#to be fair this one is a bit easier since i'm using a photo to go off of fdsjkl | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

danpuff-ao3 · 1 year

Text

Sooo...

Fic-Binding.

Is a thing I'm going to learn this year! (This feels really awkward but I can't think of a smooth introduction, so here we are.)

Here on Tumblr was my first introduction to binding fics. It never occurred to me before that people would. I began following many amazing binders here on Tumblr and over on Instagram. My sweet friend Nina bound a short story collection of some of my fics for my birthday last year. And Lila gave me a copy of one of her fics. There is something so very special about seeing fics in physical form! It gives me all the warm and fuzzies!

...only it seems that if a gal wants her favorite fics on her shelf, she's going to have to bind them herself.

Now, I was tempted to share some progress pictures along the way, but I fear that would hinder my progress. My anxiety and perfectionism are strong. I do not like to be observed making mistakes. Even really minor ones. Even worse if people point them out to me, however well-meaning. I live with a deep and abiding terror of failure and judgment. Which...is it healthy? No. Am I working on it? Yeah. But my therapist and I agree that throwing myself into the deep end is not the right method for me, so alas...baby steps!

(Seriously, my partner and I have been together nearly 7 years and only this past year have I begun to try and test new things where he could see me do it. And there is no person on planet earth more supportive or less judgmental than my Eddie.) (But to be fair, when one is taught to hate themselves and see their only worth as their usefulness and productivity, well...The terror is quite real, and deeply ingrained, I'm afraid.)

I will try to take progress photos along the way and share them all in a photo dump when I'm feeling more comfortable and confident. Which is a long ways away as I've not even bound a book yet. Showing my errors should be easier when I can say "look but I fixed it!" By necessity I've become pretty good at teaching myself things, so with luck (and YouTube videos) I can do this!

And in the meantime I can at least write about my efforts!

Eddie, my partner, has been very enthusiastic since I first broached the subject of bookbinding and when my plans to gather supplies seemed to fall through, he agreed to help me get what I needed. He had me put supplies on an Amazon wishlist so we can purchase items when we can. The first purchase I made was the most necessary one, which was a printer. I got a little table to put it on, built the table!!!! (I am not very handy, okay. When I build anything, however simple, it's a huge accomplishment!) I set up the printer. Aaaand was resigned to wait however long until I could start.

...

...and then it occurred to me. "Hey, dumb-dumb, maybe you can start practicing parts of it now?"

Oh yeah! There are several parts to putting a book together. And so, I began! I chose a small fic, Orange Blossoms, to get a feel for how it would look printed out. I followed some online instructions. And it wasn't perfect, but it was in booklet form and I could fold the paper and everything was where it needed to be. Small success!

Then I adjusted the font size and reprinted, because the previous font size was teensy in Scrivener and GIANT in Adobe and on paper.

Next, I wanted to test printing multiple signatures. That one took a bit more work for reasons I can't properly explain. Even now I don't know why the original version was printing out the way it was, with a blank last page. In theory, it shouldn't have done that??

Anyway, I chose In My Veins (In My Blood) for this. Orange Blossom is 3k and fit into one signature. In My Veins (In My Blood) is 7k and I figured I could get 2 out of it. I figured starting small would be better so I don't waste paper and ink while trying to sort things out. Or you know...waste as little as I can.

I fiddled with some settings and such until the first signature printed right. Then I had to mess around to figure out where I needed to insert blank pages, and I changed my mind about where to put my mock copyright and title pages. Once I was happy, I then printed the second signature and then proudly waved them in Eddie's face!

Then, I found a gift card from Christmas and decided: hey, why don't I get some more stuff? Today my order came in and I got: an awl, needles, and waxed thread. Time to stitch those suckers together! I stumbled across a bookbinding video some months ago that I saved, so I pulled that up and went step by step. Measuring and marking where to put the holes. (Nightmare, btw, my brain hates numbers.) (Brain sees numbers and runs off scared; needs soothing and cajoling to come back out and get to work.) (The solution was obvious and didn't require actual math like the YouTuber told me but anyway that's not the point, the point is:) Then I threaded my needle and go to work!

Signature 1 was easy enough. But threading the 2 signatures together was not. First YouTube moved too fast and didn't explain things very clearly. Like...not verbally addressing each step in detail, but also with too many jump cuts for me to really tell what she was doing. But she referenced a Sea Lemon video which I found and was much more helpful!

And now I have 2 signatures threaded together! It's very rough and sloppy, but you know what...it's a first attempt, so whatever. (Look, even admitting that my first attempt is pretty "eh" hurts my soul, but here we are.) (At least you can't see it!)

So that's where I am for now! Eddie's going to peruse my list this weekend to see what he can get, and once I have the supplies needed for the next step, onto the next step I'll go! I do want to bind The White Road as my first actual bound fic, so I can work on fiddling with the typesetting a bit while I wait!

ALSO I ate dinner so late because I was so caught up in learning how to stitch those signatures!! I was like "okay this shouldn't take that long." Hey, self, this is a new skill you're learning. Maybe don't make assumptions. And at least double any time you think something should take. I sure scarfed down my food after that!

Anyway, I know it seems very silly that I'm too scared to show pictures, but even talking about it is a big step. It's like...well if this doesn't work out I'm going to look really dumb, huh? Better keep things all to myself so if it doesn't work out no one is disappointed or judging me or whatever. Much better to come out the gate with something to show, right?

But talking about stuff and sharing stuff is really important to me. It's this like deep inner need I've trampled down for so long, out of fear of seeming childish or silly at best, or at worst boring or burdening people. But maybe this is something some people are interested in. And I'll be generous with cuts and tags for easy skimming for those who aren't interested, and those who are, well...You're welcome to bits and pieces of my journey with me!

Speaking of tags, I've been trying to come up with a name for my "bindery." I thought of "Busy Bee Bindery" because I love bees and am quite busy, actually. But maybe it needs my name in it?? Idk I'm still brainstorming that one. Maybe by my next update I'll have one I can use for tagging! And you know...to slap on my bindings! 😄

#danpuff stuff #bookbinding #ficbinding #fanbinding #some personal stuff #TOO personal #wow shut up self #mental health #anxiety #my therapist is gonna be so proud of me!#if I don't panic delete this in the next hour or so

24 notes · View notes

korgbelmont · 8 months

Text

Male MC (Nick Taylor) x Stacy Green

Part 1

Having built up a reputation as a Nighthunter, Nick Taylor is a name known in some circles, and one of those circles has some information regarding a very ancient artifact...

Written in the Present Tense

Tagging: @jerzwriter, @choicesficwriterscreations

Warnings: Mentions of pain

Word Count: 1792

Notes: I don’t own these characters, they are the property of Pixelberry Studios.

The Blade created on cooltext.com

This is set a few years after the events of It Lives Beneath

As Stacy sits at her desk working on an article, Nick finishes up on a journal entry from his last case.

Nick - (Right, there we go.)

He closes the book, and just as he goes to get a drink, his phone rings in his pocket. Not wanting to disturb Stacy, he steps out and answers, holding the phone to his ear.

Nick - Hey, Ives.

Ivy - Evening, Nick. You able to meet tomorrow, got something for you.

Nick - I guess I can. What's this about?

Ivy - It's a bit difficult to explain without what I have. I'll be over tomorrow.

Nick - Uh, okay then. I'll see you in the morning then.

Ivy - Have a good night, Nick.

The phone beeps to signal hanging up and Nick heads back in, confused.

Stacy - Everything okay?

Nick - Yeah. That was Ivy. Says she has something for me. Gonna be over in the morning.

He looks over at her now black computer screen.

Nick - Article all finished?

Stacy - Not yet. But I've got to that point where words aren't looking like words anymore. So calling it a night.

Nick - Fair enough. Calling it a night sounds like a good idea.

Nick locks the door and the two switch everything off before heading to bed.

The following morning, Nick makes his morning coffee when someone knocks on the door. Knowing who it is, he goes to unlock it, opening it to Ivy.

Ivy - Morning.

Nick - Come on in.

Nick moves to the side to let Ivy in, closing the door behind her. She sets her bag down and takes a laptop out, opening it up. Stacy steps out, grabbing her own coffee.

Stacy - Morning, Ivy.

Ivy - Hi, Stacy. How you doing?

Stacy - Same as always.

Her computer loaded, Ivy opens up a file and then takes out a manila file from her bag, looking at Nick.

Ivy - So this portrait came into our possession a few days ago, but it's a weird one.

She hands Nick the file. Opening it, he takes out two photos of the portrait, a warrior in armour with a sword. Except in one, the sword blade is pure white with a white aura around it, and in the other, it is fully black and surrounded by shadow.

Nick - Okay... that is weird.

Ivy - Check this.

She opens a video file of her with Krom and Garrus.

THEN

Garrus, Ivy, and Krom look over the portrait, the sword seeming to change every time they blink.

Garrus - I've never seen this kind of magic...

Krom - You me both.

Ivy - Hang on, I'm going to try something.

She uses her hand to cover the camera lens and when she removes it, the sword in the portrait has changed. She does it again. And again the sword has changed.

NOW

Nick and Stacy share a look of confusion and Nick looks over the photos of the portrait again.

Nick - What do we know about the warrior?

Ivy - That's where you come in. I was able to get a meeting with Kamilah Sayeed, but I was hoping you could go in my place. I want to try and learn what I can about the portrait back in New Orleans.

Nick - Right. So you want me to go to New York?

Ivy - Actually, she'll be in Portland tomorrow. I said I would send a Nighthunter in my place. And you're respected enough.

Stacy - We could make a small trip out of it. Been a while since we went away somewhere.

Nick smiles at Stacy and nods.

Nick - Alright, I'll go meet with the Queen of Vampires. Never thought I'd be saying that.

Ivy - Thank you.

After going through a few more details, Ivy takes her leave, opening up a portal to her library in New Orleans and steps through. The portal closes and Nick turns to Stacy.

Nick - Need to figure out how she does that. It would make things so much easier.

Stacy turns back to the file, looking at the two photos of the painting.

Stacy - This is so weird.

Nick - One word for it.

Stacy - You got any theories?

Nick shakes his head.

Nick - Nothing.

Stacy - Must be important though if Kamliah Sayeed's name is in the mix.

Nick - We'll find out tomorrow. Gonna be hard to concentrate for the rest of the day though.

Stacy puts the photos back in the folder before looking over at Nick.

Stacy - How about we pack and head out this evening? Have a day out before meeting with her.

Nick - I can get behind that.

Stacy - Come on.

She holds out her hand and Nick takes it, heading upstairs to pack.

Opening the door to their hotel room, Nick sets his and Stacy's bags down as she looks around the room.

Stacy - Good view.

Nick - Yeah?

Stacy - Yeah.

Ditching his jacket, Nick collapses on one of the chairs in front of the tv, letting his arms hang over the edge. Stacy sets herself down on his lap, looping her arms around his neck and kissing his cheek.

Stacy - You okay?

Nick - Tired. I could actually fall asleep right here.

Stacy - You could, or you could sleep in the bed and be comfier.

Laughing, Nick scoops Stacy up and carries her over to the bed, setting her down. Keeping her arms around him, Stacy pulls Nick down, pressing her lips to his before letting go so he can get back on his feet. They quickly change into pajamas and soon switch off for the night.

The next evening, Nick and Stacy arrive at the hotel address given to them and step in. They're stopped by bodyguards the moment they step into the building, their eyes the giveaway sign of being Vampires.

Guard 1 - You Nick Taylor?

Nick - Yeah. Here to see Kamilah Sayeed.

The guard puts his finger on his earpiece.

Guard 1 - The Nighthunter is here. He also has a girl with him.

There's a moment of silence before the guard nods and then gestures to the couple to follow him to an elevator. After an awkwardly silent elevator ride, the guard steps to the side and they step out to a penthouse suite.

Nick - Damn... This is something.

A door opens and a woman the couple have only seen in photos stands before them. Kamilah Sayeed, Queen of the Vampires.

Kamilah - Mr Taylor. And...

She looks at Stacy.

Stacy - Stacy Green.

Kamilah extends her hand out to Stacy, who shakes it.

Kamilah - I've read some of your articles. You're quite the journalist.

Stacy - Thank you!

Kamilah - Shall we?

She walks over to two sofas facing each other with a table in between and takes a seat on one while Nick and Stacy sit opposite.

Kamilah - I assume you've been made aware of the painting by Ivy.

Nick - The sword changes with each blink.

Nick presents the two photos given to him by Ivy.

Stacy - What's the deal with the sword?

Kamilah - It's the blade of Morella.

Nick - Morella? As in Blades of Light and Shadow Morella? It's real?!

Kamilah - That series is inspired by a story from Morella. Like Lamrian, it's a realm separated from ours. But this sword has found it's way into our realm. And is currently in possession of a collector, who, unironically, calls himself the Collector, is known for having questionable methods of acquisition.

Stacy - So he's a thief?

Kamilah - That's one word for him. Ivy and I would like to see it out of his possession and placed somewhere safe.

Nick - You want me to steal it.

Kamilah - Not alone. You'll be working with two others chosen by me. Another Nighthunter and an Attuned.

Nick mulls the words over, if the television series is anything to go by, then the sword is dangerous. It doesn't take him long to come to a decision.

Nick - I'll take the job.

Kamilah - Just like that?

Stacy - Just like that.

Kamilah - Well then. You'll need these.

Kamilah produces invitations and slides them across the table.

Kamilah - There's a gala tomorrow night. You'll be crashing the party, as they say. Once the sword is secured, return here.

Nick - We will.

Kamilah - The others will meet you at the gala. Miss Green, you'll remain here with me whilst the others are acquiring the blade. I'm interested to learn about some of the details behind your articles.

Stacy - Oh!

Nick smiles to himself as the shock of the sentence hits Stacy.

The next evening, Nick looks around at some of the artefacts on display, looking for any sign of the blade, upstairs, fellow Nighthunter, Katherine watches the guests as Nick walks the floor. Outside, Atlas Ernhardt watches the Collector as he speaks with guests. The three of them remaining in contact through earpieces.

Atlas - Taylor, any luck yet?

Nick - No sign of the sword yet.

Katherine - Nothing on display up here either.

Atlas - So it's not on display, makes it easier to take.

Nick - But harder to find.

Nick looks around, finding a door not being guarded and slips through. He checks each room, opening the doors slightly. And soon he comes across one with more artefacts and wooden boxes.

Katherine - This looks like the room.

Nick - Aaah!

Nick jumps out of his skin from Katherine's voice behind him and flashes his middle finger at her.

Katherine - You wound me.

They enter the room and Nick uses his phone torch to illuminate in front of him. He soon comes across a longer wooden box and pries it open. Removing the fabric wrappings, an Obsidian Sword lie in front of him.

Nick - Got it!

He sets his phone down and takes the sword in hand, but a stinging sensation begins travelling up his hand. Dropping the sword, Nick falls to his knees as the pain spreads.

Katherine - Taylor!

When Katherine reaches him, Nick is no longer how he was. His hair black and his skin grey with black veins along his hands and neck. When he stands, she sees the white's of his eyes are now black and his iris's greyer than before.

Katherine - Oh no...

Atlas - What is it?

Nick takes the sword up again and a swirl of shadows engulfs him. Once they spread, Nick is gone.

Katherine - Atlas, we need to leave...

#playchoices #it lives in the woods #stacy x mc #mc x stacy #korgfics

3 notes · View notes

evwuniverse · 4 months

Text

The New Age of Linden Homes Part 1

Linden Homes on Second Life has advanced! They have been for a while, but almost all of their older neighborhoods they have recreated on the Bellisseria continent. Which is where all their newer Linden Homes and various neighborhood communities reside. The great change to these is from prim to mesh! This is something the active Second Life user has been looking for. There are not too many users on Second Life who are sticking to classic avatars anymore, all the avatars are full mesh in some way shape, or form. Second Life is finally playing catch up with graphics to other virtual world platforms and video games alike. It's amazing to see where Second Life started to where it has become. The only gripe I have is the Second Life economy is very much matching reality which is a little disappointing, but everything else has just been a build-up from where things were originally were. In this post, I'll be discussing the various new neighborhoods on the Bellisseria continent as well as outlining some of the new customization options for these houses and the amenities available to you in various neighborhoods.

*Note: This post will be updated with new content throughout the year before I type up a new post for 2025 to update this entire post.*

Table of Contents:

To make things easier for everyone, this post has a table of contents so you can skip to the part you specifically want to read as this will be a long post considering needing to place everything about Linden Homes in one place.

Before I Begin! - SL Advertising on Linden Homes for non-Premium Members and what they see, my gripe.

Log Home

Fantasy Home

Camper

Chalet

These are just a few of them there will be a PART 2 post due to the limit of only being able to post 30 photos per post. Which this would easily contain way more due to the content and going into detail with each Linden Home type.

Before I begin!

Since the website is a direct reflection of where you can obtain one of these Linden homes, the screen for people who are already Premium Members is fine but check this out, please view the photo below.

Second Life's advertising is starting to slack and it is quite disappointing. They put real objects, instead of having an avatar and virtual pet from JIAN or something for the icon. I don't know why this bothered me but it really did. Maybe it's because I notice little details but this really got me, does this bother anyone else or is it just me? Also a real chair and plant? Why not ask a really good furniture maker if they can use their furniture as an icon on the website and provide Lindens or something? Anyway please continue with the post below.

Log Home:

For those who have been around Second Life since Premium Membership and Linden Housing first became a thing. I'm sure you remember the previous build model of the Aspen and Log Homes which can be seen here.

These are just a few but there are a few more that were created for the region of Tahoe which is an older Linden Home sim. Keep in mind they are still offering these, but as consumers are seeing more and more of their favorite areas being recreated and different neighborhoods that weren't presented in the past being offered. More individuals are switching to the Bellisseria Continent for their choice of Linden Home and community. To be fair Bellisseria now has the Log Homes which is the equivalent to the Tahoe Region. These can be seen below.

Now as you can see they updated them quite a bit and provided other options along the way. The specs for these homes can be seen below.

Specs:

Includes 4 layout/home styles (as seen above)

Customize the home inside and out with the housing customization on the inside of the home.

A rural region that reminds you of the mountains or being out in a forest.

Railway Accessible, with a rezz station to rezz trains and more.

Various community areas, such as picnic tables, statues, water fountains, sitting areas, tubes to go down rivers on, etc. The community areas have a very similar vibe to the Camper's that were created. This region is very similar in theme.

With this in mind, it is important to note the new amount of land a Premium Member can have is 1024 sqm minimum. So these Linden Homes are on a 1024 sqm plot of land instead of its original counterpart which is on 512 sqm of land. Do keep in mind that the new standard of prims for the Linden Homes is 351 prims. This is more than enough since mesh takes fewer prims than actual prim objects. Now the cool part of these new homes is you can visit ahead of time to test out the homes and see which area fits your style more. I went ahead and did this so I could check out some of the community areas and post some pictures below for viewing.

The sim itself is gorgeous! However, upon further evaluation, I noticed that the homes are a lot closer to one another. There are more homes trying to fit in one area. I probably wasn't supposed to be in this area either as it was marked in red with no one living here, however, I ended up here. So it is what it is, sorry Lindens. But as you can see this community is for the rural more active lifestyle, you know horses, outdoor hiking vibes, small sailboats, railroads, etc. This provides it all. There are also small lakes here and there for swimming with little benches. I didn't get a photo of those but you get the idea.

Needless to say, this was a cool area to explore, however, it definitely is not the vibe for me when it comes to living in a Linden Home community. I'm not the most outdoorsy person in RL so why would SL be much different? Ha-ha.

Fantasy Home:

Back in the day when I first had a Linden Home, I thought those were the coolest things since sliced bread and I'm talking about the old prim ones like you saw with the Log Homes above. For the longest time I had a "Fantasy Home" I had the "Wizard's Retreat" which is the Older Linden Home version of what the "Fantasy Homes" are now.

Had this home easily for 3 years before switching to Meadowbrook which was a more suburban community which we will talk about here soon. You can also reference my Newbrooke post which was typed just before this one. Above are pictures of what I used to live in.

Luckily they finally upgraded the old Linden Homes to a newer model which they put the most boring unoriginal name ever, the "Fantasy Home."

Older Fantasy Homes:

Taking a photo of them through the webpage was just a lot easier than each one individually like I did for the Log Homes, also a lot quicker so this is probably what will be done for the rest of the post so I can get this posting out at an adequate time.

Newer Fantasy Homes:

I'll be honest, I'm not a huge fan of the newer "Fantasy Homes" I truly feel that the older ones looked a lot better and had more creativity and soul put into the creation of them. Granted these are just a few of the Fantasy ones but when I was going through the demo version on the "Welcome Land" I couldn't find one close to the "Wizard Lair" that one was my all-time favorite and I would still live in it today even if it is prim and not mesh. I felt with the "Fantasy Homes" there were a lot of missed opportunities due to the lack of creativity. However, not to say they're horrible. This is still a very nice neighborhood, and the weeping willow trees are my kryptonite in this area. There are mushrooms and it looks like a fairy-tale forest, think "Into the Woods" musical type of vibes or storybook cottage core vibes. That is the style you will find here.

Specs:

There are 8 home layouts/styles of homes to choose from

Just like the "Log Homes" it does have the inside and outside customization.

There are seasonal color changes

Lots of waterways that can be sailed with small boats and structures.

It's a bioluminescent region that is activated with the day/night cycle which is super cool, I think it's the best perk of these houses is the region and creativity of the surroundings and not so much the homes.

The community areas are spread out and there aren't too many of them, I was able to cross by three out of all the sims I visited that are in this theme and I think I went to almost all of them, that was a little shocking and a bit disappointing honestly. I was hoping there would be more community areas for people to enjoy.

It's important to note that you quickly find out which Linden Homes are going quickly now, they can be seen from the website when you're picking out houses. Needless to say, these Fantasy ones aren't going very quickly with that information as you may. I'm a little biased though when it comes to this one, so take what I say with a grain of salt with this one. I'm just salty they didn't recreate the "Wizard's Retreat" that's all.

Campers:

I'm not going to lie, again I'm a bit biased. When the Camper's first came out the first thing I did was get one. I abandoned my previous land to pick one up. My main dream for some odd reason in RL is to buy a tiny home, deck it out from the early rococo Victorian times on the inside travel the United States and beyond, and just keep moving. Can you tell I'm a very adventurous but introverted spirit? Needless to say, things worked out a bit differently for me. That didn't mean that in SL I couldn't still live this dream. How unoriginal the name is "Camper" but that's okay because aside from various campers and trailers there in fact are two kinds of tiny home layouts which I loved!

Camper Examples:

These are just some of them, the "tiny home" I had was gorgeous similar to picture #2 but WAY nicer. So definitely check out the demo if you get the chance over at the "Welcome Center" in Bellisseria.

However, the region and community areas are a bit underwhelming in my opinion. I feel there could've been more community areas for a "tiny home" like community. Especially since in RL in "tiny home" communities, there are a ton of amenities like pools, a cafeteria area, a clubhouse, etc. So I guess I just expected more and didn't find it. However, one of the really cool things when it comes to the community areas is I did find a picnic area in my sim, a few sims over there was a gigantic lazy river with inner tubes that could be used, and there were a few rezzers here and there for horses, cars, bikes, etc. So it had a nice amount of areas and things to do, very outdoorsy and very similar vibes to the "Log Homes" but, again I feel in a sense this was a little bit of a missed opportunity. I loved this theme though because it hasn't been made previously. This is specific to the new Linden Home era. I thought adding "tiny homes" to the mix is great because some people even in SL want to have that small footprint and enjoy their time exploring SL and getting to know their neighbors and community. This can be exceptionally true if they live in a tiny home in RL and recreate how they live in both worlds and believe it or not, there are players like that. When I first tried out the "Camper" Linden Homes, I was still living at home so I also thought this was my only option as a Millennial struggling with all the other Millennials, Gen Z, and Gen Alpha to have some sort of good living.

Specs of These Tiny Homes Include:

8 layout or home styles to choose from

Ability to fully customize the inside and outside of the home like the other mesh homes.

Each has an open floor plan

The parcel size is small it is a 512 sqm parcel which means it doesn't use all of your 1024 sqm. This also means if you wanted you could buy a 512 sqm plot on the mainland to have for yourself at no extra cost so you would have two places that would be yours. However, the thing with buying the mainland is your bidding for it and it's luck of the draw. If someone outbids you you're not getting it and you do need to shell out money upfront to get the land and then it's nothing afterward. That's just a little explanation of how that works.

Access to community areas, a lot of this was explained above.

Secluded rural area

I like how far apart these homes are from each other, there's a decent amount of space and it doesn't feel like everyone is on top of each other. You actually have space to decorate your outside as you wish. That's the beauty of these "Camper" style homes. It's a small inside but the outside is where the magic happens with these!

Chalet:

Ooo fancy schmancy! A chalet, this a very Tudor-style neighborhood. The style is very similar to the "Fantasy" homes so I'm not going to go into too much detail here as it's almost exactly the same. It's so similar that not even the website provides a lot of details to make people want to move there. At the time of this post, there is an availability of 2,564 available. However, it's important to note, that I love Tudor-style homes, They remind me of Old France, sometimes Germany, and just little peaceful places you know? I associate Tudor homes with peace.

Chalet Examples:

Specs:

8 layout/housing styles

Full customization of the inside and outside

One word, MOUNTAINS, mountains everywhere!

Traditional and open floor plans depending on your needs and how you like to decorate.

Like I said there's not too much to report with these, I haven't ever thought about owning one, and they just don't WOW! me. It doesn't have that WOW! factor, which honestly that's okay not every Linden Home will be everyone's cup of tea and this one and the "Fantasy Homes" just aren't mine.

Final Thoughts on PART 1:

Due to the amount of images and content, I had to break this up into two different posts. Part 1 and Part 2. I go into very close detail and do the exploring to provide you the information to make informed decisions if your planning on getting the Premium Membership and obtaining a Linden Home of your own, or you're looking for a change and not sure which one to pick and move too that fits your style. I wanted to make sure I went in-depth with each and everyone, hence the content being on two different posts. This helps me too though because I haven't posted content yet this year except for my Newbrooke review which is where I currently live. Please go check out that post if you want to learn more about the Newbrooke homes and community. With that said, the ones I did cover were underwhelming such as the "Fantasy Home" and the "Chalet" I wish there were more to them and there just isn't I feel like even in some of the others I covered such as the "Campers" and the "Log Homes" there were a lot of missed opportunities to really sell the Premium Membership through the Linden Homes. However, I do love the "Campers" as I remember having one. So I'm a little biased, and in the past, I remember having a home in the Tahoe region originally and loving it, I like the new "Log Homes" there are just other Linden Homes I enjoy a little more. I feel each place has something to offer, and they're really branching out with styles. I feel Linden Lab is really providing a wide range of homes for all types of people from all walks of life, and that's how a business grows from its consumers. Diversity, providing what the users want, and various ways of style. Please stay tuned for Part 2 where I will be covering the rest of the homes seen here:

Sakura (1024 sqm)

Sakura (512 sqm)

Houseboat

Stilt Home on Land

Traditional

Victorian

The Newbrooke Homes can be seen in my review that was previously posted. Thank you for sticking around and Happy Linden Home Picking!

#virtual world #virtual worlds #gaming #sl #second life #linden lab #linden homes #linden labs #homes #virtual reality #virtual home design #virtual home decor #virtual home #second life home #land #mainland #virtual land

1 note · View note

lfcology · 3 years

Text

swatches | sirius black

summary: you had loved sirius black for longer than you could remember. through two wizarding wars and a harsh time in azkaban: you were head over heels. what happens when he misunderstood your relationship? everyone lives au lowkey as it should be!

pairing: Fem!Reader x Sirius (post books so they’re slightly older)

word count: 1.6k

warnings: misunderstandings, mention of pregnancy/getting pregnant

Two wars. You had survived two wars against the most powerful dark wizard ever and had no inclination to tell your longtime friend you loved him. You'd been head over heels for Sirius Black for the better part of two decades yet opted to keep your feelings to yourself – stating something about the timing not being right. But if not during a war – nay, two wars – when would the time be right? You'd been with other people, trying to get over the raven-haired beauty yet no one ever made you feel anything close to what you did with him.

He'd served years in Azkaban, convicted of some of the most heinous crimes against muggles and the reason behind his best friends death, but you knew he was innocent. Sirius Black was a lot of things but a traitor was not one of them. Now, years later, he was finally free – an innocent man to the world. Once the dark lord was defeated again, and things started to calm down, 12 Grimmauld Place wasn't needed for the order anymore so you insisted on helping Sirius clean it up.

Though you couldn't wash away the painful memories of his childhood, it didn't mean you couldn't try. Harry was old enough to live on his own now but after years apart he and Sirius wanted to catch up on lost time. The first order of business you planned was putting that horrid painting of Mrs. Black in the basement. It took a lot of spells to detach her from the wall but the relief that came across Sirius' face once she was gone was worth it. The two of you worked together tirelessly to bring brightness into the home for the first time since it was built. The Black family tree tapestry was peeled off and replaced with a fresh coat of white paint and a photo wall.

Photos of James, Lily, Marlene and other friends lost over the years lined the wall and memories flooded your senses. There were moments in time captured that reminded you of easier days. Your times at Hogwarts. Your summers at the Potters. You, Sirius and Remus, admired your handy work on the wall. You three had lost so much but the thankfulness you felt to still have each other was beyond you. Sirius wrapped his arm around you and pressed a kiss to your temple. Remus excused himself to spend time with Teddy, leaving you and your love alone. "Should we start clearing out some of the rooms?" You suggested despite not wanting to leave Sirius' side just yet.

He hummed in confirmation before (rather reluctantly) letting you go. The house had been empty and cold for years so in an attempt to revive it Harry, Remus, Tonks and baby Teddy were due to move in. You two started with the guest room that would become a nursery for Teddy. Magic made cleaning much easier but being around Sirius meant more time joking around than actually being productive.

"This whole bloody house smells like dirty boxes." He said with a huff and a wave of his hand to open the window.

The two of you sat for longer than you'd like to admit trying to put a crib together the muggle way. Soon you gave up and used magic, much to Sirius' dismay who insisted "it'll just be 5 more minutes". With a wave of your wand, the walls were coloured a soft sage green compared to the drab mud brown it was before. Things were finally coming together.

"Do you wonder what it's like?" Sirius asked as he set a few toys out onto the shelves.

"What what's like?" You asked from your spot at the bookshelf.

"Being a parent." He clarified.

You shrugged and put down your copy of ABCs with Merlin. "I suppose... I kind of assume I won't have kids. I'm too old now."

"Nonsense!" He replied quickly.

You raised your brows and crossed your arms. "I know you're about to mention something about Moony but shall I remind you he didn't carry the child?" You countered.

"You make it sound like you're ancient." He scoffed. "Don't rule it out, darling."

You let out a laugh and returned to your task of sorting the shelves. "It takes two to have a baby and I don't exactly have a lineup of people wanting to impregnate me.”

"I sure hope not." He said incredulously. "Now, what colour should the walls in the master room be?"

You furrowed your brows. What on earth did he mean by I sure hope not? Instead of letting yourself dwell on it later, you decided to outright ask him. "What's that supposed to mean?"

He looked perplexed. "What? The colour of the master room?"

"No, no... that you sure hope there isn't people lined up for me?" You said crossing your arms a tad defensively.

Sirius, to put things simply, had a habit of being rude sometimes without realizing it. So, you were expecting a backhanded comment about your looks or a joke about how long you've been single. "Well, wouldn't exactly be the best for my odds." He said with a chuckle. "Now, the room colour." He repeated holding the swatches up.

"To hell with the swatches Sirius! What are you talking about!" You all but yelled at him. Was this a joke? Did he find out you were in love with him and decided to subtly tease you about it? How had he even figured it out? You felt yourself going into overdrive. You were going to kill Moony. He had to be the one to tell him after all!

"The swatch is for your room too so it does matter," Sirius said bewildered.

"What?"

"What?" He repeated making you huff. He could be so frustrating sometimes.

"What do you mean my room?"

"Well, it's gonna be our room." He clarified.

You were surprised if that's what you could call it. Sirius thought you were moving in? And sharing a room with him? What on earth was happening? "Sirius, I'm not living here? I thought it was just you, Harry and Moonys family?"

"What? Why? It's meant to be a family home!" He protested with a pout that reminded you of the ones he wore as a student not getting his way with Professor McGonagall.

"We don't have room for me if Teddy has his own room. He'll need one as he grows up." You explained.

"That makes no sense! We would share a room."

"Why the hell would we share a room? We're adults we can't just be dormmates like we're kids." You said and he gave you a disgruntled look. “We've been sharing beds for 20 years why does it matter now?" He rebutted and crossed his arms.

"Don't you want privacy?" You asked.

"For what? We're dating so I don't see why you're being so weird about this."

Now that shocked you.

"DATING?" You shouted and he chuckled softly as he took a step towards you. "Since bloody when?"

"Well, we've had a weird relationship for 20 years I just assumed? Two wars change people." He said and you gaped at him.

"Bloody hell Sirius." You said rubbing your temples. This was not how you expected to find out your feelings were returned. Was this his loneliness speaking? His trauma?

"I'm sorry if I overstepped in thinking that..." He said rubbing the back of his neck and losing his confidence. He became sheepish under your scrutiny. Maybe it wasn't so outlandish of him to assume that. You two did kiss and cuddle a fair bit more than the average friends. But Sirius had always been fond of physical affection with his friends and you chalked it up to that. You honestly never expected him to feel the same way you did.

"I-" You began before swallowing down in an attempt to collect your thoughts. "-You weren't wrong. I just never really thought you'd feel that way about me."

He scoffed. "I've felt that way since we were in 5th year!"

"That makes no bloody sense! You hooked up with half the damn school but didn't look at me." You scoffed back.

"Because I was trying to hide my feelings like a dumb teenage boy! It killed me seeing you all over Peter so I deflected the only way I knew how." He countered. You rolled your eyes. You and Peter had gone out twice before realizing you were better off as friends.

"You don't get to do this Sirius. You can't just say you've liked me for more than 20 damn years and not made a move." You said pointing your finger at him accusingly.

"Need I remind you I was in prison for half of it. And I just asked what colour you want our room to be." He replied with a huff.

You were silent. He wasn't wrong after all but in your overflow of emotions, you chose to place all the blame on him. "I..." You looked down. "I'm sorry. I just always thought I wasn't your type."

He took a step closer and gently held your shoulders. "It's my fault for not letting you know how utterly in love with you I am."

Hearing those words come out of his mouth shot electricity through your body. It was a euphoric feeling you could definitely get used to feeling all the time. You looked up at him and cupped his cheek softly. For the first time, you realized the way you looked at him was the same way he looked at you: with utter love and devotion. You were so worried about not letting your feelings for him spill that you didn't realize you'd been dating the man of your dreams this whole time. The man you'd longed for but thought was unattainable.

"I love you too..." You said through happy tears. "I have for so long."

"Now darling, what colour for our bedroom?" He said with a perfect smirk and a kiss to your temple.

It took two wars but you and Sirius were creating the silly little family you always dreamed of.

taglist: @writing-wh0re

#sirius black x reader #sirius black #sirius black one shot #marauders #marauders x reader

138 notes · View notes

djdangerlove · 3 years

Note

I love fluffy headcanons! So in my head, I picture TK and Carlos having a little girl. One time when TK is off shift and knows Carlos has had a rough call, he sneaks over to the station and puts their giggling daughter in Carlos' chair when he's grabbing a quick cup of coffee in the break room (of course TK is right nearby). This cheers Carlos up so much and makes their daughter so happy that it becomes a tradition between the two of them whenever the other has had a rough day.

The sludge pouring out of the break room coffee machine never looks appealing, but has long since proven itself worthy of curing the worst of caffeine headaches, one of which pounds behind Carlos' eyes. He sips it black and scalding, the mug a comfort of warmth between his hands as he makes his way back to his desk to finish up some paperwork.

The bullpen is quiet, nothing but the sounds of phones ringing, papers shuffling, and the quiet murmur of the few people milling about. It's why when a bright laugh he knows all too well comes on the back of an equally recognizable giggle he nearly drops his coffee. He manages to hang on to the handle of the mug, but the steaming caffeine sloshes out the sides to leave a red streak down his skin.

He's unbothered by it though, wipes the droplets on the leg of his pants as he scans the bullpen for the two faces he's desperate to see. He quickens his pace back to his desk as he spots them there, the rush of it chasing away his headache for the time being as his husband turns to stand beside their six year old daughter sitting in his chair.

She grins up at him from underneath the plastic firefighter helmet she's been wearing for days as he falls to crouch to her level with a curious gaze and a playful smile. "Now, why is Austin's best firefighter sitting in my chair?"

She tips her hat up on her head with the poke of a finger and sits up proudly. "I drew a picture of all of us and Daddy said it was so good that we had to come give it you."

Carlos glances up at TK to find him smiling sadly, hand coming to rub gentle comfort into Carlos' back. He knows it means that TK heard about what happened earlier today, the call that went sideways before they could even get there. He smiles back, the meaning dimmed but nonetheless grateful. Carlos turns back to their daughter as she unfolds a piece of white paper to reveal a crayon scribble of the three of them standing in front of what he assumes is supposed to be their house.

"Cora," he gasps, putting in the extra effort of being amazed just to see her smile. "I love it! Daddy was right, I'm glad you brought it to me and I know just the spot to put it."

He stands up and swivels her chair so she can see him prop it up next to the picture frame holding a photo of the three of them at last year's State Fair. He picks her up so that he can hold her in his lap as he sits there instead, wrapping his arms around her middle and pressing a kiss into the top of her plastic red hat.

"You see, I look at that picture every day before I leave to go out in the field," he explains on a shaky whisper while pointing to the printed photo. He feels TK's hand come to rest on his back again and his breath comes easier. "I think about how brave and kind Daddy is and I think about how smart and sweet you are and then I go out there knowing that if I can just be a little bit like you and little bit like Daddy then I'm going to have a really good day."

Cora giggles at that as she leans against his chest, unbothered by the way her hat crackles against his badge. "Now you have two pictures!"

"Now, I have two," he agrees. "But when I look at the one you drew, I think that one will just remind me how lucky I am to be your Papa."

#tarlos #carlos reyes #tk strand #911 lone star #dj drabbles #221bsunsettowers headcanon

83 notes · View notes

caitsyoi · 3 years

Text

I wanted to talk about FEDRA in Seattle a bit. What they did was super impressive, even if it did end really badly for them.

Under the cut because there are lots of pictures and I talk about FEDRA too. Actually, this got really out of hand but it is interesting af to me, so click below to read my thesis on FEDRA.

I think the singular most impressive thing that FEDRA did was building this wall. I estimate that the constructed about 5 miles of concrete wall (based on Dina's map and the distance in RL Seattle), and this wall is around 4 stories tall. I have no idea how they managed this during a pandemic of this size. Maybe Seattle got a heads-up from other infected areas, and maybe they set up temporary barriers first while constructing this one. Still, that is a lot of material to haul to and set up during a devastating outbreak like in the TLOU universe. It is insanely impressive.

They also set the QZ up into zones, and the zones were created using concrete walls about a story high. That's even more work they had to do, all the while fighting off infected and trying to keep everyone fed.

I can't imagine they were receiving supplies from outside for long, their supply routes probably didn't stay functioning too long past Outbreak Day. It's unknown whether they started up any farming of their own or if the WLF was the first to do that, but as you can see here, searching the buildings for food and supplies was a very important task. If that was all they had for food for 5-10 years, it is no wonder there was heavy rationing and food shortages.

Another interesting thing about this picture are the cleared zones. Based on this and Dina's map, they cleared the zone around the FOB, Capitol Hill (and another just outside the wall but still in the neighborhood of Capitol Hill), and they cleared parts of what I'm guessing was downtown (that is if the WLF use the same names for zones as FEDRA did). They hadn't cleared the stadium (implying they weren't doing any farming), or a lot of areas in the north central part of Seattle (what is referred to as the "Contested Zone" by the WLF, which you can see on Issac's map). The security situation in the QZ was a real mess.

FEDRA did make an attempt to move people out of less secure zones and into safer ones. You can see that in some of the notes you find and on the doors to some apartments. I actually looked this up to find out what it means. Basically, the "X" means "Dangerous - Do Not Enter", "0-6" is supposed to be time and date but it could number of survivors and corpses, "NE" means "No Entry" and it's where you would indicate types of hazards, and DOA is what you think it means (this is also typically where they state the condition and amount of people found). If you want to see the reference I used, look here.

In the notes you can find, it seems like the safe zones were not a pleasant place to be. They sound like the lawless refugee camps you tend to hear about in war-torn areas. It's not surprising that some people resisted going, like the Seraphites in the NW and the residents of Hillcrest in the NE.

Another unpleasant aspect of QZ life - rationing. This seems to be a thing in every QZ we see in game, although to be fair, we only see Boston and Seattle. All the citizens of the QZ were divided into 3 groups based on their role in the QZ. "A" ration cards are the best and held by soldiers, but it's unclear who got "B" and "C" cards. What is clear is that just like in Boston, this caused a lot of resentment towards the soldiers. The WLF used this resentment to recruit members, much like we saw with the Fireflies in Boston. It makes sense, since Issac used to be a Firefly.

Ration cards also worked as identification. It's what they needed to move between different zones or enter certain areas. The WLF probably got a lot of goodwill by falsifying ration cards (and it probably allowed them to move weapons and supplies around much easier).

This is how I figured out the soldiers were type "A". This was on the FEDRA trailers near the main gate, which are designated as authorized personnel only. It also says "ablebodied" here, which makes me wonder if there was forced conscription like you saw in Boston. This seems very likely to me. It also seems like there was not a high standard for those selected for conscription, other than being physically able to do it. Again, this was probably not a popular policy.

It's pretty brutal that they didn't allow anyone with any disease or condition into the QZ. This adds up for what you find out about FEDRA in other parts of the game, but it's still sad to think of the people who weren't contagious but were still denied entry. It's also sad to think of the contagious people who were denied, although that is a bit easier to understand (although still so fucked up).

You find a note near the Fuck FEDRA gate that lists the amount of people allowed in, the amount turned away, and the amount that were kicked out. Over time, the amount allowed in decreased to 0, and the amount turned away or banished greatly increased. Again you can see why they grew to become very unpopular.

Another thing you get from these signs is that there were a ton of restrictions: no photography in certain areas, you had to surrender your firearms, no freedom of movement, and you weren't not allowed to enter OR leave the QZ without permission. Again it makes sense when you are dealing with something as dangerous as the fungus, but you can still see why this was not popular with people. Life under FEDRA was pretty darn oppressive (though it isn't much better in that respect under the Seraphites or the WLF either).

They also had a curfew at night, which also makes sense. Honestly, I wouldn't mind this because who the fuck wants to go out and possibly come across infected in the dark? I wouldn't even want to see them in the light.

There are also signs all over former FEDRA property telling people to report any suspicious activity. This makes sense with dealing with infected people, there were probably a lot of scared, recently infected people who tried to sneak in. You can see though how this was probably not just used to locate potential infected, the WLF and possibly the Seraphites were also targeted.

This is another common sign you see. They really weren't afraid to use lethal force either, there are several notes mentioning how FEDRA was willing to kill without trial, just shooting those they suspect in the street. It is not hard to see why they were overthrown. Violence begat violence, and the WLF paid them back in kind.

It had to be so hard to live in the QZ and find out someone you care about is infected. If you don't report it and they found out (which I imagine they'd have to find out eventually), you could be killed as punishment. If you do report it, you are effectively killing them. I understand why FEDRA was so strict about infection, but damn is that brutal.

Last but not least, I love that they took real photos of the different kinds of infected. Some poor FEDRA soldiers were tasked with bringing back a runner, a clicker, a stalker, and a bloater. A pretty common story for soldiers everywhere, sometimes you just get the shit jobs. I also think it's funny that in Boston they just drew pictures instead.

I also love the advice they give. For runners, it's all about not letting them swarm you. For stalkers, it's all about checking your surroundings. For clickers, it's all about keeping your distance. Finally, for bloaters it's basically don't engage unless you absolutely have to. All great advice.

Another interesting fact, there is no indication that FEDRA was ever aware of the existence of Shamblers. The earliest mention is a WLF soldier who found one and left a note to report back. That means that this type of infected took at least 5-10 years to first show up.

And that's it for my FEDRA post. If you can't tell, the TLOU universe is interesting as fuck to me. Like, I would spend cash money on a book just about TLOU lore.

Once again, if you got through all this, you are my people.

#the last of FEDRA #I wonder if there are any other QZ's that they still control by the end of TLOU2 #If there are then they must've adapted to be more like the WLF #with the farming and the whole not starving thing #overall they managed pretty well when facing an extremely overwhelming situation #just not well enough to sustain their power #deep thoughts about TLOU at 2 AM #it's either this or shitposts #no in-between #the last of us 2 #the last of us part 2 #FEDRA #thank god for Dina and her map #it has been crucial for all my deep dives about Seattle

64 notes · View notes

pepperedstarz · 2 years

Note

ZINNIA USES ALL PRONOUNS BUT NORMALLY SHE/HE TRUE GENDER !!!!! OKAY OKAY I'm getting tired so I'm gonna explain as best as I can!! Zin was a child of a professional ballet dancer and ?? I still don't know her dad's job bare with me. Zin hated school, dropped it, started a job performing at her mom's theater, okay dropped that because ballet was too dainty, let's go perform anywhere that hires us, Zin starts a circus.

I'm gonna gather your asks all in one nice big post so, it'll be easier for me to give you a good response and a more pleasant read through for anyone else interested too!

Context for anyone that needs it Zinnia is Circus AU's Henry!

"Circus travels through towns and shit whatever !!!! Important person, William. William and Zinnia meet at a bar where zin is like "hey lol, me and you are getting well together, wanna be my right hand man." William accepts and they work on the circus together. By this point it isn't small, it's well known and they have massive crowds"

"Zinnia performs a lot on aerial silks (HIGHLY RECOMMEND TO CHECK OUT SOME PEOPLE WHO PERFORM WITH SILKS ITS COOL) and so once after a show, zinnia is practicing a trick that's pretty dangerous. It's looping a silk around your neck and ankles, you do a split and pull your head bACK it's terrifying to watch!!! Zin fucks it up and DIES but her soul like floats and repossesses Zin"

"And so Zin gets down, trying to figure out why she died and then didn't. This is why her skin changed color BTW!!! But so she kinda like is just "hm I need t figure out how that works" BOOM soul research BOOM "will help me out with soul thing" BOOM science fair project on a human BOOM human is fucked up"

"Zinnia performs fucked experiments after she died, William is still alive after these, she can't figure out souls. A bit passes, William is like "can you try and get me to work the with the tech?" THE TECH HE'S TALKING ABT IS NAMED JACK AND EVERYONE CALLS HIM ORANGE BECAUSE OF HIS LIKE NEON orange hair lol!!! Zin is like "lol? Just talk to him? Why are you asking me?" AND WILL EXPLAIN HE LIKES JACK AND ZIN (WHOS REALLY AFRAID OF LOSING HER BEST FRIEND IS LIKE. HM. MURDERS AN OPTION) so like a smart person, she kills Jack's sibling (Dee), and his brother (Peter), and Doesn't get caught since she can just. Murder people bc she's cool (really they're under the floor of the circus but the body's decompose enough to where even if they were found, they couldn't be identified) ((also she has their souls in jars))

Jack is grieving because his family just went missing, William keeps his distance, and the circus is cleared from the police. Yipee. So, the circus travels again, in the all good, and Will CONFRONTS Zinnia when they're back in a small rented home kitchen because he's like 120% sure she did it and she's just like "wow that's rude, I'm cooking :) I'd never do that" it gets into a fight, Zinnia grabs the knife she had AND BOOM another death. Get the soul, figure out what to do with the body. She was so scared of getting found out when the adrenaline wore off and she saw will she just fucking lost it dude. Perks of being assistants with no family that care? No one went looking for Will! So that made it easier.

But still at this point Zin just pushes down the guilt and ignores everything after getting rid of evidence (she did take one thing of Dave's and that was a photo of them when they both first started) BUT YEA the circus goes successful even after the loss, Zin gets well known, has money, and then disappears off of the grid and continues to research souls (using her own #girlboyboss)"

I love this idea! A lot actually! There's so much detail in this, and it's really fun to see how you've fleshed out Zinnia herself. Her backstory is pretty interesting and fairly regular, which I appreciate, honestly. I like how the circus wasn't made out of spite or bloodlust but, was just his next movement along for his skill set, and then he turned into a sick bastard lol.

Performers on aerial silks! Holy shit, they are so majestic, but some of the moves they make are terrifying to look at. I've watched some stuff about these before but, looked into a couple more after your asks and yep! Both as gorgeous and terrifying as I remember x'3 I think the way Zinnia died is unique and makes a lot of sense! I like how also his death was the marker for her downfall into madness, like after that point her actions got worse and worse until she's just like the Henry we know and hate in the canon DSAF universe.

I think Jack being an obstacle for Zinnia is a pretty interesting take too, and picking out the support Jack has instead of Jack himself to alienate William is a horrible but powerful manipulation tactic really. Did Dave have a performance in the circus? If he did, what did he do? Also, what happened to Jack, since I'm assuming he's still alive?

I was gonna draw something for this AU today but, it kinda too late for me to start now 'n' I got a busy day tomorrow but, I didn't want to make you wait too long for a reply to your ideas! Thank you so much for sharing this with me, this was a pleasure to read through, and I look forward to see/hearing more about this AU :eyes:

Sorry it took me a bit to reply! I wanted to give you a nicely structured answer & have this understandable for people stumbling upon this post and me at a later date when I end up using this to refresh my memory x"3

#dsaf circus au #circus au #tw manipulation #tw death mention #starz talks #talks #asks #i haven't beta read this post #should be fine hopefully

2 notes · View notes

coping-via-clint-eastwood · 3 years

Text

4x12 - GSR fix-it fic

youtube

(A/N: What the motherfuck- TUMBLR HAS A TEXT BLOCK LIMIT?!!!! UUUGGGHHH!!!! I guess this is gonna have to be in two parts. But, I guess...this whole thing is pushing 9000 words, so I'll split it 4500-4500. Yeah. I'm as tired as Gil now. I'm gonna go sleep with him. I was inspired to write this after watching that video. Anyways, they're actually together in this one. Aka when Gil FINALLY goes home, he can rest his forehead on Sara's and reassure himself that she's actually still okay, and that she's actually still right there, with him. Because I crave this for them. So, there are many and heavy contextual changes. Fyi, I'm not writing out every single piece of dialogue/action, hell no. I'm just writing whatever's relevant to GSR. Oh and, warning - canon-typical ns/fw

{I'm sorry about the formatting but I would like to give} Special thanks to @addictedtostorytelling for...basically saving my ass with all the details of this fic. Thank you for answering my questions, no matter how inane, dumb, unnecessary, or worse. And of course @stokes-theorem got me out of a panic attack; it is much appreciated 🙏)

Gil walked through the house of the 419 of the night, having had to put protective coverings over his shoes so that he did not disturb any evidence he might accidentally step on. He had to keep his back to the wall and walk sideways as well. (The sound of his footsteps were adorable.) As he passed the spare bedroom, he noticed that the victim possessed a collection of butterfly-resembling trinkets, all displayed nicely on her shelf. He made it to the area of event at last, squatting down to take a closer look at the body.

His eyebrows jumped up in shock - the victim had a strong resemblance to Sara. For a few moments longer, he stared at his (secret) girlfriend's image, a dozen thoughts swirling around in his head but never aligning themselves. It was his unfailing sense of duty that allowed him to literally get his head upright and get back to his team, who was waiting outside. But when he opened the door, the very person in his line of sight was Sara; again he stared, this time at her actual self. Inside, there was a dead body, who looked so like her, but here she was, living, breathing and- turning her head to stare right back at him. But the one's gaze held such a different meaning from the other's.

Jim, who was past Sara in Grissom's line of sight, thought that he was the one the team leader wanted to see, so he stepped between the scientists. "Ready for us?"

"For now, no one enters this house except CSI."

[CUE THE INTRO]

Gil assigned Warrick to the car, but he assigned Sara to the perimeter, to which she shook her head in disbelief and questioned, "What? You just did a one hour walk-through. The perimeter cannot be a priority." On 'not', she shrugged and laughed wryly.

His gaze immediately turned beseeching. "I need you to work the outside. Catherine and I will be inside." He momentarily shifted his eyes in the direction of the door at the last bit but immediately looked back at her, his eyes even more pleading. Sara gave him an 'alright, fine' smile and went to do as he said.

Gil did not examine the car, but there was a fair chance that it would yield a fair amount of evidence. However, he had, as Sara remarked, gone over the perimeter, so he knew that Sara's scouring of it would bear no fruit. He deliberately did this; he wanted to dissociate Sara from the case as much as possible, in his own little way.

While Catherine went to interrogate the victim's friend, Gil took the opportunity to go back and stare the body for a bit longer. He was (understandably) haunted that the 419 looked like the love of his life.

He was so lost in his thoughts that he did not hear Catherine walk in behind him; his head flinched to the side when she spoke, "One thing I can never get over with this job: anything can happen to anybody."

Gil clicked his tongue and responded, "That's why we're here," before going back to looking over the corpse.

Soon enough, Sara was let in a little more on the action when she had to crawl under the house and unscrew a pipe running from the bathroom to get the water that had been drained into it, as well as process the actual pipe. However, Gil insisted that she was to return to the laboratory and test just those pieces of evidences as soon as she was done; his intent was that she would be occupied with something appertaining to the case but not in such a major capacity, thus satisfying her curiosity if only on a temporal basis. Gil and Sara did not know it, but when she looked up into the pipe, Gil happened to be spraying luminol onto it on the other side. (A/N: Can I just take a moment to appreciate the cinematography here? As well as the music <3)

The bugs helped the bug man out again; flies swarmed the dustbins that had pieces of corpse inside them.

After those were sent back to Al and David, Gil went back inside the house. This time, he examined the victim's collection of synthetic butterflies. He was turning over one that was blue, translucent, and had a base so that it could stand, a thoughtful frown on his forehead. If Sara had been there to see him, she would have kissed it away. He put the butterfly down and picked up a framed picture of Debbie. With her arms straight up in the air and an open-mouthed smile that showed her top row of teeth, it was evident that she had been jubilant at the time of photography. Gil shook his head; not because he pitied the loss of her joy, but because he was once again struck by her likeness to the greatest joy in his own life. He tore his eyes away from the photo and looked at himself in the mirror, trying to collect himself.

But the adverse was achieved, because the bed was visible in the mirror, and he envisioned the victim sitting on it facing away from him, alive and well. She then looked over her shoulder at him; the image was replaced with that of Sara.

Grissom clenched his jaw. He stiffly tilted his head to one side, his gaze at himself hardening. All in an reinforced effort to steel himself.

He was forcibly yanked out of his thoughts when his phone rang; his head flinched a little way in its direction while his eyes flickered down to it. He picked it up and manage to announce in his normal voice, "Grissom."

"Hey!" came the voice of the very woman who plagued him so, her voice cheery; she had dismissed any offence she had felt earlier from her mind and forgiven him, just being happy to hear from her man.

But her voice made him drop his mouth open in shock. Restraining the last of his resolve from flying out the window, he said, "Sara. Uuuuhhh listen I'm in a bad area, I'll call you back." He deliberately raised his voice a little to make his lie more believable.

Even though he could not see her, she gave a little nod; physical embodiment of her acknowledgment. She responded by raising her voice just as he did when he next spoke. "I got a skin tag off the bathroom drain pipe."

"Skin tag. That's great. Uh, give it to Greg."

"Yeah I did. Hey do you want me to come over there and give you a hand?"

"No I'm-I'm-I'm fine," he stuttered, his free hand moving up then down again, as if he was physically dismissing (his emotions besides) her offer. "I'll-i'll-i'll- uh...I'll talk to you back at the lab." He immediately hung up after that. He raised his head to glare at himself; he needed to force himself to push whatever emotions he had aside so that he could focus on the case.

As for Sara, she frowned in concern, but went on brushing what she put down as his typical eccentricity aside and went to help Warrick out with Michael Clark's car. A third party would have enjoyed watching them work, especially with John M. Keane's music.

After that, Sara and Warrick convened with Catherine in the break room to go over the course of the physical events of the murder. Grissom joined remotely by holding his pager to his ear with one hand, while the break room's table had a speaker that his phone was tapped into; it was certainly much easier to communicate with Sara remotely and in a group where he could avoid speaking directly to her instead of communing in private where he literally had to face her. Since Grissom was at the house, he walked through it himself in accordance with his team's narration. When Sara spoke, he had to tilt his phone away from his ear, catching himself tripping again. Since he was at the scene of the crime, he narrated how the deed was done. As always, he had been envisioning the actual events, so it was difficult for him to picture such a thing happening Sara's likeness, but he pulled through; he did pause for extremely brief moments, and those could be put down perfectly as him taking time to think.

Sara, Catherine and Warrick finally went home after one and a half shifts. As Sara approached the door to her and Gil's place, she could hear Hank scratching at it. She smiled and opened the door. "Hey!" she called at the same time that Hank barked. Hank then stepped behind her and sniffed the air. "He's not here," Sara told him, gently pushing him inside with one hand and holding her kit with the other. She sat on the couch and directed him to sit next to her. She took her phone out of her pocket and showed it to him. "We'll call him, huh?" Hank had come to understand that that little slab of plastic with an area that would light up was something that humans used to communicate with each other. There were frequent occasions when one of his humans was away, and the other would hold this object in between him and them. Then, when the human pressed some things that made beeping sounds, there would be a certain tone for a while until the other human's voice could be heard from it; this was one such occasion.

Sometimes however, the other human's voice would not be heard. In those cases, he and the human would just bark or speak into the slab by themselves. After several hours, the slab would start up with a ringing sound, and when the human made a beep, the other human's voice could be heard. He would always bark joyfully then and wag his tail.

So Hank smiled at Sara, tongue hanging out as he panted eagerly. He watched and listened as she made the slab beep, and a tone followed. Not too long after, the tone ended, and was replaced with a, "Grissom." He had had to turn away from the area of wall he was swabbing and take the phone out of his inner breast pocket.

Hank immediately started barking into the object, letting his human know that he was excited to hear from him and missed him. Both humans giggled. (At least Hank managed to cheer Gil up for a little bit.) Sara absentmindedly ran her other hand down his ear as she waited for him to stop barking so that she could have her turn at speaking. The dog was aware of this, and let his mother have her turn in due time. "We miss you," she smiled.

He sounded forlorn as he answered, "I know... I miss you too...but I have to finish this." He was frowning sadly, and his shoulders were slumped. Sara thought that he was sad because he regretted not being able to come home to her. While this was true, he had another reason: that he had to deal with...this. And it was not that he had to deal with it; it was something that he had taken upon himself to. All he wanted was to protect his Sara, even if it meant hiding (fortunately minor) details of the case from her, and foregoing sleep altogether.

"Why not come home? Take a break. And you can continue tomorrow," she tried to coax him.

He shook his head even though she could not see him. "No. You go ahead without me," he said woefully.

She frowned in concern. "We gotta stop doing this." She was referring to the fact that they often stayed up for the whole day to work on cases instead of getting sleep.

"I know, I know," he sighed, his free hand squeezing his temples. "I promise I'll get more sleep after this case, okay?"

There was a period of silence when Sara nodded. "Okay," she said genially.

She heard her boyfriend huff a sigh; he dipped his head defeatedly when he did that. "Look, I-i-i'm sorry," he stuttered for the second phone call from her in a row.

She shook her head, "Don't be. It's alright. I'm guilty of the same thing." As well as she could hear that he was in dire need of sleep, she would not force him to since he did not want to. Plus, there was no way she could get Gil to come home without people questioning as to how she managed to get through to the stubborn workaholic; suspicion would be raised as to the true extent of their relationship. He was at a loss as to what to say. So, she rescued him as usual, "I'll see you back at the lab?"

He felt as if there were chains around his body that had just been loosened. Finally, something he could answer honestly! He felt as if he was ripping them off as he answered, "I don't think so. I still have to process the carpet-"

"The carpet?! Gil, that thing runs over every inch of floor!!!" Hank, who had been contently resting his head on Sara's lap, jerked his head up at the sudden interjection.

"I know," he groaned slightly, the vocalisation coming more naturally now that he was free. The boxer lay his head back down. "It has to be done though."

She nodded before saying, "I know. Don't run yourself into the ground, okay? I mean," here he could hear her snicker, "no more than you usually do."

For the first time in over a day, he smiled. A small but genuine smile that made the corners of his storm blue eyes crinkle endearingly; if Sara was there to see it, she would have kissed him. "I'll try not to." And, ah, how nice - she could hear the amusement in his voice.

"Take care of yourself. Remember to eat at least. I love you."

"I'll try. I love you too. I love you Hank!" His head jerked up again and enthusiastic barking ensued. The humans followed suit with more giggling before they hung up. With his spirits lifted anew from his conversation with Sara, he pocketed his phone and got back to work with a little more energy than he had before.

As for Sara, she put a hand on Hank's head and said, "Well boy, let's go and eat some breakfast huh?" He gave a cheery bark and jumped off the couch. Sara closed and locked the door, carried her kit and followed him down the stairs. She hurried to put her kit away and then popped back to the kitchen to set out Hank's food, and then get herself food. They ate, went for a walk, and returned. Sara took a shower, and put on Gil's shirt after. When it came time for bed, Sara asked Hank to lie on the bed with her, and cuddled him. "Since Gil isn't here, I'll hold you tonight," she smiled. He seemed to understand as he nuzzled her face and lay his head back down.

A little after the phone call, Gil did go and eat. He shed himself of his coveralls, put them in his car, got in himself, and drove to the nearest diner. He ate there and then took away a second meal for his lunch, which he ate at the appropriate time. Sara went to the laboratory at nine o' clock that night, wanting to do all she could to help her boyfriend. She went to check on Warrick's progress. Upon finding him sifting through the contents of the victim's vacuum cleaner with a pair of tweezers and coughing profusely, she teased, "He-he-heyyy. Blacklung."

"Ah...I've been sifting through this trash for about six hours." That meant that he had been working for the entirety of the swing shift. "You come here to rescue me or make fun of me?" the poor man retorted.

"I am just looking, relax." She pointed to one of the petri dishes Warrick had set out to sort the evidence. "What are these white fibres here?"

"They must be from the spare bedroom, because all the other carpets are green."

Sara looked at the plan drawing of the house. "Spare bedroom wasn't on his entrance or exit path."

"Look, all I know is that they were near the top of the bag, so it must've been one of the last things he vacuumed." Sara gave small nods of acknowledgment.

"I did manage to find this butterfly pendant..." Warrick moved his tweezers to the petri dish where it was and picked it up, "...with some white fibres in it. Looks like it's from a necklace, or a bracelet. And it has this link, which has snapped so I'm thinking...sign of struggle?" He straightened up a little bit to raise his point.

"Killer was in that spare bedroom."

Gil's panicky obsessiveness was certainly affecting a fair few of his teammates. Catherine went to the scene of the crime at the same time as Sara returned to the laboratory. She knew that Gil was very stressed out about the victim looking so much like their dear friend, and so she wanted to help him.

(Poor Gil...he did not realise that when he worried, his team family worried too and would do whatever they could for him; he did not realise that they could love him as much as he loved them. He had such heavy doubt about his own lovability, so much so that he even almost rejected Sara when she first asked him out.)

Catherine walked in to see Gil processing the carpet (to the amazing soundtrack). During the conference, he had mentioned that he had processed the carpet on the threshold of the bathroom, and at present he was processing the area of carpet just beyond that. Her work-wife face on, she said to him, "Don't tell me you never went home."

Gil looked up at her, one hand still on the carpet and the other holding his filter paper. "Okay." Since she did not want to hear anything to that effect, he decided to water it down by saying, "I just got started in here. I haven't even got into any of the rooms yet."

"You know you lose your edge after sixteen hours, and you're into your third shift. She brought her forearms out to her sides. "I mean I'm all for overtime but, this is just plain greedy."

He shook his head tiredly before reassuring her, "My knees can't take this anymore." As fuelled as he was from his food, it still physically hurt to remain on one's knees for an extended period of time.

"Have you eaten anything?"

"Yes."

"Ah," she nodded approvingly. "Then, how about a shower?" Gil shook his head. Catherine raised an eyebrow in turn. At Gil's look of horror, she clarified, "I mean at your place. You need to go home."

"As soon as we find some evidence, I promise."

"With fresh eyes you won't miss it."

Her work-husband groaned as he stood up, his knees creaking. "Just talk it through with me will ya? What do we know?"

Catherine's eyes shifted to the side in thought. "Alright." She inhaled deeply before continuing, "The bathroom is where things got started. Candles, oils...steam shower...cleaned up, oiled up...sexed up."

"Let's go back to the bedroom," Gil voiced, moving his head a little way in the direction of the bedroom. They got their UV-protective goggles out of their kits, with Catherine taking the torchlight as well. Cath shone the light on the topmost bedsheet, but nothing showed up under the fluorescence. "No, nothing on this sheet," Gil noted. He lifted that sheet to expose the one underneath, to yield the same result; he gently cocked his head to one side in acknowledgement (which was cute).

"She changed her sheets for her date; I would," Catherine remarked.

Since there was nothing to be found on the top surface of the bed, Gil let his gaze wander to the side of the bed. A ring embedded into the mattress caught his eye with a loop red cloth threaded through it with the rest stuffed under the mattress caught his eye; this time his head jerked a little to the side in vigilance. He squatted down and pulled it out, passing hand over hand. When it was completely free and he could see what it was, he transferred it to one hand so that he could take off his goggles with the other. He then looked up at his colleague with an uncomfortable expression and called, "Hey Cath..." When she looked at him, he held the thing up as if he was holding a dead rat and continued, "...got silk?" His eyes shifted to the object as he asked that. What he meant by that was if there was an identical finding on her side.

She looked down at her side of the mattress, and opened her mouth at the discovery and looked back at him. Gil kept an inquiring gaze on her and took the opportunity to stand up. She bent to her side while reaching an arm down and fished the cloth out. "Why yes I do." Gil looked back at the one in his own hand and shook it to see if anything would fall out; he was still disconcerted and frowning though. His unease was turned into scepticism when Catherine said, "Iiii don't mean to embarrass you but um...some guys need leverage," as she stepped towards the foot of the bed and removed the sheets to uncover the barrier.

"They do?" He was frowning a little bit harder; Sara certainly never complained.

Grinning in the hopes of finding something, Catherine gave a nod before saying, "I'll dust for prints."

While she did that, Gil's phone rang again. He took his phone out from the same place he had when Sara called. "Grissom." He stuffed the hand not holding his phone comfortably into his pocket.

"It's Warrick. I have somethin' for you - I found a butterfly link. With some white fibres in it."

Grissom started walking to the other bedroom. "Butterfly where?"

"In the vacuum bag. You check all the rooms?"

"Lemme look again, and I'll get back to you."

"Alright." Grissom had reached the spare bedroom by then, so he put his phone away and got up to the shelf where the victim's butterfly collection was, a smile gracing his face at the sight of insects. He shone his (regular) torchlight on the contents of the shelf. When came across some more photos of Debbie, he drew himself back slightly, but quickly tore his gaze away from them; this was not the time to dwell on his feelings. His gaze averted to a blue jewellery box next to them, decorated with even more images of butterflies. He opened it; inside, there was an assortment of accessories, all butterfly-themed. He carefully used a finger to move them about, pushing them aside to see if there were any broken-off pieces. He did find one near the top right of the box.

In the meantime, Catherine had successfully made a print show up. She tape-lifted it with a triumphant smile and proudly brought it to show Grissom. "Hang one. Toe print. I'll have Sara compare it against both victims."

"Good." Sara was the only unoccupied person. "Warrick found a butterfly charm in the vacuum bag...I think I just found a piece from the same chain in this box." He pointed to it.

"Butterfly huh?" Catherine mused, her eyes moving to look over the rest of the trinkets.

"She had a collection." He seemed quite happy to announce that, and it was no wonder why.

"Gifts? From her...gentleman callers?"

"Maybe the killer was taking his gift back. As in, leave no trace. Maybe he finally ran out of patience and got sloppy." At the last sentence, his voice deepened, as if he was challenging the unseen and unknown perpetrator. Upon shining his torch on the shelf below, he found a strand of hair. Short and white, as would come from an elderly man. He squatted, with Catherine following suit, and picked it up with his tweezers. "And this is why I didn't leave." His voice was soft with excitement and victory. Catherine left to bring the hair and toe print back to the laboratory, giving the print to Sara and the hair to Greg. Gil got back to Warrick and informed him of the matching butterfly.

Sara went to take the lower ten cards of both victims. Having finally gotten the chance to look at Debbie, she moved the swivel chair she was sitting on to draw herself up beside the victim's face. She stared down at it. And suddenly, she understood. She understood Gil's skittishness, understood why he had been reluctant to let her in on the case. And she was, of course, haunted; it could very well have been her on Al's slab. She glanced about, not knowing what to think; she could not articulate her emotions even in her own head. Eventually, they settled on one person: Gil. Gil, her protector; the person who had been 'protecting' her from this case at any rate. She would speak to him to clear her head; she could always talk to him, and he would never turn her away. Well...he used to. But that was when his feelings towards her were even more of a mess than they currently were. He had progressed a lot with her help.

With that temporary comfort, she finished up and went to run the prints through AFIS. That took several hours. By the time that day shift roller around, both Debbie Marlin and Michael Clark were ruled out. She then went to find Gil. Or Catherine; whichever she found first. She went to the shift supervisor's office; nobody was there. And nobody was in the assistant shift supervisor's office either. But after some wandering around, she found Catherine in the locker room, sitting on a bench and changing her shoes. "Hey," Sara called, trying to seem cheery, "you seen Grissom?"

"He's still at the crime scene," Catherine responded, glancing at her as she did.

Sara nodded to signify her acknowledgment before reporting, "I eliminated both victims from the print you pulled off the bed."

"Well we know she was fishing off the company pier..." Sara responded with a look and a nod. "You uh, seen Debbie?" Catherine looked at her properly, wanting to gauge her reaction.

"Yeah," she said laconically, not wanting to give anything away.

"And?" Catherine enquired.

"Yeah I compared her...toe prints," she avoided still, her expression hardening.

Seeing as that would lead nowhere, Catherine decided to comment, "If I didn't know better I'd think that it was you on that table."

"I didn't really...look at her face," Sara denied. Noticing Sara seemed sad somehow, Catherine relented and just gave her a knowing look. Sara let her face fall, and allowed herself to sound as pleading as she really was when she asked, "If you see Grissom will you tell him?" Catherine nodded sincerely. Sara just walked off after that. The assistant shift supervisor convened with Jim and they went to Desert Palm print samples. They did find a match; Dr. Tripton. Catherine phoned Gil and informed him of it.

#Youtube #csi #gsr #4x12 #gil grissom #sara sidle #billy petersen #william petersen #jorja fox #c-v-c-e fic

15 notes · View notes

imaginejamesandsirius · 4 years

Note

Hey there! I’ve been in love with your stories for a while now on AO3 so I wanted to make a request! Can we have a pining!James and Oblivious!Sirius with a tiny bit of angst but then some fluff (or maybe smut if you feel like it) okay thank you -T.C.

Sirius would like to think that he knew James well. Quite well. Better than anyone, really. From who his favourite Quidditch player was at the time to his ever-changing favourite colour, and that certainly included who he fancied. It was therefore the most ridiculous thing in the world where Moony-- of all the people, it was Moony, who hadn't realised Mary meant a date when she said, "Would you like to go on a date with me to Three Broomsticks?"-- told him that James fancied him. He actually said the words, "Padfoot, Prongs fancies you." He said that to Sirius's face. Not only that, but he'd left whatever he was doing outside to come in and tell Sirius that. He went out of his way to say that, which made it even stranger.

Sirius rolled his eyes. Honestly, where did Moony get that from? "He does not."

"Trust me, he does."

"Since when do you get involved in James's love life?" Sirius asked raising an eyebrow.

"Since now. Really Padfoot, he does. I'm pretty sure he's in love with you."

Sirius rolled his eyes again. Even if James was in love with him-- which he wasn't-- Remus wouldn't know about it. He couldn't notice shite on his own, and James never would've told him himself. Besides, they had a Marauder's pact to stay out of each other's love lives after Sirius embarrassed Wormtail rather badly back in fourth year-- in his defense, it had totally worked and he'd gotten a date out of it just as planned. Point was, Remus wasn't about to actually interfere with something like that even if he somehow did have insider knowledge that James fancied him. Which he didn't.

That would make this a very roundabout way of trying to get Sirius to embarrass himself in front of James. The real joke was that Sirius didn't get embarrassed, not when it concerned James. There were only so many times you could interrupt someone wanking-- and vice versa-- before you become impervious to it, and after that, nothing could embarrass you in front of them. Of course, Moony was a very easily embarrassed person and likely had no concept of living a full week without it.

After Sirius ignored him for long enough, Moony left. It was their last summer before their last year of Hogwarts. He would've thought that Remus wanted to live it to its fullest instead of doing this. Whatever helped little wolfy feel better, he guessed.

It did made him think, though. Not about James fancying him, because that was quite impossible, but James... well, he was rather fit. And it's not like either of them were dating anyone, so what would be the harm in trying it out?

James regretted telling Wormtail and Moony anything. He really, truly did. The point of telling them that he was head over heels for Sirius was so that they wouldn't say something while they were all together. If James got all heart-eyed in front of them, he wanted them to keep their mouths shut about it.

Evidently, he couldn't trust people in this group for shite.

"You told him?" James asked, voice squeaking. His voice hadn't done that in over year, but the little scratch in his throat still felt familiar. "Remus, what the fuck!" He threw a handful of grass at him. "You're not supposed to tell him!"

"Prongs, relax. He didn't even believe me."

That brought James up short. "What?"

"I told him-- figured I'd do us all a favour and tell him instead of letting you pine uselessly for ages and be miserable-- but he didn't believe me. So relax, your secret is safe."

James just stared at him, eyes wide.

"Er, Prongs?" Peter said, looking at him with a hint of concern. "You alright there, mate?"

"I'm going to kill you," he whispered.

"Me? What did I do?"

"Not you. Him," James said, stabbing a finger in Remus's direction with a glare. "He's the one who couldn't keep his bloody mouth shut!" He stormed off after that, despite knowing that it made him look like he was seven again. Sirius, when James found him after going back inside, didn't act like anything had happened. Maybe Moony had been lying about telling him in some bid to get him to spill his guts, because that was more believable than Sirius being told and acting like absolutely nothing had happened. Your best mate fancying you was big shite, even if you thought it was fake; it would raise the question of why that lie would be at all believable in the first place.

"Hey," James said, keeping his voice even.

"Hey," Sirius replied, just as neutral. To be fair to Sirius, it's not like he was training his voice; he just didn't have anything to be upset over. He was reading some muggle magazine about motorbikes, from the look of it. Either that or it was just a whole bunch of photos of motorbikes, which wouldn't really surprise him.

"Did Moony talk to you?"

"Yeah. He's getting senile in his old age. What is it? Seven wolf years to one human year? He's like, over a hundred by that logic. How much longer can we really expect for him to last?"

"If you're suggesting killing Moony, I agree," James said, throwing himself down on the couch next to Sirius.

"Maybe a stern talking to will set the old man straight."

"Doubtful." Sirius flipped the magazine closed and leaned towards James. He pressed a quick kiss to James's mouth, then leaned away and opened his magazine again like nothing had happened.

James blinked at him. Then blinked again. "Did you kiss me?"

"Yeah." He turned the page. Then he snorted. "Why do people always insist on yellow paint? It hasn't looked good on a machine in the history of the world."

"Yellow paint? Really?" James repeated incredulously. Remus goes and flaps his mouth to Sirius, Sirius acts like nothing happened, and then he goes and kisses him! And then he acts like that's nothing either.

"Right?" Sirius said, apparently taking James's words for agreement that motorbikes shouldn't be painted yellow.

James snatched the magazine from him, glaring.

"Hey," Sirius protested. "Give it back, Prongs."

"You kissed me, and yellow paint is what you want to talk about?"

Sirius shrugged, holding out a hand expectantly.

James, in disregard for all the nice things he usually did for Sirius, threw the magazine at him angrily. He was a little surprised by it, same as Sirius judging by the look of shock on his face. "If this is your idea of a prank, it's not sodding funny," James growled, storming off. He'd come in to make sure they were okay, not to get his feelings thrown in his face. Buggering up their friendship was the last thing he wanted, but having Sirius mock it was the worst way it could happen.

Okay, after getting a little space and the rest of the night to think about it, Sirius came to the conclusion that maybe kissing James hadn't been his best decision. He'd wanted to see if there was any truth to what Remus had said, and kissing him had seemed like the easiest way to go about it. Bad news was that it had pissed James off, but the good news was that it got Sirius the answer he needed: James fancied him. The worse news he had though, was that he deserved James's anger. He'd done it because he was curious, not because he thought that he returned those feelings. The best news was that, while thinking about all of this, he came to the conclusion that he fancied James too. That was going to make everything else easier to deal with, but he still sucked bollocks that he hadn't known he felt that way earlier. It was enough to make him think he was stupid, which obviously wasn't true.

Now he had to figure out how to get James not to be mad at him anymore. Sirius wasn't too great at this sort of thing. He was a lot better at making people miserable than making them happy, and through the years of their friendship, James didn't often need cheering up. It had been lucky for Sirius, but it meant that he was at a loss now.

Wormtail and Moony weren't here anymore, having gone home for the next couple days to see their families for once; Sirius was pretty sure they saw the Potter parents more often than their own. It made sneaking over to James's room all that easier.

James looked over at him when he entered, quietly shutting the door behind him, then groaned and pulled the duvet over his face. "Can't you let me mope?" James moaned.

"Nope. You get sad when you mope."

"I only mope when I'm already sad, you berk."

Sirius tugged the covers away from his face. As usual, James looked strangely innocent without his glasses on, and his mussed hair only added to the effect. "Well. Stop being sad."

James rolled his eyes. "Thanks, I don't know why I didn't try that."

"I should've asked before I kissed you," Sirius said, sitting down on the side of the bed, and James stiffened.

"I don't want to talk about it," he mumbled, hoping desperately that Sirius would leave it. He didn't want to talk about it now, and he didn't want to talk about it later. He wanted to pretend like it had never happened and that he hadn't told Remus shite because then he would be able to pine in quiet misery like he'd been doing for the past few months. Moony just had to bugger it all up.

"What I should've said," Sirius continued, as if James hadn't said a word and wasn't mid-crisis, "was that you're fit as hell." Sirius twisted to throw a leg over James's hips so he was sitting astride him and leaned down so his hair was hanging between them as he put his hands on the bed by James's head for balance. "And that while Moony had no business sticking his nose where it didn't belong, you should have said something to me before he had the chance."

James suddenly found the air rather thin. He swallowed around a lump in his throat and tried to find the proper response to that, but it was difficult to think with Sirius staring at him like that-- all intense and close, and like the only thing he wanted to hear was what James had to say. The fact that he was sitting on him was not helping James's brain form coherent thoughts, because his blood was pumping a little further south in his body.

"You gonna kiss me, James? Or do I have to tell you that this is all I've thought of since you ran off?"

"You weren't very clear with your intentions," James managed to stutter out in his defense. Personally, he thought getting that many words out at once was a wondrous achievement.

Sirius smirked. "Am I being clear now?"

James had to swallow again. He was more aware of Sirius's arse than he should be while trying to have a talk about his feelings, but it was right on top of him and he was only human. "Not really. You're acting like it's just physical, and I don't- that's not all I want for us."

Sirius's expression softened. "James. Kiss me now. Kiss me tomorrow. Kiss me in a month, and in a year. That's what I want. Does that sound just physical?"

"Not really," James admitted. "But you gotta admit, kissing me like that, and then this... it doesn't really look like you're in love." His face erupted in heat as he realised what he said. "Not that I'm in love with you, that's-" he laughed nervously.

"I love you," Sirius said before James could dig himself into a deeper hole, "and no offense James, but I think you're lying." He leaned down a little more, which scooted him further down James's body. A hint of his smirk came back when he felt that James was half-hard under him. "Even without that, I'd know that you're lying. You really think you can keep shite from me? I know everything about you."

"Bugger off," James muttered, but then he reached up and pulled Sirius the rest of the way down.

#prongsfoot #marauders #fanfic #james potter #sirius black #remus lupin #filled #hogwarts time #no voldemort au #getting together #siriuslystarbucks #Anonymous

36 notes · View notes

roswelldetails · 4 years

Text

RNM 2x10 - American Woman

EPISODE SUMMARY:

SECRETS OF THE PAST — After uncovering a cryptic message from the past, Alex (Tyler Blackburn), Isobel (Lily Cowles), Max (Nathan Dean), Michael (Michael Vlamis) and Maria (Heather Hemmens) set out in search of answers at the reservation where Alex’s mother grew up. Meanwhile, Cameron (guest star Riley Voelkel) encourages Liz (Jeanine Mason) to reach out to someone from her past after Auturo (guest star Carlos Compean) gets detained. Marcus Stokes directed the episode written by Rick Montano & Vincent Ingaro & Jason Gavin (#210). Original airdate 5/18/2020.

DETAILS:

Tripp brings Louise to the Reservation in a body bag where the Navajo doctors are able to save her life.

"Your message said that you were gonna bring two women that would be no trouble. This looks like a lot of trouble."

"I must have gotten the codes wrong."

"No, don't give me that Manes man nonsense. Not here in my own home."

"Her name is Louise. I promised her friend Nora I'd protect them. My brother triggered an ambush before I could get them here. And Nora…"

"Wait, what does the Air Force want them for?"

"They're not from around here. They're from...up north."

"Yìiyáh. No. She can't stay here… What if your brother comes here and finds a fugitive. I can't put my people at risk for a white woman."

"Please. You're the only person I trust. If she doesn't make it, it was all for nothing."

"I'll have you remember that I was the one that saved your ass in Okinawa. I don't owe you anything. I'm only doing this because you're my family. And because I'm a damn fool."

A few notes on this scene:

--I don't know why Tripp pretends he got the codes wrong. Unless he's spiraling and talking about the timing of the attack. But it seems like he means the message that he was bringing them to the reservation. Clearly things didn't go according to plan. Though, it is always possible that we're still missing bits of the story.

--OG Easter Egg. "They're not from around here. They're from up north." For anyone who didn't watch OG, this is almost exactly how the exchange went when Max told Liz he was an alien in the 1999 pilot.

--Yìiyáh - I found nothing on this word. I'm assuming that it's a curse word or general exclamation of negativity, but literally got zero results on google. It's possible, of course, that it's misspelled in the captions. There were a lot of errors in the captions in this opening scene.

--While there really isn't any overt statement that Alex is half Navajo and this town is part of Navajo Nation (which has been in the news a lot lately and therefore is a good place in this country to be aware of), there's lots of clues or subtle enough statements that I feel like it can be accepted as fact, since: Harrison is a codetalker, the necklace is Navajo, tsela is a Navajo word. So I did a little peeking and it could work. The closest Navajo town is about a 4 hour drive from Roswell.

Navajo Nation:

(side note - Navajo Nation has extreme poverty but also is utterly gorgeous. And the Tribe gets income from tourism. Just a few places there that I'm dying to go? Monument Valley, Antelope Canyon, Shiprock. Check it out.)

Liz comments on Max's irregular heartbeat, with literally no acknowledgment of the fact that she's straddling him and has a history of causing his heart to race...and other forms of lack of control (think 1x03).

"I'm excited about this though. You know Alex dug up all that info on our bio Mom. You sure you can't come?"

"Got to take my dad in for his blood tests. I want to check on Jenna too. Cannot believe she's back in the hospital again."

"She's been in pain for weeks. I have no leads on the mysterious hunting van, and Charlie hasn't made contact."

"Hmm. To be fair, I do hear that phone service is a little spotty in flying saucers."

"Okay, I get that. You think my alien abduction theory is bogus."

"I know you're worried that this has something to do with you, but I don't think this is an alien thing."

"Cam and I had fractal burns on our necks. We had no memory of what happened. That's alien stuff. I just want clarity on something."

--Note that it's past time to abandon all hope of anything resembling a defined timeline for this show...once again we have weeks passing between episodes. This is the second time this season that the time passing has only been generically described as "weeks". It's been at least a year since Liz came back to Roswell (per her conversation with Diego), but a year would be summer (late May or early June, specifically), and in this episode Isobel mentions that it's winter (which would be a year and a half).

Maria's pitch:

"In conclusion, esteemed members of the Roswell Tourism Board, while the Pony is normally a sanctuary for locals during CrashCon, I think that my plan to turn it into the Contact Cantina Pop-Up Bar will be a hit with alien fans."

"We're talking more money than we first speculated, aren't we now?"

"You know, Mayor Bernhardt, I forgot to tell you about our new morning cocktail… It's coffee, vanilla cream, and our best bourbon. Let me get you a double."

Note: so this is the famous Mayor Bernhardt. Funded by the Long family. Doesn't like immigrants. Had a racist relative who wouldn't give first prize to the black man.

Maria's vision…

Herself, younger, sitting at the Pony bar.

"You have to let me go! You're just crazy! And I'm trapped!"

And then she runs from the bar crying.

She's not wearing the necklace.

Describing it to Michael:

"I had a vision, but it was more like a memory. Of a fight I had with my mom when I was younger."

Isobel interrupts Michael and Maria to pick them up for the road trip. Just a few relevant excepts from this scene:

"Pack your bags. We're going on a family road trip."

"Is this why Max wanted the day off?"

"In the photo of Max and Isobel's bio Mom, there was a water tower. Alex recognized that water tower from the town where his mom grew up. You should come with us."

Alex and Forrest talk in the Crashdown:

"Hope that limp isn't from a paintball injury."

"Nope. Those bruises have mostly healed. I just got a new prosthetic. Takes a minute to get used to. You working on your book?"

"I write my book on my computer. However, I write my angsty emo poetry in an angsty emo journal."

"I'm actually working on some poetry myself. Well, song lyrics, technically. It's a lot harder than it was in high school."

"Yeah, writing was easier for me when I was a kid too. Feelings...we bury 'em now. You just got to find that thing inside of you that doesn't have a voice. Lend it yours. You know? Listen, I have like, zero musical talent, but if you need help with the worst part, we could, uh…"

"Actually I'm leaving tomorrow for a few days to go talk to some recruits."

Michael interruptus, and the conversation goes casual.

--What happened to "angsty nerd isn't really my type." Or...was it FORESHADOWING!!!?! 😂

--Oh hi there clear shot of Forrest's clearly Deep Sky logoed ring…

Cam has been having debilitating migraines that have been keeping her bedridden since the abduction.

Nurse Kate is a badass. she tries to keep ICE from getting into a patient's room. Liz hears her and hurries to the waiting room, where there's more ICE activity. Liz panics and tries to get Arturo out of the hospital, but she caught the attention of the ICE officers. However, Liz knows her rights.

"He has applied for his green card. I'm his sponsor, okay? This is his G-1145 right here."

"You can show that to the court."

"It's okay. Call the lawyer."

"No. He is a diabetic. It is illegal to detain a patient."

"Exigent circumstances. Move."

"No. Hey, this is an unconstitutional arrest and the ACLU will be all over you."

"Elizabeth, we respect the law in this family. If you're in trouble, who will take care of the mouse?"

--G-1145 is a request for confirmation that your green card application has been accepted:

--The timing of this all. Liz has been prepared for this moment all her life and would fight it to the point of getting arrested herself, if not for Rosa. Rosa's safety is the only thing that convinces Liz to step aside.

--As an only semi related note, this is a really interesting contrast to how they wrote Jeanine's character out on Grey's Anatomy.

--Also feel like it would be remiss of me to not point out Liz's reactiveness and fightinf mentality is mirroring how Liz initially reacted to Max pulling her over in the pilot.

"Okay. So the Deputy on call says there's one detention center in the county. Here's the info."

"He doesn't have anything left in Mexico. No one. Nowhere to go."

"You can't think like that right now."

"I think like this always. Rosa and I used to recite our escape plan for if our parents got deported and we got separated in foster care. I begged my parents not to tell Santa where we lived because I was afraid he'd ask for papers. My whole life was built on a fear of this day coming, and it's here. If I'd have kept better track of his health, he wouldn't need these tests. I should have made him move to California. I thought we were safe being outside the hundred-mile zone, but after this election I should have known better. And I should have made him wear a sweater this morning because it's freezing out there. And what if he…?"

"...okay think. Is there someone we can call?"

"Kyle's at a conference, but I can have him call his mom."

"Do you know anyone with some real power? You know, Federal muscle?"

Cam gets dressed to take Liz to the Detention Center and Liz calls Diego for help.

The road trip group arrive at the reservation and meet Gregory Manes. He says he remembers them all from high school. He takes Max, Michael, and Isobel to learn about Louise while Alex and Maria go jewelry shopping.

Meanwhile Gregory is taking the Pod Squad to Louise's grave, but pauses for some flirting:

"You're still the Isobel Evans who convinced the basketball captain to pull four different fire alarms to get out of AP Gov, right? Yeah, legend. Here she is."

"Oh my God, it's covered in flowers. It's winter."

"Rumor is they grow year-round unattended. She was a healer. I'm told she helped with trauma, addiction, that sort of thing. All without speaking."

"This another grave?"

"She was pregnant."

"Louise arrived gravely injured. And the baby didn't survive.

--Louise died the same day the Pod Squad came out of the pods, confirming that she is probably the old woman on the reservation that was described in 1x09.

--Michael found the mysterious purple flowers growing on Louise's grave.

Alex and Maria at the trading post.

"Are you okay? Seem a little off."

"I had a vision during a meeting this morning. It almost cost me a deal that could save the bar. Maybe I should just wear the necklace. Go back to being a social media guru. Slash barkeep. Slash magical trope in our redneck mayor's fantasy."

"So why did you really come today? Your ideal day off isn't fighting for the radio silence with Isobel Evans, so…"

"This is the back of my necklace. The word stamped in the silver says Tsela. The necklace is Navajo, so I thought maybe that was the jeweler, but no one I've asked here seems to know who made it. I just want answers."

"Well, there's a ton of silver jewelry for sale here. So why don't we just keep looking for something with the same stamp?"

Pod Squad sharing a bottle of acetone by Louise's grave.

"Noah said our planet was war-torn. But the hell they found here can't have been worth it."

"Do you think that Louise's baby died from her injuries or do you think maybe it was never going to survive?"

"What are you talking about?"

"I was pregnant. When you died. Obviously I'm not anymore. I just can't help wondering if that was my last chance. Assuming that humans and aliens can't procreate because they're different species. Maybe that little baby wasn't viable."

"You almost died during the abortion, didn't you? I could feel it. Noah almost killed you again, huh? Oh, I need a minute."

After Max leaves Michael offers to be a sperm donor for Isobel if she ever wants to have a kid.

Liz at the Detainment Center

"It's Ortecho. Arturo Ortecho. He's my dad. And he needs gliclazide and beta-blockers. I brought both."

"We can't take contraband here, but there is an infirmary on-site, if he's here."

"You know, out of curiosity, did Nebane Abienwi visit an infirmary before he died of a brain bleed in your custody? What about Johana Medina León? She was 25 years old, okay? People walk through those doors and they die...Who's your supervisor? You need prior approval before conducting enforcement in a hospital. There was a compliance memo."

"Right, a memo, which is just like a law only not. Unless you calm down, I'm gonna arrest you for obstruction."

"Okay, Liz, maybe sit down. Sir, I'm Deputy Jenna Cameron, and we appreciate your interpretation of your guidelines, but we have an urgent health concern about an inmate here, if you just wouldn't mind checking the system."

Jenna goes with the agent…when she returns...

"Do you have a court case next week for a vandalism charge?"

"What? Yes, but I didn't do it. I'm just gonna plead guilty and pay the fine. It's nothing."

"They denied your dad's green card application because of a misdemeanor on your record. You can't be his sponsor."

Jenna's headaches overtake her. Meanwhile, the ICE agent comes back with news:

"Here just came up. Ortecho is being transferred to El Paso for his deportation hearing. You can see him there around Tuesday."

--Liz's misdemeanor is taking the fall for Rosa's vandalism from when she was arrested by Sheriff Valenti in 2x02.

Gregory takes the Pod Squad to see Harrison who is on his death bed. Manes boys are always welcome here, the woman tells them. Harrison is the only one Louise ever spoke to on the reservation.

"He met my great uncle Tripp Manes fighting in WWII. Harry was a code talker."

Michael gets Gregory to leave with him so that Max and Isobel can go inside of Harrison's head. Their conversation:

"You look like her."

"Harrison. You look different."

"That was a lesson I learned from Louise. How to take your mind to a better time when you're in pain. Come on. I haven't seen the sky in a while. I'll tell you about her...I taught Tripp the codes in the Pacific. That's how we set up the rescue. He was supposed to snuggle Louise and Nora here, but the plan fell apart."

In the past between Harrison and Tripp:

"You've changed. The man I met on that ship obeyed orders."

"Guess I saw what happens when good men fall in line with bad orders. I'm a Christian, Harry. When evil itself tells me to kill a woman with child, I disobey. Even if the evil looks just like my brother."

A nurse rolls Louise into the room in a wheelchair.

"Did you find a family for her?"

"There should be music where you take her. I think she's a dancer."

"You can give her a house full of music, Louise. Nora wanted me to protect you so that you could protect the child."

"No. He's coming for me and I can't even move. No. When the devil comes, I won't be able to fight for her. Please. It is hard to be a woman on your planet. It's only gonna be harder still for her. Roy Bronson believed in meeting hatred with compassion. And I want her to be like him. A light in the darkness. A little star on the ground. I want that for both my girls."

"Where did he take the baby?"

"Can't say."

"No. Tell us where our sister went."

"She isn't your sister. Louise rarely spoke, but when she did, she spoke of two daughters. Two stars on the ground. She had no sons. You aren't hers. You came from something else...She lived for decades longer than she should have, trapped inside of a body that could no longer dance, waiting for a sign that you would be all right. She loved you."

Jenna wakes up back at the hospital.

"I asked them to run a new test. Your headaches are spinal headaches. Because there was a hole torn into your spinal cord."

"I'm sorry, what? My kidnappers gave me a spinal tap?"

"Do you mind signing off so I can look at your tox screen?"

"Yeah, of course, but, Liz, you don't have to do this, okay? Your dad, and…"

"I need a distraction. I can't leave for El Paso until tomorrow, and they're not letting him have visitors other than his lawyer until Tuesday, so...thank you for being here. You used your privilege to help me. I'm furious that I needed it, but I needed it."

--Reposado is a type of tequila

--Spinal Headaches:

Isobel and Max on what they learned from Harrison:

"You've always been different than me and Michael, okay? Always. You were the leader. From the start. I mean, you're the special one. You're the healer."

"I was. Now I can't even sneeze without my heart skipping a beat. All my life, no matter how weird things got, I never felt alone. Because I was your twin. Maybe I'm different. Maybe I'm a freak...I can't stop thinking about being chained up when I was a kid. It didn't feel like someone bad chained me up. It felt like I was the someone bad."

"Max, you're not dangerous."

"Saving people destroys me. But killing Noah? That felt good. I was high. And whenever I think about what he did to you, I want to chase that high. I wish I could kill him a thousand times. Louise mentioned the devil. Maybe something evil was chasing them. And maybe that something was me."

"Okay. I want to show you something. You see this hand on her shoulder there? See, Michael thought it was just someone who got cropped out of the photo, but no. Any female would recognize that body language. She does not want that hand on her. Louise said the devil would come. I think something evil was after them, but it wasn't you. I want to find out who it was."

Alex and Gregory:

"Hey, I just wanted to say thank you before we go. I also feel like I should congratulate you on getting out."

"Of the Navy?"

"Of the family. Getting out from under Dad."

"You got to break free of him, man."

"Do you feel free?"

"I don't think I get to be free until you are, Alex. You know, you're my brother. I wish that I would've stood up for you more."

"You know, I think he's actually getting a little bit better. It's like the stroke melted away the psycho in his brain or something."

"If you can forgive him you should. Cast off the stone. Let me hate him for you. I owe you that much."

Back at the trading post with the whole road trip group.

"We scoured the store for jewelry that said Tsela on it, but nada. Although I did manage to spend an entire week's worth of tips anyway."

"Tsela?"

"Yeah it was printed on the back of my grandmother's necklace. I thought I might find some answers here."

"Well, apparently, it is Navajo for star on the ground. So, you guys ready to go?"

"Star on the ground. Maria? What year was your grandmother born?"

"Uh, '48, I think?"

"Was she adopted?"

"Yeah. Oh my God."

"Your grandmother was my sister."

Note: The direct translation of Tsela is stars lying down. Interestingly, it's often a name in Navajo. When I googled it, the top results were names for Navajo boys.

Diego and Liz's conversation:

"Diego, I never would have reached out if it weren't an emergency. Thank your mom for me."

"The Senator was more than happy to call in a favor. She's always liked you."

"I like her too. We need more people like her."

"Look, we got lucky your dad got out at all, much less without an ankle monitor. And you pissed a few people off back there, so it's not likely that this is the end for you. Who's your lawyer? Or should I make some calls?"

"No, you've done enough. After what I did, I can't even believe you listened to my voicemail...How did you get here so fast?"

"I was at the airport in Phoenix when you called. Just had to reroute real fast."

"And how have you been?"

"Well, my fiancée left me. I'm kidding. No, I'm seeing someone. It's getting pretty serious, so…"

"Good. Me too."

"Good. We can be friends...And don't take this the wrong way. Please tell me you're not wasting that incredible brain of yours writing alien hamburger puns."

"I am working on a few projects. Nothing I can talk about, but, I'm not wasting anything."

"Well, all the coolest studies make you sign NDAs anyway, so…"

"You know what? There actually is something...Do you know what butyricol is? Worth a shot. It's this chemical I found in my friend's tox screen. I had never heard of it."

"Maybe you're slacking, Ortecho."

"I am sorry, it has only been a year. Did you literally forget everything about me?"

Note: I'm very pleased to say that when I googled butyricol, half of the top results were RNM related. Definitely not a real drug.

Malex fight in the bunker:

"We're closed!"

"Hey, that alien console piece that Jim Valenti left me...You still have it?"

"No. I sold it on eBay."

"You didn't attach it to your console."

"I tried. Doesn't fit."

"So, Tripp left this for my dad before he died. My dad thought it was a code, but this is a reference sketch of this exact piece. My dad's been looking for this thing for 30 years and Jim Valenti had it all along...I'm gonna give it to him. I want to see what he does with it once he's got it. Look, if it didn't fit in your console, then it fits somewhere else. My dad could lead us there.""Your dad hunts aliens, Alex. He'll lead my family right off a cliff."

"I've protected you so far. That's not changing. Besides, he's different these days...I don't trust him, Guerin. I just…I'm asking you to trust me.""When we were kids, you believed people were good, despite humanity doing everything to prove you otherwise. And, God, I loved you for it. But what was charming when we were 17, it's just stupid now. How do you not see that? You believe there's some good in your father?"

"Yeah. Yeah I do. God forbid I have faith in people who don't give me a good reason to."

"That's not fair."

"No? Why is your hand covered? You miss your injury because you want to hurt. Your anger made you feel safe. I will always hate my father for what he did to you, but I don't want to live in that toolshed for the rest of my life. I don't want to walk around thinking that people don't change, that one day everyone's just gonna let me down, 'cause I am not building a damn rocket ship in a hidden lair. There's one way for me off this planet. And I need to believe in a reason to stay. I promise I'll keep you safe."

"Can't let you leave with that."

"What are you gonna do? Fight me for it?"

And then Alex leaves and is kidnapped. Hit over the head by an unknown assailant. The note from Tripp blows away.

Max and Liz are talking back at Max's house while Max drinks a lot of bourbon.

"You know, you never told me why your parents immigrated here in the first place."

"My dad wanted a family, but not in Juárez. There was no opportunity, no money. Women were disappearing there all the time. He didn't want my mom to be one of them. So he fled. You're wondering why your family came here."

"If I even had a family. I know so little about my own story. And the parts I thought I understood are just unraveling."

"Max. Family is the one area where I am certain that biology does not matter. Look, when I found out that Rosa was only my half sister that didn't change anything."

"This is different...There are only three of us on this planet, as far as we know. I mean, feeling disconnected from them makes me feel completely alone."

"Completely alone? I'm right here."

"When you needed a rescue today your Mensa society, old money son of a senator ex was there to answer your prayers. I couldn't even answer a call. You didn't need me."

"Oh my God. Okay, so would you prefer that I did need you? Would you prefer to come home to find me crying into my dad's windbreaker so that you can swoop me up and drive me to El Paso for his deportation hearing in the morning?"

"That's not fair. You wanted me to talk about today."

"Yes, okay. I'm sorry. I want you to feel better."

"Well, you think maybe you could go back in time and not meet someone as handsome as Diego? Seriously. He's like if someone mixed a cologne ad with a Kennedy. It's ridiculous. I will never feel adequate again."

"You're wrong. Max, let me be clear. You are objectively better in bed...And I never woke up on a Sunday morning to him singing Hank Williams in the shower...He never snuck unreasonable tips into my dad's checks. Or quoted Henry the Fourth. Coming home to you at the end of my worst days and my best days is the only rescue I need."

I actually found this background on the Ortechos to be fascinating. In case you don't know Juárez is a pretty big city directly opposite the border from El Paso. It does have some huge crime issues. But it also is one of those border cities where the border is a little thinner. Like San Diego and Tijuana. People live in Juárez and work in El Paso and vice versa.

If you want to see a really dark & gritty portrayal of Juárez, I'd highly recommend you to check out the American version of the show The Bridge. Which literally deals with an investigation related to disappearing women.

Isobel and Maria at the Pony:

"She looks so determined."

"Yeah, neither of us would be here if she hadn't been. You know she was paralyzed 50 years and she still managed to use her powers to help ease troubled minds. You know how hard that is? To take on someone else's suffering? I mean, it doesn't just disappear. She would have been carrying all of that."

"She suffered so much loss."

"I don't know how to be worth it."

Michael on the bracelet.

"The beads are made with pollen from the alien flower. I found another plant growing at Louise's grave. Okay my working theory is that they grow from alien remains. There's this UFO lore about that Libyan desert where the flowers have been discovered before. You don't have to wear it if you don't want to. I know better than to think I can save Maria DeLuca. I hope you decide you can save yourself."

Max is still drinking after Liz went to bed. At 4:04am Diego calls and wakes her up.

"I made a call, about that toxin in your friend's system. Butyricol. It's a drug. It's a memory eraser. It was developed by a private organization and purchased by the military for weaponization. There's no approved application outside of violent combat."

Liz tries to call Alex, but he's too busy being unconscious in the back of his SUV. So his kidnapper pockets his phone.

Max has a memory flash. There's fighting, weapons clashing, a woman's voice...all while he's chained down in the cave. Louise appears and kneels down to touch his shoulder. He looks afraid, but she's trying to comfort him (even though she has blood splattered all over her white clothes). She smiles and nods and then cuts Max free of the chains with her alien weapon. She offers him her hand, but before he can take it a figure in white appears and he and Louise fight. Max cries out and hides his face.

Present day Max is visibly shook by the flash.

MUSIC:

1. Shelly Fairchild "Worry No More"

2. Powerslide "Just You And I"

3. Will Fox "Against The Tide"

4. Tommee Profitt feat. Sam Tinnesz "Bullet With Butterfly Wings"

#roswell new mexico #details #rnm season 2 #episode details #long post #rnm 210 #american woman

17 notes · View notes

rnufharose · 4 years

Text

Blood, Sweat, and Tears - Chapter 7

Words: 2.6k

Trigger Warnings: There will be violence and attempted rape in this chapter so please read at your discretion!

Songs used in this chapter: Señorita by (G)I-DLE

︻デ═一 ♥

Sehun pulled up his car by the curb a block away from The Magic Shop, which was no doubt having good business tonight. He went to the club for a drink but the staff wasn't acquainted with him, having frequented the place once in a while. He knew the seven men that ran the place were good people who did honest work—men that could have been angels who were sent to shine their light on this dark city.

He locked his car and tucked his keys into the pocket of his slacks, walking toward the restaurant and bar, hearing the soothing pop music and beautiful voices from inside, the tables occupied and the employees bringing food and drinks. The raven-haired male pushed through the door and made for the counter, taking a seat on the stool and speaking toward the silver-haired female, "Can I get something for the top shelf?"

"You got it," the beautiful woman bowed and began to make his drink. He turned the stool to face the stage, balancing his chin over his knuckles, listening to the pink-haired male with the soft voice and his blue-haired friend who complimented his singing with a deep, husky tone.

Jimin and Taehyung were the ones on stage, and they had decided to sing a more chill song, and once again, their performance never ceased to the amaze the patrons, who gazed in awe and smiled from ear to ear, forgetting the troubles of the outside. It still made Sehun bewildered as to how these men were capable of making these people happy. Though he knew once they left and that security was gone until they returned, he felt they gave the patrons a sense of hope.

That maybe, one day, the violence would end.

Haneul was in the back, touching up her makeup and fixing her hair while she stared into the small mirror that resided on the desk, putting her eyeliner and lipstick away. She was in a black dress that stopped in the middle of her thighs, her hair cascading down her back and a dainty necklace around her neck. On her small feet were heels of the same color. After Jimin and Taehyung would finish their song, she would be taking the stage.

"Why don't you sing tonight?" Jungkook suggested, to which she shook her head and turned away, ready to take a tray of food toward another table.

"I don't think anyone wants to hear a sad person sing," she said.

"Don't you remember the last few times you came here?" He pressed. "Everyone loves to listen to you sing. Your voice is special, Haneul. One day, someone is going to listen to it everyday."

"You and the others already listen to it everyday, Jungkookie," the brunette turned away from him, walking ahead.

"That's not what I meant," the slightly older boy exclaimed. "Just one song won't hurt! Please?!"

Here she was now—having accepted his request to sing despite her reluctance, staring into the mirror. She wasn't sure how this would make her feel better. If anything, it made her feel helpless and sad. Halmeoni didn't get to hear me sing that day... I was too busy... if only I had sat by the piano that day, then maybe...

Her eyes were glazed over, but she blinked away whatever was stinging at her waterline.

"Noona?" Huening Kai stood by the doorway, wearing his waiter's uniform, his long brown hair a wild mess of fluffy waves. "Are you feeling okay?"

She caught his eyes in the mirror, quickly wiping her eyes and giving a nod, standing and smoothing our her dress for a moment, "Yeah... I'm okay. Just about finished getting ready, that's all."

"That's good," the boy grinned. "You look very pretty. It's been a while since we heard your voice."

"Well, you'll get to hear it tonight," she replied with soft laughter.

"Great! Because we all want you to sing for us more often," the boy chirped. "You haven't been here in a long time and... The Magic Shop's magic came from your voice."

She was pulled out of her trance, eyeing him endearingly and walking toward him, patting his head, "You sweet boy. If it makes you feel better, I'll sing more."

"Yes, that would make me much better!" Huening Kai exclaimed with excitement. "I really want to know what you'll be singing today."

"You'll see," she sang, walking past him and down the hall to where the bar resided.

Jimin and Taehyung got off the stage as the floor buzzed with applause, smiling at the brunette as she approached the stage, "It's all yours," Jimin patted her elbow. "Knock them dead, will you?"

"Yes, sing this new song," Taehyung encouraged her.

"Thanks. You two did great up there," she squeezed their hands gently, smiling half-heartedly as she took the stage, a pop song mixed with Latino beats filing the restaurant, the lights going dim and now lit red and purple. Haneul grabbed the mic and faced the audience, who all watched with intent.

The Magic Shop's mysterious female singer had returned with a new song.

Sehun's eyes widened with surprise. He didn't think he would run into her here. Even so, seeing her here made it a lot easier for him to protect her. Now he knew what those old ladies meant when she said she had friends here—she was close with the owners of this restaurant.

He couldn't help but stare, admiring the way her hair fell down like a silk curtain last her shoulders and toward her lower back, the black dress hugging her thin, petite frame in all the right places. She wore a soft colored lipstick and eyeliner, and though still had that despondent expression and her chocolate eyes didn't have that sparkle, she looked as beautiful as that photo back in her grandmother's house.

The intro music came to a halt, and the female backup dancers and chorus joined her on stage—five other women who were dressed in similar black dresses like Haneul's, and she raised the mic to her lips, singing,

[Haneul]

Why are you staring at me like that?

Without giving you anything

I don't avoid my eyes, ah

Why do you come so close?

We don't know much yet

What should I call you?

A little bit fast

Whatever I don't care, I don't care, I don't care (vamos)

Something's even worse

Whatever I'm okay, I'm okay, I'm okay

What should I do?

Come here

(Hey señor)

Please come to me

Hold me tight

I want to know about you

I fell in love with you

I don't know, it's true

Just love you so, love you so, love you so

Please call me

Why do you laugh so much?

My heart keeps coming to you (vamos)

I have to send you (ay)

Just focus on me

Is it important for others?

Hold me in full, I don't even have a name

Please tell me

(Hey señor)

Please come to me

Hold me tight

I want to know about you

I fell in love with you

I don't know, it's true?

Just love you so, love you so, love you so

Please call me

She moved with such grace, her voice something to behold, and Sehun hadn't touched his drink ever since she stepped on that stage. He found her voice to be soothing—something that he needed to help him forget about the darkness that lingered and the work he did. Though he was numb to it, he could feel the tension in his shoulders leaving him, and he was completely enchanted, pretending this song was for him.

"She sings beautifully, right?" The silver-haired woman behind the counter had noticed him staring, and he broke out of his trance, meeting her chestnut eyes.

"Huh?" Sehun asked, his expression harboring confusion. "O-Oh... yes... she does... she has a gift..."

"One day, she's going to make someone fall for her with that voice," Bella leaned an elbow against the counter, her chin on her palm. "Whoever that lucky guy is, she's going to be singing for him everyday..."

"Right," the hitman mumbled, and the song came to an end, Haneul and the backup dancers finishing the outro, and she breathed into the mic.

"Hey señor," she pulled the mic away, and the customers erupted into applause, screaming and smiling toward her. For the longest time, they had waited for her to return and they hoped she would sing more songs in the days to come.

Sehun clapped along with the rest of the patrons and staff, the bartender's thoughts still fresh in his mind. Maybe it was true... the girl had most certainly made him enamored, even though this happened to be the first time he watched her sing. It was a shame she had to use her talents for the nightlife though. This establishment wasn't like the hostess bars and brothels he had encountered, which meant she wasn't selling herself and that she had self-respect, but he knew there would be people that accused her of doing dirty work. He would shield her from them even at a distance, and he prayed that when things were back to normal, she could sing on a much bigger stage.

Haneul placed the mic back onto the stand, leaving the stage and heading toward the storage room once again, choosing to keep to herself. Closing the door behind her, she leaned against it, her eyes downcast and she sunk to the floor, burying her face in her knees.

"Halmeoni," she spoke quietly. "Did I do okay...? Did you like my performance?" She wished she was there, that maybe she would be seated on one of the empty tables clapping along and smiling like she used to. Then reality would hit her and she remembered she was gone. Ha-Neul has to learn to cope on her own and get back into her feet quickly. She couldn't let her friends be burdened with her grief. That wouldn't be fair to them.

She exhaled, standing once more and crossing the storage room toward the back door, grabbing the handle and pulling it open to let the cool air in. Stepping outside to clear her head would do her some good. She needed this time to think and figure out how to get out of this place quickly. Bothering her friends by living in The Magic Shop wasn't such a good idea in the long run.

At the bar counter, Sehun had noticed Ha-Neul was gone. "Um... excuse me," he spoke to the silver-haired female. "If I may ask, where did she go?"

"Oh, Neullie?" She looked toward the back. "The poor thing has been through a lot lately so I'm guessing she's just keeping to herself. Her grandmother passed away a few days ago. Why, are you interested?" She smirked teasingly and he cleared his throat, looking down at his drink.

"I..." be tried, his hand closing into a fist.

"Not many men ask about her," she continued speaking. "I think you're the first. If you want, I can introduce you to her. You seem like an upright guy."

A guy who kills people for a living, the raven-haired male thought to himself. "I think I'll head for the men's room," he stood up. "Can you tell me where it is?"

"Just down the hall toward the back," Bella gestured, and Sehun followed her directions. Once he was out of sight, he quickly looked around the back rooms to find her. He couldn't lose her, especially when he had promised Suho he would protect her. His hand closed around the door knob of another door and he swung it open, but he found the boiler room instead.

"Where did you go?" He mumbled, pulling back and continuing toward the next room.

Haneul stayed close to the door, the night air brushing against her cheeks and blowing through her hair gently. The alleyway was dark and damp but she could still hear music coming from inside. She glanced at the black sky with despondency, exhaling and closing her eyes, a pair of footsteps approaching her and pulling her away from her moment of respite.

"Hey," a voice came from the other end of the alleyway, prompting her to come to a halt. She didn't dare look at the person approaching her, but she could smell cigarette smoke and dried blood from him. "What's a pretty thing like you doing out here in the dark?" He towered over her now, that awful going in his eyes and that devious smirk on his lips. "Don't tell me you're alone? Wanna get out of here? I'll keep you nice and warm..."

A pervert, she thought, her expression neutral, and the moment he reached out to touch her, Haneul slapped his hand away and made to step back into The Magic Shop.

"Oh no. You're not going anywhere!" The man hissed, grabbing a fistful of her hair and pulling her back, and she released an awful cry.

"Let go of me!" The brunette screamed, elbowing him and fighting back, hearing him grunt with pain.

"Aw, you fucking bitch!" She has angered him now, throwing her onto the grimy ground and straddling her.

"I said get off!" Haneul cried, pushing him away, but she could feel how hard he was, that sick sneer still on his expression as he leaned in to press sloppy kisses onto her cheek and neck. She felt disgusted and dirty, and she knew this was only the beginning. She made to slap him, but he pinned her wrists on either side of her head with a growl, her face contorting pervertedly.

"Now now, don't struggle," his tone held slight irritation as she continued to squirm. "Just give in, will you?" Be began to grind, and she stiffened as his hips gyrated. "I'll make you feel good and then, we can have another round later. What do you say?"

"I said get off!" She screamed, managing to knock her knee into his crotch, and he shouted, toppling off of her and giving her ample time to escape, but pressed his whole body weight onto her, trapping her underneath him again, pushing her violently onto her stomach.

"You're going to take it like the slut you are," he pulled at her hair and she sobbed, his erection pressed to her backside, ready to pull down the zip of her dress. "If you scream, I'll kill you!"

Sehun had heard her scream, quickly following the sound of her voice until he found the right door. He swung it open, running through the storage room and toward the open back door, bolting through it and stepping onto the alleyway. He saw the man who had held her down, his blood boiling and his gaze deadly, quickly storming toward him. Grabbing onto the back of his collar shirt, the hitman pulled him off of her with brute force, turning him around and hitting him straight across the jaw.

Haneul was finally free, slowly lifting herself to a seated position, and she looked up at her savior. He stood taller than the other man, his shoulder broad, and his stare was cold and blank. She inhaled sharply, the anxiety that was already welling inside her increasing, moving away from the man. She had never seen a gaze like that before. It was like death had come to take the other man's soul. She thought she should have been relieved, but really, she had never been so scared in her life.

︻デ═一 ♥

#exo mafia au #mafia au #exo sehun #sehunxoc #sehunsmut #sehun x oc #sehun #oh sehun #eventual romance #eventual happy ending #eventual fluff #eventual smut #fluff smut #fluff #smut #romance #hurt #comfort

10 notes · View notes

vinceaddams · 5 years

Note

hi Vincent, i love your blog and everything you make is just fantastic, you inspire me a great deal! i've been looking for a while to see if you've been asked this before (and i'm sure you have even if i can't find it, so apologies for that!) but i want to start making historical clothing, particularly men's from the Romantic era, but i've never made clothes before and i don't know where to start. do you perhaps have any advice? and sorry again if this is a common question! thank you so much!

Hello, and thank you!! This is a question I’ve gotten quite a lot recently, and I’m going to make a blog post with lots of advice and links and whatnot that I can direct people to whenever it comes up.

But since I haven’t made such a post yet I’ll link you to some other ones that I think might be helpful. I haven’t actually made anything from the Romantic era, and the 18th century construction I’m used to is pretty different because tailoring changed in a very big way at the start of the 19th century, so I’ll link to some other sites too.

Here’s a brief answer I wrote when asked about beginner advice for 18th century sewing.

Here’s my reply to an ask about what a good project would be for someone who’s never sewn before.

Here’s Leimomi Oakes’s tips and tricks for making hand sewing easier. (She also started the Historical Sew Monthly challenge, which I really recommend joining if you need motivation to finish stuff! There’s no requirement to do all the challenges, but I’m trying to do at least half of them this year.)

I know it’s linked in one of the other posts, but here’s a link to the pdf of The Cut Of Men’s Clothes 1600-1900, which is a useful pattern book despite its lack of construction information.

Here’s a sewing blog that hasn’t posted in years, but he has a fair amount of 1830′s tailoring stuff in his archive. Lots of construction photos.

Here’s a page of links that someone else put together, all pertaining to Regency menswear.

Here’s a list of tailoring books available for free on the internet, and most of them are from the 19th century.

I hope these are useful! As always, the most important advice I can give is to keep sewing stuff no matter how badly your first attempts turn out. When I first tried to sew actual garments they were Very Bad (and continued to be very bad for quite a while, mostly because I did next to no research at first & just guessed at everything) but with practice they improved!

Other important bits of advice include: always use a thimble for hand sewing, make sure to oil your machine and clean the lint out of it regularly (read the machine manual!), and remember that your iron is a very important sewing tool - you must press seams open for them to look nice.

#sewing #ask #anonymous

59 notes · View notes

whetstonefires · 5 years

Note

While i was rifling thru your fic tag like a half-starved raccoon in a cake tin I found your clone Damian's fic & i'm in LOVE! And like, do u hav anymore meta on that verse? like how do the rest of the fam find out? how do they REACT?! how does Damian? does the heretic clone still exist? Just reading abt tim with a bunch of tiny dami's gave me heart palpitations. Thank you for this gift.

(In reference to this post.)

Why thank you!

It’s vaguely inspired by some meta @cerusee and @audreycritter did about what if Damian was one of several identical clones, but I’ve been fascinated by the character potential suggested by Damian having been cloned since Talia first revealed it, so.

Let’s see.

I don’t think the Heretic still exists, not in the form we saw. This story fragment sort of assumes Talia went less crazy than they made her for the whole Leviathan storyline; she doesn’t regard the clones as sons the way she does Damian (she totally relied on cloning to get him perfectly matched organ replacements, like that spine) but she’s not “sons are born to die in battle” “let’s grow him big inside a WHALE” levels of whacked out.

She hasn’t fully committed to having them compete to be selected as the official Damian #2, either, because she’s still attached to the original, though the growing prospect of that was a lot of the reason they ran for it. One of them might have wound up as the Heretic, in another timeline? But it was a timeline that diverged long before they fled the League.

So they make it to Tim’s emergency van without being intercepted, and get as far as his secure site on city limits, but they have to fight their way through the last leg of that trip and to make it inside the bunker, and it’s supplied for a siege but not really big enough for eight people, even if seven of them are small, and also staying there and being besieged would draw the attention of the Bats, which defeats the whole purpose of not making for the Cave/calling reinforcements.

So he calls his friends for extraction, and they all wind up in Kansas.

Tim puts off contacting the family until the clones have with his guidance sorted out exactly how they want to present themselves.

Unfortunately, the last stage of the ninja battle was showy enough not to be overlooked, so his absence was noticed much sooner than he expected, and regarded as more worrying. On the second day Dick calls Kon to see if he knows where Tim’s gotten to, and Kon fails to lie adequately.

Dick can’t pressure Kon as easily as he can most people because last time he asked Kon for a favor Kon came to the North Pole and died for him.

Which is the kind of thing even Nightwing isn’t veteran enough not to take seriously.

But he still calls his bluff and asks a bunch of questions, and winds up very suspicious and worried, so at this point Tim and the Damians have to hurry up and figure out how to announce the situation or go on the run from the Bats as well as the League, which would be. Not smart.

Tim explains the situation over videochat with the Cave before having the cloneboys join him on the feed; this spares them the worst of the yelling.

Bruce, Dick, and Damian all respond pretty badly. Bruce because he doesn’t like change and he’s reflexively suspicious, and having eight Damians to raise is a justly horrifying notion. Also anti-clone prejudice. It’s unfortunately an established trait of his, though not like. A strong one.

Dick because he’s really defensive of Damian, and perceives this first and foremost as an emotional threat to his bab’s fragile identity.

Damian because he knows exactly how he was raised to react to someone being in a place he wants, and he knows how many opportunities his father’s household policies gave him to take shots at Tim, and they may be six years old but there are seven of them. He is going to die.

All things considered, Damian’s being the most rational here.

He’s wrong though. The clones were raised as disposable ninjas, not princes; they’re perfectly well aware killing him would gain them nothing, and they have very little sense of entitlement.

Bruce and Dick do try to be nice to the kids once it’s finally settled they will be staying at the Manor at least for a bit, because they need to be somewhere safe and Bruce can’t leave them at Clark’s house forever. Even Ma Kent has her limits.

But Bruce blows bewilderingly hot and cold and Dick kind of makes a point of of not being too warm to them, because he’s loyal to his demon brat. Damian starts staying at his place a lot and consequently working with Nightwing instead of Batman.

Bruce has no idea what to do about this or if he even should do something. Damian’s thirteen, right? Teenagers are supposed to rebel??? This is a pretty harmless way to do that?

But he misses him.

This does lead to making more time for the Seven Identical Six-Year-Olds.

Their sense of morality revolves around having made the breakthrough to valuing on another’s lives; they aren’t as opposed to not-murder as Damian was but they’re also a lot harder to coax into seeing things his way because they don’t need as much from him, emotionally.

This makes them ironically less terrifying for Bruce, even if he’s still having trouble actually bonding with them the way he normally does with his kids.

Barbara meanwhile is cautious. She always takes a while to warm up to new people, and she doesn’t have Tim’s history with clones to get her over that speedbump. She tries very hard to be fair, but she’s not really welcoming. She’s Reserving Judgment.

Jason thinks this is the funniest thing ever and goes out of his way to tease Damian about it. Privately he’s super creeped out, but as that wears off he starts getting mad about Bruce and Dick making the kiddos feel unwelcome and at some point does a rant, and after that is vaguely protective in a useless sort of way.

He enjoys being a bad influence. The septuplets also enjoy this. They think he’s funny, too, and he’s easier to communicate with than most people around here. Achieves a fairly high tier on the Favorite Non-Clone Brother list they aren’t exactly keeping.

Cass is super about these kids. She can relate to them even more than to Damian, because they weren’t raised as heirs to anything and don’t have the sneering put-down form of pride going, and also she’s actually around to meet them at the crucial getting-to-know-you stage.

She thinks sparring one-on-seven is an excellent sibling bonding activity. There are assassin-child puppy piles once they’re all worn out. Many photos are taken.

She’s doing much better than Bruce at getting them to extend their nascent sense of empathy beyond one another, without actually making an effort. It’s not like they’re actually much behind their cohort when it comes to social development, they’ve just got murder conditioning flattening their affective empathy. (And are ahead of cohort intellectually, which contributes a lot to the dissonance.) Cass’ accidental therapy involves butterflies.

Tim continues to be around, a lot more than he has been for a while because he’s kind of obligated to see this through. The septuplets trust him, which is more than they do anybody else for a while, so he winds up with a lot of childcare duties.

Since this amounts to ‘showing them where to find soap’ and ‘being in their vicinity’ rather than i.e. brushing their teeth for them and making sure they don’t steal each others’ snacks, he’s fairly okay with this.

Sizdahum sticks especially close, which is fine because he’s not a big talker; he winds up getting a lot of absent lessons on detective work.

Tim gets yelled at for having murder scene photos open in front of him; both of them and Haftum, who happens to be there at the time, roll their eyes a lot throughout.

Tim’s friends also visit the Manor a few times specifically to visit the kids, since they already met them. At one point the Damian clones, Tim, Kon, Wonder Girl Cassie, and due to rumor mill Anita, Cissie, and Greta all have a picnic in a rare afternoon of sunshine on the Manor grounds.

Alfred packed the picnic so it has ludicrously expensive cheese, a fruit salad featuring freshly pitted cherries, and thermoses of milkshakes in the favorite flavors of everyone who got one, even the ones he’s never met before. In response to this bounty Anita threatens to come to visit every time she can get babysitters for her parents.

Then she considers introducing her parents to the clone kids. They’re turning out almost as weird, even if in theory they don’t remember their previous lives. We’ll see how that turns out.

Bruce got used to how all his sons’ friends know his secret identity over a decade ago, it’s…fine.

Steph thinks they’re creepy but she’s far enough from ground zero to laugh about it, especially about their occasional appearances as Tim’s row of ducklings, and also she trusts Cass’ judgment.

Everyone does, to a certain extent; it helps the septuplets’ cause incredibly over the course of the first few weeks. It wins Alfred off the fence about them after about three days, which is quite a coup; even before that he was fast catching up with Tim in the ‘learning the differences between the septuplets’ sweepstakes.

(Cass is the only one who can even semi-reliably tell them all apart if they’re not wearing their nametags, or catch them switching, but learning things like their individual preferences in weaponry or cake is arguably much more important.)

Speaking of names, it’s a difficult issue. Bruce would (with considerable angst and self-doubt) be willing to name them all if asked, and they’d probably be open to it if he offered, but they’re not quite comfortable naming themselves and he’s too insecure and weirded-out to suggest anything else.

The other members of the family are varying degrees of not okay with the numbering system. Steph’s main issue with it is she has trouble remembering them precisely, because she doesn’t speak Farsi and learning seven unfamiliar similar-sounding words at the same time doesn’t play to her strengths.

Damian has a tendency to call them by their numbers in English, which only some of the clones actually mind but it offends the hell out of Bruce.

The necessity of keeping them secret until they have actual public-ready names and a story has been settled on wears on everyone’s nerves a bit. The issue that there exists no story more believable than the actual extremely weird truth stands in the way.

Barbara actually crafts an entire cover about rescuing the products of an illegal cloning operation by people planning an overly complicated ransom scheme for Damian, and Bruce going ‘well dammit they’re my kids too,’ which doesn’t get deployed for a while because:

1) everyone’s still hunting for something a little less weird and

2) they have to review the entire body of legal precedent relating to clones to make sure this won’t put the kids in jeopardy down the line or undermine Bruce’s chances of getting custody somehow.

Meanwhile, Bruce absolutely forbids the clone squad from getting involved in vigilante fighting. Because they are six. They’re not quite on house arrest but they have strict supervision and a curfew. They mostly accept this; they’re used to discipline and they did come here for refuge.

He tries to take away all their live weapons. Because they are six. This fails to stick. It threatens to become a serious bone of contention.

Cass, Tim, and Damian (somewhat unwillingly) wind up having to broker the issue; explaining to Bruce that the kids think he suspects them of plotting murder, and to the kids that Bruce doesn’t think they can be trusted not to hurt themselves with sharp objects is. Fraught. On all sides.

Why does Bruce never get any kids for whom normal responsible parenting guidelines are fully applicable?

272 notes · View notes

hiyabradley · 6 years

Text

“If you call me Daddy, I’ll call you baby girl!” (Part 1/3)

Masterlist|My Wattpad

A/N: Sorry if this imagine isn't to everyone's taste and involves way to much smut. I promise that they’ll be something else for you guys who aren't really fond of imagines like this! :) x

******

Warnings? Strong language/smut

Words: 2700

Requested by: @imcalledshannonxoxo

I was so bored of sitting in home, I really wanted to go out but I didn't know where. I then unlocked my phone and started scrolling through Instagram and saw that the local nightclub near me was opening at 10pm. I looked at the time, it's was only 7pm, perfect that'd give me plenty of time to get ready.

I went and hopped in the shower. After my shower I went and looked through my wardrobe to find an outfit that was nightclub appropriate. I pulled out my favourite dress and heels. I dried myself off and slipped into my dressing gown for now. I dried my hair and curled it, then applied my make up a bit more dramatic than usual. I looked over at the clock it was 9:30pm. I put on my dress, heels and my favourite perfume, I then grabbed my handbag and put all of my essentials inside. I was ready to go.

******

I got into the nightclub at around 10:30pm and made my way over to the bar. I ordered myself a pink gin and lemonade. I turned around and looked at the dance floor, that's where I wanted to be. Dancing was one of my biggest passions, but right now the dance floor was absolutely jam packed with people so I decided to stay at the bar.

After a few more pink gin and lemonade's, the dance floor had cleared up a bit. I went to get up and leave then I walked into somebody. I almost fell flat on my ass, but luckily they was there to catch me.

"Woah there! You alright?" He spoke. I looked up to see a guy with brown curly hair, brown eyes and the most beautiful smile ever.

"Holy fuck, you're beautiful!" I muttered.

"Pardon?"

I just released what I said aloud. "Nothing!" I smiled at him. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah, I'm fine! Are you?"

"Yeah I'm good!" He helped me back on the stall I was previously sitting on and then sat on the stall next to me.

"So!" He began. "What's a beautiful girl like you doing here all alone?"

"Oh god, please don't tell me you're one of those guys who chats up a girl, takes her home, fucks her and then chucks her? Because that's normally what most guys who just wanna do that start with!"

He laughed. "No, I'm not like that, don't worry! Normally I get way to scared to come and chat a girl in a club up, but it was actually my friends who told me that I should come and speak to you. Considering I've been watching you since you arrived!" He pointed over to where his friends where sitting and they gave us a wave.

"Oh right. Or did they dare you to come and speak to me?" I raised my eyebrows at him.

"No! God no! I've been wanting to speak to you for the past hour but haven't found the courage to until now!"

"Um. Fair enough!" I went to order myself another drink.

"No, let me!"

"I'm capable of buying my own drink you know?"

"I know, but I insist!"

"Okay, well in that case I'll have a pink gin and lemonade, please!" I smiled at him.

"I didn't strike you as a gin drinker?" He laughed and then ordered our drinks.

"No?" I turned around and looked at the dance floor, it only had a few people dancing away on it. I sighed.

"What's wrong?" He asked.

I took a sip of my drink. "Nothing, I just really wanted to dance, that's all.

"That probably explains why you've been looking at the dance floor for most of the night then?"

"Yeah, dance is one my biggest passions!"

"You're a dancer?" He smirked.

"Yeah!" I smiled as all the memories of the dance competitions I entered came flooding back. "That's what I came here to do really, have a few drinks, then maybe a dance, then leave!"

"Well do you wanna dance?"

"With you?" I looked at him.

"Yeah, I mean I'm not much of a dancer but sure why not?"

I instantly grabbed his hand without second guessing and dragged him to the dance floor!

******

After what seemed like forever dancing with this guy who I still didn't know the name of he came up behind me and placed his hands on my hips.

"Damn, you sure know how to dance don't you?" He whispered into my ear out of breath.

I turned around so I was facing him, I slid my arms around his neck. "This? This is nothing, compared to what else I can do!" I winked at him.

"Damn, now I'm even more intrigued!" He looked me up and down until his eyes fell on my chest. He bit his lip.

"Hey! My eyes are up here here! Not down there!"

"Sorry...” He trailed off then shook his head. “Wait, I don't even know your name, what is it?"

"It's Y/N! What's yours?"

"What a beautiful name, for a beautiful girl! I'm Brad!" He smiled.

I blushed. "Thank you Brad!"

"You're welcome Y/N!" He pulled me closer to him, he then rested his hands on my waist.

We danced some more, I could feel his face getting closer to him, until his lips where upon mine and our hands where roaming each other's bodies. I pulled away for air.

"Wait, wait, wait!" I said out of breath.

"What's wrong?" He asked.

"Um, this is gonna sound wried but do have Instagram?"

He laughed. "Did you really just break a really good make out session to ask if I have Instagram?"

"No, I needed air! Plus I've been wondering it for most of the night!"

"Fair enough, yeah I do actually! I don't really use it that much as I'm not one for social media, but I do post on there every now and then!"

"What's your username?" I pulled out my phone and opened up the Instagram app.

"It's bradleywillsimpson, what's yours?" He got out his phone and opened up the Instagram app as well.

"It's simplyY/N, yeah how creative!" I laughed and then typed his username into the search part of instagram. "Is this you?" I showed my phone to him.

"Yeah, that's me! Is this you?" He also showed his phone to me.

"Yeah!" I then resorted back to phone and looked at the three recent pictures he had posted:

"bradleywillsimpson Tonight with the lads should be good 💃🏼👍🏼"

2,293 likes / 14 comments

******

"bradleywillsimpson Queen."

2,092 likes / 20 comments

******

"bradleywillsimpson Da burfday was a fun times. Can't believe I'm 23, I'm an ol' man 👴🏼"

3,291 likes / 50 comments

******

I followed him and liked his three recent photos he had posted, wow he was absolutely fucking beautiful, photos didn't do him as far enough justice! I then turned to him to see that he was still on his phone.

"Damn!" He muttered. "Wow!... Holy fuck she's beautiful!... God da -"

"Brad?" I interrupted him.

"Oh sorry!" He blushed!

"It's okay, I was just doing to exact same thing, but not out loud!" I laughed.

He put his phone away and then stared at me for a while. Before we knew it, we had resorted back to back we was doing previously. He pulled away for air.

"Maybe we should take this where else?" He suggested.

"Yeah, maybe we should!" I said out of breath.

"You can come back to mine if you'd like?"

"Well, I live just around the corner so it'd probably be easier to go back to mine?"

"Sure! If that's where you'd prefer to go?"

"I don't mind, anywhere's good!"

"Let's just go back to yours!"

"Alright!"

******

Here’s part 2!

#thevampsband #bradley simpson #bradleysimpson #bradsimpson #thevamps #thevampsbrad #bradsimpsonimagine #hiyabradley #the vamps imagine #imagine

2 notes · View notes