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separatist-apologist · 11 months ago

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Something In The Orange

Summary: Someone is trying to murder Eris Vanserra's soon-to-be wife.

And no one can rule him out as a suspect

Note: Big thanks to @octobers-veryown for the mood board and the unknown anon for the song inspiration.

For @sjmromanceweek

Read On AO3 | Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3

Arina decided it was better to do as Eris asked and meet him outside her bedroom door after she and Elain had a private lunch in Elain’s bedroom. Eris turned the corner mere seconds later, eyes sliding down her body so intimately it made her shiver. He could do something with his eyes that made her nervous, turning that look on and off like igniting a candle. This time, though, Arina knew he disapproved of the yellow dress.

“Change—”

“No.”

Eris looked upward as if he was asking the gods to grant him patience. “Your clothes are impractical—”

“I don’t walk around prepared for battle. If you’re going to teach me to defend myself, teach me as I am, tangled skirts, long hair, and all.”

Eris paused, cocking his head to the side like a predator. “You’re taking your hair down?”

Oh, did he want her to? She was tempted to tell him no, though she’d put very few pins in her hair today to make it easy to let her hair down once they were alone so she could simulate being alone in her bedroom like she’d been when someone tried to strangle her.

“Does that offend you?”

His cheeks darkened for just a moment as he cleared his throat. “I don’t care about your hair.”

Liar.

“This is probably pointless to say to you, but I would prefer it if you didn’t go easy on me.”

“I didn’t intend to,” Eris promised, falling into step beside her. She expected him to take her outside—somewhere public. Somewhere people could see. It hadn’t occurred to her that Eris would take her to his lavish apartments across the palace, nor that he would close the door behind him.

“Eris—”

“Oh who cares?” he said with a roll of his eyes. “There is no escape for either of us, so what does it matter if they think I’ve had you now or in two months?”

“I care.”

He shrugged. “Where would you prefer we go? To the common hall? The courtyard? Somewhere anyone with eyes can watch? The point of teaching you this is to catch your attacker off guard so you can escape, not help them hone their skills so they don’t make another mistake.”

“I care,” Arina admitted. Her reputation was all she had left—and she knew her father would be furious when the rumors reached him. Eris could still change his mind, but Arina would be unmarriageable if anyone believed Eris had her first.

Eris’s look of frustration wasn’t enough to cow her. “I told you, this marriage is happening—”

“Until it doesn’t,” she countered quietly, stepping closer to a long sofa she could imagine him lounged on, book in hand. “Are you telling me that you’d still honor this contract if your father freed you?”

Eris ground his teeth together. He couldn’t lie to her, so he wouldn’t. Instead, he said, “He’s not going to—”

“He might—”

“He won’t!” Eris snapped, some of his anger getting the better of him. “If only to piss your father off. He is taking that shitty piece of land one way or the other and you are the most convenient way to do it, and unless you think your father is willing to trade it for less than his daughter sitting on a throne, you will be my godsdamned wife.”

Arina hated him a little bit right then. His anger was palpable, a flame burning hot in his gaze. She wanted to hit him, wanted to make him feel every ounce of her own fury and fear until he stopped talking to her like she was a simple, stupid child.

“I don’t want to be your wife,” she whispered, which was the wrong thing to say. Eris advanced on her until he was inches from her face.

“I don’t care what you want,” he whispered, gaze not on her eyes but her mouth.

“I’ll make you miserable,” she threatened. Eris only shrugged, the spell broken. He looked around the room as if trying to find something. It gave Arina a moment to appreciate the shelves of books, the rich rugs of red and cream, the high ceilings and open windows—all of it tastefully appointed and betraying someone with taste far more refined than her own. She couldn’t help herself, gravitating toward one of the shelves to see what he liked to read.

A lot of philosophy, she found. History, too, and more than a few books on poetry. She was particularly fascinated by a cracked blue spine that read Romantic Poetry, the silver letters peeling and worn.

Arina reached for it just as a pair of arms wrapped around her body, holding her tight against a torso. It was Eris, she reminded herself—Eris’s forearm pressed to her throat, Eris’s torso she was pinned against. He wouldn’t kill her.

He’d promised he wouldn’t.

“Are you scared?” Eris whispered, lips brushing gently against the shell of her ear.

Arina couldn’t speak, could only nod her head.

“Relax,” he ordered, pressing his arm harder against her throat. “Go limp.”

Arina tried, but every inch of her demanded she fight him, that she twist and thrash until he let her go. Eris sighed when he felt her rigidity, holding her so tight her ribs groaned.

“Make me work for it, Arina. Go limp.”

Something about the way he said it—with such authority—made her listen. The part of her brain that wasn’t panicking recognized help. Her whole body flopped toward the ground, causing Eris to groan beneath her weight.

“Good girl,” he murmured, the praise warming that same alert part of her mind. “See how I have to drag you, now? Do you feel how my hold has to shift?”

“Yes,” she rasped. He’d loosened his grip on her neck just enough for her to take a deep breath.

“If you had a knife, this would be the time to use it. Let’s pretend you have one hidden in your skirt. Reach for it.”

Arina did as he told her to, fumbling for her pretend knife. Eris tightened his hold with a disapproving click of his teeth. “Too slow.”

And then, without warning, he drew his fingers across her neck like he was slashing her throat. Releasing her, Arina collapsed to the ground, heart racing.

“You need to be quicker,” he said dispassionately.

“You surprised me,” she accused, rubbing the skin of her throat.

“Do you expect your killer to send an invitation beforehand? You need to be prepared, your instincts razor sharp.”

“My governesses must have missed the lesson on not being murdered,” she snapped, though there was no real ire to her words.

“I’m not surprised to learn your father is inadequate,” was all Eris had to say in response. “Get up. We’ll do it again.”

Arina almost wished Eris had wanted to have sex with her. It would have been easier, would have been over faster. They spent hours going through the same scenario over and over. Sometimes he walked her through what she needed to do step by step and other times he promised her a break, let her drop her guard, and then attacked her all over again.

She left his room wrung out and exhausted. Arina didn’t dare let Eris see it—he wasn’t exactly warm—but the moment she was safe in her own bedroom she fell face first on the mattress and cried her eyes out. Nothing was going the way she’d thought it would and every time Arina tried to make the best of her circumstances, it was like fate decided to add another complication as a little test.

Oh, you thought you could connect with this man? Well, he hates you.

At least he didn’t want her dead. She could mark Eris off her list of the people trying to kill her, which made it a list of four—maybe five if she took Eris at his word regarding his fathers priorities.

Beron Vanserra needed her alive in order to make good on the contract. Her father needed her alive in order to secure position and wealth, as well as continue ruling as a vassal lord. Eris didn’t want to marry her, but he didn’t want her dead either. And Elain and Lucien were outsiders entirely.

But the palace was massive and teeming with people. Was it someone angry she was the one marrying the prince? An angry courtier? A political rival? Just having a direction would have been helpful.

Arina fell asleep turning the question over in her mind, forgetting to go down for dinner or changing out of her clothes. Perhaps she ought to have known Eris wouldn’t give her peace. In retrospect, Arina figured Eris had noticed her absence at dinner and decided it wasn’t enough to torment her during her waking hours.

She felt the weight of the mattress dip moments before he swung his legs over her body and pressed his blade to her throat. Apollo didn’t intervene, raising his head only to look before laying back down in his spot at the edge of the bed. Useless animal.

“Eris,” she whispered, fingers curling around his wrist.

“What happened to your dresser by the door?” he replied, his voice low. She knew what he wanted—or, she thought she did. She didn’t have a real weapon to stab him in the thigh with so she used her pretend one, slamming her fist against his leg before shoving him off her. Eris grunted but didn’t fight her when she straddled his hips, his knife now in her possession.

“If you ever wake me up like that again,” she whispered, her hair falling between them like a curtain, “it’ll be me who kills you.”

Eris’s chest rose and fell rapidly, palms raised upward in defense as she held his knife to this throat. She could have killed him—it would have been so easy to end him right then and there. Eris held her gaze, his eyes cat-like in the dark.

“Eris?” she whispered.

He blinked. “I…shouldn’t have come here.”

“Why did you?”

Slowly, Eris reached for a strand of her unbound hair and pressed it against his nose. “I’m a fool.”

And with that, she was on her back, knife flopping harmlessly to the bed. Eris stood, adjusting his pants before turning back to look at her sprawled over the mattress. “Keep the dagger.”

“Eris—” He left before she could finish her thought, which was just as well. Arina had no idea what she would have said if he’d stayed. It was strange, though, sitting in the dark wishing he’d come back to do the gods only knew what.

Stranger, still, to realize that the man she was about to marry wanted her.

And that she wanted him, too.

ERIS:

Eris couldn’t focus. Standing in a packed ballroom, all he could think about was Arina’s legs wrapped around his waist and how close he’d come to dragging her back to the mattress and doing every wicked thing he could imagine to her. That was made worse by the woman herself, standing beside Elain and his brother in a golden gown that tapered to a dusky rose the further down the beading went. The neckline was low enough he could see the swell of her breasts beneath the soft slope of her collar bone and when she walked, a slit revealed a tantalizing peek of her legs.

He sighed, half relieved when his father approached. “Have you seen your mother?”

Eris scanned the crowd again. “She’s probably fretting over wine again.”

“I’ll handle it. You handle her,” his father ordered, glancing toward Arina.

“Problems?” “With the girl? Not one. With her father? It never ends,” Beron muttered with a scowl. “All he does is complain.”

“Maybe you should kill him,” Eris suggested dispassionately.

“After the wedding,” Beron said with a roll of his eyes. “Finish things with Novak’s daughter.”

“She doesn’t want to be alone,” Eris informed his father, not betraying his own regret. Oh, how he wished Arina acted more like the ladies at court. Their propriety was just for show, their skirts easily lifted. Even now, Eris knew if he made eye contact with any number of the ladies he’d grown up with, they’d be staring right back.

Unlike his betrothed, who hadn’t spared him a glance once.

“You’re charming. I trust you can engineer some scenario that silences her obnoxious father.”

Eris resisted the urge to snap at his father. It wasn’t worth the inevitable pain that would follow. Maybe not right then, maybe not for weeks—but down the road, Beron would make Eris pay. There was only one right answer, and that was whatever his father wanted to hear.

“I’m sure I can manage it.”

His father reached for two goblets of wine off a servant's passing tray. Thrusting them into Eris’s hands, he ordered, “Now.”

Great.

Eris knew his father was watching just as he knew Arina’s father was watching, too. How far would he go to keep Eris from defiling his daughter? Not far enough, given Eris had successfully gotten into her bed chamber unimpeded twice. All he really needed was to get her alone long enough that it suggested something happened. Though it made his stomach churn, he figured he could get her just drunk enough that she’d let him bring her to his room. After that, all Eris had to do was close the door and let her sleep off the wine on his sofa or the floor or anywhere but next to him.

“You win,” Elain said glumly to Lucien as Eris offered Arina the wine his father had given him.

“Pay up, princess,” Lucien replied with a grin.

“Do I want to know?” Eris demanded, his temper getting the better of him. Did Elain always need to be hovering over Arina? Couldn’t he have ten minutes alone with his future wife without a million people staring him down?

“We made a bet—”

“I don’t care,” Eris interrupted flatly, catching the way Arina smothered a smile before taking a drink. “Dance with me before I go out of my mind.”

Arina gulped down the rest of her drink, setting the empty gold cup on a nearby table. Eris followed suit, wondering if she needed alcohol to tolerate him. The thought bothered him even as she turned, flushed and beautiful, and said, “Just one dance?”

Her hand was in his before Eris knew what was happening. He abandoned his drink beside Arina’s, catching sight of a quick-fingered servant whisking them away.

“For now,” he agreed, distracted by the way the lights gilded off her golden hair and how bright her eyes seemed to be. Had her mouth always been so pink? Her skin so smooth? Eris wanted to run his hands up her arms but settled for putting one on the curve of her waist and pulling her just a little too close.

Suggestively so. Arina didn’t seem to notice, staring down at her feet before looking up to meet his gaze. “Can you dance?” he asked.

Arina’s pretty smile shifted and he swore it was disappointment that flashed over her features. “Of course I can.”

He supposed he had been a little mocking when he asked. Eris couldn’t help that. When he was nervous his words came out in a sneer. There was no apologizing, which left him only with a challenge. “Prove it.”

“I hate you. Do you know that?” she asked, stepping with him as the music began. She was fluid like water, eyes on his face, grip pleasant on his shoulder. Eris nudged her a little closer, inhaling the scent of vanilla and lime.

“I like a passionate woman,” he heard himself saying.

Arina narrowed her eyes. “What else do you like in a woman?”

Eris knew better than to answer that question honestly. “I like you. Isn’t that enough?”

“I would hate to see how you treat women you don’t like.”

Eris couldn’t help himself. “There’s very little difference.”

“Now that I believe,” she said, the softness returning to her expression. Arina gripped his shoulder just a little tighter as the pair lapsed into silence, focused on their combined steps through the music. They weren’t alone—couples twirled alongside them, talking just loud enough to be heard over the band. There were things Eris wanted to tell her inexplicably—things he’d never told anyone, secrets he’d been keeping his entire life.

It was nothing dark, nothing deep. There were things Eris never wanted to say out loud, circumstances he intended to keep alive only in his mind. His throat burned as he lowered his head and murmured, “My favorite color is orange.”

Arina’s brows shot skyward, eyes widening with obvious and open delight. “Really?” she asked him.

Eris felt immediately stupid. He pulled back, heart pounding. That was a stupid thing to tell her, the regret instantaneous. Arina, though, was never going to let it go. She was grinning, her fingers digging pleasantly into his shoulders.

“Mine is green,” she confided as though admitting some terrible truth. Eris exhaled the breath he’d been holding. It sounded like a laugh, maybe because it half was.

“I’m starting to see the merits,” he murmured, taking in the mossy green of her eyes. Arina’s cheeks flushed and when she rubbed her palm over his shoulder, sliding down his back, Eris thought he was going insane. He needed to get out of the ballroom before he did something unbearably stupid.

Like kissing her in front of everyone. There was no doubt in Eris’s mind that the wine had made Arina sweeter just as he knew for certain that if he tried to touch her like she was touching him, he’d earn little more than a slap to the face.

“Have you ever been to the garden?” Arina asked him, pulling Eris from his thoughts. It was tempting to ask why she wanted to know that. Surely she must be aware that Eris had been in that garden hundreds of times for a myriad of different reasons.

He wasn’t stupid, though. When a lady was asking a gentleman if he’d ever been to the garden, what she was really asking for was to be alone. Well. Maybe he was a little stupid, because Eris’s response was, “Not with you.”

“Would you like to see it? With me, I mean?” she asked, her voice sweet and breathless.

“Yes.”

Somewhere in the back of his head, Eris remembered this was what he was supposed to be doing. Getting her alone, creating just enough doubt as to what they’d been doing when no one had eyes on them. It didn’t matter if it was true—he’d have her one way or the other—only that people believed it. Eris wished he could say everything was going according to plan but when Arina slid her hand into the crook of his elbow, once again gripping his limb just a little too tightly, all Eris could think about was being alone with her.

Stupid, given he’d been alone with her before. Not like this—not when she was touching him, smiling at him. Arina kept close, following as Eris led them from the ballroom with murmured excuses of getting some air. They certainly weren’t the only ones trying to slip away—it was practically a right of passage for couples to find some private place before their chaperones caught up with them. The only difference was Eris himself, who was a prince and therefore could do whatever he liked.

Well. Not anything. If Eris truly had that kind of power he could have simply pressed Arina against a wall and kissed her like he wanted to and no one—including Arina—would have stopped him. Still, it was a pleasant little fantasy that might have carried him outdoors had Arina not pulled him toward a hall that led the entirely opposite direction.

“Don’t move,” she whispered, yanking him close as footsteps approached. Eris was too distracted by her nearness, unable to look at anything but her palms laid flat against his chest. Obscured by shadows and half hidden behind a rather large pillar, a gaggle of older men filed past, arguing about the latest book written by a poet Eris thought was rather overrated. He might have told Arina so, too, had he not gone to look her in the eyes only to find she was staring back at him.

Oh.

He should have asked. Eris knew it and he didn’t care. If he asked her permission she might have said no and right then every inch of her seemed like an invitation. It was the sweetest she’d ever been, the most inviting and he wanted her. Deciding it was worth the risk, Eris lowered his face and kissed her amid the fading echoes of the crowd, still close enough to the party he could hear the music echoing around them.

Bracing himself for the inevitable outrage, Eris decided to press his advantage and reach for her face. It felt good to press his mouth against hers, to feel her soft skin beneath him. Eris was so distracted that it took him a minute to realize she was kissing him back. His eyes flew open at the realization. Eris needed confirmation that what he was feeling was, in fact, his reality.

Her eyes were closed, fingers curled in the cobalt blue of his jacket to keep him close. It was right there that ruined Eris—that look on her face, the way she was holding him, kissing him, breathing him in.

“Open,” he breathed and the hells help him, Arina did exactly as she was told. The kiss was a mess at first, betraying her inexperience though she was a quick study. Eris had her pinned against the wall, her wrists in his hands as he held them over her head and knee wedged between her legs before he could think about his next move.

All he wanted was to take down her hair and watch it tumble over her shoulders. Well—and then to watch her dress pool at her feet while he slid to his knees and— “Eris,” she breathed, pulling him back to reality. There was something sweet about her mouth.

A familiar sweetness mingled among the wine. Eris kissed her again, taking another taste as he tried to place it. Some part of him didn’t care so long as she kept kissing him…but the other…the other reminded him that she didn’t like him. And now she was half desperate, rubbing herself against his leg as her fingers fumbled with the buttons on his jacket and—

“Fuck,” Eris snarled, turning his head in a desperate attempt to catch his breath. The syrupy sweetness betrayed itself—he should have recognized it the moment his tongue first slid into his mouth but Eris was too excited to notice. Myrrah—from the root of a regular berry plant—was a powerful aphrodisiac a lot of people took recreationally at court. Husbands sometimes slipped it in their new brides drinks after a wedding to make things easier, though Eris had never liked that practice.

For one wild minute he considered turning back to the ball and drinking some himself so he could finish what they’d started. He might have, too—the idea was powerfully tempting—had he not felt Arina’s fingers slide into his hands. Catching her wrist without thinking, Eris knew he needed to stop her before she took things too far.

“With me,” he panted, cock twitching desperately.

“Anywhere,” she said, opening her eyes to look at them. Eris swore softly at the sight of her blown out pupils and flushed cheeks. She tried to take a step, but Myrrah made everyone a little disoriented, made the room seemed to swirl in a way that was more pleasant than it wasn’t. Eris scooped her up before she could fall flat on her face, took a deep breath, and began walking her toward her bedroom as quickly as he could.

“I want you,” she said, the pretty little liar.

“Tell me again in the morning,” Eris replied. “Tell me when you wake up and I’ll give you anything you like.” “Anything?”

Yes, anything. Gold, jewels, land—whatever she wanted. Maybe that was his own arousal talking, but Eris would have made her an untold number of promises if it meant she’d willingly put her hands back between his legs.

“Where are you—Eris!” Arina shrieked, but Eris had dumped her onto the floor in her bathing chamber and slammed the door before she could stop him. “Open this door right now!” she demanded, pounding the palm of her hand against the door.

“I can’t,” he told her, sliding down the wood to keep it closed.

“Please—”

“Don’t,” he managed, closing his eyes. “Don’t beg.”

“You don’t want me?”

“Fuck—yes, I want you,” he admitted, forcing the words from behind his teeth. “And if I take you this way, you’ll hate me in the morning.”

“I won’t.”

“You will,” he replied, saying the words as a reminder to himself. She wouldn’t forgive him, would be furious he hadn’t stopped her. “You’re out of your mind right now and don’t know what you want.”

There was blessed silence for a moment. Eris knew better than to think Arina had fallen asleep—he’d been in her position before, though he’d, at least, been able to relieve himself with a partner. Eris had no intention of freeing her so she could roam the halls like a cat in heat, nor did he intend to help her. She’d simply have to handle things herself.

And like an utter degenerate, he was going to stay exactly where he was and listen.

“I like you,” Arina said softly, still too breathless for his liking.

“Liar.”

“You have nice hair,” she protested, voice rising with irritation. “And I like your eyes…your hands…”

“Stop,” he breathed, heart thudding painfully in his chest.

“Open the door, Eris. Let me show you—”

“In the morning,” he groaned, his willpower shredding with each sultry word that poured from her throat. “Ask me in the morning.”

“Do you not like me?”

Eris groaned again. “Too much,” he admitted, spreading his legs apart. It did little to alleviate his need. “But not like this.”

“Then how?”

Fuck it, he decided, reaching for his belt. If he couldn’t touch her, he could at least touch himself. He could still talk to her, could make it a little bearable at least on his end. “In your right mind, to start with.”

“Maybe it’s better this way. Get it over with—”

“Trust me,” he half panted, gripping his cock in one hand. Eris stroked himself to the sound of Arina’s little gasps behind the wood and the image of what she must be doing to elicit such noise.

“Will it hurt?” she asked him breathlessly.

“No,” he swore, closing his eyes so he could imagine it. “Trust me.”

“You’ve done it before?”

“Will you be angry if I have?”

He’d never considered that prospect before, maybe because he’d never expected his wife to be untouched. He’d assumed he’d end up with one of the ladies at court and while virginity was the official expectation, it was a rule too often skirted around in favor of hedonistic fun.

“It seems unfair. Maybe I should be allowed—”

“No.”

“No?”

Eris stroked himself again, exhaling a soft, shuddering breath. “No,” he agreed. “It’s too late now. I want your first time.”

“You’re selfish.”

“Jealous, too,” he agreed. “I don’t want to share you anymore.”

“Maybe you won’t be such a bad husband.”

Eris’s hand stilled for a moment, cheek pressed against the wood. There were a million things he wanted to say, all of them choked by emotion. He couldn’t accept the compliment nor could he find the words to assure he would do his best. What if he failed? What if he was no better than his father?

“Where are your hands?” he asked instead, retreating to comfortable, familiar territory.

“Under my dress,” she replied. Eris groaned loudly for her benefit, knowing damn well he shouldn’t.

“Next time it’ll be my mouth,” he told her with more conviction than he’d ever felt. So he couldn’t tell her the truth about himself—maybe he could show her, then. His actions could be enough, he decided, and if not his actions than the way his body touched her own.

“Your mouth?” Arina asked breathlessly. It wasn’t really a question and still Eris gripped his cock tighter, pumping faster.

“Yes,” he agreed, eyes closed as he imagined her legs spread for him. What did he want more? His cock in her throat or the taste of her cunt smeared across her lips? Both, he decided. He wanted it at the same time, wanted her thighs straddling his face as she took him, unable to move while Eris spent half an evening eating her.

And then he’d flip her over, breasts pressed to the blankets, and fuck her until she couldn’t walk the next morning. He could practically feel it, was lost to the fantasy and the sound of Arina’s own soft, desperate moans.

“That’s it,” he rasped, unsure if he was talking to her or himself. “Come for me.”

Arina did—or, he thought she did. He was so used to loud screams that her breathless gasps of air seemed like a revelation. Was this what it was like when the woman he wanted didn’t care if he was a prince or not? Eris came, too, hips jerking off the ground as come splattered against his hand.

The timing was terrible. Arina turned the door handle, tumbling on top of him just as a servant burst into the room, eyes wide with horror.

“I—”

“Well, fuck,” Eris snarled, trying to shove himself back into his pants without making a mess of the woman tangled up in his lap. “It’s not…”

What it looks like. He never managed to get the words out—the servant scurried away, leaving Eris alone

“You feel better now, don’t you?” he dared to ask, buttoning his pants as Arina stood, cheeks burning red.

“I—”

He reached for her chin, squishing her cheeks gently beneath her fingers. Eris kissed her, ignoring how wide her eyes were.

“When you wake up, don’t regret this.”

Though, if he was honest with himself, Eris regretted leaving her in a heap on the floor.

Still.

That was for the best.

#eris vanserra #chapter 4!#halfway done yay!

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ms-cartoon · 2 years ago

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HB Western Energy, Rant Review

Okay, imma just go ahead and jump straight into it....

-- Stolas and Stella barking at each other like a couple of high schoolers. Calling each other names n stuff. Even Stella yelling “F*CKISH. IMP. SUCKER!!” Okay... is she mad about the affair or not? I mean, yeah... we kinda learn that she doesn’t care about that and had always hated Stolas (even then, it still doesn’t make sense given how this was written) But she yelled that with such anger in her voice and she keeps calling him things that go along the lines of either banging an imp or being a cheater. She even called a hitman on him while referring to him as a “cheating prick!” All I’m saying is, if she really hated Stolas from the get-go and if she actually doesn’t care about the affair, then make her act like it. I don’t even think she should even care about who he did it with. Even if she was embarrassed about it being with an imp, it’s not that serious. Especially when she already hates him. The writers are just making her unnecessarily petty.

-- Speaking of the bickering, I can’t even take these two seriously anymore with the way they’re fighting. Once again, I feel like I’m looking at immature high schoolers cussing and throwing childish insults at each other. This was not the kind of dynamic I was expecting at all. And this was supposed to be the abusive relationship we’re expected to cry for Stolas over??? The writers were making it seem like Stolas was the sensitive one in the relationship the entire time, afraid of standing up to her. He could’ve thrown her out a long time ago if it was that simple.

-- Man... the C word is being spat out more than the f-bombs in this episode!

-- We see from Stolas’s phone that he’s planning to have a meeting with Asmodeus soon. This is probably about the whole crystal thing to give to Blitzo in the future so he could FINALLY drop the deal about giving the grimoire back in exchange for sex. How much you wanna bet this meeting with Asmodeus is a pointless plot hole waiting to happen until the last minute? I can just tell by the way the scheduled meeting on Stolas’s phone was shown to us in a blink of an eye and it wasn’t even that important.

-- Stolas: Cheating implies there was a betrayal. This woman never gave two sh*ts about me or very much our arranged marriage.”

Oh jeezus... less than 40 seconds in and this episode already pissed off with the bullsh*t. These writers are seriously telling us “It’s okay that Stolas cheated on his wife, cuz she never liked him anyway.” Well, OF COURSE NOW we know she never liked him! Of course, NOW it’s revealed she abused Stolas the whole time they were married! I mean after all, how else is Viv gonna let Stolas slip by and have him be in the right EVERY. GODDAMN. TIME!!! As if all of his flaws from season 1 to the last episode just never happened and now suddenly, he did nothing wrong and his affair is completely justified when it shouldn’t be. Y’all can see it how you wanna see it, but cheating is cheating and it’s wrong!! It doesn’t matter if Stella never loved him or he never loved her. If he really couldn’t stand her, he could’ve just divorced her when he had the chance too. It’s not like anything was stopping him from before. You could say Octavia was the main reason why he stayed, but he and Stella already fight in front of her!! She was already not happy with this family to begin with since the first season. And besides, how can we even say that cheating on Stella was excusable when Octavia was obviously affected by it?? He may not have cared about how Stella felt, but what about Octavia!!?? His DAUGHTER!??

-- Stella in the first episode of the second season made it seem like the whole divorce thing was gonna be a big deal like it was a whole violation to the Goetia demons and Stolas was breaking a rule, but so far... the divorce did nothing. All we see is her bickering with him more and demanding her belongings back from the mansion. She never even liked him from the beginning anyway, what would make her so upset about the divorce? What does she have to lose from it? The power? The money, the status?? I mean, she would lose her status as a queen... but that’s it. Aside from that, she’s still a noble and she’s rich. She shouldn’t have anything to worry about. And she mentioned her brother as if he wasn’t to be messed with. Like he was gonna be angry and come after Stolas for having the audacity to divorce his sister. But all I see is a pompous peacock who just wants money and doesn’t care at all about Stella’s divorce... Why would they even be asking for money or power???? They’re already rich as hell!!! What else could they possibly want to gain from Stolas?? Just more money???? Wha- do they want the kind of status that Stolas has; a demon prince? Cuz, I don’t think that’s how it works. Even if they did have motives for trying to get what they want, those motives don’t even make any sense. They’re trying to rid Stolas of possessions that they already own. So this whole motivation for keeping Stolas alive along with the conversation that they had is pointless. From where it stands even from the second season, Viv is just making Stella and Andre evil for no reason. She only wants them to be evil without thinking it through and to make Stolas look good.

-- We’re barely a minute in this episode and we jump straight to Striker breaking in, shooting, and kidnapping Stolas! That introduction had no build-up whatsoever. It happened so swiftly, I couldn’t even keep up!! This episode is already so rushed and fast-paced, and Andrealphus didn’t even get a proper first appearance. Like the show showed us Andre spoke for two seconds without a good first appearance. Almost as if he’s already made his appearance before, and this is our first time seeing him in the show and hearing his voice.

-- I find it funny how in the festival episode, Striker was being a little slick in his assassination attempt; hiding in his room before shooting at Stolas from a far distance, which seems like a more clever and cleaner way to go about it. But in THIS episode, he wastes no time just BARGING with his horse through the window, making a scene, and shooting bullets head-on right then and there??? And now he’s just straight-up being messy with it? Plus, now that Stolas can see he’s being shot at, he’s able to dodge every bullet coming his way, making it difficult for Striker to kill him. This wouldn’t have been so hard have Striker gone about it the way he did back at the festival; he could’ve hidden somewhere, shot Stolas, and BOOM mission complete. Why is he being so extra with it??? And he’s supposed to be an assassin??

-- Striker: *Somehow, shoots a bullet through Stolas’s hat.*

Well damn, no wonder this dude couldn’t shoot him. He got no aim.....

-- Why does Stolas keep dodging and flying from Striker anyway? All he has to do is look at him and turn him into stone. Frikin’ turn into a huge demon if you have to. Use your telekinesis to stop the bullets!! Now this so-called “prince” got tied into a knot by angelic ropes that restricts his powers when he should’ve been able to save his own ass. “Oh dear, the is worrisome.” Yeah, no sh*t buddy...

-- Even though he’s tied up, Stolas managed to pick up his phone and contact Blitzo. His powers are secured, fine. But his hands, legs, and feet are still free. He could literally just jump off of Striker’s horse using his legs and feet while they’re still on the ground and try to free himself with his hands.

-- Stolas: “I seem to have been stolen by that little cowboy friend of yours.”

Moxxie: “Can you describe him, your highness?”

Stolas: *Looks at Striker* “Sexy?”

Just say his name!!! You already know who he is!! You announced him back at the harvest moon festival! And you’ve seen him there!!! How come you don’t remember who he is all of a sudden??? yeah, “Good memory” my a**! And why is “Sexy” the first thing that comes to mind when you’re describing him?? I guess he doesn’t completely mark Blitzo as a single-target sexuality. And how come Moxxie immediately knows who Stolas is talking about when he was describing him? Does Moxxie think Striker looks sexy??? Like bro, your wife is right beside you!! LOL!

-- Stolas to Blitzo: I think you should come save me.”

Dude... just try to break free from the ropes and jump off the horse!!! Your hands and legs are free!! Stop being such a damsel waiting for your knight in shining armor. This is just another excuse to have Blitzo come and save you when there are other options.

-- Loona doesn’t say a word in this, but I’m not gonna b*tch about it like I do with everything else. Her voice actress’s fiance passed away due to cancer recently I believe, and she’s been going through it. So sorry for your loss, Erica! I hope all is well and you’re doing okay!

-- This whole comedic side plot with Blitzo and Loona seemed a little boring and I barely cracked a laugh. Nowadays, the Brandon Rodgers comedy is much more funny in his youtube videos than him as a cartoon character. There are more f-bombs in his dialogue than there is any character in him. Literally, any time he’s provoked, he pulls out his guns and attempts to murder someone, and it’s usually not even that serious. Not gonna lie, it kinda annoys me at this point. It wasn’t funny to me when they were in Hollywood, especially when he was going through some serious trauma which caused his rampage in the first place and we were supposed to be sad for him, so it definitely doesn’t make me laugh now. And they try to force a Karen character into this to make it more funny, but- I’m sorry. It doesn’t work for me.

-- Blitzo keeps complaining that he and Loona have to wait every 5 years to get a shot in the hospital, which I’m assuming is supposed to be a joke saying that all hospitals are a drag and super slow. I’m sorry? 5 years??? That’s a bit of a stretch! As far as my knowledge goes, most hospitals do take the time to schedule appointments for their clients. Even when it does take long, well... fairly enough, they do have a lot of clients to get through in at least one year. You can’t fully blame them for taking their time. It’s not like they’re being lazy. So yeah, I wouldn’t really make fun of that.

-- This little b plot shouldn’t even be in this episode anyway! This whole side plot was supposed to be comedic, but it just doesn’t fit at all when we’re dealing with a serious situation of Stolas being kidnapped and about to get killed. And the fact that we keep cutting away from this plot back to back is even worse! I think it makes more since to give Millie and Moxxie more attention than to continuously show the shenanigans happening with Blitzo and Loona. Either that or save the whole “Loona’s shot” thing for another episode and instead have Blitzo join Moxxie and Millie in saving Stolas. Loona doesn’t have any lines in this anyway, so she doesn’t even have to be in this episode.

-- The lady at the counter says she couldn’t read but was able to find Blitzo’s name on her paper sheets just fine with no issue. Clearly they didn’t think this dialogue through. What, does she have short-term memory? How was she even hired??

-- This whole folk song about Striker is so stupid. It’s honestly pretty forgettable. For real though, how come this dude suddenly has a reputation for being the most badass assassin in the West??? This episode is pretty much showing us that he is very well-known amongst all the demons. But aren’t most assassins supposed to be... idk, secretive??? Plus, if everyone already knows about him, how come Millie’s parents didn’t know who he was before they hired him as a farm hand??? And why is he suddenly a famous assassin?? Wasn’t he supposed to be some random imp who was hired by Stella to kill someone? This is just a whole other retcon. Goddamn it, I am so sick of all these retcons!!

-- I’m so glad Striker shut them up. That was the only part in this whole episode to make me laugh.

-- I honestly forget that Millie and Moxxie are even in this episode. I’m sorry- are these two just meant to be the supporting cast now??? Are they only just there to show everybody how cute of a couple they are? Cuz we already know this!!! So M&M are the ones to go and save Stolas because they have to “settle a score” with Striker.... What exactly is it that you have to settle with Striker? The loss of your fight with him?? Okay, sure, but I still don’t know why they feel the need to “settle a score” with him. It’s not like he did anything that they held a grudge against. Millie’s leg almost got amputated cuz of him, but that’s it. She’s walking just fine, otherwise. And Moxxie did feel inferior to Striker, but it was nothing serious (plus he continues to feel inferior with no kind of build up. So that whole plot alone was pointless). I just feel like there’s not much bad blood between them to settle a score for. It makes more sense for Blitzo to go rescue Stolas while M&M assisted him. And besides, Moxxie and Millie trying to fight off Striker didn’t exactly end well the last time. Blitzo shouldn’t have any trust in them to take care of him themselves. The only reason why they succeeded in this episode is because.... plot.

-- Of course, we just have to have some other pointless conflict that happens and is concluded in a blink of an eye. So Millie puts a cowboy hat on Moxxie and they stop to get gas. While Millie walks around and asks questions, some random a**hole confronts Moxxie about the hat he’s wearing and assumed he stole one of his simply because it looks like the one he’s wearing. Did it ever occur to this moron that most hats just look similar to each other? Why is he getting his d*ck in a twist over some stupid headwear?

-- OH F*CK OFF WITH THIS!!! So now Moxxie is suddenly a strong badass and could brawl with more than two people twice his size!!??? Where the hell was THIS when he was fighting Striker the first time or in the last episode!!!?? Like, can he fight or not!!??? This just does not make sense to me, especially when his whole character is about him not being a very skilled fighter like his wife or Blitzo. Not only is Millie an on-and-off fighter when the plot wants her to be, but so is her husband? Gimme a break!!

-- Stolas: “Wouldn’t a holy bullet have sufficed? Or could you not afford those?”

Stolas is technically bringing up the fact the imps are the lowest ranking and hardly have any cash on them. The show keeps telling us that imps are the poorest of the poor, but they sure as hell aren’t poor enough to own a whole circus (*cough* Blitzo’s dad *cough*). Not to mention Blitzo had a pretty high-paying job and could rent a whole office. Seems like to me that the imps are living pretty average for a species being the lowest rank.

Wait... Is Striker an Imp or a snake?

-- Striker: I was paid to give you the real royal treatment.

Mm, no... You were paid to just shoot him (yet another retcon). All you’re doing is pointlessly dragging this mission by torturing him when you could literally just pull the frikin trigger and put a bullet in his head. Shut up with the edgy monologue and kill him!!

-- WTF!!!

-- Stolas decides NOW to try to turn Striker into stone... That should’ve been done already, buddy!

-- Does this kink really get turned on in bed by getting painfully tortured, having his limbs broken and impaled n sh*t?? WHY DOES BLITZO STAB STOLAS AND BREAK HIS BONES WHILE HAVING SEX IN BED????!!!! LIKE Y’ALL, I CANT-

-- Why they gotta make my girl Stella so dumb in this show? I’m not surprised in the least (though I was hoping it wasn’t the case), but it honestly just irritates me more with what they’re doing to her. So Andrealphus reminds her that if she get’s Stolas killed, she would get nothing. But why does Stella have to be told that?? She should already know this! And why is she being all “Tee hee hee” and childish about all this anyways?? Yeah, Stolas gets to die and that’s what she wanted, but she’s being all giggles about it and she turns into a little brat and whines when told she can’t kill him and I can’t even take her seriously. I was expecting her to act much more sinister and serious. What happened to her hot-temper that could easily get provoked?? Idk that just rubbed me the wrong way.

Andre: When Stolas dies, his duties, his possessions, his legions, it will all pass to... Via.”

-- Okay... so what? It’s not like Stella even cares about that, as far as we’ve seen. All she ever did was throw parties and talk sh*t about Stolas. She doesn’t care at all about fulfilling any duties Stolas had to take care of. She’s never even been interested in the book. What exactly has she done that was even remotely Goetia-like? Ma’am just hates her ex and wants him to die.

-- Okay, first off.... eww! What is this?? Like dude- back up! What is this incest sh*t I’m lookin’ at? I don’t like this. Viv, plz don’t!!

-- Andre: I say we bide our time, and wait for the chance to gain the upper-hand.”

B*tch, what are you talkin’ about! You already had the upper-hand. And you’re sister clearly doesn’t care about Stolas’s possessions or power. She doesn’t even care that her daughter gets to obtain that. She just wants him dead. If anything, it just seems like YOU want what Stolas has and is only controlling your sister.

-- Can we PLEASE stop going in and out of Loona and Blitzo and just focus on the fight scene with M&M vs Striker! The stupid side plot doesn’t even fit with this episode! This is supposed to be a serious moment with Striker kidnapping Stolas and keeping Moxxie and Millie out the way, yet at the same time were expected to laugh and giggle at Loona escaping the wrath of a frikin needle!!!??? And the stupid girly pop music doesn’t even help!

-- Why her butt?..... Out of all the places to give her a shot???

-- Striker: “Oh I remember how easy you are to choke the life out of, little one.”

Moxxie: *Getting choked by Striker* Harder!

Umm, excuse me, sir? WTF!!! Is Viv making these little jokes a trope now!!? Why does Moxxie have a kink!?? He’s not even a very sexual person!! I dunno if he was just doing that to throw Striker off or somethin, but WHAT IN THE HELL!!?? And why did Striker immediately let go, feeling disgusted!!??? Bro, you made a statue with a literal stick-shaped boner???!!! This should NOT have caught you off-guard so easily!!!

-- When something is falling and is about to come crashing onto you, you do NOT, under ANY CIRCUMSTANCES walk forward! You could literally just jump to the side.

-- I don’t know if Striker is dead or not, but if he is, Then way to go, Viv! You may have just killed off a character that was even slightly interesting. If you're gonna make a character and have him get this popular only to kill him off, at least venture him a little bit first!! This was only his second debut in the show and we hardly gotten anything from his character! There wasn’t much backstory to him or anything. Just that he was a bigot who was hired to kill Stolas and HATES nobles! And Striker even mentioned that there was someone he cared about taken away from him by the upper class. It raised wonders why he felt so much hatred for the rich folk and we won’t even get to explore that cuz he may have possibly died. I may not care much about him, but there were still some things I noticed about Striker that I found interesting and they needed to be explored.

With him and Moxxie, I still feel like there wasn’t much score to settle between them. To me, they don’t have much of a dynamic at all, and they were supposed to be rivals. In fact, their second meeting felt rushed. The second Millie and Moxxie barged in, Moxxie just went ahead and pulled a trigger on him without saying a word. We don’t even get to hear any dialoge between them. It’s fighting, fighting, and more fighting. There wasn’t even much of an enemy relationship between them. Actually, Striker seems to have more of an adversary with Blitzo. And what about him and Blitzo??? The writers made it seem like Striker had a pretty big impact on him; from when he tried convincing him to join forces because they were so similar in certain ways to Blitzo hallucinating him in his trip dream. With the conversation they had at the festival, Striker was manipulating his insecurities. And that apparently affected Blitzo, because an episode later, he was dreaming about Striker tormenting him, along with Moxxie, Verosika, Fizz, and Stolas. So yeah, was kinda expecting to see some more interactions between those two. Neither of them didn’t even get to speak to each other this whole episode!! Its like I said, Blitzo should’ve joined Moxxie and Millie in Stolas’s rescue.

-- So Stolas is injured and is rushed to the hospital. Blitzo finds out about the and asks the most stupidest-a** question to have put have ever been put in this dialogue....

-- WHAT. DO. YOU. MEAN!?!?!?!

Of course he can get hurt!!! You already know that, you stupid d*ck!!! Why else did you point the gun at Striker before he killed Stolas back at the festival!! You obviously knew he would get hurt if he was shot!! What did you think that Angelic Weapon was made for??!!!! Whatever happened to that weapon anyway? We don’t ever get to see that again at all? Judging from Moxxie’s reaction, the gun seemed like a very rare weapon in hell and is impossible to get. How did Striker even get his hands on it? We don’t even get to explore that?

-- So, as it turns out, the aftermath between Stolas and Blitzo in the Ozzie’s episode actually did occur....

......through text messages *face-palm*

Jesus christ on a bicycle..... The way this was addressed was a literal blink and a miss!! I HATED IT!! I didn’t even realize this was the aftermath until I saw it on twitter!!! So you mean to tell me we don’t get to explore what happened with them after Ozzie’s ON SCREEN at all???? They never even directly talked about what happened??? Are you for real, Viv?? Like- i-is this your way of shutting us up? Like you knew we were curious about what happened between them and decided to half-ass your way out of this by showing a bunch of text messages and moving forward?? Are you THIS lazy!!!!??? They’re not even fully conversing through these messages. If anything, Stolas is the main one doing all the talking while is Blitzo barely responding to him.

-- Dear lordy.... and reading messages don’t even make it better. Stolas is dumbed down deeper than his ex, bro!!! Obviously, he didn’t learn a DAMN THING!!!

Stolas: “You seem very upset and you took off so fast. I’m sorry if anything I said or did may have offended you tonight.”

F*CKING WHA--!! He says it as if he has no clue why Blitzo was mad at him or if he was upset with him at all! Um, b*tch... HE TOLD YOU WHY!!! Like to your face, he said, “Don’t act like that what we have is anything but you wanting me to f*ck you. You make that pretty clear all the time.” And you invited him in your house to cuddle with him knowing damn well he wasn’t in the mood!! You should already know why he’s upset!

Im sor- Is this another retcon or something?? Were we supposed to see it how Stolas saw it? That Blitzo was upset for some unknown reason and we just can’t figure it out? Are we just gonna act like Stolas had done absolutely NOTHING wrong and he’s just an oh-so-innocent uwu baby bird? Are we gonna act like Blitzo didn’t just call out Stolas, spelling out the exact justified reason why he was mad?? Cuz that’s exactly how this text message scene is acting like!! Like their dialogue only revolves around what during their date and not what happened after that. Why is Stolas even talking about what happened at just Ozzie’s?! There was much more to the situation that affected him after he was dropped off. He was crying on his porch when Blitzo pushed him away. But now the show is not even gonna have them explore that in their messages. And now Viv is not even gonna have Stolas be considerate of Blitzo feelings and know why he’s mad? As if all they did was go their separate ways without saying a word instead of Blitzo dropping Stolas off at his house!!

And he goes on to say this-

“I’m glad that Ozzie’s is not the case of you being upset. I wasn’t upset either. I actually thought it was funny. It didn’t embarrass me at all.”

Okay... first off, what happened at Ozzie’s DID make him upset. YOU were just another one of those reasons. And you ain’t find sh*t funny, you were embarrassed just by BEING THERE with him, hence another reason why he’s mad at you! Like- Seriously?? What is happening right now?? Are all of us watching the same episode!!!??? Why is Stolas acting like such an oblivious and clingy idiot with the long-ass at paragraphs??

-- Okay yall... I’m done.

*Sigh* Okay.

This episode was... well it was somethin'. I'm not gonna say whether I like it or not, though the latter might be obvious enough.

I say the only thing I liked a little about it was Stella. Which is why I'm SUPER disappointed with how her character was written so far. If she were to actually be a character, I would like her more without going, "Oh Jesus... how are they gonna butcher her this time?"

Stella is as one-noted as ever! And there were a couple of traits they added to her character that is just so irritating-- Like, I can't take her seriously anymore. Viv doesn't change a thing about Stella. Her whole character is, "I hate my ex and I want him dead!" And that's all there is. That's all Stella was worried about this episode. Like- ma'am? Could you just get over it!!? We get it, you hate his guts. And we don't even know WHY she hates him so much! Why does she want him dead, so badly? What could possibly warrant her hatred?? This is like her 4th appearance in this show, yet we're still not given her backstory. Nothing is hinted on why she became such an evil Darla Dimple. At first, in the first season, it seemed like Stella was only angry that her husband had an affair and cheated on her. So angry, she even called a hitman on him. Though it was rather harsh to want someone dead for that, you'd understand why she would be angry. I mean, who wouldn't!!! My husband cheated on me and it greatly affected my family!! That's how we saw it (or at least that's how I saw it). You can't even tell me that Stella never loved Stolas, because it was hinted that she initially did care about him. At least, according to Octavia who said that things used to be decent between them.

But now, since season 2 began, Viv suddenly just slaps us with the fact that Stella had always hated Stolas for no reason?? She just likes to make fun of him and talk sh*t while laughing at him?? She didn't care at all about the affair, but she still insist on tormenting him.... cuz she's evil??? And that excuse is not even justified alone, cuz why is she so evil??.... Because... she was just born that way???

Tch, yeah, alright Vivzie... whatever.

It doesn't even make sense why she's married to him if she's always hated him. Why did she even stick with him if she was just going to keep talking bad about him and complain about being married to him??? Yeah, I know there were arranged to marry, but they're adults now. No one could tell them what to do! She could've just divorced him. And clearly, nothing came of it. She could've left him WAY before now. You could say she only stuck around for the riches and the power, but she obviously doesn't care about that! All she ever did was throw parties. She didn't show off any riches or power she had when she was with him. And again... why does she want him dead?? What was her final straw here?? It was already established she didn't care about the affair and she already hated Stolas. What, was it because he embarrassed her by doing what he did? Well, like I said, she doesn't care about the affair, so why would she care about the embarrassment!? I just don't understand---

And I've already mentioned this, but I also didn't like how childish and giddy they made her about the whole thing. I didn't like to see how excited she was about her ex finally dying. I mean, it's nice to see she has no regrets and is proud, but in cases like her behavior about it-- it just doesn't seem to work for me. I was expecting Stella to be... stone-cold. Like just a soft-spoken, strict, and sinister woman who is somewhat secretive of her wicked ways and is tricky, but doesn't hide it fully. And despite knowing what she's doing, she doesn't care at all about the effects of it as long as she gets what she wants. Almost like Lady Tremaine from Cinderella, Ursula from The Little Mermaid, or Mother Gothel from Tangled.

But instead, I experience this-

I don't even like the way she acted when she was told she can't continue going along with what she wanted. She started to whine like a baby, crying "Aww! But I want him dead so badly!!!" Like, miss-- how old are you?? I would expect for her to be all "harumph!!" and begrudgingly agree with her brother after arguing with him a little. Not this immature little princess who will cry if she doesn't get her dolly back!

Another thing that bugged me about this episode, of course, was more Stolitz. It's pretty clear up to this point that Viv so DESPERATELY wants to make these two endgame. She doesn't care at all about how fast, how rushed, or how unplanned she makes this show as long as Stolas and Blitzo become a couple in the end. But just by rushing the show and not planning it, she doesn't really do a great job of showing us these two are good for each other. It just gets more toxic, especially with Stolas acting like he always cared about Blitzo when he obviously didn't and just becomes more selfish and oblivious to his feelings. Hell, he continues to be a flirt after Blitzo pretty much calls him out on it! And Viv tries to show us that Blitzo had always cared about Stolas and secretly wants a relationship with him, but considering the blank responses and the passive-aggressive behavior from those text messages, it's clear Blitzo does NOT like Stolas and doesn't care at all about him! Even when he reacted with disbelief over him getting hurt, he still gave him a short-worded text!! Like-- Blitzo just doesn't like Stolas, okay Viv.

Ugh!! This show has officially broken me with the stupid sh*t, y’all. I still have some things I wanna say about it that I may have left off, but I’m to tired for now. They can be saved for another day. I-I cant anymore- The only reason why I’m even going along with this is because I’m curious to see how these eps will turn out. Like, I’m still curious about Fizz, Verosika, and Barbie. And you best believe I’m waiting for the last episode where we get to hear Octavia finally go off on her dad. It’s a literal challenge at this point, but bring it on. And It’s ironic, cuz I love critiquing shows, whether I like them or not.

#helluva boss criticism #helluva boss critique #helluva boss critical #anti helluva boss #anti stolitz #anti blitzo #anti stolas #helluva rant #SpindleHorse critical

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octaviasdread · 8 months ago

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I hereby conduct this tortured poets society album meeting in all of its mania and sorrowful blues as I move from unhinged impressions to unhinged first-listen analysis because I am incapable of saying less.

(and to all the Aimees i’m so sorry but that’s on Kim)

This Anthology is taking me so long to process, but nothing feels like the first jarring moments of I Can Do It With a Broken Heart - the cacophony and flashes of a birthday breakdown bopping to 80s arcade game synth. It's crumbled cake and mascara streaks when Bejewelled is actually a delusional Mirrorball,

and The Secret Garden reference in I Hate It Here, oh god, she’s so me:

I hate it here so I will go to / secret gardens in my mind / people need a key to get to / the only one is mine / i read about it in a book when I was a precocious child

I need to come back to that. But the whirlwind of Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me? Plans cancelled. IM THE ONE barricaded in the bathroom with a bottle of wine, actually. It's me chained-up in that poor things victorian mourning dress shrieking elegies in my tortured nightingale screams.

She's Grammys Taylor looking at the crowd of her peers rolling their eyes, she's the litany of snide jokes diminishing her success, and the children, sisters, friends, and girlfriends of those who wronged her loudly singing her songs.

so i leap from the gallows and i levitate down your street / crash the party like a record scratch as I scream / who’s afraid of little old me

i was tame i was gentle til the circus made me mean / don’t you worry folks we took out all her teeth

ohhh, the throwback to Speak Now and the significance of MEAN. The song and its titular word show how childish language encapsulates that pointless spite and the bone deep hurt mean behaviour breeds - but now she’s a phoenix risen, and they hurl her youth and her downfall back in her face - word for word, surprised face - its the dark side the The Lucky One, of not escaping the cage of fame games.

you lured me and you hurt me and you taught me / you caged me and then you called me crazy

i wanna snarl and show you just how disturbed this has made me / you wouldn’t last an hour in the asylum where they raised me / so all you kids can sneak into my house with all the cobwebs / i’m always drunk on my own tears isn’t that what they all said?

PUT NARCOTICS IN MY SONG took me out. This album is funny in the most sardonic and absurdly humorous ways,

like the classic cowboy western guitar strings in her crime songs (I Can Fix Him, No Really I Can - pistols drawn), but especially the ones leading into Fresh Out The Slammer. Fucking genius, and to follow on with static sounds at 2:26ish to the house where you still wait up, is exactly the kinda detail I adore.

Naively, I thought Florence was done with me after Florida!!! It's a lyrical meme for single 20 & 30 somethings who moved away from home,

my friends all smell of like weed or little babies / and the city reeks of driving myself crazy / little did you know your home’s really only / a town you’re just a guest in

and the haunting morphs from the ghost of your girlhood into the catalogue of decisions and delusions which get you through adulthood. Yet it feels almost like an interlude within the song when

me and my ghosts we’ve had a hell of a time / yes i’m haunted but i’m feeling fine / all my girls got their lace and their crimes / and your cheating husband disappeared/ well no one asks questions here

appears like an alternative pov for No Body, No Crime with the girls and their ghosts and their pacts made over wine. Every Action has an Equal Reaction. Run away to Florida, or Texas, and lose yourself to lose the heartbreak. Its self-destruction, it's trauma-healing, bonding, and its breaking.

(what a song for an angsty girl collab, problematic girl in hand with problematic girl, lyrically and thematically, maybe the real love story is the friends we make along the way.)

And that wasn't even the last of it. It's Florence 2.0 with B side Cassandra, but instead of Dance Fever, its Taylor’s glorious mythology with all the allusions, parallels, intertextual and lyrical ruining of my mind:

when the first stone’s thrown they’re screaming / when its burn the bitch they’re shrieking / when the truth comes out its quiet

so they killed cassandra first cus she feared the worst / and tried to tell the town / so they filled my cell with snakes i regret to say / do you believe me now?

No apologies anymore. A girl given the gift of prophecy by Apollo, the GOD OF POETRY, is cursed with her prophecy never being believed: Burning all the witches even if you aren't one, indeed. She saw the truth of the Trojan horse, and the Trojans insulted her. Rep snake branding and the current cultural view of KK and Ye. I don't need to say anything else.

i was in the tower weaving nightmares / twisting all my smiles into snarls

the family the pure greed the christian chrous line / bloods thick but nothing like a payroll / bet they never spared a prayer for my soul

I literally played that THREE times before I got over it enough to finish my first listen,

and i’m still thinking about Clara Bow and that Stevie Nicks tambourine we collectively freaked over from the Spotify installation, and all the silent movie speculation from the track title release.

you look like Clara Bow in this light - you look like Stevie Nicks in '75 - you look like Taylor Swift

Three women whose public profession became entangled with their pain. Silver Springs. Boyfriend songs. The jokes. Clara Bow.

Clara feared being left behind by 'talkies.' Miss Americana. The fear of 30 bringing death to a woman's Hollywood/Musical career,

beauty is a beast that roars down on all fours demanding more / only when your girlish glow flickers just so / do they let you know?

Three women who beat the odds - three women whose talent, craft, and popularity carried them through.

But there's something more to unpack here with cycles and patterns - of the past endlessly repeating. It's the transient nature of fame and our fleeting view of beauty mapped out in the untouchable, ever-changing, and culturally worshiped moon.

It's a body of physical craters, a natural body we call discovered, and fight to claim. We project emotions and create rituals of worship - you're the new god we're worshipping. Endless stories are told about her, but we can never fully see the moon with human eyes. Eclipses, shadows, - 'half moonshinе, a full eclipse' - half-truths and half-moons:

this town is fake but you're the real thing / breath of fresh air through smoke rings / take the glory, give everything / promise to be dazzling

There's a play on light and a play on words in the repetition of Dazzling, shining so bright so blindingly bright. Who is dazzled? Who is doing the dazzling? There's an instability between Director - Public - Star. It's Hollywood lights, No one in my small town thought I'd see the lights of Manhattan / No one in my small town thought I'd meet these suits in LA.

She beat the 'War Big Machine' - but for me, there's ambivalence and illusion on all sides of the final lyrics, you've got edge, she never did / the future's bright, dazzling.

(and ‘Edge’ is particularly ironic when you consider the songs on this album…)

Moving again into the B Side, it's Taylor's departure from Invisible string, red strings of fate, and golden threads à la the golden chain of fate in Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities that strikes me.

First, I thought her writing was a complete departure from the themes of destiny and fate, but then, The Prophecy:

cards on thе table / Mine play out like fools in a fablе

it isn't an absent symbol; it transformed. It's the evermore forest amped to the max. Witches, folklore, fairy-tale and fable - a homeric epic. Its the hero's journey distilled as she opens the song with a move from 'full throttle' adventure, to slowing down 'Hand on the Throttle' to appeal for Supernatural aid at the hero's transformative fall.

and it was written / I got cursed like eve got bitten / a greater woman wouldn't beg / but I looked at the sky and said / please I've been on my knees / change the prophecy

Lover asking Traffic Lights becomes spending my last coin so someone will tell me, and this might be the most slept-on heartbreaking line. Her search for reassurance can't be framed as an arbitrary musing anymore. It can't be dismissed as a mere thought on her drive home, or something triggered throughout the day - its intent. It's a quest for answers, a plea, a last-ditch hope difficult to deny.

and I sound like an infant / feeling like the very last drops of an ink pen/ a greater woman stays cool/ but I howl like a wolf at the moon / and I look unstable /

gathered with a coven 'round a sorceress' table / a greater woman has faith But even statues crumble if they're made to wait / i'm so afraid I sealed my fate / no sign of soulmates

She's asking for a gift from the Gods, and when the God's won't answer, she plunges straight down from heaven or Olympus into the self seizure of power in witchcraft. And when it fails, she descends further - Spending my last coin so someone will tell me it'll be okay - paying mortal fortune tellers, even if they lie.

The song leans on figures without redemption, on the Eve's, on the women cursed and punished, and those who scream like infants rather than enduring burdens and pain in silence. She's poisoned, infected like Aurora from the wound of the pricked hand with dreams of him. Is this a punishment?

She's infected, cursed like Eve got bitten, [lyric of all time!!!!] but does a monster always do monstrous things? Who is the monster? Who is the folkloric, the literary Mad Woman? Perhaps she's written from the desperate, the scarred, and the wronged.

and the transition into another tale with Peter? As in Peter losing Wendy? Is it an epilogue to the Betty trilogy? or a different use of the metaphor?

and I didn't wanna hang around / we said it was just goodbye for now /said you were gonna grow up / then you were gonna come find me / words from the mouths of babes / promises oceans deep / but never to keep

The triangle is echoed in love's never lost when perspective is earned, reflecting the different povs of Betty, August, and James, and placing Peter as the new conclusion - the shelf life of those fantasies has expired / lost to the lost boys chapter of your life/ the woman who sits by the window/ has turned out the (porch?) light.

Promises wear out. Wendy's window closes, and so does this chapter in her life.

my lost fearless leader / in closets like cedar / preserved from when we were just kids / is it something I did? / the goddess of timing / once found us beguiling

is also - intentionally or not - Narnia coded. Is the storybook collecting dust in her closet? Or is the closet still holding a portal to another fairytale land accessible only in youth, another home you can't return to (and another folklore parallel with mtr, anywhere I want just not home).

Side B is so harmonious with ttpd being the end of a chapter as the anthology moves through all the seven stages (or Taylor playlists) of grief.

The Manuscript, the signing of the autopsy, is the Death of the Author. It's the Roland Barthes realisation of All Too Well reborn in joy and fan culture, the story isn't mine anymore, of the Eras - 'I hope you hear these songs and think of this night' - Tour. She knew what the agony had been for - art. connection. - and its these things that create the hope lost in ttpd's journey through mania, disorientation, loss and despair. It all leads to healing, nothing left but a manuscript.

So many thoughts from listen no.1 and they’ll probably change, but i’m so exhausted from this 31 song rollercoaster that I'm just gonna let this sit. death of the author, I guess.

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bellatrixobsessed1 · 15 days ago

Text

The Dark Forest (Part 2)

Icy is only eight years old. Darcy is just a few minutes behind. And Stormy is behind by a year.

But Icy and Darcy have been alive for 18 years and Stormy for 17 of them.

They are three grown women who have already had growth spurts, have had their first bleed. Who have already achieved the physical marks of womanhood and the emotions that came with them. Three grown women who have already gotten drivers licences, have already drank their first sips of alcohol, attended college, and attempted to conquer their first realm.

It is becoming harder to remember that.

As the days march on, time carries the Trix not into the future but deeper into the past. With each fall and rise of the sun, they should be a day older so why does Icy feel like she is growing younger with the passing of each?

It is with deep dread that Icy realizes that the spell has changed them not just on a physical level but in mind as well. Darcy has probably realized it well before her—she works with the psyche and the mind after all.

But she hadn't mentioned it. Probably because she knows Icy well enough to know that she gets anxious sometimes. That, when she is in the wrong frame of mind, it only takes a simple nudge to start a spiral; a problematic little placebo effect that the three of them can’t afford.

If she knows that her mind is regressing she will only pay attention to it more and speed up the process.

But she does notice it eventually.

It starts with the stomping of a foot.

An impulse, really.

Stormy has been agitating her lately; badgering her with pointless questions mostly of the ‘why’ variety. “Why are we doing this?” “Why are you doing that?” “Why do I have to do this while you two get to do that?”

That is today’s question; “why do I have to read the ingredients while you two put them into the cauldron!? You didn’t even let me light the fire!”

“Because I’m the oldest and you’re the youngest.” Perhaps that was the true start of it. She has used variations of this phrase before they’d gotten dropped into the river of willow tears but never so bluntly. Never so on the nose.

“Yeah well I want to put something into the cauldron!” Stormy declares.

“That’s too bad, Stormy.” Darcy grumbles. “Now what’s the next ingredient?”

“A potion’s textbook!” Stormy shouts before chucking it straight into the cauldron. There is a span of time. A brief window of silence between her shout and the splash of the as it meets the brewing potion. A brief window where Icy’s heart skips and her breath catches. It had been a wasted second, a moment of hesitation that thwarted everything. Icy throws herself at the book, mid arch, and tries to slap a new trajectory upon it.

She forgets that she is smaller now.

A lot smaller.

Her fingers barely graze the book’s spine and it finishes its graceful sail into the cauldron.

Darcy swallows hard and watches the book sink into the bubbling mix. Icy doesn’t throw herself out of the way on time to avoid catching a few drops of boiling liquid spattering on her arm. She doesn’t notice the burning but she does scream. Not for pain but for loss.

That potion was their best shot and their closest attempt to returning to their lives and they had been so close to finishing it.

They had put a few weeks into gathering all of the ingredients. And now they don’t even have a list of them to start anew. She could scream for hours! She could cry. She could tear her own hair out. Instead she stops her foot.

“Look what you’ve done!” She screeches at Stormy. Instead of her own hair, Icy grabs a fistful of Stormy’s. “You’ve ruined everything!”

And she hates her for it.

She hates her so much.

And her own incompetence or lack of skill had sealed the deal.

For a moment she hates herself too.

And she relishes in that; it might be the last adult thought that she has.

She is at her wits end. She doesn’t know what else to do, doesn’t know where else to put her anger so she throws herself on top of Stormy and lands a good punch on the side of her head. And then a second one.

“Icy! Stop!” Darcy cries out.

Stormy presses her fingers into the burns on Icy’s bicep. Icy grits her teeth to keep herself from crying out.

“Stormy!” Darcy yells.

Icy rams her knee into Stormy’s stomach and Stormy bites Icy’s forearm. Darcy hooks her arms under Icy’s shoulders and yanks her back. Stormy gets to her feet and charges. Icy trips her before she can get too close. “We were so close and you ruined the potion.” She screeches again. She swears that Darcy has aged a few years.

It won’t last.

Darcy takes turns shoving her and Stormy until Stormy runs out of energy and kicks the cauldron over before throwing herself to the floor in a criss-crossed sitting position with her arms folded across her chest and a pout on her face. Until Icy stands there, seething, shoulders squared and fists balled. Darcy swipes her own balled fists across her eyes but Icy can still see the tears.

She had declared that she is the oldest.

She really ought to act like it…

But the impulses become harder to resist.

That fight was the first of several.

She was always a bit of a problem child—she remembers that much. She has always been quick to agitate, she had simply gotten better at keeping herself in check in spite of her irritation. That skill is eroding. It is disintegrating fast into a near total loss of her emotional regulation, not that she was the best at that to begin with. Not that Stormy wasn’t already even worse. It is when Darcy starts whining and throwing temper tantrums that she knows without a doubt that the three of them are in trouble.

It is becoming harder to form plans.

Harder to execute those plans when they do manage to make them.

“Maybe we should as the Winx girls?” Darcy asks one morning. She follows the suggestion with a biting of her lower lip.

“Why would they help us!?” Stormy throws her hands up. “They’re buttholes anyways. The hairy kind too!”

Stormy is regressing the fastest. Her speech, her mannerisms, her attitude. These days she has moments of adult thinking rather than occasional childish outbursts.

It makes Icy shudder. “That would be completely degrading.” But would it be more degrading than fully regressing? She thinks that she doesn't have much longer than Stormy; sh feels herself losing bits of knowledge; lessons that she learned in Cloud Tower, basic spells, chunks of her vocabulary…

“Icy…?” Darcy asks one night.

“Yeah?” She fixes her gaze on the cave’s ceiling.

“Do you remember our first day at Cloud Tower as students?”

She is not in the mood for reminiscing. She lays in silence for a few moments before the gravity of what Darcy is asking settles upon her. Rather what the implications of her having asked it at all are. “Of course I do…” she replies. “We…It was…” She massages her temples. “The day started with us…” That’s right, they had walked to the headmistress’ office from their dorm room—what was the room number? She used to know. They’ve had the same dorm room since Griffin had found them at the edge of the Dark Forest.

That’s right, their first day at Cloud Tower was when they were actually children.

Three memories.

Icy has three memories that she knows every detail of.

Even if she’d like to forget.

Suddenly she doesn’t want to.

While she can’t recall how they had gotten there, Icy remembers the Dark Forest.

It was October. Because of course it was; that’s when the veil is thinnest. That is when their parents, grand parents, or ancestresses—whoever had put them there—would see fit to make their mischief. She remembers the hooting of an owl and the flapping of bat wings as they brazenly whizzed past her ear. She remembers feeling a bat wing brush the side of her face. She didn’t mind, she is fond of bats and crows. Rats are alright too but she hadn’t seen one of those yet. Darcy had clung closely to her with Stormy to their right, looking in every which direction. She recalls the creaks and the groans of the branches and the scampering and scuttling of the critters that dwelled within them. More often than not the only sounds came from the tinkling of Darcy’s charm bracelet, the one with the moon and broom charms, and the diamond around Icy’s neck sliding around on its silver chain. They had walked for days, now and then, coming upon a set of tracks. The kind of tracks that dragged and meandered. The kind that belonged to something large. And she remembers the night that they had come across one such creature. By then Darcy had a hole in her pocket and Icy’s right sock had snagged on a branch, tearring a chunk out of it. With a screech that sounded like a cross between a screaming fox and a gurgling owl hoot, it had plucked Stormy off of the path. One of her shoes had fallen off and hit Icy squarely on the forehead.

She still has the scars from fighting the creature to get Stormy back.

She would still have them, anyways, had she not been thrust back in time.

She suppose that, that is one thing that she won’t miss; claw marks on her back.

She remembers what it felt like to learn that they had been accepted not just as orphans but as pupils. They had started that morning as they usually do; Icy brushed her teeth while she waited for her turn to shower. Stormy always showered first, she would let the water run cold and then Icy would use it so that it is hot again for Darcy who liked to start her mornings with stretches and light exercise. After they were all cleaned, dressed, made up, and well groomed they would venture to the cafeteria where Icy always picked a cold glass of milk to go with a waffle topped with vanilla ice cream and exactly five strawberries on top. Darcy liked to scold her for eating dessert for breakfast every other morning. Darcy, of course, like a cup of black tea in the morning—plain—spices and extra herbs are for lunch and dinner only. She always ordered omelets with extra pepper and no onions. Stormy only ever ate cereal. The kind with marshmallows that she could flick at classmates-to-be sitting below them. Normally they would return to their dorm—what dorm number was it?—and stay there for a while, planning what they would do with the rest of their day. That day, they had walked down to the headmistress’ office. That day they were handed their acceptance letters and their class schedules. “I see a lot of wickedness in the three of you.” The woman mentioned as she passed the letters over to them. Icy’s heart had swollen with pride. It had prickled in her chest and put a strain in her throat. To become the most powerful witch in the realms, to become someone with notoriety, to be on par with her ancestresses—that day would be the start of her achieving all of these goals. And she was as anxious as she was thrilled. Not that she had ever doubted her own ability. “You are going to commit dark deeds. Don’t disappoint me.”

They had gone on to commit dark deeds alright.

But they still disappointed her.

She remembers how it felt to steal the dragon fire. To reach the highest high of her life. There was the thrill of small fight, a taste of a larger battle to come. There is always a high when it comes to the use of magic, an irresistible pull. And that night the power intoxication had been particularly euphoric.She remembers the time on that hideous cuckoo clock affixed to the wall; 9:37 PM. At 9:37 she had declared, “if I could feel sorry for her, I would. A whole magic-less lifetime awaits her, a whole powerless existence.” She loves to taunt and mock. “Ladies we're finally fulfilling the dreams of generations of witches. Just think about it, think about all they went through to get the flame and now we'll be the ones to control the ultimate power.” And there was just something about speaking her ambitions out loud that made them more satisfying. More real. Her Whisperian crystal had never seemed to glow as brightly as it had that night and it has never glowed again since. “Crystals of Whisperia, dark magic from our kin, reach inside this girl, and steal her powers from within!” Each word was a shot of adrenaline, a pump of awesome power and the crystals hadn’t even captured Bloom’s energy yet. She recalls how the fairy’s head had slumped, that satisfying mumble of defeat. At 9:40 she had watched the spark of Blooms magic spiral towards the Whisperian Triangle. And she remembers the blaze of magic coursing through her veins. A rush so mighty that she feared, for just a moment, it might combust her before her own magic flooded in to meld with it. And she had been colder than she ever was and ever would be.

At 9:41 she had become winter.

But she can’t, for the life of her, recall what dorm number they slept in.

#winx #winx club #winx icy #winx darcy #winx stormy #winx trix #the trix #fanfiction

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hsangel64 · 1 year ago

Text

bandmates pt. 6

pairings: bassist!ellie williams x lead singer!reader

summary: it’s been two weeks since you and ellie have talked you’ve been staying with your friend abby in her dorm

warnings: angst if you squint, cussing, fluffy!!!

a/n: i think i have two more chapters of this and it’ll be over ! don’t worry i have more things coming !

it’s been two weeks…two fucking weeks since you’ve spoken to ellie. part of you felt like it was wrong almost, like you shouldn’t have been so dramatic. i mean you guys aren’t dating why we’re you so hurt over the fact she kissed her ex? the other part is telling you that she was shitty for what she said and she deserves to be ignored. you needed your space to think about what even happened, you felt like you had blacked out during the whole argument. you’ve been going to all your classes and even managed to sit away from ellie every class you two had together.

it’s not like ellie even tried to talk to you either so you didn’t bother. this was difficult, you two have never gone this long without talking to each other. you definitely weren’t doing well, so you decided to stay with a friend you met your freshman year. her name was abby and she was so sweet you guys just instantly clicked and made friends with each other.

…

it was freshman year orientation and you, ellie, dina and jesse were sitting on the bleachers of the gym they had on campus.

“this shit is so stupid.” dina groaned and fell into jesse.

“i don’t understand the point of orientation it seems pointless when they already send every piece of info you need to know before even coming.” you all agreed and whipped your heads to the middle to see what you assumed to be a senior starting to talk. you pretty much just tuned it out until you all had to get up. you all got sent to different groups so you were alone and a little nervous knowing you didn’t know anyone.

they said this was one of those stupid ‘say your name and one fact about you’ to get you guys to make more friends. you hated doing this shit it was pointless because you always end up not even talking to these people ever again. you pretty much just twiddled your fingers and waited for your turn.

“hello my name is y/n , i’m 18 and a fun fact about me is that i’m in a band.”

“that’s hot.” someone guy responded and high fived his friend. you rolled your eyes and looked back down.

“you guys are fuckin idiots.” a blonde girl spoke up to the boys.

“shut up abby.”

“do you want me to beat your asses again?” they whimpered away and you giggled. everyone resumed back to saying their names. you all finished and you all stayed within your groups to walk around campus and get a small tour.

“hey so you’re in a band?” you turned your head around to abby.

“oh yeah with my best friends.” you send a quick smile to her.

“that’s really cool y/n. what’s your guys band name?”

“oh it’s coastals.”

“that’s really awesome.” there was a small silence between you and just the guide was speaking.

“i’m sorry about those guys by the way, they’re both fuckin idiots. don’t ever listen to anything jordan says he’s a dumbass.”

“noted.” you both laughed and smiled at each other. you both went on with the tour saying little silly things. you all came back to the gym and they all let you go you almost immediately went to go find your friends but abby stopped you.

“hey can we trade numbers? maybe you can meet some of the rest of my friends and my boyfriend. we can possibly get coffee?”

“oh! yeah of course!” you were not expecting her to say she had a boyfriend with the little flirty comments…but you didn’t pay any mind to it and gave her your number. as you guys were trading numbers ellie comes up behind you.

“hey dina and jesse wanted to go out to eat you wanna go?” you turned around and smiled at ellie.

“yeah yeah…oh! meet abby!”

“oh, hey.”

“yeah hi.” you looked between them and waved goodbye to abby as ellie pulled you away to your friends.

…

“hey so me and owen are going out if you need anything okay?” you groggily thanked abby and heard her walk away and the door closed. you groaned and sat up rubbing the sleep from your eyes. you looked around the room realizing how quiet it is. you groan again and throw yourself onto the pillow. having abby was great but you missed your dorm, your friends, ellie.

it’s not like ellie was doing good either. what you didn’t know was the fact that ellie barely slept, she barely ate, she was a mess. dina has been trying to get her to talk to you but she chickens out every time. she doesn’t want you to run away from her, she doesn’t want to lose you.

ellie found out after the first week that you were staying with abby. she was furious, her and abby weren’t the best of friends but they played nice when you were around. they just bump heads all the time and can never stop bickering at each other. ellie didn’t want to admit it but she was jealous that you went to abby and didn’t come back to her.

yeah she knows she fucked up but she wished you just came back to the dorm. the night it happened she didn’t sleep all night waiting in her bed for you to come through the bedroom door. she cried almost all night and even made a song. music was ellie’s outlet and she needed it the most during that night. after that night she started to make a plan to talk to you again and do something to majorly apologize for what she said. she was trying to think of a grand gesture.

ellie had been planning for days and scrapping ideas over and over again until she got the perfect thing to do. the exact moment she figured it out she had been watching some movies that had some grand gestures and one of them was ‘10 things i hate about you.’ she saw heath ledger sing on the steps of the stadium. she knew it would be perfect.

she was going to do it today it was perfect, you had to be out on the field setting up for an event so she was going to do it then.

…

you were walking around the field with your clipboard instructing people on how to decorate the field. this wasn’t your job but the head of the committee fell ill and of course she asked you to take her place.

“we need to put those posters up in the bleachers there.” you kept looking down at the checklist and sighed you really didn’t want to do this but you couldn’t say no. you walked to the middle of the field to take a look at the small drawing on the paper and at what you guys have done now. you nod and make some adjustments. you stop in your tracks when you hear the overhead speakers turn on and the mic feedback.

you looked around wondering what was going on and then heard soft singing….is that? you turn and see ellie coming down from the bleachers.

“you're just too good to be true

can't take my eyes off of you

you'd be like heaven to touch

i wanna hold you so much

at long last, love has arrived

and i thank god I'm alive

you're just too good to be true

can't take my eyes off of you”

you smiled softly, you giggled and rolled your eyes at ellie. she started making her way down the bleachers, there’s no way she’s actually doing this.

“pardon the way that I stare

there's nothin' else to compare

the sight of you leaves me weak

there are no words left to speak

but if you feel like I feel

please let me know that it's real

you're just too good to be true

can’t take my eyes off of you”

she stopped hallway down the bleachers while she sang the next part of the song. you crossed your arms and narrowed your eyes a little at her antics. as she sang the chorus she started dancing around the bleachers and stared at you the whole time.

“i love you, baby

and if it's quite alright

i need you, baby

to warm the lonely night

i love you, baby

trust in me when I say

oh, pretty baby

don't bring me down, I pray

oh, pretty baby

now that I've found you, stay

and let me love you, baby

let me love you”

she danced down the bleachers until she was 5 ft away from you. the music stopped and everyone started to clap and she made her way to you.

“hi bee.”

“hi els.” you smiled at her and she smiled back. you both stayed that way for a little, feeling the pressure of everyone on the field staring. you’d think in the movies this would be a lot less awkward.

“i know how silly this might be for you, but i wanted to apologize and make it worth your while. a grand gesture because i truly am sorry y/n. i really didn’t mean to make you feel the way i did that night and i’m sorry for kissing cat. i know there’s no excuse so i won’t say any. you don’t have to forgive me but can we please go back to at least being best friends again? i’ll do anything to make it up to you till the end of time. i love you bee.” you stood there staring at her mannerisms for a moment. the seconds felt like minutes and the minutes felt like hours.

you felt so conflicted and confused, but at the end of the day you will always forgive her. besides being madly in love with her she’s your best friend and will always be your person. you didn’t say anything and stepped a little closer to her so you both were now completely face to face. you both stared at each other for a second longer until you took her face in your hands and smashed your lips against hers.

ellie was caught off guard, she almost blacked out she didn’t know what was going on until her body came back to reality and returned the kiss. you both were in a sort of trance together, the world was spinning around you but you both could care less. you both drowned out the claps and whistles coming from around you. it was just you two and you couldn’t want anything more.

you were the first to pull away and you smiled up at ellie.

“so you aren’t with anderson right…” you looked at her confused.

“why would you think that?” you laughed at her assumption.

“because you guys…”

“ellie she has a boyfriend.” her eyes widened and she let out a small gasp.

“she does?!”

“i know it’s a shocker-“

“you’re tellin me.” she scratched the back of her head before speaking again. “i meant every word i said, especially the i love you.”

“i know els i promise.” you smiled up at her once again and leaned in once more for another kiss. you ended the kiss with your foreheads together.

“move back in please?”

“as long as you get me dinner.”

“anything for you.”

…

oh my god !!! i’m so sorry for delaying this for so long i had just came back from a vacation today and was dealing with song things but i’m back i promise!! i had a love hate relationship with writing this and with how it came out but i hope you enjoy !! there’s only two more chapters !!!!!

@gold-dustwomxn

#Spotify #ellie the last of us #ellie tlou #ellie williams #the last of us #ellie williams fic #ellie x reader #ellie x y/n #tlou fic #ellie williams x reader #ellie x you

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hetr0ph0bic · 2 years ago

Note

Okay so this is a half baked shuriri request but what about a multi part of them trying to woo a bossed up powerhouse y/n who’s supposed to be doing business with them (maybe PR for a new invention they’ve created)? Could be v spicy, esp if the y/n is bratty/dom herself

GIVE IT UP

tag: shuriri x blk fem reader

a/n: this is 3 parts yall! no smut in this one, but its sweet im super excited for this 😎😎😎. remember like in stuff if u enjoyed thank yall love yall!

your phone shakes with a green and red button on the screen

“hello” you answer in a drawn out voice.

“yes y/n i see you’re on madison ave, why?”

you roll your eyes at her energy filled tone, “well this is the way to the hotel is it not”

“y/n! i told you, you had to go network at the casino business party” she yells

“ im not fucking doing that” you say in a monotone voice.

“wait please” you can just imagine your assistant pleading eyes

“no, look ive been working since 6am… im going to the hotel”

“please just 15 minutes in and out! plus, it could open many doors” damn, she does have a point but, no.

“no im not even dressed for that” you look down at your ripped dirty blue jeans

“you’re going to be fine, im turning the car around”

“what-”

“it goes with your brand ‘young/ reckless/ genius’ plus the shirt and shoes you have on pulls it together, you're going to be fine!” hasani chirps through the phone

the car then comes to an abrupt stop. you look out the window, now seeing your front of some building. ‘casino parties llc’. stepping out of the black escalade and brown boy with a simple tux greets you with a smile.

“miss y/n of ‘real tech’! right this way”.

the boy ushers you through the casino. scattered loud conversations and music fill the spacious building. red and gold carpet flooring and walls all over, it seems like a business party. suits and dresses all over, old people talking about bullshit. with a sigh, you begin to join them, shuffling through bodies. time slowly passes as you network around the room. a fake smile plastered on your face, and light wine in your right hand. at last, all the pointless congratulations and empty promises stop. looking down at your phone, about ten minutes have passed, you turn to the backdoor about to leave. seeing something glisten in your peripheral view, you turn to the source.

hand in hand, there they are. looking down on the floor from the balcony.

the old friend. riri williams. the girl who helped push your creative mindset and motivation in college. on her arm is a known face, shuri udaku, black panther, and ruler of wakanda.

from above, shuri leans into riri’s side

“woah, that’s y/n from real tech” shuri smiles bright

“ yeah that’s y/n from my 12pm bioengineering class” riri kisses shuri’s cheek with a smile

“ huh… did she always look like that”

“ nah that’s something new to me. don’t get me wrong, she was always good looking but-”

“she’s grew into herself” shuri finishes the sentence

riri then leans over the railing, locking her eyes with yours. with her hand she waves lightly, grabbing shuri’s, they make their way down the stairs. the two sport similar blazer outfits. riri's has slacks and a vest, revealing more skin than the other. shuri has the same all-black outfit but with a heavy blazer coat. silver and gold jewelry paints their bodies, mixing beautifully. the couple complement each other so well, clothes and body's. as the two make their way towards you, bodies naturally part, making room for them. after a sometime, they reach you.

“hm funny seeing you here” riri crosses her arms in front of you.

“and why is what?”

“well it isn't mr. roger's stupid class now is it”

“haha thank GAWD it isnt, i hated him” you cover your mouth giggling from the joke

“whaaa i think he for real had it out for us, but it’s good to see you” you both reach out closing the space between the two of you. riri looks to her side looking at shuri

“this is my wife shur-”

“yes, yes ms.udaku, panther pleasure to meet you” you reach your hand out shaking hers

“yes same here, how’s the party treating you?” shuri asks with a smile

“honestly? okay i guess i was only sticking around for 15 minutes then leaving”

“what why” the couple's face full of confusion

“i’ve been up since 6am ri. and talking with old people who think you're disrespectful to their dumbass traditions isn’t really my fav pass time” you wave a waiter hand off your cup of wine to them.

“well, seems like we are not the only ones” shuri states looking down at riri.

“i had to drag her over here, literally” riri bumps her body against shuri. the other bashfully smiling.

“how about this we leave here and just get some food and drinks?” riri offers

“ yeah, but only if you are up for it” shuri gives a unsure look at you

“nah its okay i know a diner close by”

you find yourself in the front side of the royal's car, directing shuri where to go

“yeah turn here on 47th- yeah right here”

‘carve unique sandwiches’ the old sign reads

the three of you shuffle inside the small shop. yall take to order food, a big pizza being the main corse. after paying, the three of you find seats close to the cashier. riri passes out paper plates on the wooden table.

“so what happened, after school. in life and appearance wise” she ask while stuffing a pizza in her mouth

“ yeah? apparently you didn’t use to look like this?” shuri chimes in.

“yeah bruh i don’t even know man. now started working for real on my engineering projects after graduation. now i did stop letting people walk over me which was a process and hell on its own. as for my body…. im still eating the same doing the same stuff, so that's truly a mystery.” you grab the pizza and ranch drizzling it on top, and taking a big bite.

“you look good” shuri comments

the compliment take you by surprise, making to choke. clearing your throat, you try to find your balance again

“umm thanks thanks” you look down at the table, pizza, people walking outside. anywhere but them.

“yeah and we are in wakanda, but you’ve made a whole name for yourself with real tech”. riri says while sipping on a sprite.

“ speaking of that, would you like to work together on a project. i have a new idea for my soldiers and others”.

“what absolutely, how are we gonna make it work tho? when do yall head back to wakanda?”

“ well im free tomorrow i just gotta move stuff around, can we come to lab in the morning?”

“yeah i get up a 6am so be there by then” you pull out for phone putting in their numbers and calling your car. after a bit all the food is finished.

“so ill see yall in the morning?”

“ see you in the morning, y/n!”

you and the couple part, heading to their homes and beds. you quickly take a shower, anticipating the next morning. the couple does the same, the water turns on. steam filling up the walk in shower.

“ so you like her?” riri rubs the soapy rag against shuri’s back

“so do you” shuri shoots back defensively

“ yeah do, stop being so defensive” riri smack her back lightly

“anyone with eyes would want her” riri finishes the thought. shuri turns to face her again, looking into her eyes.

“ no matter what, shuri you have to keep your cool and take it slow”

“i know of course, but we are only here for two more days” shuri whines

the couple finishes up, bodies melting into the soft bed.

pt2

tags @karimwillia @shurismainbxtch @shuriszn @widowmakker @letitias-fav @rxcently @acommonwhor3 @garbagesleepschedule @nightlife-things @sweetalittleselfish-honey @louderfortheback @heartsforjojo

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ewanmitchellcrumbs · 6 months ago

Note

Ange as I await your post show thoughts 24 hours later, I kinda have to send mine in now (I can't help it...thoughts are swirling, though I will need to lie down)

Thank HBO for sparing us more Alicole fucking....the good thing about Cole being at war is that we don't have to see them fuck anymore thank GOD. This episode definitely felt more blacks-oriented, though the scenes we got of the Greens were still interesting, I think. Annoyingly, only two scenes with Aemond, one of which I definitely have thoughts on. The young Rhaenyra cameo...Matt Smith rlly told so much with his expressions, it was just, wow. Also Alys Rivers intro 👀

Helaena saying she forgave Alicent- my poor girl, she really deserves better than her hot mess ass family. The scene of Aemond caught by Aegon in the brothel....aside from getting so upset on his behalf, cause good grief, Aegon, even your friends know better than to laugh at Aemond, because he's AEMOND- it felt as though they're building up to Aemond being faced with a choice to betray Aegon and take the crown, most likely at Rook's Rest, when he's injured. I know he didn't snap back at Aegon because Aegon's king, and he can't hurt the King, but still. Of course, I have to mention.....FULL FRONTAL AEMOND. Yes, my heart did race fast as FUCK when that came on....I was NOT expecting it, and I am going to lie down now. The scene of Rhaenyra and Alicent meeting was definitely a choice...still not sure how I feel bout it yet to be honest. I liked the episode, despite my issues such as pacing and others, many of which I share with you. One of my biggest is just Aemond screen time, to be honest. He's yet to have. a proper scene with Alicent or Helaena, and idk....I suppose I just hoped for a little more green unity with him and Aegon, but I guess we'll have to see.

-🦋 anon

Hello! Once more using your ask to dump my episode thoughts.

I felt the absence of Otto this episode. I feel like Rhys’s performance has carried the last couple of episodes. It felt a little flat without him.

I know that they aren’t following the plot of the Dance as it happens in Fire and Blood but the show feels like sloppily written fan fiction at this point.

They couldn’t show us even a couple of minutes of the Bracken vs Blackwood battle?!

Very much enjoyed the introduction of Gwayne and Alys, their performances were minimal but incredibly impactful.

I don’t subscribe to Team politics, however, I do feel the writing favours Team Black, but to their detriment. Rhaenyra has been softened to the point she is unrecognisable. Her sneaking into King’s Landing dressed as a septa was utterly pointless, really silly and achieved absolutely nothing.

I’m also disappointed that Rhaena has been dismissed as a glorified babysitter.

And Helaena?! What the fuck?! She is devastated by the loss of Jaehaerys in the book - what the hell are they doing with her character?!

I did like Daemon’s “capture” of Harrenhal. Simon Strong is an absolute G, and Daemon’s horrified reaction to his hallucination of Rhaenyra was fantastically acted by Matt Smith.

I am so disappointed by the brothel scene - don’t get me wrong, Ewan’s acting was phenomenal, but it feels like such a flimsy premise to set the two brothers upon each other (I think we all know at this point that the writers are going to have Aemond betray Aegon) - this is such a ridiculous catalyst for it. I also fear they are going to further darken Aemond’s character by having him kill Sylvie.

I hate this fucking show so much, and yet I love it and its characters so much, so I will return week after week, despite the fact it continues to break my heart.

#asked and answered #🦋 anon #hotd spoilers

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ryelleart · 5 months ago

Note

Can we have more headcanons between both brothers usagi and yuichi?

And there interactions with leo along with the whple hamato clan🥰

Oh wow, thank you for asking! I haven’t had anyone really expressing interest in this little idea of mine like this; it makes me so happy 🥰

I’ve actually been thinking about the brothers a little more since I shared their designs, and here’s what else I came up with:

Usagi is autistic and Yuichi has ADHD bc I tend to project onto my characters

When they were kids, the brothers would do almost everything together despite their age gap

Usagi doesn’t have any allergies, while Yuichi has a laundry list of allergies (if you threw a dart at a list of every allergy, odds are he has whatever it landed on)

Usagi is a perfectionist with a fear of failure (is that redundant?)

Usagi is 4 years older than Yuichi, and he abuses his older brother privilege all the time (it used to be for silly, petty things like claiming first dibs for something or bossing his brother around, but now it’s more along the lines of “I’m responsible for you, so stop arguing with me and do what I say”)

Usagi became more serious and reserved than he used to be with his new role as his brother’s guardian, which affected his relationship with Yuichi

Yuichi hates when people lie to him (which includes keeping secrets)

Usagi is overprotective of his brother and will do absolutely anything to keep him safe

They don’t regularly hang out anymore, but Usagi still tries to do stuff with Yuichi from time to time

They customized their hoodies themselves (it was one of Usagi’s early attempts to bond with his brother after losing their parents)

One of Yuichi’s favorite hobbies is messing with his brother, from pranks to meaningless debates where he intentionally argues for an objectively wrong stance bc watching Usagi get heated over trying to convince Yuichi he’s wrong is funny

When he’s not busy working or taking care of his brother, Usagi likes to read about ancient history (he’s also into fan fiction and conspiracy theories, but he’ll never admit that out loud)

I won’t get too much into it here, but Usagi struggles to provide for Yuichi after losing a job, so he eventually becomes a bounty hunter with Gen as a last-ditch effort to make money

He doesn’t tell Yuichi about this

He does tell Leo, partly bc he trusts him to keep Yuichi from finding out, but mostly bc Leo was his first official bounty so keeping it a secret from him would be pointless

Speaking of Leo, he and Usagi don’t actually hang out after he convinces the bounty hunters not to take him in, yet they somehow keep running into each other in the Hidden City

Usagi initially finds Leo irritating, while Leo thinks Usagi is rude; they change their tune once they decide to hang out for real and get to know each other

They complement each other pretty well; Leo gets Usagi to open up and have fun, and Usagi acts as Leo’s confidante for things that he can’t really bring himself to share with his family

Although he acts more serious than Leo, Usagi’s not above being pulled into his shenanigans

Yuichi is pretty similar to Leo personality-wise, so ofc they get along great

They also get along with the rest of Leo’s family once they meet; Yuichi obviously favors Leo the most, but Mikey is a close second, and Usagi is closest to April (they can swap stories about all the jobs they’ve had!)

I’m torn about which direction to take Yuichi’s relationship with Donnie; I like the idea that they’re just so diametrically opposed and they get on each others nerves all the time, but I also like the idea of them actually being pretty close (mayhaps Donnie sees his beloved twin in this kid and develops a soft spot for him?)

I feel like Raph would absolutely adore the brothers once he gets to know them, though I feel like his relationship with Usagi would be a bit complicated; he’s initially a bit overprotective of Leo for reasons I won’t mention here, but he ends up really liking/relating to Usagi, so doesn’t stay that way for long… that is, until a certain point in Usagi’s relationship with Leo 👀

Usagi and Leo ofc catch feelings for each other over time, but Leo’s bad history with dating (again, I won’t get into it here) kinda keeps him from acting on anything

They do, however, tell each other how they feel anyway, so even though they’re not together yet, they know they’re into each other

Ok I’m gonna stop here bc I think I might’ve gonna a bit overboard lol. Besides, that’s all I can share without getting into angst territory 😉

As for stuff like comics, I genuinely have no idea how far I’m gonna take this; will I wanna turn this into an ongoing comic? Will I stick to making some sketches here and there? Idk! Ig we’ll see

#thanks for the ask!#I still have no idea what to call this au #maybe I’ll figure it out if I plan out this idea some more #headcanon #rottmnt usagi #rise usagi #miyamoto usagi #rise yuichi #rottmnt yuichi #rottmnt leo #rise leo #rottmnt #rise of the teenage mutant ninja turtles #rise of the tmnt #text post

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bullet-prooflove · 2 years ago

Text

Choices!Series Part 12: Home- Nestor Oceteva x Reader (Final Piece)

Tagging: @lyly00 @annetje @anime-weeb-4-life @danzer8705 @drabbles-mc @alwaysachorusgirl @witches-unruly-heart @mysoulisasunflower @im-just-a-mississippi-girl @the-wandering-lunatic @vannabanana1995 @camelia35 @multifandomloversworld @est1887 @lilvampirina @creativitybeware @genius2050 @gracerosaleigh @mortal--soul @buddinglinguist @spookyboogyuniverse @nessamc

Choices!Series:

Part One: First Date (NSFW) - Nester and you have an unusual first date.

Part Two: Familia - (Feat: Marcus Alvarez) - Marcus discovers your relationship.

Part Three: Fair Trade (Feat: Miguel Galindo) - Miguel puts you in a tough position.

Part Four: Slaughterhouse Rules - Miguel feeds you to the wolves.

Part Five: Stay With Me - Nestor deals with the aftermath.

Part 6: Run - Nestor can’t give you what you need.

Part Seven: Partners in Crime (Feat: Coco Cruz & Marcus Alvarez) - Marcus asks Coco to reach out.

Part Eight: What Happens In Reno - What you got up to in Reno.

Part Nine: Don’t Give Up - Nestor refuses to give up on you.

Part Ten: Bleeding Out - Coco finds you bleeding out.

Part Eleven: One Day At A Time - Nestor and you lay your cards out on the table.

You won’t work for Miguel after what happened with Christopher Howard, and it drives him fucking crazy. Both Marcus and Nestor get to hear about it on a regular basis. It’s been three months you returned and you’re still recovering from your trip to Reno.

“Why won’t she pick up the fucking phone?” He snarls at Marcus.

“You burned that bridge mijo.” Marcus sighs with his hands clasped in front of him.

You’ve never told Marcus what forced you into making the choice to become bait in the exchange, but he suspects. You are unrelenting when it comes to your decisions but there’s one thing that can cause you to bend and he hates that him and his family are it. He knows that Miguel used them as a tool to leverage you, that he probably threatened Izzy and Tessa, that you believed him enough to put yourself in a position that has irrevocably damaged you. Nestor’s told him as much.

They can both feel the wind shifting. Miguel has always been ruthless, but he’s always valued loyalty. He’d been unhinged when he’d killed Paco, and it only seems to be getting worse. Marcus thinks that Dita’s death is causing Miguel to spiral, that Potter’s involvement in the cartel is amplifying his paranoia. He’s glad you cut ties.

“There are others…” Marcus begins, although he knows its pointless. Miguel isn’t used to not getting what he wants, he doesn’t like other people playing with his things.

“Not with her skillset.” Miguel interrupts with the slash of his hand. “I need her to get out there and start doing the work she’s supposed to.”

What Miguel means is, he needs you to bolster his reputation. He needs you to get out there and desiccate his enemies, to show everyone that’s ever doubted him what it means to turns on the cartel. He needs you to put the fear of God in those people, to show them that he’s still as ferocious now as he has ever been. There’s a reputation that comes with having someone as brutal as El Cuchillo on his pay roll and without you he feels his grip starting to slip.

“I can’t help you.” Marcus tells him openly.

“Can’t or won’t?”

There’s a fire in those dark eyes of his, a rage that blazes. A muscle in his cheek twitches as he clenches his jaw and meets Marcus’s gaze. That question, it’s a loaded gun, a wrong answer leaves him dead in a ditch and if Miguel sniffs out a lie… The consequences don’t bear thinking about.

“Can’t.” Marcus informs him, straightening his spine and pulling himself up to his full height. “She’s not taking my calls either.”

It isn’t a lie because the truth is he doesn’t call you, he actually sees you. You and Nestor come over once a week for dinner, have been since the swelling died down on your face. Izzy likes to make sure you’re eating right, that you’re recovery is going as smoothly as possible, while Nestor plays Hungry Hippos and Pop Up Pirate on the floor with the kids.

“So you have no idea where she is, or what she’s doing?”

Marcus shakes his head. He doesn’t have a clue what you get up to in the time he doesn’t see you, Nestor would have more of an idea, but he knows the other man will never offer up that information.

“It looks like we’re both in the doghouse.” Miguel says, dropping down onto the couch and rubbing his hands together, his dark brows furrowed, and Marcus knows he is trying to contemplate his next steps.

Marcus says nothing, he doesn’t want Miguel to challenge that assumption, so he shrugs. Let him think whatever he wants, as long as you are safe and happy, Marcus doesn’t care. His eyes meet Nestor’s over Miguel’s head and he can tell that the other man is thinking the exact same thing. They need to keep Miguel Galindo as far away from you as humanly possible.

********************************

As long as Nestor had known you, you had always come with a go bag. He thought it was specifically for jobs, he hadn’t realised it was the only thing you had to your name.

Over the past three months while you’ve been living with him, it’s sat at the bottom of the closet, where every day you pull out the things you need before putting them back into it. He isn’t sure if you are actively ignoring the closet space he’s made for you, or the couple of drawers he’s emptied. There’s a lot going on in that head of yours and you don’t need the extra pressure, so he doesn’t mention it. He isn’t trying to domesticate you, he senses you need the time to adjust. You haven’t had a home of your own for a very long time and if this works for you then it works for him too.

The only evidence that he shares the space with another person is a second toothbrush in the cup in the bathroom and the black cotton panties that end up in the laundry. He sighs. It takes time he knows.

It’s been four months when he realises you’ve actually hung up some of your clothing. It’s unexpected, he doesn’t know what prompted the transition, but he likes the look of your clothes besides his, his fingertips trace over the fabric, and he smiles. Maybe you’re starting to think of this place as your home after all. The next day he realises you’ve filled the drawers with your underwear and some of his socks that you prefer to wear. He’s happy to give them up to you.

It’s a couple of weeks later things start appearing in the apartment. It’s little changes, a new mug, that’s white, sunshine yellow and vibrant orange. As long as he’s known you, you favour bright colours and blocky patterns. It sticks out like a sore thumb amongst his practical grey ones, but he doesn’t care. For Nestor it’s a sign, one that you’re here to stay.

When the dried wildflowers appear in a vase, he’s never owned on the coffee table, he compliments them. You’ve chosen autumn colours, with tiny sprigs of lavender threaded throughout. It gives the living room a soothing scent, makes the place seem warmer somehow. You seem anxious when he spots them, it’s the biggest change you’ve made so far. He runs his fingers over the delicate petals, the edges of his mouth tipping up into a smile.

“They’re pretty.” He tells you. “It makes this place feel more like a home.”

He feels like he’s said the right thing because your entire face lights up, it feels like he’s seeing the sun for the first time in eons. Nestor doesn’t think he could love you any more than in this moment.

It isn’t long after that he finds the go bag completely empty, folded up neatly in the top of the closet, ready for the next job.

Love Nestor? Get added to his tag list!

Like My Work? - Why Not Buy Me A Coffee

#nestor oceteva x you #nestor oceteva x reader #nestor mayans #nestor oceteva #nestor oceteva fanfic #nestor oceteva fanfiction #mayans fx #mayans mc #mayans

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deepspacedukat · 2 years ago

Text

Patience

Alright, here comes day two! Vreenak has entered the chat!

Day 2: Orgasm Denial

SOC prompt list here. SOC Masterlist here. Cross-posted to AO3 here.

~*~

Vreenak (ST:DS9) x Reader

[A/N: This is smut, so 18+ ONLY, MINORS DNI!!!]

Warnings: Interspecies sex, Romulan/Human sex, orgasm denial, dirty talk, fingering, necking, almost getting caught, power imbalance, power play, getting interrupted, enemies to lovers kind of.

~*~

“Do you do that for the sole purpose of annoying me?” Vreenak’s low, silken voice seemed almost too loud in the confined space of the motionless turbolift. At least ten minutes had passed since either of us had spoken, and we’d been stuck between levels for nearly half an hour. We’d received one communication from Ops saying that we’d be out soon, then we were left on our own.

“What?” I asked meeting his icy, irate gaze with confusion.

“You’re tapping your foot,” he said gesturing to the offending appendage.

“So?” I didn’t dare admit that I was just getting rid of some nervous energy. That would open a whole other can of worms that I didn’t want to have to deal with while I was stuck here with Vreenak.

“So it’s irritating,” he snapped with a pointed glare. “I’ve half a mind to cut it off at the joint if you don’t stop.”

“With what? Your shit attitude? Besides, it’s no worse than your pacing a while back,” I muttered under my breath as I leaned against the back wall of the turbolift and crossed one ankle over the other. Folding my arms across my chest, I acknowledged that it was bad enough that he hated me and everything that I did. He didn’t need to know that I was attracted to him, bad attitude and all.

Fine. If he wanted to be an ass on what was already the worst day I’d had aboard this damn station, who was I to stop him? It wasn’t like I hadn’t tried in the past. Apparently, everything I did, including the way I dressed, annoyed the Senator. For a man his age, he really should have better manners.

“You’re lucky we’re not on Romulus. Speaking that way to a man in my position would undoubtedly garner more serious consequences than you could anticipate.” Was I crazy or was there a hint of amusement in his voice? I didn’t bother to look up. I just took a deep, slow breath, and tried to concentrate on anything but the fact that I was stuck in such a confined space with a man who clearly despised me. “Oh, don’t go quiet on me now. I thought even the weakest Humans had more fight in them than that.”

Stubbornly staring ahead at the dark, non-functioning panel on the opposite wall of the turbolift, I listened to both our breaths.

“I suppose I was wrong. How disappointing. What meetings will I miss if we’re stuck here for the next few hours? Or didn’t you have time to memorize my schedule this morning?” Despite his snide comment, I was glad he changed the subject. A little of my tension melted away. I could handle business talk.

“Don’t be absurd. I’ve worked for you for how long now? You’ll only miss one. A Bajoran Minister and Admiral Ross were scheduled for three hours of your time, beginning roughly an hour from now,” I answered without missing a beat. “I believe they wanted to discuss some prior incident that occurred a few years ago at a place called Derna.”

“Oh, wonderful,” he groused, and I glanced up just in time to see him pinching the bridge of his nose with those long, agile, stupidly gorgeous fingers of his. A professional sculptor couldn’t have done a better job– Stop it, stop it! Get your mind out of the gutter! “That’ll be three hours of posturing wrapped up in pointless, transparent appeasement and assurances. Utterly tedious.”

“You could always cancel or reschedule,” I suggested as he leaned against the lift wall beside me with a sigh. “I could tell them that I’d accidentally double-booked your appointments, or something so you wouldn’t be blamed.”

My mind screamed that after how he nitpicked everything I did, he deserved to suffer through a rough meeting. Just a little bit. Why was I offering him an alternative?

Those sharp, blue eyes that I both hated and adored in turns scanned my face - presumably to determine whether I was serious. After the absurdity of the day, I supposed that was only fair. Beginning the day with a drunk Klingon tearing up his office, an Andorian challenging me to a fight in said destroyed office because the Senator was busy, and the replicator nearly exploding in both our faces when we tried unsuccessfully to order lunch...that wasn’t exactly a normal day.

This turbolift incident, as inconvenient as it was, at least afforded us a moment to breathe. Sure, we’d still have to clean up his office, give statements to security about the Klingon and the Andorian, and put in a repair call for the replicator, but, for now, all we had to do - all we could do - was stay put and wait.

Well, that and try not to kill each other before the station’s engineering team could get us out. That was much easier said than done, especially on Vreenak’s part. The Senator certainly had a temper, but I’d only seen him really lose it once. He’d needed a new desk, and the person he’d thrown through it needed major surgery. His anger with me never seemed quite that intense, though.

“Who are you to assume the relative importance of my appointments?” Vreenak’s voice dropped to that low, raspy register with which I’d become so familiar and agitated over the last few months. That tone always made me question whether he was serious or teasing, so I usually didn’t push my luck.

Today, however, I was feeling foolishly bold. After all the chaos of the morning culminated in this damn turbolift trapping us, I’d had enough. My patience had run out, and Vreenak’s snide little comment was the straw that broke the camel’s back.

“I think I’m the one who sets up your schedule and keeps angry Admirals from bursting into your office. I was trying to do something nice for you, not that you could tell. You wouldn’t know kindness if it bit those pretty, pointed ears of yours,” I retorted before I could think better of it. His eyes widened in surprise, but I wasn’t done yet. I’d been kind, I’d been accommodating, but that didn’t mean I was going to allow him to walk all over me just because I was nothing more than a glorified secretary to the man. Like a tidal wave, all my built-up frustration with the man came spilling out of me before I could stop it. “If you really want to deal with Starfleet and the Bajorans after a day like today, by all means, go right ahead! Don’t listen to your secretary’s advice. See how well that goes. After all, what the hell do I know? I’m just a Human. I’ve only covered for you about a dozen times! Heaven forbid I try to make things easier for you, you arrogant, ungrateful bastar–”

“Shut up,” he growled pinning me against the wall with one arm and grabbing my jaw with the other. The thought flickered across my mind that he might snap my neck. Instead, he crushed his mouth against mine in a hard kiss. After a beat of frozen surprise, I kissed him back with the same level of intensity. For several long moments, we lost ourselves in a dance of teeth and tongues.

He was essentially my boss. This should feel wrong, but every movement he made felt so perfect. His hands slid down my body with something like hasty reverence.

“Fuck you.” The words spilled involuntarily from my lips as he ground the heel of his palm between my thighs over my uniform.

“You seem quite eager to try,” Vreenak pointed out as I spread my legs for him. Practically clawing at the closure to my pants, he swore quietly when he dipped those long, devious fingers of his beneath my clothes and found me dripping.

He asked me something, but I could do no more than let out a desperate whine as he shoved two long digits into me. Grabbing his shoulders to steady myself, I tugged him closer.

“You’re infuriating,” he hissed as I bit the corner of his jaw. In retaliation, his fingers curled mercilessly, striking that place inside me over and over with unrelenting precision.

“Says the most irritating man in existence,” I gasped, rolling my hips to try and get more friction. Burying his head in the crook of my neck, Vreenak moaned as I palmed the bulge that had been pressing against me so insistently. Intense satisfaction poured through me when he began rutting slowly into my touch.

“Yes, but you want me, nonetheless. Don’t deny it. I’ve seen the way you look at me,” the Senator lorded that observation proudly over me even as he dragged me closer and closer to an orgasm. “Beautiful, pliant, little thing...”

“I fucking hate you,” I breathed, but my protest was so feeble and obviously false that neither of us could stifle our half-choked laughter.

“You’ve always been such an awful liar,” Vreenak murmured slanting his mouth over mine with an affection that I hadn’t anticipated. His hand sped up, intent on drawing screams from me. I was so close I could taste it. The lift jolted, but neither of us paid any attention. My breathing was no more than a stream of whimpered pleas as I began to tip over the edge–

“Ops to Turbolift Four, please respond,” a voice crackled over the comm, and we froze. Our labored breathing seemed almost too loud, now. With both our orgasms stolen away by reality’s return, Vreenak helped steady me on my feet before going to the comm panel. “Our controls show that you should be moving now. Can you confirm?”

“Yes, Ops. We’re moving,” the Senator said as he readjusted himself in his pants and took slow, deliberate breaths. I couldn’t help but smirk at the knowledge that he’d been as close as I’d been. Tuning out the conversation, I righted my clothing and tried to make myself look as if I hadn’t just been fingered within an inch of my sanity by my boss.

Mere seconds later when the turbolift opened on the level where the Senator’s office was, we both looked relatively put together for people who’d just been wrapped around each other. Navigating through the small group of people who were gathered at the lift entrance, I was suddenly grateful for the officer who’d interrupted us. If they hadn’t, we would’ve had quite the captive audience when the door had opened. We were almost to his door when one of Vreenak’s hands took up residence on my lower back.

“Cancel that appointment, but don’t pretend you double booked. Tell them the truth. Tell them...that an urgent personal matter has arisen that requires my immediate attention,” he murmured as we paused in the empty hallway. He tilted my chin up and gave me a mischievous smirk. “Once you’ve done that, I’d like you to come to my quarters. I believe you owe me a few screams for talking back to me, my dear.”

“Oh my, Senator, whatever will people say?” I teased winking up at him.

“If they’re wise, they won’t say a word. The ones who do, well...let’s not forget that I’m the Vice Chairman of the Tal.” His playful threat drew a laugh from me.

“You’d make someone disappear for gossiping about us?”

“For you, I’d make whole worlds disappear.” Having stunned me into silence, Vreenak placed a soft kiss on my forehead and started to walk away. One final teasing comment floated over to me as I moved to enter his office. “Don’t take too long, or I may have to begin without you.”

~*~*~

Taglist:

@bigblissandlove1 @darkmattervibes @emilie786 @horta-in-charge @toebeans-mcgee @android-boyfriends @wafflingchemist @starrynightgardens @slutty-slutty-vulcans

#deepspacedukat fic #soc 2023 #soc day 2 #Senator Vreenak x Reader #Vreenak x Reader #Senator Vreenak #summerofcum2023

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solxrsys · 1 year ago

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what syscourse actually is (painfully accurate and long)

syscourse is pointless. it’s a stupid debate. people say the same shit over and over again. it’s been fucking years of this.

“hey [misinformation]!”

“actually, it’s [information]!”

and then it repeats. same fucking debates all the time.

most people in syscourse are here just because they don’t want to be the ones to lose. people are here to argue, not to listen. no matter how many times you say your opinion, they don’t respond and then say the same shit a different day.

one must wish syscourse to end.

it’s the same people with their same opinions (that they repeat, over and over again despite being proven wrong.) they won’t respond to debates that actually prove them wrong (because it’s a bad look on them.)

all it is, is just people wanting to be popular on tumblr for being a debater. and they want to be liked, so, so bad, that they make a fake persona of opinions.

most syscoursers don’t think the way that they post. most of it is bait.

most of syscourse now is just attention seeking. posting personal drama in syscourse tags (not all of it), making a pro endo account as an anti endo or vise versa to make them look bad, doubling down on statements because you don’t want to be wrong, etc

but now syscourse is an actual issue. when comparing debate opinions to fucking fascists and hate groups? that’s a fucking problem. wishing death and torture of people who disagree with you? that’s a fucking problem. racism and ableism? that’s a fucking problem.

and where it’s coming from? full grown ass adults. how can syscourse turn into this because of adults?

either people are lying about their age (which some might are), or they just never grew up. it’s so fucking sad to see grown ass people acting this way and see nothing wrong with it (even after being told so).

i was a shitty person, but i changed. i learned and grew up, like an adult. and to see people older than me not doing the same? holy shit

yknow, it helps being off of tumblr. like a lot. go out, get a job, go to the bar, meet new people, it really fucking helps.

syscourse is just a reason to argue with people

#syscourse #high posting

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jewelzcullen · 1 month ago

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My Review of Joker 2

*aka venting my negative feelings about it*

I was skeptical of this film since it was announced and had a very, very bad feeling about it from the beginning. But when I saw the first trailer, I started to have hope that it might not be as bad as I thought and that maybe the creative team knew what they were doing. So, I went into the theater with an open-mind and reserved judgment until I saw the entire film.

Later that night, once the movie had fully settled in my mind, I realized I didn’t like it and hated the way it made me feel afterwards. I was disheartened, depressed, and constantly felt like crying (and did cry a lot). I could never watch Arthur suffer that pain and death ever again. If you liked it, good for you, I’m glad you enjoyed it. But for me personally, I can’t watch Arthur be manipulated and tortured for 2 hours.

To me, this movie is pointless, unnecessary, confusing, repetitive, boring, sickening, depressing, hopeless…

The story (or lack thereof) is terrible and unsatisfying in every way. Arthur is locked up in Arkham, miserable and being constantly abused by guards. Meets Lee, who we find out doesn’t love or care about him underneath his persona. Goes to court to be humiliated and belittled while old characters come back to reiterate the plot of the first movie, point out his flaws and yell at him about how terrible he is. Then, gets beaten and violated by guards. Comes back to court to admit that he’s an unimportant nobody and he hates his life. He’s then found guilty, escapes for 15 minutes and is rejected by his love interest. Goes back to Arkham where he is then stabbed to death and dies all alone in a hallway and no one gives a shit about him. The End.

Oh, and there’s random singing and dancing in between.

Um… WTF???

And I know some people will say, you just don’t understand the deeper meaning. I understand the meta stuff, I get it, nobody cares about Arthur, only Joker and he decided to be himself in the end. That’s fine, but it doesn’t make it a good movie to me. And apparently not to the majority of the general audience who gave it the lowest scores and walked the fuck out.

Side note, I think it’s fair for people to be upset when a movie called “Joker” contains nothing relating to traits of the Joker character- that’s just false advertising and improper use of that title. The first movie contained traits of the typical Joker that I saw in Arthur, so to me it wasn’t being disrespectful to the DC property. The sequel, however, was completely disrespectful.

Also, the argument that nobody cares about seeing Arthur is invalid to me. The first movie was 70% Arthur and Joker only appeared in the last 30 minutes, and most everyone loved that movie. Because it was a great, complex, character study story that mixed both comics material and original elements perfectly.

The main problem for me is that, in my opinion, it contradicts so much of the events in the first movie. Arthur transformed into Joker by the end, fully embracing his dark side. He snapped, he broke, he couldn’t take it anymore. He was done with being stepped on, abused by society and the system. So he stopped trying to fit in and fully embraced this other side of himself, which we saw slowly emerge throughout the film. He evolved into Joker, that’s what I saw, unless I’m interpreting it wrong.

It wasn’t what Arthur truly wanted, not at all. I loved Arthur, I wanted him to have a good, happy life. But that isn’t what happened at the end of the first movie, that’s the tragedy of it. He became Joker and embraced his inner madness and now saw his life as a comedy... so why does the sequel act like that didn’t happen or held no significance moving forward?

Also, I believe he was somebody else in the last scene of the first movie- either someone else entirely or Arthur had fully evolved into Joker. His disposition, his attitude, the sinister vibe, the dark look in his eyes... completely different from the Arthur we saw at the beginning. And even if he didn’t kill that psychiatrist, the metaphor with the blood on his shoes seems like it represents how he finds murder and mayhem funny now, as he dances away leaving a trail of blood behind him. He seems like he doesn’t have a care in the world, he’s as light as a feather - he’s happy. Maybe not truly happy, but feels some kind of twisted merriment nonetheless.

So then... the sequel starts with Arthur back to square one. We’ve gone back to the beginning of the first movie... why? Why??? Makes no sense to me. I know he would be more subdued due to being locked up in that hellhole for so long, but you’d think eventually something would make him snap and become Joker again.

Why would he lie down and take the abuse when in the previous movie he said he wasn’t going to anymore, so he would never be hurt anymore? Everything just feels so contradictory.

Why would you go the route of character regression and ultimately assassination instead of progressing the character forward, like sequels are supposed to do?

Don’t even get me started on all the unnecessary, excessive abuse he suffers throughout with no revenge or karma or payback. They didn’t need to include all of that, I didn’t need to see him suffer ten times more in this movie.

I also don’t know why Arthur is acting like he doesn’t know who Joker is. Joker is just his confident, unfiltered self- he became Joker before anyone knew who he was, before he was an infamous person. Yes, of course he didn’t purposefully start the movement, that was propelled by the media and the rioters, but he did purposefully become Joker, who was always there inside of him.

Bottom line is, the way Arthur acts in the sequel does not reflect where we left off with him in the previous movie. IMO, I disagree with their choices and don’t believe he would be acting like that after all he’d been through, all he’d done and after everything he’d said in the last act of the first movie.

I was so disappointed that I didn’t get to see more of his Joker side. I didn’t want him to become a heartless, cold-blooded killer (and I’m glad that didn’t happen), but I wanted to see his confidence and theatricality shine through more in his actions and demeanor (not just in his daydreams and delusions).

And then by the end, if they still wanted to go that route, he could’ve decided to go back to being Arthur and passes Joker onto someone else, WITHOUT getting violently and horrifically stabbed. And even if he didn’t really die, as some people speculate, it was still horrific and traumatizing to see him slowly die like that. And to dig the knife further into my heart, I have to listen to Arthur singing “true love will find you in the end” as I just watched the light leave his eyes moments ago 😭💔 Again, devastating and heartbreaking and hopeless... Why the fuck would they do this??

I loved both Arthur and Joker- because they are both him.

Lee was a terrible, underdeveloped character and their relationship was awkward, manipulative, felt so wrong because it was obviously a fallacy from the start, and only made things worse for Arthur in the end. I wouldn’t want to go back and rewatch a relationship that was never real and never meant a damn thing.

Also, the film basically only has two locations: Arkham and the courthouse. Back and forth, back and forth. So lazy and boring, nothing substantial is ever happening 😒

The musical parts didn’t bother me, but they still felt unnecessary, too long and drawn out at times, which made the pace slow even more. I know Arthur has music in him and that’s one of the things I love about him, but I think it was exaggerated too much in this movie. He can use his words just fine, he did it more and more as he became Joker in the first movie. He literally expresses and articulates all of his feelings and frustrations on the Murray show!

And what’s the overall message? Everything is too corrupt and can’t be fixed, nobody cares about Arthur and if you try to fight back against the system, you’ll be punished harsher and beaten into submission. Wow, that’s great. Don’t stand up for yourself and fight back ever again, got it. You won’t receive any good karma for doing it, even better ☹️

The only positives for me were the great acting and beautiful cinematography. Other than that... I feel nothing but contempt for it. I think it’s a $200 million mistake that should never have been made and should never have existed. And in my mind, it doesn’t exist.

This sequel doesn’t feel like a sequel at all to me. It feels like a cruel joke, a prank, a parody. And that’s what I’m gonna view it as if I ever come across it because I can’t see it any other way.

And again, if you’re one of the few that liked it, that’s great, I’m glad you found enjoyment in it. I wish that I could have, too. Instead, I’m just gonna continue to rewatch the first one and believe that Arthur’s story ends right there as “That’s Life” plays and it says “The End.”

#joker #joker review #joker movie #arthur fleck #joker film #sorry but I hate this shit #joker 2 #joker 2 review

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