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mochiroreo · 10 months

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Oh goodie! Prologue [breaking in]

Summary: being a latchkey child, you are used to being alone. So when your parents announced that your whole family is moving to Hawkins, you paid them no mind and just packed up your bags. What you are not expecting was that the house that your family just bought comes with two neighbours that are in dire need to have you in any way.

Trigger Warnings: she/her pronouns. [mentions of god in this chapter] DUBCON. NONCON. 100% FILTH. Smut. Unprotected P in V (wrap it before you tap it). Hidden relationships. Age gap. Cream pie. Size kink. Degradation. Corruption. Choking/slapping (in a pleasurable way). Pet names (no use of y/n). Fingering. Squirting. Overstimulation. Public sex. Recording. Dark!Steve Harrington & Dark!Eddie Munson

Author’s note: thank you for your support on the teaser! I did not expect that

૮ ◞ ⸝⸝ ◟ ྀིა this is my first time writing and posting my fics publicly so I hope you like them! This part does not contain much but I will still post it for the sake of world building for this fic 💞

P.s. not beta’d. So.. there might be grammar mistakes..

Thank you to @kayaedits and @kitsunecafe for the dividers!

“It wouldn’t be that bad,sweetheart. I swear. Me and your dad promises that the house is really pretty! Plus,you get the spacious room that you have always dreamed off!”

Your mom tried to pacify you,telling you all the things you will like about the new house that they bought at Hawkins, Indiana. A place you did not know even exists when they mentioned that they were planning to sell the house where you currently live and move to the said place. Eyes a bit puffy and red while your lips tremble and jutted out in a pout. Hugging your soft stuffed teddy bear,you were feeling overwhelmed. With their decision already made, you cannot help but look around your room.

The soft pinks and pastel blues are adorning every corner, the trinkets that you collected along the way throughout high school were neatly piled and arranged. The medals, awards, trophies, and books that are lined up on the shelves that pretty sure had indents on them for how long the pile has been there. She looks at you with pity,before sighing and pulling you in a hug. They know that you’re not crying because of how you’ll miss you best friend. Or how you’ll miss the town. No, they know you don’t really care much about those.

You hate big changes. Knowing how shy and timid you are, you always prefer staying home or discovering new spots where you can just relax and let your mind drift away while reading a book or jotting down notes on things you find interesting. And your parents know that. Being painfully aware of the times their jobs affected your upbringing,they try to make it up to you every single time. With you being on their minds when they bought the house,they chose the biggest that they can find which is full of greenery in a quiet neighbourhood.

“But.. its—“ you tried to reason out your frustration,tears slowly filling up your eyes again. “I know honey,I know. I’m so sorry. Me and your father just wants what’s best for you,you do know that.. right? Its not just for work but we can just see that house as our permanent house. No more moving after this.” Your mum apologised in a gentle manner, still patient while hugging you and rubbing your back. You just groaned under her hug,sniffling as you continue to bury yourself on your mom’s arms. “Besides, there are public and private colleges around. You can also get a summer job there too while you are still deciding on what to study. I’ve heard that there’s a book shop and a record store near our house,too. Maybe they’re hiring? Oh,we even have lovely neighbours! Too nice,actually! Me and your dad happened to meet them while we were inspecting the house..” you listened to your mum telling you all about the new place, fiddling with your fingers while it slowly sinks on you that you really don’t have any choice. “Its a really beautiful place,honey. I promise. We promise.” Your mum ended softly, giving you a forehead kiss.

“And—“ your dad’s voice popped the bubble you and your mum had,slightly jumping at his voice. “Maybe you can find a decent boyfriend out there. You know, better than— what was his name again? Frank?” He asked,his nose scrunched in disgust. You laughed at how he tried to remember you ex’s name. Giving your mum a tight hug before standing up to give the same to your dad as well,you answered him while copying his expression. “Yes,dad. Frank. What an ugly name,huh?” Your whole family giggled,slandering your ex while talking about what you and your mum should cook for dinner, the anxiety slowly easing in the background.

“Hey mom, where do you want these?!” You shouted after your mother who is already carrying a box of kitchen utensils with a laugh out of excitement.

After a grueling 6 hour car ride, the first thing you did was immediately jump out of your family car and stretch your limbs. The air was sticky and humid,feeling the spring season already ending. You definitely did not expect the temperature on the way here despite it still being early morning. With the heat making your shirt stick to your skin,you slumped your shoulders,already tired at the thought of moving. Putting your sunglasses up your head, you made your way to the car’s boot, quickly grabbing some of your boxes that you won’t clumsily drop.

Hawkins is definitely an eye catcher. Sure, a small town. But there is something mysterious about it that you cannot help but be curious about the said town. You like how snug and tight the community is. People smiling at your parents here and there, striking up a conversation with them too. It eases your nerves that it looks like your parents chose the right place to settle after all. It looks like you will be spending the upcoming summer exploring the never-ending variety of stores your whole family drove by.

The day ended when the last piece of furniture is inside and assembled. “I’m dead..” you muttered under your breath when you plopped face-down on your bed. The house is beautiful— Pretty is not even enough to describe it. The outside definitely shows the history and age of the place. Vintage,painted with neutral colors, while hints of greens,moss, and crawling plants adorn the vast spaces near the windows. It is definitely different from the two houses on both sides of your house. Your mind is already racing on how you are going to decorate your bedroom, already allocating the empty corner for some massive book shelves and a shrine of trinkets and random journals that you collect for fun. You just finished taking a much needed bath,giggling to the comforters when you became too excited on buying new stuff for your bedroom, not noticing your mom’s footsteps as she make her way upstairs.

Your mom stood in front of you,a big smile on her face. Your giggling stopped when you noticed her presence— and how she is holding two pies that are meticulously packed with a bow on top of each boxes. God knows when she had the chance to bake a pie amidst the chaos of never-ending boxes and assembling furnitures together. You went quiet,noticing how your energy is not matching hers as you press your lips in a line while hoping whatever she plans on asking you for is not the one that you are currently thinking. “Sweetheart can you give—“ she started sickeningly sweet before you immediately answered “no. Nope. No,no,no. Goodnight!” You tried to evade her favor, quickly hiding under you fluffy blanket and closing your eyes. Your mom,expecting the behaviour, had quickly put down the pies on top of your study desk and snatched the blanket from your body. “You will!” She exclaimed before laughing loudly as you fight her back for your blanket. “No! Why am I always the one handing it to the neighbours?! I’m always the sone doing it!” You whined,already losing from your so called “battle” against your mother. “Because! Me and your dad are still busy!” She tried to reason out when you know she’s just planning to make you go out and hopefully make new friends or just meet new people. Your mom tugged a bit too hard that made you sit down. You continued whining and whinging,knowing that you already lost and you have no other choice.

You changed from your tank top and sleeping shorts to a cropped cream sweater and a plain pink skirt before brushing your hair and swiping some cherry lip gloss on your lips to at least make yourself looks presentable. With a last look to the mirror,you have put on your glasses and sneakers,before turning around to your mom. You find your mom holding the boxes once again with a cheshire-like grin before handing it to you. “Yeah,you trickster” you mumbled and your mom knows that you are only joking as her loud laughter and giggles together with yours echoed throughout the house.

The air cooled down quite a bit when you stepped out of your house,the gate creaking as you try to push it close using your foot. Trying to ease your nerves, you looked around and drank in your surroundings. How the cul-de-sac is surrounded by trees that makes the place a bit eerie but also dreamy when the sun had set today. How the clouds are soft and plush,orange and yellows slowly disappearing while the moon and the stars slowly peek out. Slowing your steps as much as you can, you focused on the feeling of the gravel underneath your feet and just avoiding the dread of meeting new people. On your way,were slowly starting to hate the whole thing and how you wish the houses are far more apart.

Finally,you made it towards your neighbours gate,seeing that its slightly ajar which made you hesitate before deciding that you just want it to be over with and stepped inside. “Screw it” you say to yourself while walking towards a black stained oak door. Trying to balance the other pie on top of another to fix your glasses from being crooked and your hair from being destroyed slightly because of the wind, you lifted one of your fist and is already thinking of how to escape the social interaction if they end up being too talkative.

“Well fuck that.” You heard a deep,husky voice as he talk to someone that you cannot hear clearly. You dropped your fist beside you,anxiety slowly creeping in while your mind runs hundred miles per minute if you should just come back later than to interrupt their conversation. “They keep on trying to sell their god to me for how many fucking years already!” The man clearly exclaimed before another man let out a roaring laugh. “If god is fucking real he will present me or you with someone that can fucking blow my balls off and suck my dick so deep that I will be convulsing at the end of the night and he— whoever the fuck he is— will tell me how its his gift for me,like— someone fucking made for me and you—“

It was the last thing you heard before the huge wooden door opened,the man’s rambling abruptly stopped and two of the most breathtaking men entered your view. One with long,curly hair that looks like it’ll be soft under your fingertips. While the other one has thick,luscious hair that is not as long as the other but is styled to perfection.

“Hi..?” with your face red as a beet,that was the only word you can whisper.

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leveloneandup · 11 months

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denisewhite_eag This is much larger than an award on a stage. I have watched Christen Press fight this fight of gender equality and equal pay for almost as long as I have been working for her , which is near a decade. I have watched the countless hours , the fight , the long days , hard conversations , all while playing at a level that brought her two National Championships and a Bronze Medal at the Olympics ..The unwillingness to never give up in something she believes in . You all got to witness Christen Press and her teammates be awarded the honor of the Arthur Ashe Courage Award at the ESPYs but that moment was much bigger of a moment to me . A culmination of so much more .A moment rightfully deserved but the hard work to get there is what I'm most proud of her for . I'm beyond proud. This is why I love my job . The impact she has made on the history of women's sports is game changing ! Congrats to my ⭐️. Only you know just how proud I am .

#🥹🥰#christen press #denise white #espys 2023 #arthur ashe award

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dreaminginthedeepsouth · 3 months

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Talking Dog For Sale.

A guy is driving around the backwoods of Montana and he sees a sign in front of a broken down shanty-style house: 'Talking Dog For Sale.'

He rings the bell and the owner appears and tells him the dog is in the backyard.

The guy goes into the backyard and sees a nice looking Labrador Retriever sitting there.

"You talk?" he asks.

"Yep" the Lab replies.

After the guy recovers from the shock of hearing a dog talk, he says, "So, what's your story?"

The Lab looks up and says, "Well, I discovered that I could talk when I was pretty young. I wanted to help the government, so I told the CIA. In no time at all they had me jetting from country to country, sitting in rooms with spies and world leaders, because no one figured a dog would be eavesdropping, I was one of their most valuable spies for eight years running... but the jetting around really tired me out, and I knew I wasn't getting any younger so I decided to settle down. I signed up for a job at the airport to do some undercover security, wandering near suspicious characters and listening in. I uncovered some incredible dealings and was awarded a batch of medals. I got married, had a mess of puppies, and now I'm just retired."

The guy is amazed. He goes back in and asks the owner what he wants for the dog.

"Ten dollars" the guy says.

"Ten dollars? This dog is amazing! Why on Earth are you selling him so cheap?"

"Because he's a liar. He's never been out of the yard."

(Ian Sanders)

#stories #Ian Sanders #talking dog #jokes #humor

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hmp-larkhall · 5 months

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Millie Bright/Mary Earps

Millie & Mary fanfics on Ao3. Written by me, uploaded by my girlfriend :)

~Masterlist~

Love After Loss - a series (4/4)

Part 1 - All's Not Lost (Mature; words: 3,800) It was still so raw; so fresh in your memory like you’d just that minute walked off the pitch, the Spanish team still cheering behind you. You felt like a failure. You were beyond proud of your team for getting into the final. You made history. Yet there was a heavy weight pressing down on you.

“Come on, babes,” you said softly to her, gently moving out from her grasp and standing up. She took the hand that you were holding out to her and led her into the hotel room you shared. Her Golden Glove award was laying on the bed, along with her silver medal. She couldn’t look at them.

"Bed?"

Part 2 - All's Found (Mature; words: 2,976) Since understanding what love was supposed to feel like, you’d gotten to a point in your late twenties that you decided you weren’t capable of it. So many chances, hopes, maybes. But no. That part of you just didn’t exist. You learnt to be okay with it. That was, of course, until your then-friend stopped becoming just that and turned into your deepest desire.

Falling in love with her was easy. However, it was - holy crap - so painful. Sometimes you wished you went back to being the cold-hearted bitch you always thought you were.

Part 3 - All's Not Broken (Mature; words: 2,677) She’d had her heart set after the World Cup on transferring to Arsenal. Her club wouldn’t let her go.

You joked that when the time came, she should come play for Chelsea. You both laughed and she told you not a chance. You were okay with this. You enjoyed the bit of rivalry.

You weren’t worried about not spending enough time together. You lived together and played for England together.

Part 4 - All's Well (Mature; words: 3,217) She was due to be away for a week and you missed her terribly.

You’d never felt loneliness like this before and you didn’t like it. You felt silly. You could be surrounded by people but there was always such a big part of you that wanted no one but Millie. You often told yourself to stop being so pathetic. You felt like you couldn’t function properly without her.

Your friends told you that’s what it’s like when you really love someone. And goodness, you really did love her. You adored everything about her.

~~~

Nature's Morphine (Mature; words: 1,593) You were the only person to ever get under her skin. She’d never bothered with relationships before, always said she didn’t have time for them. Football was her one and only love. You, however, turned her world upside-down and changed everything.

~~~

Vexation Gratification (Explicit; words: 2,086) She brushed past you and went upstairs. You didn't move. You felt upset, but anger was also starting to arise in you.

She came back down after a couple of minutes. Your heart skipped a beat when you saw what she was carrying.

~~~

Near Misses & Forehead Kisses (Teen&Up; words: 5,549) The ringing in your ears became so loud that you could no longer make out what was being said as you approached the window.

You first saw her parents in there, either side of the bed. Her mother was leaning over her, kissing her on the forehead. You saw Mary as she pulled back and you couldn't breathe. The wires, the tubes, the ventilator. You fell to your knees.

~~~

Revelations (Mature; words: 11,157) It had captured everything: the intended purpose of the video, the laughing, the joy from you both, the jumping on her... the smile fading from your face. You recognised the second you felt it.

~~~

Departures and Distractions (Mature; words: 5,497) Emma had been your one constant throughout your football career.

She was there for you when things got tough. She was your mentor and your guide on and off the pitch.

She really was like a mother figure and you don't think you could ever be without her.

Now she was leaving.

Your heart was breaking.

~~~

Eighteen (Mature; words: 4,612) It was always nerve-racking joining a new team, especially when all the other players were established and comfortable there.

They all made you feel very welcome - especially the two who were also lucky enough to be picked for the under-nineteen's England team.

You got on very well with one of them in particular.

Her name was Millie Bright.

~~~

One Kiss Is All It Takes (Explicit; words: 4,195) Celebrations on the pitch at full time were as special as when you won the Euros and this time, your personal life changed quite as much as your professional career.

You screamed and cheered with a number of your teammates, not even remembering who they were as individuals; it was all a blur.

You remembered Mary, though.

~~~

Haunted (Teen&Up; words: 1,720) *triggers: self-hatred/suicide ideation You couldn’t hold it in any longer when the final whistle went. You really fucked up.

You cried on TV. God, you were so fucking pathetic. Useless. You hated yourself.

All you wanted to do was get your shit and leave.

(Set after the England v The Netherlands game 1/12/2023)

~~~

Look At You (Explicit; words: 1,782) Give me a call if you ever get desperate… xx

You regretted sending it immediately. You didn’t even have time to delete it before she could see it - those two blue ticks made your heart pound so loudly in your ears

~~~

High On You (Mature; words: 4,369) “You’re so fucking stubborn,” your girlfriend told you angrily as the medics lowered you to the floor to lay down.

You saw a tear roll down her face which she hastily wiped away.

“I think it’s broken,” you said. You felt hot and clammy. Why did you continue playing?

~~~

The Woman You Are (Teen&Up; words: 2,194) "Holy shit," Rachel breathed, "this is my favourite."

"Why?"

"Why? Jesus, Millie, those words. I feel jealous this girl isn't writing these for me."

~~~

Captain and Her Vice (Mature; words: 4,281) You had dreamed of being part of the England senior squad and there was always hope bubbling away in you that you might make captain one day.

This was it, you thought. This was your chance.

~~~

Guide To Your Goal (Mature; words: 2,000) Mary didn’t like Sam Kerr.

You mean she *really* didn’t like her.

~~~

Unbreakable (Mature; words: 1,921) Millie’s club could score twenty goals against you - hell, she could score twenty goals against you herself and you’d still love her.

Playing for your club and winning meant a lot to you - but she meant more.

~~~

Cruel Summer (Explicit; words: 2,797) Your time away in Australia for the World Cup was the best of your life. The tournament was going just as you’d hoped - you and your team made it to the final.

Behind the scenes of the pitch, something else had been happening in your life.

Mary.

~~~

Enrapture (Explicit; words: 14,722) She rested her head on your shoulder and you stroked her arm gently. You could feel goosebumps under your fingertips.

"Are you cold?" You asked.

"No," she replied, "not at all." ~~~ Save That Light (Explicit; words: 2,141) *triggers: past suicide attempt It frightened you sometimes - the depth of your feelings for her. You wanted to be with her all the time and when you weren’t with her you were thinking about her.

You adored everything about her. Her mental health was debilitating to the both of you at times but it was a part of her that you accepted long ago; and it was something you promised her you’d see through together.

~~~

Clean Sheets (Explicit; words: 3,053) “You know nothing turns me on more than seeing you make those saves; even better when you get a clean sheet.”

Her hands left your thighs and ran up under your shirt. The coolness of her fingers against the warm skin of your belly made your abs twitch.

“Isn’t it funny how whenever I keep a clean sheet, our bedsheets never remain that way?”

~~~

Take Me Into Your Darkest Hour (Mature; words: 5,001) *triggers (graphic description): past sexual assault/rape, unwanted pregnancy/abortion, physical assault/violence “He said I’m so shit that anyone would be better than me in goal; that he only plays me because he likes seeing my arse in my shorts.”

You swallowed hard. You covered her hand with your other and held it tightly as she went on. The anger you felt towards her manager was instantly unprecedented.

“He said I’m only good for one thing now.”

~~~

Truth or Dare (Mature; words: 3,721) You think you were about fifteen years old the first and last time you played truth or dare.

Now, at thirty-one years old, alcohol coursing through your system - you thought it was a great idea when Lucy suggested it.

#millie bright #mary earps #woso #mallie #fanfiction #fanfic #wlw #mature rating #woso fanfics #f/f #pls #ships #rarepair

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pascaloverx · 8 months

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As It Was

Chapter Three

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Summary: Indeed, our protagonist has a complicated conversation with each of her love interests, reopening old wounds.

Warnings: use of violence, future adult content and inappropriate language. Minors are advised not to read or engage with this story.

Steve's house is larger than I had imagined. Every detail in it, from the cobalt blue curtains to the ivory-painted walls, seems to have come out of a magazine. He has sports medals and merit awards displayed in a space near the fireplace. To the left of this area, there are pictures of him with people. One picture shows him in his childhood, small and fragile, in the arms of a kind-looking lady. There are photos of him with a woman with dark hair, who doesn't seem much older than thirty, in a restaurant. This same woman appears in most of Rogers' photos; I suspect she's Peggy. Everything I know about her, I discovered by blackmailing Sam. It turns out Rogers and Wilson were on the same team years ago. As soon as I agreed to meet Steve, I wanted to know why the man who seemed so perfect when my father talked about him was still single. Sam told me that Rogers has always been too reserved and determined to get romantically involved with anyone. But a few years ago, around the time Bucky and I met, Rogers fell in love with his partner, Peggy Carter. They had an unbeatable partnership, from what Sam told me. But for some reason, a few months ago, Rogers and Carter ended their one-year engagement. That's probably why there are still so many photos of them in the house. I can't judge Steve because I'm still trying to move on after my divorce.

"Did you ask to come to my house to analyze my past or to deceive the agents who were following us on the way here?" Steve says, close enough that it sends shivers down my spine. I turn to face him, maintaining our proximity.

"If I tell you something deep and personal, would you be willing to tell me why you keep so many memories of your ex around your house?" Curiosity can be a very interesting bargaining chip.When I say this, I feel him ponder for a moment before nodding in agreement while looking at me.

"I love my father too, always have. He was a good father, taught me how to manipulate people so that if anyone ever tried to take advantage of me, I'd be prepared. He taught me to fish so that if I ever needed to feed myself, at least I'd know how to catch a fish. He had me take self-defense classes even before I understood what I was being prepared to defend myself against. But a few years ago, I received a letter. A letter from my mother, meant to reach me when I was old enough to understand what she was trying to tell me in the letter. In it, she revealed that weeks before what would be her passing, she had uncovered a secret about my father. Since she didn't have conclusive evidence, she chose to send me a letter, warning me that my father was not trustworthy and that if at any point I felt the need to hide something from him or anyone else, I could go to a super-secret cabin she had built, designed to be a hideout, all with me in mind. Or rather, us..." The truth is, I don't remember my mother as much as I would like to, so this letter was one of the few times I felt connected to her.

"In the letter, she said that if something happened to her and she couldn't protect me, she wanted me to know that she had intended to take me far away, to somewhere calm and sunny. But if that wasn't possible, she at least wanted to offer me a place to escape to, in case I needed it." As I finish speaking, Steve appears as serious as ever. He moves closer to me, his body just inches away from mine. I feel his hand on my face, and it's then that I realize I might be crying.

"So when my ex-husband said he suspected my father, it was like a puzzle piece falling into place in my mind. But believe me, I don't want my father to be involved in this. However, Barnes would never betray the country, so someone is framing him. Therefore, I think it's my duty to uncover the truth." As these words leave my mouth, I allow myself to understand that my goal is much larger than saving Barnes from prison or even death; I need to understand who my father truly is.

"Our first meeting, and I've already made you cry. This is starting to feel like the promising beginning of a partnership." Steve smiles slightly as I stare at him, seriousness in my eyes. Who would have thought that the politically correct hero standing in front of me would have a sense of humor?

"Now it's my turn to make you cry..." I say, wiping away the tears falling from my face and pointing at the photos near the fireplace.

"My first rule on the field was never to get too involved. When I met Peggy, I just forgot everything I thought about involvement. We had a respectful and loving relationship. But I wanted to marry her, maybe even retire and grow old together, but I found out she wanted more. I didn't want to hold her back from the life she deserved, so we set each other free. Unfortunately, we only realized we didn't want the same things weeks before the wedding. As for the photos, I still don't feel ready to say goodbye to the memories of my past relationship." He still loves her. There's no doubt about that. Maybe we're going through the same situation, both trying to survive post-breakup. I think, I'm feeling closer to Steve Rogers.

"Now that we've opened our hearts to each other, can we solidify our partnership and move forward?" I stare at him as I extend my hand forward.

"Does that mean you'll tell me where your husband is right now, and we'll communicate about how to proceed from here?"

"This means you'll help me, and I'll try to play nice with you. Now, I need to go. Walk me to the door, I think we're no longer in good company." I say as I peek through the corner of the window at the entrance of Rogers' house. He quickly joins me and hands me one of his jackets.

"It wouldn't be gentlemanly of me to let a lady like you go out alone at night in the cold. You can take my coat. I'll accompany you to the car." He says with a friendly smile, offering me a gentle reassurance that somehow makes me feel safer. But I'm not foolish; I know the coat I'm wearing right now probably has a tracker. This man definitely thinks I'm a fool.

When we get close to my car, there are no signs of surveillance. I decide to make a final move to see if any agents would appear. I pull Steve against the car door, lean in close to his ear as if I'm about to share a secret, and whisper: “I know you want to track me, dear, but could you at least have called me to spend the night before trying to control my every move?”

I give him a kiss on the cheek and get into the car, still wearing his black coat, which I must admit is incredibly cozy and warm.

The path to the cabin is incredibly winding and dark. I confess I've only been to this hideout once, just to check if it was a real place. My mother really was a very smart cop because everything seems meticulously planned. There's a secret passage at the back of the cabin that leads you to a trail where you can run through; this trail takes you to a stream, very useful for hiding. I'm sure that by the time I get there, James and the others will have already found almost everything useful in the cabin. When I'm close to the location, I reach a part of the road that's too narrow for the car to pass. I'm now heading there, pondering how interesting it would be if I could somehow alert them to my arrival. However, at the moment, my phone doesn't seem like a safe means of communication. So, I'm prepared in case any of the idiots decide to attack me; I have something to defend myself with. Actually, all I have is a branch I picked up along the way .I hear footsteps approaching, and I start to run. Unfortunately, I've never been very good at running in places with so many obstacles like a forest. I'm taken by surprise when a hand grabs me, throwing me entirely

against the body of the person who caught me. Accidentally, I find myself extremely close to what I can now see is my ex-husband. We hadn't been this close in a very long time. I drop the branch to the ground as I move away from James, trying to catch my breath from the shock I got from Barnes.

"I should have warned you I was coming; I thought you were some lost tourist." Barnes says as he stares at me with his piercing blue eyes. Maybe I lost all logical thinking as I stared back at him. Who would have thought that just getting close to him like this would turn me into a fool?

"I would have sent a message if this was a courtesy visit, but I'm visiting a damn police wanted man; I can't leave traces." Rationality successfully found, thank you, brain, for not being controlled by my hormones.

"Are you okay? How was the date with the man of your life?" James speaks in the most cynical and sarcastic tone possible, almost as if he's jealous. To be fair, everyone who has ever heard my father talk about Steve Rogers knows that he thinks Rogers is the one for me. But as far as I know, that might have been pure manipulation.

"I can't believe that amidst everything we're going through, you want to know about this. But since you insist, it was great. Probably the best date of my life." Lying is ugly, but being annoyed was much worse.

"I don't believe you." Barnes says as he stares at me, and from a distance, I get the impression that he's almost smiling.

"Why are you smiling?" I'm indignant, or at least I'm pretending to be, after all, my date was merely a meeting to gain a new ally to save the reputation of this fool in front of me.

"Because I finally understood the meaning of 'every cloud has a silver lining.' I'm here, looking at my ex-wife for the first time since the divorce, and she looks stunning, just back from a date with some random guy, and I simply can't stop feeling like I'm the luckiest man in the world." I don't know what happens to my body; I automatically move closer to Barnes as he speaks. I want to stare at him as much as possible, trying to see if I can discern sincerity or lust in his eyes.

It's amazing how continuous eye contact makes you inclined to think about what it must be like to have the person's face even closer to yours. For a moment, I forget who I am, or rather, who he is. Barnes notices that I'm scrutinizing him, and instead of pulling away or saying anything, he holds me by the waist. It's important to note that at the end of our relationship, many things were questioned. Our love, emotional closeness, and our trust in each other. But never our sexual tension. Let's say chemistry is our favorite subject.

"I think we should keep our focus solely on our main goal. Adding sex into our complicated relationship as ex-spouses would only complicate things further..." I don't trust the words coming out of my mouth. Not for a second do I want Barnes to let go and say that it's better for us to be objective. He removes his hands from my waist and places them on my face. His hands are cold, but at this moment, it feels like it doesn't matter. I can barely feel the difference between the touch of your left hand and your right, even though Barnes' left arm is made of metal. His gaze, which was once filled with lust, now conveys a certain tenderness, perhaps melancholy.

"I thought you hated me..." Bucky says this with a certain hesitation, as if he's not sure what this so-called hatred would mean in our relationship. To be honest, I've also wondered if he hated me.

"I couldn't hate you even if I wanted to, Barnes. Sometimes it feels like I've been infected by you, and now I can't be Melisa Harrison anymore." The words almost float out of my mouth; I can't contain the urge to kiss him. The eyes that are staring at me seem to be gleaming.

"Well, literally, you are Melisa Harrison Barnes since we got married, but I think I understand what you mean." He smiles so shamelessly that it reminds me of why I married him. He could make me feel like a completely lovestruck fool with just one smile.

"Barnes, I haven't been Melisa Harrison Barnes since a year after our divorce. I know the timing is terrible to bring this up, but my father convinced me that I could only move forward if I left everything reminding me of you behind." It hurt to say that I wasn't a Barnes anymore, but the truth is, as much as I loved him back then, it was a crucial step for me to envision being someone after the divorce.

"And did you really want to leave me behind that much?" He withdraws his hands from me while glaring at me, clearly upset. It's so difficult to look someone in the eye and say that you no longer want anything to do with them.

"You must be kidding. Don't act like wanting a new relationship after everything we've been through is some great betrayal." I'm almost screaming at him out of anger. Talking about this damn separation irritates me almost as much as him pretending it's a surprise that I've gone back to using my maiden name. What did he expect from me?

"I should remind you that it was you who asked for the divorce." Now it's me laughing shamelessly. I can't take a man seriously who, instead of thanking me for trying to save his skin, decides to remind me of something I'm not ready to admit I regret.

"I asked for the divorce because we had become strangers to each other. Don't pretend like my request for separation came out of the blue. We both knew very well that the distance between us was doing no good. So, go ahead, blame me for our end, that's fine. But don't pretend you didn't see our separation coming." It's like they say, provoke a woman in the middle of a forest after midnight, and she'll want to air out all the dirty laundry of the entire relationship. It's not my fault he decided to bring up this topic.

"How could I pretend not to see it coming when our divorce was written in your eyes every time you looked at me? After the accident, you only saw me as a broken toy you couldn't fix." Ouch, that hurt. As I pause to reflect on what James is saying, it seems there's a hidden pain he was concealing from me. The truth is, I thought our relationship was broken, not him.

"Clearly, I'm to blame for our communication issues. What else is my fault? The fact that you refused to open up to me about a trauma, turning us into two ghosts inhabiting the same space?" Yes, in the midst of an argument, it's always easier to blame someone else than to admit that everyone might have contributed in some way. I can't believe it took him and me three damn years to talk about this.

"Why are we arguing about this when you've clearly moved on, and all our past is just history now?" Alright, I admit it, he's right. Why are we arguing about this?

"For the same reason I didn't back down when you showed up at my door earlier, Barnes. We both know very well what we mean to each other. We just like to pretend we've moved past it all." That was the best response I could come up with amid a thousand thoughts racing through my mind. Unfortunately, getting lost in memories now would only undermine my resolve while we're arguing.

"I never..." He seems to struggle to finish his sentence when we are interrupted by a noise. I don't know for what reason, but I felt like he was about to admit something important, perhaps even crucial. But Dave seems to be running towards us.

"The lovebirds forgot we have a team meeting to figure out which villain we're going to defeat? All the Avengers are waiting at our humble headquarters." Dave looks at both of us with a funny expression, as if he caught us in an intimate moment. I glare at him, disapproving of his expression. Barnes is still looking at me.

"I guess we have a more important matter to focus our attention on now, so let's forget our differences and call a truce?" I say, turning to face James. I want to look into his eyes one last time before we pretend this conversation never happened.

"A truce doesn't mean you won't get to hear everything I have to say, Harrison." He says, winking at me, then walks towards Dave, putting his right arm around Dave's neck and guiding him forward. I decide to move on too, still replaying moments of this night in my mind.

#bucky barnes x oc #bucky barnes smut #bucky barnes fanfiction #bucky barnes angst #steve rogers x original female character #marvel fanfiction #steve rogers angst #Spotify

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petervintonjr · 1 year

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“I was born and raised in the North, and I knew that there was discrimination… but I had never seen that type of hatred on the face of anyone before. It forced me to work harder, to come back and work harder. It forced me to take a good look at people that I knew and what was going on in my own community.”

Today we study the achievements of social justice giant Constance Mitchell, someone who truly understood the intrinsic connection between poverty and racial inequality, and infused that into her every action.

Born in 1928 New Rochelle, New York, little is known of the childhood or coming-of-age years of Constance (“Connie”) Mae Jenkins, but in 1950 she married Louisianan John Mitchell (part of the Great Migration) and moved to Rochester, New York –-the city for which she would forever be associated, despite her initial impression of a place where “people here didn't know how to smile and they weren't friendly at all.” Her first foray into Rochester community activism was as a volunteer with the Delta Ressics, a group of Baden Street Black activists who pushed for better housing and living conditions for migrant farm workers living in shacks near Sodus. She also fought against deplorable living conditions at the Hanover Houses, Rochester’s first low-income apartment complex.

In 1959 at the urging of a fellow Delta Rassick, Walter Cooper, Mitchell ran for --and lost-- a race for a seat on what is now the Monroe County legislature (Ward 3, then known as the Monroe County Board of Supervisors). However she made another run in 1961 and was this time successful, and was then re-elected in 1964: the first woman and the first African-American to be elected to that body --though not without enduring resentment, routine insults and slurs, and even threats from her fellow legislators. From this position she and her husband came into regular contact with such figures as Martin Luther King and Malcolm X, among many other civil rights leaders of the time --even entertaining visits from Malcolm and then-Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy. In the wake of the violent 1964 racial unrest in Rochester, Connie expressed in an interview for Life magazine, “I'm not telling you, I told you so. I'm saying please listen to us." These two terms were the full extent of Connie’s political career but her commitment to civil rights was just getting started: in 1965, she walked alongside Dr. King from Selma to Montgomery, but while this heroic act itself disillusioned her, at the same time it reinvigorated her determination to improves lives and conditions in her own community.

Perhaps one of Mitchell's enduring achievements was the founding of Action for a Better Community, a Rochester-based nonprofit devoted to helping people in low-income areas become more self-sufficient and lift themselves out of poverty. She also worked closely with the United Way and the Urban League of Rochester, and created the Urban League Black Scholars program. In later years (1978 to 1989), she became the Program Director for an initiative called PRISM (Program for Rochester to Interest Students in Science and Mathematics). In 1993 Rochester Mayor Bill Johnson, the first elected Black mayor of that city, credited Connie with inspiring him to get into politics; and in 2013 mayor Lovely Warren, the first Black woman to be elected to that position, similarly credited Connie as a role model.

In February 2017, Mitchell was awarded the Frederick Douglass Medal for outstanding civic engagement by the University of Rochester. She died the following year (2018); today the Monroe Country Office Building bears her name at the Constance Mitchell Concourse.

Read a truly absorbing transcript of a lengthy 2008 interview with Constance and John Mitchell at: https://rbscp.lib.rochester.edu/rbfs-CMitchell

#blacklivesmatter #blm #rochester #conniemitchell #constancemitchell #teachtruth #dothework #black lives matter #constance mitchell

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wanderinginksplot · 1 year

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Gar Cyare Chapter Eleven

The plot thickens in this chapter of my Alpha-17 x fem!reader fic!

Word Count: 5,100 words

Warnings: mentions of setups, minor (and decreasing) cosmic horror vibes, mentions of an amorphous external threat, bureaucratic rudeness.

Previous | Next | Masterlist

---

Aruetii (Traitor)

“I need your help.”

You wanted to scoff at Pender, wanted to curse and threaten him until he left you alone. Visions of your last time around him danced through your mind - pushed up against a wall, propositioned and ultimately punched in the face. Alpha had dealt with Pender swiftly and decisively enough that he hadn’t bothered you since, but it didn’t mean that you were going to eagerly leap to help him.

Still, something about the desperation on his face… it was unsettling, especially compared to the cocky, self-assured way he habitually carried himself. His eyes were pleading, looking for all the world like a child scared of the dark.

Alpha teased and admired your soft heart in turns, but you were cursing yourself for it as you sighed, returning to your seat. “What do you want, Pender?”

Pender straightened slightly, hope apparently bringing life back to him. He seemed too keyed up to take the other seat, though. Instead, he paced fitfully around the small room, only pausing to glance at you every few moments while you waited impatiently for him to give an explanation.

“Commander Colt will be on his way back here soon,” you warned, pitching your voice low to keep from startling him out of a confessional sort of mood.

Pender’s face tightened, but he shook his head. “I don’t- really know- I don’t know where to start.”

“Start with the most relevant information,” you suggested. “If I have questions, we can backtrack.”

He nodded, pulling a datapad from his pocket. With a few swipes of his finger, he located what he was looking for and passed the datapad to you. It appeared to be a credit transfer into his account. The transfer was for a large amount.

You glanced up at Pender. “What exactly am I looking at?”

“It’s my bank account,” he answered and you nodded instead of snarking at him - something you should have been awarded a medal for, honestly. “That’s not my salary. I haven’t done any outside jobs lately, either. Whoever requested that credit transfer, it wasn’t supposed to be for me.”

With a slow nod, you set the datapad down on the table. “And you don’t know who could have sent it?”

“My bank says the transfer was anonymous,” Pender told you, pacing more quickly. “When I pushed them, they said the details were so muddled and privacy protected that they couldn’t begin to decipher a starting account.”

You stared at the datapad screen for another moment. It really was a large amount of credits, but nothing in Pender’s explanation sounded sinister or threatening. And it certainly didn’t sound threatening enough to explain Pender’s near-panic about it.

“It’s odd,” you conceded slowly, “but not the worst thing. I don’t see what you need my help with.”

“I know you’re investigating the bounty hunters with Shaak Ti and Colt,” Pender said. “And I have reason to believe you’re searching for someone who stole information.”

“Why do you think that?” you asked, nerves roiling in the pit of your stomach. Everyone in the investigation had been trained to keep secrets from a very young age… except you. Had you somehow destroyed the secrecy of the investigation?

Pender gave you an unimpressed look - the most natural expression he had worn since first approaching you. “I knew the General and Commander were looking for information about something, and my credits are on a security leak. It didn’t take much to realize that you haven’t been working on your report lately. When I did some digging, I found out that you’re on special assignment. The pieces fell into place.”

You lifted your chin. “If that were true, I wouldn’t be able to confirm any of it.”

“I don’t need you to confirm anything,” he snapped, the sharp tone in his voice making you flinch even as your hands automatically clenched into fists. “Just… just look.”

Pender’s voice broke on the last word and he slid the datapad back toward you. He had pulled up a screen that displayed details of the mysterious transaction. It was for the same amount, still without a name displayed in the ‘Sender’ section. In fact, the only new detail was visible in the small ‘Note’ section. Displayed in small, electronically produced letters, you could see the words, “In thanks for the useful advice.”

You tore your gaze away from the screen to stare at Pender, who looked distraught. “The useful advice? What useful advice?”

“I don’t know!” he said, running shaking fingers through his hair. “I was telling you the truth - I haven’t taken on any jobs outside of Kamino lately. No hunts, no consulting, nothing. I don’t know who sent these credits or why, but I know this is going to end up putting me in the middle of your investigation, and I need your help!”

“I-” You paused, sighing. “I’ll do my best, Pender. But I have to tell General Ti and Commander Colt about this.”

Pender’s eyes went wide. “No. Please don’t. Please.”

“If you want my help, you have to let me tell them,” you said, making your voice and face as firm as you could possibly manage. When he still seemed hesitant, you reminded him, “I’ve already been accused of being at fault for one planet-wide catastrophe. I have no interest in doing it a second time. Your choice.”

The door opened before he could say anything, admitting General Ti and Commander Colt. They both looked surprised, though the general covered it better. “Doni Pender, hello. What brings you here?”

As she spoke with Pender, Commander Colt took a seat beside you and rested a cup of caf on the table for you. As he did, he leaned in too close for Pender to overhear. “Are you okay?”

You nodded, touched that they had remembered your discomfort around Pender and had made sure to check with you before they did anything else.

Pender, having finished with his conversation with Shaak Ti, glanced at you and sighed. “I agree. You can tell them.”

The curiosity on the general and commander’s faces soon turned to surprise and suspicion before changing to a professionalism that firmly masked anything else they may have been feeling.

“It’s suspicious,” Commander Colt said, cutting Pender off with a sharp gesture before he could say more than two words in his own defense. “It’s suspicious that payment would have come through now with that kind of note attached. Seems too easy.”

“I agree,” General Ti said. “But we are honor-bound to report any findings to the Kaminoan authorities. We can argue your case-”

“Please, no,” Pender begged for the second time. “You don’t understand. They don’t like me. They would take any opportunity to get rid of me, but they’ll arrest me for this. I’m not- I’ve done some things wrong in my life, but I don’t deserve to spend the rest of it rotting in a Republic prison!”

“If we’re all wary of this transfer and what it means, maybe it would make sense to put off reporting the findings,” you suggested.

General Ti shook her head regretfully. “I must make my report every day. I can wait until the end of the day, but no later.”

“Then it’s settled,” Commander Colt summarized, looking at you. “You’ll look into Pender’s case while the General and I keep investigating. The Kaminoans won’t ask questions since the investigation is ongoing and if you need any additional information, we can help you get it.”

“Do you have enough access to get started?” General Ti asked.

You nodded. “I still have full security clearance. I should be able to get all the information I need.”

“And me?” Pender asked. “What can I do? I’ll help her with the background information…”

Commander Colt cut in before you could say anything. “Pender, you need to do whatever it is that you’re scheduled to do today. If you deviate from your schedule, it’ll only create questions or make you look more guilty. Keep an ear out for your comlink in case she has questions for you.”

Pender nodded, repeating the motion too many times for it to look natural. “Of course, of course... Let me give you all my private comlink frequency- I don’t want to risk anyone accessing our conversations.”

After he had done exactly that, Pender rushed out of the room. Commander Colt gave you an apologetic look. “Sorry about that. Figured you wouldn’t want him following you around all day.”

You shrugged and General Ti said kindly, “It is for the best that he is elsewhere. You have much to do and a short span of time in which to complete it.”

Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough time. Not nearly. In fact, you were unpleasantly reminded of your early days on Kamino, always working desperately with no chance of success.

Not that you weren’t making strides. No, by an hour after your (skipped) lunch, you had checked the records of every entry into Pender’s quarters for as long as the information had been leaked, as well as a month before. You had read reports from the other trainers, analyzing how they felt about Pender. Almost none of them cared for him, but you couldn’t find anything that tied them to direct action against him.

You had accessed his datapad to double-check that it hadn’t been breached or that he hadn’t used it to leak information. If he had leaked the information, there was very little chance he would have started this whole side investigation, but you were determined to check everything you could.

It was only an hour before General Ti’s deadline that you tossed aside your own datapad, heaving a sigh and thinking just how far outside your job description you currently were.

By all rights, you should let the general and commander tell the Kaminoans about Pender. He had been unpleasant to you until the exact moment that he had needed you to help him. It wouldn’t make your life any more difficult or worse to see him sent to prison for apparent treason against the Republic. In fact, it may make your life a little easier.

But you couldn’t do it.

There was just something too… neat about the whole thing. It was too simple, too clean. Pender was widely disliked, even by the Kaminoans, as he had admitted. Who would make a better scapegoat than someone who had no friends to ask questions when they were accused of doing something terrible?

No, you had to keep fighting for Pender. Not because you liked or even cared about the man himself, but because no one had reason to believe your innocence after the Separatist had invaded Kamino. You would have been the most convenient scapegoat, but Alpha had been staunchly in your corner.

Alpha had been your champion. You had to be the same for someone else if you could.

---

Alpha was inside an asteroid.

There was no doubt about it now: the panel on the bottom floor of the mysterious abandoned ship led directly into the asteroid itself. It clearly wasn’t an asteroid at all, though. Alpha couldn’t claim to be an expert, but he was under the impression that most asteroids didn’t have countless levels of durasteel catwalks and blinking wall panels.

There had been a short debate about whether to use the ladder in the decompression chamber. Half of Omega Squad had argued that there was no way of knowing for certain if the ladder was safe or had been sabotaged somehow. The other half maintained that this section of the ship clearly hadn’t been meant to be seen, and the ladder wouldn’t have been sabotaged by someone who may need to use it again.

Alpha had ended the argument by dropping the ladder through the access hatch. When it stood, apparently not preparing to collapse, he climbed down it. The beam from the light mounted on the side of his helmet shone through the darkness. It wasn’t enough light, not even close, but it didn’t matter. As soon as he had gotten halfway down the ladder, automatic lights had switched on.

Omega Squad had descended quietly behind him, but Alpha’s attention was fixed on studying his surroundings. He was on the uppermost durasteel catwalk, and when he peered over the side, more levels stretched down beneath him. There was a clear end, however. About five levels down, the catwalks ended, and a ladder stretched the rest of the way down to the floor… or, more accurately, to a durasteel sheet covering the entirety of the ‘floor’.

Even from his place far above the floor, Alpha could see that there were access panels on it. Whatever was behind this barrier that divided the false asteroid nearly in half, it had been designed to be checked or maintained.

The access hatch had passed through a thick layer of durasteel. Clearly, the ‘asteroid’ was hollow, though clearly, someone had designed it to withstand observation and pass as something natural. The surface of the asteroid had been rocky when he crossed from Omega Squad’s ship to the abandoned one, though something had to have hit the scanner as metallic.

Whether the thickness of the outer shell was part of the disguise or a way of protecting whatever was behind that barrier, Alpha couldn’t be sure. Either way, they soon discovered that it blocked every transmission except the ones in their inter-HUD comm channel.

“Spread out,” Alpha ordered. “Check everything. Until we know what’s behind that barrier, helmets stay on, breathable atmosphere or not. And stay on high alert. We don’t know whether someone knows we’re here. We didn’t exactly perform a stealth entrance.”

The group fanned out to study every level of the structure. The highest one, level five, held information about the asteroid and its structural integrity. The next down seemed to monitor patterns of nearby planetary bodies. The readings paid special attention to solar flares, meteor showers, and asteroids.

Level three was the one that finally put an end to any light-heartedness Omega Squad had been showing. It was dedicated entirely to monitoring Republic and GAR transmissions… even on channels that were restricted or heavily encoded.

Level two was fully unlabeled, which somehow managed to be even more sinister than everything else they had found up to that point. Niner was issuing orders before Alpha had the chance: “Atin, start slicing these panels, Figure out what this level is for. Fi, cover him. Darman, you’re with the captain and I. We’re going to check out the last level.”

Niner turned, glancing at Alpha as if to check whether he had additional orders. The sergeant seemed to have covered everything, so Alpha just gave a slight nod and went to level one. There was nothing at all on that level, just a blank wall stretching the length of the catwalk.

“Nothing to report on this level,” he transmitted over the comm channel. “We’re headed to level zero. We’ll let you know if we need coverage.”

“Yes, sir,” Fi replied, suddenly all business since his skills as a sniper and medic may be needed before they returned to the ship. “I’m on alert.”

“Any progress on slicing into the panel?” Niner asked as he followed Alpha to the last ladder that stretched down to the floor.

“Nothing yet,” Atin reported. “The panel is loaded with security. I haven’t tripped anything yet, but it’s slow going.”

“Keep at it,” Alpha told him darkly. “We need to report back soon and the more intel we have, the better.”

“Sir,” Atin agreed. Alpha didn’t bother saying anything else. The fewer distractions he had, the faster Atin could slice the panel and the sooner Alpha could get back to the people who mattered.

His boots hit the durasteel floor with a hollow-sounding boom! The same thing happened when Niner, then Darman reached the bottom of the ladder. Alpha waited for them to glance around, then went for the nearest gap in the barrier. He had noticed a while before that, along with several access hatches, there were a few narrow rectangles of thick transparisteel set into the barrier.

When he peered through, however, he was greeted with a mass of wires and electronics. Niner had followed him, glancing through the pane as well. “Any idea what it is, captain?”

“No,” Alpha said flatly. Electronics were tricky. They could be programmed to do any number of things. He could take a guess at their purpose based on the way things were laid out and interconnected, but the GAR would want more than a guess, especially with something so strange and suspicious… and so close to Kamino.

“It’s a transmission station,” Darman contributed. When they both turned to look at him, he shrugged, indicating a warning sign set into the barrier. “There’s a lopretrium warning. Lopretrium is used to increase the range of transmissions. It’s a natural amplifier for frequencies.”

Alpha frowned. He remembered every bit of information he had ever come across, but that was new to him.

Judging from his voice, Niner seemed to be thinking along the same lines. “Where did you learn that one, Darman?”

Darman seemed almost embarrassed when he replied, “Mereel.”

Alpha bit back a sigh. He didn’t mind the null ARCs - though they were some of the few ARC troopers he hadn’t personally trained - but there was something about running into the Skirata clan that made every trooper walk away with stars in his eyes. It was infuriating. More importantly, it could make a man lose focus on what was important.

“Okay, so it’s a transmission station,” Alpha agreed sharply. “Why don’t we know about it? The Republic monitors all transmissions that pass through this sector.”

“If transmissions are sporadic, they would be more difficult to track,” Niner theorized. “Or maybe they’re transmitting on a frequency that the Republic doesn’t watch as closely.”

“I’m getting more curious about who ‘they’ are,” Alpha said. “But okay, say they miss the transmission. Ships pass through this sector constantly - on patrol, on the way to Kamino, or just passing through. How did no one notice a single asteroid with a ship crash-landed on it before now? This is showing signs of having been here for a while.”

“I think it was originally part of an asteroid field.” Darman held up his datapad. “Remember that field nearby? I guessed that it was part of that, so I did some research. Turns out the field was closer, and this station would have been in the middle of it. The field didn’t shift until a few weeks ago, so it’s possible that no one noticed. This didn’t move with the rest of the asteroids, though. It’s a fixed location.”

“No one would have had a reason to scan an asteroid field,” Niner added. “No one would have noticed that this is actually metallic.”

“Not only that,” Darman said. “The hull of this station was covered in something rocky when we came over to the crash site. I think it was originally covered in a duracrete mixture that hid the metal. My guess is that constant collisions with other asteroids and the stress of being in open space chipped away at the duracrete until the metal showed through. It wouldn’t have taken much exposure for our scanner to be able to pick up a metallic surface.”

“Can we get inside?” Alpha asked.

“I wouldn’t,” Atin contributed through the comms channel. “I’m seeing signs that every access panel to the transmitter itself is heavily alarmed. It would take hours to slice through those security protocols.”

“Don’t bother,” Alpha told him, starting for the ladder. “I’m going to make contact with the Republic, then with Kamino. Whoever put this here, the kaminii need to know.”

He had made it up to the fifth floor and the bottom of the ladder to the original access hatch when Atin spoke again. “Captain, I got into the system. These are the panels where the information to be transmitted is entered either manually or through a remote application.”

Alpha paused. “Were you able to retrieve any past messages?”

“Even better,” Atin replied, satisfaction thick in his tone. “I’ve got a call log. The station has recently received several calls from a comm frequency based on Kamino. I’m sending the frequency to your HUD now.”

A single flick of Alpha’s eyes was enough to pull up the comm frequency. After a split second to process, a violent smile stretched over his face.

---

“You didn’t find anything?” Pender demanded. You weren’t thrilled about the sharp reprimand in his voice, but you couldn’t exactly blame him. Pender’s eyes were wide and his breathing was fast. He was panicking, and with good reason.

“No,” you admitted. “I looked at every record I could find, but no one else seems like a likely candidate for transmitting information, especially not on your behalf.”

“Listen, I know I’m a popular guy,” Pender started, pacing back and forth, “but surely you found someone who doesn’t like me. You know how these bounty hunters are. If they take the slightest dislike to you, they do crazy things to get revenge. You should have seen the way this one Weequay started treating me…”

You tuned Pender out as he launched into a story, still walking frantically around the room. His pacing turned out to be a good thing, since it meant he entirely missed the way you made uncomfortable eye contact with General Ti and Commander Colt. They knew as well as you did that Pender was among the least-liked people on Kamino.

“I can at least give the Kaminoans my recommendation that they refrain from acting until we can launch a deeper investigation into this matter,” General Ti said kindly.

Pender was unconvinced. “General, please don’t. I’ll do anything you want, but I can’t- Please, don’t tell the Kaminoans about this.”

The General tried to gently persuade Pender that she would do everything she could to help, but she had to make her full report. You had never been so grateful for your comm to ring than you were in that moment, and you happily stepped to the furthest corner of the room to accept the call.

You could have gone outside for greater privacy, but there was a chance that General Ti would pull some kind of Jedi trick on Pender, and you weren’t willing to risk missing that.

The frequency was unfamiliar, but you accepted it anyway, answering with a wary, “Hello?”

“It’s me,” Alpha said, his voice familiar and utterly comforting even through the small speakers of the comlink. “Pender’s a traitor.”

The unprompted statement was so timely for the situation that it took you a moment to process. “What?”

“Pender’s a traitor,” Alpha repeated with relish. “He’s been giving information to the Seppies through a disguised transmission station outside of Kamino.”

“Are you sure?” you murmured, trying to pitch your voice only barely loud enough to be heard over the chaos in the background. “How do you know?”

“We tracked the communications back to Kamino,” he told you. “They originated from his Republic-issued comlink frequency.”

“Pender,” you called, repeating it more loudly when he didn’t respond the first time. “Pender! I need your comlink. The one the Republic gave you.”

“Pender? Why are you with Pender?” Alpha demanded, but you ignored him.

“I don’t have it,” Pender admitted, shrinking under the harsh stares of the general and commander. “I lost it months ago.”

Your voice was sharp with exasperation and irritation. “And you didn’t think to mention this when you asked me for help?”

“It was GAR-issued,” Pender explained, sounding confused about why you were so upset. “I didn’t want to get fined for losing government equipment. You already told the general about the credit transfer when I asked you not to. I knew you would do the same thing with the comlink.”

“I believe it is clear that Pender is not the source of our information leak,” General Ti summarized, cutting through the rest of the chatter and accusations you, Pender, and Alpha were throwing around. “Pender, you are dismissed.”

Pender rushed out of the room as quickly as possible. When the door had closed behind him, the general continued, “That does leave the question of who the leak is. Administrator, do you have any theories?”

You shook your head. “Sorry, General Ti. I didn’t go far back enough in the security cam footage to catch who might have stolen Pender’s comlink. Now that I have a timeline, I should be able to narrow the list of suspects down.”

“General,” Colt said, voice urgent. “We’ve just had an unauthorized departure from the planet.”

“That must have been our traitor,” General Ti concluded. “We must go to the Kaminoans with what we’ve learned.”

“I’ll report what we’ve found to the Republic and the GAR,” Alpha informed them all through your comlink. “I’m sure you’ll be in contact with them, and it’ll help if they already know what’s going on.”

“Very good, Captain,” the Jedi said, inclining her head despite the fact that Alpha couldn’t see her. “And hurry back. I have a feeling we will need you here.”

“I will, General,” Alpha agreed, and you could hear the grim determination in his voice. “Omega Squad and I will have to stay long enough to catalogue what we find and report back to everyone, but I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

“Stay safe, Alpha,” you pleaded softly, as the general and commander turned away tactfully and started their own conversation.

“I will, but I need you to do the same,” he countered. “I’ll see you soon...”

There was an odd, heavy pause before the call disconnected. It was probably because he didn’t call you neverd’ika since you had an audience… but you couldn’t help but wonder if there was something else he didn’t say.

You couldn’t dwell on it for too long. General Ti had called ahead to get an emergency meeting with Lama Su. Kamino’s prime minister hadn’t been happy at being summoned, but he agreed to spare the Jedi a few minutes. You didn’t need Jedi senses to catch the subtext: if it had been anyone else, the meeting request would have been denied.

It didn’t matter, though. All that mattered was that General Ti got the meeting and brought you and Commander Colt along with her. Given your particular history with the Kaminoans, you made a point of staying quiet while General Ti finished giving him a general explanation of what had happened.

By the time she had finished, more information had come to light. Colt stepped forward, already displaying the screen of his datapad. “Security has traced the unauthorized departure to a ship owned by Lenjam Banti, one of the bounty hunter instructors. They haven’t been able to reach him on the comms.”

“Do you believe Banti was the leak?” Lama Su asked, narrowing his eyes slightly.

“Kamino security forces ran a sample of his skin cells through an outside database,” General Ti told him. “It revealed that he lied about his identity. Banti is actually a bounty hunter known only by the name Dengar.”

With that information and the new timeline Pender had inadvertently provided, you focused your attention on your own datapad, pulling up the security footage you had been looking through. Now that you had a suspect, it would be far easier to track down evidence.

“Impossible,” Lama Su decreed. “We perform an extensive background check on all instructor candidates. If he were lying about his identity, we would have discovered it.”

“Not necessarily,” General Ti told him kindly. “Your databases are extensive, but self-contained. It would have been simple for someone with the right skills to alter the information of the genetic information you have on file. The Kaminoan databases do say that the material belongs to Banti, but several outside databases confirm that the man is indeed Dengar. Your archives were sliced and altered.”

Kaminoan expressions weren’t easy to read, but even you could tell that Lama Su looked displeased. “And what evidence do you have that this Dengar was the one to collect and distribute information?”

Fortunately, you had found what you needed by that point. You showed him your datapad, with Dengar’s face clearly showing on the footage. He was frozen in time, leaving Pender’s quarters. “This is from several months ago. We hadn’t thought to look back that far.”

Lama Su’s look of displeasure began turning to one of derision and you braced for him to say something condescending, but General Ti interrupted before he could begin. “Prime Minister, you must act quickly. We do not yet know what information Dengar has or where he took it.”

“And why should I not take Doni Pender into custody?” the Kaminoan asked. “Why would Dengar have left so abruptly if he set up the perfect person to take the fall? It seems to me that the two could have been working together and had a disagreement. Or perhaps Dengar discovered Pender’s deception and fled for his own safety.”

“Prime Minister, Pender is the only reason we found out about all of this,” you chimed in. “He has made some missteps, but we wouldn’t have made this much progress if he hadn’t told us about the way he was being set up.”

“Sir,” Commander Colt said quickly, before Lama Su could reply. “The administrator was skeptical about Pender’s guilt despite the supposed evidence. She was looking into the situation. With her investigation and Captain Alpha-17 finding the transmission station with Omega Squad, Dengar probably felt it was too dangerous to risk staying here.”

Lama Su leaned forward, an intent look in his dark eyes. “How did you know about the commando team’s progress? Their mission is highly classified. They were not to discuss it with anyone.”

“I’m Captain Alpha-17’s commanding officer, sir. The GAR’s processes are that he should report to General Ti and I even on assignments outside of our command,” Commander Colt explained smoothly.

It was an outright lie, but the commander’s sincerity and matter-of-fact nature made it far more convincing.

Lama Su didn’t seem like he entirely believed that, but General Ti spoke again. “We must act now or we risk unforeseen complications from the situation, Prime Minister.”

The Kaminoan steepled his long fingers and heaved a heavy sigh. There was a moment of charged silence, but he reached for the comlink on his desk. After keying in a frequency, he said reluctantly, “Until we can do a full audit of our information, Kamino is under lockdown. No one may enter or leave without approval.”

He glanced from General Ti, to Commander Colt, and finally to you. With his eerie eyes fixed on you, he said, “Perform all necessary activities to prepare for a potential invasion.”

---

Author's Note - Oh, here we go again... Thanks, as always, for reading!

Now for the unwelcome part of this note: I try to take a break about halfway through these stories to get the next part planned out and start writing. I'm not prepared to say that this is the halfway point (e.g. I legitimately thought this was chapter ten the whole time I was writing it), but I will be taking a small hiatus. You can expect the next chapter to be posted in the first week of March!

That being said, I do have some stuff planned for the time between now and posting Chapter Twelve. Feel free to send in asks for more information or background questions. As long as you aren't asking for spoilers, I'd love to answer your questions!

Thank you for reading and I'll see you in a few weeks!

Taglist: @rexs-wife @sugarpuffsstuff @stargazingthenightaway @just-some-girl-92 @kimageddon @ladysongmaster @carodealmeida @adriiibell @nomercyforthewarrior @boomtowngirl @bitchylittleredhead @blck-omen @hrk-fic-recs @lackofhonor @captxin-rex @literallydontlook @salaminus @mothmanbelievesinyou @archivedreading @lucyhelena @808tsuika @ladykatakuri @echos-gal @shawtyitsyou @butterbug14 @skyguy-snips @fan-fic-favs @frietiemeloen @tsedeshgishnii @buddee @justanothersadperson93 @leotatombs @mavendeb @rain-on-kamino @itsagrimm @dancingwiththeplanets @hummellchen @theclonesdeservebetter @wolffeswife @ladyemxo @maulslittlemeowmeow @murder-of-crows-1 @ollovaemisc @rosmariner @staycalmandhugaclone @marennial @fordo-kixed-rex @murderofcrows1 @quietplaceinthestars @dinsverdika

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girlactionfigure · 1 year

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Resistance Fighter – Nancy Wake

She killed a Nazi with her bare hands.

Nancy Wake was a gutsy journalist from Australia who became a leader of the Allied resistance and killed a Nazi with her bare hands.

Born in New Zealand in 1912, Nancy was raised in Sydney. She ran away from home at age 16 and went to London, where she became a self-taught journalist.

As a young woman, Nancy described herself as someone who loved nothing more than a “good drink and handsome men, especially French men.” In 1930 she married Henri Edmond Fiocca, a wealthy French industrialist.

During the 1930’s Nancy worked for Hearst newspapers as a European correspondent. Stationed in Vienna, Nancy witnessed the rise of Nazism. She was shocked to see roving gangs of Nazis beating up Jews, and never forgot the sight of Jews chained to massive wheels and rolled through the streets. She later said, “I resolved there and then that if I ever had the chance I would do anything to make things more difficult for their rotten party.”

Nancy became a courier for the French resistance. Speaking perfect French, she worked with the “maquis” – guerrilla bands of resistance fighters. After Germany invaded France, she helped Allied POW’s and other personnel escape the country.

The Gestapo called Nancy the “White Mouse.” They tapped her phone and intercepted her mail. Nancy’s life was in constant danger.

Nancy described her method of avoiding detection by the Germans: “A little powder and a little drink on the way, and I’d pass their German posts and wink and say, ‘Do you want to search me?’ God, what a flirtatious little bastard I was.”

Nancy led repeated attacks on Gestapo headquarters. By 1943, she was the most wanted resistance fighter, with a 5 million franc price on her head.

After Nancy’s maquis network was betrayed, she fled France. Her husband stayed behind, and he was captured, tortured and killed by the Gestapo. Nancy, on her way across the Pyrenees to Spain, was unaware of her husband’s death until after the war.

In 1944, Nancy parachuted into France. Her assignment involved collecting and distributing arms and equipment that were sent in by parachute. Nancy was a highly successful recruiter, and is credited with bringing 7500 fighters into the resistance.

From April 1944 until the liberation of France in August 1944, Nancy’s band of maquisards fought 22,000 German soldiers, causing 1400 casualties while sustaining only 100 of their own.

At one point, Nancy killed an SS guard with her bare hands to stop him from raising the alarm during a raid. She later described how she did it, “They’d taught this judo-chop stuff with the flat of the hand at SOE [special operations training] and I practiced away at it. But this was the only time I used it – whack – and it killed him all right. I was really surprised.”

Another time, Nancy’s wireless operator was shut down in a German raid, and she rode her bicycle over 300 miles through German checkpoints to deliver the secret codes.

After the war, Nancy was awarded the United States Medal of Freedom, the Medaille de la Resistance, and the Croix de Guerre, among many other honors.

Nancy continued to work as an intelligence agent. She married a Royal Air Force officer in 1957 and for the next several decades they divided their time between London and Australia. Nancy’s autobiography, The White Mouse, was published in 1985 and became a bestseller.

Nancy’s husband died in 2001, and she returned to London permanently. She lived at the Stafford Hotel near Picadilly, her expenses largely paid for by the hotel’s owners, who were honored to host a renowned heroine. She could be found every morning at the hotel bar, drinking her first gin and tonic of the day.

Nancy died in 2011 at age 98. Her remarkable story has been the subject of multiple biographies and television mini-series.

For fighting the good fight against the Nazi war machine, we honor Nancy Wake as this week’s Thursday Hero.

#Thursday Hero.

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trophiestodaycom · 2 years

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huggybug · 2 years

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you don’t have to go home but you can’t stay here - thomas bordeleau

word count: 1.5k words

idea inspired by an anon:) y’all this made me cry so i hope ya enjoy. title from closing time by semisonic because that’s literally all i can think of when i think about them and i’m crying again🥲🥲

“Hey Thom” Your voice immediately softened when you opened your hotel room door to your boyfriend. You didn’t want to crowd him right after the loss. You left it to his parents to go down and meet him at the arena, knowing they’d want to see him just as much as you did.

“Do you want to talk about it?” Thomas was always different after a loss. Sometimes he liked to talk it out, go through plays and figure out what went wrong and then other times he went silent. You were supportive either way, you just wanted him to feel better.

Thomas just looked at you, shook his head and then stepped forward to wrap his arms around you. You sighed, pulling him closer and letting the door fall closed behind him. After a couple minutes of standing there, you made your way to the bed, sitting him down and going with him, not that you had a choice, Thomas refused to not be touching you but you complied, knowing it made him feel better to be near you.

You sat in silence for a while, wrapped around each other, listening to one another breathe. You toyed with his chain at the back of his neck, fidgeting with it in your fingers. An unmeasurable amount of time went by before Thomas spoke up, his voice rough and hoarse.

“I’m sorry” You sat back to look him in the eyes.

“Baby, what could you possibly be sorry for?” He played amazingly, hell he got the player of the tournament award for his team. You couldn’t have been more proud of him for the way he helped lead the team and his overall performance.

“I couldn’t win you gold” He smiled half-heartedly and you felt a pang hit your heart. You remember it vividly, the day USA won gold at the World Juniors he should’ve been apart of.

“Next year” You reminded him. There was a couple years still that he’d be eligible, this wasn’t necessarily the one time he would be allowed in the tournament.

“But this year was the year. The team is insane, who knows what it’ll be like next year” Thomas knew. It wouldn’t be the same. Good, but not the same.

“I know you’ll carry them to the finals next year baby” You tried to raise his hopes, distract him from the fact that he should be on the ice getting a medal hung around his neck instead of the guy they chose as his replacement.

“Yeah okay, I'll bring you home gold” He smiled softly, kissing you like your words had actually helped him.

“Don’t you worry about that” You can feel tears pricking at your eyes, knowing that he probably felt the same way. You tucked your head back into his shoulder so that he didn’t see the few tears that did fall. “And we both know that gold is more important to you than me and it’s okay to admit that” You said once you composed yourself. There wasn’t space for you to be upset right now, Thomas needed you and that’s what you were here for after all.

“I wanted it for you and Mom and Dad” Thomas mumbled. His head dropped to your chest and you could just barely hear him chanting it like a mantra to himself.

“Thomas-” You whispered, gently wrapping your hands around his clenched fists, trying to ease them open.

“No I- I promised you and I couldn’t…” He shook his head before breaking down. His head collided with your chest and you held him there, hugging him tight while he let it all out. He deserved to after all, there was a lot riding on his shoulders this tournament or at least that’s how he felt. In reality, nobody expected any more from him than they did any other player but Thomas carried it anyway. From missing out on two years to then come in with an A, he definitely felt the pressure.

“It’s not about me Thom. It’s not about your parents either, this was all for you. It’s okay to admit that” Thomas was nothing if not considerate. He was constantly more worried of other’s feelings than his own which meant you understood why he was so worried about letting his loved ones down. But ultimately, the only one it was affecting was him.

“I just…” He trailed off, looking up at you with a tear-streaked face. “I wanted it so bad”

“I know baby, I know” There wasn’t much to say. It sucked. Getting eliminated so early was a shock and you weren’t going to lie to him and tell him that it was okay… because it wasn’t. It wasn’t fair that they lost, it was a bad game and a bad day but there was nothing they could do to change it.

“I wanted to show them I deserved it, that I was worth the spot on the team” He deserved it, probably the most out of anybody at that tournament and it absolutely killed you that he would never get the opportunity again.

“You did, you absolutely did. You played insanely well Thomas. I don’t want you to diminish your hard work just because it’s over. Yeah it sucks and yeah you should’ve made it further but that doesn’t change how you played. You were amazing and I don’t want you to even think otherwise”

“I wanted to prove it to them and now I can’t because we’re out and I’m too fucking old for another shot” He was mad and while you understood, he wasn’t being fair to himself by acting like he wasn’t good enough.

“Maybe it’s not the result you wanted but hey, you fucking played the World Juniors. And as an Alternate Captain, that’s amazing baby. That’s a huge honour and I know you know that”

“I know” He mumbled, dropping his gaze to the floor again. “Luke made me cry in the locker room”

You looked over at him curiously, wondering where this was going.

“He came over to my stall, thanked me for being a good guy to look up to and shit” You let out a soft laugh at that which made the corner of his mouth quirk up into the smallest smile you’d ever seen on him.

“That was nice of him. I bet he liked playing with you again” The Michigan guys were always a sore subject. Thomas missed college, you knew that, but you also knew that over all the parties and dumb things they got themselves into, Thomas missed his guys like crazy.

It was hard for him. He obviously moved to San Jose alone, you couldn’t join him just yet but he was way too far from Matty and Truss who he’d spent the past four years with basically attached at the hip.

At least Matty was in the same time zone, that helped Thomas. Brendan was there as well but the three were so far apart, it barely even mattered.

“Yeah for the last time ever” Thomas sniffled a bit and your heart broke all over again.

“Thomas” You sighed, feeling awful that he was so hurt right now.

“It’ll be fine” He said quietly although it sounded more like a question than an affirmation.

“You have so much ahead of you, there’s more to look forward to” He was just entering the NHL which meant of course this part of his hockey career was over but there was a whole new part just waiting to begin.

“I just really wanted to win this” He mumbles, letting his hands roam up to your hair, playing with the ends to avoid looking you in the eye.

He felt like a little kid. Like a toddler with emotions too big to communicate but you still took your time with him. It was upsetting so you weren’t going to dismiss his feelings.

“I know you did” It was all he talked about for years and especially after they left Worlds so quickly, it just seemed like his last chance at a medal for his country.

Thomas fell silent again, moving with you to lay down in bed and you went easily, wanting whatever he did. Tonight, you’d do anything to make him feel better. You spent the night tangled up in each other, only talking every now and then but you could tell as time went on, he slowly started to let it go.

He fell asleep after a couple hours as you laid there, combing through his hair with your fingers, watching all the tension drain from his face.

You reached for your phone, replying to texts from his parents and sister, Brendan, and Matty. They were all wondering how he was doing, concerned for their boy which made your heart sink a little more. You quickly replied to them all before throwing your phone to the side and laying back down next to Thomas, returning your full attention to him.

#thomas bordeleau x reader #thomas bordeleau imagine #thomas bordeleau fic #san jose sharks #hockey writing #hockey fic #nhl players #nhl fanfiction

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