#choosing which counters and tiles i wanted

[aliengirl]

i almost never use bb cc bc it slows down my game but im giving it a try since i got my pc to be faster and im thriIIVINGG

[secretsecretbunny]

Just friends: stray kids smau.

Part one: "there are no flaws in ghibli."

paring: lee minho x f!reader - roommate!skz

genre: fluff, angst, future smut, roommates au.

warnings for this chapter: mild sexual jokes. alcohol mention.

PLEASE read character intros/story set up: here

You had the large sofa set up with a few fluffy blankets and pillows, streaming service pulled up on the big TV when Minho emerged from his room. You were still wrapped up in the group chat when he silently leaned over the back of the grey couch, head next to yours, smiling mischievously before asking lowly in your ear, "so, which ghibli movie are we watching?", making you jump in surprise with a screech as he laughed at your reaction.

"JESUS, TWINKLETOES. WEAR A BELL OR SOMETHING!" you exclaimed, hand over your chest.

A playful chuckle escaped his lips as he plopped onto the cozy sofa beside you.

A sly grin spread across his face as he mused aloud, "yeah you'd like that, huh? a nice collar with a little bell fastened around my neck?" he winked.

You rolled your eyes "I'm gonna hose you down". you said, looking him up and down in an attempt to be threatening, but the more you thought about it, it did sound.. no. You shook off the thought, looking back at the TV.

Minho laughed and raised an eyebrow, his sharp features still amused as he asked again, "You gonna answer or what? Which movie are we doing?"

You huffed, rolling your eyes once again, this time with a subtle smile on your face. You leaned back into the cushions "I don't know, I was gonna let you choose", you responded, scrolling through the list of Ghibli movies on the screen.

"Oh, well then obviously The Cat Returns." he replied immediately. You perked up "Sweet, I love that one! Popcorn?". Minho nodded "obviously. I'll make drinks if you make the popcorn?" he asked. "deal." you said, standing up and heading towards the kitchen.

Your bare feet were chilly on the cold tiles as you walked into the large spacious kitchen. White marble countertops sat in contrast to the many black cabinets and their handles with gold detailing.

You opened the pantry and grabbed a bag of popcorn, then popped it into the microwave before turning around and hopping up to sit on the counter to watch Minho make the drinks. The marble countertop was cold on your pajama short clad legs as you kicked your dangling feet, feeling excited for movie night. "you want drinks or do you want drinks?" he asked, pausing what he was doing. "Hmm, drinks" you answered. He spun around, opening the glass liquor cabinet with a flourish "pick your poison, princess." he gestured at the dozens of bottles and raised his arms to emphasize the amount, making his shirt ride up and expose a line of soft skin above his sweatpants. You forcibly drag your eyes away to look at the extensive alcohol collection.

"do we have limoncello?"

"duh" Minho responded, grabbing the bright yellow liqueur. "what do you want it in?"

"sprite. add a bit of maraschino cherry juice?"

"you got it, princess." He meticulously prepared the drinks in tall, clear glasses, crafting a similar beverage for himself out of convenience, though likely not out of desire for the taste. The popcorn in the microwave emitted a high-pitched beep, prompting you to stand up and carefully remove it before pouring its contents into a glass bowl.

"ready?" you asked

he nodded "yeah. don't trip and spill the popcorn this time though." he chuckled.

"that was once!"

Minho looked at you pointedly, head cocked to the side.

"okay, twice. shut up." you grumbled quickly.

A grin spread across his face as he trailed behind you, heading back towards the plush couch.

As you prepared to enjoy the film, Minho placed the icy beverages within easy reach, arranging them neatly beside the heap of fluffy popcorn on the polished wooden coffee table. You cozied up into Minho as he sat down, the promise of cuddles being fulfilled.

You and Minho had been close friends since college, though it wasn't always that way. The first time you met him, freshman year, he was so unimpressed by your existence that you could barely get more than one word at a time out of him. He seemed disinterested in getting to know you better, and his curt responses made you feel like an inconvenience more than anything.

||flashback||

You were running late again. Of course you were, what was new? You sighed dramatically as you walked to your class, not even bothering to rush yourself at this point. Taking a deep breath of the crisp autumn air, you attempted to calm yourself. You knew you were starting a project today and the professor probably had already assigned you a partner since you were late. Most likely whichever poor soul it was that didn't get chosen by another classmate.

You entered the lecture hall, coffee in hand, sitting in your usual seat. You had just rested your forehead on the cool surface of the table when you felt a tap on your shoulder. Looking up with a pout you made eye contact with probably the most beautiful man you had ever seen.

"y/n, right? I'm your partner for the project." he said, his tone mildly annoyed.

"That's me. Sorry I'm late, I uh, overslept." you said with a nervous laugh and a warm smile.

"Don't care. You know what the project is even about?" he asked condescendingly, glower on his face.

Your smile dropped as you scoffed. The attitude on this guy. "Of course I do, why wouldn't I? It's been talked about for weeks." you responded, matching his tone.

"Well, you missed the opening lecture today because you were late, I don't know if that's a consistent problem for you or not." he rolled his eyes.

You narrowed your eyes at him. It definitely was a consistent problem, but he didn't need to know that. "Whatever. Let's just get started."

Throughout the next few weeks, you and Minho collaborated on the project, constantly disagreeing over every minor detail. It wasn't until your mutual friends, Chan and Changbin, intervened that you began to tolerate each other.

"You two are so similar it hurts." Changbin said as he watched you and Minho bicker over something as simple as which font to use.

"Don't compare me to him!" You said in offense.

"We may not see eye-to-eye on anything else, but our shared disdain for each other is undeniable." Minho said, arms crossed over his chest.

"what, you got a word of the day calendar or something? or are you just trying to meet your word count for the day." you spat out with disdain.

"Please, you're both getting on my nerves. Sit down and work on your project before I lecture you in the middle of this library." Chan huffed, frustration clear in his voice as he tried to work on his own homework.

"Yes, dad." Minho uttered sarcastically. "Wouldn't want to get myself grounded from the Nintendo for a week."

Your attempt to suppress your giggle failed as you laughed at his witty remark. You brought your hand up to conceal the wide grin spreading across your face while Minho observed your reaction intently, furrowing his brows with a tilt of his head.

"What?" You ask defensively.

"Nothing. Just never seen you laugh. The smile looks better than the scowl you're usually wearing"

You turn your head back to your laptop in an attempt to hide how flustered his comment made you. "Be funnier then." you mumbled.

He rolled his eyes, huffing out a small laugh of his own as he sat back down in the seat beside you. "I'll keep that in mind." he noted with a hint of sarcasm. Chan and Changbin shared a knowing look, smirks on their faces.

From then on, your interactions with Minho took on a playful edge. The back-and-forth banter and witty remarks became a Hallmark of your relationship, bringing you closer together.

As you continued to hang out frequently, Chan and Bin were always part of the crew. On occasion, Chan's cousin Felix would tag along, and before long he began inviting his own friends to join in on the fun as well. Your close-knit clique soon swelled up to an impressive total of nine members, marking the start of countless memorable adventures that are still talked about today.

The decision to drop out was made collectively about two years later by you and your friends due to an unfortunate event involving a harmful rumor that nearly jeopardized everything between your circle of friends. It simply didn't feel worth the trouble anymore. The frequent arguments you had with outsiders, the dirty looks, and the hushed whispers as you passed by made you feel culpable. The gossip topic made it feel like your fault. It affected you the most but the boys were treated horribly as well. You all began skipping classes, which honestly only fueled the rumors, but none of you could handle the treatment anymore so you all decided to drop out, Felix offering one of his families many large houses as refuge. You've all been together since.

||present day||

You were midway through the movie, thoroughly engrossed in the plot, while laying on the couch wrapped up in a warm and cozy blanket. Minho was spooning you from behind, his arm draped over your waist as he too followed along with the storyline of the film. When you spoke, it was in a soft voice laced with reminiscence "you know, I used to have a crush on The Baron." Your words came out with lighthearted laughter. Minho lifted his head to look down at you, his dark eyes meeting yours. He raised an eyebrow and smirked, saying everything he needed to without uttering a word. "what?! he's charming!!" you said in defense against his incredulous expression. Minho just huffed out a small laugh and shook his head before laying it back down on the pillow. "furry" he accused. You elbowed him lightly in the stomach "you're the worst" you said with an exaggerated pout "you like it" he responded.

You gradually fell asleep before the movie ended, rolling over to snuggle into Minho's warm chest, his soft black shirt pressed against your forehead. He gazed down at you with a gentle smile, brushing away any strands of hair from your face. The word "cute" escaped his lips in a soft whisper as he gazed at the sleeping form beside him. The warmth and comfort of the moment washed over him, and he too succumbed to the call of sleep. But their rest was short-lived, as exaggerated retching sounds mixed with the persistent vibration of their phones shattered the tranquility. Rolling onto your back, you groaned, annoyed at the interruption. Minho grabbed his phone, checking the group chat. "god, they're being annoying" he grumbled, voice laced with sleep. "when are they not?" you asked, snatching your phone up to check the chat as well.

Back in your room, you collapsed onto your comfortable queen-sized bed, which was adorned with a variety of plush blankets and pillows in different shapes and sizes. The color changing LED lights provided a soothing pink glow in the dimly lit room. As you re-read the group chat, you couldn't help but smile at the picture Felix sent before saving it to your phone. You then locked it and placed it on your bedside table. The comforting weight of your many blankets soon lulled you back into a peaceful sleep.

You had only been asleep for a mere two hours when your phone rang, waking you up once more. The sudden noise jolted you out of your slumber and left you feeling groggy and disoriented.

"hello?" you answered, voice rough from sleep.

"hey.. need you over here." a man's voice came through.

You glanced at the time on your phone, rubbing your tired eyes while trying to focus on the bright screen. "now?"

With a tantalizing tone, he uttered the words, drawing out each syllable "Yes now. I'll pay extra."

You let out a deep sigh, standing up and quickly getting dressed in decent clothes. "alright. come pick me up. I've been drinking, I can't drive."

"Already here." the man hung up without another word.

After storing your phone in the pocket of your torn jeans for safekeeping, you pulled on your plush jacket to go along with your simple yet comfortable tank top. Not wanting to waste any time choosing footwear, you opted for the first pair within reach - sleek black ankle boots featuring sturdy block heels. As you passed by the living room, Felix was still awake. You noticed that he was engrossed in a video game on the big screen TV. His fingers moved swiftly across the controller while his eyes remained fixed on the action unfolding before him. Despite being deeply immersed in the gameplay, when you went walking by, he immediately stopped what he was doing and looked back at you.

"Hey, bubs, where are you going? It's already 2 a.m." he asked, confusion and a hint of concern in his voice.

"just a work emergency!" you said simply as you ran your hands through your bed head, attempting to tame the unruly strands.

"this late?"

"yeah, I'll be back soon."

"I- okay. be safe, y/n."

You nodded. "of course, always."

You walked out the door and hopped into the luxurious black car with tinted windows that was already waiting for you. When Minho heard the sound of an engine, he got up to take a look outside his window and watched as you stepped into the sleek vehicle. He couldn't help the concern he felt as he watched it pull out of the long driveway and disappear down the street.

You were back home a mere two hours later, trudging through the door and heading straight to your room, ignoring Felix's lingering stare. You kicked off your shoes and removed your coat and pants before crawling back into bed and immediately passing back out. Tomorrow morning was gonna suck.

part 1.5 || part two || part three || part four

notes: and there's the first chapter of my first ever series! 😬 I hope you liked it!! I know we're starting off slow but I promise it'll pick up! please feel free to leave feedback and interactions so I can feel out what you guys like for part two! ily!! 🩷

There will be no taglist. Please turn on my blog notifications if you want to catch updates for this series!! ♥️

[devoutekuna]

Cooking with him.

Includes- Toji, Sukuna, Nanami, Gojo, Geto

Sukuna-

He can cook but chooses not to, why would he cook if he has a personal chef to himself. Stood in the kitchen as he searched for some fruit, daughter tracing the markings he had on his legs. "Daddy lets cook for mama" the thought of spending time with her father was the only reason she wanted to cook. "No" a straight no, she knew that he'd need some convincing though.

"But, I've seen mummy and Uraume cook, I can do it!" Grabbing onto his leg as he tried to walk off, acting as if she was too heavy to kick off. "No you can't! Your incapable of cooking" Looking down at the pink haired girl staring so profusely up at him, doing her puppy eyes which would win anyone over.

Cutting up a few onions from the dish, sat ontop of the counter as she placed the onion in her lap, knife inches away from her thigh. "Don't do that, it's stupid" putting the onion and knife on the table so that he could place her on the stool. "Don't be stupid" stood right beside her as she cut it up, it was going so painfully slow,he was starting to get tired especially since she had two more to go. Having the dismantle technique, of course he's gonna use it to his advantage, throwing the onion up in the air as it sliced, leaving diced cubes along the counter top. "Awe, you got it all over the counter daddy" trying to brush the vegetable into a pile. "Shut up, you were going to slow."

Nanami-

An expert as he cooks most nights, especially when your too tired to prepare meals for the week, it was a simple task to him. "Lemme help you papa!" Hands making it onto the counter as he kneaded the dough, eyes sticking up from behind the counter. Glancing down and the blonde realising she was on a stool, no wonder she got so tall, already got her hair tied back into a ponytail and apron on. "I'm almost done darling" he felt a bit bad but he was so busy so he wanted to finish this quickly.

"Please!" Her crys, only convincing him that she should help him, all he had to do was cook the rice after washing it and cook the chicken. "I mean, you can do the rice?" He didn't trust her much with food since he knew that she was just a toddler and would make a mess.

"Uh oh" seeing the rice poured down the drain, all of it in the sink rather than the bowl. Atleast half of it going through the drain pipe already. "What happened here?" It was bound to happen, he tried not to act annoyed but he definitely was.

Gojo-

He doesn't know anything about cooking since he rarely cooked for himself, if he did it would just be a precooked meal.

"Right, how small am I cutting this?" Glancing at you for some guidance here, a look of distraught and confusion on his face as she saw what he would be cutting up next. He was tasked with all the vegetables since you thought it would be easier for him rather than the meat which you tasked your son with. "Dice it Satoru" looking over his shoulder as you inspected how small it should be.

"Hurry up! Mum says the vegetables go in before the chicken!" He clearly took his father's personality when it came to patience. "I'm trying my best here!" Though he says that he's good at everything, he was horrible when it came to food. Grabbing another knife from the drawer as you helped him out, you were hungry and wanted food already.

Geto-

He was smart about it, giving her an easy task like stirring the pot, somehow she messed that up, hearing the clutter of a pot hitting the floor, body in the fetal position as she looked at the mess. "Uh oh" the sound of his daughter's voice made him respond quickly, hands on his hips as he scanned the mess on the ground, food spilled all over the floor, boiling water all over his new tiles too. "Sorry papa" feeling a bit bad for the mess. "It's fine" it clearly wasn't as that was one of the main dishes. "As long as you aren't hurt then we're good" nodding her head in response.

Toji-

"Your lucky I can't find my wallet" stuck cutting up some potatoes into long rectangular shapes. His daughter clearly was enjoying this, pouring a bottle full of oil into the pan. "No! That's too much baby" taking the bottle from her hands as she giggled, watching as the oil started to splatter up into his face, throwing a lid onto the pan.

"Turn it down!" Shouting at him, she had seen you do this multiple times, so she acted like the boss when it came to cooking. "It's on the lowest heat!" Going back to the cutting of the potatoes. "Hurry up daddy!" Slapping his leg as she jumped up and down, it was her first time being allowed in the kitchen whilst someone was cooking, let alone helping them.

It was a few minutes after he poured the potatoes into the pan, he didn't know anything about making chips so it was a new experience for him. "You took too long! Mummy woke up" she wanted to surprise you with her cooking skills, making you a plate of chips before you woke up.

[hydrngea]

Rafe x reader

They grew up together and as kids Rafe got reader a necklace and she still wears it to this day but Rafe doesn’t notice until she’s all dressed up for midsummer

(This is really random but I thought it was cute lol)

Ur writing is amazing btw! 🫶🏻

perfect pick

a/n : thanks sm!!! i appreciate the compliment :)) i didn’t completely answer the prompt but i might do a part 2 in a couple of days :))

notes : rafe cameron x reader, au to some extent featuring rafes mom before she disappeared.

masterlist | PART TWO

————

rafe could care less about your tenth birthday. in fact, the only reason he even knew it was coming up was because it was all you and sarah could ever talk about lately; what the theme would be, what kind of cake would be the best to eat, who should and should not be invited.

rafe cameron does not care about your birthday- which is why when his mom forced him to come along with her to pick out a present for you, all he wanted to do was jump out of the car and run away.

“but she’s not even my friend.” he whined as they entered the mall, keeping the door open for his mom to go in with wheezies stroller.

“no buts. she’s family, rafe.”

he groans, his steps heavy against the large and perfectly square porcelain tiles of tiffany’s.

“just because she’s your best friends daughter doesn’t mean i have to get her a present.”

his mom shushes him as they approach the jewelry counter, placing a hand on his shoulder before smiling at the associate.

the associate is too enthusiastic to be genuine at this time of day. rafe rolls his eyes at her sickly sweet tone while she asks what they’re looking for. he feels a nudge at his side and his face twitches with annoyance.

“a necklace.” he says under his breath, planning on choosing the first one the associate suggests.

she leads them to the left side of the store, hand gesturing to an array of really expensive necklaces for them to choose from.

“i’ll be right where you found me if you need any help with specifics.” she smiles before abandoning them.

rafe turns to look at his mom, who holds wheezie on her hip. “so?” he shrugs.

“hm?”

he shoves his hands into the pockets of his shorts, “what one do you want?”

his mother laughs, adjusting wheezie on her hip and grabbing her hand, stopping her from dirtying the display with her chubby fingers. “i don’t want any of these. which one does y/n want?”

the question makes him think for a second. he doesn’t know what you would like. he flips through his memories for some sort of indication, but really he should just point to a random piece and call it a day.

red. he thinks, he remembers you saying your favorite color is red- on multiple occasions.

it was red like ladybugs 4 years ago. then red like pretty roses. red like red pandas a couple years before. red like taylor swifts iconic lipstick now.

he shakes his head, then points to a silver chain with a little red charm in it. “that.” he shrugs and then turns on his heel, before his mom can question if its the best choice.

…

he fidgets with the black ribbon wrapped neatly on top of the gift box theyd put the necklace in, eyes tracing over the bolder lettering over and over again as they walked back to the parking lot. he avoids making eye contact with his mom, like for some reason it’d trigger her to go on another rant about how he should act gentlemanly when he gives her the present or at least act like he cares.

they make it to the car without any conversation, save for some half-coherent blabber here and there from wheezie. he slips into the passenger seat while his mom buckles in wheeze into her carseat, the box still in his hands.

halfway through the car ride, the silence between them is broken. “i know you don’t like to talk about your feelings rafe, but you don’t do a great job at hiding your facial expressions.”

“mom,” he groans, leaning the back of his head deep into the leather seat of her escalade.

“i can tell you have a soft spot for her.” she continues, pressing on the brakes as they approach a red light.

“i don’t.” rafe grumbles, fingernail digging into the box and leaving a mark.

“deny all you want, but i saw the way you looked thinking about her. it’ll catch up to you one day.”

he finally brings his gaze to her, his blue eyes meeting her mirroring irises with a glint of curiosity over what her words mean. he makes to open his mouth, to ask what she means by the look. to ask what’s going to catch up to him. but then reminds himself it doesn’t matter and stops himself.

he doesn’t have anything to catch up to him, because he doesn’t have any sort of feelings for y/n.

there’s no way he feels something towards you- could he?

he shakes his head, putting the box to his side and out of his lap and flickering his eyes to his window. why is he letting his mom get into his head?

he doesn’t care about you. doesn’t care about hee stupid birthday, or even care much about the stupid present he chose for you.

—————-

your tenth birthday party is excatly how you wanted it to be. it’s perfectly decorated, with red streamers hung all over the downstairs of your house and taylor swift themed snacks and games. you were having the time of your life, drunk off shirley temples in fancy alcholol flutes.

you notice a stain on your birthday sash and you pout. quickly excusing yourself to drop off the sash in your room, you rush out of your back patio and into the house, making your way towards the stairs when you bump into someone’s solid chest.

here’s one thing to note; regardless of what everyone says, you do not like rafe cameron. “oh, rafe.” you say, taking a small step back-you can feel your cheeks burn under his gaze.

okay fine, the previous statement was a lie. but not completely, it was only a small crush. tiny. as big as the sprinkles on your birthday cake.

“here.” he shoves a small gift bag into your hands and then hastily walks away before you can ask what it is.

the interaction leaves you somewhat disoriented but also flustered, skin pink and pulse fast.

on your past birthdays, you always get one present from sarah and one from her parents. and that’s what you think it is, a present from sarah’s family.

you bring the bag up with you into you room and pull the sash off your body, throwing it into a random corner of your room.

you know it’s bad etiquette to open presents before it’s time, but for some reason you’re too drawn to the gift bag to wait. you peak your head out your bedroom door and find that the coast is clear, and open the bag, pulling out a small teal box with a black ribbon wrapped around it. you shake it close to your ear, guessing it’s some sort of jewelry and grin to yourself when you realize you’re right

you open the box and find the most perfect necklace ever. it’s silver, with a small red heart attached to its chain with your initial engraved onto it.

you’ll have to thank mrs and mr cameron for the gift. it might be even better than the one sarah got you.

you hear your mom call for you from the bottom of the stairs and you quickly shove the box into the top drawer of your dresser, leaving the bag on top of your bed before hurrying back downstairs to rejoin the party.

——-

you’re confused when mrs cameron hands you another gift bag when it’s time to open presents.

“another one?” you ask with your brow furrowed, though you aren’t complaining.

“from me, ward and wheeze.” she hands it to you with a warm smile and a quick wink.

that’s when it clicks that the present wasn’t from who you thought it.

you slip away from the party and rush back up to your room, grabbing the original bag and digging inside for a card or an indication form who it could be from.

there’s a note stuck to the bottom of the bag, made of ripped loose leaf and written with a dull pencil.

“happy birthday” it says, with no signature. but you don’t need one to know who it’s from.

suddenly, your heart starts hammering and your face starts to swell with a smile.

you can’t believe it- rafes the one who got you the necklace, and somehow he managed to make it perfect.

—-

authors note part 2 : i want to say this is extremely UNEDITED so i apologize for any errors and incoherences etc ! there’s a 90% chance i’m gonna take this down and repost this with edits lol.

taglist : @mrsstarkey1 @maybankslover @of-many-fandomss @dearreader03 @penny4yourthoughts @willowpains

PART 2

[sprintingowl]

How To Have Good Combat In Games Where The Combat Is Bad

I've been running 5e for about 50 sessions now. It does have some good points (like most big rpgs it encourages you to make a detailed character and dig into the fun of developing them,) but it also has bad combat.

Bad combat doesn't always mean a bad game, and what makes combat bad can differ from game to game. A lot of indie systems have bad combat because combat isn't their priority.

This isn't the case with 5e.

I'll go briefly into the reasons:

---It is common in 5e to spend a turn trying to do things, do nothing, and then end your turn

---The winning strategy in 5e, unless the GM specifically prevents it, is to do as much damage as possible as fast as possible

---Unique boss mechanics in 5e (Lair Actions, Legendary Resistances, save-or-suck effects) designed to counter the above issues instead amplify the problem

Other combat focused rpgs generally don't have these problems, but this doesn't mean that 5e (and low-combat indie games) are a lost cause.

You can still have good combat in games where the combat is bad, you just need to follow these principles:

---Ask Players To Make Choices (give them meaningful decisions. these don't have to be devil's bargains or involve rolls. do they rush to free the prisoners or chase after the zealots? do they stand in the center of a telegraphed AoE to achieve their objective now or do they wait until it's safer?)

---Give The Players Good Information (choices feel more random the less information the players have. skeleton ants will march from left to right across the arena, powering up the boss if they touch him. standing on blue tiles will switch the boss to arctic mode. hinting is fine, but you want the players to understand how a fight works so that they can interact with it)

---Crib Shamelessly From Videogames (without human-to-human roleplaying to compensate for the weaknesses in their design, non-ttrpg games that center combat need to make that combat at least interesting---and ideally good. MMOs telegraph attacks and turn fights into dances. SRPGs give rewards for focusing on side objectives. JRPGs start by saying "your attack hits" and give you a lot of different attack types to choose between)

If you're GMing in a system that doesn't have a lot of rules for combat, you can largely forget the third point, but never forget the first two.

You're breaching the house. Are you doing so safe or fast?

You're trying to subdue the werewolf. Do you care if he gets hurt? Are you willing to use things (poisons, a silver whip, tranquilizers) that might be traumatic for him?

Someone swings a club at you. Which bodypart do you use to shield the blow?

Any game can have fun combat if you work at it.

Of course, the question that follows is "should you?"

But I'm 50 sessions deep into a 5e campaign, so I can't answer that.

[pepperonidk]

roads diverged || h.js

pairing: joshua hong x reader warnings: super self-indulgent. some crying, life decisions, joshua is my comfort member word count: 759 summary: life is full of diverging roads, but it's okay as long as joshua's walking beside you

a/n: i'm definitely projecting lol. instead of crying for 3 hours, i decided to cry for 1 hour and write this for 2 hours :) problem solved

main masterlist

It’s not that you’re particularly a neat freak, but you’re pretty sure you read somewhere that cleaning your living space can help clear your mind. 

It isn’t until you’re on your knees on the bathroom tile at 2 am, scrubbing between tiles with a pink toothbrush and a dream that you finally question the scientific validity of that Buzzfeed article. You let out a huff and pull the rubber gloves off your hands and throw them down onto the floor.

“Damn,” you hear a hoarse voice call from the bathroom door. “What did those gloves do to you?”

“Shua,” his name comes out as if you’re surprised at the shakiness in your own voice. Once he hears it too, his smirk falls into a frown and his eyebrows come together in concern. In the next instant, he’s on his knees beside you, pulling you into his arms.

“What’s wrong angel?” he whispers against your hair, rubbing his arms soothingly down your back.

His question is all it takes for the dam to break and not long after, the sleeve of Joshua’s light blue pajama shirt is soaked with tears. He shushes you as he pulls you tighter against him, and he wishes he could lift whatever burden was weighing you down.

It takes a minute  before you can finally give him an answer. “Do you remember that really weird thing I asked you about a few weeks ago?” you managed to get out between hiccups.

He pulls away and shifts his hands down to hold yours. “Yeah,” he nods. “When you were reading that Robert Frost poem and you asked what happens if you don’t like the road less traveled and you want to go back and take the other one?” 

You nod back at him, pulling your lip between your teeth to fight back the tears. “Yeah… that.”

“What about it?” he asks quietly, prodding you to continue. 

“I think I’m going to quit my job,” you answered, unable to fight the second wave of tears.

“Oh, honey,” he began, his hands instinctively coming up to your face to wipe away the streams of tears. “What brought this on? I thought you liked your job.”

“I do,” you answer. “Well, I did. I’m not so sure anymore.”

“What changed?” 

“I don’t know,” you confess, dropping your head into your hands. “It’s just not… I just feel like I’m stuck, you know? Like what if I missed out on something better because I’m afraid of leaving something that’s familiar?” 

Joshua hums thoughtfully, choosing his words before he continues. “That’s something I wish I knew the answer to,” he sighs and lifts your chin to look at him. He hates seeing you sad, but even more so knowing that this isn’t a problem he can fix for you. “But just think, honey, if you didn’t walk down this path, we wouldn’t have met.”

You nod and break out a small smile that mirrors his. “Yeah,” you agree. “That is pretty great.”

“See?” he continues. “I think you know, no matter which path you take, it’ll be lined with good things and bad things, and that’s okay.”

“I know, I know,” you affirm. “But I like it better when you tell me.”

Joshua lets out a chuckle before standing and holding his hand out to you. “I’ll keep telling you if you finally come to bed with me,” he offers and you take it, gathering your cleaning supplies into your free arm and setting them onto the counter. 

Once you’ve both finally settled into bed, Joshua shuts off the lamp on the bedside table and pulls you flush against his chest. His fingers trace circles up and down your arms as you listen to the steadiness of his heartbeat.

“As I promised,” he began. “There’s gonna be lots of diverging paths, you know? Lots of different ways to go. And they won’t always be as scenic as the ones before, or as neatly paved, or as—” 

You playfully swat at his chest and smile at the rumble of laughter in his chest. “I get it,” you prod.

“My point is,” he drags out the last syllable, tilting his neck down to smile at you before yawning. “No matter which path you end up taking, I’ll be walking right next to you, holding your hand.” True to his word, he pulls your free hand into his before bringing it up to press a light kiss against your palm. “And every step is going to take us exactly where we need to go.”

taglist: @yksthings @iamxelia @coveyland @xuimhao

[suspiciouslackofclowns]

Regardless of how many times Eddie has made a complete ass of himself, he’s never let himself be perceived as soft.

It was easier when he lived with his uncle — the boys would come over for game night, or to rehearse for their next gig, and they wouldn’t ask him uneasy questions.

Even after he came out about his relationship.

For them, he assumed, it was out of sight and out of mind. Eddie still had loads of free time to dedicate to his friends, so there wasn’t really much to address.

The first incident happened on the three month anniversary of when he got together with his partners, which of course happened to fall on a night he had a session of D&D to attend. His request to push the game back until the next day was denied profusely until he shrugged and through gritted teeth said, painfully, that he would just have to miss the game if they wanted to carry on with it so badly.

So the game got pushed back. And when Eddie showed up that next day, he was greeted with an intervention rather than snacks and beer.

Ever since then, after the handful of ignored calls and cancelled band practices that followed, he’s mostly been able to skirt by with his friends without issue.

Then he had to go and move in with his boyfriends like some lovesick loser, as Gareth had put it when he first found out.

Eddie’s enjoyed the freedom of having a newer, slightly larger living space. He likes not having to go home and sleep alone, or sneak into someone else’s bed just to have to sneak back out before dawn.

It makes him feel soft, which makes him feel pathetic.

Which is why his skin is crawling at the thought of hosting in the new place for the first time.

He makes sure the fridge is stocked with beer, that there’s an array of snacks to choose from on the counter, and he has a selection of rentals from Family Video lying on the coffee table.

None of that stops the air from going tense and heavy when his friends show up.

They’ve abstained from asking questions about his relationship thus far, but the temptation must grow impossible to ignore when they step into the house and see evidence that it’s real. That Eddie moved all of his shit into another place and he’s serious about it.

That it’s clearly not just hooking up or whatever like he’s been saying for forever.

It’s for real and there’s the faint beat of water against tile from somewhere at the back of the house, the only noise aside from the stagnant tension in the air.

Eddie bounces his leg restlessly, tapping the neck of his beer bottle with his index finger as he stares down at the untouched tapes on the coffee table. Anxiously waiting for the inevitable.

“Where’re your guitars?” Gareth asks, and then clears his throat. “Thought you’d have ‘em hanging up in here.”

“They’re in the bedroom.”

Gareth nods. He’s slouching on the sofa, arm draped over the back of it as he looks around.

“Who picked out the fugly carpet and matching curtains?”

Eddie purses his lips when Grant and Jeff both snicker.

“Steve, uh, likes flannel.”

“Are those your posters?” Grant asks.

“Those are Billy’s, actually.” Eddie glances over at the wall behind the tv, featuring everything from Dolly Parton to Jimi Hendrix, and he spreads a little smile. “Well, the ABBA poster is Steve’s, but we keep telling him it’s not a permanent addition.”

“Where are your posters at?” Grant asks.

Eddie looks at him, perched next to Gareth on the couch, and nods his head toward the back of the house.

“Bedroom.”

“Do you have anything of yours out here? Or is it all in the room?” Jeff asks.

The question sounds accusatory. Eddie almost winces at the word bedroom, like referring to it as the room reinforces the fact that he shares a bed.

He would give almost anything for that little bit of information to not be processed. Hell, he’d give anything for this conversation to be over and done with.

It would save him the embarrassment.

“I mean, most of my shit was out of my room at Wayne’s, so it doesn’t really fit with the rest of the—“

“Why don’t you have the guitars out here? Seems kind of impractical to have them in your bedroom,” Gareth interrupts. “Not enough room to jam.”

Eddie swipes his thumb in a circle around the rim of his beer.

“Not really enough wall space.”

Jeff blows a raspberry and chuckles. The mismatched armchair that he’s sitting in almost looks like it’s about to swallow him whole.

“There’s a fucking decorative skateboard rack on the wall, but you couldn’t put your guitars up?”

“Oh, those aren’t decorative, Billy skates. He’s actually pretty g—“

“Did they at least let you help pick out furniture or anything?”

“Yeah, this stuff doesn’t really seem like it’s your style,” Grant adds.

Quickly, the three of them are attaching their inputs and observations together like train cars, one after the other, and Eddie’s vision goes hazy as he tunes them out.

Thinly-veiled insults here, passive aggression there.

Vaguely, in the background, the water stops running. How Eddie can still pick that up, he has no idea, but he can feel his ears quirk when the blow dryer starts whirring. Then his head is turning when he hears footsteps.

The chatter stops immediately when a figure emerges from the bedroom.

Steve pads out with a towel around his waist, hair wet and slicked back, and makes a direct line for the kitchen counter. Ignores the eyes that are lingering on him as he pulls a drawer open and unearths a pack of smokes and a lighter.

When he shakes a cigarette out and hastily lights it, pulling the smoke into his lungs, his eyes flick up to meet several gazes. All but Eddie turn their heads away.

Steve huffs amusedly. Drops everything back into the drawer and shuts it, crossing the small distance into the living room.

Eddie laments the fact that the blow dryer is still audibly running — Billy and Steve obviously showered together, and it makes Eddie want to go lie down in the street. Even more so when Steve comes to stand beside the recliner and Eddie’s eyes linger on the droplets of water dripping down his chest.

“Thought you were havin’ movie night,” Steve says, cigarette pinched between his lips.

He combs his fingers loosely into Eddie’s hair, and the other brunet exhales a stiff sigh as he tilts his head back to rest against the top of the recliner.

“We are,” Eddie says. “Giving a metaphorical, verbal tour of the house.”

Steve hums. Blows smoke through his nose and smiles, and Eddie swears he can feel the warmth of it on his skin.

“Well, be careful if you take a literal tour. I don’t think I’ll be able to wrangle Bill back into clothes tonight.”

He plucks the cigarette from his mouth with his free hand and leans down to press a kiss to Eddie’s forehead before he pulls away. It spurs a surge of unwelcome butterflies in the pit of Eddie’s stomach.

“‘Kay.”

Then Steve takes his leave, retreating back into the bedroom. Eddie’s gaze lingers on the cracked door, listening for the muffled sounds of arguing when Billy sees that his stash has been robbed. A little smile quirks at the corners of Eddie’s lips.

He almost forgets for a moment that he’s not at home with just his partners.

“What was that about?” Gareth asks.

Eddie returns his gaze to the sofa and quirks a brow.

“What was what about?”

“The way he came in here.”

A beat of silence passes. Eddie shrugs.

“I mean, we’re all guys, I didn’t think it was weird that he came out in a towel,” he says.

“No, the way he came in here to check on you. Right out of the shower, like he was jealous and couldn’t even bother to dry off first.”

Now, Eddie sputters out a laugh, but he sobers and clears his throat when all three of his friends fix him with nothing but serious expressions.

“Are you serious?” he asks.

“Seemed like he was trying to signal that he didn’t want us here, don’t you think?”

“Yeah,” Jeff adds. “Like, asking if it was movie night when he already knows? He was basically saying that if we don’t start a movie right away, we might as well leave.”

“Textbook manipulation,” Grant says.

Eddie can’t help that he laughs.

“Holy shit, is there a gas leak in here or something? What the fuck are you guys talking about?”

The three of them all exchange glances, and suddenly, he’s at that bullshit intervention again.

“First,” Gareth begins. Glances over his shoulder to ensure that no one else is listening before he turns back to Eddie, lowering his voice. “They don’t let you put any of your stuff up, and now they can’t even let you be alone with your friends for half an hour before one of them interrupts? How do you not see what they’re up to?”

“Yeah, Eddie, you need to remember your roots. We always hated people like them,” Grant says.

“Them?” Eddie huffs.

“Preps,” Jeff says. “And once a prep, always a prep. They’ll choose each other over the freak every time.”

While Eddie is stared at expectantly, he simply breathes. In and out. In and out. Listens to his blood running in the shells of his ears, like the distant sound of the ocean.

Thinks about how this is so much worse than it was last time, and he swears he can see himself in the third person, sitting in the recliner.

Each second that passes is two seconds lost.

“Did you guys, like, rehearse this before you came over?” he muses, though there’s no humor in his voice. “I mean, what the fuck are you even saying to me right now? That because the shit from my high school bedroom isn’t plastered all over the walls, and Steve gave me a kiss, that I’m in some kind of toxic environment? Do none of you realize how insane that sounds?”

“Dude, you’ve been calling whatever this is a fling and shit for the past like six months!”

Eddie shakes his head and tsks, sitting up and moving to the edge of his seat. About to say fuck it and kick them all out the front door.

“You just seem like you’re rushing in, and we don’t want you to get hurt,” Jeff says.

“Yeah,” Grant adds. “We’re telling you this because we care, man.”

Almost as if it’s by the flick of a switch, Eddie zaps back into his body, and he grits his teeth. Shoots up out of his seat and furrows his brows, veins fixing to pop if he so much as breathes too deep.

“Ever think that maybe I’ve been taking it seriously the whole time? Maybe I just didn’t talk about it in front of you guys because I didn’t want to get made fun of?” Eddie confesses. “I really… I really like my boys. I love them. I love waking up and getting to have morning cuddles with Billy while Steve makes pancakes, and I love the way our place is decorated. Maybe it says something about you guys that my fucking safe haven is with the preps, when you’re supposed to be my people.”

Eddie heaves a sigh once he’s done and sweeps a hand over his face, suddenly so drained that he isn’t sure how many counts he stares at the carpet for. Limbs shaking, heart thundering like he just ran ten miles.

When he looks up, all he sees are ghost-white faces staring back up at him. Then, out of the corner of his eye, he spies figures in the doorway of the bedroom.

He looks over, immediately flushing red.

Steve stands there in an ugly pair of plaid pajama pants, and Billy is behind him, shrouded in a white robe with the letter E embroidered on the collar.

Earlier, Eddie might’ve blown a fuse over the small detail, worried about how it implies that they share clothes, or worse, that they have three matching bathrobes with their initials on them. Right now, he couldn’t give less of a shit.

Not when both of them are looking at him with glassy eyes.

He stares, dumbfounded by what he just said for a long, long moment. Unsure if he’s sleeping on the couch tonight or if he’s getting the ride of his life once it’s lights out.

“Did you just say that you love us?” Steve rasps.

His chin trembles, and from behind him, Billy chuckles as he sets a comforting hand on his shoulder.

“I did,” Eddie says.

Steve clears his throat and nods.

“I love you too,” he manages.

The tension relaxes out of Eddie’s shoulders, and he smiles as he sets his half-empty beer down on the coffee table.

“It’s okay, baby, you don’t have to pretend to be all stoic about it,” he says with a chuckle. “C’mere.”

Steve immediately crosses the room and moves into a hug when Eddie opens his arms around him, moisture overflowing his red-rimmed eyes. Steve is warm, and he smells fresh. Like clean laundry and sandalwood. Eddie holds him tighter and tucks his face into the bend where his shoulder meets his neck.

For a moment, it’s just the two of them. Eddie kisses his skin, and with every press, he hopes Steve hears the silent I’m sorry I waited so long that accompanies it.

Then Eddie rests his chin on his partner’s shoulder and sighs. Shifts his gaze to where Billy meanders into the room and stops behind the sofa, leaning his elbows against the back of it.

Suddenly, Eddie remembers that they aren’t alone, and the tension in the rest of the room is almost tangible outside of the little bubble he’s in.

Gareth, seated right in front of where Billy leans, is frozen in his seat. Doesn’t move, even when the blond reaches an arm down to touch the label of his vest and examine the closest pin.

Because even in the poofy white robe, with his curls fresh and fluffy, Billy breathes intimidation.

“I know about everything,” he says softly. Flicks playfully at the pin before he pulls his hand away, folding his arms and resting his chin atop them. Conversational. “If you keep it up, Corroded Coffin will be disbanded, and you’ll lose your dungeon master. Stevie advocates for Edd to hang out with you guys constantly, but I don’t fucking like you, and I don’t want you in my house if you’re gonna spew nothin’ but nonsense.”

Gareth, eyes wide, looks to Eddie. A silent plea for help, or for backup of any kind.

Eddie simply raises his eyebrows, hands smoothing over Steve’s back.

“If you don’t want me in your house… then why am I here?” Gareth asks.

“Because I ignored my gut even though I smelled bullshit, hoping to be proven wrong. Back talk me again and I’ll beat your skinny ass.” Billy chews his lip, mulling something over in silence for a moment. “Movie night’s cancelled.”

Steve sniffles and leans away from Eddie, his eyes mostly dry as he turns and fixes the blond with a tired look.

“Bill.”

When Billy simply holds up a finger, Steve rolls his eyes.

“And go ahead and give me twenty push-ups.”

“What?” Grant asks, looking to Eddie. “He’s joking, right?”

Eddie shrugs. Laces his arms around Steve’s waist from behind and leans into him, nosing fondly at his freshly-dried hair.

“I don’t personally know him to be funny.”

Billy chuckles at that.

“Drop and give me twenty or I drop you off in the middle of the woods naked, how ‘bout that?” he lilts. There’s a brief second of anticipation before Gareth decidedly slides out of his seat, and the others do the same. Billy hums in approval as they all get on all fours and assume the position. “No girl pushups, either, knees off the ground. And I’m gonna need an out-loud count.”

Gareth lowers his chest to the ground, arms already beginning to shake as he manages a strangled, “One…”

Jeff and Grant echo him. Billy pushes himself up away from the sofa and rounds the side of it, coming to stand beside the couple.

“Two…”

“I love you too, by the way,” Billy murmurs. Reaches up to brush his knuckles lightly against Eddie’s cheek before he leans in to meet him in a quick kiss. “Missed you in the shower.”

Eddie chuckles.

“Three…”

“It’s too cramped for all three of us in there.”

“Don’t care.”

Billy tilts into another kiss, his thumb tracing the cut of Eddie’s jaw all the while.

“I’m glad you like the way our place is decorated,” Steve says. “Dustin and Rob gave me so much shit when they came to help set stuff up.”

“Four…”

“I like the curtains and the rug… reminds me of sneaking into your old room,” Eddie says.

“That fucking wallpaper used to give me headaches, I’d only fuck in there if it was dark,” Billy snickers.

The three of them share a laugh. Then, Billy glances down at the floor and purses his lips when there’s silence.

“They made it to four,” Steve whispers.

“Just four? Pity.” Billy claps his hands together a few times. “Up, ladies, let’s go.”

The three boys on the floor push themselves up, faces flushed red. Gareth brings a hand up to his chest and rubs near his shoulder, walking warily toward the front door when Billy steps over to it and grabs the handle.

“Are you… are you really gonna take us to the woods naked?” he wonders.

Billy makes a face, like that’s the most ridiculous thing he’s ever heard, and pulls the door open.

“No, man, just go home. Get naked there if you want, I don’t care.”

At the words, Gareth and the others look confused, but they file outside anyway. Then Billy shuts the door behind them and locks the deadbolt before he sighs.

“You’re so mean,” Steve murmurs.

“I like assertive better,” Billy says. Closes in behind Eddie and sandwiches him between his partners, hands moving around their waists and pulling them back against him. “Plus, I wasn’t really gonna kick any of their asses. Unless you wanted me to.”

The last part is murmured softly into Eddie’s ear, and he gets goosebumps.

“Got the job done,” Eddie sighs. “I feel like I just came out for the first time again.”

“Give it a couple weeks, they’ll wanna come back again when they’ve had time to think about the stuff you said,” Steve reassures.

Eddie snorts.

“Maybe if we put Billy down for a nap before they come over.”

“Hey, I’m so nice until you upset one of my boys. Then I turn into Queen Bitch, and I go for the throat,” Billy huffs. Sets his chin in the crook of Eddie’s neck and pouts. “Also, fuck you, I’m funny.”

The brunet hums at that and tilts their heads together.

“I was kidding.”

“And I’m not a prep. If anything, it’d be me and you against him.”

Steve scoffs, and Eddie snickers.

“Hey, it’s us against the world, alright? Me and my lovers,” Eddie lilts.

He pinches softly at Steve’s sides, causing the other brunet to squirm away and pry himself free. Steve shakes his head amusedly and sits down on the sofa, grabbing one of the movies from the little stack and examining it.

Eddie leans further against Billy and smiles when big arms encase him.

“‘M sorry your movie night was a bust,” Billy murmurs.

“We can still watch something if you want,” Steve offers.

Big brown eyes gaze up at him, and Eddie chews his lip. Doesn’t push down the butterflies that start to swirl around in his tummy.

“Take your pic, princess.”

[cityof2morrow]

CDK: Wellness Suite

Published: 9-15-2024 | Updated: N/A SUMMARY Cubic Dynamics by John B. Cube and Marcel Dusims forged the future with furnishings that were minimalist in design and maximalist in erudite pretension. Generations later, the company continues to produce edge-of-cutting-edge designs. Use the Cubic Dynamics Kitbash (Simmons, 2023-2024) collection to set up corporate, exposition, and office environments. Envisioned as an add-on to the Cubic Dynamics set (EA/Maxis, archived at GOS), it features minimalist and retro-futuristic objects. Find more CC on this site under the #co2cdkseries tag. Read the Backstory and ‘Dev Notes’ HERE. The WELLNESS SUITE is a great set to download if you’re looking to set up a place for your simlish therapists, counselors, lawyers, and other independent practitioners. Perhaps you want to create a place for your sim to play matchmaker to the rich and famous, to comfort burglar victims, to help sims who won’t stop crying about that one time they saw roaches, or to offer financial advice. So many ideas…..get started with this set!

DETAILS All EPs/SPs. §See Catalog for Pricing | See Buy/Build Mode You need the Company Expo (Mesh Pack) set (Simmons, 2024) for TXTRs to show properly in game. All files with “MESH” in their name REQUIRED for textures/models to display correctly in-game. Several objects in this series are oversized/offset. You may need to shift an objects upwards once to level it, and you may need “move objects” and “grid on/off” cheats to place them to your liking. When placing partitions/floating shelves and tables/desks/counters on the same tile, place the partition/shelves first. I recommend using this set with Object Freedom 1.02 (Fway, 2023), which includes Numenor’s fix for OFB shelves (2006), for easier use overall. ITEMS Desk (1728 poly, SEMI-HIGH) Desk Chair (1104 poly) Client Chair (856 poly) Sofa (320 poly) Cabinets in (Color/Metal/Wood) (664 poly) DOWNLOAD (choose one) from SFS | from MEGA COMPATIBILITY AVOID DUPLICATES: The #co2cdkseries includes edited versions – replacements - for items in the following CC sets: 4ESF (office 3, other 1/artroom, other 2/build), All4Sims/MaleorderBride (miskatonic library, office, postmodern office), CycloneSue (never ending/privacy windows), derMarcel (inx office), Katy76/PC-Sims (bank/cash point, court/law school sets, sim cola machine), Marilu (immobilien office), Murano (ador office), Olemantinker, Reflex Sims (giacondo office), Retail Sims/HChangeri (simEx, sps store), Simgedoehns/Tolli (focus kitchen, loft office, modus office), ShinySims (modern windows), SH (reverie office, step boxes/shelving), Spaik (sintesi study), Stylist Sims (offices 1,2, & 3, Toronto set), Tiggy027 (wall window frames 1-10), Wall Sims (holly architecture, Ibiza). *The goal is to link the objects to the recolors/new functions in the #co2cdkseries without re-inventing the wheel! Credit to the original creators.

CREDITS Thanks: ChocolateCitySim, HugeLunatic, Klaartje, Ocelotekatl, Whoward69, LoganSimmingWolf, Gayars, Ch4rmsing, Ranabluu, Gummilutt, Crisps&Kerosene, LordCrumps, PineappleForest. Sources: Any Color You Like (CuriousB, 2010), Beyno (Korn via BBFonts), EA/Maxis, Offuturistic Infographic (Freepik). SEE CREDITS (ALT)

[tanadrin]

i fired up civ 5 recently bc i wanted to see how it compared to my memory of it, and if anything it's actually much, much worse.

one unit per tile just... does not work with the idiom of the civilization series! units are not like armies in a GSG, they're like units in an RTS game: grist for the meatgrinder. you build them and throw them at your enemy and if they lose combat, they die. they don't retreat and recover morale, you don't get a chance to reposition and try again, they just go poof. but now in addition to that, you can only fit one unit of a type on a given tile, which means combat is forcibly spread out over a huge space. it's slow, slowed down further by the fact that it now takes a couple turns to fully resolve a fight--i guess the idea is that you can have your injured units fall back, except because of the way units get blocked in now, no you can't!--but you still need tons of units to take cities.

which means they didn't get rid of doomstacks. doomstacks are still logistically necessary to win wars! they just made them really fucking annoying to move around the map.

and on top of that, because OUPT applies to all units, it means you are also constantly having your scouts and workers and other civilian units being blocked in by your own units of the same type, or other players' units of the same type, meaning if you sign an open borders treaty with the AI you are frequently signing up to having your own units' movement being jammed up in the worst way by computer players. and on top of all THAT the units cancel their movement orders if the destination tile is blocked, even if the destination tile is on the other side of the map and you can't see it--which means, basically, any long-distance movement order is liable to be randomly canceled if an AI unit ends its turn on your destination tile.

it feels janky at every single level. the worst possible fix to something that wasn't even really a problem--and if they really wanted to they could have implemented some kind of very basic attrition mechanic. or some other kind of soft cap.

and and and on top of all that, it makes roads and railroads substantially less useful, bc frequently you cannot actually fit all your guys on one road or railroad--but you can't just carpet your territory in roads now like you used to do, because roads cost maintenance per turn. just. ugh. fractally bad decisionmaking! like different people were working at different ends of the design doc and not communicating at all!

the global happiness system means expansion is soft capped early in the game, which makes it feel less like an empire management game than a game of managing four to five cities. since very many units are now hard capped by resource availability now, and expansion is limited, AFAICT in most normal games this means you get like.. two swordsmen? ever? mainly it's strong attack units that are capped in this way, but their defensive counters are uncapped, which means actually playing strategically with your army composition is more annoyance than it's worth. in practice, what this incentives is just building the best trash unit you can afford en masse and throwing them at the enemy, but, of course, see the problems with OUPT.

they took out civics and replaced them with Social Policy trees. but everybody has the same set of social policy trees. and there's a bit of a tradeoff here in which trees you choose to fill out first, but you never then switch those old trees out for new ones like civics. they're just permanent bonuses. so there's no sense of, like, choosing your government type.

and then in BNW i guess they realized people missed that, and created Ideologies, which are just a bonus extra-big social policy tree where you get to pick between liberal democracy, communism, and fascism. but of course there's only three. and this isn't unlocked until the late game.

what they really should have done is added more civics and rather than just having you progress from early game civics to late game civics made all civics contextually useful. and maybe given you some extra civics that were unlocked early in the game so you could strategize around them.

as a part of this change culture is now more load-bearing, but cultural victory is just... weird and stupidly complicated. you have to build tourism, and do archeology, and build wonders that provide slots for great works that your three different kinds of great artist create, and all this other crap. versus domination, where you just conquer the other guys. or science, where you just build your spaceship. it's dumb and bad and awkward.

there's no conquest victory now. only domination. but because of the way domination works, it's now not possible to move your capital manually. this is awful and i hate it! let me move my capital, damn it!

buildings no longer go obsolete, which means that if i am founding a city in the year 1973, i still need to build a City Walls in it before i can build a Military Base. this feels ridiculous. and the series already kinda has this problem where it feels like late game it takes forever to get a city really up and running--don't make it even worse by making me build shit from classical antiquity before i can build modern facilities!

the AI is not very bright. they don't expand very much. on big maps, most of the map will remain empty most of the game, at least up through mid-level difficulties i usually play at (that are supposed to be "standard", so I assume the game is balanced around them)

diplomacy is irritatingly primitive. there are few ongoing agreements. declarations of friendship all last a fixed amount of time. the AI is constantly interrupting you to tell you it doesn't like you or it does like you or you and another AI player all like each other. just expose an opinion modifier and be done with it! harun al-rashid and i don't need to pass notes like it's grade school!

they nerfed the range of air units and especially nukes. which feels really weird. the 20th century saw the invention of strategic bombers that had a range of thousands of miles. why can mine only reach cities right next to my own? why do my nuclear missiles have a pathetic range? sure, sub-launched nukes are a thing, but they're only one part of a proper nuclear triad. there's no MAD anymore!

especially because the world congress can order you to stop building nukes and there's nothing you can do about it. you can't defy world congress bans and suffer a penalty. international law has some kind of magical force that even if you are the undisputed hegemon you cannot help but obey. this is very stupid! especially because they could not think of anything interesting for the world congress to do, so it's all shit like banning random luxury goods.

all the stuff i do like--the city-states, the hex grid, the core idea of the trade route system--is swallowed by annoying bullshit. to take the trade route example: you can make money by setting up trade routes. it can be quite lucrative! and you have to protect your trade routes from bandits and shit. but the menu for issuing trade route orders is a mess--way too much scrolling, you can't sort by lucrativeness of destinations, you have to constantly re-issue trade route orders, and the last trade route a unit was on isn't highlighted, or sorted to the top or anything like that. so it's lots of scrolling around, it's very annoying, and it's repetitive as hell.

the real stick in the eye is that this game was not only reviewed well, it was reviewed glowingly when it came out. which is bizarre to me! yes, it looks nice. the art is good and the music is pretty. but it feels awful to play! it is on almost every single metric less fun than civ 4! civ 3 is more fun, and civ 3 was terrible. i hope to god firaxis was bribing people left and right for good reviews because the only alternative explanation i can think of is that everybody who was reviewing strategy games in 2010 was also in the grip of a brutal glue-sniffing habit.

[chaoticpuff17]

Amygdala

Masterlist

Chapter 11

“Mari-ah,” Yoongi approached with his hands held up in surrender. 

Margot hadn’t allowed Yoongi anywhere near her since he’d gotten her back to the apartment, with the majority of all breakable objects in the vicinity having been thrown at his head as soon as he tried. He was more than a little grateful for her poor aim. 

“Mari-ah, just let me get you out of all the glass before you hurt yourself.” he offered, glancing down at the shattered remains of a vase and two picture frames scattered across the floor and her very bare, very vulnerable feet.

“Get the fuck away from me.” she hissed, a pillow in hand ready to chuck at his head. She’d run out of breakables after the last picture frame. 

“I just don’t want you to get hurt.” 

Margot stood there for a moment processing those words, with a look of absolute shocked confusion on her face. “You could have thought of that before you fucking kidnapped me!” 

“You’re going to get glass in your foot.” He warned her. 

“Fuck you!” Yoongi watched in silent horror as she stepped the wrong way and a shard of glass went directly into the heel of her foot. “Shit!” She cursed, lifting her foot away from the mess. 

Yoongi sighed, walking over to her and scooping her into his arms so she didn’t step onto anymore of the scattered debris. 

“Put me down!” She demanded, squirming in his hold as he walked her over to the bathroom. 

“You have glass in your foot. At least let me get it out.” 

Gently, Yoongi placed her down on the bathroom counter before starting to rummage around in search of the first aid kit he knew was in there somewhere. 

Margot sat there, watching him silently as her foot dripped blood onto the tile. She didn’t like it, but she knew that he would be better at extracting the glass and getting the appendage bandaged than she would. The glass was in her heel, and she knew she wouldn’t be able to see it as well as he would. 

It didn’t make her any happier about the situation, but she was tired. It was late, and now her foot hurt. If Yoongi was willing to help with those things, she was going to let him. 

Yoongi was surprisingly gentle as he dealt with her injury. Deft hands were quick to extract the shard still lodged in her heel and clean the injury off. He was just as quick to have the area bandaged. 

“Stay right here.” He ordered, straightening up from where he had been crouched to tend to her foot. “I’m going to clean up the glass.” 

She hummed in agreement, exhausted now that she’d allowed herself a minute to sit. All the adrenaline had left her system and left her more than ready to curl up and try to pretend this was all a bad dream. 

“Hey.” Yoongi gently slid a hand into her hair, cupping the back of her neck and tilting her head up to look at him. “Are you alright, jagi?” 

She nodded, looking away from his eyes which were watching her with too much care and concern for the situation they were in. They were too loving. “Just tired.” 

Yoongi chuckled, scooping her up from the counter. “Let’s get you to bed then.”

Margot wrapped her arms around his neck in an attempt to keep herself from falling. She knew that Yoongi wouldn’t drop her. He’d picked her up multiple times over the course of the evening with no issues, but there was still a voice in the back of her head that told her that she was too heavy for him to hold her like this. 

Very gently, Yoongi set her down on the large bed she’d been avoiding like the plague since Yoongi had released her into the room. 

“Yoongi,” she called, as he moved to step away. “Why are you doing this?” 

“Doing what, jagi?” 

She didn’t answer him, choosing instead to stare at him with large, tired eyes, pleading with him silently for an answer, for him to make sense of what had transpired that evening. 

His heart clenched painfully as she looked up at him with those large liquid eyes. He couldn’t stand when she looked at him like that. She should never have to look so lost, so broken. He hated that it was his fault. 

Yoongi brushed the back of his fingers against her cheek, a pang of hope going through him as she leaned into the touch. 

“I can’t lose you, jagi.” he murmured, cupping her cheek in his hand. “I’m sorry.” He stepped back, letting his hand fall away. “Get some rest.” 

Margot didn’t argue. Instead, she turned away, curling into herself as she laid on the bed. There wasn’t anything she could do about the whole mess right then, and she was exhausted. If he wanted to clean up her mess, she wasn’t going to complain about it, especially if it meant he was going to leave her alone. 

Yoongi watched silently as Margot curled in on herself with a distinct feeling of being dismissed despite the fact that he had been the one to tell her to get some rest. He lingered for a few minutes, watching her settle before he moved to actually clean up the mess left behind by her rage. 

He couldn’t even bring himself to be upset by the carnage of what had previously been his bedroom. He couldn’t see any other outcome to the evening. He wasn’t willing to let her go, and she wasn’t willing to stay. It was an impossible situation for both of them. He could only hope that with time, she’d be able to forgive him. They’d be able to move on and be a normal couple. 

He’d seen the way she basked in the affection he would give her, how she’d lean into a sweet touch almost unconsciously. He knew that once they got past this, it would be wonderful. They were made for each other, but first they had to get past this and that would be the hard part.

All of his carefully laid plans to woo her had been thrown out the window the moment he’d seen that suitcase sitting on her bed. His mind had gone into survival mode, and all he could think about was keeping her with him. He didn’t regret the decision, but he regretted that it had come to this. He’d never wanted the transition to be this uneasy. 

Once the mess was off the floor and he was sure that she was asleep, Yoongi left for his office, texting Minwhan as he went. His trusted right hand informed him swiftly that Margot’s essentials were on their way. The rest of her apartment would be packed up, and all of her other belongings such as the rest of her wardrobe and her books would either be brought to his home or they’d be put into storage until Margot decided what she wanted to do with them. 

With a tired sigh, Yoongi sunk into his office chair, pushing his hair back as he slumped into the cool leather. Today had not at all gone according to plan, and it had taken a toll on both of them. Even before everything had so spectacularly fallen apart, he had been exhausted.

Yoongi had spent the better part of the night putting out fires when he’d intended to spend that time with Margot, his Margot. He’d had a whole evening planned for them, and they hadn’t gotten to do any of it. He’d at least gotten to pamper her a little with the nail appointment, but that had been the extent of it. 

Yoongi sighed again, wanting nothing more than to be with Margot, thinking back to their college days and their lazy days of studying together, of taking naps with his head in her lap as she’d continued with whatever reading she had been working on. With the ache of a long day settled firmly in his bones, Yoongi wished almost desperately for that comfort, for that easy intimacy, but they couldn’t have that. She was scared of him.

His heart had nearly shattered hearing those words. He had never wanted her to be frightened of him. Fear had its place in his line of work, but it had no business in their relationship. Looking down at the pictures he’d salvaged from her wreckage, his heart squeezed. They had been so happy then, so carefree. 

Margot had taken the picture that had captured his attention. The two of them were squished together in it, the biggest smiles on their faces. They had been at an amusement park when it was taken, an activity that was even then distinctly outside his normal comfort zone, but Margot had wanted to go, and he would have done anything for her. He still would. 

In the end it had been a wonderful day. Margot had a way of drawing him out and getting him to let go. She brought out his silly side, his softer side. She was home to him. He didn’t think he’d ever smiled so much in his life as when he was with her. 

It was that feeling of happiness, of belonging, that he wanted to get back to. He wanted to turn back the clock and go back to the way things were. Affection had come so naturally then. Trust had come so naturally. She was his shelter, his safe place, his perfect match. She was his everything, everything he had ever needed and would ever need, and he had been a fool to let her go back then. 

He had spent six long, miserable years without her, missing her. When Minhwan had  said her name that fateful night, his whole world had shifted. His heart had started beating again, and for the first time in a long time, he’d felt alive. For the first time in a long time, he had something to lose.

If she was frightened of him, Yoongi was at least twice as frightened of her. She was his everything even now. Losing her would break him. He was elated to have her back and yet terrified of the possibility of losing her again. There were so many things that threatened to tear them apart. His work was dangerous, and he was well aware that association with him would make her a target. Even with all the security he had placed around her, accidents could still happen. Even she was trying to tear them apart. 

Yoongi was beginning to realize how far removed the Margot in the picture was from the Margot currently asleep in his bed. Six years had created more of a divide than he was willing to admit. It wasn’t anything he couldn't overcome. He was confident of that. They were still soulmates no matter how time had distanced them and how they had changed, but he was still going to have to tread carefully. 

His Margot needed time and patience, and of course he would give it to her. He would give her anything she needed, but he had to admit that he found it incredibly hard to hold himself back at times. She was his everything, and his longing for her was a constant ache in his bones, a gnawing hunger that was always trying to claw its way to the surface and threatening to overwhelm him. 

Even now the only thing that Yoongi wanted to do was return to bed and be with her, but he knew she wouldn’t want him there, not now.

After much debate, Yoongi finally gave into his desire to be next to her and moved from his office to the bedroom where Margot was curled up dead to the world in his bed. 

Yoongi froze, simply watching as she slept, looking for the first time that night to be peaceful, and it was with no small amount of pleasure that Yoongi realized that she had achieved that peace in his bed. 

Her hair was slayed across the pillow, one of her arms tucked up under it while the other was curled close to her chest. One of her legs was tucked up by her chest as well while the other stuck straight out behind her. She looked comfortable, and she looked at home, an observation that made Yoongi’s heart melt.

He knew that she wasn’t pleased to be there, but that didn’t stop the immense relief and satisfaction that Yoongi felt having her home with him, having her in his bed. This was exactly where she belonged, exactly where she was always meant to be even if she wasn’t willing to admit that yet. 

Slowly, Yoongi approached the bed, careful not to disturb her. He’d been longing to have her in his arms for years. He longed for the comfort of it without her trying to fight him, and she was finally right there, within reach.

Carefully, Yoongi slipped into bed, gently pulling Margot into him, tucking her into his chest. 

Margot didn’t wake, and Yoongi let out a sigh of pure relief at the feel of her settled so sweetly in his embrace. 

She felt so right there. Her curves, soft and plush, felt as though they were made just for him, and Yoongi couldn’t help tightening his hold on her, his arm which was draped across her waist pulling her in just a little bit closer. It was possessive, and he knew that, but he needed to have her close almost as much as he needed to breathe. 

Margot sighed in her sleep, shifting in such a way that she curved further into his arms, pushing herself closer, and Yoongi nearly purred in satisfaction.  

This was right. This was exactly how things should be, and he would do anything to keep her safe in his arms like this. Anything.

Part twelve

[their-little-writer]

Can you do a CG!Husk and Little!Angel oneshot using this prompt?

[Prompt generator by @buttercupagere]

⋅˚₊‧ ୨୧ ‧₊˚ ⋅⋅˚₊‧ ୨୧ ‧₊˚ ⋅⋅˚₊‧ ୨୧ ‧₊˚ ⋅⋅˚₊‧ ୨୧ ‧₊˚ ⋅⋅˚₊‧ ୨୧

(OOO I love this idea so much, thank you for the request! Also I the prompt generator was helpful so thank you :3)

⋅˚₊‧ ୨୧ ‧₊˚ ⋅⋅˚₊‧ ୨୧ ‧₊˚ ⋅⋅˚₊‧ ୨୧ ‧₊˚ ⋅⋅˚₊‧ ୨୧ ‧₊˚ ⋅⋅˚₊‧ ୨୧

⊹₊ ⋆┊” You Poor Thing...” ┊ ɞ ⊹₊ ⋆

⋅˚₊‧ ୨୧ ‧₊˚ ⋅⋅˚₊‧ ୨୧ ‧₊˚ ⋅⋅˚₊‧ ୨୧ ‧₊˚ ⋅⋅˚₊‧ ୨୧ ‧₊˚ ⋅⋅˚₊‧ ୨୧

The Hazbin Hotel consisted of Chalie ( the owner ), Alastor, Husk, angel, and a few others to help run it. The hotel had many responsibilities, and everyone had to pitch in their part to help. However, there was a little bit of an exception for one of the helpers and that was angel dust. See Angel dust was an age regressor, particularly a baby and toddler one depending on the day, so this means that sometimes it can be hard for little angel to help around even though he wants to. However, his Caregiver! Husk thought of a great way to help with this!  

Husk got angel a sticker chart so when he is in his toddler headspace or a little bit up he can not only help around but feel happy and helpful when he dose! Some of the chores that tiny angel had to do were pick up toys or things that gets left out and put them away, sweep the floor ( he usually needs help with this- ), set the table, etc  

On this particular day angel was in his toddler headspace, His caregiver husk had asked him to pick up his toys and put them away so he could add a sticker to his chart. Angel happily agreed to do this, so he went to his room and began to start. He cleaned up his blocks, organized his stuffies, and put his coloring books away until he noticed that he had one of his plates and a empty cup in his room. He must have forgotten to take his stuff back out so once he was done he grabbed the plate and cup and headed to the kitchen.  

However, there was something in the kitchen that tiny angel did not know about and that is nifty had just mopped the floor, and when angel went to go to put the stuff in the sink... *thud*.  Angel had slipped and fell right on the tile floor, and within the few seconds of him falling he had tears running down his face as he started to cry. Husk had heard the thud and quickly rushed into the kitchen and saw his baby on the floor “hey hey baby... calm down... take a few deep breaths for me ok...?” husk said in a soft tone. Angel nodded softly as he slowly started to take some deep breaths, beginning to calm down.  

Once angel had calmed down husk picked angel up and put him on the counter “what happened baby..?” he said as he put a hand on angels cheek and rubbed  it with his thumb. “I-i was cleaning the playroom like you asked..a-and i saw a cup and plate there from m snack... s-so i went to bring it down here...a-an i fell....” he said.   

“Aww you poor thing... Can you show papa where it hurts...” he said softly. Angel pointed to his knee, which led to husk to kiss his boo boo “there you go pumpkin... all better...” he said.

Angel looked at him “Papa since i cleaned up m room can i get a stickers....”he said softly. Husk smiled softly and nodded “ok course honey..” he said as he opened the drawer beside him and held out a few different sets of sticks. “Go ahead and pick one” husk said.  

Angel looked threw the stickers until he choose a pink shiny sticker. Husk smiled as he went and picked angel up and put him on the floor “Ok baby go ahead and put it on the chart” he said. Angel smiled as he carefully walked over to the fridge and put it on his chart. Husk smiled as he looked at him “hey buddy do you wanna hangout with papa while he has some free time?”  

Angel smiled happily as husk picked him up and carried him over to the couch and laid down against the side of it as he laid angel down on his chest. Angel smiled as he curled up into his chest, Husk grabbed the blanket that was hanging off the couch and put it on the two of them. Within minutes charlie had walked out to see the two of them both peacefully asleep, a smile appeared on her face as she left them be to rest.  

⋅˚₊‧ ୨୧ ‧₊˚ ⋅⋅˚₊‧ ୨୧ ‧₊˚ ⋅⋅˚₊‧ ୨୧ ‧₊˚ ⋅⋅˚₊‧ ୨୧ ‧₊˚ ⋅⋅˚₊‧ ୨୧

Tags:

[l-estappen]

The Crown Jewel 🇲🇨

ii. EA Sports F1 24 'The 10 Racers'

"He won in Vegas; he wins in Monte Carlo! Charles Leclerc wins this EA Sports F1 24 'The 10 Racers' event. What a drive! Unbelievable stuff there from Charles Leclerc, taking the victory," Matt Gallagher’s voice booms through the speakers, announcing my win.

From my simulator, I spot Max in his, a playful gleam in his eye. He’s finished second, but he’s always my biggest competition and supporter. Our rivalry makes everything more exciting, constantly pushing us to be better, both on and off the track.

Naomi Schiff approaches, the studio lights reflecting off her bright smile as she holds the mic out. "Congratulations, Charles! Your first Monaco Grand Prix victory. Tell us, what emotions are you feeling right now? You're not crying as much as in qualifying."

I chuckle, recalling how my eyes had stung and teared up from the unbroken focus, a moment that had been mistaken for crying. "No, qualifying was the peak of the weekend…" I burst out laughing, "… but yeah, it was a very good race. We had a different strategy from Max. He went for soft-medium, which was aggressive and nearly worked. But his tires were done by the end, so we managed to take the win. Very special feeling today."

From the corner of my eye, I see someone hand Max a mic. Still in his simulator, mischief sparkles in his eyes. Naomi turns to him, curiosity lighting up her face. "Max, you were so close to winning. What happened?"

"You know how it is. Sometimes you take risks, and they pay off, and sometimes…" He pauses dramatically, glancing at me, "…they don't. Today, it was all about tire strategy. Charles got lucky."

"Lucky?" I interject with a laugh. "Is that what we’re calling skill these days?"

Max grins, his playful nature shining through. "We all know you had the racing sim gods on your side today. Who else could keep their tires in such good condition?"

"Or maybe I just know how to take care of my car better. It's not all about speed, you know. Sometimes, finesse wins the race."

Naomi, sensing the playful banter, smiles broadly. "So, Max, are you saying Charles' victory was purely luck? Or is there some admiration hidden in there somewhere?"

Max feigns a thoughtful expression, tapping his chin. "Let's see… I'd say 90% luck, 10% skill."

"He’s just jealous because he lost. Admit it, I’m the better driver."

Max raises an eyebrow, his grin widening. "Better driver? We’ll see about that this weekend."

Naomi laughs along with us, enjoying the light-hearted exchange. "It sounds like the rivalry is alive and well. Charles, any final words before we wrap up?"

"Just that I’m looking forward to the weekend. And thank you for having us."

As the interview wraps up and the cameras turn off, I push myself out of the simulator. Max mirrors my actions, a grin on his face as he approaches.

"Congrats, schatje," he whisper, pulling me into a tight hug. He presses a gentle kiss to the top of my head, his playful grin still in place.

“Merci bébé,” I counter, my voice coming out a bit breathless. The proximity, the heat of his body against mine, the way his hand lingers on my back—it’s all getting to me. Winning always gets me fired up, but winning against Max intensifies the effect.

"Remember our little agreement?"

Max's eyes widen slightly, the mischief in them flickering with curiosity. "Of course. The winner gets to choose the prize," he remarks, his voice low and playful.

"I want you to blow me," I whisper, my lips brushing his ear. "In the bathroom, right now."

Max pulls back, glancing around to ensure we're not being watched. "And who am I to deny the victor his prize?"

Without another word, we make our way to the bathroom at the back, and as the door clicks shut behind us, I grab Max, shoving him against the cool tile wall. My hands roam over his body, feeling the heat of his skin through his clothes, fingers digging into his muscles.

My lips crash onto his, the kiss searing and desperate. I nip at his lower lip, pulling it between my teeth, and he groans, the sound rough and guttural. His hands tangle in my hair, yanking me closer, his body grinding against mine.

"Fuck, Charles," he mutters, breath hot against my mouth, "what the hell's gotten into you?"

"Beating you makes me hard," I manage to reply, my tongue plunging into his mouth, tasting him, claiming him.

“Baby, someone could hear us,” he murmurs, but there’s no real protest in his voice.

“Let them,” I growl, quickly switching positions with him. My hands are already undoing my pants as I push them and my boxers down, my erection springing free. I guide Max onto his knees, my hand tangling in his hair, and he doesn’t need any more encouragement.

His hands dig into my thighs, pulling me closer as he takes me into his mouth. The wet heat of his tongue wraps around me and he works me expertly, swirling around the head of my cock, teasing me before he plunges deeper, taking me to the hilt, exactly how I like it.

“Putain, Max,” I gasp, my head falling back against the wall. The sensation of his mouth around me is overwhelming, each bob of his head sending waves of pleasure through me. I thrust my hips forward, and he takes me deeper, his throat constricting around me.

His saliva drips down, mixing with my own pre-cum, adding to the slickness. The smell of sex fills the small space, intensifying the raw, filthy nature of the moment.

My fingers tighten in his hair, guiding his movements as I sink in further, hitting the back of his throat, and his gag reflex squeezes me tighter, sending another wave of intense pleasure coursing through my body.

“Just like that, bébé,” I pant, my voice rough with need.

He hums around me, the vibration adding another layer of sensation. His hands move to my ass, pulling me closer as he takes me even deeper, his nose brushing against my pubes. I can feel the pressure building, my orgasm approaching fast.

"Gonna come, Max," I warn, my grip tightening. He doesn’t slow down, his pace quickening as he sucks harder. I can’t hold back anymore. With a final thrust, I come hard, my cock pulsing as I spill into his mouth. His throat works around me, swallowing every drop eagerly. The sight of his lips sealed around me, the way he hungrily takes it all, makes my knees weak. His tongue flicks and laps up the last of it, ensuring nothing is wasted. The warm, slick sensation of his mouth, the sound of his swallowing, and the lingering aftershocks send shivers through my body.

I slump against the wall, trying to catch my breath as he stands up, wiping the corner of his mouth with a satisfied smirk. "Did that meet your expectations?" he asks, his voice husky.

“Exceed them, as always,” I reply, drawing him into a tender kiss. The taste of myself on his lips only fuels my desire for him. “Your turn next time.”

Max leans in, pressing a gentle kiss to my forehead, enveloping him in a warm embrace. “I’ll hold you to that, Schatje.”

“Count on it,” I murmur into his neck.

[into-crazy]

Derry’s Secret Pt. 2

Pennywise x Female Reader series

Warnings- mature language, stalking, violence, dark themes, consumption of alcohol, ages 18+

Other parts can be found RIGHT HERE and through the "Derry's Secret" tag🎈

You live in a little corner house on the end of a quiet street. Using the term quiet because that's how it usually was. The neighbors kept to themselves mostly, which you didn't mind. Much preferring the seclusion anyways, as you have always been a bit more reserved.

The house you reside in has a time-worn appearance on the outside. Exactly like many of the other homes in the area, only yours is smaller. Even the interior is dated, from the tiled floors to the walls. Strangely, you appreciated the look and feel of it though. Plus the previous appliances seemed to have been properly replaced right before you'd moved in, so there were no issues there. Sure, they weren’t brand spanking new, but they were fully functional.

Your landlord was a sweet old woman. She rented the house to you monthly for a great price. The rent was low, almost too low that it was questionable. And rather suspicious. You had curiously asked her the reason for such a discounted amount. To which she simply replied, "The house is old, I wouldn't feel comfortable renting it for so much. And you seem like a sweet girl." You weren't entirely sure what she meant with that last statement, however you happily took it as a compliment.

Approaching the porch steps, your phone starts to vibrate in your pocket. You take it out, checking the notification. It's a text from Gabby that read- 'On my way. Be there in a few.'

You head inside, kicking your shoes off at the entryway before tossing the bags onto the couch. Satisfied to finally be in the familiar comfort of your own residence. You bring the grocery tote into the kitchen and put the contents away. It was only a few, non-perishable food items. Done with that, you connect your phone to the charger and set it atop the counter.

After today's events, you wanted nothing more than to lay around, have a drink, and relax with your friend.

Deciding to change, you remove your clothes while heading into the bedroom. You grab an oversized tee from the drawer and head towards the hamper at the end of the hallway. Having thrown your sweaty, asphalt dusted garments in, you exhale putting the fresh tee on.

"Much better." You whisper, pulling on a clean pair of shorts.

Since Gabby texted that she was almost here, you'll just sit and wait for her to arrive. Having purposely left the door unlocked so she could come right on in.

Walking back into the living room, you instantly spot something tall standing in the corner. Startled, you dare not to take another step. Instead choosing to fearfully eye the strange figure in your home.

There, stood a clown in a white puffy costume. Well over six feet tall, with elongated limbs. A large head that's twice, maybe three times the size of an average person's head. Its hair is orange and styled to curve upwards. Complete with makeup- a pale white face, thin highly arched eyebrows, and red lips with two lines curving up, ending in points directly above its big blue eyes.

Your legs are locked tight, you wouldn't be able to move even if you wanted to. Acknowledging this, the clown grinned, flashing a buck toothed smile.

"Hiya," its high pitched greet came out.

Despite its eyes shifting slightly away from each other, you could feel it staring dead at you. Swallowing hard, it doesn't take you long to figure whom the looming figure might be. "You're the t-thing from the drain," you faintly shudder out.

It lets out a delighted chuckle in response. "Ahh, you remember."

There's something about the deep husk in its voice that gives off the impression that it might be a male.

"Who are you?" You ask, finally able to take a step back.

It mimics your action, but taking one closer to you. The scent of burnt popcorn fills your nostrils. It's not something you would have expect this thing to smell like. Not this terrifying creature.

"I am Pennywise the Dancing Clown!" He jingles, giving a graceful bow upon introducing himself. "Or Very wise," he rises, "as you might know from what the little offspring told you." He laughs mockingly at the previous mention.

This is when you realize that he never fled. He followed you when you went to drop off the young child and now he's followed you home! At this point, you really start to regret not locking the door on your way in.

"What- well what do you want?" The question is caught in your throat. Your heart starts beating faster when his smile suddenly becomes darker. That can't be good, there is nothing about that smile that reads anything good. Instead it flashes signals of danger. Screeching at you to turn around and run. Get out as fast as you can before something terrible happens to you.

A huge glob of drool drips down from his mouth and onto the floor as he mutters, "to feast."

"Um, feast?" You swallow thickly, his response is difficult to comprehend.

"Well, you see," he inches closer, "I would've had a nice filling earlier. But then you seemed to have interfered, allowing my food to escape."

Oh no, his food.. was he was going to eat the young child?

"Now since I can't eat her.." his eyes flash into a ravenous fiery orange. Before you have time to react, he leaps forward. Wrapping a large gloved hand around your neck and lifting you off your feet. "You will have to suffice!" It growls, rows of razor sharp teeth filling its gaping mouth.

Gasping for air, you desperately kick and paw at the thing towering above you. Trying to get it to release its hold, but it's no use. "F-fuck, no-" you choke out.

It brings you closer, running its nose from your collarbone up your neck. Following the rapid pace of your pulse pumping through the artery under your delicate skin. Deeply inhaling your scent, its eyes roll back. Two clicking sounds gargle up from somewhere within its chest as it shudders slightly. Seemingly liking what it finds.

That is not normal! What the hell is this thing doing?

"Sweet, sweet, fear." Its voice vibrates along your skin, teeth grazing along your flushed flesh. Ready to pierce.. maim and eat.

You thought you were done for.

This is it, this is where I die. Is this really how I go out?

Suddenly it snaps its face to the side, then releases you. Dropping you onto the ground before disappearing completely in the blink of an eye. It’s gone before you can even react.

You shuffle back, harshly coughing as you try to catch your breath. Not even two seconds later, you hear the jiggling of the doorknob on the front door.

"Yo!" The door swings open and Gabby steps inside with her hands full. "I'm here- what the hell!" Finding you in a distressed state on the floor, she throws her stuff down and rushes to you. "Y/n, hey girl! Are you okay, what happened?" She frantically looks around the room.

"I, I.." you finally get your breathing back.

"What happened?" She repeats concerned, kneeling down.

You didn't want to worry her with the assault that just occured. It was bad enough this entity was already after you, so you don't want to get anyone else involved and put into harm's way. Especially Gabby.

Coming up with a quick excuse, you tell her, "it's nothing.. I um, I fainted and I scared myself."

"You fainted?" She examines your state, "you sure about that? You're all shaken up, it looks like you were attacked!"

"No really, I'm fine," you wheeze, "I fell so hard that I couldn't breathe and it scared me. I was alone and I just panicked because that's never happened to me before." Ain't that the truth!

"Well are you alright? Did you hurt anything?"

"I don't think so," you shake your head. "No, I'm alright."

She sighs in relief. "Oh, good. Here, I'll get you some water."

You slowly stand as she gets you a glass. Rubbing the spot behind your upper thigh, you can already feel the bruise coming from where you fell.

"And just so you know, I call bullshit on the whole it 'never happened before' claim." She comes back, offering you the glass.

"I meant on the part that I was alone, and I also don't know why I fainted." You reply after chugging from the cup. Of course you've fainted before. Hell, she's actually witnessed it herself.

She tries thinking of a reason for your false faint claim. "Hm, well have you ate?"

"Not really. I had a pastry at the shop earlier, but that was it. Plus the drink."

"Well then that's it, your blood sugar is most likely low. Then especially with all that walking around this morning with very little food in your system." She walks over to the stuff she brought over.

"Yeah, that's probably what it was," you chuckle. Content in the fact she wasn't suspicious anymore, you felt a great sigh of relief. Hey, you wanted something scary tonight. Well you got it, alright. Having been two seconds away from becoming a human entrée, you're just glad that Gabby had shown up when she did. Despite that though, you truly are grateful for her and appreciate everything that she does for you. She's just looking out for you. And no doubt for her, you'd do the same.

"You need to eat," she brings over a pizza box. "Good thing I made a quick stop on my way over here."

"Ah you're the best!" You acknowledge, lifting the cardboard lid to take a slice out. The hunger's really hitting you now at the scent of food. She sets the box on the table in front of the couch.

"So, about the movie choice for tonight," she digs through her bag, "you said something scary.."

"Mhm," you mumble with a mouth full of cheese.

"We're gonna watch Paranormal Activity." She gleefully states earning a groan from you.

"Seriously, you know I can't stand those boring movies."

She bursts out with a laugh, "got ya! I'm kidding, I brought The Conjuring." Leave it to Gabby to know your taste in horror films. Putting it in the player console, she takes a couple whiffs of the air. "Did you burn the popcorn?"

Damn, it left its scent.

"Uh, no. I haven't made the popcorn yet. I'll make it now." You point out standing up. "Wine?"

"Like you have to ask," she snickers grabbing her own pizza slice.

During the movie, all you could think about was the clown. And the young girl. Hoping that she was safe. You wondered if it still might go after her.

It.. using that term because you aren't quite sure what it is, exactly. Even if it had a name. It was very similar to an animal in the way it stalked and growled, but also supernatural with how it completely vanished in thin air. You need answers.

Gabby had already fallen asleep by the time the movie ended. It was only after eleven, but she knocked out pretty quickly. While she slept, you used the time to do a little internet search on Derry. You poured yourself another glass of wine and sat with your laptop on your legs, typing away. Searching for 'Weird sightings in Derry' and 'Strange Derry reports' and even 'Pennywise.'

But nothing came up on the matter concerning the clown. Although you did come across an article with tragic events that had happened in Derry. You learned something about the town and its bad history before, but haven't gone further into the details until now. The websites provided brief amounts of information on them, from tragic incidents like the Ironworks Factory explosion and the burn down of the black spot. But what really got you was the reports of missing kids. Bingo. There was far too many more than adults. Some of the dates were recent, but you couldn't go back much further for the older dates. Those must not have been documented electronically.

Gab's loud snore pulled you out of your screen trance. Yawning, you figure that an internet search wasn't going to cut it. So you sat there in silence, pondering. Maybe the library? Yeah, the library. They should have history books that provide more details on the events. Hopefully they'll even have some old, written archives you could take a look at.

The time on the laptop read 1:09 am, had you seriously been up this long? It didn't feel like you had. You close the laptop before setting it on the table. I'll go by there tomorrow, you thought as you shifted to lay down comfortably on the couch.

It was a good thing Gabby stayed the night. She's always amazing company. But especially more right now. You also decided not to tell her about the incident from earlier, with the little girl and the drain. Figuring it's best that she doesn't know about it. But at least having her here with you, you hoped that Pennywise wouldn't show up again. You really hoped that he wouldn't. That was all that ran through your mind as you slowly drifted off to sleep.

It's the only thing which you would've allowed, because you had a deep secret. A secret pushed so far in the depths of your soul that would soon come into play. But of course, you didn't know that yet.

End of Part 2.

[personasdestinyy]

wedding night | Jk Drabble

↳ 𝐬𝐲𝐧𝐨𝐩𝐬𝐢𝐬; you are married to your father's business partner, a man you have never laid eyes on before. your family has a longstanding tradition that's you have to sex on the wedding night.would you be able to accept this man as your husband, Would you be willing to do sex?

⇢ 𝐠𝐞𝐧𝐫𝐞: smut, fluff?

⇢ 𝐩𝐚𝐢𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠: jungkook x reader au!

⇢ 𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬: smut, light dirty talk, nipple playing, virgin y/n, fingring, cum licking, unprotected sex, soft and hard sex, double orgasm. husband jungkook is somethig else.

⇢ 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐝 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭: 6.8k+

A/N : So, like, this is my first attempt at writing  steamy drabble. I've been wanting to do it for a while, but I was always too shy. But now, here I'm with this mf drabble *feeling super nervous*. Let me tell ya, writing smut ain't no walk in the park. Hopefully, you'll enjoy it though!

© 𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐬𝐝𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐲𝐲 [𝐓𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐬𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐢���𝐠 𝐨𝐫 𝐫𝐞𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐬 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐦𝐢𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐝]

You're sitting on a massive bed, donning a luxurious wedding gown. The room is so vast that it could double as a home for someone less fortunate. Although you hail from an affluent family, his house surpasses even yours in size. The room is adorned with roses, beautifully and aesthetically arranged, which helps keep your nervousness at bay. Yet, you sit here alone, awaiting for your husband you've never laid eyes on in your entire life.

Well, your father suggested you take a look at his picture, but you declined. Because even if you denies your father would never reject his business partner. You had to brace yourself because you believed he might be an older man who wants a young adult in his fucking pants.

The biggest issue for you is that you're a virgin and you'll have to engage in a physical relationship with someone you don't even love. Your greatest fear, which is about to come true, is that you have to sex on wedding night, as it's a tradition in your family that couples must do so on their wedding night, even if they don't love each other. You never imagined this day would come for you, and you never thought your father would choose his business partner for you.

Suddenly, a knock on the door interrupts your thoughts. After one knock, the door opens, and a maid enters, carrying a sleeping suit that resembles a nightgown. She approaches the bed and neatly places the dress on the corner of the mattress.

"Mam, sir wants you to change into these," she speaks melodiously, pointing to the dress.

You simply nod, and she disappears through the grand door.

Your nervousness returns after hearing "sir" from the maid's mouth. Your heart rate increases, but you try to stay composed. You place your soles on the cold tiles, stand up from your sitting position, and make your way to the bed's corner. You stop there and examine the nightgown: it's a black silk blouse , a long black gown that reaches your feet, and black silk trousers. After a quick glance, you pick up the dress and head toward the bathroom.

As you walk, soft rose petals scatter beneath your feet like cold feathers. You reach the bathroom and open the door. Your jaw drops as you take in the sight; the bathroom is also lavishly decorated with roses and candles. There's even a large jacuzzi tub adorned with rose petals, which seems to be both inviting and pulchritudinous. You step in wearing the plushy pair left outside the bathroom for you. Your expression remains one of awe.

As you walk further, you gently trace your fingers along the counter. After a few steps, you stand in front of the mirror, still finding it hard to believe you're in a wedding dress. You're now a married woman. How life has changed in just one day!. You were in your father's house yesterday, and today you're in the house of a man, or rather, an old man. You did all this for your father, but--. A tear escapes from your eye, and you quickly wipe it away.

You start to unzip your dress, removing it until you stand in your undergarments. You unclasp your bra and slide off your panties, leaving you naked before a big mirror. You unpin your bun and do everything while looking at your reflection, wanting to see the old you, the virgin, one last time. After unpinning your hair, you make your way to the jacuzzi tub to ease your nerves. Stepping in, the warm water immediately calms your anxiety.

After a relaxing bath and drying yourself off, you intend to put on the nightgown. However, you notice a box on the counter, beautifully wrapped in black paper with a note attached. You open the note and read,

"Wear these too."

A curious smile crosses your face, and you open the box, finding a lovely black bra and panty set inside. Heat rises to your cheeks, and you can't help but smile at the thought of your husband that he has obsession for black color. These small details bring you joy, but your smile faded because you forgot for a moment that the one you married was your father's business partner and he might be an old man.

You put on the black lingerie and then slip into your sleep dress. You finger-comb your hair and open the bathroom door, stepping out. However, you freeze in place when you see a handsome man sitting on the corner of your bed, legs wide apart, palms resting on the bed. He's wearing black pants and a white shirt with rolled-up sleeves, revealing his muscular, veiny arms. His slightly long, wet hair suggests he's just taken a shower. He has a fair complexion, light brown skin and his deep, expressive golden-brown eyes captivate you. He has a piercing on his lower lip, which adds to his attractiveness. You can't recall ever seeing such an elegant man in your entire life.

He clears his throat to get your attention, pulling you out of your thoughts.

You want to know who he is, so you ask in a low tone while still standing, "Who are you?"

He chuckles, understanding your confusion. Gesturing for you to come closer, you obey because you're curious. When you reach near him, he sits up straight and pats the bed next to him, but you remain standing, as he's still a stranger to you.

He senses your uncertainty and takes a deep breath. Your own breath hitches as he speaks, "Y/n, I am your husband."

His words hit you like a ton of bricks, and you feel like the ground has shifted beneath you. This can't be real. This handsome man as your father's business partner, your husband—it seems like a surreal joke, and you start to doubt your sanity.

"You're lying, aren't you?" you asked but he shook his head.

Your eyes widened with shock. Could he really be your husband? He gently caught your wrist and pulled you closer, making you sit beside him. You felt a little nervous because there was very little distance between the two of you, and your arm touched his narrow one. He looked into your eyes, and it felt like you were drowning in his brown gaze. His eyes seemed to hold a world of unspoken words.

His gaze shifted from your eyes to your lips and back again. When your eyes finally left his, you looked at his entire face. His cheeks had a slight tint of color, and he realized he was caught. Nervously, he cleared his throat, moved a bit away from you, took a deep breath, and looked at you again.

He spoke, "Well, first of all, you look beautiful in this gown."

You blushed and briefly avoided eye contact before regaining your composure.

You looked back at him and said melodiously, "Thank you."

"Okay, so I'm Jeon Jungkook, your dad's business partner, and your husband," he introduced himself.

"Y/N, I believe you thought I was some old man who partnered with your father in his business. I'm sure you're wondering how a young man could be your father's partner. I joined the company three years ago after my dad passed away, and your father was one of his friends. So, I partnered with Mr. Lee in his business. Well, I am quite the professional in the business world," as he explained you nodded understanding, but when he spoke last sentence, a smirk appeared on his face because he was praising himself.

"Y/N, if you have any questions, feel free to ask," he offered you with a sweet smile and you nodded. He found it cute and chuckled a little.

"Well how did you plan to marry me? or did you see me somewhere before?" you inquired.

You noticed that he looked everywhere except at you after you questioned him. While seeking his gaze you gently placed your palm on top of his hand, causing him to avert his eyes downwards. There is a sense of unfamiliar warmth within you, which may be attributed to the budding acceptance of him as your husband. Sensing his muscles tensing, you proceeded a bit further and hummed curiously. His eyes met yours, conveying an indescribable emotion that you had never witnessed before in his brown eyes. He's unable to resist any longer, taking your hand and placing it over his chest, where you sense his rapid heartbeat.

"Y/n, I first saw you at the office when you brought lunch for your dad during one of my meetings with him. Your eyes and innocence captivated me instantly, and that's when I knew I had given my heart to you. I asked your dad for your hand, and to my surprise, he accepted right away. It shocked me, as I never expected such immediate approval. Later, he revealed that you didn't want to see my picture and that our marriage was arranged. I believed that you might see me as an old man," he honestly explained, making your heart race.

His own heart was pounding as he poured out his feelings, locking eyes with you.

"Y/n, in straight words I love you," he declared, and you gazed into his eyes, realizing that love was what you had been seeking in those eyes. You could feel yourself melting for him. He gently squeezed your hand, then brought it to his lips, planting a tender kiss on your knuckles. Your throat went dry, his lips on your hand being an exquisite sensation, and you yearned for his lips on yours. His gaze now fixated on your lips, and you moistened them with your tongue. He leaned in closer, just an inch away from you, his shallow breath brushing your lips. But he paused, seeking your permission through your eyes.

You couldn't help yourself any longer, so you took matters into your own hands and closed the gap between you and him. His eyes widened at your daring move, yet in a moment, his surprise was replaced with blissful feelings as your lips touched his. His hand encircled your neck while the other grabbed your waist, bringing you even closer. His cold, tantalizing lip piercing touched your lower lip, which elicited an involuntary moan from you. He started to suck on your lower lip, causing another moan to escape your mouth. He smirked in the kiss, knowing his touch had an effect on you, and plunged his tongue into your mouth, which you welcomed with open mouth. His passionate kiss went on for a minute before you both had to break apart to catch your breath. Your breaths were shallow; his lips were swollen from the passionate makeout session, and you felt your body heat up with desire. He caressed his thumb over your cheek and gazed at you with passionate eyes.

He made you lie on the bed, his eyes smoldering with desire as he hovered over you.

His voice was laced with lust as he whispered, "Are you ready to be mine?"

Your body quivered with anticipation, already wet from the deep timbre of his voice. You nodded, unable to resist the magnetic pull he had on you. Without hesitation, he captured your lips with a hunger that left you breathless. His hand cupped your clothed breast, eliciting a moan from deep within you.

As he trailed wet kisses down your jaw and neck, you arched your back in ecstasy. He found your sensitive spot of neck and you couldn't help but moan louder, but he held you down with a firm grip on your belly. You were becoming a moaning mess, completely under his spell. His effect on you was undeniable, and your panties were already damp with your wetness. You could feel the bulge in his pants growing, matching the intensity of your desire.

He pulled away from your neck, breathing heavily as he looked into your eyes.

"Y/n, may I please take off this gown of yours?" he asks his husky voice was thick with desire, and you took a moment to catch your breath.

This was all new to you, but you knew you wanted him. He was the one for you, and you were ready to give him everything.

"Ju-Jungkook, everything that's happening to me is new, but I'm ready to give you all of me," you told him, your voice trembling with anticipation.

His eyes glistened with emotion, but then he looked at you with concern.

"You're a virgin?" he asked, and you nodded.

"Y/n, if you don't want to do this, we don't have to, okay?" he reassured you, but you placed your palm over his chest.

"I'm fine with it, Jeon," you assured him, and he found your voice angelic as he leaned in to claim your lips once more.

"Oh, so my baby yearns to be mine, aching with anticipation. Hmm", he playfully taunts you, and you find yourself yearning to disappear, to escape from this world entirely.

He studies your countenance, and a mischievous grin dances across his lips, causing your cheeks to flush. Is it embarrassment that tinges your face, or is it simply the effect of his infectious smile?

With a charming smile, he took your hand and helped you sit, his strong arms gently holding your waist. As he began to remove your gown, his cold fingers brushed against your bare arms, sending shivers down your spine. Soon, you were dressed in a stunning black silk blouse and trousers, with your black bra straps peeking out seductively. Jungkook's eyes were fixated on your shoulders, and you could feel his gaze burning into your skin. He couldn't help but gulp as he took in the sight of those tantalizing straps, his tongue wetting his lips in anticipation. You couldn't help but crave the touch of that tongue on your own lips.

He leans in and whispers in your ear, "I fucking want to remove these pieces of clothing from you and wants to explore every curve of your body that's hidden underneath them".

You clutch his shirt tightly and feel your face beginning to flush, your throat drying up. His deep and lustful voice has a profound effect on you sending a wave of desire through your body.

His hands begin to explore your bare waist, his fingers tracing slow circles on your belly as he plants light kisses on your earlobe. Your breath quickens as his lips move lower, but he stops just short of your neck, his half-opened brown eyes filled with a mixture of love and lust. He's just an inch away from your lips, and you can feel the heat radiating off his body.

"Y/n, I can't control myself anymore," he speaks in a husky voice, his crotch straining against his pants.

He needs you, wants you, and he can't hold back any longer. He's asking for your permission, one last time, before he loses all control. You can feel the tension building between you, the air thick with desire and longing.

You have already accepted him. You found yourself enjoying his kisses, the way his fingers touched your skin, and the way he made love to you. His eyes conveyed a pure love for you, and his deep, husky voice sent shivers down your spine. And now you are unable to resist the growing bulge in his pants, and you just find yourself wanting him more and more. As his half-open brown gaze pierces into you, you feel your pussy getting wetter and wetter. You know you can no longer resist this sexual tension, and you are willing to go further with him. His breath fans across your mouth, and you yearn to devour his lips with your In this moment, you know that there is no turning back. You are consumed by the fire of your desire for him, and you are ready to take the plunge into the unknown depths of your passion. With a sense of reckless abandon, you want to give yourself over to him completely, knowing that you will never be the same again.

You blink your eyes, you give him a subtle hint that you're ready to give yourself to him completely. His lips curl up into a smile and his eyes sparkle with joy as he watches you. He's never felt this happy before and he doesn't know how to react. He places his palms on your cheeks and you can feel your heart racing in your chest. He tenderly kisses your forehead and whispers,

"You're so beautiful baby".

His voice is low but you can hear every word clearly. He gazes into your eyes and kisses each one gently.

"Your eyes are so captivating my love," he whispers again, causing your heart to skip a beat.

He then kisses both of your cheeks and lastly his lips tenderly touch your lips "And I promise I'll be gentle," he whispers in his husky voice.

The last sentence sends a jolt of pleasure through your body, causing you to clench your thighs tightly. You can feel your pussy pulsing with anticipation.

His captive hands slowly make their way to the hem of your black silk blouse, you feel your breath catch in your throat. Your mind is a jumbled mess, unable to focus on anything but the sensations coursing through your body. You know that this night is going to be long, but you can't help but crave more of his touches.

Every caress sends shivers down your spine, making you ache for something sinful and wild. You want him to take control, to show you just how much he desires you. His gentle touch is driving you mad, but you can't help but yearn for something more aggressive.

Just as you're lost in your thoughts, he suddenly pulls your blouse off with a force that takes you by surprise. Your eyes widen in shock, but you can't help but feel a thrill of excitement at the sudden burst of aggression. It's as if he's reading your mind, knowing exactly what you need.

With a sly smirk, he gazes at your flushed expression, his eyes sparkling as they roam over your perfect body. You feel his gaze like a predator, but in the limits of love. He leans in, his lips meeting yours in a fiery kiss. This time, he knows you're completely his, and he can do whatever he wants.

As he sucks on your bottom lip, a moan escapes your lips. His tongue slips into your mouth, and a battle ensues between your tongues. Your breathing becomes heavy, and you both know there's no going back. He's lost all control, and so have you.

As you suck on his tongue, he growls with pleasure. In the heat of the moment, he unbuckles your bra, leaving you exposed. You try to hide your breasts, but he's too fast, catching your hands before they can cover you.

"Uh huh! Don't you even think about hiding what's rightfully mine," he husked, his words dripping with an insatiable, irresistible longing.

He licks his swollen lips, his breath heavy with desire.

"And you know I've never seen such beautiful breasts in my entire life. Y/n, let me fucking suck these beautiful tits of yours. " he rasps, sending shivers down your core.

Your nipples harden at his dirty talk, and your underwear is already drenched with your juices.

Once again, he makes you lie on the bed, hovering over you with a hunger in his eyes. You know there's no turning back now. You're completely his, and he's going to take you to new heights of pleasure. As he hovers over you, his hands cup your left breast and begin to massage it. You can't help but moan as his mouth finds yours and devours your sounds. He moves to your right breast, and start massage it with the same way he did to the other. His big palms making your ample chest feel like nothing. You arch your back, and your clothed core brushes against his hard cock inside his pants. He growls into the kiss, and you both break away, breathing heavily.

You open your eyes to find his gaze sinful and intense, and you follow it down to where your clothed core is pressed against his own clothed dick. Your face flushes with desire, but you want more. You want to feel his abs, his muscular torso, and suck on his nipples like you owe him. You want to remove his damp shirt yourself and explore every inch of his body.

His eyes meet yours again, and you feel like you've forgotten how to breathe. You take a deep inhale, and he hitches his own breath at the sight of you.

"Jeon, let me remove your shirt," you speak in a shallow voice, your face still flushed red.

You can't believe you're being so bold, but it's like a part of you that's been imprisoned for so long is finally breaking free.

You begin to unbutton his shirt slowly, your fingers tenderly touching his skin and making him shudder with anticipation. He lets out a deep growl, unable to resist your teasing touch.

"You're playing with fire, my dear," he rasped, his voice dripping with a dangerous allure.

As he grind his clothed crotch against your womanhood, a surge of desire shot through your body, causing your core to clench and halting your movements to unbutton his shirt. His dark brown irises bore into your soul, creating deep, captivating holes in your eyes. The smirk on his lips sent shivers down your spine, quickening your breath.

He smirk, relishing in the flushed expression on your face.

"Open these damn buttons," he commanded, his voice laced with authority.

Unable to resist his dominance, your hands began to move again, this time with caution, avoiding his chiseled abs. He sat on knees, removing his shirt completely, revealing a sight that made your mouth go dry.

His toned abs, broad chest, tiny waist, and broad shoulders begged for your touch, yearning for your nails to dig into them. Unable to resist any longer, you instinctively reached for his neck, pulling him closer, capturing his lips with yours. A smile played on his lips as you sucked on his lower lip, causing him to grind his clothed cock against your lower region. The kiss was broken, and his hands began to make their way towards your silk black trousers.

You closed your eyes, breathing heavily, feeling a sense of humiliation as you knew your panties were already damp with your wetness. His fingers traced slowly along your lower abdomen, causing your belly to stick to your insides as you inhaled a long breath, overwhelmed by his actions. However, his movements abruptly stopped before reaching your trousers. Curiosity got the better of you, and you opened your eyes to see why he had paused.

In that moment, his hand suddenly grasped your breast with a firm grip, causing a loud moan to escape your lips.

"Ah-h Jungkook, you're gripping it so tightly," you whimpered, your voice filled with a mix of pleasure and pain.

Ignoring your plea, he continued to massage your breast, transforming your discomfort into pure ecstasy within the blink of an eye. He brought his face closer to your chest, his gaze fixated on your breasts as he licked his lips in a seductive manner. He  pinch your nipple, a surge of both pain and pleasure coursed through your body, leaving you hissing in delight.

"These nipples are craving my attention hmm, and I am going to give them just that before moving on to your pussy, which is also yearning for my touch."

His words dripping with a tantalizing filth that sent shivers down your spine. The anticipation grew, your senses were heightened and your body responded with a thrilling wetness, causing a delicious dampness to form in your panties. How much longer could your eager pussy wait for the moment his cock would finally be inside you? With a slow, deliberate movement, he brought his lips to your right breast, his plump strawberry lips brushing against your sensitive nipple. Your back arched in response, and you let out a soft moan as he began to suck on it. His tongue worked with his lips, creating a delicious sensation that made you gasp with pleasure.

"Ahh- Jeon," you moaned, your nails digging deep into his shoulder as he continued to suck on your nipple. He hissed in response, but he couldn't stop himself from lavishing your breast with his attention. His hand never stopped moving, massaging your other breast.

And then, with a gentle retreat, he released your breast, creating a soft pop sound as he withdrew. And then, he eagerly takes your left nipple into his mouth, his passion evident in every suck. Meanwhile, his skilled hands continue to massage the other breast, leaving you unable to control the involuntary roll of your eyes or the constant moans escaping your lips. With a gentle touch, he lifts your belly slightly, effortlessly removing your trousers, leaving you clad only in silk panties. Yet, even in this state of undress, he never ceases his attention on your breasts. Finally releasing them, he breathes heavily, his lips swollen and he gazed at you. The movement of his Adam's apple catches your attention, causing your breath to hitch in your throat. However, as you become aware of you're in only panties, you instinctively try to close your legs, only to find his hands firmly planted on your thighs, preventing any escape.

He leaned in, his face drawing closer to yours, his warm breath gently fanning across your lips. He peck tenderly on your lips, his eyes locked onto yours, inviting you to lose yourself in their deep brown depths.

His voice, raspy and filled with desire, broke the silence, "Are you enjoying my touch, baby?"

Your mind was a whirlwind, unable to think straight, but every touch, both gentle and assertive, sent waves of pleasure through your body. You yearned to be bold, but his affectionate caresses left you feeling dizzy, making you shy away from taking the lead. Instead, you simply nodded, silently conveying your desire for him to take control. As you nodded, his bunny teeth peeked through, and he couldn't help but praise your cuteness

"you're so cute my love",

which causing a small giggle to escape your lips. He captured your mouth once more, this time in a deep, passionate kiss, his lips hungrily sucking on yours. His left hand tenderly caressed your ear and cheek, heightening the intensity of the moment. Lost in the kiss, his hand began to explore your chest, slowly making its way down to your lower abdomen, until finally slipping beneath the fabric of your panties. The pleasure was overwhelming, and a moan escaped your lips as your back arched in response to his pleasurable touch.

He pulls away from your lips and leans in close to your ear. His breath is hot against your skin, sending shivers down your spine. Meanwhile, his other hand is tantalizingly close to your most intimate area, but not quite touching yet. With a low, seductive voice, he asks you a question that makes your heart race.

"Do you want my finger or my cock inside you first?"

The mere sound of his words sends your body into overdrive, and you can feel your arousal building with each passing moment. Your breathing is ragged and fast, and you can feel your panties growing damp with your own fluids.

He asked in low hum and playfully nibbled on your earlobe, causing a soft moan to escape your lips. His gaze locked onto yours, eager to witness the pleasure he was about to bestow upon you with his skilled touch. You met his gaze, conveying your desire for him, craving his every caress.

Closing the distance between his hand and your intimate area, a growl escaped his lips as his fingers encountered your wetness. The sensation elicited a loud moan from deep within you, but you quickly covered your mouth, overwhelmed by the intensity of the moment.

"You're so fucking wet, baby," he whispered, his voice filled with desire.

Your core tightened with anticipation, yearning for him to take further action before you succumbed to the pleasure building within you. Removing your hand from your mouth, you pleaded with him, your voice filled with desperation, "Please, just do it."

A mischievous smirk played on his lips, fully aware of your desires. His voice dripped with lust as he asked, "Tell me, what is it that you want me to do?"

You squeezed your eyes shut, gathering your courage, only to open them again, determined to voice your desires. With heavy breaths, you finally spoke, "I want you to pleasure me with your fingers."

He listened intently, but as he acted upon your request, your eyes widened in surprise at the sudden sensation. He plunged his two fingers deep inside you. "JUNGKOOK one" causing you to moan even louder, your back arching in pleasure and pain. Yet, he held you still, his grip firm on your belly, ensuring you savored every moment of ecstasy.

As his fingers delve deeper into your core, he can't help but let out a low groan. You feel yourself clenching around his fingers as he begins to work his magic. He rubs your clit with his thumb, eliciting a moan from deep within your throat.

"Baby, how does it feel?" he rasps, his voice dripping with desire. You dig your nails into his shoulder, causing him to hiss in pleasure. He thrusts his fingers again, and you can feel them hitting your g- spot.

"It-t feels good," you stutter, your voice barely audible. You know that if he thrusts any harder, you'll cum all over his hands.

"Jungkook, I'm near," you speaks, your voice barely above a whisper.

"Mhm, cum for me baby," he groans, his voice shallow with desire. His cock is painfully hard, and he wants nothing more than to be inside you. With one final thrust, you cum all over his fingers. He pulls out his fingers, and you feel a rush of euphoria wash over you. Your cum is all over his hand, and he licks it off with a look of pure enjoyment on his face.

"You taste really fucking good," he says, his voice filled with lust.

He tenderly licked your cum before pressing his lips against yours, allowing you to taste yourself on his tongue. The sensation caused you to moan in pleasure. With a gentle pop, he broke the kiss and knelt before you, removing your damp panties and tossing them aside. Rising from the bed, you also sit up, supporting your tired body with your palms. The intensity of your orgasm had left you feeling exhausted, as if it were the most powerful climax you had ever experienced. Although you had explored self-pleasure before, this encounter was unlike anything else. As he unbuttoned his pants, his muscles flexed, captivating your attention and igniting a spark of anticipation in the air. Slowly, he unzipped his pants, revealing his throbbing member encased in Calvin Klein boxers. Your breath caught in your throat, your expression revealed a mix of amusement and perhaps a hint of apprehension, wondering how such a sizable erection would fit inside your petite entrance. Sensing your thoughts, he flashed a confident grin,

"i would take care not to hurt you, my precious y/n" he assured you.

Your face flushes with a mix of embarrassment and desire, causing him to let out a chuckle. It's not a cute chuckle, but rather one that hints at something more intense, perhaps even lustful. As he removes his boxers, your eyes widen at the sight of his erect member, now free from its confinement. You quickly avert your gaze, not wanting to give in to the temptation of staring at it. But deep down, you know that your core is already clenching in anticipation of the pleasure it will bring.

He chuckles again, amused by your attempt to restrain yourself from looking at his hard cock. Although your face is turned away, your eyes remain fixed on his throbbing member. He climbs onto the bed and hovers over you, his voice dripping with desire.

"So, baby, do you want to use protection or feel my bare cock inside you?" he asks, his words hanging in the air.

You don't respond verbally, but your heart pounds so hard it feels like it's touching your bones. It's difficult to form words, but he insists on an answer.

"Tell me in a simple yes or no. I want to make sure I'm respecting your choice," he says, his voice filled with obedience.

You gulp, mustering up the courage to answer him. "I want to feel you... bare," you speak, your voice barely above a whisper.

But it's enough for Jungkook to hear.

"Good girl", he praises you,  and a wide grin spreads across his face.

You smile back, but your smile quickly transforms into one filled with intense sexual tension. He studies your expression intently, his eyes searching for any sign of hesitation or discomfort. Sensing your unease, he leans in closer, his face mere inches from yours, and gently pecks your lips.

"You need to feel at ease with my touch, baby, because it brings you--", his voice low and seductive. But before he can finish his sentence, you cut him off with a passionate kiss, causing a smile to form on his lips. As you pull away from the kiss, your breath still heavy, you meet his gaze and explain your apprehension.

"I know, Jungkook, i know. It's my first time, so it will take some time for me to adjust to this situation and become comfortable," you confess, your voice filled with a mix of nervousness and anticipation.

He lie you gently onto the bed, his touch tender yet confident. Starting with wet kisses on your lips, he trails his lips down to your neck and shoulders, eliciting soft moans of pleasure from you. His hand slowly glides up your thighs, his touch causing your body to respond eagerly, your arousal growing with each caress.

His lips release your body momentarily, and you both lock eyes, your heart skipping a beat as you follow his gaze. His member stands erect, aching to be inside you. You can't help but gulp, feeling your breath catch in your throat at the sight. He pump his cock, the anticipation building, and you find yourself unable to resist the desire that courses through your veins. He gazed into your eyes, and you met his intense gaze with equal desire. His hand began to caress your most intimate area, his touch seeking to bring you a sense of relaxation and pleasure. With his other hand, he supported himself, ensuring that his weight did not bear down too heavily upon you. The sensations overwhelmed you, and you couldn't help but moan, biting your lip in an attempt to stifle your cries of pleasure.

He positioned himself at your entrance, causing your body to arch instinctively in anticipation. A groan escaped his lips, but he fought to control his urge to thrust forcefully.

""You'll take me very well, baby. Just relax, my love," he whispered, his words soothing your muscles.

He slowly pushed an inch of his cock inside you, using his other hand to rub your folds. Your eyes rolled back naturally, and you husked, biting your lower lip. He husked too, feeling the tightness of your core.

You wanted to feel him fully, but his cock's one inch was causing you to lose yourself. He dug more of his cock inside you slowly, and you felt like his full size had adjusted. But when you tried to look at the size that was left behind, your eyes widened as you saw the half cock that was still outside of your core. You thought his full cock was already inside you.

Sensing your flustered state, he tenderly kissed your forehead, allowing your muscles to relax once more. He slid his entire length inside you, his lips biting down hard as he struggled to contain his heavy breathing. When he fully adjusted, he looked at you, and you were a bit more relaxed. But your pussy clenched around his cock, causing him to groan, 

"Fuck, your pussy is gripping me so tightly."

You enveloped your arms around his strong neck, prompting him to bury his face in the comforting embrace of your shoulder and neck. Your legs clung to his torso, holding him close.

"Can I move now?" he groaned in your ear, and you nodded eagerly.

At first, his entrance made you uncomfortable, but now you had adjusted and felt a sense of relaxation, yearning for him to continue. As he withdrew his cock, your back arched in anticipation, and you felt a slow reentry that sent waves of pleasure and pain through your core. His hot breath tickled your neck, but you were too consumed by the mixture of pain and pleasure to notice his reaction. You knew you were reaching a point of no return, where there was no going back. He began to move his hips in a deliberate, slow manner, and the initial pain faded away, leaving only pure pleasure and his soft groans near your ear. His hands gently removed yours from his shoulder, intertwining your fingers with his. You realized he try to control so much, determined not to cause you any pain. Today, you experienced both sides of Jungkook - one as gentle as an angel, and the other as bold as a devil. He bestowed upon you both pleasure and love. Your back arched even more, and amidst the overwhelming pleasure, you managed to speak, your voice trembling with ecstasy.

"Mhm, Jungkook, listen..."

His slow movements halted, and he looked at you, humming in anticipation.

"You don't need to hold back anymore," you assured him, your voice barely above a whisper.

Jungkook's eyes filled with a mixture of love and lust, his desire for you evident.

"Are you sure?" he asked, his gaze locked with yours, his cock still pulsing inside you. You nodded, and without hesitation, he unleashed his desire upon you. "OH MY god" a mixture of pain and pleasure escaped your lips as you tightly shut your eyes, his face buried in the curve of your neck. A primal growl escaped his lips as he felt your walls clench around him, driving him to thrust harder. The force he possessed threatened to tear you apart, but the pain soon transformed into pure ecstasy, leaving you a moaning mess beneath him.

"You take me so damn well," he rasped, his voice thick with lust and pleasure.

The intensity of your orgasm built within you, threatening to consume you entirely.

"Ah, Jungkook, I'm going to come. I can't..."

Your words were cut off by another powerful thrust, causing you to lose yourself in pleasure once again. The air of room is thick with the sounds of passion as your moans mingle with the rhythmic slapping of skin.

With one final thrust, you climaxed, your release coating his cock as you cried out in sheer bliss, the intensity of it causing your body to tremble.

"Just hold on a little longer, baby. I'm almost there," he whispered, his voice filled with anticipation.

Your eyes fluttered shut, your breaths coming in heavy gasps, as you felt the swelling of your core and the relentless pounding of his cock.

At the peak of his pleasure, he released himself inside you with a guttural exclamation of "fuck." Both of you were left breathless, your bodies drenched in sweat, your combined fluids trickling from within you. Exhausted, you lacked the energy to even clean yourself. He gazed at you, your eyes already closed, and a chuckle escaped his lips as he struggled to catch his own breath.

He nestled himself right beside you, drawing your body closer to his. As he caught his breath, he gazed at you with an overwhelming mix of love and passion. He understood that you must be exhausted after this long night, but it was the most incredible night for him. And he knew that you had enjoyed it just as much. Gently, he placed your head on his chest, your eyes still closed. With tender strokes, he caressed your hair, his touch so delicate it felt like a whisper. He wondered if you had fallen asleep, but then a thought crossed his mind.

"Oops, y/n, we completely forgot to ask about each other's favorite things," he said, causing you to let out a light giggle. You looked up at him, still half-asleep.

"Are you awake, baby?" he inquired, to which you simply hummed in response.

"I'm so tired," you spoke in a weary tone. "But I know you have an obsession with black color ," you whispered, and he couldn't help but laugh, his chest vibrating with mirth.

"I know you're tired, love. We'll talk about it tomorrow. Goodnight, baby. I love you," he whispered to you, his voice sounding angelic. His words carrying the weight of devotion. And as those words reached your ears, you surrendered to the embrace of slumber, feeling his love envelop you like a warm embrace, feeling his love envelop you.

[imaginedreamwrite]

Pumpkin definitely was ordered to. In fact, I don't think Lloyd included any panties in her new wardrobe except maybe for her period

“Lloyd!” He hears your scream of frustration, and the soft laugh that falls from his lips feels more like a giggle as he raises his glass to his lips, counting down the moments before you come down the steps to give him hell.

“Lloyd Hansen, you-!” You come peeling around the corner and stop in a huff, your eyes narrowed and fixed in a glare, your hands holding an empty bag. “Where are they you sick-“

“Problem, Pumpkin?” He sips on his liquor and rattles the glass, the ice clinking against crystal. “Lose something?”

“You’re about to lose one or both nuts if you don’t tell me where the fuck my brand new panties are.” You inch toward him, crumpling the bag in your hand while he laughs again.

“Oh? Did you buy some?” His gaze drops to the hem of your dress, his tongue brushing against his bottom lip as he wets his flesh. “I thought I told you no-“

“And I thought I told you to go fuck yourself with a red hot poker.” You snapped at him, raising your voice before you chucked the bag at his head and tapped your bare foot against the tile.

Lloyd caught the bag and dropped it to the floor. He studied you with a cocky smirk and slowly leaned back against his chair, his legs spread and his hardening cock twitching beneath his white pants.

“Talk dirty to me, Pumpkin. You know I like it.”

“You-!” You raised your hands and curled your fingers in a motion of wanting to strangle him before you groaned in frustration.

“I don’t want you wearing panties, Mrs. Hansen.“ Lloyd pat his thigh and motioned for you to come closer, his eyesight bouncing from the cut of your dress as it lay against your chest and the state in which you were bare beneath the cotton.

“Well clearly I have no choice.” You grit your teeth and yanked your dress up over your hips, showing him the state of half-dress you were in. “Someone stole every single pair, and they were new.”

“Fuck,” he cursed, palming himself at the sight of you and the unrestricted access he would have, “let me feel you, Pumpkin.”

“Let me cut off a ball first, I’ll even let you choose which one you lose.” You figuratively bared your teeth, snapping like a cornered beast despite you currently having the power in this situation.

“Come here, Pumpkin.” He was hungry, practically salivating. “Let me feel you, taste you and maybe-“

“You’re giving them back to me.”

“Half.” He countered, with another smirk. “Negotiations, Mrs. Hansen-“

“Fine.” You stalked toward him and slung one leg over his right thigh, perching in his lap like he wanted, your hands resting on his shoulders. “But if you try and steal anymore of my clothes, I’ll kick your ass.”

“Don’t threaten me with a good time.”

[un---man]

Vulnerability

Last I checked you can buy a physical copy of the anarchist FAQ from AK Press but it’s separated into two volumes do to length. I appreciate the project, though it unintentionally demonstrated the seemingly sisyphean task we carry.

I think most friends and family probably know that I’m an anarchist even if I don’t exactly bring it up in regular conversation. Hints are dropped and word spreads fast. I both dread and look forward to the conversations where someone somewhat timidly brings up the topic of my absurd political position. I’ve won countless arguments in my head while pacing back and forth in my apartment but that never seems to stop me from being a nervous wreck when the topic actually comes up.

Where the state occupies an infinite space in it’s god like legitimacy anarchy is an empty space. Overwhelming in it’s negation, and uncomfortable in it’s nakedness.

“The state calls its own violence law, but that of the individual, crime.”

Perhaps the most basic statement of Stirner’s political philosophy. But what concern is hypocrisy to the nihilist? What recourse does Stirner have to condemn anyone? The Unique and Its Property is largely dedicated to defanging ethical concepts so what recourse does Stirner have when they don’t live up to his standards?

Stirner seems oblivious or indifferent to his own ethical subtext. His critics are quick to point out that Max seems to hold a strange position that we ought to be nihilists. The seeming glaring contradiction riddles his whole work.

For Stirner, philosophy has tended to fill a kind of backwards role. Reality, and in particular the self, are ultimately non-conceptual. Yet we seem to be obsessed with purity of concepts. We want them to fit like neat bathroom tiles. Stack them up like bricks and mortar. Stirner seems more inline with the Taoists, every concept, to the extent that we insist on its purity, its truth, is a kind of destruction. We sacrifice a non-conceptual reality for the sake of legibility.

Stirner isn’t satisfied with merely pointing out concepts will never live up to their own expectations, he seems to believe we shouldn’t hold them to that standard to begin with. That’s the whole trouble with Stirner’s work, he seems concerned about the ethical implications of ethics.

John Carrol in the amazingly under-read Escape From the Crystal Palace compares Dostoevsky’s Christianity, of all things, to Stirner’s hyper-nominalism and hints at its ethical implications through the story of The Grand Inquisitor. To quote at length:

”Stirner and Nietzsche imply that there is a type of freedom available to man in which ideology is not dominant, in which morality is adaptable to the needs of the individual; a state beyond good and evil. One counter-argument, which is stronger than they cater for, runs to the effect that this assumption is psychologically unfounded, that it is utopian in the repressive sense of serving to awaken unrealizable hopes. The case is put by the Grand Inquisitor in Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov. He argues against Christ, who represents a position identical to that of Stirner, that men do not want this freedom, that they do not seek to determine their own values. He impeaches Christ for having too little compassion for man, for failing to respect his choice, which will be for happiness, given that happiness and freedom are incompatible. The Inquisitor himself chooses to take on the responsibility of making decisions and determine values; he provides the happier majority with bread to eat and miracles to save them from boredom. He would grant the truth of Stirner’s ‘You love man therefore you torture the individual man’. His defense is that the will of the majority urges that Christ be killed. The Christ's response, to kiss the Grand Inquisitor, is bafflingly and assertively anarchic, in the characteristic sense that little more can be said about it than that it expresses the individual. It is irrational in that it rejects the terms of the debate…”

-John Carrol Escape from the Crystal Palace

Effortlessly Carrol see’s Christianity and nihilism occupying the same space if only for a brief moment. In the moment of vulnerability. This world is full of values so deafening, abstract, and beyond our reach that, in practice, they resemble the supposed nihilism it desperately denies. Saviors are in cheap supply. So hyper-competitive they sit at a stand still. Meaning is over produced. The world is saturated in it. You’re beating a dead horse before you say anything at all.

Ironically, it is nihilism that posits us in what I would consider the most basic, though ultimately theoretical, ethical position, individuals without recourse. Persons left naked, forced to deal with one another without claim to higher ideals. Forced to be an individual, and without means to see anyone as anything else.To be beyond good and evil is to be stripped of the infrastructure of guilt, where influence doesn’t extend beyond our fingertips.

A nakedness that I think is worth our devotion. A vulnerability that’s difficult to create. Ethics builds itself up like a fortress, but it’s only in its cracks when it can honestly exist. From Christ, Nietzsche, Diogenes, Stirner, Laozi, we are confronted with the truth in contradiction again and again.