#// i miss garrett getting to annoy someone in that way. | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

storiesforallfandoms · 3 years

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master plan ~ andrew siwicki

word count: 1721

request?: yes!

@harryskittenxox “ Omg thanks so much! I feel honoured lol I was thinking something along the lines of the two of you flirting constantly and Garrett gets his friend to flirt with you to try and make Andrew jealous and finally get him to admit his feelings but after a bit of arguing and angst and all that good stuff please? Totally happy for you to take control of it though, I love your writing concepts so much you just always hit the nail in the head!”

description: when andrew refuses to admit his feelings for the girl of his dreams, garrett enlists the help of a friend to push andrew along

pairing: andrew siwicki x female!reader

warnings: swearing

masterlist

“Why is Bruce flirting with me?” I whispered to Garrett as we both went to refill our drink glasses.

A group of us had gotten together at Garrett’s apartment - myself, Andrew, Caleb, and Bruce. Garrett invited us over for some drinks and snacks, not an unusual thing for Garrett to do. What was unusual, however, was for Bruce to be very openly flirting with me in front of everyone.

I was the only girl in our immediate friend group, so everyone assumed that Andrew, Caleb, and Bruce were constantly trying to get with me. This couldn’t be further from the truth. Besides the fact that Caleb already had a girlfriend, both he and Bruce were basically like my brothers and treated me the same way they treated each other and Garrett.

Andrew, however...well I could never tell what was happening with us. I sometimes thought that Andrew was just treating me the way he treated everyone, but I also came to realize that he was much more physically affectionate with me than anyone else. We talked a lot more than I talked to any of the other guys. But we never took it further than just friendship, which just confused me about...everything.

Garrett barley glanced at me as he responded, “Maybe he just likes you.”

I rolled my eyes. “That’s definitely not it. If he liked me, why wouldn’t he have flirted with me before now?”

“Maybe he has but you haven’t noticed.”

I gave him a look. “Garrett, for real. Do you know what’s happening with Bruce?”

He looked up at me and passed me a drink. “I swear, I know nothing.”

I didn’t believe him, but I knew I wasn’t about to get any sort of info from him.

We both returned to Garrett’s living room. There were two open spots: one next to Andrew and one next to Bruce. I looked between the two, wondering what my best course of action would be.

Andrew looked up at me first and smiled. My heart fluttered and I knew the right choice almost immediately.

As I started moving towards Andrew, Bruce spoke up, “(Y/N)! Come sit next to me!”

“You’ve been hogging her all night, Bruce,” Andrew said, his glare enough to kill someone. “Maybe let the rest of us have time with her.”

Bruce attempted to glare back, but I could tell it wasn’t as sincere as Andrew’s. “Maybe (Y/N) can decide for herself.”

I looked between the two before inching myself towards Andrew. “I - I’m gonna sit with Andrew.”

The look on Andrew’s face could only be described as triumphant. As I sat next to him, he put an arm around my shoulder, causing my face to burn. Garrett gave me a knowing look before sitting next to Bruce.

“Y-Your drink looks a little low,” I said, trying to think of something - anything - to say. “Want another?”

“I think I’m okay. Feeling a little fuzzy so I should probably slow down.”

He’s drunk, he’s not flirting, I reminded myself.

With his arm around me, I had to stop myself a few times from leaning into Andrew’s embrace. However, my alcohol started to kick in as well, and his smell was just as intoxicating as my nearly empty cup. Eventually I just couldn’t stop myself from letting my head drunkenly roll onto his shoulder. But he didn’t stop me from putting my head on his shoulder, either. He actually wrapped his arm around me, letting me stay there for some time.

Eventually, Andrew did get up to get another drink. I watched him go, immediately missing his warm body next to mine. A slight annoyance rose within me when Bruce quickly stood and sat next to me again.

“Bruce, what is your fucking deal?” I asked, shoving him away from me.

“What? We haven’t hung out in a long time! I’ve missed you!” Bruce argued, although it was a very paper thin argument.

“You don’t have to be all over me though, dude. It’s annoying.”

“You heard her, Bruce,” Andrew said, now coming back from getting his drink, “it’s annoying.”

“Well maybe the rest of us find it annoying the way you’re always stealing her,” Bruce retorted.

The room went silent. I snuck a glance at both Garrett and Caleb, who looked more shocked at Bruce’s statement than in agreement with him. Garrett even looked...worried? He definitely has something to do with this, I know he does.

Andrew’s face went red. I couldn’t tell if it was with anger or embarrassment. I could definitely feel mine ignited with the latter.

“If you guys have a problem with (Y/N) and I hanging out so much, you can tell me,” he said, his voice calmer than I anticipated. “You can tell me, too, (Y/N). You know that.”

I tried to respond but I was so shocked that I couldn’t get any words out. I couldn’t understand what was happening.

“But for real, man,” Andrew said, turning back to address Bruce specifically. “You’re bothering her, so fucking lay off. I’m gonna go get some air.”

The minute Garrett’s front door closed behind Andrew, Garrett was to his feet. “Okay, that was too far, man. This whole thing is over now.”

“What whole thing?” I demanded. “Garrett, what did you do?”

“I’m sorry for being too pushy, (Y/N),” Bruce said, suddenly back to being the Bruce I knew. “I didn’t mean to actually annoy you. I thought...Garrett, why didn’t you tell her about the plan?”

“What plan?” I snapped. “Will one of you tell me what’s going on? Please?”

“Garrett had this plan to try and make you and Andrew admit your feelings for one another,” Bruce explained. “That involved me flirting with you in front of Andrew and making him jealous. I didn’t mean to take it as far as I did, but that last part slipped out before I could think about it.”

“What?!” I turned to face Garrett. “Why would you do that?! Why wouldn’t you tell me?! Poor Andrew...”

“I’m sorry!” Garrett said. “I didn’t expect it to go as far as it did! Fuck, I’ll go after him.”

Before Garrett could even move, I was already out the door. I nearly stumbled over Andrew, who was sat on the front steps of the house. He looked up at me and gave me a small smile as I sat next to him.

“Are you okay?” I asked him. “You know what Bruce said isn’t true, right? About you and me hanging out too much. None of the guys think that at all.”

“I know. I, uh, I heard Bruce and Garrett discussing their little plan just then,” Andrew responded.

“What the fuck were they thinking?” I said, still angry about the situation. “That’s...all of that was so wrong. And then they took it too far and you got hurt. I’m fucking angry.”

“I’m not too mad,” Andrew admitted. “I mean, I’m glad they’re not all annoyed with us hanging out a lot, but I find it awkward that they don’t mind cause they just want us to date.”

I winced at his wording, wondering what he meant by that. Did he mean he didn’t want to date me? Or just he didn’t want the guys meddling in his love life? Or did it even have any meaning?

“Yeah,” I finally managed, forcing a light tone in my voice. “That...that is awkward.”

A silence fell between us. I looked down at the ground for a long time, unsure of what else to say. I debated on just getting up and going back inside. I didn’t even really want to be there anymore now that I knew how Andrew felt about the situation. I knew it was a long shot that he’d have feelings for me, but hearing him actually say it felt like a sharp knife through my heart.

“Were you jealous?” I found myself asking, shocked by the boldness I was feeling in that moment. “Or were you just annoyed with Bruce, too?”

“A bit of both I think,” Andrew responded. “Obviously I was annoyed. He was bothering you and acting like a dude who doesn’t understand the meaning of the word no. But I was also jealous of the way he was acting around, and the fact that he kept trying to take all your attention.”

“But like...in a friendly way? Like...were you jealous he was taking your friend?”

“Are you trying to ask if I have feelings for you (Y/N)?”

I shook my head and started to get to my feet. It was stupid of me to try and ask him that. Of course he didn’t have feelings for me, he was my best friend. Just my best friend.

Andrew quickly stood, too, grabbing hold of my arm to stop me from going in. “Hey, hey. Don’t run away so fast. I want to know, are you asking me if I have feelings for you?”

“Yes!” I finally responded. “Yes, that’s what I’m asking you. Do you have feelings for me, Andrew? Because I really want to know what’s going on between us. Are we flirting, are we just being really friendly, are we just friends? I wanna know what’s going on in your head when you think about me, and when you see me and hang out with me.”

“You really wanna know?”

“Yes, I do.”

The response to my question came in the form of Andrew’s lips against mine. It was so easy to relax into his kiss, wrapping my arms around his neck and holding him to me. His hands rested perfectly on my hips, like they were meant to be there. I leaned into him as close as I could be, taking in as much of him as I possibly could.

The sound of cheering broke us apart. We turned to see Garrett, Bruce, and Caleb looking out the living room window at the two of us. Upon realizing they had been caught, the three of them quickly pulled the curtains and backed away from the window.

“Do you wanna go back in there?” Andrew asked.

“No,” I responded.

“Me neither. Wanna go back to my place to finish our night?”

I smiled back at him. “I’d love that.”

#andrew siwicki #andrew siwicki imagine #andrew siwicki x reader #imagine #one shot #request #fanfiction #fanfic #fandom

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nachohypno · 3 years

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Pine’s Football Jocks (Rewritten!) - Ch. 3

Past Pine’s POV

I could barely sleep that night. Not because of nightmares or stress, or anything bad at all-

It was because Garrett- (Wait, I can call him Gary now!) Gary sent me a two minutes-long video playing with his body, cock included. It wouldn’t be a big deal normally, except that this is like the first nude I’ve ever gotten and I feel like it’s a big deal.

Sure, I ‘ordered’ him to make it and send it, but it’s still really exciting!

I was replaying it for like the millionth time, I wasn’t keeping track of how many times I’ve seen this video but it never got old.

The video showed Gary posing shirtless, flexing his arms and torso for the camera, before laying down on his bed and playing with his hard cock. It’s quite impressive how he managed to achieve that body size and definition, but it seemed proper since I think a linebacker needs to be big and strong?

Don’t get me wrong, I haven’t forgotten about all the shit he did to me and I’d like to have some payback time soon. But for now, this was enough to calm my ‘rage’.

Gary is silent for most of the video, except for when he softly moans whenever he’ll grab his own cock. I should change that for future videos, maybe some naughty talk can make it even better. But sadly, he was off to bed already. So it was just me, Gary’s video and…

[Hey, bro???]

Mike’s message from hours ago. He must be off to bed by now already, but let me see…

[Wanna chat?? U wont believe this match I just won-] I stopped reading, went out of the chat and focused again on Gary’s video. So nice looking pecs, great abs, that hard cock. Ooooof, it was making me hard all over again.

Putting a lot of will power though, I decided to put the phone down for the night (Finally, because it was almost 1 am) and went over to my bed.

‘Tomorrow will be even better. I know it’ I told myself, smiling as I closed my eyes while imagining myself playing with Gary’s body in person again.

----

Present Pine’s POV

I decided to start reading this thing before reading them out loud to Mikey, to make sure there’s nothing that’ll make him feel bad. Senior year was just a bitch, and there’s nothing we can do about it.

I don’t plan on rewriting what happened to make a ‘Mike-friendly’ version because these are my memories, twisting them around would miss the complete point of writing them down in the first place. I just wanted to be able to remember how we got here without missing any details, and he wanted to hear the full story. Maybe I can just skip some of the rougher scenes when he appears?

Like, I’m not an angel either. I guess I was just a bit too rough back before the ‘golden rule’ was a thing, so up until then, the wiser thing to do would be review this thing and separate the unnecessary parts from the important ones, that way I’m telling a good story and I’m leaving the unimportant stuff out.

I gave a huge sigh of relief. This was going to be much easier than what I thought. Looking up, I noticed the big guy finished his shower and was trying to untie the bag around his cast while he walked on a towel around his waist.

I was kind of surprised it didn’t fall off, since he was having a bit of trouble with the bag. “Need any help, big boy?”

Mike looked at me, a little smile appearing on his face. “Oh, uh… Sure thing!” It’s been quite a while and he still had a rough time getting used to the cast. Luckily, it was supposedly going to be taken off in a few weeks, if everything goes right.

Leaving my laptop aside again, I got up and walked over to him. Mike extended his injured arm and I began to untie the bag. “What’cha doin over there?” He asked, looking at the laptop with a bit of confusion in his face. “Is it story time already?”

It was funny. I thought about this as a little way to distract him from… reality and stuff, you know, and he ended up taking it as a new part of his schedule. Even calling it ‘story time’ now, apparently.

“I mean,” I mumbled, almost finishing with the bag. “We can have story time now if you’d like. I was just checking the stuff to come, to decide how I should divide the chapters and that kind of thing.” The bag came off his arm, and he extended it a bit.

The jock leaned in and smooched me on the lips, before mumbling a little “Thanks, bro”. It made me smile, and feel all warm and nice. “And sure, I’d love to have story time now! Been a few days already, but didn’t wanna push you to read without you bringin’ it up first…” He scratched the back of his head, looking away with a nervous smile.

“Don’t worry,” I said, putting the bag aside before looking back at him. “Today was a pretty tame day, so we can definitely do some good story time. Wat’cha think, big boy?”

“That’s a new one. The ‘Big boy’ I mean. I like it. I like you…” He leaned in for another kiss, but I grabbed him by the hand before he could reach me, thinking about dragging him to the couch. That seemed to become the perfect place for story time. Well, that and our bed, but we have used the couch more and it was closer at the moment.

What? I can be lazy too!

But first… “Aww. Well, time to drop deep, big boy.” I told him, examining his face as I watched his eyes become glassy, and his mouth turn into a dumb smile.

“Yussss, bruh…” He managed to answer, completely under already.

I looked at him, his hunk body at full display, except for the part beneath the towel. I would normally tell him to dress up first, but I knew the guy wasn’t getting much action lately. Or, barely any action at all.

The cast on his arm apparently got into his way of flirting, and it doesn’t seem like girls around campus want to have fun with ‘the broken quarterback’. That’s the cruel nickname he got, and I plan on giving him a triumphant return once his arm gets better.

I have a hunch his arm will be ready to play football again soon, but I prefer to be 100% and ask a real doctor. I don’t want my best friend to end up with a worse injury because I forced him to play or something.

“Drop that towel, too” I ordered him, and he slowly moved his hand to the towel, undoing it as the gravity took effect. Soon, Mikey stood in front of me in all of his naked glory. Cock semi hard on display, I started dragging him with me towards the couch.

I sat down, and I told him to do the same. After grabbing the laptop and opening the story file again, I looked over at Mike and mumbled a nice “Wake up now, sleepy boy”.

His expression returned to his face, but quickly replaced by confusion as he was now in a different spot. “What…?”

“It’s okay, just lay down and enjoy the story time. Got it, big boy?” I leaned in and gave him a good kiss. He kissed back, sloppy tongue and all, but of course I had the lead on the make out session.

If we didn’t have the story time about to start, I would have thrown the laptop off my lap and jumped on top of the muscular jock.

But… gotta do what I gotta do. I stopped the kiss, caressed his face, and then turned my gaze to the screen as he laid down next to me.

“So… Where were we…”

-----

Past Pine’s POV

I’ve had an amazing day.

Still not used to the whole ‘powers’ thing, I missed the opportunity to make Garrett drive me to school. However, that was on my plans. I wanted to make the most out of my new-found mind control power!

Sadly, now that I wanted to encounter a jock so badly, it seemed like they were the ones hiding from me now. The few ones I saw (That I share classes with, at least) seemed to ignore me or not notice me at all. Which is nice but… I kind of wanted to try this thing out, okay?

Noticing Gary walking over with a few of his teammates behind him, I took a deep breath and remained in place. I don’t know if they saw me either, but there was a surprising and greatly appreciated lack of shoving today! My arm was grateful.

Mike was the last guy to leave the classroom, because he was a slow writer sometimes, so he needed to stay a few minutes more and get his stuff down to paper. Otherwise, the teachers would get very mad at him for ‘not paying attention’.

“Oh. Hey bro,” Mike said, giving me a warm smile before stopping at my side. I was staring at the passing-by jocks in front of us, and the big guy took some time to greet them as they passed by. “Huh, they looked pretty friendly today. Towards you, I mean…”

“I think so, yeah.” I wasn’t sure if I should tell him about Gary being my friend now. Of course, the slave part was off the question, no-one could know about this nor anything related to my newfound superpower. That raised the question if I could erase memories by commanding that…

Lots of experimenting will give me the answer, I hope!

“Phew, glad to hear that” My former best friend patted my back. “I was getting kinda worried yesterday when I didn't get a reply. Y’know I can see when you’re online, right?”

I rolled my eyes. It was kind of annoying how he would pretend everything was fine and nothing ever happened. Even after a month or so of barely talking.

“But hey. I have the evening free after football practice, in case you want to come over and… y’know, play some smash or something” I got to admit that watching him act all nervous just because he was talking to me was a bit funny. It made me let out an internal ‘Aww’.

“Uhm… Sorry, got a study session prepared after football practice. So-”

“Wait, what?” Mike opened his eyes wide in surprise. “Are you tutoring someone from the team? Who is it? Huh, that was a quick solution to the… uh… thing”

Ignoring that last dumb comment, I answered with a “Garrett practically begged me to help him with his homework and a few more things. We made a deal, no more bullying in exchange for passing his classes”

I made up the story at the moment, and I surprised myself with how quickly I came up with that.

The jock placed a hand on my shoulder, a look of concern on his face. “If he tries something bad…”

“He’s pretty nice, actually” Now I was just being an asshole. “He dropped the ‘faggot’ nickname and treated me nicely yesterday. I was kind of scared, but he really surprised me.” I shrugged, trying to look like I didn’t care at all.

Of course, I was making it up. I can’t just tell Mike that I randomly managed to control Garrett’s mind and apparently turned him into a slave. I had proof that it hadn’t been a dream, since Gary sent me a video playing with his body and I checked it out again this morning.

“I don’t think we’re talking about the same Garrett…” Mike started. It was nice of him to get worried, but everything was under control. Besides, I was still mad at him even though the problem was now solved, but it wouldn’t hurt to teach him that actions have consequences.

‘I’m an awful friend’ I thought, but the thought was shrugged off quickly when Gary approached us.

The mean jock punched my shoulder in a rough but friendly way, which caused Mike to shoot a glare at him, but still not move. It hit different now, not hurting as much as before and being kind of… Glad that he didn’t jump on Garrett’s jugular now.

I mean, it’s just like when you get a new toy and you don’t want anyone to break it.

“Hey bros. Wat’chu talking bout?”

Mike and Gary weren’t really fond of each other. The tension could be felt as I was trapped between them, Mike still glaring at Gary and the latter trying to ignore him by staring down at me. It was funny how Gary is supposed to be bigger than Mike, due to him being the linebacker.

Truth is, they are almost the same size, Gary surpassing my childhood friend by a bit more of muscular definition. Mike doesn’t look bad, but I know he’s fully natural. Meanwhile, I still suspect Garrett is on steroids.

“Uh… I was about to ask Pine here if he wanted to come over and play some smash,” I could practically feel how Mikey was hoping for Garrett to not jump in the wagon and ask to join. “So… What do you think, bro?”

I was going to answer him that I was busy. That was my usual excuse when Mike wanted to hang out. I was still not ready to hang out with him again, I needed a bit more time to calm down, now that Garrett wasn’t a problem anymore. There were still the other football guys, so that was a thing to take care of.

“Can’t do, bro. Lil’ Pine here and I got a study session, gotta take all those maths and shit in.” Garrett answered for me, grabbing me by the shoulders and shaking me a bit. It sounded a bit rougher than what I intended, but it did the dirty work for me, I guess.

“Well, how about after your study session? We barely hang out anymore…”

I gotta give it to the guy, he was actually pushing for it this time. I appreciated that.

“Sure, if we finish the studying thing quickly, I’ll head over to your place.” I patted Mike’s back, and he smiled faintly.

“Yeah, that’d be great. Gonna be practicing my fighting skills!” My jock friend seemed excited, all of a sudden. “Gonna get going now, but hey, see you later!”

Gary and I watched as he turned around and started walking away. He seemed happier now, but Gary had a look of disgust on his face. “He’s kind of annoying, bro. I don’t know how you put up with him”

“Hey, don’t talk about him like that. Just because we discussed doesn’t mean you can trash talk my best friend, got it? Besides, it’s your fault we even discussed in the first place” No, it wasn’t. Mike went around telling my business to his teammates. But Garrett played a part in me being really mad at Mikey, so he did have a bit -lots- of guilt.

The glassy eyes returned, as he mumbled a quick ‘Yeees, bro…” before his face returned to normal. “Uhm, sorry. Didn’t mean to offend you, bro”

“It’s… okay. Should we get going? That ‘study session’ won’t get done by itself.” I took a deep breath, trying to keep myself cool.

“Yeeaaaah… So… About the studying thing…” The big jock scratched the back of his head, a somewhat childish grin on his face. “I invited a friend over”

“You did what?” I was, of course, going to scold him! How could he be so… Irresponsible! I tried to keep my cool as best as I could, because I couldn’t show that I was Gary’s ‘master’ at school.

“Please don’t be mad, but he’s coming right up to leave with us…”

“This is the tutor dude, right?” A guy said behind me. I recognized that voice…

Slowly turning around, I took a moment to observe my classmate. Brent had short hair, almost a military cut. He used to keep it long but according to Mikey, his dad made him cut it and he’s kept it like this ever since.

A bit smaller than Gary, but still displaying a good physique, Brent was wearing a green shirt and jeans. His varsity jacket was tied to his bag, which I couldn’t understand. Those things are GREAT! They look really good, they are warm and cozy, AND they make the wearer 10 times hotter, like some kind of rpg armor with special stats.

I know what I’m talking about, when Mike got his varsity jacket I would ask him to let me wear it just because it’s cozy and keeps me warm in winter. The big guy was happy to do so, but he really adores his varsity jacket so I couldn’t keep it away from him for too long.

Back to the ‘extra student’ situation, though!

I was unsure if I should take Brent in. He was… okay. I mean, personality wise. I don’t keep tabs on which jocks go after me and how much they do, it’s usually peer pressure and if I go into that, I’ll have more revenge to do than the Green Arrow.

‘You’ve failed this nerd’ and then I enslave them. Hehe.

And if we go by appearance wise, the guy is hot. Most of the football guys will be hot for me, because I like big guys and they go through some rough training. Even the shortest guy has a nice build, it was surprising.

“Pine. My name is Pine” I stated, not really annoyed at being called ‘tutor dude’ but if I was going to help him, then I expected some degree of respect.

“Cool. Brent.” He extended his hand, and I shook it. I kind of expected him to be all rough about it and crush my hand, but he was quite gentle. That earned him some points.

“Uhm… What do you need help with…? I got to know what I’m going to help you with before we actually get on it.” It was logic, I’m not going to wait until we’re at Gary’s house. Not that it would matter much but… Hey, maybe I can do some good with my powers.

Y’know, proving I’m better than these guys by helping them, alongside having my little payback?

It’s also a good testing ground for my powers, to see if I can make them somehow smarter. Huh, it just sounds better and better.

“Math. My bro told me you were helping him with it yesterday and I really, really need some help before the exams. I ain’t really on edge with my grades, but I don’t wanna risk it.” Glad to hear Gary has been using the excuse I told him to use.

“Hmm. All right then, let’s get going and I’ll do my best to help you with that” I tried to sound cold, but again it fell flat. And Brent just didn’t seem to care.

He looked at Gary and said “Huh, you were right, bro. This guy’s a life-saver!”

“See? Told ya. We kinda made a deal and I’m leaving him intact as long as he helps me, so maybe he’ll extend that deal to you and you won’t need to pay!” I kind of wanted to kick Gary’s nuts right about now, but kept it to myself.

I don’t know if I could make Brent my slave as easily as I did with the first one, so I was really hoping Gary would shut up until I figured things out.

We set on our way after that, walking towards the exit and then towards Gary’s car. I sat on the back seat this time, since I figured the new jock would like to sit with his teammate on the front.

But then, it struck me.

“Hey Brent. Sit on the back with me, will you?” I said, in a commanding voice. If this didn’t work, I would have earned myself a beat up.

“Sure, why not” was his answer. I didn’t see his face, but I don’t that was just him being nice at the tutor dude. He totally glazed out when I ordered him!

There was a bit of a gap between us, as we sat on the opposite sides of the seat. Gary didn’t seem to care about the situation at all, he sat on the driver’s seat and just waited for us to be ready. Once we were done, he turned on the car and drove off.

I looked at Brent, trying to figure out what to do now that I… ‘made’ him sit on the back seat with me.

Moving closer to him, I tried something out. “Uh… Brent,” I figured it would be important to state his name, this way Gary wouldn’t get confused and get the command as his own. “Don’t mind at all what I’m about to do; It’s totally normal and you’re okay with it.”

This time, I did look at his face. Eyes glazed over, and he slurred a “Yeeaah…”.

Awesome.

I moved my hand and lifted his shirt up. His body was pretty nice, and I didn’t hesitate to feel him up. I was getting the hold of this ‘controlling guys’ thing!

My hand went down, until it rested on top of the jock’s crotch. Brent just stared through the window, not caring about what was I doing. This. Is. The. Best.

I kind of wanted to undo his pants and grab his package, but I think it would be better if I left that for later. I had a little idea, and I wanted to see it play out instead of just rushing things.

I did have a little idea, in the meantime. “Wrap an arm around my shoulders” And Brent did so, while still not paying attention, apparently. It was warm and it felt good, so that was enough to satiate my hunger for control, heh.

I noticed Garrett looked at us through the driving mirror and asked “Huh, getting comfortable back there, aren’t ya?”

That’s when Brent looked down at me, noticing he was hugging me. I thought he was going to pull back, but he didn’t. “Yeah, I guess so. You don’t mind, right dude?”

I shrugged. “It’s kinda nice. Pull me closer and hug me tight.”

“Okay.” It felt even warmer now, and I loved it. The fact that he’s totally oblivious or doesn’t care about it makes it kind of hotter, but I’d prefer to have him like Gary was just yesterday. Waiting for orders with a big smile on his face.

“You don’t think this is weird?”

“I would, normally. But I want to do this, otherwise I’d tell you to go fuck yourself” Quite straightforward, but I didn’t mind. It helped me think that whenever I order something to these guys, it appears to them that it’s actually their own idea.

Garrett chuckled on the front. “Don’t get too comfortable. We’re about to arrive” That’s the thing when you live in a small town, everything is right around the corner, or it feels like it.

I managed to enjoy a few more minutes with Brent hugging me like this, before Garrett parked in front of his garage. That was our cue to get down. Brent didn’t seem to mind at all what just happened, which was… okay.

On a little side note, It was weird how Garrett’s parents never seemed to be at home. I guess it fits the guy’s style well, got the whole place to himself in case he wants to bring a ‘friend’ over, or something. I wouldn’t mind having a mansion to myself either, so that’s good for him. I guess.

Once we all got out of the car (Brent wasn’t being so… ‘close’ to me anymore, but rather came back to barely interact with me), we entered Gary’s place and I took a moment to take in the big place.

“So, up to my room again? Or do you guys prefer the dining room for studying n’ shit?” Garrett asked, tilting his head a bit.

I looked at the two guys, and decided to take the lead from this point onwards. If I was going to be the ‘teacher’, then I had the choice!

“Your room would probably be a bit cozier, and your desk has enough space for you two. Just imagine we’re at the school’s desks, if anything.” I answered, my voice sounding a bit more nervous than before, but I tried to reassure myself that I could do it.

Brent didn’t complain, he just shrugged and went “No problem by me” He wasn’t being mind controlled to agree, I could tell. But my plan was going smoothly, so I didn’t mind.

That being said, I was growing impatient as we walked to Gary’s room. Once we entered, both jocks sat in front of the desk, grabbed their bags to get their school stuff, then waited for me.

I didn’t want to just be like ‘You will now obey me completely! Nyehehehe!’ because that sounded a bit lame, and I don’t know if they can break out of it if I don’t put special care or something. So, let’s give it my best!

Both guys had problems on long operations, so I grabbed my own notes and gave them a few of the exercises we’ve seen in our classes. I did my best to explain it to them, and tried to say something like ‘Remember this well’, to make sure they learn to solve it or at least keep my explanation in their heads and work their way around it.

Garrett got around the first exercise eventually, a few minutes after we started. He was a good boy!

Brent wasn’t being so lucky, sadly. “Need help with that?” I asked him, placing my hand on his shoulder before taking it away quickly.

He looked at me a bit confused, before realizing what just happened. “It’s… alright. Just can’t get how you get the two last results…”

I leaned over to see his sheet. Huh, he was barely making any progress. I see that this guy really needed the help.

Luckily, I can help him. I shouldn’t, because I remember Brent being one of the football guys that bullied me, but I’ll get to the payback later. Now, I can do some good actions, right?

“See, you missed the point of these numbers here… This one replaces B, this one goes where A is –both As- and this one replaces C. Got it so far?”

“I guess so…” Brent traced little arrows to which numbers replaced which letters in the operation. I looked over at Gary and he was silent, still doing his own exercises.

“Good. Now, just do as I say. It only gets easier from here.” I mumbled, but quickly got silent.

I noticed Brent’s face relaxed after I said that. “Do as you say…” He repeated, eyes glazed over again. Gary lifted his head and looked at Brent. A little smile appeared on his face, as he gave me a quick thumb up.

Not going to lie, it was a bit getting on my nerves how this thing worked at random. Must be something on how I phrase my words, or the way I say them? I have no idea, fuck.

Was he happy I just did something to his teammate? I mean, it was nice but… weird.

Anyway, I guess that should do the trick? I still wanted to do something else because that didn’t erase my fear of him overcoming the mind control. Gary apparently already accepted it, and he seemed happy.

I shrugged off my thoughts and kept explaining the rest of the operation. It went nicely, as Brent only focused on what I had to say. That seemed to make everything really easy for me!

After he got his results, the big jock patted my back softly. “Thanks, man. I dunno how you got this stuff in, but it just seems so easy now!”

“Hey, it’s… okay, I guess.” I answered, my voice stuttering a bit due to the nervousness.

I’m not used to being praised by the jocks, much less having them chat normally to me. And the fact that he was trying to avoid most contact before made me think that he does remember the stuff his team did, including himself.

Garrett looked up again and punched his friend’s shoulder. It seemed rough, but Brent apparently didn’t mind. He just coughed a bit and looked down to the floor. “And, uh… Sorry for… Y’know, all the stuff that happened to you. Not gonna happen again… Not by me, at least.”

A little smile formed on my face. I wondered if Gary had talked to him about apologizing, and if he did it with anybody else. It felt nice, didn’t erase all the stuff that happened, but still felt nice.

“Actually,” I started speaking, catching both jocks’ attention. They stared at me, not muttering a single word or seeming to interrupt. It was like I was a superior, which in a way, I was for Gary but not for Brent. Not yet. “I have an idea that I know you both will like.”

“Huh, what is it?” Garrett asked, leaving his pencil on the desk and turning his chair around to face me.

“Got me all curious now, hahah” Brent told his teammate, before facing me too.

“Lil’ bird told me you come from a military family, right?” I asked Brent, ever so casually. He didn’t take it as funny, though. His smile quickly turned into a frown. ‘Such a way to go, Piney!’ I told myself, wanting to bump my head on the wall.

“Uh… What’s it to ya?” I figured he wouldn’t be as open when I brought up his family. As I mentioned, I knew he came from a military family, and Mike had told me a few stories about the guy getting mad because his teammates mock him about it.

“N-Nothing, I just… uhm… thought it would be… Forget about what I said, I know the answer already.” I tried to shrug it off, trying to slip back into the ‘I’m in charge here’ mentality. “Both guys, strip down to your underwear. You won’t think this is weird, it’s actually a fun game that I’m totally not making up”

I got to see their faces blanking out, as they got up and started lazily getting undressed. Shirts went off first, which revealed some nice pecs and abs, always nice to see those.

Brent was actually a bit smaller than Gary, like, in a muscular way. He was still nice, but barely near Gary’s level. Points for Gary, I think? Brent still had a nice hunk-ish build, and I didn’t notice this before but he had a pair of blank dog tags hanging from his neck. That was a cute detail!

The shoes went off second, then the pants. They struggled a bit with those because they tried to take their clothes off as quickly as possible, but they also made weird robotic/lazy movements, which I assumed was because of the mind control. Other than that, I was very satisfied with the results.

Two semi-naked jocks in front of me, what to do now?

“The game I had in mind is called ‘The jock and the soldier’, ever heard of it?” I asked, and the guys shook their heads in denial. “Well, it’s a very fun game played by three persons. There’s the jock, that’ll be you, Gary. There’s the soldier, which will be played by Brent. And then there’s me, the game master!”

They were visibly confused. Brent was the one not enslaved yet, so he said “Wait, why are we playing a game? I thought we were studying…?”

I found it funny that he didn’t think it was weird that he just stripped to his underwear because I said so.

“The game is actually very important! Will teach you a valuable… very valuable life lesson, okay?”

“Ooookay… How do we play?”

“It’s simple enough! First, we gotta decide who’ll be the superior one between you two, or the ‘top’. Whatever you want to call it.” It was actually quite hard to come up with this stuff. “Let’s settle it with…” I blanked out. Like, not in trance/mind control way, but in a ‘I’ve run out of ideas way’. I had to get a notepad and write my ideas now to avoid this from happening!

‘C’mon, Piney. Think!’ I told myself. What would a jock do to solve a dispute between ‘bros’? Hmm… “A wrestling match. This is a very good idea and you’re both eager to participate!” I didn’t know what I was saying, but if I was correct, a wrestling match was the one where they tried to out-strength the other guy and not the one where they blow their teeth out with punches.

“Hell yeah!” Gary shouted, not blanking out this time. It didn’t bother me; I knew he already was pretty much enslaved already. “Prepare to lose, bro!”

Brent didn’t turn down the offer, so that meant it worked on him too! “Gonna make you bite the dust, Basch!” The soldier-guy replied at Gary, as they started getting in position a few meters away from each other.

At first, I thought a wrestling match wouldn’t be a good thing because this is Gary’s bedroom, but I think the space is wide enough for them to wrestle between the bed and the desk. I just pushed the chair and the stool into the desk so they wouldn’t get in the middle.

“Ready?” Grunts of approval were heard from both sides. I walked to my safe area: Garrett’s bed, and got comfortable. “Start!”

Gary had the upper hand at the start, lunging at Brent and pushing him back to his own starting line. Brent wasn’t too far behind though; he was putting up a good fight to not go down so easily. It was pretty entertaining to watch, especially with both participants being in their underwear.

“So, uh… I forgot to tell you guys what the game master does, so I’ll just explain it while you two wrestle. Is that okay?” They were too busy trying to win to talk, but they grunted again in approval. “Well, as the game master, I’m the one to tells you what to do, and you’re the ones that do it without a question. It’s totally normal, just doing what I say without a second thought”

The wrestling slowed down for a second, from both sides. Brent seemed to be gaining the upper hand now, but Gary being a bit bigger than him didn’t make that easy, at all.

“And for my first order, I want you both to get hard. You both find this game incredibly arousing.” Gosh, I hope I didn’t sound too weird.

“Yes, master!” Gary managed to say, while he pushed Brent off.

“What the… heck?!” Brent said, and I figured he didn’t like the ‘master’ thing.

“It’s okay, Brent! I’m Gary’s master, so it’s okay for him to call me that. And actually, I’m your master too, understood?” It was a lame ‘easy fix’, but it should put him to work quite fast.

“Yes… master!” I don’t know if they can resist my orders, but two guys in a row couldn’t do it so… I had my hopes up! But actually ‘master’ didn’t sound so well coming from Brent. And he is the soldier player…

“You don’t get to call me ‘Master’ though, Brent. You’re the soldier, remember? You got to try and fit your role!”

“Sir, yes Sir!” He shouted, trying to keep the composure against his rival.

“C’mon, dude… Just… lose… already!” Gary was struggling to keep the smaller guy off him. And his words only seemed to make Brent stronger.

Soon, Gary was the one losing. Two taps on the floor later and… “Yes! I did it, Sir!”

Brent had won. I didn’t want that, honestly. I would have preferred the jock to win. But… I am the game master, right?

I noticed that both guys had their rods up and going too, they seemed constrained in their underwear, and the thought of them just wrestling while having hard-ons made everything way better.

“Great work, you two!” I congratulated them, as I watched them get up again with big smiles on their faces. Seems like they had fun too! “Looks like the soldier came off as the superior one, you know what that means?”

“Nuh-uh” They replied, almost at unison.

“Well, let’s see… You guys face each other for a moment, okay?” The jocks complied, facing each other as ordered. They seemed excited to continue with the game, which made me really happy! “Brent, since you’ve won, you proved to be the superior one. And… As the superior one, you have to be good with your inferior mate and make sure he feels well, don’t you?”

“Uh… Not sure how would I do that… Do you need something, bro?” He asked Gary, who shook his head. “Nope, I’m fine. Should I need something, Master?”

“Make out, guys. I’ll take care of your underwear in the meantime” I ordered, looking expectantly at them.

“Sir, yes Sir!” “Yes, Master!” They said, before getting down to business. Garrett pulled his teammate in for a good, sloppy kiss. Needless to say, I was already rock hard.

After watching for a few seconds, I turned my view down towards the underwear. Slowly pulling Gary’s down to release his cock, then tapping his feet for him to lift it and finally throw it away. Same deal with Brent, and soon they were fully naked in front of me.

“Now, stop kissing.” They stopped. It felt weird, but funny. Like, having them do what I say. It felt nice, really nice. “Brent, kneel and face Gary’s cock.”

“Sir, yes Sir…” He mumbled, before dropping down and staring at his teammate’s dick.

“Take it in your mouth, nice and slowly… Have you ever gotten a blowjob?” I asked, and Brent nodded. Huh, never really put thought into it but I guess jocks really have better luck in their sexual lives. “Well, I want you to give Gary a blowjob to get his cock lubed up. And you’re going to enjoy every second of it!”

“Sir, yes Sir!” He started licking Gary��s shaft, nice and slowly as ordered. I don’t know if he was an expert, because I’ve only seen these things in porn. But Gary started moaning and blowing some air, while Brent took it to the next step and swallowed the tip. He started getting more and more inches in as he did so, and I LOVED it!

“How does it feel, Gary?” I asked the other guy, a big smile on my face. I was really enjoying this, and I still couldn’t believe that I was capable of doing this!

“Awesome, master! Thanks for givin’ me a slave-bro!” Huh, didn’t think of it that way, but kind of glad to see he’s happy too!

I let them keep going for a few more minutes, before I ordered to move to Gary’s bed. They sat on the edge and waited for more orders. “Now that Gary’s cock is all lubed up, thanks to Brent’s good soldier service…” Brent gave me a quick military salute after those words, which made me smile a bit more. “We’re going to take things to the next level. Brent, lay on your back and lift your legs up.”

“Sir, yes Sir!” The naked ‘soldier’ obeyed perfectly, and I had a feeling Gary knew what was coming, because he has this big smile on his face too. This ended up being a wonderful tutoring session, and it wasn’t even over yet!

“Now Gary, get behind him and place his legs over your shoulders. I want you both to fully enjoy this and… uh… embrace your status as my slaves the more you obey, understood?”

“Sir, yes Sir!” “Yes, master!”

“Great! Now… Gary, I want you to fuck Brent.” It was pretty straightforward, and I thought I would have to explain him something about it, but he got his cock aligned with Brent’s ass and started pushing in. I pushed my glasses back, grabbed a seat and enjoyed the action.

Brent’s blank dog tags started doing that ‘cling cling’ sound metal does when hitting against more metal, but it was kind of silenced by the pair’s moans. They barely trying to hide it, they loved it. And I loved it even more!

I was playing with my bulge as I admired my handy work.

“You like that, Brent? Is Garrett doing a good job?”

“Hnng… Yes, Sir! I love it! I’m fully enjoying it!” That was a weird response, but I guess that’s what I ordered him before. Eh, it was alright.

“What about you, Gary? Like that ass?”

“Uh… Yes, master! Fuck… I love this. Ugh… you’re the best master, eveerrrrr…” He groaned as he picked up the pace.

“Woah, not so fast buddy! Let’s do something. When you both cum, you will accept that you are my obedient jock slaves. No questions asked, and you are totally happy with that.”

“Yeaaaah…” was their answer, and I was delighted.

“Great. Now, feel free to cum whenever you’d like. I’ll just sit here, and enjoy the view…”

-----

“You call me if you want a ride home, okay master?” Gary said, shaking my shoulder a bit before giving me a sort of worried look. I was just going to my old best friend’s house, so I didn’t know where that was coming from.

“Will do. I can just walk though. Would be pretty pointless to make you drive all the way over just to take me some streets”

“Hey, I don’t care. You call, I’ll be there” That’ll never seem normal. I’m used to seeing Garrett as a threat to my very being, and him acting so… friendly. It’s weird, however you look at it.

I nodded, deciding to drop the conversation, but Gary leaned in and pulled me in for a kiss. I didn’t resist, it was a nice surprise. After that, he mumbled a “Anything for you, master…”, while still looking intently at me.

“Thanks for that… I’ll be going now; I think…” I answered, before opening the door and stepping out of the car.

So… yeah. I had arrived at Mike’s house. It’s been a good while, a month or so and I already felt like I was in a strange place, for some reason.

I guess it’s because I’m not a very outgoing guy? I’m used to being in my house all the time besides school, so when I stopped coming it kind of… vanished from my mind.

Saying goodbye to Gary, then leaving his car, I started walking over to the door and ringing the bell.

“MOOOOOOM, I’M GOING!” I heard a deep voice yelled. Heavy steps later, Mike was standing in front of me after opening the door. “Hey there, bro!”

The big guy held his open hand out, waiting for me to ‘bro slap’ it. He (And probably his teammates too, I don’t think he’s the only one with this thing) have this weird thing of adding ‘bro’ before some actions and that supposedly makes them better/more fraternal.

I grabbed his hand and gave it a shake. That didn’t bother him though, he just moved aside and let me in.

“How are you doing?” I asked him. I didn’t intend to sound cold, at all. I’m just not good at making chit chat. It wasn’t a problem when we didn’t have a fight in between, but just like before, it felt pretty different now.

“Doing great! Was just heating up in my room, preparing the cartridges and etc. How was your studying?” Mike gave a step closer, and started examining me. Probably looking for bruises? It was the only thing I could think of, since he didn’t trust Gary at all.

He has his reasons though; he knows how much damage he can do. Still, kind of pointless to seem to worry without having ever stepped in to help.

“It was nice. Lots of maths and stuff” I shrugged. I wasn’t in a chatty mood, especially with him. I wasn’t going to break the ‘we’re not talking’ punishment because we were going to play. “Shall we… uh…” I started pointing up, waiting for him to catch that I wanted to be upstairs. I didn’t want to greet Mike’s parents; I don’t know if they’d be happy to see me after I cut ties with their son.

“Uh… yeah, sure! Dinner won’t be ready until an hour or so later, so we have lotsa time to play!” Mike was clearly excited, and I felt a bit bad to act like a party pooper around him.

He moved aside and closed the door once I was in. Then we made our way up to his room, while I silently hoped his parents wouldn’t pop up randomly from a corner or something.

“I think dad is making ravioli. I know you liked those, so you can stay over if you’d like and I can walk you home afterwards…” No sleeping over, I guess he had a part of his feet down to earth.

“I don’t know, mom’s also expecting me for dinner, so I may have to call first to check”

“Good ol’ Piney, always playing by the rules, right?” He chuckled, giving me a rough pat on the back. The chuckle quickly vanished as he mumbled a ‘Sorry’. Ignoring that, we made our way to his room and he closed the door there too.

Just a little head up: Mike LOVES football.

His room had a good amount of his favorite team’s posters. A football helmet was on the floor, next to its ball. The jock’s varsity jacket was neatly held on the desk chair’s back. No trophies though, because he plays mostly high school football or with the nicer teammates at the park, so no trophies for the big guy, yet.

But it wasn’t just filled with jock stuff, because Mikey here has a little secret side. He’s a big nerd too.

His desk had all his Switch games stacked up in random angles, which did make me a bit nervous. His console was settled next to his bed, while the dock was connected to a small flat screen hanging from the wall. Little action figures were displayed on a shelf, and unlike some would think, he never hid them.

He actually had a nice system that he liked to geek about too, like it was the smartest thing in the world. Most jocks (I assume) would hide those kinds of things if they had visits or something. That’s not the case for Mikey. He didn’t need to hide anything because he ‘wasn’t having anyone over’.

That way, he can keep a healthy sexual life while not having to worry about his nerdy side being discovered, and mocked by his teammates.

Oh hey, I could show his teammates that Mike’s a big nerd! Oh wait no, that would be really mean. The idea’s tempting, though.

Grabbing a controller, and passing me the other one, the game was on. He sat on his bed and patted a spot beside him, but I sat on the desk chair. It was actually pretty uncomfortable because it didn’t have any pillow or anything like that, so my ass was on the wood. That’s what I get for being a meanie.

“Gonna pick Link, don’t try to cheese it with the pink puffball, a’ight?” He said, chuckling at his own comment. I remained with a stoic face at all times, which he didn’t find as funny.

“Let’s just get on with it…” I had chosen the random character, because each minute here made me rethink why I actually accepted coming to Mike’s place. I didn’t want to mind control him, he was like a big brother to me! A big, asshole-ish big brother that tells all the stuff you tell him to everyone else!

Okay, being serious for a moment, it would have been really weird. I did enjoy looking at his body the few times he got shirtless in front of me, but I would never lust after him.

[Present|Pine: Oooh, that didn’t age well…]

We played for some good twenty minutes. It was pretty fought over, sometimes he would win, sometimes I would win. I was focusing on the game mostly to ignore his chit chat. Because Mikey was trying to make chatter with me and I would just answer a ‘Hmm…’ or a ‘Wow, yup’ or the always nice ‘Sure thing’.

He, of course, wasn’t happy with my vague answers. And the evening was turning even more silent the more I tried to ignore him.

“Okay, we gotta take a pause. I actually invited you for something else, bro.” ‘Let it be snacks, let it be snacks, let it be snacks…’ “Look, I’m… I’m really sorry about what I did. Outing you with my teammates, I mean. It really wasn’t intentional”

I would have really hoped if he brought out a can of potato chips, because that would have led to a prettier conversation than this one.

“I never wanted for them to bully you like that… or like, in any way. You’re my best friend, and I know that I should have stood up for you a lot sooner and I’m really sorry for that too…” He continued apologizing, like hoping that it would make me more at ease, or something.

I let out a sigh, and tried to remain as calm as possible. “I still don’t get why you had to tell them about my secret, when I told you specifically to not say anything about it to anyone else. And you agreed to that. So, what was crossing your mind when you said ‘Fuck it! I’m going to tell everyone!’?”

It may have come off a bit more aggressive than what I intended.

But he didn’t have an answer. And if Mikey himself doesn’t have an answer, then who should I ask?

“Look, bro. I don’t know what you want me to do. I-I already said I’m sorry! I don’t fucking know what to do! I just want my best friend back!” Now he was being sort of aggressive too, which was good! It basically gave me permission to be aggressive too!

“You know how I stopped using the school’s bathroom, just in case I got cornered in there?! I got shoved to lockers almost every freaking day!”

“What the hell do you want me to do?! Stand up for you? I will! I will beat the crap out of anyone who tries to touch you from now on! Is that what you’d like?!”

“Well, you could have just shut your mouth and I wouldn’t have been in that situation to begin with, dumbass!” I didn’t want him to stand up for me now, I could defend myself very well now!

“What did you call me?!”

“Oh, nonono. You don’t get to feel offended! In fact, you are really a dumbass for outing me right after I told you about my stuff. You really are just a dumb jock, like the others are!” I shouted at him, and I felt like I might have fucked up a little.

By shouting like that I may have alerted his parents or something, so I started grabbing my stuff, determined to leave the room.

I noticed Michael didn’t have an answer, but I just couldn’t bear to look at him. This guy wasn’t my best friend. He’s like those persons you grow up with and end up drifting away due to stupid stuff.

But I didn’t think this was one of those ‘stupid stuff’. He outed me to his teammates, the very same day I told him about it. How bad can you be at keeping a secret?!

I went for the door and left the room, quickly making my way downstairs and through the front door. Mike apparently just noticed what happened, because before I crossed the street to start making my way home, I heard a very loud “Bro?!” coming from the upper floor of the house. It sounded… deep, and kind of weird, but I didn’t give it much thought at the time.

I just wanted to get home and be done with it. It didn’t even cross my mind at the time that my mind control might have done something to him, but I did go over our argument a couple times during that night.

My words could very well have come off as orders, which caused a series of side effects that I would see the consequences of later. But for now, I remember feeling very sad, and just wishing for that pseudo-awful day to be over.

-------

Present Pine’s POV

I slowly closed the laptop, and put it away again. I felt like I could tear up, and I had almost forgotten about that one bit. I was rethinking the whole ‘I should write down my memories’ thing. My memories aren’t that happy and I would have preferred to forget about that one fight with Mike.

“Hey, you okay?” The big guy noticed something was wrong, but I did my best to shrug it off.

“Just… got caught in the story’s mood. Like a ‘feels bad, man’ moment, or something” I didn’t want to worry him. Mike tends to get emotional with… ‘the past’, and I’m okay with letting things go, especially if they happened years ago.

You can’t get mad for a long time when you’re a mind controller, it might cloud your judgement and do something you regret. And I just revived a prime example…

“Sorry… I didn’t want you to feel bad… We can resume any other time,” Mikey stated, moving closer to me and kissing my cheek a lot of times. “And hey, my arm is feeling way better lately. Once I get this stupid cast off, I’ll carry you to our bed ASAP” He finished, with a nice smile.

“Well, I’ll make sure of that in a few weeks. Already made a to-do list for you once you get the cast off.” I appreciated his attempt to cheer me up. I wasn’t really mad, just felt like a cold water bucket fell on me. It wasn’t serious though, it’s just like when you randomly get a bad thought. You just try your best and hope it goes away.

“Really? Like what?” He asked, looking more excited now. I noticed his cock was getting harder by the minute.

“Y’know, move a few things around the place. Clean around. Work out like crazy…”

“I’m only happy to hear one of three things in that list. I was hoping for something… uh… together?” He gave his big bud a thug, without taking his eyes off me. It was clear who was the romantic guy of the pair, of course.

I leaned in and whispered, putting some power in my words (God, reading how I wasn’t able to do that before is kind of painful, too!). “Take care of that big guy. I’ll go finish a few things around here.”

Mike’s eyes glazed over, as a big dumb smile took over his face. “Yeah… master…” He looked straight ahead now, slowly stroking his cock but quickly picking up the pace.

Hey, I don’t plan on letting him cum without my help. Going to rush the cleaning around and check my emails to go back with my big jock!

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Author’s note:

Looooooooong chapter!

I like Brent. Military guys are another of my favorite stereotypes, but the jocks usually get more love! The dog tags look awesome, the obedience they display, the camo clothes are quite neat. And the few ones I’ve met so far are really nice!

I was thinking about splitting this chapter in two parts. I did so with chapter 5 in Patreon, to improve the reading quality and avoid having it like a wall of text (I feel like I got carried away with this and the next chapter, and they’re both over 9K words).

But ultimately decided to leave it like this. May be a wall of text, but it’s probably better than having you guys searching for the second part.

Okay, that’s all I had in mind for this chapter. Hope you enjoyed it, and thanks for reading <3.

#PinesJocks #PinesCollegeJocks #brainwashing #brainwash #brainwashed #mind control #straight to gay #gay hypnosis #hypnotized

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obsidiancreates · 3 years

Text

Freezer Duty (Part One)

(This was going to be a one-shot but then it reached 4,000 words so now it’s split up)

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Amy parks her car and lays her head on the steering wheel. "You can do this. Christmas shopping is already slowing down, you can do this."

She grabs her coffee thermos, a special blend Emma came up with just for the holiday rush days (it had made Amy almost cry with thankful joy, and had made Emma shrink into her sweater and mutter "Whatever," five times straight), and gets out of her car.

The parking lot is mostly empty. Either most of her coworkers took the bus, or Amy is one of the only people on time... again. Not that she blames anyone. The weather is so cold that getting out of bed feels like a death sentence.

As she walks to the doors, she glances at the other cars. Glenn, obviously. As long as she's been working there, he's always been early. Carol, too. Probably planning to mess with Sandra somehow, this kind of stuff is why corporate shouldn't have shut down the in-store HR department. And then...

Jonah's car? He's usually at least a couple of minutes later than her... weird.

She walks past, and pauses. Why are the inside lights on? That means it's unlocked, and she knows Jonah locks his car obsessively. She once saw him lock it five times through the doors of the store.

Curiosity claims her, and she peeks inside.

And drops her thermos.

“Oh my go- JONAH!”

The scream is loud enough to summon Glenn. “Amy, what is- AHHHH!” he holds his hands up to his head as he shrieks.

Jonah is laying inside his car, bleeding from the neck.

Amy yanks open the car door and shakes Jonah’s shoulders. “Jonah, Jonah wake up!” As she shakes and calls out, Glenn stands behind her with his hands clasped, frantically praying to both Jesus and the Jewish God in a highly confusing yet heartfelt prayer.

“Jonah!” Amy slaps him in the face in a moment of complete desperation.

Jonah startles awake and puts his hand up to his cheek. “O-ow! What was that for! And...” he looks behind Amy. “... Why is Glenn turning purple.”

“Wh- oh, my god, Glenn, take a breath. Okay, um, Jonah, are you alright?”

“I-I think so... why?”

“Well, because you’re sitting in your turned-off unlocked car, in the middle of winter, passed out with blood on your neck.”

“WHAT?!” Jonah feels his neck. “OH- oh, god this is- this is not good, how did-”

“Our insurance is so bad,” Glenn sobs, “You’re not gonna make it!”

“Glenn, don’t- okay, let’s get you inside and- you’re not still bleeding, right?”

“I don’t think so, but what does critical blood loss feel like? Like would I be able to tell? I need to Google this, just-”

“Yeah, you’re going to be okay. Okay, into the store, Glenn help us out.”

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Ow.” Jonah winces and flinches away as Amy dabs his neck with a wipe.

“Pretty dramatic start to the work day, gosh. I hope nothing else happens.” Glenn shakes his hands by his sides and looks around nervously. He leans in and whispers, “Do you think they’ll find another foot? Jonah, what sneakers do you wear?”

“Again, still have both off my feet.” Jonah winces again, and Amy sets down the towel.

“Okay, it’s all clean, so now we can-”

“Hey guys! Whoa...” Cheyenne stops in her tracks as she enters the breakroom, spreading her arms and stopping everyone else from entering too. There’s an annoyed clamoring for a minute before Garrett just rolls in under her arm. Everyone stoops down to follow, except Marcus, who tries (and fails) to turn it into a game of Limbo.

Garrett looks at the bloody wipes on the table Jonah and Amy are at. “Whoa, dude, what the hell happened?”

Amy sighs. “Jonah was-”

“We found Jonah dying in his car!” Glenn exclaims.

“Not dying!” Jonah and Amy say quickly.

“He was passed out and bleeding a little,” Amy says to cut any rumors off preemptively, moving the collar of his shirt to get a better look at the wounds.

“In your car? In the middle of winter?”

Glenn nods, his face screwed up with worry. “And no scarf!”

“Oh, you’re for sure gonna die,” Cheyenne says, Mateo nodding in agreement. “It’s like, super cold outside.”

“Honestly I didn’t even feel that cold,” Jonah says, putting his hands up. “I guess my car stayed warm. ... Some-somehow.”

“What were you even doing in there? Are you homeless again? You could always crash at my place. Unless the birds don’t like you, then you’re gone. Nothing personal.” Dina sips her coffee.

“Thank you, for that... generous offer, um, I don’t actually remember.”

Amy pauses her checking. “You don’t?”

“No, I um, I just remember realizing I forgot something and going back into the store to get it, and then coming out and everyone was gone. And then there’s just sort of, nothing. ... That-that actually is more worrying, now that I say it aloud, am-am I dying?”

“Your brain probably froze up and is just taking time to de-thaw,” Marcus says with a flippant gesture. “Happened to my cousin once when we ate too many beer-pops.”

“... Okay, then, what’s a- no, nevermind, I can just guess. I don’t actually think that’s how brain freezes work, but thanks, I think.”

Marcus smiles and raises his hands in an attempt at a gracious gesture.

“So you don’t remember anything?” Amy asks, bringing the subject back to the alarming and somewhat urgent situation.

“Maybe someone came up behind him and hit him over the head. Blunt force trauma, put him back in his car to make it look like he froze to death, do you know of anyone who wants to kill you? Maybe a disgruntled ex-classmate, customer you bored out of their skull with a pointless story, maybe-”

“That- no. No, I don’t think anyone wants to kill me for telling an invigorating story. And I’d rather not think about that, actually.”

Dina shrugs. “You don’t want to solve the mystery, fine. But don’t blame me when someone you screwed over in a group project cuts off your junk.”

Jonah and Amy stare at Dina for a second, and then Amy shakes her head. “Anyway... I checked, and I don’t think he has anything wrong with his head. Just his neck.”

Mateo glances over, unperturbed but curious. His expression becomes horrified. “Oh, my god! There’s two giant holes in your neck!”

Jonah slaps his hand over the wounds. “WHAT?!”

“They are not giant holes!” Amy shouts as everyone starts chattering. “They’re tiny ones! And-and they’re more like cuts, anyway!”

“Maybe someone injected him with drugs.”

“Why would they do that, Dina?”

“Yeah, who wastes drugs like that?” Cheyenne looks around at everyone else, who have gone silent. “What?”

“And, wait, with two needles?” Garrett points to Jonah’s neck.

“Maybe they missed a vein the first time.” Dina snorts like it’s an obvious conclusion.

Marcus snaps his fingers. “Maybe it’s some kind of new fancy needle.”

Dina shakes her head. “I keep up to date on drug needle trends. We find too many in the customer bathrooms for me to be out of the loop.”

Glenn startles slightly. “We do?”

“Guys!” Amy gestures at Jonah.

Everyone murmurs some form of “Right!” or “Sorry Jonah.”

“Really, I’m-I’m fine.” Jonah keeps a hand over the holes. “It’s just a little sore, and um, I don’t know, I guess I’m a little chilly and tired, but I’m generally okay.”

“Okay, great!” Dina claps her hands. “You can have an easy assignment today because of the whole ‘attacked for revenge’ thing-”

“That’s not what-”

“Well, no-one knows what happened, so for now my theory is valid. Anyway, I’ll assign you to grocery. Slow over there today, bakery is having a big sale and uh, huh, we had an overstock of powered donuts so it might get wild.”

“Well... thank you, Dina. A slow day sounds good, actually, because I’m starting to get a headache.” Jonah rubs his eyes. “Really bright in here.”

“It’s the standard fluorescents.” Glenn looks up. “Unless corporate had it changed overnight, but I don’t think so...”

Cheyenne tilts her head with a small frown, and looks at Jonah’s neck throughout the rest of the meeting.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“No way,” Mateo scoffs. “That’s far-fetched gossip, even for us.”

“No, but it would make sense, right?” Cheyenne looks around, and then whispers. “Didn’t notice the cold, lights too bright, two holes in his neck. Jonah totally got bitten by a vampire.” She leans back and nods, eyes wide at her own revelation.

“Vampires aren’t even real though! As much as we might wish they were.”

They glance over at Grocery. Jonah is yawning, leaning against the freezer section.

“He looks pale, right?” Cheyenne whispers.

“He always looks pale. He could wear non-tinted sunscreen as foundation,” Mateo says with a dismissive wave of his hand.

“Yeah, I guess. ... Should we try to get a look at his eyes?”

“Chy, I love you, but we’ve got a ton of restocking to do and I don’t want to be all panicked before lunch.”

“Right. Right. Yeah. Probably just like, letting my imagination get the best of me, right? Yeah...”

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Excuse me?”

Jonah startles, jumping away from the freezer door. “Hi! Yes, sorry! Um, what-what can I... help you with?”

“Could you please show me where the frozen pizzas are?”

“Sure, ma’am, right this way.” Jonah rubs his eyes, leading her to a different section of the freezer area.

“Oh, thank you! Could you grab it for me?”

“Wh-why?”

“I don’t like the cold.”

Well, neither does he, and he’s already chilly. But this is his job. Somehow. How did he get here again? His head feel a little foggy, he can’t quite gather his thoughts.

He reaches in and grabs the pizza. “Okay, here you-”

“No, the ones from the very back.”

“... I-I’m sorry?”

“The back ones are always better.”

“... Alright, I will... reach all the way into the back of the freezer.”

Jonah leans into the freezer, bracing himself for chills and shivers. And...

... Nothing.

It’s cold, but it’s... not bothering him that much. he leans in, grabs the pizza, and leans back out without feeling any more cold than he did prior to the task.

“Thank you, young man. You should grab yourself one too, it’ll put some color into those cheeks.”

The old woman walks away, and Jonah pulls out his phone to look up symptoms of frostbite and hypothermia.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Justine shakes her head. “I’ve read Twilight a million times, if he was a vampire I would be able to tell.”

“What if we give him some garlic bread, and tell him it’s normal bread?” Sandra suggests.

“Because if he’s just allergic to garlic, we won’t know the difference. Doy.” Marcus scoff-laughs at Sandra and points at her mockingly with his thumb.

“What are you guys talking about?” Garrett asks, rolling up to the group. “Marcus, aren’t you supposed to be unloading a truck right now?”

“Eh, didn’t feel like it. Anyway, we’re trying to figure out if Jonah is a vampire now.”

“Are you serious?”

They all nod. Garrett grins. He folds his hands in his lap. “So what have you tried so far?”

“Nothing yet,” Justine admits.

“We might give him garlic bread,” Sandra says with a shrug. “Is he allergic to garlic?”

“No.”

Sandra lights up. “So it would work!” Her smiles fades. “Oh. But then it might kill him.”

“We can’t do that! The Horsemen stick together, I could never hurt my best friend.” Marcus shakes his head. “What if we just drop something really heavy on him and see if he catches it?”

“That won’t hurt him?” Garrett checks.

“Not if he’s a vampire.”

“Right, right. How about instead of splattering him across the Wheaties boxes, you just ask Glenn to go pester him with Bible stuff?” Garrett would love to see that, Jonah gets to flustered over trying not to offend while trying to get away. It’s hilarious.

Marcus points at Garrett with a smile. “That- yes! Perfect! Thanks man!”

The small group runs off, and Garrett laughs a little to himself as he heads on back to customer service.

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“Oh, this one is one of my favorite verses, so here we go, ahem-”

“Hey, Glenn? Isn’t there a-a rule, against doing this kind of thing at work?”

“Well... technically... but Marcus told me you wanted to know my favorite parts of the Bible, so I just sort of thought why wait.”

“He- really? Because I’m not... known, for being very curious about... the Bible...”

“But you are known for being curious about your friends,” Glenn says with a point and a smile.

Jonah plasters on a smile himself. “Yeah. Yeah, I do tend to-”

“Get a little nosy.”

“... I was going to say get involved, but... I-I guess nosy works too. But um, I’m restocking the ice cream right now, so kind of have to act fast,” Jonah motions at the freezeer.

“Oh, then I’ll make this quick! Okay, this verse says-”

Jonah sighs, rubbing his head. His headache is just getting worse and worse. He’s pretty sure it’s the lights, or maybe the dry-cold freezer air, but Glenn’s babbling is not helping.

And his voice is really grating right now. It’s not exactly soothing at even the best of times, but Jonah is pretty sure he’d rather listen to nails on a chalkboard than another round of ‘Top Bible Verses’ from Glenn.

“Okay!” he snaps. “That’s good, that is- that is very much enough! Thank you for sharing something you enjoy with me, now please let me do my job!”

Glenn startles, and then hugs his Bible to his chest. “Fine. Then I guess you don’t get to hear me sing the top five best Psalms. Which is too bad for you, because Jerusha says I do them well enough to be on radio.”

Glenn walks away, and Jonah sighs. He hadn’t meant to snap, it was just really getting on his nerves. ... At least his headache is a little better already without the extra noise.

He watches Glenn walk away, and then catches sight of Justine and Sandra quickly ducking behind another isle. He looks on in confusion for a moment more, and then gets back to work.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Okay, we need a real plan,” Justine sighs.

“For what?” Dina pauses on her way to the coffee pot. “More raccoons? Did they find a snake in the bananas again?”

“We think Jonah night be a vampire,” Sandra says.

Cheyenne stops eating her lunch. “Oh my god, you told them?”

“I couldn’t think of anything else to say!” Mateo defends. “It’s been a boring day! Other than, you know, Jonah almost dying.”

“Wait, you guys think Jonah is a vampire? No way, have you seen him? That’d be too cliche.” Dina scoffs at the idea. And then looks at the ground, a thoughtful frown appearing on her face. “Although the cliche would also mean it makes sense...”

Garrett eats a chip. “Come on, he’d be a terrible vampire. Vampires are supposed to be confidant and suave. Jonah can’t even explain his cookie choices without a five-minute tirade.”

“And he’d cut himself off at least six times in those five minute,” Dina says with a slight wince. “Yeah, he’d be a terrible vampire.”

“I don’t know. Sometimes he’s really confident, and he does that smirk thing?” Sandra says, gesturing to her own mouth for emphasis. “Plus, he always stands like a politician.”

“And he puts way too much product in his hair! That’s a total vampire thing,” Cheyenne says with a definitive shrug.

“He does already have that black-hair-pale-skin thing going for him...” Mateo admits. “If he could be a villain on CW he could be a vampire.”

“And how would he drink blood?” Garrett asks. “Just talk until the person passes out? Ask overly politely in a way that really sounds like he’s trying to ask for sex?”

Everyone murmurs in agreement.

“He would starve,” Cheyenne declares. “Because he’d be picky, too, right?”

“Picky like, about the person’s health?” Mateo asks with a doubtful frown. “He’d probably freak out about not wanting to discriminate though.”

“That would be the starvation,” Dina says with a nod. “He’d be too worried about the socio-political crap of whoever he picks so he’d just debate himself until it was too late.”

“... That’d be kind of funny,” Mateo says quietly.

Everyone thinks for a moment, and then agrees.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Hey, Jonah.” Dina snaps her fingers in front of Jonah’s face, jarring him out of his standing sleep. “What’s wrong with you?”

“Sorry, Dina.” Jonah rubs his face. “I feel exhausted.”

“It’s the middle of the day.”

“Yeah! Yeah, I know. Um, what did you need?”

“I need you to go help Brett move some of the exercise equipment, the dolly broke.”

“Wh- so-so we have to move it by hand?”

“You’ve got a little muscle on your noodle arms, you can handle it.” Dina slaps him on the back and walks away. Jonah huffs, hands on his hips. After a moment he shakes his head and moves over to exercise.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Okay, now we find out for sure,” Dina says smugly. “No way a Human Jonah could handle the weight of that stuff.”

Everyone is crammed into the surveillance office, watching Jonah on the monitors.

“Should one of us tell Amy about this?” Cheyenne asks. “I feel like we’re leaving her out.”

“It is weird that I’m in on this and not her,” Marcus agrees. “But she’d probably tell us this is ‘dangerous’ or something.”

“She wouldn’t like it at all,” Dina confirms. “Best to just tell her about it later, or let her find out on her own. Later.”

They watch Jonah and Brett work together surprisingly smoothly, moving the heavy equipment with a perfectly human amount of struggling. Dina leans back in her chair with a disappointed sigh. “Dammit. I almost let myself believe in magic...”

“Wait, look!” Cheyenne points to the monitor.

Everyone looks, excited and hopeful. And they collectively sigh and grumble.

“He’s just talking to a customer,” Mateo says.

“A super rude one! I’ve dealt with him before, he’s a total asshole. Let’s turn on the audio and listen to Jonah freak out.”

“I do love a good Jonah freakout.” Dina turns on the audio.

“Yeah, I-I’m sorry, sir, we just don’t carry that here anymore.”

“This store has carried it for over ten years.”

“Yeah, it’s a bummer! I know I hate when store stop carrying stuff I like. But maybe! Maybe we can view this as a-a chance for personal growth, for you! A chance at... at evolution, at moving forward-”

“Are you mocking me, little bitch boy?”

Everyone gasps. “Oh no he didn’t,” Cheyenne whispers. On the camera, Jonah is clearly taken aback, leaning away from the customer and staring with wide eyes.

“Some... very strong language, sir. Um, no, I just meant that maybe, you know, instead of-of viewing this in the negative-”

“So I’m a negative person?”

“No! No, I can’t- I don’t know you! I can’t make judgements about people that fast! Just- I hope this doesn’t ruin your day, right? And-and I want to see if we can find you a-a replacement, so that you can still have what you want!”

“How important do you think this is to me? You think I’m pathetic? Can’t be happy without my specific little brand?”

“No, I just-”

“I’m gonna need to speak with your bitch of a floor manager or whatever she’s called.”

“... I’m sorry?”

“Your bitch of a floor manager. The loud Latina lady.”

Dina stands up, ready to go beat the man with a bat for talking about her best friend that way. Cheyenne pushes her back down, jaw dropped. “I think Jonah is about to stand up to him,” she says.

Jonah is indeed, looking quite pissed off. He steps closer, and looks the much taller man right in the eyes. Jonah’s a good head shorter, his hair barely coming up to the other man’s chin, yet for some reason unknown the black-and-white monitor shows the customer being the one who leans back.

“You, sir, are a very unpleasant person,” Jonah says in a calm, measured voice. “And I think you need to do some self-reflection. I think you should leave the store, and learn how to talk about people without using the word ‘bitch’, alright?”

It’s so overly polite it’s almost comical. Yet somehow... it works.

The customer stands there for a second, then just... walks away. Jonah watches after him, the calm and collection expression on his face quickly giving way to confusion. He looks around as though wondering if someone else had done something to scare the customer off.

“Confidence boost,” Sandra says softly.

Cheyenne pulls out a notebook and ticks something off. “That counts as evidence.”

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Jonah has no clue what just happened.

One moment he was speaking with a rude customer, the next the customer was walking away and Jonah has no clue why. What he does know was that his headache was slightly better, and that he really wishes his lunch break was sooner because he is famished.

Someone taps him on the shoulder, and he nearly jumps out of his skin. He turns around to see Amy looking at him with slight concern. “You okay? You’re just sort of... staring off into space.”

“Hmm? Oh, yeah. Uh... yeah, I’m fine. Totally fine.”

“... I don’t believe you.”

“Well, then you... have trust issues, because I am. I’m fine.”

“... Sure... can I see your neck again, real quick?”

“Why?”

“Because you’re acting weird and I want to make sure you’re not developing an infection that’s getting to your brain?”

“... Yeah, check away.”

Amy checks, and winces. “Youch. Yeah, let’s get some more antibiotics on those.” She starts leading him towards the breakroom. “So, what happened with that customer? I came over right at the tail end, missed the whole thing.”

“Oh. Um... I guess I just, really got through to him.”

“You?”

“Yes, me, why- what is that supposed to mean?”

“Nothing! It’s just, usually when you try to calm down a customer you don’t get very far.”

“Well, you know, sometimes people just listen if you hit the right cords-”

“Mmm-hmm, yeah.”

“-I guess I just found the right words to resonate with him, is all I’m saying.” If only he knew what those words were...

Creak

Jonah pauses. “Did-did you just hear that?”

“Hear what?”

Creaaak

Jonah looks up. “I think the ceiling is about to collapse.”

“Why?”

CREAAAAK!

A mass of merch falls from the ceiling! Amy and Jonah both scream, brace themselves, Amy still holding onto Jonah and Jonah still holding onto Amy-!

...

And... they’re a safe distance from it all as it crashes down.

A multitude of raccoons scamper out and scatter, their Nest Of Stolen Goods now revealed. Jonah and Amy watch from the sidelines.

The sidelines!

“How did we get over here?” Amy is staring at the pile.

“... I don’t know,” Jonah replies, staring as well. Oh, what an adrenaline rush, his heart is racing- ... it... should... be racing...

Amy’s hand is still around Jonah’s wrist. She looks at him for a moment, and then shakes off the shock. “Okay, um, let’s get a team to clean this up, and get some antibiotic on your neck.”

“Will that part take a whole team, too?”

“Ha-ha, Jonah. ... I’m just glad neither of us got hurt.”

“Yeah. Me too.”

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“OH MY GOD OH MY GOD!” Cheyenne grabs Mateo and starts shaking him. “DID YOU SEE WHAT JUST HAPPENED?!”

“WE ALL SAW!” Mateo shouts, pushing Cheyenne away. He huffs and brushes off his sweater. “All three of us left, anyway.”

Dina taps the monitor. “That’s why you never leave the surveillance room after something mildly interesting happens! Something big always follows!”

“He’s actually a vampire,” Mateo says in disbelief. “He vampire-ran away from that junk, he’s actually a vampire!”

Dina scoff-laughs. “The little guy pulled off one hell of a ruse, huh? Pretty clever, faking amnesia.”

Cheyenne stops her mini victory celebration. “Whoa, why do you think he’s faking?”

“Because why wouldn’t I? He’s a vampire now, even if he actually doesn’t remember what happened it’s got to be pretty obvious to him that he’s undead. ... Right?”

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“What’re you googling?” Amy dabs at the neck wounds gently with a damp cloth as she prepares to put on the antibiotic cream.

“Symptoms of frostbite and hypothermia. I guess everyone got into my head this morning, and I’ve had some weird stuff happen to me...”

“Well... anything about last night coming back? Could help you figure out whatever symptoms you’ve got.”

“Still nothing.” Jonah rubs his neck when Amy is done dabbing it with the cloth. “I still feel like the day just started, honestly.”

“Oh yeah,” Amy agrees. “Today’s going to be a long day.”

#Superstore #superstore jonah #superstore amy #superstore nbc #superstore tv #jonah simms #Amy Sosa #Dina Fox #garrett mcneil #glenn sturgis #sandra kaluiokalani #vampire #vampires #Vampire!Jonah AU #blood tw #death mention #fanfic #my attempts at fanfic

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samanthaswishes · 3 years

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Agents of SHIELD Rewatch Season 1A (ep. 1-11)

Here's my commentary on my rewatch of Agents of SHIELD Season 1 Episodes 1-11. This may not be the best commentary since these are just the thoughts and opinions that come to my mind as I watch the episodes rather than a full-blown analysis, but I'm just having fun with it!

1x01 The Pilot

Something about Skye's voice being the first voice you hear. I don't know what about it, but I like it.

This is a Mike Peterson appreciation blog. He deserved to be in so many more episodes after season 1.

BABY SKYE!!

The only part that sucks about rewatching season 1 is that I know Ward is Hydra, so even when he's doing good, I know what his main motives are.

This is like my millionth time watching the pilot, and I just now realized that the line "if the job was easy, it wouldn't be any fun" that both Ward and Garrett say was introduced in this episode.

"It means someone really wanted our initials to spell out shield"

"You haven't been near his arms" *in regards to Thor*

"Welcome to Level 7" YESSS BITCH!!!!

Coulson's so wholesome and pure I love him so much!🥺

Thank you Agents of SHIELD for forever making me say "It's a magical place" whenever Tahiti is mentioned ever.

The fact that Ward's first thought when Coulson is talking about the Rising Tide is to cross them off. Finding all these red flags.

"Little poop with knives sticking out of it"

Okay, but why was Hill drawing a porcupine on Ward's evaluation?

The fact that Chloe Bennet was only 20 in the pilot (aka the same age as me rn).

I see a lot of people (mostly reactors on YouTube) say that they were annoyed with Skye at first (which I can understand), but for me, she just always had some sort of charm that made me fall in love with her.

"With great power comes... a ton of weird crap that you are not prepared to deal with." one of the most ICONIC Skye/Daisy lines.

Also, it's crazy to see how bubbly and innocent Skye was. So different from Season 7 Daisy.

The fact that you can so clearly see that Phil and Melinda had lots of history together from the first scene together.

"It's a really nice bus" I MISS THE BUS

Fitzsimmons was also so innocent back then. (If you've been following me for a while, you know my feelings on Fitzsimmons in the later seasons (more so on Fitz), so I'll try to keep my emotions on them to a minimum until the time where I can rant :) I'll just appreciate season 1 them for now.)

"Don't touch Lola"

Coulson really showed up to Skye's van completely ready to adopt her.

"What's your real name?" This line hits hard in the fact that she actually doesn't know what her real name is yet.

You can clearly see how excited Simmons was and how nervous Fitz was about their first field mission as soon as they step out of the car.

Skye came off as a little hot-headed, but she's actually so smart. Like she said, SHIELD had billions of dollars of equipment, and she was able to crack Centipede with her own skills.

I love that Fitz sings "Heigh-Ho" as he sends the dwarfs outs.

Skye has canonically cosplayed outside Stark Tower at least once.

"She can be an asset" Oh Phil, you have NO IDEA.

They say "what the hell" so much in this show. *see Agents of What the Hell on YouTube"

Coulson doesn't care about your protocol, Ward.

"GrAmSy"

From episode one, you can clearly see just how big Skye's heart is and how she really does care about people.

"When you get back, I'll show you my thing. Oh, it's not. It's my hardware. MY EQUIPMENT!"

You can also see in Skye's face where her morals lie as soon as Mike shows that he brought Ace along.

Mike taking Skye is just the first of many times Skye is kidnapped.

"Don't ever tell me there's no way." The fact that this has been so prevalent throughout the whole series.

Coulson's walk is so a dad coming to rescue his daughter you can't tell me otherwise.

THE WAY COULSON JUST CASUALLY LEANS BACK WHEN MIKE BREAKS THE VAN DOOR😂

The smile on my face the first time I watched May take out the guy that was gonna shoot Skye.

Mike's speech during this episode👌🏼

Fitz slapping Ward's back will never not be funny to me.

Howard Stark would be proud of Lola.

1x02 0-8-4

I wish we got to see the hula girl one last time in Season 7.

I don't know why May referring to Skye and Fitzsimmons as kids makes me so soft.

The SHIELD logo on the water is so funny to me.😂

Not gonna lie, Fitz's little crush on Skye during 1A was kinda cute. Never really shipped them though. Definitely don't in the later seasons.

1x02, May says to never call her the cavalry again. In 7x13, she finally reclaims the title for herself.

I don't know about y'all but May double-wielding guns is pretty hot.

"WhY aRe ThEy HeRe?"

Simmons, why would think that opening a window in literal gunfire would be a good idea?

May and Ward yelling at the Bus Kids like angry parents on a family road trip.

If I have to hear Ward say "I'm a SpEcIaLiSt" one more time...

One of the things I love about Elizabeth and Iain's acting is when they're working with the holo table. I'd look so stupid in that position.

Just wanna say that I absolutely LOVE Skye's clothing style in season 1.

Don't worry Skye. You'll know what it's like to get shot in 11 episodes. (I'm sorry).

"100 people with 1% of the percent of the solution, that'll get it done. Pieces solving a puzzle." This was the line the solidified Skye as my favorite character, and it still remains one of my favorite lines from her.

You're not slick, Camilla.

See, their first mistake is messing with the Melinda May. She's not gonna take that well.

So Fitz and Simmons know the story of the cavalry, but they didn't know it was May? You'd think her name would be tied to the title no matter what.

UGH, I hate this whole "nice Ward" thing. I can't stand it when he says nice things because he's basically lying.

"WhOt ThE hELl WaS tHaT?"

I love Coulson's trust in his team despite seeing them not get along at all at least an hour earlier.

May's tired of all their shit.

Thank god Skye was the only one who actually read the pamphlet.

I love how May still got it after not being in the field for about 6 years. I mean, I haven't taken a dance class in 2 years, and most of my flexibility is gone now and some skills I've already lost.

Coulson checking on Lola is a mood.

You think May lowkey wanted to be Skye's SO from the beginning? Cause when Ward asks if she was talking about him, she kinda has this face that says "Okay, fine, I'll let him have this one."

The team watching the rocket launch on the edge of the ramp door is the last time that they ever had any kind of happiness until the finale.

Also, love the Fury cameo.

1x03 The Asset

I find it funny that the truck driver is named Agent Mack. Also, the fact that they used that name for Mack in season 2.

Skye working out is the biggest mood.

That silhouette shot *chef's kiss*

The scene with the cowboy and the gold is so random. Like I know it's important to the plot, but I just think it's ridiculous.

Saying this ten episodes in advance... FUCK YOU IAN QUINN!🖕🏼

Another rant on how I wish the show delve more into Skye/Daisy's past in foster care. Like why exactly she dropped out of high school, if she aged out of the system or ran away, how her foster homes have affected her mind and thought process, etc.

I just love how the show actually shows how smart Skye actually is. Like she isn't the same kind of smart as Fitzsimmons, but she had her own way of doing things and she's a quick thinker and really clever.

I also love how Coulson already has her thought process pretty much figured out, and that's why he knows how Ward should be going about training her.

I get that Ward has been abused, but I hate how he uses it to justify all the bad things and murders he has committed. I guess you could say Garrett brainwashed him into thinking that way, but after 2x06, Ward moves far away from redemption, and his actions can't be blamed on his past anymore.

Skye in that pink dress. I am looking respectfully. 👀

Love that May and Jemma are impressed with Skye's undercover work.

"I wanna hire you before someone else snatches you up." TOO LATE BUDDY

This episode may not be one of "the best" of the series but the fact that they introduce Gravitonium and basically set up an entire plot point for season 5 is insane.

The first time watching this, I couldn't tell if she was betraying SHIELD or playing Quinn. Still fully believe she’s was playing him.

“Her… uh, boobs." Oh, Fitz.

Also, Ming deserves an award because she has the best reaction faces.

YOU DIDN'T NEED TO RUB IN THE FACT SHE DOESN'T HAVE A FAMILY, QUINN!

How many times does Skye have to get choked out in the show?

“nOpe”

Oh Skye, don’t worry about the quakes. You’ll get used to it.😉

Bye Hall. You won’t be mentioned again until season 5.

LET’S GO MAY!!

Again, hate how this episode and the one in s2 are the only times Skye actually talks about her past.

“We won’t turn our backs.” FUCK. YOU. WARD.

1x04 Eye Spy

You know, if I saw a group of people walking with red masks on, I would be running so far in the opposite direction.

“The solitude” me too May. Me too.

Okay, but I love Jemma and Skye’s hair in this episode.

Also, I love that Skye hides in the cars when she misses her van.

Funny how they’re so against telepathy and precognition. Like they’re so against it and for what? Like, of all the things that have been proven to be true in this universe, you choose to believe telepaths aren't real?

Wish we got Akela more in the show.

Short Bus™

“Must hurt to be betrayed by someone you trained” WARD SHUT UP I SWEAR TO GOD

“Did you never learn that boy parts and girl parts are different and that our parts aren’t PeNiSeS?”

“bang?”

May, Coulson, stop fighting in front of the kids.

Skye actually calling May and Coulson mom and dad🥺

I feel so bad for Akela😭

Kinda feel bad for Simmons. She is not exactly trained in the medical field, but she still became the team doctor. Props to her for that.

Fitz is me in regards to the human body.

Props to Brett for learning lines in different languages.

THE WRITING ON THE WALL!

“Which way is south?”

Skye shoulda hit Ward with the car.

It’s the guy from ANT Farm!

So, Akela knew that SHIELD did something to Coulson.

Like what you see, Skye?

1x05 Girl in the Flower Dress

RAINAAAAAAA

Were Chan Ho Yin’s powers ever explained? They briefly mention it but not really. Like was he an experiment or is he like an inhuman or something?

Also, would you trust a woman you just met that night when she says “close your eyes?”

I haven’t played Battleship in forever.

“Have you ever heard of Steve Rogers? No.” … yes.

Ward, you didn’t even try to blend in.

I’d like to take this time to say screw Myles.

I was so shocked when May was on the other side of the door when I watched the first time.

So how long was May there to begin with?

Simmons, was the button comment necessary? I know you’re trying to be friendly though.

Raina is probably one of the most compelling villains in the show

“Now you’re making fun of my VAN!” She loves that van.

I love whenever Ming gets to speak Chinese on the show.

Why’d they leave Myles alone with Fitzsimmons? They look so terrified😂

Ghost Rider tease (not really but you get it)😉

Hearing these words come from Coulson to Skye really hurts.

I love you, Skye🥺

1x06 F.Z.Z.T.

Time for the first Fitzsimmons-centered episode.

“That’s something you say to an old person.”

Fitz’s comment about hearing Skye laugh again was so wholesome in s1. Why’d the show have to drive them apart?

Also, love the Ward impressions.

Skye poking the battery with a stick. That’s it.

Ward had absolutely NO RIGHT to be talking to Skye like that, like he was so hurt by her “betrayal”

THE cat™

These poor firefighters. They just wanted a souvenir from when they were first responders during New York.

“What are you looking for?” “A sCeNtEd CaNdLe!” “Not you.”

My favorite part of Coulson really is his humanity. The way he talked with the firefighter during his last moments is so heart-wrenching and beautiful. Telling him that it was beautiful on the other side.

I’d be scared if I was on the same plane as an object carrying an alien virus too.

Aw poor Jemma😕

Skye’s so worried about Jemma, she’s literally on the verge of tears. I love their friendship so much (save for s5/6).

Coulson really said screw Agent Blake.

All this talk about pandemics and vaccines in this episode really hitting close to home and I don’t like it.

It happens for a second, but we get the first sliver of Mama May and Skye when May softly pulls Skye away by her shoulder.

The special effects in this episode aren’t bad by any means, but it’s amazing to see how far they’ve come since then.

Coulson’s just a worried dad.

The Skimmons hug🥺

“Take off your shirt” OH KAY MAY. That line really threw me off the first time.

And there’s Fitz’s realization.

DON'T TOUCH LOLA

1x07 The Hub

The cold open for this episode is so random and I love it.

Also Agent Shaw.

"Everyone's wearing the same suit."

And we have Agent Victoria Hand and Jasper Sitwell.

Introduction of The Sandwich™

Also, the introduction of Bad Girl Shenanigans™

"VeRy VeRy ATtAcHeD."

You can truly see some of Jemma's Virgo-ness in this episode. (As a Virgo myself, I can say this is accurate. My birthday is actually the day after Jemma's/Elizabeth's).

The hallway scene is still so funny to me. Between Simmons' terrible flirting and Skye's "what?" face. It's great.

My lying skills are just about as good as Jemma's are in this episode. Depending on who I'm with/the situation, I either get really stuttery or I start laughing ridiculously.

Forever bitter that they cut that deleted scene of Jemma and May.

See, Skye knows when to pull away from her personal wants. She knows when the right time for it all is, and I don't think she got enough credit for that. You can't tell me, that if you were in Skye's position and the file on your past was right there, you wouldn't be curious. She did look away from it and looked at the mission when she realized she didn't have enough time. She still put the members of her team before herself.

I only think about the Charlie's Angels reference from the bloopers during this scene.

Not too much to say about this episode for me personally.

BUT I was fully convinced that before this episode, Skye was Coulson and May’s love child that they had to give up because of the job.

1x08 The Well

The first episode to connect with the movies. I personally feel like the show exceeded when it began to stray farther away from the movies.

Just a quick note: Thor: The Dark World is probably lower on my MCU movie list, but I don't think it was necessarily a bad movie. I actually did enjoy it quite a bit.

Skye simping over Thor is a mood, but May agreeing with her is just great.

"Doodads"

I want my own holo table.

That poor forest ranger. He's just so distraught. He just loves his forest.

Coulson and his puns.

It's so weird to hear someone refer to Ward as Grant. It's like when someone other than Coulson calls May Melinda.

I would very much like to punch Ward in the face. Yes, I know it's just the effect of the staff, but still.

People probably think of Asgardians when Coulson says he had one-on-one time with aliens. Even though, due to the time this episode came out, that's what the show was referencing, I like to think he's talking about the events of Captain Marvel.

YOU CANT TRUST HIM COULSON!

"Disco"

Not to be protective about Skye, but seeing her jump around Ward makes me very sad, and again, mad that the show basically chose to forget about her past and have other characters completely disregard it.

I could never stick my hand in someone's body, even if I could save them. I just don't have the guts or stomach to do that.

They made it seem like Thomas died in the well, so I was surprised when they showed him in season 3.

"Because I see it every day." UGHHHHHH the fact we know what happened in Bahrain, this hurts.😭

"Check out Portland. Great philharmonic" Just hurt me even more, show, why don't you.

I ALMOST COMPLETELY FORGOT ABOUT THE MAYWARD THING FOR A SECOND AHH NOOOO I HATE THIS!🤮

1x09 Repairs

Poor Hannah😕

I really did not like being reminded of MayWard. I also hate the fact that this wasn’t the first time they did this.

“Bringing along warm and fuzzy” Not gonna lie, but Skye does have a point, but at the same time, I do understand that Coulson just wants her to get an understanding of how it works.

I’m just curious as to why Tobias didn’t attack May after she shot Hannah with the ICER.

I really like Fitzsimmons in this episode ngl.

DAVIS D. DAVIS

It’s hilarious to me that Davis was a one-off, one-line character in s1 then became a full-fledged recurring character in s4-7.

Okay, but May on horseback, double-wielding guns would be a sight to see.

This episode is a prime example of how Skye always sees the best in people.

I didn’t really like Skye pressing May about her policies since it obviously cuts close to her past, but I do understand that Skye doesn’t necessarily know what May’s been through exactly.

“I think she needs to get laid” So does she know about May and Ward at this point? I don’t think so. BUT Ward freezing should have been a red flag.

Fitz is so oblivious in this episode, and I love it.

“hE dEmAtErIaLiZeD”

Love how Fitz is unscathed after they crashed the plane and he was in a closet, not tied down to anything.

“THANK GOD, WHERE HAVE YOU 🗑”

As someone who was raised Catholic (but not super-duper religious) and is now in a state of not knowing whether or not I still believe in God, Skye’s words in this scene really lift me up and give me hope.

Okay, but why was I low-key scared of this episode the first time I watched it? I think it was because it was late and dark at night when I was watching it😅

We get to hear a little about Bahrain, and I love it.

There’s no way around Melinda May.

“Hey, that’s our story”

I think May was truly ready to take Tobias out and put her own life on the line at this moment.

“Let the girl go” will always be a painful line.

There’s hardly any communication between May and Skye in the cockpit, but it’s still such a sweet scene.

They clearly did not watch Phineas and Ferb cause otherwise they’d know what an aglet is.

I think what I love most about this episode is the focus on both Skye and May, which leads to the cockpit scene, which basically is the start of their relationship, and they have one of the best platonic relationships in the whole show.

1x10 The Bridge

MIKE PETERSON!!!!!!!

Oh, we love the “he’s standing behind me” trope.

“Kidnap victim” Again, Skye, you have no idea.

I know they probably just chose a last name randomly, but what if Brian Hayward was related to Tyler Hayward from Wandavision? Just a theory.

Simmons really falls for a handful of people this season, doesn’t she? Mike. Trip. Fitz. I mean, I’d do the same with Mike and Trip.

Ugh, I love Coulson talking about Audrey, but the fact that Ward uses this information against him just infuriates me.

“Someone looking up to you” The fact that Skye never had that person to look up to as a kid🥺

I get that May is trying to protect Skye from the truth, but that was pretty harsh.

I JUST WANNA HUG SKYE!!!!

The fact that Coulson was talking about Skye when he says he’s seen what the effects can be when a parent is absent.

PROTECT ACE AT ALL COSTS

Not them threatening a child. I always hated this part.

Ace is such a happy kid ugh why do this to him😫

I often see people say that this episode is when the show got good, but in my eyes, the show was always good from the beginning. The first half of season 1 literally has some of my comfort episodes.

1x11 The Magical Place

"Is that a Roomba?"

Reverse Tower of Terror.

And Hand is back. Yay (said sarcastically).

The faith that the team has in Skye on her own is outstanding compared to the beginning of the season.

YES TO THAT JACKET

I love how confidently Skye stole a car in broad daylight.

I love how the Cage has those seats for most likely in case of a crash, but also for the purpose of opening the top in an interrogation.

Can we just like... not torture Coulson? I would really appreciate it, thanks.

"$ Bills Y'all"

Reiterating this: SKYE IS SO SMART AND CLEVER AND HARDLY ANYONE RECOGNIZES IT

Also, Skye impersonating May.

I know she's good, but honestly screw Hand in this episode.

So was that actually Garrett on the phone?

YES SKYE BEAT THEIR ASSES!

Don't bring up Audrey, Raina!

"Manscaping"

Coulson's faith in SHIELD and the system is both outstanding and heartbreaking.

"Who doesn't like flowers?" I mean, sure, but like, WHY????

The sequence of Coulson's mind and what happened in "Tahiti" is a whole trip and a half. OMG, that part is so good.

I didn't realize the alien writing was in the flashback for a second. They set up so many season 2 things so early on in season 1.

In this episode, you can really see just how much Coulson means to Skye. This is probably when she realized what Coulson meant to her.

"Nice jacket." YEAH, IT IS.

I love this team <3 (except Ward. He can burn in hell.)

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welllpthisishappening · 3 years

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Welllp These Are Books: the April 2021 Edition

I did not read Romeo and Juliet this month. I read a bunch of other books. Like, a bunch. More than one series. Because Big Bang burnout is real and grown adults missing their deadlines is a real good way to stress me out. So, I read a bunch. Good books, very bad books, books that caused limbs to flail. For positive and not-so-positive reasons. Naturally, all those reasons must be shared. Under the cut with occasionally long and rant-prone reviews, as well as spoilers. Beware of spoilers under the cut. Please keep telling me what to read, internet. My library wish list is almost comically long now.

GIVE ME ALL THE WORLD BUILDING AND SNARK AND FIGHTING! WITH MAGIC! AND SWORDS! IT’S MY FAVORITE THING IN THE WHOLE WIDE WORLD!

Shades of Magic Series by V.E. Schwab

Kell is one of the last Antari—magicians with a rare, coveted ability to travel between parallel Londons; Red, Grey, White, and, once upon a time, Black. After an exchange goes awry, Kell escapes to Grey London and runs into Delilah Bard, a cut-purse with lofty aspirations. Now perilous magic is afoot, and treachery lurks at every turn. To save all of the worlds, they'll first need to stay alive.

— Picture it, approximately twelve forty-seven am. My husband is asleep. I am reading. The second book in this series ends. And I say, right out loud, at what might now be twelve forty-eight am, HOLY SHIT IT JUST ENDED. Justin thought we were under attack. No man has ever snapped awake quicker. He was not pleased. At least not in the same way that I was about these books. Which I goddamn LOVED. Loved. The world building. The magic. The banter. Rhy and Kell’s relationship. Once more. RHY AND KELL’S RELATIONSHIP. Which I might have cared about more than the romance??? Maybe??? I cannot get over how good this world building was. I know people have quips with it, and that’s fair. I saw the “twist” coming in the first book, and I think trying to preserve that left some plot holes that are understandably frustrating. Because Lilah definitely needed depth perception to fight as well as she did. Also did Schwab really refer to her as a cross dresser in her author’s note? Yikes. She wore a dude’s jacket, like—c’mon V.E. Other than that though. I loved it. Also shout out to @peglegsjones for suggesting this one in my 2020 post and call out to me for taking so long to read it.

Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo

Ketterdam: a bustling hub of international trade where anything can be had for the right price—and no one knows that better than criminal prodigy Kaz Brekker. Kaz is offered a chance at a deadly heist that could make him rich beyond his wildest dreams. But he can't pull it off alone. . . . A convict with a thirst for revenge. A sharpshooter who can't walk away from a wager. A runaway with a privileged past. A spy known as the Wraith. A Heartrender using her magic to survive the slums. A thief with a gift for unlikely escapes. Six dangerous outcasts. One impossible heist. Kaz's crew is the only thing that might stand between the world and destruction—if they don't kill each other first.

— I’ve talked about how little I cared about anything that happened in Shadow and Bone before, but I kept seeing gifs of the Crows in the Netflix show and my brain was like: huh, I could like them. So, after some help from the very helpful internet, I’m happy to report I do in fact like them. At one point, I slunk into the couch. Like that’s how overcome with emotion I was. Kaz ripped a dude’s eye out! For Inej! Matthias loved Nina’s laugh! I would like to hug Jesper. Seriously, this hit all my high points and world building and banter and I lol’ed at “scheming face.” I would like my hold to come through faster on the sequel.

THEY DID NOT CALL INTERMISSION HALFTIME AND MY COLLEGE EXPERIENCE WAS WAY DIFFERENT THAN THESE KIDS

The Off Campus Series by Elle Kennedy

Hannah Wells has finally found someone who turns her on. But while she might be confident in every other area of her life, she’s carting around a full set of baggage when it comes to sex and seduction. If she wants to get her crush’s attention, she’ll have to step out of her comfort zone and make him take notice…even if it means tutoring the annoying, childish, cocky captain of the hockey team in exchange for a pretend date. All Garrett Graham has ever wanted is to play professional hockey after graduation, but his plummeting GPA is threatening everything he’s worked so hard for. If helping a sarcastic brunette make another guy jealous will help him secure his position on the team, he’s all for it. But when one unexpected kiss leads to the wildest sex of both their lives, it doesn’t take long for Garrett to realize that pretend isn’t going to cut it. Now he just has to convince Hannah that the man she wants looks a lot like him.

— The first book in this series was free on Amazon. So, I read it. And really liked it??? It was so chock full of cliches and badly written tropes and Garrett probably should have accepted that Hannah didn’t want to go out at the start, but like—he was cute? And as we all know I am TRASH™ for stories set in the same verse, so, like, I just kept reading these trashy college hockey books. Trashy is a compliment here. God, these kids had so much sex. So much. An incredible amount, really. I once had a guy tell me he was physically attracted to me, but not emotionally attracted to me in college. Like, that was my college experience. The first and second books were the best, I think. I didn’t really like Dean that much.

MAYBE IT WAS BECAUSE HE WAS A RABBI???

The Intimacy Experiement by Rosie Danan

Naomi Grant has built her life around going against the grain. After the sex-positive start-up she cofounded becomes an international sensation, she wants to extend her educational platform to live lecturing. Unfortunately, despite her long list of qualifications, higher ed won't hire her. Ethan Cohen has recently received two honors: LA Mag nominated him as one of the city's hottest bachelors and he became rabbi of his own synagogue. Low on both funds and congregants, the executive board of Ethan's new shul hired him with the hopes that his nontraditional background will attract more millennials to the faith. They've given him three months to turn things around or else they'll close the doors of his synagogue for good. Naomi and Ethan join forces to host a buzzy seminar series on Modern Intimacy, the perfect solution to their problems--until they discover a new one--their growing attraction to each other. They've built the syllabus for love's latest experiment, but neither of them expected they'd be the ones putting it to the test.

— Ok, I know that sounds bad. Again, I’m a creature of predictable habit and this was the sequel to The Roommate, which I absolutely LOVED last year. But where as the relationship in that one was kind of swoony, this one was...I don’t know, really. Everyone was a well-rounded character and the plot was good, but there was this semi-invisible something that made it difficult for me to get fully on board with the whole story. Honestly, it might be because he was a religious figure?? Also, they got together real quick. Like zero to sixty in twenty-six seconds flat.

I KNOW IT’S BAD, IT WAS BAD AND YET—I CANNOT STOP READING IT???

Too Wild to Tame by Tessa Bailey

Sometimes you just can't resist playing with fire . . . By day, Aaron Clarkson suits up, shakes hands, and acts the perfect gentleman. But at night, behind bedroom doors, the tie comes off and the real Aaron comes out to play. Mixing business with pleasure got him fired, so Aaron knows that if he wants to work for the country's most powerful senator, he'll have to keep his eye on the prize. That's easier said than done when he meets the senator's daughter, who's wild, gorgeous, and 100 percent trouble. Grace Pendleton is the black sheep of her conservative family. Yet while Aaron's presence reminds her of a past she'd rather forget, something in his eyes keeps drawing her in. Maybe it's the way his voice turns her molten. Or maybe it's because deep down inside, the ultra-smooth, polished Aaron Clarkson might be more than even Grace can handle . . .

— Last month I read the first book in this series and it was absolutely ridiculous. This one even more so. The Clarksons are still on the road trip (sans one sibling because she fell in love in a week in the first book) and Aaron was, like, not a root’able character? Very Edward Cullen I’M A BAD GUY, BELLA vibes and his relationship with Grace was so strange. Super rushed again, obvs. Meeting in the woods is weird enough. Professing love forty-eight hours later is decidedly unbelievable. Also there was a kidnapping involved? I totally put a hold on the next book in the series.

COME UP WITH DIFFERENT TRAUMA, I DARE YOU! OR NO TRAUMA. WHAT A CONCEPT!!

The Trouble With Hating You by Sajni Patel

Liya Thakkar is a successful biochemical engineer, takeout enthusiast, and happily single woman. The moment she realizes her parents' latest dinner party is a setup with the man they want her to marry, she's out the back door in a flash. Imagine her surprise when the same guy shows up at her office a week later -- the new lawyer hired to save her struggling company. What's not surprising: he's not too thrilled to see her either after that humiliating fiasco.

Jay Shah looks good on paper...and off. Especially if you like that whole gorgeous, charming lawyer-in-a-good-suit thing. He's also infuriating. As their witty office banter turns into late-night chats, Liya starts to think he might be the one man who truly accepts her. But falling for each other means exposing their painful pasts. Will Liya keep running, or will she finally give love a real chance?

— I had such high hopes for this one. Which is on me, I guess. Because I didn’t hate this one, but it was...not great. Maybe I’m just getting old and crotchety but I am BEGGING romance writers to come up with different trauma for their female protagonists. Not every woman has to have been assaulted to rationalize their current personality. Doesn’t have to happen. Like, ok, yes it does happen. Far more than it should. But that’s an entirely different story, and I am so tired of female characters getting absolutely destroyed by their past only to have that be their defining characteristic for so much of the book. Until a nice man they were initially mean to shows up and he’s UNDERSTANDING and he CARES and it’s just, bleh. It’s bleh. Tired and predictable and I’m over it.

IN WHICH I SHOULD HAVE LOOKED AT THE COVER

Much Ado About You by Samantha Young

At thirty-three-years old Evangeline Starling’s life in Chicago is missing that special something. And when she’s passed over for promotion at work, Evie realizes she needs to make a change. Some time away to regain perspective might be just the thing. In a burst of impulsivity, she plans a holiday in a quaint English village. The holiday package comes with a temporary position at Much Ado About Books, the bookstore located beneath her rental apartment. There’s no better dream vacation for the bookish Evie, a life-long Shakespeare lover. Not only is Evie swept up in running the delightful store as soon as she arrives, she’s drawn into the lives, loves and drama of the friendly villagers. Including Roane Robson, the charismatic and sexy farmer who tempts Evie every day with his friendly flirtations. Evie is determined to keep him at bay because a holiday romance can only end in heartbreak, right? But Evie can’t deny their connection and longs to trust in her handsome farmer that their whirlwind romance could turn in to the forever kind of love.

— Ok, so I had had this book on hold for so long that I genuinely forgot about it and forgot who it was written by. Samantha Young wrote that one book that I called the worst book I had ever read. Only I did not realize that when I started reading this one. So, you see how this sets us up for disaster. Because this book was a disaster. Everyone was goddamn annoying. And whiny. Shit, everyone whined. About everything. Also, the actual writing was atrocious. I am not usually one to be like “men can’t write,” but at one point I told both @shireness-says and @optomisticgirl that this book must have been secretly written by a man because no woman writing it would be so obsessed with pointing out where her cellulite was. Like, what??? Also the first sex scene? Oh my God, I laughed. Guffawed. The so-called love interest literally asked: “Are we going to have sex now?” And then they just did. It was so bad. Also there was a dog? Who went everywhere with the so-called love interest. And they just never explained that? I thought it was going to be part of some crushing and depressing backstory. Nah, he was just there.

HOLY SHIT THIS WAS SO DUMB I CANNOT BELIEVE THIS WAS A BOOK! A BOOK MEANT FOR YOUNG ADULTS! WHAT IS YOUNG ADULT???

The Queen’s Secret by Melissa de la Cruz

Lilac's birthright makes her the Queen of Renovia, and a forced marriage made her the Queen of Montrice. But being a ruler does not mean making the rules. For Lilac, taking the throne means giving up the opportunity to be with love of her life, the kingdom's assassin, Caledon Holt. Worse, Cale is forced to leave the castle when a horrific set of magical attacks threatens Lilac's sovereignty. Now Cal eand Lilac will have to battle dark forces separately, even though being together is the only thing that's ever saved them.

— Remember last month when I was like: can’t wait for my hold to come through on this sequel so I know what happens? What an idiot. THIS BOOK WAS SO DUMB I CANNOT BELIEVE IT WAS A BOOK. As always in my rage-induced rants, no apologies for spoilers because seriously do NOT read this, but Lilac (legit, that was her name) married some other dude but just kept fucking Cale??? Like she had a secret door? So he could come in and they could fuck?? I just—oh my God. So, all these things kept happening. Magic and bad stuff and horses were killed. Lilac’s mother was the absolute WORST. Honestly the most worthless character who at one point was like “well, my story is over, guess it’s time to leave,” and then just left?? Forced Lilac into a marriage of alliance and no love and then everything evil was defeated in point two four seconds. It happened so fast I wasn’t even sure it happened. So, then I’m like, ok, how are Lilac and Cale going to end up together? Because this is YA and that’s how it’s supposed to work. Only her being married and that marriage requiring an heir is something of a rather large hurdle. Don’t worry! Remember when Lilac and Cale were fucking? Everyone totally knew. Including the king Lilac is married to. Who is somehow like...ok with this? And tells Cale that Lilac is pregnant. ISN’T THAT WONDERFUL! Sure, because now they can lie and claim its the king’s heir. ONLY IT’S CALE’S KID! AND CALE IS COOL WITH THIS! His entire internal monologue during this is about how he realizes he might not ever be able to tell his kid he’s their father, but he’ll be around and that’s good. Wait, what??? But there’s more! Not only is Lilac having Cale’s kid, but the king she’s married to is in love with one of Cale’s spy associates. So the king and the spy are going to go hang out (and presumably have their own kids) at one castle and Lilac and Cale are going to go to another. Lilac and the king never get divorced or annulled or whatever. Everyone stays as is and married as is and—they all live happily ever after? This was presented as a good ending, I swear. What the shit, guys, seriously.

#book rec #book reccs #fantasy recommendations #rom com recs #laura reads books #i am still waiting for people to respond to my emails #and only vaguely stressed out about it #welllp these are books

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nerianasims · 3 years

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Billboard #1s 1987

Under the cut.

"Shake You Down" -- Gregory Abbot -- January 17, 1987

The only reason I've heard this song before is because of Todd in the Shadows' worst hit songs of 1987 video. I do not entirely agree with his list, but this one definitely belongs on it. I don't think the song's writer knew what "shake down" actually means. This is supposed to be a love song about how the narrator is missing the woman he's staring at (um) and wants her back so he can "shake you down." It sounds creepy, and yet the music is so painfully bland it can't even rise to that. It's no surprise it hasn't gotten radio play since it was a hit. That it was a hit in the first place is mystifying.

"At This Moment" -- Billy Vera and the Beaters -- January 24, 1987

A rather good blue-eyed soul song. The narrator is singing to a woman who just told him she's in love with someone else. It sounds like she's acting scared, and he's upset by that as well as by her leaving him, because "I'd never, never hurt you." And he'd give up twenty years of his life if she'd stay. There are some massive blues horns, Billy Vera sings it well, and it's cathartically sad. The song became a hit years after it was first released because it was on Family Ties. Billy Vera keeps on chugging, and he's also a music historian. He won a Grammy for "best album notes" in 2013 for a Ray Charles boxed set. I had no idea that was an award category.

"Open Your Heart" -- Madonna -- February 7, 1987

Watch out. When Madonna says "I've had to work much harder than this/ For something I want, don't try to resist me," it's absolutely believable. She worked incredibly hard to get where she was. I guess the song is stalkery when looked at from a certain angle, but that is not the angle I choose. I hear it as I did as a teenager -- as something aspirational, because I got huge and powerful crushes on guys (mostly friends) and then did absolutely nothing about it, both because I had no idea what to do and because I didn't actually want a boyfriend yet. (That changed in college.) Musically and lyrically, the song is Motown mixed with disco and updated, as most of the True Blue album is. It's a lot of fun.

"Livin on a Prayer" -- Bon Jovi -- February 14, 1987

I wonder what I'd feel about this song if it hadn't been overplayed for years and years. I don't think it was/is played more than "You Give Love a Bad Name," but I have never been sick of "You Give Love a Bad Name." This one... meh. I don't want to run screaming from it, even after hearing it a zillion times, so that's something. It's about a working class couple who's having serious money troubles. It's just a snapshot of this difficult time in their life, and how they're holding on to each other. I'd be happier with it if the story were rounded out, and especially if they got a happy ending. The music is fine, acceptable rock, but nothing special.

"Jacob's Ladder" -- Huey Lewis and the News -- March 14, 1987

This song is a "fuck off" to televangelists, though if you only listen to the chorus you might not know that. I always appreciate anyone telling televangelists to fuck off. I could use it being nastier, but you can't expect real nastiness from Huey Lewis and the News. Genesis would go there a few years later, and I like that song much better. "Jesus He Knows Me" is also more interesting musically. This one's fine, but not memorable.

"Lean on Me" -- Club Nouveau -- March 21, 1987

The original "Lean on Me" is one of the great songs. This version is annoying. A go-go beat and a faux-reggae break. The original of this song is deeply emotional and touching. This one is not even a good dance song. I liked it when I was a kid, but that makes sense, because it's a very kiddie song.

"Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now" -- Starship -- April 4, 1987

This song is actually not bad. It's pretty good, even. It's a very slick synth-heavy drum machine love song, but I really like the way Grace Slick sings on it. Mickey Thomas, well, he hits the notes. Could be worse. If they'd gotten a male vocalist who could match Grace Slick on his part of the duet, this might be a great song. They didn't, so it's just pretty good.

"I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me)" -- Aretha Franklin and George Michael -- April 18, 1987

George Michael is an excellent singer, but he's no Aretha Franklin. But who is? He holds his own pretty well here. As both Franklin and Michael know how to push emotion in a song, they end up with good chemistry on this one. Unfortunately, though the vocal performances are great, the music itself is dull. The melody slips out of my head while I'm listening to it.

"(I Just) Died in Your Arms" -- Cutting Crew -- May 2, 1987

*silent scream of anguish* I wish this song would slip out of my head permanently. It is my personal most overplayed song in existence. My hate for it could end worlds. I have no idea about what qualities it might or might not have. I just want it to shut the fuck up.

"With or Without You" -- U2 -- May 16, 1987

I don't think U2 actually counts as "alternative," but the alternative stations were the only ones who played them where I lived. The song is extremely structured and carefully designed, but it feels somehow raw at the same time. It doesn't have the layers upon layers of synth that most of the songs on the charts did. It has a beautiful melody. The lyrics are thoughtful, heartrending poetry. I'm not sure what I thought of the song at the time -- I associate it more with a couple years later, when my family moved to a town near a huge state college and I started listening to the college station. It hasn't aged a bit. An amazing song.

Also Bono’s personality is somewhat insufferable if one is silly enough to look into it. But his voice is incredibly hot, and I very much appreciate that.

"You Keep Me Hangin' On" -- Kim Wilde -- June 6, 1987

Back to the layers of synth. This is the Supremes song updated as a 1987 dance song, and it sounds exactly like you'd think it would. It's okay.

"Always" -- Atlantic Starr -- June 13, 1987

This is the kind of song I made gagging noises about at age 10, when it came out. I'm tempted to now too. It's like corn syrup, both lyrically and musically. It sounds like it was written for weddings.

"Head to Toe" -- Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam -- June 20, 1987

I liked this song a lot when I was a kid. I had a lot of fun dancing to it. Now I hear Lisa Lisa's vocals in the opening and chorus, which are kind of like a police siren, and want to cover my ears. I can't listen to it without getting a headache nowadays.

"I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me)" -- Whitney Houston -- June 27, 1987

This is a Whitney Houston song I like. She doesn't oversing as much as usual -- she mostly, though not entirely, saves it for the chorus. She wants to dance with "a man who'll take a chance/ On a love that burns hot enough to last." It's a simple dance song that speaks to real emotion.

"Alone" -- Heart -- July 11, 1987

In the 80s, Heart did hair metal ballads. All the men who did the same were copying them. Including the hair itself. Heart did it first, and Heart did it best. So lyrically, why can't she get this person alone? Not even on the phone? Whatever, it doesn't matter. What matters is the emotion, the music, and that this is a great song to sing along with.

"Shakedown" -- Bob Seger -- August 1, 1987

Unlike Gregory Abbott, Bob Seger knew what "shakedown" meant. The song was written for Beverly Hills Cop II, and that's exactly what it sounds like. It's a good movie song, but doesn't transcend that box. Still fun though.

"I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" -- U2 -- August 8, 1987

This is a spiritual pop song. But it's very far from the sanitized happy clappy Christian-brand pop that's so foul. It's about a search for transcendence that's ongoing -- eternal, really. And while this song is explicitly Christian, it speaks to a universality that doesn't require religion of any kind. Also it's beautiful musically.

"Who's That Girl" -- Madonna -- August 22, 1987

I'm surprised this was a number one. Or even charted in the top 20. I'd have predicted #46 or something. The movie it was written for was terrible, and Madonna was particularly terrible in it. Like, aggressively terrible, when in most movies she was just kinda blah. I've never liked the song. I don't hate it either; I don't feel much of anything about it. That is very strange for a Madonna song -- "American Life" is awful, but it makes me feel things. (Mostly embarrassment.) But "Who's That Girl" is bland, which a Madonna song should never be.

"La Bamba" -- Los Lobos -- August 29, 1987

This is a nearly faithful rendition of Richie Valens' original hit, which was based on a Veracruz folk song. But where are the castanets? The original is better, a true classic, but this one isn't bad. It's simply... unnecessary. It was done for a movie about Valens, so I guess it was sort of "necessary" in that way. Skip this one and go for Valens' version.

"I Just Can't Stop Loving You" -- Michael Jackson with Siedah Garrett -- September 19, 1987

This is from the Bad album, which I did not like in 1987 and continue to not like now. I find this song extraordinarily dull. Whitney Houston and Barbra Streisand both turned it down, and I'm not surprised. This song weirdly makes me think of The Love Boat. Like it belongs in a television series. It's legitimately bad. When do we get to Janet again?

"Didn't We Almost Have It All" -- Whitney Houston -- September 26, 1987

I think the narrator in this song is trying to get an old flame back. It's a pretty melody, and the lyrics are wildly repetitive but not bad, but I can't get past Houston's oversinging. Anyone who doesn't mind that will probably enjoy this song.

"Here I Go Again" -- Whitesnake -- October 10, 1987

I wonder what makes one feel a song is "horribly overplayed" vs. just "played probably too much but I'm fine with it." This song is the latter for me. It's a really good song, so obviously that's part of it. The beginning is thoughtful and searching, with an organ and everything (or probably a synth on the organ setting), and has that same spiritual feel as "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For." Then in come the guitars, which are awesome. It absolutely rocks, and the emotion is of "like a drifter I was born to walk alone" is amplified by the rock, rather than buried under it.

"Lost in Emotion" -- Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam -- October 17, 1987

Lisa Lisa does not sound like a police siren in this, thankfully. And I got frozen on this song because I listened to it over and over and managed to feel absolutely nothing about it. I guess she's falling in love with a friend and worried she's telling him too much, and I should identify with this because it's happened to me more than once. But I don't. I like the bass line, and it's updated Motown, so I should like that. But again, I feel nothing. Maybe it's the way Lisa Lisa sings it. I don't know, and I've wasted far too much time on something I cannot make myself care about in any way.

"Bad" -- Michael Jackson -- October 24, 1987

I think the Bad album is bad. Actually bad, as in not good. I was 11 when this hit #1, so everything in the universe embarrassed me, but this stood out. I no longer knew anyone who liked Michael Jackson. I certainly didn't. In my opinion, Jackson had exactly one good album in him, and that album was Thriller. Thriller is one of the greats. Bad is blah.

"I Think We're Alone Now" -- Tiffany -- November 7, 1987

I wonder what makes stations decide to play #1 hits and what makes them decide not to. I don't remember hearing this much at the time, and never after. It's a cover of a 1960s song that was never that great, and it's worse here. In 1967, the "ooh we're alone gonna do something naughty" idea was still edgy. In 1987 -- are you kidding? Madonna's tearing up the charts in 1987; what on earth is this thing doing on it? It's an annoying song, annoyingly sung.

"Mony Mony" -- Billy Idol -- November 21, 1987

I had to do aerobics to this in middle school. Next!

"(I've Had) The Time of My Life" -- Bill Medley and Jennifer Warnes -- November 28, 1987

This is one of those songs I can't really evaluate because it feels like background music to my life. Not that it was ever particularly important to me -- it's not. But it's sort of like "Eye of the Tiger", movie song and all. Medley and Warnes are well-matched on the song, and they do a great job. I wish the music were more interesting, but well, movie ballad. It's a good one for what it is. By the way, Dirty Dancing is another movie I've managed to never see. For no reason -- I might even like it. But somehow, it's never come up.

"Heaven Is a Place on Earth" -- Belinda Carlisle -- December 5, 1987

Ooh baby, do you know what that's worth? Yes. I love everything about this song. It's a big and unashamed dance power ballad about how great love is, and the lyrics are simple but powerful. But I have a question: What the heck is up with the video? It looks like she's being inducted into a cult, not like she's in ecstasy over great romantic love. Well, it was the 80s, the videos usually didn't have anything to do with the songs. Still, weird.

"Faith" -- George Michael -- December 12, 1987

I've known the lyrics to this song since it came out, but I never registered them before. Only "I gotta have faith, faith, faith." I remember the video, though, with its prominent focus on George Michael's butt. I'm watching the video now, and huh, there's a basically naked woman in it too. That, I didn't remember, because it wasn't relevant to my interests. Anyway, the lyrics are about how the narrator needs a break from relationships so is not gonna have sex with this hot woman. Sure, George, that's why. Ahem. Sorry, we didn't know then, and it doesn't matter one bit anyway, because the singer is playing a role. It's a fun song for which the lyrics don't matter at all.

BEST OF 1987 -- "With or Without You" by U2 WORST OF 1987 -- "I Just Can't Stop Loving You" by Michael Jackson with Siedah Garrett

#billboard number ones

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waywardwrestlewritingwaif · 4 years

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TheGuardian’s Oath, Part Ten

I’m definitely making progress... You can get caught up on previous sections by following the links in the Master List.

Pairing: Feargal Devitt/ Finn Balor x OFC

Word count: 3,035

Content advisory: Some sexual content, not as graphic as in previous chapters.

At first, I wondered if Sophia might have made them when she first started talking of her lost younger brother, but even a quick look dispelled that idea. The needlework was that of a skilled worker, a grown woman, not a child. The fabric was very soft and fine and the blanket was edged with a distinctive type of lace. Even the thread used for the embroidery looked expensive. Whoever had made these pieces had done so with the aim of making something very special and had the knowledge of what was needed to do so. Whatever had become of Colin, someone had gone to great lengths to make him something to show that he was loved.

Perhaps the proper thing to do would have been to put everything away and wait to discuss these matters with my husband but I knew myself well enough to know that the thought that Kate might have lied to me about the origins of “Colin” would eat at my heart until I knew the truth. So I gathered up both items, carefully folding them because I hated the idea of showing them any disrespect, and went downstairs to the kitchen.

“Good morning ma’am,” Kate greeted me with her customary cheer. “Can I fix you something to eat?”

“Not right away,” I stammered, laying the mysterious garments out for her to see. “I was making some room in the cedar chest upstairs and I found these inside it. I’m not quite sure what to make of it.”

Kate stepped closer and her eyes widened. She looked every bit as shocked as I was, her jaw falling slack as she turned to face me.

“These were upstairs? They were with… her… things?”

I nodded. “I remember what you told me about Sophia and I thought at first she might have made them but… there’s no way…”

Kate shook her head, rubbing her hands on her apron as she often did when she was anxious. “Oh no, these are her doing… the first Mrs. Devitt. That lace is from her part of the world. She brought some with her and she made blankets and wraps for Miss Sophia and Master William just like these. It’s been years since I’ve thought about it but doing such work was one of the only things that made her seem happy.”

She pursed her lips a little, as if she felt she’d said too much.

“So there must have been some background story then, something she shared with Sophia,” I mused. “Is it possible that Mrs. Devitt had a younger brother who died? Perhaps Sophia heard the story when she was very young and confused it in her mind?”

“I suppose it could be something like that, ma’am. Although that name, Colin… that was the Reverend’s late father.”

“True. And the late Mrs. Devitt’s people were French.”

“I suppose they might have chosen that name for their son and then decided to change it to William afterwards,” she offered.

We puzzled in silence for a few minutes before we were startled by a sharp gasp. We hadn’t heard Susan make her way into the kitchen but more unnerving was the expression on her face when she saw what we were looking at.

“Oh she can’t have kept those,” she exclaimed breathlessly. “With the name and everything.”

“Do you know what these are, Susan?” I asked her, a little more sharply than I had intended.

The girl’s face could hardly have looked more shocked if she had seen an actual ghost.

“I’m sorry for speaking outside my place, ma’am but it caught me off guard. I never realized that they named it.”

“Named what?”

“Well when the Reverend’s first wife disappeared, when she died, she was expecting a child.”

“What on Earth are you talking about?” Kate snapped at her. “Who told you such a thing?” The cook turned her attention to me before continuing, “Ma’am, I’ve been here many years, and I was here during both of her confinements and I knew practically as soon as she did when she was in the family way.”

“I know she never shared the news,” Susan retorted, “but there were people in the village knew about it all the same.”

“Shame on you for listening to idle gossip!”

“Wait,” I interjected softly, trying to make sense of what I’d just heard. “Susan, why would Mrs. Devitt have told people in the village about this?”

“Why indeed?” Kate huffed.

Susan shot the older woman a hot look but addressed her comments to me. “It wasn’t that she told people there, ma’am. She went to see my Aunt Anne because she was having a terrible time of it. My aunt always helped ladies in distress that way.”

Kate shook her head a little, her dark eyes furious and I was worried that any word she spoke would cause a fight.

“Your aunt helps with the lying-in?” I prompted.

Susan nodded, looking a little gratified that I was taking her seriously. “She does whatever’s needed along the way.”

I didn’t need to ask Kate for her opinion because her disgust was painted across her face for all to see.

“I can’t say what the problem was exactly but she asked me to set up a meeting for her with Aunt Anne and that’s what I did. I never knew what they discussed, as it wasn’t my business.”

Kate ejaculated a hard little laugh and I held up my hand to calm both of them.

“Clearly, we’re not going to be able to learn anything more on the subject and that may be for the best. I am going to place these back where I found them and I don’t think we should any of us speak on it any further.”

The rest of the day unfolded under a sort of dark cloud that was reflected in the weather. A squall rolled in by late afternoon and everything for miles around was battered by wind and rain. I entreated Susan to stay until the storm passed for her own safety but she remained in such a mood that she refused. Dinner was quiet, with Kate a little tart that I had given any credence to Susan’s story and, I imagined, a little annoyed that she was unable to come up with an argument to categorically refute it.

“Will you have a cup of tea with me?” she piped up once I had put the children to bed.

“I would enjoy that,” I sighed.

She sat with me and asked friendly enough questions about how I was managing and whether or not the children were afraid of the storm, but it was clearly all a prelude to what she really wanted to say.

“I hope you don’t think I’m being impertinent, ma’am, but that girl’s story about…”

I nodded and bade her continue.

“I don’t know if you’d decided on saying anything to the Reverend about those blankets you found, but if you do, for pity’s sake don’t start talking about his former wife going to see that old woman in the village. I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with her helping young mothers when their time comes but it’s well enough known that she’s hardly better than a witch. You know I don’t believe that the Reverend’s first wife was any saint but there’s wild and then there’s ungodly. I don’t think there’s a hair of truth to that tale Susan told us. I don’t believe she meant any harm because she’s like a lot of the village girls, a bit simple and a measure too fanciful for her own good. But I’ve heard enough about that old woman and goings-on there to know that if you tell the Reverend that people are saying that his wife went to see her because of a family problem that it will be like a knife in his heart.”

“I understand, Kate. I wish I hadn’t found those things and started any of this. When I feel the time is right, I show them to him and ask what he wants me to do with them. As far as I’m concerned, that’s the end of it.”

We sipped our tea, both clearly ruminating about the fact that this was likely the end of nothing. It seemed that whatever I tried to do for this family, now my family, I was forever disinterring their dead.

Then, from upstairs, there was a bloodcurdling scream followed by a loud crash. Kate and I leapt to our feet and ran to the children’s room, finding them both wide awake and in tears.

“What happened? Did something fall?”

Both children shook their heads frantically, both of them trying to grab hold of me.

“It came from upstairs!” William wailed, burying his face against my skirt.

“Very well then, I’ll go and look.”

As best as I could with the children attached to me as they were, I made my way to the door leading up to the garrett. It felt strange that I was so intimidated, considering that I had still slept more nights in the attic than in the master bedroom. But the narrow door seemed like it led to something dangerous and I found myself hesitating before it.

“Leave it ma’am, I’m going to go for the watch,” Kate mumbled, grasping my shoulder.

“There’s no need for that,” I answered, as much to convince myself as her. “If someone wanted to break in, they’d have come in through the ground floor. We are in no danger.”

I managed to extricate myself from the three of them and cautiously opened the door. I could immediately feel something different than I remembered. I could feel the wind and the scent of the sea was thick in my nostrils. I slowly ascended the stairs to my former room, my breath quickening. I wanted to tell Kate to bring the children back to their room, although I knew they would never go. Unlike them, I had no fear of burglars. I knew that something else could be lying in wait.

The attic was oddly bright and it took my eyes a moment to adjust and understand what I was seeing. The little window from which I had been able to see the ocean was completely smashed and part of a tree hung through it. In the end, I was alone and this was nothing more than a common accident brought on by the storm. As much of a mess as it was, it was neither physically nor spiritually threatening. Nevertheless, I was filled with unease as I observed the carcass of the tree and the shards of glass glittering like stars across the floor.

“Well I won’t be easy to clean up but it’s nothing too bad,” I sighed, giving Kate and the children a weary smile. “That big Scotch pine’s fallen and taken out the window.”

Kate shook her head. “The Reverend’s been asking Mr. Jones to cut that thing back for two years now. He’s going to be fit to be tied when he finds out.”

“At least I’ll be able to get the worst of it dealt with before he gets home.” I smiled to reassure everyone that I had things in hand. “Please get yourself some rest, Kate. I’ll get these two settled again.”

William and Sophia went back to bed easily enough, their tears dried and their rush of excitement quickly fading. I gave them both a kiss and promised them again that all was well. I was about to leave them when something occurred to me about the sequence of events from earlier.

“Sophia,” I began, trying to recall every detail of what had happened in perfect clarity, “what was it that made you scream earlier?”

“I was just frightened by the noise,” she answered tensely.

“Of course, it’s just that I thought… I thought I heard your voice before the tree fell.”

Her dark eyes met mine and, even in the shadows, I could see her brow twitch and furrow just a little.

“I must have been mistaken,” I whispered. “Good night, sweet girl.”

As I returned to bed, I replayed the events of the night in my head. I tried to convince myself that I’d made a mistake but it was no use. Sophia had screamed and then the tree had fallen. She had seen or heard something that scared her but it was something else, something that had disappeared in the commotion afterwards. It could easily have been that she awoke and was frightened by the grotesque shadows cast on the wall by the trees outside. But there was that other possibility; I knew that there was that other figure who lurked here and now it seemed that he had approached the children.

“The arrangement is that you don’t touch them,” I whispered aloud. “You do what you want to me but the children and their father are spared.”

I realized in my heart that I had no power over him and that I could not depend on him honoring our bizarre ‘contract’. Still, I repeated the phrase again in the hopes that he would hear:

“They are to be kept safe.”

I shouldn’t have been surprised that the following day I had a terrible headache. Shifts in weather often had an effect on me and with the stress of having to deal with Mr. Jones and arranging the repairs, along with another sleepless night, I was in so much pain I found myself having to squint.

Mr. Jones was none too happy about being called in to deal with the tree, all the more so when I insisted on hiring men from the town to repair and replace the window rather than allowing him to bring in members of his family to do the job. He cursed at me under his breath whenever he thought I was out of earshot.

Strange men were in and out well into the evening, filling the house with the sound of shouts and heavy footfalls. The men who had come to work on the window were aggravated that Mr. Jones insisted on cleaning up the remains of the tree at the same time. Kate and Susan were aggravated that there were so many people coming in and out of the house. An argument broke out when Mr. Jones fell from his ladder and insisted that one of the men inside the house had distracted him and caused the accident. The foreman was equally adamant that none of his men had been in the room at the time and that our old gardener was trying to stir up trouble.

By the time everyone was done for the day, I was so exhausted I could barely speak. Seeing the state I was in, Kate ordered me to bed. I did not like to impose on her any further, since she hadn’t had an easy night either, but I was in no state to put up a fight. I retired early and would have fallen asleep right away but for what I saw when I entered the bedroom: three lines scratched roughly into the floorboards just inside the doorframe.

I wanted to cry out but there was nothing that I could say. Although the workers hadn’t been in our bedroom, they had been moving throughout the house. The marks could easily have been an accident. Even if they had been made on purpose, there was no sinister meaning to such markings that I was aware of. Still, their presence was a torment to me. It wasn’t enough that he could come and claim me whenever he wanted, Balor needed me to know that he was always there, always watching, even when I couldn’t see him.

I fell asleep quickly and found myself dreaming of a walk in the coastal forest, of wandering and trying to find something, my way home or something I had lost. As I walked, I found myself growing shorter and shorter of breath, until I realized that I was underwater, that I was struggling to breathe because there was no air for me. I awoke some time after dark, gasping, aware only of a weight on top of me and rapid, hot breaths on my neck. His claws were wrapped in my hair and I could feel his sex pressed close to mine. His shoulder pinned my face to the pillow and kept me from seeing anything. I might as well have been running through the underwater forest still.

His touch was rougher and more insistent than ever but I felt a little relieved because if he was focused on me, it meant that he wasn’t marauding through the house or targeting the children. I even slipped an arm around him, pressing my hand against the base of his bony spine and encouraging him to take what he so obviously wanted. He bit down hard on my neck, enough that I felt blood droplets form and trickle from the wound as he thrust into me.

As always, I tried to resist surrendering to the ecstasy he made me feel and, as always, I failed, becoming an eager participant in our ungodly coupling.

He was exceptionally animated, a stream of filth and curses flowing from him amid declarations that I was his and no one else’s, that I had been made for him, body and soul. I wanted to tell him that he was a monster and I was meant only for my husband, and at the same time, I felt connected to the very force of life when I was with him in a way that I never could without. In the end, my mind seemed to become confused as it shifted between Feagal and Balor and all I could do was mewl and whimper in reply to his goading.

When it was finished between us, Balor ran his tongue slowly over the length of my collarbone, sucking gently at the hollow where it connected to my throat. He spoke in a rough whisper, tapping his fingers against my shoulder, a beat for each word he uttered.

“One. Two. Three.”

And then he was gone.

#finn balor imagine #finn balor fanfic #nxt imagine #nxt fanfiction #wwe fanfiction #wwe imagine #wrestling fanfic #wayward wrestle writing

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teamjacobthot · 4 years

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twilight saga character tag!

thank you sm @softtwihoe for tagging me <3 i feel like im still new to the renaissance fandom on tumblr even tho i never stopped being a twihard so shit like this warms my heart <3

now my spicy twilight takes………………...

1. Character you find most relatable to you as a person?

the love of my life, without a doubt, 100% leah clearwater. mfs tried to make her feel bad for feeling her feelings but she was valid in all of them. also its canon that shes a scorpio but yall aint hear it from me

rosalie bc we have similar trauma (lmao :/) and like to disagree with people. i also love big dumb men

edward. as a fellow whiny musical pissbaby who cant let shit go, i get it

2. Character that didn’t have a POV in the books or certain unfinished manuscripts, but you wish did?

ok maybe this is super underground but sue!!! mf!!! clearwater!!! she had allllllll the tea on the pack and tbh i really wanted to see how she and her family were before and after harry’s death. that event was a really big deal (outside of just bella and edward) and set shit OFF in new moon

billy bc he also had hella tea and i bet he was super fucking conflicted during the ENTIRE saga bc he couldnt say shit to charlie!!! that shit sounds rough!!!!!

quil bc he was the last to phase and i just wanna know what he was going thru. he would’ve had hellaaaaa jokes too but smeyer doesnt care abt nonwhite characters so :/

charlie, assuming he supports the black lives matter movement

i guess overall i just wanna know how EVERYONE was doing in new moon bc that story ran DEEP. i want a midnight sun for new moon but for every character

nobody asked but new moon is the best in the saga and new moon stans have the best pussy

3. Character that’s underrated and deserves more recognition?

the entire wolf pack but wbk

riley but tbh i think its bc i just loved xavier samuel in the eclipse movie

the denali coven!!!! their story was incredible imo and while irina was a snitch, i understand why she snitched. she didnt deserve to die. the denalis deserve so much better and while garrett is cool to have around, that doesnt fill the void that irina left bc the volturi decided to be a bunch of haters. i want them to heal so bad.

tanya gets a bad rep for having a crush on edward but she deserves better too

i’d like to read abt the vacations that the denalis with the cullens too

oh and all thats just BESIDES the succubus legend that tanya and kate and irina started in canon!!!!!!!! like??????????????????? they fucked and killed human men??????????? thats the story i wanna READ bitch!!!! thats my jennifer’s body (2009) fantasy!!!!! smeyer is a coward tho

btw carmen and esme are girlfriends :)

4. Character you thought was unnecessary for the story?

ok besides the obvious, and nobody drag me for it, but bree tanner. I get she was there to show us how fucked up the volturi are and to sorta predict bella as a newborn but……...we already knew the volturi kill mfs just for fun. if the cullens werent gonna adopt her we really didnt need many details on her. and regarding the newborn thing, bree’s role as a newborn didnt really mean shit bc bella ended up being ~the perfect newborn~ anyway!!!! smeyer tried to sell us the short second life of bree tanner as if there arent other worthy characters of having a spinoff novella about like leah or seth or rosalie or emmett or charlie or resume from bella’s ovary. that being said………..

resume, for multiple reasons including:

resume literally shouldnt exist. vampires shouldnt be able to have working sperm and even then, edward shouldve pulled out. he could barely even tongue kiss bella so wtf made him think he could cum in her????? whyyy didnt he use his big vampire brain to consider that?????

resume seemed totally unwanted and unthought of??? bella and edward were so mf absorbed in each other like regular teen couples (with 1000x the intensity but still) that it didnt seem likely that theyd want a baby after fucking like three times anyway. miss bella “fuck them kids” swan also gave no indication of wanting children. ever. EYE would have simply aborted and went on to live my best vampire life :)

resumes existence defeats the purpose of imprinting bc theres no way she’d be able to conceive with jacob. at all. but we know smeyer doesnt think shit through

smeyer writing in resume ruined jacobs character even more esp coming off the shitshow that was eclipse. periodt

5. Top 5 female characters?

leah <3

rosalie

bella

sue

angela

6. Top 5 male characters?

jacob (pre-eclipse but that’s implied)

emmett

seth

quil/paul (i love them equally)

edward’s dumb ass <3 sometimes

7. Character interaction that didn’t happen but you wish it did?

rosalie and edward but only under the condition that he finally stops being a misogynistic pissbaby towards her and accepts her for the sexy legend that she is. i feel like they’d get along well but smeyer is anti-hottie and anti-talent so i guess we’ll never know :/

leah and someone who loves her and respects her and validates her feelings :)

JACOB AND HIS SISTERS. OR EVEN JUST RACHEL. she literallyyyyyyyyyy came home after YEARS in breaking dawn but he was too busy simping over bella to acknowledge her??? huh???

bella and a licensed therapist

edward and a licensed therapist

8. Character that deserves more development?

the whole entire wolf pack but wbk

more specifically, embry. whooooom is his father???

emmett. like we get it hes funny and hot but like……….spare depth maam? any spare depth????

9. Character who is your total opposite?

jasper bc he fought for people who look like me to be ENSLAVED and the fandom lets it slide for whatever reason :|

10. Character you warmed up to after experiencing the Renaissance?

edward, in some ways. i relate to him when im feeling extra self-loathing but then i get over it lmao. he’s still stupid tho

i used to think alice was annoying af (and i still kinda do tbh) but as a fashion hoe, i get it

charlie, sorta, even tho he’s a cop. i wasnt there for the original conversation on here but do yall think he supports black lives matter? idk tbh but we’ll never know bc smeyer probably doesnt know what police brutality is. anyways ive really enjoyed the discourse on his relationship with bella and how he doesnt trust edward

jacob <3 he’s always been my heart, my soul, my baby, my fuckin cinnamon apple, etc. but i love the posts that other fans/nonhaters have been making abt how warm and kind he was before smeyer fucked him over and how he deserves so much better. its like yes im glad youre seeing all the things that make me a team jacob thot :)

idk if yall have already been tagged but im tagging @howlonghaveyoubeenseventeen @leahclearwaterdefensesquad @leahclearvvater and @bellas-dumptruck-ass! also anyone can fill this out and say i tagged them <3

#this took 3 times to post bc tumblr stays on my neck but #ask things #twilight saga #twilight renaissance #hot takes

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staudiology · 4 years

Photo

About me: Tristan

Current mood? - Melancholy, calm, and hopeful

Age? - 22

What is the last song you listened to? - Hollywood- The Black Skirts

Favorite song? - Half Moon Run- Full Circle

Favorite novel? - Hoot

Where would you like to travel? - Japan

The story of your last kiss? - My ex and I decided to go our separate ways, but as he was walking back to his apartment, I made a U-turn to come back and kiss him for the last time. (no joke, I am a sucker for making romantic movie scenes in real life)

Where would you like to be right now? - On a train ride through the countryside of Switzerland listening to my "I'm sad" playlist.

One of your insecurites? - my nose

Why did you join Tumblr? - lmao, I have actually been on Tumblr when it first started but had different phases of blogs, but right now, I'm really into the study community. I think its a wholesome and great community.

Hug or kiss? - kiss

Any siblings? - 3 older sisters

Fears? - doing poorly in school (haha) besides being tortured alive ><

Passion? - writing thoughtful letters

Is there anyone you wish you were with? - family wise: my mom, not family lol: Taeyong or Ten

What was the last text sent to you? - lol, "ur still, my daddy."

Someone, you miss? Garrett (Garage). (my first ex but I fucked it up)

What upsets you the most? - When people answer for me or think they know me

Happiest moment? - I love pens. My best friend took me to a vintage pen shop where I could pick out any pen my heart desired. ($300 starting price for each pen) I think about that day whenever I feel sad.

Guilty pleasure? - Thinking I sing good country songs while my family is home so I can have an audience. (they get annoyed)

#student #study #studying #study tips #study motivation #study community #study aesthetic #speech pathology #speech pathologists #speech language pathology #Anatomy and Physiology #anatomy #science #study notes #ipad notes #study inspiration #studyinspo

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illyrian-book-lover · 4 years

Text

|Rosie Cheeks| Richie Tozier x Reader

Chapter 3: Stealing is not good for my health

It was noon, and Rosie Hawthorne was laying in bed, still in her pajamas. After yesterday, Rosie has jumped at any and every sound. She did not leave her room yesterday and only came out for dinner. Rosie spent her time reading and sketching.

Right now, she was reading Little Women. She was so engrossed in the novel that she did not hear the door slowly open until she heard her door creak. Her head snapped up, eyes wide. Rosie let out a sigh of relief when she saw her father standing in the doorway.

Garrett Hawthorne was dressed in his uniform. He had been at the police station when he received a call from his wife, Lillian. Lillian Hawthorne had informed him that Rosie had not come out of her room to even eat breakfast. The mother was worried and had to get to work. So, she asked Garrett to come talk to their daughter.

“Hey, kiddo.” Garrett smiled gently. “Shouldn’t you be our, playing with other kids?” He sat down on the edge of Rosie’s bed.

“Dad, I’m thirteen, not seven. I don’t need to be out, playing with other kids as you put it.” Rosie closed her book, not before placing a bookmark to not lose her place. “What are you doing back?”

“Your mother called,” Garrett started but was cut off when Rosie scoffed.

“Oh, did she now?” Rosie crossed arms over her chest.

“Rosie, she’s worried about you.” Garrett said softly, trying not to provoke the tiger.

“Is that why she sent you, instead of coming here herself?”

“Kiddo, please.” Garrett sighed before continuing. “Let’s not have this conversation right now. We can talk about this later.”

“I don’t want to talk about this.” Rosie stood up from her place on her bed and got some clothes out of her closet. “I’m going out, to ‘play with children’.”

“Not before you eat something.” Garrett stood up from his spot and took his leave. Before Rosie could protest, he continued. “I’ll warm up the food.”

🎈

Rosie was standing in front of the pharmacy, dreading going inside. She hated how creepy Mr, Keene was, preying on young girls. Her mother had asked her to buy some things from the pharmacy and even though she did not want to, she still left her front porch.

Rosie was going over the list of things she needed when she came across Beverly. Beverly Marsh was standing, trying to decide between the various products in front of her. Rosie walked closer to Beverly and pointed at a certain box.

“I’ve seen my mom use these ones.” Rosie pointed at the box and saw Beverly jump in panic. “Sorry, didn’t mean to scare you.”

“No, thank you.” Beverly smiled at Rosie.

Rosie nodded at Beverly before she walked towards another aisle. There, she spotted Eddie Kaspbrak, Bill Denbrough, and Stanley Uris with Eddie grabbing at whatever he could get his hands on.

“Uh who died?” Rosie questioned. Eddie stopped in his tracks and stared at Rosie.

The two boys whispered things to Eddie who stayed quiet and still. Beverly came up behind Rosie and immediately hid a box behind her back at the sight of the three boys.

“Y-you okay?” Bill asked Beverly.

“I’m fine. What wrong with you?” Beverly questioned.

“None of your business.” Stanley jumped in before anyone could reveal anything. But Eddie started talking the second Stanley answered.

“There is a kid outside who looks like someone killed him.” Eddie said quickly while still holding the many things in his hands. He kept his gaze on Rosie. He trusted her. He had since she had defended him from Henry Bowers from bullying him that one time in 5th grade.

“W-we need some s-s-supplies, but we don’t have enough money.” Bill continued.

“Okay,” Rosie slowly said as she took in all the information the two boys gave her.

Beverly stared at the three boys intently as a plan formed in her head. She looked at Rosie and nodded her head where Mr. Keene most likely stood.

“I have a plan.” Beverly said as she walked forward.

Not five minutes later, the three boys and Rosie were running out of the pharmacy, trying not to bump into anything, but Eddie did not get the memo.

The four 13 year olds ran out of the pharmacy and towards the alleyway where she saw Richie standing with who Rosie recognized as the new kid. The second Richie saw Rosie, his hand went up in a wave and he called out to her.

“Hey hotstuff! Did you miss me already?”

“Oh yes. I totally did. Couldn’t get you out of my mind all night.” Rosie answered him as she stood next to him and watched Eddie get down to work.

“Really?” Richies eyes widened and a huge smile came upon his face.

“No.” Rosie answer him before she turned to the new kid. “Well that doesn’t look so bad ….” She started before she was cut off by Richie.

“Really? Because he looks like he’s about to die.”

“Richie. Shut up!” Rosie said to Richie before she turned back to the injured kid. “Don’t listen to him, new kid, Dr. Kaspbrak here will have you fixed up in no time.” Rosie gave him a sweet smile and bens cheeks burned bright red.

“Thank you. I’m Ben.” The new kids introduced himself to Rosie.

“Nice to meet you Ben. I’m Rosie.”

“I-I know. I mean, I’ve seen you around the school before.” Bend said before Richie put his arm around Rosie’s waist and pulled her into his side.

“Hey! Hey! You do not eye fuck her. Only I can do that.” Richie said as he pointed his finger at Ben with his free hand.

“How about no.” Rosie said as she removed his arm.

Richie moved a bit behind her, looked down, smirked, and then moved next to Rosie. The smirk did not leave his face until he started annoying Eddie.

“Suck the wound.” Richie said as he moved closer to Rosie, who did not pay him any attention and kept her focus on what was happening in front of her.

“I need to focus right now.” Eddie said as he put the bandage on Ben’s cut.

“You need to focus.”

“Yeah, can you go get me something.” Eddie

“Jesus. Um, what do you need?” Richie asked.

“Just get my bifocals.” Eddie replied. “I hit it in my second fanny pack.”

“Why do you have two fanny packs?” Stan questioned.

No one noticed as Bill left the group and moved outside the alleyway.

“I need to focus right now and it’s a long story.” Eddie answered.

“I’d like to hear that story. It sounds . . . . like it’d be an interesting one.” Rosie said as she watched Eddie take off the temporary bandage, they had put on Bens cut.

“Oh my god. Oh my god. He’s bleeding.” Stan said as panic was crawling up his skin. He moved away from the injured kid and his young doctor.

“Eddie, do something.” Rosie said as she moved away from the two, as to not get any blood on herself. She noticed Richie standing close to the two and pulled him back by his elbow.

“You don’t want to know who fucking did this?” Richie questioned Rosie, noticing she has not asked them much about what had happened.

“Oh, I have an idea.” Rosie answered before focusing back on Eddie and Ben.

“You have to suck the wound before you apply the bandage. This is 101.” Richie said as he pushed up his sliding glasses.

“You don’t know what you’re talking about.” Eddie said as he finished putting on the bandage on Ben.

“Are you okay? That looks like it hurts.” Beverly said as she walked up to the group with Bill behind her.

“Oh, no I’m good.” Bill said as he pulled himself up. “I just fell.”

“Yeah! Right into Henry Bowers.” Richie said before Bill told him to shut up.

“Why? It’s the truth.” Richie said in retaliation.

“You sure they got the,” Beverly started as a smirk came on her face, “right stuff, to fix you up?”

Ben smiles at what Beverly had said. Rosie looked back and forth between Beverly and Ben before she smiled. They will look cute together, Rosie thought.

“You know, uh, w-w-we w-will take care of him.” Bill said. “Thanks again, Beverly.”

“Sure,” Beverly said, “maybe I’ll see you around.”

“Yeah, w-we were thinking about going to the q-q-q-quarry tomorrow.” Bill started saying to Beverly. “If — if you wanna go.”

“Will Rosie be there?” Beverly questioned as she looked towards Rosie.

“Definitely!” Richie said as he threw his arm around Rosie’s shoulder.

“I don’t want this second-hand invite.” Rosie moved away from Richie. “I’d like a proper invitation, with flowers and chocolate. And make sure the invite is engraved.” Rosie says as she claps her hands together.

“I’ll get it all for you, hotstuff.” Richie says as he moves closer to Rosie. “Should I get you roses?”

Rosie have Richie a look as she tried not to smile at him. Everyone looked at the two and let out a laugh except for Eddie who glared at Richie. He did not want to lose the one friend he had made outside of the loser’s club.

Richie and his loud trashmouth will run her out of this town, Eddie thought.

Beverly turns around and walks towards the open road before Rosie called out to her.

“Hey! Red! Wait for me!” Rosie shouts and Beverly stops in her tracks. “I’ll see you guys later.” Rosie waves at the five boys and runs after Beverly.

The two girls loop their arms together and turn to the main road. The brunette and the ginger walk towards Beverly’s house, chatting about nothing important. They reach Beverly’s house and the two say goodbye, but not before promising to call each other later.

Rosie walked home with a smile on her face. She was happy she had made friends with Beverly Marsh and the five boys. Rosie was almost home until she realized she had forgot to buy the supplies her mother had asked her to.

At the thought, Rosie did a U-turn and ran all the way to the pharmacy, where she found the boys, still at their spots, performing surgery on Ben.

#IT2017 #clown #derry #pennywise #Richie tozier #richie tozier x rosie hawthorne #richie tozier imagines #richie tozier x you #richie tozier fanfiction #richie tozier x reader #richie x reader #ben hanscom #beverly marsh #bill denbrough #mike hanlon #stanley uris #eddie kaspbrak

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annoyinglyjovialbird · 4 years

Text

Voltron: Next Generation

Charging Ahead: III

Word Count: 2881

Another blast came over the comms. Tearing her eyes away from Caleb, Kova saw Yellow successfully blast the enemy mecha. With ease, Cake flew around the mecha, distracting it. The mecha, seemingly dizzy from chasing the Lion, had fallen into the river below.

"Permission to assist Blue and leave Green?"

"Granted." Kova returned her eyes to Blue's camera feed, showing the mecha getting closer to the still Red Lion. Griffin could take care of herself. "Use thrusters."

"Not without me, you're not." With a blast of light, the Green Lion emerged from the overgrown canopy of trees. Inside, Liz was ready to go.

"Hurry up, then!" Together, the Yellow and Green Lions flew towards Yendailian.

It was almost too late.

Standing, Blue could only watch as the mecha stuttered towards Caleb. A boulder had Blue's tail pinned to the ground.

Caleb wasn't responding, and neither was the Lion.

The mecha approached the lava lake and took a clumsy step towards the pillar. The sporadic geysers erupted around the foot of the mecha, unbalancing it. It quickly regained its balance, reaching the edges of the lake and swung an oversized arm. It missed the pillar completely, hitting the space above Red's head. Kova braced herself on the railing. Her knuckles were turning white as she begged for Caleb to open his eyes and fly out of there.

The mecha was preparing to swing again. A blast to the head threw it off balance. Green flew above the mecha, firing another blast while Yellow headbutted the rock pile holding Blue down. Together, Yellow and Blue roared, getting the mecha's attention. Yellow went for the mecha's legs. Blue flew towards Green and fired at the mecha's head. The gray mechanical beast swung an oversized limb towards the lions. It missed again.

Closing all channels of communication, Kova connected only to Caleb. The poor boy was still slumped over in his seat.

"Caleb," Kova stared at the still images of Caleb inside of Red. "Wake up. Please, wake up." Kova bowed her head, still gripping the banister. "Don't make me tell Cyrus what happened. Don't make me tell him."

Inside Red, Caleb's arms reached out and flailed in the air. Through blurry sight and sweat from his forehead, Caleb found the controls. It felt heavier than it should have been. Red was fighting Caleb, refusing to spring to life like the other three.

"Kenny, are the cannons usable from here?" Caleb could hear Kova's voice.

"Get ready to fire." The mecha from Greizian Sur was flying towards the Coeus with alarming speed. Even in the haze, Caleb could hear Kova's frantic voice. Where was he again?

In a moment of clarity, Caleb fought to stay awake as his grip on Red's controls became firmer. The screens, all tinted red, came to life before him. With thrusters now activated, Red launched itself into the air. Cooler than before, Caleb stared at the scene before him. Green and Blue were firing on a mecha the size of Blue with oversized limbs.

"Garrett, take it down," Caleb ordered. "Griffin, Smythe, follow me." Turning Red, Caleb led the other two towards the Coeus while Cake was left to take care of the second mecha.

The crew onboard the Coeus was firing when ready. Both Kova and Shiro were looking for weaknesses in the armor, but it seemed solid. Kenny and Shiro were manning the cannons, shooting at the mecha. Kova was staring at the screen, where Yellow seemed to play with the mecha

"Cake, push it into a volcano, and come help!"

"I thought it was our new toy."

"Its twin is here."

"Gotcha." Yellow pushed forward and knocked the mecha towards a tall wall of the nearest volcano. With cracks and unsuccessful attempts at standing, the mecha was covered in lava from the volcano. Yellow launched itself into the air before the lava had a chance to reach its front paws. "Heading towards you."

Red was still fighting Caleb for control, going slower than it should have. Blue and Green had engaged with the mecha, with some assistance from the Coeus. The mecha had swiped Blue away and was swinging an arm to hit Green when Yellow headbutted it. The mecha began to retract its long arms to attack Yellow. From Blue's camera, Kova could see the exposed wires. Shiro seemed to have spotted it, too.

"Red, fire at the intersection between the arm and chest plate."

"English, Kova."

"Fire at the armpit."

"Thank you."

Ignoring the mutterings, Caleb continued his fight with Red and flew until he was only a few yards away. Yellow headbutted the mecha again, while Blue and Green were firing at its eyes and chest plate. The mecha started retracting an arm again, and the Lions cleared a path.

With agility, Red raced up the mecha's side and fired three times, then made a sharp turn at the shoulder. Caleb had not only deactivated the mecha, but he had also blown the entire arm off. Repeating it on the other side, the team of Lions watched the arms drift away as the purple lights of the mecha flickered.

Switching off communications to the team, Kova stared at Shiro. Shiro met her brown eyes, watching them flicker through every emotion she was feeling. The most prominent was a mix of pride and anger.

"Tell me again why we don't need to worry about the Fire?" She had cocked her head at the last word. Even annoyed at him for downplaying this, Shiro knew Lance would be proud of how far Kova had come. With a sigh, she bowed her head. "Thank Allura it wasn't that bad." Switching on communications, Kova walked into the middle of a very important conversation.

"We could always buy them," Cake said.

"Oh yeah? Where?" Liz retorted.

"The mall."

"With what money?"

"The mall? Are you talking about the space mall?" Allie was now in this conversation.

"Ugh, doesn't it have a real name?"

"No," Cake and Allie responded, much to Liz's disappointment.

"Liz, don't worry about it," Caleb reassured his teammate. "We have to get to Arus, anyway."

"I'm surprised you aren't fighting Kova to the death right now."

"He'd lose before we started." Kova was watching the screen come to life with the four panels with the helmeted faces of the pilots. Well, new paladins.

"Wanna bet?"

"You already pilot the Red Lion," Kova said, standing up and crossing her arms. "Why do you want the Black Lion?"

"To prove how good of a leader I am."

"You aren't the one standing here giving everyone commands."

"What were you gonna do? Get in the MFE?"

"If I had to." Kova took a breath. "What were you guys talking about earlier?"

"Oh, we're down about half of the lenses in the teleduv."

Kova's stomach grumbled, reminding her that she hadn't eaten since she started building the satellite. "Blue and Green, fly for a while. Red and Yellow, enter the bay."

"What if I don't want to?" Caleb challenged.

"Then Green comes in and you pass out from dehydration." Kova watched Caleb smack his lips, trying to rehydrate them. His tongue was like a desert with no end in sight.

Yellow and Red ended up flying towards the bay, headed into the hallway, and went their separate ways. Cake headed to the kitchen to figure out what he would make. Caleb headed to the bridge to help Kova scold Dad. Shiro had always hated it when the pair would team up against him.

Caleb stood off to Kova's side, while she handed him a water bottle and stared at Shiro. He walked down to the floor, knowing the teens' eyes were on him the entire time. Kenny had slinked away from the bridge, closing the door behind him.

"Remind me again how the Fire isn't a big deal?" Caleb asked when Shiro didn't turn around to meet his eyes.

"We have to tell them something," Kova chimed in. "They won't fight against an enemy they know nothing about."

"The Fire of Purification is an ongoing and classified casefile to all cadets and low-ranking officers." Shiro turned his head. "Your teams are cadets and you will be low-rank officers. You only know about the Fire because—"

"Because I'm involved." Kova looked down, glaring at the ground. "You can give the authorization. We can tell them."

"Opening the Fire's casefile will open yours, Kova." Kova looked up again. "Do you want everyone else on board to know about your past?" Caleb stared at the two. Kova doesn't talk about her past to strangers, mostly because it became a classified case after they found someone in Kova's family was involved with the Fire. She didn't talk about it. "Not only that, opening those casefiles opens the one about the failed Coalition response."

"Stop it." Caleb heard Kova whisper. "I get it. Stop." Shiro sighed, walking towards Kova to stand underneath her platform.

"If this progresses further," Shiro sighed, tucking his hands into his pockets. "We'll cross that bridge when we get to it." With a nod, Caleb and Kova left the bridge and their dad. The cheery mood in the kitchen did nothing to change Kova's expression. Caleb, on the other hand, joined right in with the discussion. Kova fixed herself a plate of Balmeran fruit and went to her room without another word.

With the door shut behind her, she felt something off. Her knife, which she had decided was valuable enough to bring along, was thrumming on the bedside table. Out of the corner of her eye, a shadow moved against the wall. Calling the knife to her hand and dropping the plate onto the floor, Kova held the intruder against the metal door. The knife had extended into an almost full-length sword, and she had most of the blade parallel with her arm under the intruder's chin. Unfortunately, Kova recognized the intruder.

Or at least, their association.

"Leave. Me. Alone." Kova snarled, her irises becoming dark slits against a yellow background. The intruder had completely yellow eyes, light blue hair reaching the nape of their neck, and violet skin. Their body armor was dark gray, with the Fire insignia on their front in purple. The lightning bolts on either side of the symbol were also purple.

"You would do nicely among our ranks." The Galra spoke, ignoring the blade to their throat. "To be among your kind. To fight alongside your brethren. To—"

"Save your speech." Kova pressed the blade against their neck tighter. "I told you before. I'm not interested." "They're looking for you," The Galra kept going. "There's a reward for you amongst the lower ranks."

"You think that's enough motivation to join?"

"The humans of Earth underestimate your abilities. They don't appreciate you, nor will they ever—"

"Leave or I'll remind you of the last time you tried your speech." Kova's voice was low, almost a growl. Her tan skin had taken an almost gray hue, and her hair seemed to have blue highlights under the light. The Galra gulped at the threat.

Last time, Kova hadn't been so kind. She had stabbed the last Galra attempting to speak to her about the Fire's cause. They escaped, but it was much too close for comfort.

At blade-point, Kova led the Galra towards the closest exit. She watched as the Galra opened the door, and turned back as though to say more, but Kova had enough. She kicked the Galra in the gut, sending them flying towards the darkness of space and closed the door. The blade in her hands turned back to normal size when Cake came around the corner.

"Cap?" He watched Kova carefully. The alarms went off when the door opened, but they went off before Cake could figure out what caused it.

"Go back to the kitchen, Cake," Kova turned towards the hall that led towards her room. "I'm fine."

Cake eyed Kova as she walked back to her room, staring at the knife in her hands.

In what would feel like days later, the Coeus arrived onto the surface of Arus. Like the Balmerans, the Arusians recognized Shiro almost on the spot. They continually asked about the space goddess and the blessings her arrival had brought them. Shiro couldn't tell them anything other than thanks for letting the Coeus rest on Arus.

I guess Allura is a space goddess now. Hm.

Kova was wandering the planet, looking over the open green meadows that seemed to cover Arus. Caleb and Liz were on resource collection and Allie and Cake were joking with the younger Arusians.

Kova was supposed to be looking for the Black Lion, but her thoughts strayed to the Galra's speech, as well as Shiro's words. She could never seem to run away from her other half, never seem to control it. In her defense, no one had taught her how to use it. She had to learn how by herself, among other things.

Soon enough, she was at the edge of a cliff overlooking a large body of water. Below her, haphazard piles of stone jutted out from the sea. As much as she wanted to scream, maybe the waves will be enough to relax her.

She thought back to her memories with the McClain family when they would have their beach days. Kova never jumped into the water because she didn't know how to swim, but Lance's patient coaxing was enough to get her feet in the water. By the end of the day, they couldn't get her out of it. She had found a shell in the soft sand and stuck it in her plastic pail. When she got home, she scribbled the date on it and placed it on the highest shelf she could reach. It was still there, on the shelf in her room back home.

Her only thought as she climbed down the cliffside was maybe she could find another shell to match the one back home. Her feet met another shelf in the cliffside, only an arm's length from the waves. Laying on her stomach, Kova reached her hand down as far as it could go. Her fingertips almost touched the water when a roar echoed in her mind. Kova had turned around, her knife in hand, the blade had extended.

Behind her was a cave opening.

Lowering the blade, returning it to its original form, she stood up and walked towards the opening. With a deep breath, she entered the cave, already done with dark, underground spaces.

The Black Lion, unlike the others, was splayed out in an awkward position. Like a toy a child had dropped and didn't pick up. Its wide jaw was open, with gray, lifeless eyes. Kova figured the tide had caused this, but she couldn't be sure. Maybe the waves had pushed it in? If the Lion were to stand, its head would likely destroy the already fragile ceiling of the cave. She didn't have a choice. She would have to go inside and manually pilot it out. Bracing herself, Kova climbed into the Black Lion's jaws.

On the surface, Allie was being entertained by stories of the Arusians and their beliefs. They believed the space goddess would cure their famine. She and Cake had discovered there was a dam blocking the water supply to their fields. They had quickly gotten rid of the branches in turns so the Arusians wouldn't suspect a thing. A thunderous roar echoed over Arus, and the Arusians celebrated the discovery of the Black Lion.

In front of the Coeus, each of the teens had flown their Lion in front of the Arusian village. In order, from left to right, was Blue, Red, a huge piece of space where the Coeus could be seen, Green, and Yellow. The Black Lion, circling over the cheering village, had landed in that space between Red and Green.

Kova exited, removing her helmet in the process. As quickly as the Arusians welcomed Shiro, they shunned Kova. Allie and Cake noticed the shift, much to Kova's annoyance.

"She's one of them," One Arusian said.

"The King says they aren't to be trusted," Another spoke. "Now one leads Voltron?"

"Enough!" The King, the teens assumed, spoke. He approached Kova, who was stopped by spear-wielding Arusians. She should've figured. "We do not mean to anger you, oh great leader of Voltron. Please accept this apology dance!" A dancer scurried to stand before the King, but Kova had turned towards the Lion. "Great leader, where are you going?"

"I mean no disrespect," Kova had knelt to be eye-level with the three-foot-tall Arusian. "But if my presence causes fear among your people, I think it safer to communicate with our allies on my home planet than stay."

"Please, stay," The King pleaded. "Should we do a sacrificial fire?"

"Your Majesty," Kova said firmly. "I want your people to be safe and to trust me. My team will help your village on my behalf while you and I speak with the Colonel about the events over the past few decaphoebs." The King looked at Kova with a grim expression and nodded his head. With that, Kova stood and walked towards the Coeus alone.

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