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cowgurrrl · 6 months

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Angel of Small Death

Pairing: Matt Murdock x lawyer!reader

Author’s note: this may or may not turn into a series plan accordingly

Summary: Nothing seems to go your way around your college rival, Matt Murdock [3.8k]

Warnings: June didn't go to law school so take all legal talk with a grain of salt, discussions of custody cases/child abuse charges, A shitty father, mentions of the Red Room/Widows, canonical type violence, Matt Murdock being a menace to society, set in season one of Daredevil (~2014)

You're fuming when you walk into court. The familiar smug smile at the opposing table doesn't do anything to deter your anger. You slam your briefcase down on the table and stand before Judge Harlow.

"Good morning, Miss-"

"Your Honor, I find it highly inappropriate I was not informed of Mr. Parsons hiring new counsel. Not only that, but he hired new counsel three hours before our hearing today. There is no possible way for this proceeding to be fair without his counsel being adequately brought up to speed. For this reason, I am petitioning for another court date to be held so Mr. Murdock can be properly briefed about the case." Your words are cutting and exact, as you were trained to make them. In law school, your classmates rarely wanted to go against you in mock trial. Moments like this, when your frustration rises to the surface, make you realize why. The dark-haired man with red glasses clears his throat from the opposite table as he stands. It takes everything in you to remain professional.

"With all due respect, your Honor, I believe opposing counsel is just stalling. I have reviewed all the necessary documentation, and it is my fault that Mr. Parsons was pressed for time in finding new representation," Matt says. "Mr. Parsons just wants to resolve this issue as soon as possible so his daughter can be brought home safely after such a… harrowing experience with her sister."

"Ms. Parsons is currently being held without bond at Riker's on an unsubstantiated charge that has no bearing on her ability to raise Bea. This judicial hurdle is a hardship I would think Mr. Murdock would be sensitive to considering his status as a defense attorney and not a family lawyer." You retort, and Matt scoffs. You whip around to face him and find him shaking his head as his fingers flex around his cane.

"Do you consider robbery an unsubstantiated charge when it's caught on video and has multiple witnesses willing to testify to what they saw?"

"Mr. Murdock, if your father kicked you and your thirteen-year-old sister out of the house in the middle of a New York winter, how would you, at eighteen years old, handle it?"

"Order!" Judge Harlow bangs her gavel several times to get everyone's attention, and you take a deep breath. "All of your concerns have been made abundantly clear, counselors, but if Mr. Murdock says he feels prepared, I will have to believe him. However, I do apologize on behalf of Mr. Murdock's office for not properly warning you of this matter, and I trust that he and his office will not make the same mistake again. Now, can we please get on with today's matter without another outburst?"

"Yes, Your Honor," Matt says, that stupid charm dripping from his voice. You bite the inside of your cheek and summon whatever willpower you have left.

"Yes, Your Honor." You say before returning to your table and gathering the relevant documents for the day's hearing.

Robert Parsons is not the first shitty father you've had to deal with in all your years of family law. However, he might be one of the worst. Bea and Morgan's mother, Diana, died in the 2012 attack on New York. Since then, Robert, an NYPD officer, has been able to keep his emotional and physical abuse of his daughters under the radar until this winter when he kicked the girls out after he found out Bea snuck out of the house. He said he was "teaching them a lesson about discipline." Morgan, a kid herself, panicked when Bea spiked a fever and tried to steal Tylenol and some food from a local bodega. A fight broke out between Morgan and the cashier, and the police (her dad) were called. You've been trying to help them since Megan came to you at sixteen, but the system has been working against you at every turn. It doesn't help that the NYPD doesn't protect anyone as well as they protect their own.

So, the fact that the asshole changed counsel three hours before one of the most important custody hearings of your entire year was enough to make your blood boil. The fact that the person representing him is none other than your law school rival, Matt Murdock, made you want to scream. Matt Murdock: Columbia's golden boy, a childhood hero who sacrificed his vision to save an old man's life, Battlin' Jack's son (RE: orphan), the guy who made all the girls in your classes swoon, the guy who told you that family law was a waste of your time. "You just wanna deal with whiny kids all day?" He asked you when you got your internship at one of the top family law firms in the city. For a kid who grew up in an orphanage, you would think he'd have a little more compassion for people who deal with "whiny kids."

It doesn't matter because that was years ago, and you've since worked your way up the ladder to become one of the state's best, most aggressive family lawyers. People come from all over just to get you to represent them against abusive ex-husbands or piss-poor foster parents. You do good work. You know you do. You also know that Matt does, too. You've kept up with him since he graduated, mainly to compare career tracks and see if the days of winning smiles and perfect dark hair would ever end, but of course, it hasn't. Being on his own time in his own law firm suits him, and you hate that it does.

Maybe that's why you show him absolutely no mercy in the court proceedings. You pull every piece of evidence you have that shows neglect, abuse, or even just a smidgen of the mental anguish he's put those girls through. Matt quickly and impressively pivots and challenges that this is not a criminal court and you're going above and beyond what's necessary. You argue about where Bea should go for about fifteen minutes while the custody arrangement is still in the air. You contest that Bea should go upstate with her maternal grandmother, Susan, while Matt says she should go back with her father after the emotional distress of Morgan's arrest.

"Do you honestly believe the best thing for a child undergoing such stress is to move her miles away from the only home she's ever known?" Matt asks incredulously, cocking his head in your direction. You narrow your eyes at him even though you know he can't see you and square your shoulders.

"No, but being away from the man with child abuse charges pending might."

"Mr. Parsons is ready and willing to testify in a court of law that Morgan ran off with her sister in the middle of the night, and he was deploying his squadron to help locate the missing children. However, we aren't here to talk about that. We're here to talk about the safest place for Bea, which could later unfold into where she lives permanently until she becomes a legal adult. Do you really feel comfortable enlisting an elderly woman in the care of a rowdy teenager?"

"Thank you, Mr. Murdock, for the reminder of what today's hearing is actually about. I would've worried you were too ready to treat Mr. Parsons as a defendant." You snap, and Judge Harlow calls to order again. You exhale long through your nose and turn to face her.

"While I appreciate your passion for this case, I encourage you two to find it within yourselves to keep these proceedings as professional as possible," she says. You recognize the tone. It's legalese for "shut the fuck up before you give me a reason to kick you out of my courtroom." "Beatrice Parsons will stay in her current foster home with supervised visits from her grandmother, Susan Kelsey. Given the emotional state of the child, I will not be releasing visitation time to the father until we see an improvement."

"And Ms. Parsons, Your Honor? Will she be allowed to visit Bea upon her release?" You ask.

"That is a matter we can revisit upon Ms. Parsons' release from Riker's. Until then, the only allowed contact with the child is her grandmother and the legal teams. We'll reconvene next Monday morning. Court is adjourned." With that, she bangs her gavel, and you're left reeling. Matt and Robert whisper to each other as you gather your paperwork and pack it away again. Your phone buzzes in your jacket, reminding you that you have to meet with another family regarding another custody agreement in two hours. You sigh and quickly make for the door when Matt and Robert start standing from their table.

You're halfway to the elevator when you hear your name and reluctantly turn around. "Shit," you mumble as Matt taps his cane down the hallway. Thank God Robert is nowhere in sight, and you plaster on a fake smile for potential onlookers. "Mr. Murdock, how can I help you?"

"Well, I was hoping you could hold the elevator for me," he says. "And maybe we could strike a deal on our way down." You chuckle at his confidence and white knuckle the handles of your briefcase.

"I don't think we could agree on anything within a thirty-second elevator ride, but I appreciate your enthusiasm."

"Really? Not even where I can buy you a coffee?" He asks as the elevator dings down the hallway.

"Unfortunately not. I have another client meeting soon. I would've expected a man with his own practice to have similar meetings today, but I guess I was mistaken?" You say as you walk to the elevator. Matt follows suit, laughing at the dig. You press the button for the lobby, and the doors shut, and for a second, it's silent in the elevator. Years of competition and hate linger in the air.

"I've gotta say, I'm impressed with you." He says in a low voice like it's a secret, and you turn to look at him. "Yeah. It's really hard in this line of work to make quite as many enemies as you have."

"It's not that hard to piss people off when you say they shouldn't have custody of their kids. Just like I'm sure people get pissed at you when you defend murderers."

"I don't defend murderers."

"Oh, Karen Page wasn't a murderer?" The name makes him still next to you as the doors finally open. "See you next Monday, Murdock." You say as you step out of the elevator, leaving Matt in the dust.

For the next week, you bounce between client meetings, hearings, mediations, visits to Morgan in Riker's, and late nights in the office, trying to find a way to take down Parsons and get Morgan out of jail. You would think being the daughter of a cop would be better in this kind of situation. You try to pull every string you can find, milk every connection, and almost beg any defense attorney you can corner for long enough. Still, Morgan remains in Riker's the night before the next hearing, and you're exhausted.

Your phone rings that night, and you try not to make a habit of answering work calls outside of your normal hours, but the unrecognized number is too tempting to not pick up. "Let's make a deal," Matt says before you can even get out a proper greeting. You scoff and tuck your phone between your ear and shoulder as you close your curtains.

"Make it worth my time, Murdock. I answered your call on a Sunday night before court."

"I'm willing to defend Morgan in court and get her out of Riker's by the end of the week," he says. You're about to argue that it's a conflict of interest, that if he'd paid attention in the first semester classes of law school, he would've known that, but he beats you to it. "If you agree to drop this case and get Bea home."

"You're asking me to drop charges of child abuse and reckless endangerment of a minor."

"No, I'm asking you to drop the custody portion for now. The child abuse and endangerment charges will move onto criminal court, but that trial will be a waste of time if you don't have a witness like Morgan." He says. It's true. Even though Morgan is beyond the statute of limitations, Bea isn't. Jurors will be sympathetic to a victim but not a criminal. "No one else is gonna help her, and I'd much rather defend her than her father."

"So, what happens if Bea goes back and he beats the shit out of her?" You ask as your phone beeps with another notification. Matt starts a long ramble, but you're not fully listening. "Matt, I have another call coming in. Can we talk about this later?" You don't wait for a response. You just end the call and quickly press the red notification, a crackly voice coming in on the other end.

"And you're sure that's the right amount?" Parsons asks, oblivious to your listening, and someone chuckles in response.

"That is typically the starting payment," you recognize the accent and glance around your apartment, trying to come up with a plan. "Now, if you keep up the flow, we can discuss upping the payment."

"That shouldn't be a problem. It'll be smooth sailing once I get my kids out of the way. You can tell Mr. Dreykov that."

It's cold. Even under all your layers and your gear, it's cold. The city moves like a living beast all around you, its inhabitants oblivious to you hiding on a rooftop with a gun. It's been two hours since that phone call, and Parsons still isn't home. The call ended within a minute of the notification buzzing on your phone, but they didn't make any plans to meet up anywhere. And why would they if their business together is riding on the results of this custody case? You sigh, your mask pushing the air right back at you, as you sit back on your heels and glance at the night sky.

It's rare that you can ever see stars in New York, but sometimes, if you squint, you can catch little glimpses. You struggle to focus on constellations with the screeching of subway brakes and loud horns penetrating the otherwise peaceful night. You've been doing this for a long enough time that you no longer stress yourself out about things like this. It's work. It's what you're supposed to do, and you get away with it. With all the other masked idiots running around the city— not limited to The Masked Idiots that moved upstate after Stark Tower was destroyed— and the gangs, police are never able to track where bullets are coming from. If they happen to, it's just another job to finish. Not a big deal.

You look to Parson's apartment again and find it still dark and empty. It isn't until you go to adjust the scope that something shuffles behind you, and by that point, it's too late to stop the arms from wrapping around your shoulders and pulling you backward. You throw your head back until you hit something hard, and the grip on you falters enough for you to slip out. There's a mess of punches, kicks, and elbows thrown as you try to get away from your attacker, but with every movement, they seem to anticipate it before you do. It isn't long before you're pinned to a brick wall, too far from your gun, with a gloved hand wrapped around your throat.

"Why are you targeting him?" A deep voice asks above you, and you kick your feet under you, trying to get the upper hand, but he's too strong. His grip on your throat tightens, and you gasp for air. "Last chance." He threatens, and your head swims with no oxygen.

"The recording," you croak. His hand loosens around your windpipe just enough for you to get more information out. "Listen to the recording. On the phone." He drops you as fast as he grabbed you, and you collapse to the ground in a heap of heavy breaths and gasps. You can hear an old, familiar voice in your head calling you pathetic and weak, but you ignore it to focus on getting breath in your lungs.

"This is your phone?" The voice asks as he holds up your burner flip phone from 2007, and you scoff.

"Didn't realize I'd be interrogated for my choices in cellphones," you manage, and you imagine the eye roll rather than see it through the red of his mask. You've seen pictures of him before. You've read the articles calling him a vigilante, a wanna-be Avenger, a menace to society. You know him. He stares at you (through you?) carefully as he puts the phone to his ear and listens to the most recent recording from Parson's phone call. You wait for the muscle in his jaw to clench and unclench before pulling yourself to your feet and walking over to him. You take it as a good sign that he doesn't try to throw you off the building for moving and get close enough to him to make out the faint stubble on his square jaw.

"Parson's trafficking girls?" He asks, more to himself than anything, and you nod. "How'd you know about this?"

"Parson's been receiving huge payouts from off-shore accounts for a few years. All it took was tapping the big mouth's phone to figure out who he was talking to and about what," you explain as you open your hand to ask for your phone back. He obliges, but not without a dramatic sigh. "Y'know, I thought you would've had a better idea of what goes on in the city, Devil Boy."

"How has this not been flagged by anyone else?" He ignores your jab, much to your dismay.

"The Red Room has informants and Widows in almost every functional part of society. If they want something to stay quiet, they'll find a way."

"I thought Romanoff exposed them."

"Deykov made it impossible to cut ties with the Red Room and other Widows for years. Somehow, Romanoff got out. Barely, but she made it out. There's no way she'd do anything to piss them off now. Not when she's gotten this far," you say. "As far as the public knows, Black Widow is an Avenger and nothing more."

"You got out."

"I'm not a Widow."

"No?" He asks, and you shake your head. "So, you just had a military-grade weapon and tactical gear lying around?"

"Can't a girl take herself on a shopping spree?" You ask, not willing to justify him with a real answer. The rooftop goes quiet as you think about what the next step is.

"You don't have to kill him." He says softly, like he's anticipating your reaction. You bite the inside of your cheek and turn to him, annoyance building in your stomach.

"What did you just say to me?"

"I know you want him to suffer, and trust me, he will, but if you want things to change, you need to get information from him. To get information from him, he needs to stay alive."

"What are you? A fucking altar boy?"

"Those girls don't get justice if you kill him."

"Justice," you laugh. "He gets to kidnap, torture, and brainwash little girls, and I'm supposed to just let him rot in prison? Is that justice to you, Red?" He's silent, and you shake your head. "Yeah, I didn't think so." You're about to turn back to your gun and find a way to make him leave you alone when three police cars go speeding down the street behind an FDNY truck. They're speeding and more urgent in their driving than you've seen in a long time. A rogue thought pricks at the corner of your brain, and you mumble a curse.

Quickly, you open your phone and jam a few buttons until the sound of a police scanner comes through the shitty speakers. "Explosion reported at the corner of Ninth Ave and West 42nd. Multiple casualties have already been reported by people at the scene," a voice reports on the other line, and you hold your breath. "Officer Robert Parsons was reportedly inside the bar when the gas line blew, and he is assumed dead."

The first thing you do when you get to the office in the morning is file an emergency petition to assign temporary custody of Bea to her grandmother. You're almost positive it'll get approved, considering how there's no one else involved in this custody case. Now free from his obligation to Robert, Matt sent you an email early this morning saying he would defend Morgan in court. You didn't respond. There are too many moving parts to focus on to care about responding to a pity representation in court.

Robert was talking to somebody from the Red Room not even four hours before he died in a fiery explosion. FDNY ruled it as an accident, but you know better. Did he blabber to someone on the force about the off-shore accounts? Did Dreykov's men just finally decide he wasn't worth all the trouble anymore? Did they find out you tapped his phone? If they did, it's only a matter of time before someone finds you. All the hairs on the back of your neck stand up as you stare at the blinking cursor on your computer screen. Your secretary, Margaret, saying your name makes you jump harder than it should've.

"Oh! Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you." She says in all her midwestern politeness, and you shake your head.

"I'm just a little jumpy this morning. Didn't get a lot of sleep last night." You wave her off, and she raises her eyebrows at you sympathetically.

"D'you want me to go get you a coffee?"

"No, thank you. I probably need to lay off coffee for a few hours," you sigh. "Did you need something from me?"

"Oh, yes. Someone called and left you a message... A Matt Murdock?" She says like she's hoping you'll recognize the name, and you nod.

"What'd he say?"

"He wanted to meet with you for lunch to discuss something. He didn't say what." Fucking Matt Murdock, you think. Finding a way to wiggle back into your life just because of one stupid case. "I can tell him no if you want me to."

"No, it's okay. I'll meet with him. We have some unfinished business together." You say, and she leaves to confirm lunch plans with Matt's office. You take a sip of your water, and your throat screams in pain from Devil Boy nearly choking you to death. The reminder that he knew about Parson's involvement with the Red Room before disappearing into the night makes your skin crawl. Another loose end to tie up at another time. Still, your head pounds with all the swirling information and the knowledge that there's no way you'll be getting rid of Matt Murdock anytime soon. "Shit."

#matt murdock x fem!reader #matt murdock x reader #daredevil x reader #daredevil fic #matt murdock fic #matt murdock #mcu fic #i wrote this for me but you can read it too i guess

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lemonhemlock · 1 year

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Rhaenyra v Cersei: Battle of the Bastards

Lo' and behold, looks like I'm not done with bastardposting after all. For this piece, I would like to compare and contrast the two main situations that the general public has been exposed as far as the issue of illegitimate children is concerned within the ASOIAF-verse: Rhaenyra v Cersei.

The parallels are obvious. Rhaenyra has three bastard children, Cersei has three bastard children. Let's see how they handle it.

Rules

According to Westerosi law, bastards can't inherit. It doesn't matter if they're the husband's or the wife's, the King's or the Queen's. Children born out of wedlock to any spouse are explicitly excluded from the line of succession.

Only the King can legitimise bastards via a royal decree. Enough of these "Roose legitimized Ramsay" lies. It's patently untrue. Tommen legitimized Ramsay.

In order to be legitimised, the children in question first have to be declared bastards. You cannot legitimize trueborn children. You cannot secretly legitimise bastards. "Viserys claimed Rhaenyra's children were trueborn, ergo he implicitly legitimised them." No, he didn't. He never admitted they were bastards.

Why does this matter? Because it is unclear where legitimised bastards fall in the line of succession. If they maintain their place by birth order or if they are relegated to the back of the line, behind any and all other trueborn claimants.

There are no genetic tests available in Westeros. People have to prove adultery or rely on common sense.

1. Cersei has a distinct advantage over Rhaenyra, since her children look like her. She can very easily argue that they favour her, as their mother, and this is exactly what everyone believes for years, including Robert. Since Jaime is the male version of Cersei, Joffrey, Tommen and Myrcella can look like no else. Catelyn's kids look like Catelyn and no one bats an eye. Only Arya and (to Catelyn's irritation) Jon look like Ned. However, Ned doesn't ever doubt his children are not his.

Rhaenyra's kids look nothing like Rhaenyra and nothing like Laenor. They, instead, share distinct physical traits with her sworn shield, a man seen very often in her presence. People are not idiots. There is no plausible deniability here. You can bet your bottom dollar that if Cersei's kids were, say, Dornish-looking, people would be calling her out for her bullshit.

There is a way you can reasonably get away with passing over your bastards as someone else's, but that is 100% not Rhaenyra's way. This is why Cersei is chilling in the Red Keep, living her best bad bitch life, while Rhaenyra is running away to Dragonstone when the rumours are nipping at her heels. They are not the same. There are no paternity rumours to quell Cersei's girlboss vibes. She is sly enough that even Robert is convinced he inseminated her (gross).

2. I'm not going to get into the intricacies of Ned Stark's Scooby-Doo, Hercule Poirot mystery plot of unraveling Cersei's misdeeds. Ned has his own beef with the Lannisters and is convinced they are up to no good. He investigates them like the meddling kid he is and comes away with a suspicion. He knows nothing (heh) for certain until Cersei verbally confirms it for him. yOuR bRoThEr Or YoUr lOvEr. boo!

Had Ned not been on the Lannister trail from the very beginning, a fair assumption can be made that he never even would have suspected anything untoward. He never questions the children's paternity when they visit in Winterfell.

Again, this is distinctly different from Rhaenyra's situation. No one believes Cersei's children are bastards,* whereas no one believes Rhaenyra's children are trueborn. Pretending otherwise is very, very strange.

*at the beginning of AGOT, at least

3. Robert claimed Joffrey all his life and specifically named him his son and heir in his will, under dictation, to Ned. In turn, Ned deliberately changed Robert's words and wrote them down as "my rightful heir".

This is a parallel to show!Alicent, who misunderstands Viserys' dying words and him naming his son Aegon as heir. If Alicent didn't have the right to muddle the King's meaning, then neither did Ned. However, no one in their right minds is arguing that Ned is a traitor to the Crown. I wonder why is that?

I have already pointed out the circular logic in arguing that Robert only said that because he didn't know the children weren't his.

4. So what does this mean? Can anyone just accuse anyone they don't like of being a bastard and, thus, endanger that person's entire social status?

No, of course not. But, unfortunately for Cersei, Ned and Stannis aren't just some randos in a tavern. Ned is the Hand of the King. Stannis is Lord of Dragonstone and on the Small Council. These two men have a stalwart reputation and are renowned for their obsession with justice, duty and, in Ned's case, honour.

If Ned Stark stands in front of the Iron Throne and proclaims Joffrey a bastard, risks his daughters' lives and literally ends up losing his head as a result of this,

if Stannis Baratheon sends letters throughout the realm claiming Cersei's children are illegitimate,

the people of Westeros are going to pay attention.

These two very important men using their public platform to denounce Joffrey and starting wars over this? Say what you will about them, but they are not oathbreakers and they are not liars. No, they don't come with DNA tests, but for a lot of Westerosi, this is enough. They believe it.

Is this foolproof? No, of course not! But it convinces enough people that they are willing to band together to support rival claimants to the throne, thus igniting the War of the Five Kings. Speaking of political headaches, this is a huge one!

That being said, while Cersei is playing in the Champions League, Rhaenyra is fighting for her life in the relegation zone. She doesn't even need a Ned or a Stannis to cast doubt on her because no one believes her kids are not bastards.

Moreover, Vaemond obviously parallels Ned in this story. He tells the truth in open court and loses his head for it. In the show, Daemon and Viserys play the same role as Joffrey. In the texts, Rhaenyra and Daemon are stand-ins for Joffrey. This is not meant to be a triumphant moment of girlbossery. This is an abuse of power and an act of terror.

All in all, I'm sorry to say, but Cersei wins this hands down. She is savvy enough in her choice of sperm donor and can maintain plausible deniability without looking like a goddamn clown and the entire circus to boot. She holds the capital and has access to all the emblems of state after Robert dies. In contrast, Rhaenyra is floundering across the Blackwater Bay, yelling at the dragon gargoyles that her children are trueborn.

Why is this issue important in the story?

a). No one has a problem with Jace being King.

If people had a problem with Joffrey being King, enough to go to war over it, it would be narratively inconsistent for them to just accept an obvious bastard as King. It would contradict the internal logic of the fictional world we're talking about. That's quite some level of suspension of disbelief just because some fans like Jace. This isn't about him being amiable or a good kid.

b). They're still Rhaenyra's sons / it's a Targaryen internal matter and concerns no one else / the concept of Jace being King doesn't personally affect anyone else, so why does anyone care?

Because it's the freaking law! The name of the crime Rhaenyra commits is high treason! Punishable by exile or death!

No, the crime is not adultery, it's not having bastard children, it's specifically putting said bastard children in line to the throne. In that, Rhaenyra is as guilty as Cersei is.

It absolutely does affect others, since Rhaenyra actively steals the inheritance of House Velaryon for Luke. How is that not a crime? I would even go so far as to say that Laenor and Corlys are complicit in it and should be punished as well.

Contrary to bafflingly-popular erroneous beliefs, the monarch can't just do whatever they want. Even in absolutist monarchies, the sovereign serves the vital social role of upholding the law and the rights of their subjects. Rhaenyra breaks said law by committing theft, murder, high treason and destabilizing the entire system of inheritance.

c) Rhaenyra breaks the social contract

Jock Locke argues for the "right of revolution" in the Second Treatise of Government. He writes that when the government acts against the interests of its citizens, then said citizens gain the right to overthrow it and replace it with an authority that will protect their interests.

I am not trying to impose 'progressive' understandings of the political process anachronistically, in a medieval fantasy; my thesis-statement is that we have already seen this concept at play within the world of ASOIAF: the Faith Militant uprising against Aenys I and Maegor due to their practices of incest and polygamy and Robert's Rebellion, caused by Rhaegar kidnapping a noble lady and Aerys II carrying out executions without due process. The people of Westeros are not unfamiliar with opposing monarchs who don't abide by the law.

The question of Rhaenyra having bastards is framed in a lot of commentary through the lens of her right as a woman to have extra-marital sex and not be demonised for it and to find fulfilling love within the constraints imposed on her by her station. While debating the personal individual freedom of women in a patriarchal feudal society is not to be side-lined, her fundamental fault is that she is demanding rights and exemptions for herself, while the rest of the country have to abide by an entirely different set of rules.

The laws of inheritance, as unjust as they may appear to our modern eyes, are in place to prevent crises of succession, violent conflicts or even large-scale wars from starting every time someone's estates are passed on. Illegitimate children suddenly gaining access to inheritances threatens the political and economical calculations that predicate many Westerosi marriages.

Imagine paying a handsome dowry for your daughter, just so her husband's bastard birthed by some high-born mistress to make use of his maternal family's resources and cheat your legitimate grandchildren out of theirs.

Imagine being married to some lord and now his random bastards threaten the inheritance of your lawful children. Because, hey, the Queen acts like this is fine! This is Catelyn Stark's worst nightmare.

You think you can just sue your husband? What a silly notion. You think you can sue the bastard claimants after your husband is dead? Tough luck, your liege lord may rule in their favour by taking a leaf out of Queen Rhaenyra's book. You think you can appeal to Queen Rhaenyra? How are you going to travel all the way to King's Landing? Good luck with that, maybe you're built different and don't die during this dangerous and expensive journey.

Is this fair for the illegitimate children? Hell no, but Rhaenyra and Viserys are not planning on reforming family law in any meaningful way, because they know what a hassle it would be and how much opposition it would meet!

It reeks of rights for me, but not for thee and I, for the life of me, don't understand the stronghold she has on the liberated feminist brigade.

and finally

d). The Green Coup is not dependent on the legitimacy of Rhaenyra's children.

No. But her committing high treason earns her an automatic disqualification from her right to rule, rendering her claim null and void.

#anti rhaenyra targaryen #cersei lannister #house of the dragon #asoiaf #anti team black #team green #stannis baratheon #hotd meta #bastardposting #ned stark #cersei is the one true queen of westeros don't let anybody tell u different #forgive me queen for dragging u thru the streets like this #u remain the no1 messiest baddest bitch in my heart

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leelei1980 · 9 months

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Loving Mr. Munson

Part Three-

CLEARING THE AIR

Dilf!Eddiemunson x reader

🛑 18+ Mature Content- Minors DNI!🛑

TW- always consensual sex/relationship age gap- oral- male receiving, P in V, unprotected sex( always wrap before you tap) Eddie talking about being a young single dad.

Eddie Munson has never been this happy in his life, there is only one problem, he is dating his son’s ex girlfriend and it can get a little awkward…

Eddie POV:

I haven't been this fucking happy in years. I feel like a new goddamn person. This woman, and it sounds so fucking cheesy when I say this , has breathed life into this old man. I get fucking giddy when I know she is coming over, I get fucking butterflies when I talk to her on the phone.Now I know I'm not fucking ancient, but I feel like I'm reliving my twenties again, the twenties that I never got to experience.

I was just barely in my 20's when I met Robbie's mom after a Corroded Coffin show, we were young and drunk and we hooked up in my van . That was all it took. One reckless night changed everything forever. I wanted to do the right thing, take responsibility so when I found out she was Pregnant I asked her to marry me, we barely knew each other but that's what you are supposed to do right?

I went to doctor appointments, worked as many hours as I could, so that we could have our own shitty little apartment. My friends and my uncle were super supportive, hers were not.

When Robert Wayne Munson was born I was terrified, I barely knew what to do with myself , let alone a baby, but I loved him more than anything. His Mother thought of him as a burden, she didn't want to be tied down, it was rough. We tried to make things work, she couldn't handle it and she left, leaving me to take care of a baby all on my own. There was no way I could have done it without my Uncle Wayne and my friends, Wayne would watch Robbie during the day while I worked and my friends would switch off according to work and school schedules until I got home. My support system was fucking amazing. I couldn't have done it without them.

Robbie and I literally grew up together, I tried to be the best dad in the world despite being young and having no idea what I was doing. I loved him so much, I wanted to be the father I didn't have. It wasn't easy, but I made it work, eventually his mother came to me asking for a divorce, she was older, settled and wanted to start a new life. We didn't need her, we had made it on our own.

Robbie was a good kid, goofy , smart, loving, and he was a daredevil, always doing stupid shit like his old man.

I cried when he graduated high school, cried when I dropped him off at college even though he was still local enough for me to see him on the weekends. I was proud of him.

He met a sweet, beautiful girl that was incredibly smart, goal oriented, had a great head on her shoulders. They dated their remaining years in college, even after graduating, they seemed so great together. And then he cheated on her. I was so disappointed, cheating in my book is nasty business. It's sneaky and disrespectful. He broke that poor girls heart, then she came to me to help pick up the pieces. She came to me to be comforted, and then she made a move on me and it was all over.

" I'm asking you to show me love like I have never seen....." She asked, as I looked down at her sweet ,beautiful face. Fuck. I thought for a moment I was dreaming , I had to confirm with her what I had thought she said and when she replied " Please Eddie, this is what I fucking want.." FUCK! I didn't hesitate. It's not like she was a stranger, I have known her for years, she's not impressionable and immature, she is a smart competent woman that knows what she wants. I have always admired how driven she is. Making love to her awakened something in me that I had forgotten I had, passion. I was so focused on just being a dad for so long , that was always my top priority, not my own needs. I wasn't a saint, there were random hookups every once in a while, but i learned my fucking lesson and always made sure to be safe. But that wasn't what I wanted. I something real.

I wanted what I now have with her.

It's more than sex, absolutely phenomenal sex, it's me being able to be myself, it's the two of us sitting on the couch drinking wine and just talking and laughing, it's sleeping in a bed that's warmed by another body at night and waking up the next morning tangled bedsheets, tangled limbs. Hearing her sleepy voice say." Good morning baby. Mmmmm-" as she stretches out beside me.

That was my current situation. My heart still skipped a beat when she called me 'Baby'. " Good morning Sweetheart." I wrapped her up in my arms and pulled her on top of me.

She snuggled into my neck, nipping at my sensitive skin, sending a jolt directly to my dick.

" It's going to be a very good morning, Mr.Munson." I could feel her lips leaving a trail of sloppy kisses down my throat, my chest, my stomach- Holy. Fuck. I was getting rock hard.

" Whatcha doin Princess?" I asked as I watched her slink her way down my body, she was so goddamn hot. I felt my muscles contract as she lowered the waistband of my boxers she set free my raging boner.

" Awww baby, is that for me?" She looked up at me with her big gorgeous eyes and then licked my aching tip.

" Fuuck, it’s for you, only you.” I groaned, as she took me into her mouth, slowly bobbing her head, taking her time, working her way down my shaft until she was practically gagging. Her mouth was like fucking magic ."Jesus Christ Darling- Fuck, you look so fucking beautiful with my cock in your mouth ...."

She pulled off with a pop." You have the prettiest cock I've ever seen. " she lazily licked the length and I shivered."I want to make you feel so good Eddie-"

" Oh it feels good, it feels fucking fantastic-"

She closed her small , soft hand around my cock and started to stroke , alternating between her hand and mouth.

I groaned as I wound my hands into her hair , gently cradling her head in my hands and lightly rolling my hips into her mouth. She moaned and the vibration gave me goosebumps." Fuck , that feels so fucking good . " I panted, "So FUCKING good- but Sweetheart, I want to finish inside you."

She pulled off again ." Thank fucking god! Those moans coming out of your mouth , are fucking killing me,- I'm so fucking wet for you right now, I'm aching to have you inside me." She slid off her panties and her bra and didn't waste time lowering herself down on my dick.

" Fuck- you are so wet-" I groaned.

" Your so fucking deep-" She whined and I grabbed onto her hips as she started rocking.

" Your so fucking tight-Mmmm,-." I raised my hips, fucking up into her and she gasped.

" Oh Eddie, it feels so good when I ride your cock, you fill me up so perfect,Mmmm-" she leaned down,her breasts just inches from my face, I raised myself up and drew one into my mouth. " Mmmm, baby, you know just what to do. "

I reached up , sliding my hand around the back of her neck and pulled her down for a kiss. She nibbled on my bottom lip before sliding her tongue into my mouth. I raised my hips to hers matching her rhythm , driving in deeper and deeper. She moaned into my mouth. I was getting so fucking close.

She pulled away from me and sat straight up, bouncing up and down on my cock, her perfect tits jiggling , " Oh god, oh my fucking god-" she threw her head back and it was a beautiful sight, her long lashed lids closed, her cheeks flushed and her full pouty lips opened as she whimpered and whined." Oh god, baby, I'm, I'm-" I could feel her walls tightening around me, squeezing my cock and I couldn't fight it any longer. My hips stuttered as I sloppily thrusted upward, crying out her name, breathing heavy as my orgasm hit me hard.

She rode out her release and collapsed with exhaustion onto my chest, trying to catch her breath.

I reached over to my nightstand and grabbed her hair scrunchie, I swear to god they were everywhere in my house now, and pulled her hair up off her neck, gathered it and looped the elastic around it.

She lifted her head up off my chest and smiled. " Thanks Baby." She leaned forward and pressed a kiss to my lips.

" It's the least I could do Sweetheart, goddamn, you were riding me like you were at a fucking rodeo. "

She laughed and buried her face in my neck." Giddy up."

" Yee-fucking-haw." I ran my hand up and down her sweaty back." Your fucking amazing, you know that? Everything you fucking do is amazing."

" Awww , you flatter me Munson." She traced one of the tattoos on my chest delicately with her finger. " No one has ever treated me the way you do."

I kissed the top of her head . " You deserve to be treated like a Princess."

" I am falling so hard for you Eddie Munson."

I could feel butterflies in my stomach. A grown ass man with butterflies. "Glad to hear it Darlin because I'm pretty sure I'm falling for you too." I tilted her chin so that I could look at her beautiful face.

She bit her lip than smiled." So does this mean we are official? Like I can start introducing you to people as my boyfriend?"

" There are people you want to introduce me too?" I chuckled.

" So many people, I want to officially introduce you to my roommate, my co-workers, my friends-"

" Have you told your parents?"

" I told them I was seeing someone."

" Are they going to freak the fuck out?" I was so fucking nervous for them to find out. I had met them and talked with them before, they were great people, friendly and down to earth, but that was when I was just 'Robbie's dad." And not the man currently fucking their daughter.

" My parents love you-"

" But it's different now Sweetheart."

" Eddie," she sighed." I'm in my mid twenties, I'm a college graduate, I have a good job, a good head on my shoulders. I'm not a baby, I am a grown woman that can make her own decisions and date can whoever she wants." She pointed at me. " YOU- Eddie Munson are what I want. You are sweet, successful, mature and extremely sexy. You make me so happy."

" You make me happy too Dollface. " I took her face in my hands and kissed her. When I pulled away I smirked at her, " So I'm Mature? Is that a nice way of saying I'm a fucking fossil?"

She laughed. " No!! Not at all! How old are you anyway? Your in your 40's...."

" 45."

" Your younger than my dad, so see-"

" Jesus! Please don't compare me to your dad, it just fucking weird."

She laughed again. " You don't look 45,-" she trailed a finger down my chest, my abs. " Your body is amazing."

" I'm a mechanic, if I didn't take care of myself I'd be walking around all hunched over and shit because of my job. Trying to be proactive, work on my core, my posture. That and I would work out to burn through my sexual frustration. "

" You must have been horny as hell because your fucking ripped."

" I won't have to work out as much now that you are around, having sex with you is a work out. "

" I do a lot of yoga and Pilates."

" I can tell, your very centered and very flexible."

" Maybe we can do them together sometime."

" I would be down for that, especially if I get to see your sweet ass in yoga pants."

" Baby I would wear them for you anytime." She kissed me again then sat up and wrapped herself up in the blanket. I watched her brows furrow together.

" What is it Sweets?"

" Tonight is family dinner night. Has Robbie talked to you at all since ' the incident'? "

" Yeah." My son had ignored me for three days- just straight up ignored me, wouldn't pick up when I called him, avoided me at the shop. It killed me, I had just wanted to talk it out- we always address our issues right away. Finally when he did come to me he said he didn't want to talk about it, just wanted to forget what he saw and move on. I gave him that, but I know it needs to be addressed, especially if we are going to pursue this relationship.

" Maybe I should just go home, I don't want to cause any trouble-"

" No Baby, I want you to stay with me. If we are going to make this work we need to deal with this right from the start."

She sighed." I bet Robbie hates me."

" Just remember who fucked around on who- he was the one who made the conscious decision to cheat on you. You didn't do anything wrong. You were not in a relationship when we were together, you had been broken up for weeks. He's pissed because he didn't want you to move on even though he clearly did and he's probably pissed At himself because he realized what a dumbass he was." I rolled over and straddled her kissing the tip of her nose then her lips. " It will be fine, we are in this together right?" I searched her eyes and saw them soften.

" Absolutely. Now I suppose I should get out of bed -"

I smiled and wrapped her up in my arms." Please Sweetheart, stay in bed with me just a little longer? It's our last morning together until next weekend-"

She smiled. " Ok , if I gotta." She wrapped me up as well and managed to push me onto my back. " Rodeo round 2?"

I smiled up at her." Yippee ki yay, little Darlin."

*************************************

" Thanks for making dinner Doll." I walked up behind her and wrapped my arms around her waist, pulling her back against me and kissing her neck.

" Mmmm, I'm happy too. I love to cook." She leaned back into me and I slid my hands up her rib cage and squeezed her breasts." Baby, your going to make me burn my Alfredo sauce, I gotta whisk that shit."

I laughed." Whisk it, whisk it good."

I kissed her one last time then backed away, hopping up to sit on the counter. I loved watching her, very precise, very methodical. She really was a wiz in the kitchen. " You keep cooking like this Princess and your going to make me fat."

" Impossible. I'll be here to help you work it off." She turned and winked.

I smiled, again, Jesus, I smiled more more these past 2 weeks then I have the last fifteen years.

There was a knock at the door, and I hollered for Robbie to come in.

" Is it safe? I'm not going to see your naked ass again am I? That shit scarred me for life." He entered the room ,hand over his eyes.

" No shithead , your not going to see my old wrinkly ass again." I hopped off the counter and went over and gave him a hug, that to my surprise he returned.

Robbie looked over at his Ex ." Hey."

" Hey Robbie." She replied back as she continued to stir.

So this was going to be a little awkward, understandable.

" Are you ok with me being here?" She asked him.

" I'm going to have to be now that your fucking my Father."

" Robbie-" I warned.

" You do remember that you were the one that ended our relationship right? That you didn't want me any more and that you were the one that wanted to move on?"

" Yes I remember," he paused." I just didn't expect you to move on so quickly. And with my fucking dad-"

" We didn't plan this Robbie, it's not like we were conspiring against you, to hurt you. It just happened, and I'm glad it did."

Ok, this is good right? Clearing the air and talking things through, making progress. I'm just going to sit back and let this happen.

I watched as he ran his fingers through his short curly hair. " Maybe I didn't want you to move on, maybe I hoped that you would take me back."

" Take you back? Robbie , you cheated on me, after all those years we were together, you cheated on me. I'm sorry but there is no way I would take you back, not when I would constantly be wondering if you were going to do it again."

" That's fair. I do regret it though. I was a total Asshole. For whatever it worth, I'm sorry."

" Thank you, Robbie."

" Your welcome. I still can't believe your dating my old man though, so fucking weird. What's even weirder is seeing him so happy. He's walking around with a dumbass grin on his face, whistling all the time at work.."

“ Uh , you do realize that I’m right here,” I commented.

He walked over to the couch and was about to sit down when he looked at me." I hope you steam cleaned this bitch , I don't want to be cozying up on this motherfucker and find your jizz on it."

A laugh erupted from my chest, and I heard my Sweetheart burst out laughing too. Yup, he was my kid alright.

" And if I could make a request? Can you please limit your sexcapades to your bedroom? I would be in a constant state of panic otherwise wondering what other surfaces in this house you two have tainted ."

I smirked." Whose house is this again?"

" Just saying, as someone that occasionally occupies this house-"

" Yes Robbie, your request has been granted ok? " I leaned back against the counter that only days before I had fucked my sweet Princess on. She gave me a knowing smile and I winked at her.

" Great, now that we have cleared the air, when do we eat? I'm fucking starving." Robbie clapped his hands together.

I sighed and shook my head. Yup, this kid was just like his father.

As always thanks for reading❤️

Comments and re-blogs make my heart melt❤️

#eddie munson #eddie munson smut #eddie fanfic #eddie stranger things #eddie munson fanfic #dilf!eddie munson

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suvidrache · 11 months

Note

Marriage/ how the Sawyers would be as parents headcanons please? 😁

Marriage & Kids

age in bio when interacting. minors do not interact.

Word Count: 351 / Read it on AO3 | Offline Version

Featuring: Alfredo, Tex, Chop Top, and Nubbins

Alfredo

Marriage: he's not against it. To be honest, he didn't think that he would get this far. Someone who actually loves him and even wants to be with him till death do you part?

Kids: one or two… again, he didn't think he'd get this far. Also, would probably have four or five, if you let him. He would probably just sit back and watch what goes on. Forgetting that, he's the parent. If the kids cause a problem, do something. Say something.

Edward "Tex"

Marriage: yes. He wants the family, and a home to himself (without his siblings and the violence, etc.) He wants a normal lifestyle.

Kids: yes. Anywhere from one to three. He doesn't want a large family, but at the same time, he doesn't want his kids to not have siblings and be alone. He will be a proud and supportive parent in anything that his kid does.

Robert "Chop Top"

Marriage: well, he is amazed he made it this far. If you want to get married, then get married, you shall have.

Kids: as many as you want, but nothing excessive. Are you sure you want more than five? He starts to draw the line at anything more than seven. After all, you both are the ones having to handle all these children. Pay for them, raise them, etc. He tells the kids lots of random stories that he has. Once they're all over the age of 10, he'd be okay with having more. Also, the fact that he's a twin and you'll probably have a few twins.

Nubbins

Marriage: …what? Uh, sure, I guess… if that's what you want? He doesn't really know how all of that works, so you might have to help him out a little.

Kids: yeah! 3. Three sounds nice. Again, he might need some help when it comes to these things. Otherwise, he'd just sit back and watch as the chaos happens. He would try to get involved and stop chaos from happening, but would have no idea how to stop it. Might make things/the problem worse, unintentionally.

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daughterofthereaper02 · 2 years

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Hi!! I love your poly Top Gun list!! I love it so much! So this popped into my head while I was thinking of the different soulmate ones you’ve done so far. I’m a sucker for soulmate au’s so this is something I think about a lot, anyway, so what I was thinking was a soulmate au with Hangman, Bob, Rooster, and Y/N, where your soulmate’s name appears the first time that their life is put in danger. Just the angst of knowing you almost lost them before you even met them!!!! Mmm…. Delicious! I just thought you’d eat this up!! Have a great day!!

A/N: My God I love this!!!!! I am so down to write this! Ugh, the angst. I apologize for any inaccurate facts, this is fiction however.

It was always a shock for someone when they learned their soulmates names, no matter the age. Some would be born with it as a child was born with issues and they nearly didn't make it so the other had the name already. Others it would take years for a name to suddenly appear. Some people only had to experience the feeling once in their lives, other twice, and rarely three times.

You personally were born without any names which was what people considered lucky. It wasn't until you were a teen, fifteen to be exact, that the first name appeared. 'Jake Seresin' burned into your hip bone a searing hot pain. You were in the middle of a presentation and you cried out and dropped in pain. It was agonizing pain after the age of twelve, no one knew why but it could be so painful you passed out from the pain. You were the first student in your grade to get a soulmate name. When you pulled up your shirt, everyone had gasped. While you were presenting you almost lost him. It ate away at you for days, wishing you could find him and pull him into your arms to make sure he was okay. He wasn't dead though or else his name would have scarred over afterwards.

You knew your name was on all of them, it has been since you were six years old. There had been a robbery at your moms job and it was take your kid to work day. A day that was supposed to be so innocent and happy, turned sideways quickly. One guy went off the handle and grabbed you because you were the youngest, holding you at gun point as a child. The cops barely got you away in time, it took you years of therapy to get over what happened to you. You often wondered what they thought about after your name appeared when you were all so young.

When you were sixteen your next name appeared, you were taking a biology test you were not prepared for when the pain came through your body. It was so painful you had to grip the desk from the white hot searing pain. 'Bradley Bradshaw' appeared on your collarbone. It became so bad because it was mixed with a very bad period, you passed out. You weren't the first one in your grade to pass out because of the pain. Your teacher excused you from the test like he would any other student because of the pain and you got another two days to prepare for the second chance you had. Still, it ate at you what your soulmates could have done as teens to nearly die.

The final name to appear for you was when you were 17 and you were at you junior prom. You gripped the table and watched as 'Robert Floyd' tattooed itself onto your wrist. You stood up quickly and ran out of the room for air, your heart pounding in your chest. These were too close for your liking,come people didn't get theirs until mid twenties but all three of them were each a year apart? This wasn't normal. A million questions ran through your head. Were they clumsy? Daredevils? Bad home life? How could you protect them? This was the final straw, you fully decided on your career choice. You were going to go law enforcement to protect your soulmates no matter what and children so they could be protected like you were.

You joined the Navy fresh out of highschool and went military police so you could get the training. After your sick years were up, you went and joined SWAT and settled in California, near Fighter Town. You were in SWAT for a while and you were great at your job. Recently you got injured on the job, you were now stuck in a walking boot and on desk duty. You had plenty of vacation time though so you took it and went to visit a friend.

"I'm at the bar. No Mason, I don't need a babysitter" you said on the phone as you got out of your car. "It was my left foot dumbass, I can still drive" you laughed as you closed the door. You eyed up three attractive men by a vehicle. "Ooo, so sorry motherhen, you're breaking up" you said mockingly as he protested "What? What? Sorry I can't hear you" you said before hanging up. You looked down at your phone, grinning as he texted you 'Bitch.' and then 'Seriously. Text me if you need me' which you texted back 'thanks mom'. Mason was your best friend who was a very protective motherhen over you. This has only gotten worse since breaking your foot on the job.

You got to the bar and ordered yourself a drink before glancing at your watch from when your phone buzzed in you pocket. 'Sorry. Can't make it.' was all your friend texted which made you roll your eyes. You were not going to pull your phone out and have to buy everyone a round. Your v-neck shirt had tugged down a little and the bartender noticed the name. "Excuse me miss?" The woman asked, you would later know her to be Penny Benjamin. You'll looked at her then glanced at the rules, making sure you didn't break any which made her laugh "You didn't break any rules! I noticed the name on your collarbone. I believe I know your soulmate, he is over by the pool table. Ugly Hawaiian shirt" she laughed. Your eyes widened and your nerves caused a tight coil to form in your stomach as your heart began to pound. "Thank you" you told her, a smile on your face as you slowly made your way over.

As you walked there, questions ran through your head. Did he know your other soulmates? Were they here? Would they want you? What if they were all perfectly happy together already and didn't need you? Was all you could think as you finally reached the table. "Excuse me. Are you Bradley Bradshaw?" You asked the man with the pornstache. He looked confused but nodded "Yes... Can I help you?" He asked you, giving you a smile. "Possibly. My name is Y/n L/n" you said, moving your shirt to show his name tattooed on you that has began to burn and turn a red color when he confirmed his name. He gasped, his hand flying to his hip as it burned. "Bob! Hangman! Get your asses over here!" He called and two equally tall men walked over. They looked at you, about to tell you to get away from their soulmate but then Bradley told them "This is y/n" he said quickly and their jaws dropped. You held out you hand "Y/n L/n, pleasure to meet you both" you blushed, their tattoos burning on their body. "Jake Seresin" One said at the same time as the other with glasses "Robert Floyd". You hissed as the tattoos burned at the same time.

You all decided to take your drinks outside because everyone was staring. You sat on the sand with them, all of you in a circle. You took as they stared at you, "What? Is there something on my face?" You asked nervously. Jake raised an eyebrow "No, we do want to know why your name appeared when we were all young though" he told you. You rubbed your neck "Nothing too big. Just a robbery at my moms job and being the one held hostage by gun point" you said. "WHAT!?" They all yelled in shock, pure terror on their faces to know they could have lost you when you were so young.

You all shared your stories, your heart breaking as you listened to their stories. It turned out Bradley was five years older then you and Jake and Robert were a year older. Jake had been knocked off his horse and got bit by a rattlesnake, they barely got to him in time. Bradley had been trying to drive his Uncle Mavericks motorcycle when he lost control and got hurt really bad. Robert had his glasses knocked off his face and he stepped into the street and almost got hit by a car. You could feel your chest tightening knowing you almost lost them in very weird ways.

You all sat there for a while getting to know each other personally. They started first about where they were from and what they did for work, joking about some injuries along the way. You sat there and soaked up all the information you could. Eventually it got to you and you told them your childhood, how you enlisted into the Navy at 17 with your parents permission and went for military police to get your experience. After your six years were up, you left and eventually made your way onto the SWAT team for this area. You told them previous injuries and then explained you broke your foot trying to get a little girl to safety. The whole time you watched their faces grow more and more concerned. "We're putting you in bubble wrap" Robert said and your eyes widened "What?" You asked. "You're a danger magnet that runs towards more danger, you need to be protected" Jake said jokingly. You rolled your eyes but smiled anyway "Wait until you meet Mason my best friend at work, he is a motherhen like no other" you snorted.

You could feel a weight being lifted though, one you carried for years. It had been a constant fear for your soulmate and how they were after nearly dying. For once you considered yourself lucky, you had three soulmates alive and well.

Tag list;

@peaches-and-sunshine@natasharomanoffisbaebby@sweetheartlizzie07@lollypop90907@the-hottest-lieutenants @jamiedontbeacracko

@18crazybutcutealsopsycho @blackcat2907

#top gun #top gun: maverick #rooster top gun #bradley bradshaw #bradley bradshaw imagines #bradley bradshaw fanfiction #bradley bradshaw x reader #pete 'maverick' mitchell #maverick #rooster x reader #jake 'hangman' seresin x reader #bradley brashaw x jake sersin #jake x bradley #jake 'hangman' seresin #jake seresin #robert floyd #robert 'bob' floyd x reader #robert floyd x reader #robert 'bob' floyd

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winchesterwild78 · 8 days

Text

Chance Meeting pt 19

Master list

18+ Minors DO NOT interact

Please be kind and all mistakes are my own. All work is mine. Please don’t take or copy it.

Warnings: Angst, heart break, physical assault, SMUT

A/N: This chapter is another ride. Stay with it. I promise happiness is on the way. It’s also a bit of a roller coaster. I haven’t mentioned the kids names or his ex for a reason. This is fiction and I don’t want any disrespect towards Jensen’s family. I adore him and this is just fiction. However, because he’s older it made sense for him to be divorced and with children. I edited this quickly, so please overlook any errors.

———————————————————————

*Time Jump 5 Days*

You sat beside Jensen nervously with your leg bouncing. Jensen placed his hand on your leg trying to calm you down. You looked at him and he gave you a soft smile. His attorney was looking over some things and the three of you were trying to figure out how to deal with the current situation with Ashley and the baby. “So Jensen, you said you didn’t sleep with her but you did wake up in bed with her, right” his attorney asked. You felt sick to your stomach thinking about it. Jensen looked over at you and then said “yes” softly. “Okay, so we need to petition for a DNA test to see if the baby is yours. I believe we can push to have an amniocentesis done and DNA extracted that way. We should have the results soon” he said typing away.

You tensed up and Jensen felt it. He looked over at you and you were fighting tears back. “You okay baby” Jensen asked leaning over. You shook your head no. You stood, cleared your throat and excused yourself. You went to the bathroom and went into a stall. You covered your mouth and let out a sob. The idea of this child being his broke your heart. You knew if he did sleep with her it was before you met, but it still hurt. Even though he said he didn’t remember it, it still hurt. You tried to compose yourself but it took a few minutes. Your cell phone went off, it was a text from Jensen.

J: you sure you’re okay baby. We can leave if you want to.

Me: No, I’m fine. I just needed a minute. You keep talking. I’ll be back soon.

J: Okay. I love you. ❤️

You let out a soft sob

Me: I love you too, Jensen. So much.

You finally got yourself together and walked to the sink. You heard the bathroom door open and a woman say hello. You didn’t look up but said hello back. You took some paper towels and wet them, washing your face.

The woman walked up to the sink and stood there for a minute. You started to walk away and she said “hello y/n” and you spun on your heels. You looked at her and knew it was Ashley. “Are you enjoying your time with my future husband” she said as she stepped closer to you. “I saw his cute little post. Isn’t that sweet. He felt guilty and asked you to marry him. Don’t worry once he realizes he wants to be with me and our baby you will be yesterday’s news.” She said as she stepped even closer to you.

You took a step back. You saw her pregnant belly and your heart broke a little more. She really is pregnant you thought to yourself. “Jensen doesn’t love you and if that baby is his then he will step up, but as far as Jensen and I we are solid and nothing is going to change that. We are getting married and there is nothing you can do about it.” You said as you walked towards the door. Just as your hand was on the handle you felt something hard hit you and your head hurt. Then everything went black.

You woke up to the sounds of steady beeping. You felt a hand on yours and your head hurt really bad. Your eyes fluttered open and you saw Jensen sitting beside you. “Hey babe” you said in a weak voice. Jensen’s eyes looked over at you and went wide. “Oh my god, y/n. You’re awake. Let me get the doctor” he said standing up. Before you could say anything else he was out the door. You waited until Jensen returned with a doctor and a nurse. “Hello Miss Y/L/N, I’m Dr Roberts. How are you feeling” the middle aged man said stepping towards you. “I’m okay. My head hurts bad and I’m really tired” you said. The doctor took some vitals and the nurse checked your IV and drew some blood.

“Well you took quite a bump on the head. I’d be surprised if it didn’t hurt. You’ve got a concussion and a big knot on your head. I want to keep you another night and we will see how you’re doing tomorrow.” The doctor said before giving you a soft smile. “Wait, how long have I bet out” you asked. “Almost 4 days” Jensen said. You looked at him with wide eyes. You whispered “oh wow”.

The doctor and the nurse left and Jensen took your hand. He looked like he hadn’t slept in days. “Jensen, have you slept” you asked him rubbing his hand. “Not really, I couldn’t leave your side. I’m so sorry this happened to you” Jensen said with tears in his eyes. “It’s not your fault, Jensen.” You said looking at him. “Please tell me she’s been arrested or something. I don’t even know what happened for sure. I just know she was in the bathroom and we had a little back and forth about you and the next thing I know I’m waking up here. What the hell did she hit me with” you asked him.

Jensen’s face dropped and he whispered out “a metal pipe”. Well that explains why I have a headache you thought. “Was Ashley caught” you asked. He shook his head no. “I’m so sorry baby. When you were gone for as long as you were and not responding to my texts we went to the bathroom and found you on the floor in a puddle of blood. I was terrified I lost you. There is a warrant out for her. They lifted her prints off the pipe and there is surveillance footage showing her entering and exiting the bathroom. You and her were the only ones on the video going into the bathroom. I’ve called Clif and he’s gonna hang around for a while until we can make sure you’re safe. He said hugging you.

“Jensen how can this woman do this? If you broke it off why is she still so convinced you’re hers and the baby is too.” You asked choking back tears. “She’s just obsessed and needs professional help. If the baby is mine we will figure it out. Until then I want you to rest. Don’t stress and don’t think about her or the baby” he said kissing your head.

Your head was spinning with all the thoughts of Ashley, the attack, Jensen possibly being the father of the baby, how his kids would react to a new baby, if you’re still going to get married if the baby is his. Ugh! Your head wouldn’t stop. The only sound in the room was the steady beeping of the machine. You could feel the tension and you just wanted to cry. You pushed the call button and the nurse came in. “Yes ma’am, how can I help you” she said with a soft smile. “Um my head really hurts is there anything I can take for it” you asked not looking at Jensen. “Yeah, I’ll go grab it and be right back” she said and she left.

Jensen looked at you and said “baby, everything is going to be okay. I promise” he kissed your hand. The nurse came back and you took some medicine. When she left you looked at Jensen and said “you can’t promise that. I thought I would have been safe in an attorney’s office, but somehow I was attacked. I love you, but I’m scared. She won’t stop until I’m out of the picture.” You said as the tears broke loose. He reached for you but you turned over. Sobbing you asked him to leave. You wanted nothing more than for him to stay, but your heart was breaking and you were scared for you and anyone who loved him. You loved him so much but how could you compete with the baby if it’s his. You would never make him choose between you and his children. He’s an amazing father and he would be to this child. If you’re in the picture she might not let him see the baby or she would stop at nothing to drive a wedge between you two. Or worse, she might get you out of the picture permanently.

You heard the door shut and you just cried. The medicine finally kicked in and you fell asleep. When you woke up it was dark out. There was a soft light coming in from under the door and the television was on. You rolled over and reached for the light. Your heart was hoping Jensen would be there when you woke up but you knew he would give you space.

You grabbed your phone to send him a text. Picking up your phone you noticed you had a few missed texts. A few were people texting to check on, a few were from Jensen, and then there was two that made your blood run cold. It was Ashley.

Ashley: I told you he was mine. That was just a taste of what I’m going to do if you don’t leave him

Ashley: *picture* (it was a picture of Jensen leaving the hospital. He looked like he was crying.) Why is he so upset. Maybe I’ll follow him and make it all better. I can’t wait to feel his arms around me again.

You felt sick. The picture of Jensen had to have been taken after you told him to leave.

You: Jens, baby I’m sorry. Please call me when you get this. I love you.

You looked at the time. It was a little after 11pm. He shouldn’t be asleep. You waited for a text or phone call. Nothing. You started to get worried. You sent another text.

Me: Babe, please answer me. You don’t have to call me but please just tell me you’re okay. I got another text from her and I’m scared for you.

Still nothing. You tried to call but he didn’t answer. You texted Gen and Jared and asked one of them to call you. Gen called you right away. “Y/N is everything okay” she asked. “No, I got a threatening text from Ashley and Jensen isn’t answering my texts or calls. I’m really worried.” You started crying. “I told him to leave Gen. I’m so scared someone is going to get hurt because of my relationship with him. I was trying to keep him safe.” You said through sobs. Jared grabbed his keys and took off towards your’s and Jensen’s house. Gen told you she’d stay on the phone with you until we heard back from Jared.

You talked to her about your fears and she did her best to calm you down. “I’m sure he’s okay, y/n. When he spilt with his ex we found him passed out cold many nights. I’m sure that is what’s going on.” She said reassuring you. About 20 minutes later you heard Jared in the background. Gen told you Jensen was fine and Jared brought him back to their house. He had been drinking but he wasn’t passed out he just didn’t take his phone outside with him.

You finally let out the breath you had been holding. “Okay. Thank you, Gen. Please tell Jared thank you too, and tell Jensen I love him and I will talk to him tomorrow.” You said She told Jensen you said you loved him and you heard him giggle and say “hey guys I’m gonna marry her. Shhh don’t tell her” You smiled and told Gen thank you again and hung up.

At least he was safe and you could rest a little easier. Your mind kept playing what he said over and over again. He wanted YOU and he wanted to marry you. He LOVED you, not her. Even if the baby was his you two would figure it out. You decided she was not going to win. Jensen loved you, you loved him and the two of you were going to get married. He had room in his heart for you and all of his children. You two were going to be fine.

The next morning when you woke up Jensen was sitting beside you. As soon as you saw him you let out a sob. “I’m so sorry Jensen. I was scared and thought I was protecting everyone. I know we are better together and we will figure this out. I love you so much.” Jensen stood up and wrapped his arms around you. Kissing the top of your head trying to calm you down. “I know baby. I was hurt but I know why you did it. I’m sorry you got hurt because of me. I love you and I can’t wait to marry you. We will tackle whatever comes our way together.” Then he kissed your lips.

A few minutes later the doctor came in and said you were good to go home but you needed to rest and take care of yourself. Since you have a concussion there were certain things you couldn’t do according to the paper. Jensen looked over at you and looked at the doctor. “I’ll make sure she’s taken care of Doc. So what about sex, can she have sex” Jensen asked smirking at you. You turned red. The doctor chuckled and said yes as long as there weren’t any acrobatics involved. Jensen said “well, I guess I can resist acrobatics for now”. You playfully slapped hit arm and he kissed you.

The doctor left and Jensen helped you get up and get dressed. Once you were ready he helped you out of the hospital and into his car. When he got in the drivers seat he took your hand and kissed it. “I’m so glad you’re okay baby and you’re coming home. We’ve missed you so much.” Jensen said looking at you.

“Oh Jens, I’ve missed all of you too. How are the kids doing” you asked. “They are okay. They’ve missed you and can’t wait to see you. We told them that you got hurt by a bad person but were going to be okay. Little man was really upset. He cried for almost an hour. It was heartbreaking but in a weird way made my heart melt to see how much he loves you.” Jensen said. “Oh poor little guy. I hope he knows how much I love him too. I love all of you very much.” You said giving a soft smile to him.

When you finally arrived home Jensen helped you into the house. You went upstairs to o your room and decided to take a shower. Jensen was walking in your shared room and saw you getting undressed. “Need any help sweetheart” he asked with a grin. “I don’t know Mr Ackles. Are you talking about my clothes or something else” you said with a smirk and a wink. Jensen growled and attacked your lips.

You got undressed and so did Jensen. He helped you in the shower and he stepped in. You leaned back standing under the falling water. Jensen moved in close and put his arms around you. You missed his touch. You missed his lips, and everything about him. He kissed your lips and started kissing a line across your cheek, down your jaw, onto your neck. A shiver ran through your body at the touch of his lips. He kissed down to your breasts and one of his hands cupped the breast not currently being teased by his tongue. You moaned and called his name.

Your hands were running over his body and you found your way to his hardening cock. When you took it in your hand Jensen moaned.

Jensen spun you around and gently pinned you to the wall. His hand finding your folds and running in between your folds. His hand was met with a dripping wet pussy. “Damn baby you’re ready for me” he said into your mouth as his lips ghosted over yours. You moaned and nodded your head yes. He started to rub your clit and as he rubbed his fingers pushed inside. You gasped and moaned as you felt your core tightening and your release building. You knew it wouldn’t take long because it had been awhile since he touched you. He could feel you getting closer and helped push you over the edge. As you came he crashed his lips to yours helping you ride out your release.

Jensen turned off the water and grabbed the towels. You both dried off quickly and he led you to the bed. He gently laid you down and positioned himself between your legs. “You okay with this sweetheart” he asked leaning down to kiss you. You nodded your head. He took his length in his hand and lined himself up. He pushed in slowly letting you get used to his size. You gripped his biceps and moved your hips a little. His size and girth took your breath away. It was a pain and pleasure you craved. You looked at him and said “move baby”. He nodded and with one thrust he bottomed out. You gasped as he set a steady pace.

You knew he wasn’t going to last as long as he normally did because it had been awhile for him too. You wrapped your legs around him and pulled him closer. He leaned down capturing your lips in a passionate kiss. You could feel his thrusts getting sloppier and you knew he was close. “Cum for me Jensen” you whispered into his ear. That was all it took before he was coating your walls with his warm seed. As he softened he kissed you and got up to get a washcloth to clean you up. He returned and cleaned you gently and once he was clean he crawled in bed with you.

He put his arms around you and pulled you close. “I’ve missed this baby, and I’ve missed you. I’m so glad you’re safe and home” Jensen said kissing you gently. You smiled and snuggled in his arms. “I’ve missed this too and I’m glad I’m home. I love you, Jensen” you said kissing him. “I love you too, y/n. Now, one last thing.” He said sitting up. He opened the bedside table and pulled out something. Tears filled your eyes when you saw it. “I had to bring this home when you were in the hospital. Every night I would hold it and pray you would get to have it again. I’m thankful I can give it back to you.” Jensen took your hand and slid your engagement ring back on your finger. A tear slipped down your face as you looked at it. You were glad to have it back, but you were more glad to be back in Jensen’s arms.

Forever tags: @nescaveckdaily @nescaveckwriter @kr804573 @jensengirl83 @k-slla @jackles010378 @jawritter @xx-spooky-little-vampire-xx @roseblue373

#jensen ackles x plus size reader #supernatural convention #jensen ackles #chance meeting #jensen ackles smut #so damn sexy #jensen ackles x reader #jackles #hes gorgeous

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sparklyslug · 3 months

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omg 👀 here you come again and here I go pls!!

DID YOU KNOW I'M JUST DEEPLY UNWELL ABOUT WAYNE MUNSON? AT ALL TIMES??? So I gave him a nice little romance with local drug dealer Reefer Rick, who in my brain looks like Robert Redford (possibly for alliterative reasons, I am just now realizing), as a treat.

This fic hypothetically spans from when Eddie starts dealing, through to Rick getting locked up (during which a string of epistolary romance may or may not unfold), to post-s4 when poor Eddie not only has to cope with the loss of a nipple and knowledge of the horrors in this world, but also with the knowledge that his uncle is fucking his boss/mentor.

This scene takes place some years after the last time Rick and Wayne have properly talked, which I will tell you now but won't be revealed until later, they may or may not have made out against a wall in a sexy angry fashion.

Rick reaches for his cigarettes without looking away, tapping one out as he speaks. “Not having been a troubled teen like myself and Mo here, maybe you wouldn’t understand what it’s like. To feel like you’re out of options. To grab any way out you can.”

“You’ve always had options, just elected to ignore them time and time again,” Wayne says, barely blinking as Rick lights the cigarette about three inches away from his face. “And so does Eddie.”

“Maybe,” Rick says magnanimously, bemused and charmed as ever by the ideas Wayne has apparently held on to about Rick’s options. “But maybe I can keep an eye on him better if he’s exploring those options working for me, instead of trying his luck with someone who isn’t family.”

“You’re not family, Lipton,” Wayne says, close to deadly as Rick has ever heard him.

“And you’re not his daddy, Wayne,” Rick says, matching his tone for the first time.

Wayne goes absolutely still. Rick keeps an eye on him, and takes a long drag from his Marlboro. It’s one of those rare times when Mo sits back, showing off the uncanny ability to read when Rick gets to a place where he can and will handle his business himself.

“But, tell you what,” Rick says, when he decides that no, this isn’t going to be that kind of night. “You’re worried about Eddie. You want to know what he’s up to, and finding he won’t talk to you about it, since he’s at that age. I understand. You want to know what’s going on with him while giving him his space, I’ll tell you.”

Wayne lifts an eyebrow. “You’ll tell me.”

Rick takes another drag and quirks his lips to the side, angles his exhale just to the side of Wayne’s face. Catches the whip-quick glance, only sees the split-second when Wayne’s eyes drop down to his lips because he’s looking so closely for it.

What is it about this man? Rick thinks to himself, but without any really stress or anxiety. The question’s too old to get all worked up about it anymore, doesn’t dig under his skin the way it did when they were kids. Now he just has to smile.

“I’ll tell you,” he confirms, and gestures at the bar around them. “You know where to find me.”

Wayne’s still looking at him uncertainly, silent, like he doesn’t quite believe Rick still. Or maybe (in Rick’s wildest dreams) like he’d gotten derailed by Rick’s little smoke screen move back there.

“I have a pretty good idea of your opinion of me, Wayne,” Rick says with a tight little laugh. “So I guess you’ll have to take my word for it when I tell you that I know my business. I know how to keep Eddie safe. Out of any of the really serious trouble. And I know him, I think. Or maybe he reminds me of someone I used to know.”

Wayne’s mouth is a tight thin line. “Shane, you mean.”

“Even worse than that, sorry to say,” Rick says, taking his eyes off Wayne for what feels like the first time to share a grin with Mo. “I meant he reminds me of me. Come on, Wayne. Sit down, have a beer. Hurting my neck to keep staring up at you like this.”

Mo laughs, and Wayne scowls.

“I find anything harder on him than grass, and–”

“--and you’ll reacquaint me with your right hook, yeah, yeah,” Rick waves the hand with his cigarette in it at him airily, bringing back his finest over-the-top drawl. “Fiddle dee dee, Mistah Munson. You run along now, I’m quite overpowered by your presence.”

To his delight, Wayne Munson actually rolls his eyes, an expression favored by the fifteen-year-old shithead he’d once been but rarely seen in these more sober adult years. He wheels away from the bar, stalking off without another word.

“So,” Mo says, nodding for another round over at Chuck, who’s been polishing the same pint glass at the end of the bar for the last twenty minutes, pretending like he wasn’t eavesdropping. “You going to tell me what the hell that was all about, Lipton?”

Rick laughs. “Eh, there’s no point. We’ll never see him around here again.”

Only a few teachers throughout his spotty academic career had ever thought Rick had any kind of a brain. Which didn’t bother Rick too much, since he kind of thought the whole enterprise was fucking ridiculous. School maybe would have been easier for him if he wasn’t so goddamn bored all the time. He always knew where his smarts were, and found them a hell of a lot more useful than whatever had the poindexters like Wayne Munson sitting on the edge of their seat, hand in the air, waiting for someone to call on them. That’s never been him– the waiting. The needing someone else to call his name, before he decides to act. Not his style. And not the measure of success he’s ever looked for.

But he’s got a new Pontiac paid for nearly in full in the driveway of a house that’s what– four times the size of the double-wide he grew up in? Got a fridge full of food and a gym membership he never uses, a few discreet friends he can afford to show some of the finer dining spots in the area.

And, most revealingly: despite the money that paid for all of this, he’s got next to no kind of criminal record.

So Rick is smart. He isn’t wrong often. He doesn’t have any way to know that he’s wrong now, assuming it’ll be another fifteen-odd years before Wayne Munson deigns to rage at him again. He'd be even more surprised to know that it’s just the first in what’ll turn out to be a real interesting string of wrong occasions, with increasingly wrong consequences.

#if there's one thing about me it's that I love an OC POV #my fic #i haven't looked at this one in a bit but it's on my mind enough that I think something will come of it eventually #i hope lol

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moonchildreads · 1 year

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small town

Chapter 7 - The Search Is Over

IN THIS CHAPTER: A planned birthday party, nerdy father figures, and The Present Ritual [4.1k]

WARNINGS: brief mentions of deceased parents

masterlist - prev - next | playlist

Now I look into your eyes, I can see forever The search is over, you were with me all the while

Saturday, April 26th - 1986

“Honey, there’s someone here to see you,” James knocked on the wooden frame of his daughter’s bedroom door.

“Huh?” she lifted her head from her pillow and looked at the clock next to her bed: 11:02.

Without saying anything else, Dottie’s dad disappeared down the hall, his footsteps heavy on the stairs. Who on Earth was dropping by to see her on a Saturday before noon? Rushing to the bathroom to brush her teeth, she heard her dad yelling from down the stairs again.

“Dorothy, did you hear me?”

“Yes, yes! I’m coming, hold up!” she screamed back at him, grabbing the railing so she wouldn’t trip on her slippers on her way down the stairs.

Dottie opened the front door with a hurried yank and was surprised to find no one at the other side. Worried that whoever had been waiting for her to show up had gotten tired and walked back to their vehicle, she peered around, craning to see down the street. Again, nothing. Not even a soul. There wasn’t even a car parked nearby, only an elderly neighbor spraying his bushes with a slinky hose. Extremely confused, and frankly still rather sleepy, she closed the door and stared blankly at the handle. She turned around and began making her way to the kitchen, questions burning the tip of her tongue. Unsolved mysteries were terrible on her anxious little heart.

Her words died in her throat as she heard familiar voices coming from behind the closed shutters of the passthrough kitchen window. Her eyes widening, she tripped over the rug, throwing herself to the shutters and pulling them open. They hit the walls with a loud bang and the three men on the other side turned to look at her.

“What the fuck are you two doing here?!”

“Jesus, kid, we can leave if you want.”

A loud chortle made its way out of her throat as she leaped through the door to hug one of the two men, the one who wasn’t currently holding a mug of coffee. Joseph looked up from the teenager between his arms, smiling at James and Robert who were watching the very dramatic act unfolding at the kitchen island.

“Did you really think we were gonna miss your 18th birthday, kiddo?” Robert said, stealing the girl from his friend’s arms and squeezing tightly.

“I just never thought- why didn’t you tell me you were coming?”

“And ruin the surprise? Natalie is sorry she couldn’t come, but she got this for you. She said you should wear it for the party,” Joseph slid a large gift bag across the island.

Uncles Joseph and Robert were two of James Burke’s best friends from college. The three of them met as classmates while pursuing an Engineering degree but Joe and Rob had switched to a more social sciences oriented program during junior year before heading off to Law school after graduation. They had a small but successful firm together in NYC; Joe’s strength was litigation and Rob’s was transactions so it felt natural for them to partner up and navigate the post-graduate world together. As they often said, life was so much easier with the right people around you to raise you up when you stumbled.

It only made sense then that when Dottie’s mom passed away, they took it upon themselves to raise both James and Dorothy up as much as they possibly could. As such, the young girl had spent countless hours at their budding law firm, her short legs swinging from the tall chairs as she doodled or worked on her homework, waiting for her Dad to pick her up after a meeting that ran particularly late. Uncle Joe was the eternal bachelor; born and raised in New York, he always knew the most obscure and fascinating places to take her to. One of her favorite memories was from the time he’d taught her to ride a bike in an old abandoned parking lot that had a fantastic Italian-owned pasta place right around the corner. She’d scraped one of her shins until it bled but they had wonderful gnocchi afterwards so overall it had been a great day. On the other hand, Uncle Rob was married to Natalie and had two kids: six-year old Nate, whom Dottie had babysat numerous times, and newborn Lily, whom the teenager hadn’t been able to meet yet due to moving to Indiana. When they sat down to have a late breakfast, Dottie’s first question before she had even opened Natalie’s gift was to ask for pictures of Lily, which prompted Rob to pull out a stack of recently developed memories from his coat pocket like he had been waiting for her to request them all along.

Aunt Natalie had sent her a precious pair of black ruched booties with the tiniest hint of heel; as she was admiring them, Uncle Joseph appeared behind her with a stack of presents from the rest of the gaggle of aunts and uncles she missed so dearly. There was a small selection of leather-bound Shakespeare books from Aunt Mary Elizabeth and Uncle Johnny, a black skirt with suspenders from Auntie Rachel (You should wear that with the boots tonight, honey!), a gorgeous dainty set of silver earrings with a matching necklace from Uncle Joseph himself, a handmade wooden jewelry box from Uncle Robert, a few rare vinyls from Uncky Paul, and a pair of comfy pajamas from always practical Aunt Barbara. Dottie glanced at the wrapping paper and bows lying around her on the kitchen floor and realized she would never have anything to fear as long as she had these people in her corner.

“Well, now that presents are out of the way,” Uncle Joe began, a dangerous glint in his eye. “Tell me about these D&D nerds who are coming to your birthday party.”

“It’s me, I am the D&D nerd in case you forgot,” she said as nonchalantly as she could, feeling a burst of anxious energy at the thought of her dear uncles meeting her new friends. Thank God Uncle Johnny wasn’t here or he’d offer to DM a campaign out of his ass for everyone.

“To be fair, there was no way on Earth you wouldn’t be a nerd with the dad you have,” Rob said.

“And with the Uncles she has,” James quipped.

“And also the Aunties,” Joe finished, remembering how Rachel used to be their de facto leader during their adventures. “But don’t change the topic, I wanna know about your new friends.”

“You’ll meet them soon enough,” Dottie said with an innocent smile. “You’re gonna love Erica.”

Eddie glanced at his wristwatch again after parking his van outside the address Dottie had scribbled for him on a piece of paper. The watch said 7:53, and he took a deep breath knowing he was more late than he had wanted to be. Henderson probably got here fifteen minutes before the party even started, he thought bitterly. He grabbed the terribly wrapped gift - the reason he was way past fashionably late - from his passenger seat and walked up to the front door, taking a few deep breaths to calm his nerves.

Dottie’s house was a typical suburban two-story house. The front lawn looked a little bare aside from the mailbox but seemed to be well taken care of, and there was a big tree to the side of the concrete path that led to the front door. The only indication a party was going on inside the house was a colorful banner hanging from the door frame. He rang the doorbell and waited in silence, straining to hear footsteps approaching.

“Hi there,” a man’s voice said. He was tall, had graying hair and light blue eyes. He looked nothing like he had imagined Dottie’s dad would look like. “You one of Dottie’s friends?”

“Y-yeah,” Eddie said nervously and cleared his throat. “Yes, sir, I’m Eddie.”

“Come on in, kid, you’re just in time for the pizza. You can leave your gift on that table, we open them at candle time. Dorothy! You’ve got one more!”

The man hurried down the hallway leaving Eddie to his devices. The teen looked around curiously, taking the opportunity to get into his usual confident persona in private. He noticed a stack of gifts on the entrance table next to the door and felt incredibly shy putting his on top of them; he’d used at least three times more tape than everyone else had used. Hanging his winter coat amongst the myriad of other jackets already on the rack, he rolled his shoulders and walked down the entryway towards the direction the man had disappeared into. Eddie found himself standing in a cozy and modern-looking living room, the rest of the Hellfire Club lounging around on the couch, the floor or on a few beanbags. Jeff, Mike, and Donny were playing cards at the coffee table with another man, dark haired with a short but carefully kept beard. Dustin had thrown himself on a beanbag and was listening to Erica argue about the Supreme Court with the man that had opened the door, and he spotted Gareth coming in from the kitchen with two bottles of soda on his hands, one of them Dr. Pepper.

“Hey, man!” Mike said, noticing him. “We thought you weren’t coming.”

“Nah, just couldn’t find the right house,” Eddie lied, but it was innocent enough for them to buy it.

“Hey, I’m Robert, Dottie’s uncle,” said the dark haired man, putting his hand out to shake Eddie’s without getting up from his spot on the floor.

“Dude, her uncles play D&D too!” Jeff exclaimed excitedly.

“You’re the DM, right?” Robert asked, things starting to click into place for him.

“Yeah, I’m-”

“Eddie!” Dottie’s gleeful scream interrupted his introduction.

Eddie’s hello got stuck in his throat when he turned to see her setting down two plates full of homemade pizza on the dining table and rush to greet him with a tight hug. A mass of curly hair collided against him and he had to thank his quick reflexes for instantly putting his arms around her or else he would have looked like an idiot in front of everyone. She was wearing a white button up shirt with a big collar, a black high-waisted suspender skirt, see-through black tights with silver sparkles that glinted when she walked, and black boots. He noticed she had done her makeup and her hair was a little bit curlier than normal; if Eddie had to be pressed for a theory he would have said she had obviously tried to style herself like Molly Ringwald, one of her favorite teen actresses. She looked up at him from her spot against his chest and smiled. He nearly forgot how to breathe.

“Hey,” he forced himself to say, aware that people were watching. “Happy birthday!”

“Thank you! You got just in time for pizza,” she said, leaving his warmth to catch one of the plates a third man was carrying from the kitchen and safely putting it down on the dining table. “Are you guys gonna eat here or are we moving?” she leaned over her Uncle Robert’s shoulders, taking a peek at his cards.

“We can eat and play at the same time,” the man answered, patting a spot next to him on the floor. “Sit down, kiddo, you haven’t stopped moving since noon.”

“Where were you?” Gareth asked, putting a plastic cup in Eddie’s hand.

“Got lost on the way, ended up at your house,” he lied again.

“You’re Eddie?” the third man asked, setting a plate and napkins on the coffee table; Mike and Jeff hurried to grab the cheesiest pieces. “I’ve heard a lot about you.”

“Really? About lil ol’ me?” Eddie joked, putting a hand on his chest.

“You’re quite the talented storyteller, Dottie says,” Pizza Man affirmed, Dottie instantly making an exasperated face at him. “I’m James, the Dad.”

“Nice to meet you, sir,” he put on his best winning smile and put his hand out to shake his. “You have a beautiful house.”

“Thanks, kid,” James said, amused, shaking the teen’s hand. “Now what’s this I’ve heard about a pack of gnolls getting distracted by two pregnant mules?”

Eddie felt as if he had stepped into an alternate reality of sorts, a place where parents weren’t afraid of him corrupting their children and he was treated with respect and kindness regardless of how he looked like. James was clearly the coolest dad figure he’d ever met, and Uncles Joseph and Robert were very close behind. The three of them had entertained the teens all night with stories about their college times, their own D&D adventures, and assorted misbehaving. It was clear to all of them, however, that their favorite topic aside from “the good old times” was Dottie.

At some point during the party, a box of photos had come out, and much to Dottie’s shame, the three men had proceeded to tell everyone the most terrible and embarrassing tales from her childhood: from her throwing up on her dad’s car after eating too much at a ren fair at age four to her kicking a boy during her middle school prom after he made fun of the flowers in her hair (Oh, he deserved it, said Erica and everyone agreed with her), not forgetting to take a quick detour on her crush on Silver Spoons’ Jason Bateman.

“Oh my god, it wasn’t that big of a deal!” she hid her face in shame behind Donny’s shoulder, who couldn’t stop laughing.

“Honey, you were in love with the kid.”

“I was 13, that wasn’t love! It was at most a little innocent crush!”

“How in love are we talking about here?” Dustin inquired, rocking back and forth on his knees.

“Oh, we’re talking the whole deal, posters on the walls, love letters-”

“I never sent them!” she tried to defend herself, but Erica already had tears in her eyes. The amount of blackmail that girl was storing away for future use was nearing dangerous levels. “It was just… creative writing!”

“You always did love the bad boys,” Uncle Joe said, much to Eddie’s enjoyment.

“Did?” James commented, getting up to get the cake. “You saw her last year when Better Off Dead came out.”

“No! No, no, no, we’re not talking about this anymore! That movie was terrible!”

“If it was so bad then why did you ask Mary Elizabeth to take you to see it twice?” Uncle Robert said, with an air of finality, making Gareth laugh so hard he lost balance on the couch armrest and had to catch himself on Mike’s shoulder before his ass hit the floor.

As the laughter died down and cake and coffee was being set up at the table, everyone started drifting into different parts of the living room to stretch their legs and break off into little conversations leaving Dottie to collect the photos on the coffee table with incredibly red cheeks. Eddie took pity on her and kneeled down to help, curiously looking at the pictures he hadn’t gotten to see with much interest. Dottie was a puzzle he just couldn’t begin putting together, she was full of contradictions and hidden secrets that pulled him in more and more every time he learned something new about her.

His eyes stopped at a photo that seemed to be stuck to the back of another one; the image on top was a snap of little Dorothy dressed for a school play as an 1800s maiden. Taking a glance at Gareth and Dustin peering through the vinyl collection under the TV, he carefully pulled the two pictures apart and discovered a tender picture of a very young woman holding a sleeping baby against her chest. It didn’t have a date on it but if he had to guess, he was willing to bet his best guitar on the tiny baby being Dottie.

“That’s my Mom,” a soft voice coming from his side said. He looked up to see Dottie leaning close to him, her gaze wistful on the photographic paper in his hand. “That’s the last picture we have of her.”

“How old were you?”

“In this photo? Around six months, maybe? She died before my first Christmas so this is around October.”

“Sorry to hear that,” Eddie said, his own heart raw. “I, uh… I know what that’s like.”

“I know,” he looked up at her admission. “Donny mentioned it once when I told him about my Mom, I hope you don’t mind. I didn’t wanna ask in case you didn’t want to talk about it.”

“No, it’s fine. Don’t worry about it,” he smiled and moved his eyes again to the photo. “What was her name?”

“Margaret,” Dottie said, love dripping from every syllable. “Maggie, if she really liked you.”

“She was really pretty.”

“She was. I look nothing like her,” she chuckled.

It wasn’t a lie; Dorothy Burke was practically a carbon copy of her Dad. Her hair was a much lighter shade of brown than his, and while his was straight, hers was naturally wavy, but every other distinctive feature was from James, not Margaret. Her long thin fingers, her straight nose, her full eyebrows, they were all James, James, James. Margaret had a button nose, short stubby fingers and blonde hair. Dorothy often thought that life had been rather unfair to her; she couldn’t look at her Mom in the mirror as she aged and feel like she was growing up with her nearby. She didn’t resent looking like her Dad, she loved him, but there was always a part of her that shone brighter right after someone told her that she resembled her mother in any way.

“You’re right, you don’t,” Eddie admitted, slipping the picture into the box on her lap. “Doesn’t mean you aren’t beautiful too.”

Dottie watched him get up and go stand next to her Uncle Joseph who was trying to convince Erica she’d be a great lawyer one day, and from the looks of it, had her on board with it. He thinks you’re beautiful, her brain chimed in. Eddie Munson thinks you are beautiful. She put the lid back on the box and went into the kitchen to help with cake preparations, her heart feeling both heavier and lighter at the same time.

“Open ours first!” Dustin said while he thrust a big box wrapped in glossy gift paper into Dottie’s arms.

“We asked my Mom for ideas, hope it’s okay,” Mike said, a little bit embarrassed he had to ask for backup for something as simple as a birthday present for a friend.

“I’m sure I’ll love it,” Dottie reassured him, tearing into the paper. “Aw, guys! This is so cute!”

They were sitting around the coffee table again after blowing the candles, James and Robert passing out pieces of cake on paper plates as they completed The Presents Ritual as directed by Uncle Joe. Inside Dustin and Mike’s box, there was a stationery set complete with a yellow folder covered with a daisy pattern and a matching pencil case.

“We know you love yellow and daisies,” Dustin said. “And now you can use this for Hellfire instead of your old ass binder.”

The old ass binder in question had fallen apart last Friday during a particularly intense fight that involved a horde of pixies and a bunch of terrible rolls. Next presents were equally thoughtful and Hellfire Club related; Jeff had gotten her a set of glittery dice (“So you don’t gotta use your Dad’s anymore”) and Erica’s little box had contained a set of mini figurines and paint. Donny’s bag, however, was full with a bunch of oversized colorful earrings and jelly bracelets (“My sisters said you might like these”). Gareth and Eddie looked at each other, silently deciding who was gonna go last.

“Alright, who’s next?” Uncle Joseph asked, looking at the two boys.

“You can go first,” Eddie hurried to say, acting like he was giving up his spot out of the kindness of his heart. A Beatles Greatest Hits vinyl was playing in the background.

“Mine’s a little bit… weird,” Gareth said, looking shy all of a sudden. “And it isn’t in the color I wanted but-”

“Dude,” she put her hand on top of his. “Shut up.”

“Okay,” he laughed, watching her rip the soft tissue paper and unfold a gray fuzzy blanket.

“A blankie?” Jeff looked at him, a joke ready on his tongue.

“Michigan gets really cold so…. I thought you might like this since I’m not gonna be around for you to steal my flannels anymore.”

“That’s… shit, you can’t do this to me, I’ve been crying all week!” she grinned at him. “You’re so sweet, G, thank you,” Dottie pulled him into a hug, the blanket bunched up between them.

“I wanted yellow, blue or white but they only had red or gray in this size.”

“Gray is perfect, I love it. I’m gonna take it to class with me when it snows.”

“Hold on, why did you say Michigan?” it was Mike’s turn to be confused.

“She got into UMich,” Donny told him.

“Wait, what?” Erica did a double take.

“You’re the full ride Michigan kid?” Jeff said, putting two and two together.

“You didn’t know?” Gareth asked.

“I only told you and Donny,” Dottie admitted, looking at the floor.

Eddie felt something akin to an arrow to the chest. She hadn’t told them. She only told Gareth and Donny. She didn’t tell me.

“Why didn’t you tell us? A full ride is awesome, you should talk about that more,” Dustin said.

“I don’t know, I… I haven’t really thought about college yet. We still have to finish the campaign, and there’s prom and finals first. It’s not a big deal.”

“Dottie, a full ride absolutely is a big deal,” Uncle Robert reminded her, aware of her tendency to minimize her achievements. “You should be proud of it, you earned that on your own.”

“I know but like… I don’t leave until September. Other things feel more important to me right now, I don’t wanna think about it yet.”

“Sorry I spilled the beans,” Gareth looked sheepish.

“No, it’s okay, I should have told you guys. I’m glad everyone knows, though, I promise I wasn’t hiding it. It just really never came up.”

“Well, with a 3.74 GPA we should have guessed it was you,” Eddie smiled, infinitely proud of her and yet terrified that she was pulling away before he even had a chance to make himself at home in her life. “Don’t be a stranger when you’re gone, alright? Don’t join another party without us.”

“You think you can get rid of me that easily, Munson?” she joked back, slipping into their usual banter for comfort.

“Alright, why don’t we open the last present before James starts moping about his baby leaving for college?” Uncle Joseph said, looking at his dear friend’s face.

“I’m not moping!” he defended himself, but it was clear to everyone that he was.

Eddie cleared his throat dramatically, walked towards her, dropped to one knee with his head bent, and presented the gift like one would present a sword to a king. She laughed and grabbed the soft package; he sprung instantly to his feet and put his arms behind his back, waiting. Dottie narrowed her eyes at him as she undid the ribbon and teared into the crinkly paper. She unfolded a very familiar looking shirt and stared at it with an unfocused gaze.

“It’s been almost a month and you still didn’t have one, so I printed one for you,” Eddie explained. “I hope it’s the right size.”

She looked up at him like he’d just given her his firstborn and threw herself at him with teary eyes. Welcome to Hellfire, Eddie had said during her first session, but this, this was different. This wasn’t a “Welcome to Hellfire” or an acceptance to his club. This was Eddie saying you belong with us in the form of a shirt. In the background, they could hear the boys making a scene, teasing him and complaining that they had had to make their own shirts when they had joined.

“Thank you,” she muttered against his chest. It seemed to Eddie that she did that more and more often every day: hiding her face into his body. He wasn’t complaining. “This means more than you know.”

“Means a lot to me too, darling,” he lowered his face into her hair and whispered back. “Happy birthday.”

Dottie was only vaguely aware that Oh! Darling was playing through the speakers as he squeezed her like he never wanted to let go.

taglist (let me know if you want me to add you!): @munsonology

#bunny writes #small town fic #eddie munson x female character #eddie munson x oc #eddie munson fanfic #eddie munson fic #eddie munson #eddie munson x reader #hellfire club #stranger things 4 #gareth stranger things #jeff stranger things #dustin henderson #mike wheeler #erica sinclair #joseph quinn #baby's first fic

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theculturedmarxist · 6 months

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This interview was conducted with a public health employee of the Hawaii State Department of Health (HIDOH), as part of the WSWS Global Workers’ Inquest into the COVID-19 Pandemic. The worker chose to use the pseudonym Robert to protect their identity.

Evan Blake (EB): Thank you for participating in the Global Workers’ Inquest into the COVID-19 Pandemic, it’s a pleasure to interview you. Can you describe your background and training in public health before the pandemic?

Robert (R): My training in public health began more than 25 years ago, initially centered on women’s reproductive health. I earned a degree in Public Health. My focus soon broadened from just women’s health to everyone’s due to the ongoing HIV/AIDS crisis.

Throughout my career, I collaborated with various organizations, including academic institutions and community health centers, to develop programs targeting most of the populations in the Bay Area. These initiatives encompassed health education, addiction support, and promoting healthy relationships, as well as offering HIV/AIDS and HCV [hepatitis C]testing, counseling, contact tracing, case management and patient navigation services. When I moved to Hawaii, I continued doing health education and working with those experiencing developmental disabilities, aging and chronic illnesses.

EB: What were your initial experiences when the pandemic began in early 2020? How would you characterize the initial pandemic response of DOH [Department of Health] and state officials more generally in Hawaii?

R: I noticed in December 2019, when there was talk of unusual illness in China’s news and social media. Seeing how it was being handled there made me concerned. There seemed to be more effort in hiding it than in handling it.

I waited for our government to mention it, especially on a more local level. I really thought that since, historically, the Hawaiian Kingdom has had effective quarantine and mitigation practices, that the current leadership would follow suit. My thinking was that we don’t have rabies in Hawaii, so obviously we know how to keep viruses out.

By February, I started contacting the DOH to hire me to help out any way possible. This looked like something that could easily be squashed if they rounded up all the HIV experts and put them to work. In early March, I put my disabled clients on quarantine. I bought a bunch of fabric and a serger and my family and I made hundreds of masks. Airborne transmission has always been known.

On March 4, 2020, Hawaii’s Democratic Governor David Ige declared a state of emergency in response to COVID-19, granting the state greater flexibility in responding to the crisis. This is officially when the problems with disappearing COVID funds began. On March 26, Ige issued a stay-at-home order, closing nonessential businesses and implementing strict travel restrictions.

I participated in the statewide Lt. Governor’s COVID town halls. Stay-at-home orders in March and May helped keep the numbers low. I waited for the health department to do something and cranked out masks. Schools had gone online at this point. It went pretty well for us. My kid’s school was really proactive about making sure the kids had access to what or who they needed, including computers.

My partner was labeled an essential worker because he was in construction. His boss took full advantage of this allowance and I wrote several of our state’s representatives who seemed actively concerned about COVID, about what to do in this situation.

By the end of May 2020, Dr. Mark Mugiishi, the chief executive of HMSA, brokered a deal with the UH Manoa nursing school to provide students to be trained as contact tracers. They were supposed to have seven different cohorts, but they stopped at three or four. Most of the trainees were never hired to do any work in the DOH and a majority of the graduates got letters stating thanks, but no thanks. The DOH only ever brought on a couple hundred contact tracers. That was after they got in trouble for not having enough and refusing help.

All the tracers and investigators started out being hired by agencies other than the DOH. This meant that we had no rights, but we had the same responsibilities as any other employee would have. We didn’t get hazard pay, union, or PTO, couldn’t participate in any of the benefits or mental health support and other programs they regularly provided and encouraged all employees to participate in. Most of us worked from 7 a.m. to late in the evening most nights. Most tracers and investigators were not from the locally COVID-trained cohorts.

A majority of the COVID hires weren’t brought in until much later in 2020 or in 2021. More were needed and available and instead of hiring tracers or case management, a call center was contracted to bottleneck the high volume of calls and cases.

State officials are notoriously reactive to any problem, emergency-related or not. The officials in charge of HIDOH when the pandemic was officially recognized were ill-fitted for their positions. Their responses were lackluster at best, with Sarah Park (state epidemiologist, COVID response leader) coming in to the UH Manoa COVID trainings to tell us that contact tracing was ineffective, as well as other disease mitigation techniques that we were being trained on, like routine screening.

When the contact tracing program started at the DOH, the National Guard was tasked with training us and facilitating most of the COVID mitigation efforts. This was after they had only received one day of training themselves. I met not one of them who had any health background whatsoever.

It’s been a performative disaster from the very start. Our DOH and state leadership were instrumental in encouraging the spread of COVID-19. State officials were slow to respond and, when they did, it was never an appropriate response. Hawaii usually sees at least 30,000 visitors per day from all over the world. They did everything in their power to keep that going.

EB: You mentioned that DOH employees were split up into different groups, including groups working with prisoners, homeless people, sports personnel, the wealthy, etc. Can you describe this in more detail and the class divide in the pandemic response in Hawaii?

R: DOH employees as a whole are siloed and do not collaborate or even have the slightest clue what the others are doing ever. It was difficult trying to get resources or info from within when trying to access data or connect people with other services. It was deeply embarrassing to me sometimes how incompetent everyone was.

For the pandemic efforts, the entire venture was militarized and we were beholden to chain of command operations as civilians. We were not allowed to speak to our higher-ups. Many were discouraged from speaking to anyone.

The contact tracing and case investigation were separated into several different focus groups headed by epidemiologists. These epidemiologists already had a disease focus and their loads were not lightened. They were added to. Most of them are not in fact actual trained epidemiologists. They have fallen into the position often through nepotistic means and meet bare minimum educational requirements. They had a lot of weird toxic drama that affected program function overall.

For example, if your team’s epidemiologist didn’t get along with a different team’s epidemiologist and you needed a file or lab result or info about an individual in their category, they may delay the info or just never give it to you. It was the worst addition to an already extreme high-stress situation.

The main group management often fell to the inexperienced National Guard, who were under the epidemiologists. Each group’s numbers fluctuated and usually had about 7–15 people, half National Guard, half civilian. The focuses were separated into schools, food service, military, healthcare and LT facilities, travel/VIP, Pacific Islander, severe/death, correctional facilities and homeless.

We had to wait for the daily cases to be handed to the epidemiologists. They would post new cases as they were processed into the system usually via an external call center, who received the cases mostly via the department’s only fax machine.

HIDOH hired an external call center to handle what was called first contact calls. This was actually one of the biggest obstructions to actual contact tracing or any real handling of infected patients in a timely manner.

First contact call center got the first reporting of the case. The report would come in via fax (another massive problem). That person’s name and number would be taken down and someone from the call center or the National Guard would call and ask screening questions about their health and symptoms, often with not much health training. They had three days for the individual to answer before they stopped calling and threw it out.

By the time investigators or tracers got the case, it was often 5–10 days old. We never did real contact tracing in the department. Real contact tracing would involve calling the case immediately to help them trace and notify anyone who may have been exposed. It would also involve timely and actual distribution of resources, including testing, food and money. This is not what happened.

I saw hundreds of people who were overqualified for resources denied or provided the offered resources too late. Some tracers did what could be considered “guerrilla tracing” because they had their contact info passed around for those who needed help and couldn’t get through to the health department when they needed to, or they just needed resources or their results.

A majority of people who were infected did not receive a call from the DOH or any help. They also didn’t receive guidance on quarantine or health at all. Internally, there was never training or updating on variants, pathology or how to ask sensitive questions and talk to the general public. There was a lot of secrecy and internal guidance that wasn’t health-oriented or generally useful. It was often self-congratulatory and bloviated.

This all increased the class divide as those in the service industry couldn’t afford to heal or get better and many lost and are losing their jobs. Those who were able to sealed themselves away. Admin stayed in their offices and told no one to enter, and there was an increase in work-from-home jobs for those with privilege or education, like myself.

EB: Hawaii has the highest per capita number of active US military personnel of any US state and is the state’s largest income producer, yet tourism is often claimed to be the state’s dominant industry. What were the roles of the military and the tourism industry in relation to the pandemic?

R: The military has largely handled their own COVID cases, navigation, and often not sharing when they have clusters that directly impact civilians.

The tourism industry has a finger in everything. They have been extremely instrumental in helping COVID spread. Tourism interests are largely against the people of Hawaii, who are more often harmed than helped by their existence. Tourism and business degrees are what steers most of the boards of every institution in this state. You will find significantly more business degrees than Kanaka (Hawaiian person) representing leadership in the islands. Tourism is why most of those whose birthright is the islands are homeless or not in the islands.

Both industries had large roles in facilitating spread. They pushed to keep everything open and often refused to cooperate with the HIDOH in COVID mitigation efforts.

EB: How have the federal pandemic funds approved under Trump and Biden been dispersed within Hawaii? Can you describe any corruption or negligence that you’ve seen in this regard?

R: I can pretty much only describe corruption and negligence regarding the usage of funds. The HIDOH let over 30 million dollars’ worth of badly needed COVID tests go to waste and then spent over $60,000 to destroy them. The schools never saw much of the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) funds put to use in the schools for mitigation efforts. Countless non-profits denied resources to the community. A robot dog was purchased to test homeless people for COVID, over $1 million were spent on Thanksgiving turkeys in Maui. Oahu’s police department got a bunch of new toys.

The HIDOH never upgraded their information transmission capabilities. They depended on two fax machines for the entirety of the COVID efforts, meaning that all data and case info was transmitted through these machines, slowing down any work or real efforts.

The machines ran over the weekend and whoever was on the following Monday had literal piles of data to enter into the system for reported cases, hospital data, etc. The whole venture has been performative negligence. The funding was better and more resources were distributed while Trump was president. Biden is an absolute disgrace, considering he campaigned on getting rid of COVID.

Most of the funds that could have been used to improve the community and help mitigate COVID were used irresponsibly and have been absorbed by the state. Governor Ige went out of his way to pass legislation that approved shady usage of funds and halt transparency. Governor Green is even worse. The COVID response was just a preview for how Green is handling the Lahaina fires.

EB: Schools reopened with less and less mitigation measures each year, causing repeated waves of mass viral transmission. Can you describe this process and the public health measures you advocated for them to implement? What was the response of various officials to your efforts? How are you seeing the impacts on children, including with Long COVID?

R: The 2020 school response was much better than the following years. Students were provided Chromebooks and instruction from their teachers. It wasn’t implemented in a way that made it easy for many instructors and families, but it was the safest option that was provided.

The following year, the district (the state has only 1) offered something completely different.

In-person instruction or a program for those staying home, that required the parent or caregiver to spend 4–6 hours per day implementing. With no live teachers or real support offered from the school or Department of Education (DOE). The schools who offered it didn’t even know what it was or how it functioned. They just referred parents to the program’s website or phone number if they needed any assistance.

Often parents who required more support or Special Education (SPED) services for their children were ignored, punished, had CPS called on them, or were harassed by some school’s staff and admin.

In many of the poorest areas, where much of our service industry workforce resides, the schools didn’t even offer an alternative to in-person classes. I’m in one of these areas and I removed my child from her school after they refused to provide any support or programming besides that awful program they were offering which forced the parent to provide instruction without support. I already had a job. They called CPS on me. They would send staff to my door every week to sign unnecessary paperwork. They did this for two years. Officials didn’t care. The School’s Superintendent and the super for my area was never even available and never returned calls. I called weekly. I was working on so many cases connected to our schools the whole time, it was no question about removing my kid.

None of the public schools had their air systems improved or HEPA filters added. Some were using hand sanitizer on children’s desks in between classes when they were supposed to sanitize them properly. There wasn’t any solid guidance provided to the schools. Every time I got through to a school nurse or principal about a case, they begged for info on what to do and how to handle mitigations with all the sickness.

Sickness in children and school staff wasn’t being reported accurately because contact tracers were instructed not to connect cases in the classroom with each other. This kept the cluster report low. Many teachers were punished for mentioning their own infections and they were not allowed to notify students’ parents either. This devastated our community, since it has one of the highest counts of multigenerational households in the nation.

Josh Green, who is now Hawaii’s governor, was the head of the COVID Task Force. His main messaging has only ever been regarding vaccines. He spent a significant amount of time pointing the finger at many of our Pasifika communities in regard to their vaccine hesitancy instead of working with them to mitigate COVID in other ways.

When the 2021–22 school year started, the district was ill-prepared and kids weren’t approved for vaccines yet. The school’s superintendent, Christina Kishimoto, was completely useless at getting any mitigations in the schools at all. She ignored the entire community, including so many teachers and parents who tried to keep or make the schools, or at least education, safe and accessible to all.

Senator Brian Schatz and others who had been previously notified about in-school spread and the actual numbers present instead of the falsely low reported ones, maintained the script that children needed to learn in-person. Even after in-person learning saw children being shoved together in cafeterias all day without proper instruction due to sick staff, those in charge maintained that the children needed to be in schools. This was supposedly for their mental health and education, which had never been prioritized previously.

Hawaii has had a major deficit in adequate and accessible education, as well as mental health care providers and services, for a very long time. Additionally, we don’t have school nurses in each school like many contiguous states offer. Many of our schools share a nurse and may not have an area for children to be sick or wait for someone to get them from school.

In-school cases often fell to vice principals and other staff. By the 2022–23 school year, schools had removed any guidance that was useful. They never upgraded or improved the air systems. Many of our schools have had problems with lack of proper air conditioning for a long time before the pandemic. The pandemic just made it worse.

There was a program created at the start of the 2022–23 school year to make the DOH, DOE and CDCF work together to improve the conditions in the schools. The HIDOE refused to meet or participate in any improvements to their school’s systems, provide resources such as testing, PPE or pandemic guidance.

Our state leadership has met with many COVID experts, DOH employees and medical staff who have told them what is happening in their districts, classrooms, hospitals and the community throughout the official pandemic and even now. They all have given lip-service and often have reacted appropriately in those meetings but nothing ever comes of it.

At first, children were just getting cold-like symptoms like everyone else. Those who had existing health issues usually suffered more. Not many children’s cases were followed past the initial call. Over time, Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children (MIS-C) became a focus as the children’s symptoms didn’t always go away.

Since Omicron emerged in November 2021, kids have had an increase in seizures and a lot of problems with focus and memory. My child has had several friends die from COVID. Long COVID in kids is terrifying, and the impact is already noticeable. Mine just stated that what everyone needs to know is that it’s harder for kids to learn now. She notices so much brain damage in her peers already. Before she got COVID, it was easier for her to process information. Things take much longer now.

To be honest, I’ve rarely seen an actual full recovery. People move benchmarks and brain damage is extremely hard to self-identify. COVID is long and lasting. Nearly every infection shows damage whether it’s noticed or not. For those who don’t have immediate consequences, it’s playing the long game.

EB: How else are you seeing the ongoing impacts of the pandemic associated with COVID-19 infection, including Long COVID?

R: I noticed very early on that regardless of how mild the cases were, there were often residual issues with the person’s ability to handle and process information. The one symptom that should be tracked more than temperature is cognitive ability—confusion, disorientation, odd and unusual thoughts and behaviors. The ongoing impact of any COVID infection is a significant amount of unchecked and untracked brain damage. It’s very difficult to self-diagnose and most of our medical providers are still unaware of COVID and how it presents.

Getting infected with COVID can reduce the immune system’s ability to function. Each reinfection can reduce immune function even more, inviting opportunistic infections to eventually kill us. This is how HIV functions, but at least there is treatment for that. There’s no treatment for Long COVID and there’s even less treatment or care for those under 12 years old. The impact I see right now is immense. Children and young adults are exhibiting Alzheimer’s and dementia-like symptoms, and there are huge increases of cancer, diabetes and heart problems at the population level.

EB: What have been your experiences advocating for Long COVID patients, and what are some of your greatest concerns with the “mass disabling event” of Long COVID associated with the pandemic? What do doctors know or not know, and what do you think needs to be done to address this?

R: While documenting cases in 2020, some had symptoms that just wouldn’t resolve. A few threatened to commit suicide and were in constant and severe pain. Many of their doctors didn’t believe them. I would contact their doctors and explain what Long COVID was. I would send them studies if they requested and would tell them what labs or referrals to order for their patients.

Many doctors were receptive at first. Some would gaslight the patients, saying that they were experiencing anxiety and not their actual ongoing COVID symptoms. I made an extra effort to contact those ones because they were making the patients worse and confused. I spent hundreds of hours on social media spaces giving talks about COVID, Long COVID and what I was seeing. Other Long COVID sufferers and advocates would join.

None of this data was being collected or distributed by our DOH, regardless of how the variants mutated or the community was being impacted. Any attempts to send information up the chain of command to the top were ignored and sometimes punished.

Over time, the doctors I was working with were getting Long COVID themselves. It led to a significant reduction in care for their patients. Some would brush the issue off because they had it and they were working, which they thought meant they were fine.

Doctors need to have proper information and guidance. Without it, many people are being told COVID isn’t really a problem. They trust their doctors to know about COVID. Their doctors are unknowingly feeding them to the fire. Vaccines are only one layer of a many-layered solution, and at this point vaccines aren’t very effective at preventing infection as the virus continues to rapidly mutate and new variants continue to evolve.

In terms of public health as a whole, the CDC is looked at as the main guidance for all these institutions. They need to be putting out clear messaging about COVID being airborne, the fact that an infection commonly lasts anywhere from 14–20 days, each reinfection can reduce immune function, and COVID is a vascular disaster that can wreck any and all organs of the body. These are things that scientists have known since 2020. There is absolutely no reason Drs. Rochelle Walensky and Anthony Fauci didn’t know the correct protocols for handling this pandemic. They both have HIV backgrounds.

My greatest concern about this mass disabling event is that I live in Hawaii. Disabled people were hidden, ignored and underserved here before the pandemic. It was nearly impossible to find mental and behavioral health services and they were often insufficient at best.

When everyone keeps getting reinfected, they will not be able to function. There’s low availability for services now and it’s already getting pretty noticeable. My friends working in the hospital are reporting incredibly low staff numbers and extreme burnout. We only had nine ambulances in circulation a couple weeks ago due to callouts.

Suicides, mental hospital stays and inability to function are becoming increasingly common and we’re just getting started. Since the pandemic began, there’s been an increase in car and plane accidents, heart attacks, diabetes, cancers, previously rare disorders and sudden deaths. Currently, COVID is listed as the third leading cause for death in the US, but if data were properly collected, COVID would be number one.

I took someone to the doctor for a head wound to be stitched and the doctor didn’t even mention concussion protocol. He said strange things that hadn’t been relevant regarding COVID since 2021. He behaved odd and childlike.

This mass disabling event is largely invisible. Many cannot self-diagnose the brain damage that a significant percentage of infections cause to some degree. It changes moods, thoughts, function, and can make people confused or angry.

My biggest concern is that with mass infection and reinfection, everyone is getting their brains melted. Who will take care of anyone when no one is left healthy and functional? Who will grow our food, participate in society, or even be able to get out of bed after we’ve all had multiple infections? Who will be left?

EB: Those are critical points, and concerns that should be more widely shared. The propaganda of the corporate media and political establishment has had a real impact, and prevented masses of people from understanding the dangers of COVID-19 and Long COVID.

Changing topics somewhat, when we spoke before you said that “Lahaina is an active crime scene, just like the COVID situation here is also an active crime scene.” Can you elaborate more on this and the criminal negligence that you believe caused this catastrophic fire? What other connections do you see between this fire and the COVID-19 pandemic?

R: Just the fact that there’s such a focus from those in charge on reopening and getting back to work tells me everything I need to know. The community just experienced a life-altering trauma and instead of really taking care of them and helping them get situated and time and resources to heal, it’s full-steam ahead. Open up, get back to work, go to school. Don’t worry about how you’re going to pay that mortgage on the burn pile where you used to live.

Just like with the COVID pandemic, the Emergency Management Agency lead didn’t have experience. They didn’t sound any alarm, and clearly weren’t well versed on emergency response protocols, otherwise they would have correctly used the emergency alarm system. Instead, Herman Andaya reasoned with everyone about why he didn’t think they were necessary.

For COVID, Josh Green facilitated thousands of tourists freely and consistently infecting our community with almost no guidance other than to get vaccinated. He gaslit us for years from his whiteboard and scrubs. He got even worse after he got COVID. The brain damage is real.

Why didn’t Maui sound the emergency system that is used for emergencies including wildfires? Why didn’t HIDOH enact their public health police powers to protect the community from COVID? Why do they both consistently report false numbers? Why do they both tell the community about resources that exist, but in reality are not actually available? Why is the community being forced to bear the brunt of the outcome of both disasters alone? Why does our leadership refuse to work with the community to solve either issue?

I know how greedy and careless this government is first-hand. Especially when local people are involved. Both disasters have resulted in very high losses to our Filipino and Pasifika communities.

How are we the only state without a fire marshal? Why is there never anyone held accountable? How do all these incredibly incompetent folks keep getting replaced by more incompetence? Nepotism. It has led to incredible incompetence and I have to assume it’s why there’s no accountability or oversight anywhere or for anything.

EB: Since the beginning of the pandemic, the WSWS has advocated for the full deployment of all available public health measures to eliminate SARS-CoV-2 throughout the world. Multiple countries proved that such a Zero-COVID strategy was possible, and we now know even more about viral transmission.

We have stressed that the fundamental reason this global elimination strategy has not been implemented is due to the division of the world into rival nation-states and the refusal of the capitalist ruling elites to accept any impingement on their ability to exploit workers and generate profits. What are your thoughts on this, and do you agree that we need to fight for a global elimination strategy?

R: The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has exposed the challenges associated with the division of the world into nation-states, each pursuing its own approach to pandemic management. It’s been an absolute disaster.

When the virus first hit and people began seeing consequences and acting accordingly, I thought we had a chance at stopping the virus. Then the countries with more behaved greedily. They hoarded and wasted resources in the face of the countries who couldn’t get access to resources from the global market.

We are all in this together and no one is getting off this rock alive. Working together is the only way to get rid of this virus and all the others that have been popping up in the past few years.

Unfortunately, such an approach seeks to prioritize the well-being of individuals and communities over economic interests as Cuba has done. They developed their own COVID-19 vaccines. They consistently have the lowest reported COVID cases and deaths globally. Often close to zero. Their vaccines work much better than ours have been.

This reflects true commitment to public health and an ability to leverage existing medical and scientific infrastructure to respond to the pandemic independently.

EB: Thank you for this invaluable interview and contribution to the Global Workers’ Inquest.

R: Thank you.

#covid 19 #hawaii #long covid #covid response #covid pandemic #class war #brain damage #Rochelle Walensky #Anthony Fauci

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reallyromealone · 2 years

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Halloween was upon everyone and (name) and Eddie were excited, they had big plans this year.

This was little (sons names) first Halloween!

The pup had no clue what was going on, wearing a tiny Beetlejuice costume as (name) and Eddie dressed as the Nathan's, Eddie rocking a dress.

The kids were all hyped along with Robin and dragged steve with her as they were a package deal.

The tweens were excited as hell and little Holly was joining them this year so Mr and Mrs wheeler could have a night to themselves, apparently finding that spark again but the small child was chill as she held onto (name)s hands "remember, meet back at the street sign at eight and then we come back and watch a movie" Steve said as the group split up, the tweens wanting to go goof off while the adults and children did a simple trick or treat "you two are totally using (sons name) for candy"

"No proof" (name) said with a sly grin and Eddie nodded "we just want our boy to have a good Halloween" before the couple took holly and (sons name) to their first house, the tiny pup getting extra candy because he was precious as hell.

"Dustin is gonna try and yoink our three Musketeers" Eddie said and (name) chuckled "he better have something worth the exchange" and Eddie just snorted at that, mumbling something about the Henderson's and their nugat. "When it got a little later, (name) put a light sweater on holly and (sons name) to make sure they kept warm "you good Hun?"

"Yeah!" Holly said happily and ran up to the next house with Eddie who took over holding their pup "How do you think the shitheads are doing" Steve asked eating a chocolate bar as robin ate a sucker "oh they are probably getting into some mischief but as long as it's not a crime..." (Name) said simply as Eddie and the children returned and (sons name) gave a big yawn "oh someone's tired" (name) said fixing his sons hair "good job bud, you did good for your first Halloween!" Eddie cheered to the babe who was basically passed out in his dad's arms "let's hit up a few more houses and then check on the brats"

By time they went to the party, holly was asleep in Steve's arms and (sons name) was letting out tiny snores "how goes the candy collection?"

The tweens had candy filled pillow cases "Mrs. Roberts is giving full sized bars!"

"Shit really? Shame the babes are asleep" (name) said teasingly as he went to fix his brothers costume "(naaame) it's supposed to me like that"

"Well finish up, it's almost eight"

The drive home was split between Eddie and Steve, Eddie and (name) taking: holly, their kid, Dustin, Lukas and El.

Steve took : max, Will and Mike with Robin sitting upfront.

"You guys have fun? Loving the ghost costume el!" (Name) said as he glanced back at the group of pups "thank you (name)" Eleven looked very happy as she held her costume in her lap while trading candy with Lukas "what movie are we watching anyways?"

"Well, rob and Stevie managed to save us a copy of Poltergeist" Eddie said as he took (name)s hand gently, rubbing his thumb over the top of his hand as he drove "wait really?!" Dustin was hyped as the kids got excited "remember there's two sleeping pups here" Eddie chastised gently and the kids just looked hyped as they made it to the Munson residence, the other half already there and waiting for Eddie and (name) "Steve unlock the door while I get the pups" (name) said tossing the brunet the house keys as he and Eddie collected the pups, Eddie with their son and (name) with little Holly "Mrs wheeler said if she falls asleep before her bath to just get her in her pjs and I can let you handle her hair yeah?" (Name) said and Eddie nodded, the two walking into the apartment and thankfully they told the neighbors that they would have people over as the kids giggles and laughed as the parents put the pups to sleep, a spare fold up bed for little holly and (sons name) his crib.

The two changed the kids and Eddie put Holly's hair in two loose braids before tucking them in and turning on the nightlight.

Returning to the movie night, everyone had gotten the snacks set up as Eddie got into his recliner, a gift from the party as a collective for fathers day "you aren't a dad without a dad chair!" Mike said with a shit eating grin but it was used often and quickly became Eddie's chair.

(Name) was about to sit on the couch when Eddie pulled him into his lap as the tweens fake gagged "ew old people kissing!"

"Oh hush, you're all gonna be old too!"

Eventually everyone settled down as the movie started, (name) feeding Eddie snacks as he ate contently and snuggled into his mate as the smell of Eddie's pharamones soothed him, a soft kiss on (name)s head and a gently rubbing on his hip had (name) turned into putty.

(Name) smiled as he watched his friends and family all together and happy and let out soft purrs of content.

When the movie ended the kids were all passed out as Steve and Robin made their leave "we did it babe.." (name) said softly "we used our kid for free candy"

"I knew it!" Dustin said sleepily before passing out.

#eddie munson x male reader #stranger things x reader #stranger things x male reader #male reader #eddie munson x reader

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zablife · 2 years

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Camping

Jack Nelson x family

Summary: Jack Nelson’s four children are playing one hot, summer day and decide to cool off in their father’s office, pretending to camp out under his large desk. What will happen when their father returns home unexpectedly?

Author’s Note: Written for @deans-ch-ch-cherrypie Hot Fic Summer Challenge. I chose camping for the PB fandom. I was going to go in another direction with this originally and then I stumbled on the pictures below and decided on something completely different. I hope you enjoy it! (I used the family structure of another story I wrote called Homecoming. You don’t need to read that fic to understand this one though.)

Warnings: language

It was a hot day in Boston and the sun baked the pavement to a temperature more suitable for frying eggs than jumping rope. The neighborhood kids didn't seem bothered, chasing each other with shrill squeals of delight despite the scorching heat.

Jack Nelson’s four children had been playing outside for hours. Their cheeks were pink with fresh sun which would leave a constellation of freckles across their tiny noses by the end of summer. Their mother had used her time in an empty house wisely, busying herself with household chores. Hearing her bustling about inside, they looked around for ways to entertain themselves.

Five year old Susan was the first to suggest they come inside to escape the harsh rays of the midday sun. “I’m too hot,” she protested to her eight year old brother, Robert.

“Alright, come on. Let’s go in,” he sighed in agreement. Being the oldest, he took it upon himself to call to Elizabeth and Mary, leading them indoors in a tidy line like baby ducks.

When they entered the house, the air felt thick and stagnant despite a single fan running in the corner. The fan occasionally blew hot air across the living room, but it did little to bring them relief. Six year old Elizabeth piped up with an idea. She was always coming up with fun things to do so the other children listened intently.

“Daddy’s office is nice and cool. Let’s go there,” she suggested.

“Mom said we can’t go in there!” Susan said protesting.

“Don’t be a chicken, Susie !” Elizabeth taunted her, running toward the door.

“I don’t know, girls, let’s play something else,” Robert said trying to keep his sisters from imminent trouble.

“Daddy isn’t home, silly! He can’t punish us if he’s not here. Let’s play under his desk! It will be like we’re camping,” Elizabeth said employing her imagination.

“Yes! That would be so much fun!” Susan agreed, changing her mind.

“Oh, alright, but just for a little while,” Robert said watching his three sisters barge into their father’s study.

It was dark and quiet, a somber atmosphere that made them all hush their incessant chatter. It was cooler inside as their mother had drawn the shades early that morning so the sunlight could not warm the space.

Three year old Mary brought a blanket from the sofa and let it drag behind her as she toddled into the room. She asked for Robert’s help to drape it over their father’s desk to make a fort and he agreed. "Look, now we have a door!" she cried in delight, watching the fabric cover the opening under the desk. She pulled it back like a curtain to demonstrate and Robert nodded his approval.

Jack’s oak desk was a monstrosity that took up a portion of the room by the large window. It had impressive carvings and beautiful brass handled drawers, but the girls liked the fact that they could fit under it with room to spare. Robert had long since stopped this kind of play, preferring to sit in his father’s chair instead and imagine himself as the boss.

He watched his little sisters huddle under the desk. Only their feet were visible behind the blanket door to their "house." They played quietly for a few minutes before someone stepped on Mary’s fingers and she began to wail loudly. “Shh, don’t cry, Mary,” Robert said, moving the blanket aside to reach in and pick her up.

“I want Mommy!” Mary cried loudly. Robert dutifully went in search of their mother, but not before Elizabeth cried after him, “Don’t tell Mom we’re here!” Robert didn’t look back, but Elizabeth knew he wouldn’t snitch.

With just the two girls under the desk, their play space had increased and they giggled as they laid on their backs, pushing their feet into the top of the desk. They banged their feet against the wood and hummed to themselves, pretending they were walking on the ceiling.

Suddenly they heard someone approaching the room and looked at each other in fear. They knew the sound of their father’s heavy footsteps. The girls sat up quickly, but realized there was no time to run away and tried to hide themselves without making a sound.

Jack looked puzzled as he walked in, finding Mary’s blanket lying across his desk. He balled it up and placed it in a drawer quickly apologizing to whoever he was with, “My kids must have been in here today. Little rascals,” he said. The girls pulled their knees up to their chest and pushed themselves against the front of the desk, trying to keep their little feet out of sight.

“Now, gentlemen, where were we? The contracts, right?” He searched the drawers looking for his paperwork and found it, placing the documents on the his desk.

After a moment of hearing pages flip above them another man's voice sternly accused, “This isn’t the deal we were promised, Nelson."

Jack sucked in a breath before answering, “Well this is the fucking deal you get, boys. Take it or leave it.”

Elizabeth and Susan clapped hands over their mouths, eyes wide at their father's foul language. They had heard him use the f word before and their mother explained it was a very bad word that shouldn't be repeated. The forbidden nature of the curse made it irresistible to them though and they could barely contain their giggles whenever they heard a naughty word. Today was no exception. Susan began first and Elizabeth soon followed, snickering to themselves.

Jack looked from right to left, trying to find the source of the noise he had heard. He closed his eyes briefly, trying to compose himself when it hit him that his children were in the room. Then he thought to check under the desk. He knew his girls were obsessed with that hiding spot.

No sooner had he ducked his head under the desk, they yelped, “Daddy!” Jack motioned for them to come to him and they slowly crawled out.

“I’m sorry for the interruption, fellas. Just let me deal with this real quick,” Jack said trying to handle the situation at hand. Before he could say anything to his children, Elizabeth had popped up next to him and was staring down the grown men in front of her with no sign of fear.

“Are you gonna take the fucking deal or not?” Elizabeth said in a loud, clear voice, arms folded across her chest to signal that she meant business. Jack's head whipped around to look at his daughter. There was no mistake what she had said. He was silent for a moment before letting out a hearty laugh. He shrugged sheepishly before saying, “What can I say, the kid takes after her old man!”

Then he bent down to the girls and pointed a finger at them threateningly. “You tell your mother about this and you’re grounded for a week." He knew he would be in just as much trouble as Elizabeth if his wife found out about her outburst. "Now go play!” he said giving their backs a nudge. Susan grabbed Elizabeth’s hand and pulled her from the room before they could cause any more trouble.

#Peaky Blinders fanfic #Peaky blinders imagine #Jack Nelson fanfic #Jack Nelson imagine #cherry pie’s hot fic summer

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elm-writes-stories · 10 months

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Cuphead: Isle of Shadows(Rewrite)

*Hey guys! I'm back with another episode of the rewrite of Cuphead: Isle of Shadows. This is published on July 16, 2023. If you guys like this episode, don't forget to heart it, reblog, and comment! That would be greatly appreciated! Warning: There will be blood, cannibalism, and violence, including gun shot wounds. If you don't like any of those things, please don't read. Enjoy!*

Episode Three: When The Innocent Becomes The Prey

Violence was always the answer.

As a ten-year-old, Hunter understood that. His father made him understand that. His cuts, bruises, and scars marked deep into his skin and shaped into what a beautiful mix of a victim and a monster he had become.

His father ran the Mason Corporations, something Hunter knew he would inherit soon. The Mason Corporations was supposed to give the medications out to patients with mental illnesses both rare and common and to diagnose them with proper treatments. No law in the Inkwell Isle said how the patients should be diagnosed. What most patients called the torture chamber, Hunter and his father called a lab. Many times, his father conducted experiments on the patients by giving medications that either works well for them or doesn’t. However, most of the time, it doesn’t work out.

Hunter heard many screams and cries of pain and agony from desperate people begging with all of their souls to be cured of this torturous illnesses that crippled them, only for them to form new illnesses along with it. Since watching his father running endless experiments of the ill lab rats, Hunter decided to experiment on his own.

Every day after school, Hunter would trap squirrels in cages and put the cages into the red round tub. Then, he grabbed a water hose and placed it in the tub, turning the water on. From there, Hunter watched as the squirrels in cages would fight for breath. Try as they could, the water eventually caught up to the squirrels. Hunter watched their heads disappeared into the water and the bubbles surfacing until the bubbles no longer came up.

Hunter would do this every day until a teacher caught him doing those experiments. Of course, the teacher expressed her concerns to Hunter’s mother and father without knowing that they were the wrong people to tell about her concerns about Hunter. After the teacher told Hunter’s parents about him, the young tiger could hear his parents yelling at each other at night.

“Please, Robert! We can’t keep hiding this! Everyone will know that you run the cult—”

“Shut up, woman!” Robert, Hunter’s father, shouted. “I told you not to tell anyone. I swear if you run your mouth and tell everyone about what I do, I’ll kill you. You hear me? Kill you!”

“Robert, please, if Hunter doesn’t stop acting like this, everyone in this city will know—”

“Then we’ll put him in a mental hospital. The city will see that there’s something wrong with my son and it’ll paint us as good parents for trying to help him,” Robert said. “Think about it, Victoria. The city will see that I am a good father to him.”

A sigh came from Hunter’s mother. “Right. We should do that.”

Hunter had his round ears pinned back with his fangs shown when he snarled.

The next day, Hunter was sent to the mental hospital called Tremaine Institute. The doctors there were trying to manhandle him into the hospital as the young tiger kicked and screamed, glaring at his parents for the last time in a long time.

If Hunter remembered his first three years at Tremaine Institute, there were kids there. What happened to those kids? Hunter was never friends with them. But there was one kid he liked to pick on. A very gullible kid who goes by Tommy Lee Cup, a schizophrenic child who was withdrawn from his peers.

Tommy Lee Cup had a big orange nose with a broken-off handle. His ceramic head was cracked as if he had damaged himself before going into the mental institution. His hands fidgeted together, his arms to his sides at all times, and his eyes always looked around the room for anything. He couldn’t concentrate on Hunter coming up beside him.

“Hey,” Hunter greeted the young cup. “I want you to show you something in Room 327.”

Tommy flinched back and shook his head. “We’re not allowed to leave here. Hey, look, someone drew a blue dog.”

“Really?” Hunter asked and then glanced at the kid. “Oh come on, I’m sure no one will notice us.”

“B-But—”

Hunter took Tommy by the hand. “C’mon. I promise it’ll be quick.”

Hunter led Tommy away from the room, leading him down the hall to room 327, right where a chair and an electroconvulsive machine with two dials and headphones were at.

Tommy’s scream could be heard later on in the night, down the hall. The doctors hurried down the hallway and bursted through the door to find Hunter using the electroconvulsive machine on Tommy. Tommy’s scream faded by the time the doctors moved away from the machine and turned it off.

“Don’t you realize what you have done?!” one of the doctors yelled at Hunter while the other doctors picked up dead Tommy from the chair.

Hunter’s response was a shit-eating grin that let his fangs glistened in the light, putting the doctor yelling at him in fear.

In the next three years, Hunter was in a straitjacket and had his mouth muzzled and barely having food to feed until Hunter managed to convinced therapists that he didn’t like hurting people anymore and he said it with so much fear and emotion. Heck, he copied Tommy’s tendencies with the fidgeting of the hands and not concentrating on the therapist talking to him. The doctors fell for it and released Hunter back to the world. However, the doctors didn’t know until too late that it was one of the worst mistakes they could have ever make.

Hunter was back home with his parents, dead silent. Hunter’s mother, Victoria, had chills down her spine while Robert was more than happy that Hunter was home. But Hunter could tell it was fake. For the first time in a long while, he was angry at his parents. His glare never withering when looking at both his mom and his dad. What was this growing flame in his heart? Anger? Betrayal? Revenge? Maybe all three?

Yes…all three.

In the dead night after his father went to sleep and his mother getting ready for bed, thirteen-year-old Hunter walked around the kitchen and grabbed the biggest knife he could find. He hurried up to his father’s room as quietly as possible until he approached his father’s bedside. Then, without remorse, Hunter stabbed his father in the chest. Robert snapped his eyes open and was about to scream until Hunter covered his father’s mouth.

Hunter could’ve sworn he saw his father smirking underneath his paw. What a sick bastard. He kept stabbing his father in the chest until his father could stop screaming in pain. Robert still kept that sick twisted smile until he drew his last breath. Hunter became what Robert wanted. A monster just like him.

It was then Victoria came out of the shower with the robe on and saw Hunter standing over her husband’s dead body with a bloody knife. She screamed in horror and ran out of the bedroom, causing Hunter to chase after her. He slashed her leg, causing her to trip over down the hallway and limp her way towards the phone. She quickly dialed the number to the Inkwell Police Department. The phone rang for a short while.

“Inkwell Police Department, what’s your emergency?” the operator asked.

“You need to get to the Manson Mansion immediately! My son is—!”

Hunter stabbed her hip, causing Victoria to scream in pain.

“HUNTER, STOP IT!!”

Hunter didn’t stop as he kept stabbing his mother over and over again.

“MA’AM! MA’AM!!!” the operator shouted in panic.

Victoria screamed until she couldn’t anymore and laid on the floor. Hunter breathed heavily and started to let out little giggles of maniacal joy. He sunk his teeth into his mother’s flesh, tearing her apart piece by piece.

By the time the police showed up, they busted through the door and searched around the mansion until they finally found Hunter eating his mother’s dead corpse. When the flashlights shined on him, Hunter turned around to face the officers and gave the bloody grin.

~.~

Forty-One Years Later:

Inkwell city streets were burning in the dark night. Screams from surprised civilians put a smile on the old tiger’s face. Hunter, now as an adult, watched the civilians’ blood filling the sewer the waters and leaking into the cracks of the sidewalks. His followers didn’t hesitate to kill and deliver souls right to the Devil.

The Devil stood next to Hunter to watch all the chaos unfold in front of him with a wicked grin. “My, my, my, you didn’t lie when you said you would deliver more souls to you.”

“More souls to torture,” Hunter replied.

Behind Hunter and Devil, King Dice, Henchman, and Stickler were watching the destruction. While Henchman and King Dice was in horror of the sight in front of them, Stickler seemed unfazed by it and added more souls in his book.

“Hrmm, he did not hold back,” Stickler said while writing down the numbers.

Hunter glanced at Devil next to him with a smirk. “Since you’ve now seen what I’m capable of, why don’t I take care of those cups? I’m sure that will take the burden off of your shoulders.”

The Devil grinned wickedly. “Oh, that would be lovely.”

Hunter nodded his head. “Enjoy the view. I’ll be back with their heads.” The tiger walked away and motioned three assassins to come with him to hunt for those cups.

The Devil intake the smell of blood and corpses with a sigh.

King Dice slowly approached beside his boss. “Uh…Big D.”

“Hm?”

“Hate to be a downer, but don’t you think that this is a little…excessive?”

The Devil snapped out of his trance and whirled his head to look at his righthand man. “Excessive?!”

“D’uh, yeah, I was going to ask the same thing,” Henchman added.

The Devil widened his eyes in shock. “Are you kidding me?! Thisis what we live for!!! The chaos!!! The screams!!! The torture!!! That is not excessive!!”

“Hrmm, it’s a bit of a pain to add more souls to the slaughter,” Stickler said with his finger raised.

“Even you are against this?!” Devil barked. “You’ve counted souls for centuries and this is excessive to you?!”

“Ehhh, on the contrary, I am not against this. However, I do think that this is more extreme than what we have throughout the centuries. We should’ve saved all of this for the End Times,” Stickler noted.

“And do you know when that will be?” Devil questioned.

“Errm,” Stickler groaned while lowering his finger.

“Exactly,” Devil responded with a sass. He looked out towards the burning city with an evil smile. “Now, this is the beginning of a new era! Those who opposed me will fear me! I will be respected again! With the Night Stalkers in my grasp, I can rule the world! MUHAHAHAHAHA!!!” The Devil’s laugh echoed throughout the night.

~.~

The night was quiet while Elder Kettle’s house was filled with the sound of jazz music coming from Elder Kettle’s prized radio and the laughter from Cuphead, Mugman, and Chalice.

Elder Kettle was dusting the shelves and wasn’t paying attention much to his surroundings. Once he was done dusting the shelves, Elder Kettle turned to look at the cup kids playing with marbles on the living room floor with a small smile on his face. However, the old tea kettle started to notice that Mugman was starting to appear a lot more like an old friend that he knew from such a long time ago.

Murray.

The static interrupted his thoughts. Elder Kettle turned to see the jazz music was no longer playing on the radio. He sighed and headed over to turn the dial until—

“We interrupt this program to inform the listeners that there’s literal hell going on in Inkwell Isle,” the radio announcer spoke.

Elder Kettle widened his eyes in shock and turned the radio up slightly for him to listen in.

“The Night Stalkers are back and burning down the city! Single guardians, hide your children now! Better yet, leave the city and never return unless the situation dies down! Or else…oh no…they’ve found me. AAAAHH—!”

Elder Kettle heard slashing sounds and shut off the radio immediately with clenched teeth.

“Is…everything okay, Elder Kettle?” Mugman asked innocently.

“What’s the Night Stalkers?” Cuphead probed, feigning ignorance.

Elder Kettle bit his finger for a moment until he calmed himself down. “Okay, you listen to me and listen to me carefully. Pack your bags. We don’t have much time.”

“Wait, wait, where are we going?” Cuphead questioned.

“Pack. Your. Bags. Now,” Elder Kettle spoke more lowly.

Cuphead and Mugman were scared for a moment at their caretaker’s tone. But they headed up the stairs to pack their bags anyway. Chalice went with them to keep them company for a while. While they were doing that, Elder Kettle hurried to the kitchen and packed up the pots and pans needed for the trip until he came across two blue potions he’d kept hidden for fifteen years. He examined the potions and then looked behind him to hear the boys packing things up. With a sigh, he stuffed the potions in his pocket and hurried out of the kitchen.

Cuphead and Mugman carried their belongings in their bags with Chalice trailing behind them. Elder Kettle nodded his head in approval.

“Good. Good. C’mon,” Elder Kettle said while gesturing the kids to follow him. They headed towards the front door until they heard someone pounding the door. “Back. Back.”

The kids backed up with their caretaker. Elder Kettle hurried to the back door until he saw an unfamiliar silhouette hidden behind the curtain covering the top half of the back door window. Elder Kettle turned the kids and motioned them to go upstairs. The kids hurried up the stairs without question. They ended up going to Elder Kettle’s room and Elder Kettle locked the bedroom door.

“E-Elder Kettle, what’s going on?” Mugman uttered in fear.

They heard someone breaking down the front door from upstairs.

“Get behind me,” Elder Kettle softly commanded.

The kids obeyed and stayed behind the old tea kettle. They heard footsteps lurking throughout the house until they heard someone coming upstairs and down into the hallway. Elder Kettle firmly stared at his bedroom door, waiting for someone to break it down. Someone pounded on the bedroom door, causing the cup brothers to tremble in fear.

Chalice noticed the brothers’ fears, took a deep breath, and turned into a ghost behind Elder Kettle. She phased through the floor. Cuphead and Mugman noticed, but they didn’t say anything. They heard someone approaching Elder Kettle’s bedroom door.

“Boys, hide under the bed. I’ll take care of this,” Elder Kettle whispered to the cup brothers.

“No, I ain’t leavin’ you,” Cuphead argued with his fists clenched as if he was ready to fight whoever was on the other side of the door.

Mugman glanced around the bedroom to find a weapon for them to defend themselves. But it was too late as the door was broken down, revealing a hooded man carrying his rifle that was aimed at Elder Kettle. Cuphead put his arm out to protect Mugman with a glare at the hooded figure. However, the boys and Elder Kettle noticed the ghost of Chalice phasing herself inside of the hooded figure, taking over his body.

Cuphead and Mugman smiled ecstatically to see their friend using possession to possess their enemies while Elder Kettle stood there in pure shock and confusion.

Chalice, taking control of the assassin’s body, turned him around and aimed the rifle to the couple of assassins going down the hallway. Before saying or doing anything, Chalice used the hooded man to pull the trigger and shoot the two assassins approaching her and her friends.

The tiger approached up the stairs and hid behind the shelf with his Tommy gun. Chalice controlled the man to reload his rifle and aim the tiger coming out of his hiding spot. The bullets hit the man before Chalice could force him to pull the trigger. She phased out of him and through the floor once the assassin collapsed on the ground.

Chalice phased into the tiger, attempting to possess him but she underestimated how hard it would be to take control of him.

While Chalice was struggling to take control of the leader of the cult, Elder Kettle peeked down the hallway and looked at the boys’ bedroom on the other side of the hall. Upon realizing that the boys had a window in their bedroom, giving them a chance to escape from their invader.

“C’mon,” Elder Kettle commanded as he and the boys hurried across the hallway and entered into their bedroom. Elder Kettle closed the door and barricaded the door with the small shelf. The old tea kettle turned and hurried to open the window behind them.

The boys looked behind them to see Chalice phasing through the barricaded door.

“We better go now!” Chalice warned. “This guy’s not easy to possess!”

They heard someone kicking the door.

Mugman and Cuphead hurried to the window with Cuphead climbing out of the window first with Chalice flying out of the window. Mugman rushed behind him until he heard the door knocked down. Before he could make a leap out of the window, he was grabbed by the wrist.

Mugman turned back and looked in horror to find the old tiger gripping his wrist with a growl. However, Mugman bit down the tiger’s arm in self-defense, causing the mysterious tiger to howl in pain. Mugman rushed out of the window and hurried behind his family and friend. Elder Kettle grabbed the goat from the front yard and hurried through the woods.

Out of anger, Hunter, the tiger, peeked out of the window and fired bullets at them, but they disappeared into the dark woods. Hunter looked at the bite mark on his arm and instead of being angry about it, he gave a smirk.

“What a little animal,” Hunter growled and looked out into the woods. He heard the phone ringing suddenly. Hunter strode through the house and went downstairs where he saw the phone ringing near the doorway to the kitchen. The tiger picked up the phone to see who was calling.

“Kettle, you have thirty minutes to get your rusty heinie down here and pay your tab!” Porkrind’s voice came from the phone.

Hunter smirked to hear the familiar pig’s voice. Not that he knew the pig before, but Hunter could tell what the pig was known for…his shop.

Hunter knew where to go next.

~.~

“Kettle? Kettle?!”

The phone hung up on Porkrind in his shop.

Porkrind grumbled and placed the phone back on its stand. “Great. First, you didn’t answer and now you hung up on me for no reason.”

Cassidy entered the room with a raised brow. “Wait, why does Elder Kettle need to pay the tab? I don’t think he bought anything.”

“He’s got packages delivered by Jerry and Jerry had been complaining to me that he hadn’t gotten a cent out of Kettle every time he makes a delivery,” Porkrind said with a groan. “Don’t let people take advantage of you, sweetheart. It ain’t worth your time if all people do is take advantage of you.”

Cassidy nodded her head in understanding with a frown.

Porkrind noticed her frown and lost his irritated scowl on his face. He sighed and kneeled to meet her eye-level. “Are you still upset about Jerry?”

“No.”

Porkrind arched a brow.

She lowered her head with her ears pinned back. “I kinda missed doing deliveries with him.”

“Well, he shouldn’t have pulled you into his little secret operation. Even if it’s because you want to help, you need to understand that the Devil is bigger than any bully you will ever face. He ain’t going to be happy if he finds out that he and his imps were beaten by a small cat girl.”

Cassidy perked her ears up to look at her one-eyed father.

“Honey, I’ve seen you building weapons, but I didn’t think to ask what they were for,” he said while looking at a bunch of weapons of various of cat toys and arrows on the workbench.

She chuckled nervously.

“I gotta say though, the weapons you made are pretty nifty,” Porkrind complimented.

“Well, I did have the best teacher,” Cassidy remarked while referring to her father by looking at him with a soft smile.

They suddenly heard a knock from the door.

“Porkrind! Porkrind! Open up!” Elder Kettle urged in panic.

“The shop’s open you know!” Porkrind said, standing up to his feet and facing the door with his arms crossed.

Elder Kettle opened the door and let the kids inside first.

“Whoa, whoa, this ain’t a family hang-out!” Porkrind shouted.

Cassidy brightly smiled to see Cuphead, Mugman, and Chalice. “Guys!”

“Hiya, Cassidy!” Chalice greeted back.

“Hi!” Cuphead said with a wave.

“Uh…h-hi! Uh, how are you doing?” Mugman asked with a blush on his face.

Cassidy also blushed and giggled awkwardly. “Well, I’m doin’ alright. I enjoyed my lunch with Natalie…although I ended up vomiting from the sweets and…yeah…”

There was an awkward pause.

“That is way too much information,” Cassidy added.

“Oh, that’s okay,” Mugman replied. “Now I know where we won’t be taking you if we do go out together.”

“Or if it’s just Mugman who takes you out,” Chalice replied with a mischievous smirk on her face.

The mug’s ceramic face went red instantly. “Chalice…”

Chalice giggled at her friend’s reaction.

Elder Kettle locked the shop door.

“Hey!” Porkrind shouted at Elder Kettle while approaching the old tea kettle. “Why are you locking up the shop?! That’s supposed to be my job—”

“Porkrind, listen to me!” Elder Kettle urged and grabbed the pig’s shoulder. “There’s a madman comin’ after me and the kids! We ain’t safe out in the woods!”

Porkrind arched a brow. “Wait…I called you about paying your tab—”

Elder Kettle gave the pig money, who accepted it immediately.

“Oh, thanks…anyways, I called you about your tab and you didn’t answer. I mean, you did answer the phone, but you didn’t even talk…wait…did you answer the phone?”

“Uh…no. It must have been ringing after the kids and I got out of the house,” Elder Kettle replied. “That’s why I’m saying that there’s a madman coming after me and my kids! The Night Stalkers are out in the city now killin’ people!”

“Wait, what?” Porkrind questioned with a brow raised.

“The Night Stalkers! They’re at it again!” Elder Kettle said in a panicked tone.

The one-eyed pig widened his eye in shock.

Cassidy glanced up at her father. “At it again?”

Porkrind looked at his daughter. “Cassi, pack your gadgets. You may need them.”

Cassidy hurried to the back room and gathered her gadgets. She grabbed her quiver full of arrows and her bow. Before she headed back to the group, Cassidy’s ears flicked to hear someone walking around the shop. She froze in fear while her ears followed the sound towards the back door next to the table where she got her gadgets and weapon. She watched intensely at the knob turning. Once the door swung open, she jumped back with a gasp until she realized that someone coming through the door was Jerry entering from the back of the shop.

Cassidy gasped happily. “Jerry!”

Jerry smiled under the scarf covering his mouth. “Hey Cassi—”

The sudden gunshot sounded and the bullet crashed through Jerry’s shoulder, causing him to stumble into the shop. That grabbed Porkrind’s attention as he rushed to the back room and shut the back door. He locked it and helped Jerry up on his feet.

“Hey! Hey, Jerry! Are you okay?!” Porkrind shouted in a panicked tone.

“I…I think the bullet went through my shoulder,” Jerry said while losing some blood.

Porkrind glanced at Cassidy. “Grab the medkit.”

Cassidy hurried to grab the medkit out of the shelf as Porkrind carried Jerry to the front of the shop much to the horror of Elder Kettle and the cup trio.

“Looks like your maniac shot my friend,” Porkrind said while setting Jerry down on the counter, clearing anything on it.

Cassidy hurried and handed the medkit to her father.

Porkrind took Jerry’s green trench coat off and the red shirt underneath it to look at the wound better. Jerry was correct when he said that the bullet went through his shoulder.

Porkrind opened the medkit and cleaned the wound, causing the creature under him to wince and hiss in pain. “Stay still. The sooner we get you patched up, the better.”

They heard footsteps coming around the front door.

Elder Kettle glanced at the pig. “Don’t mean to rush you here, but hurry up.”

“I’m trying. I’m trying,” Porkrind groaned while cleaning up the wound. Then he stitched up his skin to close up the wound with the needle and thread.

Jerry only flinched for a moment at the stitching.

They heard someone pounding against the front door of the shop.

“Hurry!” Cuphead urged Porkrind.

“Give me a sec!” Porkrind barked at the cup before cutting the thread with the scissors from inside of the Med-kit. Finally, he wrapped Jerry’s arm with the roll of bandages. He was finally finished as he set the medical supplies back into the med-kit. The door was finally broken down, causing the group to turn around to find the familiar tiger raising his gun to the group. Before he could pull the trigger, Chalice acted quickly by turning into a ghost and attempting to possess the tiger once again. Hunter tried to fight against Chalice’s attempt at possession, but under her control, he was pulled back out of the shop.

Jerry tapped on Porkrind, gaining the pig’s attention. “C-Car…parked at…the front.”

Porkrind turned to see where Jerry was pointing at. In the woods and a couple of feet in front of the shop, the car was parked there. Porkrind narrowed his brows in determination and looked at Elder Kettle and the kids.

“C’mon! While that…uh…ghost child is distracting that maniac!” Porkrind urged the group while picking Jerry up from the desk.

Cassidy followed her father while Mugman trailed behind her. Cuphead hurried after his brother and Elder Kettle picked up the goat and ran after his kids. They all followed Porkrind out of the shop and towards the car ahead of them.

Porkrind placed Jerry on the passenger seat while Cassidy hopped over to the backseat. Mugman ended up sitting next to her with Cuphead beside him. Elder Kettle was next to Cassidy, holding the goat in his arms. Porkrind got into the driving seat to look for the keys.

Jerry handed him the keys from his pocket.

Porkrind took without hesitation and drove away as fast as he could away from the tiger.

Soon, Chalice phased out of Hunter and flew towards the car to catch up to the group. She changed back to her physical form, freaking the group out.

“So…where are we heading?” Chalice asked Porkrind.

“Somewhere far from the Night Stalkers,” Porkrind answered vaguely.

“I know where that is,” Cassidy said. “Take a left ahead.”

Porkrind nodded his head and took a left as instructed.

Meanwhile, Hunter recovered from fighting for control over his body with Chalice and looked to see the vehicle took off. He huffed in annoyance.

“Now, this is unfortunate,” Hunter said. He then looked at his arm that had the bite marks from Mugman. An idea slowly formed in his head. “What a little animal.”

Hunter shifted his gaze ahead of him and headed back into the city to report to the Devil of his new idea.

~.~

It had been quiet since they left Porkrind’s shop.

Jerry’s half-lidded eyes stared ahead, covering his bandaged arm. He tried to stay awake, but Jerry didn’t realize that losing so much blood already was going to keep him down for a while.

Cassidy and Mugman were squished between Cuphead and Elder Kettle. Mugman tensed up when her body was pressed against his, a blush growing across his porcelain face. He was both embarrassed at this predicament and being this close to Cassidy made his heart race and his palms sweaty.

Cuphead noticed his brother’s body tensing up, smirking at him uncontrollably. Elder Kettle saw Mugman’s reaction as well and couldn’t stop smiling at the thought that one of his boys might have a potential crush on someone next to him.

Chalice had been observing her group from behind them, smirking at Mugman. Oh, she knew what she’ll tease Mugman with if they ever found a hiding spot.

Porkrind looked over his shoulder from the driver seat to check on his passengers. “Everyone doing okay back there?”

“Never better,” Chalice responded positively.

The rest of the group nodded their heads, even the goat in Elder Kettle’s arm nodded his head.

Porkrind looked over at Jerry. “How about you? You doing okay?”

“Yeah…I didn’t think the Night Stalkers are comin’ out tonight after fifteen years ago,” Jerry said while sitting up more.

“What happened fifteen years ago?” Cuphead asked with a brow raised.

“Eh, don’t worry about it. We’ll talk more about it once we find a hiding spot,” Elder Kettle said. “Which…I don’t know where we’re going.”

The car arrived at the lone one-story mansion, hidden deep into the woods and far from the city.

“Wait, Cassi, is this your friend’s mansion?” Porkrind asked his daughter.

Cassidy nodded her head. “Yeah.”

“What is this place?” Elder Kettle asked both Cassidy and Porkrind.

“Ruth Mansion,” Porkrind responded. “I’m not sure if that’s the best hiding place for us.”

“But it’s far from the Night Stalkers,” Jerry said.

“Yeah, I guess,” Porkrind said while parking the car in front of the mansion. “There’s a shoreline nearby. I’m going to dump the evidence there.”

“Wait, what evidence?” Jerry asked.

Porkrind arched a brow. “Evidence that we’re here…which you’re sitting in right now.”

Jerry looked down to realize Porkrind was talking about the car. “You know, the Night Stalkers are going to bust through this house whether the car was there or not.”

“Then we need to get good at hiding,” Porkrind determined while gesturing everyone to get out of the car.

Elder Kettle led the kids out of the car and looked over at Jerry. “Can you walk?”

Jerry stumbled out the car and walked around the front of the car. “Yeah, I can. Thanks, anyway.”

Porkrind drove off to dump the car into the ocean, leaving the group in front of the Ruth Mansion.

Cassidy led the group towards the front door of the mansion and knocked. They heard someone stumbling from the other side of the door. The door swung open and, in quick reaction, Mugman pulled Cassidy back from the sudden sharp sword swiping at her.

“Whoa! Whoa! We ain’t the Night Stalkers!” Cuphead shouted and then widened his eyes to realize Natalie was the one answering the door with the sword in her two hands.

Natalie gasped to finally recognize her feline friend with a bright smile. “Cassi!” She dropped the sword and zoomed over to hug Cassidy. Cassidy gasped in surprise that Natalie was hugging her.

“I heard about the Night Stalkers on the radio. I didn’t know if they got to you or not,” Natalie said. She broke away from Cassidy with a bright grin. “Come in! Come in!” Natalie rushed and picked the sword, dragging the sharp edge on the floor. The group seemed surprise that they didn’t have to ask to take cover in Natalie’s house, but they entered into it anyway.

Jerry shut the door behind him, but didn’t lock it yet. He picked up the sword Natalie dropped and placed it on the counter against the wall in the living room.

“Welcome to the Ruth Mansion. Mom’s overworking again over at Isle 4. So, I’m in charge,” Natalie said excitedly. “Oh yeah! There’s food in the kitchen! Beds to sleep on! Rooms to play in until this whole Night Stalkers thing will pass.”

“Wait…are you here by yourself?” Elder Kettle asked with a brow raised.

“Oh no, just me and my sister,” Natalie said before hearing tiny footsteps waddling out to the living room where the group was.

They looked and saw a toddler cup with dark brown liquid hair in between her small innocent eyes. She was wearing a blue gown and had a pink string shaped like a heart above her head, holding a teddy bear in her arms.

“Awe dhe bad people gone, sissy?” the toddler cup girl asked shyly.

Natalie smiled warmly. “No, there are no bad people here, Aurora. Look who showed up!” She referred to Cassidy, who gave a friendly wave to Aurora.

Aurora gasped and ran towards Cassidy. “Cassi!”

Cassidy enveloped Aurora into a hug with a giggle and a purr. “Hey, Rori, how are you doing?”

“Good! Good!” Aurora replied with a smile. “I didn’d dhink you would come ovew. Mommy says dhad you’we a buwden.”

Cassidy lost her smile and went. “Oh…”

“Bud I don’d dhink you’we a buwden,” Aurora said with a smile.

Cassidy’s smile returned to her face. “I’m glad you don’t.”

Mugman watched this interaction with a soft grin on his face.

Aurora noticed Cuphead and brightly smiled. “Cuppy!”

“Huh?” Cuphead uttered in confusion.

“Sissy dalks aboud you all dhe dime,” Aurora blurted out with a giggle.

Natalie blushed and shook her head. “No, I don’t.”

Cuphead smirked at Natalie. “Oh, you talked about me all the time?”

Natalie rolled her eyes. “If I were to be talking about you all the time, it would be how annoying and disgusting you are.”

“She says you’we cute when you get mad,” Aurora said.

Natalie blushed and walked over to pick her sister up. “Okay. It’s time for bed.” Natalie hurried back to Aurora’s bedroom to put her sister to sleep.

Cuphead blushed after Aurora’s statement and looked at Chalice. “Uh…is that a compliment or an insult?”

Chalice smirked at Natalie. Now, she knew who to tease along with Mugman.

Porkrind came in through the front door and stretched his arms. “I think we should all get some shut-eye.”

The group nodded their heads in agreement.

Natalie came back after putting Aurora to bed and wishing her goodnight. “Uh, I can show you guys the rooms you can sleep in.”

“That would be wonderful,” Elder Kettle answered.

~.~

Elder Kettle had a room by himself while Porkrind and Jerry shared a room together…mostly so that Jerry could sleep on the bed and Porkrind could keep watch to make sure no Night Stalkers come into the Ruth Mansion.

Meanwhile, Natalie showed Cassidy, Mugman, Cuphead, and Chalice to the bedroom with two bunk beds. One on the right side of the room and the other on the left side.

Natalie put her fists on her hips with a smile in pride. “This is where I usually have sleepovers.”

“If you have any friends,” Cuphead muttered to himself.

However, Natalie heard that and rolled her eyes. “At least that’s more than you.”

“Okay, okay,” Chalice said. “If we’re going to hide from the Night Stalkers, we all need to get along. That includes you both.”

Natalie and Cuphead glared at each other while Cuphead stuck his tongue out to her. Natalie stuck her tongue out in response.

Chalice sighed. “Okay. How about you both shake hands and call it a truce between you two for tonight?”

Cuphead groaned and looked at Natalie. He extended his hand out to shake Natalie’s hand.

Natalie squinted Cuphead’s hand. “Did you wash your hands?”

“Are you serious?” Cuphead growled.

“What?! You could be touching something gross and I’ll end up sick because of you. I can’t have that,” Natalie said with her arms crossed.

“Just shake his hand, Natalie,” Chalice said with a groan.

Natalie rolled her eyes and looked at Cuphead. “If I end up sick, I blame you.” She shook his hand.

Chalice smiled grandly. “Great! Now let’s get some sleep.” She transformed into a ghost and flew up to the top bunk on the left side of the room.

Natalie blinked in surprise at Chalice’s sudden transformation.

“You get used to it,” Cuphead stated while going over to the bottom bunk bed below Chalice and laid there.

Natalie turned to Mugman and Cassidy. “Have a good night you two.” She climbed up to the top bunk bed on the right side of the room. That only left one bottom bunk bed. It was big enough to fit both Cassidy and Mugman, but they weren’t sure if they should sleep on the same bunk together.

Mugman glanced over at Cassidy. “I’ll take the floor.”

Cassidy perked her head up and shook her head. “No, you can go ahead and take the bed. I’ll take the floor.”

“No, I insist. I’ll sleep on the floor.”

“No, no, I insist that you sleep on the bed.”

“Just share the bed,” Natalie said with a groan in annoyance.

Cassidy and Mugman looked at each other, blushing.

“U-Uh, it’s only for one night…right?” Mugman replied mostly to himself.

An idea struck the red feline’s head. She crawled onto the bed and used the pillows to separate both him and her. “There. That way we won’t roll on top of each other by accident.”

Mugman got onto the bed and laid there next to the pillow wall Cassidy created between them.

“Well, goodnight, Mugman. I’ll see you in the morning,” Cassidy said while turning over to face the wall, hiding her blush.

Mugman turned over with his back to her, blushing as well. “Uh…goodnight.”

After a tense moment, they both fell asleep on the bottom bunk.

To Be Continued...

#cuphead #cuphead: isle of shadows rewrite #elder kettle #henchman #king dice #mugman #stickler #the devil cuphead #oc villian #ocs x canons #cuphead porkrind

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