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ask-feederjin · 3 years ago

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Hi!!~~ <3 So... How much has Jungkook's physical condition changed?

Do you think he tires easily with physical tasks? I can only imagine him puffing all the time ><

Jin had just put the final revisions on a work project when a notification popped up on his computer.

“Hi!!~~ <3 So... How much has Jungkook's physical condition changed?

Do you think he tires easily with physical tasks? I can only imagine him puffing all the time ><”

Oh if only, Jin sighs softly. He wishes he could say that their youngest does, but that would be a lie. Either way, Anon needs an answer!

Oh, he wishes! Poor Jungkook has a ridiculously fast metabolism, much to his dismay. It was great for him when he was a gym rat, effortlessly maintaining his washboard abs. But now it is his ultimate curse.

We’ve been doing research on how to lower or, in Jungkook’s words, “completely ruin” his metabolism.

So far, we’ve chosen to have him switch to a completely sedentary activity level, bulk up on carbs, flip into “starvation mode” between stuffings and replacing that banana milk he likes to drink with soda. We also heard that lack of sleep can contribute to a drop in metabolism, but I vetoed that one. Jungkook may be willing to suffer sleep deprivation to get fatter, but that’s not something I’m willing to support.

On the topic of him getting tired… Hmm… I think it would only really happen if he was going out of his way to be active? Like, him just walking around or lifting basic things doesn’t phase him yet, but exercise on the other hand… Give me one second!

“Jungkook!” Jin called out.

“Yeah?” He heard back. It sounded like Jungkook had just woken up from a post breakfast nap.

“Could you come here please, baby?” Jin was now curious. How has his physicality changed in the past two months? Would he get out of breath easily? Or has his years of exercise and healthy eating still blocked that?

“Do I have to?” He whined. Jin felt butterflies in his stomach at just how lazy his boyfriend has gotten.

“Yes!” Jin laughed.

After what sounded like some shuffling and grunting, Jungkook sleepily wandered into Jin’s office.

“You never make me come to you…” The youngest complained halfheartedly, scratching his tummy.

“Forgive me just this once, your highness.” Jin snarked back. “I just wanted to… do a little test.”

Jungkook perked up the the word ‘test’. Jin knew he would never pass up an opportunity to prove himself.

“What do I need to do?” The younger man asked excitedly, watching as Jin pushed his rolling desk chair to the corner of the room.

“Well… first I’m going to need you to stand riiiight here. There, perfect!” Jin maneuvered the taller boy to stand right in front of his computer screen. “Wait just a second, babe.”

The screen suddenly changed from spreadsheets to a camera screen. Jin pressed record…

The video starts off in a well kept room. Orderly bookshelves line the background, tiny potted vines trailing down the fronts.

Pulling away from the screen, you catch a blurry glimpse of knobby knuckles and trimmed nails. Front and center stands a rather tall young man. He has short, shiny black hair and warm brown eyes. Said eyes are currently large with confusion.

The young man is wearing a rather ill-fitting set of pajamas. The bottoms fit well enough, but the top’s buttons are slightly strained. A soft looking paunch hangs out from the too small shirt, wobbling as the young man shifts uncertainly. He rests both hands on the mass, rubbing slowly.

“Okay, -ahem-.” You hear a man’s voice says off camera say. “Hello, everyone! This is the first video I’ll be uploading to the blog, yay! It was originally going to be the third month weigh in, but it seems I just couldn’t wait.”

The young man on screen chuckles a bit, relaxing at the lighthearted conversation.

The voice resumes speaking, “Either way! We’re here now! This is Jungkook, some of you might recognize his face from the profile section of the blog, but if you haven’t then here he is! Say hi, Kookie.”

Jungkook blushes, waving at the camera. “Hi guys… I’m uh, I’m Jungkook.”

…

“Oh! And I’m Jin!” The disembodied voice frantically shouts. Jungkook bursts into giggles. “I’m Jin! The owner of the blog! I’m also apparently an idiot.” Jin ducks his head into the camera, giving you an unattractive, sideways close up of his eyes and nose.

“Veryprofessional, Jin.” Jungkook grins teasingly.

Jin’s too-close head turns, presumably to glare at the focus of the video. “Yes, I am a professional thank you very much. Now take your shirt off, fatty.”

Jin walks to the side of the room again, giving you a nearly full view of Jungkook’s body. The young man blushes again, levity gone, and starts to unbutton his sleep shirt.

With each button undone, the fabric gratefully springs to the side. Soon the boy’s tan tummy lays bare, angry looking stretchmarks decorating the lower part of it.

Jungkook tosses his shirt off camera, breathing slowly and evenly. “Wh-what now?”

“Jiggle it.”

Jungkook’s breath hitched, eyes closing slightly. He brings both large hands to his jello like gut and proceeds to bounce it up and down. For a minute of two, he shakes it briefly, only to let go and wait for the jiggly mass to settle. He stares at the camera, as if he’s watching himself in the feedback footage.

One hand slides up to cup his soft chest, while the other slaps gently at his belly entranced by the bounce.

“Now, turn to your side.” Jin’s voice startles Jungkook out of his self exploration. Jin himself walks towards the now sideways Jungkook, pressing up against his back. Jin reaches his arms around Jungkook to lift the younger man’s pot belly. He squeezes, pinches and lets it drop to watch it wobble.

“Tsk tsk tsk…” He pokes a long finger into the pliant flesh. “Someone’s let himself go it seems…”

“Ah~! I- I have!” Jungkook moans. “I’m soooo lazy, and- and greedy.”

“Lazy is right you little piggy.” Jin pulls away from playing with the taller boy’s belly button, walking back off screen. “Why don’t we give our viewer’s a little show? See how out of shape you’ve really gotten?”

Jungkook can only nod, face a bright red.

“Gimme fifty jumping jacks.”

“Fifty?! Jin! That’s too many!” Jungkook gapes at the man off screen.

“You used to do sets of eighty not even a year ago, I’m sure your fat ass can manage one set of fifty.”

“I’ll try I guess…” Jungkook doesn’t look optimistic. He gets in position anyway and starts counting out loud.

“One, two, three, four, five, six…”

The up and down movement vigorously shakes his little jelly belly, truly revealing just how much fat had accumulated there.

“Fifteen, sixteen, seh-seventeen, eight -hah hah- eighteen…” The poor boy’s face was tomato red and shiny with sudden sweat. His arms keep perfect time, but his legs move less far apart with each jump.

“Nine-hah-teen, twenty!” Jungkook is huffing now, tiny breasts quaking each time he lands. He is so out of breath now that he only mutters what vaguely sounds like numbers with each jumping jack.

“Twenty one, twenty two, twenty three…” Jin picks up where the out of breath young man left off. “Come on tubby, you were doing this in your sleep six months ago! What happened?”

Jungkook is gasping now, arms waving less with each jump, feet not even moving apart. A drop of sweat hangs precariously off of a perky nipple, only to fall onto his gut not even a second later.

“Are you seriously this out of shape?” Jin sounds genuinely surprised now, instead of teasing. Jungkook plops onto the floor panting. His previously neat hair stuck to his forehead with sweat, neck and chest pink from effort. “Kookie, you only did 31 jumping jacks.”

“I- gasp- I can’t…” The chubby boy leans back against the bookshelf. “I’m too fat…”

“Oh no. I’ll be the one to tell you when you’re too fat. Right now?” Jin squats down and smacks Jungkook’s sweaty belly, eliciting a moan from the boy. “You’re barely overweight.”

“I’ll get bigger! I promise!” The younger man pleads, having seemingly forgotten about the fact that he’s being recorded.

“Bigger? Eating like you are now? I don’t think so. You’re going to have to pick up the pace if you want to be the fattest boy in the house. Even Hobi will get bigger than you at this rate.” Jin gave Jungkook’s red, sweaty paunch one last wobbling pat before standing back up again. Jungkook stays on the ground, not even bothering to hide the bulge in his pajama pants.

“Okay guys!” The older man addresses the camera, winking. “It looks like Jungkook can still do thirty one jumping jacks before he gives up. You could say his stamina isn’t what it used to be! I’m gonna get this little piggy back to bed now. I think the poor thing’ll need another nap after so much exercise. Thank you for watching!”

Jin leans forward

The screen goes black.

I went ahead and attached a video instead of just writing down the answer ^-^;

I hope you don’t mind using headphones, haha! It got a little steamy there for a second… I should really get a video editing program so I can cut out those bits of me turning the camera on and off. Maybe even use my phone next time or something.

Oh well, lessons for later.

I hope that answers your question, Anon!

#lavender//ask #lavender//jin #bts weight gain #bts feederism #fat jungkook #calling all jungkook stans #ooc: a little different than what I normally do! let me know if you guys want more 'videos' in the future...

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painted-crow · 4 years ago

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Submission Time #12

Another submission from me! I’d meant to put in answers from the quiz… or really, my perpetual arguments with the quiz. But then I got distracted by writing out my thoughts and forgot to do that.

Oof, I’m afraid I don’t know who you are just from this–you sent it in with anonymous on! Hopefully that’s okay.

I get different answers from the quiz at different times. Last time I took it in earnest, stoned out of my mind, I came up Snake/Snake. This time I intentionally hatstalled to get as many questions as I could.

If this is too many words on top of too many words… I am sorry.

I see that lol! I appreciate that there is no lack of information here 😉

However, this post as it came in was VERY long, even by my standards, and for the sake of readability I've done 2 things:

1) Switched to desktop long enough to put in a cut. It broke the blue color I usually put over my replies in order to make these easier to skim, but I'm not putting it back because it's kind of a huge pain to redo.

2) Trimmed out some of the question/answer pairs. You have plenty, so although I read them all, I just kept those I deemed most relevant. I also skipped a few where my responses would have been repetitive. Just an editing decision I hope you'll be okay with.

That said, let's get on with the Sorting.

Primaries

• If people in your family or community disagree with you, is it hard to act against their wishes?

I’m not sure that I have a community, but yeah, if my SOs think something is a bad idea, I’ll listen and consider. I’m more likely to be the person disagreeing with and trying to convince someone else, though. Also, sometimes it’s plain easier to go along with things to keep life smooth. But if it was something important… I think I’d have to go with what I think is right, regardless of disagreement. I’ll listen to others, maybe I’ll change my mind, but I won’t not do a thing JUST because of the disapproval of my family.

Suggests internal primary, Lion or Snake.

• What’s your top priority?

I kind of hate this one because I want to answer all three. I want to make the world a better place for the sake of me and mine, and that’s one of my goals. Not one I imagine I can accomplish, but it’s something that matters. My kid will probably see a pretty rough world in the future and I wish I could do something to alter that, beyond trying to be an ethical consumer as much as I can.

This answer feels very grounded and practical. I want to say it feels Liony, partly out of process of elimination but mostly because it just does.

• When you’re making a decision and you’re stuck, what should you do?

Idk, panic? No, not really. I seek advice if relevant, don’t if not, seek out any information I can, think about it… make a decision… and proceed to worry about that decision for the next millenia because what if it wasn’t the right one? I usually go with my my gut choice but 1) sometimes I have to go hunting for that, and by sometimes I mean a lot, and 2) I still research the hell out of it.

The way you’ve answered this says more about your secondary than your primary, imo. You might be a Bird secondary.

• Do you listen to your intuition?

I’d like to, but I don’t trust it. I’m too afraid of everything.

Ooh, interesting. It’s worth noting, people who write to me are often Burned at least somewhat, because Burned Houses are always harder to sort; everyone reacts differently to trauma and comes up with different coping mechanisms. Wonder if you’re an at least somewhat Burned Lion who’s pivoted into Snake, perhaps because it fit with your old value set.

• Someone points out a flaw in your logic. Their argument makes sense, but there’s something about it that just bothers you. Do you change your ways because of what they said?

This one always bothers me. It’s not a thing that happens to me often, but I can’t understand not changing your mind in this situation. If someone points out that you’re wrong… well… you’d better go look into that, hadn’t you? Maybe because I’m constantly seeking to understand myself, and I don’t and that frustrates me, but… I don’t know. I agree with and disagree with all the answers.

This seems Bird at first glance, but it seems you’re too conflicted about it to be straight up unburned Bird (and Burned Birds are usually easier to spot because they tend to be wrapped up in the problem/s they’re struggling with). You might have a model or performance, too early to say.

That line about being frustrated that you don’t understand yourself is also a good hint toward an Idealist primary.

• Does disagreeing with your closest friends about something important to you make you love them less?

No, but I might think less of them, and I will probably argue my points at them in the future. Sometimes I change their mind, sometimes they change mine. I turned my SO into a social liberal, he caused me to adjust my stance on gun control. There’s always give and take.

Sounds healthy. That model’s sounding a bit more likely here. I’d be very curious if you turned out to be a burned Lion who actually had a healthy Bird model–that would be rare o.o

• What if everyone you loved left you? They betrayed you, abandoned you, or died, and you’re hurting. What keeps you moving forward?

This question makes me want to tear my hair out, because those are all different things.

If everyone I loved died, I would probably have a massive breakdown, spend a year laying in bed, and then use whatever money I inherited or insurance payouts I got to go try and live the life I’ve always vaguely wanted, traveling. I wouldn’t seek out relationships but I imagine I would, eventually, form new connections. It would hurt, but I would rebuild.

If they abandoned me, or betrayed me, which is… kind of the same, I guess, because abandoning me without cause is a betrayal… well, I would probably be confused, and angry, and curl into a ball and want to die, and then turn into a lifelong curmudgeon the likes of which I swore I’d never be. It would hurt, and I would probably be loathe to trust again.

This doesn’t feel Loyalist, at least.

• What if you realized that absolutely everything you thought was true was wrong? The authorities you’d trusted, the beliefs you’d held, the wrongs you’d fought against?

Another that trips me up. I doubt someone is ever going to convince me that punching down, bullying, or causing unwarranted harm is good. I don’t trust any authority without cause anyway, and I trust no authority to be right on every topic. I trust NASA about space but I’d be more interested in what the forestry service has to say about ecology, in a silly example. I’m not religious so I don’t have any authorities there. My parents were authorities once but it turns out they’re human and sometimes wrong, so…. I feel like I don’t know how to answer this question, because I can’t fathom what someone could tell or convince me of that would be that kind of a gut punch?

So, you don’t really have a system per se, but you do have a set of core ideals. You could call this a Bird model (and… a really healthy one if it is?) or you could call it partially unburned Lion.

• You can’t help everyone in the world who needs it, but you wish you could.

Nah, it would be nice to help everyone and I’m down to eat the rich and redistribute wealth and I firmly believe the point and purpose of society is to care for its populace, so definitely the world should be designed better to make sure everyone has a fair chance at what they want…but it’s not my responsibility to fix it for everybody, nor am I capable of it. I can do a small part, and I try to, but I’m not the savior of humanity.

I think we’ve established you’re not a Badger, although Badgers don’t always fall into this trap.

• You’ve changed your mind about an old belief or moral stricture that you used to value. You got new information and you’ve tried to update your way of thinking, and you think (hope?) you’re a better person for it. Do you feel guilty about the old belief you’ve abandoned?

Do I feel guilty for abandoning it? Not if I realized it was wrong! Do I feel guilty for having had the belief? Sometimes. I was raised in an unthinkingly classist household, and I still feel bad about my instinctive assumptions about people. I’ve worked on it a lot and unpacked a lot of shit, but I was definitely an ass and I regret that.

You have a lot of healthy Bird happening. I’m starting to wonder if your Lion is the model.

If you are a Bird primary, you’re one who builds your system much more than one who adopts it. You also seem very confident in your own perceptions, not unwilling to change but not impressionable.

When it comes to less major parts of your ideals, such as the gun control thing you adjusted your stance on, do you feel satisfied after puzzling things like that out? Or do you kind of hate that you need to?

• The next one is “If I’ve decided to stand by the people I love, it’s a choice. I could make a different decision.” Vs “At the end of the day, some things are right and some things are wrong. You don’t turn your back on the people you love.”

And my problem with that is… both. It is a choice, I could, theoretically, make a different one. But I don’t think it would be right to do so. I think that I would have to have an overwhelming reason to turn my back on my people. Someone cheating one me, or coming to hold beliefs antithetical to me (like if one of my SOs suddenly went TERFy or something), yeah, I would probably turn away, but it would hurt. But it’s still a choice I’ve made, either way.

I don’t think you’re a Snake.

• When you sit down and consider the terrifying lack of objective truth in our reality, how do you feel?

But what is truth? Does this mean truths about the universe, reality, physics, etc? I surely believe there is objective truth and structure there, though I doubt if humanity can discover it all. We are clever little apes, but its a big, weird universe.

Does it mean moral, philosophical truths? Moral relativism all the way babe! I mean, I’m an atheist, and I dont believe there’s one objective truth out there laid down by something supernatural, and I think it has to be something everybody comes to on their own as an accumulation of life experiences. I’ve got a few core things I think are important and the rest just… flows. I went with “the model in our heads is good enough,” because we’ve all got to settle for that in the end, I suppose.

It’s an interesting question and none of the answers quite fit for me. I think part of my trouble with the quiz is how abstract the questions are. “Do you like shortcuts?” Well, I dont know, quiz, what on earth is the CONTEXT? I understand why it’s written that way, but I do wish it was a bit more choose-your-own-adventure, handing me scenarios instead of philosophical abstraction.

You could be a Bird primary.

• When you’re not sure what’s the right thing to do, what do you turn to?

Research, and talking to my people, and then I think about it a bit. Or I just go with my gut and try to figure it out later. Either way I will spend a lot of time thinking about it, either trying to choose or trying to parse the choice I made.

Yeah, you might have to puzzle out which of these is the model yourself. This is a pretty subtle distinction. @wisteria-lodge and I both have posts about this. The appropriate tags on my blog are #ravenclaw primary and #gryffindor primary –if you can get Tumblr to function as intended (mobile search is very very flaky), those should get you the info you want, along with lots of accounts from other people Sorting themselves.

I’m starting to lean towards Bird for you, actually. But again, this is one pair that can be hard to tell apart, and sometimes it gets harder the closer you look at it. Maddening.

• Would you feel worse abandoning a stranger in need or turning your back on your closest friend?

Another one where I want context. If we’re talking identical scenarios – say, they’re drowning – I’d save my friend over someone else, except for maybe a small child… maybe? Honestly I’d probably try to save both and end up dying. But I do prioritize and I’d help my friend over a stranger, sans specific extenuating circumstances on the part of said stranger.

Once again, I don’t think you’re a Snake. I think you’re a Lion with loyalty baked into your intuition, or a Bird who’s picked up some Snakey philosophy.

• After spending some time trying to decide between two options, you are convinced that A is the right thing to do. The people around you, though, are just as convinced that it’s B. How do you feel?

Like I haven’t explained well enough, because they’re not getting why my opinion is the best one. Seriously though, it would make me wonder if I missed something, and I’d probably spend more time talking and researching to compensate. On the other hand… context… am I choosing colleges here (yes, folks, give me your input!) or whether or not to get an abortion (where I would value the input of those directly connected to me, but in the end it’s 100% my choice and those who disagree can eff off.)

When you’re choosing a college, you’re making a tactical decision, not a moral one. Gathering information from others is a Bird secondary thing: you’re doing research.

When you’re making a moral decision, that’s where your primary is involved, and here your answer is strongly Lion.

[I’m skipping a few of the next questions because they don’t give strong information for you specifically. Mostly what they get at is, you’re not a Badger, especially not an unhealthy Badger.]

• Does your internal moral compass know something you don’t?

Well… maybe? I feed a lot of stuff into my brain, and I don’t always know what I think until the words have fallen out of my mouth.

I gotta say, I’m a Bird primary and this sounds terrifying to me. Sometimes I need to write about something before my opinion fully forms, but I write and think so much because I don’t trust myself to talk about it until I’ve poked the issue a bunch on my own.

The only exception is that there are a few people who will take me at my word if I say I haven’t made up my mind about an issue yet, and will listen to me debate it with myself, without judging me for not immediately agreeing with the stance they’ve already taken.

Not everyone is the same, of course, but this answer is a very Lion one.

• If you get a chance to make the world a better place, you have to pursue it– even at the expense of your happiness and personal relationships. Do you think this is a true statement?

If I could throw myself into a volcano to fix everything that is wrong with the world, I would cry and hug everybody I love and regret the hell out of what I was about to do to them and then chuck myself in the damn volcano. I think not doing so would be more selfish.

That is... a totally different thing than this question asked! 😂

However, you've established in previous questions (some of which were cut for length) that you don't feel responsible for fixing/changing the world as a moral imperative, so your answer to this is actually more interesting, lol.

I don't know what it actually says about your Sorting, but I'm leaving it in because it made me laugh.

• Do you think you’re a good person?

Another easy one. Define good! I try to be, within my own belief systems. But I know a lot of people who would not think I’m a good person, because in their belief systems I’m not. I think some of those people are good people, I think some are bad people. Life is complex. I do my best.

This is a pretty Birdy answer. You keep going back and forth! :p I'm probably going to end up leaving you with an ambiguous answer, huh?

If you're a burned Lion, you sound awfully chill about it and you use your ridiculously strong Bird model in an unusually healthy way, for a Lion. Lots of Lions with Bird models really struggle to reconcile the different priorities.

If you're a Bird, you have a ridiculously strong Lion model that seems to actually override your Bird sometimes--but Bird systems are complex and can include weird recursive rules like "in this situation, this other Primary is more right so we use that." Also, your understanding of your system seems more hands-off than a lot of Birds.

• It’s important to do the right thing, even when it feels wrong.

…yeeeeeees…. but. Why does it feel wrong? I would want to investigate that before doing the thing, because if it feels wrong, maybe I’m missing something that my subconscious caught. If I investigate that and am sure about the right, I think… I don’t know. I’m not sure I could do something I felt super icky about even if it was quote-unquote right?

Oh hey, that's my approach to Lion primary too. One point for Bird + loud Lion model?

By now I bet you either have a strong feeling about which of the options I've narrowed down is you, or you'll think about it and go back and pore over the archives here and on the other Sorting blogs. And then you'll think about which approach you took and what kind of a hint that is, which is basically meta-meta-analysis. Except now I've written this and you've read it, so you'll be wondering how reading this will affect your judgment, so it's meta-meta-meta-analysis now.

...I'll stop. 😉

Secondaries

Future Paint here. Tumblr discarded the ENTIRE second half of my response to this post, because I saved it and then hit post without refreshing the page, so it posted the old version, because of course it did.

The tl;dr is that I believe anon to be a rapid-fire Bird secondary with a Lion model.

Brb while I reconstruct this post.

• Do you like going into situations with a plan?

• When you spot a metaphorical obstacle in your path, what do you do?

I would love to, and some situations I do– job interviews, for example – but sticking to a plan is not my strong suit. I can follow a schedule, to some degree, and I can kind of make plans… but then I trip up because how can I account for all contingencies? So I usually end up chucking the plan and YOLOing my way through something on a wave of accumulated knowledge and practice experience.

Not all Birds are big planners. The defining thing is preparation, and that can mean hoarding skills, knowledge, tools and contacts, not just making plans and decisions in advance. A Bird might, for example, decide not to schedule their vacation, and instead read a couple travel guides before they go but wing it when they're there.

This question is one of those where I’d love a less abstract scenario. Because… it depends. In a video game I’ll usually go around. In real life I’ll stop and panic for a minute or a day, then get up and deal with whatever needs dealing with. Unless its a super immediate issue, and then I’m in the middle of it already and have to put off my existential crisis until later (see prior example of “breaking up a dogfight by sticking my arm betwixt them,” see also “i spent much of my teens rolling out of bed at 3am and getting dressed to go help with a foal delivery and I didn’t really start thinking until like twenty minutes after we arrive and start dealing with shit.” Like, I was making decisions and thinking about things, but… its different. They’re not reasoned choices, they’re “this has to be dealt with NOW so do what you can and sort it out later.”)

• Do you like to gather all possible information before making a decision?

I guess I land on needing to understand your problems. You can’t put them off forever, but if you’ve got the time to do some research and contemplation aforehand, that seems like the better choice.

I need you all to know that I didn't cut this dogfight story--I'm not depriving you of whatever wild ride anon had, it's just as much of a Noodle Incident to me as it is to you. However. I don't think I need to argue *too* much that anon has a Lion model.

• Is knowing things or knowing people more useful when solving problems?

Another tricky one, because I think all the answers are correct. I do like to know what’s going on, but at a certain point that IS just stalling. But! It’s true that making decisions without understanding the full picture CAN really mess you up! But it’s ALSO true that, in many situations, I can change my mind if I learn more. I think I lean towards doing All the Research before making a choice, but I’m pretty sure that’s largely a procrastination tactic.

Birrrrd.

Both. Ideally, one would know a range of People who know/have many Things. I’m a big fan of bartering my own skills and knowledge in return for those of other people – for example I am the go-to research person, because I’m pretty good at sourcing info and condensing it into “here’s what you ought to know, here are your options, and here’s where you can go for more information,” a thing which I do freely for my family. In return they do things I can’t or don’t want to, like my taxes or getting things off high shelves or making travel plans or whatnot.

• When your plan fails, what do you do?

I’m better at accumulating knowledge than connections, but I think the right connections are more often useful than said knowledge.

As @wisteria-lodge has said before, some Birds accumulate contacts the same way they gather other tools. They like the be the person to say, "I know a guy."

You're VERY clearly not a Badger. I've cut all the questions that were like "do you do [Badger Thing]" and you were like "NO" so. I don't think you'll need convincing on this point lol

See above… panic then act, unless I don’t have time, in which case act and then panic. Solve the immediate problems, clear some space to breathe, then deal with the rest.

• Do you collect things? Facts, objects, hobbies?

……. do links full of interesting things I fully intend to get around to reading and understanding someday count?

…yeah, this is where I take a look around at my books, games, Interesting Facts, various half-compentent hobby activities, and enduring rage that I cannot possibly know All The Things because I am a mortal subject to the finite bounds of my life and acknowledge that yes. I hoard the SHIT out of both physical and intellectual stuff.

• Do you ever study or plan excessively for things that aren’t useful? Just for fun?

I’m torn between yes, and yes but they have a purpose. I do enjoy learning, i was always good in school, when I could be bothered to care. There are a few topics I enjoy for their own sake – language and history and anything world-building, really, anything to do with who we are and how we got there. But I won’t usually go in depth; most things I skim enough to understand the basic concept and move on, leaving those things as cocktail facts. “Oh, you’re an astronomer focusing on the moons of Jupiter? I read $JupiterFact a while back, what are your thoughts?”

• Do you act differently in different groups? Does it bother you, if you do?

Like, I dont care about the moons of Jupiter unless Titan or Europa or whichever turns out to have life, but space is neat and I’d be excited by that conversation and I’m intrigued by the concepts even if i don’t have the inclination to deep-dive the topic.

These 3 question/answer pairs explain pretty clearly why I think anon is a Bird secondary...

Not very often, and not much. I absolutely utilize code-switching, but I’ve felt bad about not opening my mouth at times when I worked at a place that assumed I was a good little Christian white girl… I’m usually too afraid of repercussions to say anything, but I remember my supervisor saying an atheist billboard was “too much” and I just said “no, of course it isnt” and we gave each other a look like “… well this isn’t good…”

• When solving problems, is your first reaction seeing what “tools” you have in your pockets?

In general though, I’ll use a mask when I need to but I’m just kinda… me.

...and this was what cleared up the Lion secondary model for me.

• When you are deciding how to react to a situation, are your choices most affected by internal (how you feel, what you think, what you want) or external inputs (what’s happening around you)?

…I’m really not sure. I don’t think i actively assess the tools, physical or mental, that I have to hand? I generally know if I DON’T have the resources to deal with something, but if i do have them, I just do the thing and don’t think about it.

That's normal. You just know your toolset well enough that you don't have to think about it. Some Birds don't, or their toolset is eclectic enough (or even granular enough; try remembering all the books you've read that are relevant to a given research paper topic) that they forget what they have.

I think if I knew what I felt, I’d be happy deciding based on internal things, but I don’t know that I trust myself enough.

This answer seems more relevant to your primary. Might be Burned Lion primary peeking through.

And that puts me at a hatstall again.

Sorry for the bombardment, but it seemed like this would be relevant. I know I prefer more info to less, when I’m trying to help someone figure things out, so… words. Many, many words. Thrown at you. Mea culpa.

Hope you don't mind my cherrypicking! This must have been a ton of work for you to write, and I threw a bunch of it away 😭

(Only sort of, I did read it all first.)

In conclusion

Primary: either burned Lion + healthy Bird model, or Bird + loud loud Lion model.

Secondary: rapid-fire Bird with Lion model.

Hope that helps!

#sortinghatchats #paint speaks #submission #gryffindor primary #ravenclaw primary #gryffindor primary model #ravenclaw primary model #burned gryffindor primary #ravenclaw secondary #gryffindor secondary model

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monstersandmaw · 5 years ago

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Orctober #3 - male half-orc x male character (nsfw) ‘Bait’

Edit which I’m including in all my works after plagiarism and theft has taken place: I do not give my consent for my works to be used, copied, published, or posted anywhere. They are copyrighted and belong to me.

Orctober stories One and Two are up on Patreon (linked below), and this has been previewed on there too, and has had some truly wonderful comments that just made my day, so there might be a part two in the offing now. We’ll see.

Anyway, it’s a bit different in terms of format - it's not a reader insert, but I hope that doesn't matter.

It's a whopping 6914 words long, and I had an absolute blast writing it, so I really hope you enjoy reading it!! I know that 'Josslyn' is a female sounding name, but it's what this prince wanted to be called, so that's his name. :) I think it suits him anyway.

1. 'Ring' - male orc (Liam) x plus size female reader (very light nsfw) 2. 'Mindless’ - female orc (Khara) x male reader (nsfw)

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A silver-trimmed banner caught and snagged in the night breeze as the crown prince strode along the battlements of his father’s castle. The old king’s words still rang in his ears and he ground his teeth, breathing hard and fighting the urge to shout, to yell, to cry. Where was the man who had raised him? The man who had played with him, taught him to ride his first pony, and helped him with his tutor’s tasks when he’d struggled? The man who had taught him the meaning of the ideals of justice and loyalty, of servitude to the people? How could old age ravage a man so much in the mind while taking so little from his body?

The king was in his seventies, having had Josslyn later in life than many had expected, after his first queen had died in childbirth, leaving no heir. The king had the body of a man ten years younger, but the mind of a man a decade older. Joss had tried to keep his father’s unpredictable nature hidden from the council and from the people, and so far all that they had suspected was that the long-running war with the orcish peoples in the neighbouring kingdom was taking its toll on him, forcing him to become harder, stricter in a time of strife.

A guard nodded his resepcts at him as he passed and muttered, “Highness,” to which the prince responded with a small smile and a bow of his head as he swept past, his long, night blue cloak swirling behind him, the wind lifting his long black hair off his face.

A shout and commotion from the courtyard below brought two guards hurrying to his side as he peered down from the wall, but he waved them away with a gentle gesture and watched as a tall, rather bedraggled figure was hauled out from the guards’ supply room in the outer bailey and dumped in the freezing mud beside the castle well. Spear-tips were poised at his throat immediately, and as the flickering light of a wrought-iron brazier illuminated his features, Josslyn saw that he looked orcish, though somewhat more delicate than the brutes who currently inhabited the castle dungeons and gladiatorial rings across the country.

Scuttling silently down one of the nearby stone staircases, the prince emerged in time to hear the guards demanding who the creature was and what the hell he was doing sneaking around the royal castle at midnight. Josslyn wanted to know how the hell he’d got into the castle to begin with.

“Please,” the captive choked, his eyes screwed almost shut as a spear point hovered above his Adam’s apple, “Please, I only came looking… for… for work… I thought…”

“You thought we’d hire something like you? The king doesn’t employ beasts, not even to clean the latrines!” one of the guards sneered.

The prince approached at a steady walk, partly cloaked by the shadows of the courtyard and partly by the thick fabric of his heavy robes. “Why did you come here of all places?” he demanded of the orc and the guards startled at his sudden appearance.

“Your Highness, please,” one of them warned, holding out a protective arm between the captive and the crown prince. “We caught this half-breed orc sniffing around our supplies.”

“He managed to find a way past the gates - outwitting all the guards - and he speaks intelligently,” the prince said, staring at him with hard, black eyes, “And yet you still treat him like a cornered granary rat.”

“They’re all vermin,” the guard said, cheeks flushed with humiliation, jabbing the half-orc in the sternum with the butt of his spear and driving the wind from his chest.

“Stop,” Josslyn said in a voice of quiet command that stilled them all instantly. “Take him to the upper cells, and see that he’s fed and given water and a blanket, and some clean, dry clothes. I want to know exactly what he was doing here, but he’s in no condition to be questioned at the moment. Look at him.”

The guards returned their attention to their miserable captive and saw the way he shivered, his clothes sodden - presumably from swimming the moat - with the fabric clinging to his relatively slim body. With orcish blood, he should have been built like a mythical hero from a maiden’s tale, but Josslyn suspected that he saw high elf in the half-breed’s slender ears and delicate bone-structure. No high elf could bulk up, no matter how much meat he ate or how many press-ups he did, and unfortunately for the orc, it seemed he had inherited that trait from his elven parent.

“Highness?” the guard with his spear at the half-orc’s throat whispered. “You… You cannot be serious…?”

Josslyn simply turned his polished jet eyes on the guard and the man nodded once.

“Of course. Forgive me. It will be done as you say.”

The crown prince watched them haul the mysterious half-breed to his feet and lead him away. He stumbled and staggered, shaking violently from the cold as the chill of the mid-autumn night sank into his sodden clothes and skin, but he risked a glance over his shoulder and smiled gratefully at Josslyn. In answer, the prince nodded once and let his eyes fall to the spot in the mud where he’d been lying, his mind working.

An hour later, fighting the prickling tiredness in his eyes as midnight became one in the morning, Joss headed down to the cells and as he peered through the barred opening in the heavy wooden door of the cell, he found that the prisoner had been housed exactly as he’d commanded. He’d wrapped himself in a moth-eaten blanket but beneath it Joss could see the royal blue of a guard’s uniform, and beside the low, rickety bed was an empty wooden plate and set neatly atop it was a wooden beaker.

The prince had the guards unlock it and then he knocked before stepping inside. A guard tried to follow him in, only obeying protocol, but Josslyn asked her to wait outside. Reluctantly, the woman obeyed, and left the crown prince, the sole heir of the entire kingdom alone in a cell with a strange half-orc.

“Are you warmer now?” the prince asked as the orc rose shakily, woken by the rattling key in the lock.

“Yes, thank you, Highness,” he said, bowing low.

“Rise,” he snapped. “Who are you? What are you doing here?”

“My name is Tamas,” he said in a croaky baritone. Everything about him spoke of submission; the slope of his hunched shoulders, the angle of his head, his down-turned gaze - it was as if he were perpetually awaiting a blow to the back of the head. His hair was a muddy brown, shaved above his pointed ear on the left side of his head and falling loose and long to his shoulder on the right. He had a small, pale scar on his left cheekbone, and his skin was a muddy green, not dissimilar to the colour of the moat in high summer.

“And what are you doing here?” the prince pressed patiently.

Tamas took a deep breath and said, “I… I ran away from… I’ve been travelling for months… I thought…”

“Sit down,” the prince commanded, and the orc dropped heavily onto the bed behind him, knees simply giving way. His exhaustion appeared to be more mental than physical. “You are not full orc, are you?” the prince asked and Tamas shook his head.

“No, Highness. My mother was a woodland elf. Her people left me to die in the way of all unwanted elven children; she set me adrift in a basket on the river and I was picked up by an orcish mother miles downstream. She had lost her own child and thought to raise me. But… orcs are not kind to those of ‘watered down blood’. I…” he turned his gaze up and the prince was surprised to note that his eyes were a dark sapphire blue. In a strange way, he was quite beautiful, he supposed; a thought which surprised him all over again. All this he kept carefully hidden behind his usual mask of calm control.

“So you finally ran away,” the prince supplied. “And you decided to come here? To the enemy of your father’s people? Hardly the safest choice for you, I’d wager…”

Tamas nodded. “I had nowhere else to go.”

“Alight,” the prince said, folding his arms across his chest. “What services could you offer the crown?”

The half-orc lowered his head again and stared at his hands. The index finger of his left hand was crooked, as though it had been badly broken in the past and poorly set. He sighed, rubbing the knuckle, and said, “I am good with horses and animals,” he said, “But I can read and write and do arithmetic. I could help wherever is needed.”

“I doubt my father will make you his personal valet,” the prince snorted, amused. “But I will think on where to place you. For now, rest. The guards have been instructed not to bother you, but you understand why I must keep you in here a little longer?”

Again, he nodded. “I do, Highness. And… thank you…”

“I haven’t made you any promises,” he warned him.

“Perhaps not, but you have given me a chance. You’re the first person to treat me… well… not like an animal, since the border.”

“I presume folks thought you were a runaway slave?”

“Yes,” he said and shuddered.

With a final nod, the prince left him and gratefully began to make his way up to his chambers. Undressing alone in the simple finery of his room, he thought about the half-orc and realised he had had no idea how orcs treated their own. For all that they had been at war for nearly six years now, he knew next to nothing about their culture. As he lay down beneath the soft sheets and let the deep pillows cushion his royal head, he mused that it might be wise to use this half-orc to learn about their enemy’s culture. Surely if he’d been treated so abominably that he’d run straight to their enemy’s stronghold for shelter, Tamas would be willing to help him?

Thus a hesitant relationship was forged between prince and captive. Tamas was housed in a room in the servants’ quarters - much to their distaste - and to begin with, for an hour every day, he was released and attended the prince in his own chambers to instruct him in the nature and traditions of the orcish nation.

Josslyn was surprised to learn that Tamas had a wicked sense of humour, and that he was also rather fond of reading. After that, the prince asked him to accompany him to the library, and in a relatively short couple of months, the two had become tentative friends. Josslyn encouraged Tamas to speak out truthfully with his opinions to the prince, though only in private, and the two frequently engaged in lengthy and in-depth discussions late into the night. Josslyn still carried a dagger with him at all times, but he soon forgot about it. In time, the half-orc became something of a legend in the castle - the ‘sentient beast’ and the ‘prince’s pet’ were two of the kinder titles he acquired, but he promised Josslyn that he didn’t mind.

“I’m happy to have a roof over my head and a purpose before me,” he said meekly one afternoon when the prince brought it up again as the two of them sat in comfortable chairs in a side room of the library. It was a rare day off for the prince, and having spent the last week in the infirmary visiting the soldiers who returned from the front with horrific injuries, dealt largely by orcish weapons, he was grateful for the quiet and peace of the ancient hall of learning.

Tamas had offered to accompany him, but the prince had suggested that his might not be a face to show to the recently-returned warriors, and the half-orc had accepted without question, apologising for his insensitivity.

The prince felt those sapphire blue eyes on him again and he glanced up from his book to find his new friend staring at him. “What?” he asked gently.

The half-orc smiled, the gesture stretching around the short, almost slender tusks which protruded from his lower jaw. “I haven’t seen you this relaxed in weeks, that’s all,” he said, a warmth to his tone that struck Joss deeply. “It’s nice.”

He snorted and then drew in a deep breath. “I’m tired, Tam. I’m tired of this war and I’m tired of the toll it’s taking on my people. I want an end to it, but I don’t know how. I don’t know - after all I’ve learned from you and from visiting the front myself - how we can make a bridge with them, make peace with a culture so different.”

Tamas’ face showed obvious surprise and a small amount of shock. He closed the book in his hands and leaned forwards, resting his elbows on his knees. His gaze met the prince’s directly. “You’ve visited the front?”

“Of course,” Joss said, a frown playing on his dark brows. “I wouldn’t be much of a leader if I sat at home in my comfortable castle while my people threw themselves at the orcish lines like the sea against the cliffs, would I?”

“Forgive me,” Tam murmured. “I… I didn’t mean to question your integrity. I’m just surprised. I’m sorry.”

Josslyn laughed and set his book down on the table beside his chair. “Come, let’s get a glass of wine. The sun’s going down and we’ve been sat here for hours. I need to stretch my legs.”

Tam stood, still looking a little stunned, as though his every belief had been called into question.

He was slow to follow his friend and the prince paused. “You alight?” Josslyn asked, laying a hand on Tam’s elbow.

The orc swallowed visibly and turned his searing blue gaze to the point where the two of them touched. His eyes then darted up to meet the prince’s and he smiled, though his dark skin still looked a little pallid. “Yes,” he croaked. “I’m sorry. Yes.”

“Come then,” he said again and walked away, leaving Tamas to stare after him for a moment before hurrying to catch up.

One evening, after the Beltane feast that marked the start of summer, Josslyn left the feast early. His father was being truly obnoxious, though mercifully this time he was only trying to get the crown prince to flirt with some visiting duchess or other, but Josslyn was having none of it. Tamas had not been invited to the celebrations, for obvious reasons, and Josslyn found himself aching for the easy rapport the two of them had built over the seven months or so that they had now known each other.

Instead of going to the servants’ quarters and bothering them all like a fox in a chicken coop, the prince headed to the privacy of the royal courtyard garden at the rear of the castle. Only those who tended the plants and members of the royal family were allowed here, and yet, as he sat on a stone bench with his head in his hands, he heard footsteps approaching.

Glancing up, his hand twitching towards the dagger at his hip, he nearly shot to his feet before he realised who it was. “Tamas?” he breathed. “What are you doing in here? You know this place is off limits…”

“Invite me to stay and I won’t be trespassing,” he smiled playfully. “But seriously, I’ll go if you want to be alone.”

“No,” Joss sighed, his spine slackening as he slumped back down on his bench. “Don’t go. How did you know to come here?”

“I was on my way back from the library when I saw you leaving the great hall. You looked thoroughly miserable… May I sit?”

“Of course,” he said, gesturing at the bench beside him. “Did you find anything interesting to read?”

“Mmm,” he hummed quietly, the deep sound somehow going straight through Josslyn. The quiet warmth of Tam’s presence beside him comforted him beyond expressing, and he leaned sideways and rested his body against Tamas’ side, his head falling to lie on Tam’s shoulder.

The half-orc’s hand suddenly slid over his own where it lay in his lap and he squeezed the prince’s fingers gently in his large grip.

“Tam,” Josslyn rasped, tears filling his eyes. “I’m so tired…”

“I know,” he said. “I can see it in your eyes every day. You give so much of yourself to your people. You take no time for yourself.”

There was soft wonder in his tone and Josslyn barked a quiet laugh. “It’s my duty as crown prince, Tam. My father, before he began to change, made me learn my duties young.” He sighed again and added, “I learned the oath I’ll take when I ascend the throne when I was only five. I had no idea what it meant then, but I do now.”

Tam’s arm came round his shoulders then and he held him close. “My people were entirely wrong about you,” he said very quietly.

“How so?”

He didn’t speak immediately, but the silence told Josslyn he was considering his words carefully. Another stereotype shattered, he thought as he realised just how deeply this half-orc cared about the words he spoke and the meaning behind them. “The orcs say you are little more than a spoiled, selfish brat of a princeling who spends his days watching orcs fight in the pits or being tended to by a harem of naked elven women… They did get one thing right about you though,” he added with a wry smile.

“Oh?” Joss asked, too tired to respond to the first comments, ridiculous as they were.

Tam chuckled and said, “They say you’re as beautiful as one of the fae. Apparently because your previous queen died and the kingdom had no heir, your father made a pact with the fae for you.”

Josslyn’s laugh rang around the courtyard, echoing off the statuary. He sat up and regarded Tamas with glittering dark eyes. “And here I thought ‘beauty’ to an orc was brute strength and an unquenchable bloodlust…”

Tamas shrugged. “Good thing I’m not a full orc then.”

The chill evening air had gradually become charged during their conversation, and Josslyn felt his lips parting slightly as he stared up at Tamas. The half-orc wasn’t much taller than the crown prince, but he had a few inches on him; enough to make Josslyn tilt his head back so that his hair fell down to tickle the hand that Tamas still had pressed to his back, though now it rested at the base of his spine.

Slowly, hesitantly, as though he would be shot full of arrows from the rooftops if he dared go through with it, Tamas leaned down and the two brushed their lips together in the briefest of kisses. The fleeting touch sent the blood straight to Joss’ groin and his breath hitched in his chest. “Tam,” he breathed.

“I’m sorry,” he gasped, wide-eyed, wrenching himself back and standing, staggering as he half turning to go. “I’m… I shouldn’t…”

“Wait,” Josslyn commanded, standing and drawing himself to his full height. “Wait,” he said again, more gently, stepping over to him. He took his hand and tightened his grip.

The kiss that followed was all fierce, pent-up emotion and passion, and Josslyn found himself backed against the huge marble plinth of a statue of a faun, with Tamas chasing kiss after kiss. The half-orc hooked one of Joss’ legs around his hips and then picked him up, pinning him against the masonry hard enough to knock the breath from him. The prince gasped as Tamas ground his solid length against his own hardening cock through their trousers, and his head rolled back. Tamas shot out a hand to cup the back of the prince’s head before he clonked it on the stonework behind him, and Joss smiled bashfully at him.

They paused then, frozen in place, both breathing hard. “You… You want…?” Tamas asked uncertainly.

“Yes,” the prince whispered.

Kissing him one last time, Tamas backed off, setting the prince back on his feet, and the two of them readjusted themselves sheepishly as best they could before making their way through back stairwells and corridors to his private chambers.

No sooner had the door closed and the latch locked than the two of them were entangled again. They shed their clothes between the door and the bed, and Josslyn ran his palms over Tamas’ slim, lean chest, marvelling at the wiry strength of the half-orc who shuddered and gasped beneath the explorative touches of the prince. There wasn’t an ounce of fat on him, and as his chest heaved, Joss could see the muscles move beneath his green skin, his dark nipples hard and his cock dampening a spot in his underwear.

They fell backwards onto his huge bed in a tangle of limbs, and Joss tugged off the last of Tam’s clothes to free his impressive erection. Hard, the vein along its length full and prominent, his cock wept pre-come freely now, twitching as Josslyn stared openly at him.

“How… How do you want to do this?” the prince asked breathily.

In answer, Tamas parted his legs a little and the prince smiled, reaching across the orc’s prone body to his bedside drawers for a small vial of oil. Somehow he hadn’t expected Tamas to be the one wanting to take it, but he was too worked up to comment or mind.

When he slicked one finger with oil and slid it inside the orc, Tamas grunted and drove his head back into the bed, his legs falling wider apart, his cock bobbing eagerly as his hips bucked upwards into the intrusion. With his free hand, Joss dribbled more oil down the length of Tamas’ cock and then worked him with both hands until Tam was panting and grunting and cursing in orcish.

Josslyn knew only enough of the language to recognise it as orcish, and he leaned forwards, sliding his fingers out of Tam for a moment and earning a keening whine from him at the loss. In his sensitive ear he whispered, “You’re going to have to translate that for me, Tamas.”

“I said…” he gasped, struggling to speak as the prince returned his finger to him and caressed the bundle of sensitive nerves inside him, “I… I need to you fuck me… Highness.” His voice was beautifully unsteady and his eyes were screwed shut. His cock wept pre-come onto his hard abs, and he was squirming, desperate for more.

“You’re not quite ready yet,” Josslyn said, and this time he slid three fingers into the orc, stretching him, working him open until he was growling openly at him to fuck him.

Running his slick palm over his own cock and gasping at the sudden stimulation, Josslyn lined himself up and nudged into the ready heat. Already Tamas’ head lolled to one side. “Please?” he hissed, bucking weakly upwards, eyes opening a little as he half sat up in an attempt to guide Josslyn further inside him.

In one motion, Josslyn seated himself to the hilt inside Tam and the orc yelled with pleasure and immediately began to shake.

“Please, please, please,” he chanted until Joss began to move.

Slowly at first, he savoured the immense tightness of the orc around him, the heat, the shaking muscles desperate for release, but then he changed his angle slightly and Tamas let out another bellow of pleasure. Hitting him repeatedly in that sweet spot, the prince picked up his pace and lowered his head with the effort. His long hair fell forwards and started to stick to the sheen of sweat that had begun to form on Tam’s chest as he got more and more worked up.

The orc’s cock bounced between them, untouched and drooling as he clutched at the sheets beneath him and growled incoherently. “I’m…” he snarled. “Please!” Despite the pleasure of Joss’ cock repeatedly pounding into his prostate, it wasn’t quite enough.

“Are you going to come for me if I touch you?” Joss hissed, breathless and sweaty with exertion and pleasure.

“Yes!” he gasped.

“I’m close,” the prince admitted, the rhythm of his hips faltering.

“Don’t stop,” Tam demanded, but when Joss’ hand wrapped around Tamas’ cock and worked his shaft once, twice, he suddenly went rigid beneath him and spilled over his stomach with a barely stifled scream. His tusks bit deep into the back of his wrist as he fought to keep quiet as he clenched and twitched, and the combination of sound, sight, and sensation tipped the prince over the edge too. He came almost silently, a blinding heat ripping through him as he emptied himself into the half-orc.

Trembling in the aftermath of his orgasm, Josslyn fell forwards onto Tamas’ heaving chest and he whined as he landed on the mess of release smeared over his abs, but he was too tired and too blissed out to care just yet. Tamas’ heartbeat thundered in his ear as he laid his head on his chest and the orc lay there, lax and spent beneath him, breathing hard, eyes closed, one arm on Josslyn’s back, the other palm up and limp on the sheets beside him.

Eventually they grew chilly, and Joss disappeared to clean up in the adjacent bathroom. When he emerged, swathed in a rich black and gold, silk dressing gown, he found that Tamas had fallen asleep exactly where he’d left him, and the prince chuckled fondly. The half-orc was as large as most human warriors, with clearly defined muscles, but the green tone of his skin, the tusks - however small -, the heavy jaw and under-bite, and the tapering of his ears marked him as orcish as clearly as Josslyn’s crown announced his royal blood. The wiry slenderness to Tamas’ body, however, spoke of his elven lineage too. Always an outcast, never belonging, Tamas had nowhere to call home.

Leaning over him, Joss wiped the warm washcloth over the ridges of his abs and over his sharply-defined hips. With a jolt, Tamas woke and sat up and blinked at him for just a heartbeat before he laughed. “You shouldn’t be doing that for me,” he chided groggily, holding out his hand for the cloth.

The prince shook his head, his long hair in disarray.

“Gods, you look so beautiful like that,” Tamas hissed as he stared him up and down.

Josslyn blushed hard and threw the wash cloth at his chest, where it landed with a wet ‘flap’.

Things changed for them after that.

They kept the nature of their relationship a secret, and continued with life in the castle as best they could whilst maintaining their charade. They still held their discussions about orcish culture, though there wasn’t much more for Tamas to teach him by now, though the two had begun studying the language now too. Josslyn had been surprised to learn that it wasn’t the series of simplistic, guttural sounds that he’d always taken it for, and while his grasp of the vocabulary and grammar was solid, Tamas insisted that his accent was appalling.

“I promise not to speak it,” Josslyn murmured one evening as they sat in each other’s arms on the sofa in his private apartment in the castle.

Tamas ran his fingertip over the prince’s lips and whispered, “I wouldn’t want you to sully your beautiful mouth with the language of such brutes,” which earned him a smack on the chest and a playful kiss for his efforts at romance.

As high summer tipped towards autumn again and Tamas remarked that he’d been at the castle for nearly a year, the prince suggested that they go out hunting together. It was customary for there to be a royal hunt as the festival of Mabon approached, and the Royal Guard had just about come to terms with the fact that Tamas wasn’t going to assassinate their beloved prince if left unattended, so the pair of them mounted up amid the baying of hounds and the clatter of hooves on the flagstones of the upper bailey.

The king’s health was not strong enough for him to ride out, but he insisted on being hauled out in his wheeled throne to bless the hunters and wish them success because it was tradition.

The large party of nobles and courtiers and guards all rode out into the woods about a mile from the castle, and the whole thing soon became the usual chaos of bugles and barking, of horses stamping and men shouting.

Tamas guided his large mare expertly up to Josslyn’s side and murmured, “Is this what passes for a hunt amongst humans?”

The prince laughed, knowing it was the large silken tents and the army of servants standing in the field behind waiting to welcome then back to which he was referring. He shrugged. “A royal one, yes.”

“You want to get out of here?”

With a glint in his eye, the prince galloped away with his lover, following old game trails he knew well from adventures as a boy. The two of them soon left the chaos of the hunt well behind, and slowed their mounts to a trot and then an easy walk.

They headed north in companionable silence, enjoying the late summer light beneath the trees, but soon Joss began to notice that Tamas was tense. His horse skittered beneath him, shying at nothing, reacting to the tension and fear in her rider’s posture, snorting and sidestepping.

“Tam?” he asked, his heart rate picking up. “What is it?”

With his heavy jaw set and his eyes fixed on the path ahead, Tamas didn’t reply and Josslyn realised then just how far they had strayed.

“Tamas, we should go back,” he said with more confidence than he felt, reining his horse around. Everything felt wrong. His skin crawled and prickled, and Arrow danced nervously beneath him, the stallion snorting too.

The half-orc held his own mare in place and didn’t follow. He seemed to be warring with himself, his eyes darting back and forth. His chest heaved and his skin had gone deathly pale.

“Tam?” the prince insisted. “What -?”

“Go,” he finally hissed. “Ride. Gallop for home and don’t look back.”

“What?”

“GO!” he roared as the undergrowth erupted behind him and an orcish war horn sounded.

Terror flooded through the prince and he spurred his horse to a flat out gallop as arrows and bolts whistled around them. He heard a scream and a heavy crash from behind him and glanced back to see Tam’s mare go down, throwing him from the saddle.

“No!” he yelled, immediately wheeling Arrow round. The well-trained warhorse obeyed instantly, and as the prince leaned down out of his saddle like a child at a gymkhana, extending his hand to Tam who was sitting up, winded and with an arrow through his shoulder, Joss caught sight of the orcs barrelling towards them through the trees. “Take my hand!” he shouted.

“Go!” Tam gasped.

“I’m not leaving you.”

And with tremendous effort, the half-orc rose and swung himself onto Arrow’s back.

Slowed by the extra weight, the big stallion charged as best he could through the woods. It was a long, painful ride for Tamas, but by the time they erupted out into the meadow, the sounds of pursuit had faded and the orcs appeared to have given up for now. Evening lengthened the shadows as Tamas slumped against Josslyn’s back, breathing hard and holding tight with only one arm.

Once he was sure that they were alone, the prince slowed his sweat-foamed horse to a walk, letting him breathe and stretch out, and he turned his head to look over his shoulder. Slowly, in a voice laced with fear and trepidation, he asked, “Tamas, what was that?”

“An orcish outpost,” he said dully.

A horrible thought plunged through the prince’s mind and he forced himself to ask, “Did… Did you know it was there?”

Silence stretched between them before he felt Tamas nod. “Yes.”

“Why?” he gasped, fighting off tears as the world spun around him. “Was that the plan all along? You were going to betray me all along?”

Tam’s arm tightened briefly around the prince’s slim waist before it slackened a little and he pressed his cheek against the soft leather of his riding jerkin. His breath wheezed and rattled wetly as he answered, “I was the bait. I…” but before he could continue, a retinue of guards cantered over the nearest grassy rise towards them.

“My prince?” the captain called. “What… What happened?”

“Orc ambush,” the prince said, his tone hard as steel, miraculously revealing nothing of his emotions.

The captain snarled and signalled to his men. “Seize him,” he said, pointing at Tam. “Get him away from the prince.”

“No,” Josslyn said in that eerily calm voice. “No. He saved my life. Escort us to the palace. He needs medical treatment.”

Tamas had gone very still behind him, but the prince suspected that it wasn’t because he’d lost consciousness.

The events of the next few hours passed in a daze for the prince. The news of the attack on the crown prince weakened the king’s condition so severely that the physicians feared he was not long for this world, and Josslyn spent the next two hours at his father’s side, though he didn’t stir once. Still too numb and empty from the shock of Tamas’ actions to feel anything much for his father, he wandered the castle until he found himself in the infirmary.

Tamas was sleeping in a bed at the far end, his shoulder bandaged, his eyes closed, his chest rising and falling rapidly. No one was about, but there had been guards posted at the doors he noted.

Grabbing a chair and silently setting it down beside the bed, the prince stared at the person he’d thought was his friend. His lover. After all they’d shared, Tamas had just been… bait? He couldn’t believe it. Didn’t want to believe it.

After perhaps five minutes, Tamas’ blue eyes fluttered open and he stared at Josslyn.

“Why?” The whispered question fell from the prince’s lips before he could stop himself. “Why didn’t you just stab me in my sleep while we lay together all those nights?” His fury mounted inside him and it was a miracle he kept it in check. “If you wanted me dead, why -” he faltered, choking up.

“I don’t,” Tam hissed back. “I mean… I did… That was why I was sent here, but I-”

“They sent you? So everything you told me about yourself was a lie? You manipulated me… Gods,” he said, lurching to his feet and turning away, fists clenched. “I was so stupid.”

The sheets rustled and Tamas sat up awkwardly, resting his back against the wooden headboard behind him as a wave of dizziness swept through him. He breathed hoarsely for a moment, the pain in his shoulder evident. “I was sent here,” he confirmed. “I was supposed to gather information on the castle and household, and then return. But when you took an interest in me… I couldn’t let that opportunity pass. I…” he paused, trying to catch his breath before going on. Josslyn stood there and glared at him. “I sent word of what had changed, and they told me to earn your trust and bring you to that outpost whenever I could.”

The prince’s vision swam and he bit the inside of his cheeks hard enough to taste the ferrous tang of blood. “Why didn't you go through with it then?” he finally whispered.

“Because… I…” Tamas’ blue eyes dropped to the sheets and he stared blankly at them. “Because I never imagined I’d fall in love with you.”

“No,” he snarled. “You don’t get to say something like that after what you did.”

“I know,” he said evenly. “But you asked me why I didn’t let them do it. I never should have led you away from the hunt, but once I had, I felt like there was no going back. My people were counting on me, but then I saw how afraid you were when… how… how what I had done would hurt you more than being taken by them, and…”

“‘Taken’…”

“They weren’t going to kill you,” Tamas said quietly. “They were going to hold you to ransom.”

“Then why the arrows?” he retorted bitterly as he recalled flashes of that dreadful flight through the trees. His eyes landed on the bandages. “They nearly killed you.”

“You didn’t hear what they were shouting after me. They’d kill me now, for sure. If you let me go, they’ll…”

“It’s no more than you deserve,” he growled, but somehow the words didn’t feel right, even as he spoke them aloud.

Tamas looked up at the prince with his eyes glistening. “May I ask you something?”

The prince made a non-committal shrug.

“Why did you your guards that I saved your life? Why am I not hanging from a gallows right now?”

“Because I loved you,” he said. “And because you did save my life. Admittedly, that was immediately after trying to get me killed…”

“‘Loved’?” Of course he’d fixated upon that word. That tense.

Josslyn’s shoulders dropped and he closed his eyes, head bowing. “Love,” he amended. “You hurt me, but… I think… as insane as it sounds, I think I understand why you did it.”

“What?”

“You remember when I told you that I’m a prince but I serve my people?”

Tamas nodded, looking stunned.

“You came here to do for your people what I would do for mine. It’s not my fault that we’re on opposite sides of a war, Tamas.”

Tamas let out the breath he’d been holding and said in a shaky voice, “Months ago, you said that you wanted to bring an end to this war, and you said that you wished you could talk with my people. You wished you could find a way to end it peacefully…”

“I still do,” he said, his hand gripping the back of the chair to keep himself upright. It was all too much to take in in one go.

Tam’s mind was clearly working well enough though. “Perhaps we can do it together?”

“How? The orcs will kill you on sight for betraying them like that.”

“I’ll find a way to explain it,” he said hopelessly.

“Alright, so I herald you as my saviour, the ‘orc with a conscience’… and then what? You think my father will merrily trot over there and ask to begin a peace conference? Don’t be absurd…”

Tamas laughed softly but cut off with a wince. “We would have to wait until you became king,” he said very quietly. “It would take time, but…” he looked up at him. “I hated humans before I met you. You made me fall in love with you despite everything I tried to tell myself. If anyone can win them round, it’s you.”

“You love me despite your better judgement? Is that it?” Josslyn laughed, feeling his chest lighten somehow. He sank down onto the bed beside Tamas and took up his hand, frowning at the way it trembled.

“I love you despite my former judgement,” he corrected. His eyelids fluttered with exhaustion. He was clearly fighting to stay awake. “There’s a difference. I know I’ve got a lot of work to do to rebuild your trust in me. I don’t know if you’ll ever trust me again, but… still I think we can make this work between our people…”

Josslyn smiled. “I saw the look on your face back there in the trees too,” he said. “You didn’t want to do it. I know regret when I see it, and the expression of fear I saw in you when they came for me was genuine. I understand.”

Tears tracked silently down Tamas’ face from his dark blue eyes.

“Rest,” Josslyn murmured, helping him to lie back down again and sweeping his hair back out of his eyes once he was supine again. “We’ll talk more when you’ve healed.”

“I’m so sorry,” he whispered.

The prince smiled softly and leaned down, pressing a kiss into his slackening lips. “I know. Now, get some sleep.”

“Yes, Highness,” he slurred with a smile and slipped into unconsciousness a moment later.

As Josslyn walked away from the infirmary he felt wrung out and weak-kneed, but there was a light at the end of the tunnel now. There was the potential to end the conflict that had ravaged his land for the best part of six years, and he was going to take it.

As if to confirm his new resolve, a low, mournful bell began to toll throughout the castle and his footsteps faltered, knowing it could only mean one thing.

In the morning, there would be a new king.

—

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cilldaracailin · 4 years ago

Text

Play The Game

Hello my Tumblr Lovely’s!

At last and about forty minutes later then I expected, I am finally ready to post after I kicked the internets butt (I really actually had a shower, got my stuff ready for work, got mad at the internet as it refused to work, turned my laptop on and off, disconnected and reconnected the internet and had a little moan (I say little, I mean a lot..) and finally it worked!

But anywhoo, the next part of the Play The Game! Hope you all enjoy...

Suze xx

*Little disclaimer, I did a little research for this part so I got the details as best as I could...*

“A friend is one of the nicest things you can have and one of the best things you can be”

It was a rainy Saturday morning in London that met Robyn as she wheeled her case through the exit of Heathrow airport and she stayed under the cover of the airport to keep dry. She pulled out her phone to call Taron but saw a text message waiting for her. She read it with a grin and made her way towards a blacked-out car that was parked near the end of the pick-up point for cars.

“Hello Robyn.”

“Hey Anthony!” Robyn grinned as the driver stepped out and she recognised him immediately. “What are you doing here?”

“Thought that might be obvious chicken.” Robyn looked to the back window of the car that was slightly rolled down and she could see Taron’s eyes peeking through. “We are here to pick you up from the airport.”

She grinned and thanked Anthony as he took her case. “Please wait Robyn. I will get the door for you.”

“Anthony, I can get…”

“I will get it Robyn.”

“Okie dokie.”

Robyn stood patiently at the boot of the car and waited while Anthony sorted her case and once he was finished, followed him around to the opposite side of the car and after he had opened the door, slipped into the back seat and was met with a wonderfully large grin on Taron’s face and a bunch of daffodils.

“Hello chicken!” Taron’s excitement levels had been on overdrive and he was finding it so hard to stay in the back of the car, let alone sit still. Robyn had told him she had planned on taking the tube to Tottenham Court Road and walk the quick ten minutes to The Mandrake hotel, the one Taron had organised for them and meet him there but Taron had other ideas and arranged a car to pick her up. He just hadn’t told her that he was going to be in the back waiting for her. “These are for you.” He handed over the daffodils to her, knowing they were her absolute favourite.

“Taron!” Exclaimed Robyn not expecting to see him until she was at the hotel, but here he was right beside her. “Aww wow thank you. My favourite.” She took the flowers from him. “These are beautiful.” Robyn placed them beside the door, which was now closed as Anthony was back behind the wheel, driving them away from the airport and to their hotel for the night. “I want my squishy hug now.” She said with a firm voice and enjoyed hearing Taron’s laugh in person and how he shuffled closer to her and wrapped her up tightly into his arms.

“This is a different take on the hug. The sitting sideways squishy but I am so happy to see you. It has been much too long since we have seen each other in person.”

“Hey that’s all on you. I am not the big movie star spending my time in New York re-shooting a movie and I am training free at the moment. I’ve been spending my weekend with cwtch.”

Taron grinned as he leant his nose into her neck and rubbed her back. “Not my fault the weather in New York was shit and we had to wait for the snow to melt a little.”

“Ok I will give you that one.” Robyn slowly moved her fingers through his hair at the back of his head, smiling that he hadn’t had the chance to cut it short because he needed the length for his Eggsy re-shoots. “Nice to see you too by the way.” Robyn moved away from him and smiled. “And Anthony too.” She said giving a nod towards the driver seat.

“I asked Elton for a favour and once I mentioned you, he was very willing to help me out. Anthony more than happy to help too when he heard it was you. What is it about people just wanting to do things for you?”

Robyn blushed a little. “People don’t just do things for me.”

Taron chucked against her. “You have no idea the power you hold over everyone chicken. Me, my family, the kids you work with, Stella, Elton, Anthony, Richard? The list is endless.” He smiled as she tugged his hair a little in protest. “I just tell it like it is Robyn.” He gave her one more quick hug and moved back from her.

Ignoring his comment completely, Robyn lifted her eyes to look at him and grinned. “Hey you don’t look tired! That’s a first.”

“I have been in London since Wednesday and literally spent the last two days sleeping but you do.” Taron frowned a little as he gently ran a fingertip under the dark circles under her eyes. “You been sleeping?”

After having her eyes closed and very much enjoying the feeling of his fingers on her skin, she looked to him. “Been a busy two weeks.”

“Still sorting that paper work shit out?”

“It is finally sorted. I didn’t want to have to be at it next week as the date for it to be finished is next Wednesday, so I didn’t leave the office till after nine last night.”

“Robyn…” Taron was ready to frown at her but she interrupted him before he could.

“Yeah I know but if I had to look at those forms again, I was actually going to go mad and I sent the last one off all corrected and filled in. It was such a load of bollocks anyway. Moving the date of registration and then giving out more paperwork to be filled in and then I was chasing parents for forms that had been sent home and trying to catch them because they had missed a place to sign and it was just…” Her long-winded sentence was cut off as Taron pulled her in for another hug.

“You needed this weekend huh?”

“More than you could imagine.” She answered taking one long deep breathe, cuddling a little more into him, though it was a little awkward in their sideways position.

“How about a nap when we get to the hotel?” He asked her, carefully letting her go and once out of his arms, used his two hands to brush her hair away from her face, his fingers separating soft strands the whole length of her hair. “And I know you got your hair cut.”

Robyn grinned. “I told you I was going too.”

“You told me an inch.”

“I did get an inch.”

“This is more than an inch.” He said, gathering her hair around her shoulders, fanning the long strands out, frowning when he couldn’t find the colour he was searching for. “And you took the pink out.”

“It mostly washed out and my hairdresser was mad at me!” She laughed. “Not impressed at all. She changed it all back to blonde.”

“I liked the pink.” He said sadly.

“I am a bit old for the pink.”

“Never.” He smiled, moving to sit back against the seat. “Can’t believe you cut your hair. I specifically didn’t get a haircut because I know you like my hair longer.”

Robyn laughed as she moved to sit right beside him, their legs touching. “You are such a liar and a bad one at that. You just told me you spent the last two days sleeping. There was no time for you to go and get a haircut, especially when you have only just come back from New York.”

Shaking his head, Taron realised he had been caught out. “Alright fine but you did cut more than you said you would.”

“And it has grown a lot since I have seen you last.” She chucked at his face when as he stared at her. “You are a little protective of my hair.”

“I just like it long that’s all.” Taron turned to kiss her temple, his lips lingering a moment longer than necessary on her skin.

“I like it long too. You know it has taken me years to grow it out. It just really needed a good trim. I am never going to cut it short and it is still really long Taron. I mean it goes down past my shoulder blades.” She took in his doubtful face and smiling tapped his nose as she always did when he was giving her his best frown. “Hair grows Taron.”

“Yeah I know.” He tapped her nose back. “No sign of those freckles coming back either.”

“Taron…” Robyn’s voice was playful.

“Anyway, moving on, so you all set for this evening.” He asked her.

“You brought my dress?” She asked him.

“Yep. In the boot.”

“Then I am all set. I am looking forward to it.”

“To the musical or the red carpet?”

“The musical.” She whispered.

“I got the red carpet covered and I know Lyndsey has called you.”

“She has. Gave me some tips and answers and I promise to follow them.” She replied. “As best I can.” She added with a second thought.

“Do I get to see fiery Robyn tonight?” He asked her.

“Hopefully not. I promise to be good.”

“I know you will chicken.” Taron re-positioned his body a little against the back seat, rolling his neck and his shoulders when he felt a little uncomfortable twinge seep in before he settled.

“You ok?” Robyn asked him watching as his eyes closed and a little whimper left his lips as he rolled his head again, his right hand moving to the nape of his neck to rub the slight ache he obviously was feeling away.

“Just a little stiff and sore. Re-shoots are always gruelling. Trying to cram as much as we can into the last few hours we have. Instead of being tired I am just a little tender.”

“Am I getting flashbacks from when you came to my home and every move you made hurt you?”

“No you’re not. Just some of the perks of the job. Sleeping constantly over the last two days hasn’t really helped. I will be right as rein for this evening and you don’t have to give me that look. I am just fine. Our bathroom has a rainfall shower. Might take extra advantage of it this evening.”

“Bet you are glad to be finally finished.”

“It’s been one of the longest shoots.”

“Didn’t help the break in-between either.”

“No, it dragged it out but it’s done. I am glad I am not in Matthew’s shoes. He has just under a month to edit and get the movie ready for release.”

“Surely it would have made more sense to just push the release date back?”

“In theory yes but in reality, no. Not with all the promotion already organised and booked. It’s just a logistical mess and editing a movie is much easier when it comes down to it all.”

“You are going to be busy in April.” Frowned Robyn.

“You too.”

“Not as busy as you.”

“Seven shows as Mimi?” He countered

“Yeah but I have one show an evening. You have a gazillion interviews and press thingy-ma-bobs one after the other in a gazillion different countries.”

“Sounds about right.” Laughed Taron. “Press thingy-ma-bobs. You’re still going to get me a ticket to your show?”

“Yep as soon as they go on sale.”

“And a front row seat?”

“I will get you a good seat Taron. Maybe not front row cos it is quite close to the stage. Sometimes a few rows back are best.”

“Perfect. I am very happy our dates don’t clash.”

“Me too but you are straight into promotion on the Monday after you come to see RENT.”

“I will be fine. I always get a fabulous sleep in your bed. It can be my last cosy duvet sleep before the madness starts.”

“Did you plan this whole thing yourself? Talk to the musical society so our dates wouldn’t clash with yours and that you would be able to have at least one decent sleep before you went on your promotional tour?”

“Dammit, my secret is out! The promotion is always so tiring so I will need a good sleep before it starts and I have always had a wonderful sleep at your house.”

“You can bring your throw with you when you are working.”

“That is exactly what I am going to do. That throw has been a life saver to me.” As Taron spoke, Robyn yawned rubbing her eyes. “You are in need of a nap.”

“I don’t nap.” Replied Robyn through another yawn, frowning as it left tired watery tears in her eyes. She wiped them again but it made no difference as she found herself just closing her eyes as she was struck with a bout of yawning.

“You are going to make me start soon.” He chuckled watching as she tried to stop herself from doing it again but failed. “Hey Anthony, how long till we get to the hotel?”

“About half an hour Taron.” He replied looking in his mirror to him, “Traffic isn’t that bad at the moment.”

“We’ll be there soon Robyn and I think a nap is on the cards. I don’t want you falling asleep on me tonight at the musical.”

“Me sleep through a musical? Never but a nap would probably be a good idea.”

“How many hours have you worked this week?” He asked slipping his arm around her waist.

“I started at seven most mornings.”

“And finished at?”

“Probably after six and then last night a little later.”

“Robyn that is a near sixty-hour week!” Taron exclaimed. “And you have musical rehearsals twice a week too.”

“Actually, it was fifty-two.”

“You are going to burn out Robyn. Please tell me you have some holidays coming up soon.”

“Well actually, St Patrick’s Day is in three weeks so we get a day off for that.”

“Wow a whole day. That’s a fucking wonderful holiday.” He replied sarcastically.

“And if you let me finish, I was going to see about taking the day after off…”

“You need more than a day off.”

“And again if you let me finish this sentence which is a particularly long one….” She turned to look at him and he gestured with his right hand for her to continue. “St Patrick’s Day is on a Tuesday this year so we get the Monday off anyway but I have already put my request in to get the Wednesday off and it would be three days off along with the weekend and…” Robyn covered Taron’s mouth with her left hand as she saw him about to interrupt her again. “And I was going to see if you were free to come and visit and spend St. Patrick’s Day with me and Jesus Taron! Stop with the licking!” Taking her hand away, she wiped her palm on his t-shirt under his shirt, adoring the feeling of his chest moving as under her hand as he laughed.

“I can go and be Irish for a day?” Taron asked a little excitedly, his voice deepening, his accent getting stronger as it always did when his tone lowered.

“Yes if you have no plans, you wanna come over to be Irish for the day?”

“Can I get back to you? I am almost sure I am free and would love to come over but I am working with my agent at the moment for a new role and I want to make sure the screen test isn’t that weekend.”

“Of course. So which script is it? The desperately in love man who can’t get the girl or the son who lives in an abusive household.”

“The second one.”

“Taron that’s fantastic. I know how much you had wanted that part.”

“Hopefully you can rub some Irish luck on me before you go tomorrow so I can have a hells chance of getting it.”

Robyn ran her two hands down his face smirking enjoying the boyish chuckle he made. “There ya go and just ask if you need more. Also don’t sell yourself short Taron. You are an incredible actor.”

“You have to say that. You are my best friend.”

“I said it before I was your best friend. You know that.”

“Yeah I do and thank you and if the screen test isn’t then, I will definitely come and be Irish with you. Top of the mornin’ to ya!” He laughed.

“Oh Taron, no sweetheart no.” Robyn slid from around his arm, patted his thigh and turned her body to face him. “If you are coming to Ireland for St. Patrick’s Day there are some rules and the first one is, no typical Irish puns in dreadfully clichéd Irish accents. You will be slaughtered!”

“Alright ok. What is rule number two?”

“Wearing green is obligatory as well as half a shamrock plant.”

“I can do that. Anything else?”

“Nope that is it.”

“Well if I go, I can follow those rules easily. Can I add a third one?”

“Sure.”

“A pint of Guinness. I must have a pint of Guinness.”

Smiling, Robyn lifted his arm and slipped back under it. “We can definitely get you a pint of the black stuff.”

Grinning Taron nodded. “As soon as I know if I am free, I will let you know.”

“Great. It will be low key St. Patrick’s Day Taron. I actually hate Dublin on Patrick’s Day. It is so horribly busy but Kilcreen has a parade and my choir normally puts on a little concert in the town square afterwards and there is a duck race and a few other things.”

“A duck race?”

“People can buy a yellow plastic duck in the town for five euro. Then all the ducks are launched into the canal at the locks and they float, very slowly, under the bridge towards a finish point and the person who bought the winning duck gets a prize.”

Taron chuckled. “Obviously a very traditional Irish activity.”

“In Kilcreen yeah.”

“Well chicken, if I can go, I will wear my best green outfit and buy a duck.”

Robyn smiled. “Great.” Another yawn left her lips and she shook her head. “Jesus sorry Taron.”

Using his right hand on her cheek, he guided her head to his chest. “Just close your eyes.”

Doing as he asked, Robyn closed her tired eyes and allowed herself to melt into him, enjoying the warmth his body always provided her. As much as she loved coming to see Taron, their time together was always so short and as she sat against him, listening to his heart beat and feeling his chest rise and fall with every breathe he took, she wished they were able to have more than forty-eight hours together just once.

It was a pleasant ten minute cuddle they got with each other as Anthony drove them to their hotel and once they had pulled up outside, Robyn had already opened the door before Anthony could get to do it.

“Shit sorry Anthony.” She apologised as she closed the car door. “It’s just habit, you know getting out of a car myself.”

With a grin, Anthony opened the boot of the car and took out their cases, handing Taron the two garment bags.

“So I will see you both at six?”

“Perfect. Thanks so much.” Agreed Taron. He went to take their cases but saw that Robyn had already lifted them both up onto the curb. “Robyn...”

“Don’t you start.” She said as he joined her at the curb, pointing her bunch of daffodils at him.

“It’s just they have a luggage service here chicken. You really don’t have to do that.”

Robyn turned to see a very well-dressed man walking towards them. “I can take those from you ma’am.” He stood beside Robyn and smiling, took the two small suitcases from her. “And sir, those as well?”

“Please.” Taron handed over the two garment bags.

“And the name sir?”

“Egerton.”

“I will bring them to your room.”

“Thank you very much.” Answered Taron and moved the two steps to stand beside Robyn who had that look on her face when she was getting ready to disapprove of something.

“Taron Egerton, didn’t I say specify simple and that you weren’t to go all out for a hotel room? Luggage service?”

“I didn’t.” He answered. “I didn’t even pay for the room.” He smiled, feeling all the love in the world at that current moment for how innocent Robyn really was when it came to being involved in his events and it just warmed his heart so much. He loved watching her get to enjoy the finer things in life his job gave to him and he was so happy to be able to share them with her, especially because this kind of luxury was an absolute treat for her and she became almost childlike with excitement. “It was an option that came with the tickets for the evening. We had a choice of hotels and I picked this one because it was the less extravagant of the three.”

“You get your room included in events you go to?”

“Not normally but for this one yep. So, you can’t be mad at me for anything to do with the hotel because I had nothing to do with it.” Taron linked his arm with hers. “Now shall we go and check in?”

“Sure, why not? Have you stayed here before?” She asked him as the doorman opened the door for them.

“Nope. This is a first for me too.”

Robyn actually stopped mid-step as she took in the grand luxury of the lobby, Taron pulling her a little to get her waking again. The dark grey wooden floor was shining and the burgundy sofas near the reception were a shade lighter than the dress she had picked. Expensive artwork decorated the walls and the green marble desk of the reception was a stunning emerald colour.

“Welcome to the Mandrake.” The receptionist said cheerily as they approached.

“I have a reservation under Egerton?” Explained Taron, trying not laugh at Robyn as he could see her looking around the lobby, her eyes wide.

“Ok great.” The receptionist typed the name into her computer. “Perfect. I have you here Mr. Egerton. You are booked into one of our terrace rooms for a one-night stay with your guest?”

“Yes, that’s right.”

“Fantastic.” After some more typing, the lady took a piece of paper that she had printed off from the computer and slid it towards Taron. “Could I just get you to sign here please?”

“Sure.” Taron took the pen and signed his name as instructed.

“Thank you. You are in room seven.” She explained as she handed him a key. “Along with our terrace rooms, comes an automatic reservation for a meal at Jurema, our restaurant beside the terrace rooms, so if you would like to use that, please just ring reception and we can organise that for you. With your room, you also have full access to the Waeska bar, again which is right beside the terrace rooms and there is some beautiful seating in the courtyard of the bar. Your room also a set of double doors which opens onto a private little terrace of your own.”

“That sounds perfect.” Taron picked up the key.

“To get to your room, take the left at the end of the reception where you will come to the lift. The terrace rooms are located on the fifth floor. Once onto the decking, you will see a sign which will guide you to a small corridor to the left of the lift. Once down the corridor you will see another sign that directs you to your room which is to the left. It is the very last room on that row, in the corner. It is one of our quietest rooms.”

“That sounds even better.” Smiled Taron. It was just what he had hoped for. A quiet room in a quiet area of the hotel.

“Check out tomorrow is at twelve and if you need anything at all during your stay, please don’t hesitate to call us here at reception.”

“Thank you very much.”

“You are more than welcome. Enjoy your stay here with us.”

Giving a nod, Taron slipped his hand in Robyn’s and with a pull, he guided her back down the lobby. “Cat got your tongue?” He asked her as they stood in front of the lift. “It is rare that Robyn Quinn is speechless.” Taron reached forward and pressed the button to call for the lift.

“This place is insane. I mean I have stayed in what I thought was a luxury hotel in Gran Canaria but it is nothing compared to this.”

Taron grinned. “Events like these have nothing but the best Robyn.”

“And didn’t you say this was the least expensive of the three.” Taron nodded and Robyn shook her head.

“It’s just the way it is chicken.” He replied giving her hand a squeeze. “All I can say to you is just enjoy it.” The lift dinged open with a little jingle and Taron looked to her. “Yeah, I know, Robyn. I know.”

“What’s wrong with a simple ding?” She asked as they walked into the lift, Taron pushing the button for floor five once inside and as the doors were closed, he gave her a hug. “What’s this for?” She asked against his shoulder.

“Just thought you needed one. I think you knew Elton’s was going to be, well Elton, but this weekend is a whole different ball game for you and I wanted to know I am so glad you came with me.”

“You gave me one of your vouchers Taron and I have already told you that I wanted to come. I wanted to see you and if it has to be in a hotel that probably costs a week’s wages a night for me then I guess it has to be so. Do you think there will be chocolates on the pillows?”

It was wonderful laugh that filtered through him. “I should hope so and if not, I will ring reception to ask for some.”

“You remember what happened the last time we were around a lift?” She asked him, a ridiculously stupid plan quickly forming in her mind.

“Vaguely.” He answered and although he laughed as Robyn moved her head to place a kiss on the side of his neck, his heart jumped out of his skin and he felt his legs buckle. His feelings hadn’t changed since they spent the few days over New Years together and while his friends continued to give him stick over his serious crush on the woman he was holding tight, they only increased when she slid into the car beside him earlier and now the kisses she left on his neck and jaw were burning his skin alive. “Ok ok!” He chuckled. “That’s enough of that!” He placed his hands on her shoulders and gave her a little push away from him.

Robyn’s face was in a full grin. “Just returning the favour.” She replied shrugging as the lift dinged again as it stopped at their floor.

Again, he found himself alone in the lift as Robyn walked out and he took some steps to follow her but nearly knocked her over, his hands wrapping around her stomach tightly to keep her standing as she stalled right in front of the lift. “Shit sorry Robyn.”

“Wow.” Was her answer to him as to why she had stopped and when he looked up, he repeated her words.

It looked like they had stepped out of a hotel and into a small tropical paradise. A pristine wooden decking covered the edge of the fifth floor and with the sturdy railings to the left and right of them, Robyn presumed those railings provided the privacy for the balconies each room had. Robyn walked over to the railing in front of her, Taron’s hands falling from her stomach and looked down to the fourth floor below them. Wicker chairs with white cushions and glass encased wicker tables were spread evenly along the fourth floor and there were two chair swings against the wall on the left side of the floor. There was a garden in the middle of the fourth floor surrounded by the same railing she was leaning on and within the little garden were palm trees and large tropical plants which only added to the serene atmosphere the terrace floor provided. To the right on the fourth floor was a wooden bar and more seats and tables which were decorated with candles. Above the bar, the railings for the private balconies which were covered in leafy green vines. More vibrant vines climbed the walls and trellises around the two floors and the sunlight from the windows flooded everywhere with a stunning brightness which helped create the outdoors feeling.

“This is incredible.” Commented Robyn. “I don’t feel like I am in London any more and that is for sure.”

“Definitely something else. Shall we go and find our room?”

“Yes.”

Grinning at Robyn’s change in attitude towards the fancy hotel, he let her lead the way down the small corridor beside the lift as instructed and once they reached the next set of decking and greenery, Robyn turned left and walked down the hallway to the very end. “Number seven, right?”

“Yep.”

Robyn stopped outside a wooden door and waited for Taron. “You want to do the honours?” He asked her.

“Nope. That’s ok. You go ahead.”

He held the key against the keypad and once he heard the click, pushed down on the handle and opened the door. “After you and now I see you wanted me to open the door. So, you could get in first and take the chocolates from the pillow!”

Robyn was laughing as she walked into the room but again stopped misstep, Taron having to come to a sudden complete halt behind her. “You need to stop doing that Robyn.”

“Wow.”

It seemed to be their word of the hour as once again Taron repeated it. The room had a small hallway with a wooden wardrobe to the right of them and once they moved through the small walkway, it brought them into the actual room. Taron was prepared for Robyn stopping this time and side stepped around her. The room was a generous size and to their left, against the wall, a large king bed, with a wooden head board, white spotless sheets, duvet cover and pillows and two red decorative cushions. The cushions matched the long floor to ceiling curtains which hung in front of four wide glass panelled doors. In front of the bed, a light brown couch, four more red cushions adorning it. An oval coffee table with two glasses and jug of water sat on a large square mat in front of the couch. A very large flat screen TV was mounted to the wall at the right-hand side and underneath that a desk that spanned the length of the all and under the desk a fridge and mini bar. To the right of the TV was a mirror and under the desk at the mirror a very comfortable looking chair.

“This is beautiful.” Robyn walked into the room and dropped her shoulder bag and flowers on the couch. She made her way to the right and into the large bathroom which was decked out in white marble with grey swirled through it. A large oval mirror was sat on the wall over the sink and the shower had glass doors with two white dressing gowns hung on them.

“That my rainfall shower?” Taron asked as he stepped in beside her.

“I think so.” Robyn opened the doors of the shower. “Yep.”

“Fantastic. I have been looking forward to that since I heard there was one.”

“Your shoulders must be really sore Taron if you have been looking forward to this all week.”

“Just a bit. We were doing a lot of hand to hand combat scenes and I got knocked to the floor a lot, landing on my shoulders.”

“Maybe you should have brought your shoulder massage voucher.” She winked.

“Maybe I did.” He winked back.

“Well if not, you will have to make do with the shower then.” She laughed as she walked past him and back into the room noticing that the suitcases were just outside the bathroom door. “Hey our cases are here.”

“That is why they were taken when we arrived chicken. Our clothes are probably in the wardrobe too.”

Curious, Robyn walked back to the little entrance hallway and opened the wardrobe. On the railing hung the two garment bags. She was about to open Taron’s to look at his suit when he called her name, so instead she closed the doors and followed his voice. He had opened the balcony doors and was standing outside on the decking. She joined him and was tempted to say wow again but held it in. Their corner room gave them a slightly bigger balcony and they could see right over the whole fourth floor, the railing entirely covered with the vines giving them complete privacy from anyone looking up.

“I feel like we are actually outside even though we aren’t.”

“We were really lucky with this room. Right away from the bar. It will be nice and quiet here.”

“I want to have a go on those chair swings.” She said excitedly pointing towards the chairs handing from the metal chains.

Taron laughed. “You do have your own chair swing.”

“Yeah I know but it has been in my garden shed since the end of September. Can’t use it when the weather is shitty.” Robyn turned to lean on the railing. “Thanks Taron. This is amazing.”

“I didn’t do anything Robyn.”

“You invited me.”

“Because of a present you gave me for Christmas.”

“Because I wanted to do more things like this with you, to spend more time with you.”

“And normally this is where I throw in the part about how I am here because of you but I won’t because I know you are going to do that!” Taron laughed as she gently poked him in his side. He went to poke her back but as she moved and he threw his arms around her instead and hugged her close, giggling with her, smiling a little sadly as she yawned again. “How about that nap?”

“No Taron. Let’s go explore this place. I am dying to see what the other floors are like.”

“We have the whole weekend to do that Robyn. You are exhausted and I know you want to enjoy the evening tonight and if you are tired, you won’t be able to thoroughly do so.”

“But this is your weekend too. I don’t want to be sleeping when we are together.”

“Robyn, being here with you is all I need and I am happy to lay on this bed and get some rest too. It’s only ten in the morning. We have the whole afternoon to explore. Anthony is coming back to get us at six so we have time.”

As another yawn filled her whole body, Robyn nodded and agreed. She was extremely excited about going to watch The Prince of Egypt on stage and knew that even if she wasn’t too fond of taking naps, to be fully awake and on her game for the red carpet, a little bit of sleep would do her the world of good. They walked back into the room and Taron closed the balcony door and locked them too and turning around laughed as Robyn jumped backwards and landed on the bed with a bounce, one of the cushions falling onto the floor.

“It is comfy?” He asked as he pulled the curtains closed.

“Not as good as mine it will do.” Robyn turned and moved up the bed so she was laying on the left-hand side. She full belly laughed as Taron walked up the alongside her side of the bed and crawled over her to get to his side. “Ugh you’re a proper tosspot.” She giggled, pushing his legs off her, rolling onto her side so she could look at him as he lay on his back.

“But you love me.”

“Sometimes I wonder.” She replied enjoying the fake look of hurt he gave her. “Yes, I love you.”

“Right then. Nap time. Get over here.” Taron patted the edge of the pillow he was laying on and Robyn shuffled over to him and lay her head there. He reached for the TV controller on the locker beside him and turned it on.

As Taron flicked through the early morning programmes, Robyn snuggled a little closer to him, glad when Taron moved his arm so she could lay her head on his shoulder. Being close to Taron felt so natural to her now and it was just a warmth and comfort she couldn’t get anywhere else except from him. Her stomach twisted in knots and though she thought it was nerves as her appearance on the red carpet with Taron creeped closer, in her heart she knew it wasn’t. It was the true and honest love she knew she had for the man who was slowly running his hand up and down her left arm. She hoped he couldn’t feel her heart racing in her chest as she lay cosily against him. She couldn’t help the content little sigh that left her lips and nestling her face a little closer to him, she decided that if this was how good naps were, she would take one every day.

#Taron Egerton #Taron Egerton Fanfiction #Taron Egerton Fanfic #Taron Fanfic #Excitment #Plans #Fancy Fancy #Night out #Cuddles #Fancy Hotel #Sharing the finer things in life #Naps #Robyn and Taron

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murfeelee · 5 years ago

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Windows! Tutorial Time!

twinsimmingmain replied to your post “Art Nouveau Miniset”

Amazing! Teach me your window converting ways 😲

Sure thing! 😊👍

☽✶•.¸(✶•.¸★¸.•✶´)¸.•✶´☾ ☆«´¨`•°°•´¨`»☆ ☽.¸.•✶(¸.•✶´★`✶•.¸)`✶•.☾

Welcome to Murf’s School of Crap and Crap-Making!

School Motto: Prepare to be tortured! For Science!

Lesson #17: To the windooooow~! To the wall!! ♩♪

☽✶•.¸(✶•.¸★¸.•✶´)¸.•✶´☾ ☆«´¨`•°°•´¨`»☆ ☽.¸.•✶(¸.•✶´★`✶•.¸)`✶•.☾

So, this is how I made the Banishment Window from TS4 Realm of Magic. I didn’t extract the meshes -- that was thanks to @deniisu-sims.

Tuck yourselves in for quite the doozy; this is a biggun.

I just exported the textures and meshes from Sims4Studio, doing all the exact same steps from the TS4 Tutorial I posted here, to get the .obj & .png files into Milkshape.

First thing I did was identify all the group parts, to know what’s what. There’s a front and back part of the actual window frame, and a front and back of the window glass. I deleted the shadow mesh, cuz I can’t be bothered.

Fortunately, there wasn’t much UV Map editing that needed to be done, just a quick adjustment to the glass meshes. This is what everything should look like:

Now, I had never made a window a day in my life; never even tried. So, I cheated. ^_^ The RoM window I wanted was a simple circle, that perfectly matched the 3x1 circle from Into the Future. So that’s the one I cloned.

Export EA’s HLD mesh, cuz you’ll need it for reference in Milkshape.

Imported into Milkshape, you’ll see where TS3 windows sit, compared to TS4. Select all your TS4 meshes, and Move them to sit right on top of TS3’s, as close as you can manage.

Now, pay attention to EA’s group names:

Group 0 is the rear glass

Group 1 is the front glass

Group 2 is the rear frame

Group 3 is the front frame

Rename your TS4 groups accordingly. I Regrouped/Merged the Trim with the Front, to stick with TS3′s 4 groups. And I Deleted the Shadow mesh, as I said, since the ITF one didn’t have one. (Not that I’d’ve cared, in any event. :P )

Now, Assign EA’s bone/joint -- DO NOT FORGET to do this; it’s super important that anything with glass has a joint assigned to it, or the glass will be 100% invisible in-game, and won’t that suck. :P

Now, believe it or not, you’re ready for TSRW! First part’s nearly over! ^0^

Export your mesh out of Milkshape, and Import it into TSRW.

Now, before we get to the EVIL part (*cough* wall masks *cough*), lets do the easy bit first, and get your textures ready.

Go into GIMP/Photoshop/etc and make your Multiplier, RGB Mask, Specular, and yes, you’ll need an Overlay for the 2 stained glass versions included.

Delete EA’s extra variations, and make your own. I made 4.

Looks nice, right? WRONG!

Now, before you do another freaking thing, assuming everything’s gravy only to be DUPED once you’re in-game and everything looks like ca-ca, head into your Material Editor and set your shader to Phong Alpha and change the Alpha Mask Threshold to 100 on the 2 front & rear window frame group meshes.

For the love of all things sacred, DO NOT click the Yes button when it prompts you. CLICK NO.

Remember to do the same for Group 2 and Group 3.

Once you’ve done that....we’re ready to address the frikkin elephant in the frikkin room.

Time to mess with Wall Masks.

Dun Dun DUUUNNNN!

So... *takes a fortifying swig of Pepsi* ...Wall Masks. This utter crapfest.

The green is the TS3 wall. That white crap should NOT BE THERE -- that’s wall tearing that WILL appear in-game, which is NOT sexy.

On the side are all the wall mask textures. Looks like 6, but really it’s only 3, because this 3x1 window is 3 tiles wide in-game. (If you make a 2x1 window, you’ll have 4; if you’ve got a 1 tile window you’ll have 2, yada yada).

Pocci’s got a tutorial here for editing 1x1 rectangular windows with TSRW’s built-in wall mask editor tool, which... I can’t handle the controls on TSRW the way Pocci did; they were just effed up. I dunno if it’s cuz of the version of TSRW I use (2.80.0 cuz eff the TS4 update), but yeah, I had to fix mine manually. :\

So anyway, we’ve got the left side of the window on one tile, the middle, and the right. I exported one of each, and opened them in GIMP/Photoshop.

The top portion needs to be painted over with white, to get rid of the unwanted transparent parts there. You don’t want to paint over too much, or you’ll mess with the glass part. But because of the thick window frame mesh, we’ve got a fair bit of leeway.

So block off the tippy tops of the left, middle one especially, and right wall mask textures, and re-import them. It’ll take some fiddling with until you get it right.

I can’t tell you how much time I wasted fiddling with TSRW’s built-in wall mask editor tool. It was a effing crapshoot for me. Just way easier to edit the textures itself.

[EDIT] Deniisu-Sims graciously pointed out to me that I’d wasted even more time than I originally thought -- there’s a EFFING GENERATE BUTTON, y’all.

Lord, THIS is why I stick to simple decor; I can’t be trusted with anything else; I’m so dumb! XD

Anyways, make sure you do all the same steps for your MEDIUM Level Detail mesh!!

Now....

NOW.

You might think you’re done, right? Technically, yes, you would be...if we were working with a 1x1 or 2x1 window. But sadly, things are about to get a whole lot more effing tedious. Why?

CUZ EFFING DIAGONAL WINDOWS. >_<

Don’t export your sims3pack just yet.

Just Save your progress.

Keep your current project open and running, but start a New Project too.

Looking at TS3′s windows, you’ll notice that the 3x1 windows have an extra diag 3x1 version, unlike the 2x1 or 1x1 types, which have diagonal windows built in. But eff my life, I picked the hardest type right out the gate on my very first try, cuz YOLO, right? >_>

So, pick the matching diagonal version....

And yup, you guessed it:

You have to do ALL OF THE STEPS ALL OVER AGAIN!!!

This is some BOOOLSHIIIII~~~~!!!

Omg. WHY, EA. WHY.

@greenplumbboblover breaks it down in this MTS post how to link your regular window to your diagonal one. Bless you, honestly.

In order to enable diagonal versions on your regular window, you have to Copy/Paste the RK (resource key) from the diagonal window into the regular one.

With your Diagonal Window project open, go into Edit > Project Contents > OBJD > Edit > Open in S3PE.

Double-click the OBJD and click the Copy RK button.

Now bounce back to your Regular Window project -- you should have BOTH projects open, remember.

Open your Regular windows’ OBJD in S3PE, and click the Grid button.

Click where it says DiagonalIndex, and you’ll see a dropdown list with a tiny arrow next to it. Click the arrow.

I’ve already done all this, but on a fresh run the top box will say Type: 0x0000000.

Click the Paste RK button, and it will change to whatever you copied from the Diagonal Window RK. Click Save.

Now make sure you scroll down the dropdown list, and you’ll see that your new OBJD entry is all the way at the bottom of the list. Click it so it’s selected, and click Commit. Save your progress, and close S3PE.

Now, if you’ve been looking carefully, you’ll notice that there are TWO OBJD entries for both the Regular and Diagonal windows. So yup, repeat those steps again for the 2nd OBJD entry.

This is why in my Art Nouveau Miniset I only converted ONE window; eff ALL this noise.

But the good news is that once you’ve finished all this linking crap nonsense, you’re EFFING DONE. \^0^/

Go ahead and Export both of your Regular & Diagonal simspacks/packages!

Install them both in your game. IIRC, in Build Mode you’ll only see the Regular Window. But when you select it and rotate it, you can enjoy the sexiness!

Happy Simming! *dark laughter*

#sims 3 tutorial #ts4 to ts3 #Sims 3 conversion #Sims 3 build mode

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mooksie01 · 5 years ago

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With Teammates Like These, Who Needs Friends? (1/5)

Summary: Clover doesn't care what the other Ace Ops have to say, he absolutely does NOT have a crush on Huntsman Branwen. He just admires his skill on the battlefield. And the visible results of his obviously-excellent training regiment. And his gorgeous eyes. And his mysterious demeanor. And voice.

Okay, Clover might have just a little bit of a crush on Huntsman Branwen, but that doesn't matter, because if the other Ace Ops are going to tease him relentlessly for it, then he just won't pursue any relationship with the guy!

...Maybe.

Warnings: None, really, for this chapter. Death mention in the context of a joke. Gratuitous bullying of teammates. Spoilers for RWBY Volume 7.

AO3 Link: [X]

Notes: Hey, so... I haven't really written for fun in over four years. Which. Is pretty crazy to think about. But my New Year's Resolution this year is to get back into it because it used to make me really happy. With that said, I'm pretty rusty nowadays, so I'm sorry if any of this reads a little awkwardly. I'm hoping to get back to the level I used to be at with some practice, but I know it'll take time. This fic is mainly my effort at shaking the dust off with my current favorite show and favorite ship. I hope you all enjoy! Please like, reblog, and comment if you have the time to do so, I'd really appreciate some encouragement while I get back into the swing of things! FAIR GAME RIGHTS!!

---

Clover can’t say that he isn’t expecting it, but even he is a little taken by surprise when, only mere seconds after closing the door to the Ace Ops’ commons, a heavy hand lands on his shoulder and spins him around with enough force to make him dizzy.

Elm’s ecstatic face immediately fills his entire field of vision.

Oh, Brothers.

“Clover!”

He attempts to wave her off, feeling his face grow hot. “I’m trying to head to bed, Elm. Gotta be up bright and early tomorrow, you know.”

Her shit-eating grin only grows larger. Her vice-grip tightens. He will not be escaping any time soon. His death warrant is signed and hidden somewhere in the mess that Elm calls her quarters.

Elm manhandles him to the couch and shoves him down to sit, then flops down next to him and tosses her wrapped feet onto the coffee table.

He wrinkles his nose. “Elm, please. I’ve talked to you about your feet and the table.”

Ignoring him (as she so often does) Elm simply continues to grin smugly at him. “Who would’ve thought?! Our very own captain!”

Clover rolls his eyes in what he hopes to be a clear sign of his exasperation.

“Elm, what are you even talking about?” Marrow pipes up from where he is leaning against the wall. His arms are crossed over his chest in a deliberate attempt to appear uninterested, though his faintly wagging tail gives him away. Clover hadn’t even noticed him until he’d spoken.

Looking around, he realizes that all of his subordinates are standing about the room, watching the interaction with varying degrees of interest. Just great. He considers whether or not it would be worth it to attempt to preemptively write Elm up for not-yet-conducted insubordination.

Hm. He probably isn’t allowed to do that.

He startles as Elm yanks her feet off the table next to him, instead throwing herself forward so she can bang her fist against the helpless furniture to punctuate her next statement, “Our captain has a crush on Huntsman Branwen!”

“Elm,” Harriet sighs, “stop being an idiot. Again. You know that he--”

Clover pulls himself away from Elm and her interrogation couch. He stands up, straight-backed, falling into a parade rest that has his shoulders held just a little too tightly to his ears, positive that his face is red. “That’s enough,” he orders, voice as firm as he can make it, “what I do is none of your concern, Elm. Nor anyone else’s. This conversation is… unprofessional, to say the least. And it’s over.”

Rather than be appropriately cowed by his scolding, Elm only flashes him an even bigger smile. On the other side of the room, Harriet makes a choking sound and starts to sputter, “Holy shit, you are--!”

Elm jumps to her feet, swinging a muscular arm over his shoulders. “I think you mean ‘who you do,’ Captain!”

Clover shrugs her off, scowling. “Elm!” His mind races, attempting to formulate a way to escape this horrible situation, but it seems that no amount of luck is getting him out of this one.

“Well,” Vine rubs speculatively at his chin, finally deciding to contribute something to this dumpster-fire of a conversation, and Clover makes the split-second mistake of hoping that he will be the voice of reason to shut the whole thing down, “you can hardly blame our captain. Huntsman Branwen is, objectively, quite conventionally attractive. Not to mention his skill-level and renown in the field and all of the good he has done in the ongoing battle against Salem….”

Clover feels his soul die a little.

“You’ve gotta be kidding me!” Marrow throws his hands up in the air, his tail raised in visible agitation. “What are we, a buncha kids? You’ve known the guy for five minutes!”

Elm laughs uproariously, “And he stared at Huntsman Branwen for all five! Not to mention the extra twenty seconds when he was watching him walk away!”

Harriet gags. She looks incredibly annoyed and vaguely disgusted at this turn of events.

“That really is enough--!” Clover tries.

“Really?” Vine tilts his head, coming a few steps closer. He peers at Clover in a speculative manner. “It seems to me that it would be difficult to catch a glimpse of Huntsman Branwen’s posterior, considering that the cape he wears covers it quite effectively. Are you sure, Elm, that that is what Clover was doing?”

“Haha!” Elm raises her hand for a high-five, which her partner passively returns.

Clover is sure his skin-tone must faintly resemble that of the Atlas Academy mess hall’s tomato soup by now. He had not been staring at Huntsman Branwen’s ass. Even if he were interested in Qrow Branwen like that, he’s too much of a gentleman to do such a thing. Besides, there were plenty of other attractive aspects of Huntsman Branwen to focus on without having to drool over his “posterior” like some sort of mangy grimm. Like his soft vermillion eyes; or his trim waist; or his hair, which looked like the shining feathers of his namesake; or his elegant hands, undoubtedly calloused from so many years of handling his weapon so skillfully…. He swallows hard and feels his face flare up anew as he realizes what train of thought he’d been taking.

Looking up, he catches Elm smirking at him again. Marrow and Harriet have near-matching expressions of distaste. Vine is merely studying him with even more interest than before.

He opens his mouth to retaliate, only for Vine to cut him off, clasping his hands behind his back in a move so prim that it leaves Clover completely unprepared for what he says next: “I believe our captain was just lost in thought about Huntsman Branwen’s posterior again.”

Clover coughs hard, choking on his own spit. Vaguely, he registers the sound of Elm exploding into further laughter at his expense.

“Oh, ew, ew, ew!” Marrow covers his ears, baring his teeth at Vine and Elm and probably also Clover.

Harriet simply glowers at all of them, “I did not need to know that.”

After a moment, Clover pulls himself together. He glares at his attackers, “Elm,” he snarls, “Vine.”

Vine takes an even step back, cocking his head inquisitively, “I apologize, did I say something incorrect?”

Elm loops her bicep around her partner’s neck in a pseudo-chokehold that he makes no attempt to remove himself from. “No, Vine, but I believe that’s our cue to leave!” She extricates herself from him and once again brings her hand down hard on Clover’s shoulder, having apparently never learned that it isn’t wise to poke an angry bear. “Don’t worry, boss, I’ll make sure to keep an extra eye out for your little bird!” She winks and pats him a few times with enough force to jolt his entire upper torso. “Though I’m sure you’ll already have that handled!”

Then, in a blink, she has removed herself from the room, Vine following behind her at a more sedate pace.

They are going to be facing so much disciplinary action, Clover thinks furiously. They will be scrubbing the floors for months. He turns to face Harriet and Marrow, who are somehow still in the room, staring at him. He crosses his arms firmly over his chest, “Do either of you have something to add?”

Marrow merely shakes his head and turns tail to leave.

Harriet looks him over for a moment longer, then makes a sharp tsk’ing sound with her tongue. “Gross.”

She spins on her heel and walks down the hallway that leads to each of their personal rooms.

Clover sighs heavily and plops back down on the couch. It is going to be a long however-many-months with Huntsman Branwen and his students here.

Still, he can certainly make it easier on himself by avoiding working with the other man. Even if he is incredibly attractive….

(No! Bad Clover!)

Everything will go over much more smoothly if he just isn’t seen staring at or talking to or even vaguely thinking about Huntsman Branwen from here on out.

---

More Notes: So, that was the first chapter! I hope you liked it and that it made your day a little brighter :)

The first installment is already completely finished minus some light editing. Stuff from here on out will probably be formatted as oneshots rather than chaptered fics, but I wanted this first part to be a bit longer and explore the very beginnings of our boys' relationship, with particular emphasis on Clover being a Secret Gay Disaster. Is that actually my headcanon for the show? Nah. Is that what this fic turned into? Absolutely.

Anyway, I'm currently deciding whether I want to post one chapter everyday for the next four days to finish this story up or if I want to post every other day. If anyone has any opinions on that, I'd be glad to hear them.

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imthederpyfox · 5 years ago

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Rant About YouTube Copyright.

by imthederpyfox, Moments ago

Journals / Personal

I know nobody's here anymore, hi, nobody~

But I need to take a minute to rant about YouTube's copyright system for a moment.

I know it's come a long way in the past few years, content creators never used to be able to defend their work with copyright under YouTube guidelines, and it's great that they now can. However, there is also the problem that as content creators can fairly and justly claim others videos that include misused content off their own, creators will also claim videos just because they don't like them. AKA 'foodybeauty' and 'Amber-Lynn Reid', to name a few...

Along with this, we also have major companies who think they should copyright any video posted about one of their shows or films or games, or anything really.

Now I know, full re-uploads of these things are against copyright law, well done YouTube, would you like a gold star? Well, guess what, you don't get one. Because not only can they claim these full videos, they have also been going on binges, where as soon as ANY kind of content related to their products comes out, it becomes copyrighted before the content creator can even so much as blink or press save.

I'm talking about videos where you can barely see what the creator's watching, i.e - an UNLISTED video I just posted of a review/reaction to a Netflix show called Haunted.

Now, I have posted another reaction for Riverdale, and spent months trying to figure out the best action to take. Bare in mind, these videos are 'unedited' for my patrons, and the links are only available to my patrons. But guess what? I HAVE NO PATRONS! First of all, HOW do these big companies find an unlisted video? Are they my patrons? I mean that'd be nice, but no. They Aren't.

Second of all, why the fuck would you block an UNLISTED video, when so many people upload full copyrighted re-uploads of films and TV with no issue?

Third of all, how did you even know my video contained any of your program when it's not even named after the show AT ALL because I KNOW you'll copyright it immediately if the title has so much of a WHISPER of the show included.

Now, I will admit, I understand why my first video got copyright claimed - despite being unlisted, which I'm still annoyed about - because most of the screen was taken up by the episode of Riverdale, rather than my reaction. I get it, fine. So, I edit it, I make myself the main focus - ew, I know - and I lower the opacity of the original video, and I cut out any songs that go on for too long, and I make sure that 1/4 of the video isn't even FUCKING VISIBLE!

Safe to say, this is not a re-upload of the original content. This is an upload of a reaction to said content. My reaction, in which I am constantly talking throughout, constantly cutting in, constantly ruining this series for everyone that decides to give me money to watch, what a good YouTuber I am indeed.

So, because I couldn't let sleeping dogs lie when I earned my SECOND COPYRIGHT CLAIM ON THIS UNLISTED PATREON VIDEO! I decided to look more into the company trying to claim it. Was it Netflix? Nope. Was it a TV company? Well, sort of? A french company that distributes TV shows, or so it claims. See what I did there? Good right? No, ok, moving on. So upon my research I happened to come across multiple videos, saying that the company was a scam, that they were fake and shouldn't even be copyrighting things.

SO, what did I do? Well, just to make sure I checked which part of my video was still listed under their 'copyrighted content' thing, because if you check it'll tell you time stamps and give you the option to trim. So, there was about 5-6 minutes of my video that for some reason was still being claimed as copyrighted, so I went in, and edited little bits out, where there was no dialogue, no important things, and then I saved it, and waited for it to process, and then I went into that copyright claims and I said, ya know what? I'm not taking this shit, I worked hard for this video, I made sure to do everything I needed to do, and since these videos fall under fair use due to the cutting and editing and the fact you can't SEE 1/4 OF THE VIDEO, I sent a dispute.

Now I have to admit, I was nervous. If the company that copyright claimed my video didn't like the fact that I'd done that, they could CHOOSE TO COPYRIGHT STRIKE ME. Like, no review from YouTube, nothing like that. If this company didn't like that a tiny channel with only 57 subscribers put in a dispute against them, they might get pissed. They might not like the fact that someone's done that, and they might turn around and say to YouTube, FUCK this channel, bye bye, bitch.

So I was worried to say the least, but I have never been one to back away from bullying, and in this case, I class it as bullying.

I filled in all the relevant details, including a very in depth explanation as to why my video was counted under fair use, and how my channel is tiny, how I don't have any Patrons to see the video, how my video was unlisted, and heavily edited to make sure the copyright did not count against me, including the use of disclaimers in both the video and the description.

I was professional.

I was right.

And I won the dispute.

A day later I get an email telling me the company decided to release my video of all claims and it is now available for all none of my viewers to watch! How exciting, right?

Well, today I decided that I'd upload my second reaction that I'd recorded, I did the same as with the last one, having learned something. I lowered opacity, I covered any nudity, I cut off 1/4 of the video, I made it so the focus would be on my ugly ass mug instead of the TV show itself. And I spent hours trying to upload it for it to fail and me have to do it again.

And low and behold, after all my troubles, all my trials and tribulations, all my blood, sweat and tears and turmoil... I got copyright claimed once again.

Now, it's safe to say, I'm a little bit pissed, ya know?

My video - much like last time - hadn't even fully been uploaded, around the 97% mark, and boom, claim. So I took a deep breath, ya home boi is NOT happy, and I see where exactly it thinks my video is not covered under copyright law. And this is where I think these companies don't care if you are actually covered under the law or not, because it's always a random part of the video, it's always about a 5 minute chunk of the video regardless of what you do.

Which leads me to my next conclusion, in order for these companies to be finding these videos - especially with them being in the unlisted category (needing a specific link to be able to view), and the title not being related, and the video being edited to make sure it isn't eligible for a copyright claim, they MUST have a bot, or a program running that searches YouTube for clips of their content, regardless of how it's presented, or whether it's a review or not.

Which I have to say, is unfair. Especially in the case of the unlisted thing. I know, YouTube can't help it if these companies have bots and programs and code, they can't stop that from happening. But what they can stop? What they SHOULD stop? Is these companies being able to claim videos that aren't even eligible for it.

YouTube, man, you gotta work on this.

We were rooting for you! We were ALL rooting for you!

Anyway, seriously, YouTube really needs to find a way to make sure copyright is fair and just and not maintained by just programs and bots. YouTube, why not create a part of your company that reviews these claims, checks the videos, guarantees that the claims only go to those ACTUALLY abusing the copyright system? Instead of those of us who just want to make fun content for our viewers, who strive to just make good reaction videos? Because that's what they are, REACTION videos. Not re-uploads, not someone else's content.

'Great poets imitate and improve, whereas small ones steal and spoil.'

Give a little back to the people that got you where you are today YouTube. None of these big companies had you raking in money to begin with, it was the little guys, the small content creators who now have millions of viewers, because they enjoy what they do. Well, most of 'em anyway...

Just think about your content creators, rather than appeasing the companies that give you a bit more money. I know they won't, because capitalism rules despite how shit it is.

Is it really a wonder that so many creators are turning to streaming through sites like Twitch.tv instead of uploading to YouTube? Even the other day, on a live stream I was doing myself, me and my friends talked about how much better streaming is, how you don't have to constantly be worried about making sure the video is friendly for 2 year olds. 2 YEAR OLDS SHOULDN'T EVEN BE WATCHING, OK?!

My goal has been to be a YouTuber since I was about 12. I'm now almost 22. That's just under 10 years of my life, where my goal, my one finish line, has been to become a YouTuber. But the more and more things like this happen, the more and more I want to listen to that voice in my head telling me to give it up and go to Twitch, become a streamer, not stress so much about copyright strikes and issues with monitisation, and having such UNREALISTIC goals in order to achieve being monitised and YouTube partner in the first place.

I have edited this video, the parts it told me to, I have made sure to cut out the music bits and make sure it's up to par with copyright based on where they claimed the video. But my issue with sending off this newest in what I assume will be a long line of copyright disputes, because someone, even as small a channel as mine, with my 57 subscribers and my 5 views a video (at a push), has to push back and say 'NO. THIS ISN'T OK.' and not let themselves be pushed around, my issue with this?

The company that claimed the video this time was Netflix itself. And we all know Netflix has money. And Netflix doesn't care if it shuts down a tiny little channel like mine. All my content? All my videos? All views and subs and likes I've somehow managed to accumulate? All gone. Like Thanos snapping his fucking fingers.

Regardless of what I do to make these videos fair use, big companies like this get the final say over them, and as far as they're concerned, us little creators who don't make YouTube money yet, but still hold onto that hope that, maybe, hopefully, one day we will be able to do it, we're the 50% they want to snap and get rid of.

And it'll stay that way for a long time, unless people actually stand up and talk about it. Heck, it'll probably end up staying that way even then, but at least we TRIED.

I have respect for Matpatt, I watched his video explaining the work he and other creators have done in bringing awareness to the higher ups in YouTube, using their platforms to help each other and millions of other creators, people who just want to make other people laugh or forget about their problems for a while, or just upload stupid, 2 minute clips because of inside jokes, or they find it funny, they enjoy doing it.

If we as humans have been taught anything recently during this quarantine, it's that a lot of our societal structures are flawed, some may even say broken. Big companies scam us, use us, and give nothing back in return. If peoples eyes aren't open now, when will they be?

This won't get views. This won't get likes or favourites or shared to other people because of some powerful message.

But maybe one day, someone from YouTube will be randomly scrolling through the internet, and find a random post on a crude fanart website amongst all the sonic and Mario at the Olympic fuck games art, and maybe they'll read it and take note.

But we all know that'll never happen.

So I'm gonna wait for the video to finish saving the changes I made to it, and I'm going to dispute the claim Netflix made against me. And I'm going to anxiously wait to see if I get to continue making content for another day, or whether I get taken down by the snap.

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

If you made it this far, thanks for listening to my rambling.

I feel strongly about a lot of things, and my friends often tell me that I should post about them, because I have such an... Eloquent way or wording things. Well, I finally decided to, because I need to vent as much as the next asshole. They're right, I AM eloquent!

Seriously though, thank you for reading, I know nobody would have but hey, maybe you're one of the 3 views I get on my YouTube videos!

I am blessed.

With like 50,000 curses going on at once.

Such a time to be alive.

Stay safe, look out for each other, and I may do another rant at some point, because this was fun I guess.

-Exza~

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echodrops · 5 years ago

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The Promises I Made (2019 Edition)

For the past thirteen years, I’ve spent every New Year’s Eve compiling a list of fifty promises I intend to keep or fulfill over the next twelve months. The results have been truly amazing, and I have kept some promises I never thought I could. 2019 was… a nightmare that I can barely believe I survived, but I still kept some promises that I honestly did not expect I ever could.

This year, for New Year’s, there will be a new set of promises for to me keep, but here are the old ones, for review!

The Promises I Made (2019 Edition)

1) Be more proactive about tracking and following up with struggling students to decrease the number of students who drop from my class when they realize they cannot pass. Status: Somewhat broken? I tried really hard to be proactive with my students; however, there were some massive issues outside the classroom this year that made it extremely difficult to keep the focus on the students. When administration drags your attention away from the class, there is not a lot you can do…

2) Find a place to put in volunteer hours because uhhhh like this is actually important to my work evaluation and I definitely need something to write in that section… Yikes, this spring is my last chance to do this!! @_@ Status: Kept. I volunteered with the Utah Shakespeare Festival and it was super fun!

3) Install the fire escape window in the Utah house, no matter how much it might cost, because I can’t get a totally unrelated tenant in that basement without said window… Status: Somewhat kept. Okay. This one is a LONG story, but to be fair to me, I worked my ASS off to try and make this happen; just every single thing in the world prevented me from completing this promise, up to and including the city telling me I needed a permit AFTER I had already dug a massive hole in the ground for the window…

4) Buy sod to add grass to the front portion of the lawn so that it no longer looks like garbage. Status: Broken, but I did buy grass seed and put that out there. Unfortunately only some of it sprouted, but there is indeed SOME grass now growing there…

5) Fix the bricks near the windowsills on the Utah house to prevent long-term damage. Status: Broken. After dealing with the stupid window disaster, I had no time for this at all.

6) Get a watering system for my roses at the Utah house because I think my bro is probably killing them and that’s just not cool. Status: Broken, see above.

7) Work on the patio at the Utah house before it just flat out falls down. Status: Somewhat broken. Again, I tried to make progress on this—I called a patio guy to come out and assess how much it would cost to fix the patio—but the price I was quoted was so high that there was nothing I could do at the time.

8) Paint the stairwell so that there’s no chance of anything like lead paint or asbestos being exposed. Status: Broken. The leftover wallpaper glue continues to confound me…

9) Trim the backyard bushes so the neighbors don’t hate us anymore… Status: Broken. We trimmed a few bushes and at least got to the trees out front, but definitely a majority were left uncared for.

10) Move into a new house in Texas where I can get real internet, please for the love of god… Status: Kept. I moved into a very nice house with no scorpions!

11) Save money for my upcoming trip to Japan! 2020 baby! Status: Uhhh, broken. I’m not sure how I thought I’d be able to move into a new house AND save money for an international trip at the same time…

12) Get my wisdom tooth removed because it’s still there and still killing me, yikessss. Status: Broken. AUGH. I’m an idiot.

13) Make an appointment with an eye doctor for like the first time in years. Good job, Yehn, good job. Status: Kept. I got my glasses fixed and even got a new pair of glasses too!

14) Get my prescriptions refilled because I’m dwindling on asthma medicine and like… I could die from this… I should never have been left to care for myself; I’m not mature enough for this responsibility… Status: Kept, surprisingly. But I still need a new doctor because the last one I was going to wouldn’t give me any refills…

15) FINISH THE GIVEAWAY PRIZES I PROMISED LAST YEAR because holy shit I am incompetent and the worst and everyone has permission to hate me for starting things and never finishing them, fuck. Status: Broken. So broken. I am the worst.

16) Go dolphin watching in the Gulf for real this time. Seriously, it’s $10 Yehn, you can do this. Status: Kept, amazingly. It wasn’t as impressed as hoped; however, there was a lovely sunset.

17) Return to the Channel Islands to take better pictures. D; Status: Broken. T_T

18) Level all my classes to 70 in FFXIV before next expansion, please. Status: Somewhat broken. I didn’t have everything to 70 before the expansion, but I kind of feel like I should get credit for this one, because HEY, look at me now:

19) Organize and properly label all the photos on my computer so that I’m no longer desperately combing through folder and folder in blank confusion, looking for a single picture in a sea of thousands… Status: Kept. It took me like eight hours of work, but I actually did this.

20) Update Home and a Half more than once? PLEASE??? The guilt I feel over this currently is crushing. Status: Broken. And the guilt grows…

21) Complete the online American Literature class I am designing on time and with no corrections needed. Status: Kept. I’m counting this as kept even though TECHNICALLY there was one thing I forgot to finish and it came back and bit me in the ass; however, I was approved with no corrections needed.

22) Earn 100% completion for Kingdom Hearts III. So excited! Status: Broken. Um… This just didn’t happen.

23) Update my calendar with important dates—holidays, birthdays, etc.—and be productive about sending cards and well-wishes. Status: Somewhat kept. I wasn’t any better about sending cards really, but I did at least save all the birthdays in my phone so I remember them.

24) Get the garbage disposal in the Texas house fixed ASAP so I don’t have to wash the dishes by hand anymore because I absolutely hate that particular chore. Status: Kept. Then I moved, so it didn’t even matter.

25) Finish all the books my coworkers and friends bought for me recently so I can thank them for their recommendations! Status: Broken. So broken.

26) Actually move into my new place instead of leaving it completely undecorated and lifeless. Status: Remarkably, kept. Nothing has plastic on it, unlike at my old house where the nightstand didn’t get unwrapped even after two years of living there lol.

27) Try hard to get Creative Writing into a different area of the general ed. core so that more people will enroll in it. Status: Kept. I’m counting this because I did my darn best, but we are still waiting on the state to tell us whether or not the class will be accepted.

28) Get caught up on my Ebird reports, even the old, old, old ones I never put in because I was slacking. Status: Kept, actually. Whoo.

29) Throw away/return/sort all the stacks of old mail in the house (OMGGGG they’ve made me look like paper hoarder and I’m nootttt). Status: Broken. There’s just… a lot of papers to go through…

30) Clean up the garage before moving so that I don’t have to fight spiders to move when the time comes. Status: Broken, in that I did not clean up the garage in advance and did, in fact, have to fight spiders when it came time to move.

31) Find a way to boost grading productivity so that each class takes only two days to grade, maximum. Status: Somewhat kept. I was definitely better this year than last year; however, I really think the “two days per class” thing was too optimistic, so for the future semester, I allotted myself three days per class and I think it will work better.

32) Go to a totally new restaurant and try their food. Status: Kept. We went to a Mexican restaurant and I had trompo tacos (al pastor) which is probably not anything special to anyone else but it was my first time so lol.

33) Cancel old credit cards to make sure my credit is good before trying to buy a house (although I just checked my credit score and I’m in the great range already, so this is mostly for posterity’s sake). Status: Broken. But it didn’t affect my loan, so I guess it was okay. And it ended up being good I didn’t cancel my Best Buy card because I was able to get good financing on the new appliances I needed for my house.

34) Get official contracts from my tenants so I can use my rental income in my next loan calculation. Status: Broken, but I ended up not using that as part of the loan calculation anyway >_> so…

35) Talk to an HR rep about my retirement savings so that I can consolidate all my retirement accounts into one. (Man, look at all these ADULTING promises.) Status: Broken. Look at me failing all these adulting promises.

36) Really finish decorating my office so it looks super cute and all my students want to visit me. Status: Broken, but I think it sucks that I have to write this because it was really not my fault I couldn’t finish decorating my office. Our offices were all moved and disrupted by building remodels so I spent the entire year basically working out of a couple cardboard boxes.

37) Not sign up for ANY more new responsibilities at work in the spring semester. This is the biggest challenge. D; Status: Kept, by technicality. I was able to avoid signing up for anything new in SPRING… But fall… was a whole other story. XD

38) Migrate all the rest of my books to the new Texas house instead of leaving them in Utah�� SOMEHOW. Status: Kept. I’m going to count this as kept. The only books left at the Utah house are my manga—I managed to bring literally every other book, which is very impressive considering I had only my small Camaro with its tiny truck space.

39) Use my twitter account more often to make it worth following. I will try!! Status: Kept… sorta? I mean, since I didn’t use the account AT ALL before, making even one Twitter post kind of counts as using it more, right? >_>

40) Keep my hair cut nicely so I look less like a mess (than I really am). Status: Somewhat broken. Although I think I got my hair cut more often this year than before, I don’t think I looked any less like a mess. XD

41) Successfully find a bridesmaid dress for my friend’s wedding that matches the rest of the wedding party. Status: Actually kept! It was incredible. The wedding I was in was even featured in a magazine because of how pretty it was!

42) Make sure my skin is in good condition for the wedding so I don’t look like a disturbing ghost… Status: Kept? I mean, in the end, looking like a ghost ended up being the whole point since it was a Halloween themed wedding so I kind of won either way.

43) Complete my BNHA manga collection. Since my bro bought me a bunch of the volumes for Christmas, I might as well. Status: Broken… I bought like… one volume. XD

44) See a groove-billed ani. (It’s another type of bird.) Status: Broken. Very illusive bird. T_T

45) Respond to messages, asks, and comments more quickly. I promise I’m not ignoring people… D; Status: Um, broken. I left many people on read this year, sorry.

46) Lose ten pounds so that I feel more fit and comfy. Status: Broken. I didn’t exercise at all this year, uff.

47) Pay down credit card debt by at least 1/3. Yikesssss, I really need to do this quick. Status: Broken. It’s hard to pay down a credit card when you pour all your money into buying a new house…

48) I will finally fucking finish that chapter 73 analysis of Noragami… I swear to god… Status: Broken. Uh yeah. This didn’t happen. V_V

49) Reach 1700 followers on Tumblr. You should follow me—I’m only marginally a waste of time and space! Status: Kept. Over 2500 followers now!

50) I will keep these promises. LOLLLLL. Status: Somewhat kept/somewhat broken. One year I really will keep them all…

Totals Kept promises: 18 Broken promises: 24 Somewhat kept/broken promises: 8

Well, there are more kept promises than last year at least… It was another really hard year, what with moving in the middle of the year, over-working, dealing with so much drama with the reaccreditation on our campus, and just EVERYTHING all at once this last year… I keep thinking things are going to calm down and then they never do. Please 2020… just let me rest…

My new set of promises will be up on the 1st!

#50 promises #new year's resolutions #IRL stuff #please 2020 #I need a break #it's not the roaring 20s #it's the snoring 20s #PLEASE

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vtforpedro · 6 years ago

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Prompt: Sorry I spilled my iced coffee on your khakis at the bus stop. Given by @angelsallfire in my last post! I hope you like it! ------ Six-thirty in the morning is an absolutely atrocious time to be awake, let alone out and about. And yet there are plenty of people walking and driving to work at this hour and the sounds of the engines and chatter are enough to give Bilbo a headache. It’s too blasted early but he hadn’t gone to bed until three and woke at five, his nerves not letting him enjoy any peace and quiet. He’d been up late writing his novel and cursing the inspiration that tended to only find him in the evenings and the wee small hours of the morning. But he could not stop typing and by the time he had finished, he had an entire three chapters finished, which were now waiting for editing. It is all very exciting and Bilbo is eager to get back home and continue later in the afternoon. If he survives that long. Six-thirty in the morning is offensive, he thinks, as he walks down the sidewalk toward the bus stop. He has a class to teach at eight - which is, and he has brought this up to Gandalf many times, still too blasted early - and he was getting antsy simply sitting at home waiting for the time to pass. So now he’s on his way to the university to see if he can catch up on any work while he’s there. And if he’s texting Drogo a fairly long rant about six-thirty in the morning, well, he thinks that’s entirely fair. Drogo is an early riser but he might not respond for a few hours yet what with taking care of the baby. Bilbo’s nose is in his phone as he steps up to the bus stop. He is vaguely aware that the benches are full of people on their way to work and stands a little off to the side as he pounds the exclamation point repeatedly on his phone. He can only hope the ruffians in class won’t give him too much trouble. If he survives that long, considering the solid mass that suddenly rams into him. “Shit!” “Blast it!” Bilbo yelps as many things happen at once; he drops his phone, something very liquidy splashes into his face and over his sweater vest and his glasses fall down his nose. He flails for his glasses and manages to catch them before they are a victim of the concrete like his phone. The bus stop has gone eerily silent and Bilbo slowly lifts his gaze to the very tall person that has smacked right into him. He looks stunned and Bilbo and him simply gaze at each other in their respective shocked silences. “I’m… so, so sorry,” the man eventually says and Bilbo notices he is holding a cup of what was once iced coffee, which is steadily dripping off of his hand and on to his fancy shoes. Bilbo shakily wipes off his glasses on his sweater and puts them back on his nose before fetching his handkerchief from his pocket. He begins to wipe off his cheeks and chin and tries to process many things. The fact that he has been soaked in iced coffee and that this man somehow didn’t see him standing there and that this man is one of the most attractive men he has ever seen. “It’s… alright,” Bilbo says slowly and is highly aware of everyone looking at him. It’s not alright, really, but it is too early and he is too tired to get properly peeved. “Though I do wonder how you didn’t notice me standing here.” “I… I…” the man trails off before he lifts his phone in his other hand. “Distracted walking.” Bilbo snorts a little and nods as he looks down at his ruined sweater and then picks up his phone, which is thankfully not cracked. If only to not have to stare into the forget-me-not eyes this handsome stranger has. “If only there was an officer nearby to issue you a ticket. I do believe you deserve one.” The man sighs in what seems like relief. “I definitely do. I’m sorry, I should have been paying attention. It’s a shame…” he trails off again. Bilbo looks up and sees that the man is staring down at his sweater vest with a strange expression. He clears his throat a little. “Certainly a shame. You should never waste good coffee.” The man looks at Bilbo and smiles crookedly. “Or a nice sweater.” “Oh,” Bilbo says as his cheeks grow warm. “It’ll wash out. And I have a spare at work, thankfully, so I won’t be needing to go back home.” “Good,” the man sighs, his shoulders slumping. “Can I make it up to you somehow?” He checks his watch. “I have to be at work in twenty but maybe I can buy you a coffee?” Bilbo knows it’s merely an offer because the man feels badly but he coughs nervously anyway. Tall, dark and handsome. He’s got black hair that’s slicked back, some grey around his temples and a very finely trimmed, neat beard. He’s wearing a suit that looks as if it cost as much as Bilbo’s bimonthly check from work. There’s something kind about his eyes but something stern about his brow as well. Overall, it’s too blasted early in the morning for Bilbo’s brain to process anything, especially not an offer of coffee. “Oh, no, but thank you. The university has a cafe I get my coffee at. Just promising to keep your nose out of your phone will be enough for me.” He’s aware of how hypocritical that is but he doesn’t mention that. The man chuckles. “I promise I will,” he says as his eyes crinkle at the corners. “If not coffee… maybe I can buy you dinner?” Bilbo’s blushing now, damn it all. “You don’t have to give me any money,” he says slowly. “I meant to take you to dinner,” the man says with a small smile. “Not give you a twenty and skirt my responsibility in making it up to you.” “You don’t have to make it up to me,” Bilbo says a bit breathlessly. “It was an accident.” “But I’d like to take you to dinner. Very much so.” Bilbo clears his throat as he notices the man’s ears turning a bit red. Perhaps his offer of dinner isn’t entirely because of the coffee and it’s too blasted early for Bilbo to think of anything eloquent or witty to say in reply. “Well then I suppose you better,” he blurts. “I’d quite like that. My choosing, of course.” The man grins. “Of course. What do you have in mind?” “The Ledbury, naturally.” The man is gaping at him now, his eyebrows raised. Bilbo laughs. “I’m joking!” he says and grins. “But I do know a wonderful little tea shop not far from here.” “That sounds good,” the man says with a smirk and a sigh of relief. “I’m Thorin Durin.” He offers his hand. Bilbo takes it and gives it a good shake. “Bilbo Baggins. I might not have wanted to meet this way…” “But I’m glad we did,” Thorin smiles. “Let me give you my number.” So Thorin does. And if, when Thorin gets on his bus with a wave and goodbye, Bilbo notices a few of the riders nearby him smiling with a mischievous glint in their eye, well, he simply hurries on to his own bus and ignores them. There are many texts throughout the day and Bilbo’s students ask him why he’s grinning at his phone numerous times and he tells them to mind their business and finish their essays before he fails them all. And if, at his lunch break, he is smiling at his phone and barely picking at his sandwich and Gandalf walks by with a mutter of, “The start of something wonderful, hmm?” well, Bilbo only smiles all the wider.

#I can't figure out how to add a read more lol #but I don't think this is too too long?#bagginshield #prompt #vtforpedro writes #angelsallfire

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angelofthequeers · 6 years ago

Text

Shine a Light on Me - part 3

Disclaimer: I don’t own ML.

My friend came up with Rena’s detransformation phrase and is a literal genius lmao

Part 2 | Part 4 | AO3 link

“Is it filming?” Ladybug says when Alya finally steps away from the video camera that’s been mounted on a tripod in the dark park where they’re filming their video. Just as she’d suspected, Alya had been hysterically thrilled to not only get the chance to be Rena Rouge once more but to expose Lila with her footage, and Ladybug finds that she doesn’t feel too bad about it anymore. She’s given Lila so many chances already, yet Lila refuses to accept these chances and stop being a manipulative liar. Honestly, she’s probably going to be akumatised again after this, but it’s not like Ladybug and Chat Noir can’t deal with her. They can’t let her dangle this threat over them any longer.

“Sure is!” Alya says. “I can just edit out everything before I transform, so no one will know it’s me.”

“Good.” Ladybug holds out the small box for Alya to snatch and dance with as she reconnects with Trixx. Although Master Fu had been rather hesitant about allowing Ladybug to take a Miraculous when there’s not even an akuma around, he had eventually seen the wisdom in exposing Lila now rather than waiting until she had caused too much harm to be fixed.

“I still feel bad about doing this,” Ladybug had said when accepting the Fox Miraculous. “It feels…petty.”

“When a plant has a dead leaf, you don’t want until that leaf infects the rest of the plant,” Master Fu had replied. “You trim that leaf to preserve the plant. You are far from a petty person, Marinette. You were right that exposing her now will prevent her from gaining too big a hold on those around her, especially if she’s claiming to be affiliated with you.” He sighed. “Too many innocents have been harmed through mere association with the Miraculouses. I would hate to see it happen again, no matter how awful a person she might be.”

“You ready, Ladybug?”

Ladybug blinks and shakes her head. In front of her is Rena Rouge, hands on her hips and a smirk on her face.

“Y-Yeah,” Ladybug says.

“Then let’s do this!”

Ladybug steps in front of the camera and clears her throat. “Earlier today, I was contacted by the Ladyblogger, Alya Césaire,” she recites, the words flowing smoothly after the past hour of practice. “I was shown a…disturbing video that she took when cornered by someone claiming to be Rena Rouge. As you know, we must never reveal our identities to anyone for both our safety and theirs, so this was a very serious matter.

“The person who made this claim is not Rena Rouge. Normally, I would just ignore this. However, this person has also claimed to be best friends with me, and this is not only false but also dangerous. Claiming to be a superhero or to be affiliated with one could make you a target to Hawkmoth, who will stop at nothing to get his hands on our Miraculouses. I’m here to ask you not to make claims that you are one of us or that you are friends with us. If you’re not, then you put yourself in danger. And if you are one of us, you are exposing your identity and wouldn’t be trusted with a Miraculous the next time we needed help.

“Rena Rouge was very interested to see this video. Alya has graciously lent me her phone so that I can show it to her.”

As Ladybug picks up Alya’s phone and navigates to the video, Rena Rouge moves into the camera’s view. Ladybug presses play and hands her the phone, and she finds herself amazed by Rena Rouge’s acting skills. She raises her eyebrows, growls, laughs, all at the right times, as though she’s never seen the video before; like she hadn’t even been the one to take it in the first place. When the video’s over, Rena Rouge locks the phone and is silent for a moment.

“Man, I wish I could teleport,” she says. Ladybug chuckles. “But Alya was right. I can only make illusions. If this girl’s going to claim to be me, she could at least get the power right.”

“So, you’re not Lila Rossi?” Ladybug says.

“Asks the one who gave me the Miraculous?” Rena Rouge snickers. “No, I’m not Lila Rossi. And if it wasn’t for the fact that this Lila girl’s putting herself in danger by claiming to be me, I’d totally let her keep doing it to misdirect people.” She looks directly at the camera. “Seriously, Lila, quit it. We don’t Hawkmoth to target you because of us. Also, next time you threaten people for seeing through your lies, make sure they’re not recording you like Alya did. Smart girl, that one.”

Ladybug resists the urge to roll her eyes to high heaven. Instead, she decides to end the video before Rena Rouge can stoke her own ego too much. “Thank you for clearing that up, Rena Rouge. And thank you to Alya for bringing this to our attention. We don’t tolerate lying and bullying.” She heads on over to stop the camera from recording.

“Whew!” Rena Rouge punches the air. “That felt good! Thanks for letting me do that, Ladybug.”

“Thank you for standing up for your friend,” Ladybug says. “I knew I made the right choice in choosing you as Rena Rouge.”

Rena Rouge practically preens on the spot. “Well, I’ll go and edit that footage right away, then post it on the Ladyblog. I hope Lila’s not too mad tomorrow.”

“It won’t be the first time someone gets akumatised again,” Ladybug sighs.

“True. Anyway, let’s bounce.” The fox suit dissolves in a swirl of orange sparkles, leaving Alya standing in Rena Rouge’s place. She waves at Trixx, then hands the necklace back to Ladybug, who puts it back in its box and then tucks that box away in her yo-yo.

Once Alya has packed away her equipment, Ladybug gives her a ride back to her house, then swings off from there in the direction of the Eiffel Tower. Chat Noir’s already there, and his face lights up with a gorgeous smile the moment he catches sight of Ladybug. How has Ladybug never realised who he is? She should have known Adrien’s beautiful smile anywhere.

“Good evening, milady,” he says, taking her hands and kissing them. Ladybug giggles and ducks her head.

“You don’t have to act charming to get me to like you,” she says.

“But it’s working, isn’t it?” Chat Noir grins. Now that Ladybug knows that he’s Adrien, she has to admit that his flirting really is kind of adorable.

“But it’s not what got my attention in the first place,” she says, flicking his nose. When she looks over his shoulder, she catches sight of a blanket spread across the metal floor of the tower platform, along with a plate of cookies and a vase of red tulips. There are also candles scattered in a circle around the blanket, like the last time Chat Noir had set up a surprise. “Kitty, what’s this?”

“The best cookies for milady,” Chat Noir says with a playful smirk. “I hear that the Dupain-Cheng bakery is the finest in all of Paris.”

“You big suck-up,” Ladybug teases, though she can’t deny that her stomach is currently fluttering.

“And after the last two times I gave you roses, I thought that tulips might prove to be luckier,” Chat Noir says. “Do you…like it?”

Ladybug walks past Chat Noir and takes in what he’s set up. As the butterflies once again start in her stomach, she can’t stop the smile that spreads across her face.

“I love it, Chat Noir,” she says. “Just like I loved it the first time.”

Chat Noir laughs rather nervously. When Ladybug turns around, she catches him scratching the back of his neck. “Oh. Right. I forgot that you ended up seeing it. When I cancelled hanging out with Marinette on the off chance that Ladybug would come and see me.”

“That did hurt,” Ladybug admits. “But I’ve probably hurt you too, so we’re even.”

“Not really,” Chat Noir says. “It’s pretty much just been me. I really am sorry, by the way.”

Ladybug’s mouth downturns at how Chat Noir’s ears are drooping and his eyes have lost their sparkle. “Hey,” she says. “It’s okay, kitty. We’re just a couple of dumb teenagers. We’ll figure this out.” She reaches out and takes his hand, lacing their fingers together. “Together.”

Chat Noir smiles, though it’s not as wide as usual. Unable to help herself, like there’s some magnetic force pulling them together, Ladybug gently lifts his chin and stands on her tip-toes, her mouth hovering just short of his. When he finally gives a tiny nod, she closes the distance and seals their mouths together in a soft press of lips.

Their first mutual kiss, with both of them fully aware, is…well, there are no fireworks like everyone seems to insist. It’s a little dry and awkward, with their noses bumping and teeth clacking…but it’s perfect, and Ladybug wouldn’t change it for the world. When she finally pulls back, Chat Noir doesn’t react at all.

“Chat Noir?” She waves a hand in front of his face but he’s frozen. “Oh no, did I break you?”

“Yeah,” Chat Noir sighs. His whole face quite literally melts into the goofiest, most lovesick expression Ladybug has ever seen. “You can break me any day, milady.”

“Oh, cut that out,” Ladybug scolds, though her smile takes any sting out of her words. Still holding his hand, she guides him over to the picnic blanket and they sit down across from each other, with the cookies and tulips between them.

“I’m really not sucking up,” Chat Noir says when they each take a cookie. “Your parents actually do make the best pastries.”

“Flattery will get you everywhere,” Ladybug winks and takes a bite of her cookie. Chat Noir’s eyes follow her movement.

“So, uh…how are we doing this?” he says, blinking and tearing his eyes away from her mouth. “Should we be together as both sides of ourselves?”

“Of course,” Ladybug says immediately. There’s no question about it; she wants both Adrien and Chat Noir, as both Marinette and Ladybug. “I mean, we’d have to have a bit of distance between our civilian selves and us getting together, but I don’t want to have to pretend that we don’t like each other. Like that, at least.”

“Well, I think Adrien should arrive at school tomorrow and announce to the world that he wants Marinette Dupain-Cheng to be his girlfriend,” Chat Noir says. Ladybug’s cheeks burn like fire at the reminder that Adrien is behind the mask and loves her.

“Th-That makes sense,” she stammers. “Our class already saw us being close.”

“I didn’t even think of that,” Chat Noir says. “I was just thinking that there’s no way I could sit near you all day at school and not be able to hug you and kiss you. At least when we’re transformed, we can focus on dealing with the akuma.”

If possible, Ladybug’s cheeks grow even hotter. This has to be a dream. No way can Adrien Agreste just want to hug and kiss her like that! “I – yeah, okay! Marinette and Adrien. Then us.”

“I hope you’re not against me sweeping you off your feet after an akuma fight, bugaboo,” Chat Noir winks. Ladybug groans and covers her face.

“You can’t just say that!” she says. “You – gah – stop being so cute!”

“I could say the same thing about you, princess,” Chat Noir says with a devilish grin, no doubt enjoying her self-combustion. Thankfully, he seems to decide that there’s been enough teasing, because his grin softens into something more genuine. “I really am glad it’s you, Marinette. You’re so sweet and tough and you stand up for others all the time. I don’t know how I never realised before.”

“I – Tikki said that the Miraculouses stop it from clicking in people’s minds unless there’s really obvious proof, like how you quoted our conversation,” Ladybug forces out, wondering if her heart will give out before the night’s even over. “And I – well, I didn’t even think it could be you. You’re so…different as Chat Noir.”

“Dashingly handsome, you mean?” Chat Noir smirks. Ladybug rolls her eyes and kicks him in the shin. “Meowch!”

“But I’m glad you’re Chat Noir,” Ladybug says. “I couldn’t imagine anyone else as my partner. I don’t want anyone else as my partner.”

“I haven’t exactly had your back lately, though,” Chat Noir sighs. “Especially with Lila. You were hurting, and I put her feelings above yours.”

“Oh, don’t worry,” Ladybug says with a small smile. “Lila dug herself into a hole she can’t get out of this time.”

Marinette doesn’t have long to wonder how the video of Ladybug and Rena Rouge will go down; as soon as she gets to school the next day – on time for the third day in a row, no thanks to her rolling anxiety to see what exactly Adrien’s going to do – there are people muttering and hovering over each other’s phones. In the courtyard, everyone in Miss Bustier’s class except for Chloé, Sabrina, Lila, and Adrien are crowded around Alya, all peering at her phone.

“She really said that to you?” Marinette hears Mylène gasp when she draws near. “But I thought she was so nice!”

“I did too,” Alya says, patting Mylène on the shoulder. “She duped all of us.”

“Except for Marinette,” Nino says when he catches sight of Marinette. The others raise their heads, and Marinette is left to grin and wave sheepishly after being caught on the spot.

“Uh…I’m guessing it went well?” Marinette says.

“Did it ever!” Alya crows. She and Nino extract themselves from the crowd and stand on either side of Marinette, and Alya slides the video back to the start and holds her phone out.

The video’s very well-edited. It starts from the moment Ladybug appears on camera, so her conversation before Alya’s transformation is nowhere to be found. Marinette makes sure to react with proper shock and awe at Ladybug and Rena Rouge’s speeches, and she’s very impressed at how Alya has edited the original video of Lila threatening them into the corner of the overall video, playing along as Rena Rouge watches it on Alya’s phone so that the audience can see it too.

“I can’t believe Rena Rouge complimented you!” Marinette says with an exaggerated gasp. She fights to conceal her smirk when Nino and Alya exchange what they no doubt believe are covert smiles.

“I know, right?” Alya says. “I can’t believe it! I just started off following Ladybug and Chat Noir for footage and now I’ve got superheroes who know me as the Ladyblogger!”

“Hey, that’s awesome!” says a familiar voice from behind them. Marinette struggles to make sure that her heart doesn’t explode out of her chest when Adrien draws level with them. “If anyone deserves it, it’s you, Alya.”

“Adrien! You’ve seen the video, right, dude?” Nino says. He slips an arm around Alya. “I’m so proud of my girl for getting this footage from Ladybug and Rena Rouge!”

“Lila’s going to be so upset, though,” Marinette says to Adrien. He sighs and shrugs.

“I know,” he says. “But I thought she was just lying. I didn’t think she was actually threatening you.”

“Wait, what?” Kim says. “You knew she was a liar?”

Adrien’s smile slips, and he turns around to face the class. “Yeah. I want to apologise to all of you. I knew that Lila was lying from when Ladybug called her out for lying to me, but I told Marinette to just let her dig herself into a hole by herself. I thought that Lila getting akumatised again would just lead to more hurt, and I thought I could convince her to stop lying and be honest without having to expose her. I – I was wrong. And I didn’t see that all of you got hurt because of it until now. I’m sorry, guys.”

For a moment, no one says anything as they all look at each other. Just as Marinette’s about to speak up for Adrien, Max steps forward.

“Well, we aren’t exactly blameless in this scenario either,” he says. “We all turned on Marinette and didn’t believe her. So, if Marinette forgives us, we forgive you.”

“Of course I forgive you,” Marinette says when everyone turns to face her. “I don’t want to be that person who holds grudges and turns bitter, especially over one mistake.”

“Then we forgive you,” Max says to Adrien, who slumps in relief.

“Yay!” Rose throws her arms around Marinette, hugging her tightly, and Marinette can’t help but laugh and hug back.

“Marinette?” Adrien says. Rose releases Marinette, who turns to see Adrien shifting rather nervously on the spot. “I was wondering –”

“How could you?” cries a voice. Over Adrien’s shoulder, Marinette catches sight of Lila storming over to them, her eyes glimmering with crocodile tears. “Alya, how could you do that to me? I trusted you enough to tell you my secret and you recorded me and humiliated me!”

“Your secret?” Alix says, crossing her arms. “I don’t think it’s your secret if Ladybug said you’re not Rena Rouge. I mean, she’s the one who picked Rena.”

“And you think that Rena Rouge can teleport,” Juleka says.

“I – obviously I couldn’t tell Alya everything!” Lila says. “What if Hawkmoth akumatised her again and got that information from her?”

“What, like he’s akumatised you three times already?” Alya challenges. “Especially that time on Heroes’ Day when you were meant to be in Achu!”

“It could’ve been another akuma with a similar power!” Lila says. “He’s made plenty of akumas that share similar superpowers!”

“You didn’t deny that you were in Achu in the video,” Nathaniel pipes up. “You just said that the Fox can teleport. If you were in Achu, you would’ve said you were there in the first place.”

Now that everyone’s aware that Lila’s lying, it’s absolutely beautiful to watch them all tear apart every little thing Lila’s said. Marinette probably shouldn’t be taking satisfaction from this but after Lila’s deceived her classmates time and time again? She can’t help it.

“We all saw the video,” Ivan says with a scowl. “You said you made us all hate Marinette and you’d do it to Alya too. We heard you.”

“But I –”

“Wow,” Chloé laughs as she saunters past with Sabrina. “And I thought I was a bitch. At least I don’t go around being fake about it.”

That seems to be the final straw. Lila shrieks in pure rage and stamps her foot, clenching her fists by her side. “Ladybug!” she bellows. “I hate you, Ladybug! You’ve ruined everything!”

The moment Lila stiffens is when Marinette knows that everything is going terribly wrong. A familiar purple mask glows around Lila’s face, and she looks up with shaded eyes and a dark, twisted smile.

“She’s being akumatised!” Rose cries. Naturally, this starts a mass panic, starting with the people around her who hear her and rippling out from there.

“I knew you’d be back, Hawkmoth,” Lila drawls as everyone around her screams and trips over each other to get somewhere safe before she transforms. “What’s my power this time?”

“Come on!” Marinette grabs Adrien by the wrist. “We need to get somewhere safe!”

“Where are you going?” Alya calls over the hysteria as Lila is encased in a mass of purple-black. Marinette pretends she doesn’t hear, instead dragging Adrien off through the crowd, ducking and weaving to avoid crashing into the students running around. They duck into the first abandoned classroom they find, and Marinette slams the door shut and locks it.

“I knew it was a bad idea to expose her!” Marinette wails. “You were right!”

“No.” Adrien grabs Marinette by the biceps. “Marinette, you saw how she just accepted Hawkmoth like that. She was always going to be akumatised every time she got angry. You just made sure that she couldn’t hurt anyone else with her lies.”

Marinette takes a deep breath and then nods. Even if Adrien’s wrong, they can’t afford to argue over this now. “We have to deal with her. Tikki, spots on!”

“Plagg, claws out!”

#miraculous ladybug #ml season 3 spoilers #oblivio #post-oblivio #identity reveal #ml fic #adrinette #djwifi #marinette dupain-cheng #adrien agreste #alya cesaire #nino lahiffe #lila rossi #lila redemption #just not in this chapter #aotq fic

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nohshinwoos · 6 years ago

Note

would u ever do a gif tutorial?? i love your gifs !! 💓

first of all, thank you 💖💖 and sorry this took a while to answer/make, i have had a lot going on and found it hard to make myself focus on this! but here it is now :D

i did make a tutorial earlier this year, but since i feel like that’s slightly outdated now (because i’ve changed the way i make my gifs quite a lot during this year), here’s a new one :’)

in this tutorial i included how i:

download

cut out the part i want to gif

import to photoshop

how to use actions (because i’ve started using that a lot and will in this tutorial)

crop (action)

put the text on (action)

sharpen (action)

colour (psd)

save

‘delay’ the gif so it’s a (in my opinion) good speed (again with an action)

i use photoshop cc 2018, but i think as long as you can open video clips in it and it has the ‘timeline’ you should be fine no matter what ps you have. (don’t hold me to it, though, that’s just my own speculation.)

i’ve included some things too:

an ‘action pack’ including: crop, sharpening, text and ‘delay’.

3 colouring psds (2 from the last tutorial+the one used for this tutorial)

i’ll be showing how i made this 540x300px type of gif:

from this gifset.

(tutorial under the cut! warning for a long post, with a lot of text and pictures. sorry if this is very in depth i just can’t stop talking sometimes. some things might be small details, but it’s things i wish i learned sooner myself. anyway lets get into it! also i’m not an expert, just speaking from my own experience.)

downloading the video

the first thing i do is download the video i want from clipconverter.cc. paste the link in the field, press continue, choose mp4 and highest possible quality (preferably high definition (hd) 1080p or 720p) and then press start. it takes a while to process the video, but once that’s done just press download and wait for the video to download, which takes another while.

if you know which part you want, and don’t wanna download a full video, you can just put in what part you wanna download like this at the bottom:

cutting out the part i want to gif

i use quicktime player (download link) to open the video and then i cut out the part i want to gif using the ‘trim‘ tool, found under edit -> trim… i always leave more than i need when trimming, just to be sure i get all of what i want to gif, then trim it a bit more later in ps.

trim by pulling the yellow things until you’re happy, then hit the button to the right.

when you feel like you have the part you want, just click file -> save… and name it and save it where you want.

importing the clip to photoshop

i simply import a clip by pulling it from the folder into ps, like this:

this will open up your clip like this:

i always work in the video timeline like this, because i find it easier to move stuff around in it - especially text. and because you can listen to the video clip as you do the text part of the gif, so i don’t need to have it open on the side.

how to use actions

using actions may sound hard, but it’s honestly the best discovery i’ve done in ps this year! now i tend to use it more often than not, because it makes gifmaking simpler (in my opinion). basically, the action does the things for you instead of you having to click a lot of buttons

depending on how you’ve set up your ps, the ‘actions’ panel is on the right. if it’s not, open it by clicking window -> actions.

to import an action to photoshop, you click the little lines at the top right corner of the ‘actions’ window. then click load actions…

find the action (.atn) you wanna use and click it to add it to ps.

then you just click the action you wanna use in the actions window on the right, and hit the little play button (see pic below) and let ps do the rest.

click the action (red circle), then play (blue circle)!

nothing more, nothing less!

crop (action)

following the steps above we’re now gonna crop the video.

my ‘big’/one line gifs are usually 540x300px because i find that to be a good size for those.

click the ‘crop 540x300px’ action and ‘play’. done!

and before we move on, this is usually when i trim the gif from the excess i left when trimming it in quicktime player.

place the marker (red circle) where you want to cut the clip, use the scissor (blue circle) to cut it. click the clip you don’t want anymore and delete it.

text (action)

when i make gifs with text, i find it best to do the text right after the cropping. if the gif doesn’t have text, i just go straight to ‘sharpening’.

first close the video group by clicking the little arrow next to it, then click the video group:

add the ‘text’ to the gif using the action. the text layer won’t go all the way out, or it might be too long depending on the clip’s length, so just pull it so it fits the size of the whole clip:

this something to remember to check once we get to colouring as well.

then what i do is that i play (the button marked in blue below) the clip in ps, listen for what i want to be in that particular gif and then pause where i want to cut it, and simply cut it with the scissor. make sure the text layer is selected before cutting it.

you can either keep the layers like this, or you pull down the top one to the same line in the ‘timeline’. i always want them all in the same row because i find that simpler.

i keep cutting the text where i want the gifs to end. you could say that each section of text is a gif in the gifset, because that’s how i think when i gif like this.

then it’s just to put the text you want for each part of the gif.

click the section of text you want to write in, click the ‘type tool’ and then the text on the gif to start writing.

i always make my text boxes higher than i need to, because i never know how many lines the text will be. then i just hit enter to jump down as many lines as i need in order for the text to be at the bottom of the gif.

sharpening (action)

when you’re gonna sharpen the clip, you’ll need to open the video group that you previously closed again.

click the ‘video’ layer and apply the ‘sharpening’ action just like with the other actions.

now that we’ve sharpened it, when saved the gif will look something like this:

colouring

i most often colour every gifset by itself nowadays, because i love experimenting with colours and try to find something that works for every gif/gifset. it can be challenging, but i personally enjoy that kind of challenge!

for the tutorial i made earlier this year i included some psds that you can find here. you can find the colouring i made for this tutorial there as well! if you just wanna apply the psd and not colour from scratch, i explained how you do that here!

the layers i use are:

‘levels’ (to lighten/darken)

‘vibrance’ (to make the colours ‘pop’)

at least one ‘selective layer’, but usually a few more (to experiment with colours and change/desaturate colours completely)

sometimes a ‘curves’ layer as well (if the gif is very dark or just need some more light other than what the ‘levels’ layer can do)

sometimes i use ‘hue/saturation’ as well (if i wanna change a specific colour to another or saturate it completely)

all adjustments layers i use can be find at the bottom of the ‘layers’ tab, the button is called ‘create new fill or adjustment layer’:

since my colourings differ from gifset to gifset, this is just generally what i do when colouring. it also varies depending on if it’s more colourful gifs (like this or this, or like the phil one i’m gonna show now), or just one more subtle coloured (like this, this or this).

if there’s requests for more colour tutorials i can make more :’)

but now back to this gifset!

i always start with adding a ‘levels’ layer. my settings for this gifset was:

the first value is shadows, second is midtones and third is highlights. i usually keep my shadows value at 10-20, midtones 1,20-1,50 or 1,60-1,70 if i need to, and leave highlights as it is. (i don’t use the output levels at all.)

after ‘levels’:

second layer i add is usually ‘vibrance’. (sometimes i add ‘selective layer’(s) before ‘vibrance’, but i find it easier to do ‘selective layer’(s) last.) my settings for ‘vibrance’ is usually:

so i basically always turn ‘vibrance’ up to +100, sometimes i’ve used ‘saturation’ too and put it at like +10 or +20 but i find that to be a bit too much most times.

after ‘vibrance’:

‘selective layer’ is for me the most frustrating part, but also the most fun because you can get such cool colours with it - or even just enhance the already existing colours just a bit.

‘selective layer’ have many different options and depending on what my ‘goal’ for the gifset is, i use these differently. something i always try to have in mind, though, is that the colours ‘disappear’ a bit when i upload the gifs to tumblr and it’s okay if it’s a bit too ‘much’ in ps.

my biggest tip is probably to explore it on your own and play around with it a lot. that’s how you learn what works and doesn’t work and also what you personally like or don’t like. if it doesn’t look good, just delete the ‘selective layers’ and start from scratch again.

my first layer is always in the reds and often in the black one as well. for the phil gifset my settings were:

in the reds i enhance his skin colour and in the blacks i make everything black a bit darker. if it’s a colourful gifset i always make the reds a bit ‘stronger’ than i need to, because a lot of the skin colour disappears when i keep adding layers and changing the colours in those.

after this layer the gif looks like this:

in the second layer i played around with the blues and magentas, to try and change the blue and magenta colours in the gif - in this case phil’s sheets, his sweater and his eyes.

my settings ended up being like this:

and then the gif looks like this:

layer 3 in this gif is just magentas, in which i kind of saturated the magenta and blue colours a bit.

then it looks like this:

i wasn’t really happy with the green (the pillows) in the gif, so i added another layer in which i changed yellows and greens, and put it beneath the rest of the ‘selective layers’.

in this layer i played with the yellows and greens, because green always contains yellow and green. putting the cyan to -100 in the yellows layer will make it more reddish and the yellow at +100 will make it more yellow. changing the greens and putting the cyan on -100 made it more reddish too, the magenta at +20 gave it a kind of orange-ish tone and yellow at +100 made it a bit more yellow.

and this is how the gif looks now:

all in all, i find that to get good or interesting colourings you just have to play around with the different layers. and add more ‘selective layers’, to change the colours even more. as i said before - if it doesn’t work or looks weird, simply delete the ‘selective layers’ and start over :’)

saving

one of the final steps in gifmaking is saving. i save my gifs in two steps, and this is the first one.

to save the first gif, just place the markers like this:

so it matches with the ‘text’ layer.

click file -> export -> save for web… for my laptop it takes a little while to process it, but soon this window will pop up:

in the bottom left corner of the window you can see the gif size.

it needs to be under 3mb for it to work in a tumblr post. if it’s over that, you can either exit the window now and shorten the gif a bit more - or you can save it now and remove frames in the ‘delay’ step further down. i personally most often do the latter because i find that easier.

on the right of the gif are all the settings, mine are:

i mostly focus on the top half i find ‘selective’ and ‘pattern’ to be the best settings, but that’s a matter of taste really. you can always play around with it until you find what you think is best for your gifs.

and make sure the looping options at the bottom is set to ‘forever’, so the gif doesn’t suddenly stop.

when you’re done, click save… and save your gif where you want.

move the markers (red circles) to match with the next text layer to and repeat the steps to save the next gif.

‘delay’ (action)

once the gif is saved i always open it again to change the ‘frame delay time’ and sometimes (like for the gif used in this example) i add another ‘vibrance’ layer if i find that the gif lacks some colours. you can of course do this during colouring, but for me this works as well.

find your gif, open it in ps. choose the action called ‘delay 0,05’, then hit play. this will make the gif a bit slower than it is when you first save it in ps.

if you want to add another ‘vibrance’ layer, you can do so now. in the ‘layers’ tab, scroll all the way up and click the first layer and then add another ‘vibrance’ layer and set it to the value you want.

(i usually go for +50 or +100.)

if you know your gif is too big (over 3mb) from saving it earlier, you can now delete frames in order to make it smaller. what i do is delete one or two frames at a time until it’s under 3mb.

to delete frames, click the one frame, hold ‘shift’ and click as many frames back as you wanna delete. click the tarsh bin (blue circle) to delete them.

once you’re done, click file -> export -> save for web… again to save your gif. i usually save over the one i saved before, because i see no use having two gifs that’s almost the same. i only confuse myself so i don’t know which one is which without having to open ps again.

now you’re finally done and can post your gif(s) to tumblr :D

the final result!

before all effects:

after all effects:

if you found this helpful, please like or reblog! thank you for reading :’) 💖

#anon #asks #gif tutorial #i really hope this makes sense and that i didn't miss anything hhhh iamanxious sjkdhjgdshfkl

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beyondthetemples-ooc · 5 years ago

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VERMIN ASK GAME

source: https://todaysbird.tumblr.com/post/612934331593277440

frankly, i just wanted to fill them all out, heh.

rat 🐀 - What is a surprising but good quality about you?

Uhhhm... oh gosh, that’s subjective. Despite being ridiculously introverted, I’m pretty skilled at holding a conversation?

pigeon 🐦 - What do you know a surprising amount about?

........*glance glance* Raven.......... obvious answer is obvious

bat 🦇 - are you a daytime or nighttime person?

Also obvious, I’m sure, but a child of the night by far.

mouse 🐁 - what’s your favorite subject to study?

Freestyle “subject”? My hyperfixations! Teen Titans and Steven Universe especially. Also smaller fixations like the Finnish language, symphonic metal, birds (especially corvids and columbids), etc.

But subjects as in structured scholastic classes, probably... other languages?* Or digital art!*

raccoon 🦝- what do others consider trash that you consider treasure?

Maybe... Throwaway bits of Lore regarding peoples’ thoughts, or feelings, or lives? I like to Collect Facts, especially about friends. So, I have damn-near eidetic memory when it comes to conversations, especially when it’s with people I really like talking to. So someone else might discard the fact that you have a fuzzy blue sweater or something, but it’s stuck there, in my head, and my brain CAN and WILL use it as either a Random Fun Fact to Remember, or snark ammo.

* Rant on why English and Creative Writing AREN’T my favorite subjects below the cut.

Believe it or not, although I absolutely love reading, analyzing, and putting my thoughts into words, I didn’t enjoy “studying” English Literature as much as I would have liked. I HATE being told how to interpret something, or that my “read” on it is Wrong because I didn’t see the same arbitrary parallels as some scholar from the 1950s who wrote an article on the book once. The classes were so easy for me, I passed the AP tests with full 5′s and ran out of space to answer the essay questions. And when I was in Honors English in College, my teacher told me to stop overanalyzing and writing full responses to explain my reasoning. I dropped out of that class because A) I have ADHD and usually cannot trim my answers down to the Bare Minimum because to my brain, It’s All Essential and Relevant Information. And B) What the fuck did I spent 12 years learning how to write Long Thorough Answers for if she only wanted five words as a response??? I learned absolutely NOTHING, and even the class discussions were vapid and soulless. I was utterly WASTING my TIME in that class.

Also, in high school I almost got a C on a big-point project because I only wrote an outline and converted it immediately to my Final Draft. I didn’t write a Rough Draft. I told him, I EDIT AS I GO. For clarity, spelling, grammar, coherence, even goddamn tRANSITIONS. But he didn’t want to hear it. I literally Can Not Write a Rough Draft, I have to work all the kinks out as soon as I notice them, and I am an EXCELLENT editor. I assure you that if I’m using ~Improper Grammar~ or a spelling mistake on the internet, I probably kept it there for comedic effect and/or Emotional Expressionism. Like the lowercase t in tRANSITIONS there, that shift from lower-to-CAPS indicates gROWING EXASPERATION. I never did that with my formal writing assignments of course, but like... The bastard Would Not Give Me 30% Of My Points because I was TOO GOOD AT WRITING ESSAYS.

The only reason he gave me the points back was because I’ve always had MS Word set to automatically Track Changes, and I printed a document as Original Showing Markup, with all the tracked changes showing, and turned it in as both a desperate measure to revive my grade, and a silent little “fuck you, here’s the literal review history” to show him that I did, in fact, turn those bullet point into full grammatically-correct sentences.

Anyways, “Creative Writing” classes are also kind of bullshit because the teachers/professors try to get you to write A Certain Way or About Certain Subjects, and while it’s nice to expand your horizons, getting a bad grade because a certain literary tool doesn’t mesh with your individual brand of creativity is bullshit. My freaking Latin teacher understood when I told him I really struggled to write comedy better than some of my writing teachers!

#IRL canon #questions list #answers list

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monstersandmaw · 6 years ago

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Male selkie x reader (light nsfw) - Mermay story #5

Shsshhhhhhh, it’s still Mermay ok. Good? Ok. Let’s continue.

I hope you like this new boy. Something a little different this time, back to High Fantasy setting, rather than Starfall, and we find ourselves taken on as a guard at a castle by the sea which has one or two more secrets than most castles do…

Content: very light nsfw and a gender neutral reader.

___

You’d stumbled up to the colossal old castle gate little more than a month ago, bedraggled, with a notched blade and not much else to your name, wounded, and utterly exhausted. Mercifully, instead of shooting you on sight from the parapets, the guards had taken you to the little infirmary and you’d been taken care of there.

In order to repay them, you’d offered your services on the watch, or as part of the guard. After surprising the Captain of the Guard by proving yourself more than capable of wielding a blade - you could take care of yourself alright when you weren’t outnumbered six to one by bandits, which was how you’d got into that mess in the first place - you were given a bunk in the barracks and told to report to the castle’s armourer and smith for a mail shirt.

The smith was… colossal. With shoulders practically as broad as the castle gates, he towered over you, but as you entered, he glanced up from his work, and from one look at his handsome, dark-bearded, fire-stained face, you saw a gentle, kindly man beneath the grime and the muscles. He had a bit of a paunch too, which made him seem jovial and friendly, softening him at the edges where the muscles of his arms might have made him seem aggressive or dangerous.

“Alright?” he asked in a gruff, deep bass voice.

You nodded. “Been sent for a mail shirt. I’m joining the guard.”

“Ah, welcome,” he said. “I’m Dennek. I’ll be seeing more of you then, I suppose,” he added with a wonky grin as he extended his dirty hand to you and clasped your own in a bone-creakingly strong grip. “So, you managed to get lost yet?” he asked, his grin only broadening when you rolled your eyes.

“Yup,” you said. “Only about, four times… This place is a labyrinth!”

His friendly expression flickered suddenly and you watched his shoulders drop just a little. “Don’t go poking around this place, alright? Stick to your guard patrols, and the upper castle.”

“The ‘upper’ castle?”

He licked his lips. “Yeah. There’s been a castle on this outcrop for, well, thousands of years. As long as you stay up here, and don’t go exploring down into the cliff itself, you should be fine.”

“What’s down there?”

“Nothing but empty tunnels for miles and miles, or so I’m told,” he said. “Most folk who go wandering around down there either don’t come back at all, or come back stark raving mad.” He clearly saw the look on your face and added with an empty chuckle, “But you’ll be fine. I didn’t mean to scare you. Come on, let’s get you fitted out with some new gear.”

The blacksmith’s words stayed with you, and in fact you found them echoed by the Captain of the Guard, who told you in no uncertain terms that you were not to go ‘poking around’.

Between your new duties and the training regime, you barely had a moment to yourself anyway, and all you wanted to do at the end of your rotation was crash into a bath or a bed. Preferably the former then the latter.

You formed a few close friendships in the first months of being at the castle, but perhaps your closest was with Dennek. He always seemed pleased to see you, and recently had taken to offering you a cup of tea whenever you dropped by the castle’s impressive forge.

“What’s on the anvil this time, Den?” you asked, leaning against the wooden door frame of the separate smithy and making him look up at you from his work with a fond smile. The forge-fire reflected in his huge, dark eyes, and his lashes you suddenly realised were very long indeed. Something fluttered and turned over in your stomach at the discovery.

“Oh, just horse shoes today,” he said. “I seem to make more nails and more horse shoes than anything else. Can’t make a new sword everyday after all…” he grinned. “Even for His Highness up in the tower,” Den added, jutting his chin up in the direction of the highest tower of the castle.

“I’ve been here six months, and I’ve never once seen the prince,” you said, stepping inside. The heat and the smoke and smell of the forge had become a comfort to you in your time there, and you came to associate the smell of hot metal and leather with the strong arms and dark eyes of the smith.

Dennek chuckled and rubbed at his close-trimmed black beard. “Oh, I wouldn’t worry about that. He’s the shy and retiring type.”

“I heard he was sick,” you said. “But I’ve also heard that he’s mad and that the adviser is the one with all the power…”

The smith’s heavy brows darkened and he shook his head. “Where’d you hear that rubbish from?”

You shrugged, unnerved by the hint of outrage in his tone. “Same place I hear stories about a skeleton that wanders the castle, glowing green in the dead of night, and of folk that transform into wolves or seals at night and steal away young virgins from the safety of the castle walls… The guards and the servants like to talk…”

Dennek’s usual ruddy complexion paled instantly, but he recovered himself and turned away. That was hardly the reaction you’d been expecting. “Codswallop, the lot of it,” he muttered, sticking the blank, glowing horseshoe into a trough of water to cool it and tossing it into a pile of similar ones nearby.

“Den?” you asked, taking an uncertain step towards him.

He huffed an awkward laugh and turned back to you. “Fairytale stuff from superstitious folks, that’s all. Magic and all that has been dead for a thousand years.”

You nodded slowly and let your gaze drift towards the fire, and your thoughts went with it. Now that he’d lessened the air intake, the coals were glowing more softly and you sighed as you stared at it.

Dennek murmured your name and you jumped, not realising that the huge smith had crossed back over to you to stand so close. “What is it?” he asked in a gentle murmur. It seemed strange that someone so large could still manage to be so quiet.

“I wish… I wish it hadn’t all died out, you know? I wish there hadn’t been the trials and the burnings… I wish we still had magical creatures. It sounds foolish, I know, but my father used to tell me stories about the fair folk and healers who were also witches, about goblins who lived in the mountains and selkies who lived in the sea.” You let out another sigh. Beside you, Dennek had gone very still. You smiled sadly and exhaled. “I always ached for it to be true. I think part of me still does.”

You shot him an embarrassed look, expecting him to laugh, but his face was oddly unreadable. “Maybe it is still true, somewhere,” he muttered under his breath.

“Wouldn’t that be nice,” you smiled.

To your surprise, he shook his head, his curly black hair bouncing with the movement, and he moved away from you. “It’d be miserable for them, living in hiding, always in fear…”

“I guess…” you said, unnerved by the sombre quality his deep voice had taken on. You hopped up lightly onto his anvil and perched there like a crow on the castle parapets, and said, “Well, that turned gloomy… What are you doing tonight? You want to come to the tavern with me?”

He turned from where he’d been stowing his tongs and hammers back in the neat rack at the side of the forge, and you took the opportunity to admire his incredible body yet again. His pale shirt was scruffy and dirty beneath the leather apron he wore, his softer stomach very much evident beneath it, and since he’d cuffed the sleeves up to his elbows, you could clearly see the iron muscles of his forearms and the smudged and scarred, darkly tanned skin. His brown trousers were simple and baggy, tucked into clunky boots which were falling to pieces at the soles.

Those big dark eyes gleamed in the low light of his forge, and he looked at you with an intensity you’d never really noticed before. Den was always quiet, thoughtful, but something else seemed to have leached into him that day.

“Den?”

“Love to,” he said a heartbeat later, and his smile was back. “Meet you at the Wingspan Inn at seven?”

You nodded. “Perfect. My shift finishes at six.”

Dennek was already there when you pushed the dockside tavern door open.

It was one of the pubs frequented by the employees of the castle, but this one also had a mix of folk who lived in the town which had grown up at the base of the outcrop on which the castle had been built. The smell of iodine and salt followed you inside as you stepped over the threshold, but it was quickly swept away by the smell of food, gathered people, and spilled ale.

The smith was deep in conversation with a beautiful young man, lithe and slim, with long dark hair and pale, freckled skin, and he was openly flirting with Dennek.

The man’s slender hand slid up Dennek’s muscular arm, and you watched as the smith laughed and leaned more heavily on the bar, chin resting on his balled fist. When he glanced away and saw you, his eyes lit up and he excused himself from the young man and patting him rather patronisingly on the upper arm as he passed him by in favour of you.

“You’re popular,” you couldn’t help snipping as he joined you, and he shrugged, blushing a little.

“I’m glad you’re here,” he said. “The man might have had sweet words, but he’s not you that’s for sure. What are you drinking?”

He got you something to drink and you followed him to a quieter corner of the bar.

“How was the rest of your day?” he asked as he leaned back and stretched out his long, thick legs beneath the table with a grunt. One caught your calf as he crossed them at the ankle, but he didn’t apologise. He only smiled and left his leg where it was, a warm weight against your own.

You told him about your day, but you couldn’t really focus. His eyes were so bright, his smile so warm, and his presence just so… big. You’d been drawn to him since the moment you'd first met him, but now you felt something new, something deeper binding you to this huge, gentle man.

“You know what?” he asked as he finished his beer and set the heavy glass tankard back down on the table with a clunk. “You want to get out of here?”

You nodded, and he held out his hand to you, helping you to your feet. He almost didn’t let go of it, but then he let you walk ahead of him through the closely-spaced tables of the traditional old pub.

A large, older man caught his attention by yelling his name and laughing, and Dennek chuckled ruefully. “Excuse me just a moment, will you?” he asked you, and turned to speak to the grizzled man. You thought you saw a familial similarity in the two as they clasped forearms and clapped each other on the back.

“Uncle Jordan,” he said.

“Laddie, when are you coming to visit again! It’s been too long. But life in the castle is clearly doing you good - look at you lad!” he chortled, slapping Dennek’s slightly round belly with the back of his hand.

“I’ll visit tomorrow, I promise. But tonight, I’m a little busy.”

Jordan dug him in the ribs with an elbow and laughed. “Ach, get on with ye,” he said with a twinkle in his dark eyes. “Have your fun, but remember…”

“I’ll be careful. I remember.”

A frown tugged at your brows at that, but it was erased when Dennek turned his own eyes on you and smiled.

“Sorry about that,” he muttered as he joined you and ushered you out of the pub. “Overbearing family who lives locally…”

“They care about you. It’s nice,” you said. “I wish I had family who lived nearby and looked out for me like that.”

“You never told me about your family,” he asked carefully as you stepped out into the chilly evening and headed along the empty cobbled street towards the shore.

With a snort, you said, “There’s nothing to tell. Yours seem nice enough though?”

Dennek fell into step beside you, his footsteps oddly quiet for a man so big. He towered over you, but you somehow felt protected instead of dwarfed, which was ridiculous because you knew you needed no one to protect you. Still, it was nice to have the luxury.

He bowed his head in mixed apology and acceptance. “You want to walk towards the beach? The tide is out.”

You and Dennek made your way along the road, and in that strange, empty space, something seemed different now between you. There was a tension that had not existed in the months you’d been friends, and you realised that although you’d been out together before, it had always been in the company of others from the castle. This was your first time alone with each other.

Cool night breezes wafted in from the sea, and it carried with it the scents of the ocean and the call of gulls. Dennek lifted his head, his thick, curly hair lifting in the sea air as he inhaled deeply, dark eyes fluttering shut. He had the longest lashes you’d ever seen on a man.

He caught you looking at him and his lips quirked behind his beard. “What?”

When you told him your thoughts on his eyelashes, he tipped his head back and barked a booming, deep laugh that came from his belly and made his throat bob. “Aye, I’ve heard that before,” he said.

“I bet you have,” you shot darkly, and his laughter cut off immediately.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” he asked in a very soft and gentle voice.

You sighed. “Nothing.” You shivered. “I’m cold. I want to head back to the castle.”

Dennek nodded, unaffected by the chill air, and the pair of you wove through the streets in silence. That shivering tension had tightened and you sighed.

You said goodnight to him in the castle courtyard, simply raising your hand and thanking him for the evening as you walked away.

Dennek watched you go until you were at the very door of the barracks and only then did he turn around and enter the little door of the smithy.

The next morning you woke well before dawn feeling unrested and twitchy. Your watch was not due to start until midday, and you had free training before that, but you didn’t feel like swinging a sword around the training ring that morning. Instead, you dressed in light clothes and set off at a jog out of the castle.

As you crossed the courtyard, you glanced up at the highest tower, which had affectionately come to be known as the Prince’s Tower, and you glimpsed a hooded figure, shrouded in darkness, standing on the balcony way above you. You blinked, and a moment later there was nothing there. Feeling odd, you shivered and turned your back on the place.

Your feet took you through the town below the castle. Mist clung to the rooftops and hung between the houses, and as you reached the beach, the sand of the shore still dark in the wake of the retreating tide, you saw a group of seals on the rocks at the far end of the curving bay. You smiled and thought fondly of the stories of the selkies your father had told you as a child.

You jogged along the hard sand towards them, enjoying the way your muscles had to work to balance you, to work a little harder to propel you forwards, and welcoming the burn in your lungs with every inhale.

Out of the waves, another seal emerged much closer to you.

This one was huge and really rather chubby, and the moment it breached the surface, nostrils flaring, and saw you, it went utterly still.

Water washed over its stone-grey back, swirling around its flippers and caressing it gently as your own feet faltered and you watched it in wonder.

“Hello,” you said, crouching down. “It’s alright. I won’t hurt you.”

One of the seals on the rocks barked a warning and the one before you jumped as though startled out of a trance by the sound.

“It’s alright,” you said again. “Here,” and you stretched out your hand, fingertips trailing in the cold foam at the edge of the lapping waves.

To your surprise, the seal lumbered forwards and pressed his - something made you think it was male - nose into your palm.

“Well, aren’t you just the sweetest?” you chuckled, and the seal snorted indignantly, spraying your hand with salty water.

You laughed, and then sighed as you stared into its inky eyes. The seal blinked slowly and made its awkward way a few inches closer to you, cocking its head to one side in a manner that, oddly enough, reminded you of Dennek.

“You know,” you said, “My father used to tell me stories about shape shifters. I always dreamed they were true.” You scratched the seal under the chin and stood up, turning to go. “Maybe you’re one,” you said with a rueful smile. “Perhaps I shouldn’t be so patronising.”

The seal lowered his chin to the sand and lay flat as he watched you leave, the same way a hound watches a beloved friend go, knowing he must remain behind.

When you finally jogged back up to the castle, you paused outside the smithy. Curious, wanting to satisfy your strange whim, you knocked on the door, but it was all shut up, cold and quiet. “Dennek?” you called, trying to peek in at one of the windows.

You heard your name called across the yard, and you turned around to see Dennek come running in through the gate, out of breath, hair curling and wet, dripping into his face, and his damp shirt open at the neck to reveal a little of his skin. His chest heaved from the effort of running, and you frowned, turning to go back to him. Over the crook of one arm, he carried something silvery and shiny. At first you thought it was a finely woven mail coat, but, looking at it more carefully, you could see it was an animal pelt.

“Den?” you asked as you got closer. “You ok?”

“It’s true,” he whispered, still trying to catch his breath.

You drew level with him and halted. “What’s true?”

He leaned in close and you smelled salt water and sweat on him. “What you just said to me… on the beach… it’s true.”

Your world tilted. “You mean…”

He nodded and your knees went weak.

“Come inside,” he said, jutting his chin towards the smithy behind you.

His knuckly, scarred hands shook as he slid the key into the lock, and it took him a couple of goes. The pelt across his arm was a seal pelt.

It was all true.

Selkie.

He turned around to face you as you came inside and shut the wooden door behind you. Swallowing, you looked up at him and smiled. “Promise me this isn't some kind of sick prank…” you said. “Tell me what I told the seal on the beach, and I’ll believe you.”

Dennek smiled gently, fear still obvious in his dark eyes. He licked his lips and said, “You said that your father used to tell you stories about shifters, and that you dreamed it was true. And that you shouldn't be so patronising.”

You sank down onto a wonky, three-legged stool as your knees gave way.

“You alright?”

“Yeah,” you rasped. A moment later, you added, “That was really you?”

He nodded.

“How…? I mean… Are there many of you?”

He shook his head, dark curls bouncing. “Few enough of us survived the troubled times. I’ll tell you about it one day. Do you want something to drink? Are you alright?”

With a weak little laugh, you nodded. “Yeah, a drink would be good.”

The smith smiled and dipped a copper ladle into a bucket of clear water from the well and filled a pewter tankard for you. He handed it to you with a steady hand and knelt before you. He looked up into your face and you were suddenly, viscerally reminded of the seal on the beach.

With a laugh, you said, “I don’t know why I didn’t see it before.”

“You weren’t looking. No one is, these days, thank the gods. The prince has done a lot to protect our kind and to make the people forget, to make them think that it’s all just foolish superstition.”

“The prince…” you thought about the shadowy figure on the balcony. “Is he… different too?”

With a shy, private smile, Dennek gave a tiny nod. “Yes, but that’s not my secret to tell. He’s not a selkie though.”

“Right. But you are.”

“Yes.”

Dennek looked at you with steady, dark eyes. “Den…?”

“Yes?”

Your fingers twitched. “May…?” you bowed your head and looked at your lap instead, your courage draining away.

“May what?” he asked gently, still kneeling before you.

You swallowed thickly and let out another awkward chuckle. “I was going to ask if I could kiss you.”

“If you were to ask,” he said, “I would say yes. Does that make it easier?”

And at that, the tension snapped, and you began to laugh. In fact, you couldn’t stop laughing.

Suddenly his rough hands, callused from years of forge work, were on your cheeks, his thumbs tracing a soft arc over your cheekbones. The crinkles at the corners of his eyes drew you in, and he was still laughing softly as he kissed you. His beard was scratchy and rough, but his lips were soft, and his kiss was so tender it stole your breath.

All you could hear was your heart hammering as he kissed you. He stood, drawing you to your feet and pulling you close, back into the kiss.

You pulled back, breathless with amazement. “Dennek…”

“Yes?” he rasped.

He’d been pushing you, guiding you gently towards the single bed in the corner of the humble room, but he suddenly froze, as if he’d just realised what he was doing.

You smiled and bit your lip. “I… I didn't know you were interested… I mean… in me…”

His hands skated down your sides to your hips and he pulled you tight against his body. You felt the hard line of his cock tenting his loose trousers, and as you looked up into his large, warm, dark eyes, you had your answer.

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

For all early releases, character art and bios, upcoming story info, and much, much more, join me over on Patreon!

___________________________

#I was gonna post this later but sod it I'm posting it now #mermay #exophilia #selkie #male monster x reader #gender neutral reader #hope you like it #IT'S STILL MERMAY OK

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