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evidenceof · 14 days

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winnix but they don’t get their happily ever after in some chicken farm in hershey, penn. nix says, ‘we’ll go to california. think you have anything to grow there?’ dick says, ‘i’ll find something,’ because he’s moved for him once, what’s another time? besides, there’s still sun and he thinks maybe the sea will help stop the drinking. but it doesn’t, and nix still drinks. which should bother dick, but it doesn’t. he thinks maybe it’s contagious because he finds himself thinking, ‘what’s another bottle?’ when nix pours himself two, four fingers of vat. no one’s ever there to tell dick that exceptions become habits. he’s stopped counting or he’s already lost count. blanche looks at dick the same sympathetic way ann used to when he’d come home from a fraternity-mandated date.

winnix but nix barely comes home and he’s stopped asking if dick wants to come with him to the yale club. dick is busy restocking the fridge with food for one (he’s grown tired of the waste. tries not to acknowledge the constant anger under his skin when lunch is too quiet, when dinner is just one set of utensils). there are girls, he knows. but none of them understand nix—where he chucks his shoes at the corner of the living room, which suitcases he likes when he leaves for europe, or asia, some theater without war on the other side of the world. invitations to fly out stopped around the same time as the ones for nights out. dick hears the women through his bedroom walls (nix doesn’t bring home the men) and wonders why he can’t sleep, why he runs at 3am and stares at the glittery, too bright californian sea until his shoulders are raw and red.

winnix but they don’t go to chicago and sometimes nix comes home sick, paler than bastogne. and he lets dick bring him soup, pour one (‘c’mon major, just a bit’) splash of vat into his black coffee. lets dick order him around—(‘take a bath, eat, don’t go out tonight, let’s walk, lew. just around the block.’). and nix leans on him like they’re sharing a foxhole, or a pup tent, or some officer’s quarters on the ss. samaria. dick has to remind himself he doesn’t miss war. shoves the idea of fresh eggs and coops in a sprawling green field. nix falls asleep on his shoulder and dick forgets what compromise means when this feels like getting exactly what he wants.

winnix but it’s a sunny wednesday morning when nix tells dick he’s in love with some new socialite with a pretty smile and shiny hair. ‘you’ll like her,’ is what he says when he uses his fingers to brush up the coppery strands plastered on dick’s face after a morning run. dick tries not to think of how nix’s fingers linger on his forehead like some kind of oxymoron. and he’s angry. he’s always angry these days and it makes his skin itch the way it did in mourmelon, but this time it’s sticky from the ocean and sand instead of dark mud and blood. maybe nix notices because he frowns when he says, ‘i thought you’d approve.’ after a beat he says, ‘she’s a woman.’ and dick has to stop himself from snapping (again). ‘you don’t need my permission,’ is all he says because he doesn’t want to imagine either scenario. his skin still feels sticky. they don’t talk for a week.

winnix but nix demands, ‘what are you still doing here, dick?’ he’s sick again, but the pretty socialite takes care of him, brings him the wrong soup and too much vat. tonight though, tonight it’s just the two of them. nix looks tired and it isn’t from the flu. ‘i don’t know,’ is what dick replies because he still can’t name the feeling. what word to use for staying. some equivalent to ‘exception’ or ‘special case’, whatever the hell he said that one time about nix dying—in the holland, and then again when the doctor talked about diabetes.

winnix but dick still doesn’t know that he loves nix because it doesn’t fit into any box he’s made for himself. because he’s told himself he’s comfortable in a ymca only because it’s cheap not because of the company. because he couldn’t trace the sound of a threat in his father’s voice telling him not to move in with that man. or deetta’s eyes that looked like they understood something dick couldn’t. because he can’t bring himself to say, ‘what about me?’ when nix tells him he’s proposing to the woman. or the lilt of the statement in the end that makes it sound like a question. the same way he said, ‘am i all right?’ when the bullet didn’t pass through his skull. dick moves out and neither of them ask what took so long.

winnix but dick gives his best man speech like they’re vows and nix tries not to look at him like he isn’t the only other person in the room. winnix but it’s dick in the hospital beside nix and his wife who knows what soup nix likes because dick had sent her the recipe. winnix but it’s just dick now with white hair and smudges of movement. he has a hard time putting the spoon to his mouth so ethel, god bless her, does it for him. his muscles can’t do much, not anymore, but he still remembers what shape to contort his tongue so he can say, ‘lew,’ when that biographer asks about his best friend.

winnix where they don’t ever say ‘i love you,’ even when there’s no other way to name it.

#tweet got me feeling Deranged on company time #idk i wanna jump off a cliff actually #irl dick never knowing what words to name his feelings for nix?#olivia wilde nodding gif #my hc is winnix in california instead of pennsylvania but that’s my sad brain talking

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scalingsvt8thusiast · 6 months

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Skin-deep Chapter 2

summary: The one where you fall for Seungcheol amongst all the protests and insecurities. The one where you don't know that he's fallen for you too.

a/n: I'm still reeling over the fact that people actually liked chapter 1. So originally this was supposed to be part of chapter 1, but I stupidly didn't add it in cause i was worried it would be too long. But anyway, when it's finished i will create a list so its not too confusing :D

The walk to uni wasn’t so bad. The weather was good, birds were out chirping, students chatting happily around you. You felt good after yesterday’s party. Nothing better than watching all your friends get pissed drunk while you were perfectly sober.

You knew Mingyu wouldn’t make it to class this morning, his parents were visiting next week and he needed to make sure everything that was damaged was replaced and the things that were un-replaceable was fixed. That meant no morning coffee for you since Mingyu normally bought the two of you coffee. While in different courses, the both of you had arranged your classes so that you would have time to meet up in the morning before going into your individual classes.

Naturally, this lead to many rumours.

Mingyu was popular because of all his parties and money. It was no secret that Mingyu’s family owned a global hotel chain (which name rhymes with Lariott). He grew up being spoilt by his parents. Them buying him a house when he moved to uni was a good example. On a sensible 5000 square meters, they had built him an olympic sized swimming pool, the largest trampoline you had ever seen, a basketball court and a 10 bedroom mansion. The house was built by some renowned architect and was featured in architectural digest for being a masterpiece. Or that was what you heard.

It wasn’t just Mingyu who was rich, in fact his entire friend group had more money than the Kardashian’s combined. You regularly hung out with Soonyoung whose family owned some phone company in Korea which were the biggest rivals of the phone company with the fruit. Jeonghan and Joshua studied with you in the library. Jeonghan’s parents were some billionaires from Asia, you had no idea what they did, and Joshua’s parents owned some music companies in the US. Which ones? You had no clue. You, Seungkwan and Seokmin attended orchestra together, you were part of the strings section and them in the choir. Seungkwan’s father owned a few of the best law firms globally. Seokmin’s parents were in the rubber business, or something like that.

People around campus labelled you as the charity case, the girl that Mingyu and his friends took in because they had extra money to spend. Some people called you a gold digger. Some people said you were fucking them for money. The list was endless and you were friendless. Girls didn’t approach you because they all had the hots for Mingyu and Co. Several guys had tried to pay you to sleep with them, after declining with colourful language, you swore

Did it hurt your self-esteem? Not really, you never really cared for rumours. Sure, Mingyu paid for your coffee every morning, did you try to stop him? Yes, every morning. Does he listen? No.

Then there was Seungcheol, his family started a tech company that had started growing meteorically when his father became the CEO. Apparently everybody in the world knew his family. He would show up at school with a different car everyday, girls would crowd around him in the hallways (which you found comical) and all the professors in the school sucked up to him thanks to his family’s generous donations.

Seungcheol’s interest in you was a recent development, he made it his mission to flirt with you every time he was in the same vicinity as you. It was fun but you had to constantly remind yourself that you weren’t special, he treated you the same way he treated other girls.

You weren’t immune to his advances, however. When he smiled at you, you could literally feel your legs turn into jello. When he spoke to you, you felt yourself wanting to continue the conversation just to hear what he had to say with that deep voice of his. It didn’t help that you shared common interests, he was a regular sting instrument player due to his upbringing, he had a penchant for reading journal articles as well as discovering new coffee places each week. Your texting history with Seungcheol’s rivaled that of yours and Mingyu’s and you've known Mingyu since you two were in diapers.

Everyday you felt yourself getting closer to becoming one of Seungcheol’s hair twirling, pitchy, squeaky zombies.

When you arrived for class, you sat alone at the corner. Coffee-less. None of your friends took your course, so you spent every class alone. You had tried to make friends at first, but they all ended up asking you to introduce them to Mingyu and Co. When you rejected to help, they would just flat out stop speaking to you. After the first few “friends”, you gave up.

The professor started droning on about paediatric respiratory conditions and all you could think about is how much you wanted this to end. Throughout the lecture you received dirty looks from some whispering girls as usual. You recognised some of them from the night before, Seungcheol’s squeaky zombies.

When the professor finally ended his speech (essentially talking to himself the entire time), you packed your bag and bolted out of the room, not wanting to deal with any of those girls. You were surprised to see Seungcheol just by the door. He was leaning against the wall, looking as cool as the devil himself. When he spotted you, he pushed himself off the wall and approached you with a coffee cup in hand.

“Cheol? What are you doing here?” You said to him while adjusting your laptop bag.

“You look in need of coffee, doll,” He smiled, holding out the coffee cup. Just as you were about to reach for it, he pulled back. You furrowed your eyebrows, staring at him.

“Let’s trade,” He said holding an empty hand out, “Your bag for coffee.”

“What?”

“Your bag first.”

“I-what?”

“Jesus, princess, you really need coffee,” he pulled your bag off your shoulder with his free hand and pushed the coffee cup into your open palm. You sigh, not wanting to argue with him.

“Cheol, why are you here?” You ask in between sips, allowing yourself to soak up the sweet sweet embrace of coffee. “Thank you by the way.”

“Why not?” He said as his eyes traced your lips, memorising every shape and turn. His heart fluttered from how cute you looked doing the most mundane things like coffee drinking.

“Cheol.”

“Mingyu told me he wasn’t coming in today so he asked one of us to get you coffee, I came because I wanted to see you. Happy?” He said, looking away at the last bit. “Now come on babe, let’s go.”

“Go where?”

“Do you enjoy questioning me, sweetheart?”

“Yes.” You smiled at him mischievously, he grinned back at you.

He slung your bag over his shoulder. As the two of you walked, you dart around to try and grab your bag back from him. Amused by your efforts, he resorted to putting an arm around your shoulder, holding your arms down as he lead you to his car.

The car in question was a black Ferarri Daytona SP3, you only know because people had been talking about it nonstop, that and your brother was a car person. The obvious choice and most sensible option for a uni student. A Ferarri.

Many students were surrounding the car and snapping pictures, you knew with the way you two were walking you’d probably make the headlines of many group chats along with his car. As the two of you approached, the crowd seemed to part to allow Seungcheol to reach his car.

“Ok, but seriously where are we going,” You said, squatting down to search for the door handle. How on earth do these doors open?

“Mingyu asked us to go over for food.” Seungcheol said, he softly brush your hand away and pulled the door open for you. The door swung upwards narrowly missing your head.

You got into the car, carefully, not wanting to scratch the car and pay your entire school fees worth of damages, and as gracefully as possible. Seungcheol smiled fondly, watching you struggle to get into a car so low, he made a mental note to drive you in a higher car next time.

“How was the party last night?” You said once Seungcheol started driving.

“It was great, no thanks to you.” He said. He maneuvered through the crowd of students gathered around to admire his car.

Deciding to tease him a little bit more, you raised the pitch of your voice, “But Cheollie~ you had so many girls after you last night.”

“You left me to die,” He turned to give you a pout, “I saved you earlier but you threw me to the wolves.”

Placing a hand over his chest, “You hurt me, baby,” he declared.

You giggled, finding him cute. When Seungcheol pulled out in Mingyu’s driveway, you noticed that everybody was already there from to the variety of supercars littering the front of the house.

“Did you end up going home with any of them?” You asked trying to ignore the pang in your heart, you were only half joking right now.

The air shifted. Seungcheol’s expression unreadable, his eyebrows furrowed. “No, why would I?”

“Oh, cause if you did, you would have’ta thank me you know, I was technically your wingwoman.” You joked.

He sighed, turning off the engine. You turned to open the car door but he reached over and pulled you towards him. You looked at him, his fingers laced with yours.

“Why would I want any of them when I have you?”

You tried your best not to take that to heart.

A/N2: Again, i welcome constructive criticisms, or any questions at all, just shoot me a dm or ask or whatever :)

#seungcheol x reader #scoups x reader #seungcheol fic #scoups fic #seungcheol fluff #seventeen seungcheol #choi seungcheol #svt fanfic #svt fic #svt x reader #svt fluff #seventeen #scoups #scoups fluff #seventeen x reader #seventeen x y/n #svt

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cherrycola27 · 9 months

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daylight

Series Warnings: Mature Content 18+. Language, drinking, and allusions to smut. Eventuallyfull smut. Military inaccuracies. Minors DNI. Banner Credit @thedroneranger

Masterlist Next Part

...........................................

Chapter 1: I'll Tell You the Truth but Never Goodbye

Loving Bradley Bradshaw was the easiest thing you had ever done in your life.

Leaving him was the hardest.

You hadn't planned for it to go this way, truly. You'd never, in all the years you'd known each other, especially in the three years the two of you had been a couple, thought you would have to leave him.

It wasn't by choice. No, you didn't want to do this. Because who in their right mind would want to break up with Bradley?

He was the perfect boyfriend. Kind, caring, attentive. The two of you were so happy together. All your days together felt happy and warm. Like basking in the glow of the California sunshine.

But fate, and your careers, never failed to roll the storm clouds in.

You still remember the look on his face when your uncle called you into his office to personally deliver the news to you.

"You can't be serious, Uncle Beau!" You almost shouted at him as you tried to hold the tears at bay as you threw the envelope with your new orders back at him.

"Birdie, I'm sorry. You know I wouldn't do this if there was any other way. I promised your mother. But the orders—the came from over my head. I'm sorry, sweetheart. Truly. But you need to get your affairs in order." You uncle sighed as he slumped down in his chair.

You couldn't be angry with him. It wasn't his fault. But the news still hurt coming from him.

You knew that you were a good pilot. But you never dreamed that you'd be good enough to be summoned for a top secret mission. One that would have you spending five years in Asia with no contact from the outside world.

That meant no phone calls to your dad or friends, not even Uncle Beau would know much. But the worst part was, you wouldn't be able to contact Bradley.

A sour feeling settled in the pit of your stomach. You knew what you had to do.

This was one of those missions that you didn't know if you'd ever come back from. It wouldn't be fair to ask Bradley to wait for you for what might be forever. You loved him too much to do that to him. To ask him to hang on. To keep him in the dark.

You drug your feet as you made your way to the parking lot. He was there, next to his Bronco, leaning against your door.

He had his caravans on and a smile so bright it rivaled the sun.

He beamed when he spoke your name. You tried to pretend that everything was okay. You hoped he couldn't see through the charade you were putting on.

Later, when the two of you got home, he asked if you wanted to go out to the Hard Deck that night with everyone. You shook your head before turning to him with a desperate look in your eye.

"Bradley. What if we just stayed in tonight?"

He didn't hesitate to agree with you, knowing exactly what you meant when you said that. He scooped you up in his arms, holding you tightly—unable to shake the feeling that something was off.

You and Bradley had known each other for years. You'd officially been a couple for just over three of them and had lived together for most of that time.

He seemed to know you better than he knew himself. So when you kissed him like you were never going to see him again, the same kind of kisses you gave each other before a deployment, he knew exactly what was going on.

Bradley didn't hold back because of it, though. If this was going to be the last time you were in his bed—in your shared bed—in his arms—he was going to make it count.

He laid you down reverently against the sheets. Taking his time to work you up, gently undressing you like you were a priceless piece of art.

Bradley took you apart little by little, kissing every inch of your skin before tracing over it with his fingertips. He wanted to memorize the way you felt beneath his calloused hands. He wanted to memorize the intoxicating scent that was uniquely you. Salt air like the sea breeze, freshly laundered sheets, and warm vanilla. He wanted to remember how you tasted when you came apart on his mustache or when you pushed your tongue into his mouth.

But most of all, Bradley wanted to remember how you looked at the height of pleasure as the waves of euphoria only he could give you washed over your body.

He wanted to remember how you sounded crying out his name, or how you practically glowed when he pushed you over the edge.

So, every push of his fingers into your hair, every sweep of his tongue over your skin, every thrust of his hips, every pull, tug, and caress was calculated to commit not only you to his memory, but him to yours.

If this was the end, he wanted you to remember how his strong body felt pressed against yours. How he sounded crying out your name. How he begged you to cum for him over and over. Taking until he had nothing left to give.

With every moment he spent with you in the golden glow of your bedroom lamp, Bradley tried to be the best for you one last time.

When the two of you were finished, both sweaty and sated, you didn't cuddle into his side. You turned away from him, unable to face him. He pulled you flush against him, hands absent mindedly drawing patterns on your skin. Your voice failed you as you spoke.

"Bra—Bradley I—"

"I know. I know, and it's okay." He replied softly before you could even finish.

"How?" You stutter out, still facing the wall.

"Birdie, I've known you and loved you for years. I know you probably better than I know myself. You kissed me like it was the last time. You've been on edge all evening. You wanted to stay in. I knew the moment I laid you down that this was going to be breakup sex." Bradley tells you.

"I'm sorry, Bradley. I didn't want it to be like this. I can't even tell you why. This isn't my choice." You start to cry before getting up.

He pulls you back down to him. "Stop, Birdie. If this is the end for us, at least let me hold you one more time." Bradley breathes out.

You don't argue with him. Instead, you curl into his warm embrace. You press yourself so close to him, hoping that you could just melt into him. He tucks you under his chin and kisses your hairline.

"For what it's worth." He beings after a long while. "If I had the chance to go back and do it all over again, I would. Even though I know we break up in the end." Bradley assures you.

"Me too." You whisper before letting his heartbeat lull you to sleep one last time.

It's early when you wake up the next morning, still wrapped in Bradley's strong arms. The sun hasn't even crossed the horizon. Moonlight still fills your bedroom.

You carefully extract yourself from Bradley before grabbing your duffle and packing a few essential things and some things you don't need, but want to keep with you.

Daylight is just breaking through curtains as you look back at Bradley one last time. The sunrise casts a perfect golden halo around him.

You press one final chast kiss to his lips before slipping out the door without telling him goodbye. You couldn't. That meant that this was permanent, and you couldn't accept that. As you pulled out of your driveway, you let the tears you'd been holding fall.

When you go to board the carrier, your uncle is waiting for you.

"Take care of him for me Uncle Beau." You whisper to him as you hug him one last time before climbing on and leaving behind the life you once had.

—————————Five Years Later—————————

You took a deep breath as your shoe made contact with the ground. It had been ages since you smelled the salt air of the west coast or felt the California sunshine on your face.

Fightertown was different since you'd last been there, but then again, so were you. I'm more ways than one.

But that didn't matter now. You were back and home to stay. You'd settled into your uncle's pool house for now until you could afford your own place, even though he and your aunt told you that you could stay as long as you liked. You assured them that it would be a few months, tops.

After unpacking, you inquired about your old squadron and were pleased to find that they were a permanent fixture at Top Gun, where you would be starting on Monday.

After learning that, you asked Uncle Beau if the Hard Deck was still the place to go. He told you it was, and you were glad that some things never changed.

So, you put on a nice outfit and grabbed the colorfully decorated wooden box that had been halfway across the world with you and loaded up into the passenger seat of your car.

You sat down in the driver's seat and traced the neatly painted letters of Bradley's name that ran across the top of it before opening the lid and thumbing over all the letters you wrote to him but never got to send. You saved every one of them.

A smile crossed your face as you pulled onto the highway to go to the Hard Deck.

You were ready to see him again, to love him again. And you hoped that by giving him these letters, he would realize that you never forgot about him.

Tagging those who might be interested: @shanimallina87 @teacupsandtopgun @desert-fern @wkndwlff @roosterforme @daggerspare-standingby @dakotakazansky @startrekfangirl2233 @hecate-steps-on-me @na-ta-sh-aa @katieshook02 @beyondthesefourwalls @je-suis-prest-rachel @soulmates8 @diorrfairy @eli2447 @xoxabs88xox @djs8891 @roosters-girl @rosiahills22 @dempy @callsign-magnolia @alchemxx @gretagerwigsmuse @lt-spork @beccaanne814-blog @bradshawsbaby @seitmai @kmc1989 @bcarolinablr @roosterisdaddy36 @itsdesiree86 @waywardhunter95 @hisredheadedgoddess28 @whatislovevavy @inkandarsenic @mak-32 @tomanybandstolove @jiminie-08 @dingochef @laracrofted @skipchat @princess76179 @schoollover @cheyrenee @angelbabyyy99 @bobfloydsbabe @sunlightmurdock @sebsxphia

#cherrycola27 #top gun maverick #top gun #bradley rooster bradshaw #rooster bradshaw #bradley bradshaw #rooster top gun #tgm #bradley bradshaw fic #bradley bradshaw smut #rooster smut #top gun rooster #tgm fic #tgm fanfiction #top gun 2 #daylight

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aquarius-cookie-jar · 3 months

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Once again, I find myself disappointed by Devsis AND the cookie run community, and how alarmingly racist a lot of people are.

All screenshots and information gathered here are from twitter user @/Celezticuh.

This will be a discussion on not just Cookie Run: Tower of Adventures, but also the community's response against the wider issue. It's gonna be long, so buckle up.

1. What's going on with Cookie Run: Tower of Adventures?

To no one's surprise, it's racism against Black people and Indigenous people, yey! /S

Why is this an issue? Because these traditional practices and clothing of people of color (especially those of black and native american descent) have often been used as just costumes and props instead of being respected as what it is, a culture that is to be respected.

This is what Celezticuh has stated in greater detail about what is wrong:

2. The community's response.

Celezticuh and several other members of the CRTOA discord have brought up this issue in the official discord server, but have experienced pushback FROM THE COOKIE RUN COMMUNITY ITSELF.

Here are some notable people defending this behavior.

Let me be clear, as an asian myself, telling people that "Oh they're asian, they don't know!" Or "They don't care!" Is -newsflash- ALSO RACIST TOWARDS ASIAN PEOPLE??????

We here in asia face discrimination for not being light skinned, skinny, and colorism. It's not as bad as being the subject of extreme racism, but it has negative effects on our society. And it disgusts me how people genuinely think that just because they're korean, means they get a free pass to be disrespectful towards other people outside of their circle.

Secondly, they have fans INTERNATIONALLY. If they only cared about korean fans, they would not have as big of an impact on the wider scale as they do. They know we (the people outside of korea) have our eyes on them. And people who say that they don't know, are full of bullshit.

3. Why has there no action been taken against this?

A big issue as to why this has never reached Devsister's ears is because the Korean community isn't as outraged at this compared to the international audience. Now, I am not saying we should automatically assume any and all korean players are as racist as the company, but I'd chalk it up to ignorance, which still sucks let's be real.

Anyway, what I'm trying to say is that the international community has been calling for protests and asking for the trucks to be delivered again, but unless we have support from the korean community, it's looking to be highly unlikely.

So here we ask for people to help us get into contact with someone from the korean community who's willing to help get the trucks set up again.

I'm not the best at conclusions, however, I want to leave off with a message.

The cookie run community has festered some of the most racist, vile garbage of people I've ever seen. Not just towards black and non pale skinned people of color, but even towards the asians you claim to defend themselves (Dark Cacao, Affogato and Peach Blossoms are barely scratching the surface.).

Cookie run fans, please do better.

#cookie run #cookie run tower of adventures #crtoa #screw devsisters #important notes #🌌❔#BEFORE ANYONE SAYS IT:#yes I know the company is not my friend #but it's still important to educate people about topics like this #especially when it's still so prevalent in today's society

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biglisbonnews · 1 year

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How Desi Perkins Gets Her Skin So Good The original YouTube star keeps her skin routine simple these days. https://www.thecut.com/2023/03/how-desi-perkins-gets-her-skin-so-good.html

#shopping #style #why is your skin so good #beauty #skin care #skin #fashion #Asia Milia Ware #The Cut

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thereraigoes · 4 months

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“how to make millions before grandma dies” through my own lenses.

these days, the internet is filled with people recommending this film to be added in everyone’s watch-list. 1) asian family themed 2) people said it’s tear jerking 3) it’s available at the nearest cinema from home— those three points intrigued me to give the film a toss to try. a moment after i went from the cinema, i know well that people who keep recommend this film is not lying at all.

reviewing a film is never my forte but this film makes me want to write something after watching it. i guess it’s the bond of similarity that this film has to me, especially i’m an asian as well.

i would like to give the five stars to,

the color grading.

i am always a big fan of films that have pretty color grading. htmmbgd has a really pretty, i would even say it’s the prettiest color grading from all the movies that i’ve watched lately. if you look closely toward color grading of each film, sometimes several places have its own colour— so does this film, somehow you can know exactly where the film is located just by looking at its color. i don’t really know how to describe it but when i saw that warm, sunny that sun can sting your skin but someplace is kind of shady.. somehow it really screams asia, and it feels so homey.

also a plus point that it is neither over saturated nor under saturated. it’s unpleasant to watch the artist’s skin look so orange where they are not meant to be a tangerine or look so grey where they are not meant to be someone who hasn’t eaten for a week.

it just.. chef kisses. a lot of scenes that show scenery around the setting and it doesn’t lessen the plot, it makes the audience know about the place without too much movement from the camera.

the sound choice.

it adds drama and spices to the films so much and without them, maybe people can survive this film without crying. it plays an important role as well to the plot since we know that m is known as a scaredy cat and amah’s lullaby is the one who relaxed him down and vice versa (i’m not mentioning that scene okay!)

“you can’t leave this cinema without crying buddies.. it’s okay you can cry, okay cry now” that would depict how the sound’s role in htmmbgd.

the plot.

i won’t say a lot about this but kudos to the filmmaker because it’s really good! the plot doesn’t always go like the audience prediction but somehow it’s relieving.. that’s just the same as how the real world does right?

the highlighted-scene and little details that i care for,

a heads up. i might mention some scenes and maybe some of them are spoilers to everyone who hasn’t watched it. so feel free to stop reading if you feel the spoilers are too heavy for you. i’ll try to lessen it!

amah’s paperbag

while watching the film, i realize that amah never wears a proper ‘bag’. we only see that she always wears paperbag that m always carries for. in my interpretation, it symbolizes the humbleness of amah. we know that amah only sells congee for living— three children and herself. those moneys that she get from is always prioritized for her children needs, not her needs— especially for secondary and the tersier one. if it’s enough to carry, then let it be. but we know, there lies a thing that meant a lot for her family inside it.

m and amah talks when m asked why amah always wanted to have a great land of cemetery for her soon.

i can’t help but cry in silence when this scene appears because it’s just so.. ironic. amah always wants to have her children coming together with her, even when she is passed away so she thinks if her children don’t want come when she is alive— a good cemetery would probably help her desire to have a nice gathering without an argument.

pomegranate and amah’s implicit love.

just like common asian themed poem, there will always be mom cutting fruit to symbolize mother love. but i never read (this could be i am the one who never find it, send me one if you ever read it!) a grandma who is cutting the fruit.

even for her own son, amah forbade him to eat the pomegranate because it was meant for m only. she has kept that pomegranate tree for years, water it everyday, cut the rotten branch, wrap the pomegranate with plastic so the caterpillar won’t eat it– she cares it just like she cares m.

even though amah is grumpy toward m (she knows since day one that m is hiding something from her), she still loves and cares for him.

“sons got the assets and daughter got the cancer”

i want to hug ma so bad. she is the most hardworking one between amah’s children yet she assumes that she never receives amah’s love. it just.. i want to hug her so bad.

and finally, the deeds.

i don’t really know about other families but mostly i reckon that this issue is really controversial. family can separate to each other because of this issue only, they highlight the importance of inherited parent’s wealth. i know it is their right to have it but neglecting the fact that their parents need their children’s time and only wanting their wealth is so sickening.

we know that m cares amah only for her deeds at the first but slowly he knows that it is not always about the deeds, it’s about cherishing the memory with her while it lasts.

it’s bearable that m is mad to know that soei is the one who got the house– i mean who doesn’t mad though if the one who got the house is the one who never helps to care about amah, never have a job and a burden to amah, even steal amah’s money. it happens commonly in asian family, my family as well. sometime i don’t really know what on their mind.

but through this, i realize that how old we are, our parents still look at us as a child. that’s why amah apprehends soei, she’s worried that if she doesn’t give soei her house then he could never solve all his problems.

but that mindset is a fatal flaw as well, by then we can see that soei only rely to his mother. he could never stand on his own. i’m relieved that m scolds for him even though soei is much older than him.

conclusion and rating from me, rai,

it’s worth to watch, at least once in a lifetime. you can always rewatch it though but beware running out of your eyecream because it really makes your eyes swollen right after you leave the cinema.

cherish everyone in your life while it lasts. don’t be so bitter to people, sometimes they need help but they are afraid to reach you out.

lastly, it’s a solid nine out of ten.

#how to make millions before grandma dies

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desswright29 · 1 year

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Femininity Pt.2

Pairing: Shuri X Reader

Contains: Smut(18+), violence, slight angst, fluff. Shuri being fine af per usual.

Word count: 4,6k

A/n: Thought I’d drop something cute before I destroy y’all with this series lol. Enjoy!

The sun streamed through your floor to ceiling windows, cascading onto the light wood floors. Setting your beautiful home aglow, as music poured through out the area. With your balcony doors ajar you could hear the waves of the ocean and the smell of the nearby beach took over your home. Today was a beautiful summer day. You’d sent Zah with his grandparents and invited Asia over for brunch. Currently you were frantically trying on outfits that you’d bought specifically for this special day, forcing opinions out of your friend. On edge, nervous excitement filling your body to the brim, as you stepped out of your room once again doing a spin to show off your dress.

“DAMN!” Asia obnoxiously yells. She sat at the bar in your home pouring a glass of your Double Diamond Oakville Cabernet Sauvignon, giving you a once over. “Asia! This is why you stay uninvited! That’s an expensive ass bottle you’re pouring!” She shrugs and rolls her eyes. “Bitch! Aren’t you dating a Queen? I’m sure you can afford it.” Your palms began to sweat at the thought of your very recent relationship status with Shuri. It had been about Two months; but unfortunately almost three weeks after you’d made it official The Black Panther was sent on a mission. Meaning you hadn’t seen eachother since, and only talked sparingly. You’d been worried sick but, you understood that this was a consequence of dating the Queen. “I don’t even care right now. I’m nervous as fuck!” Shuri had returned to Wakanda two weeks ago, and today she was due back in Cali where she would be visiting you and Zah for awhile.

“Well you’re definitely gonna knock her head back with that dress. Look no further!”

“It’s not too much is it?”

“It’s just enough to get exactly what you’re looking for.” Smirking she looked you up and down. You’re waist length micro loc’s had recently been re-tied and dyed red. You wore them down, completely straight with a middle part. You wore a fresh face, lashes and brows freshly done lips plumped and glossy. A short red, spaghetti strap dress adorned your curvaceous figure. The tie inbetween your breast undone giving a peak at your perky breast. The dress clung to your body, an opening on the left side revealing the supple skin of your waist. Just under your vulumptious ass, a short layer of lace flared out beneath. An ultra thin gold necklace wrapped around your neck with a small S charm dangling from its center. Your body glistened from head to toe. A gold anklet graced your pretty ankle. You were soft, supple, hydrated, and smelled just as good as you looked.

“Ugh! Usually I’d find something smart to say but you’re right! I need it! I’m fiending. At night I get the shakes. Shuri has fucked my entire world up.” You say as you grab a glass and pour yourself some of the expensive red wine. Taking a sip you walk towards the couch as Asia follows you, and takes a seat. “Girl, I can tell you got it bad. You over there shivering and shit. Calm down!”

“You can see me shaking?”

“Hell yea! You got the couch vibrating” Both of you burst into loud laughter, hitting eachother as you cackled. Quietly, Shuri entered the house with the key you’d given her, hearing the laughter from the foyer, she closed the door and made her way down the wide hallway. Leaning against the wall at the entrance to your living room, she smiled waiting for the laughter to die down. “Looks like I arrived just in time for the party.” Both you and Asia taken by surprise jumped a bit turning behind you at the sound of her voice.

“Sssshhhiiiittt.” Both of you whispered at the sight of Shuri. Shoulder leaned against the wall, sunglasses perched on her nose, legs crossed, and hands clasped in front of her. Her curls were freshly done, under cut fresh, and she wore an all black silk short set. The top unbuttoned halfway; nothing underneath but a single gold chain the pendant of your initial sitting perfectly between the valley of her small breast. A gold watch on her wrist, her rings glistening on her fingers. Her smile sparkled a little more than you remembered, and upon further inspection you noticed her her canines were gold, the tip of her bottom row of teeth were also covered in gold. GRILLS!!

You shoved your drink at Asia, hopped over the back of the couch and ran into Shuri’s arms.

“Babyyyyyyy!!” Her arms were open wide, smile as big as the sun as you jumped inside of them. Effortlessly, she catches you by your ass as you wrap your thick thighs around her slim waist, your arms wrapping around her neck. She grabbed a fist full of your hair, planting firm kisses on your cheeks down to your neck. “I missed you so much Shuri” Your eyes watered and voice cracked as you held her tighter, body quivering at her touch, her kiss. Shuri pulled back looking into your eyes. “You crying mama? Don’t cry baby girl. I’m here now. I’m safe.” She wiped at a fallen tear and your lips finally connected in a passionate kiss.

“Y’all cute as fuck! I want to love somebody like that!” Asia interrupts, from across the room. You let out a sigh and roll your eyes hopping out of Shuri’s arms as she laughed. You turn to face Asia as Shuri pulled you back against her by your waist wrapping her arms around you, chin settling on your shoulder. “You must be Asia. I’ve heard a lot about you.”

“Yea? Well she can kiss my ass, cause I know she was talking shit.” You smack your lips and Shuri laughs as you stare Asia down. “It’s nice to finally meet you your highness” She came forward extending her hand for a shake and Shuri took it. “No need for the formalities Shuri is just fine.”

“Well Shuri. I was just heading out. I’ll leave you two love birds to your reunion.” She said collecting her things. “Yes, she was.” You said as you remove yourself from Shuri’s arms to help her gather her things. “Uh Uh! Don’t be rushing me out now hoe! Tryna get rid of me to get you’re back br-“

“ASIA PLEASE! For once,filter it!”

“And ion know how to do that!”

“And this is why I talk shit. Bye girl!”

“Bye! Walk me out. It was a pleasure meeting you Shuri.”

“The pleasures all mine.” Shuri says smiling with a slight laugh, Grills on full display.

“Mm mm mm” Asia says shaking her head walking towards the door. You could hear Shuri chuckle as you walk Asia out. “Girl that woman is fine as fuck. You hit the fucking lottery. Pictures don’t do her justice! No disrespect but my knees went weak when I saw her. Fuuuuck.”

“Yea you doing a lot. But imma let you slide today. She does look a lil too good.”

“Well you need to go take that for a ride girl. Hell I almost want to stay and watch.”

“Too far. Please leave.” You both laugh and hug and Asia heads home. You release a deep sigh as you close the door. Walking back into the living room, stopping at the sight of Shuri leaned against the back of the couch. Lip trapped between her teeth. “She seems fun” She says. “She aight.” You slowly walk over to her putting an extra sway in your walk as her eyes trailed over your body. A soft groan left her throat. “You look so fucking … Whew baby girl. I don’t have the words.” Your pretty smile spread across your face, blushing as you made it back into your lovers arms. Melting into her as she enveloped you. This felt like home.

“You’re looking edible yourself Panther. You’re early.” Bending to reach your small stature Shuri rubbed her nose against yours. “I couldn’t wait to have you in my arms again entle.” Her hands caressed your curves as her breath grazed over you lips. “Oh yea? And what was the plan from there.” you say removing her shades from her eyes. Sighing from the intensity in her gaze. A chill running down your spine. “I can show you better than I can tell you.” In a second you were lifted back into Shuri’s arms, her lips attached to your neck as she walked around the couch. She sat with you in her lap as you began making out on the couch. Unbuttoning the rest of her shirt as she lifted your dress. The time apart left no room for foreplay you both needed eachother now. Shuri reached between the two of you rubbing your clit over top of your thong. Throwing your head back you grind against her hand. “Oh, fuuuck Shuri” you moaned out.

“Mmm, is this what I do to you beautiful?” Sliding your panties to the side she slid her fingers through your sopping wet slit. “Oh my God I have to taste it.” You were on your back before you knew it; Shuri hovering over top of you, kissing down your body making her way to your wet mound. She quickly ripped your thong from your body, causing your back to arch. “Oh how I missed you sweet girl.” She spoke into your vagina before diving in. Spreading your lips open she placed a kiss on your clit. “Oooh, yes! Make me feel good Panther. She’s missed you like crazy.” In response Shuri attached her mouth to your clit sucking on it moving her head up and down, as she moaned. Your hands made their way into her hair as you tugged mouth falling wide open. “Oh God! You’re the best. The fucking best baby!”

“You taste so sweet baby I need it I missed it so much. I’m thirsty baby. Let me drink it.”

“Mhmm drink me baby! Make this pussy squirt in your mouth.” She added two fingers to your cunt and began to mercilessly pound into your pussy. “Oh Panther! You always know what to do! I-I’m gonna cum! Fuuuck make me cum!”

“MOOOOOMMYYYY!!!” Your eyes widen and Shuri immediately detached from your pussy and hit the floor. “What the fuck” she mouthed at you. “I don’t know” you mouthed back quickly adjusting your clothes “Hold on Zah!” You yell. “Go to the room. Hurry!!” You whisper yell at Shuri as she spider crawled to the room, To clean your juices off of her, picking up your ripped underwear on the way. She got out just in time as Zahir and his father walked into the room. Your face immediately dropped. “H-hey! What are you guys doing here? How’d you get in?” You’re voice shook a bit.

“It was unlocked”

Zah’s Father Traves looked around the room as though he was searching for something. You snapped. “Uh hello! That doesn’t mean you can just walk in.” His eyes met yours as a grimace sat on his face.

“Who you got over here?”

“Don’t start that Trav. Why are you here?”

“Zah, wanted me to see the gauntlet that ‘mommies friend’ made him.” He said putting his fingers up in air quotes. “Who’s mommies friend. And why haven’t I met him before he’s been around my son.” On cue, Shuri reappeared from the room, mugging Traves hard, buttoned up and fresh as though nothing had happened. Zah’s eyes lit up and he ran toward her full speed.

“SHURIIII!!”

“Zah Zah!! My main man! What’s up little guy! Still working on those muscles I see!” Shuri smiles swooping him up into her arms. Traves watched in shock as his son played with the Queen of a nation. “Yep! I can do a hundred push ups.”

“No you can’t!” Shuri said in playful disbelief. “Uh huh! I can show you!” He said trying to wiggle out of her arms. “Oh yea? I gotta see this. You’ll have to show me later. But, Right now I need you to go up to your room and don’t come down until me or your mommy come to get you. Ok”

“Yes, ma’am” he said before taking off running to his room.

“Are you gonna introduce us Y/n?” Trav interrupts. “I know who you are, and I know you know who I am. So that won’t be necessary.” Shuri says, staring him down. She was fully aware of the checkered past of you and Zah’s father and she was not a fan, nor did she intend to pretend to be. Trav looked at Shuri and scoffed. “I know of you. But I don’t know enough about you for you to be around my son.” Shuri chuckles, looking at you. “This guy” she says pointing at him with her thumb.

“Yo, what the fuck is your problem!?” He says stepping forward as Shuri took a step forward as well.

“I don’t like you. And that’s not as much of a problem for me as it is you.” Shuri calmly states. “This what you doing now y/n. You fucking females, got my son around this dyke. Bout to have him confused.” Shuri laughed, grills glistening in the suns rays. “Scared a woman might be more of a man than you?”

“Just cause you look like one doesn’t mean you measure up”

“Ah Ha! Is that why you’re staring so hard. Y/n I think he’s trying to tell us something. What did that video you were showing me say. *singing* Be who you arrrrree.” Traves clears the room, stepping in Shuri’s face, as she stands there with a smirk on her face. “Oooh, aggressive, I’m shaking.” She states sarcastically.

“Ok, ok! Listen you two! We’re adults. This is stupid!”

“No, Sthandwa. He likes hitting women right? Let him hit me.” Shuri cocked her head to the side, the smirk never leaving her face.

“Oh that’s what she told you.”

“Nah. That’s what I saw. And I’ve been waiting for your ass ever since”

“Shuri baby. Let it go. He isn’t worth this”

“You’re right. But you and Zah are. So, tell me. Why are you here and why do you have Zah, Because as far as I know y/n has a restraining order against you and you’re only allowed supervised visits.”

“You should mind your fucking business”

“You haven’t guessed it yet? Y/n and Zahir are my fucking business, and you have 30 seconds to get out of my face and out of this house before I stomp you through the floor.” Your phone began to ring getting you and Traves’s attention. Shuri’s eyes remaining trained on Trav.

“Yes he’s here….. we’re safe, but how did he get Zah!…. No he’s staying here. Why would you let that happen!…. Just get them sent here!” You hang up. “The police are on their way I suggest you go peacefully so we don’t make a scene in front of Zah. Please.” You finally walked around the couch leaning against the back. Trav looked at you and then to Shuri. He nodded his head and turned to walk out, when suddenly he decides to run over to try and wrap his hands around your throat. In the blink on an eye Shuri had her hands around his throat and he was through the living room wall with Shuri right in top of him.

“Fuck!” You yell, as Zah came running from the room crying. You run to comfort him and sheild his eyes. Shuri’s eyes were wild as she choked the life out of Traves.

“Are you fucking crazy!” She yelled at his unconscious body. “Shuri don’t kill him! Don’t kill him! Not infront of Zah!” Snapping out of it she stood up dusting the drywall residue off of her. “I’ll get it replaced nkosazana.” She walks over and grabs Zah from your arms as he cried. “I’m sorry, I scared you little man” she says as she sits on the stairs holding him. The doorbell rings and there was a knock on the door. “Police!!”

“Take him upstairs please”

“I got him.” She says, carrying him up the stairs. Opening the door you let the police in to get Trav. “What happened here ma’am?” They asked. “Um He got a bit belligerent and fell through the wall” You say quickly coming up with an excuse to cover Shuri’s ass. They looked at you skeptically but proceeded to arrest him and escort him off of the property. “What the fuck was that” you say to yourself as you walk up the stairs to check on Shuri and Zah. Opening the door your heart melts at the sight infront of you. Shuri lay in the bed with Zah on her chest she sang him a song in Xhosa as he fell asleep. The sunset cast an orange glow throughout the room, pouring over your son and your girlfriend. You’d never felt more safe and protected than you had in that moment. Closing the door you head down stairs to clean up the mess.

After a while you hear shuffling on the stairs. Looking up you see Shuri headed down. You continue clearing the wine glasses from the living room table. You try to walk straight past her to the kitchen but she grabs your arm pulling you into her. “Are you mad Ubusi? I’m so sorry I’ll get it fixed. I just got so angr-“ the glasses in your hand fell to the floor and you grabbed Shuri by the collar of her shirt smashing your lips into hers. She hungrily returned the kiss. Her fist bunching up the fabric in the back of your dress. You pull away looking into her eyes.

“Thank you so much Shuri. I’ve never felt so safe, so protected in my life. I-I’m so sorry about all this, this definitely was not the plan for you to have to come into this bullshit today. I understand if you don’t want to have to deal with this. I already have a child I know you don’t need all of this baggage. I don’t want to be a burden.” You start to break down in her arms.

“Hey, hey” She takes your chin in her pointer finger lifting your head up to her. “When did I suggest that you were a burden?” You try to look down and her grip tightened on your chin. “No, no. Look at me and you listen. Listen to me good. It will never. NEVER be an issue for me to protect what I love. And I loooove you. And I loooove Zah. And you can put a frame around that hole in the wall to represent the bare minimum of what I’d do to anybody who has the gall to threaten my family. There’s no doubt in my mind that you will be my wife one day and I’m going to treat you as such. So get used to being loved and protected like you never have before. I’d move mountains for you umfazi. You’ve got to know that.” As this fine specimen of a woman reassured you of her commitment to you and your son only one thing ran through your mind.

“Fuck me Shuri” Shuri’s head canted back in surprise but a slow smile spread across her face. Those beautiful grills showing themselves again. “You want me to fuck you?” She said licking her lips. You nod. “Hard and long make me cum over and over again. Take care of me Shuri.” Her eyes darkened and her nostrils flared as she licked her bottom lip nodding. “Gladly.” She picked you up carrying you to the room. As soon as the door closed you began shedding Shuri’s clothes. Unbuttoning her shirt and letting it fall to the floor. You couldn’t wait to see her undressed in all her naked glory. Attaching yourself to her neck you begun to suck, kiss, and lick all over her. You wanted to taste her, to feel her, hell to live in her skin.

Removing yourself from her arms you kissed her while walking her back towards the bed. “C-can I be in control for awhile. I want to make you feel good.” Shuri raised a brow, smiling at the irony of the question. “Just do it sthandwa.” You took her by her waist and positioned her on your lap to straddle your thigh. Once on top of you she pulled your dress over your head allowing your breast spill out. Tossing your dress to the side she began to grind into your thigh as you flexed it and sucked on her breast. “Ssss oooh” She moaned as you grab her hips guiding her thrust. She began tugging and pinching on your nipples while nibbling on your ear. Your hands were all over her body as she began to ride you with fever. “Mmmmm undenza ndizive kamnandi (you make me feel so good)” She whispered in your ear. Whimpering, her hot breath caressing your skin. “You take such good care of us mama, I want to make you feel good baby girl, I want to make you cum. I want to take care of you too baby. I can take care of you too.” Shuri’s hips stuttered before she picked up her pace. Throwing her head back and grabbing her one of her breast. “Oooo YES! Take care of me bhabha (baby)” Grabbing her ass and squeezing you ask “You gonna cum for me?”

She nods biting her lip “mhmm”. Watching Shuri unravel for you made you swell with pride. Allowing her to release herself from her protectiveness allowing her to set aside masculinity and be treated like the pretty pretty princess she was made you feel…. Powerful. You smack the side of her ass “Cum pretty girl. Cum for me so I can taste you.” A high pitched groan fell from Shuri’s mouth as she began to release on your thigh. Her body shook as you sucked her whole breast into your mouth moaning. “inkosazana entle (pretty Princess)” You say once she calms down from her orgasam. She shivered hearing you speak to her in her native tongue. Her eyes were glazed over in bliss as she succumbed to you. Allowing you to easily lie her on her back. You hover over top of her and slowly kiss her lips. “I love you Shuri Udaku” you whisper. “I love you too sooo much y/n l/n.” She sounded so soft, so feminine. You smile and began kissing your way down her body. Getting on your knees on the side of the bed you pull Shuri to the edge and begin to dive in. You lap at her clit and she starts climbing up the bed running in over stimulation. You grab her thighs pulling her back to you. “Mm mm, no running baby”

You open your mouth wide and take her entire pussy inside your mouth and suck. Sucking all the cum off of her pussy. You open her pussy lips with a long stripe of the tongue and then focused on her clit. Grabbing a hand full of your locs she began grinding her pussy into your face. You opened your mouth and moved your head in circles allowing her to use your face to get off. “Uhn oh fuck y/n I’m gonna cum again. Oh Bast, Oh Bast, You feel her thighs shaking above your shoulders. You give her a muffled “uhhuh” and she immediately gushes onto your face. You clean her up with your mouth and come up to give her a kiss. She looks up at you like you moved heaven and earth and you get lost in her beautiful brown eyes. Her hands traveled down your body to your bare soaking wet pussy. Running her fingers through your folds she closes her eyes and hums as she adds two fingers. You began to grind riding her fingers like a dick as she pumps in and out of you.

Suddenly she sat up. Standing with you in her arms. She walked to the closest wall “I think you’re ready for me now.” Pressing her kimoyo bead earring, her strap materialized and she slowly sunk it into you. You wrapped your arms around her neck as she grabbed your ass pressing you harder onto her strap. Both your heads lulled forward foreheads connecting as she began to move. Bouncing you up and down her shaft by gripping your ass cheeks.

“Shuri! Yes!” She pressed you harder against the wall. Taking you by the back of your knees she held you wide open pressing your legs back into the wall she drilled into you. Your mouth fell open as you began to fill full. Your body reaching the brink of explosion.

“Hmmmm, fuck me, fuck me Shuri. F-fuck me!” You grunted tears streaming down your face as she set an unimaginable pace, placing your legs up on her shoulders and using the wall for balance. She got deeper slowing her strokes to a slow roll. “ndive mntanam (you feel me baby), Deep inside you. I’m trying to touch your heart. Can you feel it?” Your eyes roll to the back of your head as saliva comes out of the side of your mouth. Shuri chuckles and picks up the pace. “Oh you love this shit. You like when mommy takes care of you? Hm you like watching me put a man through a wall for you don’t you? It makes that pussy leak huh?”

“Yes I love it! It’s sexy as Fuck. FUUUUCKKK! I’m cumming baby!” You began creaming all over Shuri’s strap. Body convulsing but she didn’t let up. “Just the thought got you cumming like that?” She walked you over to your vanity knocking everything off of it. Taking you off of her strap only for a second before she turned you around and pressed your breast against the cool surface of the vanity and entered you from behind. Grabbing your hair she pulled your head back forcing you to look at you two in the mirror. You watched her chain slap against her chest with each stroke, making your pussy clench around her. “Look at how sexy we are together. How I got your body trembling baby you needed me huh?” You nod. “Nuh uh, ndiphendule mntanam (answer me baby)”.

“Got damnit yes! I’m a fiend for it Shuri! You fuck me so good!”

“Ooo I like that shit.” In response you throw one of your legs up onto the vanity and start to toss your ass back at her slapping it against her firm stomach causing it to recoil. Shuri lost her mind. “Myyyy Baaaast!! Throw that shit back for me. Oh my Bast. You should see this shit. You’re gonna make me cum.”

“Fill me up Panther! Give me that cum!”She reached around your body and began rubbing your clit digging deeper inside of you with her strap as she got closer to her peak. “Oh Fuck mama, I’m gonna explode!” Simultaneously you both had explosive releases. Shuri’s legs gave out as you both fall to the floor. You fall beside her and you both lay staring at the ceiling catching your breath.

“That was fucking AMAZING.” You say dreamily. “Hell yea.” Shuri agreed. You turn and position yourself on top of her lying on chest. “You’re on a roll today with destroying shit though” You say pertaining to all of your makeup items that had been on your vanity. Shuri laughs, “We’ll go shopping tomorrow sweet girl.” A few beats pass before she breaks the comfortable silence.

“ndizakwenza umfazi wam (I’m going to make you my wife)”

#letitia wright #letitiawright #shuri udaku #spotify #shuri x reader #shuri fanfiction #shuri x you #shuri angst #shuri fic #shuri smut #shuri imagine #shuri black panther #Spotify

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starlightervarda · 1 year

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As someone who has cried at ruins, art and temples my ancestors left behind, at how I can't read or speak our own native language, and how what remains of that is in a liturgical language used in secret by an oppressed religious minority...Butchered Tongue has me in my feelings.

It's so hard to love yourself as you are when the people that had your face have been defaced, demonized and disregarded. Not just by the people that invaded us and imposed their language, culture and religion on us for centuries, but by your own people. Not much survived the centuries of brutal colonialism and religious fanaticism, and even if you had a grace period where more began to appreciate what your ancestors left behind, the push against it, to distance yourself and identify more with the invader's culture and even their ethnicity because they are 'right' by decree of religion, is depressing.

It doesn't help that we now have foreigners holding our artifacts in their museums, and pushing insane narratives about aliens building our monuments. Then there are Americans constantly making claims to our ancestry due to racist conspiracy theories, saying horrific shit about how we're the descendants of invaders and that they are the true heirs despite constant proof otherwise. What's worse is having that narrative supported by the most powerful media in the world, casting anyone but us to play us.

They fetishize our aesthetic, our history, our mythology, our land, but hate those that spawned from it.

The only time I like my face is when I recognize it in the likeness left behind in busts, statues and wall paintings. In reconstructions of mummies that have my skin, hair, eyes and nose. Things that are viewed as ugly now and erased through straighteners, bleaching creams and surgeries so we can look more like the foreigners that invaded us, whether they came from Western Europe or Western Asia.

I may look like them, but I'll never know what they truly sounded like, what they did on day-to-day basis, how they worshipped our native gods, what songs they sang or what they called their grandparents.

So many of us are stuck speaking someone else's language, now matter how nativised that dialect has become, and practicing their religion, even revering the very people that broke in and destroyed everything in their wake to impose their version of everything as 'saviours'.

I wish we were taught our native languages in school, that they were never demonized, and punished into dying. That there were huge movements to preserve what we still have that's uniquely ours, but the more time passes, the less people care. All we have left are names of historical figures, gods and the odd town or city that has been misheard into something else over time.

To all my siblings in lost cultures, demonized history and butchered tongues, I hope we hold on to what we have left.

#hozier #butchered tongue #unreal unearth

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terminatorbuns · 2 years

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Frye is the new Marina: Exploring Frye and Minority Anxiety (An essay by @Terminatorbuns)

I'm gonna preface this with something very important: Frye is best girl. Fight me, I write lore essays. I wrote that other essay on Deep Cut and I've continued to obsess over them since, especially on Frye, who's been an extremely interesting character for me to analyze.

We know Frye, she's the chipper Inkling idol partner to the more sophisticated Octoling Shiver. There's obvious parallels to be made with the previous idol group, Off the Hook, since Frye is like the energetic Pearl and Shiver is like the cool Marina. And uhh .. that's probably all there is to it, essay's over, everyone go home.

No but seriously, what I want to share instead today is the personal, alternative interpretation I arrived at after obsessively overthinking the situation since release. It's not fully supported by canon, but this is a reading of Frye constructed from the most subtle lore details a Frye-obsessed lore nerd could find, and I hope to at least highlight some lore elements the community might have missed. I want to demonstrate the layers upon layers of complexity that can be read into Frye as a character, and why I care so fucking much.

Frye isn't the new Pearl, she was the new MARINA this whole time and it took me months to see it. Yes, it has absolutely everything to do with their skin color. Splatoon's world is designed with real life racial diversity in mind and, intentionally or not, are also influenced by real life racial dynamics in turn. Like Marina, the analysis of Frye absolutely OPENS UP if we examine her through the lens of her real life racial status, we start to infer stuff about her motivations, her fears, her secret needs and wants, EVERYTHING is on the table. Good news for Shiver fans, I can't talk about Frye without digging into her relationship with Shiver (platonic or otherwise) so that's going to happen too. We need to talk about our precious brown baby.

1. Frye the Minority

To state the obvious, Frye's ethnicity is South Asian, probably India. The Splatoon world doesn't really have a Squid India in it but it's clear what her real life inspirations are. She's very brown, she wears Aladdin pants and mango chutney on her head. She's got a snake charmer flute thing going on and all her musical motifs are played with South Asian instruments. It's a bit on the nose.

Thing is, Splatsville is a Japanese city in design. Splatsville is called Bankara city in Japanese, it's named after a literal Japanese fashion movement and the visual design elements of Splatsville are reminiscent of a rural Japanese city. Splatsville takes little visual inspiration from South Asia, and that makes sense since Splatoon is made by Japanese devs who would be most familiar with Japan.

The consequence of this is that Frye stands out as a uniquely brown-coded person in a world where nobody else looks like her. Not even playable inklings with dark skin look like her, what with her teeth and her pointy mask and her big forehead. It's worth noting that the Octoling narrative in Splatoon 2 takes inspiration from the experience of Black Americans, and the dark skinned Octolings of Inkopolis are mostly coded black, not South Asian. Even if the racial identities of squids don't necessarily match real world racial identities, Frye is recognizably a minority both visually and culturally in-universe. This is reminiscent of Marina, who was one of the only visible Octolings in Inkopolis until playable Octolings were formally implemented.

It's worth noting now that Shiver, in contrast, fits in perfectly: she's a traditionally attractive Japanese girl (we're talking about fem Shiver right now, bear with me) in a Japanese city. Even though Octolings should be an in-universe minority, and even though she too has somewhat unconventional features, the idea that she's a minority just doesn't track visually. We'll circle back to this and discuss why it doesn't really work for her character narratively either.

2. Frye the Villain

I've covered this in my previous essay but Frye is a stage villain by trade, and her style of performance is inspired by Kabuki. The Japanese inspiration makes sense, even though she's an ethnic minority her sunken scrolls suggests that her family is well established in the region, meaning they immigrated a long time ago and Frye's grown up in Splatsville. Frye is a Japanese national with roots in South Asian culture, it's understandable that she has adopted mannerisms of both cultures.

But like, why a villain? And what's the deal with Marina also representing Team Villain in the heroes vs villains Splatfest? I was wondering if there was a connection there until it hit me, Frye's TOO BROWN to apply for hero roles. In real life, the Japanese entertainment industry famously has problems with colorism and racial representation. Even darker skinned Japanese people have trouble landing gigs as leading heroes because the industry favors light skin, and Frye is both very brown and not conventionally attractive by Japanese standards. Film industries in the West have very similar problems with colorism so it's a recognizable problem to western audiences, also. Frye's career choice as a professional villain is informed by the fact that people like her literally cannot land jobs as heroes.

That's not to say Frye resents her role, Frye loves being a villain. Her poses are dynamic, her speeches are charismatic, she's at her happiest when she is playing an antagonist. If you look at her blasting off with her smoke bomb, she has the happiest smile on in direct contrast to Shiver who's comically losing her shit. Thing is, Frye identifies with the underdog villains who never win, because Frye herself struggles in an industry that does not favor her. This also explains her sympathies for the underprivileged, and why she's made it a personal mission to raise money for the poor. Looking back at Splatoon 2, Marina was sympathetic to villains for the same reasons, as an Octoling (and as a black person) that was villainized by the society she lives in.

Frye brings her cultural identity into her performance, where she incorporates traditional South Asian dance and snake/eel charming into her fighting style. She takes her heritage seriously too: where Frye comes off as a clown elsewhere, she's deadly serious when using her culturally inspired techniques in a fight. The fact that she has named choreography for each phase of her fight is proof enough of that. Deep Cut's boss fight theme also opens with South Asian instruments and they are the most prominent thematic element throughout, highlighting the fact that villainy is Frye's domain of expertise, not Shiver's. Frye sees both villainy and her cultural background as core parts of her identity and expresses herself with a combination of both.

3. Frye the loner

Thinking back to Splatoon 2, Marina and Pearl had a very clear extrovert vs Introvert dynamic: Pearl likes networking and building musical connections, and Marina is shy and prefers to hole up in a comfy chair and write music all day. We do in fact see this again in Deep Cut, except Shiver is the extrovert who flourishes in front of an audience or a camera. She's eager to play tableturf with agent 3 because she just likes social interaction and competition. The Anarchy Splatcast version of the Deep Cut theme instead features Japanese instruments, signaling that newscasting in front of a camera is Shiver's area of expertise. Shiver's design and mannerisms also visually invoke that of a Geisha, who are professional entertainers trained in hospitality.

You see where I'm going with this, I hope. In a wild fucking twist, the cheerful energetic Frye is secretly an INTROVERT. Frye's area of expertise is the desert wastelands, she's at her most comfortable when there's almost nobody around. She's happy to be on camera with her friends but she also squirms in her seat, being not completely comfortable. Her go-to stress reliever is fighting salmonids who do not speak, and Shiver tells us that Frye runs away from the group during a Salmon Run shift to fight the bosses. Also, Frye's villain specialty isn't well suited to making friends when she kinda attacks strangers on sight.

Frye's tableturf habits are most revealing because she does not make eye contact with Agent 3 sitting across a table from 3. Frye's zoned out thinking about Big Man and Shiver, her closest friends and the people she's most comfortable around. In the news room Frye's attention is also focused on her friends and rarely makes eye contact with the camera. Without her friends nearby, Frye can actually get a bit lost in a social setting.

This reminds us of Marina who's also shy around people, except Marina's anxieties come from being a literal enemy of the state. Marina actually has quite a few contacts in the Octoling community despite being nervous around Inklings for good reasons. Frye has habits that ACTIVELY avoid people, and currently we're not sure she has ANY friends outside of Deep Cut. There's likely a racial aspect to this, of course, the same cultural biases that prevent Frye from playing hero roles are also likely affecting her ability to connect with new people, and it's not a big stretch to guess how it affects her personal habits. Frye doesn't have Shiver's conventionally good looks, she makes a poor first impression as a pointy big headed brown girl in a Japanese-coded world. This might feel a bit familiar as we've seen a similar process play out in real life since Shiver was a lot more well received at launch and Frye took more time to grow on the fandom.

4. Marina and minority excellence

So we've established some similarities between Frye and Marina in that they are likely both introverts affected by racial anxieties, but it's also worth discussing the ways in which they differ. I feel that Frye and Marina take two different approaches to address their racial anxieties, and this accounts for their very different personalities as characters.

Marina represents a picture perfect image of black excellence on an Octopus. She's a prodigy composer that knows every fucking black music style and a genius engineer and she can even draw manga; girl works three jobs. Marina's approach to her minority status is to work hard to be an exceptional representative of her people in the hopes that it will help them be accepted in Inkling society. She's determined to be presentable to the degree that she will hide some parts of her past (although those parts involved a lot of weapons engineering so maybe it's for the best that she's not proud of that). Also, and this is a very lukewarm take, Marina is hot.

Frye has to take a different approach out of necessity, because Frye is not a genius. As talented as she is, Frye is a more average person with anxieties and flaws that she can't hide, and she doesn't have the talent to excel in multiple fields of expertise or the patience to learn how to present herself in polite society. Rather, Frye channels her flaws into her art: her violent tendencies and her social anxieties both inform her villain performance, giving her a distinct edge and charisma that suits her chosen art form. In Japanese, Frye also speaks with distinct country bumpkin mannerisms which are also associated with low societal status. Thing is, Frye embodies Splatoon 3's theme of Chaos as a non-conformist: she can't succeed by conforming to polite societal standards, so she chooses to promote her own, rough around the edges style as a viable art form.

I'm fascinated with this particular interpretation of Frye, whether or not it was intentional by the original designers at Nintendo, because of how much depth it gives Frye's personality. Not only that, but this version of Frye also creates some interesting implications for her contrasting partner, Shiver.

5. Making sense of Shiver

Shiver's role in Splatoon 3 is rather mysterious when you think about it. Our previous understanding was that Octolings was an oppressed racial underclass that come from the military dictatorship in Octo Canyon and have only been integrated into Inkling society for 2-4 years. And yet, Shiver's family history goes back pretty far with very specific artistic traditions that they've preserved, and she has distinctly different visual features than the Octolings of Octo Canyon. I should also point out that the systematic oppression of Octolings draws heavy parallels to the experiences of Black people in America and Japan, and Shiver is… very not black.

Shiver doesn't really work as an Octoling from Octo Canyon, but she also doesn't have to. The Splatlands is a new region with new history and racial politics, Shiver starts making more sense if we assume that she's been in Splatsville this whole time, and her family simply wasn't living under DJ Octavio's rule. If Shiver's history isn't tied to the Octo Canyon narrative, then we have some very interesting angles to explore through the lens of her IRL racial identity as a Japanese girl and how that effects her design and personality. If we follow this line of logic to its conclusion, we'll start to understand how Shiver is actually the new Pearl.

Shiver as a character design is defined by privilege, or at least, the ILLUSION of privilege (more on this later). She's conventionally attractive by Japanese standards in a Japanese setting, so she has the natural advantages of being a member of the racial majority where Frye does not. Shiver's Japanese dialogue speaks in a very formal theatrical tongue which is… fucking weird admittedly but also a clear allusion to high social status, in the same way people use Shakespearen English to sound fancy as shit. Shiver has the looks and mannerisms of a highly presentable racial default Japanese entertainer and she takes advantage of that to achieve her personal goals.

Shiver's goal is to be on TV. Shiver is Deep Cut's newsroom specialist, she wants to be on camera and to be seen by everyone, she's a little obsessive about attention really. Shiver knows her looks are naturally appealing and wants to be in a format where people can see her face, and she uses stage makeup to accentuate her strengths. This is in direct contrast to Frye who prefers stage performance for smaller, curated audience's, and even then Frye uses a mask to hide her face in battle.

This is where Shiver's relationship with Frye starts to resemble Pearl and Marina. Shiver is perfectly aware of her natural advantages as a fair skinned person and has extended that privilege to include her dark skinned partner. This is similar to the same that light skinned Pearl makes it a mission to promote Marina as a minority artist (Pearl's privilege in this case being mountains of money rather than attractiveness). Even though TV is not Frye's specialty, Shiver insists that Frye (and Big Man) be included because Shiver thinks they deserve a spotlight.

That being said, Shiver's style of partnership differs greatly from Pearl. Pearl has a partner with confidence problems, so Pearl takes a very hands on approach to push Marina to seek out new artistic styles and opportunities because Marina is directionless without guidance. Pearl has high expectations for Marina because Marina is a prodigy who will rise to meet those expectations, and Marina appreciates Pearl's involvement greatly. Marina in turn helps Pearl with her destructive vocals, they fill in each other's weaknesses while working towards a similar goal.

In contrast Shiver takes a hands off approach to Frye. Both Shiver and Frye are confident entertainers in different fields of expertise and do not need external motivation, so they do not need to push each other in the same way Pearl and Marina do. What they instead do for each other is provide safe spaces to participate in each other's art forms without judgment: Frye comes to the TV studio despite being awkward on camera, and Shiver gets to play a villain despite being clumsy and manic on stage. Big Man gets to show up to both despite having little ability in either field.

6. Shiver x Frye

I'm not saying Shiver and Frye have to be a romantic couple, they form an excellent platonic duo dynamic that is just as narratively valuable to the world of Splatoon. I would never be so crass as to suggest that Shiver and Frye should kiss passionately on the mouth. But like, with the information we now have we can dive a little deeper and make some educated guesses on the inner workings of this particular pairing.

Shiver and Frye directly influence each other's personalities, each member of the duo changes when the other is around. Frye becomes softer around Shiver: Frye on her own is tough from a life informed by adversity, she's focused and takes losses with dignity. However, Shiver is using her personal privileges as a light skinned, presentable Japanese girl as a shield for Frye's racial disadvantages to get Frye TV opportunities that Frye would not have had access to alone, and I think Frye appreciates the protection. Frye feels safe enough around Shiver to let her guard down, she feels less pressure to be strong and competent and has an opportunity to be goofier and more vulnerable. This is the Frye we see most often on screen.

Shiver becomes edgier around Frye: Shiver gets to play a villain when treasure hunting with Frye, And we discover that her villain performance is BUCK WILD. This is the second layer of Shiver's personality that I've only alluded to so far, but it's very important to discuss what Shiver gets out of her relationship with Frye.

Shiver's character is about presentation; she has gone to great lengths to learn the behaviors of a traditionally feminine, high class entertainer. She's polite to a fault and extremely particular about her movements both on TV and on a dance stage. There's no reason to believe this is a facade, Shiver has put so much energy into her act that it's more likely that this is Shiver's idealized self, the image she actually wants to present to the world.

What is simultaneously true is that Shiver DOESN'T perfectly conform to her own idealized self image. There's a messier side to Shiver's personality that she tries very hard to hide: she's competitive, petty, and vindictive under specific circumstances, all traditionally unfeminine traits. She's not doing a great job at hiding them either, these traits are part of her personality and slip out despite her best efforts. It's important to consider that Shiver likely also grew up in Splatsville, making her a country girl too with the same rough rural upbringing as Frye. This just makes her attempt to present as high-class even funnier.

My personal interpretation of the dynamic of Frye's relationship to Shiver is that Frye accepts all of Shiver's messier personality traits, enjoys them, even. Frye is a deliquent that stands for conflict and non-conformity to begin with, so Frye offers a safe space where Shiver can both embrace her messier side and be celebrated for it. Shiver can take nasty verbal jabs at Frye and Frye will fire back cheerfully. This is why Shiver is so wild as a villain, the repressed parts of her personality comes out in full display when she's in a space with only Frye and Big Man, and Frye in particular seems to know all of Shiver's secrets to a level that Big Man does not. This way, Shiver feels no need to erase the messier parts of her personality, she simply saves it for the people she trusts. And Frye is the person Shiver trusts the most.

7. Shiver's Gender

I saved this for last because we have little evidential support for it in canon, but the Shiver character analysis really isn't complete without it. Up to this point I have referred to Shiver with She/Her pronouns because that is Nintendo NA's current official stance on the matter (I'm going to keep doing it for consistency but I really don't feel strongly about this), and my analysis is written with the assumption that Shiver is a cisgendered woman. BUT. I actually see no reason that an alternative interpretation cannot be true.

The overall art community has already figured out that there's a VERY potent TRANS narrative that can be told with Shiver. Shiver's narrative is about presenting as a traditional cisgendered girl while struggling with all the ways she does not conform to tradition, but there's an entirely new layer of meaning to this if Shiver is not, in fact, cisgendered in some way. There's a lot of visual information that initially led the community to this interpretation, Shiver's features are more androgynous than feminine, she wears a Sarashi wrap that has cultural connotations of being a binder, and she has a half shaved punk hair cut which is traditionally considered to be very unfeminine. Shiver's art form itself is gendered, as she has the design elements of a Geisha which is a feminine job, but the gender she presents on the job doesn't have to match her personal gender identity: drag queens exist, for example. I'd also like to point out that historically, there were in fact, MALE geishas that went by the title of Taikomochi, they are just less common in modern days.

In practice, Shiver's gender expression is so complicated that ANY interpretation is viable. Not only that but the various trans interpretations have VERY interesting implications. This would recontextualize Shiver's advantages not as majority privilege, but PASSING privilege, or the ability to LOOK heteronormative while not actually being that. It adds a lot of meaning to Shiver's focus on presentation, and her desire to be validated by a lot of people on TV.

Additionally, this would reinforce the idea that Shiver needs an outlet to address her gender nonconformity off screen, and trusted, accepting friends to keep her secrets while she perfects her preferred forms of gender expression. It's the exact sort of thing that would draw her to the delinquent Frye who has no respect for tradition, and who would encourage Shiver to embrace the most literal interpretation of "be gay, do crimes". It would connect Frye and Shiver as two parallel interpretations of minority anxiety in the same game: one who passes for "normal" and one who does not, and how differently they see the world. And that's… kinda beautiful?

At this point I don't have the relevant personal experience to dive any deeper into possible trans interpretations of Shiver, I think there are other artists with more relevant backgrounds that are already exploring this topic. Just know that I've seen the art that depicts Shiver with top surgery scars and they are my favorite.

8. Conclusion

Deep Cut's only been out three months and I've already written this much about their lore, good lord. I'm an artist who works on Splatoon fan fiction so the story and themes of Splatoon matter a lot to me as they influence the direction of my work, but my god, does Deep Cut give me a lot to work with. Some of this will have to be retracted as we learn more about Deep Cut's lore, there's lots of ways Nintendo can introduce canon to contradict my take, and that's fine GIVE US THE LORE. Regardless I plan to be making more Deep Cut fan content in the future and I really wanted to share the information that my future work will be based on.

#splatoon 3 #splatoon #deepcut #shiver x frye #Frye #Shiver #fryerweek #long post #splat3

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