#counting on people to read the best intentions into this post. i don't give a shit about celebrity drama i want people safe

[seventeendeer]

this isn't at all meant to be condescending or finger-waggy because 100% we all have blind spots like this, but I'm really, really hoping that the people who never found Gaiman's approach to his own fandom concerning in any way will take this all as a learning moment.

he was an older, hyper-famous author engaging directly and frequently with an online audience of largely vulnerable young marginalized people. he presented himself as cultured and worldly, and made himself approachable as someone to go to for advice, encouragement and "wisdom." his manner of speech was extremely pathos-heavy and clearly intended to be comforting and encouraging in exactly the way his target demographic needed it to be to swallow every word. the way he spoke about stories and creativity was designed to make young creative hopefuls feel special and important, while sweeping real analytical techniques under the rug - in hindsight, likely so no one would think too critically about the disturbing amount of patriarchal abuse played for cheap shock value and voyerism in his own body of works.

Gaiman saw a target demographic that was desperate for an older creative role model to tell them they were worth something, and he exploited that pain to twist a narrative around himself where he was king and any critique leveled at him or his works were the enemy.

to be clear, he could have been innocent. he could totally have been just an out-of-touch old man saying nice things to people because he wanted to be kind and he thought he was a lot smarter than he really was. red flags are warning signs, not a surefire way to tell if someone is actually "secretly shitty."

but if you used to look up to him, PLEASE take this moment to revisit the ideas you absorbed from him. did you take his words to heart because they seemed to have objective merit? or did you take them to heart because it felt good to believe what he said? do you still hold these values? does knowing he was intentionally manipulating his online audience make you less certain? do you need more information from a different source before deciding one way or another?

again, I'm just really, really hoping people on here will take a moment to reevaluate the ideas and opinions he's injected into tumblr fandom culture, because his reach is immense and he has absolutely been manipulating popular perception of relevant topics to gain further influence and control the narrative around both his own and Pratchett's legacy. please, please take this moment to notice what he's been doing - and next time someone tries to pull the same shit, hopefully we'll be able to apply what we've learned from experience.

[space-mango-company]

Stranger | Chapter 2

Chapter Links: [1], [2], [3], [4], [5]

TW: Descriptions of Violence, Mentions of Cannibalism

Tags: Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen x Atreides!Reader, Arranged Marriage, Eventual Smut (still not in this chapter lmao), No use of y/n, Original Characters, Canon what canon

Word Count: 2k

A/N: So... this was posted prematurely a couple hours ago. This is the actual finished longer version. If you don't know what I'm talking about, thank god. Sorry this took so long, lmao

Just letting you guys know that my knowledge of the lore is purely based off of the movies and the Dune wiki rabbit hole I fell into right after watching part two. I also took a few liberties with the canon here.

I'm super open to constructive criticism, or any criticism at all (feel free to absolutely roast me). Like I mentioned, I've never written fanfic before so I'd love to hear your thoughts!

The evening of your first day in Giedi Prime was celebrated with a banquet where you were introduced to the most important people on the planet. You've heard many stories of the ruthlessness and brutality of the Harkonnens, hence surprised by the courtly welcome during the dinner. Although you did your best to politely ignore the Baron who floated at the head of the table being fed by servants.

You were sat beside his nephew who, despite your mother's education, has evaded your insight. You couldn't quite get a read on him.

Feyd-Rautha whispers to you amid the buzzing conversations of the banquet hall, "are you enjoying the food, little hawk?"

You shoot him a questioning look.

"I like your hairpin," he sneers.

You resist from reaching to touch the Atreides symbol affixed in your hair.

"We don't see such ornaments often here." He quietly laughs in his devilish way, only too amused with himself.

Ah, you realize. He means to torment you.

"Seems early for pet names," you say, picking at your plate, "we've only just met."

"Oh, and yet we are to be wed in less than a week's time," his raspy voice rings in your ear, "I should like to be familiar with my future wife, Lady Atreides."

The marriage pact had been signed when you were only a little girl. Inheriting your father's inclinations, you swore you would uphold your duty, undeterred by the gruesome and abhorrent stories about the Harkonnens—because you knew that centuries of conflict could end within a generation with this union. You were a willing bride.

And yet.

You give him a smile that, to those not privy to your conversation, would seem genuine, "You know nothing of me, na-Baron."

"I should like to learn," you doubt his sincerity but care not enough to discern it. He takes a smug bite of a forkful of meat, "perhaps tomorrow, you shall learn something of me."

The following morning Iassa helps you into another black gown, this time with a veil in anticipation of the black sun.

"Is it not dangerous for Feyd-Rautha to wager his life for a show?" you question.

"The na-Baron is a skilled fighter, my lady. He will emerge victorious," Iassa is straight-faced as she drapes the veil over you.

"Yes, I do not doubt it, but given he is the Baron's heir. Does it not seem a touch irresponsible to even risk it at all."

Not that you actually cared for his life, you just expected that the Harkonnens would be concerned with the preservation of their house regardless of their brutality. You recall your grandfather who got himself killed fighting bulls for sport.

"The na-Baron will be fighting war prisoners. They will be drugged beforehand. It is perfectly safe, my lady."

"Oh." You couldn't decide if you were disappointed or not, "I see."

Iassa seemed intent on dropping the subject, so you do.

You stand before a mirror and take a look at yourself. It is impossible not to be reminded of your mother. She was never one for vanity, but you like to think there was a part of her that always enjoyed the elegant dresses she and you 'had' to wear. You allow yourself a somber smile behind your veil.

"You look beautiful, my lady," Iassa curtsies.

"Thank you," you look at her bowed figure, gray robes made more dull by the stark black choker on her neck. You were sure she was at least 2 standard years younger than you are and it had only been a few months since you came of age. You wondered if she liked pretty dresses too.

Before you can ask her, there is a knock at your door.

The house steward, Jaromir, clears his throat when Iassa opens it for you, "The na-Baron requests your presence before he enters the arena."

Heavy doors open for you in one of the chambers beneath the arena. You are greeted by the sight of a half-dressed Feyd-Rautha being helped into his armor by a servant.

"Lady Atreides," he looks you up and down, "I hope you slept well."

You bow your head in acknowledgment.

"Your knives, master," a large man whom you assume to be the bladesmith presents Feyd-Rautha with two daggers.

The young Harkonnen takes one and caresses the blade with his fingers.

"I've come to wish the brave na-Baron well before his fight in the arena," you say in false earnestness.

He smiles at your inflation of his ego.

"Though I must say, I am relieved it is all for show. I would not like to see my groom wounded before we are wed."

"For show?" Feyd-Rautha tilts his head and you see his arrogant facade show the slightest crack.

"Yes, I've heard your opponents will be drugged will they not?" your voice dripping with innocence, "to ensure your safety, of course."

His grip on the dagger tightens, "and where did you hear this exactly?"

You sense the awkwardness and tension in the servants. The one who had helped don Feyd-Rautha's armor has quietly retreated to the far side of the chamber. There is a subtle tremble in the hands of one holding a plate of towels. You finally notice the three women piled upon a raised platform glaring at you.

"Just voices around the fortress," you shrug.

A deep breath recovers Feyd-Rautha's smug expression. "Call for the warden," he orders one of the guards by the door, "tell him to prepare new prisoners. Sober ones."

"My lord, you need not endanger yourself," you feign worry.

"Nonsense." The na-Baron walks closer to tower over you, "My lady bride deserves to see my true prowess."

He sees through your challenge, but you don't care. Seeing his self-satisfied smirk wiped from his face for even just a second was worth it.

"Besides," he turns away from you to inspect the second knife, "my darlings enjoy meat that's fought for its life."

The three women sneer at this and you see their sharp teeth as they hiss amongst themselves.

You've heard of Feyd-Rautha's concubines long before you arrived on Giedi Prime. Tales of their taste for human flesh were one of the things that tested your resolve in fulfilling the marriage pact. You didn't mind that the na-Baron would keep other women. It would result in less of his attentions on yourself, you figured. It was their perverse appetite that nauseated you.

A look of revulsion hides behind your veil which you sense they would be all too happy to rip to shreds.

"I will see you in the stands, little hawk," Feyd-Rautha whispers to you as he waves for a guard to escort you out.

You do your best to drown out the noise of what seemed to be a countless audience that came to see the na-Baron fight. You could understand now why they uphold such brutal traditions. The people are so excited for it.

On the other side of the arena, you sense Vladimir Harkonnen watching you from the Baron's Box that towered over the whole arena. The blazing sun only helps you avoid looking in his direction. You were sat at a viewing box, still for nobility and separated from the masses, but much lower and closer to the sands of the arena. Jaromir had told you that you were to 'give the na-Baron your favor'.

Before long, the master of ceremonies announces Feyd-Rautha's entrance in Giedi Prime Speech. They are celebrating his betrothal to you and the union of Harkonnen and Atreides, you translate in your head. You wonder if the people care for the politics of the Great Houses. They seemed no less excited to cheer at your name despite the centuries-old blood feud.

Massive doors open as the na-Baron walks into the arena. His arms outstretched holding his knives like an extension of his limbs. He riles up the crowd as he walks towards the Baron's Box and kneels to his uncle. He then rises and walks toward you, smirking under the stark light of the black sun.

You may not fear earning the Harkonnens' contempt, but you were the Duke of Caladan's daughter and you knew that the favor of the people was invaluable.

You stand and walk to the edge of the viewing box. The glowing smile you reveal as you lift your veil draws cheers from the crowd that rival what Feyd-Rautha received. You produce a pure white handkerchief from your dress pocket and make a show of kissing it and waving the cloth at the buzzing crowd. You throw it off the edge and it floats toward the na-Baron who had moved both daggers to one hand to catch it. He looks up at you with what you think could be the seeds of respect and tucks the cloth into the tight armband around his right bicep.

He turns back to the audience and raises his knives in a war cry. The crowd explodes in guttural cheers and applause. Feyd-Rautha takes his position in the middle of the arena as his first opponent is released into the white sands.

You've heard of the Harkonnen heir's aptitude in single combat. It's time to see if the stories were true or if it was just another part of their menacing facade.

You were handed a pair of spyglasses to observe with. The two fighters approach each other, the prisoner wielding a knife of his own. Feyd-Rautha holds a taunting stance. The prisoner was sober, you were sure, but even without the spyglasses, you could see he was weak. You surmised the Harkonnen cells weren't very hospitable. He attempts a swipe but the na-Baron parries with ease. Another and the na-Baron dodges. Zooming in, you could see Feyd-Rautha's twisted amusement. He was toying with the poor man—and the people loved it.

The crowds cheered at the clashing of metal, thundering when the na-Baron drew first blood by slashig his opponent's arm. It wasn't long before Feyd-Rautha's dagger had impaled the prisoner's heart. There was no pause before a second prisoner was brought out to meet a similar fate.

Feyd-Rautha stood unwounded, seething with exhilaration. He enjoyed this; the thrill of killing. He basked in the roar of the crowd. You had never ended a life before, but some deep part of you could almost understand how he felt in that moment.

A third prisoner enters the arena. He looked older than the first two, bearded and taller. He reminded you of Gurney Halleck, the Atreides Warmaster. This man certainly wasn't at his prime but you could tell he would not go down as easily as the first two.

The warrior holds his blade out in a firm fighting stance, refusing to make the first move. You notice picadors in black suits have entered the arena, circling the na-Baron and his opponent. Feyd-Rautha lunges at the prisoner and a quick series of parries from both sides occur. You see the finesse in the na-Baron's movement. He recognizes his opponent's skill and he is taking this one seriously. You were not sure what you expected of the Harkonnen's fighting style but Feyd-Rautha was vicious but precise. The crowd gasps when the prisoner disarms one of the na-Baron's knives. The warrior manages to get a grip on Feyd-Rautha's armed hand and aims to pierce the na-Baron's neck with his blade. The na-Baron struggled against his hold and the arid air was thick with anticipation.

You were unsure what outcome you desired as you stared through your spyglass. Perhaps this warrior kills your betrothed. What then? Would you really be able to go back to Caladan's windy cliffs again? Return to the arms of your mother as if it were all a bad dream? You wonder if when Feyd-Rautha becomes baron, and you his baroness, could you convince him to let you see your family.

The warrior's blade was dangerously close to your future husband's throat when one of the picadors lashes at the warrior. The na-Baron growls at the offending picador as the warrior is weakened. Feyd-Rautha pushes him off and allows him a moment to recover, taunting him to try again. Blades clash once more and after a sequence of quick ferocious movements, Feyd-Rautha's blade slashes the warrior's throat. Blood made black by the infrared of the sun splatters onto the na-Baron. He licks the darkness that landed on his lips. Heaving, he takes your bloodied handkerchief off his armband and raises it to you and the roaring crowd.

You did not even realize you were already standing, breathless at the sight.

Chapter Links: [1], [2], [3], [4], [5]

Taglist: @torchbearerkyle @austinswhitewolf @dreamlandcreations @emeraldsgirl @strawberryfieldsforevermore

[gogobootz1]

Paperback Writer

Bradley Bradshaw x Reader

Summary: When Bradley finds a stray journal at the Hard Deck, he makes it his personal mission to return it to its owner. But not before reading what's inside.

Word Count: 2.4k

Top Gun Masterlist

You've spent the last four hours at this bar and still haven't come up with a thing. The newest page in your notebook stares back at you, entirely blank. Well, blank, save for the water ring your mojito has left on it. Only the ice cubes have been left for a while now, and you sip sadly at them as you stare off at the water. Maybe a beach day will inspire you.

Sighing, you close your notebook and push it toward the wall. You don't want to think about the deadline that is slowly closing in on you. A new book, and only about two months left to complete it. It had been three, but you've spent the last month at a complete loss.

This whole night, going to dinner, going to a bar, has been with the intention of finding inspiration. You still haven't found it, so now it's time to find your way home. Pushing yourself away from the table, you peel yourself from your chair and settle up with the nice lady at the bar.

You look out at the ocean again on your walk home. It's extremely nice of your agent to let you stay at her and her wife's beach home. Pam had granted you this accommodation in the hopes it would kickstart your writing. To the extent of her knowledge, it has. She's been worried about you after you argued with the publishing company over a sequel. You fought tooth and nail for the opportunity to work on something totally new. After the commercial success of your debut novel, however, they were reluctant to pass up their chance at a sequel.

Your publishing company clearly hadn't been expecting such an exorbitant amount of copies to sell. Frankly, neither had you. By some stroke of luck or divine intervention, Taylor Swift picked up your book, read it, and posted it on her Instagram story. Stores could hardly keep it on shelves after that.

Now your publishers are simply hoping to milk the cash cow. You can't really blame them, but soon, when you don't have a second novel to give them, they're going to blame you.

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

"Thanks for cleaning up, you two," Penny calls from behind the bar. Maverick had practically begged Bradley to stay and help so that he and Penny could start their date early. After some negotiating, he happily acquiesced.

"No problem, Penny," Rooster calls back, sending a smug look at Pete, who narrows his eyes at him. They're just about finished wiping tables, and he can tell Mav is more than ready to leave.

Bradley turns to wipe the last table but stops when he sees a leather-bound journal sitting near the window. He picks it up, turning it over in his hands.

"Done. Let's go, Pen," Mav says, rushing his girlfriend. Penny finally drops the rag she'd been wiping the bar with.

"I've still gotta lock up," she says, lightly mocking.

"I can do it, Penny," Rooster says, not taking his eyes off the journal.

"Thanks, kid," Mav smiles, whisking his girlfriend away. "Keys are on the bar. I owe you one!"

Bradley just barely hears Penny's protests as Pete rushes her out. He figures he'd better get home, himself. Giving the table a cursory wipe, he heads toward the bar to grab the keys.

Suddenly his eyes land on the lost and found bucket. Most of the Hard Deck's patrons are locals and regulars. The bin is almost always empty, and when it isn't, people always come back for whatever's inside.

Bradley looks at the journal again. Surely no one would be coming back for this tonight, though. And would they really notice if it had been flicked through? Letting his curiosity get the best of him, Bradley takes a stool at the bar and starts reading.

After a few pages, he starts to realize just what the journal is. It's no diary, none of the juicy details of someone's personal life that he had nosily been hoping for. No. It's a book, or some sort of story, at least. It's a good one, too. Bradley takes a sidelong glance at the clock and finds he's stayed for an hour longer than he intended.

He grabs the keys and locks everything up for Penny, not bothering to put his find in the lost and found.

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

Bradley can’t remember when he’d fallen asleep, but he's certain that it wasn’t before he’d read the vast majority of the journal. His neck is stiff from crashing on his couch, but he has a new interest in finding whoever wrote this. 

He hasn't been that interested in a book in a while, and he'd be remiss if the author doesn't get their work back. Especially when the work is so incredible. Bradley's never considered himself the most avid reader. He only reads when he's got the time and wouldn't rather be watching the game. This book, however, has him hooked. He thinks it should be on shelves, selling out all over the world. He only needs to find this person to tell them that.

Where do people write their names in their journals?

He makes a face, confronted by his own stupidity, and flips to the front page. Sure enough, on the back of the cover is a woman's name and address. Bradley's not quite sure if people knock on each other's doors nowadays, or if that's entirely creepy, but he's willing to find out.

Once his fist is inches away from her door, Bradley hesitates before knocking. Is it creepy that he's here? Is it creepy that he read the journal? He's willing to admit that one. Should he tell the author he read it at all? Maybe he should pretend he didn't. Can he fake being a Good Samaritan when he really wants to ask this woman about her writing? He doesn't have time to answer these questions for himself before the door swings open on its own.

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

You recoil when you realize someone's standing on the front porch. "Hello?" You're certain you don't know this man. He's too pretty for you to know him, and you'd at least remember him if you did.

"Hi," he responds stiltedly.

You look at him questioningly, "can I help you?"

"Yes! Actually," he holds up your journal, "is this yours?"

"Oh my god," you snatch your notebook out of his hands, "Where'd you find it?"

"You must've left it at the bar last night," he shrugged.

"Well, thanks," you smile, putting it in your tote bag.

"No problem, yeah. Wouldn't want to lose all that work," he nods. You look up suddenly.

"You read it?"

The man grimaces when he realizes he's outed himself. "Sorry," he cringes, "I'm too nosy for my own good. But can I just say that this is incredible? Really! This could be a book!"

Your face falls, and you look at him blankly, "it is." 

"No!" He shakes his head. "I mean- well, yes, it is. And that's a great attitude to have, but what I'm trying to say is that you need to find a publisher. This is-"

You roll your eyes, shaking your head. Reaching into your giant beach bag, you grab your sunglasses and shove them onto your face. Stepping out onto the porch, you grab a real copy of your book from your bag and plop it in his hands. "That’s really not my problem right now, hot stuff. Have a good one,” you lock up your house and start walking towards the beach.

He doesn't follow you until a few seconds later.

"You mean you're already a published author?" You hear from behind you. You roll your eyes and keep walking, but he easily catches up. "What I read was just-"

"The prototype to what seven million American women have already consumed? Yeah," you nod.

"Holy shit!" He says, and you just hum in agreement. "So wait, what is your problem then?" You stop in the middle of the path. You haven't even said it out loud yet.

"They want another one," you admit quietly.

"That's great!" He says excitedly. You slowly turn and remove your sunglasses to level him with a glare, "...or not?"

"No, stranger, it's not great."

"I'm Bradley," he interrupts.

You barrel on, "You know when they want the sequel by?" Bradley shakes his head. "The end of next month!" You practically shout, and he cringes.

"And how much do you have done?"

Your face falls. "One," you say reluctantly, holding up a solitary finger.

"Chapter?" He asks hopefully.

"Word!"

Bradley grimaces, "What's the word?" You huff.

"'The' and the thing is, I don't even like it. I'm gonna go back and delete it." You give an exaggerated shrug, seemingly distraught.

"That's probably a bad idea," he says gently.

"Oh? And what do you know about writing novels?" Your tone is biting.

"Not a damn thing, but I know a thing or two about speed. At a certain point, you just have to keep going," he offers.

"Thank you for that wisdom, speed racer," you snap, sauntering away.

He stands there stunned. 

“Wait!" Bradley jogs to catch up to where you're still marching onto the beach.

As soon as he's next to you, you barrel on. “How am I supposed to give them a sequel to a story I thought was over?” 

“Huh?” He feels like he's still playing catch-up as he matches your pace.

“And I told them - I swore to God that if they made me write a sequel, I'd probably end up accidentally plagiarizing any given Remington Steele episode. But, nooooooo they insisted,” you vent.

“Remington Steele?” Bradley raises a brow.

“Okay, you don’t get to judge my 80s preferences when you look like that!” You gesture to his general appearance, Hawaiian shirt, porn stache, and all. Not that it's not working for you.

He holds his hands up in surrender.

"I've done everything. Really. Everything to try and inspire some writing. I go outside," you gesture to the outdoors around you. "I've switched the font on my computer to comic sans," Bradley visibly grimaces in response to this, and you nod at him. "Hell, yesterday I went on a run."

"I don't feel like that's all that abnormal," he ventures.

You look at him, stricken, "I've never been on a run."

"Never?"

"Not in my life," you confirm. "It didn't even help, and now my legs hurt."

"It does kind of seem like you're hobbling," he nods.

Your eyes widen, "Gee, thanks," you bite out.

"You can probably chalk it up to poor form," Bradley tries to console you. "You're supposed to land on the front of your foot when you're running."

You shake your head. "They always want to teach you something," you mumble.

"What was that?" He looks over innocently. The two of you stand at the entryway to the beach. You decide it's time to make your goodbyes to the near stranger you've confessed half your current life problems to.

"Look, that's very nice of you," your words lack some sincerity. "You seem like a nice guy, and you're very attractive, but I don't really want to get better at running. What I want is to get better at writing, which is my job, and usually, I can do it. But right now, I'm broken, so what I will do is lay in the sun and crisp like a piece of fried chicken. Bye, now!" You say cheerily, placing your sunglasses over your eyes and bounding away towards an appealing-looking plot of sand.

All Bradley can do is watch as his new favorite author walks off. He drives home and finishes the official, hand-gifted copy of your book in one sitting.

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

A week later, Bradley is once again at the Hard Deck. This time it's Mav's birthday, and the whole squad is celebrating before they all go their separate ways. The Navy gave everyone a month off after the Uranium mission, so this is simultaneously a celebration and a goodbye.

He steps out onto the deck to enjoy the ocean view. Bradley is pleased to find a familiar figure that lies a few meters away from the bar.

"Let me guess, you're crisping like a piece of chicken again?" You hear a voice call from above you. Suspicious of the intrusion on your private beach sulking session, you look up to find the handsome man who'd tried to return your journal the other day.

"Actually, I'm boiling like a lobster," you correct.

"Ah, my mistake," Bradley nods sagely. "Mind if I sit?"

"Okay..." you agree, silently questioning his motives.

"I had an idea," he starts. "The main character in the first book," you nod, encouraging him to continue. "You mentioned her younger sister."

"I did," you agree, not understanding where he's going with this.

"Write the new book about her," Bradley says simply, shrugging.

You stare at him for a moment, processing this thought. After a bit, your jaw drops. How did you not think of this yourself? A slew of ideas pop into your brain, and you lunge for your bag, hoping to grab your journal and write them all down.

"Are you okay?" He asks. You hold up a finger, silently asking for him to give you a second. In a hurry, you scribble down a giant bulleted list. You can't help but wish your hand moved as fast as your brain. Bradley gives a weak call of your name, concerned by the new burst of hyperactivity. It pulls your attention away from the final bullet point you've just made.

"I think you're a genius," you breathe out, looking at him in awe.

He seems shocked, "it was just an idea."

"No, no," you remain firm, "you're brilliant, and you've just saved my life." A grin pulls across his face at your words. "Pam is gonna be so stoked," you say, standing and starting to pack your things. You pause all of a sudden and reach for your notebook again. You scribble something else and tear out a sliver of paper.

You hand it over to him, and his gaze flicks over a series of hastily written numbers. Your phone number. Bradley slowly stands up.

"Breakfast, lunch, dinner, coffee, dessert, movie, ice cream, drinks- whatever you want, on me," you say in a rush. You take about two steps toward your car, hoping to call Pam and confirm that you can go in this creative direction before his voice stops you.

"How about a date?" He asks, looking after you.

You turn over your shoulder and smirk, "That was the idea."

____________________________________________________

Rooster taglist (open): @tallyovie

I hope everyone is having another very Top Gun summer <3

[potatocitytechnology]

Desperate - J.JH

INTRO: Days got lonely for you working your plain old 9-5 job and all your colleagues found it hilarious that you hadn't gotten laid in forever. You were only joking when you said you would pay someone to sleep with you at this point...

GENRES: Smut

WARNINGS: Profanity/swearing, oral (F receiving), chocking/breath play, nipple play (receiving and giving), humiliation (giving), slight degradation along with that, Jaehyun seems to have a slight pain kink, dom!femreader, unlikely sub!Jaehyun, overall explicit content - DO NOT ENGAGE WITH THIS POST IF YOU ARE UNDERAGE, PLEASE!

WORD COUNT: 7.7k

AUTHORS NOTE: This turned out a little more hard core than I would've thought it was going to, but still pretty mild. A good fun one to read even if you don't enjoy femdom :)

Jaehyun wasn’t a sex worker and he certainly wasn’t a sub. He was just desperate for money. You knew this when he called you up and introduced himself saying he had heard from a friend of a friend that you were willing to pay a decent sum of money for a man to let you dom them for a night. If you were being honest you were kind of joking when you said it to your friend and everyone knew you definitely didn’t need to pay someone to sleep with you, but after hearing the desperation in his voice you couldn’t turn down the stranger at the end of the line. Not when he had clearly put himself out of his comfort zone to get your number and ring you. You just knew that your friends would be teasing you about this when you told them you’d actually followed through with it. Doming men was always a sort of fantasy you would put on the backburner whenever you slept around. Sometimes it would come out but more often than not it was just left to your imagination, so hence how the discussion came about. 

Over the phone you had made it clear that this would be a one time occurrence, as you were sure that you were breaking some sort of law as it was. Luckily he complied with that, pointing out that was his intention also and he prepared with his own term. No one, under any circumstances, is to find out. You couldn’t agree more. You didn’t need people other than your close friends finding out that you paid someone to sleep with you. Infact, it was bad enough having your small circle of colleagues knowing at all. The two of you agreed on a time and date and it was set. 

When 7pm Saturday comes around you find yourself anxiously sitting on your couch playing with your fingers and picking at your nails. It was dark out already and it was risky meeting a total stranger for the first time at your own house, you knew that. But you weren’t exactly made of money either, so buying a hotel room that you’d probably only spend an hour or two in if you were lucky seemed like a total waste. You just hoped that he wasn’t actually intent on murdering you then robbing the place. 

That thought does nothing to ease your worrying mind, so when the doorbell rings you visibly jump before standing up and flattening the creases out of your dress, trying your best to compose yourself. You begin to make your way to the door to meet the mysterious man who is waiting for you and that’s when it hits. This was a really bad idea. You freeze with your hand on the door handle. ‘Don’t be stupid.” You say to yourself.

You take a deep breath then close your eyes for a second before opening the door. What you immediately notice as the door separating you two leaves, is a hand about to hit you in the face and your eyes widen in shock. A short gasp escapes your lips and you take a step back in alarm. The hand in front of you immediately retracts and that’s when you see the man in front of you. Jaehyun, or at least that’s the name he told you. He must’ve been readying to knock again, you thought to yourself and internally shook your head at your antics. He was tall with black bangs that framed his face. Raking your eyes down his figure you notice that under his rather loose fitting clothes that he has a toned looking figure. When your eyes raise to catch his, you see the hesitancy that glaze through them. He stands slightly tense in front of you and by the soft and slightly worried look on his face you realise that this man couldn’t possibly murder you (but if he was going to he was a damn good actor).

Silence hangs in the air for what only feels like second but must’ve been a minute or two before Jaehyun shifts to lean on one leg. He reaches a hand out, this time gesturing for a handshake. “Hi, I’m-”

“Jaehyun.” You finish his sentence in a breathy whisper before smiling sheepishly. 

He lets out a chuckle nodding his head. “And you must be-”

“Y/N” Inside you cringe. Interrupting people was a rude habit you had to get rid of as it constantly bugged those around you, but Jaehyun just laughs lowly, nodding again. 

It stays quiet for a moment longer before you seemingly shake out of a trance, “Oh, please come in.” You step further into the doorway to allow him through and when he passes with a curt bow of his head and a small smile and you feel your heart melt. This guy had to be someone's boyfriend because there is no way he’s single with manners like this and those adorable dimples. If he’s not a murderer he has to be a cheater. 

You lead him into your living room and gesture for him to sit on the couch. “Would you like something to drink?” You ask, eyes watching him closely as he sits down and observes the room. His own eyes darted to your face, “A water would be fine thanks.” You nod politely before ducking away to the kitchen. When you’re out of sight you let out a breath of relief. This is so awkward, the air around him feels like it’s sucking the life out of you. You try to come up with things to talk about and ways to bring up the current situation without making it even more awkward as you fill up two empty glasses and walk back out to the living room. 

Placing the drinks on the coffee table you proceed to sit across from him in another chair and thank the gods that you actually have enough furniture in your house which means you don’t have to sit right beside him. He picks up a glass and takes a nervous sip while his eyes fly around to anything in the room that isn’t you. 

You clear your throat, forcing a wave of courage to wash over your features but it doesn’t shake the wobble in your hands or the slight tremble in your voice. “So, Jaehyun, what do you like to do in your spare time?” 

“Oh,” The question shocks him, you can tell by the way his eyebrows raise, “well I like to read.” You shift in your seat, trying your best to look more comfortable so that he will in turn, loosen up a bit. “So authors like Mark Twain, Charles Dickens?” You offer up a couple of authors that your male colleagues enjoy but he only shakes his head with a small smile at your suggestion. “No, actually. Jane Austen, Virginia Woolf and Shakespear if I’m in the mood.” It’s your turn to be surprised, an astounded “Really?” escaping past your lips and he nods with a half amused, half fake offence look. “I’m sorry, I just didn’t take you for a fairytale, feminist romantic.” 

He smiles again, this time showing his pretty dimples in all their glory and you can’t help but reciprocate the expression. “If you don’t mind me stating,” he starts and you try to keep an inviting look on your face as he attempts to keep his gaze locked on yours, “you don’t seem like the domineering type, if I’m being honest.” You feel a slight blush rise to your cheeks at his proclamation but pull yourself together with only a slight shake of your pupils being the give away at your uncertainty.  “No?” You question, letting a humorous tint lace your voice as you said the word - raising a brow. He shifts becoming obviously uncomfy but you just watch him amusedly. “Well, I was expecting-”

“A dominatrix?” You finish his sentence again and almost scold yourself aloud for interrupting, however taking note of the way his ears start to flush a deep pink at the very word.

“I suppose.” He admits, attempting to sit up straight and seem less small. Jaehyun had never felt like he wasn’t ever in control of a situation before and it showed. He was probably more nervous about handing over the reins rather than the rest of what was at hand as well. 

“Jaehyun, I’m not a seasoned pro at this. I simply want to experiment a little, but if you don’t feel entirely comfortable with this, then I’m not gonna judge you if you want to walk out right now.” You explain to him trying to seem as unthreatening as possible. His features harden as his lips set into a straight line. “I have to do this, I’m a bit tight for cash at the moment as you know.” He says and you visibly cringe. This is so illegal.

He sees your change in character and immediately stands to his feet to reassure you, “Oh, gosh I don’t want you to think you’re taking advantage of me or anything. This is completely consensual.” You begin to nervously play with your fingers once again as you let out a whisper, “Jaehyun, I’m paying you to have sex with me.”. 

He comes to your side suddenly and you become aware of the pleasant scent that follows him. “Just think of it as a favour, friend to friend.” He tries to convince as he kneels next to you on the ground. You look down at him, “Jaehyun this isn’t vanilla sex.” He cocks his head to the side in fake thought, “I know that. What if I told you I was kind of excited.” He nods sheepishly, letting his head fall to look at the ground where your feet lay. 

You look at the back of his head before he raises his eyes to look at you with a slight blush on his cheeks. “Just be patient. I haven't done this fully before.” You say and he smiles lightly, “I haven’t done this ever, so we’re in the same boat.” He replies and you suck in a breath. Maybe we are in the same boat, but let’s just hope we don’t get hit by a tidal wave. 

You let out the breath and reach a hand down to his chin. Your fingers grasp his jaw as you lower your face to his, ”If I’m gonna go to jail for you then you better make it worth my while.” You don’t get to see his expression before you bring your lips to his softly. The kiss is hesitant as you both get used to the feeling of each other's lips together. His hand reaches towards you to hold your face closer as he opens his mouth. When you nip at his lip he flinches before letting a grunt into the kiss, his grip on you tightening as his other hand rests on your knee. You pull away and take amusement in the way he looks up at you with parted lips.

“What’re your limits?” You mumble centimetres from his mouth and it takes him a minute to register your words. “Sorry?” Is his reply as he finally releases his gaze on your lips to meet your eyes. You shake your head in a show of fake disappointment before gently grasping his chin again. He expects you to lean down and kiss him, but you quickly drop your head to his cheek where the hot air of your breath fans against his ear lobe. It sends a hot chill down Jaehyun’s spine at the feeling, and he has to suppress his desired need to just grab you and force your mouth on his. 

“How far can I push you until you break, hmm?” You change your wording, putting slight emphasis between each word and you swore you could feel the heat pour off him in sensual waves, a barely audible gulp making your ears perk up. “Anything. You can do anything, just ask first if it’s extreme.” 

You hum in approval, allowing a slight grin to appear on your face as you stand up and gesture for him to do so as well. It takes him a moment efore he scrambles to his feet in what seems to be embarrassment if the red tinge that covers his features again is any indication. “We should go to my bedroom.” You mean to suggest, however it comes out as more of a statement. He nods and you then lead the way, taking note of the way he silently moves behind you as you wander through your hallway. 

When you reach the bedroom you open the door for him to step inside. As he does you come in behind him and shut the door quietly. “Sit on the bed,” You say before adding a “please” at the end of the sentence out of habit. You hear him as he takes a seat on your bed whilst you start to search through one of your draws. When you find the item you’re looking for you turn to see him already staring at you, so you smile reassuringly. 

You move over to him and his sitting position gives you a height advantage and you realise that it oddly sends a thrill through you. Even having such a little switch in the usual power dynamic has you excited already. You run the fabric of the blindfold through your fingers so that Jaehyun can see what it is clearly. “Do you have a safeword?” You can tell this question amuses him as a flash of humour passes through the light of his eyes but it leaves just as quickly as he remembers his reason for being here. “Do I have to have one?” He rebuts and you press your lips into a thin line. “I would prefer it if you did.” You reply and as he senses your slight disapproval at his question he mutters the word “Valentine” under his breath. 

You quirk a brow confirming ‘valentine’ as his safe word to which he nods and you breathe out an almost exasperated ‘ok’. “If you’re slightly uncomfortable though, you have to tell me. Say orange or slow down or something.” You say to which he replies with a firm but quiet ‘yes’. You then start to bring the blindfold up to his eyes before tying it firmly around the back of his head. As you do, you can’t help but to run your fingers through his hair. The soft strands tug gently at his scalp and have Jaehyun shivering at the sensation of the action. With his sight obstructed everything you do, everywhere you touch or even when you move, has him sensing things at a heightened level. 

You move away from him and take amusement in the way he rigidly sits, awaiting for you to do something. You have to admit the blindfold was a great idea, and you hoped that Jaehyun thought so too. You thought it might cut out some of the awkwardness and be a good way to start things off if you couldn’t necessarily see each other. With him waiting, you start to undress yourself. Bringing the fabric of your dress over your head to drop it on the floor. Jaehyun hears as it hits the ground and he subtly sucks in a breath at the action. 

You proceed to unclip your bra and slide out of your panties as well, leaving you completely naked in front of him. Jaehyun wouldn’t ever admit it but it was killing him just knowing you were standing only an arms reach away, completely bare, and he couldn’t see or touch you.  

You can tell it surprises him when you climb onto the bed, however you’re away at the other end, leaning on the headboard watching his back as his head turns over his shoulder in your direction. You breathe out a quiet, shaky breath but can’t help the excitement that builds inside of you. All of your skin is exposed and the slight chill mixed with this exhilaration in the air causes your nipples to prick up and goosebumps to appear on your skin. 

“Jaehyun,” You call his name and he lets out a hum at your voice. “Take off your clothes.” Your order has him gulping before standing up and trying to discard his clothing as best he can whilst having no vision at all. It’s clumsy the way he does it as you watch and he almost trips over several times pulling his legs from his sweatpants. He catches the way you chuckle slightly at his struggle and it causes a flash of humiliation to pass through him. 

Nevertheless, he feels his body erupt in tingles and the familiar feeling of becoming hard causes his head to spin at the revolution that this might be something he was into. 

You definitely notice the way he seems to throb at the sound so when he is left in nothing but his underwear you tilt your head to the side, forgetting he can’t actually see you. “What about those?” You question with a hint of judgement lacing your tone and you watch carefully as he slowly grips the band with his fingertips before pulling his last garment of clothing down. 

You aren’t completely shocked by his body. You did make a mental comment on how you thought he was hiding his toned form under less than flattering clothes, I mean after all he didn’t come here with the purpose of impressing you. However, as your gaze travels down his body you can’t help but to admire his athleticism, but what surprises you the most is his hard, leaking cock that stands tall under your gaze. At least you know he’s enjoying himself. 

“You’re so pretty, Jaehyun.” You muse and appreciate the way he shivers at the compliment. He clasps his hands in front of him, obstructing your view and you smirk in response. “Come here.” The order is short but he reacts right away, trying to feel for you on the bed. His head shoots up at your following command, “Crawl.”. You watch in diversion as he ponders the thought before he crawls onto the foot of your bed, proceeding slowly up to you. 

When he places his hand on your out-stretched foot, instead of retracting it shyly like you thought he would, he wraps his fingers around your ankle before following your leg up your body. The action surprises you and you can only sit stunned as he continues to crawl up between your legs, his hand stopping at your hip bone as the other once again rests on your cheek. He brings your mouth to his, connecting your lips in a kiss that feels much less cautious than the first and more full of desire. His lips are passionate on yours, the taste of lust seeping into your mouth from his. It’s not quite a whole mess but the sounds that tumble from your mouth into his make him hold your head on an angle that has his tongue angled deeper into you. 

You break the kiss with a push to his chest and instead of sitting back like you hoped he would, he begins to press firm kisses to your neck and collarbone. You find your hands in his hair, toying with the strands as puffs of air escape your lips before you realise what was supposed to be happening here. “Sit back.” You demand and he hums against your skin, yet doesn’t let up. Your fingers that are in his hair grip at his roots lightly before you use this grasp to pull his head from you. The groan he lets out as his head falls against your hand is pornographic and the sound sends shoots of arousal straight to your core. 

“You have to listen to me, Jaehyun. After all, you are being paid.” Your comment makes his cheeks redden in embarrassment but nonetheless, you marvel in the way his cock twitches. You tug his hair back further causing an arch to form in his back as he leans his chest into you. A chuckle passees through your lips before you lick over his right nipple, causing him to suck in a breath. “I’m paying you to do this because you asked me to. But you seem to enjoy it more than you let on, don’t you?” When no sound is heard from him you take the sensitive bud into your mouth, delivering a sharp pinch of a bite. 

“What was that?” You question, this time hoping for an answer. His hands grab at the sheets below as he lets out a grunt followed by a very quick, “Yes.”. 

Satisfied with his answer you release his hair. “Go sit at the foot of the bed.” Your order is simple and your tone leaves no room for argument as you watch the slightly desperate look on Jaehyun’s face turn to an annoyed one. You can tell he wants to rebut but you lightly slap his thigh in warning, “You don’t get to pick and choose what you get here tonight, Jaehyun.” That’s all it takes for him to tighten his lips before he makes his way to the edge of the bed, with his hands stretched out to find his way. 

While you keep an eye on him, you reach over to your left bedside table and pull out your trusty toy. It might seem pointless to have this man all to yourself and still want to use a vibrator but if you played your cards right, you could have Jaehyun keening in your lap for your attention. It would beat this cool and calm exterior he tries to hide his emotions in anyway. 

The toy you pulled out is a wand vibrator. Enough to push you along and enough to get Jaehyun wound up but sadly not enough to satisfy you tonight. As you switch on the toy, you watch as the man a foot away from your feet slowly swivels his head around, trying to discern where the light buzzing noise is coming from. It humours you when you see the expression on his face change when he figures out what it has to be. 

“Are you kidding me?” His question lacks intrigue and you notice a hint of disappointment in his tone that makes you smile. “What’s wrong, baby.” You ask, a slight mocking tone to your voice and when he doesn't answer you bring the vibrating head of the toy to your clit. You let out a sigh of content and a barely audible moan, that you can tell affects him as he gulps before running his tongue along his bottom lip. 

“What am I here for if you just want to do it like this?” His voice is firm, like he wants an easy answer from you but you only lightly laugh. He looks flushed as his hands fiddle in his lap to not touch anything he shouldn’t, and the amusement you seem to gain from his overall hopeless state only makes his cock throb painfully. 

“Who’s not to say that I didn’t just want you to watch?” You say and you can almost feel the twinkle in your eyes when you moan out loud and Jaehyun clenches his jaw whilst choosing to ball his fists in his lap. “That would be cruel, and I can’t even see.” Is his response. 

“It’s not cruel when you’re being paid generously to just listen. And I’ll let you see soon, maybe.” Your lips curl up when he grunts lowly in response, his pink tinged skin now a permanent feature on his pale complexion. 

Choosing now to let him wallow in his own self pity, you focus on the toy in your hand and start to move it against your sensitive bud with purpose. The whimpers and soft moans that leave your mouth are like a siren song to Jaehyun’s ears, your body calling him yet he’s stuck in place by your authority over him. If this was under any other circumstances, Jaehyun can name all the things he would do to you right now. You teasing him like this was just down right humiliating, Jaehyun was a man notorious for being in control with women. If he didn’t need the money so badly he would be ripping this blindfold off and fucking you into your bed so hard that you would forget your own name. But he wasn’t in charge, you were. So he has to sit still and take what you give him, even if it means listening to you get off on a toy while he was sitting right here eager to do anything for you. 

You call his name as you pleasure yourself but even you become frustrated with how close you’re getting just to sit on the edge of bliss. You turn the vibrator off and place it to the side before running your fingers through your folds. With your legs spread in front of him, if Jaehyun were to take off his blindfold right at this second he would see how impossibly wet you are. But you’re betting he can hear it by the way he licks his lips and the soft groan that escapes him as you stroke yourself. 

“What do you want from me?” He asks, with a desperation in his voice that you hadn’t heard thus far, “What do I have to do for you to use me instead?” His pleading tone makes your core clench, he’s practically begging. Which you could tell was a very rare occurrence from him.

You sit up slightly so that you can see him better. His brows are knit together and his entire body is flushed a light tinge of pink. What catches your eyes though is the sight of his angry red cock, pulsing with need. “What do you want?” You ask, your eyes glancing back to his face to see his eyebrows raise and a look of excitement flashes across his features. 

“Would you let me taste you?” He asks softly but with an edge of confidence as your own eyes raise at his assertive tone. The smirk that crosses your features indicates your mischievousness as you rebut, “How bad do you want to?” Your question doesn’t seem to throw him off like you thought it would, with only a light display of embarrassment becoming present on his face as he replies, “So bad.” 

You make him wait for a minute and the silence hanging in the air makes him think you’ll say no but you spread your legs wider and mumble out, “Go on then.” That’s all it takes for him to practically jump up, however he doesn't come up the bed to you. He instead searches for your foot before tugging you down to the edge of the bed, dropping to his knees when he thinks he has you placed where he wants. His soft hands run up from your knees to your thighs as he leans into your core, taking in your scent. You hear a short “fuck” escape from his lips and Jaehyun only wishes that he could see your pretty pussy. He almost has you jumping from his grip when his warm tongue makes experimental touches against your inner thighs, so close to where you want him. “Jaehyun.” The tone in your voice is once again warning, willing him to cut out the teasing and get on with it. 

He hums against you and gives you no warning when he suddenly parts your lips with the pads of his thumbs and presses his tongue into your heat. Your hands immediately fly to his head pushing him closer as your thighs enclose around his head. Drawn out moans fight their way from your chest into the air as you feel his hot tongue dart inside your dripping hole over and over again. Pulling back from you, you watch the look of concentration on his face as he tries to go at it blindly and you admire the sight of the dark fabric of the blindfold against his pale skin. 

You however get no more than a second of this before he is dipping back in, eager to show you that you should’ve used him from the start. He directs his attention to your clit and uses his thumb and index finger to squeeze it together lightly between the two, before he uses his tongue to poke at it in fast strokes. A series of curses and whines leave your mouth in a hurry, the feeling of his technique nothing like you’ve ever experienced before. While you are distracted one of his fingers begins to probe at your entrance and you don’t notice until he pushes it into you slowly. Your back arches and you once again grip his hair to hold him close as he pumps the digit inside of your heat. Making up your mind, you decide to pull the blindfold from his head, tossing it elsewhere in the room. 

Jaehyun’s eyes adjust quickly to the light of the space and he is immediately grateful to you for not only taking off the blindfold but also for having such a pretty pussy like he had hoped. Your wetness drips down from the finger that’s inside you to pool around his knuckles, and before you can breathe he’s ducking back down to latch his lips around your clit. He adds another finger to your hole carefully and begins to suck harshly on your bundle of nerves, his obvious motivation right now to see you come apart in front of him. 

Your grip on his hair is tight and only makes him groan into your core when your fingernails graze his scalp. The vibration sent through you in turn has your core beginning to clench as the pressure of pleasure builds within you. 

Jaehyun senses your state by your rigid muscles and the raise in pitch of your moans, and works to double his efforts. His fingers draw in and out of your heat at a rapid pace and his mouth suctioning on your clit with his tongue occasionally poking through to prod at it has you seeing stars behind your lids. You cum faster than you ever have when a guy’s gone down on you. The overwhelming pleasure that consumes you as you gush out onto his awaiting tongue has your body twitching while he lets your hips ride against his face. 

When you finally slump back down onto the bed, your muscles are spent and your pussy is still clenching from the power of the orgasm. Jaehyun’s fluffy hair tickles at your thighs as he brings his head back up, a primal look in his eyes as a smile graces his lips. Your mouth twitches into a similar state as you raise a brow, “Why do you look so happy?” 

He shrugs in response before sitting up on his knees, “I bet you wish you let me do that sooner.” His smug expression has your eyes narrowing, a playful hint passing through them. “Why don’t you come sit up here Jaehyun, get up off the floor.” You say indicating for him to lay in the space to your left. 

He stands up to his full height and you begin to remember how good it feels to order around a man who could easily overpower you. It’s even better when you realise that they don’t want to. The bed dips as he lays down beside you and you turn on your side to face him, your faces millimetres from one anothers. 

His eyes hold scepticism as you run your fingertips over his chest, tracing special patterns around his nipples. You feel him shiver under your touch as you do so. Quickly and before he can react you flick his right nipple causing a low hiss to escape his parted lips. “What a sensitive little thing you are, Jaehyun.” You muse, once again a touch of mockery slipping into the speculation. 

Your eyes catch his as a breath escapes him. Maintaining his gaze, you slowly lower your mouth to his chest where you let a dribble of spit slip past your lips before it falls directly onto the flicked nipple. He sharply inhales and you find yourself tingling at the effect you have on him. You do the same to his other nipple before you blow on both of them. Exchanging from the right to the left. 

The harsh temperature change on his sensitive buds has his lids half closing and short pants escaping him before drawing your attention down to his leaking cock. You hum lighlty as you resume flicking his nippples slowly, watching for any signs of actual pain but you only see pleasure enveloping his features as a drawn out breath turns into a whine. Again the easily flustered man immediately tries to catch the sound in his throat, but it’s too late. 

Your eyes zero in on the way he tosses his head to the side in embarrassment and you take this opportunity to lean up and press hard marks to the soft skin of his throat. You surprise him with a pinch to the nipples as you do so, and his hands immediately fly to your waist attempting to pull you on top of him. You pull back and tut, a borderline condescending look on your face as his eyes plead with you to stop teasing and give him what he wants. 

You trail a hand up his thigh tauntingly before stopping just beside his cock. The head pulses almost violently and you wonder if this is what it must feel like for him to have ‘blue balls’. Jaehyun thinks the exact same thing. 

“Do you want me to touch you here?” You question almost sadistically as your fingers dance around where he wants you most. He begins to squirm under your touch and he nods his head. You pretend to ponder the thought, “I think you should ask.” you say in amusement as his head shakes. 

“Touch me.” The demand leaves you slightly stunned but a smirk makes its way to your lips. You grasp his cock suddenly, the tight, dry friction on his sensitive dick having him all but yelp in pain whilst his hips thrust into your grip in contradiction. You lean forward slightly, your smile a sheet hiding your teeth that you display threateningly, “Ask nicely.” 

HIs body heaves in need and the slight pain of your grip and your show of aggressive dominance causes a shameful moan to grace the air. “Please. Touch me.” He rushes out in an attempt to mask the sound. You sit back on your heels, a satisfied smile replacing the sadistic one. “Good boy. You’ll find doing what I say works in your favour.” You pretend to not notice the way his thighs tremble at the pet name, instead choosing to spare him of the added embarrassment. 

You place yourself in between his legs and lean down, but before you can get too close to his leaking member, a hand finds its way into your hair. “No.” You all but growl and the pressure is immediately gone, almost making you wonder if you had imagined it. But as you look up to him from your position the way he turns his head to the side and gulps shows you you hadn’t. 

You choose to let it slide, figuring it was a habit and it would be mean to punish him for it straight away. However as you once again lean closer to his cock his hand is back, this time tangling in your hair. Your sharp eyes puncture him before your words can as you lean over him, your body pressed firmly against his. “For fucks sake Jaehyun, can your stupid little horny brain not comprehend that no means no.” His wide eyed response almost makes you think that your outburst was too much for him but when he swallows a deep groan and thrusts emptily into your thigh, you know. This little shit is getting off to this more than you thought. 

You grab his wrists so tightly you swear your nails leave imprints on him and another moan tumbles from his lips. You breathe harshly, almost annoyed he’s becoming more and more turned on as you become increasingly tired of his antics. You thrust his arms forward above his head causing your boobs to bounce and land an inch or two from his face. His barely open eyes snap to your exposed nipples as he arches himself from the bed, lifting his face to your chest and in turn, causing friction to occur between your tightly pressed bodies. 

His thigh between your legs rubs at your clit deliciously and your eyes all but roll back as his mouth connects with your hardened bud. With your weight still pressing his wrists out of reach he is rendered almost useless and a shot of arousal shoots through your core. You slowly start to grind your pussy against his bare thigh and the sensation has a short gasp pulled from your throat. Jaehyun moans against your nipple as his teeth lightly scrape over the sensitive skin. He tenses his thigh as he switches his attention to the other breast, popping the last from his mouth. 

You continue to rock against him, completely aware of how your own thigh pushes against his balls and lower shaft, causing him slight relief along with an appreciated ting of pain. He seems to mostly get off to how you use him though. The way you tend to lose yourself in the feeling, almost completely forgetting he was there and only focusing on your own pleasure has his mind foggy. “You just let me use you, don't you.” You chuckle, a borderlining scary glint passing through your eyes but it only makes him want for you more. 

You release his wrists from your grip in favour of placing them either side of his head as you sit yourself up in a more comfortable position and the movement has your chest leaving his reach. So you can continue rocking your cunt against his toned thigh but also be close enough to his face for what you wanted to try. You raise your right hand slowly up to his neck before wrapping your fingers loosely around the column of his throat. His eyes immediately close and a light hum of appreciation that exits you turns to an elicit moan as he moves his thigh in a way that has your clit being pressed against it in just the right way. 

With this, your fingers tighten slightly and you feel as his hands twitch above his head where you left them. You lower your head so that your lips hover above his, “Good boy, just lightly. It feels good.” He gasps as you choose this moment to slip his pulsing head into your entrance. A slight rotation of your hips is all it takes and he slips in easily, filling you almost too good. Again, your grip on his throat tightens and you know when the sensation of both hits him as he lets out a gorgeous moan, the sound causing you to tighten around him as you begin to pop your hips on his cock. 

Jaehyun was about to cum. You could feel it by the way he seems to expand inside you, and you wouldn’t blame him. He’s been on edge for a while and the combination of your pussy wrapped around him and your fingers tightly wrapped around his neck, would have him seeing stars. Though, you won’t let it be over that fast. You don’t know Jaehyun’s body well enough to know what his recovery period would be and you are not paying as much as you are to let him cum that fast in your pussy. 

Just as you feel he’s only a stroke or two from exploding you lift off him, causing a pitiful whine of his to fill the room. You release your grip on his neck in favour of tangling your fist in his hair tightly and leaning down. “You know it can’t be that easy baby.” You pout, the now familiar mocking tone present in your voice. 

“What the actual hell.” He groans, pulling his head to the side, almost purposefully so that the tug on his hair is harder. You place a gentle kiss on his sharp jawline before patting his chest, caressing him so lightly as to not rile him into cumming untouched. When enough time had passed that you were satisfied he was again far from orgasm, you slowly sunk down on him again. 

Jaehyun tries not to move, he really does, but he’s just so fucking sensitive from beging edged. He cries out curse words as you move against him slowly. His back arches off the bed and trying to sooth his mind, you tug at his roots till his head tips back again and you lower your head to litter light kisses on his throat. Now marked with light hickeys and obvious marks from where your fingers were tightly coiled around his neck.

All of these light touches and soft movements bring Jaehyun closer to cumming much faster than he thought he could but like before, you felt his impending orgasm and chose to lift right off of him. He whines a hopelessly loud cry and attempts to usher you back down on him by lifting his hips. When you don't budge he frustratingly brings one of his hands that he had so nicely kept above his head, between the two of you where he grasps his cock in his hand. Hissing from the sensitivity of two denied orgasms, he tries powers through and tug at himself desperately.

It’s only when you pull his hand from his cock underneath you that you notice the water pooling in his tear ducts. Dear god, you made him cry. You shush him soothingly and wipe the stray tear that falls. He grabs your wrist looking up at you with pleading eyes. “Safeword?” You question. He shakes his head no and you internally smile. “Please let me cum.” he begs, a strain lingering in his voice. You nod and he prepares for you to take a seat on him when you suddenly roll to the side making him panic. You weren’t going to leave him like this were you? Pay him and send him home? 

“No, no, no. Please.” he pleads before you connect your lips with his, encouraging him to roll to his side as well. He melts into the kiss, easily letting you lead as he obliges, fully facing you as you press yourself closer to him. You lift your leg so that you are half straddling his hip and use the heel of your foot to press his hips to yours. His cock nudges at your thigh and he shudders, lightly placing one hand on your cheek and the other on your waist. Silently asking for permission. When you don’t push him away, he deepens the kiss, moaning into your mouth as you reach a hand down to grasp him softly and align him to your entrance once again. 

He doesn't push himself into you. He seems to have learnt better than that in your short time together. So when you once again press your heel to his ass he gets the hint and jolts into you. His mouth gapes open as you continue to kiss him and small whimpers fall from your own mouth. It’s been a struggle for you too, don’t be mistaken. As everytime he gets edged, effectively, so do you. So when he does finally start to rut his hips into yours you know he won’t last long. His movements are slow and deep as he fights his own sensitivity to finally tip over the edge. 

It feels intimate. The position, the pace, the way he parts from your mouth to look you in the eyes before his lids close in bliss everytime you squeeze around him. You know very well by now when he's getting close so when you feel him begin to throb inside you, you guide his hand on your waist between the two of you and you think he gets the idea. He presses small, slow and sensual circles on your clit that has you quickly tipped over the edge. Your body in turn convulses as he rides you through your high. The pulsing and tight heat of your pussy around him paired with the contractions from your orgasm has his own high crashing into him. The most beautiful sounds leave his raw throat as his eyes screw shut, his grip on you tightening and you swear you’ve never seen a prettier sight. 

The next few moments you two just spend lying in each other's arms, both too sensitive to move until you know that your pussy has held him captive long enough. You gently pull away from him, lowering your leg back down to your side. Another moment passes and Jaehyun still has his eyes closed and you almost think you’ve given him a heart attack. “I don’t want to leave.” he mumbles and you almost laugh in relief. 

“You don't have to leave right now Jaehyun.” You asure and his eyes peel open, grip still tight around your waist. 

“No, you don’t get it. I don’t want to just go and never see you again.” His voice is barely above a whisper and you find yourself caught in thoughts. Does this mean he’s caught some sort of feelings? I mean you would be lying if you said you didn’t feel anything but this was only supposed to be a one time thing. 

You go to move, trying to untangle yourself from his arms and avoiding his gaze. “Look Jaehyun, I’ll just get your money-”

He pulls you close to him so that your noses are nearly touching and your heart thumps hard in your chest as his eyes make contact with yours. “I don’t want the money. I want you.”

You sigh in relief once again. “I want you too.”

[kaybreezy3000]

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

Sometimes your fanfic best friend gives you a shout out in an anon ask reply, and then you get excited and make your quickest Five fanart and first-time sort of animation based on a pairing she mentioned and that you wrote years ago. 😄

Link to Bad Kitty's ask

Link to my other art and stories on Tumblr

Link to my long read/3-part Five Centric TUA story with Five paired with a character similar to the one above (and yes-she has Harley Quinn vibes but don't worry if you don't like her-she is not her, I just borrowed some of her wild and fun and qualities. 😉)

------

Updated note added late 6/28/24 after a continuous thread of harassing comments from one user that now has been blocked. No this is not 'AI' made or traced like that person repeatedly said it was. I did not steal someone else's art like they accused me of with no back up other than ripping me apart with more mean comments about what looks so bad about this. They also said my other art posts are 'AI,' and that I have no drawing skill or understanding of how clothes fold.

The AI accusation is a very mean thing to say and it's happening to so many people on here and in the actual profession art world. I do agree that I am not great at art or writing but that doesn't mean I am using AI and claiming it's mine. It's very sad that people feel the need to attack art in this way when it's clearly not even good like mine.

This picture/animation was done with me doing a very bad, very fast sketch, and then hardly correcting my lines before I quickly color filled the drawing that I MADE based off the fact that I have drawn Five in a suit more times than I can count and I have basic drawing skills, not great skills but basic. The reason the hard lines are both gray and black in some spots is because I went in after to correct stuff like gaps that needed to be filled for color filling and I did that in a different layer with black rather than the gray I used the first time. It's an error but one I was aware of but didn't care about because this was supposed to be fast and messy.

So yeah... this is NOT TRACED, and from what it was supposedly traced or 'stollen' from, I have no idea what this user thought that was because they never backed that up with some image that they seem so sure I used. This was based on Five with one of my original characters, so that image they claim I stole didn't exist until I made it.

I'm just trying to have fun with my friends on here while learning to draw better digitally. I am not an artist, and I definitely don't get paid or try to make people support me.

To those like the user who did this, please just chill with the mean comments and be kind to art makers on here and writers and all content posters. If you don't like something ignore it or keep your negativity inside instead of spreading hateful intentions and saying things that are not true about people and their work or their ideas.

Sorry to go off about that on here when it was just supposed to be silly and fun, but this stuff isn't okay and needs to be shut down. I am not always going to post 'proof' pictures of my works in process. I have done that before, but it's not what this is about for me, so I don't even think to do it normally. I have other art posts on AO3 with hand drawn stuff so I figure I don't need to prove I can draw. If someone wants proof, it isn't hard to find it through my posts.

I know most people are only here just for the fun stuff and let's have more of that. ❤️ Peace and love to you all.

[mrsoftthoughts]

Maybe im late to do this

But I'm bored, so come with me to my rambling about my personal opinion towards some of Nico di Angelo ships and Rating each one

(Disclaimer: Nothing here goes with intention of offend someone,i always try to be respectful but if something that i say here sounds rude, feel free to tell, I never notice how bad can sound something until someone else points it out)

-Percico/ Nicerci 4/10

Honestly i admire the people that ship this and doesn't give a fuck about what other people say, some of the fan artist and writers make things soo good that should be in a museum

But it's not my personal liking, i only like this when its the exploration of Nico's unrequited crush on Percy , but i honestly I never liked when Nico and Percy had a 100% good relationship of any kind, because their dynamic is complicated at best ( i could talk about it for hours while im probably crying because both are pretty dear to me) and i prefer to think that now their are just "neutral" to each other ( see that part of my description that says "bittersweet relationships sucker" this is why is there) and all that extends to that i cant see these two in a romantic relationship

But that's all, is just not my personal liking, i don't mind the existence of this couple and once again, the people that makes content from them are really talented an deserve all my respect, you guys always come out with the best ideas for angst and i love that of all of you

-Jasico 9/10

They're Cute!! Honestly i don't have my own ideas for them but the Romantic content of these two 90% of the times it's good and i enjoy it ,I really value their friendship more that any other dynamic so i prefer them in a platonic way,but that doesn't mean that i don't get the vision, they really had potential and the people out there are using it

-Solangelo 5/10 or 11/10

The two rates exist because i honestly feel they relationship in canon as one of the worst ways that existed to make them a couple, it's obvious that they are supposed to be something cute and healthy, but all their development is out of screen and then they are just introduced as a couple when Apollo and meg made it to camp, some of their scenes leave me feeling that Nico is out of characters and also in order to give Will the rol of "protective boyfriend" Nico feels quite weak and Will doesn't get many chances of get out that role for being his own character, and he had a lot o potential

(And I'm not be talking about TsatS because is just all the fails of their relationship but multiplied by 1000, ooc, plot holes and toxic traits all around, it's not that bad as a read, but as canon content it is)

But as the saying goes "if you want something done right, do it yourself"

And that's exactly what I do with them, because in this housedhold we don't tolerate wasted potential of any kind, and they relationship deserved better , because honestly the things we know about them and their individual personalities just feels as a good mach and even if the things wouldn't be perfect, no couple it's at the start so it's ok

I also like them in a platonic way, but i think that just like i appreciate more platonic jason and Nico because that how i was introduced to them i lead more towards see them in a romantic one

So Canon gets 5/10 because " it's the tough that counts" ig?

And 11/10 goes for what they could have been ,should be in canon and are in my mind

( i talk abou my thoughts of them a little bit more in this Post if you want to check)

-Nicobaster 9/10

I know, it's a rare ship, but They can be interesting on any kind of relationship and why not make it romantic?? there's a lot of dynamics of where to chose and the alternative AUs that i see of them are great,Cthonic demigod X Cthonic demigod is a good base, I don't have much to say apart from that

Except that you can blame @drksanctuary content for make me like the ship in first place

-Valdangelo 4/10

Not a bad ship ig, i just don't see them as a couple and I don't even now why, i just can't see it , and i also have a pretty strong headcanon of Leo as aromantic so its hard for me to see him in Romantic relationships, but i have nothing against it so that's all

-Clovico 7/10

Another rare ship, one that I've seen around but honestly don't have a a lot to say, i like the little that we see from Clovis and i always like the Cthonic demigod X Cthonic demigod so 7/10 just due the lack of content

-Nico x literally any woman -80000000/10

I love Nicos platonic relationships with the womans in his life, can we keep that PLATONIC and leave the gay in peace??

[one-time-i-dreamt]

I invite everybody who took the other users side in that situation to find me a single situation where I was fatphobic and or went out of my way to be cruel or malicious to another user. After these crickets end, I'd like to invite the OP to prove that my reblog asking what their post means caused them hundreds of harassing messages in mere minutes, like they claimed. I will wait.

They posted one single message they got, from a person who wasn't a follower of mine and who responded to them after another user reblogged their post, which was confirmed by that other user. Before they closed their replies and closed themselves in an echochamber of people agreeing with them, I checked the notes a final time and though they did get criticism, as did I (and you all do know I listen to you and hear you and am always, ALWAYS open to conversation), those hundreds of messages of hate were nowhere to be seen.

Do you know why I know for sure they're lying about getting soooooooo much hate because of me? First of all, I've never cultivated a bullying culture on my blog. My followers can attest to that. I never supported users brigading for me. I don't have a cult following either way, but you can say I even discourage brigading. I always ask my followers not to fight others on my behalf. Not that it's necessary, because no one can say I get into drama often. Since making this blog, I can count maybe 5 situations that would be considered 'situations' to begin with. I don't have fans. I have bloggers that enjoy the content I post.

But secondly and more conclusively easily proven with numbers, I simply don't have that reach, nor do I have that many followers who are both active and fatphobic. I don't support fatphobia. I spoke out against fatphobia on this site. I've experienced it myself and I know how hurtful it is. My activity for this blog is abysmal due to me all but abandoning OTID in throes of my mental health battles. My posts get maybe 300 notes in total, over a 1000 if they're a hit reblog but that's it.

Hundreds of hate messages in minutes? Very unlikely. I'm not ashamed to admit OTID isn't what it used to be and that's completely on me and it's completely fine. My struggles stopped me from giving you the best possible OTID experience that you could've gotten and I feel very sorry for that, but I can be realistic and admit that this blog is just not that active anymore, and that's okay. All things die out with time. Lying on me wont change the facts that you're lying.

I also invite the people who say I should've known better and that my intent was unclear in asking the question, to explain about what I should have known better and to prove I was somehow malicious. Why would I be malicious? Why would I attack OP in the way they claim I did? When do I ever do that? How does that even make sense? You can still go through the notes and see that after I asked them for an explanation, nobody attacked them. You can also see that the OP went out of their way to attack me, while they explained calmly to another user what they meant.

What makes us different? Neither one of us understood. I can't read tones online, neither can that other user. I also am not a native speaker, so I sometimes get things wrong, hence why I asked. Why do they deserve kindness and I am accused of ill-intent for asking the same thing? Their replies and notes were off. I couldn't see the replies. This isn't Twitter. If you close those things off, other users don't see them and can't know you've made them. Why would anyone post things publicly but not expect a public response from anyone else?

I'd understand if I was attacking OP and they reacted like this, but I wasn't. My response wasn't malicious. I asked the source to explain, because I didn't understand. How is that malicious? To the people who say they see their point, please explain, because I do not see it and I really want to know. How is me genuinely asking what something that I don't understand means malicious? Even after publicly saying that I actually agree with a lot of things they said on their blog about fatphobia and so on. Supporting the cause? Understanding their points? Agreeing? I'm malicious?

I would also like to invite the people who claim I asked them in a known and rude/malicious meme format kind of way to prove that I did that. I did not know of this meme you speak of, but after checking for it online and finding the "well-known meme format" that was mentioned (which wasn't that well-known since I've never heard of it), my wording was not the same. It wasn't even close. So this argument, how can you claim it to be true?

And lastly, can anyone sincerely tell me how does it make sense for me to suddenly have a complete personality change, decide to reblog something to troll a user I don't even know just to be cruel to them, suddenly be malicious and fatphobic and be a completely different person that you all have known me to be for the past six years? If that was really who I am, wouldn't have the masked slipped way sooner? Why would I pretend to be not a complete POS all this time to have "What does this mean?" hill to die on? This is silly.

I wasn't being fatphobic. I wasn't mocking OP. I wasn't attacking OP. I wasn't being 'snarky'. I simply asked them what something they said meant, because I didn't understand what they meant. My brain wasn't computing. I didn't get their wording. I stumbled upon their post on the explore page, and wasn't seeking them out to antagonize them or anything else they might have claimed. I don't like hurting people. I don't go out of my way to hurt people. If I do hurt somebody I want to do everything in my power to correct it.

My followers weren't harassing them after that question. The OP didn't receive hundreds of hate messages after that question. OP is lying and it's easily to prove that they are. I don't know why they're lying and I'm not willing to get into that because I can't even assume, but one thing is clear - OP had a disproportionate reaction to a question that shouldn't have warranted such a reply. They doubled down and continued claiming victimhood in a situation where they haven't been victimized.

I genuinely feel sorry for them. I believe they've been victimized before. I know this sounds patronizing, but I really do feel sorry for them. I just don't appreciate that they've decided to do a victim cosplay over this and tried to villainize me for asking this question:

Ending this with my final thoughts: fatphobia is real and hurts people. I don't support fatphobia. I don't stand for it. I've met a lot of fatphobes in my life and all of them were deeply hurtful and insecure people who took out their insecurities on others. Here on OTID we don't vibe with shaming people for their weight nor for how they look. Fat people are people. Skinny people are people. We're all the same on the inside, bones and organs. What matters is how we treat others. I want to spend my days treating others with kindness and receiving kindness back. I like putting smiles on people's faces, not hurting others. I do get it wrong sometimes, and I acknowledge that, but I always try to correct myself, learn and be a better person. I admit when I'm wrong.

If this is my hill to die on, then so be it. But I promise you that I did not reblog OP's post and asked that question to make fun of them or invite harassment to them. I can't believe I even have to repeat this so many times, but I was asking because I didn't understand. I stand behind everything I've said. If your claim to fame is trying to fight me, you highly overestimate how many active followers I have and the kind of community you'll find here. If you want to cancel me for being fatphobic, I'm sorry to say but the only person I've ever been cruel to and who I've bodyshamed was my own self.

[en-geneisaxx]

'Please don't say that this is the end of us...'

Pairings: Husband!Hoon x fem!reader

Warnings: Swearing (you're gonna be on a rollercoaster of emotions lol)

Feat. Jay, Heeseung and Jake of Enhypen, Yeji (Sunghoon's sister), Jin Ae (Y/n and Sunghoon's child),

AND

Reesa (@dollywons), Haze (@pockettwinzz), Reina (@rinbowaman), Rin (@diorsyun), Nessa (@heeslomll), Aeri (@heeslut4life), Aria (@jaylaxies), Julia (@jak3slut), Rae (@hoonieshoneymain) (SORRY IF I GOT YOUR NAMES WRONG 😭)

Tagging my moots who wanted to read: @pockettwinzz @diorsyun @rinbowaman @heeslomll @heeslut4life @hoonieshoneymain @sungvrhs

Previous parts can be found here:

Part 6

Part 5

Part 4

Part 3

Part 2

Part 1

Preview

A/n: HI HI HIIII EVERYONE!! I'M SO SORRY I HAVEN'T BEEN POSTING MUCH FICS, I HAD A WRITER'S BLOCK MOMENT FOR A SECOND, SO FORGIVE ME 😭 ONCE THE POLL RESULTS COME, I'LL BE FOCUSING ON MAKING A NEW FIC BASED ON THAT PERSON. PLEASE SEND OPINIONS OR THE TYPE OF FIC YOU WOULD WANT FOR IT (I have no idea who's winning rn, don't wanna vote 😅) BUT YH, TYSM TO EVERYONE FOR YOUR SUPPORT, HOPE YOU ENJOY!!

Likes, reblogs and/or following me will be much appreciated!! 😚

Last chapter, part 7:

'𝒀/𝒏, 𝒊𝒇 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒉𝒂𝒅 𝒂 𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒏𝒄𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒃𝒆 𝒔𝒊𝒏𝒈𝒍𝒆 𝒂𝒈𝒂𝒊𝒏 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒍𝒐𝒐𝒌 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒂 𝒎𝒂𝒏, 𝒘𝒉𝒐 𝒘𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅 𝒊𝒕 𝒃𝒆?'

'𝑯𝒂𝒉𝒂, 𝒘𝒉𝒂𝒕'𝒔 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒘𝒆𝒊𝒓𝒅 𝒒𝒖𝒆𝒔𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒔, 𝑱𝒂𝒌𝒆? 𝑰 𝒔𝒘𝒆𝒂𝒓, 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒂𝒔𝒌 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒎 𝒂𝒍𝒍 𝒕𝒊𝒎𝒆... 𝑾𝒆𝒍𝒍, 𝑰'𝒍𝒍 𝒂𝒍𝒘𝒂𝒚𝒔 𝒄𝒉𝒐𝒐𝒔𝒆 𝑺𝒖𝒏𝒈𝒉𝒐𝒐𝒏.'

You drifted your attention to the churros stand nearby, wanting a sweet treat. You didn't hear Jake's evil, spiteful intentions. The tempting, lying snake hissed:

'𝑰'𝒍𝒍 𝒎𝒂𝒌𝒆 𝒔𝒖𝒓𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒃𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒌 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒍𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒓'𝒔 𝒉𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒕𝒔 𝒕𝒐 𝒃𝒆𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒆 𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐞.'

He successfully did that with ease, which horrified you. And boy, the venom could've killed your happy marriage, almost. Luckily it was your faithful best friend that had it, or you would've been silently tortured with regret for not knowing the truth in his hell. Fucking hell, Jake, no wonder why people say you should run from a scorpio man.

But, let's forget about the shattered past, and focus on the thriving present, you and Hoon crying in each other's embrace, saying words filled with the upmost affection and actions that displayed their yearning for each other.

'Hoon...next time, please, tell me your thoughts, hm? I want to be with you, 𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓.' You desperately plead, not wanting things to go haywire again.

'Mhmm, m'sorry...' He chokes out, clearly affected by Jake's mental abuse.

It was finally back to normal, back to a loving family. You guys could finally sleep in peace, Hoon's toned body moving so elegantly. It was so fast, making up. You even questioned if it was a silly dream. Either way, you wouldn't want to go back. And you weren't EVER going to see Jake enter your life.

'Shh,' whispers Sunghoon cutely, 'let's wake up momma.'

The two loved doing that, waking you up with kisses and cuddles, before playing with each other for a short bit of time. The weather was bright and hopeful, which gave you the impression that, after a hard-fought battle, with determination, you can succeed. What a perfect day to wake up in, you could even cry.

Jin Ae crawls to you, giggling quietly and looking at her father with such amusment. She was like a piece of him, their smooth-riding relationship so wholesome. They both lean in, count themselves to three before launching their weapons of tender kisses.

'Hehe, hello my baby!!' You sleepily smiled, before welcoming the morning with your husband,

'Hello, daddy...' You smirked, knowing damn well how it gives him a dopamine and ego boost.

'Hello my pretty, beautiful, stunning baby wife...' He complimented, laying down and hugging you and Jin Ae, each on both sides of his chest.

'Ahh, my two girls, how lucky I am to have you all.' He kissed the top of your heads, 'Mine, mine, mine, mine, 𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐞.' He said the last word like a hungry beast, but immdiately became a cute penguin, baby baekgyu. Jin Ae couldn't contol her laughter at this point, soothing sounds echoing in this haven.

'Baby,' Sunghoon started, pecking the two of you now and then, 'should we go to the park?'

Your jokes were as cringey as his, which is probably why many people were astonished by your humor.

'Which Park, your Mum, your Dad? Jay? Yeji?'

He chuckles whilst dies at your jokes,

'Babe, that was so...wow'

'You can't say much,' You said with a smug smile, 'imagine saying, "𝒎𝒊𝒔𝒐 𝒎𝒂𝒌𝒆𝒔 '𝒎𝒊𝒔𝒐' 𝒉𝒂𝒑𝒑𝒚".' You came back, knowing he will be overwhelmingly embarrased.

'BABE!! Stoppp, that was one of my worst moments in life, frick Jay.' He whined, but made sure to keep the language child-friendly, knowing Jin Ae can learn quickly.

'Haha, but yeah, we should go to the park, and let's bring Jay and Yeji!'

'Mhmm, they deserve it, AND HEESEUNG. SHOOT, I FORGOT ABOUT HIM! He was like my lifesaver.. We should probably make them gifts...' He agrees.

'I know just the thing...' You said confidently, making Sunghoon look at you, wanting for you to continue,

'FOOD!' You happily shouted, and Jin Ae copied too,

'Food!' She chortled, clapping her hands. Her and Sunghoon's cuteness broke the scales, damn...

'Heyy!! Thanks for tagging us along!' Says the three friends, excited for the payment of their therupatic actions.

'Where are we going?' Yeji asks, trying to contain the urge to just take Sunghoon's card and run off.

'Haha, we'll go to a kbbq place, Heeseung's favourite, especially.' You said, 'Oh yeah, it was Sunghoon's idea.' You grinned, because Sunghoon didn't want others to know how soft he was.

'Awww, thanks bro, come to my place anytime-' He stops, seeing your angry glare, 'OR stay with lovely Y/n right here...' He mumbles, rubbing his nape.

You guys ate like you were famished, finishing the bowl within a few minutes, but the food was definitely worth the hype.

'You know what, I feel like this is a bribe, BUT I'M ALL FOR IT.' Yeji proclaimed, earning a laugh from everyone.

'Y/niee,' starts Heeseung, doing something very unusual with his body...

'Lee Heeseung...' You said slowly with a deep tone, looking as dead as Jay is, who ends up averting his attention to Jin Ae, Yeji and Sunghoon getting stitches from laughing too hard, 'what on earth are you doing' You fake cried.

'I WAS TRYING TO DO AGEYOOOO' Wanting to be six-feet-under.

'But anyways, where we going for dessert?'

The group pondered about the various options, Jin Ae just scribbling on the piece of drawing given by the staff.

'Oh, I know, why not we go and pop over to dollywon's bakery and order from there!' You implied, knowing everyone loves going there.

'YEAH, THAT'S A GREAT IDEA! I love her bakeries' Says Yeji, scrolling on her phone to look for the menu.

'Oh yeah, Y/n, can we go to a library?' Asks Jay, 'I've been wanting to read a few poets and authors'

'Of course! Hoon, you can go to the park with Heeseung and Yeji when that happens, yeah?'

Sunghoon looks offended, 'OBVIOUSLY, I'M NOT LIKE THAT GRANDPA.'

Jay swears in korean, knowing Jin Ae isn't that knowledgeable.

'Right, let's go!!'

'Hi Reesa!!' Greets Y/n, who's happy to see her coquette friend. Y/n orders from her bakery when she's in need of something sweet, sometimes, she wants to take Reesa too.

'Hi Y/n! It's been awhile, I see we have a few costumers!' She notions to the group.

'Yep, all wanting a bite!' You chuckle, Jin Ae's motioning that she wants the chocolate muffin.

'Yup, all done! Thanks Y/n!' Says Reesa. 'Oh, and one more thing...' She takes out the chocolate muffin, 'I see mini hoon has been wanting this.' She smiles. She's so kind, no wonder why Jungwon took her as his girlfriend.

'Mmm,' hums Heeseung in delight, 'this is soooo yummy!'

The three manage to feed themselves, unlike your family. You're feeding Sunghoon like the baby he is right now, and Sunghoon's feeding the real baby. Jay takes a photo, knowing you'll want it in the picture book.

'Right,' burps Heeseung, 'let's go to the park, yeahhh?' He coos to Jin Ae.

'We'll be heading to the library, see you.'

'Y/n, what authors do you recommend? I've been quite busy lately, so I wanted to take reading just to let my imagination run wild.' Jay asks calmly, passing each shelf of books.

'I've got to say, authors like Haze, Rin, Aria, Reina, Nessa, Juila, Aeri, Rae have been taking my time, and it was worth it!' You advised, knowing how good these people are. They're like the rulers of literature, and they certaintly produce the highest-quality works.

'Ah, I have heard of them, and they're works are quite...interesting.' You realise what he meant, and squirmed in embarrassment.

'That's why there are restrictions, dummy!' You hit him, earning a sharp gasp and hiss.

'Ha, imagine if Sunghoon found out-'

'Let's just find a story to read, yeah!?' You whisper shouted, annoyed by his teasing. The Park brothers sure have something in common.

'AHH, JIN AE-AH!! GO, GO!!' cheers Heeseung.

While Jay and Y/n were purchasing books, Yeji and Jin Ae were playing tag, Jin Ae being the tagger. Sunghoon's taken many videos of the moment, wanting to keep this memory.

'We're back!!' Exclaims Y/n, hugging Sunghoon who had his arms out open for you to come.

'Haha, you missed out on some beautiful moments' chuckles Sunghoon, knowing you'll be devastated.

'What!? When..' You whine, but Sunghoon's such a romantic. He back hugs you, places his head on top of yours, intertwinned you fingers with his and says,

'Don't worry, darling. We'll make more beautiful moments, forever.'

A/n: AAAAAH, THANK YOU SO MUCH EVERYONE!! THIS MARKS MY DEBUT AS A WRITER. I HOPE YOU GUYS LIKE MY WORKS AND I'LL BE POSTING SOME MORE FICS VERY SOON. ILYSM 💗

[ssuperficialspacecadett]

Crutches and Crushes

Chapter Three of the Through the Scope series | Chapter Four

Rating: Mature

Word Count: 4.9K

TW: Unhealthy relationship and mentions of cocaine

Chapter Overview: You run into Frankie while you are out shopping.

Notes: Hey everyone ! I love that I'm still going to say no set posting schedule even though I have been consistent in my posting schedule. I just don't want to give a day and then miss it and blah blah blah. ANYWAY I'm absolutely beside myself that people wanted to be on the tag list for this series (i could cry) so thank you to the people that are investing time into this just like me (: my asks are always open if you want to chat about this series in particular or literally anything else !! happy reading <3

*no use of y/n & female presenting reader*

— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —

With a whole week of work at Brass Knuckles now officially under your belt, your dad wanted to celebrate. He called you and asked if you would come and eat lunch with him on Sunday afternoon. You knew that this meant you would be the one selected to go pick up and pay for lunch at some restaurant, but it was the fact that he remembered in the first place. Your dad was the kind of man that remembered globally recognized celebratory events: Christmas, Valentine’s Day, and Thanksgiving. However, he struggled a bit with remembering ones that hit closer to home: your birthday, his own wedding anniversary, and any school function you had. You knew that he never did this with any malice or bad intentions, that wasn’t in his nature, but that didn’t ever numb the pain when it inevitably happened. 

“Did you really have to get me a salad?” 

You already knew that he was going to ask this. “Yes, I did.”

“Well could you have at least ordered me one that is topped with fried chicken and not this skinless bitch chicken.”

“Fried meats are one of the main foods that you have to avoid because of your diabetes,” You narrow your eyes at him. “So eat your ‘bitch chicken’ and be happy.”

“You’re right, you’re right. I’m sorry, Sweet Pea. Thank you for bringing the food and for putting up with me.” 

“Of course, dad, but speaking of putting up with you…how has your physical therapy been going with Miss. Maggie?”

“I have my good days and my bad days. I actually managed to hold myself up on the uhh…what’s that thing called again? The one that has those horizontal poles on either side of me?”

“The parallel bars?”

“Yeah!” He snaps his fingers together. “I managed to hold myself up on the parallel bars, but I used all my strength focusing on not falling over which meant that I didn’t have much left in me when it came time to try taking a step.”

“I’m still really proud of you! Doing everything that you’re doing isn’t easy. All that anyone can ask is that you take it day by day and to try your best.”

“When did you grow up and get so smart?” His voice sounds airy. 

“When you blinked.”

“Is that so? Okay, smarty pants, what’s the first thing that I’m going to do when I can walk on my own again?”

You lean back in your seat and ponder his question. It wouldn’t have anything to do with playing cards, since he has that poker tournament every Sunday evening. It wouldn’t be going on a date, although you suspect he might have a little thing for Miss. Maggie. As you rack your brain for the answer a car fires up its engine in the retirement home parking lot. Got it.

“The first thing that you’re going to do when you can walk on your own is go to a car show. Then after you’re done, you’ll probably go get the greasiest burger you can get your hands on just to spite me.” 

“Fuckin’ hell. You got me all figured out.” 

“How about this? We go to the car show together, but skip the burgers.”

“Or we go to the car show together, skip the burgers, and get a basket of fries instead?”

You know when you're in the middle of a losing argument. A frustrated sigh comes from you as you nod your head at his counter-proposal. 

“Deal, dad.” 

***

You should have known this was a bad idea. You should have turned your car around the moment you saw how packed the parking lot was. Days like today were the reason why online shopping and curbside delivery were invented. Unfortunately for you, you had no better way to spend the afternoon of your day off than braving the hectic crowds of IKEA. Your desperate need for items inside the store outweighed your hesitation to go inside. You have only just grabbed a basket when your phone starts ringing.

“Thank fucking god you called, Robbie. I just got into IKEA and I need someone to talk to so I don’t get completely overwhelmed here.” 

You spend the next 45 minutes wandering in and out of different furniture sections while filling Robbie in about your new job and friends. You tell her about Benny and how he has become your closest friend so far down here. She audibly gags when you mention Brunson and how he acted when you first met him. Although you reassure her that Benny stepped in and shut him down, she still has a few choice words that you hope the family standing next to you can’t hear through the phone. 

By the time you finally bring up Will, Pope, and Frankie your basket is quite full. You found all the kitchenware you needed: pots and pans, cups, plates, bowls, utensils, etc. Then for your room you got a nightstand, a dresser drawer, a lamp, decorative throw pillows, and a full length mirror to hang on your closet door. You wrote down the item numbers for some of the items that are too big to cart around, kitchen table and chairs and a couch, so you could order them on a later date. 

“So, Santiago is Pope, Will is Ironhead, Frankie is Catfish, and Benny is…just Benny?” 

“It’s weird, I know.” You laugh. “They’re all really sweet, but Frankie is by far the most attractive one in the group.” 

“What did I fucking say?! I knew that you would have better luck finding a boyfriend in Florida than back home!”

“He’s not my boyfriend! I just think he’s cute, damn!”

“Tell me about him! I need a good mental image.”

“He’s a few inches taller than me, maybe 5’11? His hair curls at the end and is this beautiful brown which matches his eyes. Broad, and I mean broad, shoulders.” Robbie squeals on the other end of the phone. “Big nose and probably 10-15 years older than me?”

“I told you that you like ‘em older.”

You playfully roll your eyes at her comment as you walk into the section of the store that carries the bed frames.

“But I think you would really like Will. He’s tall, ruggedly handsome, has a sexy southern accent, and seems really smart.”

She’s quiet on the other end of the phone while you explain more about him to her. You love Robbie, but the men that she has dated in the past couldn’t match her on any level. She needed a partner that could challenge her intellectually and push her out of her comfort zone. Will is the kind of man that could do that for her. 

“Basically, what I’m trying to tell you is that you should date men that are actually men.”

“Well, it looks like I’ll have some homework to do when I come down next month for spring break.”

“Just give him a chance, that’s all I’m asking. Hey, I should probably go. I’ve already been here way longer than I intended and if I keep talking to you there's no telling when I’ll finish.” 

The two of you make plans to talk later and you hang up the phone. Now to find a bed frame and get the fuck out of here. You survey the room to see if anything catches your eye and something does. The only issue is that it's not a piece of furniture. Familiar curls peek out from underneath a black cap. He’s facing away from you which allows you to read the lettering on the back of his shirt.

B.K.B.G Sponsor of the Month

Tire Town Auto Body Repair Shop

When you first met Frankie, Benny had accidentally cut it short. You have been embarrassingly hung up on the fact that you didn’t get to talk to him the way you had with the other two men that evening. Now the universe has allowed you a second chance by placing him just a few feet away. You find yourself stuck in between feeling excitement and apprehension to approach him. Would he think you were weird if you came up and talked to him? Would he see you as Benny’s little receptionist and nothing more? These questions and countless more plague your mind as your feet guide you over to him. 

“Uhh…Frankie?”

He turns around and looks down at you with those enchanting eyes. The wrinkles that form around them when he smiles softly at you echo the photo you saw of him. The front of his shirt has ‘B.K.B.G Friday Fight Night’ written in a large font across his chest. 

“Hey! What are you doing here?”

You shily gesture to your very full basket. “Turns out that one of the many consequences of moving quickly is having to buy all new furniture because you didn’t have time to bring the stuff you already owned.”

“Oh God, I’m sorry,” he chuckles and scratches the nape of his neck. “That was a stupid question.” 

“No, no it wasn’t! At least I have a job now so I can pay for it all.”

“How is that going by the way? You just finished your first week, right?” 

You try to convince yourself that him remembering how long you had already been working at Brass Knuckles for wasn’t a big deal. He had come into the gym on Monday and since today is Sunday, a logical person could conclude that you had completed your first week. Try as you might, you couldn’t stop the balloon-like swelling you felt in your heart. 

“I did! It was pretty good, honestly. I feel like I’ve got the hang of everything I’m in charge of. Speaking of Brass Knuckles, I like your shirt.”

He looks down at the shirt he probably didn’t think twice about throwing on this morning. 

“You don’t have one of the fight night shirts yet? I think this is the one my job sponsored.” You laugh as he tries to look over his shoulder to read the back of the shirt.

“No, I haven’t been to the fights yet. You work at Tire Town Auto Body Shop?”

“For the time being.” His eyes drift away while he says. You can tell that there is more to the story than he is letting on.

“Well it’s comforting to know that you work there,” His gaze falls back on you. “I have the worst luck with cars so it’s only a matter of time before I’ll need to find a shop.”

“I hope nothing goes wrong with your car, but if it does, just bring it over to me and I’ll take care of everything for you. Wait, wait…did you say that you haven’t been to the fights?”

“In my defense I have only known about them for a week! Benny is the only one I know there, but he is either preparing the fighters or organizing the event as a whole. I would feel out of place if I went by myself.”

“Well now you know me and Will and Pope. Come with us.”

“Really?” 

“Yeah,” he rests his hand on the edge of your cart. “It’s actually a pretty fun time. I would love it if you went with me- me and the guys.” You watch his fingers pick anxiously at a piece of tape on the end of one of your boxes.

“Sounds like a plan to me, Frankie.” 

Upon hearing you agree to go with him the corners of his lips curl into a smile. It’s so infectious that you find yourself beaming in the middle of the bustling store as well. His shyness makes you yearn to know what makes him tick. Makes you want to know how to coax that coveted smile out of him. Because maybe doing that will help you smile more as well. 

It looks like he is opening his mouth to say something when he’s cut off by the blaring of his ringtone. He easily takes the device out of his pocket, but falters when he sees the name that's displayed on the screen. His once relaxed demeanor has now been replaced by something tense and foreign to you. 

“I’ve uhh I’ve gotta take this. I’m so sorry.” He hits the answer button and places the phone to his ear. “Hello?”

“No worries,” You whisper to him. “I’m sure I’ll see you later.” 

You watch as he nods and starts to walk deeper into the store. Before he gets out of your ear shot you hear him say the name ‘Rochelle’. Leave it to you to be into a man that already has another woman first in line.

***

“Why do we always have to come to this dump? They don’t have any good drinks and the music sucks.”

Frankie sits across from Rochelle at a random table in The Barrel. He knew better than to let her sit at the guy's designated table. He didn’t want her to corrode them the way she had done with him. 

“Why do you want to get back together, Rochelle? We never made each other happy. Our whole relationship was a coked out blur.” 

“But you liked it.” She places her hand on his. It was cold and wet since she had been using it to hold her beer bottle. 

“I’m not the same man I was before, Rochelle. I can’t do shit like that anymore. I don’t want to do shit like that anymore.” He forces himself to look her in the eyes. “You know what it cost me.”

She meets his plea with a scoff and brings her drink to her overlined lips. She never seemed interested in conversations where she wasn’t leading or the center of attention. 

“You were fun. I was fun. We were fun. So what if we needed a little bump every now and then to get there?” Her fingers curl tighter around his hand. “I miss you, Frankie.”

He missed having someone ride shotgun. He missed having someone there when he needed to vent about the shitty day that he had at work. He missed having a warm body to sleep next to at night. He missed having someone to care for. He just didn’t know if he missed her. She gave him a distraction when he needed it in the past, but could she give him the support he needs now? The support he would inevitably need in the future?

“The only way I would consider revisiting ‘us’ is if it's just us. No more coke.”

He can see the annoyance in her eyes as he lays out his boundaries on the table. She slowly retracts her hand from his and coils it back around her glass. 

“Fine.” Her tone is flat.

“I’m not kidding. I want a fresh start. If we are going to try again I want to do it right.”

“Then let's start with that woman’s voice I heard on the other end of your phone today. Who was that?”

“Are you serio- I ran into Benny’s new hire while I was out shopping for stuff for my place. She’s new to the area and doesn’t have a lot of friends here yet. It was just a friendly conversation, Rochelle.”

"Well,” Her voice is syrupy sweet. “You don’t need to be her friend because you’re already mine.”

He really wanted to believe her when she said that. He really wanted to believe that she cared for him enough to change and grow as a person. He really wanted to ignore the sound of the water calling his name the longer he sat with her. 

***

By Wednesday, you felt completely at ease working in the gym. You recognized and chatted with regulars, became quite the sales woman for both memberships and Friday tickets, and were able to kick the washing machine into submission without Benny’s help. Your desk was also coming along nicely too. You had posted notes in your favorite color, a photo you and Robbie took together in a photobooth shoved into the top right corner of your computer, multi colored pens, and even a small filing basket so you could better organize your paperwork. Your new found confidence in the job gave you the push you needed to officially pitch the idea of gym wide air fresheners to Benny.

“I don’t want this place smellin’ like a fruity little spa.” 

“You do know that they make dozens, if not hundreds, of different kinds of scents right?”

“People come here to workout, not pretend that they are on a tropical vacation.” 

“People can’t workout if the smell suffocates them.” You retort.

“It’s not even that bad!”

“You’ve gone nose blind, Benny! Please know that I say this out of the kindness of my heart, but it is fucking rancid in here.” 

“Now you’re just bein’ mean.” 

“Listen, what if I buy some, only the most manly smelling ones of course, and let you test them out? It’s a win-win because you won’t have to charge them on the company card and if you hate them I can just return them all.”

“Alright, but you promise that I will get the final say?” 

“You’re the boss, Benny. Oh, what should we eat today?”

The two of you have been eating lunch together during the week. There is a good window of time right after the gym’s lunch rush and before the after work rush. You even made sure to block off at least an hour in Benny’s schedule around that time so he could have a much needed break. 

“Have you tried that burger place up the street? Goddamn, they’re so good.” 

“Burgers it is then. Text me your order so I know what to get you.”

What? Just because your dad has to be on a strict diet doesn’t mean that you have to be on one.

***

Benny had wheeled his rolly chair all the way from his back office and crammed it behind your desk. Both of you sit snugly with your feast of burgers and fries littered in front of you. The silence is only broken up by the occasional ‘can you pass the ketchup?’ or ‘are there extra napkins in the bag?’. When you have eaten half of your burger you decide to set it down and bring up what’s been on your mind. You know you can’t just come out and ask it so you opt to bring it up gradually. 

“I saw Frankie the other day while I was out and he suggested I come to the fights this Friday.”

“I’ve been askin’ you to come since you got here!” His mouth is still full from the last bite he took. 

“Gross, Benny!” You swat him in the shoulder. “I know you have been asking, but you’re busy helping organize things! You’re the only one I know here.”

You can’t tell if he chooses to keep his mouth shut because you’re right or because you just reprimanded him.

“Frankie said I could go with him and the other guys. Plus I have no social life and it's starting to feel like the walls of my apartment are closing in on me.”

“Regardless of who convinced you to go, I’m happy you’re comin’! You’re gonna have a blast! Fish and the guys throw down pretty hard at these things too so you’ll be in good company.” 

“Yeah I think I will be too.” You have to shove a fry in your mouth to hide the smile you can feel making its way across your lips. Only once you have finished chewing, you don’t want to be a hypocrite, do you bring up what you really have been wanting too. “Can I ask a question? It might not be my place though.”

The man across from you motions, burger in hand, for you to continue. You take a deep breath and rip the band-aid off.

“Well, Frankie and I’s conversation was actually cut short when he got a phone call. I wouldn’t have said anything except- except he looked so tense when he got it? I don’t know, maybe I’m imagining things.”

“No you’re definitely not imaginin’ things. I don’t want to get into Frankie’s business because that's his own shit to talk about, but long story short, a woman is tryin’ to come back into his life that shouldn’t have been there in the first place.”

You pick your burger back up and take a bite as he carries on with his story. 

“The guys and I all found ways to cope with comin’ back to reality after dealin’ with the worst of the worst in and out of the service. Mine was openin’ this place, Will’s was helpin’ other vet’s, Pope’s was bein’ a military consultant, and Frankie’s was…well Frankie’s was Rochelle.”

“Rochelle.” You wanted to feel how her name felt on your tongue. “I heard him say that name when he was walking away.”

“Damnit, Fish.”

***

“So, remind me again why we are here?”

Frankie pulls into Brass Knuckles’ parking lot with Pope in his passenger seat. He knew he should have done this without him. If anyone was going to sniff out that he had a small thing for you it was going to be Pope.

“Benny left some clothes at my place last week and since we were in the neighborhood I figured I would just drop them off.” 

“As opposed to giving them to him on Friday? Which is only two days from now, might I add.” He looks in the backseat and grabs the small cardboard box. “I think he would have made it until then without a t-shirt and a pair of jeans.”

“Shut up and get out of my truck, man.” 

Frankie takes the box of clothes out of Pope’s hands when they both round the bed of the truck and start walking towards the door. He can see you entranced by something on your computer screen through the windows. 

“I also invited her to come to the fights with us this week.” Frankie flicks his chin in your direction when Pope looks at him. 

“You already have her number? Damn, Fish. I thought I worked quickly.”

“No, man,” He groans. “We ran into each other while I was at IKEA on Sunday. I just thought it would be fun, you know? It’s not like that, Pope.” 

“Fish, you were a bad liar when we served together and you’re a bad liar now.” He turns to look at Frankie. “Come on, you think she’s cute don’t you?”

“She’s just cool.” He should have never brought Pope.

“Whatever you say.” 

The chime of the door bell pulls you from your emails. You’re shocked, but not unhappy, when you look up and see the two of them coming through the door.

“Hey guys. I didn’t know y’all were coming by today.”

“I would have texted you, love, but I haven’t got your number.” Pope flashes his signature beaming grin in your direction. 

“Well you never asked, love.” You tease. 

“We wanted to drop some things off for Benny.” Frankie says as he comes up and places a cardboard box gingerly on your desk.

“Who's ‘we’?” Pope gabs. 

Your attention stays on Frankie as you speak. “Oh, sure! He’s in the back office doing…actually I'm not really sure what he does back there.”

When Frankie doesn’t immediately move, Pope reaches over and slides the box towards himself. 

“Hey, what are you-?”

“Let me take this for you, Fish. Why don’t you stay here and get her number for me? Strictly for scientific purposes of course.” You can see a playful look in his eyes when he turns back to his clearly panicking friend. 

“Wait, no it’s-”

“It’s no big deal, exactly.” Pope whisks the box off your desk and starts walking into the gym, but not before tossing you a wink. 

It suddenly feels a little harder to breathe when it’s just the two of you up front. You want to compliment the soft, yellow jacket he is wearing, but no words come. The only thing you can selfishly focus on right now is your heart and how it's beating so hard in your chest that he can probably hear it. 

“It’s nice to see you again.” You think you can hear his voice shutter a bit.

“It’s nice to see you again too, Frankie. Still alright for me to come with everyone on Friday? I don’t want to impose.”

“You’re not imposing!” The words tumble out of his mouth. “You’re not imposing. I invited you, remember?” His tone settles.

“Thanks again for that by the way.” 

A silence falls between the two of you. You both must have been racking your brains for something to say because you speak at the same time.

“Did you-?”

“Were you able-?”

Comfortable laughter blossoms and it dawns on you that he might be just as nervous to talk to you as you were to talk to him. 

“No, no you go first!” You choke out while trying to catch your breath. 

“Did you end up getting anything else after I left the other day?” 

“I actually did; thanks for asking! I found a bed frame I liked. It took me longer than I'd like to admit to put it together though.” 

Frankie has never been more grateful for the front desk than in this exact moment. Images of your naked, writhing body cuffed to a bed frame flood his mind. God, he could do anything he wanted to you. He would take it slow at first, not wanting to leave any part of your body undiscovered by his tongue. Then, only when you were begging him, would he give you what you wanted. 

“Frankie?”

“I-I’m sorry what did you say?”

“I asked if you were able to find anything? You didn’t have a basket when I saw you.”

“No, I didn’t. The thing I wanted was just out of reach-stock! The thing I wanted was just out of stock.” He corrects.

“Oh, that’s too bad.” You pray your voice doesn’t give away the curiosity you have about his little slip up. “Here. Let me give you something to make up for it.” 

You take out a pen from its holder and move your stack of sticky notes in front of you. His eyes capture your every move. You write out your number slowly on the small piece of paper as you revel in the knowledge that you have his undivided attention. When you’re finished you sign it with your name and a tiny heart and pray that you haven’t misread this situation. 

“I know Pope was the one that asked for this, but I want you to hold on to it.” 

Your cheeks burn as you hand him your proverbial olive branch. When he takes it from you and reads what you had written he laughs quietly to himself. 

“You know, so you can text me about this Friday.”

“Not for scientific purposes?” He mimics his friend's earlier statement.

“Unlucky for Pope, I was never really that into the sciences.”

“Lucky for me then.” 

He folds up your note and carefully places it into his front shirt pocket. His timing couldn't have been better because Benny and Pope emerge from behind the brick wall as soon as he’s done. 

“I hear that you managed to convince our girl here to come with y’all to the fights, Fish! Good on you!” He comes up and claps his friend on the back. “I’m not at all jealous that you did it when I couldn’t.”

“Benny.” you chide.

“Why don’t you make it up to Benny and come to the bar with us?”

“One step at a time, Pope. One step at a time. I do have something for you though.”

He comes over to you as you start writing your number out again. Out of the corner of your eye you see him give Frankie and Benny and thumbs up. Oh you poor, sweet, incorrect bastard. You nonchalantly pass it to him and hope Frankie see’s that there is no heart drawn on this time. 

“Your reward for being such a big helper today by returning Benny’s clothes. If you text me in the middle of the night and wake me up I swear to God I’ll kill you.” 

“What bliss that would be.” 

“Hey! Unless y’all are gonna workout y’all better get a move on. Just because we are friends doesn’t mean y’all can take up valuable lobby space in my gym.” 

“We’re going, we’re going.” For a man that is getting ushered out of a building, Frankie sure looks happy. 

“Bye, guys!”

They both wave and say ‘bye’ to you and Benny as they open the door and head into the parking lot. Benny heads back to his office before they reach their truck, but you keep watching. As Frankie’s hand curls around his truck door, he looks back at you, and pats over his shirt pocket. Then he disappears inside and drives off with Pope. 

Frankie could feel the note he placed in his pocket burning a hole through his chest the whole ride back to Pope’s place. It made it hard to carry on a simple conversation with him because that fiery sensation was all he could focus on. It was the type of heat that seeped into his very bones and made him feel as if he was glowing from the inside out. He knew you had unknowingly seared yourself onto his heart and that feeling scared him.

— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —

{tag list: @pimosworld @c-justhere @javicstories @saltybutteredtoast @hoeslingz @avastrasposts @bitchwitch1981 @smol-beb @cutesyscreenname }

[shesmore-shoebill]

since you mentioned an angel in neon blue as one of your faves…..your top 5 amangela fics perhaps? some honorary mentions too if there’s too many? 👀

Sorry for the delay on this, life got busy and then more busy instead of less busy and I wanted to give this ask its deserved amount of consideration.

anyway. Five is HARD. I will do my best. Order is not indicative of anything bc I've agonized long enough as it is. I've tagged folks + linked directly to their posts where I could find their associated tumblr post, and links to AO3 where I couldn't.

Also I cheated and made a separate list for NSFW ones. Partly because I know some people don't want to read NSFW. and to cheat a little on the 5 restriction.

As always, RPF with F as in fiction. From what I recall, none of these are attempting to speculate or make any actual statements about real people, they're all just works of fiction I like.

if anyone wants me to remove a link to their fic or a tag for any reason, let me know.

close my eyes (and fantasize) by @baflegacy

listen. I am a fucking sucker for well intentioned and realistic miscommunication that stems from care and then goes wrong. I love a thing where someone cares about someone and thats why they're worried and the worry also means they are a little mad and a little hurt bc fuck, i want to help you, why arent you talking to me about this, did i do something, crossed with the other person doing everything in their power to do the exact thing driving them up the wall, because they genuinely care so much about the other person that its skewing their judgement. People who care and people who fuck up. I'll eat it up every time, and this one is written in a way that feels so real. 👌👌👌👌

the devil is in the details by @skiespeaches

this is a newer fic and its still in progress atm and so theres a chance it gets bumped into NSFW territory 😅 but im really enjoying it!!! The dynamic between Amanda and Angela takes the competitive edge we can see in videos and makes it into something phenomenal. Its got such strong tension and pacing, and its also got. REALLY GOOD COMMUNICATION. People react realistically and have reasonable fears and doubts but everyone also talks about them and trusts each other and its just so satisfying to read as a result. And it STILL does the tension and the 👀👀👀👀👀 so well. Guess its kind of funny to put this and the prior recc right next to each other but I genuinely love both of these. Communication and humans are weird.

not strong enough by @moviemandy

i love a disaster angela fic as much as anyone but because I feel like that trope is established among smosh rpf, I love having that get subverted even more. More Amanda getting comforted!!! yeah!!!!!And the way the dynamic and emotions are written in this one is especially satisfying to me, they all feel very real, and sweet. :') Also, Im always a sucker for the trope where someone tries to deflect from their issues by taking care of someone else and then gets CALLED OUT FOR IT. also, double bonus, this fic can be read completely platonically. :]

a field of yellow flowers by @unknownteapot

gah this one has so many layers and elements to it, its such a damn delight to reread. the bittersweetness of it all really 👌👌👌👌. Grudging respect and admiration in an awful space, magnetism of people who both deeply want to love each other and really don't (but they do). The world feels very realized and that's so important bc the fic clearly sets up the interplay as like. The two of them and also the world they are in as a distinct three players in the story. This fic has so many emotions!!! gut punch of an end! you feel for both of them so deeply by the end.

i've been having revelations by @poppyfamily

slight cheating bc this is courtmangela but it should still count imo!!! It contains another classic trope of people who care about each other deeply and it being percieved by other people before they clock it themselves. Its something I like specifically as a writing trope and only executed in specific ways- caring deeply and being affectionate does not HAVE to mean you want to sleep with or are in love with someone, and IRL assumptions about that can be. Infuriating. But love how this fic does it. :) Also its funny and it feels very genuine and the voices all sound. right. I love fics with lots of cuts where so much is said in tiny details and tiny moments, it makes the world feel very fleshed out. Also, Courtmangela as a band is just a blessed concept.

NSFW fics:

lets make this bed get squeaky by baflegacy

This rewrote my goddamn brain chemistry actually. Like yes, this one is hot, but the parts that really hooked into my brain are not exclusively the spicy bits. Pining RPF Amanda is SO important to my brain, and that dynamic of an Amanda silently losing her mind and Angela also silently losing her mind but slightly more at peace about it, combined with their very genuine friendship keeping things fine and then. and THEN. well.

personal leisure by unknownteapot

hey this fic is hot as hell. Its extremely well written. But also besides the nsfw parts the banter and the sort of instant connection all feel very real and unforced and i love that the end of the fic feels so open ended but also so light and hopeful and sweet. choosing to believe they meet for coffee the next day and it all goes swimmingly.

like she wants to try me on by baflegacy

this fic is about amanda in the submissive and breedable outfit and angela. It accomplishes eveeything you could want from that. Its Very nsfw. its VERY good. Writing smut is difficult on multiple levels- keeping it logistically and emotionally sound while keeping it spicy. It does all three really well. also the aftercare moment is really sweet. :]

bonus: its the subject of this ask so i didnt include it but shout out to an angel in neon blue- the tension is INCREDIBLE and the way the ending recontextualizes everything and leaves you unsure who was really in control the whole time is like. really impressive. The characterization is SO strong and feels so true to the Sarah Christ we know and creates an equally strong Creekside Killer characterization to juxtapose it. 👌

[asexual-society]

Just looking for some advice about how to tell my best friend I’m aroace. I was trying to find a way to ask other people in the community and found this blog so I hope it’s okay to ask. I do apologise if it’s not.

About three years ago, I tried telling her. I hinted at it, but in the end, I was too scared to actually tell her. I have two other really close friends that know, but one of them figured out I was ace before I did haha. They’re both very understanding of me due to their respective identities.

Recently, it’s been eating at me more and more. I write fanfiction and have been really wanting to explore aroace characters. We are actually co-writing a fic now and she’s one of my beta readers too. One of the characters I write the most about gives me major aroace vibes and I want to write about it and discuss with readers about it. The problem is that she reads my stuff. She’s supportive like that.

I’m just scared about her reaction is all. I don’t particularly care about what my family thinks because I have no intention of telling them. Not out of fear or anything, but for other reasons that don’t really matter at this point in my life. It’s my best mate I’m worried about :/ I don’t want her perception of me to be changed nor do I want her to start saying things like “you haven’t met the right person” or whatever.

This was long. I’m sorry 😭 I kept it anonymous because even though she doesn’t have tumblr, she knows my account and I’d rather not risk her seeing this :)

Hey Anon, I'm not gonna lie, I hate coming out. I've been putting off coming out to some people closest to me for so many years. But on the other hand! I totally understand having a hard time ripping the plaster off, and the feeling of it eating at you, so I can give you a couple of low-confrontation methods that might work in a pinch, and a couple of slightly scarier options and how to deal with them in case you're feeling brave?

You said she knows your blog but doesn't have tumblr, so you could try posting more about aroace stuff on here, or put it in your bio. That way, since she doesn't follow you, the chances of her seeing it are low enough that you have plausible deniability that you didn't think she would see it, and if she does, you were Definitely just about to tell her. Effectiveness: 3/10, she might not see it, in which case you'll be worrying about it for nothing.

A similar vibe of coming out is letting someone else do it for you. This only works if you have mutual friends, either online or irl. You don't have to be there when it happens, but I find it's less unpleasant if you are; finding out someone has outed you after the fact is for sure worse, even if you intended it to happen, but someone else offhandedly bringing it up takes the power out of your hands, which is scary in a different way, but it can technically work. Effectiveness: 5/10, it'll do, but it will not feel good. Requires mutual friends. If one of your friends is a loudmouth with no filter it might even happen organically at some point, but you can't count on it, so if you are there (even just in groupchat form) being able to steer the conversation in that direction might give you the small push you need to say it yourself, since it's way harder to just bring it up out of the blue by yourself, and also having another already supportive person present who has your back always helps. Effectiveness: 8/10, getting onto the topic might be hard, but having moral support is good. Requires mutual friends.

Similarly, you could engineer a situation where you're coming out to her and one other person who you know will be supportive (or you're already out to, if you're okay with a little deception) at the same time. She can't say anything shitty if there's someone else already there being cool about it. You don't even have to be coming out to the other person, you can just mention it while they're there (so it works the same as the above, except a little more intentional). Effectiveness: 8/10, points deducted for deception, but if it gets the job done, does it matter? Requires mutual friends.

Bargaining. Set yourself a deadline and have people to hold you accountable to do it. Effectiveness: 3/10, absolutely would not work on me, will probably not feel good, could be the kick you need to do it but only if your brain works that way.

Come out to someone else first and use the momentum to tell her right after. Works best if the first person you tell isn't close enough to you that it'll be really bad if they suck about it, but if they do suck, you can use that as a jumping off point to tell your friend (e.g. I told someone I was aroace and they said XYZ shitty thing), and you can sneak in an example of something that was hurtful that your friend will know to avoid saying. And if they don't suck about it (fingers crossed!), it could give you the confidence and boost you need to tell your friend. Effectiveness 6/10, requires you to come out twice as many times. You may be able to substitute in someone else being aphobic but not directly to you as a jumping off point instead.

You could try testing the waters by mentioning that you headcanon the character as aroace and seeing her reaction, if you haven't already, and then you can say "I sort of relate to them actually" and see where that gets you? Effectiveness: 5/10, high chance of backing out at the last minute, high uncertainty means this might be the scariest option.

If you have ways of making yourself do scary things already, do as many of those as you can, but if not, I can tell you that when I want to do something I'm low key terrified of but I know will help me in the long run, I write myself a letter to open as far in the future as I feel like (there are websites you can use for this), and I tell me-of-the-future about what I want to do and that I'm scared about it, and then I imagine them reading it and imagine how it'll be by then if I haven't done it yet, and how much better it'll be for them if I do.

Sometimes it's really hard to do things for ourselves, but imagining you're doing them for you-of-the-future gives yourself enough distance that you can convince yourself that you're actually doing it for someone else. It might also help to imagine that you of the future will be proud of you for doing it, and this is a pretty instantaneous reward situation, because you get the little kick of someone being proud of you before you do it just for deciding to do it, and then as soon as you've done it you get to be proud of yourself. Effectiveness: 8/10, high risk-high reward, will feel really good if you do it, but you have to do it.

If you're still worried about her saying specific unsupportive things, coming up with a few good responses to the most likely ones that you can use in the moment without even thinking can take some of the power away from her (or anyone else) saying them. If your friend is only attracted to one gender you can use the "how do you know you just haven't met the right [person of gender she isn't into]?" or "it hurts me that you think I don't know myself well enough/that you don't trust me to know this about myself". If someone you come out to isn't supportive you are legally allowed to be petty or guilt trip them, if they know you're not just gonna back down when they try to disagree with you, it shows you're serious, even/especially if you wouldn't normally go on the offensive like that. Effectiveness: ?/10, depends on your personality and how assertive you are, and can be difficult if you're worried about confrontation with your best friend, but it could just be what needs to be done, and is likely but not certain to get your point across.

I'm not saying all of these are good methods, but they are definitely methods that you could use. And hey, if you do it, let us know how you did it and how it went!

Best of luck, I hope you figure it out <3

~mod key

[fancyfade]

Can you please share all the times Tim was misogynistic? I just want to have panels ready in case any of his stans got too brave

rip I don't have the post someone else made breaking it down due to changing computers.

In general, though, a lot of it is less "this singular panel proves it" and more the way he consistently treats girls and women. Steph is the best example. She starts exactly where Tim started before fanboying himself into Batman's confidence. She is a teenager with limited training who wants to do good. Tim treats it as if it's ridiculous that she should be a superhero, and he continuously tries to dissuade her from it and acts like she does not belong. It takes a very long time for Tim to stop being condescending to Steph.

Robin #41

Like. This is not at the way start of his series. This is after she's been spoiler and he's been Robin for a bit. I'm p sure he only changes his tune on Steph once they start dating. Later on, in Nicieza's run, even after Steph has been a vigilante for over 150 comic issues worth of time, Tim acts as if Steph has an imperative to obey him and to stop being Spoiler (link)... and ofc he focuses a lot on whether the female characters were listening to him. This continues into Red Robin IIRC where he tells Steph he should not see her in her Spoiler outfit again. He continuously acts as he has authority over her for ???? reasons? He fanboyed his way into Bruce's confidence and she didn't?

Anyway Tim in general just does not respect women. Like. Here we have him dragging away his high school GF b/c she isn't listening to him when he was appearing like a bad boyfriend due to robin shenanigans (instead of, you know, being treated like a bad boyfriend for this 9_9) (link)

Tim also is judgmental in general (which is a trait I feel works well for his character, and I enjoyed the writer who was most interested in treating it as an intentional flaw rather than something they were writing accidentally), and this extends ofc to this weird instance (link) where it's incredibly important the reader know if he finds some lady hot... that said, I think this is one of the only instances of him judging someone as "hot or not" for the most part it's the type of judgment he gives to Steph or Zo, where "obviously you're not as competent as me or capable of making your own decisions or doing the stuff I do."

I would say I don't recommend getting into arguments about him if you haven't read the comics you're arguing about, though, because there are people with different interpretations of these scenes. Many people like to separate the "Tim is likely sexist because the author is sexist* so it shouldn't be counted" as most of these writers, except Lewis (writer of the judgmental bit and many early 100s Robin comics) don't treat it as a flaw or as something he should be wrong for. It'd be best to come to your own opinion about it, rather than assuming you'd agree with me :P

*which is fine, you know, as long as you extend this to female characters who are written badly because the author is sexist and characters who aren't your fave in general. You'd also have to re-write characters who react to his sexism in ways that would be irrational if the sexism was removed.

[teacup-tyrant]

Can I offer some unsolicited advice to writers about when to post fics so people will read them?

I'm a marketer by trade so making sure I get eyeballs on the content I'm writing is not only a fandom hobby of mine, but it's my actual job IRL.

Someone made a post here about the times to post to Ao3 so they hit the right time zones. There used to be some kind of glitch there but apparently that has been fixed. But it's a good roundup post about some general tips and the important callout is that the best days to post are Sundays & Mondays. (which I find hilarious bc Sundays are worthless in business marketing and you generally want to post Tue-Thurs. But I digress.)

Now let me add something that content marketers refer to as newsjacking. That means something newsworthy has happened or a certain topic goes viral and people are currently paying attention to it, so you push your own content in relation to that. Obviously, there are ethical and unethical ways to do this. Don't push your brand in relation to a tragedy and try to capitalize on something awful. That's just a dick move and then you'll probably need to add reputation management to your marketing team's plate because you just got cancelled.

But lets relate this back to fanfiction. Here's an example.

The fandom I've written the majority of my fics for got some news the other day, and there hadn't been any news around the series in months. Suddenly it was trending again. If anyone wanted to drop a new fic, this was the time when the most eyeballs would be on it because everyone has been flooding the tag and paying attention again.

So ask yourself, did your series just finish airing or a new book get released? Perfect, publish a fic because people will be wanting MORE. Did a highly anticipated trailer just come out? Awesome, everyone will be making gifs and edits and craving content. Join in and publish a fic. In these instances, you're capitalizing on people's attention.

This all isn't to say hoard your fics like a greedy dragon until there's a sudden explosion in your fandom. But IF you want to be more strategic about when you publish, this is a Professional Opinion of how you should do it.

And you can look at all of this and say HEY, fanfiction shouldn't exist to stroke your ego. You should write for your own happiness and if someone else reads it, so much the better. And you're absolutely right. Personally, my hard drive is full of piles of random headcanons and thousands of words of half finished fics that will never see the light of day because I wanted to write them out of my brain and have no intention of ever finishing them. But the ones that get fully fleshed out enough to make logical sense, well, those are for everyone else. Those are what go to Ao3.

But listen, I'm human. I like being told I wrote a good story as much as the next writer. If any writer tells you that comments and kudos don't give them the warm fuzzies, and that they feel discouraged when a fic they post gets little to no traffic... then they're a goddamn liar.

This is just a way of making an organic algorithm work in your favor.

...because Ao3 has no real algorithm to market to you for profit and that's why we all love it so much. Hell, my job depends on engagement, impressions, and follower count, but Tumblr/Ao3 has none of that available publicly so they remain my favorite websites of all time.

[the-great-ladyg]

hi! to preface this i don't mean it to be aggressive at all and i don't want to start a fight or any discourse, i'm just genuinely curious about something. if you don't want to answer or interact with me feel free to delete this ask or block me. i'm relatively new to the selfship community, and i've noticed that proshippers "stealing" imagines from antis. now, i'd like to ask, not with any malicious intent, why? coming from someone who noticed an imagine of mine reposted by you when looking through the imagines tag. now, i know you'll say block and ignore, i do have the proship tag blocked for my own comfort, however i wasn't aware there were different tags and so it showed up for me. i know that, again, for my own comfort, i put "proship dni" at the end of my post, and so i'm wondering why, in literal terms, stealing my writing and reposting it doesn't count as interacting? i won't ask you to take it down, and i'm more curious than anything, and again i don't want to start discourse. hopefully you don't want to either. thank you!

Oh, I've been wondering when this would happen since the first day I posted an imagine

At least for me, I do it as a way to give imagines to proshippers who don't want to interact in any way with people who don't want that interaction, also as a way to give them the chance to see that imagine and not come across rude people who wish the worst on them (many of the imagines I post are from people like that), it feels so bad when you read a cute imagine and there's a "proshippers dni kys pls". The selfshipping community can be so beautiful, but reading something very cute with a "proshippers dni" feels like they're saying "no, this cute scenario is not for you, also kys", that's why I left the selfshipping community in twitter, I couldn't enjoy being surrounded by people who don't wish to interact with me. So, I just want to give positivity to people like me, selfshipping is for enjoying and sharing, not feel attacked and harrassed, but also I sometimes do it out of spite after seeing a very rude dni.

I don't think it can count as an interaction, since I don't leave any fav or rb, no screenshots or @ that lead to the original author and even block them, again as a way to avoid interaction with someone who doesn't want it and to not lead to any harrassment. Did I take it without permission? Yes, but I don't say is my own creation because it's not, and I avoid interacting with any of author with a "proshippers dni" because they "ask" me to.

Sorry if I offended anon by doing it, I can't say I won't do it again since I want to do my best to help my fellow proshippers feel validated and safe in here, I might do my own imagines in a future just like I did with my FNAF imagine, but, yeah, I don't do this to make people angry.

[highdio]

hey, is it fine to ask another Dio and Pucci question? I realized this a long time ago, but Pucci using Dio's knife attack, to me, it was a "mask off" moment. If he truly saw him as utterly benevolent, why use such a sadistic attack? if he knew of it, he saw his best friend sadistically killing people beforehand. He saw it and didn't give two shits. It is rather interesting we never see his thoughts on the matter. What you think? Any takes on this?

Sure it's fine. A couple thoughts:

1. Pucci gained and then read Jotaro's disc, which means he had seen Jotaro's memories of Dio and would have had knowledge of all Dio's acts from Jotaro's POV. fwiw this is also the reason Jolyne gains the resolve to 'seal' Pucci's new ability following their showdown in the 'New Moon' arc: she read her father's memories and witnessed Dio's evil as if first-hand.

2. Although Pucci at his core wants to do what's Right (ie, upholding his responsibilities to keep the condifidential nature of confessional), he was corruptible when Dio met him. Case in point, it was before he sought out Dio that he took his brother's stand disc and erased his memory, rendering Wes akin to ‘a dead man.’

So although I don't think Pucci witnessed Dio killing people (or just being utterly evil in general) in person, I feel like once their friendship was forged it wouldn't have phased him much.

3. All that aside, it's interesting to think of Pucci's knife attack beyond it’s being a simple callback or Pucci using an attack he knew Dio used before. Dio's a biological monstrosity and Araki's made it so Dio exists more like a plant or a virus than as a discrete human organism (examples: he occupies the body of a host and alters the host's own biology to conform to his own; when he fuses with that body this action extends beyond its own boundares to alter the bodies of others: everyone related to Jonathan in Part 3 suddenly develops their own Stand and, in Part 6, Pucci and Weather get their own star-shaped marks).

Along those lines, if you view Green Baby, born from Dio's resurrected bone, as an extension of Dio's biology then you can view its fusion with Pucci as Pucci biologically acquiring some Dio traits.

Pucci gains an almost Dio-like confidence, even charisma. He acts noticeably differently post-fusion than the priest who obsessively counted prime numbers to calm himself. And ofc he physically changes: he gets that star-shaped mark and his appearance takes on elements of Green Baby.

(As an additional (possible) Easter Egg, 3 is a ‘Dio’ number: Dio's 3 lucky ear spots, Giorno's 3 hair donuts and 3 ladybug pins. When Pucci fuses with Green Baby his hairstyle changes. Hairstyles obviously shouldn't be genetic but bascially imo Araki’s design choice to settle on 3 ponytails and 3 carved-out lines is intentional).

So when Pucci throws the knives, this is more than just Pucci thinking, What Would Dio Do? This is Pucci's own biology fused with Dio's muscle memory, passed on like genetic code, knowing to throw knives like it's just a thing he does.

[edennill]

I got a lot of comments that time I made a poll about potential Silmarillion adaptations, to the effect that there already are two musicals of the Lay of Leithian, and this, among other things, has prompted me to write down my thoughts on the Rock Operas. I know there's more of them, but I will confess I've only had much contact with the two most famous ones; also fair warning that I'm mostly going to point out faults in this post (not that there aren't things I like in them, but that's not the focus here).

To start with, I'm going to quickly get out of the way the fact that even if none of the following were issues, the Rock Operas would still not cure my hankering for a Beren & Lúthien musical, because out of necessity, they don't have the same vibe as a greater-scale Broadway production and thus aren't really comparable. Now, moving on to my bigger issues with the two productions:

(1) It is difficult for me to get engaged in an entire musical in a language I do not speak — and I admit I'm probably in a better position than many because as a polish speake, with the translation underneath I can understand maybe one word in ten? And when I do — say, when Mandos sings "o synie Barahira" in Leithian — that moment is powerful because it's exactly the same as it would be said in my mother tongue, but otherwise it's reading prose poetry (translated by people without much experience with one of the languages, which shows, though I greatly thank them for their work) with music in the background for me. As a disclaimer, I'll add that this is not a technical complaint, but it certainly impacts my own listening experience.

Edit: This post has been waiting in my drafts for a while, and in the meanwhile, I've realised I can get to one in three (I counted) through repeatedly giving a song an intent listening. I'm even thinking of maybe making a semi-translation into Polish of some, one where I try to keep to cognates when possible even if they're not entirely correct. But I do not see how more people who speak no Slavic language do not find it a problem.

Of course this can sometimes backfire in a way that makes a phrase sound ridiculous.

(2) I also don't agree with all the narrative choices — for one, I am dissatisfied with how the romance is handled in wither Opera, as both make it out that Lúthien falls in love against her will which leaves a bad taste in my mouth — and Finrod Song makes Beren behave like a jerk towards Finrod at times, among other things — neither of which I understand. Then there's the visual side, which I mention since the choreography of most songs bugs me in Leithian. And to top it all off —

(3) We can argue about what historical Russian culture is worth to us right now another time. But these are ongoing productions, and unfortunately I dare say at least 50% the participants are probably in favour of the current war — which, you may understand, makes the situation quite awkward for me as an Eastern European. (I suppose if I found the rest of it absolutely perfect, I might elect to try my best to ignore the fact, but as is I find it bothersome. Which, I suppose, makes me a hypocrite given my thoughts about cancel culture, but never mind.)