#which means no vegetation to hold the ground together

[bean-chaointe]

During a break in the storm.

Santa Cruz, California (1/5/23)

#california #santa cruz #it's been wild #capitola and carmel are flooded and being evacuated #a few piers have been taken out #natural bridges state park has lost one of its cliffsides #the local reports are saying ocean swells are 20-30 feet higher than usual #meanwhile those of us up in the mountains are hunkering down with camp stoves and lanterns #crossing our fingers that a tree doesn't fall and take out the cabin #i'm sure some folks out there are like 'ugh californians are overreacting' but like #we haven't had rain like this since 1847 #we don't have the infrastructure and also we've been in a drought for...idk like over a decade? #we desperately need this rain but oof it's gonna be a time and a half in the process #also our wildfires in the last few years have been so bad that whole swathes of land are still burnscars #which means no vegetation to hold the ground together #when you pair that with sudden heavy rain you get debris flows which can swallow roads and houses #so like...it's A Lot of different things. not 'just' rain.

[wileys-russo]

hi!

could you do a fic with reader x aitana bonmati??

okay so maybe reader is swedish but is still shorter than aitana, frido finds it super funny and constantly teases r for it but aitana finds it cute

half sized II a.bonmati x reader

"bon dia! if it isn't my favourite little half swede." you looked up from your phone with a filthy glare toward your national team mate who gave you a toothy grin.

"i thought you were full swedish?"pina asked with a confused frown, whining as you rolled your eyes and lightly smacked her forehead. "i am fully swedish, frodo just thinks she is a comedian." you scowled up at the older girl who flipped you off for the nickname.

"she is a half swede because she is half sized." frido explained happily and you exhaled deeply at the laughter than rang out throughout the locker room. "do you like having two unbroken legs frodo? keep going." you warned seriously, pulling on your boots.

"at least my legs are fully grown lillis. did you not eat enough vegetables as a kid? not drink enough milk?" frido continued to coo, moving closer to grab your cheeks and pinch them, shaking your head to and fro as you kicked at her and yanked them off.

"lillis?" keira questioned with a raise of her eyebrows. "it means little one, because she is so little!" frido mocked, darting out of the way as you swung at her and unloaded a string of swedish curses in her direction.

"such a filthy mouth for such a small body." frido whistled with a smirk, standing to go after her before hands fell to your shoulders and pushed you back down onto the bench.

"hey, do not listen to her amor." you settled at the familiar voice, your girlfriends presence soothing your anger instantly. "it is every day now, it was worse at camp!" you huffed quietly, head falling to her shoulder as her body vibrated with gentle laughter.

"ignore it hermosa. actions speak louder than words, shut them all up on the pitch." aitana pressed a gentle kiss to your forehead, grabbing your hand and pulling you to your feet. "i love you." you mumbled, stealing a quick kiss from the slightly taller girl.

"you should ask your girlfriend for a piggyback lillis, longer legs mean you get places a lot faster." frido continued to tease as you all made your way out of the locker room, doing your best to ignore her as aitana tried to busy you in your own conversation.

"tana will you be renovating your apartment?" your girlfriend turned and gave frido an odd look at the question. "and why would she do that?" you sighed, the older girl more like your sister than your teammate having taken you under her watchful eye both for country and now club, and you both treated one another as such.

"well how are you going to reach everything if you move in lillis? her kitchen is sized for normal people, not dwarfs." "mi amor don't-"

but you didn't listen to the catalans warnings, turning and charging at the taller girl with a war cry, tackling her to the ground as the two of you rolled around on the grass. "the height thing again?" aitana looked up as mapi stood next to her with an amused grin, ingrid rushing over to try and seperate you and frido.

"it is always at its worst once they get back from camp together!" aitana rolled her eyes, mariona holding you back as ingrid tried to reason with frido about the teasing and laying off you a little.

"si frido you need to be more respectful-" your girlfriends arm draped over your shoulder as you moved away from mariona and more into her side. "-after all she has half a temper." you looked up at her in shock as frido doubled over with laughter.

with a huff you shoved her off of you, storming away into the gym and ignoring her calls after you, most of which were drowned out by frido's obnoxiously loud barks of laughter.

you battered off the girls attempts to speak to you all morning, shrugging off her hugs with a glare and a scoff, blocking your ears to her sweet words and busying yourself in the company of your other teammates.

"why are you ignoring tana chica?" alexia chuckled as the two of you paired up for the final drill of the session. "she joined in teasing about my height." you huffed with a roll of your eyes. "i see." the captain hummed with an amused smile as you glanced at her.

"ale! don't." you warned seriously, knowing a teasing remark was likely on the tip of her tongue. "i did not say anything! so sensitive." the older girl tutted as you continued, grateful that the focus needed to be on the ball as you went through with the drill.

finally the coaching staff called time as everyone moved to the coolers for some water. "hey look, they have ones your size lillis!" frido teased, handing you her half drunk water bottle as you scowled. "frido." ingrid warned, sending her a look which the woman dismissed.

"hey frodo, think you should cool off!" you grinned, opening another water and dumping it over her head, the girl squealing in shock. now she was the one to let out a war cry and lunge for you though you'd already taken off, sprinting away and toward the locker room with her on your heels.

though before you could quite get away you felt hands grab at your training top, yelping as you were tugged into another room. you felt a hand now settle over your mouth and frido's angry footsteps go racing past before it was removed.

"hola amor!" you rolled your eyes at your girlfriends grin, the two of you jammed together in what appeared to be a janitors closet. "are you done being mad now?" aitana teased, her body pressing into yours as her hands fell to squeeze your hips.

"are you done making fun of me now?" you countered, crossing your arms over your chest and raising an eyebrow only making her smile grow wider. "i was not making fun of you hermosa. i think it is very cute that you are shorter than me, come on amor you know i love you." the girl promised, pushing herself more into you.

"lo siento bebita, lo siento." your eyes fluttered closed as her nose tucked into your collarbone and her lips peppered gentle kisses. "tana-" you started but she shushed you, massaging your hips in her hands as you melted, the girl knowing exactly where to kiss and touch you to have you be putty in her hands.

"i think we should head home amor, let me really show you how sorry i am for my teasing."

#aitana bonmati #aitana bonmati x reader #woso #woso x reader #woso fanfics #woso imagine #woso blurbs #woso community

[theta-walti]

Graceful Mishaps

Summary: R is a bit clumsy. Some small moments when the r is clumsy and Jessie taking care of her

Warnings: Fluff, fluff and more fluff!

A/N: Jessie is still in Chelsea for this fic! i had fun, thank you for the idea for my debut fic!

Word count: 1153

everyone on the team knows that your clumsy, you won't admit it but it's true, every little move can cause you to stumble. Just like this morning, when you were getting ready you tripped over the clothes that you had carelessly tossed aside moments before, or the coffee that you accidentally knocked over when your making breakfast yesterday, or the lastest accident in the changing rooms where you tied your shoelaces together and it lead to a comical trip when you attempt to run, that lead to the argument between you and jessie just moments later.

"l'm not that clumsy!" you said, trying to defend yourself

"Yes you are! you just triped because of your shoelaces!" Jessie aruged back as she crossed her arms

"That was an accident!"

"exactly!" Jessie yelled back

"tell me then! when am l that clumsy?"

Jessie thought for a while then she spoke with a little smirk on the edage of her lips

"do you remember grocery shopping last week?"

Hearing the question a memory flooded back into your mind

You and Jessie were at the shops, picking up things for the upcoming week. Jessie was holding your hand tightly, and you were trying your hardest not to wonder off, She had a firm grip, and you had a hard time keeping up with her, but you think that she was purposefully walking fast to keep you on your toes.

"Jessie, how much longer are we going to be here? I'm hungry and l want to go home." you said as we turned into the snack aisle.

"Don't be dramatic, you ate before we came here. We're almost done. I just need to get some chips and then we can go." She replied as her eyes scaned the crisps shelf debating on which one she should get.

"But I'm hungry now! And we have chips at home, can't we just go pay for everything and go?" you pouted.

She let go of your hand and walked a few feet in front of you. you saw her pick up a bag of tortilla chips and walk back, then she throw it in the the trolly, which is right in front of you. you went to take a step forward to take Jessie's hand again when you tripped over one of the wheels of the trolly. You fell to the ground, landing right on your face and Jessie bursted out laughing.

"I knew those shoes weren't a good idea, they make you too clumsy." She teased.

"Not my fault. The trolly was in my way." you retorted with a scowl, getting up off the ground and dusted the non-existent dust off.

"Maybe we should just get some bandages. We both know it's inevitable that you'll hurt yourself before the night is over." Jessie said with a smirk on her face.

You looked at her, trying to figure out if she was joking or not. When you decided that she was just being sarcastic, you shot her a playful glare.

"Just because you're right doesn't mean that you have to say it." you responded, crossing you arms.

She laughed, wrapping her arm around your waist and pulling you into her.

"I think we can find some band-aids at home." She teased again." Come on, let's go get the rest of the stuff and get out of here." She suggested, and you nodded.

"That's fine with me. The faster we leave, the faster I get food." You agreed and Jessie chuckled.

"Oh that was one time!" Your tried to argue back.

"One time? What about the kitchen plates?" The smirk on Jessie's face went wider as she spoke.

You blushed as another memory flooded into your mind

It was a nice evening, you and Jessie were preparing dinner together. Jessie had taken charge of chopping vegetables while you were in charge of setting the table, However, as you reached for the plates in the cabinet, your hand slipped, and you ended up dropping a stack of plates, causing them to crash onto the counter with a loud clatter.

"Oh shit, " you muttered, and your cheeks flushed with embarrassment as you immediately bent down to pick up the pieces.

Jessie rushed over immediately when she heard the loud crash, concern and worry filled on her face. "Are you okay?" she asked, kneeling down beside you to help clean up the mess.

You nodded, feeling flustered by your clumsiness. "Yeah, just a little accident," you replied sheepishly.

As you continued to clean up, Jessie couldn't help but notice your hands. Your finger was cut by the glass. She immediately stood up and dragged you up with her

"You're bleeding, come on"

*she started to walk towards the bathroom, still holding your injured hand*

"Where-" you looked at your hand and noticed the cut. You must have cut it when you're picking up the plates, "but the plates-"

"You're more important, now sit down"

Jessie said as she walked over to the sink and bent sown to grab the first aid kit. When she returned, she just asked for your hand and started to take care of it. "You know, I think you're even more accident-prone in the kitchen than I am," she teased gently, giving your hand a reassuring squeeze.

You couldn't help but laugh at her comment, feeling a sense of relief wash over you. "I guess that's one way to put it," you replied, still feeling a bit embarrassed.

When Jessie finished, she put a kiss on the back of your hand and smiled. "Feeling better?"

"Yea, thank you, baby." You kissed Jessie's lips for a brief second and grinned, Jessie blushed and connected their lips again, and they stayed like that for a while before she pulled away, both of you a bit breathless "Come on, we still have dinner to finish and some plates to clean up"

You grinned and followed Jessie out of the bathroom and back into the kitchen.

"That's night ended very well thank you very much!" You tried to defend yourself again.

"That's not what l'm trying to say! You really should be more careful baby" Jessie said as she stepped forward, closer to you as she wrapped her arms around you

"I know, jess, l know." You leaned into the touch, and gradually, it turned into a hug as you wrapped your arms around her neck. sudden, the doors of the changing room opened, and Guro's head popped in.

"Come on love birds! Your late and Emma is asking why your taking so long to get changed!" Guro's Norwegian accent shown though as she spoke, you and Jessie both broke apart of the hug and chuckled.

"Race you to the field!" Jessie yelled as she got a head start, racing out of the changing rooms, you followed, and of cause, since you still haven't re-tied your laces, your face is on the ground once more.

A/N: l hope you like it! The end is a bit rush but l think it's good! I hope you enjoy it and feel free to send more requests!! This is theta, signing out, see you later!

#jessie fleming x reader #woso x reader #jessie fleming #woso fanfics #woso imagines

[ownedbyfictionalwomen]

my sweet omega

alpha!ari levinson x fem!reader

when ari finds you sad and shaken up, he does everything within his power to defend his girl. that's just before he marks you as his beloved mate. smut + fluff + a little angst (not because of ari). 18+ 2.7k words.

The smooth summer rays brushed gently against your skin as you walked the lines of the cropland, picking out the cucumbers and peppers that looked ripe enough, not being able to help yourself from biting into a particularly juicy one. This harvest was particularly large, with more omegas joining the pack and more pups being born, there were more mouths to feed, and that meant more plants to be grown.

The pack farm had been your family’s responsibility for 6 generations, every vegetable and fruit that the community would ever need was growing here, underneath your feet. Your parents were lovingly training you to be the next one in the line of succession: teaching you how to correctly gather the crops, how to ensure they grew to their full potential and how to keep them safe over the winter months.

You lived a very isolated life on your farm, with it being a mile from the pack village, you didn’t tend to bump into many other people, liking the silence and serenity that the open meadows provided. Of course, sometimes Alpha Joe and his son, Ari, would come to visit-  they liked to ensure that everything was as best it could be for their little society. 

Joe was a very peaceful and merciful leader, always offering you help when he found you in the field or carrying the crops that were too heavy for you back up to your house to be cleaned. Then you and the future Alpha would stand over the basin for hours, scrubbing potatoes and chatting about anything and everything. 

Ari was a sweet Alpha, just like his father- a gentle giant. You remember the times in high school when a comment from one of the betas would pull so violently at your heartstrings that you would leave the cafeteria a crying mess, only for him to find you and hold you tight, soothing you in a way only an Alpha could. 

The pair of you had been close since you could remember. Joe would bring him around the farm every weekend to help your family- whether it was fixing the gutters on your house, adding insulation to the barn, or helping you herd the cows- Ari was always there. 

Now that the two of you were in your 20s, you thought that your friendship might’ve started to dwindle, especially with all the new responsibilities that Ari was taking on: he was gearing up to become the new Alpha in a few years. But that couldn't be further from the truth- the more stressed Ari became, the more times he had to visit the farm to let off some steam. He wasn’t able to explain the calmness that he felt when he was here, you right next to him, just walking the fields together.

You hadn’t noticed him come up behind you as you bent over to pick a perfect cucumber, jumping and dropping your shears and basket of veg as two large hands grabbed your waist.

“Hi, y/n.” 

“Oh my God. Ari don’t do that!” You shouted, throwing the vegetable in your hand at his head, which he caught. Huffing exasperatedly at all the crops strewn across the floor, you sat down in the dirt and began gently placing them back in the basket.

“Sorry, sweetie. I didn’t mean to scare you.” He said, sinking onto his knees to help you clean up. Ari had come over to see you, after a particularly aggressive meeting with a neighbouring alpha, he needed a touch of your sweetness to lighten his mood again. Now, he was kicking  himself for putting a frown on your beautiful face. 

Slowly, your scowl morphed into an expression of pure sadness, as the overwhelming sorrow from the morning overcame you again, triggered by Ari. He tipped your head up towards him, his finger underneath your chin and his eyes filled with confusion.

“Hey, sweetheart. I’m sorry.” He whispered, taking a seat on the ground next to you and wrapping an arm around your shoulders as your head slumped against his chest. 

Your morning had been filled with gloom since the moment it began- you woke up in heat (which for you, being an unmated omega, was just an uncomfortable experience filled with stomach cramps, back ache and an unwarranted need to be close to an alpha), you tripped over on the way to the barn and cut open your knees, and when you walked into the barn, you found your favourite cow mauled to death. 

“It’s not you, Ari.” You started, taking a brief break to try and keep the tears at bay, “just having a bad day.”

“Why, sweetie? Tell me what’s going on.” Ari said as he resorted to picking you up and setting you in his lap, where you immediately snuggled into his warmth, your omega instincts overriding your logical thoughts. You inhaled his heady masculine fragrance, letting it calm every inch of your body until you were melting into his lap. 

“Well, first of all, I’m in heat…” You whispered, not letting the embarrassment seep into your words as you admitted it. 

Ari just chuckled at that, the brief sounds shaking your body as he said, “I can tell, sweet girl.” 

Your sugary scent had been driving him crazy since the moment he saw you, but he wouldn’t tell you that. 

“Anyway… and then I hurt my knees, and…” You couldn’t say it out loud, it hurt too much. People would probably think you were over reacting- it was just a cow. But Daisy had been a friend when you didn’t have any. When you were a little girl, you used to sit next to her in the meadow when she was grazing and tell her all your deepest darkest secrets- and now she wasn’t here anymore, your comfort taken with her.

“What is it?” 

“Daisy…” You sobbed, leaning into Ari further and hiding your face in his neck. He could feel the tears leaking through his shirt and onto his skin. 

“What happened to Daisy, y/n?” He asked quietly, rubbing his hand up and down your spine, dispelling more of his potent alpha scent to try and keep you calm. He could physically hear your heart breaking in your chest as you cried, it shattering into tiny fragmented pieces as he held you as close as possible.

“Someone broke into the barn… and now she’s gone, Ari.” 

Your pain-filled whimpers escalated until that’s all Ari could hear amongst the surrounding greenery, and all he could do was sit there and stew in his fury. Who the fuck had the balls to do this to his sweet girl?

The alpha in him lifted its head, menacingly bearing its teeth as the anger began simmering under the surface. Ari took a deep breath, keeping the rage at arms length as he slipped his hand into your hair, held the back of your head sweetly, and told you what he wanted you to do.

“Listen to me, sweetheart. You’re gonna go upstairs, get into bed, and try and sleep off your heat, whilst I go and found out who did this to Daisy.” He ordered, slowly making his way to his feet and placing you down on yours. Once you were safely stood up, Ari delicately took your face in his hands, giving you a brief kiss on the forehead.

“No, Ari… I need to finish my harvest. Momma won’t be happy if I don’t.”

“I’ll talk to your mom, sweetheart. Now, go up to your room.”

“Ari, seriously, I have to…” You stopped speaking when you felt the shift in the air and saw the expression on Ari’s face.

“Daddy is telling you to do something, sweet girl, that means you do it.” 

Never had you had a reaction so strong, your insticnts immediately dragging you towards your house in submission, wanting nothing more than to obey his commands. You whispered a quiet “Yes, Daddy” as you strolled back up to the house, watching Ari take off walking in the other direction, towards the barn. 

Once you had made it to your bedroom, luckily without crossing paths with your mother, you stripped down to your underwear and climbed between your sheets, your head peeking out of the top as you let a well-needed slumber take over you. 

Ari was deep in a cycle of outrage when he reached the pack house, where the alpha family and its betas lived, slamming the door wide open and making his way into the back yard, where all the male betas were sat gathered around with beers in their hands, enjoying the sun.

As soon as Ari stepped out onto the back deck, all eyes turned on him, they could feel his violent irritation rolling off of him in waves. Ari was only interested in one beta, who he was gonna rip to shreds for making his girl cry. 

“Stand up.” He ordered, his eyes trained on Brock, watching him get to his feet shakily, fear plain on his face. When Ari had opened the door of that barn, Rumlow’s scent had been the first thing to hit his senses, smacking him in the face like a punch.

It made complete sense that Rumlow would’ve been the one to do this to you, having had it out for you ever since you had said no to holding his hand in kindergarten: playing pranks on you in elementary school eventually turned into him spraying evil comments at you every day, having you run back to Ari for protection.

So to continue his reign of terror over you, he took your most beloved thing away from you in the most damaging display of aggression Ari had ever seen. Ari’s own heart broke at the imagination of you opening the barn door and seeing your precious pet like that, all bloodied.

The future Alpha was able to overlook Brock’s treatment of you a few years ago, when his mind was preoccupied with more pressing personal responsibilities and his feelings for you weren’t as powerful, but now, you were his responsibility and his love. When Ari made his way back to you later, he had every intention of making you his, mating and marking you like he was meant to. 

“What is it, Alpha?” Brock asked quietly, setting his beer down in the cupholder of his chair and standing up straight. Ari couldn’t help the wicked smirk that graced his face, the excitement for the fight building up inside him.

“I’m gonna fucking kill you.” 

When you woke up a few hours later, your heat was hammering through your body full force, revitalising every cell in your body until you couldn’t help yourself from squeezing your thighs together, trying to dispel some of the pain. 

Ari… where are you? 

Just as you were about to reach over to your bedside drawer, grab your phone, and call him, your bathroom door opened and the Alpha stepped out, a towel slung around his hips as he brushed his long hair out his face. His tanned muscles were on full display, making you whimper and tip your head back at the sight of them and the water droplets running across them. 

He showered without me?

“Daddy’s right here, sweet girl.” He said as he knelt on the edge of your bed, his towel hardly covering what you needed. The worry on your face made his heart beat patter faster inside his ribcage- you missed your Daddy so much. 

“Where have you been, Daddy?” You asked, sitting up against your headboard, your duvet pulled up to cover your bare chest. Ari shook his head at your question, gently lifting the covers away from you.

“That’s not important right now, honey. Let’s get you through this heat first.” 

Ari dropped his towel, revealing himself to you. His thick, long cock standing proudly in front of you as you got up onto your knees, dropping the covers the rest of the way so you were sat there in nothing put your pink cotton panties. 

“Yes, please.” You said quietly, crawling forwards until you were sat at the edge of the bed, your legs hanging over. Ari stalked forward, grabbing the underside of your knees and opening them until he was standing between them. His hands gripped the soft flesh of your thighs whilst he leant forward to kiss you cheek tenderly, his cock laying against your stomach, mapping out the path it would take inside of you. 

“Let’s get these off first, sweet omega.” He said, ripping your panties from your body and kissing your nipples simultaneously. You whimpered at the presence of pleasure, feeling your heat gradually subside.

“Need your cock, Daddy. Pretty please.” Begging worked wonders with Ari. You had learnt over the years that all you had to do was say please for your Alpha to be at your beck and call. 

“Sweetheart, you know Daddy can’t say no to you.” He whispered against you lips, having sucked on your breasts so intensely that adorable little bruises were forming around them, marring the skin and igniting a fierce want inside him.

He needed to mark you.

You laid back amongst the sheets, Ari’s hands holding your hips, opening them up more and dragging you to the edge of the bed. He stayed standing as he dragged the tip of his cock through your pussy, spitting on your slick folds and watching it mix with your own cream. The pretty white liquid covered almost every inch of your little pussy, giving him a taste of what it could look like when it’s covered and leaking his own cum.

“Look at this, baby. This all for me?” Ari dragged a finger through your wetness, before replacing is with his cock again and slipping the tip inside slowly, causing you to whimper.

“Yes, Daddy.”

He eased himself in, watching your pussy wrap around him, the cream gathering at his base once his cock was fully stuffed inside. “Fuck, you feel so good, my precious girl.”

You couldn’t string your words together, with the feeling of being split open sending bursts of pleasure through you, there was no way you could find the strength to talk. It felt like his cock was steadily fucking every rational thought out of your brain until all you could do was clench around him, extracting more pleasure from the experience.

“That’s it, omega. Fuck, look at you going dumb on Daddy’s cock…” He said as he picked up his pace, slamming his cock into your sloppy hole, “you don’t have to worry about a thing, sweetheart. Daddy’s got you.” 

It creeped up on you, white hot pleasure burning through your tummy as he fucked you, pulling out every once in a while to spit on your pussy some more, hightening the wet sounds of him thrusting in and out.

“Daddy… I’m close.” Whimpering, you held onto his shoulders, your nails piercing his skin with little crescent moons as you said, “Mark me.”

Ari didn’t need any convincing, he had been wanting you to be his for years, dreaming of making you as his mate. The orgasm rushed out of you as his kanines punctured the skin of your neck, covering your Alpha’s cock and balls with your juices. Ari came with you, emptying himself inside you, painting your soaking walls. 

The two of you came down from the high together, Ari pulling out gently and watching his thick cum leak out of your tight hole, whilst you took deep breaths and got used to the heavy weight on your neck- the mark of your mate.

Ari cleaned up your ruined pussy, being careful with the strokes of the flannel he had gotten from the bathroom, before laying you down in bed, your head resting on his chest like earlier this morning. You kissed the skin there, relishing in the knowledge that you owned every inch of it now, as he did yours. 

“You’re all mine now, my sweet omega.”  

#ari levinson x reader #ari levinson x female reader #ari levinson x you #ari levinson fluff #ari levinson smut #ari levinson #ari levinson x y/n

[aspitefulwriter]

OUT OF TOUCH [Ch. 1]

(Poe Dameron x AFAB!reader)

Summary:

First Order pilots are trained from childhood to deal with crash landings, equipped with the means to survive until retrieval and tasked to eliminate enemies on sight. When you crash on an uncharted planet just behind a Resistance pilot, your training comes to the test as you’re thrown into a new environment, forced to make choices you weren’t taught to deal with.

What’s more interesting is that you also find yourself facing the humanity that you previously thought was deeply hidden within, bringing trouble with it in ways you never fathomed.

includes (eventually): enemies to friends to lovers, angst, pining, slow burn, eventual smut, casualties of war

author’s note: i post on ao3 first!!

word count: ~6.5k

Series Masterlist

“Kriff!” You slam your hands on the console of your fighter as alarms and warnings continue to flash and fill the cockpit. Blurs of red and green fly past you, adding to the cocktail that colors your face and pumps a steady flow of adrenaline through each limb. A hard jolt and shake rocks you in your seat, your ship clinging to life and succumbing to the pull of the planet that sits below you. 

You grit your teeth and pull in a breath to center yourself. This wasn’t what you were anticipating when you were pulled from your sleep 5 hours ago, the stress and shakes adding to the headache that’s been building since you opened your eyes. Hitting a button on your console, you bring up a map of the sector that glitches with each shudder and groan of your ship. A quick flit of your eyes across the projection shows you and the planet that’s actively trying to capture you, which you click on for details. It takes a moment to pop up, and the stress you’re under mounts when you see there aren’t any details about it; a huge ‘unknown’ titling many others below it. What if there isn’t any enough oxygen available and it’s a sulfur-based planet or phosphorus? There’s not enough oxygen on board to hold you over for however long it would take the Order retrieval ships to get you–their hands were full. At the thought, your eyebrows pull together slightly in concern.

Your index flicks to your headset, “This is Canis Leader. Mayday. Mayday. I’ve been hit. Does anyone copy?” A frown creases the corner of your lips when static is the only response.

“Mayday. Does anyone copy?” You repeat, your frown deepening as still no response is given. You have half the mind to panic, but this is only one occurrence of the few you’ve been through recently. It’s fine. You’re fine. Taking another deep breath to relax, you start to power your ship down to where you no longer fight against the pull of the planet’s gravity. The fight isn’t worth it, you need to keep your ship in a repairable condition. When the last button is hit, your ship offers one last grueling shake before the clatterings and warning lights cease.

“So dramatic…” You mumble to yourself, gripping the controls and settling into your chair as you’re drug into the unknown atmosphere. With the cease of lights, it’s difficult to keep your mind off of the fact you’re gliding into the unknown, one that you now see is shrouded by clouds with an atmosphere that once again rocks your ship. But every concern is quickly quelled when you breach the wall, a sea of blues and greens of vegetation and water filling your vision.

You sit up and out of your seat to peer over your console, eager to have your feet touch steady ground, and as you’re surveying the horizon, you see a plume of black smoke billowing into the sky and breaking the blue-green horizon. A more hopeful part of yourself wishes it’s a crashed ship with an alive First Order pilot rather than an enemy or a planet’s inhabitant much more suited to take you down, but a realistic part of yourself that knows your luck surmises it’s likely an enemy. 

As you get closer to hitting the surface, you try to crank up your engine to release your landing gear and propulsion systems, but all it gives you is a weak whimper before simpering out. Damned thing. In a show of your growing irritability, you rattle the controls violently. “Kriff!” You scream, your voice ricocheting off of the tiny cabin. By the time your lungs run out of air, you’re heaving and have a mood that reaches far down below you and into the depths of the mantle of this planet.

You take a glance out of the window and see you’re likely soon to be crashing into trees that guard the ground you’re so desperate to get to. You mumble to yourself as you get ready for ejection, so much for wanting to keep the ship repairable. You check your pockets, making sure you have your weapons on you before hitting the button that rockets you out of your cockpit. A low gasp leaves your mouth at the force you’re launched into the air with, making you close your eyes and grip the bars that line your seat with almost the same force you were subjected to. You’re suspended in the air for what feels like eternity before you feel the sudden drop, your stomach immediately tying into knots at the pull. 

Within seconds, the jets to your seat kick in, stopping the quick drop. You let loose the breath you didn’t know you were holding, opening your eyes to survey where your ship is deciding to crash itself. Maybe in the best stroke of luck you’ll have all day, you’ve opened your eyes just before the ship goes crashing into the tree line, a straight shot from where you were ejected. Your grip on the bars slacks.

A good amount of your stress melts away, at least somewhat comforted by the fact that although you can hear the sound of your fighter crashing, there still isn’t an explosion and the plume of smoke that comes from it isn’t as dark as the other one you saw.

Your grip tightens again. Oh. Right.

___

After your seat lands, you throw off your helmet feeling a metallic twang filling your mouth as saliva pools under your tongue. You lean, settling your palms on your knees as you dry heave, the force from the chair’s propulsion catching up to you. You stay like that for a moment, nothing coming out, but your stomach is still in a state of unrest. 

With a breath through your nose, you stand up, wiping the back of your hand across your mouth to get any spit off of your face (just in case). It wasn’t the hardest landing you’ve ever had, by a long shot, however recently it had been hard to deal with the problems that had been coming your way. Odd things were happening, and you didn’t feel like facing it right now. So with a look around, you pull out the tracking device you have that’s connected to your fighter, trusting its directions given the huge trees of the forest are clouding your perception. You rub off the sheen of condensation that forms on the tracker when it meets with the humidity in the air. Based on the calculations, the jet didn’t land awfully far away, maybe a 30-minute walk. A smile starts to build on your face. That’s good, walking in this humidity seems like a worse punishment than flight school was…and that was rough. 

However, once it passes 20 minutes and more than half of your armor has joined the decomposing leaves of this Maker-forsaken planet, that smile has long since wiped off of your face. No wonder this place hasn’t been uncovered. This humidity is absolutely brutal. Sweat pools in each pore and drips down your arm as if it’s a waterfall. Your mouth is dryer than Tattooine even though the moisture in the air is already choking you with each breath.  

Dehydration sets in and the headache that you forgot about kicks into overdrive, your vision pounding. You need to stop and rest, so you do. Closing your eyes, you hang your head back and take almost gasping breaths, setting your hands on your hips to get some semblance of a breeze to reach every crevice of your body and cool you down. You stand in silence like that, listening for the sounds of the wilderness which did echo off of the trees not ago, however, there’s not much to listen to. Strange.

Opening your eyes, you pull out the tracker to see how close you are, needing its steady and rhythmic blinking to remind you you’re not doing this for nothing. Underneath your feet, the terrain shakes, breaking you out of your thoughts. You look around and shove your tracker back in your pocket, replacing it with your tiny blaster hooked to your waistband. Crashing soon accompanies the tremor of the ground, as well as gasps for breath past a small treeline to your right, which you turn to and point the blaster at. 

Just as your finger reaches the trigger, someone crashes head-first onto the ground, grappling at the leaves to launch himself back to a run. Your finger slips and a shot simmers some leaves right in front of the tree line. A droid soon rolls over where you shot, and before you know it, you’re being grabbed and dragged along while a ferocious roar rattles all the vegetation around you.  

“Wha–” You stammer out, scrambling with the man to catch your footing, your feet not quite catching up with the urgency he has. The sound of something big breaking through a wall of brush causes you to look back, eyes with hardly the vision wide enough to get all of the beast that meets them. It stands nearly the length of half of the towering trees above you, its skin covered in a mossy substance with a bright yellow liquid flowing from what looks to be a wound on its lower right. It roars again, its mouth a bizarre and vibrant blue that in no way distracts from the very large and very sharp teeth that are lined in rows. 

Now you get it and now your legs want to work. All three of you, the round droid included that is non-stop blabbering, topple over rocks, fallen trees, and anything else to get away from certain death. 

Scrapes are starting to litter your body as the forest grips you, almost like it wants to make you the meal of the beast that is admittedly kind of slow compared to its size.You look for escape, eyes eagerly trying to find something where you can safely hide. As you guys slide down a small, yet steep rock facing, you see a cave hidden by a narrow opening to what looks like a sizeable cave. You grab and pull the guy’s arm, pointing to it. He stops and quickly looks at it before looking around him and then back at you.

“Are you sure?” He lowers his voice, face etched with concern as his droid beeps almost sarcastically. 

“Have you seen any better options?” You grit your teeth, not wanting to argue about what is clearly the best choice right now. At his hesitation, you let go of his arm and head to the cave, his droid following you.

You look over your shoulder at the droid who’s talking and then back up at him, a scowl on his face. “Clearly your droid has more sense than you.” At your words, he looks up at the rocks you just slid down from, some tinier ones dropping as the beast approaches. 

“Okay, okay.” He says, jogging over to the hole where you stand. You slide in and help him with getting the droid in. Just as the bigger rocks start to slide down the rock facing, he slides in and puts a finger over his lips while he looks at the droid that beeps. The beast jumps down, rocking the cave, and you look down to see the droid almost drawing into itself and rolling as far back as he can from the entrance. You follow suit, grabbing the guy’s arm and leading the two of you to where your backs hit the wall of the cave. 

It approaches, following your scents before a screech from another animal causes it to snap its head up into the air, a growl coming from deep into its throat as it stalks off. A breath of relief escapes from the two of you while the droid goes back to its former posture. You step away and look up out of the cave, seeing if it’s clear. The sounds of the forest have even returned to what they were a few minutes after you landed. Now that you’re relaxed, you turn back to the man and the droid, realization dawning on you that you’re with a Resistance pilot. 

On instinct, your hands draw your blaster up, which grabs the attention of the droid that was just before talking to the man. 

“Woaaaaah,” it says, its human counterpart now seeing what is happening as he brings his hands up to his head in surrender. 

“Wait, hey, I just saved your life. If you do this, this is a huge mark on your conscience.” Even though you have a blaster aimed straight at his face, he looks calm–like he’s talking a child into putting something they shouldn’t have down. You give him a perplexed look.

“Conscience? You have no idea.” Your finger is just about to put weight onto the trigger when you feel a huge wave of electricity slam into your body, causing your finger to lock down and shoot a bullet. The man ducks down in time, effectively cheating death and scrambling away. When the voltage stops, you drop the blaster and groan out in pain, the wind knocked out of you. You grasp at your chest, trying to gasp in air when the guy grabs the blaster, pointing it at you now.

“Way to go, bud. Couldn’t have done it sooner.” He says sarcastically, rolling his eyes down to the droid who chirps at him. 

“You–” you start, a scowl starting to wrinkle your face before you’re interrupted.

“Now seriously, why would you do that?” He stares at you in confusion, “What is it about you First Order that just have to go and ruin a good thing? I saved your life!” He exclaims, shaking the blaster in his hand a little.

You’re leaning down, hands on your knees and still feeling like you’re not getting enough air as your mouth hangs open.

“Protocol,” you shrug, wiping the sweat off of your brow and standing up.

“Well if you thought past that for a second, you’d realize we could help each other.” He says, signaling in a circle to include all three of us in the cave.

“How would that help me? One less of you to shoot down in the long run.” He studies you for a moment.

“Who has the blaster and the droid that electrocutes things?” He asks, almost as if he can’t believe he’s asking, his eyes shooting between your face and the blaster he’s still pointing at you.

You’re silent for a moment. Although he’s right, there’d be no way that something like this wouldn’t be discovered. If you’re found to have teamed up with the enemy, you’d effectively be serving yourself to a life of torture. But right now, you think you want to live. It’d be humiliating to be bested and killed by a member of a group that’s so disadvantaged. You breathe out, rolling your eyes shut and holding your hands up in surrender.

“I guess you have a point.” You open your eyes again and see he’s lowered the blaster, a pleased smile on his face. 

“Great, well I’m keeping this.” He pats the blaster he’s now attached to his belt loop.

“What, can’t trust me?” You mock pout as the man snickers. 

“Trust you to kill me, yes.” He nods and joins you at the entrance of the cave, looking around. 

“Do you think we should stick here or go back to our ships?” 

You think about it for a moment, about to say that you should stay here before you feel how dry your mouth is again and the aches covering your body from crashing through the forest. 

“We should at least get emergency gear from the ships. Mine has first aid and provisions that’d be helpful given there’s nothing known about this place.” He nods, pondering the situation himself. 

“When I crashed, the cockpit was fine. My emergency provisions should be okay too.”

“Split and meet back here?” You question, looking at him as he’s spaced out in thought. His eyes snap to you.

“Split? After what we just experienced? There’s no telling what’s out there and I’m not dealing with anything alone after all the trouble of getting you.” He stresses the last word, eyebrows lifting up and creasing together. The droid beeps and the man looks at him, his features softening.

“Okay, well I mean another human, BB.” He rubs his head and brings his attention back to you when you open your mouth to talk. 

“We’re going to have to go to mine first then. I’m closer.”

“Sounds like a plan.” He smiles, and bends down to push the droid out of the hole. You go to help him even though you harbor a little hatred for the thing now that it electrocuted you. But you guess you understand…you were about to kill its master. The man pulls himself out of the hole and you follow. When you stand up, you get your tracker out of your pocket and see it has a single crack breaking its screen in a jagged half. You purse your lips, a little frustrated. 

“Is that an emergency device?” The man asks, a twinge of worry wavering his tone. You snort out an airy laugh. 

“No, it’s a tracker to get to my ship. Unfortunately, I don’t have any emergency calls on this thing.” He laughs dryly.

“Unfortunate? That’s possibly the best thing I’ve heard.” He thinks for a moment, “Well maybe one of the best things.”

Your eyebrows pull together, a little concerned about what that means as you hit the device in your palm, hoping something comes across the screen. You turn it to its back and hit the reset button, checking the screen again where you see that the blip comes back onto the screen. You’re happy momentarily before you see you’ve added another 45-minute walk to the ship based on the run you’ve done.

“Good news, the tracker’s working. Bad is that it’s a bit of a walk based on the humidity of this place and the sun falling pretty quickly.” He looks up at the sky, seeing it is getting a little darker by the second. 

“We can get to my ship tomorrow,” He shrugs, starting to walk in the direction you are. You stare at him for a moment, perplexed at his trusting behavior. 

“You Resistance are so naive.” You laugh, shaking your head.

“We’re both in the same boat. Neither of us have our ships and you don’t have any emergency contact routes, so why would it not be better to stay with you around your ship?” He says, explaining his thoughts to you while talking with his arms. You stare at him in amusement.

“I didn’t say I didn’t have emergency contact, I just said I didn’t have it on this device.” You lightly shake the tracker in your hand.

He opens his mouth like he’s about to respond but he stops. His mouth hangs open for a second. “Good point.” He nervously chuckles. “I’ll just stay somewhere else in secret then.”

“Then how would we be safe?” You tease, referencing his previous arguments that you should stick together. BB beeps and the man sends him a hurtful look.

“You’re supposed to be on my side.” BB sends a few beeps in succession in response. 

“Okay, maybe you do make several good points and I’m so glad you’re having a good time mocking me.” He looks at the small smile that turns the corners of your lips up. You quickly take it off, subbing it for a frown instead and looking ahead. “However, it’s just in everyone’s best interest to not do anything crazy.”

“Fair enough,” You say, pursing your lips and nodding to his words. 

___

The walk had mostly been in silence. The man would respond to anything that BB said while you would only listen to the interaction. You didn’t know the language of the droids, most of the ones on board your bases spoke basic so there wasn’t a need. You weren’t really interested. 

Close to your ship, your dehydration started peaking a little and your vision was getting blurry while you walking. You pinch your eyes closed, shaking your head side to side a few times to will it away. He notices your behavior, watching you with concern. 

“Hey, are you alright?”

“Fine.” You mumble, pulling your tracker out of your pocket to give you something else to look at. He hums, not believing you. He especially doesn’t believe you when you stumble due to the vertigo you’re getting. Stepping closer to you, he goes to grab you when you flinch away. 

“Seriously, I’m fine.” He holds his hand in the air and steps away, exchanging glances with BB before looking back at you and at the ground to watch his step.

“Sooo…” He draws out the vowels, “My name’s Poe.” At your silence, he looks at you and huffs a laugh.

“This is usually where the typical person tells the other their name.” He teases, but you’re not amused.

“I’m nobody.” You respond, opting to keep your anonymity the best you can for the sake of your future. 

“Hm, interesting. You’re one of the many nobodies I’ve met before. A pretty common name.” You’re silent, scaling a rock slower than you would if you weren’t seeing two of everything right now. Poe pushes BB up the small rock hill.

“So why are you in the First Order?” He asks, breathing a little heavy from the exertion of pushing the droid up. 

“Why are you in the Resistance?” You ask immediately, not even thinking of another response. Going into your life story with him would not do anyone any favors. And digging everything up is not at the top of your to-do list.

He scowls, “Don’t change the subject.”

“I’m not changing the subject, I just asked you the same question you asked me.”

“Because it’s what’s right and it’s just a role I was born into. Now you go.” His tone has more edge to it than it did when he first started talking.

“Same here.”

Poe scoffs, “You can’t really believe that what the First Order is doing is right?”

“So what if I do? You don’t know me and I definitely don’t have to explain myself to someone like you.” You shake your head, wiping sweat from your face as the movement causes droplets to slide down. 

“I don’t see how you can get into a ship and not think about the countless lives you ruin by enabling the terror the First Order brings.” 

Your face turns into a deep scowl, “Like I just said, you do not know me.”

“Yeah, but I know enough that you don’t–”

“Drop it,” you grit out, “Getting into an argument because you’re too curious for your own good is just going to make our situation worse.” He huffs and turns his head away defiantly, the only sounds around you know being BB rolling, you two walking, and the creatures of the woods.

Soon, but not soon enough, you break past some vines and see your ship sitting in all of her glory, a steady (yet small) stream of smoke billowing out of the engine. You stumble over vines hidden beneath piles of leaves and Poe’s hands go out to catch you but you catch yourself.

“It’s fine,” you snap, continuing your pace. His eyebrows pull together again in displeasure.

“That’s your favorite word.” He grumbles.

You climb up the steps to reach the manual hatch for entering the cockpit, the crash slamming the roof back over it after your expulsion. “What are you even talking about?” You say, somewhat distressed he keeps picking fights. 

“Your favorite word is fine.” Poe says, “I’m fine, it’s fine, everything’s fine. Well, it’s okay to accept help when you need it. You don’t have to do everything alone.” You stop what you’re doing and stare at him, seeing an anger that has molded his face with valleys, darkens his eyes, and pulls his lips into a kind of frown that seems unfamiliar to him. Letting your eyes travel him further, you become amused with the way his leg is kicked out and his hands sit on his waist. 

“You’re projecting.” You say calmly before going back to getting your pack of provisions out. 

“You lie to yourself.” You pull the pack out and throw it to the ground, right in front of Poe before pulling yourself out.

“Doesn’t everyone?” You muse while walking to the pack and opening it for a hydration packet that you down as quick as you can. Poe watches every movement you take, and he’s taken aback when you offer one to him. He’s guarded when it takes it from you, which you think is a little ridiculous given you’ve agreed you’ll do what’s best for all of you for the time being. You take a seat next to your pack, legs screaming at you for taking as long as you did to rehydrate them. Rubbing out your calf that’s having a tantrum in the form of cramps, you look up at Poe. 

“Are you done brooding or are you going to sit down?” With your free hand, you signal to the free space on the other side of the pack. He sighs and nods, taking a seat and surveying around your crash site.

He signals to your fighter with his head, “A TIE silencer, huh? I thought you said you were nobody.” You stop your massage on yourself and change your position to lean back on your hands set behind you.

“I am.”

He gives a dry laugh, “Right, because the First Order is going to give a silencer to just anybody.” You shrug in response. He doesn’t need to know who you are or what you do. Frankly, you could’ve gone without finding out his name. He shakes his head with your silence and you stand up, brushing the various things that stuck to you off. 

“It will be in our best interest to find a safe place to camp.” You hold your hand out to Poe to get him up, BB looking between the two of you as it’s practically sat in the middle. 

He grabs it and you pull him up with a grunt, then reach down to grab the pack. Poe beats you to it and slings it over his shoulder. 

“Wow, color me surprised. You were just biting my head off a few minutes ago and now look at you.” At your tease, a red wave blots his skin, climbing up his neck. You have to turn around to block a growing smile from his sight, pointing and saying, “We should look over here.” 

It doesn’t take long to find a new cave to replace the one you left miles ago. You stand up from where you were peeking your head into the cave. It’s relatively shallow, promising an absence of something crawling from its depths and eating the two of you alive. BB might survive. The thought kind of amuses you.

You dust off your hands, “I think this will work. It’s not too deep, but it’s big enough for all of us to fit comfortably. Plus, we’ve got this vine patch to act like a kind of curtain to keep anything from seeing in and stalking us.” He nods, appraising it and all of its quirks before throwing the bag in.

“BB-8 and I can search for some wood to make a fire.” You throw a suspicious glance over your shoulder as you get down into the cave and he sighs.

“My ship’s a while out, it’d be hard for me to go all the way there and back with people before dark falls. Trust me. I’m not risking it.” His eyes are wide while all the kinds of ways he could die flash in his mind. 

“I’m timing you then.” You say, sliding all of yourself into the cave entirely and shutting the vines.

Poe looks to BB, “Was she joking?” If a droid could shrug, he probably did.

—-

By the time he gets back, the sounds in the cave are quiet and he slides the vines to the side to see you’ve set up a makeshift bed out of the emergency tarp from your pack. You’re lying on your back with your hands crossed across your middle, a blanket rolled under your neck acting like a pillow. He breathes out a small laugh at how quickly you fell asleep, the corner of his mouth tilting up. He sets the pile of wood he collected by the entrance, signaling for BB to come over before he gets down into the cave and opens his arms to help him in. BB launches himself into his arms and Poe grunts, putting him down as fast as he can for the sake of his back. Poe looks over at you and sees your eyes are now open, causing his skin to nearly launch itself off of him. A smile pulls at your lips and you sit up as he clutches his chest where his heart is racing. 

“I think that almost scared me as much as that big…thing showed up out of nowhere.” He jokes, now moving the curtain of vines to pull the firewood in. He crouches down and stacks them in a way it would be easy to put firestarter in the middle. 

You think back to the creature and the wound you saw, “Were you the one that wounded it?” He shakes his head briefly before he stops, “Uhhh maybe.” You look at him questioningly. 

“I might’ve hurt it when I crashed. It’s possible something got knocked off and stabbed it or it impaled itself on a broken piece.”

“I probably would’ve been fine if I stayed where I was then, it seems like it had a vendetta just against you.” He snorted, looking through the pack for the firestarter, and grabbing it.

“Probably.”

You look at BB, nestled in the corner as if it wants to sleep. “How did the droid survive the crash then? It sounds pretty bad. The smoke I saw coming from it looked bad too.” The fire catches, illuminating the cave and its inhabitants in a warm glow.

He looks behind him to the droid and smiles weakly, “I wouldn’t let anything happen to him. He’s probably one of the best friends I have.” You look between the two of them, predominately the way the light highlights the dark circles under Poe’s eyes and the rough stubble that’s making its own shadow.

“You don’t have friends of your own species?” He turns his head to look at the blazing fire.

“No, I do. It’s just different when we’re pretty much involved in each other’s survival on a daily basis, not just when we’re flying. Today is an example.” He chuckles after his last sentence. “What about you? You can’t ask all of these things about me without thinking I’d ask my own.” He teases.

You stare into the fire too, your eyes unfocusing as you think of all that are on the base. You can’t count any of them as your friends. Those you did were gone. “No. Friendships are…complicated.” 

He nods slowly, digesting your words. 

“Well, you can count me as one.” He gives you the same weak, tender smile he gave his droid only moments ago. You couldn’t take it. You stare at him before sliding back down into a sleeping position on your side, eyes wide open as you stare at the section of the wall in front of you where rock meets dirt. 

Poe’s eyes blink in quick succession, kind of surprised at your response. He really doesn’t get you. One moment you’re open to joking and teasing, but the next moment you shut down, acting exactly like a stereotype of the typical First Order soldier. You were confusing, more so than anyone that he had ever met. Granted, you were what appeared to be a high-ranking member of the Order, and you have to be far from normal to get that far. But he studies you with perplexion, your feet pointed to him and yet your face obscured from his sight, and he thinks about how you behave when a wall isn’t completely blocking the two of you. You seem…normal. Someone with interesting stories to tell, ones that are good and others that are bad. And he wanted to hear you talk about them. Probably more than he should.

With a sigh, he lays down too, arm behind his head acting as his own pillow as he stares at the ceiling of the cave. For now, he’ll just chalk it up to a healthy curiosity of a person involved in an organization that kills without thought. 

The next day, you awake with a start, the fire in the middle long sizzled out. Your shirt clings to you, the humidity back with a force now that the sun has risen. You look over to Poe, seeing he’s knocked out cold, his mouth slightly agape to let out tiny snores. BB turns his eye? to you, releasing a small beep now that he sees you’re awake, sliding a little closer to his friend. 

You signal with your hand to him that you couldn’t give a damn about Poe and you walk with your knees over to your pack, grabbing a meal bar and opening it with a frown. You know that beggars shouldn’t be choosers, but you have never liked these things, It’s like a mix of sand and mud wrapped up in a vacuum package meant to punish you for ever needing to use it. They gave it to the cadets in flight school, and being an impressionable child meant these, along with other things, left a scar on you.

You finish it up, less than pleased with the experience. Getting up, you see from the corner of your eye that BB follows you with his gaze and you ignore him, pulling yourself out of the cave to go get more firewood.

Poe’s awake once you’re back, the tell-tale sign that he ate the bar on his face as you slide yourself back in. 

“It’s terrible, isn’t it?” You say, stacking the firewood you got in the same way Poe did last night.

“I’ve definitely had better.” He chuckles. You nod in understanding, not willing to continue the conversation. 

The rest of the day goes by slower, the excitement not quite building like it was yesterday. The three of you went to Poe’s ship and you saw just how ruined the thing was. Honestly, it surprised you to truly how bad it was. You didn’t even know how he was alive. The lack of conversation dulled the day more, and in some way you felt guilty for not reciprocating the energy he often showed. As hours ticked by on this planet, you confused yourself more and more. Why did you feel guilty you weren’t talking to him? You didn’t owe him anything other than his life. It didn’t matter to you how he carried it out unless he wasn’t actively trying to take you down. 

You’re taken out of your thoughts by the rumble of the ground, one very reminiscent of the one you experienced not even a day’s cycle ago. Getting up from where you leaned against the cool cave wall, you shush Poe and BB playing with a small rock and peek past the vine curtains. 

Standing only a few paces away, a creature similar to the one yesterday, yet smaller, has its head to the forest floor, strongly sniffing for a trace of whatever it’s searching for. It stalks slow, lightly lifting each foot, and you wonder to yourself why you felt the rumble of steps when you no longer can. It takes its movements closer to the cave, causing you to let go of the vines and fall back to where you were originally. Poe looks at you in confusion and you lift your finger to your mouth as you try not to have your scent carry by the breaths you let out. 

 Moments pass and nothing happens, but you don’t risk the off chance the creature is waiting for something to trigger movement before it snaps. You and Poe sit in silence until night falls, continuing the trend until Poe lights the fire and falls asleep.

Sleep doesn’t come easy to you that night. You’re left thinking about everything he’s said to you. About the evils of the Order…the evils you’ve done. And the memories of those evils haunt you until eventually you fall asleep, envisioning you’re back on base.

What feels like only minutes, but realistically you know has been hours based on the remnants of the fire, you’re woken by the sound of a low-flying jet. As fast as you can without waking the others, you get to the entrance and look to the sky, seeing the lights of a carrier flying in the direction of your ship. With a last look at the sleeping forms of Poe and BB-8, pull yourself out of the entrance and creep away from the camp, using the light of the various moons peeking through the canopy to see where you’re going.

You pick up your place the closer you get to your ship, nearly running by the time you get to the line that obscures your ship from everything around it. You stop there and try to control your breathing, not wanting to give away your position. Moving away a big leaf to see, you catch three soldiers surveying the wreckage, their garbled voices bouncing off of the enclosed area. Those are your soldiers.

You take a step out of the brush, “Did you enjoy your vacation? Or was there another reason it took 2 days to reach me?” The lights on the blasters of your soldiers snap to you all at once, blinding you from the sudden change of dark to light.

“Special orders, ma’am.” They say in unison. 

“Of course.” You mumble, pushing past them and up into the carrier, seeing the other members of your group. Passing them, you head into the passenger seat of the cockpit, stiffly sitting down. It was likely Ren who told them to stay on base for no retrieval. The thought causes the familiar rise of anger to form in your chest, tightening your throat. You ignore when everyone boards the jet and settles into their places, staring out past the window and the natural canopy, not hearing the question you were asked.

“What?” You say, attention brought back.

“Did you encounter any contact on the planet?” With a twist of your stomach, you’re reminded of the two hidden away in the cave. 

“Nothing except for the creatures half as tall as the trees that surround us.” You say, looking toward Canis 2 sitting in the passenger seat. They give a single nod, turning back to the controls.

”Now let’s get back to base, shall we?” 

“Yes, Commander.” 

author’s note: hi! i hope you enjoyed—this is my first attempt at a fanfiction. i just felt some type of way with oscar issac in orange lol.

also, let me know if there are any discrepancies! this isn’t beta read. i’m always on the look out for (nice) constructive criticism

#poe dameron #poe dameron x female reader #poe dameron x reader #enemies to friends to lovers #enemies to lovers #star wars #star wars sequel trilogy #afab character #poe dameron smut #poe dameron x you #poe dameron/reader

[allthebrazilianpolitics]

‘Everything is parched’: Amazon struggles with drought amid deforestation

By now, the rivers should be full. But large-scale cattle farming, the climate crisis and weather events like El Niño mean Brazil is near the point of no return

Cows, dust and smoke. That was what greeted me on my return home to Altamira, after several weeks on the road. An unusually fierce dry season has taken a horrific toll on the Amazonian landscape, swathes of which are already denuded by cattle ranches. Together, they threaten the integrity of the world’s biggest tropical forest.

I will get to the science behind that horrifying statement shortly. But first, let me describe what is happening on the ground, in and around my home in Altamira, in Pará state, northern Brazil.

Everything is parched. The vegetation crunches underfoot. Compared with the rainy season, the forest has visibly shrunk back several metres from the roadside. The more resilient trees are holding on, but at the fringes, the weaker palms have started to shrivel up and turn brown.

Several areas in my neighbourhood are charred black from recent burning. Criminal land-grabbers are taking advantage of the tinder-dry conditions. Each morning when I wake, the air tastes of smoke. A pall blurs the horizon. Solar panels are unable to function as normal because the sunlight cannot pierce the haze.

Continue reading.

#brazil #brazilian politics #politics #environmentalism #environmental justice #amazon rainforest #mod nise da silveira #image description in alt

[theonceandfuturequeenoftarts]

Prompt-ober 2023: Captivity and napping together

The terrified screams of small children were never the sign of a good start to the day, Ron thought to himself. But then again, he couldn’t blame them. The blood-soaked muzzle and paws of the albino tiger looming through the enclosure’s viewing glass were the stuff of nightmares.

The half-flayed corpse of Lucius the white peacock hanging from the tiger’s mouth didn’t help matters.

(Good riddance to that pretentious jerk of a bird, Ron thought.)

He sighed and started herding the children away, making insincere comforting sounds and quietly radioing for assistance.

Voldemort had claimed another victim.

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“Ooo, my sweet kitty baby, don’t worry, I’m not mad at you~” Voldemort’s dedicated keeper, Bellatrix, crooned at the albino tiger as she pressed against the thick glass barrier chest-first. Voldemort flicked his tail disinterestedly and continued ignoring the chaos he had caused.

If Hermione were asked, she’d say the tiger looked particularly self-satisfied. Perhaps even a little smug. She couldn’t blame him – she’d never really liked that peacock, either.

“Have we figured out how the other animals are getting in?” she asked.

Ron shook his head with a flummoxed look. “No. And there’s no sign of Voldemort getting out and snatching them. It’s like they’re drawn in – like black magic. They just wander in to get eaten.”

“Let’s keep the supernatural out of it, Mr. Weasley,” Minerva McGonagall, the senior big cat keeper, said. “We’ll simply have to check all around the outside of the enclosure for any potential points of ingress again.”

“Might I suggest we remove the common denominator in all of these incidents?” Albus Dumbledore said, adding, “We need to think of the greater good, after all.” 

“Director Dumbledore, may I remind you our purpose is conservation, not euthanization – especially of critically endangered species,” Minerva said exasperatedly. The man had had a chip on his shoulder for that tiger ever since its behaviour began to directly contradict his years of research with other tigers.

“You even think of touching my Lord and you’ll wish you died like that glorified chicken did,” Bellatrix growled, glaring blackly at the ageing researcher.

Hermione might not like the other woman, but she could still admit that sometimes Bellatrix had the right of things. With the threat – not calling the tiger her Lord. That was weird. 

She joined the others in side-eyeing the director as he left in a huff.

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Ginny had to admit, this wasn’t what she’d hoped to be doing when she applied to be a zookeeper. But at least she was still working at the zoo; and maybe they’d promote her from being a guide. …Eventually.

“Hey, isn’t that a cat?” one of the kids shouted, pointing into the tiger enclosure.

She sighed internally before pasting on a plastic smile. “Yes, tigers are a species of cat–“

The kid interrupted, saying, “No, I mean the black cat.”

What.

She turned slowly, hoping against hope she wasn’t going to find that Voldemort had somehow become a panther. But no. There, sitting in the centre of the tiger habitat, licking itself, was a longhaired black house cat.

They were going to have another scandal on their hands from impressionable children seeing a cat ripped to shreds by their mass-murdering tiger, weren’t they?

And speak of the devil: Voldemort materialised from the dense vegetation to spring at the unsuspecting cat.

Unable to look away, Ginny stared in horror as Voldemort got closer, closer, and was upon the cat, which finally decided to move. The black cat bounced away from the massive predator before turning to face him, back arched and tail fur standing on end, hissing and spitting. Voldemort growled in response, crouching down, prepared to attack.

In a bout of suicidal confidence, the black cat smacked Voldemort on the nose with its paw and continued to hold its ground, puffing up and staring the hulking tiger down.

And unexpectedly – miraculously – Voldemort relented. He rumbled and play-swatted at the cat, which rolled onto its back and enthusiastically batted at the paw that was almost larger than its entire body. Voldemort watched on in bemusement, occasionally shoving the black cat over to rile it up.

Her jaw must have been brushing the ground from how far it had fallen open. The children were shrieking in amusement while their chaperones looked worriedly between the two cats and their guide, but she couldn’t manage to pull herself together for several moments.

Speaking into her radio, Ginny said, “Uh. I’m gonna need someone to come down to the tiger enclosure. We’ve got a situation…”

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“How did that ickle bitty kitty get in there?!” Bellatrix pouted. No one should be closer to her Lord than her.

“How do any of the animals get in there?” Hermione asked rhetorically.

“I’m telling you, that tiger is secretly a wizard–”

“Ronald, do shut up.”

“Perhaps now is the time to discuss–” Dumbledore began.

“For the last time, Albus, we’re not killing Voldemort!” Minerva shouted. “Go bother Gellert and his arachnids if you’re not going to contribute anything helpful.”

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No one could get close enough to the black cat to retrieve it or lure it out, and no one wanted to go through the bother of sedating Voldemort if they didn’t absolutely have to, so the cat – dubbed Harry for the odd, tufted texture of his fur – became a permanent resident.

Each member of the zoo's staff celebrated when the mortality rate of the other animals dipped sharply after Harry's arrival. The little black cat was seen as a hero, despite no one understanding how his presence managed to convince the rest of the zoo's animals to stop visiting Voldemort’s territory and dying messily.

From then on, every so often, Voldemort would be found lying out in the open, staring down any observers, as Harry curled up in the curve of the tiger’s body and napped.

#zoo au #harry potter #voldemort #tomarrymort #they're animals #literally #posting prompt-ober stuff in lieu of writing #cw: blood #rip in rest lucius the white peacock

[pastelsandpining]

milk & honey

masterlist

almost 9k words of hurt/comfort, nsfw

pre-TotK

Read on AO3

cw for scar mention, injury mention, blood mention

<><><><><>

The downpour of rain trickles off of the roof in steady streams, filling the atmosphere with a quiet, calming sort of noise. The ground is soaked to its very core; it's evident in the puddle of mud beneath the tree just outside of their house. Link can see it from his kitchen window--at least, in those rare moments when the rain lets up. Aside from that gentle pitter-patter, there's no other sign of life. All the people of Hateno are inside, all the animals are quiet, and everything that makes up the usual symphony of life in the village is taking cover. It’s been raining all day.

That’s the thing about the wet season: Link finds it can bring them all to the lowest point. The cool air and petrichor is nice at first, but how long can they go without setting foot outside to bask in the sunlight? When the clouds are gray and persistent, there’s no hope of any warmth shining through. It feels almost as if it’ll go on forever.

In these dreary instances, they try to find simple things to do to keep their spirits up. Most of the time, it isn’t hard. Any time he gets to spend with Zelda is a blessing, whether they can adventure as they do so or not.

Their idea for the night had been to make soup. What's better at combating the cold and the gloom than a warm dish made from the heart? That's what Zelda likes to say whenever they make her favorite: hearty soup. It's rich, creamy, and she loves to help him make it--which is, without a doubt, his favorite part about it. He likes to watch her hands as they stir, as they bring a spoonful to her lips that he pretends he doesn’t see—but she can’t taste anything until all the ingredients have blended together into something magical. In order for that to happen, he needs to finish with the vegetables.

He dries the freshly rinsed radishes and places them upon the wooden cutting board she’d gotten him months ago, when she’d grown tired of watching him use his kitchen counter—hardly fitting for the most forceful of tasks (he loves her for her thoughtfulness, really. It’ll be very hard to damage his countertop if he uses a cutting board). His hands are steady and careful as he takes up the knife. Wielding a blade of any kind is second nature to him, something his hands knew how to do before his fractured mind could remember why. A cooking knife is by no means a sword; it’s small and light and short, but he knows it no less. The sharp edge glides through the radish as if it’s only water.

“—Purah thinks all we really need is a guardian gear to test it on, but acquiring one requires writing to Robbie, and she thinks he hasn’t a clue about her current…um… predicament.”

Zelda’s been working on an upgrade to the Sheikah Slate runes with Purah for weeks. Link gets so amused by her updates and whatever entertainment comes in the form of what the eccentric genius had said that day, but what he treasures most is watching the way Zelda lights up when she speaks of it. A smile, soft and adoring, takes over his features as he looks her way. She’s never lost her spark, has she? To see her bright eyes, sparkling with all the new possibilities life has finally presented her, it’s all he’s ever wanted.

Zelda pauses midway through a sentence when her head turns enough for her to see him. Her cheeks tint pink and her brows raise. There’s a flustered smile on her face when she says,

“What? Why are you looking at me like that?”

Link shrugs his shoulders with a grin. He knows she knows the answer already; it has everything to do with being hopelessly in love with her.

“You have my heart,” he says, holding up a heart-shaped slice of the radish. Zelda rolls her eyes, playful though it is, and he bites back the cackle that threatens to leave him. She can pretend to hate his puns all she wants; he’s caught her playing along more than enough times to call her bluff.

“You’re ridiculous,” Zelda replies. She shakes her head and Link sets the slice back down with a snort. His careful hands dump the slices of radish on the chopping board into the simmering, creamy soup, then he turns to stick both to-be-cleaned objects into the soapy water of the sink as Zelda stirs the final bits of their meal together.

Continue on AO3

#zelink #totk zelink #botw zelink #smut fic #it’s like my second one ever #hurt/comfort #link struggles and zelda helps him #smut and fluff #smut and angst and fluff

[helloheyhihowdyheya]

Eddie and the Moon

Eddie Munson x fem!reader

Masterlist

Summary: You get your period while at Eddie’s place, and he’s the sweetest about it <3

Word count: ~1.7k

Warnings: Descriptions of periods and cramps. 1 swear

A/n: Who knew I could write something less than 10k?? Not me. This is a cute little fic in time for me to suffer with my period! I had fun with this one, so let me know if you loved it too. Thank you as always for reading <3

You’d been fine. You were starting to make dinner in Eddie’s tiny kitchen while he showered, a shriek escaping your mouth when he’d try to hug you all sweaty after Corroded Coffin’s practice. All you could do was run from him and shake your head at how anyone got such a workout playing guitar.

And you’d been fine as you’d begun boiling water and chopping vegetables, but then they hit. A soft groan tumbled from your chest as a wave of cramps rolled over you, your hands coming down to rest against the counter top to hold you up.

Doing the math silently, you let out a sigh, confused as to how your period came so early this month. At hearing the shower turn off, you shuffled over to your backpack and to the bathroom with your legs pressed right together, waiting for the door to open.

After a few quiet minutes, except for more pain-filled noises you fought back, you lightly knocked, muttering out, “Eddie?”

You winced at hearing muffled crashing sounds before Eddie tore the door open with wide eyes. His wild hair frizzed around his head, and your gaze dropped to his heaving chest… which was covered by a towel that he had wrapped around tight under his armpits.

A giggle rose in your throat at his outfit, your arms holding your backpack against your body. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you or anything.”

He let out a laughing scoff, his features relaxing as he pretended to flex his arm. “Me? Startled? Never babe, what do you need?”

You gave an uneasy grin, unable to look at him for long. “Uh, could I use the bathroom quick?”

One of Eddie’s eyebrows raised high as he said, “Yeah, yeah, of course.” He moved out of the way and into the hall with slow movements. “Do you, um, need your backpack for this?”

Cringing, you turned back to look at him, your mouth pressed tight. With a sigh, you mumbled, “Eddie…”

“What?”

A long sigh. “Yes, Eddie. I need my backpack.”

“Okay, well why do you have to be so secretive about it? Gonna smoke up my bathroom?” He said, crossing his arms as he leaned against the doorway, a grin on his face.

Your bubbling laugh cut short as more cramps hit you, and you were unable to stop from scrunching your face and letting out another groan.

One of your eyes opened briefly to see Eddie’s smile drop as he rushed toward you, his hands wrapping around your arms. “Are you okay? What’s wrong?”

All you could do was lay your head in the crook of his neck and take a few deep breaths, letting the feeling of his palm rubbing up and down along your back ground you. With your cheek pressed against his shoulder, you muttered, “Period.”

“Oh…” he said, a breath blowing past your face. “Oh! Okay. What do you need? Should I look away? Should I run to the store?” Eddie pulled back to stare at you with wide eyes flicking back and forth across your face.

You wrapped your fingers around his. “I love you, please just let me go to the bathroom with my backpack,” you pleaded, rubbing a thumb across the back of his hand.

He nearly tripped while hurrying out of the bathroom, his feet slipping on his clothes littering the tiles. As he shuffled out and you shoved the door shut, he called, “Let me know if you need anything though! And love you too!”

You hadn’t really talked to Eddie about any of this before, knowing how boys got when you brought it up and knowing that he didn’t have many women in his life to talk to him about this stuff. But part of you felt that it was easier to breathe in that still-steamy bathroom now, not having to rush or hide what you were doing in there.

Once you’d gotten everything in place, thankful that no clothes had gotten ruined yet, you opened the door, saying, “Hey, Eddie. Sorry about all that. I’m okay going home if you’d rather…”

As you turned the corner, you were faced with your boyfriend standing in the living room now dressed. His arms stretched around a pile of various things, a wide but nervous smile on his face. He gestured to them as he rambled, words tumbling out of his mouth too fast.

“Okay, here’s a blanket in case you needed it, but I have another in the dryer right now so it’s warm for you. And I found some chocolate in the cabinet — and it expires in a week, so I’m glad I caught that — and I also heated up a wet towel, cause I saw that in a show once that it’ll help. And dinner’s mostly ready, so you can eat as much as you want, or we can go out if you’d rather. I can go grab anything you might need. Oh! And I grabbed some painkillers cause whatever demon is inside you does not look fun.”

As he held up the bottle, it slipped from his fingers, a frantic “Shit!” leaving his mouth as he bent over to pick it up, the rest of the things in his arms falling to the ground as well.

You watched him grab everything again, that goofy grin of his spreading ear to ear as he stood up straight, rocking back and forth on his heels. Your feet carried you forward as tears began to prick at the corners of your eyes, your heart full at seeing him. Even with all the stuff stuck between you, your arms wrapped around his in a quiet hug.

“Oh god, I didn’t mean to… I’m sorry I messed it up. Please don’t cry, I’ll go get you anything you want,” he muttered against you, his voice all too soft.

“I’ll even lasso the moon for ya.”

A laugh broke through your gentle tears, loving that quote from It’s a Wonderful Life. You lifted your head to look him in the eyes, a hand coming up to wipe away your tears. “Eddie, don’t be sorry. I love all of it. Thank you.”

His entire face changed, each part of his body lighting up at your words. “Yeah?”

“Yeah,” you said, giving him a smile, unable to take your gaze off of him. The setting sun floated in from the window, the rays of light illuminating his face. You weren’t sure how you got so lucky, your mind silent and content for a second as you brought your hand up to the side of his face.

You leaned in as he did, your lips brushing his, the two of you just savoring the moment. For a brief amount of time, the world outside felt unaffected by the bubble you and Eddie found yourselves in. Just when you’d forgotten about everything else besides Eddie kissing you, cramps hit again.

Your face twisted painfully while you rested your forehead against his, your teeth biting the inside of your cheek to keep a groan from escaping your mouth.

“Hey, it’s okay. Let’s get you to the couch,” he whispered, guiding you over to lay down among the cushions. He gingerly placed the hot towel along your stomach before going to grab the warm blanket from the dryer. Still, you were thankful for his care as you quietly shifted the towel a little lower to where the pain actually was.

He came back with the blanket slung around his shoulders and a glass of water for the painkillers, making sure you were comfortable before going back to the kitchen.

You settled in while Eddie finished up dinner, him giving a dramatic bow when he brought you a plate, placing the chocolate on the side. “And a bit of dessert. Do you need anything else?”

“You’re the best,” you said, looking away with a small grin. “I guess there’s one other thing I could need…”

“Yeah, anything, sweetheart.”

“You?” you asked, your body wiggling to the side to make room for him on the couch, looking up at him with the best puppy eyes you could muster.

Eddie shook his head, letting out a soft laugh. Grabbing his own plate of food, he carefully sat next to you, reaching for the remote to turn on the TV. He nestled into you, stealing some of your blanket as he switched channels, finally settling on some movie you’d both seen plenty of times.

As you ate, your stomach and heart felt happy and full, a permanent smile etched onto your face. The painkillers kicked in and the warm towel eased your discomfort, your eyes beginning to feel heavier as you leaned your head on his shoulder. You chewed on some chocolate, savoring the taste before saying, “Thank you for helping, Ed’s. I love you.”

You could hear the grin in his voice, your unfocused gaze still forward. “I love you. And don’t worry, I will buy every brand of period product they make and stock my bathroom for you. And buy a year’s worth of chocolate for you.”

“You don’t have the money for that,” you laughed out.

He let out a sarcastic huff, his arms gesturing through the air. “Then I’ll sell the moon I lassoed and buy it all.”

You let out a scoff, telling him, “Hey! I thought that was my moon.”

Eddie leaned back, his arm coming to pull you onto his chest, sleepiness growing even faster throughout your body. “What did I say about worrying?” he tsked, resting his chin on your head.

The rumble of his voice against your cheek didn’t help you stay awake either as he continued. “And what do you mean? You’re the moon herself… ethereal, beautiful, other-worldly,” he said, grabbing your hand and giving it a squeeze. “There’s no price on you.”

All you could respond with was a warm hum, your face nestling even closer to his body. Everything else washed away into the background, into another world outside the one you found yourself in on that squeaky couch. In his arms, you drifted off into sleep to his occasional laugh at the movie, birds chirping outside, and the promise of Eddie and the moon.

#Eddie munson #eddie munson x fem!reader #stranger things #eddie munson fluff #eddie munson x reader

[wonda-fhr]

Secret Santa for @just-a-tiny-goldfish💕

I had the good fortune to choose between two interesting, complex and endearing steps. Marcos got the job because I had an idea for him in my head right away. Enjoy it. Have a great day.🤗 Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas 🎄

3029 words under the cut no warnings needed

An afternoon off Sure, you can spend the afternoon babysitting Spoon because the dog sitter is sick. After all, you're retired, right? You have time. He knows exactly what time you usually show up at the dog park. What else could you possibly have to do in the afternoon?

An afternoon off would be good for you. You love Spoon, there's no better company. You can take a leisurely walk, maybe go to a cafe or cuddle on a bench, and then bring him back to Chen. No problem at all. Besides, he will owe you a favor, which could come in handy at some point.

The closer you get to the handover, the more you look forward to your day as a dog owner. Chen and Spoon are already waiting at the agreed corner and Spoon sees you from afar and jumps for joy. You try to stop yourself from jumping up and down with him to greet him in the same way.

"Thanks for doing this, Marcos. He's been bored in the office all morning, the afternoon will be hectic for me and I just can't take care of him. He really likes you, he'll enjoy your company much more than watching me get stressed out by reporters". Chen holds out the leash to you.

Did his fingers brush yours as he handed you the leash? Surely a coincidence.

"We'll be fine. Go to work and let Spoon and me enjoy ourselves in peace."

"I'll meet you back here, I'll give you a call." He trusts you with the dog, but you're not allowed to take him to the apartment. Chen's priorities are strange. But what the hell, you've got a dog now. It's going to be a good day.

The weather could be better, today of all days there are always thick clouds in the sky. This morning's rain was certainly not the last. Spoon looks after Chen for a moment and then turns to look at you expectantly with his big, shiny eyes. Fun. When you're here, it's always fun.

Your first stop is the café, a cup to go and something sweet for your stomach. The beady eyes get even bigger and more pleading as you take your order. You pull out some more money and order a puppucino for Spoon, whose tongue gets a lot wetter when he notices the second cup in your hand.

Having a snack with a friend is nice. There's nothing wrong with having company, as long as it's the right company. You slightly wish that all people were as uncomplicated as dogs. Maybe you wish it more than slightly.

The first raindrops tear you away from your idyllic togetherness and you continue your walk. The destination is the dog park, as usual, Spoon should be able to move and play freely.

Fortunately, it's warm and the rain doesn't seem to bother Spoon much. Hopefully your jacket will keep you dry for a while, since you didn't think to bring an umbrella.

There is hardly anyone in the park, most of them have probably fled the rain. Only a petite lady with a massive Newfoundland dog is sneaking along one of the paths. Not exactly a dog that Spoon could mistake for a hunting prey. This means total freedom. Spoon dashes through the rain without muzzle or leash. He runs large circles around you and seems to be faster than the rain can hit him.

The well-trodden paths, now devoid of vegetation, resemble a muddy wasteland. Your shoes have already changed color. Spoon doesn't seem to mind the slippery ground, but you clearly lack the grip of four paws, slipping a bit with every third step.

With tiny, careful movements, you walk over to the trees, where the ground is much drier. Spoon tries to jump at you, but you deflect him before he can make you stumble. He seems a little disappointed by your boringly slow pace and takes another big turn across the muddy meadow.

You reach the tree without falling, leaning against the trunk, and just as your eyes and sensors refocus on Spoon, you feel a short but intense impulse. "Catch."

Your breathing stops in shock, your mind reaches for Spoon's, but he is far away and his impulse to chase is stronger than anything you could do now.

He is fast. Just like the rabbit, who can only keep his distance by skillfully making hooks

For a moment you stand motionless in the rain, but then the realization hits you that you have to do something, and you run after him. You make it through the first few muddy patches with a slight stumble, but in the third you fall flat on your face.

You are trained to fall, your body takes over the thinking, rolls skillfully, gets you back on your feet so you can keep running, but the mud stoically sticks to your clothes. You pass the fence at the same spot where Spoon jumped, then run like hell in the direction he disappeared.

The park is big. You realize just how big when you lean against a tree, panting to catch your breath, and realize how insane the idea of trying to catch a greyhound on foot is. Spoon is nowhere in sight.

There are no fences and many exits in this area, he could be anywhere. Panic creeps into your mind.

You feel lost, even though you're not the one who's lost. But you have lost a friend and now you feel more lost than ever.

Your thoughts race to Chen, who will never forgive you. Should you call him? No, not yet. Maybe you should ask Danny to help you find him. But he would tell Chen, for sure. The feeling of helplessness is driving you crazy, there's nothing you can do but hope he comes back.

Can't you? What can you do? You haven't thought through your options yet, you're not helpless. You have achieved so much without any help. There's no need to wait for someone to tell you what to do.

You start to look around, not at the gray runaway, but at your surroundings. There aren't many people in the park, but there are some. People with eyes and minds that can help you. You lean against the tree and reach out to them, searching for their last impressions. It doesn't take long before you find someone wondering about the fast dog without a leash. That's your direction, you walk briskly to where the person saw Spoon.

There you search again and find more witnesses. Thoughts of the weird guy walking through the park all muddy are humiliating and you try to ignore them. You follow the trail of sightings to the overgrown area with the bushes on the ground and the trees on the verge of breaking.   

The rabbit must have found shelter in the undergrowth, was the last thought that had anything to do with Spoon. He must be somewhere in that patch of trees. Hopefully.

You fight your way through thorny bushes, cursing more than once as you get caught in a vine and the thorns dig deep into your skin. Your armor would be very helpful in the fight against the thorny vines, but you have no choice but to free your leg with your unprotected hands.

With several scratches on your hands, you find a more accessible area under the trees, from where you try to get some orientation. Your throat is already raw from calling his name, but there is still no sign of him. The rain has thankfully eased up a bit, not that you could get any wetter than you already are, but you can see a lot better this way. The ringing of your phone almost makes you slip into the mud again.

A glance at the display tells you that it's Chen. Who else? You wonder if he has scheduled hourly checks. So much for trust. On the other hand, you certainly don't deserve his trust right now. You take the call and try to act as unconcerned as possible.

"Hey Chen, what's the matter?"

"I have to go to this interview right now. I just wanted to check in and make sure you're okay. Is Spoon behaving himself?"

Your pause is only a few seconds too long, a hesitation that can be attributed to the dog's distraction.

"He's having a lot of fun and I'm a little wet." At least this wasn't a lie.

"That sounds good. Except for the wet part."

"I'll dry up, I'm not made of sugar."

"Are you sure?" Do you hear a giggle? "See you later, I have to go."

"Bye." You're sure he giggled. Because you're wet? That's weird.

You can't think about that now, finding Spoon is your mission. But there are no people around whose eyes you could use. Just the fat pigeons in one of the trees, you watch them briefly and they watch you. No, no pigeons, that would be madness.

On your way, bending under the gnarled trees, you notice a paw print in the mud. You continue to follow the recurring paw prints and your mind scans a wide radius for Spoon.

An existential fear suddenly runs through you, but it is not yours. A moment later, a squirrel runs toward you, turns in front of you, and continues its flight up a tree. You quicken your pace. If Spoon scared the squirrel, he can't be far away.

Behind another hedge, an open space appears beneath a large tree with low-hanging branches and countless holes in the ground below. In the middle you can see two long legs and an excitedly wagging tail, the only things still sticking out of a large hole. Spoon notices you and jumps towards you and back to the hole for a moment, as if expecting you to help him.

Exhausted, you drop into the mud next to him. While he digs enthusiastically, you secretly attach the leash to his collar, wrap it around your wrist, and breathe a huge sigh of relief.

You watch him dig for a moment until a kiss from his earthy tongue prompts you to join in the fun. It's only then that you notice that it's not just Spoon's tongue that has turned an earthy brown. The well-groomed gray dog has changed color. A dull, muddy brown runs from his nose to his tail. A few blades of grass still cling to his teeth, his paws are twice the size from the mud between his claws, and his fur is soaked rather than spotted.

"I can't possibly take you back to him like this, you need a bath first. Maybe we can go home to you?"

A wagging tail and expectant eyes in a tilted head are the only answer you get and it makes you smile.

"Alright then, I guess to my place. It looks as if you are the first one who will know where I am living. I hope you appreciate it and know how to be discreet."

--------------

At the threshold of your door, you hesitate for a moment and look at Spoon, the mud up to the tips of his ears slowly drying. He looks completely content, he's had a good afternoon and much less stress than you. Now he looks at you expectantly with his bright eyes.

"This is a pretty big step for me, you know?"

Spoon tilts his head as if he's listening to your every word. You have to smile, he's the sweetest and most attentive listener you know.

Once inside, you walk him purposefully to the bathroom and close the door behind you. You open the collar and the first chunks of dirt fall onto the clean tiles.

You shove him into the shower and turn on the water. As soon as it splashes over his back, the long-legged animal amazes you with his impressive agility. Wet and slippery with mud, he wriggles like an eel out of your attempts to hold him, pushes past you out of the shower and enthusiastically shakes himself in the middle of the bathroom.

Your now brown speckled tiles match your muddy clothes perfectly. Your next attempt to get him into the shower turns into a great game of "you catch, I'll run". Even in the confines of a bathroom, you're no match for this dog's speed.

"This isn't going to work, is it? You're not going to shower alone." Spoon wags his tail enthusiastically, leans down on his front legs, and waits for another round of "Catch the muddy Greyhound."

"Maybe you're not a bad partner to practice with, huh? You're not going to turn away in fear, are you?" You need a shower as much as the dog, so you might as well get it over with. It seems silly that you find it hard to get undressed in front of a dog, and yet it is hard. Other people's eyes on your skin is not something you can just put up with. You take a deep breath and remove your shirt.

"You don't see orange very well, do you? How do I look to you? Like painted with mud?" Spoon seems to sense your sudden insecurity, abandons the request to play, and approaches you carefully, sniffing and licking your fingers.

"Apparently you don't find it scary." You crouch down and scratch his ears. He pushes his head closer and closer to you, until you can feel his breath on your chest.

"I would love to cuddle with you too, but we really should take a shower first. Luckily no one heard that, it sounded weird. Come on, come with me." You manage to convince Spoon to join you in the shower. You soap the dog and yourself several times until you feel you have finally washed out all the mud particles.

After you've dried him off, Spoon jumps happily around the living room and you collapse exhausted on the sofa. You leave the fur and mud splatters all over the bathroom for later. When Spoon rests his long nose on your leg to ask for a cuddle, you notice a slight shiver on his body.

"Are you cold? Come on, I'll warm you up." You've barely uttered the request before he's sitting right next to you on the sofa, his front legs stretched out over yours. " Are you allowed to lie on the sofa at home? He spoils you, I'm sure you even have your own." You spread the warm blanket over him and he continues to snuggle into your lap, even though he is clearly too big for it.

The warm dog on your belly, his calm and regular breathing and the pleasant feeling of not being alone have an incredibly calming effect on you. You quickly relax just like your guest and fall asleep with a cozy feeling.

The ringing of your phone jolts you awake. Seeing Chen's name on the screen suddenly awakens your mind, but you're not sure if your voice sounds like that.

"Chen, already finished?"

"Already? I was afraid you'd take him to the shelter if I didn't pick him up soon."

"Are you crazy? I would never ... it was a joke, right? I must have dozed off."

"Of course it was a joke. I'm sorry it's so late, I'm leaving right now. Where are you, do you want me to pick him up right away?"

"We're at my place, um ... no, no problem, we'll come to the meeting point, give me a moment."

"Good, see you soon."

"Yeah, ciao."

Rested, Spoon looks at you as if he's ready for a new adventure.

"No more rabbits today, sorry. We'll have to hurry now."

You curse inwardly, because there is not enough time to take the longer way, so no one can guess the direct direction to your apartment. This time you just have to hope that Spoon provides enough distraction so that Chen doesn't think about which direction you came from.

Even from a distance, Spoon recognizes his owner, who is already waving to greet you. Spoon pulls you the last few feet to Chen and then begins to squeal with exuberant joy. Chen smiles happily and greets his dog just as happily.

"Hey, my pretty boy. What kind of scent is that?"

"Lavender," you answer, a little embarrassed for Spoon.

"What? Oh no, what did he do?" Chen stands up again and his attention is all yours. It's easier when Spoon is your connection than when Chen looks at you so directly. You wonder if he's close enough to notice that you smell of the same lavender shampoo. You wonder if he would like it if you smelled like his dog.

"We both had a few encounters with mud, and he dug a hole. We both needed a good shower. I hope you don't find lavender too bad?"

"Lavender is great. He was on his best behavior, I see. I'm sorry. I guess I owe you more than a few flowers." Chen takes a fresh bouquet of pink and red flowers from his bag and hands it to you.

"But ... you wouldn't have. These are camellias." Flowers, he gave you flowers. You are a little surprised and stare at them, they are beautiful and they are for you.

"I heard you like flowers, I hope these are okay. Just a little thank you. I am still in your debt."

"No, I was happy to do it. I like having him around." You look at the bouquet in your hand and wonder if Chen knows what these flowers mean. He probably doesn't. You're sure he doesn't. Otherwise he would have chosen others, but it feels good to hold them. "Thank you, Chen, they're really beautiful."

"My pleasure. Take care then. Will I see you again for a walk?"

"Sure. As long as it doesn't rain. Bye." Chen smiles and you smile back, your cheeks feel funny, are you blushing a little? Luckily Chen is already on his way home. So are you, with a bouquet in your hand, which you carry like a precious treasure.

#fhr secret santa #wonda writes

[divine-nonchalance]

If we want to reduce the heat we need to plant way more trees.

They provide shade, food, and effectively cool down the environment because they don’t hold heat like asphalt, pavement, bricks, traditional roofs, etc. 

Trees provide habitat for birds which eat immense amounts of insects including caterpillars, mosquitos and flies, while also fertilizing the soil with their manure.

Some trees fix nitrogen into the ground making the soil more fertile in a natural and effortless and free way, just by standing there.

More trees also means more wood.

Trees can be used to create food forests, which in turn reduce the chances of forest fires because with well-managed living crops growing in the soil under the trees they hold more moisture and don’t catch on fire so easily.

You can prune them at will to give the lower crops the perfect amount of light and shade. With the pruning we can create mulch, (fire)wood, and wood chips mixed with mycelium for making walkingpaths that grow mushrooms.

Add a small amount of chickens per large area and you have extra fertilization and excellent pest control as they eat the insects that also like to eat vegetables. Include ducks and they will get rid of the slugs too.

Tree roots also hold the soil together, preventing soil erosion while providing excellent drainage so that when it rains, the water can penetrate the soil faster and deeper, effectively absorbing floods as well.

#permaculture #sustainable farming #garden #gardening #organic gardening #food forest #foodforest #biodiversity #regenerative farming #regenerative agriculture #regenerative ag #regenerative gardening #organic agriculture #bio #organic #how to prevent forest fires #how to make more food #how to create more food #foodshortages #plant more trees #trees #planting trees

[dweepgwooves]

Survival Instincts and Other Ways to Love Yourself

So I wrote this fic, inspired by the amazing @leventart-den go check it out on AO3.

Here's the first chapter!!

The old geezer hadn’t changed, still sending Sanji on a supply run, like everytime they docked on an island. It was almost familiar, to lose himself on the market, flirt with the ladies and to buy more than necessary, haggling with the women and men that sold their stuff. 

Sanji couldn’t help but think of all the times he has done this run, struggling to get the stuff into the Baratie in one go. But now he was a grown man, not like he used to be, when Zeff and him would go down into the island, Sanji holding the crap geezer’s apron, as he cowered from behind. 

Sanji would never understand how or why Zeff took him in. Maybe he saw something in him, but that would be ridiculous, because as Sanji saw it, there was nothing in him noteworthy, less of all as a child. 

The only thing that there had been in him as a child, was survival. That flickering, untouchable and stupid thing that back then lived and still, till this day, when there is no danger beyond the kitchen fights, lives inside him.

Sanji turns left on to the next street, he hears the market sounds, the yells of the sellers, trying to get you to buy, the conversations from the mothers that came with their children. 

He feels warm, he thinks, because this is life, the nature of people mingling together, living life solitarily but also with so much company. 

It’s the same warmth, he thinks, as the one he feels inside the kitchen, from chopping onions that make him tear up, to the carrots for the soup. That increasing weight on his heart that pulls him down to earth, that keeps him from floating down in the air, from all those invisible thoughts. 

I was distracted, he would soon say to himself. I was stupid and foolish and this happens because I can’t do anything right. 

He stumbles upon someone, their shoulders crashing and sending the other person down while Sanji’s food and spices get thrown to the ground. For a second, Sanji feels the fear that came from seeing his father in front of his cell, down by the dungeons. But it’s stupid he feels, because it’s not his father, it’s just a random man. 

Sanji crouches down for the supplies, gathering the packets of spices that littered the street with so much color, to the fruit and vegetables that seem almost tarnished with how much force they dropped. 

The man beside him, stands up and helps him gather his stuff, the fear remaining on the bottom of his stomach, which Sanji crushes with unbearable weight, something he hasn’t done since he was a child, scared of life. 

When Sanji looks up, things in his arms, like he is holding life itself inside his elbows, he realizes how stupid he has been. To think that someone like him could ever live this life completely unharmed, at least since getting to Zeff. 

In front of him, a smirk on his face, his eyebrows curled and raised, like he’s expecting Sanji to break the silence. It’s like looking in a mirror, except it’s not. A distorted mirror, a fucked up one. 

“Brother” Sanji says, because the silence is killing him, because to stand to look at that face any longer would have actually killed him. 

“Sanji!” says Ichiji, a loud voice that makes some people stop and look at them. “Luck is really on our side today” he said, like those words could ever mean anything. 

Sanji did not believe in things like luck. Life had treated him and the people he loved cruelly, there had been no such thing as luck. Some people had it all, some people got nothing. And somehow Sanji had felt like he had gotten into the middle part, where things were not handed to him, but won, and still he had felt like that was more than enough. Like he could live like this the rest of his life. How naive of him. 

He remained silent, looking away from his so-called brother. He had not seen him in years, still it had been good, no matter how much family was supposed to mean, getting away had been good, the best choice he had ever made. 

“So good seeing you Sanji” Ichiji said, “Want something to drink, or eat? I want to catch up”  

“I’m good,” Sanji said, slowly. His legs were shaking, his whole body felt as brittle as a dried leaf on an autumn evening. He wanted to get away as soon and as far away as humanly possible. Because that was what he was, a human, normal, unlike his brothers. 

“Come on, don’t you want to know what we’re doing here?” asked Ichiji again, like there was a hint in between those words. But Sanji, air head Sanji, as Carne used to call him, could not catch up. The world, despite him being very present, felt as if it were in slow motion. 

“Not really,” he answered. He didn’t need to know, he didn’t want to know. He wanted to leave. Sanji turned, ruined vegetables in his arms and all, and started walking. 

“Good seeing you brother!” Ichiji yelled, as Sanji walked away. His feet felt wrong as he walked through the dirt, and then he felt it. A slight prickle on the back of his neck. He hurried, dropped the ingredients on the floor, in the middle of the street, and touched his nape. There, there was a syringe, when Sanji pulled it out, it was already too late. 

His knees which had been wobbly before, now felt different, a bad kind of different, like they didn’t belong to him. He tried to walk, but there was no use. His body was not his anymore, his thoughts were the only thing left, as he saw his brothers standing over him. 

I must have fallen, he realized, I was distracted, he thought. I was stupid and foolish and this happens because I can’t do anything right. 

Air head Sanji, he heard inside his head in Carne’s voice, Always up in his head. 

—

When he wakes up he’s far away, he can tell, because years in the sea make you very aware of the tides and waves, and these were not the waves he had been in. 

When he wakes up he’s in a cell, tied by his feet to a nearby stump, drilled to the ground. When he wakes up he feels fear clawing his way from his stomach to his heart. 

His heart, which had felt heavy and full just moments, hours, maybe days ago, now felt empty, replaced by that fear, the fear of a child against the monsters. He tried thinking back to the moments before sleep and unconsciousness took over, but there’s almost nothing. 

Just picture like memories clouding his mind. Ichiji, then nothing. His red hair, like a flame between the waves of his mind. And fear, that black dot that consumed everything in its wake, he could feel it, like a sixth sense, on the back of his mind.

He had lived with fear for so many years of his life, cowering behind Zeff, then backwards, scared to look his father in the eye, no matter how much he demanded he did so, backwards, his brother’s beating him.

Sanji used to be in that cell, now again. And for a moment, it felt as if he had never left. The walls and the darkness felt familiar, too familiar. In a second he realized but couldn’t fully comprehend what was happening. For a second he was still, captive not only by his family but by his thoughts.

He couldn’t move, not an inch. He couldn’t breath even when his lungs needed the air. And he couldn’t think, because if he did it would all be over. 

Reality was far more cruel than imagination. For years he had been in his bed, in the Baratie, daydreaming of seeing his family and getting revenge. Of looking his father in the eye and telling him everything that he had wanted to say. 

But those were dreams of freedom, now captive, the reality dawned on him like a bucket of cold water over his head.  He was not free, and probably, he thought, would never be again. 

He was in Germa, his father here, inside these very walls. His brothers and sister, his mother dead. It was like living the nightmare he had had for years, except this time there was no Zeff to calm him down, to bring him to reality, because now this was reality. 

Hours or maybe minutes go by, he couldn’t tell, time was a thing dictated by the sun, and down here there was nothing close to the brightness of that star. Time passes and suddenly a door opens to his left. 

The light is as captivating as it is blinding. Sanji, despite wanting to feel any resemblance of freedom, looks away, because it’s too painful. 

“You’re so stupid, Sanji,” said Reiju, shaking her head. “Why didn’t you run?” She looked defeated, like this was hurting her more than him. And maybe it was, freeing an animal into the wild is exhilarating, seeing it back again trapped, must be agonizing. 

He had no words. Why didn’t he run? Maybe life had become too easy, maybe free he could not fathom being caged again. When Sanji was ready to speak, the door slammed against the wall behind it. And under the threshold was his father. Vinsmoke Judge. 

Sanji shook, and unconsciously backed himself into the wall, in the corner, like a child. His brothers entered through the same door, his father saying no words to him, only looking as angry and disappointed as ever. 

Judge raised his hand in Sanji’s direction and rapidly the jail cell was being opened, his feet lighter without the shackles and his body dragged from his safe place, the corner, into the hallway. 

He tries to look up into his brother’s eyes as they hold his arms, but it's a futile attempt. He looks forward, as forward as he can, with his back hitting every rock and pebble in the ground, his arms hurting. 

He’s paralyzed he realizes, he could kick them all but his body is not as willing as his mind is. He could free himself and run, but his legs just don’t work. If Zeff were here he would beat his ass and push him into the fight. If Zeff were here he would fight his father himself. 

As he looks one more time, he sees Reiju, biting her lip, fear in her eyes. That’s why she was the one that he loved most. 

He is dragged towards the lab, and it dawns on him faster than he wants to the reality of his father’s wishes. He is here, not because he is wanted, not even as a prisoner, but as a lab rat. They will experiment on him. 

Tears form on his eyes but he refuses to let them spill. He’s weak, he notices, he’s weak and all the training with Zeff, all the nights with the geezer telling him how he’s a good fighter. The mornings doing some meal prep and Zeff telling him how good he was at chopping. All the affirmations, all the care, fly out the window. 

He’s weak, and falters with his own thoughts. Was he ever even good? 

They put him in the chair, strap him by the arms, though he knows he won’t fight. This is the end, he thinks, this is the end of me, no more cooking, no more dreams, never going to the All Blue. Never seeing Zeff again. 

The last thought breaks him, a part of him lived in the baratie, a part of his heart was in the crevice of Zeff’s, where the aorta meets the artery, like he was part of Zeff’s heart and Zeff his. Now, with his father over him, looming like he always has on the back of his mind, there is no more life. 

And it’s sort of suicide, sort of not. What’s the difference between being killed and letting yourself be killed? Two words, allowing it.  

His last thought before meeting the black space in his mind, the one reserved for sleep, is that there is no longer survival in him. It has all run out. 

#monkey d. luffy #one piece #one piece fanfiction #roronoa zoro #ao3 fanfic #ao3 #sanji black leg #sanji #sanji whump

[kimyoonmiauthor]

Dessert Latkes without added sugar

The preamble bit... but I'm Korean Adoptee to a Jewish family. (And BTW, yeah, I have memories of South Korea, so don't chase me like an AH.)

Annnyyyyywayyy... every year at this time I wanted to find the original latkes recipe, which led me down a rabbit hole of trying different things to create this recipe. I wanted something Asian. I wanted something Jewish. So over the years I've tried:

Cheese

beets

turnip

Sweet Potato

Taro (big and small)

Carrots

True yams (which made my hands itch)

etc. Basically, if I thought I could fry it, I wanted to at least try it.

Through a lot of discoveries and trying things out for years on end, year after year, this is the best recipe I've found to fuse my Asian and Jewish side together. I'll go over the food sciences at the end to show how I developed this recipe.

5 eggs

4 small combs of taro, peeled.

1 large carrot (or two mediums)

1 okinawan purple yam.

1 tablespoon of cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon of ground nutmeg

1 tsp of ground allspice

1/4 tsp ground clove

1 thumb of peeled ginger, minced (or pounded)

3 cloves of garlic

1 thumb of galangal, peeled and minced (or pounded) (about same size as the ginger.

1-2 cups flour. (add gradually, may vary depending on weather.)

pepper and salt to taste.

Canola or peanut oil.

1. In food processor shred the carrot, taro and yam so they are about equal portions to each other.

2. pound the spices and flavorings so they are well blended together. (You can use a coffee grinder, but I used a mortar and pestle.)

3. Mix the shredded vegetables with the spices and aromatics.

4. Add the eggs.

5. Add the flour gradually, until it will hold together and all the flour is absorbed. Often the weather will determine the amounts needed.

6. Warm up the oil. I like to do a test latkes before I move forward. As with regular latkes, cast iron pan is the best and make sure to use an oil with a high smoke point such as canola or peanut oil.

7. Fry up the latkes in the oil until they are crispy.

8. You can serve it with honey, if you like and/or apple sauce, they will taste spicy and sweet at the same time. I like adding the spices and honey because it reminds me of land of milk and honey and the mention of spices.

9. After the Menorah lighting, you can talk about what the candles mean and also the Palestine/Israel conflict with seriousness it deserves. Because how can we remember our suffering when we try to forget the suffering of others done in our name?

Food Science:

The purple yam is dense and often fries slower than regular potatoes. Having tried it on its own, it's always this way.

The taro fries much quicker than the regular potatoes.

Thus the purple yam and the taro when combined cancel each other out, oddly enough. The carrot fries about the same rate as regular potato.

The carrot pairs well with cinnamon in dishes such as carrot cake. Carrots when paired well, have a natural sweetness to it. This is brought out by the purple sweet potatoes, which can be blindingly sweet. The taro helps them be crispy. It's pretty in the bowl together to see the purple, the orange and the white.

Cinnamon and allspice makes things taste sweeter even if there isn't any sugar.

The ginger, galangal is to add an Asian-ish flavor, but also pairs well with the cinnamon. Ginger hits first in terms of flavor, and the galangal hits last, so in terms of taste kinda has this odd symmetry.

The cloves and nutmeg add a complexity and spiciness. Kinda reminds me of the holiday season.

The garlic is there to make it latkes, but is also something East Asia and Israel share with each other.

Thus, zero added sugar, makes these a tasty treat. I choose honey over pure sugar because I think it's on brand and certain kinds of honey can bring out the spices in the latkes, thus pair better than pure sugar can. If you do choose to go with honey, try to find the real stuff, not the fake stuff by going to a Farmer's market. It goes well with honey comb. Support your local bees.

#latkes #hanukkah

[squadrah]

What does everyone's apartment look like? Illuso is a maze of junk and Sorbet has plants in his (and Gelatos' cursed random objects) so what does everyone's general living situation. Also what does the 'common' room look like. You mentioned that they have a shared kitchen and a shared living room and that they live in an apartment block? Sorry just trying to get visuals!!!

Never be sorry for asking me fun things like this!

Okay so basically my headcanon is that rather than maintaining their own apartments or houses all across Naples and congregating to this one other place to hold meetings, it is simply easier and more economical for them to have a single apartment block that is just theirs, whether the Boss had granted it to them as their base or they saw an opportunity to evacuate a block and took it. I'm not so interested in that as I am in the idea that because they are a team and they own and share this one block, it is way easier for them to gather without raising suspicion in outsiders, and they get to use the space however they want, hence the following:

That team meeting room in the anime? I would put that in the basement; it feels like that one could be some chamber or garage space below ground where chances of them being overheard is greatly reduced.

Now, as pointed out by fans, you can actually find out the location of the hideout from the address given by Araki, and what I am seeing here is a yellow building with a ground floor plus five additional floors, which would give us at least twelve apartments, or two apartments per floor. I hope they have an elevator in there because if not, ouch.

To my mind, it would make sense for them to reserve the ground floor as the shared living area, meaning they would have basically opened up the apartments there so team members could freely come and go. Since the apartments are clustered together on each floor, it was probably no great feat to figure out with Metallica where walls were safe to demolish (no worries about the debris since Little Feet can just shrink it so they can dump it later), which would give them an open space to chill in, and if they were lucky, they might have managed to turn two separate kitchens into one with two sets of appliances to use. I also gave them a court yard opening from the ground floor; it just felt right for an apartment building to have something like that, and since there is some discrepancy between what we see in canon and what we see in real life, why not? Let's face it, they need a place where victims can go, and a court yard where they serve as fertilizer for Prosciutto's roses and Risotto's garden vegetables is still better than say, them having garages just full of ashes...

With this being an evacuated or "claimed" block, to my mind the apartments were for the most part nearly identical and individually furnished by previous owners and tenants, except for maybe a few that were empty to begin with, so I could see Risotto moving in with his handful of assassins at the beginning and them claiming an apartment each from the second floor up; this is very much a first come first served situation, though I could see Melone being moved to the first floor once he joined so his joints would be spared in the long run. From then on everyone is basically working with what was already there, and customizing their spaces on top of it, which leads us to...

Risotto living on the first floor, it is his prerogative after all, and his space is predictably full of metal furniture like shelves, wrought iron tables and chairs. They did some shuffling (again, Little Feet is just so useful, what a Stand, I love it) to get him the biggest possible armchairs and bed in the building because he needs all the space he can get. He uses his own kitchen regularly, but for big meals he will cook downstairs.

Formaggio's apartment is somewhat cluttered and messy because his preoccupation with appearances extends little further than his own personal looks. However, his apartment has some really fun features like a doll house and toy car ramps - gotta have some enrichment when you shrink -, and his living room is fairly neat because he likes to have pals over. If they want to watch movies but don't want to be cold in the basement, they go to his place.

Prosciutto went ahead and picked the most well-maintained apartment, and it is organized and clinically clean thanks to The Grateful Dead. He is the only one with nothing but fake plants in his place because those won't suffer from his fumigating the apartment. His office hours tend to take place in a room on the ground floor because he doesn't have people over if he can help it. His balcony is also full of fake plants to give it some color without risk.

Pesci's apartment is fairly messy on the regular, but he cleans up every weekend because he would not have Prosciutto think him a slob. He changed almost nothing from the original setup he found beyond removing some stuff to make way for his own, including his comic book collection; his living room is basically his own fun library. Doesn't use his kitchen but makes use of the cabinets and fridge for snacks and some cold milk (gotta mind the acid reflux).

Ghiaccio took one look at his own apartment and rearranged most of it to suit his own personal needs, and they did quite a bit of shuffling to get him furniture that he felt comfortable using (initially there were some offensive textures that really bothered him). His place is mostly used for sleep and working out, so his living room became his gym and includes a punching bag he was given as a welcome to the team gift (and because it was cheaper than finding him a therapist).

Melone was luckier than most of them because not only did they give him a first floor apartment, but Baby Face can reconfigure living things into any type for furniture, so the cops that sometimes came around to investigate? They are all in his apartment now serving as expensive looking furniture for the rest of time. Basically he customizes the most freely, and has asked for and received several glass case units to displace his own collections.

Illuso we have already touched upon in detail here, here, and here.

Sorbet and Gelato I will lump together because 1) they picked the same floor to be on, so their apartments are right next to each other, and 2) because this was apparently not enough, Gelato smashed what can only be described as a cave entrance into the wall separating their apartments so they can be together even more. He is very proud of having done this by himself with a sledgehammer on three shots of navy rum and without hitting any pipes, and Sorbet to his credit installed some bead curtains on his side of the thing to make it look more like a feature instead of a gaping hole in the wall. Not that he needed to, because going from one to the other is like dimension hopping from a DIY hellscape with a mini bar into a boheme jungle.

God this got long but I hope it was fun to read! :D

#jjba #la squadra #risotto nero #formaggio #prosciutto #pesci #ghiaccio #melone #illuso #sorbet #gelato #squadrah headcanons #squadrah original

[stillxnunpxidintern]

James 'Bucky' Barnes x Reader Imagine - Knocked Down

You were just getting home after a long day at work, and also having stopped on the way home to get some shopping, as your fridge was looking a little bare at the moment.

So as you were about to open the door to your apartment, you could hear a commotion but wasn't paying attention as you just wanted to get inside and relax, but the universe had another idea, as you were tackled to the ground, with your food now over the floor.

Opening your eyes you stared in to in a pair of blue eyes and face, that you knew too well by now.

While laying on the ground you said 'when I said wanted to be swept off my feet this wasn't what I meant' to what ever deity was listening, before saying with a groan 'Oi Barnes do you want to get off me now, you're heavy' as he wasn't getting off you and kind of crushing you a little

Once you said that, he was off you and holding his hand out to you, which you happily took, as he pull you to your feet and apologised, as you looked at the your on the food.

You heard someone, it sounded a lot like Barton, call Barnes name and you shooed him away, told him to go and save the city, and then watched he left, calling out to Barton for his location.

When all the fallen food had been picked up, you entered the apartment and was greeted by your black cat, rubbing herself around your legs. The other cat that was your partner seemed to be napping somewhere, so left them be for the moment.

Entering the kitchen, you began to put away the food away you have brought, and then started to make a proper list of food and other household items that was need.

Putting the Tv on, you turned it to the news channel, listening to the updates about the Avengers current battle. You did wince when you heard Stark was getting thrown around like ragdoll, he was gonna be feeling that tomorrow.

After getting changed out of your work clothes and into loungewear, you grabbed yourself a can of soda from on the fridge as you sat down on the couch, watching the news trying to spot all the Avengers.

You started working on dinner, just a simple dinner of pasta with chicken and some vegetables, in the pot with some sauce that you added some chill to just give it a little kick.

Once dinner was cooked, you poured yourself a glass of wine, then went back to the couch with your drink and dinner. Upon seeing that the battle had finished, you changed the channel to some nature documentary.

It was about hour and half later when you heard the front door unlock and heard your partner called out to you. As soon as they spoke, a white flash was suddenly came spiriting out.

Standing from the couch and making your way into the kitchen, telling them that pasta was dinner tonight, as you turned the stove on, and mentioned that there was beer in the fridge, they wanted one.

While at the stove, focusing on the pasta, you were unware of the impending doom until it was too late, when a cold metal palm was placed on your nice and toasty warm back, making you jump and cry out, at the sudden change in the temperature.

You jumped away and turned to glare, with your finger pointing at at them, before telling them off by saying 'Just cause you saved the city, doesn't mean I won't make you sleep on the couch, Barnes'

Hearing that, made him laugh as he held his hands up in defeat as he back away, before reaching down and began stroking Alpine under her chin, and watched you from the corner of his eye, before moving into the living-room.

Grabbing a bowl from the cupboard you filled it full of the pasta and brought it out to Bucky, who was now relaxing on the couch with both cats laying on him, as they were both getting stroking behind their ears.

After handing the bowl to him, letting him eat his dinner in peace, while you were trying to stop your cat from eat stealing any of it, as her bowl was fill with food.

Once Bucky was with finished you curled into his side, to enjoying the rest of the evening together.

While watching the Tv, you asked him if he beat Barton today, or if he was down by 1 now, he just gave a little grumble and then said it was a draw, as they were still on the same number of points.

You gave a chuckle while reaching up and kissing his cheek, saying he'll beat Barton next time.

#Bucky Barnes x Reader #James Barnes x Reader #Marvel imagine #Avengers x Reader #Marvel #Mcu x reader #Avengers imagine

[dragonmuse]

suddenly remembered that buttons babysat charlie when he was a kid. can we see what that might have looked like?

(you got it!)

“There you go, lad,”  Buttons nodded, “Open and shut.” 

Charlie pulled on the clear stick, opening and shutting the bird’s beak with a grin. 

“So cool,” he deemed. “Can I have a snack?” 

“I have just the thing.” 

They were in Buttons’ house which was a labyrinth of curiosities. Charlie loved the big curio cabinet full of puppets and the lush vegetable garden. There was a small room stuffed full of books that Charlie was allowed to pick one from. Most of them were dense volumes with meandering sentences that didn’t resolve into meaning, but sometimes he found something digestible. Right now he had Candide  in his backpack for home and he was holding out hope since it wasn’t long. 

“Here,” Buttons pulled a long handled pan out of a cupboard. “Get that warming on the stove. 

In a slow dance, Buttons tented aluminum foil over the pan. Then he got down an unlabelled jar and handed it to Charlie. It was full of corn kernels, but they were jet black.

“What’s this?” Charlie shook the container a little, and it made a pleasant cascading clicking sound.

“Heirloom corn,” Buttons held out a measuring cup. “To about this this line,” he pointed. 

Charlie filled it carefully and only a few kernels bounced out of the cup. He scurried to the ground to pick them up once the lid was back on, carefully depositing them into the compost bin. 

“Does it make black popcorn?” he asked. 

“Take a look.” 

Buttons easily picked him up and set him on the counter. They sat together, watching the aluminum puff and shake as the kernels rustled. After a minute, Charlie caught a glimpse of white. 

“But it was black!” 

“Magic,” Buttons said gravely. 

Charlie didn’t believe in magic. Much. 

Afterwards, Buttons took down more unlabeled jars, shaking things through a hole in the aluminum. Then a generous pat of butter and a vicious shake. He poured the popcorn into a bowl and it was white, but now speckled with black and green. 

“Outside or inside?” 

“Outside,” Charlie decided. 

They went out into the garden where Buttons had two beautiful wrought iron chairs next to the tomatoes. Or at least the little placard said tomatoes. It was too early in the season for them to be anything more than stumpy sprouts. 

They set the bowl on the shaky tiny table between the chairs. It was getting dark, stars just starting to come through. Charlie took a handful of popcorn and ate it slowly. It was sort of tangy and sweet all at once, a little spicy too. He waited. 

Eventually, Buttons pointed, 

“Hydra.” 

“That’s the biggest one, right?” Charlie followed his finger up into the sky. “The one that’s kind of wavy?” 

“A beast of a thing,” Buttons agreed. “Goes by many names over the years, but it’s always a serpent of some kind. Beastly snake. But see there,  the brightest one?” 

“Yeah, I think so,” Charlie squinted. 

“Alphard,” Buttons named it. “The lonely one.” 

“But it’s in a big constellation, why would it be lonely?” 

“The stars only look close,” Buttons leaned back in his chair, crossing one bony ankle over the other thigh.  “But really they’re millions of miles apart. They never stand a chance of being together, not truly.” 

“Oh. that does sound lonely,” Charlie agreed. “But then they should all be the lonely one.” 

“Maybe they are,” Buttons nodded slowly. “Some say it’s lonely because it’s so much brighter than the others.” 

“Does that make you lonely?” 

“I suppose it could. What do you think?” 

“I think,” Charlie chewed through more popcorn, “that it’s silly to say a star feels things.” 

“Not silly,” Buttons sighed. “It’s a beautiful thing, lad. Humans, we feel so much we’ve decided everything feels. What a kinder world, when you imagine all things have a soul.” 

“Do you believe that?” 

“I do.” 

“Okay,” Charlie finished his handful, reached for another. “But that’s like...sad too? If everything can feel things then everything can feel sad.”

“Oh, there’s loveliness in sadness,” Buttons assured him. “All things mourn, all things are born.” 

“Where are stars born?” 

“In dust clouds, like nebulas. They have a cradle just like you did once.”

“Really?” 

“Truly. They gather there and eventually venture out like children do. Find a place in the universe, multiverse maybe, and there they live.” 

Years later,  Charlie would gather Felix to him and point upward, trailing a finger through the sky. 

“That’s Hydra,” he’d explain. “And that’s Alephard. The loneliest star.” 

“I see it,” Felix said softly, arm sliding around Charlie’s waist. “Pretty. Why’s it so lonely?” 

“What do you think?” Charlie asked, pressing a kiss to his shoulder. 

“I think maybe it’s wandered too far from home,” Felix decided. “Time to turn back.” 

“Don’t know if a star can.” 

“Why not?” Felix thumbed over Charlie’s hip. “If it can be lonely, then it can find company. Aren’t there those suns that rotate around each other?” 

“Yeah, binary stars. Sirius is one.” 

“How do you know all this?” 

“Mm,” he trailed another kiss upward, leaving it on Felix’s pulse. “Buttons taught me about the universe.” 

“You know, that actually explains a lot.”

#leda house and the kraken verse #ficlet #Charlie Bonnet #Buttons