#a little bit of approaching sexuality through disability also

[flowercrowncrip]

You might need to hold your hair all of us care hangover I think it's okay to have a relationship it's just gonna be something together as a partnership and that's gonna be different every single partnership in terms of what each person wants

And you know we're not similar I want a partner might be very different to what you want from a partner different people and our partners will be different people

We need to get take into account I think when it comes to how we kind of destigmatise all of this is part of our narrative is that with dating specifically I think this comes down to the fact that as a society we still have this perception that disabled people are not as capable are not able to do XYZ and there are a lot of harmful narratives that go along with that and there is so much amazing work going on incredible influences through authors through TV presenters and assume that how do you similar situations what advice would you give them to handle that I think it's slightly worse for us have partners the same gender because my partner is a similar age and female and often see a woman wheelchair accompany women at the same age they may well be disabled and their PA and their carer in case she's my girlfriend but the assumptions are still made so you can see where it comes from and I know that I've been certain events where people have spoken to her so much as my carer that when you know she leaves down and hold my hand or gives me a kiss you can see them filling in safeguarding paperwork slightly something comebacks in the mirror ahead of time I'm not very witty I don't think I'm gonna say beforehand or very likely call my partner but she probably wouldn't call the carer I'm like sometimes I just up to it like if I have somebody staring at us he won't stop that's when I'm gonna try and if that makes them feel uncomfortable then that's all then isn't it I love the advice of practising in the mirror I think it goes much much level of normalising disabled couples but also touched upon sexuality and importance of that and a lot of feedback that I get from working with my community is that you know we often say people are dimensional and disability identity is the overarching identity how has your identities impacted and others I think that finalisation is really important is it because I have noticed disabled non-disabled experience and having been disabled suddenly disabled you pick up the differences in the way people approach I get that a lot though you and I think it's really important that I recognise that privilege because when I got I've got my ADHD diagnosis only about three years ago and one of my good friends who I know well by it so let me get this straight you're a wheelchair bisexual neuro divergent woman did you just run did you just need another characteristic like what was going on and she was feel like that makes me quirky wrong wrong wrong if we feel able to feel comfortable we are given a platform to do so I'm happy to take that I'm happy you know ask the question I will correct you I will educate you this is your opportunity so you don't get it wrong for all the other people so I try and use my sectionality and all these different characteristics I have to prove that we're not in this group I'm hyper aware that we have a society that does put us in a little box overhead box isn't wheelchair accessible that's you that's hard work trying to push back on it when you can but it does feel a bit exhausting having all these characteristics sometimes there's a lot of letters involved I've got bt bingo we earlier dating bumble I absolutely hate them but there's a kind of seriousness about it because a lot of these platforms use algorithms so I actually sat before I thought dating app that has a advertisement on TV or radio I've never really seen disabled representation so I think like a real big flat for me if we're not even visible on these apps but it also reminded me of an episode of how to get away with murder and a wheelchair use it was suing an app because he said it discriminated against him because disability and they got away with it because ultimately you can't force someone to fancy someone wheelchair but it was really interesting talking point because actually you know I trapped a lot of men the first thing Long hikes good for you who dating online dating site your tips mental health major existing online spaces I think do you have a massive responsibility that they're ignoring at the moment and I

[vsaintsin]

Hello! Happy Sunday! Just dropping by with a writing question. How do you approach writing relationships? What are your favorite dynamics to write (in general or between specific characters)?

Sorry for the delay here - I got sick (still, from when I first made this account), and the the meds to make me unsick made me much more sick, and now I'm still sick but experiencing a moment of semi-clarity. Thought I'd pop in to say I'm not dead! Pray the clarity lasts through the duration of this reply.

This is a well-timed question, because book two of the series I'm writing - which is also my current WIP - does feature more "romance" you could call it, even though it won't be enough to really land it in that genre. That does mean that Carlisle's life and relationships have been the predominant thought on my mind as of late.

I always look towards people's needs when I'm writing any relationship, though, and how two people's needs can line up to make a complementary pair. Whether that be friendship or romantic.

I'm not exactly caught up with the common terminologies for most relationship pairings (but through stalking everyone on here, I'm learning), so I guess I'll say I favor pairings that feel like comfort or relief. Like "ah, yes... that's my person, things are better now." Cold drink of water on an oppressively hot day sort of thing.

I like writing relationships that shake off the "change x about yourself for me" thing and focus more on the "i want to be better about x for you". A gentle offer, instead of a harsh ultimatum. I like writing any dynamic where they make each other better people, where they introduce safety and peace into each other's lives. Any dynamic that feels a little bit like home.

I keep losing the train of thought here, the clarity isn't lasting...

I guess I also like showing that people who aren't "desirable" in fact are. I like to take people who feel outcast by society - whether it be disability or otherwise - and reinforce that nothing that's "wrong" with them actually is actually WRONG. (Like, yes, something is wrong, but it isn't YOU. (Additionally, stomping on fetishists who sexualize people who are othered for the odd sake of doing so is fun))

As a disabled person and as a trans person, I've faced a lot of crap that makes me feel undesirable, and been told by a few people I thought I could trust that I should give up wholly on the concept of connections like friendship and romance because of said things. I refute that idea entirely. I like to show and prove, with any dynamic at all, that people like me are just as lovable and whole as anyone else. Just because the love might look and behave differently, and just because it comes with a unique road to walk, doesn't mean it isn't equally as valuable. Nobody is settling for the queer or disabled person, only accepting that loving them means loving those parts, too.

So I guess I accidentally dodge the question during ask-a-thon not for the first time and substitute an adjacent answer?

As the most direct answer I can give - people who act like old married couples bring me joy, because you can just tell that bond is deep.

Thanks for the ask! <3 Sorry for the delay. Hope sick brain hasn't made this too goofy.

[moa-broke-me]

So... It's been a while. I've finally finished the mane 6, like actually finished them this time, and I want you to see them in full! I also want to walk y'all through the process and the differences made between the roughies and these ones.

First up, we have Fluttershy!

After revising a tiny bit, I decided to get her hair back to a warmer pink, like how it is in the actual show, and lightened it up a little bit. I even gave her eyelashes a raspberry color to match the darkest part of her hair, which is something you'll find I do for everyone here because it's a nice touch.

I gave her blush and a few moles too, 5 to be exact (can you spot them all?) but aside from that, nothing's really changed much with Fluttershy.

Now I don't like to get into this too much, but my alter does (But the parasites in me want the candy)

-she's trans <3

-she's disabled (broken wing that never healed right, technically she can fly but it's very painful and she can't go far without needing to rest)

-she also has misophonia

-she's very passionate about biodiversity and ecosystem management and... Hate's a strong word, so she uses it very rarely. But she uses it for lawns. That, and abusers, are the ONLY exception to the 'never say hate' rule.

-speaking of which, and this may contradict canon because I've only watched up to season 4, but I don't care because I'm taking more of a Mariolore-esque approach to this anyway, but she doesn't have any family featured in the show from what I remember. So I'm gonna say her dad abused her for her femininity. He wanted her to be more rough and tumble, more aggressive, like the other boys. she was picked on at school too, her main nickname was 'chicken' because of her disability... Caused by her father. So she left. And that's why she lives alone. Also why she doesn't raise her voice, because she was yelled at as a child.

-she's a homesteader, so she's able to live off of what she grows in her garden for the most part. She saves a lot of money like this, and by living in a house that's actually abandoned and doesn't technically belong to her. So no bills to pay!

-her actual job is working retail at Rarity's boutique, the whole animal rehab thing is something she does as a volunteer because she doesn't want a profit motive to spoil her intentions. This of course means she's subjected to a fair bit of verbal and sexual harassment, but Rarity's a good boss, she treats her well and kicks out the customers who give her shit.

Next one, Pinkie Pie!

I gave her way more charms. Like... WAY more. If you'll notice, that lollipop is actually the same as Rainbow's old eyes, I just couldn't let those beautiful swirls go to waste! I worked so hard on the ice cream one, y'all wouldn't BELIEVE- anyway.

Pink eyelashes to match her hair, blue and pink gradient eyes instead of the blue from the show, and that I gave her originally, because I really wanted to give more characters unnaturally colored eyes. I even added these little bubbles to her eyes in the colors on her cutie mark because I still didn't feel like it was extra enough. I got the rainbow sprinkle freckles too, these aren't natural by the way, they're drawn on. I added both face paint and stickers, and I honestly can't believe I used to think my first design was extra. Looking back in it, it looks somehow... Plain? Like. Compared to this one at least.

Anyway, fun fact section because I guess I'm doing this now.

-She's pansexual and pangender<3

-Plus size too <3

-Cupcake and Carrot Cake are basically parents to her, she left her family's mine (no it's not a rock farm, you can't farm rocks, call it what it is. It's a mine.) without much, and was totally lost with nothing but her calling to guide her. In this society, you're an adult the minute you get your cutie mark, so it's not like she was expecting anyone to take her in. But they did, taught her all they know, and she's happier than she's ever been

-Her cartoon powers are actually because despite not being a unicorn, she was born able to wield magic, due to some unicorn ancestor. She's the only one in her family with this ability, and in fact, the only one in her entire community. Now, the town she grew up in was never named in the show from what I remember, so I'm giving it one; Roughshod*

*In case you didn't know, Roughshod is an actual word. You may recognize it from the idiom 'running (alternatively, riding) roughshod', which basically means 'to act without regard for others' feelings, opinions, personhood, wellbeing, or even safety.' It came from the practice of 'roughshodding' a horse's shoes, meaning to have the nails sticking out a bit in order to get a better grip on rough terrain. This made getting trampled by a roughshodden horse especially painful and injurious, hence the idiom. I thought it suited the bleak and conformist atmosphere of her hometown very well, and honestly, with how abundant rocks apparently are there, a lot of them probably did roughshod their shoes so they wouldn't slip and fall. it has a Watsonian AND Doylist explanation, so that's why I went with it. Also it just sounds appropriate from a phonological perspective. Anyway, done ranting about Roughshod… For now.

-She actually met Rarity through the cake couple commissioning custom aprons for their employees, and they've been besties ever since

-Autism and ADHD, most of these characters have either one or the other, in fact autism is actually very normalized in this universe as, well, most of the time, your special interest is literally MAGICALLY TATTOOED on your BUTT

Ok, Rarity next!

There really wasn't anything to change with her, except adding more jewelry, nixing the gold scrunchie in favor of just more locs holding her hair up so it looks more like a bun than a ponytail because looking back, the old design definitely looks like a ponytail. I DID change the eyelash color and undercut color just to make more sense with her design. I also shifted the blue streak to more of a mint green, since I know there's a possibility I'll be doing the other three princesses later and I don't want her to look too much like Luna color-scheme-wise. Also redid the iridescent finish on her horn because I didn't like the way i did it the first time.

Fun facts!

-She's mixed afro-arabic <3 Grew up hijabi, but isn't anymore. Her mom still is though

-Parents split, mom moved to whatever the hell equivalent of the UK is in this universe, I'm calling it the HA (Horseshoe Archipelago) for now, if anyone's got a better name, or knows if there's a canon UK equivalent, comment! But anyway, that's why she has the accent when literally nobody else does.

-Lipstick Lesbian

Ok, next we have Rainbow Dash!

I made some tweaks to the face shape, added bobby pins, switched her hair up a little bit, and even gave her new eyes! It thought the rainbow swirl was too much, and I was going to give her the magenta eyes she had in the show, but I wanted to deviate more since this was supposed to be, y'know... A redesign. Inspired by those old 3D glasses and chromatic aberration, I gave her these ones, which if you'll notice, have this transparent outline of cyan and red, and are themselves a gradient of cyan and red, but with magenta as the mother color, in order for the middle to look less gray.

Other than that, I just reshaped the bridge piercing and switched the white fields in the checkerboard bandage to magenta.

Fun facts about her, this is more fun than I thought.

-Butch, genderqueer lesbian

-She's had top surgery, she didn't like her boobs much and they were getting in the way

-Grew up with a single mom, named Slap Dash, because I thought it'd be funny. She was broke coming up, though, and pegasus culture is very hyper-individualistic and machismo, placing value on physical prowess and aggression more than anything else, so relying on others or being vulnerable is highly frowned upon. Meaning they were basically on their own.

-ADHD

Next up, we have Applejack!

I'd say, out of everyone else, she's gone through the least changes. Really, she just needed just a more desaturated color palette and a bow for the ribbon. I know it's sacrelige to leave her without her little hat, but I mean... The illustration's so big already.

Anyway, gave her better freckles too. So, fun fact time!

-She's aroace!

-She's dyslexic

-Not much else to say for her honestly, nothing that isn't canonical, like in the show... But yeah!

Ok, final one: Twilight Sparkle!

No previous designs to compare her too, so let's just go over my thought process while designing her;

I wanted to make her look chunky and blocky, so lots of straight lines. in fact, the only round shapes are her eye, and her barrette. But her barrette isn't actually hers, it's Luna's. Celestia gave it to her back when Luna was still banished, as a gesture of affection.

Fun facts!

-She's also plus sized!

-She's Desi

-Bisexual

-Autistic

That's... Kind of all I have for now, if you'd like I can do their families/siblings, the other princesses, or even like a 'what's in their bag' series?

Hey so... Literal YEARS after leaving the mlp fandom, as in, long before I even had tumblr, I've recently uh... Gotten back in, a little bit?

It's all @meepmoopmaap's fault, he made a FANTASTIC infection AU, it's on AO3. Actually no, it's also my alter's fault (don't @ me ok I get that most ppl use headmate but alter is just more natural for me) since he's a fictive from the show and has been VERY active recently, but I digress. Point is, I kind of wanted to... How do I say this?

I wanted to make them centaurs, thought it could be cool to add a human skin tone for the top half and then their old ones, also add some necessity for clothes.

I also just wanted to redesign them overall.

So, obviously, we HAD to do Flutters first, and I thought this was gonna suck but it didn't and I'm actually kind of proud of it?

This is just the head and hair, and a pretty rough draft too, but here.

So, I wanted to give her a big nose, because big noses are cute, so I did. The strands in her face are since she's, y'know. Shy. I worked VERY hard to ensure there were as few straight lines or sharp corners in the design as possible, because I wanted it to be gentle and soft-looking. I even gave her beaded lashes to help with this, and they kind of look like teardrops which is oddly appropriate?

About the eye color, I... I completely ditched the teal eyes in her original design, in favor of olive green ones. I was planning on giving her more pops of olive green, but since this was just a profile head shot, I couldn't do much.

The teal eyes always bothered me, even when I was a kid, since I felt that it shifted her color scheme too much in the 'pastel primaries' direction occupied by Pinkie Pie which, if y'all like, we can do next. Also just the fact that half the cast had blue eyes really bothered me for some reason?

anyway. The olive green seems to suit her more anyway, and I've shifted the hair more to purple... Which may have been a mistake?

Anyway. Suggestions welcome, just keep it friendly. I have a block button and I'm not afraid to use it!

[mypoisonedvine]

𝙝𝙚𝙖𝙫𝙮 𝙢𝙚𝙩𝙖𝙡 𝙡𝙤𝙫𝙚𝙧 (𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘵 𝘐) || sub!bucky barnes x dominatrix!reader

𝙨𝙪𝙢𝙢𝙖𝙧𝙮 || every client is different, with different needs; but this client is, in every way, exceptional.

𝙬𝙤𝙧𝙙 𝙘𝙤𝙪𝙣𝙩 || 5k

𝙬𝙖𝙧��𝙞𝙣𝙜𝙨 || smut (cnc), dom/sub relationship, ‘mistress’ title, pain kink, cockwarming, orgasm denial/control, use of a cockring, slapping, objectification/degradation, some angst and hurt/comfort, crying after sex, touchstarved!bucky

new parts posted on thursdays!  join the taglist here

"And you can promise complete and total discretion?” the deep and husky voice on the other end of the line repeated, low enough that it was almost a whisper.

You laughed a little. “Of course,” you answered. Most clients were serious about privacy, but this guy was next level. He must be famous, you thought to yourself, or married. Or both.

But just as much as your clients wanted to keep you separate from their personal life, you would rather they know nothing about who you are. Of course it was always a risk, since nobody could hide their face and you had to work out of your apartment, but you did what you could to keep your job just that— a job.

You told your friends you were a consultant, because people didn’t question that. Sure, it was hard to keep up the lie sometimes when you got last-minute bookings and had to cancel plans, but it was worth it for the money these men were willing to pay.

And this new guy? He was shelling out all kinds of cash, on a long set of conditions. Including an NDA. You wouldn’t have given him up either way, but if the contract made him feel better (and made him pay more) then you were happy to sign it.

“So it’s all anonymous, then? No ID, no credit card…?” he pressed.

“I mean, if cash is easier for you—”

“It is.”

You were starting to worry that this was a major red flag, as if he didn’t want to be traceable back to you at all. It was almost a dealbreaker, until you glanced down at the legal pad you’d written his offer on and remembered that you couldn’t afford to turn him down. “Then cash is fine,” you decided, making a note to yourself to have 911 already dialed when he came by in case his aversion to ID was really about a desire to get away with something.

“When can we start?”

“Um, well the soonest I can do is tomorrow at seven” you explained.

"Great, I'll be there," he answered firmly, apparently about to hand up.

“Hey, hey, slow down!” you chuckled. “Can I at least get a name?”

“I didn’t think we needed to do names.”

“We don’t… but if you’re willing, I’d like to know something to call you.”

“James,” he answered after a tense pause. “James is fine.”

“Alright, James, I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Upon opening the door, you instantly noticed three things about him: he was tall, he was big, and he was sexy.

You had sort of been hoping that his appearance wouldn’t match his voice, but it did, and it was going to make this so much harder.  Maybe easier in a few ways, but overall worse.  It was important that you didn’t get too emotionally invested with your clients.

His eyes were dragging over you like he was just as taken aback.  Which was odd, because he must have seen your picture online before he called you.  

“James,” you greeted. “Glad you made it.”

You stepped aside to let him enter, guiding him to take a seat in your living room.  Before clients came by, you hid any signs of life and kept the space as neutral as possible, which was why the only furniture was the white couch he sat on, the black chair across from it, and a glass table in between.

You sat in the black chair and crossed your legs, noticing with pride the way his eyes studied your every move.

“It’s important that we have a discussion about boundaries and limits before this goes any further," you explained sternly, and he nodded slightly.  "Tell me what you do and don't want."

“Uh, well, I guess I was just looking for… somebody who can administer, um, discipline… you know, someone who sets rules and enforces them.  But could also be kind of, uh, sweet I guess, to.  Not too sweet, just… not too mean either."

You smiled a little; he sounded right up your alley.  "I can do that."

"You should know I… I have a… disability.  My left arm it's, um, it's a prosthetic."

"How would you like me to accommodate that?"

"Just don't say anything about it, please.  Treat it like a normal arm.  And, uh, if you could ignore my scars, too…" he added awkwardly.

"Of course,” you nodded, “I would never want to make you feel insecure."

"Well, I mean, I'm not against degradation," he admitted sheepishly, making you smile a little.

"Right: that's different.  Anything else you're distinctly not against?"

“I can take a lot of pain,” he explained matter-of-factly.  “However much you think I can handle, double it.  I wanna feel it.”

You could almost hear the words he wasn’t saying: I wanna feel something.

“Okay, we can do that.  You’ve probably heard of the color system," you posited.

“I haven’t.”

"Oh."  That threw you off slightly… how new was he to this scene?  “Well, it’s traditionally green, yellow, red; like a stoplight.  Red means stop.  Yellow means proceed with caution.  Green means continue.”

“Sounds simple enough.”

“Too simple for me, in fact.  I have my own version: ‘red’ will make me stop what I’m doing, but only ‘black’ ends the scene entirely.  And then there’s ‘blue.’  That means you want more.”

He smirked a little; a strong show of emotion compared to his stoicism so far.  “I think I’ll use that one most.”

“Just don’t be afraid to use anything else, alright?  I’d never be disappointed in you for safewording, or even just needing a break.”

He nodded.  “Can we get to it then?”

“You’re rushing as always,” you laughed.  “I’m not charging you for this part.  We have plenty of time— don’t we?”

“Yes, but—” he sighed.  “You look really… I walked in and, I guess I’m just really looking forward to this.”

You almost would’ve smiled at the compliment but you thankfully suppressed it.  “And what is it that you’re looking forward to?  What do you want me to do to you?”

His jaw tightened as he looked away from you.  “Um, there’s a lot.”

“Enlighten me.”

“Ropes.  Strongest you have.  I can buy you stronger ones if you need them, for next time…”

He’s already thinking about next time?  He’s already thinking about buying me things?

“Alright, I can do ropes: wrists and ankles?  Or more than that?”

He seemed a bit confused by that question.  “Is there anywhere else?”

“Torso,” you enumerated, “neck—” you stopped because you saw his reaction to that, and it made you smile a bit.  “Okay, so maybe the neck is something to try.  Do you like being choked?”

“I… I don’t know…” he sighed.

“Have you ever been choked before?”

“Not… sexually...”

You felt your eyebrows rise, but didn’t want to press; a story for another time, perhaps.

“We’ll have to discuss silent safewords and signals so you can tap out, but if you’d be willing to try it—”

“Yes.”

You laughed.  “Eager, are we?”

He swallowed, and you wondered if you shouldn’t have let your ‘dom voice’ slip out in that moment… but he looked so good flustered like that.  He adjusted himself slightly in his chair and you hoped he was already hard.  And with that thought in mind, you couldn’t stop yourself from teasing him further.

“Do you like being called certain things?” you asked, voice lower as you leaned forward.  “How do you feel about ‘pet’?” 

He almost kept up his poker face, but his gaze faltered at the same time he moved in his chair again.  “Um, ‘pet’ is okay.”

“Baby boy?”

“Not really my speed,” he shrugged.

You slipped out of your chair and stood up, approaching him slowly as the click of your heels echoed across the tile.  He watched you with wide eyes and quickening breaths.

“What do you like?  Tell me,” you demanded, though you kept your tone light.

“Uh,” he paused, watching your hand as it rested on his leg, “I like… I like being called a good boy.”

You grinned as you pulled your hand away, watching him tense up with disappointment.  “I can do that,” you agreed, lifting his chin with a finger until he looked at you with those beautiful, desperate eyes, “if you actually are being a good boy for me.” “I will,” he promised quickly, “I’ll be so good.”

“Mmm, I bet you will,” you purred.  “So willing to please…”

“Tell me how,” he sighed as your hand trailed from his chin down to his chest, slipping under the loose collar of his henley and rubbing his chest.  “Tell me how to please you.”

“Well, for starters, I have a name, too: Mistress.”

He sighed like the wind had been knocked out of him, but nodded.

“And if I ask you a question, I expect you to answer ‘Yes, Mistress’ or ‘No, Mistress’.  Is that clear?”

“Uh-huh,” he agreed before suddenly correcting himself, “um, yes, Mistress.”

“I’ll let you have that one,” you frowned, “but further infractions will be punished.”

“Yes, Mistress; I’m sorry, Mistress,” he moaned, melting under your touch as your hand moved down to rub his thigh through his jeans.

“Now, just for fun,” you smiled, leaning down until your lips were nearly brushing his ear, “tell me what you want.”

“Please touch me, Mistress,” he sighed.

“But I am touching you.”

“Touch my… touch my cock," he clarified, adorably embarrassed. "It’s so hard for you…”

“We’ll get to that eventually.  Let’s go to the bedroom first, okay?”

However good he looked standing in your doorway half an hour ago, it was nothing compared to how he looked naked and hard and tied to your bed.

Yes, the prosthetic and the scars that attached it to his body were hard to ignore.  He had failed to warn you that it was metal, so you couldn’t hide the slight shift of your face when it caught the light; you hoped he didn’t think it was a look of judgment or disgust, because you truly didn’t think it was anything upsetting.  Maybe the scars were a little worrying… but they didn’t seem to bother him now, at least physically.

But truly, if anything was distracting about his body, it wasn’t the arm.  It was his muscles— no wait, it had to be his cock, right?  It’s tough to call: on one hand, his entire body was toned and hardened beyond the peak of human conditioning, his thick thighs making your mouth water already, his chiseled abs almost making you jealous; but on the other hand, between those lovely thighs and curving up against those perfect abs was a cock that rivalled anything you'd ever seen before, with a blue vein running up one side and a drip of precum rolling down the other.

You finally sauntered up to the bed and ran your fingers over the taught ropes, pretending to ignore him watching you impatiently.  It was almost hotter knowing that he could pull out of the ropes if he really wanted to.  More than most, he was choosing to submit to them and to you.

“How’s this knot feel?  Too tight?” you hummed, tugging the rope just beside his wrist and watching his hand move limply with it.

“No, it’s good.”

You stepped back to the foot of the bed and stripped slowly, peeling off your black dress to reveal a matching lace set underneath.  You left your heels on as you stepped out of the dress and kicked it aside.

Turning back to face him, James looked like he was all but drooling.  You could see in his eyes how much he wished the ropes weren’t holding him back so he could run his hands all over your body.

But you could tell he craved being denied what he wanted, by the way his cock flexed of its own volition.

You let yourself smile as you crawled your way up the bed and over his body, like a panther stalking its prey, and boy did he look ready to be devoured.

"Are you scared?" you asked quietly.  He shook his head.  "Are you ready?"

He nodded.  You sat up as you straddled him, positioned just right such that no part of you was really touching him, and watched with delight as he tugged against the ropes slightly to try to get closer.

"So needy," you grinned, somewhere between praising and scolding him.  Your fingers ghosted over his chest and he shivered; he asked you to treat his prosthetic like a normal arm, so you dragged your nails down the metal and watched his eyes flutter shut.  When you pulled your hand back and left him untouched again, he whined slightly.

“Aw, poor thing,” you pouted as you examined him, desperation emanating off of him in an invisible aura.  “Your cock is all red and leaking… it must hurt, doesn’t it?”

“Yes, Mistress,” he groaned.

“What if I touch it a little?” you offered.

“Please…”

You traced your fingers lightly up and down his length, tickling the skin and giving him the least pressure that you could.  He whimpered and you chuckled mockingly.  “I said I’d touch it a little, sweet boy, are you not satisfied?”

He bucked up into your touch as best he could, causing you to pull your hand away.  “Baby, please—” 

You cut him off with a slap to the face, as hard as you could muster.

“Mistress!” he corrected with a whine.  “Mistress, please… please wrap your hand around it.”

“Around what?” 

“Around… my cock.  Stroke me, please…”

“All you had to do was ask,” you grinned, finally tightening your hand around him and moving slowly up and down the shaft.  His head fell back with a soft moan, just from that.  Your teasing had certainly helped get him this worked up, but you knew it wasn't just that… he was plenty sensitive all on his own, apparently.

It made your mouth water.

"Does this feel good, James?" you asked huskily.

"S-so good," he whimpered, "please can you… stroke it a little faster, please, Mistress…"

"Hmm, not yet," you decided, feeling him tense up beneath you.  "Relax," you instructed with a free hand rubbing his thigh gently.  

You continued to teasingly stroke his length, never quite giving him the pressure or speed he needed to get closer to his release, savoring every whimper and whine and sigh from him along with the satisfying weight of his cock against your palm.

It felt like you'd never get tired of wielding so much power in your hand.

"Please," he sighed, "I need more…"

"You want me to stroke you faster?" you pressed, already knowing that wasn't what he meant.  He shook his head and you grinned, leaning in closer but letting go of his cock. 

Slowly, you let the lace covering your core rub up against his shaft, and his eyes nearly rolled back in his head.  "Ohhhhh," he moaned, "oh fuck, Mistress…"

You grinned and kept rocking against him, easily feeling the warmth of him through your panties— meaning he, in turn, could feel the warmth of you.  "How does it feel, baby?" 

"Good," he choked out, "really, really good… fuck, I want more, I need more, please…"

"Are you my good boy, James?" you asked in a low purr.  He nodded eagerly, Adam's apple bobbing as he swallowed nothing.  "Do you want to be inside me?" you finally whispered against his ear, letting a finger run lazily up his spine and feeling him shiver so hard it was more like he was convulsing.

"Please, Mistress, I'll do anything…"

You didn't touch all of your clients sexually, due in part to the fact that they usually wanted a lot more pain than pleasure.  You'd only had sex with one or two of them, and it wasn't a routine thing.  Before today you never would've imagined doing this with a first-time client, but to be completely honest… he was fucking hot.  The kind of guy you'd be spreading your legs for instantly if you weren't at work and he wanted to buy you a drink or grab lunch.  And he was here, at your disposal, begging you for more.  How could you say no?  

You pulled your panties aside and gripped his cock tightly to guide it to your entrance, studying his face twisted in anticipation before sinking down and watching him gasp and sigh all at once, somehow.

It took a lot of effort to hide your own pleasure when he was stretching you out so perfectly, but you managed to suppress the desire to moan and just smile at his fucked-out expression instead.

Finally, your hips met with his and you got to sit there and enjoy the look of dawning agony as he realized you were staying completely still.

“Move, please,” he sobbed, “oh god, Mistress, please move…”

“But I thought you wanted to be inside me?  Isn’t this what you asked for?”

He whined and tried to wiggle his hips; all that got him was two hard slaps to the face.  

“No whining,” you instructed through your teeth.  “Good boys don’t whine.”

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” he whimpered, “‘m your good boy, I promise.”

“I know you are,” you grinned, “or at least, I know you can be.  Show me how good and patient you are.”

Reaching to the side a bit without getting off of him, you pulled a vibrator from your drawer.  His eyes went a little wide when he saw it, and you laughed.

"Don't worry, this isn't for you.  It's for me," you explained as you turned it on, inserting it between your body and his to touch the toy against your clit.  He winced as you sighed contentedly.  "Fuck, it feels good.  Can you feel it on your cock?"

"A… a little…" he hissed.

"I bet it feels good for you too," you posited, "but not good enough to make you come."

After a little pause, he nodded breathlessly.

"Good," you smiled.  "I just wanna come with your cock inside me.  I wanna know how it feels to get off with my favorite toy while being full of my newest toy."

"Fuck," he groaned.

"Do you like that, pretty boy?  Do you like me using your cock, being your Mistress' dumb little fucktoy?"

"Yes," he sobbed, hips shifting ever so slightly beneath you as he sought more stimulation from your flexing walls.  Shifting the vibe to hit right on your clit, you cried out— and he did too, at the feeling of you tightening around him.

"God, you love being Mistress' dildo, don't you?"

He nodded, biting hard on his lip until you worried he'd hurt himself.  He moaned again as another jolt of pleasure forced your channel to clench on his cock.

"You're making too much noise for a fucktoy, you need to be quiet."

He opened his mouth for a second, but closed it again and nodded instead.  

"You can do it yourself right?" you pressed, seeing him nod.  "You don't need me to gag that pretty mouth?" 

He whined but shook his head, keeping his lips pressed together.

That went on for a few more moments as you teased yourself with the vibe, hoping to draw this out for the sake of his struggle.  Wanting to up the ante, you took the vibe off your clit and turned it off for a moment.  "I think this would feel better with a little lube… will you get it wet for me, James?"

You brought the toy to his lips and he eagerly wrapped them around it, sucking lightly on the silicone with those pretty lashes resting on his cheeks.

"There you go, that's a good boy," you praised, pulling the toy from his mouth, "that's my good boy…"

"Yours…" he repeated weakly, "wanna be good for you, just for you…"

This time when you turned it on and pressed it to your clit again, you instantly gasped and felt your walls bare down on him; turning up the vibration, you actually moaned aloud and saw him wince.  "Oh, can you feel it now?" you asked tauntingly.  He bit his lip and nodded.

It really wasn't even intentional but you felt your hips start to rock, making him gasp as his eyes shot open.  For a guy who had been begging you to move not too long ago, he looked pretty overwhelmed by it now.

"Fuck, I'm gonna make myself come on your cock… do you wanna feel me come, baby?"

He seemed conflicted, which was exactly what you were going for.  You wanted him to struggle, just enough, between his need to satisfy himself and his desire to please you.  "I… I want to make you come, Mistress," he finally choked out, notably answering a slightly different question than the one you'd asked.  

You smiled and leaned in to whisper in his ear: "Are you afraid that if you feel me come around you, you won't be able to hold back?  That you might accidentally come inside me?"

He made a needy little groan and nodded.

"Don't worry, baby, I'm gonna help you," you promised sweetly, but of course as soon as he saw you grab a cockring from your drawer he changed his tune.

"N-no, Mistress, please," he begged with wide eyes, "I'll be good, just not that— don't put that on me."

You smirked and sat up, pulling off of him and slowly slipping the ring on his throbbing length as he quietly pleaded for mercy.  He winced when you pushed it down to the base of him, his cheeks burning hot red now.

"Is it a little too tight, baby?" you cooed, grinning when he nodded.  "Good."

You sank back down into him and let your hips grind on his, working your clit with the vibe and even kicking it up to the next highest setting.  He jolted beneath you, clearly feeling the vibrations strongly now, and you let the view of his beautifully broken facial expression egg on your own climax.

"Mm, I'm close, baby," you whispered, "just stay still and let Mistress use you like a good little boy."

He made a small noise through his teeth but seemed to manage okay, even when your walls began to pulse rhythmically around him and your head fell back, your free hand palming at your breast through the lace bra just to add that last little edge of sensation.

"Oh fuck, fuck," you moaned, "that's my good boy…"

You shakily pulled the vibe away and turned it off, still a little numb on your clit but feeling your channel still rippling slightly with aftershocks; he seemed to feel them in spite of their subtlety, if the panting breaths that filled his muscular chest rapidly were any indication.

As slow as you could manage, you pulled your body off of him and sat back on his legs to stare at his cock.  The remnants of your orgasm left plenty of lubrication to stroke it, focusing on the head which had turned almost purple now.

"M-Mistress," he groaned, writhing under your touch.

Amazingly, his cock was already flexing in your hand, and a growl of pride and hunger echoed in your chest.

“Oh fuck, can you come for me, James?” you moaned, pumping him so fast your hand was a blur.  “Can you be my good boy and come right through the cockring?”

“Yes,” he sobbed, “gonna come, Mistress, please—”

“Come right now,” you demanded, watching his face instantly fall slack as he spurted out onto his own chest and stomach, cock flexing and pulsing in your hands as his legs quivered and his hips thrusted wildly.

And the tears were flowing soon after.  You weren’t sure if it was sub drop or just the power of his release, but between weak sobs he whispered broken apologies.

“You did so good,” you cooed as you slipped off the ring and wrapped your arms around him, subtly trying to reach over to untie the ropes.  But you didn’t need to; he flexed his arms and the restraints popped like floss.  He embraced you in return as you let his head fall onto your chest.  “You’re so good, it’s okay,” you continued, stroking his hair.

“I’m sorry,” he repeated again, breathing quickly and wetting you with his tears.

This, you realized, is what he had made you sign the contract to protect.  It wasn’t that he was excessively embarrassed about his sexual proclivities, but that this was his space to be soft, and weak, and broken.  Apparently he wasn’t ready for anyone else to know that he wasn’t steel all the way down.

“Shh, it’s okay… you’re okay…” you breathed, indulging him in this moment even though it was more intimate than you preferred to get with customers.  Aftercare was an important part of your job, certainly, but so was enforcing boundaries.

He began to soothe as you kissed his forehead gently, whispering well-deserved affirmations and praise.  As his breathing slowed and moved back to normal, he pulled back and looked up at you.

“I’m sorry,” he repeated one more time, but not as wavering as before, “I didn’t think I would… that was unexpected.”

“No, it’s somewhat normal,” you exaggerated slightly, “this kind of thing… it’s taxing, I pushed you to your limits.  You were really tough, and it’s all very vulnerable.”

“Thanks,” he sighed, sniffling and wiping his eyes.  “And sorry about your ropes,” he smiled as he noticed the frayed ends coming off of where his wrists were still tied.

“Let me help you get those off,” you smiled, loosening the knots and sliding the binds off of him, quickly massaging the places that the rope had constricted.  “Blood flow’s okay?”

“Yep,” he nodded.

“You numb anywhere?” you pressed.

“Uh, just my dick.  And my brain is all fuzzy…” 

You smiled.  “Can’t help the first one.  Let me get you some water for the second.”

“No!” he yelped suddenly.  “Um, don’t go yet, please…”

“Of course,” you smiled.  “I’ll untie your ankles, then.”

He still seemed disappointed, as if he expected you to hug him for hours and never move.  He let you go this time, though, and loosened his grip so you could slide down to the foot of the bed.  

"Was that sort of what you were hoping for when you called me?" you asked as you untied the ropes slowly and took a moment to massage the skin underneath, hoping to restore any lost blood flow.

"So much better than what I was hoping for," he admitted with a breathless chuckle.  "You're… really good."

"Well, thank you," you shrugged, "it comes with practice and experience.  You held your own, too."

"I wish I could say that was from practice and experience.  I didn't want to say anything before but I've, uh, never actually… been to a domme before."

You smiled slightly, coming back up and being pulled into another embrace.  "Um, I'll admit I can kind of tell…" you mumbled.

"I'm not supposed to touch you like this," he realized quietly, relaxing his grip on you and pulling back.  "I'm sorry."

"No, it's alright, just don't get too comfortable because we only have—" you glanced at the clock— "eight more minutes until you need to leave."

"I'll get up and get dressed soon," he offered with a sigh as you got up and quickly slipped on a robe, grabbing him a damp washcloth for the drying come on his torso.

You tilted your head as you watched him clean up, and you wanted to offer some touch that was a bit less intimate than a hug, so you found yourself blurting out: "do you like having your hair played with?"

"Um, I don't… I don't know," he admitted as he reached up to card his fingers through the hair in question.  "No one else has ever really touched my hair before."

"Really?" you laughed, getting back on the bed to sit beside him.  "It looks pretty luscious.  I figured any girlfriend of yours would want to get her hands on it."

"Oh, well, the last time I had a girlfriend… it wasn't long then," he explained, and you kept on your best poker face.  His hair looked like he'd been growing it out for at least two years, unless it grew crazy fast or something.  How long had he been single?  With a body like that you could barely believe that he was single now.

"Do you mind if I touch it?" you offered quietly, and once he gave you a nod you reached forward and combed your fingers through it, reaching deeper to scratch at his scalp, occasionally pulling the strands lightly into loose braid-like patterns that fell away almost immediately afterwards.  He sank into your touch until you found yourself supporting his head against your chest, mindlessly playing with his hair until you noticed his eyes were shut, his breathing was slowed, and his body was limp on top of yours.

He fell asleep.

You laughed silently to yourself, realizing that you couldn't get him off of you without his cooperation since he was so heavy and you had no shot at lifting him.  And, of course, his cooperation required his consciousness… which required waking him up.

And, for some reason, you couldn't bring yourself to do it.  He just looked too peaceful, for a guy who had never seemed truly relaxed around you.

Was there any other way he could relax?  Cause it kinda seemed like he really, really needed this.  And you were in the business of meeting needs, to say the least.

So, with an apologetic text to your last client of the night that you needed to reschedule, you let James sleep on you as you closed your eyes and drifted off as well.

[borhap-au]

Your villain. Rami Malek au

You really tried to keep your cool, but the sexual tension between you two was undeniable. It was the scene where you stood in a room of an old castle, and he circled around you, saying his monologue. With every step, he got a bit closer and closer to you. You took a few deep breaths to contain yourself and not kiss him right there and then, in front of everyone.

You never saw a hotter villain. He was dressed in all black, his hair was styled in a fancy way and he had that smirk on his face that just screamed “trouble!” You, on the other hand, were dressed in a long green dress. Your hair was curly and loose, with a simple tiara keeping it all together. It was a fantasy movie, but that kind which was not suitable for young audiences. Rami’s character was ruthless and cruel, and your character had to do anything in her power to stop him. But in truth, if it was up to you, you would just stop him by keeping him in your bedroom, tied to your bed.

You both had supernatural powers. You were like light and darkness and because of him, you really wanted to join the dark side. You heard the word “cut!” and the main lights went back on. Everyone loosened up and Rami finally smiled his natural, heartwarming smile.

“I think it was quite good, don’t you think? It really worked this time.” He said, approaching you.

“Oh, yes, absolutely. I think it was our best shot so far. I totally felt it.” You agreed. He smiled, being proud of both of you.

“I hope the director will think the same.” He added, and you chuckled quietly.

“If not, tell him to discuss that matter with your Oscar.” You advised him, and he chuckled as well.

Thankfully, the director liked the scene as well, so after lunch, you could move on to a different sequence. This time it was after you both had been fighting with each other, and now you were on him, holding his hands down with all the supernatural energy power you had, disabling him from using his sword. You were both breathing heavily because the fight sequence was really difficult, it was almost like a very energetic dance routine. You held his hands down with all your strength, trying to make it look believable. You leaned over him and you were supposed to say your lines right to his face, but the longer you looked into his eyes, the further your lines escaped from your mind. You looked down at his mouth. He looked at your lips as well. None of the lines mattered to either of you anymore. You knew Rami thought the same, you felt it. You started lining forward…

“You’re going to like it in hell!” Someone shouted your line to you, to help you out. But at that moment, it was no help at all. It was a simple distraction. You moved your head back, suddenly very aware of yourself and your surroundings. And all the people around you. You felt stupid for doing that, so you asked for a little break, and the director granted it to you, but also warned you to better rehearse your lines. You nodded and went back to your trailer.

You closed your eyes and leaned on the wall. What were you even thinking? And around all those people… You sighed, mad at yourself for your lack of discretion, but you weren’t left alone with your thoughts for long. You heard knocking on your trailer door and rolled your eyes. Of course, somebody wanted something from you. You couldn’t have a minute of freedom in this damn-

“Oh, hey, Rami…” You gave him a fainted smile. He asked if he could come in. “Sure,” you opened the door wider so that he could get in. When he walked right next to you, your heartbeat started to rise. You closed to the door behind him.

“So, I was thinking whether you’d like to practice a few lines from that next scene,” he suggested, and you smiled apologetically in return.

“I’m sorry, I know I was completely rubbish out there, but I promise, I learned my lines. I just… They just… Poof,” you tried to explain, but he shook his head.

“I meant that I had trouble learning my own lines and I’d like to practice so that we don’t have to take another break and piss the director off,” he smiled and you chuckled quietly.

“Yeah, no problem,” you nodded your head and took your script to check your lines for the last time. After that, you began the scene. You pretended to fight, but in a very calm way, so more like showing each other what you would do rather than actually doing it. You didn’t want to break anything in the trailer and get tired during the break that was supposed to serve as a moment to take a breath.

“You’re going to like it in hell,” you said, and it sounded exactly like you wanted it to sound – as if you two were fighting for years and this time it finally came to an end. You sounded as if you were exhausted from trying to bring him to justice; as if that was the only thing you thought about since you started doing witchcraft and after today, you could finally rest. Even Rami was impressed with how you managed to squeeze so much meaning into a single sentence.

“I’m sure I will, after all, I’ve always liked a good company, and you, my dear, are certainly a company worth keeping,” he pretended to break free from you as well as put a knife through your heart and you, with your last breath cumulated all the power to destroy him. And in that last scene, you died, embraced, after years of fighting. You were finally free, not the way your character anticipated, but free nevertheless.

It was weird how easy everything was around Rami when it was just the two of you having fun. When there were no cameras and no eyes judging your every movement.

“Well, if we do it like this, on your next movie people will discuss their artistic differences with your Oscar,” he praised you, and you immediately blushed, because nobody’s compliments counted like his. Thankfully, due to your heavy make-up and bad lighting, he didn’t really see that.

“Thank you. It means a lot,” you admitted, and he smiled at you, at which you smiled back. He looked at your lips again and you involuntarily checked his. Your heart started racing. He leaned forward and… The break was over, as your director shouted through a megaphone.

“Oh, um… Thank you so much for your help with the lines,” you added before you both left your trailer.

“No problem. You were a huge help as well,” he smiled at you, and you loved his smile more every time you saw it.

You did the scene and you did it fantastically. You even got a standing ovation from the crowd around you. After that, you were almost done for the day, you just had to repeat one scene, because the director hoped for such intense emotions as he saw in this last scene. So you did the other scene one last time.

It was your first scene together in the movie, where you two meet for the first time after a long time. He’s heard stories about you being gone, killed fighting evil so he was sure he’s safe from you. You, on the other hand, heard only stories about his atrocities, but him being very much alive, so you decided to come and change that. He spoke your fictional name and you felt shivers going down your spine.

“What an unpleasant surprise,” his character admitted, and your character, technically still a newbie in her profession, held her breath, because for the first time in her life she had to face evil on her own. You looked him directly in the eyes, and he grabbed you by your shirt, initially to shout his character’s opinion of your character’s kind in your face, but this time, it was different and you were surprised with yourself that you didn’t notice it immediately while he planned it.

After he grabbed you by your shirt, for which you were prepared, because that was in the script, came something unexpected, but much more pleasant. He kissed you. Finally, after weeks of you praying for his lips to touch yours, it really happened. Despite none of it being in the script, the director didn’t stop you. He allowed for it, because everybody on set felt the sexual tension rising between the two of you and it was rather annoying, so everybody hoped you could resolve it somehow. The screenwriter considered even making changes to the script to make you lovers in the past, so you can have that kissing scene you two needed so much.

When his lips touched yours, you immediately kissed him back. You put your hands on his cheeks, bringing him closer and he put his hands around you and did the same. The world around you two didn’t matter, because it didn’t exist at that moment. You focused on the kiss and the amazing taste of his lips, how soft and sweet they were. It was passionate, and it finally let some of the tension between the two of you go away, leaving only a nice, warm feeling of happiness. When you unwillingly let go of each other, he smiled at you, petting your cheek with his thumb.

“Thank you, for being the best partner I ever had the pleasure to work with,” he said, and you replied with a smile.

“Thank you for making this movie the nicest adventure I’ve ever been on.”

[christinaroseandrews]

Looking for a Romance this Valentine’s Day?

So, every publication and blogger is putting out a Valentine’s Day romance list, and we are nothing if not followers. We’ve assembled a large list (33 Books) of a mix of traditionally and indie published books. All of the books on this list are ones we’ve read and feel comfortable recommending. And they all fit the definition of romance - a story where the relationship is central to the overall plot and features a happy for now or happily every after ending.

We’re going to break this down into several categories because not everyone reads Regency romances (but we are going to start there).

Regency Romance

These are books set between 1795-1837. While the Regency itself was only from 1811-1820 most people use these dates including Wikipedia. This was honestly one of the hardest for us to narrow down, mostly because it’s the dominant genre in traditionally published romance -- even Contemporary doesn’t hold a candle to Regency right now.

Sweet Disorder - Rose Lerner - M/F Romance (Steamy) - Election hijinks ensue when the local election hinges on who the widowed wife of a newspaper printer marries. Other Notes: Plus-Sized Heroine, Family Drama, Disabled Characters, Everyday People Falling in Love, Marginalized Author (Jewish).

The Baroness Affair - Jean Wilde - M/M/F Romance (Steamy) - A desperate noblewoman enlists the help of a male courtesan to help her get pregnant... no it’s not what you think. Other Notes: Equal Triad Polyamory, Period Appropriate Homophobia, LBGT Romance, Family Drama.

How To Start a Scandal - Madeline Martin - M/F Romance (Steamy) - A wallflower and secret society reporter reconnects with the Earl Next Door who’s recently returned from the war. Other Notes: Plus-Sized Heroine, Family Drama, Positive Mental Illness Portrayal, Cute Plot Animals.

Project Duchess - Sabrina Jeffries - M/F Romance (Steamy) - A duke returns to his family after the mysterious death of his stepfather, yet another duke, only to be enchanted by a woman who has a connection to the last person to see his stepfather alive. Other Notes: Older Heroine (the whole series features these), Romantic Suspense Series, family drama. I’m really enjoying the whole series and it’s worth a read.

The Rakess - Scarlett Peckham - M/F Romance (Steamy) - This is a love it or hate it kind of book that flips so many of the conventional romance tropes on its ear. It features a hard-drinking, hard-smoking, highly sexual woman who authors progressive literature and causes a scandal just by living her life meeting up with a mild-mannered reputation conscious Scottish Architect with two small children. Even the cover flips the script on the classic clinch cover. I loved it. A lot people didn’t. Other notes: Period appropriate sexism/hypocrisy/etc., CW: alcoholism, neighbors to lovers, adorable plot moppets.

Paranormal Romance

These are romances that feature a fantastical element. This can be anything from vampires to shifters to time travel. These also will often be series which may or may not continue with the same relationship throughout several books.

Hot Ghost - Annika Martin - M/F Romance (Steamy) - A waitress finds love with the ghost who haunts the pier near her family’s restaurant. Other Notes: Major Character Death (It’s a Ghost Romance...), Everyday People Falling in Love, Novella.

Accepting Fate - Deanna Chase - M/F Romance (Steamy) - Fresh from a bad break up, a woman meets her soulmate at an art gallery opening. Together they have to work through their trauma and find out if they can be happy together. Other Notes: Childhood trauma, Fire Fighter Romance, Soulmates, Artists.

Gretel - Niamh Murphy - F/F Romance (Steamy) - A retelling of the fairy tale Hansel and Gretel with a very interesting twist. Other Notes: Age-Gap Romance, Novella.

One Shade of Grey - Monica Corwin - M/F Romance (Steamy) - Dorian Grey, yes that one, has a bit of a problem. He keeps seeing a woman who he thinks is the reincarnation of his lost love. But is she really? Or is he going insane? Other Notes: Positive Portrayal of Mental Illness, Classical Story Retelling, Billionaire Romance, Immortality

Tangled in Time - Barbara Longley - M/F Romance (Steamy) - Cursed to see spirits, Regan is approached by the spirit of a cursed Irish warrior. Now they must work together to lift his curse and fall in love along the way. Other Notes: Fae Romance, Time Travel Romance, Ghost Romance.

Hunger Pangs: True Love Bites - Joy Demorra - M/M/F Romance (Steamy or Fluffy) - A vampire, a werewolf, and a magic user walk into a plot to end the world. Of course they have to fall in love along the way. Other Notes: Vampire Romance, Werewolf Romance, Magic User Romance, LBGT Fantasy Romance, Bisexual Romance, Postive Mental Illness representation, Marginalized Author (Disabled, Queer, Neurodivergent).

Erotic Romance

These are books where the sex is as much a part of the romance as the rest of the story. The plots here tend to be thinner, but they’re still present and important. This is not smut for smut’s sake. The relationship is important too. All of these are going to rate high on the steam.

After Hours - Lynda Aicher - M/F Romance - An executive assistant accidentally observes an after hours orgy in one of the boardrooms. Rather than be repulsed, she’s aroused. And up for more. Other Notes: Workplace Romance, Voyeurism, Exhibitionism, Mild BDSM, Boss/Subordinate Relationship.

Loving Maddie from A to Z - Kelly Jamison - M/M/F Romance - An outwardly happy couple looks to add something to their relationship by inviting their friend into their home and bed. Other Notes: Polyamory, BDSM, Big City Romance.

Ever After - Eden French - M/M/F Romance - An erotic modern retelling of the Cinderella fairy tale featuring billionaires, celebrities, and lots of hot sex. Other Notes: Interracial Romance, Polyamory, Billionaire Romance, CW: Child Abuse.

Test Drive - N.S. Johnson - M/F Romance - A so-called good girl finds that she’s really not when she falls for the leader of a street racing crew. Other Notes: Polyamory, CW: Infidelity, Interracial Romance, Reverse Harem, Recreational Drug Use, Author of Color.

Other Historical Romance

These are romances set outside of the Regency but not during contemporary periods. A lot of old school romances tend to be this because medieval was big then. But it also includes everything up to 1990 too... Yeah... I know... I feel old.

Let It Shine - Alyssa Cole - M/F Romance (Steamy) - Set during the civil rights movement, this story follows two young people struggling to find their voice and love amidst the turmoil of the 1960s. Other Notes: Interracial Romance, Period Appropriate Racism, Period Appropriate Anti-Semitism, Author of Color, Sports Romance, Novella.

In Pursuit Of... - Courtney Milan - M/M Romance (Steamy) - Set immediately after the American War for Independence it features a British soldier falling in love with a Black man who fought for the American side. Other Notes: Interracial Romance, Romantic Comedy, period appropriate racism, author of color, Novella.

Bringing Down the Duke - Evie Dunmore - M/F Romance (Steamy) - A rare female scholar tries to keep her scholarship going while also crusading for the rights of women in Victorian England. Other Notes: Alpha Hero, Clueless Heroine.

Contemporary Romance

These romances are set in the last 25 years and run the gamut of tropes.

Get a Life, Chloe Brown - Talia Hibbert - M/F Romance (Steamy) - Sick of living her life wrapped in tissue paper, Chloe Brown sets off to live a little. And to do that, she needs the help of her building’s manager. Other Notes: Plus-Sized Heroine, Interracial Romance, Disabled Characters, Positive Portrayal of Mental Illness, Marginalized Author (Black). As a note the sequel Take a Hint, Dani Brown is just as good and features a Bisexual Woman of Color.

Beg, Borrow, or Steal - Susie Tate - M/F Romance (Fluffy) - A medical student has to juggle the needs of being a single mother, a student, and paying the bills. And if that means she’s got to take off her clothes to do that, that’s what she’s going to do. Too bad she keeps falling asleep in class. Other Notes: No Sex (No really), But also Super sex positive, Student/Teacher Relationship, Adorable Plot Moppet.

Soft Hands - Ariel Bishop - M/M Romance (Steamy) - A professional Hockey Player ends up falling for the team trainer and massage therapist. Other Notes: Bisexual Rep, Sports Romance, Interracial Romance.

The Year We Fell Down - Sarina Bowen - M/F Romance (Steamy) - Two people who’ve suffered from accidents which have left them disabled find each other at a Harvard Expy. While one of the characters only has a temporary disability (broken leg) it still fucking counts. Other Notes: New Adult Romance, Disabled characters, Sports Romance, College Romance.

Small Town Romance

A subgenre of Contemporary Romance, these are books set in a small town and often the stakes tend to be pretty low. They can run the range of no-sex to lots of steam. They are also often VERY WHITE. While many are set in America, they can also be set elsewhere with Australia and the British Isles being the most common other settings.

Falling for Her Brother’s Best Friend - Noelle Adams - M/F Romance (Steamy) - Who doesn’t love a small town romance featuring characters that used to be childhood friends becoming more? Other Notes: New Adult Romance.

The Last One - Tawdra Kandle - M/F Romance (Steamy) - Meghan, an art student, and Sam, a farmer, and how they meet in small-town Georgia when Meghan comes to teach art over the summer to the kids in town…and ends up staying with Sam and his family. Other Notes: Alpha Male Hero.

If Wishes Were Horses - Caitlyn Lynch - M/F Romance (Steamy) - When an Aussie woman inherits partial ownership in a horse ranch in Ireland, sparks fly. Other Notes: Novella, Irish Romance.

Old School Romance

These are romances that were written before the rise of indie publishing where white men had the power and it shows. These are what people point to when they reduce romance novels to just “bodice rippers” but even then they weren’t just that.  BTW none of these books feature Fabio so suck it!

Skye O’Malley - Bertrice Small - M/F Romance (Steamy) - Daughter of a small Irish lord, this book follows Skye through her life and romances across England, Ireland, and even Algeria. It’s wild and all over the place and is not your typical romance novel. It ends on a HEA but there is a JOURNEY. But gods it’s one of my old-school faves. Other Notes: Major Character Death. Non-Con, Pirates, Interracial Romance, Historical Domain Characters, This is not your typical romance. I like the whole series... but that’s a me thing.

The Traveling Matchmaker Series - Marion Chesney/M.C Beaton - M/F Romance (Fluffy) - A housekeeper inherits a large sum of money and decides to use it to travel about England. Along the way, she makes matches for the other passengers of the stagecoach she’s traveling on while getting into all sorts of adventures. This series is pure fluff and I love it. Other Notes: Period appropriate xenophobia, Age Gap Romance.

Remembrance - Jude Deveraux - M/F Romance (Steamy) - A romance novelist discovers that the reason she hasn’t found love is because of an issue with her past life. So she decides to do something about it... only to find it’s just the very tip of the story. Other Notes: Time Travel Romance, Past Lives, Meta... so very meta.

Desire in Disguise - Rebecca Brandewyne - M/F Romance (Steamy) - Look this is set during the French Revolution and features duelling (quite literally) pirates. This is a wild ride and it’s so old school it hurts. Other Notes: Alpha hero, mistaken identity, enemies to lovers, spies, pirates, But oh so many problematic tropes. This looks to be out of print... so check your local library.

Gentle Warrior - Julie Garwood - M/F Romance (Steamy) - Set right after the Norman Invasion of England, this features a Norman Lord who was granted an Anglo-Saxon wife and all of the drama that comes with. Note... this is the first Romance Novel I ever read.. My mother bought it for me when it was newish -- in 1987. Other Notes: CW: Rape, Arranged Marriage, Non-conventionally Attractive Hero.

Books that check all of the boxes of Romance but aren’t Labeled as Romance because Sexism.

Romance isn’t about sex. There’s lots of books with explicit sex in them that aren’t Romance and several with a strong romantic relationship that drives the plot which ends happily and satisfying. But sexism is a thing and so here we are.

The Princess Bride - William Goldman - M/F Romance (Fluffy) - You’ve probably seen the movie. The book is also fun. And since the romance is central to the plot AND the ending is a happy one (especially in the movie) it qualifies.

The Hunger Games Trilogy - Suzanne Collins - M/F Romance (Fluffy) - Look who would have thought that in a book about kids killing each other and the violence of war that Romance would play that big of a role? But it does. And it is. And it’s important.

Katherine - Anya Seton - M/F Romance (Fluffy) - This could feasibly go into Old School Romance, but apparently the publishers have decided to downplay the actual romance and try to sell this as literature. It follows the real-life Romance between Katherine Swineford and the Duke of Lancaster. 

Did we leave off any of your favorites? It’s probably because we haven’t read them! We always like recs, especially featuring marginalized authors or main characters with marginalized identities.

If you like this kind of thing, consider leaving us a tip in our Ko-Fi!

[bunny9girl]

Age Gap... AU

One Piece~

♡The characters are all between 27-29 unless said otherwise

♡The s/o is between 16-18

Warning: ...Kissing and Cuddles? PDA, nakedness and language.

Part 2

Exstra 😱����🖊 {At some point I couldn't stop writing.}

Portgas D. Ace 🔥

🔥You met Ace at school during one of your art classes.

🔥He came in to do a favor for one of your teachers, to give tips on art and give you guys professional guidance and at some point he posed as a model.

🔥Yes a model !!!

🔥Soooo you kinda got to see him naked the first time you met, he was opened with all his god like built.

🔥When the class was done sketching. He caught a glimpse of your work seeing as it wasn't nearly done, so he offered to stay longer for you to finish.

🔥God damn you wish he didn't, him being there is the very reason your sketch wasn't done. It was too embarrassing to look at a naked man infront of you and sketch.

🔥Not knowing which to concentrate on?

🔥Ace saw that, and offer to help you like exstra lessons at his home maybe improve the areas you lack at.

🔥And you gladly took that offer.

🔥At some point after teaching you for half a year. You started just acting like a couple without knowing when it actually happened.

🔥Ace loves his s/o with every bit of his heart.

🔥You spend most of you free time with each other, either sketching each other or chilling playing video games or talking.

🔥Ace is a professional artist, with both a degree and diploma in practical arts, so ofcourse his art is going to so much more advanced than yours.

🔥You love staring at him while he paints.

🔥Ace loves not wearing a shirt proves he is comfortable in his own skin, he also got his s/o into wearing less clothes.

🔥With the less clothes you got use to drawing him only in boxers.

🔥And somehow you guys turned into that couple that's completely fine with walking around each other naked in his apartment alone.

🔥Ace's job is something he loves doing while having fun. Yes he does teach arts at a university.

🔥Remember your still in high school not in a college/university.. yet.

🔥Ace is a very clingy man he will hug you a lot even when his naked. He gives you a lot of pet names he's favorite is, teachers pet.

🔥He doesn't do small half ass kisses. Its either long and passionate or heavily horny make out.

🔥Ace's s/o loves the tattoos on his skin, trenching her/his fingers over his arm or back.

🔥Ace reminds you of a cowboy though to his country style and mostly the hat in his bedroom.

🔥Yes you have met his friends especially Marco, you didn't mind hanging out with them their nice people and fun.

🔥You met Ace's family the first week he started teaching you. You met his two brothers and his Father that goes by White Beard.

🔥The second White Beard met you, he told Ace to never let you go or he will beat the crab out of him

🔥Ace took it to heart and loved you even more.

🔥You never really told your parents that your dating Ace. One day you just brought him home and hanged out in your room, at some point they just assume you guys are dating and they we're all right with it.

🔥When it comes to drawing Ace, you love to draw his face the most, make it look like his freckles are stars.

🔥His black hair and freckles are the most notable features on him.

🔥Your first date, wasn't that bad except at a random part he fell asleep

🔥In the beginning when he started teaching you, you though he was just tired but it happens frequently so it made you worried.

🔥He calmed your nerves telling you he has narcolepsy and his fine, might fall asleep at random times but his okay.

🔥It made you relax, and questioned him if there's a way to stop it but he only shook his head and dropping down on you snoring as he sleep hug you.

🔥You can only ask him help with art work/homework anything related to art otherwise not he can't help, he'd be just as dumbfounded as you.

🔥He inspired you to get a tattoo of your own name in your (Body part), but he was against the idea of a random person touching so he did it himself.

🔥Accidentally spelled one letter wrong so he had to cross it out, you strated yapping at him that he did it purposely.

🔥He made it up to you by giving you another tattoo on your (Body part) that was your favorite (animal of your choice/any tattoo of your choice.)

🔥You guys never gets mistaken for relatives or family members even friends, cause Ace's is all over you, making out even sucking on your neck.

🔥But they do know you guys have an age difference but they don't know how much

🔥His already in his late twenties, and doesn't care as long as you are with him and love him for who he is rather than his age he'll love you back.

🔥You were happy afterwards.

🔥PDA *Public display of affection*

🔥He would hold your hand even kiss you.

🔥But he loves wrapping an arm around your waist having you lean against his body.

🔥Signaling others that you are taken and your his property.

🔥PDA kissing😏😳 just like I said, Ace only allows long and passionate or heavily horny make out kissing.

🔥He makes sure sexual tension rise when your with him, his happy knowing you desire him, so does he.

🔥The fire in your relationship might take a very long time to whither away.

🔥He loves you dearly.

Exstra exstra!!!

Portgas D. Shanks 🍺

🍺Unlike the others Shanks is way older. Reaching 37.

🍺But very childish and energetic.

🍺You decided to take on a part time job just to own a little side cash for yourself, you start working as a waitress/waiter at an old diner in town.

🍺One day Shanks and his friends came in after work to hang out and drink the place dry having some sort of celebration.

🍺And his glad he came along, (His friends might've made him go unwilling) but his glad one glimpse of you and he already knows what's for dinner on the menu.

🍺At first glance he didn't seem very approachable, maybe it was his appearance the three scars over his eye or maybe his big god like built

🍺But once spoken to him he passed off a kind caring and loving atmosphere his actions where so nice he even apologized for accidentally touching your hand

🍺Through out the night he shot complements and cheesey pick up lines, that made you either giggle or blush.

🍺You where kinda sad when he left. (or rather his friends dragged his black out ass out of the diner)

🍺You really wanted his number or at least his name.

🍺The next day he came in for breakfast, you were lucky to catch him, some how you talked the day over with him.

🍺So on he came in everyday, either for breakfast lunch or dinner, which pleased you very much.

🍺on some occassions you joined him, being able to enjoy the food you cooked and seeing him enjoy your cooking as well as the beer you pour for him.

🍺One evening your co worker pointed out that you must have been enjoying your dates.

🍺You were a little confused but decided to ask Shanks himself

🍺"Yeah, we've been going on dates for awhile now, why?"

🍺"u-umm?" That was your only response.

🍺You just let go, and decided to start calling yourself Shanks's girlfriend/boyfriend.

🍺He made sure you never regret it

🍺Later on you guys hanged out more outside of your part time job, and more at his house

🍺He began loving you more and more each day he's kinda a clingy guy

🍺He loves holding you in his arm and kissing you all over your face and neck.

🍺Only way he can show you how much he respects and care even loves you.

🍺He was happy that you didn't back away when you saw his missing arm.

🍺But you love how he still cable of a lot of things and doesn't need anyone's pity

🍺It makes you few him in a new light

🍺But sometimes he takes advantage of his disability and asks for your help, like putting on his shirt or drying his hair, a lot of other more minor stuff that might give you naughty thoughts.

🍺You know exactly what he's doing, but you get to enjoy it too.

🍺He can't help but laugh at you blushing at his bare skin, he loves you trying to be innocent

🍺Shanks has great friends their all lively like him and loves to drink as much as him. Whenever you come over to his place you might meet 3 or 7 of his friends enjoying a beer and BBQ.

🍺They respect Shanks very much, and is happy for him that he found someone that can deal with his childlike nature and take care of him at the same time

🍺When you are hanging out with them, they always tease Shanks and you making Shanks fall in a fit of laughter and you blush madly in his lap.

🍺School work/homework is something you can easily ask Shanks about he might not have all the answers but he knows more than he lets on.

🍺So at times you get better grades than you did before, the way he explained some things made it easier hand that you played more attention to your hot older boyfriend.

🍺But Shanks doesn't have much family left and never saw why you need to meet those his not close too.

🍺You just simply forgot to introduce him to your parents.

🍺Until it back fired, you forgetting to introduce him made the situation even more difficult.

🍺You just mindlessly invited him to a one of your family BBQ's and he cheerfully agreed.

🍺Once he came by the weekend that's when you remember that you forgot to introduce him to your parents before your family and distance relatives and family friends.

🍺You sucked it up and acted normal, which displeased Shanks since you didn't sit on his lap or kiss him much not even hugs.

🍺At first he thought you were embarrassed of him but saw you running around handing drinks and snacks to those who just use you as an little servant girl/boy, too lazy to get off their own asses and do it themselves.

🍺He also knows you have a hard time saying no, since you are a good person and very nice

🍺He decided to deal with the matter himself.

🍺Place down his beer, he grabbed your little ass that was about to hurry pass him, pulling you down onto his lap hugging you to his chest.

🍺Your tired body automatically rest on him laying your face in his neck

🍺Not a few seconds later you two started having a nice loving conversation he made you giggle at his words. Rubbing his hand in circles on your back.

🍺Making you love him more.

🍺That's when your mother/mom came by angry calling you lazy for not helping the others around.

🍺Before you could get up and back to "helping" the family, Shanks grip around your waist tighten.

🍺"Listen here, miss. I'm not a rude guy but the table is right over there, now I haven't seen (y/n) for entire week cause of my business trip. Now they can serve themselves, or can they all not walk."

🍺Your mother/mom got furious now turning to you.

🍺"Whose this?" She simply pointed at the red head

🍺"(Y/n)'s man... lover... Boyfriend. Which do you prefer miss?"

🍺"I forbid you to see him ever again."

🍺"You can't. (Y/n) is 18 an gown adult so she/he can make her/his own decisions. You have no say in the matter."

🍺Your mother/mom huffed crossing her arms stomping away. Not liking him one bit

🍺Your Dad/father couldn't help but laugh liking Shanks even more.

🍺This is the kind of guy he'd let his daughter/son marry one that can stand up to your mother/mom stupid shit.

🍺You thought that was the end but the tables quickly turned on your mother/mom.

🍺Shanks is truly the one for you.

🍺So having him meet your parents didn't go all that well especially with your mother/mom.

🍺The things you love about Shanks ofcourse his personality and body.

🍺But his red hair is what you love the most, running your fingers through the red locks makes you happy all the time. Is truly a beautiful color.

🍺Red has a range of symbolic meanings, including life, health, vigor, war, courage, anger, love and religious.

🍺You even asked if its his natural hair color and you got a yes, he even proofed with some baby pictures of himself.

🍺Which you adore the ones that his near your age.

🍺But you will always love the him who is in front of you the him you met and fell in love with.

🍺Shanks has a pretty good job, he is the owner of one of the biggest four business company in the world.

🍺Yes! That means his quite rich. Your set for life marrying him.

🍺That's where some of his friends teases him, calling him your Sugar Daddy.

🍺You have never really asked him for anything not even a penny. If you want money you make your own.

🍺A gift, you refuse any gift unless it is his love and affection that you'd gladly take.

🍺Shanks drinks alot sometime you question his liver. When his drunk his someone that anyone would like around a happy drunk, his not sad or angry, just ×10 more cheerful and clingy.

🍺PDA *Public display of affection*

🍺He wants bear hugs daily. Once your in his lap he doesn't let you out for a long time same goes for your butterfly kisses he wants them daily.

🍺He'd die without your attention.

🍺Your eyes must always meet his.

🍺PDA kissing 🍻😚~ Shanks doesn't mind cheek kisses or a make out session, he thinks it's brave of you that he won't take you then and there.

🍺At home DA *Display of affection*

🍺He loves when you leave a trail of kisses on his neck down to his lower abdomen, it happens rarely but he just loves being under your touch

🍺The little things you do for him makes him wanna keep you for himself.

***

The End.

Maybe~😏

[elaineiswithyou-blog]

Fandom: haikyuu, monster prom, and marvel!

My age: 19

Sexuality: bisexual

Gender I.D: Female

Likes: anime, art, music, nightmare before Christmas, harry potter, scented things, candles, Halloween, fall weather, animals, and fuzzy blankets.

Dislikes: spiders, super hot weather, liar's, blend food, and people who can't clean up after themselves.

Hobbies: reading, drawing, watching anime/tv shows, writing, painting, going on late night drives, and going on walks.

Personality: Personality:I don't talk to people I don't know usually and can seem shy but once I get to know them a can be talkative and a little bit loud (I get told to quiet down a lot. I don't really hate people unless they give me a reason too. I don't get annoyed or mad easily. I make dark jokes sometimes they're directed to myself. I try to be supportive of my friends but if I know what they're doing is stupid than one will call them out on it. I try to make everyone else around me happy before myself and even if I am upset I tend to be happy so I don't bother everyone around me. I'm really into the emo style, I also am touch starved.

Where I am from: Denver, Colorado

Fav color: black and purple

Fav animal: hedgehog

Fav sport: volleyball

Fav food: spaghetti

Do I have a pet: yes a dog

Do I have a mental illness: yes I am bipolar, I have depression and I have bad anxiety.

Do I have any physical disabilities: no I do not

Do I have any siblings: yes 7 of them

What are my siblings like: ummm well my brothers are all kinda gamer nerds expect for the 2 smallest ones. My sister is an artist and an alcoholic. My two small brothers are annoying but adorable.

Do I speak any other languages: no I do not tho I am trying to learn Japanese.

My current job: is at a fast food place.

My dream job: to become an vet.

I think I got it all, just message me if I don't!

For Haikyuu, I’d match you with Kenma. You both probably meet through a school project together. Kenma is smart and quiet so it’s likely you two, at first, don’t have any feelings towards one another but as you go to his house and vise versa, you both start to talk about your hobbies and interests and you both soon learn that you share a lot of those interests. Gaming and movie date nights are a must. You bring over your comfy blankets and the food while Kenma gets the games and movies set up. Kenma doesn’t mind the late-night drives as long as he doesn’t have to drive, he’ll also likely fall asleep on those drives. Kenma doesn’t mind your dog unless it’s one of those small yippy dogs. He can’t stand them but he doesn’t mind larger dogs, as long as they don’t knock over and break his stuff. You and Kenma both have bad anxiety and it shows though you try to comfort each other when possible. While Kenma knows depression isn’t something you can control, he tries his absolute hardest to help you and support you and keep you happy. He never wants to make you feel less than because of your depression or whatever is getting you down. Overall, very supportive.

Liam and you likely meet through one of your shared classes. Liam doesn’t particularly notice you at first but if he does catch you reading or drawing in class, he does become more interested. He’ll likely approach you after class or during lunch and ask you about your taste in art and whatnot. He likes to learn about new things such as anime and while some shows are not to his particular taste, he doesn’t actually mind it as much as he usually would a different medium of cartoon shows which he usually considered childish. Liam is like the dad who did not want a dog, mostly because he has to deal with Scott and werewolves enough already, but he does come around to your dog after a little bit. I feel like Liam would want to learn a language with you and although he is a faster learner than you, he tries to help when he can. Super surprisingly sweet.

Peter Parker and you meet when he saves you from a villain but you don’t exactly know who Spiderman is. Still, you’re determined to thank him and find out more about him. In your research about Spiderman, you get a job at the daily bugle. You don’t agree with the message but you are curious to find out how Peter Parker gets all these amazing shots of Spiderman all the time and in doing so find out that Peter is Spiderman. It’s shocking to you of course because you’ve been sitting across from the guy who saved your life for over 2 weeks now and when you confront Peter, he comes clean. As a way to thank him, you promise to keep his secret and soon the two of you grow much closer, and soon enough, Peter asks you out on a date. Meet cute I guess?

[creativerogues]

Asking Uncomfortable Questions...

So what you’re about to read does contain conversations about certain topics which could be seen as very sensitive to you, the Reader. 

If you feel uncomfortable by anything presented here, I apologise in advance and ask that you click away from this Post and stop reading it entirely.

With that, I shall begin, and I hope that the replies, reblogs, and comments can help out. 

I know this Post is gonna deal with some REALLY AWKWARD topics for some people, but no one seems to seriously talk about them and so no one is seems to be properly informed.

So I want to ask some Questions to the Community and get a general response on how people react.

How do you feel about flirting with your Players as a way to Roleplay?

Do you prefer the “Fade to Black” approach or “Roll a Lovemaking Check” approach to sex in your D&D Game?

What do you feel about LGBTQ+ Representation in your Game? 

How often do you feature LGBTQ+ Characters in your Game, if at all?

What’s your Opinion on a Player wanting to play a Character of a different Gender or Ethnicity than themselves (such as a Male Player wanting to play a Female Character, or a White Player wanting to play a Black Character)?

How often do you feature Characters of varying cultures and ethnicity in your Game, if at all?

How would you represent mental illness and mental disability in your Game?

How would you represent a physical disability in your Game?

How often do you feature Characters with a Mental or Physical Disability in your Game, if at all?

What Topics in your Game do you consider an absolute “No Go” no matter what?

My Opinions (Feel Free To Ignore)

Flirting: I’m down to flirt, so long as the people at the Table are okay with it.

Sex in your Sessions: I prefer the “Fade to Black” approach to avoid accidentally making someone at my Table uncomfortable.

LGBTQ+ Representation: I’m fine with Players wanting to have an LGBTQ+ Character, and I commonly have Androgynous NPCs in my games, and while I have played LGBTQ+ Characters myself, I never make it their one Character Trait, and this Topic never comes up often enough to be a major problem for me...

Gender: I’m fine with Male Players wanting to play Characters that are Female or Androgynous, or Female Players wanting to play Male Characters. I’ve played Female Characters many times and I’ve enjoyed the experience.  

Ethnicity: Personally, I would love to play a Character of a different ethnicity than myself, but I’ve always been afraid of accidentally or unintentionally offending someone, which is why I usually play Characters with accents rather than Characters of a different ethnicity.

Mental Disability: I usually use the idea that Low Wisdom Characters lack a little bit of common sense, and are usually impulsive and live in the moment without worrying about the consequences.

I also usually rule that Low Intelligence Characters aren’t “disabled”, but still give the option for the Player to play off their Character’s Low Intelligence Score, such as being illiterate or not understanding certain concepts like Magic or Sentient Weapons, which the Player usually uses for comedy and humour more than any kind of serious role-playing.

Physical Disability: The most I’ve experienced for this Topic was an Eberron Character with a magical prosthetic limb and the odd Player wanting to play a Blind Character, so I don’t know much on this particular Topic.

Mental Illness: I usually talk to the Players first about their intentions when it comes to this. 

The only “real” talk I had to give to a Player was their interpretation of PTSD because their Character was a former soldier, but after explaining it to them, they understood that I wanted them to role-play this in a way that would impact their Character while not being too over-the-top and misrepresenting.

Other than that one case, I haven’t really had any Players come to me with this sort of thing, and I don’t know if I should be happy about that.

What Are Your “No Go” Topics?: To be entirely honest, it depends on the Group. 

Some Groups are mature enough to deal with topics like War, Racism and Sex, while others aren’t.

I’ve run games for People as young as 13 and I’d like to think that I would never bring a Topic like Racism into any Game like that whatsoever. 

Now after saying that, I have used War in my games with these very same 13-Year-Olds as a way to motivate their Characters: There’s a War that’s brewing and they want to stop it before it starts.

I’ve also used Romance in my Games with these people, but never Sex. 

I’ve allowed the Players to explore their own sexuality through their D&D Character with only a few restraints when needed, and that’s actually how one of my Players discovered they were Bisexual, which I think I should consider myself pretty proud of.

So in summary, it all depends on the maturity of the People I’m playing with, sometimes War and Sex are played for laughs, and other-times they’re incredibly serious topics.

[writing-with-olive]

How to include a diverse cast

A lot of people are totally on board with the idea of writing a diverse cast for their novel, but when it actually comes to writing it, it ends up looking a little more like

[id: a white background with a collection of randomly placed grey squares, with one blue square /end id]

... and a little less like

[id: a white background with a bunch of randomly placed squares where all of the squares are different random colors /end id]

(why diversity is important, how to include more diversity of all kinds in your writing, and usable advice below the cut)

What’s going on?

I think that the biggest problem is that most of the media we consume doesn’t really have much in the way of a diverse cast. Having all of the characters the same except for one doesn’t equal diversity. Usually, the cast we see is all white, cisgender, straight, athiest or christian, neurotypical and generally an abled person. There’s also mostly men. (Throughout this post, “usual” in quotations refers to the characteristics listed above, as they are the ones most usually seen in today’s media. It is in no way meant to imply that people who do not fit this demographic are to be considered unusual.)

While nothing is inherantly wrong with any of those demographics, the problem arises when all except one or two characters fit all of them. The one or two charcters are less of diversity, and more of tokenism. You don’t want token characters.

So how do I make sure my story is made up of different and diverse characters when my instinct is to make them all fit the mold we’ve all been taught through exposure?

The simple answer is to just.... make them different. That’s the answer that’s posted literally everywhere. However, while that’s enough for some people, it’s not entirely approachable for others. I’ve included a little bit about what marginalized or minority groups are being underrepresented, as well as some steps you can take to increase the overall diversity in your writing. Note that the steps are more of a starting point, but are not the final word in the matter.

Racial diversity

Remember that black and white are not the only two racial groups. There’s Native American, Latino, Middle Eastern, East Asian, Brazillian, Indian, lots and lots of others. The more representation you have racially, the more realistic your story will be.

Approachable steps:

Make sure that it’s clear that your non-white characters are protrayed as such. People tend to assume that characters are white by default, so clarify otherwise.

Make sure that your main cast (protagonists and important side characters) features at least one or two non-white characters for every white character.

Include more racial diversity than just white characters and black characters.

Gender diversity

A lot of people hear this term and assume that it means a balance of girls and guys but it’s more than that. There are also a lot of trans people and nonbinary (not boy or girl) people in this world. People don’t usually think to include diversity in this sense in their stories, but it’s still important.

Approachable steps:

At a bare minimum, make sure to have at least some representation of women.

If there was a character who you couldn’t decide whether they should be a boy or a girl in your story, make them trans, nonbinary, and/or intersex

Make at least one or two of your characters trans and/or nonbinary.

Sexuality

Not everyone will be super open about their sexuality, but no matter what culture, there’s going to be people who are attracted to people of their own gender, people who are attracted to people of a different/opposite gender, and people who fall in between. Some people will not be attracted to anyone.

Approachable steps:

Like with the racial diversity segment, people assume others are straight by default. To combat this, make it clear that your non-straight characters are in fact, not straight.

If you want to have a character who’s attracted to another gender, but also want them to be not straight, make them bi or pan

If one character isn’t straight, they probably have at least a few friends who also aren’t straight. LGBTQ people tend to travel in packs.

Mental diversity

This is one that actually gets overlooked a lot of the time, but being neurodivergent is actually more common than you’d think. There’s learning disorders such as dyslexia or discalculia, there’s trauma related disorders, such as PTSD and DID, and there’s also other things, such as depression, anxiety, autism or ADHD, and a lot of other things. Neurodivergence isn’t a bad thing, but unfortunately it’s so underrepresented in fiction and media in general that it’s often stigmatized as such.

Approachable steps:

If your character had a traumatic childhood or past, it’s possible that they could have developed a disorder related to said trauma. If it makes sense, give it to them.

Make at least one or two of your characters neurodivergent in some way.

Don’t give all of your characters the same thing; instead, mix it up a bit (for example, characters A and B might have ADHD, and character C might have OCD).

People will usually assume a character is neurotypical unless shown otherwise. Make sure it’s clear that your neurodivergent characters are neurodivergent.

Physical diversity

This is another one that often gets overlooked. Most media is flooded with completely fit and able-bodied people, and while there’s nothing wrong with being able-bodied, the sheer lack of representation otherwise raises stigma. Some disabilities are more visible, such as poor eyesight (needing/wearing glasses), amputations, or needing a wheelchair. Others are less visible, such as deafness, weak bones, or heart problems. It’s also important to include people of a range of body types

Approachable steps:

If characters need things such as glasses, hearing aids, cane, or wheelchair, give it to them. Often using these devices in order to get through the world can cause stigma. Stigma doesn’t go away unless it’s disproved.

Include at least a few people who are overweight, underweight, and/or don’t have well-sculpted/toned muscles.

Include at least a few people who are physically disabled.

Religious Diversity

More than 50% of the world is Christian, so it makes sense that so many characters follow Christianity if they follow a religion at all, but it’s important to include other religions as well. Hinduism, Islam, and Judaism are all major religions, but unlike Christianity, there’s a lot less representation for them. 

Approachable steps:

Make at least 25% of your characters follow a religion other than Christianity.

If your story takes place in another world with a different belief system, make sure to include some characters who believe in it, and some who don’t.

If you already have characters who do follow a religion other than the dominant one, make sure to make that clear.

General Tips:

Remember to research how to respectfully depict characters who identify differently than yourself, and avoid harmful stereotypes.

Make sure that if you only have one character representing a minority group that they have a life that moves beyond just what that minority identity is; avoid making them a token character.

Don’t keep all of your “usual” characters nice and safe while killing off or getting rid of the others. 

Don’t bunch up all of the “usual” traits on a few characters, but rather spread it out; at most, you should have one, maybe two characters who completely fit the “usual” description.

[rotationalsymmetry]

Hello! I hope you’re doing well. I saw your post about UUs and I myself am one as well! I was wondering if maybe you could explain some of the issues there are in UU congregations so I can better understand what’s going on. I can’t change much, but I’d like to know what can be improved and how I can better use my privilege. Thank you :)

Hi there. Thanks for reaching out. I think. Oof. Are you sure you want to ask this? I don’t have a really straightforward “here’s precisely what Unitarian Universalism needs to do to improve (broken down into concrete, realistic steps!)” I have a whole tangle of feelings and personal biases and incredibly subjective experiences. OK? All right. With that disclaimer out of the way. Eh, actually, more disclaimer: all institutions have problems. There are things that Unitarian Universalism does better than most other religious institutions. There’s a reason I was going off about what I like about UU before what I dislike. This is not saying that Unitarian Universalism is bad. OK?

Putting in a cut because this is long:

Unitarian Universalism has an ongoing, well-known problem around being kind of fuzzy around what it is and what it wants to be. Do we draw on multiple faiths, and if so what does that look like in practice? Are we Christianity lite? Are we basically a bunch of secular humanists who like to get together and sing sometimes? How far exactly does (or should) our tolerance stretch?

Unitarian Universalism has a whiteness issue and a class issue. Now, I’m white, so the race part isn’t mainly coming from my own experience. There’s something I’ve seen that sums it up well, but I can’t find it right now. Basically: there’s a bit of a tendency for UU’s to nominally want to more diverse congregations, but when a new person of color shows up, sometimes they get treated kind of...weirdly. Like they’re not one of us and not going to be.

a bit more on UU and race here: x

And, class wise, I was raised middle class, but I’ve been broke for an awful lot of my adulthood and a lot of the people I know in my generation (Millenials) are broke/struggling financially. So when the lead minister of my congregation made some random comment about having trouble attracting young people because church and brunch with friends are competing for the same time slot. I thought of a young adult in the congregation who was active in the youth group but couldn’t make it to Sunday worship because he had to work on Sundays. And the time one of my coworkers got a promotion at my workplace, and definitely she was competent and I don’t begrudge her getting it, but also she ended up working an awful lot of Sundays and that was very likely a factor in her getting the promotion. And I’d been trying to avoid pledge drive Sunday for years because it always, every time, made me feel like I wasn’t really welcome if I couldn’t contribute much financially, even when I was contributing a great deal of my time. This is subjective and it could mostly be an issue with my then congregation. But I don’t think it is.

While Unitarian Universalism likes to think of itself as trans friendly, and it’s certainly much friendlier than some denominations, sometimes it drops the ball. Here’s an apology for an article about trans people that centered a cis person’s perspective and had some other issues: x

Anecdotally, subjectively, etc: this is an issue across the board. Unitarian Universalism’ self-image and what the organization actually is has a substantial gap. I attended a few workshops at GA this year, and: on the surface, great! So many workshops on such great anti-oppressive topics! But...when I actually went to the workshops, it was unsatisfying. It felt very introduction-ish. Maybe that was on purpose. But...I was hoping for better. 

Super anecdotally: UU’s tend to forget that disabled people exist. UU’s tend to not support disabled people and parents of disabled children.

Back to the “are we Christianity Lite?” thing. I dropped out of seminary. One part of thatwas this: x  Another was that at the time (it’s apparently since changed) the MFC requirements (uh, this is getting a bit technical: congregations ordain ministers, but in practice fellowshipping is important as well, and that’s what the MFC does, basically it’s saying other UU ministers think you should be a UU minsiter) prioritized knowledge about Christianity and the Bible over knowledge of other religions, even though nominally Unitarian Universalism is not Christian and Christianity isn’t especially prioritized in our Six Sources. As someone who is not Christian and didn’t expect my future ministry to involve a lot of Bible talk and really didn’t think prioritizing knowledge of the Bible among our religious leaders was good for the denomination as a whole, this bothered me. A lot. (For what it’s worth, most Starr King classes were actually really good at not doing this.) (The classes that did, though, made me want to tear my hair out. And made me wonder if this denomination I was studying to be a minister in, was the same as the denomination I’d participated in as a lay person for years.)

This is hard to put into words. But: sometimes people will say they believe a thing, but their follow-through is bad. Or they say one thing but act another way -- not because they’re lying, but because what they believe on the surface hasn’t been fully internalized. This is, anecdotally etc, a really common issue in Unitarian Universalism.

More super anecdotal etc: UU’s need to break the habit of seeing RE as daycare, and worship services that involve kids as being about showing off the kids to the adults. I took a quick look at you and it says you’re 18, so if you grew up UU you probably have your own opinions on this. But...sometimes the adult congregation and the kids’/youth programs are entirely separate worlds, and that’s not healthy for congregations.

YMMV: I’m not a huge fan of approaches to worship that involve sitting passively for most of the service. If the worship is going to be the same whether you’re there or not, why bother showing up? (Obviously some congregations are more like this than others, and apparently some people like the “lecture and a concert” format?? I’m not one of them.)

Basically, I think UU’s need to work on connection more and mutual support of each other more. While I approve of the social justice focus of course, social justice starts at home. You need to support the people who are actually in your congregation. I moved a year and a half ago, and haven’t joined my local congregation. Why? Because my illness makes it almost impossible to go anywhere in the mornings, and while they livestreamed each worship service, before the pandemic (presumably it’s all zoom worship now), there was zero effort to actually include anyone watching the livestream. Not so much as a PDF of the order of service. No verbal acknowledgement that some people aren’t present in the room. Nothing. (Side note: I tried one worship service at a “normal” congregation after the pandemic started, and all the mourning of not being able to be together in person was extremely frustrating to me, since I hadn’t been able to attend in person worship before the pandemic either. No one was thinking of people like me, and it was really, really obvious. I’ve since joined Church of the Larger Fellowship.) You say you want to use your privilege. That’s great! Some thoughts.

Trans people: How’s your congregation on pronouns? If your congregation uses nametags, can you push to normalize people putting their pronouns on nametags? What’s the bathroom situation: is it clear that trans women (whether you currently have any trans women in your congregation or not) can use the women’s bathroom? Is there a unisex bathroom that non-binary people and binary people who don’t feel safe using “their” bathroom can use? Also: a lot of older people weren’t raised with this and never really caught up, (and tbf some young people are ignorant too) so there’s a need for some trans 101 education.

Disability: for zoom worship, is there closed captioning for people who have hearing impairments or language processing issues? For live worship, what’s being done to make sure deaf and hard of hearing people are included? What’s being done for blind people (eg, electronic copies of the order of service being available for people who are blind but have screen readers?) For people who just have a little trouble seeing, are there large-print orders of service? What about the agendas for committee meetings and so on? This doesn’t have a quick fix, but are there places in your congregation that can’t be reached in a wheelchair? What about the chancel? (ie that area that the minister and whoever else is leading worship is speaking from?) Is there a wheelchair-accessible entrance that’s open during worship but closed during other programming?

How’s ministry to people who are sick or injured or just too old to get out much? And: is that support available to newer or prospective members, or only people who contributed to the congregation first? How available is information on how to get that kind of support: is it a thing where only some people are in the know, or is there outreach?

Are there unspoken rules about who’s the “right kind” of person to be in the congregation and who isn’t?

Sexual harassment, abuse, etc: is there a clear way to report sexual harassment? Does everyone know what it is? Does the congregation have a policy for what happens if a congregant is accused of sexual abuse? If a minister is? What's the congregation’s child abuse prevention policy? Do the people who work/volunteer with kids know what to do if a child or teen reports abuse to them? Are they screened in any way?

What accommodations does RE make for special needs children? If a child needs one on one assistance, does the RE program force the parent to provide that assistance if the child is to be part of the program?

What’s the policy on support animals? (these days: what’s the policy on emotional support animals?) How are the needs of people with allergies or other issues with dogs etc, balanced with the needs of people who benefit from support animals? (This can be tricky, I’m not saying there’s a clear right/wrong here, but it’s something that can make a congregation inaccessible.)

I don’t know the details on this, but I know sensory issues can be a problem for some people, eg flickering overhead lights. Scents can be an issue for some people, one possible solution is to have part of the sanctuary marked scent-free, dunno how well that plays out in practice.)

Representation: who’s speaking up during worship, and what are they speaking about? Something to be aware of.

Us/Them language: especially relevant if you’re speaking to the congregation during worship, but important in casual coffee hour chat too: who’s “us” and who’s “them”? Do people in your congregation tend to talk about, say, people below the poverty line as “them”? Homeless people? Black people? Immigrants?

Finding ways of making small talk that aren’t “what do you do for a living?”

I haven’t said anything about racism yet; a lot of congregations have some sort of anti-racist discussion group or something? Those things are good; there’s only so much they do by themselves, but as part of a larger whole, they’re important. Also, presence at Black Lives Matter protests, putting up a Black Lives Matter banner or sign if your congregation hasn’t done that, stuff like that.

Oh, culture and music and stuff. What kind of music gets played. Congregations that have made a specific attempt to be multiracial often find it’s necessary to do a lot of hashing out of what the music is going to be like.

And there’s a representation aspect to who gets quoted.

Small Group Ministry/Covenant groups: my former congregation liked to ask what your demographic info is and then split things up for “diversity” purposes. This is actually a really bad idea. In a congregation that’s mostly white, it means that often the non-white people end up being the only non-white person in their groups. Great for white people who want to “experience diversity”, but not so great for actual poc. My congregation had enough queer people that it wasn’t one queer person per group, but I could see that maybe happening in other places. And I think it did tend to separate out trans people into separate groups.

Cultural appropriation/cultural misappropriation: uff. I think some people go off the deep end on this. But, some things to consider. If the congregation is doing something to celebrate a Jewish holiday, is it run by someone who is Jewish or is of Jewish heritage? Stuff like that. Sometimes Unitarian Universalists’ desire to be all multicultural and interfaith and stuff, leaves out important things like “is this part of the culture that it’s ok for outsiders to share?” and “are we actually in relationship with this group of people?” And “are we cherry picking messages from sacred texts that we like, and leaving out the stuff we don’t like, when it’s not our sacred text and we don’t have enough context to do that respectfully?” x for overview and in more detail x

Also RE: is this Native American story one that it’s actually OK for us to tell? I’m not necessarily suggesting you go over what other people are doing, but if you’re teaching RE yourself, you get a say in what you teach.

If you happen to be a UU pagan or there’s a CUUPS group at your congregation that you sometimes participate in, there’s kind of a ton of work about untangling cultural appropriation in specifically pagan spaces, honestly I don’t know where to start with that. Don’t put that on yourself if you’re not part of that kind of group though, focus on groups you are part of.

Land acknowledgements.

Oftentimes if someone brings up an issue that requires work to change it, especially a younger person, the people who get stuff done are going to be, “ok, that sounds like work, we’ve already got a ton on our plate so are you going to do it?” So, if you offer to do some of the work of running the congregation, you’ll be in a better place to implement these sorts of changes. (I know a lot of times older adults don’t want to trust young adults with responsibility, so it might take some time to earn trust.) But also some are things you can just do: like you can say your pronouns every time you introduce yourself or put your pronouns on disposable nametags, if you’re comfortable with it.

General advice: you don’t have to (and shouldn’t try to) change everything at once. Be aware of a lot of things and be willing to be a “follower” on a lot of things. Signing petitions, saying “yes, that sounds like a good idea,” stuff like that. Be a leader on a small, manageable number of things. Maybe see what other people in your congregation are already doing that seems like a step in the right direction, and see how you can support that. Some of what UU’s are already doing is already really good, and most likely there’s already people around you who want Unitarian Universalism to act in closer alignment with its ideals.

[semper-legens]

1: The Girl In Red, by Christina Henry

Title: The Girl In Red Author: Christina Henry Owned?: Yes! My summary: A few months after the apocalypse, a woman named Red is walking through the American forests. She is trying to get to her grandmother's house, a place she knows that she will be safe. But there is danger in the woods, and Red will have to find the strength to fight for her freedom. A plague has swept the country, and the survivors are still out there, armed and dangerous. Red is alone. Red is hungry. But Red knows what she's doing. My rating: 3.5/5 My commentary:

So I've been really into Christina Henry’s books these last few months - I got The Mermaid out of the library a while back and was really interested in it. If you don’t know, most of Christina Henry’s novels are retellings of classic stories; Peter Pan, The Little Mermaid, Alice in Wonderland, and today’s book, Little Red Riding Hood. What I love about Henry’s writing is that she doesn’t just retell the story straight - obviously, there’s nothing wrong with that as an approach, but Henry’s stories take place in a very different time and place than their originals. The titular Mermaid, for example, is a performer in PT Barnum’s circus - and today’s protagonist, Red, is in modern day America after an apocalypse.

More under the cut!

I really liked Red as a protagonist, let’s start with that. Red is characterised as being a straightforward young woman who is paranoid, fixated on horror and sci-fi stories, and incredibly practical. When the outbreak first starts, she’s the one urging her family to stock up on food, making them wear face masks, and convincing them to stay out of towns, cities, and the government’s quarantine zones. She is consistently shown to be capable to survive in this new world, and her inner monologue as she grapples with her paranoia and self-doubt is really engaging. I’ve always found Henry’s prose to always be a real page-turner - though for me, it does feel as though there was far more story to tell.

Unfortunately, none of the other characters come across as well as Red. They all seem to be pretty one-note - Red’s mother is a stern professor type, her father is a Dad, her brother is laid-back, the kids she comes across are Kids. They don’t really get the depth of characterisation. Now, this isn’t too much of a flaw, Red is our POV character and protagonist. But I never really get the sense of these people being actual people, with their own inner lives and complex personalities. They just exist to serve Red’s story. Which is fine, it’s just a bit disappointing for me. I’ve had this problem with her stories before - all of her side characters feel extremely one note.

Similarly, I know I praised Henry before for being creative in the settings for her retelling, but she tends to be a bit on-the-nose in her references. The whole opening section is Red’s encounter with a man she likens to a coyote (get it) and she keeps going on about wolves in the woods (get it) all while repeatedly mentioning that she is wearing a red hoodie (get it). I understand why she’s done it, I just feel like she didn’t quite need to hammer it home all the time. 

Focusing on the positives again, Red is also pretty cool on the representation front. She’s a disabled, mixed-race, bisexual woman! All of this is explicit - she has a prosthetic lower left leg, and much care is taken to show how she deals with this in her post-apocalyptic environment. I wish Henry didn’t point it out as much - a lot of attention is paid to how everyone tends to underestimate Red because of it, and how she actually is capable of dealing with it, to the point where every scene feels like it has Red saying some variant of “I’m disabled but I can do stuff”, which felt a bit over the top to me? Like, just show her being competent, you don’t need to tell us she’s competent in kind of clunky dialogue every ten minutes. Her ethnicity and sexuality, however, are mentioned more briefly - the former plays an implicit part in Red’s mistrust of the government and military forces given some of her early experiences with them. It’s still really cool, though, to see a post-apocalyptic story featuring a disabled protagonist - a lot of post-apocalyptic media I’ve seen just writes off disabled people as not being able to survive, and that’s just not true, and also really offensive to actual disabled people.

The story is told in a classic dual narrative - one with Red before the outbreak, one with Red after. I loved this framing device, slowly expanding the world and the background of the outbreak, while also showing where Red ended up. It invited a great contrast for Red’s character development and the rising tension. I found myself really engaged with both storylines, even with knowing some of how the Before sections would end, and wanting to know more with every switch.

One other criticism I had was of the ending (spoilers, duh). It wraps things up in a neat bow, and gives an unambiguously happy conclusion. I’m not against happy endings - I like them a lot more than grimdark edginess - but in this case it felt a bit incongruous with the tone of the rest of the book. The story is tense, dark; Red can’t know if she can trust anyone, let alone herself, and the woods are fraught with dangers. To have Red and the kids get to her grandmother’s house, and grandma is ok, and everything is fine happy ending...I don’t know, it just felt a bit rushed, and didn’t quite land for me.

This all seems pretty negative, looking back at what I’ve said. I actually had a pretty good time with this book. I suppose my criticism comes from a place of improvement - with a genuinely bad book, I don’t care about what would make it better, but with one I enjoyed that was well-written, the places where it falls down frustrate me more, because I know the author can do better. On the whole though, I had a good time with this one, 3.5/5 and I’ll probably read it again!

[nyanzaya]

@if-that-so inquired · an hour ago: You talk about shizaya astrological signs before, what about zuiza???? Like i know if i dig deeper into this blog i'll found it but we need more content!!! We need you to rant more these thing that you're passionate about!!! And tbh i replied a little bit in the group chat when you about akashiki but tumblr being the stupid mofo like it always did won't let the reply sent.

For the Shizaya astrological signs, I just talked about one part of their compatibility which was just the modality which basically is your basic quality ontop of what your star sign is and never mind your moon, venus, mars, saturn, mercury, neptune uranus and pluto LOL It’s very complicated but it’s more simple than it actually is.

I’ve got some things about them though most of it is about Iza LOL

Iza’s 1 / 2 / 3 / and honestly these aspects and house placements are so important for someone to understand if they want a relationship with Iza because heck, he’ll give his everything after he trusts them and falls for them but oof lol

Then for Zuo and Iza’s charts overlaying each other and what it means: 1 / Believe me, this is all accurate for them when they were together LOL it’s almost scary accruate

so for, Iza and Zuo I’ll also just talk about their similarities and their differences of course.

Positive: Active, self-motivated, insightful, ambitious and independent. Negative: Hasty, Impulsive, Inconsiderate, Domineering, difficulty following through.

As we can see, already they have more in common than they would probably like to admit. They are both active in their own ways. Zuo is more inclined to be active physically during the day, such as being outside, playing sports or even fighting. Iza is more inclined to be active during the night, such as being active with his mind and keeping himself mentally stimulated. Even going outside every once in a while to partake in an activity, whether that means he’s “taking an interest in someone”, sunbathing and “hunting”. With them both being active this in turn means they are self-motivated. Though, they both can have trouble following through with things like promises and various other things. Both of them are more insightful that what some people would give them credit for.

Iza’s very insightful in people; he can read and understand body language so easily that he has come to rely on that resource he has to protect himself. He’s so insightful that he could probably psycho-analyze a person and he has before and whether he was right or wrong about the other person is up for debate. You would think that Zuo isn’t insightful, but he is. He had to handcraft his own weapons. He had this deep wisdom from past lives that he can tap into if he sat down and actually tried. Zuo has some insight into people as well, he can read and understand their expressions, something that Iza can’t do, and even adding onto his understanding of body language. Of course, this could make them impulsive on their judgement of people and maybe even a little inconsiderate. 

For how ambitious they are; I mean. Iza had to be ambitious if he wanted to social climb to get to where he is now. He wanted to gain power and have some control over his life and he did it. He didn’t want to be someone’s pet anymore and I guess you could say that maybe something in him did “snap” because he became so...cruel and cold and bloodthristy but this all can stem from his treatment from his second and even his third. Then we look at Zuo. He didn’t want to be a pitfighter anymore and what did he do? Cause a rebellion and got himself and several others out of that life. He took leadership and his ambition to free himself and others kind of radiated and people are attracted to a confident person. Of course, as a result of this when he finally got out he was so...hyper-aggressive and defensive. He wasn’t as bloodthristy as Iza but if he felt provoked he wouldn’t hesitate in outright killing someone but as he learned to regulate himself his aggression levels dropped (and i mean, honestly he was just scared?) I mean in a way you could say they both felt so protective of themselves that they felt they had no other way to express this but to control and become domineering over other people. Of course, they did eventually learn to not be so aggressive and it did result in them being feral because they weren’t exactly socialized. (Of course this also goes into them being half-cat. If they aren’t properly socialized they kind of tend to be a little aggressive and defensive especially if they are being provoked but that’s something for a different time LOL) 

Then comes the independence. I can’t simply explain why or how independent they are. In fact, they feel so independent that they feel like they don’t need anyone else. Of course, after they figure out “Oh, maybe I do need someone so I don’t feel so lonely.” Because fact is, both Iza and Zuo are actually kind of lonely. Maybe Zuo not so much but Iza especially. Zuo is pretty healthy when it comes to his independence he can set up his boundaries quite easily with other people and even partners. But Iza? Holy shit. He actually makes me cry because he as put himself so high up on a pedastool that he purposely keeps himself out of arm’s reach emotionally because he literally can not comprehend that it’s okay for him to feel vulnerable but his biggest issue is he has so much difficulty setting up boundaries. Iza literally, can’t say no to someone if they are approaching him with the intent to get intimate. The only people he can say no to is women and even then? If something happens and he finds himself in that kind of situation he just-- lets it happen. And he hates feeling powerless and that’s where his difficulty in following through really comes in. Iza can do just about everything but when it comes to emotions and actually being vulnerable in a healthy way he finds it extremely difficult. Like, consider yourself fucking BLESSED if he even tells you how he feels. Of course, this stems from how he was raised and such so of course he felt really helpless about what he can and can’t do in sexual situations but he’s learning. I mean, really learning to say no and say what he likes and dislikes. Like, bruh if I had Iza at 18/19 god. It would be like 100% worse because he just, gets tense and lets it happen even if he doesn’t like it because back then he really felt like he couldn’t say no. But now that he’s 27 he’s more confident in his ability to say “No.” And if that don’t work, hell you’re going to get claws or a kick to the face.

But as you can see, they both have the same positive and negative traits and with the fact that they are opposite signs (Aries/Libra) how they express those traits is almost opposite too. Their dynamic is a lot like Balance(libra) and Chaos(Aries) or Love(Libra) and War(Aries). 

Then you bring these two together. Opposite signs can either be a hit or miss/Love and hate. With Zuo and Iza it really was a hit but then Zuo saw Iza in a different light and quickly it turned to hate. I mean:

Iza’s ears twitched. Rejection was a bitter taste. “I’m doing you a favor, Dear. Isn’t the scent wonderful? It tells us that we are survivors. So, why don’t you draw some blood as well?”

A light flickered and suddenly Zuo felt a pain on his cheek. His brows furrowed. Iza flung a blade a him. The smell of iron further increased his rage. He didn’t want to return to being a brawler. Zuo was done being a gladiator for the entertainment of others and he sure as hell was not going to give into what Iza wanted. He brought a hand to his wounded cheek before he looked at his hand. Zuo saw the blood on his fingers. 

“Enough..” He spoke softly, his hand was shaking. 

Iza was quiet, watching Zuo. “Enough? Enough of what? This is the only way.”

“How is this the only way?” Zuo’s closed his blood-tipped hand, as if to show his resolve on the situation. 

The black feline paced, taking a blade out of his pocket and twirled it between his fingers. “How? Haven’t you heard of the saying: ‘an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth?’ To allow these...humans to continue to use us and further lower our quality of life and longevity would be horrendous, no? We are just as capable as they are.”

“Fuck off with your ‘we’ shit! There is no ‘we’. It’s just you against everyone else.” Zuo growled, flexing his hands before he brought them together to crack his knuckles.

Iza stopped pacing taking in Zuo’s words. No we? He understood now. Even Zuo was an enemy of his now. This feeling in his chest hurt. It hurt to feel how Zuo rejected him. They were together, though Iza supposed that was impossible. There was a sting in his eyes but he wasn’t going to let Zuo see him fall into tears. Without thinking, Iza flung his knife. He almost missed his target, but his blade had impaled itself in Zuo’s shoulder.

“Well, well. If there is no ‘we’ then there can never be an ‘us’.” 

Zuo knew Iza twisted his words. That wasn’t what he meant but if that’s what Iza saw, then all he could do now was to stop them from this senseless killing.

These were innocent people. All Zuo saw in front of him was someone who was crazed, lusting after more bloodshed. Someone who, Zuo was fond of. It hurt to see Iza turn into someone he didn’t know, or perhaps he had known who he was all along but had never seen it from a different perspective. Perhaps, Zuo had tolerated this behavior until it was too much. 

How could he save them? 

The cream-colored feline pulled the knife from his shoulder. “You threw your knife at me. So, I’ll assume you meant to hit a pressure point. That’s what you do, huh? So, that means you wanted to disable me to kill me then, huh?” 

Iza’s ears leaned back. 

Zuo brought his other hand to the other side of the blade, snapping it in half before dropping it to the floor. Another solid resolve. Zuo was going to be the one to stop Iza. He had to be. To let the black feline running wild with power? He understood now that Iza couldn’t handle the power; the rush of the high of being on top of the world. 

Zuo would bring them back to earth. Even if it meant that this was their fate: To fight and oppose each other until the end. 

Iza furrowed his brows when his blade was snapped. He would never be afraid of Zuo. The black feline thought of them as something beautiful, worth praising and keeping. Iza knew Zuo was powerful and he wanted to use that power. Was it shallow of him? Perhaps but he needed it. Iza needed Zuo.

Iza laughed out loud again, raising yet another blade. “That’s exactly what I wanted to do.” He lied. “If you look so determined to stop me, then come after me.” Iza threw his blade before he turned in his heels to dash 

Zuo’s fur stood on end again hearing Iza say that. Feeling the blade bite into his leg, he roared before he chased after him Zuo punched the wall holding his weapon, the pole that he had thrown before. 

Once that was in hand, he chased after his lost love.

You could say this is where they broke up but as you get to know more they still are deeply in love with each other? Like right after this scene, I write this:

“Ah…” His table was broken. Zuo didn’t realize he had snapped it in half. He pulled out his catnip cigarettes, craving for a wave of calm. With the stick between his lips he lit it and inhaled, closing his eyes before he finally exhaled. 

Better. Everything was okay now. 

He looked at the table he had broken. The gift was still intact surprisingly. Zuo picked up it. He may as well open it considering how much trouble it had caused him. 

The feline ripped it open and popped open the box to find a card and a ring and quickly Zuo found he could open it up and turn it into a sphere. There were inscriptions and astrology signs. He then read the card. 

[ I still believe in fate. Do you? This was meant to be, even if it’s...bitter. Happy Birthday, Zuo. ]

Maybe there was still chance. Zuo did believe in fate and past lives. If this was how they ended up, perhaps it was always how it was meant to be. They were fated to be on oppositions. If The Scales and The Ram had anything to do with how clear their oppositions where, Zuo wouldn’t know what would show it off any better than that. 

It’s clear that Iza understands that maybe this was how it was supposed to be but he hates that how it is. Zuo understands that they have their differences but they can still love each other and as much as he says he hates Iza, he honestly really cares for him. He’d say something like “I hate him. But don’t you hurt him, only I can do that.”. Zuo’s always been a little possessive over things he thinks are his after all, and this is the same for Iza. 

I mean: 

However difficult it might be to reconcile these two natures, remember that this is a primal opposition that represents partners by signification. Aries and Libra are the couple of the zodiac, as much as any other opposing signs, for they are each other’s seventh house, house of relationships. Even more so if we acknowledge the fact that Libra is the sign of relationships in general. Any problem they might have with each other is something to be worked on, because it shows what their personal problem with any relationship is. When they are madly attracted to each other and fall in love, there is almost nothing that could separate them, no matter the differences. Wouldn’t we all like to find the middle ground with our loved one? They need to work on their bond, that’s a fact, but their relationship is a promise of a perfect fit of two souls meant to be together.

You each have a distinct role, but you’re a tag team, too. With an opposite sign, you’re challenged to grow as a person and take responsibility for your part of the relationship. It’s like taking a big step back to get a clear perspective of your life. We tend to view things from a close-up, missing the whole picture by hyper-focusing on a detail or two. With an opposite sign, your life appears in full relief, like a finished painting. Suddenly, it all makes sense. This can be a little uncomfortable, but if you’ve manifested an opposite sign partnership, it means you’re ready to grow up.

Kind of makes you wonder if maybe they aren’t ready to grow up yet. Consider they both hadn’t had much of a childhood, huh?

[dogsliampaynedoesntinstagram]

hey ralph! i was wondering if we could talk about charities. i totally agree with you that there's a lot of charities that revolve around helping individuals (or blaming them, in your words) while ignoring the structural problems that put them in that situation in the first place. so my honest question is: how is in your opinion the best way for a charity organization to approach those issues with social responsability? since they don't really have the power to actually fix everything. +++

(2) and do you have any examples of charities that have this philosophy vs charities that are harmful? also, what do you think we as individuals can do to help fixing some of this issues? both us middle class people or millionaires like the boys. because while i do agree with the things you said on the subject, i always thought that even if i unfortunately cant solve anything by donating at least i might make someone's life a little bit better or easier; i believe that's what the boys +++

(3) and especially harry view charities. (the obvious difference is they have way more power in that matter than i could ever have). sorry if this is long or doesn't make a lot of sense, i just think about it a lot because i know celebrities and rich people in general should be doing so much more, but i'm not really sure how, and i really like reading your opinions. also english is not my first language so forgive me if i may have used some inadequate words or expressions +++

(4) - i know you're very particular about that. thank you for always questioning everything; while i may disagree with a lot of things it's so important to have a voice like yours in this fandom and i hope you know that there are people who value that, even though your inbox doesn't always show it. have a great day

************

Thanks for these asks anon - they’re really interesting.  And thank you for your love.  I don’t take ridiculous asks as indicative of much and I do take interesting one’s as a sign people are engaged with my blog.

I think I start from a slightly different premise from you.  In general, I don’t think rich people should be doing more.  Rich people tend to be rich because of the harm they are doing to the world and one of the functions of charitable work is to obscure this reality (this is why google camp has me talking about the guillotine).  

In Harry’s case (and other 1D members and big touring musicians in general), a huge part of their wealth comes from the production of merch in wildly exploitative and damaging ways.  The supply chain involved in producing merch involves huge environmental damage, horrific working conditions (including substantial levels of violence and sexual violence), poverty wages and direct attacks on union organising when people try and improve their wages and conditions. There’s no way Harry (or anyone else in his position) could undo the damage done in the production that makes him wealthy, by giving a fraction of that wealth away. 

(I know there are people who will immediately widen out this specific point. My worldview is that the people who are responsible for the harm done by production are those who control it (even indirectly through subcontracting) and who collect the profit.  Consumers, and other workers in the production process, do not control production or benefit from it and pretending that individuals who buy things are responsible for the damage caused in their production is an ideological project to hide who actually has power and wealth). 

There’s another distinction I’d like to make - I think that some charities that present themselves as helping individuals also blame them for their position use rhetoric (or practices) that blame them for being in that situation, but not all do.  One of the things that really struck me about the donations Harry chose to support on tour was that as soon as he hit America the rhetoric got much more right-wing and blaming individuals.  Up till America a lot of the charities were like ‘people don’t have this thing - we provide it’.  When you got to America the charities all described themselves as not just providing things for people, but improving them (for example rather than just giving people who are hungry food, they’ll talk about encourage people to make better choices.  Even the LGBTQ charity he supported talked of pathways to independence).  That idea that working-class people, poor people, people without resoruces, disenfranchised people, need to be changed - that’s what I object to and think is wildly reactionary and harmful.  

To talk in slightly more positive terms - I actually think if you have resources and you’re figuring out how to help ‘Let’s make someone happy today’ is a good starting point. Give money to homeless people, pay into people’s gofundme accounts, buy sick and disabled kids playstations. If the problem is that people’s needs aren’t being met, then meet those needs, don’t suggest that people need to be changed so they can get their needs met.  If you want to be a little bit systematic than giving coins to people you see on the street - then look for charities that are unconditional in what they do, rather than those that try and draw distinctions between the deserving and undeserving poor (Harry promoted some sort of running for the homeless charity that was the absolute opposite of this - to the extent that just thinkign about it’s existence makes me apoplectic with rage).  

(Incidentally, there is research to suggest that when people’s needs are met in an unconditional way it’s much easier to make changes they want to make in their own lives. That programmes that think that homeless people need to be transformed are nowhere near as transformative as programmes that give homeless people a house.  But for me that’s incidental - the reasons I’ve discussed in the paragraphs above are more important.)

You mentioned thinking about Harry saw charity.  I don’t think we can tell - particularly not in the terms that I’m talking about. He’s supported a range of charities, including those that operate on a hugely controlling model.  I agree that he probably wants to help and I suspect his ideas about what that mean would seem incoherent and wrong to me.  It’s notable that a programme that kept services from homeless people unless they went for a run didn’t set off any red flags for him. 

To give a more personal answer - I tend to see money as a form of solidarity.  I don’t tend to give to super large organisations, because the chances that they’ll do things I disagree with increases exponentially. There are organisations that combine meeting people’s needs with advocacy that I think are really worth supporting.  For example in NZ welfare advocacy organisations help ensure people get their entitlements and help in really important ways.  But they then learned a lot about what is wrong with the system and can use that knowledge to advocate for change.  Organisations that meet refugee and migrants needs and advocate on their behalf were vital to exposing the Windrush scandal here in the UK.  Finding these sorts of organisations

I also think it’s important to look beyond charities (charitable status can be very limiting) and giving money to those who need it to sustain their struggles. Give money to workers who are on strike.  Contribute to the legal costs of people who are being targetted because they’re fighting for a better world. (There’s an important history of politically aware  entertainers doing both these things - although of course the mass contributions of people with much less money have always been more important). 

But the bigger question, the one I think you’re ultimately asking is how can I change the world? Your money (even if you’re comfortably middle class) is not the most important thing you can contribute.  The most important thing you can do is join together with other people around you and collectively try and .  Join a union if you’re an employee, get together with other renters if you’re a renting, fight to change a law that fucks you over.  Widen your solidarity to people who are facing different struggles, but have similar enemies.  We can have a better world - people have fought and won in the past and will in the future - and they’ve done it by working together. 

[hookedonapirate]

To Play the Game (and win your heart)

Summary: Some people would call it a job, but to Emma and her sister, Milah, it’s a game of the heart. Play by the rules and you’ll never get hurt.

Whatever you call swindling wealthy men out of their money, this con-artist duo has it down to a tee. Milah sets up an available, rich man and gets him to marry her. Emma seduces and lures the husband into having an affair so he’ll get caught in the act. He then loses his money in the ensuing divorce.

The sisters wear a coat of armor around their hearts to keep them intact, but when they set their sights on their next mark, professional golfer Killian “Hook” Jones, Emma never imagined how hard the game could be and how easily her heart could be stolen—especially when she switches roles with Milah and becomes the one exchanging vows with the gorgeous multi-millionaire. Heartbreakers AU.

Artwork by: @distant-rose

Rating: Mature for connivery, vixen behavior and sexual themes.

Content Warnings: This story deals with conning and manipulation and also mentions/includes children with various disabilities, and also .

Author’s Notes: Wow, we're on chapter 8 already? Where did the time go? Thank you everyone for your wonderful comments and thanks for following along! You've all been very patient to find out how things go down, but I promise we'll get there soon. In fact, there's a lot happening in this chapter to move the story along at a quicker pace.

Thank you @captainswanbigbang and all of the moderators for organizing the event and for all of your help throughout the process.

A huge shout out goes to @ilovemesomekillianjones for all of her help with this fic. She really kicked some butt while beta reading, and if not for her, this story would not be what it is. And thank you @wellhellotragic​ for pointing out a few dumb mistakes as well.

Thank you @distant-rose for stepping in as my artist. She is so talented and I can’t wait for everyone to see all of the art she has planned for this fic. She even made me a playlist for this story including Emma’s and Milah’s theme song, Homewrecker by Marina and the Diamonds, and some other great tracks that fit well with the theme of the fic.

Thank you @onceuponaprincessworld for all of her feedback and for her constant support and for letting me bounce ideas off of her during the process. Thank you @teamhook for her help and ideas with scenes I was struggling with.

There are 12 chapters, and I will be posting every Tuesday, so let me know if you would like to be tagged.

Ch 1 Ch 2 Ch 3 Ch 4 Ch 5 Ch 6 Ch 7

Also available on: AO3 FFnet

Artwork by @distant-rose

Ch 1 Art Ch 3 Art Ch 4 Art Ch 7 Art

Chapter 8: Accepting the Proposition

~Rule #8: You hold all the cards, so know how to play them. You've spent all those hours trying to catch him, so respect the work you've done. Once you've caught him, reel him in, wrap him around your finger and make him bend to your will. Make him chase you, make him travel to you, make him pick you up, not the other way around. It's important to put your needs first and just do you, not him.~

 “No way! I strictly forbid it!” Milah throws Emma a glance, eyes full of fury from across the jacuzzi.

 Why is Milah acting like this?

 The mood had gone sour far too quickly for Emma’s liking. And here she thought they could have a civil conversation about this. She thought if she could lure Milah into the relaxing jacuzzi along with some expensive champagne, Emma would be able to coax her into saying yes. Of course when Milah sobers tomorrow and realizes her mistake, it would be too late. Emma would already be gone.

 Emma’s eyes widen and she stands from the seat in the tub, the water cascading down her bikini clad body as she quickly climbs out and grabs a towel from the nearby bench to dry off.

 So much for soothing bubbles and massaging jets.

 “You’re not my mother!” Emma reminds her, shivering from the cool air hitting her heated skin as she wraps the towel around her form.

 “I’m your sister and I’m only looking out for you.” Milah’s voice is much calmer as she leans her head back, resting on the ledge of the tub. “And I don’t want to see you following this guy around like a lost puppy dog. He comes to you, you do not go to him!”

 This only makes Emma furious, and her blood boils with anger. “You’re not looking out for me. You just don’t want me to succeed! Being apart from him is going to be a huge setback,” Emma bites out angrily. “His schedule is jam packed with tournaments, and I’m not sure when he’ll be back!”

 “You should have thought about that before you decided to go after a pro golfer! Besides, if he really wants to see you, he'll do what it takes!”

 Emma's eyes practically pop out of their sockets. “This is Killian’s career and his life! He can’t just leave when he feels like it.”

 Milah raises her head, her eyes narrowing at Emma. “What did you just call him?”

 Emma’s eyebrows furrow in confusion before she realizes her mistake. She’d called him Killian. “Hook, I meant Hook.”

 Milah’s eyes widen when she scans Emma’s features. “No, it wasn’t an accident, was it? You’ve never called him Killian before, only his nickname.”

 Emma looks down, tearing her gaze from her sister’s. “It was an accident. It meant nothing, I promise.”

 Milah still does not look happy when Emma finally lifts her chin, and the brunette’s arms are folded over her chest.

 “Really? So you’re not developing any feelings for him?”

 Emma quickly shakes her head, her features twisting in defense. “No, of course not!”

 Milah laughs, but it’s a far cry from being playful as she emerges from the tub and grabs a towel to dry herself off. Wrapping it around her waist, she walks to a table near the front door and grabs a piece of paper, going back to Emma and showing it to her. “Then why was this on your computer screen this morning?”

 Emma takes the page, scanning it over before glancing up at her sister again. It's a confirmation of her purchases for a coursebook and class about caring for children with disabilities she’d signed up for. “Because I wanted to do some volunteer work. I wanted to make it believable that I care about disabled children. I did it to impress Kil—Hook. I did it to impress Hook,” Emma claims, but even she knows she’s not fooling anyone—not even herself.

 Milah nods, but her features are drowning in sarcasm. “I’m sure spending $100 for that will be worth it.”

 Emma’s eyes widen incredulously. “It’s a small price to pay.”

 Milah scoffs. “Yeah I’m sure it would be, considering you’re in love with your mark.”

 Emma tightens her lips, taking in a deep breath through her nose, the anger bubbling inside of her once more. “I am not in love with him. I’m playing my part, and I refuse to be chastised for that.”

 A taunting smirk tilts Milah’s lips as she drops her arms and strides over to Emma, her eyes steely and cold. “Fine. Then prove it. Do not go on that trip. Show me you are not emotionally attached to him. Then I’ll believe you.” With that, Milah turns and walks away.

 Emma is heated. She huffs and rushes to the table slamming the page on the surface.

 $*$*$

 “Killian, we can’t wait much longer.” Mary Margaret looks down at her watch to catch the time. “Emma’s a nice girl and all, but we’re scheduled to take off in five minutes.”

 “She’ll come,” Killian states confidently to his agent. “I know she’ll come.” At least he hopes so. No, he knows she’ll come. He can feel it in his gut.

 The sound of the aircraft engines roar to life, the wind picks up, momentarily deafening him, and little traces of hope chip away within him. Knowing he might have to leave without her makes his stomach recoil. He doesn’t know how long he can be without her. Granted, they only started dating yesterday, but he knows he won’t be able to vanquish her from his mind. Especially not after last night. He can still feel her soft lips on his, he can still feel how bloody fantastic her body felt pressed to his, he can still smell her perfume. His heart flutters rapidly just thinking about her.

 Two minutes pass and Emma’s still not here.

 “It’s time to go!” Mary Margaret shouts over the drone of the jet, her white blazer fluttering around her, revealing the intricate wiring of her earpiece.

 He nods reluctantly as she and David board, and Killian starts moving towards the large aircraft. His heart sinks and his features are worn with disappointment, but what other choice does he have? He begins to ascend the steps towards the opening of the aircraft.

 “Killian!”

 His ears perk up at the sound over the engines and he quickly turns around to see Emma rushing towards him, with Tiny from ground personnel escorting her. A smile blooms over his lips, his eyes lighting up with excitement as he rushes down the steps.

 “I’m here!” Emma calls out. She desperately makes her way towards him, frazzled as she hauls her rolling suitcase along with her across the tarmac.

 When she approaches, Killian scoops her into his arms, crashing his lips into hers. They both sigh in relief, and he doesn’t know just how much he had wanted her to join him until that exact moment. The wind is blowing around them, whipping through their hair as he tightens his arms around her, pulling her closer, savoring the taste and feel of her lips before he has to let her go.

 “I don't mean to interrupt, but we gotta go, Hook!”

 The sound of his agent's voice over the jet pulls them apart, and he looks over at the brunette, flashing a small smirk. “Apologies, love. We’re coming.”

 Killian and Emma are both blushing and smiling as Tiny takes her luggage to load it on the aircraft. Killian takes her hand in his, threading their fingers together as they make their way towards the jet.

 Emma gapes at the large aircraft in bewilderment as they sashay up the steps. He can sense a bit of fear glazing over her bright green eyes.

 “Wow, I never thought I’d be flying by a private jet,” she tells him as they board. “Truthfully I never thought I’d be flying at all. I’ve always preferred road trips.”

 $*$*$

 Inside the jet, it’s significantly quieter, and she’s still in complete awe. Her stomach is doing somersaults as she takes a seat in the luxurious leather seat next to Killian and plugs in her seatbelt.

 “We’re glad you could make it,” Mary Margaret chirps, her bubbly personality much too bubbly this early in the morning.

 Emma gives her a tired smile and leans her head back, anxiously waiting for takeoff.

 She can’t believe she’s going with Killian to Ohio, and she knows Milah will try and make her regret it—when Milah finds out; Emma had left a note for her on the breakfast table. The plane jolts forward, and Emma gasps, desperately grabbing Killian's hand in hers.

 He chuckles and slides his fingers in between hers. “Relax, love. We’re just starting to roll down the runway.”

 Some classical music starts playing, which calms her a bit, along with Killian’s soothing voice and his touch. Emma had managed to pack early that morning, way too early, as quickly as she possibly could, and jammed everything she could into her suitcase. She’s sure she’s forgotten some things, but she’ll have to do without or buy the items where they are going. She’s lucky Milah didn’t wake up, but the brunette is not really an early riser, so Emma knew she had a chance of escaping.

 “So, what you made you change your mind?” Killian asks, tilting his head towards her and curving a brow in curiosity.

 Emma looks over at him, flashing a small smile. “I wasn’t going to, but last night I couldn’t sleep, and I just thought why not? Why not take a chance? Really, the main reason I didn’t want to go is because…” she leans in, whispering in his ear, “I’m terrified of flying.”

 Killian’s eyes widen in surprise as he scans her features, swallowing audibly. “You’re terrified of flying and you still came?”

 Emma nods. “Yeah,” she answers timidly.

 Killian appears to be touched by this, a wide smile blossoming over his lips as he leans in, pressing a kiss to her temple, murmuring against skin, the soft vibrations of his voice soothing her nerves a bit more. “Well, I promise you won’t regret it.” He raises their joined hands and drops gentle kisses to her knuckles. “Just relax and take deep breaths.”

 Emma hates the idea of planes, hates the idea of flying and hates the idea of having her feet anywhere but planted solidly on the ground. The jet makes another turn to head straight, and Emma does what she’s told, breathing in slowly to calm her anxiety. Her fingers grip tightly around Killian’s hand as the plane bounces off the runway and begins to ascend.

 “Just breathe, love. I got you.”

 Emma squeezes his hand a little tighter and sinks back in the seat, closing her eyes. She takes in another deep breath, her nerves slowly dwindling.

 Once they reach cruising altitude and Emma’s ears stop popping, she’s able to relax a bit more, and they move to more comfortable seating—on a matching leather couch.

 They sit back and Killian wraps his arm around her shoulders as she leans her body into his. Now that her fear of flying has simmered, she starts to feel the weariness in her eyes and tiredness sinking into her bones. She covers the yawn escaping her mouth and rests her head on his shoulder, enjoying the warmth from his body through the cotton polo he’s wearing. She’s not really sure what to do with her right hand as she lowers it from her face, so she slips it underneath the hem of his shirt, feeling his washboard stomach and abs underneath and hearing his breath catch in his throat.

 “Would you like some coffee, Emma?” he asks, placing his left hand on her arm, running his fingers over her skin as if to secure her hand on his stomach.

 Emma shakes her head against the broadness of his shoulder, deciding he’s more comfortable than a soft pillow as she runs her hand over his stomach. “No, I think I might take a nap if that's okay.” She could really get used to this position.

 “Of course, love. If you want to lay down, I can move.”

 Again Emma shakes her head, already feeling the pull of sleep taking over her body as her eyes flutter shut. “That’s okay. You make a really good pillow,” she murmurs, and Killian chuckles, placing a kiss to her hair.

 “As you wish.”

 With those soft words, Emma nuzzles her cheek further into his warmth and they snuggle each other tighter as she allows herself to slowly drift off to sleep, thinking about how Milah’s taking the news, hoping Milah will forgive her.

 $*$*$

  Dear Sis,

 I left for Ohio to be with Hook, but please know I didn't do it because I have feelings for him. I did it for us. I did it for you. You've always been the big sister, you've always taken care of me and made sure I had everything I needed. Well, now it's time for me to take care of you. So, I ask you, please let me do what I have to do. Please trust me. The money’s in our reach and I'm so very close. Hawaii will be too. Very soon. Let me do this and I promise I won't let you down.

 I love you.

 ~Emma

 Milah’s eyes prick with tears as she scans the letter. She wants to be mad, she wants to be furious, she wants tear up the paper into a million pieces.

 But she can't.

 She told Emma not to go, begged her, pleaded with her but now everything is out of her hands. Now she has to trust Emma to make diligent decisions. She has to let Emma do this. She knows that. So she will.

 Milah retrieves her phone from her back pocket and types a message to Emma as she reads her words out loud.

 “I'm trusting you, sis. Just don’t fuck it up.”

 With a tap of her thumb, Milah presses send and hopes for the best.

 $*$*$

 One week later—Memorial Tournament, Dublin, OH

 Killian “Hook” Jones stormed to a six-shot victory at the Memorial to reclaim the top spot in the rankings after being leapfrogged by Robin Locksley at the Players. —pgatour.com

 Two weeks later— FedEx St. Jude Classic , Memphis, TN

 No player has ever won the week before the U.S. Open and gone on to claim the second major of the year, but after his win at the St. Jude Classic, Killian “Hook” Jones is aiming to break that streak. His return to world No. 1 has given him added confidence of making U.S. Open history at Shinnecock Hills next week. “I mean winning this week, I think, is a bigger confidence-booster than being number one in the world,” Hook said (via Sky Sports). “The U.S. Open is a tough place to win, but I don't know why it hasn't happened before, so why not be the first bloke to do it?” —pgatour.com

 Three weeks later— U.S. Open , Southampton, NY

 It's day one as Killian approaches the par-4 eighth hole and tees off with a swing, smart and efficient, sending his ball through the air a little more than two hundred yards. It falls to the very edge of the fairway and rolls off to the left, straight into a bunker.

 He remains confident and is able to hole the shot, grabbing a share of the lead with Locksley at two under par.

 On day four, Hook and Robin are tied until the seventeenth hole, much as they had been during the previous three rounds. Locksley’s drive on the seventeenth hooks into the bunker to the left of the fairway, giving Killian just the advantage he needs. Killian is able to birdie the short par three, where Robin overshoots his way out of the sand bunker, and double putts for bogey.

 As the men begin the eighteenth, two strokes apart, all eyes are on Hook. After the first shot, a horrible drive sliced to the trees, it takes Killian an additional two shots—one out of the woods, and one to the green. The ball makes a smooth landing thirty feet from the cup.

 It’s the third shot for Robin as he lines up his putt for roughly twenty seconds. His patience and measurement pay off, and he makes the long putt for birdie. He walks to the hole, enjoying the crowd cheering on his possible victory. Grabbing his ball out of the cup, he holds it up to the crowd and nods graciously.

 Killian must now make this monster putt to win; if he doesn’t, the round will go into sudden death to break the tie. The audience grows restless, shouting for Killian to “put it in the hole!”

 He glances around the crowd, anxious to see his beautiful, blonde talisman. Spotting her, he grins, realizing she might be as nervous as he is, as she bounces up and down on the balls of her feet, her hands laced together under her chin as though she is praying. She throws him an excited wave, and he winks in return.

 Taking a deep breath and centering himself, he focuses on lining up his putt. With a solid stroke and follow through, the anticipation is heightened as the ball slowly rolls down the green and swivels around the cup before sinking in.

 The crowd goes wild, whistling, cheering and applauding as Killian raises a subtle victory fist into the air. He waves to the crowd, and looks to Emma once more, blowing her a kiss.

 World number one, Killian “Hook” Jones has broken several records today. He successfully defended his title at Shinnecock Hills on Long Island , and is the first golfer to win consecutive U.S. Opens since Curtis Strange in 1988 and 1989 . He is also the first player ever to win the U.S. Open having triumphed the weekend before. “I think it was a big win,” Hook says. “It was a big statement by myself. I'm proud of the way I played, the way I handled it.” —pgatour.com

 Killian’s relieved when he can finally escape the thralls of a reporter of Palm Beach after she questions him about his game at Shinnecock Hills, but at this point, the questions are no different than the zillion other questions he’s been asked since he’d gained yet another win the day before. He’s relieved when he can finally mingle with the people he'd rather mingle with—namely his friends and the gorgeous blonde who's been checking him out from the other end of the room.

 A few other people stop him along the way to congratulate him, but finally he manages to slither his way through the crowd. First, he has to greet Locksley, who he somehow hasn't really spoken to since the other night before the game, with a hug and a hearty clap on the back. “Good game, mate.”

 “You had a nice play too, Hook, but only after you almost fucked it up in the first round,” Locksley taunts playfully with a laugh.

 Killian shakes his head, chuckling. “And yet, I still beat you by two strokes,” he reminds him, lifting a glass of wine from a waiter's tray before turning towards the dinner table.

 “Because I let you,” Robin remarks with a grin.

 “You're just still sore I reclaimed the number one ranking at the Memorial,” Killian retaliates before taking a sip of his wine.

 Robin sighs, and Killian pats him on the arm and steps away in the direction of the woman with the long blonde curls and a stunning black dress.

 She’s smiling radiantly as he reaches her, finally, wrapping an arm around her waist and kissing her cheek. “How's my beautiful good luck charm?” he asks, and her cheeks are tinged with blush as she wraps her arms around the back of his neck. Killian had lost his lucky glove the same week he’d lost his number one ranking, but he was able to win it back in Ohio, the same week Emma first joined him on the tour. Needless to say, his long lost glove was no longer missed.

 “Missing her star golfer,” Emma answers softly, pressing her lips to his. He sighs into the kiss, missing how she tastes, missing how she feels in his arms. Even though he’d seen her on the greens as she watched him play, and gave him sweet pecks on the cheek every time he could catch a break, to wish him luck, and even though they flew back home together, he can never fully get enough. “I'm also starving,” Emma adds.

 Killian grins widely, a small laugh escaping is lips. “Then come, love. Let's eat.” He takes her hand, leading her to their table where the Nolans and Locksley and his family join them.

 The dinner at the Mills Ranch after a tournament is tradition, the salmon's perfect and the wine is almost as good, and well, Killian doesn't think it can get any better than this.

 Round one of the Open had started out rocky, but he was quick to overcome it. Every shot on Shinnecock was difficult starting with number eight during the first round, the conditions were tough and the courses were long. And normally, he'd rather be out hitting a bucket of practice balls, but right now, he has other things planned for the evening. They fall into easy conversation, discussing golf stats and other nonsense. When Emma’s with him, he doesn't like to let the golf chat drone on forever, but she seems to actually enjoy it and always finds a way to add to the conversation.

 Killian could not have picked a more perfect woman.

 “I have to use the restroom, babe,” Emma murmurs, trying not to announce to the whole table as the wait staff starts to whisk their dinner plates away. She removes the napkin from her lap and sets it on the table as Killian places a hand on her back, leaning in to kiss her lips.

 “Don't keep me waiting for long,” he teases lightly in her ear and Emma shudders, smiling brightly as she caresses his cheek.

 “I won't, I promise.”

 He watches as she gets up and walks away, and Regina rises from the table, informing the group she has to use the ladies’ room as well.

 Part of him is wishing she’d stay, but it doesn't matter. She’ll find out after it’s all said and done. Perhaps it’s better this way.

 “So, things are still going well between you and Emma, I see,” Mary Margaret comments happily.

 “You could say that.” Killian blushes and offers a tentative smile as he reaches into the inside of his jacket. It’s been the most amazing three weeks of his life. The item inside the square velvet box he’s currently grasping onto and slowly pulling out is a testament to that. His cheeks are burning as he keeps his eyes on the corridor to the restrooms before opening the box and holding it over the table for everyone to see.

 The group gasps in shock as they take in the sight of the eighteen karat white gold with a spherical diamond connected by bands which are laced with smaller diamonds. The metal speaks for strength of promised love, and the precious gem speaks of his lady love—pure and one of a kind.

 “In fact, I’m proposing to her tonight.”

 $*$*$

 Emma emerges from the stall, glancing down at herself and smoothing out some wrinkles in her dress. Looking up again as she walks towards the sink, she stops suddenly in her tracks, breath catching in her throat as she presses her hand to her heart, seeing Regina leaning against the counter. “God, you scared me,” she breathes, continuing to one of the sinks to wash her hands.

 The other woman's arms are folded over her chest, lips hinting to a wicked smirk as she watches Emma like she’s up to something. Emma’s not surprised because the woman’s been glaring at her all night. She’s just not sure why.

 She tries to ignore the brunette, but Emma can sense her deadly stare, and it gives her goosebumps. She dries her hands with a paper towel and throws it away before moving towards the exit.

 Regina suddenly steps in her way.

 “What is your problem?” Emma asks bluntly, her brow arched in confusion.

 Regina grins, a wide, devilish grin that sends a shiver down her spine. “I’ll tell you what my problem is.” She steps closer, dropping her arms and engaging Emma with a threatening stare. “My problem is your intentions with Hook.”

 The lines of Emma's forehead rise, and as she studies the woman’s face, it dawns on her—Regina knows what she’s up to. “What are you talking about?” she feigns innocence, hoping she is wrong about her theory.

 Regina's grin only widens. “Tell me, Miss Swan, how exactly do you sleep at night knowing you're about to break Hook's heart like you've done to several others?”

 Emma starts to grow angry as she crosses her arms, glaring at this woman defiantly. “I care about Killian.”

 Regina mocks her with a dramatic nod. “Right I can see that, and does your sister know that?”

 Emma's eyes widen, her face going pale, heart dropping to her stomach. “How did you—”

 An evil, hearty laugh escapes Regina's lips as she makes a gesture with her hand, as though she's a goddamn queen or something, and starts strutting past Emma across the restroom, away from her and the door. “Let's just say, I have friends in high places. Friends who know how to dig up dirt.” She spins around on her heels, her smile never fading. “But I guess you already know how to do that too. Because why else would you be here? You certainly did not fly here on a whim.”

 Emma's blood sizzles, but at the same time, her stomach is clenching with fear. “You don't have anything on me,” she challenges.

 “You’re right, I don't have anything on Emma Swan.” Regina resumes her previous movements, slowly pacing back and forth. “Except that she was tossed around to different foster homes until she was sixteen when she and her sister, Milah Raven, were adopted by Ingrid Frost, and then went to live with Mal Page after Ingrid died in a tragic accident. Then Emma and Milah left for Boston after graduation and became bartenders,” Regina adds, her nose scrunching up in distaste. “But after that, there is nothing on Emma Swan and Milah Raven.” Regina turns and looks at Emma again. “It turns out there’s a huge gap of time from when you and Milah left Boston in 2016 to when you both came here.” She lifts her chin, perching it in her hand and rubbing her fingers over the skin like she’s solving a mystery. “I found this to be very curious, so I had my friend dig even deeper. Milah’s been married five times in the last two years, using five different identities and she divorced each one because of adultery, running away with their money. And all of the husbands were connected to your aliases. Assistant, gardener, housekeeper, student. It’s a very clever setup really. I do have to give you and your sister props for that,” Regina says approvingly.

 “You have no proof,” Emma scowls, not believing the audacity of this woman taking the initiative to dig up dirt on her and her sister.

 “Oh, but I do.” Regina pulls something out of her pocket bag, and presents it to Emma—a manila envelope. “You see, everything in here is proof of what you've been up to.”

 Emma takes it and pulls out the papers, scanning them over. Sure enough, Regina is right—she has everything from their first con to when Milah fled from Storybrooke after the divorce.

 She closes her eyes briefly and takes a deep breath, trying to calm herself. She’s totally fucked. So, with acceptance of this and with a feeble voice, she asks, “How much do you want to keep this to yourself?”

 Again, Regina laughs, the menacing sound slithering over Emma’s skin. “Oh, honey, you think I did this to get a cut of the money? You forget I inherited this club and come from a wealthy family of high stature. I have all the money I could possibly need.”

 Emma’s jaw tightens, not sure what else to offer this woman. “What do you want, then?”

 There is no longer a smile on Regina's face, instead it’s replaced by anger and irritation. “It’s simple really.” Her tone is serious and threatening, and Emma can feel the effects of her words slithering all over her skin. “You see, if you break Killian’s heart to the point of devastation, he may stop doing the things which he loves. He may sell his yacht, he may stop coming here to the country club, and who knows, he may even stop playing golf. If that happens, I lose my members, and the Mills Ranch suffers because of it. And I will not allow some skinny blonde twat to ruin everything my family has built.” Regina steps closer, her eyes cold and steely, until she’s only a hair's breadth away from Emma. “I want you to call off the con. If you don’t, I will let everything in this envelope leak to the press and the police, so your newest fashion style will be orange jumpsuits as you both rot behind bars,” she threatens through clenched teeth. “Is that clear?”

 Emma tries to gulp, but there's a large lump in her throat and her mouth's as dry as sandpaper, so all she can manage is a nod as she hands the documents back to Regina. “Like crystal.”

 The woman steps back, sliding the papers into the envelope, shoving it into her purse and flashing Emma a superficially sweet smile. “Good. I'm glad we’re on the same page.” The woman walks out of the restroom, leaving Emma completely frazzled.

 She takes a deep breath, trying to calm her nerves as she heads for the door. At first, nothing but anger takes over her, but when she escapes the restroom and sees Killian standing there with his gorgeous smile as he extends his hand to her, she relaxes immediately. Emma takes his hand as he leads her across the room, and she starts to feel guilty, her heart full of regret.

 She also feels like a failure.

 Four weeks down the drain because she made one simple mistake. She used her real name. Why didn't she just listen to Milah, why did she have to be so naive? Now their secret is going to destroy them. She's not sure what will happen now. Three weeks ago when she had decided to get on that jet, she made a vow to herself—to not get attached. She wasn't going to let Milah down, and so far everything has been working perfectly. Emma had been so close, she could taste it. Now it doesn’t matter. Now she will have to end the con and probably go back to Boston. She'd probably go back to being a bartender making minimum wage because that and conning are all she knows.

 Killian leads Emma out the door to the golf course, and she eyes him in confusion as they walk towards the practice range. “You want to practice? That’s kind of difficult to do considering you don't have your golf clubs with you.”

 “No, I won’t be practicing tonight. You'll see, love.”

 The sharp colors of the sunset spread across the sky as Killian walks her to the very same spot Emma was when she was practicing her golf swing . The very same spot where they officially met.

 Emma gulps when she sees the red rose petals on the grass turf, shaped like a giant heart, and her brows weave together; she’s still perplexed. “Killian?”

 When they reach the petals, stepping inside the heart shaped trail, he turns to her and takes her hands in his. He appears to be a nervous wreck, flashing a frail smile. “Emma, I brought you here because… this is where we met.”

 “Technically we first met inside the club,” Emma reminds him.

 Killian lets out a suppressed laugh, his cheeks colored with blush. “Well, if you want to get technical, we can go inside and I can ask you in front of everyone.”

 Emma raises a brow, her voice shaky as she speaks, but she has a feeling she already knows the answer. “Ask me what?”

 He takes a deep, wobbly breath, his beautiful cerulean eyes piercing into hers, and she can actually feel his hands trembling. “Emma, the first time I saw you was when you were walking along the beach as I was walking down the docks. You were the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen, you looked like an angel. You still do.”

 Emma’s eyes widen; he’d never told her this before. She’d thought the first time he’d seen her was at this very country club. “You saw me before we met?”

 Killian nods. “I did. And ever since then, I’ve been drawn to you like a moth to a flame.” His voice cracks as he continues. “My entire life has been nothing but loss and golf and traveling, and I’ve always had everything I ever needed. But, I always felt like I was missing something. I’ve always craved to have someone by my side...” he pauses briefly, swallowing hard and exhaling another deep, quivering breath to gain some more courage, “...someone supporting me and encouraging me, and not just because they have to or because it’s their job. The best part of winning the Open was not the prize money or the cup or even the ranking; the best part was having you there by my side. I’ve always wanted someone to share all of my experiences with, someone I could also support and encourage along the way. I’ve always wanted to have someone along for the ride.”

 Killian takes another shaky breath and gets down on one knee, looking up at her with stormy eyes. He takes out a small, black velvet box, opening it up to display what's inside—a stunning white gold diamond ring. “Emma Swan, will you do me the honor of being by my side from this day forward? Will you be my wife?”

 Emma gasps, not believing he’s actually proposing after a month, and right after Regina had given her the ultimatum to end the con. She's been waiting for this moment ever since she’d decided to be primary, but now she realizes she was never really prepared. And she certainly can't let Killian see anything but pure shock, so she has to play her part to the tee. Luckily she’s genuinely surprised by his proposal, but for different reasons than he may believe. “Killian, are you crazy?! We’ve only known each other for a little over a month and we’ve only been dating for three weeks?! We stayed in separate hotel suites, we haven't even had sex yet and now you want to get married?!”

 “Emma, I know it’s crazy, my whole life has been crazy, but being with you calms me more than I can even describe. I’m crazy in love with you. My heart aches at the mere thought of not being by your side.” He offers a soft smile, glancing down at the ring. “And we haven’t had sex yet because I never want you to feel pressured or rushed.” He peers up at her as though he’s afraid of what her reaction will be.

 “Says the man on one knee asking me to spend the rest of my life with him,” she breathes, still bewildered it only took one month.

 This is by far a record for her and her sister. And she didn't have to make up any fantastical lie to speed up the process. Normally Milah tells the mark she’s a catholic and doesn't believe in sex before marriage. With their former marks, knowing sex was off the table until then suddenly made them a willing participant when it came to marriage. One time Milah even learned French and faked an accent, leading the mark to believe she was about to be deported. She's even gone as far as telling a mark she had an incurable illness when three months had gone by and she still had no ring on her finger to show for it.

 “Emma, if you say no, I would understand, and we can go back to the way things were, I just… I want you to know I’m in this for the long haul. I will never abandon you.”

 Her heart tightens at the sincerity of his words. She knows she should say no. She knows that everything could easily go up in flames, but she also knows she’d made a promise to her sister. And she refuses to let Milah down. She refuses to accept failure.

 “Love, it’s okay if you’re not ready—”

 “Yes,” Emma blurts the word out, quickly cutting him off. “My answer is yes. I will marry you.”

 Killian’s face lights up, a smile blooming over his lips. “Really?”

 She nods with certainty.

 His reaction is infectious, and she grins as he slides the ring on her finger, securing it in place before rising and pulling her into a kiss. Emma responds, parting her lips for him and returning his affection, but her heart feels very heavy, and Regina’s threats are weighing on her mind. If that woman finds out about this, the whole thing will be ruined.

 Pulling away, Emma gives him a tentative smile, as he blushes back at her.

 “Love, we don’t have to get married straight awa—”

 “But, I want to,” she assures, cutting him off. “I think we should.”

 He scans her eyes, appearing to be surprised by this. “You really want to?”

 Emma nods. “I do. I don’t want a big wedding. You have a break from the tour, and I don’t want all of the publicity. In fact… I just want a small, simple wedding with only a couple of witnesses,” she says. “So maybe we could just elope? You know, not tell anyone until after it’s done. Then later on, we can have a big wedding with everyone there,” she offers, hoping he will accept her suggestion— praying he will accept it.

 Killian’s lips crack into a wide grin, and a swarm of relief rushes over her. “My love, I believe you’ve just read my mind,” he murmurs, his voice completely wrecked as he presses his forehead to hers.

 Emma’s eyes widen in bewilderment. “Really?”

 He chuckles. “Really. You are absolutely right. It will be difficult to get married while I'm on tour, with reporters and fans all over us. I do not wish to do anything that will make you uncomfortable or want to run,” he confesses, curling his hands around her hips. “I just found you and I’m not letting you get away so easily.”

 Emma laughs and sighs into him as she presses her hands against the warmth of his chest. “I haven’t ran yet, have I?”

 “No, ma’am.” His lips crash into hers and she sighs pleasantly, indulging in the kiss and pulling him in deeper. And to think, she was sure everything was ruined. Turns out it's just the beginning.

 They reluctantly pull away, catching their breaths, and Killian takes her hands in his, eyes buzzing with excitement. “It’s settled then, we’ll have a discreet wedding. But Mary Margaret and David can know and be witnesses, do you agree?”

 “Yes, of course,” she answers, swallowing thickly.

 “No worries, they can keep a secret. And whatever we do, we can’t let Regina know.” Emma’s eyes snap to his; she’s taken off guard by his words. “Her friend is a reporter, so if she finds out, we can say goodbye to a private wedding.”

 Emma nods in agreement, sighing in relief and grinning from ear to ear. She’s so glad they’re on the same page. “Then we will make sure Regina doesn’t find out.”

 $*$*$

 Emma is wearing a giddy smile as she’s making breakfast in the kitchen at the condo the next morning. She’s done her best to forget about Regina’s threats and she’s decided to remain confident knowing Regina will not find out about the wedding until it’s too late. Regina won’t know any better until Milah and Emma are on their way to Hawaii.

 Emma’s heart hurts at the thought of leaving Killian. But she has to ignore those feelings. She is not allowed to feel that way about him. She has to remain positive.

 She slides some plates of food on a tray, along with a glass of orange juice. She’s made all of Milah’s favorites—eggs benedict and french toast—and sashays down the hall to Milah’s bedroom bearing the tray of food.

 “Milah… wakey, wakey, eggs and bacy,” Emma chants as she balances the tray with one hand and stealthily turns the doorknob with the other. Using her back to open the door, she shuffles inside the room and approaches Milah’s bedside.

 The brunette’s eyelids are flickering open and she groans as Emma offers a big, bright smile.

 Milah yawns, her features creasing in confusion as she props herself up on her elbows, seeing the tray of plates in Emma’s hands. “You brought me breakfast?” she asks groggily.

 Emma nods and places the tray in Milah’s lap. “Breakfast that I made myself. I even cooked your favorite—eggs benedict and french toast topped with strawberry syrup and whipped cream.”

 Milah’s sleepy eyes light up and she sits up even more, leaning back against the headboard as Emma hands her the steaming mug of coffee. Milah takes a slow sip, closing her eyes to savor the taste. After a few seconds, her eyes fly open and she looks at Emma suspiciously, brows weaving together as she speaks very slowly in an accusing tone. “What did you do?”

 Emma shrugs casually as she sits besides Milah, looking down at her left hand. Pursing her lips she toys with the ring on her finger. “Can’t a girl just wanna do something nice for her sister?” She stands up and reaches the head of the bed, whisking her left hand very casually at the tray. Milah’s chewing on a bite of french toast as she watches Emma’s movements. “This was really nothing.”

 The brunette’s eyes fall on Emma’s hand and widen in shock. Milah quickly takes Emma’s hand, stealing a closer look. “He proposed?!”

 “Well, I don't like to brag, but…” Emma answers nonchalantly before returning her gaze to Milah, a broad smile crawling across her lips, her words louder than before. “Killian proposed!”

 Emma hadn’t been quite sure how Milah would take this information, but when the brunette moves the tray to the bedside table, there’s a natural eruption of excitement between the two of them—lots of jumping up and down on the bed and screaming and laughing and hugging.

 Their plan is set in motion, and Emma’s doubts are instantly vanquished. She’s got a bag packed for when she and Killian elope; she's not sure when and where, only that it will happen. And soon it will be time for Emma and Milah to start packing all of their belongings and leave Palm Beach.

 “Hawaii, here we come!”

Tagging: @mayquita @freakassbuthunter @libbcoxnet-blog @goldengirlschildhood @courtorderedcake @florenzu @marcella2727  @veryverynotgood @i-would-cross-realms-4-her @hooklineandswan @wonderfullycarriedaway @0swald-c0bblep0t @cs-forlife @andiirivera @snotelek @capswantrue @nikkiemms @capswantrue @swansong12 @lg-campbell @lassluna @followbatb @harshini01 @betchesgetshitdone @coliferoncer @ultraluckycatnd @resident-of-storybrooke @kinkyhiddlesgirl @teamhook

[mortuo-bios]

Mulera Lyther and Kuzuno Yeouha

To fully understand the characters story, its good to read the pages for the following characters: Kuzuno Yeouha, Mileja Hypher, Thiery Rizett, Dr. Rizett, and this one.

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Age: 14 sweeps

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Sexuality: gay

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Gender:  male

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Pronouns: he/him

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Height: 6'7

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Blood: cerulean

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Symbol:

Lusus: bed bug dad. big ass bed bug, with like, lots of horns

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Trolltag: arcExcellency

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Quirk: 5=S “5o. how is my favorite troll in the world?”

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Personality: Mulera tires his best to be friendly, approachable, and charasimatic in any given situation.

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Illnesses/Disorders: n/a

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Disabilities: n/a

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Phobias: n/a

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Prospit/Derse?: ?????????

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God Tier Title: ???????????

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About:

Outside of his work, mulera is the best friend of Kuzuno Yeouha, The two of them have been friends since both of them were 4 sweeps old and he helped Kuzuno Save his Lusus from Thieves. It was then that he and Kuzuno became inseparable in all their future scams, businesses, and any other bullshit they got up to. The two of them also found the lab that Thiery had been abandoned in and rescued him, returning him to his descendant and becoming his two favorite people in the world. They now live life well on the money of the two of them. It is with that cash they now run their greatest and largest scam yet.

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The founder of the Lowblood Arc of Excellency, a training facility that prepares lowbloods with little talent, very cullable qualities, and no hope for a future off planet, to become the best versions of themselves. He promises through the program that he calls Arc for short, that these lowbloods, from burgundy to olive, and jade if they are approved by a personal interview, That they will be trained so wonderfully they will be sought out by name by high ranking fleet commanders and given jobs far better than what their peers will ever receive. Pretty much its just troll college in a way.

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This, however, is just the cover story to draw in trolls who will make good experimentation subjects.

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The arc will allow in trolls ages 6-9 sweeps so long as they fit in with their researchers criteria: Have no quadrants or end them before entering to program, Do not speak with trolls outside of the program unless on threat of death, delete all social media, hand over all cash to the arc and use only what they're provided for the time they are there, agree to all vaccinations given to them by arc doctors, Listen to no music with profanity, or with negative lyrics, no attitudes of negativity, and anyone wishing to leave will have to pay the facility back for all they have used on threat of death, and many more rules to be sure there is nowhere these trolls can escape. Truthfully these vaccines are very addictive drugs created by Dr.Rizett that will keep runaway lowbloods coming back for more while taking their income will keep them from being able to truly afford to leave. Giving them charges for leaving leaves them in debt that they as highbloods have the right to dish out, and many more traps are in place to convince these poor people that they have nowhere to run.

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It is with great pride, he's been able to keep this info from thiery who cares for him and Kuzuno Unconditionally and will hear no words against them and most likely fly into a rage if they are accused persistently. He is able to trick new members into thinking things shall go well for them with the help of a yellowblood, Mileja Hypher, who was given a very comfortable job within the fleet despite having powerful psionics that would land someone like her in a helmsman job due to Mulera And Rizetts connections to fleet members who profit from giving these lowbloods these jobs due to the money Mulera pays them to keep up the lie.

Quadrants:

♥ Matesprit -

♦ Moirail -

♣ Auspistice Between -

♠ Kismesis -

Extra:

KUZUNO YEOUHA

To fully understand the characters story, its good to read the pages for the following characters: Mulera Lyther, Mileja Hypher, Thiery Rizett, Dr. Rizett, and this one.

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Age: 14 sweeps

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Sexuality: bi

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Gender:  male

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Pronouns: he/him

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Height: 5'7

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Blood: olive

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Symbol:

Lusus: fox dad

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Trolltag: ArcAssistant or YeoYeo

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Quirk: adds -^v^- to sentences occasionally. “Sup fam, wazz poppin? -^v^- ”

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Personality: Hes very unruly, very crass in his manner of speaking, and pretty much your typical stereotype for a rapper. He doesn't try too hard to subvert expectations. Mostly the silent side of Mulera’s operations and if needed the muscle if things go bad.

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Illnesses/Disorders: n/a

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Disabilities: n/a

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Phobias: n/a

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Prospit/Derse?: ?????????

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God Tier Title: ?????????

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About:

He is the best friend of mulera, and enterally grateful that he was able to meet the man who helped him save his lusus. He does whatever mulera tells him for the most part so long as he sees that mulera has no ill will towards himself.

He helped Mulera found The Arc and maintain its credibility by offering money and better exposure to other lowblood artist who help him promote it to other lowbloods. He knows that those of his color are being hurt by the whole operation but he knows he cares more about funding Rizetts research and living forever than making sure a few other olive bloods are safe.

He cares very deeply for thiery, and is downright heinous to anyone who dares give him a hard time acting as the overprotective son of him. Theiry assures him he can calm down but hes always on guard, having actually learned to love theiry quite a bit unlike mulera who is not as close.

Quadrants:

♥ Matesprit -

♦ Moirail -

♣ Auspistice Between -

♠ Kismesis -

Extra: