#devour my heart Riot

[truthandadare]

Images that’ll haunt me for a good long while 🥲

[pttucker]

As I listened, I felt somewhat sweet, sad and nostalgic. "Everybody is busy living." I felt a strange loneliness at the end of the story. I see. Everyone was living well. [The exclusive skill 'Fourth Wall' is shaking.] I realized that I was an 'outsider' of this story. 「 The 25th regression Yoo Joonghyuk said, 'I can't change anything'. 」 Without me, people were still continuing the scenarios. Just like Yoo Joonghyuk repeated the regressions. The 4th, 5th, 6th rounds… it led to an endless story where I could be easily forgotten. Meanwhile, people would move towards the ending. It was natural. It might be natural but I felt pained at the reminder. I bit my lips and tried to say something. I'm glad. The words didn't emerge from my mouth. Then I heard Yoo Joonghyuk's voice. "In addition, everyone is telling your story." I slowly raised my head at the words. Yoo Joonghyuk's face was still expressionless. "They say it a lot. Your story." I smiled slightly while covering my eyes with both hands. I didn't appear so on the surface but I wanted to say that I was smiling. In the small darkness created with both hands, Yoo Joonghyuk's voice was heard again as he drank tea. "Let's go back to Earth, Kim Dokja."

Joonghyuk noticed he was upset and knew exactly what to say to make him feel better without Dokja even saying what was bothering him. 🥲

[mediumgayitalian]

fic rec friday 13

hi!! welcome to fic rec friday. every week, i pick five fics i have bookmarked and rec them with a little review. check them out!

I Need A Hero by @theroyalsavage

The "Nico is a superhero, Will is a med student" AU nobody asked for or wanted.

OBSESSED WITH THIS AU OBSESSED WITH THIS AU OBSESSED WITH THIS AU. I AM LOSING MY MIND AND HAVE READ IT SO MANY DOZENS OF TIMES. genuinely one of my top faces like its so fucking GOOD!!! the romcom romance of it all!! makes me lose it!!! the angst of loving someone who is constantly putting himself on the front lines!! the fear of not knowing if he's coming home!! being his healer, holding his life in your hands because he doesn't trust it with anyone else!!!! what if i rioted!!! what if i chewed clean through my ceiling!!!!! what if i swallowed my phone!!!!!!!!!!!!!! what if i clawed my way out of the pit of despair!!!! i am!! gonna!!!!!!!!!!! AHHHHHHHH!!!

2. As If His Hands Were Enough (to Hold an Avalanche Off) by @theroyalsavage

Nico di Angelo has been through enough to know life doesn't always work out the way you plan. But fate is a funny thing, and, in Nico's junior year of college, it hands him salvation in the form of freckled cheeks and a smile like the sun.

OH dude this author is actually everything to me. prepare for an onslaught of their stuff bc i am OBSESSED, but this one especially....oh it's special man. this had me LOSING MY MIND. seph’s acceptance made its way into my devotion scrapbook. never be ashamed of loving anybody….what a fucking thesis. i also ADORED how a) story didn’t end with them getting together, went thru them learning each other too and b) nico didn’t get fixed by dating will. he got fixed by loving himself, something he learned to do by loving will. crying.

3. Of Gods and Men by @theroyalsavage

There is something profoundly strange about the forest behind Will Solace’s new house. The trees, it seems, breathe magic. The truth is this: there are things that the forest hides that humans cannot understand. Nico di Angelo is one of them.

I LOVE PARTICULAR AUS!!!!!! AND I LOVE YOU ROYAL SAVAGE!!!!! dude god nico and mortal will is always gonna knock me flat bc its so canon, you know? will is going to be a consort of a god one day. and to read it in fic has me HOWLING but this one in particular....OH the ending is gonna knock yall flat fr!!! if you like percy refusing immortality for annabeth youre gonna LOVE this!!

4. Kitchen Nightmares by @theroyalsavage

Nico is the owner and head chef of an upscale restaurant in Hell's Kitchen, New York City. There's nothing easy about running a business, especially when you have to juggle an overprotective father, a college-age sister, and a staff about as under control as a stampede. The last thing Nico needs is a rival in the form of the ugliest food truck on the face of the planet. And yet, that's exactly what he gets. Of food fights, fledgling friendships, and Nico di Angelo's stupid little soft spot for Will Solace.

i know ive literally said it like five times now but NO ONE does an au like theroyalsavage idc. dude romeo & juliet but food truck and fancy restaurant?? hello!!!! omg!! i literally sat my ass down and devoured this i could not stop myself. and then i hit the end and started it right back up again. the love without having the space to establish anything….inherent homoeroticism of rivalry…..my heart!!

5. don't wanna be lonely, just wanna be yours by @theroyalsavage

Will Solace, café manager extraordinaire, just wants to coast through their monthly open mic night in peace. He definitely is not banking on meeting a handsome stranger with the voice of the gods and the death glare of a high-ranking member of the KGB. And yet, that's exactly what he gets.

telling someone you’re not even dating you’re in love with them after like five months is insane behaviour will solace i get you 😭😭 he is so real in every scenario all the time like he is genuinely perfect for nico who is equally as insane and deserves someone who is fully obsessed with him. god.

thank you for joining me this friday!! happy reading!!

[fieldofdaisiies]

Kinktober Drabble 7 - Azris

request: can you please do Azris and something with fire, fireplay … if you feel comfortable, I bet Eris would be so gentle and careful | masterlist | ao3

“I‘ll be careful,” Eris whispers against the corner of Azriel‘s lips before he straightens up. “I promise.”

The shadowsinger knows this, he knows he can fully trust his mate and yet an enormous amount of gratitude and love fills his chest. His body is tense, stiff, but relaxes with every second that passes. With every second he holds Eris‘ gaze and finds nothing but warmth and admiration in them.

Slowly, Azriel dips his chin to his chest, and smiles. He is ready for what they are going to try. They have been intimate a lot within the past months, the past year, have tried many things, but never something like this. Something including fire. Something that calls for more trust than anything else they have done before.

“I trust you,” the shadowsinger tells Eris, his voice a whisper and yet firm. “I always do. I love you and I want this.”

Eris bows slowly, all of his movements always elegant, High-Lord-like. A small flame, burning in a deep orange with flecks of yellow and red, lights up the tip of his fingers. To his own surprise, Azriel doesn’t flinch, he only watches. Watches how the flame doesn’t burn his mate, doesn’t hurt the person he loves most in this world.

Carefully, Eris lowers his hand to Azriel’s chest, always looking out if the shadowsinger may change his mind, their gazes locked almost the entire time. “I love you, Azriel,” the High Lord whispers and his palm finally touches the spymaster’s chest, hot and soft.

One small flame stays when Eris lifts his hand again, and almost like one of his own shadows, skims across his skin, warm, hot, but not too much. It heats his skin, his blood, but it doesn’t burn him. It doesn’t hurt him.

Just like Eris does. He keeps him warm and safe when he needs it, but would never use his powers to bring hurt upon him.

Azriel‘s abdominal muscles are as hard as rock as he watches the flame dance across it, wonder and a hint of surprise sparkling in his eyes. How is it possible that a flame can‘t hurt him?

As if he can read his mind, Eris says with a smile, “They are as much part of me as your shadows are of you. My flames would never harm what I love most in this world.”

…..harm what I love most in this world. Tears almost immediately spring to Azriel’s eyes and he rapidly wipes at them with his palm, hearing Eris‘ rich and warm laugh in his ears.

“You should have known so by now, my mate,” the High Lord adds in an amused tone and guides his flame to stroke across Azriel’s abdomen. “That I am hopelessly devoted to you, my love. I am yours, utterly and completely. Madly in love with you, your warm heart and witty brain. And your glorious body.” Eris is grinning, his eyes dropping Azriel’s cock and his gaze alone is enough to make him hard.

“You are perfect,” Eris growls and leans in, his hips pushing against Azriel’s hardness. “And fully mine. Mine to love, to pleasure and to devour.”

As Eris’ hand curls around Azriel’s shaft, tender and soft, flames still line the tips of his digits and a stunning, breathtaking grin graces his lips he begins to stroke his mate, and the flames burning like wildfires in his eyes resemble those on his hands.

tags: @azrielsbabyg@lady-riel@moonlightazriel@aayo-whatt (no smut) @brekkershadowsinger @ladyelain @banasheefan56 @a-frog-with-a-laptop @ofduskanddreams @acourtofladydeath @secret-third-thing @born-to-riot @chunkypossum @jules-writes-stories @unanswered-stars @christeareads @mistandmemories @bookishbroadwaybish @c-starstuff-man0 @the-darkestminds @talibunny30 @nestasgoodside @baileybird71

[raindrop-on-a-spiderweb]

Sending love to one of the best writers on ao3 😘💕 I check your page frequently and wanted to ask about the things that you enjoy doing or aspire to do

Hi Anon, it's so sweet of you to send this ask to ask after me. Rest assured your words are appreciated on this end; thank you from the bottom of my heart and top of my soul 🫂 I'm very glad you think highly of my work even after so long, and I'm so so sorry I haven't had any new content in such a long time. But I am hard at work on a oneshot that will definitely be published before the next chapter of Samarra, so the well won't stay dry for long! The summary is “A jaded prison nurse must come to rely on a man she hates and fears in the midst of a deadly prison riot.” I started writing it in the ward; it's based off of the Moundsville Penitentiary which is an especially spooky place I've been to–an old 19th century prison made of towering stone turrets, eerie high ceilings, and rusted iron cells packed together like pigsties. I'm hoping to get that atmosphere across; it's about ⅔ of the way finished so good progress is being made!

Well I enjoy writing, most of all, but I've already talked about that in detail a thousand times so I'll spare you. I love reading, of course (I just finished “The Five”, about the victims of Jack the Ripper, and it's a fascinating bit of history and an incredible and horrifying look at Victorian-era industrial Britain). I love exploring the mountains with my cats trotting along beside me and photographing what I find. In all honesty I'm a bit of a trappist–I rarely see people except hunters and cashiers, and most of my time is spent alone with myself or my dad. But each day is an adventure when you're in nature and each season brings primordial and beautiful changes– I collected watercress the other day and found the downy remains of a fawn. 

I love watching old movies. My dad and I were watching Laurel and Hardy last night and I swear it holds up a century later. Before that we watched King Rat, which is one of his–and my–favorite movie; about two men stuck in a Japanese prison camp and the Machiavellian and underhanded ways they survive there. The book is particularly good too, and the epilogue about rats devouring each other has haunted my dreams for a long time. 

On the same subject, a series that I highly recommend is called Tenko, which is very similar to King Rat, except the prisoners are women. It's so grueling, realistic and enrapturing; I've never seen anything that so squarely focuses on women's experiences, relationships with each other, the hardships they face, and how they struggle to survive together in a thankless, deprived environment. The backstabbing and despair that comes in their darkest moments, the love and support in which they uplift each other with, their mistrustful and uneven relationships with their captors that occasionally erupt in friendships and affairs–and all the episodes are on dailymotion, too!

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x74u4fi

I like dreaming most of all. So many of my story ideas come from my dreams. The worst thing in the world is waking up and trying to catch the stray strands of the dream slipping through your fingers. It's amazing to live so many lives–good or bad–inside your head. Sometimes when I wake up, I feel a sweeping, palpable sense of relief that I don't live in the world I conjured last night, and sometimes I wish I could just claw myself back into my brain and live in that little pocket world for the rest of my life.

I do not aspire to much. I don't really have any base wishes but to keep writing and live til 70. We all have our hopeful fantasies, of course, and when I finally do get Ragnatela on Amazon Kindle (Microsoft Word is trying to swindle me out of one hundred and fifty American dollars to use their dogshit platform, and since the manuscript is half-edited, I'm afraid to lose my formatting if I switched to a free program like Libreoffice) maybe it will get some attention. 

I still intend on writing on Ao3 until the day I die, though. Even with its unsavory content I have such a soft spot for its unrestricted freedom of speech and prose. Plus I don't want to give up talking to you guys and goofing off in the comments ☹️ I also aspire to stop drinking. I'm sure I've already shaved a few years off my lifespan with my tippling habit. But when one day is much like the other, is there much point in extending it?

I aspire to travel around the United States more. I took a trip through the Deep South to visit Savannah and it was enrapturing; something I will remember for the rest of my life. Rusted-out cars felted in green moss, skinny, grazing horses in windswept fields, peeling roadside signs advertising tent revivals, clownish golliwogs behind still windows of cafes, forgotten tugboats half-sunken into lagoons, highway strip hotels where craggy hookers peered at you suspiciously from their fold-up chairs, and derelict cemeteries separated between Union and Confederate. It was just post-Irma and we were often the only tourists at any of these places. The effects of the hurricane were stark and obvious, with the land in a state of shock before any official agencies came to clean them up. I remember boats crashed into the harbor and grandfather trees felled in front of opulent antebellum homes, and the sea churned brown and murky when we trekked to the beach. The sense of desolation, and not only from the hurricane, was chilling–but I loved being there and loved being swathed by the kudzu and history. My mother is very ill and before she dies we might make up briefly and take a trip to New Orleans together and explore rural Louisiana; I'd always wanted to write a story set in New Orleans. Louisiana is a fascinating state with its mixture of Napoleonic and Creole influences; and I've always been drawn to the grand, decaying tombs of New Orleans as much as I have been to the odd Francophone swamps and their hidden dialects and traditions. And one day I would like to go way, way out west and explore the Gold Rush ghost towns. All the mines where I am are filled-in, so I would like to venture underneath the earth just once. 

Most of all, I aspire to be alone, and live by myself for the rest of my life, far away from town, somewhere in the mountains like where I am now. I wish I didn't have to see another person for the rest of my life. Being alone with myself is bad enough, being with others is intolerable.

Anyways, I apologize for my undue pleonasm, you caught me in a chatty mood 😀 Here's an excerpt from the newest prison one-shot:

Rhoda had met Jesse Fitzner her first day on the job. It was midway through her shift, and she was taking a lunch break and grading her sister Sherise's homework in her office. The day had started with a white-knuckle ride in early morning mist so thick she couldn't see the taillights of the car in front of her. Midway through her preliminary tour of the prison, an inmate had stuffed his toilet full of socks, which promptly overflowed and leaked sewage out of the cell onto her high heels. The hoots and jeers had made her speed up, trying to avoid the leering eyes of her future patients. And her introduction to the mental ward, by a younger but just as pessimistic Fawna, had not lifted her mood any either.

So there she sat in her office, snatching a moment of calmness and frantically scribbling corrections over Sherise's homework before her sister turned it in tomorrow. And then the door swung open.

A blond man poked his head in and briefly raised his eyebrows. He was wearing the omnipresent, drab gray prison uniform, pants and a sweatshirt rolled up to his elbows. "What are you up to?"

She flipped the cover of the notebook over.

"Going over my sister's homework. Is there something you need?"

"Passing on a message to Nurse Judson. One of the inmates wants to switch his blood pressure medication."

"Oh, she'll be back soon. I think she's–doing something with the prisoners. Just give her a few minutes."

"No hurry." He pulled the chair opposite her and sat down in it. "So you're grading your kid sister's homework? Shouldn't she be doing that herself?"

The man had thick blond hair that stuck up in back like a duck's tail, and very rosy cheeks. He looked like he had just shaven, by the nicks on his neck. 

"It's a long story. I should be–"

"I've got time. If this is your first day, you need to take some time to yourself to relax--else you'll end up in the infirmary."

Rhoda laughed. He had a nice smile and a nice manner about him–very jovial and friendly. It was refreshing to see a man who didn't stare at her like she was a piece of meat. "Well, my parents died when my brother and I were still young. Seth was seventeen, I was fifteen. He went to work so we didn't have to break up the family, and I stayed home to care for my little siblings, all three of them. It wasn't fun. I always wanted to do more for them than what I was stuck with, so I'm making sure they get good grades and go to good colleges. That's why I got this job in the first place, to put some back for their college funds."

"That's real decent of you. I don't know a single woman who would go so far for their family. You'd best be proud of yourself. Where's your brother now?"

"He's working out of state in Pennsylvania. He found a good woman and has a concrete contracting business now."

"You got yourself a man?"

"Never saw the need. Someday, maybe, when I'm lonelier."

"Working here for a few years will train that loneliness for a man right outta of you." 

They both laughed at that, and Rhoda felt her tensed muscles begin to relax. "I didn't catch your name."

"Jesse Lee Fitzner." He reached across the desk to grip her hand. For being such a small-built man, he had a crushing handshake.

"Rhoda Ames. Pleased to make your acquaintance."

"I knew a few Ameses when I was on the outside. Where your folks from?"

"Beckworth, west of here."

"Oh, you're bullshitting me. I have folks from there too. You don't know a Harry Fitzner, do you?"

"Harry who used to run the car repair shop?"

"That's him! My uncle. He retired a few years ago. His lungs got to him. Too much time in the mines."

The door slammed open again. An elderly prison guard, who had greeted her rather abruptly upon her hiring and who had a hard and wrinkled face, was standing in the doorway. When he saw Jesse, his face grew harder. "What are you doing here, inmate?"

Jesse raised his hands, still not moving from where he was leaning back on the chair. "Just dropping off a message for Nurse Judson."

"Next time, leave the message with Nurse Ames and promptly return to your cell. There's no reason for you to be here actin' so friendly."

To Rhoda's mild disappointment, the guard grabbed Jesse by his arm and yanked him out, harder than he needed to. Before he was escorted out, Jesse tossed a glance over her shoulder and winked at her. "Rhoda, you're a young lady, and I'm a bit of a spring chicken myself. I think we would get along real well outside these walls."

Rhoda couldn't help the giggle that bubbled up from her throat. She felt lightheaded. She was a rangy and abrupt woman with a working tan, and hadn't much experience with men flirting with her.

When Jesse was marched out, Rhoda stood up and grabbed her peaked nurse's cap, girding her loins for the next shift on the ward. While she was counting medications, the elderly guard–Miles–came in again and shut the door behind him. She flinched, expecting a dressing-down on her first day of work. I wasn't fraternizing with the prisoner, was I? Am I… am I gonna lose my job?

He sat down opposite her. "You ever hear that tale 'bout the lady and the snake?"

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to–"

"Old story; old, old story. One of them Aesop stories they wrote when people was still in togas and carved words in stone. A woman was walking home one day when she saw a frozen snake lying on the side of the road. It begged her to save its poor little self, this little creature of God. So taking pity on it, the woman brought it home and warmed it by the fire between her breasts. And as it thawed, it bit her breast. 'Oh, why would you do such a thing? Your poison will kill me,’ she wailed. And the snake smiled and said, 'You knew I was a snake before you brought me into your house.'"

Rhoda stared at him, puzzled. "I don't understand."

"You know what that fellow did to get in here? Fitzner was top dog in a motorcycle gang outside of prison. A real nasty one. He ordered a contract killing on a rival gang member. They snatched the poor fellow when he was leaving a bar. Hung him from a tree, broke his legs with doublejack hammers, used him as target practice with their sawed-offs, cut his dick off and shoved it in his mouth, then left and let him choke on it and bleed to death for the rest of the night. He was out, too, far out in the mountains, and they only found him weeks later when a hunter stumbled on him. One of the killers snitched on Fitzner in exchange for dropping a drug felony sentence he was staring at. That snitch went into hiding and changed his name. Two days after Fitzner was taken to this good penitentiary, he was found with his head beaten in, in a dry creek bed."

Rhoda's head began to spin in slow whirls. Her hand where Jesse had shaken it grew very clammy. She remembered his bright smile across the desk, his dark eyes, and felt bile and vomit churn in her throat.

"You both were talking for a while, I noticed. He's good at prising information out of people, Fitzner is. A boyish smile and a few good words and he can make both men and women melt like butter on yer tongue. See? Now he knows who you are, and where your folks live. Now he can get to you."

Rhoda tried to talk, but her tongue was paralyzed. She looked down and wiped her sweaty hands on her knees.

Miles got up and went over to the door. He looked out of the window set on top, and his hard face relaxed. He seemed much older in that moment, more wrinkled and exhausted.

"You'd best be careful of him, Nurse Ames. He's a bad 'un. I'll be glad to see the back of him."

As it turned out, Miles retired later that year and it was Jesse who saw the back of him. 

And Rhoda became very wary of him from then on. Whenever he saw her in the hall, in the chow line, in the infirmary, he smiled at her and tried to make small talk. She ignored him, or was curt with him.

Unfortunately, he seemed to take that as an invitation.

[red-riot-unbreakable-heart]

My Fave Fics Rn | What Red is Reading❤️

No one asked for this but I want to share the fics I've been OBSESSED with lately because they deserve so much love!! A combo of AUs, smut (I'll mark off which ones are smut!), lovely comics and everything in between. If you're looking for a new read I HIGHLY reco each of these stories! Including vague spoilers/descriptions for each so be warned!!

Here's what I've regularly been reading and re-reading:

Time's Arrow by @m0stlygoodvibes - Time Travel AU. Hawks goes on a mission back in time and attempts to set himself + the Todoroki family a better future. This fic is so sweet and healing - watching Hawks grow up without the trauma of the Commission is wonderful, and his x Touya's friendship/hinted relationship is explored fantastically. I'm constantly checking to see if there have been any updates because it's THAT good!!! I discovered the story after seeing beachbeibi's adorable art!

Lost & Found Comic by @beachbeibi - Quirkless Todosib AU. Oh my goodness this comic is AMAZING! The art is so lovely and sweet! The character designs are spot on (Shoto's little strawberry sweater in later chapters makes my heart squeeze!)! The relationship building between characters is authentic and fun to read/view! I love the way Touya is drawn and how we learn more about his growth journey with every passing comic. And Keigo. Oh my goodness Keigo!! The way the artist draws him is just SO cute and I am interested to see where they take his storyline next.

A Cozy Cloud by @gaecactae- Another wonderful comic! An AU where Oboro Shirakumo/Loud Cloud lives to adulthood, has a wonderful partner, is still BFFs with Shota + Hizashi, and adopts Tenko before AFO can get to him. The art is so gentle and thoughtful, and the color palate is just wonderful. Seeing baby Tenko and Hitoshi so well loved makes me so happy - this story is another great tale filled with healing and fabulous visuals. I'm so excited to see more!

Inevitable Things (We Try To Avoid) by @mintmatcha - Shota Aizawa x Reader. 🔞 SMUT alert! 🔞The story is so good and the characters are SO complex! I have re-read all of the published chapters several times at this point because the author winds so many fun, complex details together and it's fun to go back and see how they plant the seeds for major plot points in the earlier chapters. This is def a bit angsty but SO good. Aizawa is HOT and his character is so brilliantly fleshed out. Plus the tension between the reader and Aizawa is palpable. I'm excited to read more!

Mission Accomplished by glynfrans - Hitoshi Shinsou x Katsuki Bakugo. 🔞SMUT alert!🔞 Holy Woah are these sex scenes HOT!!! Like I've always been a Hitoshi fic girlie and I personally have never shipped him with Bakugo but WOWOWOW whenever these two are together in a scene sparks are literally flying! Hitoshi is shady af in the beginning of this fic, but he seeks redemption and I like how the author really builds out the character around these feeligns. Also a heavy amount of Monoma x Shinsou which I love. I won't say anymore because I don't wanna spoil anything but worth reading!!

I'll Have The Fish by ShipSeekingShippers - Hitoshi x Denki. This is the only completed fic on the list and I have come back to it so many times because it's cute as all heck! No quriks/college/fry cook AU (!?). This was the first Hitoshi x Denki fic I ever read and it CHANGED ME. Each chapter is more hilarious than the last, and watching the main characters bond and grow is so sweet and wholesome.

That's all for now - please send me your own recs or link great fics in the comments!! I'm always looking for new reads to devour!

XOXO,

Red Riot Unbreakable Heart ❤️

[meepertmee]

*Red Seas Under Red Skies Spoiler*

I guess I should have expected Jeanlocke to begin and end RSURS alone, yet I truly did have hope for Ezri. Fuck my stupid life.

I just finished it after a month (due to life stuff) but wow I’m just blown away. I DEVOURED the last 20% or so of it in a night. The climax reminds me very much of the heart pumping intensity of TLoLL. So so fun.

BUT EZRI….. MAN…… Just an absolutely brutal and undeserved ending for such a genuinely like-able character. I’m broken…

Jeanlocke nursing their wounds together, alone, in a boat once more. Leaving behind bodies and debts repaid to their beloveds. Leaving behind their familiar for the unknown. It hurts man. Gonna start Republic of Thieves now and I WILL riot if it ends like this again

[elliepassmore]

The City in Glass release!

A demon. An angel. A city that burns at the heart of the world.

The demon Vitrine—immortal, powerful, and capricious—loves the dazzling city of Azril. She has mothered, married, and maddened the city and its people for generations, and built it into a place of joy and desire, revelry and riot.

And then the angels come, and the city falls.

Vitrine is left with nothing but memories and a book containing the names of those she has lost—and an angel, now bound by her mad, grief-stricken curse to haunt the city he burned.

She mourns her dead and rages against the angel she longs to destroy. Made to be each other’s devastation, angel and demon are destined for eternal battle. Instead, they find themselves locked in a devouring fascination that will change them both forever.

Together, they unearth the past of the lost city and begin to shape its future. But when war threatens Azril and everything they have built, Vitrine and her angel must decide whether they will let the city fall again.

Bookshop.org

Barnes & Noble

This is a super interesting story, because despite being told in 3rd limited POV via Vitrine, it's very much the city Azril's story. We get to see it as Vitrine remembers it as she grew it the first time, and we get to see real-time how she (and later the angel) rebuild it. The city itself feels like a character, and we get to watch that 'character' grow across centuries and generations.

It's also interesting because this is a love story, but it is not a romantic story. There's love between Vitrine and the city, Vitrine and its occupants, and later the angel and the city, the angel and its occupants, and later even between Vitrine and the angel. While I would say Vitrine and the angel have an enemies to lovers arc, it is not the kind of big fierce romance people may expect from that, but their arc is so good that to write it any other way would be a disservice.

Interested? Check out my full review!

[atamascolily]

princess tutu re-watch, episode 15

awwww yeah, Coppelia episode!

(of all the ridiculous classic ballet plots, Coppelia is my favorite because it's literally "guy makes a doll so realistic, a teenage boy falls in love with it, only to nearly get sacrificed by its creator to bring her to life, but is rescued by his girlfriend pretending to be the doll, and then they get married like that whole thing didn't just happen". There's also an alternate, happier version where the creator helps the girlfriend troll her boyfriend for the lulz instead of trying to kill him, but either way, he gets a bag of money at the end, and it's a riot.)

also the parallels with Drosselmeyer, puppets, and everything going on with Rue and Mytho are obvious

Ahiru: Gosh, it sure was weird Mytho leaped out the window and I had to rescue him again! I sure hope nothing's wrong.

Fakir (watching Mytho sleep in a totally not-creepy way): I have no idea what's happening, but it's probably bad.

Fakir is right! It turns out that evil!Mytho is accusing Fakir of pushing him out of the window, and everyone believes it-- except for Ahiru, of course.

Neko-sensei's like, "look, you two, I've seen people do crazier things for love, so the best solution is for you two to no longer be roommates" but of course Mytho will not stop there.

conveniently, no one pays any attention to the random duck wandering around with a bundle of clothes on her back. Just a normal day at Gold Crown academy, apparently.

we learn from Pike that in addition to seeing Fakir push Mytho out the window, all of the eyewitnesses saw a "white bird" (Tutu) save him, as if he's protected by "the God of Dance", so not everyone can see her/notice the effects.

Mytho (looking at Pike and licking his lips): you have such a great heart. I'm going to eat it. Just rip it out and devour it whole. And--this is the best part--you're gonna thank me for it.

Fakir, your anger management issues and brusque manner, while understandable, are not winning you any friends here.

The evil raven is an eldritch horror living in what is basically a PMMM labyrinth, and a single talon dwarfs Rue completely.

here we see the real villain isn't Rue, but her "father", who has gaslighted her into believing herself ugly (because she's human) and that he and Mytho are the only people who can love her. Essentially, Rue is his tool, and so is Tutu, because only Tutu can restore the heart shards.

Fifteen episodes in, and we've learned more about Pike than in the previous fourteen episodes combined.

Rue mocking Fakir for his book learning may NOT be the most advisable decision when you're literally all characters in a story, hahaha

Pike sneaks out of the dorm at night and, ignoring all the major red flags, agrees to join Mytho's creepy cult of personality with zero hesitation whatsoever. Meanwhile, Ahiru manages to pass her stealth check for once.

love how Pike starts doing the Coppelia choreography to indicate her surrender

I think this is the first time Ahiru has turned into Princess Tutu of her own will, without Drosselmeyer saying her name first

the music is WAY too upbeat and cheerful for this scene, lol

Tutu: please don't join a cult, it's not worth it, I promise

Pike: lol, okay *passes out*

Mytho is just really not having a good time with this, poor kid, being possessed by your worst enemy has got to suck even without the prospect of literal and metaphorical cannibalism

then Ahiru has to deal with TWO people passed out in the town square, good thing she can use Tutu's magic to cover it

Pike (waking up): Where… am I?

Lilie (with a tray): Good morning! Ahiru hauled your drunk ass back home after beating you to a pulp first!

Pike: Well, I don't know about that bit, but I sure was drunk… on love or something. What the hell was I thinking letting an older man lure me into isolated secondary locations even if he was hot and mysterious?

meanwhile, Fakir got suspended and is going home to Charon's place for brooding and serious research.

Fakir: Well, well, well, if it isn't the consequences of my own actions come back to haunt me. But it's fine, I don't care (he said caringly through gritted teeth).

(if that last sentence doesn't sum up Fakir's character, I don't know what does)

[quinloki]

AHHHH thank u for ur advice and encouragement 🥹🫶🏻 I immediately followed her so I can devour her entire blog and study up (wiki can only do so much lmao) I will do that crew justice 😤

Ok, my next OC is Celeste Greyscale(she/her)!! The only other OC on my list who was initially inspired by a fic (tho she has diverged far more at this point compared to Zella)

Warning for heavy topics for this one, but here is the link if anyone is interesting!~ https://archiveofourown.org/works/50155342/chapters/134294377?view_adult=true ~

Celeste is a 20-22 year old leopard seal selkie with long dark brown hair and spotting to matching her seal species on her human skin, and currently a proud crew member of the Straw Hat Pirates. She’s also my shortest, standing at 5’4”, but don’t let her height and soft, curvy appearance fool u, she’s got hella muscles under her blubber and can lay the best of them out flat! She tends to favor wearing swimsuits or wet suits under her pelt as she likes to regularly jump off ship and swim in her seal form for fish and fun/exploration!

Now, my bullet points

• thankfully had a fairly normal childhood in a small shipwrights village in the North Blue, living with her parents and 2 siblings. During one particular repair visit, she was inspired to paint and travel by a famous pirate artist who stopped on their island with her crew, amazed by her works and stories and wanting her own adventure, to tell it through her paintings and inspire others.

• All was well until it went up in smokes when she was 13. A group of poachers disguised as merchant sailors found them and raided her village, capturing most of the younger selkies to be sold where they saw fit. Celeste was sold off with a few of the older, stronger kids to be ring fighters on island on the Grand Line, surrounded by a mix of human, mink, fishmen, and other selkie slaves. She only escaped once when her parents (who had miraculously survived the initial attack) had found her, but even that was short lived and she was returned to her prison parentless. She spent several more years there, believing there was no hope or future for her anymore, only a life of cruelty (in so many ways) as the Ring Leader’s shining favorite.

• Her true freedom came in the form of our favorite rubber lad led crew, when one of the doctors working for the ring fell ill and they needed a replacement, snatching up Chopper after overhearing a conversation. He met Celeste post fight, who slowly managed to get her talking, saying how his captain was going to help! That everything would be ok! While he managed to wiggle his way into her heart, she and the others still doubted him and his hope. Boy were they shocked when he was right! The crew swinging in looking for their lost crewmate, invoking and aiding a riot, returning the pelts to the selkies and freeing them, with Celeste at the lead of the other fighters. At the end after they ran down and dispatched their enslavers, a daunted Celeste was approached by a bounding Luffy and bright little Chopper, with an invite to join their crew. After a week of recovery and consideration, and a heartfelt convo, she said yes and hasn’t looked back since

• She fights with a javelin and is well experienced in hand-to-hand, packing more punch (and claws!) when in her halfway form where she stands at 6’6” (a full 11’ in her seal form!) She is also gifted by the Sea Mother with the ability to manipulate water and its various forms, even being able to heal minor-mid injuries with it (though it is more exhausting than transforming*, healing especially so)

• *her Leviathan form is the only exception, as she transforms into a spiked, long clawed 60’+ monster of a seal. But it puts so much strain on her body that she’s susceptible to fainting and heart attacks afterwards

• She’s got a more quiet personality, vibes really well with Robin in that way, but more gentle and easily flustered. Her trust in others is kinda funny, going from 0%, to 50%, to 110%. Has even fallen for a few of Ussop’s lies from time to time, which Nami is quick to fix

• Has her own painting desk that she uses for mainly storing extra supplies (and rainy days), instead using a travel easel and sketchbooks to work on her projects, often joined by Ussop when on the ship, and finding her own spot when they visit a more quiet island

• She has go-to nicknames for her crew; Bug for Luffy and Ussop, Minnow for Chopper, Honey for Sanji, Zoro, and Nami, and Dear for Robin, Franky, Brook, and later Jinbei. Used usually when having silly/fun convos or when she’s trying to smooth them when they get huffy

• Kisses to the forehead are part of her selkie culture, to bestow them good fortune and well wishes when departing. After witnessing Celest me interact with other selkies and an inquiry, Luffy and Zoro were the first to lower their heads to her when she drew the short straw to be on ship duty. From then it became a more regular thing for her give and receive for the whole crew.

• She is, not a happy camper when she gets sick, becoming more weepy and refusing to eat or take any medicine in pill form. After a particularly hard flu she caught, Chopper made sure to underline his notes to only give her liquid medicine whenever possible. Is this a trauma response? Maybe hehe

• Speaking of she has, so much, for so many reasons. Between loss of home and freedom, she had gained and lost a mate during her enslavement, even later losing her child after only getting to hold her for two weeks before they ripped her from Celeste (did she die? Sent away? Who knows [me 👁️])

I’m gonna stop there for now, I have so much for Celeste she is my beauty, my blorbo, lives rent free in my head in pretty dresses and happiness (and maybe some sadness but shhhh) (id also like to say if this ever gets too much or anything, im happy to tone it down im just, really excited to share but so nervous haha. Thanks for letting me basically spill my guts about them)

Sincerely,

The 🌷

\o/ Thank you for sharing again =D

Sorry it took me a bit to get to this - I am not, unfortunately feeling much better today compared to yesterday, and I had to read it a few times to really grasp what I was reading 😵‍💫 The brain just wasn't keeping up.

But I got there, and I love her! From the name to the culture, to the story to the names 😍🥰❤️

I love the different sizes of her, and the abilities too! xD Luffy and Zoro tilting their foreheads down like "okay now us" is just such a cute visual and I really love that too.

Man, going through hell and having a very assured, very bright and cheerful Chopper be there to help. T-T my heart. I love Chopper, he's just so sweet and genuine. Lil' guy. gibe him all the head pats.

[popeofmars]

Her eyes so soothing and yet at the same the capable of rioting the fire in my veins at a mere glance seemed to draw in every once of my desire and in doing so trap me.

Trapped however was the farthest thing from I felt in that instant for locked in the crimson glow of her gaze I felt as though I could fly amongst the birds and the bats across the sky, but why would I ever entertain the thought of being so far from my paramore?

The ebony lipstick she has donned tonight parts to reveal the most brilliant ivory smile anyone has been blessed enough to see, the sides of which are accented by fangs all to eager to sink into my skin and take their fill.

The shakiness of her breath finally matches mine as her breathing gets shallower the closer our embrace brings us, lips centimeters apart and my exposed collar just a few inches away.

I can think of no better fate than gazing into her eyes full of passion and ravenous lust as she drains every drop of my blood, for then and only then when I be the closest a man can be to his deity.

And is it not poetic in its entirety that the object of my deepest desires who has consumed my every thought both waking and dreaming be the one who in the end consumes me as a whole.

So with a heart racing with adrenaline and lust I sink into one final kiss with the mistress of my dreams, my hands tangled in her curled hair, hers pulling the rest of my shirt open before tracing my ribs, following them to my back before her nails begin to take purchase in my back.

Finally with an almost divine mix of pain and extacsy she let's her lips find the veins in my neck and with the barest show of resistance sinks fang into skin.

My hands tighten and I gasp unable to to hold still let alone quiet as I am given everything I've ever wanted and she takes what she needs.

Ounce by ounce, drop by drop she drinks me in like a woman lost in the desert who finds an oasis. I can feel her heart surge with an unheard strength even as mine begins to flutter.

As my legs begin to give she gently lowers us to the floor, never letting her bite wane and straddles me, her legs holding me just as if not tighter than her arms.

Light fading from my eyes as all that I am is devoured by the queen atop me, I utter out my last words, words of devotion and praise and worship.

The last thing I feel as my life is whisked away by the winds of fate is tears falling from my inamorata is tears so cold falling from her eyes to race the single drop of blood running down my collarbone.

The last thing she feels from me is my vein attempt at wiping those tears away with a hand no too weak to leave the cobblestone under us.

I do not see it, but after she has laid me to rest in the mausoleum, she takes my hand in hers and wipes her tears away with my thumb, the way I always had in life.

[dauntless-gothamite]

Soledad

Baneuary Day 2: Prison || @baneuary​  Fandom: DC (comics - the image is just there for my own need to match the format of all my other fics) Summary: At the age of six, Bane witnesses his mother’s death in Peña Duro prison.  Warnings: prison riot, violence, angst A/N: I’m behind on the days, but I enjoyed writing this even though it broke my heart a little bit and i wanted to share :)

Pin Pón es un muñeco, muy guapo y de cartón. Se lava la carita con agua y con jabón.

Even at the age of six, Bane was strong; he spent his days doing labor in Peña Duro with men much older than himself. He learned to never let the guards or the other men in the prison see his pain or fear, otherwise it could be exploited. But at night, he was haunted by his own mind, and neither his physical strength nor his fearsome intellect could ward off the nightmares. 

They had started when a particularly grisly man was thrown into the prison cell next to the one he and his mother slept in. The man had a face like stone that had been chipped away at by some careless miner, and his greying beard sprung from his face in uneven patches. His blackened yellow teeth were prominent, not quite covered by the man’s thin chapped lips. Worse still was the way the man’s weepy eyes seemed like they saw everything in the prison, as though he was able to be in multiple places at once and see every egregious sin yet never did a thing. 

Ten days after the man arrived at the prison, a riot broke out; it was the worst one Bane had ever witnessed. It started when the prisoners were in the middle of eating lunch, and Bane was right in the middle of the room. Immediately, he was shoved down, his lunch tray clattering and spilling what passed for food in the prison all over the place, and people stepped over and around him as they threw punches. Between countless sets of shuffling legs kicking at bodies, Bane saw his mother at the edge of the room. And beside her was the man, whom Bane had started calling ‘Grisly Gringo’ in his head. His mother’s eyes shone with tears as the man advanced, but she wasn’t looking at him. Instead, she was watching Bane, attempting to get to him. 

“¡Mamá!” Bane cried as Grisly Gringo lunged, but it was too late; he had her linen shirt in his hand and pulled. That was the last thing Bane saw before a foot to his head made his world go black. 

Bane didn’t know how much time had passed since he was knocked out, but he woke up beside his bruised and beaten mother in their shared cell. Her breaths were shallow, and Bane held her hand as she opened her eyes to speak to him. “Te amo mucho, cariñito,” she said, reaching for his hand. He held her hand as she hummed his favorite lullaby to him one last time before her last coughing, wheezing breath. 

When the guards dragged her body out of the cell, fought the guards, and he was able to chase after his mother–just in time to see them toss her body over the cliffs of Punto De Tiburon, where she would be devoured by the always-hungry sharks. He screamed in agony, but there was no resistance left in him when the guards dragged him to solitary that night as punishment for leaving his cell. He cried himself to sleep, singing a teary, broken version of the lullaby his mother sang him at night, allowing the tears to wash his face so that he might wake up the next morning with a renewed determination to escape and one day get revenge on the guards who so callously disposed of his mother’s body. 

Pin Pón es un muñeco, muy guapo y de cartón. Se lava la carita con agua y con jabón.

[they-dont-get-my-back]

I posted 2,764 times in 2022

301 posts created (11%)

2,463 posts reblogged (89%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@neocatharsis

@daily-bubu

@dive-in-the-blue

@haechantaeil

@techtechonmymind

I tagged 2,612 of my posts in 2022

Only 5% of my posts had no tags

#taeilie - 389 posts

#nct 127 - 299 posts

#bubu - 241 posts

#nct dream - 207 posts

#nct - 180 posts

#markie - 170 posts

#full sun - 161 posts

#breadhyun - 144 posts

#:d:d:d - 129 posts

#even doyoung - 121 posts

Longest Tag: 139 characters

#yes hide the visuals we don't care about the visuals this is a feels song this is a song song and we should hear it first and see it second

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

If Taeil had zero fans Haechan would be the worm that'd still love him.

12 notes - Posted September 14, 2022

#4

Being sick as an adult SUCKS because you don't get to miss school, you miss work and that only makes you more stressed. You don't get to lie around because now that you're home you can finally catch up with all the chores that you've been putting off because of work. Noone brings you hot soup and sliced fruit and tea with honey, you have to make those yourself. You can't spend your day playing on a playstaion because you don't have any.

12 notes - Posted August 7, 2022

#3

Taeil in his recent birthday live: "I'm not planning to lose any weight." Me: "Yes, king, stay healthy." Taeil in his quarantine video: "I have to check the calories first." Me: "Oh no, king, what do you mean? Taeil: "The food with more calories is more delicious, so I want to eat that." Me: *weeping*

15 notes - Posted June 17, 2022

#2

No. If it means that Taeyong will overwork himself and hurt his body, I do not want to anticipate anything.

Nobody, and I mean not a single person in this entire Earth, has the right to demand more from this man. He just keeps on giving and giving, he's already given us his youth, his health, his character. Instead of caring of himself, he has to take care of "the fans", constantly worried what we would think about him, constantly thinking about whether what he's doing is good enough.

My heart is breaking, hurting. Because of a man that I've never met and never spoken to. Unlike me though, he can't just walk away and let it go. He has to keep on giving, becase the people surrounding him are ever hungry beasts that just need to consume and consume and consume until they devour him whole.

If NCT would fall apart right at this day and we would never get a new album ever again, I'd be happy, I'd be ecstatic. Because it would mean that Taeyong is somewhere out there, lying in bed, listening to his favourite Ghibli soundtrack playlist, eating chocolate and just looking out of the window, thinking "Wow. I can finally take a breather."

(the whole thread with the translations x)

18 notes - Posted July 8, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

SM staff: "Sir!!! The NCity is in shambles!!! It's chaos!!! Everybody's rioting! I don't think we can make it!" LSM, looking out of the window on the 159th floor of the Kwangya building: "Release it." Staff: "S-sir?!" LSM, clenching his fist: "Release it."

260 notes - Posted January 26, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[connorsui]

Constant sexual tension between the two of us has me rioting inside my rotten brain to the moment I could no longer form a single thought besides this man getting deep inside my body to the point I can feel him reaching in for my heart…like: “S’ your last chance darlin’ point of no return” …and I wouldn't dare to look back ..I would be going full on in without thinking of the potential consequences ..like why bother?? ..got radiation? ..I'll gladly die with no hesitations ✨️

It's so unbelievably good with all of its tension and it's sweet to small, bitter to the end that I wish for the lords to give me one last amnesia shot to the head so I can experience it all over again…like smut? ..yes..but the whole writing aspect? ..that's the meal ..the smut is the dessert ..and the writer is my love …and I want that entire package wrapped up again for me to enjoy

Like making me fall obsessed for this man was one thing …..but adding this fantastic of a piece of literature with him is making me imagine living the high road with him entirely…full on choking to the throat to every round of every position imaginable until we see the sun hit at the flat corner of the wasteland …💅🏻

It's deliciously devouring that I would wish for this man to take a bite out of my neck already

Saddle Up, Sweetheart

18+ 3k ghoul x f!reader. cunnilingus/face sitting, overstim, pet names, clothed/naked sex, creampie. gif credit. prompt list. written for this ask. thank you! 🖤

The Ghoul—Cooper, as you know him now—does not make himself an easy man to get to know. He was harsh with you from the start, one of the crankiest old bastards you’ve ever met. An accomplishment, given your life in the slums. He’s dismissive, angry that you even want to know him, and downright mean most days.

And yet you became fascinated with him.

It was ages before you were able to hold decent conversations, and longer than that before you had a name for him. Still, you keep digging. He intrigues you more than anyone else ever has, and despite his sour attitude, he keeps coming back. 

"You won't like what y'find," he told you one day. You knew then you were wearing him down with your persistence.

"What scares you more: the idea that I won't, or the possibility that I will?" You'd asked. 

He laughed. "Y'don't scare me, sugar."

You smiled. "Maybe I should."

Cooper started to look at you differently from then on. There had been a sense before that he was observing you as something ephemeral, a flower bud he was waiting to see bloom and die away as quickly as you'd appeared. 

Once you made it clear you weren't going anywhere, the invisible walls between you began to fall away. You feel his gaze lingering on you when he thinks you aren't paying attention. You watch him in turn, holding his gaze whenever he catches you.

"Eye contact like that'll get'cha killed someday. Predators take it as a challenge," he tells you, adjusting the holster on his thigh.

"Is that what you are?" You ask from where you’re leaning against the wall, arms crossed. You raise your brow, inured to his broody one-liners. "A predator?"

To your surprise, he's the one who closes the distance this time. His footfalls are heavy, his swagger loose. He looms over you, bracing his forearm on the wall behind you. Your heart skips a beat. He rarely ever gets so close.

"I'm the worst kind there is," he says gravely, but you clock his tone for what it is. He's toying with you.

Undeterred, you square your shoulders. "And what kind is that?"

He leans in closer, smelling of oil and gunpowder. "A hungry one," he says, the heat of his breath ghosting your cheek.

Pushing you away hasn't turned you against him. Cornering you won't either. Despite his insistence to the contrary, you're no prey animal. "Well then... I s'pose you ought to have something to eat."

His radiation scarred lips spread slowly into a wicked smile. "Y'offering, sweetcheeks?" He asks, his yellowed teeth parted, poised to take a bite.

You swallow dryly, so keenly aware of the thundering of your own heart, you wonder if he can hear it, too. You tip your head back, jutting your chin out and bringing your lips closer to his.

"You don't scare me, Coop," you whisper, wielding his name like a secret weapon.

He hums, head tilting slowly while his gaze moves down your body in a leisurely calculating sweep. "Well..." He drawls, voice a low rumble from his chest. "Maybe I should."

You're ready for him to do as he's always done and leave you like that, to rile you up and then act as though it was all in your head. You've accepted that Cooper is a man on the run, and he hasn't seen anything in you worth stopping for.

The press of his lips against yours shocks you to your core.

Your arms uncross, hands fumbling to catch hold of his jacket, grabbing him before he can vanish. He responds in kind, cupping your face in the soft worn down leather of his gloves. Your pulse is all the way up in your throat, so wild you’re sure he can taste it when he slips his tongue into your mouth. 

His touch isn’t a gradual thing. He’s upon you all at once, forcing your thighs apart with his knee and slotting his thigh between yours, pressing into you until you start to sing for him, those breathy little noises muffled by his devouring kiss. At your hip, you feel the press of his cock gradually filling out beneath the layers of clothing between you.

After so long without meaningful touch, the onslaught is dizzying. You roll your hips, grinding down on his thigh until you feel your underwear clinging wetly to your skin, an exquisite shiver trilling up and down your spine. His lips feel textured and hardened by his condition, but his tongue is hot and smooth, persistently licking into your mouth, determined to feel, to taste.

That hunger drives him from your lips to your jaw, your throat, peppering rough kisses that are as much lips as they are teeth along your neck. “S’your last chance, darlin’. Point of no return,” he tells you, voice coarse. His hand slips between your bodies and starts working your pants open. “Won’t be no comin’ back from this. I’ll ruin you.”

That he would have the audacity to warn you away from the door like this after you’ve been knocking and knocking and knocking is almost laughable. You would laugh if you had enough air in your lungs, but he’s kissed it out of you.

“So ruin me,” you tell him breathlessly. He grazes his teeth over your pulse-point in a way that makes your voice hitch. “I want you.”

The rim of his hat brushes your cheek as he buries his face in the crook of your neck, making a raw noise against your skin. “God damn it,” he says, yanking you from the wall so sharply you gasp. He whirls you around, hands fisted in your shirt, kissing you hard while he walks you backwards, towards the noisy heap of springs and fabric you call a bed.

“Y’outta your fuckin’ mind for that,” he grouses, shoving your pants down off your hips. You don’t disagree, You know how terrifying he should be, what his affliction does to him, to his hunger, but you don’t care. Not when he’s kissing life back into your dull dusty life at the end of the world.

You’re naked by the time he pushes you down onto the bed, standing above you, sunken eyes black with fervor. He unclips the bullet belt strapped across his chest and shrugs out of his coat, tosses his hat up somewhere high on the bed. You start to crawl backwards, but he snatches your ankle and drags you right back to the very edge of the bed.

“Unbuckle me,” he orders, the words all throaty feverish heat that makes your clit throb. You do, eyes flipping back and forth from him to his belt. He watches you all the while, pulling off his gloves with his teeth, dropping them to the ground. You unbutton his pants next, hands so eager they fumble briefly before you make it to his zipper, the hiss of it coming undone drowned out by the thunder of your pulse in your own ears.

Before you get any further, Cooper catches your wrists and hauls you up to your feet, spinning you around and pulling you down over top of him on the bed. He keeps you steady while you straddle his waist, moving his hands from your wrists to your hips. You start to move back, but he cups your ass and pulls you in the opposite direction.

“Saddle up, sweetheart,” he says, licking his lips. “Y’said for me to have somethin’ t’eat. I intend to.”

Oh fuck.

Nodding hazily, you follow his lead until your knees are on either side of his head, your hands braced on the wall behind your bed.

“C’mon now, relax,” he coaxes, urging you down with his grip on your thighs. You settle most of the way down before he yanks you the rest of it, startling a noise out of you that transitions into a low moan at the molten wet slide of his tongue dragging from the bottom of your pussy to your clit, upon which his lips close down and suck.

The sensation is leagues beyond the amateurish grinding, but that session still left you sensitized. The heat of his mouth is so intense it almost burns. His tongue feels just as unreal, thick and dexterous in the way it works you, swirling repetitive patterns on your clit. He drinks from you like you’re an oasis in the desert, swallowing greedy gulps before sinking his tongue into you, fucking it in and out, coaxing more and more thirst quenching wetness from you.

“Ffffuck, oh my God,” you moan, your hands curling into fists on the wall, sliding until your forearms are braced against it instead, your head hanging between them. You wish you had something to grip, something to dig your nails into as his devil’s tongue builds hot pressure inside of you, swelling sensation toward an inevitable explosion.

Cooper is shameless beneath you, devouring without care for mess or noise. Every so often you feel the graze of his teeth and you buck away from him, but you’re no match for his strength and he keeps you held firmly down, wholly at his mercy despite your positions. 

Once he’s satisfied that you’re not going to try and escape anymore, he relinquishes his hold on your hip and brings his fingers between your thighs, teasing where you’re wettest with the tip of his finger. With the way he’s sucking your clit you barely notice the initial touch, but he quickly wrings a gasp out of you by sinking his finger in all the way to the knuckle, crooking it wickedly while he rocks it in and out.

It’s simultaneously too much and not enough. He walks you on the knife’s edge of your climax, deftly toeing the line with every slow stroke of his finger and swipe of his tongue. Your stomach clenches up with it, breath catching. He pushes in a second finger, and by the time you feel the third working you open, your legs are shaking uncontrollably. He is feasting on you, humming appreciative little noises between the wet sounds of him eating you out.

A sudden jarring slap to your ass makes your quivering thighs tense up and startles a loud moan out of you. He most definitely smiles against you, fucking you steadily with his fingers.

“You son of a bitch,” you manage to choke out, tears prickling at your eyes from the sheer overwhelm of it all, your breaths growing sharper, more shallow. “I should smother you,” you say, the threat dulled by the thinness of your voice.

He smacks your ass again, harder this time. You decide that’s encouragement to do just that and grind down against his mouth, eagerly meeting every thrust of his fingers until one last good slap tips you over the edge, your orgasm striking you like a bolt of lightning. Your whole body goes tense, and Cooper ruthlessly fucks and licks you through it, sucking on your clit as it pulses and pulses and pulses through what feels like the longest climax of your life.

“Enough,” you moan weakly, pushing yourself from the wall on trembling arms. His fingers have slipped free, but he’s still drinking you down, holding your thighs in a vice grip. You can’t stop shaking, the burn of pleasure beginning to feel like the most exquisite pain. “C-Coop, enough, I can’t–you fucker,” you gasp, jolting in his grip when he nips at your clit.

He finally lets you up, easing you down with two hands firmly on your ass. You slide back until you’re straddling his waist, hands braced on his chest while you catch your breath. He doesn’t give you much time, knocking you down into his lap as he sits up. He takes your face in his hands and kisses your own taste into your mouth, giving a throaty little rumble.

“I decide when you’ve had enough,” he says, dropping one hand to work his cock free from his undone pants. “And you’ll remember that you asked for it.”

Each word feels like a spark of electricity. You lift yourself on trembling knees, hands on his shoulders, and he puts his arm around you, drawing you in while you sink down until you feel the thick head of his cock–wet with his own precum–nudging against your spit-soaked pussy.

“That’s it, pretty girl. Show me how good you can take me.” You can hear the restraint in his voice, feel it in the thrum of his touch. You hold his gaze while his cock forces you open in one smooth, frictionless slide, the stretch a dull ache that rapidly ascends into pleasure. He lets you adjust a moment or so before he begins to move, holding your hips steady while he rocks his own, reclining down onto his back.

“Don’t you hold out on me,” you tell him through a shuddered breath, hands behind you, braced on his thighs. “You promised me ruin.”

As sharply as he’d slapped your ass, Cooper gives a hard thrust up, his dull nails biting crescents into your skin, his grip all that keeps you from losing your balance. “One taste and y’already damn spoiled,” he says, planting his boots on your bed–you’ll give him shit for that later–and picking up a brutal pace almost immediately. “C’mon then, sweetheart. Ride me.”

You have no choice but to comply, grabbing hold of what you can of his shirt while he bucks hard under you. Every thrust sparks inside you like the strike of a match, your cunt still sensitive. You can already feel yourself climbing towards another peak. You arch your back, watching him through the haze of your own pleasure. His eyes are dark, his teeth bared. He looks like something wild, like something ready to bite.

“Goddamn, that’s it, y’squeezin’ me fuckin’ good now,” he groans, tipping his head back, watching you bounce on his cock through heavily lidded eyes. “Give it up for me, pretty girl. Show me this is really what you want,” he rambles, his accent growing thicker the closer he gets. You nod along, panting wordlessly, his thrusts knocking sweet little keening noises from your throat. “Go on now, that’s it. Show me how it feels when I make you cum.”

The world around you goes black just before an eruption of white explodes behind your eyelids like stars, your whole body stilling to endure the overwhelming crash of your release, the shock of it rolling out in waves throughout your entire body. You don’t speak, you don’t even breathe, too struck by the magnitude of it. 

Cooper fucks you through every second of it, slurring a litany of feverish nonsense–your name sprinkled within it–until he breaks off into a choked off noise, and in the middle of your euphoria you feel a the rush of his release spilling deep inside you, his body finally stilling under yours.

You sink down onto his chest, panting against the collar of his shirt. He moves his hand along your back, and a distant part of you is caught off guard by how tenderly he sweeps his fingers up the back of your neck. You answer in kind by slipping your fingers just under his collar, fingertips brushing bare skin that’s as gnarled as the rest of him.

The two of you sit in silence for a long while, neither of you willing to break the spell of your afterglow. The entire world feels softer in it, the dull sepia of it tinged with hints of gold. The dust particles floating around you almost seem to sparkle. In any other moment, you’d scold yourself for romanticizing the rotten remains of a dead world that has been so cruel to you, but for just this moment, you let yourself believe that things can be beautiful, too.

You lose yourself to the warmth of his body beneath yours, and the gentle way he traces the slopes of your body with his fingertips. Eventually, Cooper cleans his throat. You ignore it, reluctant to acknowledge him. You know once you do, the moment will be over.

“Y’might wanna get situated with a pack of Radaway soon,” he murmurs, the twang of his voice still heavier than usual. 

Tucked into the crook of his neck, you smile while he still can’t see you, endeared. “I’ve had worse exposures.”

“I find that hard t’believe,” he says, cupping the back of your neck in his palm. His thumb strokes absently back and forth. You can almost believe he’s dragging out these last few moments together, too.

Lifting yourself, you brace your forearms on his chest, staring down at him. His expression is difficult to parse–while there is most definitely a sense of ease you don’t normally associate with him, there’s also a profound sadness.

Your brows furrow. “What?”

He doesn’t answer right away. Instead, he moves his hand from your neck to your cheek, swiping his thumb along the ridge of it. You lean into his touch, ready to ask again, when he makes a grab for his hat and places it firmly on your head, obscuring your vision.

“That was some fine ridin’, sweetheart,” he says, voice as coarse and sweet as raw sugar.

You push the brim up until you can see him again, failing to bite back a smile. “Guess I’m the sheriff ‘round these parts now.”

“I ain’t a sheriff," he says flatly, though the slight tic at the corner of his mouth gives away his amusement.

“That’s right, y’ain’t. ‘Cause I am,” you say in your best impression of him, tipping his hat at him.

He blows out a breath and tugs the rim back down over your eyes. “Whatever you say, sweetcheeks,” he says, and though you can’t see him, you’re certain you can hear the smile in his voice.

Today may never happen again. The world could end tomorrow–again–or Cooper could walk off into the Wastes for the very last time. If you’ve learned anything in this world, it’s that nothing lasts forever. So, you drop your head back down and listen to the beat of his heart, using it to count the moments as they pass.

If they’re gonna be the best you get, you’d like to know how many of them you have.

[meltotheany]

hello, friends! i hope you’re doing well! i cannot believe we are in june already! the last few years have for sure felt a little too quick for me, but 2024 really needs to slow down! may was a little bit of a busy month for me, so i didn’t read as much as i would have liked, or as many five stars as i would always like, but it was still a really good reading month! ✨ ✨ A Memory Called Empire (Teixcalaan, #1) by Arkady Martine ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ “This book is dedicated to anyone who has ever fallen in love with a culture that was devouring their own.” a memory called empire follows mahit dzmar, who is from a very small mining space station, and this story begins as soon as she lands in the center of the multi-system, the teixcalaanli empire, where she will be the newest ambassador. she has been raised learning everything about teixcalaan, in hopes of one day being able to work in the heart of the empire she has loved her whole life, but when the last ambassador goes missing, mahit is able to make that dream come true bigger than she ever imagined. this is a space opera, this is a murder mystery, this is a romance, this is about connecting and learning and loving other cultures that are not your own, this is about imperialism and the forever more and more and more colonization that comes from it. arkady martine really has created something powerful, and important, and real, yet also very beautiful and filled with empathy. this duology really deserves all the awards it has received, and a memory called empire really is one of the best books i’ve ever read. (also, it is my favorite book title of all time, i think, too!) trigger + content warnings: colonization, colonialism, use of the word barbarians talking about people who are others, death, panic attacks, mention of consuming ashes of someone, blood, bombings / explosions, talk of child birth, assault (unwanted touching), poisoning, wound descriptions, surgery, needles, riots, fetishization, grief, war, seizures, violence, loss of a loved one (friend), self harm (to get blood for an oath), suicide / sacrifice, and a lot of xenophobia ❤️ full review HERE ✨ Y/N by Esther Yi ⭐⭐⭐⭐ “I love the world I hate simply because you live in it.” this is truly the weirdest book i’ve ever read. i kind of thought i was going to like it, just from the title and premise alone, but i was a little apprehensive because so many of my goodreads friends did not vibe with this one. but from chapter one, and reading some of the most impressive writing ive ever read, let alone from a debut, i knew this was really going to work for me. i am a bit hesitant to recommend it, because i just know it is going to be too weird and too satirical, and the writing too purple prose and too stream of consciousness for a lot of readers. but if you’re looking for something very different, something that’s really going to pull you out of your own comfortability, something unlike anything else you’ve read before, i would recommend that book wholeheartedly. trigger + content warnings: depression, talk of body image, disordered eating, racism, fetishization, abusive relationships, a lot of talk of death, talk of suicide, suicide ideation, one sentence mention of school shootings, vomit, talk of disability, blood, accidental self harm, mention of death of pet in past (dog being poisoned by neighbors), and a big portion of this book discussed and shows dementia ❤️ full review HERE ✨ The Honey Witch by Sydney J. Shields ⭐⭐⭐ ARC provided by Orbit – thank you so much the honey witch is about a girl who is about to take up her grandmother’s legacy being, you guessed it, the next honey witch on her island. every eldest daughter in her family had the potential to be a witch, if they so do choose it. we follow our main character (and the eldest daughter), marigold, as she is healing and figuring out what she wants her life to look like, versus the life that society has always told her life should look like. and we are alongside marigold as she ...

[trulybetty]

Sunday | Week In Review III

Sunday Week In Review III.

What a week it has been - I’ve read some great updates to some really good fanfics this week (and some I still need to reblog to the dash) and I’ve been in my mother effing Joel Miller feels - but Frankie seems to be helping 😏

Hope everyone had a good week! I’d love to hear what you enjoyed this week and if you have your own week in review you want to share that I can link here!  

Side note: who was writing, or planning to write, something involving ex-Frankie on the beach? It popped into my head this morning and has not left me and no search I've done has yielded anything to the point now I think I'm making it up lol.

Disclaimer: did not get into any of my TBR fics, everything I read this week were updates to established starters or one-shots.

Truly Betty Updates This Week…

Strings IV Mood board

Bookstore (Frankie x f!Reader)

Drip (Joel Miller x Reader) warning: hints at events of TLOU2

Hangar (Frankie x f!Reader)

Fics I Enjoyed This Week…

The Locksmith Series by @oonajaeadira I wasn’t entirely sure what I was getting into reading a series based on the The Thief from the Casillero del Diablo adverts. But this was a whole lot more than I expected and was such a great read. I don’t want to spoil too much, but it has just the perfect combination of magic, romance, tension and plot. This was a very enjoyable lazy Sunday morning read.

Delta Landscaping - Chapter 2 + 3 by @rhoorl okay, chapter 2? Was not expecting to be getting so teary eyed in the first half and then snorting with laughter in the second. Then the bonus of a THIRD chapter before the week was out? Jess is spoiling us with the events of Mulefall Court 🫏. I don’t want to spoil chapter 3, but it is a riot and I am eagerly waiting to find out what happens next! 

The Layover - Chapter 11 by @goodwithcheese I’m in denial that there’s one chapter and an epilogue left on this. However, trust me when I say this series will lend itself to a reread once it’s done! Frankie and Reader are in some feels in this chapter and have some stuff to work through. But as ever Jules BBF extraordinaire and “get you laid” fairy godmother comes in with some wise words ♥️

Hungry Hearts - Chapter 5 by @atinylittlepain This is a permanent entry on my fics read/recommended list forever - I could wax lyrical about how Joel Miller is Springsteen coded. However, things are coming to a head here both in the summer of 86’ and in present day for Cherry and Joel. I think we’re in for a bumpy ride with the next updates but I’m looking forward to seeing how it plays out! You won’t be disappointed. 

Late Night Texts - Chapter 11 by @mvtthewmurdvck I had my worries about Javi & Reader as I made my way through this chapter and if this was a live action rom-com this would be the part where you shout at the TV because the happily ever after is just right there in sight only for it to be swiped away. But all is not lost because… I’m not going to give it away, go and read! 

Bloom by @nothoughtsjustmeds I very much dislike flowers, each to their own, but I simply don’t get the appeal. I appreciate them at a distance and think they’re pretty, but that’s where it ends for me. However, give me a flower shop trope and I am all over it will devour them all! (don't know what this says about me, lol) This one is no different and was actually a re-read when it popped up on my dash! Joel Miller is late, it’s Mother’s Day and he’s showing up in Readers store two minutes to closing in need of help and the rest… well, I’ll let you read it because it’s such a delight.

2023 Summer Kiss Prompt #11: Daniel Harper (Wing Pit) - A Kiss After Pain by @something-tofightfor Look. I’m not afraid to admit it, I’m feral for Daniel ‘Wing Pit’ Harper, and it’s because of @something-tofightfor’s fics. Go and read them and you’ll see what I mean. While you’re there go check out their Summer Kiss Prompt’s.

That's A Real Fucking Legacy: All of You, All of Me by @wyn-n-tonic If you haven’t read the series this wraps up, I suggest you do! Like, I could word vomit on this fic for days. However, this one-shot gives Joel & reader a tender ending that while it doesn’t fix everything, it gives life to a future for them both without guilt of the origins of their relationship. This was an unexpected treat on my dash this week and I encourage you to take a moment to read this series of you haven’t. 

Two Chances by @mrsquill A Joel Miller x Reader AU that has puppies, Joel and Sarah dynamics and did I mention puppies? It’s an adorable fluff piece that I hope we get to see a follow-up to!

Conversations With a Movie Star | Chapter 2 by @gnpwdrnwhiskey Hands down one of the best written Dieter's in my opinion and on top of that this is such an original idea of a story. Ava and Dieter play so well off one another and I can't wait to see how this is all going to play out. Also, I already love Desi and Lucy ❤️🦝

Fall Apart, Again | Chapter 3 by @wildemaven Okay, while on the topic of unique story ideas... this one right here! This, eurgh, I want to wrap this story in a blanket and give it a massive hug and tell it it'll be all okay. No secret I love me some good angsty fics, but there's a thin line you have to tread before it can dissolve into either a comedy of errors or just downright depressive verbage but Heidi, *chef's kiss* hits all the right notes with this story. Not going to get into much more as it is owed a reblog later today - but you cannot not get invested from the opening chapter.

March by @the-widow-miller I wasn't the only one this week in my Joel Miller feels - we both ended up posting our TLOU2 fics within days of one another and this one, eurgh, the whole thing cutting between present time and flashback and the ending? I'll let you get into this and get down deep in your Golfing feels.

Palomino | IX Warmblood by @fuckyeahdindjarin Going to admit it here, I am afraid of horses, I don't like them I think they're going to bite my hand off and yeah, so so pretty. But they frighten me. HOWEVER, this entire series has me wanting to go book a trek with the Statesmen, not only for my own Whiskey - but to witness the beautiful landscapes Cee has painted and weaved through this entire story. I also like how this ended, I'm not going to get into it because I don't want to spoil it - but if you've not read this series, you are in for a real treat!

Fics I’m Looking Forward to Reading…

Pulling from the gazillion tabs I have open that I need to move to a more formalized list that I’ll share next week if I get it done!

Shared Breaths by @frenchiereading So single dad Frankie is enrolling his daughter in your class and as the school year moves forward so does your relationship with Frankie… 

Posts I Enjoyed This Week…

This Dave York character analysis thread, some interesting takes on his character and how he’s portrayed in both the film and fandom. 

@rhoorl's dive into the Vanity Plates of the Delta Boys, it had me howling! Also peep the post on what cars each of the boys drive while you're there too!

Things I’ve (NOT) Enjoyed This Week…

My great idea to watch a play through of the second TLOU game (not posting spoilers) and play it while I worked. I’m an idiot. A highly emotional idiot. Also going to take @gnpwdrnwhiskey's advice to re-read the first two chapters of @oonajaeadira's Leave off Your Wandering to satisfy the head-canon I have that TLOU2 is all about Joel going to live his best life on an alpaca farm.

Things I’ve Enjoyed This Week…

All the lovely feedback I got on my dive into the Catfish pond with my Frankie fics that I was actually afraid to post, it's actually been a little overwhelming. Also the feedback on Drip, despite pulling everyone down onto the floor in my Joel Miller feels lol. Thank you all for your reblogs, comments & likes - it really means a lot ❤️

This Week’s Song…

This week it’s an album, Bruce Springsteen's Nebraska - @atinylittlepain mentioned this book, Deliver Me from Nowhere: The Making of Bruce Springsteen's Nebraska (which I can’t wait to get stuck into) and so I’ve been listening to this album on repeat since. 

It’s one of those albums that sticks out at from a time when I was younger where I was figuring out what I liked and not being afraid of offending others with my choices or worrying that they weren't what everyone else liked.

Other Weeks in Review I Think You Should Check Out...

@rhoorl's Week In Review (8/27/23)

If you've made it this far! Feel free to share your own recommendations or favourite things that have happened this week or what you've enjoyed! 💕