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cancerjupiter · 4 years ago

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🌱earth moons🌱

Those with earthy Moons react in a very grounded, matter-of-fact way. The reaction may be so self-contained in those with Taurus or Capricorn Moon, in fact, that others may wonder if there has been any reaction. Those with Virgo Moon, on the other hand, react rather quickly, mentally, and sometimes nervously to any stimulus in a way obvious to everyone, even if the person is trying to contain his or her emotional reaction. Just like the earth itself, those with an Earth Moon have a crust over their emotional reactions; and they prefer to present a certain form to the public rather than to reveal their vulnerabilities.

taurus moon

The Moon is extraordinarily happy in the comfortable, stable sign of Taurus, for the emotions are steady and the person has little self-doubt. Those with the Moon in Taurus are not easily perturbed, even by powerful attacks or shocking events that would strongly affect others. They are in fact amazingly resilient, bouncing back from any defeat, disappointment, or trauma. Perfect examples are politicians Bill Clinton and Joe Biden, and celebrities Demi Lovato and Lindsay Lohan; who, despite unmerciful attacks, still manage to have their shit together and maintain at least some degree of popularity.

The poise with which Taurus Moon people face life’s demands and unpredictability is remarkable, and they therefore have a steadying influence on others, who appreciatively value their reliability. Note that I said “reliability,” not necessarily readiness! This sign is known for being the slowest in the zodiac, moving actively only when they are good and ready and insisting on their own pace in everything they do in life. Their inner contentment and resistance to change can thus make them frustrating to deal with if their considerable stubbornness causes them to dig in their heels to resist what you want. The other side of the coin is their remarkable persistence when they are focused on attaining a certain goal.

Those with Taurus Moon are attuned to the rhythms of nature and the earth, and this gives them their particular pace of life and much of their strength. They are notably physical and sensual, and have a great need for the “pleasures of life.” And they insist on taking the time to enjoy them. This unique attunement leads to a trust in earthly life that enables them to accept others with few demands and to take life as it comes. They are pleased with life (generally) and rather pleased with themselves. This can of course result in smugness, conceited self-satisfaction, and self-indulgent laziness. As Grant Lewi wrote, the key to improving oneself for Taurus Moon is to “turn self-satisfaction into active self-confidence”.

Emotionally, those with this Moon sign are not at all cold, but neither do they readily reveal their feelings. They are good listeners and are usually warmly responsive and solidly supportive, but not gushingly effusive. They really prefer not to allow anything to affect them. Some comments from questionnaire responses add additional perspectives to this lunar type:

1. “Seems very positive, giving men good relationships with women. It also appears to give talent in crafts such as cooking and other home arts.”

2. “ … sensual, heightened sense of material/physical aesthetics (e.g., clothing, home, colors, etc.), wonderful sense of humor, stubborn, and sometimes impervious to what’s going on beneath the surface of things.”

People with the Moon in Taurus like to be touched, especially to be hugged. Also, I’ve noticed a certain resistance to change. This resistance ranges (in different people) between a reluctance to accept the moods of another and a reluctance to allow any out-of-the-ordinary spontaneity to enter their life (usually hate surprises).

virgo moon

Those with Virgo Moon need a sense of order in their own minds and in the environment to feel comfortable and secure. This leads to their instinctive analytical reaction to all life experience, sorting their perceptions and thoughts into categories and discriminating between them according to their personal principles or prejudices. This need for order also motivates their obsession with neatness and cleanliness. They likewise feel more secure by making definite improvements in their environment, in their scientific, artistic, or intellectual pursuits, or—something not always appreciated with this sign—in other people. In fact, as one woman wrote in a questionnaire, “Sometimes they can be busybodies, putting others’ lives in order with advice—usually not so tactful. They’re so busy organizing friends’ lives that they forget about their own”. This “workaholic” tendency can also manifest as a broad range of criticism from afar directed even at total strangers who, evidently, just don’t measure up to the Virgo level of perfection.

Being helpful makes them feel better about themselves and aids them in overcoming their habitual self-doubt and sense of personal imperfection. In fact, “perfectionism” is a keyword for Virgo, and their unavoidable awareness of their own imperfections leads often to excessive self-consciousness, sometimes of a type so severe as to render them unable to use their genuine gifts with any confidence. Their tendency to notice the imperfections of others, and to voice those observations far too often, frequently makes the other person feel uncomfortably and unproductively self-conscious. Those with Virgo Moon would do better to heed their deep need to serve and to help others or improve things in the outer world. By doing so, they can eventually gain a sense of having improved themselves—at least in the modest way they will allow themselves to acknowledge. Virgo is the most modest sign in the zodiac—one of the few, in fact. Virgo Moon people can seem shy and reserved.

Habitually nervous types with a tendency to worry, Virgo Moon people often find their personal tranquility and self-validation in work and compulsive “busyness.” Work also provides an escape from the unpleasant emotions or depressing feelings of guilt or worthlessness that so often afflict those with this Moon position. But, because emotions interfere with productivity, as Donna Cunningham points out in Moon Signs, they are conveniently put aside or suppressed in the routine of daily life. Hence, Virgo Moons are among the few people who love all kinds of petty, boring activities — even housework. A friend with this placement even admitted to dreaming about being a mother/grandmother, so she could do chores and serve her family all day (of course, she’s also a Cancer Rising).

Doubt and skepticism pervade their mode of thinking and reacting, and of course there is always something to criticize in any person, place, thing, or concept. The infinitely small is always available as a target! This constant mental tension and the sensitivity of their nervous system, and their hyper-attunement to hygiene and purity, make these folks fascinated by and eager for involvement in the areas of nutrition, biological sciences, natural therapies, the healing arts, and/or the medical professions. This natural affinity also, however, bends them toward hypochondria, at its worst, or at least to a sensitive digestive and/or intestinal system. The quality of the food they eat is of utmost importance, since it directly affects their nerves and mental state, not just their digestion.

Their talent for detailed work is without equal (except for those with certain other planets in Virgo), and they often get great satisfaction from employing their natural craftsmanship in the practical or fine arts. Because their mind can always find something wrong with any idea or plan, indecision often afflicts those with this Moon placement. Moral indecision as well is often observed, as their perfectionist and puritanical tendencies battle with their more practical or sensual needs.

capricorn moon

Those with Capricorn Moon, as is also the case when other major planets or the Ascendant are in Capricorn, seem unnaturally old and serious when they are young, but they can lighten up as they grow older. In their youth, they are unusually capable, disciplined, and conservative, taking the well-trodden path to their goals of worldly achievement or to follow a vocation. Their real confidence is late-blooming, as their sense of inner security develops over time and they feel that their age at least, if not their accomplishments, has earned them some respect they have always craved. Capricorn Moon people eventually learn to relax somewhat and to trust life and other people to a greater extent. The aura of melancholy that those with Capricorn attunement so often carry around with them can also slowly dissipate over time, sometimes helped by a more and more adventurous—but dry—sense of humor.

The fluctuating, responsive, emotional Moon is not at all naturally comfortable in a sign that is often rigid and distant, and prides itself on not revealing any sign of vulnerability or personal need. People with Capricorn Moon have instinctive reactions to life that are characterized by self-control and caution, and sometimes by a defensiveness or negativity that is almost shocking. They feel that they need to manipulate and control the world (and their feelings) in order to attain the power, authority, and recognition that they deeply desire. In fact, they are most secure within themselves when their identity is confirmed by a social role, title, specific duty, or mantle of authority. Even at an early age, Capricorn Moon people are comfortable assuming responsibility and feel perfectly at home in the role of provider, protector, or organizer. They are most relaxed and truly themselves when they are carrying some weight, or when others have to depend on them! Very hardworking, these folks share with Virgo first place on the list of people who absolutely love to work, which often ultimately results in professional success. They may not always be fun, but they will often get the job done.

Perhaps the most oppressive thing about this group occurs in those who become too obsessed with being recognized as important and having authority; sometimes, there is a persistent “one-upmanship” that pervades their personal and professional lives. The constant drive to be “on top” can cripple their capacity for any human intimacy and eliciting automatic distrust from others. As psychologist-astrologer Glenn Perry, Ph.D., wrote,

“The tight controlled responses often lead to loneliness and despair as it prevents the individual from flowing and responding to the changing mood of others. Moon in Capricorn nurtures by taking charge and giving orders. This dry mechanical approach to feelings is not sympathetic and tends to imply that the other is incompetent. Unable to respond directly to emotional needs, Moon in Capricorn gives the impression of being callous, hardened and unaffected by the tender side of life. (Aspects magazine, Fall 1981)”

If the emotional suppression and denial become chronically extreme and rigid, the result can be a person who others may respect but not love. However, from another view (from the inside, so to speak) of this Moon sign’s emotional nature, I quote here from an interview with a Capricorn Moon young woman who characterized herself to me as having “a seriousness about the emotional life, an interest in getting down to bare bones, an impatience with small talk, and a need to get to the core emotionally.” She continues:

“All Capricorn Moons I know (there have been a lot) have a certain gravity to them, an ability to take the emotional life seriously. The women especially are almost never giggly or flirty — we’re too serious to flirt much. The women are kind of ‘masculine’ I guess, sort of businesslike in their manner (men too actually… it’s not a placement I ever see that is friends with everyone and instantly, openly affectionate). I think ‘a few serious, long-term friendships’ sums up all the Capricorn Moons I know.”

A questionnaire reply from another woman also emphasized that women with this capable, ambitious orientation are liable to feel “ambivalent about their sexual identity,” although they have strong physical needs, and that women with Capricorn Moon have “a great need for appreciation to develop their self-worth”. Two other questionnaires confirmed the self-disclosure quoted above regarding the practical agenda underlying emotional commitments. The words they used were “cool in affections and looks out for self” and “very calculating—not necessarily bad—just a lot of planning, no spur-of-the-moment reactions.” Another quite thorough questionnaire reply from an experienced practitioner of astrology included the following:

“this Moon placement shows marked proficiency in handling the self in the material world, or at least a lot of concern over and attunement to material affairs. They are very shrewd in taking care of their financial needs. Very often they are involved in some secure structure, like working for the government, etc. They like a secure financial position. For all, they take things very seriously; they approach many things cautiously. This is also a very sexual placement in laid-back ways.”

In conclusion, the Capricorn demeanor of slowness, caution, and hesitation should never mislead you. They may be conservative in most attitudes, but they are actually very progressive and results-oriented in action. They just don’t like to make mistakes.

#astrology #moon signs #taurus moon #virgo moon #capricorn moon #moon in taurus #moon in virgo #moon in capricorn #cap is longer bc that's my sign therefore i understand it better

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bookwyrminspiration · 3 years ago

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Do you have any tips for nanowrimo?

I'm not sure how useful I'll be as everyone has a different approach, but I can share what's personally most useful for an enjoyable and productive month! This is my fifth year doing it, and there's definitely a lot more I could say about it, but these are the main tips I would give. I hope this helps!!

Space out your writing.

For me, the most critical aspect is to spread out your writing. All those rushes clumped together at the end of the day are so stressful and just make me dread the month as a whole, so try to avoid having big chunks of time right next to each other. Instead, I have several smaller times planned throughout the day so I can slowly make my way to that daily goal. I might have a 15 minute writing session at 9, half an hour at 12, etc. I know I have an unorthodox school schedule and more freedom to schedule things, but the same principal applies to time after school. Take it in small chunks!

Start early.

I know it's super easy to put off NaNoWrimo to the end of your day after everything is done, but the sooner you get started the easier it will be to finish. Because this opens up the chance to say fuck it and come back to it later. When you get stumped, it's a lot less stressful to step away for an hour to think about it when it's 2 in the afternoon than at 8pm. The more of the day you can use, the better. I personally like to get started as early as possible (with school that means around 10 on the weekdays, 7-8 on the weekends). But that's because I'm more productive in the mornings, so that won't be as effective for everyone.

Treats!

I don't know about you, but my brain loves rewards. If you have the discipline, set up a little reward system--it doesn't have to be consistent. Maybe you'll grab a cookie after writing 500 words, and another something at 1000, etc. This can be as low or as high as you want it to be! And the reward doesn't have the be candy; it can be things like watching a video you like, listening to a song you like, etc. Anything that's rewarding! Note: rewards are not things like basic necessities such as meals, hygiene, water, sleep, etc. They're extra little fun things, so please don't punish yourself to get through your writing.

Neat numbers.

This one is more to get just a few more words each session, and it'll only work if you're more predisposed to this kind of thing. I personally love to update my wordcount with satisfying numbers, so use whatever that means to you! If i'm 27 words away from the next hundred, I might as well just write the 27 right now and enter a 500 word update instead of a 473 one. It's so close! Just a little more effort and it'll be so much more satisying. This could be making your update a fun number, making the total word count of your doc/chapter a fun number, etc. I personally go for the hundreds with this one, but there have been times where I go for all the same number--like a 777 update. Those little details get me to write just a little bit more before stopping, and every word now is a word I don't need to write later and is progress.

Move past being behind.

This one is specifically if you get behind: it's okay. You don't have to make up all those words the very next day--you can, but that's also a big task to take on, doubling your word goal! it can feel like a continuous failure when three days ago you missed a day and fell behind, but just keep approaching it the same as you always did. If you get the 1667 the day after you wrote zero words, you've still met that days goal, that's just yesterday still bugging you. Make it up slowly. Depending on how many days you have left, add a small number of words to the 1667 total until you've made it up. Could be 200, 300, etc. There's no rush! One of the years I had a 10 day period where I was under the path to success, but I'd written all 1667 words each day since I'd missed and that's still good!

Don't look at other's word count.

This is only if you tend to compare yourself to other writers. But if looking at those other word counts makes you judge yourself, stop! you don't need to know where others are. I stopped looking at my buddies' (my partner is my only buddy on the website atm but I would do the same if I had others!) word count last year until I could stop comparing myself. Seeing people have a higher word count than me just makes me unhappy and judgmental of myself for no reason when I know I should be happy for their progress, so until I could better control that I tend to avoid it for the most part! You're not required to look or know, so put yourself first!

Break the rules.

i know that there's technically a traditional way to do NaNoWriMo, but if that doesn't suit you, ignore the rules! The point of this challenge is to get you writing, so find that motivation however you can and use it how you want. Want to start the fifth draft of a novel you've started? Go for it! Want to write a collection of short stories that instead add up to the word count? Do it! Want to restart half way through and still add the words from your other project? I've done that too!! Want to just apply this new word count goal to a project you were already working on? No one's stopping you!

I hope your month goes well and that you enjoy your project!! Writing is definitely not easy and a challenge doesn't make it any easier!

#there are more traditional ways to do it #but at its core nanowrimo is about writing #so write!#however works for you #this is just what's better for me #and I'm sure I'll discover other things that work even better in the future #but this is what i'm doing for now #nanowrimo 2021 #nanowrimo tips #writing tips #quil's queries #nonsie

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johns-prince · 4 years ago

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John also had a lovely mix of masculine and feminine physical traits, though this wouldn't become obvious until 1968. When he was on the skinny side (which I loved, sue me) you could tell how beautifully delicate and dainty his bone structure was, way more than Paul's imo. He had those gorgeous long legs and graceful narrow hips that you most commonly find in fashion models. And I love that until at least 1975, he showcased his body beautifully, especially those legs.

Ironically I feel as if people didn't embrace John's femme beauty as well as they did with Paul. I don't know why. Most people seem to prefer him with the more masculine look of 1966. Which was great as well, he was gorgeous but I am a big fan of the 1968 to 1974 run. Btw, note to fanfic writers: please, show John's body some love, I know Paul is stunning but it's kind of exhausting reading 10 pages about how pretty he is and when it comes to my boy John he barely gets a paragraph 😂

Alright, I feel like I’m probably gonna rub a lot of people in this fandom the wrong way with what I’m going to say but this is my blog and you did send this to my inbox so here we go; At the end of the days these are my thoughts and feelings and I might not articulate them very well or I often ramble till I do!

I have my issues, and a complicated relationship with 1968-70s John Lennon. I love John, and thought him healthy and just right in his body type, basically up until 1968, and it’s spotty onward throughout the 70s. To me, John was naturally masculine looking, there’s not exactly an era or year that I could give you like you gave me [Specifically 1966? What about his teddy boy days? All of the early 60s? Hell even throughout the 70s, to me John still was masculine looking to me] He was a bit awkward in his teenhood, but all the boys were, and gradually grew into his adult body. Boy was built and sturdy, naturally thick and strong.

So we’re probably split on this, because while you see the positives in 1968-1974/70s John, I only really see the negatives. You say skinny, I say malnourished and/or sickly. Depressed druggie who was pushing everyone and everything he loved away, and becoming pathetically dependent on an individual like Yoko [and the other vultures during that time who were terrible influences]

George was skinny, John was not well and either starving himself or simply using drugs and alcohol as the basis for his diet. And diets.. don’t even get me started on that, the diets he was on, the unhealthy lifestyle that his wife only seemed to enable and help him get on.

When I look at George, sometimes I get the need to feed him, like an old Mexican mother. When I look at John, who’d lost an unhealthy amount of weight for what it looked like for his body type, I don’t see delicate and dainty bone structure. I see a man who just, he’s not well, something’s wrong.

I’ll give it to you that 1974 New York photoshoot looked very nice, he had muscle again in his arms, though he was still relatively skinny, he didn’t look sickly, or depressed. So I can give you that period during the 70s, I will give you that [hey he was away from Yoko during this no fucking wonder he looked pretty good here] and that shoot was definitely a model moment, wasn’t it? [Not like he didn’t have many of those moments throughout his life]

So there moments in the seventies where I think John doesn’t look half bad? Even relatively fine? Certainly, I’m devastatingly attracted to this man, dear God almighty have mercy on my soul yes I am. So I’ll agree that yeah, there were periods during the 70s in which John seemed to hold himself fairly well, I’d still climb it.

But I’m at least willing to admit that when John started his spiraling, in 1968, that he was Not Okay. And I personally believe he wasn’t all that okay throughout most of the 70s too... Maybe my issue isn’t with him being ‘skinny’ as it is I don’t like the underweight/severely underweight look on John, I just don’t. The incredibly unhealthy way he went about losing weight... Physically frail doesn’t fit him, and it only upsets me whenever I see photos of him that show how thin his legs became or how you can see his ribs, just how wasted away he’d look at times throughout the 70s, up until the last days of his life.

You want a “skinny” or ''skinnier'' John Lennon? A healthy, ‘’skinny/skinnier’’ John Lennon for his body type, is ‘66 and ‘67 in my eyes, and even then it wasn’t a radical change in weight loss; John still looked like John.

And speaking of 1968-1969, or the White Album era; don’t think it isn’t lost on me when I see people making light of John’s unhygienic appearance during the making of the White Album. Boy was depressed and hurting for whatever reason, again, spiraling, and getting lost in Yoko and heroin as a means of escapism and someone to tell him ‘it’s alright it isn’t your fault it’s everyone else’s fault’. Of course he didn’t care much for his personal appearance or hygiene... I will say I appreciate your appreciation for him during that period, instead of getting the whole ‘stinky/smelly rat man.’ Maybe I’m too much of a ‘’stan’’ but I don’t find it very amusing or endearing.

Don’t find me mocking or ‘’teasing’’ Paul’s depressed ass and his appearance during the breakup period/white album era-- but I suppose it’s because Paul actually tried and wasn’t on hard drugs, and had a good wife, so he was able to wear his depression and struggle with alcoholism a bit better, hmm? I don’t like Paul’s beard simply because I know it was the result of his lack of energy, depression, and falling into the drink-- he simply didn’t feel the need nor had the energy to care for himself, so that’s why he let it grow out. I don’t like it because of that, but that’s as much as you’ll get from me.

Anyway... Maybe I just don’t see John as characteristically feminine/effeminate as Paul, although he has his moments of acting and wearing clothes that are campy and elegant or give off a softer appearance, specifically around 1968 and throughout the 70s. But otherwise, I can’t agree, John didn’t have the same mixture, or balance of masculine and feminine traits as Paul-- and if it’s only made obvious during the downfall turning point of The Beatles and John (1968), then I don’t think that really counts as a ‘’lovely’’ mix of masculine and feminine traits for the reasons I mentioned. So I’ve got to disagree. John's always come off as much more masculine, or naturally masculine, both physically and characteristically, to me.

You know maybe it’s just the blogs I interact with, but I feel like it’s the other way around. I know I can sometimes come off as aggressive but at the end of the day I don’t necessarily care what one person thinks or believes, since it’s all relatively subjective to our own ideas of things and biases, etc... I have my thoughts and beliefs and theories and whether people agree or disagree with them on tumblr dot com... Well, what’re you gonna do? Nothing, it’s not my problem.

What I 100% agree on you with is about showing Johnny’s body a bit more love and attention to detail when it comes to writing about him in fanfiction!

There’s his auburn red hair, a darker ginger, which was thick and fun to watch as it lit up like fire when sunlight hit him, and could easily go wavy and curl when left unkempt and natural. The splattered and scattered galaxies of light freckles up and down his arms, his shoulders, his back, even a couple on his face. His aquiline nose, a relatively square jawline and facial structure, thick, heavy eyebrows which really intensify expressions of rage and hurt, almond shaped eyes which are the color of honey-amber when the light hits them just right and outlined with thick, long lashes, blind as a bat without his glasses but can give a mean squint which either helps scare off trouble, or brings it right to him, especially when he’s got thin bitten lips that could pull off a devilishly cheeky smirk or a no-good, charming grin to showcase teeth with the upper front turned slightly in towards each other, gives that imperfection which truly just perfects it-- a face like that of a tragic hero in a Greek Romance, distinctive and handsome. How he just oozed filthy sex and genuine trouble, sweaty leather and smoky dancehalls and rock & roll that crawls up your spine like an orgasm. Hips that could roll like Elvis and strong legs, thick thighs which would make a lovely place to sit. Broad shoulders, strong arms that could easily manage to lift you up and manhandle you in any way he’d like. Big hands, almost like shovels-- beautiful hands, with fingernails usually bitten short and occasionally had black ink or charcoal under them from when he’d be working on art, and rough, callused fingertips from playing guitar till they split and bleed, add a lovely roughness to any gentle touching he might do. A naturally thick midsection, a normal, healthy layer of fat which covers the sinewy just beneath. Any hair is light, light and lightly colored, on his arms and legs and chest. Cute tush, nice butt, a nice boy butt, slightly muscular bubble butt.

Fun facts; he had the largest feet out of all four Beatles. John isn’t circumcised. John and George share the same height. John has a surprisingly long tongue. John’s skin tone may be light, but for comparison, he’s much tanner compared to Paul-- he’s a bit more olive or wheat to his skin tone, and tanned very, very well. John’s cheeks could become easily red though. John liked the scent of citrus to wear-- he was also self conscious about the fact he could easily sweat and so usually wore such colognes or scents, didn’t want to smell bad. He started smelling of witch hazel when with Yoko. Despite his issue with sweating, he didn’t smell bad naturally. John was a true romantic, being an artist outside of being a musician/rock and roller-- he just didn’t like to show it, and growing up in his time, you couldn’t. John’s a swimmer, he loved to swim and loved the ocean.

#questionsquestionsquestions #beatles discussion/discourse #these are my feelings and thoughts and i can't feel bad for them

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tundrainafrica · 4 years ago

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Title: Passion Project (2/4)

Summary:

“Ignoring Hange Zoe had become a little passion project he allowed himself to indulge in, in between expeditions and quietly mourning unnecessary deaths in the battlefield.”

Levi tries to ignore Hange but it never seems to last. A ficlet detailing the development of Levi and Hange’s relationship before canon.

Link to cross-postings: AO3

Link to other chapters: 1 3 4

A fractured ankle, fractured ribs... for a month....

The important thing is he's alive. Fighting thirty titans… death for most soldiers.

It would be a shame to lose him… We don't get soldiers like that everyday.

The voices were distant but they were the first coherent sounds Levi made out as he adjusted to the waking world. His first instinct after making sense of it was to sit up, only to be greeted by a dull pain and a taut sensation around his chest.

He looked down to see bandages woven tightly around his chest, leaving him almost completely immobile on the bed. Even if he did get to sit up, his numb ankle would have made standing up a tall order.

"You're finally awake."

Levi settled for turning his head to his right. The lights in the room were dim and his vision relied on the faint light emitting from the room to make out the shape of the person by his bedside. "Hange…How long…"

"You were asleep for three days and you'll probably be here for a month." Hange was quick to answer his questions.

Levi was grateful for it. His throat was dry and just the first two questions had already left him burnt out.

"I’ll call Erwin and Commander Keith in.” Hange stood up and turned towards the door. “You woke up at a good time. They’ve been busy with preparations for the next expedition so they’ve only had time to visit for an hour a day.”

After engaging in conversations in hushed voices just outside his hospital room, Hange reentered the room, their two superiors following behind her. The conversation was short and formal and only served to repeat what Levi had overheard outside just a second ago.

One month in the hospital.

Forget about the next few expeditions.

You did a good job against 30 titans.

Levi had attempted a nod the first time, only for his head to protest that subtle movement.

The two were possibly being understanding or were just a little too busy that day. Regardless, as soon as they deemed Levi updated enough of the current events, they left and once again, it was just Hange and Levi in the room.

Hange spoke up. "I thought you were amazing out there."

Her praises were nothing new. Levi found himself more surprised by the fact that the young brunette's voice was much softer than usual as if it was her way of adjusting to the natural silence of the sick room.

Levi kept his eyes trained on Hange and the latter looked to be aware of it. She moved the stool by the bedside and sat on it.

"I managed to count them before their bodies dissolved. Thirty titans…" It was as if Hange had run out of air at those last two words. "You're really something else..." Her voice was definitely softer, but the tone was the same as it always was. It was that same tone that rang so painfully in his ears that first time they met. Oddly, it was starting to sound like music to his ears then.

"But you used too much gas. Maybe I should be giving you a lesson on that." And just like that, with one sentence and one smirk, Levi witnessed the return of that grating tone.

“And how often did you visit?” Levi asked, in an attempt to digress from that topic in particular. The last thing he wanted while stuck in bed was a lecture on carelessness. That ordeal was more than enough of a lesson.

Hange smiled. “I left a few times?”

“You left a few times? You mean you left this room a few times?”

“Yeah?”

“So you don’t visit. You just stay here and…” Levi let his eyes finish that sentence for him.

Hange made no attempt to deny it. She put one hand behind her head and sheepishly looked away. “The hospital room gets pretty quiet and it’s easier to focus here.” She explained.

Levi looked to the side table to see what looked to be books and documents, quickly shifting his attention elsewhere before she saw what could have been disappointment in his eyes. He shouldn’t have been disappointed though. He should have been relieved that her hanging out in his hospital room wasn’t at all motivated by some complex short of what one would see in a stalker. Despite that, he wished she had been there for him.

“Have you showered since then?” At that point, Levi was just looking for ways to take out his own frustrations. He was sure of her answer before she even said it.

Or chose to avoid saying it. “I didn’t have time…”

“You’re fucking disgusting. This is a hospital, you’re just gonna get everyone here sicker with your shitty hygiene habits.” Levi painfully turned to his side, biting back in the process. “Go home and shower,” he managed to say. “I’m going to sleep.”

“Hey! I’ve been waiting for you to wake up and now you’re going to kick me out like this….”

Somehow her annoying protests had made that painful movement all the more worth it. He managed to unearth some scraps of amusement from her momentary fit that fizzled out to a quiet disappointment that had her leaving the room grumbling.

A combination of foot stomping and whiny protests were enough to get Levi's lips curled up and into a subtle smile. She couldn't see that at least from where she stood.

Depriving Hange of those little things she visibly wanted turned out to still be as satisfying as it had been before. And with nothing much else to think then, surrounded by plain white walls, Levi couldn't help but remember the passion project he had started so many months ago.

And it still burned strong, strong enough for him to feel a glimmer of victory at having to hear hushed hissy monologues and footsteps too heavy and loud to have been anyone in a good mood.

The glimmer dissipated faster than Levi had expected and he was immediately reminded that he was alone with just his thoughts.

And he couldn't help but reflect on the fact that Hange's presence would have made his thoughts all the more interesting to engage in.

She'll be back. He told no one in particular. It was a difficult pull to swallow. Alone with not much to do but stare at the blank white ceiling, Levi reflected. And with that reflection came a begrudging realization.

He preferred her there.

Passion Project

The recovery didn't take a month as the doctor said it would have. Within a few days Levi was sitting up. Within another week he was walking, if not limping out of the room. And within two weeks of waking up, Levi was back in the barracks, finding a way to make himself useful among the bustle of preparations for the next exhibition.

Erwin wasn't letting Levi near ODM gear any time soon though. Although Levi was sure he could have gone through a lot of the training on land with at least bearable pain, flying through the air, while keeping one's balance through only cables and gas was another story.

The prospect of exposing their best soldier at an injured state to the danger of titans seemed a little too excessive for Erwin and despite Levi's quick healing, he was still barred from joining the next expedition.

"Why don't you join the research and logistics team for now? I'm sure they'll need some extra hands since they've been working on new anti-titan weapons."

That meant spending all the more time with Hange.

Levi shouldn't have expected any different. Yet somehow he was surprised. The shock possibly only appended by the fact that while he was still in the process of accepting this new arrangement, he had encountered Hange in the lab in the wee hours of morning. No one really expects anyone in the lab at 2am.

He had gone there in particular to survey his new environment without having to exchange pleasantries with anyone from the research and logistics team. He had expected a thirty minute visit at the most to just see what experiments they have been working on and any records to make the process of a first meeting them a little more bearable.

The room wasn't empty. To make it all the better, the only person there at two in the morning wasn't someone he would have explained pleasantries with anyway. Her presence never implicitly demanded that level of politeness after all.

In fact, it tended to naturally elicit the opposite reaction from Levi. "Why the fuck are you doing here so early in the morning?"

He had said it too more roughly than he had intended. She had been a little too focused on mixing a colorful formula on a glass beaker and he had so quickly assumed he wouldn't have gotten her attention any other way. Or possibly, he had just been in the process of stifling a little frustration when he had said that which manifested in that rough tone he had called her out with.

It turned out, she didn't even notice that greeting he overthought.

"Hey four-eyes!" Levi hissed, as loudly as what would have been socially acceptable in the wee hours of morning

To only further add to his frustration, Hange's gradual shift to reality had been slow. When she looked up at him, Levi was sure she wasn't even looking directly at him.

"Oh… Levi!" She managed to say, a few long seconds after they first made eye contact, or at least the first time Levi initiated what should have been eye contact. "It's been a while."

It had been a while. Three days before he had been discharged, Hange had stopped visiting. He had only been discharged two days ago. Which put their last meeting to more than five days ago, a long time when compared to the fact that she had spent every day in the hospital with him.

WIth the sudden shift in Hange’s behavior, Levi put himself through unnecessary torture of attributing it to that one night he decided to ignore her so she could shower, despite the fact that she still had come back every day since then. Erwin had visited after that, even Commander Keith and even the squad he had saved in the last expedition. He had been tempted to ask where Hange was, ultimately deciding against it. His emotional investment in Hange seemed one secret he would rather have kept to himself.

But, by god it was torturous. Although at face value Hange seemed like an open book with the way she was constantly flitting between emotional extremes, Levi eventually realized she wasn't.

Surface level emotions were open for the world to see. With the amount of time he spent overthinking every action she had ever made back in the hospital room, from those long tirades about new experiments to the new black tea her parents would be sending over to the plans for the next expedition , Levi realized there was still a layer of Hange he hadn’t peeled back yet. Behind the heart she wore on her sleeve were emotions, motivations and desires she hadn’t shown anyone yet or possibly did not understand herself. He felt it in every single tirade of passion she threw at his face. The passion seemed true, the words seemed authentic but there was a nagging feeling inside him that he still had a lot to learn about the crazy brunette.

Because of that, Levi had found her to be incredibly unpredictable, only further supported by the fact that she had failed to visit him his last three days in the hospital, not bothering either to have greeted him after he had settled back in the barracks. It wasn’t like she was obligated either.

Either way, he found himself having to seek comfort in the predictability of watching Hange go through the motions of mixing chemical after chemical. After their too casual and maybe too brusque of an exchange, Levi had settled on a stool and quietly watched. She had been too focused to kick him out anyway.

"You know how signal flares have this tendency to malfunction in the rain?” It was Hange who spoke up first despite having been too focused on her little experiments.

“Yeah?” That was all Levi could say. Maybe if Hange had started with any other topic, he probably would have said anything more. That question had reopened old wounds, and it was constantly rubbing salt on them as he waited for Hange to continue. He had always suspected the malfunctioning of signal flares to have caused the death of Isabel and Farlan during their first mission outside the walls.

“I think I found a way to get the signal flares to show even during rainy days. Maybe, if we could get this working, we might be able to prevent unnecessary deaths in future missions.” Hange went for a beaker, mixed a few chemicals together which incited a mini green explosion in front of him. “This could save lives…”

Despite the water Hange had sprayed all over the green of the air, the green remained glowing and strong and the whole show had him speechless.

She shouldn't have known. The way she had so gracefully gone through all the procedure so methodically yet so deftly, in the way Levi never would have been able to replicate had him only staring, his mouth agape.

The color green had never looked so comforting until then. The whole time the green smoke stayed in the air before dissipating into anything, Levi felt like he could have been in a dream.

It had him forgetting whether or not she had eventually probed on the unfortunate deaths of his two best friends.

He ended up opening up about it anyway.

Passion Project

Levi still wasn't allowed to do combat training but Hange was.

And Hange had enough enthusiasm about ODM gear for them both. In that one moment after long hours in the lab, an hour before the sun was to set, that enthusiasm was what had her pulling Levi back into the woods as if the day had just started.

There was less reason to hide behind the excuse of "I'm too tired" given that Levi couldn’t actually train and he never had much to contribute in the lab aside from odd jobs. It's not like he ever employed that excuse anyway.

With his lack of reason to be tired, Levi resigned himself to spending days after training watching Hange go through ODM drills.

"Your cables are everywhere. A titan can just grab onto that if you're not careful.” Levi said. “As soon as your up in the air, just use your gas. It gets you to your target faster than with the cables."

"Should you be telling this to me after you ran out of gas and almost died?"

That was enough once of a comment once again to silence Levi momentarily. Hange didn't stop to assess the effects of that one comment though, having busied herself trying to mimic Levi's ODM movements. Hange had taken for her own one of the larger oak trees in the forest where they practiced. The tree trunk was gnarled and branches stuck out so randomly, Levi had to agree it was a good way to practice.

Even unmoving, the tree was an unpredictable target. It had numerous branches surrounding it that only twisted and turned so wildly that Levi could feel the beginnings of a headache as he attempted to follow each one. If he squinted a little harder, he could even pretend it was a titan.

Hange probably did have a swell time pretending it was a titan. He could hear it in the loud and swift whizzing of chords, the characteristic explosion that came with the release of gas and of course, the excited screams.

You were amazing out there. Hange had said, while a little breathless only a few weeks ago. Levi was never one to take in compliments and had clocked that to a little bout of maybe asthma on her side. Or maybe she had forgotten to take in some oxygen before she said it.

At that moment though, he understood the breathlessness that accompanied amazement. The branches grew so close together that Hange only had the luxury of gaps small enough for maybe only one person to pass through. Hange had whizzed past each branch, dodging them so gracefully, while barely leaving an opening big enough for even an insect to squeeze through.

With the chaotic pattern ---or at least lack of pattern--- at which the gnarled branches spread out, Levi couldn't help but see an artistic dance in it all, and a rhythm to follow. The art, the spectacle that only he that late afternoon had the luxury of witnessing, had him forgetting to breathe.

And he only did breathe when Hange plopped back down on the ground and Levi was quick to notice the deafening absence of the familiar sound of the cables whizzing back into the gear.

Her face was flushed, her skin glistened with sweat. The sunset illuminated Levi’s view and he saw shades of orange and purple reflect on her. She approached him. She entered the shade and within a second, he had lost the view of her he had been so gingerly enjoying.

“I think I get it,” Hange said.

“Get what?” It would have been a ridiculous request for Levi to tell her to stay back so he could enjoy the reflection of the sunset on her eyes. So he kept his response brief, a little penalty for that part of him that even suggested that Hange had been a joy to watch.

“You might be right, I think I’ve been using my cables too much. It’s much easier to move when they aren’t constantly pulling at me.”

Levi stifled a smile. He wasn’t going to show her how sweet it had been to be proven right. Also, a part of him had been a little disappointed she hadn’t denied him that luxury of being correct. He was in the mood for a little argument after all.

“But it doesn’t change the fact that you still used too much gas.” The opening for an argument was introduced soon after Levi lamented that wasted fuel.

Levi opened his mouth ready to mouth off. He hadn’t decided what to say it, ready to leave it to his sharp experienced tongue to discern the best comeback at that moment. He had wanted to insult her movement, the little dance around the trees. Her performance was perfection though and despite being able to come up with shitty jokes within seconds, nothing in her performance had been worth poking fun at.

To his relief, she interrupted him. “You know what though, I figured out something which might be just as useful for you.” Hange unfastened her gas canisters. “Try carrying it.”

Levi held one of them to see that it was still much fuller than what he would have expected from watching her only a few seconds ago.

“I found a way to conserve gas. I notice you used to carry yourself, you’d let the gas pull you. What if you bend your body a bit and curve your back, to make yourself easier for the gas to carry you through? It helped a lot for me, I definitely felt lighter, like I wasn’t resisting as much as I used to. Probably won't be able to maneuver as well as you though."

Levi did not bring his gear then so it had been a little difficult to imagine. By what could have been a silent agreement, Hange unfastened her ODM gear from the cables to the canisters and dropped them in front of him. “ Why don’t you try it?” She offered.

It had only been a few weeks since he woke up to diagnoses of internal bleeding and broken ribs that would have taken months to heal. At Commander Keith’s orders, Levi had stayed in the sidelines, no intention on trying anything with ODM for a while, especially with ODM gear which wasn’t his. ODM gear was custom fit for every single soldier after all.

It had only been a week but as Levi stood there, trying on the gear that should have been a few pounds too heavy for him, his body did not protest the weight. Jumping onto the tree with the help of the cables had felt a little awkward but it could have been the unnatural weight of ODM gear a few sizes too big.

Regardless, it was enough to see the difference. Hange had suggested he curves his back as he bent over and that he moves with the ODM gear. Don’t let the gas pull you.

He kept focused on Hange as she repeated the tips from the foot of the tree. The change was almost instant. The breeze was stronger, the air colder and the rustle of the leaves around him only louder as he moved.

Hidden among the sounds of the blowing wind, the rustle of leaves and the explosion of gas, he heard it. He had been too high up in the air for it to be any louder but it was definitely there, distant cheers, gasps and avid screams. They were the only two there so it could have only been from her.

He never found out how long he had been up there zipping among the branches. He called it a day when the sun was dark and his ribs started to whimper a little, manifesting in the form of a stitch on his right side.

As he landed back down on the roots of the tree, Hange was already there waiting for him. The dim light made it difficult to see the smile on her face. But it was there. Levi found himself wishing for at least some natural light to make it all the more visible.

“You might just be humanity’s strongest soldier,” Hange said as she moved to unfasten the gear for him. “Maybe that’s why you recovered so fast?

Passion Project

“Tea?” Hange asked.

“Tea,” Levi answered

Just like before the injury, they were back to drinking black tea.

Levi was grateful for their history. On his end, he did not need to verbalize any of that. It had slipped into their routine after training to seek comfort in the malty yet astringent taste of black tea.

Somehow, Levi was relieved to realize she hadn’t forgotten that. It had been months since their last tea date after all. They had been occupied by preparations for the expedition, the actual expedition and the recovery that followed, to have continued that mini routine between them.

With the rations of before completely consumed, they had to get their fix elsewhere. They had silently made their way to that specific hole-in-the-wall tea shop Levi would frequent along the corners of Trost district. The exhaustion at having practiced the ODM gear after a long days work finally did catch up to both of them. The only exchange they did comfortably manage while taking the almost one hour long detour to the shop being the mention of that one common luxury between them.

Only after they settled down on one of the benches in front of the shop, when Levi finally had the tea in front of him and the luxury to enjoy the illuminated streets in Trost did he realize one crucial thing.

“Did you know this was my favorite shop?”

Hange gave a light shrug, careful not to jostle and spill her own tea.

“There are bigger shops in Trost. This isn’t really anyone’s first destination” It suddenly felt weird that he was the one a little talkative at first.

Hange took a sip before answering. “I did my research.”

“What kind of research? For someone who forces me to listen to rambles about other research, you’re awfully quiet about this one.”

The brunette sighed. Not one of defeat, but seemingly one of comfort and maybe a little amusement. “I saw you here in Trost during a few days off and I kinda followed you.”

Levi didn’t reply and only waited for her to continue. Having to carry the conversation of a few minutes ago with the last two lines had him a little tired.

“I was a little curious, wanted to see what a strong yet quiet soldier did in his free time so maybe I could learn a bit. I thought that maybe I could actually get stronger if I followed some of your habits.”

Why didn’t you ask me? Levi couldn’t blame her for stalking though. As he recalled pretty quickly, he hadn’t been the friendliest person in the beginning either.

“When you enter the shop, you'd order the exact same thing every time and you had this sparkle in your eyes when they serve it to you… Just like now!”

Levi suddenly felt self conscious of that spark in his eyes. Instead of looking away though, he found himself looking at her eyes, searching for a reason to point out how pathetically her own eyes probably sparkled. As he locked eyes with Hange though as she said it, he saw the way her own eyes sparkled under the dim street lights, only complemented by that wide smile on her face and the music in her voice.

“I guess you really love tea huh? Even the most emotionless soldiers have to have some passion somewhere to keep living.”

A Passion for tea? The way Hange had said it, had Levi almost spitting out his tea at the outrageous claim. The strong passing thought of not wanting to waste that good cup of tea or destroy the mood that accompanied it was enough to hold it back in his mouth.

"Relax, Levi.” Hange said. Levi wondered what kind of face he was making for her to look at him in an almost patronizing manner. “I have my own passions too.” Hange continued. But it’s a relatively new one. Not as old as your obsession with tea probably.”

“What is it?”

“I wanna do lots of research on titans. I‘ve already prepared five project proposals to submit to Erwin already and I think I’m gonna end up writing ten more before this month ends."

Levi had to note that it was the third week of the month already.

#levihan #levihan fanfiction #fanfiction #Sorry about the backlog of asks #Will get back to them tomorrow.#Just down with the flu today so Im just gonna drop a backlog of fic chapters lel #Hope you enjoy

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prettywordsyouleft · 5 years ago

Text

Someone Special

Prompt: #3 for @tanithrea – “This was my mother/father’s”

tanithrea said:

3 - Mingyu svt (thinking from his mum) Whatever inspiration hits you 👍🏻😉💖

Pairing: Kim Mingyu x reader (ft. Jeon Wonwoo)

Genre: meet cute / fluff

Warnings: not Casper, but there is definitely a friendly ghost up in here. Also, mentioning of something that affected the normal way of living – but not said in detail.

A/N: So for this story, I’m aware it could have been a good series idea, and still my brain is in two minds of whether I need to write more in this world or not. I didn’t really go into detail of what led to their predicament, rather the present moment in time to keep this story from becoming too long. I hope it makes sense, and if I feel compelled to continue it sometime, I’ll make sure to add more then!

Word count: 2223

The headlights illuminated the house up ahead and you sighed in relief, unbuckling your seatbelt. You were exhausted and the only thing on your mind was finding a bed once inside and becoming acquainted with it for many hours.

“Are you sure it’s okay to stay here?” Emmy asked from the back seat and you turned to Wonwoo on the driver’s side, waiting for clarification. Of course, you were compelled to just go up into the house anyway by this point, uncaring if the house was even a home to ghosts. You would sleep among the dead if you had to. Still, you were curious as to why he had driven you here.

Nodding slightly, Wonwoo sighed. “It will keep us safe.”

“It looks abandoned,” Emmy whined, shuddering visibly.

“It belongs to a good friend of mine, he’ll be all too happy to let us stay here,” Wonwoo confirmed, opening the car door and getting out.

You followed suit, rolling your eyes when Emmy clung onto you. “Stop being a baby, we can’t just keep driving around mindlessly, Em. We’ve left the city for good, now it’s time to find a place to settle and call home.”

“Yes but… look at it Y/N. Surely you can see how spooky it is too?!”

Glancing at the home, you wouldn’t say it was the most welcoming. It was an older-style manor and in need of some TLC to the overgrown gardens. However, the roof looked as if it would hold off the drizzle that you knew would turn to rain soon, and that’s all that mattered.

That and finding a bed.

Turning to Emmy, you shrugged and started towards the veranda, Wonwoo carrying your bags in behind you both. He stepped forward when you waited in front of the door, fishing out a key from its hiding spot. Grinning at his discovery, he then unlocked the door, which creaked open, exposing the modest interior.

“Bedrooms are upstairs, and there’s a bathroom at the end of this hallway if you need it. Kitchen is to the left, just beyond the living room.”

“And the owner?” Emmy asked and then groaned. “I guess, with times as tough as they are now, everyone is displaced.”

“I just want a bed,” you announced, stepping inside boldly, looking around yourself briefly before taking the staircase to the second floor. There were several doors and you simply chose the one at the very end, hoping it would lead you to a bed. Twisting the handle, you smiled when a four-poster bed appeared, the moonlight illuminating over it from the open-curtained windows.

“This will be more than perfect,” you breathed, shrugging your coat off and climbing up onto the mattress. Crawling to the middle of it, you then slipped under the covers, laying down and closed your eyes.

It felt as if it had been a lifetime since you had experienced such comfort, and thus, it didn’t take you long to fall asleep.

You woke to the sound of giggling, a moan leaving you at the unwelcome interruption. Blearily opening your eyes, you looked around, snapping upright and tugging the blankets along with you when you saw a woman not much older than yourself sitting at the end of the bed. Blinking away your sleep, you peered at her. “I uh… are you the owner of this house?”

“Me? No, the owner is a young man now.”

“Is this your room, am I intruding-”

“I just thought you were awake since you were talking to me before this,” she admitted with another impish giggle and you nodded slowly.

“I’m known to sleep-talk, sorry.”

“It’s quite alright, peach.”

“Oh, uh, I’m Y/N.”

“It’s nice to meet you, Y/N. Did you sleep well?”

Scratching at the side of your head, you nodded again. “I don’t think I’ve slept that deeply in weeks.”

“Then I’m relieved. We don’t need our guests here suffering from any inability to sleep!” she crooned, moving closer to inspect you. She then recoiled, tutting you repeatedly.

“What is it?”

“When did you last bathe, my dear? Your clothes too…”

“It’s a bit difficult to do those things when you’re on the road,” you confessed awkwardly, feeling a little embarrassed by the state of yourself. All three of you had been travelling nonstop to get away from the reactive area which had reached your city that survival had been at the forefront. Now, you could afford to take better care of your personal hygiene and feel more human once again.

“We can’t have you go around like this,” the woman stated, getting up from her spot to travel over to the dresser in the corner. Sifting through it, she continued to shake her head at her choices, soon moving to the wardrobe. She withdrew a black and white polka dot dress proudly. “Here, you should wear this. And the laundry room is downstairs. There’s a shower downstairs as well.”

“You’re so kind, thank you. Are you sure it’s okay to be doing all this?” you asked, taking the dress from her and frowning at how cold her touch was.

The woman smiled warmly, as the sun started to shine behind her. You realised then she wasn’t as solid as she once appeared. Her lips curled up further. “You are most welcome here, Y/N. I’m sure he’ll enjoy your company as well. Perhaps this will become a home for you.”

“Who will enjoy my company?”

“The owner,” she answered and then got up, waving you off. Before she opened the door, you jolted upright which confused you completely. Until you found yourself in the dark room you had fallen asleep within.

“It was a dream,” you mumbled, rubbing a hasty hand over your face in attempts to become alert.

It was then when you noticed the dress hanging from the corner post waiting for you.

After showering and putting on the borrowed dress, you gathered your dirty clothes up into a pile, ready to go in search of your bag for the rest. With the morning light now infiltrating the home, you realised Emmy had nothing to be frightened of. The house was clean and clearly lived in.

You were alerted to the sound of someone chopping wood and followed the sound to the back of the yard, rounding the corner of the house and stopping when the young man looked up at you.

“Oh, you must be the owner! I’m Y/N, Wonwoo’s friend.”

Stepping closer to you after dropping his axe, he reached out for the collar of the dress fondly. He let out a shaky breath. “Where did you find this? I thought all of them were gone.”

“It was hanging on the end of the bed. I uh, was certain I met the woman it belonged to. Have I intruded?”

“No,” he answered with a smile, looking up into your eyes. “This was my mother’s.”

“Wait, was?” you echoed and he nodded. Replaying some of your conversation with the woman, you realised you had already come to know the answer to your question.

The tall man cleared his throat as he let go of the collar. “She does that from time to time. I hope she didn’t scare you.”

You shook your head. “She was kind, giggly even.”

“I’m glad she gave you the approval to wear the dress, Y/N. It suits you.”

Glancing down at it with a shy smile, you thanked him quietly and then cleared your throat. “Have you eaten?”

“Not yet. I try to get the morning chores out of the way first.”

“Shall I go start something?”

“Nonsense, you’re my guests. You’ve travelled long enough to get here.” Wiping off his hands before picking up his axe again, you marvelled at the way he wielded the tool. After several cuts, he glanced back at you and you realised you had not only gotten lost staring but perhaps drooled a little as well. Snapping your attention away from him, you looked this way and that, hearing a chuckle from behind, familiar despite its masculine tone to the one you heard in the night.

You stilled, turning to look at him again. “What is your name?”

“Mingyu. Kim Mingyu.”

“Well Mingyu, I’m going to do some washing, is that much allowed?”

Mingyu grinned, pointing to the sun now rising well into the sky. “It’ll be a perfect day to get everything washed and dried.”

“Excellent. I’ll see you at breakfast then.”

He was still grinning when he nodded. “Looking forward to it, Y/N.”

You nodded as well and then turned to head back into the house, picking up your abandoned washing and then finding the laundry room. Placing the basket you had taken from the bathroom down onto a stool, you noticed the window in here looked out into the back yard, and you could see Mingyu swinging his axe from here.

Humans were a fascinating species, you thought to yourself as you pried your eyes away from the attractive view and back to sorting through your clothes. You had been fighting to find safety for the past couple of weeks and now at the first true sign of it, you were too relaxed and even taking an interest in your host – one of whom knew that his mother’s spirit visited from time to time. Perhaps she stayed here all the time, watching over her son and the house. As you reached for the washing detergent, you smiled at the thought, not finding the idea of a haunted house unnerving in the slightest.

Nor did you think the prospect of getting to know Mingyu a bad thing. After all, Wonwoo had convinced you and Emmy both that this was the safest place he knew on Earth, considering it was in the middle of nowhere. You had no immediate plans to depart from here, and it would make sense to get to know Mingyu during your stay.

You smiled as you closed the lid to the machine and turned it on, leaning against the top of it and looked outside again. You fell short when you didn’t see Mingyu out there now, turning on your heel to head out into the kitchen.

Mingyu was already in there preparing breakfast. “Is there anything you can’t do?”

“Well,” he started with another laugh, looking in your direction. “I’m not very good at learning new languages.”

“It’s a good thing we speak the same one then.”

“I like doing things like this. Maintaining a home, showing pride in my efforts-”

“Except for your garden out front,” you mentioned airily and Mingyu openly blushed. Stepping forward to silently help him with the preparation, you then grinned. “Which one is it, you don’t like gardening or you’re too busy with other parts of the land that you don’t prioritise it?”

“Actually I used to tend to it. One night my mother told me to let it go in a dream. Which sounds rather ridiculous but-”

“She’s rather convincing to talk to,” you agreed and Mingyu nodded.

“The garden was her pride and joy, yet after a fifth warning, I did as she asked me to, not knowing why. Then I realised when everything over in the city started to turn the way it had, no one would think anyone lived here if they passed on by.”

You tilted your head in thought. “You didn’t want people to find you?”

“I would have helped anyone. However, I guess its better this way. I have room to house you and your friends for as long as you need. You’re not the only car to travel this road recently though. I hope they find refuge.”

“Everyone is escaping the city before it gets worse,” you mentioned and Mingyu nodded. “Thank you, for opening your home to us.”

“To be fair, Wonwoo did that last night, not me,” he replied with a smirk and you grinned.

“Well, it looked derelict at night.”

“I was away at the cottage down the hill helping the old couple who live there. Their firewood supply has gotten too barren and I knew they would freeze at night if I didn’t take them anything.”

You turned to Mingyu, still smiling. “I have to say it again, is there anything you can’t do? Maybe you’re a spirit too because you seem too good to be true.”

Holding out a hand for you to take, you slipped your hand into his, marvelling at the solid connection and immediate warmth that radiated up your arm. You bit at your lip momentarily. “Well, I suppose that answers that.”

“There’s plenty I can’t do, but maybe they’re things you can help me with.”

“I do know some Japanese, albeit I’m rusty in it,” you offered, in which Mingyu laughed.

“You know, it might sound weird but my mother told me to wait as someone special was coming. I think she was right.”

“If it helps you any, I was given the impression you would be an impeccable host and enjoy my company.”

“Am I living up to the hype?” Mingyu asked cheekily and you shifted closer to him. His cheeks flushed but he didn’t dismiss your proximity either, considering he still had a firm hold of your hand.

“I’d say I have a lot more to learn about you. However, I’m definitely keen to do so.”

_________________

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notthatiwilleverwriteit · 5 years ago

Note

Hi 👋🏻 I hope you're doing okay and staying save with everything that is happening in the world right now. how are you coping with it? and if you don't mind answering I'm interested to know if this update didn't happen what would you wanted she li and mo backstory to be? I've seen your post that you didn't expect that, so I'm quite interested to know what you would have wanted it to be or what would you add to it 😊

Hello, dear anastasia-blue-april!

The world has definitely changed a lot in a short amount of time, but I’m coping pretty well. I had a little moment of panic in the beginning but it passed as I think the overall situation calmed down. Social distancing itself isn’t a problem for me, so all is relatively well. I do a weekly supply run and take good care of hygiene.

I hope people are following the instructions to take care of themselves and those around them. The important thing is to remain calm and patient. Everyone is having to put up with various inconveniences right now, but we will surely get through this!

Thank you for your concern, and I hope you’ll stay safe, too!

“what you would have wanted it to be”

The latest update of how SL and MGS met seemed to divide the readers. Some were happy with it while others were disappointed. The fandom had been waiting for this revelation for quite a long time, so a lot of different theories had been put together and expectations were high. Personally, I’m hovering somewhere between the two ends of the line but leaning more towards “disappointed”. There were things that I loved and found interesting in the chapter, but as you said, it wasn’t what I had expected. Now, I can roll with this version of how it all went down but overall, it left a bit of a “...wait, that’s it?” aftertaste in my mouth.

I have talked about my thoughts regarding MGS and SL’s past a couple of times by now:

Overall thoughts about their relationship

Development and what might have happened in the past

What might have happened (vol. 2)

My “main” theory of how SL and MGS were acquainted and how MGS ended up owing SL has pretty much always been connected to how MGS was treated as a child by other kids (ch. 242):

His father was in jail which automatically made him a criminal in other’s eyes. MGS was a son of a criminal, so surely he must be a bad kid, too. If something happened or went missing, it was easy for people to think that the apple hadn’t fallen far from the tree. Of course, a child doesn’t know how to handle that kind of situation. When they’re wrongly accused of something they lash out. It’s not unheard of if they even attack other kids physically which is what seemed to happen in MGS’s case. Not only was he made guilty based on prejudice but he also felt very sensitive about his family and father.

Unfortunately, that kind of reaction only made things worse for him. Lashing out and getting violent confirmed people’s prejudices after which it’s that much more difficult to turn things around. No one was listening to MGS, and all they saw were his (re)actions. He was seen as a problem child with whom you shouldn’t associate and who wouldn’t amount to anything respectable.

That’s where I imagined SL coming along in some way. My main idea was that SL was running his own group and took notice of MGS who liked to keep to himself. MGS was ostracised by others, and being discriminated against had planted the first seeds of bitterness and anger already in him. I thought SL would have picked up on that and taken advantage of his emotions. He would have offered MGS a place in his gang which had given him at least some kind of group to belong to. I don’t think it’s a far-fetched idea at all that a kid who’s being pushed out and rejected by the “good” will be picked up by the “bad”.

Of course, yet again, that would have been another step in the wrong direction. Associating with people like SL would have worsened MGS’s image and reputation in other’s eyes even further. Juvenile gangs aren’t also the ideal environment to better one’s image of themselves. I could have imagined how being involved in a gang life had stoked and fed MGS’s negative image of himself and self-esteem. He wasn’t a criminal or a bad kid by any means, but when you hear those kinds of things about yourself for long enough, you start to believe that’s what you’re good for. It wouldn’t have been difficult for SL to tip MGS over in that sense and tie him to his gang by his own volution.

Joining SL would have also made MGS owe him on a level that was pretty deep. Being picked up by someone and given a community of sorts to belong to is one of hell of a debt that’s not easily paid back, if ever. That’s not just doing someone a favor but rather you’re a part of something from that point on. And I imagined the way SL saw it, the only way MGS could have ever repaid him was his absolute loyalty. Anything short of that SL would consider not enough and betraying him after SL had “saved” him.

Another theory of mine that I thought could be interesting albeit perhaps less possible was about them meeting as kids before middle school. Maybe MGS and SL had started out as somewhat friends. Maybe as a child, SL had been seen as an odd weirdo by other kids, and MGS had been the one who befriended him one way or another. Maybe he would have seen SL being treated like he was and decided to stand up for him or reach out for him.

But in a lot of ways, SL was already heading in the wrong direction. It seemed like his home life was quite miserable. He also struck me as a kid who’s very peculiar but in a creepy way. Maybe his quietness and stare made other kids uncomfortable. Maybe he had violent tendencies that seemed...disturbed. I have always also had this idea that even as a child, SL’s mind just worked...differently. Maybe his sense of right and wrong was a bit warped even back then, and no matter how good of a friend MGS had been for him, he couldn’t have prevented how SL ended up. Admittedly, the whole “you owe me” and “I saved you” would have been a challenge to work into all of that, but I think it would have been interesting and given their relationship and SL’s character even more complexity.

“or what would you add to it”

As we all know, nothing that I had been thinking ended up happening. Well, I guess it’s still too early to say “nothing” since most of how their relationship progressed after SL saved MGS is still hidden from us. Maybe there will be something about how being in a gang at such a young age molded MGS as a person. But I would say most of what I had had in mind didn’t happen.

None of that is, of course, to say there wasn’t anything in the chapter that I liked. I was disappointed by the origin of “I saved you”/”you owe me” but I found MGS’s guilt very interesting. I still haven’t completely wrapped my head around it but I think carrying that kind of burden all this time definitely added an interesting layer to his character. And of course, as a MGS enthusiast, I’m always down for some of that! It broke my heart how that incident had been weighing on him so heavily and how he had been carrying it by himself. The overall themes of guilt, confession, and atonement/absolution are very interesting to me. I’m excited to see how things will progress for MGS from now on.

It’s difficult to say what I would add or change about the chapter if I could. If I couldn’t have any version of what I had thought their backstory was, I think I would change the origin of MGS’s guilt. I don’t know if I’m the only one but the deal with the homeless man and mentions of the accident left me confused. It also didn’t help that different versions of translations seemed somewhat inconsistent. It remained a bit unclear to me what were all the things MGS was feeling so guilty about exactly. I can recognize the overall “why” but details were left a bit hazy.

Either way, I would most definitely keep the idea of MGS having this crushing feeling of guilt, but maybe its origin could have been different? I had this idea that maybe MGS had accidentally done something that would have gotten him in trouble. He hadn’t meant it and it maybe hadn’t completely been his fault. Maybe it could have been one of those cases in which he would have easily come across as the responsible one. And given his situation, no one would have probably believed him anyway. Maybe it could have been something that - if found out - would have worsened MGS’s situation regarding the prejudice considerably and required his mother to get involved. Maybe MGS could have felt like he didn’t want to burden her and that whatever had happened had been his fault. Maybe he was alone in the situation and didn’t know what to do.

And that’s where SL would have stepped in. MGS would have known of SL, him being a transfer student, and his reputation but not really more than that. SL would have happened on the scene of MGS being scared and panicked and thinking he was going to be found guilty of something bad he hadn’t meant to do. Maybe SL had suggested he took the fault for MGS or “made it all go away”. He could have said it was no big deal for him and MGS could join his group since he seemed to be alone anyway. Or something along those lines. Maybe later if MGS tried to oppose SL’s orders, SL would remind him of the favor he had done and threaten to reveal who the real guilty one was.

Maybe the chapter could have still been about the homeless guy attacking MGS and him doing something in panicked-hazed self-defense that ultimately resulted in the man being knocked out or somehow injured. And that’s when he spots SL watching them...

But this chapter is what OX decided to go with, and I can live with that. It was a plot revelation that ended up becoming one of my least favorite ones, but either way, I’m happy we finally got to see this part of MGS and SL’s history. Given the pacing of 19 Days, that in and of itself is a small victory that I’m grateful for. I’m also happy about what a big development point this marked for MGS’s character and Tianshan.

Thank you for your question, dear anastasia-blue-april!

#19 days #mo guan shan #she li #answered ask

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haberdashing · 4 years ago

Text

i want you to straighten out my tomorrow (2/?)

The last thing Jon remembers is working into the night in the Archives in early 2016. Now he’s in a cabin in the middle of nowhere, Scotland, with Martin Blackwood as his only companion. Obviously Jon’s missed something along the way here…

Inspired by beloved of jon, though it can be read separately.

Chapter 1 / Chapter 2

on AO3

Jon woke up slowly, his mind still filled with all the details of the dream--the nightmare--he’d just had. One supernatural horror unfolded after another, and all Jon could do was stand there and watch, unable to intervene as victim after victim went through the most traumatic moment of their lives...

It would have been easy to write off as just an odd nightmare and nothing more, except that one of the horrors he’d witnessed had been the events outlined in Naomi Herne’s statement. He hadn’t even remembered that clearly what she looked like, not consciously, but it was definitely her there, definitely her stuck in that calm, lonely graveyard that she had described so vividly to him before.

Another question to add to his long list of them, perhaps.

Part of Jon expected to wake up somewhere more familiar, in the Archives or in his own bed, to find out that what he’d gone through with Martin in the middle of the night had itself just been a strange dream, but no, he was still in that unfamiliar bed with its scratchy blanket on top of him.

The bed seemed awfully big now that he took it in properly, without Martin taking up space on it. Too big for one person, it seemed. Or too big for him, at least, small and skinny as he was--and a quick glance at his arms suggested that if anything, he’d only grown skinnier in the time that had passed without him knowing it.

It wasn’t as dark in the room now as it had been, as light was seeping in from a nearby window, and Jon, having determined that he’d gotten as much rest as he was likely to get any time soon, stood up and approached the window with a few shaky steps.

Before he opened the blinds, Jon half-expected the view beyond to be the skyscrapers and asphalt of London, but instead there was a wide open field of grass reaching out to the horizon, with little to break it up in the space between. A few trees, a handful of paths (roads, if one were feeling generous, but they weren’t nearly as neatly established as most roads Jon had encountered before) crisscrossing the area. Two cows in the distance, or what Jon assumed were cows at least, though they were little more than indistinct blobs from this far away.

Daisy’s safehouse, apparently, was in the middle of bloody nowhere.

Which made sense, really, for a safehouse, Jon supposed. His mental picture of the situation just hadn’t shifted enough for him to expect it, to expect that he really had gone from London to God-knows-where seemingly overnight. But as Jon looked out at that field, the reality of the situation sank in a bit more.

Whatever the truth of all this was, it wasn’t something he could get through with just a good night’s sleep.

Jon stared out the window for a long minute before shaking his head and stumbling into the bathroom. His desire to cleanse himself however possible had faded away by now, but still, he knew neglecting basic hygiene would only lead to further problems.

Which was all well and good until he reached the sink and saw that there were two toothbrushes there, one purple and one green, and he had no idea which was his.

Presumably Jon could call out to Martin--he hadn’t seen him since waking up for a second time, but he was likely still in the safehouse, perhaps still sleeping on the couch that Jon had yet to encounter--and ask for clarification, but... well, of all the questions Jon wanted to ask Martin that morning, “which toothbrush is the one I’ve been using lately” was pretty far down on the list and seemed more likely to kill further conversation than to encourage it.

So that would have to wait.

A quick use of the toilet, a thorough washing of his hands with hand soap that apparently contained the scent of “acorn spice,” and Jon found himself in front of the bathroom mirror, staring at his reflection within it.

His hair was significantly longer than he remembered, which hadn’t entirely escaped his notice up until that point, as a few strands had fallen into his field of vision periodically--running one hand through it, it seemed like there were a handful of patches that were slightly shorter than the rest, but even those weren’t as short as he’d been keeping his hair cut recently from what he remembered. Much of his hair was covered in gray streaks, too, which wasn’t entirely new, but his premature graying had clearly only gotten worse as the years went by. (Also, his hair didn’t feel especially greasy or oily, which was probably a good sign, certainly better than the alternative.)

What had escaped Jon’s notice up until that point were all the scars he’d managed to accumulate that weren’t on his hands.

The small scars he’d noticed the night before were apparently not just on his hands and arms, but dotted his entire body. His throat had a raised pink line on it that looked disturbingly like someone had tried to slit it and nearly succeeded. The shirt he was wearing, which was over-sized and plaid, didn’t quite cover another scar on his shoulder, another line that was more jagged than the one on his throat.

Good lord, what had the last two and a half years of his life been like?

Well. Only one way to find out, Jon supposed, and that wasn’t by standing there and wondering about it. Though he did spare a moment to study each scar carefully, his mind filling with half-baked speculations about what might have caused each one, before walking away, leaving the bathroom and the bedroom both behind.

Martin was not, in fact, still sleeping on the couch, as Jon quickly discovered upon entering the next room, a kitchen and dining room combination in which Martin was busy cooking away. The smells of a few different foods hit him at once, far overpowering the faint scent of acorn spice soap lingering on Jon’s hands and melding together into something that just smelled like... breakfast. A real, proper breakfast, specifically, the likes of which Jon hadn’t had in years, not a cereal bar or an over-sized cup of tea that he grabbed on his way to work.

Jon took a few steps further into the room, and Martin looked up at Jon, and Jon looked back at Martin, and... God, Martin’s face just lit up when he saw Jon, in a way that made him wonder what he possibly could have done to deserve such clear affection. Surely the way he’d treated Martin before couldn’t have endeared him to Martin much...

“Have you figured out how you’re going to start explaining all this yet?”

Jon tried to keep his tone light, despite everything, but Martin’s face still fell at the sound of his words. The care in his expression wasn’t gone, exactly, but it was mixed with something else now--concern, guilt, anxiety, sorrow? Jon had never been the best at reading faces, and now he felt that skill lacking more than ever.

“Not exactly, but I’ve at least figured out a bunch of reasons behind it being so hard to do in the first place.” Martin’s tone sounded fairly light as well, but Jon suspected any levity to be found there was as forced as it had been in his own voice.

“Please do elaborate.”

“I mean, the main one’s that you won’t believe any of it.” Martin paused his speech momentarily to flip something over with a spatula, and as he continued his gaze remained focused on what he was preparing rather than turning back towards Jon. “It was hard enough to believe when it all happened, really, and that was it coming in bits and pieces, not just explaining years of weirdness in one fell swoop. Plus you always were such a skeptic...”

“About that. If you’re saying all this relates back to the supernatural...”

“Yes?” Martin glanced back at Jon for a moment before turning back to his food preparation.

Jon stumbled over to the table, which was already set for two with still-steaming mugs of tea, and took a seat in the nearest chair. (Was he imagining that pain in his leg, or was there another scar there, just waiting to be found?)

“I’m willing to hear you out. I, I do believe in the supernatural, actually. Much as I try to pretend otherwise.”

“Ah, alright, good.” Martin paused for a brief moment. “That makes sense, actually, you did tell me something like that before.”

Jon’s pulse quickened as half-repressed memories of supernatural childhood trauma came flooding back. He didn’t remember telling anyone about that particular story. Had Martin somehow ended up becoming the exception to that rule, or was he alluding to something less specific?

“What exactly did I tell you before?”

“Just, uh, that you feel like you’re being watched when you read the statements, and somehow it felt safer to deny them all. Though it wasn’t safer, in the end, it really wasn’t...” Martin let out a strangely somber laugh and a shake of the head before adding, “The being watched bit makes more sense now too, come to think of it.”

Sounded like whatever he’d confessed when he couldn’t remember it wasn’t that one particular story, so Jon turned his mind elsewhere. It was true, he did feel watched in the Archives, especially when reading statements, but he didn’t have a clue why that might be... but it sounded like Martin did.

“How so?”

“Well that, uh, gets into some of the big picture stuff, which, I’d been hoping we could talk face to face for that bit, but these pancakes just will not cooperate-” Martin flipped something again, presumably one of the erstwhile pancakes in question, putting more force into the motion than it truly required and making a little grunt of annoyance as he did so. It was weirdly... cute, though Jon hadn’t thought to apply that particular word to Martin before. “Basically the supernatural’s divided into different fear entity... things... and the Institute’s connected to one that involves being watched, or, or just feeling like you’re being watched. So, there’s that.”

There was a lot to process there, and Jon was still silently processing it all, trying to make sure he grasped all the unspoken implications, trying to decide what part of it he wanted clarification on first, when Martin spoke up again.

“Alright, that should do it. Breakfast is ready.”

Jon stood up, noting as he did that yes that definitely was some pain in his leg that hadn’t been there before, but before he could get much farther, Martin brought two plates filled with food to the table and set them down before taking a seat himself.

Pancakes, eggs, bacon... definitely a quality breakfast there, and it all looked well-prepared to boot, except-

“I don’t actually eat-”

“Pork, I know. It’s the veggie stuff. Your favorite brand of the ones they’ve got at the local market, too.”

Jon let out a soft sigh at Martin’s words, which were borne out by a closer inspection of the bacon in question. He took a tentative bite--it was good, and he hadn’t realized how hungry he was until the food was there--before speaking up again.

“So you’re saying the Institute itself is supernatural?”

“Cutting right to the chase, huh?” Martin laughed a little, though Jon didn’t see what was so funny about it. “As I understand it, it got founded because Jonah Magnus himself--which, er, remind me to come back to him--wanted to gather knowledge for the fear he’s connected to, the Eye. So the Institute’s not just studying the supernatural, it is supernatural. And, er, so are you, now.”

Jon thought he understood that last sentence. Jon didn’t like what he thought he understood there. (The phrase Mister Spider wants more ran through his mind unbidden.) Jon frantically hoped that he had somehow misunderstood.

“I’m supernatural.”

“Yeah.” Martin laughed again. Jon still didn’t see the humor in it. “But you still have to eat normal people food, so I’d advise doing so before the food goes cold rather than after.”

Jon looked down at his plate, which was still entirely full save for that one small bite of vegetarian bacon. Much as he hated to admit it, Martin had a point about that one.

“Fine, but you’d better keep explaining things while I’m eating.”

“I’ll take that deal.”

Jon nodded and started cutting up his pancakes as Martin began to talk.

“You’re, uh, so, since you’re the Archivist- the, the head Archivist of the Institute, you’re tied to that same fear thing I mentioned before, the Eye. And because of that you’ve got... powers?”

Jon’s mouth was full of pancake now, but he did his best to show his incredulity regardless, through expression rather than words.

Evidently the attempt worked, because Martin held his hands up like he’d been caught in a lie. “Not- not superpowers! Well, kind of superpowers, but not really the same... er... You can, can make people answer your questions, tell you the truth. Even when you don’t mean to sometimes, I think? And make people give statements, sometimes, though that’s, that’s not really a good thing, especially with the whole nightmares thing that one woman mentioned...”

Nightmares. Like the one he’d had that night, with Naomi Herne?

Jon’s mouth was still full of pancake, so he couldn’t actually ask that question, but he tilted his head to one side and did his best to look confused to get his point across.

(Had Martin intended him to have his mouth full at every moment, prevent him from asking questions as they came to mind? Maybe, maybe not. If so, if he was telling the truth about this whole “powers” thing, Jon couldn’t entirely blame him--can’t force someone to answer a question that’s never outright stated, after all. Still, it was certainly inconvenient.)

“The nightmares thing? Oh, this, this one woman came in and said you’d made her tell you her story--like, not even in the Institute, she was just in a cafe somewhere and you came by and made her give a statement whether she wanted to or not. And then after that she kept having dreams about the thing she’d given the statement on, and you were in them, watching her. Hardly think that’s a coincidence there.”

Oh. That was... that made a disturbing amount of sense, actually. He was in their nightmares, they were in his.

Jon swallowed his food and spoke up. “I’m not the only Institute employee here. What about you? Do you have any ‘powers’?”

Jon hadn’t expected the question to be a big deal, really; it was a simple yes or no question, and given how Martin had mentioned that it was specifically the head archivist position that connected Jon to the supernatural, he figured it was probably a no, but better to clarify than assume incorrectly.

Instead of a quick yes or no answer, however, Martin’s only reply was averting his gaze and turning distressingly pale.

Jon pointed his fork in Martin’s general direction as he said, “Going out on a limb here and taking it that’s a yes, then.”

“You’re... you’re not wrong.” Martin’s laugh was almost as much a sigh this time. “But it’s not because of the Institute, not, not directly. It’s not even the same fear thing connected, it’s another one, called the Lonely. I’d... rather not get into the details just yet, if you don’t mind, but you asked about my hair before?” Martin ran one hand along the white streak in his hair. “That’s what did that.”

Jon did mind a bit, not having all the information, not knowing what kind of powers the one other person he’d seen since all this started had at his disposal, not knowing what he’d gone through to get them or why he was so hesitant to explain them. (A small voice in the back of his head said that maybe that curiosity there wasn’t all natural, maybe that burning desire to know every last thing about his current situation was as much “the Eye” as it was just him.) But Jon supposed that Martin deserved some modicum of privacy, at least.

And Martin did say “just yet,” which implied that the story would come out, just not right this minute. It didn’t make Jon any less impatient or curious, but it was good to know it was coming just the same.

“How many of these fear things are there?” And, because Jon couldn’t help himself, “And does one of them have to do with spiders?”

“Fourteen or fifteen, depends who’s counting, and yeah, that’d be the Web, they’ve got spiders and spiderwebs, and also controlling people, manipulation, stuff like that. Haven’t had a ton of statements from them, but there were... enough.”

And then Jon saw in Martin’s eyes a look that was likely similar to that in Jon’s own, wide-eyed and curious and trying to decide exactly what to ask and how. Jon’s suspicion that he hadn’t, in fact, told Martin the Mister Spider story seemed confirmed now, because if he was reading that expression right, Martin didn’t know why Jon would ask about spiders specifically.

If the situation were flipped, if it were Martin alluding to something out there like that without elaborating, Jon would have asked about it in a heartbeat. Jon would have wanted to know, had already shown that by all the questions he’d asked thus far that morning.

But Martin wasn’t Jon, and Martin just shook his head and said, “Suppose that means I’ll keep dealing with any spider that dares show its face in here, then?”

When Martin laughed this time, Jon was a little tempted to join in. (He didn’t, but he considered it, at least. That had to be something.)

“Please.”

“Got it. Not a problem; I always liked spiders anyhow, I can handle them just fine.”

Jon wrinkled his nose a bit at that, remembering how Martin had always tried to stop Jon from squishing any spiders that ended up in the Archives. Jon had assumed it was just because Martin had a big enough heart that he’d do the same for any living thing, be it spiders or mosquitoes or worms, but to hear that Martin actually liked spiders specifically... well. Hopefully it wouldn’t come up again, and they could just quietly agree to disagree on the subject.

“Oh, come off it, they’re not that bad.”

Jon took a deep breath to argue, then decided against it. “Well. Interesting as all this is. None of this explains why we’re here. Where even is here, anyway?”

“Scotland!”

Jon pressed one hand to his temple. He had figured they weren’t terribly close to London, but that was still... a bit further than he’d anticipated.

“The Highlands, specifically. There’s a little village in walking distance but I’ve got a mental block about its name, usually you’re the one who reminds me about that. I just know it sounds quaint, almost like something out of a storybook?”

“...so how, exactly, did we end up in the middle of nowhere in the Scottish Highlands, then?”

“That... well, there’s a lot of parts to that, dunno how good all my explaining will be...”

“Please don’t tell me how difficult it is for you to explain everything I’ve forgotten and think that that gets you out of actually explaining it all.” Jon snapped at Martin before he’d even thought the words through, and it came out rough and harsh and he could see surprise and hurt in Martin’s face, but Jon didn’t regret it, not exactly. If Martin thought he was having a hard time of it right about now... well, he certainly wasn’t the only one, at the very least.

“Right, of course, you’re right, s-sorry, just...” Martin took a deep breath, paused, then pointed his fork at Jon. “I’ll talk. You eat.”

Jon considered this for a moment before nodding and taking an overly-large bite of pancake to show his approval.

Martin nodded back, a hint of a smile appearing on his face before he began to speak.

#tma #tma fic #tma fanfic #the magnus archives #the magnus archives fic #the magnus archives fanfic #personal #my writing

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joshslater · 5 years ago

Text

The Cupbearer

This is a relay, doing a continuation of tamed-jock’s continuation of jd07201990′s story. Similar stories and bonus material on my Patreon.

Infection+2:25

Let's write a captains log, like Tyler and I used to do, only this time I have actual observations and events to record. It is now approximately 2 hours and 25 minutes since he placed the cup on me. I immediately went home, and have done some preliminary studies of the object.

My most immediate concern is the attachment mechanism. I can really only think of three, suction, adhesion or some sort of mechanical attachment to my... thing. Observations are a bit limited as the object responds to stimulii. In the first instance when I grabbed it in the rest room there wasn't much of a response. The feeling was similar to that of a vacuum pull in the whole area, but I'm not feeling a constant force as I would expect from vacuum. Also, when the cup was applied it felt like it was filled with, or quickly filled up with a gel of some sort.

Wanting to rule out vacuum, or in best case break the vacuum and remove the object, I attempted to insert a narrow tube from my model steam engine in between the skin and the object. That did provoke a response. It felt like the contents of the cup was rapidly replaced or infused with icy-hot gel. This entry has been delayed by approximately 40 minutes, as I have been lying on my bed and desperately trying to avoid touching it. Every time I fail I get like a pulse of renewed icy-hot in the cup.

Infection+2:50

I've decided to avoid further experiments and focus on observation and external research. The cup itself appears to be mix of carbon fiber, titanium and some other fairly high tech materials. This points to high tech origin, but beside the logotype I find no other markings like brand, manufacturer, patents, serial number etc. My first attempts to Google this kind of product or stories from someone with similar experience come up short. I took a picture of the logo, cleaned it up and sent it through USPTO image search to see if anyone has a trademark on it, but came up empty as well.

It sure smells bad. I need to come up with an excuse for mum.

Infection+6:00

I told mum that I'm having my scent-month, as if every teenage boy has one. I said Tyler just had his, so if she checks with his parents they will confirm it. Why does it smell so bad though? It is clearly the cup that emits it, since the smell came on pretty strong only seconds after Tyler attached it. Is it distraction? Is it to mask something else? Is it to make the wearer body conscious or odor conscious and avoid contact with other people? Is it to acclimate the wearer to the smell? I don't see how I can answer any of these questions purely from observation though. Something to sleep on perhaps. How do you pee with this thing?

Infection+6:15

So the pee just kind of filters out in the lower part of the cup. If you want to use a toilet you have to basically sit on it reverse, do you thing, and then wait a few minutes for it all to drain out. A big drawback is that you have to step out of pants and boxers to even sit reverse on a toilet.

Infection+10:20

I think the damn thing just woke me up. Or I'm just have a restless night because of all that is happening, and more importantly what will happen. Fuck you Tyler!

Infection+12:05

It's definitely the cup that woke me. Just as I was waking up I could feel some sort of vibration down there. What other crazy shit have they packed into the device. My bedroom smells like a locker room. Thanks Tyler!

Infection+13:55

Fuck it, I'm getting up. I'll pee in the shower.

Infection+14:20

So that didn't work as well as I hoped. I could pee fine, but when I turned on the shower it was like pouring water in a gym shoe. If it smelled bad before, it absolutely reeks now. I think I'm gonna steal one of mum’s pads and tape it to the front, since it is still leaking God knows what and then wrap it in plastic and hope that contains the worst of it.

Infection+17:30

I didn't think of mobility enough. Jeans are clearly out of the question, so I went to school in chinos. It's bad enough that the cup is rigid, over sized and fully attached. Add to that some extra padding and cram it in chinos that aren't exactly lose to begin with, and you have something that looks funny stationary and awkward/hilarious when moving.

If I walk slowly I think I might come up with a gait that might be described as exaggerated jock sway, which would be step up from whatever ludicrous I'm doing now. Damn, I should have practiced yesterday.

I need to find some better pants, because these are too tight and restrictive.

Infection+21:30

My efforts to contain the smell isn’t fooling anyone, but I hope it just smells like I have a bad hygiene day. My crotch is a sauna though. The plastic wrap needs to go. Tyler kept his distance. I wonder if he is ashamed, or if he doesn't give a shit. Perhaps they have some sort of protocol he adheres to.

Day 2, 4:40 pm

Let's stop fucking around with the childish infection timer. This is serious. I found something sobering when doing some online patent search.

I was just blindly trying to find patents for any of the different things this cup does, and managed to find a description on "bio-polymer adhesion complex and application for individualized restriction control". I don't understand more than a fraction of what is written, but in the schematics there is a drawing of EXACTLY the cup I'm wearing. The list of example uses in the description includes prison inmates and persons under house arrest. This is a retrofitted fucking ankle bracelet.

It's originally designed to never come the fuck off through tampering. Fuck.

Day 2, 6:30 pm

Mum gave me some Vichy Laboratories excessive odor control deo roll on she bought at the pharmacy. Roll on to what, exactly? Well, she can only solve problems she knows about I guess. Should I tell her? Would she mind having a sports jock son? She would probably tell me to do whatever makes me happy. Would I be happy? Tyler certainly looks pretty fucking pleased.

Day 2, 8:20 pm

I've not spent that much time on wanking before. Like once or twice a month. But now that I can't my mind kind of wanders to it all the time. I've done some, let's call it research, that you can orgasm pretty well by putting something in your ass. Not doing that.

Day 2, 9:46 pm

Got some weird hot flashes in the cup while taking a shower. Smells as bad post shower as the last time. I don't know if it is the smell or I'm tired, but I went to bed early. I'm too hot and sweaty to fall asleep though.

Day 3, 2:12 am

Can I go to the police? This is clearly some sort of assault. Tyler would be the first one under the bus. Perhaps the coach. Probably not further than that. This is backed by serious money after all, so they will just protect themselves and their IP. Does it really matter though? By the time they've forced any action I've had this thing on me for a month, I've grown a donkey dick and gone completely mad. Much good some cash compensation will do then. And do I want to punish Tyler? Fuck yeah I want, but not like that. He's a victim too.

Go directly to a hospital then? If I can't figure out what this thing is or does, how would hospital staff be any better. They'll probably start cutting around it, and there is no telling how it will respond. It was designed to never come off, at least not without a fight. Probably horribly so, to set an example.

Day 3, 2:28 am

I'll try to sleep in the garden. It's cooler outside and doesn't stink.

Day 3, 4:51 am

Dozed off a bit I think.

I've been thinking about the construction of the cup. There are a some design details that has been nagging me. For something that small it appears to be almost magical in abilities and power storage. But then it hit me, it's not crammed packed with batteries, electronics, vials of chemicals and all other stuff you might need to build something like this.

It's biological. Perhaps not in the "alive" sense of an organism, but "alive" in the sense a virus is alive. It's a biochemical robot following instructions encoded in DNA, or something like it. If you consider it a manufactured parasite it all makes sense. It has access to the resources of a full human body and can leech heat energy and pee chemicals off the body indefinitely. The "bio-polymer" attach to the skin, and perhaps even have direct access to nerve impulses. There is really thin membranes in the dick, so it can probably send stuff directly into the blood stream as well.

Fuck.

Day 3, 9:36 am

I just realized I can't remember a thing that has been said so far in school today. I need to cum!

Day 3, 11:23 am

Becky spent her presentation on "Manspreading". She probably started working on the talk already last week, knowing her, but she clearly directed a lot of the points directly at me. Looked directly my way for most of the talk. No, Becky, I'm not subconsciously asserting dominance.

I CAN'T PHYSICALLY CLOSE MY LEGS, BECKY!

I found a different pair of chinos that works better, Becky. No matter what I do, there will be a pretty sizable bulge down there though, Becky.

Day 3, 14:02

God Dammit! The inside of the cup just went super cold 10 minutes into math class. I couldn't finish a single thing. Just not jumping and screaming was hard enough. It's mostly back to normal now, I think.

Day 3, 15:14

This is what I think happened. They started to test the cups on inmates. By mistake it started to leak chemicals or active DNA from the device into the inmates. They had tested the cup technology artificially before, on pigs perhaps, and hadn't seen these effects. But they didn't put it on the pig’s dick, did they.

So suddenly their inmate control device has turned into the worlds best slow release injector for men. Perhaps even the original formula made dicks grow. They just made the minimal needed changes and paid coach to start human trials on teenagers.

Then why the fuck do I need to keep this log? They must have so much more data on what is done to us to have a useful trial. I guess this might come in handy in the inevitable court case.

Day 3, 16:40

I'M SO HORNY ALL DAY.

I went to have a cold shower. If anything things just went even worse. How is this happening! FUCKING FUCK TYLER FUCK

Day 3, 20:18

Why do I have to do this? I know what the end point is going to be. A fucking dumb, arrogant jock dick. Assuming it is inevitable, and I don't see any way out, why not have it over and done with tomorrow. Just walk to the gallows and submit. Whatever that thing is doing, physically and mentally, is minimized the sooner it's off me. Back when Becky would speak with me she told me a rumor that the nerds gone jocks all had monster cocks. She didn't say anything about the regular jocks, so it probably is specific to this procedure.

And if they, the old jocks, are not joining up hand over fist to get such dicks, the procedure itself, or the side effects, must be pretty discouraging. Otherwise they would just cram the cup down their own pants.

Let's get rid of this thing first thing in the morning.

Day 3, 11:49 pm

Fuck, it vibrates.

I've been sweating balls, trying to sleep naked without any sheets. I was just sort of tugging at it, to see if I could feel anything in the dick, when it started to vibrate. It's been going for like 15 minutes now.

Day 4, 2:11 am

I smell.

The cup stinks, but I smell. While trying to ignore the humming dick I noticed that my armpits smell like moist gym bag.

I showered like 10 hours ago. That's never been a problem before, so it's definitively changing me somehow.

I fucking need this thing off me ASAP!

Day 4, 2:20 am

fucking god dammit it went ice cold again

Day 4, 7:38 am

So I went to the locker room. Once inside I realized I didn't really have a plan. What if they were not all in on it? I would appear like a lunatic, ranting about sci-fi balls cups. Turns out I didn't need to worry. First guy who saw me, Derek or Devin or something. Big guy, short buzz, looks intimidating. Anyway, he saw me and started shouting "You are not supposed to be here." I was like "I need to get something removed".

He walked up right into my face. "You are not on the list. Tyler fucked up so someone has to be punished. Fuck off!"

I hesitated to leave. He took one step forward, physically pushing me backwards and almost had me trip over. "GET OUT!" he shouted right in my face.

Day 4, 9:16

I've been locked inside the disabled toilet and crying since leaving the locker room. How long can I go with this thing on? You physically die after about a week without sleep, but it is letting me sleep in short bursts, so perhaps it could keep up indefinitely. I can't. I won't. Why shouldn't I just tell everything to mum, have her call the school, the coach, the press. Whatever is needed for someone to get this thing off me.

I should think this over carefully. But how is that possible if you are sleep deprived, horny AF and your dick is on vibrate mode? I can't stay here though. I'll walk home and tell mum first thing she gets home.

When I open the door, the first thing I see is Tyler, leaning against the opposite wall and smiling a smirk.

- Sup bro? - FUCK YOU! You ruined my life! - It was a shit one anyway. You should get another one. - That's not happening either, is it?

Suddenly I was bawling my eyes out. Exhaustion, sleep deprivation, rejection, horniness, anger. It was all coming together.

- Heyyy bro, come here.

I fucking hated him, but somehow I didn’t just bolt. I walked right into his arms and let him hug me. I realized that his change in appearance and personality had obscured his bodily changes. Just feeling his arms around me, I could tell he had gotten a lot stronger.

- You know Steve O'Conner in the chess club, right?

It was such an odd non-sequitur. I had to struggle a bit, but yeah, I'd helped him with a science project last year.

- A little bit, why? - I talked things over. Give him this and you are back on the list, second place.

He handed me another cup, packaged in a sealed, tearable plastic bag. I know I should feel sorry for Steve, but the only thing I could think of was my vibrating dick.

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recedinggumsnaturalremedy · 4 years ago

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tahliamcgavin · 4 years ago

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dancingkirby · 6 years ago

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THE THREESOME SCENE

Okay, I’m too lazy to post the other twelve chapters that I didn’t put on here (you’re welcome to go read it on ff.net if you want full context), but I worked so hard to make it funny and awkward and hot all at the same time, so my self-confidence took a big hit with that comment that person left on ff.net. I just need some assurance that it’s good, dammit!

Opal opened the door and beckoned Eska to come inside. No sooner had the door closed behind her than Bolin leapt from his perch on the bed and bounded over.

“Wanna have a threesome?” he asked eagerly. Opal nudged him in the ribs.

“Bolin! That was not how you were supposed to ask!” she scolded. She was smiling while she said it, though.

“How was I supposed to ask, then?”

“You were supposed to lead up to it! We don’t want to scare her away.”

“It is all right. I am not scared,” Eska told them. “But I am not certain I understand the meaning of that word.”

“Maybe we should sit down to talk about this?” Opal suggested. She and Bolin plopped down near the head of the bed; Eska chose to perch near a corner. She saw Bolin’s pet looking at them from his small bed in the corner of the room; he evidently decided that nothing of interest to him was going on, and went back to sleep.

Opal explained, “A threesome would be all of us having sex. Together. We’re sorry to spring it on you like this, but we thought we’d better ask now before you left.”

“And how exactly do three people do such a thing?” Eska inquired.

“There are a lot of ways. That’s one of the things we’d have to figure out.”

The idea was intriguing. She had seen mentions of such liaisons in a few books in the library at the palace, but they had never gone into any details.

“Take your time to think about it,” Opal urged.

“We’re happy to wait until you’re sure,” Bolin added. “One way or another.”

They did not have to wait long. Eska realized within seconds that this had been that mysterious thing she had wanted all along. She wanted them…both of them. Not being accustomed to friendships, she had assumed that this was all that her feelings with Opal had been. Now, she was realizing that there had been more to it. If Desna could be in a relationship with another man, and Korra had Asami, was it really that odd for Eska to be attracted to another woman?

After about two minutes of deliberation, she informed them, “I wish to proceed.” Then, to Bolin, “What will we do now?”

Bolin cleared his throat and stated, “To be honest, it was Opal’s idea, and I don’t know much more about this stuff than you do. So yeah, what do we do, Opal?”

“Well, before we actually get started, we should take some time to talk about exactly what it is we all want from this,” Opal stated, suddenly all business. “That’s what the books say, anyway.”

“Books?” Eska asked.

“My mom has a pretty big collection of them,” Opal said. “She’s let me read them since I was twelve. Although I might have been sneaking them into my room for a year or two before then.”

“She is not nearly as demure and innocent as she appears,” Eska commented to Bolin.

“Tell me about it!” he answered.

“You’re one to talk, Bolin,” Opal remarked. “So…anyway, Eska, Bolin and I were talking about it, and we decided that we both wanted to focus on you. We know that this past month’s been rough for you, and…we wanted to see if we could cheer you up.”

“As it should be,” Eska said, although she felt touched that they had noticed.

“And is there anything that you want?” Opal prompted.

It was a question which required some thought. Eska’s knowledge of various positions and techniques remained limited. She guessed that it wasn’t so much a matter of what she wanted to do as much as who she wanted to do it with.

“I would like to do something different with each of you. Whichever activity you think is best,” she said.

“You mean…completely separately? Or can the third person also be involved in some way?”

“I presume that if the third person were absent, it could no longer be called a ‘threesome.’ Is that correct?”

“I guess it is. That okay with you, Bolin?”

“Yep.”

“All right then, sounds like a plan. Now is there anything anyone really doesn’t want? I’m assuming that butt stuff is off the table?”

“You assumed correctly,” Eska replied. She must have made an odd facial expression, because both Bolin and Opal chuckled.

“Okay, then. What about oral? Giving and receiving.”

“I am not sure I would be comfortable with giving,” Eska replied slowly. “Receiving may be interesting. I only hope that my hygienic practices are sufficient.”

“I’m sure they are, but good point. We should probably all take a shower so everyone’s comfortable. Is there anything else in particular that anyone would like to add?”

“Only that I do not wish to conceive at this time,” Eska told her.

“Don’t worry, we have that covered! Literally!” Bolin said. Opal groaned.

“That’s one thing about being in a relationship with Bolin,” she told Eska. “Be prepared for the worst puns ever. And the more that people hate them, the happier he is.”

Eska was not certain that she understood why anyone would like people getting angry at their attempts at humor. In any case, Bolin was nodding in agreement with a quite smug look on his face.

She was turning to leave for her own room for her body cleansing when Opal held up a finger.

“Don’t go yet, Eska! I remembered one more thing.”

She turned to the night table, opened the drawer, and took out a rectangle of cloth. Eska noted that it was purple, which made her happy.

“It’s a blindfold,” Opal explained. “Bolin and I use it a lot. We find that it heightens the sensations.”

If she wore that, she’d be putting all her trust in them. Still, the idea was intriguing. Cutting off visual input might actually be a good thing for her, to prevent sensory overload.

“I will attempt it,” she told them.

“You’re welcome to take it off at any time if it’s not working,” Opal assured her.

“I am aware. For the moment, however, I must return to my own room to commence preparations.”

“Okay then! See you in a few!” Bolin said.

Eska did not linger in the shower, although she did make certain that her genitalia were properly soaped up and rinsed. While bending the water out of her hair, she examined herself in the mirror critically. The enlargement of her breasts from pregnancy and nursing had not lasted once Kinalik was weaned, unfortunately. She only hoped that what she had would not be displeasing.

She entertained the thought of returning to the other bedroom with no clothes on, but was worried that she might run into someone else in the hallway. Therefore, she decided to put on her bathrobe to cover her nakedness.

Opal appeared to also have just finished with her shower when Eska returned; she was also wearing a bathrobe and was sitting propped up on pillows. Eska could hear the water running in the bathroom; she guessed that it was Bolin’s turn now.

“How about you sit here with me?” Opal prompted as she patted the other side of the bed. Eska did so. Opal slung an arm around her, and Eska decided to turn over on her side to scoot close enough for their bodies to make contact. She was not accustomed to cuddling with anyone except her daughter and brother, but decided that she might as well try. There would be plenty other areas of their bodies making contact tonight, after all.

It felt nice, Eska thought, particularly since Opal was letting her determine how close they would get. The airbender’s body felt soft and curvy–possibly it was already beginning to be enhanced by the effects of pregnancy. In any case, it was very unlike Eska’s own angular form. She idly wondered what was going to interrupt them this time, and glanced up at the ceiling, curious as to whether it would cave in on them. Despite her worries, it did no such thing.

“Was there anything else you wanted to talk about?” Opal asked.

Eska considered. Finally, she answered, “I was curious as to exactly when you were decided that you were attracted to me.”

“Oh, Korra’s party, definitely.”

“I believe it was the same for me. Although I did not recognize it as such at the time. I have not had much contact with women my age, so I assumed that what I was feeling was merely friendship. I am only just now realizing that it was more.” The feeling was similar to how she felt for Bolin, yet not quite the same. With Bolin, there had been that strong feeling of physical lust. With Opal, the physical aspect was still present, but there was a strong emotional component too.

“I have been attracted to women before,” Opal admitted. “Well, at least crushes. But that was before I became an airbender, and I was too shy to ever do anything about it.”

Eska remembered what Opal had said earlier about everybody having had a crush on Kuvira, and arrived at the logical conclusion. However, she decided not to pry about it. Instead, she brushed a tentative kiss on Opal’s lips.

It was better than her first kiss with Bolin, to be certain. For one thing, there were no saliva trails, and for another, the end of the world wasn’t looming over their heads. She decided that she desired them to repeat it, so they did. Eska laid a hand on Opal’s breast, being careful not to apply too much pressure. Before they could go any further, though, the hum of water in the background ceased. It appeared that Bolin had completed his shower.

Judging from the tuneless humming that could now be heard in the bathroom, Bolin was as nervous and excited about this as Eska was. Then he walked out of the bathroom, and Eska saw that he had not put on a bathrobe...or any other clothing, for that matter. What was more, he had evidently used his shower time to do some advance preparation.

“You ready, ladies?” he asked while quirking an eyebrow. Opal burst out laughing.

“Next time, a warning before you decide to do this would be appropriate,” Eska admonished. But was she averting her gaze? No. She had nearly four and a half years devoid of Bolin’s physique for which to make up.

At any rate, if Bolin was going to take the initiative to remove his clothing, Eska thought that she should follow his lead. She reluctantly detached herself from Opal, removed her bathrobe and tossed it to the floor, not looking to see where it landed.

“You do not have to spare my feelings. I am aware that my body physically resembles that of a twelve-year-old,” she remarked.

“Not with that, it doesn’t!” Bolin answered. He reached over to a tuft of Eska’s pubic hair and gave it a gentle tug. Both he and Opal appeared to find Eska’s gasp of surprise to be gratifying.

Eska confessed, “I had forgotten about that. Should I have removed it as I did for my axillary hair?”

“Some people would think so,” Opal told her. “But they’re idiots. I still have mine, see?” She removed her own bathrobe. And so she did, although hers appeared to have been trimmed. Eska wondered if she should have done that. It hadn’t occurred to her that it might get in the way…no. She must stop perseverating over this. She did not want to spoil the mood and have to rely on her own hand again.

To her gratitude, Opal changed the subject.

“Anyway, what I was actually thinking was that you’re in great shape; I wouldn’t even have been able to tell that you’ve ever had a baby if I hadn’t known already,” she said. “I can only hope that I’ll be so lucky.”

Since Eska had not seen the naked bodies of any other women who had given birth, she was uncertain how to respond.

“I would like to utilize the blindfold now,” she said abruptly. Opal and Bolin exchanged looks and nodded at each other. The airbender took the cloth, folded it into a thin rectangle, and put it over Eska’s eyes, tying it over the back of her head.

“Is this okay?” she asked. “It’s not too tight, is it?”

“It is fine.”

They assisted her in lying on the bed on her back, with her legs dangling off the edge and feet on the floor. For a few seconds, she heard the other two shuffling around. Then she felt the slightest brush of lips against skin near her left collarbone, as gentle as the stroke of a flutter bat’s wing. That had to be Opal. Shortly thereafter, there was another kiss with somewhat less finesse placed on her right breast; that had to be Bolin. And then, suddenly, lips and tongues and hands were everywhere, kissing, licking, sucking, groping, and teasing. Eska decided that Opal had been correct about the blindfold; it really made every little sensation that much more intense. She had never known that such pleasure could be possible.

“You like this?” Opal asked. Eska attempted to reply, but could only moan in response as Bolin stuck his tongue in her belly button. Some time elapsed as Opal and Bolin continued their coordinated onslaught. Then one person backed off, and the other pressed kisses lower and lower on Eska’s body. Then she heard Opal get off the bed and kneel on the floor between her legs.

“All right,” Opal said. “This is the first time I’ve done this…with another woman, at least. I hope I’ll do okay.”

Eska gathered her breath and answered, “If it is anything like your previous actions, it should be perfectly acceptable. Oh.”

It felt much different from her fingers; almost overwhelming. Thankfully, Opal started out slowly.

“Wow,” Bolin whispered from his perch on the bed. From the sound of skin against skin, it was obvious that he found the visual to be extremely arousing. And it was not long at all before he made a little grunt indicating his climax.

In between panting breaths, Eska said, “Feeble turtleduck. We haven’t even reached the good part yet.” However, Opal had started speeding up, and as a few more minutes passed, it appeared that the “good part” was not as distant as Eska may have thought. The pulses of pleasure and tension were so strong, she fancied that she could feel them in her teeth.She attempted to warn the other woman about her impending release.

“It appears that I am close to…” she began, but was cut off as Opal flicked her tongue in exactly the right place. And she came. Hard. So hard that she let out an extended and very undignified whimper.

“You’re a squirter,” Opal observed. “Lucky you!”

The blindfold was starting to itch, and the knot was digging into the back of Eska’s head, so she took it off. She saw that Bolin was still sitting to the right of her, and that Opal had grabbed a tissue from the night table and was wiping her face off.

“So whaddaya think? Ready for Round Two?” Bolin asked. It appeared that he already was, in any case.

Once Eska’s heart rate had returned to almost normal, she said, “You are certainly not lacking for eagerness.”

“How about we give it a few minutes?” Opal suggested. “You need to wash your hands anyway, Bolin.” While Bolin obediently walked to the bathroom, Opal rummaged around in the night table drawer and retrieved a small metal box of the type that might hold candies, and then a glass bottle.

“Which substances do those contain?” Eska inquired.

“Condoms and lube,” Opal answered, pointing to the box and the bottle in turn.

“Is my own natural lubrication not plentiful enough?” Eska asked. It certainly felt like there was enough.

“It probably is. But a little extra never hurts.”

“I certainly hope that your mother has never taken it upon herself to organize the contents of that drawer,” Eska commented.

Opal laughed. “I think she knows better.”

“Here I am!” Bolin announced as he returned from his hand-washing. “My hands are, like, really super-clean. I bet in the whole history of the world, no one has had cleaner hands than I do now. See?” He held them up for inspection.

“I commend you on your hygienic achievement,” Eska stated.

Bolin did a little bow while Opal said, “So how do you all want to do things this time?”

“I would like to reciprocate the sensations you elicited from me,” Eska told her. “With my fingers, if that is all right.”

“Sounds great,” Opal replied as she stared at the bed. It appeared that she was attempting to picture various positions in her head.

“Okay, here’s what I think would work best,” she finally said. “Bolin, how about you and Eska spoon? And I can lie on my other side so I’m facing her.”

“As you wish, Sifu Opal,” Eska said. Bolin snorted.

They assumed the positions that Opal had described. Opal poured some of the contents of the bottle into her hand and applied them in the appropriate place. Then, with her other hand, she passed the bottle over Eska back to Bolin.

“This might feel a bit cold,” he warned her.

“I am from the North Pole. I believe I can endure it,” Eska replied. And she did so, without even wincing. Then she heard Bolin open the metal box and fumble with something.

“Why do they always make these so hard to open?” he complained. “It’s like they don’t want people to actually use them…ah, here we go!”

“Are you prepared for manual stimulation?” Eska asked Opal as she heard more fumbling behind her.

“Yeah.”

“My mother always scolded me harshly for biting my fingernails. Little does she know that it actually had a use,” Eska observed. While Opal opened her legs and Eska started rubbing, Bolin had gotten himself lined up. Eska inhaled sharply as he penetrated her.

“It doesn’t hurt, does it?” he asked.

“It does not,” Eska confirmed. However, it did feel slightly odd initially; she hadn’t had anything larger than her own fingers inside her since she’d given birth. Her muscles soon grew accustomed to the stretch, though.

Pleasuring another woman was not so different from doing it to herself, Eska decided. Opal’s favored external spot was in a slightly different location than Eska’s, yet it was still relatively easy to locate. The only difficult part was trying to keep her hands steady while she was being thrust into.

Would she be able to achieve another orgasm herself? She had assumed that she wouldn’t feel the need for another one after how powerful the first one had been, but now she was feeling the buildup again; more of a warmth than a tension this time. She groaned and arched her back, trying to get more direct pressure onto that one location inside her.

Opal saw this and hissed, “Rub her clit,” to Bolin, who complied. And that took Eska over the edge. It was not as big an orgasm as the first one, yet it was satisfying nonetheless. Bolin didn’t last much longer, and Opal took a couple of minutes longer but got there eventually.

Subsequently, they all lay there for a while. Everything–not to mention everybody–was soaked in sweat; Eska supposed she would have to shower again tomorrow morning. And she believed that there were many parts of her that would be slightly sore tomorrow, but she was willing to pay that price.

“So, uh…any thoughts?” Bolin finally asked.

“I need to pee really badly,” Opal admitted.

“Me too,” Eska said.

“Me three!” Bolin chimed in. Naturally, they permitted Opal to go first in deference to her condition, then Bolin and Eska did a number-guessing game to determine who’d get to go second. Eska won.

Once all of their bladders were empty, and the used condom had been dealt with, all three of them attempted to kiss each other simultaneously. It did not work out as they had hoped. Instead, all three of the two-person pairings kissed in turn. Then they resumed lying on the bed–on their backs this time, to give their body heat a chance to dissipate. Bolin glanced over into the corner, and observed, “Wow. I think Pabu slept through that whole thing.”

“Did I do an adequate job?” Eska asked Opal.

“Yeah. It was great,” Opal said, still a bit out of breath.

“It will get even better as your gestational period progresses and your bodily tissues vascularize. That was the case with me, at any rate.” Eska wrinkled her brow, and then inquired, “Does this mean that we are all in relationships with each other now?”

“It doesn’t have to,” Opal replied. “It can just be a one-time thing if you want it to be.”

“That is a matter that merits consideration.” Then something occurred to her, and she gave a short laugh.

“What’s so funny?” Bolin asked.

Eska replied, “I realized that Opal’s mother got exactly what she wanted.”

Opal narrowed her eyes. “What are you talking about?”

“Do you truly think it was a coincidence that she chose to give me a room that was right next to yours?”

“…Oh. I’ll have to talk to her about that, I guess.”

“How about we go to sleep for now and think about all this tomorrow?” Bolin volunteered. “It’s almost midnight. I’m tired.”

This was exactly what they ended up doing.

#legend of korra #fanfic #bolin #eska #opal #boleska #bopal #opaleska #bopaleska #this may be risky to read if one is at their occupation

4 notes · View notes

transienturl · 6 years ago

Note

Multiples of 8. Actually... to hell with it. Nonmultiples of 8.

Wow. You sure ask a lot of questions considering that you don’t even know who I am, person I don’t know and have never met before. Surely you don’t want a 3000 word post, right?

Oh, whoops.

21. What are your bad habits?I’m going to edit this in later.

22. Where would you like to travel?I wish I was a polyglot so I could travel to more than ~15% of the world and meaningfully interact with it.

23. Do you have trust issues?Maybe? That sounds like the kind of question I’d like to ask a mental health professional. I feel, though, like the idea of having trust issues would have to be a common thread through how one interacts with a lot of people. Since I don’t interact with a lot of people, I think trying to make a general statement about how I would if I did is mostly guesswork.

25. What part of your body are you most uncomfortable with?The area that hurts when I have a cluster headache :| Besides things that fall into the medical issue category… meh, all of it is fine. If I could have a few transformations, which I would very much like, then I’d probably keep all of the bits I currently have for at least one form each. It’d be very mix-and-match. Except facial hair maybe; I think I could probably do without that.

26. What do you do when you wake up?Lately? Complain abut my headache.

27. Do you wish your skin was lighter or darker?No.

28. Who are you most comfortable around?

I just wanted an excuse to use this picture.

29. Have any of your ex’s told you they regret breaking up?No.

30. Do you ever want to get married?Sure? I guess so? On the one hand, it sounds nice, but on the other, it sounds like a lot of work if you do the whole party thing.

31. If your hair long enough for a pony tail?Very much so.

33. Spell your name with your chin.

m aqrecus

34. Do you play sports? What sports?No. The closest I’ve come to playing sports is… probably going to a math competition.

35. Would you rather live without TV or music?For the most part, I would rather live without TV than live with TV.

36. Have you ever liked someone and never told them?How is this even a question? Is there anyone who has not done this? I call shenanigans.

37. What do you say during awkward silences?Hm. That depends a lot on the situation, but for the most part, I don’t find silences awkward.

38. Describe your dream girl/guy?Almost every dream I can find that I’ve written down is populated by (inaccurate) real people expys. One of them had the protagonists of Spy Kids. In one, I invented a family friend named Celeste (she was Chinese). Another only contains the notes “black female tech enthusiast” but I couldn’t remember what events were occurring with that characer when I woke up. If I had to guess, I’d say the generic female protagonists in my dreams tend to have shoulder-length brown hair, but that’s probably me projecting a mental picture onto a complete lack of remembered details or the details not existing in the dream.

Oh: one girl in my dream was at an alt-right rally with a gun, and she shot me by accident. She was super shaken up and afraid, and I forgave her. That sure would make an interesting… something.

39. What are your favorite stores to shop in?Ones that sell computer bits, with employees who don’t try to sell you them incompetently. Oh, wait, I’ve never experienced that.

41. Do you believe everyone deserves a second chance?Everyone? No. I don’t know what they’d be, but considering the vast range of possible scenarios, I’m positive there are a bunch where someone absolutely would not.

42. If your being extremely quiet what does it mean?Nothing. How quiet or talkative I am changes completely based on my best guess at what’s appropriate.

43. Do you smile at strangers?If they’re smiling. Or if they’re kids.

44. Trip to outer space or bottom of the ocean?Hm… that’s a tough one. I feel like the bottom of the ocean would be ultimately more interesting, but I like vast views and I’m a sucker for spacecraft.

45. What makes you get out of bed in the morning?If I don’t, I’ll get a headache.

46. What are you paranoid about?

Fire/explosions

Sharp items

Alcohol/drugs

Data loss

People getting upset with me

Data loss again

Embarrassment

Running out of battery

Failure

Complacency

People thinking I’m a fake-intellectual snob who does stuff like answer simple questions with “complacency”

No, seriously, data loss; don’t write anything in a form in a web browser, guys

Republicans

47. Have you ever been high?No.

49. Have you done anything recently that you hope nobody finds out about?Most things that I hope nobody finds out about are things I haven’t done recently that I should (e.g. hygiene).

Also, I’m almost at 5k words worth of… listen, see question 9.

50. What was the colour of the last hoodie you wore?Good question. I don’t remember.

51. Ever wished you were someone else?Well… if “someone else” includes “a better version of myself,” then absolutely, yes, every moment I’m alive. If it involves leaving myself behind completely… then honestly, no, not particularly. I have no doubts that being someone else could be more enjoyable and productive than being me, but a) that’s not who I am, and b) it’d be impossible to vet a potential choice. I can’t know enough about someone to be 100% convinced I’d want to be them, even with their full cooperation.

52. One thing you wish you could change about yourself?Just one thing? Damn, um…

How about this: I’d add a bunch of experiences to my past where I overcame failure and adversity and where opening myself up to new experiences resulted in success. Hopefully that’d work? And it’d empower me to fix the rest of the shit I want to change (and the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, and the wisdom etc etc) in a constructive fashion that I could then help others with?

53. Favourite makeup brand?n/a.

54. Favourite store?Capitalism is flawed. That’s not to say it’s categorically worse than any particular alternative, however, so um…

Uh, screw it. The Cards Against Humanity store? I’ve never bought anything from them, but it seems like a unique take on… stores.

55. Favourite blog?Do the annotations under each post of the webcomic Leftover Soup count as a blog?

57. Favourite food?I’m going to answer this in a separate post.

58. Last thing you ate?Corn chips.

59. First thing you ate this morning?Corn chips.

60. Ever won a competition? For what?I won a poetry contest in high school. It was the result of a writing exercise of using your non-dominant hand to activate different pathways in your brain. I recommend it.

61. Been suspended/expelled? For what?Nope. I went on medical leave, then dropped out. Then I dropped out a bunch more times without the medical leave part.

62. Been arrested? For what?Nope.

63. Ever been in love? Mhmm.

65. Are you hungry right now?A little.

66. Do you like your tumblr friends more than your real friends?I take issue with the premise.

Actually, I guess I take issue with the premise in multiple ways… I have no idea if anyone whom I think of as a friend thinks of me the same way in return, so the answer might well be “not applicable.”

67. Facebook or Twitter?Well… they serve different purposes. I’d rather have them both (just without algorithmic feeds or ads-that-look-like-content.)

68. Twitter or Tumblr?Again, they serve different purposes.

69. Are you watching tv right now?No.

70. Names of your bestfriends? See 66.

71. Craving something? What?Community. Specifically, a community of learners, as John Green would say.

73. Do you sleep with stuffed animals?Yep!

74. How many stuffed animals do you think you have?My childhood ones are in boxes. Probably 50+.

75. Favourite animal?To be? Human. Presumably.

To have as a pet? Maybe cat, but to be honest, I bet I’d be just as into lots of other pet types.

Overall? I couldn’t pick one.

76. What colour is your underwear?Plaid.

77. Chocolate or Vanilla?Vanilla, if I had to pick. Chocolate is less versatile.

78. Favourite ice cream flavour?Banana, strawberry, cream, vanilla. Plenty I’m probably forgetting. I remember liking Cherry Garcia.

79. What colour shirt are you wearing?Red.

81. Favourite tv show?The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. (Also, see 119.)

82. Favourite movie?I always go with Spirited Away. (Also, see 119.)

83. Mean Girls or Mean Girls 2?n/a

84. Mean Girls or 21 Jump Street?n/a

85. Favourite character from Mean Girls?n/a

86. Favourite character from Finding Nemo?Uhh… Squirt, maybe? I guess? I dunno… it wasn’t a movie full of strong characters, in my opinion.

87. First person you talked to today?My mom.

89. Name a person you hate?Hate is a strong word to apply to a person, as opposed to a person’s actions. I find it hard not to try and understand why people do bad things, and subsequently find it hard to hate people for taking actions that I understand the reasoning for. Sometimes that doesn’t quite work, however. Thus: incompetent mental health professionals. Not that I don’t have sympathy for them, but still.

90. Name a person you love?

I just wanted an excuse to use this picture twice.

91. Is there anyone you want to punch in the face right now?Go find me an abusive ICE agent and I’ll consider it. I’m sure they have their reasons for what they do, and I definitely wouldn’t do it, but like, damn, people, what the actual fuck is wrong with you?

92. In a fight with someone?Mitch McConnell. Vote, people.

93. How many sweatpants do you have?One. Or rather, one pair. Does that make it two? Pants are weird.

94. How many sweaters/hoodies do you have?Probably around 5.

95. Last movie you watched?…I don’t actually remember.

97. Favourite actor?Uhhh… hm. I can’t think of any, like, film or stage actors I even have an opinion on. Alton Brown is actually an actor, come to think of it. Not super high on him as a person, necessarily, but he’s certainly damn good at his job. Tom Hiddleston as Loki is pretty remarkable, too.

98. Do you tan a lot?I think I tan an average amount? I’m not really sure. What’s sun?

99. Have any pets?Nope!

100. How are you feeling?Tired.

101. Do you type fast?Nope. I have to look at the keyboard and I only use 6 fingers total. Yes, I am probably the tech enthusiast who is the worst typist.

102. Do you regret anything from your past?Yes.

103. Can you spell well?For the most part. Actually… I’m not sure what the average is for spelling ability, so could be yes, could be no. I think I can tell when the vast majority of words are spelled incorrectly, but I’m accustomed to spellcheck/google so my ability to correct them without help is limited.

105. Ever been to a bonfire party?I’ve been to parties where fires were made, so I guess so? There might be more to it than that, I dunno.

106. Ever broken someone’s heart?When I was younger, and pining over the idea of ever having any relationship, I thought about it a lot, wondering what it’d be like. In the sort of morbid curiosity way, y’know what I mean? Well, it sucks just as much as you figured, younger self.

107. Have you ever been on a horse?Nope, I’d like to, though.

108. What should you be doing?

Working on my fanfic (at 7k words so far!)

Finishing a bunch of disk imaging stuff to make my backups more robust

Signing up to volunteer at a nonprofit that trains the homeless and disadvantaged to prepare food, helping them get jobs and feeding homeless shelters

Going back to college

Political activism

Seeing an oral surgeon to get my wisdom teeth probably removed

Finishing a lot of interesting blog post drafts

Deleting my folder of nsfw fiction drafts

Therapy

Recording some let’s plays, and maybe working toward like a mini podcast or something

Closing some of the 195 browser tabs I have open

109. Is something irritating you right now?Yes: that those who can teach the lessons of how to live a fulfilling and productive life are not effectively connected with those who need those lessons.

And also around 700 other things.

110. Have you ever liked someone so much it hurt?Hurt… where? I’m going to go with “no,” on the principle that I don’t feel it quite that way.

111. Do you have trust issues?See question 23.

113. What was your childhood nickname?n/a

114. Have you ever been out of your province/state?Yep.

115. Do you play the Wii?No, I don’t have any consoles.

116. Are you listening to music right now?No.

117. Do you like chicken noodle soup?Sure. It’s pretty good. Cook the whole chicken.

118. Do you like Chinese food?Yes. The real stuff, preferably. (I’m ethnically Chinese, if you weren’t aware. See also: my next post, where I list my favorite foods.)

119. Favourite book?Are webcomics books? No? Damn.

I’m going to pull the same thing I always do with the favorite movie and favorite tv show questions and pick a work that I haven’t experienced since half my life ago, but remember sufficiently to consider changing that: Summerland, by Michael Chabon.

Edit from later: Actually, see question 150 for the real answer.

121. Are you mean?I don’t think so. I feel like I might be vindictive, acerbic, and sometimes downright hostile, though.

122. Is cheating ever okay?That depends how you define “okay.” Okay is a funny word. It can mean as little as “not the end of the world,” in which case sure, or as much as “perfectly fine,” in which case… I think it’s a no, by definition. If a behavior was 100% fine, I don’t think anyone would call it cheating.

This applies to multiple definitions of “cheating.”

123. Can you keep white shoes clean?If… there was a reason to, sure, I imagine so.

124. Do you believe in love at first sight?No. I believe in attraction at first sight that seamlessly transitions into love, but no.

125. Do you believe in true love?I have no idea what most people take “true love” to mean, so honestly, I’m going to go with no. Or, I guess, I look at the term as making a distinction between true and false love? That doesn’t really make the question make sense.

126. Are you currently bored?No, to the contrary, I have something I want to work on (fanfic) but I’m too tired to do it, which seems like the opposite of bored.

127. What makes you happy?

The happiness of others.

Making things. That can be fiction, words of analysis, visualizations of data (I have many spreadsheets), image edit memes, the occasional video, Twitter commentary, or, yes, ask posts.

Well-designed and/or well-engineered, elegant things.

Efficiency.

Justice. (By which I actually mean support for the wronged, not punishment for the wrongdoer. The second may or may not be warranted, but either way I don’t take particular pleasure in it.)

Forgetting about the reasons I should not be happy, for a little while. (This is not a good thing, but I cannot deny it is a true answer to the question.)

129. What your zodiac sign?Pisces.

130. Do you like subway?I like subways. I think Subway food is fine.

131. Your bestfriend of the opposite sex likes you, what do you do?Again, opposite gender isn’t exactly a thing.

132. Who’s the last person you had a deep conversation with?Anyone who read my answer to question 10.

133. Favourite lyrics right now?

Enough—Anne Hills

134. Can you count to one million?No, Jimmy, it’s “may you count to one million.”

Wait, what?

135. Dumbest lie you ever told?“Nah, I really think I’m neurotypical.” To myself, about twice a day.

137. How tall are you?5½ feet or so.

138. Curly or Straight hair?What do I have? Straight. What would I pick to have? Straight, I guess. What would I pick in someone I was attracted to (which I presume is the intention of the question)? Whatever they liked/looked good with.

139. Brunette or Blonde?Either! (Well, neither, for myself.)

140. Summer or Winter?There is no darkness without the dawn etc etc.

141. Night or Day?There is no darkness without the dawn etc etc.

142. Favourite month?Can’t say I have a preference.

143. Are you a vegetarian?I really probably should be, considering I have moral and practical objections to eating meat. At the moment, though, no.

145. Tea or Coffee?Neither/tea.

146. Was today a good day?It hasn’t really started yet.

147. Mars or Snickers?I can’t remember eating either.

148. What’s your favourite quote?

God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,Courage to change the things I can,And wisdom to know the difference.

149. Do you believe in ghosts?Yes. They can do anything they put their minds to!

150. Get the closest book next to you, open it to page 42, what’s the first line on that page?

The most beautiful things in life are unexpected, Clara.

- What the Moon Saw, by Laura Resau

…oh. Wait. I take it back: that’s my favorite book. I had forgotten about that book.

1 note · View note

clarencenicholsonata · 4 years ago

Text

7 Simple Ways To Grow Your Email Subscribers With Facebook Giveaway

Looking forward to leveraging Facebook's user base of 2.7 billion monthly active users to build your email subscriber list?

Sounds a good idea but the organic reach on Facebook is consistently declining, and you would definitely consider converting those likes into email list subscriptions.

Regardless of your current engagement, convincing your audience to join your email list is a smart move since you don't need to compete with the rest of the content. Running a Facebook giveaway will motivate and incentivize your audience to join your email subscriber list and giveaways are time-tested list building techniques.

In this article, you will learn seven ways to grow your email subscriber list using Facebook giveaways. Before we jump to the strategies, let's brush up on our basics and why you should go for it in the first place.

Why Should I Convert My Facebook Followers Into Email Subscribers

Emails are required for almost every service and platform on the internet. By making people join your subscriber list, you are ensuring long-lasting relationships that are unlikely to break anytime sooner due to changes in preferences or user trends or social media algorithms.

Emails give you better returns. Email marketing has an ROI of[ $51] for every dollar pumped in, which is much higher than any other platform.

Unlike the Facebook feed, once your subscriber opens your message, you own the entire screen. You don't need to worry about your competitors publishing ads targeted towards your fan base or some other content draining your reader's attention.

You don't need to pay a single dollar for reaching out to the same contacts once you have onboarded them in your subscriber list. Your email developers and creative team will help reach out to them without paying for visibility.

The Formula For A Successful Facebook Giveaway

Running Facebook giveaway campaigns to grow your subscriber list quickly is very much possible. Marketers have attracted thousands of subscribers in a matter of a few days using this tactic.

Here's my formula that might help you in running a successful Facebook giveaway:

Offer gifts that are relevant to your ideal buyer persona. That's the simplest way of attracting leads relevant to your business without doing much homework.

Run exciting contests on different themes like photos and hashtags over a period of at least one week.

Incentivize your campaigns in such a way that the interaction with the contest itself becomes rewarding.

Use a marketing automation tool that helps you in managing the campaigns from the dashboard like Wishpond. Remember, you need to deal with a lot of transactions and attend engaged users, which isn't possible without a proper tool.

Enough of learning basics. Let's head towards 7 ways of growing subscriber list with examples:

1. Directly Drop Email Address

No brainer offers are loved by everyone. Asking people to drop their email address directly in exchange for a giveaway works like a charm in most cases. The monochrome design theme and a simple explanation of entry criteria is one of the major highlights that makes it user-friendly.

People will find it more convenient to simply enter their email addresses without spending much time as in the case of completing tasks. Plus, this wheel spinning game is fun too.

Ideal For:

Industries having a buyer persona that runs short on time.

Businesses wanting massive entrant volumes for their email list and have mechanisms to maintain a hygienic list despite the inflow of all types of people.

Businesses having a huge array of products that they can market to large populations and carry out upselling and cross-selling easily.

Major Highlights:

Monochromatic design

Listing down the benefits visually

One line condition for entry

2. Year-Round Supply Giveaways

Getting year-round supply for any product with daily use is enough motivation to participate in a giveaway contest. The idea of getting long-term benefit in exchange for submitting an email address sounds too good to be ignored. But that's not the only thing you would like in this contest.

They are giving options for choosing the supplies based on whether they want it for themselves, family, or for their store and gifting others. That's a very smart way of increasing the reader's interest so that they would like to participate even if they don't need the supplies in the first place.

Even in the second example, they have emphasized on '145 locations', '5 lucky winners', and '$4000 each' in order to make people feel that gave a higher chance of winning.

Ideal For:

Sellers dealing in consumables and perishable goods.

Fashion and lifestyle brands.

Subscription-based OTT platforms.

Major Highlights:

The total evaluation of the giveaway is clearly mentioned.

Various product options displayed in the advertisement along with the option to get the prize for different purposes other than personal consumption.

The details are mentioned in such a way that the reader finds the chances of winning broader, and they will be genuinely able to access the benefits.

Need help with your next contest?

Book a free call to learn how our team of contest experts can help you create high converting social media contest today.

3. Use Social Proof With Your Giveaway

Social proof is my top pick when it comes to running mass campaigns. Like money attracts more money, people attract more people.

Here too, they have not asked the readers to pour in much effort and simply submit their email addresses. But people have some suspicion against freebies offered online especially when they don't need to do much work.

To make readers feel safe from spamming and display genuineness, social proof in the form of the number of people that have entered the contest will reassure the participants of the genuineness. The example below echoes users' actions with social proof, gaining instant trust as the campaign reaches more people.

Ideal For:

Too good to believe offers.

Industries where customers were scammed previously.

Campaigns facing a trust deficit.

Major Highlights:

A fine description of what to expect as well as terms and conditions.

Use of timer in the second email example.

4. Pair Email Address Input With Social Media Engagement

Under this strategy, I am going to discuss exactly the opposite of the last one. Why not drive engagement on multiple channels so that you have more opportunities to stay in touch?

This strategy is widely used as you shouldn't view Facebook giveaways as a one-off event when you can shape an entire multi-platform strategy around it. Asking people to engage on multiple platforms through entry points is a great way to increase your chances of staying in touch as well as it adds weight to your social media handles.

Ideal For:

Brands looking forward to creating an audience on multiple platforms.

Brands that are planning to execute social selling in future.

Major Highlights:

Benefits converted into a dollar amount.

Emphasis on 25 winners for improving participation.

Use of timer and clear mention of the participation process and entry points.

5. Use Caption Contests

At times, it is necessary to gauge the interest of your readers in order to ensure that you don't end up with irrelevant contacts. Asking your readers to participate by submitting a caption is a powerful strategy as you could also use this data to understand the buyer persona. Here’s a guide on “How to Run a Facebook Caption Contest (Step-by-Step Guide) to get you started.

In the below example, you can see how Tauck used the caption contest to drive brand awareness and engage people by encouraging them to share their humorous side.

Ideal For:

Creating brand awareness.

Improving your list hygiene.

Major Highlights:

A predefined gift (camera) relevant to the for participating in the contest.

Allowing people to like the captions to turn it into a voting contest.

6. Ask For Video Content Entries

Again this strategy is based on shifting the focus on creating a user experience and gathering data about how people view your products in general. Video content takes effort, and this also ensures that the participants will try to know about your brand as well as invest their emotions into it. Approximately 89% of industries are using video contests to promote their products and services.

Fashion is a very personal experience that always seeks external approval. The below example displays how our tendency of seeking approval is used to further incentivize participation.

Ideal For:

Companies offering experience-based products.

Conducting market research and devising a strategy to create future marketing materials.

Major Highlights:

Sleek design with a focus on creating an emotional impact through copy.

Use of the number of participants that have entered the contest to motivate readers.

7. Use Messenger Bots To Promote Giveaway Campaigns For List Building

In the end, I would like to discuss the most powerful strategies that you can use: Facebook Messenger ads. All of the strategies mentioned above require you to use Facebook ads and landing pages while with messenger ads, you can build an in-app interactive experience.

Messenger ads are much more efficient as well as they have strategic benefits like fetching the email address associated with the account by default to make the process frictionless. Your customers also find it convenient as they don't need to leave Facebook, something that the platform itself values.

Ideal For:

Running low budget campaigns

Generating brand awareness and offering products to your customers as a part of the interaction.

Major Highlights

Properly mentioning the availability of the offer for a period of 30 days.

Excellent product visibility and it requires minimal efforts from the participants.

Over To You

In this article, I have discussed various Facebook giveaway strategies that you can use. Still, I would like to draw your attention towards one point: When you don't promise a reward on a sure-shot basis, don't make your audience invest more time and effort. Have a look at the below example:

As you can see, they have asked a lot of questions. I strongly recommend not doing so because it will surely slash off a significant portion of your mailing list due to people choosing not to enter too much data.

Wishpond has helped thousands of brands to create lead generating contests and giveaways. Our Client SHOC Made Over $45,000 in Sales with Wishpond.

If you play your cards well, Facebook giveaways are undoubtedly one of the fastest list building techniques which don't cost you an arm and a leg. I hope that you find this article on 7 ways to grow your email subscribers with Facebook giveaway insightful for your next list building exercise.

About the Author Kevin George is Head of Marketing at Email Uplers - Email Marketing Agency, one of the fastest growing custom email design and coding companies, and specializes in crafting professional email templates, PSD to Email conversion and custom Mailchimp Templates. He loves gadgets, bikes, jazz and eats and breathes email marketing. He enjoys sharing his insights and thoughts on email marketing best practices on his blog.

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Bacterial Vaginosis Metrogel Stupendous Cool Tips

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#Bacterial Vaginosis Metrogel Stupendous Cool Tips #100 Cure For Bacterial Vaginosis

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