bubble put things in perspective for zen. he says android has been redirecting his hatred of organics onto teya and parsley. android is again taking offense. 'dont you think this is excessive?' zen does call out teya and parsley for not making it easy. android is so peeved his fans kick up xD

zen says its been hard for them. android snaps and says he doesnt understand. he had to relive that awful day weeks ago along with wheatley. how many bots he sent to be dismantled because he thought they were 'defective.' back on the trauma! he didnt 'try' to understand them and saw them as inferior. hearing wheatleys screams while possessed made him wonder if the others screamed like that. how can he possibly get rid of this guilt when hes constantly reminded of it. he runs.

zen says android is the last of the originals, the others went in the jars, and wonders if hes lonely. wheatley, android, both the last. zen wants to speak to wheatley. zen promises he wont yell at him. he admits he was upset but now hes just sad. that wheatley still doesnt believe he belongs. how hard god tried to fix wheatleys people, because he cared. because hes sorry.

zen says he knows we dont fully trust robogod for reading our minds without permission, but we saw the time bubble and what happaned. trust is hard. thats all he wanted to say. wheatley gently pulls zen off him and says he understands and its not the first time he was betrayed. he woke up disoriented and didnt know what was going on. he made an assumption and said something he didnt mean to.

wheatley messages senna if hes being guilt tripped. senna says maybe not intentionally and he can decide for himself if it is. he says he was just scared and he wont forget what god has done for him. (hes getting worse lol) he will apologize to android.

wheatleys dress is done! wheatley starts sobbing senna and teya both hug him. parsley walks in and feels awkward lol. he puts the dress in the token and comes over. wheatley wants to talk to little brother. senna says he can call him on the token and teya reminds him of his sending stone. parsley asks if he wants him to go find him. he can sure try. maybe god knows where he is?

we dont wanna talk to him rn xD wheatley finishes his orb xD thats not helping hes an emotional drunk. senna says they all need a drink. hes already emotional xD jack slowly hands an orb to wheatley xD then he hits on parsley XD wheatley says he wants to go home. senna says their working on it. time for her to get drunk! wheatley agrees xD

parsley asks if wheatley can delete memories? that permission was revoked from him. parsley is choosing to stay sober and babysit xD "I know you dont like me very much but you dont have to sit so far away!" aww senna. wheatley gets a few more orbs.

teya says shes having a belated bday drink oh no! senna promises to make her a cake! jack makes her a special bday drink! wheatley drunkedly wanders to the range and parsley follows him. this group is in shambles xD jack gives teya a big cup with lots of layers and colors.

wheatley is happy parsley wants to spend time with him xD hes gonna use spears? parsley tells him to wait and he grabs something from the bar. he wants the white orb for wheatley. wheatley says he had a spear long ago when he was in the military. parsley offers to take him shopping for a spear. he has to remind wheatley he has a map xD

senna leans against teya and is drunk and sad. she says she was only slightly older than teya when she left home. she name drops The Stupids xD teya tells jack to cut her off xD wheatley is drunkedly trying to ask for a spear to parsley has to step in xD

wheatley is totally gonna hurt himself xD wheatley starts saying he can survive on his own ouch. after getting lost wheatley starts crying and says he misses teya and senna xD

senna just rubs her face on teya's shoulder like a cat. she finishes her bottle and asks what teya would wish for. senna says teya can have hers if shit goes topside. she also avoids answering what she would wish for xD teya says no more wine xD she does mention her liver is fucked up enough she wont get alcohol poisoning. then she starts ranting about the bitch ass dragon. she suggests finding a dragons skeleton for teya xD she cups teyas face and comments on her being purple and suddenly stops and gets sad.

parsley walks in! wheatley says their gonna kiss and senna says shes sorry and backs away. parsley whispers to wheatley that some peoplke get sad when drunk xD she looks at the 3 of them and stumbles out the door. parsley says hes gonna go after her.

parsley asks if shes ok and offers to help her find those beds from last time. she gets very quiet. then she starts commenting on how much older she is from teya and how she will probably outlive her anyway. she asks how long parsley might live. hes not sure lol. she tells him to live a life with as few regrets as possible. he just gives her a weird look.

he coughs and asks if she needs to talk about something. 'do you?' he says no. 'anything you NEED to talk about?' 'i dunno.' hes never been good at talking about things, neither is she xD 'wanna talk about dying?' senna wtf xD she says shes been alone for like 300 years and seeing the others, they are fun. she apologizes for making him go back to the feywilds, she didnt know how bad it would be for him. she says his moms a bitch, agreed xD

he apologizes for nearly drowning her and offers to teach her to swim. 'ill hold you to that then.' she says she almost got into the feywilds once, awful decision really. bedtime for senna! he looks at the plumbing nice. he says hes glad he met her too awwwwwwww.

wheatley and teya are having fun xD wheatley drops lore but no one hears it wtf xD parsley asks why jack is always polishing cups lol. wheatley makes grabby hands at parsley xD jack is excited to be a real bartender after we kill zorbolt. wheatley wants hugs parsley! he asks where senna is, wheatley needs a rest. parsley gets some to go bottles. bed time for drunk bastards! parsley shows them the pipes!

senna wakes up 4 hours later with an awful hangover. she finishes the water parsley left and gets up. wheatley is just laying there and senna wants to find some food. off they go! maybe they can go find little brother. senna tries to figure out how to get the map on her token. wheatley got it to work! but its the map from the regular world noooo. then it shows a list of other maps lol. senna tries to make it work and it does nice. time to find food!

she asks the map to find little brother but that didnt work rip. we ask the chef if hes seen him, hes at the church! its a dome. a long hall with some giant doors leading to the dome. bots creating small constructs in worship of robogod. senna nudges wheatley, time to look for little brother. senna knocks on some of the doors looking for them. a priest ushers us in so we can speak to lil bro.

family reunion! hes been learning a lot. SP runs over wheatleys foot and calls out to him. he says its required to build constructs to be a part of the faith in tribute. he has one from every worshiper he ever had. he can make small levers right now great job! aww he wants to be like wheatley awwwwww. senna is just watching them very fondly.

parsley is playing dressup apparently xD

#senna #dnd #dnd adventures

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