#why would i believe he actually told 100 percent the truth

[kitkatopinions]

Do you think Glynda would have been the only one to side with Ozpin, or at least not hold much of a grudge against him, treating him empathy, after his big secret reveal in V6? She's already displayed a great deal of uncond trust towards him when she talked with Ironwood about him having doubts about Ozpin

Honestly, if the only thing that changed was Glynda's inclusion and the same writers were still doing the same things... I don't think Glynda would've sided with Ozpin at all, because the writers love to write "and then RWBYJNOR think blah blah blah," or "and then RWBYJNORQ want XYZ." They struggle to do plotlines where people can disagree without being framed as One Hundred Percent Bad In The Wrong Needs To Change Might Be Evil. I feel like if they had Glynda be a more prominent role and involved in the story up to V6, they would've had her also be so furious and disappointed in and angry at Ozpin just like Qrow, even if it didn't make any sense.

Logically though, what I think would happen if the writers cared about consistency and making their characters have an original thought, I think that Glynda would be the most on board with Ozpin and have the least problems with him out of anyone.

I think Qrow should've sided with Ozpin, but been personally very hurt by Ozpin's lack of trust in him, creating conflict for them to work through later. I think Yang should've been against Ozpin, resolving that he can't be trusted because he lied to them and (however temporarily) icing him out and not looking to him as a leader. I think Weiss should've been mostly on Yang's side, albeit with a bit more sympathy towards Oz, sort of in the camp of "I get where he's coming from but clearly we can't trust him to be honest or to always have our best interests at heart." I think Blake should've actually taken the stance of "you guys don't know what it's like, maybe he should've told the truth, but it's easier to say 'you should trust us' than it is to actually trust people after you've been hurt so many times, I've been there and I get it" and she should've been way more sympathetic towards Ozpin because of her backstory. I think once Jaune heard about it later, he should've had problems too and been willing to work with Ozpin, but hesitant with him and frequently doubting the legitimacy of his claims and tending to rely on himself and Ruby and not really think of Ozpin as any sort of reliable guide to be consulted in plans. Ren should take kind of the same stance as Jaune, albeit with a more logical thought process of "we should only do what he says if we think he's right, everything else doesn't matter as much." And I actually think Nora should've been fully on board with Ozpin, easily assuming that he only lied to them and/or didn't trust them because he'd been hurt in the past, and that she doesn't really care and still likes him. And I think that Ironwood should've - when he eventually heard - been somewhat hurt as well, but understand the logic of it, but also just resolve to work all the harder himself, knowing that Ozpin is not always a safety net and knowing that Ozpin doesn't always share everything important. And Glynda would fully on Ozpin's side except unlike Qrow (who I feel has a very emotional and personal connection to Ozpin and would fall back on believing in Ozpin because he loves him more than because it logically makes sense) and Nora (who I honestly think is just a very loyal follower with strong intuition and a good judge of character but doesn't really have much logic behind 100% trusting Oz,) Glynda would instead completely get where Oz is coming from, completely understand why he did the things he did, completely agree with them, and just keep trusting him completely. As for Ruby (who is the most important person here,) I think that she should've been kind of in-between and not sure what to think, feeling confused on how she's supposed to react, trying to make everyone happy at once, and be understanding but also a good strong leader herself, and tries to rely more on herself instead of others in the wake of what happened.

Basically, if I was the RWBY writer, I think Glynda would side with Ozpin because that's what I think makes the most sense for her character. Everyone should be having different reactions because what Ozpin did is nuanced, not just pure evil, and I think that with what Glynda was like in V1-3, the natural thing and what would make the most sense would be her understanding and supporting Ozpin. However, I think if the writers included her, she wouldn't side with Ozpin at all, because they didn't want it to be a nuanced conversation and a chance to show the range of their characters where some people agreed with Ozpin, some people didn't, and some people were kind of in-between. They just wanted to say 'Ozpin is bad and dumb and we should all be against him,' and so they couldn't have Glynda do anything but agree with Team RWBY... Unless they made her into one of those characters that temporarily disagrees with Team RWBY so they can all be like 😮🫢😞😠 and then they either take it back later of become an antagonist.

#rwde #pro ozpin

[dbs-superleggera]

Thinking in Bets by Annie Dukes (Courtesy of Blinkist)

Human minds tend to confuse decisions with their outcomes, which makes it hard to see mistakes clearly.

Super Bowl XLIX ended in controversy. With 26 seconds left in the game, everyone expected Seattle Seahawks coach Pete Carroll to tell his quarterback, Russell Wilson, to hand the ball off. Instead, he told Wilson to pass. The ball was intercepted, the Seahawks lost the Super Bowl, and, by the next day, public opinion about Carroll had turned nasty. The headline in the Seattle Times read: “Seahawks Lost Because of the Worst Call in Super Bowl History”!

But it wasn’t really Carroll’s decision that was being judged. Given the circumstances, it was actually a fairly reasonable call. It was the fact that it didn’t work.

Poker players call this tendency to confuse the quality of a decision with the quality of its outcome resulting, and it’s a dangerous tendency.

A bad decision can lead to a good outcome, after all, and good decisions can lead to bad outcomes

In fact, decisions are rarely 100 percent right or wrong. Our decision-making is like poker players’ bets. We bet on future outcomes based on what we believe is most likely to occur.

So why not look at it this way? If our decisions are bets, we can start to let go of the idea that we’re 100 percent “right” or “wrong," and start to say, “I’m not sure.” This opens us up to thinking in terms of probability, which is far more useful.Volunteering at a charity poker tournament, the author once explained to the crowd that player A’s cards would win 76 percent of the time, giving the other player a 24 percent chance to win. When player B won, a spectator yelled out that she’d been wrong. But, she explained, she’d said that player B’s hand would win 24 percent of the time. She wasn’t wrong. It was just that the actual outcome fell within that 24 percent margin.

If we want to seek out truth, we have to work around our hardwired tendency to believe what we hear.

We all want to make good decisions. But saying, “I believe X to be the best option” first requires good-quality beliefs. Good-quality beliefs are ideas about X that are informed and well thought-out. But we can’t expect to form good-quality beliefs with lazy thinking. Instead, we have to be willing to do some work in the form of truth-seeking. That means we have to strive for truth and objectivity, even when something doesn’t align with the beliefs we hold.

Focusing on accuracy and acknowledging uncertainty is a lot more like truth-seeking, which gets us beyond our resistance to new information and gives us something better on which to bet.

We can learn a lot from outcomes, but it’s difficult to know which have something to teach us.

The best way to learn is often by reviewing our mistakes. Likewise, if we want to improve our future outcomes, we’ll have to do some outcome fielding. Outcome fielding is looking at outcomes to see what we can learn from them.

To become more objective about outcomes, we need to change our habits.

Habits work in neurological loops that have three parts: cue, routine and reward. As Pulitzer-prize-winning reporter Charles Duhigg points out in his book The Power of Habit, the key to changing a habit is to work with this structure, leaving the cue and reward alone but changing the routine.

We can improve our decision-making by being part of a group, but it needs to be the right kind of group.

We’ve all got blind spots, which makes truth-seeking hard. But it’s a little easier when we enlist the help of a group. After all, others can often pick out our errors more easily than we can.

But to be effective, a group dedicated to examining decisions isn’t like any other. It has to have a clear focus, a commitment to objectivity and open-mindedness, and a clear charter that all members understand.

In a decision-examining group committed to objective accuracy, this kind of change is self-reinforcing. Increasing objectivity leads to approval within the group, which then motivates us to strive for ever-greater accuracy by harnessing the deep-seated need for group approval that we all share.

To work together productively, a group needs CUDOS.

Shared commitment and clear guidelines help define a good-quality decision-examining group. But once you’ve got that group, how do you work within it?

You can start by giving each other CUDOS.

CUDOS are the brainchild of influential sociologist Merton R. Schkolnick, guidelines that he thought should shape the scientific community. And they happen also to be an ideal template for groups dedicated to truth-seeking.

The C in CUDOS stands for communism. If a group is going to examine decisions together, then it’s important that each member shares all relevant information and strives to be as transparent as possible to get the best analysis. It’s only natural that we are tempted to leave out details that make us look bad, but incomplete information is a tool of our bias.

U stands for universalism – using the same standards for evaluating all information, no matter where it came from. When she was starting out in poker, the author tended to discount unfamiliar strategies used by players that she’d labeled as “bad.” But she soon suspected that she was missing something and started forcing herself to identify something that every “bad” player did well. This helped her learn valuable new strategies that she might have missed and understand her opponents much more deeply.

D is for disinterestedness and it’s about avoiding bias. As American physicist Richard Feynman noted, we view a situation differently if we already know the outcome. Even a hint of what happens in the end tends to bias our analysis. The author’s poker group taught her to be vigilant about this. But, teaching poker seminars for beginners, she would ask students to examine decision-making by describing specific hands that she’d played, omitting the outcome as a matter of habit. It left students on the edge of their seats, reminding them that outcomes were beside the point!

“OS” is for organized skepticism, a trait that exemplifies thinking in bets. In a good group, this means collegial, non-confrontational examination of what we really do and don’t know, which keeps everyone focused on improving their reasoning. Centuries ago, the Catholic church put this into practice by hiring individuals to argue against sainthood during the canonization process – that’s where we get the phrase “devil’s advocate.”

If you know that your group is committed to CUDOS, you’ll be more accountable to these standards in the future. And the future, as we’ll see, can make us a lot smarter about our decisions.

To make better decisions, we need to spend some time in the future.

Temporal Discounting – making decisions that favor our immediate desires at the expense of our future self – is something we all do.

We can also recruit our future feelings using journalist Suzy Welch’s “10-10-10.” A 10-10-10 brings the future into the present by making us ask ourselves, at a moment of decision, how we’ll feel about it in ten minutes, ten months and ten years. We imagine being accountable for our decision in the future and motivate ourselves to avoid any potential regret we might feel.

Backcasting, imagining a future in which everything has worked out, and our goals have been achieved, and then asking, “How did we get there?" This leads to imagining the decisions that have led us to success and also recognizing when our desired outcome requires some unlikely things to happen. If that’s the case, we can either adjust our goals or figure out how to make those things more likely.

Premortems are when we imagine that we’ve failed and ask, “What went wrong?" This helps us identify the possibilities that backcasting might have missed. Over more than 20 years of research, NYU psychology professor Gabrielle Oettingen has consistently found that people who imagine the obstacles to their goals, rather than achieving those goals, are more likely to succeed.

SKIIMASK CHAÁRMS

[grimmichi-stories-from-tayman001]

GrimmIchi (post epilogue): Includes some Anime characters and an original character of mine also using Anime terms. 27

Ichigo: Does that mean I have the same privilege as Kensei, Taylor?

Taylor: Yes, I also have the ability to do that so I can see Anthony, but I told you not to show up during the Captains meeting.

Ichigo: Sorry I thought that you were joking about that.

Taylor: To strengthen Suì-Fēng we have no choice but to keep this on the down low so she doesn't know, I asked all Lieutenants to stay away, and that means you Ichigo, I will inform you later on what was said in the meeting, the goes with the rest of you with unsimulated Lieutenants.

Ichigo proceeds to leave as he was told to

Taylor: Alright now, do any of you have any questions?

Love, Rose, Shinji, Yoruichi: But where does that leave us?

Taylor: Well you see, Love and Rose, your Lieutenants are simulated and Shinji, your Lieutenant is Aizen, while Yoruichi, its best to not tell Marechiyo anything since I know he is scared of Suì-Fēng so, he might tell her everything out of fright, that is why I have told him that we time traveled instead of this being a reenaction.

Love and Rose: Kk.

Shinji: Is it the real Aizen or simulated?

Yoruichi: Sounds good to me.

Taylor: Real Aizen, he insisted that he play his part, I have him currently working with Central 46 who agreed to do this reenactment and Aizen is showing them all his research, this is a 100 percent reenacted Soul Society from 1911 down to all the details, which includes every single grain of sand, meaning you will not find one thing missing from 1911. Now anymore questions?

Kisuke: Where is Squad 10?

Taylor: I have got no idea since not much is known about Squad 10 before Isshin was captain and what is known is that the captain did whatever he wanted so all I know is that the Captain in 1911 is male and was barely seen.

Yoruichi, Rose, Love, Shinji, Kensei, Shunsui: We never even seen him, the only one who ever saw him was Yamamoto.

Taylor: Which is why I have set Squad 10′s captain and lieutenant as having left to do something and got lost. Also if those are all the questions then this captains meeting is over.

Meanwhile in the Squad 1′s Lieutenants quarters

Ichigo: I can’t believe Taylor would push me aside like that.

Taylor: I didn’t push you aside to be mean Ichigo, I pushed you aside because we can’t let Suì-Fēng know the truth yet until she gets stronger to not get embarrassed so easily, and I know you would prefer Grimmjow be here with you but you must remember him becoming an Arrancar was thanks to the Hōgyoku not natural progression so he can’t be here, with you because as we speech he is a mere Adjuchas class hollow in 1911 right now, all explain more to you while we ‘sleep’. So I am going to bed since we have a busy day tomorrow, goodnight.

Taylor proceeds to leave to go to his quarters and Ichigo himself goes to sleep

Meanwhile outside the reenactment

Anthony: Grimmjow I’m telling you Taylor said to wait here since that is where Ichigo and him would appear.

Grimmjow: Well you better be correct or I will give you a black eye if you are lying.

Just then Taylor and Ichigo appear

Taylor: If you dare hurt Anthony, Grimmjow then I will put you in a 2 week coma, and you won’t have to worry it won’t hurt yours and Ichigo’s unborn sons since it won’t be a true coma, simply you’ll be sleeping for 2 weeks.

Anthony runs over to Taylor and gives him a big hug and kiss

Grimmjow: I didn’t intend to actually go through with it Taylor, I was simply warning him.

Ichigo: Grimm, I know that you have a tendency of actually going through with those kind of warnings when I am not around, so please do not lie like that.

Grimmjow: Hey Honey, you are supposed to be on my side.

Ichigo: Babe I am on your side, I just don’t like seeing you trying to lie.

Taylor: Please do not start an argument you, two, since its obvious Grimmjow, that Ichigo was trying to defend you by not going ahead with your lie, since he knew that I’d know you were lying and did want you to get punished for trying to lie about that.

Grimmjow: I’m so stupid, sorry Honey I didn’t notice that you were actually trying to protect me.

Ichigo: No need to apologize Babe, you do realize I love you when you act stupid.

Grimmjow: Hehe, wanna go to bed now?

Ichigo: Can we have sex first?

Grimmjow: I don’t see why not.

Ichigo: Then you better prepare your ass for me.

Taylor: Anthony and me should be getting to bed too, night.

Ichigo and Grimmjow are too busy to respond so Taylor and Anthony just take their leave

Anthony: Honey can we have sex too before heading to bed?

Taylor: I don’t see why, we can’t babe, but are you sure that your ass is ready for this? Since I know last time we had sex you told me to pull out and to stop before either of us hit orgasm.

Anthony: I have gotten pointers from both Richard and Hector on being a bottom and they helped me practice with their biggest dildos, Hector surprisingly has a bigger dildo than Richard and yes I mean dildo since they are 100% bottoms like myself so they won’t fuck me, but I did see their dicks and Hector surprisingly has a 10 inch dick which is 12 inches when hard while Richard is 8 inches which goes to 10 when hard.

Taylor: I already knew that Anthony, since I have seen, Sean, Richard, Michael and Hector naked before, and to finish off the sizes Sean’s is 13-15 inches and Michaels is 12-14 inches, and before you ask they had asked me for pointers on how to top and so I decided to instruct them while they head sex with their partners so Sean was fucking Richard and Michael was fucking Hector, they had asked me at different times since when Sean asked, Michael hadn’t yet met Hector and when Michael asked Richard was pregnant with Joe and Karl.

Anthony: How exactly do you already know how to top when we haven’t had proper sex yet?

Taylor: I practiced on my male stuffies starting at age 10, I was a very perverted kid.

Anthony: Well at least you weren’t going behind my back and having sex with other men.

Taylor: Babe, I would never do that to you, the only time I’d ever have sex with another man is if you knew and gave me your ok on it.

Anthony: I know Honey, now lets get to the sex!

Taylor: Absolutely!

TO BE CONTINUED

#grimmichi #bleach characters #original characters #male pregnancy #male weight gain

[pocketramblr]

I can't believe I've been asking for months where Snipe was in the war arc and he finally shows up in a flashback interview just to say "ah ha whoops anyway here's why I'm not actually that reliable and usj was luck and why I wasn't a given for the planning in the war bye now" like.... What... Ok...

#like 1- i don't believe the interview like #why would i believe he actually told 100 percent the truth #2- it... still isn't a good enough downside to have not involved him in the war do where was he #3- all this interview about it just makes it really seem like a lot of telling and not showing #and i guess we got shown a bit and will get shown more #but the fact that we'll get shown after she'd given the huge advantage of air step #and only after a sixteen year old beat her #look i just think that could have been maybe presented a little better #to actually hype her up #but w/e the odds id give her of escaping both fridging and being a (former) love interest of Hawks Snipe or Chisaki are what maybe 15-20%? #is this enough tags to not show up in the main one #i don't want to show up in the main one you see #it should be #bnha manga spoilers #yeah yeah finally read 312 or whatever it is #there now friend does it make you feel better that everyone got the psychic damage from that tag fffgvhhjj <3 #oh i guess the telling and not showing is even more for snipe maybe that's why I'm just going 'uh huh #...' at it ya know #anyway i have rambled and made the tags incomprehensible enough sorry

[parkers-gal]

why pt. ii T.H.

wc: 1.7k

when you’re never truly over them

Tom had left for the press tour. After staying up all night crying and sobbing to the point of almost growing sick, he had left. He should've texted you, should've ran after you the minute you slammed the door on his face. 

To be honest, you weren't as heartbroken as you thought you would've been. The events leading up to this 'break-up' had pretty much prepared you for the worst. It was only a matter of time before the tension broke and somebody exploded; you had expected it, but you hadn't expected to break up with him. You also didn't expect him to actually leave for the press tour, but Tom was full of surprises. 

Now, in May, you were beginning to pack up your belongings into boxes. Tom hadn't made it easy though, because it was your house too. Everything you owned was a constant reminder of the person you used to be: happy and carefree, vulnerable and raw. Tom had destroyed that person, and all for a  few week's worth of partying with a jerk he knew from school. 

Each time you grew sad, you thought about everything that went wrong, and anger bubbled within you. You were stuck in this loop, lost on where to go next.

[Your Best friend] was helping you through the entire thing. And while she was completely supportive of your decision to move out, she also knew that you'd be better off with Tom. You had never been happier in your entire lifetime, and she knew your stubborn demeanor would only cause more destruction. 

She had called Tom the moment you stepped back into that house with a box. He picked up on the second ring, slightly confused as to why she would call him. 

"Hello?"

"Thomas," [your best friend] deadpanned. 

"What- uh.. what's up?"

"You need to keep fighting."

"Fighting?" Tom repeated, confusion lacing his voice.

"Fighting for you and Y/N," she had replied. "You can't give up, not now, after everything you've been through. You can't tell me it's not worth the effort."

Tom was silent for a minute. Not because he thought she was wrong, but because he wasn't sure how he could keep fighting when it seemed as though you had already given up. 

"What am I supposed to do?"

"Tom, you can't solve this problem from across the world. You need to be here, with her, for her." 

"She doesn't want me." 

"That's not true, and you know it. Cut the bullshit or you won't ever get her back." And with that, [your best friend] had hung up. 

Harrison was also supportive of the idea of getting you two back together; Tom was more of a mess than he would admit. He was knee deep in his own sorrow and pity. It seemed as though there was no motivation when you weren't there supporting him. 

While you weren't together, that didn't mean you stopped supporting him. Tom was an important part of your life, and you could never stop loving him. Despite what you said that night, you could never truly stop your affection for the brown-eyed-boy. 

"Y/N," [your best friend] spoke. It was week two of the move, and she was watching you pack. "C'mon, stop."

"What?" You replied, somewhat bitterly. 

"I know you don't want to leave this."

"This?" you said, hand gestures motioning to the room around you. "What is 'this'?" 

"This life, these people," she replied. "You still love hi-"

But she didn't get to finish her sentence, because the front door had just closed. Your brows furrowed in confusion, because neither Tom nor Harrison were due back for months; they were the only other people who had a key to the house. 

You were out of the bedroom in seconds, jogging down the stairs as [your best friend] followed you. When you reached the bottom, you froze, your jaw lightly open as you stared at who had just arrived. 

It was Tom, clad in grey sweats and a black tee shirt. Harrison was behind him, setting the luggage near the coat hanger as he looked to [your best friend], both of them simultaneously leaving the room. 

"Y/N," Tom had said after a few moments of silence.

You didn't reply, only looking up to his eyes before crossing your arms and looking at your feet shyly. Memories of a similar encounter had just flooded through your mind. Your first date, the first time you slept together, all of it similar in a fashion of shyness and awkwardness, but never tension. 

"I didn't think you'd actually move out." 

At this, you glanced up. "What else was I supposed to do? Stay here until you came back?"

He looked at you as if you were supposed to know the answer; know what he wanted, and you did.

"God, Tom. I don't need you, you know? I'm not completely, 100 percent dependent on you. I'm not a baby, and you can't honestly expect me to come running to you whenever I need help." 

"I never said you needed me," Tom defended.

"You didn't have to say it. We both knew it." 

"Bullshit, Y/N."

"Bullshit?" You interrupted.

"I've never once thought that." 

"Bullshit!" You repeated. 

"C'mon, you can't honestly say that I've thought of you that way," he said, his hand moving in a gesture. 

"Really?" You laughed sarcastically. 

"What?" Tom spoke harshly. "Is that hard to believe? I know you aren't dependent on anyone else, Y/N. Don't try to twist this." 

Your eyes were wide as you took in his words, more frustration bubbling up inside you. "Twist this?" You motioned between the two of you before your hands went up in defeat. "I didn't twist anything! I'm just trying to expose what you fucked up!" 

"What 'I fucked up'?" Tom repeated, his eyes rolling in disbelief. "There are two people in this relationship!"

"A relationship that failed because of one person!" You screamed finally. 

"And you're suggesting that was me?"

"Well it's not like I did anything!" You argued. "I broke this off because you were doing more harm then good!"

"It was just a phase!" Tom debated. 

"Being an asshole isn't a phase," You spat out. "It's developed, and you were with just the right people for it to show." 

"You're calling me a secretive asshole, now?" 

"Your words, Tom! Not mine," You yelled. "Did I fucking say that? Ever? I said you were an asshole!"

"Yeah, but you implied that I've always been an asshole!" 

"You shouldn't have been an asshole in the first place!" You replied, walking away from the front door and heading into the living room to fill the box that was sat near the couch. Tom followed in suit, wondering where Harrison and [your best friend] had gone, because he knew the yelling wasn't over, and it would echo throughout the house, regardless of where they were hiding. 

"Honestly, Tom," you started. "Did you only come back to start another argument?"

His face was deep in confusion, his eyes rolling once again. "I came back to fix us." 

" 'Us,' Tom? I've already told you: there is no us." 

"You know that's not true." 

At this, you were silent. A part of you longed to be back in his arms, but the sensible part of you knew he royally fucked up, and mending things between you two wouldn't be this easy. 

"Then what're you gonna do?" You asked after a moment. "Keep arguing? Keep screwing up?" You looked him in the eye with a harsh stare. "Or are you gonna grow up and take responsibility? 'M not your girl anymore." 

As your sentence ended, your voice grew quieter, the truth finally exposed. Both of you were varieties of broken and vulnerable, frustration and anger threatening to spill out in the form of endless salty tears. Both of you were slightly panting, breathing noises being the only contribution to noise in the entire house. 

Tom was a few feet away from you, his curls disheveled from when he was previously running his hands through them. When your last sentence finished, something in his eyes had snapped, and he was moving forward and closer to you, alarmingly fast.

And then, he was kissing you. Each of his hands were holding your face. He was slightly shaking, and that was when you realized he was crying. The kiss was deep and passionate and overwhelmingly emotional. He tasted just how you remembered: like cinnamon. His lips were warm and soft and enveloping, and the minute he made contact, you had melted into his touch. Tom was your greatest weakness, though you wish he didn't have such an affect on you. Tom had a soft spot for you and you only, and it never failed to swoon you and win you over. 

The kiss seemed to last for hours, and you weren't complaining. You had missed this. When it ended, Tom was still holding your face as your foreheads touched. Both of you were breathing even harder, but your arms  were around his neck now. He held you tight and lovingly, almost as if you would slip right through his fingers and out of his grasp like you had a few weeks ago. He was lightly sniffling, but the tears had stopped falling.

You took a deep breath, inhaling the familiar scent of Tom. You were almost nostalgic, and the idea of being his was what brought you out of your daze. 

Tom was staring at you now, looking down into your eyes and taking in your beauty. He didn't know how he could be so stupid and clumsy when it came to your love, and he promised himself he wouldn't ever make that mistake again. You were a powerful woman who knew what she deserved, and what Tom gave you wasn't it. You deserved love and affection and care and intimacy and warmth and commitment, things Tom was certain would come in the future.

After a considerably long moment of silence, Tom spoke. His voice was rough and raspy and deep, and he was whispering. His lips were barely touching yours; just ghosting over them, anticipation for what was to come next: words or action. For you, words came first. "I'm still in love with you." 

And then he kissed you again. 

#tom holland #tom holland angst #tom holland fluff #tom holland fic #tom holland fanfic #tom holland imagine #tom holland oneshot #tom holland series #tom holland blurb #tom holland fanfiction #tom holland x reader #tom holland x you #tom holland x baker!reader #tom holland angsty fic #tom holland fluffy fic #tom holland angst to fluff #angst with a fluffy ending #tom x reader #tom fic

[supercorpkid]

This is why you should never trust an Imp – Part 2.

Supercorp, Kara Danvers x Daughter!Reader, Lena Luthor x Daughter!Reader

Word count: 2376.

You are going to be ok. It’s what you keep telling yourself. So what if there is no you in the future? In two days, that imp is coming to pick you up, and you’ll go back to your own timeline and you’ll be written back into existence.

But what if he doesn’t come? What if that lying cheating bastard leaves you stranding two years into the future where no one knows about your existence and you’re totally alone? You need help. Who can help you besides your moms? Alex, Kelly, Jamie… Jamie! You wonder if Jamie is still around.

You fly to school. You’re still a teenager so, keep your head down, blend in. You can do it. Lucky for you is lunch time, that means you can talk to Jamie freely. You make your way to the table you two usually sit, but she isn’t there. Jamie is a few tables away, in a cheerleader uniform (wait, excuse her?), surrounded by a lot of people.

Ok. That makes sense. You don’t exist here, so she was never stuck with you in the first place, and the only reason why she doesn’t have any friends, is because she is always with a freaking Luthor. And people don’t like Luthors. So, what do you do now?

“Hey, Jamie.” Everyone stops what they’re doing to stare at you. You smile embarrassed. Jamie looks at you with curiosity for a second. Your heart beats faster. Maybe she’ll recognize you. Maybe she’ll remember everything, she’ll remember the conversation on the training center and she’ll know you did the dumb thing, but she’ll help you anyway.

Her face turns back to no expression, like you saw it on both of your moms’ faces. She doesn’t know you at all. Your heart drops one more time, and you can’t take this expression anymore.

“Can I, um, talk to you?” You force yourself to speak. You don’t even know what you’ll say to her, but still, you need to talk to your best friend.

“Why is that nerd talking to you, Jamie?” Someone says and she smiles at the joke.

“I don’t know, I’ve never seen this weirdo before.” She answers, making everyone laugh.

“Scatter, nerd. We don’t want anyone to see you around us.” One of her friends says and you take a deep breath. You know when you’re defeated. So, you turn on your heels and leave. Before leaving school, you take one last look behind you. Jamie seems happy. Happier than you’ve ever seen her. She has friends and there’s a guy practically glued to her, and you can only imagine they are dating.

It’s a weird feeling. You always thought you and Jamie were an inseparable combo, but apparently a freaking imp can separate you two. Rao, you hate him so much!

No time to waste dwelling on this hate. You need somebody else to help you. Maybe you could fly to Superboy and ask for his help. He probably would believe you since he got in so many dumb situations himself. You just need to find him. You fly the whole country and you can’t seem to locate him. Where is Conner? Is he not in the future? Or in this reality?

You sit on top of a tower, and try to think. Lena found out how to combine the alien and human DNA, you know that much. You also know that you and Superboy are about the same age. So maybe, they’ve used Lena’s research to create him. If that’s the case, if CADMUS stole Lena’s research and created Conner, you not existing also made him not exist in this timeline/reality.

You fly back to National City. There’s one person who can help you with your time travel questions. One person who came from the future himself. You need to see Brainy. You wait outside the DEO, so you don’t have to explain yourself to anyone else.

You see aunt Alex leaving with Brainy later that night. They’re talking and laughing, and you just want to run to her and tell her everything. You feel your heart squeezing in your chest, and there’s a tennis-size ball stuck in your throat. What the hell have you done? Why would you do something so stupid like trusting an imp, when everything was completely fine?

They finally part ways, you wipe your tears and breathe deeply before running towards Brainy.

“Brainy! Wait.” He turns around and looks at you confused. He, too, never saw you before. He might not have a lot of face expressions, but you can see that.

“I don’t believe we’ve ever met.” He says monotone.

“We haven’t yet. Or, maybe we have, and now we don’t anymore. It’s confusing.”

“I see.”

“I’m Kara’s daughter.” You smile and he tilts his head at you. “And Lena’s. Obviously.”

“There’s one percent chance that this information is correct.” He says, making you sigh.

“Brainy, please, just hear me out, ok? If after everything I say you still don’t believe me, I’ll leave you alone.” You ask and he doesn’t answer. He doesn’t need to. You can see he has already agreed to it. You look around to make sure no one can see you. “First, you need to see something.” You fly a little off ground, just enough he’ll know you have superpowers, but not enough that people would turn their heads to look at you. When you land back, he has a different expression. You blow out so he can see your freeze breath.

“You’re Kryptonian.” He states, not looking shocked.

“Half Kryptonian. I also have Lena’s DNA.” You breathe heavily. “Ever heard of an imp from the fifth dimension called Mxytopolis?”

“You mean Mxyzptlk?” He corrects you and you shake your head agreeing.

“He said he would show me the future. And I am two years in the future, but no one here seems to remember me.”

“Interesting. Your story seems to be making sense. Although, people usually know they should never trust an imp.”

“Yeah, I know that now.” You scoff, but you’re really just mad at yourself for being so dumb. “Do you think I’m still in my reality? Was I erased from my timeline?”

“Unlikely.” He turns on his heels and walks from one side to the other with his hands clasped behind his back. “He could’ve, however, erased everyone’s mind, but I would say this scenario has a 45% chance of being true.”

“Ok. So maybe I’m in a different reality?” He looks at you, turns on his heels again and paces around himself for a while.

“73% chance.”

“Is there one scenario where we’re closer to 100%?” You raise your eyebrows at him.

“You might be stuck in the fifth dimension. And this is an alternative reality playing only in your mind. Like a…”

“Dream.” You sigh. “Or a nightmare.”

“But the percentage is still only 86%.” He turns to you abruptly. “Were there any further agreements?”

“He said I had to stay here for two days, and then he would come and pick me up.”

“What would you do for him?” He asks and you shake your head as if you mean to say nothing. “Interesting. He didn’t ask for something in return.” He thinks for a while and you don’t say anything to disturb him. “Have you made any contact with any family members?” You nod. “Do they know who you really are?” You deny. “Great. Let’s leave it at that. Until we figure out what scenario is the real one, we better not do anything that might jeopardize that.” You agree again. “Meet me here tomorrow morning. I need some time to calculate further probabilities.”

“Ok. Thanks, Brainy.” You smile at him and he nods one time.

“Of course there’s still 58% chance you’re lying. So, I have to consider that into the calculation. Goodnight!” Brainy leaves and you look around, unsure on what to do next.

No one knows you, you don’t have any money, you have nowhere to go and you’re starving. You should’ve asked Brainy for some money, so you could eat.

You’re not really thinking about what you’re doing next. But you find yourself flying to L Corp and sitting on the rooftop listening to your mom’s heartbeat and her boring meetings. Hearing her voice calms you down. When you think about flying to CatCo and listening to your momma’s boring meetings, Lena decides to go home. So, you follow her.

She doesn’t go to your house. She goes to a very fancy building. You look through the window when she arrives at the penthouse. It’s all so pretty and fancy inside, but there’s something off. It doesn’t feel very homey. Kara arrives a few minutes later, and you hide better so she can’t see you.

You stay there watching them, and feeling empty inside. They’re fine. Honestly, just look at them, talking about their days, laughing, living their lives. Sure, they don’t know you exist, but you at least expected they would be a little less happy given you’re not in their lives.

Is this what Mxyptelk wanted all along? Did he want to show you that people’s life would go on without you, no problem at all? And that some of them, like Jamie, would actually have a better life?

You’re confused, scared, and you can’t help but feel like that asshole is going to double cross you one more time and leave you stranded wherever this is forever.

They go to bed, and you stay there. You sit on their balcony, hold yourself and try not to think about how hungry and sad you are. You listen to Lena’s heartbeat. She’s fine. They’re fine. You take a deep breath and rest your head on the wall next to you, and you fall asleep.

“Shhh… We’re being watched.” You hear Kara’s voice and open your eyes. It’s morning. Shit, they’re up. She knows you’re here. “There’s someone on the balcony. Stay here, love.”

You fly away when you hear that, but you’re not fast enough. Actually, Kara is faster. She grabs your leg before you go too far and you stop.

“Wait. I know you. You’re the girl from the park yesterday. The girl that looks like me when I was young.” She says looking shocked. “What were you doing on my balcony?”

“I’m sorry. I-I just…” You don’t know what to say. What can you say? Should you tell her the truth even though Brainy told you not to do anything that could compromise your future/reality/dream state?

“You have superpowers?” She finally realizes you are both flying right now.

You shake your head agreeing.

“And the watch. You said it’s a family heirloom?”

You nod one more time. Kara doesn’t speak for a whole minute.

“You have superpowers. You look just like me. You called me mom. And the watch…” She seems to be thinking out loud so you don’t say anything. “Are you? No, that’s not possible. You can’t possibly be…”

You nod again. Your stomach growls and Kara notices, looking at it.

“You’re hungry. When was the last time you ate, kid?” She asks and you shrug, still not using your words. “Come on, we need to talk, and you need to eat.”

She holds your hand, probably scared that you are going to fly away when she still has so many questions to ask you. You look at her expression while you fly back to the penthouse. She is so confused, it’s kind of cute. You both land at the balcony and go inside the penthouse. Lena is in the kitchen making some eggs.

“Did you find out who was watching us?” She asks without looking behind her.

“Yes, well, she is here.” Kara says and Lena looks back at you.

“But she’s just a kid. Wait.” Lena squints her eyes looking at you. “Wait a minute, I know you!” She leaves everything behind and comes closer. “You’re the girl who came by my office yesterday. Lexa! Right? You wanted to know about-”

Before she’s finished, you see the eggs she was making are on fire and you use your superspeed to go to the oven, and put out the fire with your freeze breath.

“What the fuck?” Lena asks when she realizes what you just did.

“Language!” You and Kara say unison and she only furrows her brows harder at that.

“Kid, why don’t you explain what’s going on here so we don’t make any wrong assumptions?” Kara asks and you walk back to them.

“I would love to. But I can’t.” You try to smile. Kara puts her hand on your shoulder and all you want to do is hug her tightly and tell her the whole truth.

“You can trust us. Whatever it is, we will believe you.” Kara says and your stomach growls again, this time so loud even Lena looks at you worried. Kara gives you a smile. “Come, let’s put some food into you.”

Kara grabs a cereal box and milk. She puts them on the counter so you can eat. You serve yourself, refilling the bowl three times until you’re finished with the whole box. You stare at Kara trying to tell her you’re still hungry. She seems to understand and doesn’t say anything while she takes another pan and fries some eggs for you. They’re still hot and you’re already inhaling them full speed.

“She can’t possibly eat that much.” Lena says furrowing her eyebrows at you, and you stop immediately.

“Sorry. I-I was a little hungry.” You get up from the stool. “Thanks for the food. I should get going.”

“Wait kid.” Kara holds your hand before you can leave. “If you tell me the truth, I’ll believe you.” She pleads with a gentle smile. “I will.”

“I-I shouldn’t.” You swallow hard so she won’t see your tears. “I have to go before I ruin something.”

“Ok.” Kara runs to the kitchen and comes back to you. “Take this, in case you’re hungry again.” She hands you some protein bars and you accept them, putting in your pocket. “If you need anything else…”

“I’ll call you, Supergirl.” You wink at her before flying away to your meeting with Brainy.

#supercorp #supergirl #kara danvers #kara x lena #lena luthor #supercorp fanfic #supercorpfamily #kara x reader #lena x reader #supercorp daughter #reader insert

[junnibook]

Okay the second one is for shigaraki " I did you a favor, now pay up and I don't want your money"

•~Shigaraki Tomura. One liner ~•

••••••••••••••••••••••

••••••••••••••••••••••

You shouldn’t have went to him for help for help. but what else where you going to do. your ex has been tormenting you for week, saying they would kill you and your family if you didn’t go back out with them. you can’t go back out with them, you just can’t. not after you worked so hard to leave them behind. you was doing the right thing.

right?

if you left them to live so freely who knew what would happen.in a way your like a hero. at least you tell your self that. your mind raced with every possibility, what if the man you hired couldn’t get the job done, he was to happy to get the request from you after all. What if they knew each other , family even and now they both wanted you dead. your heart dropped  knowing you had to go back and see him today, as he said to come back in two days. maybe you should wait three, but wouldn’t that make you look suspicious.

you didn’t know what to do, well you did, you just didn’t want to do it. you shook your head that’s it you needed to go, the guy you hired will come for you if you don’t. you walked with heavy feet, it was like walking with 200 pounds on both ankles.   

some how you ended up in front of the place he told you to meet him. An abandoned building, some of the windows were broken but the front door was still intact. the neighborhood all together looked sketchy, there wasn’t a single person out side. did people even live here. you eyed the door not wanting to go fully in. 

“stop being scared and just walk in, just give him the money and leave that’s all that’s it” you tried to calm yourself down, it clearly didn’t work. you checked your self. your school bag on with the money in it along with your class stuff, you had to go to your classes after this and you can’t be late for it. 

you stepped forward, palms sweaty, heart racing , mind flooded. you opened the door peaking your head in trying to see if he’s on the first floor. “h-hello?” your voice shook as you walked in keeping the door open just in case. you stepped in, jumping all to hard when the door slammed on its own. you didn’t think to much about, since you opened it from the outside it has to open again from the inside. 

The room was dusty with couches that has dust and plastic all over them. “ hello?!” you called out again, thinking you walked into the wrong building “ come up the stairs” his voice called out, the sound of it alone made you, but you did as told either way, slowly walking up the stairs, each step held regret, you tried so hard to push it down and forget about the horrible things you did. But when you seen him standing there, his hood down and a hand hover his face, you knew,

you fucked up. 

Your breath hitched, you covered your mouth finally realizing that you basically killed someone. “oh god “ you felt sick to your stomach, you had to do it, there wasn’t any other option hero’s wasn’t stopping him, no one believed you when you asked, you had no other choice. you couldn’t just run away, you had no other choice. 

“I did you a favor now pay up,” he started , you pushed down your feelings and got your bag digging into it taking out an little plastic bag with the money clearly in there “ And i don’t want your money” it took you a while too actually process what he was telling you, but when you did. you looked up at him, his head was tilted but face still covered all together. “what?” you were clearly taken back. 

“ what do you mean? WE agreed on the price WE agreed on the money!” you yelled at him, your voice shaking as you took a step back nearly falling over, you looked at him. “ wrong, all you did is talk and i said okay, never did i say that i’d take your money” you looked down, trying your hardest to remember the situation. “ not true, they person who told me about you said that you’d take the money” your body shook. “ that was just a clone i had got made to bring you here” your eyes snapped up to him not believing what you were hearing. 

“no payment y/n, you did get a person killed after all, it’s time you pay up” he’s right you did get a person killed, one that had a family and all. “what do you want” you looked down ashamed that you did all this. he stepped forward “ simple really i want your body” you gasped “ my body?! you can’t ..i mean i’m saving my self” you lied maybe you can get out of this one. “yea fucking right, the guy told me how much he hit it on his death bed, made me want to fuck you too”

you shook your head “you can’t” that’s all you had to say, maybe if you offered more money he would take it. “ im getting tired of you saying i can’t when i clearly can, you are repaying me for killing your little boy friend” your heart at the word, killing. you did this and now you have to repay him. he won’t take the money. it’s not like your a virgin so it won’t hurt so much. maybe he just wants to see your body that’s it. 

“ it seems like you wanted me to look at  your body, who comes to see their hit man in a mini skirt” he reached his hand out pulling you over to him. pinkies out of course he isn’t trying to hurt you just yet. his hand felt dry and rough. but you didn’t stop him, you let him pull you in. he reached to remove the hand from his face, revealing a rather dry yet handsome man. his red pulls stared into yours, he had a beauty mark on his face, if he wasn’t so dusty he’d be a beautiful. 

he wasted no time, none at all. to pull you into a kiss. his lips was dry but thankfully yours wasn’t and you gave him some moisture to make them feel at least some what soft. For a killer he knew how to kiss, his tongue explore your mouth his right hand pulling you closer. he fully grabbed your shirt, turning it into dust, making you shiver. he moved back watching your chest as if it his first time seeing some. 

which made you blush and hide them, you wish it was dark so no one could see each other here. he ran his rough fingers on top of your breast, going to grab the bra strap making the bra turn into dust falling to your feet. he liked the way your tits juggled when the where no longer covered.  

“ that’s all right?” a stupid question to ask really, you knew he wasn’t done “ now why would i be done, i didn’t even get what a wanted” he sat on the couch. opening his legs wanting you to sit between them. you couldn’t help but eye the tent forming in his pants. you slowly moved there on  your knees looking up at him. 

you looked so innocent 

to him at least, he wanted to change that innocent look into a slutty one, have you begging for him. “ take it out and suck it, oh and if you bite me i won’t hesitate to turn you into dust. his words help nothing but the truth. you bit your lip taking it out shocked at the size. you didn’t think he’s be big, but he was. Bigger than your ex, you stared at it trying to figure out how you was going to possibly fit that anywhere in you. “ don’t just stare at it like an idiot” 

you swallowed hard , sticking your tongue out to lick the tip feeling his body shiver at the sudden contact. he liked the way your tongue slid up and down him, but he was getting tired of just licking. he took the back of your head minus his pinkie and shoved your head down on him all the way until he got to the back of your neck, groaning at how his tip felt pressing you. you quickly relaxed your throat breathing out your nose, taking him in with a few gags. he loved to hear you choke on him, it lets him know that he’s big enough to make you choke. 

he thrusted into your throat while slamming you down on him, being rough with you was just a plus, strangely you wasn’t fully complaining. you hated yourself for being  so turned on while choking on a killers dick. the sound of wet slurping was heard threw the room along with his rough cursing. you moved your tongue around him lifting your head to play with his tip, taking him back in, what ever you couldn’t fit in your mouth you rubbed with you hand. he loved how your hand pressed on his balls.

you felt him twitch inside you, you quickly moved your head back but not fast enough since he shot his load on your face. you looked up at him, your tongue collected just a little of his cum, turning him on when you didn’t 100 percent mean too.  it was heated and tasted salty.

he lifted you up on him with ease. “w-wait i thought you were done” he chuckled shortly, “ take a look , do i look done to you?” you looked seeing him still fully standing. his left hand went under your skirt grabbing your panties turning them into ash. you shivered at the cool air that hit your wet cunny. “ your such a slut y/n getting wet just by sucking a villains dick” he shoved two fingers in. “ huh i see why, you must’ve never had a dick this size so close to you before, since your all tight” he moved his fingers slowly going you your tits sucking on them, his teeth biting down lightly on your nipple, he switched tits while working his fingers into you cunny faster. 

he pulled them out, placing himself at your entrance, “ please don’t i-it, won’t fit” you whined feeling his tip push in, he didn’t care about the whines you did, he pushed himself in groaning louder as you taken him in fully, he didn’t give you any time to adjust to him, he just moved into you bouncing you above him. you couldn’t hold back, who could when someone of his size was stretching your soft walls and hitting every single soft spot you had with ease. “you like this huh, just a minute ago you didn’t want this now look at you, riding me” you looked down, he wasn’t moving any more it was all you doing that. you didn’t want to stop. 

you wanted to call his name out but you didn’t know it so you just moaned listening to his soft grunts. his fingers went down to tweak your little clit. feeling your inside flutter around him, he knew you was coming and was right, you moaned loudly cuming on him, soaking his dick up with your juices.

he wasn’t done, after all he didn’t cum. he held your still by holding his arms around you, he was thrusting in with all he had, the couch squeaked and the floors creaked. he groaned deeply with every harsh thrust he gave your sensitive cunny. he wasn’t going to stop though he loved feeling you tighten around him the most. his dick twitched “ please no please not inside” your breathlessly pleaded but they fell on deaf ears when he held your hips down pinkies out cuming deeply into you. you teared up feeling his hot seed fill you. he leaned his head on your shoulder. “ fuck” he pulled out letting his seed spill from you and onto the floor. “did i repay you fully” you asked, he looked into your eyes. “ i think you have more you need to pay off” ...

••••••••••••••••••••••

would it be wrong if i say that i actually like shiggy dusty self? Anyways happy thanks giving and thanks for the 100 followers

#anime #im sorry it sucks #anime ask #x reader #ask #likecommentshare #mha #naruto shippuden #haikyuu!! #naruto #shigaraki x y/n #tomura x you #tomura shiragaki

[letstalkaboutshtufff]

Burning Secrets Obi wan x padawan reader pt 2

Pairing: Obi Wan x Padawan reader

Warning: mild language, mentions of injury

A.n here's part 2! Thanks for reading😚

***************************************************

For the first time in his life Obi wan felt completely useless. Battling

Sith? Childsplay. Waiting for the doctors? Literal hell...

He paced outside where the doctors were treating you. A million thoughts ran through his mind. Why hadn't you told him you were injured? Didn't you trust him? Were you afraid of him?? He sighed for the millionth time running his hand through his disheveled hair.

"General kenobi" a feminine robotic voice called his attention.

He immediately walked over to the driod and asked a barrage of questions,

"The patient will be alright, she is under strict orders to rest for the next few days until doctor Ryylis clears her. You may wait quietly inside until she wakes." With that the driod left promptly.

Obi wan felt slightly relieved however he was still very uneasy. He walked through the white doors and spotted you laying soundly asleep under crisp white covers. He plopped down into the chair beside you watching the slow rise and fall of your chest. Suddenly his worry started to be replaced by anger. What had you been thinking? You could have been seriously impaired or worse! He furrowed his brow for a whole nother reason and suddenly felt the urge to grab you by the shoulders and knock some sense into you. He decided against it however and opted to wait patiently while you slept.

He may or may not have angrily pushed a tendril away from your face when he noticed it bothered your nose unconsciously. And he definitely did not (absolutely did) adjust your blanket everytime you moved and it slipped.

And that time he heard you coughing? He absolutely 100 percent did not lift your head like a delicate rose so you wouldn't choke (100 percent did) and slowly guide it back down while fluffing the pillow.

He glared at you as you slept peacefully. How dare you look so calm when he was feeling like this. Stupid reckless padawans...

*****************************

For the first time in a while you woke up feeling fresh and rested. You slowly opened your eyes and panicked slightly when you didnt see the familiar grey ceiling of your room. Instead bright snowwhite walls filled your vision.

Then like a bolt of lightning the memories came flooding back to you. We were training and then....oh no!

You ever so slightly tilted your head to the right and internally gasped when you saw your master. This was a med bay room, he had found out. Shit

He sensed you and you quickly snapped your eyes shut very nervous. Shit shit shit.

You felt him shift positions and held your breath.

If you couldve seen his expression you would've fainted all over again.

"Are you seriously pretending to be asleep right now?!?!" He practically shouted in disbelief and anger.

You opened your eyes once more and smiled nervously, "O-of course not master haha I was just....adjusting to the light.." you pulled the blanket higher attempting to shield away from his harsh gaze. A mixture of emotion you couldn't quite place yet. Definitely anger tho. Yup that one was clear...

"Well now that you're awake and well adjusted, I believe you have some explaining to do" he said non humorously, and half glaring.

He stood intimidatingly over you with his arms crossed. "You can start with that" he pointed abruptly at your bandaged midsection that you just now took note of.

How were you going to get out of this one?!?

"Well what can I say...those new training sabers sure pack a wallo-" you abruptly shut up with a gasp when he practically growled and slammed his hands down on the bed on either side of you. Ok joking was a horrible terrible idea you noted.

You gulped in fear as you watched him try to calm himself down. "Enough! Tell me the truth." His eyes bore into yours and you hesitated suddenly speechless.

"Now." He added sternly. You swallowed and took a shakey breathe.

"It happened when I was fighting Tane..." you looked away, not being able to bear his penetrating gaze any longer.

"Why didn't you say anything?!" His voice was dark, something you had honestly only heard when he had interegattoed this horrible slave trader before.

"I-I.." you found yourself at another loss for words. How could you tell him? How could you tell him you only wanted to prove yourself? That you secretly felt inferior to the other padawans. Being master kenobi padawan was an honor and many were jealous when you were selected by the council. They made sure to let you know how they felt. It's why you tried extra hard on missions, why you were reckless and why you hid your injury...you didn't want them to be right and the worst thing..you didnt want Obi wan to be disappointed. You would rather take a hundred sabers to the stomach before letting that happen..

Y/n..

Obi wan's eyes softened slightly as he entered your thoughts without permission

You gasped realizing he had heard everything. You suddenly felt very vulnerable.

He sighed letting out some of his anger, "y/n.." he said in a much calmer voice, " I have never been disappointed in you, angry? Yes, annoyed? Almost daily, irritated?-" you felt a rush of shame pass over you before you felt a soft hand on your shoulder,

"what I'm saying is, you've never disappointed me" "I am your master, you dont need to prove yourself to me because I know what your truly capable of. I know you better than anyone. Which is why you have to trust me no matter what... especially when things like this happen .." his eyes shifted over the bandages with worry again. "Its my job to look out for you.."

"Promise me you'll never hide things like this from me again" he looked up into your eyes more vulnerable than you had even seen him.

"I promise" You nodded sincerely. "Good because I'm not quite sure what I'd do if anything ever-" he cut himself off when he realized what he had began to say. An unusual dust of pink on his cheeks. He coughed awkwardly and stood up. "Yes well, I better be going, I have a council meeting" he turned around rigidly while a large smile graced your cheeks.

"Obi wan!" He paused and turned halfway to you from the doorway.

"You sure you wanna attend a meeting dressed like that?" You smirked pointing at his mismatched boots.

He became slightly flustered, mumbling something incoherent under his breathe. He would never in a million years tell you it was because he took a total of 30 seconds to change his clothes and freshen up before returning to you unconscious form.

You couldn't help but smile wider, the mighty obi wan was actually embarrassed "I wouldnt be so smug if I were you, as soon as you're recovered your training will be doubled!"

Oh great

You laughed lightly, "You're on old man"

He turned before you could see the blossoming grin on his face.

Stupid padawans...

A.n thanks for reading! Lemme know what you thought!!

#obi wan x reader #obi wan x oc #obi wan x y/n #obi wan imagine #obi wan fanfic #obi wan x padawan #reader #injured #hurt #angry #cute #part 2 #2 #burning secrets #kenobi #x #ewan mcgregor #clone wars #love #obi wan kenobi #obi wan series #obi wan x you #self insert #protective #oneshot #master #apprentice

[not-close-to-straight]

Lost and Found (Sixteen)

Ughhhh Tissues Needed

Also Generic WS-typical warning for mentions of slightly torture-y things

MASTERLIST HERE

*****************

“Sir, could I remind you that use of this particular suit results in more wear on the arc reactor? With numbers pushing 70%, surely you don’t want to risk it?” 

Tony called James from the suit as it blasted towards Washington D.C., ignoring the warning numbers on the screen as the arc reactor surged to maintain the suits demand for power and the projected poison levels in his blood climbed higher. 

“Tony?” 

Just hearing James’s voice made Tony’s resolve falter, and he was glad he’d programmed in the auto pilot for D.C. as the need to turn around and forget what he’d learned, forget about Project Resurrection and the Ghost Protocol climbed strangling up his throat. 

“Hey.” he tried for bright, but was afraid it only came out miserable. “Why don’t you fly out to DC tonight? Have Pepper come with you in the jet. I have to get to a meeting that’s taken about three years to arrange, so I took a suit.” 

“I can just wait till you get home again, sugar.” Happy called something in the background and James laughed and the sound almost killed Tony. “What sorta meeting was so important it took three years to set up?”

“Nothing you should worry about.” Tony lied. “But it would be fun to have dinner in D.C. or something, right? I’d like to see you tonight.”  

James’s voice got soft, “Dunno how I feel about getting back into D.C. but I’d like to see you tonight too. You feeling better? Last night you were real tired.” 

“I’m feeling better.” Tony promised and he’d never lied so much in his life. “Let me know when you guys land and I’ll send a car for you. See you soon?” 

“See you real soon, sweet thing.”

******** 

From Rhodey: Pep says you’re in D.C.? If you aren’t sucking face with soldier boy, let’s get dinner. 

From Tony: Only if it’s one of those giant steak eating places.

From Rhodey: Tones, last time we ate at one of those I threw up for three days. 

From Tony: And you were gorgeous the entire time. 

From Rhodey: I hate you

From Tony: Smooches! 

It was so damn easy to lie over text message, maybe that was how Tony should handle every conversation from now until 100%. 

It was warm out, but Tony still wore a long sleeve to hide the handcuff on his wrist that attached to the briefcase at his side. Eventually--if he had time-- he was going to tap the tech into a watch that would form into a gauntlet and then a suit from there but for now he had to carry the admittedly stylishly packaged armor at his side. 

JARVIS was right, using the suit took more energy than the other ones simply because it assembled in place instead of using robotics to piece together around him, but it had been worth it to get to D.C. so quickly...

...and it would be worth it tonight if everything went right and he needed to leave. If everything fell into place the way it should, but the way Tony kept secretly hoping it wouldn’t, he would leave and not take anyone with him so the suit was perfect. 

Perfectly like a prison he kept willingly locking himself into and wasn’t that a piece of poetry worthy of writing down or at the very least making into a tragic movie or maybe he could request it got put in his biography because there should be at least one true thing amidst all the crap they were going to write about Tony Stark. 

At least one line should be truth, even if everything else was written by people who had never known him at all.

But he shouldn’t think about that. Not yet. Not at only seventy percent, he had another ten maybe fifteen percent before he had to think about a biography, right? 

Right? 

Christ, it was getting hard to think. 

The SHIELD headquarters were ostentatious and ugly, an eyesore at the banks of the river and a clear warning to anyone who thought to look twice at the city and dare to take a shot. The Pentagon might house the dressed up generals who gave out orders, but SHIELD was the real power behind the United States Government right now. 

The ugly building housed all the best minds, all the best weaponry, and spoke of a clearly visible statement Director Fury and Secretary Pierce had been less and less subtle about in the past few years-- Fuck. Off. America is done playing nice.

Not that Tony blamed them for being so blatantly bold. There was no need to be subtle when there was an actual legendary super soldier leading the charge to protect America’s interests both at home and abroad, right? 

Tony and Fury met in a little cafe along the river, the eatery quiet and unobtrusive in a way that was meant to be as visibly invisible as possible. There was nothing particularly interesting about the staff or their uniforms, the menu didn’t boast anything that would garner extra attention, there was never a chalkboard out front with a gimmick or sale to draw pedestrians in to try a daily special. 

It was the sort of cafe someone either went to as a habit, or never even noticed on their commute and it was exactly the sort of cafe where Nick Fury preferred to get his tuna melt sandwich. 

“Well this is quaint and terrible.” Tony sat down across from Fury with suitcase settled between his feet and sunglasses firmly on his face. “What happened to high profile business meetings at steakhouses, or at the very least good greasy pizza? And are you eating a tuna melt? With a fork?” 

“Contrary to what you might believe, my Ma didn’t raise a heathen.” Fury was a sight to behold in his trademark trench coat, intimidating eye patch and somehow more intimidating single eye, a napkin tucked neatly at his collar and a knife and fork held daintily to cut his sandwich into bite sized pieces. “And this isn’t as good as hers used to be, but it does just fine for our conversation today.” 

“Alright then.” Tony motioned to the waiter, and pointed towards Fury’s plate. “Could I have the same thing please? Make mine with pickles.” 

“You’re pushing it.” Fury warned. “You don’t disrespect a sandwich by putting pickles on it.”  

“Ma’am, would you make that extra pickles please?” 

“Damn you, Stark.” 

“Don’t tell me how to eat a sandwich and I won’t tell you to not do all of--” Tony made a vague motion to encompass all of Fury’s look. “--all of this. You look like the Grim Reaper.” 

“And you look like a man the Grim Reaper isn’t too far from visiting.” Fury stabbed his fork at Tony bluntly. “Lookin’ like chicken shit these days, Stark. What’s going on?” 

“Nothing that matters.” Tony waved off the Director’s sarcastic concern. “I need to talk to you about two things and then we can move on.” 

The Director made a ‘go ahead’ motion and went back to eating. Tony watched the knife and fork dissection of a perfectly respectable tuna melt for a moment and then stated, “I don’t trust Pierce. I went to his party a few weeks ago and got a real sketchy vibe from him.” 

“Uh-huh.” Fury nodded. “And?” 

“And since you have the whole all seeing eye thing going on, I thought you’d want to know.” Tony smiled up at the waitress when she brought him the sandwich, and with eyes firmly on Fury, took a huge bite and crunched deliberately through the pickles. “How do you feel about him lately?” 

“I feel like the world’s most reckless billionaire should be more concerned about the effects all that poisoning is having on your complexion and less about what those of us in trench coats are doing.” Fury wiped his mouth and pointed over his shoulder to someone Tony couldn’t see. “Brace yourself, Stark.” 

“Brace myself for wha---OW!” Tony jumped when a needle jammed into his neck, delivered courtesy of one rather spandexy clad Natalie Rushman. “Christ! Natalie, what the fuck!?” 

“I forgot you still think her name is Natalie.” Fury pushed his plate away and then dragged a chair over for the redhead. “Tony Stark, meet Natasha Romanov. Former KGB agent, former Russian Foreign Intelligence Service, former traitor to that particular country and defector to this one, and currently my favorite agent at SHIELD.” 

Tony rubbed at his neck a few times and scowled at Fury, then over at Natalie/Natasha. “Former KGB? That was dismantled in ‘91, and you’re only twenty four. Nice try.” 

“You do pass for a very convincing twenty four, Tasha.” Fury took a sip of his water. “In fact Mr. Stark, Natasha here is an absolute beauty at the ripe old age of--” 

“--you tell him I’m a day over thirty and I’ll cut your tongue out.” Natasha said coolly, and Tony blanched but Fury didn’t so much as blink. “Tony, I just gave you a shot of lithium dioxide. It’s not going to solve anything with the palladium, but it’s going to temporarily slow down the effects so you can focus. I know you’ve been struggling with it for a while, there’s no other way to explain how scattered you’ve been.” 

“First you stab me, then you insult me? You are fired.” Tony breathed in slow and purposeful, then out again when his headache started to ease thanks to the hypodermic hit to the neck. “Warn a fella before you shank him, is this foreplay to you scary spandex types?” 

Natasha gave him one of those always consistently enigmatic smirks and Tony accused, “How’d you get here so fast? Pretty sure Pepper told me you two were shopping today. In fact, I’m pretty sure she took the jet to Vegas just to spend a gross amount of money.” 

“The moment you hung up with Director Fury I excused myself from Ms. Potts and headed towards D.C from Vegas.” Natasha held up her hand to stop the next words from Tony. “And yes, I know there’s no civilian aircraft that could possibly get me to D.C. faster than your suit would, but you left an hour or so after me and also, as everyone is now aware, I am not a civilian.” 

Still literally and figuratively wounded from the jab to the neck, Tony only huffed at the redhead and went back to eating because honestly, a new secretary turning out to be a secret spy wasn’t the worst thing that had ever happened. At least she was on their side, right? Later Tony could get a little hysterical about having a former KGB agent helping him pick out ties, but for right now, he had other things on his mind. 

“Alright then. Ms. Romanov.  How do you feel about Secretary Pierce?”  

“I don’t think that’s the question you’ve come to ask.” Natasha deflected, green eyes glittering curiously. “So ask the other one.” 

“Okay I will.” Tony put his sandwich down and pleated the napkin between his fingers until it tore. “How long have the two of you known the hundred year old prisoner of war Sergeant James Buchanan “Bucky” Barnes was camping out in my house in Malibu?”

“If it makes you feel any better?” Director Fury shrugged. “We just thought he was the Winter Soldier. Wasn’t one hundred percent on the Barnes angle until recently.” 

“The Winter Soldier.” Tony repeated, and this time his mind snapped into place with out the stuttered click click click of trying to process. It was almost like being him again and even though Tony knew the lithium oxide was a poison all in itself, he was already wondering how many shots of it he could take to remain lucid up until the end. “Ghost assassin from the sixties and seventies, silver arm, once thought to be Steve Rogers risen from the ice and back to seek revenge. It was James, instead. Product of Hydra experimentation, amiright?” 

“And then some.” Fury nodded.  “When Project Resurrection came to be and the Captain woke up, he asked for his best pal Bucky and then his best gal Peggy in exactly that order. SHIELD had been aware of the Winter Soldier for decades, but we couldn’t have imagined the connection to the missing Sergeant Barnes. The Captain saw a surveillance photo, said he’d recognize that scowl anywhere, and went off half feral trying to track him down.” 

“Half-feral.” Tony glanced between the two of them. “Captain America. Are you serious?” 

“I spent almost two years at his side.” Natasha spoke up. “Half feral is an understatement. I’ve never seen a man so determined to burn the world down if it meant finding his friend.” 

“Two years.” Fury echoed. “And then just over a year ago, a few months before Stane engineered your trip to Afghanistan, the Winter Soldier dropped off the map. Guess Hydra got tired of having their spots blown to shit or something like that, decided to cut their losses and run.” 

Tony only blinked and Fury explained, “Turns out the Captain isn’t exactly the aw shucks good ol boy those posters made him out to be. Anything that stood in the way of finding his Bucky went up in flames, and the man didn’t care if anyone was left inside. On more than one occassion, Romanov went into the rubble herself because the Captain wouldn’t do it. It was a wasted effort though, there were never any survivors.”

Tony looked around and then lowered his voice. “Captain America let people die like that?” 

“Not the aw shucks good ol boy we all thought.” The Director repeated. “Never seen a man so angry in my life when we lost the Soldier. Definitely never could have predicted you’d show up with him as your date at a few high profile event. I see a lot.” Fury pointed to his one good eye. “But even I didn’t see that coming.” 

“Does the Captain know about James?” 

“We thought it was best to feel out the situation and see if we were dealing with the Winter Soldier or if we were actually seeing Sergeant Barnes.” Fury hedged. “Wanted to be sure we weren’t going to walk into a situation with a still activated super assassin when from all appearances, he’s just a nice kid with some memory loss situations. Captain Rogers isn’t the sort to knock and ask to come in, he would have brought that fancy Malibu house of yours down into the ocean trying to get his friend.” 

“That seems a little over the top, but--” 

“--but you’ve never been seventy years out of your own time looking for the one person in the world who can understand what you’ve been through.” Natasha interrupted. “I’m telling you, there isn’t anything that would stop the Captain from trying to get to his Bucky.” 

“His Bucky.” Tony echoed faintly. “Is that so?” 

“I’ve been watching James for several weeks now.” Natasha’s voice dipped in sympathy when Tony’s face flickered with misery. I don’t think he remembers anything about his time as the Winter Soldier, but you’re closer to him. What do you think? Do you think he knows who he was?” 

“No way.” Tony denied tiredly. “James doesn’t know anything. Not his last name, nothing about technology or recent history. He panicked about using too many eggs the other day and now that I know what I still can’t fucking believe I know... it makes sense. In some weird way, everything I know about James makes perfect sense now.” 

“So Sergeant Barnes doesn’t remember anything before he showed up in D.C.?” 

“Nothing at all.” Tony said adamantly. “He remembers waking up beneath a bridge and then everything’s a blur for a while and he’s not sure how much time passed. He thinks he lived a year in D.C. before meeting me, but he doesn’t know anything beyond that.” 

“That could be for the best.” Natasha muttered, and Fury nodded. 

“Well you can be sure we will be keeping an eye on the situation.” the waitress came by for the plates and Fury waited until she was gone before mentioning oh so casually, “I have something that belongs to you, by the way. Your dad left it in storage along with instructions to give it to you when you were ready.” 

“I have everything I want of Howard’s and none of it’s worth anything at all.” Tony shook his head. “Forget about it, I want to meet the Captain.”

“You’re going to want this.” Fury countered, and pulled up a photo on his phone. “The real thing is about ten times heavier than anything I’d ever want to life, but take a look at it anyway.” 

“I’ve seen this.” Tony barely glanced at the picture. “It’s Dad’s diorama model of the Stark Expo. I used to race my cars up and down the roads until he screamed at me to stop. Why would I want a giant piece of cardboard that holds so many shitty memories for me?” 

“I don’t know why you want it.” Fury put his phone away again. “And I don’t know why Howard wanted you to have it. Something about how you’d see the design when no one else could, and how he wouldn’t ever have access to the tools necessary to make it a reality, but you’d probably be the one to invent the technology to make it happen.”

“That’s nice.” Tony pulled out a couple twenties and dropped them on the table to cover the bill. “Put it in the mail and I’ll open it when I get back to Malibu. I’m feeling normal for the first time since Afghanistan and I’m not going to waste it on some homework from beyond the grave. Take me to see the Captain.” 

“He’s going to be cranky.” Fury tried one last time to stall the stubborn billionaire. “He doesn’t really sleep much, and since losing track of the Soldier, I don’t think he sleeps more than a few hours a week. Maybe you don’t show up as your patented brand of asshole, huh?” 

“I do what I want.” Tony stood up and patted the Director on the shoulder. “I’ll see you and Mrs. Super Spy later on. We should talk about Pierce.” 

“I know what you’re doing Stark.” Fury said then, and Tony paused. “You’re getting everything set up so when that poison kills you off, your boytoy is set with someone he knows and loves.” 

“Oh, you think so?” 

“I’d say it’s admirable, but really I think it’s cowardly.” Fury shrugged. “You’re doing all this without even trying to fight, without figuring out a way to beat it. Gonna sign ye olde master assassin over to the Man with a Plan and then jet off somewhere dramatic to die. Cowardly way out.” 

“I’ve exhausted all my options.” Tony said flatly. “I’ve tried everything over and over and nothing works. Now my option is to make sure the people I care about can keep on going with out me. How is that cowardly?” 

“This might shock you, but the world will keep turning without Tony Stark in it.” the Director retorted, and Tony shot back, “Yeah well, at least this way it keeps turning with my loved ones well taken care of. Send the address to my phone please, I’ve got a star spangled super soldier to meet.” 

Natasha sent a text with directions to Tony’s phone, and after Tony had stalked out and hailed a cab, she turned to ask Fury, “Why does he want to talk about Pierce?” 

“Don’t you worry about Pierce.”

“Director--” 

“Ms. Romanoff, I am already dealing with Secretary Pierce. Don’t you worry.” 

“Do you really think he’s being cowardly?” 

“I think if Tony Stark wasn’t so tired of living in pain, he’d realize he could just invent something new to cure himself.” Fury stated. “I watched his dad create scientific miracles out of every day things. Watched his Auntie Peggy create unbreakable codes based on her knitting patterns. He’s been so obsessed with being Iron Man that he’s forgotten he’s Tony Stark. If anyone can fix what is literally killing them, its a Stark. Hell, he did it once in a cave with a box of scraps. He should damn well be able to do it in a state of the art lab.” 

Natasha’s lips tipped up at the corner. “You like him.” 

“I think he’s a spoiled brat with a small man complex.” Fury picked up the dessert menu. “But I think our world is a lot better off with him in it, so yeah. I’d appreciate if he didn't keel over and die.” 

“You like him.” 

“You’re pushing it, Romanov.” 

*************

*************

It was fifteen minutes to a low rise apartment building, three flights up stairs and then down a long hallway until Tony could raise his hand and knock at the door of a piece of American history

Two knocks and then three more just because Tony was impatient even on his best days and today was not one of his best days. 

Besides, when else would he have the chance annoy an actual living Smithsonian relic by knocking too many times at their--

“Can I help you?” The door swung open to Big and Blond and Patriotic, deep blue eyes and a square jaw, ruggedly handsome in a way that the old posters and pictures had never come close to capturing, and the sort of bulging All American Muscles that belonged on a Lumberjack’s Weekly pin up calendar.

Holy Spangles, Batman. Tony thought, and then grinned internally because that hit to the neck might have hurt but at least it had given him back Grade-A witty one liners. Thank you, Ms. Rushman-Romanov. 

“Captain Steven Rogers.” he finally dragged his eyes away from the muscles and up to the piercing gaze. “It's nice to officially meet you. Name’s Tony Stark, long time fan, first time fanboy. How are you?” 

“Tony Stark.” Captain Rogers extended a hand big enough to cover Tony’s entire face. “Howard’s boy, isn’t that right? Director Fury has mentioned you a few times. Figures you’d know about me being awake, though I’m a little surprised it took you this long to track me down. Howard wasn’t exactly the patient, subtle type and Fury made it seem like you inherited all those qualities as well.” 

Tony blinked, and Captain Rogers grimaced. “Ah. Sorry. That came out worse than I intended. I’ve never been quite as charming as those old movies like to pretend I was.” 

“No that’s--” Tony blinked again. “It’s fine. It’s actually a little hilarious-- um--” 

“I was real sorry to hear about your parents passing.” The Captain’s blue eyes dimmed in sympathy. “I didn’t know your Ma, but despite me and Howard’s differences, we worked together for several years. He was a good man.” 

“He was an asshole even on his best days.” Tony finally found his words, and offered a smile to his childhood nemesis hero. “But that doesn’t change the good work he did, so thanks. And yes, I inherited all of his less than charming traits and created a few more of my own which is why I’ve known about you and Project Resurrection for a few years now but just couldn't muster the interest to give a damn.” 

“Any by the way, if you were a brunette, I’d be charming your pants off.” Tony winked because he couldn’t stop himself from flirting with an American icon. “But you’re blond, so consider yourself safe from my efforts. That and it’s hard to think sexy thoughts about the literal embodiment of the American flag.” 

Good God, even the Captain’s laugh was patriotic, head thrown back and a hand over his heart like he was pledging allegiance to hilarity and Tony looked away to hide an answering grin. Shit, he didn’t want to like Steve Rogers, he had spent his entire life trying to measure up to the bastard, he didn’t want to be making friends when they had more important things to talk about.

“If it makes you feel any better?” Captain Rogers was still cheesing a grin. “Under all that patriotism I’m just a loudmouth Brooklyn kid with a big mouth and not a single shred of self preservation.” 

“Eh.” Tony made a show of shrugging. “You’re still blond. I tend to prefer them brunette--” 

--he hesitated, then pulled out the picture of he and James together at the redwoods. “--And smolderingly intense in a scary ex soldier sort of way. You know the type?” 

All laughter fell away in an instant, the surprisingly easy conversation Tony hadn’t expected to find with Captain Rogers ground to a halt, the smile on the big blond’s face wiped away as quickly as it had appeared. 

“I took that in the redwoods last week.” Tony actually took a step backwards when powerful shoulders squared up and one of those massive hands closed into a fist. “Me and James-- we’ve been living together the last couple months. Figured it’s high time you and he got together again, you know?” 

“James.” The Captain’s throat jerked when he swallowed. “Not Bucky. He goes by James now?” 

“James is the only name he knows.” Tony watched him carefully for any sign of what might be rage, but there was only heartbreak on the rugged features. “We’ve been looking for answers into his past, but it wasn’t until early this morning I came across a family link and traced it backwards. You can bet I was surprised as hell to find myself looking at a picture of you two when the facial recognition software finally pinged him.” 

“I see.” The picture shook in the Captain’s fingers and nearly tore between his grip. “Mr. Stark--”

“Call me Tony.” 

“Tony. I think you’d better come inside.” 

****************

The apartment housing the Greatest American Soldier was sparse to the point of being bare, clean to the point of being sterile, and warm enough that Tony broke into a sweat just walking through the door. 

“Sheesh, Captain.” Tony undid a few buttons at his collar. “Tropical, much?” 

“Sorry, I’ll turn it down.” The Captain really was massive, had to turn sideways to get down the narrow hall and to the thermometer. “I uh-- I’m always cold, you know?” 

Tony waited with a raised eyebrow and Captain Rogers pursed his lips, shoved both hands into his pockets self consciously. “I did seventy years in the ice, Tony. That’s the sort of chill that gets into your bones. Into your soul. I’m always cold. Can’t seem to shake it.”  

“I can fix that.” Tony spoke before thinking, the words eerily similar to his very first thought about James. Was it the super soldier thing that drove him to offer help? Or just the countdown and toxicity monitor and desperately tallying marks on the good karma side so maybe it would get him into heaven? 

“I can fix that.” he said again. “I’d think a super soldier would run hot because of your metabolism, so the cold is probably psychosomatic and a weighted blanket or even a sweater with heavier threads might take care of it. People equate weight with warmth, and being covered with being safe so if you let me get some sizes I could have my AI run some programs and figure out a material that could--” 

He stopped when the big blond just looked at him. “Sorry, Captain. I tend to ramble. Alot.” 

“Call me Steve.” the Captain went for some water and handed a bottle to Tony, then sat down in a nearby chair and clasped his hands between his knees. “And you know, your Dad did that too? He’d get an idea and talk for an hour and you’d start the conversation not even knowing you needed the thing he ended up handing you when he was finished.”

“Sounds like Dad.” Tony agreed. “Guess I did inherit all his annoying habits.” 

“You must get your looks from your Ma, then.” Steve said casually, and when Tony about fell out of his chair in surprise, he grinned. “Oh no, not for me. I mean sure, I can appreciate a good lookin’ fella just as much as the next guy, but I used to tell Buck if he got together with Howard--” 

“I might actually throw up if you finish that sentence.” 

“--then we could double date, but he said he’d sooner kiss Dugan.” he finished and Tony breathed out noisily in relief. “If he likes you, you must look like your Ma. Buck couldn’t hardly stand to be in the same room as Howard.” 

And then almost awkwardly, “No offense meant.” 

“None taken, most days I couldn’t handle it either.” Tony rolled the water bottle between his palms. “So um, how are you adjusting to life in the twenty first--” 

“Tell me about Bucky.” Steve interrupted and Tony’s mouth clicked shut. “I wanna know everything. Where did you find him? How did you find him? Does he know who he is? Who I am? Does he know about--” 

He clenched his jaw. “--does he remember being the Winter Soldier?” 

“Captain.” Tony began slowly, but Steve cut him off again, “It’s just Steve, Tony. Captain Rogers, Captain America, that’s not who I am. I’m Steve. Call me Steve.” 

“Steve.” he started again. “James--er, Bucky-- and I met a few months ago in a diner right here in D.C. I don’t know if you watch the news at all, but I was mid Senate meeting and mid nervous break down, apparently he was just there having breakfast. I saw he was missing an arm--” 

“--his left arm?” 

“--his left arm.” Tony nodded. “And since I have a weird assortment of various robotic arm pieces laying around the house, I told him I could build him a new one. I gave him a whole spiel about wanting to do some good and that he didn’t have to take me up on the offer but he told me--” 

“--that you got a pretty smile.” Steve interjected. “Yeah, you’re just his type. Dark hair, pretty eyes, big smile. Just his type.” 

The simple statement from the soldier warmed Tony clear down to his heart, and he ducked his head to hide a barely there flush. “Uh, anyway. He came home to Malibu with me and we’ve been there ever since. He’s getting better. No more panic attacks and his Brooklyn accent comes out more every day and um--” 

It felt awkward talking to a total stranger about his boyfriend--partner? He was too old to call someone a boyfriend, right? 

It felt more awkward talking to a total stranger that wasn’t really a total stranger considering how Tony knew everything everything about Steve Rogers and Howard had literally helped create the soldier. More awkward talking to a not-total stranger who actually knew James Bucky better than Tony could ever hope to. More awkward talking to a not-total stranger who knew Bucky better than Tony did and would be around at Bucky’s side after Tony--

--after Tony--

“--sometimes I think he’s remembering things, but then I don’t really know.” he finished lamely. “Captain, er Steve. I’ll be honest, it seems weird to tell you about your best friend. I can tell you that he doesn’t have nightmares anymore and that he hasn’t had a panic attack in weeks. He likes Rocky Road ice cream and looks great in the color red and when he calls me sweet thing I actually melt a little bit inside. What else do you want to know?” 

“I just want to know if he’s okay.” Steve said softly, softly, spread his hands helplessly and made those All American baby blues as heartbreakingly earnest as possible. “Tony, I woke up from the ice and found a picture of the Winter Soldier and spent the next two years trying to figure out what the hell had happened to my best pal. How did he survive the fall? Who captured him? What have they been doing with him? To him?” 

The Captain’s throat jerked when he swallowed. “Does he-- does he smile? Do you make him smile? Or is he real quiet now? Did they ruin him? Break him?” 

Steve got to his feet to pace, rubbing his hands down his thighs in agitation. “I’ve read all the Winter Soldier files, Tony. I know what they did to him. You know they-- they didn’t do that stuff to me. Howard juiced me up and sent me out the door but Bucky? He was always a good soldier but there’s a lot of steps between a good soldier and a master assassin. What they did to him to make him into the Soldier…” 

His steps stuttered, faltered, and when Steve turned around to pin Tony with a look, his jaw was set stubbornly. “Tell me how he really is. Did they break him? Is he even Bucky anymore?” 

“I don’t know if he’s Bucky anymore.” Tony said slowly, honestly. “But I know he’s James, and he’s a good man. Not broken. Definitely hurt, but not broken. He’s-- I think he’s okay, Captain. Or at least he’s getting better.” 

“Okay.” Steve dropped back down onto the chair and the springs groaned under his weight. “Okay okay okay. Have you done any research on the Winter Soldier? About what he did?” 

“No.” 

“Don’t.” That super soldier strength showed up when the arms of the chair splintered beneath Steve’s fingers. “Tony, for your own sake. Don’t. I haven’t read the mission files because it makes me sick to my stomach but I saw enough of what they did to him to know there can’t be anything good in the other ones.” 

Tony’s whole body went cold, horror stricken and wanting to scream thinking about his soldier, his Brooklyn being hurt for however long he’d been captive as the Winter Soldier. “What they did to him?” 

“Experiments.” Steve muttered hoarsely. “Testing his strength, his healing factor. Whatever super juice they gave him, they had to make sure it worked so they experimented. Broke major bones to time how long it took to heal up again. Put bullets close to major arteries wondering if he’d bleed out. Made him run until he was vomiting and couldn’t take another step to check his endurance.” 

“Shit.” 

“They wiped his mind after every mission.” the Captain continued miserably. “Got him to the point where all he could do was carry out orders. That’s not even human, they took his soul Tony. My best friend and they took his soul. Wiped it away every time they hooked him up to that damn chair--” 

“Chair?” 

“--it had straps.” Steve made a motion and Tony’s heart sank, then sank further still when he added, “I crashed a set up once and it was this monstrous chair. Straps and hooks and this helmet thing that went down over his head to fry his brain.” 

“What--” Tony wet his lips, flashes of that first awful panic attack hitting him like a punch to the stomach. “-- What did you do to the chair?” 

“Broke it apart with my bare hands and then snapped some bad guy’s femur just because I wasn’t done breaking things.” Steve said coldly, calmly. “I can’t read the mission files, not after seeing that. I don’t think you should read them either. Buck deserves to have people who look at him and don’t see everything he did as the Soldier. He deserves to be loved by people who just see him.” 

“Yeah, I--” Tony dug his fingers into his knees and bit back a heartbroken noise. “Yeah, he does. So what did you do with the data? It can’t just be out there, that’s not--” 

Even now, his brain was shifting into gear, trying to figure out the next step, trying to figure out what he could do to fix what had happened with James or how he could make sure it never came back to ruin his soldier’s new life. “--it can’t be out there for someone else to find. What did you do with it?” 

“Natasha dumped it all.” The Captain informed him. “Burned it, erased it, whatever she does. I’m not really up on all the tech of this century yet. But she swore it was gone, and that’s all I care about.” 

“You trust her?” 

“...I do.” Steve’s smile was almost… melancholy. Almost lonely. “Most people wouldn’t, but she hasn’t lied to me once so I have no reason to think she would about this.” 

“Alright.” It was a relief to know the Winter Soldier’s actions weren’t out there for anyone to find, a relief to know someone else was looking out for James the same way Tony wanted to. “That’s-- that’s good. If Captain America can trust her with that, I can trust her too.” 

“Yeah.” Steve screwed his eyes shut tight and pushed out a long breath. “Tony um-- can I see him? Feels weird to ask permission to see my own best friend, but I think you know him better than I do at this point. Can I see him? Will you bring him back to D.C., or could I come with you to Malibu? I searched for him for so long, Tony. The canyon below the train-- I spent days there. Days in the snow trying to find him, and I spent the first years waking up trying to find him… can I see him?” 

Quieter, almost afraid, “Do you think he’ll know me?” 

“I don’t know.” Tony said honestly, and Steve’s shoulders hunched in like the words physically hurt. “But they should be landing here in D.C. in a few hours and I already sent him this address.” 

“Seriously?” Steve’s head snapped up. “You would-- you didn’t even know me. You told him to come here when you hadn’t met me yet?” 

“You’re Captain America.” Tony shrugged carelessly, shrugged like his heart wasn’t tearing in two right there in his chest as everything he’d feared started falling into place. This was the right decision but it hurt and his heart could have collapsed under the strain. “And he’s Sergeant Barnes. There’s no question you two should be spending time together, in fact, I’m probably just in the way. I’ll bring him in and as soon as I know James is okay, I’ll leave you in peace and let you get reacquainted.

“That’s amazing.” Steve lit up with a mega watt grin. “Tony, thank you. Thank you. You’re giving me a piece of my life back, I swear. I don’t even know where to begin to thank you.” 

“Just...take care of him.” 

“I promise I will.” the Captain swore. “I promise. I’ll help him readjust to life and we’ll figure out… I dunno. Netflix together? I’ll help him Tony, I will.” 

“I don’t doubt it.” Tony tried for a smile that didn’t feel like it was crumbling at the edges. “Now. Are you a enough of a rebel to have a beer in this place while we wait? Or still too good ol’ boy for that?” 

“Are you kidding?” Steve laughed again, and yep, Tony would have been seeing stars and stripes if he hadn’t been blinking back tears. “Good beer is the best part of this century! And I don’t get drunk, so I’ve been trying them all! Come on and pick one out!” 

“Picking out a beer with Captain America.” Tony struggled to his feet with a hand over his chest and followed the blond to the tiny kitchen. “How could anyone pass that up?” 

“Tony!” Steve sounded immeasurably lighter, the smile on his face evident in his voice as he called, “Does Bucky ever listen to music anymore? Have you ever heard of the Andrews Sisters? We heard them sing the night he shipped out for the war, this was his favorite song!” 

Before Tony could object or protest or fall to his knees and beg for mercy because he didn’t think he could take another second of this self inflicted torture, the all too familiar beginning notes of ‘Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy’ floated through the apartment and everything got worse.

“Me and Pegs used to dance to this.” Steve tossed Tony a beer he could only barely catch. “She made Buck dance too even though he didn’t have any interest in the other dames. She always said one day he’d find a fella to dance with too, have you guys danced together yet?” 

“Once.” Tony said faintly. “Just uh-- just the once.” 

He closed his eyes when the song got to the chorus, when the beat changed and he could almost feel James pulling him in closer like he’d done that night in the lab when everything changed between them. 

“...just the once.” 

**************

**************

“Hey babydoll.” James was confused when he finally made it up to the apartment door, confused and stiff when he bent to give Tony a kiss hello. “This is uh--” he cleared his throat. “Don’t like being back here, Tony. D.C. doesn’t have any good memories for me. I didn’t want to come.” 

“I know.” Tony stood on his toes to chase one more kiss, gratified when James automatically wound an arm at his waist to hold him. “And I’m sorry but this is important, alright? What we’re doing here is important.” 

“Important like the way Pepper’s fancy parties are important?” James teased halfheartedly, and tugged at Tony’s shirt sleeve. “Let’s get out of here. I’m a real big fan of the way you’ve blown off work the last few weeks to spend time with me, we should keep doing that.”

“James.” Tony tried for words and failed, squeezed at James’s fingers and tried again, “I’ve got someone you should meet. Re-meet. Someone you used to know and I think it’s important you see him again. I think he can fill in a lot more blanks, help you out a lot more than I can, alright?” 

“I don’t want anyone helping me but you.” James glanced around the hallway, glanced at the door and out the far window, then back down at Tony, shoulders set uncomfortably tense and jaw clenched. “Tony, can we go? Something feels weird here, I don’t like it.” 

“It will feel better in a few minutes.” Tony promised. “Just um-- be brave, Brooklyn. Okay?” 

“Brave? Tony, I’m telling you this don’t feel right, I don’t want to be--” 

Tony turned the knob and shoved the door open before James could finish the sentence, pushed the soldier through into the living room and then hung back to just watch. 

Be brave, Brooklyn. 

“Bucky.” Steve stood in the middle of the room, hands in his pockets and chin ducked like he was trying to look small, the unmistakable shield sat prominently on one of the chairs, that old picture of he and James from the Smithsonian propped up on the table. 

“Holy shit.” The Captain choked out a strangled sort of laugh and freed his hands to run them both through his hair, tugging at the strands and then rubbing at his eyes as they filled with tears. “Bucky. It’s really you.” 

James narrowed his eyes at the big blond, at the picture and at the shield, then looked back at Tony in confusion. 

“Bucky? Who the hell is--” 

Click click click. 

“I had ‘em on the ropes.” 

“Yeah Stevie, sure you did.” 

Click click click.  

“Don’t do anything stupid while I’m gone.” 

“How can I? You’re taking all the stupid with you.” 

Click click click. 

“You’re keeping the suit, right?

Click Click Click

“I’m with you to the end of the line.” 

“I’m with you to the end of the line.” 

“I’m with you to the end of the line.” 

Click click click.

I know him.

Stevie.

“...Stevie?” 

The Captain covered the room in two big steps and James met him in the middle for a bone crushing, desperate hug. James’s legs crumpled and Steve caught him halfway down, Captain America crying unashamed tears and swearing under his breath as he smoothed Jame’s hair back from his face to get a good look at him.

“Stevie?”

“Christ, Bucky I can’t believe I finally found you. I finally found you and I’m never gonna let anything happen to you again, I swear it. I swear it.” ----

--- Tony closed the door to the apartment and walked alone down the hallway, took the stairs up to the roof and stood for a long time looking over the city, over the monuments in the distance and the barest glimmer of blue from the river. 

His phone rang and it was James but Tony ignored it so he could undo the latches on the briefcase suit and step into the boots, shivering as the armor climbed his body and encased him in cold metal before it warmed to his temperature. 

His phone rang and it was James, and the picture on the screen was of them at the redwoods, the name beneath “Sergeant Barnes” because already James wasn’t James anymore, he was Sergeant Barnes, he was Bucky. 

His phone rang and it was James and JARVIS intoned, “Sir, it’s Sergeant Barnes calling.” 

“Send it to voicemail.” Tony whispered and the call shut down as the suit powered up. 

“May I remind you sir that extended use of this suit specifically strains--” 

“I remember.” Tony closed his eyes for a minute. “Send a message to Rhodey? Tell him I won’t make dinner tonight. He won’t be surprised, I’ve missed at least a hundred dinners. Call Pep and remind her that I owe her something expensive and sparkly and to pick out whatever she’d like.” 

“...Yes sir.” 

“JARVIS.” Tony’s chest tightened until he couldn’t breathe. “Enable Ghost Protocol.” 

“Are you sure?” 

“Just like we talked about.” Tony was shaking inside the suit, grateful for the exoskeleton that kept him on his feet. “I won’t let this be catastrophic and I-- I can’t watch while James realizes he doesn’t need me anymore. Start the process now.” 

In the lab in Malibu, lights in the lab started to dim and the myriad of suits Tony had worked on for months drew back into the walls. The lock codes blinking on each panel changed from Tony’s preferences to ones coded to Honeybear, to Rhodey, to Sourpatch and Platypus, on and on the list went. 

Computer screens flickered as dozens of letters went out to various charities and foundations, notifications of soon-to-be-arriving checks meant for specific projects that desperately needed funded. Signed paperwork irrevocably keeping Pepper as CEO and turning over any stock held by Tony Stark to her after a death certificate was produced was sent off to the proper compliance departments to make sure everything was legal. 

A program was uploaded into Dum-E’s limited software that would allow the robot to function a bit safer and up it’s interaction levels to ones that would make the kiddos in the Children’s Wing at the Cancer Center smile and laugh whenever it rolled through the halls. 

Back in Washington, JARVIS’s comforting monotone listed off each point of Ghost Protocol as it was engaged and completed, and the phone rang as Sergeant Barnes tried again and again and again. 

“Send it to voicemail.” Tony whispered through a sheen of tears, and the call went silent as the Iron Man armor took off from the roof and soared into the darkening sky, punching through the atmosphere and heading for the stars. 

This was the right decision.

Send it to voicemail. 

73%

***************

Chapter Notes: 

Did you cry? I cried. 

I love Steve in this verse. The “First Winteriron, then Steve comes Along” dynamic is something I’ve never written, and I’ve also never written Fresh from the Freezer Steve and I sort of love him?? 

SAY SOMETHING ABOUT THE CHAPTER!

***************

@ships-galore @ceealaina @izziebladez @cwar1864 @hausoffro @tonystarkisanangel @multishippinglife @girlnic @iam93percentstardust @paranormalmoonlight5 @igotloki @moosette05 @wayward-student-philosopher @kaz-brekkers-gloves @atomicfandombomb @1fuckingshitup69 @agentlokii @livewire28 @tulipsnbigcats @kimstark @alex-stark-rogers @bibbarnes @heeeyitskay @goindownshipping @justaniche @actual-demon-belial

@quietgayguy @bluedreamdino @akimi-youngblood @blackstar1602 @dixiehellcat @travellover1245 @capnstarkey @the-awkward-teenaged-one @thanossucks @peteryoulittleshit @tony-and-steeeb @striving-artist @roe-sesandthorns @coolsidedpillow @i-am-worth-it-25 @firelightmystic @maligatorthealigator @simsccsol @a-tardis-in-221b @happyendingrequired @everygoodoneistaken11 @pootie-and-the-snoots @megahuffledor @xkissmeimirishx @crystalskrull @hazelbeatsturtle @wecollectnightmares @endrega23 @saganarojanaolt @the-crazy-house @ravynfyre @yomama-umbridge @lovely--tony @gayspacesprinkles @elliotkaingrey @warmachinesocks @glitternotgold73 

#ncts fics #winteriron #tony stark #bucky barnes #steve rogers #natasha romanov #nick fury

[chocoholicannanymous]

...As Stupid Does (Teen Wolf) 18/19

AN: As you might have noticed I've updated the chapter count, making this the penultimate post. It is, however, what I consider the last chapter of ...ASD. If you'd like you could read this and have the story (and the series) end now. The last chapter is going to be what I intended for a fifth and final part of the series, but I've decided instead to post it together with this story, I guess as an epilogue of sorts.

(Oh and yes, I'm aware that this chapter is shorter than many of you would prefer. It should, tbh, have been part of last chapter, but that didn't happen. I'm choosing to focus on writing the last bit of this 'verse instead of trying to pad this chapter.)

Part 17, Part 16, Part 15, Part 14, Part 13,  Part 12,  Part 11,  Part 10,  Interlude,  Part 9, Part 8d, Part 8c, Part 8b, Part 8a, Part 7, Part 6, Part 5,Part 4,Part 3, Part 2, Part 1,Not Stupid, Stupid Is… and pre-verse ficlet I’m Stupid (Don’t Worry ‘Bout Me)…

As Stupid Does

part 3 of the Stupid ‘verse

18

Stiles knows that so many of the problems between him and Derek (or really, him and everyone) were caused by him not thinking things through. For someone so obsessed with research he's always had a strange way of jumping in feet first, without looking. He's heard it all his life – not stupid, but just doesn't think. It's the adhd, he supposes.

Regardless of why he is that way it's something he's been actively trying to change with Derek, to think before he leaps and to look at things from every angle. He doesn't always succeed, but he tries.

Well. If he's honest with himself he passed the line between thinking things through and over-thinking them a while back.

He's so, so tired of twisting every idea back and forth until it feels worn.

So he leaps again.

Toronto went well, right? It was a huge step in the right direction, days of being together the way Stiles wants. Surely they can have more of that? So the next time they talk he slides in a casual-only-in-the-term-of-he-wants-it-to-be-but-it-truly-isn't-at-all invitation for Derek to celebrate his birthday with him in LaPush, complete with staying in Stiles' cabin.

The lightning-quick “yes” makes him almost float.

Of course, that doesn't last long. The closer his birthday comes, the more Stiles thinks about what it means that he invited Derek to stay with him, about how they're getting closer and how their relationship is progressing, and he panics. Not about being with Derek, or sharing a life with him, or even having sex again (they're not quite there yet, but Stiles know that they will be). Oh no. He panics about being a selfish little shit.

And he does so hard enough to make a pack full of 'wolves sneeze on the regular, and for his dad to start looking worried.

Dr Bianchi agrees to see him on a Sunday, with practically no warning, and Stiles spends half an hour with words pouring out of him.

“Derek finally has his sister back, and a working pack, and I'm making him leave all of that behind because I'm selfish enough to put my desire to never set foot in Beacon Hills again before Derek's, well, everything. All of that because I'm too greedy to let him free.”

Dr Bianchi looks at him, and then does something Stiles has never seen her do before. She laughs. Long and hard, and if he wasn't busy feeling insulted by it he'd be amazed with how her laughter sounds like bells.

Once her laughter ebbs out Dr Bianchi dabs at her eyes to remove some stray mascara or something before looking him straight in the eyes.

“Are you done being silly?”

And now Stiles is really insulted.

“Oh dear. You have reached that stage. Well, let's do an exercise.

“Close your eyes. Focus on your breathing, slow deep breaths. Find your center. Are you there? Good. Now imagine that Derek hadn't found you. Nothing else about his reality changes, except he doesn't find you. So. He doesn't find you, he doesn't come see you, you don't get back together. He's got his pack in Beacon Hills, his legacy land, his family's graves, his uncle and the baby sister he thought was dead for years has returned to him.

“Can you see that? Yes? Then imagine five years from now. Is Derek still the Alpha? Is he still living in Beacon Hills?”

“Hell no.” And oh.

“Why not?”

“Because Beacon Hills might be his legacy, but it's also a constant reminder that he's responsible for that legacy now. Of all that he lost. He hangs on because of that responsibility, that duty to the land and his family's memory and the pack.”

And now that he sees it, that he's been forced to open his eyes and see it, Stiles can't understand how he could have been so blind to how much Derek really shouldn't have stayed in Beacon Hills after Laura's death.

“And once Cora takes over he's got no reason to torture himself by living in the middle of all that.”

In a way, Stiles thinks, Derek's never really stopped living in the burnout ruins of the Hale house. Physically he might be staying at the loft, but mentally, emotionally... Derek's never fully left.

“He would be able to leave, knowing that the responsibility is Cora's, and that unless she calls him for help he would never have to return there. He'd only need to go back for her, and Scott's dependable enough that he could hold the territory for her if she was to go see Derek somewhere else for a while.”

He sees it now, the future that Derek could have had, and it doesn't look so bad. He prefers the one where Derek's with him, of course, but. Derek could have been happy and free from Beacon Hills even if he hadn't found his way to Stiles.

“Exactly. Now, we don't know if Derek would have found the help he needed without your resources, but I like to think someone would have realized what he needed and stepped up.

“But we agree that chances are Derek would still have given up the Alpha spark, handed over the pack and the land to his sister, and moved away. That means you are not in any way stealing that from him. I understand you panicking, but you can't let your fears dictate your truth.

“You told Derek that you couldn't imagine going back to Beacon Hills before you even started dating. He knows exactly why you don't want to live in Beacon Hills, knew it from the beginning, and could weigh his desire to be with you against his desire to be physically close to his sister. And you won. That was his choice.

“Don't disrespect him by trying to claim that choice doesn't mean anything.

“But Stiles? You have called Beacon Hills a hellmouth more than once in my presence. Now I'm fairly sure I'm not breaking any confidentiality clauses when I say that Derek agrees, because he's done so right here in this room with you present. Right?”

Right. He really feels silly now, because Dr Bianchi is 100 percent right. He has sat here – and at home, and in LaPush – and ranted about how hellmouths aren't supposed to be a thing, and yet, Beacon Hills, with Derek all but going “amen” next to him.

“Your feelings regarding that town are completely valid. Your love for Derek doesn't change that. Wanting both the man you love and safety doesn't make you greedy, or selfish. Especially not since Derek also has some very bad memories from that place. We both know that part of why you want him to leave there is because you believe it's better for him. Even if he decided to leave for somewhere not here, not with you, you would still want that for him. So no, you're not being selfish for wanting both of you out of a place that's brought you so much pain and sorrow.”

That...hurts, hearing. Stiles is fully aware of how unreasonable he's being, but he actually felt better thinking he was selfish and practically forcing Derek to move because of it.

“Then why do I feel like a selfish shit? If I'm doing what's best for him, then why doesn't it feel like that?”

Dr Bianchi gives him a small smile.

“Because you want to do the right thing, but you're worried you'll make the wrong choice again. You're scared, and you're vulnerable, and you hate both. Just remember that there's a strength in allowing yourself to feel that way – as long as you don't allow it to rule you.”

Easier said than done, and they both know it, but then and there Stiles recommits to not letting his fears rule him.

O--o---o--O

Stiles' birthday is celebrated without much fanfare. He and his dad eat lunch with the Calls. Derek arrives shortly before dinner, which the pack eats at Sam and Emily's and where the biggest difference between today and any other day is that there's a huge cake. Afterwards they light a bonfire at the beach and just spend time together.

When he opens the door to his future home and lets Derek inside it feels heavy and symbolic and maybe like a true glimpse of the future, and Stiles shivers a little. Derek of course misinterprets him.

“Do you regret offering me to stay here?”

“Of course not! It's just, you know, big.”

His heart's as steady as it's capable of being and Derek nods. If his hands shake a little as he climbs up to the loft, well, he's not going to mention it. Once he's up he turns and calls out softly to Derek.

“Coming?”

Derek's hesitant as he climbs up, uncharacteristically slow, and he's still hesitating as he comes to a stand next to the bed. The single bed.

Yes, it's a queen, but. They haven't shared a bed since before Stiles left Beacon Hills. This is a big step.

“I could shift.”

Stiles doesn't know if Derek means shift and sleep on the floor, or shift and sleep at the foot of the bed, but it doesn't matter. That's not the plan. Sure, he's not averse to a furry bed-companion, especially not on cold nights, but his hormones are fully awake and he's got plans, you know? Bestiality really isn't something he's looking to try, not even considering werewolves – or should that be especially considering werewolves? Never mind, just, nope.

“I'm not saying no to having you curled up and warming my feet on a cold night, but this night? I was hoping for this body.”

He smiles, a little wicked, and pulls his shirt off. His pants follow them to the floor, and then he stretches out across the bed.

“I wouldn't mind you warming me up though.”

It pleases him to see Derek pull his own henley and jeans off without hesitation, and it really pleases him to have Derek join him in bed. Soon every bit of lingering chill has been chased away by werewolf warmth, along with every last bit of fear.

It's been years since he touched Derek like this, but his hands remember as they wander while they kiss. Derek however is a bit more restrained, and Stiles isn't onboard with that. He's made his mind up and he wants this. Derek wanting to be careful with him is nice, yes, but it's hard to decide if it's more sweet or annoying.

(His dick is screaming annoying.)

He's just going to have to take the matter cough into his own hands.

Derek stills.

“Are you sure?”

“Yes, I'm sure. I've had months to be sure. I want this. I want you.” He twists his hand a little, then pauses. Right.

“But if you're not ready, then I'll wait. I don't want this unless we both do.”

Consent is always going to be a sore point for both of them, and while Stiles would prefer a different kind of pillow talk he can deal. He hasn't spent all this time and effort getting over how they were in Beacon Hills just to make the same mistake again, only the other way around.

“I do.”

Stiles loses his breath, staring into Derek's eyes, sucker-punched by those words. Then he practically throws himself at his wolf, hands and mouth and desire.

It's everything good from before, yet somehow nothing like it used to be.

They fall asleep tangled up, sweaty and sated.

Stiles wakes up, afraid that he's going to regret what happened, or that Derek will regret it, or even that Derek will be gone – which is stupid, since he can feel Derek with him, a line of warmth half covering him, but fear is never rational. And then he takes the time to center himself, to feel, and he knows.

This is how he wants to wake up for the rest of his life. Warm, safe, happy.

Things will be hard. He's got another three years left of college. Derek's got another year, at least, of being the Alpha of Beacon Hills. They're not going to have enough time together and there's always going to be the risk of some spectacular shitshow going down. And that's without considering their relationship.

They're going to be messy, and imperfect, and sometimes stupid. They're going to fight, and disagree, and wonder if they made the right choices. They're going to storm out and slam the doors and go to bed furious. But they're also going to be happy and in love and together, and they're going to fight to stay that way.

And that, Stiles thinks, is anything but stupid.

He turns around and burrows into the arms of his 'wolf, at peace.

#chocoholic fics #teen wolf #sterek #stiles stilinski #derek hale #...asd #stupid 'verse #twilight crossover #in 2021 we finish our WIPs

[sylvies-chen]

I have multiple chenford requests, but I'll go with this one first...

"Just breathe me in, taste me on your lips

You can let me go, if you need to let me go."

- Glass House, Morgan Saint

Thank you!!

Tim doesn’t tell her about the promotion. 

Why couldn’t he have just told her about the promotion? 

They’re standing at the bar for a charity auction the LAPD is running. It’s a quiet summer night, the hot July air making Lucy’s sundress stick to her skin. It’s worth it for a good cause though, not to mention the added bonus of seeing her boyfriend in a suit. The auction is incredible, in an outdoor venue with string lights and an open bar. Lucy sips on her margarita contentedly as she and Tim look out on the scene before them.

Two acquaintances of Tim’s that she hasn’t met before approach them, introducing themselves politely to her and catching up with Tim, all chummy and relaxed. They’re a married couple, retired police officers who were mentors to Tim back in the day. Lucy shakes their hands before leaning back into Tim’s hand that was stroking her back and starting a conversation with them.

And that’s when they mention his job offer. 

“Oh, we heard that you got an offer for the Sergeant’s position in North Hollywood. Congratulations! You must be so proud of him,” the elderly woman gestures at Lucy cheekily. 

North Hollywood? Sergeant? Job offer? 

Goddammit. 

She swallows hard, nodding along with them politely. “Yep, sure am,” she agrees decidedly. She’s lying her teeth off to complete strangers which would normally make her feel guilty, except she’s too shocked right now to care. “I’m sorry, could you excuse us for a minute?” The couple nods understandingly and Lucy sips on her margarita one more time before taking Tim by the arm and dragging him to someplace more private. By the look on his face, he knows he’s screwed as she reaches a quiet spot. 

“North Hollywood offered you the Sargeant’s position again? Why didn’t you tell me?” 

Tim sighs defeatedly. “Yeah. I’m sorry I didn’t say anything sooner but I didn’t think it was necessary. It’s not like I’m actually going to take it,” he admits. 

“Why not?” 

“Because…” he stutters, tries to find the words but instead just looks at her knowingly. 

It’s because of her, she realizes. 

“Oh.” 

“Yeah.” There’s a moment of tense silence between them. 

“Babe, you finished training me two years ago. If you take that job then yeah, we won’t be working together, but you’ll be doing something you love. We’ll still see each other outside of work, you can’t pass up on this opportunity.” Her arms wrap themselves around his neck, her fingers brushing against his hair. 

“I know it’s just… we found each other because of this job. I don’t want to just up and leave if you aren’t 100 percent certain that you want me to.” 

Her hands move to his chest as she starts to speak slowly, a daunting realization crawling through her mind. “Tim, if you um… if you don’t want to put in the work then you can tell me. You know that, right?” 

“What?” The look on his face is incredulous as his brows furrow. 

She says it because it’s the truth. It’s a truth that makes her eyes glossy with tears, but a truth nonetheless. She would hate herself forever if she kept him from his dream job. It’s her worst fear. “It’s not fair for me to hold you back. You’re right that it’ll be an adjustment. I thought we could handle it but if you don’t think we can then—”

“What are you talking about? Lucy, I can handle the adjustment,” he counters. 

“I know, I’m just saying. If you need to let me go in order to take this job,” she sniffles, the tears starting to stream slowly down her face as she talks in a low, cautious tone, “if that’s what you need then, uh… then I understand.” 

“Baby I’m not giving up,” he reassures her, lifting her chin up with his finger and pressing a soft kiss to her lips. She soaks in the taste of his lips before opening her eyes again. “If you’re okay with me taking the job, then I’ll take it,” he shrugs. 

“So… you’re not breaking up with me?” 

“Are you kidding? It took a long time for us to get here, there’s no chance in hell I’m giving that up. I’m doing the opposite, actually.” He pulls out something small and metallic from the inner pocket of his blazer and just. 

Holy shit. It’s a key. 

“I was scared that if I took the job then we wouldn’t be able to spend as much time together. But then I, uh, I figured that there was a way to make spending time a little easier.” The key shines under the string lights and Lucy’s heart skips a beat. 

So like, ok. They’ve already been spending most nights together, alternating between his place and hers. But this key… it means something. It means they’re serious, that they’re going places. And Lucy smiles, loving every minute of it, fully prepared to go wherever it takes them. 

“Will you move in with me?” He looks so nervous when he says it, and it makes Lucy giggle a little. 

She pauses before taking the key, fidgeting with it in the palm of her hand, and replying, “Yes.” She laughs as Tim smiles in relief, pulls her in and kisses her hard. It’s hot and tender, her mouth opening for his tongue to enter as she breathes him in, inhaling sharply. The familiar scent of pine and fabric softener fill her airways as she lets all of her worries and stress about him leaving crawl out of her mind and disappear with the wind. They’re both smiling lopsidedly as they pull away, out of breath. 

“I can’t believe you thought I was going to break up with you,” he pouts as he pulls her in closer, his hands on her waist as their bodies are flush against each other. 

“Well you had me worried,” she teases, lightly shoves his shoulder. 

“As if I could ever let you go.” He gets that wild look in his eyes, the one that makes her stomach do cartwheels. 

“Yeah, you just love me too much,” she jokes, flips her hair behind her dramatically. 

“Yeah,” he replies, his tone dead serious. The smirk on his face is sly and suggestive, so she slips her new house key into the pocket of her sundress and leans in to kiss him again. Lucy knows they should probably pull away, that people will start wondering where they are and see them doing something very unprofessional, but when the moment to pull away comes, they just… keep going. They’re both so happy in this beautiful moment that they don’t break away. They miss half the auction as Tim’s lips push and pull sloppily against hers. All worries about his new job in North Hollywood wash away as if they never even existed. 

If living with Tim will be like this all the time, it’s definitely something Lucy can get used to.

#the rookie #the rookie abc #tucy #chenford #lucy chen #tim bradford #song lyric requests #yall i know those lyrics sound a lot sadder than the story turned out but i couldnt bear to hurt chenford lol #i just put a big emphasis on the 'if' in those lyrics #plus i love writing for chenford as a couple omg

[citrineghost]

100 Humans on Netflix

So there’s this neat Netflix Original show called 100 Humans. I immediately got interested in it because they take this group of various humans from different backgrounds, age groups, and so on, and they use them to conduct experiments to get answers to interesting questions.

So, right away I had concerns about this show because

If you know anything about data and statistical research, you know 100 people is a very small sample size and does not breed accurate results

However, I’m very curious and wanted to see what they came up with anyway. I watched all 8 episodes and, honestly, I enjoyed watching it for the most part. However, I have a LOT of issues with the show and how it was conducted and I want to list them out here.

If you’re interested in watching 100 Humans or have already watched it, please consider the following before taking any of the show’s data as fact.

100 people is a very small sample size. This is because, the more people you have, the more weight each increment in your percentages has. With 100 people, each person represents 1 entire percent. That’s a lot. That means even a few people giving incorrect answers, having off-days, or giving ridiculous results (such as you can see in the spiders georg meme), can sway the entire result of an experiment into unreasonable territory. This is why most scientific studies attempt to get data from many hundreds or even thousands of people. The bigger the sample size, the more accurate it is to the entirety of the world.

I’ll put the rest under the cut because it gets long

The 3 hosts, who I’ll refer to as the scientists (regardless of if they actually are, because I’m not sure and don’t feel like googling it) repeatedly make false statements. For example, in one episode, they told their humans to “raise your hand if you believe you’re less bigoted than the average person here,” to which 94 people raised their hands. One of the scientists then made the statement, “If that were true, it would mean only 6% of Americans are bigoted.” This statement is entirely false. The only way to actually determine a true meaning to that would be to determine at what percentage of bigotry you are considered a real bigot. You also must consider that believing you’re more bigoted than other people in a small group, who you already have an impression of, is not necessarily indicative of how you feel you measure up to America as a whole. Anyway, I could go on and on. The only way to accurately summarize the results of that question would be to say that 44% of the humans had an inflated sense of righteousness or something of the sort.

The 3 scientists, both in person and in narration, for the sake of entertainment (if that’s what you call it) continually made “jokes” that poked fun at different groups, implied men are shit, etc. Maybe that’s fun for some people, but the kind of jokes they were making to amp up the hilarity of their host personas was genuinely just uncomfortable and made me feel even more like they couldn’t be trusted to go about unbiased research.

The scientists continually drew conclusions where the results should have been labeled inconclusive

The scientists made blanket statements about certain groups based on 1 element of research that would not stand up to further evaluation. For example, when explaining that ~93% (i think it was about that number) of Americans have access to clean, drinkable, tap water and yet some large number of single use bottled waters are sold every year, one scientist said it was because people believe bottled water is safer and cleaner than tap water. I am going to do my next survey on this to see if my own perception is flawed, but I simply don’t believe that all of the people who buy bottled water do so because they think its cleaner than “tap” (as if all tap is the same.) I know there have been studies about people drinking unlabeled bottled water and tap water and not being able to tell the difference, but this neglects to account for the fact that different houses pipes can affect the taste of the tap water running through them, people can use disposable bottles of water for certain activities or events too far away from tap for people to refill their reusable bottles easily, and so so so much more. Anyway, it just really bothers me to see “scientists” making these kinds of generalizations when they’re the ones whose results we’re supposed to trust.

The show was incredibly cisnormative. There was an entire episode based on comparing men and women that made me extremely uncomfortable with its division of people by men and women. There was the implication that all men have penises and all women have vaginas. There were implications that reproduction is a necessity in picking a partner. It was just a shitshow. There was one comment by one subject who asked, when being told to separate by men and women, “What if I’m transgender?” Obviously I can’t say for sure, but this person didn’t appear to be transgender and the sort of tone it was asked in makes me think it was literally something they asked him to say in order to get inclusivity points with the viewers and to “prove” that they’re not transphobic by having them divide up, because they said to go to the side you identify with. This whole thing is a) harmful to nb folks who would not have had a side to go to and b) completely negating the fact that the way we were socialized can have an effect on our social responses. That means that for a social experiment, a trans person could sway the results of one side due to their upbringing and the pressures society put on them before/if they don’t pass. This is all assuming they had any trans people there, which is potentially debatable.  I also take issue with this entire fucking episode because just, the amount of toxicity in proving one sex is better than the others is really gross and actually counterproductive to everything feminist and progressive. Not to mention, them implying that they’re trying to support trans people only to reinforce the notion that a trans man is inherently lesser for being a man when even prior to hatching, he would have also been force fed propaganda and societal pressure implying he’s less than for supposedly being a woman is really gross and makes me angry. The point of what I’m saying is that it’s actually not woke to hate men as a way of bringing women up because there are men who are minorities who are being hurt by the rise of aggression being directed at them for their gender. Anyway enough about that.

The tests drew false conclusions because they did not account for how minorities adapt to a world that’s not made for them. This is specifically directed at the episode where subjects were asked to match up 6 people into couples. There were 3 women and 3 men and the humans were asked to put them together into pairs. they could ask the people 1 question each but then had to match them up with only that information. The truth is, the people brought in were 3 real life couples already, which the humans didn’t know until after they matched them. The couples were m/f, m/m, and f/f. I think that’s great, but the problem is, literally none of the humans asked any of them their sexuality as their question and most people didn’t even consider they could match up same-sex people. One girl even thought that they had told her to make m/f pairings, even though they didn’t.  The scientists concluded from the experiment that the humans have a societal bias toward people, and assume they’re all straight, even if they, themselves, are not straight. I personally believe that was the wrong conclusion to draw. You could see some of the queer humans were shocked that they hadn’t considered some of the pairings might be gay. But, I don’t think it’s because they believe everyone they meet is straight, I believe this says more about what they expected from the scientists themselves. If someone is in a minority and they go to do something organized, like a set of experiments, they are going to be judging the quality and setup of the experiments by those designing them. I feel that the lack of consideration that the couples might be gay has a lot more to do with queer people having adapted to a world where queers are rarely involved or included in equal volume to the cishets. The queer humans taking part in the experiment and failing to guess gay couples shows that they have adapted to a world where they are excluded rather than a belief that every random person that they meet is straight. My point is further supported by an expert they had on the show who explained that, statistically, it was entirely likely that they were all straight and that even queers will account for being minorities by going with what’s most likely. The truth is, we are surrounded by a whole lot of straight people. It makes sense to assume only 6 people are all straight and that, if any aren’t, they may be bi.

The scientists frequently broke an already small sample size into even smaller groups. The group was very frequently broken in half, in thirds, or into sets of 10 people. These sample sizes tell us almost nothing actually conclusive. 

The experiments/tests frequently were affected by peoples abilities, unrelated to what was being tested. For example, one test that was broken down into 6 people and 6 control people competing at jenga was meant to show whether needing to pee helps or hurts your focus. first of all, sample sizes of 6 are a fucking joke. Second, this completely ignores these 6 people’s actual ability to play Jenga. If someone sucks at jenga with or without needing to pee, them losing Jenga when they need to pee says exactly fuck all about whether needing to pee affected their focus. They should have tested people’s Jenga skills beforehand, counted the amount of moves they made before the tower fell, and then did it again after hours of not peeing to compare their results. This test made no logical sense at all.

The scientists ignored the social effect of subjects knowing each other as well as duration of events during their last experiment. They were testing to see if people with last names near the end of the alphabet get a shittier deal because they go last in everything where things are done by name order. They tested this by doing a fake awards ceremony where they gave out some 30 awards to people, gauging the applause to see whether the people at the end got less hype and therefore felt worse about themselves than those in the beginning who got the fresh enthusiasm of the audience. the results showed that the applause remained fairly consistent throughout the awards. The issues with this test are numerous, but here are the three I take most issue with. 1) the people here all got to know each other very well over the week it took to make the show. People who know each other and have become friends are much more likely to cheer for each other with enthusiasm, regardless of how long it’s been. On the other hand, polite applause from a crowd at, say, a graduation, where you are applauding people you don’t know, WILL start off more raucous and grow very quiet except for individual families near the end. 2) the duration of the test was a half hour, which is not very long at all and doesn’t say much to test the limits of enthusiasm. Try testing the audience at a graduation with a couple hundred graduates that also involves the time it takes to walk all the way up to a stage a hundred feet away, accept a diploma, and then wait for the next person. These kinds of events take hours and nobody keeps up their enthusiasm that long unless they’re rooting for someone in particular. 3) this study tested only one of many many ways name order affects a person. Cheering and applause is only one factor. It does not take into account people having their resumes looked at in alphabetical order and therefore people at the beginning of the alphabet being picked before anyone ever looks at a W name’s resume. It doesn’t take into account a small child’s show and tell day being at the very end of the school year, after 6 other people have brought in the same thing they planned to. No one cares about their really cool trinket because they’ve seen a bunch like it already. This test doesn’t take into account how many end-of-the-alphabet people just get straight up told, “we ran out of time. maybe next time,” when next time doesn’t really exist. I feel genuinely bad for the girl who suggested this experiment because the scientists straight up said something akin to, “lmao her theory was bs ig /shrug” even though it was their own shitty research abilities that led to their results.

They did one experiment intending to see how many people have what it takes to be a “hero.” The request for this test was made by someone curious about the effect of adrenaline and if it really works how some people say. The scientists thought it an adequate method to determine an answer by testing their reflexes with a weird crying baby sound and then dropping a doll from above while they were distracted with answering questions. The scientists looked up before the doll dropped to indicate a direction of attention. While this does give some answers about peoples intuition, reflexes, and ability to use context clues, its entirely an unusual situation, makes no sense in reality, fails to take adrenaline into consideration literally at all, and has a lot more to do with chance. The person dropping the doll literally couldn’t even drop it in the same place from person to person. Some got it dropped into their lap and others almost out of arm’s reach. This, like a few of the other mentioned experiments, was during the last episode, which felt lazy and thrown together last minute, with very little scientific basis to any of the results. The last episode was weak and disappointing overall. 

One of the big issues I have with this show is actually their repeated use of the same group. They said at the end that they had done over 40 tests. Part of doing studies is getting varied samples of people in order to get more widespread results. Using the same 100 or less people (already a tiny sample) repeatedly is a terrible research method. You’re no longer studying humans at large. You’re studying these specific humans. You can’t take the same group with the same set of inadequacies, the same set of skills, and the same set of biases and then study them extensively and in many different ways like this. Your results are inherently skewed toward these specific people and their abilities. I expected them to at least get a new group each episode - every 5 or so studies - but no. They keep the same group all week, which makes the entire season. This is inexcusable in research imo.

The next issue is contestant familiarity. The humans all getting to know each other is great, socially, but it also destroys the legitimacy of many of the studies that involve working together or comparing yourselves and your beliefs

Many tests had issues with subject dependency. One study, meant to compare age groups and their ability to work together to complete the task of putting together a piece of ready to assemble furniture had each group with members they relied on entirely. A few people built the furniture while one person sat across the room, looking at instructions with their back to the others. They had to relay the instructions through a walkie talkie to another contestant and that other contestant had to relay it to the people they’re watching build the chair. You cannot study a group’s ability to build something with instructions by the ability of one single person to communicate. You’re testing that individual and the rest of them on two completely different capabilities. One person fails at being able to communicate and everyone else becomes unable to build the furniture. Even if everyone else in the group is more effective than all the other groups at building ready to assemble furniture, they might end up falling in last because of their shitty communicator who is literally not able to convey simple instructions. (yes, this actually happened in the test)

One test judged the subjects at their speed of getting ready, to see if men or women are faster at getting ready. While most elements of this test were just fine, the part I took issue with was that they did this test without regard to social convention. They told the subjects they were going on a field trip and to get ready by a certain time. Then, they gave them many things to get distracted by, like refreshments to pack with them, a menu to preorder lunch from, and so on.  The part that upsets me about this test is that they ignored social convention entirely, to the point that subjects were judged based on their conventional actions and expectations more than their actual speed at getting ready. The buses promptly shut their doors and left at the time they were supposed to but there was no final call to get on the buses. In general, when a group is to be taken somewhere by bus, there will be an announcement to load up and leave. You could clearly see many of the subjects were ready to go and were just standing around talking while they waited for fellow subjects to finish getting ready. I have no doubt that, if given a final call, most of them would have loaded up within a couple minutes. However, they were relying on the social convention of announcing departure and were therefore, left behind entirely (for a nonexistent field trip). These people who were left behind were counted as being late and not making the time cutoff. If one were to look at the social element of this situation, if everyone there believed there would be a warning before departure, the fact that 24 to 14 women to men were loaded onto the buses at departure doesn’t necessarily indicate the women were faster to get ready. It seems to me that it’s more likely to indicate anxiety at being late and a belief that they need not impede on anything lest they be reprimanded or have social consequences for taking too long - something women are frequently bullied for. There’s also the chance that many who boarded without final call are more introverted or antisocial. Plus, we can’t forget to include the people who have anxiety about seating. If someone is overweight, has joint pain, or has social anxiety, they will be more likely to board early to get a seat they feel comfortable in. If they had counted up all of the people socializing and waiting on the sidewalks nearby, they may have found that there were more men who were ready to board up at a moment’s notice. I’m not saying I think men are faster to get ready, I’m just saying that we can’t know based on who boarded without a final call. If people believe they will have a last minute chance to board, a large number of them will take the last few minutes to socialize with their new friends until they’re told they have to board. Therefore, this test cannot be considered conclusive without counting and including the people who were ready and not boarded as a third subset.

Honestly, I could go on and on about how sensationalist and unscientific this show is, but I just don’t have 6 more hours to contribute to digging up every single flaw with it. There’s A Lot.

My point is, if you feel like watching this show, which I don’t necessarily discourage inherently, I just beg you to go into it with a critical eye. Enjoy the fun of it and the social aspects, but please don’t rely on the information provided and please don’t spread it as fact, because it’s not.

It’s entertainment, not science.

#100 humans #netflix #tv #show #science #scientific research #research #studies #study #studyblr #statistics #stats #sociology #data #netflix original #analysis #review #netflix review #show review #tv review #ghostpost #logical fallacy #logic #correlation #causation

[emma-what-son]

(Echee post) Emma Watson gets drunk and scales a fence naked

Posted on March 20, 2014

In her new interview for Elle Emma admitted something that correlates a tweet from a witness from in July 2011 on location filming Perks of being a Wallflower From snitchseeker.com May 2014, "Among her exploits: She dated a costar Johnny Simmons, and she broke into a swimming pool at 3 A.M. "It was at a hotel," she reports happily. "It had a gate around it. My friends turned around and basically, I was gone. And the next thing they saw was me seven feet up in the air, scaling this fence." This, apparently, is not as out of character as we might suppose. Watson says coyly: "I shouldn’t be able to get away with what I’m getting away with." Here is the tweet from July 2011 and here is a POST I originally posted it in at the time "@_MarieChristine $*MarieChristine; Saw @EmWatson get so drunk that she got naked n climbed the fence to go into the swimming pool at my friend's hotel......http://twitter.com/#!/_MarieChristine." So it was true. I'm not posting the quotes here (I'll link the posts with them below) but to generalize this is a girl that claims to be shy and doesn’t like to party and doesn’t drink to have a good time because it makes her really sleepy and she’s just so boring she says and blah, blah blah. She sucks people in with these statements are herself that makes people like her. It's not just about drinking and getting drunk but everything. Nothing about her is genuine in any shape or form. She is a fraud.

In a recent interview for Wonderland Magazine Emma admitted like she always has which has been one big lie that she's boring and doesn't like being the center of attention.

So in her Wonderland magazine Emma says she shy, socially awkward and a introverted person. For some reason I don't believe her. There are certain things about her that leads me to believe she is not shy or the least bit introverted. The first part of this question asked her straight out as she ever wanted to go off the rails and get drunk and she talked about getting a tattoo but never fully answered that question. The follow up question which is split below in two parts was, "But you’re not as puritanical as that, Emma" So let's look at some thing 1.) From wonderlandmagazine.com Feb 2014, "The truth is that I’m genuinely a shy, socially awkward, introverted person." Posing half naked

For years Emma has said she was shy. From topcelebrityheadlines.com June 2011, "I’m shy." From zimbio.com May 2011, "It's really hard to have a love story for me. I'm a famous actress. And I'm shy." From digitalspy.com October 2010, "Actually, I'm quite shy. I've never liked attention." From iheartwatson.net June 2011 “I still feel shy, but I feel more like I can accept it.” Her come hither looks which I limited for space reasons. There are many and I left out new ones from the Noah premiere. This is not a trait of shy and introverted people.

I doubt a truly shy and introverted people are going to say they'll strip to gain approval for anything. From mtv.com November 2010 (NYC Deathly Hallows) When we caught up with Watson just before she ducked into the theater, we informed her that 90 percent of our viewers had given her wardrobe choice — a specially made Calvin Klein gown — an enthusiastic thumbs-up in an MTV News online poll "Awww, really? Wow, that's such a high percentage!" she exclaimed. "Wow, I aced it, obviously. That's great." While 90 percent is definitely a high number, what might she do in order to get the full 100 percent of viewers' approval? "I don't know, take it off?" she quipped. Then there is her modeling which doesn't strike me as someone that is shy or introverted.

So shy and introverted she can tell a radio host some guy thinks she looks good naked From nudography.com 2008 'Harry Potter' film actress Emma Watson has said she would do a nude scene in a future film or stage role if the script called for it. Watson got on the topic of getting naked on BBC's Live Five radio "I think it's wonderful that Daniel is willing to be so brave for his craft. It's a big risk doing something like this while being so internationally known, but he's a true professional". When asked if she would ever bare all for her art, Watson replied, "Yes, absolutely. I would do it if the script called for it. I guess I would be a little nervous, but I've been told I look good naked, so I guess I've got little to worry about". When Shaffer asked Watson who thinks she looks good naked, she playfully said, "Now, now! I won't say. But I trust his expert opinion." Then there is her attention seeking along with her sultry poses and outfits she sometimes wears. Below is a series of photos from the Cannes for TBR. Everyone is walking up the steps arm and arm but Emma stops to grab the spotlight. Once she takes the arm of a cast mate she can't stop turning around smiling, giggling and waving. Once she gets to the top she hooting and hollering and then blows a series of kisses as her cast mates walk inside. This is not someone that is shy and introverted.

Claiming she wished she did more naughty things is yet another example of what a shy and introverted person would not say. From harrypotterfan.net Nov 2010, "I wished I’d done more naughty things. Three months ago I cut my hair and at that moment I felt I became a woman. I’m ready to start taking risks. I feel less girlish than ever." ... cough ... cough... From emma-watson.net September 2013 (GQ awards), “Given the perilousness in the journey from child star to adult, any award with ‘Woman’ in the title is frankly a relief!” <---- thought she, "I’ve never been in a terrible rush to be seen as a woman.” Then there is the choices of some of her outfits. If you're shy and introverted you're not going to show some flesh and you're certainly not going to show some flesh on TV or at a strip club. The last thing you want to do is draw attention to yourself. You'd be more than happy to dress modestly. There are just a few and I limited them for space reason as well. I left out her recent plunging neckline outfit from the Noah premiere in Madrid and many others like her famed 2009 HBP premiere wardrobe malfunction outfit.

From Elle magazine April 2011 iheartwatson.net, "Does having short hair make you dress differently? ’I think it’s made me bolder in my fashion choices. It’s allowed me to dress more sexily.’” cough ... cough... From omg.yahoo.com W magazine May 2013, “I’ve never wanted to grow up too fast: I wanted to wear a sports bra until I was 22! The allure of being sexy never really held any excitement for me. I’ve never been in a terrible rush to be seen as a woman.” Never heard of a shy and introverted person want o dress more sexually because of a haircut. Then there is her constant blowing of kisses which she does a lot of which all the classic pin ups like Marilyn Monroe ands other used to do. I guess it has nothing to do with shyness but introverted people are not going to go around blowing kisses at people or into the camera.

Then there are moments like this. Who does this? Shy and introverted? I think not. This is begging for attention and just plain weird.

Blowing kisses, posing, giving that sultry look and just enjoying all the attention is not the trait of a shy and introverted person.

Now the only thing I believe her on is the socially awkward part.

Now to the second part of that quote 2.) "At a big party, I’m like Bambie in the headlights. It’s too much stimulation for me, which is why I end up going to the bathroom! I need time outs! You’ve seen me at parties, Derek. I get anxious. I’m terrible at small talk and I have a ridiculously short attention span." I doubt this is true. She loves to be the center of attention on red carpets. She loves the attention. So why would parties be any different? At Coachella (bottom left photo) she was moshing at some points on stage.

This video shows her dancing on stage but there is another I lost of a video shooting down from the stage over Emma's head and you can see she's in plain view of the thousands in attendance. When I find it I'll post it. Shy and introverted people that can't take all the stimulation like she says would not put themselves out there amongst strangers and onlookers. If so, what kind of shy and introverted person is that? To see her drunk/leaving clubs and to read her contradicting quotes about drinking click these links below Emma doesn't like to party Emma never goes clubbing Emma can drink like sailor Emma lied about not drinking at Brown So basically like so much I covered on this blog by exposing her BS this is yet another example One more thing and it's a quote I've posted many times but she keeps on changing her tune In this new interview I started this post off with she also said From snitchseeker.com May 2014, "I was being offered roles that I didn’t feel were very complicated," she says. "Women that were a bit one-dimensional. Roles that required me to be one thing. Real women never are." So, rather than embrace mediocre work, she hid out in Providence, Rhode Island, emerging only for projects that would both stretch her muscles and challenge her public persona." But yet she said something different during her time at Brown From aceshowbiz.com November 2010 She tells U.S. magazine Parade, "I get some amazing offers to act, and sometimes it's hard to say, 'No, I'm going to stay here and do my homework.' People are like, 'What do you mean she's not available?' This college experience is really important to me, and I won't give it up." And yet it was not about roles at all two years ago. It was about her studying From nytimes.com September 2012, “Why hasn’t she done more films before now? “I think at first I didn’t because I was always either studying or filming, I didn’t have time to go off and do other films or other things to sort of show people that, Oh, she is not just Hermione, she is an actress and she can go and do these other parts and roles." So which is the truth and which is the lie?  So Sam in Perks and Nicki in TBR were complicated roles that she ended up leaving two Universities for? How about her small role in MWWM that took her a little over a week to film?

#echee #echee's posts

[jay-wells-writes]

Code (The Mandalorian x Reader) smut

Do you guys see what have I done? I have added someone new, from a different fandom. Did I get the lore right? Hell no. Was it fun to write? Hell yes. Will you all enjoy it? God I hope so. Let me know what you all think and if I should do more with this man.

Rated: smut

[[MORE]]

You didn't need the scarf over your eyes because the room was completely dark, but to make him feel comfortable you agreed to both the lights out and the scarf. That's how it had been in the beginning and how it has always been since. 

One of his hands dug into your hip while the other gripped your hair. His mouth sliding next to yours as his tongue danced with yours. Slowly Mando brought you down to the bed where his body covered yours. Slipping his hand from your hair he rested most of his weight on it as his other hand began to run up and down your side. Pulling away from your mouth Mando began to lay kisses down your neck and to your breast. Moving to his side he began to rock his cock against your leg while he continued to suck and bite your nipple. The hand that had been kneading your other breast now slipped down between your legs and began to slide up and down between your outer lips; running it lightly over your clit every so often. Moaning out you brought one of your hands above your head while the other one dug into Mando's back. As his fingers finally slipped into you and the callous of his thumb started to draw circles over your clit you want to tell him that you lied to him, that this wasn't going to be the last night with him, but you knew that would be a lie.

What started as letting off some bent up stress from working at the cantina with a bounty hunter, soon became more. You tried to keep your feelings out of it but it was becoming harder and harder every time he left. Mando didn't make it any easier when every time you two were together he touched and treated as a lover, with gentle kisses and touches. What really hit hard was when he admitted that you were the only one he came back too. Maybe that was his way in admitting his feelings but you knew the code he lived by and your weren't 100 percent sure that would work for you. You were brought out of your thoughts when suddenly Mando was on top of you, his mouth blowing warm air against the side of your face. Very quietly you heard him whisper in your ear as he pushed into you.

"You are thinking too much."

Grabbing your leg and bringing it up to his hip you cried out as Mando began to rock into you. Both of you cumming together a few minutes later. 

*four months later*

You were cranky. There was no if ands or buts about it and everyone knew it. No one had known about you and Mando, so when friends joked about needing a good tumble they didn't know just how right on, they were. Because you hadn't had sex with anyone since Mando left you to wake up alone. Really you shouldn't have been all that surprised when you had woken up, but not seeing him in his armor with his helmet on sitting in a chair cleaning his gun hurt more than you would have expected. Then again it also proven to you, that you had become too attached to him. 

You had been lost in your head you didn't see a towel hitting you in the head until it was too late. Looking to your right the owner of the cantina was tilting his head to the right wordlessly telling you there was a new customer sitting at a table. He looked as though he was sitting in the bar completely naked, his eyes bouncing back and forth. Giving him a warm smile you spoke as if talking to a small child.

"Evening, my name is y/n. What can I get for you tonight?"

You couldn't help but notice when you spoke the man seemed to calm down immensely. Running his hand through his hair he gave you a smile before answering.

"Well truth be told I have never eaten here so give me whatever is your favorite."

Hearing the man's voice sent chills running your body. His voice almost sounded familiar, but you knew it had been wishful thinking on your own part. There was no way Mando would be sitting in your cantina without his helmet and armor on. Still you couldn't help but lean into his table just a bit more and smile.

"Well, you're just in luck because my favorite cook is working and they will fix you something that will have you coming back for more."

Leaning forward some to rest his arms on the table the stranger gave you a grin before replying back. 

"I don't know. It looks like I already have a reason to come back. The food may just be the topping to it all."

Feeling your face flush at the cheesy pick up line you knew you then you really needed to get laid. Giving him a little wink you turned and made your way to the kitchen. 

After ordering his food you were told to run the bar, and even though you were no longer waiting on him you noticed his eyes never left your body. Unfortunately you had gotten a small rush and when you looked up the man was gone, but you could still feel him watching you from somewhere within the cantina. Eventually something caught your eye and you were looking straight into the eyes of the man. He had moved to the far side of the place slightly in the dark. It was out of sight of many of the customers so no one really noticed him, but it gave him direct line of sight to the bar and it was the same place Mando sat when he would sneak in. 

30 minutes later you were done and was able to leave. As you purposely made to walk past the man you noticed he now had two drinks sitting on the table. Just as you were passing the man, you heard him call out your name. Turning around you saw him holding one of the drinks out for you.

"Please. Have a drink with me? I travel a lot and don't talk to others very much."

Turning around you made your way to the man. Taking the drink from him you couldn't help but notice it was your favorite drink. Suddenly warning bells started to go off and you didn't feel as comfortable around him.

"So what do you do that makes you travel a lot?"

Looking down the man smiled before looking back up at you.

"Let's get right to it shall we? I can see it in your eyes you don't trust me. What changed?"

"The drink there are so many types here and you happened to pick my favorite. So who are you and what do you want?"

"The bounty hunter." Suddenly all the color drained from your face, so this man was after Mando. But as if he was reading your mind the man held up his arms. "I mean him nor you any harm. I have actually worked a couple of jobs with him and he told me that if I ever found myself here to come talk with you."

You were dizzy with all the emotions you were feeling, but the number one was rage. So it turns out Mando did just see you as nothing but a stress reliever and it turns out he told others about you too. Standing suddenly you looked down at the man.

"I don't know what all he told you, but I am not interested"

Without turning around you walked out of the cantina and into the night. As you walked quickly home you tried your best not to cry, but you didn't get far before you felt a hand wrapped around your wrist. Looking back you notice it was the man from the bar. Just as you were about to scream the man pulled you to him and covered your mouth as he "shhh'd" in your ear then whispered.

"Please y/n, I am trying my best here. The bounty hunter knew you were right that last night. The both of you couldn't go on the way you had. It's why he never stayed till that morning. He knew that if he did, he would give up everything he believed in but then he would grow to regret it. Not because of you, never because of you, but because this is all he knows. He thought long and hard over the last four months, he still doesn't know if he could give it up. So he asked me here to see if you could grow to care for another man like you did him."

Looking in the man's eyes you could see him shouting at you, begging you to see behind what he was saying.  Suddenly his thumb began to rub over your hip and it hit you all at once. The hint of never trying the food,  the spot he chose to sit, and the way his thumb moved. Reaching up you placed your hand on his cheek.

"Ma-"

"Din. My name is Din."

Bringing his hand to your face Din pulled you into a kiss and if you hadn't been sure before you knew now just who this man was. 

Pulling away you threaded your hand through his and led him the rest of the way to your place. Once inside Din pulled you back into the kiss. Carefully leading you to your room, Din began to strip you out of your clothes. By the time you had made it to your bedroom both you and Din were naked. Out of habit you leave your bedroom light on, but once you passed your door you reached out and turned it off. But Din pulled away from you and turned it back on. 

"I am not the bounty hunter. So there is no need for the lights to be off or for you to wear a scarf over your eyes. Whatever you wish to do we shall do."

Smiling lightly you ran your hands up Din's chest and back down. Bringing your mouth to his ear you rubbed your face against his as you whispered to him.

"I want to taste you Din and I want to ride you as I watch you cum." 

Something in Din snapped and he was once again pulling your mouth to his. Instead of the gentle kisses like before you and him fought for dominance, until you both had to pull away for air. 

Taking a step back Din gave you a smirk while walking past you towards your bed, a sudden smack to your ass had you turning around quickly as Din sat on the edge of your bed, with his hands balm down. In all the times you and Mando had been together he never allowed you the freedom to run your hand over his body or to even take him into your mouth. Afraid that somehow the scarf would fall from your eyes and you would see him. Seeing Din now sitting there, allowing you the freedom you were once denied you felt warmth running through your body and pooling between your legs. Walking slowly to Din you kept your eyes on him the whole time, you continued to hold his gaze as you dropped to your knees and his opened to give you room. 

Giving him a wink you broke eye contact as you looked at his chest. Surprisingly enough he didn't have as many scars as you would have thought covering his chest. Still you made sure to run your fingers over every one of them and kiss the ones you could reach. By the time you had reached his cock, Din was beginning to leak from it and his hands were digging into your sheets. Wrapping your hand around the base of his cock Din moaned loudly and when you looked up at him he had his head tipped back and his eyes closed. Giving his cock a squeeze you spoke quietly to get his attention.

"Eyes on me Din. You're not going to want to miss this."

Instantly Din was looking down at you; not giving him any warning you wrapped your lips around him and began to suck. Almost just as instantly Din's hands were in your hair and he was pushing you further down. Keeping your hand on the base of his cock you allowed Din to guide you up and down his cock. Eventually he stood so that he could thrust better into your mouth. Releasing his cock so that you could place a hand on his thigh you closed your eyes and relaxed your throat allowing him to push further in. As Din moaned out in pleasure you couldn't help but slip your other hand down to your pussy. The minute your finger pushed past your outters lips your hand was flooded with your juices. Moaning around Din's had him losing his rhythm and he looked down to see where your hand was. Pulling quickly out of your mouth Din grabbed unto his cock and mumbled under his breath as he tried to prevent himself from cumming. Once he was safe from cumming to early he released his hold on himself and pulled you to your feet. Grabbing the hand that had been between your legs Din wrapped his mouth around you finger and sucked the juices from it. Closing his eyes Din thrusted his hips into you as he groaned. Opening his eyes back up Din pulled you forward as he sat back down on the bed, moving to lay down he held your hand as you climbed over him. Resting your hands on either side of his head you could feel Din grab a hold of himself and line himself with you. With his other hand on your hip he helped you lower yourself onto him. Once he was sure you weren't going to slip out Din brought his other hand to your other hip and held on as you slowly took more of him in. His fingers digging harder into your hips each time you sunk further down.

Once fully flushed against him you rested your forehead against his and you both moaned out at the pleasure. Opening your eyes you saw that Din was staring up at you.

"I hate to admit this y/n, but I am unsure how long I can hold on. Your mouth was just to good and now I am sitting on the edge." 

Giving him a smirk you reached for one of his hands. Sitting up you began to roll your hips as you took his thumb into your mouth. Pulling it back out you then slowly brought it down to where your bodys met. 

"Then I guess you need to play catch up."

Instantly Din's thumb began to draw circles over your clit. Now it was your turn to throw your head back and moan in pleasure. Looking back down you once again began to trace the scars on his chest as you steadily rolled your hips. Feeling Din's fingers digging into your ass you looked down to see him watching you. Smiling you placed one hand by his head while resting the other one on his chest. Closing your eyes you ran your nose against his as you began to whisper/tease him as you tighten around him.

"Not yet Din. I am almost there, hold on for me just a bit longer. Can you do that for me? Hmm? Can you hold off your own pleasure so I can have mine first?" 

Instead of saying anything. Din pulled his thumb away from your clit so that both his hands were back on your hips. Crying out on the loss of his thumb you looked down to see Din staring up at you. The only words he says where "hold on" before he started to rock you back as he thrusted up. The new pace and angle had you digging your nails into his chest and crying out in pleasure. When you started to cum you couldn't help but scream out as you ran your nails down his chest. Feelings you pulsing around his cock had Din tilting his head back also and shouting as he slammed you down and came in you. 

Having no energy you collapsed on Din's chest and mumbled that you couldn't move. Laughing into your hair Din told you to hold on as he sat up and then stood. Carrying you into the bathroom, he walked straight into the shower to wash you both off. After a quick risen he followed you back into bed. Leaving the light on as you both laid in bed and spoke about anything and everything, all except the bounty hunter.

It was another four months before you saw either Din or Mando again. Coming home from work one night you opened your door to find Mando standing in your living room with a small alien baby. Holding your hands out you shook your head and spoke before Mando could.

"Listen, Din didn't tell me he could get pregnant!"

#the mandalorian #the Mandalorian x reader

[bleachanimefan1]

Turtles Forever Part 68

Mission Of Gravity

A helicopter flew into a base. Hun, Stockman, Karai, and Saki stepped out of the copter and Dr. Chaplin walked over to them.

"Dr. Chaplin," Saki spoke. "I trust what you have to show me will justify the excursion from the city?"

"Believe me, Master," Chaplin answered. "You're gonna to dig it big time." They entered the base, walking inside of it. Inside, was a giant blimp.

"You brought us all the way out here for a blimp? What pea-brained half-wit authorized this project?" Stockman asked, in disbelief.

"I did," Saki answered, narrowing his eyes. Stockman turns to him, nervously.

"Oh! Well, I'm sure you have your reasons, oh wise and revered master," he replied.

"Indeed," Saki answered. He turned to Chaplin. "Excellent work, Dr. Chaplin."

"I installed that Triceraton force field override mechanism that you recovered, just as you requested, sir," Dr. Chaplin said as they began to walk. "This baby will breach the atmospheric shield around Beijing and retrieve desired cargo, no problem!" 

"And just what does this boy genius thinks he's retrieving?" Stockman questioned.

"A Triceraton anti-gravity generator," Saki answered, smirking.

"But Master," Stockman pointed out. "removing an antigrav generator from a city floating 20 miles above the Earth's surface is a virtual suicide mission!"

"Yes, that is why I have selected you for this operation," Saki answered.

"Me?" Stockman answered, nervously. Karai walked up to her father.

"But, master, what if the millions of innocents that will perish when Beijing comes crashing to Earth?" She questioned, wondering.

"They are of no concern to me," he said her.

"How dare you question the master?" Hun scolded Karai. "I am behind this plan 100 percent."

"Good,"  Sami replied. "You will have the honor of accompanying Dr. Stockman on this extremely dangerous mission."

Hun's mouth dropped in shock. Karai stared at the group, silence. She was internally debating herself on what to do. If she let her father's plan proceed, innocents will suffer. But, she couldn't go against her father's wishes. However, maybe there was several people who can...

The three brothers and four girls follow Raph as they jumped across the rooftops. Through the night vision goggles, that they were wearing, everyone saw some Foot collecting more alien tech.

"Here it is, just like told ya," Raph said. "another one of the Shredder's alien tech garbage picking goon squad."

"I wonder what he's collecting all this stuff for," Donnie murmured.

"Intergalactic hard sale?"Mikey joked. Raph smacked him on the back of the head with his hand. "Ow!"

Leo looked again with his night vision goggles. "Hm, no police security around this time around. Just be something really important buried down there if the Shredder doesn't want the authorities to knowing about it."

Suddenly, Donnie's shell cell ringed again. He answered it using his headset. "Hello?" Donnie groaned as he only heard static again.

"Oh, not that stupid fax call again," Raph groaned.

"Only this time, I came prepared with my palmtop to trace the signal," Donnie explained, pulling out his palmtop. As he did, a download message appeared on the screen. "Download in progress?" He asked, confused. "Impossible."

"Don, figure it out later," Leo told him. "we've got something much bigger moved here." Everyone looked and saw a giant Triceraton ship being lifted under the bridge.

"Whoa, a Triceraton supply ship?" Donnie asked.

"Let's take a closer look." Leo said.

Hun and Stockman were standing in the blimp's control room, complaining.

"All of our loyal service and this is the thanks we get?" Hun spats. "Pushed aside by the new blood."

"Perhaps, it's time we started pushing back," Stockman suggested. The two looked at the double doors as Chaplin came in.

"Hey, I just wanted to say, no matter how bad the Shredder treats you, I'm still honored to be working with the legendary Baxter Stockman...even if you are a freakish brain in a jar of your former self," He praised. Stockman frowned. "The truth is, I can't seeing someone I admired reduced to such a pathetic existence. So I've decided to put an end to your suffering," Chaplin begins to inch towards Stockman, who backs away in shock. Chaplin picks up Stockman's jar.

"Wait, what are you-no! W-What are you doing?!" He pressed on button and the hologram shuts off. Hun watched as Chaplin took Stockman away.

Everyone hid behind a tractor, looking around for scouts or any Foot ninjas. But, they saw that there weren't any around.

"Hey, no foot goons," Mikey pointed out.

"Where did they all go?" Donnie asked.

"I don't like it," Leo said. "Keep your eyes open."

They stopped in front of a ship. "You think they're in the ship?" Raph questioned.

"Only one way to find out," Leo said as they all walked in. They were carrying flashlights to help see.

"Nothing in here of any value to the Shredder," Donnie replied. Suddenly, the doors closed behind them. Everyone ran to the doors and started pounding on it, except Mikey.

"Nothing except us turtles and girls!" he exclaimed, nervously.

 They tried to get the door to open, but it was closed shut. Then the lights suddenly turned on, a dark figure emerged from the shadows.

"Karai?" Leo questioned, taking off his goggles.

"We need to talk," She tells them.

"Talk to the sais, cause the ears ain't listening," Raph retorted, pulling out his sais.

"Raph, wait," Leo stops him. "Let's hear her out. She helped us last time remember?"

"And she tried to kill you the time before that, remember?" Yuuki reminded Leo.

"I apologize for the elaborate set up, but I knew of no other way to contact you," Karai explained. "I need your help."

Back on the blimp, Chaplin was still carrying Stockman as he walked up to a large robot body that was standing next to the elevator. Hun crossed his arms as he watched Chaplin took Stockman's brain from the jar, placing it into the robot. The hologram of Stockman turns back on.

 "Release me at once, you-!" He paused, looking at his new body. "What the?"

"What do you think of your new bod?" Chaplin asked.

"I have limbs," Stockman laughed. "powerful limbs!"

"I figure you'll need them to survive the big mission," Chaplin said, proudly.

"Ah, yes, the mission," Stockman turned to the young scientist. "Pity that you'll be miss out on the maiden voyage of this incredible vessel of this ship that you designed and built with your own two hands. Not to mention witness firsthand as an entire city crashes down from the stratosphere!" He slammed his hands on the panel.

"Man, that'd be so cool," Chaplin said in awe.

"Yes," Stockman smirked, evilly. "Of course, you could decide to go behind the Shredder's back and join us, but that would be wrong, wouldn't it?"

"Hey,...what the boss doesn't know won't hurt him, right?" The young scientist asked, hesitantly. Hun rubs his chin in thought.

"True, and naturally, I would assume full responsibility for your well-being throughout the entire mission. After all, we wouldn't want you to call victim to some...unfortunate accident." Stockman said to him.

"And so if they remove the antigrav generator, they will be sending millions to their doom. I need you to prevent this from happening," Karai said as she finished explaining.

"So does this finally mean that you come to your senses and turn your back on the Shredder?" Leo questioned.

"I am duty-bound to serve the Shredder, as always," Karai told him. "I just...do not wish to see millions suffer."

"Even if we agree to help you, what's to stop the Shredder from coming back for the antigrav generator the next time? It's not we can shut it down," Donnie pointed out.

"Actually, I might be able to provide some assistance regarding that particular technical conundrum," a familiar voice answered, from Donnie's bag.

"Whoa, am I hear things?" Mikey said. "That sounded like Professor Honeycutt!"

Donnie opened his bag and pulled out his palmtop, revealing the professor on the screen. "Hello?"

"It IS Professor Honeycutt!" Donnie exclaimed as everyone leaned in.

"Professor, you're alive! No way!" Raph exclaimed in shock.

"It can't be," Leo shook his head in surprise. "We saw you sacrifice yourself." He took the palmtop. "You saved the world."

"Oh dear, I'm a afraid I don't remember that," the Fugitoid replied. "Thing last thing I was that I was on the rooftop with Donatello, broadcast a signal to make me invisible to the Triceratons. What I didn't tell you was that I also uploaded a back-up of my memory code into the satellite communications network, set to contact you in the event of my destruction. Which I'm assuming must have happened."

"So you were the one making those calls to my shell cell," Donnie concluded. "And the download, that was you sending your memory core into my palmtop." 

"Well, most of it," the Fugitoid answered. "your hard drive was lacking capacity, so I had to forego some non-essential information."

Mikey the palmtop from Donnie's hand. "Who cares, professor? I'm just so happy to see you!"

"I'm sorry, do I know you?" the Fugitoid questioned, confused.

"Michelangelo," the palmtop beeps. "Mikey," the orange masked turtle received no response. "The Mikester," He still received no response. "Wait, so I'm non-essential information?"

"Anyway, I couldn't help overhearing you dilemma, Miss?" Mikey turned the professor to Karai.

"Karai," she bowed to him.

"With my knowledge of Triceraton technology, I should be able to assume control of the antigrav generator gently lowering the city of Beijing back to Earth," the Fugitoid explained. "In theory."

"Saving millions of lives in the process!" Leo exclaimed, taking the palmtop from Mikey. "That's brilliant, professor!"

"So are we to assume we have a deal?" Karai pondered.

"Deal," Leo answered. "Okay, now how do we get into Beijing?"

"Leave that to me."

As everyone began to leave, Yuuki turned back, looking at Karai. Leo noticed.

"You coming?" He asked.

"I will in a minute," Yuuki answered. "I need to have a little chat with our companion."Leo stared for a moment then followed after his brothers. Yuuki approached Karai as she was making a phone call.

"You got a minute?" She asked. Karai glanced over at her then hanged up. 

"Yes, sure. What is it?" Karai asked.

"I just wanted to say one thing: If you put one foot out of line, do anything, and I mean anything, to hurt Leo or my family then you will have to answer to me," Yuuki threatened as she glared darkly. "It will be the last mistake that you will ever make, permanently." Karai stared at her in shock as she stepped back. 

Yuuki silently walked away leaving the stunned woman in standing where she was.

The blimp was preparing to leave as cargo was being carried inside by a forklift. Karai stopped the driver as she instructed them to lower a large crate.

"What's in the crate, Karai?" Hun asked, curious. "And why are you suddenly joining this mission?"

 "That is none of your concern," Karai told him. Hun growled as she walked away.

Chaplin and Stockman watched as several strange machines was being loaded onto the blimp. "What exactly is all of this?" Stockman demanded.

"Uh, uh, uh, that'd spoil the surprise," Chaplin answered, placing his hands on one of the strange cargo. The sun was starting to rise as the blimp took off.

"Hey, attention all hands, welcome to China," Chaplin announced on the speaker. "The floating city of Beijing is dead ahead. Pretty cool, huh?"

Karai sneaked quietly to the Cargo Bay, looking around until she saw the same box that she was keeping a close eye on. She tapped on it. "Stand by, we are approaching Beijing," she whispered. The four brothers and girls were inside, with hang gliders strapped to their backs.

"About time," Mikey said. "I really gotta go to the little turtle's room."

As the blimp advanced closer towards Beijing, Chaplin was steering it towards the sheild. "Activating force field override," He pressed a button and the blimp went right through the shield. Back in the Cargo Back, Hun had stalked Karai, realizing that she was up to something and saw her next to the box, talking to it.

"I knew you were up to something," He backs away and pressed a button on the wall with his elbow. "Oops. Happy landing, Karai." The floor suddenly opens underneath of Karai, along with the box, falling towards Beijing.

"I knew we shouldn't have trusted Karai!" Raph shouted.

"We can argue later!" Leo said. "Everybody brace!" Leo kicked the crate open and everyone fell out. They pulled the lever on their hang gliders opening them. Donnie looks down and saw that Leo hadn't opened his glider yet.

"Leo!" Donnie called out. "What are you waiting for? Deploy!"

Leo catches Karai before she hit the ground. "Gotcha!" He opens his glider right before the two was about to hit the top of a building.

"We made it," Leo said in relief.

"Of course," Karai replied. "Now land, Leonardo. We have much work to do."

"Just about to touch Tiananmen Square," Chaplin reported. "Where's Karai?"

"She got bumped from the mission," Hun explained as he walked into the control room. "apparently, she had a little falling out with the organization."

An old man was driving a bike, that was attached to a wagon. He runs away as he sees Leo, along with the others as they land behind him.

"Hey, what was with the instant skydiving lesson?" Mikey demanded.

"It was an unforeseen event," Karai said, flipping her hair. "But, I have my suspicion as to who is responsible."

"You know what your problem is, lady?" Raph growled. "You can't decided whether you want to help us or kill us. Make up your mind already!" He pulls out his sais.

"Ditto!" Yuuki agreed, pulling out her fan. Leo stops them.

"Not now, guys. We're miles off target and we need to get to Tiananmen Square!" He tells them.

"Hey guys," Donnie called out, climbing into the wagon. "How about this? Low tech, but effective."

"Hop on, Karai," Leo suggested, only to find that she had vanished. "Karai?"

In Tiananmen square, there were Beijing soldiers guarding the antigrav generator. They spotted the blimp above them. 

"Great, nobody warned us we'd be having an welcoming committee to contend with," Stockman commented.

"No sweat, doc," Chaplin said. "Time to unleash my surprise." He pressed a button and the strange cargo began to fall into the city of Beijing. The troops ran away as the strange contraptions began to open up revealing to be mousers, only bigger and more upgraded.

"Mousers version 2.0," Chaplin explained. One of the guards fired a laser, however, the mouser was not affected by it. "I took your basic concept and gave them a little upgrade. Cool, huh?"

Stockman scoffed. "Upgrade? More like a side grade,"

One of the mousers destroyed a search light. Another guard gasped and ran away as another search light was destroyed. Eventually, the mousers overran the guards sending them running. The robots chewed through the fence and the blimp stopped right above the generator. The crane locks on, with Chaplin on it. He jumps down and climbed down the ladder.

Mikey wheezed as he peddled the bike. "Integra...generator dead ahead,"

"Ready to work your magic, professor?" Donnie asked from his palmtop. Stockman sees the group from the blimp.

"What! How on Earth did those meddlesome freaks get here?!" he demanded.

"I got this one, Doctor Stockman," Chaplin offered. He turns on the voice control. "Mousers, attack!"

"Funny, Karai never mentioned anything about overgrown mousers!" Mikey exclaimed. Everyone jumped down from the wagon, bracing themselves.

"Nothing fancy, guys," Leo called out. "Just clear a path for Don and the professor!"

Leo jumps up, landing on a mouser's head before cutting it off. Donnie leaps and smacks a mouser with his staff. The mousers soon began to surround everyone. Chaplin looks down at them from above and starts to head back to the control panel. "Commencing shut down sequence. Get ready to haul me up when this baby rips free from the pavement."

Donnie jumps onto a mouser and managed to leap towards the generator. Chaplin chuckles at him. "You're too late, green guy," The generator starts to shake, to his surprise, then a blue light begins to emit from it.

"What the shell?!" Raph asked.

"That's not supposed to happen!" Chaplin panicked. The city was dropping at an fast rate, plummeting towards the Earth. Everyone screamed as they were lifted up, as well as the citizens, due to the gravity. The blimp shakes as Chaplin managed to get to the rope.

"Pull me up. We're gonna have to ditch it!"

"Oh, that's not all we're going to ditch, my boy," Stockman answered. He released the rope from the blimp and Chaplin fell back onto the tower. Stockman took the blimp, driving it away from the city. Everyone tried to steady themselves, with difficulty.

"Way too much free fall for one day," Mikey commented. Donnie hanged onto the generator opening his bag.

"Showtime, professor," the palmtop drifted up towards him. Donnie catches it and aims the palmtop at the control panel.

"Now, carefully regulated circuitry of the gravity flux capacitor should gradually decrease the decent at a rate of 12.6 phraxos per trigon," the city begins to float safely down and everybody lands on the ground.

"Yes!" Mikey cheered as he kisses the ground. "Back on solid ground."

"Unfortunately, so are they!" Raph exclaimed, pointing at the mousers as they land. Everyone began to fight with them as Chaplin lands safely in front of the tower.

"I'm alive!" he cheered. "I'm alive!" A mouser hits him on the back of the head and he falls to the ground, unconscious, groaning.

"How are we holding up?" Donnie asked.

"I'm afraid I'll have to divert power from the atmospheric shield," the Fugitoid explained. "Although, the wind resistance may work in our favor."

The wind starts to pick up as the turtles and girls fight the mousers. "As if we don't have enough problems," Leo groaned, as the mousers started to advance towards them. Suddenly, Karai flips, landing in front of them, fighting off two mousers.

"About time you showed up," Raph commented.

"I could not afford to be seen coming to your aid earlier," Karai started as she kicked a mouser. "If the Shredder were to find out..."

"Enough talk!" Leo shouted. "Let's do it!"

He jumps up and faced against to mousers. Mikey jumps up and climbs on one. "Yeeha!" he shouted. "Get along, little mousers!" he uses his nunchucks to steer the robot. A mouser was climbing up towards Donnie. He turns around getting ready to attack, but, Venus jumps up onto the generator and kicks the mouser off. 

"Hurry up!" She called out. Donnie turned back to the control panel. 

"The city's almost back on Terra firma," he said. Mikey looses control of the mouser he was riding and it throws him off into the fence. Two mousers began to advance towards him. Alopex notices and jumps in between them trying to fend the robots off, struggling. Two mousers, Leo was fighting against, slammed into him with their heads, knocking him to the ground. Raph tackles one and another robot grabs him and throws Raph to the ground. Mona and Yuuki both get knocked down as the robots pinned them down. Karai gets tackled by one as it pinned her to the ground.

"I hope you know what you're doing, professor!" Donnie exclaimed. The antigrav generator turns back on, frying the mousers. The city of Beijing began to slowly drift back down into place.

"That electromagnetic pulse should have burned out this device, while simultaneously nullifying those awful metal ruffians," the Fugitoid explained. Leo looked around, seeing the destroyed mousers.

"Then it is over," Karai said, starting to leave.

"Not until you walk away from the Shredder, Karai," Leo called out.

"You know I cannot do that," she told him. Leo places a hand on her shoulder turning her around.

"This is the perfect opportunity. They think you are dead. You can disappear. We can help you start a new life," Leo explained. Karai looks away, pondering for a minute before looking back at Leo.

"Could you so easily turn your back on your father?" she responded. "Even if you knew the things he did were wrong?" Leo frowned, looking at his brothers.  Donnie had a strange look on his face, like something was bothering him.

"Is something wrong?" Venus asked.

"What are you looking at?" Raph questioned.

"Isn't the Forbidden City supposed to be north of here?" Donnie asked.

"And isn't the sun supposed to rise in the East?" Mikey pondered, as the sun began to rise on the left of the generator.

"Oh dear," the Fugitoid said. "Did I set the city down facing in the wrong direction?"

In the Shredder's lair, Hun and Stockman were walking onto the base then into the elevator, heading towards the lab.

"The master will be disappointed that we came back empty handed," Hun pointed.

"Not to mention, the unfortunate demise of Karai and young doctor Chaplin," Stockman answered as the doors open, entering the room. "We'll blame it all on them, just follow my lead." They stop in front of Saki, who was looking at them, with a dark look in his eyes.

"Master, we have unfortunate news," Stockman started. "Karai and Doctor Chaplin are-"

"Wait," Saki interrupted, walking over to a control panel. Hun and Stockman, looked in confusion. "Perhaps, you would like to share your news," He turns on the video cam, revealing Karai and Chaplin on the other end. "with Karai and Dr. Chaplin."

"Hi, Dr. Stockman!" Chaplin greeted. "Everything's okay, we made it!"

The two hesitantly glanced over at Saki, who crosses his arms, narrowing his eyes at them.

"B-B-But, sir, we can explain-" Stockman protested, nervously as the two backed away. Saki began to advance slowly towards them.

"Noo!" the two shouted as their screams echoed throughout the city.

#teenage mutant ninja turtles #tmnt #tmnt donatello #tmnt raphael #tmnt michelangelo #tmnt leonardo #tmnt 2003 #fanfiction

[rimmers-swimming-certificate]

Red Dwarf fanfic - Comatose (12/19)

part 1 | part 2 | part 3 | part 4 | part 5 |  part 6 | part 7 | part 8 | part 9 | part 10 | part 11

Rimmer carefully examined the two guitars, one leaning against the wall of their sleeping quarters and the other, right next to it, doing a reasonably convincing impression of the same thing.

“No,” he said. He shook his head. “No no no, Holly. It’s totally different. You need to make it look the same.”

They had been at this for over an hour and for some reason Holly still wasn’t getting it.

From the viewscreen, Holly appeared to look from one guitar to the other. In actual fact, Rimmer knew that she was looking from the microcameras positioned around the room, and around the whole ship. They were always on, always aware, giving the computer a 360 degree view of everything that happened on board. There were no secrets from Holly. Rimmer tried not to think about that too hard, because thinking about it reminded him that Holly knew exactly what he had used to get up to with Inflatable Ingrid when he had been alive, and he would rather not think about that, thank you very much.

She looked for a long time, eyes flicking from right to left as she appeared to switch her gaze from one guitar to the other. Finally she sighed in exasperation. “They’re the same, Arnold,” she told him.

Rimmer, crouching on the floor near the two instruments, shook his head. “No they’re not. They’re completely different.” He pointed to the first guitar, the original. “This one here, it’s black, yes, but it’s more of a charcoal black, whereas this one,” he pointed at the second instrument, “This one is very clearly onyx.”

“Clearly,” Holly said. Rimmer caught the sarcasm in her voice, and he didn’t care for it.

“And you see the damage on this one? The cigarette burn on the front there? On this other one, it’s about a millimetre too far to the left.”

Holly sighed. “It’s the same. I did a complete three dimensional scan of the thing. I can guarantee with 101 percent certainty that they are identical.”

“Er… 101?” Rimmer frowned. “You can’t have more than 100 percent certainty, Holly.”

She frowned. “Can too,” she said. “And I’m 106% certain of that.”

Rimmer placed his head in his hands and wondered, not for the first time, how the universe could have been so cruel as to sentence him to an eternity in deep space with these idiots. “I don’t care if you think it’s a million percent accurate, Holly, they’re not the same. Come on! You’re a supercomputer with a reported IQ of six thousand. I mean, granted you lost a couple of zeros from that figure over the years, and to be perfectly honest I was never convinced by that whole ‘six thousand’ boast in the first place, but despite all that, surely a computer should still have a better eye for detail than I do.”

Holly rolled her eyes theatrically. “Well yeah,” she said. “I do. That’s how come I can see they’re the same.” She sank into silence for a moment, then sighed. “Okay, look. You’re right, I should have a better eye for detail than you. So there’s only two possible explanations for why we disagree.”

“Go on then,” Rimmer told her.

“First one is, I can’t see any difference because there is no difference. They’re exactly the same and you’re the one that’s wrong.”

“No, that can’t be it,” Rimmer told her dismissively. “What’s the other possibility?”

Holly frowned. “I’ve forgotten,” she said. “Funny, I knew it a minute ago.”

Rimmer raised his eyes upward in a ‘give me strength’ gesture to a God that he didn’t believe in, and who, if he ever had existed in the first place, had almost certainly long since abandoned the remaining crew of a long-forgotten mining ship. “Great,” he said. “Fine. Let’s agree to disagree. Just move the cigarette burn one… no, one point five millimetres to the left, and adjust the colour.”

“If you say so,” Holly intoned. The cigarette burn shifted to the correct position. Rimmer looked at it again, and frowned. Actually, now it was too far to the right. Maybe Holly had been right after all.

Well, there was no way he was going to tell her that. He’d never hear the end of it.

“Great,” he said. “Just one thing to check.” He reached out with one hand and strummed his fingers across the strings of the holographic guitar. The sound was hideous; a discordant mess that made him cringe in discomfort and wish that he was deaf. “Perfect,” he said. “Where is Lister anyway?”

“About twenty metres away, heading in this direction,” Holly told him.

“What? I said warn me when he’s on his way.” Rimmer jumped backward, away from the door, and sat down on his bunk at the exact same moment Lister entered the room. Either Lister sprinted those twenty metres, or Holly had miscalculated again.

Lister looked around the room before settling a suspicious gaze on Rimmer. “What’s going on?” he asked.

“Going on?” Rimmer said. “Nothing. What makes you think anything’s going on?”

Lister’s suspicion appeared to deepen. “Because when I walked in here, you leaped back like you’d been doing something you shouldn’t, and then sat down on the bunk trying to look nonchalant.”

Rimmer nodded. It was Holly’s fault of course. If he’d had just a few more seconds to prepare, he could have been much more convincing. Luckily, it wasn’t as though he was saving the gift for a special occasion. It was done, or as done as it was going to be.

He got to his feet. “Well, something was going on, as it happens,” he said.

Lister nodded. “I know. That’s what I said. So, what were you up to?”

RImmer folded his arms. “I resent that, actually,” he said. “I resent the fact that you just assume I’m ‘up to’ something, like I’ve always got some nefarious scheme on the go like some cartoon bad guy on one of those terrible TV shows you like to watch.”

Lister sighed. He sat down and shook his head. “Will you relax? It’s a figure of speech. When you say ‘What are you up to’? it means ‘what are you doing?’ It’s like when you bump into your mate unexpectedly and you go ‘Alright?’ it doesn’t mean you think there’s something wrong, it’s just a way of saying hello.”

Rimmer frowned. Was it? He wondered what the correct response was in that case. He suspected that maybe he shouldn’t have been saying “fine thanks’ all those years. “Yes, I know that. Obviously,” he said.

“So, what were you up to?”

Rimmer straightened up proudly. “I was making something, actually,” he said. Keeping his eye on Lister to see his reaction, he indicated the guitar with a wave of his hand.

Lister looked confused. He glanced around the room, then back to Rimmer “Okay. What were you making?”

“What do you mean ‘what’? The gui…” he stopped. The guitar had disappeared. “Er, Holly, where did it go?”

Holly appeared back on the screen. “Where did what go?” she asked.

One of these days, he was going to send one of the skutters into Holly’s inner wiring and have them perform a lobotomy. The result couldn’t possibly be any worse than what they had now. “You know what, you stupid computer. The thing that we just spent an hour making, and that you have now blinked out of existence. Put it back.”

“Oh, right,” Holly said. “Why didn’t you say?”

The holographic copy of the guitar reappeared next to Lister’s real one. Lister looked at it, then back to Rimmer, and then to the guitar again. “Is that…? He said. He took a step forward, toward the guitar, then hesitated. “Is it real?” he asked.

“Well, no,” Rimmer told him. “It’s a hologram.”

“No, I mean can I…” Lister reached out hesitantly, as though he expected for the guitar to disappear, or for his hand to pass through it as it would the genuine instrument. When his fingertips connected with the neck of the guitar. His eyes widened in surprise, and his hand closed around it.

“You did this?” he asked.

Rimer tried to look modest. “Well, Holly helped. A bit. But basically, yes.”

Lister plucked one of the strings with the well-chewed nail of his right index finger. It reverberated unpleasantly around the room, and Rimmer tried not to cringe. Lister plucked each string in turn, eyes closed and an expression of pure joy on his face. When he opened his eyes to look at Rimmer again, he was smiling in a way that Rimmer didn’t remember seeing in… well, since the accident.

“Why?” he asked.

Rimmer frowned. “What do you mean ‘why’?

Lister strummed the guitar, the fingers of his left hand pressing the strings to play a chord. Or they would have, if the guitar had been anything close to in tune. It occurred to Rimmer that perhaps he should have asked Holly for it to be slightly less true to life in that regard. “You hate my guitar. You’ve threatened to have the skutters smash it up more times than I can count. You said it was noise pollution, hazardous to health. You said it should have a warning sign on it.”

It was a fair point. He had said and done all of that. One one occasion, before he had died, he had come within inches of actually snapping the damn thing in two. Until Lister had jumped down from the bed in a panicked attempt to save it, and crushed Rimmer’s foot. He’d limped for a week after that.

He looked away, feeling awkward suddenly. The truth was, Lister had given him something, when he had placed his arms around him and allowed him to experience his first real hug in… well, he wasn’t sure, but it had been a hell of a lot longer than three million years. When he had kneaded the tension out of his neck and shoulders, when he had let Rimmer touch him and not recoiled in revulsion. Lister had given him something, and he had wanted to give him something back.

Not to mention, there was a chance that he might feel a teensy bit guilty for something he had thought a few days earlier. It wasn’t his fault, of course; it wasn’t like he could be held accountable for the thoughts that popped unbidden into his head, but after Lister’s seizure, he had, briefly, hoped for worse news. It wasn’t that he would exactly be happy if Lister needed to stay as a hologram, but he definitely wouldn’t have been unhappy about it either.

He shrugged. “I didn’t have anything better to do,” he said.

Lister gave him a look, and Rimmer was certain that he understood. He understood the first reason, anyway, though he was frustratingly perceptive and there was always a chance he had picked up on the second one too. “Thanks man,” he said. “Come ‘ere.” Still clutching the guitar to his chest, Lister wrapped his arms around Rimmer. For a moment, squashing the guitar between them.

Rimmer hesitated, before he put his own arms around Lister. It felt so good. He tried to remind himself that it was Lister that he was hugging. Slobby, revolting Lister whose dirty laundry set off the chemical waste alarm on two separate occasions. Lister, who he had once watched wake up, strain five cigarette butts out of a warm can of lager with a tea strainer and chug the drink for breakfast. He was disgusting, and right now, Rimmer didn’t care one bit.

“You don’t know what this means to me,” Lister added.

No, Rimmer supposed. He probably didn’t. He had never been musically gifted. Of course, neither was Lister -- in fact, if there was such a thing as the opposite of musically gifted, that was Lister -- but he enjoyed it. He could lose himself in it and forget his troubles. Rimmer had always envied him that ability, and he knew that being cut off from it, whether it was temporary or not, had been difficult for him.

Finally, Lister patted Rimmer on the back, the universal signal for ‘that’s enough hugging now’, and took a step back. Holding the guitar reverentially in his hands, he brushed his fingers over the smooth surface of its body and the rough damage of the cigarette burn.

“It takes a lot of power to generate,” Rimmer told him. “Keeping you and me going at the same time is taxing enough on power reserves as it is, so Holly tells me it’ll disappear when you’re not using it, so she can use the power for other things. You’ll need to ask for it when you want it back.”

“Yeah, okay,” Lister agreed, still stroking the guitar like it was some kind of pet.

“And don’t spend too long playing, or we might need to skimp on light or heating.”

No reply.

“Lister, did you hear me?”

Lister wasn’t listening anymore. He had sat down on Rimmer’s bunk and started to pluck the strings one by one, a faraway look on his face.

Rimmer nodded, satisfied. He backed away a couple of steps, then headed for the door.

“Hey, where are you going?” Lister asked him.

“Away,” Rimmer told him. “I’ve done my good deed for the day. Just because I gave you that thing doesn’t mean I should have to suffer though listening to you play it.”

(next)

(Thanks once again to @norwegianpornfaerie for betaing)

#red dwarf #red dwarf fanfic #my fic #dave lister #arnold rimmer #in which rimmer no only tries to be nice #but actually suceeds