#(travelling in general isn't really for me - not when my parents 'plan' it)
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“If I skated for the sake of winning, I would do it differently”
On December 29th a morning radio programme Dome Square on Latvijas Radio 4 broadcasted an interview with Deniss (in Russian). They discussed figure skating in Latvia, plans for the future, ways to deal with tiredness and avoiding the burnout, and of course dived into personal and sports philosophy. There are also some New Year wishes to the listeners!
Full recording available here.
Translation into English below the cut.
In December Deniss Vasiljevs became a seven-time champion of Latvia. ‘If I skated for the sake of winning, I would do it differently’, says the athlete about his performances in an interview with my colleague Natalya Meshcheriakova for “Dome Square”. The talented athlete spoke about his rules of life, summarised the results of the past year, set goals for the future, and also shared how he prefers to recuperate.
DV: I really enjoy coming back to Latvia. When I see all the younger generations, it makes me very happy, and in its own way it motivates me to keep skating and to keep, in fact, skating for them too. And to come to Latvia… There are not so many competitions in December, and to skate at your home ice rink, to do a full competition and try new elements is always very, very nice and very important for figure skating in the country. And I have always been motivated to do something useful for society (Deniss used the English word here, then translated himself). So it is a great pleasure for me to be here.
NM: The languages are getting confused, aren't they? What's that about, is it because you spend most time outside of Latvia?
DV: I speak English practically all the time; also French, and I learnt Latvian, and I speak mostly Russian with my parents, so I have a little bit much [of the languages]. Even German manages to get in. Anyway, I'm still readjusting. I need a couple of days to fully come back and think in the language I speak.
NM: But you are in Latvia for a smaller part of the time. If you take a year, how much time do you spend here?
DV: This year, so far, I have only spent two days in Latvia.
NM: And where are you mostly based then?
DV: Now I'm in Switzerland, in Champéry, but I'm travelling a lot because of figure skating competitions, basically flying around the world. I've flown round the planet at least three times this year.
NM: Three times... Yes, I understand that there are competitions, there is a goal, motivation, but how do you fight fatigue? It probably requires a huge amount of, well, physical strength, and some special approach. How do you avoid the burn out?
DV: We have two opportunities to rest during a season; sometimes three. There are Christmas holidays, or New Year's Eve. These are very social ones. Then in the end of the season — somewhere in May — we get a real vacation, but usually it isn't longer than two weeks. And there's one just before the start of the season, two or three days, because the heavy summer preparation ends and seasonal work begins.
In a way, you get used to it. It's indeed very difficult when you can't sleep, when you have time zone changes all the time. Say, this year: I got a Grand Prix event in the US and another one in China. I went to China to compete for a week, came back for a week; went to America for a week, came back for a week to go somewhere else to compete again; spent a week again, and came back to China for a week; then came back to train for a week, and the next week I had to be [in Riga]. All this travelling, ice sessions, flying and training, it's hard enough. When it's not your first year like this, you adapt in your own way, but it's always very hard on the body. Just like now, when we're halfway through the season and you feel like you're already kind of a squeezed lemon.
NM: And how do you regain your strength? What helps you? What gives you that full-fledged rest, when you have it, yes, you said, in May, in December?
DV: Mostly I barricade myself in my room (laughs). Nothing but sleeping helps. So, my version of rest is mostly finding a quiet place and sleeping. Yet music is mostly used for work. I tend to relax, maybe, listening to classical music in the evening, or jazz, but…
NM: Probably with classical music you already imagine, like, how you would skate to this tune. It's a professional deformation already.
DV: Yeah, yeah, that's exactly what it is. At one point, especially a couple of years ago, everything I did was about figure skating. Completely. Listening to music, watching ballet, doesn't matter no matter. I was watching the body movements and imagining how it's all going to look like, which is a little bit…. It makes you go crazy. To me, studying helped a lot.
NM: What do you mean exactly?
DV: I completed my Masters this year. It really helped me to... get out of figure skating? To just study and then come back to train and work.
NM: Where did you study, and how?
DV: In Latvia, at Daugavpils Universitāte. I got a lot of help with timing there, so I was able to study relatively freely in general. It helped a lot to not go crazy with sports. But in general everyone survives in their own way. My option is to always be interested in what's going on around me; learning something, trying to do something. Drawing.
NM: In the context of the year, how do you evaluate yourself? We know about your achievements, successes. Were these the goals you set for yourself?
DV: I've been skating for quite a few years now, and I have my own opinion of the system which is perhaps different from how many people understand it. So I chose my aspiration a long time ago: to try to compete with myself only. If I skated to win, I would do it differently. I skate because I enjoy it and because I'm as supportive as my coach is of being... a little old school. It's all about charisma, beauty, performance. Sport is a culture in its own way, rather than just athletics on ice. That's why the attitude is different in many ways: how we create the program, how we do everything. We stick to certain foundations, you could say, a certain quality, and we are very proud that we do it with virtue (Deniss used the English word again, translating himself right after).
NM: Seems like this approach is justified. Your awards prove it's the right bet.
DV: Sport is so much more than any award. Sport is a way of life, it's a... path of excellence (the English phrase in original). You have to do it the right way. You have to be honest, you have to really live according to those views; they are not for the sake of results, they are much more than that. And they create a better society. You support society through actually living with these... I don't know, values (the English word again). It's a way of living, and in its own way it requires you to be a leader of your own self.
NM: Does your coach help you with that, or are you just that kind of person on your own?
DV: It's certainly cultivated at first. It's how we teach the kids. Current figure skating is too much like... you take a board, sand it down and make it into a stool ("taburetka" in original). That's not how sport was intended to be. Sport is when you plant a seed and you keep watering it, create sunny conditions, and it grows. That's why you create a greenhouse — so that the seed grows better.
The idea is that you develop yourself. You can be clumsy, you can be gawky, but you do it yourself. You create your own character from the way you understand and explore the world. It's not that you've been grown and made, it's that you've grown yourself. And the help was in telling you: there's a jungle over there, go cut through it. Not just telling you that there is a road over there, take it and follow it, and let everyone rush and stand in traffic. That's why sport is self-exploration, a kind of self-awareness. Freedom to develop yourself. A never-ending road. So being an athlete is more than just doing your sport. And to be a good athlete, you have to develop yourself in so many ways. Figure skating is one of the best options, because you have not only athletics, but also choreography, dancing, theatre art. You need to bring a whole idea of a program to life... And don't get me started on costumes!
NM: But not everyone can probably take it. Too many things at once.
DV: It takes a lot of discipline, which you choose yourself very early on. Someone has to give you a push, but the choice is your own. A lot of kids probably can't make their own choice: you have to know what discipline is, and then you also have to know what you want. I don't even know how to do it right, but so many get off the tracks right at this point.
So I've seen what, four shifts already? I've been to two Olympics. It's been eight... nine years in seniors, and that's quite a long road. But there's no perfect way; you find your own. I don't aim to rack up maximum points or run the maximum time or do the perfect technique. I look at it more generally [broader]. I must be magnetic in my own way; express the idea of striving for perfection, and honour the fact that one can't achieve perfection.
But you should always strive to do your best in whatever you do; it doesn't matter if it's sports, studies, whatever. You've got to build character. And it will epitomise what you do later on. In sports, on the ice, off the ice, everywhere.
NM: Based on that, what are your plans for next year? Are you setting any goals?
DV: For now, I'm just aiming to... Every day it's pretty hard for me to keep myself in control, especially when I'm tired, and I just want to qualify for the Olympics and give my best. I have plans that I don't want to announce yet because they still, well, need to be done, and there's definitely science (the English word followed by self-translation), scientific evidence as to why it shouldn't be done. At least I really want to qualify and go to the Olympics for the third time. To really showcase the Latvian culture of sport!
Sport is much more than what we see on the ice during the four minutes of skating. It is, after all, the way training happens; the way we live; in general, everything we do epitomises a whole different world. In its own way. One illustration would be, for example, if you make coffee, you work on it so intensely that it ends up being some of the best coffee you'll ever drink. A lot of people probably don't question how you can make it better, better, better, better. But if you watch athletes who do strive for something greater, they usually can't separate an ordinary commitment from the sports one. Such aspiration for perfectionism is the lot of athletes.
NM: And your wishes, for the people of Latvia, for the listeners? The next year is about to come...
DV: It is possible to start life every day. Basically... this will probably sound silly, but one of the philosophies is that when you live, you need to die every morning. Every day is the last day. That's the only way you can make the most of it.
I guess my wishes are these: move and aspire every day. Aspire to do a little bit better, and to do a little bit easier, because easier is better! Aspire to live in motion; direct life towards something.
#deniss vasiljevs#figure skating#interview#translation#<- not really a machine one but i am not a professional so please keep that in mind#happy new year! i guess!
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There's so much I want to write and so much I want to read, but I can't fully engage with much of anything right now and it's killing me😭
#so many fic ideas! i thought about a zuri x farah one with zuri doing her hair#and them talking about their experiences regarding their hair and how its perceived#i wrote my general thoughts down on it and it would be !!!#so interesting!!#(especially since things concerning race aren't really... there in game ig - and idk if i want it to be for a variety of reasons)#(but exploring it with them could be !!!!!!!)#i thought of a mini series of zuri and adam going on drives together as their relationship progresses#i also wanna write something with zuri and bobby after the events of book 3#with bobby seeking her out with more genuine intentions than he does in book 2 and contrasting the two#i wanna write a few scene rewrites just for just#and there are so many fics i wanna read! i've missed so many of them and they all seem so interesting and fun#but i am suffering💀#i'm in a different country for an extended period of time (for me at least) when i really didn't want to be#(travelling in general isn't really for me - not when my parents 'plan' it)#i'm struggling to sleep because it's not my bed and i am constantly aware that its not my bed#all my energy is going into being as okay as i can be while counting the days until i can go home#(and i know as soon as i'm on the plane i'm gonna feel like this wasn't so bad so i dislike that it still mostly feels like it is)#and i forgot to take the pill for days now so my period just started for the second time this month💀💀#make it stop PLEASE#this ended up being a more personal rant but like UAUSGSH#i just need it to be over#chichi.txt
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So uh, I realise I wrote too much again, so like, I don't expect the questions to be answered, I just think in questions and what ifs. I don't expect the questions to be answered at all just go for a general respond to the vibes if u want.
I think you should have Reader go back to her world and the duo try and go after her.
According to JTTW isn't the world in the palm of Buddha or something? Would Reader's world be in the future or an alternate world/palm?
I'm just imagining after they go through all their adventures and grow and mature as people[monkies?], they should get a power of friendship[romance] power boost to go to Reader's world and immediately cause chaos there, with all the drama that is involved.
What would they think about everyone knowing so much about them? Is there a heavenly realm/court thingy they can ransack, so we can have shenanigans of two heavenly courts fighting the duo and each other on what to do regarding the situation?
How would the duo react to meeting Reader's family? Would there be a Sun Wukong and Macaque in Reader's world? How would they react to the Cursed Warlords duo?
What if Reader goes home with them still cursed instead?
Imagine Reader being separated from them because as far as anyone knows, these are wild animals that should live in a zoo or something.
Nobody would believe that the monkeys came from another world, they would just wonder how Reader managed to steal 2 monkey cubs from their parents and habitat most likely across country lines
People probably think Reader is an abusive, cruel, ignorant asshole who probably got them from a poacher or something.
Can u imagine the amount of harassment, hate and vitriol Reader would get, and the monkeys would witness?
And they would only see a bunch of humans, targeting the one human who no matter what tried their best to keep them safe, saying that Reader is a horrible person that they will "save" them from, only to be shoved into tiny cages[carriers] only to be taken into a prison where they are stared at 24/7 with flashing lights from all sides with no privacy[zoo], forced to eat pellets while reader would probably starve before letting them go hungry[fruit has been bred to have too much sugar that it gives animals cavities so zoos don't use them], being manhandled by strangers poking random things into them[vets giving check-up and bloodwork]?
Imagine if they broke their curse after experiencing all of that, oh their reaction to everything:
monkey duo: "ok, there is no way we will leave Reader here, court-napping kidnapping 'rescue' reader plan is a go!"
reader, who only saw them as cubs and was imprisoned shortly after they were separated: "Who tf are you???? Why do these two monkey demons act like they know me??? How did they even get here??? WAIT WHY AM I BEING TAKEN BACK??? WHAT ABOUT THE CUBS?? are these the cubs parents??"
monkey duo, touched that reader still remembers to think about them after all this kerfuffle:"… ok we are definitely going to marry reader, gonna have to shift plans to move it up the schedule"
This had me absolutely busting a gut as I was reading it. The idea would be something that would be fun to play with for sure.
I don’t think that I’ll have them go to her world this early in the Au, but eventually they’ll probably go there because they don’t like her being anywhere that isn’t with them. Well other than Flower Fruit Mountain, as they believe that she is safest there. (Haven’t decided when they actually go to her world yet, or if they’ll go there quietly or if they’ll bust into the place or not)
Now for Reader’s World, I realize it’s something I haven’t really mentioned before. Reader’s world is a modern world, one that doesn’t have demons or monsters lurking around every corner. My thought is it’s just like Earth in this way. I like the idea of Reader’s world being one that isn’t on Buddha’s palm at all, in fact it’s a world that should be impossible for her to leave or travel to. However due to a specific magic that flows through her, she is able to get pulled to and from her world. What magic? Honestly haven’t decided on that yet. But the only way she can control it is with magical artifacts, her magic simply powering the artifact and guiding it to the right dimension. She and two other people are the only ones who can even do this properly, even if her own is a complete accident usage every time.
No there isn’t a Sun Wukong and Macaque in her world. That would be funny true, but with her world being a modern one I don’t feel like it fits.
My thoughts on Reader traveling between the worlds, hehe~ Let’s just say I’ve got a few fun plans for that. Especially when the Monkey Duo can’t do anything about it (At least not for a while). 👀 Heck due to the nature of Reader’s nullification to magic, Macaque can’t even just know when she arrives in their world. They will get rather desperate to get her back on more than one occasion. HA! I am going to make them work for this girl! They want her, they will have to work / fight for her. Though the fighting comes like second nature to them, heck more than second nature to them actually.
On the topic of marriage though, Wukong and Macaque think more along the lines of courting. They just want to court-nap her and mate with her and then she would be their wife by Demon standards. So they won’t really think to have an actual wedding… at least not until they learn about that human custom.
I loved your ideas btw, thank you so much for sharing them with me ❤️
As always if anyone else has any other ideas, then send them my way! I love to hear everyone’s thoughts. Such as this Anon’s who had me laughing so hard I swear my stomach hurt from it.
Just thinking about the monkey duo being put into a zoo was hilarious. The absolute rage Wukong would feel would be something to behold, including the fact that he’d probably tear down the zoo if the curse vanished while he was in it. Reader would be all worried about your monkeys trying to figure out how to free them when suddenly there’s some sort of fire happening at the zoo they were brought to. You would probably fear for the worst.
Until two monkey demons probably enter through your window, ready to take their darling back home.
“How…” Reader gasps as you stared into beautiful golden eyes that stared at you with a love stuck smile.
“Hello Reader~ Are you ready to go home?” Wukong mutters, his tail swaying back and forth like that of a cat.
“Who are you!?” you want to run. The demon in front of you is covered in blood and walking towards you at a rather quick pace, too quick.
“Now, now. We can’t have you running,” Another demon mutters as arms wrap around your waist, seemly out of no where.
Turning you are about to yell when you notice a set of three ears on each side of his head. Immediately your thoughts going to your little monkey cubs as she's picked up effortlessly.
"Ahh! Let me go! Who the heck are you!? Are you Plum and Peaches parents? Is that why you're here? I swear I don't have them, they- they're trapped at the zoo... I didn't do anything to them-" you would get cut off rather quickly.
"Shh, shh we know. We know that you didn't do anything other than care for them. Gotta say being called Plum for months was strange but can't say I hated it," Macaque would whisper in your ear.
As this is revealed to you, a sense of terror washes over you. Slowly you find yourself turning to look at the other monkey demon in the room. The similarities were so distinctive and they were right in your face. You couldn't deny it now.
"Now, let's get you back home. We aren't going to leave you for this stupid world to take care of you. No, they can't take care of you like we can," Wukong mutters, nuzzling his face against your cheek.
You can try to get out of their hold all you like, but you won't succeed with these two. They love you too much to let you go now. You sealed your fate the moment you gave them food, if I'm being honest. Especially with what the zoo tried to feed them.
#dead dove do not eat#sun wukong x macaque#yandere sun wukong#yandere macaque#Sun Wukong x Reader#Macaque x Reader#sun wukong x macaque x reader#Shadowpeach x Reader#Shadowpeach x Female Reader#cursed warlords au#cursed warlords lmk au
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Elemental Legacy Challenge for TS3
Hi all, this is my first Sims 3 legacy challenge I've made myself, it is a result of my boredom on a Saturday evening but it was a lot of fun, so I'll throw this at you ☺
This elemental legacy challenge is for The Sims 3 and spans 9 Generations. It is inspired by the Chinese Zodaic Elements and also inspiration from my favourite JRPG's which utlise a lot of elemental themed magic. It has guided ideas and generational requirements with story themes throughout. Feel free to tag me if you have a go at this ✨
Rules:
I have listed the intended requirements for each generation, move on to the next generation once the requirements are complete or the next heir becomes a young adult
I have listed some guidance on careers, lifetime wishes and traits. I recommend taking 2-3 of the traits listed but they aren't mandatory
You can use money cheats if you wish, I've tried to write the generational order to put you in the desired financial spot for storytelling, but please just have fun with it
Please do alter and play this how you wish & how your stories pan out, the guidance is just there for ideas and isn't meant to limit you
Generation 1 - Earth
Child of earth, you are grounded and resillient. Your goal is to provide your family with solid foundations for the generations to come. You are selfless, stubborn and driven. You know what you want and will work your upmost to achieve it. Your ambitious and frugal nature can get on other's nerves and prompts the question: with so much planning for the future, are you really taking time to enjoy your own life?
Traits: Ambitious, Frugal, Natural Cook, Snob, Workaholic
Job: Medical Career
LTW: World Renowned Surgeon
Requirments:
Begin in a starter house. You should not move lots or houses this Generation and instead add extensions onto your house when needed
Master the cooking and nectar making skills
Fall in love and marry one person in your lifetime
Do not have children until you reach level 8 of your career
Save 20,000 for the next generation
Generation 2 - Water
Child of water, thanks to your parents hardwork, you had a carefree childhood and now plenty of savings behind you. You are a calm free spirit that lets the oceans currents carry you to your next adventure. You are in no rush to settle in one place just yet, why rush when you are having such fun? Your time for settling down will come evetually. Whatever will be will be.
Traits: Adventurous, Loves to swim, Commitment Issues, Easily Impressed, Athletic
LTW: Seaside Saviour/Seasoned Traveler/Deep Sea Diver
Job: Lifeguard
Requirements:
Travel to 3 different destinations
Do not get married and settle down until adulthood
Have at least 3 children with 3 different people you meet in your travels
Master the diving skill
Own a boat or live in a houseboat
Generation 3 - Fire
Child of fire, you are passionate and hot-headed, throwing yourself headfirst into your work and relationships with a grandeur flair. You wear your heart on your sleeve, making many flock to you for friendship or more. Your self-awareness around your temper certainly helps your popularity as you channel your temper into your physical fitness. You certainly aren't burning out anytime soon!
Traits: Social Butterfly, Hot-Headed, Artistic, Loves the Heat, Flirty
LTW: Super Popular
Job: Self-employed Painter
Requirements:
Master the painting and martial arts skills
Have at least 20 friends and maintain friendships until you are an elder or the next generation takes over
Have 3 passionate lovers in your lifetime
Throw a party once per week
Woohoo once per week
Generation 4 - Grass
Child of grass, you just can't get enough of babies, especially your own! Your family and their wellbeing are your whole world. You live to nourish, protect and teach your loved ones. However, you have been told on one or more occasions that you can be overbearing...a helicopter parent perhaps? Don't they know you only want what is best for them?
Traits: Nurturing, Perfectionist, Loves the Outdoors, Family Orientated, Green Thumb,
LTW: Surrounded by Family/The Perfect Garden
Job: Daycare
Requirements:
Have a garden and live off the land, using your grown produce for meals
Max the gardening skill
Fall in love and marry your childhood sweetheart
Have 5 children and a bad relationship with at least one
Teach all of your children their toddler skills
Live within your means in a small-medium house - never have more than 10,000 in household funds
Generation 5 - Ice
Child of ice, your parents doting nature only added onto your pressure. You never felt like you fit in with your family, never felt understood. They were all so extroverted and loud whilst you much preferred your quiet isolation. Perhaps that's why you prefer animals over people. You have a lot of love to give, I can only hope you will find someone to share that with (who is not one of your many pets).
Traits: Shy, Animal Lover, Hates the Outdoors, Savvy Sculptor, Loves the cold
LTW: Descendant of Da Vinci
Jobs: Self employed Sculptor/Painter/Inventor
Requirements:
Have a poor relatioship with your parents and siblings, you will leave your childhood family home as soon as you age into a young adult
Have 3 pets at one time
Only leave your house when necessary
Meet your lover through online dating
Master the sculpting and inventing skills
Have a child through the time machine
Generation 6 - Electricity
Child of electricity, you sure are a shocker! You thrive in the spotlight and want all eyes on you, for better or worse. You would never miss an opportunity to make a good story for the headlines. Rumours have been circulating that your appearances are a rouse: you're broke, narcissistic and even miserable! They're just jealous of your fame and fortune...right?
Traits: Inappropriate, Star Quality, Charismatic, Daredevil, Irresistible
LTW: Superstar Actor/Rock Star/Vocal Legend
Job: Actor/Musician/Singer
Requirements:
Reach Celebrity Level 5
Reach Level 10 of your chosen career
Have 3 negative scandals in your lifetime
Act inappropriately once per week
Live beyond your means - live in a large mansion and keep your household funds below 5,000. Spend any additional income on items, spa treatments and activities
Have a fall from grace and leave your children with nothing
Generation 7 - Metal
Child of metal, you know what it's like to be at rock bottom. Due to your parents neglect and carelessness, you taught yourself all you know to get by and find your next meal, even if you aren't proud of it. You are stubborn, self-reliant and one hell of an evil genius. You won't hit rock bottom again. Ever.
Traits: Evil, Kleptomaniac, Genius, Night Owl, Rebellious
LTW: Become a Master Thief
Job: Criminal Career
Requirements:
As a teen: consistently maintain D's at school, skip school, pull pranks and steal from neighbours
Work for tips as a mixologist in your young adulthood
Master the mixologist skill and learn every drink recipe
Have a found family
Steal an item every week
Never fall below 2,000 simoleons when you are independant. If you do or are about to, start doing whatever is necessary. We will never hit rock bottom
Marry a rich sim, have a child with them and kill your partner off
Generation 8 - Air
Child of air, your life so far has been turbulent and chaotic. Your parents death has scarred you and you have floated through life lost. You try to travel on the right path for your late parent, but you can't help but feel there is more to life than what meets the eye. There are sounds at night that wake you, unexplained foresight into future events and a pull to the paranormal. Perhaps it is time to stop fighting this unknown path and instead let the winds carry you to where you are meant to be.
Traits: Good, Light Sleeper, Unlucky, Over-Emotional, Neurotic
LTW: Master of Mysticism/Paranormal Profiteer
Job: Fortune Teller/Ghost Hunter
Requirements:
Join a base game job in young adulthood. Quit once you reach level 3
Reach level 10 of your chosen career
Donate money to charity every week to honour your late parent
Marry a supernatural or one of your clients
Do one exceptionally good thing in your lifetime (examples include: cure a supernatural, adopt a child, revive a dead sim)
Have a close relationship with your children
Generation 9 - Space
Child of space, you certainly are special. With your parents holding a unique view on the world and the afterlife, you grew up with an open mind and childlike awe of life's wonders and mysteries. Your parents advocated for you to question the world, and question you did! You excelled in your studies and took a particular interest in space. Is it true you become a star if you die?
Traits: Genius, Childish, Athletic, Slob, Ambitious
LTW: Perfect Student
Job: Military
Requirements:
Keep straight A's throughout school
Go to university and achieve a perfect GPA
Master the logic skill
Reach space by becoming an astronaut (Reach level 10 of the military career)
Have an alien baby
#Elemental legacy#sims 3 legacy#sims 3 challenge#ts3 gameplay#ts3#sims 3#blossomsims#elementallegacychallenge#sims#s3elc
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Out Now: Dam Breakers
Hello everyone! I'm extremely excited (and, quite frankly, more than a bit nervous) to announce that I finished my fantasy romance novel Dam Breakers!
For the very TLDR-version: It is available here! Be sure to read the disclaimer below, though.
First of all, thank you! Everyone who reads my stories or likes them shows me that there is at least some interest in my mediocre writing. And even though the novel is not exactly like my stories here (more to that later), it gives me hope that you and other people might like it.
Now, for the actual novel!
Dam Breakers is the tale of Jared, a rather normal modern day college student, and Aleron, an apprentice mage living in a secluded tower with his teacher. One fateful day, they meet and are drawn into a maelstrom of magic, change and love - and dark secrets threatening to destroy everything they loved.
With over 120000 words, this is not only my longest story yet, but also my most carefully crafted one. I will attach an image of my Obsidian graph for the story at the end of the post.
Disclaimer:
As I have mentioned, it is a bit different from the stories I usually post here. First and foremost, it's a lot tamer. This novel isn't meant as a porn piece, but as an intriguing fantasy and romance tale. While there is love, desire and sex, of course, it's way more sparse and less explicit than, for example Closer Than Flesh.
It also features transformation themes, and the concept of change is one of the main focus points of the book, but, again, don't expect 500 pages full of transforming bodies because of it :)
And, finally, for a multitude of reasons, it does not contain AI generated images. I wouldn't be able to generate any that do the story justice, anyway.
Now that you know what not to expect, here are some things you MAY expect:
Transformation. Both in the sense of bodily changes but intriguing character development as well.
Gay Love. This is a story about two men from different worlds falling in love with each other, and their stony road to being together.
Magic. It's a fantasy story, and a truly enchanting one at that, with a fresh concept of magic and change.
Story. Last, but certainly not least, it's a good and interesting read, at least according to my opinion. Since I might be a bit biased here, let me tell you that my beta readers agree.
If you still want to read it (and I hope you do!), then you can grab your copy here:
If you are not in the US, you can just replace the .com with, for example, .co.uk to go to your local Amazon marketplace
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Teaser / Preview (mild spoilers)
And here is a short look into the book, from chapter 4. It contains some mild spoilers, but nothing too important. I also added an AI image, which is not in the book (see above).
[...]
Even though the weather was unstable, Jared enjoyed the journey through the vibrant spring land. It was a closeness to nature he had never experienced. Even back home with his parents, in rural Texas, the land had seemed different. Back there, the wilderness had been tamed decades if not centuries ago. There was no wonder, no adventure. Here, there were hills and forests, rivers and bogs, and who knew what else. It was as if Jared was seeing the world for the first time. Not to mention the smell. Jared could not remember a time when he had smelled the spring air like this.
In addition to the landscape, Jared's traveling companion also played a big part. Aleron was an intelligent and witty conversationalist, and Jared learned a lot about his new friend. They spoke of everything under the sun, and Jared told stories of his home, of modern inventions and the differences between this world and his. Even though Aleron was fascinated by his tales, he was also clearly skeptical about some of them, especially when it came to the more complex topics. That was only fair, though, as Jared himself had a hard time believing the fantastic stories of this world, even after having experienced some with his own eyes. Dragons, for example. It didn't matter how often Aleron recited what little information he had about those magnificent beasts, something in Jared resisted fully believing in them. He hoped that he would be able to see one of them for real - although Aleron repeatedly stressed how dangerous they were - in order to be able to fully believe in them.
While Aleron's world was certainly magical, it wasn't all like in the Lord of the Rings. There were, for example, no other humanoid races, as Jared learned. No elves, dwarves or orcs, at least to Aleron's knowledge, which, to be fair, mainly included the Kingdom of Myrthien. Although the Whispering Woods were not technically a part of Myrthien, and were generally considered wilderness, it was clear that they were no part of another nation either. The closest neighboring country to the Whispering Woods would either be the Golden Isles beyond the coast south of Eldoria or the Verdant Lands to the west. According to Aleron, the Verdant Lands couldn't really be considered a nation, too. It was more of a loose confederation of tribal communities, living in the characteristic dense forests of that region.
As Helena had promised, Luminara wasn't difficult to find. The capital of Myrthien was well known and if there was a sign post somewhere, it was sure to point to Luminara.
There was no shortage of smaller and bigger settlements, and about every third or fourth night they were able to sleep in beds. During the other nights, they made camp a bit off the road in order not to attract too much attention. It was one of those nights, about two weeks after they had left Eldoria, that Jared woke up in the middle of the night. Aleron, who was sleeping next to him, was moving in his sleep and occasionally made a sound, which had caused Flicker to gain a bit of distance to the sleeping man.
It was clear to Jared that his friend was dreaming, and he briefly considered waking him up from his nightmare. However, judging by the sounds, Jared began to suspect that Aleron was not having a nightmare but quite the opposite, although the dream seemed to be just as intense.
Quietly, he left the tent, careful not to wake the sleeping mage. Outside, he was greeted by the stars and a clear sky with an almost full moon. The campfire was almost dead, just a few embers and ashes were left. It was a quiet, peaceful night, and Jared decided to go to the nearby lake to drink. Aleron had never once shown a single sign of sexuality before, except for demonstrating a certain uneasiness around nudity and related topics. He never had commented on any woman - or man - in a suggestive way, so Jared had been half- convinced that this whole topic didn't have any relevance to the mage at all.
Of course, for his own reasons, Jared had avoided the subject as well, so, perhaps Aleron thought the same about him. Jared didn't mind that. As magical as this world was, he had yet to encounter a single sign of same-sex attraction. Perhaps this wasn't a thing here, biologically, or perhaps it was socially frowned upon, like in his world's medieval ages - or rural Texas, present day. In any case, there was absolutely no reason to bring that topic up, so he didn't. Not bringing up his sexuality was a sport he was very experienced in for 9 years straight now, after all.
As Jared neared the lake, he was feeling weird and tingly all over. It was not entirely unpleasant, but it stirred a vague memory in Jared. He had felt this feeling once before, but he couldn't quite recall when.
When he bent down to scoop some water into his hand, he stopped before his fingers touched the surface of the lake. The moon was bright, and Jared could see his reflection in the mirror-smooth water quite well. The only problem was that it was not him who was looking back at him.
Of course, there was a strong resemblance, but the details weren't right. His face looked somewhat stronger, his jawline a bit squarer. His hair a bit lighter and styled like the day he first stepped out of the mirror. On his chin, there was a short well-groomed beard even though he had shaved just last morning. It wasn't just his face, though. As he looked down on himself, he looked fitter than he should, as if he was visiting a gym regularly. In fact, the definition of muscle on his torso increased further, just as he was watching. Suddenly, the wonder was replaced by fear. He had felt that way before, and now he remembered when. It had been during his first visit to Aleron's world, when his body was 'destabilizing' as Aleron had put it. Given, the feeling had been stronger then, but it was definitely the same. And now, his body was changing again, and he was weeks of travel from the magic mirror.
Half-panicking, he sprinted back to the tent, not caring about being quiet anymore. Perhaps Aleron knew what to do! He ducked into the entrance and called out to the mage.
"Aleron, wake up!"
Almost immediately, the apprentice jolted awake. "Jared? What is wrong?"
"I... don't know, it's me. Look at me!"
After a few words of encouragement, Flicker began burning brighter, allowing them to see in the tent as well. Aleron looked at the half-naked Jared critically for a few moments before asking: "Okay... what am I looking for?"
"Can't you see? I'm..." However, as Jared looked down on himself, everything was fine again. He was looking at his plain old self, just as he should look like. The tingling feeling was gone, too.
"Oh." Jared felt incredibly stupid all of a sudden. "I... must have been imagining things."
[...]
If you liked the teaser, be sure to give the whole thing a read :)
Let me close with another whole-hearted Thank You for your continued interest!
Stay awesome!
And here, as promised, a peek at the creative complexity of the story:
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baby, please - part 9
After your disastrous call with your parents, you decide to take yourself baby shopping. You invite Santi.
Warnings: A long chapter. Mentions of being sick, so emetophobia warning. Brief mention of unsupportive family members. Some swearing. Had to find a shopping mall in Florida and navigate through it so please excuse the inaccuracies on which stores are actually in there. Like mega fluffy towards the end. Barely proofread. Word count: 4,974 F!Reader, no use of Y/N.
This isn't my favourite chapter, it didn't go the way I had planned it, and even after a few rewrites it's still doesn't feel right. Also, I wrote so much of this before my One Drive decided to crash and it didn't save anything, despite me having my autosave on, so I lost like 5 hours worth of work. And I happened to have been written during a bad week at work so it's probably not my best.
Part 8 ● Series Masterlist ● Part 10
The following weeks after your disastrous call with your parents and sisters were a blur of work and preparations of pregnancy and birth. Your company’s new clients, who were ‘happy with the updates to their social media, and a few print outs every now and then’, were taking up most of your time, but that wasn’t an awful lot of time. So when you were at home, you were reading all the baby books you could find, trying to absorb as much information as possible.
Regarding your birth, you had been looking into a birth plan. You wanted to go as naturally as you possibly could. You were interested in a home birth, with a birthing pool. You read up about the benefits of being in a familiar environment and an unhurried birth, but you were carrying twins. It would be more difficult than a single baby birth, and what if something went wrong? What if you had to be rushed to the hospital? If there was an emergency, you didn’t want to wait for an ambulance and travel. And also, you would need a bigger place for that, which may not have happened for you yet. So, you were leaning towards a birth at the hospital. Sure, it won’t be as relaxed as you would have liked but if you wait as long as possible to go, then you wouldn’t be there for long. Your insurance did only cover a three day stay at the hospital.
You’d talk it through with Santi, but you’re not going to see him until your next appointment.
Your bad mood hadn’t gone unnoticed. Emily had been hovering over you for the past few days, doing odd jobs for you and just generally keeping an eye on you. You’d be flattered if she wasn’t so…concerned all the time.
“Is everything okay?” Emily asked you for the eightieth time that week.
You don’t even react anymore. “I’m fine, Emily,” you answer robotically, almost a habit to you now.
“You just seem really down,” Emily said, pouting as she leaned forward in her chair, looking at you with sad eyes.
“I had a fight with my family, that’s all,” you replied. “It’s nothing new.”
She stared at you for a moment before nodding. “Okay. Just let me know if you need anything. A snack or a coffee.”
You glance at her as she turned back to her computer. You were convinced she knew about the pregnancy. She hadn’t outright said it, or indicated otherwise, and yeah, Emily was nice, but not this nice. You wondered if Santi had said anything, but when you had asked about it in the past, he didn’t sound like he’d told Emily.
You shake your head at yourself and return to your computer. You’re just being paranoid. And a Negative Nancy.
Although your bump was starting to show a little bit, even as early was you were, and it wouldn’t be long until you had to come out to work that you were expecting. You had already drafted an email up to Harriet to send whenever you were ready, you just needed to get to that point. But you were enjoying your own little pregnancy bubble for now, you had time to tell her, and the rest of the office.
You sigh as you lean back in your chair, staring at the email trail you had going with a potential new client. You needed some new clothes. Your pants were getting tighter each week and you were uncomfortable most days. When you were at home, you lived in a pair of sweatpants that belongs to a long-lost ex-boyfriend, in times gone by. You never bothered to get in touch to return them after your break-up, because, honestly, they were too comfy to go back. Maybe you could treat yourself to some retail therapy that weekend; you hadn’t started buying baby things yet, don’t people already have at least a few items at this point? Maybe you should get started.
You could invite Santiago and give yourself the opportunity to talk about the birth plan.
You bite your lip as you stood from your desk. “I’ll be right back,” you say to Emily, already turning and pulling your phone out of your pocket. You barely heard her acknowledgement before you make your way out of your office and to reception.
You scroll for his number before calling him. It doesn’t take long until Santi’s answering, “Hey, cariño, everything okay?”
You pause, suddenly think that you’re being too forward; too hasty. You could have waited to call until after work when you were at home. Hell, you didn’t even need to call, you could have just texted him. All because you wanted to know if he wanted to go baby shopping with you this weekend. This wasn’t an urgent thing, you could have made the same arrangements tomorrow. You shake your head at yourself, muttering about what an idiot you were, about to tell him ‘goodbye’, you ‘hadn’t mean to call him’ –
“Hey,” he called your name down the phone at your sudden silence. “Are you all right? Is something wrong?”
“N-no, sorry,” you say, feeling your face warm and suddenly feeling shy. “I didn’t mean to call. Well, I did, but I should have called after work, I’m sorry. Did I take you away from something important?”
“No, not at all,” Santi replied.
You both fall into silence. It wasn’t awkward but it wasn’t comfortable either. You faltered for a moment before you blurted out, “Do you want to come shopping with me? This weekend? On Saturday, I mean. For the babies?”
You were met with quiet, and you had thought he had hung up on you, but he eventually answered, “Sure. Anything in particular you were looking for?”
“No, not really,” you say. “I just…wanted to have a look around, you know? Get some clothes or something.”
“Yeah, yeah, sounds good,” Santi replied. “There’s some baby store that Frankie recommended, we could go there.”
“Yeah, that sounds good,” you say. “I can…meet you there or we could together, if you wanted?”
“Yeah,” Santi says, before he blurts out, “I can pick you up. If you want.”
You bite your lip. You’d made the point since you found out you were pregnant to keep things as separate as you could, more for Santi’s sake really (and because you didn’t want to rely on anyone). But, your chest warms, for some reason, at the thought of going together to the store.
You give a small smile. “Okay. It’s 11am okay or is that too early?”
“That’s fine, cariño,” says Santi. “I’ll see you on Saturday.”
“I’ll see you then,” you say before saying your goodbyes and hanging up.
You wait outside your apartment building for Santiago. You’d been thinking about your shopping trip all week and you were feeling oddly nervous. You weren’t sure why, you’d seen Santiago many times before, but not this…casually. Not regarding the pregnancy, anyway. The only time you had really spent together was for prenatal appointments.
Throughout the week, you were toying with the idea of texting him, cancelling the whole shopping trip and just going by yourself, or even with your friends. But you hesitated, since Santiago said he wanted to be involved, and it would be a good bonding experience for you both. You were in each other’s lives now for the next nineteen years, after all. You wanted your children to grow up in happy, healthy households, where their parents could communicate openly.
You were pulled out of your thoughts when Santi pulled up in front of you in his truck. You desperately wanted to ask him if he was thinking about getting a car, just something that would be able to fit two car seats. But you’d already changed so much of his life already, and you didn’t want to push his boundaries. You climbed into his truck, sending him a ‘hi’ as you close the door behind you.
You buckle yourself in as you ask, “So where is this place anyway?”
“Florida Mall,” Santi replied as he set off. “It’s called The Children’s Place. Frankie says it’s mostly clothing but there’s a Dillard’s and a Macy’s for other stuff if we wanted to look.”
You nod. “Yeah, okay, that’s fine. I was looking at Ikea for the big furniture anyway,” you say. “And I need a bigger place for that, so it can wait for now.”
Santi nodded. “I can help you out with that too, if you need,” Santi offered, glancing at you for a moment before turning his eyes back to the road. “Don’t want you lugging around heavy furniture when you’re pregnant.”
You push down the warm feeling you felt in your chest as you nod at him. “I’ll let you know when I have it.”
There was an awkward pause before Santi broke it. “I’ve been meaning to bring this up to you, and I get that it might be a little early but…what’s the situation going to be when they’re here?”
Your brow furrows. “What do you mean?”
“Do I need to get furniture too?” Santi asked, giving you another glance. “Because it’s not a problem if I do. I have a spare room and it’s big enough for two cribs. Maybe. I’ll have to clear it out, I’m using it as storage for the moment.”
You stare at him for a moment, that warm feeling coming back to your chest tenfold. He wanted to have the baby furniture at his place? He wanted to have the chaos and the mess that two babies would bring? You vaguely think of if he brought women home back to his place, how they’ll question if he had kids or where the kids were, would it ruin his game? What if he decided to get with someone seriously and they didn’t want the baggage of children from a previous relationship (using the term very loosely). Like you mentioned before, you didn’t want to be telling him what to do. You’d encroached on his life enough already.
“Hey, I know those cogs are working overtime, don’t overthink it,” said Santiago at your silence. “I’ve told you, I’m in this with you. I don’t mind if my life changes a little bit.”
You take a deep breath before letting it go. “Okay.” You nod. “You should get some furniture. I want them to have a relationship with you so it would be nice if they could spend some time with you at your place.”
Santiago nodded before turning to you and giving you a closed smile. “Okay then.”
You chat idly for the rest of the journey about what you had both been up to since the last time you saw each other, and you brought up how your friends were doing and how your family now know that you were pregnant.
“And? How did it go?” he asked, an eyebrow raised in question. “With your family?”
You go quiet before answering, “Not as pleased as my friends were.”
You leave it at that. He doesn’t pry, just gives a nod, and says he’s sorry to hear that they weren’t as supportive. You shrug, looking away from him because you refused to cry about it anymore than you already have, telling him that you’ll get over it and you had him and your friends. It would be your parents and sisters missing out, not your babies.
You pull into the mall and Santiago parks as close as he could to the entrance, claiming that you shouldn’t be walking as far.
You laugh at him as you unbuckle your seatbelt. “I’m pregnant, not elderly.”
He shakes his head. “I’ve heard you complain enough to Jennifer about your joint aches to know you’re gonna want to sit down in about an hour.” He starts climbing out his truck.
Your mouth falls open in mock offence as you climb out the truck also. “That’s so rude, Santi!” you close the door behind you.
“Rude, but true. Come on,” he nods towards the mall entrance before you join him, walking together into the busy mall.
You take a look at the mall map, finding the store Frankie recommended. “It’s towards the back. It’s next to a Build-a-Bear.”
“We can look in those too, if you want,” Santi says.
You grin. “I always wanted a Build-a-Bear when I was a kid,” you said. “My mom would never let me get one.” Your face falls at the mention of your mother.
Santiago, ever the observant, quickly changes the subject. “We can get one each for them. We’ll both pick an outfit for them.” He grins at you.
You take a moment before plastering a smile on your face. “Sure. Oh! Can we stop at a candy store first?”
“We can,” Santi replied, how brow furrowed slightly. “Why?”
“I’ve ran out of watermelon Sourpatch Kids,” you reply, already walking through the mall for the closest candy shop. “I’m constantly craving them. It’s all I want to eat. Think I might be funding them alone.”
Santiago gave a small chuckle, shaking his head at you. “We can get all the Sourpatch Kids you want.”
“As long as it’s watermelon,” you said, giving him a pointed look.
He sighs in amusement, putting his hand on your back and leading you through into the mall as he nods. “As long as it’s watermelon.”
It doesn’t take you long to find the candy shop, Santi making the joke that your pregnancy gave you the nose of a bloodhound. You snorted a laugh before buying four packs of watermelon Sourpatch Kids. Santi’s eyes widened as you stuffed them in your bag before opening one as you both walk out of the store. “That many?” he asked.
You gave him a look before he raised his hands slightly in defence. “They’re so good,” you mutter, before chewing on a sweet slowly, giving a light moan as the taste.
“Cravings hit you this week?” Santi asked.
“Like you wouldn’t believe,” you say, already eating another sweet. “They’re all I think about. These and Diet Coke.” You shake the open bag of candy for emphasis. You hesitate before asking if he wanted one, and to your relief, he said no.
“Not a candy kind of guy,” Santi said as you both meander through the mall.
“Good, ‘cause I only offered to be polite,” you said, taking another from the bag.
Santi huffed a laugh through his nose before nodding around the stores. “So, where do we start?”
“Let’s go to the place Frankie recommended,” you say. “I’m curious.”
You both made your way to the store, grabbing a basket as you walk in. The place was full of colours, with character shirts and holiday specific clothing. Santiago stuck close by, taking a look around and asking for your opinions on some things. Between the two of you, you ended up grabbing a copious amount of baby vests and baby grows, mostly white, and some tiny socks which you had internally freaked out over at the size (so tiny!).
You also excitedly grabbed a few holiday themed outfits for the next year.
“That’s hideous,” Santi said as you look at an obnoxious Christmas jumper for a nine-month-old.
You smirked, obviously agreeing with him, but deciding to mess with him a bit. “But it’s so cute, and small. Can you imagine how cute a little baby would be in this?”
“Please don’t get it,” laughed Santiago.
“I’m gonna get it,” you say, putting it in your basket before grinning. “To spite you.”
You pretended a few moments later that you hadn’t seen him discreetly pick up the jumper and put it back on the rack. And you both didn’t say anything about the ‘missing jumper’ when you went to pay either.
With Santi carrying your bags that he offered with some dispute from you, you make your way to any other baby shops you could find. You got a little teary (damn hormones!) as you looked at the shoes and more socks, and some of the costume you found, like the little Mickey and Minnie set you found, or a Beauty and the Beast dress, which happened to be your favourite movie when you were a kid.
When you made your way into Cotton On Kids, you found yourself some maternity pants and jeans, and that’s where you realised that Santiago was a browser. He briefly mentioned that he wasn’t much of a shopper for himself, never mind other people. Especially kids. But you saw him eyeing up a pair of white sneakers and a couple of Metallica t-shirts. You encouraged him to buy them if he liked them; they could stay at his place and the babies could wear them when they were staying over.
He hesitated before grabbing two pairs of each, looking down at the shirts and thumbing at the material before smirking up at you. “My favourite band,” he said.
You smiled and shook your head as you went to make your purchases.
After a while, you did in fact need to sit down, just like Santi predicted. You both decided it was probably a good stopping point to have some lunch anyway, since you had nearly worked your way through two of the four bags of candy you had bought earlier. You took a seat as Santi went to Five Guys, getting some burgers and fries, and the biggest Diet Coke they offered.
“How’s your morning sickness?” Santi asked as he sat down opposite you.
You shrug. “Better but still not great. I’ve taken to drinking ginger tea instead of coffee nowadays to ease it.”
“And does it?” Santi asked, unwrapping his burger.
You pulled a face but nodded anyway, unwrapping your own burger. “It did a bit but it tastes disgusting. I’m going to give mint tea a try, since Gabrielle told me try that with lemonade. It helped her, apparently.”
You talk about stuff happening at work, your new clients, your suspicion that Emily might know you’re pregnant, something that Santiago laughed at.
“She had to take in a book for me,” he replied. “‘The Expectant Dad's Survival Guide’ that Frankie’s kindly let me borrow.”
You give him a swat on the arm. “You’re the reason she thinks something’s up,” you laugh. You make a mental note to get your own books.
You eat your food and talk some more about your upcoming appointment next week and you mentioned to Santi that you were thinking about a birth plan; since you were having twins, you were likely to go into early labour, so you wanted to be as prepared as possible.
“And what are you going to do?”
You sigh. “I think I’ll just go for a standard hospital birth, as natural as possible. I’d like a home birth but I’m paranoid something is going to go wrong.”
“You can talk to Jennifer about it,” said Santi. “She’ll know more about it than we will.”
You finish your food, feeling more relaxed than you did before as Santiago grabbed the bags. You make a quick detour to the bathroom to puke your guts up. You might have to give up cheese at this point, since it always seems to trigger your morning sickness. You come out of the bathroom, Santi handing you a bottle of water that he very nicely got for you. Your heart swells as you take a sip before you both make your way round the rest of the mall.
You do, in fact, take a look in Build-a-Bear, but decide on getting them another day. You made sure Santi promised to come with you.
After a few more stops (and a few more bags of toys and clothing for the babies and you), you make your way into H&M. Gabrielle had mentioned they were good for kids clothing, but you did notice everything was looking a little sad and beige, but you gave Gabrielle the benefit of the doubt. Santi had wandered off since he mentioned he needed to look at some jeans for himself, so you moseyed through the clothing, spotting a few bits of clothing you liked.
You don’t pay much attention to wear you’re walking, and you give a small ‘oomf!’ as you lightly bump into someone, quickly apologising before you take a good look at him, your eyes widening. “Craig!”
He looks at you with confusion before a spark of recognition takes over his face. “Oh, hey,” he says, recalling your name. “How are you?”
You hadn’t heard from this guy since you cancelled your date when you found out you were pregnant. “Uh, yeah, I’m good. How’re you?”
“Not so bad,” Craig replies. He clears his throat and nods to your pile of baby clothes. “For you, or…”
You blink in confusion for a moment before looking down at the clothes. You give a laugh. “Yeah, uh…for me.” You show him your bump for a few seconds. “Just coming out of my first trimester.”
“Right,” Craig said.
“You?” you asked, nodding to the clothes in his hand.
“Nephew’s birthday.”
“Oh.” You both fall into an awkward silence.
You open your mouth to tell him goodbye, but he quickly cuts you off, “I’m sorry that I never got back to you. About our date.”
You make a noise of nonchalance. “You don’t need to be sorry for anything, I cancelled on you.”
“I know, but I was being a little bitter about it and I’m sorry, but now I see that…” he nods to your clothes bundle. “You had some…stuff going on.”
You sigh. “Yeah, well, I wasn’t feeling great, and I found out I was pregnant that night and it was…very unexpected, so…”
Craig’s eyes widened. “Oh shit, I didn’t know you cancelled from that.”
He was as good looking as you remember him, from his pictures. He was handsome, in a Clark Kent kind of way. Tall, dark hair, piercing blue eyes, he was a genuine heartthrob. It was what attracted you to him in the first place. That, and the fact he made you laugh, and he was charming, and was good fun. You wondered very briefly what would have happened if you had gone out on that date with him, if you had just put off testing for one or two days.
“Yeah, it was…a lot,” you say. “It's, uh, settled down, finally. How about you? What have you been up to?”
“Oh, you know, the usual work stuff.” He shrugged. “Work’s busy. Trying to find some free time for hobbies.” He gave a small chuckle.
“Ugh, tell me about it,” you say. “All my time at the moment is prenatal appointments and work. I’m working on setting more boundaries for myself.”
“Good for you,” said Craig. “It’s hard balancing work and life, never mind being pregnant.”
“With twins,” you say.
“With twins, no way!” Craig said. “Congrats!”
“Thank you,” you say, giving him a smile.
“Hey, hermosa,” Santi greeted, suddenly appearing at your side. “I gotta get these!” he grins excitedly, holding the small jerseys of a team you weren’t familiar with in his hands before he finally looks between you and Craig. “Sorry, am I interrupting something?”
There was something to his tone that made you think he knew he was interrupting something. “This is, erm…Craig.” You gesture to Craig. “Craig, this is Santiago,” you introduce him. “He’s the babies’ father.”
Santiago gave Craig a tight-lipped smile before holding his hand out to him. “Nice to meet you.”
Craig smiled before shaking his hand. “You too.”
“How do you know Craig?” Santiago asked you, giving you a too nonchalant look as he places his free hand on the base of your back. You mentally note it was the second time that day he’d done it that day.
You look between them before clearing your throat. “Craig and I were going to go on a date.”
“She cancelled on me,” Craig joked.
You look at him with an amused look on your face, gasping in mock upset. “Because I found out I was pregnant.”
“Oh,” Santiago said, looking between you both before he smirked. “She went on a date with me too and look what happened.” He motioned to your bump.
“Okay,” you say, grabbing Santiago’s arm, feeling your cheeks growing hot with sudden embarrassment. “Good to see you, Craig.” You call, already turning to walk away.
“You too,” Craig said. “Don’t be a stranger, okay?”
You waved your hand in acknowledgement as you walk to the other side of the store.
You take a quick glance at Santi as you stop in the girl’s section and mindlessly start looking through dresses, just for something to do. Santi, the smug bastard, was smirking at you. “He seemed nice.”
“He was. He is,” you say, still looking through the clothes, a little more aggressively.
“You should ask him out,” Santi said. “Again.”
You pause for a moment before looking at him, an unamused look on your face. “No.”
“You’re single, you should,” Santiago said. “He didn’t seem to mind you were pregnant.”
“That’s not…look, it’s complicated,” you say. “No-one wants a pregnant woman as their date.”
“Are you looking to date?” Santiago asked.
You give him a look. “Why are you being weird?”
“I’m not being weird,” Santiago said, blinking at you almost innocently.
“You are,” you say. “Why are we talking about my dating life? I haven’t even thought about dating since I found out I was carrying your spawn.”
Santiago snorted a laugh. “Charming.”
“I don’t want to talk about it anymore, Santi,” you say, turning away from him and back to the clothes, still not really looking at them. “I just wanted this to be a nice day, with you, about us and the babies.”
Santiago looked at you with an unreadable look on his face for a few moments. You didn’t know what to say, you didn’t know why you felt so embarrassed that you had ran into Craig. It had never been an issue for you before, running into an ex, but maybe it was because you were pregnant. Maybe it was because you were with Santi. Maybe it was because you just wanted to still be in your pregnancy bubble, with Santi, where everything wasn’t so fucked up, where you could pretend to be in a loving, stable relationship for the time being.
After a moment you sigh, averting your gaze. “Sorry. That was unfair to you, I shouldn’t have said that.”
“No, you’re right,” said Santi, slowly nodding. “I was a bit of an asshole, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to come across as possessive, I was just messing with you.”
You bite your lip at him as he looks down at the jerseys in his hands, and you know it’s so he doesn’t have to look at you, to keep his hands busy. You frown at him, feeling bad before you lightly clear your throat. “I’m sorry. Really. I know it’s no excuse, but my hormones are all over the place and I was really nervous about today – “
“Why?” Santiago asked, suddenly looking up at you.
“What?” you asked, blinking at him as if you missed his question.
“Why were you nervous about today?”
“Because…” you pause, sucking in your lips as you looked down at your shoes in further embarrassment before deciding just to suck it up. “Because this is the first time we’ve spent together outside of my appointments…and our date.”
Santi just looked at you in confusion. “So?”
“So,” you emphasise. “I just…wanted today to be a good day. I wanted to just feel a little bit normal about this whole thing and not just the couple who aren’t actually a couple who got pregnant after a one-night stand.”
He goes silent again as he stares at you, and you feel your cheeks burning again. God, you just can’t seem to keep your mouth shut today. Your brain obviously isn’t working and it’s probably best if you just stick to being casual with Santi and not try to force anything, like you said before.
You open your mouth to tell him that you should probably go, but he beat you to it.
“This is still new to both of us,” he said. “And I know you have your way of doing things and you want to be the best you can at this, and I don’t doubt you will,” Santi raises his eyebrows pointedly at you at you give him a look. “But you have to remember that it’s not just you. Okay? I feel like I’m walking on eggshells because you’re so Goddamn independent that I’m worried I’m going to say the wrong thing and upset you. Like before.”
You sigh, throwing your head back. “I’m sorry.”
“And stop apologising when you haven’t done anything wrong,” Santiago said. “Stop worrying you’re going to upset me.”
You give another sigh before you look at him. “We need to learn to communicate better.”
Santi faltered before nodding. “We do.”
“We should talk more, outside of,” you motion to your bump. “This.”
“We should,” he gave another nod.
“I’m…” you were about to apologise again but stopped yourself, deciding to go in a different direction. “I’m glad you wanted to come with me today.”
“Are you kidding? And miss out on embarrassing you in front of an almost date?” Santiago grinned as you swatted him arm.
“Asshole,” you muttered before motioning for him to follow you. “Come on, let’s go and buy these football jerseys,” you say, smiling at the small shirts still in his hands.
“It’s a baseball team,” Santiago replies, smirking and falling into step with you.
“Shut up,” you say, giving him a good-natured shove as he laughs at your blunder.
Tagged - @khonsulockley, @bluenredndeath
#triple frontier#santiago garcia x reader#santiago x reader#santiago garcia x f!reader#santiago garcia#oscar isaac#pregnant!reader
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Did MC and Red (either best friends or exes) not make any plans to meet again one day? Or did they pretty much accept that that might not happen? And how did he feel after they left?
I only played the demo so if this is answered in-game later it's ok to ignore this ask! Thanks in advance! (and thank you for being so kind and attentive with all the asks you receive, just seeing how you reply to everyone makes me feel super welcomed here! <3)
MC and Red did intend on meeting up again someday, but in a world where there isn't any real way of communicating with each other from afar (especially if you're constantly traveling and moving around and don't actually know where the other person will be at any given moment), they both just accepted that it would happen somewhat abstractly. When you leave the Circle as a young adult, there's generally this sense of excitement and new independence, like "I can't wait to go off on my own and spread my wings and explore the world and figure my life out and become the person I'm meant to be!!" It's this fresh, exciting rite of passage that everyone goes through, so there isn't this looming concern about how to see each other again ASAP (you've spent the last several years seeing each other every single day, after all); it's sort of just accepted that you're all going to go off your own ways and you'll see each other when you see each other (typically when you come back to the Circle after a few years of freedom and moonlighting to "settle down"/enter the next phase in life/figure out what you're going to do next). Generally the simplest thing to do is to pop back in to the Circle and inquire where the other one is, and if the other person has been there recently, you stand a good chance of finding them (or at least leaving a message for the next time they come through), depending on how urgently you need to see them. MC also knew where Red's family lived, so they could have also checked in there and his parents or sisters would have gotten a message to him ASAP if needed! So they weren't really thinking about it at the time, basically; they just had faith (blind faith, pretty much) that it was going to happen eventually, so they weren't too worried about it!
There's also the case that, if they were sweethearts and then broke up, they did need some space from each other and weren't like "all right well I'm going to go do my own thing since I was under the impression that we're just a fling and definitely not in love... anyway, want to meet back here in a year?" LOL
As friends, I don't think either Red or MC were really devastated or bummed out about going their separate ways: as I said, this is pretty much the standard course of things when you don't have phones or even permanent mailing addresses, it's sort of like when you have a friend who goes on pilgrimage or backpacking across Europe for several months without technology and you just have to accept that you'll see them when they get back! It was understood that both of them would return to the Circle someday, so they weren't worried about it outside of that... it just took Red way less time than he thought and MC way more time than they thought LOL. (But they'd assumed he was off doing his own thing too, not that he was still back there all that time! That's why they're so shocked to see him in Chapter 3: the odds of him actually physically being at the Circle were next to impossible in their mind, since they thought he was off still gallivanting around the Continent like he'd planned!)
Also, thanks so much for your very sweet and kind words, I'm so happy that you can feel welcome! :) Thanks for your question and I hope my answer made sense!
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Do you have any headcanons for rollo and malleus?
I don't have a list prepared or anything, but I can ramble for a while. I'm guessing this refers to the game universe, so I'll focus on that. I'm also going to divide it into a few sections. To no one's surprise, it's very mallerollo centric.
Loneliness
While I think Rollo would dote on children, I also think that he might avoid them. Especially boys that remind him of Jehan. He may spurn them entirely just to avoid the potential loss. It could be why he isolates himself in general, both as a kind of self-inflicted punishment and as a way to protect himself.
Rollo himself isn't lonely, though. He gets plenty of social interaction at school and even heads the student council. Sure, he isn't close to anyone, but some don't crave that. And people really seem to love him regardless. They simply aren't "good enough" for him, though. They're stupid, they're magic-drunk mages, they don't see the world as it is, unlike Rollo. But deep down, he must want someone to tell him that what happened to Jehan wasn't his fault well enough that he could believe them. His parents may have told him this, but he doesn't take them at their word. What do they know, they didn't see it happen. What does anyone know? But Malleus is such an authority on magic, he understands it better than most anyone alive. Maybe he's believable. Maybe.
As far as I recall, Malleus doesn't initially feel lonely in the story. He's very close to Lilia and decently close to Silver and Sebek. But the potential loss of Lilia is too much for him. He needs someone to cling to, someone he knows will be there for him. Part of him knows Lilia can't be this person--even when he was a child, Lilia would travel around and had things to do. And, more recently, he started raising Silver. The fact that Lilia is probably his favorite person, while Lilia (from Malleus' perspective) may not actually put Malleus "first," probably bothers him. I imagine it's something he's keenly aware of. Anyone that engages him romantically is taking a huge risk tbh.
Malleus wants someone he can rely on and, ideally, someone who loves him the most out of anyone else in their life. Rollo lost Jehan. He has little interest in his parents or his classmates. In the end, he's alone... like Malleus is afraid of being. But because he's alone, there's no one he can put above Malleus. Well, no one alive, anyway.
Sexuality
Rollo, naturally, is sexually repressed. He's the type that gets uncomfortable around naked statues and will cover artwork of topless ladies when they pop up in a history textbook. The moment he met Malleus, he lusted after him, but this manifested as disgust and anger since he couldn't (can't) admit it to himself. Plus there's a taboo element there. Not only are they both men, but Malleus is a fae and one of the most powerful mages alive. He practically is an embodiment of magic, something that Rollo sees as a temptation to weak-willed mages. And by framing him that way, he can't help but think of Malleus as enticing.
I have no doubt in my mind that Malleus was keenly interested in Rollo from the getgo, if only because of the fact that he represented the invitation and he was the host. When Rollo revealed his plan and opened up a fucking trap door beneath the NRC boys, that interest turned hostile. It slowly shifted to a sort of respect and a bit of fear over the course of the event. Because Rollo is the only human to challenge Malleus, he is the closest thing to an equal he might have that's around. For a man who has always had immense power, this intrigues him. Rollo is dangerous, therefore, he is interesting.
I'm pretty sure both are bi. If Rollo was a woman, Malleus would still be interested in him and Rollo would probably be extremely weird about a lady Malleus. I figure fae culture may be more lax about sexuality if the Lilia thing in chapter 7 is interpreted a certain way. As for Rollo, well, he seems to me like he would be swamped with temptations like all the time. He definitely categorizes women into either Madonnas or whores. Probably does it to men, too, regardless of whether or not they're actually virgins. VP is pure, ultimately nonsexual, and also not very interesting to Rollo, while Malleus is a terrible, awful whore mage he can't get out of his head.
Miscellaneous
Rollo enjoys being both the big and the little spoon. As the big spoon, he gets to bury his face in Malleus' hair and smell him. The only issue is watching out for those horns.
Malleus is more vanilla than Rollo, but he loves getting a reaction out of him, so he leans into whatever gets Rollo going.
Rollo specifically eats grapes with the seeds in them. If he's feeling adventurous, he'll eat green grapes for lunch, but he usually regrets doing so. Just isn't right.
Malleus likes to give gifts because it reminds him of how Lilia would always bring him back a souvenir from his travels (and convey that he was thinking of him).
Rollo sometimes eyes attractive people in public without realizing he's doing it. If Malleus catches him, he'll sulk for days.
Rollo is strict with himself because he has a feeling that he'll fall into excess. And he probably would. Sex, alcohol, whatever, but especially sex. But if he doesn't end up with Malleus, he'll eventually amass an unpleasantly large collection of nude magazines. He might even go cruising somewhere...
If there's a particular topic people want to hear me go on and on about, let me know. Headcanons is kind of broad so I'm not sure if this was the sort of thing you were looking for...
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Okay, okay, so what I'm hoping in the future is to return to my Star Wars AUs, and these are all going to take a lot of planning, but I'd like to continue them and actually finish them. Because, looking back at them, there's some good stuff in there! I want these finished just for me! :D
But if you guys want them, too, here's what I hope to get back to:
Legacy of Thrawn: AU to the Hand of Thrawn duology, wherein Thrawn's clone wakes up before Luke and Mara can kill him, and convinces them to let him help them restore order to the galaxy. This one is VERY old — I dropped it in 2010 and never finished it. It's so old that I am a significantly different person with significantly better writing skills, and I have a desperate need not just to finish the thing but rewrite it. I just... I know so much more than I did when I was twenty. xD
The Gentleness That Comes not from the Absence of Violence: My "Padmé Lives" AU. Padmé survives childbirth and takes her twins, Obi-Wan, and several of her handmaidens with her into hiding. This was my last NaNoWriMo project, and I think it's one of the best things I've ever written. The story isn't just about how Padmé's survival changes events, but how she copes with everything that's happened to her. She and Obi-Wan and the handmaidens... and eventually Ahsoka. (It was also written before the Padmé novels, so it's not rooted in the novels E.K. Johnston wrote, with all due respect to her.)
The Hermit and the Orphan: The "Obi-Wan adopts Mara" AU. Nine-year-old Mara Jade discovers that her beloved Emperor murdered her parents, and runs away... and right into Obi-Wan Kenobi on Tatooine. They proceed to adopt each other, and Mara becomes best friends with Biggs Darklighter and Luke Skywalker.
Where Light Can Be: The "Mara joins the Rebellion" AU. Same starting point, different age — Mara makes her life-changing discovery a year after the destruction of the first Death Star, and defects to the Rebellion. She ends up joining Rogue Squadron, and joins Luke on his quest to learn more about the Jedi, hoping to learn how to use her abilities in ways that don't remind her of Palpatine. Of course, she and Luke fall in love, which will have a significant impact on the aftermath of Bespin...
Star-Crossed: The hardest of all of these. Sherlock Holmes in the Star Wars universe fusion. What do an orphan-turned-Jedi, a Chiss healer, a Queen, and a Senator-turned-Chancellor have in common? Oh, that they're a private consulting detective, a former army doctor, the doctor's wife, and a mathematics professor in another universe...
Unnamed Leia time-travel AU: Double Agent Vader AU, never started. Sometime before the Battle of Hoth, Leia falls back in time to the Clone Wars, to meet General Kenobi and his former apprentice who seems eerily familiar. When she finally meets Padmé Amidala, the mysteries of her biological family and her mentor Ekkreth finally start to fall into place. Permission to write the AU given by Fialleril years ago, and I had forgotten that until recently! And now that I have some pieces of the story in my head, I am not letting this one go again!
So that's... it, I'm pretty sure. That's the stuff that I've started, mostly within the past decade, that I really want to continue. And I'm hoping to have time this coming winter to do it. (I have... other commitments plus family stuff that is definitely going to keep me from fic writing until then.)
But in the meantime, if you want to come chat with me about stuff, ask me questions... I would be so happy to talk about all the ideas I've got that are hopefully going to all make it onto AO3 someday!
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Part 9 - Of Vice and Men
Masterlist
Series Masterlist
Part 8 -- Part 10
Pairing: Mike x Dani x Sy (Yup...) and Mike x Dani
Summary: When Dani finally shows up at Mike's place again, figuring she should really confess her little adventure with Sy, the night takes a very unexpected turn.
Warnings: SMUT, NSFW, 18+, MINORS DNI, oral and fingering (f receiving), m/m/f-threesome stuff, drug use (weed and alcohol). P-in-v sex. Some fluff, some angst if you squint a li'l...
Word count: 5.8k
A/N: The first bit was hella inspired by this idea form @marveldcmistress. I wanted to write this as soon as I saw that idea, but it needed a little context. And you get some bonus fucking after it. Anyway, enjoy this little piece of filth. (Or skip it, if this isn't something you're generally into, that's absolutely A-Okay!)
By the by! This chapter takes this fic over 40k words!
“Fuck!” It sounded from the other side of the door. “Fuck! Mike, you dick!”
“Sore loser, Syverson?” God no, it wasn’t true. You dropped the hand you were going to use to knock on the door and seriously considered turning around and walking away. You’d barely talked to Mike for days, and he’d been asking what was wrong, but you hadn’t been able to tell him. How was “I fucked your roommate after an orientation party” ever going to be a message someone didn’t mind hearing? You’d just about die if Mike would all of a sudden confess he’d slept with Ariel or something.
“Whatever, I’m gonna take a piss,” Sy’s drawl was unmistakable - it had to be him. The remark was followed by heavy footsteps - and the realization that there was no way for you to get out of there in time. The door swung open right in your face.
“Hi there, Sugar,” Sy grinned before he pushed past you and made his way to the bathroom.
“Dani!” Mike said, upbeat as ever. He raced to the door as a puppy that was happy to see his owner again after a long day. “Come in! You’re not going home for the holidays?” You explained to Mike that your parents both worked in a hospital and couldn’t get any time off work, so you’d decided to stay put instead of exhaust yourself traveling all over the place.
“You?” You asked as you walked into the room and dropped yourself on the couch.
“Divorce is wonderful. My mom would rather spend Christmas with her girlfriends and their mid-life crises on a cruise in the Bahamas or wherever, and my dad can’t be arsed to remember he has a son ever since Jessica and her two wonderful daughters showed up in his life.” Shit, you wished you hadn’t asked so casually.
“It’s okay, Dani,” he chuckled, “I’m kind of glad you’ll be here. Do you have plans for New Year's Eve?” How had this not come up yet? You’d made plans with Sloane and Ari back in September, but they were both seeing guys - casually, but still - so perhaps…
“I was going to go out with my friends, but maybe you want to tag along?” You suggested. Mike looked happy that you’d want him around.
“If they’re okay with that, I’d love to. We can sleep here, if you want?”
“Are you avoiding awkward morning confrontations with my roommates, Mike?” You laughed as you shook your head.
“Oh, one hundred percent.” You had to admit that you appreciated the honesty. “But I guess I don’t have the right, since you were surprised by Sy’s presence last weekend.” God, no! That was impossible! Except it wasn’t, because from that stupid grin on his face you could very clearly tell that he knew. “Sy told me you guys slept together. It’s no big deal, Dani.”
“No big deal? I’d go absolutely ballistic if you told me you screwed one of my roommates…”
“We can’t all be as chill as I am,” Mike joked as he pulled me into a hug. You were curled up next to him on the couch when Sy came back. You moved your feet in as closely as they would go, but the couch was a little on the small side for the three of you, what with Sy being as broad as he was and Mike taking up a surprising amount of space for someone so lanky.
“Kill the game, Sy, there’s ladies present now.”
“I don’t see any.” Sy looked around theatrically, and the second he looked away from you you kicked him in the thigh. “Fuck!” He grabbed your ankles and pulled them into his lap, holding onto them firmly when you tried to pull back. The extra space was welcome, but you weren’t quite sure how comfortable Mike would be with you having your feet in Sy’s lap, given the circumstances - especially since you were wearing a skirt, although it was long enough, even in this position. You looked up at him and found him looking down at you.
“Comfy?” He chuckled when he saw your surprise. “You can just relax, Dani, it’s in the past.” But you couldn’t relax. You were worried about grades, and Sy, and Mike, sad that you weren’t going to be home for the holidays and miserable when you considered that nobody else would be there, even if you did go home, because your parents didn’t have the time. It wasn’t entirely fair, you knew that, but you felt a little alone. And did you mention sad?
“We were planning on drinking and watching dumb movies, you in, babe?” Mike pulled you from your thoughts, and repeated the question when he realized you hadn’t heard a thing. You nodded in reply; it actually sounded like a good way to take your mind off things. The boys had clearly already started part A of the whole scheme, judging from the several empty bottles on the small table and the faint smell of beer that surrounded Mike. Sy reached into the mini fridge that sat next to the couch and handed you a bottle. Your hand was shaking when you took it from him.
“Jesus, baby, you need to relax.” It was easier said than done; you were tense from the thoughts running through your head, and Sy’s presence didn’t exactly do anything to help the situation. Then, there was the fact that you noticed that your restlessness was putting Mike on edge, which wasn’t a good place for him to be, either.
“Mike, go smoke or something,” Sy laughed all of a sudden. Next to you, you felt Mike make some erratic movements that you guessed were intended to tell Sy to shut up.
“You smoke, Mike?” you asked curiously. As far as you knew, he wasn’t a regular smoker - you’d never seen him with a cigarette in hand, at least - but given his unruly disposition (and by that you meant: ADHD) you wouldn’t be surprised if he sometimes indulged in something more calm-inducing and mellowing than alcohol or tobacco.
“Eh… Occasionally,” he responded before sending a chilling glare Sy’s way.
“Like… Cigarettes?” you asked while raising one eyebrow at him.
“Herbally augmented ones,” Mike responded dryly while he rolled his eyes, as if he was waiting for you to berate him.
“Got enough to share?” You asked carefully. Mike’s face lit up like a Christmas tree and he nodded enthusiastically. From the looks of it, he wasn’t used to people being chill about this.
The three of you prepared to go outside - naturally, the list of things August would commit murder over included ‘smoking indoors’. When Mike suddenly stood still in the middle of the hallway, both you and Sy bumped into him.
“Should we invite Geralt?” That one came as a bit of a shock to you, he seemed so… uptight, you had expected more of a ‘just say no’-type.
“No, you shouldn’t.” The voice - very clearly belonging to Geralt himself - came from somewhere inside Geralt’s bedroom. It made a lot more sense now; turning off those senses was probably a necessity rather than just a pleasure at times.
“I thought they’d be done by now,” Mike joked softly to Sy.
“Poor girl won’t walk for a week,” Sy chuckled back at him. From behind the door, you heard someone rummage around, followed by heavy footsteps. Mike ducked behind you - God dammit, it was a good thing he was cute, because he wasn’t exactly a tough guy.
The door swung open to reveal an agitated Geralt in a pair of black sweatpants - and, from what your unconsciously wandering eyes gathered, nothing else. If there was an eloquent way to describe what you saw, you couldn’t come up with it: Your idiot brain full-on got stuck on “ho-ly shit” and you struggled - hard - to keep your thoughts out of the fucking gutter. Fact the first; Geralt was ripped. We’re talking borderline body-builder level shredded. Fact the second; He was half naked, and it was distracting beyond belief. Fact the third; you had a boyfriend. And apparently, Geralt wasn’t exactly eligible, either - at least not right now. So your staring was completely inappropriate, and you had to fucking stop it. But no matter how hard you tried to tear your eyes away from this beast of a man, you just couldn’t seem to do it. Every time you managed to redirect your gaze somewhere other than his abs - or lower - you found something else to be distracted by. His chest (chiseled, hairy, sweaty and heaving to the rhythm of heavy breathing - as if he’d been… running), his silver hair (falling loosely around his face instead of the usual neatly pulled back style; definitely sex-hair), his thick brows (Dani, what the fuck?). The moment seemed to last an eternity…
“Michael, Nathan, for fuck’s sake, go,” he hissed through gritted teeth (hot) before he even looked into the hallway. When his amber eyes shot up to death-stare Mike and Sy in the face, they revealed that Geralt clearly hadn’t expected to meet your gaze first. “And Danielle. Hi, sorry.” His agitation seemed to dissipate and with it, his attitude. While Geralt seemed to deflate, Mike puffed up behind you, chest out - chin up, no doubt, but you couldn’t see - and fingers digging into your waist possessively.
“He used our full names, man, run,” Sy laughed as he made a break for the stairs.
“After you, Dani,” Mike said through gritted teeth, nudging you towards the stairs with urgency. He lingered behind you for a second.
“Put on a shirt next time, dick,” you heard him hiss. Was it just your imagination, or was there a hint of insecurity to his voice?
“Shit, this is good,” you said as you handed the joint to Sy, “where did you get that stuff?”
“Leon,” Mike shrugged. He wrapped his arms around you from behind and pulled you close. It was freezing outside, weather reports even predicted snow.
“Didn’t strike me as the type to deal drugs,” you wondered out loud.
“He just negotiated a deal with the guys who do,” Mike laughed quietly, “he knew what they were up to, because he’s Leon, and because they’re pretty much full time potheads, they needed him a lot. Gets us a very welcome discount.”
“And by ‘us’ you mean…”
“I think the words you’re lookin’ for are ‘all y’all’, Sugar,” Sy drawled with a deep chuckle, “but yeah. All of us indulge from time to time.”
“August?” You asked, wide-eyed and giggling. You didn’t laugh because it was entirely unbelievable or something - let’s face it, that man needed to get high more than the rest of them - you just found a lot of things weirdly funny right now.
“When he ain’t got his girl ‘round to slap the livin’ shit out of,” Sy whispered grimly. Your head spun around so fast you hurt a muscle in your neck, but you ignored it.
“Excuse me?!”
“Not like that, babe,” Mike said. You felt one of his legs brush past you on its way to Sy’s shin. “And forget Sy mentioned that, it’s none of our business.” He said the last part more to Sy than to you. For someone who was well on his way to having smoked half of that joint you were supposed to be sharing, Mike sounded surprisingly level-headed. After a while, you angrily came to the conclusion that it wasn’t just Mike who hadn’t been sharing.
“Hey!” You said while reaching for the joint. Your voice was thick with annoyance at being passed over. Who did they think they were, hogging all the good stuff?
“I’m not carrying you up two flights of stairs, baby,” Mike said as he pressed his forehead against yours. The smirk on his face was even dumber than usual - it was fucking adorable.
“You could,” you pouted. Mike traced your pushed out bottom lip with his thumb before pressing his own lips to yours.
“But I’m not going to,” he answered when he pulled away. Another soft peck landed on the tip of your nose. You had to admit you were starting to get a little unsure of your footing at times - you could get up the stairs, but maybe not in a straight line. You wouldn’t fall, though, you could do this.
“Why don’t you go ahead, darlin’,” Sy laughed, “we’ll be up.” Standing outside with nothing more to do seemed like a fool’s game; you were cold and wanted to be under a warm, cozy blanket. Mike chuckled when you sighed reluctantly before heeding Sy’s advice. As the door closed and you disappeared out of earshot, their conversation continued.
“You’re a lucky man, Mikey,” Sy sighed as he lifted the joint up to his lips, “she’s a damn good one in the sack.”
“You’d know,” Mike laughed. Somehow, he felt more threatened by that little spat with a half-naked and impressively angry Geralt, than by the fact that Sy had actually shagged his girlfriend. Actually, considering the fact that he and Sy weren’t strangers to sharing girls, it maybe wasn’t so strange after all.
“Y’know what, I’m glad I never asked her number,” Sy sounded very sincere, “y’all are good together.”
“I’m glad too,” Mikey said with his signature mischievous look in his eyes, “she sucks dick like a pro.” The weed was doing its job because the guys couldn’t keep their laughter down.
“Wonder who taught her that, because it wasn’t me.” The laugh that came from him wasn’t completely genuine, Mike noticed, it was almost as if he was a little jealous.
“No good with you?”
“Don’t remember her tryin’. And I feel I’d’a remembered.” Sy shrugged as if it didn’t matter to him much. “I was just glad she wasn’t one of them girls that just do it to return the favor, y’know.” That he wasn’t lying about.
“Eh…” Mike scratched the back of his head.
“You’ve never…”
“Once. High school girlfriend. She told me I was bad and I’ve been kinda scared ever since,” Mike seemed very interested in the color of his shoes all of a sudden.
“Well, I can always show you what she likes,” Sy half-joked as he dropped the butt of the joint in the ashtray on the windowsill before disappearing inside.
You were much more comfortable between Sy and Mike now. The three of you had assumed the same positions on the couch you had before; you were snuggled up to Mike, with your feet resting in Sy’s lap. After a while, the chilly air in the room distracted you from the terrible horror slashfest that was going on on the TV in front of you. As soon as you shivered, Mike jumped up and grabbed you a blanket. It was nice, being tucked in between them. Some time later, you noticed that Sy’s fingers were drawing firm circles over the bottoms of your feet; the feeling was nice, and it made you hum and snuggle into Mikey further. He replied by sliding his hand underneath the blanket to your waist. You couldn’t see the meaningful look the two exchanged above you, both thinking about the last thing Sy had mentioned when they’d been outside.
Sy’s hands found their way underneath the blanket, too, and the circular motions of his fingers slowly worked their way up your calves. It startled you, and you pulled your legs in, crawling further into Mike, lookin up wide-eyed, not scared, but definitely confused.
“Relax, baby,” Mike said with a cheeky wink - the kind of wink that really only meant one thing; he was in on this… The thought alone turned your pussy into a dripping mess, but something in your mind told you you were crazy for thinking Mike was okay with this. You weren’t even quite sure you were okay with this. That night with Sy had been good, sure, but it had been just that - one night. You weren’t sure you wanted him again - and you were sure you didn’t want to complicate things with Mike, though you weren’t quite sure there was such a thing as complicated when it came to Mike. He generally didn’t seem to do ‘complicated’. And there was one thing about that night you had missed. Something no other guy - not that there had been many in the meantime - had been able to do as well. Something Mike hadn’t done at all… You remembered your conversation with Sloane and Ariel about that hookup - and while Slo’s alliterations had been a little over the top, the gist of it was that you’d spent the majority of that conversation raving about Sy’s incredibly skilled mouth. When his fingers reached the inside of your thighs and Mike’s hands had slowly moved from your waist to your chest, you started to squirm.
“Shit, Mike, she’s worse at sitting still than you.”
“If I didn’t know any better…”
“I’d say this turned her on.”
“I’d check, but I can’t reach,” Mike laughed. The sound was mellow and thick and it just sounded so delightfully stoned that you couldn’t help but laugh yourself. That laugh turned into a giggle when Sy took that little hint and one hand traveled further up your thigh, suddenly snaking between your legs, pushing your skirt up as it moved up, and up, and up, until the tips of his fingers rested softly against your pussy. You whined when he traced them back and forth along your covered slit a few times and Mike’s hand lazily toyed with one of your nipples through your bra. One finger slipped into your panties and dragged a single line between your folds.
“Oh, no, she’s definitely into this,” Sy chuckled. This time, you did see the meaningful look that the boys gave each other, and you gasped. Not only were they okay with this whole thing; they’d done it before. You moaned softly when Mike softly pinched your nipple, right at the time when Sy slipped a finger into your wetness. The combination of your high and the feeling of two sets of hands on your skin fueled the fire inside you, and you moved your hips to give Sy easier access.
“Shit, she really is.” It was Mike’s turn to chuckle. Judging from the situation in his jeans, he wasn’t exactly having a terrible time, either. One finger became two, and though you were more than wet enough to accommodate the added girth, you squirmed when he pushed into you. Mike looked mostly focused on the TV while playing with your boobs, although his eyes darted in your direction often. Maybe he just felt that it wouldn’t make you more comfortable to have him staring down at you the whole time - and he’d be right. Things changed pace when Mikey all of a sudden pulled you up and started lifting your sweater. You gladly helped him take it off. It was Sy’s cue to take off your underwear, which went surprisingly easily. He slipped off the couch, onto the floor in front of you, two fingers quickly finding their way back to tease at your entrance.
"Please," you sighed before you could stop yourself. The boys laughed at your plea.
"Feel good, baby?" Mike whispered in your ear. His tongue traced your ear and traveled down your neck. The incredible feeling of Mikey sucking on the tender skin of your throat was rivaled only by the feeling of Sy's hot breath on your cunt, which came closer and closer until his tongue hit your clit.
"Fuck," you spoke hoarsely as you tried to register it all; Mike's stubbled jaw, soft lips and sharp teeth, ravaging your neck, no doubt marking you up with little lovebites everywhere, his slim hands feverishly kneading your breasts, and Sy's scruffy beard scratching between your legs as his tongue lapped away at your clit, fingers curling inside your pussy, pressing against that special spot that made your legs tense up from the intense pleasure. Your hand reached for Mikey's head, fingers tangling with his hair, as the other made its way to Sy's, pressing his face closer to you. Fuck, if he kept this up you were going to cum in less than a minute. You caught a glimpse of Mike's eyes as he looked at your writhing body, right before capturing your lips with his, and realized right then just how much you wanted it to be him down there between your thighs.
"Baby," you moaned into his mouth, nudging his head down firmly. He took the hint - not that it was in any way subtle - and slid off the couch to join Sy, who must have felt the movement next to him, because he stopped doing what he was doing right before you were about to cum, and pulled away.
You whined at the loss of friction and pouted as you looked down at the men who were sitting between your legs. They grinned at each other before each putting a hand behind your knee and pushing your legs up on the couch, spreading you wide open. Your brain almost shut down trying to comprehend everything that happened next; one mouth near each of your knees, biting, sucking and licking its way toward your center so fucking slowly it made you want to cry; one side flaring up with the occasional sting of a lovebite, the other plagued by the constant chafing of course hair against delicate skin. Fingers tracing your leg faster in a race to your core that ended with two hands fighting for entrance between your legs, until they ultimately gave up and four eager fingers found their way inside your throbbing heat. They were rough in their enthusiasm, making you squirm when they stretched you a little too far. Occasional chuckles slipped from their throats as they relished the view of your endlessly writhing body above them. They looked at you, each in their own distinct way; Sy cocky and amused - and rightfully so: the arrogant bastard knew exactly what he did to you and every bit of that confident smirk was deserved - and Mikey curious, selfless and eager to learn new ways to please you. You rolled your hips against their movements, fucking yourself entirely goddamn stupid on their fingers as their faces moved in closer.
"Fuck, Sugar," he chuckled before raising his eyebrows at Mike. "Easy one, brother, she's doing half the work for you."
Mike's fingers slipped out of you, which would have been very upsetting if they hadn't immediately been replaced by his tongue. You gasped when he found the swollen little pearl that begged so desperately for attention. Fuck, even if Sy was right and you were doing half the work by writhing against him, you didn't give a damn; nothing was going to stop you from fucking yourself to heaven and back on Sy's fingers and Mikey's tongue. It came sooner than expected, and after you rode out your high, Sy's fingers left your pussy and he climbed back onto the couch with you, that cocky grin still firmly set on his face.
"I think she's got another one in her, Mike," he said as he wrapped his arms around you. He didn't try to kiss you, which you appreciated, but he did take a thorough interest in your tits. Fingers dug into the soft flesh of your boobs and circled your nipples. They were later replaced by his warm mouth, gently sucking and biting down on the pebbled skin.
Mike's rhythm was less stable now that he had both his hands and mouth to worry about, and the contrast with a minute ago turned his moments unsure until his mouth left your skin and he focused on his hands. You weren't having it; one hand twisted itself into his hair and pulled his face back to where you felt it belonged.
"He's a li'l shy, Sugar," Sy drawled in your ear so softly that you doubted Mike had even heard it. You understood the assignment.
"Baby, don't stop," you whined - with an extra side of extra whiny - as you kept nudging his head in the direction you wanted it to go, "it was so good." The decision to wrap his lips around your clit again was rewarded with a high pitched squeal that came from deep within you. This time, too, you unconsciously helped Mike keep his rhythm by writhing your hips into him. When he made the executive decision to forget about his hands - the right choice; kid just couldn't multitask for shit - and focus on his tongue, you felt yourself on the climb up towards your second orgasm. Fuck, he was good, and the sight of that gorgeous face between your legs was so fantastic that your eyes were glued on him - provided you were able to keep them open, anyway. Your climax approached swiftly, and with a perfectly timed flick of his tongue, Mike tilted you over the edge and eagerly took in every drop of arousal that spilled from you before joining you on the couch. The boys pulled you back into the position you had started your night in - leaning into Mike, feet in Sy's lap - and covered you with the blanket. No one brought up anything else - not even the raging boners they both obviously had. When you tentatively rubbed Mike through his jeans, he just pulled your hand away and shook his head and winked at you.
The whole thing felt like a dream when you woke up in Mike’s arms the next morning, though you couldn’t decide if it was a good or bad one. Slowly but surely, the notion that it had been the worst idea in the history of humanity wormed its way into your brain, and you wanted nothing more than to get out of bed, but Mike was still asleep and he was holding you close. Without realizing it, your quiet panic woke him up.
“Dani, what’s wrong? It’s early,” he mumbled into your ear.
“I have to go, Mike,” you said under your breath as you strained against the arms that held you firmly in place.
“No, you don’t,” Mike said, all of a sudden sounding very alert, “we need to talk.” You knew he was right, but the thought scared you nonetheless.
“We did that,” you said shyly, “while we’ve only been on one date. With the room… I’m not going to explain why it’s fucking weird.”
“Did you have fun?” Mike asked. You stared at him in disbelief. What the hell did that matter? “It was weird, Mike.”
“Did you have fun?” He asked again. From the look on his face you could tell he wouldn’t let that go.
“Yeah,” you shrugged, “weird but fun.”
“So think about that. I know I am. We were a little drunk, a lot stoned, sometimes you do weird stuff. Forgive and forget the weird bit, remember the fun bit, you’re good to go.”
“I guess…”
“And for the record; you’ve been on one date with me. I’ve been on two dates with you.” You couldn’t help but laugh at that.
“Hey, there’s that pretty smile.” Mike grabbed your chin to turn your face to his. You loved hearing him say that, it did something to you. Forget the weird, remember the fun, you chanted as you thought about the night before. What about the bit you had been longing for but never got? Your unasked question was answered when Mike pressed his lips to yours and immediately set your insides on fire. After a few minutes, filled with soft kisses on your lips, neck, shoulders and boobs; tongues trailing and tracing; teeth pulling and biting, Mike’s hands started wandering over your body. He was impatient today, which was great, because so were you. After a hasty expedition down your torso, he found you dripping wet - the lovely result of the night before, the dream about the night before, and the few blissful minutes with his mouth all over your body. He looked up at you, grinning widely before dipping his head below the covers and making his way down, leaving kisses and love bites in his wake. For a brief moment, he examined his handiwork from the night before, and found your left leg covered in small bruises. The other was covered in beard-burn, but that went in the direction of his mental trash bin - not his circus, not his monkeys, right? He didn’t tease you, which you appreciated; all you wanted was to feel his mouth on you, and he happily obliged. It started with a few lazy kisses along your slit, followed by a careful flick of his tongue against your already swollen clit. Before long, you were grinding yourself against his mouth again, as Mike eagerly pressed his tongue to the sensitive pearl between your legs.
“Fuck, Mikey!” You cooed as you felt the pressure in your stomach build. “Don’t stop!” He didn’t. Instead, he unraveled you with his tongue, only ending his efforts when the last wave of your orgasm had passed. If he’d been impatient before, it was nothing compared to him now. He scrambled to grab a condom off the shelf over the headboard, and if putting them on were an Olympic sport, he’d have medaled for sure.
“Wait!” You said, and were immediately faced with puppy-eyes that belonged to a man who clearly didn’t want to wait.
“Dani!” He whined, really dragging out that last i. As adorable as you found the whole thing, you weren’t blessed with much patience this morning, either.
“Ok, fine!” You said quasi-annoyed, rolling your eyes at Mike’s very enthusiastic expression. When he didn’t move, you got suspicious. “What?”
“Turn around,” he said, laughing when your eyes widened, “please?” Fuck, those goddamn eyes, you seriously doubted you’d ever be able to refuse this guy: All he had to do was look at you with those fucking puppy-eyes and you were a puddle at his feet. So you listened and turned over on your stomach, getting tangled up in the logistics of legs and bodies and what not. He pulled you onto your knees, taking advantage of the great view of you ass he had this way, being himself and biting you, very quickly, before squeezing and kneading away while lining his cock up with the entrance to your drenched pussy. As previously established; he was impatient. It just turned out that you had no idea just how impatient. With one quick thrust, Mike sank all the way into you. The angle that came with your current position took him deep, a little too deep.
“Ow!”
“Sorry!” His next move was slower, more controlled and it allowed you to move yourself into a better position. “Better?” You couldn’t do anything other than nod and gasp when he slid into you again.
“Fuck!” This was good, so, so good. You quickly lost your train of thought and threw your hips back to meet Mike’s thrusts. He chuckled at your enthusiasm. His fingers dug into your skin when he gripped you tight so he could pull you back onto his cock himself. Every time his hips slammed into you, the noises that escaped from your throat became more high pitched and louder; you buried your head in a pillow to muffle them but you were fairly sure you didn’t have a prayer that no one else would hear. It didn’t matter, none of it mattered; your entire world consisted of Mike and you, and sex and sweat and this new but incredible feeling of getting railed from behind six ways to sunday - or monday, today was sunday, even though you were entirely convinced you’d be bruised inside and out tomorrow. Who gave a fuck about a little pain, especially when it hurt so good? Whether it lasted too long or too short was a question you’d probably never be able to answer, but when Mike finished and fell down on the bed next to you, your body was glad it was over even though your mind still screamed for more.
“Just so we’re clear,” Mike grinned at you, “you liked that, right?” Someone should teach the dirty bastard to stop asking these ridiculous questions. You tickled his side, and squealed when he grabbed your wrists.
“Shit! Yes, Mikey, I liked that.” Despite being slightly embarrassed to admit it, it would take a far better actress than you were to talk yourself and Mike into believing that your racy little performance had been a lie. “What’s it matter?” Mike let go of your hands and looked at you as if you’d gone insane.
“First, call me a sentimental douche but I think sex is better when everyone involved is having fun,” he said while he poked at your sides, and for a moment you were charmed by the sweetness of that statement, “and second, I’ve never been with a girl who liked getting nailed from behind like that, which is very convenient for me because it happens to be my favorite position. Any further ridiculous questions?” The entire statement was so wildly Mike-esque that you couldn’t be mad at it or disgusted by it even if you tried. Besides, there wasn’t a single part of that statement that wasn’t completely true.
“One,” you chuckled in reply to his question, “feel like having another go at taking an uninterrupted shower with me?”
The second floor bathroom was occupied, and you could see it in his eyes.
“If that’s Sy…” he began to whisper to you before being interrupted by the person on the other side of the bathroom door.
“It’s not.” Of course it was Geralt. That hearing of his was both scary and amazing. The two of you hurried to the other bathroom, laughing at what had just happened.
“Do I need to feel guilty about that? Did we just do to him what Sy did to us?” Mike wondered out loud as you got in the shower, still snickering.
“First, Mikey, we didn’t do anything,” you said as you wrapped your arms around his waist and pulled him close, “and no. You would have found out if it was Sy, and even if it had been him, you probably would have just come to the conclusion that it wouldn’t be funny if he was in there by himself.”
“Are you suggesting we wait until he has a girlfriend, too, and then get him back for that?”
“No. I’m suggesting you shut up.” Had Mike just called you his girlfriend?
-> Part 10
#mike hellraiser fic#mike hellraiser fanfiction#mike x ofc#mike (hellraiser) x ofc#mike helraiser smut#henry cavill characters#henrycavill fanfic#henry cavill fanfiction#179cs#179 crescent street#syverson x ofc#syverson fanfiction#captain syverson
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Something interesting about Jack and Nana and the Red Beans ship in general is how their kids jump between being canon and being a "what if" compared to my other couples.
Jack and Nana don't have children on their "plans for the future" list and are perfectly satisfied just being together by themselves. Both are great with kids but they've never had it as a thing they are like "WE GOTTA HAVE THEM".
Originally, the concept of them having kids was actually an AU. And sometimes it still is while other times it's a peek into the way distant future of their lives. It really depends on my mood. But it's also because of how detached it is from Beanstalked-like it doesn't even happen within the course of the story like with Pluto and Nova. And it isn't even a "future thing that if they time traveled, they'll meet their kids" thing either.
It's jumping between the thing line of a "what if" and "eventually"
Hell, even Sweetheart and Bitterbat's kids are a distant "eventually" that I don't necessarily plan on touching on in comic really except maybe a few very specific circumstances. But it's so far down the line-not as far as Jack and Nana's what if kids but it's off the course of the main story where its focus is just on Bitterbat and Sweetheart.
Pluto and Nova are honestly the only ship I have where their kid happens IN story. Not in the distant future-it is literally a key plot point. And that's because of how important Comet is which is def based on their weird af conception because Nova never actually gives traditional birth. Pluto and Nova have to basically science project him together after discovering there's left overs of the alien goop that made Pluto. And rather than lock it away where it couple possibly fall into the wrong hands-they decided to just use it so they never have to worry about someone making a bigger and badder Pluto.
I think a big factor of why the whole kids timeline is so inconsistent for the other two ships, especially Red Beans, is because I myself have zero plans of having kids. So I tend to write characters who want them in a way that makes sense to me.
Sweetheart and Bittertbat want them because they love each other and they'd love to have a family together because of how much they love each other. It's basically the result of their adoration for each other. And it's not even a "WE HAVE TO HAVE KIDS" thing, they do have a talk about it first and when they both realize the other is ok with having them-it all takes off from their with the entire "oh yeah we're having 12 kids in the future" which winds up being 13 because...well this is Sweetheart and Bitterbat we're talking about.
Pluto and Nova have Comet because, as I explain, he's a good solution to a problem that could have dangerous results if unsolved. And the kid don't even behave like a traditional kid. Like-he is very smart and can mimic voices. He's more like a little chibi fusion of his parents than a baby compared to the other ship kids.
Jack and Nana don't have a goal of having kids nor are they a solution to anything. They are just kids that could happen. They also could not happen. It once again is up to them...and me. So for me, that often translates to "yeah these kids are basically a What If for them" because once again, I write these parent dynamics in a way I can understand. And if a ship is neutral about their stance on having kids-then I also am so it makes sense that their is a future with them and a future without.
#rocky rambles#jack#nana#red beans#sweetheart#bitterbat#licorice#pluto#nova#comet#blackberries#bondwidth
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july 30 and 31.
so, let's talk about the seventh cipher.
in earlier drafts, this was The Easy Final Level of the Realm King, a much simpler trek through a snowy environment. there were 8 challenges, ranging from "eat a pot noodle" to "play this song on the clarinet," a silly variety of challenges that fit more in line with cipher 6. and there were 5 mini-fights, mainly being the four bikers. a lot of that log was just Having To Walk Big Distances, and so it stretched across two logs. the final boss, on July 31, was just... The Realm King, a big blue guy who sat on a throne and was defended by waves of golden knights. again, more in keeping with cipher 6.
it was like this because I was still not in the right place to write Rapture. I had just returned home to England, in December 2011, returned back to my parents after trying to run away, after that blew up in my face. I came to Rapture because it kept me busy. and while this was at least more creative than the original San Francisco, it was absolutely anticlimactic. and I did at least turn that into a strength: I played on this being an easy final level, a real type of video game trope that usually is not intentional. I played on the strangeness of this for the protagonists, and I turned it into characterisation for this big mythical "Rapture" itself: Rapture gave us an easy final level because Rapture wants these ciphers done. admittedly I am not unhappy with that idea. (it's in keeping with MOTHER 3, in fact. a lot of the interesting ways Rapture plays with video game expectations pretty much comes from MOTHER 3-- when it doesn't come from secretcity. seriously, oh my god play MOTHER 3. it is so worth it. one of the greatest video games ever made.)
but this isn't 2011 anymore. this is 2024. this is Rapture's eighth draft. this is a new Act 2, this is DJay writing at age 29, showing what he-- I-- can do. since early in the rewrite process, a theme has been emerging: "I have to do it right this time, I have to put the work in and make a long story much denser." while I had forgotten about just how empty San Francisco was, I was very conscious of the seventh cipher and the opportunity it presented. to write a new cipher log... god, I've been dreaming of that all throughout my most unproductive years.
so.
I did the work. I put the work in. I took a few days to write this. I think I did two days per log? my first day was pure planning. my first day was this:
I planned out the level, making a map. had to stretch it across two sets of pages, but here I've arranged it so it lines up.
in the July 30th log, we start at the very top-right. we see the destination across the sea of lava, and have to travel our way around the bay and round up to the castle. the july 31st log takes place entirely in the castle on the top page.
a lot of this came rather naturally, as I was inspired by the map design of Elden Ring, how progression feels so driven by the arc of the coastline even when you're exploring these landmasses atop massive cliffs. and I was especially inspired by the layout of Castle Stormveil, which is incredibly imposing on the outside but quite based on a realistic castle inside. all I really had to do was draw a coastline and find the best place to put a defendable castle; the rest came from that.
then I just had to write it.
I was keeping the 8 challenges and the 5 fights. I was keeping the general snow-kingdom aesthetic. making the challenges and fights more cohesive was a matter of finding a unifying Scheme, and for that I chose to base them on Buddhist concepts. the 8 challenges loosely represent the Noble Eightfold Path, and the 5 fights are based on the Five Hindrances. the hardest part here was writing Jordan and Donnie's little Socratic reasonings for the eightfold riddles, though once they enter the castle the riddles are replaced with direct and immediate challenges of staying mindful in an atmosphere of extreme horror, repulsion, and despair.
I quite enjoyed fleshing out the lore here, giving the kingdom its own implied backstory, the tale of a world that could not defend against the Rapture. but of course, the Rapture is different for every world, so we can't even use this world to predict what our Rapture will be.
one of the most important steps in all of this planning turned out to be the simplest. I didn't want this guy to be called "the Realm King" this time. I was prepared to spend a while coming up with a whole new name, but naturally my first instinct was to flip the name around. King Realm? ....King Real? it's a simple name. almost feels trite, something out of a fairy tale. but something about it cut right through my core and spoke to something I wanted to bring out of Rapture this time around. I don't see it as a fairy tale name. I see it as intimidating and holy. this story has something to do with the many different "realities," the relativity of "real." a King gets to enforce a reality on his kingdom. a King enforces it because a King believes in it, that is an important part of how power works on those within the system. this King Real is not a bad guy. in fact, we end up feeling a lot of sympathy for him and his people. but Rapture is not a story where the good guys are named The Good Guys and the bad guys are named The Bad Guys. Rapture is a moral tale, maybe even moralist, but it's excruciatingly modern. it's maybe the "tale" part that's most modern. Rapture is a modern kind of tale. or, really it's ancient. it's an epic. but it's an epic translated into modern techniques. a post-Ulysses epic that is not waiting for readers to catch up with what that means. so. he's called King Real because he was named by a tradition that is not our tradition. if it sounds like a fairy tale name to us, we're still struggling to understand the implications of relativity. ....it's hard to put all this into words right now. but I felt it all in me when I saw the name "King Real."
I wrote the July 31st log while listening to music from the DOOM 2016 soundtrack on repeat. that also feels important. Doom is embedded in my subconscious by now. the original Doom, and the existence of the franchise. this is.. admittedly a really rich subject, ripe for rambles that directly connect to Rapture. just, we absolutely would not have Rapture without Doom. I think even the naming conventions are relevant here. my story's full name is OGTRIB, but I refer to it colloquially as "Rapture." there's even a section of story, currently nebulous, called "Final Rapture," which is absolutely a reference to Final Doom. Rapture and Doom. it's no accident. or, at most, it's a happy accident. why? what similarities do they have? what is it I got out of the Doom games? other than a love affair with midi rock music and the sensibilities of open source communities. a comfort in first-person video games, a love of mazes. firm confirmation that one must face injustice with the stubbornness of a shotgun. I dunno. that's something that'll take a lifetime of interpretation to work out.
/////////////////////
then there's the "other half" of this log, really more like the last fifth of it. I will say a lot less about this section, because this is the beginning of something Rapture will take a long time exploring.
the A-plot has moved out of the ciphers and into what comes next.
Guitar Hero is involved now.
and we finally meet Bones... as well as Fentzy and Danny? in earlier drafts, we actually met Fentzy and Danny way earlier. we met Danny on July 4th, the end of Act 1, and we met Fentzy on July 5th, the start of Act 2. the decision to move their introduction here, towards the very end of Act 2, was significant. it changed many things about Act 2 and basically facillitated the heavy rewrite to begin with. we needed more time with just Jordan and Donnie. that was worth it. but now we have the full party.
who is Fentzy? who is Danny? who is Bones? how will the kids all get along now? these are important questions!
you'll have to wait and see. :3
see you tomorrow.
#ogtrib bonus#i could have said more about the king real stuff. the elden ring influences go further.#and the body horror stuff took a lot out of me!#but i had to go where my ramble took me.#and if you want more answers you'll have to ask me directly. or meditate on it yourself.
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ooh, what’s The Charlatan’s Song?
So this is less exciting than most of my WIPs I think! (Although the title is a banger hahaha) It's a Wyll/Tav story.
So my Tav (Pimpernel) is based on a half-baked idea I've had for a D&D character I've never gotten to play. In the game I made her a halfling with the charlatan background, and she's a bard that claims to be a heroic figure from a minor noble house that was disowned after a torid love affair with a woman from a much more well-established house that was about to enter an arranged marriage. She dueled her love's fiancé and won (earning a scar on her cheek in the process) but was disowned because of the negative attention it brought her own house, and she now travels throughout the land saving people from their issues and then earning money through telling her tale in taverns.
It's all a lie, as the charlatan background indicates. Her family are farmers or ranchers and are quite poor. The scar on her cheek is from a simple work accident (one idea I had was it's an injury from a boar's tusk while she was hunting or protecting her family's livestock). Her parents were killed while on the road traveling to sell their wares and she's either the oldest or second oldest of a ton of kids, many of whom aren't adults yet, and since she was dissatisfied living out in the boonies she used it as an excuse to leave and finally live out an adventure like the books she loves. Another adult sibling of hers is now the parent figure for the rest of her siblings, and she sends a lot of the money she earns as a bard back to them. Oh, and originally I planned on her having the gambler background (which isn't an option in BG3)...because the other way she earns money is by cheating in games of chance and generally being a card shark. The real reason she moves around a lot isn't because she's always on the hunt for people to protect, it's because if she sticks around too long in one place she risks getting caught. She's seen a bit of combat because she lives on the road, but not NEARLY to the extent she claims to, she's low level.
So imagine my shock when I realize Wyll is ACTUALLY the person she claims to be--a true hero, who actually is the disowned child of a noble house. Didn't know his background at all until I started playing the game and was blown away by the coincidence once I got to Waukeen's Rest.
I originally intended to romance Astarion but fumbled that BADLY (she might be lying about being a hero but she still WANTS to be one, so of course she was constantly helping others and I did not read him well at all until I got to the scene with the blood merchant so he's constantly irritated with her despite constantly getting inspiration from her because they're both charlatans lol). And once Wyll started talking about enjoying to dance...I mean, she's a BARD HALFLING, of course she's going to bug him to dance with her, so it was pretty natural to fall into Wyll's romance instead. (This is also more or less how I started getting into Wyllstarion, since they were the characters I was interacting with the most.)
The thing is...obviously the game isn't set up to give me a chance to actually play out this whole elaborate backstory with Pimpernel pretending to be the type of person Wyll actually is, only to have to admit it later to him that she's been lying about who she is. It makes sense that I can't, how in the world would a game be able to account for that? The only way I could think of would be if they did something like what Bioware did with the backstories for Dragon Age Origins and Mass Effect and Larian obviously wanted more open-ended characters for the players.
I really wished there was some way I could express what was going on with Pimpernel in the game, but I couldn't do it particularly well, so...I started trying to write it, and that's what A Charlatan's Song is.
“Oh Wyll, I never said she was a princess!” Pimpernel responded, in a tone that implied she very much was one. “Alas, it was quite a scandal. She loved me, but…well, if we had run off together, it would have damaged not only her reputation, but her family’s. So in the end, she refused me. And my family was quite mortified, and I’m one child of many, so it was easy to just…send me on my way, rather than keep me around as the family embarrassment.”
“I’m sorry. That must have been difficult.”
“Oh, no no, I’m well suited for a life on the road. I’ve found I fit in much better in a tavern than I do in a ballroom, as much as I enjoyed my life there.” She shrugged. “And well…now you know.”
Behind her there was a slow, mocking clap. Pimpernel turned to look over her shoulder at Astarion, who was looking at her with a fang-baring grin. “Bravo! Quite deftly told, as you expect from a bard. It almost sounds like something out of a romance novel!”
Pimpernel swallowed and did her best to maintain her composure. “It does, doesn’t it? But it’s all true, I’m afraid.”
“Oh, of course, of course.”
[...]
Now he was digging into the chinks of her armor. She had something to lose, and he had been revealed and stayed safe. He had a natural royal flush, and she’d already played all her best cards.
She could only hope he’d decide to keep her secrets, for now.
So the PROBLEM IS as interesting as it would be to actually get to play this out in game...I dunno how to make her actually interesting as a character on the page without just huuuuge amount of exposition dump (I deleted a lot from this post!!) and internal monologues, and especially since I'm pretty settled in the no-Tav discord I'm just not all that interested in writing about my OC over the established characters in the game. I also don't have a good ending (my constant problem lol), especially since I still need to actually beat the game, so...ehhh...this one will probably stay abandoned at this point. Ah, well.
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HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO THE BEST ROYAL GUARD IN ANIMATED HISTORY
Gabriel Nuñez baby you deserve the world
Word count: 1120
Rating: General audience
Relationships: Gabe&Rico, platonic
Other: the royal guard, alcohol (nothing explicit dw)
Twelve loud chimes of the city bell traveled through the air and reached a camp deep in the jungle. Gabe pulled out his pocket watch and sighed.
"Happy birthday to me," he mumbled to himself.
He put his watch back in the pocket and turned around to look at the sleeping camp.
It's not that he didn't like training camps, quite the opposite, and he possibly started liking them even more once he became the trainer and not the trainee, but stars did he sometimes wish he didn't have to go. But he was a royal guard and he had his duties. He sighed again. Even if it meant missing his own twentieth birthday.
Suddenly a sound of footsteps pulled him from his thoughts.
"Who's there?!" He called out, putting one hand on his sword and raising the alarm whistle to his mouth with the other. He scolded himself internally for loosing focus.
"On yooooouuuuur speeeecial daaaaaaaay," a butchered version of the birthday song came as an answer and Gabe recognized Rico's voice.
"You really have no respect for the curfew, do you?" Gabe complained but his pose again became more relaxed.
"'Wow Rico it's so nice you remembered!'" Rico said in a mocking voice. "You're welcome, Nuñez, happy birthday."
Gabe rolled his eyes.
"Thanks Rico, it's nice you remembered," he said in an overly nice tone.
"You're welcome, Nuñez, happy birthday." Rico grinned. "Now catch." He threw Gabe a bottle, he was hiding behind his back. "It will want you up while you stand here like a bump on the log."
"You brought beer to a training camp?" Gabe asked, unbelieving, trying to read the etiquette in the dim light of the moon.
"No?" Rico scoffed and opened himself another bottle. "I'm not an idiot. I requisitioned it from the recruits who brought beer to a training camp."
"I can't drink it." Gabe shook his head.
"Of course you can, you're" he made a flourish with his hands "an adult now."
"I meant that I'm holding the watch, Rico." Gabe rolled his eyes.
"Agh you're no fun," Rico groaned. "Alright give it back."
He took the bottle and reached to his shoe.
"Luckily I'm used to how stiff you are," he developed a third bottle from the upper of his shoe like a street magician pulls out a rabbit from his hat. "So I brought you a soft one."
Gabe shook his head but accepted the drink.
"Well, here's to you, Gabe," they clinked their glasses and took a big swing of their drinks.
"I bet this isn't exactly how you planned your twentieth?" Rico laughed.
"Not exactly," Gabe joined him.
"Let me guess, I bet you were supposed to have a home baked cake..."
"Rico," Gabe said in a warning tone.
"What? A home baked cake from your parents does sound nice, I'm not mocking you." He was still grinning that irritating grin of his, but it didn't quite reach his eyes. "Ah but even the best family dinner isn't enough for a twentieth," he continued quickly. "So? When's the fiesta?"
"And why are you so sure you're invited?" Gabe snorted.
"Pff, there's no good party without me." Rico put a hand to his chest, not even pretending to be humble.
Gabe laughed at his over exaggerated expression.
"It was supposed to be today," his laugh turned sadder.
"If not for this stupid camp?" Rico added and Gabe hummed quietly in agreement.
For a moment they continued to drink in silence. Gabe made sure to scan the area around them, since, as he reminded himself, he was still on duty.
"And you've ruined the party - and it's not even much of a party to begin with!" Rico broke the silence again.
Gabe only laughed at his complaint.
"So what did you plan? For the party?" Rico continued. "I bet the princess was invited," he added with a smirk.
"Yeah," Gabe caught himself rolling his eyes again. He realized he did that quite a lot around Rico. "Mateo and Naomi too. My friends from school and scouting, you, Miguel, Adán and a few other guards."
"Awww you'd actually invite me?" His voice was mocking again but Gabe could see his smile was genuine.
"Duh" he nudged him in the side with his elbow. "There isn't a good party without you, after all."
They both laughed. Rico tried to get even for the nudge and stabbed him in the rib, to which Gabe wanted to answer with a slap on the back of his head but Rico dodged and for a few minutes they danced around each other and tried to hit the other like schoolboys during a break. Finally Rico managed to get a hit at Gabe's neck but at the same time shook his bottle too hard and spilled his drink on himself.
"Okay that's probably a sign to stop," he said wiping his face with his sleeve, and they both burst into laughter.
"Anyway, as I was saying," Gabe picked up once they calmed down. "I was thinking we could meet up in this one basement at Mercado Central. I know a few people who play guitars, accordion and whatnot" he shrugged "and we'd just have a party. Kind of like under Shuriki, except I'm pretty sure Elena wouldn't have us imprisoned for that," he chuckled.
"Ah, I've never actually been to a concert like that," Rico mused. "But it sounds fun."
He smiled and took another sip from the bottle.
"Let's just hope they won't come up with something at the last moment again when we come back," Gabe added bitterly and his grievance was answered by a loud chimes of the bell.
He sighed.
"Well, I still have half an hour of the watch left, but you should probably go back to sleep," he said to Rico and he couldn't stop himself from a remark. "You know you won't get any special treatment tomorrow just cause you're hangover?"
Rico finished his bottle in one swing and answered with an exaggerated drunk lisp.
"I have no idea what you're talking about."
Gabe chuckled and finished his drink too.
"Come on, I'll throw it out." Rico took the empty bottle from him. He took a few slow steps back. "We probably wotn have much time to celebrate, so again, happy twentieth, ya kid." He gave him a mock salute and left towards the tents.
"Thanks, old man!" Gabe shouted after him and laughed.
He turned around and closely scanned the forest wall before him. He pushed his face deeper into his collar to hide it from the cutting snow - and hide his smile from any curious night spectators. Rico really could make a good party.
#my post#writing#blue's writing#eoa#elena of avalor#gabriel nunez#gabriel nuñez#gabe nunez#gabe nuñez#rico villalobos#i am continuing on my 'gabe and rico are friends' propaganda#also alternative ending to this fic was:#'gabe pushed his face deeper into his collar to protect himself from the chilling wind#but he coukd feel a warmth in his chest that made him wonder if the drink he got really was non-alcoholic#of course that mustve been the case as he wouldnt admit ricos friendly gesture actually helped him so much'#but i realized it mightve sounded shippy so yeah#happy birthday to the most character ever#the blorbo of the lifetime 🥳#gabe darling i owe you so much
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1792
Have you ever had any article of clothing tailored? What for? Sure. I've always been petite so when I'm gifted or handed down clothes that are a bit too large on me, I have them altered when I have the time.
Do you watch Degrassi? If so, what do you think about it? I've never watched Degrassi but I'm quite familiar since I used to have an internet friend who was otherwise obsessed.
Do you welcome people back when they say they have returned? For the most part, yeah. Enthusiastic greeting is in my Filipino DNA, lol.
What are two foods you think taste good with whipped cream? Nothing, to be honest. Whipped cream doesn't even taste like anything lol and while I don't have anything bad to say about it, it's also not really value-adding taste-wise.
How long would it take you to walk to the nearest fire hydrant? I'm not sure tbh...5 minutes? 10 minutes? I should pay attention to where we have fire hydrants around here haha.
Do you own anything that has the words or picture of ‘moustache’? Nah, definitely not since the early 2010s.
When you see a feather on the ground, do you ever pick it up? Nope.
Are you able to play the harmonica? Do you ever want to take lessons? I don't know how to play it expertly, though it also doesn't sound like something for which I'd be interested in taking lessons.
If you eat it, what is your favorite way to eat beef? Rare steak and in burgers. That's about it. I'm not a big beef fan.
How would you feel marrying the man you love who has already a son? Continued from who know when? If I'm marrying them I would assume I would have also already accepted becoming a mom.
Have you ever played Roller Coaster Tycoon? What did you think of it? I've heard of it many times before but don't think I ever played it. I played tons of many other knockoff rollercoaster games though.
What foods go good with radishes? I usually have pickled radish on the side when I have jjajangmyeon.
When you are chopping onions, does it really affect your eyes personally? I don't cook, but when my parents cook and use onions it does sting a lot, to the point that it would be unbearable to be downstairs for a few moments.
How long can you hold your breath for? Is there anyone who is better? I don't know but generally my track record isn't great. I could do close to a minute to a little over, and I know others could do much better.
When was the last time you had a pet goldfish? What was its name? I wouldn't remember specifics but I'm sure I would've still been in the single-digit ages.
Would you rather have a loaf of bread or meat loaf right now? Bread. Meatloaf looks so nasty.
Are you insecure about your height? What made you think this way? Nah, I've learned to embrace being smaller than average haha. Filipinos are also short anyway so even though I'm only barely 5'2", I don't stand out.
Do you enjoy mayonnaise with French fries? Why or why not? It's the only way I eat my fries, if not on their own.
What are the oldest pair of pants you still wear? How old are they? I have a pair of high-waist denim jeans that I've had since like college.
Did your last significant other have a huge temper? They did if you called them out because apparently they're incapable of making any mistakes and shouldn't be criticized ever.
What was the topic discussed in the last meeting you attended? An upcoming event we're supposed to be planning for.
What is your opinion on Indonesia? Would you ever travel there? How about Syria? Would you ever travel there? Why or why not? I love lndonesian cuisine, and yes I've already been there – I was around 14 and our family took a week-long trip to Bali. I don't have much of an opinion on Syria but don't really plan on heading there.
What are the three events this year you are looking forward to? My birthday, seeing Seventeen next week, and getting Jin and Hobi back from the military.
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I hope this isn't a strange question but when you travel, do you ever go solo? I was just curious cause there are a lot of states and parks I want to go to but most of my friends/family aren't interested in going. I have thought about going alone a lot but when I think about the potential dangers I do get spooked. I have read about women who travel solo and it seems like a lot of people do it successfully. I was just curious if you have, how was your experience? Thanks
🤩🤩
So far, my road trips have always been with a buddy, but we drive separately and we occasionally would split off to go do our own things.
So I can’t say I’ve gone completely alone yet, however this summer I will be doing that. Heading up to Montana from Colorado and then the PNW (where I’ll meet a friend in Oregon), through Northern Cali, down to Texas to visit friends and family, and then back home to Colorado. Pretty much all of that except for Oregon and Washington will be me by myself, with my dogs lol.
Idk the statistics of assaults and crimes in national/state parks so I can’t say anything really, but if you’re visiting parks that are very popular during their on seasons (many of them will be in the summer) you’ll be surrounded by other families, kids, parents etc, so generally it’s safer just because of the amount of people around you. At least, that’s how I feel at the ones I’ve been to. I haven’t flown by myself before and I don’t ever plan to because I hate flying and if I’m going to fly, I need someone with me.
For traveling solo, I personally prefer road trips because I’m in control of my schedule, I can have my dogs, and there’s nothing I love more than watching the scenery change as you drive through the country, and your options for taking quick naps are broad.
Any tips I can give like….If I need to sleep, safe places are truck stops because guess what! Lots of people are already sleeping there! That’s what it’s for. Maybe it makes it a target? But keep your doors locked, sleep next to someone else who is also sleeping (there literally is always someone else sleeping at a truck stop). My dogs bork when anybody gets near me so…I have a natural security alarm, two of them lol.
I also plan to visit as many National parks as I can (that’s what my summer road trip will be for hence Montana 🤩) and I know that most of those trips will be alone so I’ll have more “traveling alone” experience after this summer.
#road trips#traveling#no experience in going abroad yet#but road tripping I can talk about#anonymous
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