#I DID think that Jake’s grandma was a reference at first. | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

marmolady · 1 year

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Reunion: 2090

Another reunion-- this time, far, far into La Huerta's future. This one has the distinction of being written in first-person, which I never do! Note: the deaths of main characters are referred to in this fic.

Do feel free to shout out a year between 2024 and 2097 if you want me to write a specific one next. You can find the full series (in progress) here on AO3.

Word Count: 4195

Tagging: @saivilo, @edgydepressedchoicesthot, @sceptilemasterr, @mauvecatfic @rhemenway888

Thanks for reading! Comments and re-blogs make me EXTRA happy. Always happy to nerd out about these characters with other fans.

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I was almost flying as I ran across the sand, almost as fast as Vivae in front of me-- and she was Vaanti. I don’t know if you know anything about the Vaanti, but they’re pretty much all crazy fast and strong. I grew up here on La Huerta, so I’ve always had to just try and keep up with my friends. We were running with our heads pointed up, looking for one of the aeroplanes that was going to bring the rest of our giant family home again.

“It’s there, Rafi!” Vivae hollered. “That one’s my grandma’s plane!”

I put my arm up to wave, and it must have thrown me off, because next thing I knew I was tripping over my foot and flying through the air.

“Oof!”

Suura came skidding to a stop, dodging around me. She’s Vivae’s little sister, eight years old. “Haha, splat!”

Vivae is ten, a year older than me, and her mom-- well, her and Suura’s mom, and Tuala who’s five, is the Elyyshar. We do a lot of fun stuff together, Vivae and me. Lots of exploring caves and beaches and jungles. She has lots of friends in Elyys’tel, but even though I’m a human, I’m her best friend.

But even best friends will laugh at you sometimes. “That was smooth…,” she chuckled.

I brushed myself off quickly and jumped back onto my feet. I was pretty good at that after all these years trying to keep up. “’mallright,” I grumbled. “Come on-- we’re gonna miss them getting off the plane!”

The annual reunion these days required the use of two planes-- one coming from San Trobida, and another picking everyone else up from Costa Rica. The San Trobida group is the biggest, but they were gonna be coming in a little bit later, and that was the plane all my family was on. My abuela and lola and my three tias, and my Tia Beatriz and Auntie Lilei’s kid, Ariel. Oh! And baby Pepa. I forget about her because she’s so new, only three months old. But this isn’t that aeroplane. This one has all Reggie and Mariama’s relatives from London-- including the kids, Pia and Elio. They’re pretty cool-- they speak all fancy with English accents and say ‘biscuits’ when they mean ‘cookies’. And Isla and Alex are on the plane with their family. They’re Ariel’s grandparents on Auntie Lilei’s side. They also have two other grandkids, William and Poppy, but William is only three and Poppy is just a baby, so they’re not that exciting yet.

Vivae and Suura’s grandma, Georgie, always flew the Costa Rica plane, ever since her dad taught her to fly. Flying was a family business, and Vivae always said she would be the next to follow in Great-Grandpa Jake’s footsteps. I don’t think that any of my relatives can fly an plane… but it would be pretty cool if I was the first. It wasn’t often that anyone actually went flying around here, so when they did, we always ran out onto the beach to watch.

Even though I’d fallen over, we made it back off the beach just as the plane came down onto the runway. We waved and cheered, and then it was time for the reunion.

My name is Rafael, but a lot of the time, people call me Rafito, or Rafi, or Raf. Rafael Diego Montoya is my full name. Like I said, I live here on La Huerta, in Catalys’tel which is not far from Elyys’tel, where Vivae and her family live. I live with my dad, who’s called Sol Montoya, and my mom, who’s called Serafina. They met in high school back in San Trobida, then went to college together… and then decided they’d rather live here, which is great for me, because La Huerta is awesome. Like, there’s a giant tortoise that’s taller than my dad, and a big old fox that has ice powers. As well as my mom and dad, I have my little brother, Danilo-- he’s three-- and the baby that mom’s pregnant with right now. We’re going to call her Carmela.

Ma Taylor and Ma Estela live next-door-- they’re my great-grandmas. They’re also two of the ‘Catalysts’ who our home was named after, because this was the village they all lived in together when the world ended. I know that sounds crazy, but it really happened-- everyone was gone except for the people safe on La Huerta, but it all got fixed when the island’s spirit went home. All the Catalysts stayed really good friends, and they came back every year with their families-- that’s the reunions. Now, most of them have died because they were really old, but some of them are still here, including my great-grandmas. Ma Quinn is here too. We call her ‘Ma’ out of respect because she’s old, even though she’s not my granny or great-granny or anything. And there’s Zahra, who I can’t call ‘Ma’ because she said she’ll punch me if I do. She’s funny. And Pa Diego, who lives in Elyys’tel with Pa Varyyn, who used to be the Elyyshar. Pa Diego helped make my abuela, so he’s kind of my great-grandpa.

Because a lot of the Catalysts had children, and a lot of their children had children, and then some of those had children too, the reunions are pretty busy. Abuelita said there’s more than fifty of us, which is a lot to cram into the big room in The Celestial at dinner time. I’m friends with all the kids-- Pia and Elio who I already said about, and Ximena who’s eleven but has only been to one reunion before because she was adopted a bit over a year ago. And there’s Vivae, Suura and Tuala who were on the table next to ours-- and Xiryyn who’s their cousin is with them. I see them all the time because they live here, so it might not seem that exciting, but Vivae’s my best friend, and I was super glad she’s there with me because it’s really hard not to be shy when there’s fifty people to talk to.

Of course, I was sitting next to Danilo, who’s my little brother. He wasn’t very good at keeping his potatoes on his fork and I reckon more went on the floor than in his mouth. On my other side, I had Ariel, who was talking, talking, talking, even though she had a mouthful of roast pork. Ariel’s talking about babies a lot right now, probably ‘cause she’s all excited still about being a big sister, and maybe a little bit ‘cause she’s excited about my mom having a baby soon. I don’t think babies are that interesting, so I went to hang out with some other people instead after a little while.

Or I tried to. Ariel’s good at following me around.

“Ma ‘Stela,” Ariel said loudly, putting an arm around her bisabuela’s shoulder after I’d sad down next to her, “are you sad because the old man died?”

I looked at Ma Estela, then at old Reggie in the next chair, worried that Ariel might have upset them. She was talking about Pa Aleister, one of the Catalysts. He died not that long ago. I’m not really great at remembering who’s related to who to be honest, but I know Pa Aleister was Reggie’s dad. I also know he was Ma Estela’s brother and that she loved him a lot. All the Catalysts loved each other a lot. I reckon you would get pretty attached if you were friends with someone for years and years and years and years like that.

Estela’s eyes were sad, but she was calm and patient. She was always patient with the little kids, even when they were crazy annoying. “Yeah, I’m sad he’s not here. It never feels quite right when someone doesn’t show up for the reunion. You know, Pa Aleister was your great-great uncle.” She nodded sympathetically to Reggie. “And he was Reggie’s dad.”

I’m not sure what would be worse, a person’s brother dying, or their dad. It was just… sad. Big, heavy sadness. Ariel didn’t look like she understood how big and heavy it was, how scary it was that someone could suddenly not be there. Maybe I didn’t understand when I was six either.

“Pa Aleister was really nice,” said I said quietly.

“Was he really old?” Ariel asked. “I think he must be very old because you’re very old, and Reggie is quite a bit old and he was Reggie’s dad.”

Reggie chuckled at Ariel’s assessment of him. “He was very old, old and happy. But when you get very old, at some point your body stops working. My dad was ninety-five years old--”

“Wow! That’s ancient!”

I wriggled my arm through Ma Estela’s. She always gave me a hug when I was sad. I figured she might need one now. She was ninety-four… and Ma Taylor, my other great-grandma and Ma Estela’s wife, was ninety-five just like Pa Aleister was. They must have been worried all the time that their bodies would stop working, that some day, the sun would come up and they just wouldn’t be alive anymore.

Ma Estela held me tightly. She wasn’t very strong anymore, but I know from lots of stories that she had once been able to fight monsters and win. Even for a very, very old lady, though, she gave a good, tight cuddle when it was needed-- it wasn’t as hard work as monster-fighting after all.

“We don’t know for sure,” she said, “but we think there might be something about spending a lot of time on La Huerta that has helped us have long lives like we have. It seems like those of us who spent the most time here have stuck around the longest-- and Ma Quinn, who carried a part of Vaanu inside her for a while.”

“Do you think you’ll be a hundred?” Ariel asked, eyes wide.

I sure hope so. A hundred wasn’t even very far away….

Ma Estela gave a laugh of a sigh. “I’ll see what I can do, mija.”

“You should try,” said Ariel, kinda bossily. “you should all try and be a hundred.”

And with that, she ran off back to her moms.

“Rafito?” Ma Estela gave me an extra squeeze. “Are you okay, mijo? It’s not exactly a fun conversation. Elita, we love her, but she’s blunt as a sledgehammer.”

I nodded. I probably wasn’t very convincing. “I don’t want you and Reggie to be sad.”

“Sad happens sometimes. It would’ve happened tonight whether your cousin was sensitive to it or not.”

“Hey, Rafi,” Reggie said, “it would’ve made my dad really happy to know you thought he was a nice man. He didn’t always believe he was.”

“That’s weird!”

“Yeah, unfortunately, people’s brains are good at tricking themselves into thinking they’re not as great as they really are.”

“Your brain can do that? That really sucks. Poor Pa Aleister.”

Ma Estela laughed. “It happens to a lot of us. And then some people think they’re god when actually they’re a steaming piece of shit. Life’s weird like that.”

Swearing grannies make me laugh every single time-- maybe Ma Estela knew that was what I needed. I’m gonna swear a lot when I’m old, I’ve already decided.

“I liked Pa Aleister,” I said. It was true. He was good at telling you facts that you’d never know if he wasn’t around to tell you. Like a really tall old wrinkly encyclopedia man. “I hope his brain told him lots of good things too.”

Reggie smiled, which I thought was kinda odd, ‘cause we were talking about his dead dad. “I think he got better at making it tell him good things and not listening to the bad ones. We all told him we appreciated him too.”

“I should think so,” Ma Estela grunted. “This whole place, The Celestial, it wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for him. Aleister worked hard so we could have somewhere to come together, because his family was the most important thing to him. I was really lucky to have him as my brother.”

I let out a big breath and snuggled into Ma Estela’s baggy shirt, hugging her until the sadness and the being scared was squished out like water from a sponge. I was gonna miss her old lady hugs when she died too, but I knew I was lucky to have them while I did.

“Is there any room over here for little old me?”

It was Ma Taylor. I know I said how good at hugs Ma Estela is, but actually Ma Taylor is just as good. She’s really very cuddly. I guess that’s just what great-grandmas are like. But I bet if Zahra was a great-grandma, she still wouldn’t be cuddly.

Ma Taylor made a tired ‘ooh’ sound as she sat carefully down, and seemed like she had to catch her breath. Ma Estela looked at her with love eyes.

“Mi amor, you know these people are gonna be here all week, you’re allowed to pace yourself on the socialising.”

“Oh, ‘Stel! As if I could ever hold myself back?” Her smile became a little sad. “I hadn’t properly caught up with Erin or Imogen since the funeral.”

“No,” said Ma Estela, and she rubbed my arm, as if cuddling me was helping. I kinda wanted to go off and play with the other kids, but I also didn’t want to be sad. If I was helping, I would stay with her and the other old people a little bit longer.

I sometimes think Ma Taylor could read minds, and this was another one of those times, because she said: “Rafi! I promise we’re going to be all right. You should have some fun with your friends-- you know this week always goes way too fast.”

“Go,” Ma Estela said with a nod. “We’re gonna go do a memorial thing in a little while. It’s sad, but it does help. Taylor’s right; you’ve gotta enjoy the people you love while they’re with you, ‘cause it’s never gonna be long enough.”

They said that, but I was pretty sure Ximena, and Pia and Elio, and Xiryyn, and Vivae and Tuala and Suura, and all the little kids, they would all still be here a long time after my great-grandmas weren’t anymore. I did what they said, though. I gave them both a big hug, and I gave one to Reggie, and then I followed Ariel back to the party.

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Some of the other kids were close relatives of Pa Aleister, so they went off to the memorial thingy, but I still had my Vaanti friends, and my cousin, Ariel. We played a lot of tickle chase all up and down the sand hills, and round and round the big tables in the big hall, but what we really wanted to do was to check out the new waterslides. They were finished weeks ago, but we weren’t allowed to play on them until the reunion. And even though it was the reunion now, we still had to find an adult to supervise us. Annoyingly, a lot of our moms and dads took safety very seriously.

“Clear off, brats!” Zahra growled at us as she came back from the memorial thingy and sat down in a comfy-looking chair. Actually, she said something else, but it wasn’t words I’m allowed to say. Zahra wasn’t being mean; she knows it makes us laugh when she’s all grouchy. She laughs too.

“We’re gonna go on the slides, but we need a grown-up!” Ariel explained.

“Hey,” said Suura hopefully, “you’re a grown-up….”

Zahra pulled a sucking-a-lemon face. “Uh, if you think I wouldn’t just let you --rudewords-- drown in the name of peace and --rudeword-- quiet, you’re dumber than you look.”

“Zahra!” Imogen said in a telling-off voice. Imogen was Reggie’s sister, so she was pretty old. I think she was my abuela’s cousin or something, and Pia, Elio, Ximena, William and Poppy’s great-aunt. “Haven’t there been enough tears tonight? We don’t need you picking on the damn kids.”

Zahra snorted. “Little assholes love it. I’m still not supervising while they chuck themselves down the waterslides.”

Then Pia came running up; her eyes were all pink and puffy like she’d been crying. Probably she had. “We’re trying out the new waterslides now?”

Pia was the oldest of all of us kids. She was thirteen, which basically meant she was half-kid, half-adult…. but not quite old enough to be allowed to be responsible for the rest of us in the pool.

Imogen frowned. “It’s gonna be me left to supervise, isn’t it? Look, just give me a moment. I’ll rope Arthur into coming over to watch as well. Not having to jump in the pool after drowning children is one of the perks of being over sixty as far as I’m concerned.”

“Yes!” Pia and me cried at the same time.

It was on!

As it turned out, we actually had quite a few adults come to watch us test out the slides. The thing was, it was pretty much only the old crusty adults who probably weren’t gonna be super helpful if we had an emergency.

Ma Quinn sat at the edge of the pool, dipping her toes in. She waved to us all, but especially to Ariel, while we climbed up the steps to the very top. My lola was there-- they’re my dad’s parent, and my abuela too-- my dad’s mom-- and her moms. Pa Diego and Pa Varyyn were there too. Imogen’s twin sister Erin and her husband Johan came to watch and cheer, which made Ximena smile. Ximena was a little bit more shy ‘cause she didn’t grow up with us, but it seemed like she was getting the hang of it. So, I didn’t feel too bad pushing in front of her in the line-up for the first go on the biggest slide….

Unfortunately, this didn’t go unnoticed.

“Hey, Rafito, elbows to yourself!”

“Sorry Abuela!” It was pretty embarrassing, I knew my face was going red, but hopefully it was dark enough no one would notice. I quietly apologised to Ximena too.

In the end, it was Ariel who got the first turn-- she somehow wriggled through all the gaps between us other kids and squeezed out into the top of the slide. Guess it pays to be small and slippery. And it didn’t really matter that I had to wait my turn-- I went down the biggest slide again and again and again. I raced Vivae and Suura on the triple slide, and I tandemed the twisty one with Ariel even though she screamed so loud my ears hurt, and I even went down the big one backwards. I accidentally swallowed a load of water, but it was so fun. I don’t want to brag too much, but I got a lot of cheers from all the old grannies and grandpas watching us.

The good thing about the waterslides was that they were really high up, and you could see the whole party all around us. I saw that all of the old Catalysts had gone; I guessed to go and lie down because they were tired. Fair enough-- I was nearly ready for bed, and I was only nine. But Vivae saw where they’d actually gone.

“Rafi, it’s Furball! Down there with Ma Quinn!”

That made more sense. As if they’d just got bored of watching us!

We took one last go down the slides, then all the other kids followed us to the beach. Ma Quinn was sitting there with Furball, the magic blue ice fox, feeding him something from her hand. The other old guys were sitting down there too-- Ma Estela and Ma Taylor, Pa Diego and Pa Varyyn, and Zahra too. They’d all known Furball for a long, long time, and when he saw them all by the pool, he must have wanted to say hi.

We ran up, and Ma Quinn put her finger to her lips to tell us to be quiet. We slowed down, creeping closer so we didn’t scare Furball. I’d only seen him a couple times, so I was really concentrating on making sure he didn’t want to run away. It must have worked, because he looked at all us kids for a little bit, then he went back to eating the cupcake in Ma Quinn’s hand.

“Wow,” Ximena whispered. “He’s really real… look at all the snow on the ground!”

Ma Quinn smiled, her wrinkly old face going even wrinklier. “He’s really real. Furball is a very old friend of ours. He’s an old man now, and likes being left alone, but sometimes….” She offered a sprinkling of cupcake crumbs to Ximena, who then held them out to the big blue fox. “…he does feel like some human company.”

“He gets old even though he’s magic?” Ariel asked.

“He does,” said Ma Quinn. “I guess it happens to everyone who’s lucky enough to live that long. Even magic foxes.”

Pia asked a more worrying question. “Are you gonna be able to stand back up again?”

Ma Quinn and the other old guys laughed a bit at that.

“Absolutely not,” Ma Taylor said, but she was chuckling when she said it. “But sometimes you’ve got to sit on a beach and enjoy the cool sand against your skin anyway.”

Ma Estela grunted. “Speak for yourself, cariña, I can still get up from the ground. Just don’t time me on it.”

“I guess we can help you when you need to get up,” Elio said, “I’m pretty strong.”

“Thank you, sweetheart,” said Ma Taylor. “Anyway, it’s a big party. Someone’ll be able to haul us back onto our feet.”

I crouched down really small, and held out my fingers so Furball could sniff them. There were no crumbs on them, but he gave me a smell all the same, and he looked right at my face and made a little ‘mrrp’ noise. ‘Furball’ sounded like a name for a little fluffy thing, but this guy was big, with long legs and wide feet for walking in the snow. He had a big fluffy mane, almost like a lion, but it was white, and most of his fur was blue and spotty.

“He’s pretty big for a ‘Furball’”, I said.

“He wasn’t always as big as this,” Ma Quinn said. “He grew up fast when the old Mountain Guardian died. The old one was much, much bigger-- a giant bear with horns like a ram.”

“Woah!” cried Ariel, forgetting to be quiet. Furball didn’t seem to mind-- he seemed like he’d decided we were friends.

Ma Quinn laughed again. “Yes, she was pretty impressive. We think Furball didn’t grow as big as that because there was less of Vaanu’s magic left here when it was time for him to grow up. The Deep Guardian, the Shore Guardian, and the Sea Guardian are all much bigger. When they all die, we don’t think anything will take their places.”

Usually, Zahra said cheeky things and made us laugh, but now she was just quiet. Her eyes were sad, not really looking at anything in particular, like all she could see was her thoughts. She must have had a lot of empty places where things she used to know were. They would be kept just in her thoughts now. Ma Taylor reached out and squeezed Zahra’s arm. I bet she knew what Zahra was sad about.

Furball licked my fingers. It made me jump, ‘cause his tongue was cold, not like a normal tongue at all.

“We’re pretty lucky,” I said. “Like, that we get to see them.”

Maybe all the magic would go away one day. Maybe it would all grow old and die, like the Catalysts. I would make sure I remembered it all, all the things like Furball’s cold tongue. I bet no one will believe me about things like that, but it’s better to have magic stories than no magic at all.

Furball made another ‘mrrp’ noise, then started turning in circles. And in the circles, more snow appeared.

“Aw, look!” said Suura, “He’s going to bed!”

He curled up in a ball on his snow bed, then stuck his head out to rest on Ma Quinn’s bare foot. It must have made her toes cold!

“Night-night, Furball,” she said. “I was about to head to bed myself, but I guess I can play pillow for a little while.”

Furball snored-- he fell asleep so quick!-- and snowflakes appeared out his nose when he did. La Huerta was so special that even snores could be magic. I guess that was really why the whole giant family came back every year to be here together. If not everyone in the world could know about the magic, the lucky ones who did had to make sure they spent time appreciating it and sharing it.

I hope the magic lasts a long, long time. I hope at least a little bit of it lasts forever.

#endless summer #catalyst kiddos #estela x mc #estela montoya #taylor montoya #quinn kelly #zahra namazi #reginald aleister hall #marmo's reunions project

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im-in-love-with-pizza-bites · 3 years

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It Takes A Village Chapter 4

Chris Evans x Pregnant!daughter!reader

Series Master List

Series summary: You find out that your pregnant. After being kicked out of your mom's house you go to live full time with your Dad who you only saw once every few months. Will he react badly to you being a mom at such a young age?

Chapter Summary: You tell your family about the baby, and they're for the most part supportive.

Series Warnings: swearing, fighting with a parent, teen pregnancy, speak of abortion.

Chapters Warnings: Teen Pregnancy, swearing?

Y/n means your name. N/n means nickname. I feel like it's kinda pointless to keep telling you that but whatever.

On also... Like I know very little about his family.. So what I am using is all that I know about them... Also you are gonna refer to Carly's husband as uncle in this.. Just cause I grew up referring to my biological aunt and uncle's spouses as aunt and uncle so like idk if you guys do that too but whatever.

It was the day after the appointment and you sat on the couch nervously. Your dad was on the phone, and Scott was on his way over. You decided to go slowly on telling everyone who don't know your pregnant that your are, starting with Scott who you believe would be the least judgemental about it. Chris was going to be with you when you told him. Scott walked in taking in your nervous form staring into the distance.

"Y/n?" Scott snapped you from your thoughts. "You okay?" He asked you taking a seat next to you.

"Uh yeah..." You looked toward the kitchen where your dad had disappeared. When you realized he probably wouldn't be coming out for a little while you looked at Scott. "I'm pregnant. That's why mom kicked me out... I'm keeping the baby. And the dad doesn't want to be in their life." You rambled nervously and almost too fast for him to understand what you said. He looked at you surprised not saying anything for a moment.

"Your having a baby at fifteen?" He asked you cautiously after a few minutes, you hesitated but nodded. "And the dad is Jake?" He asked you again you nodded. "Okay." He said.

"Okay?" You questioned.

"Okay." He pulled you into a hug as you sighed in relief. Chris walked in looking at you two hugging.

"Did you tell him?" Chris asked you once you pulled out of the hug.

"Yeah."

"Your gonna be a grandpa." Scott began to teased him. "Old man."

"I'm not that old am I?" Chris frowned.

"I mean... Your not exactly young." You said shrugged. He gave you a playful glare. "Well I'm going to go to my room call me down when they get here."

You excused yourself upstairs to your room, leaving the two men to talk. "She's going to be a mom? How do you know if she can handle that?" Scott ask Chris.

"It's her choice at this point we both know I didn't want this! But I can't force her to abort! I couldn't just tell she would fail at being a mom! I think she'll do fine she's a strong kid you and me both know that.." Chris said sitting on the couch next to Scott.

"Well I'm here to help you both.. I'll tell her when she comes back."

"Thanks she's been stressing about telling everyone." Chris said sighing.

"But what about the media? They're going to notice when she grows a baby bump."

"We'll figure that out when we get there." Chris said shrugging.

---

You sat in your bedroom looking down at your belly where a baby would be growing, your baby. You still can't believe that. You sighed, whenever your alone you process what all happened, the breakup and your mom kicking you out being what you've been thinking about lately since you decided to keep the baby. You dated him for a year and knew him for most of your life but he gave it all up after you found of you were pregnant. Your mom, you always thought she'd never just give up on you, but now your living with your dad which means you'd probably be going back and forth from LA and Boston with your kid until you were old enough to not need to live with Chris.

Our thoughts were broken from Chris calling you downstairs after a half hour.

"Ready to tell everyone else cause they're on their way." Your dad told you once you made it to the living room. He had invited them all over for a small family get together since it's been so long since you've seen most of them. So your aunts, cousins and grandma were coming over and you were going to have to tell them. You were going to tell your grandpa later.

"Yeah." You said sighing as Dodger jumped on your lap licking your hand. You moved you hand petting him.

"Chris said your not going to name the baby after him... So are you going to name them after your favorite uncle?" Scott asked breaking the tension.

"Maybe." You giggled as your dad let out a hurt gasp.

"But not after your own dad?""

"I only said maybe.." You said rolling your eyes, as the doorbell rang letting you know that your aunt, her husband, and your cousins were here. "Okay I'm not ready. I don't know why I said I was ready I'm most definitely not." You said sighing. Chris gave you a reassuring smile as they walked into the living.

"Y/n!" Your youngest cousin, Miles ran into your arms his brother and sister closely behind.

"Miles!" You hugged the three younger kids smiling.

"Hi Aunt Carly, Uncle Ryan." You said looking up at the pair smiling. Your cousins pulled away from the hug going to play with Dodger so you hugged Carly.

"Hey y/n." She said once you pulled from the hug.

"Uh.. I have to tell you guys something." You said hesitantly. They nodded, looking at you curiously, Ethan the oldest of the three of your cousins, looked at you as well but you didn't notice. "I'm pregnant... And that's why I moved back to boston... Mom kicked me out." You mumbled. Well they weren't expecting that.

"Your only fifteen." Ryan said

"Mhmm..." You nodded looming at the floor.

"I thought only adults could get pregnant?" Your only female cousin, Stella asked. You looked at her not knowing how to respond.

"Why don't we go play with dodger outside..." Scott said taking the kids to the yard with dodger ignoring Stella's question.

"Who's the dad?" Carly asked you.

"Jake."

"How far along are you?" She asked.

"Two months. I'm keeping the baby. Jake knows about the baby he was the first person I told." You said. She nodded hugging you again. You sighed in relief. After you hugged her, Ryan pulled you into one too.

"Told ya nothing to worry about." Chris teased when you sat down next to him.

"I still have to tell aunt Shanna and grandma. Then I have to tell grandpa." You said rolling your eyes at him.

"And you have to explain to Stella not just adults can get pregnant." Ryan said.

"Okay, I didn't think they were listening!" You defended yourself.

"Well you'll have to get used to little kids being around your about to have one of your own." Carly said.

Scott and your cousins came back in after a few more minutes, Dodger following and jumping on your lap.

"N/n? How come your having a baby? We thought only adults could have babies?" Miles asked you stella standing next to him both of them looking at your curiously.

"Uh... I.." You looked at one of the adults for help but they just watched amused. "Wel-" you were cut off by your grandma walking in. Your sighed in relief. "Look grandma is here!" You stood up going over to her hugging her.

"You didn't answer our question!" Miles demanded pouting at you. "How are you having a baby?" Your eyes widened as your cousin just revealed to your grandma that you are pregnant. Ethan was laughing at the look on your face.

"You're having a baby?" Your grandma asked you looking at you.

"In my defense! I was going to tell you that myself! But yeah... Your gonna be a great-grandma! Surprise?" You said sheepishly pulling out of the hug. You looked at Chris begging for help but all he did was shake his head an amused smile on his face.

"Is that why you moved back here?" She asked.

"Yeah." You nodded, Miles and Stella stood beside you still awaiting your answer on how your having a baby, and Ethan's laughs had subsided after Carly shot him a warning glance.

"Answer our question!" Stella demanded pouting at you.

"She had Sex obviously!" Ethan said rolling his eyes. All eyes turned to him looking at him shocked.

"What's sex?" Miles asked. You tried your best not to laugh.

"Ethan! You can't tell your little siblings that!" Carly said.

"Miles don't worry about it. Uh go play with my old toys they're in my closet." You shooed your youngest cousins out of the room while, Carly and Ryan began to talk with Ethan on what's appropriate to tell your younger siblings. "Well! Wasn't that more event full then it should've been?" You asked Chris and Scott sitting next to them.

"Whos the father of the baby?" Your grandma asked you.

"My ex, Jake. I'm 8 weeks, and I'm keeping the baby." You said answering all the questions she could possibly ask.

"Okay." She smiled at you.

This definitely wasn't going as you expected. You excused yourself going with Ethan to find Miles and Stella. What your didn't know was your family were going to be discussing the information you just told them.

"Did she tell you?" Carly asked Chris.

"Her mom did. But I don't doubt that she would've on her own time if her mom didn't."

"Are you going to help her raise the baby? She's still a baby herself she can't raise one on her own." Lisa said.

"She made her decision. A hard one at that, her life just got flipped! I just have to help her." Chris said making it clear he wasn't going to turn against you. It seemed your family weren't either after his explanation.

Back with you, you sat in your room with your cousins, remembering how much you missed it. Missed being with your cousins and laughing. It was helping you forget everything that happened the past two weeks.

"What's Texas like?" Stella asked.

"It's nice." You said.

"Cool! Do you have to go back to texas in a few weeks?" Stella asked.

"Nope I'm here for good!" You said smiling.

"Yay!" Miles jumped onto your lap. "N/n? Why did you have to go back to Texas before?"

"Because my Mommy lived over there."

"But your daddy doesn't live there!" Stella said.

"I know but my mommy wanted me to live with her."

"So why are you living here now?" Ethan asked you but your pretty sure he knows.

"I made a mistake and she sent me here to help me fix the mistake." You explained laying back on your bed. Oh how you wish you never had to explain this to your cousins. How you wish you could go back a few weeks and say no. After a little bit Chris called you down so you could tell Shanna.

"Hi Aunt Shanna!" You said hugging her.

"Hey y/n." You guys walked to the couch to sit down and you gathered up all the courage you had to tell her.

"I have to tell you something." You mumbled. She nodded smiling at you. "Your gonna be a great aunt! And before you ask, yes that's why I live with dad again, I'm 8 weeks along, the baby's dad is Jake." You rambled looking at her sheepishly.

"Your pregnant?" She asked looking over at your dad for confirmation he nodded.

"Yep..." You said sighing.

"And you keeping the baby?" She asked, to which you nodded. "Okay." You let out a relieved smile and hugged her.

"Well this went better then I expected." You said to everyone in the room. Chris chuckled as you plopped next to him on the couch beginning to catch up with your family on anything besides the baby. He was happy to see you relaxing though he did notice that whenever he found you alone the past few days you didn't see so relaxed. You were always in your thoughts, he had an idea of what it was about but didn't know how to talk to you about it, this was your first heartbreak. When you told him you had a boyfriend last year he assumed it would be over after a little while seeing as you were 14. He didn't expect it to last so long.

TagList: @toastisgood @coldmuffinpartycloud @thevelvetseries

#chris evans x teen!reader #cevans #chris evans #chris evans x daughter!reader #teen pregnancy #daughter!reader #teen!reader #x daughter!reader #x teen!reader #i'll be there to help you the whole way #it takes a village

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curls-cat · 3 years

Text

Who we Grew to Be

HAPPY HOLIDAYS @vertdegrece!!!! You asked for grown up Daphne/Pinocchio, so you got a lot of vaguely purple prose leading up to adult Daphnocchio! I haven’t written for this ship in a while, I forgot that I like it!

also posted on AO3

Daphne and Pinocchio do not grow up together. That would be too easy. Daphne stalls out for a little bit at eleven, when she gets her first zit, but besides that, she grows like any human child: straight through.

Pinocchio, on the other hand, grows in fits and starts. He’s been cursed that way, because the Blue Fairy, his absent mother, takes as much as she gives. All her blessings have a little bit of the monkey’s paw about them, so he only grows as old as he acts, forever cursed to act his own age.

The upshot of this is that they don’t spend much time together in childhood. Daphne is much closer to Red, who grows at the same pace she does. Pinocchio, too, is closer to Red. They live in the same house, after all. And Red may be aging at the same pace as her best friend, but she’s got a sort of ageless quality about her that makes it easy for Pinocchio to spend time with her no matter how different their ages are, physically.

Oh, they see each other nearly all of every summer, when Henry and Veronica pack up their rarely-used car to make the drive up from NYC to Ferryport Landing, towing their children with them. Summers are nice. Daphne likes summer, when she has her whole family together in Granny’s newly-renovated ramble of a house for two entire months. Even Puck and Uncle Jake are nearly always there.

But they don’t hang out. Daphne out-ages Pinocchio for the first two years, the growing difference between seven and nine not nearly as much of an impediment as Pinocchio’s snobby brattishness. Then he makes a leap forward, catching up and almost outstripping her to ten. They leapfrog their way through childhood, only matching up briefly every few years. Then he makes a final jump from sixteen and moody to somewhere much closer to twenty, and he’s off to university while Daphne is still sixteen herself, and he throws himself into the kind of universities that he now looks old enough to be a student at.

Sixteen is a weird time. They’re the same age, for once, and they’re together in Granny’s house, for the last time, it’ll later turn out. Pinocchio spends a lot more time with her than usual, but he’s grumpier than he’s been since he was ten, demanding her attention one minute and then scoffing at her the next. Sabrina rolls her eyes and tells him to get his act together, but she’s mostly too busy hate-flirting with Puck to explain what she means, even though she gives Daphne knowing looks whenever pressed.

Then Granny dies, and Daphne’s family shatters.

Puck and Uncle Jake disappear to opposite corners of the globe. Sabrina and Pinocchio go back to school and if Daphne didn’t drag her sister home over the weekends, she’d never see her. Her parents start fighting, both of them either at work or at home but not present. Mr. Canis is so heartbroken that Red is spending all her time, nearly, with him, trying to make him eat or sleep or smile. Basil is furious and heartbroken by turns, begging Daphne for hugs one moment and screaming at her the next. Daphne feels like she’s alone, pulling at a dozen different strings that are all tied to people running as hard as they can in opposite directions. Like she’s being drawn and quartered by her own grief, by her own desire to keep her family together.

It doesn’t come to a head at any one point. It’s several smaller heads, a million little breaks, separate scenes where Daphne begs each of her family members to come back to her one by one. Most of them do. Puck and Pinocchio don’t.

And she gets it. She knows, from the way Mr. Canis and her dad look at her sometimes, that she’s the most like Granny out of all of them. She’s got her grandmother’s righteous indignation and need to help everyone, her rigid moral compass that even she knows is a little shy of true north, her big, enormous heart. Of course it’ll hurt to come back to her. Of course it’ll be like looking at the little imperfect shadow of the woman they’ve lost, the woman who loved them when nobody else would.

It doesn’t make her any less furious at them. And, for a year or two, she’s almost glad they’ve stayed away, her hurt turning into anger.

Fast forward again, to Sabrina’s wedding. By this point, Pinocchio has sort of been back in her life, by virtue of being back in Red’s life. He’s halfway through a doctorate in history, and Daphne’s learned through Red that he wants to get more, in anthropology and archaeology, among other things. He wants to get all the doctorates, from the sound of it.

Sabrina’s wedding goes strangely. Daphne may have meddled a little bit. Just a tiny, tiny bit. But it’s not her fault Sabrina kept moping about Puck. It was super obvious. And Bradley’s a nice guy and all, and Daphne knows Sabrina loves him, but it’s not gonna be a happy marriage if they don’t at least get all the Puck baggage out in the open. So she meddles. Finds Puck, pulls him out of his five-year mope, and throws him at the wedding.

It’s a mess, obviously. There’s a huge scene at the wedding, it sort of falls apart, a lot of forgetful dust has to be spread around. At the end of it, Daphne’s left standing, exhausted, with an empty bag of forgetful dust, watching the last of the guests leave. Or, at least, she thought it was all the guests.

“Are you cleaning up as penance?” someone says behind her, in an absolutely gorgeous voice.

“Come again?” She turns, and there’s Pinocchio, in all his dark academia glory. He’s grown into his nose, though it’s still a striking centerpiece to his face.

“For turning your sister’s wedding into a fiasco,” he clarifies. “I assume that was you.”

“Maybe,” she says, trying for teasing. It comes out a little more flirtatious than she meant it. What? He’s cute, okay?

“How—how have you been?” Pinocchio asks.

He could’ve asked her that any time in the past five years. Any time. She’s honestly kind of surprised he came to the wedding. She will not give him the cold shoulder, though. She won’t. She’s better than that now.

“I’m all right,” she says. “In college. You?”

“Also in college,” Pinocchio says. He gives her a small smile.

She smiles back. It’s all very awkward. She starts gathering up wedding decorations.

“I, uh,” Pinocchio says after a minute. “I think I owe you an apology.”

Damn right he does. She doesn’t say that, though. She does look at him expectantly.

He rubs the back of his neck awkwardly, not making eye contact. “After—Well. You know. I shouldn’t have run away like that. I was hurting, and spending time around anyone who knew your grandma just made me think about how much I hurt. So I ran away. And that wasn’t fair. Because you were all hurting, too, and I know you, especially, wanted everyone to stay close.”

“Very nicely said,” Daphne approves. “Did Red coach you on it?”

“Only a little,” Pinocchio admits. “But I mean it. All of it.”

“All right,” Daphne says. And she takes a deep breath, the way she’s been practicing with Cindy, and she lets the anger go. “I forgive you. But only if you’re done hiding.”

“I am,” he says, and he smiles at her.

They keep in contact after the wedding. Pinocchio still has a tendency to bury himself in books and forget about other humans, but if she texts him, he’ll text back the same day. Usually. She tells him about the weird things going on between Puck, Sabrina, and Bradley. Occasionally he’ll send her an unprompted message ranting about something she has only the vaguest understanding of. She’ll patch it together across the pages her phone’s divided it into and have wikipedia open for reference as she reads. They go out for coffee at least once a month, sometimes with Red, sometimes without her.

Daphne refuses to ask him for help with her homework. Getting a degree in social work requires a lot more of the hard sciences than she’d anticipated. It’s frustrating, but it’s worth it. She’s gonna be able to help people, when she’s done with this. Everafters and humans alike. Oh, Sabrina’s got her child advocacy law thing going on, and that’s great, but Daphne’s determined to help people before they get to the point where the courts have to get involved. And she’s not going to do it by depending on Pinocchio for help. She can do this on her own.

But as she moves from her bachelor’s to the postgrad degree it’s apparent she’s going to need if she wants to actually get a, y’know, job in her field, she does start complaining to Pinocchio more. They’re at the same university, Pinocchio now well into an anthropology degree, so they hang out at the library pretty often, their noses buried in separate books or laptops.

Pinocchio’s funny. She’d forgotten about that, or never really learned it. He’s got a dry sense of humor, and he’s sarcastic like you wouldn’t believe. He’s fun to be around.

“I had a crush on you, you know,” he tells her one day, apropos of nothing, as he stretches in his chair, taking a break from whatever he’s working on right now.

“What?” Daphne pauses, not sure she’s heard him right. She’s been pretty intent on putting together a case study review.

“When we were, oh, sixteen or so,” Pinocchio says. It’s too casual to be anything but feigned. He knows exactly how old they were. “G-d, you were so—friendly. Overwhelmingly so.”

“Am I not friendly anymore?” Daphne asks, but she’s teasing. Friendly. What a reason to get a crush on someone!

“Nope,” Pinocchio teases right back. “Downright unpersonable. I must be rubbing off on you.”

“If Sabrina couldn’t turn me into a grouch, you’re definitely not gonna manage it,” Daphne says with an easy grin. “This new ‘unpersonable’ thing is all me, baby.”

“The world has worn on you,” Pinocchio says with a melodramatic sigh. “You’ve finally lost your childlike joy.”

“Only took twenty-three years,” Daphne says with a grin. The conversation dies for a minute, then Daphne brings it back. “Why bring it up now?”

Pinocchio shrugs. “I was just thinking about it. Thinking about back then. It was nice. I miss it.”

“You barely talked to me!” Daphne says with a laugh.

Someone two tables over glares at her, and she gives them an apologetic wave and a smile.

“I was shy!” Pinocchio protests. “I didn’t know how to talk to someone I liked! Let alone someone who was in my house the whole summer!”

“Fair enough,” Daphne agrees. “I hope you know this is teasing fodder for forever, though.”

“Oh no,” Pinocchio says, deadpan again. “What will I ever do. You’ve never teased me before in my life. I don’t think I can handle it.” He pauses, then says, “You don’t seem surprised. That I liked you.”

“What can I say?” Daphne winks at him. “Nobody can resist my charms.”

“Fair enough,” Pinocchio says, giving her a shrug. Then he goes back to studying.

Time passes. Daphne graduates, can’t get a job through normal channels, but gets herself employed working for Faerie. Pinocchio teases her about nepotism, but listen. If there were anyone else qualified, she wouldn’t need to do this job. She and Pinocchio don’t spend all their time together in the library anymore, but they do meet up for lunch, and dinner, and sometimes breakfast. Someone has to make sure he remembers to eat, after all.

Several months into seeing each other nearly every day, by choice rather than by ease, something occurs to Daphne.

“Are we dating?” she asks.

Pinocchio chokes a little. “What?”

“Are we dating?” she repeats, emphasizing each word a little more clearly.

“How would we be dating?”

“We see each other almost every day,” Daphne starts, ticking her points off on her fingers as she goes. “We go out to dinner together, just the two of us. We watch movies together. We hang out in each other’s apartments. I text you almost as much as I text my brother and sister, and more than I text Red. When I have news, you’re the first person I want to tell. You leave your little nerd fort to hang out with me.”

“I mean—” Pinocchio splutters. “You’re— Dating usually involves a certain amount of intent, doesn’t it?”

Well, yeah, okay, there’s that. But Daphne’s stumbled into relationships before, only realized what they were partway through. Love is messy like that. But, well. Pinocchio likes things to be clearly labeled. People don’t come naturally to him the way they do to her.

“Would you like this to be dating?” she asks.

“Would you?” he counters, still spluttering and blushing.

Would she?

She thinks about all the things she listed, about how she wants to spend time with him, about the way he’s comfortable. About his dry sense of humor, about his stupid handsome face, about the way, every time she sees him she’s struck, a little, by the sight. About how it makes her heart beat faster. She’d put it down to his being one of the hottest men she’s ever seen, but that should probably have worn off sometime in the past few years, right?

“Yes,” she decides. She would like to date him.

“Oh,” Pinocchio says. His blush deepens.

He says nothing else for a long minute, and Daphne starts blushing too. “If you don’t—I mean, I—listen. It doesn’t. I’ve gotten crushes on friends before. If you don’t want to date me, that’s fine. It doesn’t have to change anything. We can forget this whole conversation!” Because she’d rather keep his friendship than anything else.

“No!” Pinocchio rushes in. “No, that’s not—I just—I mean—” he’s stumbling over her words, now, the two of them talking over each other to explain themselves, when he says, “I like you too!”

“Oh,” Daphne says, stopping abruptly. “You do?” She smiles at him.

“Yeah,” Pinocchio says. “I think I never really stopped.”

“That,” Daphne says, reaching a hand forward to grab at Pinocchio’s, “was downright romantic, you handsome sweetie.”

Pinocchio gives her a dopey, lovestruck smile. Then, after a long moment, he says, “So are we dating then?”

Daphne laughs, twines their fingers together. “Yes,” she says. “Yes, we are.”

#sisters grimm #the sisters grimm #daphne grimm #sisters grimm holiday exchange #sisters grimm secret santa

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ashintheairlikesnow · 4 years

Text

Trust: Jake

CW: References to violence, beating, blood, noncon/dubcon, domestic abuse, child abuse, and all the other gross that goes along with the Box Boy universe

The final installment of this mini-narrative I’ve been working on where Jake and Chris took over my brain. I’m going to take a writing break for a couple of days and hopefully will start posting again on Monday! See my other BBU writings here.

Tagging @burtlederp, @finder-of-rings, @endless-whump, @whumpfigure, @stxckfxck, @slaintetowhump

This piece features @deluxewhump‘s Alex, from her Frathouse Box Boy series - highly recommended reading! Alex is used with permission.

His fucking mugshot is all over the place.

Jake only barely remembers that part - it’d been on the second day, maybe, after he’d already been beaten and shocked and awake for nearly twenty-four hours. He has a vague knowledge of standing in front of lights, the sound of a camera, being made to turn. That knowledge comes alongside the memory of a pounding in his head, his knee, of zip-tied wrists dripping blood on the floor while the two men in front of him joked about something on TV the past weekend.

He’d forgotten it as soon as it was over - there were worse things going on in his life than having a photo taken of his black eye and busted-up face - but when he came back to school two weeks later, Jake discovered that just about everyone he spoke to had seen his mugshot on the local news website, with Public Intoxication, Criminal Assault, and Resisting Arrest listed as his charges.

It doesn’t matter that only one of those charges is real. It doesn’t matter that it’s not going to stick, and Nat has already told him that the lawyer who works with the safehouse pro bono is fairly certain they’ll drop the charge since no one can prove Jake resisted anything and the ‘cop’ in question is nowhere to be found.

It doesn’t matter, not any of it, because by the time all of that goes away - by the time he’s healed up enough to go back to class, and Chris has stopped panicking at the idea of him leaving the house, Jake is already known as the guy who got arrested for a drunk barfight after punching a cop.

He doesn’t bother telling anyone what actually happened. He doesn’t care enough about any of these people to try and change their minds about him.

He doesn’t know who he can trust with the knowledge, either. No matter that the guys had given he and Nat two different stories on how they’d been found out, and it’s possible neither one is totally true, Jake is pretty sure it had to be someone on campus.

He goes early on Tuesday, feeling like shit but kind of wanting a break from Chris’s nervous clinging, just… just for a while. He’s done more comforting and caring for Chris than taking care of himself, and it feels good to be back home - and it is home, isn’t it? At some point it became his real home - but he could use the space to just breathe, and feel sorry for himself.

He hasn't spoken to Addie since the night before the raid. Just texted after he got back to let her know an emergency had come up and they'd talk again when he could.

It’s not fair to her, but on the list of things that changed right before he got turned in… meeting Addie is the only big one.

The idea that he got turned in by his fucking girlfriend seems so fucked-up and cliché and weirdly old-fashioned, somehow, that he refuses to think too hard about it. But… if it was her… if she would have sent Chris back to that motherfucker… he has to know.

He’s staring off into space over a cappuccino in the student center coffee shop when movement in front of him catches his eye.

“Um. Hey.”

Jake takes a deep breath at the familiar voice, raising his eyes to see… the frat guy. Alex Something-Something. The one that came and asked him about ways to get a Box Boy to pass because he wanted to take his frat’s human mascot or whatever out in public without people knowing what he was.

The guy looks half-awake, a coffee in one hand and the other resting on the strap of the backpack hanging off one shoulder, wearing a big hooded pullover with his frat’s symbol on the front and blue jeans.

Jake stares up at him, and thinks, you fucking bought one. A bit of anger twists in his chest, but Jake’s too fucking tired to hold onto it. His frat had bought a person, sure, but he couldn’t stay mad at someone who had really been trying to learn. Jake had messages on his phone from some friends who said there was a frat guy kind of nosing around for more info while he was gone, maybe going to join the movement.

It wasn’t fair to judge him by what he’d allowed to happen if he was going to try and do something about it now. What matters is that you leave, he reminds himself, thinking of his mother and Nat and the conversations he’s had, again and again, with people who had to fight between standing still and putting themselves at risk, even in small ways. What matters is that you choose, once or twice or four times or however many times it takes, not to watch it happen again.

He couldn’t hold on to anger when he saw the signs of someone wanting to change. He was too exhausted, carrying too great a weight on his own, and too scared that his one attempt to open up and meet someone had resulted in putting the lives of Antoni and Leila and Chris at risk.

He’d been the one having nightmares, the house turned upside down again and Chris dragged into the middle of the living room, a knee jammed in his back, screaming and screaming for help that Jake couldn’t give because his fucking girlfriend held him down.

If it had been Addie all along, Jake would never date again. He honestly feels like the stupidest asshole on earth for having taken the risk at all. He needs to call her again, he needs to set up a meeting or some kind of dinner date or something. He needs to tell her that he’s scared.

Instead, he’s here way too early on a Tuesday morning, trying to figure out how scared he gets before he’s brave enough to take the risk of letting someone new in.

“Hey,” He says, buying himself a little time to think by taking a sip from his cappuccino, ruining the little heart the barista had drawn into the foam. “You’re on campus early. No house party last night?”

The guy gives him a weird look - like he’s looking for the insult and isn’t sure if he’s found it or not. “Last night was Monday.”

“Since when does that stop a frat house?”

There’s a pause, and the guy quirks kind of a half-sided smile, rolling his eyes. “Yeah, okay, fair enough. Some of the other guys had a couple people over to play COD, so I guess technically you’re right. Don’t be a dick about it, though, okay?”

“Sorry,” Jake says, and honestly, he kind of means it. This Alex guy’s pretty nice, and the longer he’s thought about it the more Jake is certain that he definitely isn’t the one who turned them in. Even if he’d been kind of complacent in stuff, he just… isn’t that kind of person. Jake can tell, deep in himself, that he’s not. “Sorry. I’m kind of an asshole, I probably should have warned you.”

“You, uh. You did, Jake.”

Jake raises his eyebrows, surprised the frat guy remembered his name at all. “I did?”

“Yeah, like… the first time we ever spoke, man. It was maybe the third thing you even said to me, that you’re an asshole about, uh… the stuff. You know. That we talked about.”

“Oh.” Jake clears his throat. His voice was back to normal - the first week it’d been hoarse, the screaming had turned the inside of his throat into raw meat, barely able to swallow the warm tea that Antoni brewed in massive amounts with plenty of honey. He’d made soup with carrots and ginger and some kind of yogurt and Jake had had to insist Chris not try to feed him like his hands were broken, not just bruised. “Sorry. I’ve had, um. It’s been a weird couple of weeks.”

“Yeah, I heard about that.”

Jake’s eyes narrow as the guy sits down in the chair across from him, sipping his coffee, gripping onto the cup nervously. “Did you?”

“Uh. Yeah. The, um… you know, someone I knew showed me… your, uh. We were talking about it in class last week.”

Jake closes his eyes, slowly. Even after two weeks of rest, it’s hard to open them again. “Of course you were.”

“I mean… man, it’s not every week someone who sits three rows down gets arrested for fighting cops.”

“I wasn’t-” Jake cuts himself off, his hands tightening around the cappuccino. “Never mind.”

“Nah, man, I’m teasing you. Look, I was going to hit up the library before, um, before our Ethics class.”

Jake snorts. One possibility - the handler had told him it was the Ethics in Political Philosophy professor who turned them in. Could be him. Could be the landscaping company guy down the street, like they’d told Nat. Could be Addie. Could be the fucking yoga instructor who smiled at Chris and complimented his fucking posture, could be-

He catches his thoughts before they can take off, drag him down into depression again.

“I’m about to go beg for mercy before that class,” Jake says, dryly, and watches Alex smile in response. “Since I missed, what, four classes. And he’s not exactly known for being nice about that shit. Can’t exactly say my grandma died when the whole fucking campus has seen my face all bashed up, huh?”

“Oh. Uh, well. You don’t… actually, that’s why I’m glad I saw you so early.” Alex sets his coffee down - he’s been sipping it steadily - and reaches over to unzip the backpack currently sitting at his feet, digging around inside of it. “I figured I’d catch you before class started, but this is better. Um.”

“Why? You want to help me beg?”

It’s Alex’s turn to snort. “No thanks. I try not to ever look him in the eyes, let alone ask him for anything. No, I wanted to talk to you because… here.” He pulls out a stack of papers more than an inch thick and sets them on the little table between them.

Jake blinks, and looks down. “What is this? Is this the shit I gave you? You’re… giving it back?”

“Fuck, no. No way, man. I… no. I want to keep those. This is, uh, this is two weeks of notes.” Alex pats the top of the paper like a car salesman patting the hood of a car, grinning at him with kind of absurd, sweet pride in his eyes. “I talked my adviser into printing me a list of your classes, found some people I knew in them, and, uh. Here we go. That’s notes for every single one of your classes for the past two weeks, plus copies of the assignments.” Alex pauses, then pats the pile of papers again. “Man, you are taking way too many classes.”

“Yeah, well. I have a lot of shit to do on all the other days, I kind of have to load them…” Jake leans forward, barely able to believe it as he picks up the stack and flips through it. Different handwriting and little encouraging notes in the margins, copied assignment papers. He just… keeps blinking at it.

“Yeah, I, uh. I know. I talked to some people when, you know… when it came out about the, um. Your face.” Alex waves his hand around, as if emphasizing his own absolute lack of injury.

“Who’d you talk to?” Jake is still staring at the notes, feeling and unfamiliar flutter of something like… like real gratitude. He tells himself to say thank you, and for just a second, the words stick in his throat.

It’s been Jake and Nat versus the world for so long, it’s hard to believe the world just expanded to include a whole new person he barely knows.

“Some people. You know. That, uh. Know you. I… I know it wasn’t a barfight, Jake.”

Jake’s fingers grip tightly onto the papers, and he raises his eyes to meet Alex’s sincere expression of real concern. “You do?”

“Yeah. I, uh. I had no idea shit like that even happens now… we never heard anything on the news-”

“Yeah, and you won’t.” Jake thinks of the Governor standing in the corner, hidden behind glass and shadows, laughing as they hit Chris across the hands to stop him from tapping, hit him again and again and again, the awful soundtrack of his cries layered over the top of that fucking pervert’s laughter. He’s going to fucking kill that man one day.

“Uh, Alex, I just-... you didn’t have to do this, man, that’s… really cool of you. Thanks.” He has to force out the word, but he wants to, he wants to say it. He never expected this.

He’s spent so much of his life insisting he doesn’t need charity, he doesn’t need help, and his mom will get on just fine, thanks. No, those bruises aren’t because of things at home. No, he doesn’t need to talk to the guidance counselor, no, no, no no no-... but here it’s just been done, the mercy, the kindness. None of that bullshit how are you? with the overly exaggerated concern and sadness. Alex just… helped. It throws Jake off-kilter, the same way learning how every single neighbor they had had come together to care for Chris while they were gone throws him off-kilter. “How’d you get everyone to take notes?”

Alex shrugs, drinking his coffee again, supremely pleased with himself. “I just asked, Jake. You can get a lot of stuff just by being nice to people, you know.”

What if we had told the neighbors what we were before the raid? Would they have helped us?

“I wouldn’t know. You just… asked? God, no wonder you’re Poli Sci. You’re gonna make a hell of a politician one day.”

Alex’s smile, if anything, widens. “Yeah, I hope so. Maybe I can do something about this shit, then.” At Jake’s surprised expression, he rolls his eyes. “I read your stuff, Jake. I read every single page. I’m kind of in it, now, sort of. It’s hard to know it and not, uh, think about it. So, can I ask-... your cousin, the one that you brought to class for a while-”

“Yeah.” Jake takes a chance. He takes a risk. He goes stepping voluntarily off a cliff, maybe taking Chris along with him. Somehow, though, he can’t stop himself. He’s tired of feeling alone when he’s here. He’s kind of just tired of feeling alone. “He’s a rescue.”

“Is he a… you know.” Alex’s face darkens, and he clears his throat, looking almost ashamed of himself just for saying the words. “A, uh. Where they… refurbish them? I wish I knew a better word for it.”

“There aren’t any better words for when they pull that shit on people. And… No. He’s not.”

“Oh, okay. Um. What, uh, what kind was he-... I was reading about the different, uh, kinds-”

“I don’t want to talk about that.”

Alex nods, slowly, looks down at his coffee, looks back up. “Sorry. How old is he?”

Jake’s jaw tightens - not at Alex, but at the memory of the boy in the video, shaking and terrified, whimpering I’m eighteen to a room full of adults who all knew he wasn’t. “I don’t know.”

“He looks really young.”

“He is. I don’t know how young. Alex, if you… if you tell someone about this shit, about him, they’ll take him away and send him right back. You get it?”

“Yeah. I get it. Except… d’you mind if I tell, uh, my, um… our… my friend? That I talked to you about before? If it comes up that getting, uh, rescued is a, uh, a thing? That, that maybe… I don’t know, maybe he could… go home with somebody. Have a home, like that kid has with you.”

“The kid’s name is Chris,” Jake says, quietly. “He picked his name himself. There’s a couple more where we live. When they’re ready, they move out, and they start new lives. Chris, it’ll take him a while.” If ever. “Look, I, um, this was… was amazing, what you did, getting all those notes put together. I don’t know how to thank you for it, really, saying ‘thanks’ just feels like it doesn’t really cut it, you know?”

Alex nods, finishing his coffee up and setting the empty cup down on the table, decisively. “It’s no problem, man. I get it. I’m just, uh. I’m just glad everything worked out.”

Did it? Is that what happened?

“Me, too,” Jake says, aware of how heavy his voice sounds, how false the sentiment. “Look, I, uh, I can’t bring Chris on campus anymore. There’s a possibility we were… found out… because of that.” His voice catches in his throat, but Jake pushes down the guilt. He has time for that later. “So… you won’t see him anymore.”

Alex is silent, for a long moment. Then he says, almost hesitantly, “What about meetings?”

“I’m sorry, what?”

“What if I… go to meetings? Do the, um. The… you called them ‘rescues’? Do they go to meetings? If I go to them, if I start, uh, going to them… would I see any? Be able to talk to them? Or…”

“Yeah. Rescues go, sometimes. They give talks about their lives, and everything. Antoni - sorry, I have a, uh, there’s one I live with right now named Antoni - he’s given talks on his life as a Domestic before. I don’t know about Chris, though, he, um... Chris struggles with-”

Chris would go into dark corners with anyone who smiled and touched his face and I don’t always trust the very people who are risking themselves to help us. Not with him. Not when he’s so easy to hurt, and easier to convince that you didn’t.

“That’s okay,” Alex says quickly. “It was just. He seems like a cool kid, I saw you guys over at the yoga class a couple times.”

Finally, Jake’s smile is genuine and real. He thinks of the mussed-up strawberry blond hair spread across the pillow when he woke up this morning, Chris mumbling to himself and shifting into the warm spot Jake’s body had made when he got out of bed. One arm flinging out to search for human contact. How young and soft and sweet he looked, in that moment, like a kid ignoring his alarm clock.

He should be in high school right now.

“He is,” Jake says, gathering up the papers from Alex, finishing his cooled cappuccino in a few quick drinks, setting it back down empty. He sticks the papers in his own bag. “He’s fucking amazing, Alex. He’s been through so much-... they’re all… they’re all fucking amazing. Do you get that? They’ve survived so much bullshit and they come out the other side and they still want to figure it out and get better. They’re amazing.”

“Yeah,” Alex says, softly. There’s a weird look on his face, one Jake can’t quite read. “Yeah, you know… they are.”

“You want to meet Chris sometime,” Jake says, pushing his chair back and standing up, pulling his backpack on over his shoulders. “You let me know. I think… I think I’d let him talk to you. Just… don’t hug him too much.”

“Does he not like that?” Alex looks up at him without standing up yet. “Ours, um, my-... the guy that lives with us… he really likes being touched. And it seems like, when Chris was coming with you…”

“No, he likes it. But he wouldn’t-... he can’t tell what kind of affection is safe, yet.” It’s as close as Jake’s going to get to explaining what Chris has been through, at least here and now. He catches someone pointing at him out of the corner of his eye and sighs.

“No, ours. Uh. Ours can’t either, exactly.” Anger flashes on Alex’s face, distant and thoughtful, and then he just shrugs. “Look, just. I hope those papers help you, man. From what Meghan said, your place was basically trash from top to bottom. I guess she talked to some people who talked to your, uh, your boss or whatever.”

Jake and Nat still haven’t talked, not really. Two weeks later and they’re still drifting past each other, tense and uncertain, each waiting for the other to be the first to bring it up. He feels his shoulder hunch slightly at the mention of her. “Yeah. It was. They left-... You know what, I don’t, um. I don’t want to talk about it. Yeah? Is that okay?”

“Yeah, man, that’s fine. Not a problem. But… if you need help again, will you, uh. Text me or something?” Alex takes a deep breath, meets Jake’s eyes, his jaw set and the open, friendly face set in an expression of stubborn determination. “I want… I want to help you.”

Alex, Jake realizes, is also walking off a cliff, hoping there’s something other than rocks at the bottom. He’s also taking a risk. He’s got his own future, and he probably never saw it including this.

“What are you, um, able to do?” Jake asks, and there’s more to his words than just the surface. A depth he knows Alex can hear. What are you willing to do?

Alex shrugs, standing up finally, giving him that bright handsome smile, politician-to-be through and through. Jake almost wants to shake his hand and the guy’s younger than he is. “Don’t know yet. But, hey, sometimes all you have to do is ask, right? Sometimes it’s just about, like, trusting people not to be utter shits for five seconds.” He moves past Jake, walking away, and calls over his shoulders, “Next time, Jake, trust me, okay? If you need help, just ask.”

He leaves, sliding out through the set of double-doors that leads in from outside, and Jake just stands there, watching him go.

Just ask.

Easy for him to say.

Harder, so much harder, for Jake to do.

He picks up his phone, staring after Alex’s backpack until it disappears into the morning, until he turns a corner down the walkway, behind a stand of trees, and is gone.

Jake hasn’t trusted anyone who isn’t a rescue since he was a little kid. No one has ever been someone he could rely on. It’s never, not once in his life, been safe to trust the people who told him to trust them. Right from the start, the people who were supposed to give him a solid foundation had been the quicksand dragging him down.

Jake dials a number and holds his phone up to his ear. After a second, Addie’s warm voice picks up, blurry with sleep. “Jake? Hey, I haven’t… you haven’t called me in a couple of weeks, are you-... what’s up? Did you get your emergency thing sorted?”

Jake swallows, hard. “Can I… can I meet you for lunch during my long break today? I have something to ask you.”

Was it you?

“Yeah… yeah, sure. I missed you, Jake.”

If it wasn’t, can I trust you to know?

“I missed you, too, Addie. A lot happened, and I just-”

“Yeah, I saw the mugshot, it’s all over campus… are you okay?”

Can I trust you to protect the rescues?

“I’m fine. Now. But, uh. There’s kind of more to it than that… I’ll tell you at lunch. Vegetarian wraps at 1:30, that sound okay? I’m buying.”

There’s a pause, and a smile in Addie’s voice. “Of course it’s okay. I can’t wait to see you.”

Can I trust you to protect Chris?

Jake hangs up, heading out himself, to look over the notes before his first class starts. Alex’s words ringing in his ears, a weight against his back. He’s never going to forgive himself for letting a fucking frat guy be more self-aware than he is.

If you need help, just ask.

Trust people.

Ask.

#whump #trauma recovery #recovering whumpee #angry caretaker #defiant caretaker #defiant whumpee #tw: police brutality (mentioned)#references to child abuse #references to domestic abuse #referenced noncon/dubcon #referenced #conditioning #bbu #box boy #box boy universe #jake the shelter guy #featuring deluxewhump's alex

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siobhom · 4 years

Text

Palm Springs Review *Spoilers*

It was an awesome film. I loved it.

Things I loved:

Nyles saying their actions still have consequences, because they remember even if no one else does, such a poignant perspective, and gives us much understanding of how he’s stayed the way he has and his characterisation

That this version of the time loop actually does have consequences because if you’re not careful you can end up getting someone else stuck in the same situation

All of Nyles and Sarah’s interactions, all of it, from Nyles accepting that Sarah also has to go through the whole process he did, to the care-free fun-times, to the revelations, to them finally leaving the loop together

Nyles having been in the loop so long that he’s forgotten before, the darkness and hopelessness and yet acceptance Nyles had was very well done

The acting- Nyles could easily be a very Jake-type character and yet despite being played by the same actor he sounds completely different to Jake, a testament to the greatness of Andy Samberg’s acting

The twist of Nyles and Sarah having been together many times before, I saw the twist coming, and was expecting a passenger-esque situation, but that in no way ruined it, I still wonder whether -subconsciously at least- Nyles was trying to lead her in there so he wouldn’t be alone, after all why were they even hanging out next to the cave, if it’s to get away from the others surely there are other less risky places, and then he goes into the cave, I’m guessing to escape the pain of arrows, but he had to have known she’d follow even if he told her not to

That Sarah learned the whole of quantum physics to get them out of the loop, fantabulous

The grandma and her mysterious implication that she’s in the time loop too, awesome

The end credits scene where Roy goes to talk about the crazy plan and Nyles doesn’t know who he is, I now want a sequel where Roy tries to match-make that universes Sarah and Nyles as a thank you to Sarah

I also want a sequel/prequel? With the grandma story

Theories:

That grandma moment is fascinating: clearly she could leave with Sarah as she knows it works, but she’s chosen to stay, maybe she knows her days are numbered and she wants to spend the last of them with family, maybe she’s on a mission to help Sarah in every universe, so when Sarah leaves and is replaced by a Sarah who doesn’t remember she tries to help because she knows the loop is forever there, creating new universes of people when they leave, maybe she’s the one who leads Nyles to the cave in the first place.

It’s also intriguing to ponder how long Nyles has been in that loop, he jokes has it been that long at the millionth birthday sign, but there’s also a tone in his voice suggesting it could be because it’s been so long and he genuinely doesn’t remember, I don’t think it’s been that long though, for one he would be much crazier, and also probably would’ve accidentally lead Sarah into the cave before, even as it is it seems unlikely that it took as long as it did, if we consider that ‘a thousand times’ possibly isn’t an exaggeration (it’s as likely to be over that number as it is to be under it, as a thousand times is three years, and Nyles has definitely been in that loop for more than three years) and they’re regularly hanging out at the cave and Roy shows up every few days, it would be almost impossible for Nyles to have not ended up escaping into the cave before that and leading her in.

We know absolutely nothing about Nyles from before, which is disconcerting, possibly Nyles doesn’t even really remember Nyles from before.

Sarah’s reference to twenty years (ending up twenty years in the future), could be an estimation of Nyles time in the loop based on things he’s said, or an estimation of her time in the loop (she did become a quantum physics expert so it’s entirely possible it’s been that long). Considering he’s forgotten his job that implies more than twenty years, sure people forget the details of the job in that time, but not the job itself, but it’s possible the time loop is messing with his memory and that’s the reason why, or it’s the shrooms. He remembers his dog though, so also a count against the idea of a million years. (Though maybe he does only get his memories back once he exits the loop, as we hear nothing about his old life before then). I think the amount of time Nyles has been in the loop is likely decades or centuries, which also increases the likelihood of him wanting to pull someone else in (even if the act is subconscious.

It’s also curious how Nyles ended up in the cave in the first place. I mean, it’s far away. Possibly seeing Misty cheating on him and just wanting to get away?

And how are the two of them going to adjust to real life? Nyles is definitely going to need therapy, probably both of them will. And really this is just the beginning of their relationship. As much as the nature of the film doesn’t really lend to a sequel of this kind, I really want to see one.

#logic cakes #palm springs #andy samberg

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bladekindeyewear · 4 years

Text

HS^2 bloggin’ mainline 2020-05-19

Figured an upd8 was coming, it’s felt like enough time has passed for one.

Huh, looking at my last post I’d completely forgotten I was supposed to play through Pesterquest sometime... work is busy and stressing me out a bit, I’m not sure when I’ll have the energy on the side to do that. (Maybe I’ll livetweet it like I did Undertale a while ago, but this time not looking at my twitter replies so I don’t get spoiled by One Guy™?)

Also, including bonus commentary on A Threat Sensed.

Okay, going in completely blind. I’d guessed from context that we’re hopping over to Meat side to get a chapter there before we can come back to actually see Yiffy?

Yep. Okay, what is this about exactly?

(Agh, dammit, I’ve been copying and pasting so much at work remoting into Windows lately that now I’m automatically trying to hit control-C instead of command-C to copy.)

> CHAPTER 9. How Goes The Eulogizing, Dear?

CONTENT NOTE: This chapter contains Child Abuse.

Which one???

Wait

JANE: (Where is he?) JANE: (It's a question I've found myself asking many times in recent days.)

Holy SHIT we get two Candy chapters in a row??? So we might see her right away?? No, it’s gotta just be another tiny glimpse.

(Has two Candy chapters in a row happened before? Future Boots, scroll back up and put this here. FUTURE BOOTS: “I forgot to scroll back up and put that here.” EDIT: Also, not the first time with two in a row, but it IS the first time with THREE in a row, huh.)

So Jane has to be talking about either Tavros or Dave. --Oh, if this was a Candy Side chapter title, I guess Rose or Jade is eulogizing Dave for John?

> (==>)

JANE: (Where now is our merry savior?) JANE: (Where is the horn that was honking?) JANE: (Where is the cape and the codpiece, and the...) JANE: (The...) JANE: (Oh, fiddlesticks.)

What? Is she reading a childrens’ book? --Oh. She’s eulogizing Gamzee. So that gives us a third option, where the rebellion crashes the funeral somehow, probably audiovisually rather than in person. (Which would make sense, given Candy practically began with Gamzee crashing Dirk’s funeral.)

> (==>)

Ah never mind, she’s still writing it.

That sure is a single button drama-remote that’s going to be pressed at some point. Oh, and who the fuck keeps a spork in a pen cup??? --No no, don’t say it’s one of those pens with a spork at the eraser end, either ready-made or rubber-banded to the side. That would make sense. You totally know it isn’t that and is just a spork.

JANE: (Okay, poetry is out.) JANE: (What else?) JANE: (Hrm...) JANE: (I've always been pretty good at crying on cue.) JANE: (Could I try staging an emotional breakdown?) JANE: (That could work; playing to people's humanity.)

Why were you crying in Jake’s arms about his death if you didn’t care that much? Did you just want him to hold you and kinda make him feel in on things again? Or did you just cry yourself out about him?

JANE: (Or whatever is the more inclusive term.)

I bet the rest of Earth C figured out a more inclusive term millenia ago FUCK I accidentally added millennia to my dictionary misspelled instead of correcting it hold on--

...There, killed the entry for it. ...Huh. Take a look at my Chrome dictionary’s custom-added words over the years, apparently:

Caliborn Eridan Kanaya Matriorb Meenah Tavros alchemiter dichotomic nephilim reblogged uncaptchalogues uncaptchaloguing

That’s fun.

Okay back to reading. Millennia. Phew! Where was I.

JANE: (One really good and calculated weep could do it, I think.) JANE: (But then there's the danger that I might get carried away and do it for real.) JANE: (And I can't risk that.)

So still feeling something, just too used to calculating over the past years.

JANE: (What can I say about him that will stir up their emotions?) JANE: (Do I mention the stuff about the milk?) JANE: (Think Crocker, think.)

WHY would you-- how much did Gamzee normalize adult breastfeeding?!

JAKE: Ahoy over there!

Not the best time.

(The thing with the divorce papers from the Epilogue and John implying he was planning with Jake to execute something that sounds like a divorce... is that going to be sprung here? Did her lawyers send the divorce papers way back when she was in a fit of pique, and he just had them available to sign now at the tactical moment? Or... let me pull the exact text...)

JOHN: now, harry anderson, i know that you and tavros haven't always gotten along. JOHN: but i am going to have to ask you to try and look out for him for the time being. JOHN: your uncle jake and i... well, i'll explain later. JOHN: let's just say that gamzee isn't the only family member jane is losing today.

(So is John going to submit the papers? Or did they already go through a while ago and default custody to John or something who’s going to adopt him too or some nonsense? And did he plan this out with Jake NOW, or a while ago, and if only a while ago, is Jake going to KNOW whatever John’s about to pull in that respect is about to happen??)

> (==>)

Butte

Janepalme

> (==>)

JAKE: Er... how goes the eulogizing, dear?

Gah. I completely forgot again that capitalized-first-letter chapter names don’t mean KANAYA is saying them. That probably makes a lot more sense out of my wondering about the chapter title earlier to those of you who didn’t realize I was making that mistake.

JANE: It turns out that it's mighty difficult to find touching things to say about a person, the relationship with whom was predicated on deep-seated mutual loathing.

Hah!

--A loathing you regarded as largely more important to you than Jake ever was, by the way. You asshole.

JANE: I imagine this is one of the reasons no funerary tradition was ever established on Alternia, besides the barbarism of their culture. DIRK: Jesus christ. JANE: Not only did a significant proportion of their interpersonality depend on romance in the form of hatred, but it was a society based on cruelty and violence. JANE: What reason could they have had to provide for the dead? JANE: What kind of last rites could they have even imagined?

I wondered for a moment why (bg!)Dirk of all people would react to a single line of her starting to bring up prejudices, but then I realized that (1) Brain Ghost Dirk is a little more Jakey, and (2) Dirk knew that more ranting would follow the first line.

JANE: I can't think of anything good to write about him because deep down, I hated his guts. JANE: But he was and is beloved of the multitude, so I have to think of something regardless. JAKE: Im not sure i understand. JANE: Don't worry your pretty little head about it. JANE: This is politics, Jakey. JANE: Lying through your two front teeth about people you hate is about as good a definition as it's possible to get. JANE: But, by gum, is it tiring work.

Mm. It’s a position Jane put herself in, but it’s still a legitimate position once you’re there.

JANE: The funeral is tomorrow, after all.

Got it.

DIRK: Dude, the bowl. JAKE: Hm? JAKE: Oh, right. JANE: What is it now, Jake. JAKE: I brought something for our guest as well. JANE: You mean the prisoner. JAKE: Y...es.

Wait, bowl?

Oh god damnit which of you had the idea to feed her with a DOG BOWL. Either of you could have thought of it, and either of you would be horrible for it.

> (==>)

Huh, that outfit on Yiffy looks familiar, like a reference to something. And a black tail? This definitely isn’t quite the look I was expecting from Jade Plus Rose, but I suppose the snazzy tie is a Roseish vibe. Also reminiscent of Jade’s old Dead Shuffle dress. Formal wear and soccer cleats??

JANE: She's over in the corner. JANE: Don't worry, she won't bite. JANE: I've seen to that already.

WHAT THE FUCK DOES THAT MEAN. I don’t see anything over her mouth! Did she stick something in it, or drug her? File her fucking teeth???

I mean I did forget the Child Abuse trigger warning to be fair. Hoping whatever would be on her mouth is just not shown in-panel yet for stylistic reasons.

> (==>)

JAKE: Its only mac and cheese, sorry. JAKE: Its all I know how to make, haha. JAKE: ... JAKE: I um... hope you can safely partake of cheese? JAKE: ... JAKE: Well, JAKE: Bon appetit.

How the fuck did Jake eat on his island then? --Oh right, preserved food cans that Grandma Jade stored up, I think I remember. Why would cheese not be a thing for them, if it’s fine for Jade? I know he’s probably not just worried about lactose intolerance.

Either way, if she’s drugged here, that’ll mean we won’t get a good idea of her for a while, so which is it...

> (==>)

DIRK: Bon appetit. DIRK: Seriously dude? JAKE: (What? Did i pronounce it wrong?) DIRK: Jake. DIRK: You put the food in a fucking dog bowl. JAKE: (It was all there was, ok???) JAKE: (I feel awful enough as it is without you getting on my case about it.)

Ah, missed the bone pun. AND, yeah, Jake, you’re a fucking idiot, you could have put it in a cup or something.

JAKE: (So far ive yet to see anything come of that brilliant plan of yours.) JAKE: (Are you sure sending that message to the others was enough?)

Okay, so he IS coordinating this slightly.

> (==>)

Horrifying image to contemplate, eh Jane?

Or anger-inducing?

> (==>)

Seems about right!

> (==>)

Oh that’s a GREAT exasperated Jane face.

JANE: I hope you're not expecting dessert, young lady.

I like how Jane didn’t notice, comment on, or care about the bowl. How can you hate a kid so much??

> (==>)

Oh I know why I felt like I recognized the outfit style, it’s because it’s ANIME AS FUCK. Feels like some Persona 4 Arena nonsense, and I say that not having played any of those games or even remembering what they looked like. Also, white hair, black fur’d dog parts? Nice change of pace.

YIFFY: GRRRRRRRRR... JANE: Oh no you don't.

Red text? What color exactly... “#D00009”? Huh. That’s nowhere near Alt-Callie’s #FF0000, and darker than Dave’s #E00707. In fact, let me go back and check those spilled color pins the commentary pointed out from an update or two ago... no, the red pin is #E63225, closer to Dave’s color. (Also, is Yiffy blocking the doorway out? That’s a pretty slack chain then.)

Did Jane see to it that she wouldn’t bite with like, a water spray bottle?

(EDIT: Oh my FUCKING GOD, THAT's why it's #D00009...)

> (==>)

FUCK I didn’t notice the shock collar in the Yiffy image! FUCK YOU, Jane.

> (==>)

Keeping someone in line with collars, especially ones that punish whenever one strays out of line, has always been a decent way for her to mix in some Doomy control of others to show how she’s “grown” to balance her main role and her Tiara-controlled-like inverse for more power. Doom in part represents boundaries that you can’t cross without getting hurt or punished.

> (==>)

FUCK, those little buck teeth!? D’:

JANE: That's more like it.

She HAS to have more of a reason for hating her than hating her parents, right? Like, more than that and general racism applying to partdogfolk?

> (==>)

Hey fuck off with that!

> (==>)

This is a pretty cool ima-- are those piercings on her dog ear? I didn’t notice that in the first shot, neat.

JANE: You've been a thorn in my side ever since I agreed to enroll you at the academy, little madam. JANE: Back then, I was doing a favor for two old friends who made a disgusting mistake. JANE: I'm no longer going to play nice with you just because of your parents, however. JANE: That truce is over. JANE: Do I make myself understood?

What the fuck? WHY would you do that? Why does Jane run "Ms. Paint’s Home for Inconvenient Girls”? What did Yiffy do to piss her off so much there, how much trouble could she have caused?

I don’t know if she’s referring to the behind-Kanaya’s-back part as disgusting or she’s just being MORE racist.

> (==>)

JANE: We don't want you passing out during the ceremony, do we?

Oh, just showing the hostage off during the clown funeral, huh? Classy much?

> (==>)

JANE: Now, be a good hostage and get some rest, Yiffany dear. JANE: We've got a big day tomorrow.

For a politician, Jane’s not good at looking at herself in a mirror.

> (==>)

JANE: Night night. JANE: Hoo hoo.

> (Yiffy: Lights out.)

Huh, dream stuff is gonna be relevant out in Candy then? *click*

Okay, dark background all of a sudden. Properly dramatic? You even have to highlight the non-link “>” part of the Next link to see it.

> (==>)

-- thespiansGlamor [TG] began pestering adamantGriftress [AG] --

Well, I don’t know WHY it’s happening, but the white-backed pesterlog suddenly on the dark site framing is certainly evocative. Of like, a mood, or something.

TG: i thought he was pretty quiet down there. TG: we'll make a rebel of him yet! AG: Lol. AG: I think it's more that he can't sleep. AG: I know how he feels. TG: yeah. TG: today was a lot. AG: ... TG: do you wanna talk about it? AG: Ugh, not you as well.

It’s really jarring to transition between Homestuck’s “kids jarringly mentally resistant to freaking out about the end of the world” to HS^2′s more realistic “kids traumatized by their first firefight even though it was an overwhelming victory-escape”.

TG: but seriously, do you? AG: Not really. TG: not even about... you know? TG: her? AG: No. TG: ... are you sure? AG: A8solutely. AG: What are you, my moirail? AG: Just leave it, Harry. TG: ok.

Are they about to have an “I wonder what Yiffy’s like” talk?

> (==>)

Very similar Tav/Vrissy convo to the previous one.

GG: I havent ever shared a bedroom before,,, GG: Not even for a slumber party,,, AG: Tavvy, you are just a8out the saddest person I've ever met.

Well, we have an even better idea how horrible Jane can be with kids, now. From Nanna to THIS is quite jarring. I wonder how the double Nannasprites that must still be around here somewhere feel?

> (==>)

TG: nothing about my dad is cute. TG: what are you even saying. AG: Lmao. TG: seriously! TG: i think he has something against that word, even. he gets super weird about it. AG: He's a strange and funny m8n. TG: yeah. TG: ... TG: i think something bad must have happened.

...um. What? Why would John have some sort of trauma about the word cute or being called it?

Did John dress up as a hint of his buried June ambitions as a kid and Dad lavish him with “SO CUTE” praise in an epic supportiveness backfire that caused him to shelve the idea of wearing non-masc clothes and being happier on the flipside of gender ever again??? Because if that’s how June gets canonized as promised, it’s a little harsher than the back of my mind was hoping. I guess it kind of had to be though from the premise of how it was read into his childhood for the original idea, though. Fuck, I hope this Cute business is about something different from that (like a Terezi reference or such) just to get less John Sads. (But still June. Definitely still want to get June.)

> (==>)

Oh, and now Vrissy is doing nothing but talking about what she said she didn’t want to talk about, of course. (Also I like how JANE’s now being called the Batterwitch.)

AG: And the worst part was they didn't even fight a8out it! AG: That made me madder than 8nything else. AG: It felt like I was the only person who even W8S mad! GG: I dont think thats true,,, AG: What would you know a8out it?! GG: Maybe nothing,,, GG: Sorry,,, GG: Its just,,, GG: To me,,, all the way through the conversation,,, aunt kanaya looked even angrier than you,,, AG: ... AG: Adults are so fucking weird.

Guh, I don’t want to be reminded how hurt a good chunk of the fanbase is by Kanaya getting hurt this badly.

Original Tavros was always SLIGHTLY perceptive of others sometimes, but maybe perceptiveness is being hinted at as a Tavros specialty? We still don’t know his classpect/hero-title or have any firm guesses based on purely him evidence. (Also, frightened kids of abusive households tend to learn to get perceptive pretty fucking quickly I hear.)

> (==>)

TG: dad was sitting in the cafeteria with aunt jade and your moms. TG: it looked like they were discussing something important... they were whispering and stuff.

[etc etc] Alright, the what-happened-to-Dave bit. And I imagine they’re kind of helping John grieve there, since Rose and Jade have talked that out already.

TG: aunt kanaya's was the only face i could see. TG: she was standing next to them, but she wasn't looking at what was going on. TG: almost like she couldn't bear to. AG: I doubt it. Kanaya's got a8out as much Emotivity as a very reclusive stone. TG: ok, i think that is bullshit but whatever. TG: she saw me standing there, but didn't say anything. she just shook her head slightly, and pointed back out into the hallway i came down.

Yep, giving them some space to grieve. Also-- gosh, shouldn’t Vrissy have the same emotive senses that Aranea implied Vriska shared with her? Kanaya isn’t that EXPRESSIVE but she’s certainly full of emotion. Also, I hope part of her not bearing to watch wasn’t lingering anger toward Jade and Rose mixing with that, but there probably was a bit of that too, though Dave being gone is so much harsher than that. --I just realized they might not have broken the news to Karkat yet, either.

AG: I guesadxcxzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz TG: vrissy?

Put to sleep by someone slumping down on your phone keypad, or surprised by something about the other conversation?

Oh shit, “other conversation” reminded me I didn’t look at Tavros’s chumhandle:

glutinousGymnast [GG]

HHHHHhhhhuh. Hm... huh? hhhh. huh? what, but. Why would. ?????

I really don’t understand what that chumhandle or any of its entendres should signify in this context.

Also, this means for our new four kids we have TG, GG, AG, and ??.

> (==>)

GG: I think she might have succumbed to sleep quite suddenly,,, GG: It would explain the,,,,,, interesting messages I've been getting for a while,,, TG: hehe. TG: i guess that tracks. TG: she does that from time to time.

That’s... strange. Homestuck’s taught us to be suspicious of that.

TG: ... TG: tav? GG: Yes,,, harry anderson,,,? TG: what does it feel like to know someone who's died?

Who is Harry referring to? (EDIT: Yes I know Gamzee for Tavros, but I meant Harry talks like he's worried he'll have to feel that way soon?) Is he just kind of inferring that something bad might have happened to Uncle Dave? Got that perceptive “parents are about to tell me about a death in the family” vibe? Or did he overhear more than he let on to Vrissy?

...alright, that’s the last page of this update. Looks like this chapter is going to continue to have a good bunch of grieving, or talk around it.

---

Now for Bonus Commentary for A Threat, Sensed. For some reason I have a dim memory of like... reading this myself without commenting on it? Or skimming it? But I’m pretty sure I didn’t do that. Weird. Must have imagined doing it.

Ah, I think I saw the opening paragraph scrolling Patreon, and my mind kinda filled in the blanks, this is still looking new to me.

Okay, mostly banter and japes in the commentary here. About Dirk “throwing a huge tantrum in his philosophy cave”.

We’ve had quite a bit of speculation on whether this is “really” Andrew. To that, I think we’d say that it doesn’t “really” matter.

Really? That was speculated about? :/

Here we discover that Dirk has not, as some people have speculated, been directly intervening into the Candy timeline, or influencing it in any way. In fact, he has a very hard time seeing anything going on there at all.

Mhmm, and that was a pretty important thing to learn.

A couple of years ago I might have agreed with the take that everything happening in Candy is simply too outlandish to ever happen naturally, without direct, villainous interference, but that was before literally every fucking batshit insane thing that has happened on Real Life Earth started going down, and now I will believe literally anything.

This is a nice bit of distraction from the idea that at least the opening parts of the Candy story were written/narrated by Original, Alive Calliope over on meat side. To refresh your memory of what was pointed out to me:

ROXY: back when jade first got all effed up callie saw somethin and it made them freak out ROXY: it took me weeks to convince them that it was safe to come home ROXY: but now we got the opposite problem and they arent leavin the house at all ROXY: they stay home all day with the blinds drawn paintin some weird ass shit on the walls TEREZI: WH4T? ROXY: its not as bad as it sounds i promise ROXY: some of it is like ROXY: weird and violent?? ROXY: like lotsa nasty purple blood and um ROXY: nudity???? TEREZI: >:? ROXY: yeah yikes ROXY: but MOST of it is cute stuff like... various combos of all of us being happy and gettin married and shit ROXY: anyway thats kept callie kinda busy

Which tracks with the initial out-of-character-seemingness of almost everyone at the start of Candy, and how they kind of tried to railroad things back onto the “Happy??” track after Dirk derailed it with his weird self-accumulation suicide, along with some of the flowery-idyllic descriptions of characters seeing each other bathed in a halo of light and such.

Of course, they’re not going to out-and-out STATE that Calliope was at fault for that narration, helping the Candy story not necessarily fall out the way it did “naturally”, until we finally get a glimpse of her on the heroes’ ship in Meat probably still painting the continuing Candy events, inspiring them into the void of the singularity with her latent powers. Til then, it’s a bit of misdirection whenever the topic is to be brought up. Along with a mix of Roxy’s late-Candy point to John of more or less “why COULDN’T we have done this naturally? you don’t know”.

He might even think that he has more direct power over the narrative than Hussie does himself. Surprise, motherfucker, you are a fictional character.

I’ll quote this next part in full:

There’s been talk of whether or not this bonus was written in the two days between its release and the Yiffy reveal chapter. The answer is--no. It was written over a month ago. But I think the things it addresses were not difficult to suss out. Obviously, Dirk is highlighting the issues that the readership are having with Yiffy, in his typical Dirk fashion. If it seems a little defensive, well...I suppose it is. Yiffy is one of the two hard lines drawn in the sand, and all of us love her, and we’re hoping that everyone else will love her too. But more than that, it focuses on the fact that update culture has a rhythm to it--shock, revulsion, acceptance (or not), and then excitement (or not). Will it follow that pattern this time? Who knows. I guess we’ll find out.

Yeah, given what was going to be dropped on us I expected they would have had exactly this lined up, especially because Andrew specifically mandated Yiffy. --I wonder why they aren’t mentioning that somewhere in the commentary and only on one of their Twitters?

Also quoting this:

There’s something both incredibly “cringe” and self-indulgent, as well as philosophically intriguing, about the author arguing with his villain, especially since he’s writing both halves of the conversation himself. You are, for all intents and purposes, trying to solve a problem that you have created for yourself. You are looking an aspect of your personality in the eye and asking, hey, what the fuck, man?

But in the end, isn’t that what every story is? Trying to untie knots that you put in the rope yourself?

Since it’s part of the central struggle of this story, and kind of the question Andrew’s tried to imply with every Homestuck work about what right we have to keep these characters trapped in a story, and if they’d be better off escaping it.

I’m really trying to avoid quoting so much of this, since the commentary is paid... but I think we can make an exception here? I’ll have only quoted about half of it; just, the really plot-important half. Plus, I left out a LOOOT of japes.

Dirk has a certain idea of how stories are supposed to go. That’s pretty much what the Epilogues is about. The audience also has a certain expectation of how a story is supposed to go. In a way, the Epilogues were also about that. They were taking a story that had reached the traditionally “acceptable” happily ever after, and saying, wait, no. What happens next? Thinking past happily ever after in any story is a terrifying prospect. Once Cinderella marries the prince, what then? Sure, she got what she wanted, but who knows that it will be everything she dreamt it would? What if she changes her mind, if not today, what about ten years from now? What if the prince dies of malaria?

And I’m...

Yeah I don’t have anything else to add here, I’m kind of out of brain juice to think about this tonight. BUSY day I had. Y’all take care!

#Homestuck #hs2 #Homestuck Liveblog #upd8 #Homestuck^2 #bladekindeyewear #blastyoboots #spoiler #spoilers #Homestuck Commentary

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menotsane · 3 years

Text

A cheesy yet heartwarming story about 2 lost childhood friends.

Boys love content. Title: Stuck With You

Chapter 1: The First Encounter

Lee Ji Ahn sitting on his chair crafting something from wood suddenly hears a voice outside from his room: "young master, it's time for your school, breakfast is ready and ma'am is waiting for you outside in the car". After glancing a bit on CCTV camera the old lady with white hairs wearing a brown apron walks away with a disappointment face. She is the housekeeper. Lee Ji Ahn stands and walks towards window where he sees the car. He removes his white apron and carry his school bag and walks downstairs, picks a piece of bread and exits the house to enter the car.

Meanwhile in the car:

Ji Ahn's mom talking on the phone: yes I know it's too early to send him to school but as his psychiatrist said it's necessary for him to encounter people so that he can overcome his social anxiety disorder.

Other voice on the phone(Ji Ahn's dad): okay then. I will not argue. I'll return to korea next week. Take care of Jake(nickname of Lee Ji Ahn).

[I'll be using "Jake" instead of Lee Ji Ahn].

Jake enters the car.

"Jake can't you remove your cap, it's not good to wear in school premises" Jake's mom said with low voice.

Jake ignores, sets his cap by pressing the outer area of cap and looks outside with disagreement.

Jake's mom sighs and drives the car to school.

[Meanwhile in H community]

Alarm rings and a hand raises to shut it.

"Ahh, let me sleep more"

Suddenly realizes and wakes up with wide eyes looking at the time in the clock: "oh sh*t I'm late"

Runs to bath and dress up.

"Grandma is breakfast ready? I'm getting late" Kim Ji-hoon cries loud.

"Ohho sleepy head. I'm not like you. The breakfast is already on time. Get down and have it" old lady in her 60's says in a giggling voice.

"Hahah, when will you stop teasing him" grandma's husband said.

After having breakfast, kim Ji-hoon runs towards the veranda when her grandma said "kai don't run you will fall"

(Kai is Kim Ji-hoon's nickname so I'll be using kai as these short names are easy to remember)

Kai runs while crying in his mind: I hope I'm not too late.

Suddenly he stops and steps back when he sees 3 other classmates and one teacher standing at school gate.

Kai gestures a boy at gate that keep talking to teacher and I'll hop the wall.

"Do well at school and try to converse to students okay" Jake's mom said while looking at Jake.

Jake nods and walks toward the school gate.

When kai runs to towards the near by cafe he collides with Jake and falls on his hip while Jake falls on his left arm.

"Ouch my hips" kai said in painful manner and looks towards Jake who was rubbing his arm without any expression on his face.

For a meanwhile kai's eyes sticks on Jake. His skin is white with dark eyes, bowl haircut with black shade wearing a white cap. Jake stands looks at kai and walks away. Kai comes to his senses and realizes to say sorry but then jake was gone and suddenly notices the time in his wrist watch and runs to cafe.

Kai says in hurry: "hyung(big brother in korean) keep my bag with you and I'll take it after school. I love you. You are soooooo nice"

"You don't need to say these cheesy lines. It's not like I'll not help you. Just don't be late tomorrow or your teacher will kick your ass" the cafe owner said.

Kai reaches to the school wall, climbs with a funny expression which shows as it is very hard to climb but he is our trouble maker boy, nothing can stop him.

Meanwhile the teacher was scolding the late students, behind the students Jake was standing watching Kai walking silently same as when a tiger walks towards its prey. But the teacher catches Jake's glance and turns behind and yells: "Kim Ji-hoon this is the first day of new semester and you are late. You all are seniors this year when will you change your habits?"

Kai freezes in a frightful expression.

"A-Actually sir I-I was going to washroom" kai said.

"Oh really? Then show me where is the bathroom in outer campus? Don't try to fool me understood".

"But sir even this student is late(referring to Jake) and he isn't wearing is school uniform too but you are still not scolding him. Isn't it partiality?" One of the three late students said in a criticism manner.

"Yes yes. This is partiality sir". Kai said with low voice.

"You all shut up. He is a new student. Don't make your own assumptions".

"You three including Ji-hoon will get punishment. Write a apology letter and announce it in assembly on the stage".

"Huh sirrrrr? But why. We can only write some 'sorry' words. Why there is a need of announcing it on stage? Kai asked in a denial way.

"You all are now seniors. You are promoted to 11th standard. And still ask for writing only sorry words. Don't make me laugh. Do as I said. Now go back to your classes. Fast"

"And the new student please follow me to the office".

Jake follows the teacher.

"Big boss kai(students calls kai as big boss because of his troublemaking personality) how do you get all these excuses. Why can't we think of one at this time?" Kai's best friend Sung ho said.

"That is why I'm big boss dude. Just shut it and help me walk to the class. I sprained my ankle".

Kai and other students enters the class.

[Students murmuring in class.]

"Oh big boss. Finally you arrived". Kai's female best friend Eun byul cried.

"Ahh I'm doomed because of that mute guy. So frustrating". Big boss said while sitting on his bench.

After awhile their homeroom teacher enters the class.

"Good morning teacher"

"Good morning class. Take your seats. Today we have a new student. Come inside".

Jake enters the class holding the school uniform and stands on the teacher's stage.

[Meanwhile kai sighs looking at Jake, "Ahh did I do something wrong in my past life".]

"Okay. Introduce yourself to the class"

Jake picks the chock and writes his name on the blackboard "리지안" - lee ji ahn (sorry if there's mistake in that word actually I'm learning korean and I didn't use any translator). Places the chock back to its place and stands straight without saying any word. The teacher and other students looks at Jake with waiting to listen but he didn't say a word. The teacher tells him to take his seat.

He sits in the last right corner of the row near the window and diagonal to kai. Kai looks back and sighs again and makes a goofy face.

Jake after looking at kai brings back his eyes and presses his cap to set it up and rubs the "spherical shaped" solid wooden carved object in his hand(sorry I didn't mention it in the starting of the story when he picks his bag after removing his apron) and looks outside of the window.

The teacher orders students to assemble in ground for the assembly where kai and other 3 students has to speak the apology letter.

"My name is Kim Ji-hoon from class 11 of section B. I regret my bad habits and I want to apologize to teachers and principal mam. I'll not be late next time and will follow tight schedule. But I want to complain about our teacher's partiality. He didn't scold Lee Ji Ahn who was also late and even didn't wear school uniform. This is totally wrong. I want to strike against this. Please consider my words".

[Jake was sitting in class looking at Kai]

After listening this, whole assembly started hooting and clapping and the teachers looked at kai in anger and the homeroom teacher runs and grabs the mic and started giving lectures and sends back students to their class.

[In the class]

"I think I should apologize to Ji Ahn for the morning when we collided" kai thought while looking at Jake.

Meanwhile Sung ho stood and walks towards Jake.

"Hey bro I'm Sung ho" Sung ho greeted while raising his hands to shake.

*silence* Jake didn't speak and started rubbing the round wooden object in his hand.

"Huh?" Sung ho, Eun byul and big boss said.

"I-I'm sorry" suddenly Jake stands, looks down and walks outside the class.

"What's wrong with him?" Sung ho said while scratching his head.

"Maybe he got afraid because of your monster like voice" Eun byul said in a giggling voice.

Big boss runs after Jake.

Jake was washing his face and kai said: "well I don't apologize so easily but I was at fault in morning. So....I'm sorry for my mistake".

"It's okay" Jake said with expressionless face while putting his cap back on his head.

"Huh?. What is this? I just ran after you to apologize and you didn't even look at me. What does this mean?...never mind"

Kai heads back to the class and Jake stands still while looking at kai's back.

#romance #gay boys #boys love #lgbtlove

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theclaravoyant · 5 years

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AN ~ This fic is called “Catharsis” not just on the characters’ behalves, but on mine. I am planning another more nuanced, narrative-integrated exploration of some of these themes but in the moment when I started writing this I kinda Went Off at biphobia. Kevin was the vessel for my protectiveness... and Julia Diaz unfortunately copped the unflattering role of Every I’m-Not-Homophobic-But person I’ve ever met. This is for you grandma :)))))

NOW ON AO3 (~2400wd)

Warnings: This fic has a happy/uplifting ending (*jake peralta voice* I CATHARTED) but it does deal with themes of homophobia and biphobia, including a reference to AIDS. If you would like to know more detail about the fic’s contents before diving in, message me and I’m happy to chat.

Prompt: 4. “I know you didn’t ask for this.”

Fandom: Brooklyn 99 - featuring Rosa Diaz, Kevin Cozner, Julia Diaz, Jake Peralta, with background Holt x Kevin and Rosa x Jocelyn.

Rated: T

Tags: Platonic Relationships, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Hurt/Comfort, Homophobia, Biphobia, AIDS reference.

Catharsis

“Rosa?”

She knew that voice. She ignored it.

“Rosa, mi niña…”

She glared at her report. Corrected a typo with an aggressive stab at the keyboard.

“Uh, excuse me, Detective Diaz?”

She gritted her teeth, and forced her lips into a wide twist on a hospitable smile. In an overly sweet tone that bristled for all to hear, she invited –

“Detective Peralta, can you assist Mrs Diaz please?”

“Uhh. Sure.”

Jake looked uncertainly between Rosa and her mother, but stepped forward. Rosa knew when she needed protecting and if this was one of those times then he would offer what he could. He couldn’t imagine what she was going through, after she and her mother had tried to talk about it again and had come to another explosive loggerhead. Still, he was not too sure of his place in all this. He wanted to give Julia a good scolding, but given that she was Rosa’s mother it probably wouldn’t be intimidating in the slightest by comparison. Plus, he had to remind himself, it was probably not his place. Rosa could scold her own mother. And now he was getting side-tracked.

“How can I help you, Mrs Diaz?”

Fortunately, the fact that Julia was still very keen on watching her daughter and apparently cared very little about Jake’s question, or presence at all, became side-tracked all on its own when the elevator doors opened and the newly-demoted Officer Holt arrived back from lunch with Kevin. It was not exactly a daily occurrence, but not irregular around these parts; still, the squad usually would have clamoured all over them for the day’s instalment of juicy wedding-planning gossip were it not for the never-before-seen Diaz family throwdown emanating a distracting amount of tension in the middle of the room.

At first the newcomers were unfazed, and Kevin opened the gate to the bull pen and gestured – with an arm full of flowers and a tiny but glowing smile - for Raymond to proceed him through. They would have happily continued in this distracted bliss, letting the team resolve whatever drama was going down, were it not for the fact that the lilies in Kevin’s arms and the slightest brush of his hand against Raymond’s arm as he passed made the two of them suddenly relevant to said drama.

It started small, just a little – Jake would have had to call it a wince, from Julia. She kind of, curled up her nose a bit, and Jake was reminded of the time he’d punched his former literary hero in the face.

Do not. Punch. Rosa’s. Mother, he commanded of himself, and of course he wasn’t going to, but after dinner and games night and the fight about Jocelyn and knowing the reason for no cop talk at parties and seeing how things like that sneer infected the lives of his friends, he couldn��t just stand there, and so it slipped out – his place or not -

“You’ve got to be kidding me.”

Julia baulked. “I just don’t think it’s appropriate for a workplace, that’s all.”

“What?” Jake frowned. Why did this keep surprising him?

“What?”

Rosa’s version was not so much confused, as cold. It was sharp – near ruthless. All the fear and pain and seething she had felt etched into her these past few months she spat into her words as she got up from her desk and stalked around it, closer to her mother.

“They’re coming back from a date,” she growled. “Kevin is Holt’s husband. They’ve been together for thirty years.”

Julia at least had the sense to look impressed by this, which quelled the biting fury and the stinging sense of rejection inside Rosa, if only a little. She shouldn’t need to shove wholesome couple after wholesome couple down her mother’s throat for her to get it, but at least it was something. At least it was something. She swallowed, and prayed that this would be over quickly. Of course, it wouldn’t. Not least because the next thing her mother said made her want to start digging a pit to the centre of the earth and never return.

“Well, that makes sense, dear. They were probably the only two left.”

“Ex-cuse me?” Holt interjected.

“Mom, oh my god,” Rosa protested, her stomach churning.

“IIIII don’t understand enough about what’s going on here to be standing where I’m standing,” Jake babbled, because he’d somehow ended up in an uncomfortably prominent position in a very tense, angry circle of Strong Feelings. He scurried out of the way, back behind some desks, and half expected Holt and Rosa to leap into the space he’d left and go after Julia like it was some kind of cage match.

But no.

It was Kevin.

Cool, calm, collected Kevin who was just starting to bristle around the edges and who had a sharpness to his glare, and to his tongue, that anyone in the room besides perhaps Holt would be hard pressed to say they’d ever seen in him before. Jake had. When they were being hunted by Sean Murphy, and Kevin had been trying and failing to protect his husband.

“Excuse me,” he said. “Mrs – Diaz, is it?”

She knew she was in for something, but nodded.

“I’m sure you understand that I don’t appreciate your making light of my relationship,” he continued. “Nor of a very serious disease that took several of Raymond’s and my friends away from us a very young age. Many younger, if I may point out, than Detective Diaz there.”

“I’m so sorry,” Julia apologised, and it could not be said that any part of that was faked. She just hadn’t thought of it quite like that. But the thought of her little girl succumbing to such a horrible disease only made her throat close up and her fears feel more prickly and urgent and intense. “I didn’t mean any offence. You can’t choose who you are.”

“Perhaps not,” Kevin rebutted, “but if I could, I like to believe that I would choose Raymond every time, and he me.”

Julia blinked. “You wouldn’t want to have a family?”

“Raymond is my family.”

“But… wouldn’t it be easier… I mean, if you liked both, wouldn’t being with a woman be easier?”

“Not always. For example, not all women would feel comfortable with the fact that I also enjoyed the company of men.”

There was a beat of eye contact between them, and Julia cleared her throat.

“…Well,” she said, somewhat quieter this time. “You wouldn’t have to tell anyone.”

Rosa wrapped her arms around herself, under the guise of crossed arms. The mask of irritation she had put up began to crack as she replayed the argument with her mother in her mind. It was Jocelyn that her mother couldn’t take seriously; it was always she’s a nice girl, but, like Rosa failed to grasped the concept of settling down. It was always nice, always compliments, so it was hard to explain how much it hurt. Few people in the room knew how that felt. Jake, at least, took note of the tears that were starting to burn her eyes, and shuffled a little closer to her. He was still a whole desk away but somehow she breathed a little easier at that.

Then Kevin met her eyes.

He had been about to turn back; to retreat from a conversation that was deeply uncomfortable and that might not be his place. He wanted nothing more in this moment than to shut himself in Raymond’s office – or even better, their home – and forget he’d ever poked this particular bear.

Then, across the circle, he’d seen her.

He’d seen Rosa, and her arms across her chest, the sheen of tears in her eyes as she tried to look neither away from, nor directly at the scene in front of her.

In her, he saw himself, in church, as a boy. He saw himself, in class, as a student, learning about Achilles and Patroclus and knowing he couldn’t say what he was thinking. He saw himself at his brother’s wedding, looking out at the crowd of people that had gathered to celebrate and wondering – knowing, at the time, or so it had felt – that such a crowd would never turn out for him.

And perhaps it was the fact that he and Raymond had just come back from booking the florist for a ceremony he’d once thought impossible, that sent a pain careering through Kevin’s chest like an arrow. It certainly did not help matters that they’d just started putting together the guest list and seating chart for the wedding, and his father was not on it. And worst of all, was the acute sense of bitterness that he remembered all too well, that had tainted his father’s last breath, when he had told Kevin that he loved him for the first, the last, and the only time since the day he’d come out.

He had tears in his eyes by the time he turned his attention back to Julia. She glanced between him, and over her shoulder at Rosa. There was something between these two, that much she understood. Could the gay thing really run that deep?

“Mrs Diaz,” Kevin said, and it was clearly taking a lot to keep his voice steady. Julia turned back to him, solemn and intrigued as he took a deep breath and spoke – not only on his own behalf, but on her daughter’s as well.

“I know you didn’t ask for this,” he said. “But your daughter is trying to share something with you that is very important to her. She is trying the best she can to share her life with you. It might be difficult to understand but please, please believe that the love you feel for your husband – that is the same love she is capable of feeling. Maybe for a woman. Maybe even for Jocelyn. That’s all she’s trying to tell you. And you should listen. And you should treasure her with all your heart. Because I know for a fact how it feels when that revelation comes too late.”

He let it land, and all of a sudden his knees felt weak beneath him. He marched past Raymond and out of the bull pen into the lift before the shock of what he’d just done could wear off enough to collapse him.

The others watched him go: most were baffled by his unusually vivid emotiveness, but Rosa for one was grateful. Jake hugged himself a little tighter; protectiveness over his friends warring with crappy-dad sympathy to make one super uncomfortable feelings-cocktail. Julia was a little hurt, a little stunned, a little intrigued. Holt, as per usual, took the unusual turn of events in his stride. He held up a wrist and explained:

“Kevin’s father gave me this watch the day he died. After twenty-two years of not tolerating my presence in his home, he apologised, and he wished us luck.” Luck. He snorted. “My father died when I was younger, before I met Kevin, but my mother has always loved and supported me - every part of me, and of the two of us – and believe me when I say I would not be where I am without that love and support. Do not underestimate your power.”

Julia nodded. Maybe, just maybe, it was starting to sink in.

“I know you love your daughter very much, Mrs Diaz,” Holt continued, a little more gently now – but only a little - “and she loves you. It would be a shame to let that go to waste. But I’m sure you know that. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m needed elsewhere.”

He gave Julia a pointed stare before exiting the bull pen to track down and comfort Kevin.

Julia took a deep breath, and let it out slowly. If nothing else, it was comforting to know that her daughter had a very protective group of friends and colleagues. And the passion with which they all spoke about each other. And the watch…

When Rosa had walked out on her, Julia had feared for just a second, that her daughter might never speak to her again. It had been one of the most frightening moments of her life, and though it had passed blissfully quickly at the time, she couldn’t help but reflect on it now. And on Holt’s words. And on the gaping wounds their arguments seemed to leave in her. She was only trying to love her daughter, to want what was best for her. But if she stayed on this path, this dark future of bitterness and grief, how could that possibly be better? Wouldn’t she prefer to see her daughter carry herself with pride, smile at the one she loved, open the door for them and carry the bouquet they’d presented her and brush arms with subtle love on their return from a lunch date?

Julia turned to face her daughter, to find her midway through wiping tears from her face.

“I love you, mi niña,” she whispered. “And if Jocelyn makes you happy – then I am happy for you. And I’m going to try harder to understand.”

“Okay,” Rosa said, her voice wobbling dangerously. She cleared her throat. “And yeah. Jocelyn does make me happy. I dunno about marrying her yet but. You know. We’ll see I guess.”

Short sentences. Still not quite crying. Nailing it.

Fortunately, that was part of her daughter that her mother did understand, or at least was used to. She did not push Rosa for more, simply picked up her handbag.

“I got a new extension to Trivial Pursuit,” she said. “Your father and I would love to play it this Friday if you’re available. Bring your friends, of course - or perhaps… Jocelyn?”

Sick and dizzy as she felt at the barrage of emotion, Rosa’s stomach flipped. She was lucky she was not a naturally smiley person, or she might just have given herself away because all of a sudden her heart was screaming IT’S ALL I EVER WANTED, which was of course, an exaggeration, but after months and months of the most awful tension of her life it was like falling away like a mudslide. Is this what relief felt like?

“I’ll think about it,” she said.

Julia nodded, and took her leave.

#fictober19 #rosa diaz #kevin cozner #brooklyn 99 #b99fic #holt x kevin #rosa x jocelyn #b99squad #clara's fic tag #homophobia #biphobia

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blaperile · 4 years

Text

Homestuck Candy Epilogue - Reactions Pages 24 - 27

You know, there's always been crazy Homestuck theories that it would turn out to all be John's dream.

And that's always seemed so far-fetched. But funnily enough, that's now exactly what John's feeling like, like it might all turn out to be a dream. Hehe, that's a pretty cool acknowledgement of that.

Page 24:

Oh MAN, this is definitely building up to something.

The way it was switching between both perspectives... does it mean Alternate Calliope was observing John and Terezi's interaction?

But just what did she mean with "the timelines are interacting again"? Because Terezi is not considered to be from the Candy timeline perhaps (if there's really no separate Meat and Candy version of her)?

It's interesting how Aradia, and by extension Sollux, are hanging out with her. And for once, even Aradia has no idea what's going on!

Hehe, and there we are again with Sollux considering everyone to be doomed.

It's fascinating how Alternate Calliope is considering them the lucky ones, and not the Meat people. I mean, eventually he also did leave Earth and the narration behind, didn't he?

And she does mention she's going to confront him. The question is, does she mean in THIS Jade's body, or Meat Jade's body?

Just, what does this mean? Again, is everyone from the Meat timeline headed over here, or not?

I like how things always circle back to this very meteor. And now there are some more implications that Calliope and Caliborn will result from this Candy timeline and this particular meteor!

D'aww, poor Terezi. She's starving, and like abundantChewtoys pointed out to me, in a similar state to where Meat John found her in. Is she chronologically just about to bump into Meat John now?

It's really only now that I realize just how similar John and Terezi are. It seems neither of them can really live without a true purpose in life, something to chase after that still might not make them feel whole...

And is this truly the last thing Candy John will hear from Terezi (except if she later joins the Meat people into coming to the Candy timeline)?

Page 25:

HOPY SHIT IT'S MEENAH.

Another one crossing over from what we saw in the Meat path! :O

I gotta say, uptil the very point where her name was said out loud, I was convinced it would be Vriska, haha!

But I'm still just wondering what she was up to, when she stole John's ring it was kind of like she had a hidden agenda?

Anyway, oh HELL yes, this is like a continuation of when Karkat wanted to join Meenah's ghost army. And now it's the reverse!

Which is ironic, because Jane has kind of become like The Condesce, a different version of Meenah. xD

And ghosts keep falling from the sky. Looks like they're going to build a ghost army 3.0 here to stand up against Jane! :D

And yeah, it's only a matter of time before Vriska will presumably show up... But I'm just wondering... what about Davepetasprite^2 and Lord English??? They also went straight into the black hole! So are they also going to pop out over here?

It's making me wonder just WHICH threat Alternate Calliope wants to protect this world from. Is it Meat Dirk or is it Lord English? :O

And hey, return of Swifer Eggmop! I just love how much of a dork she is.

Talking about returns, Karkat still has the speaker crab after all this time! :D

I wonder if it would be technically possible for Dave to still call him on that.

It's great to see that Kanaya and Rose are totally in on this rebellion. I totally approve.

Also, maybe the triple threat of Jane, Lord English and Meat Dirk is exactly the motivation that Candy John will need?

Page 26:

Oh god, the car!!! THE car where Meat John and Terezi sat in!

So, looks like they left the car behind when they went back to Meat Earth, and it drifted into the Black Hole then.

Man, this must be so confusing for John. Poor him...

I wonder what he was going to send to Terezi? A voice recording perhaps, so that she had his voice (seeing as she said she couldn't remember any voice but her own)?

Just like with Karkat, for a second I thought he was gonna find Vriska. :P

So yeah, looks like EVERYTHING that fell into the Black Hole is going to end up here on Earth, at some point at least. Not chronologically (hehe, not unlike the meteors from SBURB), but they're coming.

And I bet Lord English and Davepetasprite^2 are going to be the last ones to arrive, give or take Vriska. :O

Page 27:

Oh GOD. These time skips keep sneaking up on me, and they keep getting bigger and bigger...

Everything is such a mess. But... it's heartwarming that, for now at least, John, Rose, Dave and Jade are all together again.

So, looks like Dave and Jade also came to their senses and left Jane, to join the rebellion.

And John's still in touch with all of them, despite not joining the rebellion himself.

As for Karkat, I hope for him he's still in contact with at least Rose and Kanaya then, like he was 10 years before?

Ah... "HI AGAIN IDIOT". Felt so good to read that, reference secured!

So uh... Karkat and Meenah are together now? I mean, yeah, the shipping was always there, but who'd have guessed after all this time it would still actually become a thing!

Just... how much more time is it going to take for, I guess, Meat Dirk to arrive? Is it going to be... even more decades?

I hope we're not going to a point where Karkat has already died from old age. :(

Anyway, first dialog from Vriska Lalonde!!! And oh my god, she's perfect. Just like the old Vriska, and at the same time, I love how she's got a bit of Kanaya in her too! Capitalizing some words for emphasis! :D

Hehe, so she's in love with Harry Anderson Egbert. Looks like Egberts keep being naturally attracted by Vriskas. :P

And she's also still in touch with Tavros! I wonder how he's holding up... I guess he's probably still in the awful home situation? :(

I like that Harry Anderson is kind of like the second coming of Jake's Grandma or Nanna. Being raised in close proximity to the Batterwitch, but planning acts of rebellion against her.

Are things going to come to a climax at the 16th birthdays of Harry Anderson, Vriska and Tavros? Just thinking out loud here, considering what happened on the 16th birthdays of our other heroes... At least, I kind of hope that’s what happens and we don’t skip another X years. xD

Roxy though... Seriously... :(

And Calliope's also still by their side... just what is going on with those two? You'd honestly think Roxy would know better than to go along with these things. I mean, for fuck's sake, she grew up in Sea Hitler's Water Apocalypse and was always the one trying to open Jane's eyes...

And how could Calliope not see through it?

Yes they were Jane's closest friends in childhood, but they'd not continue actively supporting her if she acts like this, right?

Just what is going on with them?

And so John's actually lost contact with Terezi then, after that moment. :(

I really hope it will turn out that Terezi is the one who met Meat John in person, and that she's headed this way to Candy Earth.

#Homestuck #The Homestuck Epilogues #Candy #reaction #John #Terezi #Alternate Calliope #Meenah #Karkat

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harley-sunday · 5 years

Text

The Draw (01)

Summary: The whirlwind starts at the 2018 ACE Comic Con in Phoenix but you’re not sure where it will end...

Pairing: Sebastian Stan x reader

Warnings: None so far, but this is a super slow burn. Bear with me.

Word count: 4521

AN: For those of you have been around a little longer - this story was originally published on my secondary blog Leijona Writes, but then taken down again, so you may have already read it :) Either way, please let me know what you think! Also, I mention a picture somewhere in the story, I’ve put a link in the text just to give you some reference as to what I’m talking about :) And last, I don’t have a taglist, but if you follow Harley Sunday x Sebastian Stan you should see any update I post.

Tante = aunt in Dutch amongst other languages. A little nod to my mother tongue and hopefully a way not to have to use the dreaded (Y/N).

Masterlist

December 2017

“Oh, am I the best aunt ever, or what?” you mutter to no one in particular as you click the ‘buy now’ button on the ACE Comic Con website, adding two Marvel VIP tickets to your online shopping cart. After you finish the transaction, you pick up your phone just as the email confirmation of your order pops up on your screen. Finding your brother’s name in your contact list you hit the call button, printing out the tickets while you wait for him to answer.

“Hey loser,”

“Not a loser when you hear where I’m taking Jake next month,” you answer, almost giddy with excitement.

“Didn’t I tell you to stop spoiling the kid?” He lets out an exasperated sigh and you can just see him pinch the bridge of his nose in the same way your Dad does whenever he doesn’t know whether he should be mad or grateful.

“He’s my nephew,” you argue, knowing very well that what you’ll say next will win your brother over, because it’s not the first time you’re having this argument, and you have pretty much perfected your persuasive powers over the years. “I know you guys don’t get to spend as much time with him as you’d like, what with Sarah working night shifts at the hospital and you running your own business, and I want you to know that it’s not about that, ok? But he’s as close as I’ll get to ever having a kid of my own, Nate. I’ve been single since God knows how long, I don’t have anyone else to spend my money on and I really like spending time with the kid. Will you please let me?”

“You need to breathe,” Nathan grumbles.

“And you need to ask me where I’m taking him,” you counter, smiling even though he can’t see you.

“Fine,” he sighs. “Where are you taking him, tante?”

“The ACE Comic Con in Phoenix!” you exclaim loudly. “We’re meeting Captain America, Falcon, and the Winter Soldier!”

“No shit,”

“Yeah shit,” you laugh. “I got tickets for a photo op with all three of them. It’s for Saturday afternoon, so I figured we’d fly out there Friday night and back on Sunday morning, make a weekend out of it.”

“Yeah, sure,” Nathan agrees, “I just have to check with Sarah, but I think it’s ok.”

“Alright, but don’t tell Jake, ok? I want it to be a surprise when I pick him up from school that Friday,”

“I hate to say it,” your brother mutters, “but you really are the best.”

“What was that?” you ask with a grin, before laughing out loud when you hear the sound that tells you your brother has ended the call.

January 2018

“Hi bud,” you smile as you see Jake running towards you. You hold out your arms, wanting to pick him up, but he just high fives you.

“What?” you feign surprise. “Can I not give my favourite nephew a kiss anymore?”

“I’m your only nephew,” he deadpans with so much attitude it’s hard to believe he’s only seven, “and we’re on the schoolyard, tante, everyone can see us.”

“Oh right,” you nod solemnly, “because it’s now a secret that I’m your aunt, I got it.” You throw him a wink for good measure before you take his hand and lead him to your car, “You ready for our weekend, bud?”

He nods, “Dad said I have to listen to you and hold your hand,”

“Hmm,” you hum, “that’s good advice, I suppose.” You unlock the car and open the door for him, taking his backpack as he climbs into the car seat, “Did Dad tell you where we’re going?”

He shakes his head, “No, just that we would go on a plane somewhere,”

“You excited about that?”

“Yeahah,” he says, nodding enthusiastically, “I’ve never been on a plane before.”

“You have, but you were very little, bud,” you say while struggling with his seat belt. “Mom and Dad took you to New York for Christmas when you were one, when Grandma and Grandpa were still living there.” You let out a groan, frustrated that you can’t get this to work. When Jake holds out his hands you hand the seat belt over to him and are shocked when he fastens it in just a matter of seconds.

“Well, then this is the first time I’ll go on a plane where I can remember it,” he answers and you can’t really argue with that.

“Do you want to know what we’re going to do?” You watch him nod and can’t help but smile, “We’re going to meet some of your favourite superheroes, bud.”

His eyes grow wide, “Really?”

You nod, “Yup, we’ve got a date with Captain America, Falcon, and the Winter Soldier tomorrow.”

His mouth drops, “No way!”

“Way,” you reply with a grin, “and we even get to take pictures with them.”

He holds his out his arms then and you lean into the car, letting him hug you, placing a kiss on his head when you pull back, “Let’s go.”

“Tante?”

You let out a quiet groan and open one eye, cursing silently when you see the clock on your phone reads 6:15, “Yeah bud?”

“Is it Saturday yet?”

You turn around and see him sitting up in his own bed next to yours, looking all too awake, and so you wonder if you’ll get away with it when you say, “It’s still night, buddy, try to go back to sleep, ok?”

“Ok,” he shrugs and lets himself fall back onto his pillow, a giggle escaping him when he bounces back a little.

You smile at him even though he can’t see you in the dark and wait for his quiet snores to fill the room again, your heart bursting with love for this amazing little person.

“What time is it now?” Jake asks for about the fifth time today, getting more and more nervous each time.

You look at your phone, “It’s 4.15, bud, so after you’ve been to the bathroom we’re going to get in line, ok?”

He nods, but then gets distracted by a cosplayer dressed up as the Hulk, his head turning as he lets out a quiet, “Wow,”

“Cool, huh?” you agree. You point your thumb at his chest while holding his hand, “Not as cool as your Captain America sweater though.”

He looks up at you, an uncertain look in his eyes, “You think Captain America will like it?”

“Definitely,” you nod. You reach the bathrooms then and agree to wait for him outside, after he argues that he is seven-and-nine-months and knows how this works, thank you very much.

“I even washed my hands,” you hear behind you when Jake comes out, looking extremely pleased with himself.

“I’m sure Captain America will appreciate that, bud,” you smile and take his hand again, leading him towards the line of the photo booth. Your slot is at 4.45, so you are a little early, but the girl waves you over anyway. You hand her your tickets and she scans them, handing them back to you with a sad smile.

“Chris Evans had to call in sick,” she explains, “so it’s just Anthony Mackie and Sebastian Stan, I’m afraid.”

“Oh,” you reply, feeling your heart drop a little, knowing how much Jake was looking forward to meeting Captain America.

“If you could just wait over there,” she nods to her right, “and then we’ll call you in with the rest of the 4.45 group, ok?”

You nod and gently pull Jake with you, mentally preparing yourself to give him the news that his favourite superhero won’t be able to make it. But then he sees someone dressed up as Superman and before you know he’s explaining all of Superman’s powers to you with so much enthusiasm that you don’t have the heart to interrupt him, and so by the time you get called into the waiting area you’ve forgotten what you were supposed to tell him.

You’re first in line in the waiting area, six teenage girls behind you, all giggling non-stop, excited to meet their celebrity crushes no doubt. The waiting area really is just a roped off area next to the little podium where the pictures are being taken and you watch as the last two fans of the previous group exit the stage, when Jake tugs on your hand. You look down at him and see a confused look on his face, “What’s wrong, bud?”

“Where’s Captain America?” he asks, his eyes scanning the stage.

You silently curse yourself as you squat down, making him look at you, “Captain America couldn’t make it today,” you see his bottom lip start to tremble and your heart drops some more, “I’m sorry, Jake.”

Tears are falling then, big fat tears, and of course it’s then the girl calls your name. You look up at her and shake your head, “I’m going to need a minute,” you gesture to the girls behind you, “can’t they go first?”

The girl nods and you’re happy she’s willing to help out. You scoop Jake up in your arms, and step aside. You let him cry for a while, because you know how much he was looking forward to this, rubbing his back to help calm him down. When the second group of girls make their way on stage you whisper a quiet, “Hey, bud,” to get his attention.

He pulls back a little and looks at you, tears streaking his face. You try to smile at him but fail and so you set him down, sitting down on your knees so you’re at eye level with him, “I know this is not how we planned things, but Falcon and the Winter Soldier are still here, ok? We should at least go say hi to them.”

“Ma’am?”

You look up to find the waiting area empty, the girl with the clipboard nodding her head towards the stage. You send her an apologetic smile, “Just a second, please?”

“But I’m wearing my Captain America sweater,” Jake mumbles, letting his head drop, plucking at the fabric.

“I know, bud,” you ruffle his hair, not really knowing what else to say. It’s then you see someone approaching you from the corner of your eye and you let out a small gasp when you see Sebastian Stan coming your way. You only know him as the Winter Soldier, so you’re surprised to see him in a casual combo of jeans, sneakers, and a brown leather jacket, but it suits him.

Jake’s eyes grow wide once he has followed your gaze and sees who’s there.

“Hello, Captain,” Sebastian smiles, saluting Jake, “Falcon and I were wondering if you could help us out?”

Jake just looks at him in complete awe, unable to say anything.

“You see, we were supposed to take pictures with Captain America today, but he had somewhere else to be,” he lowers his voice, “he said something about a super secret mission, so don’t tell anyone ok?”

Jake nods, mouth still agape.

“So, uh, we wanted to ask if you maybe wanted to take a picture with us,” he gestures at Jake’s sweater, “since you’re already in uniform, Captain.”

Jake moves his eyes to you, a questioning look in his eyes.

You smile at him and shrug, “What do you say, bud?”

He nods slowly, “Ok,”

You let out a sigh of relief and watch as Jake takes Sebastian’s outstretched hand, walking on stage with him. You stand up, smiling when you see the scene unfold in front of you.

Anthony bumps fists with Jake when he gets on stage, “Good to see you, Cap,”

Jake giggles at all the attention, smiling widely now, his tears drying quickly.

Sebastian asks him what he wants to do for the first of the three pictures they get to take and Jake knits his eyebrows together for a moment, his nose scrunching in the way both Nathan and you do as well when you’re thinking about something hard. He looks up at Sebastian then, “I wanna do the tough guy pose, you know, like this,”

You let out a laugh when he crosses his arms in front of his chest and sticks his chin out, trying to look tough, but Sebastian and Anthony follow suit tough and the photographer take a couple of pictures before they’re onto the next pose. You hear Anthony suggesting something about doing a salute for their next picture and then they do, Jake standing proudly in the middle.

For the last picture you see Sebastian give the photographer a sign right before he picks Jake up from behind, holding him against his chest as Anthony start tickling him. Jake’s laughing for real now, his head falling back as he lets out one of his rare, roaring laughs and it’s then the photographer takes the picture.

You can’t help but smile as you watch Sebastian put Jake back down. Anthony gives him another fistbump before excusing himself to go to one the panels, waving at you when he exits the stage. You nod at him, hoping it will convey your thanks.

Jake bounces towards you then, but stays on the stage, his cheeks red from all the excitement, “Did you see that, tante?”

“Yeahah,” you beam back, your excitement matching his. “Did you have fun?”

He nods enthusiastically.

You look up then, seeing Sebastian coming towards you, “Oh, listen, thank you so much! You really-”

“I was just wondering if you wanted to get a picture as well,” Sebastian asks with a smile.

“Oh,” you shake your head in confusion, “Isn’t the next group waiting for their pictures, though?” but it’s then you realize that there’s no one in the waiting area but you.

“You were the last group of the day,” Sebastian explains, “and I don’t have anywhere else to be, so I’m up for it.”

“Yeah!” Jake cheers, jumping up and down in excitement, “Can I tell you what to do, please?”

“Ok,” you reply with a smile, taking Jake’s outstretched hand as he leads you on stage. You can’t help but smile at his confidence now that he’s feeling more at ease. You drop your purse in the corner and stand next to Sebastian, looking at Jake who’s standing in front of you, “Tell us, bud.”

Jake’s scrunching his nose again before his face lights up, “I want you to look scared.”

“Scared?” you echo, unsure why he thinks it’s a good idea.

“Yeah,” Jake nods, offering no further explanation.

You look at Sebastian who simply shrugs so you agree, “Ok.”

Facing the photographer you widen your eyes, as though you’re seeing something scary across the room. Staring straight ahead you can’t really see what Sebastian’s doing but you hear Jake giggle right when you feel someone standing behind you. You hear the photo being taken and turn around to find Sebastian half hidden behind you and you can’t help but laugh.

Once he’s standing beside you again Sebastian looks at you, a mischievous look in his eyes, one eyebrow raised, “Alright, what’s next?” He must see the confusion on your face because he’s quick to add, “You get three pictures, just like everybody else.”

“Oh, ok,” you smile before you look at Jake for more ideas, but you find him talking to the photographer about why Thor is better than Loki, so you try to think of something when an old picture of Sophia Bush and Bethany Joy Lenz comes to mind. You take your phone out of your back pocket and hold up one finger, “Hold on,”

You show him the picture once it comes up on Google and he grins, “Perfect.”

He gets the attention of the photographer and takes your hand in his, looking at the picture again before he mimics Sophia’s pose while you take on Bethany’s after you’ve put your phone away.

Jake’s laughing at you when the picture is being taken and you can’t help but laugh either. It’s time for your last picture then, and when Sebastian suggests to get Jake on stage as well, you can’t help but agree so you motion for him to join you.

You watch as Jakes climbs on stage and stands in between you two. He looks up at you, “We should do one for your wall, tante.”

You nod appreciatively, “Good thinking, bud.” You turn to Sebastian to explain, “It started as a joke back when my brother and I were still kids, because well, we liked to screw up as many family photos as we could, but now I have this whole wall full of pictures where everyone’s looking away from the camera,”

Sebastian chuckles, “I wish I could see that, it sounds awesome.”

“It is,” Jake beams, “I’m in there too! Eight times!”

“Wow,” Sebastian nods, giving him a high five, “way to go, Cap.” He looks at the photographer who lets him know he’s ready, “Alright, let’s do this.”

You see Sebastian looking up ever so slightly, as if he’s seeing a bird fly by, so you decide to look just to the right of the camera, a confused look on your face as if you don’t know where you are, while Jake turns around, his back to the photographer and you bite your lip to keep from laughing because the kid is a genius.

The photographer holds up his thumb, “We’re done,” and tells you they’ll email the pictures to you next week.

You let out a laugh then, patting Jake on his back, “Good move, bud.” Turning towards Sebastian you smile, “Thank you so much for this,” you nod towards Jake, “you made his day.”

Sebastian shrugs, “It was the least I could do,”

Jake leans into you and you wrap your arm around his shoulders, “We have to go, bud,”

He nods and looks up to Sebastian, “I think you’re my favourite superhero now,”

“Better not let Captain America hear that, buddy,” Sebastian chuckles and gives Jake another salute, “Thank you for helping us out, Captain,”

You take Jake’s hand and grab your purse as you walk off the stage, but not before you throw Sebastian one last look and mouth a quiet, “Thank you.”

“You ok, bud?” you ask, taking a sip of your drink. You watch as Jake’s playing with his food, having only eaten a little of the hamburger and fries you got him. You’re back at the hotel after taking a cab back from the convention, convincing Jake to order room service instead of going into town to eat because honestly, what’s better than room service?

He nods slowly, “Just thinking,”

“Hmm,” you hum, “Whatcha thinking about?”

He lets out a sigh, “I don’t think the kids at school will believe me when I tell them what happened today, they’ll probably just bully me again,”

Something pulls on your heart the second you hear him talk about bullying, “What do you mean, bud?”

Jake continues to stare at his plate, “When I wore my Captain America sweater to school they teased me because they don’t like him.”

“Who doesn’t?”

“The boys in my class,” Jake explains, “They say he’s not a real superhero.”

“Well, they obviously don’t know what they’re talking about,” you try.

Jake shrugs, “They told me it was a stupid sweater and that they didn’t want to be my friends anymore.”

“Oh Jake,” you sigh, feeling yourself getting angry at these little brats.

“It’s ok now,” Jake continues, “they haven’t teased me for a while now. I think we’re friends again.”

Not knowing what to say you keep quiet, studying him as he takes a sip of his drink. You bite your lip, “Do Mom and Dad know about this?”

He nods.

You shake your head, now getting mad at your brother for not telling you this. But then you realize it’s not helping Jake in anyway, so instead you get up and sit down next to him, pulling him into your side, “Well bud, I think everyone’s going to be jealous of you when you show them the pictures.”

“You think?” he asks, looking up at you expectantly.

“Oh yeah,” you say, trying to sound confident, “I mean, Falcon and the Winter Soldier? They can’t argue with that, right?”

“Did you say ‘thank you’ to tante already?” Sarah asks just as you’re grabbing your coat, ready to head home after dropping Jake off.

He shakes his head and rushes towards you, throwing his arms around you waist, mumbling a quiet, “Thank you,” into your stomach.

You ruffle his hair, “You’re welcome, bud.” You look up at Sarah, “I’ll forward you those pictures once they send them to me, ok?”

She nods and gives you a hug, “Drive safe,”

“I will,” you put on your coat and take your car keys out of your pocket, “Tell my idiot brother hi from me once he gets home, ok? And then whack him in the head for working on a Sunday.”

Sarah chuckles, “Will do.”

You kick your shoes off the minute you come home from work that Tuesday, already over this week even though there’s still three days left. You head straight for the fridge, taking out the bottle of wine you put in there last night, and pour yourself a glass. Hearing your phone chime, you take it out of your back pocket as you sit down on the couch. There’s a new email alert and you smile when you see that they’ve sent you the pictures from last weekend.

Opening the attachments your smile grows wider when you see Jake posing with Falcon and the Winter Soldier, letting out a giggle when you come to the pictures of Sebastian and you, because the picture you tried to replicate has turned out to be even better than the original. The last picture is the one of Jake, Sebastian and you and it’s amazing and definitely going up on your wall.

You forward the email to Sarah, adding a smiley for good measure.

You’re about to get started on dinner when your phone rings, Sarah’s number flashing on your screen, “Hi,”

“Tante?”

“Hi Jake,” you smile, “Did you see the pictures?”

“Yeah, Mom showed them to me,” he replies, “I’m going to take them to school tomorrow,”

“You should,” you agree, “Tell everyone you got to step in for Captain America.”

“Yeah,” Jake says. You hear Sarah say something in the background before Jake ends the call with, “Mom says dinner is ready, bye!”

“Bye, bud,” you say but the line is already cut off.

When you call your brother later that week you’re greeted with an all too familiar, “Hey, loser.”

“You’re the loser,” you counter almost automatically, but then you remember why you’re calling and you add to the sentiment, “You really are, Nate.”

“Why?” your brother exclaims. “What did I do now?”

“Why didn’t you tell me Jake got bullied at school?”

“It was one time,” Nathan explains, “it wasn’t a big deal.”

“It was to Jake,” you respond, “he told me about it Saturday.”

“Well, I can assure you he’s over it,’’ Nathan says, and you can almost hear him smile, “he took those pictures with him on Wednesday and all the kids went crazy. It’s like they think he’s part of the Avengers or something.”

You let out a sigh of relief, “Oh good, I was hoping that would happen.”

“Yeah, no it’s fine,” your brother assures you, “Listen, I have to go, but I guess I’ll see you at the parents next weekend?”

“Ugh yes,” you say, thinking about upcoming family dinner, celebrating aunt Carol’s seventy-fifth birthday.

“I have a feeling Jake might be coming down with the flu by then,” Nathan chuckles.

“Don’t you dare bailing on me, loser,” you shout, but by then he has already ended the call.

You’re quietly humming along with the radio as you drive back home from your parents.

As it turned dinner was manageable, aunt Carol enjoying the wine your Dad kept pouring her, which in turn kept her from making her usual crude remarks about your non-existent love life.

You spent some time talking to Jake, who assured you everything at school was fine, and that the other kids were nice to him. He seemed so much more confident than a couple of weeks ago and when you asked him about it he told you it was because he was friends with the Winter Soldier now.

As your mind wanders back to the Comic Con you attended with Jake an idea starts to form in your mind and when you get home you open your laptop, opening your email program and google, looking up ways to get your message across. You find an email address that belongs to the agency he’s signed to and you know it’s a long shot, but it’s all you have, so you sit down and start typing, the words flowing out effortlessly:

Dear Sebastian,

I’m not sure this email will ever get to you, but I just wanted to let you know that I now consider you a real-life superhero.

My nephew Jake and I met you a couple of weeks ago, at the ACE Comic Con in Phoenix. You must have met a lot of people that day, so I doubt that you remember us, but just before we got to take our picture with you Jake was upset because Captain America wasn’t there. You came up to us and comforted him and asked him if he wanted to help you and Falcon out by taking a picture with you guys, making him believe you needed his help instead of it being the other way around. The pictures turned out great by the way!

Well, he took those pictures to school with him later that week and the kids that bullied him for liking Captain America before (God, kids can be cruel, can’t they?), now think he’s a part of the Avengers and all want to be his friends now.

Jake has gained so much confidence from meeting you, and all I can do is say thank you for taking the time for us that day. I’m not sure if you’ve seen the pictures that were taken that day, but I’ve included the last one we took together with you.

Thank you once again!

(Y/N)

You hit ‘send’ before you can change your mind and lean back in your chair, not sure what to make of the fluttering sensation in your stomach.

April 2018

You’re at work, scouring the web for a birthday present for Jake, panicking just a little because his birthday is next week and you’ve yet to find anything, when your phone chimes, signalling that you have new email.

Your eyes widen in shock when you see the sender’s name.

Sebastian S.

#The Draw #Sebastian Stan x reader #Harley Sunday x Sebastian Stan #Sebastian Stan Imagine

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possiblyamarvelousavenger · 5 years

Text

The Dude with the Glowing Paint | Artist!Bucky Barnes x Gender-Neutral!Artist!Reader

Summary: art’s great, but spending hours in a small gallery can get very boring, very fast, but meeting another artist makes it better

Warnings: one Titanic reference, lil’ bit faster past than usual, more of a 40’s!Bucky personality than Post-Hydra!Buck, nothing else I don’t think

Word Count: 1.1k

A/n: first off, thank you very much @stardustandbucky for motivating/encouraging me, I started 3 fics and got around to labeling the others

Also, I spent at least one day a month in my grandma’s art gallery since I can remember—sometimes other galleries—so this is all very familiar and if you’re wondering, this is the weird plastic cup I’m talking about in this fic

— — —

Standing in front of one of the largest paintings, I frowned—I missed a spot when I went over it with a fine tooth comb.

I had graduated art school a year ago and I was lucky enough to get my art into a gallery via the help of a friend’s friend. It also meant I’d have about ten feet more of space in my apartment for a month.

As it was opening night of my exhibit, I decided to wander around until I had to go to work—lucky it was also the opening night for another artist about thirty paces away from mine, so we had each others friends mixing—not that I knew who the other artist was.

“You’re staring very intensely at that flower.”

I glanced to my right, seeing a guy with smirk—much more casual than literally everyone in the building. He had his hair in a bun and punch in one of those weird shaped plasic cups that were supposed to look like glass.

“Zoned out,” I said, taking a deep breath and looking back at the painting. I hadn’t socialized with straight up strangers since the beginning of art school.

“First honest person tonight,” he commented.

I let out a laugh, covering my mouth. “‘Know what you mean, second honest person,” I said, smiling.

“So which is your favorite?” He asked, making a vague motion towards my exhibit.

“My grandma would say you can’t choose a favorite,” I said slowly. “I’d say I prefer that other dude’s art.”

He chuckled. “Dude,” he started, smiling, “I have to disagree with you.”

“Arguing with you would be like arguing about music,” I sighed out, shaking my head with a grin. “But’cha’re wrong—that dude uses glow-in-the-dark paint, this dude doesn’t.”

“You noticed that?” He asked with a bit of astonishment.

“It’s got that weird green tint,” I shrugged, looking back at him, and studying his face this time—a half smirk half smile, gentel blue eyes and his eyebrows were furrowed, skeptically.

“Glow-in-the-dark paint makes you like that dude more than this one?” He asked.

“Totally, I have no respect for anyone who doesn’t use glow-in-the-dark paint,” I said, half joking.

He hummed, nodding. A blonde guy came up to him and tapped him on the shoulder. “Hey, Bucky, Peggy and I are gonna head home,” the blonde guy said. “Have fun with that sarcastic flirting.”

“Dunno what you’re talkin’ ‘bout, and it’s a lot better than the flustered flirting you do,” he said. “See ya later, punk.”

When the blonde one left, I leaned towards him. “Bucky as in the dude that uses glow-in-the-dark paint?” I asked, raising my eyebrows mischievously.

“Knew I should’ve used James,” he said, sticking out his hand. “Bucky Barnes, nice to meet you.”

“(Y/n) (y/l/n), pleasure to make your acquaintance,” I said, shaking his hand. He raised his eyebrows and jabbed his thumb towards my painting. I just nodded.

“How does a proper artist like my stuff?” He asked.

“Proper artist? You have an exhibit at the same gallery as I do,” I said, rolling my eyes. “And ya gotta reevaluate your view on my taste, because I really want to go check out the paper mache cat show on the floor below us.”

“There’s a paper mache cat show? Would anyone be angry if we abandoned this and went down there?” He asked, with hopeful wide eyes.

“We don’t technically have to be here, it’s just polite to watch people judge your abilities—let’s go look at paper mache cats,” I said, smiling.

We ran off like children to the lower floor, abandoning the formality of our gallery and stepped into a crazy room full of wild people and colorful paper cats.

“I suddenly feel very over dressed,” I commented as we entered the gallery.

“Considering there’s a lady wearing a bright orange feather scarf, I wouldn’t worry about it,” he said with a smirk.

I let out a laugh. “Dude… that scarf looks fabulous,” I said, playfully punching his shoulder.

“If I could find one, think I could pull it off?” He asked.

“Oh, if you find one, you find me, and I will a sketch you wearing it and make sure it goes down in history,” I said.

“That a promise or a threat?” He asked. “I think that would be a great way to go down in history.”

We walked around the gallery, joking, laughing and admiring paper cats. He went to put his empty punch cup in the recycling bin and cane back with two bowls of ice cream.

“Wasn’t sure if you wanted chocolate or vanilla, so your pick,” he said, holding them both out.

I carefully picked up one, smiling. “What do I owe you?” I asked.

“A sketch of me in an orange feather scarf,” he said. “Nah, don’t worry about it, it was free.”

“Free ice cream and a causal atmosphere—there doing it wrong up stairs,” I said, smiling happily.

“They are,” he agreed with a mouthful of ice cream.

We continued to wander around till we saw every paper cat twice and all the photos on the walls. We talked about how we got into painting—I was born into it and he picked it up as a hobby, “art therapy, really” he had corrected himself, and his friends persuaded him to try to put it in a show.

He also said he had to be careful about where he put his paintings because having glow-in-the-dark paint stare you down while you tried to sleep was unnerving.

An alarm on my phone went off, interrupting my story about my weird professor who wore kilts and flip-flops to class year-round.

“I’ve got to get to work,” I said, letting out a sigh. I ummed for a moment before pulling my card from my cardigan pocket and held it out to him. “Text me if you find an orange feather scarf—I don’t answer calls if I don’t know the number.”

— — —

Bucky and I texted over a month, a met up with him for lunch a couple times with his friends or mine—the only real difference between his and mine were mine were mostly artists who still ate instant ramen noodles and most of his were over achievers; two of them were engaged, completely over achieving.

One afternoon, after a long nightshift at the diner, I received some texts from him while I made coffee.

Bucky: Dude

Bucky: Dude, guess what

Then a selfie came in of him in a fluffy orange feather scarf, beaming. It looked like he was in a homemade soap and crafts shop.

Bucky: Jake, I want you to draw me like one of your French girls,

Me: Don’t finish that quote

Me: I drew a French girl once, in a baggy sweater and sweatpants

Bucky: Do you still have that drawing?

Bucky: If I take you out to dinner, can I finish that quote?

Me: Did you just ask me out?

Me: I mean yes, to both of those things

#bucky barnes x reader #bucky barnes x you #bucky barnes x y/n #bucky barnes x gender neutral reader #bucky x reader #bucky x you #bucky x y/n #bucky imagine #bucky fanfic #artist!bucky

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thelifetimechannel · 6 years

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JAKE: Hello there ms kanaya! KANAYA: Hello KANAYA: Jake Right JAKE: Thatd be me! The one and only! JAKE: Or the one and only now haha. JAKE: So uh... weve not had a chance to talk yet. JAKE: Cool chainsaws? KANAYA: Thanks KANAYA: I Had A Lot Of Time To Alchemize More And Better Chainsaws During My First Session KANAYA: It Was A Good Way To Be Passive Aggressive I Think JAKE: If you displayed them on your wall itd make for one hell of a first impression. Imagine being like the dad in the movies whos sitting on the porch polishing his shotgun when his daughters new boyfriend comes over. JAKE: Though ive never heard of anyone displaying chainsaws in the first place... KANAYA: I Will Install Several Pedestals For That Exact Purpose With Tasteful Backlighting KANAYA: They Are Probably Too Heavy To Hang On Most Walls I Wouldnt Want To Cause An Accident JAKE: I say go for it! I think it sounds like the bees pajamas. KANAYA: I Dont Know About The Fashion Predilections Of Insects But Alright KANAYA: I Dont Think Youll Need To Display Weapons Provocatively To Intimidate Potential Suitors If Reports Of Your Recent Activities Are To Be Believed KANAYA: Our Hope Hero Styled Himself Formidable But I See Now He Barely Scratched The Surface Of The Aspects Capabilities KANAYA: Most Of Which I Accidentally Awoke In Him Anyway KANAYA: Which Is A Lesson To Never Be Facetious If Youre Not Willing To Put Up Your Dukes About It So To Speak JAKE: Yeah i learned that the hard way. JAKE: Sometimes you really do just need to tell your problems to fuck off! Whether or not you actually punch them in the face. KANAYA: I Am One Of An Elite Few Who Has Not Faced Off Against An "Evil Clone" Yet KANAYA: Im Almost Disappointed JAKE: Maybe some day? KANAYA: One Day I Enter My Hall Of Chainsaws Only To See One Pedestal Is Empty KANAYA: I Look Down The Hallway And See An Ominous Shadow Advancing KANAYA: The Shadow KANAYA: Its Me JAKE: Like youll get your own version of venom or manbat or something whos your vampire nature run amok! JAKE: ...i did hear correctly right that youre a vampire? KANAYA: Our Term Is Rainbow Drinker But The Idea Is The Same KANAYA: Im Trying To Reform JAKE: Aha. A vegetarian vam- er, rainbow drinker? KANAYA: Vegetables Are Pretty Great KANAYA: Ive Lived On Donations But The Whole Thing Is Kind Of Ridiculous KANAYA: The Sort Of Arrangement That Looks Intriguing And Romantic In Storybooks But In Real Life Is Kind Of A Pain In The Neck JAKE: Literally! KANAYA: I Walked Into That One Didnt I KANAYA: I Was Hoping We Could Edge Gingerly Around That Obvious Pitfall But Instead We Are Charging In At Full Speed JAKE: You made a dive for the window but alas that spotless pane was stronger than anticipated. KANAYA: Im Used To It KANAYA: The Individuals I Traveled With Would Leave No Conversational Stone Unturned Without Wresting Every Wriggling Wordplay Grub From Its Snug Cocoon JAKE: You were with dave and rose right? KANAYA: Yes KANAYA: And Karkat And Terezi KANAYA: And The Clown JAKE: I cant speak for your fellow aliens but for your human companions i daresay it runs in their family. JAKE: Roxy can do incredible things to typos so watch your spelling around her. KANAYA: Spelling Is An Important Part Of Our Brand On Alternia But Ill Watch My Step JAKE: I mean alien typing quirks is a concept im familiar with thanks to the cherubs. Im more talking about bungling the spelling of the words themselves. KANAYA: Understood KANAYA: If There Are Genetic Similarities Between That Group Does That Mean You Take After Those Dreaming On Prospit KANAYA: I Havent Interacted Much With John But I Did Help Guide Jade Through Her Breeding Session KANAYA: That May Not Be Long Enough To Establish True Closeness But Its My Best Frame Of Reference JAKE: As a matter of fact i do. JAKE: ...though the only time ive seen the planet with my own eyes was a few hours ago and i had higher priorities than enjoying the sights. JAKE: Like not leaving my soul flapping in the wind or beating the snot out of the maniac who stole its original getup. KANAYA: Ill Try To Draw Independent Conclusions Based On Your Behavior Rather Than Trying To Match You Up To Any Of Your Ancestors Or Descendants Then KANAYA: Im Not Used To Meeting This Many People KANAYA: Or Any People KANAYA: Fives Been A Crowd JAKE: A feeling i know very very well... JAKE: I mean i seem to remember you were there when we all came across each other in the dreambubbles! KANAYA: In The Dreambubbles KANAYA: ... KANAYA: You Were The One There When We Met The Empresss Previous Form KANAYA: The One Who KANAYA: Uh KANAYA: Attempted To Defeat Her Ghost In A Bout Of Fisticuffs JAKE: Yes. JAKE: That. JAKE: Haha... man that was embarassing in hindsight. KANAYA: If It Makes Any Difference She Was So Addled By The Revelation Of Her Tyrannical Supremacy I Dont Think She Noticed JAKE: Possibly. KANAYA: Actually It Provided Good Conversational Fodder KANAYA: Any Topic Becomes Stale Given Enough Sweeps To Mull It Over So New Stimulation Was Welcome KANAYA: When Dave And Rose Were Together She Frequently Tried To Draw Him Into Speculation About Your Characters KANAYA: He Never Liked To Engage For Some Reason JAKE: That was the first time id been around that many people in my life! JAKE: So i guess that added pressure to impress in a sense. KANAYA: I Grew Up Alone On An Oasis KANAYA: The First Time I Ran Into Crowds Was During This Game JAKE: Likewise! Except it was an island not an oasis. JAKE: That seems to be a trend doesnt it? KANAYA: Jade Told Me Something Similar KANAYA: Maybe Its Easier To Leave The World Behind Without A Second Thought If You Had Fewer Ties To It JAKE: I couldnt agree with you more though its sort of sad when you stop and think about it. JAKE: The game seems to take a lot of lonely chaps doesnt it? JAKE: Or... maybe it sets them up that way. KANAYA: Believe Me As Someone Charged With The Creation Of Life In Our New World The Prospect Weighs On Me KANAYA: Enough To Take Rose Up On An Offer Most Would Consider Suicidal KANAYA: But Then Most Of Her Schemes Are JAKE: O: JAKE: What is it rose is plotting? KANAYA: Oh Hasnt She Gotten To You Yet KANAYA: She Will KANAYA: Especially With Your Capabilities KANAYA: Im Not Clear On The Details Yet But Im Sure Those Will Come In Eventually KANAYA: Probably In The Heat Of The Moment If Our Other Adventures Are Any Indication KANAYA: Mostly It Involves Defying The Status Quo KANAYA: Which Is What Almost Everything She Has Done Since Ive Met Her Boils Down To JAKE: I mean she did help us get calliope back so if theres something she needs me to do id be happy to help lend a hand! KANAYA: I Believe Shes Intending To Bring It Up To The Group Once Weve Finished This Round Of Discussions KANAYA: So Youll Hear About It Then JAKE: Oh boy more mysterious plots. Look i may be a guy whos always eager for the next adventure or whatever but id like to propose a motion that we at least get a siesta first. JAKE: Three super over the top throwdowns in the space of a few hours tuckers a guy out! KANAYA: I Will Back You Up On That KANAYA: If We Bundle Her Up Well Enough She Will Be Unable To Escape And Will Be Forced To Give In To Relaxation JAKE: My grandma used to do that when i was a wee tyke and didnt want to go down for naps. KANAYA: Good Then Youre Familiar With The Technique JAKE: We just need a person three to four times her size and itll be a snap! JAKE: Oh hey jade can handle that. KANAYA: Now That I Have Restored Her First Guardian Abilities I Will Ask That Her First Action Be Restraining Rose For Her Own Good Before She Hurts Herself JAKE: Sounds like a smart idea but given what ive heard of her im not about to volunteer to be the first in her sights. KANAYA: Would Deaths Incurred Be Heroic KANAYA: Im New To These Rules JAKE: Im... not sure. JAKE: Perhaps its best not to chance it. KANAYA: Hopefully We Can Talk Her Into Taking A Short Break JAKE: Surely even a god tier has to take a load off every now and again. JAKE: Unless rose just runs on anarchic fervor and dreams. KANAYA: I Wouldnt Put It Past Her JAKE: Well calm her down and then help her out with her next revolution.

#tlcstuck #kanaya maryam #jake english #walkaround 4

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im-in-love-with-pizza-bites · 3 years

Text

It Takes A Village Chapter 13

Chris Evans x Pregnant!Daughter!Reader

Series Master List

Series summary: You find out that you're pregnant. After being kicked out of your mom's house you go to live full time with your Dad who you only saw once every few months. Will he react badly to you being a mom at such a young age?

Chapter Summary: You find out the genders of the babies and tell your family and friends. You also announce their names.

Series Warnings: swearing, fighting with a parent, teen pregnancy, speak of abortion.

Chapter Warnings: Teen Pregnancy

You sat in class paying attention to what the teacher was talking about. You didn't understand it but might as well listen. After school was your one of the most important doctor appointments you'll probably ever have. You were getting to find out the babies' genders. Your dad already gave you his prediction of, one girls one boy, Scott told you his last time you saw him, he thinks you'll have boys, you were hoping for boys, mainly cause the names you picked for them you fell in love with. You were gonna ask for your friends prediction at lunch which was next. You already had a plan on how to tell everyone the genders of the babies. You made it known the babies were gonna be named after Disney characters so you really just planned on sending your friends gifs with said characters then at dinner tonight since you were going over to your grandma's you'd just tell them the names. The press had also taken a break from talking about you and the babies so you were back on Instagram, not posting really you just posted stories, usually of dodger and how adorably protective of you, you also blocked you're mom as well as Jake.

You sat at lunch laughing with your friends before Leah brought up the babies. "I think it's gonna be all girls." She said.

"Yeah, both girls." Naomi agreed.

"All boys." Oscar said smiling at you.

"What about you two?" You asked Naomi and Marcus.

"Boys." Mark said agreeing with his brother.

"One boy and one girl." Liam told you

"What about you they're your kids do you have like hidden knowledge?" Oscar asked.

"That's not how it works." Marcus said.

"I'm hoping for boys so I don't have to choose who I name the baby after." You explained.

"Oh."

---

You were at your appointment. "Would you like to know the genders?" The doctor asked.

"Yes please! But can you not put them on the big screen? I don't want my dad knowing when he comes back in."

"Okay... Looks like your have two baby boys!" She announced. Your dad wasn't in the room, he left to used the restroom and you wanted him to also find out just through the names like the rest of your family.

"Really! Great, my dad and uncle both wanted me to name a baby after them." You said giggling.

"Oh do you already have names picked out?" She asked as she kept doing the check up.

"Yeah I had Ar-" You stopped talking as Chris knocked.

"Can I come in?"

"Yeah."

"What's the genders?" Chris asked smiling at you.

"Nope you get to find out the same time as everyone else!"

"They're all healthy though." The doctor assured.

"Well that's all that matters." Chris smiles.

---

You sat in the car, Chris nagging you to try and get the gender but you just shrugged him off before texting your friends, admittedly you probably should've told your family first but you were too excited. Oscar and Marcus were bragging about how they were right. Liam said he was close. The girls and Oscar were gushing over how adorable the names are. Chris was driving the two of you home to get dodger then you were going to your grandma's.

"I'll get Dodger wait in the car bubba." Chris said getting out of the car.

Soon you made it to your grandma's house. Scott was the only one there.

"Was I right?" He asked.

"Can't tell you." You said.

"It's o and n her phone! Get it." Chris said loudly as he entered the living room, laughing as you and Scott began play wrestling over you phone. Not full-on wrestling more of you pushing him away as you held your phone as far from him as possible, which was with some difficulty as he's a bit bigger than you.

"Dad!! Help me!!" You whined. Chris smirked walking over and snatching your phone. He clicked on but was quickly stopped when he realized your phone had a passcode. "Ha!" You laughed snatching your phone back.

"Come on the wait is killing us! Can you at least tell us which one of us your gonna name the baby after if it's only one boy?" Chris asked.

"Dad your acting like a child." You teased rolling your eyes as your aunt, her husband, and their kids come in. Almost immediately the kids were hugging you asking the genders. "What do you guys predict they are?" You asked.

"Girls!" Stella exclaimed.

"Boys." Ethan said. Subtly your smile grew but no one seemed to notice.

"One boy one girl!" Miles said.

"Good guesses." You smiled, looking at your aunt and uncle. "Hi!"

"Hey kiddo." Ryan said ruffling your hair before sitting on the couch next to his youngest brother in law.

"Hey n/n." Carly smiled at you taking a seat next to Chris.

"What do you guys predict? Dad thinks it's one girls one boy, uncle Scott thinks boys, grandma thinks boys. Oh and I texted grandpa and he thinks girls." You said smiling

"One girl one boy." Ryan told you. You looked at carly.

"Girls."

"Can we know yet?" Miles whined.

"Aunt Shanna isn't here yet." You said. You looked away not noticing how Chris told the kids to steal your phone so he could try to figure out your passcode or find a way go unlock it with your finger without you noticing. Ethan grabbed it handing it to Chris as the four of them messed with your phone. Scott peaked over whispering something too Chris. You turned around looking at them .

"Hey! Give it back!" You said reaching for it but Chris quickly handed it to Miles and told him to run. Miles ran off while the other four of them held you back from running after him. Laughter filled the room as you broke free following after Miles, Ethan, Stella and Dodger behind you trying to stop you. Well Dodger didn't know what was happening he just didn't like you running.

"Woah watch it kiddos!" Your grandma said as you four ran through the kitchen, a chorus of "sorry Gramma!" Was heard before you were out of the kitchen.

"Miles please!" You whined running after him.

"No!" The four of you made it back into the living room and, Miles handed the phone too Scott who quickly gave it to Chris who tried 3000 which didn't work.

"Did you really think I did a marvel reference as my phone passcode?" You asked laughing snatching the phone back playfully glaring at the two men.

"Scott's idea!" Chris blamed. The living room was filled with laughter as you settled down Dodger found his spot on your lap glaring at you for what you could only assume was for running around.

"Can you give a hint?" Stella asked.

"N-" you began but was cut off when Shanna walked in.

"Hi!"

"Yes! Now y/n can tell us!" Miles ran over dragging Shanna over to the couch making everyone laugh. Your grandma stepped into the living smiling at her kids before looking at you expectantly.

"Okay fine, the babies are boys!" You announced.

"I was right!" Ethan exclaimed.

"So was I." Scott said giving Ethan a high-five.

"What's their names?" Stella asked.

"Flynn and Felix." You said.

"After Flynn rider!" Miles exclaimed smiling.

"They're good names." You dad said. You smiled as he pulled into his side.

"What were the other name options?" Ryan asked.

"Oh, Ariel and Aurora. I said they'd be Disney themed I meant it." You said.

"Both of your kids are named after animated characters." Ethan pointed out.

"It's only a matter of time before Tangled gets a live-action version." You said.

"They're great names... But which one is named after me?" Scott asked. You giggled.

"Flynn Scott, and Felix Christopher." You said the full names except last name as you didn't know who's last name you'd use yet.

"Cute, well dinner's done." Lisa said smiling.

You all went to the table, the table was full of laughs nothing could be much better than this. You did of course tell your grandpa the next day, but today was about this. You and your cousins were laughing and messing around at one end of the table while the adults talked at the other end. Undoubtedly the adults were looking at you four smiling.

A/n: I was gonna name one of the boys Eric after Prince Eric from The little mermaid but I'm 90% sure I know a Eric and I try my best to not name my characters names people I know have. It only failed once cause I forgot about my second cousins. So and one of them shares a name with a character in this fic. (I'm not close with my cousins or second cousins that's how I forgot.)

#chris evans x teen!reader #cevans #chris evans #chris evans x daughter!reader #teen pregnancy #x daughter!reader #x teen!reader #daughter!reader #i'll be there to help you the whole way #teen!reader #it takes a village

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over-roaming-waves · 6 years

Text

Turn Turn Turn

Rating: SFW

Charaters: Yuma Tsukumo, Yugi Mouto, Atem, Yusei Fudo, Jaden Yuki, Carly Nagisa, Jack Atlas, Yami Bakura, Ryou Bakura, Malik Ishtar, Isis ishtar, Mai Valentine, Jounouchi Katsuya Mentioned: Seto Kaiba, Mokuba Kaiba

Pairings: Puzzleship, Visionship, Theifship (slowburn), Scoopship, More to be added.

January

“O.K., you can do this Yuma. Just go in there and say you want to join. Right then, it’s not like they’re going to kick you out because you’re just start, or you’re too young, or anything like that. And it’s definitely not likely that they will call my sister and tell her everything. O.K., O.K. …Kattobingu! “

He opened the door.

“Hey there, I’m Tsukumo Yuma and I’m here to-“

“Join the gaming club, but don’t tell your sister because she doesn’t know.”

Yuma look where the answer came from and saw a man with platinum blond hair and skin that was several shades darker than his own. He was reading a guide book for a game called Monster World.

“How did you-“

“Please, you were stand in front of the building for 30 minutes. Most everyone heard some part of your inner monologue when they came in.”

“Malik, please don’t be so rude. It was not long ago that you were in his position,” a woman with the same shade of skin and the distinct air of an older sister around her came in. She bowed, which made her black hair flow over her shoulder, “Welcome, I am Isis Ishtar and this is my younger brother, Malik. If you’d like, I’ll take you to the next room and we’ll see about getting you some more information, as well as creating your character for our role-playing game.”

Yuma was escorted inside, thou he saw Malik mimicking his sister behind her back.

He was brought into a big room, with a table near a kitchen area. The table was occupied a figure hunched over an RPG… thingy that kept them hidden from view, only allowing a view of the person’s arms. In a chair on the left side farthest from the cover, there was a man with two different shades pf brown in his hair, the top part being lighter than the bottom part. He seems occupied by his phone. On the brunet’s opposing side, he spotted two blonds, a man and a woman, with a chair between them. On the man’s left, there was a black-haired woman. She and the man were holding hands.

Deep breath and…

“Hello, I’m Tsukumo Yuma and I wish to join your Game Club. I am going into my third year of middle school and want to be more honest with who I am. Please take care of me!”

He bowed so far down, he felt like one of those wooden birds that go up and down, mimicking a drinking bird. He doesn’t hear anything from the other members but he could feel their stare as they look at him and his outfit that he bought behind his sister’s back. He’s sure that grandma knows already but…he’s scared that Akari would hate him if he told her. He’s still starting out and… this was really the first place that he went to as a man. That poster on the pole felt like a sign that he should be himself. That there were people would accept him as Yuma.

He felt like maybe this was a mistake. Maybe he’s too young. Maybe he needs to do more to be able to join. Maybe-

He smells a chocolatey scent. Someone was walking, put something down (cups maybe?), and walking again. He felt someone guide him up, where he saw bright blue eyes stare down at him.

“It’s O.K., you’re doing fine.”

The blue-eyed masterpiece escorted him to an empty chair, where he gave Yuma a hot chocolate. (Was that what he put on the table?) he then started talking again in his velvety voice.

“We’d be glad to have you as a member. Isis is just getting some paper work for you to make it all official. Unfortunately, several members including the founder are not here at the moment but you can be introduced to the members that are here. I am Fudo Yusei, and I am like you in body.”

“wow, that pretty good up until that last part. Hey there, I’m Jaden Yuki. Oh, right, I meant Yuki Jaden. Well, what I mean is my personal name is Jaden. I was born and raised in the USA, so I’ll warn ya right now that I will mess up on social niceties. And like Yusei so weirdly said it, I’m a Trans Man. I’ll get your character sheet, ‘kay?” shouted the two-toned brunet, who had put his phone down to look at him with his soft brown eyes. He left his chair to get the sheet.

“Right”, the blond woman said, “You can call me Mai Valentine and I was assigned male at birth. As you can see, I disagreed with that decision. The idiot next to me is Jake Atlas, who is Cis and is dating the only other Trans woman in the place, Carly. The silent Dungeon Master who is rudely ignoring our guest is Bakura. (he heard a grunt by the covered man) You probably have already met Isis and Malik, so that would be a bit redundant and the others can introduce themselves when they come in.”

Then Mai started to explain the rules of the game, how to set up his character, how to roll for the stats, and other such thing while he was filling out the papers Isis gave him … until he heard Jaden yell.

”HOLY SHIT! GUYS, ATEM IS PREGNANT!!”

____________________

“So, you’re preggers, hon?”

“… I wanted to tell you AFTER I told our close family and friends. I already expressed my displeasure in my IDIOTIC, BUBBLE-HEADED, TRATOROUS SISTER telling everyone with an internet connection my current status about something I told her in private!”

“While I’m sure got that by how quickly the post got deleted. I’ll put the congratulatory gifts given to you away for a better time. Call me Curious George but when would you have told your more… distant relatives?”

“ …. When everyone else would know. By the way, how would you think the members of our gaming club would feel about being part of a ceremony that my family is putting together?”

“Pay for the outfits and you’ve got ‘em, Sweetheart.”

____________________

The Kame Game Shop was always slow at 2 in the afternoon. Jaden liked it that was. It gave him time to work on his secret job. Only three people on the planet know that Haou, the author of the hit series Gates of Eterniea, was a trans man living in Japan. He loved taking people to new world with amazing adventures. He also liked his privacy. Honestly, Jaden probably needed his job at Kame more for his mental heath more then anything.

It keeps him from going into that place he can’t go. where bad things lurk. Wher-

*DING*

“Yug’ why didn’t ya tell me sooner”, shouted the blond that just came in. The blond was none other than Yugi’s best friend from high school, Katsuya Jonouchi, who goes by Jou.

“About…”

“da baby!”

“Well, that’s why I called you. And sent an email. And texted you.”

“… Ya know da Kaiba takes things when we’re testin’, buddy.”

“Really? Well, maybe Seto-kun should revise his policies then. I’ll talk about it with Mokuba when he comes to the next meeting.”

“… Sorry, I fucked up, Yug’”

“By the way, do you have a suit?”

“…why ’da ask about ‘dat?”

“Well, Mama, Ji-chan, and Atem’s parents want to have a wedding.”

“But ya already married ta ‘im!”

“Yeah, but they probably wanted to have a ‘proper’ ceremony. Plus, it could be a fun anniversary gift.”

“Tch, Rich Folks.”

“By the way, can you please tell Anzu, Hiroto, and the others about the Ceremony?”

Jou leaves, no doubt to tell Yugi’s other friends about the party that’s going to happen.

“Jaden?”

“Yeah, boss?”

“Let us tell the others about the ceremony, O.K.?”

“’Kay.”

Now then, how do the Band of the Pejuleum get through the Cave of Despair….

____________________

At the second ever time that he came into the Domino City Gaming Club, he saw two people with spikey black hair that had a rim of red at the edges. Thou they had the same hair, they had vastly different styles, one in head to toe black clothes with a tattoo on his right arm, the other in a grey business suit. He was too far away to hear the words so he jogged over to the two.

“Hi there, I’m Tsukumo Yuma. I’m a new member of the Domino City Gaming Club. I hope we can be good friends,” Yuma exclaimed as he bowed to his seniors of the club.

The two turned and… whoa, they both looked so weird. The tattooed one had blond bangs that frames his purple eyes, who looked at him kindly. The other, who somehow had darker skin than Yuma’s own, looked so excited at him(?) with his red (?!?) eyes. The red-eye guy, who had blond streaks in his hair to go with his blond bangs, went into a speech that he said with such enthusiasm that it felt like he was trying to sell him on an epic game that he just played that he wanted to share with everyone.

“Welcome once again to the Domino City Gaming Club! I am the founder and fanatical backer of the club, Atem La Lune. The handsome man next to me in my Husband, Yugi. I’m sure you’ve met the secretary of the DCGC, a little nickname I gave our illustrious club, Isis Ishtar, as well as one of our greeters. The brunet giant setting up the duel disks is Seto Kaiba, and the child with the wild black mane is Mokuba. Mokuba is genderfluid, and they indicate what gender they are by wearing a bow in their hair if they wish to be referred to as female, and leaving their hair down if they want to be man at that time. If I’ve read the notes from last time correctly, you were already introduced to Mai, Jaden, Yusei, Jack, Carly, Malik, and Bakura. I apologize for anything that the latter two would have done t-“

“Oy, don’t try that shit with me, you short-ass brat. You were telling your blond Bunny that you got knocked up last time. The least you could due is not act like some fucking saint.”

Yuma saw the white-haired Bakura (he saw him fully when he knocked out the cardboard-thingy after Jaden say that Atem was going to be a papa) charge at Atem. Atem looked ready to fight the white-head when Yugi stopped it in its tracks before proclaimed the weirdest announcement.

“O.k. just want everyone here to know that Atem and I and having a Wedding ceremony, courtesy of the matriarch of the La Lune clan, and all DCGC members are invited and are allowed to bring a guest. This is a formal affair so Atem will pay for any clothes that you would need. I expect to see most of you there.”

“You’re already married,” Shouted Jake.

“Mother insisted on it as an anniversary gift. But if you don’t want to go…”

“Hell yeah I’m going!”

“Woo!”

Yuma stared on as each person there offered their congratulations, their condolences, and their RSVP.

“Things tend to hectic here,” Yuma turned to see another white-haired guy looking on, “But I think that it just gives this group a unique character, don’t you think so?” The snowy haired guy looked at him in fondness. “Bakura Ryou, my brother’s looking for the right personal name, so he’s been going by the familial name for now.”

Yuma smiled, “Yeah, I think it’s good.”

He just knows that this will be a good year.

#TransAtem AU #TurnTurnTurn #yugioh 5d's #yugioh gx #yugioh #ygo #yugioh zexal #fanfic #fanfiction #Talkin' about my dumb-ass Aus

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davekatweek · 7 years

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Baby Steps: DaveKat Week Day 1 Post-Canon

@davekatweek

https://archiveofourown.org/users/Miriage/pseuds/Miriage

Baby steps.

Like every relationship there were baby steps.

At least, you called them baby steps. Karkat would probably call them something hilariously long, complicated, and only slightly annoying, or maybe wouldn’t even get the cultural reference at all and say something about how steps weren’t important when you had to learn how to fucking outrun a grub eating beast with only six stick legs that resembled broken toothpicks.

Whatever it was called though, it was baby steps.

It began when you and him were curled up on the couch together watching some shitty show (that did not have Jake’s ass on it thank you very much) and being all domestic and cute and “aww” and shit (“Shut up and go cuddle your own troll Rose.”) when it happened.

Like any good boyfriend (that’s what you were calling and you were “nope-ing” any other iteration of the term. You would’ve dabbed it out too but the last time you did that you had been suplexed you by your dabbing arm onto a table by none other than the other half of your relationship party. The student had truly become the teacher) you had started out the night with the “Let’s count how many shoulders we have” game (“Four Dave. There will always be four fucking shoulders no matter how many times we play this pathetic excuse for a red-but-is-so-pale-it’s-the-color-of-John’s-ass flirting game. Just put your fucking arm around me or I will bite you again.”) and now had your left arm draped against Karkat (you only received one bite from him when you did it this time. Nice.) You could’ve stayed there for hours, days, weeks, months and maybe one year, letting the television melt your brain and playing the “see if you could spot John flying in the sky” game (you were beating Karkat by four John’s) but the unfortunate reality was that you were but a man with a man sized body and man sized insides.

“Gotta take a piss babe. Make sure my spot doesn’t get taken.”

Karkat had rolled his eyes at you and told you that he would make sure the butt indentation on the couch wouldn’t be replaced by any other assholes’ ass (to which you replied that you were glad he was protecting the virgin markings of your rump’s couch crater from those who wished to sit away the “Mark of the Strider from the House of Strides.”) and you left him there with Ghost Butt Strider. When you came back though, that’s when the first of the many metaphoric baby steps “happened.” Because when you came back he was wearing your hoodie.

Your red hoodie.

He was practically drowning in it actually. The sleeves were too long, the front pockets made him look like he was had grown a womb for a baby marsupial like creature, and the hood was spilling over the sides of his shoulders as he pressed his back against the couch. All in all, he looked like a messed up little Red Riding Hood.

But he was still wearing your red hoodie.

It was after that that the steps of baby progression…progressed.

In your house-hive hybrid (you liked to call it the “HHH”) he began “borrowing” your clothes. He wore your red hoodies (“I’m cold and this was on the ground so it’s mine now.”) your red shirts (“It’s too hot to wear a fucking sweater Dave and I’m not bothering Kanaya on her day off with Rose.”) even your red pants (“…. I lost a bet okay Strider? Don’t give me that shitty ‘I-just-crapped-my-pants look!”).

At first you had believed all his excuses (including the “lost the bet one”) and you had maybe been a little kind of “shot through the heart” pleased (ecstatic) whenever you saw him wearing something of yours.

(Fine, it turned you on. There happy? You admitted it out loud. Whoop-Dee-Fucking-Do.)

But then you began to notice a pattern in the clothes he picked.

Karkat would ignore the black t-shirt of yours on the ground near the foot of your bed and instead wear the red one from the closet. He would get up from couch snuggles to grab your red hoodie from the kitchen where you left it even though there was blanket just underneath his ass. He would grab your red socks and pull them on, not even batting an eye when your better (more ironic) socks (with pictures of bananas with faces on it) were right under his nose.

He would grab every item of clothes of yours that was red.

Red. Red. Red.

He only wore this red (your red) at the HHH though. The “outside” Karkat still wore black. The darkest color. The Batman of colors. The lack of absorption of light color.

Black sweater, black pants, black shoes.

Black. Black. Black.

Of course no one thought this was strange, weird, unusual, and/or mysterious. Karkat wore black and that was it. End of discussion. Over and out. This was who he is and what he was. Someone (some-troll you guess?) who wore black. Nothing unnatural here. No siree.

So it was only you who knew of the disturbances in the Karkat-force. It was only you who knew what he would do after entering the HHH. It was only you who got to see him, relaxed and sleepy eyed from a day of suggesting (shouting) instructions for New New New Can Town (he refused to let you call it “Can Town 3: Return of the Return of the Cans”) wearing your red t-shirt. It was only you who got to see him in his “Little Red Riding Karkat” hoodie persona, snuggled up against your arm as the two of you watched movies or played video games.

You didn’t make a comment on it though. You didn’t say the obvious (“You’re wearing red.”) or the “pretending-to-be-dumb” obvious (“So I noticed you’ve been wearing some of my clothes lately.”) or the punny obvious (“Well Karkat it looks like you’re red-y for movie night right? I hope this movie is just like that shitty book you red.”).

You just scooped him up and buried your face in his neck like you always did because this was Karkat taking those steps. Those tiny, microscopic steps.

Those baby steps.

When your friends see him wearing red for the first time, it’s a mistake.

You were outside, watering your plastic plants (to keep up appearances because fuck it, you’re not Jade or Jake or whatever other J-like-entity who knew how to garden and grow a tyrannosaurus rex) when you’re attacked from both your pelvic region and your opposite pelvic region from two different attackers: John from an air assault and Jade from a ground assault. You roll your eyes as they have the audacity to laugh at you (you were not caught by surprise like they said you were) and you feel the words of the Strider forming on your tongue near your umami taste receptor when Karkat emerges from the HHH, looking sleepy and frazzled, wearing nothing but your red shirt and his boxers.

“I work my ass off every single fucking day from morning to when the sun goes to its fucking nocturnal rest and the one day I can actually close my pathetic eyes what do I get? Two idiots flying in from who knows where chatting like it’s a fucking wriggler’s sleep over.” he mumble-yells (aka: just says in a normal volume voice level.) He’s still mumble-yelling (aka: just talking) and doesn’t seem to care or notice anything unusual about himself as he leans against the doorframe of HHH in just his sleepwear.

But you notice.

You notice and a swell of panic suddenly manifests itself in you and you try to send a mental mind message to Karkat that consists of the words “red” and “boxers” and “change” because you don’t know if he knows or even think he knows he’s ready for this.

If he’s ready to be caught like this.

If he’s ready to be seen wearing this…. red.

Your hope of him receiving said message is stopped however when Jade complements him for his choice in sleepwear. Complements the shirt he was wearing.

Complements the red shirt he was wearing.

It’s a complement, yes, but it’s also a hidden “What the fuck are you wearing?” statement hidden behind giggle and glasses. It’s an acknowledgment of something you had been acknowledging but not acknowledging for…. some time now.

The emphasis on the words “red shirt” makes Karkat pause and look down at himself and the words “shit” and “abort” flashes across your mind (and probably Karkat’s too) as his morning crankiness is replaced by a morning look of suddenly awakened surprise. He doesn’t say anything, just looks down at his shirt (your shirt) and stays looking at it for longer than a normal person should be looking at something and you’re forced to stand there and watch the gravity of the situation unfurl around you as an unexpected silence overcomes the four of you and you hope you are the only one who doesn’t feel the tension in said silence.

(But it’s there and you know John and Jade knows it’s there too. And it’s god-awful.)

John (of course it would be John wouldn’t it?) is the one who interrupts said silence, laughing nervously and breaking (destroying) the metaphoric “Don’t touch, Just Look” sign as he says that redlooks good on him.

On Karkat.

On angry troll of the century.

On your boyfriend.

You expect Karkat to turn and run back inside. You expect him to word vomit his way out of the situation (hell you would’ve done that.) You half-expect him to burst into tears or shudders or blushes (or fire) or something.

But to your surprise, all you get (all he says) are the words,

“Thanks…I think it looks good too.”

The funny thing about baby steps is that they are jaunty and awkward, too much in this direction and not enough in that. They look like they could never turn into people steps or even oldhobble-y grandma steps. But soon enough they turn into steps.

The same goes for Karkat.

After being seen in red, it’s like he begins experimenting with wearing red outside.

Sometimes he’d wear a lot of red (his “a lot” being your t-shirt and hoodie) take ten steps away from the HHH only to turn back and change back into black. Other times he’d wear a little (red socks, hidden underneath his pant legs) and stay out all day. Sometimes, he’d throw on a (your) red baseball hat and walk hand-in-hand with you around New New New Can Town’s construction, other times he’d be wearing enough black to make him look like a lump of coal painted black then sprinkled with ashes that were also black.

He seesawed between these two for months, never comfortable with one or without the other. He’d stumble around grabbing clothes and mixing and matching. He’d spend hours looking in the mirror wearing one outfit only to change it at the last second. He’d pretend not to worry or care about how much or how little red he wore outside only to press himself against your back whenever someone looked his way.

He was figuring things out clumsily, embarrassingly slow, and utterly charmingly.

Just like fucking baby steps.

But one day, somehow, after jumping from metaphoric rock to metaphoric rock, Karkat manages to find something that makes you feel even more proud than his perfected surplexes:

He finds balance.

He finds a red-black color wearing comfortableness.

No, he doesn’t dare wear anything as bright and eye startlingly catching as his dancestor’s red sweater (you were actually relieved at this), but simple reds, your t-shirt with a black jacket or his t-shirt with your red hoodie, he wears, first nervously, then comfortably, then confidently.

He wears this combination as he addresses a large (cheering) crowd. He wears this combination when the two of you meet with your friends. He wears it when you convince him to hold onto you (tighter) as you fly through the air.

He wears it, not for you or your friends, but for himself.

When he fastens a red tie, a bright red streak against a stygian colored shirt, the night you take him out for your anniversary dinner at a fancy-shamncy restaurant, it hits you full force that this is Karkat.

This is Karkat confident. This is Karkat unhindered. This is Karkat being himself.

This is him being free.

And it’s him looking like this, it’s him willingly wearing something so statement-like in a public, crowded, local place that you finally,finallycomment on it. On the red. On the color that once upon a time John had said looked good on Karkat. On the color you saw Karkat wear when it was just you and him. On the color he took baby steps to show to everyone.

On his color. On Karkat’s color.

You finally tell him what you thought all those weeks and days and hours and minutes ago, when it was just the two of you and he was buried in your hoodie:

“Red….” You begin as you reach out to Karkat to run a hand down his tie, “Looks great on you babe.”

(Because it does.)

Karkat smiles and lets you pull him close against yourself and lets you rub his back in a non-bro, totally romantic, and ironic form of intimate endearment.

“I know.” he whispers back. “I know that Dave.”

And you fucking love how he knows he knows.

#loooovely #fic #day one #miriage #DaveKat Week 2017 #submission

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