#I hope my next HAW will actually be a happy one but it's doubtful

[drowningin666fandoms]

Humans are weird - Our humanity

So, I’ve had another idea for the humans are weird tag, and it is both beautiful in what it implies for us and absolutely horrifying and sickening. You see, my mind went down the path of ‘what if what makes us unique among the aliens is our humanity?’ and not with humanity as species, but as compassion and morals and ‘you-just-don't-do-that’. What if aliens managed to get in space only by being partially hive-minded, and don’t have any concept of love and friendship and compassion and caring and all that stuff, but also things like laws, imprisonment and second chances? They barely have a word for Alliance, and those few they make are very brittle and frequently crash and burn when they simultaneously turn their weapons on each other. That’s not necessarily cause by vindictiveness, but maybe an evolutionary trait in them to get rid of overpopulation endangering their much, much smaller planets, or due to a predator looking so much like themselves they had to have that mistrust to survive and nature hasn’t gotten rid of it yet even after they hunted the predator into extinction. So the largest they have are clans of perhaps fifteen, each led by some sort of mayor, but they frequently have infighting with the head changing, however, they have this... kind of list in their heads with the names of all other currently living specimen, and as soon as that reaches a certain point the urge to kill each other stops immediately, and knowledge and discovery is passed around in the same way. Guess that makes them hermaphrodites though. And what if, when they discover Earth, we are still having some war or the other, and they draw their own conclusions from it?

--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---

Aiehas looked towards the mostly blue planet in satisfaction. Their species needed new room for settlements to avoid another killing spree. Their own crew, which in the beginning had thirty people, had been reduced to ten and needed special shielding to not be dragged into the urge to kill again - they couldn’t afford to lose even one more person or the ship had a high chance to crash and burn when landing, and that was something nobody on board wanted. After all, nobody wanted to die, it was just sometimes necessary. This planet though... Well, it might register as Deathworld of the highest class ever found, but certainly, due to the inherit lack of sentient life it would have, they could just get rid of the wildlife and fauna and live there too. As such, xe was extremely surprised when xir first mate called out to xe, claiming there would be satellites and space stations orbiting the planet. Had another species already found it? But what species would voluntarily live together on such a tight space as a space station? Xir own crew had to be forced into the ship! Of course, they could always kill off the contestant and get rid of the evidence - as long as they weren’t seen at least. “Scan the surface.” “Sir, there are... settlements. And they’re gigantic!” Now xe literally whirled around, pushed xir first mate away from the computer and looked for xir self. Indeed, there were huge constructs of metal, stone, glass and wood on the surface, constructs that couldn’t be anything else than housings - for dozens of people each! What sane species would build things like that? It was a waste of resources, especially with so many of the constructs next to each other. Xe could not think of any species in the intergalactic register - established so other species would know when another planet was empty because one species managed to erase itself from existence - that would do such a thing, and just wondered whether or not a Deathworld of class thirteen really just managed to develop sentient, intelligent life, when xir optical sensors were drawn to where the scanner detected... fighting. It was a larger amount of energy signatures than xe had ever seen in one place, but it was clearly fighting, considering when one went off, some others didn’t anymore. There were other signatures too, one highlighting an entire island, and nets and nets of small ones, with a staggering amount within the constructs - other fights, perhaps? - but they weren’t all that telling, though the ones traveling the atmosphere were - they somehow had managed to develop long-distance rockets, something xir species along some others was still figuring out. Interesting. Xir eyes searched the surface of the planet, before finding a blank space within an oddly formed one. It was pretty much in the middle, they would be able to advance in every direction, but was also far enough away to not be found without provocation. “There. Land there.” It was also a reasonable amount of space away from the fighting, so the rockets would need to be aimed at them specifically to hit them, and they could advance to most of the landmasses on their stalks. Of course, they would have to figure out something for the not quite as big landmass in the west and the large island in the south east, as well as all the other islands, but they could do that after making place for themselves on the biggest landmass.”Sir.” Another of xir subordinates, looking a little terrified. Xe was over quickly - if it was terrifying, it wouldn’t be good. “I-I think I just accidentally accessed their hive-mind with my computer.” Xe stared too. That was ludicrous. The other specimen, however, just turned the monitor of xir computer a little, showing so many signals. “Well, see if you can find a way to translate!” Aiehas snapped at the crewmember, who immediately got to work, having only been saved by xir activation of the instinct block. (Yes, they mistook the internet for a hive-mind.)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The aliens had landed, unfortunately for them, in the middle of Germany. As such, they were noticed almost instantly, and a military team was send out to either greet them, or, if they prove hostile, exterminate them and hopefully reverse engineer the technology. The war in the middle east could use the boon of whatever weapons they had, and the civil applications of the technology of a spaceship were too lucrative to pass up on in case they were, in fact, hostile. Of course, the entire thing was watched by their superiors through one of the bodycams, in case of hostility they needed to know immediately, if friendly they could later publish it. They would probably do that either way, but if they were friendly they would obscure the identities of the soldiers. One of these soldiers was Laura Petersen, who was what civilians would call a sniper and thus got dispatched some distance away from her team. Her rifle held one of the cameras,meant to give them a higher and clearer vantage point. As it was, she was the first to spot the... extraterrestrials. They looked a lot like the zombies with the awfully long tongue out of the Persistent Evil series. Just with their brains covered up and walking on two legs instead of four, plus probably a not as long tongue, considering it wasn’t hanging out of their mouth. “Otto, three o’clock.” The captain of the team turned, finally spotting the fleshy things. They didn’t wear much clothing aside from some sort of leather that was probably more armor than clothing, or at the very least rank indicating uniform. The one who volunteered to risk their own live and try and speak with the aliens now spotted them too, and barely waited long enough for the rest of the soldiers to be in position before stepping towards the visitors. Laura couldn’t remember his name, some rookie who barely absolved the necessary training for this. He was the only one who was willing to die just to be the first to officially make contact with lifeforms from outer space. Now he stepped forwards, likely to do his job, keeping from smiling due to training. The aliens did not even wait for him to bring out a single world, already lashing out and practically tearing him apart. She almost screamed. That was NOT what should have happened! As it was, she had better training than that, instead immediately taking aim and hitting the first one, closing in on her captain, with a bullet through the head. At least their brain seemed to be in the same location, as his skull practically exploded and send bits everywhere. Damn. Things like that were why she was a sniper and not melee fighter. She’d probably have retched at being showered with brain like that. Some of the aliens now took some steps back, and another bellowed out, in heavily accented, terribly pronounced English. “Surrender or we will destroy you completely!” Well, that wouldn’t do. Seems their captain thought the same, as he merely shouted back a no and shot the alien in question between... well, she’d have to go with optic sensors because it weren’t exactly eyes. Considering the small number of opponents, it was over before any human other than the rookie got so much as a scratch, but most of her teammates were now showered in bits of alien, and obviously grossed out. Swiftly, she disassembled the rifle, making her way down the hill. Her teammates seemed rather bemused she barely looked ruffled while they probably wanted nothing more than a shower and regretted getting out of the bed that morning. “Good shots, Laura.” “Thanks Captain. What about...?” “Yes, we should probably sweep it to make sure there are not more of these fuckers hiding in there.” He wiped a bit of brain from his brow, expression thoroughly disgusted as he flicked his hand to get rid of it.

The inside of the ship was, if possible, worse than the outside. They had to walk slightly hunched, indicating the aliens preferred to walk on all four instead of bipedal as they did on the outside, and there were rotting corpses of them neatly stacked up in what seemed to be their equivalent to the eating hall, some of which evidently been used as food despite the reasonably full storage. One of the team members lost his breakfast as that, but did manage to get outside before actually spitting. There was some information on the race there, but also, funnily enough, a computer looking advanced but running way worse than a modern laptop opened to the internet. Well, that would explain where they knew English from.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It had been two of Earth’s years since the Humans had joined the galactic ‘community’, as they called it, though none of the other species knew what they meant with that. Nor did they know how to handle them, who domesticated predators, lived on planets without killing all native species, and helped people in need without a second thought - they had words for all of their concepts, but they had so many more, and they were so vastly different from each species they knew that nobody dared raise any appendix against any human - the demise of Aiehas and the disaster of the ‘orphanage’, where another species had decided to get a building full of younglings out of the way without informing the humans as whole, and just not told the ones in the building which ended in the species being constantly held just under the killing limit by humans for multiple years, until they eventually swore on their species’ continued existence to never harm a human ever again, were very well known and terrifying to the aliens in how humanity had no overpopulation switch they could use, and would always do something they called avenging that none of them had a concept of.

On the other hand, they developed way faster than any other race, and had managed to make contact with some other species, though none of them knew how to handle humanity either. They constantly snapped at each other, and after the attempted invasion at the beginning had been fought of by ALL of humanity UNITED, they had gone right back to fighting their own war of the time as if nothing happened.

They could also be cruel, as not only seen in the orphanage disaster, but also knew things like ‘torture’, which was deliberate non-lethal pain infliction, often to gain information, and managed to use some of their ‘medical’ equipment in such a way that once they knocked out any member of any species, they could listen in to the hive-mind of said species without being detected or anyone being able to cut them off.

They had things no other species had - they called them ‘art’ and ‘music’ - and had lost multiple people before they stopped ignoring the danger coming from all other species’ young when there was conflict.

Truly, humanity were like the old folk from the fables - incomprehensible and too complex for any other species to understand.

[aaronhart93-archive]

what happened in chicago ll eden & aaron

Discord thread featuring: Aaron and @wtf-eden

Mentions: @romanbeckett @davieslandon @alison-haynes

When: July 3-4, 2020

Description: Aaron goes with Eden to her mother’s funeral in Chicago

Trigger Warnings: death of a parent, funeral, nsfw

Eden.

Eden had arrived in Chicago on Thursday morning, and had spent the day at the hotel that Aaron had gotten for her. Her father knew she had arrived, but she hadn't reached out to see him yet. Her mothers services were on Friday and truthfully she was unprepared for them. She didn't know how she was going to face her father, yet alone the rest of her family members who hadn't seen her in years. Now, it was Friday morning, and she had sprung out of bed quickly, and knew Aaron had arrived that morning. She was going to need his support to get through the day, that was for sure. She spent an hour, changing from black dress to black dress, trying to pick the perfect one to impress her family. So her family would know she was doing just fine on her own. She took a deep breath, before walking to the room next to hers and knocking on the door lightly, waiting for Aaron to open up.

Aaron.

the businessman had gotten into town very very early and had time to take a solid nap before getting ready for the services. These sucks. He hated funerals. They always reminded him of his dad. Not to mention, they were just unpleasant in general. But Aaron was determined to stay strong today for Eden's sake. He knew she needed him, and he understood that completely. He had brought three suits; because he wasn't quite sure haw many he'd actually need. He took a quick shower, shaved, and changed into his suit just in time for Eden to knock on the door of their conjoined rooms. Marissa had set them up in a gorgeous hotel. He opened the door and looked down at the petite woman. He hadn't seen her since the reception. He could tell just by looking at her that she was nervous; and she looked fucking stunning. "You look great." he told her. "You ready?" he asked apprehensively.

Eden.

Eden was appreciative that Aaron had agreed to come to Chicago with her. She didn't want to face her father alone. Even though the two were split, it was nice to have a familiar face by her side. It was something she knew she was going to need for this weekend. She pushed a stand of her brunette hair behind her ear as she stood in Aaron's door way. "Thanks," A small blush appeared on her cheeks. Even though he had hurt her, he could still get her going with three simple words. Eden awkwardly shifted her weight on her feet, "Honestly? No. I don't think I'll ever be actually ready." She told him, gently linking her arm onto his. "How does someone prepare themselves for something like this?"

Aaron.

Aaron made a line with his lips as he watched her shuffle her feet nervously. He wished he could take some of her nerves away, but he wasn't sure how. Aaron gently squeezed her towards him when she wrapped her arm in his. He felt like she needed a strong grip to carry her through the day; literally and metaphorically. He shook his head and took a big deep breath before answering. "I don't think anyone is ever prepared for a death of a parent...not like this." he said, referring to how her mom died so suddenly. "I dunno, it's like...you grow up with your parents being there to support you and you think they're invincible. Then one day when you're older, you realize they aren't. And that feeling's a fucking bitch." he told her.

Eden.

Eden felt a bit of relief when Aaron gave her a squeeze. She knew that Aaron had lost his father, so he knew what she was feeling, though the only difference was he had seen his dad. She hadn't seen her mom in three years, she could barely remember how her mothers voice sounded and she would never get a chance to hear it again. Maybe she would make up with her father, but she doubted it. She wanted too, as this was far too painful. "I fucking hate it." She told him, as they walked out into the Chicago air. "After the services, --you'll get dinner with me, yeah?" Aaron had come out here with her to support her, but she didn't want to overstep anything, and she wasn't sure she'd want to see her family anymore then she had too.

Aaron.

“of course.” He assured her. With one hand in his pocket, and the other tightly gripping her to his side, they somehow managed to get through the service. It was weird. Meeting Eden’s family that she hadn’t seen in a while. Most people assumed Aaron was Eden’s partner, to which they just shook their heads. No sense in explaining the whole story. He held her when she cried, was a buffer when she was speaking to her family members...He was charismatic and used that to take a little bit of the pressure off of Eden. He stuck by her the entire time; never leaving her side once. “I’m starving.” He said, as the funeral-goers dispersed. “I’m only doing this because we’re in Chicago and i want to cheer you up, but how about some of that deep dish pizza you drool over?” He mused, leading her away from the crowd. He smiled down at her then stopped once they were far enough away from the crowd. “You okay?” He asked with a sympathetic smile.

Eden.

The services were awful, for every reason why a service would be awful. It was closed casket, as they said there was too much damage in the accident for an open casket. Eden felt bad everytime someone asked Aaron if the two were partners, as they weren't. If it had been a week earlier, the answer would be different. It had become clear to Eden that her extended family never got the story on why she had disappeared from the families life, but she knew this wasn't the time or place to explain it. As it came to an end, Eden felt relieved. She had been dreading this day all week. Eden sadly nodded at his question, "I'm fine. Just glad that it is over with." She admitted, rubbing her hands together quietly, "I can tell everyone was expecting to not see me." She admitted. It seemed as though her father was the only one expecting her, which made sense, as he purchased her plane ticket. "But, yeah, deep dish pizza would be great." Eden said, "You're going to love it." The girl did her best to push a real genuine smile.

Aaron.

it was hard for Aaron too, but he was trying not to think about it; just trying to be there for Eden. Still, Aaron found it hard to keep a straight face. He kept thinking about the last time he stayed at a funeral and wake the entire time; everyone expressing their condolences like the were to Eden for hours straight. Exhausting. The businessman thought several times that it would be easier to tell her family that they were, rather than leaving them wondering who he was. But he wasn’t sure what Eden wanted. Aaron frowned down at her and pulled her in for a warm hug; something he was good at. “I think you did great.” He told her confidently. “You’re really brave for going in there.” He told her. Aaron had support from the family he loved at at his dad’s services. this, however, was a completely different ballgame. The time time she had spoken to many of her family members wasn’t...well, pleasant. “Yes pizza.” He said, taking a deep breath and giving her a big grin. “What’s the best spot?” He asked.July 4, 2020

Eden.

Eden felt out of place at her own mothers services. It was something no child should ever feel, she should have felt welcomed and family should have been offering her casseroles to help her her over the pain, but instead they had been shoving questions about her own disappearance down her throat. It hadn’t been a pleasant situation, for anyone. She was sure it was probably worse for Aaron, being a bystander, so that made her extra appreciative of him being here now. She wrapped her arms around him in the hug, “Thanks, I tried. Not going to lie, I wanted to punch almost every single person we spoke to.” She mentioned, as she pulled from the hug. “There’s a local pizzeria called Donnys, it used to be my favorite.”July 5, 2020

Aaron.

Eden's family did kind of seem like the asshole he had pictured them to be. Then again, his family wasn't perfect either. When his family found out that Ali was pregnant, they weren't initially happy with their 21 year old having a child but they didn't react in a way that would cause him to run away from them. "Yeah, some of them seemed like real assholes." he agreed. "It's over with though." he reminded her. "Lead the way." he began. "You should document this, but me offering to get deep dish pizza is never going to happen again." he mused.

Eden.

Eden wished if for just a moment the people in her home life could show a bit of compassion for the girl. Sure, her mother and here hadn't been on speaking terms for the last few years of her mothers life, but that didn't mean she didn't love her mother. She did. It hurt that not a single person could seem to find it in them to care that she had lost her mother. "They are all assholes. Their too good for me." She said sassily. "I'm not the doctor my parents bragged I'd be, so I'm just a piece of trash now." She mentioned, grabbing onto Aaron's wrist lightly and pulling him down the street. "Oh, I'll be sure to take a picture of it when we get there."

Aaron.

Aaron shook his head. He wondered what his family would think of him if he decided to go down a different career path; the one he wasn't destined to have. He was entirely sure of what it would have been like but he knew it wouldn't have been like this. "That's the spirit." he said, forcing a smile. Aaron didn't know why, but when she grabbed onto his wrist, he slid his fingers between her's so that they were holding hands the entire way to the restaurant until they were seated. Aaron was truly shocked at how much he actually liked the pizza. "Nothing compared to New York." he would say several times throughout their dinner, but really did enjoy it. He hoped showing her that he was enjoying a little slice of her life would cheer her up.

Eden.

It had surprised Eden when he had slipped his fingers into hers. There was a good chance that he was just doing it to comfort her, but she was in no state to not enjoy it. She needed life to be simple, like it had been just a couple weeks ago when the pair was in Paris. This reminded her of that, and she would take what she could get. Of course he liked the pizza, it was delicious. Still Eden's favorite, so she enjoyed every bit of it. After dinner, she slid out from the booth, thanking Aaron once again for the day. She felt a lot better after eating pizza, though still there was a dark damper over her shoulder. "I'm glad you came out here with me."

Aaron.

Aaron had forgotten how easy things were with Eden. Their conversation flowed easily and he felt that they still had a connection. On top of that, no one seemed to be against them like people were with him and Roman. Aaron knew he made the mature choice but breaking up with Eden, but this was a little reminder to him about why he had wanted to be with her in the first place. “Me too.” Aaron said, wrapping arm around her petite shoulders. “I’m exhausted though.” He told her. “You cool if we call it a day?” He asked her as they started their walk back to the hotel. It was a gorgeous night for a walk.

Eden.

Eden leaned into Aaron slightly as the two headed for their hotel. Under other circumstances, Eden would want to show Aaron the best local places in Chicago. She was sure the businessman had been to Chicago before and seen tourist things, but sometimes there was only some things locals could show you. But tonight, she just wanted to go back to the hotel. The day had felt long. “I’m ready to call it a day.” She agreed, leaning into him as they walked. “Maybe later this weekend I’ll show you the best places of Chicago.” She said, figuring he wouldn’t want to stick in the hotel all weekend. And she knew she’d need to be out and distracted.

Aaron.

he was relieved she agreed. Aaron smiled. “I would be honored if you showed me all the best local spots tomorrow.” He mused. When he traveled, he loved living like a local. It was just the best way to travel. His flight out didn’t leave until Sunday morning and he had a local with him so there was no excuse not to enjoy his Saturday in Chicago with her. The pair sluggishly made their way up to their conjoining hotel rooms, chit chatting as they went. He walked her into her room, and said goodnight as he started to his room. He paused. “You sure you’re okay?”

Eden.

Eden: “I can show you the best places.” She told him. She knew when she first moved to New York, it had been nice to have Aaron to show her the best local places there, so she would do the same here. Eden started to unzip her dress, even though Aaron was in the room. It was nothing he hadn’t seen before, “I mean — no. But I’ll try and be okay.” She mentioned, heading towards her suitcase to find some pajamas. If they were in Paris still, the two would be sharing a room, so it was disappointing he would be leaving her for the night.

Aaron.

Aaron leaned against the door that connected their rooms as he scanned her body when she got undressed. “Okay. Goodnight.” He said, looking away to give her privacy. He went back into his own room and put on comfy clothes. He didn’t want to be lonely tonight. He was hurting. He had put on a brave face for Eden all day, but between his fights with Roman, Alison and Landon, he was hurting so deeply. He just wanted to be held. He slowly made his way to the door between their two rooms and knocked. What was he doing? “Would it make you feel better if I stayed with you?”

Eden.

“Goodnight.” She said as he headed out of her room. Eden slipped out of her uncomfortable dress, and threw on a big shirt. She pulled her long hair into a ponytail before heading into her bathroom to take off the makeup on her face. To her surprise, there was a knock on her door. Hearing Aaron, a small smile appeared on her face. She walked over, opening the door, “I would like that.” She mentioned softly.

Aaron.

the night was a lot better with Eden by his side. He was still restless and it hadn’t stopped him from going out to the balcony when she was asleep to text Roman like an idiot. But he knew deep down he was going to do that regardless. “Morning.” He said with a smile as she stirred awake and he turned over to face her.July 6, 2020

Eden.

Edens eyes flickered open when the room was filled with sun. She smiled when she heard Aaron’s morning voice. She turned over, smiling at Aaron. “Good morning.” She mumbled.

Aaron.

It was almost like there was no time lost between them at all. Like they were waking up again while they were in Paris together or at his penthouse in Kingsboro. It was weird because a lot of the feelings he had had waking up next to her all those times came flooding back. He knew he was feeling these things because he was heartbroken over Roman and trying to pushing those feelings down inside of him and replace them with happier, less painful feelings. He didn’t know he was leaning in to kiss her until their lips had connected and Aaron’s hand was on her waist.

Eden.

Things were easy when Aaron was around. And Eden had come to realize she was in love with Aaron and that was why it pained so much when he broke it off with her. But she had pushed those feelings aside as much as she can. But suddenly, his lips were on hers and she had no urge to fight it. Instead, she leaned into their kiss.

Aaron.

Aaron knew that he and Eden had once had potential to be in a serious, committed relationship. He could tell that that was where that was going with Eden before he chose Roman over her.  Now, he kind of remember why. The businessman brought her hips in to meet his when he felt her deepen their kiss. He found himself grazing his tongue along her lower lip, begging her for entrance. Okay, so was this actually happening right now? He knew it was wrong. He knew that doing this would only end up hurting her even more, but he didn't actually have the desire to stop.

Eden.

Eden hated that Aaron had broken up with her, and how abruptly he had done so. She had fallen for Aaron, something she had never let herself so in the past, so why did he capture her so easily? She wasn’t too sure. But now, as she allowed his tongue to enter her mouth, she could feel all those feelings flooding back in. Her tongue playfully made her way around his, before she pulled away. Eden licked her lips before climbing on top of him gently.

Aaron.

When she pulled away, Aaron bit his bottom lip and watched her crawl on top of him. A coy smile covering his face. The businessman rolled over onto his back as Eden crawled on top of his. His arms wondered down her side to grab at her waisted. He pushed her hips into his, causing a little moan to escape his lips. "Hmm..." he hummed as they made out. He was suddenly really fucking horny; things had escalated so quickly.

Eden.

This wasn't what this trip was supposed to turn into, but this felt right, so Eden wasn't going to stop it from happening. "Mmm," She mumbled as he moved his hips along her. After another couple minutes, she found herself peeling his shirt off his body and pressing kisses to his bare chest. It was just like Paris, if you could forget the whole breaking up part - and well, them being in Chicago.

Aaron.

Aaron knew he would probably regret this. He knew what this would do to him...and Eden. The friction between their hips caused Aaron come to life as he made out with the other woman. He was relived when she finally started peeling off his clothes. He loved the foreplay, but he needed to get fucking naked. “Fuck, Eden...” he gasped at the touch of his lips against his bare chest. He gripped her shoulders, pressing fingers into her skin.July 7, 2020

Eden.

There was nothing stopping them now, as she felt him bulging up in his pants. She groaned quietly as she pressed her lips along his chest. After another moment, the girl got off him just enough so she could help him out of his pants.

Aaron.

Aaron made an attempt to undress the woman while she was sliding his pants down. Tugging at her shirt until he got half of it off. He sat up to finish peeling off her clothes until they were both completely naked. He brought her in for another sloppy kiss before kissing and sucking her skin down her neck.July 9, 2020

Eden.

Eden loved the feeling of being naked with Aaron.  The feeling of their bare skin touching was exactly what she needed this morning. A small moan escaped her lips as he sucked down on her neck. Her lips smacked against his skin lightly, as her hand cupped him, moving her hand around his thickness. The last time they had sex, she hadn't expected it to be their last, so this time, she wanted it to be the best sex the pair had ever shared.

Aaron.

Low hums escaped the man's lips when he felt her hands around his hard. He ran his hand down her thigh and slow inserted two fingers into he dripping core, pushing them against her G spot. "You like that?" he whispered. Fuck, the wetness dripping onto his fingers felt fucking amazing. "Jesus, you're so wet." he beamed.

Eden.

Eden could feel herself get more excited than she had already been as his fingers made their way into her. A moan, louder than her last escaped her lips. "Fuck, Aaron." She mumbled, as her hand sped up around his hard.

Aaron.

"Fuck, babe." he moaned at her touch. The businessman took his fingers out of her slowly then flipped her over to that she was on her back. Because he just couldn't take this anymore. He was too eager to be inside of her. He hands fumbled over the bedside table, reaching for a condom before he realized that he was in her room. "Eden, do you have a condom?" he paused, looking down at her and raising his brow.

Eden.

As groaned as he flipped her over. She was desperate to feel him inside her again, she had been desperate for that feeling since the two had broken it off. A condom. Of course she had a condom. She hadn't been planning to have sex on this trip, as they weren't together, and they were in town for her mothers services. But she always had condoms, "Mmmm, yeah--." She pushed him off of her for a moment, jumping out of the bed and running over to her suitcase and tossing a condom over to him, before getting back into the bed.July 10, 2020

Aaron.

He watched at the piece of rubber landed next to him on the bed. He crawled back on top of her when he finished stretched the rubber over his length. He teased her again, running his hands up her thighs as he kissed her. He stuck two fingers inside of her to open her up to him again - fuck, she was wet. When he felt she was ready, he slowly slid himself inside of her moving in and out of her slowly and letting out a low moan.

Eden.

Eden craved him, she usually did when he was around. She had a lot of sex with different people in her life, but having sex with Aaron was great. A small moan escaped her lips as he ran his fingers along her, but the second he pushed into her, the moans got louder. "Fuck," She mumbled against his lips, her tongue sliding against them.

Aaron.

The businessman put his body weight on his forearms as he moved in and out of her, slowly at first but he picked up his pace when she felt her opening up to him even more. His lips moved from her's to her neck, letting hot breathes melt onto her skin. He moved his hand to her thigh and wrapped his around her thigh, pulling it up towards his shoulder so he had more access. Fuck, she felt so good.

Eden. 

The sex was good. It was always good when it was with Aaron. After the two finished, she laid beside him, wrapped up in the blanket. “Thanks again for coming to Chicago with me.” She said after a moment of catching her breath.

[twdmusicboxmystery]

FTWD 5x16: Analysis

Wow! What did everyone thing of last night’s episode? I thought it was great. Yes, it ended on a little bit of a cliffhanger, but I thought the writing was really genius.

***As always, spoilers abound for episode 5x16 below. Don’t read until you’ve watched!***

First, let’s appreciate the title: End of the Line. I know it had to do with the song Grace and Daniel sang at the end, but it caught my attention for another reason. I just have to point out that Terminus was also once referred to as “the end of the line.” I might have more to say about Terminus in a later post. For now, just wanted to point that out.

We started with seeing a pair of feet running. It reminded me of when we saw Morgan’s feet running at the beginning of FTWD S4 when he ran away from Washington D.C. and toward Texas. We saw with the feet and not the face. It’s also similar to what we saw in Inmates: Beth and Daryl’s feet while they ran away from walkers. After a moment, Dwight tripped and we saw it was him.

I'm trying to decide why they used this parallel. You could argue that Morgan ran away from a war happening (between TF and Negan) and he ended up saving a lot of people (the current Fear crew). Similarly, Dwight ran away from a war about to happen between Morgan's group and Ginny, and he ended up taking back some horses and saving them. That's probably not the extent of this parallel, but it's a start. I wonder if Morgan, in a bigger sense, or his group will end up going back to D.C. and saving them in some way there. But that's just conjecture. I’ll get into why I’m wondering about that later in the week.

At first, I wondered if this bit with Dwight was a flashback. I soon realized it wasn't. He thinks he hears Sherry's voice through the walkie, but she doesn't answer him when he says her name. It's as though he can hear her, but she can't hear him.

Later he tells June he thinks it was in his head, but her voice was leading him to something. That’s because right after he hears her voice, whether phantom or not, he sees the horses.

This is super-significant in my mind. I mean, we had the disembodied voice on the radio at the end of TWD 9x16. A disembodied female voice leading him toward something. And then there’s all those pesky parallels between Dwight/Sherry and Daryl/Beth. So it feels like a parallel/foreshadow.

And then there’s the horses. They’re a huge Beth symbol. We saw Buttons in 5B, and Morgan finding the one in 6x16 with the sign, "You're still alive" nearby. And now here, Dwight finds horses to take back to Morgan's group and help them.

Next, we see a bird’s eye view of Gulch, looking down on the walkers. We’ve seen that shot many times before, mostly in regular TWD. We saw it with the tank Rick jumped into in 1x01. We also saw it after the prison fell. I feel like this is how they signal that there's a big change coming. 

More specifically, it’s often a separation of characters. So, in 1x01, Rick was separated from his family. When we saw it in 4x09, the prison had just fallen and all of the characters scattered/separated. And, of course, by the end of this episode, our entire crew was forcibly separated by Ginny.

We then hear Morgan talking to Ginny. Remember at the end of the last episode he called her on the walkie. Something she said stood out to me. She said she was glad he called her for help. "Glad as a grandma with a gravy boat." It just struck me as a callback to Daryl in The Cell and the “gravy train” named in the Easy Street song.

When Morgan tells her his group is at the Gulch, she seems surprised. She tells him a little story. She says there were 263 souls in that place and they had a crackpot leader who made the wrong call. 

That struck me as something of a Grady parallel. Remember that in Dawn's case, she talked about Capt. Hansen and how he had “cracked.” After that, Dawn stepped in. So, if Ginny represents Dawn in this analogy, we have a supposed crackpot who made a bad call got a lot of people killed, just that Capt. Hansen did. And Ginny seems to have assumed leadership in his stead, as Dawn did at Grady.

Even at this point, I saw the parallels. As the episode progresses, we learn even more about what happened there. Ginny wasn't being entirely truthful. Upon learning more, the parallels to Grady only become stronger. Because as it turns out, she killed this man and his 263 people for fighting back. So just as Dawn killed Capt. Hansen, Ginny killed this guy.

She refuses to guarantee to Morgan that she’ll take everybody or that she’ll let them stay together. Morgan asks her to come anyway because they don't have another way to survive.

When he goes to talk to Grace, she has some interesting things to say. She says she knows her time (for dying) is coming. Because she's sick, she knows Ginny won't take her. Morgan assures her that he’ll make sure she's taken along.

She also tells him she understands what he was trying to tell her before. (Quick refresher: last episode, Morgan started to tell Grace how he felt about her, but she asked him not to.)

She says that she actually did tell her previous boyfriend how she felt before he died. The main reason she did was because she knew he was dying. She even tells him of the two of them slept together. She just didn’t want to make things any harder because she’s sick and still thinks she’ll be dying soon. Morgan insists that they will see one another again. Keep that in mind, as I think it's foreshadowing.

After that, Dwight shows up with the horses. He points out that if these horses are alive, there must be water nearby. Which means Ginny lied about them not being able to survive there. She simply wants them to come with her.

Alicia takes her weapon back from Strand and they decide to try and clear the Gulch of walkers. They do a mini Operation-Lead-the-Walkers-Away, which made me smile. 

John, June, Daniel, Morgan, and Grace get on horses to lead the horde. (I had to smile at this part as well because Morgan rode double with Grace. Especially as she’s ill, there was no reason AT ALL for her to go rather than staying behind with Al and the others. This was just to enhance the Morgan/Grace romance. Which again, made me smile.)

They plan to use the walkers to surround Ginny and not hurt her, but just try to get her to agree to what they want. Unfortunately, this plan falls through because  Ginny shows up with Luciana in tow, and Morgan’s group doesn’t want to risk Luciana getting hurt. Plus, her being there means Ginny has leverage against them, which is no doubt why she brought Luciana. So the plan fails before it even begins.

Back at the Gulch, Al finds some of the key badges Ginny’s people wear. She figures out Ginny lied about the people at the Gulch having simply died from refusing her help. She attacked and killed them because they resisted her. So, they realize that if she comes, she’ll make war on them and they're vastly out-manned and outgunned. They basically prepared to surrender to her.

Daniel had a great line in this episode. Strand is considering taking up Ginny on her offer and Daniel says, "She's not giving us a choice. That is all we need to know." Amen bro! Go Daniel!

When Ginny's people arrive at where Al's truck was left, things start to go bad. Dwight’s horse starts to freak out, obviously afraid of the walkers. He becomes surrounded and his horse refuses to move. 

Finally, he stands up on top of the horse’s saddle and jumps over the walkers’ heads. He hurts his leg when he lands, but at least he isn’t bitten. The horse isn’t so lucky. The walkers fall on it and start munching. It looks exactly like what happened to Buttons, so I think it's a callback to that in S5. (And also, by extension, to Rick’s horse in 1x01.)

Limping, Dwight gets up and runs. He eventually comes to the river of water. This struck me as a Beth parallel. I never really saw Buttons as much a Beth parallel—he seemed to be more about Daryl. Watching this, it struck me that it actually might be. Dwight hurt his leg and was limping (like Beth in 4b). He finds the water (Beth = water) and of course he’s running from a walker horde.

If Morgan finding the white horse (Beth) next to the "you're still alive," sign represents Beth living, then maybe walkers feasting on Buttons could represent what happened to her. Or at least what TF things happen to her. This is just me conjecturing, but if it ends up being true, then Daryl seeing Buttons go down kind of has a new meaning, now doesn't it?

Morgan goes after Dwight and then John, June and Grace go after them. They eventually lead the walkers across the river and the river water sweeps the walkers away. So once again we have an example of water saving them. From walkers.

Back at the Gulch, they realize they're going to have to give in to Ginny. They don't any other choice.

Before she arrives, Lucia and Wes paint at the church and John and June get married. It's a very sweet, happy and hopeful ceremony. 

June wears green, which I think is important. (GREENE, and think of the parallels between John/June and Daryl/Beth.) Dwight gives them his and Sherry's rings. He talks about how when he finds Sherry, it will be a new start. John’s ends up being too small for his finger, so Charlie gives them a necklace and he wears it around his neck.

Rabbi Jacob talks about how they live in a broken world. And this kind of thing, two people falling in love and getting married, is a way to repair it.

Grace and Daniel sing “Well it's all right." The light shines into the church in really lovely way and Jacob says that it's Nar Tamid, the eternal light. Yeah, massive foreshadowing there. More on that in a minute.

After that, Ginny arrives. Morgan demands she take everybody. After some humming and hawing, she finally agrees, deciding it will be easier to do that than to have a big battle. Unfortunately, she doesn't let them stay together. They all go to separate places.

Al confronts Ginny with the reason why. She says Ginny separates people because she believes if they get too close, their caring for one another will get in the way. In other words, she separates them so she has more power over them. She's definitely a dictator.

Daniel and Charlie have to part, which was kind of heartbreaking. Ditto Sarah and Wendell. They take Daniel’s cat away from him. John and Joan part as well, with John saying, "were going to find our way back to each other." (Beth and Daryl, anyone?)

Grace tells Morgan she finally feels hope and after all that happened, for the first time, she doesn't feel like it's the beginning of the end. In other words, she's going to live. Morgan finally tells her he has feelings for her, and she reciprocates. Of course, Ginny makes them go to different places.

She brings in a guy named Dr. Holt who apparently once did a rotation in oncology. I've got a lot to say about the radiation angle. @wdway, @frangipanilove and I have been discussing it, but it’s a whole post unto itself. For now, let me just point out the Grady parallel. Trevitt, who was brought into Grady, was an oncologist. I’ll go over what we think this means in a lot more detail later this week.

After everyone else leaves, and Morgan is the only one left, it turns out Ginny has decided to kill him. He's just too much of a threat because of the way he rallies people. He's too much of a leader to suit her. She takes out her gun to kill him. He lunges at her with his stick and manages to hit her in the face and knock her down. (I thought that was AWESOME! Go Morgan!) Unfortunately, she still shoots him in the shoulder.

She grabs another gun and tries again to shoot him, but the gun hisses and sputters, not firing correctly.

Just then, Dr. Holt contacts Ginny to say Grace is not sick. She's pregnant. So that's where the information she gave Morgan earlier in the episode—that she and her previous boyfriend slept together right before he died—is so important. It created baby. Morgan smiles when he hears this because he sees hope in it. He realizes what they were fighting for was worth it.

The creepy thing? Ginny gets super happy when she hears Grace is pregnant. She actually laughs. Then she says she hopes Morgan dies, but that’s no longer the point.

I have no idea what the hell Ginny is up to, but there was a creep factor there. Almost like she’s going to take Grace’s baby and do experiments on it or something. Hopefully it won’t be that sinister--I’m really not trying to be morbid--but that disturbed me.

And I have to say that, given all the Child and Baby symbolism around Beth, the idea of this definitely has potential. Frightening though it may be.

Ginny simply walks away from him, leaving him behind to die. We end with him speaking into the radio saying, “If anyone can hear me, we fought for the future. We made the hard call for her." (I'm assuming he means Grace.) “For all of us. Live. Just live." And we see walkers closing in on him.

So what are my takeaways from this? I suppose the biggest question is, will Morgan guy?

No, he won't. If you hadn’t already figured that, just take my word for it. Everything we’ve seen, the precedents we have, the qualifications for death we always see…none of them are present here for Morgan.

When someone truly dies in the show, some other major member from the group needs to be there to witness it. We also need to see either a body (decapitated or reanimated as a walker, or stabbed in the head to prevent that, so we know there's no coming back from it) and/or a burial/grave. We haven't seen any of those with Morgan.

While he does seem to have lost a lot of blood and is in a somewhat dire situation, he can also simply go into the nearest building and shut the door. He's in much more danger medically than he actually is from the walkers, which is significant.

If you want to talk logistics and outside-the-show stuff, keep in mind that Morgan/Lenny James has filmed scenes we haven't actually seen yet. I also feel like by setting up his bond with Grace, they set up future arcs for the two of them. Lots of Bethyl parallels there. There's also the fact that I still think he and Rick need to meet again before either of them dies. So no, I'm not worried about Morgan dying.

And how about those foreshadows I keep mentioning? Well, Morgan told Grace very firmly several times that they would see one another again after Ginny split them up. That, my friends, is a dialogue foreshadow. Those have never failed us on this show.

Then there's the eternal light. We saw it come through during John and June's wedding (John and June, who have so many parallels to Beth and Daryl) just before Ginny showed up to split them up. So, I feel like it's saying that Ginny splitting them up will lead to the eternal light. Which is them finding each other again, as John said, but also could be a Beth thing.

Another reason I don't think Morgan will die? He kind of became Beth in this episode. Think about it. Right after establishing a romantic relationship with someone (remember that Grace and Morgan had a Still/Alone parallel episode) he was shot by an evil dictator who happens to be a woman. (Okay, Beth wasn’t actually shot by Dawn, but she was shot because of her in a roundabout way.) Then he was shot, left behind by the rest of his group, and he's surrounded by that pesky horde of walkers as well. Not to mention, he's in a Humbug Gulch, which has sheriff stars and badges all over the place.

Specifically, take a look at the second time she tries to shoot him and the gun is defective. That gun was pointed at Morgan’s head. And it did go off, it just didn’t shoot correctly. But, like Beth, we have a potential head shot that...didn’t kill.

We don’t know if any of his group, like Grace, heard him speak into the radio at the end. If they didn’t, then they don’t know anything about him being shot or left behind. They’ll just assume he’s wherever Ginny told him to go. So that’s a little different than Beth, but the lack of realization on the rest of the group’s part is the same.

I guess you could say that, much like Glenn in S6, if Morgan dies, TD is screwed. But he won't. Glenn didn't.

Morgan’s isn’t truly a death fake out because, much like Rick’s, the audience sees it from Morgan's point of view and kind of knows that he is still alive. But for the rest of the group (John, June, etc.). this might turn into a death fake out for them.

It will be interesting to see what happens next because it could go several different ways. In terms of parallels with Beth, I'm kind of wondering if Morgan will run into the helicopter group, independent of the rest of the Fear crew. (Like maybe they’ll save him?) Because that's what we think happened with Beth. On the other hand, he might just be on his own for a while on the outside and save the others from Ginny. Maybe he actually runs into Beth. Who knows? It will be fun to see how this happens, moving forward.

As I said in an Ask yesterday, I have a lot of things to post in the next week before TWD starts. I wanted to wait to see how this all ended. The timeline didn't advance quite as much as I would've thought. I thought Morgan's group would run into the helicopter group by the end of the season. They didn't, and it's becoming more and more clear that Ginny’s group isn't actually part of the helicopter group. I think she's her own thing.

But I really did like this episode and the way it ended. Even though it was cliff-hangery, it set up a great arc for next season of all the characters needing to find one another. After all, this is not unlike what happened in TWD when the prison went down with all the characters going in separate directions and being separated from one another in 4b. Now, they're all going to have to find their way back to each other. And that, my friends, always makes for great story.

What did you think of the finale?

[ghostmartyr]

Pokémon FireRed Nuzlocke [Part 11]

The quest continues to beat this game using standard Nuzlocke rules and the added rule of no battling outside of Trainers. Grinding is strictly forbidden. In round I-don’t-even-know of this adventure, we head to Nugget Bridge!

Yee. haw.

-many minutes later-

Well, that’s done with. Now time to go beat up on all the Trainers hanging out near Bill’s house. Also I guess time to free Bill from the Detective Pikachu nonsense he done did to himself.

This is all going to be things we’ve done before, with me nonchalantly hoping Acorn (Pikachu) makes it up to a usable level by the end.

In the spirit of mixing it up a little, I’m going to see if Acorn can handle some of the pre-Misty trainers in her Gym. Totally not because there’s a level 17 Slowpoke up there that I want him to be able to knock flat.

First trainer beat without a fuss, Acorn grows to level 16, blah blah blah, ah. The second trainer has a Goldeen, so we’ll just come back later once we’re done with the Route 24 people. ...25?

Hell, I don’t know. I barely care at this point.

It’s 25. I do not care.

I CARE A LITTLE ACORN DON’T DIE.

Acorn does not die.

I think a piece of me does.

I’m gonna take a break from battles and catch my 24/25 stuff.

Oddish for 25 ftw!

Caught it!

Its name is Oak.

Route 24 wants us to have Weedle. As penance for missing one in Viridian Forest, I assume.

...

Acorn killed it.

Am I ever going to get both a Route 24 and a Route 25 pokemon?

[doubt]

Note how the Clefairy just disappears. Detective Pikachu’s take on this is much less dark.

Alrighty. All trainers up by Bill have been dealt with, meaning that it’s time to go forth and deal with the rest of Misty’s Gym. Acorn is level 17, Oak is level 25. Oak will take on the Goldeen the remaining trainer has. Then Acorn will have a chance against Staryu, but Oak will take on Starmie.

Acorn gets an Oran Berry, Oak gets a Persim. That Starmie’s confusion rate is the worst thing about this entire Gym.

My policy is that I have four sacrificial token pokemon in my party to spare my real team members pain. I think I’m canonically a monster.

Oki doki. The Staryu is level 18, so I think Acorn should be okay against it.

Yes! Acorn survives without a scratch.

But you are not fighting the Starmie. We do not gamble with Gym battles.

-flashbacks to Brock-

...We do not gamble with. most. Gym battles.

Oak, now level 26, against a level 21 Starmie. AKA An Abomination.

Wow.

Heeeeeeeeey, second badge get!

Time to wander down to Route 5 and catch a thing.

The thing is going to be a Meowth. Its name is Oak.

This is so much easier to do when you’re not typing down every single little thing you’re doing. I’m incredibly grateful for my past self’s logs, but I’m even more grateful that they did them so I don’t have to. Going through and not bothering with anything except the highlights is a lot more pleasant.

Not replaying Route 1 is, too.

This Butterfree Supersonicing everything in sight is less fun. The Stun Spore isn’t great either. But like everything eventually, it dies.

Step 1 of figuring out what to do about Celadon.

Step 2.

Step 3.

Wow, I’m not sure I’ve ever read this entry properly before. This is incredibly mean.

(Its name is Oak.)

And with that, we have our Vermilion City catch, and no longer have to worry about Magikarp belonging to any other route. Awesome. This is much nicer than the first time we caught a thing in this city.

Route 6 is taking too long to catch things in. We’re abandoning the attempt for now.

What we are not abandoning.

Is this insanity.

The reason I bought Repels during Left’s run, and then again during this one.

I think you can catch Diglett up to level 29 here. Oak is level 27. If I put on a Repel, things stronger than him will spawn. That should mean. I can get a ridiculously overleveled Ground pokemon for free. If true, that will help immensely.

Let’s watch as whatever happens is not that.

THERE WE GO!

The risk now is that we won’t catch it, or it will kill Oak.

Bite or Water Gun. Bite or Water Gun.

Bite for first bit.

Okay, Bite does little enough that Water Gun should be safe.

This thing knows Sand Tomb. My other fear about this arrangement is that it will have abandoned Magnitude as a move. I’m hoping I’m wrong, but even if I’m not. Level 29 Dugtrio. That’s not bad, given my options.

One more Bite, then I’ll try to catch.

It also knows Mud Slap.

-worry intensifies-

It uses Dig.

What’s the last move, Dugtrio.

FUCK YEAH.

This is probably the best thing I can currently do for this run. I would very much like for nothing bad to happen, but the fact that I can make this work is already really swell.

Her name is Bark.

Bark, you will replace Oak in the party. Now let’s see.

She’s Serious, and... yeah. No Magnitude. Because Mud Slap and Sand Tomb are so much better.

It’s okay, though. We’ll get through this by being superbly overleveled. Squee. We also now have something to eat Attack IVs up for breakfast, so this is just. There is nothing bad about this.

Route 11, what’ve you got for me?

Drowzee.

It’s caught. Its name is Oak.

Now to beat up the many, many trainers on this route. In hopes of getting Acorn to know Thunderbolt. That’s at level 26. He’s at level 20 right now.

Post-Route 11?

Level 22.

:(

Bike Voucher to drown my sorrows.

Followed by boat ride.

-many minutes later-

Acorn is level 25. Soon. Soon, the day will come. The day of reckoning. Thunderbolt is waiting. Somehow I’m always surprised by how difficult it can be to get an Electric pokemon with Thunderbolt. I think that, more than anything else, has single-handedly killed my general interest in raising Electric pokemon. It’s kind of sad. They were by far my favorite when I was a kid.

Side note unrelated to anything going on right now that might be scaring me.

Rattata with Hyper Fang is scary.

Those tiny things aren’t supposed to be dangerous.

Then.

Suddenly.

Danger.

And just in time for the Rival battle!

They’re going to have a real awkward wedding one day.

This fight is a lot simpler when my lowest level pokemon is level 26. Take notes, future self.

The Ivysaur is very, very annoying, though. Bark turns out to be my best choice for dealing with it. Not what I would call a comfort. ...Heero. I still miss you. So much.

Cut get.

Super happy fun boat trip over now.

We teach Cut to Oak, and go about our business entering the Gym and throwing all the Trainers to the ground. Acorn, Bark. I put my faith in you.

Pokemon fans, what is your least favorite Gym setup, and why is it Surge’s?

Let’s goooooooo.

Acorn will (hopefully) handle the Voltorb and Pikachu, and then leave the Raichu to Bark’s capable. whatevers.

Success on Acorn’s side.

Bark...?

Right.

Yeah, so Double Team?

Do Not Like.

Except when I use it. It’s like Sturdy, in that way.

This fight takes around ten turns for Dig to actually hit and knock the Raichu out in one blow.

Surge’s Gym: The Actual Worst.

We made it to needing Flash! Miracles do exist!

...Wait, what do I have that can learn Flash?

None of the Oaks present. :(

And this time!

This time!

I made it through the damn Diglett cave without needing to kill any for illicit exp.

Back at Cerulean, I’m gonna get my bike, but first I’m going to put Oak in the box so that Oak can come in and learn Cut and Flash.

Heading off to Rock Tunnel like a boss.

Huh, there’s an Aerial Ace TM around these here parts. I’m going to get rid of Sand Tomb on Bark (I hate Sand Tomb and everything remotely like Sand Tomb, so I can’t see myself using it) and teach her Aerial Ace. She is going to be violently fighting Fighting pokemon at some point, and the next Gym coming up is one I have nothing naturally super effective against.

Meanwhile, back in things happening, Route 9 option is a Spearow!

...tfw you don’t know how not to kill something and throwing a poke ball doesn’t work.

But we persevere and catch it!

Its name is Oak.

Route 10 shows us... Voltorb!

.zaft. ;-;

Oh whoops.

Um.

I was spamming the A-button equivalent.

Bye Voltorb, nice not knowing you. Uh. Sorry. +117 illicit exp to Bark and Acorn.

Oops.

Let’s go hide in a cave now and not examine all of that too closely.

Rock Tunnel gives us a Geodude to try not to kill! We are going to answer that call with utmost seriousness, and do whatever possible to not kill the Geodude.

Success!

Its name is Oak.

Now we undertake the long. long. long. journey through the tunnel. It’s exactly like that scene in Lord of the Rings. Just with less fire. And wizards.

This Clefairy near the end of the tunnel is trying my patience. Minimize is the worst. Letting pokemon become immobilized by love is the worst. All of this is the worst. I miss being able to set things on fire so much.

As romantic as it is that love as a status appears to be unending, fucking stop.

Cool. Nice. Great.

Playing this is sapping my struggling will to live, good grief.

Okaay.

So here’s how this plays. I think, if I were given the choice of having everything handed to me, I would go with catching one of the Snorlaxes, and catching a very high level Grimer in Celadon. That would put me at five pokemon. Six would be if I wanted to take the Hitmonlee or Hitmonchan.

I don’t know if I have the resources to make that work.

Truth be told, I still think it was possible for me to beat the Elite Four with my original team. I was overly paranoid about the wrong things, as it turned out, and made a few bad calls. But I don’t think that team was doomed to failure.

Leveling things up so they’re invincible works as a strategy, but I’m also undoubtedly handicapped with Typing. I could drag this current team through the game with no additions, and the leveling could make up for a lot. Maybe even enough to surpass my original team.

Or I could pick some more stuff up.

It’s a hard call. I do really think that throughout the entire game, I only have three realistic options for team additions, and I’m very close to having my hands on any of them. Everywhere else, the leveling is just too much of a negative. A level 25 Lapras was cool and all, but if you look at how much time went into leveling it, I’m not sure I would call having it my best option. Buying a Scyther has already been ruled out here, because it would be level 20. It would resist Fighting and make all Psychic things easier, but it would take too many resources to train.

Grimer, Snorlax, Fighting Gift.

Those are the things I can get that I feel could be a worthwhile investment.

What do I want my final team to look like? What things do I already know are going to cause problems, and how do I want to adjust for them?

Questions I get to ask after three badges. Hell. Why did I think this was a good idea?

I think what I’ll do. Ugh.

See, I think the problem is that the Fighting thing is closest to being gotten, but the Snorlax is what determines if I use it or not. If I can’t have Snorlax, the Fighting thing would be good. But I don’t find out if I’ll get the Snorlax until a bit later and argh.

For now, let’s keep things simple. We’ll go through the tower now, so Acorn and Oak are more experienced as we hit the other sections of the plot. I can’t remember if I get the Super Rod now or later, so we’ll also go down and mess with the fisher people briefly.

Tower and Rival-san first.

...Oh wait. I guess the first thing I want to do is dodge as many trainers as possible and run to Celadon for a Thunderstone for Acorn. Let’s do that.

But if we can get the Super Rod already, it would be best to do that now so we could nab a Grimer when we got there... Sigh.

No Super Rod just yet, sorry me.

Route.... uh. One we’re on while we head towards Celadon gives us a Growlithe to try and catch. ...Bark kills it. More sighing. +195 illicit exp.

Celadon reached, Tea gotten. And...

Yay!

Now to buy a ton of Lemonade.

Then we deal with the tower.

The nicest thing about Heero (that is a lie, all things about Heero were the nicest) was that we didn’t have to deal with this monstrosity.

Ivysaur is still difficult. I don’t have an actual answer to that, yet. It has perfect accuracy with its Sleep Powder so far, adding to the extreme difficulty. We get through it, though, and Oak handles the Kadabra.

Now for the rest of the tower to be taken by Acorn and Oak.

Right. We can’t yet see these, so no catching just yet.

So I lied. Acorn killed everything. Oak did not help. Sorry, Oak. Now I guess we go do the Celadon side of this. So we can then come back to the tower. So we can then figure out if we’re doing a Snorlax or a thingamajig. So we then can get a Grimer.

On and on it goes.

“I don’t sound remotely suspicious at all!”

Sigh. I hate how Levitate is a thing with certain Poison pokemon. Not naming names or anything. I’m just pointing out that my life would be much, much easier if Bark could Dig every single Poison thing in existence.

Look Ma, I made it.

Thanks in advance for giving Oak some exp, Giovanni.

Though Bark is taking the Kangaskhan. Love you Oak, but Dig is better than Water Gun. ...and it still manages to do nothing. That’s mildly scary. I have never missed Allenby so deeply.

Bark finishes it off while still in the green, though. Proving once again that leveling beats everything.

Silph Scope get, so now we can go and finish up the tower.

...I don’t think I actually have any moves that won’t kill this, so if throwing a Poke Ball doesn’t work, we’re running away.

Hm.

It used Curse. Fine, we’ll make an honest try of catching it.

...Why does every sleep-inducing move hit every single fucking time. Why. Why why why.

...

I don’t know how it’s still alive, and I feel like it shouldn’t be.

Whatever.

It’s caught.

Its name is Oak.

Hey, my past self screwed up and didn’t note if I could run away from the Marowak or not. If I can, I have to do that instead of winning extra exp.

Ah. Running away lets me leave the battle, but when I walk back forward the Marowak respawns. Fair. Guess you’ve gotta die, sad ghost.

That done with, time to rescue flute guy. He has a name, but that name is less important than that he has a flute and will determine what our final team will look like once we make use of it.

...I can’t believe I just realized that this is basically Kurt’s plot from gen 2.

We now begin the most difficult trial of the run.

The Snorlax wars.

If catching one looks like it will kill someone, I’m running from it. That goes for both of them. This is a mission of pure luck. Snorlax can kill whatever it wants. The mission is to avoid it killing my team. Accidentally killing it is cool, but if the choices are something dying or running to escape, we are running.

Pictured: Stress.

Let’s get this done with.

...This is not going to work. One Headbutt puts Bark in the orange. If it decides to make a concentrated attack instead of just sleeping, I’m in trouble. Plus, without an Allenby, all I have barely puts a dent in it.

THEN AS I AM TYPING THIS

What the actual fuck.

Welcome to the team, Trunk?

Uh.

Things I did not expect.

Oak, you’re going in the box to make room for Trunk.

Then I guess we’ll. Go get the Super Rod. Fetch Grimer. Then deal with the actual plot of the game. Huh.

Trunk is Quirky, and has Immunity, which as we learned last time, is great for Koga. So uh. What I guess I’m saying is. Nice. This puts us dangerously close to being in a pretty good place.

Lowest level thing that I’m using is level 30. That’s really, really good. So now we’re going to feed all the trainers we didn’t beat on Route 8 to Trunk, and giggle about it as we go.

Righty then, Trunk hits level 32, and we’re going to storm Erika’s Gym now.

...Why does everything put all of my stuff to sleep this round.

I also should find a more workable solution to fighting Grass pokemon at some point. I have an inkling that being overleveled isn’t going to last forever, and it’s my only real defense at the moment.

And I need to stop having Oak in up front. I’m trying to get some Sp. Atk from the Oddishes and things, but really it’s just meaning I forget and have to switch out on things like Bellsprout. EV training fails everywhere.

Seriously though, I’m using Acorn to deal with Grass things. That is not a solution. That is an abomination.

Lesgo.

Including blatant the blatant stupidity of having Acorn fight the Vileplume.

I just want my team to be its best self. Don’t judge.

VINDICATION.

Badge 4, get!

And now we fish for our Grimer. Which. tbh I don’t even know if it’ll make sense to use, but in any case, we will have it. Having things is nice.

According to Serebii, there’s a 1% chance of Grimer here. Mostly this pond just has Magikarp.

We’re going to be here a while. Especially since getting a pokemon on the hook at all is proving mighty difficult. Until a few seconds ago, I was averaging five tries per Magikarp.

-6. hours. later.-

.

.

.

Presenting.

The lowest level Grimer you can catch in this here pond.

Are you fucking kidding me.

-cries in the corner for six more hours-

(Sadly, only one of those descriptions of my actions is fake. Now that really wants to make me cry for six hours.)

Its name.

is.

Sap.

It joins the party. Tree goes in the box.

It is Brave.

Good for it.

Let’s call this a stopping point, shall we?

[sserpente]

In a heartbeat (Chapter 25)

A/N: Heyho there my lovelies! Another chapter coming your way! Enjoy! ♥

“(Y/N)!“ You flinched when you heard Ricardo’s voice the moment you stepped over the threshold of the office. Oh, okay—Might as well get this over with now.

“Ric… hi. I’m… so sorry about yesterday. Something got in between, I had no time to call you.” That something, or rather someone, had pressed you into the mattress, fucking you wildly. You swallowed thickly. It was hard to feel too bad about the situation.

“It’s alright, I thought so. Are you okay?”

No. I’m on cloud nine. I’m in love…

“I’m alright. Thank you.”

Ricardo smiled. “So… maybe we can postpone the movie? I was thinking Sunday. Since you got a day off on Monday…” He hemmed and hawed, burying his fingers in his blonde hair.

“Yes, Ric… about that. You’re a really nice guy but—“

His face fell in an instant. “Oh no…”

“No! Don’t get me wrong! I wanted to go out with you but… that something that got in between…” You trailed off, shrugging apologetically.

“Oh. So there’s someone else?”

“Yes. I’m so sorry, Ric. I didn’t mean to hurt you, I didn’t even expect that person to show up like… ever again, he just… surprised me.” That he had. So bloody much.

“It’s okay. It was worth a try.” At least he reacted friendly. You let out a deep breath. That went… well? Then… back to work. But you were gonna have to buy coffee yourself again from now on.

A few hours in, you had already finished three articles. You were about to copy some documents your boss had given you to work on for the rest of the day when suddenly, you felt a pair of hands wrapping around your waist.

Flinching, you attempted to kick your attacker, making use of your self-defence classes and what Loki had taught you, only to realise that it was the Trickster’s body himself pressing you against the copy machine.

“Loki!” You hissed. “What are you doing here? You’re not even allowed in here!”

The God of Mischief chuckled. “No one but you can see me.”

“Oh, great,” you replied sarcastically. “So people will be thinking I’m talking to myself.”

Nervously, you glanced at your watch. In about two hours, you could leave.

“Are you really here? Or is it just an illusion?”

Loki’s smirk grew even wider.

“Fine. Don’t tell me. Just be quiet and let me work. This job is very important to me.”

Much to your surprise, he nodded understandingly. “What exactly is it you are doing here?”

Sighing, you picked up your documents and made your way back to your desk, hoping that no one would hear you speak. “I write articles that get printed in a magazine. News on fashion, celebrities and lifestyle.”

“You get paid for that?”

You nodded. “Of course I do. It’s my job. I told you before, I need to pay my bills somehow.”

“You will not have to pay for anything once you live with me.” He mused simply. You stopped dead in your tracks. Once you would live with me? Had he… already decided that you would? Swallowing thickly, you glanced at him so innocently he reached up and brushed his fingers against your cheek. You instantly leaned into his tender touch before sitting down again.

“When exactly have I agreed on moving in with you?” You teased, keeping your eyes on your laptop to not raise any suspicion.

Loki smirked. “I will not have my woman work for something as simple as a roof over her head. I am a king, after all. Now don’t tell me you would be appalled by the thought of waking up next to me every morning? Naked? With me kissing you awake? Right… there?”

You gasped for air when Loki reached between your legs and pressed his middle finger against your clit. As if you weren’t used to waking up next to him already. Back on Sakaar… you forced yourself back to reality. You were in an office, for God’s sake.

“Loki… just because we had sex it doesn’t mean we can just fuck like rabbits everywhere. What if someone notices? I’d get fired.” Apparently, the Trickster was insatiable. Still, he seemed to respect the importance of your job enough to listen and reluctantly pulled away—having achieved what he had intended. You were aroused. You wanted him to take you now.

Shaking your head, you focused on what he had said before his naughty whispers. I will not have my woman work for something as simple as a roof over her head. My woman… my woman… my woman…

“(Y/N), can you send me that article you wrote just now? I need to create the first draft of page seven.” Ricardo stopped right in front of your desk, his brown eyes sparkling genuinely. He really did not mind you had stood him up. It almost confused you… and irked you. If Loki hadn’t showed up… you might actually be dating him now. You almost laughed out loud. He was a decent man—but he would never be able to give you what Loki gave you.

“Sure, Ric, give me just a moment.”

Loki frowned. “Ric? So this is the man who had the boldness to try and court you?”

You stared daggers at him mutely. If you said something now Ricardo would be thinking you were crazy. Well, maybe he already was.

By the time you could finally call it a day and leave the office, you were starving. Loki had been “bothering” you ever since, accompanying your every step with his touchable illusion. You did not mind, really—you rather liked him keeping an eye on you, even if you hoped sincerely he would not do this every day now. Some privacy and trust should be the fundaments of a proper relationship. Obviously, you didn’t need to tell him that.

You were touched by how deeply he seemed to care about you. It still felt like a dream.

Smiling to yourself, you took out your phone, pretending to talk to someone as you walked down the street towards your bus stop.

“Hey, Loki, what would you like to eat for lunch?”

“Lunch?” His instant reply sounded right beside you.

“Yes. Food. Should we order some pizza, Chinese, Indian, should I cook, should we—“

“You can cook?” He interrupted.

“Of course I can.”

“Then this will be the option I shall choose, little minx.” Your smile widened. How could this man make you so happy? Normally, you despised gender roles, yet you enjoyed to cook a lot and when you imagined Loki watching you preparing something, complimenting your cooking skills and holding your hand on the table…

“(Y/N), your bus stop.”

“Oh, right.”

You had almost walked past it.

“Alright then… what should I cook?”

“Surprise me, little minx.”

Giggling, you watched the bus approaching. You wondered whether you should stop by the supermarket on your way home, on the other hand, however, you didn’t want Loki to wait any longer. He might break something in your flat with his curiosity. Besides, you wanted to kiss him again.

You practically sprinted home, desperate to persuade yourself Loki was indeed still here. He was. And he literally swept you off your feet. His lips were on yours before you could make it to the kitchen as he pressed you against the wall, kissing you furiously.

Oh yes. He was insatiable now.

“Loki… I’m hungry…” You panted in between his affections, arousal growing in your body. You had been wet already, even more so after he had so sneakily shoved his hand between your legs.

The God of Mischief chuckled. “So am I…” He growled into your ear, sending pleasant shivers up and down your spine.

“Food, Loki.” You still said. “I’m hungry for food, really. I haven’t eaten anything since yesterday afternoon.”

Reluctantly, Loki pulled away. “You have not eaten since yesterday? Why are you neglecting nutrition? Are you working too much? What about your lunch break?”

“You mean the lunch break you used to almost make me orgasm right in front of one of my colleagues?”

Loki held back a smirk.

His concern for you warmed your heart. It had always been like that, you realised. Loki felt the inevitable urge to protect you, to care for you. He had back on Sakaar; then, so it seemed, he had tried to suppress it but he had failed. There he was, in your very own apartment and kissing the senses out of you. How could you not have realised it from the beginning? Loki was in love with you. He had just not said so yet.

“I’m not. Remember how I wanted to go out yesterday? Technically, it’s your fault because you showed up and screwed the shit out of me in my bedroom.” You raved jokingly, grinning evilly in the process. “This morning, I had no time left and now, I’m starving.”

Loki smirked. “You have quite the mouth, little minx. I would only love to put it to some good use.”

“I will gladly let you do so after we’ve eaten. Will you help me cook?”

“Help you cook? How?”

You shrugged. Even if he just watched you, you would be content already. You doubted Loki had ever had to cook in his life but you were dying to teach him one day.

[scones-and-texting-and-murder]

Divine Intervention

(Thank you to Luna for donating to our @trashbrigade  gisholership fundraiser!)

ao3

Once Sam leaves the motel room, Dean locks the door behind him and sits down on the bed to consider his options. He’s got a couple of hours at least before his brother gets back and he’s feeling restless. Maybe he should indulge in a little me-time to see if that helps.

Double checking that the door is locked, he lies back on the bed and reaches for his belt, then stops and grabs another pillow to shove behind his head. He starts to move toward his belt again but instead drops his hands to the mattress, sighing. He kinda wishes Cas were here. Not like that he quickly adds to himself. It’s just that it’s been awhile since he’s seen Cas and he wonders how he is. He’d probably feel better if he knew Cas was ok. He’d definitely be less edgy if he could be sure that Cas wasn’t in any kind of trouble. That’s all. If Cas could only poof on in here with his hair all fluffed up and his eyes all blue and his arms all muscley…

Ok, maybe a little bit like that.

He lets his mind wander into something that approximates praying to Cas but leaves him with plausible deniability. If he shows up, great. If not, it’s not like Dean is lying around here being a wussy baby. It’s no big deal either way.

Only a few seconds pass before that tell-tale whoosh has Dean smiling. It’s only another second later that Dean scrambles to his feet because that is not Cas. It’s an older man Dean has never seen before, dressed incongruently in a loud Hawaiian shirt and ripped jeans.

In a flash, Dean has a knife in his hand but with a flick of the intruder’s wrist it goes flying across the room. Next, Dean grabs for the gun in his jacket pocket but before he can get to it, another casual gesture leaves him pinned against the wall.

“I’m not here to hurt you.”

Dean gives him the best glare he can muster while being completely at his mercy.

“I’m happy to free you if you’ll just hear me out.”

Dean nods and immediately feels the use of his body return. Taking a few steps away from the wall, he clenches and unclenches his fists. “What are you? What do you want?”

The stranger eyes him curiously. “First off, why did you start with the knife?”

“Are you seriously questioning my weapon choices?”

The man ticks things off on his fingers. “Knife first, then gun. What were you thinking?”

“I was thinking of killing you,” Dean answers, and yeah, he’s feeling a little defensive at this point. “Still am,” he mutters a bit more quietly.

“Why not go first for the angel blade under the bed?”

Dean narrows his eyes at him. “How did you know about—“

“You were praying. To an angel. And then I appeared. It doesn’t take a genius.”

Now that Dean has gathered himself a little, he recognizes some of the angelic signs: that ramrod posture despite the casual clothing, and the intense, almost quizzical stare. “Ok, fine. A winged dick. Got it. What do you want?”

The angel sighs, sort of like Sam does right before one of his lectures. “Where do I start? The recklessness? The medicating with alcohol? The insistence on pork rinds as one of the major food groups?” This last one is accompanied by an actual shudder.

“Great, my own personal self-help angel.” Dean crosses his arms in front of his chest. “Look, buddy, why don’t you mind your own business, I wasn’t even praying to you.”

“I know.”

“You know? Then what are you doing here? Isn’t that like...opening somebody else’s mail?” Or something. Either way Dean is pretty sure it’s against angel etiquette.

The angel doesn’t seem put off by Dean’s excellent reasoning. “Who were you praying to?”

Dean hems and haws. “Don’t you know?”

The angel raises his eyebrows. “Say it.”

Dean feels himself blush. “Castiel.”

Cas poofs in. “Hello, Dean.”

“Hello, Dean.” The first angel on the scene mocks, shaking his head. “Always the same thing with you two.”

Cas’s eyes widen and he takes a step back, almost deferentially. “Penemue. What are you doing here?”

Penemue gestures grandly to Dean which causes Cas to look a little pained. “He may be my biggest challenge yet.”

“That’s not fair, Penemue. He’s doing his best.”

“If I didn’t know you were an angel, I could say the same for you.”

Dean looks between them. “Ok, enough of the secret angel club chit chat. What are you talking about? What’s he even doing here?”

Penemue gives Cas a patient look. “Do you want to tell him? Or should I?”

Cas pinches the bridge of his nose. “Dean, Penemue is an angel. A fallen angel whose specialty is—uh—curingstupidityinman.”

Dean frowns in confusion. “What’s that?”

“Really, Castiel?”

Cas sighs. “Curing stupidity in man.”

Dean uncrosses his arms solely for the opportunity to cross them again with added indignation. “What exactly are you trying to say?”

“He’s not saying any—“

Penemue speaks to Dean slowly. “I’m saying you’re stupid.”

Bristling, Cas steps toward the other angel. “You should probably go now.”

“Nah, I’ve got nothing but time. And this one needs some work.”

“You know he was considered the Righteous Man.” Dean hides a smile as Cas puffs up a little.

Nodding, Penemue agrees. “I am aware. He can be righteous and stupid at the same time.”

Dean moves closer to Cas so that they can form a united front against this jerk. “You know, I’ve met a lot of dick angels, but I think you take the cake.” He makes a mental note to work on creating a sigil that banishes only unwanted angels.

Penemue gives him a disapproving look. “I have a job to do and I’ve put it off long enough. I can overlook many of your ignorant choices, Dean. Drink yourself to death? Fine. Watch your cholesterol shoot through the roof? Have at it. But when your stupidity affects others, it’s time I got involved.”

Dean feels a frisson of alarm as Cas steps forward but is quickly stopped in his tracks by Penemue holding up a hand. Dean can’t tell if it’s some sort of grace mojo preventing his advance or simply resignation to whatever this more powerful angel has on him. At least Dean is given a moment to collect his thoughts while Penemue turns his attention to Cas. “You realize that you are equally to blame for this. Much of this could have been avoided had you taken matters into your own hands years ago.”

Dean doesn’t like the sound of that and no doubt he’s getting called an ape next, but his irritation eases when Cas says coolly, “It’s not like that.”

Dean tries not to flinch as Penemue stares at him. It’s got the same angel-intensity he’s used to from Cas but with none of the warmth. Just cold calculation. “You’ve had time, Castiel. Lots of it. And honestly I’m not sure what you’ve been doing down here other than not watching What Not To Wear.”

Cas looks down at his suit and trenchcoat, more confused than offended. Dean loses a few moments considering him in something perhaps a little more form-fitting but he’s brought back to the present when Penemue announces, “Time’s up.”

“This isn’t necessary,” Cas blurts.

If this assclown thinks Cas should’ve offed him years ago then he doesn’t know his so-called brother as well as he thinks. Feeling confident for this first time since this whole thing started, Dean smirks. “Nice try, buddy. If Cas hasn’t killed me by now he ain’t gonna.”

Cas raises a hand of warning but Penemue rounds on Dean, eyes gleaming. “Is that what you think?”

“That’s what I know.” He smiles at Cas, who, strangely, is rubbing his temple.

“I’m not interested in Castiel killing you,” Penemue says, slowly circling Dean. He pauses, looking thoughtful. “But I suppose it would solve the problem.”

“What are you talking about.” Dean looks to Cas. “What’s he talking about?”

“The words are so similar. Maybe that’s where the confusion stems. What with those tiny human minds and all.”

Cas’s voice takes on a tone of desperation. “I’ll take care of it, brother. I promise. You can go.”

Penemue shakes his head. “Your word is no longer enough.”

Well, that’s just rude. “Don’t let him talk to you that way.” Dean still isn’t sure exactly what’s going on but there’s zero chance he’s going to stand by while this guy badmouths Cas. He glares at Penemue. “If he says he’ll do it, he’ll do it.”

“Will he?” Penemue turns to Cas. “Will you? Ok, I’ll wait.” He sits down on the edge of Dean’s bed, hands folded neatly in his lap.

“Uh,” Cas says, and if Dean isn’t mistaken he’s blushing. He looks at Penemue almost beseechingly but Penemue responds with a clear get on with it motion.

Dean throws up his hands. “Ok. That’s it. Somebody tell me what’s going on.”

“Shall I?” Penemue asks with a look of delight.

“I’ll do it.” Cas sucks in a breath and looks somewhere over Dean’s left shoulder. “Dean, Penemue is under the impression that you have been foolishly denying yourself something you want. He’s here to see you…uh…over that particular hurdle.”

“He thinks I’m doing something stupid,” Dean clarifies.

“I do!” Penemue says brightly. “And it is my obligation to put an end to it.”

“And how exactly am I supposed to remedy whatever it is I'm apparently not doing?”

Cas refocuses on the wall behind Dean and mumbles something.

Penemue cups a hand around his ear. “Louder, please!”

“He wants us to kiss.”

Dean feels the air get sucked out of the room. “That’s not…I’m not…” he sputters.

“Uhhhhhhh, yeah you are,” Penemue says, with a level of sarcasm that Gabriel could only hope to achieve. “Did you know that every time you send up one of those half-prayers, it reverberates through all of us? The time you two have known each other is a tiny drop in the ocean cosmically and yet, each day seems to drag for an eternity because we’re all caught up in this nonsense with you.”

“You have no right—“ Cas begins.

“I have every right because you’re both idiots. Do you know how long you’ve been doing this? Forget kissing, how have you two not been naked together yet? I can’t believe any two beings could spend so much time with their cocks in such close proximity and not have consummated their relationship. There’s a word for that, you know: coximity. And you two have exceeded the time frame and failed its sacred test.”

Dean blinks his eyes rapidly and holds up a hand. “That’s not a word.”

Cas gives him a look that clearly asks that’s what you’re getting from this?

“It is indeed a word.”

Dean isn’t sure of much at the moment, but he’s sure of this. “It’s definitely not.”

“Tell him what else I am, Castiel.”

Defeated, Cas responds in a monotone, “The angel of reading and writing.”

“The angel of reading and writing,” Penemue repeats proudly. “That means I can create any word of my choosing.” As they watch, he happily enunciates it again. “Coximity.”

Dean slaps himself in the forehead. His brain is going in about a thousand different directions as he tries to make sense of this. That may explain the next thing to come out of his mouth. “So if I kiss him will you get the hell out of here?”

“Dean, you don’t need to—“

Before he can lose his nerve, Dean kisses him. Cas’s lips are hot and dry and perfect and without meaning to, Dean reaches a hand to his face, feeling the prickle of stubble against his palm. They kiss, the rest of the world forgotten, until Dean’s startled by a clap on his shoulder. Dazed, he pulls back, drawing in a ragged breath and nearly unable to drag his gaze from Cas’s flushed face and spit-slick mouth.

Penemue stands with a hand on each of them. He beams at Dean. “I knew you were smarter than you looked.”

Dean smiles, still dopey from the kissing. “Thanks—hey, wait.”

His voice is kind when he addresses Castiel. “I trust you can take things from here?”

Cas ducks his head. “Yes. Thank you.”

Penemue squeezes his shoulder fondly. “Perhaps I’m here to erase the stupidity of angels as well. Oh, and one more thing, Castiel.” He waves a hand in the air and then, with a rustle and a loud crack, he’s gone.

Dean’s mouth goes dry at finding Cas suddenly clad in tight jeans and a black leather jacket. This time there’s no divine intervention required for Dean to kiss him.

[nd43taags]

Please Let Those Idiots be Happy

Yeaaaaaah done in response to a prompt by @dawnieserix!  Also available to read on AO3.  Merle Highchurch is the Taagnus Wingman we all deserve.

Merle Highchurch had been in love.

In mostly abstract ways, of course.  Romantic love, not so much.  He hadn’t dated much, and There were days where he could almost see himself loving his wife as he settled into the future he was forced into, but he and Hecuba simply didn’t get along.  Arranged marriages were like that sometimes.  But he loved his children, and he loved his friends.  

And he had passing moments, nervous glances exchanged with people that didn’t go anywhere.  Moments that he wasn’t even sure he  wanted  to go anywhere.  But he knew.  He knew what it felt like to be in love.

Which was why he knew before his friends did.

Those careful glances.  Those wistful sighs.  Those longing moments spent lingering, waiting for someone to appear while you “happened” to be there.  He knew all too well.  Magnus and Taako were in love.  

Fortunately, it was with each other .  

Unfortunately, they were both failing to actually  do  anything about it.

Merle wasn’t sure if it was because they were nervous or confused or just so monumentally  stupid .  They had baggage, Merle knew that much.  And they were bad with talking about feelings, anyone with eyes could see that.  And they were so…  so  stupid.

It was starting to affect team performance.  Magnus was distracted and unfocused (and that resulted in Merle taking more hits than was necessary), and Taako was over performative and and bombastic (and that resulted in some misfired spells in Merle’s direction).  Both of them were not on their game, and Merle was taking the brunt of it.

Honestly their inability to talk about things was going to get him killed.

So it was partially self interest and partially affection for those two idiots that lead him to the decision.

Merle was going to hook those two up  before  they killed him.

Step one of his master plan was figuring out why they weren’t just  talking  to each other.

Magnus would be the easier of the two to work down, so Merle invited him to the greenhouse to help out with some gardening.

“There’s lots of lifting and shit I need help with,” Merle explained, “I’m an old man, are you going to make me lift fertilizer by myself?”

Magnus rolled his eyes, but did not bother to protest.

The greenhouse was sweltering and humid, and Merle felt his hair frizzing out from it’s bun as they worked.  Lucretia had tasked Merle with growing medicinal herbs for the base because of his skills with plants, but the greenhouse had been in pretty bad shape before Merle had the job.  It had taken a lot of work to get it back to a decent state.

After a few hours of silently helping Merle rearrange planters and cart literal shit around, Magnus sighed deeply and wiped his forehead with his bandana.

“I’m not much of a gardener,” Magnus laughed.  “Never had the time for it.”

“Nah you don’t need time,” Merle replied, carefully tying a vine to a trellis.  “Plants are pretty cool with minimal attention, as long as the little attention they get is quality.  You gotta have love, but you don’t have to devote every moment to them.  They’re pretty independant.”

“That’s… I guess I hadn’t thought about that,” Magnus said.  “All my experiences with gardening have been hyper focused on trying to get things to grow.”

The moisture in the air made every word they spoke seem heavy, and Merle could sense that Magnus was feeling that.  Things said in this garden carried weight.  Exactly what Merle was hoping for.

“You had a garden before?” Merle asked.

“Yeah back… Back when I was married,” Magnus said quietly, and Merle could see his grip tightening on his kerchief.  “My wife was a bit of a black thumb, but she wanted a garden so bad.”

Wife .  The word seemed to echo around the room.  Merle had suspected Magnus had been married (he still wore a wedding ring) but they had never spoken about it.  Merle wanted to reward Magnus’ honesty with some truth of his own, though he had little to offer.

“At least she probably loved it,” Merle scoffed, taking a moment to observe his handiwork and make sure the vine was properly attached.  “My ex wife hated gardening.  Any time I tried to grow anything she’d holler and moan about it being a waste of time.”

“You were married?” Magnus asked.

“It was arranged, but yean” Merle explained, moving onto the next plant.  “Most dwarven marriages are.  You were married too?”

“Yeah… she passed away,” Magnus sighed.

“Fuck, sorry,” Merle said, wincing.  He knew that Magnus had baggage but he hadn’t known what it was.  This made a lot of sense.  His over protectiveness.  His unwillingness to open up about his feelings. Losing someone you love would do that.

“Nah it’s okay, it’s been a few years,” Magnus said slowly.  Merle wasn’t sure if that was true or not.

“Do you like gardening?” Merle asked, swerving away from the sensitive topic.

“I like the idea of growing shit, I like working with my hands,” Magnus shrugged, “I’m not very patient though.”

“Yeah I could see that,” Merle laughed.  “It’s hard to sit back and wait for things to happen.”

“Yeah…”

“In fact I’d say it’s downright uncharacteristic of you to hang back from things,” Merle continued.  “You like to rush in.”

Magnus nodded, unsure where this was going.  Merle gestured over to have Magnus hold the trellis steady as he worked with a particularly stubborn plant.

“Listen… And feel free not to answer me, it’s cool if you don’t want to talk about it but…” Merle looked at Magnus softly.  “Do you  like  Taako?”

“... Yeah?  He’s my friend.”

“No no,” Merle said, shaking his head.  “Like him.  Like,  like like  him.”

Magnus laughed with a hearty, booming laugh that felt out of place in the quiet of the greenhouse.

“Are we in  grade school ?” he gasped, catching his breath.

“I’m serious!” Merle cried, “I may be old but Merle’s seen a crush or two in his time and you?  You’ve got it  bad .”

Magnus was turning red.  “I don’t… I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Listen son, you’re human,” Merle said bluntly, “You’ve got no reason to waste time hemming and hawing about  what ifs  and  but maybes .  If you have feelings for someone you should act on them.”

“It’s not that it’s…” Magnus stammered, “I’m not sure…”

“You’ve been hurt, right?” Merle said, putting a dirty gloved hand on Magnus’ chest.  “You’re afraid of being hurt again.  But Taako… he’s just like these plants.  He’s not looking for  all  of your time and attention.  Just  quality  time.  Even if it doesn’t pan out, don’t you want to at least say you tried?”

“How do I even  start ?” Magnus asked.

“Maybe something like ‘ You really are a great a magician, because Abraca-DAYUM!’ or-”

“That’s terrible,” Magnus said smiling, but scrunching his nose up.

“Eh it needs workshopping,” Merle shrugged, “But the point is,  go for it .  You’re not getting younger.  And things aren’t getting easier.”

“I just… I loved my wife,” Magnus said quietly.

“So?” Merle said.  “She loved you too.  She’d want you to be happy, not suffering and holding out on yourself because of her.”

Magnus laughed at that.  “Okay you didn’t even know her, but that’s probably true.”

“Magnus, I don’t doubt that someone who loved you enough to marry you was a one-of-a-kind gal,” Merle sighed with a smile.  “But you’re a one-of-a-kind guy too, and if you  want  to try this falling in love shit again, you should.  Don’t hold yourself back if you’re feeling something.  That’s not you.  That’s not the you she loved.”

“Yeah… Maybe.” Magnus replied, and the smile he gave seemed tired but genuine.  “Thanks for this.”

“Any time big guy,” Merle said, putting a hand on Magnus’ shoulder.  “Any time.”

Taako would be the difficult one.  That was just his nature.  There was no way Merle was going to have a spontaneously deep heart-to-heart with the elf about  feelings  and  love  and all that nonsense.  Taako definitely kept that shit on lock down.

Things would have to be more abstract.

The time came unexpectedly when they both ended up needing to go to Fantasy Costco for spell components.  They tried never to go to that store alone; Garfield’s deals got a little more  sinister  when he got one of the boys on their own.  So they tried to synchronize their shopping trips, and it turned out that Merle ran out of purified water at the same time Taako needed more glass beads and feathers.  So the two of them grabbed their bags and headed to the place where all their dreams could come true.

“I can’t believe you cast enough spells to actually  use  components,” Taako teased as the sliding doors opened.

“Oh I don’t  use  them, I mostly  lose  them,” Merle corrected.  “I can’t find shit anywhere in the dorm.”

“So you’re telling me that there’s probably a bunch of little vials of water and bushels of herbs shoved into the couch or something?”

“I’m thinking more  under  the couch,” Merle shrugged.  “Maybe under my bed.”

Taako grabbed a basket and headed towards the Arcane section, pausing occasionally to look into barrels and vats of ingredients.

There had to be a way to delicately breech the subject Merle needed to talk about.

“So Taako…” he coughed, clearing his throat.  “You seeing anyone?”

Nice.  Perfect.

Taako froze where he was, a bundle of twigs in his hand.  His eyes slid to glare at Merle.

“Why the fuck are you asking me this?” he sighed.

“I just like to keep up with what my boys are doing,” Merle replied.  “This is gonna sound sappy but-”

“Please don’t say it,” Taako interrupted with a moan.

“You and Magnus are like my… weird nephews or something,” Merle continued, “I want to know what’s going on in your lives.”

Taako turned back to the bundle of twigs, inspecting them closely.  Satisfied, he put them into the basket.

“Why, does Magnus have something going on?” he said calmly.

“Oh, it could be nothing,” Merle smoothly replied.  “He’s just pining something awful for a secret crush he has.”

Taako glanced at Merle again.

“Secret… crush?”

“Yeah the guy is absolutely head over heels for someone,” Merle explained, “But the idiot is too shy to make the first move!  Can you believe that?  Magnus being  shy ?”

“Ridiculous,” Taako scoffed, examining a potion bottle label carefully before putting it back on the shelf.

“Yeah I told him there’s no reason to pussyfoot around,” Merle laughed.  “He’s human, he doesn’t have time like that to waste.  But he said all this shit about  not being sure  and  waiting for the right moment. ”

Taako put some dried mushrooms into his basket.

“Did… did he happen to say… I-I mean…  is it anyone we know?” Taako stammered.

“I  think  it’s someone on base,” Merle said sagely, “But he didn’t say who it was.”

They walked in silence for a bit, checking out various semi-precious stones cut into travel sized pebbles for spellcasting.  Taako was suddenly very focused on the errand, looking at every component closely as if trying to see through it to the flaws at it’s core.

When they reached the cages where live bugs and creatures were kept for the more  animated  ingredients, Taako turned to Merle with a frown.

“So,  hypothetically  ,” he mused, not looking directly at the dwarf.  “Say someone has been trying to drop hints for  ages to Magnus, but the idiot has not been picking up those signals.”  He fiddled with his sleeve absentmindedly.  “What was the issue?  Were they being too subtle?”

Subtle was not Taako’s specialty.  Taako could not be subtle if his life depended on it, and anyone with eyes could see that he had been dropping hints.

“ Hypothetically ,” Merle replied, “that person probably didn’t know Magnus had some personal shit to deal with that was keeping him from seeing those signals clearly.”

“Is he straight?” Taako said bluntly, and Merle started to laugh so hard he coughed again.  “Seriously Merle cut the bull, is he straight?”

“I dunno about  straight ,” Merle laughed.  “But he definitely was way more calm about this shit than you are!”

Taako sighed.

“Alright cool, secret’s out,” he grumbled.  “Taako has a crush on the bear.  Taako’s  had a crush since he fucking jumped off a catwalk through a plate glass window to save me from ogres.”

“It’s a very sweet way to meet people,” Merle chuckled.

“But, like, he’s sending out signals that say ‘ Please oh god I’m so alone I need literally anyone to give me a hug’  but also ‘  Stay the fuck away I have issues and I have zero interest in opening up about them’ ,” Taako sighed.  “And I get that.  I do.  I’ve… I’ve got issues too.  But how’s a guy supposed to read that?”

“I mean, you read them 100% accurately,” Merle shrugged.  “The man desperately wants a hug but also sucks at opening up.”

“I just don’t want…” Taako hesitated, watching some crickets crawl around in their cage.  “I don’t want to  say  something, and then things be  weird  between us.”

“He’s a good friend,” Merle agreed.

“And I’ve got so  few  of those,” Taako muttered.

“Listen Taako,” Merle said, gesturing for Taako to kneel next to him.  The elf hesitated, then got down on the floor so he was eye level with Merle.  “I get that you’re not the kind of guy that takes unnecessary risks, and that’s good most of the time!  Saves me a lot of trouble at least!”

“Like you’ve ever fucking healed anyone in your life,” Taako smirked.

“But  loving  people, be it friends or something more, is  always  a risk,” Merle continued, ignoring the slight against him.  “And in this case, it’s a risk  worth taking .”

“That’s easy for you to say,” Taako laughed, rolling his eyes.

“Nah I’m serious,” Merle replied, “I think Magnus is the kind of guy that would be cool with it even if he wasn’t interested.  He’s got a lot of love to spare.”

“You  think ?”

“I  know ,” Merle said with a wink.  “The man is shy, and working through some baggage.  But I think he’s been getting those signals clear as day.”

“So… I should make the first move,” Taako realized.

“Exactly!” Merle cried.  “He’s dense and afraid but so  eager  to love people.  If you wait around for him to figure it out you’ll be waiting for the rest of his life.”

With that, Taako stood up and roughly pat Merle on the head like a dog.  Merle glared at him, but Taako only smiled, and that made him soften too.

“You know… You’re not  completely  shit at this uncle thing,” Taako mused.

It was a few days before Merle saw the sprouts of the seeds he had planted in the boy’s minds.  He didn’t expect them to change overnight, that was too much too fast for troubled men set in their ways.  But they were softening, opening slowly like flowers of their own, and Merle could see that things were about to pop off any day now.

One afternoon Magnus caught him in the common room with a smile.

“I think… I think I want to take Taako out for coffee,” Magnus said.

“Good for you big guy!” Merle cried, patting him on the hip.

“Yeah I just… I think it’s time,” Magnus hummed.

“When you asking him?” Merle asked.

“Ugh  that  I don’t know yet,” Magnus replied sheepishly, scratching the back of his neck nervously.  “Do you think he’ll say yes or…?”

“Magnus, remember what we talked about,” Merle teased.

“I know I know,” Magnus laughed, “I’m definitely doing this.  I’m rushing in!”

“That’s what I like to hear!” Merle chuckled.  “Now Magnus, I have something kinda serious I want to talk about.”

Magnus nodded and bent down so that he was closer to Merle’s face.

“I like you big guy,” Merle continued.  “I like Taako too.  I’m happy you guys are finally going to try and work this shit out.  But I’m a worrier and a dad at heart.”

“Is this… are you gonna  dad  this?” Magnus laughed.

“I’m just saying Taako’s a beloved member of our team, and if you hurt him you’re threatening to  tear the very fabric of this team apart .”

Magnus went a little pale at that, but Merle punched him in the hip gently.

“I’m not trying to scare you big guy, I’m saying… be  careful ,” Merle smiled warmly.  “You’re both pretty fucked up.  Go slow, but don’t hesitate.  Be gentle and thoughtful of each other, and we won’t have any problems.”

“I think I get what you mean,” Magnus said, and the color started to return to his cheeks.  “You don’t have to worry about that Merle, I’ll be careful for us both.”

That same day Taako flicked some tuna casserole at Merle across the cafeteria to get his attention, and in a hushed whisper hissed “Today’s the day, I’m asking Maggie out.”

“Cool,” Merle hissed back with a grin, “Did you have something in mind?”

“Planning dates and shit is  not  Taako’s specialty,” he huffed.  “I’m used to being  pursued , not doing the chasing myself.”

“So no plans,” Merle concluded.

“I figured I’d ask him what he wanted to do and go from there,” Taako mused.

“Good idea,” Merle smirked.

Things were coming together perfectly.

“By the way,” Taako hummed quietly, “You’re not pulling my leg on this one right?  He’s gonna be down for this?”

“Taako I wouldn’t lie about this,” Merle replied, “Magnus is a sensitive guy with fragile emotions.  Speaking of which… Taako, Magnus has been hurt before.”

“So have I, what’s the point?” Taako curtly replied.

“I’m saying don’t hurt him again,” Merle answered.  “I want to see both of you happy, and if you’re not careful with him you’ll  break him.”

“Aaah, is this, like, the doting Dad thing?” Taako laughed.  “You don’t gotta worry Merle.  Taako’s gonna take this one slow and steady.”

“That’s my boy!” Merle cried, and Taako rolled his eyes in response.

It was then that Magnus came into the cafeteria, and Taako hurriedly shoved Merle away.

“Shit shit  shit  get out of here old man you’ll ruin everything,” Taako hissed as Magnus came over.

With a laugh, Merle headed off.  As he headed for the door, the edge of their conversation carried it’s way to him.

“So Taako, uh… I was wondering…��

“Yeah I’ve been thinking we should… go  out  sometime.”

“Oh!  Oh yeah!   Definitely !  You… want to go get some coffee?”

“Maggie I would  love  that.”

Merle knew what it felt like to be in love.

It was something he hoped those two idiots felt for the rest of their lives.

[doycetopia]

Masks, Actual Play Analysis, Sessions 11 to 15

We’re back! It’s another long flight, so let’s run through Masks sessions to the latest and see what to make of them…

Issue 11: When Sablestar Strikes! (hell-day part 3)

Issue 11 on YouTube

AP Report

I like when we can start things in media res, if only to skip the fiddly front-loading on a session.

In this one, I skipped away from the school, working off the assumption Leo and Adam would want to get the action as far away from the school as they could. The players agreed, though in hindsight I probably didn’t need to play it so coy with the framing and just tell them what I was thinking. Lesson learned, though unfortunately not until now, and not when I needed it in session 13. More on that in a few.

At any rate, this fight went off quite well, I thought. The team has only had a few fights up to this point, and I was starting to think I’d need to bring in at least a 1-for-1 matchup to really test them, since they pretty much wiped out everyone up to this point.

Sablestar provided an additional and very different data point, proving a real problem for the heroes without me needing to bring in any further bad guys. Part of that was simply using mixed successes to complicate the scene with additional ‘stuff’ – when the heroes can take out a villain with 3 or maybe 4 solid hits, giving them something to do besides punching is much more interesting. This was definitely the most dynamic and interesting combat scene we’d had up to this point, and started to add some great backstory to Adam/Concord.

As things wrapped up, the last big move saw me handing out a pile of ‘take a powerful blow’ moves. I hemmed and hawed about this during the game – it felt right, and normally that’s enough, but for some reason I’m way way way more tentative with GM moves and even narration in this game. I have no idea why, and honestly I don’t think that extra care has benefited anyone very much, so I think I need to trust my instincts a bit more.

Weirdly, this is born out by a fairly egregious overstep I made a few sessions later. More on that in a bit.

Issue 12: When the Dead Walk!

(Hell-day part… four? seriously? – or part 4 and part 0, maybe, due to a flashback? It’s complicated)

Issue 12 on YouTube

AP Report

This session was a bit weird, and weirdly short.

We started off with a flashback to cover what Ghost Girl had been up to during her Condition-clearing reckless investigation (a scene I should have had in the previous session and never got to). This ended up taking a long while, and didn’t involve anyone else, so that’s just poor use of time on my part, despite the fact I was happy with the stuff we got into and found out. Good narration, bad group-involvement. No GM cookie for that one.

The only other thing we got to was the big reveal that the robot that assembled itself in Link’s home base and came after him at school was actually a back-up of Pneuma that had activated after some kind of “Emergency: Go To 10″ protocol was activated when something bad happened to her.” There was some drama (and comfort/support moves) around this that I liked.

Buuuut, there is a problem I didn’t recognize until it was too late – putting Pneuma in danger is basically a board-clearing, table-flipping deal for Link, which presents problems when we already have a couple-three major plot chainsaws in the air. Bill gave me some good tips on ways to make that sort of thing a bit more of a timed slow burn, and I’ve tucked those away for later, but lesson learned.

Issue 13: If This Be In Media Res!

Day of Hell, part the Fifth

Issue 13 on YouTube

AP Report

So I screwed up.

The obvious thing I screwed up is that I started in media res and framed the heroes into the middle of a major assault on… the secret basements and sub basements beneath the evacuated Halcyon International Airport, and I did so without checking with anyone first.

Which, when I sum it up like that, is so blindingly obvious a fuck-up it seems impossible I didn’t see it coming.

Now, that sort of framing is fine if you’ve taken the measure of the team and know that’s where things are going and just decide to skip to the higher action parts of things.

But that’s not what I did. Bad me. -2 GM cookies.

The thing is, it wasn’t DOING those things that was the actual screw-up.

The mistake I made was in getting talked into a hard-framed in media res thing in the first place, because I hadn’t prepped for it or really thought about it much, so I was ad-libbing the whole thing without communicating first, during, or after. (My only defense is that I was tired and punchy going into the night, but that’s pretty weak tea.) If I’m going to do something like that it needs prep, and communication. That was the real mistake.

This reinforces, in a weird way, the ‘need to trust my instincts more’ note I made a few sessions back, because my instincts were to not do this, and I didn’t listen.

So that’s both ways not trusting myself (not doing and doing) messing with me, inside two or three sessions. Bleh.

On the Bright Side

It was a deprotagonizing set-up, but everyone agreed the assumptions made were fair, if extrapolated without anyone’s input (damn it just seems to stupid and OBVIOUS every time I think about it). “If we’d played through the whole lead-in,” went the response, “it wouldn’t have looked exactly the same, but it would have been darn close, so it’s okay.”

Put another way, I’m annoyed with what I did, but I think the results in the fiction were good and added a lot of great stuff to the campaign – the introduction of Rosa Rook gets associated in everyone’s mind with the situation being out of their control and with high-handed manipulation by adults, and I guess that’s a plus, there; she’s a great addition I think the whole game really needed.

So… I really wish we’d gotten there differently, but I was glad for the final destination? I dunno.

The very best suggestion in post-session discussion was that getting everyone on the same page with the start of the session could have been handled beautifully with love letters, like that ones I used in Session One and which, in one player’s words “I’ve hoped we’d use more.” Great, great idea.

AEGIS swept in for a PR coverup (“those young heroes were at the airport to stop a power-suited terrorist!”), which leads us into the next session, where I’d take the love letter feedback to heart.

Issue 14: Love Letters… Unleashed!

Hellday 6: The Helldayening

Issue 14 on YouTube

AP Report

I started off the session (and, really, pretty much filled up the session) playing off of love letters I’d written for each character.

I distributed them days earlier, giving everyone time to process and consider their choices, which gave everyone a lot more buy-in. I was also open to feedback and modification of the letters, but all the feedback was positive, so nothing to do there.

As I said, playing through all this stuff pretty much filled up the whole session, and saw the realization of the 6- rolls from the past three or four sessions that I’d had on my to-do list for awhile.

Jason started … let’s call it ‘hallucinating’ a 10-year-old version of Alycia Chin, bringing the total number of holographic AI relationships on his dance card to something like 4 or 5. I’m pretty happy with that result, and I think Dave was as well, as he had mentioned during the week wishing he could get all the success AND failure results from the love letter.

Concord’s … ‘shard’ finally woke up, which is going to give him something else to contend with – a ‘voice’ for the superhero side of his Superhero/Mundane existence, which we’ve both been looking forward to. The final scene with him and his family was awesome and brutal.

I was happy to see Link protecting his people to the press – I think that was really nice to see after a couple sessions of having them at risk. Also helped us highlight his friend Otto’s accessibility issues.

I was VERY happy to have Harry in a position where we could see him being more of an expert in the public side of being a superhero. It went well, and rolled into some good stuff in the following session as well. I really liked him in that space, and alienating him from his family a bit, which we haven’t seen yet, but will.

Everything else was revealing information (background about Ghost Girl) and laying the groundwork for same (Pneuma has a weird memory error in her backup, and AEGIS has a video of the moments surrounding Jason’s Dad’s … death? which Agent Waters slipped to Quill).

All in all, very happy with this session, and the use of the love letters. I’m thinking about using a “lite” version of this for the coming session to get things sorted out a bit more.

Issue 15: In the Clutches of Late-Night Melodrama!

Thank god this Hellday is ov- WHAT DO YOU MEAN PART 7?!?

Issue 15 on YouTube

AP Report

I need to get better at rationing time based on how many characters are involved in the scene. I’m not good at that, and I need to get better.

Link moves in with the Gales, a twist I did NOT see coming. Need to think more about that, because there’s some completely unexplored territory there. Yet more good stuff with Harry, which I really liked.

Jason gets some information about his dad, working with Achilles Chin, working against someone… else? Who? What? Jason’s response says he’s expecting this to really blow up in his face in short order, in a big way. I’ve got some more stuff to lay out here.

Concord’s parents tell him they want him to stop working for the Concordance. Maybe. They want to talk about it. I think Mike and I are both excited about where that’s going.

And… a couple rolls go sideways and Ghost Girl starts out investigating her family’s ties to mystic secret societies and… ends up in the Sepiaverse.

So that’s gonna be a thing.

Thoughts

I love this game. I haven’t been pushed like this in years.

I also haven’t doubted myself as much either, which really needs to stop.

original post

[trentteti]

The Logical Rose-ning Section: Your Recap of The Bachelorette's Season Finale

Rachel Lindsay is a practicing attorney who once took the LSAT. And you, dear reader, are an aspiring attorney who will soon take the LSAT, Rachel Lindsay is also an aspiring married person, serving as the bachelorette on this season of The Bachelorette, the love story these depraved times deserve. And you, dear reader, may also be an aspiring married person? Either way, you definitely have at least a few things in common with Rachel. So every Tuesday, we’re going to be tracking Rachel’s romantic journey on The Bachelorette, and see what we can learn about love, loss, and the LSAT. Bienvenidos a la Sección de Logical Rose-ning.

Last time: The Men Told All. As long as your idea of “All” mostly entails people confronting a guy for, let’s call them, racist tendencies, then eventually kind of letting him off the hook for saying some horrible stuff and doing some dumb stuff. It was uncomfortable. It was boring. So much so that we decided to use the special as a springboard to talk about the LSAT’s writing sample. But now we’re back to the real deal. The uncut stuff. The Bachelorette finale. We’ll be picking up right where we left off with Eric’s late season surge and fantasy suite victory lap, with Peter’s awkward one-on-one date in Spain, and with Bryan, lurking in the shadows like the Spanish-flaunting, open-mouth kissing quasi-villain he is. Finally, let’s get back to La Rioja, Spain …

… Except we’re actually starting in a studio in Los Angeles, filled to the brim with Bachelorette fans who want the contact high of romance that only a contractually-mandated proposal can bring. We’re going to be watching the finale along with these fans, and with Chris Harrison, and apparently Rachel, who will be offering live commentary along with Harrison. Rachel, let us bloggers cook. You get the love. We offer the commentary. That’s the natural order. You can’t take that away from us. It’s really all we have.

Except it doesn’t even really seem like Rachel wants to be there. “Can I leave?” she implores. “You can’t leave,” Chris Harrison replies. “If I’m here, you’re here.” And our finale is immediately starting to feel like a hostage situation. Will Chris Harrison start yelling “Attica!” outside the studio? Do we need to call Denzel to negotiate?

Oh also, there’s a Juan Pablo marriage announcement made, which receives a recepción muy frio from the audience.

Anyway, after some chit chat between Chris Harrison and Rachel, we finally get back to Spain, where we meet back up with Peter and Rachel on their overnight date.

Peter, stuck in the inevitable middle position on these overnight dates, is not exactly enthused about the whole proposal thing he’s inching towards. He asks her what would happen if he didn’t propose to her at the end of this. Like, what if he just asked her to go steady instead?

Rachel, understandably, is not stoked on this. I mean, does Peter not understand the premise of this show? It’s not The Bae-chelorette, my mans. You’re here to propose (and to get a People magazine cover and go on Kimmel and, if you’re lucky, star in a failed reality spin-off on a lesser ABC network affiliate, and then, at some point, between six and eighteen months from the finale, break up).

Anyway, Rachel compares this to a long-term relationship she was in before the show that did not end in a proposal. Solid comparison, except she has only known Peter for a couple months and they’ve been on like four or five dates at this point. She must be better at spotting false equivalences on the LSAT and in the courtroom.

Now, if there’s a common thread to how Rachel deals with Peter in this finale, it’s that she really gives him every opportunity to win. I’d hate to evoke white privilege after last week, but the one remaining white boy is given a lot of opportunities here. Even after Peter hems and haws his way to an explanation of why he doesn’t want to propose to her, she still invites him to “talk” this through in the overnight fantasy suite.

Their talks must have been productive, because they wake up without a care in the world.

Peter feels good enough after the fantasy suite time to do this goofy bit with the windows, to fry an egg shirtless, and to say that some of his doubts have gone away.

But these dissipating doubts have nothing on the all-in, ready-to-propose-in-Spanish-right-now-and-follow-it-up-with-a-sloppy-kiss Bryan, who’s batting clean up on the overnight dates. Bryan and Rachel ride horses to yet another picturesque vineyard. They recap family matters, an apropos topic given that Rachel’s family immediately sensed Bryan’s insincerity. Bryan says it was weird, but “I think I handled myself pretty good.” Whether it’s his bad grammar or tenuous grip on reality, Rachel doesn’t look too enthused by this.

She’s a little chilly to Bryan during this date, a topic that is very much broached by Chris Harrison back in the LA studio, who is fashioning himself a bit of a Ted Koppel in this sit-down interview with Rachel (or, given that we’re dealing with the fantasy suites, a Ted Koppel-ate). Rachel admits that Peter messed with her head and that she let that affect her time with Bryan. Serious Chris Harrison presses. She talks about what she “had” with Peter being important. Uh oh, this past perfect tense is not promising for Peter.

Back in Spain, Bryan picks up on Rachel’s “different energy” and notes that he doesn’t feel as “pumped up” as he could be–which, well, let’s say that’s a poor choice of words on the precipice of the fantasy suite. Nonetheless, Rachel is assuaged by Bryan’s positivity and promises (disingenuous as they may be), and invites him back to the fantasy suite.

And given their vibes the next morning–Bryan shirtless, feeding strawberries to Rachel–it appears that Bryan didn’t have any trouble pumping himself back up for Rachel. He feels like he did good work, bragging that their chemistry is “hotter than ever” and that he’s a shoe-in for the final rose.

And now that she test rode the three guys, Rachel is onto the Rose Ceremony. She’s dressed like Cersei Lannister, and is ready to set fire to the Sept of Bachelor. In the voice over, she goes on and on about how she wants to be assured that at the end of this she will get a proposal and a marriage and a life-long commitment. She says this as she looks right into the eyes of Peter, the one guy who hasn’t given her such reassurance.

So naturally she cuts Eric, who seemed like the coolest, most normal dude here. Eric could not have been more generous or forgiving to Rachel when they bid their adieus. He says, to quoth Dolly Parton c/o Whitney Houston, “I will always love you,” but he nonetheless hopes that she’ll find what she’s looking for. Back at the studio, we learn that Eric has coped with a fantastic break-up beard.

Anyway, we’re down to two contestants now. And these people couldn’t look any more madly in love and ready to commit their entire lives together.

So Rachel has one last date with each of these two happy guys to see which one she’ll give permission to propose to her on natural television. First up is Bryan, who takes her on a hot air balloon, which will be powered solely on the sweet nothings, hokum, and palaver he’ll be feeding her on this date.

So what does she see in Bryan? She thought he was a douche bag at first, her entire family thought he was a douche bag at first, and every person I’ve spoken to about this show has also come to the conclusion that he’s a shifty douche bag. But he sometimes talks to her in Spanish? It’s cool that he’s proud of his Colombian heritage, but he really leans on the Spanish. And look, I have at best an Intro to Spanish understanding of the language, but as a guy who has tried to authentically pronounce “carne asada,” “chile de árbol,” and “huitlacoche” to unimpressed Mexican restaurant proprietors for years, I can sort of sense when people try a little too hard to flex with their Spanish skills. And let’s just say that Bryan doesn’t exactly make the strongest case for himself when he gifts Rachel a homemade Spanish dictionary. Take it away, Twitter user @osnapitscri …

And then we have the date with Peter. Rachel takes him to a monastery. Yes, nothing like a little Catholic guilt to put the pressure on Peter, especially now that they are officially living in sin.

So what does she see in Peter? He’s devilishly handsome and, as a former model, takes a mean picture. His reaction to getting married to someone after only knowing them for a few weeks kind of proves he’s normal and level-headed?

Except when she again confronts him on his reluctance to propose, he makes some pretty crazy claims. He starts by saying that he can picture a life with her. But it’s a boring-ass life filled with “football games” and “baseball games” (she’s a basketball fan, dude), and “the farmers market” (again?), and “wine night with painting” (?).

He then claims that, “I have no fear for marriage”–just marriage with you, Rachel, being the implication.

She accuses him of contradicting himself. He says, “I am not contradicting myself. I am going against what I believe.” Which means he’s pretty much contradicting himself.

And then things get really nasty. He tells her to “go have a mediocre life with someone else.” She responds, “Why does that mean I will have a mediocre life?” To which he says, “Because I will give you an amazing life.” That’s the inverse fallacy, guy.

He then says “I don’t know what I want to do tomorrow. Because that’s one day that means the rest of my life.” That’s a temporal fallacy, my dude.

In their heated confrontation, he makes enough fallacious claims to for the next ten LSATs.

Eventually, Rachel has enough. They break up over tears. Rachel cries “her eyelashes off.” Peter is positively shook. So much so that he just has to rip off his shirt off one last time.

And that’s it, basically. Bryan has won this show, not by being someone Rachel affirmatively wanted to pick, but by being the one guy that Rachel didn’t break up with. In argumentation, we call that “rejecting alternatives.” It’s not the best way to make an argument. Or find a husband.

And I think Peter realizes how much he really blew this back in the LA studio. He could have been a little less harsh and demeaning to Rachel in their break-up, and been all-but-guaranteed the role of the next bachelor. He could have been just a tad more emotive throughout the entire season, and maybe could have made that difficult transition from model to actor. Or he could have accepted the premise of the show and wound up with an engagement to a really cool, smart, funny, and successful person.

But instead, he looks dejected, tired, and confused on the couch in the LA studio. All that’s missing is “Jesse’s Girl,” firecrackers, a cracked-out Alfred Molina, and a minute-long close-up on this face:

So we’re left to go through the motions. Bryan picks out a ring from Neil Lane and walks up to a Spanish church (where apparently there was an ongoing wind storm) where he will propose, inaudibly, to Rachel. The full-fledged cyclone going on makes everything tough to decipher, but apparently Bryan says the same Spanish phrase that he said to Rachel when they met, so many moons ago, just to reinforce how empty and bereft of ideas he is at this point. He proposes. She accepts enthusiastically. They at least seem happy.

Forgive me if I’m not giving this holy union the sentiment it deserves, but it all feels like kind of a let down. I hope the best for these two! But Rachel was one of the smartest, most personable, and confident bachelorettes this show has ever had. Plus, as the first African-American bachelorette (which, let’s be clear, is a first only because of this show’s extremely limited POV, and not because America wasn’t ready for this or anything. Between Girl’s Trip, Insecure, and Shonda Rhimes single-handedly keeping ABC’s drama department afloat, and countless other works, black women have and will continue to kill it in pop culture), the show had the opportunity to have an interesting, fresh season.

But this feels like she’s settling. And the season as a whole feels a bit off. It was boring for long-stretches, except for the parts when it was extremely uncomfortable. And Bryan? I mean, he seems nice enough. He looks great for a 37 year old. I couldn’t quite put my finger on what seemed so off about him, until I saw him shamelessly mugging to the camera, backstage at the LA studio.

This guy doesn’t belong on The Bachelorette. This is the behavior of a contestant on some third-rate MTV dating show. This isn’t the veneer of class and prestige we want in our happy couples on The Bachelorette, this is the cheap knock off.

In other words, we thought we were getting the LSAT, but we wound up with the SAT.

The Logical Rose-ning Section: Your Recap of The Bachelorette’s Season Finale was originally published on LSAT Blog

[sundaymorning1465-blog]

One Man’s FLR

I've decided to give erotica writing a try.  I have not had it edited so there are grammatical and punctuation errors I've no doubt.

This is a fictional (sorry to say) story about how my female led marriage came to be.  While there is some sex it does not contain a great deal of it, so if just sex is what you're looking for the first few parts, (I'm guessing), of this story will not suit you.

Part 1

I didn't really mean to be the submissive one in my marriage, it just kind of happened that way over time.  We are now in our 40s, I'm 45, she is one year younger at 44 and we have been married for 20 years.  The kids are now in their late teens and do not need much from us other than some spending money during the school year when they don't have part time jobs and as of just last year they both drive and share what is now our third car.  My wife and I both have well-paying jobs, we work our 40 hours, give or take, five days a week and for the most part have our weekends off.  All in all we are a pretty routine family, we attend all of the extracurricular activities of the kids, I wash our cars in the driveway and keep our house and lawn in good repair.  To look at us or our surroundings or to interact with us one would never know that we are in a full time female lead marriage and have been since about the third year of our marriage.  This story is how we got there, even though neither of us had any intention of ever being in one.  Neither of us are stunners in the looks and body department but that is not to say we are unappealing to the eye, of the two of us I am the one that has slipped the farthest, but we could both lose a few pounds get maybe a spot here or there tucked, hoisted and/or tightened up a bit, but by and large, we are in good health, exercise regularly and are quite happy with our bodies.  

Where this marriage takes a step outside of the norm is that I, the husband, do all the cooking, cleaning, laundry and ironing.  I do the grocery shopping, I am on a strict allowance, I do not volunteer my opinion and I unquestionably do what my wife tells me to.  And, oh yeah, I nearly forgot, I wear panties ninety-nine percent of the time, get spanked both for punishment as well as for my wife's pleasure and I am only allowed one or two orgasms per year.  Our first child came into existence in year number two of our marriage and by the time young gun number two was born my dominant role in the house had been usurped by my wife and over the course of the next few years our marriage fully evolved into what it is now.

I own a medical testing company in which I am a vital and full time employee of and my wife is a CPA.  To keep a sharp mind and the ability to be on her numerical toes if you will, my wife needs 7-8 hours of sleep at night, I on the other hand require, and always have required, much less sleep to function at the top of my game.  I dwarf my wife in worldliness and she and I both suspect straight up IQ as well.  I don't sit well, that is to say I like to be active, up and doing things which I am sure led somewhat to my downfall as the head of household, more on that later.  And with my wife having always handled our finances, why wouldn't she we had both thought, after all she is a CPA.  As it turns out it was natural that I do a majority of the chores, with my needing to be busy, and we all know the person that controls the money does tend to have the upper hand.  

By the time my wife's job is done for the day and depending on the season, tax season versus non tax season, she enjoys reading and watching tv once she arrives home.  During tax season, about a month long, she pulls exhausting hours and has been known to work late, be it at an office or home, eat and immediately go to bed once she completes whatever her current task is at the time.  During tax season we are hermits, we go nowhere, otherwise we are quite socially active.  We host multiple small gatherings and one major summer and winter party.  We both drink, me more than her, we have a partial season package to our local professional baseball team and we work out with a professional trainer 1 hour roughly every other day.  We eat out a little more than we should and we don't eat as healthy as we should.

There you have it, welcome to our very visible and "normal" life.

As "for the rest of the story" as a famous radio voice use to say when I was just a kid, it started about a month into our first child being born.  My wife did not breast feed, which she felt miserable about.  Do not worry if your a guy and reading this, it's some more of the shallowness of females as a gender that most guys can't understand.  Being devastated by not getting up in the middle of the night just to have some urchin gnawing on one or both of your nipples ranks right up there with hating your ass or legs or whatever while everyone else is telling you how fantastic you look, it is, in a word, baffling.  To get back to the story, the fact that she pumped milk from her gorgeous boobs for our child coupled with my not needing as much sleep as she does resulted in me doing the night time feedings.  Our daughter was born in the middle of January and by the time the six weeks of maternity leave was over it was the start of tax season.  With my wives exhausting tax season hours I started picking our daughter up at the daycare and doing most of the evening child care.  No big deal, that's what married people and parents do, they cover for each other, it all comes out in the wash in the end.  I naturally started cooking too, I wanted my wife to have some dinner to come home to and of course I also needed to eat.  In my wives excitement of getting back to work she had volunteered for a few extra duties which now were causing her to work the weekends as well.  It was somewhere in the mix of her not spending the time she felt she should be spending with our daughter, her increased time being at work and subsequently not being at home that I sensed a change in her.  Her seriousness and lack of patience had increased and had replaced her whimsical and ability to relax side it seemed to me.  My heart went out to her, I knew she was feeling awful, was being over worked and I sensed that these new jobs that she had added to her already overworked self was going to extend her busy season by a significant amount of months.  So I figured that I needed to increase my support to help her get through this period the best I could, and that is what I did, and between you and I, I was damn happy to do it.  After all, this is a woman that I love with all my heart and I'll be damned if I'm going to stand idly by and watch a bunch of numbers kick her ass.

Our daughter was generally in bed, and for the most part sleeping through the night, by the time my wife got home.  I had initially been texting my wife to ask her if she had any preferences for dinner which had morphed into her just automatically texting me about noon with what she wanted to eat for dinner and about what time she expected to be home.  With our daughter in bed when my wife arrived home it was becoming customary for her to give me a peck on the cheek as I was putting on the last touches of her dinner, generally something light, like a salad of tuna or fruit, you get the picture, and going upstairs to change into some comfy clothes and peek in on our daughter and deliver another kiss to another cheek before returning to the breakfast nook which we have always used for casual meals rather than the formal dining room. There she would join me and she would eat her dinner and have a glass of wine while I sat and we chatted and I drank a beer.  

It was becoming apparent that over the last few weeks with her increased stress and work and our having to put exercise class on hold that I had put on a few pounds while she had actually lost a few pounds, probably due to stress.  While I had noted it, but chose to ignore it, I was thinking this part of our life would be over in another few months and we would get back to normal.  One night as we sat at the table after dinner, basking in our beverages of choice, in this case, still on her first and only glass of wine and me just starting my third beer she asked what I had eaten for dinner.  Sensing no reason to pussyfoot around I told her a frozen pizza, but much to my delight I assured her I had cooked it first.  Apparently, she didn't see the humor and asked what I had had the night before.  Now my sense of danger twitched ever so slightly as I told her a frozen southern fried chicken dinner, this time leaving out the part about cooking it first.  After a rather lengthy pause where my danger Will Robinson mode kicked fully into gear she said "you're going to have to start eating better, you're getting fatter, how many beers are you drinking every evening"?

I remember hemming and hawing, making like I was thinking about it when she interrupted my show of calculating with "about six, 1-2 with me and 4-5 before I get home and that is too many".  She was right of course, as she initiated another of what had become our after dinner conversation customs by pushing herself back from the table and putting her slippered feet into my lap where I could begin giving her her nightly foot massage.  

I was going about giving her my best foot massage to date, hoping to get her mind off of my failings, but that was not to be, as she continued unabated.  Reminding me that she does our finances which is how she could tell that I was spending a lot on myself. She knew what she was eating and what our daughters food bill was and therefore putting two and two together was in a word elementary.  

"I've also noted the house is not getting the type of cleaning it needs" and "if I separate the clothes for you can you put in a load of clothes for me tomorrow after you get home from work" and "I will put together a list this weekend of groceries and meals and relax, beer will be included, but it really needs to be one beer before I get home and one with me while I eat".  She was right of course, I needed to step up my game a bit, it's what any responsible husband and father would do.

Ending her foot massage, she said "I am going to go separate the clothes and take a quick shower before getting into bed and I think I need some more relaxation exercising tonight, I'm a little upset with the status quo of our household.  You lock up and pack my lunch for tomorrow".  I was instantly excited by that, relaxation exercising was code for sex, it had been forever it seemed since we had indulged.  But to be fair, sex always decreased this time of year and I was use to jacking off.  However with pregnancy, the birth, the recovery the current dry spell (pun intended) it had been at least a month.  Unfortunately with the uninterrupted home time I had over the last few weeks and the increase in beer consumption my porn viewing and my masturbation had both increased.  As a matter of fact I had jacked off my second load of the day right after putting Maggie down in her crib.  But as I've already said, I love my wife's body and I was sure I could muster enough hardness to enter her and who knows maybe last a little longer.  Our sex life is maybe a little different than other couples.  Ours generally consists of me eating her pussy until she has an orgasm and then I enter her and pound away for a minute before cumming inside her.  She has for the most part decided sex night, which is only natural as it takes more emotions for her to get going than it does me and on her nights she always has a hand towel under her pillow that after I cum inside her she can use the towel to clean herself up.  

House locked up and lunch packed and in the refrigerator I head upstairs to brush my teeth before joining her in bed.  She is under the sheet on her back with her booked propped on her tummy.  The clothes in neat piles against the wall as I guess which pile to add each article of clothing I take off before crawling under the covers.  Once my head disappears under the covers I hear her put her book down and I start my very methodical pussy eating.  I start with the insides of her thighs, kissing, nibbling each and as I go from one to the other I lightly brush and breath/blow on her pussy.  Then I move to circling my tongue and nibbling on the inside of her pussy lips alternating with light flick on her clit with my tongue.  Over the course of the next 20 minutes I brought her to three orgasms, each more powerful than the last.  Now it was our turn to cum together as I started up her body it was then I noticed my dick was not hard enough to enter her and my hesitation brought her attention to the situation and she looked at me expectantly. Her eyes then dropped to my dick where she could clearly see that it was soft. Then painfully slowly she brought her eyes back up to meet mine, I was on an island with no place to go as she stared at me.

Somewhat alarmed she asked "why are you soft?  Are you ill?  Do you feel ok"?  

"Well I am probably just a little on the tired side, I'm sure that's it".

"Well those were such wonderful orgasms I had why don't you lay back and let me take care of you".

Now we are talking I say to myself, I can't recall the last time she put my dick in her mouth.  I was in position so fast I nearly got dizzy flipping onto my back.  Let me tell you, it felt like heaven, warm, moist, oh my it was not long before I was hard and starting to bubble up a load of cum for her to suck down.  Just then she took her mouth off but continued the hand action so I was ok, she had never let me cum in her mouth, I just got carried away in my head.  I can feel it back to being ready to explode and a second later I start grunting and cumming. I finally calm down in a couple seconds as she comes up and lays next to me after cleaning up my load with her ever handy after sex hand towel.

"James, are you having an affair"?

"What!!!  Jen, my god no, why would you even ask such a thing"?

"If no affair, which I believe you by the way, then you masturbated today".

She is guessing, and with as innocent a look as I could muster, I asked "what makes you say that"?

"Well, we have had sex once or twice a week over the years and I have cleaned up a lot of your cum over those years and I know for a fact that it has been at least a month since we have had sex like in the days prior to Maggie and as a result you should have been loaded but I got barely a tablespoon of cum out of you.  And let's not forget, while you're fairly average to small in the cock department it has always been like steel after you eat me and today you were soft.  Suspicious, no?"

I was, in a word, speechless.  And I immediately knew she knew I had jacked off.

There was no sense in lying, "well....kinda....yes....I guess".

She sits up in bed and looks down at me, I can see her perfect, for me, breasts under what I know is her nighty with no undies on.

"James, how does one guess they kinda masturbated"?

I was caught and I felt awful, there was no defense so I just hung my head and muttered "I'm sorry".

"Sorry?  That is all you've got?  Do you know what it feels as a woman and/or a wife to think that your body is no longer exciting enough for a man or more importantly your husband to get hard too?  I mean, if you where in your mid 50's or 60's, on a medication or had a medical reason I would understand but none of that applies to you. None of those apply to you do they James?"

"Well.....not really" I respond.

"What do you mean not really, as she does the universal quote marks with her hand, are you saying one of those does apply, are you sick, are you on a medication? Why didn't you tell me? What's wrong"?

I struggle to sit up next to her so I can be face to face with her.  "Nothing is wrong Jen I was just horny, we have not had any sex in a month, how was I suppose to know that today we were going to have sex".

She nods.....I assumed in agreement.............I was wrong.

"I see, so if we were having sex once or twice a week then does that mean you masturbate once or twice a week now"?

"Maybe more" after a slight pause.

"Maybe more, how much is a maybe?  And James I'm going to caution you here, I work with numbers and I know there is no number assigned to a maybe", once again with the hand quotes.

"Ok, maybe is a couple".

"James, that is what I said".

"A day".

It took her a second, I assumed to envision the process and the amount.  "Did you say a day? Is that possible? Do you cum every time? Doesn't it hurt that many times? Is it medically safe? Are you hard every time? Don't you need a stimulation of some sort? Do grown men even masturbate?

I know over the last 5 minutes of conversation she must have asked 100 questions and I've only answered a few, she asks too many questions.  "Yes it is possible, I look at some por....I just do it, no big deal".

"You look at porn too? Since when? What type of porn? Where do you get it? Are you still employed? Are you one of those men that are, more hand quotes, addicted to sex?"

"Yes I am employed, generally after you go to work before Maggie wakes up, before you get home after I put Maggie to bed and once in a while if I'm near the house or have a light day".

What type of porn?  Never mind......I don't even want to know the answer to that.  How long is this been going on or when did it start"?

"The same type of porn that every guy has on his computer or his phone and I would say probably about a month ago".  

There was really no sense in me lying to her or trying to cover anything up, she had found me out and while humiliating I did have to face the consequences, so I might as well answer her questions.  How did I know there would be consequences?  Because I was married, to a female, and with females there are always consequences to everything you do that she does not 100% approve of.

"None of the men that I know at work or socially have porn on their computer or phone".

"Jen, I can't speak for work but I can tell you that every single male you know socially I know was well and they all have porn on their phone or their computer".

"Really"?

"Really".

"James, I don't approve of it and I do not like it.  All acts of sex for a married couple should be between them only, no solo activity, no extracurricular activity.  I want you to stop".

"Jen I only started because you didn't want any sex and I was done with my chores".

Looking at her eyes at that moment I thought our two year marriage was over then and there, the anger was that palpable. Then came the hurt and the tears and the run into the bathroom where she slammed the door and I heard the lock click.

"Jen, I am sorry, please come out, we can talk some more". I pled at the door.

"Go away and please sleep on the couch tonight and just leave me alone".