#and lots of very nice old people look just as busted as he did | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

wrrrenff · 11 months ago

Text

Breaking The Ice - Chapter 1

Attack on Titan / Shingeki No Kyojin Levi Ackerman x F! reader Synopsis: You go out with you friends to the ice skating rink. You're not really interested in ice skating but you are interested in the man sat next to you. Warning: Sexual content, P in V sex, Degradation, Spanking, Choking, 18+

Gif credits to the creator!

Skating was never really your thing. You had tried roller skating a few times and could never quite get the hang of it. Your balance has always been terrible anyhow. So when your friends asked if you wanted to come ice skating with them you were tempted to turn it down immediately. Ultimately you did end up accepting the invite since it's been a while since you've seen them and wanted to catch up. You figured you could hang out with them before and after they skate then just sit in the bleachers watching them skate and enjoy the cold air.

The day comes and you dressed really cute. What, just because you're not participating doesn't mean you can't dress up. You wore a short sleeve Peter Pan collared shirt with a black ribbon bow, a black skirt, a black and white checkered cardigan and your green lace up shoes. You thought about dressing warmer but you've always enjoyed the cold so you figured you'd be fine.

About an hour after you finish getting ready, you arrive at the skating rink. Everybody pays the admission fee then you wave to your friends as you head for the bleachers. Not many people are here today. You picked one of the many available seats and watched as your friends took to the ice. Taking out your phone, you focused on getting as many fun action shots and videos as you could. You were too distracted to realize that an older man had taken the seat right next to you.

“Which one is yours?” You jump a little before looking over at the man. He seemed to be in his late 30s, jet black hair, piercing gray eyes, and a very stoic expression. He chuckled. “Didn’t mean to scare you. I figured if I don’t skate with my kids I should at least be social. Mine are those two by the wall. The taller one is Eren and the short one is Armin.” You look to where he’s pointing. You’re pretty shocked by how old his kids are. “You look pretty young to have two teens” He smirks. “I get that a lot. My late husband and I adopted them from a pretty rough situation a while back. We both thought we would never have kids but those two busted their way into our lives.” This man had an expression of nostalgia mixed with sorrow. Before the mood could plummet too much you point to your friends. “Those three spinning around each other are mine.” You would’ve thought this man was about to have a heart attack with how shocked he looked. “You said I looked too young to have teens? You look barely twenty and you ha-”

You burst out laughing. You couldn’t help it. He really thought you gave birth to three twenty-somethings? He crossed his arms and got defensive. “What’s so funny?” You wipe away a tear from your eye and calm down enough to speak. “I’m here with my friends, not my kids.” This poor man was trying very hard to hide his embarrassment. If you weren’t in the actual conversation with him right now you’d say he was pretty convincing. All he could muster was a quiet Oh before I put my hand on his leg to reassure him that it was fine. “I’m flattered you think I look so young!” The embarrassment started to wash away as he became more comfortable with you. “So how come you're up here talking with me instead of skating with your friends?” he questioned. “Skating has never really been my thing. Besides, why skate when all of the handsome men are off the rink.” At that, the man looked at you with a fierce gaze and licked his lips.

“I’m Levi.” He stuck his hand out at you. You put your hand in his and shook it. “Nice to meet you. I’m y/n.” You lock eyes with him for a moment before really checking him out. He’s not very tall but he seems to be built. He looked very rugged. It was really doing something to you. When you met his eyes again you realized he was checking you out as well. It sent shivers down your spine. “Listen, I’m gonna be honest here. I’m attracted to you and I can tell you’re attracted to me. We’ve got nothing but time right now. Why don’t we sneak away for a bit?” The implication of what he wanted wasn’t lost on you. Without hesitation you nodded your head. Levi took your hand and led you outside to the parking lot. You wondered which car was his. You weren’t expecting his car to be a soccer mom van. You started snickering, covering your mouth with your hand to muffle the sound. Levi just looked at you annoyed. “It’s convenient okay.” You calmed down and he helped you into the back seat.

Normally you’re very good about stranger danger and would never get into the van of someone you met five minutes ago. But right now you really couldn’t care less. You were gonna get dicked down or die trying. As soon as the door closed you were on him, kissing each other with a fiery passion. You both fell onto the seat, you landed on his lap basically straddling him. He grabbed you waist to stabilize you while your hands found purchase in his hair. Sloppy, impatient kisses and roaming hands made you feel like you were soaring. Levi’s hands wandered down to your ass and squeezed. You gasped, allowing his tongue to enter your mouth. His exploring tongue has you moaning. You wanted more. Experimentally, you ground your hips down on him causing a filthy moan from the man under you. You pulled away from him and locked eyes. “Need you. Now.” Levi chuckled. “So impatient, aren’t we?” You didn’t answer. Instead you bucked your hips against him again. His eyes were dilated, eyelids drooping. “On your hands and knees.”

Without a second of hesitation, you did as he commanded. Before you were fully in place, Levi lifted your skirt and pulled down your underwear. “Already so wet.” You couldn’t handle how badly you wanted him. You reached behind you to grab at his bulge but his strong hand stopped you. “So fucking needy. It’s pathetic.” He pins your arms behind your back and undoes his pants with his other hand. Without warning he slams his cock into you, pushing as deep in as possible. You both moaned at the feeling. He felt big, girthy. You only just started but you wanted release and you wanted it quick. You started bouncing on his dick before he pulled you up so that your back was against his chest and you couldn’t move against him as easily. “Such a brat. I’m the one in charge here. You’re just my hole” He smacked your ass before clamming into you with a relentless force. This angle was making it so easy for him to hit you in just the right spot. You were spitting obscenities, overwhelmed by how good he was making you feel. He was whispering words of encouragement in your ear that were stirring your core and bringing you that much closer. “You're taking me so well. Such a good slut for me.” He sped up his thrusts and brought that hand that wasn’t detaining you to choke you. Not enough to hurt but just enough to make your head spin. The pleasure was getting you much. You were getting close and Levi could tell by how tight you were getting. He let go of your arms and reached a had down in front of you and started rubbing circles on your clit. That was all you needed for the coil to snap and you came, gasping for air and spasming. Levi didn’t let up, chasing his own release and sending you into overstimulation. A moment later he was grunting in your ear, hand tightening on your throat as you felt heat filling you up.

You both collapse onto the seat and just take a minute to collect yourself before you speak. “Fuck, I needed that.” Levi let out a breathless laugh before patting your ass gently and reaching for the paper towels sitting on his center console. Wordlessly he started cleaning you before cleaning himself and discarding the paper towels and pulling your underwear back up. As he puts his pants back on he looks at you with a calm expression. “That was great but we should head back before anyone looks for us.” He stuck out his hand to help you up and out of the van. As much as you didn’t want to go back you conceded. You both walked back to the rink in a comfortable silence. Upon entering you both looked for the people you’d originally arrived here with to find they were all still on the ice. “Here, come with me.” Before you could even realize what was happening, Levi was pulling you towards the cafe and buying you a bottle of water. You were about to protest and suggest that you pay but he spoke first. “Please, after what I just did with you, it’s the least I could do.” You swooned and took a swig from the bottle. As you both walked back to your place in the bleachers you were thinking about you didn’t want this day to end. You looked at Levi who was already staring at you. Your face darkened a bit and you quickly looked away. He smirked and brought your face back to his. “What, I can fuck your brains out and but it’s eye contact that gets you all shy?” You chuckled nervously. “I was just thinking, I had fun. I’m pretty sure you had fun. What If we did this again.” He scoffed but there was a playful tone to it. “You really are a needy brat, huh? Here.” He hands you his phone that hand a new contact page up and ready. And just the thought of more Levi already had you daydreaming for next time.

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

Next Chapter

117 notes · View notes

vinnywinnii · 6 months ago

Text

I haven’t written in a while, so I got a request from a friend! This is based off of their oc, personalized for them. 🤞

You and Viktor were friends as kids, both being slightly out of the ordinary. You guys got along. You never got along with anyone else because they would make fun of you, but Viktor never did any of that. He always was nice and respectful, even as a young boy. You were quite.. odd. You were a Bat Vastaya; you had a short structure, a little muscular, a mostly human form…, but you had big perky bat ears, big bat wings, claws on fingers and toes, and your feet were almost paw like.

Other than that, you were perfect. You had pretty dark brown hair, styled into a shaggy, shoulder length wolf cut and curtain bangs, beautiful tan skin with faint freckled on cheeks and bridge of nose, dark brown eyes, and the claws on your nails were painted black.

He thought you were beautiful either way, though he never said that. You see a lot of Bat Vastayas’ in the under city, but kids are still mean. They’ll be assholes just to be mean. So you stuck around Viktor.

(This is as kids)

He always hung around this nice river, building toys out of scraps or reading. You always adored him. You were distant at first, but you soon would sit next to him and talk with him.

“Uhm.. how’s your day going?” You ask him, the sounds of the water running though the stream almost overpowering your voice.

“..It’s going good. How’s your day going?” He says simply. He has this soft, sweet voice. His voice is laced with a Czech accent, which makes him even cuter. You can tell you guys will be good friends

Ever since that conversation, you guys talked much more. You learned about his interests and past, and he learned about yours. Even a few years passed, making you guys 14 now. Then he left to live in piltover: the opposite of where you live, the undercity.

You were devastated. But you learned to get over it. You never hung out with anyone else, besides this group when you turned 20. You grew up and started causing a bit of trouble, since you grew up in a pretty bad place. Zaun isn’t exactly the best.

You decided to start some trouble, you and your group breaking into the lab he was working in. You didn’t know he was working, you even almost forgot about him. He left you and everyone else for some stupid piltover people, you shouldn’t care. But you do.

You guys find the nearest window of the lab (after getting into piltover.) and broke in. Viktor wasn’t in the lab at that point. He was probably getting some water. Your group then spread out, leaving you rummaging through the lab.

You felt slightly annoyed, not finding anything very interesting or alluring. Your group just ended up running through the halls, not cautious of getting caught. You then looked down at the desk and saw a paper. It looked similar to Viktor’s old notebook from all those years ago.

You felt yourself smile softly, remembering his rare smile. You and him were similar. You never smiled or showed much emotion. Only together were you guys happy. You only knew him for 4 years as kids, but you still sometimes dream of his voice. It gets you all emotional. You missed him dearly.

Suddenly, you hear someone bust through the door. You look back, seeing Viktor’s slim, lanky form. You almost don’t believe it. You look up at him, almost forgetting you weren’t supposed to get caught. He didn’t seem to notice you right away; he was stuck in place.

“Trixi..? I haven’t seen you in years..” he says, his eyes wide. He even lets out a small chuckle, making sure to try to be polite and respectful. His eyes wander down your body, then back up to your eyes. “You look.. very lovely. Well, besides the fact that you broke into my lab.”

You immediately chuckle, checking him out a bit. “What does me breaking into your lab have to do with my looks?” You tease, laughing a little. You find yourself doing the same thing to him, looking at his body then back to his eyes. You even feel a bit happy to see him, despite the teasing.

He smiles at you, taking a step closer to you. “Seems the attitude never left, hm?” He chuckles. He’s enjoying seeing you again, taking your sight in as well. He’s interested in your outfits since you dressed a little differently than when you were a teenager. Not in a bad way, of course. You look better than when he last saw you.

He takes a seat on his chair at his desk, patting the seat next to him. You then sit next to him, his eyes wandering around your face.

You look the same, your hair and face at least. You really grew into your body as they say. He doesn’t look much different either, just a bit…taller. His jaw structure definitely got sharper, and his eyes are a little hardened. But it looks hot on him.

You chuckle after he had been staring for a bit longer than he would like. “You’re staring.” You state, just to tease him a bit. He chuckles at that, taking a chance to maybe flirt.

“How could I not? You look lovely.. absolutely stunning.” He says as his eyes wander back to his notebook. “Your eyes are very pretty, and you have a beautifully shaped body… not that that’s all I want, of course. You look really beautiful, that’s all.” He sighs, chuckling a bit.

You get slightly flustered at that, but you play it off nicely. Gotta keep up that stoic persona, hm? You laugh slightly. “I can say the same for you. You definitely grew up a bit...” you reply.

You always had a crush on him, maybe that’s why you took it the hardest when he left to move to piltover. But you never told him. You can feel that feeling you had as a kid rise in your heart a bit. The feeling of wanting to hold his hand and kiss him. That warm feeling in your cheeks or body whenever you spoke to him..

You even seem to admire him a bit, looking at his sharp jawline and his beautiful amber eyes. His eyes have always been a beautiful color, looking almost yellow. You often caught yourself staring into his eyes when you saw him. He was a cute kid, now he’s a handsome man. Really handsome.

You looked at the birthmark above his lips, the one you always thought made him look pretty. He looks really good. Then you do something that you never thought you’d do.

You kiss him gently, your hand finding its way to his cheek. He looks surprised, but the feeling of your lips on his isn’t unpleasant in the slightest. He hasn’t had touch or anyone’s lips on his in a while, so even the smallest; most innocent thing like a kiss is getting him excited. He isn’t one to get intimate with someone in his lab, but he can’t help it when it’s you.

He strokes your cheek gently, not wanting to stop. His face is more hardened than soft, he’s focusing on your lips on his. He’s enjoying this a lot. He moves his hands to your hips, pulling you from your seat and into his lap. He then pulls away from the kiss and looks up at you.

“You look.. so nice.” He utters, his voice slightly raspy. He’s enjoying your body on his lap, the way your ass presses against his member through his pants. He’s been lonely for a few years, he seems needy for at least something.

You look down at him, not knowing what to say. You do feel your face flushed, though. “My group is in the building, they could walk in any time.” You state. You can feel yourself getting kinda excited by this as well, so you feel conflicted.

He smirks slightly, the neediness in his voice evident. “Then be quiet, yeah..?” He mutters. You know he’s really excited, and he can sense you are as well. He just hopes you enjoy this. He’s gonna make sure you do.

You can feel his cock hard under your hips, his pale face is flushed a bit as well. He’s just waiting for you to make a rash move so he can continue. It’s making him feel a bit aggressive, like he wants to hurt you. But not in a bad way. He wants to fuck you until you’re begging him to stop. He wants you to enjoy being overstimulated, but he can’t do that if you don’t consent.

You finally nod, your hand gripping his belt and undoing it for him. “God, you’ve definitely grown.. we’ve both grown up a bit, hm?” He says, his voice slightly breathless. He seems almost nervous, but that’s not gonna stop him from feeling you.

He gets his pants down and his boxers down, his hands moving down to the button of your jeans. He looks you right in your eyes while he gets your pants down and off of your body. He’s gonna enjoy this as much as he can.

“Your body is beautiful.. and your face is so lovely, love.” He praises, pulling your body closer by your hips. His grip on your hips is tight, his nails almost digging into your hips.

You can’t lie to yourself, you definitely feel aroused by this. Your underwear is soaked just by a little praise and him actually wanting you. “You don’t look to bad yourself..” you mumble, your breathing slightly heavily.

“This isn’t a very appropriate way to have a reunion.” He whispers, grinding against your wet cunt teasingly. He has this smirk on his face, he’s starting to get cocky.

“You’re the one that pulled me into your lap.” You state while trying not to groan quietly. He reaches down, his fingers grazing your underwear. He looks up at you while feeling how soaked you’ve become, chuckling a little.

“You don’t have to be so cold with me, you can admit you like this.” He states, kissing your neck gently. He moves your undergarments to the side, holding your hips to hover over his hard shaft. His heart is beating fast, and so is yours. You can practically feel how much you want this by your panting.

You don’t say anything, but you do shift your weight onto his cock. He sinks into you slowly, a low groan escaping his mouth. “Oh, god..” he moans quietly, gasping a little. He hasn’t felt this in a while..

He grips your hips a bit tighter, moving you gently and slowly. No matter how much he wants to get rougher. “Jesus, Trixi.. you-.. oh my..” he can’t even form the correct words. He didn’t expect this to feel this good. You’re gasping slightly, struggling a little to adjust to him. You didn’t expect him to be as big as he is.

He’s getting so carried away, he barely notices. He’s really struggling. “You’re so fucking beautiful like this.. take it, for me. I need you to take me..” he gasps in ecstasy. He can’t focus on anything, his brain is only focused on you.

He starts to move you a bit rougher on his member, letting out groans. He barely hears the needy looks on your face and your whimpers when he shoves you down on his cock. He notices, and it helps him get off. The sounds of you feeling good and desperate because of him makes him feel like he’ll cum right then.

“Oh god, there you go.. that’s it..” He groans while looking up at you on his lap. You’re perfect, he almost fits you perfectly. his eyes are half-lidded while he stares up at you. He slips in and out of you perfectly as well, he can’t get enough. “That’s such a good girl.. just keep that up..” he gasps, his words almost coming out as whines. He feels like he’s getting close to cumming.

“C‘mon, I wanna hear that pretty mouth of yours speak.” He mumbles, his other hand stroking your cheek. You aren’t even sure if you can speak correctly right now. You’re in pure ecstasy, but you don’t wanna let that be known by your voice. He moves a bit faster, his hips meeting yours while his buck into you deeper.

You let out a loud moan at that, panting now and your eyes closing. “I- I can’t..” you gasp, your face flushed. You’ve always been so distant, so seeing you so worked up is making him feel so much more aroused. Jesus, your hair a mess and your skin covered in a thin layer of sweat is gonna set him off.

“Keep trying, dear.. keep trying to speak for me..” He drives himself deeper inside of you, feeling your walls clamp down on his cock. He lets out a small whimper at that feeling, cursing softly under his breath. He can’t handle all of this, he’ll finish soon if you don’t stop being this beautiful for him.

You’re so close to finishing, the edge of that sweet relief so close. Viktor can tell by how tense you are, and how much of a mess you’ve become. He moves a bit faster, now fully inside of you. His fingers move to your clit, rubbing over it lightly. He knows you’re sensitive.

“Finish for me, pretty girl.” He gasps as he plants gentle kisses on your neck. Oh god, he’s so hot. How is he so hot, yet so respectful? He’s perfect. He feels your back arch slightly, your walls clamping his cock perfectly as he continues to ram it inside of you. “That’s it. That’s my girl.” He mumbles.

He stares up at you, obviously close to cumming as well. You feel so perfect, he’s struggling not to overwhelm you with his words or his actions. He gasps, finishing right after you.

He wraps his arms around your waist, burying his face into your neck and panting slightly. He doesn’t dare to speak yet. He doesn’t wanna ruin the mood with his words. He wants you to feel perfect.

He quickly kisses your lips, holding your cheek in his hand. Viktor’s hair is a mess, his cheeks are flushed, he looks as if he’s in love with you.. he looks so attractive. “Viktor.. you’re perfect.” You mumble as you bury your face into his neck.

He wraps his arms around you, pulling out and sitting up and starting to dress. He checks in on you while he gets dressed, and once he finishes getting dressed he kisses you everywhere. He kisses your neck, your cheeks, your whole face. He wants you to know you’re loved. He even offers to help you get dressed. He might be just as head-over-heels for you as he was when you were teenagers.

THE ENDDDDD

(I was lowkey rushing and I’m too tired to look back on this and correct anything that could be wrong with it. It is currently 3:14, I’M TOO TIRED FOR THIS😭)

#arcane #viktor x reader #viktor arcane #arcane fanfic #fanfic #arcane smut #slow burn #smut #female reader #arcane oc

39 notes · View notes

desdemonafictional · 9 months ago

Text

The Woman Called...

Fujiko Mine was born into a family that did not consider itself poor, on account of they could afford to eat meat every week or so, unlike some families they knew who couldn’t afford it at all. Those were poor families, her mother would have said, not us.

Of course, they had been poor. They had been dirt poor. They had been secondhand shoes bought three sizes too big so you can grow into them, get slapped for breaking a dish at dinner, too-proud-to-beg poor. Whatever warm family feelings they might have had for each other were strained to the point of fraying by the time Fujiko entered middle school.

At age 12, Fujiko had looked around herself at the world—at the shining elegant faces in advertisements, at the delicate patisseries where it would have cost as much for one cake as her mother spent on dinner for all four of them, at the sneering faces of girls who had more than she ever had just for the stupid fortune of being born to a better class of family—and Fujiko Mine had come to a conclusion. Her conclusion was thus: the world was demonstrably not fair. And if the world was not fair, then what was the point in playing fair while the other side went on cheating?

Dumb luck might have given other girls family connections, money, and an easy life, but Fujiko had something most of them didn’t.

Fujiko was beautiful.

At age 14, she measured her bust religiously, noting the centimeters of growth and calculating her seams. She searched her face for imperfections and rationed out dollops of pale foundation as if the cream was gold. She walked tall, wore her hair short, and stood on tip-toe when she couldn’t wedge rags into her shoes. Men had already started to notice her years ago, but the extra help never went astray.

One day, on her way to school, there had been a man waiting for her a few blocks away. He explained that if she would come to dinner with him, he would buy her a beautiful new jacket for the winter, so she wouldn’t have to wear that old ratty one with the patches. Of course, she said yes.

He was a very nice man, as far as such men went. He took her shopping. He told her she was beautiful.

“You probably expect a story like that to end in tragedy,” Fujiko said, examining her cigarette with vague contempt. “Poor dumb little girl in the spider’s parlor. What was he hiding, what did he do, how did he hurt her? Well it was fine. Nothing happened. After a few weeks he went back to his sad little housewife in Kanto and lived a normal life, probably never thought about Fujiko Mine again. But I had the jacket.”

There’s an impermeable barrier that separates the poor from the rich, and it’s all quantified in clothes. The better you dress, the more people believe you belong. A ragged slob off the street would be turned out of a high-end store before she even knew what was happening, for fear that she’d pocket something nice with her greedy nasty little hands. But the same girl, dressed in a nice coat that obviously cost a salaryman quite a lot of money? Oh, why would she steal? She’s obviously doing just fine. So come in, come in, if you have money to spend.

“I worked my way up,” she said, and took a drag. Her elegant red nails alighted only delicately on anything she touched. “Shirts first, then dresses. Just slightly above my class. Once you have slightly nicer down, you can shift another class up. But people notice if your shoes are wrong, it’s one of the first things to give you away when you don’t belong. Shoes are expensive. They’re hard to fit in your sleeve. So I worked at the hostess club for months to afford a pair of new leather shoes.”

At the hostess club, she met a lot of new types of men. She was too young to work at an above-board club, so she worked at a shadier one instead, the kind where touching was alright. At least up to a point. Some of the girls would call security on a handsy drunk, but Fujiko didn’t want their help—she’d deal with it herself, on her own terms. Anyway, a man who was busy grabbing a breast was probably not paying attention to his wallet. And he probably wouldn’t remember how much he spent, either.

She bought the shoes. She thought about quitting. And then she stayed anyway.

“I was good at getting men to buy drinks,” she said, “and I had a system for swapping out empty glasses with half drunk glasses. I used to hide them in the corner of the cushions. Or under my skirt. I was very good at getting other people to drink.”

She ashed her cigarette with a careless flick, her nails like quick shining beetles taking off.

“But it turned out one of those men I’d been getting to drink was a Yakuza mid-boss, the ambitious type, you know? And so one day this asshole pulls me aside as I’m leaving work—”

Sunglasses at night, that’s mostly what she remembered. Long jacket, with the sleeves pushed up to show the edges of tattoos. He’d smiled like a tiger on a diet, ever so polite, banked hunger and a rough rolling accent.

“I took the job, of course,” Fujiko said. “It wasn’t like I was attached to the guy, or anything. I let him take me home after a shift a few nights later, and when I had him alone and naked, I opened the front door for his rival. The trouble is,” and here, she contemplated the glowing cherry between her fingers, “once you’ve taken blood money, you can never really go back. You know how it is. There were always more men in sunglasses, always more jobs, always more money, and always more things to hide.”

She finished off the cigarette with a long, contemplative drag.

“One day you look up, and you realize that little by little, without noticing it, you’ve become someone who can’t go home.”

The silk of her dressing gown fluttered translucent and pink against her thigh as she stood. The wide high window glowed verdant with morning light over the garden that several men worked quietly and invisibly each week to maintain. She stood in front of the glass, staring out, still except for the restless flicking of her fingers at her side. Her shoulders tensed, like a cat watching a bird just out of reach.

Then, of course, there had been Poon. He hadn’t called her beautiful. He’d called her clever. Deadly. He’d admired that she was ruthless. He’d opened his hand, his portfolio, his heart, and offered her the chance to be more than set dressing. To take partnership in the business where for so long she’d been only pawn. Teacher, lover, friend—escape, ensnarement, she had wanted to be him, and yet she had wanted to be more than him. Everything she had was his, and the worst part was that he held nothing back. He gave and gave, and the more he gave the less she had.

They’d been unstoppable. They’d been a cataclysm. They’d been the golden pair. And when he died, he’d gutted her of everything he’d been.

“I liked killing less than the hostess work,” she remarked to the window. “But the hours were better.”

And then she turned, and smiled a wicked, insouciant smile.

“Of course, those days are long behind me,” she purred. “I’m a good girl now.” She dripped like water across the lounge, graceful legs and trailing silk, to climb into the lap of the man who meant to hire her.

“Silly me, how I’m going on. I’m afraid I’ve quite lost my head around you, Mister…?”

“Lupin,” the man said, and his eyes reluctantly tore up from the place where her thigh was pressed to his side. “The Third.”

“How distinguished,” she said. She drew her fingers up along the length of his neck, grazing his ear. His pupils dilated. It didn’t matter what she’d said, really; he wasn’t listening. Men like him never did.

Easy money, she thought. I’ll have him chewed up in a week.

“So what was it you wanted done, exactly?” she asked.

#lupin iii #part one #character study

46 notes · View notes

rdng1230 · 5 months ago

Note

what movies would tommy make them watch for movie night? in your correct opinion <3

GAH I WAS LITERALLY BUSY READING YOUR FIC. the "Tommy was Buck's first crush as a kid and now here he is" one, Not even joking I've already sent it to people on three different continents. I owe you my life.

Anywho!!!! God I am so hyper specific about how I pick out movies depending on the day/vibe/etc and I feel like Tommy would be similar (but he'd be about 10000% more chill about it than me, I am a goddamn tyrant) Hmmmmmm ok Here's a very random assortment of movies I think he'd suggest and the attached circumstances that would lead him to suggest it.

Just in general, I think Mr. "The world started the day I was born" is going to still have a giant list of pre 90's films he's not gotten to yet and Tommy makes it his goddamn mission in life to show Evan what he's been missing. I tried to avoid the movies that Buck would've probably already gotten to like The Princess Bride, Wizard of Oz, The Godfather, the Breakfast Club, etc. I wanted ones that would be like the number 4 on the top 3 must watch list of whatever category.

I already wrote a scene in my fic of this but Tommy loves Moonstruck and they watch it after a nice night in with Italian food from Tommy's Nonna.

Chim is downright offended when he finds out Buck and Tommy watched Lethal Weapon without him, but ummm.... it was probably better he wasn't there.

Ok picture this, its a hot day, maybe a little cloudy. Tommy and Buck are in the mood for something sappy. Buck keeps telling Tommy they have got to start knocking some things off the 'Audrey Hepburn' list, but neither of them are feeling very '50's. Buck's wrist is busted from an overly risky move at work and Tommy gets an evil glint in his eye. They end up watching Always (Which is about pilots during wild fire season, the main pilot pulls something too risky and dies, and he ends up in the afterlife where his ghost mentor is played by Audrey Hepburn) the whole time Buck's getting teary and he keeps saying "Oh I hate you" to Tommy as sad moments in the movie happen. He squeezes Tommy's hand, a silent promise that he'll be more careful (and that Tommy better be careful at work too because he'd kill him again if ghost Tommy behaved the way the ghost protagonist did in the movie.) Smoke Gets In Your Eyes gets put on their wedding playlist.

I can't remember if I wrote this down somewhere or if I just thought about it a lot but Buck really takes to the Nick and Nora movies from the 30's and Buck is so endeared by Tommy's phoney transatlantic accent. it become's a running joke with them and the first time Buck responds with his own equally dorky accent Tommy has to physically bite down from saying I love you because its way too soon and he doesn't want to freak him out.

This is cheating a little because this movies only like 10 years old but They find out they both love the Secret Life of Walter Mitty. It's one of the movies that inspired Buck to go out and become something, and he watched it a lot, particularly during his cowboy era. Tommy loves it because its a movie about being brave enough to let yourself grow. Buck makes a lot of "Major Tom" jokes afterwards.

Buck loves Sleepless in Seattle (one of the one's he had knocked off the classics list), but he's never seen An Affair to Remember because the clips in Sleepless always made it look way sadder than it actually was. Tommy's like "Ok it is sad at some parts but just trust me" Tommy realizes he's created a monster with Buck's Cary Grant crush.

Oh also Tommy loves the Holiday as well as Love Actually and they make it a double feature every year in mid December (although Tommy does put it on year round) as a side note, I also watch Love Actually way too much and eventually I will write a fic defending that movie and going into angsty details about the soundtrack using Tommy to voice all of my thoughts, apologies in advance.

#I'm really interested to see what would happen if you ask me this question on a moody fall day. lets reconvene in 4 months ok?#movies are so seasonal to me I will forget my favorite movies of all time if it aint the season for em #bucktommy #Tommy kinard #Evan buckley

22 notes · View notes

dross-the-fish · 1 year ago

Note

I saw your LO post and something stuck out to me. Most people focus on Hades as a love interest but you made the case that Persephone isn't wife material and I wondered if you could elaborate on that.

I presume you're talking about this post.

I stand by what I said.

This pink teenager isn't wife material, no adult over the age of 25 should look twice at her. This is because this character is functionally a child.

She's technically the physical equivalent of 19 but feels alarmingly younger than that because of her background and upbringing. Hades is supposedly in his 40's and has a full time job and his own assets. At my age and current life stage I'm actually a lot closer to where he's at than I am where she is and I cannot fathom what her appeal would be to anyone outside of her age group.

What is the allure? Is it the way adding her as a household driver would skyrocket someone's car insurance? Is it the way they'd pretty much be guaranteed to have to finish raising her? Instead of coming home after busting your ass at work and having another grown-up to talk to, you'd have to go through the emotional labor of having to play parent/teacher to this child who probably doesn't know how to write a resume and has never had to experience the mental, physical and financial burden of running a household. If you were to date someone like Persephone you'd have to be ok with never getting any kind of mental, emotional, or financial reciprocity because she's not equipped to function in an adult relationship as an equal partner.

That's a HUGE thing and when you get to be my age you will care about these things a lot more than you care about the frivolous "dating" elements that tend to be the focus of younger people's relationships.

Persephone would be incapable of relating to a character like Hades in any meaningful way and while it's cute, I guess, that she's "nice", nice isn't enough of a foundation to build a long term relationship. Due to her lack of age and experience she's not capable of giving advice or even actual comfort if someone had to come to her with typical adult concerns. At best she'd maybe be able to give empty sympathy and, I'll tell you right now, empty sympathy gets old fast.

A very long time ago I dated someone who was my age but at a totally different phase of life and it was a huge mistake. I'd try to talk to her about my job or an apartment I was considering renting and she'd just give me this glazed look like I was speaking another language. The only things I could talk to her about were media or college so when I needed to talk to another grown-up about the very real things I was going through (feelings of inadequacy at my job, concern over financial stability, finding affordable housing) I had NO ONE, because she had never had to worry about any of those things and couldn't comprehend how serious these concerns were. I think the last straw was when I wanted to go do something and she had to ask her parents for money and permission first.

We were both 22 and I had already had a job and my own car for 3 years and the idea of asking my parents for money or permission to do anything seemed ludicrous.

To be clear I don't blame her for that, everyone grows at a different rate and some people get to certain stages later than others, but it did really highlight that this wasn't a person I should continue to date and not someone I could ever feel like I was on equal footing with because she still lived and behaved like a teenager. We were the same age, but sometimes I felt like I was taking on a role that should have been filled by her parents and nothing kills a romantic mood like feeling like the only adult in the room is you.

So yeah, someone like Persephone shouldn't even be trying to start serious relationships, she should be learning how to navigate through life with her peers, people who are also still learning crucial life lessons. But that's not what's going to happen. There's something incredibly gross about the fact that the one who's going to have to teach her how to be a functional adult is the 40 year old man who's eventually going to marry her.

26 notes · View notes

silkenblankets · 1 year ago

Text

Master was driving.

Did you know that there’s these massive metal horses that just carry people around? Like you sit on the inside and it’s kinda cushiony and leathery and Master sits behind a wheel and we move?! I just get excited every time!

I think I was too excited. Bouncing up and down and-

“Gracie.”

Master had a very deep and grueling voice. Made my butt sit still in the seat that’s for sure.

“Thank you. What do you do now?”

Oh, I know! I looked at him with nervous eyes before I reached for my seat belt.

“Good, very good.”

I brought it over my chest, just as he had taught me. It was such a weird concept… why did I need a piece of fabric around me when we ride in the fun car?

I watched as Master gripped onto the strange handle by the steering wheel, pulling it down before the car erupted into life.

I think I know where we were going.

I have lots of different Masters now. The one that I think owns me is Master Art. I’m not supposed to know his name, but Master Loves calls him Art so I think his name is Art… a bit weird…

And Master Loves! That’s the Master driving right now. I don’t know his actual name, but I call him Master Loves because he’s always there when I’m really scared and alone. Master Art puts me into a really scary bed, ties me down and it’s just nice to have Master Loves there to stroke my hair and talk to me. I’m never alone…

I looked at Master nervously… I think we were going to visit Master Art…

Well she lost her excitement quick.

Her name’s Gracie. She’s a pet, I think about twenty years old. Yeah, I love her. She’s not hard to love.

I really, really don’t like pets. I’m not against it or anything, people can do whatever they want— but the concept is just as stupid as owning a dog. But I’m not heartless.

Buddy of mine is a cop, must’ve busted a drug ring or something— again I don’t care. Found a bunch of dead pets, I guess they thought they were all dead before Gracie rose her head from the pile of deceased bodies. Made my buddy pee himself for the first time since he was an infant.

And let me tell you, there was good reason they thought she was dead. Her legs had been sawed off.

Wasn’t illegal to kill your pet, so they couldn’t press charges on the crooks before they could get them for all of their drugs. Left Gracie homeless, and they couldn’t just let her free she’s been a pet her entire life. Plus she had an expensive medical journey ahead of her, who would want her?

Me. I did. What was I supposed to do? The plan was to euthanize her, but I met her and I was like— well this thing can’t die. Nobody is seriously gonna do something?

So here I am, on my way to her fifth doctor’s visit this week alone. My buddy Arthur has been a godsend, I dunno how we would’ve been doing this without him.

Like I always did, I stopped and picked her up a milkshake. Keep her morale up, make sure she didn’t hate me at the end of this—

The way her eyes lit up when I handed her the fifth Oreo milkshake she’s had this week just made my day. Everything was going to be alright.

When we pulled into the hospital, I scooped up the little body into a bridal carry as she happily sipped at the conclusion of her drink.

Getting a bit tired of this…

#whump #whumpblr #whump writing #whump drabble #whump scenario #whump prompts #whump prompt #pet whump #whumpee #caretaker #whump fic #whump comfort #whump community #whump tropes #emotional whump #lady whump #female whumpee

21 notes · View notes

bizarre-blorbo-bracket · 1 year ago

Text

Round 1 poll 23: Judas Iscariot from the Bible vs Reynard the Fox from mideaval European Folklore

Propaganda under the cut:

Judas Iscariot

so i've always been sort of fascinated with the judas kiss as a thing in the bible. i was just always like dang it's wild that that exists. i would attempt to draw/paint/sketch it constantly in high school and i didn't really know why. the way i learned the name of the garden of gethsemane properly was one time i was feeling extremely faint as one does and as i was gripping my head on the floor of the bathroom, face a few inches from the tile, i just heard gethsemane, gethsemane, gethsemane repeating in my head over and over again. and i was like what the fuck is gethsemane and i looked it up and i was like OH. so fast forward a little little bit and i watch the last days of judas iscariot at a formative teenage year of my life and i am WOWED. i watch that last scene with jesus and judas MANY MANY TIMES. i'm OBSESSED i want to carve it out and eat it. after watching the play in full i show it to my actually catholic friend. she enjoys it. something about judas in that play clicks for me, and suddenly there's this whole context for my relationship with judas that makes a lot of sense to me, a traumatized former catholic. i become a HOUND for all media with judas in it. i am like a connoisseur and archive. i am just obsessed with it. i listen to clown bible in full. it makes me cry every time i listen to it. JUDAS by the reverent marigold WRECKS me because it's explicitly about judas as a scapegoat as an allegory for the trans experience with religion and it is a BANGER. like it's so good. i buy a copy of the script of the last days, of corpus christi by terrence mcnally, of judas by jeff loveness. i listen to several versions of jesus christ superstar in full and i am WOWED i did not expect it to be that good. someone on tiktok says that trans men's vocal chords thicken like cis men's on testosterone but don't lengthen, and that these shorter vocal chords make it easier for us to sing in a strong, natural falsetto. and i think about how jcs is full of really high tenors and briefly i start drawing red lines all over my life like, BOY HAS VISION OF GETHSEMANE AND IS TRANS BECAUSE THE UNIVERSE WANTS HIM TO PLAY A PRINCIPLE ROLE IN JCS??? and it's a brief lapse in sanity that i don't take seriously but one of my favorite jcs jesuses also had a weirdly prophetic vision of himself playing the part in jcs (i'm obsessed with him), and i'm like okay. i don't know what to do with all that information. anyway. i haven't played anyone in jcs and likely never will but i am still very attached to judas as like a mythological figure and symbol. i wrote an essay about him for an essay class that ended up being 19 pages unspaced. prof was warned beforehand that it was going to be long and she was very nice and encouraging about it um so thank god for that. yeah i have the absolute weirdest relationship with judas. and it has only been magnified with each new media and seeing people's various takes on judas as either redemptive/antihero/tragic figure/scapegoat/etc etc etc. currently obsessed with the parallels between him and jesus and him and mary magdalene in jcs. jcs ended up kind of extending the obsession to the three of them. i have a bust of jesus looking so so forlorn in my room. impulse buy. anyway. love him deeply obsessed with him turned me insane i think

Reynard the Fox

I feel like a mega weirdo for finding this medieval archetypal creature so endearing, especially considering the atrocities he commits in the stories he’s a part of. There’s just something so fun about a really old story about a bunch of morally grey animals engaging in shenanigans meant to satirize and mirror our society.

#judas iscarot #bible #reynard the fox #folklore

29 notes · View notes

ase-trollplays · 5 months ago

Text

When Everything Is Gone

It felt strange being back in their old stomping grounds after half a sweep away. From the outside, things looked as good as they ever did, but Amprus knew these streets, these people, the atmosphere. They knew this place as though they lived their whole life there, so the change was felt in an instant.

Something was very, very wrong.

The first thing they noticed were the hemoanons in suits that walked the streets and ran the businesses. The second thing was the lack of Marked. Not a single troll could be found with a black band on their horns, a stark contrast to the city they remembered. There even seemed to be less people around now. Businesses they used to frequent were gone, and the number of hiveless trolls was concerning considering how rare a sight it used to be.

They spent the whole night investigating and taking notice of all the changes and problems they saw. Some things were an improvement such as the soup kitchen and the hiveless shelter, both of which were packed with desperate trolls. However, they couldn't abide the multitude of other issues. The entire city's vibes were off, and they needed answers. As soon as daylight broke, they made their way to a familiar apartment complex to talk with an old friend.

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

A young rustblood, one Vallen Shonee, sits in the living room of his apartment with his gecko-frog lusus sleeping in its enclosure. He's in the middle of taking apart the tv remote when you throw open the front door and stomp your way in. He jolts and drops the remote on the floor before giving you a glare.

"Knock knock! Who is it? It's me, Amprus! Oh cool, come right in," he deadpans and stands up from the couch. "Nice pajamas, by the way. You're a little early for the sleepover, though."

You march up to him and grab him by the collar so you can force him down to your eye level. He yelps and shoves you off of him. "Easy, killer! Since when can't you take a joke?"

"What the hell is going on around here!?" you demand as he smooths out his shirt.

"I was minding my business and you busted in and assaulted me!"

"Not that, you idiot! The city! Everything's wrong!"

"How do you not know? You practically live here. ... No, wait. You... You died sweeps ago. You're dead," Vallen said as he looked down at them. He placed a hand on his head as realization clicked in his mind. "You're dead, so... I--"

"You're dreaming. This is a dream. I'm really here, though. TLDR ghost powers," you tell him impatiently. He sits back down on the couch, gathers the remote pieces, and resumes dismantling it. He lets out a big, long sigh as he thinks about what to say next.

"The Grey Mob took over," he finally says after what feels like forever. Your eyes widen at that, and your confusion and shock is quickly converted to anger and disbelief. You slap the remote out of his hands and once again grab him by the collar. This time he doesn't fight you.

"What do you mean the Grey Mob took over!? Who let that happen?? Who's the idiot who let them in!!" you question as you give him a few hard shakes. He doesn't even look at you, which just pisses you off more. You shake him even harder to get some kind of reaction out of him. "Well!!?"

"We didn't have a choice," he weakly admits. "We were getting attacked on all sides by highblood gangs every week. People were scared, and we were struggling to keep up.

"The first time one of them showed up offering to help, we sent them packing. Told them we know how to take care of our own, and we don't need them. The next week, a gang of clowns came. We lost a lot of Marked and residents. They nearly demolished us.

"When the Grey Mob came back a second time, we were against the wall. We wouldn't survive another attack, and everyone was terrified. We were desperate, so we agreed to an alliance."

You slowly release him as you process everything, but your deep glare never falters. Something doesn't sound right. Highblood attacks were never that frequent, and the mob just happened to show up and offer to help? There's no such thing as a good mob. They wouldn't offer unless they were getting something out of it.

"... I bet those fuckers planned this. They sent all those highbloods here to--"

"Yeah, we know. It didn't take that long to figure out something was sus," Vallen interrupted. "We didn't realize it right away, but after those purples came and the mob sent someone again, we got the message."

"So you knew this was a setup, and you still let them in!? What's the matter with you!?" you shout in anger. Vallen finally breaks from his despondence and shoots up from the couch to push you hard enough that you stumble backwards onto your ass.

"What were we supposed to do, Amprus!? Let the city get taken over and destroyed!? Let everyone living here get killed?! It was death or compliance, so we chose what would keep us and everyone else alive!!" he roars at you. You hate that he's probably right, but you refuse to believe there wasn't some other third option. You sit on the floor stewing in your unbridled frustration stubbornly refusing to answer.

After several moments of uncomfortable silence, Vallen calms down enough to speak.

"It didn't start out this bad. They were actually pretty helpful. They set up a money lending place that helped people afford having their hives and businesses repaired and rebuilt, and the rates were good. They did community outreach like the soup kitchen and the hiveless shelter to help people get back on their feet. Even did renovation projects," he explains as he once again takes a seat on the couch, though he doesn't bother fussing with the remote anymore.

"Then they started pressuring the businesses to give them protection money. The places that refused got their reputations trashed and ended up going under. Then underground casinos started popping up, and the people who couldn't pay their debt were forced to work for them until it was resolved."

"What happened to the Marked? There's no one with a band on their horns anymore, at least not any I could find," you ask. You want to believe there's still some of them holed up somewhere, but the way Vallen sighs and holds his head in his hands says otherwise.

"The Marked are gone, Amprus. They starved us out. Anyone who supported us got hit with penalties, and their businesses wouldn't help us. Eventually we disbanded. Some of them left the city altogether," he explained sadly. The disappointment in his voice is so heavy and thick you swear you can feel it settle on your skin like a blanket. This can't be how it ends.

"... So that's it, then. We just lied down and let them take our city from us. Leriot would never settle for this shit," you curse and pick yourself up off the floor. Another sigh from Vallen as he looks back at you tells you you're not going to like what he says next.

"You're right. He didn't. That's why they got rid of him."

The words form a heavy boulder in the pit of your stomach, and all you can do is stare back at him searching for some kind of sign or tell in his expression to let you know that the worst didn't happen. You find nothing of the sort, and you start feeling anxiety creep in.

"What do you mean they got rid of him?" you ask almost pleadingly as your voice wavers. He looks at you incredulously.

"What do you think it means when the mob gets rid of someone?" he deadpans, and the pit in your stomach drops.

"When...?" You can feel the corners of your eyes start to sting and your jaw lock up, and he looks at you hesitantly as if not telling you would spare your feelings. Your eyes sting more as small tears start to form. Your patience is hair thin. "When did they kill him??"

"Six perigees ago. He was rallying the last Marked to run the mob out and take back the city. They found him frozen to death in an industrial freezer. The door was tampered with so it wouldn't open from the inside. Corpse cutter said he was in there at least two nights. Everyone that was backing him either abandoned the plan or had 'accidental' deaths of their own. ... I'm sorry, Amprus."

You're silent for a few moments. Then a few minutes. Leriot is dead. The Marked is gone. The city belongs to the Grey Mob. Everything's ruined. If you could die a second time, you probably would from heartbreak. Your second home is dead, and you couldn't even be here to fight for it.

You only snap out of it when you feel Vallen wrap his arms around you in a hug. Proud as ever, you refused to show vulnerability in front of him. With a hard shove, you break the hug.

"Where did you bury him?"

#things to read #Amprus Dorzuh #the Grey Mob belongs to trolloled

4 notes · View notes

amtrak12 · 1 year ago

Text

Pst, @erin-gilberts since some people are giving out fic snippets to trick-or-treaters....

I've also dug up a scene from my ancient idea for a Yatesbert Amnesia AU. I wasn't sure what I still had on it, and um... turns out I have a lot more than I remember???? This document was labeled "Chapter 19" and apparently my working fic title was "Pretend Truths".

It's a first draft and comes with all first draft caveats. The premise was Abby and Erin have just moved into a fancy condo together with that sweet, sweet government money, but then a bust goes wrong and a ghost steals a couple of years of Abby's memories so she no longer remembers anything about their reunion or the movie events. She takes one look at Erin's clingy concern and the condo they share and assumes they're dating now. They're not. But Erin... goes with it! Because the alternative is Abby being mad at her all over again about being abandoned and Erin would prefer not to face that again. Fake dating! :) What could go wrong?

(Feelings. Feelings could go wrong. Or at least make things super complicated!)

I couldn't begin to tell you what plot points led to this scene, but it's primarily a conversation between Abby and her younger brother OC I gave her. *shrug* I thought maybe you'd enjoy reading it :)

(@ you and anyone else who sees this: Please feel free to steal anything you see here because I highly, highly doubt I'll ever go back and finish this story, and if I did, our takes would be different anyway. So have at it!)

1600 words behind the cut:

Abby didn’t mind her old, worn out bed at her old, worn out apartment that night. In fact, she hardly slept at all that night. Her mind kept replaying moments from the date: Erin’s blush when Abby flirted with her, the feel of Erin in her arms as they danced, the disappointment in Erin’s voice when Abby insisted she had to leave.

The heated way Erin kissed her.

Never had she imagined Erin kissing her like that. This week had been one remarkable, never in her wildest dreams, moment after another, but making out with Erin topped the cake. Took the cake. It was the icing and the candles and the birthday kid nabbing the biggest piece all rolled into one.

With a cherry on top.

The next morning, Abby beat everyone to the lab except for Kevin. Though, Kevin didn’t really count. He was still sound asleep on a cot behind his desk. (They should really hire a proper night shift security guard at some point.)

It was nearly eight. Her brother would be up and ready for the day. Abby moved to a room upstairs where she wouldn’t wake Sleeping Beauty and called her brother.

Ethan answered after a single ring. “Hey, you’re alive!”

Abby frowned. “Who said I was dead?”

“You know how telephones work: you tell one person you’re in the hospital, they tell someone else you were in the morgue.”

Abby hummed. “Mom’s still pissed I let a ghost steal my memories, huh?”

“She ranted to me for thirty minutes the other day.”

“Sorry.”

“Nah, it’s fine. It’s my fault for being the favorite child.”

Abby laughed. “You are so not the favorite child.”

“No, you forgot it. They made it official with a ceremony last year.”

“Ah, that would be a good one. But the joke’s on you. My memory is already coming back.”

“Really? Because I heard you forgot my child’s name.”

“I did not forget Reyla’s name,” Abby sidestepped.

Ethan tsked. “That’s the second child.”

“I remembered Lanie after Dad said it.” Abby snapped her fingers. “Oh, and her middle name’s Kyla! Ha!”

“Nicely done! You had to read back through a lot of emails to find that.”

“I remembered it on my own, thank you very much.” Abby frowned. “Though, I should have read back through my emails. Those have to be a goldmine for jogging my memory.”

“So what did you read to remember things? Just your journals?”

“Yeah, and talked to Holtzmann. Erin helped with things too.” A happy rush filled her chest as she spoke her girlfriend’s name.

“So not all of your memories are back yet?” Ethan asked.

“I have enough,” Abby insisted. “Anyway, I’m calling to make sure you’re still flying in with Mom and Dad for our book signing.”

“Hell yeah. I’m not missing your first signing.”

Abby grinned. “Good. So what time are you guys arriving tomorrow?”

“We’re leaving on the first flight, so I think we’re due in around nine. I don’t know. I’m just chilling this weekend and letting Mom and Dad be the adults.”

“The kids wearing you out?”

“No, this month has been rough for work.”

Ethan had the Yates tendency for science and technology careers in a different direction and had become a social worker. Abby could only imagine what Ethan meant by ‘rough’.

“Well, I will make sure to have a fun, low key weekend planned for you when you get here. I’ll even keep ghosts away if you want.”

“I don’t want,” Ethan said. “If a ghost shows up while I’m visiting you, you better believe I’m getting in the car with you to go find it.”

Abby laughed at his enthusiasm. “Okay, you win. You are the best of us kids.”

“Duh.”

“Hey, um.” Abby bit her lip.

“What’s up?”

Her parents hadn’t known she was dating Erin, and she didn’t remember ever telling Ethan. But she was figuring out forgotten memories felt differently than events that had simply never happened, and telling Ethan about dating Erin felt like it had never happened.

“I want to tell you something. I don’t know how much it will come up this weekend -- we haven’t talked about to handle you guys coming in, yet.”

“What’s going on?” Ethan said, concern slipping into his voice.

“Nothing bad. Just something I haven’t told Mom and Dad, yet.”

“You found a way to open your own portal to the other side without releasing doom and gloom upon the rest of the world.”

“No.” Abby forced herself not to get distracted by how awesome that idea sounded. “Erin and I are dating.”

Silence.

Abby waited.

“What?” Ethan finally answered.

“I’m dating Erin. She’s my girlfriend.” Abby couldn’t keep the smile off her face as she said it.

“Holy shit.”

Abby laughed. “Yeah, that’s fitting.”

“Wait, when did this happen?” Ethan asked. “Is this before or after the amnesia?”

“Before, technically,” Abby said. “But we’ve only been dating a couple of weeks.”

“What do you mean by technically?”

“I mean, I don’t remember all of it yet, but Erin said it’s been two weeks.”

“Wait, this is real life, right? You haven’t suddenly teamed up with Holtzmann in our lifelong blood feud and are trying to prank me?”

“You and Holtzmann do not have a blood feud.” Abby rolled her eyes.

“Uh, she’s trying to steal a family title that’s been rightfully mine since birth. That’s a blood feud.”

“I definitely do not remember meeting you in the hospital at the ripe old age of ten and thinking ‘yep, that’s my best man.’”

“Everyone already knew it wouldn’t be Steph or Mike by then. They suck.”

“This has nothing to do with your prank war with Holtzmann,” Abby said. “And why would she prank you with my relationship with Erin, anyway?”

“Who knows. I’ve just learned to be suspicious when she’s involved.”

“She’s not involved. It’s just me and Erin. We’re dating. That’s all I wanted to tell you.”

“Huh.”

Abby gave him a moment to process this.

When he still hadn’t spoken after three moments, Abby prompted him. “What are you thinking?”

“Honestly? I’m kind of bummed I wasn’t involved somehow in this big revelation.” “That’s your reaction?”

“Well, yeah. I’ve known both of you my entire life -- or practically my whole life in Erin’s case. By the way, you should remind Holtz of this, because if you’re dating Erin then that just strengthens my claim to best man.”

Abby was absolutely not discussing the possibility of her and Erin getting married someday in the future. That definitely felt like it would jynx things.

“How would you have been involved in my romantic relationship with Erin? You’re my little brother. That’s weird.”

“I wouldn’t be involved in the romance part of it,” Ethan said. “I’d be the precocious kid who schemes to get the two love interests together.”

“You’re thirty-three and this isn’t a movie.”

Ethan gave a melodramatic sigh. “Erin would get it. ...Right? She does still like romcoms, doesn’t she? I have a clear memory of her gushing nonstop about Tom Hanks one Thanksgiving. Which in retrospect, she’s not wrong about. Tom Hanks is very crush-worthy.”

A smile toyed at Abby’s lips -- not because her girlfriend and her brother both had a crush on the same male celebrity, because gross. No, Abby smiled because Ethan was right. He had bore witness to her entire relationship with Erin.

“Ha, I just pulled the Lovers card for you,” Ethan said.

It took Abby a moment to realize what Lovers card he was talking about. “You pulled a Tarot card for me?”

“I’m doing a whole spread for you. Don’t you want to know what’s hiding behind this amnesia veil?”

“Hmm, that’s a good reminder. We should add Tarot cards to the list of paranormal tools and events to reinvestigate. Just because Erin and I didn’t find any proof of psychic abilities in Tarot readers in college, doesn’t mean psychic communication with entities or forces is impossible. A ghost did interfere with my memories.”

“I’m not sure what the connection there is, but I focused on the question “What has Abby forgotten about her relationship with Erin” and so far the cards are saying exactly what we already know. You have amnesia which makes you feel a little conflicted and uncertain in your relationship.”

“I’m not conflicted!” Abby said. “At least, not anymore.”

“That might be what the Six of Swords of saying at the Heart of the Matter,” Ethan said. “You’re moving forward in the relationship and things are becoming more stable.”

“That’s true.”

“I’m flipping over the hidden influences now.”

Ethan immediately followed this with a hum, though he didn’t explain it. Silence for a few moments as Abby presumed he was flipping over cards. Then, Ethan let out a sharp, “Oh.”

“What is it?” Abby asked.

“Uh….” Ethan trailed off. He cleared his throat. “Um, no it seems fine. You’ve got The World in the physical realm. Your memories are returning. Eight of Coins in the mental realm, so whatever work you’ve put into your relationship with Erin is paying off. The psychoenergetic realm shows the Three of Elixirs which is a happy celebration. You just caught the ghost who blocked your memory which I know isn’t ‘hidden’ by any means, but may have had hidden consequences. Then, there’s Temperance in the Emotional Realm. Consciously you’ve been conflicted about your relationship, but subconsciously you know the truth. It’s a reminder to listen to yourself.”

“Okay, so what was that ‘oh’ for?” Abby asked.

“Um, well… there’s a Seven of Blades as the hidden influence of the Heart of the Matter,” Ethan said. “A deceit of some kind. When paired with the Three of Elixirs, it may mean the ghost you caught isn’t actually the ghost you were looking for. Or the ghost tricked you and you didn’t catch anything.”

“No, we definitely caught something,” Abby said. “And it was definitely the ghost… at least, I think it was.”

She thought for a moment.

“I’ll double check at the lab tomorrow.”

#this google doc dated to November 2019: almost 4 years to the day #that's a whole high school ago!!#no wonder I don't remember anything except giving Abby a much younger brother who casually read tarot cards in his free time lol #my fic #Ghostbusters 2016 #Yatesbert #Abby Yates

8 notes · View notes

honourablejester · 1 year ago

Text

Okay, this is rather (VERY) spoilery for the 2nd book of the Eight Petals Argent solo adventure series, but I just want to quickly talk about my fondness for this one (rather important) NPC:

Because we fucked up the portal programming, we accidentally dragged our pen-pusher employer through the gate with us, and he was not remotely prepared. To quote:

“Me? I…” Arold splutters. “I never meant to get near that portal. You must have done something wrong with the levers! I should still be in Waterdeep right now!”

Rufio sighs deeply.

“If I knew you’d bring me on this trip,” Arold continues, “I could have worn some trousers.” He lifts the hem of his robe, showing how uselessly he’s equipped for adventuring.

He literally doesn’t even have pants. He doesn’t have his spellbook. He has pretty much nothing. We dragged this poor pantless wonder on a desert island adventure with curses and pirates and horrible monsters, and pretty much everything that could possibly go wrong for him (short of actual death, thankfully) promptly did go wrong. He got happy fixing a device, gets it working again, and it immediately flies off on him:

The three of you watch the painted creature fly away.

“Shit,” Arold says when the dragon has passed beyond sight.

We come across a horrible massacre climbing a mountain and he, a half-elf pencil pusher, encounters the lovely site of another half-elf torn in two. We find her legs later.

“Half a half-elf,” Arold muses, pointing out her slightly pointed ears. The Seekers’ agent sits down in the dirt with a vacant expression. You remember that Arold never signed up to see the dangers—and sometimes horrors— that come with adventuring. Watching him stare into space, absently touching his own ears, makes you wonder whether he’ll return to his old, pampered lifestyle once you’re all safely back in Waterdeep. Sights like this can change a person.

And then, because we fucked up protecting him early on, long-term effects happen, and he winds up in a coma. And to fix him we have to destroy at least part of what he’s been sent to get. Like. He did not sign up for any of this. Later on, when we get him back alive and rescue arrives, complications happen, and we have to demand something of him rather strenuously. He gives it immediately. When everybody’s reunited again after said complications:

Arold is next off the landing boat, followed by some of the Homeward’s sailors carrying luggage. Arold hugs you fiercely.

“We should not have become friends,” the half-elf says, his voice serious. “It made me feel guilty to wish you were in my place during that voyage.”

He hugs me. We dragged him (accidentally, but still) through absolute hell, nearly got him killed, and he hugs me. And then argues on our behalf with our mutual employers to get us extra money despite the fact that we literally blew up half of what we were sent to get.

And as a crowner, he comes by our place to tell us this after some … other complications have happened, so he busts in all cheerful and walks face-first into a very tense mood. Poor bastard:

“Money!” the half-elf says, joyously. A moment later, he seems to intuit the pervading mood and tempers his enthusiasm. His voice turns solemn.

I have just finished this book (Fight for the Dawn Saber), and I have to say I am very fond of this poor bugger. I will kill people for Arold. Not a bother. And, given complications, I may well have to, but that’s fine. That’s absolutely fine. I’m gonna pick him up, and I’m gonna put him somewhere safe, some nice office with no pirates or constructs or infected aberrations, and I’m gonna shank anyone who looks at him funny. It’ll all be fine.

Sorry. Just. He’s been through a lot. I really want to just wrap him up and give him soup and (if at all possible) gently steer him out of the firing line. This was absolutely not the job he signed on for.

Anyway. Carry on.

#d&d #5e #solo adventures #eight petals argent #getting attached to hapless NPCs #but seriously #that poor bastard #i love him

4 notes · View notes

joyful-soul-collector · 2 years ago

Text

Lovecraft Country Episode 1

My dad told me I'd love this show and I got nothin else better to do rn so let's fakkin GO

Oh wow there's a lot happening

Jackie Robinson just cut Cthulu in half with a baseball bat

OH ITS A DREAM okay that makes much more sense

Looks like this is the 40s or 50s? Idk my years very well, but segregation is a thing for sure (future Marko here, it's the 50s)

Aw man they gotta walk? That sucks

"Stories are like people. Loving them doesn't make them perfect. You just try and cherish them, overlook their flaws" GODDAMN I love that. I don't agree with overlooking their flaws (both in stories and people), but I understand the meaning and I love it so much

Father's gone missing womp womp

Hippolyta, that's a cool name, imma steal it

I gotta say Atticus is a very pretty man. I didn't see it as much when Johnathan Majors played Kang in Loki (mainly because he wasn't there for long I think), but he is v pretty

Oooh secret legacy?? Mysterious letters??? V interesting...

Oop dude literally in the middle of a BJ and just talks to Atticus like he wasn't A Bit Busy just then

Ooh those two sing well!

Fuck yeah bust open that hydrant

Oof I guess Leti isn't as close to her sister as I thought

Oh damn she drew a grim reaper right over where they need to go lol

Damn Atticus is probably so smart with all those books, if people weren't so damn racist maybe he wouldn't have had to join the army to move out, he could've been a writer or somethin

Oop there's a hole in the wall. Bet that's a fun memory...

Bruh who tf did he call in South Korea???

Oh gross, the monkey noises.... hate seeing how people act towards them

Bruh this red car is fuckin banger look at the wood?? If old cars like that weren't so unsafe I would love to drive one

Oh jeez I hope this diner isn't too awful an experience...

Oh my god what in the fuck is happening

LETITIA FUCKIN LEWIS

WAIT THAT'S THE CAR THEY SAID HIS DAD WAS DRIVING THE FANCY SILVER CAR

WAIT WHAT THE HELL DID THE TRUCK HIT??

WHO'S THIS RANDOM WHITE LADY

Okay so the diner was definitely a terrible experience. Love how smart Atticus is tho, he figured that shit out quick

This little girl is so creative I love her drawings

Sounds like Leti's mom wasn't the best to her, but her family never saw that so they're mad she didn't go to the funeral

Oof that's a rough fight to have, the one between Atticus and his dad. I understand why his father would be upset at Atticus for joining the army, but I also understand Atticus too. He views his country the way he does stories. "You just try and cherish them, overlook their flaws"

Dad and George's parents were shit, so then his Dad was shit, and George feels like he didn't protect his brother or Atticus enough. Oh the cycle of abuse ever turns...

Devon countyyyyy that's the one with the grim reaper on it

Aw fuck is that a cop

Nooooo fuck fuck fuck

FUCK ITS THAT SHERRIF THAT'S MURDERS PEOPLE

SUNDOWN TOWN FUCKIN FUCK

Oh you motherFUCKER

Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck FUCK

Oh mgod that was fucking terrifying

GODDAMNIT NO FUCK

HOLY SHIT WTF IS THAT

GO LETI YOU CAN DO IT

Fuuuuuck this guy is turning into a monster....

The flaaaaares v nice

Bruh why you guys walking did she total the car??

THERE IT IS THERE'S THE SILVER CAR

UHHH?? "WELCOME HOME"???

Ok so that was uhhh fucking amazing? The mystery, the monsters, the awesome characters, the struggles with racism juxtaposed with the science-fiction struggles, FUCK this is set up so damn well?? Goddamn okay I'm gonna proofread and post this and then imma watch the next one cuz I can't fuckin WAIT

#lovecraft country #letitia lewis #atticus freeman #george freeman #marko reacts

4 notes · View notes

arjaandsimoni · 2 years ago

Text

Flying Free

Downtown Cincinnati

Stephanie and Arja walked out of the cinema onto the streets of Cincinnati, the Indian girl finishing off her coke before tossing it in the garbage. “Huh, those movies were a lot different from the games.” she shrugged, “Nice to actually see it early though. Normally I have to use a VPN or wait months for them to reach India.” she grinned.

“Yeaaaaaah, you think they’d be better at getting them out now. I mean the freakin’ internet exists.” replied Stephanie, shrugging her shoulders as they walked through the city. She was still watching for the naga (first rule of being a hunter: if you don’t find a body DON’T ASSUME ITS DEAD) but so far the coast was clear. She’d had a bit of a freak out moment when they heard a hissing noise earlier, but it turned out someone had driven over a busted bottle and blew a hole in their tire.

The two had met up earlier that morning and gone out to see Sonic the Hedgehog 2 and now were basically two kids in the city looking for anything to occupy their time.

“So… I did some research online about Hanuman after last night…” she nodded, “He’s really your ancestor?” asked Stephanie.

Arja grinned at her, “Yep! Dad’s mortal, but my mom is like me. They met years ago when he was an explorer in India. He found a path that led to the supernatural world reflection of our homeland and almost got killed by a rakshasa, but my mom rescued him and the two just sorta hit it off. Few years later I’m there and dad retires from exploring and gets into his family’s business of politics and such. His family act as diplomats for India but are also one of the noble houses in Jaipur.” she nodded.

“Oh, neat. Clan Fullmoon is a bit different… we don’t have a divine ancestor, it’s more of a long-standing pact with one…” replied Stephanie, and she went on to explain.

Centuries ago, before the rise of the Roman Empire, back even before the Iron Age, Ireland was not a very good place to live. The Fair Folk preyed on humanity with reckless abandon and dark forces lurked around every corner, but the worst of it all were the werewolves.

These days packs of werewolves were much more civilized. They stayed to the virgin forests and wild areas of the world or learned to blend in with humanity, but in the old times they were wild and vicious beings, true monsters who saw humans as just another form of prey no different from wild deer or boar.

The legend went that a village, the name lost in the distant past, was slaughtered by one of the wolf packs, only two people able to escape from it: Aidan and Deirdre, two young lovers recently wed to each other who hid under the rubble of their collapsed home while the werewolves killed and ate their friends and family.

As they fled their souls cried out for vengeance and justice against the monsters who’d destroyed their lives, and Morrigan heard their plea. The Maven herself appeared before them and offered them a pact. They pledge themselves and all their descendants to her, and she would grant them power so that they would never again need fear the predations of the dark creatures of the night.

Aidan took on her aspect as a Goddess of War, becoming stronger than any man in Ireland. He became able to beat a werewolf to death with his bare hands if need be, his skin toughening like hard leather and gaining stamina enough to run through the woods for three days and nights without tiring.

Deirdre took on her aspect as the Queen of Ravens, gaining the power to transform and become capable of flight as well as to command storms and winds. While her husband fought their enemies directly she would harry them with gale force winds, swirling tornados, and bright crashing lighting clouds.

Eventually Deirdre became pregnant, and they discovered that their child had inherited the Maven’s gifts as well. They had a son, then a daughter, both of whom had the same powers as their father and mother respectively, and eventually those children grew, wed, and had children of their own, and the line continued on and on to the present day.

“… and as the family got bigger we became famous among old Ireland for hunting down rogue werewolf packs. We got a reputation as ‘Those Who Hunt By The Light of the Full Moon.’ Bit of a mouthful in Gaelic though so it eventually got shortened to just ‘Clan Fullmoon.’” she nodded. “I dunno how true it is that Deirdre could actually make entire lightning storms and such though, none of the Clan I’ve ever met could pull THAT off. Most I can do is localized windstorm and those ‘mine’ things you saw me use on that naga the other night, also fly. I can’t actually fly fly, I’m just using my magic to lift myself up in my bird form by catching my own wind under my wings.” she nodded.

“Yeah, see, that sounds exactly like the garuda I know back home! Only difference is they’re all Indian like me, and their wings are green, not black.” replied Arja. “Its just so wild, how is it your family and their people have the same things?” she scratched at her hair a bit.

Stephanie shrugged, “Heck if I know. Sometimes stuff is just weird. My big brother Nelen has been all over and he’s seen all sorts of crazy things. Heck he helped us stop this crazy faerie woman from taking my cousin last spring. She was this little girl looking thing that could summon toy-monsters.”

Arja raised her eyebrow at her, “… seriously?” she asked, “So what, like a fanged Playstation?”

“No no, like older-style toys. Like teddy bears the size of real bears and stuff.” she clarified.

“… riiiiiight.” chuckled the Indian girl. “Must’ve been a crazy fight.”

Stephanie nodded, thinking back to how that fight ended and what she saw her brother unleash to defeat Isolde, “… yes… yes it most certainly was…” she muttered. “… hey wanna get ice cream?” she asked.

“Yogurt for me, but sure!” grinned Arja.

Meanwhile back in Edgewood

Catherine was making lunch with the news playing in the background.

As she finished up her pasta on the stove she paused, hearing the newscaster’s voice.

“In other news, Monsters at the Levy? Covington has had a lot of bizarre stories lately but this one takes the cake. Eyewitnesses state they saw some sort of ‘giant snake thing’ fighting a…” the newscaster stopped to check the notes, “… ‘golden monkey and two bird kids…’ We only have a small photo from someone’s camera, and its hard to see but you can make out… well… SOMEthing…” he said.

She felt a chill go down her spine, turning to look at the small television on her counter next to the stove.

Sure enough, it looked grainy as hell, the camera must have been shaking badly… but there was no mistaking that flame-red hair.

“Monsters at the riverfront? I dunno Tom, that looks like a job for Superman if you ask me.” chuckled his co-host.

“Yeah Tina, probably just some publicity stunt for a movie but I’ll say this. Hollywood has our attention.” he grinned.

Behind her, her phone began to ring… the caller ID showing a number with Ireland’s country code…

Back in Cincinnati

Arja and Stephanie were at Fountain Square, sitting next to the fountain itself.

The fountain was a popular tourist destination and hangout for locals as well. There was usually a band playing there on the stage and the spray from the fountain gave a pleasingly cool mist even in the hotter summer months. The two had finished off their treats by now and were just enjoying the rest of their day. “So…” said Stephanie, “How long are you and your dad gonna be in town?” she asked.

“Oh, yanno… a day or two, maybe. He likes to take his time on these trips when he can. He was an explorer back in the day so he always enjoys just, well, exploring. Looking around. Believe it or not he’s a big nut for smaller markets… um… I think they’re called Flea Markets in this country?” she tried, Arja looking up in thought at that.

Stephanie giggled, “No way, really?! He’s like some bigshot in India isn’t he?”

“Hey! He got into exploration to find rare and unusual relics and those places always have antiques and such for sale. He’s found some really neat stuff just browsing around those.” Arja laughed back, “Really, our house back home is kinda half-museum.”

Stephanie smirked, “Sounds like something my brother would like. He’s always got this messenger bag with him filled with all sorts of crazy stuff. He did some sort of spell on it so the inside is huge, like truck sized.”

Arja grinned, then paused as her phone buzzed. She looked at the front and sighed, “Uuuuugh…” she huffed, looking upwards, “Dad says one of the bigwigs from that Proctor and whatsits company invited us to dinner. I gotta go play the meek little Indian girl for his business buddies…” she huffed, “He knows I hate it so he’ll make it up to me but… uuuuugh…” she rolled her eyes.

Stephanie’s smile faltered a bit, “Well… its your parents, what can ya do?” she shrugged.

Arja nodded, “Yeah… I’d better head back to our hotel. Thanks for hanging out today.” she grinned, leaning in and kissing Stephanie on the cheek, then hopping up and heading off into the crowd, following the GPS on her phone.

Stephanie’s eyes went huge at the kiss, her face flushed. “Sure… no problem…” she muttered, staring into the fountain’s spray as Arja took off. “Anytime…” she added.

A bit later she got onto a metro bus back to Kentucky, mumbling, “My pleasure Arja, we can do it again tomorrow…”

When she transferred from the metro to the TANK (Transit Authority of Northern Kentucky) bus she was whispering, “Anytime…” over and over under her breath, she hadn’t blinked in a while either.

By the time the bus squeaked to a halt in Edgewood the shock had mostly worn off, the girl grinning wide enough to impress her brother’s cat as she got off. She stood at the stop as it rolled away, then bunched up a bit and stomped her feet excitedly, “Ehehehehehehehe!” she squealed, then did a sort of twirl and whistled out a complex melody as all the nearby flowers suddenly got caught in a gale, the petals breaking free and swirling up into the sky.

"She kissed me she kissed me she kissed me she kissed me!” she giggled uncontrollably. If Isolde were here she’d be getting a contact buzz just by being in the same post code as those emotions, the girl practically dancing back home. “She’s just so AMAZING! She’s so cool and confident and powerful and she’s not afraid to stare down a huge monster like that and we actually can do stuff together and aaaaaaaaaaah!” she shook herself, ignoring the weird looks from passerby.

“Though…” she paused, “I suppose that could mean something different in India? Is India like France? Is a kiss on the cheek there just, like, their way of shaking hands?” she thought aloud, glancing up as she tapped her chin.

She blinked, then got out her phone, then looked it up. “… nooooo, huh… public displays of affection are banned there? Yikes…”

“Soooo, that means it means a lot… more there than it does here? I mean we were in public…” she blinked slowly, the blush returning to her cheeks, then she squealed excitedly, “EEEEEEEE!” she grinned, practically skipping up the path to her house. “Oh maaaaaaaaan nothing can ruin this day!” she giggled excitedly.

Then she got inside and the door slammed shut behind her.

Catherine Fullmoon was standing there, her face like the wrath of a vengeful deity.

“Stephanie. We need to TALK.” she said in a tone that suggested ‘I am calm now, but I am holding onto it by my goddamn TEETH.’

Moments later, in the kitchen

She slapped the picture down that she’d printed off her computer, pointing to the blurry image of a girl in the sky. It was nighttime so her wings weren’t really visible, but there was no mistaking that hair.

“YOU… YOU… FOOLISH LITTLE… YOUR GRANDFATHER WAS ALL SET TO DEMAND I SURRENDER YOU TO HIM! I HAD TO BEG HIM FOR LENIENCY!” she screamed, her face red.

Stephanie stared at the image. Dammit, how did she miss that? Okay yeah so there was a giant snake monster but she should have known better!

“I… w-well what was I supposed to do then?! Run to Steve's house and drag Roger down to the riverfront?” she demanded, looking up at her mother. “I was right THERE! I can do SOMETHING when that happens!” she shouted.

“Stephanie, I know… believe me I damn well KNOW! But Dad was… I’d never heard him so furious. He had photographic PROOF that you were violating his ban on magic use! As Patriarch he could have executed you!” she shouted, “Do you want to wind up like your brother?! On the run from my father and his crazy goon squad?!”

“Well why not?! He seems to be doing okay!” she shot back.

The Wulfshead Pub

Nelen looked up from his drink, then frowned and dug a finger into his ear, “My ears are burning…” he muttered.

Loren smirked, “ ‘s wut ye get fer usin’ yer demon ta clean ‘em cous…”

Nelen gave her an annoyed look, “I only did that once… and it was a really stubborn bit of wax.” he grumbled.

Behind them Dawn was doing karaoke again, a spirited rendition of ‘I Fought the Law and the Law Won.’

Edgewood

Catherine glared at her daughter, “I try and I try and I try… Stephanie. Its over.” she nodded, pointing to the fireplace.

She looked past her, then shrieked at what she saw. Catherine had found her hideout in the woods and cleaned it out. Her witch’s kit, the silver dagger, the shillelagh with the cold iron head, all of it was in it and the fire was roaring bright. “MOM! THAT’S MY… DO YOU KNOW HOW HARD IT WAS TO FIND THOSE THINGS?! I HAD TO MAKE THE STAFF MYSELF!” she screamed.

“I DON’T CARE STEPHANIE! ITS DONE, ITS OVER! NO MORE FLYING AROUND TOWN! NO MORE HUNTING! NOTHING! YOU ARE GOING TO GO TO SCHOOL AND LIVE YOUR LIVE AS A MUNDANE GIRL AND IF I EVEN SEE A BLACK FEATHER IN YOUR ROOM YOU’RE GOING TO BE GROUNDED UNTIL YOU LEAVE FOR COLLEGE!” she roared back.

Stephanie’s mouth opened and closed, then she turned and bolted up the stairs to her room. A moment later the door slammed shut.

Catherine shook her head, “Dammit girl, I know exactly what you mean, I know how hard it is to pretend I can’t see that happening… but I don’t want my mad father to kill you for it.” she sighed.

Stephanie was curled up on the floor of her room, her face pressed into her legs as she sobbed into her knees. She hated this, she hated having to do this. She wanted to use her magic, she wanted to fly, she wanted to fight back those things that threatened people. She wanted to SO damn bad… but…

… and then her phone rang.

Stephanie looked at the number, then answered it, “A-arja?” she asked.

“Heeeeeey, so… change of plans. My dad got called back to India…” she said apologetically, “Look I’m really really sorry, I would’ve loved to get to know you more but, yanno, can’t stay behind while he goes back home…”

She froze, the girl’s mouth moving but nothing coming out.

“… Stephanie? Are you there?” she asked, “Um… look, if this was about that kiss… just… l-look, you’re really great and stuff, I mean that was amazing how you just leapt in and helped me and my dad and all and… well… kiiiiinda got a weakness for that, not gonna lie… but… yeah… sorry, hope I didn’t get your hopes up. I mean… we’re not even from the same country… but… if we were…” she coughed awkwardly, “Um… anyways, I gotta go, we’re actually at the airport now. I’ll text when I can 'kay?” she said, then the phone clicked off…

Stephanie sat there, staring at the wall, a ringing in her ears. Her mother had wrecked her plans and outright forbidden her to use magic, her grandfather may try to kill her if she did, and this girl… this amazing girl… this girl whose kiss had made her feel like she could fly to the moon and back… was leaving… for another country…

Everyone has their breaking points, and hers had just been hit with a hammer.

She lept to her feet and kicked off her shoes, running to the window and pulling on it, then looking down when it refused to budge. Her mother was serious. She’d nailed the window shut!

Stephanie’s eye twitched, “No… no no no no no no NO!” she snarled, leaping back. A second later there was a tremendous crash and Catherine jumped up from the chair in the living room she’d been sulking in just in time to see her daughter’s bedroom window crashing into the backyard, with most of the wall still attached!

“STEPHANIE! STEPHANIE DON’T YOU DARE!” she shouted, running up the stairs and pushing open the door… and finding only an empty room with a destroyed wall, and her daughter gone.

The Skies Over Northern Kentucky

Its safe to say that Stephanie Fullmoon wasn’t really thinking very clearly at the moment. Her wings flapped as she whistled up a hurricane’s worth of wind, propelling herself towards Covington like a bullet. She could have done this in any number of locations nearer to her home, but she knew her mother wouldn’t use magic and she wanted some distance before she could get the car started and try to come after her.

She had to go, she had to get out, she had to find her… she said Jaipur right?! She heard her say it, and she knew... well… she heard Dawn say it and Nelen say it. She knew the passphrase even if she didn’t know what it meant!

The forests were a blur under her as the skyline of Cincinnati loomed ahead, the girl angling down and aiming for an alleyway, landing in it and looking around, her head pounding. “Alright alright… um… how’d it go… dammit…” she stammered, then put her hand on the wall. “I think it was like this… and…” she tried saying the words… then again… then once more… and finally on the fourth try the door to the Wulfshead Club materialized before her!

She shoved the door open and stumbled inside, then looked up at a loud grinding sound. Standing next to the door was a massive clay golem wearing a teeshirt, it's head turning to focus it's fiery gaze on Stephanie.

“S-sorry! Thought this was the Dairy Queen!” she said, spinning the dials frantically on the door until it read Jaipur India, then shoving it back open and rushing through into a throng of people in a city halfway across the world.

Loren watched as the door shut, then raised her eyebrow, “… nae, couldnae been…” she shook her head, then looked up as Nelen came back from the men’s room, rubbing hand sanitizer on his fingers (he couldn’t very well wash his hands around Merihim’s seal after all.)

“Sorry about that Loren, miss anything?” he asked.

Loren shrugged, “Eh, jus’ a doppelganger or somethin’ cous. Already buggered off.” she replied, downing her drink. Dawn meanwhile was keeping up the karaoke, singing ‘Run to the Hills’ by Iron Maiden.

Jaipur, India

Now that she was actually here the fire in her head was finally beginning to dissipate… and Stephanie realized how badly she’d screwed up. If a single grainy photograph had convinced Franklin she was violating his magic taboo having blasted the wall off her bedroom would definitely prove it.

Also, from the sounds and sights around her she forgot one maaaaaaaaaajor problem… she wasn’t Indian.

She stood out like a crow in a snowfield, and nothing she was hearing from anyone around her made even the slightest bit of sense. Everyone around her was speaking in Hindi, Stephanie could only listen in bewilderment.

Also she had no money, no extra clothes, thank GODS she at least thought to grab her PHONE…

She paused, then grinned. “My phone!” she gasped, then took out the phone and opened it up. Still mostly charged, but gods only knew how long that’d hold out. She got her phone but no charger! She opened the messenger app, then texted Arja.

‘So, rando Q… what’s your home address in Jaipur?’

After about three minutes, Arja responded.

‘Y?’

Stephanie winced, then replied…

‘I wanna send u something. It’s a surprise! ;)’

She technically wasn’t lying, this would probably surprise the heck out of her.

A moment later her phone buzzed.

‘Aww, u don’t gotta do that… but if u insist…’ and then there was a mailing address behind it.

Stephanie quickly copied it, opened the map app, and pasted it in, then activated the GPS and the directions and let out a woosh of relief. It wasn’t far.

‘Thanks! I hope u like it! :D’

She took a breath, then looked up. “… I am so screwed it is beyond belief…” she muttered.

Late That Evening

Rajesh’s private jet landed in Jaipur. He and Arja disembarked and took a car back to their home, a rather nice mansion house in the hills above the city.

As they rode along Rajesh called ahead, “Iravati my wild lotus flower…” he smiled, “Arja and I just landed and will be home soon my dear. Pity we could not stay longer but it will be wonderful to see you again.” he chuckled.

Arja rolled her eyes, but he was always like that when he talked to her mother. He called Arja his ‘little ruby lotus’ whenever he could get away with it and it always made her blush. Parents…

“Hm? Really? Someone has been hanging around the mansion? Some westerner?” he asked.

Arja blinked at that, looking over, who the heck could that be?

“She… claims to know Arja you say? Red hair?” he asked.

Arja’s eyes widened, then she looked at her own phone. Sending her a surprise, wanting to know her address. “… no way…” she muttered, then looked up as the car drew near the gates. Two of Rajesh’s security team were standing there… and a very familiar redhead was between them.

A bit later, inside the house

Stephanie sat on the bed in Arja’s room. Rajesh was suspicious of how a young girl could beat them there in a private jet, but Arja had said, in no uncertain terms, that anyone who didn’t want to look like they jumped into a Naan oven had better leave Stephanie alone until they figured out what the hell was going on.

Given that Arja was known for a bad temper and fire breath by the staff, they didn’t argue.

“… and...” she hiccuped a bit, “… and she burned it, all my gear, and said I had to just… stop using magic, at all. I just got so angry I couldn’t see straight, and then you called and said you were leaving and…” she gasped, her eyes red, “I… I just… something in my head just stopped working right and I blew the wall off my room and flew back to Covington and came here and now I can’t go home because my grandfather will kill me!” she sobbed, burying her head in her hands.

Arja sat next to her on the bed, the young Indian girl breathing a bit heavy herself after that, “Hey hey, its alright... we can let you stay here until we figure something out. There’s plenty of room.” she nodded, “Don’t worry about it.”

At the door however Rajesh coughed meaningfully, “Arja, my little ru-“ he paused as Arja gave him a look, “… daughter… she is not even from India. She ran away from home. I sympathize, I truly do. If her grandfather really is as she says I do not wish to simply turn her over to him, but this could cause serious problems. Her mother could report this as kidnapping or…” he started, then faltered at her expression.

Arja held up a finger, “Stephanie, gimme a second, I need to discuss something with my father.” she nodded, then walked up to him and pushed him out of the room by his waist, then back against the wall. Then she shapeshifted into her monkey form and climbed up the wall with her hands and legs at his sides until her head was level with his.

“I just had to listen to a girl I really like tell me how her insane granddad is ready to KILL her for helping us back in America and how she literally fled all the way here because of it. You know those business things you take me to? Where I wear my saree and all that heavy jewelry and play your ‘oh so sweet and innocent daughter’ and stuff? If you send her home I am NEVER doing that again. Next dinner party I’m embracing mom’s side of the family and will totally let loose. Get me?” she growled, “She stays, or I become the living embodiment of the ‘reject humanity, return to monke’ meme right infront of those pompous, arrogant, ‘oh look at the cute little brown kid’ assholes you parade me infront of.”

Rajesh sighed, then smiled at her a bit, “… you are so much like your mother sometimes.” he chuckled. “Very well my dear… she may stay until we figure out some way to return her home safely and ensure she remains so.” he nodded.

Arja growled meaningfully, her tail thrashing behind her, then nodded slowly, “Good.” she nodded, then she hopped down and shifted back into her human form, going back in her room and flopping down next to Stephanie.

“He said you can stay until we find a way to get you home that makes SURE you won’t be in any danger and stuff.” she nodded, then grinned, “What he meant was ‘she can stay so my daughter won’t go fire monkey and scare the shit out of a bunch of rich white idiots next time I need her to behave.’”

Stephanie looked at her and gave a weak smile, wiping her eyes, then Arja pulled her into a tight hug.

They’d only known each other a few days, but the same could be said for any pairing of people early on. Only time would tell what would become of it. Friendship… or perhaps something much deeper.

#supernatural adventures #modern fantasy #fiction #lgbtq

2 notes · View notes

freakingoutthesquares · 2 years ago

Text

Russell: A very strange thing happened to me at Scarborough this year. Have you seen our album? There's a photograph of me dancing with some donkeys. Well, I was walking along the Scarborough beach thinking I was getting away from it all when, by pure coincidence, I happened to come across this scene. Me and the donkeys. I came across them shooting it. Because they did it with cutouts - I don't know if you've noticed that.

Pulp-on-Sea Words: Mark Edwards, Photographer: Nigel Shafran Taken from Arena, February 1996

In the first of Arena's snapshots of modern Britain, we go on tour with the common people.

There's a police horse pissing in the street outside The Ocean Wave restaurant. The un-mounted police who are standing around it have to step back hurriedly to avoid being splashed. The crowd of fans queuing to get into the Spa Theatre, Bridlington, cheer.

Last week they would have been queuing for The Good Old Days, starring Bobby Crush. Next week it will be Ice Fantasies. But tonight it's Pulp.

Bridlington council have already tried to ban the concert; now the fear that the band who sing Sorted For E's and Wizz will corrupt their youth has brought the Bridlington constabulary out in force. A mobile police command centre is parked out back. Mounted police roam the streets.

At the door, everyone is searched. About 20 Pulp fans are arrested. Meanwhile, backstage, two-thirds of pulp - singer Jarvis Cocker, guitarist/violinist Russell Senior, bassist Steve Mackey and drummer Nick Banks - are discussing their love of British seaside resorts.

"The irony of it", says Mackey. "Here we are saying how nice it is around here, and the council wants to stop us and the police are round here trying to bust us."

"They're in plain clothes," notes Senior, deadpan. "There's lots of rastas with little 'taches."

Steve: This side of the coast is where you went if your parents were a bit short on money - Skegness, Cleethorpes, Scarborough, Bridlington. Then if you had a bit more money, you went to Blackpool.

Jarvis: I only ever went to Blackpool once when I was a kid, and that was just because a scrap-metal dealer was going out with my mother and wanted to impress her that he had loads of money, so he took us to stay in a holiday flat for a week.

Jarvis: It was quite weird when I realised that I'd been to a roller disco here seven, eight years ago. In this place here. It was my girlfriend's birthday. I like staying off-season.

Steve: There's a bit of a pathos to the town, isn't there?

Jarvis: I remember walking along the front, and there were all like, these big plastic ducks from some fairground ride, only they were all kind of huddled underneath the pier to stop them getting too much crap on. It just looked weird. The hotel we stayed in, we had the whole floor to ourselves so we could run around the corridors and mess about.

Steve: All the things like clowns' faces look grotesque off-season when it's all grey and raining.

Russell: It's like a Scooby Doo episode - the haunted fun fair that's all shut down. Your out-of-season resort has got that to it.

Jarvis: Or there's bingo and there's only two or three people playing. It's a bit reminiscent of some of our early gigs, actually. They had that kind of out-of-season air to them.

Russell: ...end of the pier, falling into the sea...

Nick: My best holiday was Butlin's at Skegness. My grandma was taken ill. My granddad said: "Well, we can't waste a week's holiday." So my grandma was shovelled off into hospital and I took her place. I was about 11. I was running round Butlin's on my own.

Russell: A bit like Jack Nicholson, were you?

Nick: No, there were other people there. It was just my granddad, though. Not my parents.

Steve: You didn't see these two little twin girls down the corridor, did you?

Russell: The other thing about Butlin's was the swimming pool. It had this glass side, and in the restaurant downstairs you could see the people in the pool. It was like a big aquarium. You could see birds and that.

Jarvis: I remember my sister going on this roundabout in Skegness. She spent all her pocket money on going on it three times in a row straight after having dinner, then she got off and threw her sausage and chips up... and then I knocked out this scrap man, who was courting me mother. I didn't mean to. We were playing Crazy Golf and I don't think I'd played it before. Because I'd seen it on telly that you swing when you play golf... and he was stood behind me. I cracked him right on the top of the nose and knocked him out. I was trying to drive it down the fairway.

Jarvis: They are good places. The good thing about them is that, unlike other bits of the coast, the Yorkshire coast is quite undervalued. Quite a lot of it is unspoilt.

Russell: Actually, it's totally crap.

Source & transcription: Acrylic Afternoons

#russell senior #jarvis cocker #pulp #interview #printed interview #90s #britpop

5 notes · View notes

survivor-marieta-islands · 1 year ago

Text

Episode 3: "i'm a 26 year-old man but, like, please feel sorry for me!"—Steven

Sin Sazonar

Hairie

youtube

Tanner

So we started an alliance chat consisting of Trinica Adeline hairie and Brandi and we don’t know where we stand with Aj she has played against me in the past so I’m not knowing where I stand with her she might look to sketch me out

Adeline

I didn’t get Skype notifications for like a day while we were safe but! I was added to an alliance, Trinica and i have been talking a small amount but a good amount, i like Brandi and hairie and tanner expressed liking me hairier and Trinica good things good things :,)))

Brandi

There are so many alliance chats rn and I legit have two names BATH/BATTH I’m very concerned

Trinica

I wanted to play a game less in-the-middle than I typically play so that I have a chance of making it farther and not being sniped as a social threat, but I can't help that I'm so damn charming and sexy and funny and cool!

I'm currently in 3 bigger alliances, with Brandi as my fellow overlapping MOR player. We have BATH with me, Brandi, Arvin, and Hairie; BATTH with me, Brandi, Adeline, Hairie, and Tanner; and Shhhh!!! with me, Brandi, AJ, and Shawn. So by necessity, I'm working a bit closer with Brandi this game than expected. Which is fine by me, it's very nice not to be the only person in the middle like this. And Brandi, who I thought would be closer with Hairie, seems to be only sharing hunt specifics with me, which is a good sign. Just gotta eventually tell her I have a hunt doc with Hairie too, or Hairie might let it slip and she'll distrust me.

Hairie definitely wants to go against AJ, probably sooner rather than later, which is tricky for me. I really want to try to play a loyal game with AJ for once, but something in me wants to cast doubt on her whenever we play. I think it's because she's genuinely a little shifty in these games so I simply lack trust! She thought I was lying to her in the idol hunt when I was telling the truth and she lied to me SO transparently, and she did admit to it but it was just weird vibes. She also made some comment like "that is, if you're telling me the truth" about info I had given her about the hunt and it kind of rubbed me the wrong way. Have I lied to you twice in past games? YES. Am I lying to you now? NO. But maybe I should be!!

Hairie last night told me he feels like he could never write my name down. Which is very sweet, but Hairie is also kind of a big mouth with telling other people things. He keeps telling the tribe things about the idol hunt, or confronting people when he finds out they're lying or talking about him. It is SO HARD for me to ally with someone if they can't stay chill when they hear their name's out there. Like I need people to trust that I'm handling it and things will work out. Which is a lot to ask, maybe. I do want to work with Hairie, but I also do worry about us being two anti-heroes/occasionally villains and how long an alliance like that can last. We both know what big threats the other is so it's hard to work in that environment.

Meanwhile, I think Shawn is very tight with AJ because they're not giving me much about the idol hunt and they told Hairie AJ is sharing info with them. I could see Adeline, AJ, and Clefford having a trio.

This hunt sucks btw it's such a bust! I'm honestly sharing my info with everyone which is silly and I hate it but also feels necessary in some ways. Plus Hairie and Del set the tone by sharing info in the main chat about the hunt, so it is what it is.

OH AND IN OTHER NEWS I volunteered for and won the hero challenge! Go, me! I hate putting myself in a singled-out position like that and I've never done it before, so I'm glad it worked in my favor and hopefully shows my tribe I'm someone who can perform in challenges.

Shawn

Trinica KILLED it as I knew they would!!! They're very smart and I am so proud to have them on our team. They really stepped it up. This is Great for team moral, two wins in a row. I hope we can keep this up! Our team needs it, we need this bonding and morale.

Brandi

I knew trinica would win! They are so talenteddddddd I’m happy to be working with them ❤️❤️❤️

Arvin

I'm glad Trinica won the Hero Challenge. I've been Inactive for days now. I'm just gonna send this as a confession so I won't get a strike.

Clefford

We're so luck to have Trinica on our tribe. She made us safe from winning the Hero Challenge over Ellie and granted us the immunity.

We're trying so hard to win more immunities as our first tribal council was chaotic and we don't want it to happen again.

Wow ok I think I only have one confessional this round. I did really short confessionals after a certain point last time and I feel like that was kind of a let down when I read back through episodes last time I was like :c what was I thinking. Anyway, an end of round long confessional? Who is she? An icon that’s who.

I feel like on our tribe not much has really happened. I found the idol, duh, I kind of want to find the other tribe’s idol because that would be fun but also their entire area is a landmine and so far we’re without DAs to my knowledge so fingers crossed we can just stay that way. Idk what I’ll do though.

I also just finished watching their R2 tribal council and? Gurl? They clearly have some sort of drama going on and unlike Sin Sazonar - #BestTribe - they didn’t communicate this in the tribe chat. Which is booo, kind of boring. All I can say is eman is an absolute icon and I can’t wait to see their next tribal. (And hopefully the one after that too ;) )

Antigua

Amy

youtube

Raffy

The Eman vote went over pretty well. I found out from Jinx that Eman was trying to test Colin by throwing him Maddison's and Ellie's name. And that Eman wanted to target Steven and I for being big threats. I told this to my 4 1/2 brain cell alliance and it reaffirmed out decision of taking out Eman.

What has me worried is that Steven or Colin is going to be targeted next since Jinx is stuck on the idea that they are either boring (Steven) or untrustworthy (Colin). AND, Colin told me that Zo said there was an alliance made with Maddison, Zo, Ellie, and Jinx. Neither Jinx or Ellie has told me anything about this. It seems my Day 2 analysis of where the sides would be came true. I knew Ellie, Zo, and Maddison would get together eventually. So now Jinx has an alliance that seems like they would just go after Steven considering Zo told me that she doesn't talk much with him and I already know Jinx's opinion on the matter. Ellie probably has no intention with playing with me forever and this just makes me a little sus of Jinx. Jinx and I seem to be going towards different directions in this game and I don't know if we'll find ourselves working together when the dust settles.

I am a little disappointed that I didn't get close enough to Zo to have her tell me about this. I want to work with Zo, but it seems she's already closer to other people.

Right now, I think the target should shift onto like JG atm in terms of alliances. But then again JG is also someone I can work closely with. I just don't think voting out anyone on this tribe would be beneficial to me atm. Like, I don't need to start snipping connections. I think JG would be a good vote though cause he's not in any alliances presumably and he's not in any opposing alliances to me. He's just sort of there which means it'd be easy to take him out. But would we need his vote for taking out, say, Maddison? Tough decisions all around.

Zoe

Ah frig we have to go to tribal again and now I REALLY don’t know what to do. I feel like i’m back in the swing of it now after the last one but we really don’t have anyone that’s made themselves a target this round yet. Here’s hoping some cwazy drama happens in the next 24 hours to add some spice and also give me any idea of who to vote 💅🏼

Raffy

So we are going to tribal again, and I am not nervous for myself. I think I am positioned incredibly well to survive until a tribe swap. What I am nervous about is for my allies. I am pretty much working with everyone and have no idea who to even vote for. It could spell the end of my game. The person I am least attached to is Maddison, but I know from Colin who heard from Zo that they are in an alliance with Zo, Ellie, and Jinx. So I have no idea if a push for Maddison would even work? I would need Amy, JG, Colin, and Steven to be on board. It's way too nerve wracking to be making decisions and splitting votes this early. So, I am going to just wait. If by like 5, no one still has said anything then I will just vote out Maddison. I'll push it only to Colin and JG and see if it takes off from there.

Amy

youtube

Anyway Colin wants JG, and Jinx wants Steven. I would rather Steven and break up that Raffy - Steven - Colin alliance, forcing them both to work more closely with me. But I also have a weird feeling for this one.

Maddison

you know what i LOVE is when no one is talking strategy with me :-) like y’all we have tribal in like seven hours!! at least feign interest in working with me pls i beg of you. there’s no easy target tonight (unless it’s me ofc given my name was making the rounds last time) so i’m unsure of the move. i’d be happy with a JG vote since he’s “not going to be upset if i go home” but i’m not sure who is tight with them. i have zero interest in working with colin because that’s just a shady situation and i’d prefer to play with more predictable players, at least as long as possible. rumor has it steven might have an idol but i don’t think he would play it this early unless he was an obvious vote. UUUUGH WISH THIS BIMBO LUCK

Ellie

Lowkey wouldnt be shocked if its me tonight but im just gonna vote whatever name im given

Raffy

I had a short chat with Colin where I tried to push for Maddison, but he wants to vote out JG. I relinquished. Then, I had a short chat with Ellie where they agreed with JG. I also confronted them about their alliance with Zo, Maddison, and Jinx and they confirmed it. However, when Ellie tried to push for JG in that alliance, Ellie said that those three want to vote out Steven which is not good for me. But what can I do to help Steven? If he's not going to be active and social with the tribe, then there's not much I can do without sticking my neck out. However, Ellie also told me Zo started this alliance even though Zo was the one to tell Colin about it. So, Zo is a little strategist queen over there trying to mastermind the tribe from the shadows. Now I am on red alert with Zo since it seems pretty clear at this point that I am not in her long-term plans. If I get tribe swapped with her, she would happily feed me to the wolves. I don't want to do anything about it right now though. I told Ellie that they are deciding who gets power in this game: Zo's Alliance or Colin's/Raffy's Alliance with this vote. I'll follow their lead on this one, since I do feel I would not be next out if we went to tribal again (though I might try to splinter that Zo alliance).

Amy

It's too much rn I don't want to be in three alliances already.

Personally I'm team vote Steven, work with JG solely based on general conversation flow. But Jinx (social icon award, doing all the heavy lifting rn) wants the back up to be Colin which ... I cannot do. I can blindside him with a Steven vote but I will not vote Colin after he told me about his trio alliance then I may have spread that a bit generally speaking. Also bc I know Colin won't vote against me. Let's leave my 10000% numbers OUT. OF. IT.

Raffy

Ok. So, I told both JG and Steven their names were out there so they still stick by me. Zo and Jinx seem like they are going to be pushing Steven. Ellie is in the middle. I tried to steer JG away from Zo. And Steven towards putting out Maddison's name. Too many people trust me with info and talking strategy with them. It is stressful. I am trying to juggle everyone so they don't see me as a threat.

I think Steven is going to get the boot here. But my strategy moving forward is to get an alliance together with Amy, Colin, and JG so that the Zo alliance does not just steamroll us in case we go to tribal again. Hopefully, if I expose the information Ellie gave me regarding this alliance, then I can form an opposing faction.

Colin

last round was easy because eman went unanimously. except eman voted me.

eman gave me a """""loyalty test""""" the first tribal we went to???!!! absolute WILD plan. like that's so weird to me. WHY put out names if you DONT want them to spread?! especially the first tribal when no other names are happening!!!! like i'm glad it blew up in their face. we were planning on voting them beforehand but no one needs to know that!!! as far as anyone else is concerned, eman shot themselves in the foot.

THEN I GOT SUPER BUSY WITH MY BIG BOY JOB AND I HATE IT

now it's like 2 hours till tribal and i dont know what the fuck is happening. im doing my best here. jg and steven are the names going around

but Zo told me about an alliance that was made of her + jinx + ellie + maddison? and that seems like its taking over! they swapped it onto steven when jg was going to be the vote. obv I don't wanna vote steven because he's one of my biggest allies.

i trust zo the most out of that alliance. but amy, raffy, and steven are my biggest allies (in that order)

right now there might be a blindside happening? we'll see! im calculating!

Raffy

This has gotten to be such a mess because of Colin lol. I got on a call with Colin and tried to explain that maybe letting Steven go would not be the worst thing in the world. They said Steven cannot leave. So, now we exposed the Zo alliance to Steven and are trying to flip the vote onto Maddison by telling Amy and JG. Idk about JG. But Amy is hard to convince. I don't think she wants to be this messy this early. And if Amy isn't flipping then I am not voting incorrectly. Sorry Steven. I'd rather that alliance mad at Colin than me. Plus, now I'm in such a shitty position since it could very easily (by JG's mouth most likely) that this was attempted and I'm sure my name will go around.

So I think it’s getting messy now?? The vote is between JG and Steven but I really like don’t want to vote anyone they’re both nice I wish we could just have cookies instead :(

Colin

oh god oh fuck. i think steven is just doomed tonight. i hate this. i dont wanna vote him but it'll make everyone else upset if I don't

Steven

youtube

Jinx

listen i know ive flopped but someone hit and run my car and this game has had the adrenaline rush that that experience gave me too so WHAT DO U WANT ME TO SAY????????

maddison is sexy btw and i'm serious about that. just because she told me to put that there doesn't mean its not true and it's absolutely completely true. i swear. thank you. my next targets are the ones who don't think maddison is sexy bc that's just not smth i could trust.

Raffy

Fuck me. So Ellie told me there is another alliance with Zo, Amy, Jinx, Maddison, and Ellie. Now what tf do I do about that? NOTHING. I guess I should just trans my gender so I can get into a good alliance this season.

Jinx

the we're all talking in the girlies alliance like ellie didn't leak it. kinda living for it

Amy

Did I need to submit my vote early? No. Did I want to make sure raffy and Colin voted Steven bc I 😮 could not change my vote? Yes.

Is there a 'girls (loosely defined) alliance' that doesn't include me? Yes. Do I care? No.

Were ppl messy and I collected lots of info? Yes we love it. Am I still hilariously solid? Yeah babes. We chilling and thriving.

I love barely checking in and knowing I have ppl 😭 I feel bad and tbh I know some of them will turn on me but also ppl like Colin and Jinx are loyal to a fault and I love them for it. Ellie I'm good with and I straight up told them Colin is lying to you and about you 🤣

But also let's be real the moment Colin told me about their alliance with Raffy and Steven, and Raffy is being sneaky sneaky witholding info (as he should) while being in other alliance with me, that trip alliance needed to end asap thanks and now raffy and Colin have less options, jinx and Colin don't trust Ellie, and I can just sit back and be busy. We love this. Lay low and stay out of drama.

Steven

Well I have tried everything I can to try and stay. Tried to get Raffy and Colin to flip a vote. Begged Amy to see me as a number she can use, try and talk game to JG who probably had no intention of working with me, and as of just now got off a call with Jinx who I felt had the most influence over this game. As of now my best hope is that an idol is played on me and hopefully when people see that I’m not a dead man walking anymore they will realize that I can be a tool for their games. If not then I can’t say I didn’t go out fighting.

Jinx

pours out the bottle of tequila i got from the idol hunt in stevens honor

#episodes #Youtube

0 notes

tryst-art-archive · 2 years ago

Text

Context: 2010, pt. 2

Enter Boyfriend 2

As the summer of 2010 approached, the boy who'd flirted with me the previous December resurfaced and began flirting again--but this time I wasn't spoken for. It turned out our family homes weren't that far from each other, and, although I didn't have a license, he didn't mind driving, so we made plans to meet during the summer break.

It was a bizarre courtship, and when I look back at the situation now with the benefit of more life experience, I have to laugh at how dumb I kept being. But I'll also be nice to myself: how could I not be dumb? I knew nothing and wasn't used to being seen as attractive at all. I'd functionally entered a world I knew nothing about. I'd never even learned how to say "no" to anyone about anything.

So, our courtship was lumpy. He would make moves, and then I would second guess myself about whether or not I was reading the situation correctly and would act stiff, so then he'd think I wanted to keep things friendly or move slower, but then I'd overcorrect from the last time we met so we'd be meeting up with clearly misaligned expectations about whether or not we were going on a date...

It was silly. I remain faintly amazed he put up with it.

Sometime around the end of the summer we finally managed to align expectations and began a relationship--which I remember being excited about but also confused by. We still didn't know each other that well, all things considered; it all felt a bit rushed, especially considering how much being confusing we'd both done for three solid months.

Sure enough, about a month after we'd started dating, he called me out to one of our college's buildings where he was working on an assignment and said he'd like to end the relationship on the basis that he'd be going to LA in a few months. He felt he was functionally leading me on by continuing it, given that it now had a built-in end date; long distance wasn't on the table.

I found this reasonable, and while I was disappointed by the outcome, I honestly wasn't as busted up about it as I could have been. I remember returning to my dorm and feeling proud of myself for Handling It Like An Adult.

And then the next day he hit me up with a booty call.

Dear reader, 19-year-old Trystan was initially and rightfully offended. However, 19-year-old Trystan was also very horny and at the very start of his Hot Girl Phase (TM).

What ensued was an awkward friends with benefits arrangement that had me confused 100% of the time. It also involved me being the worst dormmate. I'd at this point changed dorm rooms to one with a really lovely view overlooking Boston Commons and a new roommate in a much, much smaller space.

That roommate and I actually had the problem of being too similar. We were shy/socially anxious and avoidant of confrontation in the same way, which meant we never really built any kind of connection--while I never truly became close with my roommates of the prior year, one of them and I had become friendly enough that she gave me parting gifts when she returned to Dubai.

New!Roommate and I were just strangers who uncomfortably shared a space but not a schedule; I did a lot of homework in darkness or in the common room that school year. I also functionally locked her out of the room several times to get laid, so OOPS.

I can't even say "I didn't know better." I super did. I was being an asshole, and I knew it. I felt bad about it, but I didn't stop until aforementioned ex-boyfriend-now-fwb moved across the country.

Not All Bad

The thing about Boyfriend 2 (who we're going to call that for ease of sentence-writing) is that I could easily tell this story as him being just some shitty bro taking the opportunity to get his dick wet with a naive girl, but that wouldn't be accurate.

When I look back at it now, what I realize is that of all the people I've been intimate with, he was actually the most consistently upfront and clear about his intentions and wants. I just wasn't ready to communicate in a direct and straightforward way; I'd literally never done that before. It wasn't how the cultures I'd grown up in functioned, ever, and so I assumed that when someone told me something directly, there was another, unspoken motive under the surface.

Does that mean he did nothing wrong? No, but that's my point. I struggle to put this particular affair into an easily digestible form because it simply isn't easily digestible--and that's kind of a good thing. I learned a lot from him.

So here are a few of the stories.

When we were in that summer of awkward courtship, and before we'd really done anything other than go on remarkably celibate dates, there was a time when he touched my arm while we were joking around. Later on, after our arrangement had become intimate, he reminded me of that occasion and told me he'd done that intentionally in order to break what he called "the touch barrier." Once you break the touch barrier with someone, assuming they aren't put off by it, you'll both be able to make physical contact easily going forward. This tidbit rattled around in my head for years, and I notice when I and other people break the touch barrier.

This was also during the summer, and it's probably the most Coming of Age Story thing I've ever done. On a day when we didn't plan to see each other because Boyfriend 2 was out drinking with friends (which I couldn't join for because I was a couple years under the legal drinking age), I got a text late at night (I was awake; I slept 3 or 4 hours a night for most of college) in which he asked if he could stop in. I was at my parents house, so the "Dad'll be pissed if I sneak you in here" was my first thought but, for reasons I to this day don't comprehend and therefore were probably "I am horny," I agreed after some discussion.

Lo, Boyfriend 2 came to the house, parked, relieved himself at one corner of the house, and came around to the back door to the basement (where I was) whereupon I let him in. I remember there being a harrowing moment while he was there when my dad went downstairs from the bedrooms to the bathroom (first floor). I was basically holding my breath, praying he wouldn't walk downstairs to scold me for being up. But, he apparently decided I was in bed and had left the basement light on by accident. He turned it off and trundled up to bed. I remember claiming in the morning that I'd fallen asleep on the basement couch by accident. Not sure my parents ever found out I'd pulled this one off.

Boyfriend 2 had a lot of qualities and experiences that were far outside my personal realm of experience. His family history was complicated and messy, and he was the single most ambitiously driven person I've ever met. He hailed from Bulgaria, which he'd left as a teen with the desire to direct films (which was his major). He worked a pile of jobs and saved scrupulously to put himself through college--ours was not a cheap college at all--and the things he spoke to experiencing and doing to achieve his dream just blew my mind. I couldn't imagine ever wanting something that bad (I was depressed out of my mind, remember).

He was also a big Linkin Park fan, which I was initially skeptical of. To me, Linkin Park was screamo I listened to when I was 14 and angsting on the bus with my Walkman. He told me he related to the songs a lot, that they touched parts of his lived experience. That thought wriggled around my head for a long time, and it contributed to the easing of my own habituated snap judgments.

You know how a meme went around a bit ago about white people not washing their legs? Yeah that used to be me. I learned to -actually wash my legs and feet- from Boyfriend 2. Not sure if he knew he taught me that, though. It was one of those things where we were showering together, I saw him not just trusting to the fall of soap and had the "Oh crap I'll seem weird and gross if I don't also wash my legs/feet" and started doing it, hahaha.

Another time, when we were in the relationship phase, we talked a bit about how awkward our initial courtship had been, and he owned that he'd nearly given up on me. Good lesson in being clearer with my intentions, as well as more confident in my assessment of situations.

Another summertime one: Boyfriend 2 drove fast. Dangerously fast, always. The kind of car you see zip by you on the highway and decide to change lanes to get away from. One of the times we were in his car, driving down the interstate at night, we came upon a crash thsat was completely invisible in the darkness because the people involved didn't have any lights on. Boyfriend 2 swerved out of the way successfully, but it was an incredibly near miss that shook us both up. I learned something about road safety that night, and it actually wasn't the speeding issue (that was obvious): it was about making yourself visible after a crash.

This one's a TMI so skip this paragraph if you don't want to read about a sex thing. I also learned something about myself and consent via Boyfriend 2, which was that my inability to say "no" was a lot more deeply seeded and dangerous than I'd previously realized. One time when we were getting frisky, he made an attempt to engage in anal without involving any lube or permission in the matter. (Now, there's a decent chance this was accidental, but at the time I didn't interpret it that way.) It wasn't a thing that had ever been discussed as on the table, and I was alarmed and didn't want to go there. But I didn't say anything. I clammed up. I made one whimpering sound when it started to hurt, and he stopped, so it was a non-issue, but the revelation that even under threat of a nonconsensual sex act I still wouldn't say no sure did prime me to get my ass out of shitty situations quickly in the future. The TMI has ended.

Through Boyfriend 2 I had the opportunity to be an extra on a film set and to help out on another one. This on the one hand revealed to me how the camera can take a bunch of duct tape and cheap plastic champagne flutes and make them look like a high quality sci-fi set with the right lighting, and it also revealed that I really loved the vibe and energy of the situation. I was a pretty crappy extra, but working behind the scenes was cool as shit, and that primed me for entering the entertainment industry in a different way than being someone who makes stuff had. I think, maybe, it was the first time I'd enjoyed working in a team (and that's 99.9% of what entertainment industries are).

And here is the last and, I think, most important one:

When it came time for him to move to LA, I made him a going away present. I put a lot of effort and care into it. He really liked gin and tonics so it was a little set I put together for making them--glass, gin I had someone else buy, the rest of the ingredients, little cut outs of ice and limes that I drew myself (they came out great; I fortunately do have scans) and a recipe card with a mocked up g&t on one side and the recipe on the other, to be cute. I was proud of this present.

When he received it, the first thing he said (that I remember) was a sarcastic "I'm pretty sure I know how to make a gin and tonic" about the recipe card (which was intended decoratively, really). It hurt the fuck out of my feelings, and while I do remember some nicer things said about the other elements, the wounded feeling and sense that I had been wasting my time really hit hard and stuck with me. And that's the lesson: spend your time on people who will appreciate it, not trying to win over folks who already got what they wanted from you.

And thus did Boyfriend 2 exit my life. Our encounters had slowly petered out until he departed. When he got to LA, he started dating a girl he knew there in short order (they'd been very chatty leading up to the move), which I read as echoing what had happened with Boyfriend 1. As she became more interesting, I became less so, like the toy a child grows bored of.

I didn't want to be "boring" again.

#context #info #me #autobiographical #relationships #college #nonconsensual behavior #10s #2010 #Age 19

0 notes