#also stylistically it's kind of a hot mess

[juniperskye]

Chewing Gum

Summary: Eddie gets gum in his hair, so Steve takes him to his favorite salon to get it out. The events of season 4 did not happen.

Eddie Munson x Hair Stylist (Fem)Reader (she’s kind of sunshiny emo lol also she’s described to have colored hair, tattoos, and piercings)

Fluff

Word count: 1474

Warnings: My blog is 18+, minors DNI, no use of y/n, language!, Jason Carver being an ass, half assed salon info, let me know if I missed any!

not edited - please be kind. Requests are open and feedback is welcome if it's constructive!

I do not consent to having my work translated or reposted to any other site. That being said I do not own the characters portrayed in this story.

Jason Carver is a dick. He treated Eddie and the boys like shit and went out of his way to make sure they knew they were “freaks”.

Eddie saw Chrissy get bumped by one of the other basketball players. They were messing around in the halls like a bunch of Neanderthals and Chrissy got struck in the crossfire. She was body checked into a locker and her books went flying.

“Here.” Eddie offered Chrissy her science book that had slid across the hall.

“Thanks Eddie.” Chrissy smiled.

Eddie nodded back to her and moved toward his homeroom, but not before Jason stormed over, purposely bumping Eddie in the process.

“Let’s go babe.” Jason said, pulling Chrissy along with him.

This had been a pretty tame reaction from Jason…or so Eddie thought. Eddie made it through homeroom and history no problem, it was when he got to lunch that all hell broke loose.

“Woahhh dude! You have gum in your hair.” Garreth said to Eddie.

“HA HA very funny Garreth.” Eddie rolled his eyes.

“Oh shit! Ed, man he’s not joking.” Dustin informed the older boy.

With that, Eddie reached to the back of his head and brushed his hand over his hair. As he shifted from the top of his head down towards the nape of his neck, he felt the sticky wad of chewing gum, causing his curls to tangle up.

Laughter erupted across the cafeteria, as Eddie’s gaze shifted to the disruption his eyes met Jason’s who shot him a smirk and a wink. Further proving Eddie’s theory that the asshole that was Jason Carver had, in fact, been the culprit of this incident.

“Eddie, I could call Steve, his hair guy could probably fix you right up.” Dustin offered.

“Hell no. The last thing I want to do is get help from Steve.” Eddie scoffed.

“We could just cut it out.” Mike shrugged.

“Fuck it. Call Steve.” Eddie conceded.

Dustin and Eddie made their way to the school’s payphone. Dustin was quick to dial the number and explain the whole situation to Steve once he picked up. Steve had offered to take Eddie to his hair guy, but only if Eddie asked nicely and said please…which he reluctantly choked out over the phone.

“I’ll come pick you up.” Steve told Eddie, before hanging up.

Fifteen minutes later, Steve pulled up to the school in his burgundy BMW, yelling at Eddie to “hop in”. The drive started off in an uncomfortable silence. This was the first time Eddie had hung out with Steve alone, not that they were hanging out.

“So, listen Eddie, nobody, and I mean NOBODY, knows that this is where I get my hair done and honestly I’d like to keep it that way.” Steve explained.

“Okay…you’re freaking me out. Where is this place?” Eddie said as he looked around the unfamiliar neighborhood.

“Just up here on the left.” Steve said, pulling up in front of a hair salon.

Eddie initially felt confused, he figured that Steve would go to a barber, like any other guy from school, but this actually made a lot of sense. Steve cared about his hair the way any girl would and he’s very particular about it so naturally he would go somewhere that would take better care of his hair.

As they made their way up the curb, Eddie was able to get a better look of the inside. It was painted mostly black but there were bright pops of hot pink and teal around the place. There were pink velvet couches and those smiley face daisy pillows strewn about them. There was only one employee in the place, and she was currently blow drying some girl’s hair.

Eddie’s eyes scanned the hair stylist, you were beautiful you had pink streaks in your hair, dark tattoos littering your arms and a nose ring. You took Eddie’s breath away.

“Steven Harrington you better not be back here to ask me to cut your hair shorter. You made me take so much off last time and I still haven’t gotten over it!” You shrieked.

“Would you relax! I’m not here for a haircut, I’m here with my uh, my friend.” Steve said, glancing over at Eddie.

“Hi Steve’s friend! Oh, my goodness your hair is beautiful! Please don’t tell me you want me to cut it off!”

Your theatrics were making Eddie’s heart sing. The compliment had him blushing.

“God no! I don’t want to cut my hair, that’s actually why I’m here.” Eddie exclaimed.

“He got gum stuck in his hair.” Steve replied waving him off.

“I didn’t get shit stuck in my hair. That asshole Jason Carver spit gum in my hair.” Eddie explained.

“Ugh the Carver boys are all terrors. I remember being a sophomore when Michael Carver was a senior and if he wasn’t the biggest douche bag, then I don’t know who was.” You said, shaking your head. You shifted your gaze over to where Eddie and Steve were sitting. “Wait a minute! I know you, Eddie Munson, we had freshman English together!” You said, reintroducing yourself to him.

“I knew you looked familiar!” Eddie smiled.

You told him that you’d be with him in just a minute, you wanted to get your client finished up and checked out. He watched in awe as you effortlessly sectioned and styled her hair, led her over to the register and cleaned your station quickly. He noticed you gathering a few things, which he could only assume would be for him.

“Okay come over and sit!” You gestured to your chair. As Eddie made himself comfortable you began explaining what you were going to do. “So, I am basically going to load your hair up with oil which should allow the gum to slide out. I will wash your hair after too, so you don’t leave here looking like a greasy mess. I have a reputation to uphold!”

“Okay, thanks.” Eddie said, pushing his bangs out of his eyes.

“If you want I can trim your hair too, just clean it up, make it so your bangs aren’t in your eyes so much.” You offered.

“Oh um, that would be great but I uh, I don’t have any…”

“It’s on the house Eddie. Just a favor for a friend.” You said quietly.

Eddie nodded slightly and you got to work, slipping on some gloves, and pouring the hair oil into your hands. You started working it into his hair, really targeting the areas around the chewing gum. Slowly but surely the gum started to untangle itself from Eddie’s chocolate tresses. Once the gum was completely out, you led Eddie over to the shampoo bowl and proceeded to wash his hair. You couldn’t help but smile down at the soft expression he wore on his face. His eyes had fluttered shut and you thought he truly could have been asleep the way his face was relaxed. After washing, conditioning and finally rinsing his hair, you gently grasped his shoulder.

“Eddie, you ready for me to cut your hair?”

“Huh? Oh yeah.” Eddie said, carefully getting up and heading back to your chair.

Eddie sat and you and him chatted back and forth as you trimmed his hair. You had made sure to communicate through every part of the process, which products you were using and why, the way you were cutting his hair and adding in some natural layering to help with the bulk, trimming his bangs a little shorter than he was used to so they wouldn’t be too long so quickly. You pulled out the hair dryer and attached the diffuser, explaining what it did to Eddie and letting him know that blow drying definitely isn’t necessary for him to do.

Steve couldn’t help the shit-eating grin that plastered its way on his face at the interaction playing out before him. He had never seen Eddie sit still this long or listen this intently to anyone. Steve couldn’t help but think that Eddie had better thank him for bringing him here.

“Alright Eddie you are all set.”

“Thank you so much, seriously! I really appreciate it and I don’t think my hair has ever looked or felt this good.” Eddie said, admiring your handywork.

“Of course! And by the way if you ever get gum in your hair again, peanut butter or cooking oil can get it out, it just takes a bit of work.” You explained. “But know that you can always come here, and I can help too!” You couldn’t help but mentally facepalm.

“Yeah. That sounds good! You know, I would need your number…you know to get a hold of you..” Eddie smirked.

He couldn’t help but feel a strange sense of thanks toward Jason Carver…he had brought you into his life, all with a piece of chewing gum.

[deanbrainrotwritings]

— MORE

SUMMARY : director jensen ackles gets a little too sexy.

PAIRING : jensen ackles x fem!reader

CHARACTERS : jared padalecki, misha collins, laura (oc), mariana (oc)

WARNINGS/TAGS : nsfw(18+), smut, spanking, banter, jokes

WORD COUNT : 4.3k

A/N : title from the song by j-hope of bts. I love danneel, but she can’t exist for these stories, lmao. also, I wrote this while I was sick and I was exhausted at 1.00 am :D XX

Jensen and her had a very professional relationship on set despite being married. She didn’t really joke around or do anything inappropriate unless it was okay for them to be doing that, if it was part of a scene and they accidentally messed up, or unless Jared and Jensen themselves were acting alongside her with Misha. But when Jensen was directing, it was a whole other case of professionalism. A case that she secretly loved and found very hot, something she was pretty sure she could hide from everyone but him.

He was a very private man with everything that had to do with his personal life, but she was a little more open about certain things, definitely not about her business in bed with Jensen, since he got flustered and embarrassed about it being said to others. Unless he was in that mood, unless he was comfortable around the people surrounding him.

For example, Jensen had no trouble talking about his sex life with her if he was talking to Misha and sometimes Jared, but he wasn’t too graphic. He could be a bit lewd, forgetting himself around the boys, and she’d play along because it was fun to either get the upper hand on him or to remain under his.

Still, she couldn’t be fooled by his prudish behaviour in the public because behind closed doors, Jensen was extremely naughty, almost more than her.

The makeup artist, Laura, was putting gel on Y/N’s brows, lip tint on her soft lips, touching up a few other parts of her face to make her look good for the cameras while the hair stylist, Mariana, began gently fixing and spraying her hair in place. Y/N stared at the photos of Jensen, Misha, and Jared, a little smile on her face admiring her friends and herself being silly in them.

“Ready?” Someone asked from the door after knocking, Laura and Mariana responded with a rushed yes and quickly finished up what they were doing before letting Y/N go to the set where she’d previously had a scene with Jared and now, she’d have one with Jensen. A spicy one.

She saw Jensen was already there wearing a black suit and a mossy-green tie, a serious expression pinched his brows together, and he made motions with his hands for the cameraman to know where the cameras had to be angled and what his vision was for the scene. It was hot, watching him be in the zone, directing and leading, giving advice, and correcting certain things. He was brilliant, a genius at these things, and he was so captivating and kind, enthusiastic and thorough, it was not surprising how amazing things turned out thanks to him.

“Y/N,” Jensen said, a serious tone in his voice, so she quickly made her way to him and waited for his instructions. He finished up with the cameraman and a few of the other crew members. Y/N just watched and listened to him, mostly. It was distracting to see the suit tighten around certain areas of his body, like his broad shoulders, his ass, his waist… “…back to you, gorgeous,” he turned to face her, and she smiled, inhaling sharply.

He raised a brow at her for that, immediately figuring out that she wasn’t paying attention to him, but had her mind somewhere else. He chuckled softly, his own train of thought derailed by the way she tried to play innocent. Despite her soft and serious smile, he carefully cupped her jaw and kissed her cheek before pulling away to demonstrate and explain a few things he wanted to change about the script and the things they’d do.

He walked her through the sex scene thoroughly, explaining to her what he’d be doing to her, even guiding her through it physically, putting himself over her and showing her the simple but intimate scene. Part of her was amused, but another part of her was aroused at the way Jensen touched her, or the way he made her touch him.

He remained serious, treating her the way he treated the other crew members and she didn’t even feel the slightest bit guilty about how hot she thought he looked every time he bossed her around.

“Got that?” He asked, once he finished, brushing her hair over her shoulder gently. She eyed his movements, then focused back on him, smiling softly with a nod of her head. “Okay, ready to start shooting?” She nodded again, murmuring a yes to him while trying to stop herself from laughing.

For the most part, the scene was PG-13, but her thoughts weren’t. When Jensen entered the motel room, loosening his tie as he spoke the lines in Dean’s sexy baritone, she was glad the camera wasn’t on her to catch the sharp inhale of breath or the way her lips parted in delight.

She never got tired of looking at him. Every time, he looked more beautiful than ever before and even in her own fantasies when they were separated, the memory of him in her mind didn’t do him justice. This. Him, slipping off his jacket and flinging it onto the bed as he debriefed her on the details on the monster case they were working on, it made heat rush up her face and heat blossomed in her tummy.

She said her lines smoothly, settled on the table like she was supposed to, grateful for that because her knees had become weak when he started to roll his sleeves up, and even more when he walked away, arched beautifully to find a beer in the refrigerator. The slacks tightened around his pert ass and his thighs, she squeezed her legs shut, nearly screwing up when the camera moved to her.

And she said her lines, looking Jensen straight in the eyes when he started walking towards her, easily popping the lid off the bottle and throwing it into the sink before he settled down in the seat in front of her. His legs were spread and when she looked down at his crotch, she didn’t care if the audience thought it was scripted or not because who wouldn’t stare at him down there.

Even the way she licked her lips and the way she said her next line wasn’t part of the script. Now, getting so close to the next part of the scene that she always enjoyed because she got to tease him, and he always got more than what he asked for. When he leaned forward seductively, playing his part as Dean when he delivered his next line, flirting with her still made her blush. Even though it was something Jensen wouldn’t really say, it made her smile genuinely because she had a soft spot for Dean as a character.

Thanks to Dean and her character, she and Jensen got together in real life. All that pretending to be in love, and then spending those months apart during the writer’s strike made things clear to both of them. It wasn’t the acting, it wasn’t the script, it was real. And they gave in and started to date, and it worked, so well that now they’re married. Now, he was hers.

“So? We got time to kill before Sam’s back, sweetheart,” he smirked at her, playing with the sleeve of her dress. She grabbed his hand, moved it away from her dress, his warm fingers wrapping around hers when she kissed the inside of his wrist. It was a tiny act of affection that drove him crazy, and he knew, in that moment, what she was up to. But he played it cooled, when she continued to hold his hand and stood up the way he told her to minutes before.

“Why don’t we skip the flirting then, Winchester?” She murmured, watching him sit back in his chair, his hands sliding up his thighs, puffing out his chest so seductively, the buttons of his white shirt became tight across his chest.

“Sorry, thought you liked it,” he smirked, grabbing her hips and pulling her forward. She stumbled into his lap gracefully, laughing softly. She cupped his face tenderly, admired the way his eyes shined like a puppy-dog before she kissed him. She kissed him as herself and she kissed him as her character, full of love and passion.

“Only when we’re not being rushed,” she mumbled against his mouth, moaning unintentionally, surprised when he stood up, holding her tight against him to sit her on the table.

“Son of a bitch,” he whispered, kissing down her neck. She was glad her face wasn’t really showing in the scene and doubted that the mic picked up his words. Her face became hot when she moved her hands down to his belt to undo it and he fumbled around under her dress, just pretending to get her underwear out of the way. Although, secretly, they both wished the cameras were shut off and that they could do the real thing because sometimes when Jensen flirted as Dean, he meant every word, and the flirting worked the way it was supposed to on her.

She panted dramatically, buried her fingers into his hair and tousled it when she tugged gently. His little grunt was real, but no one needed to know that, no one needed to know how wet she was right now, and when he lifted his face up from her neck, the deep blush that painted him couldn’t be hidden by the camera and she couldn’t care less. Not when he pressed his lips to hers roughly, pushing and pulling against her body, her other hand clinging to his back, twisting his shirt tightly.

It was so good. It was torture. His hand on her thigh, fingers digging into her squishy flesh, pain that was so arousing to her, his arm was wrapped around her waist to keep her upright on the table. It shook under them, the wooden table gently bumping against the weak wall, and when he pulled away from the sensual kiss, his nose bumped against hers. His warm breath fanned over her wet lips, making her mind hazy, but not hazy enough so when she whispered a name as she was supposed to, it was Dean’s.

And that was it. The next scene would cut with Dean being cocky, helping her fix her dress and lowering her off the table minutes before Sam arrived with news from the coroner. But he pulled away, looked at her intensely as the crew started to talk and Jared came up with Misha. Y/N smiled at them, relaxing on the table despite how aroused Jensen had made her.

“Wow, felt just like porn,” Misha snickered, Jared laughed loudly, smacking Misha’s chest with the back of his wrist. She rolled her eyes at them, turned to Laura so she could fix anything the scene messed up and Mariana fixed Jensen up a little, getting them ready for the next scene.

“Least he gets some action,” Jared cackled and Jensen laughed softly. “In and out of set,” he ‘whispered’ to Misha, who chuckled and shook his head, smiling peacefully at Jensen who was rolling his eyes and Y/N shook her head.

“Well, it’s always better than watching you with a woman,” Misha joked and Jared pretended to sulk, throwing a little bit of popcorn towards Misha, which he caught and ate triumphantly with a grin. “Seriously, it was good, guys.” Misha patted Jensen’s back and he thanked him quietly, watched them scurry off when they were ready to shoot the next scene.

“Was that too much?” Jensen asked quietly, pecking her lips innocently.

“I wanted more,” she murmured quickly, smiling innocently over at the crew members who were giving them a thumbs up to start shooting. He blinked down at her and smiled shyly, he bit his lip and nodded over at the crew to show his own ‘ready to go’ sign. He looked down at his feet and she inhaled deeply, both of them getting into character again.

He started to put his belt back on and she shimmied her dress down her legs, looking down at herself when she slid off the table. He stayed close to her, his breath against her cheek, his warm body nearly touching hers so she could feel her skin buzz with desire. He smirked down at her in a way that made her beam when she looked up at him, enamoured by that dazzling look in his eyes. He towered over her like the moon, his beautiful face just a little pink, his eyes fluttering close when he leaned down to kiss her a final time. His fingers tangled in her hair, her hands curled into his shirt, clutching his thin waist and forgetting just for a few seconds that they were being filmed until Jared came into the motel room as Sam.

“Guys, I-” Sam stopped at the door with a grimace on his face, shutting the door loudly which broke them apart. She looked down at her legs and licked her lips to taste Jensen’s lips again, but Jensen smirked when he turned dramatically to face Sam. Emphasising that he was in a good mood after ‘fucking’, making it really obvious to Sam that they’d definitely done it, but not saying it out loud.

“Whatcha find, Sammy?” He asked, swiping his thumb across his lip. His fingers collected a phantom layer of her saliva, and he popped it into his mouth, in way too enthusiastically when he took his beer and drank it. Sam continued to cringe and cleared his throat before he stepped towards them, ignoring Dean’s weirdness.

“Uh, anyway,” Sam started awkwardly, trying to brush off Dean’s clear arrogance, “it might not be a dragon after all, just a weird, kinky vamp.” Sam put the Manila folder on the table and Dean sat down, looking up at her with a smirk because she still looked a bit dazed.

This time she cleared her throat, glaring at him when she snatched the file from his hands, “a vamp?” She asked, opening it up and looking at the graphic photos of four dead girls, all pretty young. Her face softened, imagining that while maybe monsters weren’t real, there were different kinds of monsters in real life that did things like this.

The rest of the day, it went on that way.

The sexual tension that seemed acted out, but they all knew was real. It was an unspoken thing amongst everyone because Jensen was far too professional to do anything that gets in the way of his job. He takes it seriously, for the most part. His role as Dean means the world to him and she knows that because of the moments back home when he’d naturally slip into Dean. Either in his voice, mannerisms, or words, he was always falling into the endless beauty of Dean Winchester, loving him similar to—but more purely and more intensely—how the thousands of other people around the world did. Including herself.

Jensen flirted, he was sad, and a million other things as Dean while they wrapped up just part of another scene. The wardrobe was impeccable and she found it adorable and amusing when he stole shirts from the set, bringing them home and reminding her of the great times they had together at work. All of them joking, teasing, taking things sometimes a little too far, but nothing too extreme.

She made her way back to her trailer, eyed her next outfit and the robe on the rack in her little space. She smirked after a few minutes of consideration, removed her clothes and took the ones she’d need next with her, sneaking out to find Jensen who was nearby in his own trailer.

She knocked on his door, looked around anxiously for anyone who could be around while she waited for him to open, which he thankfully did rather quickly. He looked tired, but smiled with a little surprise when he came face to face with her, his eyes trailing down her body.

“Hi, Jay,” she greeted shyly.

“Hey, honey.” He moved out of the way when she made her way in, and continued to stare at her body when he shut the door behind him. She made her way to his sofa, laid her clothes neatly over it and he came up behind her, lifted the robe and breathed a sigh of relief when he saw her underwear.

She laughed, looking at him over her shoulder when his hands fell to her hips naturally under the robe. He had his ring back on, she could feel the cold metal against her hip bone, his nearly-soft hands rubbing up and down gently.

“Come to seduce me again?” He asked, kissing the back of her head.

“Me?” She asked, checking him out and noting that he now wore a tight, black t-shirt, jeans that electrified the skin of her legs, and those loud and heavy boots that made him taller. “You’re the one who likes pretending you’re Dean in and out of work,” she teased, replacing his hands with hers to pull her underwear down her legs.

“Fuck,” he murmured, stepping back just to see her a bit more, partially to stop himself from wasting time trying to have sex when they could all easily get off work early by finishing up the scenes as soon as possible. He didn’t really hear her words, his reply simply faded into nothingness when she bent over the couch, her underwear hanging on to her thighs when she parted her legs. “Baby, later,” he swallowed, feeling his body start to warm up, his cock stirring in his jeans.

“Need you,” she pouted, pressing the side of her face against the soft sofa, watching him turn pink. His green eyes darkened and his jaw locked, he gripped her hips, positioning her right where she had to be for him to easily slip in and out of her. He kneaded her ass, trying to talk himself out of doing this, but parting her cheeks to see how slick she was for him. “Please,” she begged, wiggling her hips to encourage him, her cunt clenching around nothing when he bit his bottom lip at the sight of her pussy.

“I said later,” he murmured, striking her ass with an experimental and rough slap. She squealed, tensing up at the sting of his hand on her flesh before it became an arousing bolt of electricity that went to her clit, wetness beginning to pool between her legs all over again. She squeezed her thighs together when the throbbing of her clit nearly became unbearable and his eyebrows shot up, surprised and aroused by how much she clearly liked to be spanked.

“That’s so Dean of you,” she smirked, playing it off casually when it turned her on to see him so immersed in being Dean. She wiggled her ass playfully again and pushed her hips back against his crotch, feeling his grip on her hip tighten before he grunted.

“Sweetheart,” he warned, but she moaned softly at his voice. The sound of him so pathetically fighting against her antics encouraged her to keep talking, to keep teasing him, hoping that maybe he’ll give in.

“Won’t be the first time we have a quickie in the middle of work,” she reminded him with a little grin. He spanked her again, his hand falling on the other side of her ass and she yelped, repeating the same actions as before, a squeeze of her thighs and another teasing little wiggle of her bottom.

“I’d fire you if you worked for me,” he threatened halfheartedly.

“Thank goodness that you’re not my boss then,” she chuckled, shrugging the cotton robe off her shoulders so she was completely naked now. She threw it over her clothes with one hand and groaned in annoyance when he just stared at her face. “Jensen, I swear, if you don’t-”

His hand landed roughly on her ass again to shut her up, the flesh jiggled and turned red, so he gently kneaded it with a smirk on his flushed face. Once again, she squeezed her thighs and cursed softly under her breath, this time glaring at him for interrupting her, hating that he may have discovered something she liked and was now going to start using it against her.

“You’re unbelievable,” he said quietly, starting to unzip his jeans. Her eyebrows rose at the sound and she held her breath, excitedly waiting, looking back at him when he lowered his jeans and boxers, revealing his erect penis. He wrapped his hand around himself before the leaking tip could stain his shirt and she couldn’t stop her little moan, watching him tug gently at his cock to prepare himself for her.

“You’re gonna complain about having sex?” She asked, baiting him. He looked over at her, narrowed eyes taking in her face to see what her intentions were, so with his freehand, he spanked her again. He didn’t wait much longer for her to feel the sting, pressed the soft head of his dick against her slick entrance, sliding in slightly to feel the way she tightened and pulled him into her.

She moaned again, fisting the soft cushions of the couch when he pulled out all the way, choosing to slide the length of his dick through her wet folds. He’d focused on brushing against her clit, enjoying himself for a few moments, watching her squirm and pant while she was bent over the couch he napped on occasionally.

“Mister Later? How about you get started now?” He nearly laughed, frozen by her sudden joke in the middle of pleasing himself. She didn’t seem to find it very funny, observing her mostly pouting lips with her brows pinched together, so he rolled his eyes and easily slipped inside her.

He didn’t plan on letting her off easily, his hand shot down sharply, spanking her again, just to feel how much she liked it when he pushed and pulled his hips. He loved it, groaned at the feeling of her slick walls clamping down on him, warmth gushing around his cock. He lifted his shirt, held it up by tucking his chin against his chest and stared shamelessly at himself disappearing inside her. Her walls stretched around him, making him breathless.

She moaned wantonly, snapping him out of his daze when his cock throbbed inside her as a response. He pushed his softer thoughts out of his mind and focused on her needs and desires for him, quickening his pace, focusing on the way she responded to his speed.

He delighted in the sight of her moving upward with each of his thrusts, didn’t change the pace or the way he pulled nearly all the way out and slammed back into her, pulling gasps and quick whispers of his name from her shaking body. He already knew the answer to his questions, seeing her shut her eyes in ecstasy and hearing her moan into the couch loudly, but he still had to ask.

“That okay?” His thighs smacked loudly against her ass, taking in the soft red handprints that marked the skin of her ass. He felt her quiver around him, elated to feel the effect of his voice, so he leaned over her. He draped himself over her back carefully, his lips brushing against her cheekbone lovingly, his hands right next to hers, holding on nearly as tight as she was to the cushiony surface. “Does that feel good?” He whispered breathlessly into her ear.

“Oh, God, yes,” she moaned, her stomach tightening and flipping excitedly. In this position, he couldn’t pull out as much, opting for rolling his hips against hers which she was clearly enjoying far more. She squirmed under him, mewled and clamped down on him again, making him groan so he could feel his own orgasm approaching quickly.

“Better?” He asked, knowing that the head of his cock was repeatedly brushing against her g-spot. She didn’t answer, just nodded mindlessly while moaning his name loudly. He just knew he shouldn’t stop, so he kept at it. The force of his hips remained the same but his thrusts were much more shallow, bringing her closer and closer to her release. While her breaths got heavier and heavier, his own hitched the tighter she squeezed him in her.

Keeping the same pace, he shifted his weight onto one arm, snaking his hand around the front of her body to draw quick circles on her clit. It was the last bit of pressure she needed before she fell apart beneath him. She let out a strangled moan, squeezed him so tight he felt himself throb and spill inside her while she mumbled little praises for him.

She trembled under his body, his fingers on her clit elongating her orgasm until he’d filled her up with every last drop of his semen, his own body becoming exhausted and heavy. He panted against her ear, felt her slim fingers wrap around his wrist as she relaxed and caught her breath with him.

It must have been uncomfortable for her now in this position, their sweaty skin pressed together, his weight mostly on her. So he pulled out of her lazily, hissing at the feeling of her walls pulsing from sensitivity when he pulled out. He wrapped his arms around her waist, lifted her body with his and kissed her cheeks, waited a few moments for her to recompose herself.

“Better?” He mumbled, kissing her shoulder. He moved back slightly and pulled his pants up. She turned around on her shaky legs and smiled at him, standing on the tips of her toes to kiss him. Her hands held the sides of his blushing face to pull him down slightly for a kiss, but he leaned down all the way to meet her lips so she didn’t have to stand on her toes.

“Still yes,” she whispered with a smile, giving him a little peck on the lips. He smiled, continued to give her lips small kisses until they both parted to get dressed again and fix themselves for the rest of the day.

taglist

@spnfamily-j2 @deansbbyx @lanassmarty

main masterlist

jensen ackles masterlist

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[eiloveir]

→﹐naruto hc! <3

‹𝟹 :: ⭑⭒  🗨 !!  naruto characters and their social media habits

warnings: rushed and out-of-character

note: this is just something I decided to create on a whim, though I was inspired by a post on a clock app. i imagined how these characters might use social media, so here it is.

characters: konoha 12

𓋭  ۫   ☔️ ﹒ ❊  ͚

uzumaki naruto

this guy’s the reigning king of shitposting. he’s got a knack for calling out anything he deems “overrated,” and he doesn’t hold back. his feed is a never-ending stream of complaints about everything from minor inconveniences to full-blown disasters. you might see posts about how his ramen was too hot or things like pineapple on pizza. he’s the kind of troll who wouldn’t hesitate to pick a fight with kids on roblox, turning every argument into a battle that leaves them in tears and scrambling to save face (konohamaru). he would also be the type to start internet beefs over the most mundane things. if you’re ever scrolling through your feed and see a heated argument about why a certain trend is lame, chances are he is behind it.

haruno sakura

the feminist and activist extraordinaire! she’s the type of woman who not only supports human rights in every way possible but also cheers on the LGBTQ+ community with gusto—because, spoiler alert, she’s part of it. she’s someone who’s fully aware of the impact social media can have and is determined to use it to amplify her voice and make a real difference. i also think she has multiple social media accounts like a pro—there’s her private twitter account where she rants about how messed up the government is, her ao3 account where she writes fan fiction with a side of social commentary, and of course, her tumblr where she’s a curator of memes, political discourse, and everything in between. (me)

uchiha sasuke

god, bruh. this dude is basically a social media ghost—he hardly ever posts anything, but when he does, it’s like the internet has just won the lottery. he’s that guy who seems to do absolutely nothing yet somehow manages to grab everyone’s attention. he’s not really into posting on social media, but when he does, it’s always so aesthetically pleasing that you’d think he has a personal stylist and a professional photographer on speed dial. he doesn’t even try to make his posts look good; he just rolls out of bed and somehow manages to be effortlessly cool. man could post a picture of his breakfast and it would still get more likes than your entire feed.

nara shikamaru

this lazy ass (me) would probably end up being a streamer, posting about his win streaks and achievements in every game he plays. despite barely lifting a finger to do anything else, he’d be all over social media, bragging about every victory and high score. he’s the kind of guy who’d stream his gaming marathons from the comfort of his bed, racking up followers while casually lounging around in sweatpants. If there’s a leaderboard, you can bet he’s at the top, and he’s not shy about letting everyone know it.

yamanaka ino

girlie is the famous influencer! she’s always buzzing with posts about the latest fashion trends, beauty tips, and social events. like, you know, the kind of Instagram girlie who’s always flaunting her ootd and setting style standards. she’s practically a fashion icon with every outfit she wears. she’s also the type to post inspirational messages like “wear whatever makes you feel good” or “your body, your choice.” she’s incredibly popular across all her social media platforms and has a tiktok account—she’s all about those thirst traps and dance covers.

akimichi choji

my boi would definitely be the type to either watch mukbangs obsessively or become a mukbanger himself. he’d spend hours trying to replicate recipes he’s seen online, turning his kitchen into a culinary experiment zone. and you can bet he’d be posting all about it—sharing his attempts, successes, and occasional fails. his feed would be full of mouthwatering food shots and videos of him devouring his creations, proving that he’s just as passionate about cooking and eating as he is about sharing it with the world.

tenten

she’d regularly post about her daily life, giving followers an inside look at her studies or work. her feed would be filled with a lot of photos showcasing her favorite books, snapshots of her workout routines, and candid moments with her for lifers. she’s all about fitness, making her social media a hub for health tips and personal growth. you’d see her posting everything from meal prep ideas to gym selfies. she’d be the type to inspire others with her discipline and positivity.

rock lee

lee would be the type to flood his feed with gym and fitness content, sharing everything from his daily workout routines to personal fitness goals. his posts would be packed with enthusiasm and motivational messages, like “don’t judge a person because of their appearance” and other self-improvement quotes. despite his positive energy, not everyone’s a fan—especially naruto and kiba, who might be more inclined to roll their eyes and make a shitty rant about his optimism.

hyuga neji

this dude, much like sasuke, is totally indifferent to social media. he doesn’t bother with frequent posts but when he does, they’re thoughtful and deliberate. you might see him sharing reflections on life, articles he’s stumbled upon, or insightful news about everyday occurrences. he avoids jumping into pointless online drama or trends, yet somehow, he’s always clued in. that’s thanks to lee and tenten, who can’t stop talking about the latest gossip and social media happenings. despite his apparent disinterest, he picks up on all the chatter and remains surprisingly well-informed about the buzz. so, even though he’s a low-key user, he’s never completely out of the loop.

inuzuka kiba

his socials would be about random rants and memes. he’d post exaggerated complaints about the most trivial matters. his feed would be a fucking mess of humorous and offbeat content—think sarcastic comments, goofy polls, and plenty of memes featuring akamaru. he’d frequently stir up controversies, posting impulsively and diving headfirst into debates. his online presence would be a whirlwind of arguments, especially with naruto, where they often argue over who’s the dumbest between them.

hyuga hinata

she’s the type to be a crocheter, the kind you see on tiktok with an account just for her yarn creations. her feed would be packed with posts showcasing her latest crocheting projects—everything from cozy blankets and stylish scarves to adorable amigurumi (crocheted plush toys). she’d share detailed photos and videos of her work. her account would also feature tutorials and tips for fellow crocheters, helping them improve their skills. she might post about her extensive yarn collection, offer free patterns, and give followers a peek into her crafting process. whether she’s showing off her latest masterpiece or sharing a behind-the-scenes look at her studio, her feed would be a inspiring hub for all things crochet.

aburame shino

the random entomologist on your feed. he would be all about his shit for insects and the natural world. his posts would feature photos of various bugs, often accompanied by educational captions about their behavior, ecology, and characteristics. his feed would include updates from his fieldwork, observations on insect behavior, and informative posts about conservation efforts. while he might occasionally share glimpses of his other interests or hobbies, the focus would remain firmly on nature and entomology. whether he’s showcasing a rare beetle he’s spotted or sharing insights on preserving insect habitats, his content would be a treasure trove of knowledge for fellow nature enthusiasts.

[andros-paidophonoio]

My other controversial trait is I don't care for but I also don't hate Lore Olympus lmfao. I think it's frustrating to me for various reasons but all of them are completely different from the main reasons I see people hate it and I rarely see MY complaints and critiques come up which is pretty funny. Not that some critiques don't have merit, but a lot especially I remember from several years ago were ur run of the mill "sexualizing fetishizing & the young women r being led astray" from the same people also being nostalgic about their effervescent Twilight phases and problematic cartoon husbandos and it's like, let's be fucking real

I understand the being concerned about it giving the Wrong Impression of the mythological characters etc but it's just visually and stylistically SO different and distinct and basically looks and comes across like Teenybopper Inside Out. I feel like thinking it represents anything realistic to the irl material feels a little idk.....losing chess to a dog-ish. Losing chess to an archie comic. Personally I get more concerned about adapations that have an appearance and sheen of being "accurate" or educational and serious while peddling more misinformation XD So that in mind, most of my evaluation of the story is a bit separate from that aspect, which has already been discussed and analyzed a lot–i generally try to evaluate based on the internal world that a story creates and how it comes across to ME.

More of my thoughts (playing defense AND personal haterisms)

I personally find the main Fantasy of the comic to be extremely vanilla LMAO and Fine...its basically "what if I was a super hot and pretty girl but ALSO sort of underdog-ish but ALSO I had sexy older BF who was kind and listens to me and wants to worship the ground inwalk on and we have cute little fluffy conversations and dates and ALSO I'm super sexy and evil and powerful but ALSO Good and Innocent and Blameless--" it's kind of an incoherent mess, but it's trying to appeal to a variety of fantasies all at once, and I think the desires that are expressed are pretty basic ones lol. I know there's also the rumor (?) of the Hades basically being authors self insert Mads Mikkelsen au crush or whatever which ppl made fun of but like genuinely What is Wrong With That. It's a bit silly but how is that problematic or my business.

I actually liked Perse's character and parts of her arc, I think the strongest parts of the comic was parts like the gentle romance portions where characters got to "be themselves" and just hang out in more slice of life style stuff (before it weirdly delved into therapist talking). There are some really great expressions of emotion and nervousness around sex and desire and shame. And the fantasy of having an understanding person to be a friend and talk to and open up to and speak in a respectful way was pretty sweet, and a lot MORE gentle than tbh a lot of Edgy Romance where theove interest is just Mean and Insulting for a while. So while I find aspects of maybe the characters getting flat, I found that personally kind of more positive in terms of "lessons and takeaways." So it's funny to me when ppl talk about the comic as The Most Evil Fetishizing Ever when so much of it honestly feels sanded down to Niceness lmfao. I also weirdly found that it felt at times very sexually or sensually restrained–like I get it's for more younger audience, but the kind of coy dancing around stuff at times (I wonder from webtoon meddling) felt weirder than maybe being more open about it. In a weird way, the rape scene from earlier on in the story felt more explored in how it had an impact than later parts. I wonder if that's because it was before it became so popular and also started getting more attention and criticisms that then seem to have subsumed into the work in weird ways.

I guess it's overall, in the end, one of those stories that is very much speaking to the modern age and the modern (straight ig) young women; where the OG Story and hymn was about grief of losing child to a marriage out of ur control (and includes the comfort of other mothers or matriarchs), I feel this (clumsily) speaks to a kind of different struggle. Aka the issue of wanting to express and enjoy sexuality freely but being faced with the prospect of interpersonal sexual violence, or people seeking to control said sexuality either out of protection or their own gain, the idea that you become seen as "evil" once u express ur sexual desires or become "tainted" by association with a man in a way that isn't a Socially Sanctioned way. It's clumsy, but it's real, and a lot of stories I see in this subject are grappling with this a lot. Esp for an era where many women do have a lot more freedom to pursue and find partners by choice than in ancient times, but the journey to that kind of happiness can be held up by such adverse experiences and subsequent emotional states/expectations.

I think my problem with a lot of romantic stuff, including this, that wants to balance these twin fantasies–one of being Very Powerful and Dangerous, but also of being Blameless and Good, are often kind of at odds and can result in some pretty Bad Storytelling that often ends up kind of trying to backtrack and do apologism for the Bad Actions in a way that just feels weak And noncommittal (if ur gonna be evil girl BE EVIL), and also kind of gets weird because The Protagonist, and the Couple(tm) must Always Be Good, and this cannot always be the case!!! In fact, it can make characters end up looking worse lol. Solomon's Crown does this too and that I am offended by for the same reasons!!!

Anyways, I haven't finished the whole comic, although I found a lot of the later arcs very intriguing although it took too fucking long to get to it because of the other problems that irritated me which consist of the following in no particular order:

THE VERY UNFUNNY HUMOR. I hated the jokes so much. I feel this is a problem with a lot of serials where they try to stay topical but boy I do not give a shit. That and when characters started speaking more like therapists, it brings the Drama to a screeching halt. And we are supposed to be HERE for drama!!! This is the main reason it always takes me so long to read like there will be an interesting serious scene and then the jokes will be so bad and deflating the impact. Sad!

Minthe. Treatment of her character left a bad taste in my mouth; last I left off I kind of liked more time spent on her, but in general i just felt really weird about the role her character played

Generally disinterested in all the other characters aside from the main couple. Perse is really fun and I feel there's the most "real" experience poured into her mixed with fantasy.

The opening episodes are indeed extremely off-putting to me so I don't blame people for not getting into it bc it starts off with some bro-y behavior that is corny. And it never quite feels "established" in its setting which is an issue to me with a lot of webtoons but for here especially it feels very like I said earlier like Teenybopper Inside Out. These characters are fantastical concepts, but only at times do they feel real as People

Anyways it's one of those things where I can genuinely see the charm in it--i can see exactly why it blew up how it did, but also like most webtoon it invites the most simplified types of comments ever where every single character has to be Good or Bad and if anyone does anything complex everyone throws a riot. So I don't doubt that the environment in which the story was produced affected the way that it is formatted and created. In this sense it's an interesting work to consider culturally and sociplogically. I think it is part of the greater conversation of why such works connect to people for greater or ill at all. Still, the Bad Jokes will keep me from probably having the true knowledge and I definitely will continue going my own way

(I do have a few AU concepts tho I'd like to think about sometimes....infeel like some aspects of the story I think a transmasc perse is interesting to think about, especially the whole weird definitions of the "fertility goddess" and "pure maiden" aspect, and the desire for LO!Apollo to want them to embody kind of an Ideal Wifepartner to gain power and prestige...more disturbing but also interesting implications and stakes to think about. canon LO I see seems to be about moving from maiden to the fertility goddess aspect but what if there were other identity avenues to be explored? Also I was thinking that a lot of the LO haters I get it we don't like cringe heteros that's fair but I know a lot of y'all r reading BL that use the EXACT SAME TROPES but even more corny and it's like.....sometimes humans crave corniness I get it. It would be too many layers of gender for the original to even be considering lmfao but since a lot of the story is about finding the Self and also facing resistance for it, I don't think it would be unthinkable....the fantasy worldbuilding going on is like ??? But sometimes it produces some stuff I think more deeply about)

[crehador]

brother crab's fall 2024 parting thoughts: murai no koi

i'm gonna be so honest with you guys this was fucking awesome. teacher/student romcom is not something that would catch my eye normally but i picked this one up for the cast (amachan AND haruki hello) and i'm really glad i did

the romance itself, ngl, was pretty predictable and for much of the show i wasn't really invested in it. when the love triangle cropped up later on i was even actively rooting for the other teacher guy because like. he is just a hot mess emphasis on hot

but anyway it's your standard "we knew each other when we were Much younger, before we were teacher/student" deal with a... reasonable resolution to the teacher/student issue i guess. i'm not like a hater about the main romance but it's probably obvious that isn't the thing i really loved about the show

what i did love was

IT'S FUCKING HILARIOUS. okay the humor is amazing, the comedic timing, the delivery of the voice actors, even the subs absolutely nailed the humorous tone. like for me, in this romcom, the com part is definitely what really shined

the ride and die friendships between the students were also just so much fun to see. kiriyama is going in the little guys of all time hall of fame immediately. the boys will be boys energy he, hirai, and murai have together is just plain fun, and the other friends surrounding them are all entertaining characters too

most people will have gripes about the animation i'm sure, but just like with gokushufudou (it's the same series composition guy) i honestly liked it. i seriously, genuinely do not think this is Bad animation. call it slideshow animation if you must, but imo it's a perfectly fine stylistic choice that was done well and worked perfectly with the tone of the show. like i know i'm in the unpopular opinion camp here, but to me it is a genuinely enjoyable style of animation that's particularly well-suited to this kind of comedy. i felt this way about gokushufudou and i feel this way about murai no koi, i will absolutely watch more of whatever work yamakawa susumu does next

anyway

tl;dr as a romcom the rom was just fine but the com was banging, the whole cast of characters was entertaining but for me kiriyama hard carried this from fun to excellent, i personally liked the animation boo me if you must

[sarsaparillaart]

I meant to make this post over a week ago, but here is a self-indulgent tier list retrospective/critique for my Swordtember performance. The download quality of the tier list website is... lacking, so I'm gonna be linking the actual posts alongside my notes.

Hopefully this is a fitting sendoff for the month of September that I'm posting two weeks into October. Nonetheless at the very least this is a good archive for my past thirty posts.

So without further ado, here is my long and indulgent self-crit for each and every sword I drew.

Spoiler: I'm not a huge fan of most of them...

September 1 - Wings

Moderate fan of this one. I think the core design and Iore are interesting, even if the piece didn't mesh well with the others. A tier overall, though I might change a few things were I to do it again.

September 2 - Floral

This one is another A. I really enjoyed rendering the gold, and the shape of the blade and carvings were very satisfying to do. Lore-wise I enjoyed writing this one a lot. I have a soft spot for any sort of religious worldbuilding and this is no exception

September 3 - Cursed

I like this one, but stylistically it doesn't really mesh with a lot of the other Diyaran swords. It's meant to be ancient, but it just doesn't feel related to me. I relied on a number of new rendering techniques for this sword that I admittedly abused a bit later on in the month. All things considered though, I really like this one. B for now though I would give a B+ if possible.

September 4 - Divine

Kind of a boring blade shape compared to most other days, but I think it works. I enjoyed rendering the handle a lot on this and I remember having a debate with myself about what color the stone should be. The fun part for this one is the lore blurb. I got to introduce a number of ideas that I've come to love about the setting including some neoplatonic influences which I think are fun. B overall

September 5 - Edible

Christ I hate this one. I took a really interesting cultural inspiration and failed to represent it properly and I failed to change it enough to fit into my setting. The rendering here is also terrible and just boring compared to most of the other swords, especially in the perspective drawing. This was an easy F.

September 6 - Smoke

First S tier of the bunch! This was a fun one for me. I really enjoyed rendering the hot metal and I find the shape language of this sword really satisfying. It has some of the best art of the month (even if I prefer the designs of sep 7 and 16 more), though the lore piece is a bit basic.

September 7 - Moon

I think this sword might be my favorite of the whole bunch. I got to mess around with rendering a few different materials and started to cement some of the design principles for Diyar. The lore was really entertaining to write as well. I enjoy writing poetic language and the format of "prayers" to each of the moons was really helpful for keeping me motivated. Overall this one was not only fun to make, but ended up looking the best. S tier for sure.

September 8 - Sun

Really mixed feelings on this one. I enjoyed introducing and rendering a sword from outside Pentapolitan culture, but I'm pretty unsatisfied with the results. I think the obsidian looks good, but the overall shape is weak. I was trying really hard not to just draw a macuahuitl but the result just doesn't work for me. The lore piece is alright, but there's a number of things there I'll probably change if I continue working on this setting. B tier, B- if possible.

September 9 - Ocean

Ugh. I had high hopes for this one but it just ended up boring. The shape language is on the edge of correct but isn't quite there; the materials have the same issue. It doesn't look like coral to me and it kinda pisses me off to look at it. The worst part is that the rendering isn't bad, but everything else about it is kinda forgettable. I don't even remember what the lore piece for this one was. Something about pirates? C tier.

September 10 - Ritual

This is another C tier, but one I'm a bit more fond of. It's not a sword and it can barely be counted as a blade but I really liked writing the lore for it and I think the concept of it as a sort of paralytic acupuncture is really interesting for an in-world medical practice. I think where this suffered most was in the art itself. It was a rushed piece, if I remember correctly, and I had a really hard time finding the right shape. It ended up being a really plain design that leaves a lot to be desired.

September 11 - Duel

In all honesty, the Thorn Forests are probably one of the least developed parts of this setting, which made designing swords for there difficult. I wanted to make it seem culturally related to the Pentapolis, but still feel distinct. I think I succeeded, but if I work more in the setting I'm going to try to further distinguish the two cultures without alienating either. An A for the art though, I find the shapes very satisfying and the lack of a sharp point helps distinguish them.

September 12 - Fire

This sword was a challenge as well, but I think I pulled it off. I really like flame-bladed weapons irl, but I didn't want this sword to resemble any existing weapon too much, especially with the amount I've been drawing from South Asia already—I don't want to remake the Kris. I feel like what I ended up with resembles a katana more than I would like, but it still looks really cool. Lore-wise I'm satisfied with my work, though I will likely change the name nDuongg to something else at some point. Easy A.

September 13 - Ice

Mixed feelings on this one. I think the rendering for the metal is alright and if it were just the normal sword without the ice on it I would be fine with the final product but the addition of the ice layer made it feel really flat in a way I am not super pleased about. It's my first time rendering ice like that so I'm not gonna beat myself up over it but I could do better. The lore section of this sword works, but I think it doesn't have the correct tone. B maybe.

September 14 - Poisonous

This is one that I actually really like, but I don't think was as well received as some of the others were. Shell gastrics are a major symbol of Diyar and being able to make a weapon that more or less represents that was fun, even if some of the rendering on the shells and handle leave something to be desired. This sword calls back to the first piece of art I did in this setting, too, which I appreciate. Giving it an A, even if there is a lot of room for improvement.

September 15 - Liquid

Funnily enough, I think that this sword marks the point where I was getting burnt out. Some of my favorite swords came after the 15th, but the overall quality goes down and there's a lot I'm really not happy with. This sword in particular disappoints me. Unlike the sword on the 12th—which belongs to the same culture—the design feels disjointed and uninspired to me. It looks flat and the colors are all wrong. I'm fine with the metal being pink, I still think that's cool, but the shade is bad. It doesn't look like a copper alloy at all. Lore-wise this sword is... fine. I guess. I might come back to redo this design at some point (probably not) but for now it is at best a D.

September 16 - Bone

In major contrast with the last sword, the sword I did for day 16 is one of my favorites. I think the design is the best representation of Pentapolitan art that I have done so far and I'm genuinely really happy with it. It is excessive and fun and was a good time to draw. There are some flaws with it, of course. I think the lore is a little bit lacking and the rendering on the bone could be better, but overall I'm really pleased with this sword. I'm giving it the last S tier spot.

September 17 - Glass

This one I'm mixed on. I like the design overall. Eccentric flints are really cool and I think turning them into ritual weapons is really fun. I also think that the design for this better represents how I wanted Mudwarren usage of obsidian/desert glass to look like. I also think the lore for this was interesting and touches on topics I haven't written about yet. The rendering on the glass and handle are disappointing to me, though. I have learned throughout this month that I suck at rendering obsidian or any glassy surface really, and this is no exception. The handle as well just feels off to me. I think it fits in with other Mudwarren art but overall feels like its missing something. I think the positives outweigh the negatives for this sword, though, so I'm giving it an A.

September 18 - Jester

I don't like this sword, which is sad because this is a concept that I've had kicking around in my head for over a year. The idea of a mock sword used in clowned fights may not be exciting, but I found it charming and I was excited to work it into the religious and metaphysical structure of the setting. Of course, when it came down to drawing the sword, I was very short on time. I ended up scrapping and redrawing this sword at least twice and I'm still not pleased with it. I think the shape is bad, the rendering weak, and it completely lacks any sort of cohesiveness. I think the only part of the actual piece I like is the shells hanging from the handle (but not the closeup of the shell, which I find very ugly). This is another D for the pile.

September 19 - Forest

Eh. I like this one but I feel like it struggles to differentiate itself from the dueling swords, which means that it has the same overall lack of identity. I think that the rendering is fine. The carvings on the blade are cool but overall a bit too messy for my taste. I think the sword looks good but could be more interesting. I like the lore though. It has a more general feel than a lot of the other lore pieces, but the information is interesting to me. Rereading this lore piece did make me realize that—in my rush to write a long enough piece each day—most of the lore-bits are riddled with grammatical mistakes and weak prose. Embarrassing, but whatever. B tier overall for this bad boy.

September 20 - Fragmented

I don't love this one, but I remember I wasn't very inspired on this prompt. I think that a kintsugi sword is interesting, but my execution was poor and it doesn't really mesh very well with my inspirations for Diyar. I like to think I justified it okay in the lore-bit, but the resulting art is lacking. More than the blade though, the part of the render that I'm disappointed in most is the handle. It just looks ugly and flat and I don't know why I thought that was good enough for a final product. it certainly isn't the worst thing I made this month, but I'm really not a fan. C tier.

September 21 - Eyes

Christ this one is lame. I was going sort of high concept with the mothwing blades but my God it didn't work out. The decoration on the blades doesn't really match Diyaran art and the eye motif isn't super clear. I could have done a lot better here. I think the lore is okay but overall everything is sort of half-baked. Gotta give myself another D here. It did lead into day 27 though, which I like a bit better.

September 22 - Mechanical

This one is kind of a spiritual successor to one of the swords I did for last year's swordtember. I think the concept is fun and the lore interesting. The shape works, but I'm not sure if it's as utilitarian as I wanted it to be. I drew on a lot of different entrenchment tools but I think it could use some more work. The rendering is passable. It isn't as good as it should be but it's better than a lot of the stuff that I did in the latter half of the month so I'll give it a pass. B overall.

September 23 - Banished

The Banished sword is another example of something that I think has potential but was poorly executed. The lore is passable and I love the concept of Damnatio Memoriae in any culture, so there isn't much I would change in that front. The big issue here for me was translating the lore concept into an actual weapon. I think the connective tissue was honestly pretty weak and the sword design could have gone with any other prompt. It's just sort of generic and middle-shelf. Even the rendering is nothing special. It is far from the worst of the month but it doesn't impress me. I'm giving it a C, which may or may not be generous.

September 24 - Jeweled

Ah, here is another thing that is 100% not a sword but I wanted to include anyway. The idea behind this one was actually given to me by my lovely girlfriend and it fits super well for the setting. Pearls and nacre are so important in Chain culture and economy that it really makes sense to dedicate a post to them. The tools are maybe a bit plain, but I'm satisfied with them and they're meant to be utilitarian so anything more than a touch of excess might be a bit too much. B+ for its work in the pearl industry.

September 25 - Woven

This sword was tough. The Braidlands was the first glimpse I gave to the larger world outside of the chain and I honestly think I fumbled it. The sword and sheath feel a bit too flat and the colors too bright, but overall it isn't terrible. The lore here also isn't exactly what I wanted, but I was trying to give the Braidlands and air of mystery without leaning too far into the esoteric. Overall this sword and the lore that comes with it is passible, but I really wish that I had put a bit more work into it as it's an important part of the setting and an expansion on what the Silkmoon is capable of. C overall.

September 26 - Storm

I think this one is rad. I was trying to make something that plays off of the mambele without being just a 1-to-1 recreation of the knife. I think I did pretty well. The final result has a pretty good render, looks utilitarian while still having that curvy Diyaran swank, and it evokes the shape of lightning without being a cartoon bolt. I'm proud of it, which isn't something I can say about a lot of these later swords. A for sure.

September 27 - Insect

This is the last sword that isn't exactly a sword. I realized when the 27th rolled around that I used the best answer for this prompt on day 1. Spec bio is a big leap from any of the other pieces this month, but it's something I want to do more of for the setting and I think the concept of a hemophagic moth is pretty interesting. That being said, I think my render could have been a lot better and the format that I've been using for all the other swords doesn't really fit for this one (but I wasn't about to break theme). This is another one that I may come back to at some point, but I think it works for now. B.

September 28 - Crystal

Day 28 shares a lot of the same issues as day 13. The sword has an interesting shape and I think that the blade underneath the salt is actually really cool, but the crystals look really flat and chunky in a way that doesn't really work for me. I was having a hard time finding references for the sort of salt crystals I was trying to draw—most of what I used came from Dead Sea photos—so I winged it a bit. It isn't bad per say but both the art and the lore could be a lot better. Maybe a B for this one.

September 29 - Necromancer

This sword is really boring to me and doesn't look like what a necromancer would carry at all. Part of the reason for this is because of how magic and the afterlife works in this setting, but to be honest it's mostly due to burnout. I think that the art is fine but there is so little going on with the sword that I have a hard time giving it anything higher than a C. It just feels really uninspired.

September 30 - Glowing

And here we are at the pathetic end to my month. The lore here is deeply important to me and what the piece hints at is something that I've been working on for longer than anything else I've shown so far, which is why the art and lore are so disappointing. This is an ugly, ugly knife; both in design and in render. I honestly hate looking at it and it doesn't resemble the culture it's meant to come from in the slightest. The mold on the blade looks wrong and—once again—flat. Even the lore piece kind of sucks with this one. I'm just really disappointed with this one is all. I don't think it's a good way to end the month. D.

[destinyc1020]

Thank you! I think you worded it perfectly. Like there is kind of this lack of empathy for Zendaya because she is rich and she will be fine, as if law is not also very rich. But the fact he didn't tell her beforehand is really not right. I get it was impulsive but I can't imagine being Zendaya and sitting in London and going on IG at the end of the day and seeint that. She probably was panicking and thinking something really bad happened and was worried about him and also probably shocked and upset. And then after all that to see the viral hate train go against her on Twitter, ig TikTok etc, to have hate comments on her IG and law to do nothing until like two days later??? I get law is a dramatic dude but none of that was fair to her, when she has been so loyal to him and like he said protected her. But I really feel law was just in it for himself.

Like I said, we all love Law and have done so for so many years, so that's why this is so tough to say.... But sometimes you just have to call a spade a spade. 🤷🏾‍♀️

I didn't feel like it was right at all for him to just totally blindside her (his biggest client and little sister) like that. 🥴 It wasn't right to do that to his other clients either, but at least with Z I thought they talked about everything. I guess not 🥴

Yea, like you said, I'm sure in the end she will be fine (she's Zendaya after all), and I'm sure PLENTY of stylists would be chomping at the bit just to get to be her next stylist (Personally, my first choice would be Jason Bolden since he's black and styles many high-profile celebrities), but that still doesn't negate the fact that the way Law handled this was just really kinda cruel. 🥴

What Law SHOULD have done (imo) was inform Zendaya and the rest of his clients beforehand that he was retiring, and THEN post it to his IG.

And in all honesty, what he really could have done was told Zendaya privately that he was THINKING of retiring. She could have given him some time off. Maybe he's still grieving his nephew's death.... that's all understandable. Grief comes in WAVES. Some days you're perfectly fine, and other days you're a hot mess and a bundle of emotions. 😔 Little things can trigger you (ie. a memory, a photograph, etc). Like, I totally get all of that.

But he could have taken a much-needed BREAK, maybe even taken MONTHS off (if he needed to), then he could have come back with a more clear head, and then made whatever life-changing decisions he needed to make (if still applicable). 🤷🏾‍♀️

I'm also still kind of miffed that he didn't just WAIT to post that retirement post. 🥴 He had FULL control over what he posted, and WHEN. This isn't like some paps photographed you one day against your knowledge and consent, and you had absolutely no idea some scandalous pictures of you were gonna come out to the public, so you didn't have time to warn anybody close to you lol. 🤣 😂

Like NO.... he had FULL CONTROL over WHAT he posted, and WHEN. 🤨

Personally, if it had been me, I would have deliberately waited weeks, maybe even MONTHS after the whole LV "no seat" fiasco in Paris before posting my "retirement", because now it just looks like you're retiring cuz you were mad and salty that you couldn't sit next to your client Zendaya at the fashion show. 👀

It would have garnered way less hate for his client Zendaya as well if he had just waited to release that announcement a little later until AFTER ppl forgot about the whole Paris thing, or at least after you and your client are seen working together on another event.

Everything is all about image in this industry, because everyday fans take little crumbs and run with it, creating a full on narrative, no matter how false it may be. 🙄 You have to ask yourself: "How is this going to look to other people?" 🤔

I just can't believe he let Zendaya go to London totally blindsided. 😔

He just didn't think of her feelings and mental health at all as far as I'm concerned. And I'm sorry, but I'm really just SHOCKED because that just doesn't seem like his character at all, but now I guess I know better lol 😅👀

If I were Z I would tread REAL carefully with him. 👀 I know I don't have all the facts, and of course I have no clue what they've discussed since then, so my knowledge of the situation is clearly very miniscule, and I freely admit that. But for him to basically say out of his own mouth that he didn't tell her (like, we're not just ASSUMING things here.... like, he basically said it himself) is just.... wow. 😳

He just showed me that when stuff hits the fan, he's gonna think about himself and himself only 👀

Idk.... like I said, I were Z I'd keep both eyes open, that's all I'm saying. 🤷🏾‍♀️

[mwolf0epsilon]

Hi there. I'm still new to tumblr and to the starwars animated series fandom so I'm not very good at keeping up with things or asking about stuff that's been going on. As of late I've noticed there's a lot of discourse about Tech from the bad batch show. Could you maybe explain to me why? It's ok if you don't want to answer, I just saw that sometimes you answer these kinds of questions and you never sound mean when you do it? I'm trying not to sound dumb but I don't understand what's going on.

Yesterday when I got this ask I decided I wasn't going to answer it immediately. Both because it was my birthday and I'd rather enjoy it than delve deep into fandom drama that I'm not 100% interested in following, and because I just didn't have the time to do it any sort of justice in terms of explaining what's gone down.

Newbie Anon I'll be frank with you, I am not really sure what sparked the recent mess relating to Tech (there's always hot debates sparked by TBB for obvious reasons if you ask some of the older people in the fandom, but that's something I think you'll figure out fairly quickly if you stick around tumblr for a while). But I do have a bit of a theory...

I'm gonna keep this one under a cut for the sake of my followers and pals that don't want to get slapped in the face with this topic.

---

To start this off Newbie Anon, The Bad Batch is unquestioningly a Whitewashed Mess.

It has surpassed The Clone Wars in piss poor poc design, and while this is not a new issue (the clones have always been inconsistently portrayed as white men in various forms of older media) the animated series haven't done jackshit to fix the models despite the producers going back to fix other character models in Tales of the Jedi (proving that they can do so but simply refuse to properly represent Temuera's features in the characters that should all look like him).

Temuera Morrison as Jango Fett, compared to clone trooper Dogma

The example above helps point out some of the issues with the clone models. The profile of the face, the shape of the nose, chin and ears, the bone-cheek prominence and even the brow ridge is incorrect.

The shape of the lips and eyebrows are the only parts of the model that look right. The eyes are almost correct if not for their size and coloration. This is less of a stylistic choice like many claim, and more obviously an attempt to make the clones's features resemble less of those of a Polynesian man and more of an Euro-centric man.

Cody is another excellent example of comparison because he was directly portrayed by Tem as well, and thus his model in the show is more blatantly incorrect in the way it was depicted. Down to both the features I mentioned above and also his height being needlessly exaggerated to make him look more "intimidating" (the wikia lists all standard clones as being 6 feet tall despite Tem being 5'7").

Commander Cody as he appears in ROTS compared to his TCW Model

And then we have Clone Force 99...

Clone Force 99 aka the Bad Batch

Newbie Anon, you'd need to be blind not to see the physical discrepancies between Jango Fett and the Bad Batch. The only member that looks remotely like a clone is Wrecker who unfortunately draws heavy inspiration from the Hulk...

The Hulk... Let that sink in.

Even Echo who was a standard clone prior to his capture barely looks like a clone anymore, and the insistence on keeping him looking the way he does while justifying it as medical in nature is offensive in many ways (both towards poc and the disabled) especially when Echo was most definitely treated very poorly by the writing team (dehumanized on various occasions because of his cybernetics all in the name of a "good laugh", portrayed as the broody "killjoy" that does nothing but complain and argue with Hunter, missing the point entirely on his character which we'd gotten to know long before cf99 were a thing, just to then toss him away when they no longer wanted to focus on anyone but TBB exclusive characters).

Their designs are atrocious examples of whitewashing and the fandom has been divided on this topic for a long long time now.

There's those who likely don't understand what the problem is, which doesn't make them dumb mind you. Not everyone who watches a show is super connected to a fandom or with this kind of debate. A show is a show, animated or not, and it's watched and sometimes not spared a second glance. And since TBB is mostly aimed at kids it's mostly kids who are watching it, and the issues pass over their heads because... Well they're kids and they're still learning. No harm in that at all, eventually they'll grow up and grow wiser (or not, sometimes that's just how these things happen).

There's those who have pointed this out time and time again, arguing that they should look more like clones because it makes no sense that they look so wildly different from the rest. Especially when the explanation provided is that their "desirable mutations" made them look like that (which essentially means that being white is a desirable mutation and that's a brutally racist thing to claim).

There's also those who see nothing wrong with their designs and that even consider them hot. Hunter, Tech and Crosshair especially are viewed as the Hotties of the squad and have a massive following of kinnies and girlies who would definitely not mind getting hot and bothered with them.

Which is where the recent discourse kind of starts off...

But not as unexpectedly as you'd think. More, it happened because of something I suspect is far too big of a coincidence to ignore. The overall timing matches up with the recent outcry at least.

So, there's this company called Sideshow. It's a figures/collectibles/merchandise company that has been producing high quality star wars figures for a while now. They take pride in making as accurate a facial sculpt as possible, and over the years they have improved tremendously especially when portraying characters who have Tem's features (mostly thanks to Hot Toys who've improved the original sculpts they were using).

A comparison between the original Sideshow captain Rex sculpt vs the more recent Hot Toys version

Commander Wolffe's two much older face sculpts compared to Commander Cody's more recent face sculpt

Clone trooper Domino Twins face sculpt compared to the Jango Fett face sculpt

ARC trooper Domino Twins face sculpt compared to the ARC trooper Jesse face sculpt

Sideshow and Hot Toys are undeniably good at what they do in terms of sculpting the faces of these characters. They've done a lot of improving and while some of the skin tones are still a little off off on occasion (especially in Rex who's lighter hair color automatically makes his skin tone look even more pale than it already does), you can't exactly say they don't look like the source material.

When it comes to quality figures, the fandom was of course pleased when Sideshow and Hot Toys started working on a TBB line where the figures had facial sculpts that matched Tem more closely than their show counterparts.

The first three figures of the TBB line to be unveiled

Obviously there's still issues (especially on the skin tone department) but you can see Tem's features more easily in Hunter and Echo. In Crosshair's case he seems more like he's related to the clones rather than being a clone himself (he looks like he could be the son of a clone) but at the very least the shape of the eyes, brows and ears is a more accurate match than what his model looks like in the show.

It's not perfect. But the fact Sideshow and Hot Toys tried to make them look like clones made a lot of people happy that there was someone in the companies trying. So when Wrecker and Tech's facial sculpts were announced everyone was excited to see what the end result would be like.

The Wrecker face sculpt revealed at long last

They managed quite well with Wrecker aside from how pale he looks. I'm very grateful they didn't try to make his brow and jawline thicker to make him look "meaner" or more brutish.

The Tech sculpt on the other hand...

The Tech face sculpt

They managed to get the ears and shape of the head right... But the rest is most definitely not at all what a clone should look like. I draw attention towards the shape and size of the lips, nose, brows and eyes specifically (coupled with his lighter hair colour and his hairline being quite receded and it's even worse to look at). The balance is way off to the point they manage to make him most definitely look like a basic white guy in altered clone armour.

This was a blow to people who were hopeful that the figure would make him resemble Temuera a little more like what they'd done to the others. It just didn't work for Tech and people were rightfully frustrated with it.

However, as soon as this was brought up there was a spark of "What's wrong? I thought you said Tech was hot :)" arguments with people laughing over the "Tech Girlies" getting what was coming to them for thinking their whitewashed pretty boy was suddenly less attractive than what they previously thought.

Now I could be wrong, it could have nothing to do with the figure reveals. I'm not very good at keeping up to date with fandom discourse because I mostly don't have the energy to care anymore (I'm here for a good time, I know my own convictions and where I stand morally, I don't need to constantly argue and moan about it when instead I could just pass along information and make my own stuff to share with the people who're here to have fun with me, I am not morally bound to star wars nor would I ever dare equate my enjoyment of the fandom to something like a marriage commitment because that's honestly ridiculous). But I donno Newbie Anon...

The timing seems too much of a coincidence and this fandom is notorious for starting fights very easily. Tech's figure coming out as the ugly duckling of the bunch and setting off a war between people who are genuinely disappointed the sculpt is bad, the Tech fangirls, and anyone who's just eager to pick a fight with everyone else, wouldn't really surprise me much.

I've seen shit like this happen in every fandom I've been. It's a matter of getting used to it and learning to pick your fights more wisely. Getting worked up about fandom discourse will only burn you out faster than you can say "oh bother".

[back-and-totheleft]

Eight Best Oliver Stone Movies, Ranked

The 1986 war drama "Platoon" was Oliver Stone's fourth film as a director, but it proved to be his breakout in the public consciousness. Before 1986, Stone helmed two horror movies ("Seizure," "The Hand,") and a biopic of war photographer Richard Boyle ("Salvador"), but "Platoon" put him on the map. It was nominated for eight Academy Awards, and won four, including Best Picture and Best Director. Stone immediately emerged as an enfant terrible, ready to interrogate and criticize previously romanticized American institutions. He also became wildly ambitious, seemingly possessing the temerity to assume his films would change the way the public thinks. In some cases, he was right. 

Stone wore his politics on his sleeve, and often spoke about how much he hated the American right wing. Two of his films are deeply critical biopics of Republican presidents, and several of his more recent documentaries analyze politicians in power. He has turned his lens on Vladimir Putin, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, and Hugo Chávez. He made a film arguing for increased use of nuclear power, and extensively unpacked the origins of the Cold War in his 2012 series "The Untold History of the United States." Why make films, Stone seems to ask, if they're not going to ask provocative questions and challenge the viewer's beliefs? 

Stone's career is not free of a few stinkers, however, as his bold stylistic experiments sometimes fail. Additionally, Stone, now 77, could only stay angry for so long, and some might accuse his more recent films of being less bitter and more gentle than his earlier ones. That said, let's sift through Stone's filmography, pick out his eight greatest movies, and determine which are the best. Let's look back on his left-leaning ideas. To quote a movie that we'll get to shortly, "Back, and to the left."

Any Given Sunday (1999) Warner Bros. With "Any Given Sunday," Stone looked to the great American institution of the National Football League, and sought — over the film's prodigious 157 minutes — to examine every last element of it. The main character is a beleaguered football coach (Al Pacino), but it's more of an ensemble drama, also featuring an aging player (Dennis Quaid), a cutthroat team owner (Cameron Diaz), a shady doctor (James Woods), an overly defensive quarterback (Jamie Foxx), and multiple others. The film also features Lauren Holly, Elizabeth Berkley, Matthew Modine, Aaron Eckhart, and LL Cool J. 

"Any Given Sunday" is less about its story than it is its sprawl. Stone wants to splay the entire world of organized football bare, creating a film that may be kind of a mess, but is admirable in its ambition. (Pacino's big speech was especially personal to the director.) And in a few key sequences, he also points out that American football is essentially a leisurely parallel to deadly combat. Indeed, a lot of football terminology is derived from military lingo. Watching "Any Given Sunday," one can tell that Stone has a great deal of romantic affection for football, but also that it's part of a semi-corrupt institution. This is one of the better sports movies of its era.

Savages (2012) Universal Pictures Admittedly, "Savages" is a hot mess. It's a chaotic, splayed-out jumble of events, and Stone seems to think that a criminal throuple (Blake Lively, Taylor Kitsch, Aaron Taylor-Johnson) is more shocking to modern audiences than it actually is. More than anything, it proved that Stone was, as late as 2012, still capable of going a little crazy with fast edits, swirling criminality, and eye-punching photography. There was still an element of the film student lingering in Stone, and it was a welcome return to form after the massively disappointing "Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps" in 2010. 

What sets "Savages" apart is its brief commentary on the war on drugs. The central throuple of "Savages" live in Long Beach and make their living growing marijuana. In 2012, distributing weed was still illegal, and people were still killing each other over control of the trade … but there's a pervasive sense that the pot-dealing underground is about to draw to a close. One character even notes that it's a matter of days before weed is legal, and all the pride and honor associated with well-moneyed drug cartels is going to instantaneously evaporate. In a subtle way, "Savages" deconstructs generations of crime movies. Hey, criminals: Would you still do it if it wasn't illegal?

W. (2008) Lionsgate Given Stone's politics, one might think his biopic of the notoriously dumb, warmongering George W. Bush would be more acidic. Josh Brolin was a weird choice to play W. as well, bringing a physical presence and confidence to the role that the former president never displayed. Instead, Stone merely pointed to W.'s complete weakness of character, pointing out that his aw-shucks, down-home fratboy persona (on which he campaigned successfully, twice) isn't the same thing as having an ear for policy, or even a basic understanding of government. 

"W." also points out that the disastrous quagmires in the Middle East, which Bush started, were all based on bad ideas, lies, and a misguided need for a gibbering pseudo-leader to prove himself to his daddy. It's an oversimplification, of course, but Stone wanted to depict Bush as a simple man. Bush, he argues, was happier as a mediocre baseball manager, and was in way over his head in the world of politics. And yet, he served as president for eight years. All this from a guy who lost sight of the ball.

Talk Radio (1988) Universal Pictures A stunning character piece, "Talk Radio" is about a left-wing shock jock named Barry (Eric Bogosian) who hosts a late-night call-in radio show. Barry has trained himself to openly express his most controversial political opinions on the air, leaving him with little more than an army of angry fans and even angrier enemies. He is estranged from his wife, and receives a bomb threat in the mail. Taking place over a single night, "Talk Radio" sees Barry finally breaking down when he reaches the end of his tether. He finally snaps and admits on the air that "shock" radio is nothing more than a commercial enterprise; long ago, he became more interested in the money than the politics. 

What he has to face is the fact that other people are listening and are taking him seriously. Although "Talk Radio" was made in 1988, it still feels timely, especially in the age of crazed media-suckling wonks like Alex Jones, Joe Rogan, or Tucker Carlson. Many of these podcasters and radio hosts blither complete nonsense, and they'd be easy to ignore if they didn't have so many people actually taking them seriously. "Talk Radio" is a dark analysis of political media, and how it is all a game … one that some people will kill for.

JFK (1991) Warner Bros. I wasn't alive when John F. Kennedy was assassinated on November 22, 1963, but I grew up hearing all the conspiracy theories about it. I heard all about the suspicious photos, the theories about secondary gunmen, the suspicions attached to multiple suspects. A lot of these theories were dredged up by Stone's 1991 film "JFK," a film that isn't so much trying to solve the Kennedy assassination as capture the tumult of the time. The nation was wounded by the murder of JFK, and chose to mourn his death by picking about the details of it. As long as we were lost in the emotional miasma, Stone figured he could look closely at some facts about the case, arguing that there must have been at least six bullets fired from three different assassins. Lee Harvey Oswald wasn't working alone.

The director's cut of "JFK" is a whopping 205 minutes, so Stone is going to leave no … well, leave no stone unturned. "JFK" does come to a definite conclusion about the Kennedy assassination, but it's not a conclusion one might find in history books. The film is speculative, but feels vital, panicked, and eager to unpack something that had more details than the public realized. 

"JFK" also features one of the most impressive ensembles of any film. It was nominated for eight Academy Awards and won two.

Platoon (1986) Orion Pictures Stone served in the army in the late 1960s, touring in Vietnam during the height of military operations there. "Platoon" is a semi-autobiographic depiction of his time there, and the horrors he witnessed. Stone seems to value the camaraderie that soldiers can develop, but notes that the death, mayhem, and terror that war begets is certainly not worth the trade. "Platoon" certainly wasn't the first film about the Vietnam War, but it's notable in that it's the first major Hollywood release about the conflict to have been directed by a Vietnam veteran. 

"Platoon" not only announced Stone as a major Hollywood player, but set the tone for the cinema of the late 1980s. "Platoon" was released during the horrid corporate glut of the Reagan administration, and well-moneyed, commercial entertainments were ruling the landscape. "Platoon" aimed to deconstruct the retro-war-loving cinema of previous generations, showing that great war epics were, henceforth, going to be less like "The Green Berets" and more like horror movies. 

Wall Street (1987) 20th Century Fox Speaking of the horrors of the Reagan administration… 

In the 1980s, Reagan oversaw massive deregulation across most industries, and his policies gave rise to a powerfully rich subculture of yuppies who got rich gutting businesses, embraced greed, and produced nothing more for the world than the carbon dioxide they breathed out. Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas, who won an Oscar for the role), the central demon of Stone's "Wall Street," is the ultimate semi-deity for that yuppie class, representing the slick anti-cool of stock traders and empty wealth. The young Bud (Charlie Sheen) is seduced by Gordon's smooth talk and moneyed-up lifestyle, but soon learns how his business is useless and unethical. 

Eventually, Bud asks Gordon how much money is enough. "It's never enough," he says. Accruing wealth is a game, and the more money you get, the more money you get, period. "Wall Street" not only points out the deep corruption in stock-based systems, but how extreme wealth is bad for the brain. Rich people, Stone implies, are isolated, weird, and terrible, convinced that their bad ideas are good and that their personal intestinal gases smell rosy. (If you want a good interrogation of the Reagan era, watch "Wall Street" and "RoboCop" back-to-back.)

Natural Born Killers (1994) Warner Bros. "Natural Born Killers" is presented as a twisted love story about Mickey and Mallory Knox (Woody Harrelson and Juliette Lewis), a pair of abused, damaged lovebirds who freely commit murder whenever the whim strikes. Their love is presented in weird, swirling, MTV-ready montages, and Stone makes extensive use of various film stocks, animation, and weird editing techniques to depict the chaos they live in. Visually speaking, "Natural Born Killers" is Stone's most ambitious and interesting film. It's also one of the most violent films one might see, featuring human splatter in volumes unseen this side of an early Peter Jackson movie. 

Beyond the strange, violent, romance tale, though, Stone was interrogating the media of the 1990s, pointing out that — like in "Talk Radio" — shock sells. If there were a pair of charismatic serial killers on the loose, would the public want to see them captured and jailed, or merely venerated for how cool they were? When Mickey admits to a reporter (Robert Downey, Jr.) that he's a natural-born killer, Downey only thrills at the sellability of the line, and not the fact that Mickey has killed so many people.

"Natural Born Killers" was prescient, predicting the public's capacity for bad news and its addiction to doomscrolling. It's very of its time, and yet remains relevant.

-"The Eight Best Oliver Stone Movies, Ranked," SlashFilm

[lizzygrantarchives]

VH1, January 12, 2012

Lana Del Rey is almost nothing like you’d expect her to be. Let us explain.

In just under six months, Del Rey has gone from being a virtual unknown to landing a highly coveted gig as the musical guest on this weekend’s episode of Saturday Night Live, an opportunity that some artists work their entire careers for and never achieve. The booking of this artist, best known for her uniquely sexy voice and a cinematic style of music she describes as “Summertime sadness,” totally makes sense, though. While it’s true that she hasn’t even released her album yet —Born To Die streets on January 31— Lana has already experienced a career’s worth of buzz (and, subsequently, backlash) in indie blogosphere circles, mostly stemming from questions regarding her quote-unquote “authenticity.” This, in combination with the mysterious persona she projects in her videos and her somewhat defiant performance at the Bowery Ballroom back in December, led us to believe that she might come off as being cryptic and guarded during her interview here at VH1 HQ in New York City yesterday. The Lana Del Rey we met, though, was anything but: During the 45 minutes or so we spent with her, she was happy, effusive, relatable and totally forthcoming about the rocket ride that she’s been on for the last half of the year.

“You wanna hear a little story?” We’ve been talking to Del Rey for a few minutes about her self-made, self-edited, collage-style music videos for “Video Games” and “Blue Jeans”, the treatments of which propelled the indie chanteuse from obscurity into the spotlight, but that were also initially met with puzzlement by clueless suits at record labels (“For a long time, nobody thought that anything fit together. I brought things into different labels and to different people and they all thought it was really f***ing weird. They thought that the videos didn’t have a strong narrative and that they were creepy.”). We raise the issue of Paz De La Huerta, an actress who, depending on your vantage point in life, is either a hot mess or your spirit animal. Footage of a clearly overserved Paz made its way into Del Rey’s cut of “Video Games,” an intriguing creative decision that lends a zeitgeist-y and almost Lynchian-circa-Mulholland Drive feel to the video, underscoring the overlap in the Venn diagram of Hollywood where glamour, darkness and tragedy meet. So, we posed, did Lana ever hear from Paz herself?

“I was singing in Paris a couple months ago for Thanksgiving,” Lana regales with a slightly mischievous glint in her eye. “There’s this girl in the audience and she’s gorgeous. I can kind of only see her silhouette, she’s getting, like, her t*ts out. I’m like, ‘God, that’s unusual.’ So I go offstage [after singing 'Video Games'], I go upstairs, and my manager’s like, ‘You’ll never believe it, but Paz De La Huerta was getting her t*ts out to the song!’ I was like, ‘My vision is complete. My life is f***ing made.’ And so I’ve been at peace ever since that moment.”

Regarding her statement about being “at peace,” sure, she was being slightly facetious in her response, but during the course of our time with her yesterday, we didn’t see any behavior to belie her off-the-cuff statement. She strolled into our offices here in Times Square looking as gorgeous as you’d expect, but definitely not glammed up to the nines by a squadron of stylists or anything. She was dressed casually in a pair of jeans, brown flats and a black leather jacket, and not looking even the slightest bit nervous about her big moment on SNL this weekend OR the least bit bummed that she was inexplicably snubbed by the organizers of the Coachella festival when the lineups for the 2012 shows were announced earlier this week.

“I’m probably not the best candidate for f***ing Coachella, you know?”, she self-deprecatingly confessed. “I stand there and sing. I’m not that exciting.” A smile slowly creeps across her face as she admits that, “That’s probably why they weren’t like dying to have me on stage,” and then she breaks out in laughter. As we told her in the moment (and as you’ll see in the video above), Coachella, it’s your loss.

Speaking of her live performances, it’s clear that one of the things she’s concentrating on is working on getting more comfortable on stage. Most artists get to hone their craft over months and years of playing in front of small audiences, but not the artist known as Lana Del Rey. It’s not exactly a secret that before she adopted the moniker Lana Del Rey, she performed for audiences in and around New York City as Lizzy Grant —you can even find her since-shelved “debut” album, produced by David Kahne, on file-sharing services if you’re halfway decent at typing words into Google— but ever since her first official concert as Lana Del Rey back in September, the eyes of the knives-out indie blogosphere have been on her. Amrit Singh of the popular indie rock blog Stereogum noted that her show at Williamsburg’s Glasslands was performed in front of “a crowd of folded arms,” and took a snarky shot across her bow when he flatly described said show thusly: “She chewed a lot of gum.”

That slam didn’t dissuade curious concertgoers from snapping up tickets to her December show at the Bowery Ballroom, a concert which sold out in minutes. We were in attendance that night, and can comfortably report that Del Rey possesses the ability to transfix her audience, but even she admits that it wasn’t her finest hour as a performer.

“To be honest, I wish it had gone a little differently at the Bowery,” she explains. “I’ve played a lot of shows in Europe and they were all amazing, to my surprise, ’cause I could hear myself really well. But at The Bowery, as soon as [my band] started playing, I felt the drums and the bass reverberating up into my microphone. So when I started to sing, all I could hear was bass and drums. So that really freaked me out, because I couldn’t hear myself.”

However, rather than crawl in a hole and pity herself, Del Rey persevered and ventured back to Europe to work on her stage game. She performed on a number of major European television programs (“The only thing you ever think about on live TV is ‘Don’t f*** up’”), played a number of well-received gigs across the pond, and became a darling of the rabid UK music press (she’s currently on the cover of Q Magazine). Her single “Video Games” climbed into the UK Top 10 Singles chart, and now she’s prepared to launch her album here Stateside with a flurry of television appearances. She told us that she’d also be heading out on the road later this year, where she’s planning a couple of festival appearances, followed by a small US club tour in the fall.

However, at this point, the question on everyone’s lips is whether or not America will warm to Lana Del Rey’s slightly left-of-center musical sensibilities. Her record label, Interscope, is certainly making a big bet on her, booking her on Saturday Night Live and shelling out for a big budget video for her current single, “Born To Die” (which, btw, has been streamed over 10 million times on YouTube). The song, like “Video Games” and “Blue Jeans”, has that a very cinematic, widescreen kind of sound, featuring sweeping, lush instrumentals paired with huge, hip hop beats courtesy of producer Emile Haynie. However, even Del Rey herself admits that “It’s not like a hit song or anything. It’s not like an uptempo or traditional pop song, but it’s my favorite [on the album].” In other words, she’s not overly concerned with chasing chart glory at the expense of her artistic vision.

It’s exactly this kind of self-awareness that bodes well for Lana Del Rey, both as a person and as an artist, in the long term. She seems innately comfortable in her own skin, supremely confident in her musical vision, and not the least bit caught up in the tornado of hype that’s been swirling around her for months. “I’m not a star, I’m not famous,” she professed early on during her conversation with us yesterday, one that ended with a vigorous discussion of her love for reality TV (Mob Wives and the Real Housewives Of New Jersey are favorites) and why she wouldn’t even dream of ceding control of her social media presence (“Obviously I run my own Facebook and Twitter accounts, that’d be f***ing weird if I didn’t!”). While she may not be a “star” yet, one thing is certain: By the time Daniel Radcliffe says his goodbyes from NBC’s Studio 8H this Saturday night, hundreds of thousands of curious SNL viewers will certainly be heading to Google to find out more about her.

Originally published on vh1.com with the headline Artist On The Verge Lana Del Rey Talks SNL, Coachella And Paz De La Huerta’s T*ts.

[cherhorow1tz]

I found this article written here: https://frockflicks.com/lost-in-austen-2008-2/ for reference. But this is generally going to be a counter to most arguments made in it. Not to yuck anyone's yum, but as much as I enjoyed the crazy shock-factor of Lost in Austen, the article takes the movie (mini series?) pretty seriously, which I simply can't do. First, to give praise, though. I agree with the article that Lost in Austen does stick with AND mess with the P+P outline well. Mr. Bingley at Netherfield, places where people meet each other, etc. are well preserved. But, it also does do well in throwing a wrench in these plans with the addition of a woman from 2008, as it would. As for the second part, that the characters have hilarious, yet (mostly) believable, hidden sides, the part that they noted believable was Mrs. Bennet's hidden smart and bitchy side. Though, I've known a Mrs. Bennet or two, and maybe I haven't done enough to provoke them (thank god), but I really think the silliness of this kind of person outweighs any initiative to speak up. I also have such a hard time believing Caroline and Mr. Wickham and especially, in terms of Wickham, Georgiana! She's supposed to be a cute little 15(?) year old, not some crazy conniving crazy person. Though, one could argue that most love-crazy 15-year old girls are crazy and conniving, so maybe I'm wrong here. Onto the next part, I agree that Amanda does call things as they are, but it's really annoying, honestly. Like, girl, seriously don't get hammered and knee Collins in the crotch. Nobody likes a messy drunk. Next part says "Wickham. HOT." Again, have to disagree! Subjective, I know, but he doesn't give hot in this.

Skipping ahead to where the article acknowledges the faults of Lost in Austen because that's what I really care about. Amanda's hair is ghastly, and this says so. It even notes the line "I may be losing grip on reality, but I'm still in control of my hair." Maybe you shouldn't be, Amanda. Maybe nobody in 2008 should be in charge of anything style-wise though (self-acknowledgement of my own bad style choices througout the years). One thing that this article mentions that I didnt' notice is Darcy's wig. Looking back at pictures, it's so obvious. It really does make his hairline look crazy. The article ends off with a roast on the stylist's choice to put Amanda in a low cut short sleeve dress, and notes that it's completely inappropriate for Regency era. Finally, it ends with another roast of Darcy and Amanda's hair, which, agree. All in all, I don't hate or love Lost in Austen, but I enjoyed it much for the same reason I enjoy Love Island UK (I love trash TV). So, if you put your movie critic glasses aside, take the thinking cap off and dive in expecting barbarity, you, too may enjoy Lost in Austen.

[kareenvorbarra]

somewhere close to me ❁ a Fjord/Jester fanmix

8tracks • spotify

Rox In The Box The Decemberists • Wings Little Mix • Vessel Pearl and the Beard • Trouble Is a Friend Lenka • Pearl Diver Mitski • Come All You Sailors The Wailin’ Jennys • Steady The Staves • Suddenly I See KT Tunstall • Wildflowers The Wailin’ Jennys • Love Lies Khalid & Normani • Meet Me In The Woods Lord Huron • Tell Me True Sarah Jarosz • Notos The Oh Hellos • Lollipop MIKA • Water Bishop Briggs • Night Terror Laura Marling • Dog Years Maggie Rogers

Lyrics:

Rox In The Box - The Decemberists (Fjord as a young man; he’s outgrown the orphanage, so he works on the docks, taking what jobs he can find as an orphan with no money or education or friends)

And it’s one, two, three On the wrong side of the lee What were you meant for? Whatever you’re meant for

Wings - Little Mix (Jester, though sheltered, grows up confident and loved, assured of her own beauty and worth)

Mama told me not to waste my life She said, “Spread your wings, my little butterfly Don’t let what they say keep you up at night And they give you shit, then they can walk on by”

Vessel - Pearl and the Beard (After finding a place on a ship, somewhere his skills are recognized, somewhere that feels almost like home, Fjord loses it all)

Drain my gut Spill it out onto the deck Burn their hands Sure as hell has burned my own I am alone now

Trouble Is a Friend - Lenka (Jester just can’t seem to stop causing trouble, and sometimes her pranks have unintended consequences)

Trouble is a friend but trouble is a foe, oh oh And no matter what I feed him he always seems to grow, oh oh He sees what I see and he knows what I know, oh oh So don’t forget as you ease on down the road

Pearl Diver - Mitski (Fjord survives the shipwreck, but he’s alone now, and he’s not the same man he was before he drowned)

Those creatures of your woken mind Don’t fear them or their hunger Forgive the sea, follow the tide With the monsters on your shoulder

Come All You Sailors - The Wailin’ Jennys (Forced to wander, searching for people they don’t know how to find, Jester and Fjord stumble across each other)

Come all you seekers Realize that you can see Find within your deepest longing That all you need is me

Steady - The Staves (”Whatcha readin’ there, Jester?”/“Nothing, Oskar...”)

Steady, steady, steady Your steady touch I love so much I'm sleepless Oh God, oh God, oh God God, I'm only human and I'm helpless

Suddenly I See - KT Tunstall (Fjord has never met anybody quite like Jester)

She fills up every corner like she’s born in black and white Makes you feel warmer when you’re trying to remember What you heard She likes to leave you hanging on a word

Wildflowers - The Wailin’ Jennys (Fjord couldn’t protect Jester when they were captives; but at least, upon their return to the Menagerie Coast, he gets a chance to see her experience some of the happiness she deserves)

You belong among the wildflowers You belong on a boat out at sea Far away from your trouble and worry You belong somewhere you feel free

Love Lies - Khalid & Normani (“Do you ever get sad?”/“Are you sad, Jester?”)

Don’t be afraid to tell me if you ain’t with it I see you’re focused, yeah you’re so independent It’s hard for me to open up, I’ll admit it You’ve got some shit to say and I’m here to listen

Meet Me In The Woods - Lord Huron (Fjord meets Avantika; she tells him more about his patron, and suddenly he’s no longer alone with his dreams)

I have seen what the darkness does Say goodbye to who I was I ain’t never been away so long Don’t look back, them days are gone

Tell Me True - Sarah Jarosz (Sometimes it’s hard to know if a boy likes you or if he only kissed you to keep you from drowning)

Do you think of me the way I think of you? Do you hope for things most likely won’t come true? Do you dream of me like I dream of you? Tell me darling, please tell me true

Notos - The Oh Hellos (What would Fjord give up for power over the seas?)

And the rush will take you away Like you’re caught in the undertow And you will drown in the wake Of the things you lost to the winds of Notos

Lollipop - Mika (Maybe, Jester thinks, real life isn’t always like a romance novel)

Mama told me what I should know: Too much candy gonna rot your soul If she loves you, let her go ‘cause love only gets you down

Water - Bishop Briggs (Unrequited love hurts; so does feeling unworthy of love)

(Jester) Funny how a blessing feels just like a curse Bad love hurts, but somehow good love hurts me worse ‘Cause lately I’m mistaking honey for the bees Having trouble sleeping with you next to me

(Fjord) Be gentle with me Have patience with me Oh 'cause I’ve been in the corner of my mind that tells me I’m not good enough for anybody like you Help me out, you know I need you like water

Night Terror - Laura Marling (“I will do anything to get you away from Uk’otoa, okay?”)

I woke up and he was screaming I’d left him dreaming I roll over and shake him tightly And whisper, “If they want you, oh, they’re gonna have to fight me”

Dog Years - Maggie Rogers (Despite their troubles, despite the things left unsaid between them, Fjord and Jester know they will always be there for each other)

And if you had a bad week Let me sing you to sleep Oh, and I’ll be there waiting If you start to get jaded I know things are changing But darling, I’m saying I’ve been here all along

[muertawrites]

I learned a bit about metal subtypes because I was bored and while Eddie likes trash metal and they don’t generally wear makeup and nail polish. I can see reader putting on eye makeup and nail polish on him for funsies. He complains the entire time but in reality he LOVES the attention and care you put into it, how close you are to him and gentle. How you have to hover over, what if you accidentally tripped and fell on top of him? Oops how’d that happen 🤷🏽‍♀️

i, personally, would hire myself as a stylist for the band. none of them asked me. none of them even wanted me. but i'm blowing the lead guitarist and have an abundance of halloween accessories so they can't get rid of me.

lmao honestly tho he would like the attention, they all would. hyping them up before gigs, making them look like their heroes, they would eat it up.

convincing eddie to wear a button up shirt for a gig would be a hard sell. but you have a vision, and it's one of naked chests and heavy chains and pure, hot, gruesome sex. so you wrestle him into it and only close less than half the buttons, showing off his "cool tatties" god i cringe at him sometimes and slapping on a chain (with your name on it) to go with his signature guitar pick.

if that didn't knock everyone in the front row up, the way you ratted his hair into a perfect mess definitely did.

nail polish he definitely digs. he's horrible at doing it himself because he has zero patience, but he loves letting you do it because "idk man it's just magic how you get it to work" (your trick is to use acrylic paint and quick dry clear coat so he doesn't have to wait around. this is also my trick bc i am also not patient.) also likes the excuse to hold your hand and pet your hair and give you very sloppy, intrusive neck kisses while he has you close.

eyeliner and other makeup however? he's not into it. don't let the hair fool you - he's a manly man. plus he's very energetic, and he gets super sweaty during gigs, and he doesn't want any of those cancerous chemicals getting into his eyes ("eddie you smoke fucking cigarettes don't talk to me about 'cancerous chemicals' ")

the one time you convinced him to let you put eyeliner on him he hated it. pouted the whole time, flinched when the pencil got close to his eye, took one look in the mirror and made you remove it. the only reason he even agreed to let you do it was because you sat on his lap while you did.

no matter how many times you tell him it's tacky, eddie wears t-shirts for his own band while performing. he actually does it just to annoy you now. for one gig he convinced the entire band to wear their t-shirts on stage and could not stop laughing during the set at how pissed you looked. he thinks you're so CUTE when you're peeved at him <3

speaking of t-shirts, you love to make homemade ones for him. you punk them out, spray painting stenciled letters with bleach and making strategic cuts that you mend together with safety pins. his favorite shirts are the one you made that says "security" across the front (a-la hayley williams of paramore) and the one that says "groupie". even when he's dressing the part, he's gotta be a goof.

eddie bitches constantly about your wardrobe direction but honestly he loves when you make a fuss over him. most of his complaints are playful, just to tug at your strings a little bit.

the one thing you don't let him do is perform completely shirtless. the groupies are already vicious and, despite eddie only having eyes for you (he has literally walked past groupies trying to flirt with him in order to get to you, man's whipped), you want to keep some of him for yourself. (he kind of prefers it anyway, since he's actually pretty self conscious of his body. he's still got a lil baby fat around his stomach that he doesn't like anyone but you to see.)

[merrumeru]

You're driving me crazy when you are coming home, part 2

Pairing : Damon Albarn x Reader 90s!

Words : 6k

TW: toxic relationship, cheating, swear words, drugs, mention of sex

Note: Finally, I managed to finish 2 parts.While writing, I decided that I would also write part 3, so this is not the end of the story yet : ) As always, thank you for your interest in my story, sorry for grammatical / stylistic mistakes. I also wish you a happy and successful New Year!

! The story presents a stereotypical toxic relationship. I do not glorify it and do not support it. If any of you are in such a relationship, please get help, because your worth and your life depend on you and nothing should make you feel inferior.

click to read part 1

septemper 1995

As he said, he did so. He called every day. The sound of the phone made me feel anxious. On the one hand, I wanted to answer and talk to him, but on the other, I knew that it would close the door to a peaceful life once again. I ignored it at first, but after two weeks I decided to pick it up.

„Y/N?” I heard my name after a while. There was surprise in his voice. Maybe he didn't expect me to pick up the call anytime. Or maybe it was the last chance, because tomorrow he wouldn’t try again. „Finally”

„Uhm… what do you want?” I didn't want my words to be so cold. I wasn't annoyed that he was calling, but rather deeply glad in heart that he was still trying so hard. Although this time I made up my mind not to give him hope.

"Nothing. I'm calling to see how you are doing." He hesitated and added "And apologize for being such an asshole lately. At the party, I know... I was a bit overwhelmed, i guess. But I didn't expect you to be there and it all seemed unfair and painful to me."

"Your reaction scared me a little." I sat down on the carpet right next to the table on which the phone was standing, brought my knees to my chest and embrace them with my free hand.

"It's the alcohol's fault and also it's really hard when you're not around. When you seem so far away." I listened to his deep voice slowly pronouncing each word. Why was I doing this to myself? Putting salt in every wound in my heart again. Maybe he was right. It was kind of an obsession. I felt pathetic, but still wanted to hear all those stupid words from his lips.

"I don't want to convince you this time that I will change. I really want to do this."

"How?"

"I do not know yet. But I certainly won't know if you don't let me get close. Please don't push me away. Don't you remember how good we were together? We were connected by something more from the very beginning"

"Damon..."

"No. Please tell me that I can see you again. I won't let it all end like this." His voice was putting some kind of pressure on me. I was starting to feel like I was doing something wrong.As if it was my fault that everything got complicated. "Love.Please say yes. "

"You mess with my head and heart." And I hung up. Hot tears rose under my closed lids and it slowly ran down my cheeks. It was the first time that I felt such a great regret. I had the impression that this one decision would determine my entire future. I had the feeling that this one decision would define my entire future. Will I be happy or will I stay at this pathetic point.

I got up and my eyes stared at the ashtray that stood on the windowsill. Still in it was the cigarette Damon put out over a year ago.If I was going to put my life in order, I should have started by cleaning it up first.

late november 1995

It was one of those evenings where only someone crazy would leave the house. It was gray and gloomy all day, and the rain refused to say goodbye to the city. I had nowhere to go, so when I returned from work in the afternoon, I changed into comfortable clothes and was going to spend time with tea and a good book.

The tea, however, turned into wine. As I slowly felt its influence, I decided to get some air out. I put on my coat and grabbed a pack of cigarettes. The city looked sad. Only tiny points of light scattered the darkness. I listened to the rain hitting hollowly against the street.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw someone running down the sidewalk. I thought that tomorrow this person will most likely regret their choice. This type of rain permeates you to your panties, so a cold was guaranteed. Without an umbrella, only with the hood up, this figure was heading towards my street. The cigarette slowly died out in my hand, but the point I was staring at completely absorbed my attention.

When this person started to approach specifically my apartment, I thought it was one of the neighbors. Unfortunately, I didn't know very well the people who lived in the building.

I felt an unpleasant shiver. As I was about to go inside and close the balcony door, I heard a muffled scream. It was my name. My hand stopped on the doorknob. At first, I thought I had misheard. But when I heard the same thing the second time, I knew I was right.

"Y/N I can see you!" It was Damon. Of course, who else would come near to my house at this time and in such weather.

"Do not shout. It's late. I don't live alone in this neighborhood."

"I know. Excuse me. But you haven't been taking calls from me again. I didn't know what to do." I could sense some disappointment and desperation in his voice. "Wants to see you."

"Take a taxi and go home. You are definitely cold. You are going to be sick!" Even though I shouldn't care anymore, it worried me. I didn't want him to get pneumonia or something else because of me. "Today is not the time to talk."

"Have mercy on me! Nothing scares me when I want to see you. I will come every day and wait outside your window." Then there was a loud sneeze.

"You're fucking crazy Damon!" I said too loud. I was embarrassed that the neighbors might see this scene and talk about me behind my back later. "Come in, but only for a moment. I'll get you a taxi."

I quickly entered the apartment and ran to the intercom. A short sound and after a while I heard his heavy footsteps in the stairwell.

Indeed, he looked like one great misfortune. Raindrops ran down from his hair over his face. The clothes looked like a rag soaked in water.

"There's no time. Get undressed. Go to the bathroom, take a warm shower. I'll make you something warm to drink. Then I'll call a cab." I took his soaked hoodie.

"Okay boss!" A goofy smirk crossed his face. "Towel where always?"

"Yup. I will also bring you some clothes for change. Some of your stuffs are still in the wordrobe."

Damon disappeared into the bathroom. I hung his wet clothes on the dryer and went to look for some others. Why was I still keeping his stuff in the closet? I could return them to him by post a long time ago. I pulled out clean jeans and a t-shirt that had been left untouched in over a year. But there was still his scent on them. I smelt them and thought I must be crazy. Again, I was in a situation that I didn't want to be in and had been avoiding for a long time.

However, I would be lying to myself if I didn't admit that my heart was beating faster when I realized it was him. It was a romantic novel situation.However, I was still afraid that it might quickly turn into something completely different.

Damon was still taking a shower. Meanwhile, I put the water on for tea and prepared mugs. In this situation, the conversation was probably inevitable.I thought for a moment, staring at the mugs

In my memories I returned somewhere to our mornings together. When I would often wake up in his arms, from which I sneaked out to prepare tea and something to eat. His sleepy face, tired after a concert or tour. And only the two of us. No other people. At the time, I didn't think it could be one of the same scenarios for him. After all, he also was waking up in the company of other girls.

"You're so good to me." I didn't even notice when Damon stood behind me and his hands wrapped around my waist. He put his chin on my shoulder. "I feel like I'm going back to the past."

"Enjoy the moment because this may be your last chance." I poured boiling water over the tea bags.

"Let go of me Damon, it's hard for me to move."

"You didn't complain about it then. You also didn't complain when my hands slowly wandered to other places." I felt his hands rise up towards my breasts.

"Oh come on!" I brushed his hands off me. "Do not cross the border. I only let you be here because the weather is not the best.Don't expect my mind to change."

"I am not doing anything. It's just a friendly hug. We didn't say hello properly." I felt his lips against my neck. I tilted my head to the side to stop him.

"Stop it. Why didn't you put on the shirt I left for you." His body was still very close to mine. I felt him press me closer to the table top.I felt hot with stress and some kind of excitement. I was just glad he couldn't see my face.

"I don't like this one. I'd rather be without" his hands rested on my hips. I knew I had to be even cooler not to let him take control of the situation. And control over me too.

"Bullshit. You used to wear it a lot. I gave you shirt on purpose so that you don't freeze any more. Do not behave like a child."

"Oh so your cold little heart is still worried about me." He whispered in my ear. His hot breath made me shiver. "I'm glad."

"It's just common sense. Pneumonia would not be useful on tour. Just because I don't want to be with you doesn't mean that I want something bad to happen to you." I shrugged my shoulders and reached for the teaspoon to get the teabags out of the mugs.

"I've always liked that about you. You could just leave me there in the rain. And yet you did not hesitate. Here I am again. Just thinking about all those evenings and mornings that w-"

"You can be happy, you used this situation well. Always target my weaknesses best. Will you mark it somewhere on your "private success" list?" I turned to look him straight in the face. At first he frowned, then smiled broadly.

"You look funny when you get angry." He placed his hands on the counter behind me. I had the impression that he was trapping me in some cage. "Why are you trying to see only the negative sides. Relax. Love, I won't bite you ... maybe."

"I'm just tired. You're not making it all easy for me. I told you that we'd better not see each other." Our eyes met for a moment, but I quickly broke this contact and placed my gaze on his shirtless chest.

He was thinner than the last time. I knew that everything related to his work give him a lot of anxiety and stress. He wanted to be the best. In each field. Still the media kept him down to earth all the time and did not let him enjoy his success.

I stabbed him gently in the stomach with my finger and tried to push him away, but he grabbed my hand. He lifted our hands and with the free one he pulled me closer. Enough to feel his warmth and heartbeat.

"What are you doing?" I mumbled, pressing my forehead against his shoulder.

"I dance with you."

"You don't have the right outfit for slow dancing."

"You also" He kissed my head. "But you always look beautiful to me".

We swayed to the music that didn't exist. I was completely dominated in his arms. What I secretly wanted was with me, and everything seemed normal. As if all the problems are gone. All it took was a few words and touches to make me feel powerless again.

I wanted to feel loved and protected. To make my brain erase the thoughts that I am not the only one. And I will never be.

"Damon. Still nothing has changed. You make me feel so miserable. Miserable in love" I bit my lower lip until it hurt. I wanted to distract myself from the other pain that was bursting through my chest. " I do not know what to do. I am like in a dream, but around the corner there is the biggest nightmare waiting for its turn. It will be beautiful again for a while and then ... and then I will regret it again."

"I promise you that nothing like this will happen. I'm crazy about you. I'll do some more stupid things if I have to, as long as it allows me to get close to you." He took my face in his hands and kissed me softly.

"I don't know."

"You know it. This is why I am here." He looked deep into my eyes. "We collapsed in love. No matter how long you'd deny it, you won't fool yourself."

"I can't think straight when you say all this"

"So don't think. You're too afraid of something that won't happen." I felt as if his words were telling me some truth. At this point, I was indifferent to what would happen to me. " We're meant for each other and I think we can make it this time, my love."

He was right. I was in love with him endlessly. A whole year without him was one big mistake. Even when I persuaded myself that it would be better this way, I was wondering subconsciously what I could do to keep him for myself. It wasn't only a fun on my part, it was a real desire to have his love. That's why under the pressure of his beautiful, empty words, I broke like a match.

And again he kissed every inch of my body. All the warmth of our bodies was extinguished by the cold floor in my kitchen.

....

We sat close to each other leaning against the kitchen cabinets. The cold touch of the floor on my thighs causes goosebumps on my body. I nestled even tighter against Damon's shoulder. He was quietly smoking and sometimes lazily turning around to kiss my head. There was the same ashtray in front of us, which I couldn't clean for so long.

"This is a really nice surprise." I watched him slowly release the smoke from his mouth.

"Hm?" I didn't quite know what he meant.

"As I walked over here, I thought you wouldn't even let me in. That I'll be standing like an idiot by your window and the neighbors will have a nice show. And also this fucking rain wasn't planned either."

"You should be grateful. If it wasn't for this rain, I wouldn't let you in." I chuckled softly. His hand was lying on my thigs and gently caressed it.

"I just can't go on pretending, that it came to a natural end." Damon muttered. "I never meant to break your heart."

"Let's not talk about this now. You don't want to shower ... again? You're sweating all over." I chuckled as I pushed the sticky hair away from his forehead.

"And we can shower together and continue our ..."

"Forget Alban. It is impossible to shower normally with you. Go first." I got up and held my hand out in his direction.

Damon stubbed out his cigarette and stood up, supporting himself with my hand. His hands went to my bare hips, barely covered with a shirt. His kiss tasted like cigarette but at taht moment it was the sweetest flavor I could ever taste.

"But then I won't leave you alone." I looked at his bare back as he walked towards the bathroom.

I knew I was wrong. Damon's words were breaking my heart, but his kisses brought the pieces back together. And still there was damage than he couldn't undo. And as my fingers dug into his bare back and our heavy breaths mingled, I felt bitterness.

I stared at the void for a moment longer. The sound of the phone snapped me out of my reverie.

"Hallo?" I suspected who it was from the very beginning.

"Is Damon with you? I couldn't get in touch with him and finally figured that idiot must bothering you again"

"Yup, he's there. But we're good... I guess..."

"Good? " Graham sounded surprised.

"I don't know ... I guess so ... It's complicated ..." I tried to find the proper words, but something was blocking me "This is probably not a story to tell via phone."

"I'll visit you tomorrow."

"Ok. I finish work at 8 pm."

"I can come to the restaurant, we will come back together and ... "

And I didn't hear the rest. The telephone receiver was ripped from my hand.

"Bye Graham." Damon growled and threw the receiver against the table.

My heart skipped a beat from fear. I heard thick raindrops hitting the windows with force. The weather perfectly reflects the state of our souls. Enormous strength of character and love that cannot break through the barrier of misunderstanding.

"Funny how it has to be him every time. You're so fucking annoing Y/N."

"And so? What's wrong with talking to a friend....our mutual friend?"

"Friends do not call their friends' girlfriends at this hour."

"You're ridiculous Damon."

"You are always like that, you want to have everything for yourself. One is never enough for you"

"How dare you say that. It's you who keep coming back to prove to yourself that you still have some control over me." What the last hour had created was crumbling again. "You and your ego don't want me, you're only here to show everyone your "big dick energy".

"Stop with this bulshit Y/N. You can't change the narrative and blame me again. So hard for you to admit you're really a bitch?"

"I'm fucking done with you. Get out my house." Damon frowned. His face showed superiority but also sadness. He was well aware that certain words leave irreversible changes.

"Fine. I don't need you and I don't want to try anymore." Damon stepped past me and headed for the door. He casually put on his boots and jacket over his torso without a shirt.

"What are you doing?"

"Going home."

"Like this? It's raining."

"It's not your problem."

"Wait. You can't go like this and leave this shitshow behind you."

"I can and what's more I'm doing it now!" Damon looked my way. "Eventually you'll have the life you want so badly."

"Damon! You know very well that's not what I mean." I felt like I was drowning. So I was giving myself some hope all the time. And now, as we parted again in even greater insecurity and anger, desperation filled my heart. I was pathetic, but I didn't want it to end like this. "Pleas wait a minute! Let's talk like adults!"

"No." And he left. I watched Damon disappear into the downpour.

"You are the worst, jealous asshole Albarn!" The darkness of the night consumed my words. I stood in the doorway of my apartment and bitter tears ran down my cheeks.

january 1996

It was hard for me to believe that I was putting myself in an uncomfortable situation again. However, after talking to Graham, I knew I couldn't remain indifferent. I knew Damon was acting like a prick and our break up would only make things worse. The weirdest thing about it was Graham saying he didn't feel any tension between them. There was only a curse upon me. As if all the fault was on my side. No wonder he was the main topic of our conversation The more Damon tried to pretend everything was okay, the more aggressive, hyperactive and unpredictable he became. His overly close friendship with drugs turns him even more into someone who was on the way to self- destruction.

And I couldn't stand by and let it happen.

I was leaning against the back wall of the club where Blur was going to play tonight. There were still about half of hour to start, but the room was already full of drunk and noisy teenagers. I look at the faces of all those people who seemed completely carefree. The nostalgia of youth was in the air with a thick vapor of alcohol, smoke and sweat. However, I felt completely alienated. As if I had stepped out of my body and watched the whole show somewhere to the side.

I gripped tighter in my hand the beer bottle that Graham brought to me a few minutes earlier.

„You look stressed out like you're about to give a gig.”

„Funny.” I made a dissatisfied scowl at him. „I don't want to be here. Haven't seen him for months. I have the impression that I will see a complete stranger and it scares me.”

„You know… It won't be that bad. It's the same Damon all the time. It's only been a bit harder to get along with him lately. I'm glad you come, he really needs a kick in his ass. And only you can do something.” We stood there for a while longer, but the safer option was for Damon not to see us together. Graham, awkwardly but with some kind of affection, patted my shoulder and disappeared into the crowd.

The gig has started. Three of them were already onstage. But Damon was still absent. The flower of youth, however, did not bother, because of these enthusiastic screams and whistles it was impossible to hear one's own thoughts. My heart was racing when Damon finally came onstage. Or rather, he rolled out. He was completely drunk. Not very pleased, he walked over to the microphone.

It wasn’t bad. However, the gig lacked healthy, positive energy. In the air you could feel something was wrong. It was definitely not as good as before. Before all this emotional mess. I had the feeling that Damon noticed me and that his eyes were staring right at me. It gave me shivers. I wanted it to be true. He looked weary and miserable. His deep voice bore the mark of an emotion that kept his heart from resting peacefully. The audience probably didn't notice it. This secret was kept by me, boys and Damon. Only the five of us felt how pathetic it all was.

When it was over, I waited a short while until it got less crowded. I straightened my dress, took the jacket, and headed for the backstage. I walked slowly, convincing myself that this was no longer the moment to run away. I wanted to help him because this love still was raw, painfull and deep. And there is nothing worse than watching a loved one waste its life through stupid choices.

I was standing in front of a door with a note stuck to it awkwardly with his name written on it. I let the air out of my lungs loudly and pressed the doorknob. The light was dim. I quickly glanced around the room. Damon was with someone. They sat leaning towards each other on a small couch. It did not make any impression on me, it was not an unpleasant surprise. I knew how most of his gigs ended. Hoping he didn't have time to hear me come in, I tried to back out.

„Who’s this?” I heard a soft female voice.

My heart was beating like crazy. Because of my nervousness, I did not know if I was really moving or if my movements were only happening in my head. Before I could close the door, my hands was pulled by someone.

There was surprise on Damon's face. His lips parted slightly, as if he wanted to say something, but he tightened it instantly.

„I was just leaving. Sorry.” I didn't know what I was saying at all. In my mind, I heard the only word "exit" repeated over and over.

„Y/N…” He looked as if in a split second he suddenly sobered up completely. My name was like a keyword during a magician's performance. When it finally came out of his mouth, the whole situation became real. The surprise did not last long, and this stupid grimace I hated appeared on his face.

But for the first time in his gaze I saw his disdain for me. „Well well, the queen herself decided to go down to the people.” I frowned. I didn't know completely what he meant. However, the hostility of his words prevented me from uttering a single word. „Please come in and stay with us. Maybe these are not the atmosphere for a person like you, but I promise you will be great fun.”He pulled me in and closed the door with a loud bang.

My eyes fell on the young blonde sitting on the couch. She was certainly younger than us. Another silly girl fell for a few nice words. But I had no right to judge her. She smiled gently at me, slightly confused. „Forget it. I'm leaving.” I turned quickly, this time without thinking to get as far away from here as possible.

„I didn't let you leave.” Damon grabbed my wrist aggressively and pulled me over to the couch. Without any delicacy, he placed me next to the girl. „Maybe you want some tea or a beer !? Maybe I can find some cookies too!?”

„Stop making a jester of yourself.” His behavior disturbed me. I was afraid of talking to the "Stranger Damon", but it was completely over my expectations. „Jester? Since when being nice equals being a jester. You terribly underestimate me.”

„Oh stop it. If you don't speak normally, I'll leave.”

"Maybe I should go..." the girl was clearly embarrassed.

„Sit.” The atmosphere was tense. I've never seen him so aggressive. He had his moods, it was often difficult to get along with him, but he never acted in such a mean way.

„"Yes. You should go now. Apparently we have a lot to say to each other." Saying this, I did not take my eyes off Damon for a second as the blonde meekly grabbed her jacket and purse.

„How dare you decide if my guest is to leave or not."

„What guest? Bullshit. Are you not ashamed that you involve some young girls in your games?”

„Fuck off. You always have to show up and destroy all the fun. Is that the only thing you are good at? I was hurted by tah remark, I knew it was related to our relationship. ”A dog in the manger". I heard the door close quietly. She didn't even have to be persuaded to leave and probably didn't expect that the night, she would later tell her friend as the best in her life, would end with such a scene.

"I'm worried." Since he couldn't be nice, I decided to be the calm one. "I don't want you to screw up your life." My eyes stared at the table in front of me, where some drugs I didn't know were lying next to the beer bottles.

"Why do you care? You were going to cut me off. Forget." As he stood over me like the accuser, my throat felt dry.

"So let me do this Damon. Don't do stupid shit so I don't have to worry about you all the time."

"Ah yeah, so is pity preventing you from leaving the "poor" me alone? Thank you for your kindness!" The aggression in his voice made me uncomfortable. Damon took my every word as a direct attack. I didn't understand why it was so hard for him to believe that I was really worried about him.My feelings didn't go away in a matter of months. For a moment I even thought that he was doing it on purpose. He provokes me to make me realize again and again how obsessively I need his closeness.

I looked at him. His slim body was leaning against the wall. In his hand he held an open bottle of beer, which he had not yet drank from. Which bottle was it that evening? From his lazy movements and wandering eyes, I could see that he was still very drunk.

His verbal scuffles were tiring me. I got up and slowly walked over to him.

„It's not the pity” Our eyes met again.This time his seemed less hostile. „Like you said the last night we saw each other. I'm obsessively in love with you. I don't like not knowing what you are doing or where you are. And most of all, I hate it when you are angry with me."

I knew that normal, quiet conversation would do nothing. Damon was set to reflect every "attack", and as he was, every word I made sounded like a grudge to him. The only option was to play to admit he was right, his big ego loved to be right, so I had to take a completely different strategy. Even if I had to say words I didn't want to. Even if it had to scratch all my wounds.

„I thought you were over that. This is just another silly relationship that you will forget. You are famous, you are handsome, you can have anything.” I was standing in front of him. Close enough to see his facial expressions even in dim light. I wanted him to look at me again, eyes full of love. However, it was becoming a distant dream. Damon didn't say anything. His eyes were fixed on the bottle. I reached out and touched his hand. Our fingers intertwined automatically.

„Stupid relationship?” His deep, low voice broke the silence. "The love of my life says she loves me, but our relationship is just some stupidity." I felt how he was squeezing my hand tighter and tighter.

„It's hurts.” I tried to free my hand from his grip, but he held it very tightly. I felt like a sinking ship for which every move only made things worse.

„Why don't you want me? " His tone of voice changed dramatically. He was full of reproach and a sadness. And that broke my heart.

„I do not understand what you mean. When we were… together… I never met with anyone else. It was you who insisted we had freedom. Only sex.”

"And that's why you slept with Graham?" I was dizzying mainly from emotions. When this question came out of his mouth, I didn't understand what he want to say.

„What?”

„You have been calling each other for a long time, you were always talking, you were meeting. When things got worse between us, you sleept with him”

„We are only friends! Nothing ever happened between us. If you had any more brain cells, you'd figure out that we mostly talk about you."

"How to cheat me"

"Why do you have so little faith in me? What have I done to you?" My voice was starting to break. "What do you expect from me? I am not your dog, I have a life besides you and your affairs. Why should I give up everything you don't like? This is not what a normal relationship looks like."

"I don't control you." Damon hissed through gritted teeth. I felt how tense he was. Perhaps this was the first time my words started to mean something. " You're just so complicated ... you never say what you want and then you have a pretensions."

"If you were really present in body and soul, whe we spent time together, you would understand me better."

"I was present."

"You don't believe your own words, Damon." I tried to touch his face, but he pushed my hand away and turned his face in the opposite direction.

"So now you know me better than I know myself?" Damon laughed nervously. "Bullshit."

"Don't be like that. I'm really here for you."

"I don't understand why everyone around me keeps telling me I have a problem. Start worrying about yourself or something."

"Because you've changed or... or all this time, i never really knew you"

Damon fixed his piercing gaze on my face. His rage was building up again, I just didn't know what was really upsetting him.

"I love you. Your body, your voice, your smile, everything. I feel the pain consuming me when I can't be close to you. But you keep pushing me away even if I'm sorry. I'm not a fucking stranger but I can see the fear in your eyes." Damon raised the hand in which he was holding the bottle, for a moment it looked like he was going to hit me. However, when I closed my eyes, I heard the sound of breaking glass on the wall behind. He grabbed my wrist and pushed me towards the walls so that we swapped positions. "Admit that what you are feeling is not fear but desire."

Damon pressed me against the wall with his body. His lips traveled over my neck and his hands rolled up my skirt. I squeezed my thighs tighter, a soft moan escaped from my throat. One of his hands was on the inside of my thigh.

"You come here couse you want me to shagg you. Say it."

He placed sloppy kiss at my lips. My hands tightened on his shirt. Our lips pressed together for a longer moment.

"Stop it, Damon." I broke the kiss. I looked at him but he kept his eyes closed. "This is not a good time, we will regret it."

I wanted to hug him but without words he slided down. Damon was kneeling in front of me, leaning his head against my thighs.

"It's so damn hard. I don't know what to do. Pressure, stress, our problems ... there is so much of it." His voice sounded even deeper and sadder than usual. Damon's hands wrapped around my legs. I was gently stroking his hair.

"I know, my love." I tried to choose the right words. It was all difficult for me, but I never took into account what he might feel and where some of his behavior came from. Nothing justified him, but no decisions are black and white. Everyone is complex, and so love is not simple. "If you let me, we can try to sort this out. But you gotta be clean and sober. I don't know where this will lead us or if "we" have a chance, but I really care about you."

"I'm so sorry Y/N for all this shit and for hurting you." And this time his words were sincere.

We sat in silence for a long moment. Neither new words nor those previously unspoken seemed appropriate in this situation.

I stayed with Damon until his manager came to pick him up. As a goodbye Damon kissed my forehead and sent me a grateful, little shy smille.

Only time could heal us and show us if we would succeed. But love and care, which, although hidden under a layer of mismatched words, tears and sorrow, must have become our salvation.

[derekfoxwit]

The Faux Intellect Issue I’ve Seen With Animation Discourse Over The Years

As someone who has come to appreciate the art of animation, it’s really common to see discourse that has to stress that the medium isn’t just for children. Of course, this doesn’t take away from how so many childhoods were defined by animated productions, a good amount of which is able to hold up beyond the notion of being a kid-distractor. Over my time online, however, I’ve felt that there tended to be an obsession with creating an image of self-righteousness or entitlement with select projects that were able to appeal just as much for adults as children. Whether it’d be due to insecurities or genuine ego, so often I’ve felt too much animation discourse (especially from the late-2000s to early 2010s) would seemingly rely more on the image of SOUNDING smart rather than the ability to engage the subject with depth or particularly development one’s artistic lens or media literacy overtime.

To start things up, here is the link to a post I made. I would like to emphasize what the original content I screenshot was highlighting: the joke this iconic Cartoon Network show was able to work in. For now, we’re ignoring the “back in muh day” comments for a second. I’ve felt that over the years, there has been this oversimplifying habit of bringing up these innuendos (mainly the sexual kind) as a means to elevate the animated kids’ work as cream of the crop material.

Yet, in practice, HOW they illustrate this sort of love tends to amount to “they were able to work in this bit I now get” but little else. Sure, it can be neat to realize those gags now that you’ve aged and see how they managed to sneak them. The issue I have here, though, is that with how surprisingly frequent it is to see several innuendos across individual kids’ cartoons, I find that it takes away from how good of a job the work could be doing at what it aims for. Or ESPECIALLY it stylistic touches that are in display. Largely due to an emphasis on the MERE inclusion of that type of gag than anything else relating to its’ implementation, a frequent oddity with plenty of animation discourse circles. I find that by downplaying such jokes, or even the overall tone of the comedy, in a similar way, it unintentionally downplays why certain works themselves are considered so good. Almost like an implication of all the comedy of that nature being created equal, which is just.......NOT the case! Particularly odd with another weird issue I’ve seen with comedic material, which I’ll get to later. With the aforementioned sexual innuendos, simply leaving it as “it’s a joke I now get” doesn’t necessarily inform one on why some cartoons were able to catch on more compared others. For example, if I was looking back at this joke and several others from Powerpuff Girls and was all “man, that show was top tier” after realizing said jokes, yet also showed little interest or enthusiasm in Animaniacs (a very notable cartoon for its’ bonus jokes for adults), what is that meant to say about the quality of either? What would that mean for certain animated films?

Using the mild edginess of such innuendos as a transition, I would like to highlight this video but more specifically MANY of its’ comments. Aside from the obviously unfair cherry-picking (the Blue’s Clues reboot isn’t even comparable to an animated telling of Vladimir the Great), you got so many people essentially romanticizing European animation (and possibly growing up with it) as this symbol of superiority. One of the top comments is just this hot mess of over-estimating how Disney Princess films have apparently made girls toxic and incapable of having a healthy relationship (one other comment having a chain of replies implying that DreamWorks offers superior children development and how that allowed them to be better people).

There was also a general problem with acting like most kids were more into the action-packed stuff. This and similar statements suffer from being under the impression that 90-95% of children were a certain way, probably as a product of projection. In case of the comments of the linked YouTube video above, it’s not helped by how moderately masculine they can read. Just anecdotally speaking, I WASN’T much for action, and with a couple exceptions, I was mostly into the kids’ material that was on the sillier side or had enough notable comical moments for me to not mind. For an example from early 2022, some of the various rants against Turning Red were about how sure-of-themselves they were saying that teenage girls wouldn’t act the way Mei Ling and her friends did.

With those same YouTube comments, like several other areas of weird animation discourse, there also comes an incredibly unclear, borderline non-existent, sense of scale. Despite claiming that most kids would be able to handle bloody-ass fights and the content that the older versions of fairy tales offered, there’s a TON of comments implying that recognizing LGBT people is too much. Even when claiming that it’s just simply because of HOW the message is spread, whatever idea there is in going too far literally amounts to “tons of flags everywhere makes it look like cult shit.” You wouldn’t BELIEVE how frequent I’ve seen such oddly warped thresholds of what was “too much” (Mr. Enter has entered the chat). One minute, Gaston is being called one of the worst Disney villains because “as a feminist, I hate his advances at Belle,” yet the next, Frollo’s getting a pass and there’s even a joke about wishing that they could be Jafar after seeing what slave outfit Jasmine got put in. Occasionally, the sexual innuendo discussion actually does bring up the possibility of going too far OR otherwise being awkward as hell, yet where the line’s drawn is still rather hazy. One blog review I found for Toy Story (which I could not find again after a while) gave it a negative score, but the review essentially just equated to “this scared me especially as a kid due to creepy living toys,” as if that’s enough to say it’d be too much for them. Again, I can disprove this just anecdotally speaking alone. With one of many anti-SJW Tubers that ragged on Turning Red, they were complaining about the film’s allusion to menstruation by saying “sure, it’ll fly over kids’ heads, but the parents that know would be shocked,” suggesting THAT is enough to argue that what the movie did was too much. In practice, however, the argument was going no further than using an example with a banana being used to showcase male puberty.....in a manner that’s clearly seeing an extreme that wasn’t there. What about a parent reacting negatively toward Pokémon because ‘eVoLuTiOn’? Or even just fighting, due to seeing it as “killing”? I do think there are times where the work can, indeed, be too much for the kid(s) despite being under the “Family” umbrella, like perhaps The Incredibles being shown to a 5-year-old (something Brad Bird himself would’ve discouraged.  Looking back, I was probably close to his perfect recommended age when that came out). I can sure as hell get not wanting to show a little kid the original Tom & Jerry completely uncensored due to a certain racial stereotype of a side character. But once again, often, there just seems to be a problem with arbitrary, usually over-generalizing thresholds based on shaky anecdotal evidence or of-the-moment emotions.

All that, along with a couple of these examples linked, show how often these folks simply.......DON’T know the bigger picture or otherwise haven't bothered to look for or watch other animations beyond their own seemingly narrow bubble. Over time, I’ve noticed that, as one user on the Justice League related post pointed out, there is a HUGE habit of people seeing themselves as big fans of the medium of animation, yet they make it clear that their own exploration and artistic development peaked sometime before they hit 20. Hearing people talk about music is basically a minefield of this. As a result, they’re shown to have a very limited media perspective (likely only childhood stuff, superhero works and the odd misc. big franchise) that can be deceptively effective at getting in the way of understanding the integrities of the creative process or even the cultural context behind some projects.

From my own personal experience, it would feel like that means relegating your artistic lens near-exclusively to American works and otherwise the most well-known foreign stuff. Even in one Discord I’m in, a user in their early 20s would keep bringing up annoyance over the continuous reboots and superhero ubiquity while wishing for more original stuff, yet they’ve made it pretty clear that a large majority of their modern media intake amounts to stuff they’ve already enjoyed at a younger age. A subtler oddity with this is how, several times in the same Discord, they’ve joined in on ragging on 90s kids that keep insisting on the 90s being the best time for cartoons through cherry-picked examples, yet that previous approach to media intake, at best, risks adopting a similar sensibility. I’ve felt that has, intentionally or otherwise, encouraged constantly hatejerking Boss Baby at the cost of ignoring something like Kipo and the Age of the Wonderbeasts. In fact, just screw hate wagons in general (with animation being noticeably more sensitive to them).

On top of that, they frequently give the impression that so much of their artistic respect leans so hard into the mere recognition and additional elevation of works that was enjoyed at a younger age, all the while barely putting the effort in expanding their horizon beyond their immediate bubble. I find that makes it all the more possible or apparent that the guilty party may not have really bothered to explore artistically or advance analytically. It’s especially awkward when, from my own experience, this seems to only truly apply to animation and, every now and again, video games. For an example, I’m part of a smaller Discord server that is (in theory) dedicated to Pokémon, so we would discuss certain aspects of that series. At one point, there was talk about how, while the Mystery Dungeon stories are considered great FOR the series, they’re still just a little above average at best in context to overall video game stories. We would say that fans calling said stories amazing would be a product of them barely playing much else, therefore having little frame of reference. Granted, this is stated in a more jokey manner, but the general point still makes sense about having an incredibly limited frame of reference. Now imagine that applying to animation fan circles. If anything, that makes the weird habit of putting things in oversimplistic terms all the more telling that the respective speaker has a lacking sense of media literacy. This doesn’t help when there are so many folks online that bemoan about cartoons no longer being as good as they were at their age (not everything ages well), but their seeming only frames of modern reference are something like Teen Titans GO or The 2016 PPG reboot or some other hate wagon (or even some HUGE red flag relating to the marginalized).

Even BETWEEN family animations, I’ve seen a weird habit of expecting the same artistic intentions between every animation, especially in relation to darker elements. One YouTube comment I remember from a Watch Mojo video was annoyed about Toy Story 3 being on the respective list, with particular critique being aimed at the toy gang being saved from the incinerator. However, the critique seemed to only amount to "it would’ve been different and risky”. The commentor also brought up how Bambi and Lion King were able to pull off character deaths and how that apparently proves that TS3 has no excuse, even though.....those are different movies with different goals, a nuance that many of these sort of discussions fundamentally forget about. Sure, it may have felt nice, for example, to see Robin and Starfire’s relationship blossom over the course of the 2003 TV show, but that doesn’t mean every show needs to take up that much time for their romantic relationships or build things up for the majority of the series (some shows don’t even try to go for five seasons). One comment I’ve seen on a video about Turning Red would question why the writers wouldn’t take notes from Lilo from Lilo & Stitch if they wanted to write a “dorky and different girl,” with basically no clarity over how that’d fix things besides “older film good”. More often than not, it would seem like they only really focused on the spectacle of either getting edgier or otherwise going a certain route, but not so much if such a decision would’ve benefited the story’s intension. Sometimes the spectacle in question could just be something being vaguely flashy.

Frequently, it seems like one’s indicator of higher quality come from whatever extreme attitudes they’ve subconsciously developed for certain facets of media, as well as expecting oddly specific prerequisites based on the youthfully familiar media that was already consumed. One example of this would be these writing tips Lily Orchard posted in late 2020, where on top of how apparent it was that she was merely venting about certain cartoons more (Steven Universe; She-Ra; Korra), she’d give out weirdly specific and arbitrary ‘tips’ in an attempt to combat against said cartoons. Ironically enough, however, one of her better tips (although clearly said to further rag on Korra), would help highlight this aforementioned issue the series of tips is guilty of. More specifically, the one about not trying to “do what Avatar did,” and primarily, the takeaway that was obtained from the commentators of the video linked above. They brought up how you’re just fundamentally doomed from the start if you try to approach a project like it’s going to be the “Next Avatar” or “Next Star Wars” or whatever. The reason I’m highlighting THAT part is because, in addition to how oddly specific in prerequisites one’s indicator of higher quality can feel with animated works, it has often felt like there’s a subconscious expectation of “The Next X, Y, or Z”. Whether it’d be Avatar, Lion King, Teen Titans 2003, whatever else is listed in the immediately above meme, or some other animation. And if the work isn’t giving this near-immediate reassurance that the vague and particular thresholds were met, then the guilty party will more likely than not dismiss the work as not worthwhile. Honestly, from what I can tell, this feels like a Nickelodeon executive to me.

Of course, this isn’t to say they’re not all that great or anything, and it’s good to learn what makes the greats great. HOWEVER, a good chuck of the time, it’s felt to me that it’s based less on the content and more the recognition. Sure, one might show themselves as a fan of Avatar, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they have a good grasp of certain elements or even have a strong sense of media literacy (COUGH JUSTAROBOT COUGH). Going back to the Justice League related Reddit post, as several comments point out, the two screenshot Tweets seemed to ignore the fact that the newscaster in question (the show’s incarnation of Glorious Godfrey) was using his position to attack the Justice League’s credibility, at one point trying to scapegoat them for causing divorce rates to go up. Effectively, it’s one of many places where the man enjoying the media isn’t that focused on, or likely doesn’t even get, the substance of the material. Or at the very least, misidentifying the important aspects of said substance. Much like a patriot listening to Bruce Springsteen’s Born In The USA or someone enjoying Breaking Bad due to finding Walter White aspirational. It doesn’t help that they often express this weird stance of people never being super-sensitive until recently, another case where they’re clearly riding more on anecdotal emotions from when they weren’t aware of certain topics at the time (this screencap, for example). Or that plenty of outcries over media ruining the children have happened before. Especially ironic when the guilty party would still show respect for certain children’s works for incorporating themes that flew over their head as a kid.

The post’s emphasis on comedy specifically and about no longer being able to “cut loose” anymore reminds me of one of two other things I want to bring up about comedy. First, it comes to mind how, every now and again (mainly after some stand-up comedian backlash), I’ve seen several comments defending him with comments that claimed that you’re not doing truly great comedy if you don’t strive to offend. The second one is how, sometimes (and seemingly selectively), there will be that due to being a comedy that’s established to have more surreal or absurd tendencies, there’s no real need to question any such moments, even during more narratively charged moments. I’ve come to find both simplified terms to be rather limited accounts on how or what can make the humor of certain projects very good, mostly by making it seem like there may be less of a methodology at play than there is. In case of ‘offending’, that just makes it seem like you could say whatever rude thing you want with fundamentally no real punchline, or GoD fOrBiD (/s) consideration for the marginalized. If the simple act of saying something abrasive with little else needed was enough, then where’s the skill factor? They also could have easily misunderstood the intention of some edgy sounding element, like with the aforementioned Justice League post. Similar thing about the act of “oh, you were going for a surreal or absurd thing anyway.” It doesn’t necessarily sound like there’s anything that inherently grounds the situation, plus it can sound like one could get away with throwing in anything. Once again, whatever point one would draw the line isn’t made all that clear. By that point, a sense of timing or, again, method to the madness, would sound less important than it ultimately proves to be.

But even then, sometimes it suddenly doesn’t matter having a primarily comedic work, crummy or otherwise, because the guilty party will not be satisfied when the series isn’t going out of its way to provide a huge, complex story. There may not be much care for good feels or slice of life from Big City Greens because it’s not ‘serious business.’ Hell, occasionally, even just MILDLY lightening things up would be enough to where initial accusations toward Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles would compare it to Teen Titans GO, because more humor. Then again, the fact that I’ve heard that the original TV version of Teen Titans had similar initial reactions can speak volumes to how needlessly anal people can be with a project having even a little more comical leverage in it. Wind Waker fans, you should know what I mean here (even if that’s more so with art style). 

As nice as it was to see western animations get more into serialization, the way I’ve seen certain discourse circles elevate that as an inherent benefit to be any good has been.....a bit much, maybe even downright snooty. Especially when, again, plenty of the same circles only seem to care for some like of extreme but vague threshold with the material in question. There’s an odd tendency to forget that one can still get some great and enjoyable characterization without them needing to be put into this complicated situation that continuously has new stuff occurring. It could still be nice slice-of-life moments that are mainly episodic, or even how the characters happen to bounce off of one another in odd scenarios. In addition to the innate risk of requiring a linear, sometimes borderline right-off-the-bat investment to understand (especially true with the advent of streaming not only making binging everything in order more accessible, but encouraging the making of shows that thrive primarily through binging by design), but there’s also the chances that the narrative that’s being offered isn’t gonna be all it’s cracked up to be. Even if you wanted to have a serious topic here and there, one could still get that out of a more contained, slice-of-life TV experience (could even make it easier for the stakes to feel more personal). 

This can especially feel that way when the project covering a certain topic happens to be a nostalgic experience. Sometimes, it can even lead to a continuous elevation of those couple works for tackling the topic of prejudice at the expense of giving another, less nostalgic endeavor a chance. That last part isn’t helped by how, at times, it feels like their comprehension of being ‘less deep’ would come down to either a borderline snobbish claim of unoriginality or believing that a quick summary is enough. For example, back to this one screencap about cartoons handling the topic of death, this clown was lamenting on the last time it happened for western animation was some early 2010s action superhero show (Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes). With the replies in mind that point out the comment’s bullshit (such as how the much more chill Harvey Beaks was able to bring up the topic of death in one episode), there ends up being not only an implied bias for high-octane action, but one that’s clearly led to some sort of dismissive attitude. On the one hand, it is understandable that the incorporation of certain topics in a work mostly intended for children to watch would be heavily appreciated, especially when looking back. But at the same time, for many cases of bringing up how an older project was able to hold up, there are similar notions to that of the sexual innuendo implementations from earlier: treating the MERE incorporation as the most that’s needed (similar to what I previously said about TS3). It frequently feels like it’s less about how one manages to handle the topic (such as things like, say, TACT) and more about giving off this self-proposed idea of higher ambition or sheer audacity. Sure, it’s neat that the original Teen Titans cartoon could claim to have tackled the topic of prejudice, but you gotta remember that it also provided this dialogue exchange for that same episode:

Starfire: “You know what it feels like to be judged simply because of how you look?”

Cyborg: “’Course I do.....I’m part robot.”

And then there are the times when those anti-SJW types have something to “say.” When basically foreshadowing a then-upcoming video, YouTuber Diregentleman made this comment about how Toph would’ve likely been called “woke” if Avatar TLA was released today, and one of those anti-SJW Anime YouTubers made this pointless video “responding” to the comment (as shown by the other screencap). In that same Anime YouTuber’s video, there were predictably numerous comments about how that wouldn’t be the case since you got yourself writers that knew not to do things like “shoving it down your throat” or “making it about character and not the agenda.” However, more often than not, when it comes to these outcries, there’s next to no clarity over when the line is drawn or what the threshold is other than surface-level dismissing. If anything, that lack of clarity can make it more obvious that there’s more of a nostalgia factor combined with a more dismissive mentality involved.  

All this, in one way or another, can realistically lead into a particularly frustrating part about this over-reliance on the nostalgia factor: when it leads into a genuinely pompous and self-righteous attitude when it comes to the era of their own childhood. Not just proclaiming the belief of cartoons being better during YOUR childhood, but willingly bringing down others (especially those who are younger) for apparently having the “wrong” experience with animation. Bits of this can already be found back when I mentioned those comments from that “western animation vs eastern europe animation” video. Man, the irony of claiming to call out certain animations for helping to create toxic relationships while, in and of itself, seemingly encouraging some harmful mentalities that involve presumed “manliness.”

For another example, there was a tweet about showing excitement over a then-upcoming episode of The Ghost And Molly McGee being dedicated to a character’s bat mitzvah, due to Jewish representation. However, thanks to the tweet’s wording, they found themself in quite a storm with many people spouting zoomer disdain for showing ignorance over what any previous classics already had their prominent Jewish characters. You have yourself a huge series of replies that, essentially, over-correct the Tweet’s wording in a manner that ends up downplaying the respective user’s chance to feel seen. As if just mentioning that some older cartoon that the user may not have heard before is going to mean much for that person’s own experiences. Getting a newer show releasing during their youth that does represent a certain group has a better chance to directly connect than just simply knowing some history of when else such representation happened from likely before they were even born. This is not helped by there being several replies (including a couple in the screencap) which imply the idea of today’s kids “not knowing good cartoons,” as well as just implicitly trying to flex. You could still respect Rugrats having a Hanukkah special while being happy that a newer cartoon is allowing another generation of those kids to be seen. YouTuber The Wacky Delhi puts this more eloquently than I could, so recommend going to the video linked. That video, in general, puts what I had to say in this whole post in pretty good words.

Granted, from my own more recent experiences, I’ve been able to, at least, find an online circle or two that’s proven to be much better about avoiding these pitfalls. Obviously, these can still bleed in now and again since that’s just the nature of the beast (Mr. Enter during the Turning Red fiasco STILL doing exactly that speaks for itself). If anything, the biggest takeaway I’m looking to give here is to broaden your own horizons on animation, even if it’s just occasional. The wider diversity in cartoons will not only help give a lesser-known work some much-needed attention, but it can also help create a stronger range of examples of animation as an art form. My other intended takeaway, relating to children that are enjoying cartoons, is to simply NOT spoil the fun for them. There still is deserved critiques to be found in little kids’ content, but shitting on it for not treating YOU like some avant-garde cinema connoisseur is NOT the right way to do it.

[aliendes]

BTS Reaction to Making you Beg (NSFW) 18+

GIFS are not mine!

BTS Reaction to making you beg

From this ask: a reaction of the boys being into begging? (as in making you beg) ty!

A/N: oof, this was fun. Thanks anon!

Warnings: unprotected sex (stob it), fingering, nipple play (wow a first for me?), blowjobs, daddy kink, cum eating, harddom!joon oof, spanking, degradation kind of, sir kink, creampie, lots of cum, squirting. Got a little carried away here lol 

Word count: 2.6k ~

Seokjin ascended on your breast again, tongue lightly teasing your hardened nipple for what felt like the millionth tonight, swirling his wet muscle along your smooth skin. It felt amazing, don’t get you wrong, but you wanted more, so much more.

“Jin, please,” you whine, feeling him pop off your breast.

“What’s that, darling?” he smirks up at you, hand coming up to twist at your other nipple. He truly loves your breasts, and he really can’t get enough of them, but he absolutely loves making you beg for him, it’s one of his biggest turn ons. 

“Please, Jin, I need more,” you whine, looking down at his smirking face between your breasts while his hands massage at them. 

“Mmm, since you asked so nicely,” he whispers, sinking lower down your body, placing light kisses on the skin of your tummy until he reaches your pubic bone. “Is this what you want?” He punctuates his question with a quick peck to your clit, not hard enough to stimulate you, just enough to tease. You let out a low moan, halfway between a whine and a groan as he continues to tease you slit by peppering kisses everywhere but where you need him.

“Jin!” you yelp as his tongue darts out to lick a long stripe up your center, “O-oh, Jin, please!”

“Mmm, I love when you beg for me, darling,” he moans, the vibration sending shockwaves straight to your core, “let me hear you.”

You yell out a string of curses as Jin starts to eat your pussy like a man starved, and he’ll have you begging for him all night.

“Open,” Yoongi whispers, standing above you, “tell me what you want.”

The two of you are in a closet backstage right now, trying to indulge in the few minutes you have together before the show starts. Yoongi is already in his concert clothes and the stylists would kill you both if you ruined his outfit, so you enticed Yoongi into cumming on your face.

“Please, daddy,” you moan quietly, not wanting to alert the others of your activities, “please give me your cum.”

Yoongi lets out a long, raspy moan at the sight of you, on your knees begging for his cum. He picks up the pace, stroking his cock a little quicker now, as you stick your tongue out to lick at his leaking tip. “Fuck, baby girl,” he whines as your tongue wraps around the head of his dick, licking up all the precum that has gathered there, “I’m gonna cum.”

“Please, daddy, please cum for me,” you whisper in the sweetest voice you can muster before taking his length in your hot mouth for a one quick suck before popping off again and looking up at him through your long lashes, “please cum on my face, want it so bad.”

“Ugh, baby,” he stutters as his hand works his shaft faster before giving it one long tug and aiming for your open mouth, “open up, baby girl, fuck that’s it, baby.”

He’s a moaning mess above you as he strokes himself to completion, hot ropes of cum landing on your tongue and cheeks. He never takes his eyes off you as you swallow down what’s on your tongue and lick around your lips to gather any that didn’t reach your mouth. When you’ve sufficiently cleaned yourself up, he reaches out his thumb, picking up the last glob of cum on your cheekbone, and feeds it to you. You happily oblige, sucking it off his digit, making him moan again, before he tucks himself carefully back into his trousers. 

“Thank you, daddy,” you chirp, standing up and smoothing your clothes out. 

“God, you’re a fucking minx. You’re gonna kill me one day.”

Hoseok drags his two fingers slowly up and down your dripping core, never pushing them inside, where you need him most. He loves to see you fall apart for him, wants to have you begging for him, before he gives it to you. 

“Please, Hobi, please I need your fingers,” you whine, arching your back off the hotel mattress. You just flew out to see your boyfriend for the weekend at one of their shows and he couldn’t wait to get you alone, so the two of you decided to skip dinner. Hoseok said he’d rather have his dessert first anyways. “Please!”

“Oh, princess,” he soothes, his other hand coming up your naked torso to play with your hardened peaks, “we’ll get there, don’t worry. Let me have my fun, I haven’t seen you in weeks. I need to worship this body.”

You moan at his words, glowing under his praise as you squirm. His fingers are slowly playing with your pussy, scissoring your lips open and then traveling back up to circle your clit, before repeating all over again. “Such a pretty pink pussy, you want my fingers, princess?”

“Mhmm,” you moan, unable to control your hips from bucking up into Hoseok’s hand, in search of anything they’ll give you, “p-please, Hobi. Need it. Haven’t touched myself in so long.”

“Yeah? Been waiting for me? God, you’re so sexy. Tell me again how much you want me.”

“Want you so bad Hobi, p-please fuck m-me!” your voice is high pitched as you whine for him to give you more, give you anything.

He twists one of your nipples between his skilled fingers while his other hand massages your labia for a moment, “Mmm, I missed hearing you beg for me.” Without warning he plunges two of his long fingers into your warm center, instantly arching up and touching all the right spots inside of you. 

“H-Hobi! O-oh God! Gonna c-cum!” you scream out as his lips descend onto your mound, sucking your swollen clit into his mouth. You’ve been so deprived of pleasure these past few weeks it doesn’t take much to push you over the edge and have you cumming all over your boyfriend’s face. After helping you ride out your high, Hoseok pulls away slowly, careful not to overstimulate you, and props himself up over your body, leaning down to capture your lips in a slow kiss. 

“God, you’re so hot. Let me show you how much I missed you.”

Another slap of skin hitting skin resounds throughout the room as Namjoon’s large hand smacks your ass cheek for the nth time tonight. “Beg for it,” he growls from behind you, hand coming down to slap against your cheeks again, “beg for this dick, like the cock slut you are.”

You’re sobbing into the pillows of your king sized bed as he slaps you again, teasing your weeping slit with the head of his massive cock from behind. He has you on all fours, begging for him to fuck you, all the while he teases your entrance with his fingers and cock. “P-please s-sir, please,” you cry out as he slaps you again, “n-need your cock!”

“Mm, yeah, gonna take me in that tight little pussy of yours?” 

“Y-yes sir! P-please sir! Need you to f-fill me up!” You beg him, leaning your forehead down on the plush pillows, pushing back slightly to rub your core against his cock. Immediately his hand comes down again, harder than before, a bruising slap as he pulls his dick away from you.

“Ah-ah, good girls wait,” he brings his dick back to your entrance, pushing just barely inside you, the burn of his tip stretching you out so deliciously, before he’s pulling back out, making you curse. He does this again, and again, slowly pushing into you, before removing himself completely. He has you a sobbing mess, mascara surely running all over your white pillowcases. “Beg for it, slut!”

“S-sir please, p-please fuck me, n-need your cock s-so bad sir!” Your brain is starting to get fuzzy as you begin to slip. 

“That’s a good girl,” he moans, pulling your hips up with his strong arms, “my good girl.” You moan at the praise as he enters you again, stilling inside you once his mushroom tip is seated within your velvety walls. “Gonna fuck you stupid,” he growls, pushing his cock all the way inside you, bumping your cervix and making you cry out, “you’d like that wouldn’t you?”

“Y-yes sir! Ah!” You’re squealing as he starts fucking into you, no cares for the neighbors with how loud you’re being. He doesn’t give you even a moment to relax as he pistons his cock in and out of you, making you cum three times around his length that night before he’s satisfied. 

You’re sitting on your knees, completely nude, hands in your lap just like Jimin likes when he enters the bedroom. You smile up at him as he approaches you, already naked from the waist down. When he reaches you, he rubs a hand along your jaw, tilting your face up to look at him. 

“Such an obedient kitten,” he praises, stroking his hardening cock in his other hand, “so pretty and waiting for me.” He releases your jaw, and walks around you, surveying your naked body. “You gonna suck my cock for me? Help me relax a little, hmm?”

“Yes, please,” you moan as he comes into view again, cock at full attention, bobbing up and down with each step he takes, “just want to please you.”

He nods, coming around to stand directly in front of you, hand still languidly stroking himself. Your mouth waters as his thumb collects the bead of precum that’s formed on his slit. “Tell me what you want, kitten.”

“Want to make you feel good, want to suck your thick cock,” he lets out a wanton moan at your words. He’s always had a slight praise kink, but he also loved to watch you fall apart for him, to beg for him to fuck you. “Please, can I?”

“Since you’re asking so nicely, kitten,” he moans as he brings his weeping tip to your mouth, letting it slip past your moist lips, “such a good girl.”

You dive right in, keeping your hands in your lap like you know he likes, sucking his length all the way into your mouth until you’re gagging around it. He’s a mess above you, head thrown back as he lets out a string of curses. You bob your head up and down, taking in as much of his cock as you can before swallowing around him. “Fuck!” he curses, pulling out abruptly from your mouth, “I’m not gonna last, baby.” He grips the base of his dick as he walks around you to the bed, sitting on the edge before patting his thigh. “Get over here and ride me.”

Taehyung has been experimenting recently with controlling your orgasms. You have to say that he’s been doing a pretty great job at learning your body and your cues when it comes to sex, and he’s become a little bit of an expert on what makes you cum. 

Right now he is trying to experiment with edging, bringing you right to the edge of your high, before bringing you back down. He’s three fingers deep in your sopping pussy, scissoring you open slowly, while his other hand plays with your clit. “Are you close, baby?”

“Mmm, Tae! P-please, s’close!” you moan loudly, unable to control your volume after how long he’s been toying with you. 

He jiggles his hand inside you, bumping against your sweet spot a couple times before twisting his digits as he fucks in and out of you. “That’s it, beg for it,” his voice is breathy, almost not there, like he’s trying to hold back. 

“P-please, let me cum! Make me c-cum Tae!” you don’t care anymore, you’ll beg all he wants, you really just want to cum. It feels like he’s been playing with you all night and the fire in your belly is burning. 

“I want you to squirt all over my hand, baby,” he moans when he feels you clench at his words, “yeah, you like that? Squirt all over me babe, c’mon.”

You scream, louder than you expected, as he starts shaking his hand up and down, rubbing violently against your g-spot, over and over again until you can’t take it anymore and you squeeze his fingers as hard as your muscles allow. It’s like a wave of electricity hits you, starting at your core and vibrating through your entire body. You completely lose yourself in the pleasure for a minute, back arching and twisting as you release all over Tae. Clear liquid gushes around his fingers as he keeps them lodged in your core, relishing in the way you clench around them. He can feel every part of you, so soft and supple around him, and he fucking loves it. 

When you finally come down, Tae pulls away from your dripping pussy so he can lean over your spent body. You whine at the feeling of his digits rubbing against your over sensitive walls as you look up at his lust blown eyes, wide with wonder. “Think you can do it again?”

“What do you want, doll?” Jungkook asks as he pistons his cock in and out of you, his voice coming out stuttered as he tries to keep his breathing even. 

“Want your cum, Kookie, please!” your head is bumping the headboard of the bed with every thrust of his hips, he’s fucking into you so hard. “P-please, Kook!” You can’t keep your voice steady as he picks up his pace even more at your words.

“Fuck, baby,” he moans, bending down to kiss you once quickly, “you can’t say shit like that, you’re gonna make me cum.”

You moan at the thought, squeezing around him. “I’m serious, K-Kook. I’m on the pill, p-please, fill me up!” You whine, nearly laughing at the shocked look on his face. His hips stutter for a moment before he slows down completely to look into your eyes.

“You’re serious?” his sweaty hair is falling around his face, making him look younger than he is, and you think his expression is adorable. You nod quickly, making a wide grin spread across his handsome features. “I can cum inside you?” He sounds like you just gifted him the most precious present. You giggle at his antics, but it slowly turns into a wanton moan as he starts fucking back into you. “Beg for it, doll.” His voice is low and gravely again, his angling upwards to hit your sweet spot he knows you love.

“P-please, Kook. P-please fill me up with your cum!”

“Fuck, baby,” he throws his head back, eyes screwing shut as his thrusts start to get sloppier, “gonna fill this pussy up. Make you mine, all mine. F-fuck, I’m cumming!”

Jungkook stills inside you as he cums. You moan loudly at the feeling of his warm cum filling you up and then seeping out of you with his shallow thrusts. When you’ve milked him completely, he looks down to where the two of you are connected, pulling his cock out slightly, before pushing it back in, lost in the way his white cum drips out of you, a mixture of both of your releases covering his member. “Shit,” he whispers, the sight too much for him as he shoves his cock deep inside you again. You feel him twitch one last time as he cums again, a smaller amount this time, but still just as pleasurable for you and you feel the warmth seep into you again. “Holy shit,” he whispers, leaning his sweaty forehead against yours, “I’ve never done that before.”

“What, cum inside someone, or cum twice?” You smirk, leaning up to place a quick kiss to his lips.

“Both. You’re fucking amazing, baby, I love you.”

“Love you, too, Kook.”