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justmeinadaze · 4 months ago

Text

Inescapable (Steddie X You)

A/N: This is the events that ties in with this thing here :)

Please enjoy!

Warnings: Older (Early 30s) Prisoner Steddie & Young (Early 20s) Fem college student Y/N, SMUT, public smut, fingering, grinding, LOTS of dirty talk, daddy kink (cause I'm me), female masturbation, handjob (m & m), ANGST, cheating (reader is in a relationship), mentions of her parents not approving of her talking to the guys, reader also mentions bf parents don't like her, readers bf interviews the guys and vaguely mentions things from season 4 like the deaths and starts a fight with them, boys get jealous and angry when promises are broken, cliffhanger ending (because I can :) ).

Word Count: 8533

"You can build a prison of stone and steel, but you merely present the prisoner with a challenge. Any truly determined man will find a way out but love, love is the perfect prison. Inescapable."-- Wilson Fisk (Daredevil)

September 1996

The longer you waited for the system to transfer your call to their cellblock the more your nerves continued to build.

You had been corresponding with convicts Eddie Munson and Steve Harrington for almost two months so it wasn’t like this was your first time talking to them but there were so many different factors that made you anxious.

Becoming a lawyer was all you ever wanted to be and you constantly felt like you had to prove yourself since your family was so desperate for you to become anything else. When you were told to pick a case, everyone in your class chose the obvious candidates making your eyes roll especially since there was no challenge in it. So many well-known cases had not only evidence but confessions from the defendant saying that they did the crimes. Manson and Gacy had done interviews constantly incriminating themselves.

Eddie and Steve never once accepted any kind of invitation to do an interview whether it be media or print and they never once changed their stories even in the letters they wrote. A plea deal had been offered for them to plead guilty with Steve serving only 10 years and Eddie with 15 but they declined insisting on their innocence.

The evidence was lack luster at best and it killed you that their lawyer didn’t do a better job at defending them. You genuinely believed them and what they told you. Add in the fact that their demeanors in their writing never conveyed any kind of hostility or rudeness.

Both men were always polite and answered any questions you had. They could be intimidating at times but you thought maybe it was just because they were older than you and stuck in a place they never should have been.

Oddly enough though, you felt safe with them.

“Hey, Y/N?”, a soft voice flowed through your ears.

“Yeah, um, hey. Hi. Is this, um, who is this?”

“I’m Steve and Eddie’s on the phone next to me. The prison has a way for three-way calls but don’t worry. We can pay for those fees.”, the man responds hoping to calm your nerves.

“Hey, sweetheart. It’s good to hear your voice finally.”, Eddie exhales heavily.

Blinking, you hear what sounds like one of them being hit as Steve scolds his friend.

“Stop it. You’re going to scare her.”

“He’s not…I’m not scared. It’s alright, I just…this is all new to me.”

“What? You didn’t expect to be on the phone with convicted killers?”, Eddie replied bluntly making you laugh a little when you heard the other man sigh in frustration. “You’re going to have to get used to it with you wanting to be a lawyer. Unless you want to be lawyer like Steve’s dad.”

“Oh, no thank you. Tax law isn’t exactly stimulating to say the least.”, you giggle.

“Ah, I see you tried to reach out to my father.”

“Um, I did. I hope that’s ok. You didn’t say I couldn’t—”

“No, honey. It’s absolutely fine. I say tried because I imagine he ignored you?”

“He didn’t ignore me exactly. I told him I was a law student…I just left out exactly what type of law I was studying.”, you wince on the other end fearing it may alliant him before sighing in relief when they both laugh. “When I started asking about your case he politely told me to fuck off and your mom didn’t answer my calls.”

“How does one politely tell someone to fuck off?”, Eddie asked.

“He’s got his ways. I’m sorry he was rude, Y/N.”

“It’s not a problem. I’m kind of used to parents talking down to me.”

“Baby? Are you hungry?! Oh shit, I’m sorry. I didn’t know you were on the phone.”

Your eyes squeezed shut as your boyfriend called to you in the background immediately silencing the men on the line.

“Uh, no, Derek. I’m not hungry right now but maybe later?” After nodding, he disappears into your shared bedroom. “I’m so sorry about that.”

��No problem. Isn’t it like nine o’clock? You need to eat something, sweetheart.”

“It’s ok, Mr. Mun—Eddie…I had a big lunch.”

We’ve been writing for two months and you still struggle using our names?”, the man laughs. “You start your letters with ‘em!”

“I know. I know but it’s different.”

“Well, let’s shake out those nerves because I have a feeling we’re going to be friends for a while. You’re Y/N. Who are we?”, Steve instructs with a calm tone that makes you blush. “Come on, pretty girl. Who are we?”

“Steve. Steve and Eddie.”

“Good. Very good. Now can you say it a bit more confidently?”

Glancing around you, you make sure your boyfriend isn’t within earshot before sighing and replying, “You’re Eddie and Steve.”

“You have five more minute on this call.”

The automated voice startled you as you listened to them heavily exhale in annoyance.

“Alright, princess. We’ll…we’ll let you go but feel free to call us whenever. Like I said…It was so nice to hear your voice. Compared to all the bullshit we hear in here…it’s a nice reprieve.”

You hear a line disconnect thinking they both suddenly disconnected before Steve’s voice flowed through.

“All of this has been really hard on him, you know?”

“I can’t imagine…”

“But he’s not wrong. It’s been so long since we’ve heard a kind voice directed our way especially one as calming as yours… But, yeah, um, Eddie said call whenever but you know—”

“I can’t call after 10:30pm.”

“You got it, hon. Have a good night and we’ll talk to you later.”

“Good night, Steve”

##########################

December 22, 1996

“Don’t let my uncle forget to give you the present we got you! We went to every store to find the perfect gift!”

You laughed hard at Eddie’s joke as Steve sighed in fake frustration into the phone.

“Ok we didn’t but we did scan the Sears catalogue Wayne brought when he came to see us.”

“You guys didn’t have to get me anything.”

“Pfft, please. You’re our friend and you said you got us something so sue us.” You softly smiled when you heard Steve’s smile flow through. You imagined this time of year was exceptionally hard for them and wanted to do what you could, growing fond of them after all this time. “Are you still visiting Derek’s parents for Christmas?”

“That is the plan but I’m a bit nervous. This is my first time meeting them and I’m afraid they won’t like me.”

“Sweetheart, have you met you? They’re going to love you!”

“Shut the fuck up!”

This wasn’t the first time another inmate had interrupted their call. They explained to you that while the phones were in a private-ish area, the common area was still nearby. You never told them but you could hear the immediate change in their demeanor when it happened and it killed you. It was as if their old personalities would leak through before prison reminded them where they were.

You wished you could have met the men they were before being incarcerated.

“I’m sorry about that, Y/N. Everyone is a bit amped up with the holidays around the corner. He’s not wrong though. If Derek’s parents don’t like you than fuck them because obviously somethings wrong with them.”

“Steve? You don’t have to always do that… pretend like everything’s ok. Not with me.”

The silence on the other end was heavy but you could hear their steady breathing as they thought about what you were saying.

“I have to. Not just for you but me to. If I don’t downplay it then—”

“We’re reminded that we are actually in a fucking prison we don’t deserve to be in.”, Eddie added breaking your heart.

“I wish there was something I could do.”, you whisper.

“Baby, you have no idea how much you do just by being you. We don’t deserve you, Y/N.”

“Yes you do, Eddie. You and Steve don’t deserve the hell you’ve been through. I wish I could at least hug you both.”

Again, both men were silent and the only sound you heard was your boyfriend in your bedroom as he finished packing the last of his things for your trip.

“We wish we could hug you to, honey.”

“Yeah especially with the way your letters smell I always imagine you smell exactly the same…so fucking sweet…just like you.”

Their voices had dropped to a register you had never heard from either man before let alone any man in your lifetime. The sound had your heart fluttering as you licked your lips and exhaled.

“Are you, Y/N?”

“Am I what, Eddie?”

“Are you sweet?”

“You have five more minutes on this call.”

“Baby?! I got everything packed but I’m not sure if I’m missing something!”, your boyfriend shouts making you gasp as you jump.

“Fuck. Um, I have to go. I’ll call you guys when I can ok? Bye!”

Before they even say a word, you hastily hang up the phone.

########################

January 12th, 1997

Biting the skin beside your nail, you glance at the other people in the visitor’s center waiting to see other inmates. Some women were dressed in low cut shirts showing off their cleavage making you a bit self-conscious as you adjusted the slightly baggy sweater hanging off your body. This was your first time physically meeting Eddie and Steve and you weren’t sure why but you wanted to make a good impression.

Quickly throwing your sweater to the side, you fixed your hair before straightening the long sleeve shirt underneath that fit a bit better to your form. Not wanting to seem too eager, you chose jeans telling yourself it was also due to the cold weather.

You weren’t sure if you could bring anything but to be honest you weren’t even sure what would be appropriate. When you met Derek’s parents you brought a dessert that no one ate except your boyfriend as his mother constantly stared daggers at you from across the table. When you went to see your parents, you showed up with small gifts that they always seemed to awkwardly thank you for before giving you gifts as well that were things you could never use. Oddly enough the only person to react positively to you showing up with an item was Eddie’s uncle whose eyes lit up when you appeared at his front door with cake you made. You both shared it as he talked to you about holidays at the Munson household and answered some of the questions you had.

What do you bring to people who lost their freedom?

Inmates began slowly entering the room and the sudden sounds of partners and parents sobbing as they embraced them overwhelmed you as you closed your eyes and took a deep breath.

“Y/N?”

When you opened your them again you were met with two tall men towering you. You had read about them constantly and seen their pictures numerus time in different place but having them both in front of you now abruptly overloaded your brain as you rose to your feet.

They still physically looked more or less the same than the day they were arrested 10 years ago except Steve had a bit more facial hair and Eddie seemed to have more tattoos on his arms. Under their short sleeve white shirts, you could see their muscular arms and abs, again making you self-conscious as you pulled at the bottom of garment without looking. Steve’s hair was a bit longer but a bit frayed as if he had been running his fingers through it before coming into the room while Eddie’s long hair was pulled back out of his face showing off his soft features.

“Is everything ok? You look scared. Don’t worry, honey, you’re safe in here. No one is going to UMPH—”

Steve’s hands flew up in surprise when you jerked forward and your arms wrapped around his waist. It took him a moment before his own limbs finally circled around you as his cheek rested on top of your head.

“Fuck me… It’s been so long since anyone except Ed has hugged me.”

At the sound of his name, you released the one man to move to the other who without hesitation took you in his embrace and clung to you tightly as his fingers tangled in your hair.

Feeling his hands shake against you, you pulled back into time to hear him clear his throat as he turned away from you to run his palms over his face.

“Sorry, yeah, it’s been a while since anyone has come to see us. Well, except for Wayne.”

Their eyes never leave you as you take a seat and they follow you down making sure to keep their distance until you felt more comfortable.

“I like Wayne. He’s been incredibly kind to me since I met him. Not that everyone else hasn’t…just hard to get a hold of people. Especially Nancy Wheeler and Dustin Henderson since they no longer live in Hawkins.” Shifting your gaze their way, you notice them staring at you with small smiles on their faces. “I’m sorry. I’m, um, babbling a bit. I’m just a little nervous I guess. Plus, you’re not what I was expecting…aaaaand I’m doing it again. Ok.”

Eddie’s hand gently reaches out to grasp your forearm that was resting on the table.

“It’s ok, sweetheart. There’s no reason to be nervous.”

“What do you mean by ‘not what you were expecting’?”, Steve smirks. “Were you thinking orange jumpsuits and tattoos on our faces?”

“No.”, you giggle. “I don’t know. I guess when you’re only familiar with pictures…seeing someone in person…”

“Yeah, we know the feeling.”, the long-haired man beams your way. “I was right by the way. You smell intoxicating.”

***

February 10th, 1997

You smile as both men continue to laugh at joke Eddie had made while they continue to nibble on the food you brought them.

“I’m surprised they let you bring this in. Did you drug them with your own set of like pot brownies or—”

“Shhhh!”, you giggle as your hand reaches up to silence the metalhead who casually tilts back and captures it with his own making a silent mental note that you don’t pull away. “The guards here actually aren’t too bad. At first I was afraid to ask but when I did they told me it was ok to bring desserts but they have to inspect it, of course, and then it can’t be in like any glass.”

“And you said you brought this to Derek’s parents and they didn’t like it? I think these brownies are delicious.”, Steve grinned as he sucked some of the remaining chocolate off his thumb.

“It’s not that they didn’t like it, they just don’t like me.” As you nervously chuckle and glance towards the window, Eddie’s own thumb caresses your skin comfortingly as the other man slides a bit closer to you when he hears the change in your voice. “Before me, Derek was dating this particular girl that his family found more fitting. Kind of like your parents Steve, his are high society and they’ve told him countless times that I’m ‘not a good fit’.”

“The fuck does that mean? You’re perfect.”

“Naw, Ed. Not to the ‘Hawkins Elite’.”, Steve sighs. “My dad was the same. Perfect to them had a particular meaning. It’s fucking stupid because you are an amazing woman.”

Your eyes lock with his as you thank them; his gorgeous honey irises burning into yours. When you notice Eddie is taking you in as well, you laugh hoping to break the tension that had suddenly built as you pulled your hand out of his grasp.

“It’s…It’s not a big deal. He made sure that night to show me how appreciated I am on the dining room table so.” Your face promptly flushes with embarrassment as you try to hide behind your palms. “Why the fuck did I just say that?”

When you finally found the confidence to look their way, you noticed they were still staring at you but something else had replaced the earlier look in their eyes. Was that…jealousy?

“Is that the kind of thing that gets you off? Doing something you shouldn’t?”

Trying to brush it off (and ignore the sexy sound of the husky drop in Eddie’s voice), you smirked as you lazily shrugged.

“Isn’t everyone to an extent?”

“Hm…but not everyone is you.”

“Steve—”

“Y/N.” At the sound of your name, you closed your eyes as you tried to catch your breath. Feeling a shift in the atmosphere, you lick your lips and lean forward till your forehead lands on his.

“This is wrong.”

“You like that though don’t you, pretty girl?�� His humid breath warms your tongue as you subtly open your mouth to contain the strong need to melt into the soft sound of his voice. “I bet if I put my hand between your legs that little pussy would be dripping.”

Closing the distance, his lips mingle gently with yours as his large palm cups your cheek. You can feel in his kiss that he’s holding back and the flutters in your stomach desperately want more. Another set of hands takes hold of your face and you’re met with another set of lips that taste like strong nicotine and sin.

“Fuck, you taste so good. Does he appreciate you, sweetheart? You deserve to be worshipped.”

“Eddie…I—”

“Munson! Harrington! Why don’t you share, huh?!”, another inmate yelled pulling you back into the reality of your situation.

“Fuck off!”, the metalhead shouted immediately rising to his feet when the other prisoner did the same.

“Ok, ok, ok.”, Steve tried to deescalate as he quickly stood up and placed himself between both men. “Come on now, guys. Let’s just focus on our own visitors ok?”

Eddie and the man continued to stare each other down before turning back towards their table but to both their dismay you were gone.

***

February 16th, 1997

“Hey, honey. Is everything alright? You sound like you’ve been crying.”

You sniffled into your phone as you pulled your knees to your chin.

“Yeah, I’m alright, Steve. I, um, I just got into a fight with Derek and he stormed out.”

“I’m so sorry, sweetheart. You can talk to us about it if you want to. We’re here for you.”, Eddie coos hating that he can’t just pull you to his chest and comfort you.

“He thinks…I’m too invested in you two. That I spend too much time talking to you and visiting. He…he wants me to stop talking to you. Maybe—Maybe I should.”

“If…if that’s what you want, baby girl. We don’t want to make things harder for you.”

“Do you WANT to stop seeing us?”

“No.”, you sobbed making the metalhead’s heart burst when you didn’t hesitate. “I like talking to you. You both make me feel safe.”

“You know we’d never hurt you, Y/N. Not unless you wanted us to that is.”

When you laughed at his statement both men let out a sigh of relief.

“What else do we make you feel, pretty girl? Besides safe.”, Steve asked. When you didn’t immediately respond, he took over as he lowered his voice. “Come on, baby. Tell us. Do we make you feel appreciated? Loved? Needed?”

“Y-Yes…”

“Do we give you tingles all over your body?”

“Yes. Fucking everywhere.”, you chuckled making the man smile.

“Even between those sexy legs?”, Eddie adds, biting his lip when he hears your heavy breath. “Can you do us a favor, princess, and run those soft hands between your pussy? Don’t put them inside you though. Just tell us how wet you are.”

You don’t know why but as the brain fog takes over you do what they ask and slid your fingers between your folds making a loud squelching noise as the pads graze your clit.

“F-Fuck…I’m—I’m soaked. I like the way you two talk to me.”

“Hm. Never had a man tell you what he wants? Trust us, honey. We fucking dream about how good our cocks would feel buried inside you. If we were free you’d never keep us off you.”, Steve groans feeling himself stiffen in his pants. “We know you like doing things you’re not supposed to. Maybe we’d show up at your school and fuck you in the library while you try to keep from screaming about how you can feel me in your stomach.”

“Steve…please…”

“Go ahead, Y/N. Push two of your fingers in that tight little cunt and pretend it’s you fully seated on top on me in the back of your class as you try to pay attention. At most you can warm my cock the entire time until everyone leaves. I bet you’d like that, sweetheart, huh?”

“Mmm—yes, Eddie, I’d like that.”, you pant as you roll your hips.

“Jesus Christ, I love hearing you say my name. Say it again, baby, please.”

“Oh God—fuck—I’m gonna…”

You moan both their names repeatedly as the coil snaps and you ride out your high as they listen to your heavy breaths.

“Such a good girl. You alright, honey?”

“Yeah… I just…I wish I could hold you.”

“We know, baby. Fuck do we know especially with what you’ve been through tonight but we’re going to see you really soon right?”

“In a few days, yeah, but I’ll call you tomorrow if that’s ok.”

“Of course, princess. You can call us whenever you need to.”

################

April 19th, 1997

Eddie’s palm held down the corner of your textbook as the wind blew around you.

Since it wasn’t as cold outside today you were able to visit with them outside near the courtyard at a picnic table under a nearby tree. You told them you were studying for an exam and they insisted you bring your materials thinking they could be of more help.

“I mean we were punished by the criminal judicial system so you’d think we’d know some of this stuff.”, Steve chuckles.

“I know a lot of it but when it comes to tests I struggle to retain any of it. It’s like I just panic sometimes.”

“I always had trouble focusing.”, the metalhead adds. “That’s why I failed so much. Oddly enough the GED wasn’t as difficult.”

“When you get out would you want to go to college?”

“Oh, sweetheart. What school would take me when I get out of here?”

“Eddie…”

“He’s got a point, babe. I tried so hard to get into a university after I graduated and even with my sports record no one wanted me. I doubt a prison record will make that easier.”

“That makes me so angry.”, you growl. “You two didn’t do anything wrong. When is your next appeal?”

“Mine is in a month and his is in three.”, Steve sighed. “Let’s not talk about that right now. How are you, Y/N? Beside the tests and school, I mean.”

“Everything’s ok. My relationship with Derek has been a bit strained. He went with me to visit my dad and my father just grilled him the moment he walked in. To remove the focus off of him, he told him that I’ve been visiting you two. That, um, that didn’t go so well.”

“What happened?”

“He just…he doesn’t approve.”

“Y/N, sweetheart, what did he say?”, Eddie soothed as he shifted his body closer to yours.

“He’s afraid you’re going to kill me like that girl.”, you murmured, panicking slightly when you see the metalhead’s jaw tighten. “You know I’m not afraid of you right? I know you’d never hurt me like that.”

“We know, baby. We know.”, Steve coos as he leans down to kiss your forehead.

“I wish I could do something to help.”, you reply in that small voice that drives them crazy.

After quickly taking a look around, he glances down at your skirt and without warning subtly lifts your body as he adjusts it so its further up your thighs. Grasping your leg, Steve lifts it over his own and Eddie slides over till he’s pressed up to your opposite side.

“Keep looking at your notebooks, honey. Don’t lift those pretty eyes from the paper unless we say ok?”

“Ok.”, you answer breathlessly as excited nerves fill your tummy.

“Good girl.”, Steve praises as he kisses your cheek and you feel his palm ghost up your skin slowly between your legs. “Fuck me. Are you not wearing panties?”, he whispers making you clench at the needy sound.

“No…I was kind of hoping…”

“Hoping what? That we’d touch you?”

“Such a bad little girl.”, Eddie teases as he reaches for your hand closest to him and kisses the back before placing it on the bulge in his blue sweatpants. “Just enjoy his fingers, Y/N. We can use you to take care of ourselves.”

“Oh my—”

“Shhhh! You have to be quiet, baby. Don’t want to get caught now do we?”, Steve smirks as you passionately shake your head. As he guides his index between your folds, your free arm wraps around his as you rest your cheek on his bicep. “Did you like that? Eddie saying that we’d use you… Oh Munson, she definitely did.”, he exhales as he wiggles and presses his finger against your clit.

At the sound of you trying to hide your moan in his arm, Steve tugs your leg further up his own and you suddenly feel his stiff cock through his pants rubbing against your calf. To your left Eddie coughs to hide a grunt that wanted to break free as he placed his hand on top of yours and maneuvered it so you were stroking him over his clothes.

They both would give anything to feel your body directly on theirs but they knew their window of time was short and unfortunately where they were there was no way to discreetly pull down their pants.

“S-Steve…pleeeeeeeeease…”

Eddie’s nose smushes against your cheek just as his friend guides two of his fingers into your core.

“We’re gonna get in trouble, Y/N, if you can’t control yourself.”, he growls as he presses your palm harder against him. “Fuck, your hand feels so fucking good.”, Eddie groans as he kisses your neck.

“Goddamn, you’re so fucking tight.”, Steve whispers. “I would give anything to—mmph—feel your pussy squeeze my dick. We’re going to ruin you, little one.”

Clinging tightly to his arm, you pressed your face into him as you muffled the screams that wanted to be heard.

“Cum, pretty girl. That’s it, baby.”, Eddie urged as the coil in your belly snapped. “Good girl. Fuck.”

After sucking your slick off his index, Steve offered his hand to his friend who without hesitation licked the rest of his middle finger.

“I knew it. I knew you tasted fucking sweet, little girl.”, he grunted as his other palm roughly grabbed your wrist, holding your hand still as Eddie rolled his hips a couple more times before shuddering a bit as he came.

Utilizing both his hands now, Steve pressed your leg harder to his crotch, grinding as subtly as he could till he grunted and his face scrunched as he soon followed.

Calloused fingers tenderly lift your head and you softly smile when the metalhead’s lips land on yours.

“I love you, Y/N.”

Giggling, you rub your face into his neck as you inhale his smell of soap and cigarettes.

“I think that’s the orgasm talking.”

With a firmer grasp, Eddie tilts your chin so his eyes lock with your own.

“I’m serious. I love you, sweetheart, and I think you love us to.”

As you turn to face Steve, he gently places your leg back down and helps you adjust your outfit.

“I love you to, honey…very much. You don’t have to say it back or anything. We know that loving us…carries a lot of weight.”

The guards scream out into the yard that visiting hours were about to end and both boys help you gather your books as they walk you back inside. Just like every time before their eyes remain on you not wanting to look away till you’re completely out of sight.

Pausing halfway out the door, you swivel your body their way and flash them the most beautiful smile either boy had ever seen.

“I love you both to.”

########################

May 7th, 1997

“Please be nice to them. They aren’t what people say in the papers.”

“I certainly hope not especially since you talk to them 24/7.”, Derek sassed making you roll your eyes. “I’m sorry, baby. Look, I promise I’ll be good.”

When you don’t say anything, your boyfriend wraps his arm around your waist and tugs you to him, smiling when his lips attach to yours.

The sound of a throat clearing startled you as a guard lingered in the doorframe with Eddie and Steve in tow. The pain that lingered in their eyes told you they caught your kiss and it killed you.

“Alright Miss Y/L/N, you and your friend—”

“Boyfriend.”, Derek corrected.

The officer huffed at the interruption as Steve sarcastically laughed under his breath.

“You and your boyfriend have this room for as long as you need. We usually use it for interviews for the privacy and if you need anything I’ll be right outside.”

“Thank you, Bobby.”, you grinned politely and the officer nodded his head in return before stepping back outside.

“Oh, first name basis with the guards. Some people would consider that a red flag, babe.”

“To be fair, her father is a cop so…”, Eddie countered as they both took a seat in front of the camera.

“He IS Mr. Munson but, to be fair, this isn’t exactly his jurisdiction is it?”

As you shakily sigh and your eyes close, you feel shoes lightly tap your shin and when you open your eyes again you are met with their comforting expressions.

“All right, boys, the camera is now rolling. Are you ready to begin?”

Both their faces twitch as your boyfriend’s flippant tone as he takes a seat beside you across from them.

“Yeah, kid. We’re ready when you are.”

At Steve’s equally annoyed response, you felt your body tense as you immediately began regretting your decision. The sparing match was about to begin and you were just now aware this wouldn’t be an interview but a fight for dominance like animals in the wild.

“Perfect! So, Steven Harrington and Edward Munson, you were charged for murder in the deaths of some Hawkins student’s including Chrissy Cunningham who of course the entire country now knows thanks to people in the town spreading awareness and the foundation they created in her name a few years ago. So far, you both have served 11 years of your 25-year sentence… what has that been like?”

“Well, Derek, it’s been no picnic but we have utilized the time wisely. We read and exercise out in the yard. I’ve been reading up on law and we both participate in the group therapy options provided. Eddie was able to get his GED and graduate from high school.”

“Aw that’s nice. It only took a prison sentence for you to finally finish.”, he smiles showing all of his teeth in that sarcastic manner you know very well. “Now, in your own words, can you tell me what happened to those kids that died in 1986?”

Your eyes remained zeroed in on them as they explained what they had told to you and a courtroom numerous times. Someone else killed them and circumstantial evidence made it seem like it was Eddie while a vendetta made it seem like Steve was an accomplice.

“Were you surprised, Steven, when Hawkins Lap retracted their statements in regard to certain Hawkins events including their involvement of the death of Barbara Holland?”

Steve’s eyes fluttered as he tried to hold back the feeling that bubbled in his chest.

“Yeah, I was.”

“I imagine they did that since Eddie’s lawyer insisted on using them as a defense in this case. There’s only so much a company will allow themselves to be blamed for. What did happen with Miss Holland?”

“Derek…”, you warned.

“She was best friends with Nancy Wheeler who you were dating at the time.”

“Derek.”

“Is that why Miss Wheeler broke up with you about a year later? Or excuse me. She goes by Mrs. Byers now.”

“DEREK!”

“Y/N! You’re not their fucking lawyer so stop interrupting!”

“Don’t talk to her like that.”, Eddie growled as he sat up straighter.

“Pfft or what? You’ll kill me to?”, Derek replied smarmily as he straightened as well. “Whether you like it or not, you two are criminals and apparently there was at least enough evidence for a jury to convict you BOTH of that. It honestly amazes me that my girlfriend can’t accept that fact.”

“She’s going to be a phenomenal lawyer especially since she doesn’t just look at what’s on the surface unlike everyone else in the town.”, Steve countered making you blush as a small smirk painted your lips.

“Oh on the surface huh? So, Mr. Munson, you didn’t run after Chrissy was killed? Whether it be because you murdered her or someone else did, you ran and left her behind for your uncle to find, you pathetic freak.”

Eddie rose to his feet as his fists clenched but Steve hastily stopped him as he tried to calm him down.

“When people go missing you just happen to be around, Mr. Harrington? Add in the fact that you both have similar scars that tells anyone with eyes that whatever you were involved in you did it together.”

“This is over, Derek. You promised me—”

“No, you know what’s over? This little infatuation between you and my girlfriend.”, the man rumbles as he squares his shoulders and faces them. “The letters and phone calls stop today as well as the fucking visitation.”

“No.”

“Excuse me?!”

“No.”, Eddie repeated. “We love her and we aren’t letting her go that easy.”

“Oh please! What can you two offer her?! You still have another 14 years in here and then what? Your lives will just be smooth sailing from there?! You’ve only known here for one year and I’ve been with her for three! Trust me, guys, she needs a real man. Someone who can take care of her in every way a man should.”

“Oh yeah, little boy? Is that why when you fuck her she’s thinking about us?”

The room went quiet for a few moments before Derek sarcastically chuckled and shifted his gaze toward you.

“You want them so badly? Fine. I can’t wait to see your face on the fucking news after they tear you apart. At least I can get a good story out of it. Better than anything else you’ve given me this past year, you fucking whore.”

You jumped, pressing your back against the wall as Steve abruptly flipped the table over with his hand before Eddie charged at the boy and tackled him to the floor. As they began to fight each other, guards ran in to separate them, pinning both men to the floor as they held Derek back against the wall.

Neither man look your way as officers tugged them to their feet and dragged them out of the room.

###################

September 27th, 1997

Steve bounces his leg as they wait by the phone for your call to finally come through. You said you’d call last night but you didn’t and it killed them. They understood you were busy but you made promises to them that they desperately held on to because there was very little to hope for in their current predicament.

“This really pisses me off, Harrington.”

“What are we going to do about it, Munson? She’s got school and her job—”

“Oh, I see. So her failing to keep her promises is only ok because we’re locked up. Got it.”

“Calm down, Eddie.”

“Don’t tell me to--! Don’t tell me to be calm. If I was free I’d have punished her already but…”

After coming to prison, Steve had a lot more time to get to know who Eddie Munson was and came to find out that they had a lot in common. Their dads were assholes, their moms weren’t present, and they seemed to have a common attraction to being the dominant partner. On nights when he was desperate and incredibly lonely, Steve would sit beside his friend and elaborate about fantasies he had, had in his head since he hit puberty.

Both men continued to look at the brick wall in front of them as they continued stroking the other’s cock.

“I just want to push a beautiful girl onto her knees and fuck her gorgeous face a-as she gags around my dick. I want to hold her down against the m-m-mattress and stuff myself so deep inside her till can’t walk.”

“Mmph—that kind of intimacy is…is fucking heaven. To have a woman submit like that…fuck… have you e-ever punished a brat before?” Eddie smiles when Steve shakes his head. “Fuck, man. It’s on a whole—fuck, I’m gonna cum—a whole other level.”

After thrusting his hips upwards, his release hit his friend’s hand but what surprised him was when Steve grabbed the back of his neck and pushes the man’s head onto his leaking cock. The metalhead doesn’t protest, bobbing at a quick pace as the back of his friend’s palm guides him.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck. That’s it, baby. Take it. Take all of Daddy’s cum down that sexy fucking throat.”

As soon as Steve had given him everything he had, Eddie patted the man’s thigh before climbing the little latter to his top bunk.

“Hey, Ed?”

“Hm?”

“You know when I talk about this stuff I mean…to like… a partner I’m in love with who consents to it. Like…I would never…hurt someone…”

“I know, Steven.”, the other man chuckles as he places his arms behind his head to stare at the bland ceiling.

“Hey, Ed?”

“Hm?”

“I didn’t cross a line tonight right?”

“No, Steven, you didn’t.”

“Good because, um, you’re my best friend and you’re, um, kinda the only thing keeping me sane in here. Not just because of the…but because…I trust you.” Steve rolled over to face the wall, closing his eyes as he heavily sighed. “Good night, Eddie.”

The mattress above him shifts slightly until he heard the light sound of socked feet hit the floor. An arm suddenly wraps around him pulling him back into an equally broad chest and another limb slides under his pillow under his head as calloused fingers looped through his.

“Good night, Steve.”

They never told you about any of that because honestly that was none of your business. To them, it was survival and both men trusted each other more than anyone else. They had been through so much and knew truths that no one else did. This was sacred and special to them and they were terrified of people turning it into something dirty.

Not that you ever would or mock them in any kind of way but they just weren’t ready to reveal that part of them to you and were pretty sure they never would.

“We’ve never gone that far with her. I mean she said she likes it rough and we’ve said some things but we haven’t truly set up the dynamic. How do we even do that in here?”, Steve sighed.

“Add in the fact that as soon as she calls us Daddy or Sir we’re going to want to fuck her which we can’t.”

Both men chuckle as a sad sigh leaves their chest.

“Can’t we?” At Steve’s words, Eddie’s eyes flicked his way as he leaned against the wall behind him. “I mean a ton of the prisoners here have contraband brought in. There has to be a guard or two here who doesn’t mind bending the rules for the right price.”

“Steve Harrington, you’re playing with fire.”

“I know but—“

“Harrington! Munson! Call coming through for you!”

Both mean exchanged a glance before picking up their separate lines.

“Y/N?”

“Hey! I’m so sorry. I know I said I’d call an hour ago but I fell asleep. I cut back some of my hours but still. These classes are so difficult.”

“We were really worried about you. We get worried when you don’t call and you missed our last visit, sweetheart.”

“I know. I’m sorry. This will never happen again. I promise!”

################

October 9th, 1997

Their demeanors were completely different this time than the many other times you had come to see them and you knew why.

It was so hard to keep up with your school and work schedule as well as keep constant contact with two men who had a set schedule of their own set up by the prison. You were doing everything you could but you could tell from their fire filled expressions it wasn’t enough.

“I’m sorry.”, you reiterated as they continued to glare at the table in front of them. “I really am. I’m doing my best to—”

“It’s not enough.”, Steve growled making you blink at the audacity.

“I’m…I’m not doing this on purpose. I told you guys junior year was going to be a bit more demanding but I’d do everything I could—”

“You do everything you can yet you still make promises and don’t follow through.”

“I’m sorry I’m fucking busy, Eddie! I don’t know what else you want from me!”

Fingers dig into your bicep as the metalhead yanks you till your face is inches from his.

“Lower your fucking voice, little girl.”

The action startles you for a second before your eyes glare back at him as your teeth clench.

“You’re hurting me.”

As you yank your arm from his grasp, you can’t help but sigh as you see a slight glimmer of pain flash through theirs. They really did miss you and hate being away from you but unfortunately due to the circumstances they had zero control of the situation.

“I really am trying to cut down some of the stress so I can call and see you both more. Like I said, I cut back on my hours at work and this kid in my class offered to help tutor me. He’s one of the top students in my year so I really think he can help me.”

“He?” Your head tilts at Steve’s question as both their energies shift into something new that both frightened and turned you on. “Well, that’s nice to know, Munson. First she’s working at a bar till two in the fucking morning with drunk men fucking flirting and eye fucking her and now she has a male tutor she’ll be spending her time with! No wonder we haven’t heard from her. Little whore as all she needs at home!”

Your mouth fell open as he shouted at you, feeling hurt before the anger took over. Rising to your feet, you grab your bag but as you start to walk away, Eddie grabs your wrist.

“We are not done talking, Y/N. We’ve put up with the disrespect for the past few months because we know you’re going through a lot but missing calls, visits, and now this? No.”

“Let me go now.”

Without releasing you, they both rose to their feet and crowded your space till Steve’s nose was touching yours and Eddie’s lips were hovering near your shoulder.

“You’re ours, Y/N.” Steve’s eyes scan your face as your breathing stutters at his low gravelly tone. “And you will listen, little girl.”

“I’m NOT a little girl.”, you grumble back.

“Then stop acting like one.”, Eddie adds. “Now, be a good LITTLE girl and listen to what Daddy says. Sit. Down.”

The smirk that dons his friend’s face at the title has your pussy clenching as his eyes remain locked on yours. It feels like centuries before you finally collect your bearings and shake the fog that had begun to cloud your brain.

“Fuck you both.”

After shoving Steve’s chest hard, you quickly powerwalk out of the visitor’s room.

***

October 12th, 1997

You woke up with a splitting headache in a room you didn’t recognize with someone’s arms wrapped around you a bit too tightly. Prying out of the boy’s grasp, you throw on a nearby shirt and tiptoe to the bathroom.

Your eyes were still heavy from all the tears you had cried these past few days. You missed Eddie and Steve terribly but you couldn’t bring yourself to reach out again. You couldn’t believe their sudden change in behavior and how they spoke to you. Had the signs always been there and you just never noticed?

They had admitted once that they weren’t jealous of Derek because they cheekily declared that “that little boy can’t make you feel like we do.” Why were they so angry about your tutor and your job? Maybe it was because school and the bar took up a lot of time whereas Derek really didn’t. Because of his own classes he was always coming and going and whenever he was present he always seemed distracted.

To be fair, you did make promises you struggled to keep but it’s because you were so excited to finally talk to them you genuinely planned to go see them. You would literally count the minutes till your classes were done, promptly run home to shower and be ready by the time you told them but as soon as your head hit the pillow as you waited, you would pass out.

Maybe you just needed to find something you could do on campus so you weren’t up so late at work. Yeah it would be a bit of pay cut but you could make it work.

When it came to their attitudes, you hoped you could talk to them and tell you how it made you feel. How did it make you feel? Belittled, angry, annoyed, hurt, degraded…aroused… You had never experienced the brain fog with anyone else other than them. The headspace just seemed to come naturally when you were around them or listening to them talk.

Even if it was them just listening to you chat about your day, you felt that giddy feeling dance through your body down to core. Any time they praised you especially after doing something you knew you shouldn’t be doing; you felt a high like no other. You hadn’t told them but you had had many dreams of them suddenly appearing somewhere you were like class or the bar and having them fuck you roughly as they spanked you, pulled your hair, and held you down as they made you theirs.

Your favorites were the ones where they were in your bed and had you tied to the headboard as both took their time with you as you begged and pleaded with them to make you cum. Your lips would ghost their own as their rough hands roamed your body and left bruises you would welcome the next morning. Their eyes would never leave yours as they took from you they wanted and you would repeatedly moan, “Daddy, please.”

Eddie mentioned the title during your last visit and from Steve’s expression you knew he enjoyed it as much as you did but they had hurt you so badly.

You sigh as you exit the bathroom and quietly grab your pants.

I’ll give them a few more days to cool off and then I’ll go visit them so we can talk.

As you slide on your shoes, your eyes shifted towards the Polaroid camera resting on the bedside table.

Fuck me. I hope I didn’t do anything stupid with that thing last night.

***

October 13th, 1997

Eddie growls loudly as he tears up your letter and throws it in the trash can nearby while Steve continues to stare at the picture of you allowing this boy to kiss what was theirs.

“Give me that, Steven. I’m going to fucking burn it—”

“No… No. She’s playing the game, Ed. She made this move because she thinks we can’t do anything about it.”

“Because we can’t. UGH! Maybe we jumped too quickly, man. It just fucking hurt us because we don’t get to see her everyday so when she says she’ll call and she doesn’t… “

“Yeah…” Steve taps his fingers against his knee while Eddie takes another drag of his cigarette. “Maybe it’s time to have a talk with her. Show her how much we do care and how much it breaks our hearts when she breaks a promise.”

“She won’t answer out calls or letters.”

“Then we should go to her.”

The metalhead blinks as he nervously chuckles before his friend’s straight face meets his.

“Nope. Nope. Nuh huh.” As the man begins to walk away, Steve runs after him and tugs on his arm to stop him. “Do you know how much trouble we can get in for even having this conversation? You talk to one wrong person, Steven, and we could be stuck here for another 10 fucking years.”

“What if I found the right person?”

“I…what…how?”

“How much money do you have?”

***

October 31, 1997

You faked a smile as you handed your cash to the cashier and grabbed your bags of candy as you headed for your car. Tonight, you were planning on a night in with some of your friends while handing out treats to some of the neighborhood kids.

Truth be told, you didn’t want to do anything except curl up in bed and eat the chocolate you bought. You had tried calling the prison a few times but they informed you that neither inmate was accepting calls or visitors at this time. You sent a few letters but hadn’t received anything back as of yet.

You missed Eddie and Steve so much and it killed you to not be able to speak to them.

After pulling into your driveway, you hastily checked your mail before running inside to get everything together.

Once your hair was styled and you slid on your red spaghetti strap dress to make you look like Cher in Clueless, you take a seat on your couch as you wait for your friends to arrive.

Leaning forward, you decide to sift through the mail pausing suddenly as all the other letters fall to the floor. The envelope was marked from them like all the others and your heart did flips as you hugged the paper to you.

As you tore the paper open, you half expected to see a lengthy note detailing how much they missed you to and when they’d want to meet with you so you could finally talk. Your stomach dropped as you read and reread the only two sentences written on the single page they sent.

“Trick or treat, little girl.

See you tonight.

--Steve & Eddie”

#################

@lemme-slytherin-that-dick @micheledawn1975 @paleidiot @fireeyes-on-teller-dixon-grimes @noooah @baileebear @dashingdeb16 @nailbatanddungeon

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sxcret-garden · 7 months ago

Text

2nd Desire ღ Tie Me Down [M]

ღ Aspects of Desire series ღ Ateez Jongho x fem!reader ღ feat.: Yeosang ღ words: ~5.1k ღ genre: established relationship, college AU, fluff, some humor, slice of life, smut (dom!Jongho, sub!reader, reader masturbating and asking to be punished for it, reader’s hands tied together, he’s a bit mean but goes soft dom when reader shows signs of discomfort, strength kink, fingering, some body worship, teasing, begging, unprotected sex) ღ warnings: (him running his hand through reader’s hair)

Desc.: Lost in your excitement over the recent development in your relationship with your boyfriend Jongho, you try to tickle more of his dominant side out of him. When he shuts down that attempt with only the best of intentions, he makes sure you won’t stay flustered by your miscalculation for long.

Author's note: chapter 2 and I'm STILL nervous about posting kasjdfölksa I hope you guys enjoy though~ alsoalso I decided to do a taglist for this fic, so if you want to be added, just drop me an ask about it <3

← prev chapter ღ next chapter →

You drop your bag beside the entrance as you walk into Jongho’s apartment, the little melody resounding when the door falls into its lock that’s usually just another background noise to you manages to annoy you on this day. It’s only half past 4, yet you feel like you’ve been awake for more than 20 hours.

You slip out of your shoes and step inside, the sofa in the living room being your destination. With a groan you let your body flop down onto it, the cushioned surface softening the impact. You’ve been at university since morning, your first class of the day being quite an interesting one and almost making you forget about the dreadful events that would follow suit. For lunch you met up with other students from your major to work on your group project, and these people really remind you time and time again why you absolutely hate group projects. You’re a group of seven, yet somehow the only ones taking the whole thing seriously are you and Yeosang, a guy you’ve done a course with before and who you luckily ended up being in the same group with. You know from back then that he does his work diligently enough - what you didn’t know was how badly the other five would do. One of them ran late, claiming he was convinced the meeting would start at 2 and not at half past 1, one of them didn’t show up at all, the others half-assed their parts and one girl only did half of what she was supposed to do. It’s a mess, and it’s stressing you out, because you’re getting a shared group grade for the paper. If you were being graded individually, you would’ve already decided to just do well on your own part, and make sure to precisely document who worked how much, but since you can’t exactly do that here it eventually came to the point where you decided it would be better if you took over the lead. As the person who has assigned herself the role of scolding the others into doing their work properly, you didn’t exactly gain their sympathy, but thankfully Yeosang was right there to have your back. Sharing their disdain was still better than having to shoulder it all alone, so you made a mental note to thank him with a cup of coffee or a meal later on.

But for now you want nothing more than to get this stupid project out of your mind, and lying motionlessly on the sofa and staring at a wall without any kind of distraction from your angry thoughts running wild isn’t exactly the best way to go about that. So you get up with a heavy sigh, peeking into your boyfriend’s room through the gap in the door standing ajar, before walking inside. He isn’t home yet - you assume he must be on his way, because his last class of the day should’ve ended about 10 minutes ago. Walking over to his closet, you open the side where he made space for some of your clothes, and you grab some comfortable pants and a t-shirt you haven’t worn in a while. There’s the logo of a game printed at the front - coincidentally a game you both used to play when you were still in school, and one of the topics you bonded over as you were slowly becoming closer.

You trod over to the bathroom, figuring you should take a shower in an attempt to clear your mind first of all - maybe you could magically find a way to wash off all the frustration the day has drenched you in. Either way, at least the warm water raining down on your skin has a calming effect on you, and so for a few minutes you merely stand there, doing nothing. You reach for the soap eventually, and as you’re cleaning yourself your thoughts slowly drift elsewhere.

Until you remember the conversation you had with Jongho about establishing a different kind of dynamic between you two. Your fingers dance up your body to your throat, and padding them onto your pulse reminds you of what it felt like to have his hand in this position instead. The thoughts of the project are quickly forgotten, yet your cells have not quite let go of the frustration yet - but that’s nothing a quick orgasm couldn’t take care of, right?

So you let your hands wander, allowing them to map out your own body wherever instinct leads them, and as your fingers find your core, you let out a long sigh. This feels like just what you need right now, so you don’t hold back, beginning to draw circles onto your sensitive bud. Feeling your limbs relax from the sensation, you lean your back against the wall, and eventually you reach out for the shower head, changing the setting to the highest pressure and letting it do the work for you.

You don’t think of much at all, simply enjoying the pleasure coursing through your body, until you can sense yourself coming closer to the edge, and you buck your hips up against the water jet.

“Fuck…” you whimper, as a scenario crosses your mind. “What if he finds out…” You gulp at the thought of Jongho figuring out you got off without him, in his apartment, and your mind begins to wander as you fantasize about all the ways in which he might punish you for it. Another curse escapes you through gritted teeth, and soon you feel your high crashing down on you, walls clenching around nothing as his name falls from your lips.

You step out of the shower feeling refreshed, purposely not changing back the setting of the shower head. You want him to catch you, want to know about all the things he would do to you that you haven’t seen him do before. Slipping into fresh clothes and wrapping a towel around your head to let your hair dry a bit before finishing the process with a blow dryer, you grin to yourself and you walk out into the living room.

Your boyfriend comes home about half an hour later, just as you’re putting the blow dryer back to its original place in one of the cabinets in his bathroom. You suppress the excited grin that just won’t leave your lips, and instead greet him as per usual.

“You’re late,” you remark as you catch sight of the time displayed on your phone screen.

“Yeah, the subway was crowded. Should’ve taken the bus,” he mutters as he walks up to you, his hand patting your head in a gesture that’s supposed to say “I’m home.”

“Right, it’s starting to get bad at this time,” you continue your small talk.

“How did your meet-up go?”

“Don’t ask…” you brush it off quickly, hoping to ward off the stress creeping up to you again upon him mentioning it.

“That bad?” Jongho asks as he lets out a short laugh while he furrows his eyebrows, telling you he feels at least a little sorry for you.

“Yeah.” You roll your eyes. “And you? How was your day?”

“Don’t ask,” he answers, and now you’re the one chuckling. “I’ll go wash up real quick, and I think I’ll need some time to decompress afterwards.”

“Sure,” you mutter, before reaching up from where you’ve made yourself comfortable on the edge of the sofa, hand snaking behind his neck so you could pull him in for a quick peck on the lips.

And so he disappears in the bathroom, you hear him turning on the water and you hear him turning it off again after a while, and with every passing second, the excitement for what’s to come is only growing. Except when he’s done, he simply informs you he’s going to game for a bit, and then he walks into his room. You’re confused to say the least, and a bit disappointed as well. This is not going according to the plan you had in mind, and you wonder if it’s just because he’s had a bad day or if maybe he just isn’t in the mood today. Trying to brush it off, you grab a book you started a while ago, staying out in the living room as you attempt to read a chapter or two, but somehow your mind just won’t let you focus on the story unfolding on the pages in front of you. So eventually you get up, deciding to sneakily follow him instead - you’re not sure why you’re being so secretive all of a sudden.

Your boyfriend is certainly good at reading the room, and it’s helped you leave behind your own awkwardness more than once. So today as well you decide to simply sit at the edge of his bed and watch him play his game, hoping for him to notice something’s off as you’re trying to find the right words to say. And without doubt, he doesn’t disappoint.

“What’s with you?” he asks in between rounds, his voice soft in contrast to the serious stance he tends to take on while playing his games.

“Just…” you’re not sure how to start, how much to hint at what you want - you sure as hell aren’t thinking of just saying it straightforwardly, now that you’re beginning to feel a bit embarrassed about it.

“Hmm?” He drags out the sound a bit, then the image on his screen changes, and he adds, “Let me finish this and then we can talk?”

“Alright.” You’re suddenly more anxious than you would’ve expected yourself to be as you watch, fidgeting with the hem of your shirt the entire time. The time spent waiting for him to turn his attention to you feels like half an eternity, even though once he’s done you’re sure it can’t have been more than five minutes. He exits the game to the main menu, and as he takes off his headset, he turns to you in his chair.

“What is it?” You see worry on his face, and you immediately feel the need to let him know it’s nothing serious, really.

“Nothing bad!” you say.

“That’s good,” Jongho answers, relief behind his words.

“Just… didn’t you… notice anything?” You rub your legs together as you avert your gaze from him, but even in the corner of your eye you can tell he’s thinking hard about your question now.

“Notice anything?” he repeats, and then suddenly his eyes narrow, and there’s an amused smile about to creep onto his lips. “Like what?” At this point you’d have sworn you could see the exact moment the dots connected in his head, so his question throws you off a little.

“Like… uhm… I showered earlier.”

“Good,” he chuckles, and you press yourself on to continue.

“And uh…. maybe got off…”

“Oh. That’s nice,” he replies, and once again you’re thrown off, this time by the way the tension in the room drops right away, and he’s now showing you a genuine smile. “Why are you telling me about that though? Want me to come watch next time?” He tries to throw in a joke, but the confusion radiating off you makes him think again, and well, now you’re sure he understands what you’re trying to get at, because he raises up his chin just a little, giving you that look that’s supposed to say “I found you out.”

“Were you maybe thinking I would punish you for that?” he assumes correctly, and you nod, heat rushing to your face now.

“Yes…” Jongho laughs. It’s more of a giggle, actually, and the amusement in his expression only adds to your confusion. And then he becomes serious, though his features keep their softness.

“Look… I’m sorry to disappoint you but… I’m not going to do anything we haven’t discussed beforehand,” he explains, making sure to be clear about his thoughts. “My first impulse isn’t to punish you for masturbating. But if you want me to, we can talk about it.”

“O-okay,” you stammer, and once again there’s this endearing smile on his face, spreading from ear to ear. You know it’s meant to reassure you, but right now all you can focus on is the embarrassment burning in your chest from making such a severe miscalculation. This isn’t how things go in real life, of course it isn’t. You should know that, and yet-

“Hey,” he calls out to you, hand reaching for yours, giving you a squeeze to tear you out of your thoughts. “Let’s talk about it.”

He’s also good at that - saying the right thing at the right moment. Or at least he tends to say the things you need to hear in moments like this, and once again you feel unmistakably that you’re safe with him, and that you’re in this together.

“Okay.”

“So…” letting go of your hand, he leans back in his chair, one leg crossed over the other, and you feel the dynamic shift ever so slightly as he won’t divert his eyes from you. “What kind of punishment were you thinking of?” You raise your eyebrows, and you begin to ponder on his question, but somehow your head is suddenly empty.

“I… don’t know…” you admit, and he grins at your words again.

“You didn’t think about what you want me to do to you now?”

“I mean… I did… but more… in a general sense,” you stammer.

“Like what?”

“Like… you fucking me…” And there it is again, that laugh that’s really more of a giggle than an actual laugh.

“You didn’t think about what comes before that?”

“Not… really?” you admit, and he clears his throat.

“Then how about I tell you what came to mind for me, and you tell me if that sounds okay to you?” You nod okay, and he continues, “So what I was thinking is that I could restrict you in some way… putting you in handcuffs maybe, or blindfolding you.”

“I don’t think I’m okay with the blindfolding,” you respond. “Handcuffs sounds… nice though.”

“See? This is just why I didn’t want us to rush into this,” your partner says. “Because if we move too fast, misconceptions about what the other wants, or just about how this whole thing works are bound to go unnoticed.”

“You’re right,” you agree, being able to see where you went wrong with your assumptions clear as day now. “Then… let’s take it slow. Talk before we do stuff.” An awkward laugh escapes you as you’re speaking those words, because after all you were the one trying to rush into this, and now you can’t help but feel thankful that he stopped you just in time.

“So…” Jongho gets up from his chair, walking over to his closet and rummaging through one of the shelves, pulling out a dark red tie. “I think this is gonna look pretty on you. That okay?” You nod, merely watching as he walks over to you, and when he tells you to take off your clothes first of all, you don’t hesitate. Placing yourself on top of the bed, kneeling in the middle of it, he sits in front of you, and you hold out your hands for him to tie them together. “Not too tight?”

“No, it’s fine,” you answer, the soft texture of the fabric feeling quite good around your wrists, actually.

“I don’t have actual handcuffs, unfortunately…” he explains as he checks the knot one more time, and then he lifts one of his hands to run his fingers through your hair, eyeing you thoroughly. There’s a serious expression on his face now, he’s concentrated as he lets his fingertips brush against the side of your throat, but the way he allows for a smirk to creep onto his lips when you instinctively lean your head back to give him access tells you he’s very much having fun with this.

“You really like that, huh?” he mutters, wrapping his hand loosely around your throat, the warmth of his touch alone causing your heart to beat faster.

“Yeah…” you mouth, and to your disdain he moves on. His fingers draw imaginary trails down your body, moving slowly and deliberately, and his eyes follow their every move.

“So beautiful… too bad I’m gonna have to wreck you.” He speaks silently, and whether it’s because of the tone in his voice or his words you don’t know, but it’s giving you shivers all over and you gulp. His hand eventually finds its way to your side, snuggly fitting into the space between your waist and your arm, and he leans in to brush his lips against yours. It’s a short kiss, yet he lingers there for a few seconds before pulling back merely a few inches - the kind of kiss that’s meant to make you want more. “Want me to punish you, hm? Then, what if I push you a bit? Be a little less nice than usual and not give you everything you want right away.” You suck in a sharp breath at his words. “You’d like that?”

“Y-yeah,” you say, tension building up. You’re not sure what exactly he has planned, but you know he wouldn’t push you too far… right? He wraps the fingers of his free hand around your wrists, and as he brings them up above your head he pushes you back into the mattress, carefully, gently. And yet you don’t miss the dangerous glint in his eyes as he’s now gazing down on you, hovering above you as he pins you against the bed. Lowering his head, he makes you mewl as he buries his face in the crook of your neck, teeth grazing your skin as he scatters a few nips here and there.

“What’s your color, dear?”

“Green… very green,” you sigh, feeling his weight on top of your chest.

“That’s good,” he speaks quietly as he comes back up, his face now being right in front of you and the tips of your noses touching for one short moment. You think he’s going to kiss you, but then he sits up instead, letting go of you to rid himself of his shirt. With every movement of his you can see the outlines of his muscles working underneath the skin, and the urge to touch him, to run your nails down his chest and his stomach, makes you bring your hands up. For a moment you forget that they’re tied together, and you frown at the restraint, and before you can do anything more, your boyfriend is quick to click his tongue at you as he reaches for your hands and pins them back down above your head.

“Wanna touch me so bad, hm?” he assumes correctly, and then he adds, moving closer to your ear, whispering sharply, “No touching unless I allow it.”

“O-okay,” you mutter. You can unmistakably feel the power he has over you now, both in the way you don’t have the strength to free yourself from his physical restraint, and in the way you feel yourself immediately submitting to his verbal restraint.

“Stay like this,” he then says and you nod as he sits back up. This time he lets his palms run down your upper body once as he kneels on top of you, going over to dragging his nails down your skin once he reaches your hips and doing the exact thing you would’ve craved to do to him. But you obey, waiting patiently for his next move. “So pretty…” he mutters, his intense gaze burning on your skin, and after having his hands wandering all the way back up, he leans in to leave a trail of kisses down the valley of your breasts. And again there’s this urge to move your hands, to throw your arms around his shoulders as his lips are mapping out your features, but you can’t. You shouldn’t, and so you resist.

He kisses his way down your stomach, biting your flesh here and there without applying too much pressure, and the way he’s taking his time with it doesn’t help your case as you’re having an internal battle against your own impatience. Rubbing your thighs together as he’s hovering just above your core and he’s touching you everywhere but where you need him the most, you reach your breaking point.

“Jongho…” you call out his name. “Please.” He merely chuckles at your plea, not even looking up at you now.

“What?” His voice is low, quiet. Calmness radiates off of him, like he knows that he has all the time in the world for this.

“T-touch me please…” you mewl.

“Hmm,” he makes a noise as he appears to be thinking about your request. “But do you deserve that?” You let out a whine at his question, and you frown when he crawls all the way back up, only to press a teasing kiss to your lips. “Do you deserve my touch when clearly you decided that you can also just do the job yourself?” He moves up further, his lips brushing against your wrists just below where he tied them together, and then against the knuckles on your fingers. “Can’t get yourself off now, can you?” He places his hand over yours, pushing your wrists into the fluffy blanket as if to put an emphasis on his words.

“Please…” you start another attempt at getting him to do what you want, but he merely sends you a smirk.

“You’re choosing the shower head over me and now you think I’ll give you what you want so easily? That’s naive.” You frown, and you pout up at him, and for a second his features soften, before he moves his hand from your wrists to your chin, tilting it up slightly. Then he places a kiss onto your jaw, and he asks, “Color?”

“Green…” You idiot - you add in your mind, and when he comes back up to get a good look at your face, you can undeniably see the amusement on his face.

“Didn’t think you’d like being treated like this so much,” Jongho comments, and then he lets his hand wander from your chin down to your lower stomach. “Really makes me want to do this all day.” Fuck. You gulp at his words, thighs pressing together just as he slips a finger in between, dragging it up your folds once, and you don’t expect a singular touch to affect you this much, but you find yourself arching your back as you moan in response anyway.

“Relax,” he says, tapping your thigh once, and you do, spreading your legs apart just a little to give him better access. He doesn’t hesitate to make use of that, watching for even the tiniest of reactions as he gathers your juices on his fingertip, moving it back up and making you whimper as he begins drawing circles onto your clit. You buck your hips into his hand once, causing him to sit up so he could use his other hand to press them back down, immobilizing you. “So needy…” he breathes as he continues on, watching you, and granting you a few teasing touches to your wet pussy. He slips a finger inside, drawing another moan from your lips, and when he adds a second one, pumping them in and out of you at an unhurried pace, you think you could cum on the spot. And he notices the way he’s affecting you, because now he asks you with a cocky smirk on his face that bodes no good whatsoever,

“You like that?” You nod, whimpering, and when he pulls out, the feeling of deprivation that overcomes you makes you whine with anger - though you don’t sound nearly as angry as you would’ve liked. “Too bad.”

“Keep going, please…!” you try to beg, and it seems to strike something deep within him, because now he raises his eyebrows at you, listening intently.

“What was that?”

“K-keep going… please… please…” you add, the desperation in your voice being obvious. “Don’t stop now… w-wanna cum on your fingers…”

“I’m sure you do, dear,” he whispers, leaning in to place a soothing kiss onto your tummy, but it just makes you more furious.

“Please!” you cry out, balancing on the edge between pleasure and frustration, and you know that you wouldn’t want him to push you any further. For a second you wonder whether you should tell him, ask him to go easier on you even though you were the one who wanted him to punish you so badly. But he seems to notice your inner conflict, and his smirk softens into a benevolent smile as he brushes his lips against the inside of your thigh now.

“Is that where the line is?” he asks, and you hesitantly nod. He comes up to comb his fingers through your hair, brushing away a strand that’s sticking to your forehead. “Then let’s not take it any further than this, okay?”

“Yeah.” He cups your face with his hand, thumb brushing against your lips, and he questions,

“What do you want me to do, love?”

“Fuck me… please…” you say with furrowed brows, and he chuckles at the sight in front of him. Caressing your cheek as he slowly takes his hand away in order to rid himself of the remainder of his clothes, he retorts,

“I can’t believe someone could say something so dirty with such an innocent expression on their face.” And now that you’re becoming aware of what you must look like right now, you find it funny too, and you let out a short laugh.

Your boyfriend places himself on top of you, one hand wrapping around his length in order to give himself a few strokes until he’s fully hard, while he has the other placed next to your head to support his weight on top of it. “Wanna hold onto me? Or…” You shake your head. “Want me to pin you down?” Adrenaline rushes through your veins, making you tingle all over from the thought of it, and you nod. Again, he seems amused by your reaction. “After all that you still want me to manhandle you, huh?” Him saying it out loud fills you with bashfulness all of a sudden, and still you feel the need to confirm that he’s right.

“Yes… please,” you mutter. He positions himself in between your legs, aligning himself with your core.

“You good?” he asks, and when you give him the okay he pushes into you.

“Fuck…” The feeling of having him finally filling you up makes you hiss a curse as you’re throwing your head back from the overwhelming satisfaction. Jongho reaches for your wrists, pinning you down just like you had asked, and he leans in, his nose brushing against the skin right in front of your ear.

“Can you do me a favour, then?”

“Wh-what?” you stutter, impatience building up inside you again.

“I want to hear you beg for me again… can you do that?” You whine as he rolls his hips into yours once, and without hesitation you grant his wish.

“Please… please fuck me…”

“Mhm… that’s right…” he mutters, and from the way his voice changes as he begins slowly thrusting into you, you can tell he too has been exerting himself holding back from touching you properly more than you thought.

“Please… feels so good… b-baby please…” you keep going, your moans turning into mere whimpers when he reaches down between your bodies in order to tend to your clit. “F-fuck… w-wanna cum on your cock… wanna cum so bad…!” you whine, racing towards your high at lightning speed.

“Shit, you’re perfect,” he utters, his hips beginning to stutter, and the groans falling from his lips becoming more frequent. “So fucking perfect.”

You cry out when your high comes crashing down on you, hands formed into fists and your nails digging into your palms. Once again you try to instinctively throw your arms around your boyfriend’s shoulders, and when you meet resistance as he’s still pinning you against the bed, your mind is flooded with that much more pleasure. He cums with a broken moan as you’re beginning to come down from your high, whining from the overstimulation as you let him thrust into you a few more times, and then he collapses on top of you.

Both panting, he lets go of your wrists and you immediately bring your arms up to put them around his frame, and this time he lets you. Eventually, after catching his breath, he rolls over onto his back, sitting up and undoing your restraints.

“You feeling okay?” You nod at his question, your eyelids too heavy to open, but you smile at him.

“More than,” you mutter, and when he lies back down beside you, you snuggle up close to him. Reaching for your hands, he holds onto one of them, thumb rubbing circles against your wrist, and when you look up you find worry in his eyes. “I really am okay, baby,” you whisper one more time, and he instinctively brings your hand that he’s holding onto in closer to his chest.

“Okay…” he just says, trusting your words, and you send him a sweet smile. Freeing your hand from his grasp, you bring it up to his head, fingers combing through his hair.

“Thank you…” you say, slurring your words a bit as the blissful afterglow of your high lingers in your mind. Your boyfriend lets out a sigh, eyelids fluttering shut at the sensation of you massaging his scalp. “For being careful. And for taking care of me so well.” And now there’s this smile creeping onto his lips. It’s barely noticeable, and yet you can tell how your words are affecting him. And in the next second he throws his arm around you, catching you by surprise as he pulls you on top of himself and engulfs you in a tight hug. He says nothing, you know that sometimes it’s hard for him to speak his mind in moments like these, but by now you know him well enough to know what he’s trying to convey with his actions. You giggle at the way he presses a kiss to the side of your face before having you rest your head atop his chest, loosening his embrace a bit to allow you to lie down comfortably. You too snake one arm around his waist, and with your heart swelling with your love for him that seems to know no end, you bury your smile in the crook of his neck.

#ateez smut #jongho smut #ateez x reader #ateez x fem reader #ateez fanfic #ateez series #ateez scenarios #ateez drabbles #ateez imagines #jongho imagines #jongho x reader #smut

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888-fr · 6 months ago

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WHY I DON'T RETIRE MY SKINS: an essay

Disclaimer that I'm speaking from a point of being established here, because not everybody can afford to run their skin shop like I do. I don't judge less established artists for needing to limit their skins because they can't afford to print a run with only 2 people on it. I'm also not judging anybody who does retire their skins after a set number of prints - whole different matter! I'm giving an opinion piece based on my own personal thoughts about running my own skin shop.

Okay, now that's out of the way. I really dislike the idea of time-limiting my skins. There's just no actual justification for me, as an established skin artist, to limit skins I know will sell... aside from prestige, and putting buying pressure on my customers. So there's a couple of reasons I don't like that:

1) Erodes trust in the artist.

Yes, I could probably make more money if I kept my skins limited so people HAD to pick up my skin on release. Maybe even all 4 colors of the skin, including the one they don't really keep in their hoard. Just in case they want it down the line but it won't be available anymore.

Is this good business practice though? Do I want people to start feeling panicked every time I ping for a release, because they just picked up a new project and really really CAN'T afford to be buying skins right now but there's 5 colorways of my skin available and they'll probably be resold for 2kg as soon as they retire?

Personally, no! I want people excited when I ping, not feeling dread in their hearts and budgets. I want people to be thinking: 'Awesome, a new skin! I can't afford that right now but I know he always keeps a few on the AH at print price even after preorders end. Even if I can't buy a skin just this moment, I'll be sure to keep an eye on his thread for when I have gems again.' Or: "Awesome, a new skin! This one doesn't appeal to my lair aesthetic, so I will just nod and smile. I don't feel the need to buy it in case it gets popular for resale, because it will always be on the AH for print price."

People tell me about unsubscribing from GASP because they get anxiety being pinged for skins they want but can't have. So I want people to stay on my pinglist because there's no pressure on them whatsoever to purchase anything. It'll always be here, okay? In the meantime, just enjoy the art, maybe preview it on a scry or two. I'll be here if you're back in three weeks, or three months.

2) Passive income!

I lied. I probably would've made less money time limiting all my skins than by keeping my skins restocked. A couple of reasons for this:

- My earlier skins sold worse. This isn't psychology, it's just numbers. Some of my most popular stock were made early on in 2021/2022. I didn't have that many sales then, so could you imagine if I had retired them immediately after that? There's 230something copies of SAILOR'S WARNING out in the world right now. If that skin was time limited after preorders died down, I would've sold "only" 50 forever.

- People see my shop stock whenever you ping for a new releases. I get 3-4 sales off auction house whenever I release something new and people check my front page. It's not a lot but it's consistent.

- It's a win-win situation, okay? If a skin is popular, there's no reason to time limit it to drive up sales. If it IS popular, then people are going to see it on other people's dragons, go "damn that's a nice skin," and maybe do an AH search for it. And if there's a cheap print price copy available, they're gonna buy it.

2) Reprints are easy!

It was a lot more annoying to keep track of queue numbers and inventory back when reprints had to go through regular queue for a week. Did I put in 10 copies of SUNHEAVEN already? Wait, are my kitsune aethers back yet? How many of MOLOCH are still listed?

Now I can put in a blueprint and get my reprint instantly. No fuss at all.

3) I don't want to buy into the 'this is a retired skin' hype...

This is just personal preference. It makes me feel a little bad when a public skin I made is popular and people can't afford to have it. I'm not judging anybody who does like it when their skins are rare, special, and sought after.

It's just... I get that part of my brain scratched from my customs. They're gorgeous, they're 5 prints, they're on the AH for 30kg if you really want one. Most importantly they're niche and high coverage enough that even if someone hadn't paid me to draw an exclusive skin specifically for their dragon, they'd never do well as a public skin anyway.

Here are some tips for people looking into keeping their skins unlimited:

- You don't need to do it like I do.

Blueprints are expensive. Even I don't have my entire catalogue stocked, only the ones I noticed always have reprint requests. For example, only SAILOR'S WARNING out of 4 total colors for my impm skins is kept stocked because the others don't sell enough to justify it.

If you can't afford to stock them 10 at a time, have the customer provide the blueprints. Shelving your skins but having them be reprintable with a BP and a fee (350g is good for 850g print prices; remember, 500g of that went to you purchasing blueprints in the public run, so it doesn't make sense to charge customers a whole 850g when they're already providing the blueprint) is a good alternative to permanently retiring your skins. You don't get a ton of people who can afford that, but the option is there for people who want it.

- Notice which skins sell!

If you already have a good amount of skins in catalogue and have trouble figuring out which ones to begin stocking, you can start by checking in with your pinglist. Poll them and see which ones you'd want to rerun.

- Don't have so many recolors.

It's a law of the universe that they more recolors you have, the worse they sell collectively. I usually do 2, no more than 3. If you have to time limit your skins to get 6 recolors to hit print, then it's time to cut those recolors down.

There's reasons for this: it's choice paralysis, people may want 'complete sets' and will skip out if you're making that complete set cost 4kg total, and it just plain doesn't make sense for very similar color schemes to cover 4 different skins. Feel free to print personal recolors or have custom recolors open.

#flight rising #my stuff #flight rising skins #long post

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antimony-medusa · 1 year ago

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Is that— bells ringing? Keyboards clacking? The sound of two thousand stressed writers pancing furiously about the floor? Ah yes, Yuletide.

Hello. MCYTblr. I am back again.

You are looking fine today as we move towards the end of the year. Is that a new cologne you're trying? New shirt? New glasses? It's working for you. How have I been? Well.

Well.

*I smack the wall, curtains spring aside, revealing my flip chart presentation that I've had lying in wait*

It is time for me to talk to you about Yuletide again. I was here earlier during tag nominations, but it's sign-up time, and I want to make sure everybody has a change to participate in this if they want to.

What's Yuletide?

Yuletide is an annual mega-exchange for small and rare fandoms. It runs in the close of the year, with a 1000 word minimum for gifts, with gifts revealed anonymously on the 25th of December and de-anoned on the 1st of January. It is easily the biggest exchange in multi-fandom-exchange-world, and last year more than 1,350 people signed up.

Why does everyone sign up?

Well, it's tradition, for one. There are a lot of people that only do Yuletide as their big exchange every year. It's a big holiday spectacle, it's really fun to see it operate and see pinch hits come out and get nabbed in minutes, and people kind of put on their holiday outfits and turn out for it.

For another thing, if you are in a small fandom, it's the one exchange where you can actually have a shot of getting a gift for an obscure manga fandom, or an out-of-print book, or a tv show from the eighties. If your fandom has five people in it, the odds are higher than average that two of them are signing up for this exchange, and hey presto, suddenly you're matchable in your fandom for an obscure podcast.

For another, and this is the biggie, the fact that this is an exchange for small and rare fandoms has led to a certain tradition and vibe for the fandoms that people nominate. People bring their most obscure and fun ideas, going, "hehehehe wouldn't it be fun if someone wrote a story about this", and into the tag set it goes. There is SUCH a spectrum of fandoms in the tag set.

This year there are 4,263 fandoms and 16,735 characters in the tag set. Let me just skim through and look at some of them.

There are commercials, web sketches, art pieces, songs, music videos, board games, podcasts, a dizzying assortment of anthropomorphising different places, items, and ideas, and RPF from a marvelous variety of historical periods (so, y'know, historical fiction if it was published professionally). There are people who nominated tik tok sketches. Twitter threads. A bridge. Book binding techniques. You ever wanted to write a romance between Knitting and Crochet? That's in the tag set, and someone wants to prompt you to do that. Happy Yuletide.

So if you are at all the sort of person who likes a prompt challenge, BOY is this one just a MARVELOUS one. I know I personally am going to be signing up for Humans are Space Orcs (tumblr post) and Fandom Exchanges (Anthropomorphic) amid my more traditional fandoms.

And as for my more traditional fandoms, and the reason why this post has the tags it does (I would get to it eventually)— there is a lot of MCYT in the tag set! I put out a post saying GUYS, the smaller fandoms might apply for this, and BOY did people show up for it. I scanned through it, and the MCYT (and adjacent) that made it in is:

Karmaland SMP

Legacy SMP

Lifesteal SMP

Moonlight SMP

New Life SMP

Outsiders SMP

Rats SMP

SMPEarth

SMPLive

Witchcraft SMP

Pirates SMP

Mianite

Slimecicle Cinematic Universe

SBI Rust

Generation Loss

You could make an entire sign up, 3 minimum requests and 4 minimum requests, and only select MCYT fandoms. The wild thing is that you can only select a max of 10 fandoms to offer, so you actually couldn't offer all of the MCYT. ZombieCleo Witchraft SMP is in. Tommyinnit SMPEarth. Clownpierce Lifesteal. Tubbo SBI Rust. Oli Rats SMP. A wealth of options for the block folks.

So come, join me! What's that? You say this sounds excellent, you're in? You want to know how to sign up? Well this post is already long enough so I'm putting the rest below a cut.

You sign up on the collection here, using fandoms listed in the tagset here. Before you do so though, I'd recommend you check out the blog, especially their "how to sign up" post here, because even if you're used to exchanges, the way Yuletide works is a little bit different. Let me do a quick breakdown here.

Requests

# of Fandoms

You have to select a minimum of 3 fandoms that you are Requesting (a gift that you want made for you), up to a maximum of 6 fandoms. Each fandom has to be unique. For each fandom, you can request between 0 to 4 characters in that fandom, and 0 means "literally you can hit me with anybody", and the up-to-4 characters are the people you definately want to show up in the fic.

AND MATCHING

This is one of the things that Yuletide does differently, because most fandom exchanges do "or" matching, where they match you on either characer A OR character B, (maybe you only offered character B) and you can pick among any of the selected characters on the person's request to write for. Because Yuletide does AND matching, you will only be matched if you offered every single one of the characters the person has selected, and then you get to write for every single one they have listed in their fandom, unless they say differently in their letter. If they requested character A and Character B, you get to deliver a gift that includes them both, according to the rules.

Bu like, in practice, a lot of people are a bit more like "you can pick only one of these guys if you'd like", because that is how everyone is used to things running in most other exchanges, plus people don't want to be too picky, so you can specify in your letter if you definately 100% want characters A, B, and C, or if you're fine with just A, or just A and C, or whatever constellation of characters you're chill with.

This year they have added optional freeform tags you will click on, that will specify either A) use every single one of these guys I selected. B) I have specified in my letter which guys I need for sure and which ones you can swap, C) Dealer's Choice Of Guys Go Crazy.

DNW and Optional Details

Yuletide is an "Optional Details Are Optional" (ODAO) exchange, so technically you could request (or receive) an offer that just has the characters and then you get to go absolutely buckwild for the two month writing period. Most people, however, do not want to do that, so that is where you'll put in Do Not Wants (anything that would ruin the gift for you, from major archive warnings to kinks that you don't vibe with to headcanons you loathe), and some prompts and/or likes for your person to jump off of.

DNWs absolutely must be abided by, and breaking a person's DNW is grounds for getting turfed from the exchange. Following a person's prompts or lists of likes is technically optional, but definately best practice, and y'know, part of the whole spirit of the exchange. Most people are doing their best to adhere to both the DNW and the Optional Details when they do their gift.

You can just format your DNW and Optional Details on the Ao3 signup page (easy, fast), or you can link them offsite in a letter (fancy, you can do formatting, people do them in google docs or dreamwidth pages (the traditional and more accessible option)). There's a tradition of people posting their letter links here, so that people can get an idea for what sort of prompts and signups people are offering, and make sure they're matchable to people with especially fun ideas. Note: you do have to duplicate the data if you're doing a letter, cause if you put your DNW in your letter but NOT in your Ao3, the mods won't enforce it.

And while we're here, that last link is to a community blog that includes a place where you can promo your fandoms to lure people into signing up for your guys, or participate in mini-challenges within yuletide for people who specificially want poly relationships (Three Doves Challenge), or characters of colour (Chromatic Yuletide), or horror/darkfic (Crueltide), or smut (Yuleporn), or art (Wrapping Paper), or even more. There's even a poetry challenge!

Offers

# of Fandoms

You have to sign up with a minimum of 4 fandoms, to a maximum of 10, for fandoms you are Offering (a gift you are willing to make). You must offer at least 2 characters for each fandom, to a maximum of 20— but there's also an "any" tick box if you want to go full "hit me, I like a challenge" and you'll write anything (in the tag set) within a fandom. Each of your fandoms must be unique.

Writing Period:

Signups are open through the 21st, with assignments out by the 23rd, and then you have until the 18th of December to deliver your gift.

Important Notes

You must be 18 or over to participate in Yuletide (because you might be matched with someone who requests smut), and signups close on 9pm UTC on Saturday, 21 October.

There's a known issue where the safari browser isn't letting people sign up properly, (when you get an exchange this big sometimes things break), so they say to either sign up on mobile or use a different browser. So that will be fun for me.

And that's it! Yuletide! Just under a week left to sign up, and 351 people have signed up as I write this letter at 1:30am. I just refreshed it and now it's 352. You can sign up on the Ao3 page here!

JOIN ME EXCHANGES SUCH FUN LETS GO.

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sardix · 1 month ago

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WOTFI 2024 Bingo results

If you didn't know @midnight1nk created a bingo map! (You can find the original post here). With these peoples ideas: /midnight1nk, /Sardix (me), @34saveme34 , @time1srunout , @porschas-palette , @yullalightk , @Nicc

Anyway, here are the results (and yes i am aware the picture looks a little off with colors but it's a printed out wersion with stars as stickers) + screenshots from the moments that I felt counted or not. And a reminder I was going off of the description of spaces and not their names. (However, If I put something in the wrong place tell me and I will fix it :), I am also always up for discussion)

Sadly we did not get Bingo but there will be plenty oportunities in the future

1. Mario ruins the show! (He did the final blow)

2. Karma (they did beat him although he didn't become something like Leggy)

3. Mr. Puzzle having a grudge against Smg4 - (I think this counts?)

5. It's gotta be perfect (IGBP) - (it wasn't really mentioned BUT this monster was present + the whole hate Smg4 gets that played an important role in IGBP) (add Photos from IGTBP)

6. Freak Show - it wasn't really said but they all got a whole makeover for the carnival show

7. Carnival-themed rap - this one doesn't need explaining (also it was a banger, I cannot stop listening to it)

8. The Bell tolls - I don't know if this counts or not, but I decided to put it here because there is like A LOT of "death" during the minigames. (I could put all the moments in here because of the picture limit)

9. Merch - I mean, it was gonna be for 100%; this time, tho mostly Mr.Puzzle teamed, which makes sense seeing his popularity in and outside the fandom.

10. Sacrifice - Meggy getting saved by Smg4 by using Mario (also my theory about Smg4 after the IGBP whenever angry getting suddenly super strong physically works, because he was FAST and you could see in his eyes the determination to not let any of his friends die again)

11. Meggy confronts - she does, in fact, confront him but doesn't really scold him for his wrongdoings. Still, I think that the interaction counted.

12. Brand new look - as shown before most of the cast gets a makeover, which are new look carnival-teamed

13. Puzzle Tune - it appears at the very beginning of the first song that Mr.Puzzle sings as Smg4 and Mario are in the boat

Now the stuff that I think didn't count and why:

1. Past arc or trauma - the trauma from past arcs wasn't mentioned unless you count Smg4 hate comments. Or Mr.Puzzles past but that's not really mentioning past arcs.

2. Park destroyed - it wasn't destroyed like Wren's lab, just got closed

3. Puzzles backstory - we got a scene where what was already shown in the Didney episode was explained; we didn't get any new info from the one we already knew.

4. Not so different - sadly, a scene like this does not happen no matter how much I wished it did. ( it sounds too good to be true.) BUT it may happen in the future.

5. (Ending) twist - Mr.Puzzle didn't reveal that he was behind the 2023 WOTFI, and I don't think Leggy 2.0 counts as a character foreshadowing, although Marty the cardboard became an actual character, so we never know.

6. Star Rating system - suprisingly it is never out right mentioned, Mr.Puzzle only mentions the destruction of his show.

7. Tenner tunnel - which I assume is just the tunnel of fun, but since it never is really shown, we cannot know for sure. It only kinda appears in the background

8. Smg4 kids - they didn't even appear in the background, so...

9. Puzzles dies - it is not his time yet, and it appears he has yet to play some really important roles in the story.

10. You saved me - to probably a lot of fans disapointment with Smg3 under control we did not get to see them interact other than fighting (Smg4 and Smg3).probably becouse of the movie being a litle shorter than usual (less than 30 minutes if you take out the merch talk) we did not get a scene with them even reuniting after being freed from the hypnotic state.

11. Dynamic change - some people would probably say that the dynamic between Mr.Puzzle and Meggy changed but from the beginning, we could see that deep inside she wanted to help or a part of her, and I do not mean Leggy (although I suppose it could count but for now I'm leaving it here)

12. Leggy's flag - honestly I'm not sure if it even appears, but it definitely did not play an important role

Bonus: They remembered the video where Smg4 became the clown king, aka where it was never resolved, so I think now it is officially canon and not just a one-time joke. (Please tell me I wasn't the only one who joticed that)

Well, would you look at that? We got 14 out of 25, not a bad score, I must say! And I'm sure we can't wait for what will come in the future

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heyimdove · 1 year ago

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Things of Note at @neil-gaiman ‘s NJPAC talk:

1. Do you people understand that he switches into accents when he reads? Do you people know he does a perfect Michael Sheen impression? did you know it’s also hot

2. He used to cold call publishers/mags to see if they’d publish his work. He’d lie when asked what other magazines he wrote for; they’d think he was more legitimate and would, therefore, be more likely to take him on themselves. “You couldn’t get away with that now” thanks to Google. Also, back then, “we had telephones and we used them,” but today’s publishers would not easily recover if you unexpectedly called them on the phone.

3. It was a personal point of pride for Neil to write for each of the magazines he’d claimed to have written for. He said “I didn’t lie. I was chronologically challenged.”

4. Neil made a deliberate effort to not be boxed in by publishers. He’d interviewed many authors who were unhappily boxed and did everything he could to avoid it, including declining big contracts from prestigious publishers (notably after American Gods). This is why he can write what he likes now. Comics writing spoiled him in this regard, as publishers mistook the medium for a genre, and therefore didn’t care what he wrote (so he wrote all the genres he wanted to in Sandman).

5. He hates Thomas Hardy thanks to being introduced to him in school. Regarding being forced to read Tess of the D’urbervilles, he said “I wouldn’t do that to a dog”. He hopes students, who might have liked him if they found him on their own, don’t encounter his work in school and hate him for it.

6. “The evil characters (you write) don’t possess you, you try to find the little bit of you in them….the little bit of you that is gloriously evil.”

7. “I touched the magic and passed it along” this was a line from Watching from the Shadows that especially moved me.

8. Terry was increasingly upset as the bidding on Good Omens increased (eventually reaching 150,000 - can’t remember if he said $ or £). For his part, when the book finally sold, Neil put on Iggy Pop’s Success and danced.

9. Anansi Boys should be out on Prime by the end of 2024!

10. Described Sandalphon as someone you want to “hit with a large oar”. (The woman next to me, who was extremely stingy with her applause, hooted like an owl at this and clapped til the last).

11. Pronounces Amazon as “Ama-zin” and Los Angeles as “Los Angelese”. This isn’t noteworthy, but I liked it enough to write it down.

12. “Being on a beach in bare feet” was the line that led Neil to realize David Tennant would be perfect for Crowley.

13. He is pictured on the ALA’s poster holding Wind in the Willows because, as a child, “it messed up my head.” He said he is “in love” with a chapter in the middle called The Piper at the Gates of Dawn where the characters meet Pan. It’s often left out of printings, which makes him sad because it is “strange, beautiful, luminous”.

14. TOATEOTL was originally planned to go to Broadway. Then, Covid. They did a “world tour” instead. Now that it’s wrapped, talks about Broadway are happening. He says all of adaptations of his work, this is his favorite.

15. “Disney’s Aladdin plays four times a day in Hell”

16. His favorite question of the night was “WHY did you think of the Other Mother?” He was tickled by the word choice of “why”

17. Asked the library in Sussex “What have you got in the way of really good horror for four year olds?” Obviously none existed so he wrote Coraline.

18. Talked about going viral for being in a falafel, seemed to marvel at the progression of the meme’s meaning.

19. “Tumblr is its own madness”

20. “Stephen King has fabulous stories about meeting fans in toilets, including being passed a book under the stall”

21. Read “The Day the Saucers Came” which I misheard initially as Sauces. Saucers is definitely better.

22. “You want to see me doing Dickens?” I laughed inappropriately at this. I was the only one.

23. I don’t want to say what pieces he read because I want you to buy tickets to his events. But it was very nice to be read to by Neil Gaiman.

It’s very worth it to go. I flew out from San Diego for this and would do it again in a heartbeat!

#neil gaiman

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ssinnerplazahotel · 3 months ago

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╭──────────.★..─╮

*Chapter Twelve*

╰─..★.──────────╯

WC: 6k

Warning: 18+, age gap, smut, fluff, toxic elvis, manipulation, drug use, it’s the 50s/60s, painful-difficult-devastating-life-changing-extraordinary love

Pairing: elvis x black reader

Disclaimer: full of inaccuracies, inaccurate timeline, inaccurate depictions of Graceland, historically inaccurate themes and items

Masterlist: Prologue, Ch. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11

You didn’t know what was said in the brief meeting that Elvis had with the Colonel the following morning, but a photo op was ordered for an announcement that would be in the papers.

“A photo op?”

“They want a good shot of us for the paper. A more formal introduction for the public.”

You frowned as you were pressured to choose your look for the photo.

“I don’t know. I can’t decide.”

“I like this one.” Elvis pointed out a lime dress with a pink pattern.

“It’s too loud, isn’t it?” You tilted your head as you examined the material.

“Suits the mood.”

“If you say so.”

He was forced out of the room so you could dress and go through hair and makeup. Soon you were preparing to head out for the photo.

“I knew you’d look perfect,” He said when he saw you. “The camera’s gonna love you, baby.”

“Are you sure it’s not too much?” You ask. “The makeup and the dress—it’s not like me.”

“It’s perfect,” He promised. “You’re my girl now so you hafta keep up your appearance.”

“Did I do a bad job at keeping it up before?”

“Oh, you did just fine.” He kissed your cheek and a camera flashed, signaling the arrival of the photographer.

“Let’s get the two of you outside,” He said instructed promptly. “Colonel wants this sent to the press by the end of the night.”

“Why?” You wondered.

“Come on, baby, let’s go outside,” Elvis said, putting his arm around you. “It’s just something he does. He knows how to…appeal to certain audiences.”

You stepped out onto the porch, stopping just before the first step and facing him. “And what audience are we appealing to now?”

“Those good, old, vanilla sons of bitches you always hear about,” He said, making you laugh. “They’re upset now, but they just need to see us kissin and huggin and lovin on each other. As a way to, y’know, convince them that I actually love you and that I’m not taking you in as a concubine.”

“Is that what people are saying?”

“People are saying a lot.”

The photographer gave the two of you instructions on what to do and you went around taking pictures for at least thirty minutes. You never thought taking a photo could take so long.

“Let’s have one with you sitting down and her standing next to you,” He said, gesturing for you to move onto the steps. “Put your hand on his shoulder.”

“How much longer, boss?” Elvis asked—you could tell he was getting restless.

“Just a few more.” He snapped the photos in a rush and finished up, true to his word. “Alrighty, I’m gonna get these to print and they should start circulating in no time.”

The photos were circulating that night. You had only seen a few pages of different newspapers, they all said relatively positive things.

“Where are the bad ones?” You asked.

“The what?” Elvis responded, appearing from the bathroom.

“The bad ones.”

“What’re you talkin about?

You crossed your arms. “Where are all the articles from the people that were standing out there crying their eyes out, ready to take my head off?”

His eyebrows drew together. “I don’t know, birdie. I brought those so you could see how the pictures came out, not so you could catch up on the latest hit pieces.”

“You can’t shield me from them, E, I have to see them,” You said. “It’ll just make things harder if I don’t.”

“Trust me, you’ll be better off not getting too caught up in the press,” He said, joining you in bed. “They chew you up and spit you out. I don’t want that to happen to you. Not my baby birdie.”

You pouted but moved on. “This one’s saying that the coat I was wearing when we got off the plane is sold out now. Do you think that’s true?”

“Enough of this,” He said, taking the pages from you and sweeping them to the ground.

“No~”

“You’ve had enough.”

The phone rang, cutting your rebuttal short. Elvis stood and snatched off the hook. You went to gather the papers from the ground—stacking them neatly on the bed.

“Who was it?” You asked when he hung up.

“I have a surprise for you downstairs,” He said.

“For me?” You chuckled. “What is it?”

“If I told you, it wouldn’t be a surprise, would it? Come on. Liz is here to get you ready.”

“That poor woman,” You said with a frown. “I can do my own hair and makeup.”

“I know, but she knows how I like it.” He took your hands in his and brought them up to his lips.

You hummed thoughtfully and wrapped your arms around his neck. “Do you like the way she does it, baby?”

His eyes darkened and his lips turned up in a smirk. “Don’t you?”

“If you like it, I love it.” You smiled, standing up on your toes to kiss him. “Get out of here so I can change.”

“It’s not gonna be good you keep winding me up and not letting me sing,” He said, pulling your body against his. “I might not be able to keep showing so much restraint.”

“I’m not asking you to,” You said. “I’m yours, aren’t I?”

“You are.”

“Then do what you want with me.”

There’s a knock on the door, signaling Elizabeth Monroe’s arrival. Elvis had her hired as your full time stylist and makeup artist. Apparently he had instructed her on exactly how you should be styled.

“Nothing but the best for my girl,” He had said when he introduced the two of you.

She didn’t say much as she dressed you, she said even less as she applied your makeup. You figured she was just concentrating on her work.

“Do you like it?” She asked after all was said and done.

“Yes, thank you.” You examined your face in the mirror. “Do you think he’ll like it?”

She met your eyes in your reflection and nodded. “He will.”

You hesitated on your way downstairs—you still felt uneasy being around everyone. You were sure they talked about you when you weren’t around.

Elvis appeared at the bottom of the stairs. “There you are.”

Your anxiety was relieved at the sight of him. “What do you think?”

“You’re perfect,” He said just as someone came to the door. “It’s for you.”

He took you by the hand and went to open the door. Your eyes widened when you saw Andrea standing there.

“Oh my god,” You said with a stunned smile, looking up at Elvis. “Why?”

“I thought it’d cheer you up after the week you’ve had,” He said before addressing her. “Andrea.”

“Elvis,” She said shortly as you hugged her.

“It’s so good to see you again,” You said. “I’m glad you’re here.”

“Well, I was summoned.” She gestured to Elvis with a sarcastic smile.

“Thank you so much for leaving your post at the gates of heaven, angel,” He responded before stepping forward to kiss your cheek. “I’ll let you ladies do whatever it is that you do.”

“Thank you, E.”

“You’re welcome, birdie.”

You watched him leave before facing Andrea. She looked around the foyer with her arms crossed—her expression bleak.

“It’s quieter upstairs, come on.”

She nodded and followed you. You led her to the office upstairs and plopped down on the black, leather couch.

“Sit.” You laughed, patting the spot in front of you. “Tell me how you’ve been.”

“I’ve been fine.” She took a seat facing you. “I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw you in the paper.”

“Yeah, everything happened really fast,” You said. “What do you think?”

“About what?”

“Elvis and me.”

She looked off, quirking an eyebrow. “It’s…a lot.”

You chuckled. “Good or bad?”

“Shouldn’t you tell me?”

“Hmmm…good.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah, it’s good.”

You smiled, she offered a small one in return.

“What happened to Joel from Hawaii?”

“Oh, well…we separated.”

She nodded. “Because you decided to be with Elvis?”

“Well, I mean~ It’s more complicated than that,” You said. “Elvis and I, we just…have history.”

“How far back?” Andrea asked.

“Since before I met you, I guess.” You thought for a moment. “Yeah, a while before I met you.”

“So, this mystery man was…”

“Elvis.”

She continued to look stunned but she laughed now. “For the love of god, you said he was married.”

You laughed along with her. “I had to throw you off somehow.”

“You are so full of surprises,” She said. “First you disappear without a trace, then you show up engaged, and now you’ve left that guy for his famous friend.”

“Oh, god, don’t say it like that,” You complained, laughing despite yourself. “I told you it was complicated. I tried with Joel, but…it wouldn’t have worked out.”

“Why?”

“Because I’m in love with Elvis.”

“Well…you’re causing riots in the streets.” You were grateful for the change in subject. “People are either tearing newspapers from store walls or breaking down the door to find your latest outfit. It’s pure chaos.”

“Really?”

“It’s like you’re famous.”

You smiled, shaking your head in denial. “I don’t know about that.”

Andrea sighed thoughtfully, falling silent for a moment. “You’re so…different now.”

“Good or bad?”

“…I can tell you’re in love.”

“A lot of people are convinced you don’t have a voice.”

“Are they really?”

You smiled down at Elvis—the telephone to your ear as you sat in his lap. At first you refused the interview. You didn’t want your voice broadcasted on the radio and you didn’t want your words plastered all over the paper. But Elvis talked you into it, promising to be by your side the entire time.

“You two are so different. You come from different backgrounds, he’s older~”

“Mhm~”

“You’re polar opposites really.”

“Yes.”

“What we all want to know is what you get up to. What do you talk about?”

“Oh, we get up to all kinds of stuff.”

Elvis quirked an eyebrow, gesturing to the slip of paper on the desk as a reminder for you to stick to the script.

“We do all the usual things.” You tilted your head to read the words from the page. “We have…very interesting conversations.”

“What’s interesting to a nineteen year old girl?”

“You should ask Elvis.”

He patted your thigh admonishingly—smirking despite himself.

“Anyway, I’m almost twenty.”

“What do you talk about, almost twenty?”

“You’re so funny.”

“Humor us here in radioland.”

“We talk about all kinds of things. He’s an intellectual.”

“He teaches you a lot, huh?”

“Sure.”

“There are some fans out there that refuse to believe the two of you are the real thing. What do you say to them?”

“I understand, honestly. I can’t believe it myself sometimes.”

You rolled your eyes at that one—cutting an eye at Elvis.

“There’s talk of marriage, any truth to that?”

“Not that we know of.”

“Folks are saying there’s gonna be some serious consequences if you aren’t married.”

“…Is that what they’re saying in radioland?”

“Does that scare you?”

“…Stick to the script, Quincy.”

The interview came to an end and you looked at Elvis with a serious expression. He laughed. “It wasn’t that bad, was it?”

“‘Serious consequences?’”

“Oh, birdie~”

“Don’t tell me not to worry.”

He tilted his head, smiling at you silently. You stood with a sigh and grabbed your cigarettes off the corner of the desk.

“Tell me what they’re saying,” You demanded. “Andrea tells me what they say in the paper, E, you can’t keep it from me.”

“They want us to get married.”

“So I’ve heard. Why?”

“Hell if I know. These people want something different every goddamn day. It’s just another thing.”

You struck a match and lit the end of your cigarette. “What are they saying is gonna happen if we don’t?”

He shrugged. “They’ll ban me across the country on the basis of morality, send us to jail, hang us from the ceiling, and whatever else they can come up with. Shit, maybe they’ll send us to the fucking moon. I have no idea what they say in those meetings.”

You took a drag from your cigarette. “How can they force people to do things like this?”

“I don’t know, but we’re sorting everything out as best we can.”

“You keep saying that.”

“And you keep wasting your time worrying.” He rounded the desk, leaning against the front of it as he spoke. “What’s the worst that can happen? We end up having to get married?”

“Yes, Elvis, that’s the worst that can happen,” You said. “That means they have all the control.”

“No one has all the control. It’s a bunch of people sitting around talking, that’s all it is.”

“The last time a bunch of people sat around talking about you you got shipped to Germany.”

“Goddamnit, birdie, will you let it go?”

You turned to leave the office, too annoyed to say anything else, but he caught your arm and made you face him.

“I’m not gonna let anything hurt you or take you away,” He said. “Not when I just got you back.”

You met his eyes without speaking—your jaw set.

“I’ll handle it. Alright?”

“…Alright.”

You weren’t sure what decisions were made or who had put everything together, but, soon, you were getting married.

You had woken up on the eve of your wedding day—unbeknownst to you—to Liz laying out different designs for hair, makeup, and your dress. When you asked where Elvis had gone you were told that he and the rest of the guys were already in Nevada.

“We have these.” Liz showed you the dresses in a hurry. “We can get the dress of your choice fitted and altered overnight. That way it’ll be ready tomorrow morning.”

“What is happening?” You asked, bewildered. “I need to talk to Elvis, right now.”

“There’s no time. You’re leaving as soon as Andrea gets here.”

As if on cue, Andrea came bustling through the door—luggage in tow. “There’s the bride-to-be~”

“Andrea, do you have any idea what’s going on?” You asked. “Who’s orchestrating all of this?”

“I don’t know.” She looked concerned now. “Jerry called me last night and told me that Parker wanted everybody here by eight this morning.”

“Liz, who told you to be here?”

“Parker.”

You looked around the room and stopped one of the people packing your bags. You asked them the same question, although you were already sure of the answer.

“The Colonel.”

You groaned, this couldn’t be happening. The entire place was in chaos around you.

“I’m sorry, but you have to choose now,” Liz said apologetically.

Andrea tried to aid you in making a decision. You could’ve cried at the thought of choosing your wedding dress fifteen minutes after waking up on what you had assumed would be a normal day. You had minutes to contemplate your decision as Liz dressed you in the clothes you would be traveling in.

“I like the V-cut. Don’t you?” Andrea asked

“I don’t know,” You said. “What do you think he’d want, Liz?”

“For christ sake, it’s your wedding too,” Andrea said. “Which one do you want?”

“Leaving for the airport!”

Liz encouraged you to go with your first choice. “It’s the best option.”

You didn’t have time to think as you were ushered from the house. You arrived in Nevada that night after a miserable flight. At the hotel, you were rushed from the car and into the back entrance of the building.

“Where are we going?” You must’ve asked a thousand times already. You were relieved when you saw Jerry meeting you at the end of the hall. “Where is he?”

“He’s been on the phone for hours trying to sort things out with Parker,” Jerry said as he led the way. “He’s tryna to see if he can’t get this whole thing done away with.”

Jerry led you to a conference room that had a long chestnut table at the center with padded office chairs. You immediately spotted Elvis pacing on the telephone. He handed the phone off when he saw you.

“Come over here, birdie.” He guided you to the corner of the room—ducking his head as he spoke. “Are you okay? Is Andrea with you?”

“What is happening?” You asked, matching his low voice. You didn’t recognize anyone in the room apart from Elvis and Jerry. The men sitting around the end of the table all wore suits and had expressions that appeared permanently stern. They didn’t take their eyes off of you the entire time.

“Are we ready to sign the papers?”

“Nah, we’re still figuring some things.”

You shook your head in disbelief. “Is this real?”

Elvis rubbed his face. “I’ve been talking to that son of a bitch for hours. He sent me here to talk to these people but they’re not budging. He keeps saying his hands are tied and there’s nothing he can do.”

“Do you believe that?”

“I have no reason not to. He’s been trying to get the public on our side.”

“This isn’t about the public.”

“It’s not?”

“Is Parker trying as hard as he could be?”

Elvis shrugged, looking off for a moment. “I don’t think they’re gonna let us leave here without signing those papers.”

He was right—they didn’t. Elvis Presley was given until midnight on that day to declare you his wife or risk a countrywide ban on the basis of morality. To which, as a direct consequence, he would be ordered to answer to all statewide warrants made for his arrest. That was only his end of the bargain, there was no telling what they’d do to you.

Your marriage was official by 11:56 that night.

The party following would be strictly for photos—a tight hour of partying for the camera and then off to bed.

“The bride needs her beauty sleep.”

You didn’t get a chance to see Elvis again until you were preparing to walk down the aisle. There had been no rehearsal, you had no idea how it was going to go.

The ceremony happened fast, like everything else. They instructed the two of you on every move you made and had you pause for photos along the way. You said your vows—the generic ones the minister told you to repeat—kissed, and you were escorted directly from the altar into a press conference.

“You just sit there and look pretty, mama,” Elvis said. “I’ll do all the talking.”

You were relieved. You were too overwhelmed by the crowd to speak. You sat by his side without tearing your gaze away from him for more than a minute. You were so deeply and devastatingly in love with him—yet you felt no emotion towards your union. You were married before your eyes and you had no time to react.

“What can we expect from the happy couple moving forward?”

“Keep an eye out for us, you’ll see.”

You were whisked away directly for your “honeymoon.” In reality, you spent hours on a plane by yourself back to Memphis—Elvis was going to be away filming in Los Angeles and you were on your way back home.

You hadn’t had a moment alone with Elvis since the night before the wedding and most of that time was spent calling around trying to get it canceled. You didn’t want to leave without speaking to him, but you didn’t get the chance.

“I need to talk to you,” You tried to tell him as he walked you to your flight. There were people on either side of each of you—obstructing the paparazzi’s view.

“Go up with Ray,” He said, gesturing to the stairway of the plane. “I’ll see you back at the house.”

“Elvis,” You said, still trying to get through to him.

“It’s okay, birdie.” He kissed your forehead before you were being ushered up the steps.

“No.”

“I love you, okay?”

You caught a final glimpse of his back as he was rushed to his car. You were on your way back to the house you had left in a frenzy two days prior. You should’ve felt different. Or maybe you were expecting too much.

Andrea was already at Graceland when you arrived. She greeted you as you walked through the door.

“Mrs. Presley,” She said, hugging you. “Welcome to your honeymoon.”

“Wow.” You looked around the foyer. “It’s everything I ever wanted.”

There was a party happening downstairs but you weren’t sure it had anything to do with you. There was always a party downstairs. A constant conjugation of people.

“You aren’t going to spend every day lying by the phone are you?”

“No, Andrea. I told you, I’m just tired.”

She slumped onto the end of the bed. “You aren’t pregnant, are you?”

You were bewildered by the question. “No, why would you ask?”

“It’s been a week since you’ve gotten out of bed.”

“It has not.”

“It has.”

“It’s Tuesday.”

“It’s Friday.”

Time passed like that whenever he was away. You had thought you escaped that feeling forever but you were being reminded of it all over again. The days didn’t matter without him, they were too long and too demanding.

“Serena and Liz are here,” Andrea continued. She stripped the duvet from your legs and stood to turn the lights on. “There are people here to take your picture.”

You complained and shielded your eyes. “The same people from the other day?”

“The same people,” She confirmed. “They’ve been coming every day. They want you sitting somewhere downstairs.”

“Sitting?”

“That’s what they said.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know. Maybe because it’s a special day.”

“Is it?”

Andrea revealed a tiny black box with a red bow wrapped around it. It only dawned on you then that you had forgotten your own birthday throughout all the hustle and bustle of the last few days. “Consider it a birthday/late wedding gift.”

“You shouldn’t have gotten me anything,” You said, taking the gift. “I completely forgot about it.”

“I didn’t,” She said. “You’re my best friend.”

You were instructed to sit outside with Andrea as you were served sweet tea and lemonade.

“Where’s Nancy?”

“Maybe she didn’t want to be on film.”

They wanted footage of you around Graceland doing everyday things. They wanted insight into what your everyday life was like here—married to the king. Expect, he wasn’t here, and you were being forced to smile in his absence.

“Just pretend they aren’t there,” Andrea said in a grumble. She wasn’t too keen on being photographed but she set herself aside to avoid you looking like a lunatic having lemonade alone.

“What do they want from me?”

“Maybe we should start dancing.”

You laughed.

After the photographers left, you retreated back into the bedroom to continue to wait by the phone. Andrea griped about going out—to which you reminded her that you’d be attacked or worse if you dared to venture out.

“There has to be some way to get out and get a decent drink,” She argued. “Serena can’t call anyone?”

“I don’t want to worry her.”

“What’s his name that follows you around everywhere?”

“Ray.”

“Tell Ray to get a car and call the bar to tell them you’re coming.”

You shook your head. “I’m not supposed to go out without Elvis.”

She scoffed. “He’s probably out having the time of his life.”

“I doubt it. We can drink downstairs.”

“What is this, a five star resort?”

You smiled wearily. You didn’t want to go out anyway. The phone rang, startling you delightfully. You glanced at Andrea, who understood immediately.

“I’m going.” She stood to leave. “Tell him I said hi.”

“I’m really going to.” You laughed as she left, bringing the phone to your ear. “Hello?”

“Hey, it’s me.”

“…Joel?” Your eyes widened in shock.

“Hey,” He chuckled in a tone so casual it made you ill.

“Hi.” You sounded reserved as a result of your shock.

“I-I figured I’d get you here,” He said. “I’m sorry to call out of nowhere like this I just…I saw the news.”

You deflated, eyes closed. With everything else happening you hadn’t even taken a moment to consider how Joel would feel. You felt immensely guilty that he had heard the news of everything from the media and not directly from you.

“God, Joel, I’m so sorry.” You suppressed the urge to cry. “I should‘ve called~”

“It’s fine.”

“It…it all happened so fast.”

He hesitated for a moment. “Yeah, it did.”

“I’m not just saying that, I swear,” You said. “I didn’t even know it was happening. None of us did…”

“That’s kind of what the guys were saying.”

“Do you still talk with them?”

“Yeah, we’re like family, so…”

You nodded. The circles you were tracing into your knee began to blur with tears as you spoke. “How’s New York?”

He hummed indifferently. “It’s quiet in some places.”

“Well, yeah.”

“Who knew?”

You laughed, trying not to alert him to the fact that you were crying. “Are you happy?”

“I’m figuring it out.”

“That’s good.”

“Are you?”

“Hm?”

“Are you happy?”

“I am.”

For some reason, you felt like you were telling a lie. You were happy. There had been moments in the past few weeks that you felt you couldn’t possibly be happier. But there was a part of you that clung to whatever heartache you had left. Perhaps you wanted to punish yourself with it or use it as a reminder that you weren’t completely heartless.

Joel was silent on the other line but you hadn’t noticed until he spoke again. “I’m glad. Congratulations.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t apologize. That’s not why I called.”

“Why did you call?”

He seemed to hesitate before saying—

“I just wanted to make sure you were okay.”

“Oh…well, thank you.”

“I wanted to say also…” He started. “A-And I don’t want you to think I’m tryin to talk you out of your decision or anything, it's just…it’s a lot happening all at once. It’d be a lot for anyone. So…don’t feel obligated to be something you aren’t because you love a person.”

“…Thank you for saying that.”

“…Anyway, I better let you off of here,” He said, laughing shortly. “I’ll see you in the paper I guess.”

“Yeah.” You cleared your throat. “Don’t have too much fun in New York.”

“I’ll try my best. Take care.”

“You too.”

“O-Oh and, uh, happy birthday.”

You closed your eyes, smiling softly. “Thank you, Joel.”

“Bye now,” He chuckled.

“Bye,” You said, waiting to hear the line go dead before hanging up.

You sat there for a moment, standing abruptly in search of the scrap of paper you used to write down the number of where Elvis was staying. Whoever answered gave you the run around for a while before actually putting you through.

“Who are you again?”

“His wife.”

He answered with an overly delicate tone—one that told you that his failure to touch base hadn’t gone unnoticed even by himself.

“Hey, everything alright?”

“Where are you?”

“I’m~ What do you mean where am I, honey? I’m working.”

You sat down on the edge of the bed. “It’s been a week since I’ve seen or heard from you.”

“Has it?”

“It has.”

“It’s Tuesday already?”

“It’s Friday.”

He tried to dismiss the argument. “You know how time slips away.”

You hummed, agitated. “Yeah, it does that when I don’t hear from you for weeks too.”

“Birdie,” He chided. “Are you checkin up on me?”

“No.” He laughed on the other line. “It’s not funny. When were you gonna call? Next month? Never? I mean, it’s my birthday today. Did you know that?”

“Did I know that?” He asked. “Of course I knew that.”

“You’re lying.”

“I’m not just kicked back havin a goddamn party, honey, I have shit to do while I’m here~”

“I’m not debating that, E, I just thought you’d call.”

“I was going to.”

“Were you?”

“I’m so glad to hear your voice. It’s like music to my ears.”

“Elvis~”

“I’m sorry you couldn’t stay up here with us, I don’t think it was really a part of the plan before the wedding and everything.”

“It’s fine~”

“Next time I’m gonna bring you with me, show you what Hollywood is like. What do you think?”

“That’d be nice.”

He promised that he would make it happen. You didn’t care if you were together in Memphis or LA, you only wanted to be near him.

“How d’you like Serena and Ray?” He asked.

“I feel bad for them.” You smiled when he laughed. “I don’t see what they’re here for. I don’t go anywhere or do anything.”

“They’re there to make sure you’re taken care of, that’s all. To protect you.”

“I wouldn’t need them to protect me if you were here.”

“I know, baby. What do you want me to do?”

There was nothing he could do. He could stay on the phone and talk to you for a couple of hours but it wouldn’t do any good.

“Birdie?”

“Joel called me a minute ago.”

You weren’t trying to evoke any specific reaction, but looking back now, telling Elvis about the call seemed like nothing more than a desperate grab for attention. He didn’t sound like he felt any particular way about it when he responded.

“Did he?”

“Yes,” You said, guilelessly.

“What’d he say?” There was a slight uptake to the end of his sentence—was he irritated with you?

“Nothing really, just congratulations and everything.”

“‘Congratulations?’”

He didn’t sound convinced.

“He said he wanted to make sure I was okay.”

“Well, I’m sure you thought that was nice and everything, honey, but he doesn’t need to concern himself with your well-being.”

“Elvis,” You said admonishingly. “He’s an old friend.”

“Old friend my ass.” He laughed shortly. “Don’t play with me.”

“I’m not. It was a harmless call.”

“So harmless you’re running to tell me?”

“‘Running to tell?’ Please.”

“I don’t care if you talk to him, I just think he should speak to me first.”

“Why?”

“Because you’re my wife. I don’t want him getting any ideas about worming his way back in.”

You laughed, mostly at the thought of Joel ‘worming his way’ back into your life. You loved him—he loved you too, undeniably. However, you’d gone past a certain point with him and there was no going back. The spell was broken and any magic you once had with him was gone.

“I don’t think he’ll call again,” You said. “I’m telling you as a courtesy.”

“Well, I appreciate it.” He shifted on the other line with a sigh. “I’m gonna have to get offa here, baby. They need me.”

I need you, you thought. “Okay.”

“I’m gonna see about getting you and Andrea out here for the last week or so,” He said. “I’ll tell Parker it’s for the press.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. That way I can keep an eye on you.”

You didn’t realize that that would be the last time the two of you would be apart for more than forty-eight hours.

You seldom parted. You were either by his side or within his vicinity. Eventually it became the new normal for you to always be together. It was uncomfortable at first, being around the guys.

You had a feeling they hated you.

“What?”

“Where is she?”

“Getting dressed.”

You rushed out of the bathroom—fully dressed for the day—to meet Andrea at the bedroom door. Elvis was off from filming again for a few months and your days had been filled with only each other. Andrea was there, sent by the other guys to get you away so that they could have him.

“They want you downstairs,” She said to Elvis—arms crossed and lips slightly pursed.

“Tell them I’m busy.”

“What am I, your messenger?”

“Are you theirs?”

“Yeah, in exchange for some human decency.”

You stopped them before they kept going. “We were headed downstairs anyway. Right, baby?”

He put his arm around you. “That’s right, baby.”

“I actually need to talk to you about something,” Andrea said to you. “It can’t wait. It’s too important.”

You stepped towards her—concerned. “Is everything alright?”

“Birdie,” Elvis said expectantly, waiting for you to come with him.

“We’re only gonna be a second,” You said with an apologetic expression as you ushered Andrea into the room. “I left something in the bathroom anyway.”

“Straight down when you’re done,” He said, leaning in to kiss your cheek. You smiled and he left.

“What’s wrong, Drea?”

“Nothing, I just said that so he’d go away.”

“Why?”

“Because you’ve been inseparable and we’re all suffering because of it.”

You laughed. “Suffering how?”

“Do you realize that I don’t know a single person in this house apart from you?” She sat down on the edge of the bed. “Ray and Serena aren’t even around to talk to these days.”

“I don’t really know them either,” You said, going to the bathroom. “I haven’t even spoken to some of them.”

“It’s not the same. You’re with Elvis.” She met you at the bathroom door, watching as you opened the pill bottle that you’d gotten off the counter. “Again?”

“They help me relax,” You said. “Do you want one? They’re harmless.”

“No.” She continued watching you.

“I’m sorry I haven’t made time for you lately,” You said. “It’s so hard. Nothing exists when we’re together.”

“You poor things.”

“We should head down now.”

Andrea insisted that the two of you go for a round of cards in the sitting room or a walk outside. You agreed for a change—mostly because you felt guilty for not spending time with her.

You had managed to get away that afternoon and you decided to make it up to her. You spent the day relaxing and catching up on some self care. It was a welcomed break that you didn’t know you needed. You had gotten so caught up with her that night had fallen before you realized how late it was.

“It’s the same thing every time,” Andrea complained as you laid in her bed watching television—a fresh coat of polish adorning your nails. “Why do they even bother?”

“You really expect them to get off the island every episode?”

“Isn’t that the point?”

There was a knock at the door that cut your rebuttal short. You looked at Andrea who shrugged and stood carefully to answer it.

“What, Red?” She asked when she saw who it was, a twinge of annoyance lying under her tone.

“He wants the girl,” Red said in a similar tone, obviously forced to fetch you.

You stood to put your clothes back on—Andrea had given you something more comfortable to wear earlier.

“Is that a question or what?”

“Can you send her upstairs?”

“Please?”

“Please.”

“First of all, Red, the girl has a name, and second she’s not here.”

You stopped shuffling around the room to listen.

“What do you mean she ain’t here?”

“I mean she’s not here.”

“She’s supposed to be.”

“Well, she isn’t.”

Red sighed—you pictured him contemplating his next move. “So, what am I supposed to tell ‘im?”

Andrea laughed. “Hell if I know or care.”

“Where the hell is she, Andrea?”

“I don’t know. I’m not her keeper.”

They stood there for a moment, Andrea reveling silently. Red eventually left, mumbling under his breath about going to find you. She shut the door and faced you.

“You should’ve seen the look on his face,” She said through her laughter as she walked back over to her bed. “He’s scared shitless.”

“You shouldn’t play games like that,” You said, laughing despite yourself. “He’s going to want to know where I am.”

“I know, but let’s give him time to squirm at least,” She said, gesturing for you to sit back down. “Come on, humor me a little. This is the most fun I’ve had in weeks.”

You hesitated—you knew you had a choice whether to stay or go, you just didn’t know which outcome you’d rather face. You could stay, but you’d hardly enjoy yourself knowing Elvis would be worried. He’d think you were missing or that you ran off when Red tells him that he couldn’t find you. But leaving meant ruining the night for Andrea, and you were supposed to be making up for abandoning her.

She spoke again. “You can call and tell him you’re with me if it’ll make you feel better. Or you can go, really. It’s just a stupid joke.”

You shook your head, forcing a short laugh as you spoke. “N-No. You’re right.”

“About what?”

“I-I don’t know…you’re always right.”

You laughed nervously and rejoined her on the bed. The phone rang—you both knew who it was.

“Don’t answer it,” You said before she could. “It’s fine.”

The silence between the two of you as the phone rang out was tense, and uncomfortable—at least it was for you. Eventually it stopped ringing and all that remained was the sound of the television.

“Do you think they’ll make it out this time?”

“I sure hope so.”

#elvis presley #elvis presely smut #elvis imagine #elvis smut #elvis fluff #black reader #elvis x black reader #elvis x you #60s elvis #elvis x reader #austin!elvis x reader

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welcometo79s · 3 months ago

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[repost because I got shadow-banned and I'm back now]

@clonemmunism got me thinking with their post about the war ending and the clones just making very bad fashion choices so here's my thought on what everyone would wear and my rating:

Hunter [4/10]:

Hunter doesn't really care about being fashionable. We got a glimpse of what he would wear in The Bad Batch and I don't think it's very good. He owns a couple of cute scarves but usually he just dresses like a less fashionable Cut Lawquane. And Cut is already pushing it. It's nothing too bad, he just looks like some farmer on Dantooine. No, the bad thing about Hunter is that he literally does not differentiate between clothes he wears going out and clothes he wears practicing knife throwing and juggling with. So most of his stuff has little cuts and tears in it. He also sticks to the type of clothes that Cut gave him, which is the only thing saving him from being a fashion nightmare. He did however try to pick absolutely atrocious clothes for Omega until Echo stepped in. Like he'd attempt to get her a pink shirt with a porg vomiting a rainbow on it and military khakis.

Echo [10/10]:

His outfits are top-notch, he just doesn't dress properly for the seasons. But hey, that's not what we're ranking here. Echo is a crop top guy. Crop tops in summer. Crop tops in winter. And he looks good in them. He wears regular black pants and a variety of casual jackets on top of the crop tops. Sometimes leather jackets, sometimes bomber jackets, sometimes parkas, sometimes open shirts loosely hanging over the tops. Gets matching accessories and high quality boots for his outfits too. Ends up getting himself a belly button piercing. Fashion icon.

Tech [6/10]:

He only has one outfit and it's beige suit pants and a white shirt that's stuffed into the pants. He owns multiple duplicates of the pants and the shirt. Leather shoes. The only thing he switches out about the outfit is that he wears a variety of funky bow ties.

Wrecker [4/10]:

I'm sure there's people on here who found Wrecker's beekeeper outfit from the Saleucami episode cute but it's not very fashionable, nor are the rest of his clothes. Fisherman hats. Crocs. The "my 50 year old dad on the balcony" shoes (those cork sandals). Ponchos and pants that don't fit together color-wise. Sooo many tie dye shirts. Those jeans fabric shorts with lots of cuts in them. The very short ones. Very rarely an elegant evening gown he looks really good in. That gets him an extra point.

Crosshair [5/10]:

He's the Hot Topic Brigade. He has a style and he sticks to it. Some people like it and some don't. Almost always wears a leather jacket. Buys all his clothes at the Star Wars equivalent of Hot Topic.

Fives [7/10]:

Usually wears black jeans and some black t-shirt with printed words on it. Sneakers. Jeans jackets, sometimes with fur. His outfits are good but he wears some of the most atrocious shirts known to mankind. On a good day you get "Viva la Clonevolution", "I'm a Republic War Crime" or "Enemy of the State". On worse days he might wear something that says "Sparkle on you crazy doggo!", "I eat cement", "I can't fucking do be do be do it anymore" (all real shirts by the way) or "Call me the Uwunator". The otherwise completely normal, nice looking outfit adds to the insanity. Sometimes Echo pretends he doesn't know him. It's the fact that Fives does this on purpose that really gets Echo.

Rex [1/10]:

Listen. The Bad Batch and Fives have the privilege of having Echo to be the damage control for their fashion choices. Now we're getting into the bad territory. Rex has so many of these white tank tops that you can see his nipples through. Sometimes there's hot sauce stains on them. He also has a fuzzy jacket that Fives got him as a joke. Rex does not know it was supposed to be a joke. At this point Fives is too intimidated to correct him. He wears light shorts that some rich kid would wear to the golf course under the tank tops. And cowboy boots. Also huge elegant statement necklaces on top of this. And that one stupid fisher hat that says "rexcellent" on it.

Hardcase [2/10]:

Listen the only reason Hardcase has more points than Rex is that Hardcase doesn't want to look fashionable, Hardcase wants to look fun and that he does. He joins Fives in the cringe t-shirt extravaganza. Would wear the ugly pink porg shirt that Hunter wanted to get for Omega. See-through jackets. Glittery heart sunglasses. Glittery silver disco pants that get wider at the bottom. Rainbow bracelets that work like rattles. He annoys everyone around him by shaking his hands to his "improv gospel". Red leather boots that go up to his thighs. Sometimes he wears them under the disco pants, sometimes over them. Fives loves his outfits. He's the only one. Sometimes Hardcase tries out a variety of colorful wigs.

Tup [9/10]:

He looks so cute. So many people hit on him. Lets his hair grow a little longer and starts wearing half-buns. Also a crop top guy, just a little shy about it at first. Wears earrings and looks really nice with them. Has delicate wrist tattoos, maybe some branches with flowers wrapping around his arms. Otherwise simple, normal pants and sneakers.

Jesse [3/10]:

Tup and Fives are carrying the 501st in terms of fashion. The rest are all fashion don'ts. Jesse is no exception. He also wears crop tops but his don't have sleeves or straps. It's just a strapless bandeau top hanging over his pecs. On top of that? Baggy oversized jacket with a comical amount of pockets that he always stuffs full of things. He's been stopped multiple times by the Coruscant Guard and searched as a suspect for being a spice dealer. He just has his pockets stuffed full of candy though. Baggy pants with equally as many pockets fading from blue into purple into red. The jacket is a dark green. Sparkly golden dance slippers.

Dogma [1/10]:

Big sun hats. Very tight leather pants that end just below his crotch area and then restart at the knee. The pants have two parts basically. The two parts are not connected. See-through sneakers. Frilly white shirts that some 18th century vampire would wear. Tie with little loth cats on it. All of this in combination btw.

Fox [10/10]:

I can do this in one sentence, look up "dark academia outfit men" on Pinterest and you get Fox's style.

Mayday [0/10]:

His isn't even an outfit, it's just a bunch of fabrics he bought just like that in the market and somehow wrapped himself in them. There's no shirt, pants, jacket or anything like that, they're just pieces of fabric wrapped around his body like towels. One of them he wears as a scarf. On a good day he looks like some type of monk. On a bad day he just looks like a mess.

Howzer [3/10]:

You know that outfit Sportacus wears in LazyTown? That's his style. He wears things looking similar to that.

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theaudientvoid · 5 months ago

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So, since both DC and Marvel are currently launching initiatives to created "simplified" continuities in a bid to attract new readers, I should probably do a periodic reminder about why efforts to "simplify" continuity almost never work, and even if they did, I don't think that simplified continuity is nearly as laudable goal as many people seem to thing.

In practice, attempts to simplify continuity almost always end up making continuity more complicated. Let's take the Marvel's current attempt, relaunching the Ultimate Universe. This is meant to be a new universe that readers can pick up of the rack without having to worry about decades of continuity baggage. So far, so good. The problem is that this is the second time that Marvel has done this trick using this exact name. So now, any time a prospective new reader hears about Ultimate Spider-Man, well which one are they hearing about. The old one from the 2000s who was a teenager, or the new one that's, like, 35?

The fate of the original Ultimate Universe is instructive. It went on for over a decade, and by the end had built up its own convoluted continuity, such that Marvel eventually decided to just pull the plug and merge it over into the main universe.

Now, keep in mind, the "New" Ultimate Universe is selling like hot cakes. Ultimate Spider-Man is currently out selling the main Spider-Man book. But how much of that is from "simplified" continuity, and how much of that is because Marvel editorial is committed to maintaining a status quo for the character in the main universe that many readers find uninteresting? (They still haven't undone One More Day.)

It's also instructive that Marvel chose to reuse the "Ultimate" name. If they really wanted to excise continuity baggage, presumably they'd pick an entirely new name, to prevent any threat of namespace collision. But that's not what they did. Presumably, they were hoping to capitalize on any residual good will associated with the Ultimate brand left over from the original Ultimate universe. Which new readers, who supposedly hate continuity, won't have.

All that being said, though, is "simplifying" continuity even all that worthy a goal in the first place? I'm not convinced it is. So, like, the thing to keep in mind is that Marvel and DC's business model is oriented around selling single issues to a small pool of collectors at exorbitant prices. Once a issues initial print run(s) end, it becomes an afterthought from the standpoint of the decision makers at the big two.

So, from the perspective of convincing randoms off the street to buy the latest issue of Batman, that decades of continuity baggage probably is an impediment. But, I would argue, it's not nearly as big an impediment that as the fact that single issues are a) expensive as fuck, and b) only sold in specialized stores. If you want to grow the population of comic readers, the biggest things you need to do are lower the price, and sell them in places that normies actually go to.

DC recently, with relatively little fanfare, started an initiative to sell collected additions of a handful of classic stories from their back catalog in regular book stores. Importantly, however, these special collections all collect 12 issues, and cost only $10. For comparison, ordinary trade paperbacks collect 6 issues and cost $17. Single issues run you $4 or $5. This is an okay start, but not nearly enough. If I was in charge of DC or Marvel, I would start by aggressively marketing our back catalog to non-comic readers at significantly reduced prices. Note that this would still allow us to continue selling single issues to super fans at full price, while also having a realistic prospect of growing the market. Because the idea that Marvel or DC can get people into comics by convincing them to walk into a comic shop off the street and pay $5 per issue for the latest crossover event is just absurd.

#comics #dc #marvel

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angel-egg-egl · 29 days ago

Note

i would love to see the cost breakdown for producing a handmade item!

well if you insist (infodump voice)

so it does depend a lot on the item itself-- at least in my case. Tiered skirts use up more fabric than a standard gathered skirt. in my case, the body fabrics i buy usually have a width of around 100cm (give or take 5cm-10cm), and so i can do easier math. if i wanted to do a basic 50cm long skirt, that would take about 120cm of fabric or so. something like the dear rose skirt with a double tier and tucks (note: tucks can use up a lot of fabric!) is more like 350cm. a lot of print fabrics i buy are sold by the metre, but most of the solids (and laces) i use are actually sold by the yard (~90cm), so that's also something to keep in mind.

another thing to keep in mind is wholesale vs consumer pricing-- for small brands like mine, you can't always get wholesale pricing or justify purchasing the minimum lot size of a fabric, so fabric can end up more expensive than if you were a brand producing larger product runs. for example, the burberry fabric i use is around $17/y, but is $4/m if i purchased wholesale (50m or so), but then I would have to count on being able to sell that many items and store the extra fabric while i made them. the my dear rose fabric is about $10/m (not counting fees, shipping, and customs) consumer level, but wholesale it's $5-$7USD (under current conversion rates) depending on the lot size i buy (6m minimum, up to 18m). some fabrics are more expensive (gobelin, velveteen, silk, and corduroy, as well as discontinued fabrics i purchase secondhand) can run $20-$35/m, while the lawn fabric i buy is extra wide (150cm) and runs as low as $5/y for 5y(for reference, i can get 6-7 liners out of each 5y pack).

so you'd be looking at around $25 in fabric for something simple (ie, a Burberry Basics skirt, which i'm using as my baseline for a cheap to produce item), but as much as $105 for a tiered velveteen or discontinued print skirt. for something like my (as yet unreleased) rose petal tiered skirt (the red velveteen one with cotton lace in my first post, which i'm using as an example of my most expensive to produce item), which uses more like 6m of fabric, it can get up to $180 for the body fabric alone (i did make a version out of inexpensive linen for ~$60 though)

this is just the body material though. (liners come out to, say, about $5 each?)

trims are where things get really complicated and at times really pricy! a lot of laces I get come out to something like $1-$4/y (and come of packs of 10y to 50m) but that can get pricy quick when you're using a lot of it-- i need at least 200cm of lace for an ungathered lace hem on a standard skirt, but sometimes as much as 400-800 if I wanted to add lace to the hem of a tiered skirt (my record is 16m of lace on one item). i won't get into braids and ribbon trims right now because they're not used as often and the prices are way more wildly variable.

so you're probably looking at anywhere from $15 of lace (200cm x 3 rows = 600cm or just under 7 yards) for something like the burberry basics skirts, or as much as $30 in lace for something like the aforementioned rose skirt.

elastic is negligible, thank god-- i get 20m rolls for around $10 which adds up to less than a dollar per skirt. i also won't include thread, since I can't really calculate how far a spool goes.

so to recap, that adds up to around

$45 in raw materials for a burberry basics

but more like $215 in raw materials for the rose tiered skirt (velveteen version).

so depending on your fabric and lace choices, you end up either saving a pretty good amount of money, or getting to where you understand why Burando is so expensive (lol)

but this is all before labour! (note: cost of labour is kind of only relevant if you're selling your work-- if it's for yourself, there's no need to bother with this step)

if i go for quick and dirty techniques (result looks fine, but won't be machine washable and will need touch ups on the future) i can get a basic skirt pumped out in 2 hours if I'm in the zone, but 4-8 hours is often more realistic if i'm doing french seams and rolled hems, a ton of gathering (ie, tiers), or adding a ton of trims, tucks, or other special details. some items like OPs may take me several "workdays" to get through.

the min wage in my area is $16, but most jobs start at $20. since i consider myself an amateur, i use that as my starting rate, and go up if I'm doing anything especially fancy. so that's as little as $40 in labour, or as much as $160. $80 is about average. (I do sometimes lowball my own labour costs, though, because I would prefer to keep items relatively affordable and this is all extra disposable income for me rather than smth i do to survive.)

which brings us to $125 or so for a burberry basics (materials + labour-- though I'm currently selling them for $100 because in the future I should be able to buy the fabric at wholesale amounts, which will reduce the cost of production by quite a bit-- but for the average person $125 is more realistic) or as much as $375 for my most complex design. ofc, for a person hand making something at home, the cost of labour isn't actually money you pay, you're just paying your own time-- i just added cost of labour for posterity here. factories and production lines can probably cause this number to vary, because professionally trained seamstresses or groups doing different levels of assembly may be able to work faster than I, one person doing every step myself, can, and likely don't follow californian minimum wage laws.

that's not to say handmade is INHERENTLY expensive-- the cheapest option I covered here is still cheaper than a branded item, and there are cheaper ways to go about things (for example, if you found a fabric you liked on sale, that $45 material cost could go down a bit-- or like I mentioned, the material cost for the rose skirt going down from 180 to 60 by simply swapping the fabric type. likewise, if wholesale fabric is an option, prices can be reduced even further).

These are all for main pieces, too. accessories can be made on the cheap (i can usually get 2-3 rectangle headdresses out of 1/4 yard of fabric, ie like $5 a pop. wrist cuffs are even cheaper to produce).

all this to say:

but also if you just want to make something for yourself and not like, producing items for commercial sale, it's definitely more affordable than big name brand, and i honestly recommend trying it at least once, bc then you get to decide things like fabric quality, construction type, and sizing all for yourself AND you get the massive dopamine hit of making something yourself.

as an aside to close on: yes i do have plans to post some of my original patterns for public use. and yes i am willing to share sources for some of my materials if they're available on a consumer level.

i hope everyone got something out of this because it was kind of fun to write about!

#handmade lolita #asks #long post

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alwek · 4 months ago

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I have 100 9/11 memes in my collection, and so here is my

Top 10 9/11 Memes From My Folder

From Worst Of The Best To Best Of The Best

~~~~~~~~~~

10) Conkeldurr

I like this edit a lot. It's decently cut, it's a funny idea executed cleanly, it envokes the image of a kaiju causing 9/11 and I think that's interesting. It's almost like he's crushing the twin towers with his fists, or he's about to use them as weapons in a fight.

~~~~~~~~~~

9) The Coup

Album covers/images that go hard. This was originally going to be the cover of the album, and it was chosen PRIOR to 9/11. The cover was greenlit in June 2001, and only some retail copies with the cover were printed on September 11th, which is a funny coincidence. I want one of the Exploding Towers prints so bad.

~~~~~~~~~~

8) The Two Towers

The joke that wrote itself. It just makes so much sense! And this edit is so clean, too. Just and absolutely fantastic Two Towers meme. THIS is how they could have beat Sauron.

~~~~~~~~~~

7) Mama Mia

This is the meme that started it all for me. I quote this all the time, and laugh whenever I think about it. The thumbs down reactions, the dryness of the responce "thousands of people died" the killer comback that is "Mama Mia." It just hits me in all the right spots. It's got subtlety, it's got a good edit, it's got an original joke, I love it.

~~~~~~~~~~

6) USA vs UK

I like this one for its subtlety. You look at this and think, "It's just a chess board." But look and look a little closer you see some pieces are missing. A little closer, you notice that the players are the USA and the UK. And what pieces are missing? On the UK side, the queen. On the US side? The towers. It's trusts itself, and it trusts you to understand it.

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5) Garfield Did It

This COULD be a completely innocuous Garfield comic of him getting in trouble. But introce the context of "but what if 9/11?" It immediately makes this a top tier 9/11 meme. Who else but Garfield to orchestrate such a thing? What a classic Garfield antic.

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4) Subway Ad

I love this one a lot. This is one of the cleanest edits I've ever seen, and the fact that it looks like real ad is really boosting the capabilities of this meme. You could potentially trick someone into thinking this is a real ad, and I think that's beautiful.

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3) Jenga Sales

Another really good subtle one. Environmental story telling at its absolute finest. Jenga sales dropped drastically after 9/11, and the graph of that on its own is just so fucking funny.

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2) Data Is Right, Do it

This one is perfect. Data would absolutely say this, and there's very real potential for star fleet to end up in this situation. Captain Kirk would do it, too. He'd spend the whole time trying not to, but because of those antics, he would lock himself into having to use The Enterprise to do 9/11. This meme could be cannon, and that's awesome.

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1) When Life Depends On It, You Use Asbestos

I can't imagine something aging worse than this ad. The Twin Towers were PACKED with asbestos. Yeah this may not be a meme but how fucking funny is this? The towers going down was probably an extremely good thing considering this. You could spin it that Isis or whoever was trying to save america by stopping the asbestos. "Use asbestos, save lives" that's such a tag line to have for something that causes cancer, I love this image so much.

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Send me 9/11 memes

#ramblings #9/11 memes

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sebstanaddict · 1 year ago

Text

A Winter Miracle Part 1 : Flight of Frenzy

Sebastian Stan x Reader One Shot

Summary :

When Sebastian Stan finally finished shooting Thunderbolts in Atlanta, all he wanted was to go back to New York to his home and family where his daughter and pregnant wife was waiting. But one event led to another and he found himself being in a flight of frenzy. Will he successfully get home?

A/N : This story is a little continuation of my Sebastian Stan story titled Love Song. It can be read on its own but if you want to understand more about Sebastian and reader's relationship, you can read their story first starting with the one titled Always You and then continue with Love Song.

Hope you enjoy this and please vote and comment. I will really appreciate it. Thank you!

Warning : references and mentions of death, plane accidents, plane emergencies, some violence and injury descriptions

Word count : 11.2k

Additional notes:

- The events in this story are based on true stories, believe it or not. Can you guess which one(s) are true? 🤭

- I have never been to Atlanta so apologies if the depiction of the airport is not accurate.

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Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, Atlanta, USA - Friday, Jan 19th 2024 - 5.30 am

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The sound of tires screeching to a halt broke through the quiet morning at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport. A taxi pulled up at the curb right in front of the Departure Terminal. Sounds of a car door opening and closing could be heard and a pair of feet wearing white sneakers took off towards the Terminal's entrance.

Late! Sebastian couldn't believe that he was late! His flight was leaving in an hour and he was supposed to have already checked in at least half an hour ago. He was never late for a flight ever in his life. But yesterday's shoot was so grueling that once he got into his rented apartment at 1 am last night he immediately fell asleep. He woke up at 4 in the morning and tried his best to be like The Flash as he packed his suitcase, took a quick shower and immediately went straight to the airport.

Yesterday was the last day of his shoot for Thunderbolts. It wasn't supposed to be. Today was supposed to be the last day. But he had bargained with Jake Schreier, the director, to make yesterday as the last day because he needed to come to his best friend's wedding this weekend. Which was why the shoot ended up taking so long.

Chad Crawley, one of his best friends since he was in college, was finally getting married. He was getting married to, surprisingly, his wedding planner, Madeline Rowles. Apparently they hit it off during Sebastian's wedding and after only six months of dating, Chad popped the question. Their wedding was going to be held the next day, on Saturday, January 20th, at a mountain resort in The Catskills, about three hours away from New York City. The wedding festivities were going to start that Friday afternoon, and being one of Chad's best men, Sebastian was of course supposed to attend it from the beginning. Which was why he needed to get back to New York City as soon as possible.

He had booked the earliest flight out of Atlanta to New York in the hopes that he still had time to pick up his family from his Soho apartment and then go with them to Chad's wedding. If everything went smoothly, by 10 am that morning he would have arrived at his apartment, and they could go to Plattekill Wedding Venue in the Catskills Mountain and make it in time to attend Chad's welcome party and rehearsal dinner that night.

He quickly went into the Departure area and stopped in front of one of the self check-in kiosks. He entered his booking number into the screen and waited as the system checked him in. He was expecting the kiosk to print out his boarding pass but instead the screen showed words he did not expect.

"We are sorry but you have been denied boarding. Please contact our staff at the check-in counter for further information."

"What the h**l?!" He cursed as he digested the text on the screen.

Great! Just as he was in a hurry, the last thing he expected to happen, happened. He was bumped from his flight!

It was common practice for airlines to overbook or oversell seats on a flight because up to 15% of seats could end up empty due to passengers not showing up. So to maximize profit, they sell more seats on a flight than they have. More often than not, all passengers who have bought tickets showed up, which meant there were more passengers than seats available. To overcome this situation, airlines usually ask passengers to volunteer to give up their seat in exchange for compensation whether it be in the form of cash, travel vouchers, etc. And the airline will also book another flight for the passenger to take, whether from the same airline or not, to make sure the passenger still gets to their destination. If no one volunteers, the airline will usually force someone to give up their seat. And that was exactly what happened to him that morning.

He left the self check-in kiosk and immediately went to the nearest available check-in counter.

"Good morning, how can I help you, sir?" The male airline staff greeted him from behind the counter.

"Yeah, I tried to check-in for my flight but I was denied boarding." He explained.

"Oh, I apologize for that, sir. May I see your ticket or your booking number, please?" He asked.

Sebastian showed his booking number and the staff entered it into the system. After several moments he looked up from the screen and gave him an apologetic smile.

"I'm really sorry, sir, it seems that you have been denied boarding because we have overbooked our flight. We can book you on the next available flight."

"Oh great. Can't you bump someone else? I really need to get to New York as soon as possible. My best friend is getting married. And I can't be late for that." He pleaded.

"Oh I'm sorry, sir. When is your best friend's wedding going to be held? If you don't mind me asking?" The staff asked.

"Well.. the wedding will be held tomorrow. But the rehearsal dinner is tonight and it takes place three hours out of NYC, by car. So I need time to get there." He explained.

"Well, let me see what I can do. Please hold on for a moment." The staff said and Sebastian nodded as the staff left him to talk to another, older staff, several feet away.

He sighed as he glanced at his watch. His plane leaves in less than an hour! He needed to do something.

He pulled out his cellphone as an idea suddenly struck him. He put his cellphone on his ear and pretended to be on a phone call.

"Honey? What?! You're having contractions?!" He said out loud, causing some people to glance his way, including, as he had hoped, the staff that was talking to him.

"Please hold on, honey. I'm trying my best to get on the plane but they wouldn't let me! I got bumped!" He deliberately yelled out loud.

The staff along with the other staff he was talking to stopped talking and walked towards him.

"I know honey, I know it hurts, I'm sorry I can't be there yet. I'm trying my best, okay? Hang in there, sweetheart." He continued his charade as the two airline staff stopped in front of him.

"Excuse me, sir." The other staff said and he put his hand up to make him wait.

"I have to go, honey. Why don't you call Edward. He can take you to the hospital. I'll be there as soon as I can. Okay? I love you." He said and he pretended to hang up.

"Is there something wrong, sir?" The staff asked, concern clearly shown on his face.

"Yeah.. my.. my wife. She's in labor! I mean.. the baby isn't due until a couple of weeks from now but she said she's having contractions already! I really need to be there!" He pleaded, panic in his voice.

"I'm really sorry, sir. But since you were the last one to check-in, we had to give your seat to someone else. But, don't worry, we can book the next flight to New York for you. Free of charge." The older staff said.

He sighed. He thought his little act would work. He wasn't as good an actor as he thought, apparently.

"Well, when will the next available flight leave?" He asked.

"Let me see." The older staff said as he turned to look at the computer screen and started typing into the system.

"There's usually one flight to New York every two hours but unfortunately today half of the fleet serving Atlanta to New York are all under maintenance so there are only three flights today. The next one will leave at 2.30 pm." The staff said, shooting him an apologetic look.

"Oh that's way too late! Isn't there anything earlier than that?" He asked as he felt his heart sink into his stomach.

If he took the 2.30 pm flight, he would arrive in NYC at around 5 pm and the fastest he could leave to The Catskills would be 6 pm. He would be late for the rehearsal dinner. He couldn't take that flight.

"Please hold on, sir and let me check other airlines." The staff said.

"Okay." He nodded as hope started to appear in his heart.

"There's a 10 am flight with Southwest and 12 pm flight with Jet Blue." The staff finally said after a while.

"Nothing earlier than that?" He asked.

"Unfortunately, the 10 am flight with Southwest is the earliest available flight, sir. All the others are fully booked." The staff responded.

He sighed as he made some mental calculations. If he left at 10 am, he would arrive in NYC at around 1 pm and he could leave for The Catskills as early as 2 pm. He would be at the wedding venue around 5 in the afternoon. The welcome party starts at 5 then followed with the rehearsal dinner. He would make it on time but he just wouldn't have time to rest after arriving at his apartment. He felt exhausted and was wishing he could rest a little before driving to The Catskills. He needed to get on his original flight.

"My wife is in labor. I need to be on this flight! What if I miss the birth of my baby because I took a later flight. Please, let me get on this flight. I'm sure you can find another volunteer to give up their seat." He begged and lied again.

"Well.." the older staff hesitated.

"Please.. I'll even pitch in for compensation. How much were you going to give me? I mean. We are entitled for compensation if we're bumped. Right?" He asked.

"Well. You don't need to do that, sir. It's our responsibility to give compensation. Especially monetary compensation." The older staff said.

"Well I can give non monetary compensation. I mean. You do know who I am? Right?" He asked, winking at the staff who just stared at him in confusion.

He usually didn't like to play the celebrity card, but at times it could be useful. And he really hoped it would be useful too at this time.

The younger staff whispered something in the older staff's ear and he nodded.

"Ah, of course. We know who you are, Mr.Stan. What exactly do you have in mind as non monetary compensation?" The staff asked curiously.

"Well, I can give an autograph and a selfie, I'll also add in a ticket to Thunderbolts premiere. I'm sure someone would want that." He said, winking again.

The staff looked at each other then the older staff nodded.

"Very well, sir. We'll contact the staff at the gate and let them know. Hopefully someone would want to give up their seat. Please wait." The older staff said and he nodded.

The older staff went away from him and started talking to his communicator. He glanced at his watch and it was already 5.45 am! The plane would start boarding soon and he really needed to get to the gate if he wanted to be on the flight. He tapped his foot impatiently and glanced at his watch every so often.

Finally, after about five minutes, the older man walked back towards him and smiled.

"We have good news and bad news, sir. One of the passengers is willing to give up his seat to you." The older staff said.

"Oh! That's great! And what is the bad news?" He asked.

"Unfortunately, because of bad weather, your flight will be delayed for about two hours. So it will leave at 8.30 am." The staff continued.

He sighed. Well, he could still make it on time to Chad's wedding if he left Atlanta at 8.30 even if the rest time he would get would be shorter.

"Okay, that's fine. So, what next?" He asked.

"We'll check you in and you can make your way to the gate. The passenger that has given his seat up to you will meet you there and you can give him your autograph and take a selfie with him there. About the tickets to the premiere, I believe you can arrange it with him directly." The staff said and he nodded.

"Alright, let me check you in, sir. Do you have checked baggage?" The staff asked.

"No, just a backpack and a small suitcase that I'll take to the cabin." He said, pointing to the small suitcase near his foot.

"Alright, sir. Please kindly wait while I check you in." The staff said.

"Okay." He nodded then pulled out his cellphone again and started to text his wife, Y/n. He really wasn't lying about Y/n being pregnant. She was pregnant with their second child and her pregnancy was at 36 weeks. The baby wasn't due for another four weeks but there were possibilities that it could arrive earlier than that. So he really wasn't lying about that. However, he wouldn't want her to start going into labor while he was still away either. He hoped his little act earlier didn't come true.

"Hi sweetheart, I'm sorry. I'm at the airport and I got bumped from the flight because I was the last to check-in. I negotiated with them and managed to get on the flight but it got delayed for two hours because of bad weather. So I'll be arriving late. I'm sorry."

He texted his wife.

He didn't expect a reply so soon but his wife replied moments later.

"Hi Iubirea mea. Oh, okay. That's fine. We can still make it to Chad's rehearsal dinner. Maybe we can hire a car and a chauffeur instead of you driving? Because you wouldn't have time to rest before we go."

"It's okay honey, I can rest on the plane and I have a couple of hours to kill here at the airport. I'll drive us there. Don't worry. By the way, how are you, Starlene and little bean?"

"Okay. If you're certain about it. Make sure you really get some rest. I'm sure you're still exhausted after last night.

Anyway, we're all fine. We miss you."

"Thanks honey. I am exhausted, but it's gonna be fine. And I miss all of you too!

By the way, have you felt any Braxton-hicks contractions so far?"

"No, not a single contraction. Little bean is still very comfortable in my tummy 😆"

"Okay, that's good. Well, give Starlene and little bean my love and kisses. I'll be there soon. Love you, sweetheart."

"Okay. We love you too, Iubirea mea. Let me know once you're about to board the plane."

"Okay. Will do. Bye sweetheart."

"Bye, Iubirea mea."

He switched his phone screen off and put it back in his pants' pocket. He looked up just as the older staff had finished printing his boarding pass.

"Alright, sir. We have checked you in. Here is your boarding pass. Boarding will be at gate A10. You can take the Plane Train to get there right after the security checkpoint. Please make sure you go straight to the gate after this because the person that gave his seat up for you is waiting." The staff explained.

"Alright. Got it. Thank you so much." He said as he extended his hand and shook the staff's hand.

"You're welcome, sir. Have a safe and enjoyable flight. And we hope you can still make it to your baby's birth." The staff said, smiling at him.

"Thank you." He smiled back and turned around.

Well, what an interesting way to start the day. He thought as he made quick strides towards the security checkpoint. He wondered who was the person that was willing to give up his seat for him. His fan or more of a Marvel fan. In any case he hoped the rest of his journey back to New York would go smoothly. He was tired and he just wanted to get home and meet his family.

However, luck was not on his side that day. He made it through the security checkpoint with no problem. But when he arrived underground and wanted to board the Plane Train, he found out the Plane Train was not working. There were supposed to be eleven trains working everyday connecting all of the Terminals and Concourses at the airport, but all of them were not working for whatever reason.

He looked up at the digital signage showing flight statuses and saw multiple flights were being delayed right before his eyes.

"Tell me you have some good news about the system malfunction. We can't possibly delay every flight today because the Plane Train isn't working!" A man wearing Atlanta Airport vest who was talking to his communicator walked past him.

Well, well, well.. his flight wasn't the only one being delayed. What were the odds of that happening the same day he got bumped from his flight and the same day his flight got delayed because of bad weather? He pondered internally. He hoped those were the only bad luck he had to endure that day. He remembered his honeymoon and all the crazy stuff that happened during the time and wishing hard something like that wouldn't happen to him again. Even though he had started to feel a strange feeling about it.

He sighed as he started to trudge towards the gate through the pedestrian walkway which was running right alongside the Plane Train track.

It took him fifteen minutes to reach his gate whereas with the Plane Train it could've taken him only two minutes. Oh well. Consider it a morning walk. He shrugged as he walked towards the counter near the gate.

The female airline staff who was standing behind the counter immediately recognized him and blushed upon seeing him.

"Good morning Mr.Stan." the female staff said and smiled shyly at him.

"Good morning. I'm here to meet the person who was willing to give up his seat for me." He said and smiled back at the staff, making the staff blushed even harder.

"Oh yes. Please wait a moment." The staff said and he nodded.

"Mr.Winklevoss, Mr.Winklevoss, passenger of Delta 228 to New York, please report to the counter near gate A10. Thank you." The staff announced through the speaker.

Moments later a big man with grey hair and beard approached him, looking like he could murder him with just a look. He definitely wasn't the type of fans he usually met.

"Hello there." Sebastian smiled and extended his hand to Mr.Winklevoss.

"Hi there." Mr.Winklevoss shook his hand firmly and gave him a small smile.

"Thank you for giving up your seat for me. I really appreciate it." He said.

"Oh it's no problem. The money they offered was quite a lot. I couldn't say no." He shrugged.

It wasn't exactly the answer Sebastian expected.

"Oh.. yeah. I'm sure they offered you a lot of money. Did they also tell you about my offer?" He asked as he started to feel rather suspicious that the man wasn't a fan of his.

"Yeah they did. No offense, I had no idea who you were at first until this lady here told me." He said, beckoning towards the female airline staff who was staring at him with love in her eyes. She blushed as Sebastian glanced at her and immediately looked down, pretending to type something into the computer in front of her.

"But the ticket to Thunderbolts premiere sounded like something I could sell. And of course, your autograph too." Mr.Winklevoss said and he felt rather disappointed at that. He wasn't as famous as he thought he was.

"Oh, right. Well, what would you like me to sign?" He asked with a heavy heart. He really would rather give his autograph to his real fans but he owed this man, he needed to keep his word.

"Umm.. well.. I don't have any memorabilia or anything. So, maybe my boarding pass would do. My old boarding pass I mean." Mr.Winklevoss said.

"Okay, sure." Sebastian nodded.

Mr.Winklevoss handed him his boarding pass.

"Umm.. do you have a pen?" Sebastian turned to the airline staff again and she nodded while still blushing hard, making him smile. She seemed like a fan. Maybe he could also give her something to make her happy, he thought.

"There you go Mr.Stan." the staff said and gave him a pen.

"Thanks." He winked at her and the staff looked like she was about to faint.

He laughed internally as he signed the man's boarding pass.

"There you go." He said, giving the boarding pass back to the man.

"Thanks." The man said brightly.

"Okay. So. Do you still want to take a selfie, or..?" He hesitated as he gave the pen back to the staff.

"Yeah, sure! It will be proof that I actually met you." Mr.Winklevoss said as he put his boarding pass into his bag and pulled out his cellphone.

"Okay." He nodded.

"I can help you take the picture if you want." The airline staff, who, thankfully, did not really faint, said.

"Oh yeah.. that's a great idea!" Mr.Winklevoss said in delight. He handed his cellphone to the staff and stepped back then stood close to him.

"Ready? One.. two.. three.." the staff said.

He smiled as the staff took several pictures of them.

"Do you want a picture too?" Sebastian offered to the staff after they were done and she returned Mr.Winklevoss' cellphone. The staff's eyes widened and she blushed yet again.

"I.. umm.. if you don't mind." She stammered.

"Of course I don't mind." He winked again at the staff and her face got even redder.

"Here, let me take the picture for you." Mr.Winklevoss offered after putting his cellphone back in his pocket.

The staff gave her cellphone to Mr.Winklevoss with trembling hands that he started to feel sorry for her.

"Hey, don't be nervous. It's just me." He smiled at the staff and the staff smiled shyly back at him.

"Come, get out of the counter and stand next to me." Sebastian said, extending his hand to her.

He guided her to get out of the counter and she stood next to him. He placed his hand on her shoulder as Mr.Winklevoss took several pictures of them.

"Thank you so much." She gushed after they were finished.

"No problem." He smiled at her and she looked like she was about to faint again as she walked back behind the counter.

"So, about the premiere tickets?" Mr.Winklevoss asked.

"Oh yeah. Could I have your phone number? Someone will be in touch with you for that. And considering the movie hasn't even finished filming yet, I'm sorry to say that it will be a while before you hear anything from us." He explained.

"Yeah sure. That's not a problem." Mr.Winklevoss responded then gave him his phone number.

"Thank you again for willing to give up your seat for me Mr.Winklevoss." He said after saving Mr.Winklevoss' number in his cellphone.

"Oh, no problem! Thank you for the autograph, picture and premiere ticket." Mr.Winklevoss replied.

"You're welcome Mr.Winklevoss." He smiled and Mr.Winklevoss finally left, leaving him with the staff that was a fan of his.

"So, my colleague said your wife is in labor?" The staff asked.

"Oh.. well, she's pregnant but she's not in labor yet although she's at 36 weeks and the baby really could come at.. any.. time.." He said slowly as he realized what he just said. He completely forgot about his lie!

The staff's eyes widened as she listened to him and he realized he was in trouble.

"So, your wife is not in labor?" The staff asked, her eyebrows raised.

"Oh shoot.. I forgot about that." He said sheepishly.

He leaned over to her and whispered "Please keep this as a secret. But.. no, my wife is not in labor. I had to lie about it because I really need to get on this flight."

"Oh.. yeah, of course. I won't tell a soul." The staff said as she made some movement in front of her mouth, gesturing as if she zipped her mouth close.

"Thank you. I knew you'd understand.. Daisy." He leaned back and glanced at the name tag on her chest then reached out and patted her hand, making her blush yet again.

"Anyway, as a thank you for keeping my secret, I could give you my autograph if you want. And umm.. tickets to Thunderbolts premiere too. What do you think?" He asked, smiling at her again.

"Are you serious?" She asked, her eyes widened.

"Yeah, of course!" He smiled. He realized that he had to give up two Thunderbolts premiere tickets that were allotted to him, which meant he had to make the decision to not invite two of his family members or friends to the premiere. But maybe he could persuade Marvel to give him more tickets. Surely he could negotiate with them. He tried to convince himself.

"That would be fantastic! Thank you so much, Mr.Stan!" The staff said enthusiastically.

"No problem. And please.. just call me Sebastian. So.. where would you like me to sign?" He asked.

"Okay! Umm.. do you mind signing my.. umm.. the back of my neck?" She asked, her face flustered yet again.

"Oh! That's an unusual place for a signature. Are you sure you want it there?" He asked, dumbfounded.

"Y..yeah.. I'm going to have it tattooed. Kind of like the fake tattoo you have for Monday. Do you remember?" She explained.

"Oh yeah.. of course I remember. Well then, I better make it small but artistic." He said, remembering the fake tattoo that said '(Re)Made in Greece' that he had for the movie Monday.

"You can make it big or small, it's up to you." She smiled.

"Okay. Once again, are you sure about this?" He asked.

"Yes!" She said with no hesitation.

"Alright. It's a rather hard place for me to sign though without causing some raised eyebrows. Maybe we should go somewhere more private." He suggested.

"Yeah, you're right.. but there really is nowhere private around here." She said as she looked around.

He looked around as well and noticed no one was looking at them. Most people were either looking at their cellphones or sleeping.

"Maybe we can just duck under the counter quickly. No one is really looking." He suggested.

"That's a good idea." She said.

So he quickly went behind the counter and once they were both sure no one was looking at them, they both ducked and squatted in front of each other.

"This is kind of weird." He laughed and she laughed too.

"So, do you have a pen?" He asked and she gave one to him.

"Okay. Let's do this." He said and she laughed as she turned around and exposed her neck to him.

Thankfully her hair was already styled up into a bun so he didn't have any trouble accessing the back of her neck.

He slowly signed her neck with a small version of his signature and paused, his hand hovered above her neck.

"Do you want me to add like.. more designs on it or something? Or would my signature be enough?" He asked.

"It's up to you Sebastian." She responded.

"Okay, I'll just add my name in small letters. You can add additional designs later on if you want." He said.

"Sure." She replied.

"Alright, that should do it." He said moments later after he finished writing his name on the staff's neck.

"Thank you so much Sebastian." She said as she started to stand up and he followed suit.

"Jesus! You scared me!" A startled male voice was suddenly heard. His heart seemed to jump out of his chest when he finally stood up. A man in Delta uniform stood in front of them, his mouth agape.

"Mr.Michaels! We're.. we're really sorry. We.. we didn't mean to scare you." Daisy said, her face turned into the reddest shade so far.

"Daisy.. what were you doing?!" Mr.Michaels asked, his eyebrows raised as he looked at them both with a judging stare.

"I.. we.. we were.. " Daisy stammered.

"I'm sorry, I was helping to check out an error on the computer. The keyboard wasn't working. She asked me to help her check it out." Sebastian quickly improvised.

Mr.Michaels didn't say anything but his eyes slowly showed recognition.

"Have I seen you somewhere before?" He asked.

"Well.. maybe.. if you've seen a Marvel movie, you might have seen me." Sebastian chuckled.

"Oh! Wait! You're that guy! The brainwashed assassin guy. Right? The one who killed Tony Starks' parents!" Mr.Michaels said enthusiastically.

"Yeah." Sebastian nodded but his face fell. The third Captain America movie was not his last Marvel movie and yet this man only knew him from that movie as Tony Starks' parents' killer. He didn't know if he should laugh or cry about it.

"Awesome! Do you mind if we take a picture?" Mr.Michaels asked.

"Oh no, of course not." He smiled and he ended up taking pictures and chatting with Mr.Michaels and two other Delta airline staff.

After half an hour he was finally left alone but not after he got Daisy's number so he could contact her regarding the Thunderbolts premiere ticket. Additionally it was through them that he knew the flight wasn't delayed because of bad weather but because there was some problem with the plane's engine. But they didn't want to alarm the passengers so they told everyone the delay was because of bad weather. He had voiced his concern about it to them but they reassured him that the problem was minor and would not cause anything dangerous to happen. He really hoped that was the case. He couldn't imagine if he ended up dying in an airplane crash. What would happen to Y/n and his kids? He wouldn't want to miss seeing his kids grow up.

After he finished chatting with the Delta staff, he looked around to find somewhere to sit. It was 7 am and he still had about an hour to kill before he could board the plane, and that's if the engine problem was already resolved. Otherwise his flight might get delayed again.

All the seats near the gate were occupied so he ended up finding an empty seat further away from the gate but near the restroom. He found an empty seat next to a little girl of about 9 years old who sat next to a man. The girl had long brunette hair pulled up into a ponytail and the man was bald and had a mustache. They both looked up at him as he approached.

"Hi. Sorry, is this seat taken?" He asked, smiling at them.

"No, go ahead." The man said.

"Thank you." He sat down, turned to them and smiled again. The little girl smiled shyly back at him while the man just gave him a small smile.

"So, where are you guys going? If you don't mind me asking?" He asked.

"New York." The man answered.

"Oh, same here." He smiled.

"Oh, good." The man responded and nodded.

For a moment they didn't say anything as an uncomfortable silence hung between them.

"So, this morning has been crazy hasn't it?" He said, breaking the silence.

"Umm.. What do you mean?" The man asked.

"I mean.. our flight got delayed and then minutes later the Plane Train didn't work causing more delays." He explained.

"Oh.. yeah.. we were lucky. We managed to still take the Plane Train." The man said and Sebastian nodded.

"Lucky you. I had to walk here." He chuckled. "Not that I'm complaining. I'm used to walking a lot. But, I'm just exhausted this morning." He said, unsure why he had become talkative all of a sudden.

"I see." The man said as he started to get up. "I'm going to go and find something to eat. Do you want something?" The man looked at the little girl and the girl just nodded.

"Okay, come." The man said and pulled the girl's arm up, forcing her to stand up.

"See you guys later, nice talking to you." Sebastian said as the man started to walk away while dragging the girl with him.

"Yeah. You too." The man said and nodded at him then turned his back to him.

He sighed as he watched the pair of them walk away from him. He had a weird feeling as he stared at them. The way the man held the girl's arm was weird. And, strangely enough, they didn't have bags with them at all. As if they weren't traveling far. He decided to shrug it off as they went into a cafe not far from there and disappeared from his sight.

Moments later his stomach rumbled and he realized he hadn't had breakfast yet. He stood up and decided to follow them to the cafe. Maybe he could have some coffee and pastry.

When he entered the cafe he found them standing in front of the counter. The man was looking down at the girl in anger while the girl looked up at him in fear.

"I don't understand. What are you saying?!" The man asked, his voice rather high.

The girl made some movements with her hands and Sebastian realized she was doing sign language. He approached them and watched the girl closely. He knew sign language as he learned it back when he was in middle school so he could talk to his best friend who had trouble hearing.

"She said she is allergic to nuts." Sebastian said and the man jumped in surprise.

"Oh.. right. Yeah.. I.. I knew that." The man stammered and the girl rolled her eyes at the man.

"So, you can't talk?" Sebastian asked the girl while making sign language. The girl shook her head.

"But you can hear?" He asked again and the girl nodded.

"And you don't know sign language?" Sebastian turned to the man.

"No.. I.. I'm her uncle. I rarely talk to her. Her mom lives in New York while her dad lives in Atlanta. They asked me to accompany her to go back to her mom's." The man explained quickly, his eyes darted around and he shifted his feet from side to side. Clearly the man was nervous and he wondered why that was.

"Okay. Well, what do you guys want? My treat." He smiled at them while also making sign language to the girl. The girl's eyes widened and she smiled. She then made signs with her hands again.

"Okay, hot chocolate and rainbow sprinkle donuts for you, my lady." He said while again making sign language and the girl laughed and blushed.

"And for you?" He turned to the man.

"Uh…I'll just have black coffee thanks." The man replied.

"Alright. Save me a seat. I'll be right with you guys." He said and they left him in front of the counter alone.

Minutes later he got all of their orders. He ordered a cappuccino for himself and a spinach quiche. He looked around and found them sitting near the exit of the cafe. He found their sight kind of strange. He realized that they were the only ones in the cafe not having their faces in front of a cell phone screen while everyone at the cafe did. He shook his head at the realization. The world had become rather strange indeed when sitting without a cellphone in hand could be perceived as not normal.

He was usually one of those people busy with his cellphone. Well today maybe he could change that and actually socialize with strangers like people of old used to do.

"Here you go. One hot chocolate and rainbow sprinkled donut for the beautiful lady." He said as he placed the cup of chocolate and plate of donut in front of the girl. The girl blushed and smiled at that.

"And black coffee for you." He said as he put the cup of coffee in front of the man.

"Thank you." The man said, giving him a small smile.

"No problem." He smiled as he arranged his own orders on the table.

"I'm Sebastian by the way." He said as he started to put some sugar into his cappuccino.

"Oh, and I'm Mike and this is Adriana." The man said.

"Nice meeting you both, Mike and Adriana." He smiled and Adriana smiled back at him.

For several minutes they stayed quiet as they enjoyed their drinks and food.

"So, where does your mom live, Adriana?" Sebastian asked, breaking the silence. The girl froze and glanced at Mike.

"Brooklyn." Mike answered.

"Ah, okay. I have an apartment in Brooklyn. Well.. actually.. My wife used to live there. She had moved in with me ever since my daughter was born but the place holds so much memory for us that we decided to keep renting it." He said.

"Oh. Must be nice to have the money to do that while other people struggle just to rent one apartment." Mike said cynically.

He felt like his heart had been stabbed as he heard what Mike had to say. He kicked himself internally and realized he should be more considerate and not tell stories like that. He didn't mean to brag, but other people could perceive it otherwise.

"Uh.. yeah.. sorry. I didn't mean to brag or anything. Just.. just making small talk." He said nervously.

"Yeah.. Sorry.. I didn't mean to insult you." Mike said as he seemed to realize what he just said.

"It's okay." Sebastian said and turned to Adriana. "What grade are you?"

Adriana showed three fingers and Sebastian nodded. "Third grade, huh?"

Adriana nodded and continued to eat her donut.

Eventually they were able to have a better conversation. He found out that Adriana loved Barbie, like his niece Sofia, and also Taylor Swift. He also found out Mike lived in Atlanta and was Adriana's father's brother. He worked at an insurance company and decided to take some days off to visit New York while accompanying Adriana.

Time seemed to fly and before they knew it, it was time to board their flight. He was relieved that their flight was on time. The engine problem must have been fixed. He thought as they walked together towards the gate.

It turned out that his seat was next to Adriana and Mike.

"It's nice to sit next to familiar faces isn't it?" He said to Adriana who was sitting on his right. His seat was by the window while Mike's was by the aisle and Adriana sat between them.

Adriana nodded and smiled wide at him while Mike looked at him in dislike. He wondered if Mike still thought bad of him for bragging earlier as he pulled out his cellphone from his pocket and texted his wife, letting her know that he had just boarded the plane.

He made a mental note to be more careful in what he said next time as he turned on the airplane mode on his cellphone and put it back in his pocket. He fastened his seat belt and leaned back on his seat. He felt exhaustion again so he closed his eyes, hoping to be able to get some sleep and rest.

When he opened his eyes again he felt strange. He fully expected to look out the window and find the view of the white fluffy clouds, instead he found the view of the airport terminal. Apparently they hadn’t moved at all. He glanced at his watch and raised his eyebrows as he realized that it had been an hour since they boarded the plane and they hadn’t moved yet.

“Is something going on? Why are we still here?” He turned to Adriana and Mike.

“I don’t know. They haven’t said anything.” Mike replied.

He looked at Mike and realized he had pulled the hood of his jacket up and put on sunglasses. Adriana had also put the hood of her jacket up and looked down. He noticed Mike’s leg was moving slightly up and down, it seemed he was nervous about something.

“Hey man, you okay?” He asked.

“Y.. yeah.. it’s just, I’m always nervous on planes. You know.” Mike replied and understanding dawned in him and he nodded.

“Yeah, I know what you mean. I still feel nervous too sometimes.” He said as his mind went back to the fact there was a problem with the plane’s engine previously. He wondered if there was a problem with it again. He decided to ask the stewardess so he pressed the call button next to his seat to call a stewardess.

"Hello sir, how can I help you?" A beautiful stewardess came and greeted him.

"Uh.. yeah.. why aren't we moving? Is there something wrong?" He asked.

"Oh no, sir. Nothing is wrong. After the delays earlier impacting several flights due to the Plane Train not working the Air Traffic Controller needs some time to adjust things. We're just waiting for our turn." The stewardess smiled at him and glanced at Mike and Adriana.

"Oh okay. Well, I hope we'll get our turn soon. I really need to get to New York as soon as possible." He said.

"Yes, sir. I hope so too. I'm sure you can't wait to be by your wife's side. Right? I mean.. we heard she's in labor." She said with a knowing smile.

"Oh yeah.. she is." He said, kicking himself internally for forgetting about that lie again.

"Well, I'm sure we'll get our turn soon. In the meantime, please sit back and relax. There's nothing to worry about." She smiled.

"Yeah, thanks." He nodded.

"Is there anything else I can help you with, sir?" She asked.

"No, thanks. That would be all." He replied.

"Very well, sir. If you'll excuse me." She said and he nodded.

Once the stewardess left he pulled out his cellphone and turned off airplane mode. He needed to tell his wife that he was going to arrive even later than scheduled.

When he opened his messages, there was a message from his wife and a video from her.

"Hi Iubirea mea, I know you won't get this until you arrive in New York but I just have to show you this."

He opened the video and laughed out loud. There on the screen he could see the living room in his apartment looking in such a mess with rolls and rolls of toilet paper covering the sofa, carpet and coffee table. Their dog, Lucky was sitting on the carpet biting toilet paper while their daughter Starlene was sitting on the sofa and was continuously pulling toilet paper from its roll.

"Oh my God." He closed his mouth with his hand to stifle some more laughter and continued to watch the video from his wife.

"I just left them for a second. I swear. But when I came back, this is what happened!" The screen turned and showed his wife looking annoyed as h**l.

"I can't imagine what kind of mess we'll be in once this little bean arrives." She said, patting her stomach.

"Anyway, we love you, we miss you. And I hope you have a safe and pleasant flight. Let me know once you've landed. Love you, Iubirea mea." She smiled and he couldn't help but smile back and whispered I love you as well.

She then put her hand on the camera, signifying a hug and he sighed as the video ended. There was nowhere else he wished to be but by his family's side at that moment. But alas, fate willed it a different way. He just had to be more patient.

He immediately called his wife but she didn't answer, so he decided to send a message.

"Honey, I'm really sorry but the plane got stuck at the terminal. We're still waiting for the plane to get permission from the ATC to leave. And I'm really sorry to see what happened to our living room. Just leave it and I'll help clean up when I get there. I'm sure you're tired. I love you and please send my love and also angry stares to Lucky and Starlene. Love you so much, sweetheart."

He waited and waited but Y/n didn't reply. He tried calling her again but she didn't answer.

"Excuse me, sir. I'm sorry, could you please turn your cellphone off. We're leaving soon." Another stewardess came and scolded him.

"But.. My wife is in labor. I need to know her condition." He said, remembering the lie again.

"We know, sir. But we're really sorry. Rules are rules. And we're leaving soon. You will see her soon." The stewardess replied and he sighed.

"Fine. Let me just send a last message." He said.

"Thank you, sir." The stewardess smiled and left.

"Rules are rules." He muttered under his breath while he typed a message for his wife again, his face full of dislike, making Adriana beside him laugh.

"Why are they sometimes so rigid? We're not even moving." He complained again and Adriana made a sign that said she knew.

"Don't worry. Everything is going to be alright." Adriana signed again and he smiled.

"Thank you, Adriana." He smiled and she smiled back.

He returned his attention back to his cellphone and sent the message. He then turned the airplane mode on his cellphone on and put it back into his pocket.

He sighed and looked out the window. He furrowed his eyebrows as he looked out and saw some uniformed men inside the terminal wearing vests with FBI written on the back, walking swiftly along the side of the terminal. He leaned closer towards the window curiously, wondering why the FBI was there.

"Hey, the FBI is here. I wonder what's going on." He said.

"What?!" Mike exclaimed out loud.

"Yeah.. look.." he pointed towards the uniformed men and Mike leaned over Adriana to take a closer look at the window. He leaned back to allow him a better view.

Just then the plane started moving away from the terminal and Mike leaned back on his seat. He looked at Mike and felt like Mike had just let go of a breath he was holding.

"Finally, we're moving." Mike chuckled nervously.

"Yeah. Finally." He said as he felt Mike was being strange about the whole situation but he shrugged it off.

He glanced at his watch and sighed as he saw that it was almost 10 am already. So much for getting some rest before he drove to Chad's wedding. He complained internally.

The plane finally took off several minutes later, much to his relief. However, when they took off they experienced a somewhat hard turbulence which made him really nervous. He kept remembering that there was some problem with the plane's engine earlier. What if the problem came back and caused the plane to fall down from the sky? He couldn't help but think of all the negative and horrifying possibilities that could happen to the plane. Thankfully the turbulence didn't last long and eventually the plane stabilized and flew smoothly.

Several minutes later however the plane started to descend quite quickly, startling everyone.

The lights inside the cabin were all turned on and a blaring sound came out from the speakers as oxygen masks dropped down from the ceiling.

"This is an emergency. Please put on your masks. This is an emergency. Please put on your masks." The warning sound was repeated through the speakers.

His heart dropped to his stomach and his heart pounded hard as he pulled down the oxygen mask in front of him and put it over his mouth and nose. He looked to the right and saw both Adriana and Mike had already worn them as well.

Stewardesses were walking around the cabin checking that everyone had worn their masks. For a few minutes the situation was quiet but intense as the plane continued to descend but at a slower pace.

He couldn't help but think of Y/n, Starlene and his unborn child. He wasn't ready to die yet. He just got his happiness with them and with Y/n after twenty something years being in love with her. No, he couldn't and wouldn't accept to die that day. He closed his eyes and kept praying to God in his heart to save the plane and everyone on the flight.

Suddenly the pilot's voice could be heard on the speakers.

"Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking. We apologize for the situation. That was a false emergency. We were descending down 7.000 feet from 34.000 feet to 27.000 feet to avoid turbulence and somehow the system automatically turned on the signal to drop the oxygen masks. The pressure in the cabin is at a normal level so there is no need to wear oxygen masks. You can take off the oxygen masks and our crew will help put them back in place manually. We are really sorry for the inconvenience. Thank you."

He felt immense relief as he took off his oxygen mask and he felt the atmosphere in the plane immediately changed as a collective breath of relief was exhaled.

"That was so scary." He commented and turned to Adriana and Mike.

"Yeah. I know. I never experienced anything like it." Mike responded.

"I was ready to die." Adriana signed to him and he raised his eyebrows.

"We're all going to die anyway." She signed again.

"Well.. you're right. You're so wise for a girl your age." He chuckled but deep down he wondered how a girl her age could have thoughts like that. He himself wasn't ready to die even though he was 41 already. He felt like he probably would never be ready for it.

He leaned back and sighed. Trying to relax after the tense situation. He also wanted to go back to sleep but found it hard to do so. Somehow the one hour sleep he got when the plane was still parked by the terminal was enough to recharge and refresh him. Well, the false emergency also contributed as well. He couldn't relax yet after that. So he ended up chatting with Adriana again. Mike closed his eyes and seemed to be sleeping so he didn't want to bother him.

Several times when they were chatting Adriana glanced at Mike, as if expecting him to do something. He asked her if there was anything wrong but she shook her head, making him curious about it.

About half an hour into the flight, breakfast was served and Mike woke up. There was something strange that he noticed with the stewardess serving them though. Every time she served Mike, she took her time to really look at him as well as Adriana. At one point after pouring a glass of apple juice for Adriana and water for Mike, the stewardess left, leaving him hanging. He was just about to request orange juice but the stewardess already left.

Being quite tall he was able to see where the stewardess had gone. Apparently she went to the front of the business class area and was not back for a while. When she was finally back she brought milk and pineapple juice in her hands, making him think she was probably just grabbing the milk and juice.

"I'm so sorry to have kept you waiting, Mr.Stan. We ran out of milk and pineapple juice so I had to go and get it." The stewardess smiled at him.

"Oh, that's okay." He responded.

"What would you like to drink?" She asked.

"Orange juice, please. Thank you." He said.

"Certainly, sir." She said. Her hands trembled as she poured the orange juice, making him feel strange yet again.

"Here you go, sir." She gave the orange juice to him and he accepted.

"Thank you." He nodded and the stewardess smiled and continued to serve the other passengers.

He was about to finish his breakfast which consisted of egg frittata and mushroom as well as croissant with butter when Adriana knocked her glass of apple juice and spilled it onto Mike's lap.

"I'm sorry." She signed to Mike.

"It's.. it's okay." Mike said and he sighed.

"Let me just go and clean this up." Mike said as he picked up his tray of food, closed the table in front of him and stood up. He got out of his seat and put his tray of food onto his seat then he went to the restroom located in front of the plane. As soon as Mike left Adriana immediately signed to him.

"Please help. I'm being kidnapped. Mike kidnapped me." She signed frantically. His heart seemed to stop as he registered what Adriana just conveyed to him.

Of all the things that had happened to him throughout his life, this was by far the weirdest and most unexpected thing that ever happened to him. He stared at Adriana with his jaw dropped as his mind tried to grapple with the situation.

"He kidnapped me from my school as I was walking home from school. He said he's going to sell me overseas. He knows where my parents live and threatened me that he will get someone to kill them if I try to get away. I've been playing along but when I saw the FBI, I knew they were looking for me. Please help me." She signed, her eyes full of hope and fear.

He looked towards the restroom and saw that Mike was still in there. He knew in order to help Adriana they needed to go back to Atlanta, but he also didn't want to miss Chad's rehearsal dinner and honestly he missed his family so much that he just wanted to go back to them as soon as possible. Torn between wanting to help Adriana and go to New York as soon as possible he finally decided. He knew he wouldn't be able to live with himself if he didn't help Adriana. And he knew Y/n and Chad would understand why he needed to do this. So he made the decision.

"Okay. Come. We need to get you away from him. Let's go to the plane crew and tell them about this. Maybe we can have the plane turn around and bring you back to Atlanta." He said and she nodded.

They quickly left their seats and went towards the back of the plane, away from Mike. While walking he continued to check his back to make sure Mike was not out of the restroom yet. He guided Adriana towards the back of the plane where a stewardess was busy tidying up the food carts. He pushed Adriana gently into the aisle between the rows of food carts, making sure they were both unseen from the front of the plane.

“Oh! Is there anything I can help you with, sir?” The stewardess who previously served them was startled.

“Uh.. yeah. This girl here, her name is Adriana, she told me she’s kidnapped by that man who sat beside her.” Sebastian explained.

The stewardess' eyes widened but then she quickly nodded.

“I know.. we.. I mean, the pilot and the crew know, sir. The FBI back in Atlanta Airport were looking for them.” The stewardess replied.

“Well then why didn’t you guys do anything when we were still in Atlanta?” He asked, dumbfounded.

“I’m sorry, sir. We were given photos of them when we were still on the ground but we didn’t recognize them. It wasn’t until less than an hour ago I noticed who they were. I already informed the pilot and in several minutes, after all passengers have finished eating, we’re planning on turning the plane around back to Atlanta.” She explained.

“Well okay, good.” He nodded.

“In the meantime, I think it’s best that you return to your seats so as not to make the man suspicious. We were told to make sure he doesn’t know about this. We don’t want to alarm him and make him do dangerous things.” The stewardess said.

“That makes..” Sebastian was about to answer when he found himself suddenly choking.

“Something dangerous like this?” Mike asked as he tightened one of his arms around Sebastian’s neck, while the other held his head, choking him.

The stewardess screamed in surprise and immediately pulled Adriana closer to her and shielded her behind her back.

“Sir, please! Don’t do anything stupid!” The stewardess reminded him, her voice shook as she saw Sebastian continued to choke and tried to get free from Mike’s hold. But Mike was stronger than he seemed.

He held both his hands on Mike’s arms, trying to loosen it. His neck hurt, his head hurt as his hands continued to pull Mike's arm away from his neck.

“I won’t kill him if you return my niece back to me.” Mike warned.

“We know she’s not your niece, sir. Surrender now because you have nowhere else to go.�� The stewardess bravely said.

“Wrong answer.” Mike said as he strengthened his hold even more on Sebastian’s neck but Sebastian suddenly got an idea.

He released his hands on Mike's arm and elbowed Mike hard on his stomach, making Mike lose his hold on his neck a little. Then he did a backward kick and successfully kicked Mike away from him, making Mike lose his hold completely on him and fell on the ground.

He staggered forward as Mike released him and croaked. “Go.. Get her to safety.”

The stewardess nodded and quickly dragged Adriana towards the front of the plane through the other aisle.

Sebastian rubbed his aching neck and tried to catch his breath. Then he slowly turned around, ready to fight Mike again but he was gone!

He quickly walked out of the aisle and saw Mike running parallel to the stewardess and Adriana, chasing them into the front of the plane. He tried to catch up with them but Mike crossed to the other aisle through another aisle filled with food carts and his heart dropped to his stomach.

“Sir.. please.. let her go! You don’t want to do this!” He heard the panicked voice of the stewardess as he came closer to them. By then some people had stood up from their seats and started asking him questions, but he just put his index finger on his lips, asking them to stay quiet as he tiptoed to where Mike, Adriana and the stewardess were.

When he reached them he saw that Mike’s back was to him. He was holding Adriana’s body against his chest, a fork in his hand pointed onto Adriana’s neck. Several stewardesses had come to them and they stood in front of Mike and Adriana, their faces full of shock and fear. Adriana struggled to get free but couldn’t.

“Tell your pilot to keep directing this plane to New York. Otherwise I won’t hesitate to stab her.” He threatened.

“Y.. yes sir. Just please don’t hurt her!” The stewardess pleaded.

He looked around trying to see if he could find something to wound Mike when someone suddenly offered him a fork.

He turned around and saw an old lady handing him a fork.

“Thank you.” he mouthed. The old lady just nodded and smiled. She then walked back to her seat and he turned back around.

The stewardesses were still trying to persuade Mike to let go of Adriana when he stabbed Mike on the side of his neck.

Mike screamed in pain and let Adriana go. She immediately ran towards the stewardesses and they immediately took her and shielded her behind their backs.

Mike turned around and pulled out the fork from his neck. Blood seeped through it as he continued to make wild screams and started to attack Sebastian. He raised his hand, which was still holding a fork, intending to stab Sebastian with it. But Sebastian kicked his hand and the fork fell down to the ground in a clatter.

They ended up fighting with bare hands. He threw some punches and kicks onto Mike’s face and body. Mike grunted as he got the hits but then he kicked his chest hard, sending him towards the emergency door of the plane.

He grunted as his back hit the door and he fell down onto the ground. He tried to get up and one of the passengers sitting next to the emergency door extended their hand and helped him get up.

He winced as he walked slowly back towards Mike who was still standing, holding the wound on his neck.

“Give up now, Mike. You have nowhere to go.” He said.

“Never!” Mike yelled as he charged towards him and they continued to fight.

He didn’t know where he got the strength. It seemed his training for Bucky had made him stronger. But he continued to throw punches and kicks to Mike while also receiving some of Mike’s blows on his face. The other passengers watched them with bated breath.

He glanced towards one of the food carts and quickly picked up a stainless steel pot. He raised it and hit Mike’s head with it, making him fall down to the ground.

He waited to see if Mike would get up again but he stayed down. His eyes were closed. He was unconscious.

The passengers and stewardesses who were watching them erupted in cheers and he felt someone hugged him tight. It was Adriana.

“Thank you.” She mouthed and he just nodded while panting as he tried to catch his breath.

Mike was immediately apprehended by the plane crew and tied to one of the seats at the front of the plane. Sebastian went back to his seat with Adriana after one of the stewardesses tended to his wounds. Thankfully his wounds were nothing major, just a cut on his lip and eyebrows as well as some bruises. Nothing he had never dealt with before.

The pilot eventually turned the plane back to Atlanta after explaining to all the passengers what just happened. He even mentioned Sebastian by name, thanking him for his heroic act in fighting Mike.

He wished the pilot didn’t mention him by name because he got interrupted constantly by passengers who wanted to talk with him and take pictures with him. Adriana seemed to understand because she told him to pretend to sleep so people wouldn’t bother him, and it thankfully worked. People finally left him in peace.

However, even though he wasn’t bothered anymore, he couldn’t really sleep. The journey back towards Atlanta felt so long in his mind even though it took only an hour. His mind constantly replayed what happened and he couldn't wait to tell Y/n about it.

He opened his eyes when the pilot announced that they were about to land soon. He glanced at his watch and sighed as he saw that it was already 12.30 pm. He assumed that the fastest they could head back to New York would be at 1.30 pm. Which meant he would arrive in New York at around 4 pm.

It was clear he would be late to arrive at Chad’s welcome party and rehearsal dinner. He regretted not taking the 10 am flight with Southwest. But then again if he had taken that one, who knew what would have happened to Adriana. Despite everything, he was glad he could help her.

After they finally landed in Atlanta, two FBI agents entered the plane and took Mike with them. Then another agent came into the plane to take Adriana to her parents. He offered to walk Adriana to the gate. Apparently her parents were there. He wanted to make sure she was reunited with them again. He walked following the agent with Adriana walking between them.

When they got off the plane he was welcomed with flashes of lights from cameras and cheers from people around them. It seemed he had made the news.

He walked alongside Adriana when a woman and a man ran towards them.

“Adriana! Oh my baby! I’m so glad you’re okay.” The woman who apparently was Adriana’s mom said.

He couldn’t help but teared up as he watched Adriana being hugged by both her parents. He couldn’t imagine the anguish they must have felt when Adriana was gone from them.

“Thank you for saving her.” Adriana’s dad said.

“Oh, you’re welcome, sir. Your daughter was very brave. You should be proud of her.” He smiled.

Adriana’s parents nodded.

“We are. We’re really proud of her. And we’re so happy she’s back. We thought we had lost her for good.” Adriana’s mom said.

“Well she’s a strong and smart girl.” He smiled as he patted Adriana’s shoulder gently and the family looked back at him beaming wide with happiness.

“Well, I have to go. I’ll see you around again someday. Take care of yourself.” He said as he hugged Adriana tight.

“Thank you so much, Sebastian.” Adriana signed after he let her go.

“You’re welcome.” He signed and she smiled.

“Sebastian! Sebastian! Could you tell us what happened? Did you really fight the kidnapper?!" A reporter suddenly shouted at him.

“No comment. Sorry. I have to go. My wife is in labor. I have to go.” He said, raising his hands up.

“Just a short answer would do, Sebastian. Please!" The reporter called out but he walked back towards the plane while someone from airport security held back the reporter and prevented the reporter from following him.

When he got back into the plane all the passengers stood up, clapped and cheered for him. His face reddened as he continued to walk to his seat and they continued to chant his name.

“Thank you.. thank you. You guys are too nice.” He said as he raised his hand up and nodded, his face as red as a tomato.

The passengers finally stopped cheering when he took his seat. He leaned back on his seat and pulled out his cellphone as his mind still tried to process all the events that just happened.

He turned off the airplane mode on his cellphone, wanting to send a message to his wife when messages from her came through.

—

“Iubirea mea, it sucks to hear you're still stuck at the airport. But I hope your plane will soon get its turn to move. I've given your love and angry stares to Lucky and Starlene and they just stared back at me 😆

Anyway, I already cleaned up all the toilet paper. No need to worry about that. I'm rather tired but it's okay.

Love you and I hope to see you soon. Keep me posted.”

—

“Iubirea mea.. where are you? I hope you’re near New York already.”

—

“Iubirea mea.. I'm having contractions..”

—

His heart seemed to stop as he read the last message.

The story continues on Part 2

A Winter's Miracle : Snowbound Delivery

Get ready for another crazy adventure with Sebastian and Reader 😁

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