#tucker is at some level but teenagers ya know

[heaven-s-black-box]

Just Kiss- Caboose x Donut

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Recovery date: December 21st, 2023

Description: Caboose x Donut, Caboose is amazingly innocent, as always, possibly being slightly corrupted by Donut. "Tucker did it" should appear at least once in some odd context.

Notes: This work was recovered in conjunction with @smurfishlysmall, we thank her for her contribution.

Word count: 1 1 72

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It was funny at first.

It started when they landed after taking down hargrove. They were all still high off adrenaline from the fight, and maybe feeling a bit invincible after that brush with death. As soon as they landed back on the planet everyone was pulling each other into hugs left and right, even Wash and Carolina were making rounds– praising them for a job well done and even apologizing for leaving them alone.

Helmets were coming off as people took in deep breaths of fresh heavily smoky air.

In the chaos, everyone almost missed the way Donut flung himself at Caboose, arms wrapped around his shoulders as the blue soldier caught him by the waist. Caboose stumbled back with the force, and laughed as Donut rambled on about how scared he was.

The pink soldier's hands slowly slid down from behind Caboose until he was cupping the other’s face. Donut’s face scrunched up in a moment of deep thought before slamming his lips against Caboose's. 

Everything around them fell silent as Caboose’s eyes widened and he stiffened up in surprise. When Donut pulled away, Caboose blinked owlishly at him for a moment before breaking out into a wide grin.

Donut’s heart seemed to beat harder in his chest, and everyone else held their breaths.

“I’m so happy we’re alive! Tucker, come here so I can kiss you!”

Donut’s smile twitched.

“Fu-uck that!” Tucker yelled as Caboose began to chase after him.

Grif came up beside Donut and patted him on the shoulder, mentally preparing himself for the teenage break-up level of moping. To his, and everyone else’s surprise, Donut just took a deep breath and put his hands on his hips in a determined pose.

“I saw this coming, I guess I’ll just have to be more direct.”

“Dude you kissed him and now he’s trying to kiss Tucker.”

Grif was right, but, maybe Caboose just needed it spelt out for him.

So, a week later when Donut found he and Caboose wandering the base alone one night, he took his chance.

He was leaning into Caboose, their arms looped together, while Caboose stared up at the night sky. Neither of them could sleep, the weight of everything finally catching up now that the exhaustion was starting to wear off, and Donut had bumped into him as they were both leaving their rooms. Everyone else had already wandered off, and being alone sounded too scary, so Donut had invited Caboose on a walk under the stars.

It wasn’t even supposed to be romantic at first, just a friend supporting a friend, but Donut found himself admiring the look of awe on Caboose’s face as he looked up at the stars.

“Hey, Caboose?”

He looked down at Donut, where he was resting his head on his shoulder.

“I love you.”

Once again, Donut found Caboose blinking at him slowly with wide eyes, and this time he braced himself for another oblivious response.

“I knew that.”

“You what?” Donut swallowed the lump in his throat. Had Caboose been trying to let him down easy by playing oblivious?

“Of course! We’re best friends.”

Ah.

“No, no,” Donut grabbed Caboose by the shoulders. “I love you, romantically.”

“Ro… mantically?”

“Yes.”

“Ooohhh, ya, I don’t know what that means.”

Donut sighed. Well that was certainly a wrench in his plan, and he was way too tired to sort it out right now.

“I’ll tell you later,” he yawned, “I think I want to go back to bed now.”

“Okay! Hey, Donut, can I sleep with you tonight?”

“Sure.”

It went on like that for… awhile, and no one was sure Donut had realized exactly how long he’d been trying to pick Caboose up for. Plan after plan had failed, he’d invited Caboose into the shower, offering to help the man wash his back. Wash had been unfortunate enough to walk by and hear… questionable sounds along with-

“Ooh ya, I’m getting deep in there.” Followed by a moan from Caboose.

He’d only been washing the blue soldiers hair, but Wash sure as fuck wasn’t opening the door to check.

After that, they’d gone on a “recon” mission together on Kimball’s order. It was really just a ploy to get them alone, and it worked… sort of. They were alone, but whatever Donut ahd tried had once again gone over Caboose’s head.

Two months. That was how long everyone was subjected to Caboose’s obliviousness and Donut’s determination, before Tucker finally stepped in.

In the mess hall one morning, Tucker slammed his hands down on the table in front of Caboose.

“Caboose, it’s time we have a talk.”

Caboose looked down at his plate and pushed the food around for a moment.

“I don’t want to talk about Church,” Caboose grumbled.

Tucker’s jaw slackened, his eyes widening, but he quickly recovered and cleared his throat. He took the seat across from his friend.

“It’s not about Church.”

“Oh,” Caboose looked up from his food, “what is it?”

“You know Palomo and Jensen.”

“Yes.”

“Right, what would you say their relationship is?”

“They’re dating, obviously,” he gasped. “Tucker! You can’t flirt with Jensen, she has a boyfriend.”

“What, no! I mean, yes they’re dating, but I’m not trying to get with Jensen. I’m trying to make a point here.” He took a deep breath. “Donut likes you the same way Jensen and Palomo like each other.”

Caboose’s face scrunched up, and Tucker could practically hear the gears turning as he braced himself for another oblivious response. He didn’t say anything though, instead Caboose just got up and made his way out of the mess hall.

Tucker followed him, watching him poke his head into every open door as he looked for something.

“Dude, what are you looking for?”

Caboose didn’t answer, poking his head into the armory and then disappearing through the door.

When Tucker rounded the corner, he found Caboose crossing the armory to Donut and Simmons who were running inventory. He held his breath and braced himself on the railing of the platform. When Simmons looked up at him, catching his eye by chance, he waved violently for the maroon soldier to back away.

His excuse of needing the bathroom carried through the empty room, and Tucker watched him scurry up to where he was watching from. Tucker pressed a finger against his lips, motioning for Simmons to be quiet.

“Donut!” Caboose cheered.

Carolina, Lopez, and Sarge all popped out from behind a nearby Warthog. Carolina waved at Wash, bringing him into the loop.

Everyone was watching once more with baited breath.

Caboose grabbed Donut’s face and pulled him into a kiss, the same way Donut had after they’d taken down Hargrove. The room was so quiet you could hear the buzzing of the lights and air circulation.

“Tucker did it,” he said when he pulled away.

“Hey!” Tucker yelled on instinct, before realizing what he meant. “Actually, no, ya, give me credit for this because you two sure as fuck weren’t gonna sort it out.”

#researcher s's recovery #red vs blue #rvb caboose #michael j caboose #rvb donut #franklin delano donut #caboose x donut #fluff #oneshot #rvb oneshot

[goliath-de-senfina-sango]

Fathering a Phantom ch2

I just wanna Talk, I swear

Here we have the chapter 2 for that fic from earlier! Once again, here ya go @five-rivers @floralflowerpower and @uwuplasmiusuwu

“Cole I’m going to murder someone,” was the first thing that Toby said to his husband upon arriving once more in their temporary sanctuary. Cole paused mid throw of his javelin, electric sparks crackling up the polearm, and turned to look at his husband. Toby’s wings were ablaze, his nails sharpened into claws, and his eyes a colorful storm, as though he couldn’t decide what to turn into for maximum lethality. Cole set down his javelin and wrapped around Toby in a hug.

“Who are you planning to murder, sunshine? And should I join in? I haven’t gotten into a good fight since we got here, which is a shame.” Cole coalesced from a mass of clouds into something a bit closer to his original body when Toby relaxed in his embrace, running his fingers through shimmering feathers made of embers. “You really do look like a star like this, by the way.”

“There was, I think, a war forged around here who fired a bunch of rockets at a child! You know that liminal kid I told you about?”

“Oh right, we’re rare in this realm, huh?” Cole’s face scrunched up in confusion and he arched a brow. “I thought the liminal around here beat up the tyrant ruling the place when he woke up?”

“I didn’t exactly ask about what must’ve sucked when I half blew up the metalhead.” Toby flew over to the couch and flopped face first into it. “Now I gotta track him down.”

“Why only half? Sounds like someone you’d take out in one go if you had the drop on em.”

“Well, do you wanna traumatize a kid of unknown cultural origins? He’s so small, and his friends were clearly still living humans. I dunno if he’s seen someone die before, let alone a ghost getting Ended. If I recall, committing murder is a bad way to start a friendship with a child.”

Cole snorted and gave Toby a pat on the shoulder. “Alright, fair, Sildar didn’t like me much after that rescue. But hey, now you can put that on your to do list! Murder, the answer to most problems.” Toby laughed, phasing through the couch when Cole sat on him. “There he is, my giggly celestial chandelier.”

“Do you even remember what a chandelier is? I know you broke like three of them over someone’s head, but I forget whose head.” Toby put out the flames in his feathers and stretched, satisfied when his spine popped a few times. “It’s nice to still be able to do that.”

“I’ll be honest, being a cloud has made the sound of your joints popping kinda gross to me. It sounds like you’ve still got a flesh and blood body.” Cole sat up, scratching his head. “Do you still have a humanoid body? With like, meat and bones and stuff?”

“Probably, yeah. We’ll see, cause if so that’ll come in handy with helping out this liminal kid. Said his name is Danny Phantom.” Toby paused, the feeling of his feather being torn an odd and upsetting one. “Speaking of whom, I should go meet up with them. Think you can find this ‘Skulker’ guy while I educate some kids?”

Cole kissed Toby on the cheek and gave him a thumbs up. “Will do! I can’t promise there’ll be much left of him afterward though, I’m not a fan of idiots who attack kids.” Toby smiled and in a flash of light and beat of wings, he was gone. Cole nodded to himself and grabbed his maul, crackling with electric arcs, and opened up the door to their temporary Sanctuary. “Now then, who the fuck is Skulker?”

After having a small debate about where they couldn’t go and why, team Phantom finally ended up at the indoor roller rink that was partially destroyed by a giant ghost crab a while ago, and sat down at a table that Danny cleared of debris with an ectoblast or three. “Ok guys, I think this is a good enough place to call him up.”

“Are we sure it’s a good idea to call him at all?” Sam held up the feather she’d kept in her pocket, turning it about to watch the golden flame dance. “He took down Skulker pretty fast and it usually takes you a good half hour to do that, Danny.”

“Skulker specializes in attacking Danny is all, Sam. We’ve got the weapons to handle pretty much any ghost we normally deal with, and Danny took down the king of ghosts. I’m pretty sure he can handle anyone else.”

“Plus, Toby wrecked Skulker pretty bad. If he wanted to fight, I’m pretty sure he would’ve started a fight.” Danny condensed his ectoblasts into one ball of ectoplasma and stretched it out into a pole. “Imagine all the cool stuff he could show us!”

“Alright, if you say so.” Sam snapped the feather in half, surprised by how easy it was to do, and grabbed her ecto-pistol. For a moment, there was silence. Then the sound of wingbeats filled the room and Toby appeared above the rink as though landing from a long flight.

“That’s a spell I’m not used to casting frequently in a day. Heyo kids!” Toby waved, tucking his wings by his sides while walking closer. “Sorry for the delay, I was talking to my husband. So, names again just to be sure: Sam, Tucker, and Danny, right?”

“Yeah, that’s right. What do you mean spell, exactly? Do ghosts have magic ontop of the other ghost powers now?” Tucker spun the lipstick laser around in his fingers, remembering Desiree’s magic and Freakshow’s staff.

“Anyone who can do magic keeps the ability in death, usually. I’m not dead though, I’m Deathless.” He spread his wings and spun around, thumbs pointing to his chest. “I was born awesome like this, and so was Cole. But, based on your faces you weren’t born like this?”

“No,” Sam said, gesturing at Danny. “This is a recent thing, it’s been since about…” Sam paused, her gaze landing on the wall behind Toby. “March of last year, so 14 months.”

“Yeah, god, we’ve been doing this for over a year now, haven’t we?” Tucker, who had held up a camera to record everything Toby was saying, slumped a bit in his seat and sighed. “Feels like it’s been like this forever and like it happened yesterday.”

Toby stared at them all like they’d each grown extra limbs in odd places – Danny even checked to make sure he hadn’t done that while feeling both old and young at the same time due to how little time had actually passed – before zipping over to Danny and holding his hands just over the teen’s face. “Oh my gods, you’re a baby.”

“I am a teenager, thank you.” Danny gently pulled Toby’s hands away from his face, a brow raised. “What, is 14 infantile to angels, feather man?”

“You’re only 14 months dead, Danny, that makes you a baby ghost.” Sam snorted and Tucker covered his mouth to try and hide his laughter. A snap of Toby’s fingers and flowers began growing in Tucker’s hat, and seeds appeared above Sam, growing into flowers as they fell all over her. “If you’ve had regular interactions with that metal head, no wonder your aura’s all aggro.”

“Skulker’s not exactly the worst of the ghosts we’ve had to fight over the months,” Danny said.

“Oh yeah, that’d have to be either Walker, Spectra, or Vlad. It’s really a toss up between Spectra and Vlad, if you ask me.”

“Vlad wants to kill Danny’s dad because he sees his mom as a trophy that was stolen from him, while Spectra tried to kill Jazz just to depress an entire school so she could feed on the misery to look young.” Sam brushed away the flowers and weighed two in her hands. “Yeah, those around the same level of grossly evil.”

Toby’s wings ignited at some point while Sam was talking, and the sunlight streaming in from the hole in the roof grew somewhat brighter. He reached into a bag he had strapped to his waist and pulled out a book and a pen, his smile all teeth. “Tell me, please, a list of all the adult ghosts who have attacked you children? I’d like to have a discussion with each of them.”

“If we give you their names,” Danny said before Tucker could answer, “do you promise not to go slaughtering them all? I don’t need to know ghostly body language at all to know that flaming wings come from a place of anger and imminent violence.”

“When did you read a thesaurus, Danny?”

“Sam, I’m insulted: I know tri-syllabic words. I can even say supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.”

“I promise not to slaughter all of the ghosts you inform me hurt you in the past few months, yes. Names?” When Tucker listed off names, Toby wrote them down with an inhuman speed, and Danny exchanged a look with Sam, worried about how exactly that deal might be loopholed around. “Right,” Toby chirped while slamming his book shut, “I’m here to answer some questions of yours, not just ramble about myself and assemble a… list of people to talk to. Got any?”

“So many that I don’t even know where to start.”

#Danny Phantom #Danny Fenton #Tucker Foley #Sam Manson #Tobias Lumano #Cole Lumano #OCs #Fanfction #fanfiction #fanfic #phanfic #phanfiction #phanphic #fanphic #fanphiction #Rexy Writes

[ladyherenya]

Books read in November and December

Between trying to write a novel for NaNoWriMo and discovering oh-so-addictive Korean contemporary romantic dramas on Netflix, I didn’t read as much in November. But after reading two months worth of books in October, that felt like the right decision.

And then December was busier than I anticipated.

Favourite cover: The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making.

Reread: The Girl in Times Square by Paullina Simons (November).

Next up: Miss Bunting by Angela Thirkell.

(Longer reviews and ratings are on LibraryThing. And also Dreamwidth.)

November

When We Were Warriors by Emma Carroll (narrated by Victoria Fox): A collection of three stories about children in England during WWII, loosely connected by an American soldier who turns up in each story. “The Night Visitors” is about a group of London children evacuated to Frost Hollow Hall and I would have appreciated it more if I’d read Carroll’s novel Frost Hollow Hall. I enjoyed revisiting the characters from Letters from the Lighthouse (which I have read and loved) in “Olive’s Army”, and “Operation Greyhound” is about an important issue that none of the other wartime fiction I’ve read has explored: finding safe shelter for pets during air raids.

The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making by Catherynne M. Valente (narrated by the author): Even though blogging acquaintances had reviewed this positively, I was still surprised by how delightful and meta it is. It felt, very intentionally and thoughtfully, written in the same vein as the first novels I ever read: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, The Wizard of Oz and The Magic Faraway Tree, with a dash of Narnia. Twelve year old September doesn’t have siblings or friends accompanying her into Fairytale and I wondered if that would limit how emotionally invested I became in her story, but I cared a lot about September and her relationships. And the prose is just lovely.

Three Little Truths by Eithne Shortall: This is about the different women living in a Dublin street. I liked the way their lives and stories fitted together. The conclusion has the potential to be bitter, setting women against each other, but is much more forgiving -- and manages that realistically. It makes for a quieter ending, but that isn’t a weakness. Not every story needs to be sharp and shocking. I think having so many characters meant enough time wasn’t given to Martha and her daughters and how they are dealing with the aftermath of trauma. The book could easily have just focused on them.

The Wedding Date by Jasmine Guillory: Alexa and Drew meet when a hotel elevator briefly breaks down. Afterwards Drew asks Alexa to be his date to a wedding, and a fake relationship quickly turns into a real one, complicated by them both living in different cities. This was okay, which is to say that I enjoyed reading it but don’t feel inclined to spend any more time reviewing it.

The Deathless Girls by Kiran Millwood Hargrave: This is darker than Hargrave’s middle-grade fantasy but otherwise it felt very much like the same sort of adventure and even in the final act, when it had clearly turned into a vampire story, I was still expecting that it would have the sort of bittersweet ending her other books have. It doesn’t. Intellectually I can recognise the merit in what Hargrave is doing here. But from an emotional perspective, I found the ending thoroughly disappointing. As a teenager, I would have hated it.

Reaper Man by Terry Pratchett (narrated by Nigel Planer): When Death is, well, fired (for want of a better word), he finds himself a different job. But his absence causes problems for those who die, particularly for Windle Poons, the oldest wizard at the Unseen University. It wasn’t a book where I felt like I really related to the characters. (It was published in between Moving Pictures and Witches Abroad, and I like those two a lot more.) But it was entertaining and had its moments when it was surprisingly funny or thoughtful. I like reading about the antics of the wizards more than I expected to.

Permanent Record by Mary H. K. Choi: Pablo is working nightshift when pop star Leanna Smart comes into the store. I read most of this, put the book down to do something else... and then never picked it up again. It was interesting, particularly for its portrayal of a teenager who has dropped out of college and is struggling to find direction -- something I think should be explored more in YA fiction -- but I think those qualities which made it interesting also made it a bit too real to be really enjoyable? I don’t even know.

December

The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland and Led the Revels There by Catherynne M. Valente (narrated by S. J. Tucker): September returns to Fairyland, a year older, to discover that Fairyland has been changed by her previous adventures and that this sojourn is not going to unfold how she’d expected and hoped it would. As a story about changes, consequences, coming back to a place you love and entering adolescence, this is poignant and astute; it resonated with me so much. I also liked its many nods to the portal fantasy I grew up with. But I found some of the landscapes, and the people September meets, less appealing than those in the first book. I’m not sure why.

Notebooks of a Middle-School Princess: Royal Crown by Meg Cabot: I enjoyed this more than the previous two in the series. The focus is on Olivia’s family and friends in the days leading up to a coronation. Olivia’s family is Mia’s family -- after reading all The Princess Diaries books, I care about them, and I continue to think it’s interesting (but also very believable) that Olivia has such a different relationship with Grandmere than Mia does. And I like how Olivia navigates relationships with, and advice from, her peers. She’s got a lot to learn because she’s thirteen, an age where there are a lot of changes, but she’s realistically level-headed.

Warrior of the Altaii by Robert Jordan: Jordan’s first novel was written and sold in the late 70s, but never published until now. What I found most interesting were the differences and similarities between it and The Wheel of Time, one of my favourite series. In terms of the protagonist, prose and plot, it’s very different: its first-person narrator is a already a warrior and leader; the story revolves around why the nomadic Altaii try to take a city; and it’s all over by page 350. But many of the worldbuilding elements are variations on things which are also in WOT. If I hadn’t read WOT, I would have still found the worldbuilding interesting but probably not enough to make up for not really connecting with any of the characters.

Soul Music by Terry Pratchett (narrated by Nigel Planer): I knew about the Discworld series for years and years before I read any of the books and I’ve wondered when I was going to meet Susan. Sixteen year old Susan fills in for her grandfather, Death, after he disappears. Meanwhile Anhk-Morpork discovers “music with rocks in it” I enjoyed watching Susan learn about Death, Pratchett’s parody of rock music was a lot of fun, and the combination of those two storylines means this book isn’t a rehash of Moving Pictures-but-this-time-with-rock-music. However, I didn’t find the final act -- and its resolution -- quite as satisfying as Moving Pictures’.

#Herenya reviews books #Emma Carroll #Catherynne M. Valente #Eithne Shortall #Kiran Millwood Hargrave #Terry Pratchett #Discworld #Mary H.K. Choi #Meg Cabot #Robert Jordan