#but you can play as a more well adjusted version of the Thing

[legov7]

Inspired by @anim-ttrpgs's mystery ttrpg Eureka.

One of these creatures is a monster known to kill humans without remorse. You can't play as one, since that would interfere with the intended gameplay.

The second one on the other hand, the man eating shapeshifting sheet of flesh called the Thing from Beyond is totally fair game for a player character.

[cheyisagirlkisser]

Failing to top Ellie. (fem! reader)

Warnings: sub/dom dynamic, slightly sub Ellie if you squint, sub reader who attempts to be top for once, teasing, strap-on use, rough sex, afab reader, smacks, nipple play. 18+ content.

Here Ellie was, underneath you, fuzzy handcuffs restraining her wrists to the sheets, and her usually submissive girlfriend on top of her, teasing her with pink, glossy lips. You trace over her collarbone, smearing the skin there with a clear pink substance, making her groan.

She has had you in this situation countless times before, tied down and tortured. Spent hours between your legs, lapping at your glistening pussy lips but not your clit. She thinks this isn't about 'spicing things up in the bedroom'. No, this is payback, or maybe even worse than payback.

"C'mon, just ride me already.. quit being a fuckin' tease-" that backfires quickly, because you instead pull away. All Ellie can do is whine and stare up at the ceiling, knowing she deserves this.

When your stick lips trail down to her tits, your body follows down with it, and something, she doesn't know what, nudges the silicone cock held at her waist by the harness she so loves to use to fuck you with, and she groans. The tiny nudge of the base against her clit, that is truly the only thing she has gotten in the past 30 minutes. She's such a crybaby, you're thinking to yourself. Has you endure this for hours, yet she can't handle a little, sweet teasing?

Your lips wrap around the soft bud of one of her nipples, giving it a soft suckle. If she could, she would tangle her ring-adorned fingers into your hair, tug you off of her and punish you for being such a bitch. Not that she isn't obsessed with the feeling, because she does love the way your tongue swirls around her nipple. No, it's just the fact that she knows that as soon as she visually embraces it, lets out a soft moan of appreciation and asks for more, you will only pull away with a sweet, innocent smile.

When you inevitably do, Ellie takes in the view. Her head is reeling, she feels almost feverish. Have your tits always looked that good? Your face, lips tugged upward as you play coy, brows relaxed, and your eyes twinkling with just a mix of animosity (probably from last night when she fucked you only to rip your orgasm away for her own entertainment) but some relieving love in the mix, as well. She can't see your pussy at this angle, but she's seen it enough to just picture it, clit swollen and your sweet hole just weeping for her. She wants you on her cock so fucking badly right now.

It feels like hours of torture she endures, rightfully so. Warm tongue over her pulse, soft lips at her navel. The more she takes, the more she begs. So sweetly, and the evil girl who just wants to fuck you is stripped down into a needy, sweet girl; just as you wanted her to be initially.

"Please. I'll do anything, I'll never fuck with you again-" her words so frantic, but does she mean them? You swirl your tongue over her bellybutton and she arches up into it, hoping for mercy, and nearly sobs when you pull your mouth away before she can fully get to feel anything. This is pathetic, Ellie.

Her idealized version of teasing is much different than yours. While she is too impatient to do something like this, you're not. She didn't catch the memo when she had you previously begging for cock like you'd die if you weren't piped in 10 seconds. Now, you won't even touch her pussy. You won't even fuck yourself on the strap you have adjusted to her hips. She is actually, worriedly, starting to wonder if this is all some sick game. Her initial comfort was that at least you have the cock there, so that means she's guaranteed to get to watch you ride her until she cums from the friction, right? She doesn't even know anymore. Fuck, she didn't realize sex could ever be like psychological horror, but her mind was starting to spin. What if you just never fucked her? What if she sat here, begging for hours and hours never to hear that sweet relief, the pop of you sliding down on her cock-

She snaps out of her thoughts when you wrap your lips around the tip, suckling it so politely. Oh fuckkkk... You're like an angel, she thinks. Like a fuckin' angel, even though she can't even feel you licking up the veins of the shaft. It's not hers, but it might as well be. She feels high at the point, even though the last blunt she had was last week. It couldn't still be in her system, right? She isn't sure of anything at this point.

She should be mad at you, she should fuck you senseless as soon as she gets out of the handcuffs for all of this. But she just can't feel anything but pure need, and after probably hours of just kisses on her skin, gloss stains covering her pale, freckled skin, she is so gracious. Tamed, you could say.

She has to lean up to see the view of her cock disappearing in your mouth, craning her neck up almost painfully, but it is so worth it. You're like her own personal goddess, you have to be godsent, and pussy is aching, clenching around nothing. She can't feel it, but she swears that she does. Just as she thinks she can't take anymore, chanting a chorus of begging and pleases, she thinks you'll undo the handcuffs and walk out of the room. But no. You sink down onto her cock, and her eyes practically roll back into her head.

Your hips don't bounce, don't shatter down against hers, but instead grind so slowly. It feels good on her own neglected clit, and she can just imagine how heavenly it feels for you to have the tip rubbing into your g-spot. That is nearly as relieving as her own pleasure is, because you getting to cum may just be her favorite thing. You don't seem to make a plan to cum anytime soon, though. It's torture, sweet torture, but to a girl teased for what feels like decades, she will take anything she can get. She decides to just screw it, suck up to you and get on your good side.

Ellie loves her sweet girl more than anything. She knows this is fair, but you're still gonna be (mainly) her pillow princess after this. You just need some sweetness. You're too much of a ball of sunshine to really go through with denying her, right? Too smiley, too tender with her. You melt at her touch, and she hypothesizes in that head of hers that if you didn't tie her down, you wouldn't have gone through with this. You would've melted at the first graze of her fingers over your clit. But she still has her voice. Still has her sweet words which she knows can you can nearly cum off of. (Backed by evidence of a series of calls in which you had your pussy stuffed with your own fingers, getting off to her lewd remarks over the line).

"That feel good, baby? You like riding my dick?" She asks, and she knows that she sounds different than usual. Definitely more needy, as if she had just run a cross-country race as well.

And there it is, that sweet whine of approval. She might just cum on the spot. You nod and lean up with those sweet, plush lips. You kiss her sloppily and this is it for her. You just made a huge mistake.

Ellie shoves her tongue into your mouth, pushing against yours. The kiss should be a warning sign for you, but when your hips begin to lift to slam back down against your cervix, you lose yourself. Forget why Ellie's tied up in the first place.

Ellie is a smart girl. You've always adored that about her. She can solve calculus problems that usually leave you deciding to procrastinate on your assignments (that never get done). She is extremely intelligent. You underestimated her, and probably should've wrapped some rope around her ankles, because now she slams her hips up into yours, right up into your pussy.

You melt. She doesn't stop fucking up into you, even though it's tiring. You forget that she's strong, too.

"C'mon, baby. You really don't want this, do you?" She coos in your ear, making you even more dizzy. "You wanna get fucked properly."

"Ellie, please.."

"Yeah? I'll fuck this pussy so good, just uncuff me."

You don't hesitate, not when she sloppily kisses your lips, not when she pounds into you even tied down. Fuck, you want her so bad. So you quickly grab the key, and as soon as you made the mistake of letting her go, she's flipping you underneath her, your ankles hitched up onto her shoulders, and she is going to murder your pussy.

Deep, hard thrusts. Those are usually reserved for when you act bratty or when you beg her to be extra rough with you on certain nights. It's clear that she's not messing around with you, and you say your prayers in your head. Or you would, if you could think of anything right now.

Instead, you're left a mess. A whining, sobbing mess underneath her. That, accompanied by sounds of skin slapping and your sopping wet pussy being drilled into, are only things Ellie imagined to be real. You've got her impatient, otherwise she'd rip that orgasm right from underneath you and slam the door behind her.

"You think that was cute?" She scolds, voice husky and breathless, her words strewn all over because of the thrusts she is currently dealing to you. You don't answer? That's fine.

Ellie delivers a harsh smack to your bouncing tits. If that isn't enough, she could always just pull out, but she hopes it is because she doesn't know if she could leave your pussy right now.

"I'm sorry, Ellie!! I'm so sorry, I'll be a good girl-" you sob, and she scoffs.

"You should've been a good girl before tricking me into that."

"Please. Please, need you to make me cum. I'll be your good girl forever."

Ellie can't resist you. With one deep hit to the ribbed walls of your cunt, she's got you creaming all over her cock. You can feel it all over your body, and you shouldn't be feeling an orgasm in your fingertips or toes, but you do. It's everywhere. It feels like you're ascending to the pearly gates. Her face is angelic, carved not in focus in fucking you, but probably from cumming herself.

When it all ends, you let out a breath of relief. Then, Ellie is flipping you onto your stomach and giving a petty smack to your ass. You gasp, trying to pull her off of you, but.

"Nuh-uh, baby. I'm not done with this pussy, yet."

[strawberrykidneystone]

heavy are the hips or whatever

sevika x female reader

summary: beer is gross, but not when you have such a pretty bottle opener.

a/n: me just being horny please ignore. yes i know that bars are required to take the tops off before they give them to you but this is my world shhhh

tags: alcohol consumption, smoking, teasing

ao3 version

you hated beer.

despised it really.

but lately you’ve had a taste for it, solely for the person who opens the bottles for you.

which is how you got here, ordering another beer from the bartender who was already used to your antics, sliding you a beer with the cap still on. you never asked for a specific brand, frankly, you didn't care. he had given you a different brand every time you came up to the bar, yet you still hadn't found one that you enjoyed. some were fruitier than others which made them slightly more bearable, but overall, no dice. oh well, that wasn't what you were after anyway.

giving the bartender a nod and a cheesy grin, you happily grabbed the green-hued bottle off of the splinter covered counter and practically skipped back to the dark corner of the bar where the love of your life was playing a game of poker, unsurprisingly. you slowed back down as you got close to the table and stood at her side, rocking back and forth on your feet to wait as she made her call.

she tossed a few chips to the middle seemingly carelessly to the untrained eye and muttered "call", the rest of the patrons showing drastically different reactions. you could smell the other players apprehension a mile away, they were more than likely going to lose and they knew it. you've watched enough of her games to know when her opponents were licked, you also knew sevika well enough to know that she hadn't even looked at her cards yet. she simply oozed confidence, which was one of the things that initially drew you to her, it was enough to make you as shy as a schoolgirl.

a cigar hung out of the side of her mouth, lazily burning away as the game went on. she took a few quick puffs before taking a long inhale, blowing a perfect circle into the air as she exhaled straight up towards the ceiling, showing off her meaty throat that was decorated with bite marks and hickeys from your previous extracurricular activities.

sitting back and adjusting her hips, lifting them up slowly before settling back against the chair with emphasis since she knew you were watching. she looked up at you with a smirk and a knowing look in her eyes, she already knew what you were going to ask but she loved making you ask for it every single goddamn time. ever since she got that damn bottle opener buckle, it's been driving you crazy how sexy she looked practically man handling the beers that were handed to her. the foam sometimes spilled onto the front of her pants and you had to hold yourself back from kneeling in front of her and licking the fabric covering her crotch in front of everyone at the bar.

"whaddya need doll?" she questioned with a teasing tone, as if she hadn't already opened 2 previous bottles for you just that night.

you shyly held out the beer bottle with a small smile, avoiding her intense grey eyes.

she chuckled and shook her head, "use your words baby."

you held back a groan and dropped your arm back down to your side in defeat, you should've known that you wouldn't get what you wanted so easily, especially not with sevika. you sucked in a deep breath and said quietly, "...can you please open this for me?"

"what was that? i didn't hear you," she said with a shit-eating grin, drawing the attention of some of the players at the table.

you narrowed your eyes in annoyance and bit the inside of your cheek, gathering up all your confidence and holding out the bottle once again, "can you please open this for me?"

"of course baby," she said in a sickeningly sweet voice, her voice dripping with conviction. she took her cigar out of her mouth and snubbed it into the ashtray on the table as if opening the bottle would be a 2 hand job. the patrons who glanced over before quickly looked away, knowing they would probably get their heads chopped off if they dared to watch.

you pressed your thighs together in anticipation, your eyes immediately glued to her groin as soon as she took the bottle from you. she leisurely lined up the cap of the bottle under the hook of the buckle, keeping her eyes trained on your face for your reaction. this was as pleasurable for her as it was for you. adjusting her hips upward, she snapped the cap off the bottle and brought the bottle up to her lips, taking a sip of the foam. the cap fell onto the chair in between her legs with a clatter that you quickly reached down and picked up, the back of your hand dragging against her clothed sex with light pressure. her hips buckled up to try and follow your hand and she bit the top of the glass bottle to suppress a moan. you met her eyes with an amused smile that quickly dropped into longing as sevika circled the bottle with her tongue, flattening her tongue over the top before holding the bottle up to you. you mindlessly took the bottle from her, your eyes still focused on her mouth.

she patted the inside of her thigh expectantly and before she could even blink, you were perched onto the inside of her thigh. she chuckled at your eagerness and pressed a firm kiss into your cheek. she wrapped her arm around your waist and rested her hand on your hip. you took a sip from your beer and stopped yourself from making a face, tasting the cigar from her saliva on the glass. she leaned in and whispered huskily into your ear, "don't worry baby, I'll give you something better to put your mouth onto when we get home."

you couldn't help but choke on the course liquid that was on its way down your throat, your back straightening up as you blushed at the thought of tasting her. looking at her and nodding happily, you took a big gulp from your beer and squirmed on her thigh. she chuckled as she squeezed your hip to keep you still and gave your ass a quick slap, tuning back into the game.

it was going to be a long night.

a/n: bottle opener more like leg opener amiright, also sorry if you do like beer

[inmyheaddd]

wake up call - rafe cameron x reader

summary: pranking soft/tired!rafe after a party, by spewing absolute nonsense warnings: maybee slightly ooc rafe?? nothing really wc: 481 a/n: not too sure why i wrote this, i never write for obx 🤔🤔 i think its the drew starkey edits getting to me

“rafe,” you patted his shoulder, “raaaafe,” he didn’t respond to you, only groaning as he turned in his sleep.

it was nearing 3 am now, and you had just gotten back from some party. you had been so exhausted just 30 minutes ago in the car as rafe drove you home, but now sleep seemed to be the last thing on your mind. rafe on the other hand, fell asleep the second his head hit the pillow. 

after scrolling on your phone for a little while and seeing a video of a girl pranking her boyfriend, you decided it would be a good idea to do the same to the brunette who was dead asleep next to you.

“it’s super important,” you tapped his shoulder, “rafe. quick, wake up.” you lightly shook his arm as he mumbled incoherently, then turned away from you. 

“rafe, it’s an emergency. the beach broke, i need you to fix it for me.” you added, your voice so full of worry that it made rafe stir around again, this time to face you, with his eyes still closed. “…what?” he muttered as he scrunched his face up in confusion.

“you have to fix it, rafe.” you bit your bottom lip, almost shaking with the laughter you were holding in.

“alright, alright. i’ll do it tomorrow, yeah?” he grumbled as he patted his arm around mindlessly, trying to find you.

“you better, it’s really important.” you thanked god that he couldn’t see the wide smile on your face, contrasting to the dead serious, worried hint your voice took on.

“also, can you buy mars for me?” you almost broke out laughing right then and there at the blabber you were coming up with. “i’ve had my eye on it for a while, y’know? i think it would match that red top i have really well.” 

“sure, whatever you want.” he mumbled languidly as he tried to pulled you closer to him, before his face scrunched up in confusion. 

“baby,” he said, “what the fuck are you talkin’ about?” he blinked his eyes open at you, his eyebrows knitted together. “are you high?”

“nooo, oh my god.” your giggles broke out as you threw your head back, “it was a prank! i’m sorry.” you didn’t sound sorry in the slightest, still laughing uncontrollably at your boyfriends confused, and likely annoyed expression.

he tutted, briefly shaking his head and turning it to the side. you weren’t too sure if you were imagining the tiniest of smiles on his lips or not. “don’t play that stupid shit on me, go back to sleep.” 

your laughter began to fade as he adjusted his position and turned you around, pulling your back flush against his front and wrapping his arms around you. 

“you’re no fun.” you muttered, nonetheless with a smile on your face.

“yeah, i know, baby.” you felt the ghost his lips on your neck, “talking about buying mars and fixing the beach. get some sleep.” 

now, you could practically feel the way his lips turned up on your skin. that was a huge win in your book. 

debating your choices, you wanted to see if you could push his buttons just once more.

“…rafe?”

a sleepy hum.

“if you could though, would you get me mars?”

silence. 

you figured he was asleep, so you took the loss and closed your eyes, but then he finally spoke:

“how much did you fucking drink?”

another a/n: this is a rafe version of the “half asleep” grayson hawthorne fic that i wrote!! (sorry guys im incapable of coming up w something new rn…)

[allpiesforourown]

was gonna post this on ao3 but it's only 1.3k words and pure sillyness so here it is instead: bingqiu, post canon, time travel, misunderstandings.

shen qingqiu time travels, but no one tells him

Upon waking up to see his husband, the first words out of Shen Qingqiu’s mouth were, “Ugh, again?” 

Because the one at his bedside was not the tall handsome demon lord he saw every morning. A cute little bun in white robes blinked back at him. “Shizun?” 

Seriously? How many times was this going to happen!? At least this time he didn't look young enough to be mistaken for his child, but still… if Shen Qingqiu had a soul stone for every time Luo Binghe qi deviated into a younger version of himself, he’d have two soul stones by now…

Instead of waking his husband to tell him about his condition, the man (boy?) had run off to prepare breakfast. Going by the steaming congee on the table, he only woke Shen Qingqiu up to get him to eat.

Shen Qingqiu sighed as he sat up and ran a hand over his face. “Do you know how old you are right now?” 

“This disciple is sixteen, shizun. Is something wrong?” 

Shen Qingqiu gave Luo Binghe a glare. Something wrong? The audacity! He grabbed the fan off his nightstand and smacked the boy’s head softly. “Hasn’t this master told Binghe to tell me right away when something is wrong?” Binghe opened his mouth with a stricken expression, but Shen qingqiu cut him off. “It’s fine, it’s fine. You're still too young to dual cultivate. We’ll have to wait things out.” 

Papapa would have solved this matter instantly if it was viable. But when Binghe first brought up the idea of role-playing as their younger selves, Shen Qingqiu made it clear he would not partake in anything with the man if he made his appearance younger than 18! Even that was too low, but he had to draw the line somewhere! 

Luo Binghe’s face flushed red. “D-d-dual cu-cultivate!?” 

Shen Qingqiu narrowed his eyes. “What did I just say? Don't get any ideas, you'll have to wait before we can do anything.” 

“We?” Binghe’s voice went high. “Shizun… dual cultivate… with me!?” 

“Not until you’re older,” he repeated firmly. 

At this age, Binghe really did look too innocent… even with such a perverted interior, he really looked like this simple talk was flustering him. “How-how much older?” 

Well, while recovering from de-aging qi deviations, Binghe did grow back rapidly. It wouldn’t take that long before Binghe was old enough for shen qingqiu to feel comfortable touching. “Hmm, at the rate you usually grow… maybe we can do it a week from now?” 

Luo Binghe passed out. 

*

“Mu-shidi, how can you say this isn’t a qi deviation?” Shen Qingqiu insisted. “Just look at him! What other explanation could there be?” 

His martial brother must have gone insane. He grasped Luo Binghe’s wrist once more, looking over the unconscious boy. “Shixiong, this one… still doesn’t understand what you mean.” He released the arm and adjusted his glasses. “Though he seems to have suffered some sort of shock, it is minor and there is zero harm to his meridians. He will wake up shortly.”

No harm to his meridians? Then what else could explain why his husband was suddenly a head shorter than him? Luo Binghe did have some shape-shifting skills… perhaps they went beyond just hiding his demonic huadian and eyes? Could he also change his appearance to such a degree he looked like a teenager again? 

“Then I suppose this master will take his husband back to the bamboo house and follow up once he wakes.” Shen Qingqiu stood, scooping Luo Binghe into his arms. “Thanking shidi for his time.” 

He was nearly at the door when he heard a strangled “WAIT!” call out behind him. Shen qingqiu glanced over his shoulder impatiently. He didn’t want to be holding Binghe like a bride when he came to… Binghe would insist on it constantly and further tarnish his status as a stallion protagonist! 

Mu Qingfang’s eyes were bugged out, ink dripping from his pen onto his hand. “What did you just say!?” 

Shen qingqiu raised a brow, shuffling binghe into a more comfortable hold closer to his chest. “This shixiong thanked shidi…” Shen qingqiu said slowly. 

Mu Qingfang’s tense shoulders lowered slightly. “Right… that’s all shixiong said.”

“Yes? Thank you for checking on this master’s husband.” 

Mu Qingfang threw up blood as Shen Qingqiu exited the infirmary. 

*

Shen Qingqiu had just finished tucking Binghe into their bed when the door to the bamboo house was kicked open. He readied his ‘disappointed teacher’ voice to reprimand Liu Qingge, but was stunned into silence when he found Yue Qingyuan sprinting into his bedroom instead. 

“Zhangmen shixiong,” Shen Qingqiu said with a raised brow. “May this shidi help you?” 

Yue Qingyuan’s voice was choked as he called, “Xiao-Jiu!” 

Shen Qingqiu's lip instinctively twisted down. “If shixiong has something to say to this Qingqiu, he may do so.” He said pettily. “Otherwise, I’m busy taking care of my husband.”

“Husband,” Yue Qingyuan repeated. He squirmed nervously under Shen Qingqiu’s gaze. “Mu-shidi informed me you said something similar, I… xia- um, Qingqiu-shidi, are you alright? You… you’re not married… right?” 

…Sect leader Yue. You were at the wedding! 

“Is this a joke?” Shen Qingqiu answered coolly. “Luo Binghe would not take kindly to this kind of statement.” 

Yue Qingyuan staggered backwards, falling onto a chair with an anguished expression. His eyes fell upon Shen Qingqiu’s bed, where Luo Binghe lay sleeping and his eyes widened. “How…? Shidi, this is- he’s your disciple!” 

“This master does not understand,” Shen Qingqiu said irritably. “Luo Binghe and I have been wed for over a year, so why now are you making such a fuss?” 

“A year…?” 

More footsteps invaded the bamboo house, until half his martial siblings had invited themselves in. Qi Qingqi, Liu Qingge, even great master Airplane had arrived! Yue Qingyuan looked to Mu Qingfang with dread. “Mu-shidi…” 

The tragedy clear on the sect leader’s face said it all. Mu Qingfang grimaced. “Something must be done. Shen-shidi is having delusions of marriage!” 

…okay, that was it. Shen Qingqiu had allowed his martial siblings to subtly disapprove of his relationship with Binghe for all this time, but this was too far. 

“Enough!” He cried. “Luo Binghe is my husband, and that will not change! Everyone will treat him with the respect that is deserved of Qing Jing’s shimu!” 

The sound of something crashing to the ground pulled their attention back to the peak lord’s bed. It seemed Luo Binghe had woken up, gotten out of bed, and then immediately passed out again after taking two steps. 

“Binghe!” Shen Qingqiu cried. Seriously, what was going on? Did Airplane write a narcolepsy arc he never mentioned? 

As Shen qingqiu lifted Binghe back onto the bed, a younger voice joined them. “Shizun, why was everyone running into the bamboo house? Is everything okay?” 

At the threshold of his bedroom Ning Yingying had arrived, followed by the head disciple. 

Shen Qingqiu gawked at her small stature. What the-!? Did Ning Yingying also qi deviate? And Ming Fan, too? Why did all his disciples look about ten years younger- 

Oh.

Oh no.

Ha… hahaha… that was the trouble with immortals. Year after year, their faces looked exactly the same. 

System, Shen Qingqiu asked with dawning horror, what's going on? 

[Sounds like host has already figured it out! Limited event: Returning to the Peaceful Past is in progress!]

You bastard, you couldn't have said that earlier!? 

So Shen Qingqiu had temporarily returned to the past. He’d told his sixteen year old disciple they would dual cultivate and informed all his martial siblings he had married the boy at 15. For a thin faced man like Shen Qingqiu, something of this level… he couldn’t bear his fellow peak lord’s shocked and judging faces. 

“S-so…” Shen Qingqiu laughed nervously. “Um… that was all a joke, okay?” 

[damienns]

My GIF Making process: Screen capturing using MPV player, Organizing files, 3 Sharpening settings, Basic Coloring PSD + Actions set

This is a very long post so heads up.

I’ll try to be as thorough and true as much as possible to the way I make my gifs (I already use Photoshop Actions which I’ve long since set up but now for this tutorial I’m reviewing them to show you the exact steps I’ve learned to create my gifs 😃) and present them to you in a semi-coherent way. Also, please bear with me since English is my second language.

First things first. Below are the things and tools we need to do this:

Downloaded 4K or 1080p quality videos (let’s all assume we know where to get these—especially for high definition movies and tv series—so this post doesn’t get removed, okay? 😛)

Adobe Photoshop CC or the CS versions can work as well, but full disclosure I haven’t created gifs using the CS versions since 2020. I’m currently using Adobe Photoshop 2024.

mpv player. Use mpv player to get those frames/screenshots or any other video player that has a screen grabber feature. I’ve used adapter for the longest time but I’ve switched to mpv because the press to screenshot feature while the video is playing has been a game changer not to mention ultimate time saver for me. For adapter you need to play it in another video player (like VLC player), to get the start and end timestamps of the scene you want to gif which takes me ages before I can even open Photoshop.

Anyway! Please stop reading this post for a moment and head over to this amazing tutorial by kylos. She perfectly tells you how to install and use mpv player, both for Mac and Windows users.

One thing I have to share though, I had a tough time when I updated my MacOS to Sonoma since MPV is suddenly either duplicating frames or when I delete the duplicates the player seems to be skipping frames :/ I searched and found a solution here, though it didn’t work for me lol. My workaround for this in the meantime is decreasing the speed down to 0.70 then start screenshotting—it’s not the same pre Sonoma update but it works so I’ll have to accept it rather than have jumpy looking gifs.

Now, after this part of kylos’ tutorial:

you can continue reading the following sections of my gif tutorial below.

I want to share this little tip (sorry, this will only cater to Mac users) that I hope will be helpful for organizing the screenshots that MPV saved to the folder you have selected. Because believe me you don’t want to go through 1k+ of screenshots to select just 42-50 frames for your gif.

The Control + Command + N shortcut

This shortcut allows you to create a new folder from files you have pre-selected. As you can see below I have already created a couple of folders, and inside each folder I have selected screenshots that I want to include in one single gif. It's up to you how you want to divide yours, assuming you intend to create and post a Tumblr gifset rather than just one gif.

Another tip is making use of tags. Most of, if not all the time, I make supercorp gifs so I tag blue for Kara and red (or green) for Lena—just being ridiculously on brand and all that.

Before we finally open Photoshop, there's one more thing I want to say—I know, please bear with me for the third? fourth? time 😅

It's helpful to organize everything into their respective folders so you know the total number of items/frames you have. This way, you can add or delete excess or unnecessary shots before uploading them in Photoshop.

For example below there are 80 screenshots of Kara inside this folder and for a 1:1 (540 x 540 px) Tumblr gif, Photoshop can just work around with 42-50 max number of frames with color adjustments applied before it exceeds the 10 MB file size limit of Tumblr.

Sometimes I skip this step because it can be exhausting (haha) and include everything so I can decide visually which frames to keep later on. You'll understand what I mean later on. But it's important to keep the Tumblr 10 MB file size limit in mind. Fewer frames, or just the right amount of frames, is better.

So, with the screenshot organization out of the way, let's finally head over to Photoshop.

Giffing in Photoshop, yay!

Let’s begin by navigating to File > Scripts > Load Files into Stack…

The Load Layers window will appear. Click the Browse button next.

Find your chosen screenshots folder, press Command + A to select all files from that folder then click Open. Then click OK.

After importing and stacking your files, Photoshop should display the following view:

By the way, I'll be providing the clip I've used in this tutorial so if want to use them to follow along be my guest :)

If you haven't already opened your Timeline panel, navigate to Windows > Timeline.

Now, let's focus on the Timeline panel for the next couple of steps.

Click Create Video Timeline, then you’ll have this:

Now click the menu icon on the top right corner then go to Convert Frames > Make Frames from Clips

Still working on the Timeline panel, click the bottom left icon this time—the icon with the three tiny boxes—to Convert to Frame Animation

Select Make Frames From Layers from the top right corner menu button.

So now you have this:

Go and click the top right menu icon again to Select All Frames

Then click the small dropdown icon to set another value for Frame Delay. Select Other…

The best for me and for most is 0.05 but you can always play around and see what you think works for you.

Click the top right menu icon again to Reverse Frames.

I think Photoshop has long since fixed this issue but usually the first animation frame is empty so I just delete it but now going through all these steps there seems to be none of that but anyways, the delete icon is the last one among the line of feature buttons at the bottom part of the Timeline panel.

Yay, now we can have our first proper GIF preview of a thirsty Lena 😜

Press spacebar to watch your gif play for the very first time! After an hour and half of selecting and cutting off screenshots! 😛 Play it some more. No really, I’m serious. I do this so even as early (lol) as this part in the gif making process, I can see which frames I can/should delete to be within the 10 MB file size limit. You can also do it at the end of course 🙂

Now, let’s go to the next important steps of this tutorial post which I’ve numbered below.

Crop and resize to meet Tumblr's required dimensions. The width value should be either 540px, 268px, or 177px.

Convert the gif to a Smart Object for sharpening.

Apply lighting and basic color adjustments before the heavy coloring. I will be sharing the base adjustments layers I use for my gifs 😃.

1. Crop and Resize

Click on the Crop tool (shortcut: the C key)

I like my GIFs big so I always set this to 1:1 ratio if the scene allows it. Press the Enter key after selecting the area of the frame that you want to keep.

Side note: If you find that after cropping, you want to adjust the image to the left or another direction, simply unselect the Delete Cropped Pixels option. This way, you will still have the whole frame area available to crop again as needed and as you prefer.

Now we need to resize our gif and the shortcut for that is Command + Opt + I. Type in 540 as the width measurement, then the height will automatically change to follow the ratio you’ve set while cropping.

540 x 540 px for 1:1

540 x 405 px for 4:3

540 x 304 px for 16:9

For the Resample value I prefer Bilinear—but you can always select the other options to see what you like best.

Click OK. Then Command + 0 and Command + - to properly view the those 540 pixels.

Now we get to the exciting part :) the sharpen settings!

2. Sharpen

First we need to have all these layers “compressed” intro a single smart object from which we can apply filters to.

Select this little button on the the bottom left corner of the Timeline panel.

Select > All Layers

Then go to Filter > Convert for Smart Filters

Just click OK when a pop-up shows up.

Now you should have this view on the Layers panel:

Now I have 3 sharpen settings to share but I’ll have download links to the Action packs at the end of this long ass tutorial so if you want to skip ahead, feel free to do so.

Sharpen v1

Go to Filter > Sharpen > Smart Sharpen…

Below are my settings. I don’t adjust anything under Shadows/Highlights.

Amount: 500

Radius: 0.4

Click OK then do another Smart Sharpen but this time with the below adjustments.

Amount: 12

Radius: 10.0

As you can see Lena’s beautiful eyes are “popping out” now with these filters applied. Click OK.

Now we need to Convert to Frame Animation. Follow the steps below.

Click on the menu icon at the top right corner of the Timeline panel, then click Convert Frames > Flatten Frames into Clips

Then Convert Frames > Convert to Frame Animation

One more click to Make Frames From Layers

Delete the first frame then Select All then Set Frame Delay to 0.05

and there you have it! Play your GIF and make sure it’s just around 42-50 frames. This is the time to select and delete.

To preview and save your GIF go to File > Export > Save for Web (Legacy)…

Below are my Export settings. Make sure to have the file size around 9.2 MB to 9.4 MB max and not exactly 10 MB.

This time I got away with 55 frames but this is because I haven’t applied lighting and color adjustments yet and not to mention the smart sharpen settings aren't to heavy so let’s take that into consideration.

Sharpen v1 preview:

Sharpen v2

Go back to this part of the tutorial and apply the v2 settings.

Smart Sharpen 1:

Amount: 500

Radius: 0.3

Smart Sharpen 2:

Amount: 20

Radius: 0.5

We’re adding a new type of Filter which is Reduce Noise (Filter > Noise > Reduce Noise...) with the below settings.

Then one last Smart Sharpen:

Amount: 500

Radius: 0.3

Your Layers panel should look like this:

Then do the Convert to Frames Animation section again and see below preview.

Sharpen v2 preview:

Sharpen v3:

Smart Sharpen 1:

Amount: 500

Radius: 0.4

Smart Sharpen 2:

Amount: 12

Radius: 10.0

Reduce Noise:

Strength: 5

Preserve Details: 50%

Reduce Color Noise: 0%

Sharpen Details: 50%

Sharpen v3 preview:

And here they are next to each other with coloring applied:

v1

v2

v3

Congratulations, you've made it to the end of the post 😂

As promised, here is the download link to all the files I used in this tutorial which include:

supercorp 2.05 Crossfire clip

3 PSD files with sharpen settings and basic coloring PSD

Actions set

As always, if you're feeling generous here's my Ko-fi link :) Thank you guys and I hope this tutorial will help you and make you love gif making.

P.S. In the next post I'll be sharing more references I found helpful especially with coloring. I just have to search and gather them all.

-Jill

[saksukei]

simon ‘ghost’ riley and his love languages

masterlist | i think i may have wrote too much??

there’s one thing lieutenant simon ghost riley knew when he began dating you. he had to be the best version of himself or at least try. you were the only person he met that he ever wanted to try for.

i. words of affirmation

initially, simon has trouble adjusting to calling you any pet names and just calls you by your name. it isn’t until he gets comfortable enough to say, “love” which is his go to nickname. he says them only in private though.

and then it’s nicknames galore. he calls you his sunshine because he literally adores your smile so much!!! the type to say, “i brought flowers for you. they needed sunshine and you were the obvious choice.” and he also says things like, “my darling angel” when you get him a cup of tea.

most importantly, if you ever do something that’s like daunting or difficult for you or if you learn something he’s gonna say “that’s my girl, always so intelligent.” if the two of you ever hit the gym together and you hit more reps than your regular ones, he’s gonna be so happy for you. “atta girl,” he kisses your cheek as he pats your back.

ii. gifts

he wasn’t very heavy on gift giving. that was until he saw something that he knew you’d like and bought it. and the smile that graced your face with the stars in your eyes made him want to do it more often.

and he felt his heart jump when he saw you cherish the letters he’d written when he was deployed. ever since then, he’s been leaving cute little notes for you, making handmade things you’d like such as bracelets, necklaces. he knows how to sew and he sewed a cute little shirt for you. this also brings me to the fact that he likes knitting a lot and loves making mug warmers? it’s endearing really. he can also carve wood apparently? so he makes sweet little decoration pieces for your apartment. (but also lumber jack simon making me insane)

all in all, he loves giving gifts. he’s the type to make a special notebook for just you and put pressed flowers on each page. “got you something you liked, darling.”

iii. acts of service

simon’s strongest way of expressing love is through acts of service. he’s a military man and a firm believer of ‘actions speak louder than words.’ i’ve said it before that his eye for detail is insane and he uses it in the relationship as well. alongside with his ability to literally commit you to memory, he remembers everything. (except birthdays, but he’ll remember yours).

from bending down to tie your shoelaces, to refilling snacks that he knows you like, to picking up heavy stuff, to guiding you with a hand on your waist, everything really!!! can read your facial expressions like it’s the only thing he knows and can immediately figured out what you like and don’t like. “you okay?”

and god, he's also aware of the sidewalk rule! never lets you walk on the outer side. the type to place a hand on corners and edges so that you don’t get hurt. he’s always looking out for you, ensuring you don't have anything in your way. he’ll always stand behind you because he feels it gives him a better chance to protect you.

iv. quality time

such a sucker for spending time with you but that’s mainly because he knows his is limited. and he would never risk not spending another minute with you. from watching movies, to watching you do make up in front of the vanity, to reading books together, training together, having tea. he finds your presence alone to be comforting. it's like you deal with all of his inner thoughts and reservations without even knowing it.

he also enjoyed doing mundane domestic tasks with you like getting groceries, setting up ikea furniture, cooking and cleaning together, honestly he loves it all. especially if there’s some jazz music playing in the background. i can absolutely imagine rubbing a little flour on simon’s face and he’ll get so offended, chasing you around the entire house, pining you down, just to do the same to you.

v. physical touch

simon is hesitant to become physically affectionate. that's not to say that he doesn’t enjoy it, it's just that when you’ve been met with violence all your life, gentleness is hardly something you expect.

but god, did he want to melt into a puddle when you held his hand or when you pressed a sweet kiss to his cheek. he swears he forgot how to breathe. and little by little, he got comfortable. hands hesitant to be on your waist, until that's the only place you found them, his head always nuzzled in the crook of your neck. “this might just be the favorite part of my day,” he says softly.

from lacing fingers, to kissing you the first thing in the morning, once simon’s comfortable, he won’t go a day without being intimate. “c’mere give me a kiss” to “you’re my good luck charm, love.”

[idrellegames]

Hello all! 

It is the start of a new year and I’m excited to announce Wayfarer’s new development plan. Unlike previous years, I will be doing quarterly roadmaps so I can be more transparent about how things are going and make adjustments should I fall behind. 

The goal for Q1 (January to March) is to finish the Episode 3 finale. This finale is important—it is not just the end of an episode, but the end of Act 1 and represents a major story shift. Some things will come to a head, some things will be resolved, and you will be left with many, many more questions. The final includes two versions that are split between a story consequence from Episode 2—whether the Wayfarer remained hired by the Order of Lethalis or were fired from their mission. These two versions are then split in two branches, for a total of four branches that lead into 3 separate endings. 

The Episode 3 finale has been in development since last summer, and I am hoping to pick up the pace with it and get it out of the drafting stage in the coming months. Should drafting go well, I will be able to code the new material starting in March. It is undecided as of now as to whether it will be added to the alpha build immediately after coding or not. Right now I don’t want to release the finale until everyone can play it regardless of their route (right now there are incomplete starting routes—if you are not on an Aeran or Veyer route, then you will not be able to play Episode 3), but this may change. 

Wayfarer’s roadmap is an estimated timeline and is subject to change. 

The State of the Episode 3 Alpha

right click for higher resolution

This is an overview of where the Episode 3 alpha is currently sitting. There is a lot of playable material with multiple intersecting sections dependent on previous choices, faction approval, and character approval.

As of January 2025, the Episode 3 alpha contains approximately 483,800 words of total playable content (the average play session is much shorter than that). 

Other stats include (for Prologue to Episode 3):

Average Word Count Per Playthrough: 193,900 words (approximate)

Average Playtime: 11 hours

Total Cumulative Word Count: 1,414,800 words (approximate) 

The build was last updated in July 2024. It is playable on my Patreon.

FAQs

—When will Episode 3 be finished?

There is no release date! The goal is for this year.

—When is the next public build update?

TBD. Episode 3 will not be released publicly until the Episode 4 alpha is finished. As I am still working on Episode 3, it will be a long wait. I will be doing some maintenance patches on the public build this year, but they will not be content updates.  

—It’s been over 2 years since Episode 2, why is it taking so long?

I’m a solo developer, so when I get sick or need to take off due to personal reasons, that is development time lost. Unfortunately, 2023 and 2024 were both unexpectedly difficult years and despite my best attempts to stay on track, delays happened. Wayfarer’s scope is very ambitious and I know this; I am making cuts where I can, but there is a balance between scaling down and losing the vision entirely. Wayfarer is built on the idea that your choices matter, and to make those choices meaningful and impactful takes time.  

—Is every episode going to take this long?

Nope! Episode 3 is unique in how all its threads come together. I certainly do not intend to take this long with following episodes.

—When will we meet the other companions (the characters on the cover art)?

Alexia, Ren, and Calla will be introduced in Episode 4 and 5. Nelani is introduced in Episode 6 and Felix in Episode 7, which marks the end of Game 1.     

Thank you so much for your continued support! Let's get this done. ❤️

~ Anna  Idrelle Games

[honkytonk-hangman]

How It's Done – Oneshot Version

Jake ‘Hangman’ Seresin x Aviator!Reader

Originally posted by unicornships

Summary: “Like me? I didn’t even think you wanted me as a squadmate, let alone–” you stop speaking, but only because Hangman cuts his eyes sharply away from you to glare out at the ocean. “Well, I do.” He says kind of indignantly, all things considered, and eyes you almost sourly. “You can just say no if you don’t–” “–No, I do!” you quickly cut him off, because at the end of it all, you’re a little too much of a hopeless romantic to let this moment pass you by.

Warnings: erm maybe just some references to sex? jake being jake? language? minions. big warning for minions xD

Notes: Originally I intended this to be a two-parter series, but I wanted to change how it went, so I rewrote the parts I didn't like and made the entire thing into a oneshot instead!!! This fic will replace the 'part one' already on my blog, but I will keep this part up, linked at the very bottom of my masterlist! thank you everyone for being so patient! Thank you @hangmanssunnies, my love my biggest support <3

Words: 11.6k!

“Well, I’ll be damned…”

You pinch your eyes shut and steel yourself at the sound of the all too familiar Texan drawl, hanging on to the hope that perhaps he isn’t talking to you. You’re out of luck though, and moments later Jake ‘Hangman’ Seresin slides into the open space next to you at the bar, already posed in a casual lean as he looks you up and down appraisingly.

It makes your teeth grind.

It makes your face hot.

“If it isn’t Mirage. Would have invited you to play with us if I’d known you were here earlier…” Hangman cocks his head, and his lips tip up in an infuriatingly perfect smile. “But one can never really be sure if you’re around or not… and that's before you get in a cockpit,” he grins, but when you meet his eye at last, he looks away from you, toward Penny who seems to approach in the nick of time, saving you from needing to respond.

You blink down at your drink, and finish it quickly, unnerved by what you think might have just been a compliment of sorts from Hangman. You’d been stationed together previously, though you weren’t friends, so you’d been expecting something a little more acidic in nature. You’d heard him interact with other aviators, knew he liked to push and poke them, usually got away with it too. For some reason though, he’d never really gone there with you and frankly you’ve always just chalked it up to not being worth his time. In fact, you’re pretty sure the only times you’d ever actually spoken had been in the sky. To be completely honest, you’re more than a little surprised that he remembers you at all.

You didn’t exactly go out of your way to stand out…

You were naturally quiet, which wasn’t helped by your social anxiety, resulting in most people describing you as extremely shy. They wouldn’t be wrong, you suppose, you did tend to keep to yourself, the idea of having too many eyes on you all but unbearable to you. But if you’d thought a roomful of people singing happy birthday to you was bad, somehow being under the unwavering stare of Hangman is approximately one thousand times worse.

“Penny, my dear… I’ll have,” he stops to glance pointedly down at your now finished beer, adjusts his stance to lean even more and unwittingly makes the muscles in his bicep bulge.

“Five more on the Old Timer,” Hangman says, nodding to the man who sits on the other side of the bar.

Internally you blanch, but externally, you say nothing and give even less away, feeling a little ping of satisfaction that apparently, you know something Hangman doesn’t. Before he’d come along, you’d been carefully watching the interaction between Penny and Captain Mitchell. You’d never met the man before, but you knew how to read military insignia, which at this point, was more than you could say for Hangman, who dismisses him quickly.

You wonder if Monday morning you’ll be able to work up the nerve to tease him about it.

You’re distracted from your thoughts when Penny returns with the requested drinks. You had no real intentions of going and hanging out with Hangman and the others, but before you can excuse yourself, your empty beer is smoothly plucked from your hands, replaced quickly with a brand new one.

“Help me carry these back?” Hangman asks then, jerking his head in the vague direction of the pool table. You frown when he immediately takes off walking, not actually letting you help him at all, all four beers still slotted between his fingers. You find yourself following him anyway, as if he’d placed some kind of spell over you.

Hangman stops ahead of you at the ancient jukebox, looking back over his shoulder at you, nodding in a pleased manner when he sees you trailing behind. He waits for you, gaze never leaving your form, even as he nods to the space next to him. You awkwardly step up to the spot opposite to him, and look past the glass and at the selection inside. Hangman, once more, takes up a lean, this time against the rickety machine.

“Would you be so kind as to select track number…” he trails off as he checks the list of songs, but quickly flicks his gaze back to you, and smiles bright, tauntingly, again. “Eighty-Six?” he asks, but it's barely a question. You nod, and swallow, shifting from holding your beer with two hands to holding it with just one. You carefully tap the chunky ‘eight’ and ‘six’ keys as he watches. The machine’s little analogue screen confirms that your song is next up, and nervously, you look back up at Hangman, horrified to find he’s just been staring at your face for the past however long.

“S’been a while, Mirage.” He drawls, making you blink rapidly and look away.

“Has it?” Is all you can manage meekly in reply, surprised when he lets out a genuine sounding laugh. He hums warmly, and you practically feel it in your chest.

“And yet,” he lifts hand, two beers held expertly between his fingers, but he extends it to tap your nose, almost making you almost flinch.

“You haven’t changed at all.” Hangman grins Cheshire-like down at you, before his eyes narrow ever so slightly, and he leans in even closer while flicking his eyes up and down your form again.

“I don’t bite you know,” he tells you, his voice sounding serious, but his somberness lasts mere seconds.

“Well, not unless you ask me to first, sweetheart,” he winks and his smile grows large as your eyes grow wide and you splutter, flustered.

Your face grows hot with slight embarrassment, a wave of inner resentment at his teasing washing through you.

Hangman laughs, seemingly bored with you now, and he turns to walk back toward the pool tables. Without even looking, he beckons you to follow with one finger on his still occupied hands. For a moment your pique prevents you from doing so, certain that if you were to dip into the crowd now, he’d not care enough to seek you out again, let alone notice you were missing.

You know he didn’t mean it, you know his flirting is just to get a rise, but you also know that he’d never do it to Phoenix, or Halo, and a little bit of you hates yourself for being such a marked pushover. You make the decision now that you won’t let him do it again, if you can help it.

Your eyes travel past Hangman then, towards the pool tables where you can now see another figure has joined the other gathered aviators, and for the first time all evening, you don’t feel nervous to go join them.

You follow after Hangman, but quickly diverge from his path, cutting around a gathered group of Navy personnel to get there faster. As you approach, you take a moment to shake off any lingering anxiety, before gently laying a hand on the faded Hawaiian shirt in front of you, doing your best to keep yourself from bouncing on your heels.

Rooster half looks ready to wave off whoever is trying to get his attention, but when his shaded eyes land on you, he spins his whole body to face you, grinning widely in unguarded excitement as he gathers you up in his arms.

“Miri!” he exclaims warmly, and you can’t help the laughter that bubbles out of you when he briefly lifts you off the ground.

“I was just about to ask Phoenix if she’d seen you yet.” Rooster informs you. 

“Seen who?” Phoenix steps around him, frowning as she quickly glances you over, though it disappears quickly.

“Yeah, that about tracks…” Rooster mutters mostly to himself.

“Nat, this is Mirage, you know her right?” Rooster introduces the two of you, and while neither of you make to shake hands, you only feel friendly energy radiate off the other woman, even as she openly looks you over now, nodding at Rooster’s words.

“Right, I have heard about you… I guess there's no real mystery behind your callsign… I didn’t even realise you were here… Sorry,” she tells you bluntly, but you appreciate her straightforwardness.

“They said ‘Wallflower’ was too long.” You joke lightly, and the other woman smiles. A moment passes between you, and you get the distinct feeling that Phoenix has become determined to never let you go unnoticed in her presence again.

You aren’t sure just yet if you appreciate that, but you are sure that you’ve just made a friend.

“Mirage?” Another voice joins then and you look to your left, smiling again when you see another familiar face.

“Bob!” you move to embrace him too, not seeing the look shared between Phoenix and Payback who watch you in surprise.

“Huh. Figures.”

-

Neither you or Hangman have moved since Rooster and Mav went down. The rest of Dagger had returned an hour ago, mission complete. There was no reason for either of you to be on standby.

And yet.

When the call came through that Dagger Two had been hit, both you and Hangman had separately requested to be launched, to help, but you’d been denied.

As a rule, you made yourself easy to work with, even if those around you were less compliant, and you’d experienced plenty of that, flying alongside Hangman the past few weeks. Whether it was him leaving you to get shot down in training, or refusing to fly as a team during simulations. And yet, despite his habit of ‘hanging you out to dry’ being the reason behind his callsign, deep down, you’ve never once doubted flying alongside him in the real thing like the others seemed to.

You’re glad for that lack of hesitation now, glad that it only takes a single moment of eye contact from across the tarmac for the two of you to understand one another perfectly. Glad that when you got word that somehow, Rooster was supersonic again, you already know his answer before you even ask.

“Hangman? Hondo’s cleared us for take off with the ground crew, against orders. You with me?” you ask quietly, looking over at your wingman, knowing that when you return you’ll most certainly be court marshalled, but unable to sit and do nothing any longer.

“To hell and back, Mirage,” comes his immediate reply.

You see him move in sync with you, both of your canopy’s lowering at the same time.

You ignore the panicked voices ordering you to stand down, long enough for Hondo and the others to get you on the catapult, and by then it’s too late.

In two seconds you’re propelled from zero to over a hundred and sixty, and in your ears you hear Hangman right behind you.

-

“Do you want to get a coffee with me?” The question makes you jump, your drink almost sloshing everywhere. The sudden voice, as well as the person it belonged to, takes you completely by surprise, but you’re thankful he doesn’t draw attention to your startling.

Up until moments ago, you’d been peacefully watching the ocean toss and turn, burying your feet in the damp sand and thinking about what you were going to do with your upcoming two weeks of post-mission leave.

Most of Dagger were a little further up the shore, a bonfire crackling away, although you weren’t the only one to have splintered off. Mav and Rooster were currently standing in the shallows talking, and you think Halo and Phoenix have moved to sit apart from the others as well. You had managed to sneak away easily enough, content to just sit on your own for a while, though your efforts appear to have been mostly in vain, if the man now plopped in the sand beside you is any indicator.

You blink at each other.

“What?!” you blurt out dumbly, not completely certain you really understood what he’d said. Hangman’s lips press into a thin line, and he looks away from you, linking his hands together around his knees, and staring out at the rolling waves.

“Coffee. Would you like to get one with me?” He repeats, sounding only a smidge impatient, but it still doesn't clear up much for you.

“I… No, I heard you the first time… I… I just don’t understand… why?”

Over the past three weeks you’ve been forced more out of your shell than you ever have before. It was torture. It was wonderful.

Part of you pats yourself on the back for being able to ask him so starightly, but another part of you slaps yourself in the face for questioning him.

Hangman turns to look at you apprehensively.

“Are you asking why coffee or why am I asking you?” He speaks slowly and carefully, his face blank and devoid of any hint he was teasing, though you think he might be anyway.

“Why… Why are you asking me?” You push, shuffling your feet in the sand, drawing his attention for a moment. He looks back at your face and frowns slightly, cocking his head.

“Because I like you? And that is usually what somebody does when they like someone. Ask them.” He answers, and this time you definitely get the impression he’s politely trying not to laugh, but for once, you don’t feel like you’re on the outside of the joke.

Still, you find yourself taken somewhat aback at his confession, admitted so easily and freely, as if it shouldn’t come as a surprise to you, which confuses you.

“Like me? I didn’t even think you wanted me as a squadmate, let alone–” you stop speaking, but only because Hangman cuts his eyes sharply away from you to glare out at the ocean.

“Well, I do.” He says kind of indignantly, all things considered, and eyes you almost sourly. “You can just say no if you don’t–”

“–No, I do!” you quickly cut him off, because at the end of it all, you’re a little too much of a hopeless romantic to let this moment pass you by. Especially when for the past three weeks you haven't been able to get rid of the odd heart skips you got whenever Hangman acknowledged your presence at all.

And besides, you weren’t blind.

Hangman was ridiculously pretty, and not anywhere near as much of an asshole as he wanted people to believe.

He looks at you blankly for a moment, processing your words, before his face breaks out in a smile. It isn’t one of his usual smirks or tauntingly pearly grins, though. It’s softer, sweeter, and you stare mesmerised as he looks away from you again quickly, and down at his linked hands, nodding.

Two days pass, and even when you’re sitting across from him in a small, niche little coffee shop you had no idea existed, you feel like you’re in a dream.

You’ve never seen Hangman out of uniform, you realise, and it’s a whole new experience you’re forced quickly to process when he stands to go get your drinks.

Dark jeans, white shirt, casual jacket. It’s a simple outfit, but goddamn does he make it look good. Nervously you have to wonder if your white and blue sundress, sneakers and bomber jacket were having the same effect on him, though you highly doubt it.

He returns quickly, attentively, placing both your coffees down, before folding himself into his chair once more. You both look at each other awkwardly before you distract yourself by taking a sip of your coffee. Hangman seems to do the same, but instead of drinking, he begins tearing into several little sugar packets, and emptying them into his coffee foam.

You huff out a tiny laugh before you can stop yourself, and his eyes quickly snap to you.

“What?” he asks defensively, but the corners of his mouth twitch.

“I just… I guess I never figured you for a sweet coffee kinda guy…”

“Oh, and why is that?” his twitching lips turn into a full smirk, but it isn’t his usual Hangman smirk. You chew on the inside of your lip, and sip your coffee once more before answering.

“I’m not sure. I guess you just don’t seem like the type of guy who…” you trail off, unsure of what exactly you’re trying to say and even more; how to say it.

“Listen, I may have rippling, glistening abdominals, but I have a sweet tooth,” he says, putting on the defensiveness now, leaning toward you and pointing at himself. You pinch your brows together and purse your lips, nodding vehemently.

“I know how to have fun,” he tells you, tipping a third sugar into his coffee.

“Of that I don’t really doubt, Hangman,” you say, but his gaze snaps back to you again, almost sharply this time.

“Jake.” he corrects you.

You pause.

Of course, you knew his first name, but you’re fairly certain you’ve never once used it. Hangman has just always been, well, Hangman. But you weren’t in a cockpit right now, he’d asked you out, this wasn’t the time and place for callsigns. He wasn’t Hangman, and you weren’t Mirage.

“Jake,” you say slowly, carefully, as if he’ll tell you any moment he’s just kidding around. But he doesn’t.

“Miri,” he replies, slow like you, but softer, and it’s silly, but it sounds so nice coming from him. You shake your head and swallow.

“Jake, if you don’t like coffee, why did you ask me out for one?” you ask him, watching as he blinks slowly at you, before his gaze slowly drops to the latte in front of him.

“If I asked you for a drink, you might’ve got the wrong idea,” he starts, speaking carefully. “If I asked you for dinner, it could be too formal, too awkward–”

“–It’s already awkward,” you point out, making him grimace slightly, so you shrug.

“Coffee just seemed like– I just wanted to–” he cuts himself off and drops both hands to the table.

“Look– I just didn’t want there to be any misunderstanding about what this was. I like you. I know you like coffee.” Jake admits all in a flurry, his voice quiet, and his eyes flickering around as he speaks.

For as long as you’ve known him, you’ve never seen Jake unable to maintain eye contact, actually it seemed to be something he took immense pride in, and it always made you slightly uncomfortable, but right now he appears completely incapable, and it's not a side of Hangman you’ve ever seen before. You realise you might be meeting Jake properly for the first time.

You decide to let him off easy, with all the newfound courage Dagger had been feeding into you the past few weeks, and you change the subject.

“You know, when you came up to me at the Hard Deck that first night, I was kinda surprised you remembered me at all,” you say slowly, sipping your coffee and eying him evenly. Jake frowns then, but it smooths out into a cool grin, and he leans back in his chair, cocking his head.

“Are you kidding? I’m always clocking possible threats.” he tells you, making you cough lightly.

“How am I a threat to you?!” you ask in disbelief.

“Oh, I could name a few,” Jake teases, nodding at you, but flicking his eyes away, almost making a show of clocking an incoming group of customers behind you.

You weren’t clueless, you knew you were a part of Dagger for a reason. You were damn good at your job, but still, Jake was Hangman, not only was he an aviator you respected, he was an aviator with very high personal standards, and for him to see you as comparable to him… well truthfully, you find yourself rather humbled.

And then flustered, at his clear unabashed flirting.

“I always thought you flirting was just you messing with me,” you admit, and he grins wider.

“Can’t it be both?” he asks, leaning forward again, and clasping his hands together. He seems to have no problem maintaining eye contact now, you note. When you cold-stare him, he simply shrugs.

“You’re cute when you get all flustered and nervous, what can I say?”

“Literally anything else.” You grumble back.

You finish your coffee and push the cup to the side, crossing your arms on the table and leaning forward like he was. Jake mimics you, pushing his own coffee away, clearly with no intention to start, let alone finish it. You aren’t as good as him with eye contact though, no matter how much you’d come out of your shell, so you take the opportunity to glance sideways out the window, only for your gaze to catch on something.

Your heart thumps loudly for a moment in your ears, and you wonder briefly if you should act on the thoughts popping around your brain right now, or if you should just stay put.

You lean forward even more, and flick your eyes back to Jake who is staring at you curiously.

“Hey, I have an idea…” you start, chewing on the inside of your lip, before standing up. You only hesitate a little before offering your hand.

“You with me?” you ask without thinking, the words the same as the ones you ask time and again to your wingmen while in flight manoeuvres. Jake stares up at you for a moment, before he too stands, your heart skipping when he takes your hand. With a tiny squeeze you almost don’t notice, Jake grins, and nods.

-

“Oh, hey! Stop! That’s not fair!” You elbow Jake in the side, but it’s already too late. The hand he’d shot out to block your light gun had done its job, and where you’d previously been neck in neck for score on the dual Time Crisis cabinet, Jake’s character was now cheering in victory, while your screen was asking you to insert more coins and try again.

Jake chortles and you both slot your plastic guns back into their plastic holsters at the front of the machine.

“We never agreed to no interference,” he says proudly, and you sock him in the arm only half as hard as you can.

“I didn’t think it needed to be said!” you exclaim pointedly. Jake grins down at you, and collects his tickets.

“Quit complaining, all these are gonna go towards whatever stuffed bear or whatever the hell you want anyway.” He rolls his eyes, and gestures to the shoddy ‘rewards’ counter of the arcade you’d spotted from the coffee shop.

“I want the Minion.” You state firmly after glancing at the redemption counter for three seconds, and spotting the big ugly yellow creature on the top shelf. Jake sighs in a put-upon manner and shakes his head.

“See, this is how you know I really like you. I’m willing to ignore that,” he says, and you actually think he might be serious this time. You grin up at him as he takes your elbow, and begins leading you toward the back of the room.

“What are you going to cheat me out of kicking your ass at this time?” you glance around you, goosebumps trailing up and down your arm as Jake lets his hand slide from around your elbow, down your forearm and into your hand, which he squeezes as if in warning.

“I didn’t cheat, I simply used black ops tactics,” he says, narrowing his eyes at you. You purse your lips at him and narrow your own eyes back.

“Cheat.” you say again, pronouncing each syllable deliberately.

You come to a stop then, and you look up at the old photo booth machine. Jake pulls out a fistfull of tickets, squinting his eyes at the label with instructions, before looking back over at the redemption counter. He seems to run some numbers before he looks back down at you with a grin, and waves the strings of crumpled tickets.

“My cheating means we can use the booth, and still have enough for a Kevin plush, so I don’t wanna hear no more complaining outta you,” he waggles a finger in front of your nose, and you blink up at him sheepishly.

“Jake– I don’t really want the Minion…” you say, before your voice turns suspicious. “Anyway, how do you know which one is Kevin?!” you lift an eyebrow, only for Jake to roll his eyes and push you into the curtained booth.

You orient yourself in the tiny enclosed space, looking around you as Jake takes a moment to feed several lines of win-tickets into the machine before he follows you. He’s forced to duck down real low, making the space even smaller, and you both stare for a moment at the small seat barely big enough for one person, let alone two.

“Well, either you can sit on my lap, or I can sit on yours, darlin’, but I know which one I’d prefer.” Jake intones lowly, and for the first time in an hour or so, you feel yourself get all flustered again. Honestly, you’d kind of forgotten about the explicitly romantic tone of this meeting until now, and more than that, your stomach begins to flip and flop like the first time you’d gotten in a jet when he eases past you and drops himself onto the bench before patting his thighs.

“Jake, maybe if you just move over a litt–”

“No can do, honey,” and he’s not even trying to tease you, he demonstrates the spread of his legs, and the tight fit into the booth, before looking back up at you expectantly again.

“Okay… Okay…” you say more for your own sanity than anything else, and turn, quickly perching yourself on his leg before you can really think too hard about what you're doing.

Your efforts are for naught though, because the moment you’re sat down, Jake’s hands are tugging you against him further, sitting you more comfortably on the thick expanse of his thigh, and you barely repress the noise that nearly escapes you at the feeling of his fingers digging into your hips.

“There we go, sweetheart,” he says softly, almost to himself, and moves his hands to wrap around you completely. If he notices your little noise, which by his self satisfied smirk he definitely has, he thankfully chooses not to say anything. Your face grows warm, not only at the hold he has on you but at the pet name too.

“Did you just call me ‘sweetheart’?” you ask, sounding half bewildered, half incredulous, forgetting for a moment where exactly you were and why. As you look over your shoulder at the man behind you, Jake stares back, his smirk still in place even as his eyes seem to search your face, his own expression mostly unreadable.

“Would you prefer ‘honey’?” he almost purrs, his voice distinctly amused, but you notice that he doesn’t back down, doesn’t apologise or step back.

It makes your stomach twist up in knots. It makes your heartbeat skip like a record.

You turn away from him, shake your head.

“It’s fine,” you tell him bashfully, wanting to grumble slightly when against your back you sense what you think is him puffing his chest a little. Quickly, you add: “Not at work, though…”

Jake chortles, but as you peek over your shoulder to look at him again, he’s relenting, his smirk gone and replaced with a far softer smile as he nods.

“Not at work, though.” he repeats lowly in confirmation, almost making you jump when he shifts one hand to steady you around the waist, his other reaching out to begin fiddling with the controls on the lit up screen in front of you.

“Alright, let's get this show on the road shall we?”

By the time you’re exiting the tiny cubicle, Jake’s hands still attached to your hips as he follows you out, you’re both laughing quietly to yourselves. You’re amazed to find just how much Jake can affect you, either setting you at complete ease or sending you into a tizzy, depending on what he’s said or done. Usually you wouldn’t be surprised by other people’s effects on you, you were jumpy and anxious by nature, but it was rare that somebody who put you on edge as much as Jake did, could also give you such comfort.

When he detaches his hands from your sides at last to survey the sheets of photos spat out by the booth, you marvel at how much you start to miss the contact. With all the subtlety you can muster, you inch closer to him, under the guise of getting a look at the photos as well, though really, you’re only hoping that you might prompt him into reaching out for you again.

Jake chortles and points at a set of two pictures. In one, you’re both grinning madly, pulling silly faces, and in the other, you’re wearing softer smiles, and you notice now, that Jake had pushed his face a little closer to yours. It makes heat rise in your cheeks, not just at the seeming intimacy of the photo, but truthfully, of how much you like seeing the two of you like that.

“You won’t mind if I keep these, will ya?” Jake asks, looking over at you. You simply shake your head, and he grins a little wider, carefully tearing off the two pictures before pulling out his wallet and tucking them inside, for sake keeping, you assume.

Jake lets you keep the rest, and absently, you fold them into the zipper in your purse, too distracted by the fact that he does indeed take your hand again, before quickly releasing it to instead wrap his arm over your shoulder. You can’t stop yourself from smiling a little as you blink dumbly up at him, and he grins down at you, ducking his face even closer to yours.

“Now sweetheart, I believe I was instructed to win you a minion plush.”

-

You try to avoid Phoenix’s hard stare, and focus on wiping down your helmet.

“You’re acting weird,” she finally announces, still managing to make you jump despite your anticipation. You then immediately proceed to do yourself exactly zero favours, proving her point by refusing to look up at her, choosing to instead hurriedly continue with your current task.

“What? No I’m not. I’m fine. You’re being weird,” you argue, wincing at your clearly abysmal attempts at behaving like a normal adult human. You start re-cleaning the pristine surface of your helmet, your nerves conjuring imperfections you logically know don’t exit.

Just before you completely lose yourself down the spiral of unhealthy compulsive behaviours, A hand, Nat’s hand, stops your own. Tugging the cloth out of your hands and taking your helmet away from you, she places it down on the workbench you stand on opposite sides of. Chewing your lip, you at last meet her eye.

“Miri, it’s okay to have a crush–”

“–I don’t have a crush!” You blurt out both far too quickly to be believable, as well as in sheer panic. Your face grows immediately hot, and you can tell Phoenix is trying not to laugh at the show you’re putting on so poorly. Her lips twitch, but her expression softens from amusement into something softer, mixed with traces of pity. Just when you’re starting to debate the pros and cons of sprinting out of the room, getting in your jet, and then flying away never to be seen again, she relents, releasing you from her eye contact and making herself busy as she tidies up bits and bobs littering the workbench.

You swallow thickly, and stay watching her, your heart rate only spiking higher as your anxiety builds once more at her sudden apparent indifference. You follow her movements without moving an inch, sharply aware that not only was she still very much focused solely on scrutinising you, but even more mortifyingly, that this conversation was far from being over.

“Nat,” you say with surprisingly more strudiness than you believed possible, pausing to swallow the dryness in your mouth. “I don’t have a crush, okay?” You wait for her to look back over at you, nothing but disbelief rolling off of her faux-casualty, giving you a bullshit shrug and a smile.

“Okay.” she says. You had hoped that would be enough, but you should have known better. You clear your throat again.

“Nat,” you say, only making yourself louder, as if that was a sign of nothing going on. She looks up at you somewhat blankly. You know you’re totally screwed already as her eyes dip to watch your finger begin quickly tapping on the bench before you with barely any acknowledgement from yourself. “There’s nothing weird going on,” you say, pleading with your voice and face and every atom of your being that she drops it.

She drops something, unfortunately it’s not the subject though, but you still feel some semblance of stress leaving your body as her fake lack of care dissolves, and she leans back to rest against the cabinet behind her. She crosses her arms and shrugs again while letting out a soft, pitying sigh, which this time doesn’t raise your non-existent heckles as much as it had when it first showed its face.

You stare at one another, at what you think is an impasse and wordless agreement to now never talk of this episode in your friendship ever again, but once again, you should have known better.

“If it’s any consolation, I think he has a crush on you too, so it's not like it’s a total waste of energy… despite all evidence to the contrary,” She says conversationally at first, before muttering out the last part under her breath.

“He doesn’t,” you state with so much certainty you almost forget for a moment that it’s not even a little bit true. Instead, crossing your arms too, you feel like a middle schooler having a much too serious fight with her friend at lunch. “We’ve just become closer, like all of the squad have. You’re just noticing it cause you want to!” you’re a little taken aback by the sound logic of your own reasoning, all points earned to your side then immediately becoming forfeit when you can’t help yourself from stupidly continuing to speak. “Why? Has he said something?!”

Your outburst of near-giddy excitement destroys all chances of you walking this back, and you find yourself with only one option left available. But your prior readiness to exit out of this failed interaction at roughly 300 kts/min becomes soberingly not so fun to fantasise about when you sheepishly remember the current charges against you, for the theft of the $70 million dollar military aircraft you’d technically stolen when you and Jake had taken a joy ride to pick up Mav and Rooster.

You're snapped back into the present as Natasha Trace regards you unreadably and slowly lifts one perfect eyebrow at you. You cover your face and hang your head, you reason with your now permanently mortified brain that if you just admitted to the thing she already believed to be true, she’d stop looking any closer, possibly finding out something actually secret.

It helps that your embarrassment for the flurry of extremely obvious questions is very real, and you groan into your palms. You hear before you see Phoenix laugh, listening to her chortle at your outing yourself, but you notice that he demeanour is warmer now, and she pushes herself up to sit on the top of the bench between you, crossing her legs.

“He’s not said a thing, but he doesn’t need to,” she tells you, seemingly glad to just be able to share her findings and observations, which you uncomfortably realise have been going on for a lot longer than you realised.

“It's what he’s not saying,” she explains, and you blink up at her in genuine curiosity.

“Huh?”

Phoenix turns her gaze upward as she thinks.

“He doesn’t make fun of you… or snipe at you, not really,” she begins, resting her head in her hand. “To be honest when we first met, I was expecting to defend you. You’re a good pilot, a great one, but Hangman isn’t exactly known for recognising that in others…”

You frown up at her, unsure of anything to say to abate her suspicions.

She’s not exactly wrong, even when the two of you were first stationed together, he’d never poked fun at you, never really called you out. To be fair, he hadn’t really acknowledged your presence at all, but these days you knew that was more to do with the fact that all this time, Hangman had liked you, had seen you were shy, and didn’t like crowds, and as you’d found out recently, often made more of a spectacle of himself to draw attention away from you.

You have to stop yourself from smiling dreamily at the thought of him.

“And I mean, he disobeyed direct orders for you, he knew what you were doing, and he went with you anyway… I’m just saying Miri, I don’t think you’d be disappointed if you were to say something–”

You quickly cut her off.

“I’m not saying anything to him!”

At last, given your already clear admittance of your supposed ‘crush’, Phoenix relents, holding up her hands and shrugging.

“Just think about it alright? It’s even sort of… cute, in a weird, Hangman-y way.”

You grumble at her, but thankfully she doesn’t bring it up again for the rest of the afternoon. Still, you leave the workshop with a sparkling helmet, cleaner than you think it ever has been, and with a pressing matter to relay to your boyfriend, most of which involves playing it much, much cooler in front of Phoenix the next time you all hang out.

-

You know you’ve made some personal growth when you answer the door in your matching Star Wars X-Wing PJ’s and slippers, and aren’t immediately mortified.

Jake stands there, already grinning back at you, and looking like a greek god sent to earth in his dark jeans and plain white shirt.

“Red Leader Mirage, your rescuer has arrived!” he announces, doing what you judge to be a surprising spot-on impression of Lt. Porkins from Star Wars, shooting a lazily salute down at slippers

Unfortunately, you aren’t given the chance to ask him more about his perfect Red Six however, as he’s almost immediately pushing away from where he’d been leaning against the side of your door, posing for your perusal you assume, and holds out a brown paper bag for you to take. You swipe it, and shoot him a thankful smile.

“Thank you, Jake, really…” you side-step his self-congratulatory jokes, but he doesn’t seem phased, simply shrugging, and taking a step closer to you, letting one hand rest gently on your shoulder, before he hooks it and tugs you into him.

You’d started getting all-too familiar with just how physically attentive Jake seemed to be, something you would never have guessed about him several weeks ago, but had come to terms with now. Clingy was never a word you would have used to describe him before. He hugs you briefly, then pulls back to look down at you, his brow furrowed and his expression filled with genuine concern, another thing you’d been getting more familiar with.

“How’re you feeling?” he asks, inviting himself in by walking you backwards and kicking your door closed lightly behind him. You’d come not to mind this sort of thing either, but mostly because you know if you asked him to leave again, he would, no questions asked. That was another new thing you’d been learning about Jake Seresin.

In comparison to how Hangman could be up in the sky, Jake was entirely understanding, one hundred percent supportive, and almost a little too observant when it came to your particular anxieties. It meant he often knew without you saying when to push you, and when to not, and on the occasion that you did need to say, he always respected those boundaries.

It was starting to make you nervous, how much you were growing to like him.

“Cramps are kicking my ass, but other than that, mostly fine. Thank you for these,” you try again, hoping that he really understands just how much you appreciate him coming over for you tonight. Never in your life would you have imagined feeling comfortable enough to ask Hangman to stop by the pharmacy and pick you up sanitary products, and never would you have imagined he’d make no issue of it.

“Sure,” he says, again with a shrug. “You want me to head out?” he asks then, tipping his head back at your door, even as he inches his face closer to yours, brushing his nose tip against yours. Your lips quirk, then break out into a full smile when he grins before dipping low enough to press a kiss to the corner of your mouth. Your stomach somersaults and pulls at least ten G’s for sure as he continues to brush his lips against yours teasingly.

This hadn’t taken much getting used to at all. Jake was a good kisser, and had proved it after your second date, almost in the exact place you were now, both his hands cupping your cheeks and his lips full on yours, hungry and insistent. That had been almost four weeks ago now, but after his hands had tugged your hips flush to his, you’d quickly put the breaks on.

You were still slightly uncertain about going further with Jake so soon. The fact was, you worked together in a high impact, high stress job, and if anything should happen between you, it would be easier to keep things professional if you took it slow

Jake had, to your slight surprise, though you aren't sure exactly what you were expecting, nodded slowly and taken a step back. He’d told you that the only thing he wanted more than you, was for you to want him too. You’d had to explain that your position wasn’t because you didn’t want him, which had led to more making out, but he hadn’t pushed to go further and he’d left that night with the affirmation that however long you wanted to wait was alright by him.

“No, you can stay,” you tell him, wrapping your arms around his neck to stop him from pulling away too much as you try not to full-on pout. Jake smiles against your lips and presses into you further, moving to push you against the wall, where he crowds your space entirely and stops teasing you, capturing your lips with his at last.

You’re about to experimentally slide your hand up his shirt, a thought that had been lingering in your mind more and more these past few days, but your kiss is over too soon, and he pulls back, leaving you breathless.

“Weren’t you waiting for me, so you could do chores?” he prompts, nearly making you grumble. Instead you nod, and gently push back against him, heading towards your bedroom just down the main hall.

“You can wait in here if you like,” you suggest, feeling a little nervous about the idea, but it was something you’d been thinking about for a while now. Even if you and Jake weren’t sleeping together, that didn’t mean the two of you couldn’t sleep together, did it? It was something you’d wanted, specifically with him, but not really something you’d ever experienced before. You were ready to move out of these early stages of your relationship, eager to push yourself and your limits just a little, so you could settle into something more comfortable with Jake, something where you weren’t always a little surprised when he touched you, or called you by one of his innumerable pet names.

Jake shoves his hands in his pockets and nods, clearly thinking through what this invitation could mean as he follows you quietly.

“Um, I feel like I should say ‘excuse the mess’, but you know–” you cut yourself off and gesture around your bedroom when you both have entered. Jake snorts.

“Well that’s what being in the Navy gets you. I won’t judge if you say it anyway,” he tells you lightly, and you scoff.

“Yes you will!” you insist, and are met with a confident, familiar cheshire-grin.

“Mhm, but only a little. Have you changed your mind, honey?” he steps toward you again then, almost closing the distance in one stride, his hands still shoved in his pockets, but his gaze locked intently on you in a way you haven’t felt since that second date. Your heart beats so loudly you’re sure he must be able to hear, but he doesn’t mention it, just waits for you, crowding your space again.

“Oh, I– No… not… I didn’t… I’m sorry…”

The moment you speak Jake is stepping back, pulling his hands from his pockets to hold them up, his expression losing the intensity again.

“No need to apologise, my mistake.” Jake’s words are sincere, but he looks away from you.

You let out a little sigh.

“It’s just so soon, and with the trial–”

“–You don’t have to explain yourself, honey,” Jake pulls his hands from his pockets at last and places them at your waist, drawing you in. You fall quiet as he lowers his face to yours, though he teases you again by not kissing you, simply looking you over, and then smirking when you pout. “You want it when you want it, and that’s when I want it, okay?”

He makes you nod, before he at last lowers his lips to meet yours and kisses you, slow and sweet. You finally get the chance to test the waters a little, easing your hand carefully underneath the back of his shirt, making you giggle against his mouth when he jumps slightly at the feel of your skin on his. Jake doesn’t say or do anything about it though, thankfully just letting you explore a little as he tips your head back further to deepen your kiss, and you brush your fingers up his spine.

After a short while of this, he must feel the urge to tease you again, because with little to no hesitation at all, unlike you, he slips his hands beneath your shirt, his warm palms gripping onto the bare skin just above your PJ shorts, almost making you moan. You’re glad you’re able to hold back the sound, mostly, but your own surprise doesn’t go unnoticed by the blond currently kissing you.

He only continues doing so for a short minute longer, before he’s eventually pulling back, lips pink and kiss swollen. You can’t help but frown at the parting. He squeezes your waist, and nudges your nose with his own.

“What do you want to do, honey?”

You groan at the apparent lack of making out in your future, not because you don’t think he’d agree, but mostly because you’re not quite ready to ask him for more, though a part of you senses he’s not willing to let you off the hook for those chores you’d told him about earlier.

“I need to fold this laundry,” you point past him, to your walk-in wardrobe and the basket that lies within. Jake looks over at it and lifts an eyebrow, which you choose to ignore. He nods then, and takes a step away from you, making you frown even more when his hands fall from your body.

“I’ll help,” he says, making your eyes widen, and you quickly step around him to block his path, where he is clearly about to make for your basket.

“No! Um… It’s okay, It’ll be easier if I just do it…” you trail off, wondering if you sound insane and neurotic, but Jake simply raises his hands again and nods.

“Well, what do you want me to do?” he prods, and you realise, he’s come inside thinking you want him to help with your chores.

“I was thinking… I was thinking it might just be nice for you to just… be here?” You cringe, and narrowly avoid making a face at yourself. Jake blinks at you as if he doesn’t understand.

“You want me to… sit around while you do laundry?” he asks, tone confused, but equally unimpressed. You nod. Jake shifts, then clicks his tongue. “I was not raised to let somebody work while I sit and watch, especially not my girl. My mother would tan my hide.”

You’re a little surprised by the seriousness on his face, despite the humorous inflection in his voice. You suck in a breath, mulling over how to explain to him what you had been thinking when he came inside. Jake’s eyes flicker over you for a moment before he shifts again, crossing his arms and lifting his chin at you.

“Alright sweetheart, just say what you gotta say, I can hear those cogs turning from here…”

“I… I like that you want to help me, I think that’s really sweet…”

“But…?” Jake prompts.

“I find this kinda thing hard, and I was hoping we could just try and do something… domestic…? Together?” your face goes hot at your admission, and when Jake doesn’t immediately respond you wonder if using the word ‘domestic’ was too much, too soon.

“What is ‘this kind of thing’? I get the other part honey,” again, his voice is playful, but you see the seriousness behind his eyes and it lends you even more comfort. How is he so good at this? It’s almost like he’d read your teenage diary entry all about your perfect guy… it's the sort of attention, care, and behaviour that you’ve never actually gotten from a guy you were seeing before, so you aren’t really sure how to compose yourself.

“This kind of thing,” you gesture between you and him, before clearing your throat. “I don't know what to call it– us, but–”

“–a relationship.” Jake cuts in firmly, and you pause, heart thumping. You hadn't actually had this discussion yet, but you guess you’re having it now.

“Right. I mean, I’ve been in relationships before, but they’ve never really worked out and I feel like I never get to the point with boyfriends where I feel fully comfortable, so I–” you clamp your mouth shut, both at the use of ‘boyfriend’, and at the fact you were rambling, and you’re pretty sure it's too early to start telling him about how all your prior relationships failed.

“Right. So, let me get this straight; you were going to come back in here and put your laundry away, regardless of me being here?” Jake holds up a hand as he repeats back the information.

“Yeah…”

“And you just want me to keep you company?”

You nod, and clear your throat.

“Yeah.”

Jake stares at you, a level of understanding crossing his face, before his eyes flick to your laundry behind you, then back to your face.

“... And you’re sure I can’t help you?” His resolve sounds weak, and you think he’s already made up his mind to do as you asked, but his upbringing requires him to triple check. You smile, and this time step toward him, gingerly resting your hand on his arm, which he immediately raises, and flips, sliding it so now you’re holding his hand.

Again, you can’t fathom how he got so good at this sort of thing. Your knees go wobbly.

“I have a bunch of lacy unmentionables in there, so…” you try to lighten things, but it's not a lie. Jake picks up what you’re putting down, and gives your hand a squeeze. He tips his chin at you and lifts an eyebrow.

“Now why’d you have to go and say that honey? You sure you’re certain I can’t help?” his hands slip from yours to rest at your hips again, completely bypassing your top this time and your heart stutters.

You bite your lip, and nod your head, trying not to laugh him off fully, because while that may be your instinctual nervous reaction, you didn’t want to discourage him entirely. You liked that Jake acted as if you were a pretty girl, like you were desirable, and not like the awkward dork you actually were. You didn't want him to stop doing that.

His expression turns a little softer, and he leans down, moving slowly as to give you time to process, and he presses his lips to your cheek, lingering for just a moment before he taps your sides with his fingers, then steps away.

You’re still catching your breath when he looks back at you, pointing at what looks like one corner of your bed.

“Can I?”

You nod, and gesture at the whole mattress.

“Make yourself comfortable!”

–

You can feel the pounding music of the club in your whole body. The lights flashing and dancing in different colourways in time with the music give everything around you an ever changing aura, and maybe it’s all the drinks you’ve had tonight, but in front of you, Natasha seems to glow.

Her hands grasp your forearm firmly and you giggle, uncharacteristically carefree as you almost slip again.

“Alright! Okay, let's get you seated!” she says. She’s had a few too, but not nearly as many as you, and you’re glad for it now as she steers you toward the bar and grabs a paper cup to fill with water from the nearby water station toward the end. You find yourself drinking it without prompting, but miss the taste of the fruity cocktails you’d been downing all night. “I’ll call us a cab,” she says, beginning to pull out her phone, but you hastily stop her, placing a hand on her arm and shaking your head rapidly, making the colours spin even more.

“No! My boyfriend said he’d pick us up!” you insist, ignoring the way her eyebrows shoot up, then stitch together.

“You boyfriend?” she asks, but you miss the real question behind her words, instead you simply nod, and begin to fumble around in your own purse until you find your phone. Nat watches you expectantly as you open your messages, quickly tapping ‘call' on the top icon, and pressing the phone to one ear, and your finger to the other.

It rings less than once before it connects.

“Heeyy!” you sigh in relief down the line, happy to even just hear his voice after all night going without. “Yeah, no, everything’s alright, you just said to call you when we were done!” you say in reply to his amused questioning. You look up at Nat briefly, and if you were more sober, you might’ve been able to tell that she was leaning in slightly to try and hear the voice on the other end, but you aren’t, so you don’t.

“Okay, I’ll meet you out front!” you tell him excitedly, before adding on; “Is it okay if we give Nat a ride home too?” there's a short reply, and at last you’re smiling wide and nodding, even though he can’t see you. “Okay, we’ll see you soooon!”

You hang up and stare back up at Natasha, who's giving you a funny look that you ignore. “He said he’ll be here in ten, he’s been at the sports bar in town waiting!” you tell her dreamily, like she might understand what it means to you that Jake would choose to remain only a short distance away in case you needed anything, in the knowledge that you didn’t always enjoy nights out like this.

Nat simply nods and after making you drink one more glass of water, you begin making your way through the crowds and out of the club.

The air outside is warm, but refreshing and you take in as much of it as you can, not realising how stuffy the air inside the club had been until now. It was getting late, and bars and restaurants around the club are lit up and busy, the streets all around full of people either on their way to their destination, or lingering as they talk.

It doesn’t take long for you to spot Jake’s car and he pulls up close to the curb, allowing you to beeline for the passengers side door, not realising that Natasha follows with more confusion and trepidation. Jake jumps out of the car to greet you, rounding it to quickly steady your wobbly walk with a hand on your hip, and with the other, he pulls open the car door and helps you inside, leaning in to help you buckle in, grinning even as he murmurs quietly.

“You had a good night, sweetheart?” he asks, clicking your seatbelt into place for you, making you giggle at him. You lean forward for a kiss, but he dodges you, somewhat more aware than you are of your present company, and instead rests his hand so he can squeeze your knee. Your good mood isn’t spoiled and you barely notice the dodged kiss, so you simply nod your assent to his question vehemently.

“I had a lot to drink!” you tell him, before bursting out into giggles again, the soft, sweet smile Jake gives you going unnoticed as he squeezes your leg again.

“Yes you did,” he says with clear, fond amusement, and at last moves back so he can shut your door.

Unlike you, on the other hand, Natasha may as well be sober as a judge, and she eyes Jake somewhat distrustfully as she steps closer, lifting her chin up at him as she talks.

“What’re you doing here?” she asks accusingly, making Jake cock his head at her, only half as annoyingly as he can. He gestures back at you in the front seat of his car.

“Miri called, sounded pretty hammered,” he tells her as if that explained it. Natasha narrows her eyes and crosses her arms.

“Yeah, but she said she was calling her boyfriend, what’re you doing here?” She dares him to reply with anything but the truth, however luckily for Jake, unlike most men caught in her crossfire, he’s able to brush her off with an infuriating grin.

“I guess she dialled the wrong number, do you want a lift home or not?”

At his ultimatum (however hollow it really is, he wouldn’t leave her on her own in the middle of the night), Natasha frowns darker at him, but accepts the door he opens, waiting for her to get settled before he closes it behind her and returns to the driver's side.

When Jake checks his rearview he notes in amusement that Nat has situated herself in the middle seat, giving herself a perfect view of the two of you in the front. You don’t, nor do you seem to have any weariness in the bloodhound you’ve just set upon the both of you, but if he’s honest, Jake had known from day one that the second Natasha Trace suspected anything, your little secret was over.

He drives back as normally as he can, but it's strange to him now to have you sitting right there in his passenger's seat, and not have his hand in yours, or on your thigh. It’s strange to him to be in this space where the two of you are usually so open with your affection, and have to suppress it. Jake does not like it.

The car ride home is quiet, you seem content to look out the window, the tiredness hitting you now, but every so often he and Nat make small talk about whatever football scores interested them in the past week or two, and before too long, he’s pulling up outside her home.

Looking over at you to find that you’re slumped over asleep on his window, Jake follows Natasha out of the car with a simple offer of making sure she gets in alright. The congeniality doesn’t last very long, and once they’re standing on her porch she turns to him with a frown.

“You don’t really think I’m that stupid, do you?” she asks, for once not sounding angry or scolding, but seemingly subdued, maybe even a little upset. Jake sighs and runs a hand through his hair. Looking back to his car to make sure you’re still alright, he levels his squadmate with a serious expression.

“No, I do not,” he tells her sincerely. “But it’s Miri’s choice to not want to be public yet, all I’m asking is that you respect that,” he goes on after a moment. He doesn’t really believe she would say anything, but he feels the need to get her agreement, if only for your peace of mind in the morning.

Nat hums to herself and briefly looks away to fish out her keys. Once she has them in hand, she looks up at him again, a little grin on her face this time.

“How long?” she asks. Jake rolls his eyes and can’t resist the urge to mess with her just a little.

“Few years,” he states matter of factly, waiting for her eyes to pop wide before he lets out a victorious laugh and shakes his head. “A month or two,” he admits truthfully, accepting the hard sock in the arm as Nat scoffs at him and moves to unlock her front door.

“Something, something, I’ll kick your ass if you hurt her,” she grumbles as she steps inside, immediately kicking off her shoes. Jake straightens up and gives her a mock salute.

“Yes Ma’am,” he says, chortling to himself as he receives a middle finger for his efforts and the door is closed and locked again.

Jake feels a little lighter on his walk back to his car, and when he climbs in, he leans over to carefully adjust your crooked neck and make sure your belt is still strapped properly. You wake a little, confused at first, and blink up at him in happy wonderment.

“Hey!” you mumble, like it's the first time you’ve seen him tonight. Jake chuckles and leans closer to press a kiss to your forehead.

“Let’s get you home baby.”

–

You awake the next morning with nowhere near the headache you’re expecting, but with an array of distinct memories that cause a pit to open up in your stomach. The pit then begins to growl as you register the warm, homey smell of food, and with little effort, you force yourself up and into the kitchen, where you immediately attach yourself to Jake’s bare back.

His skin is warm and feels so comfy against your cheek, and the soft little laugh he gives makes your belly flop around. He lets you stay like that for a few moments more, moving slowly but smoothly so you can move with him, and at last when whatever he’s doing with his hands is finished, he reaches around for you and rests his hands where he can.

“Did I really call you last night? While with Nat?” you squeeze your eyes shut, hoping you’d just imagined it all, but another soft chuckle lets you know you hadn’t.

“Never thought you’d be the one to let our little secret slip first. I underestimated you baby.”

You groan into his back, and try to hide your face, but before you can complain or dodge him, Jake has turned himself around, letting you instead smoosh your face in between his gloriously golden pecs, and you think things may not be so bad.

He wraps his arms around you properly, and for a moment you just stay like that. You wonder if you can convince him to come around shirtless more often, the warmth radiating off his skin feeling heavenly, not to mention he looked almost as delicious as the food he’d made. You wonder if he’d already worked out this morning, or if you can join him after breakfast.

One of Jake’s hands moves away from your back and cups the back of your head tenderly, making you mewl slightly, and you look up at him to give the attention you know he’s asking for. Jake stares down at you with a soft little grin, and readjusts himself slightly, so he’s able to drop his lips to meet yours briefly.

One kiss becomes two kisses, becoming three kisses and after that any semblance of chastity is given up on and he kisses you full and sweet, deliberately slow like he’s teasing you to ask for more, but for now you’re simply content to wash away all of last nights worries like this.

Coming up for air, Jake barely breaks apart from you, his lips still brushing yours when he speaks.

“I asked Nat not to say anything, she respects you enough to do that I think,” he says, dropping a few more soft kisses to your mouth when you crane your neck up for more. He goes no further this time, though, and leans back from you to gauge your reaction after several moments, and you force yourself to open your eyes and pout.

“It’s not that I think she’ll tell anyone…” you say to him, scrunching up your features as you recall your lack of playing it cool the first time she had brought Jake up to you. The memory makes you grumble to yourself, and you once more attempt to hide your face in his chest. Jake laughs, and makes you jump when he pokes your side.

“What is it?” he asks, like he already knows. You tell him, voice muffled in his skin, but clear enough for the details of your embarrassing inability to throw the scent off to be heard. Jake’s body shakes with more laughter as you relay the information, but instead of trying to make you stop hiding away, he simply cups the back of your head again, and holds it nearer, allowing you to wither your embarrassment away in the safety of him.

“I think we both know that the minute that woman suspected anything, it was game over,” he tells you once you’re done, still holding you close, but you feel his lips press to the top of your head sweetly, and you do your best to snuggle yourself closer.

After the bulk of your mortification has eased away, Jake makes you detach from him, but only so the two of you can eat your breakfast while it’s still hot.

“You know I don’t want to keep it quiet, like, forever, right?” you ask out of nowhere, your memories of last night replaying over in your head while you ate. Jake looks up at you and cocks his head.

“I’m happy to do whatever you’d like to do, for as long as you’d like to do it,” he says matter of factly, but despite the sweetness of his words, you can’t help but frown at him.

“No you’re not, and we both know it,” you push back, grateful for his always tender manner of going at your pace, but you’d likely never have been with him in the first place if he hadn’t thrown you out of your comfort zone that first time.

The only difference is, now you are with Jake, and you understood these things about yourself, and how they weren’t always as scary as your mind might make them seem. Jake frowns back at you, clearly ready to protest.

“I know you pretty well too, you know,” you cut him off. “I know you like PDA, and that you wish you were able to be more open when we’re out with people. I know you like to show off, and part of that includes me,” you tell him adamantly, because you know you’re right.

Jake huffs out a sigh and leans back in his chair, looking at you dead on, you know him well enough to know he’s a little annoyed at you calling him out, but you aren’t doing it to annoy him or just for the sake of starting an argument.

“Okay, so what if I do? That doesn’t change the fact that until you want something, I’m not gonna go for it,” he says, still frowning at you like he doesn’t understand what the point of talking this through is even about.

You change tack and, with your heart beat thumping a little wildly, get up from your seat and move toward him. Even in his annoyance, Jake makes room for you, pushes out his chair and wraps his arms around your waist when you seat yourself on his thigh, your own arms linking around his neck.

“Well maybe I’m giving you permission to go for it,” you say softly, quietly, because the idea still does make you incredibly nervous. But you like Jake, no scratch that, you think you’re in love with Jake, and you think he’s in love with you too, and something about that feeling for once in your life makes you want the same things he does too, including the PDA. You want him to sling his arm around your neck, you want to be able to kiss his cheek or hold his hand or whatever it is you two want to do, not just in the comfort of your own homes, but out at the Hard Deck with your friends, too.

Jake blinks up at you, like at first your words don’t even register, but then he’s tightening his hold around your waist, and grinning wolfishly up at you, all cocky and infuriating if you didn’t find it utterly charming. If you didn’t completely adore him, even this part.

“Permission granted, Lieutenant?” he asks mischievously, and you can’t stop yourself from giggling, like you’re drunk all over again.

“Permission granted, Lieutenant!”

[otterloreart]

What's in the Box?

PONY PONIES IN THE BOX

If you've been following along you may have seen that @queenofsquids printed the Takara-inspired BJD last week, both in a "mini" test form and a full-sized one. The full-sized one was supposed to be in yellow, but the pure yellow resin turned out to be a more orangey tone. She incredibly generously offered to send me the orange pony BJD

And then

She incredibly incredibly again generously sent not only the little test takara-bjd in grey BUT ALSO printed my original takara 3D model and sent that?! This is so unbelievably kind and generous. I was so surprised when I opened them all!

I'm not sure if you were all aware but I actually dont have a print of the original "Takara duplicate" doll. I did get the seapony PLA printed at the library (and it was my first ever 3D print!).

For my second print, I got the Dollightful bunny doll printed because I wanted to have experience with jointed dolls made by other people before I put more complex models out. So I figured it would be a while before I got the chance to see my newer models printed.

So like its actually so kind of @queenofsquids to send these but also it's really meaningful to me because I started the takara project where I became obsessed with them over a year ago. It's so amazing to see this thing that frankly I spent so much time fiddling with (even if there are some imperfections; more about that later) and hold it in my hands 🥹 I just keep looking at them and smiling

Also I immediately stole the clothes off my NaNaNa dolls and put them on mini-takara-bjd. They're a little short but fit pretty well!

Some design notes/planned adjustments under cut

-The neck and arm balls are definitely too blocky, this doesn't impact the movement but it is very visually obvious

-Queenofsquids mentioned this but the arm bean is too big and gets stuck in the arm sockets.

^^ These two issues are the most obvious upon brief inspection but are also easy to fix so I'm gonna put out a version ASAP adjusting the file. Call it the version Version 1 Hotfix. Both of these should be fixed in the existing models with a bit of sanding.

-The legs are like just a touch too blocky and I think you can also see lines in the head and chest areas ;-; I think this would depend on the printer, like it might be fine in PLA due to the lower resolution. This can also be buffed out but I can adjust it with some effort

-> I think the blockiness issues come down to the fact I was trying to make the models not too high resolution because then the file size is massive, can't import into cura properly, and even slows down *my* beefy computer. that's why it might take a bit for me to adjust all of these pieces, especially the legs because they have a lot of booleans that lag blender. basically i leaned in the other direction and went a bit too far with some pieces.

-legs are very thin at the bottom (ran into this issue with the dollightful bunny doll too and had to redo quite a bit actually to make it neat)

-The bottom of the heart on the knee in particular is an imperfect fit. I was getting errors in Cura because of some issues related to the knee so I had to remesh it, if you'll remember, so I will need to maybe go in and redo that one :/

-The line around the eyes could be a touch more pronounced, its supposed to be somewhat stylized eyelashes

-I need to play with the arms/legs more to figure out potential issues with the existing joints. But they do at least work and hold poses. I'm not sure if people would prefer anything more complicated like locking joints or if this level of poseability is acceptable

Other things I want to experiment with

-hand pose variation

-nose/mouth variations? it is actually kind of funny to imagine you could switch the expression out to a little :o face or a c: or :3 type of thing

-pegasus/unicorn/fluffy hoof variants like i had planned before

so much stuff :0 and I haven't even finished bunny doll, although at least her paint job is basically done. Once I string the big BJD I can also test posing.

[minniesmutt]

♱ ━━━━━━ 𝐎𝐔𝐑 𝐀𝐍𝐆𝐄𝐋: 𝐂𝐎𝐍𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐂𝐓 

♱ ━━━ CONTENT: ORAL [F. REC] FINGERING, MULTIPLE ORGASMS, OVERSTIM, PET NAMES, UNPROTECTED SEX, NIPPLE PLAY, CUM SHOT, CUM EATING/SHARING, AFTERCARE ♱ ━━━ WC: 1.9K ♱ ━━━ PAIRING: HAN X READER ♱ ━━━ 18+ work!! minors and ageless/blank blogs DNI! you will be blocked, put an indicator on your blog somewhere that you are 18+ before interacting with this work/blog ♱ ━━━ a repost from my old blog

     After a short nap, Y/n took to unpacking the things she had brought. It was mostly clothing and a few photos but nothing else. Maybe if she asked, one of them would take her shopping. 

     She heard the elevator ding and peeked her head out of the bedroom. Chan walked out, hands in the pockets of his slacks. Y/n stepped out of the room and met him in the hallway 

     “How are you settling it?” Chan asked as he wrapped an arm around her

     “Fine, the place is a bit bare though,” Y/n told him.

     “I’ll have one of the guys take you out shopping tomorrow. I just came by to see how you were settling in and to go over something with you.”

     “Oh?”

     “Come on,” Chan pulled her into the kitchen. Sitting down at the table he had put in for her and pulling out a stack of paper

     “What’s this?” Y/n asked skimming through the words

     “Contract. Jist of it says what you’ll be doing as a front and you will be paid for the work you help us with,” Chan stated

     “You guys are paying me but you’re also basically paying everything for me?”

     “Think of it as fallback money. If something happens to us for any reason or another, for any amount of time, you’re not left with nothing to fall back on, financially that is.”

     “How considerate.” Y/n smiled, “I’m assuming there’s another part that talks about sex.”

     “Yeah. Every one of us has our own version of this contract. But you're welcome to update anything in it to your comfort level. Most of it goes over what we are into and that every single one of us is clean.” Chan explained

     “Well, so am I, guess there really is no point in condoms,” Y/n smiled

     “Only to prevent a pregnancy.”

     “I’m on birth control. Don't worry about that.”

     Chan explained a couple more things; everyone was made aware of using the traffic light system as a safeword— tapping them twice if she was able to talk for whatever reason as a fallback—, aftercare being important to all of them no matter what, promising her safety from anyone outside of them, etc. Y/n read through the papers as she listened to him, making a few adjustments here and there, but mostly agreeing with what everyone wanted. She signed her name where needed and turned the paper back to him. Chan checked everything and made a quick message about changes to the rest of the guys. 

     “We don’t expect you to memorize anything either. And it doesn't have to be one way, you can ask us for sex too.”

     “Thanks, Chan,” Y/n smiled at him

     “No need to thank me,” Chan smiled back

     “Is there anything else I should know now that I live here?”

     “Say goodbye to your privacy,” Chan chuckled

     The two laughed for a moment before Chan got called away. Y/n saw him off before going into her living room. They had been kind enough to furnish the apartment for her so that was one thing she didn't have to worry about. She figured she’d do a little online shopping for a bit. Adding things she just thought were pretty to her cart, even if she didn't need them. She’ll find a use for them.

     She heard the elevator again and ignored it after looking up for a second, one of the guys came in to see her, something she was quickly getting used to. 

     “Whatcha doing,” Jisung asked as he joined her on the couch, laying on top of her as she was laid back against the armrest

     “Shopping,” Y/n answered as she peered down at him. 

     “For what?” He asked

     “House decorations, clothes, random shit.”

     “Doesn’t sound like fun.”

     “Well, I was bored and that’s why I started. If you have better ideas, I’m all ears.” Y/n dropped her phone on her chest and looked down at him

     “Just keep shopping,” Jisung smirked

     Y/n shrugged and picked her phone back up. Scrolling through the website she was on. Jisung pushed her shirt up a bit then pulled her leggings off her legs. Y/n lifted her hips a bit to help him as he adjusted her legs to lay over his shoulders as he came face to face with her clothed cunt. 

     Y/n peeked down at him before he started kissing down and licking the cloth of her panties. Y/n let out a small moan as he continued teasing her over the fabric. Nonetheless, she kept shopping. 

     Eventually, he removed the fabric and softly kissed her clit, licking the bud to her entrance. Y/n smiled as she peered down at him. One hand removed itself from her phone and ran her fingers through his hair, gazing back at her screen. Jisung picked up his pace after a few moments until he was eating her like a starved man. 

     It wasn’t long till the phone and shopping were forgotten. Her hands tangled in his soft locks and her legs threatened to close around his head. 

     Han hummed against her clit as she gave him a particularly harsh tug. His eyes cast up her body as flicked the little bud. “Fuck Ji,” Y/n moaned

     Jisung didn’t dare let up. Playing with her clit and entrance with his tongue. Enjoying the taste of her juices on his lips and dripping down his chin. He just gave a bit more pressure when he sucked on her clit which seemed to do it for her. Hips rutted against his mouth as he licked her clean from her orgasm. 

     “So fucking good,” He wasn’t letting up. He continued making out with her sensitive clit. Y/n closed her legs around his head as much as she could. Jisung groaned against her cunt, eyes rolling into the back of his head, just from her thighs suffocating him slightly. 

     He pushed her thighs up after a minute. Putting them to her chest as he kept going. 

     “Close,” Y/n whimpered as she grabbed the cushions. 

     “Give me ‘nother,” Ji mumbled against her clit. He pushed one leg over the back of the couch to free up a hand. 

     Soon he was pushing two fingers into her and matching his pace to the rate he was eating her out

     “Fuck!” Y/n cried as her second orgasm hit her. 

     Ji kept going through her high. Fingers pumping in and out of her as he pulled his hips from her clit and sat up on his knees. “One more doll. Give one more and I’ll give you whatever you want,” Jisung begged as he pulled her other leg over his shoulder and kissed her ankle 

     “Need your cock,” Y/n whined, legs slightly shaking

     “One more baby and I'll give it to ya’.” a third finger pushed into her

     “Too much,” Y/n whined as she grabbed his wrist 

     “Color?”

     “Green!” Y/n called as his fingers curled into just the right spot 

     “You can take it, doll,” Ji smiled 

     He pushed forward till he had her coming on his fingers. Her body convulsed under him as he pulled his fingers out, watching her juices flow out of her and soak the cushions. 

     “Good job doll,” Jisung smiled as he leaned down and kissed her forehead. 

     He gave her a moment to come down and rest. He took off his belt, setting it on the coffee table. 

     “Where the fuck did you learn to eat pussy that good?” Y/n asked after her mind out of its haze a bit more

     “Now why would I tell you?” He smirked as he leaned over her.

     “Secrets are hot. You know what's hotter?”

     “What?”

     “Your dick in me.”

     Jisung didn’t waste another second pulling ever fully down onto the couch and unbuttoning his pants and pulling his hard dick out, far too eager to actually take his pants off. Y/n couldn’t help but giggle at his eagerness and worked on unbuttoning his top and pushing it off him as he pumped his cock. He took his hand off his cock to take the white shirt off his body. Her hand replaced his on his cock, pumping him and lining the tip up at her entrance.

     Jisung tossed the fabric to the ground before grabbing her hips and pushing into her. Both moaned as they got quickly used to the feeling. Jisung pushed his pants and boxers down more as he let her adjust to him. 

     “Fuck, move Ji,” Y/n whined 

     Jisung pushed her t-shirt up over her breast and moved her legs around his waist. He laid his hand on the armrest above her head. He pulled out slowly and thrusted back in quickly. His eyes glanced back and forth from her tits bouncing with his thrusts to her cunt swallowing him. 

     Y/n was a mess of moans and whines from him going down on her and making her come three times. Her walls were already clenching around him. 

     “Fucking warm,” Jisung groaned as his hips snapped into her. 

     Y/n tightened her legs around his waist. One of his hands fell from the armrest to lay next to her body. He lowered himself a bit to kiss between her breasts then sucked on the skin. Y/n ran her hands through his hair as his lips latched onto her nipple. Y/n gripped his hair tighter, clenching it around him. 

     “Keep clenching around me doll and I’m gonna blow,” his words were muffled against her boob, shifting his ministrations over to the other nipple and giving it the same treatment he gave the other

     “Give…me, please.” Y/n whined. Her legs hiked up higher on his waist as she got closer to her next high.

     “Got you all dumb on my cock,” Jisung couldn’t help but chuckle at her.

     His tip hit right up against her g-spot. She pulled at his hair as her orgasm hit her again. The man above her pulled away from her nipples and gave himself a few more thrusts before pulling out; coming on her lower stomach. 

     Jisung rested his head on her chest as they both caught their breath. It took a few minutes before Jisung lowered himself down and then looked up at her. Y/n caught his gaze as he licked his cum from her skin. Y/N shivered under the touch of his tongue before he pulled away, bringing his lips back up to hers. His tongue immediately darted into her mouth. Y/n melted as his cum transferred from his tongue to hers.

     Ji pulled away after another moment of enjoying her lips. “You could’ve come inside,” Y/n told him

     “I’ll keep that in mind for next time.” Jisung smiled.

     He stood up from the couch and fully took his pants off. He scooped her up in his arms making her squeak in surprise. Her arms wrapped around his neck as he made his way to her bathroom. 

     Jisung sat her down before giving her a forehead kiss. He started a warm bath for the both of them before walking out of the room and grabbing their clothes. Y/n took care of herself by the time he came back and checked the water. 

     “How are you feeling,” Jisung asked as he helped her into the water after he got in.

     “Tired,” Y/n sighed, leaning back against him.

     Jisung wrapped his arms around her body and kissed her shoulder, “Go to sleep, I’ll take care of you.” 

     “Thank you, Ji.”

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[justabeewithapen]

i bet Chiquitita grew up not being able to do any general roughhousing because of his condition </3 but now the kids are helping him get caught up with important childhood milestones such as: climbing and falling out of trees, hitting each other with sticks, running with sharp objects, mudball fights, and other common child deathgames! poor Mr Shrimp is having a rough time adjusting

(And some close ups)

I have so many thoughts on this ask, I am so sorry XD

Firstly, Mr. Shrimp is 1000% having a rough time adjusting, and for very good reason. While we don't know what Chiquitita has (and I tried to do some research to get a rough idea of this sort of thing in humans) we for sure know he has to be anemic to some degree--or whatever their species's version of that would be. Before they had a consistent source of blood transfusions I am sure that Chiquitita was practically bed ridden at times, frequent blood loss makes it hard to do anything without getting woozy and sick. Now that they have that source he can do a lot more, but he still has limits that are way under where a kid his age actually should be. If it wasn't for his work ethic and Chiquitita's insistence he was okay, Mr. Shrimp would be walking Chiki to school almost every day. The idea that his son can just, do things now, hasn't really clicked. Chiki (who is roughly 6-7-ish seeing as he is a first grader) is actually fairly aware of his own limits, but, with the encouragement of both other kids (<- link to a bonus chapter) and his babysitters, he has been trying to push them. We know from one of extras staring Chiquitita (<- read this bonus chapter first) that he probably doesn't have much interest in play fighting, but I feel like he would be very into athletics. Still, no matter how well he thinks he knows his limits he has 100% had to be picked up from school or brought home after getting faint. Those are the moments where Mr. Shrimp probably gets a bit too smothery, he is the biggest cry baby but I can't even blame him. This is where I dive headfirst into total headcanon territory, but I know this man has some intense insecurities about his ability to raise his son and finding the balance there is so hard. He has the space and time to think about this sorts of things instead of trying to survive day-by-day and I know it is eating him alive. He very openly blames himself for the death of his wife when he explains his backstory. He calls himself an alien word that very clearly is meant to be something like "Weakling" or "pathetic" and you can just feel the hate oozing off the page. He has issues. How long was he fighting every day just to see the next and make sure his family could too, like, this is the stuff I am talking about when I say he has PTSD. He was 100% willing to beat a teenager unconscious for the sake of a paycheck. (I know his singing is def just because he is kind of a silly guy, but imagine if he was doing it to distract himself from his horrible job. Singing about his son to remind him why he was there, do you see the vision????) I am constantly thinking about how his and Acrosilkie's stories are so similar, only, he came out of it with a good ending. Even when his life was safe and his son was safe he felt so indebted to the gang that he was willing to die in the Space Globalist Arc for a battle that wasn't even any of his business!! His life is the only thing he feels he can offer that is of any value man.... Anyway!! Do we think that Mr. Shrimp and Chiki bleed red when they are in their human disguises, or white still? I am leaning towards white but idk how I want to handle their shapeshifting fully. Also, hopefully I articulated my thoughts here okay T-T My brain is too full of them. (ASKS STILL VERY MUCH OPEN!!)

[naomijoestar]

heyy can i please request jobros reactions to their s/o doing on them that tiktok trend where the gf records their bf and tell him “if u make me laugh you’re getting some tonight” and as soon as the bf opens his mouth she bursts out laughing? (the reader being the gf recording and the jobros being the bf ofc)

Masterlist here <3

Hey anon! I’m sorry for making you wait so long, here is your request <3 I hope you like it, I’m not too sure about it so if you’d like anything specific added or fixed you can always private message me!

Mista version here <3

Characters: speedwagon, caeser, kakyoin, okuyasu, bucciarati, ermes, gyro

Jobros react to “if you make me laugh you’re getting some tonight”

Speedwagon

Speedwagon smirks the second you point the camera at him. “Alright, love, what’re you playin’ at this time?” he asks, leaning back with a grin. When you say, “If you make me laugh, you’re getting some tonight,” his eyes light up, and his smirk grows downright devilish

“Oh, you’ve set yourself up for failure, sweetheart,” he says, rubbing his hands together dramatically. “Let me tell ya—”

But before he can finish the sentence, you’re already giggling like a maniac, clutching your stomach and shaking the camera. He pauses mid-word, blinking at you. “What? I didn’t even start yet!”

When you finally manage to explain through your laughter that you wanted him to win, Speedwagon’s grin turns smug. “Oh, I see how it is,” he says, leaning in closer and lowering his voice. “Couldn’t resist me, huh? You know, you could’ve just skipped the game and told me straight-up.”

By the end of it, he’s tossing the camera aside (carefully) and pulling you into his lap, whispering with a playful tone, “You better not be teasin’ me, or I’ll be havin’ ya make all kinds of sounds all night.”

Caeser Zeppeli

The moment you say the words, Caesar’s lips curve into a self-assured smirk. “Oh, cara mia, you’ve made this far too easy for me,” he teases, leaning back and folding his arms like he’s already won

But as soon as he opens his mouth, you burst out laughing, your voice echoing in the room. Caesar freezes mid-word, his eyebrows shooting up in surprise. “Wait, wait—what did I even say?” he demands, but you’re too busy giggling to respond

When you finally catch your breath and admit you wanted to laugh, his smirk returns, this time even cockier. “Ah, so that’s how it is, hmm? You just couldn’t wait to reward me.” He steps closer, tilting your chin up with a finger as his voice drops. “You didn’t need to pretend, amore. All you had to do was ask.”

He ends up backing you against the wall, his breath warm against your ear. “But since you insisted on playing games…” He trails off with a sly grin, leaving the rest of the night entirely up to your imagination

Noriaki Kakyoin

Kakyoin raises an eyebrow at your challenge, his usual calm demeanor not faltering one bit. “If I make you laugh, I get what tonight?” he asks, his lips twitching into a small, amused smile

When you nod and repeat yourself, he adjusts his glasses, clearly amused but trying to look serious. “Well, I suppose I’ll give it a try,” he says smoothly

As soon as he opens his mouth to say something witty, though, you’re already doubled over with laughter. He pauses, blinking at you in confusion. “I… didn’t even get to the punchline.”

When you explain your true intentions, Kakyoin’s cheeks flush slightly, but he quickly recovers, giving you a knowing smirk. “So that’s how you’re playing it, huh?” he says, stepping closer. “You didn’t need to go through all this trouble, you know. I’m more than happy to oblige.”

His hand brushes against your cheek, his voice dipping lower. “But if you wanted me that badly, you might have to make up for teasing me first.”

Okuyasu Nijimura

Okuyasu lights up like a kid on christmas the second you tell him the challenge. “Wait, for real?!” he exclaims, practically bouncing in place. “Man, this is gonna be the easiest thing I’ve ever done!”

He opens his mouth, probably to say something ridiculous or do some over-the-top impersonation, but you immediately burst out laughing, cutting him off. He freezes, his expression a mix of confusion and excitement. “Huh?! Did I win already?”

When you finally explain that you wanted to laugh, his face lights up even more. “Ohhh, I get it now!” He scratches the back of his neck, his grin turning a little bashful but still full of mischief. “Man, you’re somethin’ else, huh?”

Before you can respond, he’s pulling you into a tight kiss, his huge hands resting around your waist. “You’re lucky I like you so much,” he mumbles, though his playful tone is impossible to miss. “Now, c’mon, let’s not waste any time. You did say tonight, right?”

Bruno Bucciarati

“If I make you laugh, I get what?” he asks, raising a single brow. When you repeat yourself, his lips curve into a small, knowing smile

“Very well,” he says smoothly, leaning forward slightly as if preparing to deliver a line. But the moment he opens his mouth, you’re already laughing, your voice breaking into the quiet room

He stops, tilting his head in mild confusion. “I didn’t even say anything yet,” he remarks, though the corners of his mouth are twitching upward

When you explain that you laughed on purpose, Bruno hums softly, his smile turning into something more mischievous. “Ah, I see. So you were planning this all along.”

He steps closer, his fingers brushing lightly along your jawline. “If you wanted to skip to the reward, you could’ve just said so,” he murmurs, his voice low and teasing. “But now that I know how easily you laugh, maybe I’ll have to keep you smiling all night.”

Ermes Costello

Her expression shifts instantly to one of amused challenge, her lips curling into a confident smirk. “Oh, that’s how we’re playing it?” She steps closer, tilting her head slightly. “Baby, I don’t even need to try.”

The second she opens her mouth—probably about to say something cheeky or roast you—you burst out laughing, not even giving her a chance. Ermes freezes mid-word, blinking in surprise. “Hold on. That’s it? I didn’t even say anything!”

When you explain through your giggles that you laughed on purpose, her smirk deepens into something downright wicked. “Oh, so that’s how you’re gonna play it, huh?” she teases, stepping even closer until her face is just inches from yours. “You wanted to skip to the good part, didn’t you?”

Ermes grabs your phone, sets it aside without breaking eye contact, and cups your face in her hands, her tone dropping to a playful growl. “You’re lucky I’m in a good mood tonight. But next time? I’m gonna make you laugh for real before you get anything.”

With that, she gives you a teasing kiss, leaving you both grinning like idiots

Gyro Zeppeli

Gyro’s grin stretches across his face before you even finish explaining the rules. “Oh, you’re gonna regret this one,” he says, cracking his knuckles like he’s preparing for a showdown

But the second he opens his mouth—probably to say something absurd—you’re already howling with laughter, your camera shaking as you try to keep it steady. Gyro pauses, his expression falling into mock offense. “What? You didn’t even let me finish! I had golden material, and you ruined it!”

When you finally manage to tell him you laughed on purpose, his grin returns, wider and more smug than ever. “Oh, I see how it is,” he says, stepping closer and slipping the phone out of your hand. “You just wanted me all to yourself, huh?”

Before you can respond, he pulls you against him, his lips brushing your ear as he whispers, “Next time, don’t even bother with the games. Just tell me what you want—and I’ll deliver.”

I hope you liked this! If you’d like anything tweaked or added don’t be shy to shoot me a message! :)

If you enjoyed this make sure to check out my other posts, and if you’d like anything specific written for a jjba character/squad you can request it if my requests are open!

[notprometheus]

How Penelope and Odysseus got together in the Penelope!Warrior au.

Aphrodite: Athena.

Athena: Aphrodite.

Aphrodite: off to see Odysseus again?

Athena: yes. Where on the mortal plane are you going today?

Aphrodite: Well according to Ares, Penelope might have a crush on Odysseus, and I wanted to see what I could do to help her out.

Athena: If your plan is anything similar to matchmaking them together, I forbid it!

Aphrodite: You forbid it? You can’t forbid love! Love is what drives mortals to become their best versions! Love is what starts and ends wars! Besides what’s the worst that could happen?

Athena: sigh look I know I’m going to regret telling you this, but Odysseus reciprocates Penelope’s feelings.

Aphrodite: GREAT! Now all I have to do is get them to tell each other!

Athena: WHICH YOU WONT! If they have any form of romantic communication, then Odysseus will be twice- no, thrice as distracted by Penelope than he already is!

Aphrodite: come on, it can’t be that bad!

Athena: he stares at her the same way Ares used to Stare at you before you two gags and coughs had “relations”.

Aphrodite: ohhhh he is down baaaad! Look he’ll be 10 times as motivated if he knows that there’s a chance for something between them! This has to happen!

Athena: you know what? Why don’t we get someone who will think about what’s best for Penelope, and hear their thoughts on this!

Aphrodite: her family?

Athena: …

Aphrodite and Athena at the same time: HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Athena: anyways, I was thinking Ares.

Aphrodite: sure, I think Ares would be perfect for this.

Athena: then let’s go now!

Aphrodite: hold on, let me adjust my dress.

Athena: why?

Aphrodite: to show more cleavage.

Athena: GROSS!

Aphrodite: thanks for the compliment.

Athena: not what I meant. But whatever let’s just go!

Aphrodite: ok, I’m done adjusting anyway.

Meanwhile on the Island of Themiscyra.

Ares: COME ON! PUT YOUR BACKS INTO IT! MY DAUGHTERS WILL NOT BE PUSHOVERS!

Athena: Ares? Can we borrow you for a moment?

Ares: sure. Hey Hippolyta? Can you take over for me? Just verbally abuse them, that’s all I’ve been doing for the past 6 hours.

Hippolyta: sure thing, father! ARE YOU LITTLE BOYS OR WOMEN? CAUSE ALL I SEE ARE SOME CHILDREN WHO WANT HOT WHEELS!

Ares: what’s wrong?

Athena: nothings wrong.

Ares: then why are you wasting my time?

Aphrodite: Ares we need you to help end this argument! Should Penelope and Odysseus-

Ares: who?

Athena: my warrior of the mind.

Ares: right the loser.

Aphrodite: anyways, should they be allowed to tell each other about their love for each other? Or should they spend the rest of their lives sad and miserable?

Athena: over playing it a bit much! But we need you to decide cause you will choose whatever is best for Penelope.

Ares: I don’t really care. You two have any arguments for your side?

Athena: insert a really good argument for why Penelope and Odysseus shouldn’t tell each other about their love for each other, cause I’m too lazy to think of one.

Aphrodite: Ow! My back hurts. Better stretch it. She stretches suggestively.

Ares: hmmm well you both have made damning arguments, but Athena, unfortunately I’m gonna have to go with Aphrodite on this one.

Aphrodite: YES! And that’s another perk of sleeping with a god of war!

Athena: just go do whatever it is you’re going to do!

Aphrodite: Byeeee!

Athena: I feel like you were biased in that.

Ares: YEAH NO SHIT!

[scorpioriesling]

Red

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:* ✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:* ✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:* ✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:* ✧･ﾟ: *

Pairing(s): Cassian x reader

Warnings: angst, but HAPPY ENDING I promise

Summary: He broke things off before you'd even had a chance to try; it didn't matter. Loosing him hurt either way. Even more when you knew you loved him more than just as his friend.

SR’s Note: This ends happy... trust the lead up. I also am very happy with this idea, I was spiraling on it and I'm so glad I finally finished it! So, here it is. I hope you see what I am going for with this one. ily all

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:* ✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:* ✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:* ✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:* ✧･ﾟ: *

“Thank you!” You shouted, smiling broadly to the cheering crowd around you. The feeling was surreal; performing for quite arguably the largest crowd yet was an experience like no other. Fans gathered around the stage from far and wide; every corner of Prythian knew of you, as you’d made quite the name for yourself over the years. Velaris was just another stop on the three-month long tour, but it was by far the most populated.

“You’ve been kind to me tonight, Velaris,” you say into the microphone, and the crowd roars again. Your eyes sweep the streets around you, and you wave to a few familiar faces. “I have to say, this is probably my favorite stop on my tour so far.” You wink, and the crowd roars once more. This was your home court, after all.

Making your way toward the end of the long runway, you approach the piano stationed at the end of it. You were known for playing your own songs for part of the show, switching the songs for every show to spice things up a bit so every court would hear something new. For the Night Court, you had something quite special in mind.

* ✧･ﾟ: *

“Y/N, you know it just won’t work,” Cassian sighs. Tears threaten to spill over your waterline as you follow him through the entryway of the kitchen in the Townhouse.

“What’s gotten into you? We’ve made it work before,” you stammer.

“Yeah, as friends,” he emphasizes the last word, turning to face you. His warm brown eyes meet yours, and a tear slips free. He sighs heavily, looking down and shaking his head.

“Cass…” You whisper. He looks up at you, eyes full of sorrow. His hand cups your cheek, his calloused thumb brushing away the free falling tears streaming down your cheeks. A beat of silence passes between you as he stares into your eyes, all of the unspoken love passing between the two of you.

“You know we can’t.” He says, and your bottom lip trembles. His hand retracts, and a soft whimper escapes your throat. He looks down once more, backing away from you slowly. Soft cries work their way out of you, tears blurring your vision until all you can see are the soft glow of his red siphons passing through the doorway of the kitchen for the last time.

* ✧･ﾟ: *

The piano bench is warm from the afternoon sun as you sit upon it, adjusting the crimson gown beneath you as you take your seat. Fastening the microphone to the stand on the piano’s top, you give a gentle smile to your fans again.

“So… as many of you know, for this part of my show, I play a couple of songs myself; on the piano, for that matter.” Cue a few more cheers.

You take a deep breath, making eye contact with a few fans close to the stage, searching the crowd for maybe a certain someone in particular, though you’d never admit it — even to yourself. “This first song I’d like to play for you is called Say Don’t Go.”

* ✧･ﾟ: *

“Alright, let’s go over what you’ve got so far?”

You hand over your age-old notebook to Azriel, who happens to be an amazing lyricist and songwriter as well as one of your best friends. You sit next to him on the couch in the Townhouse — the feeling almost normal again. You hadn’t been here in months since you’d finally professed your love to Cassian, only for your relationship with him to come crumbling down around the two of you. It wasn’t something you enjoyed to think about — but, it did provide for an inspirational song, one you needed Azriel’s support in writing.

“I’m liking the theme of the colors we’re working with here,” he says, brows knitting as he scans over the page before him. “It seems… quite personal.” You chew your lip, and he raises a brow at you expectantly. Sure, he knew what happened with you and Cassian. Did he really want to rehash every detail right now?

“All of my songs are… personal. You know this.” You shrug. He gives you a look.

“This one seems. Hmm.” He looks like he’s trying to find the word. “Fresh.”

You narrow your eyes at him. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

He slides his eyes to yours. “Have you talked to him yet?” You cross your arms over your chest and avoid his stare.

“I think he’d prefer we didn’t.” Azriel rolls his eyes, but you don’t need to look to him to see it.

“You’re both quite ridiculous in your delusions of one another-“

The door to the living room swings open, and his blue siphons blaze at the sudden intrusion. Both of your heads turn in synchronized motion.

“Azriel, Rhysand is — oh, hello, Y/N.” Amren’s dark grey eyes widen in suprise as she takes in your presence, and you only smile at her. Gods, how you’ve missed your friends, just seeing them, being around them all the time. And oh, how you’d missed Cassian too, no matter if he thought being together meant putting you at risk. You didn’t care — not when it came to him.

“Nice to see you again too, Amren.” You say. She offers a polite smile, and turns her attention back to Azriel, noticing the notebook in his hands and your scrawled handwriting all over it.

“I’ll just tell Rhysand you’ll be in to see him later this afternoon.” She says, elegantly drifting through the doorway once more. Azriel turns back to you, the blue of his siphons dulling once more.

“Shall we continue, then?”

* ✧･ﾟ: *

“But you won’t, but you won’t, but you won’t.” You play the last chords on the piano, and the crowd erupts in cheers. You smile, and your eyes find the familiar dark grey ones of Amren’s in the front row before you. Your smile grows to a beam as the bright blue of siphons nudges between bustling fans to her left, edging toward the front row. Azriel offers a small wave, which you return. You’d originally planned to play “I Hate It Here” next, but noting the small nod of Azriel’s head, you knew. His unspoken words were encouragement enough, and though the male the song was written for may not be in attendance tonight, the next song you’d play would be from the heart, just for him anyway.

“This next one,” you begin. “This next one, is, um…” you trail off. Your eyes meet Azriel’s again, and he gives you a thumbs up. You nervously bite your lip.

Clearing your throat, you take a steadying breath. “This next one, I’ve actually never played live before.” You say. The crowd quiets as you play the first chord, hands trembling slightly. Your mind flashes to those nights when you’d sat next to Azriel, the blue of his siphons illuminating the keys of the piano in the dark of night as he went over the chords with you.

You played the next few notes.

Your mind went to Amren, her dark grey eyes scanning over the words you’d rewritten a million times, until she physically took your pen from you, telling you that your lyrics were perfect.

You kept playing.

Your mind went to Cassian, the red in his lips when he finally kissed you for the first time after training you all morning. You ignored him when he pulled back, telling you it was a mistake.

“Loving him is like driving a new Maserati down a dead end street,”

The red rose he gave you when he took you to dinner. You teased him, told him friends don’t go to dinner together and it was most definitely a date, and by the end of the night, he let you win the argument.

“Faster than the wind, passionate as sin, ending so suddenly… loving him is like trying to change your mind, once you're already flying through the free fall,”

The red hues in his hair you caught sight of when he took you flying, countless times through Velaris. Your favorite was at sunset, the oranges and crimson streaks in the sky so beautiful that he’d coast slowly to let you enjoy the view. The flutter of your heart felt so warm, so bright, so familiar at the memory, when he’d claim you were more beautiful than any sunset he’d ever seen.

“Like the colors in autumn, so bright, just before they lose it all,”

Your mind races as you remember the mission he allowed you to go on, the one where you were almost killed entering the Autumn court. The one that caused the argument that ended any chance of a relationship between the two of you. How silly it was, that you couldn’t be together out of fear. You loved him so much you couldn’t see it before, but he loved you too much to loose you.

As you approached the chorus, your fingers flew over the keys rapidly, Cassian’s beautiful face in your mind, pure love pouring from every word you sang.

“Losing him was blue, like I'd never known. Missing him was dark gray, all alone. Forgetting him was like trying to know somebody you never met; but loving him was red… oh, red. Loving him was red…”

You continued the song, eyes closing as you reminisced on old memories you’d locked away. Tears pricked your eyes as you played, thinking of how it used to be when you could love your best friend freely, thinking of how it could be, if only.

As you approached the end of the song, your eyes drifted open slowly.

“His love is like driving a new Maserati down a dead end, street.”

The crowd cheers, and you smile, gazing up at the star filled sky. You smile to yourself, proud that you’d finally played the song you’d poured your heart into. Your gaze travelled back down to Earth, focusing again on the crowd and looking for Amren and Azriel. You glanced around, not seeing them.

To your shock, a figure was being escorted by security to your right up onto the stage. You stood, immediately recognizing the oversized wings and tanned skin. Rushing over, you were greeted with an emotional smile as Cassian took your hands in his.

“Was that…” his chest heaves, mouth open but not speaking. You can’t help but smile up at him, a hot tear escaping your eye at the sight of him. Azriel and Amren stand behind him, just out of sight.

“Yes.” Is all you whisper. His large hands slide around your waist, pulling you close so you’re flush against him. You can’t help but laugh, sniffling a little in the process.

“I don’t think I can be without you any longer,” he quietly admits. The cheers from the audience are drowned out by the absolute intensity of his gaze, and you can’t help but glance at his lips.

“It took you quite long enough.” He chuckles, lifting you onto your toes with ease and slotting his lips onto yours, the crowd erupting behind you. Your hands tangle in his unbound hair, one foot popping up behind you. His hands gently brace your waist, setting you down after a few moments and kissing your forehead before meeting your eyes once more.

“I believe you have a few more songs to sing?” He teases. You swat his chest, and he laughs.

“Mhm… and even more, just for you later, if you’d like.” You wink at him, and his cheeks flush red. You giggle, pressing a quick kiss to his cheek before sauntering back to the stage. He only gazes at you from the sideline, eyes wide as you catch his stare, taking the mic from the piano once more.

“Alright, who’s ready for another song, yeah?!”

* ✧･ﾟ: *

[wing-ed-thing]

Tobirama Mentorship Headcanons

Tags/Warnings: No Reader Pronouns

𓆃 One of those old school hard-asses who you think is going to be really hard on you, but is surprisingly patient, a great teacher, and is overall just sort of awkward.

𓆃 Out of all the mentors you could choose, Tobirama definitely isn't the popular choice. After all, Hashirama is far more charismatic (and hokage) and Madara, as standoffish as he is, offers a mysterious promise for great power.

𓆃 Tobirama is a surprising mix of technique and unexpected charisma. While more aloof and serious at first, you can count on Tobirama to simply be absolutely excellent at teaching.

𓆃 He somehow understands where the hold-ups happen and offers great advice on bypassing learning difficulties. He'll always have you try the hard technique first, making you accomplish that before he gives you the "shortcut version."

𓆃 "Do you see how much simpler making that one adjustment was?" he'll ask, knowing well his techniques work, "Compare that to the traditional method. It cuts the work in half."

𓆃 Very attached to the phrase, "Work smarter" with a great insistence that it "does not mean cutting corners!"

𓆃 Tobirama is extremely perceptive and has a large range of knowledge of different jutsu and types which he throws into mental calculations to understand where your hang-ups may be.

𓆃 He almost annoyingly leaves you to figure things out before he gives you the answer. Tobirama is trying to train you to think multi-dimensionally about your jutsu so that you can be creative in solving your own problems.

𓆃 Not only is he extremely smart, but he's great at communicating. You won't get clearer instructions from any other instructor and never makes you feel bad about asking questions.

𓆃 He takes each one seriously and puts significant thought into his answers.

𓆃 Tobirama isn't very charismatic off the bat. Instead, he has a perpetual resting angry face that makes him rather unapproachable.

𓆃 It's important to know that his expressions are subtle and are off this RBF base. He has no idea that he's making a sour, judgmental face most of the time.

𓆃 He's actually very dorky and will try to say things to relate to you, only to fail on the execution.

𓆃 From pathetic dad jokes that don't really make sense to "so... what kind of kunai do you carry?" he's not really good at socializing with his students when he's trying.

𓆃 Tobirama, however, loves pranks. He loves getting into hijinks so he'll end up being this "kind of cool mentor" by letting you into restricted areas and the like.

𓆃 He'll wear this little smirk because he's trying to act like he doesn't know what he's doing, but he loves that he's working with his students to play funnies on other people.

𓆃 Along with his awkward communication, Tobirama can frequently say very harsh things without realizing it. Being on the more "logical side," he doesn't often think about the connotations of the things he says.

𓆃 Tobirama is overall a really great choice for a mentor! While your beginning may be bumpy, you get the best of both worlds. You get to have a serious education and learn powerful new jutsu from a legendary shinobi who really treats you like family.

Thank you to all who liked, reblogged, followed, and supported. Your support means so much and is greatly appreciated.

Notes: You would not believe how hard it's been to get good Tobirama panels let me tell you—