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anothertimdrakestan · 4 years

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Sweater Weather (Damian Wayne x Reader)

words: 1.4k

req from a lovely anon: “Could maybe please write a songfic for Damian and the reader? The song being Sweater Weather? It could be sfw or nsfw, whatever you're comfortable with. However, if you're not comfortable with this request, that's ok! I LOVE your writing and respect you as the author. Anywayssss, have a great day! 💞💞”

hi love!!! thank you for the req! i’m not very practiced at songfics but i tried and i stole all the inspiration for this story from my real life eheheh so here’s some insight to my messy love life lmao. also! for my songfics at least i don’t include lyrics because for me they pull me out of the story but if you know the song you’ll notice a lot of dialogue/descriptions are pulled straight from the song hehe! i hope you enjoy!

“I’ve got the taser, kick them in the balls if they try me, and scream” you repeated in your head as you made your way down the streets of Gotham, was it quite late to be going out for a bite to eat? Yes. But you’d been studying and felt that a midnight snack was well deserved.

Bag of food in hand you were headed back, taking a familiar shortcut you used to get to downtown all the time. Unfortunately, you failed to remember that the alleyway on fifth was never safe after sunset, but your mind auto-piloted you that way and now you were about 85% sure you were about to have to beat some ass to defend your food in a few minutes.

“C’mere princess gimme a smile” a deep voice slurred as you continued past, other deep growls of agreement and hoots echoed around the alley. “C’mon babe I don’t see anyone with ya! pretty gal like you’z should be snatched up” you cringed at his wording hoping there was no double meaning as you hurried past. “Tt, she’s with me” a voice hissed as a cloaked vigilante dropped in front of you. “Hey Rob” you smiled sheepishly, knowing he had probably been watching you for a couple minutes. “Y/n, come, let’s go” Damian’s slightly fake Robin voice always made you roll your eyes but you knew there was no chance in hell he was letting you walk away, so you let him loop his left hand around your waist and pull you out of the alleyway towards your favorite rooftop.

Before your feet touched the rooftop you were getting lectured. “Y/n you know I’m a call away when you want to go out like this! It’s not safe here you know this!” you looked at him with a bored expression. “Dames I’m not a baby plus you trained the crap out of me I could’ve easily protected myself and you know it. So why the heroism tonight?” you asked, cocking your head to the side while Damian did his favorite move besides pulling out a sword: changing the subject. “It’s too cold, look, you’re shivering. Here.” he grumbled, pulling off his cloak and draping it around your neck as you clasped it, grateful for the warmth but angered from the lack of answers.

You didn’t need to bug him, just give him a knowing look and he was soon sitting with you on the rooftop staring out at the skyline. And you just sat like that, in silence, for a little bit. Not that you minded- there wasn’t much for you to say while Damian clearly was deep in his own thoughts.

“I wanted to save you” he broke the silence. You turned to him, “you’ve been saving me since we were kids man it just hasn’t been a recent thing. What aren’t you saying?” you cut off your thought to see if he’d give you more.

“Trust my y/n there’s nothing I wouldn’t want to tell you about” his whispered before standing up with his grappling hook. “You don’t want your food to get cold” he mumbled as you silently agreed, moving to take off the cloak. “It’ll be cold, leave it on” were the last words before he whisked you home, helping you sneak through your window like always. “Bye Dami” you whispered, meeting his domino mask covered eyes that just stared at you for a couple seconds, but with a little nod he was off.

With a stretch you decided to leave the cloak on, it was surprisingly warm and you didn’t want to lose it as it was probably quite expensive. You got out your food, just a couple bites in when you heard a knock on your window. Getting up was Damian, this time without his mask on, sat with unreadable eyes that were searching frantically until they met yours.

Sliding the window open you stepped back to let him in when he pulled you out of the window and onto the roof of your home. With a small yelp you stared at him, waiting for an explanation.

Damian took a deep breath. “I didn’t finish answering your question” he said gruffly as you cocked your head to the side. “Okay?" you replied.

“I wanted to save you,” his eyes cast down and his tone quieted as he said “because I couldn’t imagine my life without you y/n” You felt your chest tighten, all the nights you spent wondering if Damian would ever feel the same way you did, the nights you spent writing Y/n Wayne on papers then erasing it with a giggle, and all the moments where you considered how difficult it would be to go from best friends to something else- all started flooding to the front of your brain. “Play it cool y/n” you chided.

“Aw Dames you know I couldn’t either!” you nodded, giving him a soft smile which got wiped off your face when he shook his head. “No, not like that- god I am so bad at explaining this” he groaned, looking like he was going to give up. But he continued, “what I want is different, different from what we’ve got. I want a future, a person who wants me, a love, I want love.” his voice was strained as he paused to look at you.

“You want those, with me?” you gulped.

He nodded. “Yeah, i-is that bad?” you could tell he was holding his breath.

“Not bad, definitely the opposite. Good, very very good” you mumbled, watching his eyes fall down to your lips.

“So if that’s what I want, what do you want?” he whispered, toying with the material of his cloak that you were still wearing.

“I want you Dami” his eyes snapped to yours, like he was processing everything hitting him all at once.

His hands had made it higher up the cloak now, and you felt him tentatively tug you forward, his eyes meeting yours one last time to confirm that everything he’d been dreaming about for months was really about to happen.

And then he kissed you.

It was soft, and tentative, and careful. But it was also warm and overflowing with love. His hands moved to cup your cheek while you linked your arms around his neck, pulling him into the kiss.

Pulling apart Damian’s lips were upturned into the tiniest smile, but it said more than a million words to you.

“So you gonna ask me out orrrrrr” you teased with a wink while Damian rolled his eyes. “I’m sorry, was the moonlit kiss not good enough for you ms. l/n” he scrunched his nose while you laughed. “No I just wish I could’ve filmed your whole ‘I want love’ speech. It was very un-“i-was-trained-as-a-baby-assassin-with-no-emotions” of you! I’m quite proud wanna give it another go so I can show Bruce?” you laughed as Damian glared at you. “Don’t make me resend my offer, I could change my want’s at anytime you know” he said very matter-of-factly while you couldn’t help but snort.

“Puh-leez you’d give the speech again if it meant you could steal another kiss” you tapped his chest knowingly when his hand shot out to grab yours. He laced his fingers in between yours saying, “from my knowledge you were the one of said you wanted me, and since I’m yours and you’re mine, I pretty much get a kiss whenever I want, it’s hardly stealing” he finished by pulling your lips onto his as he smirked into the kiss. “Hm whatever you say lovebird”

“You cannot call me that”

“I’m pretty sure I get to call you whatever I want lover boy”

“Absolutely not”

“Love bird, lover boy, softie, cutie, baby bird, wow there’s like infinite nicknames here” you gasped with laughter.

“What have I gotten myself into” he chuckled as you grinned, diving in for a quick peck before you decided it was enough loving for one night, the cloak was warm but it was nothing compared to the sweater you’d stolen from Dami a couple weeks past. You’d been outside more tonight than in the last month and desperately needed something to warm you up. It was finally sweater weather after all.

#damian wayne #damian wayne x reader #damian wayne x y/n #damian wayne x you #damian wayne x fem!reader #damian wayne fluff #damain wayne fanfic #batboys #batfam #bruce wayne #batboys x reader #batfam x reader #dc fluff #dc fanfic

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bunnys-beetlejuice-blog · 3 years

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come on in, folks, i got some kind of goof ass Beetlejuice/Evil Dead crossover for you to enjoy.

He’s eighteen, and it’s Saturday, which means that he and Lydia are wandering around Manhattan, looking for trouble to get into. Lydia, eleven and ever his little shadow, is standing next to him, as they take a moment, on the busy New York street corner, to sip their boba and think about their next move. They were meant to be watching some horror movie that had looked alright from the previews, but ended up being so stupid, it wasn’t even fun, and the Deetz siblings had found themselves walking out, one hour poorer but a bucket of overly butter saturated movie popcorn richer. “I still can’t believe how bad that was,” Lydia says, again, huffing, because they’d actually paid money to see that stinker, instead of sneaking in, which is their usual habit. “Ya get one big name attached an’ everyone apparently stops givin’ a shit. Musta figured th’ droolin’ masses would eat it up,” he agrees, and he slurps up the last of his tapioca balls, and then proceeds to eat the plastic straw. “Is it too much to ask that characters actually be interesting, and, I don’t know, behave like normal human people?” Lyds bitches, as BJ takes a bite out of his cup, too. She glances up at him, dryly. “I mean, I guess maybe my standards for normality are low, but still.”

He grins at her. “Whatever could you possibly mean, sister dearest?” he puts on a posh, almost transatlantic accent, and she rolls her eyes, and sucks boba up in her straw, then shoots the pearls at him like a pea shooter. He snorts and laughs.

It’s a good day, despite the letdown at the movies. It’s nearly that time of year, just about the start of his seasonal depression, as the sun becomes shy and things go cold and gray. Still, there’s some time left with the sunshine, so he’s drinking it up, savoring it, and it feels good, to stand here with Lyds, and talk about nothing. “Alright, come on, let’s second act it,” he grins, and she perks up. “I think Wicked’s playing!” “Wicked’s always playin’.” “Well, I’m not sitting through Hamilton, it’s a Saturday. I’m not learning if I don’t have to.” “Totally fuckin’ fair. Music Man, maybe?” “Hugh Jackman’s weirdly brick shaped head freaks me out.” “There’s gotta be a show we can sneak into,” BJ frowns, scratching at the scruff of his chin, and then he catches a scent he’s never smelled before, as Lydia puzzles through their remaining options. It’s like death, sort of, but not. Like death warmed over, or death, refried. He takes his sister’s hand, and leads her away from the street corner, following the smell, nose in the air, pupils blown wide, and Lydia laughs. “Great, time to go poke a dead thing. That’s more fun than The Last Four Years, at least.” She’s seen him go like this before, and thinks she knows what to expect.

Neither of them know how to react when they follow the scent down an alleyway and see the violent fight happening in front of them.

Parked at the far end of the alleyway is a car, some 70’s make that he doesn’t know enough about such things to name, and between it, and the Deetz siblings, is an one handed man absolutely going feral on a group of three refried dead smelling zombie… things. “Deadly-vu,” he hears Lydia whisper, as they watch the man perform a scissor kick that sends a zombie head flying. It bounces like a basketball against the brick wall that makes the alleyway, rolls, and lands at the Deetz sibling’s feet. There’s a beat, as they stare at it, and it stares back, before the head on the ground opens its mouth and speaks. “DEMON!” it shrieks, and then it makes the life ending choice to roll at Lydia, teeth bared, and his boot is going through it, crushing through the skull like an overly juicy bug under his heel. He takes a second to wipe the gore from his sole onto the pavement. “Maybe Wicked could be good,” he turns and says to Lydia, who responds by ducking behind him, because the body the head formerly belonged to seems to be stumbling at them, clutching something in it’s boiled and infected and puss covered arms, and it thrusts the thing at BJ, before falling down and collapsing into dust. It’s a book. Some kind of creepy old demon book, from the look of it. He wrinkles his nose in vague disgust, and then takes a sniff. If the zombie things are refried death, this thing is a whole fucking Mexican food buffet of it, and it makes his head spin in a way he’s never felt before. He kind of likes it. He’s about to give the cursed reading material a tentative lick before a boom rings out from in front of them- the one handed man has pulled a sawed off shotgun off his back, and dispatched another corpse thing. There’s one left, and it’s circling the man, who by this point is so blood covered, he looks like he was tricked into being prom queen, or something.

“Is it just me, or do you freaks just keep gettin’ uglier?” the man quips, and the corpse lunges, a stumbling move which earns it the butt of the shotgun to the jaw, which goes flying. The zombie is shot through the gut, and drops, but is a twitching, squirming mess. BJ’s seen enough horror movies to know that thing is getting back up. The stranger has apparently, too. He takes a moment to reload the shotgun, then double taps, blowing clean through the thing’s skull. He blows at the slightly smoking barrels of his sawed off, twirls it, and holsters it, re-slipping it onto his back. It’s a pretty cool move, actually, and the siblings watch in rapt attention. It takes the three remaining people (well, two people, one demon,) in the alley a moment to actually focus on each other, and there’s silence, before the stranger speaks. “Uh,” says the man, covered in blood, and Lydia peaks out from behind BJ, and stares at him, with big eyes. “Kids,” he hears the man mutter. “Great, just what I need, a coupla kids, gettin’ in my way.. Hey, kiddies,” he says, louder, with a smile, which might be really charming when he’s not soaked in rot and blood, but the effect at the moment is not as sincere and friendly as he clearly thinks it is. “Looks like you two little heroes managed to wrangle my book away from those deadites. You wanna do your pal Ash a favor, and hand it over?” He makes a “come here” motion with his stump arm, and then seems to realize that’s not so appealing, because he tucks that appendage behind his back, worried, suddenly, about scaring them. As if a man with a missing hand is the weirdest thing they've seen in the last five minutes.

“What the fuck,” Lydia says, and BJ can’t help but agree with that sentiment. Also, he feels a vague sense of sudden responsibility for this weird old tome. It doesn’t exactly seem like the kind of thing a human should have. Maybe those zombies… deadites? Maybe they were trying to get back what was stolen from them. Though he’s not charitable enough to assume that they’re the good guys in this feud. The stranger, Ash, takes a careful step forward. “It’s alright,” he says, like he’s talking to a wild animal he’s trying to tame, and not a teen and preteen, respectively. “I’m not gonna hurtcha. Just need to get my book back.”

A sudden screeching wind roars down the alleyway, and both living humans react, ducking, as it bellows and swirls around them, kicking up dust and trash and chunks of leftover deadite. “Demon! Aid us!” BJ feels a presence in front of his face, something he can’t see, but a great, ancient something, reaching out to him, demanding, begging, pleading, for him to assist in whatever macabre goal it wants to meet. He responds by sticking his unglamoured tongue out at it. “Ewww, gross. No.”

The thing shrieks again, and makes a beeline for Lydia, which is just about the stupidest thing it could have done, because he drops his glamour fully and snarls, gives the ancient being a psychic push back, and he sends the thing that cannot be seen flying, out of the shady darkness of this alleyway, past what he assumes to be Ash’s car, and out onto the city street, into the sun. It shrieks and moans and curses him. He flips it off, as it dissipates. The vibe in the air, however, tells him it’s not “dead,” just gone.

Ash straightens up and looks at him. BJ’s already slipped his human disguise back on, so the effect is that Ash has just seen what seems to be a slightly too pale and definitely overweight human teen somehow push back an ancient evil, totally unaffected. Now it’s his turn to let out a confused, “What the fuck?”

“Come on, BJ!” Lydia grabs her big brother’s arm and pulls him away, running from the gore and the confused zombie slayer. “Wait, kids-!” Ash rounds the corner, after them, but the Deetz siblings are already gone, disappeared into thin air, flash stepping the span of blocks in the blink of an eye, and they don’t stop until Lydia, sick from the teleportation, gives his hand a squeeze. They appear on a rooftop, confusing and traumatizing some pigeons that had been roosting.

“Wait, why did we run?’ BJ asks, and Lydia looks at him like he’s a moron. “Because that guy was clearly a monster hunter! And kind of really good at it!” she says. He mulls that over, and smiles. “Worried for your big bro?” he bats his eyelashes at her, and she responds by slugging him in the gut, which he reacts the barest amount to. “Last thing I want is to explain to mom and dad how you ended up with a shotgun blast through your skull,” she says, and crosses her arms, before leaning forward, to study the book he’s still holding. “So. What is that?” He grins. “Wanna open it an’ find out?” Read the rest of the first chapter here!

#beetlejuice #beetlejuice fic #beetlejuice au #bj deetz au #ashley williams #ash williams #evil dead fanfiction #lydia deetz #emily deetz #charles deetz #my writing

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fanimesenseiwrites · 3 years

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Another two parter because I just really love starting new lines and Tumblr can't stand it. But yeah, this addresses all the shit Mammon gets from his brothers because it really bugs me. NGL, I was inspired by the Devilgram story "One too many insults." Not in this part, but this story will feature eventual sexy times with a sort of trigger... (not me using my writing to deal with my issues again!)

Mammon's Lament

Hoshiko was in their apartment, studying a spell book when they got a text from Mammon.

-Hey, can you talk?-

Hoshiko looked at the message and grinned before replying.

-Yeah, you miss me?-

-I just really need to hear your voice right now-

Hoshiko frowned at the message; that didn't sound like Mammon. They called him immediately.

He answered almost immediately. "Hey Hoshiko," it was Mammon's voice but he sounded almost melancholy.

Hoshiko's frown deepened. "Hey honey, what's wrong?" They put a bookmark in the book and closed it.

"I just really wish I could see you right now."

Hoshiko didn't like the sound of his tone, they were growing increasingly worried by the second. "I'd love to see you too, I'll summon you if you tell me what's wrong."

"I... I'd rather not."

"Please? I'm worried. Just tell me what's wrong and then I'll summon you," Hoshiko tried to compromise.

He groaned. "I don't want to be near my brothers, okay?"

"I'm sorry but, that doesn't sound like anything new," Hoshiko told him, still trying to sound supportive.

"Just summon me and then I'll tell you the rest," he tried to bargain.

Hoshiko sighed. "Okay fine. Grab onto anything you wanna bring with you and give me a minute."

"Thank you," he told them before hanging up.

Hoshiko frowned and got up from where they were sitting on the couch. They walked over to their purse and pulled out their keys and held the keychain that Mammon gave them. Hoshiko ran their thumb over the keychain and briefly reminisced over the time that they got the keychains before kissing it, then speaking an incantation. "Hear me, denizens of the darkness. You who are born of shadow and you who give birth to it. Hear me and do as I command. I, Hoshiko Higure, call upon you to send forth one of your number, one whom I have made a pact with. I call forth, the Avatar of Greed, Mammon!"

A circle of light appeared on the floor and a humanoid silhouette slowly materialized within the circle.

Hoshiko smiled wide as they watched the process unfold before them.

The light faded and Mammon was left standing there holding his toothbrush and DDD charger.

Hoshiko smiled at him. "Hey Mammon."

Mammon looked at Hoshiko and smiled slightly before walking over to them and hugging them tightly.

Hoshiko found it unusual that he didn't say anything, but just hugged back. "Guess what."

"What?" He asked, still holding onto them.

"You're the first out of all of y'all that I've successfully summoned," they sang, actually really excited despite the circumstances.

Mammon pulled away just enough to look at them. "So you're saying that I'm another one of your firsts?" He asked with a grin.

Hoshiko nodded, feeling relief at seeing his usual shit-eating grin. "Yes, I am."

Mammon just hugged Hoshiko again, even tighter this time.

They rubbed his back. "... Will you tell me what's wrong now?"

Mammon sighed and dropped his head onto their shoulder.

Hoshiko ran a hand up his back and into his hair. "Do you want me to make you some tea? I can do that while you talk. Or we can just lay in bed and I'll hold you while you talk. But you gotta talk to me, I can't help if I don't know what's wrong."

Mammon sighed and pulled away from them to go sit on the couch. He set his things down on the side table. "I dunno if you can help..."

Hoshiko frowned and followed him. They sat down far enough away from him so that they could easily pull him down to lay his head in their lap. Hoshiko knew it was his favorite position when he was feeling down, but they also knew he wouldn't ask for it, so they just did it.

Mammon allowed himself to be moved and just looked up at Hoshiko once his head was in their lap.

Hoshiko stroked his hair and pulled off his sunglasses. "Will you please talk to me now? I'm worried," they pleaded.

Mammon sighed and looked away from them. "I'm just sick of bein' called an idiot."

Hoshiko frowned. "Is Lucifer in a mood?"

Mammon snapped his head to them. "Hell! I wish it was just Lucifer! It's all of 'em!"

Hoshiko frowned and scratched his scalp, hoping to get him to calm down.

"Its always "You're an idiot" or "a scumbag" and even when I am trying to do right I don't get any recognition for it! I get no respect! I'm the second oldest, the second strongest..."

Hoshiko would've sworn that they physically felt their heart break. They knew the brothers could gang up on Mammon, but they didn't know that it got to him that bad.

"I don't wanna be feared like Lucifer or nothin', I just... I want them to treat me like I'm their brother..." Mammon looked away from Hoshiko, a soft blush on his cheeks.

Hoshiko had to will themself not to cry. "Oh..." They racked their brain for anything they could say to make him feel better. "Ya know, it always bothered me that you're the only one who got no kind of understanding for your sin."

Mammon looked back at Hoshiko.

"I know you all tease each other, but like... Asmo doesn't get strung up in the stairwell for going out and having a bunch of sex."

Mammon appeared to think about what they said. "Yeah... You're right!"

Hoshiko chuckled. "I know I am."

Mammon sat up and turned to look at Hoshiko. "And I don't ever lose control to the point of changing forms like Beel or Satan!"

Hoshiko nodded. "You're right. So how about you just stay here for a couple days, let your brothers worry a little and then by the time you go back down they should be nicer."

Mammon grinned, but it quickly faded. "Can't I just stay here forever?" He asked, his voice small.

Hoshiko blushed, they weren't necessarily opposed to the idea but they knew they had to be realistic too. "You know, Lucifer will come looking for you eventually."

"Then why don't we just see how long it takes Lucifer to find me?" Mammon asked, a mischievous grin growing on his face.

Hoshiko chuckled but shook their head. "No, just a few days. The longer we wait the more likely we're to be in trouble with Lucifer."

Mammon groaned. "Fiiinnneee...."

"How about we go shopping and I'll get you some more clothes for your stay here?"

Mammon immediately perked up. "I like the sound of that."

Hoshiko grinned. "I thought you might." They stood up and stretched; they looked down at their pajamas then back at Mammon. "Lemme change and then we'll go."

Mammon gave them a once over. "Oh, yeah."

Hoshiko chuckled. "Did you just notice that I'm still wearing pajamas?"

He sighed. "Yeah, I know. I'm an idiot..."

Hoshiko frowned and walked over and grabbed his face and made him look at them. "You're not an idiot. Sometimes we don't notice little things, especially when we're upset and focused on something particular. That doesn't make us stupid. It just means we're people, with thoughts and feelings. Having magical powers doesn't make us infallible."

Mammon just stared into Hoshiko's eyes.

Hoshiko blushed. They tried to decipher the look in Mammon's eyes, hoping to figure out how he felt, praying that they hadn't said something they shouldn't have. "Mammon?"

He pulled his face out of their hands, a blush staining his cheeks. "Thanks... go change."

Hoshiko just nodded and went to their bedroom and closed the door behind them.

Hoshiko couldn't get the look in Mammon's eyes out of their head as they got dressed. Had they embarrassed him? They were just trying to make him to feel better, he deserved to really feel good about himself.

Hoshiko got dressed in some leggings, an oversized sweater and some over the knee boots before walking back out into the living room.

Mammon was up and looking at the pictures of Hoshiko and Asmo that were framed and hanging up. He looked at Hoshiko when they walked out. "Why do you only have pictures of you and Asmo up?" He asked with a pout.

"Those are the pictures we took together so he could give me something dear so that I could summon him."

Mammon nodded and looked back at the pictures.

Hoshiko walked over to him. "And the picture of the stars is Beel and Belphie's stars."

"They gave you their stars? Really?"

Mammon chuckled. "So... where's what I gave you?"

Hoshiko nodded then pointed to the framed script. "Levi gave me his script of 'With Me' that Simeon signed."

Hoshiko then pulled an old, leather bound book off the bookshelf. "Satan gave me the book that made him and Lucifer switch bodies, all the magic has faded from it now."

Hoshiko picked up their keys and shook them so that they jingled. "It comes with me everywhere I go."

Mammon grinned wide. "So I'm always with you?"

Hoshiko nodded. "You and Lucifer."

"Lucifer?" Mammon asked with a raised eyebrow.

Hoshiko held up their hand and showed him the ring of light. "Kinda can't take it off... unless we want the three realms to descend into chaos that is." They chuckled nervously.

Mammon nodded.

Hoshiko fidgeted with their hands, feeling awkward now. "So... ready to go to the mall?"

Mammon perked up. "Yes!"

Hoshiko smiled and grabbed their purse. "Come on, let's go."

They left the apartment together and took an Uber to the mall.

"That Uber thing is pretty cool," Mammon commented as they walked into the mall, hands in his pockets. "A lot easier than hailing a cab."

"And cheaper!" Hoshiko chimed.

Mammon grinned. "That's always good." He looked around the mall. "So, where to first?"

"I'm thinking Abercrombie and Fitch is good a spot for your style and my price point."

Mammon chuckled. "Sounds good, lead the way."

Hoshiko hooked their arm through his and led them through the mall.

Mammon grinned, more than happy to have Hoshiko on his arm.

As they shopped, Mammon seemed to turn back to his normal self more and more.

Hoshiko felt a lot better as Mammon's spirits lifted.

"Are you having fun?" Hoshiko asked him.

"I'm always having fun when I don't have to pay for stuff," he told them with a grin.

Hoshiko snorted but grinned. "Of course." The metaphysical store caught their eye from across the way. "Let's get you some demonius to have with dinner." They headed toward the metaphysical store.

Mammon raised an eyebrow as he followed them. "Uh, that's just one of those hokey chakra stores not a real magic store."

Hoshiko grinned at him. "Just follow me."

When they walked in, Hoshiko waved at the girl at the counter. "Hey Selene, we're going in the back."

Selene smiled at Hoshiko but eyed Mammon suspiciously.

Hoshiko grinned. "Selene, this is Mammon. Mammon, Selene; she's a witch."

Selene's eyebrows shot up at Mammon's name. "/The/ Mammon?" She asked with a grin.

Mammon grinned at Selene. "In the flesh!"

"Wow, I never thought I'd meet one of the seven rulers of hell."

Hoshiko made a face. "Selene, I have pacts with all of them. I was bound to bring one of them in here at some point."

"Yeah, but with my luck I thought it would've been on my off day."

Hoshiko chuckled and shook their head. "Like I said, we're going in the back."

Selene nodded. "Okay! It was nice to meet you Mammon ~"

Mammon grinned at her. "Always good to meet a fan."

Hoshiko rolled their eyes and pulled Mammon into the back room. They held their hand out parallel to their chest and a magical circle appeared around their hand. Hoshiko turned their hand to the right and a glamour barrier parted, revealing a lounge and a counter where true magical items could be bought.

Mammon grinned at Hoshiko. "That's pretty cool."

Hoshiko smiled wide and motioned for him to walk in.

Mammon walked in and Hoshiko followed him, resetting the barrier once they were both inside.

Mammon looked around briefly before plopping down on one of the couches.

Hoshiko shook their head and headed straight to the counter. "Hey Camille," Hoshiko greeted the girl behind the counter.

Camille smiled at Hoshiko. "Did you bring in who I think you brought in?" She asked with a grin.

Hoshiko chuckled. "Yeah. The Great Mammon, Avatar of Greed."

"Is he just... here, or are you doing something...?"

Hoshiko raised an eyebrow, suspicious of her attempt at a question. "What is that supposed to mean?"

"Like... are you two doing a ritual or something?"

"Uh, no. We're just hanging out. We're actually friends. I will say, having a pact makes it convenient to see each other though."

Camille nodded. "I bet. So what did you come in here for?"

"Some demonius, a phoenix feather, and..." she eyed the pre-made potions on the back shelf.

Camille watched them briefly before grabbing a small vial full of a shimmery purple liquid and setting it down in front of Hoshiko. "This is the one you want," she told them with a smirk.

"How do you know what I want?"

"Because demons can and have gotten humans pregnant, and it's not fun, especially if it's not expected."

Hoshiko felt their face get hot. "T- that's not-!" They tried to protest but they couldn't quite find the words.

"Oh wait, I know you're genderfluid but I thought you had female bits, am I wrong?" Camille asked, suddenly embarrassed.

Hoshiko shook their head. "No, you're right..." They were even more embarrassed than Camille.

Camille breathed a sigh of relief. "Good. But seriously, you want this one," she reiterated as she tapped the top of the bottle.

Hoshiko made a face. "I dunno..."

"How about you take this one for free, as a trial sample?" She asked but she still put it in a bag along with the other things Hoshiko had asked for.

Hoshiko sighed, still red in the face. "Fine." They had just handed their credit card off to Camille when they felt Mammon's demonic aura flare up behind them. Hoshiko whipped around, suddenly fearful that they had missed some attack, but that feeling quickly changed to some awful mix of anger and jealousy when they saw Mammon flaunting his demon form for a gaggle of witches who had gathered around him while their back was turned.

"I'm gonna kill him," Hoshiko muttered under their breath before marching over to him and grabbing one of his wings.

Mammon growled and whipped around to see who dared to touch him.

You could tell who the experienced witches were by the ones who didn't flinch at his show of aggression.

Hoshiko stood their ground and glared at him.

Mammon's face immediately softened when he saw that it was Hoshiko. "Oh, hey... why'ya pullin' on me?"

Hoshiko just stared at him for a moment, trying to decide on what to say. "Change back," they demanded, their voice eerily calm. "We're leaving."

"Oh, we're done shopping?" He asked, mildly oblivious to their change in demeanor.

"Yes," they responded as they took their card and bag from Camille.

"Oh okay." He changed back to his human form.

Hoshiko walked over and parted the barrier so they could leave.

Mammon headed out.

"Bye Mammon~" a few of the witches called after him.

Mammon turned back to smile and wave at them. "Bye!"

"Oh my god, let's just go," Hoshiko nagged.

Mammon looked at them. "Yeah, yeah. I'm going." He walked out.

Hoshiko followed him out, resetting the barrier as they left.

Hoshiko was absolutely silent until they got back to the apartment; a deadly aura seemed to emanate from them.

Mammon, who had felt death auras many a times, didn't try to talk to Hoshiko until they got back into the apartment.

Part 1, 2, 3

#Mammon protection squad #obey me #obey me fanfic #obey me shall we date #obey me mc #my obey me mc #hoshiko higure #obey me Mammon #mammon x oc #mammon x mc #mammon fanfic

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botanyshitposts · 5 years

Note

pls explain the news in laymans terms 😭

okay lads buckle up, this is gonna be a long one. the paper is “A phylogenomic analysis of Nepenthes (Nepenthaceae)” from Murphy et al. i’m gonna link it here, and i encourage anyone interested to read it for themselves and draw their own conclusions, but otherwise i’m gonna give an overview as i understand it.

if you do not want to see 394023 words of in-depth carnivorous plant genetics content you should start scrolling now.

so. Nepenthes is a carnivorous plant family colloquially known as ‘asian pitcher plants’ or ‘monkey cups’. it’s one of the largest carnivorous plant families in the world, and without a doubt one of the most diverse, but we’ll get to that in a minute. these plants have pitchers that fill with fluid and digest bugs alive (important note in terms of nep anatomy 101: unlike venus fly traps or sundews, Nepenthes are passive traps and don’t move or curl up or anything, just sit and watch it all unfold). their range has china and korea on the northern edge, the tip of australia on the southern edge, and most of indonesia, the philippines, and most associated landmasses encompassed between. there are a couple outliers, but for the most part these are jungle plants with a vining growth form that weaves through trees and just….eats.

now, putting aside the fact that they’re carnivorous, one of the biggest points of Nepenthes is their diversity as a family. if anyone out there remembers the term ‘adaptive radiation’ from an intro bio class, Nepenthes is THE family of adaptive radiation. in addition to common species that grow everywhere in their range, these lads can be so specialized that there are species you can only find on single specific ridges on single specific mountains on single specific islands; as you can imagine, this makes them especially vulnerable to climate change, habitat destruction, and poachers.

the most obvious point of diversity here is the pitcher traps themselves: there are hundreds of different pitcher morphologies, ranging from special peristome adaptations to bizzare patterns and colorations to the addition of fang-like structures and symbiosis with bats, ants, and rodents. the list goes on. these lads are so specialized it’s unbelievable. one might think that, in terms of figuring out how these different species are related to each other, that it would be pretty obvious, since everything is so distinctive.

but there is a problem.

they fuck.

Nepenthes as a family is established to be one of the oldest carnivorous plant families, but the 200+ species identified over the years are suspected to be the result of very recent (in evolutionary time) modern radiation. one of the most common definitions of what a ‘species’ is that i see circulated is the idea that something is a species when it can no longer breed with another species, but it’s important to realize that this is one definition of what a ‘species’ is. in the case of Nepenthes, the knowledge that a bunch of scientists have decided they are different does not stop them.

it was hoped, with the advent of DNA testing, that maybe we would be able to assemble a semi-full map of how all these species relate to one another and how they came to be (a phylogenetic tree), but as it turns out the lads fuck so much between themselves and other Nepenthes species that figuring out how they became the species they became, even with DNA, is extremely difficult. ‘breeding complexes’ not too different than what i wrote about in the fern sex triangle post a while back are a very nepenthes-esque thing to have happen.

a quote from the paper:

“These uncertainties are not unique to Nepenthes but various factors make them important in this group: the frequency of natural hybrids and apparent lack of intrinsic reproductive barriers between taxa, the extent of intraspecific morphological variation and the reliance by taxonomists on the pitchers.”

in short, these plants have no control. they are not practicing safe sex. they are living lavishly in their own tropical jungle paradise with as much hedonism as a plant can muster as botanists try to connect how one pitcher might be the evolutionary origin of another while somehow all the pitchers are either functionally the same or radically different.

which brings us to this study. when people compare DNA, they’re rarely comparing the entire genome (although that can be done), but rather they identify a set of consistently mutable genes that are present across an entire subsection of life, and look at just those genes at just their locations on various chromosomes. instead of trying to find a couple genes fit to compare plants across the Nepenthes genus, as past studies did, this study took and applied a set of DNA probes developed previously to compare 353 genes present across the entire subkingdom of flowering plants.

as you can imagine, this provides a significantly larger set of data to work with. sure, it’s not perfect and this take will need more research to confirm (basing the entire Nepenthes phylogenetic tree off of a single study is a dangerous game, especially when things are so saucy in the forest), but it’s significantly better than the results past Nepenthes phylogenetic analyses generated, where researchers were able to see some general outlines and attempted to sort the genus into a few groups, but were ultimately unable to see where species themselves split and what their relations to each other were (you know, because of all the sex).

so. this paper:

-obtained samples from 151 different Nepenthes species from different collectors, herbariums, and conservatories. for those familiar with Nepenthes as a hobby, Andreas Wistuba might ring a bell; he contributed some samples from his plants to this study. otherwise, the KEW botanical gardens is more ubiquitously recognized donor.

-for more common species, more samples were taken from different places to account for different populations.

-another quote from the paper that i think is interesting on multiple levels: “We also include two unpublished species, N. sp. Anipahan and N. sp. taminii. The former, from Palawan, is discussed by McPherson (2011) and may be a synonym of N. leonardoi. The latter is an undescribed species from Sumatra that has been circulating amongst Nepenthes growers and resembles N. rhombicaulis but is perhaps distinguished by its leaves. Also sampled here are N. echinostoma Hook. f., a commonly collected plant usually considered a variant of N. mirabilis, and a sample we liken to N. angustifolia Mast., a species usually considered synonymous with N. gracilis.”

i mentioned earlier that previous molecular analyses done by other people were able to see a general outline but weren’t able to see anything more distinct; the results of this paper for the most part confirm these general outlines, which means that if nothing else we have strong support for the relationship the entire Nepenthes family has to other, more closely related plant families, which the paper resolves in this tree:

note that the above tree describes the family’s relation to various other families, followed by ‘Nepenthes clade 1′ and ‘Nepenthes clade 2′. these two clades contain most of the Nepenthes genus sampled; the six species shown in red, according to the results, are considered sister species to the entire rest of the genus, separate from those two clades.

now, what personally gets me the most excited here is the plant they confirmed as being the sister species to that subsection of sister species, effectively making it the outgroup to like, literally everything else: Nepenthes pervillei, from the republic of seychelles.

yeah. you know back at the beginning of this response when i said there were some exceptions to the Nepenthes habitat range? this would be one of those exceptions. the republic of seychelles is off the coast of africa, closer to madagascar than indonesia. to be fair, there are also Nepenthes along the eastern coast of madagascar, but because Nepenthes is so strongly geographically coordinated (this paper goes on to describe clades literally just named after the countries they’re in) this is pretty goddamn cool. this species got cut off in the middle of the ocean and now looks…….like a Nepenthes, but just off enough to be kind of weird (the biggest thing i realized just…staring at pictures of it is that it doesn’t seem to have wings down the front, which to be fair isn’t required of neps but makes it look super naked as a result). forbidden uncanny valley Nepenthes cast from the fuck zone. i love it.

the other main outgroup species (the sister species to all the ‘typical’ asian species, specifically, aka clades 1 and 2) they identified was Nepenthes danseri, which is native to waigeo island in indonesia (that’s in the fuck zone, for those keeping score at home) and, i would argue, has the same kind of thin-peristomed, simple-ribbed kind of look to it that pervillei has, but it definitely looks more traditionally Nepenthes-like.

now, with that, we really get into the meat of their results here. this is the full phylogenetic tree with all tested species laid out according to their results:

i….have no idea if tumblr will let you zoom in on this pic so im just gonna write down some notes.

the color-coded names on the tree to the right match their respective habitats down in the map on the bottom left, which is neat, but it’s also interesting to see how some of these species have apparently been fucking between islands. i know this is gonna be low-res but look at this swath at the top, some of what they’ve identified as being ‘clade 1′ (mostly common, widespread lowland species):

- man………. i mean, first of all i wanna point out the lone bicalcarata branches at the top #representing, having somehow maintained their chastity despite being the sexiest of the Nepenthes.

- hookeriana being the outgroup for ampullaria seems to fit well by adorable chubbiness factor alone.

- one thing that seems weird but not totally out of character is that halfway down in yellow we see mirabilis in multiple populations in yellow, then down from there a little ways we see different mirabilis populations in green and purple and red, all but N. echinostoma and N. orbiculate, which are both outgroups. i knew it was a common species, but for some reason i wasn’t expecting it to be like………that (there’s an entire second section of them in red just below where this screenshot cuts off). like, good for them.

going down the main tree, we get into clade 2, the more specialized highland species, which are always very exciting.

there’s my personal favorite, N. villosa:

not surprised at N. edwardsiana’s relation, because how else would you be able to achieve such absolutely enormous teeth, but N. macrophylla surprises me. it’s got good teeth, but both edwardsiana and villosa are like, TEETH, you know? i guess it makes sense that it split from villosa, though.

moving from that, VERY glad that the littlest known lad, N. argentii, made it on here. i know i’ve talked about argentii on this blog before, as the Nepenthes species that was so tiny the paper describing it’s discovery warned that population counts could be skewed by the plants ‘hiding under bushes’. their tinyness, which kills me every time i look at an image of them, is somehow weird in terms of being related to N. graciliflora, which is…..pretty normal sized. same with N. armin. makes me wonder how the hell they got so tiny.

of course we can’t leave out the group with the largest currently known species, N. attenboroughii. the hilarity of the smallest and largest Nepenthes species being a single clade apart, if not very distantly diversified down their respective evolutionary lines, is not lost on me.

N. palawanensis is a chonker, but i gotta say i wasn’t expecting it to be the sister species to the one and only megachonker, the plant literally famous for its sheer chonk. imagine being that overshadowed by your sibling.

on a more general note– the paper noted this, too –it’s interesting to see how the lowland species seem to be happier about jumping islands and being promiscuous than the highland species, which seem to clump together by location. i guess it’s not surprising, knowing how specialized some of these highland species can be; villosa, for example, is native to a single side of a single mountain, and is positioned so that the populations are hit by cool wind coming up from the sea. still, lowland species need hot and humid environments, and can be just as picky. it’s gotta be a matter of isolation.

anyway, there’s probably more i could talk about here but…man there’s a lot of data. the paper goes in-depth with how they constructed the more problematic branches, and trouble they had with some over others, confirming that we shouldn’t take this phylogenetic tree as 100% correct; things will almost certainly change or become clearer as more research is done, and phylogenetic trees in particular are known for being constructed and reconstructed time and time again.

still though, it’s like…to see these relationships at this resolution for the first time is just really fucking cool, man. this isn’t even all the species. i remember i went to a carnivorous plant conference two years ago now, and there was a lecture by researchers attempting to untangle the phylogeny of Nepenthes and coming up short aside from a low-resolution tree of some of the more major species and the relation of Nepenthes to other families, their science blocked by the sheer feral chadness on display in the tropical jungles encompassing the land between china and australia. like, i really just want to take a moment, as an end note, to appreciate that these plants fucked so much in the past couple million years that it took multiple major advancements in technology and the examination of hundreds of genes just to get an approximate look at the phylogeny. like, that’s an Isoetes level power move and im not over it

#Anonymous #long post #me reading a new nepenthes paper: *sight narrows into a tunnel* *writes for two hours*#nepenthes #carnivorous plants #asks #plont asks

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teddibearclub · 4 years

Text

my favourite things kpop boys have said:

eric: a long time ago i dressed up as a princess but now i want to dress up as-

kevin: a prince?

eric: no, geodude from pokémon

kevin: i don’t know what a het is

20 seconds of silence

jisung (skz): gay!

kevin: van gogh was found wigless and shook in his grave, thank you for that narrative.

mark lee: i feel like the possibility of those possibilities being possible is just another possibility that can possibly happen

johnny: i was thinking we could also go for like frozen yogurt

mark completely changing the tone straight faced: oh i’m not a yogurt fan, i can’t eat yogurt

johnny: no it’s like ICEcream

mark: i know

johnny: ok nevermind

mark lee to a random person : excuse me do you know this song “party on the city where the heat is on all night in the beach where the beat is on, welcome to miami”

the person:

mark lee: i’m sorry ok

*later*

mark lee: hey do you guys know this song-

mark lee: wow this country music is making this texas feel more like texas, even more like texas

mark lee: my fingers aren’t mine

jaemin: then i’m jin ramyum

dream: oiiiiii

renjun: i feel like dying

dream:

renjun: what’s wrong?

mark lee to a squirrel: check this out hey buddy aw come on man waaeyay

mark: woah it’s actually different from santa monica beach because i always thought that all beaches were the same and it actually isn’t

johnny: that’s horrible how you think that

mark: i mean like in a way you know it’s just like water and a shore and then sand but now it’s different

renjun: in the case that this works out for me, i am going to go to the moon. i don’t want to live on this earth.

ten: *does a cute thing then looks at renjun* why are you looking at your hyung like that?

renjun: i’m scared

doni: can you do something like jeno did?

renjun: i don’t really understand korean that well

doni: suddenly? chenle, is there anything you can do?

chenle: i don’t understand...

*renjun and chenle high five*

renjun: i have an animal that i’m afraid of and i don’t have plans on revealing what it is

johnny: why? what animal is it

jeno: tell us!

renjun: it’s humans

renjun on weekly idol: i’m confident in korean

renjun anytime he doesn’t want to answer something: i’m not good at korean

renjun fluent in korean: korean is hard for me! :)

mr fluent in korean speaking in korean: i can’t speak korean though?

renjun to dream who know he’s fluent: i’m bad a korean you know

mark: we gathered up together in the early morning it’s nice

renjun: as we’ve been together since early in the morning, i’m tired of being together now

renjun: emergency exits remind me of nctzens

jeno: *spitting out his water*

renjun: today though such a fun program like idol room, i learned that the world is a cold and unfair place

mark: there’s so much generation difference between us

renjun pushing mark away: let’s keep our distance then

renjun: i wonder what it’ll be like when i become an adult, im worried i feel like i’ll have to be more responsible, but seeing mark.. there isn’t much to it, i mean he can drink now but that’s about it

yukhei: you see i’m born in the 80s so i don’t know about slang

renjun pointing to kun: what about that guy over there?

kun: *ready to murder*

sicheng: the scene where i appear-

renjun: YOU IMMEDIATELY DISAPPEAR

renjun to jeno: because you are even less fun than usual i am giving you this award

renjun: we’re so boring so fans must be pressing all the hearts out of boredom

renjun: so if i don’t win i have to pair up with the mc?

mc: yes

renjun: i should pull myself together then

mc: why are you so good at korean?

renjun: i’m not good at korean

doni: *grabs renjun because he’s a lying brat*

renjun: *happily showing the camera he is being attacked* why aren’t you fixing my clothes?

doni: *fixing renjuns shirt because he’s a king and it’s what he deserves*

renjun after losing every game: this is like we’re in a movie maybe there will be a big plot twist at the end

doni: there won’t

renjun: as expected from a biased pair of people

renjun and chenle talking

jisung: what are you guys saying?

renjun: if you want to know learn the language

mark: do we get a prize?

mc: we have an expensive gift prepared

renjun: now it’s worth doing!

chenle: wow my chinese is so good

renjun: nice! did you forget you’re chinese?

i cant remember who said this probably renjun: i think nct dream, you can say we are kind of a fun team, but when i look at the hyung team i feel frustrated, please gain strength hyungs

mark: ive been wearing the shoes renjun made, they’re very comfortable

renjun: i didnt make them comfortable i just drew on them

renjun: a spoiler? what if i get fired from the company?

donghyuck: get fired? us? get fired? lmao

kevin: jacob i’ve been waiting forever for this moment

jacob: waiting for what? waiting for me?

kevin: honey i see you everyday

jacob: the scent of autumn, the scent of leaves

kevin: we’re indoors but okay

kevin: kid, mama’s gotta dance

renjun: *speaks in chinese*

jeno: wow you are so good at chinese, did u study it a lot?

renjun: yes

ten: oh this is not icecream this is butter

johnny: there’s this thing too where girls call guys as “oh daddy” but not like a real dad

tens birthday note to johnny: i wanna have xxxx with you fatass! love you forever darling

mark: i don’t think we should read that

donghyuck: a six-pack is too heavy for me, so now i only walk around with a one-pack. i leave the other five behind.

nct: goodnight

mark: don’t let the bed bugs bite

ten: open your eyes

nct: NO CLOSE YOUR EYES! CLOSE YOUR EYES!

johnny: my dad knew i likes beans so like he was playing with beans, and he dropped it and then he dropped it on a rock and it slid and then hot water started falling, and then coffee

host: wow your english is really good

johnny: i’m from chicago

johnny: i chose fried mackerel, mackarol, mackarel, the fish, mackerol, mackerel, mackarel *cute shrug*

jungwoo: trip to space

johnny: you wanna go home?

mark: that’s where he came from

jungwoo: my friends are there

mark: that’s his home town

jacob: i cant compare to him so-

kevin: it’s okay jacob everyone’s an artist in their own way

kevin: fun fact i used to do gymnastics

jacob: SAME

kevin: oh really!!

jacob: and then i quit :)

chenle: talking to reporters-

jisung: harry potter

jisung in excitement: ha-REPORTER

kevin in distress: jacob you have no beyoncé in your library, what is this? WHAT IS THIS!?

jacob: no i respect her i love her music

kevin making a scissor motion with his hands: you know what this is? scissors. to cut our friendship.

jacob: why are you exposing me like that

kevin: i’m just kidding, if beyoncé can forgive jayz i can forgive you jacob”

kevin: jacob came back from canada with a suitcase full of cereal

donghyuck: oh canada, this is korea man don’t forget okay.

mark lee: wait chips means fries right?

kevin: sam if you’re out there i’m still waiting for you to *cough* TEXT ME BACK

jacob: and jeff i love you

tbz: awww

kevin: mY nAmE jEfF

chenle pointing at a roller coaster: do you wanna ride?

jisung: hell no i’ll die

chenle: jisung which sunglasses are better these or the other ones

jisung: both are mediocre

doyoung: that’s a difficult question because i don’t read

fan: comments something about renjun stealing their heart

renjun: i don’t know how to react to these types of comments... why are you all like this? everyone let’s self reflect...

renjun: pretend we’re close in front of the camera

donghyuck: we’re supposed to be close friends right? this is going to be hard

ten: xiaojun stop being dramatic challenge

taemin from shinee: *singing replay by shinee*

yukhei: that’s not it

yukhei *showing taemin from shinee how to sing a shinee song*

mark: *dying in the background*

bambam talking about got7’s first album: you know the time we thought we was so cool, we was so good, but then we look back and it’s like what the hell

jae: would you rather wake up in someone’s body or wake up without being able to communicate?

brian: i’d rather not communicate

jae: then you can’t sing

brian: i’m fine with that, my parents gifted me this body

day6: ??? the fuck ???

sungjin: what if you wake up in JYPs body one day?

day6:

day6: what about it. i love it. that’s would be lovely

jae: we love you boss 👍

jae: what would you forget?

dowoon: i ate some ants as a kid

wonpil: i ate pill bugs

sungjin: i ate soap

wonpil: everyone’s eaten soap, what about crayons?

jae: crayons???

wonpil: they looked delicious when i was a kid

brian: i’ve eaten them

sungjin: they must’ve tasted good

dowoon: *stuffing marshmallows in his mouth*

brian: no you can do more STOP CHEWING PUT IT IN

dowoon muffled: i think i’m going to die

brian: you think you’re going to die??

brian smiling: sorry he might die , he might choke to death

jae: *reaching over to stuff more marshmallows in dowoons mouth*

brian gets a dare to sing everything he says: dare or dare~

dowoon: oooowwooo~

brian: this is my dare don’t take it from me~

q: can you name my bird

renjun: ...if i say to name it “bird” will u want to hit me

#this was not meant to post #im screaming #i hate tumblr sm #if im editing something in my drafts shouldnt the button say save to draft not post?#it always had before #@ tumblr stop updating to make your app worse #im tired #and i hate it here #im deleting this app #i cant take it anymore

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sourwolfstories · 5 years

Note

Do know any good age difference fics? Thank you & I love your blog ❤️

One life stand by Vendelin

Stiles is used to selling himself to make ends meet. But it’s getting harder to keep those ends meeting, and there’s only so much of Stiles to go around. Until a too-fancy car shows up in his neighborhood, and he meets Derek Hale.

All Derek wants is Stiles’s time, someone to stay on his arm for events and smile for the cameras. It’s the easiest job Stiles has ever had, the best-paying one he’s ever had, and he’s more than happy to sign up.

Derek is everything and nothing Stiles expects him to be, with his tailored suits, sharp mind and his quiet way of caring. But it’s just a job and Stiles never meant to fall in love.

I Just Wanna Be With You Every Day by Brego_Mellon_Nin

When his best friend’s son barrels into the kitchen only dressed in a pair of skintight jeans, lean but defined torso on display, Derek knows he’s truly and utterly fucked. Not only is the kid barely eighteen, but he also happens to be the Sheriff’s only son.

Derek makes a vow to himself that he will not seek Stiles out and he’ll get this thing under control.

Multidisciplinary Studies by DevilDoll

Stiles is a slightly-older-and-very-sexy librarian and Derek has a thirst for knowledge.

Salty Sweet by secondstar

Derek works at a porn store. One day, Stiles comes in asking all sorts of TMI questions about different toys. That’s where it all starts.

One Door Closes by KouriArashi

Derek knows that Stiles is too young for him, but Stiles doesn’t agree. Eight years after Derek rejects him due to the age gap, they meet again where Derek has settled in Wyoming as a ranch hand, and Stiles is the new deputy, and still pissed as hell about the way Derek turned him down. Things don’t go as either of them planned. (I’m sure a million fics have been written about older Stiles and Derek, but this one has cowboy Derek, does that help?)

Ruin Me (Take Me Down) by xLostDreamsx

Driving his teachers and his Dad crazy with his incessant trouble making, Stiles reluctantly accepts young college student Derek Hale as his ‘babysitter’, his Dad misguidedly believing he will be a positive role model to help guide him back to the straight and narrow.

Unfortunately for the Sheriff, he isn’t quite aware that Derek isn’t quite as up-standing as he appears and at the hands of his smart, young, manipulative son with a head full of ideas, his rather weak moral codes soon crumble.

Or put simply, Derek gives in to Stiles and things get hot and heavy pretty fast.

A Thousand and One Firsts, But Only One Forever. by TheLoyalFriend

When Stiles was eight, he had panic attacks. He would sleep walk, block by block going further until he finally reached the woods.

When Derek was eleven he found some brat in the woods, asleep on a rock.

They fall in love.

Be the Life of the Party by Mimiminaj

His father’s face suddenly turned serious again.

“He is twenty four though, son. I don’t care if his smile shits rainbows and his laugh births puppies. You are his employee. It would be bad to cross those lines during your first job. Or ever.”

Stiles’ face hit the table.

“I hate my life,” he moaned.

Scott laughed cheerfully. “Don’t worry sheriff! It sounds to me like the entire cinema staff feels the same. Stiles doesn’t stand a chance with Derek!”

“Scratch that,” Stiles mumbled into the wood. “I hate you two more.”

Or – Stiles starts working at the movie theater. His boss is Derek.

And We Only Saw Half the Ballet by meglimeg

Stiles is one of those, ‘love or hate’ kinds of students. The smart-ass, obnoxious, loud-mouthed sort of kid that a teacher will either love to teach, or hate to teach. He tends to be a hit with the older teachers and the younger teachers; the ones who are either young enough to relate to him or old enough to appreciate how different he is from the other students. It’s the ones in the middle, the ones who feel like they deserve his respect but never seem to be able to earn it, that hate him. Finstock and Harris could write sonnets about being pissed off with Stiles.

But basically, everyone has their side. Love or hate. No in-betweens.

Except for Derek. Derek’s in between. Predictably.

Put Down in Words by paintedrecs

“Oh,” Stiles said, his voice coming out low and breathy, “fuck me.”

“I don’t think that’s on the syllabus, but we can check to see if there’s a spot open in any of his classes,” Scott said, grinning.

“This isn’t an actual professor, though,” Stiles insisted, unable to resist brushing his thumb over the sharp line of the man’s bearded jaw. He was laughing at something off-camera, the shot taken in three-quarters view, his coat collar casually rumpled and opened to reveal a sliver of a simple grey t-shirt. The whole thing was deliberately calculated to lend him a more accessible feel, and god help him, Stiles was falling for it.

When Stiles signed up for Dr. Hale’s intro to history class, he had two goals: knock out the credits his advisor was bugging him to complete before he graduated, and spend a few hours a week daydreaming about his sexy professor’s salt and pepper beard.

Derek, a few months away from turning forty and not sure when his life had started feeling so damn lonely, had never encountered someone like Stiles before. Bright-eyed, sharp-tongued, determined to throw Derek’s carefully cultivated world into disarray…and absolutely the last person Derek should be falling in love with.

Later, mate! by Smowkie

Derek looked at the time and sighed. One more hour until he could go pick up Alex and go home. It was Friday, and Fridays were their nights, so they were going to eat Chinese food and watch Beauty and the Beast for the thousand time and probably play a game together, and he couldn’t wait.

Someone knocked on his open door and he startled a little as he was pulled out of his head. Stiles smiled at him from the doorway.

”Hey, professor Hale,” he said.

”Mr Stilinski,” Derek said and tried to keep his smile professionally polite.

Every time he talked to Stiles he had to remind himself that he was his student, that while he was 18, and legal in that aspect, he was still ten years younger than Derek, Sheriff Stilinski’s son, and again, his student.

Gym Rats by i_am_girlfriday

Stiles spots Derek at the smoothie shop across the street from the gym early on a crisp April morning, it’s not even 7 AM yet. For some reason, and Stiles will deny it has anything to do with Derek in joggers, he decides that maybe this is the perfect chance to introduce himself.

It’s Always For You by S_Horne

There in the drawer lay an envelope which suddenly caught Stiles’ attention with its capitalized text. As he brought it closer for a better look his brain shut down for a second. That was his name. His name and his husband’s… Reading the top form with utter disbelief, Stiles pulled out the other pieces of paper with shaking hands and a heart that threatened to beat straight out of his chest.

“I won’t sign. I promise you right now, I’m not going to sign them.” When he got no reply but a shake of the head, his voice broke with his heart. “Please, don’t do this.”

Flowerwolf & Beacon Roots by alisvolatpropiis

Derek tries not to show his surprise, curiously hopeful, but still suspicious of Laura’s involvement. “Oh. How do you know my coffee order then?”

He grins. “The cute baristo knows your order, dude. All I had to do was ask for Grumpy Flower Guy’s usual.”

Derek huffs. “I’m not grumpy.”

“He says grumpily,” Stiles smirks, winking.

The sound of his own laughter surprises Derek, so yeah, okay, maybe Stiles has a point.

“Laura said that you weren’t really into dating,” Stiles goes on, “but that uh, you uh, well you know.” Stiles’ cheeks flush a very pretty ruddy pink under the scatter of beauty marks that Derek aches to taste. Stiles turns away, towards the cooler of roses, muttering to himself under his breath, which of course Derek can hear perfectly well. “Great freakin’ advice, Lydia, ‘just bring up sex and tell him you’re cool with having a one night stand,’ okay, sure, that worked fucking beautifully.”

“Okay.” The word is out of his mouth before Derek can even think about the consequences of saying it, something unusual for him. He wants Stiles however he can get him, it seems.

“Okay?” Stiles eyes are wide when he spins back to look at him.

“Yeah, okay. Let’s have sex.”

#answered #anonymous #sterek #sterek fic rec #sterek fanfic #sterek fanfiction #age difference

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thewritingstar · 4 years

Note

I would ask you 1-100 but that's a huge request and doubt you'll do it, UNLESS🤔🙃

UNLESS....

1. Name- Deanna or as everyone knows me, Star

2. Nationality- American

3. Age- 19

4. Birthday- April 5th

5. Zodiac sign (or your primal zodiac sign)- Aries

6. Gender- Female

7. Sexuality- Bi/Pan (im fine with either)

8. Your looks (add a picture or describe yourself)- Dark brown hair, greenish eyes and body of a 12 year old boy

9. What do you/did you study?- Animation

10. What’s your current job like?/What job would you like to have?- I work in an ice cream shop just as a job but i wanna be an animator or writer for shows

11. Your birth order- Youngest of 2

12. How many siblings do you have?- One

13. Do you have good relations with your family?- for the most part

14. How many friends do you have?- I would say I have about 8 close friends and then just a ton of other friends

15. Your relationship status- single but accepting applications

16. What do you look for in a SO?- usually a pulse and good hair

17. Do you have a crush?- kinda but also no

18. When did you have your first kiss?- haven't yet :(

19. Do you prefer serious and meaningful relationships or casual dating/one night stands?- prob meaningful

20. What are your deal breakers?- smoking and drugs and how they treat others

21. How was your day?- well i just woke up so i guess good.

22. Favourite food & drink- Raspberry iced tea/Vanilla Lattes and Chowmein or burgers

23. What position do you sleep in?- either on my side or stomach. Im usually curled up in a ball so prime cuddle position...just saying

24. What was your last dream about?- I think it was about cake..

25. Your fears- bugs and the overwhelming thought of me being a failure

26. Your dreams- being someone where others can be inspired by

27. Your goals- to live a life with no regrets (i know typical right?) but also have a successful career.

28. Any pets?- 2 doggos

29. What are your hobbies?- drawing, painting, writing, video games, reading

30. Any cool places in your area?- kinda but you gotta drive to them so not really

31. What was your last awkward situation?- me stuttering over my words at work

32. What is your last regret?- idk

33. Language/s you can speak- English and barely any French

34. Do you believe in astrological stuff? (Zodiac, tarot, etc.)- hell yeah

35. Have any quirks?- i can make a guinea pig noise and can stand on my head for a while.

36. Your pet peeves- having my neck being touched and mouth breathing

37. Ideal vacation- Any disney park

38. Any scars?- only mentally

39. What does your last text message say? “Shes being a big girl and taking 5 classes.”

40. Last 5 things from your search history- im to lazy to check but prob youtube or fics

41. What’s your [device] background?- Phone background is a painting from a museum and my computer is a bunch of Nintendo items

42. What do you daydream about?- being a voice actor or a pirate

43. Describe your dream home- one that looks like a castle

44. What’s your religion/Your thought about religion- I was raised Catholic but i really dont practice it anymore. I think it its a beautiful thing and alot of good comes from it, however i dont like it when it is used to harm others or defend evil people

45. Your personality type- So i took a test based on the 16 different ones and I am an Advocate type which apparetnly is very rare and less than one percent of the pop are it. https://www.16personalities.com/ heres the link if you wanna take it!

46. The most dangerous thing you’ve done- I used to suck on batteries as a child

47. Are you happy with your current life?- for the most part

48. Some things you’ve tried in your life- Snorkeling in Hawaii (which i almost died), Crystal Cave tour and donuts which i hate

49. What does your wardrobe consist of?- hoodies and graphic tees

50. Favourite colour to wear?- black

51. How would you describe your style?- comfortable and sometimes i look good

52. Are you happy with your current looks?- ye

53. If you could change/add something to your appearance - impossible or not - what would it be?- I want blue hair one day

54. Any tattoos or piercings?- have my ears and now my nose pierced but i do want tattoos in the future

55. Do you get complimented often?- usually for my hair and i find it happens often

56. Favourite aesthetic?- Gothic and pastel

57. A popular trend that you dislike- crop tops

58. Songs you’re currently obsessed with?- “Good Night Moon” by Go Radio

59. Song you normally wouldn’t admit you like.- My Little Pony and Sofia the First songs slap

60. Favourite genre?- pop punk or pop

61. Favourite artist/band/genre? -Panic!, Taylor Swift

62. Hated popular songs/artists?- I wouldn’t say hate but im not really a fan of Billie Ellish, maybe i need to sit down and really listen but its just not my jam. I think shes a cool person and i love watching her on tv and what she stands for. By i hate Drake and Chris Brown for sure.

63. Put your music on shuffle and list first 5- Head above Water, Happy when im sad, Love bug, Casual affair, I believe. So Avril Lavigne, Jonas Brothers and Panic!

64. Can you sing or play any instruments?- Im not the worst singer but im also not fantastic and i can’t play

65. Do you like karaoke?- sometimes

66. Own any albums?- like cds then yes

67. Do you listen to radio? What stations?- not anymore

68. Favourite movie/series?- Any disney or pixar

69. Favourite genre of movies/books/etc- YA like adventure books

70. Your fictional crush/es- oh here we go. Juvia and Gray (Fairytail), Catwoman, Danny Phantom, Captain Hook and Regina Mills and Henry (Ouat), Steve (stranger things), Riddler (gotham) and Molly Hooper (Sherlock) and prob more.

71. Which fictional character is you?- prob a mixture of Momo and Deku from My Hero and Honey from Ouran

72. Are you a shipper? List your otps, if so. Am I a shipper? ha. aight Gruvia, Nalu, Gajevy, Jerza, Kiribaku, Kacchacko, Todomomo, tododeku, LadyNoir and the love square, Captain Swan, Outlaw Queen, The powerpuff girls and the rowdyruff boys (respected partners) and like five thousand others

73. Favourite greek god?- Hades and Persephone

74. A legend from where you live that you like- literally nothing from where i live

75. Do you like art? What’s your favourite work or artist?- love art and i cant just pick one

76. Can you share your other social media?- i mean you can follow me on twitter at StarsnShortcake but all thats there is my shitty tweets and interactions with my friends and Voice actors lol

77. Favourite youtubers?- Mikes Mic, Macdoesit, Twamiz, Larri, Dan Howell, Amazing Phil, Jenna Marbles, Shane Dawson, Steph Inc, Garret Watts, and like a ton more

78. Favourite platform?- Tumblr or twitter

79. How much time do you spend on the internet?- too much

80. What video games have you played? Which one’s your favourite?- I love anything Nintendo

81. Your favourite books (manga also counts)- Kingdom Keepers, Suicide Notes and the Selection Series to name a few

82. Do you play board/card games?- Yes

83. Have you ever been to a night marathon in cinema?- nope

84. Favourite holiday- thanksgiving for the food

85. Are you into dramas?- ye

86. Would you use death note, if you had one?- haha ye

87. What changes would you make in the world, no matter how impossible, if you had the power to?- no racism, sexism, homophobia and legal marriage everywhere. Also that no one goes hungry and everyone has a nice place to live.

88. Could you survive a zombie apocalypse?- probably

89. If you had to be turned into a paranormal being, what would it be?- a hot demon

90. What would you want to happen to you after your death?- I turn into a goddess

91. If you had to change your name, what would be your pick?- ooo Celeste is a cool name

92. Who would you switch your life with for a week?- hmmm Tara Strong

93. Pick an emoji to be your tattoo- either the stars or the black heart or the fireworks

94. Write 3 things about yourself - only one of them must be true- Ive never eaten a chicken nugget, I can do the splits and I have cat

95. Cold or hot?- hot

96. Be a hero or be a villain?- oooooo um im a sucker for villains

97. Sing everything you want to say or rhyme?- Rhyme

98. Shapeshifting or controlling time?- Shape shifting, i could be a plant

99. Be immortal or be immune to everything aside from natural death?- bold of you to assume i would wanna live forever

100. ….. or …..?- :0

HOPE YOU ENJOYED THIS ANON CAUSE IT TOOK FOREVER.

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jensungf · 4 years

Note

OOO YOU THINK YOU KNOW??? hit me!! i wanna see if you guessed correct!! i do international studies with east asian studies n mandarin (lovely right skskksks) wayv really do be the craziest boys ever n like yeah! yuta big scorpio energy its wild hahahaha n its okay,! im not into dream as much yknow, everyone has their faves and all but theyre still my lil babies 🤧 also i love living alone!! its just so much more relaxed! n not with parents bugging you all the time -red skirt anon 💃

no hahahah but what u just said confirmed my suspicions altho i refuse to say it bc 😌 where’s they fun in the surprise now!! and that’s so cool omfg what made u want to go into that? and also i wanna learn mandarin so badly ahksjs pls teach me. and wayv r crackheads,, have u seen the shit they do on live oml and with yangyang istfg. and yuta has my respect 😖 and jaksjdks it’s okay dreamies still love u! and that’s so nice omfg to have ur own freedom but do u ever get scared 👁👄👁 cus i’m a big pu$$y and i def would not survive living alone. im incapable. even as the mom friend i have no common sense so u have my respect for being independent asf

#red skirt anon 💃#secret admirer💌#ur in the discord bub #leyna.asks

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waitineedaname · 5 years

Text

Lightning Round, Take Two

kudos to @notedchampagne for inspiring this!!

also on ao3

“This is a terrible idea.”

“It’ll be fine.”

“She’s going to hate me.”

“She’ll love you.”

“Love me? Love me?!” Karkat all but shrieked. “I don’t know if you’ve realized this, Dave, but I don’t exactly make the best impressions! In fact, one might even say I make the worst impressions! We’ll be lucky if she doesn’t end this visit early because she can’t stand being around me because I have the personality of a deep seated pimple!”

“Damn. The kind it hurts to pop?”

“Yes! The kind of pimple that never forms a head and settles on your upper lip so it hurts every time you move your mouth! That’s what my personality is like: persistent, painful, and pus-filled!”

“The three P’s.” Dave mused, and Karkat shot him a scowl. “C’mon man, don’t sell yourself short. You’re like a blackhead at the worst.”

“Don’t pander to me, Strider.” Karkat grumbled and crossed his arms, but he didn’t complain when Dave slung his arm over his shoulders. “I still think this would go much better without me.”

“Nah, dude, trust me, this is the best option. I mean, best case scenario, if I did this by myself, she’d be like ‘omg do u have a bf’ and I’d be like ‘yeah’ because that’s part of what I’m tryna do here, tell folks about us, but then she’d want pictures even though she’s definitely met you, and then I’d have to show her all those cute pictures I took of you when you weren’t looking, and I know you don’t want that.”

“You what?”

“You didn’t hear that.”

Karkat rolled his eyes and leaned a little closer into Dave’s side, eyes tracing the little carapacian homes they were walking by. Dusk was falling, much to his relief; they both had to make compromises when they realized their species operated at different times of day, but he still avoided leaving the hive when the sun was glaring and ready to burn him to a crisp. Dave probably could’ve flown them all the way to Roxy and Calliope’s house, but Karkat hated making him carry him that far (Dave always insisted he wasn’t that heavy, but the strain in his voice never escaped Karkat’s notice), so they were walking the last few blocks. Karkat had a sneaking suspicion Dave was fine with walking because he was trying to delay the inevitable. He was nervous, if the way his fingers were tapping on Karkat’s upper arm or the way he kept clenching and unclenching his jaw said anything. Karkat sighed and unfolded his arms to wrap one around Dave’s waist.

“You don’t have anything to worry about, you know.” He said, surprising Dave into looking down at him.

“What? Who said I’m worried? You’re the one who’s been bitching the whole evening.”

“Because I want to make a good impression on your weird paradox ancestor, shit for brains. I’m saying you don’t need to be worried about coming out to her.” He met Dave’s eyes through his shades, something he’d gotten good at over the sweeps. “Of all fucking people, she’ll be the most fine with it. That’s why you’re telling her first, right?”

“Yeah, I know, it’s just-” Dave sighed and looked away. He was better than he used to be, but holding eye contact was still hard for him, “It’s a big deal, you know? I mean, Rose probably figured it out from living in a confined space with us, and Dirk kinda got it out of context clues, but this is a first using the big B-word.”

“She’ll be fine. And if she isn’t, I’ll tear her apart and at least give her a reason to hate your boyfriend besides my shit-awful personality.”

“Aw, babe, I dunno whether to be flattered you’d attack my mom like a feral raccoon or bummed that you’re trashin’ yourself.”

“How about we compromise, and I’ll stop shit-talking myself if you stop stressing yourself out about this.”

“...Deal.”

“Good. Because I think that’s her house.”

“Oh shit.”

The two of them stopped just outside the elaborate building the carapacians had offered Roxy and Calliope back when they’d first arrived in the middle of Earth C society, both of them brimming with anxiety despite their reassurances. Karkat almost thought Dave was going to say this was too much for him and turn around and fly home, but he unwrapped himself from Karkat’s arm and instead held his hand to walk up to the front door and knock.

“Just a sec!” Roxy’s voice rang out from somewhere inside, and a few seconds later, the door opened to reveal her smiling face. “Davey!” She squealed and launched herself at him, hugging him tightly. Dave, to his credit, adapted quickly and let go of Karkat’s hand to hug her back.

“Sup, Rox.”

Roxy pulled away from Dave to turn towards Karkat, who instinctively took a half step back. She noticed and laughed. “Don’t worry, I’m not gonna hug you if you don’t wanna. Is a fistbump cool?”

“I don’t know if I would call anything a certain red asshole harangued me with in the early years of our friendship ‘cool’, but it is acceptable.” That made Roxy laugh, and he gave her a light fistbump.

“Karkat, bro, I can’t believe you’re just calling me uncool in front of my mom. What the fuck. What is this betrayal.” Dave shook his head, but he already seemed more relaxed.

“Dave, I dunno how to break this to you, but you’re related to me ‘n Dirk.” Roxy tried to adopt a sympathetic expression despite her grin. “You’ve got dork running through your veins.”

“Goddamn. You’re tellin’ me I’ve got a genetic predisposition for this shit?”

“Yup. It’s chronic. Doctors everywhere’re rushing to write studies on our family to try and isolate the ‘cool-but-really-not-cool’ gene.”

“Let’s hope it’s not replicable in a lab or anything. I’m pretty sure Earth C can only handle four of us.”

“Ohmigod, can you imagine them trying to test it out. Little lab rats wearing shades and writing wizard fic. Holy shit.” Roxy gasped at her own idea, an unbelievably pleased look on her face.

“Oh my dick. Fuck ectobiology, this is the science I want to invest in.”

“Absolutely not.” Karkat interjected. “There’s already enough of you jackasses, I think I’d have an aneurysm if any more blond lunatics were running around.”

“Lol,” Karkat couldn’t believe Roxy just said that out loud, “You’re probably right. Are we gonna keep fucking around about cool mice on the doorstep, or do you guys wanna come in?”

She stepped aside to lead them inside and showed them to the living room. “Callie’s out picking up dinner. I would’ve made something since I invited you guys over for dinner, but living in the water apocalypse did not leave me with many cooking skills.”

“Hey, no shade here.” Dave shrugged, plopping down on the couch with Karkat at his side. “I don’t think I’d be able to work an oven if I tried. We’re a strictly take-out household. Hivehold? I dunno, but we’ve barely touched the kitchen in the week we’ve been here.”

“Excuse you, I made those Hot Pockets yesterday.” Karkat countered sharply.

“Yeah, and they were like 30% cooked, dude. You put them in the microwave for thirty seconds and then panicked.”

“Fuck you, I don’t see you doing much better! In fact, I distinctly remember you eating those frozen pizza pockets like a ravenous barkbeast! It was like you’d been locked in a cave with nothing to eat for half a sweep and my delicious plate of folded sauce treats were the only thing saving you from a miserable, malnourished death!”

“I mean, a Hot Pocket’s a Hot Pocket. I’m not gonna turn one of those fuckers down, who do you think I am.”

“I think you’re a wiggler with no sense of taste.”

“You eat bugs.”

“And you put ranch on your pizza! Bricks and glass houses, Dave!”

“Dude, do trolls even have that expression? Aren’t y’all light sensitive? Why would you have glass houses?”

“Newsflash, dipshit, I’ve lived in close proximity for the majority of the past two sweeps with an overflowing fountain of pop culture references and idioms and an uppity seer that likes to make things as convoluted and difficult to understand as possible. I picked up a few human phrases! Uh, no offense, Roxy.” Karkat added at the mention of Rose.

“None taken! I’m pretty sure she gets that from Dirk anyway.” Roxy waved him off. “Take it back to the ranch on pizza thing tho, do you really do that? Is this some earth delicacy I missed out on?”

“Oh fuck yeah, it rules. You gotta try it some time.” Dave nodded, excited to get someone else to try his food crimes.

“Imma have to take a pass on that.” Roxy said, crinkling her nose.

“Finally, someone with taste!” Karkat exclaimed, and Dave gently hit his shoulder.

“I am slowly workin’ through traditional earth food tho! Or at least as traditional as you can get here. That’s where we’re getting dinner from! There’s this human/troll fusion place that Callie and I like. I dunno how authentic it is, but it tastes good at least!”

“I mean, nothing on Earth C is super authentic, it’s all like human diet slightly to the left, but it’s edible.”

“Better than the garbage we alchemized on the meteor, at least.” Karkat agreed.

“God, the fucking buffalo wings debacle.” Dave and Karkat shuddered in unison. Roxy looked amused.

“You guys spent a lot of time together on the meteor, right? And now you’re living together?” Roxy asked, and they both nodded. She had a look in her eyes that was far too reminiscent of the look Rose got when she was gearing up to psychoanalyze someone, and Karkat was hit with a stroke of panic. “Sooo, I should prob’ly do a lightning round with you too, right? Since you’re important to Dave?”

The pair shared a look and Dave shrugged, appearing nonchalant despite the way he was anxiously picking at a loose string on his jeans. “Uh, I guess?” Karkat said, bracing himself.

“I’ll start easy, I promise!” Roxy drummed her fingers on her lips as if thinking. “Hm… you’ve got ‘cat’ in your name, do you like cats?”

Karkat made a face, thrown off by the question. “I guess? I never had one, but Nepeta was pretty fucking into them, and they seemed… fine. I can respect a meowbeast that just lazes around if it’ll leave me the fuck alone, but Nepeta’s lusus could’ve probably torn me to shreds, so…” He shrugged.

“Was Nepeta a friend from the game?” Roxy backpedaled the moment she saw Karkat’s face fall. “Oh shit, tender subject, sorry.” She worried her lip, looking for another question, then perked up. “Oh! What’s your sign? I know it’s Cancer from earth astrology and stuff, but what’s that mean for trolls?”

Karkat looked down at his chest and grimaced. “Fuck if I know, I don’t actually have a sign. I spent most of my life thinking this stupid thing meant precisely fuck all. I guess it’s a symbol of my ancestor? But I never really learned much about him since the empress always tried to erase his rebellion, and I thought that ancestor shit was highblood bullshit anyway. I guess now I know it’s not, but ugh, I could’ve happily gone my whole wretched life without meeting that douchebag.”

“We met his ancestor in the dream bubbles.” Dave explained. “Or I guess descendent? Since y’all are technically the post-scratch group? I never really understood that part.”

“Doesn’t fucking matter, he was a pretentious asswipe with his head so far up his nook it’s a wonder he was even audible, but oh god, was he audible alright.”

“Lmao, I kinda wanna meet this guy.” Roxy grinned.

“No you don’t.” Dave and Karkat said in unison, which made her laugh.

“I’ll take your word for it.” The mischievous look was back in her eyes. “Next question! Have you ever had your quadrants filled?”

Karkat almost choked. “What the fuck kind of question is that? That’s none of your fucking business!” He blustered. “My quadrants are private, and it’s my decision if I want to bring them up! Are all humans this fucking nosy or is it just the Lalondes?!”

“It’s just the Lalondes.” Dave said flatly.

“I just thought it’d be fair since I asked Dave that in our lightning round!” Roxy put her hands up in apology, but didn’t look particularly apologetic. “I was curious!”

Karkat was about to continue his rant about people feeling entitled to knowledge about virtual strangers’ quadrants, but the way Dave sat up and cleared his throat gave him pause.

“Actually, Rox,” Dave started, fidgeting a bit, “I never answered that question back on the lilypad.”

“Yeah, but that’s okay!” Roxy brushed him off. “I’m not gonna push you to answer something you’re not comfy with.”

“That’s the thing. I wanna answer you now, if that’s cool.”

“Oh!” Roxy’s eyes widened. “Of course that’s cool! That’s cooler than cool.”

Dave lifted an eyebrow, a smile pulling at his lips despite himself. “What’s cooler than being cool?”

“Ice cold!” Roxy shouted at the top of her lungs, and the two of them chanted “alright” about a dozen times while Karkat watched them in bewilderment. Humans, he thought. He’d never understand them.

“Okay, but for real tho,” Roxy said once they’d both gotten a handle on their giggles, “You wanted to say something?”

“Yeah.” Dave almost immediately looked anxious again, running his hands over his jeans. “So. You asked if I’d ever kissed anyone or-” He cleared his throat and the rest came out in a mumbled cough, “-been in love.”

Karkat held his breath, eyes flicking between Dave and a very focused Roxy.

“The, um. The answer to both of those questions is… yes? And I know you’re wonderin’ who, that’s like the next logical question, like if you ask someone if they’re hungry and they say yes, your next question is probably gonna be ‘what do you wanna eat’, unless you’re a total dick and just wanted to, I dunno, be aware of someone else’s hunger for your own sick pleasures and leave ‘em waiting like you’re some kinda sick torturer tryin’ to extract information out of a prisoner, like ‘hey are you hungry?’ ‘Yeah, I am, actually. I’ve been hanging from my ankles for a week now and I’d kill for some motherfucking KFC right now.’ ‘Interesting. Go fuck yourself.’ That’s not a very good interrogator, actually, he didn’t even try to get any information out of the guy except for the knowledge that he’s really craving some chicken, which is virtually useless, unless the interrogator is working for KFC’s competitor, like Popeyes out here tryna get the deets on their rival brands. Hey, do you think they’ve got a Popeyes anywhere on Earth C? Maybe we should start one, make a shit ton of money. Really boost the economy.”

“Dave.” Karkat cut him off before he could get too far from the topic, giving him a pointed look. “Were you actually going to say something important or were you going to just talk out of your deflated ass forever?”

“Hey man, you know you love my ass.”

“The point, Dave-!”

“Right right right.” Dave shook his head and took a deep breath before looking at Roxy again, who looked like she was might be putting things together already. “It’s Karkat. The answer to ‘who’, I mean. We’ve, uh. We’ve been dating since the meteor.”

Roxy’s whole face lit up. “Aw, congrats you guys! That’s really sweet!”

“Yeah.” Dave looked over at Karkat and gave him a tiny smile before looking a little apprehensive again. “I’d, uh, appreciate if you didn’t tell anyone though? I mean, the rest of the meteor crew probably knows because we spent… a lot of time together.”

“Most of that was platonic, though. A good two-thirds of it, at least.” Karkat countered.

“True, but they don’t know that. Far as they know, one day we were just two bros hanging out and watching movies and shit, then the next day, Vriska walks in to catch one of those bros taking a snooze on his other bro’s lap and falling off the couch the moment she announces her presence.”

“I’ll give you three fucking guesses which dumbass that was.” Karkat directed that at Roxy, and she snorted.

“Rude.” Dave nudged him. “But yeah, they’ve probably figured it out, but we haven’t officially told anyone. I haven’t even told anyone I’m, you know. Bisexual.”

“Wait, so I’m the first person you’ve told?” Roxy looked a little stunned.

“I- Yeah? I just thought you’d probably be a safe person to go to, especially since we don’t have any weird baggage like I might have with John and Jade, you’re just my alt-mom, which I guess does make things a little weird-”

“It’s a little weird, but it does mean you get a certified mom hug!” She interrupted, standing up.

“A mom hug? Dunno if I know what those are like.” Dave said, smiling a little.

“They’re like this, you big goober.” Roxy pulled him into a tight hug, pulling him down a little so he could put his head on her shoulder. “I’m proud of you, Davey. That’s a big deal, comin’ out and shit. I’m glad you felt like you could tell me.”

“...Thanks mom.” Dave’s voice was a watery mumble against her shoulder, but he seemed to have collected himself by the time they pulled away. Roxy immediately turned her sights on Karkat.

“Your turn! You’re family now, you can’t escape hugs anymore.”

“Ugh, you humans are so fucking tactile.” Karkat grumbled but resigned himself to Roxy’s affectionate squeeze.

“Hey man, don’t act like you’re not cuddly as hell. I have to pry you off of me with a crowbar to go take a piss sometimes. You should see this dude when he gets sleepy, Rox, it’s so fucking cute. Did you know trolls purr? It’s some kinda flushed noise or something and it’s the fucking best.” Dave seemed to already be relaxing now that the thing he’d been dreading was over with.

“That’s private!” Karkat hissed, embarrassed. Dave just grinned at him and sat a little closer when they took a seat again. “Do you want me airing out how you melt like a touch starved candybar left in the sunlight when I suggest you should be the little spoon? Or how you turn into a warbling puddle of Dave when I do this?” He reached over and out his hand on Dave’s knee, rubbing his thumb in soothing circles. Casual affection, Dave’s weakness.

“Aw,” Roxy cooed. Dave looked thoroughly embarrassed and made a strangled noise in his throat. Karkat gave him a smug look.

“Shut up.” He grumbled weakly and scooted a little closer so he could press against Karkat’s side and hold his hand.

“So you guys are matesprits?” Roxy asked, and Karkat’s anxiety immediately returned. Dave wasn’t the only one who had coming out to do. Dave squeezed his hand and let Karkat start since this was his thing to discuss.

“Mostly?” He offered weakly, then tried to sound more certain. “We’re kind of pale too.”

“Plus I piss you off in a pitch way sometimes.” Dave added helpfully.

“And the way you kept me from tearing Vriska apart on the meteor was sort of ashen.” Karkat admitted.

“I mean, there wasn’t really much of a chance of you tearing her apart to begin with. Spidertroll could’ve probably kicked any of our asses in her sleep, she’s fuckin’ crazy.”

“My point still stands!”

“So…” Roxy interrupted, guiding them back on topic, “You’re in all quadrants? I didn’t know trolls did that!”

Karkat winced. “They don’t. Usually. It’s extremely frowned upon.”

“Karkat’s had trouble keeping shit in one quadrant.” Dave explained for him. “He’s got a big ol’ heart full of love.”

“I’m pretty sure you’re the only person in Paradox Space to come to that conclusion about what my useless fucking pump biscuit is full of, but thanks for the thought.” Karkat rolled his eyes, defaulting to annoyance to avoid the insecurities that always gnawed at him when he thought about his relationship with quadrants. “‘Full of love’ is usually not the first thing people describe me as. More like ‘full of a burning anger’ or ‘a perpetual stream of irritable piss’ or, hell, ‘just undiluted dumbass juice!’ As far as most people are concerned, I’m Karkat ‘useless shitfit’ Vantas, and they’re not fucking wrong!”

“Okay, sure, you might be the grumpiest person in all - what, is this five universes now? I can’t keep track, but that doesn’t mean you’re not secretly a big softy.” Dave rubbed his thumb over Karkat’s knuckles. “I know that best out of probably anyone.”

“If it helps, I don’t think of you as those things!” Roxy added. Karkat gave her a disbelieving look.

“Full offense, we’ve never really ‘hung out.’”

“I mean, no, but I’ve seen you interacting with Dave and John and Kanaya and stuff, and you’ve always seemed to be a caring friend underneath all the yelling.” Roxy shrugged. “It’s nice knowing Dave’s in good hands since I’ve only been part of his family for a couple weeks. Means I don’t have to give you a shovel talk prob’ly!”

“The shovel talk? What the fuck? What does that even mean?” Karkat looked at Dave for an explanation, but he only winced.

“You know, when parents meet their kid’s partner and are like ‘you better not hurt my baby, or I’ll kill you.’ That kind of thing. I’m guessing trolls didn’t do that on Alternia?” Roxy tilted her head, seeming genuinely curious. Karkat’s face contorted as he wrapped his head around that concept.

“Okay, first of all, no we didn’t because we didn’t even have parents and our lusii wouldn’t give two shits about our quadrantmates. Second of all, you better not even think about giving me your ridiculous human ‘shovel talk’! I’ve known Dave far longer than you have, so it really should be me going ‘don’t fucking hurt him,’ but I know I don’t need to because Dave can fucking handle himself! He doesn’t need your bullshit defenses! If I ever hurt him, I trust him to be able to tell me to fuck off out of his life - not that he’d ever need to because I’d rather establish a culling system in the Troll Kingdom and offer myself up as their first sacrifice than hurt Dave!” He took a deep inhale to continue his tirade, but Dave cut him off with a pat to the cheek.

“Yo, dude, shoosh, it’s okay. It’s really not that big of a deal.” It was only after Dave cut off his train of thought that Karkat realized how worked up he was getting, and he shrank back down against Dave’s shoulder, embarrassed. “I’m pretty sure Roxy was kidding, anyway.”

“Yeah, for sure!” Roxy nodded quickly. “I didn’t mean to imply you were gonna hurt Dave or that he couldn’t take care of himself or anything. That’s hella not my place, and you guys seem very good for each other.”

“Oh. Well. Good.” He sent her a warning glare just to make sure he’d gotten the point across, then forced himself to let some tension out of his shoulders.

“It is really nice knowin’ my family’s in good hands though.” Roxy smiled. “Hell, it’s nice knowin’ I have a family! Oh my god, Dave, do you realize none of us Strilondes are straight? I mean, Rose ‘n Dirk are both gay as hell, and then you and I are bi!”

“Yeah- Wait, what?” Dave jolted a little in surprise. “Rox, you’re bi too? Since when?”

“Uh, since always?” Roxy laughed a bit. “I thought that’s why you came to me, because you knew!”

“No! Holy shit, I gotta process this for a second.”

“LMAO.” Roxy said, pronouncing every letter. “Yeah, dude! I mean, can you blame me? Like, dudes are hot as fuck, that’s like self explanatory. I mean, have you seen the Englberts? Eglishes? Whatever their family name is, John and Jake are both total babes, but then there are girls too! I mean, Janey, what a gal, right? And Callie too!”

“Right?” Dave enthused, clearly excited someone understood where he was coming from. “Girls are so fucking good, hot damn, but then? Dudes? Holy shit?”

“Yeah!” Roxy was just about throwing herself out of her chair with her excitement. “I can barely leave the house, it’s just smoochable babes everywhere I turn.”

“I’d say it’s a goddamn plight, but I got the most smoochable right here.” Dave emphasized his point with a kiss to one of Karkat’s horns, making him squawk. Dave laughed a little and turned back to Roxy. “Yo, but rewind back to Callie. Soooo, are y’all two, y’know…”

Roxy looked remarkably like Dave when embarrassed. “Uh…” The sound of the front door opening and Calliope’s greeting voice cut her off. “I’ll get back to you on that!” Dave waggled his eyebrows at her but didn’t push it.

Dinner was an enjoyable affair, despite Karkat’s near constant crippling fear of being miserable in every social engagement. The food was good and pretty close to tasting like home, and the conversation was fluid - mostly because Roxy and Dave chattered the entire time like hyperactive squirrels. Karkat tried to be annoyed with their ridiculous stream of consciousness discussions, but he couldn’t help but feel warm watching Dave talk so comfortably with his ecto-mom. And he certainly wasn’t the only person happy with the situation; every time he and Dave started bantering back and forth, he could see Roxy’s delight out of the corner of his eye, and the absolutely lovestruck look on her face whenever Calliope spoke didn’t escape him either.

Eventually, though, they had to head home - though Dave and Karkat had both shifted their sleep schedules to be active in the afternoon and most of the night, the majority of their human friends were still diurnal and needed to go to bed eventually - so after a few more hugs from Roxy, they were sent on their way.

Dave landed them down the street from their hive, and Karkat didn’t complain about having to walk that last distance. The Troll Kingdom was just now starting to wake up, stores and restaurants lighting up, trolls in suits rushing to their early jobs, and young trolls getting ushered off to school. It was so different from Alternia, but Karkat thought he could probably get used to the differences if it meant he didn’t have to worry about getting culled at a single glance at his blood color. Maybe it was too early to tell, but if he let himself feel just the slightest bit optimistic for his future, he had a feeling he could be really happy here. He could live a peaceful, successful life on Earth C, and if the cheerful way Dave was swinging their clasped hands meant anything, he wasn’t the only one feeling hopeful.

“So,” He prompted, leaning into Dave’s shoulder, “I guess that could have been more horrible.”

“Yep.” Dave said, popping the ‘p’. “We’ll have to scrap those emergency plans. Cancel our name changes and facial reconstructions and flights to the other side of Earth C, no need to run away immediately.”

“I don’t know, we might have to keep that shit pencilled in. We still need to tell John.” Karkat reminded him, and Dave groaned.

“Oh fuck. Yeah, never mind, you sure we can’t just fuck off into another universe? Universe D here we come. The D stands for Davekat ‘cause it’ll just be us, babe. It also stands for Dick because, come on, it’s us, of course it does. Also Dinosaurs just ‘cause. Do you think dinosaurs are a universal constant? Like, did dinosaurs exist for you guys? Or- oh shit, do you think they evolved differently? Are trolls just super evolved dinosaurs?”

“Dave,” Karkat gave him a look, “I think I would know if I was a dinosaur.”

“I dunno, dude, maybe we’re all dinosaurs-”

“Okay, I know when to cut that shit off.” Karkat rolled his eyes and let go of his hand to unlock their door. “Seriously, I think… that went okay. Less than horrid.”

“Less than horrid, huh? That’s a big compliment coming from you, are you feeling okay? Are you gettin’ some kinda fluffy feelings from hanging out with Roxy too long, ‘cause like, I get it.”

“Shut up. All I’m saying is this might not have been as much of an ordeal as we thought, this ‘coming out to everyone we know’ thing.”

“Maybe. You might be right.” Dave admitted, following him inside. “But that involved way too many emotions, and I think all my brain’s been used up for the rest of the day for anything that involves more thought than playing Xbox for seven hours straight. You down?”

“Fuck yes.”

#homestuck #davekat #dave strider #karkat vantas #roxy lalonde #calliope's there for like a second #okay to reblog #my writing #this was fun to write!#i. really like writing karkat he's very fun.#also she/her pronouns are used for roxy bc this is pre-them figuring out their gender #this is epilogue non-compliant household but i do want to keep roxy's journey to figuring out they're nonbinary

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cenonyc-blog · 5 years

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MATT TRAMMELL

This week we spoke to music writer and A&R, Matt Trammell. Born and raised in Flatbush, Brooklyn, Matt has been covering music and culture in outlets like The New Yorker, The Fader, Rolling Stone and more, before transitioning to his career as A&R at XL Recordings. Matt spoke to us about the local culture, music and people that influenced him to start his career, and the type of visibility and access he hopes to provide for creative people, black people and young people around him, now and in the future.

Who are you, where you from?

My name is Matthew Trammell, I’m from Flatbush.

You started as a music journalist and now you’re an A&R at XL – can you talk about your career and that transition?

Yeah definitely, when I first started writing the only reason that I wanted to do it was because I used to watch a lot of Behind the Music and Driven on VH1 and those kind of documentaries. They would always have the people that were getting interviewed about the subject – so it would be someone from Rolling Stone talking about Ludacris, or whoever they were having the special on. That’s when I really realized it’s a job you could have. I was watching TV and then I saw them – some of them were black, different races, some of them were women; so it was like “oh, that’s so accessible.” It felt accessible to me.

The Fader was the first job that was my real job, where I wasn’t in school or anything. That was super dope because by that period I was reading The Fader and knew it was like – they cover the dopest artists, they have the best parties and all of that shit. I feel like I got very lucky to be at places where the magazines still did hold a lot of importance. And at The Fader the cover is still mad important. That’s still a check mark in an artists career, still the temperature of what’s going on right now, the photos are always so beautiful, and the people who are writing for the magazine still have their own taste and fandom so that identity comes through.

How did you end up writing for The New Yorker? As a New Yorker that was crazy right?

Somebody sent me the listing me for the job at The New Yorker and I was like “ok, that’s mad funny, like it’s no way I would be working there, so I’m not even gonna apply, but thank you, that’s mad funny.” Then someone else recommended me for it and the next day someone hit me up. I went in for the interview still kind of feeling like “it’s no way this is going down.” But I got it. And it was very difficult leaving The Fader. It feels like a family thing like “no, I can’t leave this, we gotta keep doing this together for this space,” but then it was fine. That transition was bugged out - but I feel like I couldn’t not do that.

And you held down the “Goings on About Town” column which is legendary in itself right?

Well, it’s not about whose album out, whose video is popping. It’s just who is playing in New York City that week. And I would honestly recommend that to anybody that’s trying to discover new music or a new way of thinking about the whole thing. Just looking at concerts and looking at people who are playing in venues and shit like that is a whole other thing than a “Spotify Discover” playlist weekly. There are artists that are touring all the time, or are playing in their city all the time, that don’t get shit on blogs, don’t have tracks on streaming services but just have fans in the real world. That was a big thing for me discovering that.

Right, so at this point you’re this young black man from Flatbush with mad visibility - telling people from all walks of life, what they should do that weekend.

I’m just trying to have a balanced perspective. I’m not the first black person to write for The New Yorker but at the same time our generation is different to previous ones. I was always just trying have our perspective represented. Like one time there was this meme of the challenges going on like “So Gone” challenge, and two other ones. It was based off of Monica, “Knuck If You Buck ,” and one other song. And I did a piece on it and I felt like ok, nobody else can do this. Besides people who actually know who Monica is.

There’s a lot of music critics that don’t really know about regular cultural touchstones for the hood as far as music. There’s a ton of music journalists that are well-studied English student type kids who know about “all the right music that’s cool,” but they don’t know about Monica. So I was like ok, if I just stay to what I know and what I fuck with then I can’t really go wrong. But if I try to reach, the way I see a lot of people try to reach…that’s when I’m gonna look dumb.

Plus you get to put your people on, who might not be seen by that audience, who you feel deserve it.

It was easy to me because it was like, on that level there’s no magazine more fitting to do this than The New Yorker. To be on the ground in New York City and doing this on a level that’s respected and dope. One of the craziest things was putting Palisades on the cover. Obviously putting Show Me The Body, putting Wiki, a bunch of people in there. Being able to cover smaller things, in a bigger thing. It’s not a music magazine, and that was the first time I worked somewhere that wasn’t music focused. So they’re talking about Trump and real shit and I’m like…also there’s this dude that raps. It wasn’t as if I had to share the platform as far as what I wanted to cover. It was a lot of opportunity to just throw some shit up that I fucked with, that I think is cool, and just give that person that boost.

What were some of your favorite interview experiences as a writer otherwise?

Snoop was fucking amazing. He was putting out an album “Bush,” his comeback album with Pharell. He was doing a lot of press of it, and it was a good album! He did a release, and I can’t remember where it was, but there was some balcony and Fader was there covering the listening party. He’s sitting there - he had a bucket on, blunt rolled, just chilling, really just Snoop. So I was interviewing him and he fucking got a call and he was like, “Guess who that was?” And I was like “who,” and he’s like “Tim McGraw, he was just talking some business. Just player to player. No manager, no middle man, he just hit my line direct. That’s what I’m talking about.” And then I was asking him anything about songs I had questions about. Nothing’s fake about him. Snoop is amazing.

YG was also super dope because he had just got shot and he was very paranoid, obviously. Niggas were really tryna kill him. So it was a crazy situation, it wasn’t even supposed to be the cover story but while we were in LA they were like “oh something happened so we’re bumping this to the cover.” So that changed it even more – that was my second cover (Tyler was the first one). So then YG was paranoid but we – I don’t know why – but we got cool enough and he fucked with me and really let me into the whole shit. Like all these dudes really just bloods, like people just shooting at them. He was just in the hospital, and he’s still in LA, at the same time, moving the same way he always does. Completely open and completely giving.

And now you’re in A&R at a major label, XL. What’s it like?

I definitely have that feeling of “all right, cool, one of us is in here now.” Not even on some black shit - there’s a lot of people of color that work in the music industry. One thing that was big for me now – we have a much easier window into who does what, because of social media. So everybody in the music industry, and in every industry, is more visible. Like when we were growing up you gotta be Diddy, you gotta be Suge Knight, to be visible. And all the other people, A&Rs, they were invisible - you didn’t know who they were. But there were people of all backgrounds in this shit the whole time, we just didn’t know. Now we know, so now it’s more accessible. I think one thing that has held communities and groups back is not necessarily that there aren’t people like them in those positions, but that you can’t see them. And you can see more of it now. It’s a lot of different things you can do. You just need to be doing your homework to know what’s even possible.

How do you feel Matt?

I definitely feel good. I feel like the expectations I have are still like…I just wanna put down some shit that’s like undeniable. The people who you have in your brain, those people that you look up to - you just want to put some shit down like, this is gonna be here. So you try to put yourself more and more in a position to do that thing. So I feel in a position to do it, and that feels good. But now I actually want to do it.

#matt trammell #xl recordings #new york #CENO #ceno.nyc

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robininthelabyrinth · 7 years

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Countless Roads - Chapter 12

Fic: Countless Roads - Chapter 12 - Ao3

Fandom: Flash, Legends Pairing: Gen, Mick Rory/Leonard Snart, others

Summary: Due to a family curse (which some call a gift), Leonard Snart has more life than he knows what to do with – and that gives him the ability to see, speak to, and even share with the various ghosts that are always surrounding him.

Sure, said curse also means he’s going to die sooner rather than later, just like his mother, but in the meantime Len has no intention of letting superheroes, time travelers, a surprisingly charming pyromaniac, and a lot of ghosts get in the way of him having a nice, successful career as a professional thief.

———————————————————————————

“It’s not just like wrestling,” Len objects. “It’s not fake. We steal real stuff.”

“Sometimes,” Barry says, rolling his eyes at him. “Not always.”

“Well, sometimes we let Barry here win,” Len allows. “To make him feel better.”

“You mean sometimes I kick your ass because I’m awesome,” Barry replies.

“Don’t be ridiculous. If I wanted to beat you, I would.”

“Oh, you want to bring it, huh? Well –”

“Not during dinner you don’t,” Mick says, dropping off the roast in the center of the table.

“That looks marvelous,” Jenna – she’d insisted that she preferred it to Mrs. Jackson – says approvingly. “Thank you, Mick.”

“My pleasure,” he says, though his cheeks do flush a bit. He’s still not used to anyone whose last name isn’t Snart complimenting him.

Nora pats Mick on the arm. “I can’t wait to try it,” she says with a smile. “This will be my first meal in fifteen years; I’m very excited.”

“I’m never gonna get used to the ghost thing,” Jax says, shaking his head.

“Sorry I couldn’t find your dad,” Len apologizes, not for the first time. Jax waves a hand, signaling forgiveness.

“If it means he’s gone on where he’s supposed to be, that’s fine with me,” Jenna says firmly. “Don’t worry about it, Leonard. Now enough about wrestling - which isn't fake, dear, it's just scripted - tell me more about your little supervillain group.”

“Well, right now it’s mostly just me, Mick and Lisa – that’s my sister, she’s back at school at the moment –”

“Oh? What does she study?”

“Mechanical engineering,” Len says proudly. “Bachelors at CCU; but now she’s at Columbia for her masters.”

“Really?” Jax asks, perking up. “If I get into college, I’d been thinking of going into engineering –”

“Wouldn’t be any trouble to set the two of them up to talk,” Mick assures Jenna, who nods thoughtfully. “Give him a preview of what it’s like, introduce him to some of the CCU teachers – admissions people –”

“That’s very useful when applying for scholarships,” Nora notes. “I, sadly, was already deceased when Barry was going over his applications, but I did peek in when I could.”

Barry’s nodding along. “It’s all about getting your name to be the one that leaps out of the group for admissions,” he says with the tone of wisdom that comes from being the person in the room most recently familiar with the college experience. Not to mention quite possibly the only living one. “Actually, getting back on subject, the supervillain thing will help with that.”

“Right, the ‘supervillain thing’,” Jenna says. “Remind me again, what’s your group called?”

“We’re going with ‘the Rogues’ for now, ma’am,” Mick says. He tends to lapse into formalities when he’s hoping to impress someone. “Barry’s suggestion. Gives us room to create our own identities, while keeping an overall theme.”

“Plus it reminds people a sort of comic-book ‘Rogues Gallery’,” Barry adds. “Makes people think of the hero, which in turn makes them more comfortable.”

“I see,” she says, holding out her plate for Mick to pile on a steaming slice of roast beef and a copious helping of vegetables.

“Even Cisco – uh, he’s my friend, he gives all the supervillains names – even he thinks it’s a cool name,” Barry offers. “Cisco’s on what we call ‘Team Flash’ –”

“Terrible name.”

“Quiet, Len. Anyway, Team Flash is me and Cisco and Caitlin –”

“Cisco and Caitlin and I,” Nora murmurs.

“Cisco does our technology,” Barry bravely forges on. “Caitlin’s our doctor and she’s great –”

“Great enough, as long as she stops bugging me for more forensic tests she’d like to run on either me or the ghosts,” Len grumbles. “I’ve had enough tests to last me a lifetime ever since Barry told them about it.”

“It was an accident! I was just trying to convince them I wasn’t crazy for talking to Mom!”

“Have you considered discretion?”

“Are Caitlin’s tests worse or better than Cisco trying to change your name to Captain Chillbones?” Mick interjects, looking far too amused about it all. He was quite fond of the tests, especially anything that could be converted from use in monitoring epilepsy to monitoring whatever you'd classify Len's family curse as, but then again, he would be. As he often puts it, he has a vested interest in Len's ongoing health.

“Captain Cold is just fine, thanks,” Len sniffs. Chillbones. Really.

Jenna laughs. “Indeed,” she says. “If they renamed you, they’d have to rebrand all the toys.”

“Heaven forbid.”

“So, Barry,” she asks, turning to Barry. “Why is it that you – you’re the hero, right?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Why do you support this Rogues group, if they’re stealing things and breaking the law? It seems contrary to your, ah, heroic mission statement.”

“That’s where the wrestling comparison comes in,” Barry says, brightening. He thought of the comparison last week and won’t stop using it – Len hates it, but Barry thinks it's great. “See, Central City’s been applying for quite a lot of government and charitable funds for money to help fix the city infrastructure that was damaged during the big blow-out back in May – the black hole –”

“I remember.”

“Right. Anyway, there’s all sorts of resources pouring in – state, federal, private charities, that sort of thing. We’ve gotten a lot of donations already and they’re going to build back up a lot of parts of the city, but there’s a lot of the city that’s being overlooked because, well –”

“The slums,” Len clarifies. “No one ever cares about the slums.”

“Unless, of course, they happen to be the only thing you see on national television,” Mick says with the tone of someone who still thinks television was the twentieth century’s greatest invention. “The number one media draw both in Central City and nationally nowadays are fights between the Flash and the Rogues – even bigger than just the Flash by himself, because people got a bit tired of that –”

“I did a lot of media talks right after the black hole, trying to raise money to fix the city,” Barry explains, ducking his head a little.

“So, nowadays, you wanna get national media in, you’ve got to have both sides,” Mick continues. “Nice big supervillain showdown. Now, Len here – he’s our planner – he’s agreed that we’ll aim our heists either in the slums proper or nearby to the slums, where we’ll move our fight immediately afterwards, so that the only backdrop the media’s gonna get is going to be slum city.”

“I think I understand,” she says, nodding. "If the only thing that the media sees when they look at Central are slums…well. Nothing incentivizes City Hall like shame."

“Not shame,” Len corrects. “They’re politicians. They’re motivated by power and money.”

"Exactly," Barry says, beaming. "It's very hard for them to run their tourist campaigns –"

"Especially tourist campaigns based on superheroes and supervillains," Jax adds.

"—when the slums look quite so bad. So they'll have no choice but to put some money into improving the area."

"Aren't you worried about gentrification driving the slums out once they look prettier?"

"Gentrifiers won’t touch the place, not as long as the crime rate's so high, which gives people a chance to put down roots and protective associations," Len says. "And there’s no chance of the crime rate going down until we get rid of the Families.” He takes a bite and chews for a moment, swallows, then says, “That’s the next project.”

"You're thinking of going up against the Families?"

"Not anytime soon," Len says firmly. "And Jax will be well clear of it before we do anything that foolish, I promise you that."

"Right now, the Families respect Len and me as freelancers," Mick says. "We don't bother them, they don't bother us sort of deal."

"Reasonable. But still – you are breaking the law, correct? The Rogues, I mean?"

"Yes, ma'am," Mick says. "We try to, and Barry here tries to stop us."

Jenna nods thoughtfully.

"This is delicious," Nora says. She's been mostly occupied eating, but in fairness it is her first meal in quite a while.

"It really is," Jenna says. "Thank you again, Mick."

"My pleasure."

"Pass the rolls?" Barry asks Jax, who obliges. Taking a roll and biting into it, Barry continues, "Anyway, as I was saying –"

"Barry! Not with your mouth full!" Nora says.

"Sorry, Mom."

Nora shakes her head and shares an amused look with Jenna.

Barry swallows. "Anyway," he says. "You don't need to worry about Jax’s physical safety. I'll be very careful with Jax."

"I'll be careful with you, too," Jax shoots back, smirking a little.

"I'm still not sure," Jenna says. "The entire point of this is to raise money for Jax's college tuition –"

"He gets a cut from our takes," Len says, nodding. "The legitimate part, don't worry; if there's one thing Central City accountants know how to do, it's how to wash money."

"He'd know," Mick says dryly. "He actually likes accounting."

"Just as a hobby!"

"You're so weird," Barry tells Len admiringly.

Len ignores him. Accounting isn't weird. Lots of people do accounting.

"My concern," Jenna says, drawing their attention again, "is that tuition or no tuition, it won't do no good if Jax gets himself arrested for breaking the law. That seems like it would put a damper on his prospects of getting into college, rather than boosting them."

"Oh, that won't be a problem, ma'am," Barry says. "I'm happy to speed him away from the crime scene if it looks likely that the Rogues will be captured – pretty unlikely, given how Captain Singh was talking just the other day about the Rogues’ use as a publicity machine –"

"Captain Singh?"

"Chief of CCPD, ma'am."

"I'm certain he knows Barry's the Flash," Nora tells Jenna. "Never says anything, of course, but he does leave hints sometimes..."

"So you see, the whole thing's got buy in at high levels," Jax says earnestly. Len tries to suppress a smile at the clever use of buzzwords and puppy eyes.

"I see," Jenna says, totally not snookered by it in the slightest. "And what if Barry can't get Jax away in time?"

"Then my ghosts will," Len says firmly. "We'll make it highest priority."

"Your ghosts," Jenna says. "Right. I must admit, that's still something of a strange idea to me."

Len shrugs, conceding the point. He supposes it is kind of strange if you didn't grow up with it.

"Why couldn't you use ghosts for bad guys instead?" Jenna asks, tapping a finger against her lip. "Instead of going yourself as ‘the Rogues’, I mean. I remember right after the black hole, when all the ghosts came streaming out everywhere, the media was going bananas looking for hide or hair of them. Uh, metaphorically speaking."

Len makes a face. "Unfortunately not the best idea," he says. "Do you remember the crime wave we had right after the black hole? Lots of unsolved crime?"

"Yes?"

"Those were ghosts," Nora says. "They're not all as nice as Mick or myself."

"I'm not nice," Mick grumbles. "More spinach, Jenna?"

"Please, thank you."

"Not nice, he says," Barry stage-whispers to Jax.

"Once I give ghosts power, they have freedom to do was they like with it," Len says, getting back on the subject. "I mean, if I'm bossing them around all the time, sometimes they’ll agree to do what I say, but not always, and I ain’t the sort that’ll force ‘em against their will. Either way, not only is it a drain on my personal resources, it's risky. This way, I have more control over who does what – and besides, it's more fun."

"Lots of fun," Jax says. "C'mon, mom, please? It's hardly more illegal than half the auto shops in the city."

"Don't remind me," Jenna says with a sigh.

"And afterwards, I'd be happy to write a recommendation letter or whatever," Barry says. "Whatever will help."

"C'mon, Mom," Jax says, widening his eyes.

"You committed to finishing up that summer work at the auto shop," Jenna says. "That takes you all day -"

"I can do that first!" Jax says quickly. "It's only another few weeks or so. I can start up with the Rogues after that - that is, if you agree."

Jenna frowns for a moment, but then looks around at all of them. Each and every one of them is staring at her with a hopeful expression. "Oh, all right! You can join the Rogues, Jax."

They all cheer. Barry and Jax high-five.

"But I want to see a full face mask like Mr. Allen here, young man," Jenna says to her son. "No getting your name in the papers, nothing like that."

"Will do, mom! Thanks!"

Jenna shakes her head in amusement at their glee. "Though, it occurs to me, might I ask why you're all pitching that he work with the villain group?" she asks. "Wouldn't being Barry's, I don't know, sidekick or something work better?"

"He couldn't keep up with me," Barry says, smirking. Then his smirk fades. "Besides, I think it's better that he be on the villain side. It's safer."

"Safer?" Jenna asks.

"Villains aren't a target," Barry says, sighing. "Eobard wouldn't have come after me if I was a villain."

"Eobard?"

"Oh, lord," Nora says. "You don't want to hear about that."

"Yes, we do," Jax says immediately. “Tell us.”

"Well, it all started in the future – really, like a few hundred years in the future – "

Len shakes his head – he’s heard this story before – and helps Mick collect the plates and take them back to the kitchen. His leg’s doing much better; he barely limps at all, now, and that means he’s back on the roster for doing chores.

He’d prefer to use the ghosts for that, but Mick puts on a long-suffering face and talks about how abuses of power always start with the little things, as if he doesn’t freaking poltergeist the dishes into the sink at least half the time when it’s his turn. But compromise is important, so Len’s given in and does it himself.

At least when they have company over.

By the time they’ve finished clearing the table – not an easy task, given Barry’s appetite – and returned, Barry’s gotten the story all the way to the black hole itself.

“– so that’s when Eobard realizes that Eddie’s going to shoot himself –”

“Eddie’s the other Thawne, right? The cop?”

“Yeah, he’s Eobard’s ancestor. Anyway, so Eobard dashes over to stop him and, like, wrenches the gun out of his hand, he’s all, ‘as noble a sacrifice as that is, I’m afraid I can’t let you do that; you’re essential to my timeline’ and then he turns to Iris and says, ‘but your girlfriend isn’t’ –”

“Shit! What then?” Jax asks.

“Language, Jefferson,” Jenna says absently, but her eyes are also fixed intently on Barry. “Go on, Barry.”

“And I’m yelling and trying to get to them and Eddie’s screaming and Eobard goes straight for Iris and then – bam! Mom appears right in front of Iris and Eobard just stops dead, staring at her - and you can see from his face that he recognizes her, too - and then she says, ‘Everyone’s essential’ and stabs him.”

“Nice!”

“Well done,” Jenna tells Nora approvingly. Nora blushes and smiles.

“Anyway, after that epic piece of poetic justice, we thought it was over, and that’s when the black hole opened up. We think it’s because he died in the Accelerator and the particles in the Accelerator reacted badly to weird stuff like a guy from the future dying now.”

“Wow.”

“And the ghost on fire that fought the black hole…?” Jenna asks interestedly. "Not Firestorm, the other one."

“That – was actually Mick,” Barry admits.

Mick coughs. “Sorry about that,” he says. “Len’d just gotten shot and wouldn’t go to a hospital while there were kids potentially being sucked up in there.”

“No, no,” Jenna says. “Don’t get me wrong; you saved my niece.”

“And Ronnie,” Barry adds. “He was thinking of sacrificing himself, too – why does everyone think first about sacrificing themselves?”

“You lead by example, dear,” Nora says.

“Mom!”

“It’s true. You have a guilt complex that would make a psychologist start giggling with joy.”

“Mo-om!”

“I blame Joe West, I think,” Nora says. “Certainly you didn’t have one when I was alive.”

“So long story short,” Len interjects before dinner becomes yet another episode of the Nora-and-Barry-adorable-family-time show, cute as it is, “we’d like to keep some distance between the Rogues and Barry’s hero squad to keep us safe from any villain aiming to hurt Barry. We also want to make sure that any enterprising would-be supervillain that comes to town gets stopped by Barry here – and if he can’t do it, we can.”

“But I thought you were the supervillains?” Jenna asks. “How does that work, if you’re stopping other supervillains?”

“We’re supervillains, yes, but we’re very territorial ones,” Len replies, and smiles his best charming smile. “It’s a good cover.”

He’s cleaning the story up a bit, of course. He’s still fully committed to his career as a thief, even though he’s taking significantly more care not to get caught – getting Barry to wipe out his and Lisa’s criminal records is really a one-shot sort of favor – but there’s no need to go into Len’s rather nasty history of criminality with Jenna, especially since he has no intention of involving Jax in any of the serious stuff.

On the same token, there's no need to touch on the fact that they still haven’t figured out who’s trying to hunt Len down.

They’ve continued their investigation, albeit a bit more slowly because of Len’s slowly healing leg, but nothing much has come of it. The freelancers on the payroll seem to be all the usual ones, and the few that seemed to have potential turned out to be dead ends.

Mick’s been getting really frustrated.

He still thinks it’s the Santinis, but the current batch of Santinis is basically out as a potential target. They’d started with all the Dons with any authority left over, which wasn’t exactly much, and while Len was confined to doing physical therapy, Mick had flipped a bit and gone after the rest of them.

And when Len says ‘the rest of them’, he really means the rest of them.

Sometimes it seems to Len that Mick shook down every single Santini in the entire city.

He’s talking everyone from Don Cesare’s sickly brother Leopold Santini, the only survivor of the Nimbus massacre and now desperately trying to protect his family branch’s interest in the drug trade from incursion when he wasn’t too busy having another attack of pneumonia, to Eugenia Santini, the strong-willed but somewhat ditzy daughter of Don Giovanni and his army of enforcers, who could barely remember how many thugs she had on hand at any given time, to Don Nicholas Santini, a small fish who nominally helped out running the Santini’s brothel and casino trades but spent most of his time getting high with out-of-town high-rolling guests, a useless, twitchy, scared, spoiled rich kid relying less on his own abilities and more on the fact that he’s one of the grandsons of Don Tomio Santini, a guy that Len remembers mostly as the one whose kids smashed a bottle into his head when he was younger.

Len vaguely remembers Mick beating him and his goons up once for going after Len over some money or something, honestly.

What a pathetic lot.

And these, sad to say, are the rising stars of the Santini Family now that the old guard is gone. Don’t get Len wrong – he’s delighted to see the decline of the Families – but every last one of these is an example of everything that’s gone wrong with that Family.

And every single one of them sang like a bird when Mick came to visit, and none of them sang about anything interesting, the whole lot of them denying any reason that they had to go after Len personally.

And with this many attempts, it was clearly something personal.

The sad fact of it is that even the nobodies like Nicholas don’t have a clue as to why someone is trying to go after Len – and that, more annoyingly, means that neither does anyone else.

There’s nothing to do but wait for the next attempt on Len’s life – or maybe on his legs – and hope that this time, they find out who’s behind it.

Nothing to do but wait.

Len hates waiting.

#dccoldwave #mick rory #leonard snart #barry allen #jefferson jax jackson #nora allen #my fic #deadfic

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gksunflowers-blog · 7 years

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signs as people I know (check moon and sun signs)

aries: passionate about finding new ways to show love and create love with others, willing to put themselves down so others feel better, warm hugs, prefers music without words because they understand the message better without words telling them, will drive you to IHOP at midnight because you forgot to eat dinner, they care about literally fucking everyone, easily accept that change is unavoidable, their exuberant energy can seem very intimidating, outgoing, try to do the right thing, excessive with literally everything (its okay ily), ardent, hate waiting for shit to happen, want the quickest and easiest way out of everything, their passion can be destructive and actually detrimental.

taurus: art is abundant in their safe place, trying their best tbh, will put aside time that they need in order to help someone else, dislikes close minded people, sleeping prolly, has music too loud but they will tell you its not loud enough, thinks a shit ton about wether or not people like them but will never tell you that, actually very confident people, dont really care about what people think of them but also cares a shit ton about what people think of them, so fucking loyal and expect nothing in return, can complain a lot actually, loyaloyaloyal, hate it when others see them cry, tries to ignore their problems because they dont have enough time to deal with them (get it together, hoes), need more time for self-reflection

gemini: can make anyone easily laugh, knows whats in and whats out, veryyyy generous people, pretty smiles, has good music taste because they listen to all types of music, relatable, seems very unattached to reality at times, doesn;t give up something/someone if they really love them, will cook for you willingly, they are too cool for drama but typically start drama, will spend their whole night talking to you about future goals they have and the most random shit, life of the party, if you want to instantly laugh hang around a gemini, don;t consider other people in their decisions sometimes, will remove themselves of negative situations because there is nothing they hate more than negative people;

cancer: hold a very warm and gentle soul, can push people away because they tend to be very possessive but that is how they show love, they need a two year break, tries really hard to be relatable, let people walk over them without realizing, they love to pamper themselves to show love to themselves, you feel safe in their home, trusts people really easily, can get very broken and in a bad place if you betray them so please don;t honestly, when they;re angry it can show physically (red face, angry tears, etc), can be very dramatic, try to help others with confidence and self-esteem, will be there for you even if you arent there for them, oblivious to shitty people sometimes which results in trust issues;

leo: can be independent when they are comfortable in the situation, want the best for everyone, will defend you when you’re not there, will block you if you annoy them, just want someone to chill with, flirty!!!!, easily get excited over the smallesttttt things, knows when to change the subject, beautiful souls, these are the type of people you should go to last minute plans with (concerts, road trips, etc), just wanna have fun and look amazing while doing it, need/deserve love and attention from loved ones, gives you food if you forgot your lunch at home, makes jokes out of their pain, pure beauts with good hearts that will try to believe in the best of everyone, not afraid to be petty, main hoes.

virgo: will try to avoid being honest with you because they don’t want to hurt you, is taken advantage of too often, will bring you a cookie if youre having a bad day, courteous, organized, the person that always smiles at strangers just because, not really sure what they want out of life, can be very whiny, always want to be doing something to pretend like they have it together, if they are your friend please take advantage of how supportive they are to you, will very randomly give you compliments that can literally save your life because they;re always very thoughtful, amazing listeners, capable of fulfilling their dreams if they believe in themselves too, having boundaries is okay and you deserve to respect them if you want to;

libra: passionate about making others lives better, cuddle bugs, energetic, gives their time to anyone who actually listens to them, thinking outside of the box, probably really pretty, kind souls but a tough exterior, wears sweats to the store because who honestly cares, makes jokes with people on line at checkout, they probably have a tradition to cook breakfast on saturdays, knows how to look good and feel good, once they find their self-worth not a fucking bull-dozer can take it down, please try to fight them on facebook because you will lose, gentle people and will try to make you feel at home (problem: they don;t know how), quiet but their minds are spinning, need to learn to say no;, stop worrying about what others think of you (who gives a shit??), hate silence and being alone, queens.

scorpio: very honest but also very petty without shame, fun and funny, blasts old jams in their car while trying their very best to avoid accidents, hates high school and loves college, just want to find a group that they fit in with, will try their best to make your birthday amazing I swear, open minded to literally everything honestly, critical friend, will tease you about something that happened five years ago, a total nerd about things they really like, very smart and efficient if they are motivated by their passion, unique style in all ways, beautiful minds, they can come across as two-faced but they are very indecisive when it comes to opinions, embraces new experiences, secretive;

sagittarius: flirty and prolly is dating someone right now, wants everyone to be happy but forgets about making themselves happy, cooks pancakes for you at midnight on a Wednesday night, will almost cry but then remembers a funny video they saw and starts to laugh, hates themselves but shows themselves a lot of love, makes jokes out of their pain, lovable, look intimidating but are actually very welcoming, hides emotions like a pro, very optimistic about literally everything, if they get bored or annoyed they will move on from you, need to believe in themselves, don;t express gratitude but they really should, seemingly perfect(?), can sometimes compare themselves to others in order to make themselves feel better (stop.)

capricorn: doesnt study (yes I'm onto you bitch) for tests but still gets amazing grades, can be very fake but honest with people they are close to, traditional without trying, will be there for you, they are very observant and will remember if you did something that meant a lot to them, honestly needs a hug and affection a lot more than they say, takes long hot showers to make up for the lack in physical affection, lovely people, good people to sit with in the back of the movie theater so that you can talk the whole time, will accidentally spill tea and start drama, trying their best, work well with people who have a good drive for things they are passionate about,doesnt express emotion unless they cant hold it in any longer

aquarius: so fucking funny, constantly trying to be a better person in order to make up for the shitty world, watches documentaries about the sex industry, sticks to their morals, thinks a lot about life and the meaning of all of this, thinks (knows) the government is hiding something, will kill you if you hurt an animal, super chill and loves music, passionate, indecisive to the extreme, smokes weed to see if food tastes differently, interesting individuals, if they don't open up to you it's because they don't know how, if you mean a lot to them they will try to protect you from the world, is hard on you because they want you to succeed, moves from one passion to the other (you guys are super adaptable if need be), an amazing friend if they choose to put effort into the friendship

pisces: very confused about life and that makes them very sad, easily unstable, cries about failing a lot, not judge mental, hates it when people accuse them of something they didnt do, beautiful people with caring hearts that let in people who shouldnt be let in, offer you a hug if they see you upset in any way, wants people to like them, trying to find who they are, tend to let people laugh at their pain, shuts down their feelings when they feel attacked, doesnt purposely hurt anyone, will change themselves in order to be accepted,these people lose themselves too easily, once they find out who they are they are very stable and more content

#zodiac #astrology #Aries #taurus #Gemini #cancer #leo #libra #virgo #Scorpio #sagittarius #Capricorn #Aquarius #Pisces #the signs as people I know

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candy-corps · 7 years

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A Place to call Home

Jess belongs to mygardenofmuses.

Damien couldn’t tell if his day started well … or if it did not. He lay with his face to the wall, curled up in the sick bed that was part of their hideout. After checking - and failing - to find a place to stay the night in, he’d decided to come here last night. And brought some cats.

His room was gone. His home was gone. He needed something - anything familiar. So why was the first thing to see Jess. Familiar? Yes. At this time of the day? No. The little furry end of Damiens tail twitched where it hung over the edge as he just got more irritated, thinking of it.

It didn’t add up. Sleepy - and grumpy too - he turned again, all covered up in his thick jacket and blanket that Jess dragged here some time ago.

“What are you doing here” he mumbled eventually; tail still twitching visibly.

“I didn’t see you yesterday, so I thought I’d drop by our secret hideout and bring some company, right, Bernie?” Jess answered with a kind smile. She could tell something was bugging her boyfriend, thought she wasn’t exactly sure what could it be.

“Yep, I’m here!” Bernadette was sitting on the floor. A friendly white cat had greeted them the moment they stepped inside, and now she had the same cat on her lap.

“Nice” Damien replied in a tone that made clear he was tempted to simply turn around again and ignore both of their existence. Problem being though - he did like Jess…

“I was helping dad” Damien explained shortly - which was just half of the truth. He didn’t want to think of the move though, right now.

“Helping him? Is he OK?” Jess asked, still not understanding the gravity of the situation. She, in her good faith, wished to help too.

“If it’s something that can be fixed with magic, bet I can do something!” Bernadette picked up the cat and showed it to Jess, who couldn’t resist petting it. It was too cute.

But Damien was more important now. Jess sat on one side of the bed, leaving her hands on her lap. She knew Damien liked school, even if he wouldn’t admit it out loud. “You know you can tell me anything. Wanna talk about it? I brought you something as breakfast…”

He did not want to talk about it. He did not want to think about it. Although Damiens tail at least stopped twitching, the boy himself went on to hide himself under the blanket. It was simply too early.

“What kind of breakfast?” he asked then - feeling just a little bit warmer. Yet - once settled his hand moved out of the cover; resting casually next to the spot that Jess sat on.

“Cookies and an apple. The cookies are something I’ve made myself.” Jess answered, picking up a small food bag from her purse. The bag clearly was handmade too, as it was decorated with little bats - three of them.

“You should try her cookies. Jess is fairly good at baking. Though it’s normal, she learned everything from her mom…” Bernadette commented with a chuckle.

Damien grumbled, hearing that. “Her baking is great because she’s great” he found. His hand moved back under the covers as he noticed Jess didn’t pick up on it. Instead, he rested his tail on her lap.

“Aaaawwww!” Bernadette found herself giggling in awe. It was really sweet that Damien was able to say such things out loud.

Jess blushed at his words. To hear him he thought she was great… boy, that sure was an ego boost. She offered him the bag with the breakfast. “I made this bag for you too. Hope you like it!”

Noticing his tail on her lap, Jess petted it gently. So soft!

“Aw yourself, Bernadette” Damien grumped beneath the covers. He wasn’t cute - at least he wasn’t trying to. He just said what he’s thought.

His tail twitched again at Jess’ touch. He didn’t mean for her to touch it - but he kept it there, nevertheless. In order to see Jess’ present though, he had to peek out beneath his shield. Still sleepy looking.

“Thanks” he mumbled to her. Food was appreciated since he didn’t get to bring some for himself. The young cat on his bed seemed interested now; climbing on Damien to sniff on what Jess had to offer.

“If I had known you’d have company, I would have brought Elton with me. He always could use more playdates with other cats.” Jess chuckled, wondering if the cat on the bed would like some pets.

“I’ve got Limbo here with me, but he isn’t too good with cat transformations just yet. He got the makings of a canine, more than felines.” Bernadette commented. She looked around, studying the room. It seemed Jess had turned it into the medical room of the hideout, as she could recognize bandages, alcohol, peroxide, plasters, band aids and even some pills for headaches. She looked back at Damien, wondering if he had actually slept here all night. She didn’t dare to ask…

But Jess, in her innocence, dared to do so. “Hey, Damien… did you sleep here all the night?”

“No … “ Damien replied, finally starting to sit up. “Just since dad went out. Which was … all the night minus an hour and some more time go het here” he guessed, yawning. Thinking of whom though, Damien began to dig in his pockets - soon finding his phone and a total of 6 missed calls and three messages.

“That’s technically all the night.” Jess frowned in worry. “Damien… Whatever it is… You know you can tell me.” She reached for his hand, giving it a gentle squeeze. “I’m here for you.”

Noticing the feeling in Jess’s words, Bernadette left the kitty carefully on the ground and got up. Those two needed some private time, and she could return later. “I’ll go to the bathroom one minute, be back soon!”

“Alright” Damien replied to Bernadette, though his gaze stayed fixed on Jess for the time. Tell her. What was there to tell? He didn’t want to talk, really - but some time alone would be appreciated, indeed.

“I won’t be staying another night here” Damien promised, the second the door closed behind Bernadette. He didn’t want her to worry. He pushed the blanket away; slowly getting adjusted to the cool rooms temperature.

“If you need a place to rest, we can have a sleepover in my house. Our hideout is nice and everything, but with the autumn starting, nights are cold. I don’t want you to get sick.” Jess insisted gently, squeezing his hand a little more. He kept dodging the question, so the girl assumed that something really bad had happened.

“Then I find myself something warm” Damien reassured her. He rubbed his eyes with his free hand - too happy that Jess was holding his other than to claim it back. “It’s good” he said - failing though to say that with confidence. He felt something squeeze up his insides at the thought to crash at Jess’ place. He slept there before, one time. He shouldn’t make it a habit. Places he made a habit of sleeping in had the bad tendency to just go away. And he didn’t want Jess to go.

Withdrawing his hand from his eye, he found something wet on it. Just a single tear, but enough to withdraw his other after all to rub both of his eyes and pretend to be SO tired, still.

Sadly Damien couldn’t fool her. Jess had done that same trick several times during her childhood. Pretending to be sleepy to hide tears. Oh, she knew it too well.

Lifting her arms, she enveloped him in a loving hug. She wouldn’t push Damien to sleep with her. After all, Jess was used to his antics. He was one independent spirit, and she respected that.

“It’s OK.” she whispered, and kissed him softly. “You can sleep here. I’ll get you some blankets. Knowing Bernie, bet she’s fixing the place to make it warmer for you. It will be alright.” she nuzzled him and sighed softly. Even if she didn’t know yet what was the reason why Damien was avoiding home now, Jess was willing to do everything to support him. Even if it was just a hug.

Damien let out a shaky breath - not crying anymore, but yes, still upset. He closed his eyes for a moment - so very glad that Jess was with him.

“It’s not” he said then, matter of factly. “We lost our home - me and dad… And Zagam’s gone, too. Something about dimensions. Dunno.” He swallowed.

Her embrace become a little tighter. Jess wished her touch could convey all her feelings for him and help him to feel better… even if the circumstances were worse than she thought.

“I’m so sorry something so terrible happened.” she whispered, and kissed his cheek. “I know how it feels… to lose someone you saw as a father. It’s hard. If anything… you still have Bernie and me. You’re not alone. We’re here for you.” She pulled back a little to cup his cheek with her hand and press her forehead against his. “I’m here for you.”

But for how long, Damien thought bitterly. “Well, it’s nothing new” he mumbled, drawing back after a little while. He had to get up. Keep going was the only option there was. Suddely aware that his hair must look like a mess after sleeping he brushed his hands through it.

“I’m just trying to help you…” Jess felt slightly hurt by that response, but she guessed Damien’s mind wasn’t in the best place right now. Heck, a year ago she was a worse mess after the camping. She had to be patient.

“I can leave the room for a moment if you need some private time to change your clothes.” she mumbled, looking down at her bag. She was carrying her magic brooch in there. Maybe she could join Bernadette and transform. Fixing the factory should be easier with a little bit of magic… if her friend wasn’t doing it already!

“No need. I didn’t bring any other stuff” he admit, a bit embarassed. He rushed out so quick, he left pretty much unprepared. Besides… “Most of it was, well … Home.”

As he got up, the bigger cat came up to him, rubbing against Damuens legs. He wasn’t in the mood to pick it up right now, but felt his shoulders relax a bit at the familiar gesture.

“Hum, in that case… How about we go there? I’m pretty sure we’ll find something if we look for it. Bet there’s still something left behind.” she offered, trying to encourage him to get up.

Jess looked back to the door. “I’m pretty sure that Bernie can help. She could take us there in a flash.”

“The whole building is gone” Damien said; his hands forming wrists. As if he hadn’t thought about checking. It’s what he’s done the first couple of hours. What his dad had done, too. What he was probably still doing.

“I should go to dad, if anything” Damien guessed, remembering the handful of attempted calls and text messages. “And bring the cats back, first.” He couldn’t leave the two in here all day - especially since he had no intention of returning tonight. It won’t be fair. He leaned down to the cat to pet it; feeling a little bad that he didn’t know its name.

“Ooh…” Yes, it made sense. Jess wanted to smack herself - as if that hadn’t been obvious! But thinking of that wouldn’t help. She focused all her attention on him, trying to think of solutions. If the building was gone, chances were a portal had sucked it in… However, according to her uncle’s theories, portals tended to open again from time to time. Maybe she could check by herself. If she could find the portal, perhaps she could cross it and get back his stuff. And Bernadette could help her in case something went wrong…

“Going to your dad is a good idea. He’ll be worried for you.” she commented, leaving her hands on her lap. “I know it’s hard, but… things will be OK. if you need anything, you can call me anytime. For now… how about we get up and go outside, mmh?”

“I’ll be packing” Damien answered. Not that there was much packing to do: Cats, food … And his school bag, he luckily had with him that day. Same as Jess’ wrist band.

“And … we’ll meet in school. I’ll be back on Monday” he promised again.

“Alright. I’ll wait for you.” Jess leaned forward and, without thinking twice, gave him a soft kiss on the lips. Nothing too long, since they had to get going. When she got up, Bernadette knocked and came in.

“Hey guys… I saw you didn’t fix the hole of the roof and the structure of the building was suffering from it, so… I’ve done some fixing using my magic. No more hole. You’ve got something nicer instead~!”

“You did?! Oh Bernie, thank you!” Jess gave her a hug, that Bernadette was more than happy to return. She looked back at Damien and pulled back from Jess.

“C’mon, Damien. I’d like you to come and tell me what would you like to have there. I’ve been thinking of some ideas, like a stargazing spot, an observatory with telescope included, or just a nice glass dome. What would you like?”

“A stargazing spot would be nice…” Jess mumbled quietly.

“How about … a hole. A gaping hole. In the roof” Damien grumbled, rushing out of the room to see what Bernadette had done to his place.

She fixed it. She dared to fix it.

“ G̫̯͍̳̯͇̬a͍͉͖̬̜̮a̩̙̜͉̙̖͓ạ̫h̰̻!̰̪͚” he roared; getting even angrier as his voice repelled from the walls and he could hear the sound tingle in his ears again. Why couldn’t one thing just stay as it was?

#Damien RP #Damien and Jess RP #RP

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