#because the entire area is quite literally hard as a rock

[wiremotherofficial]

i'm afraid i'm going to wake up like this tomorrow

[le-monchou]

𝐔𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐒𝐞𝐚 || 𝐑𝐮𝐠𝐠𝐢𝐞 𝐁𝐮𝐜𝐜𝐡𝐢 || 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐭: 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐋𝐢𝐟𝐞

literally a continuation of my day two: sea of lights this fic crossed my word limit twice (first 500 and then 700 so now i'm making it 1000 words) also tagging @midnightmah07 and @owlisbuffering

as you expected, you don’t see ruggie bucchi for quite a long time after rescuing him from those fishermen- no matter how long you stroll by the sea coast, the only response to his name is the gentle sea foam, something he called the tears of the moon. despite his self-attested illiteracy, the merman whose hair was as golden as the strands of silk woven by the moon from the sun had many stories to tell, and in the short time you knew him, you dared to think of him as more than a friend. 

you groan as you push your hands onto your face, blood rising in the places where they smacked you a little too hard. am i really so starved for romance that i decided to go after ruggie of all people? he’s not even a person!!!! he’s like spongebob- he lives at the bottom of the sea! you sigh as you remove your hands from your face, watching the sky turn a beautiful orange with the sun’s setting, the moon already risen a little bit in the distance. the area around you reminds you of the day you set him free, and you can’t help the second sigh that escapes your lips. 

taking the boat you’d been lent by one of the fishing crews, you set out into the ocean once again, looking for a nice place to sit and admire the moonlight on the water, waiting for a young man who’d probably never come. sitting on a comfortable-looking rock, you toss the petals of a flower ruggie had mentioned liking the look of when he was restricted to your small bathroom onto the surface of water and scream as bubbles pop up, accompanied by a shishishi you found all too familiar. 

���you!” you seethed as ruggie laughed, doing cartwheels with his entire body on the surface. “miss me?” ruggie teased, sharp canines glistening. “i mean, who else are you waiting for on this rock?” you roll your eyes as ruggie laughs once again before quieting down. “anyway, this is really good timing from both our ends- i’m gonna show you my place so you don’t have to worry!” 

“ruggie. how am i going to breathe underwater?” 

—

“oh woah,” you breathed in the air bubble ruggie had managed to create via a spell he asked the prince about (or so you assumed, because you were reading his lips and he was very distorted underwater), bouncing up and down in the tiny menagerie as ruggie dragged you towards the cave system. “this is where i live,” ruggie mouths as he pushes another vial of potion through the bubble, letting you leave the thing for a bit to swim with him. “this is my home.” 

“it’s wonderful, ruggie.” you smile as he flushes. “i’m serious. you could do so much with a cave system as big as this. show me more!” ruggie harrumphs with flushed cheeks before he grabs your hand and leads you inwards towards his room. at least, if he were human, that’s technically what it’d be, with all the human junk arranged around you and this gigantic skeleton hanging from the ‘ceiling’. “what do you think? arranged it all myself. i mean, leona and jack helped too, of sorts, but it was mostly me.” 

“this is lovely, ruggie!” you beam. “honestly, if i were a mermaid, i’d love to come here and chill with you. too bad i can only swim like this,” you chuckle as ruggie rolls his eyes fondly before kissing you on the cheek. “well, if not now, then maybe in the future,” ruggie starts as he leads you deeper into the cave system, showing you all the marvellous trash from the surface along with the little gems and pearls and gold they find. and as the two of you keep exploring, ruggie realises again that your time together with him is up, so he brings you back to the surface all too reluctantly as you kiss him close to his lips. 

“i loved tonight, ruggie.” you smile as you climb back onto the rock, the boat you loaned still bobbing on the waves of the ocean. “i know it’s a little too early to say this… but i love you, and i hope to see you soon.” something twists on ruggie’s face, something nice and hopeful, and he says nothing as he kisses you goodbye and dives back into the water all flushed, but you think you’ve found your happy ending. i love you, ruggie bucchi.

[cosmicbucket]

this is by no means an educated and informative post but rather a severe understatement of the rage i feel over the interview regarding one Gale Dekarios.

under the cut is a stronger criticism on the narrative's integrity with this ending; everything before that is tearing into the lead writer's statements.

note that I will be referencing other companions as contrast. this is not supposed to be tearing them down nor casting shade on anyone who enjoys these characters; i am trying to make a point through relevant comparison.

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

"the guy who starts off annoying everyone" that is such a blatantly subjective thing to say about a character.

for me personally, i Loathed shadowheart at first because of the immediate fantasy racism towards lae'zel. this is very clearly a subjective opinion as she's the most romanced companion, and I'm not mad about that in the slightest! she rocks! you can't judge a character on behalf of everyone ever. that's a foolish thing to do, full stop.

"constantly asking you to give him your most treasured possessions to eat" three times. he asks you for a magical item, three times. after that you are NEVER required to part with a magical item on his behalf again.

the game practically THROWS magic items at you for completing side quests, looting crates and chests. magic items are in ABUNDANCE and a lot of them won't be useful to your party depending on your companions and your chosen class. meanwhile, astarion's peculiar diet lasts the entire span of the game, creating a situation where should you choose to let him feed on you every night, you suffer a penalty to attack rolls, saving throws and ability checks OR waste a spell slot to remove the condition. astarion is most certainly in no shortage of fans and again! he rocks! but by comparison his effect on the player can stretch so far as to affect the final boss battle. gale's condition doesn't even make it past the end of act 1.

"at the end, he gives himself for the world" is it worth it though. is it really seriously worth it.

you can still defeat the elder brain yourself. it's not impossible. hell, with the right spells it's really fucking easy. are you seriously going to rob yourself of the satisfaction of defeating the final boss by sending someone to their death instead and calling it a day.

I can understand the narrative catharsis of a character who is so selfish, constantly, over and over, doing something selfless for the greater good.

But that just is not what Gale's story is.

Gale is ambitious and boastful, certainly. Gale is not selfish.

His attempt to impress Mystra - The Mother of Magic, Goddess of the Weave - came from a want to be equals with his partner. He explains how she refused to allow him to witness the depths of magic, and while that's a reasonable thing to enforce to a regular mortal, she had made him her Chosen, her lover. I would hope I don't need to delve into the blatant grooming (ie Elminster approaching Gale at the age of eight) and the obvious power imbalance between a goddess and a mortal in a relationship, but his desires - ambitious as they were - were not selfish.

When he asks for the player's assistance, he does so knowing that he's asking a lot from them, especially in terms of trust. While it's easy to see his pushiness for magic items as self-serving, it is quite literally a much larger problem than him. The damage he's capable of "could level a city", and that affects not just your party but the surrounding area for miles. His urgency, his impatience, comes from having to rely on someone else who might not respect the gravity of the situation (which, evidently, a lot of players don't.)

When he realises the magic items are doing nothing to prevent his hunger, he lays it out plainly to the player, apologising for having broken their trust, and gives them the choice to send him away to certain death with no hard feelings. He even explains his plan to find an Absolutist base and hopefully destroy that in order to aid you in his death, should you choose to kick him out. This is in Act 1, way before any massive character developments - that is to say, he is unselfish from the start.

Come Act 2, when Elminster tells Gale that Mystra expects him to detonate the orb to kill the Heart of the Absolute, Gale is immediately willing. He will answer to his goddess' whims without so much as a query. You don't have to convince him to do it - rather, it becomes your choice to convince him not to do it.

And you do have to convince him! You have to actively make the choice, over and over again, to say no, we can find another way. You are not dying today.

Even in Act 3, should you take him through Zethino's Love Test, you are able to call him out for his greatest flaw:

"He thinks he, and the world, might be better off if he were dead."

I am not calling him selfless by any means; he is not a paragon of virtue. He is, however, a character whose hubris (spurred by an abusive relationship with a goddess) is amply punished, so much so that he believes this punishment is entirely deserved. He is a victim of grooming who is told to kill himself in order to gain forgiveness for trying to be equals with his partner, who took advantage of him as a child.

What kind of message is Larian trying to make here? What are they trying to tell their audience? What are they saying to people who relate to Gale?

It's fucking horrible. Do better.

[afandommultiverse]

General HC’s for Simon "GHOST" Riley

♱ A/n: don’t get me wrong, I love some good Ghost fluff, but it just feels too OOC for me, so here are my personal head cannons for my hundredth baby daddy🫶 p.s I would just like to mention I still ain’t play the game so my lore isn’t the best but that ain’t stopping me🕺

♱ Warnings: 18+, some nsfw hcs towards the bottom, there is a warning before hand!

⌐╦̵̵̿ᡁ᠊╾━ ♡ ⌐╦̵̵̿ᡁ᠊╾━

♱ this man is fucking mean. He WILL hurt your feelings on occasion, both on purpose and not. He. Does. Not. Give. A. Fuck. Either way.

♱ matter of fact, this mf thinks he is right despite being very VERY in the wrong, and it takes a LOT to get him to admit to being wrong.

♱ STUBBORN AS A OX BRO, his motto is literally “My way or the fucking high way.” No ifs, buts, or in-betweens!!

♱ be prepared to make many, many arguments and still get nowhere on a specific topic. your opinion does not matter for a long time for this man, and takes months of getting around to even thinking about your side of anything.

♱ it would take a long time to get close to this man, like sure he might be down to fuck quite early on, but to be emotionally available in any way other than angrily fucking your brains out is going to take YEARS.

♱ probably isn’t interested in keeping relationships with citizens because he doesn’t want to get wrapped up in his life, lovers, or friends, his position in special forces keeps them all vulnerable

♱ not until recently (being on this new team) does he actually have friends, ghost kept to himself and still does, but after recovering from his betrayal, he would bond with no other teammates and refused to cross any lines with anyone

♱ anger fucking issues- this man has. Like yes, he can control himself in the moment and continue to lead on with the mission, almost acting like your disobedience didn’t even phase him, but OH you better be expecting a whoop-ass reprimanding that will leave you doubting your entire worth and existence

♱ or if a particular enemy is pissing him off, he won’t let his frustrations affect his movements, in fact, it only fuels them, and when he finally gets a hold of em’ there’s nothing left but a bloody pulp of a person

♱ the highest possibility of becoming a friend is being on the team or meeting in a bar when he had been drinking a little bit - both of which you will have to be highly persistent to evoke a reaction

♱ he likes it when people talk to him, which makes him feel less scared and intimidating in public areas. Of course, he likes to keep that vibe when on missions or dealing with interrogations and such, but still out in public. he wants to make people as least uncomfortable as possible, even if his skull baklava is a little intimidating

♱ SPEAKING ON INTERROGATIONS, I know for a fact that this man has committed WAR CRIMES on other men for information, like he totally has it in him to do so, ESPECIALLY, when it’s a a horrible war criminal or sum

♱ he is a metal, heavy metal, grunge, hard rock, kinda guy - don’t deny it. He’s got way too much trauma to not want to blast out his eardrums at every possible chance. He also likes to explore all genres too, like alternative metal, black metal, alternative, alternative rock, etc.

♱ lowkey likes to bond over music, like trading music with the team and talking about it and what they thought when meeting up later.

♱ he likes to sit down and have a cigar with Price every now and then, ofc drinking with him too. They have their own “superiors” moments and talk about how the team is doing and what training could help them for the next mission.

♱ almost always does extra reading and research on the mission itself and/or where it takes place to avoid and map out any possible problems that could arise that no one else would foresee, especially regarding his own benefit nowadays.

♱ ghost likes his job, as much as it has been a lot on him and the people around him, he couldn’t see himself anywhere else than right here, fighting for the rights of people he’d never meet but know are free because of him.

♱ it gives him some peace of mind, and he needs it because the poor baby has been through a LOT

⌐╦̵̵̿ᡁ᠊╾━ ♡ NSFW ♡ ⌐╦̵̵̿ᡁ᠊╾━

♱ come on, you know I had to, but speaking of him going through a lot, he has definitely picked up a few kinks along the way, most of which are from his occupation

♱ coming in at number one, a pretty vanilla thing now I guess, but choking. he loves that shit, both on himself and his partners, he likes the feeling, his senses overwhelmed and everything throbbing, bringing a little oxygen deprivation, and he's all there.

♱ but of course, he also loves the sight of someone underneath him, fucked out and panting, but they can't catch that breath they so desperately need to ground themselves, and while they keep trying to find it, he keeps fucking it out of reach.

♱ second, bondage duh. again something he both enjoys on himself and others. he liked the feeling of the bruises after the deed. It's one hell of a reminder that gets some weird looks, but he doesn't mind, just keeps reminding him of you

♱ thiiiird, knife AND gunplay. now, this takes some serious trust between him and the partner, and truth be told, he usually only did this with male partners he had met through work originally. he loves it, and honestly, nothing gets him going faster, but he has some serious trust issues and can't just go giving everyone he fucks a loaded gun pointed at him

♱ yes, loaded. ‘it ain't fun if it ain't.’ that's what he always says

♱ if it is a one-night stand, he is likely to not put much into aftercare, but if he will see you around a lot, in bed or otherwise, he’ll put more effort into it. This could be cleaning you gently with a wet rag, or softly rubbing your back while you try to catch your breath after he has taken you from behind. He does not cuddle tho, though he ain't a cuddly man the first few sessions, sooner or later that wall comes down and you’ll find yourself tucked into his side when you come too, and he’s just blankly staring out, not trying to think about how well you feel there and how badly he wanted to stay the

♱ but he won’t ever stay the night, again not for a while, and the first time he ever did- it would be an accident. He was simply too tired and rested his eyes for a second, only to wake up the next morning to you rubbing his back as he laid his head on your chest. he acted like he hated it, grunting and pulling away from your touch to rush and get ready to leave. deep down though, he can’t get rid of the feeling of your fingers softly grazing him awake off of his back for the rest of the day.

[illmoraineakoi]

Or, continuing from this, consider:

Perhaps, the human-turned-Vessel isn’t alone when they wake up. Perhaps they aren’t the only Vessel left trapped in the Abyss. Perhaps, these others that look similar to what they now are can help them.

If they can communicate, it soon becomes clear that the others aren’t like themselves; they’re not human people shoved into these bodies. They seem to have been born into them like normal. They’ve been here for a long time.

If they can’t, the human still gets the impression it’s unique among them, through observing their behavior and their reactions.

Regardless, the others seem fascinated by them, how differently they act and behave. Maybe the others begin to mimic them.

Perhaps it’s the others who tell them of their memories, of the bright white light that they once saw shine from the top of the pit, calling to them, drawing them to ascend, that vanished before they could reach the top. Never returning. Maybe it’s that story, the insinuation that there’s a way out at the top, that provokes the escape attempt. Maybe the others are hesitant, fearful of the climb (of falling and cracking and breaking, irreparable, dying a slow painful death) but they chose to join them regardless, to help, the idea of freedom from this place too tantalizing for them to resist.

It’s easier to dig through several feet of hard dense rock with multiple ‘people’.

(Far harder to make a hole big enough to compensate for all of their horns.)

The result is the same: the sounds of their digging was heard by those in the Basin, and the King was notified. And given the area of origin, the King himself investigates.

He does not expect to come upon the sight that he does: a sub-adult Vessel helping another sub-adult try to wriggle through a hole carved through the hard basin stone, completely circumventing the sealed door entirely.

It is...almost amusingly ingenious of them. Had they not been Vessels, he would’ve been quite proud.

(Then again, if they hadn’t been Vessels, they would have never been in the Abyss in the first place. They would still be his children, carapace a healthy gleaming white, eyes full of emotion and thought, bodies full of life--)

As it was, the sight is neither amusing nor one to be proud of.

Instead, it is concerning.

Vessels should not have been able to do this. They should have the cognitive ability to do this. There shouldn’t have even been any left alive after so long down there, their bodies should have destabilized long ago…

So the fact that it was not just ONE Vessel but TWO that had managed to do this, to survive, to literally claw and dig themselves out of the proverbial grave he’d sealed them in, like the undead zombies he’d cursed them to be…

It was beyond unsettling.

He needed answers. He needed to figure out how they’d done this. All of it. How they’d survived, how they’d figure out how to escape, how they’d figured out how to cooperate, and most importantly: what it meant for the Pure Vessel plan.

His presence to them did not go unnoticed, and neither did the way they both seemed to freeze at the sight of him.

Their gazed locked for an uncomfortably long time, until he forced himself to break the standoff.

He unsealed the door with a wave of his hand, startling the two Vessels. Startling them. They startled-

There were more.

There were more.

Beyond the door, crowded atop the metal platform in a way that looked both uncomfortable and precarious, were at least a dozen additional Vessels. And that wasn’t even all of them, because he could see, deeper into the shadows beyond the platform, at least two other heads sticking up, likely from a lower platform. There could be even more on platforms even further down he couldn’t see.

He felt pinned by the weight of so many empty black gazes. They all felt accusatory, even though he could see that they weren't.

The situation, his concerns, had become significantly more dire.

One of the Vessels – one of the first two he’d seen, the one completely free on his side – moved. Stood, and moved to stand before the now open door, body hunched, ragged cloak membrane flaring a bit. It lowered it’s head, brandishing it’s horns towards him.

Defensive, he realized.

A defensive posture. Protective.

It held an old void-ravaged metal spike in it’s hand, the tip clearly blunted from when it had been used as a digging tool. As though it was ready to use it as a weapon should it need to.

The one still stuck in the wall was slowly wriggling back into the Abyss side of the hole.

There was something in his gut that was screaming at him, telling him that something was wrong, this wasn’t right, this couldn’t be happening--

He needed to figure this out.

It took quite a bit of coaxing, but eventually he was able to get them all onto solid ground out of the door and then to follow him back to the Palace. And it was during this time that he was confronted with the obvious fact that these Vessels were impure; very impure.

Impure in ways he hadn’t expected them to be.

They were remarkably physically stable, but they behaved unlike how he expected. They were wary of him, uncertain of their new surroundings, and yet also curious. Inquisitive. Upon arriving to the Palace, several heads kept swiveling to look at everything and anything with refrained fascination, while yet others did not seem to care in the least. There was one who particularly seemed inclined to get close and to touch things, to nose at them. Another seemed wary and uncomfortable with the wide open spaces. And yet still another to stare at him the entire walk, gaze hot with an emotion that he couldn’t read.

They had thoughts. They had emotions. And judging by the escape attempt, they were at least decently intelligent.

Vessels were not supposed to be like this. None of them were supposed to be like this. The Void was supposed to purge such qualities long before they ever hatched. It was supposed to make it impossible for them to develop such qualities as well.

He’d rechecked his work so many times before putting the plan into action. Looked at every future he could, despite his bluing foresight. He and Monomon had gone over everything with a fine-tooth comb.

This wasn’t supposed to be possible.

They weren’t supposed to be…

The first thing he does is write for Monomon, stressing that her presence within the Palace was urgent.

If Vessels could retain some innate qualities of livelihood, or if they could develop the ability to have such things despite their void nature...it jeopardized the entire Pure Vessel plan.

It was no longer a guarantee that the Vessel was empty like he’d assumed it to be.

He and Monomon would have to assess every new Vessel, run a plethora of tests on them. Figure out how, exactly, they were functioning and what, if anything, was inside of their heads.

(In the meantime, as he waited for her to arrive, he sends them off to the baths, because each one was utterly filthy from the Abyss. Particularly one who looked like they’d taken a dip into the Void Sea itself, somehow.)

(This turned out to be a mistake with at least a third of them. They soon became much more interested in playing in the water than cleaning themselves.)

Upon the completion of the assessments and the tests, all of which the new Vessels did not seem to enjoy, the data collected was exactly as the King had feared it would be. It showed, in undeniable terms, that every single one of the new Vessels not only had minds, but also an individuality about them. They had unique personalities.

They were still alive.

They were still his children.

Every. Single. One. Of. Them.

It was an agonizing revelation.

If all of these living Vessels were like this, then what did that say about how the ones littering the floor of the Abyss used to be?

Had he stood there, watching, as his children, still in possession of their personhoods despite the void infused into their beings, fell and died? Had he stood there, watching, and done nothing as they died?

He’d thought they were all empty. He’d thought that the ones who were incapable of climbing were defective, unstable, failures. Imperfect. That it didn’t matter, because they were nothing more than hollowed out corpses. Nothing more than void-corrupted bodies shackling a shade, devoid of thought, devoid of emotion, devoid of the ability to feel pain…

That there wasn’t anything left of the children they were supposed to be. That those children had died the moment the void consumed them, long before their residual bodies hit the floor.

He’d been wrong.

The models had been wrong, the predictions had been wrong, all of the work he and Monomon spent years developing and perfecting and working for months to make sure it was absolutely, perfectly correct…

It was all wrong.

And an uncountable number of his children had died because of it.

And he’d watched.

Likely, the only Vessels still alive were the ones he’d recently found, and the Pure Vessel. Why would any other remaining Vessels not come with the new Vessels in their escape attempt? No, the ones within his Palace, within the room he’d hastily set up as a sort of holding play room, were all that were left.

Two handfuls, out of so many…

Less than two dozen...

At this point, if the Pure Vessel was indeed born pure, and somehow remained so until now, it would be the biggest case of sheer luck he’d ever had. It would be the most extreme statistical anomaly possible. Somehow, despite everything about their work being wrong, they would have gotten what they needed out of it.

They only needed to confirm that it was still pure.

And if it was, they needed to isolate it from the other new Vessels, to prevent any potential influence from ruining it.

But there was also the matter of what to do with the new Vessels as well…

They needed care, and then tutoring. They had much they needed to learn, to catch up on. They needed to be taught how to read and write, how to socialize, manners and etiquette, personal care and proper behavior. How to be careful with any void they spill to not harm others. How to be royal children.

Plus whatever individual skills they might take interest in.

He does not know how to tell his Root.

No matter how delicately he tries to word it, how gently he tries to say it, the truth will hurt her. His mistake, his failure, will cause her pain. He does not know if she would even want anything to do with them.

Alive they might be, they were still Vessels. They were still a tainted, corrupted, disfigured mockery of how their children were supposed to be. Looking upon them as they were made his heart ache, he could not fathom how much the sight of them hurt her. Seeing them as they are, as Vessels, behaving and acting like normal bugs, possessing personalities like normal children, might be too much for her to bear.

But even if she could not give them her love as their mother, he would give them his. They deserved it, they’d deserved it long before now.

It would not be easy, figuring out how to manage and educate so many Vessels, but he would do his best to do so. To keep them safe, to offer them a comfortable life long overdue, to give them as much love as he’s able.

(The human-turned-Vessel is not sure what to think about this. They don’t understand the situation they’ve found themselves in. The King was calling them, and the others like it, his children, and it made them feel a bit uncomfortable. The others had been wary at first, but then accepted the role and designation of the King’s children fully and eagerly. They were struggling with this. They felt like an imposer among them, they were not like them, they were not the King’s child, adopted or otherwise.)

(At the same time, the others like them were treating them like a sibling. Calling them a sibling. Loving them like a sibling. They considered them a sibling, and the human-turned-Vessel wasn’t sure if they really understood that they weren’t. They felt like a hijacker of this body. But despite that...they enjoyed the bond they share with the others. They love being considered a part of a group. They enjoyed the companionship, they enjoyed not being alone. They found themselves wanting that love and affection the others freely give, but in doing so, they feel guilty. Their feelings are a flurry of conflict ions and uncertainty.)

(It did not feel right to simply accept it all without question. It felt like they were being greedy. Taking something they had no right to.)

(There was also the issue of the other that they had seen once before, but that did not join the rest of the ‘siblings’. They had clearly been the same as the rest of them, an identical creature, but they’d not seen it since that first initial encounter. Where they had seen and heard the King order it, like it was a servant. This concerned them. They did not understand why all the rest of the King’s children, the ‘siblings’ were always bundled together, yet that one was not.)

(It had already been outside of the terrible place. Beyond the barrier that looked uncomfortable like a door. Why?)

(There was so much going on in this place they did not understand, so much that seemed to be going on above their heads. It was unnerving. They didn’t like it.)

(They wanted answers.)

(And if they had to conspire with their ‘siblings’ against their new adopted ‘father’ to get information and figure out what the hell was happening, what they were, what that dark pit closed off from the rest of the world was...well…)

(So be it.)

[thegoofyfanaticus]

(( Art is commissioned from the incredibly talented ArtReplicant. Original story by me. ))

Knowing Daniel was at the brink of unconsciousness, Greg released his dragon sleeper and allowed Daniel to collapse to the mat on his back. Deciding that the pack needed to be sent a message that was both clear and concise, Greg positioned Daniel and forced the gatekeeper to be seated facing the majority of the pack. Greg then wrapped his rock hard legs around Daniel's midsection in a body scissors and then grabbed Daniel's arms and pulled back hard so that Daniel's pecs were stretched and taut right in front of the pack. Daniel was so close to being unconscious that he offered no resistance to Greg's maneuverings. In fact, Daniel's head hung slightly down as Greg locked in the hold. Everyone could tell that Daniel was not knocked out and no one had heard a submission or seen Daniel tap so the fight could not be called. Wyatt watched carefully as Greg worked over Daniel marveling at the pinpoint accuracy of Greg's moves. Greg had put Daniel on the cusp on being out, but he was clearly not out. Daniel was not completely Greg's plaything to do as he wished. Wyatt thought that if he had thought of this strategy against Ethan, he would have been able to have his revenge as well as humiliate the alpha. Wyatt made a mental note about this strategy because it made more sense than what he had tried to do.

Daniel moaned lowly as he tried to get in enough oxygen to get his senses and bearings. Having been smothered by Greg's hot and sweaty armpit and being forced to inhale Greg's sweaty musk had put him on the cusp of being knocked out. He wished Greg had left him there and finished it that way so he could start recovering from the humiliation in front of the pack. However, now his head was groggy, his eyesight blurry, his mind hazy, and his body weak and starving for air. Then he felt his sides collapse in and the sharp pain of his lower torso grew as he was being squeezed again. Daniel tried to take a deep breath but he couldn't expand his lungs. He could only manage short shallow breaths which would do him no good. Then his shoulders wrenched with pain as he felt the ball and socket joints of his shoulders rotate unusually. His pecs were burning as they were stretched and the nerves in his arms and shoulders shot pain throughout the whole area. He felt as if his shoulders and arms would be separated from each other. Could Greg really mean to break him literally? The pain's intensity suddenly increased to the point it jolted Daniel awake. He cried out in pain and was about to yell his submission to Greg when the sharp pain around his torso ceased as well as the pain in his arms. The only thing that radiated pain was his left shoulder. The pain located there was intense, hot, and piercing. It was then Daniel realized what had happened.

Greg had just made an example out of him in front of the entire pack. Take Greg lightly and not only will you pay, you will be broken, unable to fight for a few months. His dislocated left shoulder told Daniel that Greg made sure everyone in the pack would now take him seriously. Something they had not completely done as a result of his first fight. Daniel lay on the mat debating if he should quit now while not in a hold. It would be unusual, but it may be the safer call. No sooner had he thought of the idea, than Greg made his choice for him...

[invisiblegarters]

GAP Ep 8 & 9

Episode 8

Sam is so thirsty and I love that for her. Although damn her for quitting and leaving both Mon and me very frustrated. Woman. You don't just rile someone up like that and then go to sleep!

I also really love that she's clearly gone out to buy Mon jammies in her color.

Eh, I think that Mon is more than capable of asking for what she wants, though. I mean, yes, Sam started it and then didn't finish, but Mon is also allowed to ask for what she wants.

KIRK I'm starting to not like you stop interrupting.

LOL oh the work brain trust. Putting two and two together and getting forty five (okay that's not fair. They're on the right track they just have the entirely wrong person). Literally the only reason Kirk wants her back is because she knows about the whole Ms. Sexy Smirk thing (okay, okay, her name is Nita, but Ms. Sexy Smirk fits her).

I have to say, I appreciate Sam's sense of drama. And I did get a kick out of Mon continuously thwarting her attempts at a Lady and the Tramp moment. Aw, "I watched web dramas and they do the same things." I love her.

And we're getting down to business! Finally! Get it, girls!

*insert a few moments later pic*

OH COME ON.

Although I have to say them calling their friends to tell them how initiate sex is hilarious, as was Jim showing up with a giant bottle of alcohol to be like "just get drunk and your hormones will do the rest."

Nail advice is smart but also, you guys had to know that already, right? Right?

And then, finally. Get it girls! For real, this time.

HA oh my GOD, Sam. It's good that she only has four facebook friends but dear lord.

Okay this whole Kirk thing is a mess. I get that Mon feels like she's stuck in between a rock and a hard place, but honestly, this could very easily be resolved if people would just open their damn mouths and talk. And Kirk needs to stop dragging Mon into completely open areas and grabbing her hands.

I don't mean to laugh at Kirk thinking that Sam is jealous over him, but I am. I really, really am.

Damn, Sam isn't pulling any punches. I want to be mad at her but well, she's hurt and angry and NO ONE IS TELLING HER ANYTHING.

Basically this all Kirk's fault and he's officially on my shit list.

Episode 9

Aw, Mon.  She's such a sweetheart that I hate to see her so sad. I do think that she's being a bit dramatic, but I get it. Sam always goes straight for the throat when she's hurt. Hopefully Mon gets her to work on that in that gentle way that she has.

Also, okay, the way everyone in this wakes up with perfect hair amuses me. But did Mon sleep in her clothes?

Pfft, does Kirk still think that Sam is jealous over him? Honey, no.

Mon's parents are so sweet.

I sometimes forget that Sam is supposed to be royalty then they do things like sitting on the floor because she is and I remember.

Sam stop being a dog for Mon it's giving me ideas.

Good on Sam for admitting that she was jealous. But seriously, she really really needs to work on that temper of hers. I say this as someone with a nasty temper myself.

Aw, couple bracelets.

Oooh, Mon taking charge of sexy time. Get it, girl! I absolutely love the frenetic piano during this scene. And ha, I love how much it shook Sam. Just enjoy it, girl.

Ms. Sexy Smirk is back! And throwing down the pink gauntlet. Pink is Mon's color, Ms. Sexy Smirk. And uh oh, she's clocked the couple bracelets. I just do not trust that woman - I mean, clearly I am not supposed to, not with that smirk, but still.

She even talks like a supervillain lol. Those pauses midsentence to smirk smirkily at Sam. Is it wrong that I do like her? I know she's gonna cause trouble but I do. She's just clearly having a great time.

I knew this betrayal was gonna bite Kirk though - pretty sure he did too, on some level, even if he convinced himself that Sam would see the good of it.

GO SAM. I honestly thought she'd use Kirk going to Ms. Sexy Smirk as an excuse to break up with him and not mention the whole thing with Mon, but nope. I do think she was kind of using it as a bludgeon but also…well. I never thought she'd do the thing at all. And Kirk has no right to look at Mon like that, lol. I guess he is genuinely into Sam but my dude, how you missed that she doesn't feel the same is beyond me.

Is this where his villain arc begins? Because I could be here for that.

I knew Ms. Sexy Smirk wanted in Sam's pants. Knew it. I mean, not that I blame her, but Sam already has the pink that she wants or needs in her life. Ms. Sexy Smirk is gonna be trouuuuuble, though, and I'm kind of here for it.

Okay, okay, love Sam walking in on Chin and Yha going at it and just walked right back out like "excuse me, just looking for my bracelet, pretend I was never here." It's hilarious and I know that the fear of being fired is real but I also know that Sam isn't going to do it - either Mon will talk her out of it or she'll realize what a hypocrite it makes her.

Oh Chin is married? I didn't know that. Messy.

Getting it on at work. This is exactly why you can't punish Yha and Chin, Sam. But I do like that in the end she chose not to. I need Mon to quit like yesterday, though.

Pfft at Sam locking the door. I do like that these two can't keep their hands off of each other, but also, work is work! Stop doing this at work!

SEE? THIS IS EXACTLY WHY.  Also pfft, Yha can make all the uncomfortable expressions she likes but she's the one who kept listening. I do love how delighted she is with the whole thing. "Plot twist" indeed. But Mon should still quit, probably. Go work with Tee. Then come bang Sam on your lunch break. 

Okay the destroyed office is pretty hilarious though.

I cheer a little every time a same sex couple is or gets married in one of these dramas, especially in a country where same sex marriage isn’t legalized. I like to think it’s a push for marriage equality. Keep pushing, dramas!

Sam. Sam. What are you doing? You know you can't marry Mon, not really. Unless you want The Worst Grandmother to cut you off, too. I dislike Mon's "I'm not good enough for you  (and ha at Cher being like "does she fly? I see her feet right there on the ground")," but she's making good points. I'm betting in the end Sam probably won't have to give up everything but they don't know that, and it's fully possible she will have to. I don't know if she's thinking that part through.

And I can see that episode ten is going to be ramping up to the ep 11 separation, sigh. Time to see how Mon's backbone handles The Worst Grandmother, I guess. Kirk, you are such a little weenie.

[wintersandthebeast]

9. Different

RE8 | Wintersberg | Romance, Slow Burn | Action, Sci-Fi

Link to Master List

Ethan’s ears were still burning an hour later.  He hadn’t left the large bedroom, which had its own adjacent bathroom with cold, but workable, plumbing.  He’d showered angrily in the cold after getting his daughter ready for the day.  The new clothes he’d bought for the ceremony--all black--were itchy and stiff, but when he finally surveyed the mirror after the angriest tooth brushing of his entire life, Ethan was struck by how different he looked. 

It wasn’t just because he was angry.  In fact, the last month of his former life he’d been angry.  Rose was the only thing to snap him out of it.  Rose, and wandering the new area where they lived.  But Mia’s secrets, and then every domino after Miranda’s appearance, had only caused his anger to grow.  Maybe it was the clothes that made him look so different.  

Ethan was never a ‘black is classic’ guy.  His clothing, his taste in cars, his taste in everything had always been light, cream.  Understated.  That’s what he thought was classy.  As he frowned into the antique mirror he wondered if this was his villain era.  It was, wasn’t it?  He was going to partner with Heisenberg, that fucking asshole.  He was going to try to learn how to use these fucking powers that he didn’t want.  He had already mostly destroyed all of Miranda’s work…he intended to finish the job one way or another.  

For what? A voice in his head counteracted.  He had found it hard to decide to do anything since being revived for this particular reason…what was the point?  Everything he’d ever done seemed to be in vain.  The degree, his career?  Useless.  All the military training he did with Chris?  Useless.  Ethan wondered if the BSAA had plans all along to utilize him as a weapon.  The way they had seemed so eager to learn about Eveline.  He shook his head at the mirror image.  

What else had he fought so hard for? His marriage.  The relationship that seemed to come and go as he turned into an adult.  On and off.  Pull and push.  Thinking she was dead for three years, not moving on.  Moving away from friends and family, even before Dulvey.  And still he had persevered.  Mia’s ring was still on the marble table in the adjacent room. 

Ethan was fuming, he realized, feeling the mech heart and its familiar tugging.  What was happening?  He unbuttoned the dress shirt, peering at his chest in the mirror as he’d done before the shower.  There were scar marks across his chest where Heisenberg had likely implanted the thing, but nothing was visible.  And yet he could somehow feel it in there.  Sense it.  That hadn’t been the case immediately, but as the weeks went on, it felt heavy in his chest.  Like a bag of rocks.  Warmer inside.  He ran a hand across the scars.  

He was so furious right now that he would have taken a knife and started gouging at it, had Rosemary not been cooing and crawling around his feet. What was it the donut girl said?  Rose was a beacon.  That may have been why Miranda wanted her, for power, for some misplaced motherly obsession, but she had been Ethan’s beacon out of the dark. 

He knew it wasn’t right to put such important, heavy burdens onto children, but it had happened anyway.  Ethan knew it wouldn’t always be this way--she’d grow up, he would see to it that she would grow up independent and knowing she was loved--but as he walked through Hell, she was truly the beacon showing him the way forward. 

And right now the way forward was getting this thing out of his chest.  Healing. His ‘powers.’  He rolled his eyes.  And the way forward was also cooperating with Heisenberg, who was quite literally the closest thing Ethan had to any human support.  Everyone from his and Mia’s life thought they were dead after the Dulvey incident.  He didn’t like it, but now that he knew what he truly was, he preferred it this way.  Maybe that’s why Mia didn’t bat an eyelash at the idea, he pondered, and he turned to his daughter.  

“Well, at least you’re not a part of this ceremony, right?” he quipped, picking her up and staring one last time in the mirror. “We’ll get through this,” he said, her pink cheeks tempering a bit of the rage he felt. 

He carried her out of the room, realizing he could hear his heart hammering as he walked down the hallway.  Despite the manor’s size, Ethan only haunted the bedroom, hallway, and kitchen area.  He didn’t want to see or know what else the Heisenberg family had locked away in its other rooms.  Now as he passed closed doors, he felt the urge to look in them.  Distract him from what he was going to do.  Give him anything else to do besides speak to Karl.  

The areas that Ethan established as his were also babyproofed, except when Karl left the back door open as he always did.  As it was now.  Ethan nearly growled as he sat Rosemary down; she loved trying to outrun him toward danger, and headed right for the door.  Ethan got ahead of her and pushed the large wood-and-glass door shut.  He glanced out at the garden, wondering if Karl had set himself on fire or some other hopeful thing, and then did a double take. 

The other man was dressed in his own set of funeral clothes, black from head to toe.  His hat and coat were gone, but his glasses remained.  He was chopping wood.  A wooden cart had been pulled up nearby, where a larger pile was stacked.  

Ethan forgot his anger as he stared.  What, no big fancy metal cutting….thing…for the mad scientist?  Karl’s hammer was propped on the cart as well. No fancy steampunk axe?  Despite Ethan’s bitter inner monologue he was mesmerized by the sight of Karl looking so….different.  The sun was diffused behind the morning clouds that threatened snow, and now Karl’s brown hair seemed to pick up flecks of rust among the grey and white.  

Idiot , Ethan supplied to himself as he opened the door again, feeling his cheeks flush.  But despite his inward shyness, his outer hesitance at asking was gone.  That had to count for something.  He was determined to use his powers, even if the thought, even the words, disgusted him.  That wasn’t what Karl called it.  “Heal”?

“Karl,” he said in what was supposed to sound like a very authoritative, angry tone.  Instead it was flat. 

The other man paused and turned.  His face was easily readable even with the glasses; he was unsure if they were about to argue again, but he seemed ready.  Always ready, probably, Ethan surmised.  

When Ethan didn’t elaborate at the door, Karl nodded at--oh, there were two other men outside.  They also wore black, and had wide brimmed black hats.  Ethan didn’t recognize them, but it seemed they were from the clan.  One was working on the wagon wheel and the other was stacking the wood.  Karl seemed to excuse himself, and then crossed the backyard until he reached the doorway. 

Ethan moved back to let him in, marveling how someone his own height could move in such a manner that he always looked intimidating and aggressive, like a bear.  Even entering the doorway he seemed ready to charge, fight.  When Karl closed the door behind him, Ethan snapped, “You have to start closing the door.  It isn’t safe for Rosemary.”  

She was currently squealing down the hallway, palms slapping on the hardwood.  Karl’s eyes, behind the glasses, cut toward the child, and then back to Ethan.  He leaned in as he always did.  “Anything else?”

He was hurt, Ethan realized at the sharp tone.  This made him exhale in a sort of relief.  Karl had looked hurt when Ethan told him to fuck off in the factory, as well.  How was it possible that the intimidating, hulking bear could also emote things like hurt and pain and concern while simultaneously being flippant about everyone’s life? 

Oh well, it was a Karl problem.  Ethan tapped his chest.  “I want you to check it.”  When Karl opened his mouth, Ethan interrupted, raising his voice, “And then after this…whatever this is, I want you to…” He was gritting his teeth.  “Show me how to heal.”  

He knew what Heisenberg’s reaction would be.  He would throw his head back, laugh.  Jeer.  Bully.  Slap Ethan on the back until his eyeballs popped out of his head and say WELCOME TO THE DARK SIDE PAPA LET’S KILL THAT BIT---

But Karl didn’t do any of those things.  He was staring so intently at Ethan that the blond man wondered if he was reading Karl’s thoughts somehow.  It was uncanny eye contact.  After a moment, the brunette nodded his head, just once.  Ethan realized that Karl had…groomed.  His hair was brushed, his facial hair was trimmed.  It took years off him. 

“All right,” Karl said simply, and Ethan was almost offended that he didn’t get a bigger reaction out of Karl. 

Heisenberg removed his gloves and motioned toward the living area, where the larger front windows allowed more light to cascade in.  Ethan followed, feeling angry about Heisenberg’s nonplussed response, until he remembered something Maricara had said.  

Death changes you.  

Not only had Ethan recently been revived, so had Karl.  In a new way, right?  The megamycete crystallized their bodies.  Had it been trying to save them both? 

Karl was fidgeting, that chaotic energy inside him showing as he twitched his fingers while Ethan approached.  They stood there in the open room, sunlight filtering in, and Ethan felt…completely different.  New.  Dressed in black, both of the men out of their element.  Morning light instead of the dark red emergency lighting of the factory or the warm glow of oil lamps from the village.  

It feels right , he thought, as he fumbled with the buttons again.  

“Jesus,” Ethan muttered, realizing they were still open from when he’d checked in the bathroom mirror.  Karl whipped his glasses off and squinted in the bright light.  He stared at Ethan’s chest with the most clinical of gazes.  

“I need to--” he held up a hand.  Calloused, tan skin.  How was he so tan in winter?  Ethan stared at the painting in the dining room, over Karl’s shoulder.  

“Go ahead.”  

Karl put one palm on Ethan’s shoulder, and then the other fingers moved, palpating across the man’s chest.  He felt a strange pulling sensation and his eyes widened as he realized Karl was sending current to the metal inside of him.  Physics and electromagnetism were two subjects he’d begrudgingly completed in college, but the programmer knew enough to realize that Karl could actually kill with a touch if he wanted to.  He hadn’t thought of it before--Karl seemed to have a preference for flinging metal around and yelling fuck.  

But he created electromagnetism.  Dangerous.  Then, another thought entered Ethan’s mind as he stared, wide-eyed at the painting.  So what if Heisenberg did kill him? He’d just revive.  Was that true?  He thought of Eveline.  The only thing that even slowed her down were heavy explosives and that goddamn serum.  Jack. He shivered under Karl’s fingertips.  

Karl’s eyes flickered to Ethan’s gaze with a near-smirk at this motion, and Ethan opened his mouth to formulate some catty remark about if he’d live, but suddenly, a scene crackled to life in front of him that--wasn’t here. 

He heard Rosemary’s giggle nearby--she’d crawled back to them--but in front of Ethan was not Karl in black, in Karl’s house.  It was a young man with piercing green eyes and longer, feathery hair.  The landscape behind him was a forest.  Lush, with new rain on all the pine needles.  He could smell the pine.  This was Karl, he realized as his stomach fell into another realm.  Karl was immediately in front of him, different, young, smiling.  He had his arm around Ethan as though they’d just embraced.  He could smell the gasoline, mixing with pine and fresh rain.  Karl tipped his head to look at Ethan, the same exaggerated swagger and cocky smirk.  

It truly was Karl.  

Ethan stumbled backwards, feeling as though he’d been electrocuted--Karl’s fingers separated from his skin with a sizzling sound and he jolted back again.  The pine, smell of rain, young Karl, all fell away with another snapping sound.  The walls rattled as though it were thundering--or did he imagine that?  Ethan’s jaw was dropped and he stared at Karl as if he’d grown three heads. 

The other man looked as Ethan had always known him to--dark hair, streaks of grey.  Scarred face.  Wider, older, gruffer than whoever had just appeared to him.  But as Karl uncertainly withdrew his hands from Ethan and stared curiously at him, Ethan knew again it had been Karl in that…vision?  Same nose.  Same lips.  Green eyes.  But he’d looked so…

“Did you….see that?” Ethan gasped, feeling a sharp pain in his chest.  Shit. 

Karl shook his head slowly.  “See what?”

Ethan exhaled.  He believed Heisenberg.  The man certainly didn’t respond as if the hallucination were shared.  

“N--nothing,” Ethan breathed.  His heart was beating so fast now.  Karl glanced at him with something between hesitation and curiosity.  

“The parts are getting jammed,” he said simply.  “I think your body’s…growin’ around ‘em.” 

“My…what?” 

Karl shook his head.  “The reactor, it’s…it needs oxygen,” he said, trying to simplify.  “On corpses I just put a vent.  With you, the supply was supposed to come from your blood.” 

“Okay,” Ethan said, with a tone that added, “But now what?”

“Far as I can tell without openin’ you up, it’s like scar tissue.  I heated up the metal, burned some of it away.” 

“You what?”

Karl shrugged, flinging his hands out.  “You’ve gotta lotta….tissue-” mold, “-wrappin’ around the parts.  Your body probably wants to heal.  Remove what it sees as--”

“A foreign object,” Ethan exhaled.  Karl nodded.  

Ethan squinted.  “You can heat up metal, can’t you?”

Karl nodded again, staring curiously as though he didn’t know where Ethan was going with this.  

The other began buttoning up his shirt.  He recalled the monstrous drilling equipment coming at him, the unlikely hole in the corner.  And then the red hot handcuffs which he could easily separate, while Karl’s voice yelled somewhere overhead about American ground beef.  The metal handcuffs singed his skin far before he flung the chain at the rotor.  

“You…” Just as he put two and two together, the chimes rang, interrupting them.  

Both men turned toward the door.  

[theghostpinesmusic]

Three Sisters and Broken Top Circumnavigation (4/5)

On this five-day trip filled with highs and lows (but mostly highs), the fourth day, spent hiking from Reese Lake to Green Lakes, was probably the most straightforward day. That doesn't mean it wasn't still awesome, though.

Hoping to get to Green Lakes early enough in the afternoon to enjoy it before the sun set, I got up before sunrise and was on the road shortly after it.

Less than a mile south of Reese Lake, I passed into the burn zone from the 2017 Nash Fire. Though the first few miles of hiking for the day were relatively flat as the PCT traversed around the west flank of South Sister, my environs more closely resembled the blasted east side of the Sisters Loop than what I'd grown used to on the less-burnt west side.

While there wasn't a lot of elevation change through this section, there were parts where the soil was so loose due to the burn that it was hard to simultaneously scramble up and over deadfall and avoid turning an ankle in the loam.

At one point, I passed a family of four, all of them ahorse and kitted out as if they had literally walked out of an episode of Yellowstone. The father, riding in the lead, literally tipped his cowboy hat to me when I said hello. All four riders had long rifles low-slung from their saddles, and rifle bullets displayed prominently (and individually) in pockets sewn onto their saddles. A blue heeler wove in and out of the horses' legs as they passed by. I felt like I had traveled back in time.

Shortly after, I passed a small lake that could have provided a camp site and overnight access to water in an emergency. It had nothing on Reese Lake, though.

Next up was Mesa Creek, where the man I'd met the previous morning at the Yapoah Crater had recommended I camp. While seeing it in the flesh didn't make me regret my choice of Reese Lake, the open meadow through which the creek ran was gorgeous and golden in the fall light. There were plenty of open campsites under the trees that lined the meadow, and the creek itself was running fast despite the lateness of the year. I dropped a pin on my map so I would remember the spot for any later trips.

Not far beyond the meadow the trail climbed up through some trees to a spot that Lindsey, who is partial to alpine meadows, had dubbed "The Ultimate Place" on our 2018 hike. I dropped a pin on the map here as well, and took some pictures so she could at least feel like she'd been there in spirit this time around.

It wasn't long after this that the trail squeezed between a bluff to the right and the creatively-named Rock Mesa to the left, a pass-through that served as the gateway to the Wickiup Plain.

There are a lot of spots along this loop that you could mistake for Mordor, or the moon, but none are more strikingly desolate than the Wickiup Plain. This had been another spot where we'd struggled in 2018: the PCT only runs for about one-and-a-half miles through the Plain, but it's entirely open, and there's just something about being able to see so far into the distance that's dispiriting when you're trying to cover distance while avoiding melting in the sun.

All that said, the Rock Mesa rising to your left in front of a snowy South Sister summit is quite the sight.

Crossing the Plain this time around was significantly less apocalyptic than in my memory, likely because of the fall temperatures. Before long, I bore left onto the Le Conte Crater Trail, leaving the PCT and its relatively heavy (read: "not heavy at all") traffic flow behind for the rest of the trip. The sharp cone of the Le Conte Crater passed by on my left, and then Kahleetan Butte appeared in the distance: a pretty unremarkable butte made remarkable by the flatness of the surrounding area.

The Le Conte Crater Trail proceeds for a mile through this open area before it ends in a T-intersection. I turned left/north and began to climb - a rarity on this particular day!

The Moraine Lake Trail climbs about five hundred feet en route to the eponymous Moraine Lake, but on this morning, when I'd already gotten into my head the idea that this was supposed to be an "easy" day, the climbing felt like a struggle. At least while contouring around Kahleetan Butte I got to hike through the thick pine forest that's typical just south of South Sister. The shade kept me cool as I climbed a trail that seemed far steeper than I remembered.

Eventually, though, the "classic" view of South Sister appeared as I crested a hill. Two days before, I'd reached South Matthieu Lake and a dead-on view of North Sister from the north. Now, at the other end of the loop, the south side of South Sister loomed. I wasn't done yet, but it felt like a milestone along the way.

The reason I think of this as the "classic" view of South Sister is because I and many others experience the mountain primarily through climbing it, and the vast majority of those attempting to summit do so from the south, from the Devil's Lake Trailhead. After an initial climb from that trailhead, you reach a plateau due south of the mountain where the climber's trail and the Moraine Lake Trail cross. I've been to this intersection many times, typically in pursuit of the summit, and I was looking forward to reaching it again on this trip, even if I was approaching it from the west instead of the south, and even if I was "just" passing through rather than summiting the mountain.

Upon arrival at the plateau intersection, I stopped briefly, reflecting on all of the times I'd passed the spot before. This had been Lindsey and I's last break spot in 2018 before we'd completed the Sisters Loop by descending the final mile-plus to Devil's Lake. It was a place heavy with memories shared with others on a trip where I had spent most of a week living in my own head. It was a nice reprieve.

From the plateau, I descended northeast and down to Moraine Lake, then took a long lunch break on the shore. Moraine Lake is a spot I've often seen and appreciated from a distance, so I was happy to have the opportunity to spend some quality time there.

From Moraine Lake, I turned east and eventually south to skirt around the awesomely-named Devil's Chain, a long, tall lava formation that oozes down to the southeast of South Sister proper. This section of the trail always takes longer than it seems like it should, but once you've made it around the formation and you loop back toward the north, you enter one of my favorite sections of trail in the entire Sisters Wilderness.

Here, for about two miles, you hike alongside both lava walls and Fall Creek, sheltered by tall pines and ensconced in the sound of rushing water. Especially after three-ish days of mostly dry landscapes punctuated by burn zones, this area, which I suppose is still apocalyptic by most standards, felt absolutely paradisaical.

By this point, I was also well into popular day-hike territory. I felt a bit self-conscious about my relative grubbiness as I passed and was passed by lots of fashionable and clean Bend-area day-hikers, but I also figured they were used to occasionally having a hairy backpacker crash through the background of their Instagram Reels.

Eventually, I reached the outskirts of the Green Lakes area, which is one of my all-time favorite places to camp. Earlier in the day, I'd been a bit worried about finding a good campsite here; this was mostly because before 2021, Green Lakes had been one of the best-known and best-"loved" backcountry spots in Oregon, and accordingly, one of the most difficult places to find a campsite at on any given (summer) night. In 2021, though, the Forest Service began a new permit system that limited access to the area, and since then, it's never been the absolute circus it once was, at least not on the days that I've been there. My worry that all the sites in the area would be full up in spite of the permit system, in the middle of October, was irrational, of course. I didn't expect to find the entire place to be empty save for two other hiking parties, though!

My favorite sites in the Green Lakes area are all on the southern side, so last summer, when I entered the area from the north on my way around Broken Top for the first time, I took the time to hike all the way around the Lakes before settling in for the night. This time, I was approaching from the south, which meant that I didn't have to hike around the Lakes at all to reach my favorite spots. It also meant that I'd have much more time to just enjoy the views and rest before having to get set up for my last night of camping out on this trip.

One of the many things I love about Green Lakes is that you can see all Three Sisters and Broken Top from certain spots along the main lake. This makes for some beautiful views, of course, but as someone who was currently undertaking a circumnavigation of all four peaks, the encompassing view had special resonance.

I'd entered the area hoping to get one of my favorite three sites for the night. As it turned out, nobody else was camping anywhere near the south end of the Lakes at all. So, instead, my "problem" became choosing while of the three great sites I wanted to set up at. Ultimately, I chose the same site I'd camped at the previous year during my first loop around Broken Top, which provides excellent views of both South Sister and Broken Top from your tent.

With some extra daylight on my hands after setting up my tent, I took a short sojourn out around some of the Lakes sans my backpack, took some (more) photos, chatted with one group of campers, ate a few cookies, and then returned to my site just as dusk was settling in.

After cooking one last dinner, I decided to put off going to bed for a bit and instead walk down to the south shore of the closest lake and sit for a bit. I did have a long, difficult day ahead of me the next morning, but it would be the last of the trip, and I felt well-rested and well-fed enough that I wasn't terribly worried. If I slept poorly or didn't get enough sleep, at this point I could just power through it. Veggie burgers and a real bed were only twenty-four hours away, after all.

For the first time in all my visits to Green Lakes, I had the time to take some astrophotos of one of my favorite views on Earth, looking across the water toward South Sister.

Then, I walked back to my tent and went to bed for the night, both looking forward to and dreading finishing this fantastic trip with a visit to the incredible Bend Glacier and scrambling the long-awaited pass over Broken Hand.

[colorfulfishbreeds]

Top 6 Facts About Blue Cobra Guppy

 A Synopsis of the Blue Cobra Guppy

The Blue Cobra Guppy, scientifically known as Poecilia reticulata, is a beautiful and popular type of guppy fish.

This breed is popular among aquarium enthusiasts due to its bright blue color and interesting patterns. We will discuss general information, the Blue Cobra Guppy's habitat requirements, what it eats, how it breeds, common health problems, special considerations, and any legal restrictions in this essay.

Details about the entire situation

Origin

The guppy fish, including the Blue Cobra variety, is native to South American freshwaters, particularly Venezuela, Guyana, and Brazil. The Blue Cobra Guppy is a carefully bred variant with a distinctive blue color and pattern.

Size

The Blue Cobra Adult guppies grow to be about 2 to 2.5 inches (5 to 6.5 centimeters) long. However, size can vary depending on genetics and environmental factors.

Lifespan

Blue Cobra Guppies typically live for 2 to 3 years. Some people may live a little longer if they receive the proper care and live in the best conditions.

Temperament

The Blue Cobra Guppies are generally calm and friendly fish. They are friendly and active, and they frequently interact with the other fish in the tank. Blue Cobra male Guppies can be quite territorial, particularly when attempting to mate or protecting their young.

Appearance

The Blue Cobra Guppy has a stunning array of colors. Its body is mostly a rich, shimmering blue color that shines under the aquarium lights. The patterns on the scales can resemble cobra stripes, hence the breed's name.

Male fins are longer and more elaborate than female fins, with bright blue and black accents. Female Blue Cobra Guppies are typically less colorful and have a more subdued appearance.

Colors and varieties

Blue Cobra Guppy fish can have a variety of patterns and levels of color. Some may have brighter blues or more prominent cobra patterns, while others may have slightly different shades of blue. Each Blue Cobra Guppy is unique due to its various colors and patterns, which add to the beauty of this lovely breed.

Natural Environment

Guppies, including the Blue Cobra, are found in freshwater environments such as rivers, streams, and ponds. There is often a lot of thick vegetation in these areas, which provides a lot of places to hide and shelter. They spend the majority of their time in warm, tropical areas with warm, plant-filled water.

Tank Dimensions

Blue Cobra Guppies require a tank that can hold at least 10 gallons (38 liters) of water. A larger tank, on the other hand, is always preferable because it gives the fish more room to swim and makes the water environment more stable. A larger tank also reduces territorial fights and makes cleaning the water easier.

Water measurements

Blue Cobra Guppies thrive in well-kept aquariums with specific water parameters. This breed thrives in water temperatures ranging from 24°C to 28°C (75°F to 82°F). The pH should be between 7.0 and 8.0, indicating that the water is slightly alkaline, and the hardness should be between 8 and 12 dGH.

It is critical to monitor these parameters on a regular basis to ensure the fish's health.

Tank Configuration

For Blue Cobra Guppies to be happy and healthy, their tank must be properly set up. Adding real or fake plants such as Java moss, Amazon sword, or Anubias provides places for animals to hide, encourages natural behavior, and looks nice. Floating plants, such as water lettuce or duckweed, can help soften the light and create shady areas.

You should use sand or fine gravel to simulate their natural environment. Adding driftwood, rocks, and other decorations can also improve the tank's appearance and provide more hiding places for the fish.

Feeding

Diet

The Blue Cobra Guppies eat everything and can eat a wide variety of foods. They will consume a variety of foods, including high-quality flakes or pellets designed specifically for tropical fish.

Including frozen or live foods like brine shrimp, daphnia, or bloodworms in their diet is beneficial because it provides essential nutrients and allows them to function naturally. It is critical to provide a variety of foods to ensure that their nutritional needs are met.

What they eat

The Blue Cobra When there is food, guppies eat a lot and swim quickly to the surface of the water. They consume a lot of food and should be fed small amounts several times a day to keep them from becoming overly full and to maintain high water quality.

It is critical to monitor how they eat in order to ensure that everyone gets enough food and to avoid any health issues that may arise from overfeeding.

Breeding

Reproduction

The Blue Cobra Guppies do not lay eggs because they are livebearers. Instead, they have babies who can swim independently. Males have a gonopodium, which is a special fin used to fertilize eggs inside the body.

To attract the females' attention during courtship, the male displays bright colors and complicated swimming moves. Following mating, the female carries the fertilized eggs inside her body until they hatch into fry.

How to Become Pregnant

If you want to breed Blue Cobra Guppies, you must first ensure that they are capable of doing so. If there is a separate tank for breeding or breeding traps in the main tank, the fry are less likely to be eaten by adult fish.

The water temperature should be kept between 78°F and 80°F (25°C and 27°C) to encourage breeding. Dense vegetation, such as floating plants or moss, provides a hiding place for the fry and encourages the fish to spawn on their own.

How are babies born?

If the mating was successful, the female Blue Cobra Guppy will give birth to live fry after about 4 to 6 weeks of pregnancy. The number of fry can range from 20 to 50 or even more depending on the individual. The fry can swim and take care of themselves once they are born.

However, it is critical to provide hiding places for the fry as well as floating plants to protect them from predatory adult fish. Separating the fry from the adults or providing them with their own tank to grow in can help them live longer.

Most Common Health Issues

The Blue Cobra Guppies are typically hardy fish as long as they are well-cared for and live in the appropriate water. They may, however, be at risk for certain health issues, such as:

Ich (Ichthyophthirius multifiliis) is a common parasitic infection that causes white spots on the fish's body and fins. Ick outbreaks can be avoided and treated by placing new fish in quarantine, maintaining high water quality, and administering appropriate medicine to affected fish as soon as possible.

Fin Rot is a bacterial infection that causes the fins to become ragged or fall apart. It can be caused by poor water quality as well as stress. Fin rot can be avoided by monitoring the water parameters, ensuring adequate filtration, and addressing any signs of fin damage as soon as possible.

Dropsy is a symptom, not a disease, and it is frequently a symptom of a larger health problem, such as organ failure or a bacterial infection. It is bloated, has raised scales, and resembles a pinecone. Dropsy can be avoided by keeping the water clean, feeding the animal a balanced diet, and treating any signs of illness as soon as possible.

Steps to take to put a stop to it

It is critical to take the following precautions to keep Blue Cobra Guppies healthy or to reduce health problems:

Maintain high water quality by performing regular water changes and monitoring temperature, pH, ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate levels.

To keep the fish from becoming stressed and to reduce the possibility of diseases spreading, don't overcrowd the tank.

Before adding new fish to the main tank, place them in a separate tank to ensure they are disease-free.

Feed them a well-balanced diet of high-quality foods, but don't overfeed them.

Keep an eye on the fish to see if anything changes, such as how it acts, what it eats, or how it looks. Take care of any issues as soon as possible.

Consider the following:

Compatibility

Most Blue Cobra Guppies are peaceful and can coexist with a variety of other fish. They can coexist with peaceful fish such as tetras, rasboras, and dwarf gouramis. However, it is critical not to keep them with aggressive or fin-biting fish, as this can stress them out and harm their fins.

Special Care Instructions

Consider the following special care instructions to keep Blue Cobra Guppies healthy:

Provide the fish with a clean, well-cycled aquarium with the appropriate tankmates.

Check the water's parameters on a regular basis to ensure they remain within the recommended range.

Give them a variety of foods, both dry and live/frozen, to meet their nutritional needs.

Keep an eye on how they act and what they eat to detect any signs of illness or stress as soon as possible.

Add plants, hiding spots, and other tank decorations to make the environment more comfortable and interesting.

Legal Constraints

Before purchasing Blue Cobra Guppies or any other type of fish, it is critical to understand and abide by the rules and laws governing ownership and breeding in your area. Some areas may have rules or regulations in place to protect native fish populations or to prevent the introduction of non-native species.

To summarize, the Blue Cobra Guppy is an interesting and beautiful fish that adds elegance and charm to any aquarium. Because of their bright blue color, intricate patterns, and calm nature, they are a popular choice among fish enthusiasts.

You can ensure that these beautiful fish in your aquarium are healthy and live a long time by providing them with a suitable habitat, keeping the water at the appropriate temperature, feeding them a varied diet, and providing them with proper care and maintenance.

[whetstonefires]

I don't think you're seriously wrong about anything that I noticed lmao.

I guess I also start with mountains sometimes, but I tend to start with a rough coastline, then plot in locations such as cities whose distance from one another matters. Then I will tend to arrange fresh water to make these cities etc work as intended, and backfill mountains to make the rivers function correctly.

It's always funny to me how everyone emphasizes the rain shadow effect so hard and summarize it as 'the rain comes from the ocean and is blocked by mountains.' But then I happen to live irl quite near an ocean, relatively speaking, and we get very little of our weather from it. The weather systems move east from the Pacific, lose most of their water at the coast, then pick up more as they cross the whole entire continent to reach us, and don't care overmuch about the Appalachians.

Ofc the Great Lakes are kind of operating as seas for weather purposes, but still. The prevailing winds and currents will dictate the relationship between mountains and rain, as will the height of the hills.

A delta afaik happens when a river silts up its own mouth and begins to sprawl. Many variations on this theme.

The reason there are plains versus forests are dictated by a variety of things including 1) soil composition 2) soil depth 3) the rest of the geology 4) rainfall 5) other weather such as cold and wind 6) the rest of the ecology and history of the place and 7) really 6a, literally whether there happen to be trees there, they do take a while to get established, sometimes there could be trees but aren't yet/anymore for some reason.

The rest of the ecology very much includes animals, including humans. There's indications savanna straight up doesn't exist without human intervention, but definitely it doesn't exist without a lot of large ruminants around. But sometimes you get grassland rather than forest because grass, being annual, can handle much colder winters, or because it's better adapted for drought or for thin soil, and so on.

You get forest rather than grassland when trees can grow somewhere and have done so lmao. Forests are much older than grasslands; grass as a tough groundcover rather than a marsh plant is a relatively recent development.

A lot of Europe got forested after the last ice age, which had kept it steppish and grassy both via temperature/permafrost and the dryness resulting from a lot of water being locked up in glaciers. Which I've read gave wolves a competitive advantage over hyenas, as the forests grew, which is why there aren't hyenas in Europe anymore.

The lions stuck it out longer lmao but they too are long gone.

Hm I am it seems on the lower edge of the Canadian Shield; this has mostly impacted my life in the form of these hills famously grow a huge crop of rocks every damn spring, on account of the glaciers. What is it like to Dig Big Hole in an area with more soil. Fascinating. I'm not sure this geological situation counts as a biome but eh it's a fuzzy word.

I have read the wiki article now and am delighted to know we have a Deranged Drainage System.

what's your map advice? genuinely curious🤔

Oh look at this! Asks got bottled huh.

I think I remember what this was about. I don't have a specific set of Map Advice but I maintain that 'take real country borders and frankenstein them together, then invert colors and declare that pangaea-bloc ocean to get a realisitically greebled coastline for your made-up planet' is wildly unhinged methodology.

Like. It works fine! If efficiency and realistic invocation of the coastline paradox are your priorities, this is an effective strategy pretty much.

Although you have a pretty limited pool of countries to work from since in like, Africa the inland borders tend to be draw-a-line-on-a-map straight, and there aren't enough large peninsulas and isthmuses (isthmi?) in the world for you to put one of those in without it being fairly obvious you stole myanmar, and so forth.

Except of course because of the inversion trick you would instead wind up with a body of water shaped like myanmar??? And lakes are not really distributed like islands. And so on. The realism is very subject to breaking down.

Basically it answers a very limited set of the needs for which a fictional world map might be sought, and I think there are online tools to generate random maps that will serve most of those purposes already, so it's just a very specific trick to recommend as a general mapping technique. good for ttrpg setting time-saver if you don't like any of those free online tools?

i think it's cool that the creator came up with this very funny way of meeting their own map needs, but also lol.

I think if I had to give Making A Fantasy Map advice it would be, start with a basic childish diagram of the relative position of the major features you already know about, and then add things at a steadily smaller scale as relevant, and don't try to make a nice draft until you've worked out the gross spatial situation because you'll just distract yourself.

But this advice won't work for everyone either, it depends on your needs and your drafting process and so on and so forth.

[opalesense]

Dick headcanons for Kaeya, Diluc, Childe, and Zhongli? 👀

dick headcanons

kaeya, diluc, childe, zhongli & gn!reader (NSFW)

1.1k words • ~9 min. read

warnings: cockwarming, blood mention, size difference, liyue arc spoilers

notes: SUPER delayed response (i’m so sorry) because i genuinely took a couple days to think about some fictional characters’ dicks??? i think it’s time to touch some grass?? ANYWAY i hope i did this request justice, i’ve never thought about this stuff in detail before :0

kaeya

i’ve always imagined that kaeya really has some LENGTH. he’s slightly above average so it’s not monstrously large, but he can definitely hit your sweet spots with ease or no effort at all.

it’s to the point where he can easily make bulges in your throat or your stomach. he absolutely loves watching his entire length disappear inside you and will either tease you about how he fits inside so well or how he’s so big that he can’t fit in you. just depends, of course.

cockwarming!!!! especially if you take his entire length in so well, expect him to ask if he can bury himself in you when the opportunity presents itself.

not super related to the topic but he’s the type to “fake bang” you if you’re bent over just to tease you. also the type to discretely grind his bulge against you when he’s in the mood, whether you’re hugging, cooking a meal, or even in the middle of a conversation with someone. he will not hesitate to let you know he wants you by letting you feel how hard you make him.

i don’t think many people talk about this but i imagine he’s uncircumcised... it’s going to sound so stupid but the “always hiding something” characterization... i’ll stop talking, you probably get it now HAHA

very well groomed down there! he truly does care about appearances and cleanliness after all. you never have to worry about poor hygiene with him in general. even though he loves doing dirty things with you there’s no doubt that he will always keep his dick as clean as possible. (shouldn’t everyone, though?)

he loves feeling tightness around his cock. whether it’s your hand pumping him or his form fitting pants restricting his bulge, firm pressure against that area can make his heart race. sometimes he can just be so needy for his cock to get attention.

diluc

despite being around average size he really has some girth on him! his cock is deliciously thick, that’s for sure.

twitchy! you can learn what he loves by the way his cock or his hips will twitch in excitement, almost as if it has a mind of its own. sometimes he can get so lost in the feeling and become speechless that those twitches would be your only indicator to keep doing what you’re doing.

his tip is so sensitive... if you lick that specific spot underneath his head or use your fingers to squeeze his tip, he will absolutely lose his mind. he also likes to shallow fuck you sometimes, loving the feeling of penetrating you over and over again.

that being said, expect him to usually take things slow and steady at first. he loves seeing the way his cock stretches you out, and especially loves seeing your hole gaping open to match his thickness. the feeling of pushing your walls apart because of how thick he is is always enough to make him weak at the knees.

he loves when you inflate his ego a little by using two hands to jerk him off rather than one. he especially loves when you use one hand to massage his balls, another sensitive spot of his. seeing you so eager and dedicated to please him will always send his heart pounding.

i like to imagine he has big, thick loads too to match his fat cock... he would definitely love dumping his cum inside you then letting it spill out so he can fuck it back inside again, penetrating you until your entrance is sore and covered in his load.

childe

this man is packing. he’s huge. nothing anyone can say will change my mind. out of this entire boy band group, this man packs the most. even his in game model has been proven to have such a fat cock that his bulge can literally be seen from behind???

it can tear you apart! hell, maybe it could make you bleed if he’s a touch too rough with you. but we all know that’s secretly what he would love to see... his bloodthirst might extend to intercourse too.

despite this, of course he would make sure your comfortable with his size first and would adjust accordingly in normal circumstances. he’s aware of how big he is and doesn’t want to make you feel genuine pain. maybe in other circumstances where he needs to take out his frustrations, he might not be so considerate...

if you gently touch or lick the veins that travel on the underside of his cock he goes a little feral! his veins are his weakness, just imagine the shaky moans he lets out as you tease him by tracing your finger along those veins... god help me

i believe in size kink foul legacy childe supremacy... his cock is already above average in size when he’s his normal self, but when he transforms you often tremble in borderline fear wondering how he could fit inside you. it’s mind boggling how the size difference is humanly possible.

(un?)fortunately, he can’t keep this form up for very long but rest assured he loves seeing the look on your face when he fucks you silly on such a fat cock, even if it’s just for mere moments.

that being said, expect childe to be super cocky about his size. his ego swells whenever you swoon over how big he is and he’s definitely the type of person to use this to his advantage by teasing and pushing your buttons.

zhongli

several sources have stated that rex lapis was able to change and alter his form freely... surely if zhongli could still do this even with his gnosis taken away, he would change his size to your preference if needed.

if you wanted his cock to rip you open, just say the word and he will do so accordingly. but if you’re feeling a little more mellow and wanted things to be gentle, he would gladly alter himself to be average size, or even smaller if you wanted.

but when i say he can alter his form, you best be sure that he can make it so he has two cocks at once. yes i believe in double cock zhongli supremacy... do with that information what you will.

since zhongli isn’t exactly human, his cock doesn’t exactly match that of a human’s either. in his most natural form without any changes being made, his cock is tougher and firmer than a normal human’s muscle. it doesn’t squish easy to the touch, but it’s not completely rock solid as you’d expect, which is quite ironic coming from a geo god.

you notice his veins on his cock, just like the rest of his body, are golden. they only actually show up when he’s reaching his climax where they’ll glow brighter if he’s getting closer to his orgasm. finally, with each pump of cum he lets out, these veins start pulsing with light until they eventually dim when he’s calming down from his high.

weird, huh?

[shotorozu]

encountering a ‘pick me’ girl

character(s) : kirishima eijirou, todoroki shouto, bakugou katsuki (bnha)

warning : PICK ME GIRL, misogyny (?) pick me girl makes an off handed comment about your body but it’s not detailed at all

PART TWO — PART THREE

legend : [Y/N = your name] afab! reader, but they/them pronouns used, quirk not mentioned

headcanon type : fluff, angst if you squint

note(s) : i made 2 versions of this post so,, if you’re reading this— then i probably decided that i liked this one more than the other one i made,, anyways, i used real life examples 💀

»»————-　♡　————-««

kirishima eijirou

i’d imagine that eijirou would have an idea of what a pick me girl is— i mean, there were probably 2 of those girls in middle school

but has he experienced it first hand? nahh.

though, eijirou didn’t think he’d encounter one when he was already in a healthy and committed relationship!

eijirou is practically friends with everyone— and yeah, even the most unexpected. so, he’s bound to accidentally befriend a pick me girl

him, being the nicest one out of all of the characters in this list, will still be nice to said pick me girl, despite wanting to snob them to the core

because really— you can’t really fight fire with fire in some cases

but, he can be everything but lenient when the pick me girl starts insulting you for doing certain things, and for absurd reasons too

like,, how you laugh, and how you take care of yourself (for example— if you wear makeup, or how you style your hair)

which is odd! everything about you is everything but the things the pick me girl has stated so.. he cannot stand by.

SCENARIO

the girl giggles to herself after that snide comment leaves her lip gloss coated lips. eijirou shifts uncomfortably— honestly taken aback by the anything but subtle insult that was thrown at you

“like.. seriously! it’s honestly quite superficial if you look at it like that. who the hell would put that much effort infront of your boyfriend? i’d assume they’d see everything AND everything but.. i guess not.”

you blink. superficial? now that’s a new one. the girl infront of you has been babbling insults sugarcoated in boasts the entire time, and you’re just wondering if it’s about time you guys leave but—

“well that’s unfair,” your boyfriend laughs, “i put the same amount of effort as this cutie right here,” eijirou pokes at your cheek, earning a quick laugh from you— which he can only thank the heavens for that

“but that’s different. it actually looks put together when you’re doing it, eiji.” the certain glint in her smile makes you want to wipe it right off with a dirty mop, “it’s impossible to look put together with expensive clothes, but being built like a—”

the sound of the sliding of a chair is quicker than your actions, and it easily cuts her off.

“i’m sorry, but we gotta go, it’s totally not cool of you to say those things about Y/N!”

“what? but i mean.. it’s true, right? i’m looking out for them! they’re literally out here l—”

“bye!” eijirou waves her goodbye with your hand, dismissing the sour expression on her face— as he dashes off with you

you’d question how he’s just so nice to people like that, but when he turns around, you could see the distaste in his eyes

“so that’s what a pick me girl’s like,” shaking his head, his expression lights up with such a quick manner “i’ll never make friends that are like that again!”

safe to say, eijirou’s friend list has been a a person shorter ever since that incident

bakugou katsuki

oh, so that girl’s bold bold.

if she thinks she could get away with being a not so subtle pick me girl infront of bakugou katsuki, then she couldn’t be more wrong.

it’s absolutely revolting— i mean, he hasn’t displayed any romantic feelings towards ANYONE that isn’t you.

also, they’re quite gutsy if you ask me. so congrats for having guts??

i don’t think he’d be friends with a pick me girl. he’s very selective of who he’s befriending, so it’s probably your friend that’s the pick me girl in this case

he wouldn’t know what a pick me girl would be, but he’d probably know the description of one.

over some time, he’d grow some resistance to insults directed at him, but when someone insults his s/o

oh boy. that’s not good. remember when i said that katsuki was almost like your scary and intimidating dog

this is what i mean

knows he can’t make a scene, so his first option is to be dismissive asf— but if said pick me girl literally can’t get it, he won’t be afraid of shoving some explosions into her face

because his hands are rated e for everyone

SCENARIO

“so you wanna be picked or something, is that it?” he hates how you literally have the resistance of a rock— which is something he always liked, but in this case hated. if it weren’t for you— he would’ve blasted explosions into her sorry excuse of a face until it’s beyond recognition (that wouldn’t be hero like, is what you’ve said in the past, but he disagrees.)

but seriously? ugh. he just wants to leave this horrid place, and make some dinner with you in the comfort of his home. why are you even friends with her anyway? she’s not even trying to be slick at this point.

“p-picked? i’m not understanding, katsu.”

“it’s bakugou.”

“right,” her laughter is like nails on chalkboard, “i’m just watching out for Y/N, y’know? there’s no point in wearing all of that.. on their face.” and she’s obviously referring to your obviously very well done makeup

“it’ll make your skin terrible in the long run! and really— i couldn’t really understand on why someone would wear that much, when you could survive with i dunno.. lip gloss at most?”

you would’ve actually said something as a rebuttal, but your boyfriend is quicker, and a lot more direct than anyone else in the area.

“just say you can’t do makeup and fucking scram,” katsuki’s ice cold glare finally breaks out of the act he’s been trying to hold together for you

“their makeup is fucking bomb as hell, compared to your ridiculous spider lashes, lady. come back when you’ve watched james charles’ entire fucking channel.” he harshly states in similar bakugou fashion, despite the lack of screaming.

and if you squinted hard enough, you could see tears welling up in her eyes. but katsuki tugs your hand before anything else could be said

“let’s fucking go, you need better friends.”

he makes you cut ties with all of them, and he practically scolds your terrible choice of friends— but he goes quiet when you tell him that you’ve been friends with her since middle school

“good fucking riddance. next time, i’ll punch them as soon as they say something outta line, got that?” and next time (hopefully, there won’t be a next time) you’ll actually lash out— or maybe,, you’ll let him loose for once.

todoroki shouto

now shouto might be,, socially unaware sometimes. but he can tell whenever someone’s trying to insult his s/o

like,, right away.

now— you both run into this person after a pleasant date, and she eagerly presented herself as your friend

so, her attitude catches him off guard because who’d have anything rude to say about you and towards shouto’s face? especially when it’s about something normal.

like,, wasn’t she your friend?? why is she even like this?

his hostility is very well known, so they should be scared.

he gets detached from the conversation, and he’ll immediately go cold— and shouto would probably go as far as walking away with your hand in his

doesn’t matter if he properly says goodbye or not— if a girl’s being rude to his s/o, they obviously don’t deserve his usually polite attitude. nope, that’s a luxury.

oh— and what more when they’re seeking for his validation. newsflash! said pick me girl won’t be get any from him.

SCENARIO

shouto couldn’t stop the bitterness bleeding into his mouth, when the girl in front of him continued to babble and take up the valuable time he had left with his s/o

initially, she presented herself as your friend from middle school— but as of now? she seems to be more interested in him more than you, despite knowing you first.

she’d ask him a string of obvious questions with very obvious answers, like ‘is she treating you well?’ ‘is she acting correctly?’ and questions of the sort

“oh, sorry! i’d hate to cut this conversation short, but—” you finally decide that it was about time to leave, while shouto looks pretty,, deadpanned right now, you could tell that he was gradually starting to get irritated by your friend’s words.

“wait. thats.. kind of controlling, don’t you think? do you ever let shou make decisions?”

“uh.. controlling? since when??” you question at the accusation. this girl knows nothing about your relationship dynamic, and she’s already jumping the gun and making conclusions.

your gaze snaps back to shouto, who looks just as surprised as he could possibly be.

“yeah! it clearly looks like he still wants to talk” which is an obvious lie, shouto just wants it out of here “i wonder how you managed to snag such a guy like him,” she comments with a smile that looked anything above suspicion (yet, it makes your stomach churn)

you could see the way her hand gets gradually closer to him— and frankly, you’re not sure about what she was planning to do next, “you wouldn’t need to dress all expensive and fancy, if you’re with a girl with an already classy appear—”

“i think this conversation is over,” shouto grip is firm on the wrist that was attempting to grab his shoulder, shouto makes no attempt to even look at the girl infront of him “i don’t know what you’re trying to do, but it’s not humorous. at all.”

“what?” she stammers, drawing her hand back “i-it’s obvious they don’t know how to take a joke! this is why there are barely any good w—”

shouto’s next actions knocks her speechless, his hand rests at the small of your back, before gently guiding you forward— “love, what movie are we watching later?” he says, making an effort to press a quick, yet intense kiss on your lips

“oh,” you breathe out, surprised by this action. “don’t be so tense, love.” shouto comments on how tense your shoulders have looked, ever since she started running her mouth, “now.. what movie do you want to watch tonight? comedy? thriller?”

“you pick,” you laugh at the quick shift of topic. and when you look behind you, you could see shame and defeat welling up on her face. shouto finally feels like he could smile again, the bitterness dissipating from his mouth

after shouto questions you if that was what a pick me girl was, he makes sure that you guys won’t ever encounter such thing again

“you.. don’t have more friends like that, right? if you do— we could always do another friend list cleansing.” this statement makes you laugh but shouto is anything but joking

but being reminded of his reaction to that ‘pick me’ girl does puts a smile on your face.

»»————-　♡　————-««

likes and reblogs are appreciated, thanks for reading!

i do not own bnha/mha and it’s characters. boku no hero academia/my hero academia belongs to horikoshi kohei, i only own the writing and i do not profit off of my hobby

do not plagiarize, reupload, translate, or use my works for audio readings without permission

[thenovelartist]

And there was only One Bed - Tears of Themis Headcanons

Premise: There’s only one room left in the hotel, meaning the guys have to be roomies with MC for a night.

Luke

Err… his cheeks are red now.

He’s having to check with MC if she’s okay with it. Not that they had much of a choice.

They take the room, only to discover one bed.

And forget his crush on her; that’s the least of his problems.

He knows she shifts in her sleep.

“You take half and I take half?” MC offers. “Like when we were kids?”

He sighs, lamenting his fate. “I’m so gonna end up on the floor.”

“Sorry.”

When it comes to who showers first: rock, paper, scissors.

He’s the least phased of all the guys by the whole “share one bathroom” situation. They grew up together. They sometimes used to have quick conversations through the bathroom door, normally just a question or two about what they wanted for dinner or if their phone went off and it was their parents.

Which happened this time. “There was a vending machine down stairs. You want anything? And if you mention that diet, I’m getting you two of your favorite candy bars.”

“Just one and only one.”

“You got it.”

(@gavin-plz-call-me once called them the “King and Queen of No Boundaries” and I will never forget it.)

Eventually, Luke makes sure MC’s settled in for bed while he’s planning to stay up a little and figure out tomorrow’s game plan.

Until she literally drags him to bed.

He can’t protest against her.

Contrary to what he thought, he did not end up on the floor.

But it was kinda hard to sleep when the girl of his dreams decided his chest was her new snuggle pillow halfway through the night.

He’ll cave and roll with it. Be selfish just for tonight and hold her there.

Come morning, she apologizes for disrupting him, he dismisses it. And both their cheeks are red.

But it doesn’t phase them. Give it half an hour, they’re back to normal.

(Bonus: “So, kid. Let me get this straight,” Aaron Yishmir started. “You spent the night with her, and you’re still not gonna tell her anything?”

“It wasn’t like that!”

“You’re hopeless.)

Vyn

Well… this is a predicament.

However, they come to some awkward agreement that if it’s the only place to sleep for the night, they’ll take it and figure it out as they go.

However, things only go from bad to worse when they learn there’s only one bed.

There were very few times since becoming an adult that Vyn ever found himself at a loss. And this was one of those times.

“Um… are you comfortable splitting?”

His glasses almost fell off his face at MCs suggestion.

Before he can even think about suggesting to take the chair, MC is putting up a blanket wall. “Like this?”

Er… aha…

Oh geez, this woman…

He caves to that deep, ugly part of him that’s begging “yes” and agrees.

Then comes the new revelation there’s only one bathroom, which rose the question of who was going to shower when.

He just lets her take the first shower while his mind is still storming.

During that time, he realizes this may be the only time he has the privacy to actually record his voice diary.

It’s a total disaster. He’s in mental turmoil and can barely think straight.

But MC is acting normal, meaning he’s got to try to act normal.

Normally, he takes his showers in the morning, but he takes it at night this time just so he can have another moment of privacy to get his thoughts in order.

This is just a practical arrangement. This is just a practical arrangement. This is just a practical arrangement…

Bedtime rolls around, and poor, unsuspecting Vyn believes they are each going to stay on their respective sides of the bed.

However, Author has a headcanon these two both sleep like dead logs.

Morning rolls around, and they’re still both asleep, only they’re totally entangled.

MC wakes up first, laying on top of Vyn.

And when she freaks, flailing and falling off the bed in the process, that’s when Vyn wakes, too.

It was… an interesting morning to say the least.

They come to the agreement to never speak on it again.

(Until a few years down the line after they’re together and can look back on that day with amusement.)

Artem

When the person at the front desk said there was only one room left, Artem about had a heart attack.

He cannot possibly share a room with MC. That’s super improper.

Will call around to any other hotel in the area, but no avail.

MC will literally have to drag this poor man up to the room.

“It will be fine, Artem.”

Except, it wasn’t. There was one bed.

Cue almost heart attack number 2.

He almost left to go sleep in the car. MC had to restrain him.

“We can share right? Like, if we—”

“No. Absolutely not.”

“Not even if we put a blanket—”

“No. I’ll sleep in the chair.”

There was no convincing him to sleep anywhere else.

And MC tried.

Eventually, she had to surrender. “Fine. Then do you want the first shower?”

Oh… there was only one bathroom… that they’d be sharing…

Cue almost heart attack number 3.

Will legitimately leave the room while she’s showering. He just feels too awkward and like he’s invading her privacy.

Then bed time rolls around and he’s unable to sleep, so he works on his laptop for the time being.

Ends up pulling an all-nighter, which MC anticipated.

She set an alarm for early in the morning so she could then force him to bed for a few hours.

While he insisted he was fine, he was too tired to protest as she pushed him down into bed. “Sleep, will you. I know you didn’t sleep all night.”

Thought he’d have trouble, but he was so wound up all night over everything that had happened that he’s passed out in fifteen minutes.

And stayed out cold for a few hours.

When they left, MC made sure to thank him for being such a gentleman. She thought it was the least she could do for his troubles.

That, and she quite liked the way his ears and neck turned red.

(Bonus: He hopes Celestine never finds out what happened on that business trip.

But when she finds out curtesy of MC, she will never let him live it down.)

Marius

The moment he finds out there’s only one room, he actually gets super flustered.

And as he does, instantly goes in to deflective Playboy Flirt mode.

“Get your head out of the gutter, you little—”

MC shut that down, real quick.

Most he could do then is just say “It can’t be that bad, right? What’s the worst that could happen?”

Well, apparently only be one bed.

Flustered Marius = Playboy Persona

“That’s it,” MC says. “You take the bed.”

“What? Don’t you wanna share?”

“No.”

“Ouch!”

But really, he wants to find some way to get her to take the bed because he really will feel awful otherwise.

Then comes the single bathroom realization.

“You wanna shower together?”

“Marius, I swear I will kick you out of this room and take the keycard from you.”

“Oh, my feisty Miss Attorney.”

“Miss Attorney will sue you for sexual harassment.”

“Understood.”

He gets to shower first, and then ends up giving her some excuse for leaving the room entirely.

He loves teasing her, but this might be the most he’s ever pushed his luck. And he actually doesn’t want her to hate him, so he’ll give her this space at least.

As for the bed situation…

MC tries to sleep on the couch, but he can’t stand it, so he decides to push his luck and simply carry her to bed.

“I won’t pull anything, I swear.”

“The only reason I’m agreeing is because I know I’ll sleep better here than the couch.”

“See?”

“Marius.”

“I’ll shut up.”

Regrets his decision halfway through the night when Mr. Light Sleeper realizes Ms. Dead Log moves in her sleep.

She was snuggled up against his back, and his heart was going doki doki too hard to even think about going back to sleep.

Eventually, he rolls over and snuggles her, not just because he wants to, but he hopes it will keep her still through the night.

Unfortunately, she was not happy in the morning.

“Can’t we talk about this?”

She kept her face turned away from him the rest of the day, but he knew it was red with blush. “Shut up.”

[sirthisisa-wendys]

One Wall Over: Geto Suguru x Fem!Reader

synopsis: you’re new in the neighborhood, but that doesn’t mean you’ll get a warm welcome from your duplex buddy. 

wc: 3k

tw: nsfw, smut, annoying noises at five am, the works 

a/n: ahhhhhhhhh! I am so excited to be taking part in this collab with @suna-reversed reversed for a super sexy jjk collab! Please check out the masterlist for the collab here and the other authors! SO EXCITED TO READ THE OTHERS! (The other title I had for this work is “First of All, How Dare You” because that’s literally me every time I see my hubby Suguru, but anywho!).

Moving in was a bitch. 

For the first time ever, you have no roommates, no parents, and no pets - just you and your meager belongings moving into the little, two-story duplex a friend allowed you to sublet. As you stare out of the window facing the sparse front lawn, you wonder what your neighbor is like. They hadn’t come to welcome you to the home, but you knew they existed by the sound of the bass through your shared wall at five am every morning. 

You assume they’re male or a couple, but you’ve never gotten a chance to see them with your own two eyes.  So you kept a lookout day after day. At exactly four p.m., you would sit across from the window with a book and keep watch, the sun streaming in and illuminating your figure and crossed legs anchored on the window sill. But day after day, you wouldn’t see anything. The neighbor’s car wouldn’t even move an inch from the previous day. Everything would remain the same until the next day when you took your perch by the window. 

It isn’t until you’re out on your front lawn, slaving over the flowers you maintained for a whole month - a new record - that the sleek Range Rover drives up to the garage on your neighbor’s side of the house. At first, you don’t notice it, your eyes firmly planted on the soil at the root of your orchid tree. But then you hear a car door slam, and you look up, watching for the person who would be exiting the vehicle. 

A tall, black haired man slides out of the truck and slams the door shut, his locks tucked into a half bun and a white towel resting around his rippling shoulders. He slides his keys into his gym shorts and turns to walk into the house, barely noticing you on the front lawn in an ill-fitting t-shirt and dirty yoga pants. 

He’s halfway to his front door when you find your voice and yell out, “Hey, neighbor!” You wave your hand at him in hopes that he would return the gesture, but you’re sorely disappointed when he only looks your way with disinterest and walks into the house without speaking. You frown at the encounter, hoping that he would return a little while later and explain his lack of manners, but he doesn’t, and you retreat into the house once more. 

______________________________________________________________________

“Unzzz, unzz, unzzzz…” Both eyes fly open at the sound of the bass on the other side of your bedroom wall, the sudden noise jarring you from your sleep. 

“Ugh…” Your eyes slide to the white numbers on the clock face, which politely remind you that it’s five-fifteen AM. Don’t confront him, don’t confront him. You wrap the pillow around your ears, hoping the gentle cushion would block out the sound. But for some reason, it gets even louder, and a groan escapes your lips. There were only two more hours for you to rest, but at this rate, you’d be up until it was time for you to wake and get ready for work. That just wouldn’t do. 

The grey sweatpants deposited on the floor the night before are quickly jerked on, and you pad to the front door, not caring about your appearance as you walk the length of the porch over to his front door. Inhaling, you find the will to bring your fist up and pound on the door, hoping the sound would be angrier than you actually felt. Fear ate at your nerves while you waited. A few agonizing moments later, the door is yanked open, music floods outside, and your neighbor stands before you in just a pair of black sweatpants. Nothing else. 

“What?” he gripes, sweat rolling down his forehead. As your eyes take in the full sight of him, you wonder what kind of sculpted god you had for a neighbor. You could even faintly see the v that would culminate in the bulge near the crotch area of the pants, which apparently is quite--

“Uh…” You had entirely forgotten what you had come over to his side of the house for, but as he leans on the doorframe and gives you a withering stare, you suddenly remember your complaint. “Your wall is next to my bedroom. Can you turn your music down?” You place a hand on your hip, trying to seem more inconvenienced than you actually were in that moment. 

“Yeah, sure.” He shuts the door in your face, and you trudge back over to your side of the house, hoping the music would soften. 

But for some reason, you swear he turns it up even louder. 

_______________________________________________________________________

“Why don’t you just call the landlord and make a noise complaint?” your friend wonders over the phone, the sound of a frying pan in the background slightly overshadowing her voice.

“But you said you didn’t have any problems with him, Mariela.” 

“Yeah, Geto was nice enough and didn’t bother me much. Not sure why he’s being such an ass now.” You hear an oh, shit on the other end, and Mariela hisses into the receiver, “Hey, y/n, I have to go; the risotto is burning. Call me back if you have any other issues, okay?” 

“Okay.” You hang up and toss your phone on your desk, trying to focus on the words in front of you but failing as the sound of the bass filters through the other side of the wall again. For the fourth day in a row, you’ve been subjected to the sound of pure noise coming through the other side. Tonight was absolutely not the night, mostly because you had a presentation that took you all night to finish, and the clamor was interrupting your prep work for the bright and early eight o’clock meeting. You feel like Squidward, subjecting yourself to the endless noises from the grunting to the bass to the sound of weights clanking back into place. 

It’s the sound of Geto’s groaning that sets you on edge the most. If it weren’t for the added noise of weights, you’d be convinced he was fucking someone. There was no way he could make so much noise and not know that he was disturbing your peace. Hadn’t he ever heard of headphones? 

You snatch up your set of earbuds on your desk, place them in your ears, and try to turn up lofi music as loud as it will go. But that doesn’t work. Even relocating to the living room didn’t seem to fare you well, and you wonder if he truly had cranked up the music higher than before just to annoy the hell out of you. Finally, you toss your earbuds down and slam your computer on your coffee table. 

You’d had enough. 

Stomping over to the front door, you fling it open and bang on Geto’s door, hoping he would answer it in a rage so you could let out your frustrations. But when the door flies open, he’s dressed in only a pair of gym shorts, this time the outline of his dick even more apparent. But you’re not focused on that. You point a finger at him and inhale to begin your tirade; sick and utterly over his shit.

“Hey! Can you fucking turn it down?” Geto stretches out a hand, and for a minute you think he’s going to grab you by the shirt, but he pulls you inside by the wrist, crushing you against his chest. “What the hell?” You push away from his sweaty chest, backing into the closed door harshly. 

“Lower your damn voice; the neighbors will hear,” he chastises, and turns away from you to grab the water bottle on the counter. The muscled man takes a long swig, then wipes his face with the towel right next to it. 

“I don’t know what the fuck your problem is, but I’ve never been so disrespected in my li--” As you talk, he’s advancing on you, pushing back his long black hair back behind his ears and getting too close for comfort. Once he’s right up on you, you gulp hard, fully intimidated by his size and stature. The music suddenly stops, and you’re left in silence. 

“I’m listening,” he mutters, staring down at you. “Please, continue.” 

“I was saying…” your throat dries up. “What I meant was…” Your eyes travel from his chest to his navel, and then to the hand pressed against the doorframe.

“Uh huh…” He nods, squinting his black eyes at you. “You said you’ve ‘never been more disrespected in your’… life, right?” You don’t reply. Rather, you can’t reply. All of the words you could have ever said are now gone from your skull. “I highly doubt that, y/n.” 

“H-how…” 

“You’re Mariela’s friend. I’ve seen you quite a few times before you moved in here. Never thought I’d be living so close to you, though. Mariela’s subletting, isn’t she?” 

All of these questions. And you can’t reply to a single one because he’s practically squeezing you between the door and his rock-hard abs. Or are you pressing yourself against the door to get away from the heat emitting from his body - oh, fuck; you don’t know. 

“But I had to get your attention somehow.” The admission startles you so bad that you accidentally knock the back of your head against the door, touching the point of contact in pain and hissing slightly. Geto hums at your blunder, then pushes off of the wall to turn away from you. As he rotates, you catch a glimpse of his erection, now fully apparent in the atrocity that is his shorts. “The yard work wasn’t effective, the trips to the gym and back barely worked; shit, by now I would’ve thought you would throw yourself at me the first chance you got. I guess I had to make you mad enough to confront me.” 

“You literally looked at me and said nothing the first time I saw you!” you retort, throwing your hands up in the air. “Then you almost bit my head off the first time I came over to tell you the music was too loud.” 

“I didn’t expect you to come over the first time. Besides, I couldn’t figure out anything smooth enough in that short amount of time.” Geto shrugs, his shoulder muscles moving like water in the dim lighting of the living room. You look around at the furnishings, noting his impeccable taste in wood and red suede in conjunction with his minimal exercise equipment. “Coffee? You look like you’ve been up for a while.” He leans over a coffee-maker - one of those fancy ones that you’ve seen on TV - and slides a plain coffee cup into the holder. 

“Uh, no thanks.” You turn to the door and begin to open it, but Geto clicks his tongue thrice. 

“You’re just going to leave without getting what you came for?”

You pause for a moment, then turn back to look him over once. “Don’t you mean what you brought me over here for?” A lazy smile spreads across his face, and that’s when you realize that he’s charming, but not necessarily as suave as you first imagined. You shut the door and walk over to him, examining his physique as if you hadn’t just helped yourself to his tall, statuesque figure already. He allows you to look him over, eyes dedicatedly following you.

“Like what you see, doll?” You don’t get a chance to answer as he pulls you into his chest with a smooth movement, then presses his lips against yours. You instantly open your mouth so he can slide his tongue inside, and he does so without hesitation. Hands grasp at your flimsy night shirt, pulling it over your shoulders as he backs you up against the wall, hiking one leg up and wrapping the other around his waist. 

As both of your hands tangle in hair, fabric, sweat, you wonder how long - just how long - he’s wanted to do this. But your train of thought is rudely interrupted by his lips trailing kiss down your neck and to your collarbone, where he pauses for a second, catching his breath. Fingers dance through his locks and he peers up at you for a second, drinking in your flushed expression and breathy exhales. 

“Geto, please, I--” You’re silenced again by his lips, his thick fingers rolling past the waistband of your night shorts and right to your core, where he nestles them into your heat with ease. 

“Goddamn…” The rumbling of his voice vibrates against your chest, and you gasp, feeling every stroke of his fingers inside of you. “So fucking wet… just for me.” Your vision narrows in on the black eyes watching your every move, the angle of your face, the way you tilt your chin to the side and shakily exhale. Everything is perfect. Maybe even better than he imagined at first. But you don’t know that, and you really don’t care to know. All you want is release and for that release to be at Geto’s hands. When he removes his fingers and hoists you onto the suede couch, your first reaction is to cry out in shock. 

His hands roll your shorts down to your knees and then press your legs open, spreading you for him to examine. 

“You’re a mess down there… perhaps I should help you clean up.” 

“Huh?” The double entendre is completely lost on you in the heat of the moment. You watch as he leans down, then moves to lick your core with a flat tongue, stroking up before he goes down again and repeats his action twice. Your head finds the soft cushion of the pillow in ecstasy, and you let out a breath you didn’t realize you had been holding. 

Geto hums down below, fully appreciating your taste before sucking on your clit, hard. You yelp, shooting up, but his hand presses you back down, eyes still closed. Fingers make their way up to your breasts, tugging at your nipples leisurely before tightening and pulling with more tension. “Oh, god, please…” Your hands find his head, and at the sudden application of pressure, he grunts again. And you’re left there in agonizing pleasure, dangling between an orgasm and a build-up of pressure, one stroke away from tumbling into the cavern of blissful unawareness. 

Geto stops without warning, pulling back to watch you as he still tweaks your nipples with varying degrees of firmness. You tug at his shorts in a silent plea for him to discard them, and he waits a minute before sliding them off wordlessly. His length is impressive, you note, his cock springing free from his shorts and angled upwards a little. A condom is produced just as quickly, and he rolls it over himself before spreading you a little wider to accommodate his length. When he nudges his cock at your slit, you realise he’s a little breathless and shaking, but that all goes to the back of your mind when he slides inside of you with little resistance. 

“Fuck, doll, that’s--” He groans just as you moan, both of you relishing the expanding feeling. “God, that’s perfect.” You whimper at his praise and bring your hands to his shoulders, holding on for dear life as he begins to pump into you. Geto’s lips find your neck and he sucks a hickey on your left side, placing another one neatly below it while his hands cup your ass. 

“Does that feel good?” He whispers and you nod, completely at a loss for words. But soon, it’s not enough, and your fingers dig into his back. He’s fucking you slowly… too slowly. 

“M-more,” you whine, and he delivers his thrusts faster, pumping into you and moaning loudly. Your fingers find his face and angles it towards your raised head so you can kiss him on the lips. He offers you that mercy - a deep, languid kiss - while he plows into you with abandon. Pleasure is the only thing on your minds - you just so happen to have found it in each other’s arms - and your orgasm is just within reach.

“Geto, I’m close…” His response to your words is to lift your left leg a little higher so it practically hung off the couch and in the air, deeping his strokes until they settled against your cervix, like someone tapping a soft rhythm into your stomach. “Shit, like that.” 

“Yeah?” he exhales, looking at your face with a blissed-out expression, his cheeks reddening. You raise your hips to meet his with each thrust, hoping your orgasm would arrive before Geto came. There isn’t much you can do though, besides writhe beneath him and pull him closer to you, thereby making you and him almost inseparable. He’s merely rocking into your hips now, cock barely rolling out of you as before. And you can’t deny that it feels like heaven, not when you’ve been so frustrated for so long. 

“I’m gonna cum,” Geto hisses into your mouth, and you nod, constricting a little to urge him on. What you fail to realize is that the constriction was just what you need to tumble over into the abyss of thoughtlessness, and your mouth opens to let loose a guttural moan as Geto fucks you faster and faster, chasing his own orgasm on the heels of yours. “Oh, shit,” Your neighbor sinks into you one final time, shooting his cum into the condom, but pumping in stuttered strokes as if he were really letting loose inside of you. 

When you both fall from the heights of your sex-induced high, shoulders and heads are draped where there is comfort and space, little exhales from his mouth fanning across your breasts. Geto lifts off of your sweaty chest and looks you in the eyes before breathing: 

“Maybe I should start my days with this instead of a workout.”

[sweettodo]

eren jaeger x reader.

includes : smut, college au, bad plot, enemies to lovers-ish, hate sex, mention of anal play, swearing.

wc : 3k.

thank you for 700 followers ! and since it was just mr. jaeger’s bday, why not a little fic ?

—

"This is your fault, you shouldn't have let the door shut, the door gets jammed."

"How was I supposed to know?" he replies coolly, you shove past him, frantically grabbing the doorknob and turning it, back and forth. It was no use, the old wooden door was jammed tight into the frame, not even he could get it to budge.

"Are you hard of hearing?"

"Out of all people, I get stuck in a dingy bedroom with you."

—

It wasn't the best. It was border-line decrepit, all sorts of unkempt; but admittedly, it was all you and your friends could afford.

Doing what you could to stay afloat with rent, not to mention your thousands of dollars in college debt, you couldn't necessarily afford to stay on campus; so, you sought out any possible preventative strategy not to go back home, what any adolescent college student would do.

"Well, it's homey... I guess?" Connie announces, cautiously seating a box on the ground.

Beside him, Jean wipes his forehead, "are we getting paid for this?" he questions.

You raise an eyebrow, "Yeah, sure, whatever you want."

"Thanks, boys, that's enough for now, hungry?" Sasha smiles, placing a pizza box on the kitchen counter.

Truly, the house wasn't that bad, though there were some problems like any old home, like the creaky floorboards which dipped downwards in some areas of the house, or the shudders Jean had to nail back into place, or maybe that one non-working bathroom.

Yes, there were some issues, and you knew one thing for sure.

Do not close your bedroom door.

It jammed, and it jammed easily, which you found out the hard way when you had to have your two roomies pry the door open the previous day, hence the rock from outside being positioned to stop the door from closing entirely.

You all sit on the floor in the living room, devouring pizza and drinking as you all conversed and laughed.

While Connie is getting up to pour himself another drink, there's a knock on the door, "oh, finally- thought he was gonna bail on us!"

Connie quickly places his cup down and jogs to the front door, all eyes follow him.

"Eren!"

"What took you all day? Connie and I did practically everything!" Jean complains. Your face heats, fists clenching.

"I did not invite him." You grit, Mikasa glancing at you, concerned.

"Calm down, he's more man-power."

"We've done so much without him, why does he even bother?"

Eren dismisses your complaining, he sits down and grabs a piece of pizza, "it's not like a chose to come here, Mikasa wanted me to."

Your eyes drill into Mikasa's skull, she knew how you felt about him, and she knows how he feels about you. She brushes off your daggers.

"I'm not here to help you," he proceeds, "you wouldn't catch me dead."

"Well, while Jean and I run to the store to get more nails, how 'bout you help the girls?" Connie says, ignoring Eren's last remark.

"I don't need his help, I'm okay on my own."

"Y/n- take his help." Sasha nudges, "free labor."

Your perspective of Eren was nothing short of revulsion, his only conversation piece is how many women he's slept with, how he struts around like he owns the place, he's quite contemptuous, selfish, and arrogant.

He felt similar towards you, often the first one to ruin his day. The way you were so prideful, he too thought you were arrogant, he hated how you made him feel inferior, you were a challenge- you both were complacent and it drove him fucking nuts, as did you.

Standing from the floor, you brush your hands on your shorts, "I'll be in my room," you mutter, trudging up the stairs.

"You outta' help her, Eren," Sasha says, watching you walk up the stairs, "please."

The brunette shakes his head, "hell fuckin' no."

"Eren," Mikasa speaks lowly, her tone compelling, he rolls his eyes.

Picking up the screwdriver from the floor, pushing your hair out of your face, you get down on your knees and lift the bottom half of your bed frame, the little screw in your empty hand, you groan.

"Need a little help?"

Your head snaps around, "get out of my room, now."

"I thought you were this rough-tough- independent woman?" he ridicules.

You ignore him, "can't even put a bed together, how pitiful."

He steps closer, leaning against the door in your room, which was propped against the wall with the rock, his arms crossed tightly against his chest, "get out of the way."

"No. Eren I got it."

"Just get up and let me do it."

"I'll ask Mikasa, she's stronger than you anyways."

"Give me a break, how about you swallow your pride for once, you can't do everything, y/n."

He scoffs, attempting to absorb the insult, "plus, she isn't here, she and Sasha left." Your eyes widen, feeling much more uncomfortable than moments before. You gently place the bed frame on the floor in front of your knees, sighing, "let me do it-"

He slowly stands from his position, his foot knocking the rock out of place as he leans off the door following behind him, as he steps further into the room, you leap towards the shutting door.

"Eren! The fucking door!" you cry, seeing it shut mere inches from your grasp, "it doesn't open from the inside!" you shout, scrambling to your feet, Eren quickly turns, his hands landing against the old wood as he tries to pull it open, but it was too late.

"This is your fault, you shouldn't have let the door shut, the door gets jammed."

"How was I supposed to know?" he replies coolly, you shove past him, frantically grabbing the doorknob and turning it, back and forth. It was no use, the old wooden door was jammed tight into the frame, not even he could get it to budge.

"Are you hard of hearing?"

"Out of all people, I get stuck in a dingy bedroom with you."

"Spare me your kind words, Jaeger." You grumble.

"Where's your phone? Call Mikasa or Jean." Eren pats his pockets, in search of his phone.

"It's downstairs- my phone."

"So is mine," he sighs, sticking his hands in his pockets, "aren't I lucky; stuck in a room with a prissy bitch."

"Do you like making me mad, Eren? Because I'm not one of your hoes you can insult and get away with it." Gritting your teeth, he smiles cheekily, God you can't fucking stand him.

He remains silent, while tensions rise within the walls of your room, avoiding his eyes, you uncomfortably shuffle your feet, looking at the wood flooring beneath you, Eren is beside you, pacing, "I'll break the fucking thing down."

"You better not. Or else you're paying for it."

"I'm not paying for shit," he contends, "it's your shitty house, your shitty door, my shitty luck.”

You face him, he rolls his eyes, "if you break my door, Jaeger..." you threaten, sticking your index finger in his face.

"What are you gonna do? Y/n?"

You cross your arms, he shrugs and turns around on his heels, grabbing the doorknob and trying to pry the door open, he steps back and cracks his knuckles, "Eren, don't you fucking do it." You grab him by the back of his shirt, he stops.

"What are you gonna do?" he leans down to meet your height, tilting his head, "gonna punish me?"

You gulp, "how about I fix your bed while I'm here, since I'm so nice."

"No." You spit, "I'll do it, you stay in the corner and shut up." Pushing him away, but he stands still, a smug look still on his face.

"Why be so difficult?"

"Why do you always need the last word?" anger seething within you, little pieces of hair falling from the loose bun the hair tie he had holding back his bangs, you looked in his eyes, just waiting for him to speak.

"Do you like being stubborn?" Eren steps closer, as a result, you're stepping backward, and soon he figuratively has you backed into a corner.

Eren returns the glare, your heart thumping out of your chest, throat dry and closing by every second he kept his brutal eyes on yours.

You swallow, "always trying to make me mad, right?"

"Not everything is about you, Jaeger."

"No, but it is about you though," he hums, "don't you want me to shut up? How about you try to shut me up- since it's always about you."

You hadn't picked up on the sudden rush of adrenaline that pumped into your veins, which made you - quite literally - want to crumble, but you remained dominant. His rather vibrant eyes were tough ones to overpower, you guys just stood there, trying to wield your dominance over the other.

You two were power-hungry.

Eren on the other hand was trying like hell to prevail calm, you made him so mad, made him fucking furious, he contemplated leaping out of the second-story window, though one thing was keeping his feet grounded, looming over you.

And that was defeating you.

"I reckon you have more of a problem with me rather than the other way ‘round, you don't like it when I argue with you, Eren?" you teasingly pout, snickering in his face.

His eyes are low, seductive even, you had never seen him in this light, he looked restless, but he was undoubtedly annoyed.

It's his turn to smile, his fingers snaking around your wrist, pulling you down onto the mattress which lacked pillows, sheets, and a headboard.

You comply, his fingers anchoring into the back of your hair, pulling your head back, your neck training, “you gonna shut me up? Y/n?" you're speechless, seems as if he beat you to this little game.

“You piss me off. Jaeger.” You sneer, he leans down, face inches from your own.

“Yeah? I make you mad?” he purrs, dipping his head down towards your neck and pressing his lips against your ear lobe, chills erupt on every inch of your body.

You're left speechless once again, breathless as his hand slips down the curve of your waist, up to your thigh, stopping at your knee, “yeah... You do.”

He uses your knee to push your legs onto the bed, his hand guiding you, he swiftly gets on the bed, back against the wall; placing his palm on the back of your neck, pulling you between his legs, trapping you as he's kissing you firmly.

You're taken aback, but return the kiss, his soft lips colliding with yours, he tasted amazing, but you wouldn't admit that to him.

As if the gates had finally bursted open, your motions are picking up speed, he’s fiercely pulling at your shorts and without a second thought, you're rushing to tug his shirt over his head, giving hardly a second for air before you're kissing the man again.

What’s gotten into you?

You adjust so he can pull your shorts over your knees, flinging them across the room, your hands wandering up and down his chest, feeling his toned stomach beneath your fingers.

His big hands are grabbing you by the back of the thighs, pulling you closer to him so he can easily pin your back to the bed. With a huff, he kisses further down your neck, his lips tickling your skin as he begins to lift the thin shirt towards your chest, kissing down your stomach.

Eren can't take it anymore, all that was going through his mind was how soft your skin was, how good you smelled, the way he felt you shiver under him when he kisses the sweet spot on the side of your neck.

He uses the pad of his thumb to press against your damp panties, you gasp, his thumb locating your clit instantly and applying pressure on the swollen nub.

“Stop teasing, Eren.”

He smirks, slowly applying little circles over the thin undergarments, pinning one thigh down at the same time, he watches your face scrunch.

He leans down between your legs to kiss you again, pulling down his jeans in the meantime, you feel his erection through his boxers, pressing against the crevis between your thigh and cunt.

He sits up, yanking down your panties along with his boxers, your eyes nearly fall out of your head, catching a glimpse at the sheer size of the man.

He spits in his palm, messily stroking his cock a few times before making sure your leg is secure on his shoulder.

No words needed to be spoken- no conversation could be made at the fact things were moving so fast, similar to hungry animals, like a switch flipped and here you two were, soaking for a man you despised.

His tip slips up and down towards your entrance, repeatedly teasing you against your folds with his throbbing tip.

Finally, he gradually slips past your entrance, his head rolls back, body virtually falling weak as he soaks in those spongy tight walls, sucking him in immediately, “fuck,” is all he can sputter out, taking his time to seep deeper inside you.

He stretches you out, Eren’s veins which were wrapped around the base of his cock pressing against your electrified nerves, your back arching, quietly moaning as he eventually stuffs you with as much as you can take.

“You hate me? This pussy sure doesn't.” he grunts, retreating before rocking his hips back against you.

Your leg drops from his shoulder, “on your hands and knees, now.” he demands- not having to tell you twice, he’s quickly grabbing you, and with ease, you're now on all fours, exposed from the waist down, Eren’s hands spreading you open, pulling your ass apart so he can get the perfect view of his cock fucking into you.

This gives Eren the chance to now fit his whole length into you, crying out into the bare mattress, feeling his tip stab against the entrance of your cervix.

He pulls out, one hand steadying your waist and the other holding your ass, “such a tight cunt, can't even fit it all.”

Eren splits you open, thrusting into you while simultaneously pulling your hips against his, skin slapping, the both of you moaning as you're already releasing cream all over his cock.

You feel his thumb caress the skin around the valley of your ass, “such a pretty little hole, want me to fill this one too?”

With no hesitation, you're crying out a sloppy mantra of ‘yes’, and he follows your decrees, his thumb slipping past your unoccupied hole.

You instantly clench around him, the pressure of another hole being stuffed.

Nearing another orgasm, he ruts his hips against your thighs, seeing white, your stomach tightens, body attempting to escape the harsh pressure, unraveling from the arch you were trying hard to maintain.

“Again?” Eren’s amazed at the sight, your cum seeping from your pussy, soaking the little patch of curly hair above his cock, down your thighs and onto the mattress, your leg quivering as he spares you no mercy, shamelessly fucking into you.

He holds your hips steady, “Eren, s’ big, I can't-”

“Can't what? Can't take it? I thought you were such a strong girl?” he taunts, cruelly rutting into you.

You're drooling, tears falling down your face as he fucks you senseless, “fuck you,” you mewl, he slows, but still keeps up his strong and stabbing thrusts, your body still jolting every time his cock hits your cervix.

“Fuck-in’ hate you, hate you s’much.”

“Yeah? You hate me? But look at you,” he hooks his thumb deeper into your asshole, “you’re crying for more.” You wail, gasping for air, you craved more, the way his hips knocked against your ass, sending shock waves throughout your body.

“I think I love this sloppy little pussy, too bad you're such a bitch.”

He grabs you by the roots of your hair, fingers hooking and balling your hair into a tight fist, pulling you upwards, gasping for air, “Eren-” you moan, balls slapping against your slick folds and raw clit.

His thrust becomes more sporadic, nearing climax, he savors your warm and squeezing walls before you hear him hiss loudly, his head falling back, eyes screwing shut as he's dumping a load into your abused and stretched little pussy.

“Such a good cunt for an annoying bitch.” He mumbles.

Eren rocks his hips into you, making sure your cunt is sucking and every ounce of his seed is emptied from his cock.

He swears, softening cock slipping out of you as he quickly drops down onto the bed, wiping the sweat from his forehead, you're barely able to flip over, holes still twitching.

All you two can manage to do is catch your breath, the air knocked out of both of you, his seed mixed with your own still oozing out of your cunt, and onto the bed.

He sits up, chest still quickly rising and falling before he's moving off the bed and throwing his clothes on, throwing you your shorts, “get up so it looks like we did something productive,” your head in the clouds, you try to put your shorts on, he sees you and mutters indecent things under his breath, “what? Did I fuck you stupid or something?” you stand off the bed, and he quickly lifts the bed frame off the floor and pops the long screw in.

You peek out the window, the sky a dark milky blue- and to your surprise, there are your friends’ cars.

“Connie, you owe me twenty bucks!”

“Eren, I think they're already home.” You mumble, pulling open the window to get some air before walking back towards the door of your bedroom, pounding on the door, “open the door for me please!”

You give it a few moments, standing there in a daze- legs trembling.

You try to maintain the steadiness of your legs before someone struggles to push the door in, essentially un-jamming the door. Jean is there, with a clown-like grin on his face, Eren looks at him and groans, shaking his head before Jean begins to speak.