#SCA projects
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aangussca · 28 days ago
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Medusazoa Slumber (March 2025)
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Artist Statement
“It opens, and it closes and you reach for it.
The blue surrounding it grows cloudy, and it floats away from you.” - Excerpt from Marianne Moore’s ‘A Jelly-Fish’ (1909)
During my sleep, specifically in the stages between deep sleep and dreaming, I often feel a “drifting” sensation as if I’m floating in the ocean. 
Inspired by the creative perspectives of poet Marianne Moore and video artist Aron Sanchez-Baranda, my aim was to transform the jellyfish into a symbol of dreams and sleep, mirroring the aforementioned “drifting” sensation between the two states. 
I also see the jellyfish as having a meditative presence, emblematic of the nature of dreams: multifaceted, emotive, fleeting. 
Species featured in the footage (recorded June 2024) I used for this small project:
Greater moon jellyfish (specifically Aurelia labiata)
Purple-striped jellyfish (Chrysaora colorata)
Pacific sea nettle (Chrysaora fuscescens)
Visual concepts
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Reused soundtrack (originally made on Ableton in August 2024)
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foldingfittedsheets · 1 year ago
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My betrotheds mom is big in the SCA and does tons of hand sewing and period accurate clothes, she’s got several custom made outfits and enters competitions with her special projects.
One of them she meticulously researched and created a custom glove. I have no idea how much work goes into such a thing other than A Lot but whenever she tells us stories about these competitions she’s always slighted in favor of flashier offerings.
Her most recent endeavor was some kind of stiff collar. I’m not going to embarrass myself pretending to know the specifics but the original ones back in the day used layers of fabric and whale baleen to get a nice strong silhouette. She researched the crap out of it and wrote up a report to go along with the item.
At the judging one of the judges commented, “Well, it’s alright, but it’s so disappointing that it’s not fully authentic, why didn’t you use whale baleen?”
She sputtered out, “Well, if you’d read my report you’d know it’s because it’s illegal!”
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gilmores-glorious-blog · 10 months ago
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happy pride from these gay bitches!!
(vox machina version)
(bells hells version)
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maedhbhcrafts · 6 months ago
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The hood is done!!
I am genuinely so happy with how it turned out, and it feels so nice to wear. And, bonus, I have an event this weekend that will be perfect to wear it to!
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thejoyofseax · 2 months ago
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Egg-Enriched Porridge
Thinking further about the German Wholegrain Porridges, I was looking again at the bit about adding eggs. As noted there, that's the final step for frumenty, and also for modern egg fried rice.
This morning, I gave it a shot, and added two eggs to standard oatmeal porridge made with milk. The result was good, and extremely filling - I can normally absent-mindedly dispose of a 1.5 cup oatmeal/3 cup milk batch while reading without really noticing, and I couldn't finish the same amount of the egg-enriched version.
It definitely lends itself to savoury additions - I tried ham, butter and grated cheddar, and had most success with the cheese. I'd like to try it with cumbled blue cheese at some stage, and also with scallions, in the way that Chinese rice porridge is eaten. Wild garlic scapes might also be interesting, and indeed most vegetables could go over the top pretty well. I tried a little jam, and didn't find it to go well, but tastes might vary. I'm also wondering if there's anything in early medieval Ireland that would cover an umami taste, like soy sauce in East Asia, and murri in medieval Arabic food.
I'm considering plausible ways of serving these foods, too. I think that a central pot of porridge on a table or on the floor, surrounded by various additions and condiments, around which people sit to eat from small bowls, would be interesting. This reflects period dining for many other places.
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sca-friends · 1 month ago
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Hey!
Does anybody remember these pictures? ( @systlin ?)
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Well, get ready for Round Two - Armored Boogaloo! Coming soon!
A friend convinced me to do a photoshoot wearing my armor as a means to reestablish feeling powerful in it.
After a whirlwind of unexpected deaths, personal struggles, loss of interest, etc. I had stepped away from doing a lot of the stuff I loved, but now it's time to get back in it.
By immediately panicking over how much I need to repair or replace on my kit so that it looks good...
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oddlittlestories · 16 days ago
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I have completed my first dress
gores are !!!!!!!! but I fucking nailed it tbqh
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jaraxles · 4 months ago
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SCA post:
So I'll be fighting in the spring Crown Tournament coming up that has rapier as it's weapon form here in the East Kingdom. Naturally, I need a shield for the list tree. I know a lot of details will be lost while it's up in the air but I don't care. I'm thrilled how it came out.
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whennnow · 2 years ago
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Two T-Tunics
September 19, 2023
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[Image ID: the bodice and sleeves of two basic medieval tunics - one pink and one blue.]
While my ultimate goal with SCA garb is to create a 14th century capsule wardrobe, I know it will be a while before I have the money to buy all the wool and linen I'd need and the time to make anything out of it.
So I'm starting with something more basic. The uniform of SCA-dians everywhere - the T-tunic!
The basic pattern can be adapted to fit many eras, whether as a base layer or fashion layer, as a shirt or a dress.
The Fabric
You can make t-tunics out of basically any fabric. Linen and wool are the most historically-accurate, and silk probably is too.
Unfortunately, that's not really in my budget right now, so I used two thrifted cotton bed sheets, which I think are queen sized. I got two tunics for $5 of fabric!
The Pattern
These tunics are made out of simple geometric shapes - rectangles for the body and sleeve gussets, triangular skirt gores, and either rectangles or trapezoids for sleeves.
To make things easier on myself, I used this "Custom Smock Pattern Generator" from elizabethancostume.net to make the pattern, then cut out the shapes it gave me with added seam allowance.
Assembly
Instructions for assembling a t-tunic have been written probably hundreds of times, so I'll direct you back to elizabethancostume.net to spare you another explanation.
I usually flat-fell seams on things like this, but I wanted to minimize the amount of hand sewing I had to do while also not having any visible machine stitching, so I french seamed everything.
I used a facing for the neckline instead of a binding and hand-sewed the edges of that down.
The sleeve and skirt hems were also hand-sewn.
A Note on Fitting
The smock generator pattern I used takes into account your shoulder width, and seems to direct to instructions on how to measure that, but it wouldn't show up for me. As a result, I suspect my measurement was too narrow.
While the resulting shapes fit well over my bust and waist, I almost couldn't get it on over my shoulders!
Thankfully, I had suspected this issue, so my first smock was a few inches wider than the generated pattern called for. I added a bit more width to my second tunic.
Looking Forward
I'm glad to have a base for my medieval/SCA wardrobe, but I can't wait to expand! I want to do some basic accessories next, like linen veils.
I already have a few other accessories - a thrifted straw hat, one of those long fantasy/ren faire/sorta medieval belts, and a mug.
I also have decent-sized leftovers from these bed sheets - I'll save most of it to line wool hoods, but I'll use some small pieces to make drawstring bags to hang from my belt.
Stay tuned for a post on plotting out my plans for garb! In the meantime,
Stay warm, stay safe, and stay healthy.
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[Image ID: a photo of Alex in a blue tunic with a dark belt, holding a mug as if raising a toast.]
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kieraoonadiy · 2 months ago
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Adding my small tablet weaving to the mix. TBH it's not hard, its just hard to remember which way to rotate the cards before you get stuck
There are patterns called "twist neutral" that you might want to look up. I can't remember the source for it. I remember someone in the SCA-sphere telling me there was someone on youtube who teaches those twist neutral weaves
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When I was done with this weave, I used it as a decorative element for a hat I made for college
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Just a short video of my card weaving in progress
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aangussca · 5 months ago
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Rhythms of Nature (2024)
Artist Statement:
I am very passionate about art and biology.
This is why a majority of my artistic practices have included an overarching theme in some capacity: the overlap between art and science, and their interconnectedness within our world.
Rhythms of Nature (2024) expands on the artmaking and conceptual practice of my previous installation Organic Space (2024), which investigated the idea of soundscape ecology.
In the expanded practice for Rhythms of Nature, I wanted to create connections between art, music, and soundscapes of the natural world. Through these connections, I attempted to answer the following questions:
“Where and how do music, art, and the natural world overlap? And can music, fused with art, 'mimic' natural sounds?”
I applied ideas from the soundscape ecologist Bernie Krause, the polymath Wolfgang von Goethe, and the artist Emeka Ogboh to the development process of Rhythms of Nature.
Krause proposed that natural and man-made sounds are not created in the same way. Instead, they each have their unique patterns and frequencies.
Drawing from his experiences in music, he also used musical terminology in his research on natural soundscapes – his practice focusing on the overlap between music and acoustic ecology.
Ogboh’s artistic practice experimented with the ability of sound and art to “transport” people to different places.
For example, his installation Lagos State of Mind III (2017/2020) combined cityscape motifs with hybrid soundscapes made up of field recordings from Berlin and Lagos.
The result was a multisensory experience where you could see and hear “Lagos through Berlin’s eye and vice versa”.
I translated two fundamental aspects of Organic Space into the development of Rhythms of Nature: the soundscapes and the animations.
Both the ‘aquatic’ and ‘terrestrial’ soundscapes are made up of two components:
Multiple biophonic (sounds made by non-human organisms) and geophonic (sounds made by non-biological phenomena such as weather, water and geological processes) sounds, which were field recordings
Two musical tracks per soundscape, with four musical tracks total (created in the program Ableton)
While I retained some tracks from the creation of Organic Space, I created multiple new field recordings and musical tracks, arranging all the audio files into a more multilayered soundscape.
I also created several newer animations alongside one or two of the animations from Organic Space, both being created on the program Procreate.
All the animations were inspired by natural textures, colours, motions, and forms within aquatic and terrestrial environments.
This time, I wanted to experiment with a broader spectrum of textures, colours and frame rate in the animations.
Both components form the projected short film for Rhythms of Nature, a looped narrative sequence shortened from ~4mins to ~2 mins for greater narrative cohesion and impact.
In his book Theory of Colours (1810), Goethe suggested that darkness is just as crucial to the visual experience as light and colour.
He believed that colour resulted from the interplay between darkness and light, therefore, “colour itself is a degree of darkness”.
The third and most challenging aspect was approaching the installation of Rhythms of Nature.
Drawn from Goethe’s theories, darkness and negative space play a significant role in how my projected film interacts with its surroundings.
In one of my initial plans, I explored projection-mapping onto white ceramic sculptures, translating animated forms into a 3D space.
Due to my limited skills in ceramics and wanting to focus on creating a more cohesive installation, I took fabric strips, cut at multiple different lengths, and layered them in rows to resemble ocean waves and a tree canopy.
This arrangement also allows the short film to exist in three spaces:
The first space is formed by the surfaces of the fabric and the wall, where the film exists as ‘light’.
The second space is formed by shadows cast by the fabric, where the film exists as ‘darkness’.
The third space is formed by the translucency of the short film within the shadows, where it exists as ‘colour’.
I would expect members of the audience to experience the installation in ways that are unique to them: some will experience the immersive soundscapes more than the visual aspects, some will be drawn to the visual aspects, and some will experience both equally.
Link to all of the research and process documentation for this project (search under the following tag: #year 3 art studio project 2): www.tumblr.com/aangussca
Installation documentation (full video):
(Please ignore the small periodic clicks as they were not part of the soundscape.)
Soundscape and short film (on its own):
Installation documentation (photos):
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Research references
Crary, Johnathan. “Subjective Vision and the Separation of the Senses.” In Techniques of the observer: on vision and modernity in the 19th century, 67–96. Massachusetts: MIT Press, 1990.
Dinneen, James. “Sounds of the forest.” New Scientist, May 18, 2024.
Krause, Bernie., and Roger Payne. “The Language of Soundscapes: New Words for Old Sounds.” In Wild Soundscapes : Discovering the Voice of the Natural World, 55-68. Connecticut: Yale University Press, 2016.
Ogboh. "Ten Minutes with Emeka Ogboh: On Active Listening." In MoMA (Museum of Modern Art), July 14, 2023. Podcast, website, 9:37. https://www.moma.org/magazine/articles/923.
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connorchen-saddog8 · 1 year ago
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What Happened To Chair Porn?
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Above notes are some initial brainstorms about this idea and some feedback from Harry.
Inspiration
The phenomena of the internet "lolcow" and act of extensive pervasive documentation of one persona only made possible by the rapidness of contemporary / technology. Resulting in internet archival histories and documentations, almost to an obsessive point, of a specific persona, engraining their legacy into internet culture which reverberate through the public internet consciousness.
Eroticism and its evolution caused by the advancements in technology and communication. (looking to Gene Youngblood's Synaesthetic Cinema and Polymorphus Eroticism). It talks about how with the invention of video and tape? porn? more easily accessible porn i guess - Erotica and sex is being depicted in a less sinful light in cinema, as well as its manifestations within art. Thinking about this in the lens of contemporary technology in social media. Both the insane accessibility of porn at the click of a button (which obviously has worrying implications in terms of exploitation etc) but also the "chronically online" side of things? Fetish art, rule 34, the ms paint home made obscure kind of "porn" made by a forum user about their never-before-heard of fetish about their favourite character buying wonderbread.
The exponential growth of the internet and the digital landscape. It's all so new, but the internet 10 years ago is a completely different animal than it is now. Something from 2016 is historical because of just how fast and everything it is.
Performance and the visceral real being an impossibility on the current digital landscape. The thin veil of performance and suspension of disbelief anyone must have to encounter anything on the internet. It's so unreal! its so real!
Objects
The archival resources and rabbit holes of internet "theorists". Old blog posts and forums of early internet, the exponentially growing mound of media in the form of TikTok, YouTube, Instagram. Specifically the video essay farm on YouTube - media analysis or "tea" reporters. Horrible YouTube thumbnails. MS paint fetish art.
Idea summary
The work will consist of 3 layers of media focused on performance and the screen in a hyper-online shape. This passage will be written like I am describing fictional personas, and they are at once fictional, real, strangers, and all me. 0.5. Chair porn. i intend to recreate a corny porno with chairs. No voice over but just silence, wood creaking, subtitles of furniture delight. 1. This chair porn will have a chair porn creator, dedicated to the point of obsession to creating and documenting the process of creating chair porn. This person becomes an internet staple, akin to Chris Chan and her creation of sonichu. Art born of chronically online shaky mspaint lines and divine magnum opus of a not so sane creator in a constantly exposed online environment. This is genuine. 2. This internet persona and his craft will become a sort of lolcow. A spectacle to watch, analyse and document. Video essays and archives spawn from internet "theorists". Forums discussing this person, informal documentaries (youtube videos), essays. They are now a piece of internet history by no means of their own actions. They may not have been monumental, but they have become a part of the public internet consciousness. One specific video essay is made, going through the entire history of chair porn maker, analysing their practice and work, proposing theories and conspiracies. 3. I, Connor Chen, have strong opinions on this video essay discussing chair porn maker and the legacy of chair porn. I will present my opinion in a lecture theatre, playing the video essay on the screen and pause intermittently to voice my thoughts and objections. 3.5 I will record this and submit it as the final version.
After talking with Harry and figuring most of the stuff above out, he asked me what I was critiquing and I realised not much. I'm not so much critiquing these themes, (the pervasiveness of contemporary social media due to technological advances, or the over exposure of the common man as a result of this, or the fast paced nature of information and media, or the so called internet "theorists" and the archives of information created in the exponentially expanding yet short history of the internet.) as much as I am simply fascinated by them. I cannot really separate myself from this enough to condemn it.
some thoughts below that I can't quite place right now.
Materiality
Performance / Immersion / Suspension of Disbelief / fiction
Irony and humor of the chronically online
absurdist theatre
chair porn - commodity fetishism - what can be fetishized?
exponential lore of the internet
authorship and authority in performance
inspirations / references:
Expanded Cinema essay - Synaesthetic Cinema and Polymorphous Eroticism
Chris Chan and Sonichu
Erik bunger
video essayists (more so tea channels than art analysists)
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anomaly-hivemind · 6 months ago
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Dive In ☆ Merman! Gojo x Scrientist! Reader | Kinktober Day 14
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Summary: You were brought in to study a merman whom you heard was quite aggressive; however, he’s always been kind to you. You were able to get close. Maybe a bit too close.
Word Count: 3978
Tags: Merman!Gojo, afab!reader, vaginal penetration, scratch marks, porn with plot, cunnilingus, handjobs, experimental sex, mating, government facilities, the reader becomes a fugitive, mating rituals, creampie, breeding, transformations, wet dreams.
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When you got a call from the federal government you didn’t know what to expect. You were honestly a bit worried that you had done something you weren’t supposed to and were going to be silenced. The last thing you expected to see however was a mermaid, or merman in this case.
You were a  NOAA scientist and had seen so many strange sea creatures, so the possibility of mermaids being out there wasn't out of the realm of possibility. However, you didn’t think that they would exist like this. The closest thing humanity has had to mermaids is manatees and dugongs. When thinking critically this is what most people assumed mermaids would look similarly to. That they would have rough skin and blubber and coarse hair or fur. However, this merman swimming before you looked like something right out of a fairy tale.
Based on the way it floated around his head, his hair looked to be the same texture as human hair. His whole upper half looked to be very human aside from the gills you could see on the sides of his neck, the fins on his arms, and the fin-like ears he had. 
“Ah Dr.L/N, Pleased to meet you,” An older man came up to you and extended his hand. He was in a fine pair of slacks and a pristine button-down with a black tie and white lab coat overtop. 
You took his hand and gave it a firm shake. He introduced himself as the lead researcher for this top-secret project and gave you the rundown. A fisherman from a small town in Kauai, Hawaii called in about a wild animal of some sort stealing fish. Eventually, another fisherman got a strange “Fishman” caught in his nets and called the Coast Guard, and from there, it became a bit more about coverup from the general public. The fisherman was compensated handsomely to keep hush and this merman was carted off to this government facility.
They began running tests and researching the merman however he attacked one of the researchers and they ended up losing an eye. So they had to pivot and decided to bring in someone with expertise in predatory marine life, that being you.
You looked back at the white-haired merman in the tank, he didn’t look aggressive, but you’d have to be an idiot to think that he wasn’t actually dangerous.
“I’ll let you take over as lead researcher, come on and I’ll introduce you to the team.” You followed after him and met the other researchers. It was a small group, most likely for the sake of confidentiality. They were kind but you didn’t want to waste any time chatting when you were eager to learn more about the merman.
The tank of the merman was that of a large shark, it was important to keep a new species as comfortable as possible to avoid any personal injuries. At the bottom it was made of the usually thick tempered glass of any high-grade aquarium, Is almost twenty feet deep of water, wide enough for the merman to swim freely without bumping into the walls, and filled to the brim with clean salt water filtering into the tank. 
A cage was newly added on top of the tank after the first incident to ensure the workers' safety. So the only way to get up close and personal was up the flight of stairs and through the locked door to stand on the built-in ledge over the water/tank opening. 
You walked back over to the tank where the merman swam around lethargically. You ripped off a paper from a nearby notepad and took the pen as you began writing basic facts about his appearance.
Long white hair, pale skin, silvery-blue scales covering the tail, and a few stray clusters of scales in the torso here and there, slightly forked caudal fin, fins are a translucent dark blue. About 12 ft long. You looked back up and were met with the merman in question staring back at you. His eyes were such a mesmerizing shade of blue, like the sky, or shining jewels. 
You wondered if it was an evolutionary trait to aid hunting. His webbed hands were pressed up against the glass with his sharp nails on display. 
Yeah, definitely dangerous. You thought, thinking back to the researcher who lost an eye.
One of the researchers called for you and when you turned back round the merman had swam to the back of the tank. You were looking forward to officially starting work.
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The first few days you spent observing the merman’s behaviors. It seemed like he could tell what fish had been the most recently caught because that’s what he prefers. 
You put in an order request for aquatic plants as you wanted to see if he was omnivorous however they hadn’t come in yet. Based on his behavior you would say that he’s just as curious about you as you are to him. He had never displayed aggressive behavior when you were around and he wasn’t exactly eating from your hand but you could hand the fish to him at feeding times instead of tossing it into the tank like the other researchers.
You were sitting by the tank, reviewing your notes and drawing diagrams of his outward physiology when you heard someone call your name.
“Hello?” You called out, looking up from your work, however no one was there.
“Y/N…” They called out again. You looked towards the tank and saw the merman peering over the edge, his hands were gripping the metal bars and he was looking at you curiously.
“Y/N,” He repeated…
“You can talk?!” The merman cocked his head before diving back into the tank. You raced to the top and peered over the edge. He swam back to the top and looked at you. 
“Y/N.” He can really talk.
“Yes, that’s my name, Y/N.” You said, gesturing to yourself.”Do you have a name?”
“Y/N,” he repeated once again. You sighed. Maybe he can only make parrot noises. It was impressive nonetheless.
“I am Y/N, you are…?”
“Sa..to..ru,” He said. “Satoru,” He said. His bright eyes stare back at you.
“Okay then, nice to meet you Satoru,” You smiled.
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Satoru picked up speaking fairly quickly, he wasn't fluent and often flubbed his sentences but he had a good grasp of language. With that addition, it became much easier to observe his personality and mannerisms. 
He had no concept of money but boy did he have expensive taste. Almost immediately after learning how to speak, he began voicing complaints and making requests. Apparently, the cod and red snapper he’s being fed aren’t good enough, and after much back and forth on what exactly he was talking about he requested bluefin tuna, Alaskan salmon, and swordfish. 
He was very playful, at least with you. He Loved to call your name… and to tell the other researchers to go away. Those were his favorite things to say.
You walked up the stairs with your lunch and lunch for Satoru, which was halibut today. 
“Hello, Y/N,” Satoru said, quickly swimming up to the surface and flashing you a sharp-tooth smile.
“Hello Satoru,” You tossed him the fish and he began eating eagerly. You applied sanitizer then wiped your hands with a wet wipe before opening your lunch to begin eating. 
“What’s that?” Satoru asked, looking back at you, he was somehow already done eating.
“This is nigiri sushi, it’s thinly sliced raw fish over rice. Wanna try some?” 
“Really?” He said, with wide eyes. You nodded, taking a piece of salmon nigiri and offering it to him. Instead of taking it, he ate it straight out of your hand in one bite. His cold lips tickled and he licked the stray grains of rice from your hand.
“So… what do you think?”
He was silent for a moment before smiling back at you. It made your heart flutter a bit but you pushed the feeling back.
“I Like it,”
“Here have some more,” you said, offering straight from the box this time.
When you went home and went to sleep that night you had a dream about Satoru, He was human. His white hair was short and fluffy, and he still had piercing blue eyes. You were lying on the beach together on the sand, and for some reason, he was kissing all over your legs, his plump lips softly made their way up your legs, and right as his face was inches away from your groin you woke up.
You woke up covered in sweat, your pajamas sticking to your skin as you stared up in the dark abyss. Your breath heaved… and it took a while before you could go back to sleep.
After that day, Satoru became even more attached to you and complained when you weren’t by his side. 
A while later the head researcher stopped by to see how things were going.
“So I hear you’ve gotten pretty close with the merman, even got him to talk,”
“Satoru, yes. He’s very interesting, he has two pairs of lungs one for the air and the other for the dissolved oxygen in the water and..” You proceeded to ramble on about what you’ve learned and his personality. “While he is a predator I haven’t been able to observe any real aggressive behavior, he’s always so sweet and curious when I’m around- oh I’m sorry I’m rambling,”
The head researcher laughed and waved his hand,” You’re all good, almost sounds like love to me.”
Your face grew hot and you laughed off what he said.”What can I say, I really love my work,”
“That’s amazing, you’ve been doing wonderful work here.” He said looking at all the data you’ve collected.
“I’m sensing a but…” You said, wringing your hands together nervously.
“I’ll get right to the point then, you don’t have any data on how or if they reproduce,”
Oh… right. You were certainly curious about it since you learned he could talk, you had been putting it off, it felt less like research and more like an invasion of his privacy.
“I’ll get on it, sir,” You nodded.
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You headed over to the tank with papers to talk with Satoru. As usual, when you walked up, Satoru swam right over with his usual smile.
“Hello Y/N,”
“Hello Satoru,” You said with a sigh.”So I had a few questions, but they’re a bit more personal.” You blushed thinking about it, you’d start off with the normal stuff first.
“Okay,”
“So are there others out there like you? Before you came here were you in a group?”
“A few. But I was not with a pod before being here.” He answered.
“Why weren’t you with your pod?”
“I was looking. Looking for a mate.” He said, his eyes meeting yours.
“Oh, is that what you all do? Split off to find a mate?” You asked.
“No, just me. A mate is an equal, in the pod I am the best. No equal, no mate. So I went off, to find another strong as me.”
“How long have you been looking for a mate?” Pausing from what you were writing.
He paused for a moment before answering.”Twenty-Eight moon cycles,”
That was about two years! Must get lonely, all by himself, separated from his pod, you thought. Maybe you could help him escape, you could convince them that it’s better to observe the group rather than one mercreature on its own (I mean you weren’t lying.)
“So if you could, I guess you would go home huh?” you asked, already knowing the answer.
“Only if you went.” You were surprised by that answer.
“Why me?”
“It’s bad to leave mates behind,” he answered. At first, you thought he was joking but you remembered you hadn’t explained the concept yet, he was completely serious.
“Satoru, what makes you think we’re mates?” You asked, your face growing a bit hot.
“You share your nigiri with me; only mates share food, or parents and pups.”
Oh…
Oh…
OH…
No wonder he was so surprised when you offered him the Nigiri, and why he’s been so clingy.
“I didn’t know, I’m sorry,”
“You don’t want to be my mate then?” He asked with a sad expression which made you feel like you were shot through the heart.
“It’s not exactly that, I’m not a mermaid, I can’t breathe underwater,”
“Mates can be human, you’ll change after the mate bond,”
“I’ll grow a tail?” you asked bewildered.
“No, gills, scales, fins, then tail”
“I’m not nearly as physically strong as you either,” You replied.
“No, but you know many things, knowing many things like fish, many things that will be good for the pod.”
While you were intrigued by the process it just seemed like too much. At least that’s what you tried to tell yourself.
“It’s me then, you don’t like me.”
“No, no, no I do like you, I love you, Satoru, but ah-” You stopped when you caught what you said.
“...Love? What’s what?”
“It’s when others feel strongly about each other, when they really really like eachother or something. Like families or friends or a pet… or a mate…” You said swallowing nervously.
“So you love me?” He asked, his body basically pressed up against the edge of the platform.
“...yes,”
“Do you love me like family?”
“... No,” you said, shaking your head.
“Like a pet?”
“No,”
“Then do you love me like a mate?” You looked back at him and as you looked into his eyes you knew the answer.
“Yes, Satoru, I love you, I’ll be your mate.” As you said those words he had the biggest grin on his face and dived back into the water, swiftly swimming in circles and flipping out of the water. You laughed, you had never seen him this happy before.
He swam back over to where you sat and leaned over your lap, water dripping onto your legs.
“How does mating work anyways?”
“It’s easier to show than to tell, but not here, in shallow water,” He explained.
“Okay, then I guess I definitely have to break you out of here then, It wouldn’t be right to leave my mate locked up in some secret government facility.”
You waited until dark when everyone had gone aside from security here and there before you began your heist. You got one of the big carts they wheeled around all the fish they fed Satoru in and filled it with water. Then there was the painstaking process of getting him out of the tank and down the stairs. You knew you couldn't carry him when he weighed well over eight hundred pounds so you had to guide him and make sure he didn’t hurt himself as he flopped down the metal stairs.
Then you wheeled him out and into your car, however the best you could do for him was plenty of tarps and an inflatable pool to turn the back seat of your minivan into a makeshift tank of some sort, You grabbed some things from home and then drove to where you hoped no one could find you, which just so happened to be a place that looked like a mermaid grotto.
It wasn’t easy to get him from your car to the water but it was worth it to see the smile on his face.
“Y/n, dive into the water,” Satoru called; you stripped from your clothes and cannonballed into the spring. Satoru swam in circles around you; his blue fins sparkled under the moonlight. 
You laughed as he made small splashes around you. He swam closer to you and wrapped his wet arms around your waist. 
“Uhh Satoru…?”
“Didn’t you want to know how we mate?” Satoru said in a low voice, the seductive look in his eyes sent a chill down your spine. His cool fingers caressed your face, pushing your loose hair behind your ear. 
“Yeah,” you turn to fully look at him, wrapping your arms around him. 
“Great,” His lips pressed against yours, happily obliging to kiss him back. As you continued, the kiss became heated. His cold fingers slipped down your bare skin, and your back pressed against the edge of the grotto pool. 
“I can't say I'll be fully gentle but I'll make sure you're fully taken care of,” he said as his nails scratched against your skin. You hissed, and he pressed soft kisses to your neck. The mating process was kinda rough, but you liked it as well. 
“If you don’t mind me asking why is the scratching necessary?” you  do your best to look at the marks on your skin.
“Scratching is arousing, You are turned on, are you not?” he runs his sharp nail down your arm slightly.
“Yes, but I can show you a better way,” You said, guiding his hand down to your cunt. His eyes widened a bit as he felt your folds with the pads of his fingers. As he pressed against your mound of flesh, you could feel the webbing between his fingers, between that and those nails of his, you were certain there wouldn’t be any fingering for you today. 
He pressed against your clit, and you took a sharp breath. He quirked his head to the side. 
“Does that feel good?” he whispered while staring up into your eyes.
You nodded and added more. His fingers began massaging your nub in small circles. You rested your head on his shoulder and let out a little moan. 
“Bite me” Gojo whimpered and it took a second to process what he said. But you were already on his shoulder the least you could do was obliged him. You sink your teeth into his shoulder and with his thick skin was tough to mark into him. He lets out a pleased hiss as you effectively caused a small dent just off near his gills. 
“Now it's your turn. Sorry, this may hurt a bit,” he said teasingly, her lips ghosting over your skin before he sunk his teeth into your shoulder. You winced with how deep his teeth were; you were sure that they had drawn blood.
Satoru wrapped his hands around your waist and lifted you out of the water onto the rocks. He gently parted your legs before leaning forward. He pressed soft, tender kisses to your inner thighs. His cold lips tickled and made your stomach do somersaults. His tongue took a precautionary lick to your pussy before lapping at your wet folds. 
A small moan escaped your lips as his lips closed around your clit. His tongue circled, flicked, and sucked out your sensitive bud. You couldn’t control the noises that were coming out of your mouth, and your legs were enclosing around Satoru’s head. He used his strong hands to hold them open, his wet palms gripping your thighs. 
Just as you were about to release all over his face, Satoru pulled away. You whined and looked up at him.
“Don’t you wanna get to the good part?” He gave you a smirk.
He slid up onto the rocks beside you and positioned himself in an off-able way. Your hand hovered in the air for a moment, and you weren’t quite sure what you were supposed to be doing. You guessed that Satoru sensed your confusion because he grabbed your hand and guided it to where a slit was ah, yes, his mermanussy. Your fingers slipped around and stroked the area for a moment before his long, smooth length slipped out of it, springing out from its sheath and bobbing in the air. 
Your hand warped around his member and stroked it up and down a few times. He was slightly slimy and slim-tipped, with it being more skin color. Your finger teased his tip, and his sticky precum followed in strong lines attached to your fingers. You twisted and turned your hands as you jerked him until he was amply hard.
Now that he was rock hard, you positioned yourself to be on top of him and slowly sunk down on his cock. You moaned, and Satoru hissed. 
“There's no going back now,” you said and slowly began to move your hips to meet him. He grabs your hips and moves up to suck in your skin. 
“You feel so good~” Satoru tightened his grip and started to fuck up into you. You pressed yourself on his chest to be upright in order to not be a mushed mess laying on top of him. You flattened your hands on his chest as you rode him gently, your hole clenched around him as you bounced on his long cock. Wet sounds and the lewd noise of skin slapping against skin bouncing around the grotto walls, along with the wanton moans coming from your mouth. 
The rocking of his hips meets yours as you hold back the urge to wiggle and squirm. Your walls flutter around his length, and you take him in a kiss. It was messy, passionate, and pretty uncoordinated, but neither did you care because you were caught up in the moment.
Satoru tilts your body back a bit as he ruts into you with a new determined force. You felt like you had little control at this unbalanced angle. He licks your breast and kisses your neck, and you let out whines and moans. Satoru let out a few whimpers as he got closer to climax, and you were definitely right along with him.
“Ahh, I’m gonna cum, come inside me!” you panted out, feeling like the air was getting harder to breathe.
You couldn't come back anymore, and you let yourself experience a sweet release. The walls of your cunt clench around him as he comes, and your juices leak around the base of his cock. Around the same time, Satoru groaned, his grip on you growing tighter and his nails digging into your hips, and hot ropes of cum spilled inside your pussy. Your warm walls milked him of every last drop, the translucent milky liquid leaking from your hole. 
You slowly remove him from inside you, feeling his fluid leaking out of you with a sticky slowness. 
You smile fondly as you rest against his chest. You fell asleep on his strong chest. Not much later, you woke up to a strange sensation. You had a strong urge to jump in the water like it would be more enriching than the air. You slowly and carefully slipped out of Satoru’s arms and into the water. As your head ducks under you find yourself not needing to hold your breath. You reached up and felt delicate gills on the sides of your neck.
Then scales pushed their way through your skin, and fins sprouted out along with webbing between your fingers finally, and most uncomfortably, your legs stuck themself together and overtop grew flesh and scales. Your legs and back hurt so bad like your bones were breaking and reforming. However, the pain didn’t last longer than a few moments, and when you flexed your new tail, it felt much more flexible than you imagined. It was almost like your body was a worm in a string with the way you could toggle around. 
When satoru woke up he looked over at your new form with admiration. He slipped into the water to get a better view. You looked out at the surface world one last time before taking Satoru’s hand and diving into the world below. 
“So, are you excited to see your pod after such a long time?”
“I’m excited for you to pop out some guppies,” Satoru smirked as you both swam off to your new life.
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maedhbhcrafts · 8 months ago
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The green tunic is done! Trim added and everything!
And just in time to, as I leave for the event I want to wear this to tonight. It's going to be part of my court outfit and I'm planning on wearing it over a fawn colored dress that I already owned. I'll see if I can get a picture of the full outfit to post for later.
But yeah, first finished project since I started this blog! (of course is the was the spontaneous spur of the moment one)
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01zfan · 22 days ago
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venusian
producer!anton x alien!reader | 10k words
another installment of my rock the house seriez! this was fun to write even though it took me forever.
contains: face sitting, alot of implied sex, intergalactic booty call, anton catching feelings
rock the house masterlist
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Anton gripped the metal of his fire escape, looking down at street below him.
He was a struggling artist, not the type that leaped over banisters down to oncoming traffic but the one that watched. He watched people like they were characters in movies, crafting stories for each single one. The student rushing to beat the light had an assignment waiting for them when they got home. The mother that had to pull her kids behind her on a plastic scooter worked all day, the man was looking at his phone was texting his mistress.
Honestly, it was too cold for Anton to be outside. He was also too busy to be doing this. He had a list of things to do before his band released their newest project. But like a thousand times before, the closer Venusian got to the release date of music Anton started getting sentimental and spending his time doing things he shouldn’t be doing. Procrastination is what Wonbin called it, Sohee referred to it as cold feet. In the deep corner of Internet somewhere they would say this was a product of Anton being a hack, and each project Venusian released, the world was closer to finding it out. 
Now, Anton couldn’t dispute this. He was talented, no one could take that away from him. From a young age he was able to play instruments at an advanced level and read classical music like it was a second language. Reading notes on a musical staff came to him faster than reading actual words in a book. He confused his teachers with his disdain for math when he was so easily able to divide a beat down to the hemidemisemiquaver. He was born with perfect pitch and a metronome built into his feet, and was able to memorize anything music related at the drop of a hat. 
Anton knew it would be to everyone’s dismay if they found out how often he lost faith in himself. Why would someone who was held in such high regard lose his poise so often? Why would someone so talented refuse to claim the section leader position when it so clearly belonged to him? Anton—and apparently the trolls on the Internet—knew the answers to these questions long before everyone else. He looked over the railing looking for inspiration because like he knew he was a musical prodigy, he also knows he doesn’t have a creative bone in his body.
He knew no one would understand. Creativity wasn’t sight reading music perfectly or being able to tune the other people in your section when they were off key. Creativity to Anton was being able to pull something from the depth of your mind. He would’ve settled for ideas coming to him slowly, but they didn’t come to him at all. Anton needed months to compose sheet music, and atleast a week notice if he had to improvise for the class. Everything he did was too refined, devoid of emotion. He blamed it on the classical cello lessons his mother put him in the moment he expressed an interest in music. He believed his young impressionable brain never had the ability to entertain the idea of music before the technical aspect of was shoved down his throat. He never got the luxury of being that kid that banged on pots and pans with abandon because he liked the way it sounded—he was the kid that had a private lessons teacher looming over him with a ruler in case he got anything wrong.
Anton lacked the complex understanding of the ebbs and flows of the music and where modern musicians fit into the crests. He was able to hide his failings as a musician until he made it to university, where each of his teachers seemed to pick up on it like a sixth sense. 
He believed he was cursed when his senior project called for him to write and produce a whole mini album. The technical aspect of it all didn’t frighten him, he knew the ins and outs of producing software. What scared Anton shitless was that he had nothing to produce. He could hear a note and know exactly where it landed but he could never find out why it was that note. What drove someone to sing in minor key instead of major key, what idea popped into someones mind to make something? 
Anton needed creativity if he wanted to graduate. At the very least enough to get him through five songs that were three to five minutes in length. He stayed after hours sitting in a practice room in silence looking for creativity, then he spent time drafting an extremely long and pitiful email to his faculty advisor. 
Right before Anton could press send and reveal his biggest secret, he met his first bandmate. 
(Technically, Anton heard Sohee before he met him. As he edited the final line of his email he heard the distinct voice of someone in the practice room beside his. The soundproof walls couldn’t block the voice next door. Anton perked up, straightening his slouched back as he listened, really listened to the voice next to him. Even when the voice would chip away after losing air or crack when his throat would become strained Anton knew the voice was special. The organic sound was refreshing, it drew Anton in so much that his pitiful email was long forgotten. 
He left the practice room and peaked through the window. He looked at the back of Sohee’s head as he continued to sing, his hand gripping tightly on the music stand in front of him. When Sohee tipped his head back and another beautiful falsetto note bled through the door, Anton walked right in. He was able to connect a face to the voice, someone he had seen before. The nursing major in the music theory class Anton was a teacher’s aide for. Anton remembers Sohee’s reason for joining the class was to fulfill a requirement.)
From there the rest was history. Anton spoke with his foot in his mouth, the sudden idea of having someone sing on his final project coming out in a huff. Sohee looked from side to side before letting a confused huh? ring through the practice room. Anton only repeated himself in the same rushed manner, followed by him mentioning his final project.
Sohee kept the same confused tone and his hand still gripped his music stand from the exertion of hitting high notes as Anton explained his final project. Sohee didn’t really listen until Anton started flexing his knowledge in music, talking about being flatand breath control, things Sohee knew he had trouble with. 
Then, he started listening. He even worked his schedule around ever so slightly to fit their practice and recording sessions into the day. A week later, when the only thing Anton had to show for was song covers, Wonbin came around. He was in the same situation as Anton, up Shit Creek with no paddle and a final project that needed to be finished if he wanted to graduate. 
Everything was luck. Anton was lucky that he was able to turn in a completed mini album for his final project. He was lucky that his teacher practically forced him to upload the album to a streaming platform due to how refined it was for a senior project. Anton was extremely lucky that the blossoming indie community attached themselves to his work. He was lucky that he found his album earn a shining review from Pitchfork, and countless streams on his songs every night. 
Something that was a stroke of luck fueled by energy drinks and the overwhelming feeling of getting a failing grade on a final project made Anton, Sohee, and Wonbin famous. By the time school ended they were on the list of albums to listen to and in the middle of the sweltering heat of the summer the news broke. Senior Project by Unnamed was ranked as the Top 50 Indie Albums of the Decade. 
After that everyone found out about them pretty quickly. Wonbin couldn’t go on MySpace without it crashing. Sohee’s parents called him crying that their son was singing on the radio. Anton’s heart rate hadn’t been a normal BPM since early April.
The pressure to release something and have it be as good as the accident weighed heavy on him. The sole producer of his trio—and the de facto leader—couldn’t make a beat to save his life. The mere thought of sitting down and crafting something left him even more stumped than he was before. 
But before Anton could confess to Sohee and Wonbin that he couldn’t deliver the same way he did on Senior Project, he found out they were all in. Sohee dropped out of medical school and Wonbin quit his day job. Wonbin spent his earnings on a new guitar and Sohee spent his on vocal lessons. Anton was considering spending his money on a one-way plane ticket to Hawaii and never looking back. They couldn’t make you produce an album if they didn’t know where you were. He could’ve been sipping Mai Tai’s looking at the Oahu sunset but instead he sat out on the curb of Sohee’s apartment complex with his head in his hands as Wonbin and Sohee tried to understand what was wrong. 
Anton for the first time in his life voiced that although he was a prodigy, he had nothing to show for it. The confession came out like vomit, splattering on the concrete and warming underneath the sun. Wonbin looked up to the clouds while Sohee twisted his head away in defeat. Anton felt actual bile raise in his throat as grasshoppers rubbed their legs together in the silence.
Wonbin put a hand to his face to block the sun. Anton heard the muffled shock of Sohee saying he dropped out of med school for this. Then, as if lack of creativity could be cured in a weekend, Wonbin gave his recommendation.
“Let’s buy a van and go sleep in the forest. Completely disconnect with the world and reconnect with nature.” 
Wonbin said it so happily, backed with the reasoning that some rock band neither Sohee or Anton had heard of has done it before. Apparently the band went on a societal cleanse and came back to create  one of the best albums ever made.
(Years later, Anton listened to the album and hated Every. Single. Song.)
 In any other instance Anton would’ve called Wonbin crazy, but the lack of an album and the increasing pressure from everyone wanting a new body of work pushed Anton into reluctantly saying yes. So within the week Anton blew some of his earnings on a van, the three packed their bags and went to camp in the dense forest an hour away from their hometown. Wonbin’s words played again and again in Anton’s mind as he stayed in the passenger seat. He looked for creativity in the tall trees. Anton looked for it all and stayed in the front seat in an effort to see it first. 
When the sun no longer gave him light he switched to the flashlight in the glove compartment, keeping it close to his page full of marked out lyrics and mindless ramblings. He couldn’t think of anything else without lingering on each failed attempt. One of the last things that wasn’t crossed out was the tiny print at the bottom of the page. You’re not going to make it stared at him, it caused his flashlight to go out and it made a headache form right in the center of Anton’s head.
He came to the shocking discovery then and there that he was a one hit wonder, that he was lucky to have famous song on that found its way from an obscure streaming site to the biggest social media platform. His unnamed bands overnight success would dwindle within the week, and they would go back to living their regular pedestrian lives.
Anton finally gave up when he made it to the bottom of his page. He let the flashlight take a break in the cupholder between the two front seats and closed his notebook. He opened the glove compartment and slammed it shut a little too hard, not caring a bit when Wonbin groaned from the back of the van. Anton looked back to see Wonbin and Sohee dangerously close to cuddling as they both shared a single blanket on top of the small inflatable mattress. 
Anton turned away and rolled the window down by the plastic crank and stuck his head out as if inspiration would be carried into the van by the gentle wind. He balanced his head on his arm that hung out the window and sighed. He thought about the lyrics Wonbin wrote, how his bandmate had no instrumental to put it over. The sinking feeling Anton got at the thought of Sohee and Wonbin waking up tomorrow even more worried about the future of the band suffocated him. 
He opened the van door and shut it so hard the van rocked. 
Anton tried to find inspiration in the sound of twigs snapping underneath his foot, the absence of sound as the trees blew in the wind. He walked to the side of the van and leaned against it, hoping that something would whisper to him in the dead quiet of the night. 
When nothing came and only the moon shined down on him, Anton let out another sigh. He leaned his head back until he felt the large window of the van press his hair flat. He looked directly up to the moon, the only thing that seemed to be awake like him. The stars in the sky were shining bright, or maybe they were normal—Anton couldn’t remember the last time he looked to the night sky. He closed his eyes and fisted his hands so tight he could feel his nails dig into his palm. He pressed his head against the glass even harder, trying to remember the last time in his life he was so desperate for results. He drew in a breath, parted his lips, and screwed his eyes shut.
“Please give me something.” Anton whispered into the night.
When he opened his eyes he started laughing at himself for how ridiculous he sounded. Wishing on planets and stars for inspiration like he was a child. Talking to God like he wasn’t a man of science. He considered waking up Wonbin and Sohee to tell them that this wouldn’t work out. Dissolving the band before it even has a man, carrying on with their lives like they didn’t have the most downloaded EP on iTunes.
Anton looked down at his hands, spreading out his fingers so far he felt the stretch. These hands could play Flight of the Bumblebee with ease and could write a paper on music theory overnight, how could they not produce a song? Anton looked at the callouses on his fingers in the moonlight, twisting and turning the rings on his fingers to feel something. Everything about him was hard to the touch, but he felt so incredibly soft. Like he was about to cry, despite not being blessed with the talent of music. 
Anton wiggled his fingers again and felt the urge to curse at them. His eyes drifted to the shadow that was cast underneath him onto the ground.
He was still staring at his fingers when the white light of the moon shifted to a muted green. The change was so sudden Anton blinked first, making sure that his eyes weren’t failing him. When he realized the color being casted on him became hidden by the clouds, he looked up to the sky again. He saw something in the sky, a white cloud trailing behind it. Anton followed its path in the sky, walking around the edge of the van as it came closer and closer to making an impact on the Earth.
Anton’s first reaction was to drop his jaw. Then to pound on the side of the van, as if waking up the only two people on the planet more clueless than him would help. He mindlessly followed, stepping on leaves and twigs and tripping over things as he saw the thing come even closer. Right in front of Anton it crashed into the trees, then straight into the ground. Everything moved around him, he went backwards to hide behind the protection of the van. Underbrush was uprooted from the speed of the wind caused by the impact. 
Anton looked bak up to the sky. White moonlight replaced the green. He looked around. The sound of something falling was replaced with the normal sounds of the night. He looked down. The Earth didn’t split down the middle.
“What just happened?” Anton said to himself quietly. 
He peaked past the van, looking right where the crater would be. Past the lining of trees, less than a two minute walk away. Anton should get back in his car and drive away. But the fact that something unbelievable needs to happen to him made him stay in the same spot.
Anton debated for a long time on if he should take a step closer. More leaves and twigs snapped underneath his foot as he crossed by the van entirely. His blood went cold and everything in him told him to turn around. He should put the key in the ignition of his car and drive away. But he took another step. Then another. Anton creeped past the tree line walking like a prey animal. He looked back to the stationary white van behind him. There was still a chance to go back, but the something unbelievable was calling to him. Anton took the last step to make it to the edge of the crater before looking in.
His hair stood on end when he looked down into the impact on the earth. The circumference of the crater was the length of two vans put together, but it was deep. So deep that the bottom was almost hidden by the night. Anton had to bend down close to look deeper. 
When Anton saw something move in the crater, he was gone. He no longer was looking for something unbelievable to happen to him, inspiration be damned. He cleared out of the forest to make it to the van, opening up the back with an incredible amount of speed. The momentum caused the car to shake, and Anton’s hands were on the shoulders of his bandmates in seconds.
“A girl fell from the sky.” Anton said it quickly, shaking Wonbin’s shoulder harshly.
Wonbin tilted his head to the side as Anton continued to relay what he saw. He blinked his eyes once, twice, then a third time as he tried to comprehend what was being said to him.
“Is that the name of the album?” Wonbin said, groggy voiced as he rubbed one of his eyes.
Anton shook his head angrily before trying to catch his breath. 
“Green Comet…” Anton huffed, suddenly realizing his vision was starting to spot. The adrenaline and the confirmed sighting of an extra-terrestrial being made him feel dizzy. “Fell from the sky. She’s in a crater.” He huffed.
When Wonbin moved from the pallet of clothes and blankets, Sohee did the same. His eyes fluttered open but stayed partially closed. His hair was bumped on one side as he also tried making sense of what Anton was saying.
“Are those song titles?” Sohee asked.
His voice was high-pitched and whiny, Anton knew he was angry from the lack of sleep and being woken up in the middle of the night. There were more important things happening. They needed to call the cops, they needed to call the press.
Anton continued shaking his friends awake, but the lack of mentioning a song title, album name, or anything music related made them go back to sleep. Anton watched in dismay as the two laid their heads back down, ignoring and turning away from his hands that were trying to will them awake. The only thing they did was move their shoulders out of his reach, one of them grumbling wake us up when you have a song finished.
Just as Anton was about to climb into the back of the van to shake his bandmates awake, he heard leaves and twigs snap. His full body froze, the hair on the back of his neck stood up and his throat was suddenly dry. The spring night suddenly felt cold as he felt a presence behind him.
When Anton first heard a voice, he didn’t want to turn around. He didn’t want to acknowledge whoever was speaking to him. He wanted to heave his body into the back of the van and shut the doors behind him. He wanted to speed off back to civilization, at the very least he wanted to scream and wake his bandmates up. But Anton couldn’t do anything, he didn’t move an inch when he felt the presence take another step.
“Where am I?” You repeated
Anton quickly told you that you were in the quiet midwest of America. He said you were on planet Earth, and some other things he forgot now. He was rambling at the mouth, he’s sure he started telling secrets of his own at some point. He’s in a band. He’s a hack. He has no creativity. He’s scared that you’re getting closer. He thinks you’re going to abduct him and probe him and he’s going to be your human prisoner for the rest of his life.
At some point between your first step and your last step, Anton closed his eyes. He prepared for death, his life flashed before his eyes, everything. But then you grabbed his hands. He felt warm all over, his rambling stopped and his fear was replaced with something else. The turbulence in his mind cleared and everything stopped making sound around him. The wind stopped blowing, Wonbin stopped snoring, everything felt peaceful. 
Then, when Anton opened his eyes you were gone. All traces of you vanished into the night. Reality came back slowly. Anton clasped his hands hard, then looked down at them again. He was no different. He wasn’t being beamed up into the sky, he wasn’t hurt. He was suddenly alone again outside, the trees and the sounds came back to him like they never left. He could also clearly hear the beginning chord to a song and a name for his band. 
Anton heard everything, the longer he stared at his hands the more inspiration struck. He heard it all, he could see it all so clearly. The album name, song titles, album covers, music videos. Anton was up for the rest of the night, filling out pages and pages in his notebook until his hand could no longer hold the pen straight.
Sometimes Anton could still feel the pain in his hand from writing all night. He flexed his hand that gripped the railing, closing his palm in on itself before leaning closer to the banister. He looked behind him to his apartment. The studio door was wide open, and had to audibly sigh to try and relieve some of that burden.
The word had dropped nearly three months ago that a new album was coming. A rumor that wasn’t really a rumor, and once people caught wind of it there was no use in denying it. Their recording company was already reaching out about any possible singles. Wonbin started already reinventing himself. Sohee was sending Anton lyrics everyday in hopes of getting the music faster. 
The only way he was able to get a break from everything was to say he needed time to collect and recenter himself. What this meant for his colleagues was to go on a weeklong coke fueled bender. What that meant for Anton was to look at foot traffic in the street below him hoping to see his alien girlfriend-who-is-not-his-girlfriend.
He learned that you would always come when he least expected you to. Washing up on the beach during his vacation to Vietnam. Offering him a wine glass at an industry party. Appearing as room service during his stay at a hotel abroad. He wasn’t sure what summoned you. He was always so used to the feeling of not being inspired that he never knew when he was about to reach a breaking point. 
But you always did.
The first time you appeared and he found you in the forest, when he thought he was going to die but he lived and Venusian and the chords for the first EP was in his head.
The second time you appeared was outside of a diner. Anton spent the whole day disconnected from the world, enjoying an AYCE sushi special instead of finishing the vocal mixing on the first single when you appeared across the street. Locked in the phone booth right in Anton’s line of sight the moment he lifted his head from his salmon roll. 
He thought he was seeing things at first. By this point in time he had convinced himself that seeing you in the forest was the product of starvation, anxiety, and sleep deprivation. In the morning when he finally got Sohee and Wonbin to come and see where you landed, they said it was only the beginnings of a construction site. So Anton told himself you were just a very real figment of his imagination. But across the street you were very real and you were beckoning for him to come to you.
In the phone booth, Anton finally had a conversation with you. Cramped in after you pulled him inside you two had a formal interaction. To offset how normal the greeting was you told him you were not from this planet. Anton thought he was imagining things again. He shook his head and smiled waiting for the punchline of your joke, and an actual explanation as to why you fell from the sky and asked where you were so honestly. 
Anton doesn’t remember speaking very much in the phone booth. His first reaction was to shiver from the feeling of the hairs raising on the back of his neck. His second was to deny you not being from this planet. You talked like a human, you smelled like a human, you looked like a human. Then you said something ridiculous like being human is relative, which ended up being a track name on Venusian’s first full length album She Fell From the Sky.
(Anton could’ve named the album My Girlfriend Fell From the Sky Because She is an Alien and no one would’ve done anything about it. No one second guesses the names or titles indie bands use for their titles, but giving you the title of girlfriend seemed a little presumptuous.)
He found out on your third visit when you knocked on his door in a private studio that you kissed better than any human being ever has. You two kissed better than people could, all of his past experiences and stories he heard paled in comparison. The way you leaned in close, hovering over him while he basically shook in his office chair. You looked so beautiful standing above him, you smiled to ease him into you. You pressed your lips to his so softly and his hands went to your waist, holding onto you. You weren’t able to disappear into thin air. That night you kissed Anton goodbye, he was able to see you leave, and he was able to get you to promise you’d come back. 
When you closed the studio door behind you, Anton did what any artist would do. He turned the situation he found himself in to profit. All the confusion and love and lust from an alien he’s met a handful of times, who appears and disappears on her own accord. An alien who always knows where he is and when he needs her. Always smells so good, and looks at him so intensely it literally sparks creativity. Someone who his bandmates thinks is fake. He put all of that—and much more—into the second album. My Girlfriend is an Alien. A little on the nose, but it was green lit nonetheless. The album featured tracks such as i hope you’re real, please meet my friends, imaginary friend, and star/meteor. 
On the fourth visit Anton found out you were a fan. He knew because you liked the song come to my apartment next time, and no one liked that song. A dud on the album but something you felt like was just for you. You called him on the phone in his hotel across the world, just when he was about to fall asleep. You talked to him but didn't tell him where you were, it sounded like you were driving or laying in bed and kicking your feet and writing in your journal. Before you could hang up and disappear for an undisclosed amount of time he had questions ready. In his notebook next to lyrics he looks at the chicken scratch in the margins, the hotel phone caught between his shoulder and ear as he made sure to speak clearly into the receiver.
“Will you come when I ask you to?” 
“No.” 
“Will you come when I need you to?”
“Yes.”
“How will I know when you will be here?”
“You don’t.”
“What’s your favorite song by Venusian?”
That was the question that stumped you. You were silent for a moment, the crackling sound of a connection. Anton looked at the lamp on the bedside table, staring at it until it left an imprint in his vision. He thought the line had disconnected before you spoke.
“The ones you write about me, of course.”
All of them were about you, he couldn't tell you that before you told him that you loved him and had to go. Without a doubt in Anton’s mind, every song was about you. Even when Wonbin wrote the lyrics, they were always about an elusive figure that was appearing in and out of someone’s life. When Sohee wrote lyrics, they were about wanting something. On the rare occasion the song wasn’t about you, the bands name itself was a homage to you. He never asked if you were from Venus because he thought it'd be rude, but he wished on that planet before you came down in a crater his bandmates thought was a construction site.
He couldn’t escape you, but no one even knew you existed. Sometimes Anton didn’t even know you existed. He searched harder in the street. He saw a school teacher finally heading home. Someone with a coffee cup, spilling it on themselves because they were walking too fast. Taxi driver smoking on the corner, letting possible clients pass him to hop in the cars of his competition. A woman walking down the sidewalk, past the smoker and the school teacher and the spill on the person shirt. Her pace got slower and slower until she came to a stop right in front of his building.
Anton looked further down, leaning even closer to the banister. The metal railing pressed into his stomach, going right through his thin shirt as he looked down. Foot traffic continued around her. From the high floor of Anton's apartment his hair started blowing, whipping forward and closing his eyes. The woman in front of Anton's apartment building was unmoving, so was he. If Sohee was here he would've believed it to be the paparazzi, Wonbin would've thought it was a coincidence. But Anton knew before you looked up. The hat and sunglasses you had on obstructed the view of your face, but Anton knew. All you had to do was point towards the front door before Anton was turning on his heel, running through his apartment until he made it to the front door.
Anton cleared his apartment a little too fast to ring you up. He kept his eyes glued to the front camera of the building as you walked up the steps. When the buzzer sounded off you smiled, pulling at the large door before you walked out of frame of the camera. 
Anton imagined you coming up the stairs. He swore he could hear you from floors away, your heeled shoes coming through his apartment building as you made your way to him. He could hear the elevator music from his living room, and he could see you looking at the red number climb until you were at his floor. He wasn’t sure how you knew, but you always knew. He stopped asking questions long ago. He was just so happy to see you, a relieved smile coming across his face as he opened his door to you standing there.
“Did you miss me?” You asked.
Anton nodded, pulling you by your arm to get you to come inside. He learned to not waste time when you were here. No more shy greetings or acting amazed when you’d show up. He learned to think about your surprise appearance when he was alone. He helped you take off your hat and shades to put it on the table at the entryway. He guided your jacket off of your arms as you looked up to the high ceilings.
“This place is so big just for one person.” You said quietly.
Anton didn’t know how you lived. He didn’t know where you lived either. Venus was the presumed place, but it could've been the moon. Both were visible when he made his wish that night. He didn’t know if millionaire musicians lived in gigantic lofts by themselves where you came from. He could’ve had roommates. Sohee and Wonbin always wanted to stay with him during the album creation process, to really get involved in the body of work. Venusian tours made Anton encounter his fair share of groupies that wanted him. He could’ve had one of them as a live in girlfriend that uses his money to buy drugs and his fame as an aphrodisiac. But Anton preferred to live alone, even if he had a guest room littered with things he’d think you like in between your visits.
Anton continued guiding your jacket off, then the fleece button up you had on underneath. You always complained about the cold. Anton imagined wherever you came from was always in an eternal spring compared to the frigid weather here. You liked the weather in Puerto Vallarta the most. You came to Anton on a pool floatie saying you could get used to the weather here. You hated it the most in Germany. You emerged from a snow bank when Anton was leaving the convenience store late at night. You were shaking like a leaf then, and Anton gave you his jacket and had to spend the whole night warming you up.
(At first the sentiment was innocent. He offered you all the blankets his room had to offer, and then you said you needed body heat. His huffs of hot air was sticking to your skin, and you were clinging to him for dear life. He repeated how badly he wanted to warm you up as he covered his body with yours, and hushed you over and over again when you were running out of breath. You were both sweating by the time the Sun came up, and then you said you were finally warm enough to go home.)
He knows you probably hate the weather now. But you bite your tongue to stop you from saying how cold it is even when you’re shivering. You just walk fully into Anton’s living room, sitting in the middle of the couch before you tap the spot next to you.
Anton is uninspired. He’s not creative. That’s why you’re here. Offering your magic touch again, his next Grammy nomination and wave of accolades is waiting for him on his large couch.
He follows in your footsteps, discarding his robe on the chair next to the couch. In his plain black tee and sweats Anton gets on the couch, climbing on until he rests his head in your lap. Even with all this space he’s too big. His foot dangles over the edge of the couch, and you let out a soft grunt when he lays his head on you. He doesn’t care because this is enough. When your fingers massage his scalp he closes his eyes, trying to will the stress away.
Anton felt you stir underneath him, and he already felt the stress coming back. He instinctually reached a hand to your arm, trying to keep you there. When he realized you were only repositioning yourself his hand left your wrist, going to his chest. He rubbed the fabric of his shirt and hummed the beginning of a song.
He looked forward as your hands carded through his hair, flattening out the bits that were sticking up.
“Where were you this time?” Anton asked.
“Your kind haven't discovered it yet. But I came back pretty fast this time, didn't I?” You asked.
Anton nods his head against your fingers because you did come back faster this time. When Venusian was just beginning you used to appear every week, when the band was at its peak the longest Anton was left waiting for you was two years. Before you showed up at his apartment today you called him over the phone a month and a half ago. Your voice crackled through the speakers and you sounded like you were somewhere far away. Anton almost asked you if there was reception on Venus, but instead he decided to put it in a song. Not knowing the answer made him look for it himself, and that’s how he came up with the idea of the first single for Venusian’s upcoming album. 
Anton remembers the last conversation you guys had over the phone. He asked you if you were real for the hundredth time and you laughed before saying yes. He asked if you’re real why can’t he reach out and touch you and you said he would just have to save it for next time. So Anton opens his eyes and reaches up with one hand, until he can feel your cheek underneath his fingers. His other hand wraps around your hand in his hair, and he keeps eye contact with you while you look down at him. It’s really not fair that you get to come and go as you please. You should stay here with him, be his live-in alien girlfriend who helps him write music. You wouldn’t even have to do housework, he’d hire someone to do that. He can get whatever people eat on Venus shipped right to his doorstep just for you.
Anton holds you tighter, there’s silence and you moving your legs underneath his head again. From this spot on your lap all Anton can focus on is you. You two are floating in space together, holding eachother’s hands. Anton thinks about a spaceship and then Star Trek, and then the parts of you that he couldn’t touch over the phone. He was telling you about it long after the phone call suddenly disconnected until he was shaking and his body was covered in sweat. 
“How’s the music thing going?” You asked.
The question was asked just to fill the silence, because you wouldn’t be here if Anton wasn’t struggling with the music thing. If Anton could finish the mixing on this song you’d still be floating around space somewhere and Venusian’s latest album would’ve already hit streaming platforms. 
Anton sits up from your lap and your hands combing through his hair. Even though he lets go of your hands he still feels them close, and when he turns around to face you on the couch you have them pressed in the space between your two bodies. You look like you want to reach out and touch him. Anton feels your pull, he sees your eyes focus on him after running down his body. He put his hands on your shoulders then your face, forcing you to look at him and only him. 
“It’s going well.” He couldn’t believe that your face was already becoming hot to the touch. Anton watched you become so bothered you didn’t correct his lie, only nodding against his hand. “Did you hear the new single?” He asked.
Anton watched your hands finally leave the edge of the couch to go to his thighs. Nothing about you was alien. He knew you well, he knew your hands would go underneath his shirt to touch his soft stomach. Anton knew you’d look down first then to him as you let your head rest in the palm of his hand. 
“It was pretty. Felt like you were singing to me.” 
“Well,” Anton trained himself to never answer the question directly when he’d be asked who his muse was. Wonbin always said he sang about love he never found and Sohee said he was singing about an idea. “who else would I be singing to?” Anton 
“Thought maybe you went out and got yourself a girlfriend.” You say.
Anton smiled to hearing that. Like he wasn’t waiting everyday for you to materialize. He could never waste his time dating when he spent all of it waiting for you and making music. He only shook his head, bringing you closer by the hold on your face. 
“I was thinking about you the whole time.”
“Oh yeah?” Your hand left his hair after pulling it one last time. Anton looks up at you sideways as you tilt your head. “I was thinking about you too."
He knows he's being dramatic, because just the thought of you somewhere thinking of your human boyfriend makes him smile. He already thinks of a bonus track for the album think about me will be the title, and he will get Wonbin to write something beautiful about a couple in love. He'll pair it with a beat that's light and sounds like someone's dreams, then end it with the sound of a phone disconnecting. He might even pair it with a music video.
"What were you thinking about when you were thinking about me?" You ask.
Anton has done this dance with you plenty of times. He knows that you’re here to breathe creativity into him, like the fate of his world depends on it. Fuck or die, fuck or never make another song again—it’s the same thing in Anton’s mind. But he still falls victim to your ability to raise the tension, like it was the first time all over again. Back then he was all nerves, thinking about music and how you were his sign from the universe that everything would be alright. He spent more time on his knees than he ever did in his life, he was drained but you kept wanting more. Sometimes Anton can remember the exhaustion vividly, and he also remembers when he woke up the next morning he knew exactly what he was going to do for that collaboration with his favorite artist.
You’re here now, countless save-his-career fucks later and still looking at him like you haven’t gotten enough. He sits up from your lap and turns to face you.
“I was thinking about the last time I saw you,” Anton’s hands start moving to the side of your face then down to your waist. You’re already moving to straddle him. “and you did that think I really like.” He continues.
Anton watches you look down at him and he wonders what’s going on in your head. He remembers last time you were here and you said sincerely he should get a girlfriend. He asked if you had a boyfriend on Venus but recanted his question immediately, knowing he wouldn’t be able to handle the answer. He has been making happy music as of late and didn’t want to change that.
Now you looked at him like he was delicate, your little human boy toy you entertained between periods of floating around space.
“I was thinking I just need you so I can get inspiration for this song.” He didn’t mind if he was nothing but an intergalactic booty call. Sometimes it felt like you did things for his benefit, like showing up at to him when he needed you the most. Your hands went to his face and he felt his heart stop. He swears he doesn’t mind.
“How many times do I have to tell you Anton, it’s all you?” You started letting your hips rest heavy on his lap, and he could feel how warm you were all around him. You can say all you want that your fingertips don’t have magical powers, but he has already found a chord for the lyrics Sohee sent him the other day. “You’re talented, just stressed and—” He presses your hips deeper into his, until you feel him twitching in his pants. “You’re already hard?”
Anton is helpless against you. You’re extra-terrestrial, that has already been established, but there’s something more. The planet Venus must have blessed you with powers. Anton's hand goes to the back of your neck and brings you closer.
“I just need a little bit more.” Anton murmurs against your lips.
Before you can speak Anton brings his other hand to reach into your pants, pushing his hand in your panties. Instantly you arched from the touch, when he applied pressure you swiveled your hips. He’s been here before, he’s been here a million times. An intergalactic booty call on his Italian leather sofa. You're already doing the thing he likes, where you whimper and push your tongue into his mouth. The simple action makes him already falter, becoming your puppet so easily.
Anton doesn’t know what you have in store for him. After discovering he was already hard the look in your eye changed, and your idea of comforting his feelings of inadequacy shifted to something different. 
He’s been holed up in this apartment for more than a week, and he hadn’t made a new friend in God knows how long. Anton forgot how to interact with people beyond his bandmates, and he felt ill-equipped to keep the conversation going with an alien. You’re here, getting off of his lap until his hands follow after you and you’re standing in front of him. When the coffee table is too close to you Anton wastes no time pushing it away with his foot, giving you enough space in front of him. You don’t say anything about it, instead bringing your hands to the bottom of your shirt and lifting it over your head.
Your shirt is balled in your hands then it’s obstructing Anton’s vision. He pulls it into his lap too quick to see you messing with the waistband of your jeans, shimmying out of it before pushing it down your legs. You came all the way from Venus in a matching set, all for him. He’s lied by saying he just needs a little more. Whatever happens each time you leave has only made him worse, and only makes him crave more. Each time you leave he’s left with a sense of this being the last time. 
When you come back to him in your bra and panties he’s too rash. Instead of guiding you to his lap Anton  gets on his back. He doesn’t tell you what he needs when you try to adjust to the sudden change. When you still try to go to his lap Anton’s hand on your wrist stops you. You look at Anton and it takes both of you too many dragging seconds to see what Anton is silent hinting at. He’s missed your touch, your voice, and your taste. When you realize it your eyebrows are raised nearly to your hairline, and he’s still guiding your body towards his face. 
From that point everything happened pretty fast. You asked Anton a million times if he was sure and said yes without fail. When you finally situated yourself with your knees on either side of his head, he knew this was what he needed. The skewed perspective of you down here, his hands on your thighs trying to guide you down. Feeling you cage him in and you taking up all his senses was what he needed. But you were still unsure, even with Anton’s eyes honing in on the pretty pattern of the panties he was determined to eat through you hesitated above him.
“You’ll stop me if you can’t breathe right?” You fought against his hands trying to bring you down. Every breath he took fanned your heat, he could already see the fabric forming to you. “I really couldn’t deal with the guilt if I killed you.” You said.
Anton thought this would be an amazing way to die. Suffocating between thighs and drowning in you. Could aliens be persecuted on Earth? Would you just go back to Venus and never come back?
“Anton.” He looked from your heat back up to you. You tried leaning back to see more of his face but his hold on you kept you in place. “Are you listening to me?” You asked.
“Yes. I’m listening.” He almost went crosseyed focusing back on your center. One of your hands went to grip the armrest past Anton’s head, preemptively giving yourself something to stabilize your body with. He dragged his words out, purposefully letting his breath fan your clammy skin. You were twitching for him already. He pulled you down again. “I’ll tell you, I promise.”
He was grateful his plea was what made you give in. One more tug at your thighs and you were lowering yourself on his mouth, and Anton was sticking out his tongue to lave your panties that covered your clit. He felt you hovering your weight above his head, scared to give him all of it, then he pushed your panties to the side. Almost immediately Anton felt more of your weight and your thighs close around his head. He felt your body lean forwards and he heard your exasperated breath, then a whimper that told him you were getting used to this. He lifted you only a second to drop you directly on his tongue, and he started sucking and licking whatever he could touch. 
Your thighs were shaking around his head, and Anton was becoming increasingly aware of his own body. His dick was twitching in his pants, with each jump or sound you made he was beginning to feel the tension rising along his entire body. He needed more. He was almost there, he almost had the chord or the arrangement. Revelation was on the tip of his tongue. Anton's fingers kept your underwear pushed to the side, he could feel the wet cotton sticking to the side of his face. He hummed again, and you pitched forward to grab the armrest of his couch for stability.
"Do you want me to touch you?" You asked the question quickly. You two made eye contact, his words of just needed you to get off was trapped between your legs. Even if you heard him he knew it'd be lost on him. You were too giving, and he revealed that one of his favorite things in this life was when you'd touch him.
You push yourself from the armrest of the couch and reach behind you, instantly pressing into the bulge. He's so strung up stimulation feels like pain, he's ready to pop at any moment. He hasn't been touched since he saw you last, and he couldn't think of doing anything for himself when you weren't here. Part of being from a different world must mean that your touch goes right through fabric. When your hand cups over his pants it's like you're gripping him in your own hands.
Whatever it is you're doing to him is too juvenile for him to cum first. It almost becomes a competition, he becomes greedy. He tongues you until he pushes past the ring of muscle, sucking on whatever his lips touch. Anton pushed on your ass until it pushed you forward, where his nose bumped your clit. His other hand wrapped around the top of your thigh and pushed you back. He repeated the motion, sucking harder each time your body hitched from you bumping into his nose. When he stopped guiding you Anton was grateful you abandoned more of your inhibitions to repeat the motions on your own. He was grateful that his pleasure became an after thought. You abandoned his dick completely to lean forward again, to press your hand to your lower stomach to really focus grinding on his face. Anton could feel you over his body, but your slick coated his chin. You You were making a mess on his lips too, moaning louder than the sounds he was making between your legs. 
Anton was too busy watching the way your stomach tensed and relaxed each time you ground your hips on his face that he was getting lost. Between notes and songwriting and everything else he was grinding against nothing, his legs draped over the other end of the couch and his body tensed up. You were becoming rigid above him too, your hand in his hair pulled roughly as your body came increasingly heavy on his lips. Anton still drove you forward, until your clit bumped his nose over and over again. You shifted on top of him to fully ride his face, bucking on him over and over.
"Close." You whimpered. Anton felt your hand grip his hair, keeping him in place. He was getting smothered by you, your thighs came close to his face and kept him caged in. "Close, Ton. You're always so good for me."
Anton nodded and continued the motion. He guided you easily, through your body shaking above him. He still continued to suck, until your thighs shook around his head. When you looked down at him Anton kept going, even when you tried lifting your body again he kept you there. He was so close, he just needed a little more. His hands on your waist was rough, he could see your skin dimpling underneath his fingers. He vocalized how he needed you to hold on, but it was hard to break through your noises and how your body was muffling him. 
When you finally froze above him, Anton could taste all of you. He continued sucking even when you pulled even harder at his hair. You had to shake your head and cry out to finally get him to stop. You melted above him, it was Anton who had to lift you off of his face. He watched you stagger on your knees forward, he tiled his head to follow your movements until you were leaning against the edge of the couch.
Both of you had to catch your breath. Anton sat up fully to see you mold into the couch, your chest raising and lowering. He was a little bit more composed, save for the way his hair stuck to his forehead and his entire face glistening with you and sweat.
"Did that help with your writers block?"
Suddenly, everything hits Anton at once. He stands up from the couch, still painfully hard and face flushed, leaving you in your seat. Anton peaks past the doorway of his bedroom to stare directly at you.
"Don't leave." He says quickly before disappearing past the doorframe.
Anton woke up from the sun coming through his window. He forgot to draw the blinds last night, leaving him blinking and already fighting through a headache. He blinked to try and adjust to the light, moving from his side to the other. His door was open. He remembered closing it last night. He also remembered you being on the bed next to him, but he went to sleep knowing you wouldn’t be here in the morning. Still while he faced the open door his other hand mindlessly ran over the spot you were laying last night. He still felt a crater in the sheets where you laid and he swore you left your perfume there too. When he took a deep breath in he could smell you, and he could still taste you too. 
When he looked past the open door he could see the mess you two left in the living room. There was a moment you two were having a heart to heart and the next you were pushing things off the coffee table. His expensive glass fruit bowl was surely chipped if not broken, and he had his throw pillows and blankets laying on the floor. He was still waking up when the buzzing sound from across the bed pulled his attention back to his room. Anton had to crawl over your side of his bed to his nightstand, unplugging his phone and mindlessly unlocking it.
He meandered on the homescreen, blinking constantly as he tried to jumpstart his mind. He even looked away from his phone completely for a moment, focusing on the quiet of his room as he let his thoughts come back to him. He remembered what he was doing the moment his eyes landed on his home studio. He looked at the turn tables and his computer screen that was still awake. He still had the file he was working on open. Anton recalled the song as he clicked on Wonbin’s phone number in his call log.
Anton brought his phone to his face and listened to it ring. He went back down to laying on his bed, one side pressed into the mattress as he kept his phone balanced on the other side. Anton even let his eyes close again as the phone continued to ring. He let out a yawn, fully expecting to catch Wonbin’s voicemail instead of catching him.
“I was calling you last night.” Wonbin says.
Anton still keeps his eyes closed as he hums an acknowledgment into the transmission. Wonbin doesn’t continue to pry even at the clear sign of disrespect, both of them already know what Anton is about to say.
“I have a new song.” Anton could practically hear Wonbin on the other end of the line sigh in relief. Anton imagined Sohee was there with him, the two crowded around the receiver of the phone trying to see who can hear the good news first. He imagines the two of them hitting eachother in excitement at the thought of releasing something new. Anton opens his eyes to look at his computer screen again. He finally feels the embarrassment as he recalls the inspiration he got for the song. He clears his throat, trying to will the memories away. “Come by and I can play it for you guys.” He says.
Anton didn’t have time to clean up his place before the two of them arrived. It seemed as though Wonbin and Sohee were waiting on his call. Within ten minutes he already got the text from Wonbin that they were outside. Anton only had five minutes to light an incense and try to desperately clean up the mess you two made the night prior. He ended up stuffing somethings into his closet, there were still shards of glass on the floor when the two were knocking on his door. 
When Anton opened his door the two barely spared a greeting, instead making a beeline past Anton’s mess of a common area to his bedroom. He saw Wonbin’s attention scatter across his terribly cleaned mess, speaking over his shoulder as Anton closed the distance between them.
“Your place usually isn’t this much of a mess, Anton.” Wonbin says casually.
Anton watches Wonbin’s attention stay on the jostled throw pillows and blanket on his couch. Anton’s face heats up when he remembers the night before. After you rode his face, the rest of the night was a blur. What you two did after that came in snatches. When Anton followed Wonbin’s gaze around his apartment he remembered it. Your hand planted on the back of the couch and the other clutching at the armrest as he fucked you from behind. He remembered the feeling of your sweaty shoulder clasped in his palm as he kept you driving backwards and the way you looked back at what he was doing to you.
“This usually happens to artists when they work on a project.” Sohee says matter-of-factly. 
Wonbin stops walking and looks at the back of Sohee’s head. Anton stops behind Wonbin and Sohee stops right before he walks past the threshold of Anton’s door. 
Anton feels like at any moment their attention will go to the mess and ask why it looks like a tornado ripped through his apartment. Anton almost feels relief that the two decided to bother eachother instead.
Anton watches Sohee give Wonbin his snooty know-it-all look, the one that always drives Wonbin crazy. Instead of responding, Wonbin only drives his finger into Sohee’s side. Sohee instinctually reaches forward to return the favor, causing Wonbin to back up on reflex before reaching forward to try and prod his side again. Anton watches the two of them try and fight. 
They don’t stop until Anton clears his throat and points towards his room. Almost immediately Sohee and Wonbin come to their senses to walk towards Anton’s room. Wonbin pokes Sohee’s side one more time as a joke, causing all three of them to laugh.
When Sohee goes into Anton’s room, he heads to the bed first. Anton tries to be calm seeing Sohee sit in the same spot on the edge of the bed you occupied not even twelve hours ago. Sohee unknowingly sets his backpack next to him, right on top of the pile where your discarded clothes rested before. Anton had to push past Wonbin, remaining neutral as he prepped the song to be played.
Anton trailed behind the two of them, and had to remain neutral at the sight of Wonbin doing a once over of the ground. Anton panicked and did the same, praying that he picked up all evidence of the night he had. When Wonbin’s eyes lingered on a crumbled shirt that looked a size to small, Anton cleared his thought. When his face went hot again he focused back on the computer, letting the sound of Sohee moving on his unmade bed fill the silence.
“When’d you finish this?” Sohee asked.
Anton looked back briefly. He saw Sohee playfully kick his feet that dangled over the edge of Anton’s bed as he leaned back onto the mattress. Anton forced himself to focus on clicking through the files on his desktop not looking back again. 
“Uhm. Last night.” Anton mumbled.
He felt bad for his non-assuming friend, how he had no idea he sat in the same spot where you were pathetically drooling onto his mattress the night before. The thought made Anton the complete opposite of how he was in that moment, he could only shyly nod his head when Sohee made a sound of acknowledgment.
Wonbin moved to the same spot beside the bed where Anton got down on his knees and draped your legs over his shoulders.
“Let’s hear it.” He said.
Anton pressed play and adjusted the volume, letting the beginning play. As the instrumental picked up Anton sheepishly described the type of song he had in mind for the beat. He prayed Sohee and Wonbin didn’t pick up on the deep bass immediately. He tried desperately to beat around the bush to such an extent that Sohee and Wonbin would come up with their own interpretation. 
“It’s on the slower side, but I think we could have really hard hitting lyrics here.” Anton said while making an encompassing motion with his hands.
Anton was grateful that his bandmates didn’t notice the flustered tone or his nervous habit of speaking with his hands. Sohee was thinking about the vocal color he needed for this song and Anton could already see Wonbin crafting the lyrics in his head. The true inspiration of the song seemed to go over their heads for a moment—Anton started easing as they nodded along approvingly to the beat. 
He believed he was in the clear, but when the chorus of the song came around and the sound of a bed creaking played through the speakers of Anton’s computer his bandmates froze. Anton saw Sohee and Wonbin exchange a side eye. Sohee’s legs that dangled over the edge of Anton’s bed stopped kicking suddenly and his head tilted to the side. Wonbin’s mouth dropped and he pulled his hand away from his face. 
Both of them were pulled from their reverie, looking up from the ground to look Anton dead in the eye.
“What type of song is this?” Wonbin asked.
Anton watched Sohee slowly turn around to take in Anton’s unmade bed. He could practically saw the lightbulb go off above his bandmates head as he watched Sohee look over the jostled covers and the folded pillow still laying in the center of the bed. Sohee slowly lifted his hands from the mattress and sat upright and turned back to Anton just as slow.
“No way.” Sohee says in disbelief.
At Anton’s reddening face and Sohee’s agape mouth Wonbin did a once over again. When the lightbulb went off over his head he begins laughing so hard he has to bend over and hold his chest. 
“Unbelievable.” Wonbin wipes the tears from his face. “Unbelievable.”
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thejoyofseax · 3 months ago
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German Whole-Grain Porridges, 14th-15th Century
Maestro Giano has put up a couple of recipes from the 14th-15th century German Dorotheenkloster MS. These take whole grains - rice and oats - parboil them, finish them in milk, and add eggs or egg yolks before serving.
There are a couple of things of interest here - the main one being the use of whole grains, of course, but also the addition of eggs, which reminds me of frumenty, an English and French dish served as an accompaniment to venison.
On the one hand, the whole grains cut down massively on the amount of processing that needs to be done on the oats before it's eaten. Pre-Norman Ireland had plenty of mills (there's evidence for a tide mill from the early 7th century, and plenty of water-mills thereafter), but they must have had a transactional element to their use, and it's likely that not everyone could afford that. So the ability to cook the otherwise unprocessed grains would have been attractive for the less wealthy.
At the same time, I can't imagine that parboiling and then cooking in milk is a quick process, and one of the most important things about porridge as a meal is that, given rolled or other cracked grains, they cook pretty quickly (although not as fast as modern porridge oats, which are usually steamed before we ever get to them). So there's a balance of expenditure of fire and fuel to take into account.
Giano's recipes also include eggs, and in early Ireland, those would be a more expensive proposition. He reckons these dishes are high status, and I'm inclined to agree.
But for a future experiment, I'll try whole oats in water and then milk over a wood and turf fire, and see where we get to. Having actual times to attach to this cookery, and knowing how much difference the eggs make, will be another detail in the likelihood of techniques and practices in early Irish foodways.
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