#* THAT ISN'T QUITE AS CATCHY.

[vimbry]

mink car, despite having a song with the imagery of getting hit by a car, someone shooting themselves, reflecting on how life is unfair, the relentless passage of time, and the frustration of paralysis, somehow manages to arguably be they might be giants' most uplifting album.

[harunayuuka2060]

MC: Welcome to NRC, have a look around

MC: Anything that brain of yours can think of can be found

MC: We've got handsome housewardens, some good, and just worse

MC: If none of it's of interest to you, you'd be the first~

MC: Welcome to NRC, come and take a seat

MC: Would you like to see the news about the overblot this week?

MC: There's no need to panic, this isn't a test, haha

MC: Just nod or shake your head, and WE'LL DO THE REST.

MC: Welcome to NRC, what would you prefer?

MC: Would you like to fight your dorm leader or curse the principal?

MC: Be happy, be traumatized, be bursting with RAGE!

MC: We got a million different ways to enrage!

MC: Could I interest you in everything all of the time?

MC: A little bit of everything, all of the time~

MC: Apathy's a tragedy and boredom is a crime~

MC: Anything and everything, all of the time

MC: Could I interest you in everything all of the time?

MC: A little bit of everything, all of the time

MC: The therapist doesn't wander, they don't have the ti~me

MC: A series of overblots, all of the time~!

The housewardens: ...

The teachers: ...

Crowley: ...

Ace: Yo...

Epel: That's quite catchy.

Jack: And everything in it is true.

Deuce: And they wrote that parody in 15 minutes?

Crowley: Prefect, in my office now.

[omegalomania]

people bitching and moaning about fob "turning mainstream" as if that was never the entire point of fall out boy. that's In the goddamn dna of the band, it's baked into the ethos of why the band started in the first damn place. to be accessible to kids and especially to girls, who were often ridiculed and shunted out of the hardcore community. to be a gateway to bands that aren't as mainstream. to comment on the society they live in, as they live in it. people act like fall out boy "turning mainstream" was some kind of "betrayal" when from the start they were seizing on the trends of the time, putting their unique, unhinged fall out boy spin on them, and shooting them back out as a funhouse mirror. take this to your grave capitalized on the pop-punk zeitgeist that was big in the late 90s and early aughts and put their own spin on it: enmeshed catchy choruses with high-dexterity lyrical & linguistic skewerwork. infinity on high was basically a massive critique of the scene they were in - this ain't a scene it's a goddamn arm's race is a fucking thesis statement on what it is to be catapulted into fame in an industry that wants nothing more than a thousand cookie-cutter copycat acts of a successful formula, and fall out boy WAS the formula everyone desperately wanted to emulate. american beauty / american psycho blended sampling and modern hip-hop stylings with polished pop-rock and pointed those songs back at the snapshot of the 2010s we all lived in: commenting on racial injustice and the freeze-frame nature of relevancy. but even then they weren't doing it quite right - because fall out boy never does things quite right, they're never quite conventional, whether it's wentz's darkly confessional lyrics double-bagged in metaphor or stump's distinctive clear tenor or trohman's inescapable rock 'n roll edge or hurley's thunderous hardcore-punk-rock soul.

this band has always been too clever for its own critics, is the thing. but then, they always knew that. they knew they had a thriving fanbase of largely female fans so they were going to be mocked and belittled and ridiculed. they weren't quite right. they weren't quite so easy to market. pete wentz had to have all his hard edges filed off and cut down to size, skin lightened, literally whitewashed ("i feel like a photo that's been overexposed") to hell and back, even as he was marketed as the pretty boy of the band. and the other three members never even bothered with the spotlight: the soft-spoken vegan straightedge anarchist drummer and the wry, wisecracking, whip-clever guitarist who was more concerned with being the connective tissue than anything and the reticent vocalist who sang the words and wrote an awful lot of music but wasn't really the guy fronting the band. wentz's charisma carried the band, because the rest of them were really just some guys and never aspired to be anything else.

fall out boy is too pop. fall out boy is too mainstream. fall out boy isn't the real poster child of the emo movement. other bands are better. even within fall out boy's own narrative, they are repeatedly ignored, sidelined, and belittled, as though they weren't one of the only acts from the big 00s emo-pop movement to successfully not just survive the transition from the aughts to the '10s, and then later from the '10s to the '20s, but to thrive in it without banking on nostalgia. this band was supposed to be a flash in the pan. they weren't supposed to last and they weren't supposed to get big. they started off in joe's parents' attic because joe and pete were sick of how exclusionary and homophobic the hardcore scene was.

i think it's high time that people acknowledge how fall out boy has repeatedly succeeded where most of their other peers failed. cunning, clever, capable, and hyper-aware of the space they occupy in the culture surrounding them. that they are just as powerful, important, and artistic as any of the other bands in the scene that others might deify at their expense. that they deserve a hell of a lot more respect than they get from critics or hardcore punks who think they sold out. i hope one day they get that recognition. because they've earned it, time and time again, and the more i see people pushing back against that, the more certain i become of its inevitability.

[journey-to-the-attic]

rating all of the om songs (so far) to pass time on the train LET'S GO

i was going to split these into separate posts but Ah who CARES they're all here now. for the intents and purposes of this post i am leaning more positive to the romance aspects (usually i'm more ambivalent). looong post ahead!

(i'm considering the lyrics based on the direct unofficial translations credited to Maon_ObeyMe on twitter, rather than the official english versions)

CHARACTER SONGS

Arcadia (Lucifer) -> Sonically: 7/10 I'm oddly into that one synth that comes in after the chorus. The violin stings are cool. Fun to vibe to! Points knocked off because he kind of doesn't sound like Lucifer, though. -> Lyrically: 5/10 Points removed (derogatory) for "lady", other points removed (affectionate) for the hilarity of "I'm fall in love u baby". You can tell it was written when they were still clinging somewhat to the dominant diet Christian Grey thing, but a lot of the lines are still genuinely romantic (while also being very Lucifer.) -> Overall: 7/10 I scrunch my face when I get to That One Line but otherwise I do pick this to listen to semi-regularly.

Are You Ready? (Mammon) -> Sonically: 6/10 Banger, but repetitive. Good rhythm to walk to. Hirotaka Kobayashi's delivery makes it. -> Lyrically: 6/10 Points docked for repetitiveness, but it's cute to see this side of him verbalised. Gender neutral high heels are a serve. -> Overall: 6/10 I don't relisten to this one quite as much as Arcadia, but I think that's just a genre preference.

My Chance! (Levi) -> Sonically: 8/10 The mixing on his voice is a bit weird, but it fits in with the chiptune sound, which I adore. Really catchy chorus. I also really like that soft bell insturment that's playing along with the main melody. -> Lyrically: 8/10 Really cute! Levi's characterised really well here. I love his little spoken interjections - Satoshi Kada is one of my favourite VAs in terms of delivery. (Levi's lines are some of the best in either of the voiced pop quizzes.) -> Overall: 8/10 Cute and fun to listen to. It's really easy to imagine a music video for this one.

Read My Heart (Satan) -> Sonically: 8/10 Really pretty piano instrumental, but I feel like there could've been a bit of variation. On the one hand, layering in some strings could've sounded really nice, but on the other, it does feel more personal as a solo piano ballad. Shinya Sumi has a really nice voice. -> Lyrically: 9/10 Very sweet, almost poetic, very Satan. The reference to cats doesn't feel heavy-handed. It feels like he wrote it. -> Overall: 9/10 I really like the bridge. It has a sort of lullaby quality as well, so it's nice to fall asleep to, or listen to when you need to calm down.

Pomade (Asmo) -> Sonically: 7/10 It's better-produced than some of the songs I've given a higher sonic rating, but this is more a matter of preference - this song isn't super my style. -> Lyrically: 10/10 EXCELLENT. The journey Asmo goes on? Starting out singing about himself and tempting you, then shifting to singing about you (You are my captive -> I am your captive) - the way it basically reflects his arc in OM S1? Chef's kiss. Beautiful. -> Overall: 7/10 I don't listen to it that often but I do think about those lyrics. They're so good. This is how you write a character song.

Hungry Six-Pack (Beel) Sonically: 8/10 I'm a sucker for that 'wah' effect on the guitar. I really like the rock sound, but I think it was done better in Barbatos's song. (Sorry, Beel.) Kyohei Yaguchi also does a really good job on the performance - you really get the feeling that this is how Beel himself would perform in a band. The interval in "darou" in the chorus is to die for, as is the "forever, forever-ah-ah-ah" in the last chorus. Lyrically: 6/10 Even in songs Beel cannot escape the "they only know how to write him with one character trait" allegations (/hj). To be fair, it'd be hard to get into his deeper character without dipping into lyrics about survivor's guilt, which I feel wasn't what they were going for. Overall: 7/10 I like to imagine him performing this at a bar. Also, total aside, but I really don't like that title.

Dreamscape (Belphie) -> Sonically: 9/10 I'm not usually a lo-fi person, but the vibes are perfect for Belphie and I really like this composition. -> Lyrically: 7/10 Really cute, but pretty basic - then again any of the songs' lyrics seem so when you compare them to the Queen Pomade. I do like how much Belphie's needy little-brother nature comes through here. "Hey, come see me, please?" Makes me want to pinch his cheek. -> Overall: 9/10 The sound alone carries it. I listen to it pretty regularly.

No.1 (Diavolo) -> Sonically: 9/10 Takuhei Yamamoto is giving it so much oomph and it's fantastic and also very in-character for Diavolo himself. He would be that enthusiastic. He would throw his head back and belt like that mic was made for him. (I find the "Sā, hora!" before the chorus really cute.) -> Lyrically: 6/10 It feels a little weird that he's doing the dominant thing in the lyrics here, but his sin attribute is apparently pride, and it's interesting that they chose this characterisation for him given he's usually so affable. (It's not like it came out of nowhere, to be fair - Diavolo basically admits to it on occasion, he seems to just hold it back, usually.) -> Overall: 7/10 Solid song that I don't listen to all that often for some reason.

Crazy About You (Barbatos) -> Sonically: 10/10 Absolute banger. The guitar solo makes me want to run through walls. Masayuki Harada's performance as Barbatos is also both spot-on and pitch perfect. That "Ahh-" leading into the chorus is gorgeous. I'm not the biggest fan of the spoken lines, but I appreciate that they're there for those truly starved stans who don't get nearly enough of him in the main story. -> Lyrically: 8/10 Perhaps oddly I really like his mix of servitude and sternness here. Feels playful in a way that I think really works for his dynamic with MC. (If only they'd utilise it in the game.) -> Overall: 10/10 It's just that much of a banger. Barbatos I'm so sorry for what the NB remix did to you. You were too powerful.

My Wish (Luke) -> Sonically: 6/10 Gonna be honest I completely forgot how this song sounded after I finished listening to it for the first time. I'm not the biggest fan of Luke's voice direction and there are parts in this where I just fully see a full grown man doing the voice. I do really like the chorus (the part that mentions sweets and cream) though. -> Lyrically: 8/10 Just very cute. Pretty much exactly what you'd expect from Luke - another one of those where you can easily imagine that the character wrote it themselves. -> Overall: 6/10 I don't think I've listened to it more than five times, to be honest. I actually quite like the NB remix for this one.

Question Love (Simeon) -> Sonically: 4/10 Simeon what the hell did they do to you. The production is fine, it's just... the autotune? It isn't like Yu Hirata can't sing. Why did they do that? Presumably it's a stylistic thing, which I'm not against, it's just not executed well. (Though it's cute to imagine Simeon himself being responsible, as tech-illiterate as he is.) It's a weird genre for a character like him, too. I was expecting another ballad, maybe with a harp... -> Lyrically: 6/10 Feels quite generic - I feel like Simeon of all characters would have had a more poetically written song, and his relationship with MC could have been particularly interesting to write about. (Though I'm not sure how long ago this was released.) -> Overall: 5/10 He deserved better. I do like the instrumental on his NB remix, though. That deep bass synth in the back is great

Our Destiny (Solomon) -> Sonically: 7/10 Really like those violins on the chorus. The blend of the strings with the more lo-fi adjacent sound is actually really fitting for a character like Solomon. Kazuki Kawata has this really nice smooth voice, and his ad-libbing at the end is pretty charming. The "hey!" on the chorus sometimes veers into youtube_kids_going_yay.mp3 territory for me, though. -> Lyrically: 7/10 I really like that he calls back to one of his in-game phone calls. It's kind of funny that he sounds so sure of himself when there's an almost insecure nature to his affections in NB especially. -> Overall: 7/10 All around good song. Another one who got done dirty by his remix.

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UNIT SONGS

Choose Me (Mammon, Levi, Asmo) -> Sonically: 6/10 I like the big brass sound, but... eh. Feels like something's missing. I like Hirotaka Kobayashi's delivery on Mammon's rap lines, but the chorus in particular feels kind of lacking. -> Lyrically: 7/10 I don't know what this 'love game' is but I don't think I want to participate. I also fully hear "gay" every single time. That aside, the verses are pretty good. -> Overall: 5/10 Not really for me, but I'll listen to it on shuffle sometimes. This one's remix was criminally bad.

Telepathy (Beel, Belphie) -> Sonically: 10/10 Such a pretty instrumental. Is that "ooooooo" in the background Belphie? It does sound like Satoshi Onishi's voice. The twins both sound perfectly in character and in sync with each other (though I would've liked for them to have a verse together.) Their spoken bridge is adorable. -> Lyrically: 7/10 It's hard to gauge the vibes from the lyrics. They're definitely singing to/about each other (they say so in the bridge), and that's clear in the chorus, but there are a few parts where it's like. Is that something you say to a brother?? Did a songwriter miss a memo? Also what does "your muscles are mood" mean. -> Overall: 9/10 It's such a comforting song to listen to. I just get a bit distracted by "your muscles are mood" every time. Belphie. What does that mean. Please

Passion (Lucifer, Satan) -> Sonically: 8/10 Really big fan of the piano. The breathing sounds caught me off-guard at first, but I know to expect them now. I really like both VA's performances. Lucifer sounds like Lucifer again! -> Lyrically: 7/10 I find Lucifer's line "I said that I’d listen with patience and silence, but you've got some nerve to actually continue" kind of out-of-place - it's more consistent with his characterisation in early NB than anywhere in OM when this was released, which is interesting - but the rest is pretty good. I really couldn't imagine singing this alongside your own sibling though. -> Overall: 8/10 I don't tend to choose this one a lot, but I don't skip it if it comes on in shuffle.

Take It Easy (Satan, Belphie) -> Sonically: 8/10 Really fun bouncy instrumental. I really like the rapport between these two here. (Would you say Belphie's in falsetto? Either way, I love how he and Satan take the higher and lower registers respectively.) -> Lyrically: 10/10 God I love these lyrics. They're so funny. The brief moment of sincerity before they go right back to singing about how much they love pranking Lucifer. "Makes me happy" makes me so happy. It's so sweet. These little rascals. These absolute rapscallions. -> Overall: 9/10 I like the sound of Rock On better, but the LYRICS. They're so great.

Rock On!! (Lucifer, Mammon) -> Sonically: 9/10 This one's another banger. The VAs do a great job with the back-and-forth delivery in the spoken bridge (I especially love how Lucifer and Mammon both sound like they're pretending really hard that they don't give a shit on "Yoroshiku douzo negawakuba" together". Lucifer also sounds like he ran out of air on "...omae wa" a little earlier. Lol -> Lyrically: 8/10 It's really funny to listen to them both strut their stuff singing about themselves in the verses and then suddenly get sincere to each other on the bridge. Though I think this song could've really benefited from the "feels like it was written by the characters" approach. -> Overall: 9/10 I just really like it!

Trigger (Levi, Asmo, Beel) -> Sonically: 8/10 This used to be my favourite of these three unit songs sonically, but solely the delivery of "Trigger!" bothers me a little bit. It could use more force, is all. That aside, everyone did a fantastic job and Satoshi Kada in particular served on Levi's verse. -> Lyrically: 7/10 I'm not even entirely sure what's going on in this song, but I like it. I didn't like Asmo addressing you as "kitten", but I did really like Miura Ayme adding a sort of cutesy whining tone to "I'm the cutest demon in the world, right?" - Ayme in general does a great job with Asmo's character in songs. -> Overall: 8/10 Still good! I think my tastes have just shifted since I first listened to it.

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OPENING SONGS

Sinful Indulgence (OM!:SWD) -> Sonically: 9/10 It really is a bop. Miura Ayme's performance is great. -> Lyrically: 8/10 Pretty strong! "Oh baby, obey me!" is clever and very catchy. I only ever use the word sexy as a joke so it catches me off guard when Asmo says it, but that's not really a complaint. The dark-and-sinful nature of the lyrics is really funny when you compare it to the stuff these guys actually get up to in-story. -> Overall: 8/10 It's a good listen and a good opening to the game, even if the lyrics don't really reflect the content all that well.

Devil's Way (OM!:NB) -> Sonically: 9/10 Ohhh whatever that metallic bell sound in the intro+outro instrumental is, it is a tasty sound. Shinya Sumi is performing his heart out and he's doing fantastic. I still can't fully tell if that's Belphie or Levi on the start of the second verse, but whoever it is did a really good job of making it sound subtly unsettling. The bridge starts shifting into edgy territory, but the whole song is teetering, to be honest. Also, I've mentioned this before, but the "sekai de-eeee" just before the bridge is still so good. -> Lyrically: 8/10 I adore the use of "sweetiepie" in the chorus but it does detract a little from the dark vibe they've got going on. Lucifer using 'boku' in this song of all places is bewildering and hilarious. The darker tone definitely fits in with S1 and S2. -> Overall: 8/10 Something about that bridge bothers me. Other than that, banger.

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BROTHER ENSEMBLE SONGS

It's My Party -> Sonically: 9/10 It's a bop. -> Lyrically: 6/10 Relatively basic. From a cynical perspective, the brothers basically each tell you their One Assigned Trait that the writers fall back on when they can't be bothered to do deep characterisation, but that's not the fault of the songwriter. I take psychic damage every time I hear "haters gonna hate." -> Overall: 9/10 I've listened to this quite regularly since I had my friend edit me the version with "haters gonna hate" cut out. (It's a 7/10 with the hater line left in.)

Eternal -> Sonically: 9/10 So nice. I can't unhear the first few notes as See You Again, but the rest of the track is definitely a credit to itself. I feel like there could've been more orchestral build-up, but that might also make it feel too dramatic... as is, it feels more candid and personal. Like you could imagine this being performed to you in a small local theater. -> Lyrically: 10/10 There is definitely bias at play, but hearing this as OM's first sincere ensemble love song made a pretty big impression. The lyrics are so sweet. "My love" is one of those terms of affection that I love so much I don't even mind when it's used on me. -> Overall: 10/10 Again, biased, but this song just has a special place in my heart.

On Your Way -> Sonically: 6/10 It's.... fine? I like the instrumental, but the chorus feels a little empty. Shinya Sumi hitting that high note on "Let's get you on your way" each time is kind of inspiring, though. Belt it, girl! -> Lyrically: 7/10 The "eeny-meeny-miny-mo" is so silly but I love it. -> Overall: 6/10 Pretty standard stuff.

With You -> Sonically: 9/10 Gosh, another really pretty instrumental! I think the seven VAs are definitely more comfortable singing as an ensemble here, though it would've been nice to get some more harmonies... -> Lyrically: 10/10 They're so sappy but that's what makes it work, especially delivered in all sincerity like this. Something about that last line (and its delivery) feels so earnest. -> Overall: 9/10 I'm just a sucker for whatever genre you call this and Eternal. Also, I really like title callback to S2's play (I don't think it was necessarily intentional, but still).

Spooky Night Parade -> Sonically: 7/10 It's a really fun instrumental. I love the little "hehehee....... trick or treat?" in between choruses and verses. They're just little guys. -> Lyrically: 6/10 Just sort of standard Halloween-y lyrics that don't mean too much. -> Overall: 7/10 it feels more like a novelty song than something I'd listen to regularly.

Magic Moment -> Sonically: 9/10 Oooooh that's a nice instrumental. The swelling dynamics are so satisfying, the vocal performances are all lovely. I love that glockenspiel in the back. (At least I think that's what it is.) (I've imagined IK playing it while the brothers perform this before.) -> Lyrically: 9/10 Another "it's so sappy I love it" moment. "I'm so happy I could cry" Like GUYS!! Aw man I love you. They drop three I love yous and they're all great. -> Overall: 10/10 I know the maths doesn't add up but I just really like this song.

Anniversary -> Sonically: 8/10 Strong instrumental, but I feel like the delivery on the raps in the first verse are a little lacking? Asmo and Belphie's verses feel incredibly satisfying for whatever reason. Though Belphie(?)'s little "come on baby" at the end just makes me laugh. I feel like the chorus could've benefited from splitting the brothers up a little (at least for the first two) rather than having them all sing at once. I love hearing them all talk to each other at the beginning, like a behind-the-curtain moment. -> Lyrically: 9/10 "We can't live without you" AWWWWWWWW -> Overall: 9/10 Feels nostalgic even though it came out this year. Another one where the overall rating is based on pure vibes and feeling

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TRIWORLDS

All the Feels -> Sonically: 10/10 Certified banger. Is it something about Barbatos? (His "one more time" in the final chorus is kinda hype.) Feel like there could've been more variety in the instrumental, though. -> Lyrically: 8/10 The verses feel more personal to the characters than in e.g. It's My Party, but the chorus is still pretty basic. It's a little upsetting that one of Barbatos's lines here has more depth to it than most of his characterisation thus far. I find it really funny that they call the listener "buddy." Probably would've been too weird for Luke to say "honey". Also, the "We are dancing, we are dancing (uh, uh)" bridge is so dumb (in a cute and funny way) -> Overall: 10/10 Just a great song to listen to (and imagine choreography to.)

[casinocarpediem]

MOREEEEE BEN REILLY 🙏🙏🙏 IM BEGGING

▪︎■☆Benny, Baby☆■▪︎

☆ 🔞!!NOT SAFE FOR WORK UNDER THE CUT!!🔞

☆ cis!Ben Reilly / spiderhero!male reader

☆ Drabble and probably OOC

☆ angst and fluff headcanons first

☆ kind of cringe? Maybe? Maybe not? Depends on who's reading it

°○☆happy reading☆○°

☆ his morning voice is so deep but not in a sexy way its more like a funny way. Maybe not overly goofy but he's so loopy since he's still a little sleepy he will make you laugh a little with his voice.

☆ seldomly clumsy. He'll walk through corridors and move his hips to avoid hitting tables and when he miscalculates a move he'll wince in pain, but if you're there he'll try to pretend nothing ever happened.

☆ He's clingy. Like, puppy clingy. He'll never admit it but the next best thing other than working out is holding you. It could be in any kind of context. A fluffy moment, a sad scenario, or something a little more intimate. But don't expect him to get his grabby hands off of your body 24/7 because he just loves to hold you and be there for you.

☆ look at me in the eye and tell me he isn't dramatic. ATSV Scarlet spider here, imagine watching Grave of the Fireflies with this guy. Get your tissues.

☆ His hair is so silky. I'm sure he maintains it well. He's willing to share his own secrets to you so that the two of you are walking around with hair everybody wishes they had. haha.

☆ He's a little bit of a jealous person. Not in a toxic way, per se. But he's a little insecure whenever you spend time laughing and talking with the other spidermen. Usually the Peter's. Ben knows he's a clone. He thinks he's just a copy. He hopes you don't leave him for something more "original".

☆ continuation of the hc above me, he'll try holding your hand whenever you're talking to somebody. Not all the time. Just when he feels uneasy. Just a little reminder to you that he's there. Please don't go.

☆ bad nights aren't common between you two but he'll let his laid back facade fade away and he'll lean on you for comfort. You're his strength. His beacon of light. In a world quite cruel he knows he can rest on your shoulder and recharge his energy just being around you

☆ he loves to work out with you. Definitely. He's your best gym buddy and you'll end up exerting more effort into your routine because of how fun and challenging it is with Ben. He might forget a few basic equipment... so be prepared

☆ I just really like to think that he's a clingy puppy when you two are alone, and small remnants of that desperation for your attention clinging in the air. Hugs and cuddles, thumbs-up. Hand holding and a few kisses, thumbs up. Brushing his face against your chest or vice versa whenever you to get to bed, oh absolutely.

☆ I don't know if he'd be a PDA person, but he definitely would be. He likes showing how much he loves you. Like, every part of you. Your hands, your smile, you're voice, everything. It's like a warm presence that has him forgetting about all of the shit that made him edgy /hj. He'd hold your hand on your arm or your shoulder or whatever. He likes touching you

☆ call him petnames. Any kind as long as if it's a petname. And as long as if it's made by you. That takes the cake. His personal favorite is "Benny baby" because 1, it's adorable, 2, it's catchy.

°○☆ nsfw under the cut ☆○°

☆ He's sloppy. Literally about everything. When you'll kiss him or if he'll kiss you it doesn't matter who takes initiative, he won't hesitate to use his tongue. Sucking your tongue to get a better taste of it. Or kissing your cheek so much it becomes wet in a few minutes. He'll drool like a dog no matter what he does. He'd be ashamed of it at first but when you'll reassure him that it's normal and everybody has their own quirks during sex he won't try to struggle and hide it.

☆ pull his hair. He'd adorably whine and complain. He'd tell you to stop but he doesn't want you to stop. The first time you tried it he was feeling conflicted but he definitely didn't try to stop you the next time around.

☆ he'll probably try to cover his face whenever you fuck him. He's so shy all of the sudden... so when you web/cuff his hands above his head, leaving him powerless to cover his face he pretty much just cums sooner.

☆ if you're somewhere else and he's somewhere private, he'll send you a picture of his abs. Pretty normal. That is until he'll send you even more provocative pictures. That's when you snap and try to finish the errand to get home as soon as possible and fuck him till he goes blind.

☆ PET PLAY‼️‼️‼️ Please please PLEASE treat this man like a horny little mutt. He'll go crazy when you call him puppy or bitch or literally whatever. He's a golden retriever isn't he? Oh he'll melt. Get him a leash too. A pretty collar with your name on it. He'd hide it well away from guests but when you two are alone... he has his fun.

☆ remember what I said about pet play? Oh boy, take it to the next level and he'll go nuts. Literally. Strap him tight on a pet crawler and treat him like a legitimate dog. You probably wouldn't need to touch him for him to cum anymore at that point. Drowning in humiliation to the point where all he could do is whimper for your touch, a command, a word literally anything.

☆ he likes to be degraded. Call him a stupid mutt and tease him about his "rut". How badly he wants to breed/be bred. He'll let out a series of whines and please unless you gag your little puppy. Perhaps if you don't gag him, you can make him woof a little. It's embarrassing. Humiliating but Ben's already past point of clarified thinking.

☆ that doesn't me he isn't a fan of praise! Call him a sweetheart. Your loving little puppy. A good boy. Brush your fingers against his hair and scratch his scalp just right. He'll cum right then and there. Dick frotting against your leg. That is, if you gave him permission. If you spoil him and let him suck your dick while you praise him he'll get drunk. So unbelievably drunk, you'll end up doing most of the work again.

☆ rarely ever a bad boy. He'll follow your orders. And if he's being a brat... well, taming him isn't hard.

☆ if you're going to be bottoming he'll be really soft with it. He'll only go hard if you tell him to. He'll do everything you tell him to do. Go soft? He'll go soft. Move faster? He'll rut inside of you while he sobs out how good you feel around him.

☆ oh my god this man's cum. He definitely cums a lot. Ugagahahh like,,, BROOOOO. Istg. It drops down his dick like thick droplets of pearls and its so filling. Goddamn, doesn't matter if you dom or he does its so much. Please milk him.

☆ oh he has a happy trail. Fuzzy, dirty blonde, well kept ish. He doesn't like to shave it because when it grows back it just gets itchy.

☆ He's a biter. Doesn't matter who's on top. Expect love bites everywhere, anywhere. It feels right to him. In a possessive way. He's yours, your his. Actually, try marking him too. It's hotter that way.

[lassieposting]

It's been forever since I made a Mass Effect post but today I'm here to talk about

Translator Shenanigans

You cannot tell me that at some point during downtime Shep and Garrus haven't swapped translator chips so they can each hear what the other one hears

So Shep gets to hear herself as a Cipritini(?) turian, and Garrus gets to hear himself the way Shep hears him in-game. And it turns out Garrus's translator actually makes a stab at giving her appropriate subvocals, which, parsing and translating emotion into a form of communication that doesn't actually exist in the original language is quite complicated for a computer program, so when she asks how good it is, Garrus pulls a face and guesses at around 80-90% for other turians with different regional languages, and more like 40-60% for aliens depending on the race - quarians have something similar to subvocals themselves, so Tali is fairly easy to read. Shepard is in the middle - tone is hit or miss, but he can fall back on body language to judge whether the translator is misreading her. Wrex is a struggle.

- That that means the other 60-40% of his ability to read other people relies on his ability to read up on, memorise and then look for behavioural cues in completely alien species. If he's not sure, he'll default to interpreting interactions as Professionally Polite, which. Explains several months of fruitlessly flirting with him, at least .

- And maybe everyone around them sounds different using each other's translators too? Because the translator programs essentially use the voices of voice actors who sound appropriate for each species, and the program picks voices to mimic like, the pitch and quality of the original speaker as closely as possible, but the pool of voice actors is different for each species and in-species language. Wrex is deeper and more growly in Shep's translator than Garrus's.

- (Shep tries out Wrex's translator chip, once. Hearing Garrus with a beefy krogan's voice is An Experience.)

- Shep realising Garrus actually knows quite a bit of English! His mouth isn't made for pronouncing a lot of her language's sounds - case in point, the sh sound in Shepard - but he understands more than he can speak, and when he's borrowing her translator chip, she can watch him recognise words in real time as his head tilts when he tries to figure out a sentence from a few words or when he goes to answer her - and then laughs when he remembers she now can't understand him. He likes listening to humans, he claims. Human speech is musical. Catchy. Lots of funny sounds.

- (She kind of thinks turians sound like velociraptors, a little bit. But that doesn't mean she doesn't like turning off her translator and listening to him hum and trill and chirp technobabble to himself in the battery, sometimes.)

[jellieland]

One hour and thirty-seven minutes.

That's ages, isn't it? Or is it no time at all?

---

For the first seven minutes, he paces in uneven circles around spawn.

"Happy with that, are ya?" He yells at the sky, laughing. "I know I am! How's that for a show, eh?"

He stalks around, eyes burning red, as though he is hunting someone. He is not quite sure who, and he doesn't have the presence of mind to question it right now, because all he knows in this moment is that he needs to keep going and he needs to keep his sword in his hand.

It takes him a while to realize his hands are shaking.

That'd be the adrenaline, supplies a vague thought in the back of his mind.

He goes past the lava he placed that killed Scott, and pauses for a moment, and pulls out his empty bucket.

He holds it. He looks into it, as though he can fill it back up just by looking.

His hands are still shaking.

He drops it, and it burns into nothing, and then he keeps pacing until he looks down and realizes that he has tracked Impulse's blood across the grass and the stone, and then he stumbles, and then he stops.

---

He stares out across the forest for just under twenty minutes.

Blood drips slowly down his sword. The puddle of red at his feet grows. At least, he thinks it does.

He doesn't move.

There's no point.

---

For the next eight minutes, noise buzzes in his ears. Familiar whispers and disapproval and judgement that fracture the air around them.

He ignores it, for a while.

You can't ignore them forever, though. Or, at least- he's never been able to.

Eventually it's always too much.

It's one particular comment that's the final straw.

"Are you stupid? Of course I cared!" He snaps suddenly, face twisting into resentment as he jerks back to movement. "But it was Mean Gills! Mean! The clue was in the name, in case you didn't notice that little tidbit!"

Another deep murmur.

"Yes, I know I came up with the name. But he agreed to it, didn't he? He knew what he was getting into!" And he keeps talking, voice suddenly light, refusing to entertain a response. "Although speaking of, the TIE lot seemed to like the idea of TIME and SMITE, huh?"

He snorts.

"You know, I think that's probably my main takeaway from this one- turns out you can get past a surprising amount of bad blood if you just offer up a catchy team name! Who would've thought?"

Reality shivers once more.

"Yeah, no, of course it was! I don't think there was really anything else important that happened this time. Team names were definitely the main thing I had to worry about. Why, did you notice something I missed?"

The world shatters, a little bit.

He winces slightly but recovers quickly, putting his easy, practiced grin back on. "Well thank you, thank you." He makes a show of looking around, then catches the blood on the floor in the corner of his eye, and turns back abruptly to stare over the forest. "I'm glad someone congratulated me, at least. Everyone else seems to have found better things to do, am I right?"

He sighs and shakes his head, jokingly exasperated. "This is just like my birthday party."

The air hums, once more.

Again, his expression falters for a moment. "Right." He says. "Well, it's about time, to be honest. Can't imagine pestering me is very interesting anymore." He shrugs. "And hey, wouldn't mind five minutes peace on my end either."

They have stopped talking.

---

He does not.

He doesn't stop talking for the next minute and a half.

"Hey, It'll be just like the old times back in double life! You, silently observing me because you don't want to talk to me this time for some reason, me, lying in a broken heart, kind of glad that I don't have to decide whether to be grateful that someone wants to talk to me even when it's you..."

He trails off.

"Even- even when it's you."

He makes an aborted movement to take a step, then stops.

"Winner." He shakes his head in a kind of amused condescension. "You'd think that out of everyone, they would know I'm not the winner."

He frowns. "Don't know why we even still call it that. Unless... no. There's no way."

He looks up at the sky. "You know I'm not the winner, right? There was never going to be a winner." He holds out his arms as if to make himself a target, and laughs, long and loud. "What, you're not seriously telling me none of you noticed?"

He steps back, craning his neck further. The brightness of the sun makes his head pound, makes his eyes burn.

"There is no winner. What there is, is the last one to lose. And hey, HERE I AM!" He spins around, grinning up at the sky. And if that grin is still a little manic... well. Who's going to say anything about it now? "ISN'T IT GREAT?"

And then he stumbles, dizzy, and falls, narrowly missing the lava, and there is blood on his hands there is blood on his hands it's still red it's only been thirty-six minutes.

"Isn't it great." He- it isn't a whimper. It's just- quiet.

He stares down at the ground.

"This is what I wanted." He whispers.

---

He stays there for five minutes.

---

Eventually, he gets up again, because that's that he always does. And for the next thirty-two minutes, he wanders.

"Well. Now what, huh?" He murmurs. "The eternal question. Guess I'm lucky not to have to worry about it for too much longer, this time."

He leaves his sword on the ground where he fell, and he walks away.

He doesn't wipe the blood off his hands. It feels... well. He just doesn't want to. That's all. He'll be dead soon enough anyway.

At first he heads towards the Mean Gills base. In fact, he gets all the way to the shoreline before he stops.

He doesn't want to go in the water.

What does he think he's looking for there, anyway? Everything he would have been hoping to find is gone.

The TIES tower is right there, and he wanders vaguely towards it, but - well. That's just a non-starter. He doesn't care about TIES, and he never did, and they should've known that. They should've all known that, and it's not his fault that Impulse- or, uh, Etho, or Tango- didn't. It's not his fault. It's not.

He doesn't care about them anyway, so either way it doesn't matter.

Anyway, they betrayed Scott, and if Martyn has stood for anything this time, it's that anyone who betrays Scott is going to live - or die! - to regret it. Die, if he has anything to say about it.

"No-one gets off Scott-free." He says out loud, and snorts. "Ok, that's not a bad one, but it sounds way more like an innuendo than I meant it to."

A beat passes.

"Pretty sure Scott would be fine with that, though."

...Scott would be fine with this. Right?

Scott would be fine with this. He would. He would. Martyn knows he would, has proof in the form of a memory of driving a sword through his ally's chest just over there, look, he can see where it happened, it was honestly in a pretty unremarkable spot, but he knows exactly where it is, he remembers it perfectly-

Martyn knows he would, and he also knows that it doesn't matter at all, because even if Scott had not been fine with it, he still would've done it.

Next, he heads towards the mansion.

He stands at the bottom. There's a lot of water here, too.

It felt good to kill people. It always did. Almost always, anyway. He's pretty sure they all agreed on that.

There's really something satisfying about ripping things apart. It makes those last thirty minutes taste that little bit sweeter.

(he kind of gets it, is the thing. how good it feels to drink in someone else's pain and panic, to pour it back into your own glass of pain and panic, filling it back up at least a little. that's not something he's saying even to himself, though.)

Maybe it's something about feeling like you're breaking things without actually damaging anything that wasn't put there to be damaged.

Without actually saying no, and letting someone else take from your cup when it's already empty, and has been for a while, now.

But there's nothing to rip apart, anymore, except himself.

He wonders if this is how Joel felt, when Jimmy died.

...Nah. Probably not.

He wanders through the forest for a while, at that point.

He considers, briefly, heading back to his original hourglass. That's already pretty much destroyed, though, and there's nothing there for him anyway.

He could head out past the mansion, into what is essentially wilderness.

That feels a bit too much like a fresh start for his taste, though. Nothing about this is a start. No point in pretending on that front.

He doesn't even entertain the idea of the Nosy Neighbours' tower. He tries not to look towards it.

Eventually, really, it seems obvious.

He ends up on the ground, outside the clock tower.

---

He sits there for five minutes, leaning up against the tower, to the right of the crater where Jimmy died.

"You three really committed in the end, didn't you?" He says. "Colour me surprised, honestly. That's one lack of a betrayal nobody saw coming at the start. Two of the most notoriously untrustworthy people on the server, and Cleo." He laughs. "Pretty sure you'd agree it doesn't really sound like the recipe for a happy family. Just goes to show, I guess."

He pauses.

"...Didn't get you to the end, though. Did it?"

He shifts slightly, frowning, and is quiet for a while.

"You realize you could get so much more done if you just stopped caring, right?" He asks.

"That's what I did." He lies. "It's much easier."

He stares out at the ocean and doesn't look over at spawn on his left.

All at once, he feels the urge to stand up.

He doesn't. Not yet. Maybe not ever again.

"I could jump off this tower, you know." He says. "But Grian already did that one. So I can't."

He shrugs. "I guess he didn't really have the option of just waiting it out, huh? Even if he did, can't really hold it against him. I get it."

He's silent for a while.

"Not much left to see. Is there?"

---

Eventually the ghost of that frantic energy grips him again, and keeps hold of him for slightly less than sixteen minutes. He wants to pace, he wants to stab something, he wants to do anything, anything at all except sit here and feel himself slowly crack open, because if he did that then he wouldn't be able to keep everything from spilling out.

He gets up, and just sort of stands there, whole body tense.

Why did he leave his sword behind? Why did he do that, he could've at least gone looking for some mobs to kill, and then maybe he could've been killing things when he died- that would've been nice, in a sick sort of way, but-

He does still have an axe, though.

He could still do that.

He lurches forward as soon as the decision is made. Before he's even really thought about it, he dives into the river and scrambles out of the other side into the forest. He curls his hands into fists in the mud, so they're still dirty, so nothing has changed really, so it's fine, and after he takes in a couple of breaths that sound desperate - which is because he was just underwater, so he was holding his breath, that's why, that's why - he forces himself to get up, and he staggers into the darkness of the forest and please, he just wants something to hit, come on.

A zombie lurches out from behind a tree and he almost sobs with relief, and he slashes at it with his axe once, twice, three times, and it falls, and he remembers why he usually uses a sword but at least he didn't behead it, he guesses, but it doesn't help, and then a skeleton shoots him in the back, and yeah, ok, that's probably fair at this point, and he fights.

And he keeps fighting.

And it doesn't help.

It doesn't do anything.

It never does anything, and if he had somehow died here, fighting mobs, alone, before anything else had happened, before Scott, before Cleo, before Ren, nothing would really be different.

After a while, he takes a breath and it hitches, and that's when he realizes he's crying.

He growls, and he hurls the axe away, and he runs.

---

He has three minutes left, and he is running through the forest alone, breathing unsteady and frantic, panic crawling up through his lungs.

It reminds him of last life, except this time there aren't any otherworldly voices taunting him. This time there isn't a Ren for him to run towards. This time he didn't even pretend to believe the lie that he might be able to save anyone. That he might be able to save himself.

He doesn't know where he's going.

He doesn't think it matters.

He doesn't think it ever has.

He gets to the edge of the forest, and staggers to a stop.

It's the edge of the ocean.

He can see his hourglass from here.

If he was in the mood for it, he'd probably say that was poetic.

Right now, he can't quite muster any poetry, though.

All he can do is look at it, and think-

This is it.

This is all it is.

This is it forever.

"I wish it wasn't like this." He says, and it's less a wish, really, and more of a reminder.

His countdown ends.

And next time, in one form or another, it will begin again.

[artificial-transmutations]

Transformation Letter: Michael

Hey, I'm Michael, a 20 year old guy at a top university, but it's not exactly the experience I thought it would be and I just want a change. I'm just kinda an average looking guy with short brown hair, blue eyes and an unremarkable body, pretty average all round. I still wanna be a man at the end of this, being an object isn't exactly appealing to me.

Being accepted at a top university has always been a dream of yours, but boy didn't you anticipate how much work it was going to be. At first, the orientation phase had been pretty fun. But after the first semester was over, you realized just how hard the courses were. It was certainly no comparison to the school you went to before and sometimes you even found yourself envying the people that were in the normal degree program.

Still, you had a dedication to make the best of it and managed to stay in the top tier of your classes. That came at a cost, however. Your social life was pretty much non-existent. It was always late evening when you finished up studying and most of the time you were simply too tired to even think about partying or meeting friends.

You are at your desk now, surrounded by tons of books, and have just begun a new chapter, listening to some lo-fi music from your laptop to help you concentrate. It has been weeks now since you sent that letter to the shady internet company in a moment of weakness. Everything you wrote was true: You don't really hate the university, but it isn't at all how you imagined it to be: A relaxed and laid back episode of your life filled with friends and parties. Everything in you longs for a change, but your ambition keeps you on track.

Still, you normally wouldn't express these thoughts to a stranger like that, and you don't really know why you decided to write the letter in the end. Regardless, it has been weeks now and you doubt there will be any kind of answer. Perhaps the company has gone out of business or has never existed to begin with.

You turn the page of your textbook, looking sighingly at yet another page filled with formulas when suddenly the music coming from your laptop changes.

Where before it has been more of a rhythmic lo-fi noise, the track that just began to play is clearly a pop song, something you have heard at the radio before. You frown. Perhaps Dotify has reached the end of your playlist and has entered that arcane mode with 'recommendations'. You always wondered how in the world the algorithm choses those, as they more often than not have nothing in common with the previous playlist.

You reach over to your laptop to change the music back, but you stop in your tracks. Even though you're not exactly a fan of pop songs, it is quite a catchy tune, so you let it play.

You quickly realize, however, that it's distracting you from your lecture. After you have read the same formula twice over, you lay down the book. Perhaps it’s time for a short break. You lean back in your chair and close your eyes for a moment, rubbing your temples and just listen to the music, trying to recollect what you've learned so far in this session.

However, the more you try to remember and connect the dots, the less you feel like you understand the subject at all. It's like whenever you try to concentrate on a connection you have already made, the cheery tune invades your mind and snaps it in two. The whole thing is just two complicated, beyond your mental reach. You feel dumb admitting that, but perhaps you have to start being honest to yourself. You're just not that bright, and it has probably been a mistake trying to pretend you were and enrolling in this university.

The song ends and a new one begins. This one is more powerful, rock music from the 80s or 90s. It is surprisingly relaxing to just admit defeat, and you open your eyes again, leaning back in your chair, arms crossed behind your head. For a good few seconds, you just stare at the pile of books in front of you before you notice something is off. There's a faint smell of... sweat? Following it with your head, you notice your armpits. You are smelling your own sweat and somehow it is not unpleasant at all.

Additionally, however, you can see that your pits are filled with a generous bush of hair - which is something new for you entirely. You normally don't have any body hair to speak of. Curiously, you take a closer look and sniff, try to pull on them - but the pit hair is clearly here and clearly yours. Weird!

You scratch your chin and are surprised when your hand meets stubble. You have definitely been smooth just a few moments ago. Yet, the bristly texture feels good under your hand. You rub your cheeks, where your facial hair seems to be even denser and smile. It's the kind of manly and mature look that you have always dreamed about, even though it is somewhat unexpected. It's a bit sad that you don't have a mirror, but you can feel it with your hand just fine as the beat of the music continues.

You get up from the chair, stretch your limbs and feel a weird pressure in your crotch. As you look down, you notice that your dick is pressing hard against the fabric of your pants. It's hardly surprising, with the weird changes going on to your body! You wonder...

Sheepishly, you slip out of your shirt and are rewarded with a pretty alien sight: Not only is your chest covered in short dark hair, it is also much more impressive than what you're used to. In fact, there is visible definition, not only in your chest but also in your abs where a thick treasure trail of hairs disappears into your pants. But not only your torso is changed. You can practically watch as with every beat, another pulse goes through your body, adding a bit of manliness, a bit of muscle here and there. Your biceps bulge out as if you work out regularly and even your legs gain a bit of definition.

The music keeps playing, and so do the changes. You are no longer the skinny, nerd boy who struggles with calculus. No, you are a real man, a guy that knows his way around a gym, a guy that is respected by other people. You are not only a man, however, you are a real fine specimen of man, with a powerful aura, a confident smile and a dick that is so hard that it could cut diamonds.

When the next track begins playing, you have to smile. You know that song! It's metal, of course, heavy metal. Your fingers begin to drum on the desk as your body changes further. Now, not only does the hair spread further, it also becomes a bit longer, more shaggy. Even more intelligence flees your eyes as they change from the bright blue to a dull brown, but you don't care. You are going with the rhythm of the music, let yourself being carried by it. Every time you hit the wood of your desk, your motions become more precise and more powerful, the bangs louder and exactly on point. Your muscles bulge out, and the smile on your face widens, until you are full-on grinning.

You don't need any books, any lectures, or anything else anymore. The music is the only thing that is important. As you give yourself over to the rhythm, something important changes. No longer is the beat carrying you, you are carrying the beat. Around you, reality changes as the desk and books dissolve, giving way to an expensive drum kit in front of you. Your clothing melts away until you are only wearing a pair of black leather shorts filled to the brim with your erect cock. You know you're in public but you're too dumb, too careless and most of all too manly to care. Let them see your erection bulge! Your powerful arms bring down the drumsticks with force while the rest of your mates play other instruments, and the frontman shouts the song's lyrics into the microphone. Sweat covers your face and your chest, your hair sticks to your forehead as you put every ounce of strength you can muster into producing the loudest beats possible. You can see the crowd going wild through the light of the stage and a feeling of power surges through you, causing your cock to leak a bit of precum into the front of your shorts.

You're no longer a student, and you're no longer a wimp. You are the drum-man of a heavy metal band, and people love you. They adore you, the way your muscles shine with sweat, the way the drums bang out their beat and the way you seem so happy and carefree, as dumb as a brick.

Wow, I think Michael definitely changed for the better here - and all because of a half-forgotten letter. What do you think, does this body suit him better now?

Over at my riot page (just a tip jar!), you can find a few different versions of Michael.

[coffee-and-tea-time]

S͟͞i͟͞n͟͞g͟͞,͟͞ ͟͞L͟͞o͟͞v͟͞e͟͞

Sup’! This is our little Halloween surprise!

Yup, we asked ourselves what would happen if instead of falling on the shadow dilf’s liminal space, you fell in one that isn’t quite as sweet. - Tea

Yup Yup, and for that, we decided to write it with some of our shared phobias in mind and make our Phobiarooms with a special yan- - Coffee

Shh, no spoilers. - Tea

word count: 3.3k

tw: hehe, trick or treat? Gore! We gotta warn that one (⁠・⁠–⁠・⁠;⁠)⁠ゞ and it's written in you/yours

This really is like a cliché horror movie, cleaning pools at night sure looks like the perfect excuse for a new horror movie saga, or maybe a game, like-

"Honey, you're gonna fall off, be careful!"

The sweet voice of your coworker interrupts your train of thought, saving you from falling over the pool with the cleaning supplies. You were truly grateful that you got the night shift with her, she literally treat you so sweetly, guess she got the habit to treat people like she treat her children, but it's always sweet and never weird so, everybody just smile when she subconsciously start talking with her mom shenanigans.

"Thanks! Sorry, it's my first night shift so I guess my mind wander a little over silly horror movies"

Fuck, why are you so awkward? Hope you didn't seem so weird. Thankfully, she only smiles at you, giving you a pat on the head before continuing working. God bless her heart.

You walked with shoulders slump to the next pool, cleaning supplies rolling beside you in your cart as they are too heavy to carry by yourself. This job was tiring to say the least, but the pay was damn good, which would be sketchy if it wasn't for the fact the pools you had to clean were massive and always so fucking dirty, stupid kids. How do they manage to lose so many toys without the parents noticing?

The outside ones were more bearable, as the process was more forgiving, leaves and dirt are unavoidable when the pool is out in the wild. Inside pools though... Those were the vain of your existence, everything had to be spotless, the floors were slippery so falling was almost a given, and they always stuck you with cleaning the dressing rooms which were filthy every single time. Today you had to clean the inside pools, so to cope you dragged a coworker with you to help, also some tunes couldn't hurt.

Mindlessly chatting with your coworker you find yourselves wandering to the next pool to clean, the white tile hallways all too cold and echoey stretching farther than you remembered, but at last there the hallway ended, opening up into a round, deep and honestly disgustingly dirty pool. Your coworker comments on it too.

"I really can understand whorever plans this, why do you need hidden pools? I don't think I ever cleaned this area so they sure got some extra people cleaning this."

Your coworker agrees with you, both clueless on how they manage to keep this area a secret for special guests with so many people wandering around on a daily basis. You gotta admit, it got a fancy design, even putting some tunnels of water on the hallways that miraculously were all really clean.

"We might need a bigger vacuum.. I'll be right back" She said,  turning around with a tired grunt which you second while looking down at the green-ish water. It didn't smell though, thank god, and so you started to clean a bit while waiting for your coworker to bring the bigger vacuum. 

With a soft bristle broom gathering the dirt and grime off the white tiles, you hummed and quietly sang to that one song you had stuck in your head.

Fuck, stupid tiktok and his catchy 6 seconds of a song, you just can’t help but have it on repeat on your brain. Well, you have a lot of time to kill anyways. You gotta admit whatever guests they bring here are really clean, there isn't much dirt, just the minimum that people make by walking.

Your eyes drift through the white tile, from the small, barely there pile of dust you managed to gather to the edge of the circular pool in the middle of the room, the water this soft green like before, but something is… off.

The water wasn't still, it swayed ever so slightly like there was movement, and now that you focused enough, you could see this strange… string? Was it some sort of moss? A deep green mass of what looked like hair could be barely seen at the bottom of the pool through the shadows of its depth, was it there before? You couldn’t recall. 

Your immediate thought is to ask your coworker if there is some kind of tool convenient enough to reach the bottom of these giant pools and take out what is down there without having to empty them. But now that you think about it, where's your coworker? Shit, she probably had some trouble in the storage room since it's always so messy there and the tools you guys need are big and difficult to carry, you should've helped her.

You start walking to the hallways once again, sweeping a little as you make your way to what you assume is the way to the storage room while that damned song was still playing on loop in your head, why did it have to be such a banger? Worsened also by those damn majestic edits people have been making… God.

Though… this is not the full story, is it?

The green mass at the bottom of the pool wasn't there before, the water indeed moved, but not on its own.

There is something down there.

As you walked, you heard the slight echo of rustling through the hallway, grunts of struggle, but very subtle. You assume it's your coworker trying to carry all those tools on her own and you feel a pang of guilt, quickening your step and calling out to her.

“Mary? Stay there! I'll help you with the stuff, sorry for not going with you!”

You said casually jogging down the hall, but then a voice makes you stop, the voice of your coworker, but…

That can't be her, can it? You still hear her grunting on the other side, down the hall… so why? 

It's right behind you, coming from the pool room you just left

You keep walking, trying to ignore that voice that calls out your name, it is your coworker’s voice, but something feels off. You follow the sounds of those grunts instead and it leads you to one of the side pools, a very gorgeous design with pristine white tile and stairs leading down to a square pool, but the elegant and minimalist pool was tainted with that sight.

Mary was there, grunting with what you now knew was pain, the once green-ish waters painted a haunting shade of crimson, half of Mary was gone, her throat was disheveled, gurgling with her own blood as claw marks covered her whole arms. She struggled, but there was no saving her, she was choking on her own blood, on her own flesh.

You stood there, paralyzed by fear and the gruesome sight of a coworker torn to pieces right before you, her last breath a chilling notion now as you also heard her voice calling out for you from behind.

 ҉"҉H҉o҉n҉e҉y҉,҉ ҉i҉s҉ ҉t҉h҉a҉t҉ ҉y҉o҉u҉?҉"҉

The distorted voice of Mary echoed closer through the hallway, and with it a dragging sound, almost like how the vacuum’s tube dragged through the wet floors while cleaning. Your mind dissociated for a moment, unable to comprehend the situation you were in, but it didn't take long for everything to scream at you to stay alert, just as that dragging sound creeped behind you through the entrance.

You didn't dare look behind you, the thought of not being alone in a scene like this, in what you foolishly thought was the pool area you worked at. The dragging stopped, for a moment at least. Instead you heard the tapping of wet palms against the floor, then dragging again, and drops of water or whatever it was, dripping down onto the floors with a soft sound. 

It took everything from you not to scream and collapse right then and there. Mary's cloudy, blood soaked eye staring blankly ahead, behind you, telling you that you were indeed not alone. Slowly, you turned around, your heart pounding so hard you dreaded the possibility of whatever this thing was hearing every beat and there it stood, a creature, a monster.

Thick, green-ish hair resembling what you saw at the bottom of the pool earlier covering its face, yet not quite hiding its eyes, shining like an opal, if it wasn't for its haunting image you'd say it was beautiful, but it wasn't. The thing stood taller than you by a lot, its snake-like body trailing behind… him? Like an endless rope of green scales that reached up to his hip, scattering along with what looked like clouds of dark green over pale mossy skin. His hands with sharp claws, probably the ones that slashed Mary into pieces, also evident by the thick amount of blood that dripped from them with soft thuds that marked each beat of your heart.

You felt the adrenaline rushing through your veins, like if an explotion went off inside you, your lungs take all the air they can in a matter of seconds. 

You took off running, your legs pumping, your breath coming in ragged gasps. You never moved so fast in your life, each step a desperate attempt to escape the danger that loomed behind you. Every nerve in your body was alight with the primal need to flee, to survive. There was no time to think, only to act.

You feel a growing sense of panic as you run through the endless corridors trying to avoid the pools, you swear you can hear your heart beating on your throat as you try not to strip with the water, that thing keeps following you, no longer talking with Mary's voice but instead scream incoherently in differents voices like and old radio, are those the voices of other victims who faced the same fate as your coworker?

 ҉"҉O҉v҉e҉r҉ ҉h҉e҉r҉e҉!҉ ҉T҉h҉a҉t҉ ҉t҉h҉i҉n҉g҉ ҉i҉s҉ ҉n҉o҉t҉ ҉h҉e҉r҉e҉!҉"҉҉

 ҉"҉L҉o҉v҉e҉,҉ ҉i҉s҉ ҉t҉h҉i҉s҉ ҉a҉ ҉p҉r҉a҉n҉k҉?҉"҉҉

 ҉"҉I҉'҉l҉l҉ ҉b҉e҉ ҉r҉i҉g҉h҉t҉ ҉b҉a҉c҉k҉"҉҉

You spot a set of stairs leading down, and your heart leaps with hope. Could this be the exit you've been searching for?

Oh, naive little thing, you already know the answer

You start running towards the stairs, your mind is filled with expectations as you head down the stairs, finally, a way out! But as you are half through it, your heart sinks. Instead of a door or an exit, you find yourself face to face with a massive pool of water.

Desperately, you try to turn around and run back up the stairs but you move too quickly and lose your footing, your ankle twists painfully, and you are thrown off balance, your head slams against the sharp edge of the staircase. The last thing you remember is the feeling of the cold water hitting your back roughly as you fall into the abyss of the pool.

. . . 

You groggily open your eyes, your vision still blurry, the room seems deathly silent and your surroundings are eerily still.

As your vision clears, you find yourself lying on the cold floor next to a large pool of water, you notice a tunnel situated in the wall opposite the pool. It seems to be the only way out of this isolated room, but you know it won't take you out of this place entirely don't you?

You carefully turn your head to the other side, trying to inspect the other side of the room. You were met with a rather curious sight; Piled up in various corners of the room are countless trinkets, personal belongings, and various objects that you usually complain about while you work.

Among the items, you see broken glasses, faded and crumpled pamphlets, forgotten toys, some broken bags and a lot of stuff in general, some of them look like they’ve been there for a long time, covered in dust and mold or straight up rusty.

Others appear more recent, still retaining some of their original color. It’s unclear why these objects are here, but they sure do create an odd feeling. How did they end up here in the first place? Is this room like some sort of discard bin? Somehow it doesn't feel like it... It's feel more like it's someone's

 ҉"҉T҉r҉a҉s҉u҉r҉e҉"҉

You almost jump as you hear that radio voice again, but your hurt leg forbids you to do so, you gather all your courage to look at the direction of the voice and see that thing peeking out of the pool, can he read minds or something? What kind of creature is this?

 ҉"҉T҉r҉a҉s҉u҉r҉e҉"҉

He repeats, nuzzling his face against your hand as you froze still, okey, he wasn't replying to you but rather, calling up to you? Maybe, just maybe there is a way that this could be like a fantasy book and this thing wants to help instead of eating you? He sure must know a way out… probably.

 ҉"҉I҉s҉ ҉t҉h҉a҉t҉ ҉y҉o҉u҉?҉"҉

You watch in speechless fear as the creature emerges from the pool, its half snakelike body undulating through the water gracefully. His long, serpentine body glides gracefully through the water, his scales glistening in the dim light. 

With a surprisingly delicate touch, the thing reaches out with one of his arms, grabbing a hold of a toy resting on top of a pile. For a brief moment, the monstrous creature locks eyes with you before holding the toy up in a strangely cute display.

҉"҉I҉s҉ ҉t҉h҉a҉t҉ ҉y҉o҉u҉?҉"҉

He repeats himself in yet another voice, you focus on the toy, trying to figure out what he's trying to say. The toy is a classic waterproof toy for kids shaped like a balloon with lights and music. However, this particular toy has seen better days. The once bright lights now flicker weakly, and the familiar cheerful tune of the children's song has become distorted, sounding more like a sad, warped version of its former self…. Wait a minute.

"D-do you… want me to sing?"

You manage to ask, your voice quivering a little. The thing seems confused, like he has never heard such words in his life, his eyes fixed on you, waiting for you to comply with his silent request, so you figure out it's better to give it a try and not test the patience of the creature.

You clear your throat, trying to force out the words without stammering and then inhaling deeply, steeling your nerves, and begin to sing. Your voice wavers a little at first, but you force yourself to continue. The thing watches you intently, his eyes never leaving the focus on you.

As you sing while praying inside not to forget the lyrics of the music of the toy, he moves slowly closer to you, his long body slowly slithering across the ground in a strangely graceful manner, almost as if it's being drawn to the sound of your voice. As the last notes of the song die out, you take a deep breath and try to speak to the creature in the most simple words for him to be able to understand.

"You want me to repeat that?"

 ҉"҉R҉e҉p҉e҉a҉t҉"҉

You blink in shock, momentarily thrown off balance by the thing's ability to mimic your voice. But then you shake your head, you had to focus on what this creature wants, so you start singing the song again.

And again

And again

And again

AND AGAIN

 "̶̦͎̲̜͊̏̽̔R̷̬̱̮̫̲̈́́̂e̸̦͍̮̥͙̔̈́p҈͙̣̒̀e҈̱͇̯̝̙̚̚à̸̩̲̆ͅt̶̬͚͊͒,҈̟̯͕͋͌͗̏ L̴̯̞͈̣̅̓ͅo҈̘͇̮͙̃͑̽̂̎ͅv̵̤̬̩̞̓̃̊̉e̸͇̟̓̚"̴͖͔̭̆͂

You try to sing again, forcing yourself to muster up what little energy you have left, but your throat is dry and sore. After a few moments, the coughing starts, and you simply can’t continue.

You quickly try to explain to the creature, gesturing to your throat and making coughing motions, hoping that it understands.

 ҉"҉H҉u҉n҉g҉r҉y҉?҉ ҉U҉n҉d҉e҉r҉s҉t҉a҉n҉d҉,҉ ҉L҉o҉v҉e҉,҉ ҉I҉'҉l҉l҉ ҉b҉e҉ ҉r҉i҉g҉h҉t҉ ҉b҉a҉c҉k҉"҉

You watch as he slowly submerges itself back into the water, its large form disappearing beneath the surface. Relieved, you attempt to stand up, trying to seize the opportunity to escape.

However, as soon as you put weight on your injured ankle, a sharp pain shoots up your leg, causing you to gasp and sink back down to the floor. Looking down, you realize the severity of your injury, the ankle purple and swollen.

You curse under your breath in pain, maybe you could crawl and hide under a pile of trinkets but it sounds really stupid, he could easily find you again, and you sure as hell don't want to risk making him angry.

You didn't have much time to figure out what you should do as he returns from the depths of the pool, and you look up, expecting it to have found something to help you. Instead, it was something completely unexpected.

He holds a horrific amount of limbs in his arms, and with an almost loving-like delight, it carefully places them on the ground beside you before giving you an expectant look, like a puppy bringing a bone to his master.

You feel your stomach clench as revulsion and horror wash over you, a cold sweat breaking out on your skin.

The creature's smile is nightmarishly sweet, his rows of sharp teeth gleaming, as he takes something from the corpse's pile and presents you with… the dismembered head of Mary.

You're paralyzed with disgust and terror as the thing act like he's offering you a top tier snack, you quickly press your lips together as he press the open cut of her neck against your mouth, trying to feed you lovingly as you force yourself to not start crying out of fear as your mouth and cheeks get painted with her blood.

 ҉"҉N҉o҉ ҉l҉i҉k҉e҉?҉ ҉D҉i҉f҉f҉e҉r҉e҉n҉t҉.҉.҉.҉.҉"҉҉

He finally stopped trying to feed you after seconds that feeled like an eternity. But your peace didn't last long, his cold, slimy tongue glides out of its mouth, leaving a trail of glistening saliva in its wake. Suddenly, it begins to lick your lips and cheeks, cleaning the blood, the sensation both repulsive and unnerving, putting you on the verge of throwing up.

The thing moves away from you to reach for one of the broken bags that lies on top of the pile of trinkets and rummages inside. To your surprise, it extracts actual human food and a bottle of water, both seemingly in good condition. 

With an almost cat-like eagerness, the creature pushes the 'gifts' towards you, his serpentine body coiling anxiously, as if awaiting a sign of acceptance.

"T-thanks" 

 ҉"҉T҉h҉a҉n҉k҉s҉"҉҉

You shiver as you take the food and water from his hands, your hands trembling involuntarily. The creature watches you intently, its gaze fixed on every movement you make, almost like a protective guardian watching over you. As you begin to eat, he seems to relax slightly. It seems happy to watch you eat.

"You know if… this repeat?"

You said pointing to the water and food, it's very important you have proper things to consume in order for him not to try feed you a somebody's limb again, and he nods happily, you sight in relief, at least he seems to understand you need different type diet that him, and he seem very happy to be able to provide it to you.

You're sipping the water, happy that at least you aren't going to die from starvation, and suddenly, the thing's long, snake-like limbs wrap around you in an embrace that feels both comforting and terrifying. He rests his head on top of yours, its muscular arms encircling your body, trapping you in its coils. As you tense up, feeling the panic rise, he speaks, his voice once again mimicking yours.

҉"҉R҉e҉p҉e҉a҉t҉"҉

Your voice falters as you begin to sing again, the realization of your dire situation slowly sinking in. You know deep down that there's no escape possible. There's no exit in this room except the watery tunnel placed after the void deep pool that the creature uses to move in and out, and the odds of you outrunning him are close to none.

He, however, seems completely oblivious to your despair. Its head rests calmly on top of yours, almost like it's listening intently to your voice.

 ҉"҉L҉o҉v҉e҉ ҉T҉r҉e҉a҉s҉u҉r҉e҉"҉҉

The creature holds you firmly in his coiled embrace, his head nuzzling against the top of yours in an affectionate manner. Your mind races in a panicked frenzy as a sickening thought takes root in your mind.

Is this your life now?

HIII, this is a really something new for us to write so I hope it came out good. My twin did a simple doodle before university stabbed him with exams, and I love it. He wanted to draw more but he's being forced to rest (no clue how he manages to draw such good doodle in a damn minute or less)- coffee

And just in case i'm giving y'all a clear version of some of his/its dialoogues:

"Honey, is that you?"

"Over here! That thing is not here"

"Love, is this a prank?"

"I'll be right back"

"Treasure"

"Is that you?"

"Hungry? Undertand, Love, I'll be right back"

"No like? Diferent..."

sorry for any misspellings or weird sentence structure ❣

image from pinterest, drawing by Tea ⚘

[drewharrisonwriter]

Donor | Drabble | Dirty Dancing

Masterlist | Part 1 | Part 1.5 | Part 2 | Part 3

Pairings: Bestie Henry Cavill x OFC

A/N, Warnings: 18+, this is a drabble for my Henry Cavill fic Donor. English is not my first language. Darling bestie found Hank's dancer doppleganger.

Also, guys, I made a GIF. LMAO 🤣

One lazy Saturday evening, you were once again lounging on the couch, your legs stretched out comfortably and a tablet in your hand.

You had been absentmindedly scrolling through TikTok, a guilty pleasure of yours recently, when suddenly, a video caught your eye.

The Grand Theatre had uploaded a sneak peek of the upcoming production of Dirty Dancing. The camera panned to the cast, and there was Michael O'Reilly, leading the cast in a rehearsal of an iconic dance scene. You snorted, trying to stifle a laugh.

The catchy music and impressive choreography were enough to entertain you, but what had you trying to hold yourself back from laughing hysterically was the comments section. People were flooding the comments, pointing out the uncanny resemblance between Michael O’Reilly and a certain someone.

You finally burst into laughter, catching Henry's attention from the carpeted floor next to you on the couch. He looked up from his book, a quizzical expression on his face. "What's so funny?"

Still giggling, you turned the tablet toward him, showing him the video. "Look at this! It's the cast of the new Dirty Dancing rehearsing, and Michael O'Reilly is literally doing the lift!"

Henry's eyes widened as he watched the video. "First of all, that's impressive," he remarked, a hint of amusement in his voice. "But what's got you laughing so hard?"

You couldn't contain your mirth as you scrolled down to the comments section. "Read these comments!" you exclaimed, handing the tablet to Henry.

As he read the comments, his eyebrows shot up in surprise.

"Is it just me, or is Michael O’Reilly literally Henry Cavill?"

"Wait a minute, are we sure Henry Cavill isn't moonlighting as a dancer?"

"I see Henry Cavill wearing a disguise! No way that's not him!"

You couldn't contain your laughter as Henry read aloud some of the comments out loud. Henry watched the video again with a raised eyebrow, his lips twitching with amusement.

"Are they serious?" he chuckled, his eyes still fixed on the screen. "I mean, I get it. Michael and I might share a resemblance, but I promise you, I'm not secretly moonlighting as a dancer."

Kal let out a playful woof, seemingly agreeing with Henry's sentiment.

"But…" He said, pausing the video, and pointing at it. "I can definitely lift you like that." He winked at you, his voice carrying a playful undertone that sent a shiver down your spine.

You wiped away a tear from laughing so hard, your voice still laced with amusement. "Oh, really now? Are you suggesting we audition for a remake?"

Henry's eyes glinted with a suggestive gleam, his grin growing devilish. "Well, I can't speak for my dance skills in that level, but I'm quite confident in my lifting abilities."

Your laughter blended with a mixture of delight and flirtatiousness. "Is that so? Maybe we should practice then, just to be sure you've got it down."

Henry's laughter joined yours, the atmosphere between you growing charged with playful energy. "Practice makes perfect, after all."

"I still can't believe people are convinced it's you! Maybe you do have it in you to make it in the theatre world."

Henry shook his head, a playful smile on his lips. "Well, I guess it's always good to have options if this acting thing doesn't work out."

You laughed again, your sides practically hurting from the sheer hilarity of it all. It was moments like these that made your life with Henry so special – the ability to find joy and humor in the simplest of things.

Henry's laughter joined yours as he handed the tablet back to you. "Well, I must say, I've always had a hidden talent for dance."

You playfully rolled your eyes, finally coming down from the high of the situation. "Yeah, just keep it hidden, Hank." He responded with a playful swat to your arm.

"And don't let your newfound dance skills overshadow your other talents," you teased, a gleam of humor in your eye.

He got on his knees and leaned over the couch, his chin resting on your shoulder. "And what talents might those be, my love?"

His voice dipped into a slightly husky tone, his gaze smoldering with a suggestive spark, nuzzling his nose against your ear.

A playful grin curved your lips as you turned your head to meet his gaze. "Oh, you know... the kind of talents that require a bit more privacy and a lot less clothing."

His deep chuckle reverberated through the room, his lips brushing against your neck. "Well, in that case, perhaps we should put this tablet away and focus on exploring those talents." he murmured, gently taking the tablet from your hands and drawing you into a passionate kiss that left no room for further words.

Tag list:

@jyessaminereads @summersong69 @itsrubberbisquit @sweetandgentlecreature @kingliam2019 @leaveitbythewave @mrsevans90 @evansabove1981 @bascmve01 @shellyshellshell @iamsana @foxyjwls007 @one-sweet-gubler @henryownsme @angelcavill66

[hikarry]

Consider: Aziraphale finding out about the Montero video clip

"Angel!" Oh dear. Whenever he sounded this excited it was never good news. "Do yourself a favor and sit down, yes?"

"Yes. Good morning to you too, my dear."

"Uhum." Aziraphale was not exactly used to being manhandled, but whatever was on Crowley’s mind and was causing whatever frenetic energy this was, made him very inclined to indeed force the angel to sit down on the big chair, holding him by the shoulders and pushing him down very unceremoniously. "I found something hilarious."

"Is that so?" Crowley sat on the arm of the chair, crossing his legs in a probably not very comfortable position, but after 6000 years Aziraphale was of the opinion the demon had not a single bone in his corporation.

With a swift motion he grabbed his phone from his back pocket and typed something quickly. Aziraphale was looking at the phone, more out of politeness than anything else. He had no idea what was going on on that tiny screen.

"Yes." Crowley couldn't help but snort, even though the supposedly funny thing was not on display yet. "It's a song. An oldish one at that, I don't know how I didn't find it earlier."

"Oh, bebop?" The angel let his body relax against the back rest of the chair. "You know you and I have very different tastes when it comes to music."

The demon clicked his tongue in response, quite clearly not paying enough attention to form proper words. He snorted again when he finally found whatever it was he was looking for.

"The song isn't the point. It's catchy, but not my thing." He leaned over Aziraphale, arm against arm, putting the phone in front of both of them. "I will give you 5 seconds to guess what is it we are looking at."

"5 seconds? That's sound a little unfair, don't you th-" Too late, the video had began. Aziraphale actually made an effort to try and amuse Crowley, just this once. There were a lot of clouds and very vibrant colors. Some type of garden with Greek like ruins. "A garden? In Greece?"

"A garden, yes. In Greece, no. Keep watching. Last chance."

The video kept rolling and Aziraphale could physically feel how constricted like a spring ready to jump Crowley was becoming beside him.

"Oh, a snake! It has your colors, doesn't it? Are black and red snakes natural in nature?"

"Focus, angel."

Right, focus.

"It's a big snake."

"Yes. A snake. In a garden. Hm?"

"Yes, I can see it, Crowley. I'm not-" Okay, yes. Snakes didn't usually turns into humanoid creatures. In a garden...gasp. "Is this supposed to be the Garden of Eden?! And you?!"

"No, not me. Inspired by me, more like. But yes! Exactly!"

"The Garden didn't look anything like that. Greek architecture had not been invented back then yet."

"And pink grass had?"

"...Do I show up?"

"Nah. There's enough songs about angels."

"I beg to-." Right, stuff was going down hill. "They...turned you quite sexual, didn't they?"

"Not me. Inspired by me." Yes, details. "And I am the demon of Temptation. What's more tempting than sex?"

"A good Oscar Wilde first edition, for starters." Aziraphale mumbled, but Crowley clearly heard.

"Right. Oscar Wilde. I thought we were talking about me."

"I thought you said it wasn't you?"

"Ngk. Technically not me. Anyway, that's what I wanted to show you. But-" He pulled the video forward slightly. "Let me show you what humans are doing with the imagery of Lucifer nowadays."

"Is he...going to Hell down a pole?"

"You've heard of pole dancing?"

"Yes. Mrs. Sandwich enlightened me." The angel adjusted the glasses on his nose, leaning slightly forward so he could look closer at the video. "Didn't you have some boots like those back in the 80s?"

"Myeah. Similar."

"I never saw you wearing them again. Whatever happened to them?"

"Probably in the flat somewhere. I haven't been female for a hot second."

"Your point?"

Crowley looked down at him, an eyebrow raised in confusion.

"What?"

"Are you saying you can't wear them anymore because you've been male for 4 decades?"

"Well-"

"Correct me if I'm mistaken, but," he pointed at the video. "That looks like a young man to me."

"Hm. Touché."

"What is he doing now?"

"That's called a lap dance."

"He is dancing in the lap of Satan?"

"Maybe he would have been a better boss if he had been given a couple of lap dances between the millennia."

"...is this allowed?"

"I don't see why not. I like the sense of humor." As the video ended, he put it back again on his back pocket.

"I was right. It was bebop."

"As I said: not my thing either." Aziraphale folded his hands on his lap, the movement being closely watched by the demon besides him.

"I see you are still inspiring generations. Humans always did make interesting artwork with your resemblance." Crowley didn't answer. Aziraphale stayed quiet a couple more moments, waiting for him to say something. "Crowley?"

"Yeah. So. Hm." He seemed to have been snapped out of his own thoughts, laying his hands on his knee and slightly leaning towards the angel. "About those boots-"

[adelliet]

JOEL MILLER X F!READER

Like the old times

Summary: You and Joel had a quite wild and spicy past. You two needed to take care of Ellie, which you did. You and Ellie were a good friends, and one night she asked you about him, so you told her everything, but Joel finds out and weren't really happy about it, so you need to earn a punishment.

Warnings: 18+ content, unprotected sex piv, rough sex, aggresive Joel, angry Joel, sub and dom, talking about sex, oral (f receiving), apocalypse time

A/N: sorry for the mistakes if there are any, my first language isn't english! Enjoy, sending love <3

════ ⋆★⋆ ════

You were sitting in your bed, reading a comic that Ellie lent it to you. It was quite catchy and you had already finished few first pages, when you heard angry stomping, coming dangerously fast towards your room.

You get ready for the aggresive knock on your door, that could literally break them. It's like you're an oracle of the future and after a while you really heard aggressive tapping. You knew right away it was Ellie.

“Open!” You yelled, calm in your voice and put a happy smile on your face, when you saw Ellie, which was really pissed off. You could only guess, why she was angry, but this isn't the first time she comes to you, when she is mad.

Ellie is taking you like her older sister. She really tells you everything and when she is looking for help, she always asked you. You are okay with that, actually, you are really happy with it. You always wanted younger sister, and Ellie is perfect. It's like you both born to be a family.

Ellie hissed angrily like an angry squirrel and sat on the bed facing you. You raised one eyebrow, signaling for Ellie to speak. As she took a deep breath and closed her eyes, thus preparing to speak, you set her comic aside from your thighs and closed it carefully so it wouldn't get damaged.

“Joel-“ “Yeah, you don't need to say more” you cut Ellie off, knew exactly what she is going to say. You had a suspicion that it will be about Joel, but what if it will be about something else? Well obviously, it wasn't.

“He is such a dick!” she said through her teeth and lay down on the bed upside down. You giggled a bit and scratched Ellie's hair. “I know” you agreed and continued scratching until Ellie sat back up. “How could you last so long with him?” She said in confusion and give you a curious face.

You started getting red, as you remember the old times with Joel, making Ellie even more curious and confused. “What?” she asked smiling, as you smiled too and trying to hide the tomato face, that you already had. “C'mon!” she punched you in the leg, really wanted to make you start talking.

“I mean…Joel wasn't a dick always” you finally said and look back at suprised Ellie. You could tell right away from her face that she wanted to know more. “What do you mean?” she sat more comfortable and lean herself on your knees bent, face to face.

��Okay but you need to promise me, you won't tell a soul!” you put on a serious voice and Ellie just nodded her head quickly, waiting for your narration. You take a deep breath, before telling her what was it like with Joel before all of this.

“I was new in the town. I didn't know anyone and of course no one knew me. It was a bit of a challenge for me to fit in with the others, but I did it. I went to various gatherings and parties where I actually met Joel-“ “and this is where the fun part starts” Ellie interrupt you, making you giggled a little. She was swinging her legs alternately like some teenage girl...which she actually was.

“Exactly, but back to the story. I got to know Joel more and more over time and I swear to every bone in my body that there was a spark between us” Ellies eyes wide opened and she even gasped a little. “No fucking way, you and Joel?!” “Yep” you pop the p in that and continued in your story telling.

“But Joel was also very complex. He often gave me hints that he wanted something more, and flirted with me whenever he had the chance, but at the same time, kept his distance from me. I was already tired of it and that's why I asked later if he wanted something or not” “And what did he say?” Ellie asked, even she though she knew exactly, what did he say.

“Well, he explained to me how he was with girls and we ended up making a deal that included sleeping together every Saturday-“ “YOU SLEPT WITH JOEL?!” Ellie yellew in surprise, making you yelled at her back. “SHUT UP!” you said, covering her mouth and wait a little. Ellie then calm down, but still couldn't bealive that you two had a thing.

“Yes, we did but it was just getting worse. We became so dependent on each other that we fucked five times a week” when you finish that sentence, Ellie wanted to scream again, but she control herself this time, and only gasped loudly. You just nodded your head with your eyes shut, till you started talking again.

“And I mean, Joel was really wild” you chuckle a little. “What did he do?” Ellie asked in a really curious voice, and set a puppy eyes to you. “Nah, you're too young for that” you throw your hand at her, making her literally beg for you to tell the details.

“We tried all the positions, I even think we invented some” you sighed, as you remember Joel's fine voice in bed, and how his naked body looks so sexy, how he always calls you señorita and that he every time made you come, every, fucking, time.

“Are we talking about the same Joel here?” she said in disbelief and pointed at the door. You both giggled a bit. “He was a dick but now he is super dick” you finished your narration with that sentence and smiled innocently at Ellie. She couldn't find the words to express herself at all.

“I-I- why-“ “You don't need to react” you calm her down, petting her head gently. She was still speachless, trying to find her words. “Why you didn't tell me this earlier?” Ellie finally find her words, but she was still in shock. “Cuz you didn't asked” you said, big smirk appeared on your face.

“Okay I-I need to process this um, I will just go to my room” she said as she gets up from your bed and slowly go to your doors. “Okay, see ya tommorow!” you said and waved at her provocatively. She didn't respond to that, but slowly left the room and closed the door behind her, with her eyes unfocused.

You started laughing as soon as she leaves your room. Ellie is incredible. You reached for the comic as you laugh, when you realized Ellie hadn't even told you why she was mad at Joel. But apparently it wasn't as important as your story.

~~~

After you finished your shower and tied a towel over yourself in the bathroom, you walked out of there and focused on your way to the bedside drawer when you were startled by Joel standing just inches away from. He literally appeard like a ghost, and you though you just shit yourself.

“Joel what the fuck?!” you said, still gasping for air and trying to calm yourself down from the jumpscare he just gave you. “Shouldn't I ask that?” his quiet, angry, masculine voice took over your role and Joel slowly, very angrily, moved forward. This made you back up until you hit the wall behind you. The whole way you were confused by his question. What did you do?

“W-what do you mean?” you asked in confusion, still not understanding why he is like this. He chuckled ironically, his hot breath and smell of whiskey took over your body. “You don't remember what you told Ellie?” He asked manipulatively, leaning his one hand on the wall behind you, making space between you even smaller. The atmosphere started being more and more dense.

Shit. You clearly told Ellie not to tell anyone, she must have misunderstood and now you will pay for it. “I told her not to tell this anyone-“ “Why do you even tell her this?!” He cut you off, his voice raise and his anger grown with every word you said. You weren't scared of him. You knew, that Joel would never hit you or do anything bad to you, expect sex.

“She was just curious-“ you wanted to defend yourself but Joel stopped you again. He grabbed you by the neck with his massively huge hand, grasping his entire palm and squeezing you gently. He put his head so close to yours, that your foreheads almost met.

When he did that, you started getting deja vu. Joel always like it rough and aggresive, so do you. His normal move was always to grab your neck, which he did now. A memory of times gone by that you remember quite often, began to form a slow pulse down there. You became even more horny when you realized you were only in a towel with completely naked underneath. One quick movement and the towel is on the floor and you are in all your glory in front of Joel.

“What did you promise?” he asked, still holding you by your neck, and whispering. His nostrils were enlarged and his eyes blackened as they were filled with spite and rage. His brows were tightly drawn together, givibg you a hungry gaze.

You were silent. You made up a milion scenarios, when he hold you like that. You couldn't feel you neck anymore, but you literally love that. His hands were always so magical and uniquely. His touch made you feel butterflies in your stomach at that time, but it doesn't change even now. You were holding the eye contact with him, looking straight into his dark eyes and wanted to give him an unforgettable kiss.

Joel wanted to hear you, he wanted to make you speak. He jerkily snapped at your neck, choking you slightly, but you were still obsessed with it. Joel was your drug that you never really recovered from.

“You heard me” he said, really trying to make you speak. You knew that if you won't speak, you would only upset Joel more and he would lose control. But, is this what you want? You try to read Joel's mind from his eyes. When you two had that thing a few years ago, you kind of learned to read his mind. You learned what he liked and what he didn't like, what he wanted and what he hated, you knew him better than you knew yourself.

As you stare at his eyes, still quiet, your sly smirk appeared on your face, morphing into a big smile. Gosh he loved that smile, but now, he wanted only one thing, and he is used to the fact that he always gets what he wants.

He squeezed your neck more, making you literally chocking already. “I said, what did you promise?!” he asked quietly, leaning so close to your face that your noses met, and stare at you with anger and lust. Even that you were almost dying, you love this feeling.

“I won't tell this anybody” you said finally, when you stopped feeling blood in your head, and your voice was so dry and scaly. When you finally started talking, he loosened his grip a little, but not completely. “Good, and what did you do?” there was a little hint of joy in his voice that he basically got what he wanted, but still so much anger and manipulation at the same time.

“I-i tell this somebody” when you finished the last word you started to shake and you slowly saw the darkness before your eyes. You were at rock bottom until Joel released his hand from your neck completely. You immediately gasped and grabbed the spot exactly where Joel was holding you tightly. You had a red bruise from his incredibly large hand there.

His gaze was still angry and emotionless, but inside he was jubilant with joy that you did exactly what he wanted, just like you always did. You looked at him scared, still clutching your sore neck. You didn't expect Joel to go this far just for the sake of such shit!

“Why do you even care so much about this bullshit! It ended already so what is your problem!” you yelled at him angrily, not feeling the warm beetwen your legs anymore, instead you felt anger and incomprehension. “Tell me again” he answers, his face still not showing any emotion, as always. Now you really couldn't even read his mind.

“I said, why-“ he grabbed your neck again, as soon as you started yelling at him. “Raising your voice at me?!” he whispered in your ear, and you could finally felt his cruel smile. You immediately regretted saying anything at all. “You know why I care so much? Cuz this was the only one thing that only we know about. Our little secret, you know.”

He tells you the reason, why is he so sensitive about this topic, but you couldn't be surprised, you yourself couldn't talk about it in a bad light. Whenever you remembered those years, you wanted to cry because of how much you miss them. His voice was finally soft a little, and his grip loosened too. He missed those years too, so fucking much.

“I am sorry” you said, finally being the submisive. You were si easy for Joel to manipulate with you. You were wrapped around his finger like a shoelace.

“This is not enough of an excuse for me” he hissed through his cocky grin. His voice calmed you down so much again that the warm feeling in your cunt returned to you again and made your entire body feel pleasant. Oh fuck, how badly you wanted Joel to rip the towel off you and fuck you right now, right there.

“I need more than words, señorita” when you heard your beloved nickname, you couldn't control yourself. As if this was the key word to all those memories that when said, made you feel this amazing desire and need for Joel.

Joel slowly began to slide his hand under your towel. First you felt his warm hand on your stomach, where the butterflies were already doing their thing, and then on your bare breasts, which Joel would kill for. His other hand was still on your neck to keep you from flinching, which was extreme hell for you.

When he bumped into on of your boobies, he immediately hugged and squeezed it, making you squeal a little. Joel kept his eyes on you while you kept them closed, trying not to make come already. He was looking at your face, how squeezed it is and has so much tension in it that needs to come out.

While he massaged your breast and provoked you, when he touched your sensitive nipple and squeezed it, he decided to attack your neck with his mouth as well, but he still didn't let go of his hand. This made you immediately moan without hesitation. Joel could feel his cock goes harder with every sound you just make.

You could feel his bulge, which rubbed against your leg as he moved his mouth down your neck. Sometimes he would bite you there, or suck you so hard you thought a piece of your neck would fall off. You had to make physical contact with him too, you had to touch him. That's why you carefully placed one hand on his back and tucked the other into his soft curly hair, which today was softer than usual.

This is exactly one of the things that Joel likes, when he feels your long tender fingers in his hair, when you give him a light tug, or just scratch him there. That's why he started breathing lightly into your neck as you massaged him on his head. He switched sides and pounced on your neck again, but this time more gently as you weakened him a bit by scratching his head.

He didn't stop with squeezing and massaging your boob too. He actually change them and place his hand to another one. His warm hands on your breast make you feel so safe, but at the same time, you never know what can Joel do in that moment, and that's exactly what happened now.

Out of nowhere he stopped squeezing your breast and stopped biting your neck, he even put his hand on your neck away too. Your neck was already completely different from the beginning. It was red and there was the optical of Joel's hand, but there was also a big purple pacifier almost everywhere that you just couldn't cover up. Thanks Joel.

You looked at him incomprehendingly and he still had that expressionless face, but he looked calmer and a little horny, you can't be surprised when he bangs into you with that huge meat he has down there. He grabbed your thighs and lifted you up. You gasped a bit in shock, but then began to kiss him passionately as he offered his soft pink lips that you adored so much. You held him around the neck and moved your other hand into his hair again, the way he likes it. Meanwhile, he turned and walked towards your bed. It's starting to get hotter.

When you were close enough to the bed, Joel threw you here so that you bounced while still on the bed. You were lying on the bed, knees drawn together, looking at Joel who was finally showing some emotion. Hunger. He wanted so badly to have you inside him again, to feel you again and to hear you scream your name as he caused you three orgasms in a row.

As he remember all that, he started unbuttoning his shirt. It didn't take him long, and you could already see his amazing breasts and abs that you hadn't seen in years. Joel leaned into you, moving slowly like some kind of beast, and you, like an innocent victim, just lay there on your elbows, watching his every move. His head was a little higher than where you'd like it to be. He spread your legs, didn't put much pressure because you automatically opened your legs already, and slowly reached under the towel with his hand, which he removed in one graceful movement. You were completely naked, and he only took off one piece of clothing. How unfair.

He knew what your breasts looked like. He imagined them every night before bed, every moment when he masturbated over you, but after a long time he can see them again. If Joel wasn't so cold, even a drop of tear would have fallen.

He watched them for a moment until he looked at your face that was screaming for him to put his head exactly where you wanted it. He smirk as he sees you, in defenselessness, lust and desire. But he loved to provoke you, so he didn't start as quickly as you would think.

He slowly moved his head closer to your cunt which was already all hot and ready. When all you could see was his hair, you relaxed your elbows and lay down on the bed. You could feel Joel's hot breath flowing right onto your lower lips and it made you feel so fucking good!

The pulse down there began to quicken and you began to sigh lightly and squeeze the sheet as the desire to have Joel inside you, slowly began to drive you insane. He knew you wanted him He knew it not only by looking at your pussy, which was already all wet and it really wasn't from the shower, but he also knew it by your movements, how you started to move and squeeze the sheet to hold it.

“Please” you whispered, your eyes squeezed shut, and your legs slowly touching Joel's head. “What was that?” he said teasingly even though he heard you very well. You grunted and repeated your whining, when you felt his nose slightly touching your vagina. Even though you couldn't see Joel, you could see his mischievous grin all over his face very well.

“How much do you want it?” he asked, touching his nose even more exactly where you needed it. “Too much” you sighed, instinctively moving your hips so that Joel's nose was rubbing against your cunt. Joel decided that the waiting and teasing was enough, especially for his rock-hard erection that was still imprisoned in his pants.

So he slowly penetrated slightly inside and started to move his nose slightly up and down your clitoris. He didn't have to look for it for long because he remembered your body to the exact millimeter. He knew what you were doing and how you behaved when you were close to orgasm. He knew exactly where to fuck you, in what position and how. He knew your body so well.

This move made you sigh louder and squeeze the sheets much, much harder. You always loved his nose and even when he was rubbing against your most sensitive part of your body, you were in absolute heaven.

After a while you felt a strange wet movement at your entrance that started to get more intense. Joel circled his tongue around your main hole, making you even more crazy.

You moaned as you felt his tongue enter you. He waited a moment until he began to ripple his tongue inside you, pulling it in and out lightly. Or rather, he was tongue-fucking you now. Every movement he made by his tongue, was one step closer for you to come inside his mouth.

After a while, you both heard the squishy and wet sound inside of you, which clearly indicated that you were close. Your moans were also much louder but you didn't overdo it. Joeal started curling his tongue faster and put his hands on your tights, to make you feel more comfortable.

You curled your toes, lifted your lower body and squeezed your eyes tighter. The pleasantly unpleasant feeling of going to the bathroom washed over you, it was like a race in your lower belly and you squeezed Joel's head between your thighs so hard it would burst.

“Fuck-“ came from you but you cut it, as you moan from the pleassure that you had. Your entire tense body was relaxed and all the juice from you went straight into Joel's mouth. Your breathing was heavy, your chest was moving up and down continuously and you loosened your grip on the sheets as well.

Joel gently pull his tongue out of you, and swallowed everything he caused. He finally licked your cunt, causing you to gasp a little, and then he just lifted off your thighs.

He was looking down on you, how fast and clumsily you were breathing and still processing the orgasm you just had. You opened your eyes to see an even hungrier Joel staring at you with black eyes. Your juice still lingered a bit on his mustache, making you shy for a moment and burning your cheeks.

“This was just foreplay, now your apology begins” his voice like a husky, deep and manly. You were looking at him, as he roughly started undoing his trouser belt, which soon fell to the ground. He didn't take his eyes off you though. You felt the excitement again and the gentle flame of fire that rushed through your whole body and down there again. You didn't have to blink twice and Joel was already naked, his abnormally large erection already twitching. His veins look like they're about to burst, you wanted to feel his cock inside you so badly.

“I will have no mercy on you” he inform you, making your pussy tighten a bit, as he said that. “Don't” you allowed him even though you didn't have to. Even without your permission, he would treat you like an object. “There are consequences for actions” this was the last sentence he said, before he grab your hips by his muscular arms, and turned you around, so that now you were showing your ass to Joel.

You get on your knees, you breast relaxing on the bed and hands on the bed too. He spat on his cock to make it less painful. He held your hips tighter so you wouldn't squirm too much and without any warning he rammed his entire length into you all the way to the root.

Joel threw his head back, biting his lips and shut his eyes, as he entered you. You walls were so tight around his huge cock. The way your cunt eat his dick, made him groan a little. The feeling of having his huge cock inside you made you moan as hard as you could. Everyone had to hear it, but the best was yet to come.

“I fucking miss this” he groans as he started thrust in you, making you bouncing a little. The slapping your ass on his stomach, was a harmony for Joel's ears. He put his head back, looking directly at your ass, how big and squishy it was.

Joel didn't waste any time and started to pick up on his lightning speed which made you hit your ass into Joel even more. You squeeze the sheet again and bite your lips at the same time to hold in the satisfaction you were experiencing right now. Joel sighed and groaned, quiet as a man but you made him feel so good. He stretched you so hard that you couldn't take it anymore and you had to start moaning too.

Neither you or Joel could hold it in for very long. The entire bed moved with you, bumping into the opposite wall causing the sink to fall slightly, but you didn't care at the moment. You felt like the whole house was moving with you, in the exact rhytm as Joel was thrusting in you.

Joel was already losing his balance and fell on top of you in a controlled manner, saving himself from falling on your back with one hand and still holding onto your hip with the other. It made you and Joel even better in this position.

You started to tighten, not only in your legs but also in your vagina. You wrapped Joel's cock right up and he knew you were fucking close. That grip gave Joel an even bigger pleasure and he was no longer in control of his hips, he was just pounding them against your ass. You heard Joel's breathing, which was irregular and choppy. You could feel his cock twitching inside you. You felt like you were going to let it out in no time.

A few thrusts of his cock into you and you couldn't hold it in anymore. Your entire body stiffened, including your face and your mouth formed into an o shape. You let out a loud moan and right after yours did Joel, who shortly come right after you. As your body relaxed, your vagina opened again and your grip on the sheet in your hands loosened as well, you were finally able to perceive more of your surroundings.

You heard Joel's heavy and loud breathing hitting your back. After a while he finally pulled his cock out of you and gently ran his hands over your back to calm you down and make the situation a little more comfortable. “Hope you learned your lesson” he said, shortly after he started putting on his clothes. You were still on your knees, popping your ass towards Joel. Your sweat on your forehead started dropping on the sheet, which left a small wet spot.

Once Joel was dressed, he laid down next to you on the bed, facing you directly. You opened your eyes and saw his, which were no longer full of hunger and most importantly, they were brown and cute again. You finally laid down on the bed too, still naked and uncovered. You were looking at the ceiling and still breathing heavily.

“Do you ever remember?” you asked him but your eyes were still glued to the ceiling. “Always” he answered, making you look at him, but he wasn't looking at you anymore, he was looking at the ceiling the same way you were watching it a moment ago.

“Do you ever imagine we'll go back to that?” you asked him, carefully, so as not to ruin the moment. Joel just smiled and repeated his answer "Always". A few images ran through your head of what it would be like if you did the system like you used to, but it still wouldn't be the best idea, even in the sense that it's really hard to find birth control or an untorn condom in the apocalypse. "But we can't" as if he was reading your mind and thinking the same thing as you. Reasons why it wouldn't work anymore.

Even so, you were grateful that you did what you did. If not, you wouldn't experience that wonderful feeling again.

Thank you Ellie.

════ ⋆★⋆ ════

[slugtranslation-hypmic]

hey slug,

whats ur opinion on the dh trailers?

Let's give them a listen! I'm currently in public waiting to catch a train, so I may breeze through this a little faster than usual.

Sasara's Laughin' Hope

(17 seconds in) Already obnoxious. (said with affection) Perfect for Sasara. Clashing dreadfully with the country song the café I'm in just started blaring.

(23 seconds in) Wait, no fancy subtitles? Channel Hypnosis Mic, you can't do this to me :(((

(30 seconds in) Oh okay there they are. I guess the earlier bit didn't have them because it was just snippets of other songs.

(33 seconds in) "So painfully aware of social mores it wraps back around to acting inappropriately" Cheers, bro, I'll drink to that. I like it that Sasara's acknowledging it outwardly to more than just himself or Roshou.

(45 seconds in) Man's opening tf up. You love to see it.

(52 seconds in) This song is too damn catchy to be listened to in public.

(1 minute in) "Gimme a light"... I wonder what that's supposed to mean. As in, light my cigarette? (That one gay-ass SamaSasa cigarette panel comes to mind.) Shine a light on me/illuminate me?

(1:08) I'm not a big autotune fan, but I'm kinda vibing with this.

(1:11) "Laughin' when I'm in pain, laughin' when I'm feeling fine" Homie is going THROUGH it

(Overall) I like Sasara saying the quiet part out loud--not just to himself, but to an audience. (Because it seems like most of his songs are performances, right?) Also a bop. Very fun!

Roshou's On My Way

(0 seconds in) All I can think about is that Phil Collins' room

(13 seconds in) I have literally no idea what to make of this, musically.

(33 seconds in) ...This feels like an anime ending. I think that's my only takeaway thus far. It's like...scrambling my brain. This isn't a bad thing. I'm just very...intrigued?

(39 seconds in) Okay the backing beat helps immensely.

(1:35 seconds in) Ohhhhhhh okay the "on" is from 途中. I think the vibe this title is supposed to evoke is kinda like "Work in Progress."

(Overall) I actually quite like this in terms of plot! It's a very hopeful song for Roshou and contrasts quite a bit with Sasara's song--he's openly acknowledging his issues and facing them head-on instead of being like "I use laughter as repression :) for the depression :)" The part starting from 1:29 is like: I'm still on my way Still hung up on the future Retying my shoelaces Only enemy to speak of is myself Only point of pride to speak of are my many failures All the answers I wrote that I went back and marked wrong Of course I wish I could back and do things differently, but I look up and watch the airplane shooting through the sky. Stop saying all the time: "Crap, what have I done?" "Crap, what do I do now?" Get out from inside my own head, Look out at the world around me. I see a long road ahead of me One that'll take so long to walk I don't know how I'll ever finish it. But let's go, one step at a time!

Rei's The World is Yours

No doubt orchestrated by Rei himself, Youtube gave me a financial scam ad on this video.

(8 seconds in) Yeah I can dig this.

(17 seconds in) What the fuck is that yelling in the BG

(26 seconds in) Oh, I like this a lot. There's an idiom in Japanese--"10 people, 10 colors"--meaning that each individual has their own unique outlook on the world. Here, Rei says "Repainting over the gray city [with] the ten people, ten colors seeping [into me]." Love seeing Rei express that other people enrich your life

(50 seconds in) He's unexpectedly honest in this song. There's a confessional or vulnerable quality to it I don't see often in Rei

(1:06) "Here and now, I'll fulfill a promise [I made] long ago and far away" Oh??

(Overall) Huh, interesting! Seems to be a "Life is what you make of it" sort of song

[spotlightlowlife]

Where the hell is everyone?

Not my usual post but something stood out to me, the views on these shows.

Figures declining is normal, only the drop seems quite a lot and I can't help but think that the characters ( so obviously the writing) deserve the blame.

Oops and Mammon's mid season at this moment both have approximately 26 million views, however, the mammon episode has 13k more comments dispite Oops not only being almost 2 months older, but

it being an episode we saw Fizz, Ozzie who we hadn't seen for a while

we saw Striker and Crimson again

most of all, this is the one where Fizz and Blitzø made up AND we learned what happened

there's no Stolitz in either of these or IMP

no IMP or Stolas at all in the Mammon episode

Now take into account that these two episodes are VERY episodic, following straight on from the event of the other with the setup of Mammon special only being possible because of the outcome of Oops. This gave Oops excellent rewatch value, I know I rewatched it (and found hypocrisy and possible retcon)

So though both are Fizz x Ozzie episodes and both let us return to the plot, the Mammon episode definitely did the Oops episode a massive service. Since this was the third Fizz x Ozzie episode and they existed in attached at the hip each time, we have only seen Fizz without Ozzie's presence in flashbacks childhood or as a robot, Ozzir without Fizz hasn't really been a thing.

It would be interesting to see them outside their ship but then again, Fizz no longer has his other job and isn't Blitzø's adversary anymore, there appears to be a crush element in this relationship too and Ozzie has been neutered as a businessman and the embodiment of lust itself, the two of them currently have the looming threat of Mammon and whatever he's planning over them. All this is fine, they're side characters but it really shows how much they're carried.

Now, fast forward and the next two episodes have half the view count, even though we have

the main cast back

Loona's voice actor is back

Stolitz drama

the return of angels, D.H.O.R.K, Verosika and some sinners we know

most of all, a curveball with the Stolitz transactionship ending and Blitzø having another option to run business

To add to this, the shorts become a thing around the same time as these episodes, they offer freedom to show the characters working and feature extras, so why are the first and second 12M and 13M views? Why aren't these 5 minute shorts surpassing episodes that take 4x the amount of time to watch?

Furthermore, the last episode to do as well as the Mammon special that made Oops episodic was the episode where we met Crimson and Millie and Moxxie's somehow shared (yet how was this relevant) ex Chaz, which gave us some of Moxxie's background, his meeting with Blitzø, a mobster theme and some action for Millie to flex her skills again with no dialogue needed up against characters who don't matter. This episode also has approximately 26M views, released 6 months prior to Oops, yet sat in between these two episodes are three more

the one were Striker would return, abducted and injured Stolas, in addition Millie and Moxxie would get their freedom to work without Blitzø and Blitzø would face a frustrating social issue of taking his daughter to a long overdue medical appointment, but at 22M views

Unhappy campers, the announced 'Millie episode' which also allowed us to also meet Barbie in the last 5 minutes at the end with no build up, it took us to Earth, give us no human designs for the main cast and give Millie an opportunity to flex without dialogue to no names who don't matter

the LONG AWAITED season one finale that got blocked, featuring Kesha! Playing on of the princes of hell! Featuring one of the most catchy songs to date. How did this get caught up in the plateau at just 23M? Surely it bought a number of dwindling viewers back to what we all missed out on? Surely it has a high chance of rewatch value because a lot had happened since?

Is it that the main cast and 'nice' villains aren't holding attention?

The second episode of season two had Octavia, who we hadn't seen in a while, run away. We got to see Earth, we got to see Stolas's human design, Stolas's interactions with his estranged wife and daughter, there were unnecessary and odd because of how the episode started and where they left off last time we saw them Stolitz moment and we got to hear Octavia and Loona speak.

This has just 2M more views than (episodic) Oops but is 11 months older.

At just 5M more views and 3 months older is the season premiere (so expected to do well) where we get a shared backstory for Stolas and Blitzø,

their cute childhood selves, some of Stella's story, we meet Blitzø's dad, we meet Stolas's dad, we see their transactionship start and a massive step in neutering Stolas.

I'm quite sure people liked him when he was the creepy, easily dangerous rich guy who held the operation of Blitzø business and maybe even his life in his hands and I'm quite sure 'humanising' him by having him realise he doesn't really know his daughter was a fine addition to his character, villains don't need to be in the wrong every time we see them.

In other news, Stolas' song 'Just look my way' may have 19M views (well done I hope they're genuine) but the song Clown Bitch from two extra we may never see again has more views than 2 minute notice, which is from the much loved Fizz,

it even has more views than Poison from parent series Hazbin Hotel, the song of an actual lead character Angeldust and this track has a remix.

There's reason I bring up Hazbin. Is it a coincidence that between the Mammon special and the next episode of Helluva, the long awaited Hazbin hotel that made it big and streamed on Amazon aired in its entirety, in that we would meet further neutered down characters who hold hire rank than those in Helluva?

The fact that we meet the leader and owner of hell, Lucifer the devil himself and he's a fun, sarcastic sad boy authors pet who did nothing wrong, let's blame another (breeder) wife and mother who's absent from the story for whatever reason yet to make matters worse, he isn't even a lead, his totally underwhelming 'nice girl' daughter is along with her friends.

Here's how watering down the powerful along with making them 'nice' comes into play and harms the plots.

Charlie ranks higher than Ozzie and gets to rub shoulders with sinners and call them her people without issue

sinners are higher than imps but imps as good as make sinners, Blitzø's whole business is to kill humans, many of which become sinners who are then seen as vermin who need to be wiped out, yet sinners are above imps, so are imps punching up?

Charlie is above Ozzie, Bee is equal to Ozzie and her relationship with a hellhound is just fine, we totally miss out in an overlord in an inappropriate power balance relationship with someone who could have been in one of the dog pounds she signs off on

where's the controversy in 'Blitzø and Stolas done better' Fizz x Ozzie, where Ozzie is loving and affectionate, doesn't like love potions and now doesn't like coersion and lusting after his mans image? There is none, no scandal or consequence, their drama is all personal issues, who is Ozzie, the leader we have spent the most time with to answer to? Not Lucifer who's welcome to hang out with his daughters sinner friends dispite condemning sinners as a waste of time the last time we saw him. Who cares, everyone is 'nice'

When we met Mammon he was met with a load of hatred and this was clearly the desired effect, there was so much that people could lazily project his way, and look how well his episode did. We actually got an excellent representation of ruthless and adaptive business and leadership with a lack of morals and genuine interest. I'm guessing this character was essential in seeing hell thrive.

King Paimon's introduction should have been a much bigger deal, it's bad enough that he went from from shapeshifting and manifesting in a mirror, not remembering this particular child, spending the day with Stolas through the mirror to stood beside him with no introduction, but we learn that he has many children and that he sets Stolas up with an arranged marriage.

So there is a hierarchy, there are people doing business with one another, there are those to answer to, there are numerous high ranking families. Why was the heir (Octavia) important? Business merger? Prophecy? We can only assume he set Stolas to work at a young age, encouraged his (unfortunately now lost) classism by giving him his own place, no family closeness and servants to toss about and we can only assume it's the same story for all the other children. King Paimon is not one of Lucifer's circle of seven but where does he rank next to him?

Both seem to be great candidates for a devil in charge. I'm sure there are numberours people who would discuss this but would be drowned out by those who will only give these characters the time of day blame them for 'being the reason Fizz and Stolas were sad' in the same note as dumped upon Stella and "supremacist" Striker another two who just happen to actively move the story forward.

Chances are plenty of people are too nervous to admit amongst the drowning out to liking any of these characters for fear of being ganged up on, but it seems that the 'good' characters, the fun and nice characters with power and the leads who we are to follow and just 'like' aren't cutting it really. Their stories are lacking.

There's a good chance that noisy fanbase fanning out, crying all over Twitter, attacking people full time and wanting to see hookups and representations are getting their fill amongs themselves. They make the shows seem more popular than they are because these people are chronically online and engaged in the discourse of attack and defend, rather than really following and discussing the story, coming back to it and taking interest where it is needed. As much as writers are online a lot and get to see the love and hide behind and encourage attack dogs, fandoms are contained and not good to write for, fandoms do their own thing. Any reasonable person, a critic who likes, one who doesn't care for and one who truly hates a story can do what a blind loyal person and one who's more invested in fanbase can't, which is offer feedback.

Looks like there's a silent majority of people who are here for the story, don't care for the digressions too much and are falling out of interest in the main characters. No doubt the silent majority are still waiting on things to improve, first of all by returning to the standard set in season one.

[loonarii]

Ari's K-Pop Roundup: July 2024 (aespa, KATSEYE, KISS OF LIFE, STAYC, tripleS, + MORE)

last months installment ✦ full masterlist welcome back to episode SIX (!!!) of this review series I started back in february - I've tried a lot of review formats in my time on kpop tumblr, but this one feels the most fun to do, and is by far the most well received. thanks so much to everyone who likes, reblogs, or even just reads these rambles, I appreciate it so much <333 This month was pretty fun from the get go so lets go get into it ~ ari

Hot Mess - aespa

A month and a half after their first korean full album, aespa have dropped their first proper foray into Japanese releases with 'Hot Mess'.

This is a classic aespa style track, like something off the 'Savage' or 'Girls' mini albums. Powered by a distorted trumpet base melody and filled with vocals delivered with a hyperconfident attitude, 'Hot Mess' is very Bratz doll, very Y2K. The chorus is reasonably catchy, but the verses fall somewhat short in my opinion, and the post chorus feels slightly out of place? The bones for a great song exist within 'Hot Mess', but for me the song peaks at 'good'. Is it anywhere near on the level of 'Supernova' or 'Amargeddon'? No, but it is cute and shows off the aespa members' skills well, as a debut song should do.

Giselle, as the member who speaks the most Japanese, is the BEST on this song, she sounds the most comfortable in her delivery and the tone of the song suits her style perfectly. Ningning is also a huge highlight of this track.

'Sun and Moon' is a classic SM style b-side, half way to a dance track, half way to a ballad. Where 'Hot Mess' highlighted vocal tone, 'Sun and Moon' emphasizes vocal range and the runs the members can pull off - in that sense it is the perfect b-side for a song like 'Hot Mess'. It's an easy hit, I like it a lot.

'ZOOM ZOOM' has actually already been released, so I won't delve into that one today, but the tl/dr is that it's a 10/10 aespa dance track that is forgotten about FAR TOO OFTEN.

Overall, this was fun. 'Hot Mess' didn't quite do it for me as much as I would have liked, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. The b-sides are great, and as a debut, it works well. With their influence on the Y3K aesthetic in japan, success over there is inevitable and I'm wishing the best for them as always.

Touch - KATSEYE

If nothing else can be said about 'Touch', at least it was a decent song this time around.

Let's not lie, you can hear the PinkPantheress print on this song as well as I can, and while that results in an enjoyable song, it does not bode well for the future of KATSEYE. The derivative nature of 'Touch' isn't inherently bad - PinkPantheress coded songs have been popping up in kpop frequently over the past year or so (though granted never quite as obviously referential as this), but contextually the song is a bizarre choice. Even though their 'Debut' was released last month, KATSEYE is still extremely fresh on the scene, and every choice they make right now in musical, conceptual and creative direction will impact how they are perceived by global audiences.

Making music that sounds like a another artist will almost always tarnish your reputation and brand as a soloist/group UNLESS the artist you are emulating caters to an entirely different market. For example, ILLIT got backlash from kpop fans both inside and outside of Korea for emulating the sound of NewJeans, but the discussion of Tinashe's undeniable influence on kpop is limited to select groups of international fans. KATSEYE are trying to appeal to the western market presumably, so while 'Touch' imitating PinkPantheress may result in a few million streams and TikTok song of the hour status, it does nothing to build a brand, create a signature sound, and make a name for KATSEYE outside of kpop. Not to mention, it sounds unconnected from 'Debut' sonically, tonally, and conceptually, further meddling with any chance they have of building an iconic (in the original sense) discography.

However, this concept did seem to suit some of the girls better, Yoonchae especially seemed comfortable taking the centre this time, she was the star of the song for sure.

I would be remiss if i didn't bring up the song length after bitching about it so heavily last time, so here we go for round two. From 'Debut' clocking in at an appalling 2 minutes and three seconds, the HYBE overlords have blessed us with SIX MORE SECONDS on 'Touch'!!! At least this song calls for a bridge slightly less than 'Debut' did, but regardless this is absurd. I may be glad that the recession has triggered a resurgence in upbeat pop music from the west with BRAT summer and all that, but if it means song length shrinking by minute every year, I'm not sure if it's worth it.

Sticky - KISS OF LIFE

Kiss Of Life are just KILLING it, every release has been fucking incredible and 'Sticky' is no exception. Built on a foundation of afrobeats and powered by spirited vocal runs from all the members, 'Sticky' is the perfect song for the summer. It doesn't over-complicate itself, this is a song all about wearing short-shorts in the blaring July heat and having a blast with your friends. the melodies aren't especially new but they are classic and highly enjoyable. Hanuel is the beating heart of this song. Her vocal tone is on the more nasal side which usually means she's delegated to the verses or adlibs while Natty takes the frontline, but in 'Sticky' she is centre stage and I couldn't be happier about it. Natty and Belle take the post chorus sounding incredible as always, and Julie punches up the verses and post chorus ad-libs with her citrus-esque vocal tones. All the girls come together on the chorus in a chant thats been stuck in my head since I heard it. This and Chuu's 'Strawberry Rush' are my songs of the summer.

If 'Sticky' is a midday bike ride along the beach, 'Te Quiero' is a midnight beach party lit by campfires and neon swimsuits. Its the perfect b-side for 'Sticky', equally as addictive but slightly more unique in its construction. The strings on this track are to die for, and the lyrics are surprisingly enjoyable too.

A great single album for the summer months, Kiof have done it again - are we surprised?

Cheeky Icy Thang - STAYC

STAYC's last couple of releases, 'Bubble' and 'Teddy Bear' have been highly divisive, and while they didn't perform poorly by any means domestically, they were pretty unpopular among international kpop listeners. It seems HighUp recognized this lack of interest, and when the head prophet said the omens were right for STAYC to have a full album, they dropped the more childish concept and circled right back to 'RUN2U' - and now we have 'Cheeky Icy Thang'.

To be honest, the first couple of times i heard this song I didn't get it. My main impression was that it was messy - there were too many elements fighting for dominance, too many hooks, too many words in one line. And while I do still stand by some of those elements (you cannot convince me Sieun says 'rock' in the line 'on-the-rock whiskey ring-a-ring ding-dong'), but now I see the song as more maximalist than messy. I consider 'RUN2U' to be one of the most polished and well executed kpop songs of all time, and 'Cheeky Icy Thang' is not that at all - but it's charm comes in how rough and chaotic it is. While yes, the lyrics did need a second draft in some cases, notable exceptions being Sieun's '미녀와 야수면 내가 Beast' in the intro (excellent, no notes), the song's structure is genuinely a masterpiece - J's subversive pre-chorus having that tinny answerphone layer was amazing, easily the best part of the song. The production is top tier throughout, but that is to be expected from Black Eyed Pilseung.

It's difficult to pinpoint what exactly is so charming and subversive about 'Cheeky Icy Thang', because on paper it is neither something new for STAYC, nor something new for the industry at large in terms of concept or sonic style. However, what this song does that is so odd for kpop is that it does not put all of its eggs in one basket at all. Kpop songs, especially kpop songs post the TikTok era (thanks SO MUCH for that Zico), tend to be top heavy, and concentrate all the fun and creativity and catchiness into the chorus. 'Cheeky icy Thang' does not do that - the verses are a treat, the pre-chorus is a stunner, the breakdowns are groovy, and the chorus leaves us just satiated enough to keep listening. Crucially, 'Cheeky Icy Thang' cannot be compressed, and while they undoubtedly will make a dance challenge out of it, you cannot get the full experience of this song from a 20 second soundbite, as you can with so many other songs coming out right now.

### - tripleS

Lack of music video aside, '###' is the perfect tripleS japanese debut. A lovechild of anime intros and tripleS's iconic maximalist sound with a tS trademark 'lalala' post chorus, EVERYTHING about '###' is deliciously addictive. It's hyper-cute to the point of psychosis, and the members vocal delivery is perfectly imperfect.

Like a year ago I started yapping about what I called 'love island pop', and with this review I would like to introduce another micro-genre my prefrontal cortex cooked up 'Rhythm Heaven Fever pop'. Basically, music that sounds like it wouldn't be out of place in a Wii U rhythm game from 2011. '###' fits this perfectly, other notable examples being 'Dumb Dumb', 'Rookie' and '#Cookie Jar' - Red Velvet, and 'BBoom BBoom' - Momoland. This is the kind of music that keeps kpop going in my opinion, it's been a steady undercurrent of the trending sounds over the last 3 generations, and I am more than glad to see tripleS stoking the embers.

Such an unabashedly FUN song, it never takes itself seriously and that works FULLY in it's favour. Definitely a must-listen track from the July roster.

MINI REVIEWS:

[ALBUM] MINISERIES 2 - SUMIN & Slom: Wasn't sure if I should include this since it's not really kpop, but what the fuck SUMIN IS BACK BABY and yeah its another FUCKING BANGER of an album. Just go listen to it. I might do a separate review of it because it's just that good, so expect that in the next 2-5 business years. Just go stream it.

Klaxon - (G)-IDLE: For all I don't really like (G)-IDLE's music, I can usually admit that it is at least catchy. And yet, somehow Klaxon is not that catchy? The first line of the hook feels like a bizarre Frank Sinatra interpolation, and that post chorus does most of the heavy lifting for this track. Overall, this felt pretty derivative, but hey, sometimes a throwback isn't the worst.

FOREVER - BABYMONSTER: Babymonster are leaps and bounds away from my stan list, and even though this is vaguely something different from them (not really, it's just that there isn't an empty chorus), it's once again not for me. The vocal mixing on this song is very odd and as a result any emotion or power the girls used in their vocals is totally lost and tonally the song falls flat. The key change in the final chorus is a nice touch, and Pharita and Haram especially shine on this track. The fact that this was somewhat 'something new' gives me hope though - perhaps all is not lost over at YG. Perhaps.

Something Ain't Right - XG: XG are so consistent in the quality of their releases it's actually insane - from the production to the hooks to the vocal direction this is such a fun song. I don't know if I love it as much as TGIF or New Dance from X-GENE, but it's a very solid release. XG are well and truly the ones to watch, and the dichotomy between this and 'Woke Up' proves that perfectly.

Let It Burn - H1-KEY: You know, this was so close to being one of several contenders to be included on my mini reviews segment that just get cut, but this release really shocked me. I went in with almost no knowledge of H1-KEY, I had heard of them, but I had no idea what the concept was, who the girls were or even how many of them there were. 'Let it Burn' is a fucking delight from start to finish. A lot of these kpop takes on punk rock anthems fall flat for me, but this one keeps it honest and heartfelt throughout. The lyrics are honestly a delight, the chorus is fun, but the verses are the real star of the show, snappy and well delivered, and backed by a clean, classic hip-hop beat. You probably missed this track this month, and I would definitely recommend a listen.

JUSTICE - Dreamcatcher: Trust me, I am SO CLOSE to getting dreamcatcher to click for me, and 'Justice' proves that. It's lowkey fucking amazing, SO well executed. I truly think I am one discography deep dive away from falling in love with DC, this song is SUCH A BANGER. I really appreciate how DC never sacrifices their unique sound for whats trending, no one else is doing what they are doing, and holy hell are they doing it well.

Don't - LEE CHAE YEON: It's cute? I guess? Not overly spectacular, but not spectacularly awful either. I still don't know who the fuck Charlie is.

[itsbansheebitch]

New work by Shepard Fairey (Creator of the Obama:Hope art work)

I honestly like the Obama:Hope poster more than the Harris:Forward poster as an art piece, but I think Shepard Fairey's style with a candidate and a single word is quite catchy and follows the ideas that Kamala Harris is looking to get into.

Between her Scandinavia-adjacent econ policies, to protections for LGBTQ+ rights, women's rights, etc, it is clear that Forward is a great word for her proposed ideas.

Her and Walz's new slogan "We Are Not Going Back" is also indicative of this new Forward poster.

Also I like the Obama:Hope style poster more (in my opinion, this Kamala poster looks more flat compared to the Obama poster), I like how her hair, jewelry, and lipstick is highlighted here. Shepard Fairey clearly understands how important a first woman President for the US will be and clearly wants to emphasize her more feminine features.

And although I'm not a fan of the flatness of the piece, it also emphasizes how young she is compared to Trump. I think this is interesting to emphasize due to Walz's persona as a "Midwestern Dad" and Harris as a young candidate (represents a younger demographic). When you see this poster next to a photo of Trump, the difference is CRAZY.

The word Forward takes front and center and creates a SHARP contrast when put next to Project 2025. Kamala Harris is also notably the most Pro-Palestine/Least Zionist Presidential Candidate (Out of Reps and Dems since the creation of Israel) America has EVER HAD. This only adds to the weight of this piece's message: Forward.

Overall, it serves its purpose even if it isn't my favorite piece Shepard Fairey has made. It's nice, I suppose. I think I would have liked more red, but the white and blue really separates the Harris:Forward and Obama:Hope posters as aesthetically separate. I also like Kamala's smile in the poster more than Obama's stoic appearance in the Obama:Hope poster.