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ranchthoughts · 2 years ago

Text

thoughts on genre, tropes, Bad Buddy, and My School President

and here she is! the full text all together, not split into the three parts previously posted here: part 1, part 2, part 3

I also go more in detail about a lot of the terms and concepts I use here (indexes, conventions, genres, intertextuality, etc) in this post here, in case you would like more context

[strap yourselves in, this is loooooong]

The BL “genre” has so many conventions - in narrative, characterization, themes, settings, iconography, filmic techniques, and of course, tropes.

Bad Buddy and MSP do not lack these genre conventions (both are stories about boys in love, both are set in schools which is very common in Thai BLs especially, both explore a budding relationship and other social and emotional problems of youth, both hit familiar plot beats like confessions and narrative/emotional climaxes, both utilize many editing and sound effect techniques seen in other BLs, and both deploy many BL tropes like cheek kisses, head pats, forced proximity, looming, etc.). However! Bad Buddy and MSP are atypical in their deployment of genre conventions, especially with regards to trope usage and pacing - they go against genre and trope expectations to subvert seme/uke roles and dynamics and they space their narrative beats differently than other shows. As a result, the shows feel familiar but also fresh to BL audiences.

Bad Buddy, MSP, and tropes

BL tropes index so much information to audiences familiar with the genre (e.g., the nature of the relationship between characters, the seme/uke dynamics, other social information, etc.). Bad Buddy and MSP take these familiar indexes, with their well established meanings, and mix them up, give them new contexts, and use what they normally tell us about the characters, social context, relationship dynamic, etc. to tell a new story.

There are SO many examples of this so I have decided to focus on two “subcategories” of tropes: the faen fatale and tropes which are strongly associated with seme/uke dynamics.

Faen Fatales

In most BLs, the faen fatale (thanks to AbsoluteBL for the term) is a character (male or female) whose sole purpose is to drive a wedge between the main pair, often serving as a catalyst for their relationship/confession, and who generally does not get much character development or identity of their own.

In Bad Buddy, Ink seems like a classic faen fatale: she is introduced as an old high school friend that Pat was interested in and Pran was jealous of because of that fact, and now in the present day of the show Pat pursues her again and Pran is once again jealous, especially since it seems Pat is succeeding (they get food together, they hang out a lot, Pat wears the bracelet Ink gave him in high school, etc.). Pran believes that Pat likes Ink and that they are well on their way to being together, if they aren’t together already. Pat even tells Pran he likes Ink. However, it becomes clear quite quickly that Ink is not a typical faen fatale. Her interactions with both boys feel platonic, she shows just as much interest in fostering a friendship with Pran, and when Pat uses Pa’s patented “Four Ways to Tell if Someone Likes You,” Ink fails in every category. She does act a a catalyst to Pat and Pran’s romantic relationship in some ways (e.g., Pat using Pa’s patented Four Ways he learned to assess Ink to realize his own feelings for Pran), and she does act as a barrier to their relationship as some of Pran’s hesitation post their ep.5 kiss comes from his understanding that Pat has a crush on Ink (though of course their family and friends present the main barrier). However, Ink has her own personality, interests, and crucially, her own romantic arc. She is a fully fleshed out character who never had anything but platonic feelings for either lead: ergo, a subversion of the faen fatale trope.

In MSP, there are a couple of potential faen fatales, but neither develop that way in the end. Sound is introduced as Tinn’s rival, and romance media logic would suggest he will fulfill a love rival role in the show, competing with Tinn for Gun’s affections (especially as Sound is interested in music like Gun and he joins Chinzilla). Even Tiw suggests Tinn should look out for Sound moving in on Gun. However, Sound never shows interest in Gun and quickly gets acclimated into the band, only briefly presenting a threat to Tinn and Gun’s relationship when Tiw witnesses them having a seemingly intimate moment but that is sorted by the end of the episode. Like Ink, Sound never has anything other than platonic feelings for either lead and ends up with his own romantic arc. The other possible faen fatale in MSP is Nook, though she is present so briefly. I think other shows would have stretched out her plot line more and had her fill more of a faen fatale role. As it stands in MSP: Gun sees her give a gift to Tinn and compliment him, he gets jealous and snaps at Tinn, and then the show/Tinn immediately reveal to us and to Gun that it was a case of mistaken identity (Yo was catfishing with Tinn’s picture). In a matter of minutes, Nook went from being a faen fatale set up to simply someone involved in another character’s arc, part of a problem that Tinn and Gun could work on together.

Neither Bad Buddy nor MSP have faen fatale characters, though there are characters that could, and indeed seem to be set up to, fill that role. Both shows subvert our expectations and BL tropes by having potential faen fatales be uninterested in either lead and possess more character development than most other examples of the trope (including their own, completely separate, romantic arcs). In the case of Ink, this also subverts typical BL handling of female characters, who tend to be few and far between and generally relegated to the under-developed role of faen fatale.

Seme/uke Tropes

Most BL shows can be read through a lens of seme/uke dynamics, which originated in yaoi. The seme is the “pursuer” character and the uke is the “pursued”. There are certain physical (height, skin colour, etc.), social (age, wealth, social capital, etc.), and personality (active vs. passive, extroverted vs. introverted, flirtier vs. shyer) markers which are typically associated with either the seme or the uke. For example, semes tend to be taller, wealthier, older, flirtier, tanner, more active, and have a higher social status, while ukes tend to be shorter, poorer, younger, shyer, paler, and have a lower social status. “Seme” and “uke” roles are also sometimes conflated with masculinity and femininity (semes are “masculine” and ukes are “feminine”) and sexual preferences (semes are dominant and tops and ukes are submissive and bottoms). There are also tropes associated with either the seme or the uke, like ukes typically give cheek kisses and semes forehead kisses.

Thus, things like height, age, wealth, personality, presumed sexual preference, and the role they take in tropes can index the character’s status as a seme or a uke, and in turn the character’s identity as a seme or uke in the narrative (pursuer vs. pursued) indexes a character’s personality, sexual preferences, etc., however unrealistic and simplistic that is in real life. In a BL, we would expect the seme (pursuer) and uke (pursued) characters to exhibit most, if not all, of the associated seme or uke traits and roles in tropes, though this is not always true (and some BLs have little to no seme/uke dynamics at all).

In terms of physical, social, and personality markers in Bad Buddy, Pat exhibits slightly more “seme” traits than Pran, like his larger size and more “rugged” and “typical” masculinity compared to Pran’s neatness. However, both Pat and Pran take the seme or uke role in tropes about the same amount of time, with Pran having several significant moments where he embodies the seme role (looming over Pat, licking his fingers, drying his hair, etc., not to mention the post-sex scene in ep.11) and Pat many significant moments where he embodies a uke or even “feminine” role (casting himself as the girlfriend at the bus stop, being clingy, pretending to be sick so Pran will give him a sponge bath, etc.). In fact, tropes often happen twice, with Pat and Pran taking turns in the seme and uke role (e.g., both take turns cleaning the other’s face, both cook for the other, both kiss the other’s cheek, etc.). Furthermore, and I’ve spoken about this before here: both Pran and Pat deliberately take on the seme role during their ep.7 Flirt-Off bet (”whoever falls in love first loses”). To win the bet, they have to be the pursuer (i.e., seme), and thus spend the episode taking it in turns to exhibit the seme role in tropes (Pat takes off his shirt multiple times, Pran looms over Pat, they wash each other’s faces, they take the seme roles with Ink and Wai at the noodle shop to make the other jealous, etc.), thus also spending the episode taking it in turns to fulfill the uke role in tropes. The fact that the seme and uke roles in Bad Buddy are so interchangeable and balanced (they sometimes ever play the narrative roles of pursuer and pursued at the same time) demonstrates the show’s upending of traditional seme/uke dichotomies.

In MSP, Tinn and Gun are pretty much the perfect seme and uke in terms of physical and social markers: Tinn is taller, wealthier, has a higher social status, and even has a female “faen fatale” (more typical for seme characters), while Gun is shorter, poorer, from a marginalized club at school, and has a male “faen fatale” (more typical for uke characters). Some one on Tumblr (and I cannot for the life of me find this post again) mentioned that Tinn is a little “feminine” coded when it comes to romance (he is the dreamer, the romantic, always imagining romantic situations), while Gun is more what we’d think of as “masculine” when it comes to romance (more brusque, less sappy), though I am not sure how applicable these types of divisions are to BL. In term of preference markers, there isn’t much sexual content to go off of, but MSP does mention the TinnGun vs GunTinn divide in ep.12, never coming down on either side, and one of the things the homophobic teacher says is that he thought Gun was more “masculine” so he is surprised to see him dating a boy. Overall, the show deliberately eschews and criticizes the association of top/bottom or masculine/feminine with the pair. Furthermore, Tin talks a lot about wanting to be Gun’s boyfriend, to belong to Gun - and as @cinna-bin points out here, for a genre that equates seme with dominance, the one who shows and has ownership of the other, it is pretty subversive to have the seme character in the narrative express a desire to be “owned”. Like Pat and Pran, Tinn and Gun are fairly egalitarian when it comes to which role they take in tropes (Tinn catches Gun when he falls, Gun touches Tinn’s chin constantly, they both kiss the other’s cheek). I’ve talked about this here too, but often Tinn will imagine a moment with himself in the seme role (e.g., wiping Gun’s face) that won’t come to fruition, but when it does happen in real life, the trope is reversed and Gun takes the seme role (e.g., when it happens in real life, Gun wipes Tinn’s mouth). In MSP, the deployment of tropes is more about natural moment and real life, and less adhering to strict role divisions. This back and forth feels more accurate, more high school - they both take it in turns to boldly initiate and then to be shy (all the aborted kiss chances, etc.).

Finally, I’d like to add that there are many moments in both Bad Buddy and MSP where the characters are aware of the romantic tropes and intentionally utilize them to further a romantic agenda. We aren’t exactly subverting tropes here, but we are playing with them deliberately and consciously in a way you don’t get in a lot of BLs so I thought it worth mentioning here. Most of these instances come in the Bad Buddy ep.7 Flirt-Off or from Tinn’s day dreams and include:

Pat employing the “drinking from a water bottle/pouring water on yourself” and “shirt off” tropes to try and get Pran hot and bothered in ep.7

Pran looming over Pat during the bet

Pat and Pran trying to make each other jealous by employing various classic tropes with Ink and Wai respectively while eating noodles (opening their water bottle, feeding them, wiping their mouth, etc.)

Pran symbolically losing the bet by wiping Pat’s mouth

Tinn imagining himself wiping Gun’s mouth

Tinn imagining a Ghost moment while cooking with Gun

Tinn making a joke about a “hot underwater kiss”

Pacing

Both MSP and Bad Buddy are also slightly unconventional when it comes to pacing. Both shows hit the standard BL narrative beats (falling for one another, confessions, first kiss, confirmation of relationship, conflict, beach eps, etc) but at unconventional timings, they utilize a lot of time skips, and they also condense plot lines which in other shows might have been much longer.

The Placement of Narrative Beats

I will focus on two of the main places where both Bad Buddy and MSP diverge from the usual BL placement of narrative beats. Firstly, the first kiss on both shows: while there is a lot of variety in the timing of first kisses for BL shows, Pat and Pran’s rooftop kiss at the beginning of ep.5 is perhaps a little earlier than usually, especially since the two do not truly confess or get together until the end of ep.7; and in MSP, their first kiss comes quite late, especially given the numerous near-kisses that happen throughout the latter half of the show. The first kiss for MSP coming in ep.12 is not unheard of for a low-heat BL and really makes sense given the tone and setting of the show (lighthearted, high school), but combined with the early confession of feelings (hinted at as early as ep.3, and fairly confirmed in ep.6) as well as those fake-out kisses makes it feel unusual.

Secondly, both shows eschew the typical ep.11 of doom structure of a BL, where ep.11 sees peak emotional angst and the narrative/plot climax, in favour of a ep.10 (and even ep.9 in Bad Buddy) of doom, an ep.11 denouement, and an ep.12 conclusion. Eps.9 and 10 in Bad Buddy are when Pat and Pran’s friends and parents, the two biggest barriers to their relationship, find out about them. Pat is shot, they learn the real story behind their parents feud, there are a lot of emotions, etc. In ep.10 of MSP, there is the finale of Hot Wave and Gun’s mother’s illness (culminating in her receiving surgery at the end of the episode). Neither show has the main couple break up in their eps. of doom, like is common in other BLs’ ep.11 of doom, though they do have their relationships tested. Ep.11 in both Bad Buddy and MSP are instead the denouement, a quieter, more introspective look at the emotions and plot event of the previous episode(s). Pat and Pran run away from their families for their “honeymoon” on the beach and come to terms with everything they’ve learned, and MSP focuses more on the aftermath of Hot Wave and the tensions and emotions among Chinzilla, though there is of course parts about Tinn and Gun’s relationship in the face of disappointment. The final ep. for both show is thus given a bit more breathing room than in other BLs - they don’t have to wrap up the emotions and plot lines of an ep.11 of doom AND conclude the series, and can instead focus on wrapping up the series and even introducing new ideas and a look into the future (there are timeskips in both ep.12s, Bad Buddy does their PatPran breakup fake out, and MSP explores homophobia).

Time Skips

While time skips aren’t unheard of in BLs, especially in the final episode, Bad Buddy and MSP’s usage of them interject a level of realism into the series that isn’t always seen. The time jump of 6 or so months at the beginning of ep.7 in Bad Buddy means the tension build of the Flirt-Off doesn’t happen over a matter of days or weeks but in fact months. Pat and Pran are stubborn, this won’t be resolved quickly, and it give time for the tension to realistically reach a breaking point. MSP features several time skips in ep.9, ep.10, and ep.12, stretching both the Hot Wave competition schedule and Tinn and Gun’s budding relationship over a much more realistic full school year, instead of pretending the competition and build up of tension or feelings could be happening over a span of weeks. Paradoxically, the fact that the shows use time skips instead of showing (either in full, in part, or in a montage) the parts they skip (the Flirt-Off, the weeks of Tinn and Gun coming closer together and Chinzilla practicing) connects to my next point: the shows aren’t afraid to speed things up sometimes. The use of time skips both slows down the narrative and emotional arcs over a longer period of time while also demonstrating that the shows feel confident in their narratives: there is no need to stretch story lines out over episodes and episodes.

Condensing Plot Lines

The most striking thing about Bad Buddy and MSP’s pacing is how fast they move through plot lines, especially compared to other shows. In Bad Buddy, the plot line where Pat and Pran are anonymously and unknowingly flirting with each other through gifts and notes left at each other’s doors could have been the plot line for most of a show, if not a whole show, but it is introduced and resolved within ep.2. Ink is introduced in ep.4 and seems to be a potential faen fatale, but by the end of ep.4 this seems somehow unlikely and by halfway through ep.5 it is confirmed that she won’t be. The Flirt-Off happens in large part off-screen, in the 6 months or so time skip between eps.6 and 7, and is shown to us and resolved in ep.7. Other shows could have spent episodes if not half the show exploring that plot line.

I've talked at length about the pacing of MSP here and a bit here - like Bad Buddy, MSP moves quickly through plot lines that might have spanned episodes or even a whole season in another show. By the end of the first episode, MSP establish that Tinn is soft and pining hard over Gun (instead of keeping up the premise that he is cold and out to get the music club), the finale of Hot Wave comes two episodes before the end, the plot lines around Gun’s mother’s health are resolved in about one episode (the conflict around Tinn keeping Gun’s mother’s illness from him is resolved in a couple of scenes, and she has surgery and is pronounced ok by the end of the episode), any jealousy plot line around Nook is resolved in two scenes, the conflict introduced by Sound joining the band is resolved in one episode, and so on. Pretty much every problem introduced at the beginning of an episode is resolved by the end.

Bad Buddy and MSP feel confident, like they know they have narrative material to spare and don’t need to stretch plot lines out with twists, miscommunication, and jealousy. Thus, they move through plot lines much more quickly than other shows would.

Both shows feel so fresh because of this - they keep things moving, they surprise us by resolving things faster than other shows would, they don’t linger in jealousy and miscommunication like many other shows do, they skip over parts that other shows might have lingered on for the biggest punch, and they break the patterns that us, the audience, have come to expect from BLs (like the ep.11 of doom). Even the progression of the relationships, which we know will be romantic and probably happy in the end (these are BLs after all) and conform vaguely to enemies-to-lovers and will-they-won’t-they conventions, stay fresh: Pat and Pran have kissed and all but confessed their feelings, but they now embark on a months long Flirt-Off bet that delays them actually getting together. We know Tinn has a crush on Gun from the end of the first ep. and we begin to see hints that Gun might like him back from ep.3 onwards, and at first the show seems like it is going to go the typical romcom route wherein Gun doesn’t realize Tinn’s crush is on him (especially with him offering to help Tinn flirt with his crush), but like I talked about in my post here, they don’t and instead have Gun know it is him Tinn has a crush on, he’s just uncertain and a bit scared. Bad Buddy and MSP are both quicker and slower than other shows: they move through plot lines without lingering, but they use time skips to create realistic long term development of the core relationships, allowing the characters to build tension, live in hesitancy, and in the case of Tinn and Gun, be realistically slow in the physical progression of their relationship.

Conclusions

Bad Buddy and MSP subvert audience expectations with regards to tropes and narratives - like their handling of the faen fatale trope (both shows give us characters that could be faen fatales, and probably would be in other shows, that do not fulfill the narrative role of a faen fatale and receive character development and arcs of their own unlike other faen fatales) and how they play with expectations surrounding seme/uke dynamics (those who embody the seme or uke role in tropes aren’t necessarily the ones who exhibit the most seme or uke physical, social or personality markers; tropes iterations are balanced and reciprocal). Both shows change up the usual BL timelines and expected pacing - they hit their peak narrative, emotional, and angst climaxes before the standard ep.11 peak, plot beats come quicker than in other shows, and story arcs that are usually dragged on in other shows are concluded more quickly. On the other hand, both shows are “slower” than other BLs in other ways, like their usage of time skips to create realistic progressions of the core relationships. As a result of these subversions of BL genre conventions, the shows are familiar but also fresh to BL audiences.

But what does this say about Bad Buddy and MSP, and the BL genre in general?

Firstly, these shows remind us again of the importance of intertextuality. Texts (and this includes television shows) are intertextual; they all refer to one another and cannot exist separately from other texts. BLs especially are very intertextual - they have so many shared elements (tropes, characters, locations, etc.) they always (deliberately or unintentionally) draw parallels to other BLs. We would never notice how Bad Buddy and MSP diverge from other BL shows if we did not by necessity/automatically think of all previous BLs while watching them. Furthermore, where and how Bad Buddy and MSP divert from genre conventions and previous examples of the genre demonstrates their relationship to the genre and underlines the messages the shows are trying to send. Bad Buddy and MSP subvert the particular genre expectations they do and in the way they do to make a point - by giving new meanings to familiar conventions and juxtaposing typical meanings of genre conventions with their own (either explicitly, or through the audience’s intertextual analyses) the shows ground themselves in a different world view than other BL shows and give a more nuanced and realistic look at human and queer experience.

For example, the way Bad Buddy and MSP move quickly through plot points (avoiding extended plot lines centering on jealousy or miscommunications) and the reciprocity of their trope usages (deliberately balancing the seme and uke dynamics of their lead pairs) is unusual in the world of BL. It serves to emphasize the reciprocal and egalitarian nature of the lead pairs’ relationships which we also see in their treatment of one another (communicating, understanding each other’s needs and taking turns acquiescing to make the other happy, e.g., ep.11 where Pran agrees to run away and stay on the honeymoon to make Pat happier and then Pat agrees to return home to make Pran happier, or Tinn and Gun being so supportive and understanding of one another’s dreams and physical boundaries, etc.). In this post @miscellar argues the lack of miscommunication as a plot device in Bad Buddy is inherently queer and that the show as a whole does away with heterosexual/heteronormative tropes. In their reciprocity, egalitarianism, and communication, Pat and Pran and Tinn and Gun eschew the standard power dynamics of BLs which come as a result of BL’s encoded seme/uke dynamics, which in turn come from heteronormative and misogynistic ideas in the het romance genre and beyond about men and women. Defying genre conventions in some ways (e.g., subverting tropes) strengthens and underlines how the shows defy genre conventions in other ways (queerer, more realistic stories; fairer treatment for women; less heteronormativity, etc.) - these smaller, more obvious subversions of genre conventions and expectations indicates to us, the audience, that we should be prepared for larger, more subtle and implicit shake ups of genre conventions and expectations, ones that might rewrite the BL genre code for the future.

By reflecting on what Bad Buddy and MSP change, we can understand and identify the standard BL world view and set of assumptions. For example, by weakening and subverting seme/uke dynamics and their associations with things like dominance/submission, masculinity/femininity, and top/bottom, Bad Buddy and MSP reject the heteronormative and misogynistic assumptions that underlie most BLs: that gay couples have a “man” and a “woman;” that the penetrated must be feminine, weaker, sex averse, etc. like women are in heterosexual relationships; that there is always an unbalance of power (social and/or sexual) in relationships. While these are “just” romance tropes, or you might say that it’s odd to be so absorbed by the dynamics between two characters (particularly when it come to analyzing seme vs. uke and top vs. bottom), in a world where these tropes and their execution, and the preferred sexual position of a character and what that says about their personality etc., are so tied to other things and issues like misogyny, homophobia, etc., refusing to engage and deliberately obscuring are pretty radical things that say a lot about the message and view point of the shows.

Bad Buddy and MSP feel more realistic than a lot of other BLs. This is not to say that shows have to be realistic to be good, or even that viewers/that I prefer realistic shows, but it is certainly something that strikes me when I think about Bad Buddy and MSP. The relationship progression is slower, there is less dwelling in miscommunications, they even have not entirely happy but hopeful endings (Pat and Pran are continuing to hide their relationship from their parents, but it seems they are coming around; Tinn and Gun face homophobia from people in their lives, but also receive support from their classmate and parents). And beyond being realistic to the “real world,” they also feel more realistic to the queer experience: queer relationships don’t usually have such strict relationship roles and power dynamics, adhere so strictly to heteronormative ideals, or exist in world without homophobia or disapproval. They are varied, often deliberately contrasting and rejecting hetero norms, and sometimes involve being scared to come out (even to accepting parents), facing homophobia, and living in a “glass closet” limbo.

Many people have talked about how Bad Buddy walked so MSP could run - Bad Buddy was more heavy handed and noticeably deliberate with its trope subversions, intentionally trying to correct problems that have existed in the BL genre since the beginning, and this allowed MSP coming later to be more subtle with their changes, working them even more seamlessly into the style and the tone of the show. After MSP, what will be next? Where is GMMTV, and BL as a whole (in Thailand and beyond) heading? I’m excited to find out.

Bibliography

@absolutebl, specifically these posts: 1 (faen fatales), 2 (seme/uke), 3 (seme/uke tropes), 4 (GMMTV correcting for its mistakes), and all their posts about BL tropes

Agha, Asif. 2003. “The social life of cultural value.” Language & Communication 23: 231-273.

Ahearn, Laura. M. 2012. Living Language: An Introduction to Linguistic Anthropology. Hoboken: Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

Bakhtin, Mikhail M. 1982. “Discourse in the Novel.” In The Dialogic Imagination: Four Essays by M.M. Bakhtin, edited by Michael Holquist, translated by Caryl Emerson and Michael Holquist, 260- 422. Austin: University of Texas Press.

Chandler, Daniel. Semiotics for Beginners. http://visual-memory.co.uk/daniel//Documents/S4B/semiotic.html

Chandler, Daniel. Genre Theory. http://visual-memory.co.uk/daniel//Documents/intgenre/intgenre.html

@cinna-bin: https://cinna-bin.tumblr.com/post/704496825511641088/his-boyfriend-words-matter

Irvine, Judith T. 1996. “Shadow Conversations: The Indeterminacy of Participant Roles.” In Natural Histories of Discourse, edited by Michael Silverstein and Greg Urban, 131-159. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Laineste, Liisi, and Piret Voolaid. 2017. “Laughing Across Borders: Intertextuality of Internet Memes.” European Journal of Humour Research 4, no. 4: 26–49.

@miscellar: https://www.tumblr.com/miscellar/674021449476997120/here-are-a-few-things-off-the-top-of-my-head-1 AND edited to add this post, which is so crucial to understanding how intentional all this is when it comes to Bad Buddy: https://www.tumblr.com/miscellar/710442440997371904/hello-in-a-convo-we-were-having-about-qls-that

Proctor, Devin. 2020. "Intertextuality." In The SAGE International Encyclopedia of Mass Media and Society, edited by Debra L. Merskin, 849-50. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications.

@ranchthoughts (myself): 1 (signs, symbols, icons, indexes, genre and BL), 2 (Bad Buddy and seme/uke tropes), 3 (MSP and imagination vs. reality), 4 (MSP being a good-natured show), 5 (MSP and narrative structure and pacing), 6 (Gun and knowing about Tinn’s crush); and everyone I referenced in those posts as well

Wiggins, Bradley E. 2019. The Discursive Power of Memes in Digital Culture: Ideology, Semiotics, and Intertextuality. London: Routledge.

#bb #bb meta #msp #msp meta #bl meta #ranch thoughts #bad buddy #my school president #this post is a monster... it's a full thesis basically #ppt thoughts

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go-to-two · 7 months ago

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FBI: International seems like a very atypical, outside the norm acting gig. I’m sure most actors look forward to and dream of stability in terms of a stable job but also one stable location they are filming in, especially if they have families/kids. I feel like the International job would only appeal to certain personality types, people who are spontaneous and love traveling and are good with ever-changing locations. Jesse is doing quite the 180 from his last job in that way as he was set in the same city for 10 years.

Absolutely, it feels like it would be a tougher gig for actors with young families especially. I don't imagine it's a lifestyle that appeals to everyone, as you said. That's part of the reason why I don't think Jesse will do this for years on end. The traveling and the allure of filming in different locations is very, very cool (I'm jealous!) but seems like it could also be very, very physically and emotionally taxing to maintain for several years- on both the actors and their loved ones.

Edit: apparently they travel far less than I imagined 😂. Still cool! But Jesse won't be hitting up a new place every week.

#anon ask

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mareenavee · 1 year ago

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(Tired) WIP Wednesday

Dragging ourselves through the week through the chaos <3

I've been ill but writing has been a balm! I'm gonna share a few snippets with you.

Was tagged by @thana-topsy (HUGE HUGS! Aiden and Sarel are adorable and you DID IT. You did the thing!) and @kookaburra1701 (I'm still waiting on Book 32 of your fic universe, and will cheer until its ready!)

Tagging especially @changelingsandothernonsense for the Sad Wars which have produced amazing content as of lately from me, for being writing exercises hehe. Not to brag, I'm just really fond of the work! And of course the amazing @paraparadigm, @thequeenofthewinter, @snippetsrus, @wildhexe, @nuwanders, @oblivions-dawn, @miraakulous-cloud-district, @throughtrialbyfire, @expended-sleeper, @inquisition-dragonborn @archangelsunited, @dirty-bosmer, @viss-and-pinegar, @ladytanithia, @polypolymorph, @gilgamish, @tallmatcha, @rainpebble3, @late-nite-scholar, @greyborn2, @saltymaplesyrup, @orfeoarte, and YOU. Because yes. You are tagged. Tag me back if you have stuff to share! I love to see it.

Below I have a few samples from some WIPs! I'll start with World, as I'm restructuring chapter 31 <3

This selection is long, too! 1,050 words, below the cut!

1) The World on Our Shoulders, Chapter 31 Athis's POV as he goes through Northwatch Keep to save Thorald. 219 words.

Still, there was something unsettling about how unnaturally quiet this part of the keep was. The hairs on the back of Athis’s neck stood up, some instinct he couldn’t place screaming of danger. Something was wrong. He’d felt this way once, years ago, before a bear charged out of the woods that time his hip had been shattered. He’d almost died, then, if it hadn’t been for Farkas and that priest out of Falkreath. Odd, that, as it was a priest of Arkay. The irony wasn’t lost on him. Now, however, was not the time to lose focus.

Athis pressed against the wall that lead out of the twisting passageways into a room that looked, from what he could tell, like some kind of torture chamber. Only, the air rippled with some kind of magic that felt like static on his skin the closer he crept. He remembered how it felt when Nyenna used certain spells nearby; this one didn’t feel like anything he could recall, and that didn’t bode well. None of it did, if he was being honest. He got the sudden notion that perhaps it wasn’t worth all the trouble — that Thorald might already be dead. But no. If there was the slightest chance that he was still alive, Athis couldn’t leave him here. He wouldn’t.

2) Storms Like This A secret WIP I'll be editing and finishing soon for a friend. 266 words.

He’d thought back to one of his favorite memories of her, besides their wedding. Before they’d decided to adopt and start a family, they were living comfortably in Proudspire Manor in Solitude. He’d been overwhelmed at first by the city he’d only ever passed through before. Living in it meant becoming entangled in the political nonsense, which Sigyn seemed to take in stride. She’d come home, fancy clothes thoroughly drenched from the rain after being gone a particularly long time on what was supposed to be a local errand, and deposited an old hip bone into a chest by the door. Unnerving, sure, but not too atypical for her.

She took him by the hand and dragged him out into the storm, onto their back porch, all while Jordis silently judged them both from her perch at the kitchen table. Sigyn had said nothing, only smiled as he’d exclaimed from the cold downpour the further she led him outside, but then, even over the thunder, he’d heard it—the Bard’s College, practicing for the Burning of King Olaf, bright and clear, almost enhanced by the storm, music reverberating through the very stones of the building next door. They danced together, on their porch, regardless of the weather. It was if, for a moment, the entire world consisted of only them. She’d laughed even as their sodden hair clung to their faces, and as water ran freely into their eyes. [He] knew then, despite all of her chaos, he would follow her absolutely anywhere for as long as he lived.

Storms like this always reminded him of her.

3) Fragment - part of The Bitter, Bitter End (Unpublished as of yet.) Featuring Nevena Ules as the POV and Orvas Dren. (Yeah. Ew.) 209 words.

Orvas was leaning over the stone parapets, looking down into the courtyard where regular people milled around on business relating to Vedam’s gathering. The moons shone overhead and, besides the noise of the crowds and bards inside, all was silent. She cleared her throat, and Orvas turned to her. He smirked—the same sarcastic look he’d won her heart with when they were younger and under far less pressure—and closed the distance between them.

His eyes, blood red in this light, held storms. She knew what had been worrying him, but she was trying hard to ignore that part, until it was safe to talk about it. Vedam’s overreaching included parlaying with the Empire and solidifying trade between Morrowind and other provinces. Only, there would be an embargo if the Blight situation got worse—which it already was, by the day. And if all of that work was so new, the newfound strength of House Dren would be the first to collapse. Orvas had said as much, and had been bringing it up in their conversations more often as of late, because Vedam wouldn’t see reason. He thought he could see a solution, but even thought of it scared her.

He wanted to ally the Camonna Tong with the Sixth House.

4) Fragment - part of It's Always Darkest Before the Dawn (Unpublished as of yet.) This one is is Danger!Bean Varlais's POV. 353 words.

Varlais never felt like he belonged anywhere in particular, to be fair. His parents had been elevated slightly after a few turns of events when they’d moved with Ondolemar’s family to Skyrim. That was, technically, his doing, all those years ago, but they were still othered by most Altmer of any rank, Thalmor or not. It was complex, of course, and he didn’t have the energy to parse it all. He’d leave that to Ondolemar, who seemed like he could hold every political detail in his head, as if his mind was some kind of tome.

All he knew was it had to do with the Ayleid ancestry that refused to fade into the background for his family, no matter how many generations. Aerissa, at least, never looked down at him for the blue eyes, thank Auri-El, but she was back in Alinor now, doing clerical work for the Thalmor. And, of course, he was stuck here. But at least, if he was here, he could try and save her from them. No matter how badly he missed her, he’d keep fighting. Before she became a thrall, well, she’d always stuck by him. He looked down at his ring, the gold band glimmering with a faint enchantment, the metal worn and scratched. Somehow, likely by Mara’s direct intervention, he’d not lost the thing, nor had it torn through his skin and bone in some horrifying way. He touched the edge of his left ear where he’d lost an earring that way, and was grateful at least in that moment, his magic worked to stanch the bleeding.

As of late, he’d been feeling even more unmoored than usual, despite Ondolemar’s best efforts—the man was seventeen different kinds of distracted, after all. They were and always had been close as brothers, but with so much changing and hanging in the balance, Ondolemar had to focus on the plan. They had a goal, after all, as impossible as it all seemed. The Civil War and the Dragons were mucking up pretty much everything. Varlais also tended to make himself a problem, though never intentionally. Not really.

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valeriefauxnom · 11 months ago

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More Dragalia Minor Details!

This time, quotes edition!

I think it's interesting how Leonidas and Phares both have a sort of speech pattern in their unit quote spread as well as their general dialogue. Leonidas is the simpler one to explain, so I'll start with him. He utilizes a lot of 'Perhaps' in his quotes.

Ex, among his Gala and Summer alts, he says:

Perhaps I ought to make arrangements for the decisive battle that awaits. My brother has acquired many useful pawns. His good-naturedness perhaps has merit. Perhaps I'll go surfing. Perhaps curry for supper? Perhaps I will stop in at the cafe.

If I read into it, I might say it is a reflection on his focus on the future. Leonidas is always looking for paths to make his ideals reality, and how he acts in the present is all in fulfillment of his aims. As such, evaluating each action under how it might help said goals might be more on his mind (even when it comes to things like leisure, 'would my goals be hindered if I do so/could I accomplish something to further my aims if I did?'), leading to the overuse of perhaps.

In a broader sense, Leonidas tends to flip-flop verbally between simple, short sentences, rarely busting out the flowing complicated ones one might expect as the standard 'royal' speech patterns. Sometimes he compromises between the two worlds and throws complicated words into short sentences to get his mood across succinctly.

Here's what I mean.

Phares, meanwhile, has his own fixation on a word. Several, in fact. The biggest are 'must' and 'will', but in general sentiment, he has another tendency. It's a bit hard to describe, but while he is future-focused like Leonidas, he expresses it more in concrete terms of what to do, with no true 'deliberation' found in Leonidas' 'perhaps'.

Take these lines from his unit (emphasis mine as I try to illustrate):

My next experiment will be... I must procure a book. I must make record of this. I swear to find a treatment for wyrmscale so the tragedy of our royal family is never repeated. How many times have I envied Valyx's stoutness? I shall have to ask him for some training. I should have died, but was kept alive. My task now is to show the meaning of that to the world. I shall support you. I will not let you die here! I will investigate truth, and contribute to the people until the life granted to me is ended.

Hopefully this helps give an idea of what I mean. There's no real deliberation about his next action; he has already decided, and is dead-set on doing so unless and until it kills him. It's an interesting departure from Leonidas, since Leonidas himself is rather blunt and similarly dead-set at times but still hedges a lot more than Phares.

As for his general speaking style, Phares, whether using short or long sentences, more frames things in a bit of an atypical way than necessarily using complex words all the time. Like, instead of, 'no need to be formal / no need for formalities' he instead will say, 'there is no need for formalities among we fellows of science'. Don't get me wrong, he uses more complex/rarer words often, but they're not an absolute prerequisite to the atypical wording, if you get my drift.

Examples:

(Instead of 'it's okay' or other typical variations)

(Instead of 'don't worry')

To explain these tendencies, I'd simply line it up with his many brushes with death in the recent past. By the end of Phares' adventurer story, he's almost died an additional 2-3 times, and that's not counting his previous issues with wyrmscale and the Progenitor. He knows just how tenuous life is, and yet wishes to do so much in the future to capitalize on the many near-saves he's had. To him, he likely no longer has the luxury of indecision at all: what he wants (to live, to protect his family, the world, to learn more), he will manifest it through determination alone.

Heck, even his adventurer story ends on this, highlighting the 'will' tendency:

So yeah, when I noticed these two had a particular flair to their style of speech, I figured I'd write it down! Maybe I'll find something more for some of the other family members, but these two were the most glaring with the repetition.

#dragalia lost #dragalia #character analysis #It's kinda funny how in Phares' story Leonidas will go from one story outright yelling his name in all caps..to back to snarking as soon as #Phares wakes up and wonders if he's alive. “Unless I have suddenly gained the ability to speak with the dead... then yes.”#Ah. Siblings. Leonidas is still trying to pretend he's not fond of his siblings despite the fact that the next two in line are probably his #'most liked' overall since they grew up closer and he seems to tolerate them and their mutual ribbing more.#...I am definitely not biased to Phares. nope. not at all. Naturally this is why he's dead in one of my only other royal-fam centric fics.

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noona-is-afk · 8 months ago

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I honestly think The Atypical Family would be perfect if they just got rid of the sister’s storyline. Maybe it’ll get better and they’ll actually make some interesting comments on society and weight loss culture, but it just feels very outdated to have this girl in a fat suit and is distracting me from the rest of the drama…

Also distracting how bad the editing and rotoscoping is in the black and white time travel scenes. Like pls give this editor more time, the colours look awful lol

Digging the main storyline so much though and the whole cast is absolutely smashing it. Lovely seeing our bbs from Its Okay to be Not Okay grown up now and back on screen together!

The OST is super weird, but I kinda love it? Gives the whole show this eerie vibe that I’m really digging so far

Overall I’m nervous about this show, but somehow hooked, so I guess that’s good??

#spoilers #the atypical family

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kimgoeun · 8 months ago

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The Atypical Family (Ep.2)

#the atypical family #jang ki yong #chun woo hee #kdramadaily #kdramaedit #kdrama #kdrama edit #drama

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xbethelight · 6 months ago

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"Do Da Hae's past is my future. The moments I spent with you pull me back into them." -히어로는 아닙니다만 (2024)

#the atypical family #히어로는 아닙니다만 #chun woo hee #jang ki yong #kdrama #my edit

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bluestar22x · 1 year ago

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Chapter 1

Baby Fever - Chapter 1

Pairing: Marcus Pike x Female!(Wife)Reader

Series Summary: It all started with a classic case of baby fever

Rating: 18+ Series

Warnings: Smut, light breeding kink, cock warming, mentions of cum

Word Count: 3,202

Author's Note: This was one of those chapters where editing the fic the next day made me feel so much better about how it turned out. Hope you all enjoy. And check out the oneshot A Splash Of Red if you haven't yet if you want to get to know reader better beforehand.

Also, I mention hair color of a relative of reader, but that does not confirm a race for reader. She is adopted.

xxx

It was the fourth of July, and just like every Independence Day you could remember your parents had invited all of your family members to Lake Arrowhead in Virginia to celebrate and have a reunion. All of them. Both your mother's side and your father's side, which wasn't atypical for them, but it was the only celebration of the year that had both sides gathering together.

Them all being there, packed into a modestly sized lake house rental, made your family appear huge, and you supposed that they were, compared to most modern American families. In total you had six aunts, four uncles, their spouses, two living sets of grandparents, and at least twenty cousins and second cousins, not to mention your parents, sister, and her little family. This was the only time of year you got to see most of your relatives that lived more than a few hours away from D.C., which was about half of them, and your sister Emily could also be included. She lived in California with her husband and you had only gotten to see her in person a couple times a year since she had moved out there with her husband Greg four years ago.

They'd had a baby seven months ago, and you'd flown out to see little Henry for a weekend the month after he was born, but you hadn't seen them since, not in person at least. You were thankful for Facetime, you hadn't technically missed out on seeing your nephew growing, but it wasn't quite the same through a screen. You'd been anxious to see Henry again at the reunion, so you sought him and Emily out first when you arrived, scanning the crowd for your supermodel tall sister and a tiny baby with ridiculously thick blonde hair.

You found them at the kitchen island, Emily seated at the far end, bouncing Henry gently on her leg while a crowd surrounded them, fawning over the little guy. For most of the family this was the first time they were laying eyes on him, and your family being the stereotypical American type, most of the crowd was composed of women, while the men hung back chatting with each other just outside of the baby bubble.

You strolled over to them with your husband in tow, one of his massive hands clasped in yours firmly, gladly following you. You'd married Marcus Pike on the twenty-sixth of May, just a little over a month ago, and while this wasn't his first time at the family reunion, he wasn't yet at that point where he'd wander off away from you during a family party on his own. It wasn't like he didn't know your uncles and cousins enough, it was just that he was more interested in you, and you wouldn't have dreamed about complaining about that.

You let go of his hand to scoop up your nephew, the only person in your family besides your parents who ever did so without permission. "Come here, little man!" you exclaimed, voice higher pitched than it normally was. "I need kisses!"

You pressed so many kisses to his chubby cheeks they were shining when you pulled away and you felt your heart soar when you saw him beaming back up at you in reaction to your uncurbed affection.

"Perfect timing," Emily declared as she stood up. "I gotta go pee and pump. Do you mind watching him for a bit?"

"Just cause I'm the older sister doesn't mean you get to make me the designated babysitter on sight," you joked.

"So, you don't want to?" Emily questioned, teased, gesturing to your aunts and female cousins who were still huddled around you both. "Cause I'm sure anyone else here would gladly."

"I'll take him!" your cousin Jeannie nearly shouted, making grabby hands at Henry.

You pulled him closer to your chest as if to shield him from her. "No way! Auntie rights."

Jeannie pouted but let you and your sister slip away into the more open living room.

Emily reached over the top of the couch for the baby bag she brought everywhere with her since Henry was born and passed it to you. "He might need a change while I'm gone," she warned.

You waved a hand at that. "I babysat in high school for the neighbors, remember? I'm not scared of a little Henry poo if it comes to that."

She chuckled. "Okay. I'll go. Talk after."

She gave you an awkward there's-a-baby-between-us hug then disappeared down the hallway as you sat down on the couch and dropped the bag at your feet.

You rested Henry on your right leg and twisted your face into a silly expression to make him giggle and the sound warmed you instantly. When you were a teenager, interacting with a baby had been a job. You'd been good at it, good enough to keep your neighbor's baby alive at least, but you hadn't really loved it. You hadn't been overly crazy over your cousins' babies either, but there was something about Henry that had changed that. You couldn't deny that everything he did had you captivated, even before he was born and your sister had insisted you feel him moving in her belly. Ever since then you'd been a little obsessed.

You felt eyes on you as you blew raspberries into his bare stomach, increasing the intensity of his laughter, but you ignored them, focusing on your nephew until you felt the couch cushion beside you sink down under the weight of another adult body.

"He's gotten big," Marcus observed, smiling brightly as he watched your endearing interactions with your nephew - who was also his nephew now you reminded yourself.

"Video chat didn't do justice," you agreed, jerking your head away from Henry to study his face again. You sighed heavily. "Next time I see him he'll probably be walking." You were disappointed by that realization. Kids grew up too fast for long distance.

Marcus chuckled at the pout that formed on your face. "Well, maybe by then another baby will be on the way in the family."

You glanced at him and caught the meaning behind his words in his soft chocolate eyes. "Marcus..."

"I know we both agreed we'd wait until after our first anniversary," he said, holding out an index finger for Henry to curl his little fingers around, "But you're a year into your greeter job at the hotel and my paperwork for the desk job at the FBI should go through next week, so why wait?"

You chewed your lower lip as you glanced back at the smiley baby you were bouncing on your knee, the same way your sister had. Why wait indeed. You both were in secure jobs and soon Marcus wouldn't be out in the field anymore, possibly hundreds of miles away if a case required it. He'd asked for a job in the FBI building in D.C. that would keep him safer and closer to home after you'd married. He'd insisted on it, even though the one that had been offered to him was a position with slightly less pay. You knew it had been because he wanted to be there for you and any kids in your future even though he hadn't spelled that out. You'd talked about having a kid or two after marriage fairly early on during the time you'd dated. It had simply been a smart move, neither one of you wanting to continue dating if the other hadn't wanted any. It was never too early to talk about deal breaker subjects in your book, though you'd waited until your fifth date to bring it up in case he didn't feel the same. He'd actually been relieved that you had brought it up since he had a history of rushing relationships and was unsure if it was still too early to bring up the topic.

If you had still been new at the hotel you'd have been concerned about needing maternity leave so soon after joining the business, but a full year had secured your place there, and you already had vacation time racked up on top of that.

Why not?

You couldn't think of anything to discourage you from starting to try for a baby. It wouldn't even be a process. You'd gotten your birth control implant removed right after you and Marcus had gotten married, choosing to use only physical barriers for prevention so you wouldn't have to wait to see a doctor before starting to try, knowing your doctor scheduled appointments months ahead of time.

A part of you might have also had foresight that you and Marcus wouldn't make it a full year waiting. Marcus had barely made it over a month. You couldn't blame him, staring at your nephew. You couldn't deny you yourself had a full-blown case of baby fever ever since he’d made his debut.

You watched as Henry tightened his grip on Marcus' finger and leaned forward to suck on its middle joint. You felt a smile tug at the corners of your mouth as Marcus ruffled his soft hair with his free hand. You knew he’d be a good dad. That had never been a concern for you, and his interactions with Henry had always been endearing. You didn’t think you’d ever met another man who deserved to be a father more than him and you wanted to be the one to make him one.

"Okay," you said almost breathlessly.

You'd known most of your adult life, over a decade, that you wanted children in the future, the dream having stuck up on you sometime during your short stint in college, but it had stayed a thought at the back of your mind for so long a part of you had wondered if you'd ever get around to it. Even after meeting and marrying Marcus it had still felt far away. But deciding to stop waiting, agreeing to it, the possibly was suddenly very real to you.

"Just okay?" He raised his brows. He seemed unsure of your reaction, like he'd expected more from you.

"More than okay," you corrected yourself as excitement started to bubble up in you. You flashed him a grin. "I'd like to start trying too."

Marcus beamed back at you and pitched forward to give you a gleeful kiss, resting his left hand against your cheek, thumb glazing over the apple of it. "I can't wait," he told you as he pulled away, and you wondered if he was more anxious about having a baby or making a baby. Cause for you it was about equal after seeing his little interactions with Henry and how he'd just kissed you.

"Tonight?" you murmured.

"Is the timing right?" he asked, hopeful.

"Whether it is or not, does it matter?" you inquired thickly. "We can still try."

The corner of his lips quirked upward at the seductive tone you were using. "True. And yes, I'd love to."

"Pencil it in Agent Pike."

He shook his head. "I never need a reminder for you."

You were distracted the rest of the day, anticipation building with every conversation you had with distant family that bored you, every hour that passed, and with the fading light.

Marcus did eventually step away from you to talk with your father about "guy stuff". Whatever that meant. They had been your father's words when he pulled him away from you.

You and Marcus spent the entire time apart stealing glances at each other while half paying attention to the conversations you were supposed to be engaged in.

Though you had been together for nearly eighteen months in total, your plan for the night upon your return home was very distracting. It could be claimed it was because you and Marcus were still early into your marriage, the whole newlywed thing, but the honest truth was that the idea of having unprotected sex with the intention of getting pregnant was a turn on for you, and it seemed, based on his intense gaze whenever your eyes met, that Marcus shared your sentiment.

That's why you weren't caught off guard when, just before midnight, he gathered you up in his arms immediately after stepping through the front door to the quaint little house you'd inherited from one of your late great grandmothers.

His broad hands were already under your blouse before you could register the movement, skating over the slopes of your shoulder blades and down the curve of your spine before slipping back up to repeat the action.

Your hands found his expansive shoulders as you pressed your lips to his and walked backwards, guiding him away from the door, just as anxious as him for what would come next. He swiftly kicked the door shut behind him (an action that you found pretty hot) and followed you through the moonlit kitchen and down the dark hallway, to the master bedroom.

You didn't stop until you blindly hit the side of the bed, climbing onto it as soon as you felt the bedspread behind your bare knees. Marcus didn't let your lips separate more than a whisper apart during the whole motion, kneeling over you as you sunk down on top of the bedspread.

You reached for his belt as he deepened the kiss between you, exploring your mouth thoroughly, and you hummed happily as you fumbled with the buckle. The sound of it clinking open and you ripping the piece of leather out of the loops of his jeans in one smooth move had him grinning against your mouth. "Anxious, sweetie?"

Like he wasn’t.

"Want you so bad, Marcus." You murmured the confirmation into his ear, knowing what it would do to him, and reached for the button of his pants, popping it open. He groaned as you slipped a hand into his boxer briefs, cupping his already half hard length and stroking him a bit.

He caught your hand to still it after several seconds, breath hitching. "Keep doing that I won't make it inside you, and that would defeat the purpose," he rasped.

You nodded and pulled your hand away, allowing him to lift your shirt up and off your body during the motion. The rest of your clothes, yours and his, were quickly discarded thereafter, socks the last to join the other scattered clothing on the floor.

Marcus traced the curves of your body as he hungrily kissed his way down it simultaneously, licking at sensitive spots to elicit moans from you as he traveled along, until his thick fingers were sliding through your folds and circling your clit.

You threw your head against the pillow behind you, grasped at the bed beneath you, and arched your back as his fingers expertly built up the heat and pressure inside you, slowly but surely, until your body was seizing with a pleasure that had you gasping loudly. As you panted afterwards, you opened your eyes to Marcus hovering over you, lips inches from yours, eyes dark and burning right through yours.

"So hot," he told you at a whisper. "You're so beautiful when you come."

They were words of praise you were far from unfamiliar with, but ones that always made your gut twist with desire, and he knew it.

He dipped his head to kiss you along your jaw, and you wrapped your arms around his neck, letting your eyes droop as you focused on the sensation of his teeth nipping at your skin.

"Marcus," you said under your breath, impatiently, "Please. Take me. I wanna have your baby. Been thinking about it all night."

His eyes grew darker than you'd ever seen them before, and he snapped them shut briefly, releasing a guttural groan as he pressed his body closer to yours and you splayed open to him. He slid himself inside you in one smooth move when your eyes met again, burying himself to the hilt, and you dipped your head to bite his shoulder at the intensity of him filling you up. It felt so good, and so easy, with how wet you were from your earlier release.

You wound your legs around his waist as he began rocking into you and you reclaimed his lips needily as you tilted your hips in time with his. One of his hands found your face while the other molded onto your hip, guiding it to press harder into his every time he plunged into you, wanting you impossibly close. You clung to him tightly, fingers embedded in the hair at the base of his neck, eyes barely open. You could feel the tension inside you mounting every time he dragged along inside you, and it was quickly becoming overwhelming, especially since you'd already climaxed minutes before.

The sounds Marcus was making, his soft grunts and moans, were not helping. He sounded utterly lost in you, in the pleasure he was taking from being inside you, and it made heat pool in your belly, set fire in your veins.

It wasn’t long before you were moaning loudly, absolutely shattering beneath him, and when he felt you clench down around him he shuddered and spilled his seed into you with a strained groan.

He collapsed onto you after, as he tenderly covered your mouth with his, the kiss almost lazy. Afterwards he rested his forehead against yours, making no attempt to pull out of you as he caught his breath.

You could feel his heart pounding in his chest with how he'd molded himself against you. It was racing at a similar rate as your own.

You relaxed, letting your legs slide off his back, and you nuzzled your nose against his cheek, inhaling his sweaty scent as your breathing began to steady.

"You going to stay in me all night, baby?" you asked him eventually, smiling. This was new. He usually pulled out moments after making love to you. Not that you were going to complain. It was just an observation.

"Whatever it takes," he replied, laving at your neck attentively. You understood immediately what he meant. Whatever it takes to get you pregnant. Your stomach flipped. If you'd know trying for a baby with your husband would be so hot, you'd have jumped at it sooner. Damn.

You winked at him playfully. "I think you've done your part well," you declared. "But no complaints from me if you want to be extra sure nothing leaks out."

You bumped his ass with the back of one of your heels suddenly, sending him jolting deeper into you, and you both beamed at each other after, your smile much more wicked than his.

He didn't actually stay in you all night, but you did spend a lengthy time after still linked as you kissed each other everywhere you could reach, thoroughly enjoying your closeness until sleep beckoned.

And when it did, he separated from you only to tug you against his chest and bury his face against the back of your head, an arm draped over you almost possessively.

You smiled softly into the darkness and reveled in the warmth of him against your back until you drifted off.

xxx

Tagged: harriedandharassed

xxx

Series Masterlist

Main Masterlist

#Marcus Pike Fanfic (Mine)#X Reader #Baby Fever Series

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