#who even cares about the world-ending stakes they RUINED HIS VACATION | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

soulmate-game · 3 years

Text

Prompt: “How did you- No, nevermind, I don't want to know, plausible deniability and all that" with... hmmmm.... Dick? Yeah, with Dick!

Real quick, I think a few of you misunderstood. When I say 3-from-1, I mean I am taking your single quote and pairing, and using it in all three prompts, not just one. Maybe this first one will help explain. Here are parts 1 and 2, since I think I’ve gone long enough without giving you guys content. I’m still working on the last part for this prompt, but it should be done soon!

— Part 1: The Romantic One (so Dickinette)

Tom and Sabine had decided that maybe a break from Paris was in order. Nobody could tell if it was the maniac turning random citizens into superpowered villains every other day, the fact that their daughter had come home with a few bruises that suggested extreme escalation on the side of her school bullies, or how they had caught said daughter asleep against her mannequin— standing up and drooling all over her expensive fabric.

Paris was clearly not a healthy place for Marinette at the moment, and a nice month-long vacation to Jump City was just what they needed. It was similar enough, with its villains and heroes, that they wouldn’t get too whiplashed by the long change in scenery. But it was also a lot safer than Paris was at the moment, and without nearly as many frequent large-scale villain attacks that ended with half the city in ruins as other places (looking at you, Gotham and Metropolis). The lack of villains that took advantage of civilian emotions was a plus.

Marinette, for one, was extremely grateful for the change. Sure, she still had to teleport back to Paris whenever an Akuma showed up, but Jump City was so much easier to relax in. And the ability to see the city’s heroes just walking around in full costume during the day, just relaxing, was an unexpectedly nice thing to experience. Marinette, as it turned out, happened to have a similar taste for places to hang out.

Now, she never spoke to them. She tended to just smile at the sight of them and go back to her own business— she knew how annoying it could be when people always invaded someone’s personal life just because they were well known. So when she saw them every now and then at the best arcade in town, or at one of the few vegan-friendly restaurants she liked? It brightened her day a bit, and she was pleasantly relaxed for quite a while afterwards. It was like, despite never actually approaching them, she was still among friends for once. People who understood everything she had gone through over the past several years since donning the Ladybug miraculous.

So yeah, she was enjoying her time in Jump City. So much so that her parents extended the trip indefinitely, and went through all the necessary paperwork to open a second location for their bakery in the city. They liked it there too.

That led to Marinette standing in line inside of the bank, right after getting all her own paperwork to attend school in Jump City in order. She was already exhausted from all the waiting and general boredom that followed doing anything official in America, and it was already past sunset to boot. The last thing she wanted was to be around when a villain attacked. The bank was already about to close and she didn’t know if they’d call her up in time for her to do what she needed to do.

And what happens? A blue-skinned magician with clear insanity and far too much of a resemblance to an Akuma to give her any sort of comfort comes bursting in and robbing the place. Marinette could only sigh, taking out her phone and informing her parents about the change in plans with all the ease of someone who was far too used to these kinds of things to be healthy. Luckily, the Teen Titans burst in only a few seconds later— must have been on a stake out, she thought.

Marinette put her phone away, deciding just to watch everyone in action. It was almost surreal, seeing such a large team fighting with such fluidity and lack of arguing. They seemed like such a perfect team, it made her envious. Only Chat was a good partner anymore, Marinette dreaded the days she had to find another temporary holder because nobody was a safe choice anymore. But the Teen Titans? They were a beautiful sight to behold.

That is, until Mumbo set his sights on her. The only civilian who wasn’t currently restrained, panicked, or hiding. Marinette blinked.

Oh, she thought. I must have been so tired I forgot to react to anything again.

But Marinette was also too tired to care much about first impressions, so the second Mumbo grabbed her arm and tried to use her as a hostage, she Reacted. The Teen Titans could only watch as Marinette jumped up and over Mumbo’s head, dragging his arm behind him in the process, before slamming her other fist into the small of his back and sending him onto his knees. As he tried to twist away, she kneed his wand out of his hand and twisted his other arm behind his back before he could cast another spell. Right before he could say some magic word and turn the tables on her, he was met with her head hitting the back of his and sending him unconscious immediately.

Problem handled, Marinette let go of him and backed off, dusting her hands off before letting loose a huge yawn.

She turned to leave when Cyborg’s hesitant voice Called out: “Uh, Ma’am? You should wait for the police. They’ll probably want your statement.”

Marinette blinked, and sighed as her shoulders dropped in dismay. “Oh yeah. I forgot I actually fought this time. Sorry,” she sighed again before adjusting her purse on her shoulder and obediently walking further inside the bank, leaning against the wall to wait. That was when Robin approached her, passing a few glances between her and the now-bound-up Mumbo.

"How did you- No, nevermind, I don't want to know, plausible deniability and all that,” he cut himself off mid-question, shaking his head. Marinette couldn’t help but laugh.

“It’s nothing all that special, Monsieur Robin,” Marinette assured, still amused. “And I’ve seen you do far more impressive things, I’m hardly that good of a fighter. My Maman has a background in martial arts, her whole side of the family has a minor obsession with teaching the girls how to fight,” she admitted with a small shrug. “It’s how we bonded, growing up. Every weekend she’d spar with me and we’d spend the whole day just training, and my Papan would bring food in every now and then when he wanted us to take a break. We don’t do it as often now, my Maman says she’s getting a little too old to spar all the time, but I still practice on my own.”

The vigilante blinked, not knowing how to respond for a moment. It was then that Marinette noticed the entire team had been listening, the police having already arrived and taking Mumbo away in cuffs. She blushed a bit, coughing into her hand in embarrassment.

“A-Ah, well. I wouldn’t have interfered at all if I wasn’t so tired, I’m sorry if I got in your way,” she began to babble, the usual nerves that came with having so many eyes on her kicking in. “I tend to space out when I’m exhausted, and so I kinda forgot to react when Mumbo came in? I just spaced out, and I got distracted watching you guys fight so well, and then he tried to grab me and I just… kinda… reacted?” Her voice got faster and higher as she spoke, until she ended her babbling by making it sound like a question. “I promise I won’t make this habit or anything, it’s just been a long day!”

“You…” It was Beast Boy who spoke up, eyes wide. “Did that while you were exhausted?! Woah! I’ve never seen anyone other than Robin fight like that when they were tired!”

Marinette knew her face must have been completely red by then, because it felt like her head was on fire. “I-it’s really not a big deal!” She started waving her hands in Marinette Denial, shaking her head like crazy. “P-probably just a fluke or something! I’ll just give my statement and get out of your hair!” She didn’t wait for a response before fleeing to the police out of sheer humiliation, and giving them the world’s fastest statement. The Titans tried to get her attention as she left, but her face was still one giant, ripe tomato and she just speed walked right past them without a word.

She didn’t even notice that she was followed home, or that she had a team of heroes watching her for a while before they completed their background search and left back for their own home. Or that Robin cast a glance back at her apartment several times as they left, questions crossing his mind too fast to recall all of them.

It wasn’t until a week later that Marinette saw them again, this time when she was at the grocery store. She let her shoulders drop when she saw them talking to each other in the middle of a random aisle, debating over which brand of a product to buy. Once again, a small smile crossed over her lips and she walked on by, fully intent on leaving them be and enjoying the aura of calm that their presence always seemed to give her. It was as she was calmly debating over which kind of fruit would make the best filling for the danishes she wanted to make, that a hand tapped her shoulder. She hummed, tearing her eyes away from the blueberries and raspberries to turn around.

“Yes? Do you need—“ she cut herself off when she saw that the person who had tapped her shoulder was none other than Robin himself, with the rest of his team giving her friendly smiles over his shoulder. She blue screened for a moment before shaking her head, sending him a small, confused smile. “Is there something you need, Monsieur Robin?”

“As a matter of fact,” he ran a hand through his unfairly fluffy hair as he gave her a far too charming, lopsided grin. “I hope you don’t mind that I did some research on you and your family after we met last week—“ Marinette almost laughed when she saw how his teammates face-palmed behind him and quietly groaned about how much tact he lacked. “—and I realized why your movements seemed so familiar. Your mother wouldn’t happen to be from the Cheng family in Hong Kong, would she?”

Marinette immediately lost most of her embarrassment, snorting. “You’re the one who did my background check, you tell me,” she teased. The rest of the Titans seemed floored by the fact that she wasn’t at all annoyed, insulted, or creeped out. “But since you’re asking anyway, yes. The group of primarily female martial artists in Hong Kong, the Chengs, is run by my Aunt. Why?”

Robin’s smile grew. “Well, it just so happens that they have one of the only unique combat styles that my mentor— Batman, of course— was never able to learn.”

Marinette actually did laugh now, connecting the dots as to what he wanted to actually ask. “Ah, because they only accept male pupils if they are blood-relations, non? Let me guess,” she crossed her arms and popped one hip, giving him a smug little grin. “You want me to teach you?”

“We have the best training facilities you have ever seen,” he bribed, eyes practically shining at the prospect of training in a new style of combat.

“I don’t doubt it,” Marinette got a little dreamy eyed herself at the thought. “And Maman can’t spar with me anytime soon… why not? I’m not bound by the Cheng rules after all, nobody can get mad if I teach you. And it requires a lot of gymnastic ability, which you clearly already have. Just one question,” she turned, gesturing to the fruit behind her. “Do you prefer blueberry or raspberry? I’m trying out a new danish recipe and don’t know which to choose.”

She did not miss how, as she was walking out with a few new acquaintances by her side and a few cases of blueberries, Cyborg whispered to Beast Boy:

“I can’t believe Robin actually picked up a girl when he led with the ‘we did an extensive check on your family history’ schtick!”

—*—*—*—*—*

Slam! Marinette’s shin collided with Robin’s waist while they were both mid-air, sending the vigilante flying to the ground, tumbling until he could gain traction and stop himself. Marinette, on the other hand, landed on the padded floor of the training room nimbly.

“Not bad!” She praised. “You’re picking it all up really quickly!” Robin scoffed goodbye-naturedly, smirking as he stood up.

“If you didn’t restrict me to only using Cheng-style, I’d have won,” he boasted. Marinette’s eyes shone playfully at the challenge.

“Are you sure? I restricted myself to that style as well,” she teased. “It is the best way for you to learn, after all.”

As per usual, the rest of the Titans were nearby either doing their own training or snacking as they watched. Nobody left Marinette alone when she was at the Tower, which she understood. Apparently they had had someone betray them in the past, so she understood being cautious around her even if she had been teaching Robin twice a week for the past two months. Starfire floated up, flying over to tell them both about how much more exciting this spar had been than the last few, but the Tamaranean was interrupted when Marinette’s phone let out a loud alarm.

Being who they were, all the Titans stiffened and were immediately at alert. Marinette cursed softly, pulling out her phone to see—

“What’s an Akuma Alert?” Robin, ever the nosy idiot, asked. Marinette clenched her jaw. This was not good. It was only nine in the morning in Jump City, making it three in the morning back in Paris. Marinette had hoped he wouldn’t decide to have a late night attack when she was in Titan Tower and essentially trapped.

Marinette looked up from her phone, looking around as everyone’s gazes grew suspicious the longer she stayed silent. Until, finally, she sighed and silenced her phone. She began to speak even as she unzipped her purse to put it away.

“It’s an alert from Paris. I’m sorry, and I understand if you do not wish to see me after this, but I must go.”

“Go where? Paris?” Raven asked, sweeping up to stand next to Beat Boy. If this turned out to be another Terra situation, the boy would need support again. Terra had torn his heart out, and Beast Boy had finally allowed himself to like Marinette and get close to her as a friend. All of them had. “How?”

Marinette clenched her eyes shut, mourning the friendships she was sure she had just lost. Maybe she should stick to the opposite side of the city from then on, so they wouldn’t have to run into her again. With that plan in mind, she drew the magical pair of glasses out of her purse and put them on, making Kaalki materialize.

The Titans stiffened, and Marinette felt her heart shatter a little. But she still called on both of her transformations, and left to save Paris.

She did not go back to the Tower. When the battle was over, she just opened the returning portal straight to the alley outside her apartment and went back home to sob into her pillow. She couldn’t explain what was going on, wasn’t sure they would even want to listen. And she and Robin had been getting so close, too.

But Marinette would not stick around after keeping secrets. She was certain they hated her, anyway.

She went out of her way to avoid them, not even looking their way when they passed by her apartment— on purpose, she was sure. She did everything she could to avoid them. But one day, she couldn’t. She was in the middle of trying to lose them in the alleys on her way to go grocery shopping, when a wall of black cut her off, shadows moving to pile up dumpsters and block her escape. Marinette shrunk in on herself— so they were finally moving up to using their powers, huh?

She heard Starfire drop down to hover behind her next, then the sight of a green hawk landing on a balcony nearby gave away Beast Boy. Robin dropped down from a rooftop, and Cyborg pulled up in the T-Car to block the entrance of the alleyway.

“Marinette,” Robin started, but she shook her head and cut him off.

“Robin, I’m trying to stay out of you guys’s way. I get it, I kept secrets and that’s not cool, I’m not gonna interfere in your fights, you don’t have to worry about—“

“Friend Marinette, we are not angry,” Starfire spoke up, flying over to land next to her. She put a hand on Marinette’s shoulder. Her eyes widened, and the smaller girl gulped.

“You… aren't?”

“We hacked into Paris news and street cams after you left,” Cyborg admitted, crossing his arms before giving her a wide smile. “Why didn’t you just tell us you were one of Paris’s heroes? Did ya think we wouldn’t understand or something?” Marinette froze, and then her face grew red when realization set in.

“... Oh Kwami. I’m freaking out about heroes finding out my identity… as a hero…” she groaned as soon as she said it, her head falling into her hands as her friends laughed around her.

“Guess I don’t need that plausible deniability for the reasons I thought,” Robin joked, making Marinette glare at him.

“Don’t tease me, I’m too busy being mortified.”

“Too busy for me to offer you a room at the tower?” He asked, and Marinette looked up to berate him for continuing to tease her, only to stop and realize that his expression said he was completely serious. Her eyes widened in shock once again, and she opened and closed her mouth only for her voice to not work. Robin smiled, holding out one of his hands to her.

“Just for whenever you need a break. Judging by your reaction, your parents don’t know about Ladybug, right?” Marinettte winced at his words. She gave them a nervous laugh, rubbing the back of her neck.

“No, back when we lived in Paris it was way too risky for anyone to know, even them. And now that we’re in Jump City, it’s been so long that…” she shook her head. “I don’t think they’d take it well.”

“Because they don’t understand,” Raven guessed, earning a nod and a small smile from the Parisian girl.

“And that’s why we’re offering you a room,” Robin continued, crossing his arms and giving her a confident, relaxed smile. “A temporary one, for whenever you need to drop by and be around people who understand you a bit better. Now, everything outside of the bedroom itself will still heavily monitor you for a while, but—“

“That’s fine!” Marinette agreed easily, beaming happily. “I get it, trust isn’t something that is easy to earn especially when it’s already been broken before. But the offer itself is already extremely generous, thank you!” Marinette lunged forward, tackling Robin in a tight hug. He laughed, returning the embrace.

“Dogpile!” Beast Boy yelled, of course transforming into a giant Saint Bernard as he leapt to start a group hug. His huge, furry body slammed Marinette and Robin to the ground, making them groan in pain and annoyance before Starfire picked all three of them up and started her own crushing hug. Followed by Cyborg wrapping his hands around the pile of superhero on the opposite side, and Raven… just kinda floating over to slump on top of the ball of teenaged heroes in the laziest hug ever.

Marinette didn’t stop laughing until her sides hurt.

—*—*—*—*—*

Marinette had become a constant presence at the Tower, and Ladybug had even become an occasional member of the Team. She was officially labeled as a reserve member of the Titans, since her duties in Paris came first. But she was fine with that. She didn’t want to draw Hawkmoth’s attention to Jump City after all, but the few and far-between appearances she made weren’t too odd. It had already been a year and a half of her new life in America, on one of the weekends where Marinette found herself sprawled against the couch scrolling through Instagram on her phone, that everything changed. She heard the elevator door open, and took only a second to narrow down who it could be.

First; Kori was visiting Tamaran and wouldn’t be back for at least another week. Victor was working on the T-car and probably wouldn’t come back up for a while. Rachel was meditating, as always, and Marinette could still feel the magic aura from the floor above that told her that she had not moved a muscle. Gar was taking a literal cat nap on the kitchen counter. Only Robin was unaccounted for, since he had gone to Gotham to visit Batman for some “top secret Bat business” and could come back at any moment.

Deduction done, Marinette felt herself smile unintentionally. Her and Robin had become immeasurably close, and she had been pining after him for almost— well, since she first started training him all that time ago. So she sat up, ready to go attack her best friend and major crush in a hug.

“Welcome ba— WHAT THE FUCK?!” Marinette tripped over thin air like she hardly did nowadays, floored by the sight in front of her. Robin was a stickler for his identity, though the rest of the Titans weren’t really. She had never seen him out of uniform, including mask, in the entire time she’d known him. Never heard his real name.

But here stood a boy her age, with extremely familiar fluffy hair and strong jaw. Who seemed extremely conflicted and distraught, in a black hoodie and sweatpants. It was the glimpse of red and yellow under the fully zipped-up hoodie and the slip of black fabric he held in one tightly curled fist that solidified exactly who this blue-eyed beauty was. Marinette swallowed, her throat suddenly dry.

Her yell had startled Garfield awake, who burst into his normal form and was staring at the scene equally wide- eyed. He made a few rapid gestures with his hands before choking out;

“I— I’m gonna… go see if Cy needs help,” before he scrambled away and into the elevator, flabbergasted. Robin didn’t say a word the whole time, just silently moving out of the way for the other boy.

Once Beast Boy was gone, the silence returned with stifling intensity. Marinette finally managed to clear her throat and get her thoughts in order.

“Are you okay?” She asked, because his well-being was more important than the fact that she was seeing his whole face for the first time. Because the fact that this was happening at all meant that something was probably very wrong. Just to make sure, she reached out with her Guardian abilities to read his aura— and yes, it was Robin. It couldn’t be anyone else.

But he didn’t look at all like their normally composed, erratic, confident leader. He looked like a young adult who had just had his world upturned and didn’t know how to manage it. He finally raised his eyes from the ground to meet her’s.

“... Batman got a new Robin… a while ago, apparently.”

Marinette sucked air through her teeth, grimacing. Yeah, that… that was a lot. “Come here,” she sat down and patted the couch next to her. “You clearly need to talk. We can even spar later if you want.”

He walked over, sighing and running a hand through his hair. “For once, I don’t think sparring will help. I mean yeah, I left Batman a long time ago because he wouldn’t take me seriously, but…”

Marinette understood. That was different than Batman giving his title to someone entirely new without even telling him. So she sat, and she listened as Robin explained all about his new adoptive brother, about the fight he had had with Bruce. Because apparently Batman was Bruce Wayne, but Marinette would shelve that headache for another day. At the end of it all, she hummed.

“Sounds like you need a new name then.”

“Mari,” Robin glared at her half heartedly. “That’s all you have to say? Really?”

“No,” she shrugged. “But I can’t keep calling you Robin, can I? But okay, you want me to be serious? It sounds like he was trying to do a good thing, getting Jason off the streets. Was he right to just give your moniker away with no warning? Of course not. But I don’t think he did it maliciously. If anything, I think this proves that Robin is a title for Batman’s sidekick to hold. And you’ve gotten way past that point in your life.”

“Well, for starters,” he said after a while. “My real name’s Dick.”

Marinette deadpanned at him, raising an eyebrow. “... I’m sorry, what?”

That got a snort out of him, and he smiled for the first time since he got back, running a hand through his hair again as he grinned at her. “Well, technically it’s Richard. Richard Grayson. But I prefer going by Dick.”

“Oh for the love of— good luck surviving Victor and Gar after you tell them that,” she warned, rubbing her temples at the mere thought of the chaos that was going to ensue. Rob— Dick— just laughed. But this time when he fell silent, Marinette didn’t immediately notice through her preemptive headache. But when she did, she looked up at him only to see him staring at her silently, an odd spark in his eyes. “What?”

“Well, if we’re admitting things and getting rid of secrets…” he started, leaning back a bit as his cheeks suddenly took on a pink tint. He cleared his throat, but met her eyes bravely. “I’ve been wanting to ask you out for a while, Marinette. If, uh, if you want. To go out with me, I mean.”

Marinette sat there, out of order, for a moment as her brain refused to work. Dick panicked.

“I mean, I get it if you don’t. Dating in the team and all, probably not the smartest move ever. So I get it—“

“Shut up,” Marinette interrupted, her face entirely pink. “I just couldn’t talk for a sec. yes, Dick. A million times, yes I’ll go out with you. Holy crap how dare you catch me off guard like that you jerk,” she glared at him before the two of them broke, bursting into laughter and leaning on one another.

They had gone through a lot. If the others found them slumped against one another on the couch, asleep and still holding hands, well they deserved the rest after the day they’d had. Now whether or not they deserved the many photos that had been taken to be held as blackmail against them? That was up for debate.

—*—*—*—*—*

Part 2: The same prompt, but siblings this time

#maribat #ml x dc #mlb x dc #dickinette #3 from 1 challenge

322 notes · View notes

mostlysignssomeportents · 3 years

Text

Corruption

“Corruption” conjures images of bags of cash changing hands in deserted parking garages, but I’d like to propose a simple and concrete definition that goes beyond that: “Corruption” is when something bad happens because its harms are diffused and its gains are concentrated.

Here’s what I mean. West Virginia is known as coal country, but coal is actually a small, dwindling industry in WV; WV’s biggest industry is chemical processing, dominated by Dow — chem processing, like many industries, is heavily concentrated into a few global monopolies.

WV has a water crisis, with frequent “boil water” advisories. Its origins are in the chemical industry — specifically, in a regulatory proceeding where state regulators sought comment on whether to relax the EPA’s national guidelines on chemical runoff into drinking water.

Dow, acting through the manufacturers’ association it controls, argued the people of WV could absorb more poison than the national average because they were much fatter than the median American, and when they drank, it was mostly beer, not water.

https://washingtonmonthly.com/2019/03/14/the-real-elitists-looking-down-on-trump-voters/

No, really.

Here’s the thing. I’m not qualified to set the safe levels of different kinds of runoff in water-tables. It’s probably not zero (at least, not for most chemicals), but it’s also not “anything goes.”

It’s a question that requires subtle, interdisciplinary expertise: chemistry, health, environmental science. It’s an area where people of good faith can disagree.

These thorny, high-stakes technical questions that cross disciplines are the norm, not the exception.

Even if you have the technical knowhow to evaluate whether wearing masks fights covid, that doesn’t answer questions about vaccine safety, or whether zoom-school will turn your kid into an ignoramus.

Answer those questions and you’re left with still more: should you get in one of Southwest’s recertified Boeing 737-Max airplanes? Is the code specifying the reinforced steel joist that holds up your roof adequate, or is your building gonna collapse?

Should you eat carbs? Will your 401k preserve you through a dignified retirement? Answering all of these questions definitively for yourself requires earning 50+ PhDs, but also, people who have those PhDs don’t all agree with one another.

In a technologically complex world, there will always be official advice whose technical arguments we can’t understand. Our only reassurance is the process by which that advice is arrived at.

We may not understand the arguments, but we can recognize an open, independent process refereed by neutral regulators who show their work and recuse themselves if they have a conflict of interest.

We don’t always understand what goes on inside the box, but we can tell whether the box itself is sound. We can tell judges are financially interested in outcomes, whether they publish their deliberations, whether they revisit their conclusions in light of new evidence.

That’s all we’ve got, and it depends on a balance of powers that arises from a pluralistic, diffused set of industrial interests.

When an industry says with one voice that West Virginians are so fat that we can poison them without injury, it carries a lot of weight.

(so to speak)

It’s a stupid argument. It’s a wicked argument. It’s a lethal argument. It’s the kind of argument that might get you laughed out of the room if it is filled with hundreds of squabbling chemical companies looking to dunk on one another.

That’s the thing about conspiracies (and Dow was, in fact, engaged in a conspiracy to poison West Virginians to enrich its shareholders) — they require a lot of discipline, with all the conspirators remaining loyal to the conspiracy and no one breaking ranks.

The bigger a group is, the more it struggles to keep a united front. That’s why there’s so much billionaire class solidarity. Sure, it’s hard to maintain unity among a clutch of grandiose maniacs, but it’s much harder to maintain unity among billions of their victims.

Monopolization is corruption’s handmaiden — not just because it lets Dow hire fancy lawyers and “experts” to dress up “fat people are immune to poison” as sound policy, but because the industry can sing that awfful song with one voice.

Dow spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to win a policy that will save it millions — and cost the people of WV hundreds of millions or even billions in health costs, lost productivity, and, of course, the intergenerational trauma of ruined and lost human lives.

The reason millions in gains can trump billions in losses is that that the millions are reaped by just a few firms, who can wield them with precision to secure the continued right to impose costs on the rest of us, while the losses are spread out across the whole state.

For Dow to corrupt West Virginia’s legislature, it need only tithe a small percentage of its winnings to political causes and dark money orgs.

For West Virginians to fight corruption in the cash-money world of political influence campaigns, they have to overcome their collective action problem and outspend Dow — all while bearing the human and monetary costs of Dow’s corruption.

America is a land of manifest, obvious dysfunctions, and close examination reveals their common root in corruption.

Take the health-care system: Americans pay more for worse outcomes than anyone else in the rich world.

Their healthcare is rationed by faceless, cruel bureaucracies. They ration their medicine or skip necessary procedures. Patients hate this — but so do doctors and nurses, who have to hire armies of bureaucrats to fight with insurers.

Everyone hates this system. Everyone knows it’s rotten. Everyone — except for a handful of pharma, hospital and insurance monopolists, and the propagandists they pay to busily race through the crowd, busily swapping hats and shouting, “SOCIALISM! BOO! SOCIALISM!”

But while the US healthcare system is terrible at providing healthcare, it’s very good at jackpotting for monopolists. They reap billions while costing the public trillions, and they hand around millions to keep that situation intact.

We can see that in action right now. Nina Turner is running to take over a Congressional seat in northeastern Ohio vacated by Marcia Fudge when she joined Biden’s cabinet.

https://www.dailyposter.com/dems-launch-proxy-war-on-medicare-for-all/

For 30 years, every Congressional rep for Ohio’s 11th supported Medicare for All — a commensense measure to end the long waits, price gouging and cruel bureaucratic rationing of for-profit care. Unsurprisingly, Turner also supports M4A.

https://twitter.com/ninaturner/status/1404793650895331337?s=20

In response, a group of corporate, establishment Congressional Dems have launched an all-out attack on Turner’s candidacy, joining forces with health-care lobbyists to raise vast corporate fortunes to support her primary challenger, Shontel Brown.

The seven Dem lawmakers attacking Turner have collectively taken in $5m from pharma and health-care monopolists. James E Clyburn alone has pocketed $1m from pharma. He’s leading the charge against Turner.

https://twitter.com/TaylorPopielarz/status/1405121330433957888

Before Clyburn accepted $1m worth of pharma money, he co-sponsored Medicare For All legislation. Now he’s its most bitter opponent, insisting that it’s political poison (a majority of his constituents support M4A).

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2020-election/live-blog/south-carolina-primary-live-updates-democrats-vote-2020-candidates-n1145296/ncrd1146076

One million people in Ohio lost their jobs — and health care — during the pandemic. The system is murdering and maiming people. It’s a wasteful boondoggle that’s bad for everyone except a tiny minority of shareholders and the corrupt officials who accept their blood-money.

It’s not just healthcare. Think of Exxon Mobil’s crime against humanity and Earth: the 40-year coverup and disinformation campaign to delay action on the climate emergency. Exxon spent millions, made tens of billions, and cost us all trillions.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/jun/30/climate-crisis-crime-fossil-fuels-environment

The megadroughts, once-in-millennium heatwaves, raging wildfires, annual floods-of-the-century and zoonitic plagues Exxon bought with their millions were objectively a very bad deal — but their concentrated gains beat our much larger diffused losses (so far). #ExxonKnew.

But corruption creates policy debt, and the interest on that debt compounds — in a degraded environment, worsening health, precarious work, and a collapse in trust in institutions. The corrupt have a structural advantage, but it’s not a sure thing.

Take Ohio (again). The GOP-dominated Senate passed legislation to ban Ohio cities from offering municipal broadband. Now, municipal broadband is the best internet in America: cheaper, faster and more reliable than anything the telecoms monopolists offer.

There are ~900 (mostly Republican) towns and counties where people get their internet from their local government:

https://muninetworks.org/communitymap

And they fucking love it, just as much as their Comcast-burdened peers elsewhere hate their service:

https://web.archive.org/web/20180808223947/https://www.consumerreports.org/phone-tv-internet-bundles/people-still-dont-like-their-cable-companies-telecom-survey/

Muni networks are better at everything to do with the internet: connection speeds, price, and customer service. There’s only one area in which they underperform relative to telecoms monopolies: generating profits for shareholders by overcharging and underinvesting.

There’s only a tiny minority of people who’d trade good internet service for profitable internet service (namely, the people receiving the profits). But the pro-monopolists have concentrated gains, while the public experiences diffused losses.

That’s why the Ohio Senate passed its budget bill banning municipal networks. But when the budget was reconciled in the Ohio House, the measure was killed, thanks to an all-out uprising led by the people of Fairlawn, who stepped up to defend Fairlawngig, their muni ISP.

The victory for muni broadband is a triumph of evidence over corruption — proof that the diffused nature of corruption losses can be overcome. It’s cause for hope, especially in light of this week’s collapse of the antitrust case against Facebook.

https://www.wired.com/story/ftc-antitrust-case-against-facebook-very-much-alive/

Facebook escaped justice by citing the theories of Robert Bork, Nixon’s chief criminal co-conspirator and Ronald Reagan’s court sorcerer. Bork insisted that anittrust law had but one purpose: to keep prices down.

https://pluralistic.net/2021/06/28/dubious-quant-residue/#incinerators-r-us

Any other consideration, especially political corruption arising from market concentration, was out of scope.

The court agreed. No surprise; 40% of the US Federal judiciary has attended a lavish “Manne Seminar,” junkets where they are indoctrinated into Borkism.

But the absurdity of ruling that Facebook isn’t a fit subject for anti-monopoly law is the beginning of the end for Borkism, prompting bipartisan calls — led by Elizabeth Warren — to explicitly redesign American antitrust.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/other/facebooks-surprise-antitrust-victory-could-inspire-congress-to-overhaul-the-rules-entirely/ar-AALCJz8

Corruption has many costs: monetary, human, environmental. But every bit as important is the cost to institutional credibility. Remember, none of us are capable of understanding the technical nuances of the dozens of life-or-death decisions we face daily.

If we can’t trust our institutions — if we don’t believe that regulators are neutral, good-faith experts in ardent pursuit of the truth and the public good — then our very idea of shared reality collapses, as Snowden has written:

https://edwardsnowden.substack.com/p/conspiracy-pt1

It’s hard to overstate the sheer, reeling epistemological terror of institutional collapse. When the EPA allows the chemical industry to poison America, how can you know whether the products in the store can be trusted not to kill your family?

https://theintercept.com/2021/06/30/epa-pesticides-exposure-opp/

Remember, the Flint water crisis came about as the result of corruption: the promises of “experts” that taking shortcuts to save money would come out all right, despite the copious evidence to the contrary.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flint_Water_Crisis

What parent of a permanently damaged child, poisoned by lead deliberately introduced to save pittances for a tiny group of people, could ever trust any “expert” process again?

Michigan Republicans saved millions at the expense of billions, but the gains were concentrated among the wealthy white taxpayers of the state who enjoyed cuts to the top marginal rate, and the costs were born by the Black families of Flint. That’s corruption.

#pluralistic

37 notes · View notes

pvrkacciosan · 3 years

Text

Part 14¦ Forgetful World

¦Previous Part

¦Creatures within us masterlist

Taglist: @dreamiezpsycho @rockteezy @bangtanxberm @leicy0756 (if you wish to be added just ask)

Notes: This is the sort of ending stretch of the book, but like I dinnae want the ending to be rushed so if there is like another five parts for the ending I apologise, I'm going to try and keep them not too long but I don't want to have a like loads of extra parts so if it gets bad because its sort of rushed, I'm sowwy< This part is much longer then others>

Yeosang extends his hand out for Tia to hold, looking at him she takes it raising up from Suki and Wooyoung's shared bed.

His brown eyes turned soft when they met hers, drawning her in like a trap. It was hard not to feel her heart swell in her chest─ doubling in size.

Every edge, line and imperfction on his skin didn't matter to her, all she wanted to do was run her finger along each and ever one of them. To know Yeosang for not just who he was as a person but also to know his body as well as he did.

What had transpired between them moments before flashed in her mind, Tia didn't noticed she had begun to smirk, her finger tips tingled in anticipation of touching him once again, to pull him back down against her. The feeling of his body weight pushing into her took away all the worry about her memory lost, the mere feeling of how his fingers brushed her lower stomach, how her body had wanted him it had the ache building between her legs once more.

She could feel Yeosang's grip on her hand gradually get tighter, he could smell the scent of her lust growing and his body was beginning to react to it, all he wanted to do was bury himself into her warmth on the landscape of the bed as he once had moments prior. What had started out as an attempted apology had turned into something much more heated.

It could not continue right now and that grated against his inner nerves. No words were exchanged, tugging at Tia's hand lightly Yeosang smiled when her gaze magnatised to his.

They both, still hand in hand, moved to the door, the walk back downstairs didn't seem as long this time to Tia and when they reached the bottom of the stairs Yeosang stuck his head inside their longue room and frowned when he saw no one sitting there on the couches.

Pulling Tia on they both walked side by side towards the kitchen where a small amount of chatter could be heard drifting through the Fedora pack house.

The entire pack was in the big open kitchen, most of the parents of the pack sat at the table their kids, sat around the room and at the island chairs, Suki even sat on one of the kitchen counter tops Wooyoung stood next to her, his hand on her knee with Jongho also sat on the counter top next to her.

The trio beckoned them in with a look, Yeosang could feel Tia tighten her grip as they stepped in and all eyes looked to them.

Seonghwa was next to his parents with Hongjoong talking to his father, the alpha held a hand over his mouth, a look of concentration vacating his features.

"What's going on?" Yeosang asked stopping himself and Tia by the island, where Yunho and Mingi were sat.

"We are discussing if we should trust the vampires or not" The Luna, Hongjoong's mother answered, she gave a hesitant glance to the alpha rubbing her hand over his forearm gently.

"How do we even know if they could help us?" Yunho's father asked causing his son to turn and look at him, "Seonghwa and Wooyoung have already explained this" Yunho spoke making a hand gesture to Seonghwa and Wooyoung who were both on different sides of the kitchen.

"They knew Tia before all this happened, they seem to care about her so why would they not help now?" Hongjoong added in finishing Yunho's statement off, looking up from the floor.

"didn't they say something about a witch?" Suki asked, Wooyoung nodded looking away from his mate, "She is right, they mentioned something about a powerful witch going into their club the other day"

Yeosang nudged Tia out from behind him, leading her to sit on one of the high chairs at the island, next to Mingi, the taller boy smiled at her once she had wiggled herself into a comfy position on the puffy stool.

"But it doesn't make sense why a powerful witch would go to a club run by vampires" Seonghwa's mother said bringing over a couple of drinks, placing them on the table she sat next to the Luna they both shared a look before glancing at the alpha once more.

"Does it matter that a witch was around vampires?" Tia asked causing every wolf including the alpha to glance up at her. The alpha watched her with a curious glint in his eye and with a gentle tone his spoke "I forget what it's like to have a human around here" Tia stiffened at his words.

The reminder that she was different made her feel even smaller in the room, surrounded by beings that were much stronger then her. Each of the other pack members gave each other subtle looks when the Alpha stood and made his way around the table, Yeosang was tracking his alpha's ever move as he stalked closer to his mate.

Tia adverted her gaze from the alpha with every step he took closer to her, curling her shoulders in on herself. The shadow of his presence stopped infront of her and she could faintly sense Yeosangs off to her right, he had stepped back a couple of paces when Hongjoong's father gave him a look.

The affect of an alpha's presence was like a powerful weight pushing down on those infront of them. She wasn't a werewolf but somehow she knew the alpha stood infront of her was not using the full extent of his authority.

"You do not have to shy away young one"

Hesitant, Tia tilted her head back to look at him, careful not to directly meet his gaze. "My acceptance of you happened the moment Yeosang brought you home the night of your attack, I know what you are to him now as I did then "

Yeosang hadn't moved his gaze from Tia until the alpha said that, glancing around at all the other pack member it was clear all the parents had also known.

"It's not official yet" the alpha started "But you are a member of this pack and I don't like it when my pack members are left in the dark, so allow me to enlighten you, A witch going to a club full of vampires is weird because after the war a few years ago the witches went into hiding and don't tend to leave their covens in fear some may abuse their power and seeing it was vampires who sparked the embers of the war it is odd that a powerful witch would go to a club run by them"

Tia tried to peice together the new information with all the knowledge she already had of this new and confusing world, the impact of it all was sickening. The influx of the possiblities that were opened by the information swarmed her and she couldn't help but wonder what her kind would do if they ever optained this knowledge. Experiments, torture, would some live in fear of the unknown the creatures would bring.

Would a new terrifying creature consume each person, ruining their humanity. Why her? why was she the one to know of this, why had it been her?

"I'm leaving it up to you to decide what we do" The alpha said, mouth falling open, Tia scanned his face for any look of hesitation of apprehension.

"You think I should be trusted with such responsiblity?" Tia was shocked with his revelation to say the least, she wouldn't trust herself to make food right now and not give anyone food poisoning, let alone make decision for an entire pack of werewolves.

"I do, it is your memories that are at stake after all" the alpha said, the corner of his lip quipping up a little into a half smile.

Tia sent a look to Suki, she shrugged her shoulder, ugh she wasn't helping, and so Tia turned to the one other person she knew would give her the support she seeked, Yeosang gave her a reasuring smile with a subtle nod.

"Okay, I say we go to the vampires and see if they can help us find the witch"

"Now we're talking" Suki chipped happily jumping off the countertop, Tia didn't miss the way the alpha watched Suki with a fond smile and twinkle in his eye as if he was watching his very own daughter.

Suki stopped pulling Tia from her stool, her hands on Tia's shoulders, "Tsk,Tsk you can't go to a club dressed like that, come on" Suki tutted looking Tia's outfit up and down. "We won't be long" Suki said quickly not taking her eyes from Tia.

Tia happened to like the plain blue t-shirt and dark jeans she had on, clearly her new found friend did not think the same way as Suki looped arms with her and began dragging her out the room, sending a look back to Yeosang over her shoulder he did nothing but wave his hand with a smile on his lips.

Tia wanted to curse at her mate for his little to no care about her safety with his own sister, the sound of it in her head brought a genuine cheesy grin to her face.

Her mate.

»»——⍟——««

Tia re-adjusted the backless spaghetti strap top for what left like the fifteenth time. "Are you sure this isn't too small?" Tia asked Suki, the girl in question came out from her bathroom, wearing a corset like style top with black jeans and a pair of heels while she carried another pair in her hand.

"It's just a tighter fit, but its supposed to be like that and besides you look sexy as hell, so own it" Suki's words did little to ease the slight discomfort of the outfit but it did help Tia's confidence a little, at first when she put the fake leather trousers on she had thought they made her slightly bigger legs look too well ...big, she felt curvier then usual in Suki's tighter clothing. Her usual style consisting of looser fitting clothes, the insecurity of being a little curvier always made her conscious of what she wore.

Suki raised the other pair of heels out to Tia "Here" she held out a pair of red thick base heels, Tia took one look at them before shaking her head, "No, Suki" the room fell silent as Suki froze, glancing at Tia with raised eyebrows, she was scowling for a short fraction of a minute before a sly smile slid onto her red tainted lips.

Seconds later Suki had tackled her back onto her bed, yelling a quick "Suki yes "

Tia fought with the girl ontop of her arms flying around in a tangled heap, "sit still" Suki hissed trying to catch Tia knees before they hit her in the face. Tia quickly realised her efforts were futile when she felt Suki sit on her stomach, pinning her to the bed. Feeling Suki grab her legs, trying to put the heels on Tia herself. Tia sulked thumping her head back against the bed "Suki I can't wear heels"

"Bullshit" Suki muttered while she focused on tightening the straps around Tia's ankles, finally satisfied she climbed off of Tia, "If I'm going to suffer while wearing heels so are you"

Tia sat up on the bed cocking an eyebrow at her, "No one said you had to wear heels" Suki waved her off "Well they make me taller then Wooyoung, and that irritates him, Come on" she gestured for Tia to get up "Give me a spin"

Unsteadily, Tia wobbled her way up from the bed, awkwardly she stood at her full height.

Suki made a funny squealling noise as she clapped her hands together, "Oh my you are so pretty, I can't wait to see Yeosang's face" she laughed, picking her phone up from off the dresser, "come on I want to see his reaction"

Tia didn't understand how Suki could look so good while walking in her heels, Tia was just walking while trying not to break an ankle, she probably looked like bambi on ice all the while Suki looked like some kind on model on a red carpet.

The corset top Suki wore enhanced the movement of her hips, the tight black jeans making her ass look flawless. Tia was so elated when Suki waited for her at the top of the stairs, she didn't believe for one second she could get down the stairs without falling down them.

Suki held an arm out and helped Tia with ever step, only when they reached the last step did Tia breath again.

The unsteady feeling of her ankles being weak beneath her had Tia reaching out for something to hold onto, watching her feet, her hand was extended out, waving through mid air in search of the wall, instead her fingers brushed against someone and a hand grasped hers.

Yeosang slid his hand up her arm to about her elbow to steady her, "Are you okay?"

When he had heard the unsteady footsteps coming down the stairs he had made sure to be near the bottom in case one of them were to fall.

The sight of Tia in the outfit had made him feel some kind of way, until he remembered where they were going and other men would look at her, he was half tempted to make her change and yell at Suki for putting her in such an outfit.

The tight fit of the clothes was making Tia look uncomfortable but Yeosang couldn't deny, she looked amazing. Despite her looking like she was going to go over her ankle.

She gave a small nod while glancing back down at the heels on her feet, "Just swell"

Yeosang chuckled at his mate, holding an arm out for her to steady herself. She took his gesture in with the entwining of her own arm, leaning into his side the warmth of his body enveloping hers, hugging her in his comfort 'till he was all she could feel.

She embraced the feeling of it as they walked into the loungue were the others were stood, Tia watched as Suki made her way passed the others, stopping infront of Wooyoung. He turned to look her up and down and Tia had to hide her smirk when his eyes nearly bugged out of their sockets.

Watching on Tia smiled as Wooyoung grasped Suki by the waist pulling her in closer to him. He whispered something, that Tia couldn't hear, into Suki's ear making her emit a small laugh.

A voice cleared themselve behind Yeosang and herself and she glanced over her shoulder, spotting the Alpha stood with his Son and Mate on either of his sides. Yeosang tugged her down the couple steps leading into the room, they both turned in time to watch Hongjoong walked down away from his father.

The youngest generation of the Fedora pack stood around, watching and waiting for their Alpha to speak. Anticipation buzzed in the air, Tia could feel it pricking against her skin, making her stomach curl.

"I don't want to clean up any mess, Do I make myself clear?" the Alpha asked, eye scanning each of the younger wolves faces, they all nodded.

"Do not make me regret letting you guys do this without supervison" he added. He met Tia's gaze and she felt herself involuntarily stiffen, Making Yeosang look to her.

"And to you" the Alpha stepped down, coming further into the room drawing closer and closer to Tia. Gripping her hand tightly into the clothing covering Yeosang's arm the air shut itself inside her chest. The Alpha stopped paces infront of her, "I wish you the best of luck, and want to remind you no matter what you remember you will always have a place among us"

A bubbling warmth spread inside her chest at the Alpha's words, releasing her grip on Yeosang's arm she pushed herself forwards to wrap her arms around the Alpha's mid-section in a hug.

The room stayed silent as all the wolves glanced at each other, The luna stood smiling at the door, watching as her mate stood shocked before he wrapped his arms around the human female, returning the embrace.

Pulling away Tia noticed the atmosphere of the room changing, the Alpha gave a quick nod to her before turning meeting his mate by the archway, he turned once more to glance at the younger werewolves in the room, he nodded saying nothing before continuing out with his mate.

"Okay so what's the bet we make a mess he has to clean up?" Jongho asked from somewhere near the back of the room.

Hongjoong sighed walking to the front of the group, "Let's atleast make a effort to not mess up this time" Suki laughed making her way from next to Wooyoung, to Hongjoong's side, cocking her head to the side with a small smirk "don't we always" Hongjoong narrows his eyes at his pack sister "Suki" he warned, the girl threw her hands up "What? come on, you know trouble always has a way of finding us"

Suki appeared next to Tia, looping arms with her she began to walk dragging an unsteady Tia with her. Leaning in "Did you see Wooyoung's face when he saw my height difference" she whispered not hiding the hint of amusement in her tone.

Tia shook her head "No I was too busy trying not to fall over" her statement earned a bubbly laugh from the female shifter, the boys had followed them out each keeping their distance from the two girls, besides Wooyoung and Yeosang of course they both were closer, flanking their respected mate's sides, walking out towards the door, Suki grabbed the keys from one of the baskets.

"I think you're a tad bit dramatic about not being able to walk in heel" Suki added pushing the down the handle of the door,

"I'm not being dramatic"

Tia could feel Suki roll her eyes at her statement, no matter how long or often Tia wore heels, she could never quite get used to the balance shift in them plus they always hurt her feet, it was a miracle she was still in them now.

"Little bit of advice from me" Suki started, raising an eyebrow as she looked at Tia, "You just need to find and chanel your inner queen"

"Why would anyone ever listen to your advice Suki" Mingi questioned raising his eyebrow as he moved passed the two of them, Suki scoffed placing her free hand on her chest, "My advice is very valuable and you should all be thankful that I give it away for free and besides" Mingi stopped to watch her, Suki let loose a small laugh "It's not my fault you listened to me" Mingi's eyes widened then narrowed at her when she started laughing, "You told me to shave off my eyebrows Suki!", the cry to his voice my Suki laugh harder, "Yeah and it was not my fault you listened"

Tia laughed at Suki's joking manner, while watching all her brothers lower and shake their heads, Wooyoung stopped next to Suki grasping her hand he whispered something into her ear, again Tia did not catch what it was he said but clearly the others had as many of the other boy's head snapped up to look at Wooyoung with narrowed eyes. Suki copied their looks turning her body away from Tia. The humerous air changed serious real quick.

What was it he had said to Suki that had them all on edge, Yeosang was next to her seconds later, checking up on her, "Are you sure you want to come with us, we can go get the witch and bring her back here?"

Something wasn't sitting right in her belly when he asked this, where they keeping something from her again. Their secrecy was giving her all the more reason to come, with a rapid nod she looked him dead in the eye "Yes I want to be there, but I don't understand why it's so dangerous, all we are doing is going to a club, the same one we both went to before all this I don't see why it's unsafe for me to come now"

Yeosang sighed, looking down at the space between them, "It's not...It's just we like to take extra precautions and well soemthing just doesn't seem right but I ─"

He was cut off by Suki pratically jumping next to them, she had a beaming smile adoring her lip, which seemed to affect the rest of the features on her face, it only added to the happy aura she exuaded.

Suki didn't give Yeosang a look, keeping eye contact with Tia she held up a singular car key, something about it was more expensive looking, the key itself looked fancier then the others she had seen. Suki swung it about, and out the corner of her eye Tia could see Yeosang's face drop, "You're riding with me" Suki spoke excitedly, Yeosang had already started to shake his head when Suki gripped Tia's hand pulling her towards her, clicking the button of the key, the lights of a car ahead of them flashed and Tia felt her jaw drop open at the sight of it, there infront of them was an Aston Martin, it's dark body work was slick and shone in the rising moon light, even if it wasn't that fast of a car, which Tia doubted, it did look expensive.

Suki was ignoring the looks from her mate and all her brothers, they hadn't let her drive it yet, she didn't know why but the wait would be worth it, guilt tripping Mingi into handing over the keys had been a long process but Suki was not dissapointed by her efforts. With keys tightly gripped in hand, she opened the door, the smell of the leather oozed out the car into the forest air, her heart jumped in her chest with excitement.

Tia was also marvelling at the interior of the vehicle, slipping easily into the seat Suki ran her fingers over the smooth leather of the steering wheel, cheek starting to hurt with all her smiling she glanced up through her eye lashed to meet to worried gazes of each of her brothers, starting up the car she revved it and she could feel the power of the engine rummble beneath her an excited giggled burst from her,

Oh, This was going to be fun

The two girls were outside the club before any of the boys, Suki was still buzzing from the quick drive over, barely able to sit still in her seat, Tia was also sat still slightly stunned by how quick they had made it into the city and to the Neo club, she would be very surpirsed in Suki didn't get a speeding ticket, Not that Suki seemed to care right now. Thinking on it she may have just started to make one of the many messes the Alpha may have to clean up tonight.

Movement in the rear view mirror made Suki look up, a black BMW had pulled up behind them, she could make out the figures of Wooyoung and Yeosang sat in the front seats. Seeing them sat side by side was a strange concept to her, if it had been about a week ago, before Yeosang had met Tia, there was not a chance in hell those two would be sitting next to each other, she wasn't even sure if they had come to eye level with each other yet. Still convinced that Yeosang had a dislike towards her mate, the same dislike from when the two had first met.

Suki watched the two of them climb out of their car, The girls were quick to follow suit.

The cold air bit at the exposed skin of Tia's back, a shiver ran down the entire expanse of her spin, goosbumps tickling along ever inch of her skin. That was until a hand came to rest on her uncovered back, glimpsing over her shoulder she was met with the brown eyes of her mate. The warmth of his skin contact spread eradicating all that was left of the goosbumps littering her body.

The hand stayed on her lower back as they moved towards the line formulating outside the club, faint memory of the building entrance flashed to the forefront of Tia's mind. Glancing around Tia took notice of the fact they were minus three members, turning her head over her shoulder towards Yeosang "Where are the others?"

They continued walking towards the entrace, where the vampire bouncers were standing watching them, "Seonghwa, Mingi and Jongho are staying outside to keep watch" Yeosang spoke under his breath to her, keeping his face trained to not show reaction.

The two vampires stood in the doorway, arm folded over their chest as they eyed the six of them up, "Don't know what you're all doing, you can wait in the line like everyone else" one of them spoke, the vampire had softer features but his words were laced with a bite when he spoke them.

Hongjoong stepped around the others, placing his hand on Suki's shoulder when he passed, before he could speak a familiar blue haired vampire came pushing passed out the door.

He stopped to glanced the group up and down, muttering something to the two vampires before gesturing for the wolves to follow him, "Come, Trinity wishes to see you"

Tia didn't know who that was but something about how the Vampires infront of them moved around the name made her think, whoever this female was, was not someone to mess with, was she perhaps their leader?

Tia didn't have much more time to ponder on the thought as Yeosang urged her forwards, and into the green lights of the club they went. A strong sense of fimiliairty flushed through her. Jeno, the blue haired vampire lead them into a booth where a women and man stood, small viles were on a table infront of them. The girl picked a needle up and held it up as they came near, Jeno waved her off.

Everyone surrounding them appeared as if they had green skin, due to the neon lights flashing throughout the main rooms of the club. Scanning it with her eyes a strange ripple of nausea boiled in Tia's belly when she tried to get a better glimps down a back hallway which was dimmly lite.

Yeosang's hand on her back led her onwards still, following Jeno they walked past the women and man stood with the viles, Yeosang looked back as they passed. Confusion sturred within him at the sight of boxes filled with viles of blood, he still didn't understand why they took the blood of those coming into their club. It was rather odd even for a club run by vampires.

Jeno led them on down a door behind the booth, the hallway behind it was lite by warm yellow lights that made it easy for the eyes to adjust. The werewolves stayed close as they walked on, in line of threes. Suki was walking in a front row with Hongjoong and Wooyoung on both her sides, while Tia was walking directly behind her with Yunho and Yeosang on either side of her.

With a subtle turn of her head, Tia looked out the corner of her eye to catch a glimps of a vampire walking behind them, the one from the apartment, Jaemin his name was, fulling turning her head she caught his gaze and he offered her a soft smile, one which she retruned before turning back around at the sound of a door opening.

The surroundings had changed once more, a very open room with cream coloured walls and a very little amount of windows.

The room was filled with Tvs, Pool tables, dart boards and many other various means of entertainment. A desk was sat under one of the bigger windows in the room, when Wooyoung moved out of Tia's way she was able to see the slender female hunched over the desk.

Jeno and Jaemin walked away from them, moving across the room to where there was a small bar, the shelves behind it lined with various alchoholic beverages.

"I see you've met my second and third in command" The women at the desk spoke, she turned to face them, she held a small glass of some kind of drink, bringing it to her lips she smirked as she downed the rest of it.

Tia realised the second and third in command this female vampire must have been talking about was Jeno and Jaemin, the pair were racking their way through the drinks, pouring themselves glasses of god know what.

The female vamp placed her glass down on the desk, before leaning back onto it. "I heard you were in need of a witch?" She tilted her head and watched them with slight narrowed eyes.

No one in the pack knew what to make of this female, especially Yeosang, when he met her last time he was here ─which he could only faintly remember─ she was definetly in charge to some degree here, he only wondered how much power she actually had.

"Yes, we are, can you help us?" Hongjoong asked taking a couple of steps forwards, the female eyed him up and down from her postion on the desk, "I can, but what can I benefit from this exchange"

"You don't have a choice Trinity, Taeyong's order" Jeno said from over by the bar, he was busy inspecting a bottle of what looked to be red wine.

"My brother has no authority of what goes on in my club" Trinity hissed, whipping a knife from a holder on her leg she threw it across the room, the Werewolves followed it's rapid movement, watching as it pinned Jeno's arm to the wall by the sleeve of his shirt. "Put it down", her warning did not fall upon deaf ears as Jeno yanked the knife from the wall, before putting the bottle of wine back into it's rightful place on the rack.

When Tia turned her attention back to Trinity she was surprised to notice the female vampire was watching her, it was an unnerving gaze that made the goosebumps re-appear on Tia's skin, despite Yeosang's hand still on her exposed lower back.

With a snap of her finger the two male vampires froze, "Jaemin will you go and get the witches vile from the other night" Jaemin walked out from behind the bar, exiting the room swiftly.

"What is up with the viles of blood" Yeosang asked, be damned if curiosity killed the cat, he had to know what his blood in the vile would be used for.

Trinity's gaze drifited to him, "You've had your taken here before?" she questioned, her red painted nails strummbing against the wood of the desk.

"I have, and would be elated if you tell me what it was for?"

Trinity raised an eyebrow, with a smirk "Well congratuations you can officially never hide from me"

When confusion made way on ever single one of the wolves faces Trinity didn't hide her laughter, allowing it to come out loud and clear.

"To sum it up for you, I have a gift where I can track anyone through their blood, when it touches my lips a craving builds and I always want more, over years I've learned to fight that craving but the singing never stops"

"Singing?" Hongjoong asked, Trinity's eyes darkened as her smirk widened, "The blood" she paused taking a second to inspect the blood red nail polish on her tallon like nails "it sings, calls to me, it's how I track someone"

Tia's stomach curled, the thought of it was sickening to her, tracking someone through their blood, it was impressive but scary, she had come here before. Her flatmate was a vampire, how many times had she come here? How much of her blood did they have?

Pushing the thoughts from her mind she tried to ease her hammering nerves, Yeosangs's skin contact was helping but no where near as much as she would have liked. The door to the room opened and Jaemin walked back inside, this was the distraction she needed.

He walked over, Jeno joinging him with a glass of alcohol. Trinity hopped off the desk, taking both the glass and vile. The second and third gave each other worried glances, "Trinity you don't have to, we can always look for another witch" Jeno said quietly trying to stop his words from travelling to the ears of the wolves.

"Jeno it will be okay" she tried to reasure, "You know there is possibility it won't be" Jaemin snipped earning a warning glare for the female

"What is the matter?" Hongjoong asked, the three vamps looked at him, "Taking the blood of a witch can be dangerous" Jaemin answered sending a pointed look to Trinity, she ignored it of course popping the cap off the vile, tipping it over the glass of alchol, They all watched as the blood flowed down through the drink, the blood started out red, but gradually changed colour infront of their eyes, going blue, green, purple and finally the colour settled for white. As Trinity swirled the glass in her hand it lightned the colour of the drink.

With zero hesitation she threw the drink back, letting out a hiss as it burned the back of her throat, the blood in the mixture soaking into her own bloodstream fast, the magic within it burning.

Jeno and Jaemin caught her when she fell, knees buckling her body went rigid at their touch. The werewolves watched on as the female vampire began shaking, her hands twitched and the two male vampires desperatley held onto her body, which seemed to be growing in temperature as the witch's magic coursed and attacked her bodily system.

As quickly as she had drunk the drink, the shaking stopped. She was letting out heavy laboured breaths that reminded Tia of a runner after they had finished a sprint. A muttered curse came from Trinity as she shook her head, "It's useless, The witch has blocked her blood."

"What, what does that mean?" Yunho asked still beside Tia, "It mean" Trinity said looking up at them, sweat trickled down her brow and her facial features were contorted in discomfort, "The witch knew I could track her and has used her magic to block me from doing so"

"So you can't track her?" Hongjoong questioned, the female seemed to hiss in frustration answering "No, I can't"

The wolves seemed to understand what this meant now, finding the witch would now be near to impossible, But like they had said eariler in the night trouble just seemed to find them, so of course things were not over.

Another vampire came crashing through the door, Jeno left Jaemin to hold Trinity as he met the other vamp half way, "We have a deranged vampire in the club" leaning in he whispered something to Jeno, "It's the vampire who took Tia's memories"

"What's a deranged vampire?" Tia asked aloud, ever creature in the room gave her a look, "It dear Tia, is a vampire who has lost all control of themselve and kills anything with a pulse" Trinity stated, pushing off the arms of the vampires around her.

Steadying herself she stood up, her own heels adding a few inches to her height, Trinity tried to bury the unpleasant feeling rolling inside her, the magic was still at work within her system.

"It also means we" Trinity smirked while she gestured to the three smirking male vampires stood around her "Get to have a little fun"

The wolves all shared glances with each other, Hongjoong was the first to move, following the vampires as they left the room.

Tia frowned as they all moved out the room, Yeosang now had his arm wrapped around her waist, fingers gripping to the side of her hip opposite to the side he was stood. Suki had also appeared next to her, "The Deranged vampires are forbidden by laws of the order" she muttered, her heels clicking at her fast pace. Tia sent a nervous glance her way, sticking by her side when Yeosang walked off for a second to talk to Yunho and Hongjoong, "What does that mean for us?" she questioned the female shifter walking at her side.

Suki's brow furrowed as she watched the vampires ahead of them, "Well I imagine Yeosang wants to get you out of here as soon as possible, but I don't know what we can do really none of us have much experience with deranged vamps" Suki explained casting Wooyoung a look as he too, walked off ahead.

The group of them had now stopped at the door leading back out to the main area of the club, yelling could be heard from the other side of the door, the smashing of glass had Tia flinching.

Hongjoong sent a look back to check on the two females, nodding he turned back to the vamps, Trinity was speaking to her second in command, Jeno but upon feeling the young werewolves gaze on her she paused her conversation to cast him a look with a raised eyebrow.

"We want no part in this" Hongjoong said watching the female vampire as she shifted her weight into her hip, "That may not be up to you, seeing the deranged one is here for her" She spoke quiter but flitted her stare passed the four male shifters, towards the two other girls stood at the back of the group, focusing in on the only human amongst them.

"We can get you out but we can't go through the main entrance, it was put on lockdown to ensure the deranged could not escape"

Hongjoong rubbed his lower lip with his fingers in thought, nodding he gave a look to Yunho gesturing his head to the two girls Yunho obbeyed moving back to stand with Suki and Tia.

Yeosang and Wooyoung both went to protest but Hongjoong beat them to it, "I can't have you to distracted if something goes wrong, Yunho can watch Tia and we all know Suki can very well take care of herself" the pair fell silent, both worrying for their mates.

If Tia was in danger because of the deranged vampire, Yeosang wanted to be the one to watch out for her. He trusted Yunho and Suki, they were the packs best fighters but the groups knack for getting into trouble made what they were about to step into all the more unpredictable.

"Seonghwa will sense us coming out, he will meet us, Jongho and Mingi won't be far behind" Hongjoong added turning back to the now two vampires stood at the door.

Hongjoong had no idea what had led them to trusting vampires, but if they could get them all out of here unharmed he wasn't going to throw up a fuss about the new alliance.

Trinity swung the door open, giving way to silence, she sent the wolves a look before leaving, Jeno close covering her back.

The main room of a the club was emtpy, ridden of all the party goers that were there moments before. The lights still shone down, casting a green glow on them as they moved. The music pounded out from the speakers, filling the eery 'silence' as they moved.

Tia couldn't hold back the instinct to hold her breath as they moved through the room, Yunho was close to her side Suki following behind. Hongjoong, Wooyoung and Yeosang were walking ahead of them, the latter sending back looks ever few mintues.

Glass crunched beneath the soles of Tia's shoes, pausing to glance down she lifted her shoe, the sight had her stomach flipping inside her abdomen, the glass was a darkned colour that was warped by the green lights but the thickness of it had Tia coming to the realisation it was not alcohol. It was a red substance that was thick and probably still warm, she shuddered. Yunho nudged her, glancing back she moved when he gestured for her to keep moving.

They moved as quietly as they could around the perimeter of the room, vampires spread around the room, hidden behind flipped over tables and the bar, each with a wooden stake in hand clutched close to their chest.

The red glow of each pair of eyes stood out, in the darkness, a sense of fascination overtook Tia and she walked off to the side, walking away from the relative safety of the wall.

The music came to a haulting stop as the speakers started making a crackling noise. When they seemed to die completly the room was dropped into the depths of a dead silence, no one and nothing moved, "Tia" Suki warned in a hussed whisper, a certain fear seaped into her voice, just as Tia was about to turned to look at her a high pitched ringing echoed throughout the room, ever creature had their hands wrapped around their ears, trying to block out the painful noise. Tia who was unaffected by the noise watched on in horror as the vampires around the room dropped their stakes in order to cover their ears, most had now left themselves open and deffensless.

Tia was still watching out into the room when a figure dropped down infront of her, the man's eyes glowed differently to that of the other vampires, he smirked at her while his eyes darkened, his lips hitched out the way setting loose the elongated canines. "Tia!" she heard someone call out, the high pitched ringing making it impossible to tell who it was.

Then the lights went out.

Pludged into darkness, the body's natural instinct kicked in as the other senses jumped into hyper drive, the ringing stopped and Tia's eye widened, trying to draw in light even though there was none.

Feeling something grabbed her arm she didn't stop the scream that left her lips, "It's just me" Suki said from somewhere next to her.

Hand moving out to find Suki, Tia jumped once more when her hands came in contact with what felt like fur, feeling around of the furry surface her fingers travelled up and over what felt to be the curve of a spine, the body of a wolf.

"It's Yunho" Suki added still having hold of Tia's arm, when she spoke Tia felt Yunho push himself up against her body, from where he stood against her side she could only hazzard a guess at how large he actually was in his wolf form, his shoulder height being around her chest.

Bright white lights came on, and Tia held her arm up to shield her eyes, not prepared for the sheer brightness of the lights.

She glanced at the wolf by her side, Yunho's big head turned to look at her, his yellow glowing eyes meeting hers, she felt her jaw drop open at the sight of him, dropping her hand onto the sandy brown fur of his coat she thread her fingers through it, marvelling at how soft it was.

A growl came from the other side of the room making Tia advert her eyes, if she thought her jaw had dropped open before she was terrible wrong, there stood with their back ends towards them was three equally big wolves. Hongjoong, Yeosang and Wooyoung she realised. Not having any clue who was who she just scanned each of them.

The trio took up a protective stance infront of Yunho, Suki and herself. Trinity and Jeno were both among them, each with a stake in hand. The five of them were facing off the man who had dropped down infront of Tia before the lights went off, the deranged vampire, the one who had taken Tia's memories. He grinned at her, which resulted in a sandy blonde wolf snapping his jaw at him. The shorter of the three wolves, that had a reddish brown coat made a noise towards Yunho.

Suki and Yunho both seemed to undertsand the command, Yunho nudged Tia along back to the wall with his nose, leading her from the room. When the deranged Vampire took notice of this the smirk wiped from his lips, stepping to go after them, he was stopped by the same Sandy blonde wolf from before, it made a hissing noise at him this time as it walked forward head lowered with it's teeth bared.

The last thing Tia saw over her shoulder before leaving the room was the sandy blonde wolf launching itself at the deranged vampire.

The trio hurried down another hallway, Yunho leading in his wolf form. Tia could feel her heart pick up a pace inside her, while the three of them tried and continously failed to find the exit.

"Oh for fucks sake" Suki hissed as they yet again came to another locked door, 'Exit' written above it in green glowed down taunting them.

Yunho was stayed behind the two girls, keeping watch down the hallway while Suki tried to shake the handle of the door once more. Tia glanced at Yunho when he began to growl, taking a couple steps out into the hallway.

Suki stopped in her effort to watch Yunho as he leaped away from them, Suki ran passed Tia to look at what had set Yunho off.

Two more deranged vampires had followed them away from the others, Yunho was trying to use his body to block them from getting to Tia and Suki. He matched the vamps moves, one jumped over the top of Yunho as he was occupied by the other.

Suki readied herself, the vampire hissed at her, she smirked back, the deranged vamp came at her fast.

Grabbing it by the arms Suki used all her body weight and a little help of her foot to trip it up and throw it into the wall behind her. It stopped itself with its hands whipping it head back in her direction to throw itself at her again, grabbing her shoulders the vamp walked her back into a wall. Where it started to raised its fist and got a few blows to the side of her head.

Bringing her knee up it collided with the vamps man hood, it hunched forwards and she brought her balled fists down on it's back.

Tia feeling helpless, had done the only logical thing she could think of, turning to the exit she bagan hammering her fists against the door, kicking it she yelled out for anyone on the other side who could help.

Yunho thinking something was wrong took his focus off the vampire who he was fighting for a split second, giving the deranged vamp time to gain one up on him, It tackled into his side, knocking him onto the ground of the hallway.

Knocking off from his bearings Yunho could do nothing as the vampire lept over him, heading straight in Tia's direction.

Suki took notice of this, using the wall to her advantage she pushed with every ounce of her stength, prying the vampire off her it stood tall infornt of her, bringing her heeled foot up she kicked the vampire in the stomach sending him flying back straight in the path of an awaiting Yunho.

Clamping his jaws down into the shoulder of the vampire Suki had sent his way he threw the vampire into the wall. Keeping a close eye on him as Suki rushed to aid Tia.

Tia hadn't noticed the vampire behind her. Still beating hard against the exit door, in hopes someone of the other side would hear her crys for help.

Feeling the presence of another, she stopped with a a fist raised mid air to knock against the door, looking over her shoulder panic spiked as the vampire stood breathing heavily while watching her with dangerous eyes. Facing it she pressed her back to the door, when it moved to grab her she ducked under it's arms, trying to evade it's deathly grasp. It hissed when it hit the door, spinning back to her with a snarl.

Suki had run staright passed her in a blurry of movement, grabbing hold of the derange vamp Tia watched on with wide eyes as Suki threw the vamp to the floor, knee pressed into it's chest she raised her fist to pumpel the vamps face in. It knocked her off of itself, Suki fell and rolled back up, jumping onto her feet in seconds grabbing the vamp by the scruff of the neck as it went to grab at Tia, she took a couple steps back jumping when she walked straight into something. Yunho gruffed behind her, using his body to balance her back out. Tia relaxed seeing he was okay.

Suki let out a roar of a scream as she hauled the vamp back towards her, hitting it in the lower neck the vamp stummbled back a few paces winded. The vamp bared it's fangs at her in a feirce display of a hiss, grabbing one of the elongated fangs with her bare hands Suki dragged the deranged vamp towards the exit, grasping the shoulders of his clothing she threw him at the exit and the door gave way under his weight.

The deranged vampire groaned from it's place ontop of the door which now lay flat on the ground in an alleyway behind the club. Suki used one of her fingers to brush a strand of hair from her face, walking down the steps of the exit she smirked at the vamp, crouching down hands gripping the sides of his head she ripped it clean off his shoulders.

Dropping the head she dusted her hands off on her jeans, as if what she had done was no more then splitting wood. Tia hesitantly followed out the exit, Yunho still in wolf form close behind her.

"That went well" Suki shrugged

Yunho made a huffing noise as he regarded his pack sisters words, Tia watched on in amusement as Yunhos body seemed to miraciously change right infront of her eyes, fur turned to pale skin and clothing, eyes stopped glowing and he raised to his full height.

Never in her life has she ever thought something like this could be possible, like people literally turning into oversized dogs right infront of her, it was crazy.

"Are you hurt?" Yunho asked, stepping over to examine her for any injuries, Tia shook her head, "I'm fine" eyes darting to the body of the beheaded derange vampire, "I think"

Suki moved into her line of sight, "I'm sorry you had to stand witness to all of that"

It didn't appear that Tia was listening as she turned back to the door, "do you think the others are alright?" she said, speaking her mind.

"Of course we are" Wooyoung said appearing in the doorway of the exit a smirk adoring his lips.

Tia could hear Suki exhale at the sight of her mate, Wooyoung came down the steps and met his mate in a hug. Hongjoong was the next to appear, holding his hand to a wound on his shoulder, "Easy for you to say" he mummbled, casting a look to the final person coming out the door.

The look had made Tia's stomach drop, and as soon as Yeosang made his entrance she had already moved to get to him. The tightening in her chest eased as he got to the bottom of the stairs, Tia didn't waste any time throwing herself against him, he locked his arms around he waistr. Feeling her bury her face into his shoulder in relief.

The others seemed to back off, Yeosang looked down to her when she pulled away "I thought something was going to happen to you" she admitted quietly, "I thought you might not come back"

Tucking his finger under her chin he forced Tia to look at him when he gently raised her head up, "I'll always come back for you"

A flurry of heavy emotion weighed in her chest at his words, a realisation that no matter what happend she was as much his as he was hers. The whole thing of being mated to him had made her scared at first but the fear of losing him was far greater.

Raising up she crashed her lips to his, allowing him to become all for her, in the form of a simple yet sweet kiss. Everything she could ever want was wrapped into the small action, smiling when Yeosang deepened it gripping the back of her head gently with his hand, fingers knotting into her hair.

She could be safe now, he thought, he would keep her safe from everything.

In the shadows of the alleyway, two stood watching, elated the wolves had not sensed their presence yet. Gripping the poison laced steel dagger tightly in his hand. Chancing a look to Mina across from him, he saw her pull her mask up over the lower half of her face before giving a quick nod.

Breathing steady, the pair of them launched out from their hiding places. Dagger raised, poised to stab into the back of the werewolf stood distracted by the action of kissing another.

The other wolves seemed to spot them first, and everything moved in slow motion as one of the male wolves ran at them.

Suki yelled out a warning to Tia and Yeosang as soon as she realised the person running at them was a hunter. Panic froze her body while she watched the events unfold

As the hunters small blade came down towards Yeosang, no one had been prepared for another to jump straight into the line of the lowering dagger.

When the posion dipped blade sank into the victims shoulder a peircy scream rippled from the female down the other side of the alley. Too shocked, all of the werewolves, plus the one human female stood stunned as they watched one of their own fall to the floor, life threatening wound in his shoulder.

Suki screamed yet again, this time moving as she ran after her mate, landing on her knees next to him she hardly noticed when all the others crowded down next to her.

Face twitching from the affects of the heart stopping amount of fear coursing through her, Suki pressed her hands to his wound trying to stop the bleeding in his shoulder, the unknown poison burned away at the skin on her hands as she pressed them to his wound.

In her lap lay the head of her mate, who looked up at her with a pained expression, one which she never wished to see ever, not even in her nightmares. She wiped away the solitary tear that slide down Wooyoung's cheek with the pad of her thumb.

He was dying and there was nothing any of them could do to stop it.

¦Next Part

#ateez #ateez werewolf au #fanfiction #kpopfanfiction #Yeosang #ateez yeosang #kang yeosang #ateez fanfiction #ateez fanfic #kpop #yeosang werewolf au #werewolf!ateez #werewolf!yeosang

5 notes · View notes

buckybarnesbingo · 3 years

Photo

What the Pic?

Participants: @ariasfandom, @rebelmeg, @wolfnprey, @ladydarkphoenix-blog, @bookdragon13, @liquidlightz, @jeminamoonnight, @caiti-creative-corner, @ribbonsflyingoutthewindow, @ibelieveinturtles

@ariasfandom - Bucky started watching Oobi and wanted to make an OC of it

@rebelmeg - all sam wanted to do was sleep in. that was it, that was all he wanted out of a saturday. which, of course, was the first thing his annoying houseguest decided to ruin, with a fist in his face at the crack of dawn. a fist wearing googly eyes. "bucky, what the hell?"

@wolfnprey - This is the default picture Clint sends out when he's judging. Bucky retaliates by posting his own in the vents and hides Clint's arrows.

@ladydarkphoenix-blog - Bucky gets caught watching kids(Sam's nephews, Clint's kids, insert kids here} unaware but has no idea how to entertain them so somehow ends up telling stories with his hands playing characters that are surprisingly effective

@bookdragon13 - Bucky gets drunk on Asgardian mead and thinks it’d be hilarious to put googly eyes on his metal hand and make it talk for him the rest of the night

@liquidlightz - Being an Eldritch deity apparently wasn't as awe inspiring as he'd always assumed himself to be, given that his host was entirely un-phased and thought it was funny to make puppet hands out of him and make up silly stories. The fact that he found this insult highly entertaining was even worse for his ego.

Keep reading for more!

@bookdragon13 - Bucky buys that for Clint after staying with him for a couple days. Clint absolutely loves it Of course

@rebelmeg - "likl. likl?! who approved that? how did that make it to store shelves! this is a disgrace!" "bucky, you really need to calm down." "i'll calm down when that travesty is removed from my sight!" going shopping with bucky is never boring.

@ladydarkphoenix-blog - Bought as a gift for himself because Bucky found the misspelling hilarious and it would bug the most important of his guests by making them guess if he didn't notice that little detail or what was happening in his head. Watching them try to deal with it gives Bucky much joy

@wolfnprey - The group stares, unimpressed, as people in the gallery move around them. Nat and Tony insist that the artist is just fucking with people, while Sam and Clint argue over how deep the meaning is. Bucky takes one look at Steve and knows his friend is dying a bit inside at how low art has stooped in the modern age. Bucky's nice enough not to comment that it's made out of a damn shower rug.

@ariasfandom - "Bucky, we live together. I know for a fact you didn't "wake up like this"

@liquidlightz - In the morning, his boyfriend told him how beautiful he looked, and how amazing his hair was, despite having mussed it all up during their passionate evening before. Apparently Bucky didn't suffer from bed hair but from magically self-smoothing hair. Ok, so maybe he used his magiks a little to keep it looking so good, what was the harm in that. So when Bucky saw this in a store he just had to get it and put it by the foot of his bed.

@ladydarkphoenix-blog - Bucky never thought he'd be turned into a dog. He also never thought he'd be staying with Clint and his dog or that the kids in the building would try to disguise him like this

@rebelmeg - bucky wasn't sure to think when he opened his door one morning to find a dog on the step wearing graucho glasses. he also wasn't sure if he should trust the note tied to the dog's collar that said, "pet me, i'm yours." but either way, the spaniel was pretty cute, and it turned out to be a snuggler. worst things could happen.

@ribbonsflyingoutthewindow - If you're going to name your dog Professor Diggory and you're going to ask Bucky to dogsit him, you should be prepared for the fact that Bucky’s going to accidentally make him an internet celebrity. Groucho glasses and the ability to pose very still for a picture while Bucky holds a pretzel between his lips is the easiest way to have a booming Instagram account in under a week. Bucky and Professor Diggory are practically professionals now. Don't be jealous.

@rebelmeg - it has happened every time. every single time he goes to the mcdonald's closest to his house, they manage to mess up his order somehow. actually, he's starting to suspect it's on purpose. there had definitely been a smirk on the guy's face when he handed bucky his order through the window. that might explain why his request for a cheeseburger with just ketchup had nothing but ketchup between the buns. hmm. this might mean war.

@ibelieveinturtles - Sick of working long hours at minimum wage, dealing with shitty customers amd an even shittier manager, Bucky decides its time to try that malicious compliance thing.

@ladydarkphoenix-blog - What's happened to customer service?!?! Back in his day if you made a simple request for a burger with only ketchup the kitchen was smart enough to know what you meant. Were they messing with him? Can they not figure out what a simple order meant? Bucky sighed and shook his head. He'd had worse dinners

@ribbonsflyingoutthewindow - So Steve's got a fuckton of allergies and quite frankly, Bucky doesn't even know what they all are, so telling the person at the drive thru that Steve wanted "a McDouble with just ketchup" was a precautionary action. He thought because he knew Steve was allergic to onions and dairy and mustard that it was safer to ask for only ketchup (probably Steve's only known safe-listed condiment) and potentially not be the one to accidentally murder a man he cared deeply about. But seeing Steve later open the hamburger bun to reveal a bun with a single squirt of ketchup inside made Bucky literally faceplant into his car horn. That was not what he fucking meant.

@rebelmeg - swaying gently in the tropical breeze that smelled like ocean and flowers, bucky smiled to himself. he was staring up at the clouds and palm trees overhead, his hammock creaking just slightly. off to his right, his favorite person in the world was sprawled on a towel on the sand, soaking in the sun and drinking some kind of fancy umbrella drink with a silly straw. best vacation ever.

@ladydarkphoenix-blog - Steve made jumping out of planes seem so easy. He never needed a parachute, never seemed to have the aches and pains after. With a sigh, Bucky stared up at the sky. At least he had a good view.

@ribbonsflyingoutthewindow - Pic Summary:When Bucky, Sam, and Natasha agreed to share an AirBnB for their Hollywood vacation, they'd only planned to see some famous sights and maybe try to pose with someone as famous as the monkey from the Pirates of the Caribbean films. Then they'd discovered that arguably the two hottest actors in the entire film industry, Tony Stark and Steve Rogers, were sharing the house next door! Overnight it became a bet and then a high stakes fight to the (okay, not actual) death to see which of them could meet one of the two actors first. Bucky hadn't exactly been spying while he was standing hidden behind an open gate on their temporary neighbor's property, but he must have been well hidden anyway because the moment he went to run and hide, a sleek convertible pulled out of the drive and directly into a fleeing Bucky. He kind of hates that his first thought upon opening his eyes and looking up to see only trees and a cloudy blue sky above him was that at least he'd probably won the bet.

#buckybarnesbingo2021 #bbb2021 #bbb discord party #what the pic?#party game #image prompts

3 notes · View notes

elisaphoenix13 · 5 years

Text

Far From Home Ch.3

"What's with the glasses?" MJ asks when Peter pull the case out of his bag and opens it.

"Huh? I dunno...Dad gave them to me when he dropped me off at the airport." He slips them on and reads the note Tony left on the case. "Say Edith?" The glasses activate and Peter blinks. "Whoa."

As Edith explains her functions to him, Peter looks toward Ned and Betty and their text screens pop up. They were texting how much they missed each other even though they were sitting right next to each other. Their relationship was extremely...gross. It was another thing he hoped he never found himself guilty of with Cassie.

"You have a text message from Cassie Lang. Shall I open it?" The AI asks and Peter's eyes widen.

"No no no! Dad will know!"

"Mr. Stark already knows about your relationship with Miss Lang."

Peter throws his hands up. "Of course he does! Does Mom know too?"

"Not that I'm aware."

"Well that's something I guess."

Peter takes off the glasses and puts them away as Michelle gives him a curious look and he slumps in his seat. He should have known that keeping the relationship secret would be damn near impossible with his father. Tony wouldn't have actively asked or looked for evidence but it could have been something as simple as FRIDAY letting it slip. Peter was just a little surprised that the engineer kept it to himself instead of telling Stephen as soon as he found out.

"Dad knows about me and Cassie."

MJ snorts. "Are you really surprised?"

"No. I guess not."

Their bus stops for a bathroom break and the driver stops him when he steps off and points toward an open doorway where he finds someone waiting. They disappear from sight and he makes his way into the building to find a woman who immediately demands he take his clothes off. Peter freezes up until the woman hands him a black suit and again demands he gets undressed, and hesitantly relents. Of course that's when his classmate Brad walks in on him with his pants down and chases after him when the other teen snaps a picture with his phone. Peter zips up his pants and catches up with Brad and yells to him to get him to stop.

"That totally wasn't what it looked like!"

"You don't need to explain Peter. I get if you want to hook up with a European chick, but I know you want to get with MJ so I have to show her the truth." Brad says.

Peter gapes and stammers. "I don't want to get with MJ! I have a girlfriend man!"

Brad gives him a look of confusion before returning to the bus and Peter returns to it himself after getting everything with the lady that gave him the suit settled. After accidently calling in a drone to eliminate Brad when he was trying to get Edith to delete the picture from his phone (he did not want that ending up on social media), and having to take care if said drone, successfully had the picture deleted and sat back quietly for the rest of the ride. When they finally made it to their hotel in Prague, they were taken to a really nice hotel that Tony would definitely approve of. It was a huge upgrade from the one they stayed in while in Venice.

His cell phone vibrates and he answers it, Maria Hill giving him directions before promptly hanging up just as Ned walks over.

"I just wanted to apologize if it seems like I'm focusing on my relationship with Betty."

"No. It's all cool. Don't worry about it." Peter says as a reassurance.

"So where's this fire monster going to appear?" The darker male asks.

"Uhh...here. In the city."

"What?! You have to do something Peter! We're all counting on you!"

No pressure, Peter thought as his best friend rejoined the group. He leaves when they're given free time to settle and makes his way to the location Fury and Hill told him about and zones out while the adults talk about this and that. They had told him the plan as soon as he arrived and now they were nit picking and talking about attempts to evacuate the city to no avail.

"Stark! Are we boring you again?" Fury asks, startling the teen out of his daze and causing him to turn from the unused fireplace.

"He's not bored. He's just thinking about how you kidnapped him." Beck quips.

Fury ignores the other man. "What's your job?"

"I'm to sit on the cathedral tower and look for the fire Elemental, and radio you guys when it arrives. When it arrives, that's when Mr.Beck and I will--"

"My name is Mysterio." Beck interrupts and shoots Peter a look of amusement who laughs a little awkwardly.

"Okay then, Mysterio and I will move in." Peter finishes.

"Look Peter, your best bet, only bet, is to stop it here. You can lead the civilians away but most importantly, don't let it near metal. Otherwise it will grow, and if it gets big enough, it can draw energy from Earth's core."

"Look, I don't want to put my friends in danger."

"You're afraid of us bringing danger to your classmates when you're the one who called in a drone strike on your class tour bus?! Tony gave you a multi million dollar weapon interface and that was what you did? That makes me think you're not ready."

Peter already knew what he did was wrong even though it was an accident, and he didn't need Nick Fury calling him out on it. At least Beck seemed to be on his side. He probably felt bad that they had dragged Peter away from his summer vacation if he was sassing the ex-director of SHIELD. Usually people who did that had a death wish...or they were Tony Stark.

Hell, Peter had sassed him back in Venice, but the teen didn't have a death wish no matter what his parents thought. They always said he looked for trouble when, for once, he didn't this time. Trouble found him and he had tried to get out of it.

Now he found himself fighting off Elementals with a wannabe magic user and previous members of SHIELD, and only one person out of that group bothered to show him some kindness and empathy. Beck made all of the trouble Fury was putting him through, just a little bit bearable. He didn't want to worry his parents because Fury was right. One was still recovering and another had enough to deal with.

Beck was the one who found him sitting on the roof later on. "Nick Fury asked me to come up here. See how you were doing. He felt bad about snapping at you."

Peter looks up at the floating man. "Really?"

"...you guys do have sarcasm on this earth right?" The teen laughs half-heartedly. He should have known better. "How are you feeling?"

Peter huffs out a sigh. "I didn't think I would need to save the world this summer. I know that makes me sound like such a jerk...I just...wanted a break from the superhero stuff. Not have a reason for my parents to worry. I can't even say anything to them because they deserve the rest."

Beck floats down and sits next to him. "You're not a jerk for wanting a normal life kid. It's a hard path." The elder looks over at him. "I like you Peter. You're a good kid. One part of me wants to tell you to run away and ignore this, but the other part knows what we're fighting. What's at stake. For now though, you worry about your friends."

Peter nods. "Yeah...see you out there." Peter jumps down from the roof, landing a few feet behind an elderly couple he startles. "Scusi...sorry...that's Italian. God, I'm so glad Dad isn't here. He would never let me hear the end of it."

___________________________

Once Peter managed to get his class tickets to the opera and slipped out, he changes into the stealth suit Fury gave him and climbs up to the cathedral tower. It was a good place to look out for the fire elemental, although he didn't think it would be hard to miss. He scopes the carnival from the top before flipping down to a ledge, landing in a crouch and confirming that he's in position.

"How's the suit?" Fury asks over the comm.

"Uh...the suit's great. It's awesome. It's a little tight around the old web shooter though."

"Do you kiss your mother with that mouth?" The ex-director asks.

"I don't kiss my mother."

"It's a good thing. Might ruin that maternal side you drilled into Strange." Fury says sarcastically.

Peter rolls his eyes and it only took a couple more minutes for the elemental to show up. It destroyed a statue in the process, and the teen immediately tells Mysterio. The man swoops in and holds it back with his green mist while Peter jumps over to the building across the way to web a nearby fire hydrant and yank it out of the ground. The water sprays the monster, unfortunately not doing a thing except anger it, and Peter has to flip away from the punch it throws. He lands on the carousel, having precious seconds to avoid another punch, which he barely did since it sent him flying to the ground and into a wall.

When he looked up, he was horrified to find that it was absorbing the metal of the children's ride. He warns Beck about it as the monster grows bigger, and he suddenly hears a shout and looks up to find Ned and Betty stuck in the tilted ferris wheel. In a panic, he shoots his webs at the elemental, only for fire to burn them all the way down to his wrists as the monster approaches and Mysterio flies over just in time to hold up a misty shield.

"Plan B?!" The man shouts over the guttural roars and Peter pats the flames out on his arms.

"Yeah! We gotta hit it with something it can't absorb!"

Beck pushes the monster away with his shield to give them the split second they need to go their ways and Peter climbs a building to avoid more flames before flipping back, webbing a broken stone, and hurling it at the monster. Beck follows up with an attack of his own and they repeat the process until the elemental goes for the ferris wheel that his friends are still in. Mysterio holds it off just in time as Peter shoots some webs at the ride, only for the webs to hit something invisible.

What the hell?

He pulls back and whatever he had was thrown back into an alley, but he had to return his attention to saving his friends. Mysterio wouldn't be able to hold the monster back for long, so Peter tries webbing himself up again proceeds to connect the ride to the surrounding buildings to keep it up. As he plants himself against the wheel, Beck continues to fight the flaming monster until it gets backed up into metal and grows even bigger.

Peter's heart drops when Beck's fishbowl helmet falls away and the man looks toward the teen. "Whatever happens...I'm glad we met."

"Beck! No! What are you doing?!"

The helmet forms back over his head. "What I should have done before."

The teen continues to yell to the man in an attempt to stop him, but Beck starts to overpower himself with magic before flying right into the elemental's chest. It did the trick, destroying it and sending out a shockwave of green mist, and when everything cleared, Peter secures the ferris wheel when he spots the man's body on the ground. He jumps down and approaches the motionless body with his heart hammering in his chest, and heaves out a sigh of relief when Beck looks up at him.

"Oh thank god." Peter says as he helps the man to his feet.

Fury and Hill talk to Beck after that, confirming that was the last of the Elemental threat and ask him to join them in Berlin for possible future threats. He also asked Peter, but thankfully didn't ask for an answer right then and there. Fury gave him the choice. Turn him down and finish his vacation, or actually commit to be an Avenger that his father had made him all those years ago? Before the teen could really give it some thought though, Beck invited him for a drink and took him to a bar even though Peter had said he wasn't old enough (something else Tony would probably laugh about because of the honesty). Peter takes off his mask before the enter the bar and orders a lemonade, lazily sipping at the straw as he let his thoughts wander.

"Fury was right. You've got gifts." Beck says.

Peter rubs his eyes. "Dad has done a lot for me. I owe it to him and everyone else."

The elder tilts his head to look at the teen. "Do you?"

Peter sits up a little and looks at his hands. "Yeah. Of course." He replies instantly. "He's helped me through so much, he took me in when I had nowhere else to go after my Aunt May died, and even Mom has stepped into a role I accidentally gave him. Doing this so they can sit down for more than five minutes is the least I can do."

"Okay...but what do you want?"

"What do you mean?"

"What do you want?" Beck repeats. "Right now. I know you're thinking about--"

Peter stands up fully and turns toward Beck. "I want to finish my summer vacation...and be able to go home like a normal kid for once. Spend time with my parents and...and with my girlfriend freely. Her dad is an Avenger too and almost as overprotective as my mom is of me." Beck chuckles and the teen blushes. "Shut up man."

One of the employees approaches them and bends over briefly to pick up the EDITH glasses and returns them to Peter. He hadn't even realized that he dropped them in the first place. Beck asks about them before having Peter try them on, and the man stares.

"Can I be completely honest with you?" The man says.

"Please."

"...you look really stupid. Maybe there's a contact version of them."

Peter yanks the glasses off and holds them out to Beck. "You try them on then."

The man laughs and refuses at first but the vigilante insists and Quentin finally puts them on. Peter looks away when it only reminds him of Tony and he starts to doubt himself. Why would his father give him multi million dollar glasses that controlled weapons as a just in case? Tony was always griping about how he could barely handle the functions of his suit, so maybe Beck was better off with the glasses.

Peter laughs shortly. "Maybe you're better off having them."

"What? I'm not following. How many lemonades have you had?"

"I'm serious." The teen sighs out. "I don't know what my dad was thinking when he gave me those and Fury was right. I'm not ready for them."

Beck sighs and takes off the glasses before sliding them across the counter and back to Peter. "Come on Peter..."

The teen says nothing and puts the glasses back on, asking EDITH to change the controls over to Beck. Mysterio had more experience and was a born leader, so handing the glasses over to him felt like the right choice. The right thing. When he confirms his choice after some argument from the elder man, he hands the glasses back over to Mysterio.

"Welcome to the Avengers." Peter says.

#ironstrange #mama bear stephen strange #supremefamily #peter parker #quentin beck #nick fury #tony stark #michelle jones #ned leeds

45 notes · View notes

maspwinj2 · 7 years

Note

hey! I just wanted to say upfront that this definitely isn't an argument or anything. I know sometimes things sound rude bc it's text and not spoken, so I just wanted to say that ahead. your one of my favorite bloggers, so I just wanted to get your thoughts. you said #what will those kids feel when they find out the truth? but, maybe they already know. not the whole story, but j2 seem like their raising them like their all collectively as their children. and I don't think (1/2)

(2/2) they’d pretend in front of the kids. like when they went on that island vacay for new years and the wives weren’t there, I can’t imagine they kept their hands off each other the whole time, not even holding hands. and they prob sleep in the same bed when in Austin. so wouldn’t the kids would know that? I can’t imagine them not acting like husbands and fathers of all the kids in front of the kids, you know? what do you think?

Oh my god anon i’m so sorry! you sent me this like 7weeks ago and i’m only answering now… the thing is that when you sent it istarted answering with a very long messy rambling and i didn’t post itimmediately to reread and correct it but the day after that, all the lolliebullshit started (i’m still so pissed about all that ugh) and it sucked all myenergy so i couldn’t get back to your ask and when that babygate shit was moreor less over i tried to make a better answer but i just couldn’t??? ireally tried but i never could make a satisfying answer and so i think it’stime i give it up because i’ve been thinking about all the different aspects but im never pleased with what i write… i just don’t know!! i think i’ve lost any ability tomake a proper understandable explanation of what i think and i’m even moresorry because this is actually a very nice ask! thanks! you were very nice and i failedyou! im sorry and maybe now you’ve unfollowed me so there’s no way you’d seethat i actually wanted to answer you T-T

But im gonna answer about the first part of your ask.You’re talking about what i wrote in the tags of this post, when i said “the truth” i wasn’t talking about the kids knowing that jared and jensen are together but more about the kids realising they’re being used to sell the straight image of their fathers, im pretty sure they don’t know about that truth yet haha

like for example with this pic of shep making J/G “kiss”. shep must have been like “why should i make you kiss when you never do it in real life???” and when he’s older he’ll get that he was just being used like a tool for his parents’ bearding. that’s why i wonder how will that make him feel? or with that ad jared did where he used tom and shep to prove he has the perfect straight family (and now you can add the popandsuki video with poor odette being used right after her birth with her brothers) or with this jj pic that she will remember as a nice birthday with her parents but when she’s older she’ll see they used it to project this fake idea to the world that they have a totally traditionnal family

that’s what i was talking about, if i were those kids i would feel really hurt/upset when i understand i was unknowingly being involved in all those lies and fakeness for the benefits of my parents

And now about the rest of your ask and about the truth of the kids knowing j2 are together well, to be very short :no i don’t think the kids know about j2 nor do they have doubts and i don’tthink j2 have any kind of romantic gesture towards each other in front of thekids either and i put under the cut the reasons why i think this way because it’sa very long rambling and no one should suffer the pain of reading all of it, i don’t evenknow if any of it make sense and again im sorry because this is a veryinteresting question and i should have answered way earlier, honestly mea culpa

but just a warning that at the end there’s the usual j2 negativity because they’re using their kids and that’s just gross and also i make a comparison with cristiano ronaldo cos i think he’s the perfect example of a closeted gay man succeeding in having a family.

So… about if the kids know the truth : i believe theydont

i think that j2 are letting the kids assume they’re inlove with the moms, we see with the pictures and video they post in which thekids witness their parents acting like a couple and the kids , just like thegeneral public, believe it. They are letting our heteronormative society do thejob so the kids think « i have a mom and a dad who spend time togetherwith me so they must be in love » it’s the logical thought process mostpeople have

J2 are lying by omission to their kids so that the kids willnever go and talk to their friends or teachers like « mom and dad aren’t inlove but dad is in love with my uncle » . If the kids believe their bio parents are in love theyll never be able to sell j2’s secret so its notsurprising j2 do that to protect this secret they’ve had for so long, ruiningit by letting their guards down around their kids would be a waste. They’re notgonna take such an unecessary risk and it’s way easier to let the kids form thesame opinion that the public has because what can they possibly say to explainsuch a situation « so kids if you see dad kiss and cuddle with your uncleand sleep in the same bed , while you never see dad do the same with mom whenthere are no cameras around : it’s PERFECTLY normal ! don’t worry !But there’s one very important thing youmust remember : it’s that you must NEVER EVER talk about that toanyone !! EVER !!! » ??? it would be so confusing for thosepoor kids ! and if they ever see j2 kiss it’s 100 % sure that they willtalk about it to someone imo.

-About acting like fathers : J2 love their kids likefathers and act like fathers BUT they are the « uncle » (NOT the dadaor papa) to 3 of them so if the kids saw their dad and uncle kiss, they are obviouslygoing to mention it to someone. It’s SURE. To me calling the other jay uncle isa proof that the kids don’t know

-About not keeping their hands to themselves : if j2 canhandle not touching/kissing during filming and conventions and everytimethey’re in public im more than certain that they don’t have any troublebehaving when with their kids and even if they did act very touchy and allwhile not acting this way with the mom there’s still no reason for the kids tobelieve that « my dad and my uncle are in love » because again wereally are in a heteronormative society where same sex people doing very lovingand tender stuff are just « guys being dudes » and « galpals » (and j2 take advantage of that to hide so that even with ALL thetime they spend together people still think they’re straight and that includestheir kids) And they’re not pretending in front of their kids, they don’t kissthe wives when there are no cameras around but that doesn’t mean that they’dkiss each other in front of the kids either you know ? it’s not becausethey don’t kiss or hold hands that they’re pretending. Again to me it’s justletting the kids assume that it’s the mom and the dad who are together and notthe dad and uncle because the most common occurance is the hetero couple evenif those two guys spend all their time together and go to vacations alone withthe kids (and im sure j2 sleep in the same bed, they could simply forbid the kids to go there because adults are allowed to ask for their privacy even from their kids imo)

-about acting like husbands, well when you’re building yourlife with someone and spending all your time together, being touchy and cuddly(in public and in front of their kids) seems pretty anecdotic to me. I f theymanage time to work on their intimate relationship or act romantic in private,Im sure they can handle keeping their hands to themselves when they’re takingcare of their kids, they’ve been doing that for 12 years and it must be hardsometimes but it’s the price they chose to pay to keep working on spn and theywon’t take the risk of being outed by their kids or of messing with their kids’heads just so they can hold hands

-About raising the kids as family : Im sure the kids cansee that j2 love each other but they don’t get the extent of this love and imsure they see j2 love all of them but i think j2 spend more time with their biokids than with the others for bearding purposes and if you went to jj and askher if tom and shep are her brothers im sure she’ll be like ??? no theyremy best friends or something like that and if you ask her who her parents areshe won’t include jared and same for tom and shep with jensen

What really makes me believe they hide their truerelationship to the kids is that it’d really confuse them because if the kidssaw j2 kiss , j2 would have to discuss and explain this situation (because ontv and in their lives the kids never see other peoples dad and uncle kiss, orpeople who are not married and not officially dating kiss each other, or ifthey do see that they must know it’s cheating and dishonest and overall weird,if j2 did that the kids would know it’s not a normal situation and would askquestions either to j2 or people around them which would lead to j2 beingouted) but the kids are way too young to understand what’s at stake and if j2let the kids see them kiss and still NOT explain what’s the deal. It would beSO confusing and very unhealthy to leave the kids with unanswered questions andadd the risk of outing to all that

-end with the usual j2 negativity whenever the kids arebrought up :

Let’s be real the way j2 use their kids like tools to hidetheir lifestyle and like « proof » of their straightness iscompletely DESPICABLE . You can argue all you want aboutthem « not having a choice », « but they really love theirkids », bla bla bla at the end of the day i don’t see how j2 can feelanything but shame for using their kids like that

And togo back to the tags i wrote « how would they feel » well i thinkthey’ll feel awful and used by their fathers because of their terrible decisionmaking skills. And it must be awful to find out when you’re older that yourparents have lied to you for YEARS

Im pretty sure no one in the lgbt community would condonewhat j2 are doing, the lies they are furthering THANKS to their kids. Even ifj2 came out, i doubt the community will be proud of what they’ve done, thelenghts they went to (involving kids) to hide their sexuality

And if you want a comparison to know how a closeted gay man can have a kid without using said kid to further his straight image just look atCristiano ronaldo. He’s working in THE most homophobic business EVER and yet he’snot married to a woman, he has beards but he’s not pretending to raise his kid (thathe had with an anonymous surrogate) with a woman. Hes not affraid of postingfamily pics and being constantly seen with his long term partner ricky regufe.He’s not trying so hard to sell the perfect family image like j2 have done andhe did not get stupidly trapped by greedy beards like j2 did

J2 are incredibly nice and hard working guys and they don’tdeserve to live like this but involvinginnocent kids in this mess is just wrong

#i really hope you'll see i finally answered you anon!#this is loooooong #but like does anyone agree with this??#the kids aren't aware of j2's real relationship right??#this answer is a mess #god #sorry!#asks #i finally answered!!!#aaaaaaaaaaaa

11 notes · View notes

junker-town · 7 years

Text

'The Bachelor' episode 7 recap: Oh God, Corinne’s gonna win this whole dang thing, isn’t she?

Nick “Handsome Software Salesman” Viall keeps sending home supposed front-runners.

Hello Sports Bachelor Nation. Guess what? Tomorrow is Valentine’s Day. Now, a lot of people have very strong feelings about Valentine’s Day, and I don’t mean to disrespect your love or your hate for it, but I honestly couldn’t care less about Feb. 14. In my experience, you’re either in a relationship and stop to buy some Russel Stover chocolates on your way home because you forgot to do something actually thoughtful, or you’re not in a relationship, and you stop to buy some Russel Stover for yourself a day later, when they’ve gone on sale. Big whoop.

However, it does seem appropriate that we usher in this day of love by spending the evening before watching women get their hearts ripped out on national TV. Let’s do the damn thing!

NICK WONDERS IF HE CAN DO THIS, AND CHRIS HARRISON IS LIKE, DO YOU THINK YOU CAN DO THIS?

We spend an inordinate amount of time in the beginning of this episode wondering if Nick Viall can do this, because he sent three women home and had a nervous breakdown at the end of the last episode. The women wonder if Nick can do this. Nick wonders if Nick can do this. Chris “Crest White Strips” Harrison — who shows up on the beach in St. Thomas wearing linen, with his shirt sleeves AND pant legs rolled up, like some psychologist on vacation — wonders if Nick can do this.

We viewers are probably the only ones who don’t wonder if Nick can do this, because of course Nick can do this, because that’s why Nick’s on the show in the first place: To do this. We all know (we do all know this, right? C’mon guys, tell me you know this) that there’s no way he’s tossing away half a season of ratings because his heart hurts.

My main takeaway here is that Sad Nick sitting on an overturned boat on a beach is a lot like Sad Ben Affleck. They both knows what they’ve done, they both know they’re the ones who got themselves into this whole mess, and they both have to sit there in front of a large audience and simply take it.

youtube

WE’RE GOING STREAKING TO BIMINI, BRING YOUR GREEN HAT BIKINI

But then Nick snaps out of it, as we knew he would, and the gang heads off to an island called Bimini, which is not only an island, but also the thing that goes on top of a motor boat to provide shade to those aboard.

Fun fact! Anyway — hometown dates are next week, so whoever is left at the end of this episode gets to bring Nick home to meet her family.

The stakes, they are high.

Which is why, when Vanessa gets the one-on-one date, Corinne goes, “you lucky bitch.” I think at this point most of the women kind of like Corinne, so, while they might’ve blown a collective gasket earlier in the season, now they’re just like Miley Cyrus’ friend Leslie in that song where Leslie’s like, “oh, she’s just being Miley.” The gang rolls their eyes and moves on.

I don’t blame Corinne, however, because she hasn’t had a one-on-one date yet, and here’s Vanessa, going on her second. Corinne gets personal and makes fun of Vanessa for being a saint, given that she’s a special needs teacher. I’m kind of here for this. Not in terms of making fun of Vanessa for doing a very noble profession, but for Corinne’s suggestion that maybe Vanessa is using her job as a bit of a high-horse upon which to perch. Especially since, in an earlier episode, Vanessa gave Nick a scrapbook that she said her students made her that was all about how wonderful she is. A scrapbook that, — and I’m just playing devil’s advocate, here — Vanessa might’ve actually made herself.

We haven’t seen much of this in action on the show, but I wouldn’t be surprised if behind the scenes, when the women are just chilling with each other, Vanessa is low-key super annoying about how she’s a Good Person. Good People always love to tell you they’re Good People.

And Good People, in my experience, are the most insufferable kind of People.

VANESSA AND NICK MAKE OUT UNDER WATER

My key takeaway so far, as Nick and Vanessa lie on a yacht, is that I would love to go on a tropical vacation. Nick appears to be wearing a Livestrong bracelet, which is the funniest thing I’ve seen since the stupid romper Danielle L. wore right before she got the boot last episode.

Check this out:

Hahaha is sweaty Nick wearing a Livestrong bracelet? #TheBachelor http://pic.twitter.com/sua1VFtMpg

— Charlotte Wilder (@TheWilderThings) February 14, 2017

It’s 2017, dude! What you doin’! (Watch there be, like, some touching reason he still wears it, so soon I’ll sound like a total asshole, even more than I already do.)

Vanessa and Nick make out underwater while wearing scuba goggles, and it is decidedly unsexy. I have never made out with anyone wearing goggles, nor do I have any desire to. In fact, I’m surprised the goggles aren’t bumping into each other and preventing these people’s mouths from meeting. But somehow the physics of this work, and no one drowns, which is nice, because making out while treading water below the surface is actually the leading cause of drowning on The Bachelor. And that’s a fact, Kellyanne Conway style.

WHY IS THIS SPOILER HAPPENING RIGHT NOW?

I am losing my mind, because stupid Mashable (I’m sure the people who work there aren’t actually stupid, etc., disclaimer, disclaimer) tweeted that Rachel is the next Bachelorette.

Finally! Meet ABC's first black #Bachelorette, Rachel Lindsay: https://t.co/YJA9mac1rD http://pic.twitter.com/kRrIGGV55J

— Mashable (@mashable) February 13, 2017

Are you fucking kidding me? You’re gonna drop this when she’s STILL ON THE SHOW? Look, I’m here for this: Having a black Bachelorette is imperative, because there have been 75,000 seasons of this show, and every moron looking for love has been white as a cone of vanilla ice cream in a snow storm.

I just wish they’d been able to keep the cat in the bag until Rachel gets kicked off. I’ve avoided spoilers like the plague, which is hard to do when your job is reading and making internet all day, and I’m very upset that one crossed my timeline. In fact, I am livid. I feel like I just walked in on a cheating boyfriend, the way Raven did a few months before coming on this show. And now I, like Raven did to her boyfriend, would like to beat Mashable over the head with a stiletto.

(Yes, I know, other outlets reported this. It’s not just Mashable. But it was their tweet I saw, so they are bearing my full wrath. Sometimes life isn’t fair.)

Oh, by the way: I called this after Week 1.

VANESSA IS LIKE, I LOVE YOU, AND NICK IS LIKE, EH

To many more firsts... ❤️#TheBachelor http://pic.twitter.com/t7Z78SvxAx

— The Bachelor (@BachelorABC) February 14, 2017

Vanessa is beautiful, and I like her hoop earrings, but she makes garbage sartorial decisions. The dress she wears to dinner looks like she wrapped one of those baby-carriers around her body too many times and called it a day. She tells Nick she’s falling in love with him, and Nick is like:

“I’m looking for the type of love I’ve never had before. I do believe there is a greater love for me than what I’ve had. I really, really like you. A lot. But it is incredibly important for me, if I’m lucky enough to feel love or say ‘I love you’ in this world, that I only say it to one person. I’ve never dated multiple women before — “

*Record scratch. Freeze frame. “Yup, that’s me. You’re probably wondering how I got myself into this situation.”*

“ — and so I’m taking it slow. And I’m glad I am, because if I’m lucky enough to say I love you, I want it to feel like in a way I’m saying it for the first time.”

Well, that certainly explains Nick’s mentality and why he gets super butthurt when the women he’s slept with either don’t call him back or don’t love him. This dude’s mentality is monogamous to a fault.

Vanessa is not thrilled. Vanessa, I’m realizing, is also boring. I don’t remember what she says after Nick dumps that on her because it’s not very interesting.

SWIMMING WITH SHARKS

Nick, Corinne, Raven, and Kristina go on a group date. They swim with sharks. My dad must’ve showed my mom how to turn on the television (which is a thing neither she nor I can ever figure out how to do on our own at my parents’ house, because they have too many TV remotes which all have too many buttons) because she starts texting me about the show.

I’m going to let her take the reins on the recap for a moment:

CORINNE IS WORRIED

Nick seems more into Kristina than he does into Raven or Corinne during the part of the date where they’re swimming with sharks. At night, Corinne asks Nick why she hasn’t had a one-on-one yet, and he’s like, “yadda yadda yadda,” and she’s like “cool, I feel better.”

Then she gets really nervous and eats a lot of cheese and I deeply identify with someone on this show for the first time in my life.

"I'm just eating cheese." - Corinne #TheBachelor http://pic.twitter.com/ft1PlnGFhk

— The Bachelor (@BachelorABC) February 14, 2017

Honestly — and this might sound strange — I think Corinne and Nick have more chemistry than Nick has with most of the other women. She’s the only one who makes him seem like he has some semblance of a personality. Like, he’ll be funny with her occasionally, which is impressive for a guy whose chemical makeup is 90 percent Pepperidge Farm oatmeal bread.

Corinne also has great clothes.

NICK SENDS DANIELLE M. HOME, RUINING MY PREDICTIONS FOR THE ENTIRE SEASON

So Nick and Danielle go on a painfully awkward date where they ride bikes around and then go to dinner. “Your face is pretty great,” Nick says, and I contemplate switching the channel over to the Westminster Dog Show so I don’t have to watch this. But it’s a good thing I don’t, because Danielle M. tells Nick she loves him, and then Nick sends her home.

I’m like — exsqueeze me, dude? Danielle M. was the star of a country music video, what more do you want?

I’m upset because I was pretty sure Danielle M. at least made it to the final two, and now I feel like my whole life is a lie. Danielle M.’s ex also died, and now she’s heartbroken, and I just ache for her. I really do. I know this show is largely not made up of real emotions, but at some point, what emotions there are do become real, if only because of Stockholm Syndrome from being cooped up in a house with no cell phones, and it’s very sad to watch people be sad. Even I, in my blackened, cynical, Bachelor-hating, Bachelor-recapping heart, don’t love to see this.

"I don’t know what to think right now. I thought this was my time. I really did.” –Danielle M #TheBachelor http://pic.twitter.com/jleYFQ1rRp

— The Bachelor (@BachelorABC) February 14, 2017

OTHER STUFF HAPPENS

Quickly, because I’m running out of steam here, and we need to get to a greater point before this ends: Nick and Rachel go on a date and talk about how Nick is white and Rachel is black, which is, I think, the most race has ever come up in a season before, which is good.

But at this point, thanks to goddamn Mashable, we’re all just waiting for this stupid season to end so we can watch Rachel be the Bachelorette. So who cares whether Nick holds onto her for another episode or not.

Then, Corinne tries to have sex with Nick by showing up at his hotel room unannounced. She drops her line about her heart being gold but her vagine being platinum, which is great news, because now maybe the producers will stop teasing that clip. Nick doesn’t have sex with Corinne and sends her on her way. Corinne winces down the hotel hallway in Christian Louboutin stilettos, which cost at least $800.

Then, Nick sends sweet, sweet Kristina home. Kristina, the lovely Russian woman with the inspiring adoption story. I knew this would happen, but it still hurts.

Our hometown dates will be: Raven, Rachel, Corinne, and Vanessa.

HERE’S THE DEAL

Corinne is going to win this whole fucking show, because it's 2017. We can't have nice things. Donald Trump won the election and the Falcons couldn’t hold on to a 25-point lead in the Super Bowl. Why should The Bachelor be any different?

I used to think it was ridiculous to even begin to think Corinne had a shot, but I’ve changed my tune. We live in dark times. We’re through the looking glass. So, mark my words: Corinne WILL win.

"Now, Corinne is great again." -Corinne#TheBachelor http://pic.twitter.com/xVyMzqjAWL

— The Bachelor (@BachelorABC) February 14, 2017

BUT IF YOU KNOW, DON'T TELL ME, BECAUSE I HAVE TO AVOID SPOILERS OR THESE RECAPS WILL TURN INTO EVEN HOTTER PILES OF TRASH THAN THEY ALREADY ARE!

Look, I love Corinne. She’s the most interesting part of this show. But I want to live in a world where Nick picks Vanessa, and they ride off into the sunset in a blaze of boring glory the way The Bachelor is supposed to end. I need, in these bizarre times, some shred of normalcy. And in a normal world, the villain of The Bachelor doesn’t win The Bachelor.

Which is why I’m pretty sure Corinne will be Mrs. Nick Viall when this whole stupid thing is said and done.

0 notes