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#bagman
catscough · 2 months
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slippin-joh · 8 months
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Should I make one with Kim instead of Mike?
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hainethehero · 1 year
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Top Gun: Maverick
Something about how desperate and frantic Hangman was to provide air cover for Rooster in a clearly su!cidal attempt to rescue Maverick GOT me
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Just look at how helpless and desperate he looks here... and then when he saves them...
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Look at the smiles on these dorks... which leads me to my belief that Jake always cared about his team, Rooster included. He just put on a cocky front because that's what people with a chip on their shoulder do. (My personal headcanon is that he's grown up always looking over his shoulder, had a terrible home life and always had to be the best bc of his clearly toxic father.)
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Anyway, I just think it was really sweet to see the softer more compassionate side of him because it's obvious at the end that he really truly did care about Rooster, and all that false bravado was just him projecting. In the end, he came through for the whole team.
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warningsine · 7 months
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4myson · 2 months
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youtube
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fieriframes · 2 months
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[The bagman's quaking at the fingers.]
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earth90214 · 1 year
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miles morales vs the bombastic bag-man
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princessmisery666 · 1 year
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Fairytale Ending - Part 7 - No One's In The Room Mini Series
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Series Summary: Jake and Ryleigh find themselves stranded in a remote location when a mission goes sideways. Injured and dependent on his help, she gets a glimpse of the man beneath the façade of ‘The Terminator’. Once they are rescued, the bubble of their personal Vegas bursts, and Jake struggles with new emotions while Ryleigh hopes he will finally see the man she came to know when no one else is in the room.
Summary: Ryleigh and Jake have an opportunity to make things right. Will it be a fairytale ending or not?  
Warnings: fluff, angst. 
W/C: 2.4k
Characters: Jake ‘ Hangman’ Seresin, Ryleigh ‘Rodeo’, and other OC's.
Pairing: Hangman x OFC.
Pairing: none for part 2.
Betas: @deanwinchesterswitch
Graphics: made by me on canva.
Catch up here
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Fairytale Ending
As soon as Jake exited the cab, he could hear the squeals of delight from the backyard, and it wasn’t until then he remembered Julia telling him the dance troupe was having a pre-party before the show.
He dumped his bag at the bottom of the stairs, smiling at the loud and proud declarations of a Giant slayed from the yard as he walked through to the kitchen. 
Julia, in a huddle with some other parents, noticed him and gasped his name in surprise. “What are you doing here?” she asked, rushing forward to embrace him. 
“Couldn’t miss the Munchkin’s recital, could I?” he explained.
He sugar-coated it as being a dutiful uncle, but beneath the sweet topping was the sourness of needing his home comforts. His sister wasn’t clueless to his pretense. 
Pulling out of the embrace, she smiled sweetly at him, “Jake…” she started, but he cut her off, unable to stand the pity in her eyes. 
“Where is my favorite Munchkin?” he asked, stepping toward the backdoor, freezing when he saw her. 
“With your other favorite Munchkin,” Julia whispered, sliding up beside him. Now he understood her cautioning tone and wanted to turn and run before either of them spotted him. For almost two weeks, he’d wanted to speak to Ryleigh, but now she was there, crouching in front of Maddie in a make-believe sword fight, and he was terrified of doing so.
“Uncle Jake!” Maddie squealed, dropping the plastic sword and dodging around Ryleigh.
A witch had cursed Ryleigh to be stuck on her knees in the mud. As soon as Maddie squealed his name, the curse became a reality. She was unable to move her body even as Maddie excitedly brushed past her shoulder to run toward the house. There was no denying the girl's exhilaration, she couldn’t have mistaken one of the dads for her uncle, but Ryleigh prayed she had. 
But the prayer went unanswered as Jake happily greeted his niece, “Hey, Munchkin.” 
“Mommy,” Maddie grumbled as Jake scooped her up, “you told me he wasn’t coming!” 
You and me both, kiddo, Ryleigh groused in her head as she slowly shuffled around on her knees to face him. He looked kind of pale. Maybe the surprise of seeing her had shocked him as much as hearing his voice had her.
“Princess Ryleigh is here too,” Maddie said.
“I can see that.” 
Jake carried her toward Ryleigh, and the young girl continued proudly, “We’ve slayed a Giant, but a witch gave her a potion, and now she can’t get up.”
“Oh no,” Jake played along, “I’m not sure you know this,” he whispered as if telling a secret. “But I have magic hands, and I think I can reverse the spell.” 
He held his breath as he extended his hand toward Ryleigh. It felt like time had stopped, and all eyes were on them. He knew Julia’s mom friends usually tracked his every movement. He’d heard them whisper and giggle about him. He was pretty sure Julia would have explained who Ryleigh was, too, so they were no doubt the focus of the group. 
Tension in the air fizzled like unearthed electricity, and he pleaded with his eyes for Ryleigh to take his hand. But it was deeper than that; he was asking her to accept him. 
Thankfully, he didn’t have to wait long, and she took his hand, rising to her feet. “Hey,” Ryleigh managed to croak out, dusting off her knees to save herself from looking directly at him.
“Hey,” Jake sighed, relief flooding his veins.
“You're supposed to be on assignment,” she accused, unnecessarily aggressive. 
“And you're supposed to be off the grid,” he threw back but quickly remembered their audience. “Important Roloville business, right?”
“Um, yeah,” Ryleigh recovered just as quickly.
“You still haven’t told me what it was?” Maddie questioned again. 
Jake held his breath, the white lie had been told, but now Maddie required color, and he wasn’t sure how to paint it to make it lighter than the darkness it was. But maybe this was an opportunity. 
“Well, you see,” Jake started, “Ryleigh lost a bet and had to help out a Prince. But the Prince made some mistakes, and Ryleigh got hurt.”
Maddie cocked her head, asking, “The witch that knocked you off the dragon and hurt your leg?”
“That’s right,” Ryleigh nodded.
“But Uncle Jake saved you?” 
“I did,” Jake agreed, “but then I made some mistakes, too.” 
Maddie gave him a suspicious look as if her Mighty Uncle Jake could never make a mistake, but didn’t comment.
“I said some things and hurt Ryleigh’s feelings, and she had to convince the Kingdom not to banish me for being a bit of a fool.”
Ryleigh corrected, “A m-ASS-ive fool.”
Jake flashed her an incredulous look but continued his tale. “Am I telling this story, or are you?”
“I just wanna make sure she knows all the important details,” she smirked, despite her nerves.
“Truth is,” Jake sighed, locking his gaze to Ryleigh’s. “I kissed Princess Ryleigh,” he confessed, “and what I felt was too good to be true, and I worried maybe a witch cursed me, and I got scared.”
Tears blurred Ryleigh’s vision, and she dropped her gaze to swipe them away before Maddie saw.
“But Ryleigh’s magic, too,” Maddie explained, “she could have stopped you from being scared.” 
“I could’ve,” Ryleigh said, nodding, “but I was a bit of a fool too.”
“Hey Maddie, baby,” Julia cooed, taking the girl from Jake and announcing loudly, “why don’t we all go get some ice cream before the show?” 
The yard emptied faster than the rec room when Admiral Simpson was looking for a volunteer, and Jake remained staring at Ryleigh. Now was his chance. He had to take it. 
Ryleigh had seen all his missed calls and text messages, though she hadn’t read any of them. Too afraid they’d be a scathing remark or confirmation that he was right, that she was her mother’s daughter. Whenever her mother failed, she packed up and left town. Ryleigh had done precisely the same.
Jake had gone over the conversation a million times in his head. Every scenario had played out. Except for the one of him in his sister's backyard with a soundtrack of murmurs from families preparing to leave. So instead of some profound apology he blurted out, “What do you want from me?”
“Nothing,” Ryleigh answered. A knee-jerk reaction to his feisty tone. “I want nothing from you, Jake.” 
“Back at the cabin and when we were last here, we both…something changed between us, and we’re both as guilty as the other for letting our pride and fear hold us back. But please, Ryleigh, what do you want?”
She stared at him for an eternity. He was right. She was fearful, scared of being honest, only to be shot down again. “Honestly,” she started, swallowing a thick lump of pride, eyes ablaze with trauma, “I don’t want to be my mother.”
That cut him deeper than he expected. The words scraped against his guilt and reopened the wound of remorse he’d tried to stitch. He was to blame for her believing that she was her mother, but she was only partly right.
“I’m sorry,” he mumbled, “I fucked up, and I’m so sorry. I’m sorry for what I did to you. For everything I said to you, for everything I didn’t do! I should’ve kissed you back at the cabin and when you asked at the reunion.” He rambled, “I should never have run away when I did kiss you. But you never should have let me ignore it.”
“I tried!” she growled, turning to pace in front of the swing set, “I tried to talk about it, I showed up at the airport, and you asked me not to make it about the kiss. I was respecting your wishes!” 
“Bullshit,” he declared, “just admit you're just as afraid of this as I am!”
“I was afraid,” she admitted, stubbornly adding, “but now I’m angry. Angry at myself for thinking like my mom, for believing we could be something.”
He hadn’t meant to start the blame game. He’d have to relent if he wanted to make this right. He sighed, “You are like your mom, but the difference is you found someone who wants to change. I want to be all the things you told me about. I want to be all of it for you. I want to vacation somewhere with snow and no tv. I want to worry about you if you don’t call. I want to be the person you go to when you’ve had a shit day and someone you celebrate your wins with. Or I at least want a chance to try and be those things for you. But I’m not good at this, so you’re gonna have to show me how.”
She was dumbfounded, frozen on the spot, mouth agape while she stared at him, and in the silence that stretched, he floundered - had his actions and harsh words been unforgivable? Should he take it back? 
Finally, the shock subsided, and a small contrite smile crept to her lips. “I’m sorry too. I couldn’t force you to talk, but I could’ve swallowed my pride and told you how I felt. Instead, I forced myself on you.” 
Jake smirked, “not sure I remember that bit.” 
She chuckled, and it helped ease some of the tension of the moment. “I meant the reunion. I invited myself here and expected you to open up to me and understand my feelings without me actually saying it.”
“You still haven’t said it.” 
She contemplated her next words, caution still in her tone. “Something changed between us, and I wanted to explore it, see what it could be, but,” she sighed, hopelessness rife in her tone before she couldn’t find the words anymore.
“Wanted to explore it? I really did fuck up too much. Didn’t I?” Jake asked, the hopelessness spreading like wildfire. She couldn’t forgive him, and he knew he deserved it, but he never believed he wouldn’t get a chance to make it right. 
“No, Jake, it’s not that. It’s me. I’m not cut out for this.”
“Yes, you are,” he said, brow tight with offense at her talking down on herself. “You’re all I’ve thought about for weeks now. I can’t stop thinking about you, us, what we could be.”
“It’s infatuation,” she challenged, “wanting something you think you can’t have. It’ll fade.” 
“That’s not it! Look, I don’t know how to explain it, I just know this is something and I don’t want to walk away and then regret it for the rest of my life. I won’t.” He closed the space between them, reaching for her hand and finding courage in how she interlocked their fingers. “When I kissed you, I’d never felt anything like I felt in that moment, and it terrified me,” he admitted. “More than spiders terrify me!” That earned him a small smile, but he knew it wasn’t enough to make her believe his sincerity and let him see behind the walls she’d built up. “I’m scared of fucking this up. I’m scared of not fucking it up. But I’m more afraid of never knowing what could be.”
She averted her gaze, looking down at her feet. “What happens when that fear overwhelms you? I’ll be the one left brokenhearted and looking like a fool.”
“I can’t promise you that I won’t mess up. We both know I probably will,” he said, already sounding remorseful about something he had yet to do. “What if you decide this rodeo isn’t for you?” he asked, the mischievous gleam in his eye, “and you decide to leave me hanging?” 
She rolled her eyes, chuckling lightly. 
He was a confident man, but airing the possibility put him in a mental tailspin. It could happen. Maybe she was her mother’s daughter, and he was as emotionally damaged as the men her mother tried and failed to fix. It sobered him, and his confidence dropped like lead in his stomach. But he was stubborn, too. He wouldn’t let the possibility of a bruised ego stop him from going for what he wanted, and he wanted her. 
“You told Fanboy you were tired of people hiding behind insecurities, afraid of being judged,” he quoted, “so stop being afraid, take your own advice. Take a chance on me,” he implored, a gentle finger under her chin to raise her head to face each other once more. “All I’m asking for is a chance, hell, one date. One real date, and I promise I’ll do my best to write us a fairytale ending.”
He looked like a Prince, with a charming smile and dazzling, sweet words, but what if he were the villain in disguise? She’d fallen for it before. Sky-high spires of doubt cast shadows on his promises, but as she searched his chartreuse eyes, she saw his unwavering conviction.  
“You just want to be the Prince of Roloville, don’t you?” she teased.
Jake’s smile beamed for a moment before he looked deadly serious. “Absolutely not,” he winked, mischievous grin returning, “I want to be King.” It wasn’t until she blurred in his vision he realized he’d leaned in. 
She felt his breath mix with her own, and timidly he pressed his lips to her. The shy hesitation was another new way to experience him, and she smiled into the kiss, slipping a hand around his neck to pull him in deeper. 
Ryleigh breathed her confidence into him, and as she swept her tongue over his bottom lip, assurance surged through him. He felt it again, the same feeling the first time he kissed her, giddy anxiousness but there was feverish contentment this time. 
“Can we go get ice cream now?” Maddie whined from not too far away. 
Laughing, they broke apart, turning to see all the women huddled around the backdoor, some with their hands covering the kids’ mouths.
“Absolutely,” Julia answered, smiling at her brother, “and Uncle Jake is buying.”
“Yes, I am,” Jake agreed, turning back to kiss Ryleigh again. He hadn’t had his fill yet.
She kissed him but pushed a hand against his chest after too short a moment. “It had better be a damn good date, Seresin.” 
“That reminds me,” he teased, “back at the cabin, I said we could skip to date five, so how many exactly before…” 
She laughed - oh, this was going to be fun, even if it didn’t work out. “That depends on how good the dates are.”
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Tag List Info can be found here
Master Lists: Top Gun Maverick // All The Fandoms
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Tags. Taking to the skies: @alexxavicry / @b3autyfuldisast3r / @fandom-princess-forevermore / @imjess-themess / @justagirlinafandomworld / @leigh70 / @letsbys-library / @shanimallina87 / @wildbornsiren / @writercole / @xoxabs88xox / @atarmychick007
Hangman's Hoe's: @deanwinchesterswitch / @dempy / @emorychase
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johbeil · 2 years
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Bagman
Whenever we come back from shopping, he can’t wait to get into the empty shopping bags.
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spockvarietyhour · 11 months
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Oh yeah, they're a hoot and half those boys.
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grave-ghost-account · 4 months
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[March 27th, 2023]
The one and only Spider-Man
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singingninja4 · 2 years
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A new episode, a new analysis!!
jfc….Point and Shoot emotionally wrecked me. Is everyone else doing ok?? Because I am not 😩
Anyway, I’ve been wanting to analyze Chuck’s motif from 3x10: Lantern for a while now, but I hadn’t gotten around to it…but then I watched 6x08: Point and Shoot. When I watched it at Tribeca I thought that I heard chuck’s motif in howard’s burial theme, but I wasn't certain. I only got to listen to it that one time at the showing, and I was so focused on other things. I'd been waiting anxiously for three weeks to finally see the episode again last night so I could listen and verify it lmao and goddamn it!!! Dave Porter has done it to us again!!!
analysis is under the cut!!
bcs/brba analysis 5/??
Chuck’s motif is used in two separate cues in Lantern, “Lights Off” and “Chuck’s Relapse” The theme is in 6/4 time and in the key of A minor* You can see the melodic and rhythmic content below. I used solfege to denote the scale degrees so it can easily be compared to the other cue.
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The cue from Point and Shoot is titled “Burial”. It includes Chuck’s motif as a counter melody above the beautiful, heart-wrenching melody in the cello 😭😭 The biggest changes between the two cues are 1) the original is voiced in the bass range, while the Point and Shoot cue is voiced in the treble range, and 2) the instruments used. The original uses a trumpet or maybe a flugelhorn because it’s so low (I don’t know for certain) and the Point and Shoot cue what sounds to me like a vibraphone or some other pitched percussion instrument (perhaps even electronic). One interpretation I had about these changes is that the motif is pitched higher with the vibraphone to be more ethereal...like Chuck is a shadow behind Howard's death. Aside from that, there are just a few rhythmic, harmonic, and melodic differences, but the material is similar enough to be easily heard.
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In Lantern, Chuck’s motif is further developed in “Chuck’s Replase” by voicing the main melody in an electric piano instead of a brass instrument, moving the melody to the treble range, and by thickening the texture through additional voices. (I didn't include the full transcription, but here's a sample!) The texture get thicker and the melody becomes more embellished to build tension as Chuck slips further into the grasp of his mental illness 😩
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The parallels between Chuck’s and Howard’s deaths are numerous, and people much smarter than me have posted great meta on it. They were both gaslit by Jimmy when he switched something out (numbers/photos) and they were both made a fool in front of their peers and colleagues, reputations forever tainted. 
Another very interesting thing about this cue is that after closer inspection, I realized that this cue is also found in 5x08: Bagman and 6x03: Rock and Hard Place, which I analyzed previously here.
The biggest changes with these cues are the time signature (4/4 instead of 6/4), the key signatures, and the instrumentation. The melodic content is very similar with just a few changes.
Chuck colors Jimmy’s story everywhere you turn, so it’s easy to see how and why this motif showed up in Bagman when Jimmy uses the *space blanket* to lure in the bad guy. However, I’m puzzled about how and why it is in Nacho’s cue in Rock and Hard Place. I’m sure there’s a reason, I just haven’t dug deep enough to find it yet. If anybody has any theories on that, please chime in!! I’d love to hear them. 
*for the music theory nerds out there: even though it's in a minor key, I labeled the solfege as if it were in a major key because less altered syllables are used. this method is called La-based minor, where the tonic is La instead of Do
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gdwessel · 4 months
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ROGUE TROOPER: "Runaway" in 2000AD Prog 2362 Out Wednesday 12/13/2023
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Just a quick post - tomorrow, 2000AD Prog 2362 will be out in print in the UK, digitally worldwide. It's the year-end special holiday issue, 100 pages with a whole host of stories. Including one of mine.
I was asked to write one of 2000AD's leading franchise characters, Rogue Trooper, and got paired with the master artist Simon Coleby, colorists Francesco Segala and Sabrina Del Grosso, and letterer Rob Steen for "Runaway," a 12-page one-off featuring the Genetic Infantryman and his dogchip buddies. It was an honor to be asked, and I hope I did it well. It was also a complete blast to write Rogue, Helm, Gunnar & Bagman, and I hope Tharg the Mighty will let me do so again.
Below are the first two pages of the strip.
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Since last we spoke, October and November were, frankly, dogshit. Two deaths in my immediate family (my partner's mother, and one of my aunts), my car getting crashed and totalled, my new car getting smashed and broken into with a laptop and tablet stolen after only 10 days of ownership, and a bout with New York Comic Con COVID. However, as dark as those days were, the sun did eventually rise on them, and things are looking positive for the rest of this year, and 2024 as well.
I hope you enjoy this story, and if I don't post again before the New Year, have a happy holiday season, whatever it is you may celebrate, and that you are safe and relatively untroubled as we head into 2024.
Take care of yourselves.
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fieriframes · 27 days
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[Ah, it's funny. The bagman's quaking at the fingers. Half sausage, half beef.]
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pameluhr · 2 years
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princessmisery666 · 1 year
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Personal Vegas - Part 2 - No One's In The Room Mini Series
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Series Summary: Jake and Ryleigh find themselves stranded in a remote location when a mission goes sideways. Injured and dependent on his help, she gets a glimpse of the man beneath the façade of ‘The Terminator’. Once they are rescued, the bubble of their personal Vegas bursts, and Jake struggles with new emotions while Ryleigh hopes he will finally see the man she came to know when no one else is in the room.
Summary: As much as Jake would like everyone to believe he's the terminator, Ryleigh doesn't buy it. Stranded for a few days, she tries to discover who he is when no one else is in the room. Jake worries about being vulnerable and doesn’t make it easy for her.
Warnings: angst, cheating mentioned, bad family relationships.
W/C: 3.2k
Characters: Jake ‘Hangman’ Seresin, Ryleigh ‘Rodeo’.
Pairing: none for part 2.
Betas: @deanwinchesterswitch
Graphics: made by me on canva.
Catch up here.
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Personal Vegas
Jake set the table, including a jug of water and a tumbler of whiskey for himself, leaving the bottle in the middle. Dishing up the chili into bowls, he heard Ryleigh’s stomach grumble and quietly chuckled. She must have been starving for her stomach to be protesting the way it was.
When he’d reappeared from his shower, she was sprawled out on the sofa, features relaxed, a steady rise and fall to her chest as she slept. He hadn’t wanted to disturb her, but she needed to eat and move to the bed, which he assumed would be more comfortable and better for her wound in the long run.
“Ryleigh,” he whispered, gently shaking her shoulder, “wake up. Dinner’s ready.” She shot up so quickly that he had to jump back to avoid headbutting her, her gasp getting lost in the sound of the movement. “Easy, easy,” he soothed, “it’s just me.”
She looked around, eyes finally landing on his face, and she seemed to remember where she was.
“Your stomach has been talking to me for the last ten minutes,” Jake informed her, “wanna eat here or at the table?”
“Table,” she replied, voice still groggy with sleep as she rose to her feet. “Ow, fuck,” she yelped, lifting her weight off her leg, and Jake was quick to take her arm to help steady her. 
“Sit down,” he suggested sternly, his arm wrapping around hers and supporting a portion of her weight.
“I can make it,” she protested stubbornly, “I forgot for a second, that’s all.”
He helped her to the table, shaking his head along the way, helping ease her into the chair and making sure she was comfortable before taking his seat across from her.
Jake waited with anticipation, watching as Ryleigh shoveled a spoonful of his Grandma’s special chili into her mouth. He wanted her to like it. He needed her to know he wasn’t the one-dimensional asshole everyone thought he was. Sure, it would be good for his ever-expanding ego, but sometimes it was exhausting to constantly be ‘on’. It was no secret he wanted to impress her, but only enough to get her into his bed, so the need for her to see him differently surprised him. He didn’t have time to put much more thought into the reason behind it before she’d finished savoring the first bite. 
“Mmm. It’s good,” she hummed, eyes slipping closed. “How’d you learn to cook like this?” 
He hesitated, his spoon dragging through his bowl. It’s not as if it were a secret, but it was a detail about his life. It was personal, something he’d never shared with anyone, and if he offered the information willingly, it opened him up to further questioning.  
She sighed, chewing and swallowing three more spoonfuls in silence. “I told you I’m afraid of needles, and no one else knows that. Not the dagger squad, none of our superiors, no one. But you won’t tell me one little thing?” she asked. “Who hurt you?”
“I’m the terminator. It’s impossible to hurt me,” he countered, sipping his whiskey. 
“Come on, Seresin,” she coaxed, “we’re gonna be stuck here for a few days. Let’s get to know each other a little better. I wanna know what makes you tick.” 
“Fast and loose women and even faster jets,” he smirked.
“You wanna pretend you’re that shallow? Go ahead,” she shrugged, “but I don’t believe it.”
“Why do you care?”
“I wouldn’t say I care. I’m curious.” Ryleigh explained. “We’re partnered for work, and it would be helpful to know things about each other. Why don’t we play a game, and whatever we say in this cabin never leaves here.”
“Like our own Vegas?”
“Exactly,” she said, reaching over the table and offering her pinky finger. 
He shook his head but latched onto her promise. What harm could it do? She’d have no proof to back whatever he revealed or lied about. “What’s the game?” 
“Let’s pretend this is our first date, and we’re getting to know each other.”
He wagged his brow, “Or we could just skip to the fifth date and really get to know each other.”
“It takes you five dates? I never took you for a prude, Seresin.” 
“Touche,” he laughed, grinning. “That tells me a lot about you that I didn’t know.”
“Whatever,” she chuckled, “So c’mon, whose is the chili recipe?” 
“Grandma’s. It’s not the exact recipe, I didn’t have all the ingredients, but it's close enough. She’d put on some Sam Cooke, and she’d teach me all she knew,” he recalled, smiling fondly. “But it never felt like she was teaching me, y’know? We were just having fun.” 
“Is that the tune you were humming, Sam Cooke?”
“Yeah,” he smiled, the most genuine she may have ever seen from him. “It helps me remember.” 
“Are you close with your family?”
The smile fell, and he sighed, “This is dumb.”
“I’m not close with mine,” she explained, recognizing the revelations had so far been one-sided. “My dad skipped out when I was still in diapers. So it was just my mom and me, but she was too busy chasing emotionally damaged men she thought she could fix. She moved me all over the country. The only one that lasted more than a couple of months was Maverick.”
Jake felt the shock on his face, and her smirk showed genuine pleasure that the revelation stumped him.
“Yep,” she nodded, “I lived with Maverick and, lamentably, Rooster for the last three years of high school. When the inevitable break-up happened, Mav told me to look him up when I was ready to be something other than my mother’s daughter. He’s the reason I joined the Navy.” 
“So you and Rooster?” he implied.
“Jealous?”
“Maybe. But of you, Rooster is one fine-ass dude.” 
They laughed together, and Jake had to admit - if only to himself - that he liked not being at each other’s throats. 
“See, I know so little about you. I don’t know if you're being serious or not,” Ryleigh stated when the laughter teetered off naturally.
“That’s not an answer.”
“No, we’re just close friends. Rooster’s not my type.”
“What is your type?” 
“Assholes like you,” she said, reaching over to clink her glass against his, which he obliged in good spirits. “If we weren’t colleagues, I’d have let you take me to bed that first night we met, and then I’d have kicked myself for falling for the excessive charm and Hollywood smile.”
He winked, “good to know.”
“Never gonna happen, Seresin. So c’mon, you deflected. Are you close with your family?”
He sighed around the lip of his glass. She’d given him an insight into her life and revealed things he didn’t know. He should return the gesture. But how much was he willing to divulge?
The silence stretched, and she stared at him expectantly. She’d extended an olive branch. All he had to do was accept it by giving her something. But the proverbial cat had his tongue; it stuck to the roof of his mouth like overcooked oatmeal.
She shook her head, clearly disappointed, “Maybe you really are the terminator.”
He’d made the claim himself, sometimes thrived on it, and took pride in being emotionless or, at least, appearing that way. The way she made it sound like a slur, though, got under his skin. “Why are you even here if you hate me so much, huh?” he asked, not attempting to hide his ire.
“Cause the Great and Mighty Hangman,” she said, puffing her chest as if she were him, “decided he wanted to try a two-seater. Someone had to be your WSO. So everyone drew straws. I lost.”
“Sucks to be you,” he jeered, standing up to clear the table.
She followed, collecting the used glasses and taking them to the sink. She shoved her full weight into his shoulder, pushing him aside. “Where I come from, the cook doesn’t clean. I got this.” she leered at him, daring him to challenge her. 
He decided against it, grabbing the whiskey bottle and taking it to sit on the couch.
He liked Ryleigh, not just in the sense of trying to get her into his bed but as a colleague and a person. She was smart, funny, and stuck up for the little guy - usually, when Jake was teasing one of their fellow aviators - she wasn’t easily offended by his jokes, and gave as good as she got. If he’d thought opening up to her could have paved the way for her to his bed, perhaps he would have, but she wasn’t that easily fooled. Revealing a personal detail wouldn’t have made her swoon and drop her panties like most women because she wasn’t most women.
However, could opening up, even just a little, make them a better team? Anything that could advance his career was a good thing. So why was he so apprehensive about telling Ryleigh something real? He found no answer in the amber liquor or by the time Ryleigh finished clearing up. He’d drunk a fifth of the bottle as she passed to sit in the armchair directly opposite him. 
“See, you learned something else about me,” she said condescendingly.
“Why do you care about getting to know me?”
Ryleigh sighed. “I can explain it to you, but I can’t understand it for you.” He flipped her off but didn’t comment, so she continued, “Because we work together, I like to know who's got my back. Plus, I know a lot of guys like you, dated most of them. I wanna know if there is something more underneath that hard exterior.” 
“There’s some trauma there,” he said, “wanna talk about it? My shoulders are good for crying on.” 
“Fuck you, Seresin,” she snarled, “but that’s exactly what I’m talking about. You put on a good show, devil may care attitude, but I think deep down you care more than you let on. You’re a womanizer because you crave affection and love and think one-night stands will give you that. Maybe it does, for a minute. You tell them just enough to show them you're not just a pretty face, whisper sweet forget-me-nots in their ears, and on the rare occasions you stay until morning, you promise to call. Sometimes you do, but there’s always some bullshit excuse why you can’t meet up again, so you ghost her. You're afraid to get close; let anyone know the real you because you’re scared when they do, they won’t like you. So you play the asshole, make reckless decisions, and reject everyone before they can reject you. But all that trauma, all that baggage you have, you bring it into the air, too, and it’s dangerous. That’s why we call you, Bagman.” 
Fuck. He managed to keep his expression neutral, but his heart rate increased, and he felt the tickle of emotion that threatened to blur his vision. Everything she’d said hit so close to home that he pondered if she was some kind of psychic. Or was he really that easy to read?
Instead of reacting in a way he thought she’d take pleasure in, he smirked, “You think I’m pretty?”
She scoffed, rolling her eyes, “of everything I said, that's all you heard, isn’t it?” she shook her head, rising to her feet. “Everyone has a weakness. Yours seems to be that you think you don’t have one,” she said, walking toward the bedroom. “I’m going to bed.”
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Ryleigh lay staring at the ceiling. She should have learned her lesson by now - don’t engage with a fool. But she’d tried, she honestly had, but Hangman clearly didn’t recognize a peace offering when it was extended to him. She’d been curious about him since they met, and, as she confessed, she wanted to know what made Jake Seresin, Hangman.
The persona of his call sign couldn’t be who he was, in the air and on solid ground, but after this evening, she was beginning to wonder.
She heard him shuffling around, doors and windows rattling, so she assumed he was checking they were locked, water running, probably brushing his teeth, the toilet flushed, and then silence.
She strained to listen, wondering what he could possibly be doing. Seconds before she was ready to investigate, he called her name softly from right outside the door.
“Yeah,” she called out just as quietly.
“I need your help.” 
Had he not sounded so sincere, she’d have expected to open the door to find him nursing a hard-on that required her help. What she found wasn’t anything she’d have ever expected.
Hangman frozen in place, wide eyes fixed on the floor.
“Seriously,” she snickered, following his line of sight, barely containing the full-on body laugh. She looked from the spider to the terrified expression of the half-naked man. “You’re scared of spiders?”
“Yes,” he said, gritting his teeth, gaze never leaving his adversary. “Yes, I am. You’re afraid of needles, and I’m afraid of spiders. THEY’RE SMALL AND UNPREDICTABLE AND RUN REALLY FAST, OK?”
She bit her lips to keep from laughing. Jake Hangman Seresin, full of bravado and seemingly sculpted by marble that she admired while he kept an eye on the enemy, was afraid of a spider not even the size of her thumb. 
“Happy now?” he asked, finally meeting her eyes. “You know something about me-oh fuck. Where did it go?” he jumped to press his back against the wall, scanning the hallway.
She wanted to laugh so desperately that her stomach muscles hurt from restraining it, but she knew he’d never reveal anything to her if she did. “He scurried into the bathroom,” she told him, taking his hand. “I promise.”
He seemed to freeze again, looking from her face to her hand but hesitated only a second before interlocking their fingers and allowing her to tug him into the bedroom. He comically fast slammed the door shut as if that could stop the minuscule creature from entering. Regardless it seemed to calm him, and he climbed into his bed without further comment.
Ryleigh followed his lead and climbed back into her bed. The silence seemed deafening, which was odd. They were supposed to be sleeping; silence was required for such a task.
As the sun had set, the temperature dropped, and the furnace either couldn't keep up or was on a timer. The room had lost some of its warmth, and Ryleigh shivered. She pulled the blanket tighter around her, but it was thin, and she wondered if there was a supply closet with a thicker comforter. 
“I can hear you shivering from over here,” Jake grumbled. 
“It’s cold,” she moaned, teeth chattering. “The quilt is thin.”
He sighed, slipping out of his bed, and she lifted enough to look over at him as he pulled the quilt from his bed and threw it over her.
“May I?” he asked, lifting both sheets.
She scooted over to give him more room. He accepted the silent invitation and slipped in behind her. An arm draped over her stomach, pulling her back against his chest. He was like a portable heater; warmth radiated from him. 
She fought a contented hum, instead snipping, “Of course, you're the big spoon.”
“You wanna lie on your bad leg?” he asked tightly. “We can swap.”
Ryleigh smirked, enjoying that she had irked him. “No, just shut up and go to sleep.”
His hot breath tickled the base of her skull as his breathing evened out, but it was obvious he wasn’t sleeping or even trying to. The wind whistled outside, and he pulled her tighter against him as if it had made her colder.
“I’m close with my sister. And my mom, when my Dad isn’t around,” Jake admitted to her back. “My life was planned out for me. School, Navy, pilot, admiral. But I fell for my high school sweetheart, Amber.” He paused as if reliving the memory, and Ryleigh held her breath. “I changed all my plans to follow her across the country. My Dad disowned me - told me I was wasting my life, and I was no son of his to be throwing away my future for a girl. I got a scholarship, so I didn’t need his money. I worked three jobs over the summer to save enough to buy a car and put a deposit on an apartment. I wanted to surprise Amber. I showed up at her house in a beat-up old Jeep, ready to start our life together. I walked in on her fucking her brother’s best friend. I took that Jeep straight to the recruitment office and never looked back, but my dad never forgave me.” He took a deep breath, and Ryleigh felt the pain in it as if it were her own. “Nothing was ever good enough after that, I graduated top of my class at Top Gun, but my score was ten below the guy the year before, so not good enough. I have two confirmed kills, two more than him, but I can’t tell him that because it’s classified, and he’d see it as a breach of confidentiality and, therefore, treason.”
She waited for a beat in case he wasn’t finished, but the only thing to be heard was the howling wind. “Now it all kinda makes more sense,” Ryleigh said as if she’d just discovered the meaning of life. “Cheaters are not a reflection of you. And your dad is a jackass. He’s not supposed to disown you for your decisions. People aren’t supposed to claim to love you and then betray you, Jake.” His muscled arm across her stomach tensed and remained while she continued. “You pushing people away or acting like an asshole just means you’ll get more of the same results. But ultimately, you’ll end up alone and sad. Eventually, you’ll need to let someone in.” 
He remained quiet and tense, and she wondered if she may have angered him.
“That’s the first time you’ve ever called me Jake,” he noted in a hushed whisper. She laughed just as quietly; he was probably right. It was quiet for a long time, and she could practically hear the cogs turning in Jake’s brain. 
“You up for another game?” he asked. 
“Sure.” 
“How about while we’re stuck here, we play at being friends.”
“I’d like that,” she said without hesitating. She cupped the hand over her stomach with her own, pulled it to her mouth, and kissed his palm.
He dipped closer, kissing the base of her neck, breathing his words into her skin, “Night, Ryleigh.” 
“Night, Jake,” she said, and his tense muscles relaxed.
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Part 3 - Vacation Plans
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