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iaeriy · 3 months

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unexpected lv • joão fèlix x reader

summary: things can get strange at first without knowing.. but for a birthday surprise.. it turns out to be a huge moment for your boyfriend as you two settle in for some changes.

word count; 2.7k!!!!

warnings; fluff, spanish translated sentences, mention of moans.. nothing bad this chapter!

a/n; not proofread!! i decided to make this short..i’m already excited to write the next chapters 🥹🥹, i did want to say tho i know i just uploaded a joão smut but..this chapter has probably been waiting for since so i deliver, anywhoo..! hope y’all enjoy! 🎀

It had been a month since the announcement, nothing has really changed around the house besides joão being more attached to you and well..that was because of the twins. You only had about four months left, it has already been 5 months. today you just turned 5 months, the babies still kicking and moving around more. On the other hand for you, there was a bit of chaos with hospital plannings and how things would settle in for that day coming up. You and joão were currently in an empty room, big enough for a bunch of space.

“so will this be the room for the twins?” he said looking at you, you nodded your head, “it’s closer to us so yeah, that works fine. tho it’s better they sleep with us the first few days were home when we come back..” you said, he smiled standing behind you, his hands wrapping around your stomach. you looked up giggling, “i think they’re asleep baby..” you said, as he shook his head. “no, u never know i mean they respond to anything.” he said the second he felt a kick in your stomach against his hand, “see, one of them are awake.” he said kissing your cheek, you smiled as his hand continued moving around your stomach.

“joãoo..let them sleep..” you said he frowned, “they have all day..that’s boring..” he said resting his chin on your shoulder, “mhmmm..its boring when you play fifa..” you spoke, he scoffed. “no it’s not!” he spanked your ass softly, you gigled before turning around. “should we go buy the crib..just for now and then later on we’ll see what there is next?” you said looking up at him.

“we can go buy the stuff later on if you want..” he said, you nodded your head quickly in response before he went over to you kneeling down infront of your stomach, “can they hear me..” he said, kissing your stomach. you winced at the hard kick, “i think they can..” you said he kissed your stomach again before standing up kissing your forehead, “they have my kicks..” he said smirking, you smacked his arm. “hush!” you spoke before he kneeled down again, putting his ear against your stomach, “my babies..can you hear me..” he said moving his hand around before you felt another kick, “mommy doesn’t like when u two kick her..” he said, you giggles rolling your eyes playfully, “you two are only in there for uh-how long again?” he said before you burtsed out of laughter loudly, “let’s just go shopping amor, despues se pone de noche..” (then it turns night..) you said as he kisses your belly again before getting up.

5:56pm

you quickly changed into a pair of flare leggings and a oversized shirt, putting shoes before walking out the bathroom, “are we leaving now?” he said, you nodded walking over to him sitting down on the bed. “does your back hurt?” he said as you nodded, “just a bit..this belly gets tiring and its only been five months.. not to mention the appointment checkup is in two weeeks..” you said feeling another movement in your stomach, you looked down giggling before looking up at joão, “moving again?” he said, you nodded your head in response standing up again, “they’re going to be very energetic..” you said, he chuckled getting up as you two walked your way downstairs.

you held his hand following him to the garage, “do we have names yet..” he said, you whined loudly. “n-not yet..i think we find out their gender next check up, liliana wants to come and keep the results herself until, do you possibly want to come along..” you spoke standing next to the car, he looked at you. “maybeeeee..” he said in a singingly tone, you giggled before he opened the door for you, getting inside yourself as he closed the door walking over to his side, opening the door getting inside, starting the car. you grabbed the garage remote, opening the garage. “they’re moving around a lot than usual..” you said resting your head against the window, he placed his free hand on your stomach. “maybe cause they love their daddy more..” he said, you scoffed. “no! not true!” you frowned feeling your stomach twitch, “how long have you been hiding them for y/n..” he spoke, sliding his hand into your cold bump.

his warm hand caressing your stomach, you moaned a bit as he shot a look at you quickly, head turning around. “sorry..my stomach has been cold..not even the blanket helps sometimes..” you said, he smiled as your head rested back on the window. “i hid it for about 3 months.. I never knew myself i was pregnant joão..those weird things i’ve been eating. I didnt know they were specifically from the babies..” you said, he chuckled feeling a harsh kick on your belly again. “even the twins themselves are happy..” he spoke chuckling, “think at some point i also stopped going to the clinic for my birth control..so..that kind of explains..” you said. “really, so your telling me that the sex we had before going to my parents house you were pregnant..and i ended up filling your stomach up with my cum about THREE TIMES.” he said, you bursted out laughing again.

“mhmmm..now enough with your language cause your children can hear us now..” you said as he scoffed, “then they’ll ask us what it means and that’s good.” he said, you stared at him. “um, no it isn’t..” you spoke looking at him, “we have to speak to them differently, theres no need to be a bit um..weird and our language has to be appropriate too..” you said, he rolled his eyes. “right..” he said poking your stomach, you smacked his hand off, “enough! i don’t need them kicking me more harder..” you said before he pouted, “you hear that..your mommy doesn’t like me at all.” he spoke before you grabbed his hand biting his finger, he looked at you. “really..” he grabbed your cheeks, you whined before kissing you. you kissed back cupping his cheeks. “are we here yet..” you said pulling away just a bit, he nodded his head as you went back to kissing him. “you get onto me but look at you..” he murmured before you smacked his head, he pulled away giggling.

“you have uh..lipstick stains..” you said he looked at the mirror before looking at you, “it’s okay, you’ve done worse..” he said looking down, you blushed heavily smacking his arm as he smirked. “quit! you’re not funny!” you said unbuckling your seatbelt, “matter fact. want a hickey again?” he said before you shook your head quickly, “no thanks! let’s go now!” you spoke as the two of you got out the car walking into the store.

you held his hand, the two of you walking to the crib section. “are we buying four..” he said, you looked at him gulping. “we could just buy two for now, then once it gets closer to the due date we’ll go buy the actual cribs for them. we need to buy possibly a diaper bag for now too..” you said, he looked down at you kissing your cheek, “and baby clothes?” he spoke confused, “until the gender reveal, we’ll probably get clothes and gifts for the twins thrown at us. let’s just find a crib for the babies..” you said looking at him, the two of you walking around looking for a crib you two would agree on.

after 15 minutes of diagreeing and agreeing..

“okay! we’ll just take this one then j..” you said he frowned, “your gonna rock this shit around, what if he or she falls off..” he said, you shook your head. “no, they have barriers baby..they’re cute too and the white is possibly a good color..” you said, he nodded his head before he grabbed one box placing it in the cart, he grabbed another box placing it in the cart. “want me to push it?” you said as he shook his head, “too heavy, i dont want your back more in pain..” he said, you smiled before you followed him around. “what isle again?” he said, you giggled, “dad mode already..” you spoke as he chuckled, “nope just love you a lot and the twins.” he said, “diaper bag i forgot.” he said, “that’s where we’re going.” you said giggling. you roamed around the shelves looking for one, you grabbed a pink one before putting it in the cart. he looked at you, “pink?” he said tilting his head, you nodded in response.

“not because its a girl, because pink is my favorite color. now let’s go!” you said, he tapped on your shoulder you turned around looking up at him. “you can get anything else, you know that right..” he said, you shook your head. “i don’t think i need anything else..” you said frowning.

“not even new bras? you’ve been struggling lately..”

“i don’t need any! you’re being a pervert again!”

“actually maybe you’re right..”

“see i told you.” he said, you stuck your tongue out on him walking to the maternity isle, “they’re awake again..kicking and moving around..” you giggled before finding a pack of bras, placing them in the cart. “i think that’s all..” you said before he kissed your cheek, “let’s go pay then.” he said smiling, you two walked over to the self checkout, you looked down at your stomach. “wonder what they’ll be..” you said, he looked at you. “two girls, hopefully..” he said, you giggled as you watched joão pay for everything, “i love you..” you said, he smiled kissing your lips, you kissed back giggling before you two walked out.

“i wanted to push the cart..” you said as he shook his head, “not to see you in pain from standing and the backpain..” he said, you smiled. he opened the back trunk placing he stuff, “are they going to fit in there..” you said, he shook his head. “we’ll just put them in the backseat.” he said, you balanced your weight on your tippy toes. your stomach jittering around as you giggled, you walked to the passenger side opening the door getting in the seat.

you rested your head on the windoe again sighing shakily, almost falling asleep the door opened as joão put both boxes in the back seats. “sleepy or in pain..” he said, you looked at him. “both..” you said, falling asleep. joão chuckled at you sleeping, he went to the driver seat sitting down starting the car, “wake up..” he said holding your hand, you whined. “dejame dormir..” (let me sleep..) you said, “te amo mucho..” (i love you a lot..) he said, you giggled in your sleep, “yo mas..” (me more..) you said sleepily still sleeping, his free hand rested on your thigh. smacking his hand off you fell back asleep, “dejame dormir..!” you whined out, he chuckled placing his hand inside your shirt on your belly.

you moaned a bit, he looked at you. “does the cold really turn you on..” he said moving his hand around, you whined. “no..your flirting sucks by the way.” you murmured sleepily as he bursted out laughing, “cranky much.” he said, you whined again turning around now facing joão, your cheek resting on the seat, legs hunched against the seat. he kept moving his hand around attempting to find the twins, you held his hand moving it away. “let them sleep..” you murmured, he rolled his eyes. “they’re my babies, i made them.” he said as you slowly opened your eyes, half awake. “ok, im carrying them and soon pushing them out.” you said frowning, falling back asleep.

his palm kept caressing around your bump, trying to find the twins. “joão..let them..mmh..sleep..” you murmured, he said a small “nuh uh” before moving his plams again, your stomach slightly moved again, yet you were still sleeping. you woke up half asleep a few minutes later, you looked at joão then his hand, you moved it away earning two hard kicks. you yelped in pain, waking up before you sat up. joão looked at you, “i’m okay, just the kicks..” you said smiling at him, he caressed your cheek before you rested your head against the seat again, falling back asleep. he giggled, the laugh causing your stomach to jutter. you smiled in your sleep.

“we’re almost home baby..” he said, you whined shaking your head. “i still want to..sleep..” you murmured, holding his hand against your stomach. he held the garage remote, opening the garage. he parked the car unbuckling your seatbelt, you slightly woke up half awake, falling back asleep. he got out the car walking over to your side, opening your door as he carried you out the car carefully. you rested your head on his chest, he kissed your cheek chuckling, “sleepy much.” he spoke carrying you bridal style into the house, to the bedroom. you hummed in response still sleeping. he put you down on the bed, you moved around the sheets before he held one of your leg against his thigh, tieing your shoe off. plopping it down on the floor doing the same to your other leg, you looked at him half awake. “can you..take these pants off me too..” you murmured.

he looked at you, “you sure..?” he spoke, you hummed in response again nodding your head, he pecked your forehead whilst his hand pulled up your shirt, pulling down on the hem of your leggings. joão picked you up again, you were still asleep not even focusing on what he was doing, he placed you back on the bed, this time on your spot as he tucked you under the sheets. you slightly woke up, looking at him. “lay with me..” you whispered, he looked at you. “sleep?” he said, you nodded your head, you watched him lay next to you. his hand coming in contact with your ponytail, he took it off as you giggled. “you knew it was hurting my head..” you said softly, joão nodded his head chuckling.

“you get to find out what they are next month baby..” you said smiling, he kissed your cheek. “still want two girls..” he spoke, “and what if they are two girls..” you said giggling, he frowned. “how would you know that missy..you have a few weeks left..besides does liliana know how shes doing the gender reveal yet?” he said, you shook your head. he smiled softly at you, “can you come with me to the appointment next week..” you said looking at him, he nodded his head. “yes, i still need to see the twins..” he said, you giggled. he moved himself down, resting his head on your stomach, you looked down at him playing with his hair. “why are we watching doc mcstuffins..” he said, you giggled. “because it was my nieces favorites, now dont judge.” he furrowed his brows. “but what if theyre boys?” he said, you shrugged. “i don’t know..you can change it another thing tho..” you said, poking the top of your stomach.

he grabbed the remote still having his head resting on your tummy, he kissed your stomach looking at the little kick. “i guess they love their daddy right now..” he spoke changing the cartoon to a movie. “they were sleeping for awhile so yes..” you said, he turned the movie on before looking up at you. “see were watching finding nemo now!” he said, you giggled caressing his cheek. “..you know what i want y/n..” he said, you looked at him. “hm?” you hummed, slightly raising your shirt up. “so they can hear u better silly.” you said, he chuckled. “i want to hold them already..” he murmured, you looked at him. “they can hear me right now right..” he said, you shrugged. “i think so..” you sighed out, eyes going back to the movie.

a few minutes later..

the sun had already gotten down, after small little conversations and chatters of laughter. you were slightly half awake watching the movie still, though on the other hand there were small little snores and.. joão had fell asleep with his head on your stomach, what a good way to say..he’s already in his daddy mode.

#football imagine #football x reader #football fluff #joao felix imagine #joao felix x reader #joao felix fluff #joao felix smut #football smut

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blueboyluca · 4 months

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@konmari-dogs's post reminded me, I read a lot of dog books this year! My biggest tip for reading more is put a bunch of books on your phone and just dip into them when you can. I think I originally got this tip from Milly, but it really works. If you are getting sick of one or need a break, you can easily flit to another. You can get a page or two while waiting for appointments or at a cafe or something. Really easy to read a lot more.

Anyway, I read a lot of crap this year but also some gems.

Hit list: The Culture Clash by Jean Donaldson. I finally read this classic. I skimmed most of the training stuff because it is a bit outdated now, but I really liked the allegorical parts, the actual bits that are why it is titled the way it is. That stuff is still really relevant today.

Dog is Love by Clive D.L. Wynne. I enjoyed this. It followed the story of how Wynne convinced himself that dogs do love us, through various scientific disciplines. I also think this guy is a compelling speaker, if a little pompous.

Wonderdog by Jules Howard. Loved this one, excellent overview of dog science throughout history. Really worth the read.

The Secret History of Kindness by Melissa Holbrook Pierson. My favourite read this year, an incredibly moving overview of the history of training dogs.

In Defence of Dogs by John Bradshaw. I started this one more than a year ago and finished it this year. It was pretty good, but a little outdated on the science now. Still worth a read.

The Great Grisby by Mikita Brottman. I enjoyed this, it was about various dogs in literature or real dogs owned by famous people, mostly Victorians. It was a fun read. The focus won't be for everyone.

How the Dog Became the Dog: From Wolves to Our Best Friends by Mark Derr. I started reading this like 5 years ago. I really enjoyed the first half then dropped off it. I finished it this year and I am glad, but there wasn't as much good stuff in the second half. Still, I reference it a lot and I love the way he writes about early dogs.

Shit list: Living with Border Collies by Barbara Sykes. This one is a mess. Very few useful ideas, mostly just batty nonsense.

Fifteen Dogs by André Alexis. This was the only novel I read this year and it was garbage. Do not recommend.

How Stella Learned to Talk by Christina Hunger. You all know I hated it. I am stunned when people recommend it to others to get into dog buttons. I thought the narrative itself was a steaming pile of garbage and I thought the tips on how to get started with buttons were vague and unhelpful. Cannot understand this fad at all.

The First Domestication by Brandy R. Fogg and Raymond Pierotti. I started this a year or two ago and finished it this year. It was a mess. I appreciated the parts where they ripped into Coppinger, but there were tons of other really questionable bits so I basically think the whole thing is a wash.

Dogs: A Philosophical Guide to Our Best Friends by Mark Alizart. It wasn't terrible, but it was quite strange. I appreciated it sent me down a few rabbit holes though. I tried reading some more philosophical books about dogs but they fall apart as soon as the authors show they know nothing about modern dog science.

Dingoes Don’t Bark by Lionel Hudson. This one also wasn't terrible but it was also kind of nothing. Not a lot of information about dingoes. I think the documentary it pairs with would be more worhtwhile. I think it's from the 70s, maybe 80s.

Still reading: Level Up Your Dog Training by Natalie Bridger Watson. This is for beginners, but I am enjoying it as another resource for my club.

The Wolf Within by Professor Bryan Sykes. This is good but thick and science heavy, so I know it will take me a long time.

Treat Everyone Like a Dog by Karen London. I am not enjoying this at all. It will inevitably make it onto my shit list one year.

What Dogs Want by Mat Ward. Really loving this very cute and modern take on basic dog care for new owners.

What the Dog Knows: The Science and Wonder of Working Dogs by Cat Warren. I am really loving this so far. It's my kind of book, a mix of dog science and memoir.

Our Oldest Companions by Pat Shipman. I am not that taken in by Shipman. I've read one of her other books and I don't find her particularly compelling. I am finding Sykes more interesting than this one.

Aesop's Animals: The Science Behind the Fables by Jo Wimpenny. This one is pretty good, not sure if I will finish it though because I read the dog and wolf chapters already.

Positive Herding 101 by Barbara Buchmayer. I am enjoying this. I got through all the beginning stuff and have finally reached the chapters that will talk about herding training.

Enrichment Games for High Energy Dogs by Barbara Buchmayer. This is good enough that it made me buy her other book. I haven't finished it yet though.

#dog books #dogblr

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torchship-rpg · 9 months

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Dev Diary 8 - Identities: Terrans & Lunars

Happy International Moon Day! Torchship is set 200 years after Neil Armstrong first set foot on the moon, with history diverging when Alexei Leonov followed him a few days later, keeping the space race hot through moon bases, Mars, and beyond. A bit like For All Mankind, if everyone was a bit less of a complete drama queen.

In celebration of the incredibly cool feat of somehow putting boots on another world, we’re going to be focusing today’s Dev Diary on the two human Identities which descend directly from the event; the Terrans who went there and the Lunars who stayed.

Terrans

We touched on Terrans in Dev Diary 2, as an example for how even the most ‘standard’ of human identities still has a lot of interesting Traits to draw from. Still, Terrans are very much the ‘default’ human identity, being the most populous human group. They’re called Terrans because they got upset about everyone calling them Earthlings, and it had a nice symmetry with Lunars.

Even before we get into the specific sub-Identities, each Identity is divided into a bunch of subsections which dive into various details about the group; where they live, what the environment is like, and what specific biological or genetic details you might need to know. Any of these can come with Traits; the Biology one is where aliens get their signature features, and humans get the developmental and genetic distinctions that set them apart.

(As an aside, these Identity entries are big. They’re not just a couple of paragraphs, they’re thousands of words about history, culture, and biology. Sometimes I get distracted and go on for four paragraphs about the Zinovian biological and cultural concept of sex and gender. Sorry not sorry.)

For Terrans, our Biology section includes our first two Traits. As mentioned last time, 1g is unusually high for humanoid life in the setting; most other species evolved at around half to maybe three quarters of that, and the various spacers will have grown up under even less.

This means that Terrans are a great fit for the Heavyworlder trait, which is one of the Gravity traits. This gives you better tolerance for high Gs (important when you’ve got to work on your spacecraft while under thrust) in exchange for worse penalties in 0g. Compared to a spacer who could spacewalk before they could normal-walk, you’re going to come off clumsy in freefall. You also get a bonus to Physical Instrument, the cert used for basic physical strength and endurance, and do more damage in melee.

The other Terran biological Trait is Baseliner. An assumption underlying every biological Identity is that unless we say otherwise, there’s genetic engineering afoot, either ongoing or in the species' past. While some of this is awful Gattaca-style eugenics nonsense, for Torchship’s humanity this has mostly been just some tidying up. Evolution settles for a lot of ‘good-enough’ solutions, so with a little bit of targeted editing we can do stuff like prevent cells from hoarding molecules they’ll never use, or use a chemical that’s actually good at the job instead of one that the body just had lying around.

Baseliner is the Trait where we say otherwise. You pretty much can’t survive off Earth without some genetic engineering; turns out even a pretty small reduction in gravity long-term is going to be bad for your heart, nerves, muscles, bones… your everything, basically. But if you and your family have always lived on Earth, you could well have gone the last hundred years without genetic editing.

The downside is that it costs more XP to upgrade Physical Instrument and you take extra consequences from different levels of gravity, but on the upside you have an extra ten minutes in low Oxygen before consequences start setting in, and you have a higher tolerance for drugs and poisons. You might not be peak human performance, but all those redundancies can come in handy.

Once we’re done with biology, we move into the sub-Identities, which are specific regions or subcultures. Right now Terrans only have two; rural and urban. (I’ve played around with some others but I haven’t been happy with anything yet, send in your suggestions!). Urban Terrans live in the dense, futuristic megacities that dot future Earth, in communal archeologies that are like self-contained villages. Theirs is a life of beautiful buildings, abundant greenery, a different kind of library for everything, and a joyous excess of monorails. It’s everything you could have wanted from Usborne’s Book of Future Cities (1979) come to life.

Urban Terrans get recommended the following Traits; Polyglot (to get across the cosmopolitan nature of the cities), Well-Connected (to show your closeness to the Star Union’s bureaucracy), Divergent (because urban Terrans are exactly the sort of people who do recreational genetic modifications), and Communal Spirit, a trait which boosts the effectiveness of working together. This is a common Trait for many Human identities; it’s pretty much the one that models prosocial production practices in action.

The Rural Terran trait represents a much smaller proportion of the population. These are the mix of farmers, ecologists, and indigenous groups piecing the planet back together after a close brush with climate change. Outside of lithium, there’s not a lot of on-world mining anymore (space mining has made it uneconomical) so this is mostly agriculture. These communities are relatively isolated, bypassed by the high-speed trains connecting Earth’s cities; the saying goes that Mars is closer to the cities than the farms are.

Rural Terrans get these Traits suggested: Biome Specialist (representing a familiarity in whatever regional ecology you grew up in), Stiff Upper Lip (farm work tends to toughen you up), Natural Esper (a lot of psychics try to get away from the crowded cities), and Trusting, a trait that rewards you for helping others, but makes you more vulnerable to manipulation and makes it stressful to initiate violence.

Finally, at the end of each Identity is a section dedicated to how this group fits into Star Patrol, and how their presence can result in extra Traits through social interaction with other groups. Here, the privileged, ‘default’, often somewhat thoughtless Terrans are recommended the Imposing trait, which gives you some bonuses for being intimidating, but makes it a little harder to get people’s trust. It also does a decent job representing how Terrans are simply more heavily built than anyone else in the Sol system; when you’re comparing to tiny Martians and spindly Spacers, Terrans are collectively a bunch of Conans the Barbarian.

You grew up somewhere where air is free and water falls from the sky, and people are understandably sometimes hesitant to correct your ignorance because you’re three times stronger than they are. Terrans often have some growing up to do as they realise how they come off to others.

Lunars

In Torchship’s world, there have been moon bases since the early 70s, and people have lived on the moon full-time since the early 2000s. The Soviet moon base program eventually withdrew due to budget problems, leaving the ever-increasing network of American bases the sole full-time real estate on the moon. In the 2040s, Armstrong City took one look at the unfolding disaster that was the collapse of American capitalism and seceded. Playing up its neutrality, it eventually became the de jure capital of the Solar Union and, now, the Star Union, though in actuality this is mostly symbolic.

This is because living on the moon is genuinely very difficult. The gravity is just 16% of what it is on Earth, it’s airless, and there’s no atmosphere to stop the radiation. When people started living there, its only selling point at all was being closer to Earth than Mars was.

Now that people do live there, though, in a vast underground city, there turns out to be a second advantage. The Moon is very rich in mineral resources and very poor in biospheres you might destroy by aggressively mining them, and it’s incredibly cheap to get things to lunar orbit. This has ended up making the moon the industrial powerhouse of the Star Union.

Lunars are living in the most extreme conditions of any of the human Identities, which is reflected in their Biology Traits. Like Spacers, they get Freefaller, a gravity trait that is in most ways an inverse of the Heavyworlder trait. They might not actually be living in freefall, but the gravity is so low it might not make a difference. The very low gravity also means they are recommended Medical Dependency; humans simply were not meant to grow up in these conditions. Even with genetic modifications, some ongoing medical treatment for bone density or nerve issues, arising from being seven feet tall and effectively 30 pounds, is to be expected. Finally, Lunars are recommended the Wireless Brain Uplink Trait, an extension of the implanted medical monitors which were once standard on US moon bases for long-term survival.

Lunars also only have two sub-identities. The first are the Mazedwellers, those who live in Armstrong City itself. Armstrong City is built out of the subterranean mines of Luna, using the thick crust of the planet to protect against solar radiation. This makes the city a twisting, sprawling web deep under the surface, where space is at an absolute premium even beyond what Spacers experience. To live in these conditions but still contribute your industrial might to the Union, your town doubles as a factory floor, converting back and forth every day.

This gives Lunars a distinct identity in their work ethic; while everyone else can be more content working at their own pace, on Luna the faster you get the job done the faster you get your living room back. Your recommended Traits are Claustrophile (giving you a bonus in a space suit but mild agoraphobia), Driven (representing this unusual work ethic), and Shifting Gears, a trait which lets you have two sets of Personality Impulses, in this case representing the strict work-life divide that is at the centre of Lunar culture.

The other Lunar sub-identity is being a Yardworker. The Lunar Yards are the reason that humanity won the big space war; turns out running a slower-than-light multiplanetary civilisation requires an absolutely ludicrous number of spacecraft, so Lunars built an absolutely enormous and ever-expanding space station to do that with, using a giant railgun to shoot raw materials up to it and commuting every day with short-hop shuttles. In the post-FTL era, the sheer scale of the Lunar Yards means humanity can produce an almost comedic surplus. During the war, Lunars couldn’t serve in Star Patrol (see the end of the dev diary for why), so people started living on the Yards to make as many rockets as possible instead as a way of contributing.

Being a Yardworker is a prestigious job for a Lunar, and also a competitive one. Work never slows down, six shifts twenty-four hours a day. For this reason, Yardworkers share the Driven and Claustrophile Traits with their Mazedweller counterparts, as they aren’t that divergent. They gain the Voidborn trait (which gives bonuses for making repairs, cheaper upgrades to the Cosmonaut cert, and stress when your rocket is experiencing shortages) and the Cultural Tool trait, which gives you a bonus 4d6-era item you can carry atop the normal inventory. For Lunars, that’s your Yarkworker’s Marker, the thick-nibbed, vacuum-writing pen workers carry to leave each other vital notes about problems that could potentially kill them and/or draw dicks on the spaceship. The Yardworker’s Marker and all the little notes that crews would find in their spacecraft developed a mythology, which is why now it’s as much a badge of honour as a practical tool.

Finally, the Lunars in Star Patrol section touches on an important consequence of Lunar biology; being a Lunar was for life up until shockingly recently. They couldn’t even survive something as tame as Martian gravity even a few decades ago, which meant they could never visit Earth and couldn’t serve in Solar Patrol because their hearts couldn’t take the acceleration. This only changed in the past few decades in the form of an intense, and often rather painful, two-year series of treatments and acclimation.

This comes with two suggested Traits. The first is Augment, the trait we use to represent attempts at genetic engineering that go above and beyond the normal evolutionary cleanup, which can represent some of the extreme intervention and above-average effects it might have had. The other is Stiff Upper Lip, as per Rural Terrans, representing the adjusted pain tolerances you’re going to develop after undergoing something like that.

As you can see, Trait overlap is pretty common in these things, and of course these are just suggested Traits. Despite all the differences, everyone is a lot alike in most ways.

#torchship #torchship ttrpg #rpg #ttrpg #dev diary

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decks-writing-blog · 2 months

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Whatever the Fuck Benrey is: Chapter Seven: Perform Like a Circus Animal

Chapter One

Previous Chapter

“Wake the fuck up already, Gordon!”

It was a far less horrendous wake up call than the wretched blaring of Gordon’s alarm clock, but that didn’t make Benrey happy about it.

“You’re the one who volunteered us to ferry supplies like a bunch of goody two-shoes pack mules,” Bubby continued, just as loud. “So you gotta get up and get a move on already.”

“Yeah, yeah, I’m awake.” Gordon’s voice rumbled in his chest where Benrey still lay against it. They’d shifted a bit, Gordon now lying partially on is back with Benrey on top. He was still fully under the blanket though so he was still hidden from Bubby’s view. “How’d you get in here? I locked the front door.”

“I picked it. You know where Benrey is? I’d thought he’d be in here, playing your Xbox or something.”

Gordon’s arms shifted around Benrey, holding him a bit tighter, as he rolled a bit more onto his side, bringing Benrey with him and thus hiding him better under the blanket. “He was last night. I got no clue where he is now. I’m sure he’ll show up again eventually, he always does. Now could you please leave so I can get out of bed?”

“You naked under there?”

“Yeah, so fuck off.”

“Don’t fall back asleep.” A moment later, the bedroom door closed.

Gordon held Benrey to his chest for a couple more seconds before sighing and shifting to lift the blanket so he could look down at Benrey. “Good morning. Sleep well?”

“Five more minutes?” Benrey didn’t need another five minutes of sleep but he also didn’t want to get up yet.

“I’ll take that as a ‘yes’. Unfortunately we can’t lie here for five more minutes because it’ll turn into an hour and we… or at least, I really do have stuff to do today. So move.”

Benrey groaned but obeyed because Gordon would probably push him if he didn’t. Upon sliding off the bed and stretching himself out, he already missed Gordon’s warmth. It was a like a hot shower than never ran cold and without all the wet that cooled too quickly when stepping out. … He could survive without it though. Being needy, clingy, and desperate for cuddles was kind of lame and so he wasn’t. A one time really nice cuddle was all he needed or wanted. He was set for life on that now.

“You weren’t there but last night we talked and agreed to ferry supplies for the rescue attempt that the other guys are putting together to look for people deeper in the facility. We’re also bringing back wounded to Tuefort. Technically since the stuff in the health packs apparently comes from you, you could probably heal them. But we’re trying to keep you secret and no one’s in life threatening danger so it’s fine. I volunteered to drive back all our personal stuff while Dr. Coomer, Bubby, and Tommy deal with the wounded. Meaning you’re riding back with me.” As he talked, Gordon cleaned his glasses before sliding them back on his face.

“Neat. You got a DS or PSP or some other handheld gaming thing I could play during the drive?”

“Uh… yeah, actually. I found my Game Boy Advance in the closet yesterday. There was even half a pack of batteries still with it. I haven’t touched it in a few years though so I can’t say for sure it’ll work but it probably should.”

Well on the off chance it was busted, Benrey could always ask Tommy to lend him a book. OSHA manuals were probably even more boring than normal books but they’d probably still beat staring out the car window at the unchanging desert. Though even that was better than staring at it as he walked it. But if push came to shove, he could just bother Gordon to keep himself entertained. So really, it’d be fine no matter what.

Naturally having no personal possessions left intact to pack up, Benrey was ready to leave first. It helped that he also didn’t have to bother with breakfast. He played the Xbox right up until Gordon forced him off so he could pack it up. Blessedly upon doing so he handed over a large tote bag with a picture of a cat on it that contained his promised Game Boy Advance and batteries for it along with a whole bunch of games and some cables. Apparently he had indeed been hiding the good stuff in his room.

Benrey then moved to sit and wait the car and sort through his new borrowed treasure trove of games while Gordon – with some help from Coomer – packed all of the Science Team’s stuff into trunk and the back seats. Said car was a company car, the Black Mesa logo painted on both sides. Meant for transporting things, it was bigger than Bubby’s but the seats were less comfortable. It had a Christmas tree air freshener hanging from the rear view mirror. An old one based off how little scent still clung to it.

Gordon, in typical Gordon fashion, ended up dawdling more than was necessary before getting into the driver’s seat and finally getting the show on the road. Tempting as it was to tease him for that, Benrey was already too absorbed in, new to him, Superstar Saga – Gordon’s selection of Game Boy games was much better than his paltry Xbox game collection – to think of something good. So he let it go… for now. Next time he dawdled for a long time when Bubby wasn’t around to urge him onward, Benrey would be sure to say something though. Had to keep him on his toes after all.

Other than the radio, playing soft only slightly staticky music, and the sound of the Game Boy, they rolled in silence for maybe a whole five minutes before Gordon broke it.

“So you can purr, huh?”

Before he could stop himself, Benrey flinched. His first instinct was to look at Gordon. A mistake he quickly remedied, setting his gaze back on the Game Boy even though he’d lost his train of thought with it. “What? No. Who told you that?”

“Last night, or I guess more like super early this morning, after the alarm woke us, you fell back asleep first and started purring.”

Damn it! He’d stamped down that urge and thought it defeated. Even after instead of having a funny reaction to Benrey being so close, Gordon had said he could stay which had been nice in an entirely different way, he hadn’t done it. Purring was cute and he may not know what he was beyond being not human but he did know he also wasn’t cute. Apparently whilst asleep his body had betrayed him.

“It was pretty cute,” Gordon continued at Benrey’s failure to respond, proving Benrey’s point.

“I’m not cute.” People in real life or in video games and movies labeled as ‘cute’ were almost never taken seriously. They were the side kick, rarely respected, often cooed at like a baby or dumb animal. Cute things were looked down upon, treated as less than.

“Nah, it was pretty damn cute, dude, adorable even.

“Shut up.”

Gordon chuckled. It wasn’t as nice as his laugh normally was because he was laughing at Benrey’s expense this time. “Does Tommy know?”

“No.” The only other people who knew were the scientists in charge of him. The way they’d treated it as a cute fun thing to show off to everyone like some kind of spectacle had convinced Benrey to never purr again. It had lead to the one and only he’d broken into their lab to destroy recordings of himself once they’d finally given up on trying to force him to do it again in person for everyone who wanted to see and instead had just showed the tapes. Since then, rare were the times he’d even felt tempted to purr, making it rather easy to not do while in front of anyone. Until last night apparently anyway. “Don’t tell him.”

Of course Gordon would tell though. Gordon barely tolerated him so why would he not share Benrey’s secret? It was cute and thus must be shared and shown off. And now not only Gordon but Tommy and the rest of the Science Team would know too and he would never live it down. Heck, maybe he’d already told them and they’d had a good laugh at his expense over breakfast.

“Okay, okay, I won’t tell.”

Pausing his game – he’d been doing nothing but running around in circles anyway – Benrey looked up at Gordon again. His eyes were on the road and his gun hand was pushed through one of the lower parts of the steering wheel, helping steer. His expression wasn’t much of anything other than generally relaxed, making it hard to tell if he was genuine. “Really?”

“Yeah, sure, unlike some people, I try to not be an asshole, so if it really bothers you, I won’t tell Tommy or anyone else.”

“Okay. Better keep that promise though or else.”

“Or else what?”

“Uh… I don’t know yet. Just don’t tell.”

“I won’t.” He was silent for a long moment after that, long enough that Benrey was about to return his attention to his Game Boy before he continued. “Can I ask, um… why you purr though? Like, uh, cats purr most of the time because of positive feelings. But you’re not a cat, obviously, so do you purr because you’re happy or is it something else? Like maybe it’s just something you do when you’re asleep. Or is it because you were having some kind of dream that… made you purr for whatever reason.”

“I don’t know. I just do it sometimes when I’m warm and cozy or whatever. It’s lame so I try avoid stuff that might make me feel like doing it.” Except last night but he wasn’t going to make that mistake again.

Gordon broke eye contact with the road to look at Benrey, his expression soft now. What exact emotion was behind it was hard to tell though. “Well… I don’t think it’s lame. It’s pretty soothing actually, like it sounds nice. Um, it helped me fall back asleep. So I don’t think you should be ashamed of it so much you avoid it or whatever.”

Benrey scoffed as he turned his attention back onto the Game Boy. What did Gordon even know about it? Nothing, that’s what. He wasn’t the one with the ability to purr and thus didn’t have to live with some people thinking him a cute, adorable thing to show off to everyone when finding out. So Benrey was done talking about it. He had a game to focus on.

***

Driving was quickly proving to not be as much of a distraction as Gordon had hoped it would be. In hindsight not surprising given he was driving through an empty dessert with nothing to look at but dirt. The only other cars were the two Bubby and Dr. Coomer had been lent – no sign of Bubby’s original car which would’ve made three, freeing up room for Tommy to drive as well instead of going with Dr. Coomer, but whatever – and they were both far enough ahead that he’d have to go out of his way to hit them.

So naturally, after only a few minutes, he resumed talking to Benrey. Finding out more about him would be worthwhile, for curiosity's sake but also they had some sort of tenuous friendship going so it’d be good to know more about him on that front too. Also, apparently somewhere along his hellish journey through Black Mesa Gordon had become the kind of person who always needed to be talking or listening to someone else talk. Making him annoying but Benrey was annoying too so he deserved it.

Over the next long while he subtly tried to get as much info out of Benrey about his past as he could. What kind of life had he lead in the lab? How had they treated him? What kind of experiments had they subjected him to and their results?

Trying not to ask any outright invasive questions made it easy for Benrey to slip around them with a lot of non-answers. He was distracted by his game of course but also some of it had to be purposeful avoidance. Gordon pressed for more here and there but never too hard lest it be sensitive. Resulting in him not learning as much as he’d have liked. He did confirm and reconfirm a few things though, such as, Benrey had indeed spent his whole entire life in the lab in the lab, he wasn’t sure if he’d been born, hatched, or made there in a tube or something else, and that when he’d talked about the scientists harvesting his ‘juice’ to turn into medical goo he had indeed meant his blood – they drew it out of him with needles.

“Did you have anyone who uh… you considered to be like a parent?”

“Nope.”

Gordon waited for a bit but of course no further answer came. Benrey was too focused on his game and/or just straight up didn’t want to elaborate. And Gordon couldn’t exactly ask him if he’d been mistreated, especially since that was probably a given, right?

“What about friends? Any of the scientists your friends?”

“You guys.”

“I mean like the scientists uh… assigned to you or whatever. Any of them your friend?”

“Nope.”

And so on and so forth, Gordon never quite daring to ask what he actually wanted to know. Giving up on that line of questioning and bringing up video games finally got a bit more though.

“First console I got was the original Game Boy, the one with like the green screen and no real colour. I stole it from one of my handlers pockets. Only had one game for it but it was fun. I kept in my gamer pad and made it a power thingy but then it got bombed so… it’s busted now.”

“Oh, uh, sorry about that.”

“It really blows. A real bummer.”

Gordon would’ve liked to offer some comfort but how did one comfort someone who hadn’t had much to begin with and then lost it all? Instead… “What do you mean you ‘made it a power thingy’ though?”

“I put some energy in it so it would draw more power for me. Only a little though ‘cause I was doing it mostly to make it easy to find my gamer pad without having to like… walk through the halls and stuff, I could always just go straight to it. Also it was special but… whatever, doesn’t matter now.” The last sentence was a mumble, just barely audible over the radio and sounds coming from his game.

“So… like what you did with the passports on Xen?”

“Yeah but not as much. Oh, uh…” he looked at Gordon, not something he’d done often during this conversation, “I figured out earlier that uh, I’m made from Xen energy… I think. On Xen I was like… the most powerful I’d ever been and before that, after the resonance cascade, I was pretty powerful and always more powerful in Black Mesa. Especially around where they were getting all the Xen stuff to study. But now, with all the portals shut, I’m like the same power level anywhere I go, basically. So I must be made form Xen energy or from something they found on Xen.”

“Or maybe your from Xen?” Making him an alien and thus finally a possible answer to what he was.

“Hmm… don’t know, maybe.”

“Though, uh… maybe not. We saw all sorts of Xen stuff and none of it seemed to exhibit anything like what you can do. Which doesn’t mean much because we didn’t see much of Xen.” Meaning all they’d really done was narrow it down to alien or lab grown monster made when experimenting with stuff taken from Xen.

“I now know something about where I came from though so… you should be happy with that, right? You can stop being weird about me not knowing that kinda stuff.”

Gordon hadn’t thought he’d been being weird about it, just appropriately flabbergasted and a bit saddened that Benrey knew so little about his origins. “Uh… yeah. Knowing you have a connection to Xen is certainly far better than knowing nothing.”

“Good.” Benrey returned his full attention back onto his game.

Gordon turned his gaze back onto the road. Not that there was much to look at, just more desert road stretching in front of him, the sky overhead clear and blue. Tuefort was still awhile away. “It’s not everything though. It’s still sad you don’t know. But uh… I guess since we’re on the topic of what you are, what all can you do?” He’d been wondering that for awhile, since realizing Benrey had powers. Bubby and Dr. Coomer too but it was only Benrey in the car with him right now.

“Lots of stuff.” More of that non-committal dodging the question. Surely this couldn’t be a sensitive topic though, right? He was just being difficult for the sake of it. Gordon wasn’t going to let him get away with it if he could help it.

“Some of it’s basically magic, right?” Once upon a time magic would’ve seemed the opposite of science but Gordon had been working at Black Mesa long enough to see plenty of things that could only be described as magic even before his adventure with Benrey.

“I guess.”

“Right, so, you can imbue objects with power to draw more energy for you, shape shift, heal, including growing back lost limbs and… phase through solid matter. I know I’m missing stuff so… what?”

“Yep, you’re missing stuff.”

“Like what? Tell me.”

“Why you wanna know so bad?”

“I’m curious. From a scientific standpoint you’re fascinating. So I wanna know what you can do. Like starting with your shape shifting, what are the limits of it? How big and small can you get? You said you’re less powerful now than you were on Xen so can you not get as big as you could there? Can you take other forms? Like could you turn into a… grizzly bear or some other drastically different animal if you wanted to? Can you shape shift yourself gills to breath underwater?”

Benrey groaned as he turned his head to look at Gordon again. “So many questions. You’re starting to get kinda annoying.” Seemingly it had taken a while but Gordon had finally gotten under his skin. A win for sure.

“Yeah well, after all the times you annoyed me I don’t feel too bad about that. So like… tell me more or heck, show me if you want. Probably not right now but when we’re back at the hotel show me… I don’t know, all your magic stuff. I wanna see it.” It’d be interesting and something to do.

“You wanna put me in an observation cube so you can poke and prod at me until you figure out everything I can do and how far I can push it? Gonna see how much I can endure before I die or whatever? It’s not like it matters ‘cause I come back. Want me to jump through flaming hoops and do a little dance like a circus animal too?” His tone started his usual monotone neutral but by the end, his annoyance was audible.

That should’ve been even more a win than just getting him to admit to being annoyed but… his exact words made it not exactly feel like one. His upset wasn’t with the endless annoying prodding questions but with being asked to perform ‘like a circus animal’. So Gordon had found a sore point for sure but it wasn’t much of a funny ha-ha one but instead one that made him feel kind of like a bully.

“No, no, of course not. I would never…” Gordon took his eyes off the road to look properly at him. “I wouldn’t make you do anything you didn’t want to. I was just asking you to uh… show me.” So he had been asking Benrey to perform for him. “Um… yeah, not great, sorry.”

Even just a couple days ago he never would’ve believed he’d apologize to Benrey of all people, even less would have believed he meant it. But well… being a little nosy was understandable, even being a little annoying with it was somewhat justifiable with how much of an ass Benrey could be but there was still a limit. Asking him to let Gordon openly study him was probably hitting that limit if not passing it outright.

“Sorry,” he said again. “I’ll stop prying. I guess, um, I owe you some answers to personal questions too, if you wanna ask them.”

Benrey stared at him in silence, the shadow over his eyes seemingly darker than usual. Gordon had to break eye contact before the urge to ask about it grew too strong. He probably shouldn’t have taken his eyes off the road to begin with. The last thing they needed or wanted was for him to drive them into a ditch and get stuck, stranding them in the dessert.

“All right then,” Benrey finally said just when it was starting to seem like he was done talking period. “What’s your deepest darkest secret?”

The people he’d killed while they’d been making their way through Black Mesa. Benrey already knew about that though and it wasn’t something Gordon wanted to think about. He did have other secrets though that he’d never told anyone and well, Benrey would probably get a kick out of some of them. “In elementary school, when I was like… seven or eight, the teachers would hand out scented markers for the students to use for arts and crafts. We were supposed to put them all back in the box and return them to the front at the end of class. I, uh, put a couple in my backpack instead and took them home. The red, blue, and brown ones because they smelled the best.”

A beat of silence before… “Ha! I knew you were a thief.”

“Yep, I’m, a dirty thief. That was a twenty years ago though so the statute of limitations is up, meaning I can’t be punished for it.”

“Damn. You ever steal anything else?”

Gordon took a breath to say, ‘no’ but… that would be a lie. If he couldn’t in good conscious try to get Benrey to talk any more about himself, he might as well share some of his own past instead. It was only fair after how much he’d prodded at Benrey for his, right? And none of his past crimes were anything he could get in trouble for anymore so there was no harm in sharing. Maybe it would make Benrey more comfortable sharing more about himself in the future too, since it was an exchange of information instead of Gordon just asking him stuff.

By the time they were rolling back into Tuefort, Benrey knew about all of Gordon’s petty crimes. A short list, even counting the stuff that had just been minor family drama like the time he’d removed the head of one of his sister’s dolls in vengeance for some slight he no longer remembered. Gordon might regret telling him one day but it lifted the mood in the car quite a bit so for now it was worth it.

While Bubby and Dr. Coomer brought their wounded cargo to the hospital, Gordon stopped by the Tuefort’s tiny mall to get Benrey a cellphone and add him to his mobile plan. The rest of the Science Team had already exchanged numbers but apparently Benrey had never even had a phone and thus, having somehow wormed his way back into the group, he needed one.

“I want that one,” he said before Gordon could even finish asking the question, pointing to one of the fancy new touch screen phones.

“That whole touch screen thing is an overpriced gimmick, so, no.” There was no way that was going to catch on, right? The phones with the keyboards that slid out of the side were the way of the future.

“But I heard they got games on them and can take pics.”

“I already basically gave you my Game Boy though so you don’t need another handheld thing for games. But uh… you like to take pictures?” Now that Gordon thought about it, he had seen Benrey with a camera a few times. It had never come up in conversation so he hadn’t thought about it much until now.

Benrey shrugged. “It’s cool. Lost my camera on Xen though when… you know, and uh… spare’s broke.”

The smart thing to do would be to just get a him a standard phone – one of the ones without a camera to make it even cheaper – and that’s it. There were a number ways he could cause problems with a camera. But if it was important enough for him to bring it up, maybe it would also help keep him entertained and thus out of trouble. “How ‘bout, I get you a cheap phone for just texting and calling, then separately a decent cheap digital camera? That work?”

“Uh… yeah, that works.”

Gordon took a breath, intending to tell him not be weird with the camera but… bit back on it. Mostly not to give him any evil ideas but also because if this friendship they were forming was going to work, he had to at least try to trust Benrey a little bit sometimes. Also he still felt bad in general for Benrey and specifically for being too nosy in the car and making up for that with a show of good will couldn’t hurt.

From there it blessedly wasn’t long before they were meeting back up as a whole group for lunch. A pizza place that Gordon had never visited before but proved to be quite good. Even Benrey ate some which continued the trend of Gordon not being sure if he actually needed to eat or not. Probably he did, right? Just not as often as humans. Maybe he was like a reptile and only needed to eat like once a week or month, or whatever. After how nosy he’d been in the car, Gordon refrained from asking for now.

Once done, they loaded up on the supplies they promised to bring back and stopped by the hotel for a quick shower, to drop their stuff off, to make sure their rooms were still secured for now, and to drop Benrey off. The best way to continue to keep him secret from the rest of the Black Mesa folk would be to not bring him back there. Leaving him alone and unsupervised for so long seemed liked an awfully bad idea but what other choice was there?

“Here’s the deal,” Gordon said once he had Benrey seated on one of the chairs and paying attention to him. “You’re gonna sit here in this room and play video games for however long I end up staying down there.” Before leaving that morning he’d also been implored to stick around after ferrying supplies back down to help with the start of salvaging whatever they could out of the facility. He’d agreed to it in part to keep himself busy a bit longer but also to ease up on all the back and forth trips. “You can go out occasionally but don’t bother anyone or cause problems. Problems by my definition, not yours. Which means anything that’s gonna harm anyone or be especially disruptive. Just stick to yourself mostly and play your games, you got plenty. If you’re bad, I’m not getting a Play Station to share with you. Understood?”

Benrey rolled his eyes. “Yeah, yeah, understood.”

“Good. And just to reiterate and make super clear, no violence of any sort.”

“I just said I understood and you took the gun away. Can’t do violence without a gun.” A lie and he had to know it. “Why so worried?”

“I’m just… a naturally anxious person.” And even if he was maybe starting to like Benrey as a friend, that didn’t mean he trusted him to behave. He liked cats too after all but no matter how well mannered a cat was, he’d never trust it to not make a mess if left alone with a potted plant for too long. There were countless metaphorical potted plants Benrey could decide to play with and/or eat while Gordon wasn’t around to keep a close eye on him. Benrey was of course more intelligent than most cats and was thus perfectly capable of restraining himself. Being able to didn’t mean he would though, hence the worry.

“What ‘bout you? You gonna be good without me keeping an eye on you for so long? Not gonna steal anymore scented markers?”

“I highly doubt I’ll get an opportunity to but even if I do, I promise I won’t. I haven’t stolen even a cookie from a cookie jar in more than ten years so it’s really not even much of a question.”

“’Kay, but you also gonna be okay? You talked an awful lot on the drive down here, almost like someone afraid of silence. So… you gonna be okay in the silence by yourself?” Seems he was far more perceptive than Gordon had thought.

“Uh… yeah. I’m gonna ask Tommy to ride with me and even drive if he wants to. So I think I’ll be okay. I’ll text you later to see how you’re doing or whatever, I guess.” Make sure he hadn’t burned the hotel down.

“’Kay, talk to ya later.”

Next Chapter

#hlvrai #frenrey #benrey #hlvrai gordon

22 notes · View notes

bellysoupset · 9 months

Note

Considering Jonah having a vertigo crisis while at the ice rink with Leo is one of my favorite sick fics I have ever read I have to ask for another fic where Jonah has a vertigo crisis.

Maybe it could happen while they’re doing some NSFW stuff.

But if you’re not comfortable writing that maybe it could happen because he had a stressful day at the hospital or something else that could cause it, this came to my mind because I remember you mentioning that his vertigo is triggered by stress.

Sorry it took me so damn long! This is not super NSFW, but it's a tiny bit steamy for a second, maybe I'll write another one that's more steamy to fully fulfill the prompt!

-------

It was the final week of the hospital. Well, for him, it was. Of course the regular doctor's still worked, but the students who interned there, such as Jonah, had been dismissed for the three weeks long holiday break.

Issue was, because the hospital relied so heavily in all the student work they got, they were all overworking before the break.

Jonah was no exception. Despite the fact that Leo now lived with him, he somehow had seen his boyfriend less in the past week than before. It was awful timing.

However, it was finally done. After 10 days of non stop overworking and barely seeing his boyfriend or his friends or, hell, even eating properly, today had been the last day.

Jonah all but stumbled inside the apartment and he could've cried when he heard Leo humming inside the kitchen. He still wasn't used to this, he supposed it would take a lot longer to get used to the idea he now shared a house. Regardless, it was a lovely sound to be heard and Jonah crumpled against the door and breathed out, hearing as Leo hummed completely off tune to some old Sinatra song.

"Jon?" Leo interrupted himself, as he heard the door click shut, "I swear, I'll put a bell on you, don't sneak up-" he stopped mid ranting as he left the kitchen and entered the living room area, only to find his boyfriend with his back pressed to the door, looking exhausted, "aw, babe... Bad day...?"

Jonah shook his head, "no one died, so nope," he smiled as he took in Leo's appearance. His boyfriend was still in his work clothes, social pants and a button up, but the sleeves were rolled up and the first few buttons undone. He had ditched the blazer, the tie and the shoes already, blonde hair nicely tousled, "you're a fucking sight."

Leo's cheeks turned red and he rolled his eyes, "yeah, yeah, c'mere-" he said, barely masking a smile as he yanked the front of Jonah's t-shirt and pulled him into a kiss.

Jonah went forward willingly, wrapping an arm around Leo's neck and pulling him closer, as they stumbled inside the apartment. Leo smiled, sucking at his bottom lip and bumping their noses together, "where-"

"Here's fine," Jonah interrupted, pushing him on the big couch and Leo nodded, falling on his back, just as Jon straddled him down, already tugging off his shirt, undoing just the necessary buttons to do so.

He scooted up as Jonah trailed a bunch of kisses down his neck and naked chest, hands going for Leo's pants, until he heard his boyfriend let out a groan and freeze, forehead meeting his stomach.

"Jon?" Leo called, breathless, glancing down worriedly. His heart was racing still and despite the growing concern, he had a dumb smile on, "Jonah?"

"Just..." Jonah moved his hands from his belt, down to Leo's thighs and squeezed, almost hard enough to hurt, "Leo, fuck, I... I'm dizzy..."

There was a beat, Leo wondering if he was joking, but then he heard yet another pitiful moan and snapped back to reality. He scrambled up on the couch, all but perching on the arm and Jonah fell forward, face planting a pillow.

"That was rude..." Jonah groaned, rolling onto his back and staring at the ceiling, while Leo dismounted the couch's arm and circled it so he could sit next to Jonah's hip, looking at him worriedly.

"Is this an episode?"

"Not sure," Jon closed his eyes, breathing in deeply, "I think I just lowered my head too fast..."

Leo couldn't help a snort, hands coming up to cup Jon's cheeks, "take a deep breath, babe. I'm going to get your meds."

"Uhmm'kay," Jonah mumbled, eyes squeezed shut. It was horrible just how absolutely useless the vertigo rendered him. He swallowed in, taking another deep breath and shakily letting it out through his mouth.

It felt like the couch was swaying, from one side to the other and Jonah had to force himself not to sit up straight. His common sense told him that he'd feel more grounded sitting up, but he knew from experience that it was a lie.

He just hoped they had caught it early on enough that the meds might control the nausea. There were faint footsteps, that he barely heard over the rushing in his ears and then Leo's hand on his cheek again.

"Here, I need you to sit up just a bit, Jon," Leo touched his nape, aiding him to lift up his head and Jonah groaned when the small movement caused everything to twirl furiously. He breathed through his nose, then gagged, harshly, causing Leo to jump and splash the water.

"Shit, Jon, please-" Leo planted the water on the ground, holding him steadily by the shoulders, "please don't throw up, you need to take the meds..."

"I- I know..." he groaned, panting for air, "It's just-" his mouth watered and Jonah gagged softly, slamming a hand clumsily over his lips. He swallowed in, gulping against the pressure in his throat and the way his stomach sloshed alongside the sway of the couch.

He fought the nausea, forcing it to settle back, then opened his eyes and met Leo's worried gaze. Jonah let out a groan, not out of discomfort, but because of how concerned his boyfriend looked. He hated being in this position, "stop looking at me like that."

"Oh, man up," Leo snapped back just as sharply, much to Jon's surprise, "I worry about you, deal with it."

Jonah let out a surprised chuckle, closing his eyes again, "so I've heard." He lowered his hand away from his mouth, meeting Leo's wrist and squeezing it, "okay, slowly pull me up..."

Leo didn't hold on him, only allowed Jonah's strong grip around his wrist to be the support point, and tilted his body back, holding most of their weight on his back. Jonah swallowed in again, glancing nervously at the glass of water and the two grey pills Leo was holding out for him.

"I don't think I can, Leo..."

"Try it anyway," the blonde urged him, handing him the glass and then the pills.

It was a struggle to put both in his mouth with just one free hand, an even bigger struggle to swallow the tiniest sip of water and Jonah's felt a whole new wave of nausea wash over him as Leo gently lowered him back against the couch cushions.

"Leo..."

"Shh, baby, breathe," Leo cooed softly, cupping his face, a hand firmly pressed to his cheek, "just breathe, I'm right here."

The meds burned his throat, settling in his stomach like a load of bricks. Jonah let out a groan, trying to lean into Leo's touch, but all he managed was to hang his head awkwardly out of the couch.

"I'm gonna be sick..." he slurred the words, a hand darting forward to brace against something, anything. It met Leo's pants and Jonah squeezed the hem, tugging at the belt loops with enough force that he heard a minor rip, "Leo... Leo, I-" he was panicking, his heart was beating at a fast pace, mouth filling up with saliva, blood rushing to his ears.

Jonah blinked, saw the ground swimming in front of him, Leo's socks- He gagged and then there were hands on his armpits, forcing him to sit up and the whole world turned into a blur. Jonah's stomach rolled with the movement and he let out a whimper.

Leo's hand cupped his neck and he opened his eyes, trying to get anything in focus, to at least know where to aim, but the world was still blurry and twirling around. A retch caused him to squeeze his eyes and Jonah choked on the vomit, unable to swallow it back down.

He gagged around the liquid mess, puke burning his nose and hitting his lap. The humid sensation caused him to gag again and he felt Leo squeezing his shoulder, grounding him, "Jonah, just take a deep breath. You're not moving, just try to focus on my hand..."

It was easier said than done, but he was empty. He had hardly eaten all day, so after a couple more empty heaves, Jonah sighed, breathing slowly through his mouth, "my nose- Fuck, my nose is burning..."

"Is that blood?"

Leo's question, in a very different tone from his gentle concern, forced Jonah to open his eyes and look at the mess. It was disgusting and he pressed a fist to his mouth, swallowing back a reflexive gag.

It was all brown and liquid, covering his jeans, the hem of his shirt and even a spot of the couch, "No..." Jon groaned, closing his eyes again, "no, it's coffee."

"Oh", Leo's death grip on his shoulder relaxed, "okay, don't move, I'm gonna get you something to clean up. Don't move your head."

"Uhmm," Jonah answered, closing his eyes once more. His stomach still felt unsteady, sloshing around, but all the heaving seemed to have at least tricked his brain into grounding itself. Maybe.

"Okay..." Leo's voice brought him back to the present, "here, blow your nose-" he handed him a wad of toilet paper, in his other hand a waste basket and a towel Jonah didn't recognize. Jon obediently blew his nose, crumpling the paper in his hand when the action caused the whole couch to dip forward and him to almost fall.

"Hey! Don't faint on me, Jon," Leo's voice had a hysterical tinge to it, but he seemed more in his element than the previous times they had been in this situation. It hurt Jonah that somehow his boyfriend was getting used to him being a complete mess.

"This is so humiliating," he groaned, forehead meeting Leo's chest as the blonde forced him to sit up straight again.

"Don't be silly," Leo scoffed, then Jonah let out a huff, hiding a smile as he felt him kiss the top of his head, "okay, don't move, I'm gonna get this shirt off of you."

He stayed frozen, gripping the couch to keep steady as Leo stretched the neckline of his shirt and pulled it off, carefully avoiding his hair. He dropped it back down on Jonah's lap, making a face, "...You better repay me real good for this," Leo teased him, crouching next to the couch as he undid Jon's fly and carefully peeled off the soiled jeans.

"Insane that you still can think about fucking when I look like the most pathetic display of a man," Jonah said, fighting the urge to roll his eyes. He heard a snort as Leo rolled up the destroyed clothes and put it aside on the ground, grabbing the towel.

"What can I say, I have bad taste in men," Leo winked at him, then pressed the towel to his chin, wiping down the vestiges of sick, down his chest and stomach.

Jonah frowned, "where did you find this towel?"

"Uh, it's mine," Leo shrugged, rubbing at the spot Jonah had puked on the couch, wrinkling his nose on distaste, "you'll have to send this to get cleaned, there's no way it won't leave a stain..."

"Why are you using your towel to clean my vomit?"

"Technically it's your towel too, since we live together. You know, mi casa, tu casa-"

"Leo," Jonah glared at him sternly, noticing his boyfriend's ears were red with embarrassment, "c'mon."

"Yours are just too fancy, I didn't want to stain them," Leo shrugged, putting everything aside and grabbing the ditched glass of water, "let's try this again."

"Don't do that," Jonah groaned, taking the glass with a shaky hand and almost causing it to spill, wasn't for Leo rushing to steady it by holding the bottom, "don't... Don't put your stuff down... Or whatever."

"It's really not that deep," Leo glared at him, "drink your water and try not to vomit again, I'm gonna put this in the laundry."

"Rude," Jon whispered, a smile tugging at the corner of his lips. He loved this side of Leo, this sassy... Mean side that Leo only ever showed in truth with him. It felt like a leap of faith, that Leo had to make himself likable to everyone else, but not to him.

He swallowed the little bit of water, then burped as it splashed in his belly and immediately threatened to come back up. Jonah swallowed in the bitter taste, forcing his stomach to stay put.

"It's staying down?" Leo asked, returning to the living room and Jonah raised a hand since he couldn't nod, shaking it from side to side as if to say I don't know.

"Can I lie down?" he asked after a long minute, once the water settled, "in bed?"

"You're the doctor, McSteamy," Leo smiled, causing Jonah to snort.

"I'm really more of a McDreamy," he corrected, raising a hand so Leo could pull him up. His boyfriend let out a chuckle.

"The fuck you are, Jon," he said lightly, holding his hand and slowly pulling him up. The ground felt liquid, as if he was standing on a water mattress, but at least the world didn't turn all blurry.

Jonah let out a sigh of relief, throwing an arm around Leo's shoulder as his boyfriend held him by the waist, helping him back to the bedroom, "I'm sorry-"

"Can we buy new towels?" Leo interrupted him, sharply, showing it was not an accidental interruption. Jonah opened a smile, his head heavy as he leaned it to rest against Leo's shoulder, chin meeting his temple.

"Sure," Jon let out a sigh, "yeah, we can buy new towels."

#emetophilia #sickfic #emeto #mywriting #jonah banks #vertigo #this is a lead up i think on them getting the cat #and overall just nesting and redecorating jonah's house so it will be THEIR place and stop looking like a hospital

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herdelreydear · 10 months

Text

I was all over her

pt 1

warnings: college!au, mean!ellie, owenxabby, elliexreader, (a bit abbyxreader bc of readers past, smoking, drugs, alcohol, some angst, nsfw in this or the next parts

summary: Dina drags Ellie to a camp where they can work at for three weeks, the money is good and they get a little vecation from their college life. It’s annoying but it gets more interesting when Ellie gets to know the other girl that is joining as a camp leader.

notes: i’m really excited for this series, it’s gonna be inspired by the 80s slasher summer camp vibe! They’re not in the 80s anymore but their town is so stubborn, that they still got all the old equipments so it kind of feels like it anyways. I’m also going to switch from different perspectives to get a better view from everyone’s thoughts when things get spicy :P

reposting, liking or even commenting would be so so appreciated <3

{ not proofread }

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„Ugh“ Ellie grunted shoving her stuff in her backpack that was already falling apart and had some holes here and there. It didn’t bother her as long as she didn’t loose anything of her supplies.

„If the money isn’t worth it i’m going.“ Dina, laying on her bed watching her- „Of course Ells as if you’re not living off of instant noodles and my stuff the last few weeks“ she grinned and rolled onto her stomach.

„The kids are gonna be annoying but remember how we were that age?“ she let out a quite laugh. „Were the ones making the rules now, so how bad can it be?“

„Oh fuck you“ Ellie sighed and finally got her backpack to zip up. „Kids that age are little shitheads“ she stood up and let herself fall on the bed next to Dina. „Well yeah, but at least they’re not that bad, I mean they wont be older than 16 y‘know?“

„Well with 16 I started selling“ Ellie grinned. „But if I catch one of them doing anything like that imma beat their ass“ she looked at her phone to check the time. „Well, or their mom will“

Dina flipped a finger against Ellies forehead „Ouch“- „You’re the one that has to behave“ Dina glanced a provocative smile at her. „No girls your age except for me and Abby, and a bunch of kids- I think you can handle that“

„I don’t like that Abby and Owen are the ones giving the orders to us, she‘s okay but Owen is annoying as fuck“ Dina nodded to agree with her. Abby and Owen were a bit older then them, and already did the camp counseling the year before.

„Well anyways we gotta go“ Dina pushed Ellie of the bed otherwise to leave would’ve took forever. They got outside and walked to Ellies Pick-Up truck. The others would drive in a school bus Owen got the permission to drive with. They would all meet at the camp.

This year it was so full, Owen and Abby decided to let all the kids sleep in the little cabins and the leaders would have to sleep outside. Because of Ellie having the Pick-Up they already loaded all their tents on it, wondering why there were two from Abby and Owen, thinking they’d sleep together anyways.

The Trip was nice though, Ellie liked driving and Dina liked being Ellies Dj even though Ellie didn’t approve to all the songs Dina was blasting on full volume.

After arriving Ellie looked unmotivated again. „First and last day are always the most stressful ones, so don’t give up today okay Ells?“ Closing the car door Dina tried to get Ellies confirmation. „Yeah sure“ she muffled and helped Dina with the tents and their backpacks.

Already settled in, they could hear the voices of kids and teens laughing in their little cabins. Searching for Abby and Owen they ran into you.

You just had moved to the place you were now also going to college to. Only about three months ago, but you didn’t recognize the two women approaching you. They don’t look 16 anymore that’s for sure, so they must be from college too, also taking the opportunity to get that money.

Of course you needed that money desperately, normal for a college student. Also, extra money didn’t hurt, and you needed to get away from.. well actually you wanted to get away from Abby, but you already applied to the job before knowing it was organized by Abby- and Owen, her boyfriend.. At least the two other girls are joining too, so you’re not alone with them.

„hey! you’re from college too?“ Dina came up to greet you with a welcoming quick hug, surprised you smiled lightly and nodded. „Uh, yeah I am“ you looked over to the other girl, hands in her pockets and not looking like she was going to great you like the other one. „I’m y/n“ you introduced yourself to the two. „Dina“ -she seemed like a person you’ll get along with, but the other one- „Ellie“ she said shortly, seemed not that pleased by the whole situation. Well, maybe she was just here for the money, and you’d understand that. For you, being outside was calming, and working or more like watching the kids a bit was totally fine with you. Growing up with siblings you knew how to handle annoying teens.

„Hey hey“ Owen stepped out of one of the cabins, Abby on his hand, she looked a bit annoyed but smiled when she saw the small group of yours. „Finally, all the kids are already unpacking their stuff and ready for some food“ she smiled and they stepped closer to greet everyone. „So for the basics: we have plans hung out in the kitchen on wich we are divded into wash off and cooking shifts.“ Abby walked to one of the cabins, the only one that was a bit bigger, everyone followed.

Stepping in she pointed to a list that was hung up against a board. „I think it’s okay that we do the dishes, the kids are here to relax. Owen and I are going to do most of the activities with them, but most of the kids are already to old for that and just want to be outside on the lake or on the fields. You guys just watch out that no ones going missing and when we need you, you’ll help us out.“

Her voice was calm and you couldn’t avoid feeling a big clump in your throat.

Just weeks ago she ended it with you, or kind of did. You apparently just were a little flink she had while being broken up with Owen. It still hurted though. She was the first woman you slept with, but even more- she was the one that gave you the security you were a lesbian. At the beginning she was there for you while being the new student, helping you out a lot with how everything worked you both couldn’t deny the tension that got in between you from the first day you’d met. At that point you didn’t knew about the breakup with Owen, you were fully convinced she was a lesbian anyways. You asked her out on sweet little coffee dates and she took you to her basketball practice ones in a while. It felt like you two had known each other for much longer than just a few months. You started to crush on her besides being sexually attracted to her. But it stayed at being fuck buddies, till you mentioned your feelings and she seemed to be on the same side. All fine, till one night- that stupid fucking frat party. You were waiting for her all night, after not showing up you asked around if anybody saw her. Some did, but they also lost sight of her. Already a bit drunk you made your way through the rooms till you accidentally walked in on two people, needing a sec to realize who was having sex right there.

That night didn’t end well. You were heartbroken (you knew it seemed a bit too fast but it still hurted- and it was the way she did not tell you about him- and didn’t tell you she was actually just getting her sexual frustration eased by sleeping with you) You felt used and had cut her off.

Now, you two had to get along somehow. And it was fine, it wasn’t that deep you tried to tell yourself. Move on, gosh you’re embarrassing yourself . You’d tell yourself.

Everyone seemed fine with the list, and you turned to Dina and Ellie. „So, let’s build up our tents?“ you wanted to get away from her. They agreed. You looked up to Abby while walking past her, she gave you a little smile. You noticed her apologizing look, it made you sick.

„Oh I forgot to tell you, Jesse‘s coming too“ Dina turned her head to Ellie while putting together the tent. „How did you forget that“ Ellie scrunched her eyebrows together. Sweet. You held on to the other side of the tent, not doing much because you didn’t knew anything ok how to put up those. „Well, Ells he’s not here so obviously I forgot him. He’s always late!“ she rolled her eyes. „Jesse‘s my Ex“ she turned around to tell you without being asked, but you were to shy to ask anyways, so you appreciated her leading the conversation. „So now we’re two“ you tried to smile. „Wait what? You were dating Jesse??“ You shaked your head hardly. „Noo I don’t even know him don’t worry“ before she could ask about Abby, you quickly finished building up the tent and changed the subject. When all tents were up, Jesse arrived. Extroverted like Dina he started blabbering all kinds of stuff on to you, knowing he just tried to made you feel less left out, you tried to stay as focused as possible and answered to all his questions.

„So now, who’s gonna sleep where?“

All of you stood infront of the three little tents. Abby and Owen were already in the kitchen, making some dough for bread on sticks, but it was obvious they’d sleep together. „I don’t care, you guys can decide“ You smiled and you noticed Ellie glancing over to you. She was really quite since they arrived but it was kind of.. pleasant.

„You wanna sleep with me?“ She said, and you shrugged. „Sure“ giving her a smile that she gave you back. Dina raised a brow, knowing Ellie, she took every opportunity to get girls actually in bed with her. Poor you Dina thought. But Dina was also more than fine with sharing a tent with Jesse. Yes, they broke up, but they still were like besties.

Following Ellie you climbed into your tent, finding yourself unexpectedly really close to her. Ellie noticed the rosy color on your cheeks. „So.. on wich side do you want to sleep?“ you asked, a bit uncomfortable. Before saying anything Ellie just stretched herself and layed down on her side. „is that fine?“ she reassured and you nodded. While humming you started to unpack your stuff. Ellie watched you while rolling herself another one up. You didn’t mind, and didn’t tell her to stop when she lightened it in your little tent, you just opened the entrance and layed down next to her.

„So how come I’ve never seen you at college?“ She looked to the side and held the joint infront of you, as you took it you thought about how you could answer it as short as possible.

„I just came here a few months ago, wasn’t really with anybody that’s probably why“ you shrugged „I like to be on my own“ you exhaled and gave it back to her. She grinned. „Well that’s definitely understandable, but what about frat parties? They can be fun too, never been to one?“ she layed her head on her arm that was behind her and watched the smoke fill the air.

„Well I was“ you caughed, you weren’t used to smoking weed, and the tent was full of smoke. Ellie laughed and opened the outer layer of the tent a bit wider. „Let’s go“ she tilted her head to the exit, noticing you’re not taking the full air that well and you climbed out of it. It already got dark and you decided to collect some wood for the campfire. You didn’t notice how a constant smile was on your lips, and how the stiffness from before started to loosen up. But Ellie noticed and enjoyed your quite being.

After being done collecting some sticks and branches, Ellie lit up the campfire and Jesse and Dina gathered the kids around it. Abby and Owen brought the food and the atmosphere started to get more calm and chatty. You enjoyed it more than you thought and then and there your eyes met with Ellies.

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I know that’s the second series I started, I think I’ll just write them both at the same time. I hope you like it, I already have the next parts planned x3

I’m also making a playlist inspired by the 80s but also the vibe for this series~

#ellie x reader #abby x reader #abby anderson #ellie williams #dina the last of us #jesse the last of us #ellie tlou #ellie x fem reader #ellie x y/n #owen tlou #slasher summer #camping #Spotify

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scoops-aboy86 · 1 month

Note

What are your thoughts on Steve’s chronic migraines getting worse so Eddie and Robin convince him to go to the doctor. The medication he is given helps but perhaps it starts to cause weight gain #chubby Steve Harrington

To be honest, I don’t know if I know enough about migraines to go too deeply into that part of it. My brother gets them, and I briefly thought I was getting them in college but that turned out to be just my sinuses trying very hard to murder me on a seasonal basis. The campus health center had me keep a food journal for a while in case it was a dietary trigger, though, which I kind of want to foist on Steve. Like, what if…

(This got away from me, what else is new, please either enjoy or suffer for the next 3k words. The meds definitely kicked off Steve’s weight gain, partly because meds do that and partly because he doesn’t end up puking his guts out as often anymore, but the combo of the food journal and the stress reduction of he finds in eating definitely awakens something that keeps it going.)

Hawkins Memorial Hospital and all its patient records were obliterated over the course of defeating Vecna. So now that the Upside Down is gone and the older teens have moved out of Hawkins, Robin and Steve got into college somewhere (Steve by the skin of his teeth, if only because I’m not sure if community colleges have health services for their students), and Eddie lives with them too while he works at an auto shop and tries to scrape a new band together.

Between the migraines and the campus nurse “what if”ing him about shit, because he no longer has the medical history on his whopping total of four concussions in three years, Steve has very little patience for being instructed to write down everything he eats for a week or two on the off chance his headaches are triggered by something he’s eating. He’s sure that’s not it. Robin and Eddie bully him into actually doing it, basically resulting in a communal journal where they all take notes on Steve’s meals.

So Eddie is uniquely tuned in to Steve’s eating habits, even for a trauma-bonded roommate with a big gay crush. He doesn’t think much of it, but does have a lot of fun being all “You deserve a treat for finishing that homework on time, I’ll pencil you in for a donut and we’ll hit the corner market!” and whatever. Just a little bit of friendly teasing on the days Steve decides to be lazy and eats mostly junk.

By the time Steve finally gets medication and a routine that actually helps keep the migraines at bay more often than not, the food journal is long done but Eddie still notices that stuff and is vaguely aware that Steve has started snacking more often, taking a little extra at dinner, doubling up on his usual bowl of cereal for breakfast. He also notices the way all of his jeans start to hug his ass more, the faintest suggestion of a future muffin top starting to bunch over waistbands when his shirts are tucked in, how he starts moving a little slower when taking the stairs up to their apartment two at a time (or, eventually, one at a time like what Eddie considers a normal person).

He casually brings it up at one point, something offhand like, “Extra hungry today, Harrington? Or are you carb loading before a hot date, or whatever it is you jocks get up to before strenuous activity?” But Steve just laughs and helps himself to more pasta or whatever’s for dinner, his third serving, and says he’s pretty sure it’s the new meds are doing something to his appetite. So no, not just today.

And Eddie doesn’t push, because Steve seems fine with it. The extra weight looks good on him, in Eddie’s opinion—anything would look good on Steve, but especially the contentment that comes with indulging the whims of his appetite. He’s quickly developing a snacking-while-studying habit, and Eddie learns that when Steve gets frustrated and tries to blow off doing the work, he can be both placated and bribed to continue with donuts. His grades are steadily improving, and that’s not the only thing on the upswing; he eventually consults both Robin and Eddie on how to size up his closet on a budget, too.

The only thing Steve complains about is the dating dry spell he’s on, grumbling about shallow girls who don’t want to take the time to get to know him. Robin comments that he’s like a broken record, she heard all of this before when his parents cut him off and he didn’t have the money to plan lavish dates anymore… and Eddie feels like he’s been knocked over the head by the comparison. He can’t imagine not wanting to date Steve just because his money doesn’t grow on trees or he’s put on weight, what is wrong with those women?!

Because, call a spade a spade: if Steve were into guys, Eddie would ask him out in a heartbeat. Even if it could potentially torpedo their friendship. He puts so much energy every day into not flirting with Steve, and to be honest these days he’s mostly redirecting it towards bringing him treats. Steve has this unfortunate habit of licking his fingers (even when it doesn’t seem like he should need to!); Eddie is developing a staring problem. A worse staring problem. Whatever.

Sometimes the three of them smoke up on Friday and Saturday nights when they have nothing better to do. (Read: don’t have dates. Eddie is used to being a dateless loser, but he feels bad for Steve and Robin. Indignant on their behalf. Secretly pleased whenever Robin has plans and relieved when Steve doesn’t, and guilty about both.) They pick out a tub each of ice cream in advance and order too much pizza and watch movies they barely pay attention to while bickering and giggling like idiots, and if it’s a double lame day weekend none of them bat an eye when Steve starts getting two tubs for himself so he doesn’t run out part way through. Goads one or both of them to bet on whether he can finish it in one sitting before it completely melts, leaving Eddie to have to hide a boner whenever the challenge devolves into messily slurping of whatever’s left at the bottom.

It’s at the end of one of those nights where it’s just Steve and Eddie; they turn in for the night (or the pre-dawn hours at least), Steve taking a little longer to shuffle into his room because he offered to put the leftovers in the fridge. Eddie gets back up because his mouth is dry as hell, and opens the fridge for light while he hunts for a clean cup… only to realize the leftovers aren’t there. He checks the freezer, and his own mostly empty ice cream carton is missing too. Turns out, they’re in the trash, scraped clean. Steve must have finished everything. When he goes back to his room he can hear Steve moving restlessly through the thin shared wall, soft grunts and moans and muffled burps and—

Usually, Eddie tries to be a good roommate and put his headphones on when he realizes that Steve is having some alone time. But he’s sleepy and still stoned and doesn’t feel like getting up again, so he stays prone and closes his eyes, telling himself that he’s not listening, really he’s not, he’s just trying to sleep. The hand he’s palming himself through his pajama pants begs to differ, though. And if he thinks he hears choked moans of “more, give me more” and “please, I need it” and “yeah, give it to me, Eddie,” no he absolutely does not. He obviously just nodded off into a wet dream, because while Steve often joins him at Robin at the local gay establishments for nights on the town, he only ever hooks up with girls.

The next weekend it happens again. Eddie has no idea if Steve is eating up all the extras in the kitchen or taking some of it back to his room, but it’s obvious where it’s all going. And either way the end result always seems to be the same: Steve eats and jerks off afterwards, and Eddie listens in and does the same. He feels like a creep for doing it, but the shame doesn’t hit until after he’s done biting his pillow to keep quiet and pumping into his fist until his toes feel permanently curled.

But, he rationalizes, it’s not that weird that they each have their own guilty pleasures. Everybody’s got to have something at the end of the day, right? And at least pinning after Steve this way keeps him from doing anything stupid, like spending his weekend cruising for one night stands and STDs. It happens enough already on the rare occasions that Steve does have a date, he doesn’t need to up his risk factor for catching anything.

This goes on until Robin and Steve graduate. Like, actual years. Eddie would feel like a monk by now if he wasn’t secretly indulging himself while imagining Steve on a regular basis, which is… it’s fine. At least it goes a long way towards keeping lingering nightmares about demon bats and evil veiny wizards at bay.

They have two different ‘Congrats Grads’ parties in their cramped apartments, one with all their friends from school and around the city, and one for everyone who knows about the Upside Down. Eddie buys two huge sheet cakes for both, but is puzzled when there’s way too much left—and Steve doesn’t seem to have touched them.

After the last round of guests has gone, including Robin who had announced out of nowhere that she was going to crash with Nancy in the latter’s hotel room and wake up early to do touristy things in the city while Nancy is visiting from Boston, Steve calmly gets both platters of remaining cake out. Without explaining himself, he also produces a gallon tub of ice cream and lays everything out on the coffee table in front of their second hand couch. His thighs and arms have grown thicker over the years, cheeks fuller, jawline softer. His belly rounds out before him, spilling over in front and a litte to either side even while empty, and he has this way of kind of holding it as he shifts further back on the couch to get comfortable, like he doesn’t want to jostle it or maybe, maybe just needs it a little out of the way to better move around.

Eddie pretends not to watch but the second he glances up realizes he’s been caught out, because Steve meets his gaze, staring right back.

“I wanted to show you something,” Steve says, and holds out the old food journal, abandoned many semesters and a whole diploma ago once it had been determined that Steve’s triggers were mostly bright lights and stress-related.

Except… it wasn’t abandoned, apparently. Notes fill it up from cover to cover, post-its sticking out more and more towards the back pages where Steve’s increasingly squashed handwriting had run out of space for that day. Everything Steve had eaten, carefully recorded quantities. Some entries, Eddie notices, have a small ‘e’ written and circled next to them, and he’s about to ask when Steve sees where he’s looking and says, “That’s all the food you gave me.”

And Eddie hadn’t even realized how much he’d been doing that, because Steve had always just taken everything he’d offered without comment. It had become normal, like a reflex. And, okay, maybe he’d noticed that on days Steve ate more he tended to be a little more audible through the wall at night as he worked his way to completion, and maybe it had become Eddie’s favorite soundtrack to fall asleep too.

He doesn’t realize that his jaw has dropped until Steve sits forward with a grunt—a series of them really, because Eddie is on the bean bag chair on the other side of the coffee table and that was a bit of a reach even before Steve had started adding pound after pound to his own frame—and nudges it closed with a finger under his chin. Your move, Steve’s eyes seem to say as he sits back, resettles his ass and then his belly all over again.

“I’m bisexual,” Steve announces bluntly. “Figured I should just come out and say it, since I’m either really bad at hinting or you haven’t picked up on the fact I’ve been trying to for… a while now. Robin says it’s pretty painful to watch me fail so hard and you still act so oblivious. I think she’s sad for both of us. And,” he adds, laying a hand over the crest of his belly, “while I’m doing the open and honest communication thing—I like this. I like to eat, and I like how I look. And either you like it too or you’ve got this… codependent blind spot, Robin called it? Which I guess means you just give me things that you know I want without really thinking about it. But she also said that you might just think of me as off limits because we’re friends and we live together and I’ve never actually, like, told you that I like both, which… I don’t really have a good excuse for, other than being kind of a moron. So.” He gives his belly a double pat, which Eddie’s dazed brain can only liken to a judge banging a gavel, but whatever it’s supposed to mean is kind of drowned out by the way it wobbles and fills said brain with silent fizz. “This is me telling you. And asking, uh, if you’ve noticed, or have… any interest in me at all. If giving me food means anything, because—at the risk of making things incredibly weird between us—it makes me feel really good when you do.”

For a moment Eddie just gapes at him. He doesn’t even know when his mouth fell back open. His brain is still the equivalent of a shaken can of Coke that Steve’s just popped the top of, metaphorically foaming out his goddamn ears. And then when he tries to say something, it’s too many different sentences at once and just comes out as as a garbled, “Stehuhyuhwha…?”

Steve just huffs and says, “Stop trying to cheat at Scrabble, Eds.” Which is what Robin always says when Steve’s dyslexia or Eddie’s abuse of creativity in regards to spelling rears up during important moments. Like when she’s tricked them into playing Scrabble.

Eddie tries again. “Steve, what are you talking about? What do you mean you’ve been trying, to… to what? Both? Picked up on—What?!”

Immediately, Steve’s face flushes. “Shit, you really didn’t know? Any of it?”

“I knew about the eating,” Eddie says, and he feels like his voice has gone unusually high but can’t focus enough on that to decide if it’s actually true. “I mean, I knew you seemed okay with it, but you said your meds make you hungrier or something—How like is much, I mean, is like, I mean—” He slaps a hand over his own mouth to stop that runaway train of a sentence before it goes over a cliff any more than it already has, then tries to rephrase. “What do you mean by you like it?”

“Eddie. Have you noticed how often I put my fingers in my mouth when you’re around? Haven’t you heard me through the wall?”

Eddie’s face feels hotter than the sun. “Y-yeah…” He wonders if it’s really possible to die of spontaneous combustion, but confronted directly like this he can’t find it in himself to lie. “You… you touch yourself after you…”

“Eat a lot,” Steve finishes. “It feels good, getting so full like that. I sleep better after, especially if I, uh, come.” He flushes a little at the admission, too, so at least Eddie isn’t completely alone. “I say things sometimes, hoping you’ll hear.”

“I thought I was dreaming most of that,” Eddie admits, which makes Steve perk up a little.

“You dream about me?”

“I…” Letting out an embarrassed whine, Eddie brings a hand to his hair, dragging a clump of it down over his mouth in a ludicrous attempt to hide. “Shit, yeah. I do. I…” And, okay, if he’s going to admit this he’s not going to do it by halves, because if Steve can just say things that would get him labeled a freak in most circles, then so can Eddie, the official Freak of Hawkins, Indiana. “I listen and I picture what you might be doing in there, and I get off to it, man. I thought I was being a huge creep for doing that, but I couldn’t help it because it’s you, alright? At the risk of making things incredibly weird between us, Steve, I’ve been fucking gone on you for a mortifyingly long time and it’s only ever gotten worse, and I’m pretty sure that you saying any of what you’re saying now means I’ve finally lost my mind and I want you to be my padded cell. I don’t even know what that means, Steve, but I want it.”

Steve tilts his head slightly. “It’s gotten worse? In a bad way?”

“Oh my god,” Eddie groans, and drops his flaming face into his sweaty palms. “It’s gotten bigger. It’s gotten… more. What do you want from m—”

“Eddie,” Steve interrupts, cutting through his Freudian slips like a knife through butter. “Come here.”

When Eddie lifts his head, he sees that Steve is patting the section of couch next to him. Feeling dazed and like this might as well happen, Eddie climbs his feet and ambles around the laden coffee table on rickety Bambi legs. Jesus H Christ, is this what having a stroke feels like?

He sits. Steve lays a hand on his thigh and Eddie feels like it’s leaving a mark straight through the ripped denim.

“I want to show you something,” Steve says. “Try something, I guess. You can say no, but… I’m hoping you won’t. Because I’ve been thinking about this ever since you started writing things in that stupid journal for me. I want you to feed me cake and ice cream, and when the cake runs out I want you to pour the melted ice cream down my throat. Okay?”

“Should,” Eddie starts, and then has to clear his throat a few times because holy shit, his voice is rough and all the blood in his body just rushed south. “Should we do this on a communal couch, or… your room…?”

Steve’s eyes go hooded and dark, bedroom eyes if Eddie’s ever seen them. The goddamn Harrington Charm. “You wanna see where all the magic happens, baby? Finally get the visual to go with the audio?”

And well, that kind of answers the question of whether Steve was wolfing down leftovers in the kitchen or in bed, doesn’t it?

The next day, Robin gravely thanks them for not doing “hungry penis stuff” on shared furniture, a phrase which they vehemently beg her never to use again with varying degrees of dismayed wailing and hysterical laughter. And then she whacks them both upside their heads with a heartfelt, “Took you long enough, you dingi!”

#wg steddie #scoops words #ask #chubby steve harrington #anon

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broken-clover · 7 months

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2- Stars

Technically this one was gonna be for a different fandom, but 80% of the way through I thought it didn't fit the theme well enough and relocated it. Despite it being a little more spur-of-the-moment, I'm still happy with how this one turned out!

Today's is a little fluffy date piece with Giovanna and Ramlethal. Please note that while I intend to make the usage of constellations as realistic as possible, with how hemispheres work and where different easy-to-see nebulae are located I ended up taking a bit of artistic liberties. A little ironic, since I've got a whole headcanon about Giovanna being autistic about space. Oh well...

“There. It’s riiiight…”

Ramlethal felt the hand around her wrist direct her finger westward until it was pointed at a cluster of spots.

“There. That’s the Carina Nebula. It’s one of the easier ones to see, so it’s a good spot to start with.”

If she squinted into the night sky, she could swear there was a tiny hint of red between the whitish dots. “That’s it up there? Wow…”

“Pretty view, huh? Told ya that Illyria’s got too many lights to see the really good stuff.”

Of course, Ram was half-sure that part of the reason she’d been invited to a scenic hilltop at night was as a dramatic romantic gesture, but Giovanna wasn’t wrong in that regard, either. She hadn’t been aware of the sheer amount of color that was visible in the night sky.

“So what’s in it?”

“‘What’s in it?’ Geez, Ram, what isn’t in it?” An elbow playfully nudged her in the side. “It’s got a whole bunch of open clusters, it’s got the most luminous star in the Milky Way, and it’s got these things called Wolf-Rayet stars in ‘em, so that probably speaks for itself why I like looking at it.”

Ram laughed, and Rei perked up, unsure if the mention of wolves involved her or not. She lowered her head again with a huff, and Giovanna scratched her between the ears. She ducked back under the legs of her telescope, delicately twisting the knobs and slightly moving the position. “I’m gonna scoot over a little, there’s another one that looks really good through the scope.”

While her girlfriend worked, Ram looked back up at the sky. She had already lost track of where she’d been directed to before, but any part of the sky was nice. After a few casual outings, she knew enough to spot a few patterns. The summer triangle, Aquila and Cygnus branched off from it, Sagittarius. She still wasn’t quite sure that they looked like swans and people and snakes and horse-men, but it was easy to get swept up in Giovanna’s excitement when she showed them all off.

“I know they’re big,” Ram said. “I know they only look so small because they’re so far away. But it still feels like I could pluck a few out with my fingers and hand them to you.”

“Heh! Well, then we’d have a biiiig problem, because now there’s a giant ball of plasma burning everything.”

“I’d do it anyway. If you asked me to.” She replied, only for her face to scrunch as she broke out into more laughter. “I’m sorry, that was very corny.”

“Very. But I like corny. Speaking of…”

Giovanna gestured for her to approach, still staring into the scope. The Valentine squeezed in close. “What are we looking at?”

“Here, put your eye up to the lens.” Gio took a step back, allowing the other to take her place. “Don’t jostle it too much. You see that big glowing spot? That’s the ring nebula.”

There was something round and bluish right off-center in the telescope’s view. “It’s shaped differently from the other one.”

“Yep! That one’s made of an old star that’s breaking down. It’s changing into a white dwarf and dumping old parts of itself all over while it does.”

“So…that one’s dying?”

“All of ‘em do, after enough millions of years,” she nodded. “But all the stuff they shed flies around space and ends up making new ones.”

Ram went quiet for a moment, thinking to herself. “You don’t think that’s sad?”

“Sad? Maybe a little.” Giovanna sat back on the hillside. “I think it’s cool. Every star’s made of pieces of old ones. Sometimes they make other stuff. Y’know, all the stuff on earth originally came from space. Plants and rocks and water ‘n all that. People too. We’ve all got little pieces of space in us.”

Ramlethal continued staring through the telescope. She wondered how far away the stars had to be. She wondered how bright it had to be in order to be seen from so far away.

“I wasn’t made the way humans were. Are there still pieces of space in me, too?”

“Probably.”

It wasn't a very convincing answer. She continued to look. Behind her, she could hear both Giovanna and Rei moving around.

“Hey. Ram. Look at me real quick.”

Reluctantly, she did, and as soon as she turned, there was something warm against her face. The suddenness made it difficult to process, and as soon as she tried, something else wet slobbered along her arm.

“Rei, down!” Giovanna stepped back from the kiss to lecture the dog. “I had a moment going! I was gonna- augh…” She put a hand over her face. I was gonna do a thing where I went ‘well here, you can have a little of mine,’ but now the whole thing just feels weird.”

It was a little weird, but Ram thought it was weird in a good way. “I like that you tried.”

“I just didn’t want this whole thing to end up bumming you out.”

She nodded. “I get it. But I’m having fun. I like spending time with you.”

The two of them sat down together, using Rei as a pillow and watching the stars as they continued to twinkle.

“Can I ask you a question, Giovanna?”

“Eh? Yeah, always. What’s up?”

“Why was the ring nebula corny? I’m still confused.”

The woman was silent for a moment, then snickered to herself. “It’s- y’know what? Let’s wait a couple years ‘n come back to it.”

“It’s going to take me that long to figure it out?”

“Nah, it’s just that with how much I paid, it’s gonna take me a while to save up.”

“...I still don’t get it…”

“Heh. Ask your sister.”

#Frog Writes #Comfortober #guilty gear #giovanna #ramlethal valentine #gioram

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paperstorm · 1 year

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Here are some violent thoughts I've had today about what Carlos goes through after the fire:

All his things are gone. Obviously. Normal trauma that anyone would go through after a fire but he built himself a comfortable little life and he watched it literally burn to the ground. Also? No more safe place for the 126 hangs, and it meant so much to him that he could provide that for people. They'll have to gather somewhere else now, someone else is going to feed them and take care of them. ALSO? All of TK's things are gone, because Carlos asked him to move in. If he'd stayed living at Owen's house he would still have all his stuff.

The list of things he definitely blames himself for is so much longer than just not having a fire extinguisher in the bedroom. He didn't notice that someone had broken into his house. He didn't notice the fire starter things. He didn't catch the red flag of the alarm not working. TK did! TK was fussing with it, TK wanted to keep fussing until it was fixed, and Carlos pulled him away. Because he wanted to have sex with him. Carlos is gonna spent the next few days breaking down every moment of that night and extracting 87 reasons why it's completely his fault and he's the worst person in existence.

TK is the one who noticed the smoke. TK is the one who pulled them back to the bedroom, TK is the one who knew what to do and how to act while Carlos was just panicking. And then three other strong tough men burst in and got them out and a crew of firefighters put out the flames. A whole bunch of people were instrumental in the fact that they didn't get hurt or killed and Carlos wasn't one of them. He didn't save them. It is inconceivable that Carlos doesn't beat himself up about that, probably for weeks.

Everyone is gonna know. That Carlos didn't protect them. That he didn't notice all those things he'll decide a better man would have noticed. That he didn't have an extinguisher. That he pulled TK away from the broken alarm. That the fire started on the first floor and was able to spread so much because they were in the bedroom upstairs. That Carlos prioritized getting his dick wet over keeping TK safe. Owen knows, Judd knows, it'll be in the official report. His failures broadcast for everyone to see.

He had to call his dad and tell him all this. He's on the phone with Gabriel at the beginning of that final scene, Carlos had to call his father [insert all that preexisting trauma] and tell him that his house burned down and TK could have been killed or seriously injured and it's All. His. Fault. When just a few weeks earlier Gabriel had been so proud of him for protecting someone he loves and going after TK and saving him, now Carlos has to tell him he almost got TK killed and that he's not the one who saved him and that it all happened because Carlos was thinking with his dick. The shame of that, the horrible gut-wrenching moment when Gabriel is like "why didn't the smoke detector go off?" and Carlos has to tell him. When Gabriel learns that the fire began on the first floor and they were in the bedroom, and puts together what they were doing. Carlos wouldn't tell him, he wouldn't be able to say those words out loud, but Gabriel would understand it anyway and Carlos will just literally never get over that.

He has to go live at Owen's house. Someone else providing for TK. Owen doing all the cooking because he's persnickety about health food. Mateo there all the time, buzzing around and pestering Carlos with questions because tbh Mateo has a bit of a crush on Carlos and would mean well but wouldn't leave him alone. Carlos unable to take his control back in the ways he normally would because other people are around. He can't pull TK into his lap and hold him. He can't cook for him and keep him safe. His anxiety would be absolutely off the charts and none of his normal coping mechanisms would be options in someone else's house.

In conclusion our boy is already going through it in season 2 but after the fire he's just gonna spiral so, so badly.

#911 lone star #andie's annoying character metas

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boltupbitches · 2 months

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Sliding in the DMs Part XVII

Life had settled down a bit for Arty and Joey over the course of a few weeks. Occasional comments were still made in passing by people they encountered - some they knew and some complete strangers. It was odd at first but both quickly learned to ignore it and go about their day.

Arty had begged Joey to take her out boating the past week and today they finally would - with some unexpected guests. When Joey mentioned in passing to Nick that he was taking his boat out, Nick invited himself and Athena along - using the excuse that it had been a while since they got to hang out together.

Arty was excited over the prospect of seeing her sister and hanging out with her.

‘As if they weren’t just together yesterday.’ Joey thought sarcastically.

When Nick showed up with his shit-eating smirk directed at him, Joey knew what kind of day it was going to be.

Arty and Nick would definitely talk shit at each other and also at him. If that wasn’t bad enough, he really didn’t want to see his brother groping his sister-in-law so unabashedly with no sense of embarrassment whatsoever. Sometimes Joey felt like the adult in the room when it came to his wife and his brother. Thank God Athena seemed sane and mellow. Another clown on the boat would have likely made him jump overboard.

“Alright,” Joey said, “everyone got their stuff? I’m not about to drive out and come back if something is left behind.”

“All good,” Arty called from next to her sister.

Joey turned the boat on and coasted from his private dock.

Arty sat up front with him and enjoyed the ocean breeze on her face. It was a beautiful day to go out boating, especially after the recent rainstorms that moved through southern Florida. It was nothing new to Arty as she spent her whole life until the age of 22 living in Miami.

Once the boat was close enough to the sandbar, Joey cut the engine and turned towards his wife with a smile. “I love you,” He said as he leaned in to press a kiss to her lips, “You’re so fucking beautiful.” He eyed her bikini top and shorts combo, his eyes lingering on the sky-blue bikini she was wearing.

“You’re not so bad yourself, handsome.” She leaned up slightly to kiss him once more.

Joey turned his head to see Nick in the back of the boat with Athena perched on his lap, his arms easily wrapped around her frame as she played with his curls.

“I hope you’re not going to try anything funny, Nick. I didn’t agree to a live show like last time.” Joey teased with a smirk.

Nick raised one arm up and gave him the bird and a dirty look before he turned back to Athena who had her head resting on his shoulder. “Says the dude who had sex with his wife on a boat in Greece,” at Joey’s shocked look, Nick continued with a smirk, “You dirty dog.”

“How do you know about that?” Arty asked with a slight blush on her face, “Who told you?”

Athena didn’t make eye contact with Arty who looked over to her, “I have my ways,” Nick said mysteriously.

“Would that source be my sister?” Arty looked pointedly at Athena.

“I was drunk!” Athena protested back, her face embarrassed that her drunk gossip with Nick was leaked, “I didn’t know he’d bring that up!”

“Nick has a big mouth. Just because he doesn’t talk a lot in front of others doesn’t mean he doesn’t talk shit at all - if anything he’s one of the biggest shit-talkers behind closed doors. Isn’t that right, Nicky?”

“Says the man that got in a fight with a bunch of asshole Eagles fans. How did that work out for you, Joey?” Nick retorted.

“Ok - ok!” Athena stood up off Nick’s lap. “We are not doing this. We are here to have a good time and hangout. You,” she pointed at a frowning Nick, “shut up and stop instigating.”

“What about him?” Nick complained, “He started it!”

“And he’s going to shut up too,” Arty interjected, “so how about both of you shut up?”

Joey grunted at her and frowned.

Nick said nothing else and pouted at Athena, “Come sit back down with me.”

Athena giggled at his pleading expression and quickly sat back down on his lap.

Joey made a coughing/gag sound and Arty turned quickly to check on him, “You ok?”

“Yeah, just choked down some vomit at him making that face,” Joey joked.

Nick went to retort but Arty was one step ahead of him as she pulled Joey over to the cooler to get a drink.

“Dear God,” Athena mumbled at the bickering between her boyfriend and his brother.

“Hmm?” Nick hummed in response.

“Nothing,” Athena sighed, “Just enjoying the breeze.

Hopefully, the rest of the day would be relaxing with much less bickering.

—--------------

Joey and Arty relaxed on the bow of the boat as Nick and Athena were walking on the shallow part of the sandbar further inward.

Nick had spotted some friends and coaxed Athena towards them for introductions.

Joey wasn’t complaining as he finally got the privacy he so desperately wanted with his wife. He wasn’t interested in greeting anyone at the sandbar and just wanted to relax with Arty next to him.

“Thanks for taking me out here with you,” Arty said quietly from her spot next to him.

“Anytime,” Joey said happily. “I’m so glad we get to spend this time together.”

Arty propped herself up and smiled at him. “It’s a beautiful day today to be out here. Are you going to get in the water and walk around?”

“Later. I just want to relax for a bit. I’m still exhausted from my training session yesterday with my trainer. Today’s all about relaxation and recovery for me.”

They relaxed for a while like that, not saying anything to each other and enjoying the breeze passing over them. It was heaven.

Further inwards of the sandbar, Nick stood speaking with some former high school classmates, his arm comfortably draped over Athena as he held her close to him. He was immersed in conversation about the upcoming start to the season as Athena looked around at the number of people at the sandbar.

It was only going to get busier as they day dragged on. She glanced back towards Joey and Arty’s boat, wishing she was back on the boat and away from wondering eyes.

Several young women were eyeing them up from nearby. Athena felt exposed under their scrutiny as she leaned more into Nick’s side, hoping to make herself smaller and to get the attention off her, but when she looked around, she noticed that wasn’t working well.

Nick’s friend laughed and turned towards his other friend to say something. Nick took that moment to turn towards Athena and press a kiss to her cheek and then lowly asked her, “Are you ok? You seem tense.”

Athena shook her head and looked up into his worried eyes. “I just am uncomfortable with the amount of people staring. That’s all.”

Nick glanced around and noticed the eyes on them. A few ladies nearby actually grinned his way and waved eagerly at him, but Nick did not return the gesture. He wasn’t interested in entertaining them in any way.

Nick schooled his face to show how unimpressed he was with them before he turned back to Athena and smiled gently. “Don’t worry about them. I’m not here to entertain them. Only you.” He then pressed a kiss to her lips as he ignored the wolf whistles of his friends at his public display of affection.

He wanted to send a message that he was taken and so was Athena. He wasn’t the only one getting admiring looks from the opposite sex.

—--------

Joey and Arty had moved back towards the cockpit of the boat, now shaded by the hardtop above them.

Arty pressed kisses to his cheek as she sat down next to him.

Joey let her as he returned her kisses and pulled her onto his lap. He didn’t even care if anyone saw them making out on the boat. He genuinely did not give a fuck. All he could think about was his beautiful wife in his arms.

Arty pressed another kiss to his lips and pulled back to grin at him, “Quite the salute you're giving me, captain.” She glanced down between them at his growing bulge, “Too bad we don’t have enough privacy for that.” She pouted at him, “If there weren’t so many people around, we could make this work.”

“I know,” Joey sighed, “Fuck me… Why did we come out here again today?”

“To enjoy a beautiful day at the sandbar,” Arty responded nonchalantly. “And to spend some time alone.”

“We could have done that at home,” Joey sighed loudly.

“But I love being on boats with you.” Arty pouted. “Maybe if we got out into the water it’ll help with your boner.”

“Great idea. Maybe the cold water will freeze my dick off while we’re at it.” Joey said sarcastically.

“It’s 91 degrees out today, Joseph. And it’s the middle of July. You know that water isn’t freezing.” Arty laughed at his dramatics. “Come on! Just for a bit, please?” She begged with a dramatic pout.

“Hmm…” Joey pretended to think, “Fine… but only for a little bit.. And only if you wear that new lingerie set for me that you bought last week.” He smirked.

Arty raised her eyebrow in confusion at his request, “How did you know I bought myself lingerie?”

“You left it on the bed for the whole day and I recognized the boutique you bought from before. I snuck a peak.” Joey shrugged.

“Hmm…” It was Arty’s turn to pretend contemplating his request. “I guess we can make that happen… only if you come to play in the water with me on the sandbar, though. Not just stand around looking like a grouch.”

“Deal.” Joey said as he gently moved her off his lap to stand up, “The sooner we get in the water, the sooner we can get back home…” He put his sunglasses and cap on, “Then, your ass is mine.” He smirked at her.

“Oh? You just wait. I’ll be having you begging.” Arty promised with a cocky grin.

“Really?” Joey approached her.

“Absolutely. Just you wait. I got something planned for you, baby boy.” Arty stood up and hip-checked him before heading down the ladder and wading into the water towards the sandbar.

“Are you coming?” She called up to Joey as he watched her.

“Yeah, yeah.” He started down the ladder, his mind thinking about all the things he was going to due to her as soon as they got into their house later. He was intrigued about what Arty had planned, but he could wait.

‘Could Arty?’ Joey thought with amusement as he approached his waiting wife.

#joey bosa fanfiction #joey bosa fanfic #joey bosa imagines #sliding in the dms series #sdms series

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