#ALSO I CANT WAIT FOR YOUR ADVENT MONTH

[valoale]

AAAAAA IM SOBBING THANK YOU 😭😭😭❤️

He doesn't want much!

[illfoandillfie]

5 Simple Rules for a Successful Relationship: Blurb

This wasn’t requested by anyone but the idea has been kicking around my head basically since I wrote the Ben POV chapter

Warnings for fluff and smut but it’s all very soft

5 Simple Rules Series Masterlist

Blurb Advent Day 1

Taglist since it’s part of a series: @vee-ndetta @atomic-watermelon @kellypenac @labessieisallama @deakyclicks @jennyggggrrr @drowseoftaylor @hannafuckingsucks @i-cant-hangout-im-drumming @queenmylovely @taron-egrotten @johndeaconshands @borhapbois @stardust-galaxies 

@coni-martina @hardforbenhardy @cubedtriangle @vicouscirce @arianabrashierstuff @pattieboydwannabe @maggieroseevans @theprettyandthereckless @friccinfricks 

Ben had it all planned out. He’d known how he was going to ask for a while, before he’d even picked out the ring. But, so far, he hadn’t been able to put his plan into action. As much as he wanted to ask it never quite felt like the right time. There was always something going on, somewhere to be – work or dinner with friends or general errands to sort out. But he knew how he wanted it to happen. He’d cook dinner, your favourite meal of course, followed by dessert made from scratch, really bring out the big guns. Afterwards he’d put on some music, a playlist of love songs he’d been adding to for months now, maybe ask you to dance. It was a little corny but sometimes corny was okay. Later on he’d pop into the kitchen and pull out your two mugs and place the ring in the bottom of yours before returning to the couch to sit with you. And then, at the usual time, he’d say he could really go with a hot drink before bed. He knew you’d volunteer to make them since he’d made dinner so he’d wait for you to leave the room before following. He’d listen for the gasp of surprise when you checked the mugs and saw the ring. That would be his cue to step into the room and get down on one knee and ask you to marry him. He had the speech ready to go too, knew what he wanted to say. How fast he’d fallen for you, how glad he was you were with him, how much he loved you.

Thinking about actually popping the question made Ben nervous. But the good kind of nervous. Of course the topic of weddings and marriage had come up before, abstractly. It was nearly unavoidable when his mum would not-so-subtly check for an engagement ring every time you visited, and then even less so when Gwilym got engaged and invited you both to the party. So he’d asked you about it, whether you had ever considered the whole settling down thing – marriage, kids, white picket fence, the lot. He was pleased to find out you liked the idea, had even imagined what the future might be like with him. The only thing you didn’t want was a public proposal which Ben fully supported. After all the attention you’d received as a result of the relationship, all the magazine articles and snapped photos while you were just trying to buy milk and bread, it felt wrong to voluntarily make such a private situation public. Ben was sure you’d be asked about it in future interviews and on social media and he wouldn’t mind sharing the story then, after he was sure you’d say yes. He had no reason to believe you wouldn’t but there was always that slight uncertainty, that intrusive doubt that made him wonder if you’d just tell him to bugger off instead. He found comfort in the plan though. Knowing exactly what he would do was reassuring. But even the best laid plans weren’t guaranteed.

Ben’s actual proposal caught him off guard as much as it did you. It was early on a Saturday, sometime between two and three. Usually you’d both be fast asleep but instead you were stumbling into the house, lit only by the grey light of the morning. You hadn’t meant to stay at the afterparty for so long but people kept handing you drinks and drawing you into conversations and music was still pumping through the speakers and before you knew it five more minutes had become a couple of extra hours. Ben emptied his pockets onto the hall stand as he watched you lean against the front door and kick off your shoes. He couldn’t resist catching you in a quick kiss before he wrapped his arm around you with a soft, “C’mon cuddle bunny,” and lead you towards the bathroom. Both of you set about brushing teeth and washing faces and changing into pyjamas. He chuckled as he watched you extract an almost obscene amount of bobby pins from your hair before you retied it to sleep in. But, even after everything was done and you’d both climbed under the covers, sleep didn’t come. Ben, eyes closed in an attempt to trick sleep into taking him, felt you move under his arm and peeked through his lashes to find you facing him.

“You okay?” His voice was hushed though there was no real need and when you responded yours was too.“Yeah just not really tired,” “Me neither,” “Do you wanna…?” “Now?” “Well just lying here waiting to drop off is a bit boring but I also don’t really feel like getting up,” “Alright then, why not.” “If you fall asleep half way through I won’t hold it against you,” “Shut up and take your pants off,” Ben laughed, already wriggling out of his. “You just didn’t sound very enthusiastic,” “I am always enthusiastic about this,” Ben forgot everything else he might have said as you pulled him into a kiss.

The sex itself was okay. Nothing special really. You’d had better sex plenty of other times, though you’d also had worse. The best way to describe it was fine. It wasn’t mind blowing but it was comfortable and reliable and fine. Ben felt a little clumsy as he kissed you back, his hand roaming over your side and down to your arse. He supposed the dark of the room and the drinks you’d both put down over the course of the night were having an impact, but, by the way you giggled against his lips, it seemed you found it cute more than anything else. To compensate for his inelegant fingers, Ben moved slowly, enjoying kissing you as much as he could. He hummed when you slid your hand down between your bodies and found his dick, stroking it unhurriedly. There wasn’t a need to go faster, no built up passion to release. The sex was a way to kill some time. Even when you hooked your leg over his and he sank into you, nothing really changed. But Ben knew what you liked and did his best to hit those spots as he wrapped his arms around you and kissed you again. He decided he must be doing something right based off the small keening noises you made. All the same he didn’t expect your next outburst, said softly right against his lips.

“God Ben, I want you inside me forever,” It slipped out before he could second guess himself, “Then marry me,” “What?” Ben paused his movement, not totally sure he’d actually said it until he drew back enough to look at you and saw the stunned expression you wore. His heart pounded as he realised this was it, this was the moment, “Might be easier to do that if we’re married is all. So, will you? Will you marry me?” It took a few moments for the question to sink in but once it had you nodded in agreement. You felt the same. “Yes?” “Yes.” “Yeah? You’ll marry me?” “Yes, yes, I’ll marry you,” Ben broke out into a grin and swept you into another kiss though he cut it off abruptly, “Wait, hold on,” somewhat ungracefully Ben pulled out of you and rolled out of the bed, switching on a lamp and heading over to his chest of draws. He dug around in one for a moment before he pulled out a small box which he brought back to the bed. Kneeling in front of you, he popped the box open to show you the ring before taking it and sliding it onto your finger.

You couldn’t help but stare, holding you hand out in front of you to see how it looked. It was beautiful, not too over the top but not exactly understated either, and it fit perfectly. When you raised you eyes back to Ben’s face you noticed his eyes glistening. “I love it Ben, I love you,” “I love you too Y/N,” he whispered back, kissing you again and laying you back down.

As Ben sank back into you, you placed your hand on his chest, picking up his body heat except where the cool metal of the ring lay. You could feel his heart beating under your palm as he rolled his hips against you, trying to finish what you’d started. It took a little while longer, though things moved less slowly than they had before the interruption of the proposal. Ben dropped his fingers to your clit as he felt you getting closer, drawing gentle circles until the warm wave rolled through you, pulling a soft sigh from your lips. He kept his fingers there as if to try to give you another orgasm, maybe one not quite so soft, but you pulled his hand away, linking his fingers with yours as you kissed his throat and encouraged him to finish too. It didn’t matter that your orgasm hadn’t been particularly powerful. All that mattered was that Ben was with you and he always would be.

Afterwards you curled up, leaning your head on Ben’s chest, his arm around you. He sighed contentedly and kissed the top of your head. “So much for sleeping,” he chuckled. “What we did was better than sleep,” “Definitely. And if we hold out for a little longer we could watch the sunrise,” “I don’t know if I’ll last that long,” “No, me neither. It’d be nice though,” You agreed and lapsed into a comfortable silence. And then a thought struck you, “You know, we’re going to need a cover story,” “What?” “People are going to want to hear the story of how you proposed. Felicity, Joe, Gwil, the rest of our friends, our families, not to mention paparazzi and the press, they’ll all ask.”  “Fuck.” “So you don’t want to look your mother in the eye and explain it happened mid shag either? Good to know we’re on the same page,” Ben laughed, “Funnily enough, that was very unplanned. I had something much more romantic and better prepared in mind when I thought about how I’d do it. A whole big speech about you being the love of my life and how I want to spend every day of my life making you feel happy and safe and loved,” “Go on then, what was it,” Ben explained his original idea, about the dinner and the mugs, all the while playing with your fingers as if he didn’t want to break contact.  “That does sound wonderful, but I have to admit, I really love how it actually happened,” “Me too,” he laughed, “But that’s good. Because now we have a story to tell everyone and a slightly more accurate story just for ourselves.”

[lepus-the-bun]

Garlameld and it’s Real World Inspiration

Okay, so I’m gonna open up a bit of discussion. The main reason why, is multiple times over the past month, I’ve heard people equate the Garlean Empire to the Third Reich. Which... Isn’t terribly accurate. So here, I’m going to discuss where I believe the garlean empire is based off of, and where else they take inspiration from.

WAIT! No no don’t just skip by! I know, a lot of people just don’t give two shits about the Garlean Empire, but it’s kinda becoming important to a character perspective that we -do- care to understand their basis and their lore more... Even more so with the increased focus they are getting. 

Alright, so lets get started... And please, if you disagree and wish to say so, by all means do it politely and in a way that facilitates discussion. So right off the bat, let me hit out a quick disclaimer.

THE GARLEAN EMPIRE IS NOT MEANT TO BE FF14′S GOOD GUYS, NOR IN ANY WAY AM I ATTEMPTING TO SAY THAT THE EMPIRE IS JUSTIFIED IN EVERYTHING THEY DO, AND HOW THEY DO IT. I AS AN INDIVIDUAL SEPARATE FROM MY CHARACTER, DO NOT CONDONE THE ACTIONS PRESENTED IN LORE AND GAME.

Okay. With that out of the way, let me quickly say -why- I believe it’s important to understand where they are based off of.

BECAUSE WE HAVE A LOT OF SHIT GOING ON IN THE UNITED STATES, AND THE WORLD REGARDING PEOPLE HOLDING BELIEFS ALONG THE LINE OF HITLERS NATIONALIST SOCIALIST PARTY. 

It’s awkward, I know, but -PLEASE- bear with me. I remembered when I first started playing FF14, and encountered the Garlean Empire. I took one look at Black/Red uniforms and immediately my mind clicked and went “Oh so they are supposed to be fantasy Nazi’s.” It’s easy to consider that, so lets go over some small points as to why people think they are Nazi’s right off the bat.

Red/Black color scheme, common in association with Nazi characters. Aggressively expansionist against peaceful nations. (I will get into this later) Experimentation on humans and human like races. Very technologically advanced. Racists. Also that one time they tried to blow up all of Eorzea. And they kinda keep killing all the beast tribes.

On the surface, we look at these, and see well... Nazi’s. Really easy right? I mean, they’re dicks, they use Nazi color schemes and everything. Well, lets go into a few of those points. 

#1: Fuck you hitler for ruining Red and Black color schemes. 

Seriously, it’s a color scheme. I don’t know what you want me to say, but they’re not wearing SS uniforms, and shouting in german while goose stepping through the lands. Some legions, use red and black for their uniforms--- What’s that? Some Legions? Yes! With the advent of seeing the Doman legion, (Who’s uniform we get) we see that the uniforms change their appearance as their uniform is black with a gold trim. So... It’s a color scheme, for some legions, and that’s pretty much it. 

#2: Aggressive expansionists.

 Alright, this one is just a -bit- tricky so please -please- stick with me on this one. Garlean conquest is based on purely, conquest. Only in -one- place in the lore do we see someone claim Garlean Purebloods to be superior to the other races, and that’s from a mad scientist (Who I will get into later). Instead, what we see is the Garlean Empire expand out, conquer territory, and then subjugating them to service of the Empire, with the ultimate goal of incorporating the inhabitant’s and their descendants as -Citizens-.(This is important)

On the flip side, Nazi expansion was based upon the ideal of Racial Superiority, with a disputed intent among historians. Some believe the end goal was just europe itself, allowing the Third Reich to then create a system of government based heavily upon nationality with the intent to solely benefit the ‘Aryan’ race whom was considered superior over all.

This is not something we see in Garlean expansion, infact whenever a garlean insults member of a newly controlled country, it is all based upon their CITIZENSHIP. This ties in closely with another historical group who I will talk about later...

And as a final point, as to how we see them -treat- conquered territories... We see that for lands that rebel against them, they are quick to put out harsh punishment. Then when ZENOS THE CRAZY FUCKING ASSHOLE gets involved, he -deliberately orders the conditions to be worsened for him to get his jollies off-.(This will be important later.)

#3: Human Experimentation

... This has happened in the lore, within the Garlean empire. Yet, while compared to the Nazi goal of just ‘dicking around and discovering as much fucked up shit as they can’, the experiments we are shown are centered around granting Garlean Purebloods magic, which they cannot use naturally. Infact, the only reason we -SEE- this experimentation, is because Zenos (Aint Nepotism a Bitch) picked up the lost puppy of a mad scientist,  Aulus mal Asina. 

First off, FUCK THIS GUY. Seriously. Fuck him. He is not the -STANDARD- within the Garlean Empire. We are even -told- that he became Zenos’ little pet because NO ONE ELSE WOULD SANCTION HIS WORK BECAUSE THEY THOUGHT HE WAS CRAZY. He, is -why- the XII legion is filled with weird mutated creatures and other bullshit. Because Zenos, the crazy fucker decided to bring him -in- to the fold. 

Is this a sign that Zenos was just fucking deranged and held little value for life? Or that SE wanted add a dash of Nazi war crimes into the mix of the Garlean empire? Well, personally I believe it was meant as the first, with a little dash of the second. Hell, some could make arguments that the Nazi’s weren’t the only ones to do cruel and inhuman experiments... (YEAH I’M LOOKING AT YOU JAPAN, DON’T THINK YOU’RE OFF THE HOOK EITHER)

#4: They are one of the most technologically advanced groups.

... A lot of former countries/people started empires because they had a technological advantage. This could just as well be based off the USA, England, Egypt, Greece... Or what I’ll point out later. 

Secondarily, there is a -CLEAR- lore reason behind this. Garlean purebloods cannot use magic. That’s it. In the lore, the Garlean Republic was often bullied by neighboring countries, and in their search to find a way to fight back... They found Magitech, and then started to -steamroll- through the other nations. So it’s not just making them technologically advanced because “MAKE THEM LOOK LIKE NAZI’S”, there’s a bigger grasp of the lore present... Where it’s used to make UP for a weakness held by the purebloods, which turned out to turn the tables and enable their conquest.

#5: Racists. 

They as a nation, are racist. It’s true. So were Nazi’s. So were the Greeks. So were Romans. So was the Japanese Empire. The Chinese Empire. The French. The English. The United States. 

Moving from IRL to the game, there is racisim aplenty there too. Limsa violates treaties with Kobolds because ‘fuck those guys’, and then plays victim. Girdania shows in the MSQ they don’t care about the suffering of the Ala Mhigans, but care more what the elementals think, and Ul’dah... Do I need to really go into how racist and filled with assholes Ul’dah is? Save the Sultana, who is a sugarbun too pure for this world. Hell, it was considered a -great- advancement when a Hyur got to the Syndicate... And Ul’dah also committed literal genocide against a fellow city state in the past. 

Discrimination, is not unusual. Hell, it’s -common- in Eorzea, and the world in game from what we see. This is all COMPLETELY different from the racial beliefs of the Nazi party however. As we see no extreme equivalent to the Waffen SS, hunting down the ‘impure’ or those of theological differences. We don’t see concentration camps, though there are prisons for those who -do- resist/rebel. But the distinction of the reason WHY they are in there, will be important at the end. But lets get to the important one...

#6: They want to kill all the beastmen!

... No. I was -shocked- by this, but from what we have seen, the Empire is perfectly fine coexisting with a beast tribe... UNTIL THEY SUMMON A PRIMAL. At that point, they do not discriminate and wipe out the tribe in the area. From the Lupin, to the Anatana, to even the use of Kojin as mercenaries. The Lupin are even brought in as conscripts to be -used- in legions. Anatana are mostly left alone, and end up being attacked by a FUCKING IDIOT WHO DIDN’T THINK PROPERLY.

We even see the empire preparing to clean up some Vanu during the heavensward MSQ... And after having a chit chat with the emperor, and your friend showing up, they bounce back off to their GIANT FUCKING AIRSHIP THAT COULD HAVE OBLITERATED WHERE YOU WERE STANDING. 

But, we also know -why- the Empire despised beastmen... They summoned primals, and primals, slowly kill the world. To the Garlean empire, the moment a tribe summons a primal it is an attack upon the world, and -needs- to be quelled... This is -not- the same as the Nazi’s irrational hatred. HOLD ON DON’T GET READY TO THROW ME TO THE GALLOWS! This does NOT mean it is justified, and right... But rather the distinction is IMPORTANT. Moving on from this...

#7: They kinda tried to blow up Eorza.

... That is a thing we did. that is very much a thing we did. Although, that is really... Really not a Nazi thing, and if anything, was more a ‘America and the Nuke’ inspired event.So... Not Nazi inspired. Just as genocide inspired as dropping the nukes, WHICH I UNDERSTAND AMERICA WAS/STILL IS PRETTY FUCKING RACIST AND EVERYTHING AROUND THAT WAS JUST FUCKING TERRIBLE...

But it’s not a Nazi thing. It’s just a insensitive to life thing. Of course, the whole reasoning behind it ICly was “FUCK YOU IF WE CANT CONTROL YOU WE WILL BLOW YOU UP” because Eorzea kept allowing primals to be summoned left and right, and outside of one group... Really was not prepared to contain them. So yeah. Crazy, stupid, morally wrong, but not Nazi. 

FINE NOW WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU GOING TO SAY THEY ARE INSPIRED OFF OF?

The Roman Empire. More specifically, during the decline of the Empire. To simplify and not take up too much time, allow me to use a quick list for ya’ll.

-Liberal use of Roman Military structure, with consistent use of roman titles. -Consistent use of citizenship for conquered lands, including the popular ‘military service for citizenship’ -Brutality is often used as a response to rebellion, and not just because of someone’s lineage -The nepotisim that brought Zenos to power, and really, Zenos just embodying late roman emperors. -A republic that became an empire, while still keeping the senate intact.

These are just a few. But hey, if you disagree or wish to discuss, please... Feel free.