#i have so much more to say even just about amber specifically since she is. Unfortunately my fav and unfortunately almost the only characte

[studioghibelli]

toothache- a joel miller x reader fan fic

note: hello friends :) this is my first fan fic in a loooong time, and i've been quite inspired by all the lovely joel miller fics i have been reading lately. he's a character i find pretty... alluring. (hehehehe.) it's been quite some time since i've written anything about a fictional character so i hope you all enjoy. any tips, criticism, advice, comments, etc. are always welcomed, so feel free to say anything!

summary: after two long years apart, a failed relationship, and a wasted engagement ring, you and joel reunite at a family christmas party. old feelings come up, arguments ensue, and you somehow end up naked beneath him.

rating: 18+, "mature content" as the kids say, mdni!

word count: 5ish thousand

warnings: no use of y/n, female reader, dbf!joel, big phat huge giant slutty age gap (you pretty much decide, no specific ages actually mentioned, but obvs reader has been legal their entire relationship), no outbreak!au, daddy issues, reader has a bit of an outburst, mentions of christianity, reader is hit by their father once, a delicious bit of angst littered about occasionally, reader just got out of a relationship, childfree!joel, daddy issues, guilt, cocky arrogant charming!joel, a few catty arguments, joel and reader have a PAAAAST, SHMUT (PiV, unprotected sex, creampie, f and m receiving oral, daddy kink, dirty talk, pet names, ehhh i think i got it all.)

Beneath the canopy of glimmering Texas stars, a blanket of dark solitude rested upon your covered shoulders. This night, a chilling, nippy Thursday evening half past eight, was much more calming than most. The wind howled sweetly in the distance, accompanied by the fluttering shake of oak leaves, crisp with the oranges of autumn, browning and crisping at the edges like an overbaked pie crust.

Looking in through the dusty, fogged windows of your childhood home, you saw your mother pacing about, hanging up tinsel and elaborate ornaments throughout the living room, muttering what you could only imagine would be prayers as she dealt with the stress of party planning. Your father sat on a leather arm chair, legs crossed atop the mahogany table, flipping through the channels like a drone, his zombie crusted eyes glazed over with the promise of mindless watching.

The annual Christmas party your parents held religiously each year was tomorrow, Friday the 22nd, at exactly 6PM. You had flown in from the city you had managed to settle in almost three days ago, and were met with all the reasons you had left Austin in the first place. An aggressive and brutal father, a critical mother, and a wallpaper stained room full of regret, slathered with the oil of guilt. Your bedsheets reminded you of him, your pillows were fluffed with images of his graying curls, and the sight of your carpet made your knees burn with the thought of all the times he had you kneel before him.

His hands, rough and calloused by long days working on his truck, contracting out his skills, fixing sinks and mowing lawns for the neighbors. Long fingers leaving trail marks and imprints red with the burn of lust, rough lips that had memorized each part of your neck, your shoulders, your thighs, your collarbones. Your cotton sheets still smelled like him. Like waves of vanilla bergamot wafting through an amber forest, like a night full of sweet promises and well-kept secrets.

Deep down you knew you shouldn't be thinking about him. Especially not right after a breakup. A breakup with the man you had planned to marry. Some mornings you could still feel the weight of the now lost diamond atop your ring finger, somedays you could still smell the citrus of his shampoo, feel the smoothness of his kisses. But he wasn't Joel.

Joel.

You knew it was wrong. You knew you shouldn't have closed your eyes and imagined him, especially not while being fucked by another. But for some reason, some reason completely unknown and foreign to you, you just couldn't burn his image, his taste, his scent from your memory. Whether your ex-fiancé would climb on top of you, take you from behind, lay beneath you- whatever it was he did- you couldn't shake Joel fucking Miller from your head.

"Tha's it, babydoll." A guttural groan seared through your ears like the heavy bass of a song, engulfing your senses with the high burning flames of pride that his praise so often left you feeling. "S'good for daddy."

Joel watched with darkening eyes as your tongue swirled along the tip of his head, licking the precum that leaked from his thick, twitching cock. His fingers had stitched themselves within the yarn of your hair, pulling and guiding you exactly where he wanted you to go. But Joel didn't have to do that much. Oh, no. Not with you. It was as if you were apart of him, as if you knew exactly what he wanted, right when he wanted it. Like you could read his mind. His thoughts were yours to swim through just as much as they were his.

You stared up at him with big doe eyes and, unbeknownst to him, eyes full of adoration. All you wanted was to please him. All you wanted was to taste his cum and feel his love. All you wanted was him. Every day, every night, every morning, every holiday. And although you were young, you were certainly not naive, and you knew why Joel snuck in through your window at night. Not for love, not for deep conversation, not for peace. When he sought you out, he wanted to partake in carnal sin with you. Joel wanted to lick your skin and taste your passion, he wanted to swallow your moans and take you like a wild animal, hungry for a taste of your sweet, devilish nectar.

You gulped thickly in the dead silence of night, staring up at the crescent moon. Thoughts of him filled you dreadfully full to the brim, and all the guilt from the nights you spent dreaming of him and not the man you were supposed to marry, came bubbling up to the surface, choking you. In the end, it was the reason you left your clueless, heartbroken fiancé. You could no longer lie to yourself, you could no longer go about with the it is what it is mindset.

As the night darkened with swirls of purple and navy, and the air grew colder with December chills, you decided it was finally time to go inside. When you got in bed you were met by the absence of his warmth, by the longing for his touch, the smell of his skin, the linger of his fingers. You fell asleep to thoughts of him, dreaming of what once was.

_______

The living room of your old home had been transformed into a winter wonderland full of crimson and gold, the smell of mulled wine and freshly baked bread thick in the air. A crackling fire raged on in the fireplace, filling the room with a warmth not usually found within their walls, and guests were strung about on couches talking, leaning against walls and flirting, and some lingered about the kitchen taste-testing your mother's newest creations.

You wore a simple red dress with black tights and a matching cardigan that would just not stay up on your shoulders, blending in with everyone else for the most part. Your makeup was done, hair perfect, jewelry secured- everything that played a vital role to look presentable at a function held by your parents, you had made sure to do. There was no use in upsetting them, not after the anger and resentment they threw at you when you broke up with that dear sweet boy they thought was just much too good for you.

You rolled your eyes at the thought.

There was a heavy knock on the door that it seemed only you heard, the radio to your left playing a mix of vintage Christmas music you had had memorized since you were a little girl. Setting down the glass of wine, you made your way to the front, slowly opening the door.

A slap in the face of that delicious, panty soaking cologne threw you for a loop. You didn't have to look up from the broad, flannel covered chest to know exactly who it was. Your legs were already shaking, mouth already watering. Yet, despite this, anger drummed within your chest, tugging at your heart with its gnarled, sharpened claws.

Your eyes flicked up to meet his own. Those honeyed orbs that reminded you of the earth after a fresh rain, deep and knowing and mysterious and.... perfect. Always so perfect, so beautiful.

"Joel Miller." You stated, much more plainly than you thought you could ever muster.

"Well hello there darlin'. Long time no see." He purred so sweetly you would have missed the sarcasm if you weren't properly listening. A shit eating smirk tugged at his lips, hidden behind the dark moustache you had become well acquainted with many moons ago. "You sure look pretty. Did ya' miss me?"

A tight clench to your jaw caused your teeth to hurt, nostrils flaring with the heat of aggravation. Your body deceived you, crying out for his touch. It didn't forget all those orgasms he gave you, all those marks he left. How could it?

"No. I did not." You finally lied right through your teeth, cementing your fate in the fiery pits of hell as you grudgingly allowed him to enter.

Joel still towered over you menacingly, and it made your thighs press against themselves. He stared at you, long and hard, taking you in like a drunkard scanning the liquor aisle. "No ring?" He finally spoke.

"No. I left him."

He sniggered, raising an eyebrow. "Probably 'cause you were thinkin' about me too much."

"Just go get some beer, talk to my dad, and leave me alone!" You finally snarled, narrowing your eyes at him. Joel raised his hands in silent defense, shot you a wink, and left you standing in the foyer like a dumb, lost fool.

All night you tried to avoid him. Despite this pact you made with yourself, your eyes always managed to wander towards him, and he always managed to catch you staring. He never approached you about it, he just tilted his lips in a smirk and went right back to whatever conversation he was apart of, nursing a dripping bottle of Modelo, with that damned smirk never leaving.

It wasn't until dinner was being served that you noticed your place card settled right beside his. Great. You groaned.

"It's too late to change places now. You should have told me earlier." Your mother scolded you for your audible discomfort, setting down the casserole dish of sweet potatoes. "Next year, tell me in advance. Instead of waiting last minute and moping about!"

"Yes ma'am." You muttered.

A group of men walked in discussing football amongst themselves, and the remaining chairs were soon full of their laughter and conversation. Joel sat down beside you, smoothing out his jeans with those perfectly roughed up hands. You glanced down at them, tracing his knuckles and nail beds with your eyes. You began chewing on your lower lip, and he had no doubt what you were thinking of.

"Betcha' missed these hands. Hmm?" His voice was so quiet, only you could hear. "These fingers, too."

"You are the most arrogant fucking man in the entire universe, Joel Miller. Has anyone ever told you that?"

His eyes lit up with delight. You stared into them, old memories and feelings you had tried to suppress rushing to the forefront of your mind. The sting of guilt filled your heart. "You jus' did, darlin'." You groaned again, quietly this time, and your ears twitched in annoyance at the sound of his sly chuckle.

"Let's say grace." Your father held out his hands, that fake smile of his stretched out across his face, painfully taut and insincere. He wore a pitiful clown mask. Always had.

You took the hand of the person to your left, someone your mother used to know from a Bible study, and with an annoyed eye roll, grabbed Joel's hand to your right rather brutally. The roughness of his palm felt warm and familiar, and Joel took note of how your legs squeezed together at the initial contact.

"Our father..." Your own began, and you slowly turned to face Joel.

His tongue swiped across his lower lip, his eyes shut as he did his best to listen to the falsehoods your father peddled, about family and togetherness and the giving season of Christmas, and so on so forth.

But Joel wasn't stupid.

He felt your gaze burning holes right through him, and had no problem cracking open an eyelid to meet your line of sight. Your cheeks burnt with embarrassment, and you quickly looked away, too nervous, too scared, too everything to meet those chocolate orbs again.

His thumb circled itself across your knuckles, the rough pad of his digit igniting a fire within you, and you felt his arm slowly moving your entwined hands down towards your thigh. You didn't stop him. How could you? He let go of your grasp, his fingers digging into the fabric of your sheer tights, lifting your dress up ever so slightly. His short nails danced across your skin, lightly tracing shapes and letters against it. Slowly crawling higher, higher, higher....

"- We love you, our good and almighty Father. Amen."

Joel took his hand away, and no one was the wiser.

No one except you. You cleared your throat quietly, beginning to pass around the fresh, steaming food to those nearest of you.

For a while you stared at your plate. Honeyed ham, whipped potatoes, sauteed green beans, crisp broccoli. None of it sounded good. You poked around with your fork, chewing on your lip as you mindlessly paid attention to the conversation bustling around you. Joel was immersed in a conversation with your father about the NHL or NFL, you didn't know because you didn't really care, and your mother was laughing with her friends about shared nail salon stories and talks of their husbands.

"You know, our daughter could have had a husband by the New Year." Your mother finally said, pointing the rim of her wineglass towards you. The blood colored liquid sloshed against the transparent glass, dribbling down the side like falling tears.

Looking up from your plate, you faked a smile. "Yep. Could've."

"Can you believe this girl, Joel?" Your father finally spoke, shoving a fork full of casserole into his wide mouth. "He was perfect, really. Polite, hard working, on his way to law school. Apparently she doesn't know what's good for her." He was practically guffawing, his eyes rolling with each syllable.

Joel turned, looking at you. His brows were knitted together, lips slightly parted, and he looked at you with a curiosity you had not seen him show before. You cleared your throat once more, finally taking a bite of your potatoes and steering away from his burning gaze.

"You're right, dad. I don't know what's good for me."

"When I was her age, phew..." Your mother wiped the fake sweat from her brow, her friends joining her in a choir of laughter. "Let me just tell you, I never would have let a catch like that go. He was so handsome, too."

"Why'd you even leave him, anyways? You never did tell us. Your poor mother was up all night crying when you finally broke the news."

You dropped your fork with a loud clang against the porcelain of your mother's finest China, shrugging your shoulders with an exasperated groan. "You know, I don't really know. I guess I just felt like it!" You lied, your tone dripping with annoyance, soaked with the familiar hiss of sarcasm. "I guess- well you know me- my tiny little female brain can't possibly comprehend what's good for me!" Abruptly, you stood up from the dining room table, narrowing your eyes.

"Don't talk to your father like-"

"You want to know why I really left him, pops? Are you dying to know?"

His cheeks had puffed up like the chest of a mating bird, eyes darkening dangerously quick as he stared daggers into your soul, praying and hoping you would keep talking. Anything for an excuse to have a go at you. "Why?" His voice was low, yet still inquisitive.

"Because the only time I could cum was if I was thinking about another man. Are you happy now? He couldn't please me. He was lazy. Annoying. Li-"

Whack.

Right across the face. A searing hot poker branding your cheek with a hefty, molten, angry slap. His tongue swiped the inside of his cheek, yellowing teeth gritting against themselves so hard you could have sworn you heard a crack. He had his finger pointed, ready to pull the trigger and unleash a spew of cusses and shouts your way, before he was stopped by Joel's deep, anger laden voice.

"Hey!" Joel had jumped up on his feet with lightning fast reflexes, and the room had gone eerily quiet. "Come on now, man. That ain't how we treat ladies." He had grabbed your elbow to help steady you, your head dizzy and eyes clouded with prickling tears. Your father shot daggers at you, paid barely any mind to Joel, and stormed out of the room, steam bellowing from his ears.

Joel looked at your mom, the deep crease settling in against his forehead. "I'll help clean 'er up. Jus' stay here and enjoy the rest of your dinner." He managed a charming smile despite the anger brewing inside the tightness of his chest, and you walked alongside him as he led the way to your room.

Your room.

Joel found the lingering scent of vanilla and tobacco candles filtering in through his nostrils, the familiarity transporting him back to nights dripping with the silver hue of the moon, the softness of your skin and the swirling of your tongue heavy at the forefront of his memories. It reminded him of your gaze, hungry and devilish, the sharpness of your incisors biting into his skin as he took you hard, as he took you rough, as he made you his. The whisper of your sweet voice, the feeling of your chest against his, the way you made him dizzy with the addicting high of desire.

Now is not the time. Not now, while you held your cheek and stared angrily at your wall, tears of both resignation and resentment pooling, your mascara flaking by the corners of your eyes. He felt a bit like a horned up asshole, admittedly.

Joel crouched in front of you. His jeans spread tight against the thickness of his thighs, the top buttons of his flannel unbuttoned, giving you access to the golden hue of his chest. Now is not the time, you thought to yourself. Not when you wanted to be angry at him, not when you craved to push him away.

"You are the last person I need taking care of me." You snarled. "I-I-" A hiccup erupted from your mouth, a shaky sob leaving you. You were embarrassed by the fact you had crumbled so quickly. "Just leave. Like.... like you did the last time."

"The last time?" He spoke incredulously. "Is your brain workin' properly?" You stared bitterly in his direction, arms now crossed over your chest. "I don't know if you remember, but you're the one that left me."

You sat in silence, top lip curling with confusion. "I asked if you wanted to come with me..."

"To some fancy city hundreds'a miles away from my home? Just up an' startin' a completely new life? That's what you were askin' me to do, babydoll. It was you who decided to leave." His fingers found their way to your knees, his voice calm yet firm. He gave them a tight squeeze, letting you know he was there, that he was present, that he wasn't planning on letting go.

"Are you blind? Did you not just see what happened out there?" You sniffled, wiping your runny nose on the sleeve of your black cardigan. You didn't push his grip away, not when it felt so warm, so good. "I had to leave, Joel."

"If you woulda asked, instead of running off all impatient like ya' did, I would've taken us somewhere. Southwest.... Dallas, maybe. I-I haven't put much thought into it." A complete lie. Even Joel couldn't convince himself of that.

Oh, he had thought of it alright. Day and night, when all he had was his right hand to keep him company, when you were far away sleeping with that kid who wasn't him. For the first time in his life, he had found himself feeling jealous. Jealousy caused by a woman he had no business being so fond, so infatuated, so in love with. A part of him felt ridden with guilt, unsure of the implications your relationship had. The other part didn't give a flying fuck.

"You.... you really would’ve?" Your voice was quiet, barely a whisper. Joel felt his heart tight against his chest. It hurt for you.

All he did was nod.

"And I-and I left you!" You wailed into your hands, falling against his chest. "I fucked it all up!"

"Shh." He held you quietly, his heavy palm rubbing circles into your lower back, gently thumbing the fabric every so often. "S'alright, now. I'm here. I've got you, babydoll."

"I can't even imagine how you felt." You mumbled into his ear, your fingers finding a stray curl behind it. "Knowing I was off with some idiot." A thick stutter of breath got caught in your throat, your nose still sniffling. "I thought of you everyday."

Joel nodded against your head. "I know, I know you did."

"Now is not the time for your ego-"

He cut you off. "I know, because I did too. And me and you? Well, I always thought we were entwined. One in the same. Same typa' fabric, or cloth or.... somethin'."

You pulled away, blinking slowly. "Are you being romantic with me?"

He nodded slowly.

You weren't quite sure what to do, you just stared at the man before you, heart pounding, eyelids fluttering. He moved his hand higher up your leg until he reached your waist, tightly holding it. His fingers grasped into your skin, gently keeping you in place for his eyes only. Joel savoured your presence, taking in every inch of you that he hadn't seen for what felt like a lifetime.

"Will you get up here... with-...." you trailed off for a moment, slightly worried, "-with me?"

"I was startin' to think you'd never ask." He climbed up on the bed, leaning his back against the headboard. Joel pat his hands on his lap, beckoning you to come closer and take a seat on him.

"Maybe.... take those off?" You pointed to his jeans, chewing on the inside of your cheek. A smirk graced his mouth, and he nodded in silent agreement, quickly kicking off his worn leather boots and denim jeans. You settled down on his lap, legs on each side of him as you straddled his waist, nose to nose with him.

You had always adored his nose. Slightly curved, with a beautiful bridge that ever so slightly jutted out. Joel was the most handsome man you had ever seen, and you had seen many men. The crows feet by his eyes had deepened since the last time you saw him, and his curls had been salted with more strands of white. His cheeks were scruffy with prickly facial hair, but his thick moustache had always remained the same. You gently ran your finger across it, setting your palm against his cheek.

He leaned closer to you, fingers brushing a few stray hairs away, before planting his lips against yours in a deep, sensual kiss. Your stomach awakened with butterflies, fluttering and kicking against your rib cage, before all you could taste or smell was Joel.

Joel, Joel, Joel.

That's all you heard in your mind.

Joel's fingers crept towards the heat of your middle, and he let out a deep grunt of frustration when he realized you still had on your pantyhose. It didn't take long for him to quite literally rip them off, setting you back down on his lap as he held you tight and close, almost fearful of letting go. His thick finger traced down the middle of your cotton underwear. Joel felt the wetness pooling at the front, and he smiled a genuine smile against your mouth.

All for me, he thought to himself.

"Look at me."

You pulled away, his lips now stained like cherries from your lipstick, his hair slightly disheveled and out of place. He took a hard swallow, gently running his hand down the side of your face, burying it in your hair.

"Let me make you feel good."

You nodded quickly, falling back on the softness of your mattress.

He peeled your cardigan off, followed by your dress and his own shirt, and you were left with nothing but your mismatched bra and panties, a picture of perfection laid out before him. His hands trailed down your belly, its supple softness a stark contrast to the well-worked leather of his aging hands.

Joel slightly shook his head. "You're so beautiful." He leaned down, planting a kiss to your stomach, his chin resting on your cloth covered mound. "But you already knew that." You giggled softly to yourself, rolling your eyes as you gently cupped his head in your hand.

"If I didn't before, I certainly do now."

He fingered his digits through the hem of your underwear, quickly discarding them and throwing them off to the side. "Ain't she a 'beaut..... now that's somethin' I've not seen for quite some time." He pushed your legs apart gingerly, face to face with your pink, glistening pussy, open and laid bare for his eyes only. You saw the thirst swirling around in the orbs of his eyes.

Joel circled your swollen clit with the tip of his index finger before gently pushing it into your opening, smiling to himself as he heard your wetness. A quiet moan escaped you, and you gently brushed your thumb against the corner of his eye, staring down at him.

He was so handsome. So handsome. That's all you could think of as his fingers continued their much welcomed exploration of the folds of your labia. Joel relished in the slick coat of your glistening arousal on his fingers, and he felt his jaw tighten with a mouth watering craving for the sweet taste of your cum in his mouth.

He couldn't hold back anymore.

He leaned forward, wrapping his lips around your throbbing clit. It elicited a long moan from your lips as you tried your hardest to remain quiet, your stupid family’s Christmas party still playing its scenes just outside your door. Joel swirled the tip of his tongue against your button, his big hands holding your thighs in place.

"Oh, Joel." You mewled quietly, fingers knotting themselves in his hair. "Right there baby, right there."

He hummed against the folds of your pussy, tracing shapes with his tongue, altering between slow and quick, soft and hard. He knew just what you liked, just what you wanted from him, and he had no problem entertaining your wishes.

Joel pulled away, pushing his middle and ring finger inside your entrance, its tightness engulfing him right up to the knuckle. He groaned, knowing how good you felt stretched out on his cock like the good girl you always were, always had been, for him.

"Jus' like this, darlin'?" He muttered, already knowing the answer. Your eyes met his, as he slowly pressed up against the spot he knew made you go crazy.

"Mmhm." You whimpered, holding his curls even tighter. "Need to cum, Joel."

"Ask nicely, baby. Where are your manners?"

"Please. Please. I want you to cum for you, daddy."

"That's better." Joel growled a primal growl deep in the confines of his throat, leaning back down and sucking your clit into his mouth.

If there was one thing Joel loved without a doubt in this life, it was eating your pussy. He loved pushing his nose into your clit while he fucked your folds with his tongue, he loved overstimulating it after a particularly violent and shattering orgasm, he loved teasing it with feather light touches. He loved feeling you squirm, hearing you whimper, listening to his name like a prayer on your lips. You chanted his name like he was your God, your savior, your protector. You chanted his name like it was the only name you had ever learned. And by God did it get him riled up.

Joel shoved his tongue further inside of you, tasting your sweetness, lapping it up like a dog who had just found water after days of searching.

"Damn honey, gonna give me a fuckin' toothache with the way you taste. So fuckin’ sweet. So good.” His voice was raspy with desire, fingers fucking you deep and hard, your clit trembling between his lips.

"Oh, God.... oh, daddy."

"Tha's it, babydoll. You gonna cum for me?"

"Oh!" You cried out softly as his fingers pressed against your g-spot, his tongue swirling across your clit steadily and firmly. You were on the brink now, right at your breaking point. He kept up the sameness of his movements, repeating each step as perfectly as the last. It only took a few blinks, and waves of pleasure came rushing across your body, flooding all your senses as your ears rang with your first proper orgasm in God only knows how long.

"Daddy, daddy, Joel, oh-fuck me-Jesus, oh, God." You had no wits about you, blabbering and muttering like a fool, clawing at his scalp and pulling his hair until his eyes burnt.

Joel pulled away from your clit and placed the flat of his tongue against your folds, slowly licking you from bottom to top, before his mouth rested on your sensitive button once more. He planted a deep kiss against it, making sure he didn't miss an ounce of your dribbling cum.

"Was that nice?" He asked smugly, his facial hair coated and shimmering with your juices. He already knew the answer his question would elicit, he just liked being a bastard sometimes.

"Mhmm." Was all you could manage.

Your eyes wandered down to his remarkably tight boxers, his bulge tenting up against the fabric. "Fuck me." You whispered. "Please."

"So polite." His voice was like a purr, and he shot a cocky smile your way. "Yeah, I'll fuck you alright. Daddy's gonna make that pussy feel real nice." His deep Southern drawl sent shivers down your spine, his voice so deep and raspy. All man, Joel Miller.

He climbed on top of you, his arms on each side of your head, cradling your face as he looked down at you. Your gazes met, and a lovesick smile broke across your face. "God, I missed you."

Joel had to strain his ears to hear you properly. "I missed you." He admitted in turn.

He grinded against you, his boxers coated in your arousal. You felt the thickness of his cock pressing deeper into you, and your moans of want, no- of need- were all that filled his ears. "Want me to fuck that lil' pussy?"

"Please. Please, daddy."

"Don't think I'm gonna go easy on ya' just because it's been a while." He chuckled into the crook of your neck as he pulled his boxers down, his dick springing out with a gentle slap against your thigh.

"Wouldn't dream of it."

"That's my girl." The head of his dick was pressed against your entrance, and he met your forehead with his own. Your noses melded together, lips brushing against the other, and Joel pushed in with one swift motion.

You couldn't help but gasp. "Jesus Christ. Feels so good, Joel."

"You're so fuckin' tight."

Your nails gently dug into his shoulders at the sound of his voice. Deep, guttural, primal. His eyes were blinded with archaic desire, lip caught between his teeth as he watched your face with every thrust, every twitch. Joel thought you looked perfect beneath him. A portrait of angelic beauty, for his eyes only. Smooth skin, a dazzling smile, eyes full of emotion reserved just for him- he felt like the luckiest man in the world, getting to take you just like this. His thumb swiped a strand of hair that had strayed away from your scalp, and he nuzzled his prickly cheek against yours, causing a faint burning sensation that felt too good to pull away from.

“Joel?” You muttered quietly into his shoulder, your fingers cascading down the center of his broad shoulders.

“Y’okay babydoll?”

“Joel, I-” Your forthcoming soliloquy was cut off by a moan from the back of your throat, and your fingers grasped ahold of his curls even tighter, his face scrunching up with a pained wince. “Sorry. I-”

Joel’s thrusts were deep, hard, slow, he hit every spot he knew made you shiver, every spot he knew made you drool and gasp for him. He loved watching your face contort with pleasure, the way your eyes would go wide and nostrils flare with every deep breath, the way your tits looked as your chest inflated with gasps of air.

“What was that?” His words were laced with smugness. He was making you feel this good. He was. Joel Miller was the luckiest man in the world, getting to fuck your pretty pussy.

“I just wanted to say- I- Oh!” His cock twitched inside of you, and you could feel his own orgasm soon approaching. “I just wanted to say thank you.” Followed by a whimper that made Joel’s stomach twist with some fancy feeling he hadn’t felt for quite some time.

“For?” He muttered between each thrust, eyebrows knitted tightly together as he focused on his movements, one of his hands holding himself up, the other buried against your head, warm beneath the comfort of your hair.

“Everything. What you did for me earlier, oh-oh! Mmm. Yeah, right there. And-and how you take care of me. How you make me feel.”

Joel nuzzled his forehead closer to your own, eyes dead set on the other, lips brushing together. You felt his fingers gripping tighter, teeth clenched, eyebrows tightly together. For a moment you wondered if you shouldn’t have said what you said, or perhaps waited until a better time, but Joel quickly relieved you of the negative thoughts creeping in, and kissed you with a fervent passion he didn’t know was inside of him.

You moaned against his mouth, tugging at his curls, your legs instinctively wrapping around his waist as he kept his pace.

“Makin’ me blush.” Joel groaned out once he pulled away, nodding a bit as if he were giving himself an internal pep talk before continuing his speech. “Thank you for lettin’ this old fool take care of you.” You giggled softly, shaking your head in disapproval.

“You’re not an old fool.” Peppering his face in soft, gentle kisses of affection, you laid your head back down and stared up at him. “You’re just old.”

Joel rolled his eyes. “Doesn’t matter how old I am, darlin’. Still gonna make you cum for me.”

You let out a soft moan at his promise, feeling his hand snake down to your pussy once again. His middle finger began tracing circles in your sensitive clit, wet and welcoming as he filled you up to the hilt with his thick cock. He had never felt something so good, so sweet. He figured he must have been the luckiest man in the world, and he knew he was an idiot to have willingly let you go so many moons ago. Joel figured he could have saved you from a lot of heartbreak and restless nights.

Your walls clenched tightly around him, and you felt that familiar sensation of an oncoming high brewing within your stomach. “Gonna cum, daddy. Gonna cum for you.”

“Yeah? You gonna cum all over this dick? Like the good girl you are?”

That did your head in. That was the final nail in the coffin. You had to bite down on his shoulder, hard, to muffle the sounds of your orgasm, your pussy contracting against his dick as he rode you through your orgasm, making sure to hit that spot as he did so.

It wasn’t long until you felt his own orgasm coming in the form of sloppy pushes and muffled grunts. Sweat had started beading up at his forehead, stray curls sticking down in every which way, and you held his face in your hands as you watched the emotion enter and leave his masculine, solemn features. There was nothing quite like watching him finish inside you. His jaw would clench, his forehead would wrinkle, and his eyes would always meet yours as he pushed his nose into your cheek, whispering your name like it was a promise. And this time was no different.

Joel held you tight, stuck to you like glue as his orgasm washed through him, and when it faded away he was still holding you against his hot, sweaty chest, hands in your hair and mouth on your neck.

“Oh, Joel.” You murmured, brushing his hair back.

There was a long moment of silence as he caught his breath. Finally, he spoke:

“Let me take you away from here.”

Swallowing a thick lump that had been forming in the back of your throat, you propped yourself up on your elbows and looked at him curiously. “Right…. right now?”

“I should’ve done it two years ago. I should’ve…. should’ve known what was goin’ on. If I knew he hit you like that-”

“It isn’t your fault, Joel. I shouldn’t have….” Taking in a shaky breath, you scooped his hand into your own. “Take me anywhere you want. Anywhere in the world, and I’ll be by your side through it all.”

Joel looked at you with a glimmer in the darkness of his eyes, and in that moment he knew just what he had to do. He would move mountains for you if it meant keeping you safe, he’d climb Mount fucking Everest if he had to, and in that second your eyes met, he promised himself harm would never, ever come to you again.

In the silver light of the moon that came swirling in through the transparent curtains of your room, he had never seen you look so beautiful. He knew he was in love, as your big eyes stared up at him, full of hope and adoration. He knew he would do anything it took to take you away from this God forsaken place that had caused you so much harm.

He would be your protector, until the day he died, and no harm would come to you under his watch. As he took your face in his hands and professed his love through deep kisses, that was all he knew. You, and the deep, lovely feeling that you would always be for him and his eyes only.

Oh, if only Joel knew the world would be ending soon.

#pedro pascal #joel miller #joel miller the last of us #tlou fic #joel tlou #pedro pascal fanfiction #pedro pascal fic #pedro pascal characters #the last of us fanfiction #joel miller x reader #fan fiction #fan fic writing #joel miller x you #joel miller x y/n #tlou fanfiction #the last of us fic #joel the last of us #pedro pascal fandom #pedro pascal smut #joel miller smut #smut #tlou smut #tlou series #tlou hbo #pedro pascal x reader

[cobaltperun]

Lost (19) - Where I belong

Tara Carpenter x female Reader

Summary: To anyone on the outside, and to Tara’s friends, you were Tara’s fierce protector, the MMA fighter who’d take anyone on for Tara. The Guard Dog, as Amber called you. You had no idea you’d have to protect her from people who claimed they loved her. It didn’t matter. As long as you and Tara had one another there was nothing you wouldn’t be able to survive.

Story warnings: Scream violence, family issues, trauma, angst, certain sensitive topics

Word count: 2.6k

Story masterlist / First part / Previous part / Next part

-So take my slow beating heart, you are where I belong-

The house hasn't changed much since you turned eighteen, you saw they changed the doors, but other than that it was exactly how you remembered it. A three-story house that screamed 'we're rich!' to anyone passing by, with its over-the-top fence and decorations, and the damn marble lions looking down on whoever went through their gate.

You typed in the code, your father's birthday, disabling the locks on the first try. Of course, those two wouldn't bother to change it. You were just happy you managed to remember it. And so, you came inside the house and sat down in the living room, waiting for the parents to come back home. You looked around, the house was the same on the outside but on the inside? Brand new furniture. More expensive than comfortable, really, but you just closed your eyes and waited. If you looked at it for too long you were worried you'd start breaking things.

An hour later the doors opened, and you heard your parents laughing, joking about whatever they found funny that day. This was one of the reasons you felt so suffocated in this house, because, almost as if to convince you that you were the problem and not them, they were loving to one another. Laughing, singing praises of one another, exchanging words of affirmation, but never quite choosing to express their feelings through touches. Now that you thought about it maybe that was why you were so adamant about having Tara in your arms as often as you could, why touch was your preferred love language for her specifically.

"Long time no see," you enjoyed seeing them jump when they saw you, they looked like they saw a ghost, they looked afraid. "I'd say it's a pleasure to be here again, but we both know it's not."

"Y/N," your father spoke, and you saw him taking a step back. Funny how you never noticed just how little it took to startle him. He would have been less than average if he wasn't born into money, in fact, from what you read in Gale's brief research on the company it was in decline for years now, only surviving on old reputation and questionable deals. The fact that you and Zack were his children pissed you off.

"Let's be quick about this. Thomas is dead, I'm very much alive despite your efforts and I want to be left alone, so don't try to hire another hitman to kill me or my loved ones," you spoke evenly.

"Or else what?" he acted like he actually could negotiate anything here.

You stood up, and while you lost some muscle due to coma and slow recovery you could still look intimidating enough. "I die and your entire reputation is done for. I revealed everything, one wrong move and it all goes public," you saw fear in their eyes as you walked past them. For good measure, you stopped at the front door and turned to glare at them. "Six people came after me, one way or another, all six are dead and I don't mind adding a few more to that list. I'd just prefer not to dirty my hands with your blood unless I have to," you left no doubt that you would if needed.

You wanted revenge for what happened to Susan, but you couldn't prove they hired Thomas.

So, this would have to do, unless they tried again.

~X~

Tara was waiting for you at the airport, she even let Sam drive your car because she knew you'd lose your mind over her driving it. She couldn't wipe the smile off her face, you called her after you left your parents' house, reassuring her you were perfectly fine and that you'd be on the first flight home.

Tara still couldn't quite wrap her head around the fact that your parents were involved. Her mother was definitely not a good parent, but as bad as she was Tara doubted she would hire someone to kill her or Sam. Thomas' words came to her mind and her smile fell.

"What's wrong?" Sam asked her and placed an arm around her shoulders to comfort her.

Tara wanted to talk to Sam about it, but how could she? How could she say to her sister that she'd feel immeasurable guilt if she had to choose her instead of you? Prior to what happened at the bodega and especially before what happened at the theatre, she would say she'd never have to make that choice. You were strong. So, so incredibly strong, the idea of anyone actually being able to beat you felt unfathomable.

Yes, you technically were beaten when you first fought Amber and Richie, but that was because she was taken hostage and you still managed to get back on your feet and take her to safety. Stabs and bullet wounds, they couldn't stop you. A heart attack couldn't stop you. Even when you were hurt you could keep going.

When Tara thought of strength, she thought of you. To imagine a situation in which your life relied on her choice was almost impossible. To then add Sam being in a similar situation, and to further all that by saying Tara could only save one of you. It was beyond the realms of possibility to her.

But then you nearly died. Then it took you sixteen days to wake up and several days to even get up. You managed to lift her up off the ground right before you left New York, two days ago, and you struggled. You struggled to lift Tara up. You never struggled to do that, and Tara actually lost some weight since you nearly died. She just found it difficult to eat while you were in a coma, and she was yet to regain the weight she lost.

The image of an invisible MMA fighter was shattered and now Tara woke up, screaming and covered in cold sweat, from yet another nightmare that had you in that ambulance with doctors saying they couldn't stop your bleeding. That they were losing you. More often than not, when she would wake up like that you'd sit up and hug her right away and she could see in your eyes that you were awake long before she'd wake up. She still didn't know if you were having nightmares or if you couldn't sleep to begin with.

So, no. She couldn't say any of this to Sam. "Sorry, I was just thinking," she apologized to Sam, clamming up and refusing to talk. She still leaned to the side and returned the one-armed hug.

Tara noticed you immediately, even among the huge crowd she somehow always easily found you. And from the way you were already heading toward her, she knew it was the same way for you. She ran into your arms and despite some hesitation on her part, she didn't resist when you lifted her up, just a bit easier than when you left. "I don't think we need to worry about those two again," you muttered into her neck as you slowly set her back down.

"Mhm," Tara just relaxed, carefully remembering every detail of your hugs. She basked in the warmth of your touch through one of your shirts she had on.

When she separated from you Sam took her opportunity and hugged you as well. "Welcome back," she said, prompting you to smile.

"It's good to be back," you said, and Tara understood you weren't talking just about coming back from Woodsboro. You were still rather thankful for waking up from a coma without any lasting effects on your health. "How's the apartment hunting going, by the way?" you asked.

"We found one, we like it, we think you'll like it as well," Sam said.

Tara, not wanting to leave your side for even a moment now that you were away from her for two days, took your hand and pulled you along.

~X~

By the end of the week, you moved into your new apartment. It had three bedrooms, once again you chose to have one bedroom for the nights someone from your group chose to stay over. It was a bit bare, without much of a personal touch and you were sure Tara would take it upon herself to change that about it as soon as she got time for that.

You thought the new apartment would chase away the nightmares, at least until you got used to it, but it didn't.

You saw them, sitting in Susan’s living room, looking healthy, alive, happy. That’s how it always started, you’d enter the house and see Susan and Zack just like that. And then, as if you were an intruder that interrupted their lives, they’d turn to you and they’d change. They’d morph from how you remembered them into twisted abominations, rotting and carved up and enraged.

And every time Zack would attack you, pushing you back and doing his signature spinning back kick, the move he taught you. It would always send you hitting the wall, and making his gloves fall from it to the floor, and they’d always roll over into your view. He’d then put you in a chokehold, and even if you wanted to you just wouldn’t move.

“Why?! Why did you let my mom die Y/N?!” he would demand again and again, and you’d look up to see the disappointment in Susan’s eyes.

“You killed me, if it wasn’t for you I’d still be alive,” she’d tell you.

You didn’t beg for forgiveness, or to be let go, not anymore. You’d just wake up, covered in cold sweat and breathing heavily.

You couldn't sit up though, instinctively choosing not to wake Tara up, so at least there was that. She had her own nightmares to deal with and soon enough, perhaps twenty minutes after you woke up Tara woke up as well, screaming. So, you immediately pulled her into a hug, her inhaler at ready in case she needed it.

Tara crawled onto your lap and pressed her face against the crook of your neck. "What are you dreaming about?" she asked, almost sounding afraid. In fact, she probably was afraid to ask that questions.

"Susan and Zack, blaming me for Susan's death," you admitted and Tara just hugged you tighter.

"It wasn't your fault. It's none of our fault lunatics want to hurt us," she said, and you nodded. Reasonably, you knew that, but it would still take a while to have a peaceful sleep.

"What about you?" you asked as you slowly played with a few strands of Tara's hair.

"I have nightmares of you in the ambulance, only you don't wake up this time, you die, I lose you," you felt a tear landing on the skin of your neck and gently kissed the top of Tara's head.

"I'm awake, Love, I heard your voice," even when you were in a coma you were vaguely aware of Tara always being by your side, and when you were ready to wake up it was her voice and touch that sped it up.

Tara pulled away slightly. "About what Thomas said," she began, but you pressed a finger against her mouth.

"It doesn't matter. It'll never happen. The situation will never be so dire," you said firmly.

"But-" she tried to argue, but you couldn't have any of it.

"Never, you hear me? I will never let anyone force that choice on you!" you promised and you'd keep that promise as long as you were alive.

Tara nodded, kissing you softly and you gently returned the kiss. It took some time, but you were both slowly getting better and talking about your trauma instead of bottling it up.

~X~

A week later you finally settled into your new apartment, and Sam was finally fine with leaving you two alone to go on a, preferably long, date with Danny. He really came through for all of you, bringing the police and paramedics to the theatre, not to mention finding you, which probably saved your life. He mentioned he heard a loud thud and went to check, hoping it was nothing, but there you were, bleeding out next to dead Thomas. So, as far as you and Tara were concerned, he was clear to move in whenever Sam decided she wanted to take that step.

You just stepped out of the shower after a workout, which actually went really well. You finally felt confident enough to get up with Tara in your arms, to carry her whenever she wanted you to, plain and simple you were doing much better now that you were building your strength back up.

The moment you entered your and Tara's bedroom she threw her arms around you and pulled you into a kiss. She clutched the back of your shirt and ran her fingers through your hair, tugging gently as she deepened the kiss. You wrapped your arms around her and pulled her as close to you as physically possible.

"So needy," you chuckled when she pulled back for a moment.

"Like you aren't?" she challenged, looking fiercely into your eyes.

"Mhm, I definitely am," it's been too long, way too long since you could just relax and make love to one another. You leaned down, kissing her neck.

"Baby," she moaned when you nipped at the side of her neck and you immediately pulled back, looking at her wide-eyed. Tara blushed but kept looking at you. "Baby, please," she said again, acting as if she never stopped saying that word.

There was a reason Amber chose to persistently call Tara 'baby', specifically, you were the reason because Tara would call you like that jokingly whenever you weren't immediately giving in to her demands. She stopped when she got together with Amber and just never went back to calling you like that.

"Say it again," you demanded, lifting her up and pushing her against the wall.

"Baby," she moaned into your ear as you unbuttoned the top buttons of her, previously your, button-up shirt and yanked it down, and since it was way too big for her it just fell from her shoulders.

"Again, love," every time she said it you were more and more certain she would be able to completely get over what Amber did to her, that she'd eventually fully heal.

"Baby!" she cried out, maybe even a bit too loudly as you began kissing her bare shoulders and tugging the straps of her bra down.

"You are where I belong Tara," you pulled back, pressing your forehead against hers. She quickly captured your lips, making you both get lost in the passion. When you separated to catch your breath you looked her in the eyes.

It was a demand fueled by lust and desire and need for Tara, all fueled by the love you had for her. Nonetheless, you doubted you ever demanded anything with as much conviction and seriousness. "Spend the rest of your life with me. Marry me," you'd go through all the proper proposal stuff at a more appropriate time, but you couldn't stop yourself from blurting it out.

Tara looked at you just for a moment. Taking the demand in. "Thought you'd never ask," she smiled and kissed you one more time.

A/N: Well, this is it. Another thank you to Anon I mentioned in the previous chapter, the one that solved the nickname issue. The support for this story has been one hell of a shock for me and I am beyond thankful. Updated: 30.03.2024. This is no longer the finale, we are soon to be back!

#tara carpenter x reader #tara carpenter x you #tara carpenter x female reader #tara carpenter #scream #jenna ortega x reader

[mikavlcs]

Purity Weeps

Pairing: Ghostface!Tara Carpenter x fem!reader

Summary: You don’t talk about home very often and Tara finds out why.

Warnings: violence, gore, murder, domestic abuse, manipulation, tara is a terrible person, bad parents, repeated words and phrases

Word count: 7.7k (god...)

Notes: this is a request, i changed it up a bit so it could fit with the first part but the general gist is there. i also wrote like half of this with food poisoning so sorry in advance...

Masterlist | Part 1 | Part 3 

One thing Tara noticed about you was that you never talked about home.

You had no problem talking about yourself—your various likes and dislikes were something Tara had memorized within weeks of your arrival to Woodsboro—but you never talked about your family.

She only knew the most basic details. You lived with your parents. You had no siblings despite your longing for one. Your house was exactly six and a half blocks away from hers. And recently, you told her that your parents were getting divorced, something you seemed almost relieved about.

That was it. Even her knowledge about your parents was equivocal.

Your mother she’d met a handful of times when she picked you up from school before Tara designated herself your personal chauffeur. A polite woman, if a bit aloof. Never quite meeting Tara’s eyes when she talked, but she liked her well enough.

Your father, on the other hand, remained an enigma to her.

The only time she’d ever seen him was on your first day off school when he dropped you off. In the time since, he hadn’t been present for any school events with you and your mother. Not even a picture. He remained but a silhouette in her memory, and that made the situation all the eerier to her.

And you barely spoke a word about him either, only bringing him up when it was getting late, and you wanted Tara to take you home.

“My dad wants me home by eight,” you’d say and when Tara hesitated, wanting more time alone with you, you would follow it up with a quiet, “Please, Tara, I can’t be late.”

No matter how Tara felt about you having to leave, the tremble in your voice would have her grabbing her keys within seconds.

She always saw the way you shuffled in your seat when you were cutting it just a bit too close, sending anxious glances toward the clock.

There were even times, back when Tara wasn’t taking the situation quite as seriously as she should have been, when you would get out of the car without a goodbye, practically running into your house.

It angered Tara initially, that you had such strict rules being placed on you that were visibly afraid to break them, but with time that anger gave way to concern.

Your overly timid mannerisms when she brought up your family, the tight leash your father had on you, the anxiousness on display when you tugged a little too hard on that leash—it all painted a rather grim picture.

Her concern hit its peak when, after being together for a few months and friends for even longer, Tara realized that she had never been inside your house. She had seen the outside of it countless times when she picked you up and dropped you off throughout the week, but she had never seen the interior.

Why that specific revelation unsettled her so much, she wasn’t sure but it stuck with her.

 Tara was used to being able to see her enemies. Amber, Daniel, Rowan, and Jason were all people she knew, people she saw eyeing you in a way they shouldn’t have been, touching you when you weren’t theirs.

Your father was something different. A man she had never once met or seen. Someone she was almost sure was hurting you in some way but without proof, she wasn’t able to confidently act.

This wasn’t a problem she could just stab to death. At least, not without having potentially catastrophic effects on you and your mental health.

So she was going to try something different. She began making plans but every idea she came up with ended up being scrapped. Nothing she came up with felt right.

Tara did not at all care for rules and boundaries. Made up guidelines that served no purpose other than to irritate her. Imaginary lines in the sand that were made to be crossed. She permanently left those behind the moment she donned the Ghostface mase. But when it came to you, she took them very seriously.

The thought of breaking your heart and trust is what made her once again adhere to the made-up rules, what kept her feet firmly planted on the right side of the line in the sand.

It’s what kept her from breaking into your house and surveilling you and your family. What held her back from slitting the elusive man’s throat with no remorse. She couldn’t stand the thought of hurting you or driving you away from her.

But the idea of doing nothing didn’t sit well with her either.

Other, non-violent plans took form. She tried to be more direct, asking you about your father, what he was like, how close the two of you were.

You didn’t shy away from her questions but the answers you gave were always vague. Just enough to qualify as an answer, but not enough to give Tara any real information to work with.

When she realized she wasn’t getting results, she pivoted and decided to put more emphasis on being supportive. Reiterating how she would always be there for you and that if needed, you could tell her anything.

But no matter what she did, the curfew never budged and your avoidant attitude about your home life never changed. It was starting to get to Tara.

She wanted to believe that you trusted her enough to tell her if something was going on at home. But at the same time, if her suspicions were correct, there was much more to it than simply trust.

Sam would likely tell her to call the police, and that might be an option Tara considered if she had a modicum of trust in the Woodsboro police force to handle the situation correctly. But she didn’t. Law enforcement in Woodsboro had become a joke ever since Dewey stepped down as sheriff.

And she knew that if this situation didn’t get handled correctly, then whatever possible abuse you were enduring would get worse in the aftermath.

For the first time in her life, Tara was stuck. She had no idea what to do.

She was frozen in place, stuck in an endless loop of watching and waiting. Watching and waiting. Watching and waiting.

It was maddening.

Part of her, Ghostface she supposed, wanted to just gut him and get it over with. Like she’d done to everyone else that had been in this position. But if she was wrong,

So she was stuck. Suspended in time and space, unable to do anything but her set routine.

Watch and wait.

Watch and wait.

Watch and wait.

Until something, or someone, broke the cycle.

-

Today wasn’t a great day for Tara.

It started it off well enough. You stayed glued to her side all day, your attention completely on her just as she liked it. She didn’t catch anyone staring at you or trying to talk to you.

Hell, not even Wes tried to bug you throughout the day like he usually did.

It really was going so well.

But then at the last second, you canceled your usual Friday movie date with Tara, citing an urgent family issue. She had driven you home after school without complaint because she knew it wasn’t your fault, and you looked just as upset about it as she did, but she was still bitter.

She needed her time alone with you. You were an addiction that she could hardly keep at bay. Withdrawal symptoms began to set in before you were even gone.

Those symptoms were raging within her now, hours later. It was somewhere around midnight. Sam left only a few hours prior because she liked working night shifts for some reason, so Tara took the opportunity to have another Stab marathon.

She was about halfway through Stab 2 and debating whether or not to just call it a night. It wasn’t like she wasn’t enjoying it—Stab movies never got old to Tara, but the fact that you were supposed to be there with her taunted her, sucking the excitement out of her.

At some point near the third act, she allowed her thoughts to stay on you, disregarding the film entirely.

Lately, she hadn’t been able to spend too much time alone with you after school. The newly finalized divorce was your ongoing reasoning. Your father was moving out and you were helping him pack his things.

You seemed both relieved and conflicted but Tara, of course, was overjoyed about this development. The cycle she was in was being broken without her needing to intervene. Soon, both you and her would be free of this.

And once he was gone, you could spend as much time with Tara as you wanted. That was something she needed to constantly remind herself of when you canceled plans because she missed you.

Hopefully whatever issues you were dealing with (having something to do with your father, no doubt) didn’t take all weekend.

If it did, this would be one of the first weekends you spent without her since Amber’s untimely death. And if she missed you now, she couldn’t imagine how much worse it would get over the coming days.

Her rambling thoughts were interrupted by your familiar ringtone.

She hurried to pick up her phone. Maybe she had caught a break. Maybe your family issue wasn’t urgent after all.

She brought the phone up to her ear and answered with her usual, “Hey, baby.”

But instead of being greeted by your sweet “hellos” or melodic laughter, she was met with what sounded like frantic sobbing.

Immediately, Tara was on her feet, searching for her keys while she tried to figure out what was happening.

“What’s going on? Are you hurt?!”

You tried to blubber out an answer, but it wasn’t anything she could remotely begin to decipher. Snatching her keys off the kitchen counter, she tried to ask again. “Take a deep breath. Can you repeat that for me?”

She heard you take in and release a shaky breath. “T-Tara, I…i-it’s my dad, he’s…” More cries echoed from the phone speakers, urging Tara to move faster. “Please, I don’t-I didn’t mean to.”

That set off alarm bells in Tara’s head. What did you mean?

“Just stay on the phone with me, ok? Don’t hang up. I’m on my way,” she hurried out as she stepped into her shoes, not even bothering to tie the laces. She was out the door and in the car in seconds, her raw panic nearly driving her to hysteria.

The call dropped as she backed out of her driveway, cutting you off mid-sentence. Tara’s heart stopped and only restarted when she noticed that her phone was dead. She took her own advice and took a deep breath.

She needed to get to you. Now.

Tara made it to your house in record time. She left her keys in the ignition, barely remembering to close the car door before she was running up to the door, grabbing the spare key she knew your mother kept under the potted plant by the doormat, and unlocking it.

The moment she stepped inside she froze.

Whatever she was expecting paled in the face of what she was met with on the other side of your door.

A man, presumably your father, lay limp on the floor. The back of his skull was caved in against the edge of the glass coffee table in front of the couch, staining the table and the carpet beneath it an achingly familiar shade of crimson.

After getting over the shock, Tara’s eyes were drawn to you standing a few feet away, looking unsteady on your feet.

Shamefully, her first thought was how amazing you looked with someone else’s blood on you. A depraved part of her was excited by the sight.

But that excitement was quickly drowned out by her concern at your state. To put it simply, you looked forlorn. Tears cascaded down your face in seemingly endless waves. Your eyes were flitting between your father’s body and your blood-stained hands, breaths coming in short, panicked bursts. You were shaking so vigorously that Tara was afraid your legs would give out, finally prompting her to move.

Slowly, Tara stepped inside and softly closed the door behind her. The sound of it, though quiet, still made you flinch. Your head turned, and once your eyes met hers, she saw some awareness creep back in.

“T-Tara,” you sputtered. She smiled sweetly and cautiously approached you, putting her body between you and your father’s corpse.

From this close, she could see the beginnings of large bruises blooming across your neck and upon closer inspection, she saw how heavily the outlines of the darkening marks resembled fingers.

Red clouded Tara’s vision. The familiar burn of her rage rose within her, but she forced her voice to be soft and soothing. The last thing you needed right now was her anger.

“Hi, sweetheart. Can you tell me what happened?”

“He-he tried to…” Your words broke off into choked sobs. But you didn’t need to finish. The bruises on your neck told her everything she needed to know.

“He-I wanted him off. So I pushed him and h-he…He tripped and…” You trailed off, eyes refocusing on the body over her shoulder. She saw the anguish rising and put a stop to it.

“Hey, no. Don’t look at that.” She brought you into her arms, guiding your face to her neck. You nestled into her instantly, clutching onto her like a lifeline as you wept once more. The blood on your hands was staining her shirt, something she took note of while she wrapped her arms around you.

Tara held you close, softly running one hand up and down your back while the other held your head. On the outside, she made sure she appeared calm and comforting, but on the inside, she was anything but.

Pure, unadulterated fury surged through her. Usually, Tara loved being proven right, loved the satisfaction and vindication that came with it. But this time she could feel nothing but malignancy because he tried to strangle you.

And the fact that you had to be the one to kill him deeply infuriated her.

A death at the hands of an angel was far, far better than he ever deserved.

She wished his heart would somehow restart, just so she could have the pleasure of making his last breath as painful as it should have been.

Better yet, she wished she could have gotten to him before he laid his hands on you.

Tara allowed herself, briefly, to daydream about what she would’ve done. A man like that didn’t even deserve the time it took to plan an intricate murder, so she would have kept it simple. Slow, excruciating exsanguination. Death by a thousand torturously shallow cuts as she forced him to keep his eyes open, so the tears could flow unimpeded. So she could watch the life slowly drain from his eyes.

So she could see the terror on his face when, instead of an angel, he spent his last fleeting moments staring into the eyes of the devil.

Your voice broke her out of her fantasies.

“What am I gonna do, Tara?” you sobbed into her neck. “I-I…he’s dead. And I did that.”

Tara hugged you closer and let you cry for a few minutes. It was painful to listen to, but she needed to put her focus on formulating a plan. Plus, it was probably good for you to let it out anyways.

While you wept, Tara took stock of the situation.

There was one body. Cause of death was a fatal head wound which meant there was lots of blood to clean. Luckily, you had a carpet to soak it up. A quick glance told her that nothing else appeared to have any blood splatter, significantly lessening the amount of cleaning she would need to do.

But even with all that in mind, she still had to find a way to get rid of the body. And that would be a tall task to undertake on her own.

There was also the matter of your mother’s whereabouts. Her car was in the driveway. Tara’s car was parked right beside it, so she had to be around here somewhere.

She decided to concentrate on locating her first. Both to make sure she wasn’t informing anyone else about the situation and because, as much as Tara hated to admit it, she would need help with disposing of the body in a timely manner.

Your father could wait a bit. It wasn’t like he was going anywhere anytime soon anyways.

With her mind made up, Tara gently pulled you back and cradled your face between your hands. “Do you know where your mother is, sweetheart?”

You blinked then looked away, biting your lip in concentration as you thought about the question. A smile pulled at Tara’s lips at the sight. Even now, you managed to be cute. You looked back a moment later, shaking your head shamefully. Tara just gave you an encouraging smile.

“That’s ok. I’ll find her,” she assured, wiping your tears with her thumbs.

You sniffed. “You will?”

“Yeah.” She looked around, eyes landing on the couch. Gently, she brought you to the back of it, guiding you to sit with your back against it. “Wait here for me. I’ll be back in a few minutes.”

A nod, and you were burying your face in your knees, your shoulders starting to shake again. Tara wanted to comfort you but there was work that needed to be done, so she set her mind to the task at hand and began her search.

It didn’t take very long.

She found your mother in the kitchen, only a room over from where you were. The woman was curled into a ball by the stove, blank eyes staring out into space.

Tara’s brows shot up. Had she been there the entire time?

���Hey,” she called out, staying a healthy distance away.

No reaction. Tara sighed, looked at the clock on the stove.

12:17 a.m.

There was no time for this. Tara knelt down before the woman, getting directly in her line of sight. That worked and her gaze slowly drifted to Tara’s.

“Are you hearing me?” she asked.

Her inquiry was met with a languid nod. Good, Tara thought. She decided to ask her most pressing question next.

“Did you call anyone?”

Sluggishly, the woman shook her head. Tara let out a silent sigh of relief. Not having to worry about police made this a bit easier, but getting rid of a body on such short notice was still going to be a challenge.

“You were in here the entire time?” She couldn’t resist asking, needing to know if your own mother just sat by and listened while you were being attacked.

She averted her eyes away from Tara’s, choosing not to respond. But the silence itself was an answer, and not one that Tara liked. Her muscles tensed instinctively, fingers curling into fists, but she forced herself to relax.

After a breath, she asked, “Are you hurt?”

Another silent shake of her head and Tara had enough of this conversation.

“Then you are going to get up and help me help your daughter. Do you understand?” she gritted out, colder than she probably should have been.

For a long moment, your mother said nothing. The silence made Tara’s jaw clench painfully. Eventually, she gave another painstakingly slow nod, but the tension within Tara still remained.

Realistically, she knew your mother wasn’t entirely to blame for this situation, likely being a victim herself, but she had knowingly allowed you to get hurt. And there was no forgiveness for that. Not for Tara.

Still, she needed the woman’s help right now if she wanted everything taken care of in a timely manner, so she relaxed her jaw and scrubbed away the impatience in her tone.

“Good. Stay here, I need to take care of something real quick.”

Tara was striding out of the room before she had the chance to respond. Rounding the couch, she found you again. You had your knees pressed to your chest, mirroring your mother’s position.

With a sweet smile, she crouched down in front of you.

“Hey, I found your mom.”

Your eyes widened. “Is she ok?”

“Yeah, she’s fine,” she affirmed, bringing a hand up to your shoulder. “I need you to listen to me carefully, ok?”

“Ok,” you mumbled.

“Go upstairs and take a shower. Put these clothes in a plastic bag and leave the bag in the bathroom. Then you can go lay down in your bed and rest. I’ll come up when I’m finished.”

“What are you gonna do?” You sounded scared, she wanted to alleviate that fear.

“Your mom and I are going to take care of your dad.”

You still looked hesitant. Tara brought her hand up to trace your jaw, stared deep into your eyes. “Do you trust me?”

“Yes,” you answered immediately, making Tara smile.

“Then I need you to do as I say right now. Everything is going to be ok.”

“Promise?” you whispered. Your red eyes and quivering form made for a truly heartbreaking sight. One that Tara hoped she would never have to see again.

With a tender smile, she said, “Yeah, baby, I promise.”

She planted a kiss on your forehead then pulled you to your feet. You lingered for a fleeting moment before following Tara’s orders and heading up to the bathroom. Once Tara heard your footsteps upstairs, she went back to the kitchen.

Your mother was exactly where Tara left her. The smaller girl barely spared her a glance as she spoke.

“Alright, I’m going to need you to gather some things for me.”

Finally, she spoke up for the first time, feeble and low. “You have a…plan?”

At the question, the younger girl paused. She definitely didn’t, but she needed to come up with something, and quickly. She began brainstorming.

She had neither the time nor the tools to try the more elaborate methods of disposal that she’d seen in movies over the years. Things like cutting the body up and hiding the pieces, or melting the body with chemicals were off the table.

So she went with the easiest, least time-consuming plan that came to mind.

Turning, she said, “I need the largest bag you have, a shovel, a sheet, a hat, a bandana, a shirt, a pair of gloves, and your car keys.”

Your mother’s brows raised in disbelief. “My car keys?”

“Yes,” Tara answered, an equal amount of disbelief in her tone. There was no way she was going to potentially get your father’s DNA in her car. She wasn’t stupid. “Do you need me to write all of that down for you?”

She stared at Tara with that disconcerting look again before shaking her head and leaving to gather the items Tara asked for. While she was gone, Tara ventured to the kitchen, searching all of the cabinets until she found plastic wrap.

Returning to the body, Tara lifted your dad’s head off the carpet, careful to get as little blood on her as possible, and began wrapping the plastic around it. Layer after layer of plastic wrap was wound around his head as tightly as Tara could make it, using the entire roll to be safe.

She was just finishing up when your mother returned, the various things Tara requested in her arms. All but the shovel, Tara noticed. A large duffel bag was set down beside her, and Tara glanced up just in time to see her still.

“What are you doing?” she asked, eyeing Tara with a queasy look. Tara’s fist clenched. She hated being interrupted while working.

“I’m wrapping his head so his brains don’t leak out inside of your car,” she explained flatly, shifting briefly to give the woman an annoyed look. “Unless you want that in your trunk?”

She paled, shaking her head vigorously. Her complexion was looking a bit green by the time she regained her train of thought. “The uh, t-the shovel is in the basement.”

Tara blinked. “Then go get it.”

A hurried nod and your mother was practically running to the basement. Tara rolled her eyes.

She took a long look at the bag beside her. It was a bit smaller than she would’ve liked, but it could work with the right positioning.

Taking advantage of your mother’s absence, Tara stripped her bloodied shirt off and shrugged the new one on. It was a simple t-shirt, solid black thankfully with no designs. Perfect for what she was going to be doing.

She dropped the bloodied shirt onto the carpet so it could be disposed of along with it and began unfolding the sheet on the floor next to your father. Very carefully, she rolled him over onto the sheet then did it again and again until he was completely wrapped inside of it like a burrito.

Once he was fully wrapped, she slid the hat over her head, tucking her hair up into it, and tied the bandana over the bottom half of her face.

Just as she was slipping the gloves on, footsteps sounded from the basement stairs and her accomplice appeared at the top of the steps, shovel in hand.

“Put that by the door, I need your help with this,” Tara gestured to the wrapped corpse.

Her eyes widened, noticeably avoiding looking at the body Tara was referring to.

“Y-you want me to help with…that?”

Tara bit back the scathing retort on her tongue and took on a pleading tone instead.

“Yes. Please,” she tried, “I can’t lift him into the bag by myself.”

Conflict flashed in her eyes. She swallowed roughly, still unmoving. Tara was about to give up and try putting him in by herself when she finally moved to where the smaller girl was.

Tara opened the duffel bag, and with some initial struggle, they maneuvered him onto his side, pushing his knees to his chest so he could just fit inside. It was a tighter fit than anticipated but they made it work.

Together, they lifted the bag and walked it to the car, placing it in the trunk alongside the shovel. Tara grabbed your mother’s arm before she could go back inside.

“Listen,” she spoke lowly, “while I’m gone, you’re gonna roll up the carpet and burn it in the firepit out back. Get the clothes from the bathroom and burn them as well. If there’s anything else that got blood or DNA on it, then throw that in too. Understand?”

A timid nod was the only response she got from the woman before she walked back toward the house.

“Oh, and clean the table too,” Tara called out as she reached for her own keys in her pocket and popped the trunk.

She was suddenly very thankful that she kept her platforms in her trunk for… spontaneous occasions.

With a practiced ease, she tied the shoes on and unlocked your mother’s car, quietly slipping into the driver’s seat. Her fingers gripped the steering wheel and she found that her body was more tense than usual.

The next part of the plan relied entirely on luck, something Tara didn’t particularly like. But she had no choice.

Turning the key in the ignition, Tara pulled out of your driveway and began the drive across town.

Woodsboro was a sleepy little town. Very few were out and about after 10 p.m. and even less were out now, well after midnight. But still, she needed to be as careful as possible.

She drove slow, headlights off, taking as many backroads as possible to avoid any cameras and the sightlines of any major streets or apartment buildings in case anyone was awake and watching.

After about twenty minutes of driving, Tara pulled into one of the two cemeteries in Woodsboro. A slow ten-minute circuit around the place told her that there was nothing of use there. It disheartened her a bit, but she couldn’t give up, so she set off to her next destination.

Thankfully, luck seemed to be on her side because a few minutes into her drive around the second cemetery, she found exactly what she was looking for.

A freshly dug grave.

It had been a real gamble. But considering most funerals were held on Saturday’s and it was a Friday night (or early Saturday morning, now), there was a chance she would find one.

Tara quickly got out and opened the trunk. She grabbed the shovel with one hand and the bag with the other, almost falling over as she tried to lift it out of the car.

Very quickly, she gave up trying to carry the duffel bag and settled for pulling it along by the bag strap with both hands.

“Heavy sack of shit,” she mumbled as she dragged the bag across the grass.

She lugged him over, grumbling, and set him down by the hole. Tara noted the dirt piled around the dug out grave. At least she wouldn’t need to worry about making a mess.

When she checked the time before getting out of the car it was already 12:47.

She had to get this done so she could get back to your house. Back to you.

With a sigh, Tara grabbed the shovel, jumped into the grave, and got to work.

Digging was an arduous process. Aside from how taxing it was on the arms, Tara had no real way of knowing how far down she was digging, so she had to just trust her instincts. She only stopped when she confidently estimated she had dug around two feet down.

Getting back out was a challenge even with platforms on to accentuate her height. Being short was a curse, Tara was convinced. But after a few attempts (and a lot of embarrassment) she managed to haul herself out with the shovel in tow.

Once back on her feet, Tara roughly kicked the duffel bag into the hole and started covering it with dirt.

Trying to gauge how much dirt she was putting in while also attempting to make it perfectly even to not arouse suspicion was difficult with the limited moonlight. She could have used her phone flashlight, but she wasn’t trying to draw any unnecessary attention to herself, so she made it work.

By the time she stumbled back to the car, threw the shovel back in the trunk, and collapsed into the driver’s seat, Tara was exhausted.

Her arms ached with a fierceness and she didn’t even want to think about how they would feel when she woke up in the morning. She sighed.

Why did breaking the law have to be so much goddamn work?

A glance at the clock told her it was 1:56 A.M.

You had probably long since finished your shower by now. She pushed her fatigue aside and got back on the road.

The knowledge that you were waiting for her made her want to slam her foot down on the pedal, but she held back. This was the home stretch, getting caught now would potentially ruin everything.

Tara let out a sigh of relief when she pulled into your driveway. She turned the car off and took the shovel out the trunk, the thought of every step bringing her closer to you driving her forward.

As she stepped inside, she set the shovel by the door and instantly spotted your mother, cleaning the blood off the glass table just as Tara asked. She was also pleasantly surprised to see that the carpet that formerly resided under the table was missing.

It seemed that the feeble woman actually was good for something.

“How is she?” Tara asked while taking the hat and bandana off. Silence followed. Tara threw the garments onto the couch and looked to your mother, who had stopped scrubbing to stare at the floor.

Tara blinked. Hard. Her eyebrows shot up.

“Have you not gone to check on her?” She couldn’t bother to keep her incredulousness in check.

Again, the room lapsed into silence as the older woman kept her head down. Tara couldn’t believe what she was hearing—or rather what she was not hearing.

After sitting by while your own father—her ex-husband was trying to kill you, she couldn’t even be bothered to check in on you. “Angry” didn’t even begin to cover how Tara felt at the flagrant display of cowardice.

She couldn’t help but wonder, was this even the first time something like this happened while your mother hid instead of intervening? Was this the first time she refused to look at you because of her own shame or selfishness or both?

Enough was enough, she decided.

“She’s staying with me.”

That got your mother’s attention. She shot to her feet; eyes trained directly on Tara’s for the first time since she stepped back into the house.

“She absolutely isn’t. Why would you think that?”

“I think it’d be better if she’s away from this house for a while,” Tara gritted out, patience running thin.

“There is still a killer on the loose in this town. I won’t let you take my daughter somewhere where I won’t know if she’s safe or not.”

Indignation burned bright and hot in Tara’s veins. Her lips curled into a distorted smile.

“And you think she’ll be safer here? With you?” she spat, enjoying the way your mother’s eyes widened. “You couldn’t even protect her from your own husband, do you really think you could protect her from a vicious murderer?”

The woman blanched and inched back, but Tara didn’t stop, taking a step into her space as she continued.

“Even tonight, as your husband tried to kill her, what did you do? Did you try to stop him? Or did you cower in the kitchen like you were when I came?”

Tara waited for an answer. None came. She persisted.

“That’s right, you did nothing. You didn’t try to stop him; you didn’t try to save your own child. Hell, you didn’t even try to call the police. Your daughter had to call me for help after he died because you were being too useless to even stand up.”

Your mother had gone completely still, a slight tremble setting in. She was close to crumbling, Tara knew. One more solid push should do it. So Tara leaned in real close, eyes dark, voice but a whisper.

“You couldn’t protect her all these years. What makes you think you can now?”

As predicted, that did it. Tara watched her shatter in one swift motion.

Tears pooled and spilled over as all of the blood drained from her face. The tremble in her limbs became a violent shake, sending her to her knees with a gargled whimper.

Tara just stood, watching the display with distaste. Languidly, she knelt down before your mother and caught her teary gaze.

“If anyone asks where your ex-husband is, you tell them that he moved out west and cut contact with you. Use the divorce as an excuse,” she instructed slowly. Eyes darkening further, Tara leaned forward, dropping her voice. “You will not speak a word about what happened here tonight to anyone. Your daughter will be staying with me until she’s able to feel safe in her own home again. Do you understand?”

It was a statement more than it was a question, the finality in her tone leaving no room for argument. There was only one acceptable answer for Tara. And it seemed that she understood that. Lips trembling, she gave Tara a shaky nod, making the smaller girl smile.

Satisfied, Tara stood, intending on collecting you and leaving, but your mother apparently wasn’t finished annoying her.

“P-please, please tell her that I’m sorry. I’m so sorry…” she gasped out between miserable sobs, weakly grabbing Tara’s hand.

Tara’s lips curled with disgust. Even now, after everything that had happened, your own mother couldn’t give you the apology you deserved to your face.

How pathetic.

Snatching her hand from the woman’s frail grasp, she began making her way upstairs, letting the pitiful cries fade with distance.

Tara entered the upstairs hallway, scanning it quickly. There were four doors that branched from the hall. The one all the way at the end was partially open. She made her way to it, taking a peek inside the bathroom along the way, pleased to see that the bag you presumably left on the floor was indeed gone.

At least your mother was good at following orders.

Pushing the door open wider, she was greeted by the unfamiliar sight of your room. It was a surprisingly sparse room for someone with so much personality. If Tara didn’t know any better, she wouldn’t have even guessed it was yours.

The walls were bare, lacking all the decoration that Tara’s had, and the furniture was more of the same. Plain, brown, and devoid of all the emotion and spirit that she envisioned it having. The only sign of life in the room was on your bed, where you laid unnaturally still.

You rested atop your comforter, your damp hair fanned out on the pillow beneath you, gradually soaking it. But you either didn’t notice or didn’t care, staring resolutely out your window. The bruising on your neck was already darker, a nauseating shade of purple that made Tara’s stomach stir.

She approached quietly, not wanting to startle you in your seemingly fragile state, and sat down on the edge of the bed. You didn’t register the shifting of your bed, so Tara tentatively slipped her hand into yours.

Finally, Tara saw you inhale, and your attention shifted from the outside world to her.

“Tara,” you whispered, voice gravelly, “my dad, w-wha-“

“Don’t worry about him, baby. I took care of everything,” she cooed, stroking her thumb over your cheek.

“Did…you call the police?” you asked. The soft furrow of your brows would be adorable if it weren’t for the worry in your eyes that accompanied it.

Tara shook her head. “No. No police.”

“Wh-“ A harsh cough forced its way from your throat, making Tara wince in sympathy. “What’s gonna happen now?”

The fear in your eyes made her chest ache. To combat it, she put a small, comforting smile on her face. “Actually, that’s what I was coming to tell you. I talked it over with your mom we came to an agreement. You’ll be staying with me for the time being.”

She half expected you to say no, to refuse being uprooted from your home so suddenly. Instead, you asked, “Are you sure? I wouldn’t want to intrude on you or Sam.”

Tara almost sighed. You had a way of constantly making yourself out to be a burden when you were anything but.

“You could never intrude on us. Sam loves you and so do I. More than you could ever know. If you want to stay, you would be more than welcome,” she paused then posed the question. “Do you want to stay with me?”

She tried to brace herself for whatever you would say but your answer, only one small syllable, was said so fast that she didn’t even have time.

“Please.”

The rush of relief she felt was so powerful it almost knocked the air from her lungs.

Tara went over to your closet and started putting clothes into the overnight bag you used when you stayed with her for the weekend, grabbing your favorites first. The bag wasn’t big enough to fit everything, but it didn’t really matter, she could always come back and pick up more if need be.

Or you could wear her clothes. Tara liked that idea much better.

Once it was as full as she could get it, she turned to you and froze. You were sitting up now, brows drawn together as you stared at nothing.

Concerned, Tara dropped the bag and knelt down in front of you, reaching to cradle one of your hands between hers.

“Hey,” she prompted, voice soft, “what’s going through that head of yours?”

Pursing your lips, you tried to look away, but Tara wasn’t letting you get away that easily. She leaned forward, following your eyes. A sigh was expelled through your nose, voice dropping to a grave whisper.

“Do you think I’m a monster, Tara?”

Tara swore she could feel her heart fracture.

“No,” she asserted, shaking her head. “No, look at me.”

You did. She chose her next words very carefully, trying very hard to steer clear of anything resembling “he deserved it” (even if it was true).

“What you did was an accident,” she started, speaking slowly and clearly. “You didn’t want to hurt him, but he was hurting you and you reacted. You couldn’t have known that he would trip. And if you did know, you probably wouldn’t have done it. Why? Because you’re not a monster. You could never be one, not to me anyways.”

There was a brief silence after her small monologue. You took in her words while she watched you, admired you.

“Thank you,” you whispered. She just smiled, placing a feather-light kiss on your lips.

Tara tried not to dwell on how you would view her if you ever found out about the sins she’s committed without remorse.

She stood on unsteady legs. “Are you ready to leave?”

Thankfully you nodded, seeming just as eager as she was to get the hell out of this house.

She grabbed your bag and escorted you out of the house. Tara didn’t miss the way you barely glanced in your mother’s direction as you passed her.

The ride to her house was silent, as expected. You looked on the verge of either falling asleep or breaking down and nothing Tara could say would change that. Still, she reached over to intertwine your fingers with hers at the first red light.

Sam’s car was in the driveway when Tara pulled in, which made her groan. She was hoping she could at least wait until morning to explain the situation to her sister, that would have given her time to come up with a suitably vague excuse for your indefinite stay.

But her sister surprised her.

She stood from the couch as you both entered and took your shoes off, that irritating look on her face that indicated to Tara that an interrogation was imminent, but the minute she saw you, her mouth clamped shut.

The way her wide eyes trailed over the bruises on your neck didn’t escape Tara’s notice, and she was just about to step up and get defensive when Sam wrapped you in a delicate hug and told you that you could stay as long as you needed to.

Tara was shocked. She didn’t think it would be so easy, but she supposed this fell in line with Sam’s newer personality quirks.

Sam had a recent habit of being… protective of the people she cared for. It annoyed the hell out of Tara but, if it could help her get what she wanted, as it did just now, then she would learn to tolerate it.

So she sent her sister a large, grateful smile and pulled you upstairs, making a mental note to find other ways to take advantage of Sam’s overprotective streak in the future.

Tara debated bringing your things into her room, but she figured you deserved a space of your own that could truly feel like it was yours. She led you to the guest room, conveniently right across the hall from her room, and placed your bag on the edge of the bed.

She paused then, finding herself entirely unsure of what to do next. Part of her wanted to invite you to her room like usual, while the other argued that you may want some space to process what happened earlier.

Discordant words interrupted the beginnings of her internal debate.

“Can I sleep with you?” you rasped, sounding shy despite the fact that you’d shared a bed with her dozens of times before. Tara smiled.

“Of course.” She took your hand in hers again and took you across the hall, gesturing for you to lay down while she changed and put her dirty clothes away. She made another mental note to wash those clothes tomorrow. Just in case.

In the few minutes that took, you were already on the verge of falling asleep when she turned back around.

With a small grin, she laid beside you and opened her arms. The tiny smile you gave her in return was blinding. You burrowed into her and buried your face into Tara’s neck like you always did when you slept together. Tara started carding her hand through your hair, knowing it would lull you off faster.

You were asleep within minutes. She couldn’t blame you, it had been an eventful night, and Tara herself should have been passed out instantly with the amount of physical labor she had done not even a few hours prior, but she just couldn’t shut her eyes.

How could she peacefully sleep knowing what she did to you?

This entire situation was her fault. Her inaction led to this moment, her hesitance to possibly hurt you nearly got you killed.

Her hesitance made you kill. That was devastating.

Tara wasn’t oblivious. She wasn’t so naïve as to think that her ultraviolent impulses were normal. No, there was a reason why she hid her true nature.

Whereas she found killing to be exhilarating—as utterly satisfying as scratching an itch you hadn’t been able to reach—you found it to be tormenting. She saw how stricken you were earlier, heard how terribly you thought of yourself for your actions just earlier in your room.

This would torture you. Would be a burden you carried for a long time. Because of her.

Just the thought was agonizing. The knowledge that she had hurt you, intentionally or not, made her want to drive a knife through her own flesh.

It would never happen, that she would make sure of.

With reinvigorated purpose, Tara pulled a blanket over the both of you and pressed a long, firm kiss to the top of your head. A silent promise to do better. A vow that for as long as she had you, she would never let another soul do you harm.

And the next time she even suspected anyone of laying their hands on you, there would no hesitation and absolutely no mercy.

#tara carpenter #tara carpenter x reader #ghostface!tara #scream #scream vi #jenna ortega #i still don't know what damn tags to use lmao #shoutout to the mutual that informed me about exsanguination #ur a real one! #hope this isn't too disappointing

[pinkworldone]

When you like girls/boys that are short

Yandere(?) Genshin Impact x reader

characters from:

part 1 contain:

Mondstadt: Rosaria, Amber, Kaeya, Albedo

Liyue:, Shenhe, Xiangling, Zhongli, Xiao

part 2:

Inazuma: Ayato, Thoma, Gorou, Kazuha, Raiden Ei, Kuki Shinobu, Yae Miko, Heizou

Part 3, because this is too long. I will post the sort 3 soon!

Sumeru: Tighnari, Cyno, Alhaitham,

Thank you, @nervousdelusionballoon, for letting me use the idea!!

Thoma

To be honest, he had been developing this crush for a long time, just waiting for a good moment to say his real feelings. However, Thoma was still a little shy about it, so it would still take a while. One of your best moments was when you would visit him at lunch or in your free time to ramble about your day, complaining and sometimes telling stories from one of the novels you had read. There was this specific novel where you said you were attracted to the appearance of the secondary character, so Thoma saw the perfect opportunity to find out your type of man! Wow, could it be him? Could it be a person similar to him?!

"He's short and very cute..!" his smile almost fell when he heard those words, did height really matter to you? His heart hurt a little more when you mentioned Detective Heizou! He was a difficult person to deal with and live with, how did you like him? Was it the flirting? Wait, he flirted with you?! Thoma felt hurt knowing that he didn't meet his standards and there was no way to change that, he simply couldn't change his own height and drastic measures weren't one of the best ideas, of course no one would suspect someone so kind and nice, even more so knowing the reputation he created. So why not use that impeccable reputation to get away from Heizou? Maybe telling you some bad things about him might make you change your mind...

Ayato

The conversations with you were so fun, you being an incredible companion and helper, so kind, how could he not fall in love with someone as wonderful as you? So hearing you mention your type in one of these conversations really caught his attention, you were with Ayaka talking once again, saying how general Gorou was so strong and cute in your vision, Ayaka was smiling a little behind her fan, she was aware of the passion Ayato felt, so she tried to help him by telling him how amazing her brother was too. However, you didn't even consider reconsidering, giving passionate smiles as you talked about Gorou.

And the thought that you liked Gorou more because of something as... simple as his height wasn't entering his mind! Maybe if he put a little more work for you, would be enough to make him give up on trying to meet Gorou? Ayato was thinking about this, thinking about letting him drown in work just so he could be his great savior and help him, monopolizing his time just for him and his dear sister Ayaka!

Surprisingly, you hadn't been able to meet Gorou much recently and when you did, he was extremely formal and treated you like an extremely important member of the Yashiro Commission, maybe spreading the little gossip that you were Ayato's partner helped...

Yae Miko

This woman has been a pure tease since you were in the Sanctuary, such teasing would triple when she laid her passionate eyes on you, taking advantage of your status and letting you have more tasks around her. Buying you food and having lunch by your side, even taking you for a walk even when you need to work. Yae Miko believed that she had already won his heart, his love... entirely for herself!

So hearing you vent to her about your crush on Kuki Shinobu made her observe reality but not accept it, so was it Kuki's height that was attractive to you? Interestingly, she will tease you about it until you can't bear it, making you think about how stupid your thinking is and that you shouldn't let yourself be carried away by appearances, saying that you weren't like that before, caring so much about the appearance of your loved one.

Yae Miko would increase her work a little too and when Kuki showed up, she would take you to another location and talk to you with a smile. You already belong to it, how have you not seen this yet? Everyone knew not to even look at the woman's toy and cute lover, she made sure Kuki knew this too, so his relationship with her would be completely non-existent

Raiden Ei

She is not affectionate and does not show her emotions often, however, everyone in Inazuma can see the change in the Archon's behavior, the words of concern she says to you and the way she looks at you, all so passionate. Many think that you are just Ei's favorite person, someone she adores very much and who is extremely loved and well cared for by her.

You were walking next to her, watching the new novels that had been released and tasting the tastiest sweets, until a certain swordsman passed by you and greeted you with a smile, all your shyness and embarrassment hit you at once. What happened left Raiden quite confused, she waited for Kazuha to leave you alone, asking what had happened to you... Why were your actions so strange? You would shyly say that you liked him because he was short, it didn't affect you that much, what really affected the Archon was the fact that Kazuha was a man.

"So... you like men..?" She asked with a somewhat stoic face, a certain concern of the answer that would come.

"No, I think I really like short people! They're so cute"

Raiden was a little relieved until he thought again, she is a tall woman and not short, does that mean she doesn't fit his standards?! And why is she so worried about this? She is the Archon, a Goddess who has defeated thousands, so why does the mere thought of not fitting into her standards hit her with such force and pain? Maybe she needed to get rid of a certain someone to get his affection, his attention, after all, no one would question an Archon's orders.

#yandere genshin impact #yandere x reader #yandere headcanons #yandere writing #yandere x you #genshin impact #Yandere! Yae Miko #Yandere Raiden Ei #Yandere Ayato #yandere thoma

[jackiequick]

Iceman. Ice cold, no mistake and—wait he has a kid?! | Top Gun Fanfic ❄️

Summary: The day people find out about Iceman’s private life would be the day he makes sure, he knows it firsthand. In other words, Tom Kazansky meets his future wife the day his fellow pilot finds out about his daughter.

Established father daughter relationship: Iceman & Skysolo

Pairing: Tom “Iceman” Kazansky x Hazel "Daredevil" Quinn

Note: Pre-Top Gun Maverick, so Amber Kazansky is around 5-7 years old

——

There were many things Iceman was, or least how he presented himself to people. Strong, levelheaded, flies ice cold and no mistake if he had a say in it.

Some people were honest a bit scared of the man, might even idolized him, and even rather intimidated to say the least due to his looks. 

Yeah sure he was rather layback and chill, cracking a few wisecracking jokes with his teammates and family. Swearing his cheeky smile with pride. Ask Maverick or Slider, they’ll tell ya the truth to that showing smile.

But one thing that Iceman made sure was to keep his private life separate from his aviation one. At home, he was just Tom. Tom Kazansky.

And there is a reason why.

His daughter.

Amber Nic Kazansky.

His angelcake, his little snowball, and his reason to keep fighting. His angel eyes. He kept her private from the public eye, safe and sound in his arms. Mentioning his kid every once in a while at work but people always assumed he was talking about Maverick’s kids or Goose’s son.

Because he was considered their uncle, to everyone on base.

But they don’t ever assume his own. He didn’t blame them, he never specifically said his daughter name out loud to the masses to hear. Only his close family and friends knew about Amber’s existence. She was one of Maverick’s sweethearts afterwards and Slider’s little glamorous girl.

And if ever did his angel eyes to work, he made sure she never left his sight. It was a big place, she could get lost however Amber was smart enough to know her way around the base too, even if Tom liked it or not…

Such as today.

Tom wasn’t supposed to have work that weekend, it was Sunday for gods sake but his bosses had other plans for the Lieutenant Commander. He was called in to finalize some paperwork, check on installations and probably head to some meetings. Which meant he would be stuck in his office for most of the day.

Tom sighed, knowing he had no choice but to bring Amber with him due to Maverick being busy and his sister being in another freaking state. However he didn’t mind the company, since he was able to show his daughter the planes, possibly getting to see a familiar face such as Wraith or Hollywood, look at the frames on the wall and the view of the building from where they were standing.

And to be honest, Amber loved it. She was shy about it all but she couldn’t help but grin. Her eyes sparkled at the huge planes, the classrooms filled with aviators, the darling style of the technology they had and clean cut frame of the building.

Tom stayed in his office playing the radio and doing paperwork with Amber by his side sitting in the blue beanbag beside from desk. Even though Tom was working, he pauses writing on a form hearing his 7 year old curls bounce as she sang one of the songs on the radio as she played with her Barbie dolls.

“And here we go, we know the start, we know the end!” She sang, brushing her doll’s hair with such passion, “Masters of the scene. We’ve done it all before and now we’re back to get some more..”

“You know what i mean.” Tom sang along softly, twirling his pen in between his finger grinning, “Voulez-Vous!”

One thing was sure was how much she loved singing ABBA’s popular songs when it came on the radio. She definitely got it from her aunts and uncles, he can’t blame her. When music like that starts playing it becomes contagious, where you just have to sing along. 

Amber stood up from her beanbag chair and started to twirl around, dancing holding out a hand for Ice to take. He hesitated cause he was at work but he shrugged, removing himself from his seat taking his daughter’s hand and twirl her around. Her infectious laugh and cheeky grin matched her father’s gracefully.

The two of them, dancing until the song was over and radio played Dolly Parton’s 9 To 5. Tom returned back to his desk, twirling the pen back in his hand chuckling. Meanwhile Amber went to grab the grapes that were packed in her bag as she sat down and ate, looking out the window at the planes.

———

A few short hours later, Slider walked in greeting his niece and best friends, sitting down to talk with Ice over the planes they would flying next weekend. Amber was finally starting to get bored and begging her father to walk around the base with him. She wanted to spend time with him or her uncles to explore for a while, instead of being laying around in an office.

Slider noticed the look on his niece’s face and said, “Oh come Tom, it’s just a little walk to see the other side of base. I know your overprotective but cut the baby some slack.”

“Ron. I know that, she’s been here before she could walk but what if she gets lost, huh? Half of people don’t even know about her.” Tom explained, with a sigh.

“She’ll be fine! Won’t you, baby?”

“Slider!”

“Ice! We’ll have fun, right babygirl?”

Amber smiles, “Yeah! Daddy pleaseeee! I will be careful.”

With a sigh, he nodded and replied, “Alright. Okay, you can go and explore the base but be careful. I don’t want you getting lost or get both of you and your uncles in trouble.”

“No promises. They are a bunch of cowboys like you said.”

“Clever girl. And watch your tone.”

Slider chuckled taking his niece’s hand and teased his best friend on how they’re gonna cause some trouble. Probably even bring Goose and Mav along for the ride. Ice just rolled his eyes and chuckled at them.

Ron knew that his niece was very important to his pilot’s life and understood why he’s been overprotective of her since day one. He was a single father, yeah sure their friends were there too but Tom was the main caretaker of his daughter’s life. Of course he wanted her safe and sound wherever she is. It was also a private part of his life, that he wanted to maintain calm and not go off the rails.

But like everything, change happens and surprises come along the way. Weather he liked it or not.

He was talking to Hollywood when it did, keeping Amber close by the tarmac of the planes. Hollywood was kneeling down to the girls height, letting her play with his helmet in the meantime.

Both men were chatting about the way the newer pilots almost got jet washed during training session a couple of days ago and how they needed to tweak the planes safety alerts. Amber was holding Hollywood’s helmet and enjoying the colors when something caught her eye. More like someone.

On the tarmac, drew out a nice sliver dollar plane as if someone just gotten off the skies and landed on the ground. She caught wind of the small wave of damage the plane got on the edges but the man—no women, since she removed her helmet, who step out of cockpit, climbing out of the darn thing had some trouble finding grin on her. 

She didn’t know if to be impressed or intimidated by her.

Dark locks like her uncle Mav, a dark olive green jumpsuit like all the other aviators and attention grabbing attitude towards the person she was talking to. Amber didn’t get a good look at her face though. So in her brain, she couldn’t if she was good news or not.

She was taken out of her gaze, following her uncle Slider and Hollywood inside still holding the helmet. Slider was called by Viper for something real quick, leaving her with Hollywood. Amber got a bit annoyed at that, she wanted to explore but she got stuck sitting on a bench instead.

It was half bad, due to her and Hollywood talking about the latest movie she saw.

Since her dad and uncles took her, Bradley, Austin, Jenny and Dane to see a rereleased of The Empire Strikes Back. The kids haven’t seen those movies yet, so it was their first time. But Hollywood couldn’t go cause he was too busy so he couldn’t, instead Wolfman went taking his place.

“And then Luke fought Darth Vader! Austin screamed saying he could do it better than him. And I said ‘no you can’t!’ but he didn’t believe me.” Amber exclaimed with a laugh, “Why did Leia kiss Luke then Han in the movie?”

Hollywood chuckled at her enthusiasm for the movie and repiled, “Well he did to prove a point to Han. But you kids will have to watch the next one to find out what happens. Did your Aunt Carole or Drey took you to see The Little Mermaid yet?”

“No! They said we gotta wait for they can buy it and we can watch it at home. But I wanna see it.”

“How about I see if I can get Drey to change her mind? How does that sound? She owes me a date anyway.”

Amber giggled at that and nodded, suddenly she had to use the restroom and Hollywood pointed to go down the hallway, next to the double doors. He watched her from where he was standing, smiling.

———

After she used the restroom, Amber noticed that Hollywood wasn’t there anymore but on the other end of the hallway talking with Wolfman. She rolled her eyes and grunted, rushing her with a glare to Hollywood.

“Hey! You said you’d wait for me.” Yelled Amber, tugging at his pant leg with a glare that similar to Iceman.

Expect that glare had a hint of fire within them, like there was smoke behind the ice cold blocks. Wolfman noticed it and would’ve chuckled if he wasn’t a bit confused about Amber being here. He was sure he saw her walking with Slider earlier.

“I’m sorry, kiddo! I got caught up with Wolf, he will telling me something important.” Hollywood apologize, for his mistake but he still saw the glares.

He noticed Amber walking away, her temper and annoyance getting the best of her. All she wanted was a small walk around the base with someone like her aunts or uncles but they were more or less distracted with work. She couldn’t even blame them for being caught up with work but she was smart enough to know she deserves some attention and respect.

Hollywood and Wolfman chased after the 7 year old, as her blonde locks bounced across the hallways of the base finding herself in the wonders of the building. She pushed her bangs past her eyes, popped up her collar of her jacket.

A few mutters and mumbles could be heard of people asking who’s child was that around the corner, as she stopped in front of the rows of pictures frames displaying days of older class photos. From 1960s to now. She blocked out the whole noise of officers, captains, commanders and even some lingering lieutenants who walked past her.

She saw a few pictures frames of planes her favorite was the Tomcat due to the display of grays and or blues, speaking volumes of the way it swords the skies and classic modeling that carried two passengers. She knows her uncle Mav had small miniature replicas near the speakers at his house, telling the kids to not play with them. 

She wasn’t one to absolutely desire the trill of piloting one of those lovely things. But she wouldn’t mind being in the backseat of one, watching them go fast and the high from being in the clouds. Hell, her uncle Merlin and Maverick took her in one of those for a quick joy ride before her surprise birthday party last year. They were only off the ground for a few minutes, nothing special but it was fun.

Amber sighed, smiling softy at the pictures wishing she wasn’t alone but with her uncles. Like Merlin, Maverick, Slider or even her uncle Buzz. But then again, she did run away from them and they were busy.

She heard a loud, “Kazansky!” as she wiped her head around to see Jester and Stinger talking probably searching for her father.

As one of their fellow members, said that he was in his office and heading to a meeting.

She even heard Cain’s voice yelling “Maverick! Kazansky better get say something good about you and Merlin’s flying today or so god help me!”

She was rather shy but curious, when it came to things like this. Her uncle Mav always got into trouble for his interesting, in color words to say the least, flying skills. She winced hearing the yelling of her last name and others across the hall, as you can hear plenty muffled noises in between. Amber didn’t like it, so she glanced at the pictures once again, this time being of the 86’ class and ran finding herself outside of a briefing room.

She knew the room she stood outside of, being the same one her dad’s higher rank, Viper, taught the 86’ class in. Well it was very much similar, at least. She stood on her tippy toes at the window, looking inside to find it empty inside but the door easily locked.

It was across the small hallway her father would possibly be having his meeting in. Amber instead of boring herself, she found herself wondering outside the window playing with one of the tiny toy Blackbird plane, she had in her pocket that she took her father’s desk at home and placed it against the glass window pretending to fly it.

She giggled to herself softly using imagination and said, “Ladies and gentlemen, this is Officer Kazansky speaking. I will be showing here the flight manners, I liked to call a barrel roll. And if you’re lucky, you can surprise the other pilots with this one by sneaking up on them.”

Little did she know, some female works were walking past her and listening giggling catching onto her last name. Some were confused even shocked, plenty around it adorable and others were jealous thinking that Tom ‘Iceman’ Kazansky was secretly taken if that was really his kid.

——

Just as Ice was about to enter his meeting with Jester, Cain and Stinger to explain his wingman actions up in the sky, Slider went rushing in as as Maverick was about to head inside.

“H-HEY! I-Ice, we got a little—” Slider began to explain what he heard from Hollywood and Wolfman, but was surely cut off.

“Where’s my kid?” Tom asked, looking over his shoulder and around for his daughter.

“I was just about to get to that. Long story short, I left her with Holly for a while and when I came back, he and Wolf said she was gone.”

“Gone or ran? Amber ain’t gonna run out unless something happened.”

Maverick cut in, “Wait! Amber’s here?! In the building?! Slider what’s wrong with you?”

“Hey! It wasn’t my fault Viper called me earlier into his office, so I left her with the guys! They said she ran from them as the two started to chase her down." Slider said, telling the shorter pilot.

“Find her! I don’t care about myself right now, I’ll take the heat like always but Jester would be more mad that you guys left a child unattended in the building.”

Tom shared a look with his wingman, something both him and Mav knew all too well, the panic, fear and annoyance at the thought of their children missing. Slider or some of their friends didn’t get it yet, since not all of them were parents but they had nieces and nephews. Slider was of course one step ahead of them, saying that he already sent some of the guys to go search the blonde.

Maverick gave Ice a soft smile, “Hey. They’ll find her, if not we’re leave the meeting early and get her ourselves.”

Tom’s eyes were turning ice cold with a glare that somewhat soften at his words nodding, then entered the meeting quietly. Iceman being too quiet wasn’t a good thing for anyone, it meant his mind was racing around with throughs to rush out and resume work for another day. But had to stay focused, he knew Slider and the others were on the case. Maverick was frustrated by it all, yelling for Merlin who walked past by to see if he saw Amber, who shock his head but went searching for her…

———

The girl in question was walking around the base, passing a few short notice offices and lounges to find not many familiar faces. She was getting shyer and slightly curious as the moments went on, regardless she knew she got herself in trouble by running away. Amber eventually stumbled upon an office that brought a soft smile to her face. She gently knocked on the door, fixing her jacket and holding her plane in one hand.

It open to reveal the man who this office belong to brown mustache, deep brown eyes and tipped baseball cap staring at her. Mike MetCalf, Viper, looked down at her blinking twice at her small figure. He heard a few of his 86’ class rushing across the building yelling and shouting softly a few words, as it clicked in his head. They was looking for her.

He kneeling down in front of her, noticing the same deep look as her father, covered with blushing tears as if she was trying not to shed any. He put a hand on her shoulder, “Amber, sweetheart. What happened?”

“I..I ran away..fr-from..from Hollywood and Wolfy..” She replied with a small voice, a soft glare trying to keep her tears from falling.

“That’s wasn’t the right move and you know it. I don’t know why you did it but you weren’t supposed to that..”

“I know…”

“Come on.”

He takes her hand, leading her inside his office as he lead her to the counter against the wall near the window. He told her to stay there, as he was in middle of a conversation with an pilot at the moment. She looked up at the pilot, Viper mentioned, as she titled her head remembering the dark hair women from eariler. This time, she saw her face.

She was looking right at her.

Her rather soft features combined with rich one such as the woman’s nose and eyebrows that curled in a way as if she was analyzing the situation. There was something about this women that made Amber not know if she would be scared or shy about her, as she looked away from the brunette.

Viper noticed the looks and said, “Amber Nic Kazansky, meet Hazel Quinn. One of our pilots here, she’s been here before months ago but transferred recently to hopeful longer stay.”

This time the women—Hazel, looked at Amber with a slight difference, analysis of her state with soften concern and worry for the young girl. Hazel looked at Amber, twisting in her chair and standing up to sit beside the little girl. She noticed her glares, her last name ringed bell. Iceman. Flies ice cold, no mistakes.

She never met the man or even seen pictures but heard about him. If though he never met him, she can see the results of his child from the blonde hair to the eyes. But there was a sweetness that Hazel read to her face, a loving and gentle pace to the girl. A doll that needed to be protected. She can only imagine what made this girl run away but she might have an idea coming from a family who lend their lives to the military herself.

Hazel smiled softly, “Hi.”

“Hey..” replied Amber, looking up at the women.

“Are you okay, sweetheart?”

“Y-yeah I’m fine…how about you?”

“I’m alright but you don’t seem like your fine.”

“I’m fine..”

“…look, I guess you don’t want to tell me what happened cause we just met. But whatever it is, you should at least tell someone. They will try to understand.”

Amber stayed silent, her smoking glares still knees deep she wanted to say something like a witty comeback or a rude interception of her works but she didn’t.

Hazel contained her obvious observations and continued, “Okay I’ll humor you. I bet that you wanted to spend time together with your father or uncles but they got too busy, playing hand off with you instead? You wanted some kind of respect and attention today but didn’t get it or know to tell your guardian at the moment about it.”

That seemed to soften Amber up, as she looked over her shoulder and nodded, she left like she wasn’t exactly scared around this women but somehow understood and willing to listen. I guess what they say is true, sometimes a complete stranger can be the easiest person to talk to than anyone else closer to you? Huh? Hazel watched her, waited for her to say something as she noticed Amber tuned to face better and explain.

She told her, everything about how she wanted to spend time walking around the base and explore with her family members but she really secretly wanted was some more moments with her dad. But she understood he was busy today, since he originally wasn’t supposed to come into work at all for that matter. Amber couldn’t blame him and didn’t even bother to say anything but it sounded like she was annoyed with that fact herself. She knew Viper was listening, as she watched her in a way he looked at his own children and godson. 

Hazel wanted to give this little lady a hug because she knew that feeling all too well herself, wanting to spend time with her parents but they were busy sometimes with military assistance. But she could tell from how Amber spoke of her father, she loved him very much and wasn’t even mad at his efforts, as if she knew she will get her attention soon enough.

————

And she was right. Because less than a half a second later, you could 8 rushing footsteps and yelling of 4 men, possibly even 5 at Viper’s doorstep.

“Amber!” Yelled the voice. As the girls turned around to see Tom Kazansky—no, Iceman, standing there with his hand on the doorknob with a mix of anger, worry and deep questions laced across his face. He continued, “Sweetheart what were—”

“I’mma stop you right there, flyboy.” Said the only female voice in the room, being Hazel, who stood up from the couch facing Iceman with a hand hovering his chest to pause him.

It was as if the room fell silent for a millisecond.

This brunette just stop Tom Kazansky in his tracks. The Iceman. Hollywood and Wolfman were just outside the door, as you only heard a small sniff or murmured noise coming from there. Wolfman blinked confused then recognize the voice, knowing who she was.

She was like a female Maverick but with a strong levelheaded voice, dark humor and a wildly competitive side to boot. 

Princess Leia but in aviator form in simpler words.

Slider cough slightly, standing there awkwardly entering the room to check up on Amber’s current state that matched his own. They were both staring at Daredevil and Iceman, who just locked eye on another.

Tom’s ice cold glares that tend to be laced with deep fried anger watching all the angles in the room, locked eyes with the brunette. She was breathtaking. Stunning in every way possible due to the way she challenged him at the moment.

From her short brown hair with feather bangs that almost fell over eyesight that she didn’t even bother to fix. Rich blue eyes. Craved out cheekbones that enchanted her beauty. Along with the nude, almost red lip that she carried added to her frame.

It took a moment for Ice to contain his combating composure and focus on the task at hand. But dear god was this women gorgeous in his eyes! 

Tom cleared his throat, scoffed with a slight chuckled and said, “I’m sorry, who might you be?”

She crossed her arms, with a light smile pointed across her face with a stance and replied, “Hazel ‘Daredevil’ Quinn. One of your new Lieutenant Commanders, sir. I’m assuming that she’s your daughter?”

“Yeah, ma’am, she is. I apologize if she intercepted your and Viper’s conversation earlier. She almost gave me a scare..”

She scoffed, “Some father. Shouldn’t you have been looking after her? Look, she told me what happened and how she felt. I don’t blame you for anything but maybe take a few minutes to listen to her next time.”

He raised a eyebrow, “Look, I would’ve been keeping an eye on her but I unfortunately got caught up with work, so I entrusted her with my friends and she got away from them. I messed up and so did they, i take full accountability for what happened today. None of this was supposed to happen but I’m more worried about her right now.”

Hazel took one a look over her shoulder at Amber, as Tom followed her gaze with a sigh already telling by his daughter eyes that she was a bit down in the dumps. He kneeled down in front of her, put a gentle hand on her cheek meeting her baby blues and asking her tell him what happened in a calmer tone this time. Hazel sat beside her, listening to what she told her.

Tom sighed lowering his head as he listened to his daughter’s words and shook his head, not catching on the small signs that she wasn’t enjoying her day, he apologized greatly for it. His first job was father, pilot second. He knew that, it’s why he tried to keep his private life separate from this base but here he was in Viper’s office listening to his baby girl thoughts.

Sometimes he forgets what’s it like to be a child and feel unheard or not wanting to bother adults with your own business.

Amber pushed back her bangs and lowered her eyes, before looking up at her father and said, “…I’m sorry, daddy..i know I shouldn’t have ran away but i wanted to see the base with you..but everyone was busy or talking with other people…it felt like Hollywood forgot about me..”

“Honey, why didn’t you come back to my office or at least, find your uncle Mav to tell us how you were feeling?” Tom asked, with a soft tone that sounded almost like a whisper, nothing like the pilot people are used to hearing.

“You were handling a lot of paperwork and i heard Jester call your name..and I didn’t like it..and uh, you were about to go into a meeting. I didn’t want to interrupt you..”

“And you through because i was about to head to a meeting to bail out your uncle Mav, I wasn’t gonna have time to talk with you? Baby, as busy or annoyed as i can get, i will always make time for you. I’m sorry you thought running around base was the best option…oh..all you wanted was a little bit of attention, didn’t you?”

She just nodded at that. She must’ve sounded selfish or brash, wanting some attention than it seemed like she already had. Hell, due to her lack of communication she had 5 men searching for her.

“Amber, honey, you’re still so young and you won’t get it now but when you’re older you will. I didn’t want to stuck in my office all day, it wasn’t even my intention to make you feel that way either. If it was up to me, i would’ve been taking you flying or have you see a new selection of planes we have gotten this month but my schedule said otherwise. When you’re old enough you will understand what i mean. I should’ve went with you and gave you my full attention instead of having you hang out with your uncle Slider.”

Slider intercepted with a light mocking gasp, “Hey! I was a nice babysitter.”

“You lost her, you idiot.” Tom commented.

“Blame Hollywood and Wolfe for that last part.”

“Yeah, sure, buddy. We will.”

Wolfman and Hollywood scoffed hearing that part but nodded, since they did take a part in losing the young blonde. The duo walked in apologizing for their mistakes, as Wolf even ruffled Amber’s hair in efforts to make her crack a smile. And to his efforts, it worked.

Hazel leaned backwards in her sat and whisper softly to the young blonde, “Well now you got all the guys fondling over you, sweetie. Feel a little better?”

Amber nodded and wrapped her arms around Tom’s neck as he picked her up, embracing his little angels warmth not wanting to let her go. He humming softly asking, “Angel eyes?”

“Hm?” Amber responded, rubbing her eyes and rested her head on his shoulder.

“Can you forgive me?”

“Well, daddy, can you forgive me?”

He chuckled nodding, “Yeah I can. I’m still a bit mad that you ran instead of coming to me first but yeah, of course I forgive you.”

She smiled at that, “I forgive you daddy..how much longer do you have to go your meeting?”

“I cut my meeting with Cain short because I had to go searching for you. But I have another one in two hours, after that I’m all yours.”

“Are you in trouble?”

“Stinger understood but Jester was a little annoyed, but I think I got off the hook. And I think you need to apologize for giving Maverick and the rest of the boys a scare too, baby.”

She nodded hearing the last part, knowing she needed to do that at some point. Tom put her down on the floor, thanking Viper for keeping her in his office for the time being as the older man told him he didn’t mind it one bit. Slider was already walking walking the boys out of the office, leaving the father daughter duo and a certain someone left. Hazel was running her fingers crossed her hair, with a soft smile leading against the couch hearing them talk softly to another one prideful she was able to help.

However just as she about to continue her conversation with Mike, the two blondes turned to her. Amber thanked her firsthand, hoping to see her around more often if she gets a chance to visit the base once again and went to stand in the doorway waiting for her father.

As she stood in the doorframe of Viper’s office, she noticed something on both adults faces. Mainly because the fog cleared now for her. She would’ve giggled and cleared her throat but she was more than curious to see where this goes. Mike was standing beside her, giving the girl a small wink as he looked over his shoulder to see Maverick coming their way.

Tom cleared his throat and grinned, “Uh, thank you back there.”

“For what?” Hazel asked, with a sly smile.

“Knocking some sense into me. I wasn’t thinking straight at all, usually I’m more grounded than this.”

“So I heard. I heard of your reputation, but I never expected the whole father thing.”

“Yeah well, it’s something I don’t expect everyone to know. I have my reasons to keep my private life separated from my aviation one.”

“I get it.”

“Yeah?”

“I do. With a darling girl like that, I can see why you want to keep her safe. She’s a good girl, you got lucky.”

“I think so too. And she seems to have taken a liking to you.”

“I guess so. Uh, I’ll see you around, Iceman?”

“Most certainly, Daredevil.”

Amber rolled her eyes at her father not being as smooth as he would be and chuckled, “Ask for her number, daddy.”

All adults laughed at her comments and rolled their eyes, seeing how forwarded she was being today. To be fair, after the world-wind of a day Tom had his head wasn’t screwed on straight, so missed a stepped at being a flirt with his fellow pilots.

He gave his daughter a pointed look and chuckled, “I was just getting to that, sweetheart.” He continued looking at the brunette with his signature smile and added, “Can I have your number, beautiful?”

Hazel chuckled doubling over with a hand on her chest, still taking in the young girl’s forwardness as if it was the most obvious answer. It took her a moment before she replied with a darling smile, biting her bottom lip, “Yes. Yes you may.”

Without a second later, Hazel ripped a piece a index card from Viper’s desk and wrote down her number, handing it to Tom who grinned thanking her. The two talked for another half minute about whatever nonsense that came to mind, with a mention of a date next Friday if they’re both available and then some. Viper chuckled clearing his throat, as much as he loved seeing two pilots creating a connection, he knew time is money and he had meetings to get to today.

Both the blonde and brunette nodding grinning as Ice took his daughter’s hand and once again thanked Viper, allowing him to return to his previous meetings Daredevil earlier. Hazel waved at the two blondes and took a seat once again where she sat originally.

———

As one could imagine, the rest of the day went as follows, Ice went to his final meeting of the day with Amber this time right beside him. She didn’t mind it all, rather enjoyed being in the room with all the high ranking people and the view of the office in general. Maverick intercepted the meeting to check up on his niece and wingman, glad to see two of favorite people in the building alright and well. Stinger glared at the short pilot twice and pointed for him to exit the door as soon as possible.

Once it over, the father daughter packed it up leaving the offices and headed to the tarmac to watch the planes in the air. Since he always carried an extra pair of sunglasses, he slipped the another one in her hand as she gladly put them on.

Tom scooped up Amber, pointing out the fliers pulling the moves then landing from the safe zone. There were moments of comfortable silence between the two of them and others of them suggesting what else they should do that day.

“How about McDonald’s?” Amber asked, as her father placed her once again on the ground.

He thought for a moment, considering the opinions of today’s action and shook his head, “Sorry, angel eyes. Not today, maybe some other time.”

“It’s okay. I understand..I’m sorry again daddy for running off.”

“I know you are sweetie and I just hope next time you know not to do something like that again.”

“Yes daddy. So no McDonald’s?”

“Nope. We have food at home, but we can past McDonald’s on the drive.”

Tom smirked watching her face, as her mouth opened for a moment then shut pouting. Seeing that it would furrow her brown and having her nose snitch up at that rather rude idea. He knew it was a little mean act, but it was something his grandfather did to him as a small punishment and to see if the fast food restaurant was really worth it.

After a moment, her face returned back to normal as she let out a dramatic sigh and nodded knowing it was somewhat fair trick to play on her. She even let out a smile, following her father out away from the tarmac and into the parking lot.

The drive home was pretty okay, since the music that played on the radio allowed for a gentle sound to release whatever negative thoughts and feelings from across the day, as they went out the window. And yes, they did past by McDonald’s on their way home.

Once they got home, both ate something and showered early, that’s when Tom had the actual talk he said he was going to do earlier that day. Not to get into any heavy detail, it a long 20 minutes of Tom’s eyes almost shifting to his Iceman persona every few minutes at how his emotions sorta bottled up in him while scolding Amber.

He didn’t scream or yell, keeping his voice neutral the whole time.

Telling how that what she did was very reckless, irresponsible, that it a worrisome situation on his part and she literally made a down right stupid decision. Saying something worse could’ve happened if she wasn’t careful. He gave his two sense on the matter and explained to her all the possibilities of what might’ve went wrong today. Things she could’ve done instead and so forth.

Amber tear up hearing her father and just nodded listening to him. He said that he understood why she did it, she felt annoyed and unheard. Plus, she’s a kid, so she doesn’t know any better than to just run away from the issue and stay in her thoughts. However he does say that he felt good that she realized what she did wrong and went back to find an adult.

Yes, he rather it was him but he really liked the fact that she at least went to Viper’s office. Because it was a trusted friend and honorary member of the family.

Due to Tom sitting on the couch with her as he talked, he rubbed her shoulder and handed her a tissue to wipe away those tears that rolled down her cheeks. Apologizing as well for his decisions and own actions today, knowing he messed up on his part since he should’ve stayed with her the whole entire time, instead of leaving her with Slider and the older pilots.

That he should’ve read the signs and taken time to give her his full attention or something. Amber didn’t blame him, as she given her moments to speak her mind as well onto her own feelings. She promised to not try to run away again and go to him if she feels some certain way. She asked if it possible to go flying like old times and he replied that one day they can. Telling her how he will definitely try his best to make time for her, listen to her own thoughts better and keep himself as in the loop as possible.

He gave her a squeeze and a kiss on her cheek, as the two stayed there just talking about punishments, the rules for the rest of the week and exceptions to be set soon. She leaned into his touch and nodded hearing him talking, to be honest even though he was telling her no tv for a week and among other things, his voice was rather relaxing. Hushing her worries about a few things as she softly smile.

Overall the afternoon went well, a few shed tears and a couple of moments just to hear the other person out was exactly what was needed.

——

That’s what I got for the first fic of the year (this was supposed to come out last year but shhh 🤫). I hope y’all like it.

Tell me what did you think about it in the comments below. Remember to like, share and reblog!

Tags: @rooster-84 @gaminggirlsstuff @gcthvile @mallowbee4 @missstrawbs2001 @halesfavoriteharlot @topgun-imagines @mandylove1000 @starkleila @buckysteveloki-me @hangmanbrainrot @teacupsandtopgun @djs8891 and etc

#tom iceman kazansky #tom kazansky x reader #iceman x oc #iceman lives #top gun maverick au #top gun au #top gun iceman #monica geller #top gun 1986 #top gun fanfic #top gun fic #top gun angst #top gun oc #tom kazansky x oc #tgm fanfiction #iceman x reader #original female character

[theflyindutchwoman]

I would like to get a look at Chester's computer after TID is done processing it -- you know, try to get into his head. You think Lopez would let me? Doesn't hurt to ask.

| ANATOMY OF A SCENE - CHENFORD EDITION 4.12 - The Knock

For all his claims that Lucy isn't his partner, the way Tim treats her says otherwise. And it's particularly evident here. I just love whenever the show acknowledges her background as a psych major, but what makes this even better is his response. He has made no secret of his opinion on psychology in the past. He was rather antagonistic towards Jessica Russo when she wanted to use predictive analysis during the manhunt. He expressed several times his skepticism about psychology in Amber - though he did pay attention to what Lucy was saying. And for the most part, it stems from his preference for playing a more proactive role (there might be some other factors that play in as well, with his childhood and the army).

Still, that's what makes his response here so interesting. When Lucy asks him if she could have access to the videos recorded by the suspect in order to get into his head, he immediately agrees to ask Angela, even though that isn't necessarily a part of their job. Better yet : he takes the time to listen to her insights and comes to watch the videos with her. And his behavior here stands in stark contrast with how he acted during the double date : the fact that he could barely make an effort for his girlfriend but doesn't hesitate to accommodate Lucy says it all… There's another hint of how much he values her opinion during the takedown, when he quizzes her on their options and lets her take the lead. In some aspects, it felt like a Tim Test… But there was a genuine curiosity too. And this is so different from the approach he had with Talia, back when they got paired up in Flesh and Blood. To be fair, she was more hostile, feeling like she had to prove herself to one of her former TOs, so it didn't help. But he said it himself : he was still seeing her as his rookie. There's none of that here. And while Tim has grown a lot since then, it is frankly quite specific to Lucy. When he is tasked to help the Feds catch Rosalind's acolyte after her death, he is back to being critical, this time towards profiling.

He may deny it, but he treats Lucy as his de facto partner. Their shorthand is so blatant during this episode, at work or at the restaurant… The way they can have a full conversation with just one look… How their body language mirrors each other's… How they sit so close to one another while watching the videos, despite having the whole room for themselves… The way he moves Lucy by her duty belt outside the morgue, standing extremely close to her… That close quarter situation combined with the dark setting, the lower voices and those looks… So hot. Personal space? Don't know her. They just work so seamlessly together and make each other better… And this episode really brings this point home.

#the rookie #chenford #chenfordedit #lucy chen #tim bradford #4.12 #Anatomy of a scene - Chenford Edition

[hadsephone]

Could you elaborate more on "Amber shaped Persephone as much as Anais and Rachel did"? Like did she actually have say in things like lyric changes or staging or is it more about her actual legacy and how long she was in the role for?

The second one! to my knowledge she didn't have any direct say in the actual book/script, but ever since they started workshopping the show it was Amber's personality, acting, singing, etc that helped to shape Persephone. She's a very unique and one-of-a-kind performer and her specific mannerisms are what made Persephone, Persephone. Like, I don't really know how to describe it, but if you've seen her in other shows or at solo concerts you can definitely see a very strong overlap between "Amber characteristics" and "Persephone characteristics" and how Ambersephone was a perfect mix of acting as a character while also using her own mannerisms.

Amber was in the show for six years, across four different productions, and that's not even counting workshops. Theatre critics and fans genuinely viewed "Amber Gray" and "Persephone Hadestown" as synonymous in a lot of ways.

Many of the replacements have done a fantastic job at continuing on Amber's legacy while still putting their own unique twist on the role, and that's amazing! Amber is not an easy person to follow and I really do love most of her replacements. I love how they honor Amber's legacy while putting their own spin on the character.

Also there's just so many aspects of Persephone's character that are just...Black culture. For example, her dance in Way Down Hadestown is a jazz funeral. And tbh it's really offensive to have white actors in that role doing the same thing. If Amber had never played Persephone, Persephone would be a completely different character.

Persephone was exclusively a Black/mixed-Black role for almost 5 years.

(As a white fan, I'm not going to comment on non-Black POC playing the role. I ADORE Maria-Christina Oliveras and Shea Renne, who both are Asian-American, and I am not going to comment on whether or not it's 'okay' for mixed Pinoy actresses to play a Black-coded role, because while I do think Persephone should ideally be Black, I'm not going to advocate AGAINST Filipina leads. White Persephone is a million times more offensive than nonBlack-POC Persephone ever will be. That being said, since I've acknowledged that Way Down is a jazz funeral, I do wish that Shea and Maria had had the chance to honor Filipino culture in their portrayal, in the same way that every other Persephone honors Black culture.)

Basically: Amber Gray and Amber Gray's specific portrayal of Persephone is literally what built Persephone. Especially from a racial aspect, there's so many parts of Persephone's character that you literally cannot separate from African-American culture and casting white people as Persephone is so disrespectful to Amber's - a biracial black woman's - legacy in the show. Also, if Amber had actual say in Persephone's lines, I can guarantee the Chant II verse would never have been cut.

#amber gray #persephone #hadestown

[eerna]

so how's fourth wing so far :]

CHECK IN TIME! OK so I am on chapter 22, which is the 51% mark of the book. I continue to be disappointed, but now I have read enough of the book to know I'm not overreacting or judging too early.

Anachronisms continue to run rampant. At one point the MC uses the expression "Are our wires crossed?", which is an explicit reference to telephones, meaning this world has telephones but not pens. This could have easily been a modern fantasy and better for it, there is 0 reason for keeping it a historical setting.

I am on chapter 22 approximately because I actually accidentally fell asleep during Amber's trial and it was so insanely ridiculous I just signed off, and then rewinded to the beginning of the chapter when I woke up. Dain not believing his best freind in the entire world and a bunch of other people because "AMBER LOVES RULES TOO MUCH TO BREAK THEM!!" is one of the funniest scenes I've ever seen.

The characters.... Good lord literally everyone is just an empty shell of a person, someone who serves a certain role in the story and nothing else. It's been a while since I read a book where not a single character gave me anything to work with. That includes bad things I could complain about, or flaws. No one dares step a toe outside the stereotypical roles - wow, here's the Petite Delicate MC With Hidden Power, her Overprotective Childhood Best Friend (well ok he is depicted as bad in this one but more on that later), her Fun Extroverted New Best Friend, the Mysterious Brooding Dark Haired Bad Boy, the Evil Bitch, the Craaaaazy Murderous Competitor....... Like damn give me SOMETHING.

The deaths that people say raise the stakes and feel brutal and realistic are really funny to me because it is Super Obvious who is gonna be next to die. Why are we suddenly focusing on this random background character? Because they are gonna perish next page. Please pretend to be shocked when it happens. Rinse and repeat.

Ngl the "our dragons are mates and that means we are gonna be serving the army together for the rest of their lives also gotta learn how to work together" as a forced proximity method is an absolutely amazing idea. Too bad I feel nothing for this specific combination of characters.

The romance is so immature. It's not even SJM level relationship development. So Violet is in love with her childhood best friend, but then decides she doesn't want to be with him because there is no "spark" when they kiss. Not because he is controlling and belittles her and has no faith in her. Oh no. It's about how she can't even look at Xaden without getting horny!!!! It's about how she hates him as a person but his BODYYY WOWWWW YUMMMMM!!!! PLENTY of sparks!! At one point she describes his cousin and feels the need to specify the two look similar, but she is NOT physically attracted to him, which is just so funny. The book is still painfully straight and treats me to the "Big Burly Muscular Man and his Tiny Dainty Little Woman" shtick.

It's the EPITOME of those "imagine a book where..." tiktoks. Ohhhh the villain is KILLIN PEOPLE to SAVE THE MC even though she thought HE HATED HER..... Oooohhh he has DARK HAIR and ENCOURAGES HER TO BE STRONG....... Ooooooh the MC has bnded to THE STRONGEST DRAGON EVER and also HAS TWO BONDED DRAGONS which has NEVERRR HAPPENED BEFORE...... It feels like a collection of out-of-context quotes meant to be shown as a greenscreen backdrop while the reader pretends to be screaming into their hand in the foreground.

All in all. I am still not enraged angry the way some other books from the book club have made me, but we still haven't reached the smut so there's plenty of time for the nosedive. I'm just reading this and wondering why this specifically was chosen as the next Big Thing. What makes it special??? I see Nothing. Maybe I will find out if I keep going - I don't personally have to like it, but I'd like to figure out why so many other people do.

#eernask #eernanon

[daddycassie]

got 2 for u, no pressure for which one to write :]

lucy gray/reader where she takes reader home one night to formally meet the covey and reader is all shy and nervous because she wants to make a good impression so lg gives her a peptalk (and lots of kisses too <3)

OR tigris/reader where she's showing off some of her latest designs and rambling on and on about fashion but reader doesn't even care cuz she looks so damn cute while doing so, so reader just interrupts her with a nice kiss that leaves tigris flustered and causes her to lose her train of thought

Meeting the family 🖤🌧️🐦‍⬛

Lucy Gray x Gn! reader

You were freaking out. Sitting in your girlfriend’s room and absolutely losing it. You started the day perfectly calm and fine when Lucy Gray had approached you with the biggest smile on her face. You’d smiled back, at least up until she brought it up.

Lucy Gray walks into the room and giggles softly at the way you’re pacing. “Y/n. Calm down, you’re okay. You’ve met ‘em before.” You grab her shoulders and shake her a bit. “Not like this!” You practically wail. Lucy Gray laughs again. “They’re gonna love you darlin’.”

You sigh heavily and lean your head on Lucy Gray’s shoulder while she strokes your back soothingly. “Everythin’s gonna be perfect, ya hear?” You CANT help but crack a small smile. “You really believe that?” She nods firmly. “Yep! They’re gonna love you, and it’s gonna be jus’ right, because you’re wonderful, and beautiful, and amazing.”

You laugh at her words, blushing, and Lucy Gray smiles brighter. “Thank you Lu, having a vote of confidence helps. Means more coming from you.” She hums in response. “You’re gonna do great, we’re gonna do great.” You answer playfully, knowing what she’d say next. “Cause we’re the best?” Lucy Gray cups your face, and you feel like she’s squishing you. “Cause we’re the best!” She squeals her agreement.

You give her a hug, unsure how to show your adoration in any other way. “I’m still nervous though.” Lucy Gray sighs, but her smile doesn’t falter. “I get it, meetin’ your family made me go belly up. I was terrified, but you were there for me and I’m gonna be there for you all the same.” You run a hand through her hair, she was too endearing. “I love you so much.” Lucy Gray leans into your touch. “I love you lots too.”

Turned out — she was right, as usual. Tam Amber was quiet most of the time, but he didn’t seem specifically disapproving and Maude Ivory was perfectly on board since you were a fun babysitter, Clerk Carmine was quick to agree after that. Barb Azure was maybe the hardest to get through to, but if anything she only seemed protective. By the end of the night she gave you two her approval.

You sat out on the porch with Lucy Gray after dinner, she wanted to stargaze, but it was rainy and the darker clouds obscured the sky. Regardless, she didn’t complain, leaning on your shoulder. “I admit, you were right.” Lucy Gray stops mid-hum and gives you a sweet smile. “I know.” You wrap your arm around her comfortingly and you both watch the rain patter on the muddy, dirt roads of district 12.

———————————————

The cutie patootie 🎀🩷🌷

Tigris x Gn! reader

As per your usual day, you were spending your lunch break at your girlfriend’s little boutique. You listen on as she rambles about a glittery, yellow dress, which she was holding up to you. Tigris grins as she shows you each little seam and explains even the smallest details. She really did have a passion for her clothes.

Though… despite your staring and nodding along, you had zero idea what the actual heck she was saying. Tigris was just far too cute for her own good, and maybe yours too. You zone in enough to hear her talking about how she applied the glitter while also making it look smooth. You push aside your sandwich.

“Baby, whoever wears that dress is gonna be the luckiest person in Panem. Other than me, I get to date the gorgeous girl who made it.” Tigris blushes, and laughs in embarrassment. She wasn’t used to compliments. You weren’t entirely sure she ever would be. “Thank you dear.” You nod as she puts the dress away, she was just too cute.

“I made this other one for someone specific, she said it’ll be the first time she gets to openly wear a dress.” Tigris grins as she pulls out a pretty, dark green dress. “I told her I was so glad she came to me to get it and asked if she had any suggestions and—“ You kept up your nodding, trying to at least pretend you were comprehending anything she was saying.

You had a feeling Tigris knew you didn’t really understand anything about her work, but she seemed to appreciate you trying to listen regardless. That’s when you noticed your lunch break was just about up. You get up and walk over to your girlfriend and give her a soft kiss. She tenses, freezing for a moment before kissing you back.

You pull back and laugh at how red she is and the way her eyes were squeezed closed so tight. “I’ll see you later honey, okay?” Tigris opens her eyes again and nods fast. “Right! Um- I’ll make sure to get you something for dinner.” You smile and caress her cheek. “Alright, but you gotta finish off my sandwich for me.”

Tigris smiles back affectionately. “That won’t be a problem. I love you, see you later?” You give her a final kiss on the cheek. “Mhm, love you too.” It takes a lot of effort to pull away from her and walk out of the boutique, but with the image of the two of you having dinner together that night, you manage to head back to work.

———————————————

Note: I’ve never actually written for Tigris before but I loved this idea and had to bring it to life — but hey, didn’t wanna choose her over my main girl, so TAH DAH!!! You get both~ Thank you sm for requesting and I hope you enjoy them even if they’re a little short :)

and for anyone else my requests are OPEN!!! I do all of tbosbas ladies :)

#lucy gray baird #tbosas #lucy gray #lucy gray my beloved #lucy gray baird x reader #rachel zegler #lucy gray x reader #tigris x reader #tigris snow #tigris snow x reader #the ballad of my gay ass #the ballad of songbirds and snakes #Request #hunter schafer

[melloianv2]

Have a Good Night Sleep, Dogday AU

Alternative:

Finally, after an month and an half of month, am finally finished.

Before I start i wanted to take back both things I said in my WIP.

When I said its cartoon world, i actually meant was its mostly take place in the cartoon world. it really an Imagination world, as you'll see what I meant during this post.

What i actually meant about its not a shipping au, its not a shipping au between Dogday and CatNap specifically. well there is no couple pairing of the critters existing, just crushes. but its never important at all (besides it only 2 critters.)

Now there is some things that are related to the bigger bodies however it has nothing to do with bigger bodies dogday nor catnap at all. it just about the cartoon world. So not even worshiping prototype exists here.

and I apologize for any grammar mistake I miss.

Anyway on to the post!

About:

About Have a Good Night Sleep, Dogday or HGNSD AU

In a nutshell, it basically two children created entire storyline about Dogday trying to find a way for CatNap to turn back to normal. At least what Dogday thinks because if there was a way to strengthen Catnap (dark essence bottle), then there has to be a way to get him back to normal.

The previous storyline before the brother came was just smiling critters just doing normal activities.

Originally the au was post to be slightly similar to 2016 stuff, but I think it not really "2016" like anymore. This series is post be animated on youtube only, but i have no idea if i should since i need motivation and still have to practice my animation skills.

Just note, some characters personalities are the same, but just altered a bit or a lot. Then the other altered completely

Anyway lets start with the characters that no one will cares about first!

Welcome to the Yearwoods Family.

Family Photo Link

It was- I mean is a happy family! The family are Christians. The family consists 2 children and a sphynx cat

All names of the family are: Mr. Yearwood, Mrs. Yearwood, Amber Yearwood and Kevin Yearwood. (the parents are nameless)

the cat name is pinky. (its a girl)

Out of the 4, Amber and Kevin are the important ones.

Amber and Kevin

Whenever Amber goes to school, she's bullied. She hates it as it ruins her self esteem. But she claims that she's fine and she don't need any help.

--------

Amber and Kevin gets along. Though, Kevin likes teasing and playfully making fun of his sister a lot. Amber usually ignores him or just pretty much says its not funny. Overall, they love each other as siblings.

Every day they play with the smiling critters toys before their mom tells them to go to bed. Amber sleeps with catnap toy or sometimes craftycorn.

Amber and Kevin playstyle is different. Though at the end, they're both obviously equally immature.

Amber's Playstyle:

Amber plays a CatNap, not shocking.... She sometimes play as the other critters (most likely CraftyCorn), but she mainly plays CatNap. And i mean main, she doesn't even let her brother play CatNap for once.

Amber is good with crafting an story, but very very bad at power scaling.

usually when she plays the other critters, they act bit more mature. However when she plays a CatNap, she either being serious or being a joke. there is no in-between.

One of the running gags of the Au is CatNap's powers. He keeps gaining new ability every time. Amber is doing that deliberately so she can win, and counter her brother every time. However when her brother starts winning, she gets annoyed and slightly mad when she starting to lose. But its the entire fact she wants CatNap to win entirely. by going as far as weakening the other critters.

She also pull the "nuh uh" or miss despite the attack was obviously undodgeable.

Kevin's Playstyle:

Whatever Kevin plays the critters, its more jokes and being unserious. sometimes he be serious but then its ruined with an joke. He mainly plays Dogday but he do play other critters. He gave Dogday powers because he thinks its more fair to have everyone with powers. Despite Kevin joking a lot, his powers are usually kind of balanced (expect for the fact Dogday is kind of op not as op as Catnap.) Dogday gains powers too but only if he learns something. The brother often wins.

Kevin likes overdramatizing fights, dark scenes and using powers, mostly because he watch too much action tv shows.

Now that's done, let get to the real AU.

Welcome to Sunnyville!

(i literally had to compressed the file omfg, this stupid image lags so hard everytime i open it..)

Here's a better close up version

Sunnyville is the brightest and cheerful town around! This is the main location where the Smiling Critters resides in. The positivity and good vibes came from Smiling Critters themselves.

There's more than one groups as the known ones are Smiling critters, Nega Bratzz, The Quacking Sisters, and The Ordinarys

The town is mostly nice however there are bullies (Nega Bratzz and The Quaking Sisters), but it doesn't quite override the sheer amount of positivity. Smiling Critters has a reputation in this town, often for their upbeat attitude. Outside of the critters group, Dogday is well liked by adults, awhile children thinks KickinChicken is cool. Not all though fine with their upbeat attitude, especially Nega Bratzz.

The houses are altered but Every single Night, Catnap's house changes.

Well not the exterior, But just the interior does.

The interior becomes an nearly endless mansion with whole bunch of halllways and rooms. turning back around doesn't get no better. Once enter his house, the doors are shut tight enough for no one to escape.

The inside of Catnap's house is described as an dream world or illusion world. Once entered here and manage to end up falling asleep or become unconscious, it would be treated as if the critters was dreaming the entire time. That's because when the sunrises, the interior turns back to normal. Any injury is also gone.

example:

The "illusion house" is quite dangerous, due to it being unpredictable unknown danger. Some rooms are safe, awhile others are not. Some could be neutral awhile other could be a trap. The critters will never know.

Aside from catnap's house, DogDay's house been redesigned in this au too.

Smiling Critters Section

Enough explaining everything else but the critters!

The story mostly revolves around Dogday and CatNap. KickinChicken is an major character. The other critters are very important too, but not as much.

Once wholesome positive team, is now a distressed team. Smiling Critters has to work together to solve this mystery of Catnap and the happenings that are caused by him. Awhile they try to solve Catnap awhile balancing their routines.

At day, Smiling critters just do their normal routine, get ready, eat, play, eat... But as soon as its Night, that's the where the real kicker is. Majority of the events that happens in this AU, takes place at night. At the moment, no one but outside of Smiling Critters area knows what's going on with Catnap.

They try to gather clues and research CatNap to get understanding on what their facing.

The Critters acts like their description.......somewhat. its altered a bit.

About the Other form i mentioned on the about, what was the so called form am I talking about? Well its called Enhanced Form. Enhanced forms are magical forms that gives a smiling critter powers. In order for an Smiling Critter to be enhanced, Dogday must enhance them, as he the only one who is able to do it.

Enhanced forms are strong, at least strong enough to fight the CatNap.

In order for an Critter to transform into Enhanced form, Dogday must use his powers to enchant the pendant (on the necklace). Then, the critter can either grabs the pendant tightly or smack it, causing them to transform into enhanced form.

Dogday can change at will, but he does not have enhanced form, but rather just a stronger form. Though, Dogday don't even need to transform, he can still use half of his abilities without it.

When a critter transforms, their pendant changes too.

An Critter can de-transform by either de-transforming willingly or when they become unconscious.

I will now talk about the Smiling critters separately.

Dogday the Guardian of the Sun:

Makes sense to start with the titular character of this AU.

Dogday is the main character of HGNSD.

Other things that I didn't add due to space:

Dogday is an early bird, he tends to wake up everyone to get the day started. Excluding CatNap, He's the last critter to go to sleep.

full content (but also not) of how Dogday gained his powers: Dogday was slammed multiple times by Catnap (due to the fact he rebelled, fight back and took the risk of letting himself be the one getting the punches instead of his friends), before tossing him to a deep pit. The pit had spikes at the very bottom. Despite Dogday was clearly about to die, he still had some hope and determination left...causing gain powers and fly upwards in result.

Dogday is more powerful than any other critters. He can even sometimes surpass Catnap's powers. Dogday's powers deals with the sun aka light. Dogday's powers are 2x stronger at day but at night, its normal strength of the power.

The AU name is post to be ironic (really just an bullying title since dogday cannot even go to sleep properly because of CatNap) but at the same time, its foreshadowing something.

Dogday is traumatized, but he doesn't show it.

He was horrified at the state of Catnap tall self. But after dealing with him for so long, he's desensitized to it. doesn't means that's a good thing though.

Dogday gets insulted a lot, he gets upset a little but it doesn't really effect him completely. The only thing that effects him is the fact his best friend is even like this at all.

Other Critters

Now the main character is out of the way, let's talk about the other critters (expect for Catnap). They will be ordered from most important to the least important.

KickinChicken the Guardian of the Stars:

(i added the bottom beak on purpose)

Let's start with kickin'

Other things that I didn't add due to space:

KickinChicken is most likely the one who defends his friends from bullying.

KickinChicken powers deal with stars and light. He is almost as strong as DogDay.

He often sacrifice himself in order for his friends to escape to find safety. If Dogday is almost there to being killed, he jumps in to prevent it. Because of his sacrifices....he almost had access to change into form at will permanently.

He was able to change into his enhanced form twice without Dogday's assistance. But it happened in two different circumstances. not to mention sudden change, but it was in a necessary moment.

KickinChicken and Dogday works together sometimes.

No matter how much an critter insults KickinChicken, it doesn't bother him. In fact, he will twist the insult into a positive one.

He considers Hoppy Hopscotch his best friend. They both have an friendly rivalry when comes to any game. They get a bit too competitive....almost destructive sometimes. They always doing the "am better than you" attitude. If one of them lost, they take the lost but still cocky.

KickinChicken usually compliments himself and looks at the mirror in his bathroom.

Kickinchicken secretly can sing. He didn't tell anyone because he wanted it to be personal for him only. Until catnap exists and ruins everything. There's concept designs of kickinchicken in his singer outfit design, but i hadn't finalized it.

CRAFTYCORN the Guardian of Colors:

Other things that I didn't add due to space:

More info about her own magic: she has an specific book to learn her own abilities. She tries to learn her own magic, but it pretty much hard for her too. She struggles to use her magic, when it successful, its usually something small. In her enhanced form, she able to use her magic like she trained for years.

Sometimes Craftycorn's magic is successful either under concentration or distress. And sometimes it fails. She also the only critter who can create her own form without Dogday's help. Though it isn't an enhanced form, but rather a different form.

Craftycorn one day wants her art be display in a muesum

In her enhanced form, she has the powers of creation, unicorn magic and color. Making her quite strong. She only has on specific healing ability called Revival. she can only use this on one critter awhile focusing, and if she gets distracted, the progress will fail.

Craftycorn sometimes ends up finding out some stuff before anyone else.

Craftycorn one time was able to beat Catnap without help.

Craftycorn has a crush on Dogday, she didn't at first though. She was saved by Dogday, causing her to gain a crush on him since then (omg its almost like proto-). She been drawing a lot of pictures of him closed doors.

Sometimes she plays chess with Bubba Bubbaphant. She loses mostly.

Bubba Bubbaphant the Guardian of Intelligence:

Other things that I didn't add due to space:

Bubba Bubbaphant has the power of vision, intelligence and detection. He is able to rewind to able to see an vision from the past. Since he most likely using his powers for investigating, making clues and ideas for any sign for an cure.

When bubba bubbaphant is targeted, he sometimes gets it the worst than Dogday, simply because "he's smart". For example, everyone else will get tied up in one way, but bubba bubbaphant will have 15 different ways of being tied and caged to make sure he doesn't try to strategize to escape at all.

Bubbe Bubbaphant pacifism caused injuries. He never try to switch sides, he's still standing his ways.

When Dogday first gain his powers, He went to Bubba Bubbphant to figure things out. Though Bubba Bubbaphant obviously could not answer how to deal with his powers. So instead he tries to study both Dogday's and Catnap's powers.

Bubba Bubbphant had try to to keep up with Catnap's powers, but he clearly wants to give up at this point because its way too much. Its stressing him out

Hoppy Hopscotch the Guardian of Energy:

Other things that I didn't add due to space:

Hoppy Hopscotch powers are lighting, super speed, super jump and energy. She can charge herself by simply running.

Hoppy and KickinChicken are friendly rivals mostly competitive in games. Though Hoppy is usually the one ends up making it more destructive then it originally is. She usually try to win, by doing things faster. She also view kickinchicken as her best friend.

Extension of the trained fighter: When using her fighting skills, she usual attacks fast. Awhile Hoppy was teaching Dogday, she accidentally gives him bruises in the beginning...

She can be just as cocky as kickinchicken sometimes without using the better than you phrase.

When she is being insulted, she usually insult back.

Even when its fighting with Catnap, she still wants an challenge.

Here an example of one of her sports form

Bobby Bearhug the Guardian of Love:

Other things that I didn't add due to space:

Bobby Bearhug have the powers of healing, enchantment and love. She is able to heal multiple critters at once or strengthen them. Her attacking ability is life drain. She discover this by accident.

Due to Bobby Bearhug's pacifism, she gets injured too but not as bad as Bubba Bubbaphant.

She's has been bullied a lot, despite it all she still wants to show love. She don't really judge anyone, despite people judge her.

She does care about Dogday's situation, at the same time she just feel sympathy for Catnap.

Bobby Bearhug can cook, she mostly bakes though. Her food is delicious.

PickyPiggy the Guardian of Food:

Other things that I didn't add due to space:

PickPiggy have the power of food and mixing. That's it. She's considered the weakest critter out of all the powers. At least she can create certain foods that isn't possible.

She is not a cooker at all, despite having cooking related powers. Instead, she just be the first one at the table when the food ready. Getting large portions of foods....no wonder there's no leftovers in the fridge. (no she doesn't eat the ENTIRE cooked meal, she does let her friends get a plate too.)

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CATNAP SECTION

Now....Catnap.. well now you saw how everyone views catnap or at least treat him. Its only right to finally show him now, yes?

He needs his own separate section.

Catnap is the main antagonist of the story.

Catnap....:

Other things that I didn't add due to space?:

Truly everyone is guessing what happened to Catnap, cause no one has no clue.

Catnap powers are either the most strongest or the most weakest... I cannot pick, blame the kids. Catnap has so many powers, even god give up. His powers are the negative versions of dark, psychic, moon, and dreams. He also can send more smokes in his nightmare form, which is from his spores that's on his back. The advantage he has over everyone, his powers at night are 10x stronger....so he can take down all the critters. However the massive downgrade, at daytime, all of his powers goes bye bye, he cannot even turn forms either. He stuck back to just Catnap. Only power he can use is transporting from dark areas. So when the sunrises, he slowly turns back to normal size.

Lunar/Third Quarter Form is usually what he changes into the most, its a mix between the regular form and Nightmare's powers but not having all of its powers. This form is somewhat comic relief. This is where most the jokes be, in this form.

Nightmare form is the most strongest, as he usually do not talk in form. He either wants to put fear or he was extremely angry to change into this form.

Out of all the critters, he believes bobby bearhug is the most insane, ironic.

Catnap at first hated the boot like socks in Lunar form, but ends up being fine with it because it was comfortable.

Unlike the canon og Catnap, catnap committing evil is a complete mystery...or the fact the kids never planned one. who knows.

He has the able to put critters inside a cocoon-like substance, to make them live inside their own nightmare. The victim actually has to find the way to break out of it..somehow

He got the name Boogeyman due to teleporting underneath hoppy's bed and kidnapping her.

Catnap likes pretending to be an magician.

Past Catnap usually likes being around areas that was calm and peaceful. any interruption would startle him.

Past Catnap used go to Bobby to talk about private stuff. Not things that between Dogday and Him though.

He's the only critter in the smiling critters group to not have an enhanced form

Catnap can change his eyes at will. but nightmare form he cannot.

He owns the Lair, which the lair only appears at night. its no where to be seen at day. He got an lair later in the story because he wanted to craft his plans far away from the smiling critters sometimes.

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Now for last one its relationship between Dogday and Catnap (also my last picture i can even post i reach my limit :()

Other things that I didn't add due to space:

Catnap equally insults Dogday, calling Dogday "DogStupid" because he believes that Dogday is actually stupid. Catnap actually insulted Dogday first.

Rarely, Catnap doesn't attack Dogday on certain days, as he sometimes target someone else.

Every since Dogday gained powers, Catnap been obsessed with trying to gain his powers. Mostly because he wants to torture him so that Dogday wouldn't be able to defend himself or enhance anyone no more.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

End !! now for the extras and Concepts! sorry no images.

---

Concepts/Removed:

Originally there was going be humans in the cartoon world. Because how care bears and the old MLP had humans. There was 2 humans that was along with the Smiling Critters, Oliver and Maxwell. Oilver would have blond hair pigtails and pink overalls and Maxwell had brown hair. Oliver was the confident feminine girl awhile Maxwell was a curious boy. She and Maxwell would've helped the smiling critters. Oliver would've try to fight Catnap but Catnap wouldn't even attack her, but rather put her somewhere safe.

In continuation of the humans concept, there was going be a castle way up in the sky, as the only way to access it is through a magic beanstalk. The castle had a princess named princess balloobow. She is a human with powers. She would've attempted to cure Catnap's evil but it would failed. She also would've been the one who taught Dogday on how to use his powers properly.

lastly of the human concept, in some epsiodes, The smiling critters would've travel all over the world to find the cure. having an adventure and meeting new people or critters. Catnap still would've been a villain during those adventures. They would've have got clues about the cure, the origins of Dogday's abilities, an hint about what happen to Catnap and the mystery of the current Catnap. However during those travels, Catnap would've slowly become stronger...due to collecting stuff. Dogday would've also become stronger, from looking at the ancient stuff. Sometimes in their travel, they would help people or other critters.

Catnap would've an fourth form called Disenchant form, being the opposite of enhanced form.

The original name of this au was called Nighttime with Catnap. it was also called Smiling Critters and Shenanigans.

Dogday and Current Catnap was originally considered frenemies.

~~~~~~~

Origin of this AU

This start off as an one-off joke where Dogday staying up all night playing videogames with Kickinchicken. Dogday was trying to keep himself awake until he fall asleep. As soon he woke up he was chained up on his own bed, just to find Catnap smiling at him. Catnap says he's about to punish him because he surpass his healthy sleeping schedule and decides to punish him by forcing him to watch Megamind 2. Dogday beg for mercy but Catnap turns it on, causing Dogday try to struggle to escape and scream.

----

Extras

Pickypig is the only character to even question why don't they just attack Catnap at daytime because he's basically weak. (the reason is because the smiling critters do not want to cause commotion and attract large attention from the people in the town)

Possessed Dogday exists in this au, but ill talk about it on another post. Just so you know, He did not get his body controlled in the same way the bigger bodies Dogday was.

Amber first ever toy was the poppy playtime doll. every single smiling critters came out, she abandoned her, but she still in her room.

-----------------------------

End of the actual post ! ! this took too long, and i might forget to add certain details as usual. anyway i hope you enjoy the post, see ya

#the smiling critters #smiling critters #craftycorn #poppyplaytime dogday #dogday #smiling critters fanart #poppy playtime #poppy playtime 3 #smiling critters au #catnap #smiling critters catnap #poppy playtime au #hoppy hopscotch #poppy playtime hoppy #bubba bubbaphant #picky piggy #kickinchicken #bobby bearhug #joke au #magical girl au #i don't know if this even counts as an magical girl au seriously. #fanart

[irrigos]

interpreters in fallen london, ranked by how badly they violate the Code of Professional Conduct

I'm using the Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf's CPC, because thats what I learned. none of these characters would actually fall under the jurisdiction of RID, because its an American organization. and also. was founded in 1964. I also acknowledge that none of the clients these interpreters are interpreting for are, in fact, deaf, but I don't know anything about spoken language interpreting, and I feel like the needs of these specific clients are more akin to the interpreting needs of deaf clients I've had than anything else. (Also, the CPC calls them "consumers", I prefer "clients" because that's what I learned, but people will use either and it doesn't matter that much)

This post is very long, and there's not even that many people on it! I could have made it shorter, but I already didn't do that. You're the one who chose to read it! That's not my problem!

The CPC:

RID's Code of Professional Conduct was written in collaboration with the National Association of the Deaf in 2005 (replacing their prior Code of Ethics). It has 7 tenets, which each have several points of illustrative behaviors. I decided to cite the specific illustrative behaviors that these interpreters fail to perform, because I thought that would be more interesting and thorough. And no one will ever accuse me of not being thorough.

Here is the CPC presented in American Sign Language, and here it is in written English. It's not a very long or complex document, if you're interested in reading it yourself. I can't really imagine anyone WOULD be that interested in the code of conduct for a profession you're not in, unless you're like... me... but hey, there it is.

Barqujin:

Batachikhan's interpreter in Mask of the Rose. He wants to leave the amber warrens beneath London and go start a shop, but she thinks it's a bad idea. Purposefully interprets Batachikhan incorrectly to try to convince the player to help with her plan instead (facilitating a slower, more planned introduction of Rubbery Men into London society.) Is clearly threatened by the player character also being able to understand Batachikhan, since she spent years with the Rubberies learning their ways and you're just some dipshit. Also can have a threesome with the player and Batachikhan.

Tenets violated:

2.3 ("Render the message faithfully by conveying the content and spirit of what is being communicated, using language most readily understood by consumers, and correcting errors discreetly and expeditiously.") She is very much not faithfully rendering the message

4.1 ("Consider consumer requests or needs regarding language preferences, and render the message accordingly") This might seem like the same as 2.3, but this one focuses more on language preferences than content, eg using Signed Exact English instead of pure ASL if that is what the client prefers. So this would be like when Batachikhan is writing and breaks the chalk, and Barqujin gets annoyed and refuses to get more. Not respecting the method by which her client would like to communicate.

Conclusion:

I put her first on the list (so, least bad) because she at least DOES seem to care about Batachikhan and his well-being, even if she's pretty shitty about it. Also, I'm counting the time she spent in the amber warrens as "professional development", so she IS fulfilling tenet 7.0 ("Interpreters engage in professional development.") although I don't know how many CEUs that would be worth. Really, I think Barqujin is a good example for why the Americans with Disabilities Act says that a "companion" (family member, guardian, friend, religious leader, etc) cannot be counted as a qualified interpreter in most circumstances. Barqujin lacks the impartiality required to be an effective interpreter!!

The Sagacious Ape

In the ambition Hearts Desire, your monkey friend Gregory Beechwood hires an interpreter from the Empire of Hands to facilitate him actually having a conversation with you. Probably should come before Barqujin, technically, as her misconduct is probably worse (it's pretty bad to purposefully interpret something incorrectly because YOU think they should have said something different! that is generally Frowned Upon!) but he bothers me more. Also you could argue that Barqujin is not operating in the game as a Certified Interpreter who is bound by the code of conduct, but as a bilingual friend doing a favor, so… idk. Barqujin gets to be less bad because the Sagacious Ape bothers me so much more.

Tenets violated:

2.2 (“Assess consumer needs and the interpreting situation before and during the assignment and make adjustments as needed.”) Maybe a nitpick to start us off, but I was trained to always show up at least 15 minutes early, so you can meet with your client for a bit and figure out their linguistic needs. And the Sagacious Ape did not do that, although I SUPPOSE I can allow for the possibility that they met sometime off-screen.

I GUESS. 2.3 (Render the message faithfully, etc.) Tries to downplay Beechwood's tone/language use. He keeps making little asides objecting to Beechwood's swearing, or doing what seems to be downplaying the intended tone. Sorry, Mr Ape Interpreter. Gregory Beechwood wants to say fuck and you and I both know it. You gotta say the fuck word.

2.5 (“Refrain from providing counsel, advice, or personal opinions.”) Guessed what Beechwood wanted from the Marvelous before Beechwood said anything. You are not a participant in this conversation, man! You don't get to give your input here!

Conclusion:

Unfortunately, I am in love with Barqujin so she gets a little more leeway than the Sagacious Ape. And he's also the only one on this list who is licensed, so he has no excuse. But frankly, worse than the CPC violations, his greatest crime was doing my two biggest interpreter pet peeves. 1. He doesn't interpret into first person language (“He says he's sorry“ should instead be ”I'm sorry.“ This is a thing you learn in literally day 1 of an Interpreter Training Program.) 2. He calls himself a translator and not an interpreter, even though he is interpreting and not translating (I actually emailed FBG about this when it came up with the last election, but I don't know if they went back and fixed it in HD, too. I'd already beaten it by then. But a translator takes a static text in one language and converts it into another language, and an interpreter takes a live text in one language and converts it into another. An interpreter is working in the moment, so you'd have one at doctors appointments or presentations or plays, and a translator is working over time, so you'd hire a translator to work on a book or an article or a poem. I have done lots of interpreting and very little translating.) So, sorry Sagacious Ape. We ARE voting you off the island.

A small addendum to the entry on the Sagacious Ape- I couldn't find a good way to fit this in, but he reminds me almost more of a Deaf Interpreter than an Interpreter for the Deaf. A Hearing interpreter (or an interpreter for the deaf) would be a Hearing person who is fluent in both sign language and English (or, well, probably any spoken language, really) and interprets between the two. A Deaf interpreter is one who is themselves Deaf. Their role is to take the interpretation from the Hearing Interpreter and make it into more natural, fluent sign language, and to take the sign language of the client and make it easier for the Hearing interpreter to interpret correctly. They primarily work with people who are multiply disabled, or have some other language disability. The situations I've seen where a Deaf interpreter has also been hired have been for things like the client being DeafBlind, the client having cerebral palsy, or the client experienced language deprivation and isn't fluent in sign language. I think the Sagacious Ape is a little more like a Deaf interpreter because, while monkeys in Fallen London CAN speak (clearly, as the Sagacious Ape can!) Beechwood is not able to communicate in any language, so the Sagacious Ape is interpreting off of things like gestures and grunts. And that's closer to what I've seen Deaf interpreters do with clients who went through language deprivation than it is to any interpreting work I've ever done. Just a fun thought I wanted to share, even though it's not really relevant to the list.

The Nocturnal Landscape Artist

The Nocturnal Landscape Artist (who is also sometimes in game referred to as the Nocturnal Landscape Painter) was the Tentacled Entrepreneur's interpreter during the election of 1898, and was fired later, in Helicon House. I hate him terribly, and he's my favorite representation of an interpreter in the game.

Tenets violated:

1.1 (”Share assignment-related information only on a confidential and “as needed” basis.”) This might be a bit of a stretch, but during the election, you could get drunk with him and he'd talk a little shit about how actually TE doesn't know anything and HE'S the real brains here. Obviously this is incredibly inappropriate, but I'm also gonna say it's breaking confidentiality. Yknow. Among other problems.

2.5 (“Refrain from providing counsel, advice, or personal opinions.”) He was involved in TE's mayoral campaign to provide counsel and advice, while also providing interpreting services

3.5 ("Conduct and present themselves in an unobtrusive manner and exercise care in choice of attire.") I guess it's a little different for him, because he's not ACTUALLY a sign language interpreter, but generally speaking, I always had a VERY strict dress code, which boiled down to basically wearing only solid, dark colors, like black or navy. I guess they don't really describe the Painter in the game that much, but I mean… look at this guy. Do you think this guy is capable of being unobtrusive? I do not.

3.8 ("Avoid actual or perceived conflicts of interest that might cause harm or interfere with the effectiveness of interpreting services." The CPC defines a conflict of interest as "A conflict between the private interests (personal, financial, or professional) and the official or professional responsibilities of an interpreter in a position of trust, whether actual or perceived, deriving from a specific interpreting situation.") The Artist is literally involved with TE to better himself. During the election, he one time says ”We'll be the mayor“ which is. Yikes, man.

3.10 (”Refrain from using confidential interpreted information for the benefit of personal or professional affiliations or entities.“ See above.)

6.6 ("Refrain from harassment or coercion before, during, or after the provision of interpreting services.") Shows up at TE's art show without being invited, in an attempt to berate him. Cringe.

Conclusion:

"He needs me. As a teacher. A mentor. Fortunately, he does act on my advice. An' we both have the same goals. …You have to keep this to yourself. He's the money, but I'm the brains. We'll be mayor, just you see." BAD!!! I hate this man!! But the reason he's my favorite representation of an interpreter I've seen in this game, and quite possibly ANY game, is that… I've totally met this guy. Every Deaf person I know who has needed an interpreter has met this guy. There is a certain kind of person who becomes an interpreter (or really goes into any field that involves working closely with a marginalized group) primarily because they think that these poor people need their HELP. THEY know what's best for their clients! And they're going to see that done! Client's input be damned! It makes my skin crawl. The role of an interpreter is complex, and there are a lot of different opinions about how much an interpreter should interpret cultures as well as language, and this is made even MORE complex when you're interpreting for someone who is marginalized BECAUSE of this culture and language. But the Nocturnal Landscape Painter is clearly convinced that TE is going about everything wrong, and he's using his position as TE's interpreter to try to force him into what the Painter thinks is correct. And then has a big baby tantrum when TE does what he wanted to do anyway! It's no wonder they aren't friends anymore, if they ever were to begin with. I was glad that I got to throw this dude out of Helicon House. Wish I could do the same to everyone in my interpreting training cohort who thought it was their role to help all these poor sad Deaf people who couldn't get by without us. Gross.

In conclusion:

#fallen london #mask of the rose #this is the most ive read the CPC since like. 2018 lmao #do you all still like me even though this post is almost 2k words

[arcanusarchieves-if]

I was wondering how the ROs would think of the MC that looks like Johnny Depp's version of Grindelwald (minus the racist supremacist part ofc, that's just awful) after they reunite?

Truthfully, most probably wouldn't care/notice. While Grindelwald's appearance wouldn't be considered normal or anything, it's also not exactly odd to see a Magus looking like that. In order to make the answer a bit more interesting, I decided to add the fact that it was a pretty big change in appearance. I hope you don't mind :).

Also, I apologize that Maeve and Jasper's are much shorter than the other three's - they didn't know MC previously so to them this is how MC looks.

Astoria's eyes haven't left your face since you've entered the room. If it were anyone else, you may have felt scrutinized but with the pure warmth radiating off of her, all you can feel is a disorienting sense of deja vu. One second, you're an adult, returning to a world that you once knew like the back of your hand - the next, you are a child, stumbling through the doors of a school that you were never supposed to be at. A fraud of a student. A mockery of a Magus. A third second passes and you return back to the present. Astoria is still staring at you - her curiosity this time seems sated though because she grants you a gentle smile before speaking. "It's very nice to see you again, {MC} - it has been quite a while. I'm embarrassed to admit but it took me a moment to recognize you. I-" Her gaze darts towards your single, pale silver eye, but she quickly looks away. Clearing her throat, she continues to speak. "If I may - I think that you look rather striking. Very...different. Not bad but...it will take some time to get used to!"

Caspian's sharp gaze has been burning into you since the moment you reunited. Initially, you were willing to wave it off as it being related to the anger and bitterness over your decrease (and eventual lack) of communication over the years - but it hasn't wavered, even after your apologies and his (supposed) forgiveness. You open your mouth to question him but are immediately interrupted. "I've been meaning to ask about the...you know." He motions vaguely to your entire body with a raised brow, huffing in amusement when he sees your baffled expression. Seeming to realize that wasn't exactly specific, he continues, firmly grabbing your jaw so he can tilt your head up and get a better look at your features. "What, the war ended, and you decided to get a make-over? Don't look at me like that - it's not bad. It's just different. I mean, between the eyes and that hair, you're kinda asking to stand out a bit. I can't believe that you actually got away living near non-magicae folks looking like that."

Dark pools of violet glare into you from across the room. That's not exactly new, but the frequent rate that it is happening is definitely a bit different. Back in school, Solaine would usually look away after a few seconds, a small but very directed scoff leaving their lips as they did so. Now they are silent - and staring. It's uncomfortable, scrutinizing. You don't want to risk their ire by bringing attention to it. Luckily you don't have to. Unluckily, it's because they approach you instead. "...I see that you decided to alter your appearance. While it's definitely more...refined...compared to before, it's also more eye-catching. I was under the impression that you were attempting to keep a low profile. Clearly, I was misinformed." Their words are as sharp as their gaze, they don't even give you a chance to respond as they smoothly pass by you to slip through the door. They hesitate at the last second though, turning to look at you once more. Their mouth opens as if they are going to say something - but they end up just letting out a scoff and turning back towards the hallway - their footsteps not as assured as they usually are.

It's taken you a while to get used to the unfamiliar feeling of amber eyes glaring into you. You and Maeve had gotten off to a...unique start. Honestly, it felt more like the Circle was introducing two new cats to each other instead of two new members. You open your mouth as if to speak to her, perhaps to maybe break the ice, but are quickly interrupted. "...I thought you'd look different. I mean, you don't look bad or anything but...I heard that you were living in the...you know. Guess I thought you'd look a bit more lowkey. I dig the hair though - and the eyes too. Very mystical. Bit unsettling though. Kinda reminds me of someone..."

"I was expecting you to look a lot different." Jasper's soft words pull you out of your thoughts. You stare at him for a few moments, trying to dissect the meaning of his statement. He seems to realize how abruptly he came across, his face flushing slightly, as he stumbles over himself to explain. "It's not bad though - obviously. I-I was just...you look very nice! Just different to how I expected you to. I-I had heard that you were living in non-magicae towns, so I had just assumed - I really do apologize. I honestly think that you look very...striking? Sorry, is this weird? I'm making it weird, aren't I?"

#✎ ↳ Ask #❖ ↳ Reaction Ask #✎ ↲ Answered #♔ MC (Character) #❥ All (RO) #✵ Arcanus #✵ Arcanus Archives #❀ ↳ Lovely Non-Anon

[cobaltperun]

i have a request if possible ? for a tara carpenter x reader , or any jo character as you see fit , but in my head , it’s always been tara and no gf au-

so basically , if you’re familiar with 5 seconds of summer , every time i listen to them (their self titled album, specifically heartbreak girl) i always come up with like scenarios of r, mindy, amber and wes being 5sos basically and having r write that song about tara and how she’s always calling/texting r about the problems she’s having with chad without realizing that r is in love with her

which ofc leads r to go to amber, mindy and wes to write that song together and having them preform at a local bar/club or something because they’re locally known and tara, sam, chad and the rest of the friend group is in the crowd, being supportive- but once they hear the song , they immediately know who it’s about and just look at tara awkwardly , and- that’s as far as i’ve gotten

Heartbreak Girl

Tara Carpenter x gn!Reader (Request)

First of all, thank you for the request, it kind of just flowed out and here it is. I went with gender-neutral Reader since you didn't specify the gender. I hope you'll enjoy reading this.

Masterlist

Word count: 2.5k

It was happening again, your only saving grace being the fact you weren't there with Tara as she sobbed. You could almost see her, sobbing into her pillow to make sure Sam couldn't hear her.

And it broke your heart to hear you cry. It shattered it even more that she kept putting you through it again and again. Always for the same reason.

"I know I should have seen it coming, but it still hurts, you know? I still love Chad, I just can't get over him," she sobbed and you stopped pacing your room to lean back and rest your head against the wall. You knew the story, you heard it from Tara countless times. Tara and Chad were in a relationship, they worked the summer job together and met Liv. Chad fell in love and broke up with Tara. The rest was history, and Tara, sharing Chad's circle of friends, and still being in love with him, couldn't move on.

One time Tara told you she figured it would be easier if he cheated on her. He didn't. He just sat down with her one day and said how he felt. Two weeks later Chad and Liv went on their first date and the circumstances kept Tara and Chad as somewhat friends.

"I'm sorry for being a bother, Y/N," she must have noticed your silence.

"You're not being a bother, Tara, I just don't know what to say that I already didn't tell you before," you bit your bottom lip, knowing full well you were lying. You knew what you wanted to say. You wanted to tell her you loved her, that in her heartbreak she kept breaking your heart too. Another sob made you speak before you could think things through. "Let's go out, just the two of us," you suggest, realizing too late what you were saying. "As friends, of course, just to get your mind off of everything," you quickly backtracked, hoping the explanation was sufficient enough, hoping she couldn't hear the nervous tapping of your foot against the floor, or the crack in your voice when you said 'friends' or anything else that could give you away.

Because, as much as you loved her, as much as you wanted to be with her, you didn't want to push her into another relationship when she was vulnerable and still heartbroken. You also didn't want to be her way of getting over Chad and nothing more.

"I'd love to, Y/N," it sounded like she stopped crying. "Thanks for being my friend and always being there to cheer me up," her words, even if you just encouraged them yourself, still hurt you.

"Don't mention it, I'm here for you," you brush it off, subconsciously hoping maybe, just maybe, she'd realize how you feel on her own. You had no idea how mixed the signals you were sending her looked every now and then. In less than a minute you went from proclaiming friendly hanging out to promising to be there for her. "When do you want to meet up?"

Tara paused for a moment. "I'll call you tomorrow at ten to figure that out. Is that okay?"

You nodded and then frowned when you realized a moment later you were on the phone with her. "Of course."

And so you said your goodbyes, and you just slumped into the chair and dropped your head down to the table. A bit recklessly you tossed the phone to the bed on your side and silently expressed gratitude that it didn't hit the wall or drop to the floor. You sighed and placed your hands over your head, feeling like you were stuck in a never-ending cycle with Tara Carpenter.

Against your better judgment, you grabbed a pen and a piece of paper and began writing.

~X~

The friend date went well, better than you imagined it would and you and Tara hung out an hour longer than either of you anticipated. It was a nice change of pace and for a moment you actually convinced yourself you didn't feel anything romantic for her. For a moment, you were reminded of simpler times, when Tara really was just a friend in your eyes.

The paper waiting for you at your table broke that illusion and you grabbed your guitar, maybe you had something here after all. As you sat down to try different tunes you sent a message to the band, Mindy, Wes, and Amber, asking to meet up tomorrow for an additional practice.

~X~

The four of you met up in your garage where you kept your instruments, the guitars, and drums, anything else you needed you would just rent out for a couple of days. You were still a local band, so renting still saved you money.

"Let me see if I got everything right. You," Amber pointed at you, almost accusingly. "wrote this song about Tara and you don't want to confess how you feel?" she asked incredulously.

"Come on, it's not that obvious," you defended yourself and pointed at a line in the song. "See? Chad didn't exactly treat her bad, he just broke up with her."

"Yeah, sure, one line is going to convince everyone it isn't about Tara," Mindy added sarcastically and threw her arms up. "It's there for the dramatic effect, Y/N! Remember?"

"She got you there," Wes wasn't helping.

You picked up your guitar and began playing the tune you thought would work well with the song. "Listen, I think we got something good here," you tried to focus on the song itself. "Regardless of who it was written for," you muttered.

"You're kidding, right? A sad tune? You're making this a ballad? No way," Mindy went to her drums. "This needs more energy," judging by the tone of her voice she wasn't budging on this. Well, at least she was on board.

"We are totally adding 'Thanks for being a friend' to the lyrics," Amber teased and you just groaned and buried your face in your hands.

"Don't forget being a sucker for anything Tara does," Wes joined in, causing all three of them to laugh at you.

"You're the worst," you muttered, too embarrassed to look at them.

~X~

Over the next month and a half, you and Tara fell into a bit of a habit. The first two weeks she continued sobbing, and you'd ask her to hang out. The week after that she just complained and you still asked her to hang out. The past few weeks she rarely even mentioned Chad during your calls, but she still insisted you were friends.

Honestly, just the fact that she seemed to be moving on as weeks went by mended your own heart. Somewhere along the line, you found out you were fine with the way things were.

You walked her to her house, the backs of your hands occasionally brushing as you walked. The accidental touches became something both of you were comfortable with, as neither of you moved away from each other.

"You'll be performing tomorrow night, right?" Tara asked out of the blue.

You glanced at her and your eyes met. "Yeah. Are you going to come?" it wouldn't be the first time Tara would be in the crowd. Tara, Sam, Chad, Danny, Anika, and Liv were all supportive of your band, so they regularly came to your performances.

"You're not really asking that, are you? Of course, I'm going to come," she lightly jabbed your arm. "Besides, Mindy might have told me you guys have a new song you'll be performing for the first time in front of a crowd."

That little traitor.

With the way things were going between you and Tara, you were almost tempted to scrap the song, but the other three voted against it. "No pressure then, it's not like we haven't had a new song in almost four months now," what could you say, it was a bit of a drought period as far as creativity went.

Tara laughed and just for a moment you thought you saw something else in her eyes, something similar to the way you would so often look at her. "You'll do great," she offered a much-needed encouragement as the two of you stopped in front of her house.

"Guess this is it for tonight," you smiled at her.

"Mhm, I'm glad I was the one to ask you out tonight, as friends, of course," she took a step closer and tucked a stray strand of her hair behind her ear. And then you froze when she got on her tiptoes and kissed your cheek. "Thank you, for always being there for me," somehow, this time she omitted the friend part.

"I," you cleared your throat. "did say I'd be here for you, didn't I?" you tried to brush it off as you usually did for months now.

The intensity of Tara's gaze captured all of your attention and for a moment you even considered leaning in. You didn't though, you weren't sure she felt the same, or that she actually moved on.

"I'll see you tomorrow night, then?" she asked, lowering her gaze to your lips before quickly looking away.

You noticed it, and you wondered if Tara could hear how loud your heart was drumming in your chest. "Y-yeah," you finally stepped back from her, and the tension you were trying so hard to ignore began fading.

~X~

Tara pretty much threw herself on her bed and buried her face in her pillow. This wasn't good. This wasn't good at all. What was wrong with her? Falling in love with you so quickly and almost out of nowhere. Especially when you so explicitly insisted on hanging out as friends. Perhaps you were insisting too hard to cover your own feelings? A girl could hope, right?

She turned her playlist on, hoping to find some peace in music. As if to spite her, the first song that played was Brian Fallon's You Have Stolen My Heart and she nearly chucked her phone into a wall. Groaning she turned around and tucked herself into a blanket. It was entirely your fault. With your charming smile and clumsy mixed signals, she could never entirely get a good read on them.

~X~

You were amazing on that improvised stage, just mesmerizing to watch and listen to and Tara found herself falling even harder. She also found herself ignoring Sam's teasing smile.

"Thank you, thank you! You are too kind! We'll wrap up the night with a premiere of our new song!" Wes yelled, hyping up the crowd.

"Let's hear an applause for Heartbreak Girl!" Mindy demanded, encouraging the crowd to interact with the four of you.

Tara was pulled to her feet by Anika and they both cheered. The name of the song, however, made Tara's heart skip a beat. Or was it the way you looked at her from the stage?

"You call me up, it's like a broken record, saying that your heart hurts. That you'll never get over him getting over you, and you end up crying. And I end up lying, 'cause I'm just a sucker for anything that you do," you sang, your eyes never leaving Tara's. It felt like there was no one else in the club but the two of you. But you weren't alone and Tara felt the awkward stares directed at the back of her head.

Did you actually write a song for her?

"And when then phone call finally ends, you say "Thanks for being a friend" and I'm going in circles again and again," now she had no doubt, that the song really was about her. She stopped cheering and just stood there, taking the lyrics in.

She saw you hesitating, probably since you noticed her reaction, and she just smiled. You smiled back and continued.

"I dedicate this song to you, the one who never sees the truth, that I can take away you hurt, Heartbreak girl. Hold you tight straight through the daylight, I'm right here, when you gonna realize that I'm your cure, Heartbreak girl?" did you...? Were you saying what she thought you were saying?

She wasn't reading this wrong, was she?

"I bite my tongue, but I wanna scream out, you could be with me now. But I end up telling you what you wanna hear, but you're not ready. And it's so frustrating, he treats you so bad and I'm so good to you, it's not fair," her heart skips a beat as you continue, quoting the promise to call you tomorrow at ten and once again singing the chorus.

"I know someday it's gonna happen, and you'll finally forget the day you met him. Sometimes I'm so close to confession, I gotta get it through your head, that you belong with me instead," the look in your eyes, the eyes that told her 'This is it, I can't take it back now' it vanquished any doubt she may have had about how you felt.

She just wondered how long you felt that way about her without saying anything? Definitely before you first asked her to hang out as friends, but how long before that?

~X~

The moment you ended the song and without any idea where the sudden boldness was coming from you jumped down from the stage and went over to Tara. You took a few deep breaths as you closed the distance and offered her your hand, the guitar still in your other hand.

Yeah, you didn't quite think that through.

Tara raised an eyebrow, clearly looking at the guitar, but then shrugged and took your hand.

"Uh, what now?" you asked sheepishly.

"Isn't that something you were supposed to figure out? Before you jumped down and came over?" she gave you a cheeky, teasing smile.

"I didn't think I'd get this far," you admitted, causing Tara to laugh.

"Just go behind the stage dumbass!" Mindy yelled, with the microphone still on. "And leave the guitar there while you're at it!"

You lowered your head and winced, trying to hide the blush on your face. Tara wasn't doing much better as she quickly pulled you behind the stage to escape the teasing.

You packed the guitar as both of you took time to compose yourself and catch a breath. "I really didn't think this through, did I?" you asked.

"No," Tara sat down on the chair near you. "You really didn't," she was fiddling with the loose thread on her shirt.

"I meant it, the song. Well, at least when I wrote it a month and a half ago," you decided to just be honest with her.

Tara raised her head to look at you, you could see hopefulness and uncertainty in her gaze. "What changed?"

You approached and sat down next to her. "I don't think you are still heartbroken," you took her hand.

Tara smiled. "I'm not. I'm in love with a clumsy musician that sucks at flirting," she leaned closer to you.

"Hey, it worked," you closed the distance, capturing her lips in a soft, gentle kiss.

"Mhm, how about we go on a proper date then?" she asked when the kiss ended and you couldn't think of any better idea.

#tara carpenter x reader #tara carpenter #tara carpenter x you #tara carpenter x gn!reader #scream #no ghostface au #band au #jenna ortega x reader

[buckets-and-trees]

happy sleepover! 🎉🎉

I’m still thinking about Minotaur!Bucky x scientist!reader. how are they doing? what’s life like for her in his home?

and one more for this round of talking about Sacrificial...

I'M SO GLAD YOU ASKED, AMBER! LET ME TELL YOU!

okay

so

Minotaur Bucky wanted you. There's a lot of backstory there that is future story content, so I won't divulge too much. But there's history, there's complex factors that led to the situation. Bucky's not going to be forthcoming with everything either, and that's a point of tension between you two.

He's got trust issues and you hate being denied information.

BUT

In general, things are good.

Deliciously too good.

I only went there briefly at the end because I didn't want to go heavy into logistics since we'd just smutted it out and I didn't want to erase that ruined feeling with too many details, but I tried to very very briefly lay out that this time around (because he did let it drop that she was not the first sacrifice offered to him) Bucky has been the architect and he was meticulous here. You packed up and moved for this fellowship - he had the villagers leave all of those things in a specific drop location so he could retrieve it and bring it back for you. He's keeping you longterm.

You're having heaps of deliciously and ruinously good sex, and he came up with the idea that maybe this time around the villagers should set up a fake grant/fellowship so his pet could be a scientist who would be happy to be in the Amazon doing science-y things and be a clever girl who could fascinate him.

He uses you as much as he dotes on and worships you now.

And it's not primal living.

The villagers think he's living a savage lifestyle, but he's not. You're both quite comfortable. And safe. You know the Swiss Family Robinson tree house? It's a lot like that. Not a five-star hotel with all the bells and whistles, but let's just say you're shocked when you first wake up. How he's even managed this? Even more maddening information he doesn't want to talk about with you - though he'll disclose more of that to you before some of the other things you're demanding to know.

But it's also completely off the beaten path. You're not really a reluctant prisoner anymore, but Bucky did make it very clear that if you tried to escape, there were enough natural and implemented dangers that you wouldn't survive - if you managed to escape him in the first place. But he also made it clear he doesn't want you to have any real practical reason to want to leave the beautiful cage he's built for you.

Link to the List of Sleepover Games

#aspen's anniversary sleepover #aspen asks #sleepover truth #minotaur bucky #sacrificial au #amber/sgt seabass

[caspersickfanfics]

I’m curious as to what you think Cyno and Tighnari would do if they had to visit Dragonspine 👀 more specifically i wonder how /Cyno/ would handle it. I feel like him going with nari or him returning from a solo trip to nari would be very interesting, since Cyno wouldn’t risk his reputation by not going on said mission even if it cost him big time later~ thoughts ? :)

Oh anon, I love you for this ask. I have. So many thoughts.

First of all, this opens the door to so many unusual character interactions. Out of these, Lisa and Cyno's friendship is a really appealing dynamic to me - I think he's comfortable with her in a way that's a bit different to the way he is with Tighnari. I think Tighnari understands, to an extent, when Cyno wants to act tough and pretend he's more okay than he is. He doesn't baby him, because 1) that's not Tighnari's style and 2) he wants Cyno to be as comfortable as possible. I imagine that Lisa does baby him, knowing that he's uncomfortable with it. She thinks he's cute and as much as she does respect him, he's like a little brother to her. So, say Cyno ends up not doing so hot at Dragonspine, Lisa is going to force him to rest, she's going to give him all the blankets and soup they have to warm him up, and she's staying by his side as much as possible through it all. It's a little oppressive, but Cyno is aware and can appreciate that it's how she expresses her care.

In a similar vein, I've seen some fics positioning Razor as being like a little brother to Cyno, which - idk if they ever interact in canon, but that's intriguing as well. Razor finding him and not knowing what to do to help, Cyno trying to be reassuring when he just feels absolutely horrid. Um, also, I barely ever think about Amber but I'm picturing her on outrider duties and finding Cyno passed out in the snow and being like "wait... isn't that Collei's dad??" Helping him out and writing to Collei about it once Cyno's back in the city and on the mend.

Re: returning to Nari after a solo trip to Dragonspine. My brain has instantly latched onto an entirely made up illness that just keeps him feeling cold long after he leaves. Cold in a way that feels freezing, just chills 24/7, and the longer it goes on the more other symptoms build up. There's a cure, but it's all the way in Mondstat. Tighnari doesn't want to leave Cyno alone or move him, so he asks Kaveh and Alhaitham if they can get ahold of it. Meanwhile, Cyno just keeps getting worse. They stay snuggled up as much as possible but it's really just miserable until they can get ahold of the antidote.

I'm also thinking about CynoNari going together, getting stuck in a cave or something with one or both of them hurt and/or sick. Maybe they were going to meet up with Albedo and got attacked or encountered unexpectedly bad weather on the way. I am sure that Tighnari would be prepared for the usual stuff, but he couldn't have perfectly planned for, say, an avalanche >:)

Oh this is one big ramble. I dunno anon, I'm not sure if this is what you wanted but, you certainly did get... something. What are your thoughts??

#headcanons #genshin hc #went off the rails a bit here sorryyyyy #to write #sick cyno hc #tighnari hc #cyno hc

[oleworm]

@girlmaturin tagged me! What were my six favourite books of 2023?

This is going to be a difficult one. First of all because I appreciate books for different reasons, it can be because I learned a lot, because it made me think about new things even though (or because of the fact) that it made me uncomfortable, or simply because it fits my aesthetic or thematic tastes. It wouldn’t be fair to pit completely different books against each other, but I’ll try to do what I can!

There’s also the fact that this is the year that I’ve read the most books in my life since I started counting them. Maybe not 100 but 96! You can laugh at me, but to be fair a lot of these were short books, or essays or short stories that I saved as an e-book and counted independently. I’ve been reading a lot of older books that I had at home or bought secondhand and it really makes me think that contemporary books are so big! It used to be normal to find lots of books that were 100-190 pages long about a specific topic or just because the author wanted to type out their thoughts. I don’t know how much the cost of publishing has increased, but it seems as if every book has to be definitive and huge in order to justify the expense.

1) The Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allan Poe

I’m counting this as a book since I found it as an e-book on Project Gutenberg. I was a child the first time that I read it, so a lot of the implications went over my head. This time around I was fascinated by how it synthesises the ideas of the epoch—the insularity of the upper classes in a time of increased social mobility (Poe was, after all, an American) countered with eugenic fears of fixing unfavourable traits into a bloodline through repeated inbreeding. It’s fascinating that the text lays it out so clearly. There’s this line that stuck to me, about how the house of Usher never allowed any branches to grow too far from the trunk of the tree, and then there was this part when Roderick Usher describes the psychological traits that afflict the family—I say afflict because they are disturbing to him—not as a result of the circumstances of their lives, but a part of their inborn nature. It brought to mind the way that Vincent van Gogh described his depression to his brother, who also suffered from it. “The root of the evil lies in the constitution,” that is how I remember it, though I could be wrong because it was in translation and it has been quite a while since I read about the subject. It reminded me of that, and how people describe dogs with behavioural issues caused by poor breeding.

Anyway, a little insect encased in amber for the neuroses of an age!

2) The Silver Metal Lover by Tanith Lee

A sheltered girl falls in love with a realistic robot—you would expect a pulpy romance novel but this was so much more than that to me.

It’s a story about a girl that has been sheltered all her life and does not realise that she is being abused by her mother, who controls every aspect of her life by making her feel that she is too innocent, too stupid to make a choice even with such personal things as her interests or her physical appearance. There were some mean-spirited interpretations of this little book, calling it a poor littlen rich girl story. But rich girls can cry too!

But besides, the heart of the situation, beyond all the fantastic, futuristic aspects, is one that can happen to anyone, regardless of their socioeconomic background.

One thing that I like very much about Tanith Lee is her ability to join different genres and settings. For example, in this one she described economic inequality and labour issues caused by automatisation and at the same time had the socialite characters talk in a droll, misogynistic manner that is right out of Saki. But writing this review I realise that these are not elements that are discordant with each other, though superficially they appear to be. Of the popular writers I have read she is one of those who best understands that the long 19th century may well be even longer—ha-ha, historians, don’t kill me!

I found it funny to be reading this book at the height of the AI-debate, as one of its main plot points was the fear that artists had of being replaced by machines that could “create” new and better works from the wealth of artworks that had been made by human artists before. I’ll probably remember that, if I live long enough to see what happens later.

3) Light in Gaza: Writings Born of Fire, edited by Jehad Abusalim, Jennifer Bing, and Mike Merryman-Lotze

Before this year I hadn’t read any books by Palestinian authors, so when I saw that this book was being shared freely and that it had some names that I already recognised I thought it would be a good place to start.

The fact that so many people contributed to it was the main reason that I chose it, there are so many different points of view, everyone emphasises a different part of life in Gaza, their experiences with their family, their work, their fields of expertise. There’s university professor who describes not only the subject matter of his lessons, but also the difficulties faced by students whose classrooms and study materials can be destroyed at any moment. The architect talks about the settlement pattern in Gaza, and how families prefer to construct their own homes in a way that the extended family may continue to reside together, though logistically it is not always possible to do so. The student provides a narrative of her daily routine, and how everyone must plan their day around the water and electricity shortages, and what difficulties this presents to cooking, cleaning and studying, activities that a lot of us take for granted. Most of the writers talk about the anger and frustration of having to deal with borders and checkpoints, the separation of family and friends for years and decades at a time across relatively short distances in the Palestinian Territories, in Israel and neighbouring countries, as well as the loss of opportunities abroad when people are impeded from leaving or fear that they might be prevented from returning.

Somebody said that it wasn’t right that Palestinians should always have to humanise themselves to the eyes of foreigners, hoping that we might care. I agree, because it is true that we should care for other human beings without having every detail of their suffering described to us. This book has sad parts, parts that are extremely frustrating, but it has moments of fun and happiness too. And the authors wanted people to read it and remember, and I want you to read it too.

The publisher has shared it for free download here.

4) When the Angels Left the Old Country by Sacha Lamb

I listened to the audiobook for this one on the Platform Formerly Known as Scribd and have ordered a physical version to have at home. I was so sad when it ended!

I loved reading about Little Ash and Uriel, a Jewish demon and angel who leave their shtetl when one of the girls from the village goes missing on her way to America. The research that went into it made me want to read more about the historical period in which it was set, and it didn’t stay a resolution—I did end up reading a book about Jewish life in the Russian Empire!

As an immigration story, it made sense that one of the tensest moments in the book was the medical examination by the immigration officials—sadly, in many countries the discrimination of sick and disabled people is still a real problem, though I hope that it will change in our lifetimes, as it did with racial quotas. It’s sold as a Young Adult book but adults would enjoy it too, as it deals with complex issues in an accessible manner but without leaving them flattened.

5) The Idiot by Elif Batuman

As a reader of Russian literature I’m surprised that I didn’t find this book earlier! It was really funny and cute and you could tell how young Selin was supposed to be in this story. Like when she imagines her crush to be like a love interest in a Russian book even though they’re in the 20th century and he’s a completely different type of Eastern European just because his name is very similar to Ivan! There’s a very funny scene also where she talks with a psychologist about her mostly online relationship with this person and he says “Hm… He reminds me of the Unabomber,” and she gets all defensive about it because there is a kernel of truth to it, he is posing as this edgy intellectual and she does not truly know who he is outside these characters they have created in their epistolary world.

I love the way Selin talks about her friends and the books she reads, Elif Batuman really captured what it’s like to be that age, and it was refreshing to read a book about a girl where horrible things don’t happen to her and she can continue learning and being herself.

6) El miedo en el Peru, siglos XVI al XX, edited by Claudia Rosas Lauro

A series of academic articles about fear in Peru in the 16th to 20th centuries. What people were afraid of and what were the social, cultural, religious and political reasons that they might be afraid of a particular thing.

I am adding this to the list because of one specific article—it is introduced as being about the fear of one’s parents, but in particular it talks about a number of legal cases where people were attempting to leave monastic orders claiming to have been made to join under duress—either because they were underage at the time of their vows, or because they had been threatened with physical violence by their relatives, often their parents. I found it interesting, there is a clear parallel between being forced to join a monastic order and entering an unwanted marriage. The arguments that can be used are the same, that the person was too young to meaningfully consent, or only accepted to preserve a degree of bodily integrity. Many of these victims had been threatened, even with death, because the parents wished for their properties to pass on to another one of their relatives. Having taken a vow of poverty, a monk would no longer be entitled to it. It also happened sometimes that these young men would join a monastic order to escape violence in the home. There were other cases where it wasn’t a relative, but rather a priest or another religious authority that convinced a young person that he should take monastic vows, while being too young to understand them or not having received a proper explanation of the terms.

There were other cool articles, such as the one where the fear of piracy overlapped with the fear of heresy because most of the pirates that accosted the Spanish Empire were Protestants from Great Britain or the Netherlands, or the one about the people who chose or were made to starve to death under siege because of Royalist propaganda about the Republican army’s brutality.

This came out rather long… Because I haven’t been typing it directly on the computer where there are so many distractions. I ordered myself an AlphaSmart 3000 over the holidays, it’s an electronic typewriter that you can plug into your computer to transfer what you’ve written before. It’s very pleasant to type in, and it’s also satisfying to see how the letters appear on the word processor when the device transfers the text, it emulates a keyboard so it looks as if it were typing in real time. Don’t worry, I’m not being paid to advertise for a company that no longer exists. If people with similar tastes to mine found it fun or useful I thought I may as well try it out. So far I’ve written a story on this and half-way typed up a draft of a much longer one. Just make sure that if you use different languages on your computer that it’s configured to the English keyboard when you transfer text, otherwise strange symbols may appear!

I’m tagging @bacchanalium, @sifilide, @tetrachromate, @osmanthusoolong, @bogfox and @sherbertilluminated if they want to!

#ole blog #tag games