#and then i liked it so much i made it again on my computer

[transboyswitchytales]

Pretty Girl I'll Make You Famous 🔐

🔒Maya MasonxArtistReaderMason🔑

Part 1, Bitter pill, I'll make it painless, Show you how the stars are made I promise that they'll know your name Pretty girl, I'll make you famous

Part 2, So, gather 'round and run your mouths Did you forget you're in my fuckin' house?

You are Maya Mason's wife and the head artist of Continental Studio's Animation division. Someone at work is sexually harassing you, and you haven't told your wife, big mistake.

My Masterlist of Works

!WARNING: SEXUAL HARASSMENT IN THE WORKPLACE!

ANGRY MAYA ACTIVATED/ Possesive / Talks of Violence / Maya throwing things / Daddy Kink!/G!PMaya/Impregnation kink/Video Game Discussions/Movies/ Hollywood Shit/ Animators/ Shop-Talk / Bucky/ Alice x Jen/ Wanda x Nat/ Baby Billy/ Matt is an idiot/ Patty is a Star/ Tony Bashing/ Sexually explicit language and themes 18+/MDNI / *Not a Healthy Relationship*

So, gather 'round and run your mouths

Did you forget you're in my fuckin' house?

You have your headphones on, but you can lip-read pretty well through the glass, and only one of your big over-the-ear headphones is on your ear. So you were listening/watching the drama happening in the room. 

Your office door was open, and you were hoping, like all managers at all levels, that your children would figure it out for themselves. And you wouldn’t need to step in. But you were realizing that this was becoming a hotter and hotter issue. 

Wanda opened your door twenty minutes ago and was typing happily on your sofa. She’d eyed you once, one earbud in. She could also hear your minions arguing. You met her eyes to tell her you knew. You and Wanda had been friends since you were in your early twenties in LA. You’d done Molly at a Florence and The Machine concert for fucks sake. You’d taught her with a cucumber how to give a good blow job. You were close, to say the least. 

So she knew your style, and knew that you were waiting. 

You weren’t on your computer like Wanda. You had your animation table tilted, and the light was off. You weren’t animating, you were drawing Ethan Winter's face. Because for some reason no one could agree on what the fuck this white guy with blonde air looked like. Some said he looked too much like Chris Evans, others said Chris Hemsworth. You were tired of the Chris’s and were looking for more of a Scarsgard look, maybe? Perhaps it was too European? You were fixing his cheekbones when you heard the first person yell. 

Groaning you erased the line you’d just fucked up from the noise. 

“Oof, you got a problem on your hands, Da Vinci.” Wanda teased, not looking up as she worked on the scene. 

Her feet were tucked underneath her and her heels were kicked off on your floor. There was art and storyline pinned on corkboard with scene orders. She’d moved the middle part around about twenty-three times. You knew Wanda was stuck because she was chewing on her milkshake straw. But you didn’t make a snide comment on how she should worry about how the hell Ethan is going to get into the Doll house. You just breathed out through your nose and drew Ethan’s left eye again. 

Until Billy walked in with his sketchbook.

“Boss?” He said politely and obviously was completely scared of you. He looked at Wanda, and the two shared a comfortable communication. You didn’t ever say anything about the two of them. Understanding from being Mrs. Mason, how nice it was for no one to know who lived in your home. 

“Billy.” You say not looking up at him, and he stares like Bambi back at you. He’s wearing big black glasses and his baggy sweaters again. He’s absolutely adorable, and you’d kill for the twenty-year-old. Wanda goes back to typing, not getting involved. Which was smart, she knew you better than to put her foot in your animation business. 

“It’s getting a little..well, you see….Mrs. M- Boss, I think..” He starts, but you don’t look at him. And it’s making the curly-haired boy more nervous. Which is ridiculous because he knows you better than to be this. Of all the people in the building to fear you, Billy shouldn’t be one of them. 

Your phone rings, and you don’t let it ring twice before you answer and put your wife on speaker.

“Baby, you are on speaker in the office, don’t say something bad.”

“Ballsack.” She says, and you roll your eyes. Of course she always took that as a dare.  

“Hey, baby Daddy!” Wanda yells as she knows your wife is trying unsuccessfully to knock you up. And she likes to poke fun at Maya any chance she gets. 

Billy just blushes and looks at the door, wondering if he should leave. 

“Hey, red rocket! How’s your fat paycheck doing? Feeling the need to get fired yet?” Maya threatens and teases all in one pretty package. Wanda scoffs pretneindg to be offended. 

“Maya, hold on a second. I’m gonna multitask, I know you wanted me to come to your office but I’m swamped. So hold on. Billy, you don’t have to tell me. You don’t need them to think you tell me stuff. I already know Jen and Tony are fighting about Kratos. Tony wants it to look more Viking, and Jen wants it to be more focused on a video game aesthetic. Jen is right, and Tony needs to listen. But I���m not going to intervene about that until Jen asks me to. Because she’s running point on Kratos. Tony is in charge of Atreus, and if he draws his son Peter again, I’m going to put him back on backgrounds. But you don’t need to tell him that. Just go back to Jen and remind her she has a meeting with Barton on Zoom soon. And yes Billy, I know Alice is freaking out. She doesn’t need to, I saw the sketches and the teaser….Well, we are finishing the trailer tonight at midnight. For both of them. No one is going home until it’s done. You can tell them the scary animator said that, ok?”

Billy smiles more sure than before and finding solace in you looking at him like he isn’t fired. Wanda smiles sadly at him, but he doesn’t look at her. 

“God, I think I’m hard,” Maya said, and you take her off speaker. 

“Can you behave for two fucking seconds in front of my team?” You ask her, but you grab your laptop and the sketch of thirty different Ethan’s. 

“I miss you. I can’t behave when I miss you, you know that. I do need you to come to my office, we have some things to sort out.”

“You never behave, Mrs. Mason.” You tell her, and Wanda is packing her stuff and coming out of the office with you. You pick your airpod out of your pocket, and it pairs, so you don’t have to hold your phone. You put it in your back pocket and hear Maya sigh through your right ear airpod. 

“I’d behave if you came here and let me fill you, if you take out that stupid implant, I’ll behave. Come to my office, Darling. There’s some things that need taken care of.”

“Someone needs a cold shower.” You half whisper, but you walk into the main office area. 

“Tony, where’s the art for Atreus?” You say over his cubicle, and he looks momentarily taken aback. He’s used to your stupid old boss, who wouldn’t be here grilling one of his boys. But you aren’t his boy. You are his fucking boss and you aren’t going to listen to his whiny ass. Tony was a good artist and he had potential if he took his head out of his backside. 

“I’ll email it to you in ten, boss lady.” He rolls his eyes. 

“You can drop the lady, or we’ll talk about your workload again.” You say, and you hear two other animators laughing at him. Maya in your ear snorts at you, and you hear a faint ‘tell him, baby girl.’

“Yes, boss,” Tony says, and you think that you actually see a bit of respect in his eyes. But maybe not. 

“If you can’t handle the task of drawing a child, I can put you on trees or trash cans.” You smile at him, and it’s col,d and it really digs the nail in. You aren’t here to be liked. You don’t care what he draws in the bathroom about you. You don’t care if Tony drinks at his desk and curses you under hi breath. You do care if he draws what you need. And if he can’t, there are plenty of resumes in your inbox. 

“No, I got it. I think Jen said something about the eyes of his mother. So I’m just gonna do a few changes, and you’ll have a color animation. Just give me-” He says and it isn’t what you want. 

“Do it right, Stark, I’ll have it in an hour. I have a meeting, and then I’ll need it. Color would be nice, since you have been an animator for a long time. But if you are falling behind, you should tell your boss now. While I’m standing here.” You tell him, and Wanda is behind you, and you hear her biting back a laugh. You don’t take pleasure in public humiliation, but if they behaved like drunken fools…well. You’d put his ass in the stockade and let the others throw food at him. 

You’d never do this to an animator who didn’t get motivated from it. Billy would never experience this, not just because he was anxious and close to you. But because it wouldn’t make him motivated. Tony however, he wanted you to step on his dick. 

And you’d worn your heels today. You were sure they’d draw blood if need be. 

You’d seen the drawing around the office. Tony drew them often now, he was naked with his tongue out, you drawn in a latex suit with your heel on his balls. You’d seen it, you’d left it in the break room. You weren’t afraid of them. They were in your fucking house. 

This was your house.

Jen came through the cubicles with her laptop and a stack of drawings. She looked exhausted. Jen eyed Tony and had heard you talking to him. She appreciated you more than words could say. Jen had never been under your wrath either. She’d never needed Walt’s Monster to make her work harder. You’d taught Jen what you wanted. And she was quick and detail-oriented, so you motivated her with bigger projects and praise. And it worked wonders. 

Alice came out of her office to the middle where you were all huddled near the cubmicles. She had her hair in a tight bun with two pencils in it, and she had her iPad. She also looked like shit. Billy was behind her. 

“How many people are coming to this meeting?” Alice asks, looking at Billy confused. 

“Baby, you still there?” You ask, and Maya clears her throat, and you realize she’s definitely hard from hearing you knock Tony down a peg. 

“Right here Darling, where I always am, right behind you.”

It’s sweet and it warms your heart.

“Does Matt want to focus on God of War or Resident Evil?” You ask and no one has given you a straight answer in your emails. 

“He wants both; he’s stupid and thinks it’ll be good to push them out one month apart. I’m working on telling him to stagger them. But he thinks if we do them both, then we can do two next quarter the same way. Patty, Sal,, and I are working on it, baby…But it’s not looking how we want it.”

You ignore Tony staring at your cleavage, and you scratch your forehead. 

“Um, ok. So, Billy I need you to go to Motion Design and put a fire under their ass. We are working on both Resident Evil and God of War by midnight. You have Motion Design work faster. Right now, Resident Evil is further along. I need you to have them work faster on both, and email me the final animation for Rose by the end of my meeting in an hour and a half. I’m not entirely sure how long this thing with Matt is going to take.”

You pull your phone out of your back pocket to check the time. 

“...Thirty minutes, for Rose animation, and I’ll send you the final on Ethan. Ok, Billy?” You tell him, and he nods and sprints across the offices. Motion Design was down two levels, and he was really taking the stairs to get there. 

“He’s adorable. I want to clone him. We need more of him.” Alice says under her breath to no one in particular. You’d known it was a good idea to put Billy under Alice. She loved a goth queer kid, she’d protect him when you weren’t around. No one knew his connection to Wanda. And you were keeping it that way. 

“Tony and Jen, figure out Kratos and his son today. Jen, what do you have for me?” You said, looking at what’s in her hand. 

“I have the finished Kratos weapons and clothes, and we have a few action scenes that Natasha and Barton put in their scenes. It’s animated, rought but it’s blocked out. So we have an animator's quick sketch cut of it. It’s not teaser worthy, but-” Jen babbles and you put your hand up to stop her and she does. Your team needed raises. Jen and Alice looked rough, and they were both babbling, not a good combo. 

“How long?” You ask her. She opens and closes her mouth twice before your question computes. Wanda is still standing there and Tony isn’t paying attention anymore. He’s drawing quickly. One animator throws a paper across to another, and you ignore them. 

“A minute and a half.” Your eyes open wider, and you smile. Way to go, Jen. 

“Good work Jen, I’ll take that into the meeting. Wanda is coming with me. You talk to Barton and after you and Alice need to meet and show each other we you have. Whatever holes I want you to write them out, and make a list. When I come back, you can tell me what needs tweaking. I’ll be back in a.. time… I’m not sure. If Tony needs help please pair him with Bucky.” You tell Jen but Tony turns out was listening. 

“Bucky, the one-hand wonder?” Tony is confused, and you turn to look at him like he’s a mongrel that isn’t supposed to speak. Maya snorts in your AirPods again, she doesn’t need to see your face to know.

“Stark, you are on the thinnest of ice. If I ever hear you refer to him as that again, I’ll drag you into HR to fire you, not walk you.” You tell him, and he looks back down.  

Bucky, with his long hair, however, comes around. Once you are finished telling Tony he sucks. 

Bucky was missing an arm, you’d hired him with his adorable beard and big daddy dopey grin. You loved the man, he was loyal as hell. He’d taken down dirty drawings of you around the office. 

It wasn’t the reason you’d promoted him from background to character animator. 

He’d been eternally grateful for the raise and chane. Bucky was a talented illustrator; he could draw beautiful architecture, but he had something you wanted to nurture for characters. His sketches were clean as hell, too. He’d painted a gorgeous poster that you’d run with for Resident Evil, he’d made the castle and Duke come to life. Like you could reach out and touch them. 

 You saw so much potential in him.  

“I’ll help Tony.” He says, and you smile warmly at him. You would have been friends with the man if you weren’t his boss. But he was so smart, you might just have to anyway. 

“Thank you, Bucky. Could you also ask the sculptors to finish up Heisenberg’s bust? It should have been done yesterday, but I think there was some confusion about his hat.” You say, and Bucky nods like a good soldier. 

“Of course, boss.” 

You smile and turn on your heel. Jen goes to her office to call Barton. And Alice scurrries to her corner of the office to ask about character back lighting. 

You and Wanda head out of the main animator floor. You take the elevator and you grab your badge, and swipe it.

“Baby?” You ask. 

“Still here, still hard as a rock. Still need to talk to you.” Maya teases, and you laugh.

Wanda presses the button for the floor and she's got her computer under her arm. But she’s texting as you talk to Maya. 

“What’s for lunch, and how long is this meeting really going to take? Because I have a mountain of work to do, and I don’t want to sit and listen to Matt dick around about Ethan’s chin for an hour. Also, Wanda has to finish the mess she made of my second act. It’s a shit show.” 

Wanda turns, and she’s got her mouth hanging open. 

“Tell your Daddy that I will fix this before midnight. Like I promised! I just need to- Ya know what! Give me God of War, I’ll fix whatever Natasha’s fucking up! It looks way easier!” Wanda squeaks, and you know you’ve hit a nerve with her. 

“Uh oh, sounds like your maid of honor is upset with you now,” Maya says, but she’s not teasing because she finds Wanda kinda annoying. She still was fine when Wanda came over for drinks or dinner, but she rolled her eyes a lot at the writer. You would love to mention how all of Maya’s dinner guests were work-related. But Maya just told you that you were her best friend. And you melted when she did that. 

“Oh my god, I’m only joking. I know you will. Besides- wait a fucking minute. Is this because of you and Nat? Are you guys fucking again?” You say, and your mouth drops open now in mock surprise, and Wanda is flushed and shaking her head. 

The elevator dings, and you walk through the main lobby. It’s got giant sculptures of animated characters, and video games, and movie posters. There’s even a small coffee shop with a barista. It’s cozy and has a million hipster bean bag chairs that look like rocks. There’s a giant movie screen that is always showing the fucking Kool-Aid movie. Which is annoying.  

Maya is in your ear and has been listening to you talking to Wanda with interest. She tunes in again. 

“Gagged, writers and animators are just like everyone else in Hollywood. Everyones fucking everyone. It’s exhausting.” Maya says, and you realize how old she sounds in this moment. 

“Baby, you sound like an elderly married man.” You tease, and Maya laughs, and you are surprised she doesn’t disagree with you. You hear her start to yell at her assistant to go to the store and buy drain-o, five ice coffee’s, one cappuccino, one iced strawberry matcha, and super tampons. You remember that your drain was clogged this morning, and Maya swore she’d fix it tonight. But you look down at your calendar to see that Maya is right, like always, your period is starting tomorrow. 

Wanda knows you can multitask, so she takes no offense at you on the phone with Maya, looking at your calendar, and talking to her about gossip. 

Your combined heels click on the cement as you walk over to the main studio. You don’t want to drive in a golf cart today. Besides Wanda has to explain away from a PA what the fuck she’s talking about.  

“I was in love with Natasha, or am in love with Natash- but so is half the writers in this fucking town. Besides, Yelena called me!” Wanda says, and her eyes are sparkling. You eye her and put your phone back in your pocket. 

“You are telling me you are going to fuck her sister to get back at her?” You ask, and you only half disapprove. “Can you wait until I’m done with the project, and then you two can go all homicidal Bonnie and Clyde on each other again?” You ask it selfishly.  

“Jesus, I’m so glad I’m not dating anymore. Marrying you was the best thing I ever did. Besides these bitches are crazy in L.A! I’m relieved to be a married Daddy now.” Maya says, and you wonder if she’s changing her nickname. Perhaps Mommy was so last season? Or maybe she liked the term ‘Baby Daddy’ more than she was letting on. 

“I am not gonna fuck Yelena. I’m going to go into business with her!”

“That’s worse, I think?” You say, and then the realization of it hits you. “You’d go into business with another writer? You swore you’d never go into a production, you said in college it was all about artistic differences and shit. I remember because Viz begged you to open a house. He was upset about the workload and you said-”

“I know I know what I said, but I don’t know it might be nice.” Wanda shrugs and you feel fear now. 

“Wanda, am I putting too much on your plate? Because if it’s making home life hard-” You worry about your friend. You were glad she was divorced now from Viz, but you didn’t want to make her life hard. 

“Oh my god, you are the sweetest human alive. No matter what they call you. And they call you a lot, honey. Go back to being Mrs. Mason, setting the studio on fire. I’m fine, I promise, I will tell you. I’m just stuck on Ethan Winters decision making, he’s thick as hell. Besides, if anyone should be concerned in our little affair, it’s me! When are you gonna let Maya put a fucking baby in you? I’ve made a Pinterest board years ago for the baby shower!” Wanda asks, and you groan at her. Of course she fucking had. 

“Now that’s the question of the hour. I knew I liked your choice of Maid of Honor.” Maya said over your earbud. It was not true, and you both knew it. Maya just wasn’t letting go of the idea that waiting was silly. 

“Oh, ya know what, we are going into a tunnel. Babe, I’ll see you in four minutes!” You tell her and you make fake noises as if there is bad reception. 

“HEY! DO NOT HANG UP ON M-” She yells and you don’t listen.

You end the call on your wife and Wanda chuckles at your antics. 

_______________________

You walk in, and Patty is taking an iced coffee out of Maya’s assistant’s hand. He’s tall and gay and lanky as hell. He looks like he’s a model who’s afraid of everyone, and maybe he’s done a bump of coke in the bathroom. You can’t remember his name, and you aren’t sure Maya knows it either. 

Sal and Matt are talking about how they are going to get Scarlett Johansson to call them back about a spy movie. Quinn and Patty are talking about how they really want to make the next Old Guard, and Netflix has the rights.

Wanda cringes at the room and goes next to Patty to get the iced coffee. Patty turns her attention and starts to fluff Wanda up like she’s in a porno. Patty is telling her how amazing her work is and how she can’t believe they haven’t worked together before. 

You are looking around for Maya like always, but her assistant eyes you, and you are surprised he’s walking to you. But he walks up to you with his intense eye makeup and hands you the iced strawberry matcha, and you take it. Maya was sweet to know you were trying to cut down on your coffee intake.

 You open your mouth to thank him, and then he gets a little weird.

“You are the Mason Da Vinci, I just wanna say…If you ever want to spit on me…Or I could be furniture in your house or-” He leans in and you feel Maya before you see her. Like a cloud falls over the room, something dark and sinister. The little people of Tokyo the second Godzillia makes his first step probably felt similar. 

 She’s behind you, her heels click to a stop, and the assistant goes paler. 

“Get the hell out,” Maya says, and her hand falls on your lower back. You eye the tall boy as he runs out of the office.

“The fuck Maya? Feed the poor boy?” You whisper, and she isn’t laughing, and you turn to see her. Her gorgeous jaw is clenched, and you see the irritation.  

“Baby?” You ask and her eyes fall on you, oh shit she didn’t like that. You are confused why, because people say inappropriate things to her all the time. But it was sexual towards you, and she doesn’t like that one bit.

 But maybe there’s something else too?

“Matt, I’m firing my assistant after this. Now let’s get this shit started, I ordered lunch because I know we aren’t going to settle this in the allotted hour meeting time. So yay for tacos.” Maya says and you realize she’s really not ok with whatever is going on. Her body is tense, and she’s mad. But she’s keeping a lid on it, which is not very Maya-like. Something is keeping her contained. 

“We lost some of the budget, didn’t we?” You say, and Sal looks shocked. Wanda walks back to you and sits down to your right and she eyes you curiously. 

“You told her! We said we’d wait!” Sal yells at Maya, who eyes him like he’s a worm, and he plops in the swivel seat. 

Everyone starts to sit down except Maya. You defend your wife until the end.

“She didn’t tell me shit. Why are you cutting the budget and moving the date of release? Oh my god, Matt I won’t do AI.”

“What no, no , I learned from Kool-Aid. People are still boycotting me, and the barista keeps spitting in my coffee. Which is why Maya’s creepy Edward Scissorhands assistant got the coffee today. No, um…Guys, can we have the room? Just for a second? Wanda, I’m really excited you are here. I just need to talk to Da Vinci- I mean Y/n for a second.” Matt rambles, and Wanda keeps her face blank, but she stands with her laptop and walks out. But her eyes on you say it all; ‘I’ll walk if you want me to.’ 

Sal stays, and Patty doesn’t move either. Quinn walks quickly out of the room, and you settle. Dropping your art and computer onto the table. You take a sip of your strawberry matcha as Matt turns and begs Patty to leave in hushed tones. Patty rolls her eyes and argues with him. Matt can’t even get his people to leave the room when he asks. 

You feel Maya put her hands on your chair, it’s a power stance if you’ve ever seen it. It’s pretty obvious, Maya isn’t standing on the side of Matt and the rest. She’s standing behind you, and she’s ready to fight. No wonder she didn’t skin her assistant, she’s got bigger fish to fry. She’ll save him for later. The lion’s got a gazelle in her eyeline now. 

“Maya, please leave for two secon-” Matt tries. 

“No fucking way Matt. You wanna ask my wife a question, I want to hear you say it.”

You don’t turn and look at Maya. You don’t know what this is about, but it doesn’t sound good. Too many layers of tension. And Maya was like a scalpel. 

Matt pulled on his fingers as he worked on through his thoughts.  

“So, higher-ups don’t want to fund two films. I’m working on that, they want to cut the budget. We’re hoping that with the teaser, we can change their mind. But that’s not what I’m worried about. I think I can fix that, I mean I can, I can fix that. What I need to know is..there’s a rumor going around about you.”

Matt can’t look at your eyes. 

“A rumor?” You ask, wondering what HR nightmare you are walking into. Did someone get upset by the noises you and Maya were making when you fucked in her office? Did someone figure out who Billy was related to? No, it was about you? Was it about Maya, too? Did Tony or one of your minions bring a complaint?

“Spit it out, Matty,” Patty says, taking a sip of her drink. 

“Did Marvel contact you about a position?” Matt says and it’s rushed out in one breath. 

Maya cuts in before you can respond. She leaves a count of four before she snaps at the exec.  

“You have no right to ask her that. If Disney comes forward asking about her contract, she has every right Matt. She’s a fucking triple threat artist and you aren’t even giving her full funding for a film. If Disney comes forward for a project with Marvel Studios, my wife has every right to take it.” Maya says cool and calculated and you pause.

 Oh god, you see what’s going on. 

Oh Maya…

You lick your lips and form your response, calculating what is being set in front of you. 

“Matt, you know my contract isn’t up. I can’t work at another studio for another, what was it Maya?” You ask, trying to remembe,r and Maya pretends to think about it. 

“Five months I believe?”

Like she didn’t fucking know. 

Sal gulps and takes the bait, turning to Matt. They were too easy. 

“Matt.. we can’t lose her. She’s fucking got Wanda and Nat on speed dial! She’s got two feature films under her control! No one in animation houses works as fast as she does. If we lose her, these films won’t be made and you know it! We already tweeted the release date! Fix it!” Sal chastised his best friend. Patty eyed Maya before turning to Matt, having made her decision. 

“Wanda will walk, and so will Nat. They love her, there’s so many writers who love her. She’s got a network, and you don’t Matt. And if they walk, you have no story. And seventy percent of the animators, concept artists, cgi artists, sculptors, digital fucking effects teams will leave. She’s the fucking bones of that whole lot. Matt I’m not your boss anymore, I won’t tell you what to do. But if I were you, I’d be mighty scared to piss off your head artist and Maya’s fucking wife. So I’d write a check for the films and give her a mighty fine pay bump. Or the nickname Walt’s Monster will become more real than you are ready for.” Patty said and turned to smile at you before she sipped her coffee. Lipstick stain staying on the straw. 

Now that was interesting. 

Matt got up and walked out to make a call, with Sal on his heels to go help. Patty stood and winked at you and then raised her cup to Maya. She walked out, and you sat in silence with Maya behind you. 

The only noise in the conference room was the clicking of the clock on the wall.

“You are the worst.” You whisper and you don’t say more because you aren’t at home. There are eyes and ears everywhere. Maya doesn’t come around, she stays behind you. 

“If my assistant, or anyone in this industry, ever says something lewd to you ever again. You don’t wait for me to walk in. You fire them on the spot. Because what I’m going to do to him is worse than what you’ll do. He’ll never work in L.A again, and none of his friends will either. And he may go missing if I am in the mood. I’ll kill his fucking dog sparkie if he ever looks at you again. No one, and I mean no one, disrespects my wife that way.” Maya whispered, and it was almost scary if it didn’t make your cunt drip. Maya knew too many people in L.A. And that didn’t stop at people in the industry; she knew drug smugglers, gangsters, and mafia. Maya wasn’t afraid of jack shit. Her upbringing made her hard and scary. She’d carried a glock strapped to her fucking thigh at the age of seventeen. Maya had a whole fancy drawer at home of butterfly knives.

You didn’t turn to look at her. You sipped your drink, and Maya’s finger brushed against your shoulder from where her hand was still on the chair. Your body responded instantly to her long acrylic fingernails against your shoulder. You wanted her.

“You should have come to my office.” She tells you, and you don’t have time to mull that over as Sal, Patty, and Matt are back.

Come play with us 

“I sent over a new contract, I got the green light on the film's funding. Everything is fixed, and I got you a very big pay bump.” Matt says like he’s saved the day. 

“Please don’t take the meeting with the big mouse,” Sal says, and Patty slaps his shoulder, and he goes over to the chair with her and they sit. 

Matt waves at Quinn through the glass of the conference room, and Wanda and Quinn walk back. 

Wanda doesn’t care, she’s a confident fucking writer. She walks over to you and turns her back on the table full of execs. She eyes you and tilts her red hair in question. 

You eye the seat to your right, and she smirks and sits. Opening her laptop up as everyone collectively settles. She grabs her iced coffee and starts to explain the plot. 

Maya is seated to your left, and her high heel finds the back of your calf. She keeps it there, and you understand her. She needs to touch you, the control. You are heres. 

_______

Two hours of talking about Resident Evil and your drawings are spread out, and Ethan’s face is finally picked. Thanks to Sal and Quinn, and no thanks to Matt. 

Lunch wrappers are all around the conference room. You and Maya don’t touch the food. 

Wanda looks down at her watch and turns to you as Quinn is talking, and you raise an eyebrow at her. But both of your questions are left unanswered. 

As Natasha knocks on the door and opens it. Barton isn’t there, but he doesn’t like going out. Most people don’t know that he’s Def, but you do. And you know he hates wearing his hearing aid. You two text on a daily basis. He’s a friend now after a decade of knowing Natasha. He was nicknamed Hawkeye because he had an eye for details and twists and turns. 

Natasha looks drop-dead gorgeous in her leather jacket, red lipstick and fuck me heels. She smiled her fake smile, the one she saved for movie execs. You turned in your chair only a little because Maya’s heel stopped you from moving too much. 

She needs control, and you want to give it to her.

“Nat, I’m glad you could come, you are early!” You say, and Nat looks confused for a millisecond until she eyes Sal and her face drops. 

“Sal has to go to another meeting,” Quinn says, and it has no tac,t but it works. Sal grabs his phone and trips, falling on his face, but scrambles back up and out of the other door. Nat turns and smirks at you, and you both know that she is just giving Sal a hard time because it’s a fun power play. 

But she goes over to Wanda and hugs her, which floors your friend. But she hugs back. 

“So good to see you, Maximoff. I heard you are working on Res! Sounds like fun, Clint and I just sent over the finished script for the Kratos project. A bummer we couldn’t work together on the Village! Sounds like a juicy story, lots of hot sexy vampires.” She laughs, and it’s fake as hell. 

You don’t watch your two friends have their foreplay in front of everyone. You turn to Maya, who’s staring at you as well. 

You shake your head at her; anyone else would think it’s because of the two red heads. But Maya understands what you are saying to her, and to her alone. ‘You are really the worst, We are talking after this.’ It’s very clear in your eyes. 

You turn your attention to Matt, who’s clapping his hands together in excitement. 

“That’s so awesome! Wanda, you won’t have to worry about finishing late now! R&B Productions and Wanda Inc making a fucking script together!”

He’s oblivious for someone who’s been in this business for too long. 

You gulp and close your eyes. There it is, like dominoes. 

 You turn to Wanda, who’s just being civil, and her eyes do not hold the same sentiment. You save your friend, but you aren’t verbalizing writing off the idea of them working together. The two writers collaborating linger in the air. 

“Natasha and I can brainstorm and see tonight what Wanda will need from us. Natasha, if you are ready to talk about the God of War script for everyone. I’ll let Wanda get back to it.”

You excuse her from the dinner table, so to speak. 

Wanda’s hand finds your knee under the table, and it’s a millisecon,d but you know she’s saying ‘Thank you!’ Because she’s going to go write and fix the script before Natasha can see what she’s missing.

 Wanda thanks everyone and lingers on Natasha. Telling her how excited she is to work together. And then she’s gone, and you can almost hear her running out of the building. You are very clear that the script will be done before the meeting is done.  

_________

You thank Natasha and tell her that they’ll make her a badge to get into the building and that she’ll text Alice to get her downstairs. 

You walk behind Maya for a minute as she talks to a PA for Quinn about sending her a temp. You wait until they are done talking, and you and Maya walk into her office. 

It’s a huge fucking office, it’s swanky as hell and she has expensive clothes on racks in a walk in closet. Her own full bathroom with a clawfoot tub and shower. It’s better than your first apartment. Her long plush sofas and large wood desk are menacing in the space. She has a projector always playing classic black and white horror movies that the studio used to make. It’s silent but constant against the wall, comforting.  

You walk in and you lean on her desk, putting your stuff in one of the low guest seats. Maya’s desk is higher, as it is always a contest. 

Your wife takes off her jacket and throws it onto her big desk chair before she walks between your legs. You open them up for her, and her crotch meets yours like they’re magnets. Maya pushes you so you are fully sitting on her desk. It isn’t unlike how she’s fucked you before. 

She isn’t completely hard, but you feel the heat, and you know it’ll only take a second. 

“You started a rumor that Disney wanted me on a Marvel project…so that we could get full funding for the film and I could get a raise.” It’s not a question. 

“You think I just sit here and twiddle my thumbs? Marketing is a full-time job, hon.”

“You manipulated that conference room to do your bidding, again. What I’m surprised by is that Patty didn’t even blink, not an ounce of a fight. What do you have on her? Is it blackmail? Or is she just that afraid of you?” You push, and it’s like foreplay. The game is a foot and it is thick in the room. 

Maya brushes your hair to the side and cups your face. 

“Are you sure it’s just me she’s afraid of, baby?” Blue eyes seek yours. 

“Maya!” You chastise, but she doesn’t seem phased by your displeasure. She’s smirking but you see the upset still under the surface. Something has your wife furious. But she’s so calculated, she’s waiting. She finally opens up a little about it. Her hand is not leaving your face.  

“You aren’t telling me something, and it’s been bothering me, so I had someone do some digging. I had to dig.” Maya starts, and you won’t be easily distracted by this topic. Her other hand comes to your hip. 

“Please tell me, Maya, Sweetie,  that you did not start a stupid rumor to get me paid higher so that I will agree to get pregnant. Because one of my reasons for us not having a baby right now was-” You try, but Maya shrugs and answers. 

“You said I made more than you, I felt like that was silly. I mean, Daddy still makes more, but now you make…really, really, good money. We’ll buy that beach house you were hesitant about last summer- kind of money. Besides pre-schools are fucking expensive, especially for eight children.” Maya muses, and you realize she’s still upset, but the reminder of kids seems to make her smirk a little. 

“Maya, you can’t get me a raise and have me decide we are ready for a baby. It doesn’t work like that.” You chastise your wife, knowing that that was one of the reasons she’d done this. Maya understands your thought process and answers your statement in your mind.  

“It was a small push, but not the only reason. Now what was really funny in that room was you double booking Natasha and manipulating Wanda.”

You bit your lip and smiled, and Maya laughed fully. 

“God, we are meant for each other. I thought I was the only one who brought something for show and tell!” Maya said proudly. 

“I couldn’t have you be bored. Besides, why do you get to have all the fun? I know you wanted the teaser out sooner. And besides Wanda and Nat are probably fucking in my office right now. I’m not that bad of a friend.” You shrug your shoulders, but Maya just shakes her head at you. Her face is closer now, and you are both playing the game of ‘who will break and kiss who first.’

“You little minx.” Maya compliments you. 

“Takes one to know one, I suppose.” You say sweetly, but Maya isn’t buying it. Her face sours, and her eyes darken. 

“You are still in trouble.”

“Maya, it’s not a big deal.” You say, realizing she’s figured it out. But Maya leans in to kiss you, and you try to meet her lips, and then she’s backing up. 

She walks over to her office door and flicks the lock. 

Before she reaches into her back pocket and pulls out a crumpled-up drawing. It’s the one Tony did recently, you think. He’s got his cock hanging out he’s wearing a scream mask but you know its’ him from his other drawings. You are giving him a handjob and wearing another domme latex suit, and a strap on. It’s crude, but it’s clear it’s you. 

“What the fuck is this?” She holds the drawing. 

“Maya…” You say slowly, and she shakes her head. 

“Don’t you dare lie to me. You know better than that, we don’t lie. We surprise each other with fun games. Manipulate a room full of people, not each other. They are all pawns. Not this. This, my love, isn’t a fucking game. So you tell me who did this.” She holds up the drawing in front of her like it’s a cursed fucking artifact. 

“Maya.” You say it again instead of saying who did it. 

“No, how long have you known about this?” She says, and she’s licking her bottom lip, and you know she wants blood. 

“It’s not-” You try. 

“Don’t lie. You knew, you knew this was happening. And you didn’t tell me.” Maya’s tone is so betrayed. Her eyes are like razor blades. She’s got venom ready to drip from her teeth.

“How did you even get that?” You ask, and it’s the wrong thing again because Maya’s face turns a darker shade of red. 

“Mrs. Mason, you did not just ask me that. You don’t think I can figure stuff out? Tell me right now, who?” Your wife is raising her voice now. She’s using your married name, oh god.

You put your hand out like it’s nothing, and you can brush it off.

“Maya it’s not even-”

You try, but you can’t even get it out before she knows what you are trying to do. 

“No, don’t tell me that shit. Don’t downplay what this is. And don’t try and tell me it’s the only one. Because I’ve got these!” Maya walks over to the desk and she pulls the drawer so hard it flies out of the desk, and part of the wood shatters. The desk costs more than your car. 

The drawer falls, and she leans down and pulls out four other gross drawings. 

They were all crumpled, they were all….bad. None of them had Tony’s face, but you knew who had done it. 

“Baby…” You say, but she grabs the broken drawer and she throws it across her office, and you hear people outside running away. The marketing team knew that when Maya was mad, it was best to scatter like Pixar rats. 

You aren’t scared of her, she isn’t going to hurt you. Maya would chew off her own arm before laying a hand on you in anger. 

Maya threw things and shouted, but never to scare you. And you knew her anger wasn’t towards you. Maya also never learned healthy ways to get angry. So she acted out like a hip, fashionable, angry teenager with a raging boner.

“Who did this? Who drew you like this? I will burn this whole company down. I’ll do extraordinarily terrible things. You know what I’m capable of. Don’t for a second think whoever did this can hide. Don’t you dare protect them. Who was it?” Maya was seeing red, there was no bringing her back from this. Maya needed carnage.  

“I’ll handle it.” You say, trying to sound more sure of yourself than you felt in this moment. You had thought about telling Maya. You’d wanted to the second it had started. But how the hell do you tell the person who would do anything for you…that… You are being sexually harassed in a place you both worked? You had downplayed it so hard in your mind perhaps Maya had a point. But before you can try anything, Maya is growling with rage. 

“Fuck that! That is complete bullshit. We are a team, have been since the day we met. And you lied to me. You lied to me! You didn’t come to me when this started. The second you saw one of these fucking things you should have got me! I found out about it and I called you. I didn’t wait. I didn’t sit on this. How long have you known?”

It was a trap, and you couldn’t avoid it. You both just looked at each other.  

You were silent and you felt ashamed now. 

“Exactly, you are my everything. And you didn’t think you could tell me. That’s what hurts the most. But there will be no question about people in this town respecting you when I’m done. You bring me this person. You bring me them now. I don’t care where they are or what they’re working on. I’m going to break each finger, they’ll never pick up a pencil again. They’ll have to use a crayon in their mouth in a padded cell to draw when I’m done.” Maya is baring her teeth. She’s throwing her hands around. Maya is not bluffing.

“It’s my house to clean. It’s my animation studio.” You are gripping at straws and this was going to get really bad, really fast. Tony had no idea what was coming his way. He was a jerk, but you still felt responsible, perhaps that was the part Maya hated the most. That you’d been deluded by the industry she loved into thinking you were somehow to blame in any of this. 

Maya laughs and it’s fake and cold.

“It’s your animation studio, that’s nice. It’s my marketing team, it’s Matt’s company. I don’t fucking care. How about this? YOU ARE MY WIFE! How about that?” Maya screams and spit flies and her hands are gesturing towards you in the air. She crumples the drawings and throws them across her office like she can’t touch them one more second. 

“Maya, calm down, baby. It’s not that big and it’s not that deep. This person is just butt hurt I got the promotion. Come here, let me hold you.” You tell her, and you know if you can touch her she’ll calm down. But your wife looks at you like you are insulting her intelligence, which is a way she’s never looked at you before.  You aren’t trying to manipulate her, you just need the room to make sense again.

“No.” She says, and it’s flat and empty, and you are confused. 

“No?” It sounds broken when you say it. Your lip sticking out a little too much. Maya sees it, she sees you.

“I won’t be easily distracted this time. No, Superstar, you tell your Daddy who did this. And we’ll make love right here. I’ll make you feel so good. I’ll burn the images out of our minds. But damn it, if you are going to be a brat I’ll treat you like one.” She said, and her face snarled at the end. Maya was livid, she was rabid. She’d never turned down sex with you, not once. You gulp and you aren’t sure if tears are coming, but you feel like you might throw up. 

“Maya, please don’t do this, baby. You are going on a witch hunt. Come here.” You open your knees and put your hands out to grab her. Giving her space to retreat or walk forward, and you see her right heel come out to come closer, but she shakes her head. 

“This won’t work this time, Sweetie. You need to look back on the last fourteen years. Because if you think a blow job and a hug is going to distract me from protecting you. Protecting what’s mine. Then I’ve done you a disservice as your wife. This whole studio will go down in flames and ruin. You alone have the ability to stop it. I’m sorry if that feels manipulative for you, but it’s the truth. You have until midnight, just like the teaser trailer. I want the artist in my office. I won’t go home either, we knew I wouldn’t if you worked late on this lot. I’ll wait right here. I’ll be patient until midnight. But once that clock strikes like Cinderella, everything is going to change. You can bet I’ll drag the fuckers carcass through this hallowed lot bloody and bruised when I’m done. You can’t hide him. No one can.” 

Her voice is low, and she’s calm, which is terrifying now. Like her anger is cemented in her bones. No longer the hot-headed feeling, now she had a plan. Maya was not to be fucked with.

“Maya, don’t do this, we’re already behind on this movie-” You tried to reason with the business side of her again, but it was no use. Maya loved her job, she loved working in the industry. She was born to do it. But Maya took one thing more serious than; the power, the money, than all of Hollywood. She was your protector, your wife, your safety. And if she needed to be the person who broke down a studio from the inside, she would put this whole town out of business. No one was allowed to do this to you.

“If you think I care about a movie right now…You aren’t thinking straight..You need me to spank the facts into you tonight? I fucking will. Someone disrespected you in my house. And now, heads are gonna roll. Starting with the stupid assistant who spoke to you.” Maya smiles, and it looks a little like how you imagined people thought of the charismatic Ted Bundy.

Maya walked to the door, unlocking it, and you closed your knees as she yelled for the assistant, guess she did know his name after all.  

The pale, tall, lanky 90s Johnny Depp assistant looked stoned but walked in. His fear was evident, but Maya didn’t care. She was on a fucking roll. 

“What did you say to Mrs. Mason when she walked into the conference room earlier?”

Maya asked, and she walked really close to his face. He was extremely scared now. They were in the doorway, and people were watching. Stopping and staring at them, actually. But Maya was about to give them a Godfather-like theater experience. 

“I apologiz-” he mumbled, and it was too late for that.

“WHAT DID YOU SAY?” She screamed, and he grimaced but started to repeat it. Which had been a trick question if there ever was one. 

“I-”

“You are fired. So is your boyfriend over on make-up. I also made an email while I was in my meeting. You’ve been evicted, take your trashy little dog and go back to the Midwest where you crawled from. If you stay another moment here, I’ll take out your eyes with my nails.” 

You looked to the floor, you couldn’t watch the rest. But luckily, he ran from the room, so scared you wouldn’t have to. 

Maya turned to the floor of terrified people who worked for her.

“LET ME MAKE SOMETHING SO CLEAR. TOUCH THE HEAD ANIMATOR AND YOU WILL NEVER WORK IN THIS TOWN AGAIN! I WILL YEET YOU SO HARD FROM THIS BUILDING YOUR SOUL MAY NEVER RE-ENTER YOUR UNGRATEFUL HOT YOGA LOVING BODY!” Maya screamed to the entire floor and then slammed the door hard. 

Turning to look at you, it was a challenge. She’d claimed you and now it was your turn to deliver.

This was Maya Mason. 

She just couldn’t do anything half assed. 

You ground your teeth at her, but she didn’t budge you bent down to pick up one of the drawings. You grabbed your laptop and your work drawings from the meeting. Maya didn’t stop you as you walked out of her office and out of the studio. 

____________________________

You entered the animator level, and no one looked at you. Word traveled fucking fast.

You just repeated the lyrics in your head;

Are you scared of me?

Am I too threatening?

'Cause every time you speak

I'm caught between your teeth

When wine and cyanide

Won't cleanse you of your crimes

Down on your knees and

I won't turn your wrongs to right

Confess your obsession, your wicked intentions

Hide behind lies from your bible

You put me on trial, but you're dead on arrival

But you're fuckin' irrelevant

So, gather 'round and run your mouths

Did you forget you're in my fuckin' house?

You walked past Tony and straight to Bucky’s cubicle. 

You repeated it one more time in your mind for good measure. 

Did you forget you're in my fuckin' house?

You politely crooked your finger at him and he stood and you turned on your heel and went into your office. You shut the blinds, and Wanda and Nat were in there with Jen, Alice, and Billy.

“We-” Wanda started, but you opened the door and gestured with your hand for them to get out. 

Everyone left, and Wanda looked at you for a minute, and you shook your head once, and she left. 

You closed the door and sigh.  

“Should I be afraid?” Bucky asked, and it was out of character for him, but you figured ‘yeah actually you should.’

His hand went to the covered amputated spot, he massaged it gently when he was nervous, like now.

You drop your stuff at your desk but grab the dirty drawing and hold it up to him, the drawing you swiped off Maya’s floor. This one has a sex swing in it. And it’s got text that is grotesque to say the least.

Bucky takes it, and you see he doesn’t want to look at it. Putting it down on your desk. You don’t need more proof for what you already knew before you even walked into the office. 

“How long has Maya been paying you?” You ask him, and he looks momentarily upset at the accusation. “Bucky, don’t even try. I really thought I could trust you. Which is stupid of me in this business to trust anyone, honestly. But you had me going with that Brooklyn accent and the sweet stories about how you grew up. I wanted to trust you. Damn, I even promoted you. So obviously I was hoping to move you up and have you running this fucking thing with Alice and Jen. But I just can’t believe you. You looked me in the eye every day and spied on me? That’s fucking gross.” You say, and you aren’t raising your voice, it’s all very calm. Which is almost scarier to the man. Maya and you could teach classes on how to scare people.

“I can explain.” He tried in vain. His long hair falling loosely out of his ponytail. 

“I don’t want you to, actually. I thought I did. I pulled you in here for it. But you are going to be the first of many for me today. You are fired. Pack your equipment and turn in your badge at the door. And you might want to ask Maya for a reference because I won’t be giving you one.” You say, and he looks like a kicked pet now. 

There’s part of you that knows he was doing it for you, but the money bit is hard to ignore. Maya had reach everywhere. And the fact that the people closest to you were spies for her made it all feel dirty. 

“Please let me explain.” He demands more upset clear in his trembling words. You must smile manically at him. Because his face twitches in displeasure. 

“I don’t think there’s anything you have to say that I want to hear.”

Bucky continued knowing it was his only chance. 

“Maya is not paying me! I hated the way Tony kept drawing those shitty ass things! I told him to stop! Jen and Alice tried to get him to! Billy is fucking scared of Tony he’s a bully! You kept putting up with it. You let him keep going. And it was wrong. I agree with Jen, you deserve this job. You are amazing at what you do. And I am your good soldier. That’s what they call me! I fuckin am though! I will go to the trenches in this industry for you. I don’t want to work anywhere else. Please don’t leave for Disney! You taught me more in a short time than anyone ever has!” He says at the end and you laugh again.

 Oh my god, this day needed to end. 

“Bucky, why did you give Maya those drawings? Did you not know what she was capable of?” You ask, contradicting your previous notion that you didn’t want Bucky to say anything. 

“I am on your team. I’m on your side. Maya said she’d fix it that we were protecting you from the shit bags! I didn’t do it to hurt you. I wouldn’t do that! You know me better than that!”

He says, and you see he’s not lying. You’d been around enough bad guys to know Bucky just wasn’t one of them. Even though he might try to believe it about himself sometimes. You see him claw at his long hair, upset. He sits down on your sofa, defeated. 

You are both silent for a few beats before you ask. 

“Did you sleep with Natasha?” You wonder at him now, and he looks at you for a moment before he responds honestly. 

“Yeah, I did, Wanda was there too. I have never been more turned on and out of my element.” He admitted, and you laughed fully no,w and it broke the tension for the two of you. He laughed after a few minutes of you dying. You wiped under your eyeliner to get the tears away. 

“Oh Bucky, this is all so fucked up.” You admit, and he gives a sad smile. 

“You can fire me, I understand. But I just need you to know. I’d go down with the ship, as long as you are the captain.” He says, and he’s serious now, his chin sticks out, and Bucky means it. 

You change your mind. 

“You are not fired, you have two films to animate asshole.”

“What, really? You aren’t gonna fire me?”

“No, but you aren’t going to ever do this again. If you are upset about something in the office, just come to me. Don’t fucking tattle to my wife. Maya doesn’t just fire people, Bucky, she ends their whole lives.” You tell him, but he doesn’t look guilty at all. 

“Da Vinci, I think Tony deserves it.”

You jump at him verbally. 

“You got a fucked up sense of justice. I don’t think a few dirty drawings are equivalent to having your hands chopped off with a machete by a guy who owns car dealerships. Tony fucking needs to go into witness protection before midnight or he’s dog food.” You explai,n and Bucky just shrugs. He reaches in his button down pocket and takes out a cigarette, putting it between his lips. He moves for his Zippo lighter with the star on it. He lights it, and you don’t care. But Bucky hesitates and then takes out the pack again and offers it to you. 

You lean over, taking a cigarette, and he smiles and lights it. 

The two of you smoke, and you rub at your face. 

“So what are you going to do, boss?”

“I’m going to make two movies that are going to do well in the box office. And then I’m going to keep going until we are the biggest animation house in all of L.A.” You say firmly. 

“Poor Mickey.” Bucky smiles, and you just laugh and take another drag of your cigarette. 

____________

Alice and Jen show you all that needs to be done. You work like a fucking boss until ten thirty at night. You don’t eat, you don’t rest. You push and push. 

Bucky is your fucking right hand. He doesn’t leave your side, he’s motivated, and not afraid of getting his hands dirty. 

You have him knock out the five-second animation of Heisenberg. Buck is bisexual and is able to understand that there needs to be big dick energy. So he makes Heisnburg hot and it fucking works. 

You all spread out in the editing room. There’s a wall of eight monitors as you all piece things together.  There are two desks with large tables, and Billy and Bucky are drawing quickly on Cintique tablets to get everything seamless. 

You have Jen finish the trailer for God of War. Tony still didn’t finish the drawings, he hasn’t been excused to go home by you. He’s waiting in an empty conference room down the hall. You let him sweat. 

 So you give the character to Billy, and he’s floored. There are plenty of other animators who are more experienced who should do it. But you don’t give it to them. You give Billy the confidence boost he needs, and he knocks it out in under three hours, record time. There’s no longer a hole next to the animation of Kratos. It looks good, it looks clean. You go to Alice, and she works with the Digital team to feed the art of Resident Evil’s more anime look in clean up. No more scratchy lines, and they’re able to overlap the small script that is already recorded for the trailer. It gets dubbed and it’s done.

 Alice gets a major point in your book and Billy is sweating but he’s proud, and he should be.  

“Go home, Village team. You did it.” You say proud but both Billy and Alice look upset at you. Which is confusing for a moment. 

“We aren’t done yet,” Alice says and Jen smiles at her. The two share a long, lingering loo,k and Wanda turns to you from her laptop. She’s been sitting on the floor, she’d fixed the problem hours ago. Just like you’d planned. Natasha is sitting next to her, their thighs are touching. You aren’t even sure why Natasha stayed. Perhaps she just loves the adrenaline of a deadline. 

Oh yeah, they’re all gonna bone. 

Not you, though. Maya hadn’t called you once. Not a text, nothing. You were in big trouble. 

“Ok then, Jen, tell them what you need.” You say. 

___________

It’s eleven thirty and it’s all done. Two gorgeous teaser trailers. No one really believed it could be done. This afternoon, it felt like it would never work. But at midnigh,t two trailers would be released. 

You lean back in your chair, the room is dark because it’s easier to edit in dim lighting. You turn, and Alice is eating Dorito chips next to Jen. She’s got her barfeet in Jen’s lap, and the two of them aren’t talking. In fact no one is talking. 

Everyone is exhausted; you all started at five am. And they hadn’t eaten dinner, besides vending machine snacks you’d bought for everyone. You were going to buy them pizza, but no one took a break to even do that. 

Wanda and Natasha were asleep on cuddling on the floor. The laptop still in Wanda’s lap. Billy was sitting next to you, and he had his headphones in. He was re-watching the trailers over and over, looking for any problems. To your left was Bucky, and he was smoking again, it just hung from his bottom lip wetly. 

“Boys.” You said, and Bucky turned to you, but Billy couldn’t hear you. You grabbed the headphones off his ears. And he jumped, but turned. 

“Go home.” You said, and the two of them didn’t move, too tired to respond. “Don’t come in until eleven tomorrow. Take the morning off. Go to bed, you did great work today.” You told them, and the two of them smiled tiredly. 

“You want me to go with you to your…um..meeting?” Bucky asked and you loved him a little more for offering. 

“No, I think that there will be enough bloodshed.” You aren’t joking, but Billy chuckles on instinct. 

_____________

You and Tony are walking across the quiet lot. He doesn’t ask questions, just follows you. You have your computer bag with your art in it slung over your shoulder. 

You walk into the main studio, using your security badge. You’d already taken Tony’s and he was dumb but not that dumb. 

It’s so quiet, even though there are still some people working. It’s mostly empty, though. You see Matt, and he motions for you to stop. 

“Wait here for a minute.” You tell Tony and then walk over to Matt. 

“Maya informed me that someone is being fired from your team. Something about some inappropriate drawings? Whatever it is, she has the green light. You haven’t signed the paperwork yet. For the new contract and raise, that is- But I saw the teasers and they look fantastic. You are really valued at this Studio. And whoever that guy is who did this, he’ll be very sorry.” Matt said, and you wanted to laugh, he didn’t know how sorry Tony would be.

“Thank you, Matt. I look forward to finishing the films and continuing the franchise.” You say, and he’s relieved. You turn on your heel and motion for Tony to follow you. 

You knock on Maya’s door, seeing as how she doesn’t have a temp at her front desk yet. 

“Come in.” She says calmly, and you open the doo,r and Tony follows. She doesn’t look at Tony. She’s looking at you. 

“Maya Mason, this is Tony Stark.” You say, and Maya stands and puts her fingers spread against the desk. She’s still not looking at him. 

“My love, I’ll just be a few minutes. Why don’t you meet me in the car?” She says, and you don’t contradict her. She reaches into her broken desk and hands you the keys. You take them, but she grabs your hand, pulling you closer to her. She flips your joined hands and kisses the inside of your wrist. You understand what she is telling you.

She’s proud of you, you brought him. Maya is telling you everything will be ok between the two of you. She loves you more than anything. And she doesn’t want you to see what’s about to happen. Maya isn’t afraid of you seeing the ugly parts of her, but you both know you won’t get any satisfaction on what’s coming. The kiss is love, it’s respect, it’s ownership. 

When her lips leave your skin the feeling lingers.   

Maya releases you, and you turn on your heel and walk out of the building. 

Finding her car in the lot, you turn on her supernova Blue Hummer, and you close your eyes as the cold air blows in the car.

You can try to run me out of town

I'll burn this shit down to the ground

____________________________

After you drive home and get settled, you tell Maya you are going to take a shower. She nods and orders dinner for you both. You get changed into a pair of her flannel pajama pants and a tank top with no bra. Taking your contacts out you put on your glasses. You walk back down into the living room and she isn’t there. She isn’t in the kitchen either. You know Maya wouldn’t be in her office after a day like today. Her phone will be close to watch the media coverage for work, but she won’t be at her desk. 

So you walk down your giant L.A mansion until you hear the sound of a movie. 

You smile and find Maya in her dark blue designer boxers and boxers only lying on the giant L sofa in front of the giant movie screen. She turns to see you and smiles. You walk over and climb on top of her. Maya happily cuddles you back, hands holding your body, and you lean your head on her chest. Turning to see the film she’d picked. 

It’s a black and white movie: 1940, Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell. ‘His Girl Friday,’ it makes complete sense why she’d picked it. Carry Grant is trying to win his girl back. She’s smart as a whip and they’re both reporters. In the same newspaper business, Grant is trying anything her into coming back to the paper, back with him. It fit a little too well with their day, actually.

You don’t ask what she did to Tony. You don’t want to know. 

But you lay against your wife and Maya’s nails start to scratch your slightly wet scalp. It’s like she’s petting a cat. It works and your body relaxes more into her. 

You got to the point of the film where Cary Grant character says something that makes Maya’s body twitch under you. It’s small but it speaks volumes in the silent room. 

‘Walter Burns: When you walk out that door, part of me will go right with you.’

You straddle her hips and sit up. Maya grabs the remote and she mutes the expensive surround sound. 

You put both your hands on her stomach. Maya let’s her nails dig into your hips and you can tell she needs your skin, because she moves your flannel pants a little down your hip bones. 

“Hey Mr. Grant,” you tease and she smirks. 

“Yeah Russell?” She catches your game and you can’t possibly love your wife more but every moment with her surprises you. 

“We are a team.” You tell her it and there’s a conviction in your voice that makes Maya look more at ease than she’d been all day. 

“You didn’t fire Barnes.” Your wife says and you understand how she’s laying the chess board out tonight. 

“He’s a good man in a storm.” You say like it’s the facts, no emotion behind in. Maya’s hands spread across your lower back. You fall forward a little so that your wet hair is hanging over her. Little bits of water fall against her bare breasts. But she doesn’t mind. There is a silent ‘ you are a good man in a storm Maya.’ But you don’t have to say it.  

“I’ve heard. You need to close your opening. Resumes and such tomorrow, all that jazz at is were. Deadlines for first looks.” Maya muses though her eyes don’t sparkle and her tone is bored. She doesn’t want to talk shop like this tonight. You nodd and your right hand comes up and cups her jaw. You could respond and remind her she needs an assistant but it’s boring. And she wants to play. 

“You got me a raise, defended my honor, got my films completely funded and fired people for me today.” You say like she went shopping and got everything you’d needed to make a pie. Maya nods once like that was her to do list done. Like she was a good partner who painted the fence. 

Both of your hands are moving over each others skin like you are reading a secret language with your finger tips. It’s getting faster though, like neither of you can do too much foreplay tonight. You needed each other. Maya is being patient though. She is waiting to use her Knight. So she smiles pleasantly at you, but you know she is yearning for you.  

“My wife needed me. I don’t shy away from a challenge, especially not for you. I saw your trailers before you walked in, you did good. But I always knew you would. Time against you, funding against you and trash that needed to be taken out. And you made not one but two animation trailers. They’ve already been liked and retweeted over 150 thousand times. It’s only been out for two hours. Marketing is projecting that they’ll gross over 2.5 billion. That’s not accounting for steaming of course.” She says and you lean forward more, grinding your core against her crotch. Her boxers do little to hide her worsening situation. 

Neither of you are in a rush.

You lean your face close to hers and you hear Maya’s breath catch. She doesn’t hide her desire for you, not her style. 

“Daddy likes what I made then?” You say with a voice that is submissive and wanton. It’s dirty and Maya licks her bottom lip. 

“Daddy is proud, like always. But you do have some apologizing to do. I haven’t forgotten. And if you think I didn’t notice you smoked a cigarette too you are mistaken.” 

You rock your clothed cunt up her shaft and back down and you feel her hips jump.

“You do whatever you want to me Daddy. I don’t want to be in trouble anymore. Please teach me better manners? It wasn’t nice what I did. I never lie to you, and I won’t do it again. I’m sorry. But you can make me more sorry. I’ll do whatever you want, just let me touch you” You ask and Maya’s breathing is heavy and her mouth falls open. 

You can tell she’s just thrown the chess board across the room in her mind. Because she snaps and grabs your wet hair and pulls you against her mouth. No more games it seems. You kiss and it’s hot and wet. Tongues are pushing painfully against each other. You rock back and forth with little rhythm, just need and animalistic instincts .

So let's play hide and seek

'Cause you can't hide from me

Maya flips you and she pins your arms over your head as she pulls your pajama pants down and cups your wet cunt then the doorbell rings. 

“Oh crap.” You shudder out and then moan when you feel the cold air against your cunt. Maya brings her fingers up to her mouth to lick your arousal off her finger. It was like she needed a fix. 

You wrap your arm around her neck and she falls forward and you try to hump her again. But Maya keeps you still and kisses your jaw softly. 

“I ordered dinner, you didn’t eat hon. No more girl dinner.” Maya whispers against your cheek, you can tell she’s somewhat regretting it now. 

“We could eat after?” You offer but your tummy is so empty and Maya groans hearing your half truth and you know she’s not gonna go for it. Your pants are pulled back up. 

The two of you lace your fingers together as you go up to your front door. Maya looks through the camera to be sure before she opens the door and grabs the big brown bag. The two of you walk into the giant kitchen.

You grab two forks and knives and some napkins, and Maya is manhandling your hips as she pulls you forward and down the stairs. You aren’t surprised when she pulls you back into the movie room. 

Besides your office, which Maya had built for you as a present only a month after you fell love with the house. The two of you had bought it together and you’d been so afraid it was a bad decision to own a mansion in L.A. But it was really fun owning it with Maya. You’d decorated like crazy people. Obsessing over tiles and colors, and rugs. To your surprise Maya loved doing it with you. Decisions became fun, and you’d both almost been disappointed when you were finished. 

But the theater was an afterthought, it was the smallest room in the mansion. You wondered if that was part of the appeal for Maya. It was cozy in the craziness of their luxurious life, it was a huge screen and the L sofa, big plush pillows and blankets. You’d fucked in this room more times than you can remember. Maya never let you sleep the night in here, though. She’d even carried you into the master a few times after you’d fallen asleep watching all of the Conjuring movies. 

But the theater room was still swanky, it was Maya.

The closet next to the theater was turned into a backlit snack room. It had a ridiculously boujie popcorn machine and cotton candy machine. Every candy you could ever imagine and a few strong L.A edible baked goods for fun. Many shelves of foreign candy too. Stuff that the two of you hadn’t even tried yet was there, including a small freezer with different gourmet gelatos. A few booze infuzed ice creams that you couldn’t even figure out where they’d come from.   

You open the brown take-out bag to smirk at Maya’s choice. 

“It’s almost morning anyway.” She says at your delight, like she didn’t get you breakfast for dinner.

 Maya had, when you’d first started dating, been taught by you how fun pancakes at midnight were. You’d brought her to a sticky diner with tacky checkered floors. An old jukebox in the corner playing Etta James and Johnny Cash. 

 You’d made her order breakfast with you. She’d told you it was ridiculous and breakfast was for morning. But Maya gave you a smile and caved to your every whim. That signature grin you quickly learned was just for you. It was her ‘I love you for turning my world upside down’ smile. She gave it to you a million more times and she’d given it to you every day since. 

Your wife was squinting at the theater, because she probably needed her glasses. You pulled your glasses off your nose and handed them to her. Maya took them wordlessly and could magically see again. Perks of being married, one of you had a pair of glasses on usually.

 You didn’t look as she chose a movie. You two had a rule that you took turns picking, and you didn’t mind that she was picking twice tonight. You had been in trouble afterall.

Maya turned to look at you staring at her, and she had a moment of confusion and you told her the truth. The truth that would never not be real to you. 

“I love you Maya Mason. I’ll love you until the day I die.”

Maya smiled at you with tenderness she’d never thought she’d feel for someone. 

“Eat your pancakes you old married sap. You have a long night of groveling ahead of you.” Maya’s tone may have been teasing but her eyes held such love for you. 

The blue light made you squint and broke you from the moment to see Disney on the screen and you groaned. Opening your food container and taking out the strawberry syrup that Maya thought was nasty and you thought was the best. 

“You really made the entire studio think I was going to work for Disney today!”

Maya shook her hair out behind her back and snorted.

“It was all so easy Pudd’n. You wouldn’t believe how quick it spread.” She said and you looked up to see her putting on Cinderella. A small reminder of your day and her words.  

“You know just because I’m an animator it doesn’t mean I just want to watch animated movies.” You tease, reminding her of an assumption she’d had about animators before you two got together. Maya just rolled her eyes. 

“I know that your favorite movies are the slashers. My girl likes a little gruesome shit, like me.” Maya says and opens the food container open and you see she picked an omlette and french toast. You’d trained your wife into liking breakfast for dinner too. It was too cute. 

“Maya-” You are about to compliment her again when she cuts you off. 

“Eat baby girl, you are gonna need your strength.”  

This is going to be a long fic, I promise. Next chapter they will bone.

[jjwolves]

The most recent Ena fic (the one where the reader transforms as they continue to be in this digital world) reminded me of a passing thought I had once: What do you think would happen if someone was isekai'd into her world AS an Ena? Like, a human in the real world who transformed into a member of Ena's species in this new dimension? Do you think BBQ Ena would be willing to take them under her wing? What about Webseries Ena?

You can take this as a request or not, it's your call. But if you do write about this idea, may I request you keep it platonic? Sort of like siblings? I feel a little odd about Ena dating Ena... I'd prefer if we didn't Onceler-ify the poor woman, ya know?

TUTORIAL LEVEL · · ─── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ─── · ·

What: ENA and ENA the Worker X ENA!Reader (Platonic)

Who: ENA and ENA the Worker from ENA and ENA Dream BBQ (Both by Joel G)

How Much: ~800 Words, ~4 mins

Credits: Image Banner -> Joel G

Warnings: None

A/N: HOW ABOUT BOTH MWAHAHA

ENA has lived many different lives as an anthology anomaly. One aeon she’s going on adventures with her moon friend, the other, she’s employed. Her existence was like a closed loop until you showed up, breaking into samsara. You had wandered across a world where every wondrous creature you met treated you like a pest. Your days were marked with confusion, until she found you and was… surprised. How could this be? Had she respawned incorrectly? She couldn’t compute what you were doing, being her. Having a face like hers. It shouldn’t be possible, but it was. And she was…

...Delighted! She had never, in all her travels, met someone who was like her! You two had so much to talk about! “Oh! How nice to meet a fellow conspirator! Your face… It’s just like mine!” ENA made sure to pull your suprisingly solid hair and experimentally pinch your polygonal cheeks. You were glad to meet a friendly face, but the head-touching was getting annoying and you waved her hands away. “Are you some kind of doppelganger?” A glitch-and-switch into blue. “If it’s true, just kill me and replace me already! I bet you’d do a better job than ME!” You weren’t startled by the sudden change—after all, you’d been a walking collection of emotional outbursts yourself. ENA chuckled nervously and returned to sunshine. “Ahem. Apologies. Would you like me to reveal to you the wonders of this land?” You would.

ENA gives you an enthusiastic tour of her strange world, occasionally interjecting with gentle advice when you would touch something that might be unsafe. Along the way, she gestures and dances excitedly as she talks about her favorite places. “This is Auction Hill. My good friend Moony and I come here to bet on various things. Oh, do be careful of the rainrocks. You’ll get squished!” ENA seems to take a great deal of delight in taking on a role which she usually doesn’t occupy: that of the mentor and guide. “Now, now. That banana is not to be touched! A man and his blue friend informed me that it is unsanitary.” She does little jumps and maneuvers to get into places which are difficult to reach, and then turns around, patiently waiting for you to do the same. When you eventually get it, she alternates between exclaiming “Joy!” and sobbing about how “You just got here and you’re better at it than I am!” When you part ways for the first time, you promise to come visit her again. “I look forward to your visitation. Thank you for letting me be your tutorial character!”

...Eager! ENA the Worker is a little bit different than her more carefree counterpart. She’s glad to meet someone who’s like her, and she’s happy to educate you on the ways of the world, but it’ll be filtered through her very business-oriented mindset. “Welcome, unsuspecting customer. Or should I say… employee?” She tacks a nametag onto you. “I am no longer the boss of myself, so I will be your boss today. Er, supervisor.” A switch. “GET TO WORK! SUPERVISOR’S ORDERS!” ENA is pretty busy, so she leaves sticky notes for things that you need to do and how to do them in a place you can easily see, but it’s ENA. It’s hardly comprehensible. Notes include ‘reach for the stars’, ‘sell stock’ and ‘try oil’. That last one left you more stumped than the others.

She sits you down to talk about your ‘job performance’. You’re pretty sure you haven’t been paid, so you’re not sure why you’re working for her. Smiling, and with a hint of sarcasm, she chirps, “Your performance has been terrible. Every time we talk to a customer, you end up crying on/screaming at/being apathetic towards/trying to kiss them! How unprofessional!” She passes the baton to her pale side. “ARE YOU TRYING TO STEAL MY JOB OR SOMETHING! YOU WANNA TRY BEING MANAGER?!” You point out that she said she was the supervisor. “IT’S BOTH!” You flip to one of your extremes and both start getting tangled in a chaotic emotional clash. Froggy can’t stand it. “Will you both shut the hell up?!”

[21wanderer]

Secrets (Part 1 of 4) - Prelude

Originally an excerpt made for a writing challenge, after some encouragement to expand it, I have completed the story and broken it into four parts.

Being the oldest in your class wasn’t noteworthy, at least not most of the time, if you didn’t know, you wouldn’t have guessed that I was the oldest in my class, I was small and skinny, tall, but not as tall as half of my classmates. But being the first to turn 18 gave me some attention all of a sudden… Especially when I was the first in my class with a driver’s license, then my usually non-existing popularity soared.

I could borrow one of my parents’ cars quite frequently, and it did make me quite coveted in my class, both the guys and the girls thought it was pretty cool, now I could drive them places… It was nice to get the attention, it was nice to feel unique and special… But again it probably wouldn’t last forever, after all, they were going to turn 18 soon enough, and then they could start doing the same, and I could fade back into obscurity.

“Are you coming to the party, Dam?” asked Alice, one of my classmates. “No,” I answered, “you know I don’t drink.” “You don’t have to, quite the opposite actually, Vicky and I were kinda hoping you could drive us home after… Maybe we could go through a drive-in along the way,” Alice said with a wink, “think about it, will you? It would be so great, if you did.”

My class was a party class to say the least, it felt like they were having a party or get-together every week, usually drinking way too much. It was far from the first time I had been invited to the parties, but I always declined, I don’t drink for starters, so I wouldn’t fit in, but Alice’s words got me thinking, although honestly they were both pretty thoughtful as they were inconsiderate. Now they wanted me at their party as their ‘designated driver’, so I could chauffeur them all home after they got wasted.

---

My father works at a hospital in the next town over, he’s a bit of a workaholic, even after an accident that caused him to break his right foot quite badly, he insisted on getting back to work as soon as possible. That meant my mother or I had to drive him to and from work, the plus side being, that I could get to drive more often and gain more experience.

One day, when I came to pick up my father at the hospital, I had a life-changing moment, well, sort of. He wasn’t at the parking garage, but that wasn’t unusual, if he wasn’t here, he was still working. So I entered the hospital, hoping to run into someone, who could guide me in the right direction.

“Hi,” I said to a doctor heading out the double doors to Section 4. “Oh hi Damien, are you here to pick up your father?” she asked. “Yes, have you seen him?” I said, usually it was hassle to locate my father, especially when he was working overtime, when he wasn’t on the parking lot, I had to try and find him in one of the hospital departments, and that wasn’t always an easy task. “Well, he’s doing some work, in the Dermatology department, the storage room, room 417,” she said. “Room 417,” I repeated, “thank you very much.” “You’re welcome,” the doctor said with a smile as she left.

Sure enough I found my father in room 417, a room filled with shelves containing who-knows-what. My father sat at the only computer in the room with his back turned away. “Hi da-” I began, but I almost stumbled over what looked like two large, incredibly visible paint-cans. “Watch where your going, Damien,” dad said as he turned towards me. “Sorry, I didn’t see them,” I said embarrassedly, embarrassed that I could stumble over something so obvious. “Why are those buckets right in front of the door?” I asked. “They need to be disposed of,” my father said. I read the label on the white paint cans, on a pink label with thick black letters, it said: BodyPlast.

It was an unusual name, and I was kinda curious. “What is it?” I asked my father, who resumed his work. “It’s an experimental substance, meant to be used on skin on burn victims and other people with dermatological conditions. It apparently can replicate the exact skin tones and even hair on the skin that it’s applied to, quite remarkable.” “Then why are throwing it out?” “Because the labelling is incorrect.”

“Really? Seems like a waste.”

“Maybe, but it’s a safety standard, a common hospital procedure, we cannot use something on a patient unless we’re 117% sure, we know, what it is. So if the labelling is wrong, we can’t use it.”

The computer monitor went black, and my father got up from his chair, and began gathering the papers on his desk in a stack, “and although it’s quite interesting,” he said, “I’m not quite sure how helpful it’ll be, because if it replicates the skin of those it’s applied to, then it would take the colour of their skin as it is now with burns, scar tissue and so forth, which means that people would have had to apply it before their skin was affected. Then all of a sudden, it doesn’t sound that useful.” He picked up the papers and got up from his chair. “Listen, I just need to hand these sheets over to my colleagues, and give them some instructions. Can you just go back to the car and drive it over to entrance D? and I’ll be there in 10 minutes.” “Ok,” I answered instinctively.

My curiosity was piqued, well more than piqued. This BodyPlast sounded unbelievable, I had a scar on my neck, that I’d like to cover, but there was so much more to it than that. If what my father said was true, I could replicate the skins of others, that prospect lit a fire in me. My father left and went down the hall, I could hear his footsteps, thanks to the boot he wore on his right foot. Not wasting any time, I picked up the buckets, between them was a little folder, which I assumed was the package leaflet, I quickly stuffed it in my pocket, hopefully it would tell me everything I needed to know about BodyPlast. I left the hospital carrying the buckets, nobody noticed, nobody said anything. Once I was at the car I put them in the trunk, and hit them under the blanket, that always stayed in the trunk. I picked up my father by the entrance, and we drove home. My heart was pounding, but I tried to conceal it. Once we were home, I just needed to get the buckets into my room and hide them there. ---

At night, I opened one of the cans with great expectation. It contained a thick, viscous, pink liquid. I dipped a paintbrush into it, then applied a coating to my left arm, just a little bit above the wrist. Then I waited. 15 minutes later the pink colour had faded completely, it was now the exact same colour as my skin, and it was almost unnoticeable. I found an edge, and peeled it off. It was remarkable. The material was incredibly stretchy too – I could stretch incredibly wide, but would resume its original form, when I stopped, still looking perfect. I had to try it again. This time I painted my entire left arm, all the way up to my shoulder, and then I waited again. I peeled it off like a glove, and it looked exactly like my skin, it felt like my skin, even the small hairs were replicated. This was incredible. I slid on the ‘glove’ again, it was surprisingly easy to put on, and the result was flawless. You couldn’t tell, I was wearing an extra layer of skin on my arm. Then it dawned on me, and it was like being hit by a bolt of lightning… With this stuff, I could do almost anything… Or at the very least become anyone. All of a sudden it did feel like a good idea to attend a party.

[cardinalcopulate]

Some Kinda Hate // Frater Imperator x Reader

Posted a new story on ao3! You can also read it below the cut.

MDNI!! 18+ ONLY!! - dividers by @/cafekitsune ♡

Summary: Copia is angry over the popularity of his twin brother. You help him release his frustrations and stress.

Tags: pwp, second-person POV, no use of y/n, blow jobs, cock worship, deepthroating, forced orgasm (kinda?), boss/employee relationship, established relationship

Word Count: 1.3k

Author's note: Please do not repost or scrape for AI (or however that works, idk. also? can't believe I have to say that)

Read it on ao3 here!

“Fucking V!” Copia hissed.

You couldn’t help but smirk a little at his childlike anger over his twin. It was almost endearing. His eyes were trained on the small TV playing “Satanized”.

“He can’t just come in here and replace me! This song,” he scoffed. “That was my song! He steals my music and my fans! What a dickhead.”

Copia’s frustration, perhaps even jealousy, with V was understandable; Change was always difficult for him but this change involved being stripped of performing around the world. He felt like his passion was being torn from his hands and he had no choice but to let it happen. He was the face of The Clergy for far longer than his predecessors which made the transition from Papa to Frater even more difficult, even if it was technically a promotion. It just didn’t feel that way to him.

“Fucking V,” Copia muttered to himself again as he stuck a paperclip into his keyboard. With a small click, the keycap for the letter ‘V’ came off. “Ha-ha!”

You smiled again. Despite the genuine pain he felt watching his twin brother from the sidelines, his antics were amusing. Did Copia really think that popping the ‘V’ key off his computer would hurt the new Papa? It was hard to say; sometimes, he seemed to lose his grip on reality.

“Love, do you want to talk about it?”

He only grumbled in response. Copia threw himself on the couch of the parlor room that he was using as his temporary office. His gloved fingers dug into the cushions with a creak.

You pursed your lips and sunk to your knees before him. “How about we try a different kind of stress relief?”

“Ah, tesoro, you always know just what I need.”

“Of course I do, Papa.” You ran your hands up his strong thighs and used one hand to palm at the crotch of his slacks.

Copia whined at your use of his former title. His cock began to fill as his body’s blood ran south.

“You’re so tense.” You leaned forward, mouthing at the tent in his pants and squeezing his thighs. The insistent touch of your hands made him shiver.

“It’s just—ugh! He’s not even a good singer! Fuck,” he panted. His hands gripped your hair at the roots. Copia ground his clothed hips into your face. His heady scent seeped through his slacks. You could almost taste the precum dripping from his erection.

“I know, baby. Go on. Just let it all out.” You looked up at him while your hands undid his pants and freed his cock. Thank the Unholy Father for Copia’s eternal aversion to underwear. It slapped against his soft, hair-covered belly. A fat bead of precum squeezed out from his slit. You were always taken aback by how thick he was and how the veins throbbed when he was hard. By the looks of it, Copia was close to cumming from your attention already. “You’re all leaky, my love,” you teased.

“Sh-shut up.”

“Oh? Am I making Papa mad?” You kissed his cock’s tip then outlined your lips with it, smearing precum along the delicate skin.

“Yes, you are and you know it, you little shit!” He groaned when you cupped his balls with one hand, using the other to exert a vice grip on the base of his cock.

“Do something about it if I piss you off so much,” You challenged.

Without hesitation, he pulled your head all the way down his dick. Your nose brushed against the coarse hair on his groin and lower stomach, at the point where the two became inseparable. You gagged as his tip hit the back of your throat. The feeling made your mind cloudy and pulse race. Your body’s response was immediate: drool immediately trickled from your mouth down your chin. A soreness in your jaw already began to spread from the girth of his heavy cock in your mouth. For a few, dragging moments, Copia kept your head still; he savored the velvety softness of your mouth wrapped around his erection. He didn’t ask if you were ready for him to move; He didn’t care. You were just a hole for him to fuck. At the realization, you gulped and he whimpered in response. “Shit.”

Copia settled his hands on each side of your face. He moved you up and down his cock like you were a fleshlight. Each rough thrust made you choke. Tears ran down your cheeks as you moaned around him. “Mine, mine, mine,” he grunted in time with each slide of his dick down your throat.

You hummed in affirmation. You were his: His to fuck, to objectify, to play with. You were his to own in mind and body. He didn’t doubt your loyalty, even with the rise of a new Papa. Copia knew you’d always be his. He watched you take him in your mouth over and over. The communion that bound you to him for the rest of time. You swallowed around him; Precum coated your tongue and made your head spin. Hollowing your cheeks, you pushed him impossibly further down your throat with each rut of his hips against your face.

A knock echoed through the room. “Frater?”

“Shit! Fuck, fuck, fuck,” he whispered. “I forgot that new sister is coming today.”

You released his cock with a wet pop. “You’d better cum, then, Papa.” You spread his dripping precum around and stroked him from tip to base. “First impressions are everything. What kind of impression would it leave for her to see her big, bad boss face-fucking his assistant?”

“Just a second!” Copia called out. His cock throbbed and twitched. “I-I can’t.”

“Yes, you can. And you’re going to. The way I see it, my love, you either cum now or we shove this back in your pants and deal with it later.”

“Fuck,” he whined.

Your other hand found his balls; Copia shuddered as you alternated between light squeezes and gentle tugs. You guided him back into your drooling, waiting mouth until the tip hit your throat again. He made eye contact with you. In that brief glance, he understood your message: Fuck my mouth until you fill it with cum. Now.

Copia’s hands found your hair again. He pulled you back and forth on his leaking erection, desperate to take advantage of your offer. Your throat was certainly going to be bruised in the aftermath of his rough, quick thrusts. You both moaned in tandem. There were few things either party loved more than you kneeling before him with your mouth stuffed. Copia squirmed in response to plethora of sensations centered on his cock.

“Frater?” The voice outside the door called louder.

“Just-Ah!-a second!” He grunted.

You whispered and rubbed a finger against his taint, “Last chance.” You swallowed around his erection again.

“Fuck!” Copia moaned. He bit down on his gloved hand to muffle the wanton noise as his cock kicked and flooded your throat with cum.

You watched as he screwed his eyes shut and a few drops of sweat ran down his face. Copia continued to push his cock in and out of your mouth, riding out his orgasm. You swallowed around each spurt of cum as he quivered and moaned. A few thin, sticky strings threatened to overflow from your spit-slick lips. The sight of you swallowing the evidence of his orgasm, nearly making a mess, burned into his mind. When he finished, you released his softening dick and helped him tuck it back into his pants.

A gloved thumb reached down, wiped a tear away and then a stray drop of cum on the corner of your mouth. Copia brought it to his mouth and sucked it clean, making searing eye contact with you. “What a good boy. Taking everything your Papa gives you.”

“Always, Papa,” you smirked up at him. He helped you stand and resettle on the sofa.

There was another hard knock on the door. “Frater!”

“Coming!” He huffed. Copia pressed a quick kiss to your forehead and headed to the door. He greeted your visitors and introduced you to them. They were none the wiser that you had just finished worshipping his cock like your own personal God.

Hope you enjoyed!! If you like what I write, please consider buying me a coffee. I might be opening c0mms soon, stay tuned if you're interested!! Thank you for reading :]

[emmyc0z]

Sephiroth X Stressed!Reader

pairing : sephiroth x stressed!reader

cw : none!

a/n : i have ZERO motivation but i’ve gotten a few requests for more sephiroth fics. please accept this as a peace offering until i write something real!

divider by @cursed-carmine

you’ve been short with him. frustrated by tight deadlines and a constant lack of satisfaction in your work. and you’ve been taking it out on him.

probably not the best choice on your part considering, while appearing placid, calm and imperturbable to the untrained eye, he does not possess an easygoing personality.

despite this fact about him, he humours you and allows you to snap at him again and again.

“sephiroth, stop lurking behind me. god, i can’t work with you breathing down my neck!”

“can’t you read somewhere else? the flipping of your pages is driving me insane, i can’t focus like this!”

“no! for the fourth time, sephiroth, i am not hungry! stop asking me! leave me alone so i can get this done.”

and of course, he’s feeding off your energy. frustration growing the longer you brush him off. jaw tensing, teeth clenching tight to keep his tongue from slipping and saying something that will only make things worse.

he can’t help that, as much as it curdles his stomach to think, he cares about you. more than any living thing on this planet.

and to see you hunched over your little computer screen, eye getting so heavy that they droop, hair messy and unkempt, fingers tapping anxiously against the surface of the wooden living room coffee table when they aren’t viciously typing away against the laptops plastic keys, its pains him.

you won’t eat. so he can’t bring himself to enjoy a meal. forcing himself to cook for two every night, even though he knows you won’t eat, and inevitably packing both portions into plastic containers after sitting at the table for over an hour, picking at his food.

you won’t go to sleep. so he tosses and turns in your shared bed at night, a bed that once felt too small to fit the two of you without squishing together now feeling like a lonely, open valley of space, knowing that if he comes out to get you it’ll only start an argument. which is the last thing you need, he knows.

you won’t put down the computer. so he tries to invade you’re space in the living room, just to be close to you, he doesn’t even want to talk. but the slightest shift in his breathing makes you angry. which is why he doesn’t stay for long.

and then, one night when he returns from work, you finally let him in again.

he enters the living room to find you're computer in pieces beside the table, while you gasp for breath behind your hands, body racked with sobs.

sephiroth would drop everything, rushing to your side, on his knees beside your defeated body. gentle hands on your arms pulling your palms away from your face.

he has fought thousands of creatures, ugly and terrifying, and still nothing has made him feel the fear that he feels upon seeing you’re teary face. the disappointment in himself that he did not, could not, prevent this.

a pit forms in his stomach and a compulsion to care, a need to show he’s there, that he has been there the entire time, fills every fiber of his being.

his warm hands would cup your face, the rough pads of his thumbs wiping the wet streams of tears off your cheeks. softly saying you’re name.

he is unsure if he’s any good at comforting. he’s never had to do it before. he’s not used to this. but he’s trying and for that you appreciate him more than he knows.

“what’s wrong, my love? hm? i was only gone for a few hours, what happened?”

“this stupid deadline! my boss thinks i’m some sort of robot or something.. i- i couldn’t handle it. i just got so frustrated and.. and i threw the computer. which i see now.. only makes things worse. god, i’m so stupid” you can only bury your face back in your hands, more sobs leaving your tired body.

“don’t say that. you’re not stupid, don’t talk about yourself that way” he gently pries your hands from your face.

he’s not a big talker. he’s not good with his emotions. so he makes you feel better in his own, quieter way.

he’d clean up the computer. even though you insist he doesn’t, he still would. and he’d even offer to buy a new computer for you, what else would he do with he soldier salary.

he would sit on the couch with you, holding you in his strong arms until you’ve finally settled. offering quiet words of reassurance, reminders that’s he still there even if he’s not very talkative.

when you try to rectify the way you had spoken to him earlier in the week, explain your shortness, your irritability, he would shake his head and tell you he’s already forgotten. he knows “his girl was just stressed.”

and he won’t leave your side again. he’s known distance between you for less than a week and he never wants it again. so he stays planted by your side the next time you decide to work, planting gentle kisses to your hand which he keeps firmly held in his despite your protests about how you need both to type.

he’s not the touchiest, certainly not the feeliest, but he tries for you.

[happy-lemon]

Non-Sims Interests

I was tagged by @papermint-airplane. Thanks, friend!

Dragon Age

Do I own the World of Thedas books and keep them on my coffee table? Yes. Do I love the RPG novels even though they're SO BAD? Yes. Do I have my own fanfiction in a folder on my computer? Yes. Do I have a Straight Outta Ferelden sticker on my Jeep? Yes. Has Cassandra made me question my sexuality and be mad that I can't romance her as a woman? Yes. I've bought several other games, hoping one of them will spark the same kind of love, but so far I have a stack of unplayed/unfinished games because there's nothing out there that can compare.

Sailing

Confession: I'm a lazy sailor. There's always so much to do on a sailboat that sometimes it feels like work, but once we're on a long tack and the boat is dialed in, there's nothing like. My husband is currently outfitting a boat for cruising (I'd say we, but let's be real, he's doing the work) and we're planning to go sailing in the Caribbean. We can't afford to just drop out of life and do nothing else, so we'll both be working remotely. That works out kind of perfectly since we have aging parents and a dog who can't go with us because she's an absolute menace to society.

Camping

There was a time in my life that if you'd have told me I would love camping, I would have laughed at the very idea of sleeping in a tent on the ground. But during the pandemic my son outfitted his old Jeep Wrangler for overland camping, and went on a yearlong, multi-continent road trip adventure. He inspired me so much that I bought my own old Jeep and started camping locally. I had this cool fantasy about going on a mini road trip with my dog, but again, she's an absolute menace to society and struggles with the fact that there's no indoors when camping.

Talaria

She's 50% border collie and the other half of her is a toxic stew of heeler, husky, and cur. She has extreme anxiety that no medication has been able to ease. She's leash reactive, overprotective, and has zero interest in normal things like dog parks, fetch, or playing with toys. But she's utterly devoted to me and woe betide anyone who tries to come between us.

(She's on the left. The foxhound on the right was a foster who tried desperately to get her to love him.)

This is starting to get long so I'll end it here. Tagging @ethicaltreatmentofcowplants @sweetnovember77 @cinamun and anyone who wants to do this. Ignore me if you've done it or don't want to do it.

[captmickey]

I need you all to understand... I have not been okay.

I have not been okay since my friend's passing. I'd stream and joke and everything but I have been barely holding it together. Because on the day she passed, I was demoted at work and had a hard time financially on top of mentally.

The silver lining that happened was two weeks ago when a friend of mine found me a new job... one that paid better, had benefits, was close to home, and more importantly was full time.

As much as I complained and aired my grievances with my job, I liked what I did. I liked the people I worked with. I liked the relax energy and comradery when they heaviest load of work was done.

But I couldn't sustain a living with below minimum wage and a boss who declared me no longer human or someone without a name.

So of course I took the new job. And it hurt. It meant leaving the friends I made in my now old job.

Because it meant yet again saying goodbye.

So I relied on art. You don't say goodbye to art. It's not ending. It's creating. It's something I felt I had some semblance of control in a time when it feels like I have none of it.

...only to find out about AI making itself known in over 80-90% of all media.

And that broke me.

Because it was the realization that my old job was taken from me because of things like AI and idiots who believe that we no longer needed artists. Why pay or treat them like human when we have computers? Why bother create? We got AI coming up with everything. From video games, to art, to stories....

It broke me.

Because I had to, again, say goodbye to something I love just to survive. And I was angry. And hurt. And furious. And could not bring myself to create anymore.

Why bother?

I didn't have it in me to fight anymore. I was and am tired.

...but you all had to respond to that post with sincerity. And this is just some of the screenshots. Some of you reached me through discord.

And you all broke me... but in a good way.

Because I didn't feel alone. And it's because of you all that had me grumble in anger to put down the controller (Expedition 33 my beloved...) and attempt to draw again. To write again.

I'm still hurt. I'm still angry. I'm still sad.

But yall made a compelling argument to keep going. And I will... begrudgingly.

So thank you. All of you. It meant a lot.

[laurynjc-art]

Trial Separation: A BMC One-Shot

I watch as Jeremy hoists the box into his arms and shoves it into the back of his car with the other piles of junk he’s lugging out to college. I’m honestly a little surprised that he’s kept up the whole “impure thoughts = push-ups” thing his squip forced him into last year, but old habits do die hard. I don’t mind. He can finally be useful when we’re at my place and I get a sudden desire to rearrange my bedroom in the middle of the night. And his girlfriend Christine certainly doesn’t mind, either. I have plenty of blackmail from knowing Jeremy for thirteen years, but I’m sure he’ll do anything I ask if I ever threaten to tell Christine why Jeremy wound up a beefcake overnight.

I wish I could say I was part of the junk Jeremy was bringing up to college, but earlier in the year, it was made pretty clear that Jeremy was flying out in the world solo. This was an upsetting realization for both of us- “Jeremy, I don’t think I even know what I want to do with my life.” I’d told him at some point after we took the SATs.

“What do you mean?” He asked. “You’re not going to kill yourself, are you?”

“No,” I said. “I don’t know what I want to do with my life.” It was some decision paralysis, mostly; I could do just about anything. Math, science, coding, I know computers inside and out. But the question was: what skills needed more refinement? What could I get by on? Like how I was already taking Calculus 1 as a junior, which is a lot more than some people can say. And what if I wanted to try and learn about something completely new? I’m not much of an artist, my writing is abysmal by Jeremy’s standards… I got to a point where thinking about it for too long made me want to start screaming.

But then at some point I remembered: oh yeah, high schoolers aren’t legally mandated to be shipped off to college as soon as they graduate. And my decisions began to clear up.

I thought about staying home for another year or so to work, bulk up my savings, maybe take some community college classes if I’m really bored. And school blows, maybe breaking up my theoretical sixteen consecutive years of education and giving myself a break would be better for me.

We had a really long discussion one night about this, Jeremy and I. About our lives and what the future might look like. Which sucked for him, I know I was the one hyping him up about college, and now I’m the one having second thoughts and backing out. There was a lot of weed and a lot more crying, all the while my Wii’s menu music served as the background track to our bout of vulnerability.

Eventually, after a good while of silence, Jeremy lit up a roll and said, “You can do whatever you want.” His phrasing and tone scared me, as did the fact he took a long drag on his joint without saying anything else. I worried this was going to be Jake’s Halloween Party all over again, but then Jeremy grinned and looked back at me with more tears in his eyes. I’m not sure if they were genuine or a result of him getting too high. “I’ll always be behind you. And hey, maybe a trial separation is a good thing.”

“You were the one who made me swear that we’d be going together,” I joked.

“Because I’d miss you!” Jeremy wailed. I chuckled, he was definitely too high. “I can’t stand it when you’re home sick from school, what am I supposed to do when we’re actually God knows how far away from each other?”

“Hey. Hey.” I put my arm around his shoulders. “We’ll figure it out. No matter where we end up.”

And finally, I cleared my decision with my moms, who were more than thrilled to let me stay a basement dweller for another year or so.

Jeremy slams the trunk of his car shut and leans on it, looking at me like he’s expecting me to say something.

“Is that all?” I ask.

“Mm-hm.” Jeremy nods, but his lips are pursed in his “I’m sad but don’t want to talk about it so I’m going to just run away and cry” way. Like he thinks I can’t see right through him.

“Do you want to talk?” I ask him.

“No,” is all he says.

“Do you want me to leave so you can cry into your porn?”

“Shut up.” Jeremy takes a swing at me, but I catch his arm and pull him into an embrace. He hugs me back just as hard.

“It’ll only be a few months, Jer,” I say.

“I know,” he replies. I could hear that he was crying, and I might’ve accidentally made it worse by rubbing his back. He sobs, then says, “I’ll just miss you, man.”

“Yeah. Me too.”

Jeremy lets me go so he can wipe his face, and a thought crosses my mind that I worry is a bit too coupley, but hey, who decided articles of clothing were only supposed to be exchanged with a significant other, anyway?

So, as if I’d been planning it all day, I untie my jacket from my waist and hand it to Jeremy.

“Here. Now I’ll be going up with you,” I say. Jeremy gasps.

“B-but Michael, this is your favorite!” He objects.

“Well, you’re my favorite.”

Jeremy laughs in a way that’s more like another sob, then says, “What are we, dating in middle school?”

“Good point,” I joke along. “I wouldn’t wear that around Christine, she might get jealous.” Jeremy laughs, really laughs, which makes me laugh, and then I get this pang in my heart because I don’t think it actually registered until now that oh, yeah, we’re not going out into the world together. I don’t know the next time I’ll get a moment like this. I start tearing up a bit and pray that Jeremy doesn’t notice, but of course he does.

“No no, stop,” Jeremy cries, throwing his arms around my neck. I cannot resist picking him up and spinning him around, and we could have stayed locked in our embrace all night if a cold evening wind hadn’t started cutting through us.

“I guess I better go,” I tell him. “Don't… do anything stupid.”

“I’m pretty sure I already cashed in my stupid,” Jeremy smirks, “but yeah. Obviously.”

One more hug, then I’m in my car and waving goodbye to Jeremy through my rear-view window. For a moment, a pit in my stomach forms at the fear that this might be the beginning of the end for us, but I banish it. We’ve separated under worse circumstances and came back together regardless. It’s just a year. He won’t be that far away. And besides, doesn’t distance make the heart grow fonder?

[martwy-basen]

watched emesis blue and just. whoa.

(omg, i'm sorry for taking so long😭😭 uni. you know how it is.) (making this extra and unnecessary long to make up for the waiting AND bc i love yapping about tf2.)

emesis blue,,,, oh, emesis blue. do i have to say things about it. they say if you have to watch a video essay explaining the movie, then the movie was bad. emesis blue has multiple explanation videos, and some of them are longer than the actual movie itself. so do with that what you will.

personally i still haven't watched any explanation videos, mostly bc they are so long. but also because (and, watch out, this one is fucking stupid) i like movies i don't understand. i like to watch something and not know what i just watched. if i liked it, then i liked it, and sometimes that's not enough for me, but, sometimes, it is.

i probably should've started with something like "this is a good movie. and here is why:" or "this movie fucking sucks. and here is why:", but i didn't, so maybe let's ignore the way things should be in general. i watched emesis blue in february, to get into that valentines mood, so do forgive me if i forget/skip anything, but i'm sitting on my train back home and i'm just going to list everything i remember about the movie and say things about it, alright?

i know that i'd enjoy emesis blue much less if i watched more movies. emesis blue has a lot of references to different pieces of media, for example, the medic turtleneck look in the end?? it was inspired by cesare from "the cabinet of dr caligari". it's actually a pretty common trope, but it still counts.

as it turns out, my fav quote from emesis blue, "it's eternity out there", isn't an original quote. it comes from stephen kings' short story "the jaunt", and with context is just as creepy, if not creepier, as in emesis blue. it also has plenty of references to "the shining" (demo and engie bar scene, medic in the bathroom in the end, the wave of blood coming from the respawn machine). there's sooo much more, so if you're interested i recommend looking it up, but my main point is: this movie relays on many references to different movies. so i feel like if you're a cinephile, you'll either love them or think they take away from the originality of emesis.

however, this movie has tons of good stuff as well! along with the characterization of the mercs (and not only them!), especially medic, soldier and spy? it's amazing. people quite often complained about their favs not getting enough screentime in emesis, but i think it's important to remember that those weren't the mercs we know from the game/comics/even the meet the team videos. yes, they wouldn't exist in that way if it weren't for those sources, but they were mostly far away from the original material. heavy on mostly.

also, and i can't praise it enough and in my head it actually covers every "bad" thing about emesis: this is a full ass, 1 hour and 48 minutes movie made COMPLETELY and ONLY in sfm: probably the shittiest computer graphics tool to exist, which is, mind you, STILL IN ITS BETA VERSION. i can't say much about it, since i never had a chance to use it, but, man, people who can actually make something in sfm that doesn't defy the laws of logic irl should be feared. and emesis blue is a WHOLE DAMN MOVIE created in that tool. which takes us to another point, because

that movie is just BEAUTIFUL. you may hate the plot, you may hate the references, but you can't ever deny that this is a work of art, cinematography wise. which, again, i don't know much about, but i know when something looks breathtaking, and that's what emesis looks like. which was, again, made in sfm.

also. the voice acting? personally i think it was amazing. it isn't exactly about the characters sounding exactly like their original voice actors, but hearing medic sound so much like his tf2 version, but the goofy side of his voice gone? it fit perfectly. same with scout. my beloved scout... his fate hurt me the most, i believe.

final verdict? i loved emesis blue, i did. i literally names my stick bugs emesis and blue. i'm still however waiting to watch the explanation videos, i feel like they're either gonna add or remove from the experience, but i'll never stop being mesmerized by the fact that emesis blue is a fan movie made in source filmmaker that looks absolutely stunning. i simply couldn't tear my eyes from the screen and, mind you, i fucking HATE thrillers/horrors. i'm so glad i decided to give this one a chance. what did you guys think about it? please, PLEASE share with me!!

[jesterable]

flowey and frisk are siblings and i wont take a single other take. chara is there in Spirit! Ha ha . get it

[moeblob]

(No real answer cause I haven't gotten that heart event yet)

[divorcedfiddleford]

and you may say to yourself: "my god! what have i done?" and you may tell yourself: "this is not my beautiful wife!" and you may tell yourself: "this is not my beautiful house!" and you may ask yourself: "well, how did i get here?"

time isn't holding up, time isn't after us, time is a pony ride! (images described in alt text)

[cloysterbell]

Pete, I need you to stay here.

[al-mayriti]

Noting that I went to a catholic high school in the midwestern US, I would say that between 30-40% of my classmates followed a life path similar to the following (so not even half, but still a significant amount):

1) Age 18-21: start dating someone in uni

2) Age 22/23: get a job shortly after graduation (or have one already organized, probably from a summer internship while in uni)

3) Age 22-24: get engaged to your uni bf/gf within a year of graduating, once you both have jobs basically

4) Age 23-26: wedding within a year or two of getting engaged, also buy a house if you have that kind of money lol

5) 9 months to 1 year after wedding (so 24-26 generally): baby!

I think it's important to note that this culture is able to continue because many college-educated young USAmericans are able to get a decent job very soon after graduating, which speeds up the rest of the process quite a bit. For people who are not able to get a job quickly, or who choose to do further studies, add on a few years. (And for people who don't go to uni, subtract a few!)

yeah i was gonna say, the only thing i envy of that is the getting a job so early and easy lol. i think that's also the main difference or why people aren't married so early here. in my experience (note that i went to a private upper class school so almost everyone went to university and pretty much everyone is employed right now except me lol)

1) 18-23. uni. a bunch of them were dating before uni, others during, some after, you know how it goes. and also a lot of them didn't date (like me).

2) 23-25. finishing uni, doing a master's degree, and or living abroad (usually to work).

3) 25-26. come back to spain and work here, or finished studying and got a job. they start dating seriously.

4) 26-28. if they've been dating for a while, engagement. if not, they continue the grind. if they live abroad especially which is honestly more than half of my circle rn they won't want to get engaged until they come back or decide to stay in the other country (normally their partner is from there).

5) 28-30. this is the future for me so i'm just speculating, but here is marriage + baby for those who can afford it. keep in mind most of us this age are still living with our parents so. that's another thing to have in mind.

more or less that's the idea here. you first want to have a stable job, then a stable house, and then you can start thinking about proposing and weddings and kids. and that doesn't happen soon.

[shoopsthereitis]

yesterday my friend and I were yapping art and she told me she wrote her thesis on the relationship between Edgar Degas and Mary Cassatt and let me tell you I lived my best life making her explain her entire thesis to me in excruciating detail

[wandering-wolf23]

Yesterday, my 12 year old laptop died.

This machine was an XPS laptop. It was in perfect working order up until the motherboard decided to die. I've swapped keyboards, screens, batteries, and a track pad on this thing, all with the help of YouTube. I actually wanted to get this machine repaired until I learned it would be about 3 grand for a repair that might work. There would be no guarantee and it would be hard finding someone willing to work on a computer that old.

I'm paying someone for data recovery because he can do it better and quicker. When that's done and I have the hard drive, I'm going to donate my old XPS. It can still be repaired if you have the right part and enough time. People do. I'm donating it to a program that takes old computers like these, fixes them, and gives them to low income students. This computer will probably last another 5 years (or more). Parts for it are easily purchased on Amazon.

My new computer is coming today. It's the same build, just slightly newer. It will last me another 12 years I hope. I will repair it as needed. Parts are easily available on Amazon. It will do everything I need it to and, when it's time, I'll swap it all over to a new computer from that same series.

Being able to repair my own machines has made me an XPS user for life. It allows me to save money and cut down on e-waste. So many people are stunned that my old computer was 12 (the one I had before this was 15 before it failed). We are so used to a society with disposable technology that it's genuinely shocking to people when someone says they fixed their own laptop.

But why should people try? So many laptops are made so you can't just unscrew and pop the back off. So many computers are made to fail after two, three, or four years. So many computers are made to force you to buy a new one for whatever capitalist bullshit reason.

I'll gladly pay extra for right to repair and a solid build with easily available replacement parts. That's what's important to me.