#enjoy another brainchild of mine

[zeebee-jeebies]

the asian persuasion that ran a whole generation

[nyarlathotep-thecrawlingchaos]

BIG OL HECKIN EDIT:

I am a dum dum who forgot how to spell @sassenach-on-the-rocks amid my existential terror and dread of the deleted-draft incident mentioned below, and then did a Dum Dum no Double-Down by forgetting to update until now. This headcanon is their brainchild and they deserve all the credit for it.

You may now continue with your previously intended brainrot viewing.

I'm VERY INCREDIBLY MIFFED, MY GUYS.

I had this entire post finished and almost completely formatted and saved it as a draft to finish formatting it on my computer

And it DIDN'T SAVE. And I nearly SCREEEEEMED.

It was for an ask request and I also can't seem to tag the person that sent the ask.

I am A N G E R Y

But after several deep breaths and reminding myself that violence is not the answer, here we are.

At any rate. The ask request was for headcanons involving One Piece boyos taking reader to a Masquerade ball.

To the asker, should you still be around to see it, I really really loved this and thank you so, so much for it ❤️❤️ I really enjoyed finding masks to match their aesthetics.

Only deviation I made was Zoro; you meet him there rather than going with him. It just felt right that way for some reason.

And awaaaaaaaay we go~

The Masquerade

Sanji, Zoro, Shanks, Mihawk, Buggy x Reader

SFW Headcanons

This was really so fun and cute and I thank Asker so so much for this.

♫♬Little By Little — The Fratellis♬♫

You wear your mask, I'll wear mine, they don't come cheap but they fit just fine

You can be her and I can be him, and we can both sink while the rest all swim

Sanji

He heard about it when you made port, and there's no way he's not taking you.

He's been looking for an opportunity to take you on the perfect first date, and this is it.

Perfect opportunity for the two of you to get away from the crew for and have a little alone time.

A little dancing, a little wine, a little champagne—it's perfect.

Makes sure not to tell anyone else, if Luffy hears there's free food he'll insist on going and the whole thing will no doubt end in chaos.

He doesn't even tell you—all he tells you, after presenting you with a brand new dress and jewelry (which most likely cost him every last berry in his wallet), is that he would like to take you out for the evening.

And how could you turn him down?

"Come on, love. I promise it will be the best evening you've ever had."

The effort he's already put in, those puppy-dog eyes....

You spend the evening dancing, talking, enjoying the free food, every ounce of his attention on you the entire time as he ensures that you feel like a princess.

Making sure that everyone has their eyes on the pair of you on the dance floor, that they know you're there with him.

Somehow ending up chit-chatting with the catering staff toward the end of the night and being invited to their far less formal after-party.

Stumbling back to the Merry hours later together, half-drunk and giggling and positive that it's the best night you've ever had.

Zoro

"What the hell...?"

He got lost and wandered in.

No idea what's going on, why are all these people wearing masks and dancing?? What exactly is going on this is weird as—

Oh hey there's an open bar, cool.

You recognize him from his bounty poster fairly quickly. There are a lot of marines here, and he really isn’t causing any problems, but he's getting a lot of strange looks...so you decide to do the guy a favor and shove a mask in his hands.

He looks at you like you're speaking another language as you explain where he is and convince him to just put on the damned mask already.

"A ball? I thought this was some kind of weird cult or something."

You just stare at him in disbelief—he thought it was a cult and he's just standing around enjoying the free drinks. 

What.

You brush it off and tell him if he wants to fit in, then dancing is probably a good idea.

He's frowning at you again.

"Yeah, I don't really...do that."

You roll your eyes—there are still people eyeing him suspiciously, you have to do something, so when he finishes his next drink you just grab him by the wrist and drag him out to the dance floor.

Cue impromptu ballroom dancing lessons. He keeps stepping on your feet and mumbling apologies, but it's kind of cute how hard he's trying.

You really can't help but giggle at his explanation that he just got lost and wandered in here.

But you're glad he did—you doubt you would have had nearly as much fun otherwise.

Shanks

Heard about the whole shin-dig while in port.

"Hey that sounds like fun, we should crash it."

You try to be stern, but he pulls out the puppy dog eyes.

"Oh come on please?"

God dammit....

And maybe an hour later you're both making masks.

There's glitter and glue and feathers all over the captain's cabin and you're already dreading cleaning it up.

His has a giant gaudy pirate hat. Because of course it has a giant gaudy pirate hat. He's so proud of it, grinning like a little kid in an arts and crafts class when he holds it up to show you, that you can't even bring yourself to admonish him for it.

And of course the whole thing is invitation-only, and of course he manages to sweet-talk his way in anyway.

Just having such a good time, really doesn't care if anyone recognizes him.

Really doesn't care, just drinking and making small talk and joking with several lower-ranking Marines in attendance who are clearly very nervous.

Within an hour, while you're in the middle of dancing and deciding that maybe this wasn't *such* a bad idea, an announcement is made for everyone to leave immediately.

Judging by the sheer number of Marines outside there's no doubt as to why.

He just gives you a guilty grin before picking you up over his shoulder and bolting back to the ship.

Mihawk

Actually received an invitation, just rolled his eyes and tossed it in the trash.

You dig it out and pout about it until he rolls his eyes and gives in.

"Fine. No more than an hour."

At lease there will be free wine.

Unsurprisingly spends a great deal of time standing in a corner and sipping said wine while staring around haughtily at the other partygoers.

Would much rather be drinking wine back in his secluded castle and not having to deal with other humans.

Spends the vast majority of the evening standing in a corner and nursing a glass of wine while glaring around haughtily at the other guests, daring them to even think of attempting to make small-talk with him.

Doesn't move from his designated corner until he sees other guests daring to flirt with you, at which point he promptly saunters over to pull you to the dance floor and ensure everyone is well aware that you're there with him.

Lightens up a little after that (which may or may not have something to do with the several glasses of wine he's already consumed), but absolutely will not admit that it actually turned out to be a rather nice evening.

He will, however, hold this over your head and remind you that you owe him.

But you know the truth, considering he's a little more willing to attend such events with you after this.

Buggy

Oh what now? An excuse to be absolutely flamboyant and unhinged in public?

You're going. Period. There will no arguments.

He's already got a collection of masks and costumes anyway, this is going to be a blast.

You lose track of him shortly after you get there. You're pretty sure that the explosion that went off toward the back corner of the dance floor had something to do with him.

He finds you while you're sipping a glass of champagne in downright annoyance and proudly informs you that he's made bank going through pockets at the coat check while everyone was distracted by his little diversion.

"Ah, don't worry, babe, they won't notice. They're too busy schmoozing and kissing ass."

Standing around making small-talk with other guests in the most ridiculous put-on aristocratic accent he can possibly muster, introducing you variably as some foreign dignitary or princess from a far off land.

Literally can't take this idiot anywhere.

[joshym]

Lilac Moon

Pairing: Josh Kiszka x f!Reader

Summary:

You’re a singer in a small, local band called Lilac Moon. You play rock and roll music with a bit of a bluesy, jazzy, r&b flair to it. You moved to Nashville with your best friend, Ivy, to pursue your dreams, leaving your families behind as they weren’t the most supportive of this endeavor.

Your band does well enough locally, even having a small group of die hard fans who love you, but you haven’t been able to go much beyond that.

You now have 2 self funded, indie label ep’s out, and currently working on your first album. However, lack of funds is making this venture quite difficult and it’s taking longer than you and the band would’ve liked. This means picking up gigs wherever and whenever the opportunity strikes. It’s mostly small, run down bars that you play, bars that are really only visited by the locals. This makes it a bit hard to get your music out there and the joy of playing has ceased due to lack of motivation.

One night, you and your band have a gig at a small, locally owned bar in East Nashville. To your surprise, all four members of your favorite band just so happen to be in the crowd.

After the show, you catch them talking with your manager.

What could this possibly mean? And why did Josh keep staring at you during the set?

Word Count: 5.4k+

Warnings: (18+ MINORS DNI) *most of these are eventual warnings, not specifically presented in this chapter. each chapter will have it’s own specific set of warnings* angst, mentions of cheating, alcohol abuse, fighting, arrests, drug use, sexual situations, lots of eventual SMUT.

a/n: hi, everyone! ☺️ this is an idea I’ve had stuck in my head for awhile now, and I’ve finally found the time to sit down and write it. I really hope you all enjoy this little brainchild of mine. don’t be afraid to let me know what you think!

much love, lis. 🤍

(let me know if you want to be added to the taglist🫶🏻)

 ♪°•°∞♬°•°♪°•°∞♬°•°♪ 

You decided to take a stroll through downtown Nashville by yourself this morning, clearing your head after a particularly stressful set with the band last night. Nothing worked right, from the sound system to the lighting, all the way to your tired and worn-out vocals. You had another set tonight at the same bar, and you were incredibly nervous. You needed to get some fresh air, clear your mind, and walking the streets of Nashville in the quiet of the early morning usually did the trick. 

You’re walking aimlessly, green tea with honey in hand, when you’re stopped abruptly by running into the back of someone. 

You nearly spill your tea all over the unsuspecting man you so rudely collided with. He turns around swiftly as you struggle to keep your balance. Upon turning to face you, you're left breathless. Is this….Josh? Josh Kiszka? From Greta Van Fleet? 

Greta Van Fleet is one of your favorite bands, one of your biggest inspirations. You’ve been in love with their music since the early days of From the Fires. You and your best friend followed them to countless gigs, even had a few priceless souvenirs such as some guitar picks from Jake and even a drumstick from Danny. 

You knew they lived in Nashville, but over the course of living here over the last few years, your paths somehow never crossed. You were busy, they were busy, it just never happened.

You’re completely still, stuck staring at this man whose music inspired you to chase after your dreams. 

He looks at you with a confused grin plastered to his face, and you knew then that you had to say something.

“Holy shit, I am so sorry. I totally wasn’t paying any attention. I didn’t spill this on you, did I?” 

You decided then that you wouldn’t let on that you knew who he was. You weren’t going to be that annoying fangirl that gawked at him and made him feel uncomfortable by proclaiming your love for him. So, you did your best to keep your cool, opting to just treat him like the human being he is.

“No, no not at all!” He huffed a laugh. It eased your nerves only slightly. “Just took me by surprise.”

You’re relieved that he’s so cool about it. He giggles more as he takes in your mortified expression. 

You stand there for a spell, wondering what to say, when suddenly a very loud laugh comes out of nowhere. You turn to your side to see Sammy, Josh’s little brother and the band's bassist and pianist. You then realize that he was most likely a witness to the whole thing.

“Ah, ignore my dimwitted brother. He’s high as shit at the moment.”

Sammy walks towards you both, holding two lattes that came from the small coffee shop around the corner.

You’re starting to question whether any of this is real. Josh and Sammy, here? With you? It simply can’t be.

“Here’s your oat milk latte, brother, sans dairy so your voice doesn’t turn to shit. Hey, thank you for almost sending my brother to another dimension, but you should try a little harder next time. Really get the job done.”

He pats your back as he’s praising your clumsy act, laughing as he envisions the scenario all over again. You laugh with him, but the embarrassment creeps back up on you and Josh notices.

“Sammy boy, get fucked. She barely nudged me. Besides, it would take a lot more than that to send me to oblivion. I’m quite sturdy on my feet, as you know.”

“Yeah, okay. Pretty sure you’ve been on your ass more than your feet in your lifetime.”

You all start laughing, and the boys are laughing quite loudly as you hold back a little to not embarrass yourself even more with your obnoxious, snorting laugh. 

You can’t help but notice Josh’s not-so-subtle glances at you as the two of you make eye contact multiple times. His eyes are so genuine, so sincere. You’re pretty sure you’d get lost in them if you gave yourself half the chance. 

There’s no way he’d ever be interested in me, right?

“Um, well, sorry again. I really need to pay better attention. I just zoned out completely, I guess.”

Josh giggles, making you blush.

“No seriously, it’s no big deal. What’s your name?”

“My name's y/n.”

“Well, y/n, this is my much younger, far more immature brother Sammy, and I’m Josh. It’s nice to meet you on this lovely morning.”

You laugh a little at this, not because of what he said about Sammy, but because it seems so strange to you that they’re introducing themselves so casually, like they aren’t rockstars in one of the biggest bands in the world and completely unknown to the fact like you’re one of their biggest fans. You keep up the act, not wanting to make this encounter anymore awkward for you.

“It’s nice to meet you guys, too! I, um, should probably get going. Pretty busy day. I’m sorry again. I’ll pay better attention next time!”

“Oh, next time, huh? Look Josh, she’s already planning your second date!”

“Sam, you're absolutely insufferable. I sincerely mean it, y/n. No hard feelings at all. But I’m holding you to that paying attention sentiment. Some people around here aren’t nearly as pleasant as I am.”

There was something about hearing him say your name that instantly caused the butterflies in your stomach to swarm.

He ended his statement with a wink. You smiled and looked down at your feet, attempting to hide the blush that was again creeping up on your cheeks.

“Thanks, Josh. Hope to see you guys around sometime!”

You continued your walk while waving back at the rockstar brothers, nearly crashing into yet another bystander and causing them both to laugh. 

What you didn’t know was Josh watched you walk away until you were out of sight. He was captivated by you. He loved how shy and sweet you were, and he thought it was adorable how your cheeks turned pink with almost every word he said. He knew he wouldn’t forget you, and he genuinely hoped you would bump into him again. 

“Oh, Joshua. You foolish fuck.”

“Um, pardon me?”

“She was clearly into you. You’re batshit for not asking for her number.”

“I don’t know, Sam. I think the universe might have something in store beyond our control. I don’t believe that’s the last I’ll see of her.”

“Damn hippie.”

 ♪°•°∞♬°•°♪°•°∞♬°•°♪   

You’ve been resting most of the day, drinking lots of warm tea and gearing up for the show tonight that you’d been secretly dreading. 

You love music. You love performing. You love the feeling of being on stage. Nothing compares to it. But lately, you've been in a slump. You’ve lost your confidence, your ambition. You’re quickly running out of money, and the small amount that these gigs make you and the band is hardly enough to keep you afloat.

You want to finish the album. You want to move forward from this phase in your career. It just wasn’t happening, and you felt stagnant. 

You’re not sure how much longer you can continue these bar gigs full of drunk, mindless people who couldn’t give a shit one about your art. If you have to listen to one more belligerent man yelling at you to take your top off in the middle of a heartfelt song, you might *accidentally* toss an amplifier in the general direction of said man.

You hate that you feel this way. You hate that the music has become lost in the stress of trying to make enough money to eat.

You want to go back to the beginning of it all, back to wanting nothing more than to make the music you want to make with the people you love the most. That all seems like a distant memory, a dream of a dream trapped in another lifetime.

Still yet, you tried your best and gave your all in every show. 

You were often emotional on stage as the lyrics you typically write come straight from your heart. There’s something so magical about creating a song and sharing it with the world. It’s when you allow yourself to be your most vulnerable, to truly let the music guide your spirit. 

There’s always a bet in place amongst your bandmates over whether or not you’ll cry during a set. Jokes on the ones betting that you won’t break down in tears, because 9 times out of 10, you do.

Although you still weren’t thrilled about playing in the same, lackluster bar as the night before, something about tonight felt different. You couldn’t quite pinpoint it. You somehow felt a little lighter, a little more inspired. Maybe tonight won’t be as much of a shitshow. You hoped for as much, at least.

 ♪°•°∞♬°•°♪°•°∞♬°•°♪   

You arrived at the bar around 5:00 in the evening, about two hours before the doors were set to open. You weren’t scheduled to hit the stage until 9:00, but you and the band wanted a little extra time for a soundcheck given how messy last night was.

You all start getting things set up, but it didn’t take long considering you had left most of it in place from the night before.

You’re in front of the microphone stand preparing for a mic check when the go ahead is given from the guy in the sound booth. You started singing a little melody you randomly came up with, moving your thumb up and down a few times signaling where you needed the volume set.

You never used any sort of in-ear monitors over fear of them not working properly, and you just never saw the need for them since you mostly played really small venues. This meant that the sound truly needed to be perfected at every show to ensure you could hear yourself and your bandmates properly.

Still talking to the mic, you decide to tell everyone about your encounter earlier.

“You guys will never believe who I ran into this morning. And by that I mean I quite literally ran into him, like physically bumped into his back. I wanted to crawl in a hole.”

Jay, the guitarist, (and unfortunately your ex) had to chime in with his typical rhetoric of mocking you and your not-so-graceful moments.

“Jesus, y/n. It’s a wonder they let you out on your own and not worry about whether or not you’ll be fit to sing the next day. Why is it you always find yourself in these stupid situations?”

“To be fair, it’s because you played like shit last night and I had to think of how we were going to make up for it tonight. So, I guess you could say I was a bit distracted.”

The other two in the band bust up in laughter. 

You and Jay never really rekindled your friendship after the break up, considering he cheated on you multiple times, with multiple different women.

You managed to keep things professional, because as much as you hated to admit it, he was a damn good guitar player and you two have written some wonderful pieces together. Your music just wouldn’t be the same without each other. 

“Alright, alright. That’s enough, guys. Tell us, y/n! I’m dying to know.”

Your bassist, Ivy, has been your best friend for the better part of the last decade. You two decided to leave your hometown behind and take on Nashville together, to live out your dreams. 

She wasn’t a huge fan of Jay. Never had been, if she were to be honest. She never fully approved of you two dating over fear that he’d do, well, exactly what he did. She could see right through him when you were stuck with your rose-colored glasses on. She tolerated him for the sake of the band, but you’re her best friend. More like her sister. She hated him for what he did to you.

“Okay, first let me ask you this. Who would you say my favorite band is?”

Ivy immediately stops what she’s doing and looks at you with wide eyes and an open mouth.

She knows exactly where this is going. 

The two of you had gone to as many of their shows as you could before starting the band. You guys had always bonded over music, and Greta Van Fleet was a band that made your friendship even stronger. They brought out the best parts of you both.

“No fucking way.”

You just look at her with the biggest smile on your face as hers displays more and more shock.

“Are you fucking serious, y/n?” she asks with the biggest grin you think you’ve ever seen on her.

Julien, the drummer, also caught on immediately. He knows you and Ivy had a huge thing for Greta Van Fleet in the past. (still do, unapologetically)

“Oh my god, holy shit, y/n. Which one did you meet?”

“Josh. Fucking Josh. And I didn’t just meet him, I slammed into him from behind because I was off in my own world. Then Sammy came up and he-”

Ivy cuts you off with a loud gasp.

“JOSH? SAM? You’re shitting me. What were they like? What did you say?”

“Josh was so nice, so funny. And Sammy was hilarious. But I was so embarrassed and honestly completely taken off guard. I didn’t say much, just kept telling him I was sorry for invading his space that way.”

“Did you tell them about the band? About how much their music inspired us?”

“Well, no. In fact I acted like I didn’t know them at all. I didn’t want to embarrass myself even more, ya know? And I didn’t want it to turn into a shameless plug.”

“You’re much stronger than I am, y/n. I probably would’ve lost my fucking mind. I’m proud of you for keeping your composure.”

The three of you laugh as you all know damn well that Ivy was right in saying she would’ve lost her mind.

Jay then shoots you a look of pure anger as he makes his way over to you.

“What the fuck, y/n! That could’ve been our chance! They could’ve hooked us up with their people, their label, anything! You fucked us over! You didn’t even invite them to the show? Fucking ridiculous.”

“I didn’t want to bother them with that! They probably get so sick of things like that, of small bands using them to get their name out. I refuse to be that person. We’re not that desperate, Jay.”

“You’re so selfish, you know that?”

With that he storms off, leaving you and the rest of the band in complete silence.

Julien walks up to you, wrapping you in a big hug. A world famous, Julien hug.

“Don’t listen to him, y/n. You did the right thing.”

Julien is the peacekeeper in the group, and whenever trouble brews he’s usually the first to ease the tensions.

He followed Jay to try and alleviate some of his anger so that you all could have a proper soundcheck.

“God, he’s a prick. Why do we keep him around again, y/n?”

You huff out a laugh while you’re adjusting your mic stand to the perfect height. 

“When you find another guitarist with half his skill, let me know and we’ll drop him. Until then, I think we’re stuck, Ivy.”

 ♪°•°∞♬°•°♪°•°∞♬°•°♪   

7:30 pm

You had run through a pretty successful soundcheck and had now gone backstage to your respective dressing rooms to get ready.

You and Ivy typically shared a room so you both could share makeup and stage clothes. You liked to coordinate with each other for performances.

The rooms were small and dingy, and they wreaked of old cigarettes and stale beer. They also barely had any lighting so you two had to use the flashlights on your phones to be able to see to do your makeup. 

Tonight, you had decided on a black leather mini skirt with black tights and a strapless black bandeau top with a sheer bell sleeved crop top over it that tied in the front. You chose a pair of black doc martens to complete the look, along with your insane number of necklaces that you stacked with precision.

Ivy chose a low cut, short black dress that hugged her curves in the perfect way. She was a lot more graceful in heels than you, so she donned a pair of black leather knee high boots with a 4 inch heel. She added the finishing touches with her necklaces that perfectly matched yours.

You both had done your hair in messy curls with tons of volume, and your makeup each consisted of a sultry, smokey eye with nude lips.

You both looked damn good. 

The guys typically opted for a more casual stage look, usually jeans with some sort of ripped up t-shirt. They didn’t seem to care quite as much as you and Ivy.

 ♪°•°∞♬°•°♪°•°∞♬°•°♪   

8:55 pm

“You guys have 5 minutes! Better be ready or I’ll have your asses!”

Joe is the ‘unofficial’ manager of Lilac Moon. He’s basically everyone's dad who is there to keep you all in line. He’s technically retired from the music business, having been everything from a producer and a sound technician, to a member of multiple different groups, playing just about every instrument under the sun. He’s a bit of a jack of all trades, you could say.

He barely gets paid, but he doesn't mind. He enjoys the music and loves being the mentor for the group. He isn’t afraid to tell it straight, but he always has a loving intent. 

 ♪°•°∞♬°•°♪°•°∞♬°•°♪   

9:03 pm

Jay and Julien are already on stage ready to go, keeping the crowd entertained while you and Ivy finish up some last minute touches to your stage looks. It’s not uncommon for you two to be the last ones to make it out.

“Y/n! Ivy! It’s past nine, let’s go! You look fine, now get yourselves out there!”

“Shit. Sorry, Joe! We’re ready!”

You and Ivy finally hit the stage to roaring applause as your local fans are excited to see you both.

Ivy quickly grabs her white Hofner violin bass, already plugged in and ready to be played.

You make your way to the mic and start talking to the crowd, making some of your famous (more like infamous) jokes to warm up the audience. 

You look back and nod at the band, signaling that you’re ready. At last, the bar is filled with the sounds of Lilac Moon. 

The crowd is quite loud and excited tonight. You all feed off of their energy perfectly as you play your music. You changed the set a bit from the night before, so everything felt fresh and new. It was going so much better than last night, and you felt the love radiating from the crowd in ways you never had before.

 ♪°•°∞♬°•°♪°•°∞♬°•°♪   

9:47 pm

You’re at the part of the night that your set typically slows down, doing a few softer, ballad-like songs. 

You had been working on a new song for awhile. It was loosely based on your experience with Jay. You hadn’t performed it yet, knowing you would be entirely too emotional, but you decided that tonight was the night for it. You were ready. 

Before you and Jay split up, he had been teaching you guitar so you could eventually play a little on stage with him. Well, since you broke up, you’ve not really wanted to pick up the instrument again. This new song, though…it requires a bit of backing rhythm guitar, meaning you’re the one that needs to play it.

You walked to the guitar stand to pick up your baby blue epiphone les paul that you bought yourself second hand several years ago. This is the first time you’ll be playing it on stage, and you’re nervous.

“If you’ve been to a Lilac Moon show before, you know this is, um - a bit out of the ordinary.”

The crowd laughs as you get your guitar set up comfortably. 

“Don’t worry, I’ve been practicing. But if it sounds like shit, just blame Jay.”

You glance at him with a smirk as he throws a matching one right back at you.

Right as you're about to strum the beginning chords of the song, you notice a familiar set of faces in the crowd, albeit faces you’ve never seen at one of your shows before.

You’re completely still as you lock eyes with none other than Josh. To say you’re stunned is an understatement. 

He looks just as shocked as you, with a large, confused smile gracing his face. There’s no way he remembers you, right? No - no way in hell. 

To make matters worse, the whole band is here. They’re with other people whom you can only assume are friends of theirs, possibly their security team or management. 

You’re not sure how long they’ve been here as the lights pointing to the stage have been far too bright to make out any faces in the crowd up until this point, save for the ones who were right up against the stage.

If you had to guess, you’d say they’ve been here the whole time. Now you’re really nervous. And you’re about to play guitar for the first time in front of a crowd-in front of them. 

It’s too late to back out now, and with your bandmates looking at you with subtle confusion, you decide to just go for it.

“This is a new song we’ve been working on, it’s still a bit of a work in progress so bare with us. It’s called “Alone Again.”’

The crowd gets excited at the thought of new music and you’re happy with the reaction.

The song begins. You start strumming the chords and singing, already feeling the emotions rise.

Don’t you dare start crying, y/n. Not in front of them.

The bridge of this song is passionate, serving as the climax to the eventual heartbreak the song ends with. 

You’re really worked up, unable to control the emotions any longer.

You step away from the mic briefly as you gather yourself during the chorus, Ivys’ backing vocals taking over. Julien watches you with concern as his drumming increases to a wild pace. 

You gain your composure and step back in front of the mic, singing with so much fervency. 

The song ends strong. The crowd is the loudest they’ve been this whole night.

You did it. You fucking did it.

You set your guitar back on the stand and grab the mic.

“What’s a Lilac Moon show without a little emotional breakdown from yours truly, am I right?”

You do this sometimes to lighten the mood a bit, when it all becomes a bit too heavy for your liking. You laugh with the crowd as you all prepare for the final song.

“Let’s get a little louder, shall we?”

The audience cheers as you perform the last song. It’s an upbeat, good old fashioned rock and roll song that never fails to garner a strong reaction from your fans.

You glance every so often to see the famous rock stars dancing and having a great time. 

You can’t believe it. They seem to be enjoying themselves, listening to your music. You would have never in a million years seen this coming.

You finish the song to loud, boisterous applause as you all make your way off stage.

You quickly run up to Ivy to ask her if she saw what you saw, but you’re cut off by the loud chanting of “ENCORE” coming from the audience.

“What the hell? They want an encore?”

You’re surprised as this has never happened before.

“Well shit, kids. Get back out there! Give the people what they want!”

Joe is practically shoving you guys back on stage. You’re all in utter shock as you make your way back out. 

The cheering is almost deafening as you begin another song. 

You’re filled with so much love and excitement as you can feel it emitting from the people in the audience. You feel fulfilled, you feel happy. 

As you’re performing your encore, you can’t help but notice that it seems the boys and their entourage are no longer in the crowd. 

You’re betting they just wanted to leave before the after-show chaos ensues, but you can’t help feeling like maybe they just weren’t impressed enough to stick around for the encore.

You quickly shove those thoughts down to give the audience the best you can give. It was the perfect ending to this amazing show. You guys even decide to throw in your own little rendition of Me and Bobby McGee by Janis Joplin, a crowd favorite cover of yours.

Julien tosses his drumsticks to the crowd as Jay follows suit with a few guitar picks as you exit the stage for the final time.

♪°•°∞♬°•°♪°•°∞♬°•°♪ 

10:24 pm

You’re all backstage again, full of pure adrenaline.

Julien runs around hugging everyone and gives you and Ivy enthusiastic kisses on your foreheads.

“Holy shit, guys! I think that’s the best we’ve ever been! Where’s Jay?”

Ivy rolls her eyes and looks at you before responding.

“He’s probably already at the bar on his third or fourth drink. You know how he is; the drinking binge begins as soon as he’s done with his responsibilities to the band.”

You’re not interested in talking about Jay. You have to ask them if they saw the guys in the audience.

“Did you guys see who was out there tonight? I almost lost my shit.”

“What? No, who are you talking about?”

Julien is a bit confused, but Ivy saw them too.

“Holy shit, y/n. What the hell were they doing here? I thought you said you didn’t tell them about us?”

“I didn’t, I swear! I’m just as confused as you are!”

You both hug each other, laughing and trying to make sense of it all.

Julien has already moved on from the conversation, making his way to the bathrooms.

You start to head back to your dressing room to gather up your things when a thought enters your head.

Where’s Joe? He’s always waiting on the side of the stage for us, always there when we exit. Why wasn’t he there after the encore?

As you turn the corner, you see him.

“Joe! There you are! Did you see-”

You then realize that he’s not alone. He’s talking with some people, but not just any people.

He’s talking with Josh, Jake, Sammy and Danny, and the people they came to the bar with were also part of this conversation.

You stop dead in your tracks.

What the hell are they doing back here? And why are they talking to Joe?

“Y/N! Holy shit, you sly dog, you!”

Sammy runs up to you and embraces you in the kind of hug you give to someone you’ve known your whole life. You eagerly hug him back. You can’t believe he remembers you.

Here comes Josh with a huge, toothy smile on his face.

“Hey, y/n!

He pushes Sammy to the side so he can have his turn giving you a hug. He sways you back and forth in his arms a bit and you practically melt under his touch. You feel you could stay in the safety of his arms for the rest of your life. 

He breaks the embrace but keeps his hands planted on your shoulders.

“You know it’s funny, but I can’t seem to recall you telling us you’re in a band. A fucking incredible one, at that!”

“I-I guess I just didn’t think to mention it. What on earth are you guys doing here? I feel like bars like this aren’t really your speed?”

Danny starts to make his way over to you, leaving Jake and their team with Joe to finish the conversation.

“Daniel here has been trying to get us to come and see this band he’s been digging for a while now and we finally agreed. Had I known how fantastic you were, I wouldn’t have hesitated!”

“I don’t know why you idiots haven’t learned by now that you should always trust my music taste.”

Danny introduces himself to you, and you’re once again in shock. 

Danny knows your band? He actually digs your music? 

“I swear every time I see you guys, you blow me away! Truly great stuff.”

How many shows has he been to??

“Oh my god, thank you so much. I’m not even sure what to say. I mean, you guys are incredible and I’m a huge fan. I wouldn’t have ever expected you all to be here and-”

Your rambling is cut short by Josh removing his hands from your shoulders, displaying a look of slight concern mixed with a smirk.

“Wait, you’re a fan of us? You could’ve fooled me! Why didn’t you act like it when we met you this morning?”

Shit. Your act is up.

“Well, I guess I was just in shock and didn’t want you to think I was just another crazed fan who just so happened to run into you accidentally-on-purpose, you know? I swear, it truly was an accident.”

Josh starts giggling at you, seeing that familiar look of embarrassment flushing your face again.

“Oh trust me, y/n. I have no doubt it was an accident. You looked like you saw a ghost or something.” 

He grabs your arm, letting you know it’s okay and that you can relieve some of your visible tension.

“So what are you guys doing back here? What were you talking to Joe about?”

About that time, you hear a high pitched shrill coming from behind you. You instantly know it’s Ivy. 

She runs up to you and the guys and introduces herself to them. She’s having a hard time hiding the fact that she’s a major fan, and you can’t help but laugh at her and her enthusiasm as she hugs them.

Joe, Jake and the people accompanying them start to make their way over to you all.

Jake gives his brothers a confirming nod.

“We’re all set, boys. I suppose we just need the official ‘okay’ from the band.”

Jake glances your way, his cheekbones high on his face and he smiles at you both. 

You and Ivy look at each other with genuine confusion as you can’t figure out what the hell is going on. You both look to Joe for some answers as he’s grinning from ear to ear.

“Y/n, Ivy, the boys and their management have asked me if you would like to join them on the road for the first half of their next tour starting in July. Thoughts on this, ladies?”

You’re both at a loss for words. They want you to join them? What? Is this actually happening?

You instantly look at Josh who appears to be anxiously awaiting your answer as he chimes in.

“You see, we’re down an opener for the first part of the tour, and that’s why Daniel wanted us to come watch you guys tonight. He figured you all would be perfect for the job, and I agree. So what do you say? Care to join us on this audacious trip?”

“Oh my god..I-I mean we’ll have to check with Julien and Jay but, I don’t see why not! That sounds amazing! I can’t believe it, you want us?”

“Josh absolutely insisted on it as soon as you walked out on stage. In fact he could hardly keep his eyes off you, isn’t that right, bro?” Sammy says as he nudges your shoulder and throws you a wink.

You look at Josh to see that his cheeks are the ones burning red this time.

Julien is practically sprinting down the hall when he figures out who’s backstage with you.

“What’s up, guys? Huge fan of your stuff, seriously. So sick to see you here!”

He gives them all handshakes that turn into his notable hugs.

“Hey Jules, they just asked us to join them on the road this summer. Think that’s a good idea?” you ask him as he’s instantly making friends with the other drummer.

“Are- are you fucking serious? Of course I do! No way, man!”

You all break out in laughter as he makes yet another round of handshakes and hugs to show his gratitude.

Josh moves a little closer to you, wrapping his arm around your shoulder and bumping your hip with his playfully.

“So, it’s settled then, y/n?”

You look at Ivy as she’s vigorously nodding her head up and down, tears in her eyes as she’s struggling to contain her excitement.

“I think that’s a resounding yes!”

to be continued...

Chapter 2

join the taglist!

♪°•°∞♬°•°♪°•°∞♬°•°♪ 

taglist: @jakeyt​​

[the--highlanders]

20 questions for fic writers

super late but tagged by @penny-anna, thank you!!

How many works do you have on ao3?

203 apparently! which is like, a lot but also doesn't feel like that many for how long I've been posting now

what’s your total ao3 word count?

1,060,055, and I'm still SUPER proud of hitting a million words. don't think I'm ever gonna write as much again as I did in 2022 (how did I write almost 400k in a year????) but apparently I'm over 100k for this year so. happy with that even though I haven't written nearly as much as I'd like due to like, general life stuff

What fandoms do you write for?

just second doctor era dr who! I definitely get like, story ideas for other fandoms I enjoy, and occasionally I'll idly imagine writing some of them, but never really seriously. I've kinda made an active choice for this to be my niche and I don't seem to have run out of ideas yet so

What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

ok I'm gonna cut out like, 'fics' that are actually compilations of prompt fics etc bc I feel like that's cheating but. let's see

in the night i lie and look up at you (when the morning comes i watch you rise)

Sacrificial

Revelations

Vigil

tell me how you'll kiss me when i touch down

weird list tbh! big fan of the first and last one being there but like... sacrificial in particular I was NOT happy with ahgjklfdjgf. I do like vigil tho

Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

yes absolutely!!! they fill me with so much joy & serotonin so I like to reply, & also I love love love discussing stuff w/ people in the comments (hi @galacticlamps ahjkgfd). I'm very very behind on it right now but I will get around to them all I promise!!!

What is a fic you wrote with the angstiest ending

oughfkdjg this is tough. I do think if only we could have been brave on time was pretty angsty, I don't usually write fics that toy so much with major character death.

there's a few others but the first one that jumped out at me while scrolling through my fics was i'm trying to reach you (before all the ghosts do). minor character/oc death this time but like. the whole fic was very much born out of the image of its angsty ending, so.

What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

hm I mean I do write a lot of angstless fluff!! so like, any of those. but I'm gonna go with litany for a reunion, because so much of it is angsty that I think the ending seems happier because of it.

Do you get hate on fics?

not yet! but this fandom is pretty chill so.

Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

I am very very sex-repulsed ace it would not be a good time for anybody <3

Do you write crossovers?

not in the sense of like, bringing characters from one fandom into another. if I had the stamina/confidence to do proper longfics I'd absolutely do more aus, some of which are inspired by other media (if you guys could see the fairytale aus that live in my head.), and I /do/ have a daemon au.

the only crossover I've really done is Lifeboat, which is like. still a concept I enjoy. ark/its lore is something so close to my heart, so it was a lot of fun to fuse it with dr who. plus I just like imagining that victoria's dad was surrounded by so so so many unhinged mad scientists. & I also find it very very very funny that the ark character in question is now voiced by david tennant

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

not that I'm aware of! again like. small and chill fandom. who's going to be doing that.

Have you ever had a fic translated?

yes!

Have you ever co-written a fic before?

no, and I don't think I'd want to - I'm a little bit too precious/sensitive about my writing to even have like, a beta reader or anything. I don't think I'd do well trying to co-write with someone. the closest I've come is kind of co-plotting out fics with other people (the plot of the selkie au is as much @ettelwenailinon's brainchild as mine <333)

What’s your all-time favorite ship?

I have been so deeply invested in two/jamie for so long that I can no longer untangle it from myself.

What’s a wip you want to finish, but doubt you ever will?

the fic I want to write most is a super comprehensive multichapter spanning about two years between jamie getting dropped off at culloden after the war games and two coming to pick him up again for 6b. I have a general sweep of the arc, some summary notes, and pages and pages of historical notes for it. unfortunately I don't think I'm ever going to feel like I've done enough historical research to justify writing it, even if I do somehow magically get myself to buck up into writing proper longfic.

What are your writing strengths?

hm idk! I'm quite pleased with some of my prose/descriptions sometimes. & I've had a few comments over the years saying I'm good at characterisation, which is always nice to hear.

I never really know what's good about my writing tho. not out of any sense of inferiority or false modesty or anything, I just. don't think that deeply about writing in general. the words come out & if I like them I like them

What are your writing weaknesses?

^^^ as I am always saying I wish I could break down the mental block that's stopping me from writing longfic

kinda related but like. I'm definitely a perfectionist and that can paralyse me sometimes when I'm trying to write a first draft.

Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

I need to do it more often!!

my absolute dream would be to be able to translate all my fics into gàidhlig tbh. but I love love love giving jamie gàidhlig dialogue, or even just dropping little turns of phrase into his english dialogue, stuff like that. I definitely feel like there's some space between how I write/characterise jamie and how he is on screen, but to some degree that's a conscious decision. I'm always trying to strike a balance between like, writing him in character and writing him in a way that feels authentic to his time and cultural background. but dropping in bits of gàidhlig is a fun way of doing that (and also of getting myself to write in the language which is definitely good practice)

First fandom you wrote for?

hm I mean technically ig it was the saddle club. I was like 3 years old and I wrote a 'book' about the horses.

in terms of like, actively writing fic with the conscious knowledge of what fic was, probably fic about warrior cats ocs when I was about 11/12.

Favorite fic you’ve written?

old ghost's waltz, always. I loved how it came together, it was my first real dip into doing super historical jamie fic & a sort of replacement for the post-war games longfic I may never write, and it was a response to the phantom piper, which drives me absolutely insane in both good and bad ways. like it gave me so many ideas but god I could fix her.

unsorted is a very solid second though. it had all the historical fic joy of old ghost's waltz (even more so in some parts - the scene with jamie and connie might be my favourite scene I've ever written), and it was just. so cathartic to write as an expression of a headcanon I'd kind of hidden for so many years bc I was worried it wouldn't be well-received. it's my favourite fic to get comments on just because it always feels like a relief to see people enjoying it.

tagging @galacticlamps, @p0stscripter, @ettelwenailinon and anyone else who wants to do this!!

[floef-likes-everything]

Codefever

Hi I'm here to bother you with another fan fiction again. Or short story ficlet kind of thing, it isn't meant to be extremely long. I mainly wrote it as a bit of worldbuilding for Wingman and got carried away.

So, let me introduce you to this brainchild of mine that I'm very glad I wrote and I'm very proud of the worldbuilding and I hope you'll enjoy it :]

A mysterious illness has struck the Admins of the MCC Server after the 34 rendition of the Event. Noxite is trying to find a way to cure them, but soon realizes it might be something that is out of his hands. He will need help to fix this.

OR

Inspiration struck after the somewhat lag ridden MCC 34 and I wanted to make it angsty

[ithappensblog]

nice to meet you

Hi, I’m Jenny and welcome to my blog. In this post, I want to share with you some of the highlights and challenges of my life so far, and how I’m trying to find my purpose and happiness in this world.

I’m almost 34 years old and still struggling to figure out my life. Aren't we all? I’ve gone to school for a diploma program in Medical Laboratory Technician/Phlebotomy, a diploma program for Accounting Technician, and started my Human Resource Management diploma program too. I’ve always wanted to be an RN but, life and my body had other plans for me. I’ve always been interested in learning new things and pursuing different careers, and I've finally found one which fulfills me. I have a really good job now, but I’m not really supposed to talk about what I do so I’m going to leave that part out, but it’s finally something I’m good at and something I enjoy doing. It pays well and gives me flexibility and stability. It also challenges me and allows me to use my skills and creativity.

I have a husband who I’ve been with for 10 years now. Jason has helped me grow into a much better person and loves me unconditionally. He supports me in everything I do and encourages me to follow my dreams. I have 2 stepsons who have given me a run for my money but I still love them both at the end of the day. They are growing up so fast and I’m proud of the young men they are becoming. After an incredibly challenging fertility journey, I have my almost 5 year old daughter who is bright, caring, funny, and wise beyond her years. She is the light of my life and the reason I smile every day. I always tell her she saved my life, and it's true, but I won't tell her how until she's much older.

I have a passion for traveling and exploring new places. We try to do a big family vacation once a year and just this year decided that one trip a year should be spent nurturing our relationship. I love animals and have two dogs and three cats who keep me company and make me laugh. I’m on a journey to self love after spending my entire life as an overweight underdog. I’ve struggled with my body image and self-esteem for as long as I can remember, but I’m learning to accept myself and love myself for who I am. I have a daughter now, and I owe it to her to be kind to myself as the way I behave in front of her will be a reflection of how she treats her own body.

I live with many invisible illnesses both mentally and physically but try my best to get through every day. Some of the conditions I deal with are anxiety, depression, PTSD, OCD, ADHD, insulin resistent PCOS, Chronic Kidney Disease, chronic fatigue syndrome, migraines, and more. Yeah, I know, it fucking sucks. But, I'm definitely not here to gain pity for my health problems. By looking at me, you'd think the only problem I'd had in my life was enjoying one too many cheeseburgers. Some days are better than others, but some days are really hard. I try to be positive and optimistic, but sometimes I feel hopeless and overwhelmed. I’m grateful for the support of my family, friends, doctors, therapists, and online communities who help me cope and understand that I’m not alone.

I grew up in Guelph, Ontario and ventured back to Sudbury, Ontario after leaving my now ex-husband which was the best decision I’ve ever made. He was an interesting choice to say the least, and for the longest time I felt so trapped. It took me a long time to gather the courage to leave him, but when I did, I felt free and empowered. It was a turning point in my life that led me to meet my current husband and start a new chapter.

I’m thankful for this beautiful life I live. It’s not perfect, but it’s mine. And it’s full of love, laughter, learning, adventure, growth, gratitude, and hope. Thank you for reading this post even though you're probably rolling your eyes at yet another new overnight brainchild. But I'm going to try to use this as an outlet to heal and grow from the shit life throws my way, and hopefully inspire others to do the same along the way.

[randomvarious]

1990s Trance Playlist

At long last, a trance playlist for Spotify! I posted a YouTube version of this a few months ago, but we all know Spotify is way more convenient, even if it has a significantly smaller catalog than YouTube.

So, here’s a 10-song, 80-plus minute playlist of what’s mostly just straight-up classic 90s trance bangers. I ended up pulling most of these songs from two favorite trance mixes of mine that I got early on when I started my ridiculous collecting hobby. One is Spundae Presents Interpretations by Jerry Bonham and the other is the second disc of Essential Selection: Volume One by Paul Oakenfold (The first disc is by Fatboy Slim).

On here you’ll find stars of the 90s trance era, like Paul van Dyk, Armin van Buuren, Binary Finary, Solarstone, Jan Johnston, and Lange, the latter of whom provides a stellar remix that incorporates some breakbeat. And if those names don’t mean anything to you, then you’re in for a real treat!

This playlist is ordered as chronologically as possible:

Paul van Dyk - “Words (PvD's For Love Mix)” Pheos - “2nd Symphony” Armin - “Blue Fear” Binary Finary - “!998″ Malcolm McLaren - “The Bell Song (Lakme Dubmix)” Z2 - “I Want You” Christopher Lawrence - “Renegade” Brainchild - “Symmetry C (Lange Breakbeat remix)” Solarstone - “Seven Cities (V-One’s Living Cities remix)” Jan Johnston - “Flesh (Tilt mix)”

This playlist is also on YouTube, with a handful of more ephemeral and lesser known 90s trance tunes:

Essa 3 - “Evolve (Dub)” Yum Yum - “The Vision (Original mix)” Palefield Mountain - “PM3 (MDOA Mix)” Skip Raiders feat. Jada - “Another Day (Perfecto remix edit)”

And the playlist is also on YouTube Music.

Enjoy!

More to come, eventually. Stay tuned!

Like what you hear? Follow me on Spotify and YouTube for more cool playlists and uploads!

[brownhardyho]

Roommates - Part 4 (2nd half)

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 (1st half) 

A/N: In light of today being sinful Saturday, here’s the 2nd half to the fourth part of this series!! You’re up next sis @wanderlustandsmut (sooo excited to read what you’ll create for Part 5) <3 If you enjoyed reading this or any part of this series, please let us know! We’d love to talk about it and receive feedback! Enjoy!!

So this series is the brainchild of mine and @wanderlustandsmut ‘s shared frustration of Ben Hardy. Honest to God, we basically talk daily about Ben so we took this concept to the next level and decided to write about it! Previous parts have been linked above, hope you all enjoy!

Premise: Ben X Reader are roommates and childhood friends…What happens when their mostly platonic relationship turns sexual??

Warnings: Fluff, smutty goodness: oral+fingering (f receiving), protected sex

Word Count: 2,028

“Ben, look at me,” you say, bringing his hand to your chest so he can feel how fast your heart is beating. “Feel that? This is real.”

And with that Ben knelt on the bed, his weight shifting, causing you to scoot back towards the wooden headboard. The sight in front of your eyes is quite a sight to see, your best friend, your roommate looking at you with his piercing green gaze looking at you as if you are the sun. You’ve always known that Ben cared for you a lot, but at this moment you feel something different. It feels natural, it feels right.

“God, you are always so beautiful,” Ben moans lowly as he sees you laying on the bed so comfortably. He would have spent a little more time to admire the sigh of you, but you took matters into your own hands by grasping his shoulders to bring him down on top of you. Both your lips found each other, frantically deepening the kiss. You threw your arms around his neck and Ben wrapped on arm around your waist.

“You are too, Ben,” you return the compliment, throwing your head back into the plush pillows, gasping for air as Bens lips continued their soft, wet exploration down your neck and into your décolletage. You shift your hips up towards his, and you revel in feeling his hardness rubbing up against your now soaking core. Widening your legs to accommodate his hot, sculpted body, you wrap your legs around his waist, bringing him even closer to your embrace.

“This wet, already love?” Ben smirks as he feels your wetness drench his thin boxers. His curious hands trace softly along the curves of your body, eventually coming to a teasing stop at the edge of your lace clad hips.

“Ben, please,” you say breathlessly, as you buck your hips up to Ben’s fingers, a silent plea for him to do what you want. And he complies, his strong languid fingers slip underneath your panties gliding over the smoothness of your pussy. He runs them up and down slowly, spreading your wetness, his movements stirring a warmness that you feel building up in your stomach. You give in to this hot pleasure, closing your eyes to hone on this feeling, not minding your moans and whimpers that escape your lips. Feeling the stillness of Ben’s actions, you open your eyes and are welcomed with the sight of his, a sexy grin tugging up at his pink lips. Ben swipes is index and middle fingers up your labia, circling at your clit before putting them in his mouth.

“Dear god, you taste exquisite peaches,” Ben groans loudly, savoring the sweet taste of you. “I need more, would you like that?”

“Oh god, please Ben,” You manage to get out before he leaves wet, open mouthed kisses all over your abdomen, his fingers dragging teasingly along the sides of your bare torso. When his deft fingers latch on the lace of your underwear, you deeply inhale as if to calm your mind. Ben expertly slides your panties down your legs and tosses them over his shoulder. And then he dives right into your soaking center, like a man quenching his thirst on a desert. Ben grasps onto your hips, bringing them closer to his wanting mouth. His flattened tongue glides over your pussy in one purposeful swipe before finding your clit and latching his lips on it.

“You. Are. So. Wet,” Ben groans into you, his words broken up by him savoring your wetness that is escaping your drenched core. In contrast to Ben’s intentional movements, you are quite the mess. With on hand grasping onto the bedsheets and the other on Ben’s blonde curls, you squirm under his body. He hasn’t even put his hands to use like the last time you were like this, and you feel so close to reaching your climax already. It’s like Ben can read your thoughts because he brings his arm on top of your waist to pin you down to stop you from moving beneath him and slides his middle finger into your drenched cunt. His finger was met with no resistance, your soaking warm walls welcoming their presence, stretching to accommodate the thickness of his digit. And this finally brought you over the edge. You let out a silent scream, bucking your hips up to Ben, your pussy pulsating around his finger.

As you were still riding the waves of the orgasm, Ben slipped a second finger into you, slowly  massaging your quivering walls. He kept his eyes fixed on yours, observing your reactions to his movements, taking note of every time you sigh and when your pussy clenches around his digits. And  to his surprise, you take matters into your own hands by grasping on his wrist, sliding his fingers out of you and bringing them around your mouth, you tongue swirling around to taste every last drop.

“Tell me what you want, peaches,” Ben says lowly, willing himself not to come in his briefs, because he got impossibly harder at the sight of you sucking on his two fingers like a popsicle on a summer day.

“I want you Ben,” you groan as you wrap your legs around his waist and buck you hips up, effectively flipping you over so that Ben is lying beneath you. You grind your naked pussy along his clothed hard crotch, your wetness seeping over his briefs, allowing your hips to create more delicious friction. “I want all of you,” you whisper softly, as you remove your bralette, your naked breasts now on display. Ben’s hungry gaze traces all over your body and the expression on his face is one of complete awe, like he can’t believe that a goddess is currently sitting on his lap.

“Love, you have me,” Ben murmurs, cupping your breasts into his warm hands, getting more and more heated at the feeling of your hips grinding on top of his. He lifts your hips off his and he haphazardly removes his briefs with a quickness that warms your heart. Ben’s excitement to be with you on another unexplored level of your years long friendship sends you in your feels. You straddle his waist again, admiring the sight of him beneath you. His toned chest rising with his heavy breathing, his lips swollen from all the kisses shared, and his hair disheveled from you pulling on it just minutes ago.

“Ben, baby,” You cry out, the sensation of both your bare pussy and his erect cock meeting for the first time overwhelming you. You had always had the sneaking suspicion that Ben was well endowed, but now, seeing it and feeling it in person, is just indescribable. “Condom, first.”

“Right,” he chuckles nervously, silently scolding himself for getting too eager. But who could blame him, unbeknownst to you, Ben has wanted to level up your friendship to something more intimate but was scared to. And now here you are, in all your naked glory, wanting him. “Of course, hold on”

Ben reaches his arm out to open a drawer on his nightstand, his face scrunching in confusion to find the box of condoms. Letting out an “aha!” when his hands grasp a hold on them, he is then met with slight anxiety when you both learn that the box is unopened.

“It’s been a while,” He mumbles shyly, his eyes looking away from yours, not wanting to see your reaction.

“Hey, Ben,” you reply softly, tilting his chin up so that he could look at you “It’s ok, no need to be embarrassed- it’s been a while for me too,” you say sheepishly. He beams up at you and opens the box obnoxiously, causing laughter to escape from your lips. Just as he’s about to open the wrapping, you take the small packet form his hands and tear it apart. You unravel the piece of polyurethane and slide it onto Ben’s hard member slowly, teasingly. Once the condom is on, you take your hand and bring it up to your pussy, gathering the wetness there and palm Ben’s cock with it. He lets out a low groan, closing his eyes shut, throwing his head back against the pillows. You slide your hand up and down his shaft, tightening your grip ever so slightly.

“Love, if you keep doing that, I’m not gonna last!” Ben whimpers as you remove your hand and replace it with your drenched pussy lips. Not wanting to prolong his (and your) torture any further, you lift your hips and position your wet cunt over the leaking head of his penis. As the head enters you, you both are at a loss for words, instead letting your moans and sighs say all that is needed to say. You move slowly and carefully, because the feeling of Ben’s thick cock stretching your walls is almost too much. Almost.

“Am I hurting you? Do you want to stop?” Ben asks, observing how slow your motions are and how labored your breathing is.

“No, just give me a minute,” you whimper as you finally bottom out, feeling impossibly full with Ben’s cock completely inside you. After taking a moment to deeply inhale and exhale, the discomfort goes away and his replaced with the kind of pleasure that stirs up that warmness in your belly. You grind your hips lazily, going back and forth on top of Ben, anchoring your palms to his strong pectorals giving you the stability you need to move more freely. All Ben can do right now is to give in to the feeling of pleasure that is shared between you.

“Fuck, Ben,” you moan out, circling your hips, taking in the feeling of his cock rubbing up against your soaking walls and ridges “You are so fucking thick!”

“Love you are so tight,” Ben growls, his hands holding onto you hips, guiding your movements “It’s like you were made for me!”

It isn’t long after that Ben starts to rut his hips upwards to meet your thrusts, his hands all over your body. Grazing roughly on your thighs, squeezing at the flesh of your ass. He goes to sit up and brings you closer into his arms. You are now bouncing up and down his rock hard dick, your head thrown back in pleasure, pushing your chest towards him. Ben brings his head down to capture your breast in his warm mouth, sucking on your nipple. You bring your hand to his head, clutching on the now sweaty locks. Your desire is getting stronger and closer to reaching euphoria and your juices never seem to stop flowing out of you.

“Ben, baby I’m so- close,” you let out, the pitch of your voice getting higher, it’s cadence broken up by Ben’s hard thrusts. Wanting to finally hear you lose yourself in your pleasure and the feeling of him, Ben places his hand to your core, rubbing small circles onto your clit.

“Let go love, I got you,” Ben reassures you, continuing to roll his body up against yours, the circling of his fingers getting faster and faster. And you finally reach that euphoric wave, your body shuddering on top of Ben, your cunt clenching so tightly around Ben’s cock, pulsating wildly. This spurs Ben to turn you both over, so that you are on your back. Animalistic groans escape Ben’s lips, his hot breath tickling your skin. Ben holds on to around your thighs, wrapping them around his waist. He lays his forearms on either side of your side, supporting most of his weight on them. He rams his cock into your still pulsating pussy, using his whole body to grind against you. This causes you to clench around him again, effectively bringing Ben over the edge. You both come with a shout, your bodies panting against each other.

“Does it always feel like this?” you look at him, loving the way his body feels on top of you, stroking his cheek.

“No,” he mumbles into your neck, placing soft kisses all over it “This is the first time I’ve felt like this after sex..”

Taglist: @rogershamsandwich @big-deak-energy @rrrogah-tayluhh@hardzzellos @prettylittlegoldfish@queeniebean01@yourebeyondperfect @ramibaby @anikatcmh@shannonlxto@shreyuhhstudies @libita @orchideax@meowmeow230 @devil-in-those-eyes @luvborhap @ixchel-9275 @caborhapch @qweenly @ohrog @drowse13 @ixchel-9275 @rogerrhqpsody @thosequeenboys @killergwil

[tisfan]

So you can ignore this (obviously) but I've been following you and 27dragons for a while now, and I was just curious how you guys met/started writing together? Like are you just old friends who both like to write or is that how you met? I imagine you enjoy working together, did that just gel or did it take a while? PS I love your work separately & together!!

Long story time!

Back in 1991, I’m a freshman in college, I’m an extrovert who doesn’t know it yet because I grew up around people that I didn’t have anything in common with -- my “best friend” in high school was into wrestling and mudding. (Which isn’t to say there’s anything WRONG with that, but I... yeah, i read books.) I don’t fit in with the girls in my dorm because I’ve had multiple boyfriends (and was bisexual) on a hall full of girls who’d never been on a date before. So, I’m an outcast in my college dorm because I’ve “had sex, ew.”

And I pretty much have like 2 friends at this point...

And I’m so freaking BORED and tired of spending meals by myself. So I come into the campus breakfast area one morning and I see this girl that I knew from one of my classes, sitting by herself. READING A BOOK. (for that matter, a book I’ve read before!)

Now, keep in mind that she sits in front of me in class, so while I knew who she was, she had never seen me before. And I just sit down and start talking -- about the book, about the class we have together. 

She was... annoyed with me but trying to polite it out for... eh, I’d guess about 10 minutes...

and then we walked to our next class together, talking a mile a minute. She invited me to her gaming group, and I invited her to my study group.

We’ve had our bumps in the friendship -- mostly because both of us have screwed up royally in our treatment of each other -- and some misunderstandings. We didn’t really see each other much for a few years around 1996 - 1999 or so because of one really bad thing. But in the end, I’ve always missed her MORE than whatever the problem was. And we’ve both worked really hard to maintain the friendship now that we’ve got it back. 

As far as writing together goes: well, we were both writers on our own before we even met, each of us with at least one or two (I can’t remember) finished novel-length stories done. We started exchanging stuff to read and doing crits on each other’s work (her stuff was initially much better than mine, which I think says more about HOW BAD I was at this for a long time)

I’m going to take a moment here to talk about our campus gaming group - The Meade Hall.

It was the brainchild of one of my ex-boyfriends, but we had a “chat channel” back in the day that was hosted on our college’s BBS system. Text only. Anyway, the Meade Hall wasn’t a gaming group so much as it was a place for our adventurers to “hang out” AFTER they were done with their adventure. Combat wasn’t allowed; everyone had to agree that spells did or did not affect their characters. 

Essentially like the RP groups I see on Tumblr these days -- but bigger. and they were all original characters. I think in its heydey, there were upward of 30 people who played.

And eventually, as characters who aren’t beating up orcs tend to do; there were romances... Kyth and Sealgair, Diya and Kevil and Loria, Bastian and Cat, etc.

And when things would get steamy, or personal, we’d move it to another channel... I still have some of those transcripts, and Dragons and I eventually made the Kevil/Diya/Loria transcript into like... 2 and a half novels. (also, I still have them somewhere)

Can we go back to Alanis, n’shava? Where everything makes sense?

Bastian and Cat’s romance got a thorough overhaul and became a 2 novel set Marked Man and Wanted Woman, which I published several years back. (the first one of these is still available as an ebook-- the second of them never got a reprint, but if you’re interested, hit me up, I have copies that will go straight onto your kindle or e-reader and I’m happy to sell them to you like $3 for both of them)

Around... 2008 or so, we both started writing short and long m/m stories and getting them published. And then... we had some publisher issues (we were with TQ for a long time, and you’re welcome to look that up, several other authors have complained about it profusely, and I have no interest in rehashing it again) and stopped writing for pay... which was around 2014/2015. 

And Dragons was writing fic, and slowly brought me into it.

We wrote separately for a while and then... started working together.

Winter is Coming was our first joint project as fic writers. The rest... well, you’ve seen it ;D

[pikapeppa]

Where The Winds of Fortune Take Me: A Dragon Age Pirate AU

Welcome to another edition of @schoute​ And Pika Are Cullavellan and FenHawke Trash! You have Schoute entirely to thank for this; this AU is her beautiful brainchild ❤️ Posting in time for @dadrunkwriting​ Friday!

Brief synopsis: ‘Mad Piper’ Lavellan is the captain of the lovely pirate vessel, The Lady Luck. Varric is her ever-patient quartermaster and Fenris is the broody master-at-arms. Shenanigans ensue, and eventually Commander Cullen of the Kirkwall Navy joins her crew, along with Rynne Hawke, the highly-sought-after Belle of Kirkwall. 

Basically, PIRATES ARE FUN AND WE DO WHAT WE WANT OK

Read here on AO3 if you prefer! ~6200 words.

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

- FENRIS - 

Fenris sighed as he, Varric, and Piper stepped into the bustling market of Lowtown. “All right. Now that we’re here…” He raised an eyebrow at Piper. “Remind me again what we are doing here.”

Piper grinned up at him and jammed her tricorn hat onto her wild beaded hair. “The usual, of course: bargaining and booze! For me, at least. I keep hoping you’ll enjoy yourself eventually if I bring you here enough.” She strolled toward the mass of people who were milling around in the marketplace.

Varric chuckled as he and Fenris followed her toward the crowd. “Pretty high hopes there, Cap. I think our broody master-at-arms would enjoy himself more if he stayed on the Lady Luck.”

“An astute observation,” Fenris drawled. The marketplace in Lowtown was just so damned noisy. On a busy day like today, it was a seething throng of humans and elves and dwarves making every possible permutation of noise: patrons squabbling over the price of flour and fish, shady characters muttering as they exchanged illicit items under cover of the crowds, musicians playing with varying degrees of skill and melding together into a cacophonous catastrophe. The merchants were loudly hawking their wares, and the prostitutes were just as loudly hawking their bodies. And then there were the sailors from the Kirkwall navy who stared at the likes of Fenris with far more condescension than they should. Fenris’s skin might bear the distinctive marks of a slave, but as a member of Piper’s crew, he was far more free than any of those navy soldiers would ever be.

In sum, the market was a combination of nearly everything that Fenris disliked. He shot Piper a pointed look. “Is there any chance–”

“No,” Piper announced. She pointed imperiously at Fenris. “This is the best part of Kirkwall. I order you to find something to enjoy about this place.”  

Fenris gave her a flat look. Despite her small stature, Piper could certainly be intimidating if she wanted to be, but Fenris had difficulty taking her seriously when a smirk was curling the corners of her scarred lips.

“I can’t,” he told her. “It is impossible.”

She gasped in mock dismay. “Mutiny!” she declared. She turned to Varric. “Take a note: Fenris tried to incite a mutiny in the market.”

Varric smirked and shook his head, and Fenris folded his arms. “It is hardly a mutiny if none of the crew are around,” he said.

She dropped her imperious stance and waved her hand dismissively. “Ah, you’re right. I forgive you. Come on, let’s go!” She punched Varric in the shoulder. “Back to the boat at sunset, yes?”

“You got it,” Varric said. “I’ll pay the usual guy before then.” He gave her a casual salute, then sauntered away.

Piper raised her eyebrows expectantly at Fenris, and he sighed and waved to the market in a resigned manner. “Lead on, Captain,” he said tiredly.

“Don’t mind if I do,” she said cheerfully, and she swaggered confidently into the crowd, with Fenris skulking at her back.

He glowered at the lively marketgoers and tried his best to avoid being jostled by the press of bodies. Piper, on the other hand, greeted and called out to merchants and criminals alike, and she gave a gold coin and a kiss on the cheek to every prostitute they passed. As they pushed their way through the market toward the Halla’s Head, she glanced at him over her shoulder. “We’ve been coming here once a month or so since you joined me. You really can’t think of anything you like about this place?”

“Not particularly, no,” he said.

She gave him an exasperated look, then opened her arms as expansively as she could given the bustling crowd. “Look around, Fen. This is one of the finest markets on the Waking Sea. The tasty smells, the pretty trinkets they’re selling... I bet you could find some kind of beauty in this place if you looked a little harder.”

He gave her a skeptical look, but her expression was stubborn, and Fenris sighed. He’d been sailing with Piper for long enough now that he knew this look on her face: she wouldn’t be budging until he at least tried to follow her suggestion.

He looked around wearily. He supposed the bougainvillea and wisteria crawling up the walls and across the roofs were attractive enough. But admiring the flowers was hardly a sufficient reason to leave the ship.

He glanced boredly around the market. Then, on the broad stairway that led away from the Lowtown docks and up to Hightown proper, he spotted something that caught his eye.

Or someone, rather: a beautiful and obviously high-born woman who was just as obviously out of place. She had two handmaidens and an armed attendant at her side, and her corseted and heavily petticoated dress was completely impractical. Her long dark hair was elaborately pinned and curled, and if she was in Hightown where she belonged, she would blend right in.

At the threshold of Lowtown, however, she stuck out like a sore thumb. Foolish, Fenris thought. If she set foot any further into the market, she would likely be robbed within minutes.

Fenris narrowed his eyes. Nobles, he thought, with a rush of dislike. They came to gape at places such as this, to get a sense of slumming without suffering any of the uglier consequences of being lower class. Then they returned to their clean and spacious homes full of servants and slaves and laughed amongst themselves about how the ‘other half’ lived…

But something about this particular woman was different. Her whiskey-coloured eyes were wide and wondering as they scanned the market, and her expression wasn’t smug or supercilious. It was… almost sad. Wistful, perhaps.

Fenris couldn’t imagine why. A woman like that had all the privilege the world could afford. She had no right to be sad.

Then her roaming gaze found his face.

The woman stared at him, and Fenris froze under the unexpected boldness of her stare. Her pale slender fingers rose to rub at the scarlet ribbon choker around her throat, and a surprisingly saucy smile lifted her lips.

Fenris swallowed down the buzzing in his chest, then tore his eyes away from hers and turned back to Piper, who was staring expectantly at him. “Well?” she said. “See anything you like?”

“No,” he said bluntly. He jerked his chin in the direction of the Halla’s Head. “Come. We should move on. The afternoon is growing late, and I can only imagine you must be thirsty.”

She grinned at him. “So full of good ideas, you are. Keep it up and the crew will be ousting me to make you the captain instead.” She skilfully pushed her way through the crowd and in the direction of her favourite elven tavern.

She boldly shoved open the doors to the Halla’s Head, and there was a brief silence at her bolshy entrance. Then a mixture of cheerful greetings and grumbled complaints filled the air as the clientele and bar staff alike recognized the notorious Mad Piper.

She waved her hands as though to calm them, then swaggered inside and straight to the bar. “Rum for me and my friend here,” she announced to the barkeep with a nod at Fenris, then strolled over to a nearby table and plopped down on the bench.

Fenris wrinkled his nose. “Sour ale, vomit, and the smell of desperation,” he groused.

Piper placed her hat on the table and shot him a chiding look. “Ah now, it’s not that bad. I can smell a hint of camaraderie, can’t you?”

He scoffed and glanced around the Halla’s Head with an air of indifference, but in truth, he was sussing out the threats. It was mostly other elves here today, which significantly decreased the chances of a fight — unfortunately for Piper.

Then his eyes landed on a table in the darkest back corner of the tavern: a pair of large human men who were muttering to each other and darting dirty looks in Piper’s direction.

Ah. She will be pleased, Fenris thought. He wandered toward her, then sat at a different table altogether.

She raised her eyebrows. “What are you doing over there? Do I smell?” She raised her arm and sniffed one of her armpits.

Fenris rested his elbows on the table. “No. I am simply being prudent.”

Piper scoffed. “What do you mean by that?”

He gave her a knowing look. “Do not play coy with me. I know exactly why we’re here and why you announced yourself in such a… grand fashion.”

She raised her eyebrows innocently. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.” She smiled and winked as an elven serving girl approached with two tankards. “Keep ‘em coming, love,” she said, and she gave the girl three gold coins.

The serving girl’s eyes widened at the small fortune in her palm. She shoved it into the pocket of her apron, then beamed at Piper before giving Fenris his tankard and hurrying back to the bar for more.

Piper gulped down her first drink, then wiped her mouth on her sleeve and looked at Fenris. “What?” she said.

He smiled faintly and shook his head. “And you hassle me for giving away my shares of the coin we plunder.”

She raised an eyebrow at him and smirked. “At least I’m getting a little something in return for mine,” she reasoned. “Your whole emptying-my-purse-on-the-elven-urchins thing is great, but you could occasionally treat yourself to a little something nice.”

Fenris toyed idly with the string of the coin pouch that hung at his belt. “I have no need for it,” he said.

Piper shrugged. “Suit yourself. Maybe you’ll find something someday that you’ll want to spend a coin or two on.” She smiled as the serving girl came back with another tankard.

As promised, the serving girl kept the drinks coming, and Fenris watched with a weary sort of amusement as Piper became more garrulous than usual as her sobriety steadily ebbed away. Soon she was goading the other customers to sing shanties with her, and then she was dancing with the serving girl who seemed to have become her new best friend.

And that, as expected, was when the two hulking humans in the corner of the tavern rose from their table and lurched toward her.

“You there,” one of them grunted. He pointed a fat finger at Piper. “Wench. You skipped out on our game last time you was in town.”

Piper stopped dancing and faced him with wide eyes. “Who, me? Skip out on a game?” She blinked innocently, then abruptly dropped the harmless act and leaned casually against the bar. “You bet I did. You try to grope me during a game, the least you should lose is your coin.” She raised an eyebrow. “Care to know the most you should lose?”

The two men narrowed their eyes, and Fenris sipped his drink. He had his cutlass and his knives at hand if needed, but he knew exactly what Piper was hoping for, and his interference would only get in the way of that.

The second beefy human stepped toward her and penned her against the bar, then grabbed the front of her shirt and hauled her onto her tiptoes. “You think you can talk to us that way, yeh knife-eared bitch?”

“I do, in fact,” she said. Then she slammed her knee into his crotch.

There was a collective gasp around the tavern as the man bent over double with a breathless oomph, and Fenris took another sip from his tankard of rum. He watched as the other human took a swing at Piper, only for her to dodge under his arm and pummel his right flank with a swift series of punches that had him on his hands and knees in seconds.

There were a few screams and curses, and a number of clients ran out of the tavern, but Fenris ignored them. Good technique, he thought idly. He’d taught Piper that maneuver himself, and it was undeniably pleasing to see it used on a pair of foul humans such as these.

The two men were down on the ground, but Piper didn’t stop there. With no small effort, she rolled one man onto his back and struck him square in the nose with the heel of her hand.

Fenris nodded approvingly, then continued to watch as she pummeled the two men. One of them eventually pulled a knife from his belt, and Fenris momentarily tensed, but Piper dodged deftly from his clumsy swings and eventually managed to pin his dagger arm behind his back, then grabbed his greasy ponytail and slammed his face onto the straw-covered ground.

Fenris winced slightly. Then the doors of the tavern burst open, and three officers of the Kirkwall navy stepped inside.

Fenris hunched his shoulders in a falsely deferential manner. He would always be distinctive with his white hair and the white scars that marred his tawny skin, but body language did wonders for making him blend in with other elves. As always, it was effective; the navy officers’ keen gazes slid right past him as they scanned the bar for the source of the trouble.

The head officer’s gaze fell on Piper, and he sighed. “Mad Piper,” he said in resignation.

“That’s Captain Mad Piper to you,” she cheerfully corrected.

Fenris bit back a smirk. The officer, however, was unimpressed. He pulled a pair of shackles from his belt and gestured for her to stand. “You’re under arrest. Again.”

She snapped her fingers as she rose to her feet. “Oh curses,” she said happily. “I don’t want to be arrested at all. What a fucking shame.”

“Hmm,” the lead officer said suspiciously. “If that’s the case, I wonder why it happens with such regularity.”

“Bias,” she announced as she obediently allowed the officer to chain her hands. “Sexism. Racism. Call it what you will. But who am I to defy the law?”

The officer raised an eyebrow at her. “Defy the law? You’re a bloody pirate.”

She gasped in mock horror. “Why, Lieutenant Rylen, Such language! I should tell the dear Commander about your cursing. Then you’ll be in trouble.”

Rylen frowned as he pulled her toward the doors. “Not as much as you, I fear.”

“Ooh, I certainly hope not,” Piper purred. Right before Rylen marched her out the door, she tossed Fenris a surreptitious wink.

He shook his head in exasperation, and she grinned. A moment later, she and her unruly cloud of silver hair were gone.

Now that he was alone, Fenris smirked to himself, then slowly finished his drink as he watched the other two officers shackling Piper’s victims as well. He knew that Piper enjoyed the Lowtown market, what with all the people and the rich food and drink and the merchants and their merry wares.

But Fenris also knew the truth: there was one and only one real reason that Piper enjoyed coming to Kirkwall so regularly. And now that she’d been arrested for the umpteenth time, she would be seeing that reason very soon.

- CULLEN - 

Cullen read the document on his desk with slightly heated cheeks. He idly tugged at his cuffs,  then glanced up at Rylen with all the stern composure he could muster. “Mad Piper? Again?” he demanded.

Rylen bowed slightly. “Yes, Commander. She was assaulting a pair of–”

“I read the report, yes,” Cullen snapped. He rose to his feet. “Well, given what happened the last time she was in jail, I suppose I will have to supervise her myself.”

Rylen grimaced and unconsciously rubbed a spot on his forehead – the spot that had sported a bump for some time after Piper’s last arrest. “Y-yes. I… my apologies, Commander, it was a foolish mistake–”

Cullen sighed and waved him off. “Don’t apologize. She is unpredictable in the extreme. Now go on back to Lowtown and continue your patrols.”

Rylen saluted him sharply, then strode out of the navy headquarters. Cullen watched him go, then rose from his desk and smoothed a hand down the buttons of his coat before striding toward the door that led to the jail cells in the basement.

Just before he descended the stairs, he patted his pockets and belt to make sure he wasn’t carrying any keys, then finally began to make his way down the dark stone steps. As soon as he reached the bottom of the stairs, he heard the distinctive silken purr of her voice.

“Why, if it isn’t the Golden Boy himself. To what do I owe this pleasure?”

Cullen looked over at the cell farthest from the stairs. In the dim and flickering light of the oil lamps that hung from the walls, he could just make out her small figure sitting on the pallet in the cell, but the ethereal silver colour of her hair was unmistakable.

She rose to her feet, then sashayed over to the door of the cell and casually draped her slender arms through the bars. Cullen rubbed his mouth to hide a smile, then lifted his chin and folded his arms. “You leave me little choice,” he said. “Lieutenant Rylen can no longer keep watch when you’re in our care.”

She blinked. “Why not? Should I be offended?”

Cullen gave her a knowing look. He didn’t believe her innocent look for a second. “You tricked Rylen by making a scene about an imaginary scorpion in your cell, and you think you should be the offended party?” he drawled.

“Ah, yes,” she said. She winked. “Apologize to him for me, won’t you? I honestly didn’t mean to hit him. I really didn’t think the door would swing open quite that quickly. These hinges are terribly rusty.” She experimentally rattled the bars of her cell door.

Cullen raised an eyebrow, then chuckled and shook his head. “Wanting to apologize to the navy officer that you terrorized the last time he arrested you? You are an odd pirate, Captain Lavellan.”

She batted her eyelashes at him. “Please, Cullen, no need to stand on ceremony. My friends get to call me Piper.”

Cullen forced his face into a frown. “We are not friends,” he informed her. “A Commander of the Kirkwall Navy cannot fraternize with criminals.”

“Oh, Cullen,” she said chidingly. “I think we’re more than friends. I think you quite enjoy the feeling of wrapping those strong hands of yours around my wrists before you chain me up.” She pressed her face closer to the small gap in the door of her cell and lowered her voice to an intimate purr. “We’ll have to try it without the bars between us someday.”

Cullen swallowed hard as a prickle of heat rippled down the back of his neck. She was smiling at him, smiling that troublemaker’s grin that she so frequently wore. But the nebulous light of the lamps set her eyes aglow, and those eyes… They held so much warmth. A genuine kind of warmth that Cullen would never have expected to see in a dastardly pirate’s face.

Cullen considered the little elf in front of him. She’d been sneaking into Kirkwall approximately once a month for almost a year now, and somehow she managed to find herself in jail every time, usually for disturbing the peace in one way or another. Often it was with a fight, like had happened today. Other times it was for stealing a purse full of coin from a Hightown citizen and throwing said coin into a crowd while announcing a ‘golden shower’. Foolish and pointless disturbances, to be sure, but nothing truly heinous – nothing like the pirates Cullen had met in the past.

As far as he knew, Piper wasn’t a vicious murderer or a rapist or a pillager of innocents. Her name had never come up in any reports of pirates who had attacked a naval vessel unprovoked. From what he’d heard and what she’d told him, she primarily raided slaver ships, other pirates, and the odd private vessel. She was hardly the kind of menace that Cullen abhorred; she simply seemed like a troublemaker and a nuisance.

But she is still a pirate, he reminded himself. Her actions were still illegal, and her activities still constituted theft. Piper was a criminal, and Cullen couldn’t fraternize with a criminal.

Not that he was actually considering fraternizing with her. Not by any means.

He rubbed his nose and tried hard to ignore the widening of her grin. Then she pulled her arms free from the bars and leaned casually against the door. “Well, while we’re here, why don’t I finish telling you that story I started the last time I visited?”

Cullen smiled faintly at her. “‘Visited’, you say. As though your being imprisoned was a choice.”

“No, of course not,” she said smoothly. Too smoothly.

Cullen narrowed his eyes slightly. What did that mean? She was trying to get locked up in prison on purpose?

She tilted her head. “Do you want to hear the rest of the story or not?”

Cullen gazed at her for a moment, and she steadily returned his stare. Finally he sighed and leaned against the bare stone wall beside her cell. “All right. I would hear the rest of this story, if you’re offering.” He chanced a small smile. "You did leave it on quite the cliffhanger last time. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a little curious."

Her smile broadened. “Excellent,” she said. “Now where was I? Oh yes, the mermaid. She gave me this bead…” She lifted a braided a lock of her silvery hair, which was adorned with a bright aquamarine glass bead. “... and she kissed me on the forehead. I’m not certain what that means among the merfolk, but for all I know, we could be engaged.”

Cullen shook his head. “Maker’s breath,” he muttered.

She chuckled. “Indeed! Now listen carefully, because this is where it gets odd. Three days later, we were sailing due west – complete opposite direction of the island where I spotted my mermish lady. But as the sun is starting to set, our pilot starts to panic. ‘There’s an island off the port bow that’s not on this blasted map,’ he says, so I leave Varric at the helm and I run over to look.” She widened her big elven eyes. “Sure enough, it’s the same island where I saw the mermaid, just three days past.”

Cullen raised his eyebrows skeptically. “And you’re certain that your pilot was not drunk or incompetent?”

Piper scoffed. “Dorian? Not a chance. He’s a lush when he’s off-duty, but when we’re on the ship, he’s the most fastidious navigator you’ll ever know. No, it was certainly the same island, even though we’d just as certainly been sailing straight in the opposite direction.”

Cullen harrumphed. “All right,” he said. “So what did you do?”

“I went to investigate, of course,” she said, as though it was completely obvious.

Cullen huffed in amusement and gave her a knowing little smile. “On your own, I suppose?”

She grinned. “See? You know me so well. How can you say we’re not friends?”

He cleared his throat and scratched the back of his neck. “Fine. You investigate this island on your own. And what do you find?”

“It’s the mermaid again,” Piper replied. “We spent the evening together – not like that, you pervert,” she snickered. “She did have a fish’s tail, after all. But when the dawn came, she kissed me on the forehead again, and she gave me this bead.” She lifted another braid – this one decorated with a bead of clear golden amber.

Cullen frowned curiously at her braid, then darted his eyes back to her face. “I had wondered whether those beads of yours had any significance,” he said. “What…?” He trailed off as her pretty face creased with a smile.

“Been thinking about these braids of mine, have you?” she purred.

He winced. That was a rather embarrassing thing to have admitted. He ran a hand through his hair and tried to change the subject. “What happened next?” he said bluntly.

She turned to face the bars once more. “We left the island. Sailed due south this time, a complete straight-line course – Dorian was absolutely sure of it. And can you guess what happened?”

Cullen raised his eyebrows. “You found yourselves at that same island.”

“Exactly,” she said. “Now if I’m being honest, I was a little annoyed by this time. If I wanted to go back to the same places over and over, I’d be a bloody landlubber. I just want to sail the open seas in peace and not always come back to this same island all the time, you know?”

“Hmm,” Cullen said noncommittally. Piper was obviously spinning a tall tale for his amusement, but the way she was telling it – the conviction in her tone and her expressively gesturing hands: it was all so convincing. If Cullen was some superstitious sailor, he would think she was telling the truth. But Cullen knew the truth: there was nothing magical about the sea, neither literally nor figuratively.

He tucked his hands into the pockets of his navy coat. No harm in having her finish the tale, however. “Did you confront this mermaid, then?” he asked.

“I did,” Piper replied. “Or I tried to, at least. When I told her how displeased I was to be stuck on her bloody island again, she just smiled at me. She kissed me once more, and gave me another bead.” She lifted a third braid, this one near her left temple. Sure enough, it was decorated by a bead made of brilliant green jade.

Cullen frowned. “But what do they all mean?”

Piper nodded. “I asked her that. ‘What worth do these have?’ I said. ‘Tell me why I shouldn’t throw them straight into the sea’.” She stepped closer to the door and lowered her voice. “Do you know what she said to me?”

Cullen studied her in silence for a moment. Her eyes were wide with wonder but also serious somehow, and Cullen found himself leaning forward slightly to hear her better.

“What?” he asked. “What did she say?”

Piper placed her delicate fingers on the bars of her jail cell door. “This is what she said. ‘The sun, the land, and the sea: I give you these beads three. As long as you sail, your heart will prevail: these beads are all you shall ever need.’”

He stared at Piper speechlessly. Had she come up with that little verse on her own? No, it didn’t seem like her. Piper wasn’t a poetry kind of woman. But if she hadn’t invented the poem…

He lifted his chin. “You’re making that up.”

She shook her head slowly. “I’m not. I swear on the Lady Luck. That’s what the mermaid said to me, right before she slid back into the sea.”

Her face was utterly serious now, and a little shiver ran down Cullen’s spine. He nervously licked his lips, then leaned back against the wall. “Well. That was… entertaining, to say the least.”

A tiny smile lifted the corner of her lips. “You see what she really meant, don’t you?”

He frowned slightly. “What do you mean?”

Her smile softened. “Freedom,” Piper said. “She meant being free. Sailing in the sunshine across all the lands that are sprinkled across the sea: that’s the life for me.” She sighed happily and leaned against the jail cell door. “That mermaid knew me well.”

Cullen studied her profile with an odd sort of squeezing feeling around his chest. The way Piper spoke of sailing and the sea, like it was the finest life she could imagine…

It was nothing like Cullen’s experience in the navy had been. As a young sailor, Cullen had always been shamefully prone to an odd sort of cabin panic thanks to the cramped quarters on the ships, and the other sailors had never let him forget it. As he’d risen through the ranks, his finest comrades had fallen during horrendous naval battles with pirates, and their screams of pain and their cries for mercy still rang in his ears at night. When Admiral Meredith had called on him to return to Kirkwall, Cullen couldn’t deny the relief he’d felt at the idea of keeping the peace in Kirkwall instead of on the seas. His landbound duties weren’t nearly as exciting as holding command on a ship, but protecting these people from pirates was a noble and necessary calling.

But Piper… She looked so happy when she spoke of the sea. With her wild beaded hair and her sun-kissed golden skin, she herself was almost like a siren made real. Her passion for the open seas was one of the reasons that Cullen found their once-monthly conversations so strangely compelling.

He folded his arms once more. “You aren’t free now, though. You’re stuck in jail.”

She shrugged and smiled. “I suppose I am right now, yes.”

He peered at her slightly suspiciously, then decided to disregard her mischievous tone for now. He tilted his head curiously. “You talk about not returning to the same places twice,” he said. “So why do you return to Kirkwall? Why do you come back month after month?”

Her smile widened. “Oh, Golden Boy,” she said softly. “You’re a sweet one, aren’t you?”

He frowned with growing bemusement. “I… I’m not sure what you mean.”

Just then, there was a clattering of footsteps on the stairs, and one of Cullen’s lieutenants appeared. “Commander!” he exclaimed. “There’s a disturbance at the main entrance – a fight over a crate of fine Antivan rum, it seems, but I’m not sure where it came from, and the citizens are practically in a riot–”

Cullen instantly straightened. “I’ll be right there,” he snapped, and the lieutenant saluted swiftly before running off.

Cullen sighed and ran a hand through his hair. “My apologies, Piper, I must attend to–” He stopped short, then frowned at her. “Wait a moment. Why am I apologizing to you? You’re a pirate. And a prisoner.”

She laughed. The sound was warm and bright and sultry, and Cullen felt his cheeks going embarrassingly warm as she looked him in the eye. “So very sweet,” she purred, then she waved him off. “Go deal with your duties, Commander. I’ll be here when you get back.”

He narrowed his eyes at her. Her tone was exceedingly casual, and he wasn’t entirely sure that he could trust it. But he was badly needed out front…

He gave her a stern look. “Stay out of trouble,” he warned her, and he hurried toward the stairs. As Cullen ran up the steps, he was followed by Piper’s laugh.

The bright, tantalizing siren call of her laugh.

- PIPER -

Piper watched as Cullen sprinted up the stairs, then sighed contentedly and plopped down on the lumpy pallet in her cell. It wouldn’t be long now, what with the disturbance happening upstairs.

Sure enough, it wasn’t more than two minutes later that Piper heard a soft whistle. She looked up to see Varric strolling into the jail and twirling a key in his fingers.

She grinned at him as he unlocked her cell. “A whole crate of Antivan rum? Whose idea was that?”

“Fenris’s,” Varric replied. “Don’t worry, only half of it was actually from Antiva. The other half was swill.” He shrugged. “Hence the riot.”

Piper chuckled as he pulled open the door to her cell. She rose to her feet, then snapped her fingers in remembrance. “Did you happen to notice if–”

“Yes, Fenris brought your hat from the Halla’s Head,” Varric said patiently. He patted her elbow. “Now let’s get the hell out of here before the head jailer realizes a certain key is missing from his belt.”

“Just one second,” Piper said. With the toe of her boot, she scrawled a rough shape into the grime that coated the ground in her cell.

Varric tilted his head and wrinkled his nose at what she’d drawn. “A heart? Really?”

Piper nodded sagely. “You’re right. It needs something.” She stepped back, the used her toe to trace one more shape into the middle of the heart.

Varric chuckled. “‘P’ is for Piper, I presume?”

“Not at all!” Piper said innocently. “‘P’ is for pirate, of course. The Commander needs a bit of an attitude change. I’m simply helping him out.”

“Uh-huh,” Varric said. “I’m sure that’s exactly how he’ll see it.” He placed the stolen key carefully in the middle of the heart so Cullen would know they’d returned it – as well as Piper’s method of escape. Piper then led Varric cautiously up the stairs.

The way was clear; most everyone was occupied by the cranky mob outside, and Piper and Varric snuck over to the nearest open window for a brisk escape. She slid out of the window and landed lightly on the balls of her feet, and she was followed a moment later by Varric’s louder thump of impact. Then they were running away from the navy headquarters as quickly and inconspicuously as they could.

Fenris was waiting for them at the mouth of Darktown. He gave her his usual unsmiling nod as she approached, then handed her her hat.

“Thanks,” she said brightly, and she plopped the hat on her head. Together, the three of them began the trek through the dregs of Darktown toward the decrepit docks where their little boat was moored.

Varric glanced up at her. “Cap, I have to ask. What’s your play here? Why do you keep letting the Commander arrest you?”

“Is it not obvious? She wants him,” Fenris said. “It is pathetic. And admirable.”

Piper looked at him in surprise. “Why, thank you, Fenris!” She turned to Varric. “See, Fen knows what I’m about.”

Varric opened his mouth to reply, but Fenris wasn’t finished. “Admirable insofar as the Commander seems… not a complete paragon of corruption within the navy ranks. Otherwise, this whole endeavour is a repeating cycle of idiocy.”

Piper wrinkled her nose at him, then shrugged. “You know what, I’ll still take that as a compliment.” She cocked her head thoughtfully. “Somehow.”

Varric frowned slightly as they stepped over a drunken pair of dwarves. “Seriously though, Piper, what are you hoping will happen here?” he asked. “We can keep coming back to Kirkwall if you want. It’s a decent place to resupply. But… I mean…” He grimaced. “He’s a scrupulous navy commander. You’re a pirate. What’s the point?”

Piper gave him an incredulous look. “Varric, what’s the point of anything? Enjoying ourselves! Living this wild sea dog life! And if it means resupplying in Kirkwall every now and then…” She shrugged again and jauntily hooked her thumbs into her belt. “Well, I just go where the winds of fortune take me.”

Fenris huffed. “Or your unsated libido, it seems.”

“Unsated for now,” she retorted with a roguish smirk.

Varric chuckled, but Fenris folded his arms. “It will never happen,” he said flatly. “Humans of their stature would never lower themselves to the likes of us.”

His sneering voice was thick with disdain – for the humans, Piper knew, but still she tilted her head in mock confusion. “‘Us’ as in elves, or pirates?”

“Take your pick,” Fenris said. “It is a pipe dream, Captain. You know that.”

“Ah, but what you call a pipe dream, I call a Piper dream,” she said slyly. She clapped him and Varric on their backs and pushed them toward the docks. “Now come on, boys, let’s get on with resupplying while that ruckus is still going on.” She pointed at Fenris. “Good job with that, by the way. Remind me to pay you back for the good rum.”

“I certainly will,” he drawled, and Piper smirked as she and her two faithful crewmen piled into the boat. While Fenris rowed them to Lowtown’s docks under cover of darkness, Piper thought dreamily about the handsome Commander Cullen.

Fenris wasn’t wrong. Her crush on Cullen was a fantasy, and it was unlikely at best and delusional at worst to think it would go beyond flirtation.

But Piper couldn’t help herself. There was something about Cullen that piqued her interest in more ways than one. With every soft splash of the oars, her smitten mind seemed to remind her how nice it was to talk to him: his handsome scars his innocent questions; his boyish and barely-concealed wonder when she told her stories, and the oddly jaded weight of his words when he denied their truth; his lovely frown and his even lovelier smile.

Cullen was a good man. Piper could see that clearly. But he’d been wounded too, and it was evident in more than just the scars on his face. She knew he’d fought with other pirates in the past, the type of pirate that Piper herself would put down in a heartbeat, and she knew he’d been deeply suspicious of her when they’d first met.

It only made her more determined to help him come round to the idea that not all pirates were bad. And if that meant cajoling him into the idea of – ahem – fraternizing with her in the process, well… she had always been a lucky girl, after all.

And nothing would be better than getting lucky with that precious Golden Boy.

[rwbyconversations]

DmC Devil May Cry- Six Years Later

A few weeks ago, I wrote an essay about Dante from the Devil May Cry series and his character development across his six mainline appearances. Doing it got me thinking about the franchise and got me to get around to finishing the DMC games I own in my possession- Devil May Cry 4, which has a great combat system but is let down by having far too few environments and missions, and DmC Devil May Cry, the black sheep of the franchise and one of the most controversial reboots of a franchise. Finishing DmC gave me a perspective that only finishing something yourself can provide. 

I’d owned a copy of the original launch version of DmC but found it dreary and sold it less than a quarter of the way into the game, before grabbing its Definitive Edition during a Christmas sale on really a glorified whim- sort of a “Let’s see how bad it can really get” vibe, but then I put it down and didn’t come back to it for three months because other games and other projects took prominence. But about a week ago I was bored and decided to knock the entire game out in one day due to a lack of anything better to do, and after a few days to mull on it, I decided to write an essay about DmC and how this oddball entry into an otherwise mostly beloved franchise has aged.

1) Pre-development

Devil May Cry 4 was a success for Capcom, selling about two million units in its first month of release when Capcom were hoping for 1.8 million by the end of the fiscal year. On a critical level too it walked away satisfied, with Metacritic rating both the PS3 and 360 releases of the game with 84/100, praising the fluid gameplay and intricate combat system, but knocking points off for a very repetitive campaign which saw Dante literally backtracking through Nero’s stages. But Capcom were hoping for more from DMC4. This was the debut of the franchise on not just the Seventh Generation of Consoles, but the franchise’s Microsoft debut, and the hopes were that DMC4 would be a smash success potentially on par with the numbers Western games like Call of Duty 4 or Halo 3 had made the year prior. 2.1 million was still good, but Capcom wanted more.

The mid-2000s marked a turn in Japanese game development, with the increased costs of HD modelling and Japan’s home market becoming more apathetic about buying games (some Japanese games reported only 10% of their total sales from Japan itself), while the West began booming. With the 7th Generation, gaming went mainstream for many people in the West- as an example of this, I’m sure we all know at least one person who went to college after 2007 and can share stories of nights spent playing Halo over XBox Live. The mass success of the God of War franchise in the West also told Capcom that this gold mine of a market was ready and willing to enjoy some classic hack and slash action gaming.

The decrease in local sales gave Capcom the idea that they needed to begin outsourcing their properties to the West so they could appeal to a larger market, which led to such projects as Lost Planet, Dead Rising and Bionic Commando being made by Western studios. This was largely the brainchild of Keiji Inafune, nowadays known for the utter disaster of the Mighty Number 9 Kickstarter game. Inafune had a mindset of “doing the same thing is going to get us the same results (if we’re lucky). Let’s try something from a different perspective.” Unfortunately for Inafune, his different perspective failed to set the world on fire, with only Dead Rising proving to be a success and making it into the 8th console generation when handled by Capcom’s new Vancouver team, and even that series has suffered some fatal blows due to the poor launch of Dead Rising 4. 

Even though Inafune cut ties with Capcom in 2010 (a month after DmC was announced), his idea of Westernizing several dormant properties was still in effect and Devil May Cry became one of the franchises that was outsourced. British company Ninja Theory, known for their games Heavenly Sword and Enslaved Odyssey to the West, were the company Capcom gave a phone call to. While known nowadays more for Hellblade, back in 2010 Ninja Theory were known for two very simply action games that relied more on their stories and usage of motion capture and facial captures to fill in the gaps. What didn’t help was that in the interim period between 4 and the reboot, DMC1 director Hideki Kamiya had since formed Platinum Studios and proven themselves to the West with Bayonetta, a game hailed by many as a spiritual successor to the DMC franchise. 

Capcom had faith in Ninja Theory to translate DMC’s vision to the west, and as such at TGS 2010, the first trailer for DmC Devil May Cry was released and... well the rest is history.

The fanbase’s hackles were immediately raised and knives were out within seconds of the launch trailer dropping. A series that had become known for its over the top cutscenes and wry sense of cheesy humor had been Westernized into another gritty, bleak product. Dante went from the goofball who quoted Shakespeare to a gravelly voiced methhead who smoked. And for a series that prized itself on action and combos, that no proper gameplay was shown at the reveal was a worrying sign. The reveal trailer tainted the whole game right out of the gate; alongside Ninja Theory’s less than stellar track record with action games the fanbase was ready to hate this game on principle if it followed what had been done to Capcom’s other franchises that went on a foreign exchange trip.

Being fair to Ninja Theory though, several extenuating factors must be addressed. Among them is series director Hideaki Itsuno’s admission that he didn’t want to do Devil May Cry 5 yet after having worked on three straight games for the series out of concern that he would suffer from burnout. He wanted to go off and finally make a passion project he had been dreaming of for years in Dragon’s Dogma, which launched in 2012. Additionally, Ninja Theory did try and make a more faithful rendition of Dante, one who even kept the white hair and vibrantly red jacket, but these initial designs were shot down by Capcom, who told them to “go crazy.” In fact one of the people who rejected the designs that were close to classic Dante was Itsuno himself, who saw little point in Ninja Theory just copying Dante’s look if the whole point of the project was a new approach on Devil May Cry.

But the fanbase at the time didn’t know that Capcom were actively encouraging Ninja Theory to experiment, and what didn’t help was the quotes coming from the game’s director, Tameen Antoniades, which would prove to be a series of disasters that plagued DmC’s PR campaign. Tameen, put bluntly, wasn’t ready for the backlash to the game and its visual style and shot back at the fans. When asked by Venturebeat how he felt about the fan reaction to the TGS trailer, Tameen “took a drag of his cigarette and without blinking or pausing to exhale the smoke from his mouth, said: ‘I don’t care.’” People began to mockingly compare Tameen to Dante as seen in the trailer, which caused some fans to question if Tameen had used his own likeness as the basis for Dante. 

And unfortunately for Capcom’s PR team, he didn’t stop there, mocking Dante’s original design in a later interview when saying that what was and wasn’t cool had changed in the years since DMC1: “If Dante, dressed as he was, walked into any bar outside of Tokyo, he’d get laughed out.” 

I’d like to remind you that Tameen as director of the project likely signed off om some of these alternate concepts for Dante and keep that in mind whenever Tameen or a Ninja Theory staff member talk about A) what is and isn’t cool B) Original Dante’s character design.

The fanbase didn’t exactly make a good case for themselves after the game’s announcement though, with Ninja Theory reporting that they received death threats from some more hardcore fans. It still doesn’t make Tameen admitting he didn’t care if his game sold “a thousand or two million copies” look stellar, nor his derisive attitude towards the original series and its depiction of women, mocking Lady and Trish as “prostitutes with guns.” Ironically, despite being insistent that he’d made the game he wanted to play, Ninja Theory did dial back on methhead Dante, redesigning his model to be more beefy and replacing his voice actor, alongside redoing some scenes to make Dante crack more jokes. 

On a technical level, hype was low from the hardcore fans due to simplified combat and, more egregiously, the game being locked to 30FPS on launch unless bought on PC which offered an upcapped framerate. For those unaware, all prior Devil May Cry games had run at 60FPS, including DMC4 which had come out some years earlier on the same console. 60FPS was a requirement by many pro players due to how it made animations silky smooth, so DmC being capped to 30 was an immediate red flag. Suffice to say, the fandom was ready for DmC to be a disaster at launch and began prepping their funeral pyres.

2) Gameplay

Early reviews for DmC were quite positive, with the game earning a Metacritic rating about even with DMC4, but the fanbase were far less forgiving. The 30FPS framerate lock outside of the PC port (which was admittedly one of the more polished ports of 2013, as covered by the late and great John Bain) had tainted the well pre-release and then came back with a vengeance to haunt the console launch in 2013. Without a lock on system, movement felt sluggish compared to the other games, hurting the flow of combat.

Difficulty was a major criticism of the game from long-term fans, particularly pertaining to how the style rank system rewarded damage done over pulling off varied combos. Whereas in the older games the player was punished for repeating moves over and over, DmC’s style ranks were so easy to abuse that so long as the combo was never broken due to taking damage, achieving a SSS rank was child’s play. Aquila’s Tornado and Arbiter’s Trinity Smash were especially broken in this regard. 

Being fair to the game, it did introduce several mechanics that were later incorporated into DMC 5 in 2019- enemies get a subtitle during their first appearance (taken from Bayonetta), weapons getting a slight glint when the player pauses to let them know they can launch a pause combo attack (also taken from Bayonetta) and a dynamic soundtrack that racketed up the higher your style rank got, alongside the killing blow at the end of a fight getting a cinematic camera angle. These are all features that were genuine improvements over Devil May Cry 4, and while Bayonetta likely paved the way for most of these improvements, DmC still served as a test-bed to experiment on their integration with Devil May Cry as a whole.

The level design was also a huge step up from the earlier games. Dante’s whip functions made platforming far more varied that it had been in prior games, and these new traversal mechanics allowed for the level designers to stretch their legs. DmC arguably has, even in light of 5, some of the best platforming in the entire franchise, and a gorgeous color palette in some areas when Dante is in Limbo. Gothic European cities were cited as a huge influence by the team, Barcelona in particular, and it shows whenever Dante is outside as he gets dragged into Limbo. The idea of the city itself being a weapon of Mundus that tries to kill Dante is inspired, with obvious homages to Inception, and allows for the designers to make environments that at the drop of a hat can try to kill Dante. The team did their best to bring their unique aesthetic mixture of grunge and color to life, and even goes through a full color script. The downside is that exploration is rarely allowed beyond side paths that lead to collectables, meaning the player is on rails for much of the game.

DmC’s largest gameplay addition is in Dante’s Devil Arms. As he progesses through the game, Dante absorbs angelic and demon weapons from the bosses, gaining Angel Weapons that serve as fast crowd control, and Demon Weapons that are single-target but heavily damaging. Both of these sets of weapons are accessed by holding a trigger button during combat, allowing Dante to fluidly switch between weapons as the situation calls for it. One of my personal favorite applications of this tactic was to use Rebellion’s opening two slices to lead into Arbiter’s Trinity Smash as it was easier for me to read the above-mentioned glint tell on Rebellion. Alongside Dante’s firearms, it gives the player eight different weapons to switch between in combat, allowing for some unique combo potential, albeit potential that isn’t as deep as the original games. Dante losing his styles from DMC3 and 4 alongside the unique moves from those styles like Royal Guarding and jump cancelling was a particularly heavy blow for the hardcore fans, to say nothing of the revulsion generated by the color-coded enemies who could only be hurt by specific weapons.

Another heavy blow for the fans was the handling of Dante’s Devil Trigger, which gives Dante his traditional color palette, slows time to a crawl and gave Dante an attack and speed boost, alongside automatically sending most enemies flying into the air upon activation. The air-boosted hurt the usage of Devil Trigger in the long run, as it reduced whatever encounter it was activated in a stomp for the player- even Dante’s basic combos could tear through enemy health with DT active. Devil Trigger in the original games was a mixture of emergency button and power boost, but here it just serves as an “I win” button on whatever enemy irks you today.

And yet for all that can be said of DmC at launch, it could have been worse. Despite being busy with Dragon’s Dogma, Itsuno still served as an executive producer of the reboot and often gave Ninja Theory advice on areas to improve the gameplay mechanically. One such story goes that Itsuno saw a design for an enemy with blades in its arms. Upon asking what purpose the blades served in combat and being told they had none, Itsuno ordered that the blades be removed. Capcom producer Motohide Eshiro later noted in a Famitsu interview that Ninja Theory had to be reigned in on several occasions in spite of the “go crazy” approach given to them in early design, in order to avoid the game receiving a rating that could potentially stonewall it being sold in physical stores in Japan.

Ultimately the gameplay failed to impress for DmC in 2013, which reflected poorly in its sales. Capcom initially hoped for DmC to break 2 million units like DMC4 had back in 2008, but then quietly lowered the projected sales to 1.2 million. Rumors circulate to this day that Capcom were so desperate to boost the game’s poor sales that when DmC was part of the PS+ membership offer in January 2014, Capcom counted PS+ downloads as part of the sales for the game. In a financial report for 2013, while not speaking of DmC by name, Capcom spoke of a "delayed response to the expanding digital contents market," "insufficient coordination between the marketing and the game development divisions in overseas markets," and a "decline in quality due to excessive outsourcing." Capcom would only report in June 2018, a full five and a half years post-launch, that DmC had met the original sale goals of 2.3 million units. But it wasn’t the gameplay that ultimately turned off the fans and prevented Capcom’s sales pitches from becoming reality. No, that matter fell to the story.

3) Story

DmC’s story isn’t so much a straw that breaks the camel’s back, as it is an anvil. Regardless of your opinions on the gameplay, the story is where DmC comes to a grinding, screeching halt and fails to capture any of the essence of what made Dante and characters from the original setting interesting or even cool. Before we dive into the narrative itself, we need to discuss what started the controversy back in 2010 at TGS, and that’s Dante.

Dante is simply not likable in the reboot. While the original Dante was a goofball and a bit of a jackass, he always backed up his actions with flashy deeds and was ultimately a good-hearted man. In this setting, Ninja Theory try so hard to make Dante cool and badass that it loops around and makes him look like a petulant child’s version of what’s cool- a hard-drinking loner who has threesomes with strippers in his trailer by the amusement park. Dante in DMC4 threw Shakespeare quotes out at Agnus, while Dante in DmC screams “Fuck you!” at demons and writes profanity on clipboards. Nothing about Dante carries that effortless swagger that the original had. His smug, IDGAF attitude tries to make him cool and more fitting for the gritty tone but it’s so different from the original Dante that the subsequent tonal clash makes Dante a much more poorly written character. Again, this is something that must be put at Capcom’s feet and not Ninja Theory, as they were the ones telling the developers to westernize Dante, but the end product stills fails to match up with what came before. 

While Dante does have an arc over the game that sees him develop concern for the people close to him and humanity as a whole, the characterization and framing regularly undermines his arc. Dante is written as the archetype of “Jerk with a heart of gold,” but as a direct violation of a core rule of this character- that they must be fun to view and see their antics as an audience member- Dante fails to meet this tenant and it makes his obnoxious, smug and asshole moments taint the character and make it difficult to care for his struggles. Rather than see Dante’s dark backstory that puts his behavior into context and makes you understand why he’s so sullen and bitter, the audience just sees Dante being a smug jackass, and one who takes himself too seriously to be fun like mainline Dante. The one time I buy that Dante genuinely cares for other people is at the Order hideout raid when he stays in order to guide Kat through being arrested, and stays with her as the SWAT officers shoot her and beat her unconscious. His facial expression sells his anguish at seeing Kat be brutalized like this and it contains the best acting from Tim Phillips.

Ironically, despite how hated Methhead Dante was, I do have to wonder what the game would have been like had the developers stuck to their guns and committed to their original idea for the character- someone with psychosis who has no clue if he’s actually seeing and killing demons or if he’s just a mass murdering lunatic. It might have been even worse or it could have made the game work. It’s probably for the best we don’t know what Methhead Dante would have been like, but part of me can’t help but wonder.

It’s important to understand all these problems with Dante, since as the protagonist, the story partly rests on his shoulders. While older Dante had the charisma in most of his appearances to be able to sell the weight of a story moment when he stopped fooling around, reboot Dante’s heavy angst focus means that feat is harder for him to accomplish, and it doesn’t help that his supporting cast are less than ideal.

I mentioned earlier Tameen’s “prostitutes with guns” remark aimed at the DMC female cast, and I think it’s amazing how little self-awareness he must have had to say that when his own story’s approach to female characters is frankly insulting. DmC has one of the most sexist stories I’ve yet seen in any media, and it’s galling when compared to the mainline entries, DMC3 in particular. Kat, Eva and Lillith are all plot devices, Eva being long-dead and existing just to give Dante motivation to kill Mundus, Lillith being the stereotypical sexy villainess who gets reduced to her womb, while Kat is basically the subject of a snuff film with how she gets brutalized by the plot and the camera makes sure you see all of her injuries in extensive detail. And this all goes without saying how the second act revolves around the two female characters in the narrative being traded like Pokemon cards only for Vergil to perform the now-infamous sniper rifle abortion. 

It doesn’t matter what joke you’re making in your head right now, it’s still not half as tasteless as this actual scene

Speaking of Vergil, his depiction in DmC is genuinely upsetting and while I’ve seen people argue for Dante’s arc in the reboot, Vergil is almost universally despised and seen as a black mark on the prime version of Vergil. Putting aside the sniper rifle abortion, Vergil is just not written well and he never gives the impression of being powerful. Vergil’s opening scene has him say point-blank to Dante “I’m powerless to stop you,” words that should never flow out of the mouth of anyone claiming to be Vergil.  It doesn’t get much better as throughout the game, Vergil hands all the major physical parts of the plan against Mundus to Dante to preserve the secret of Vergil’s Nephilim heritage. The problem with this is that Vergil subsequently never gets to show his stuff in a fight until the very end of the game when he fights Dante and suddenly has a lot of his moveset from the old series transplanted. It makes moments like Vergil hiding behind a barrier at the hands of one demon that Dante has to kill undermine his character and make him look like a coward, to say nothing of his awkward heel-turn which just shows up for the sake of having a final boss. Compared to the depiction of Dante and Vergil’s rivalry in Devil May Cry 3, which was amazing on a thematic and character level, DmC falls flat on its own shoelaces. And the character Vergil gains through his DLC is just further unpleasantness as he rips off Bleach and the Hollow Ichigo fight wholesale. Vergil is just a mistake in this game, and alongside Dante is the cardinal sin in its writing. 

Mundus represents a lot of the larger problems with DmC’s story, in particular its on-the-nose message and symbolism. The game is so focused on making sure you get the point that “Hey, we’ve seen this niche film called They Live and it’s the sickest shit also FUCK THE MAN, CAPITALISM SUCKS, WAKE UP SHEEPLE,” that Mundus doesn’t really get to be a proper villain. He’s just this stereotypical slimy corporation guy, with one slight hint to his character in that he’s obsessed with continuing his lineage. The problem is that his lack of writing makes him boring and one-note, a cliche rule-the-world dictator that’s been done to death. He’s not even a major threat in gameplay, his boss fight just being a giant blob monster. It’s visually drab and has the most boring boss fight in the game. Mundus may not have had much personality or screentime in the original DMC1, but he made up for it with a powerful presence that made him feel dangerous. This Mundus is just a bald guy in a suit. The only fear he puts in me is the fear that I’ll drop my controller when I fall asleep.

DmC’s story is a mess. While structurally well-put together, its dialogue is often weak and cringeworthy, most of the villains have no real staying power beyond Barbas, Vergil is a waste of the character name, Kat and Lillith are plot devices and Dante is just a jackass. It’s a cast of unlikable people being unlikable jerks to each other and when the story it’s making me sick with how repulsive it can be with its tone deaf themes and sexism, it’s putting me to sleep with how fucking dull it is. 

4) Definitive Edition

The post launch years of DmC weren’t kind to Ninja Theory or Capcom. Capcom retracted their Western development philosophy after a string of flops resulted from it, while Ninja Theory became the whipping boy of the action community for several years post-launch, which led to the now infamous GDC presentation where Dante was photoshopped onto scenes from Brokeback Mountain by someone who had no hand in designing Dante’s old costumes:

Revenge, evidently, is a dish best served cold

What didn’t help them was that 2013 also saw the launch of Metal Gear Rising Revengeance, Platinum’s take on the Metal Gear franchise that quickly gained the adoration of the action fanbase while leaving DmC in the dust. According to Dante’s voice actor Reuben Landgon, Itsuno apparently was extremely close to retiring after DmC, and Capcom had to offer him the chance to finally make DMC5 before he decided to not quit (though this story has been disputed by Capcom USA producer Matt Walker). 

Capcom, like many publishers, has taken Sony and Microsoft both refusing to have backwards compatibility in the PS4 and Xbox One as an excuse to re-release many of their old titles on the new console platforms, often slapping a new coat of paint onto the game and potentially adding achievement/trophy support and calling it a day. In the case of DmC though, the team went above and beyond in solving many of the mechanical problems that players had complained about in the following two years.

Released in March 2015, DmC Definitive Edition was handled more by Japanese side of the Capcom team, and they set to work on making DmC more mechanically in-line in with the mainline entries, as covered by this extensive changelog. 60FPS was an advertised feature on the box, Dante got multiple costumes that let players play with white hair, the style rank system was retooled to punish repetition more harshly and a slew of balance changes were made to the core game- some even based on PC mods players had made of DmC’s original PC port like a lock on function, though sadly the adventures of Donté, el exterminador de demonios didn’t serve such a function. 

Rest in piece, you brave soul.

The Definitive Edition goes leaps and bounds in solving the pressing issues of DmC. With the combat balanced and framerate bumped up, the combat had a much better flow to it. In particular the addition of a new mode, Must Style, where Dante can only damage enemies when he has an S Rank or higher, received a warm reception from the fans to the point where it was hoped that DMC5 would adopt it. With the DE upgrades, DmC goes from a flawed game with potential to being one of the best attempts by the West to emulate Devil May Cry’s frantic, stylish mode of gameplay while adding variety to how the combat and level design was handled. But even two years on, the damage had been done; while Definitive Edition was well-received by hardcore fans, it still failed to set the world on fire sales wise, and in fact was outsold by DMC4′s own HD remake that launched that year, even though the Special Edition was a digital only purchase outside of Japan. In fact, DMC4SE’s sales were so strong Capcom noted them as being behind the company having a good financial quarter during 2015, which many saw as an ironic nail in the coffin for any hopes for the DmC universe getting continuation.  

There was no saving the story unfortunately, barring removing Vergil’s laughably pathetic fedora and one especially cringeworthy line from Lillith (”The world is at last your bitch, as am I. Nothing left, but to grab it by the hair, bend it over and-”), which means that much of the issues that DmC’s story presented are still haunting the overall product. One new scene added in the game has Dante calling out Vergil for shooting Lillith and causing countless deaths from Mundus’s rampage, but the scene was itself criticized for missing the point in the fan anger to Vergil’s .50 caliber coat hanger. And the further away the player and time gets from DmC’s outdated-at-launch messages and symbolism, the more the script just fails to entertain or educate, leaving just apathy and the ability to mock it.

5) Conclusion- Left in Limbo

DmC Devil May Cry is... alright. It’s not the worst game I’ve ever played and there’s far too many good things here for me to even call it a boring game. The level design and color palette has real moments of beauty, the combat system is a decent showing from Ninja Theory with Capcom supervision and the Definitive Edition showed that the teams from both cultures acknowledged the feedback and made a more mechanically satisfying game to play. DmC is one of the best Western attempts at emulating the over-the-top action of Japanese games alongside Darksiders 2 and does deserve credit for being a satisfying experience to play.

Where it falls apart is whenever control is taken from the player. This story is just terrible and wrought with bad choices that haunt the entire experience and taint the game by association. DmC’s cutscenes are almost slimy in how detestable they are, and it is odd that they inspired such loathing from me on my first run while I was left feeling nothing towards the entire cast other than pity towards Vergil due to what had been done to him on a writing level. I must repeat that I have never played a game as derogatory in its depiction of women as DmC and I pray I never will. 

DmC is a flawed experience, perhaps one that you should experience yourself so you can formulate your own opinion on the matter. I wouldn’t recommend it for full-price but if you see it on sale for ten bucks, you can do worse- if nothing else, get some friends over and laugh at the story to get past the cutscenes and onto the mostly-decent gameplay. But you can also do a lot better, being honest. Ultimately DmC is this weird relic of Capcom’s attempts to branch out into the West, and one that ultimately just.. happened with no real lasting impact. Itsuno went on to make DMC5, Ninja Theory and Tameen redeemed themselves in the eyes of many with Hellblade and then got bought by Microsoft, while Capcom finally started to turn around and starting with the 8th console generation, made a concentrated effort to return to the “Capgod” reputation that they had before the 7th gen. Everyone came out of this story with a happy ending and got what they wanted, but that leaves DmC as this odd relic of a weird time in gaming, albeit one that certainly made... memorable experiences.

Thank you for reading.

I guess a million years just comes in at... about five or six.

[ginobsessions]

Back in August I received an invite to the launch of a new gin, Brentingby.  It looked delicious, sounded delicious, there was only one problem, the launch event was being held on The Mother Figure’s birthday.  I played through a number of strategies in my head about the best way of approaching this.  The first and most logical thought would be to invite her along, the problem there being that she absolutely loathes gin.  (Yes I know, I know, I do often wonder if we are actually related!) After much deliberation I had worked out a game plan.

Brentingby Gin is distilled in Leicestershire, only about 20 minutes from where I grew up.  Brentingby Gin is the brainchild of Bruce Midgely who was born in South Africa, which is where mum spent some of her childhood growing up. (See where I’m going with this…) She will obviously think this is fate and won’t mind spending her birthday on her own.

To be honest, all I actually had to do was tell Mum that I’d been invited to the launch and she told me that I absolutely couldn’t miss it and insisted that I go.

Disaster averted, the 11th September came around pretty quickly, I donned my glad rags and headed off into London Town.  The launch was being held at Wolfpack which is close to Queens Park and I met the lovely Gin a Ding Ding at the station which made me feel much better, because as I walked up I must confess I did feel a tad overdressed.  Once inside and upstairs I completely relaxed.  The venue was cosy and inviting and despite being amongst the first to arrive, it wasn’t at all intimidating.  Another perk of arriving on time was being able to catch up with friends and having the opportunity to have a proper chat with the brains behind the drink.

Bruce Midgely comes from a background of working in oil and gas, a career which involved much time away from home and a rather hectic schedule.  Deciding it was time to wind things down a bit, Bruce turned to gin.  His theory was simple, if you’re not going to be the best then what’s the point in trying.  Not knowing too much about gin he applied his theory of being the best, and reached out to Tom Nichol, the former master distiller for Tanqueray, for some guidance.  In my mind you don’t really get much better than that!  To Bruce’s absolute delight, Tom agreed to come on board and the Brentinby dream started to become a reality.  Bruce talked about how he had designed and built his own 10 plate copper column still, Ayanda, and that he had in fact needed to cut a hole in his roof so that she would fit in the distillery.

“You ought to see it!”

“Well, I am actually going to be back home in a couple of weeks…” I replied. “You gotta swing by!”…mental note to self to tap him up for this visit!!

I must confess that I did get a little over excited when I managed to have a long chat with Tom Nichol himself, and I did geek out and ask for a selfie…well, if you don’t ask, you don’t get!

The launch, in my opinion, was wonderful.  There was a real buzz about the place and the gin was absolutely beautiful.  In true Tom Nichol style it features grapefruit as a botanical and you know how much I love my grapefruit.  Alongside the grapefruit, sit a number of other botanicals, including hibiscus, birch, orange peel and liquorice root.  Which together, create a very clean and thirst quenching drink which is juniper forward with a citrus twist.  This gin made a great G&T and some mean cocktails.  Bruce gave a speech, thanking everyone who had been involved and spoke of love, friendship and creating something British.  Envisaging Brentingby being enjoyed at the polo, under parasols and alongside the cucumber sandwiches.  Over the course of the evening I drank some utterly wonderful drinks and met some fabulous people, including Bruce’s gorgeous wife Sian.  As the evening began to descend into nonsense and silliness, I grabbed my goodie bag and headed off to catch the train home.

I got home and gushed to Hubby about the gin and the venue and catching up with my Gin Girls and meeting Tom Nichol and of course about how fabulous Bruce and Sian were and how Bruce and pretty much invited us to the distillery and then went to bed.

For many people, this is where the love affair might end, but not me.  Well, Bruce had said to swing by when I was up that way.  So the next day I dropped him and Sian a message, saying thanks for such a great evening and to see if they were actually free the weekend we were heading up.  THEY WERE!!

Brentingby Gin takes it’s name from the small village of Brentingby, where it is distilled, which is located just outside of Melton Mowbray.  Having grown up in Loughborough, I still have friends in the area so manage to pop back up every now and again.  Plans all firmed up I got a message from Bruce to confirm timings, it read…

“12:30 onwards suits us.  6 dogs, 5 geese, and 20 chickens await your arrival…and you can be one of the first to profile the Pink Gin.”

I was actually buzzing with excitement by the time the 2 weeks had passed and the Sunday finally arrived.  The village is utterly beautiful and Bruce and Sian’s home is stunning.  The distillery operates out of a smaller building on their grounds, but the house itself is a 14th Century church, complete with a tower.

When we arrived, we were indeed greeted by the 6 dogs and 20 chickens…and the ducks, and of course Bruce, who proudly showed us into the distillery.

A beautiful hand made, wooden bar sits at the front, with Ayanda standing resolute behind.  Bruce was in the process of trying to bottle up a rather large order, so the distillery was awash with the stunning Brentingby copper bottles and on top of the bar sat an Erlenmeyer flask of beautiful pink liquid.  Ever the perfect host, Bruce offered us both a gin, we were both really keen to see what Hubby thought as he hadn’t tried it before.  Hubby and I have very different tastes when it comes to our preferred gins, he tends to like ones which are more juniper forward, while I prefer more citrus or floral flavours, generally grapefruit unites us, so I anticipated that Brentingby would be well received.  I wasn’t wrong, Hubby absolutely loved the gin and immediately started asking Bruce a million questions, ones which I had pretty much already asked at the launch night.

While the boys were talking, my eyes were firmly on the pink, which I was desperate to try.  In order to distract myself I took a little wander around to have a look at the set up…and check out the hole in the ceiling.

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Nope, completely unable to wait any longer I headed back to my stool at the bar and picked up the flask of pink goodness.  The Brentingby Pink features rooibos and baobab and I was desperate to try some.  Bruce immediately grabbed a couple of glasses and told us that he was going to say nothing, just let us try and wait for our opinions.  Hubby absolutely loved the stuff neat, a really rich start with a touch of floral and then some sweetness to finish, the sweet actually took him quite by surprise as the hit came right at the very end and he made lots of “pow-ing” and “wow-ing” noises. I preferred mine with just a splash of tonic to open up all the flavours a little more.  Refreshing and lightly floral with a classic juniper feel.  In my opinion not your stereotypical pink gin, which I often find to be very heavy on either sweet, floral or berry.   Bruce had a little chuckle and said that our feedback was pretty much the split he had found so far, with many women having a similar reaction to me, while men reacted similarly to Hubby.  Whichever way you choose to enjoy it, Brentingby Pink is a fabulous addition to the Brentingby family, which is still growing…

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We had discussions about the Brentingby black bottle and what might be going into that and Hubby also took the opportunity to try some other Brentingby offerings, of which we were sworn to secrecy and can’t yet talk about!  After Sian arrived home, we’d had a catch up, Juniper had herded some geese and Bruce and Hubby had ignited a bromance, it was sadly time to leave.

The future is certainly looking bright for Brentingby Gin, the order they were filling when we were at the distillery was for Harvey Nichols and they are also already being stocked in bars across London, including Bluebird and The Oliver Conquest.   The Brentingby Pink was launched on the 1st October, just in time for Catford Gin Festival and it’s reception so far has been excellent.

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If London and Leicestershire are a little too far for you and you too want a Brentingby fix, then fear not, as it is also available online from Master of Malt.

I wish Bruce, Sian and Brentingby Gin every success, I absolutely love the stuff and cannot rate it highly enough…plus they are lovely people, and that’s got to count for something!  Thank you so much for allowing me to be a part of your own very special gin journey.

Brentingby Gin Back in August I received an invite to the launch of a new gin, Brentingby.  It looked delicious, sounded delicious, there was only one problem, the launch event was being held on The Mother Figure's birthday. 

[suit-lady]

Enough.

Pairing: Tom Holland x Reader

Summary: Reader and Tom meet several times, but refuse to admit any real feelings for each other. Alternatively, the 5-and-1 trope: Five times when one left in the morning, and one time when neither did.

Warnings: Swears, a lil innuendo I think, reader has anxiety over crowded spaces

Word Count: 3570 (I am so sorry)

A/N: Okay so this idea was supposed to be a quick bust-out lil brainchild of mine,,,, but it ended up being a MASSIVE fic... I’m sorry for the length, but I hope you enjoy this as much as I enjoyed writing it!

The first time you met Tom, you were at a watch party for Civil War. A good friend of yours was an extra in the film and, knowing how much you loved Marvel, had asked you to attend as her plus one. While there, you were introduced to a whirlwind of people, your friend speaking so quickly at times you could barely understand her. You found yourself just smiling and nodding as actor after actor after stunt double after cameraman after wait, what was that guy again? shook your hand and made small talk with you. Eventually, when your head was absolutely spinning from learning dozens of names and barely being able to recall one, you dismissed yourself to get a drink and a bit of air. You were afraid that, if you didn’t, you would faint.

As you leaned against the wall, holding an ice cold bottle of water, you surveyed the people in the room. The DJ was playing typical Hot 100 stuff, and the dancefloor was crowded with people having the time of their lives while they waited for the movie to begin. With a look at your phone, you figured you only had about an hour more of this to endure before you finally got what you came for. Then, you’d make the quickest break of your life back to the hotel. This just wasn’t your kind of scene, and you were beginning to feel quite anxious.

You noticed a silhouette lean against the wall next to you. “Hello, darling. Enjoying the party?”

You glanced at him from the corner of your eye and said, “Eh, it’s not really my style.”

“Parties, people, or Marvel?”

“People mostly. Not a huge fan of parties either. I’m here exclusively for Marvel.”

After sharing a laugh, he said, “Well, in that case, it’s nice to meet you, I’m Spider-Man.”

You turned to face him, rolling your eyes as you shook his hand. “Get real.”

“I am!” he huffed. When you just raised an eyebrow, he continued, “I guess you’ll just have to watch the movie and see.”

Shrugging, you replied, “Guess so. I’m (Y/N) (Y/L/N).”

He smiled. “Tom Holland. Pleasure to meet you.” Then, after a moment, he asked, “You weren’t on the cast, were you? I feel like I’d remember eyes like yours.”

“Flirting already?” His eyes sparkled, and a smirk played on his lips. “No, my friend was an extra in the film.” You awkwardly mentioned what you knew about the scene.

“Oh, you mean (Y/F/N)? She’s great!”

“You know her?”

He nodded. “Yeah, I was on set that day, so I saw her!”

Rubbing your neck awkwardly, you asked, “Would you like to sit with us when they put Civil War on?” As a much quieter afterthought, you added, “I’d like to talk to you more, but I should get back to her…”

“Of course!” he exclaimed, wearing a smile like sunshine that made your heart melt.

It was nearly time for the movie to start when your friend finally answered her phone. In the dark, you and Tom were barely able to find her, but you sat down just in time. You watched the film with uncontained excitement, and Tom laughed at you, but it was the friendly kind of laughter that was fueled with love. Sticking your tongue out at him more than once, you kept shushing him, telling him to watch the movie. He insisted that he’d seen it already, but you wouldn’t hear it.

Then, he came on screen, following Left Hand Free by alt-j. You looked over at him, your eyes as wide as they could possibly be, and you gripped his arms in an “oh my god” with both hands. As a playful grin broke across his face, he wiggled his eyebrows. You turned back to the film in complete disbelief, relaxing your grip. He took this as a chance to slide his hand into yours, and your fingers stayed interlocked until you were leaving with him.

“I can’t believe it,” you said as you walked back to the hotel with him. “I just sat and watched Civil War with the one and only Spider-Man.”

The joy on his face was unmistakable. “That’s me!”

The walk had you so curious about this boy, and there was some unspoken agreement that you were spending the night with him. In his hotel room, you kissed several hours away until you fell asleep on each other in nothing but your underwear. He was absolutely lovely, but you saw no reason to stay when the sunlight streaming in through the window woke you. Leaving nothing but an “xoxo” and your phone number on a slip of paper, you left wondering if he would call you, half of you not being able to care.

Sure, he was intriguing, and he was the Spider-Man, but there hadn’t been any spark.

 -

 The second time you met Tom, you and your friend had been invited on set of Spider-Man: Homecoming for a day. Your friend had casually forgotten to mention that she had become decent friends with Marisa Tomei. On the way to the set, after you had stopped fuming about this secret, she told you she’d done it in the hopes that she could surprise you like this. You couldn’t help but forgive her, wondering aloud how you’d gotten so lucky to have her as a friend.

That day on set, they were filming an emotional scene between Tony and Peter. Peter had done something really big and really wrong, and Tony was scolding him for it. By the end of the conversation, Tony had basically revoked Peter’s privilege to be Spider-Man. The look on Tom’s face as he begged for forgiveness as Peter pulled at your heartstrings. In that moment, you knew that Homecoming was going to be an incredible film, even if it was for Tom’s acting alone.

Afterwards, Tom asked if you’d stay for a drink. Your friend encouraged you to, as you’d told her how good of a kisser he’d been a few months prior. In his trailer, you talked about life, about deeper things than favorite colours, books, and sports teams, like you had when you’d slept in his bed the first time. You each had a glass of moscato before Tom got a crazy idea.

“Do you trust me?”

“No, not really.”

“Okay, follow me.”

You ended up kissing under the stars, sitting on top of his trailer. Lying flat on your backs next to each other, you pointed out any constellations you knew. You made an offhanded comment about how you’d always wanted to kiss someone under the stars, and Tom muttered something that you just barely missed. You thought he’d compared you to the stars themselves, saying you were much more lovely, but you couldn’t be sure.

When you woke up in his bed for the second time, he was already gone, filming again. You took your time putting yesterday’s clothes back on because something was holding you there. Again, you felt no attachment to Tom himself, but the time you spent together was…nice. On your way out the door, you noticed a note on the fridge. Tom had written his number with a “maybe you’ll be more confident than me”. Though you pocketed the note, you threw it away when you went for lunch with your friend that afternoon.

 -

 The third time you met Tom, Harrison himself invited you to come to a film day. You were quite confused when the unsaved number had called you, but listened to the voicemail anyways. If it was a wrong number that called again, you wanted to be able to direct them away from your phone number. Harrison’s voice shocked you, and you called him back, accepting his offer.

Back on set, you hung out with Harrison and Jacob while Tom and Marisa acted out what you figured would be a “getting ready for an important event” montage. The three of you sat off to the side, paying more attention to the funny videos Jacob had of Tom than the scene mere meters from you. Though you hadn’t met Jacob or Harrison before this, you warmed right up to them. That didn’t stop you, however, from asking a question that had been pressing you.

“So, why did you ask me to come by, Harrison? This is a nice place to chill on my day off, but I don’t really have anything to do here.”

Harrison laughed. “You’re kidding, right?” When you looked at him blankly, he explained, “You’ve spent the night with Tom twice now… Jacob and I were just trying to be cool mates, y’know?”

“Maybe,” you said with a shrug. “I think it’s just a fling though. You called me before he did.”

Jacob and Harrison both laughed at that, Jacob saying, “Yeah, that’s Tom for ya.”

After his scenes were done for the day, it was quite late. Jacob and Harrison had long since gone home, but you waited until Tom was finished for good before telling him goodnight. Caught up in conversation, you ended up walking him back to his trailer. You were both incredibly intrigued with one another, but you felt nothing more for each other. Regardless, that didn’t stop you from following him into his trailer and spending another night.

The next morning, you woke up before him again. You had a bit of a lie in before finally pulling yourself out of bed. As you pulled on your jeans, you figured it was the squishy mattress and the ultra-soft sheets that made you want to stay so bad. The sleeping boy in the bed, for whatever reason, just wasn’t quite enough. While he was wonderful to kiss, was he more than that?

“Would you put a kettle on before you go?” you heard a muffled voice from the mound of sheets.

“Of course.”

You put the kettle, full of fresh water on the stove and left a note with a quick “take care of yourself” written on it. As you drove off, you wondered why you did that. He seemed a little tired and worn out, but why was that your problem? You forgot about it by going out for a lovely spontaneous brunch with your friends.

 -

 You barely thought about Tom again until he was in town for some sort of press. Instead of a drive of more than three hours, he was less than forty-five minutes away. Harrison texted you, asking if you’d wanna go out to dinner with him and the guys. With nothing better to do, you agreed, kind of wanting to see Harrison and Jacob after nearly six months. You had all really hit it off, but they hadn’t been around.

You met at a local place that you adored, but they didn’t know that. When the waitresses greeted you, however, giving your little group preferred seating, they figured it out pretty fast. You held the lady that sat you at the table for a while, who was trying to be secretive about asking you why you were here with the cast of Spider-Man: Homecoming. Though she didn’t do a great job, you just mentioned your old friend, and she took that as answer enough. She recommended a couple of your favorites to the group so that you wouldn’t have to do it yourself.

“Damn, (Y/N), you should have told us you were a prized patron here,” Harrison said as soon as the waitress was out of earshot, causing the group to laugh.

“Nah, I’ve just been coming here for the last several years… It’s got a nice atmosphere, and all the staff are really sweet.”

Jacob rolled his eyes. “Sure.”

“Okay, and I worked here for about a year and a half. The brunch manager still treats me like her favorite child sometimes, even though she’s got three of her own.”

You shared another laugh, the second of many, and you wished the trio lived closer. With no strings attached, they made quite lovely friends. Part of you, however, kept pushing the nights you’d spent with Tom to the forefront of your mind. You’d never talked about what you were, so you assumed that you were friends that kissed sometimes. For you, that was enough. You didn’t really want anything else with an up-and-rising star anyway. With your feelings as shallow as they were, you’d almost be dating him for the fun of it anyway, and he didn’t deserve that.

Harrison and Jacob left in one car while Tom headed back to your apartment with you. After making chamomile and filling up two mugs, you changed out of your slacks into sweats and let Tom borrow a pair that you’d bought a size up to make them extra comfy. The two of you sat out on your balcony and watched the sun set, talking about nothing really. A few times, he started talking about the film, but you refused to let him ruin it for you.

The next morning, Tom was already gone, so you wandered the apartment in lacy cream lingerie to find a cup of tea waiting for you next to a note. The tea was still quite warm, so you knew you hadn’t missed him by much. Taking a sip, you noted that he liked more sugar in your tea than you did in yours. The note said something about having to grab an early flight and a “thanks, you should too”. At first, you weren’t sure what he meant, but then you remembered your last-minute note from six months ago. He’d taken it to heart.

 -

 You saw Tom for the fifth time with Jacob invited you to the Homecoming watch party. When he’d given you a call, he claimed that Tom had been too nervous. You had laughed; it was the same excuse you used when your friends asked why you and Tom weren’t an item yet. Regardless, you had enthusiastically agreed, extremely excited to see the new film.

You met Jacob about a block from the entrance so that you could walk into the event together. The second you walked in, however, you remembered how much you had hated the watch party for Civil War. People were everywhere, the music was blaring, and the lights were just low enough that the coloured spotlights on the dancefloor were blindingly bright. Wrapping your arms around one of Jacob’s, you tried to use him as a shield from all the people. He could feel how uncomfortable you were, so he kept your introduction as simple as “(Y/N), my date, a friend”, and you really appreciated that. Since you were just a friend, the multitude of people that came up to talk to him paid no mind to you past that.

Harrison and Tom found the two of you about half an hour before the movie started. “Hi guys! Tom is so popular tonight! You’d think he was the main character in this movie or something!”

You all laughed at Harrison’s joke, but Jacob quickly went serious. “Is it cool if we sit early?” He whispered to you out of the corner of his mouth, “I might lose my left arm if not.”

You immediately released your grip with an, “Oh my goodness I am so sorry.”

Jacob laughed, making you realize he’d been completely joking. As you smacked his arm, he explained to the very confused-looking Tom and Harrison, “It turns out that (Y/N) is very anxious at large events like this.”

Tom’s eyes widened. “Shit, I knew that! I should have warned you, (Y/N), I’m sorry.”

You shrugged it off. “It’s whatever.” A pause. “So… seats?”

After an enthusiastic agreement from the boys, you found a good spot where all four of you were content. You sat between Tom and Jacob, Harrison on the other side of Tom. As soon as the full-orchestra Spider-Man theme started, you’d grabbed Tom’s hand out of excitement and never let it go after that. You left together, holding hands, just as you had the first time you met.

The night in your hotel room ended quickly, due to Tom being exhausted from all the talking that evening. Almost as soon as you walked in, he was pulling you towards the bed and shrugging his jacket off simultaneously. You mistook this for enthusiasm, but he’d just given a few sleepy kisses before falling asleep. Though you couldn’t understand why, you were pouty at this. You pushed it out of your mind, snuggled up to Tom’s warm body, and were asleep in moments as well.

Tom was gone when you woke up, leaving a note that said “months are too long of gaps for me” with no explanation. Though the note was terribly ambiguous, you threw it away and distracted yourself with one of your favorite playlists for the drive back home.

 -

 The sixth time you saw Tom, he was in town again for press. He didn’t call you, and you didn’t call him. Somehow, you ran into each other at a local coffee shop. He had a bit of time before he had to be somewhere, so he sat with you for a chat.

“(Y/N), it’s been a while, hasn’t it?”

“It has.”

A smile tugged at the corners of his mouth. “Hasn’t been months though. A little less than two.”

“Yeah, think so,” you said, counting back the weeks since the last time you’d fallen asleep next to Tom. As an afterthought, you added, “Y’know, you left without giving me a proper kissing session last time.”

Flushing a light pink, he said, “I know. It wasn’t my choice; I had to be somewhere.”

“I figured,” you replied, running a hand through your hair.

The conversation turned light and happy after that, Tom having all kinds of things to tell you about travelling all over the world. Soon enough, you were walking through the streets, watching as summer was slowly fading into fall and sipping at your drinks. Everything seemed brighter and better with Tom like this. Suddenly, it hit you: You’d missed him. A lot.

You’d always missed him, you realized, but you’d never let it get to you. Right then, however, as you walked with him, hands tenderly almost touching, you realized that you might actually want more than…whatever you had with him right then. You chewed on your lip and tried to focus on something else to make the thought go away. Now wasn’t the time.

Then, Tom stopped walking. You’d ended up in a park several blocks away from the coffee shop. Here, the trees were still full with green leaves, but a few here and there were beginning to change colours. Tom was looking at you with a serious expression.

“What?” you asked.

“What are you thinking about?”

“Nothing? What do you mean?”

“You started tuning me out almost five minutes ago.”

You started to make some excuse, but he just put a hand up. Not breaking eye contact with you, he took your coffee cup and, along with his, set it on the ground next to you. He straightened and stepped up to you. Looking up at him, with sunlight shimmering behind him, you felt like you were really looking at him for the first time, and your heart melted. You felt a sort of giddy nerves flood your body as Tom put his arms around your waist, pulling you close to him.

“I’m sick of pretending that this is enough, (Y/N). We both know it isn’t.”

“What?”

He rolled his eyes. Then, his lips crashed onto yours. For the first time since you met, you were kissing before arriving home for the night. The kiss seemed to go on forever, the passion between you building until you could feel yourself shaking.

When you broke away from the kiss, both breathing heavily, you said at the same time, “I love you.”

Immediately, you broke completely away from one another, covering your mouths with both hands. You stared at each other, faces both bright red from embarrassment as well as from the kiss. Then, slowly, as the joy began to wash over you both, you stepped forward again. Your lips connected a second time, though the kiss this time was much sweeter and softer.

“You do?” Tom asked once you had pulled away.

Your heart spoke for you. “I think I have since I met you.”

He pulled you in for another kiss. “I’m almost sure I always have.”

After a day of interviews, Tom came over and spent the night in your apartment again. The kisses were slower and so much more passionate. At one point, you found yourself wondering why you let yourself miss out on this for so long. Everything was the same, but it was different at the same time.

The next morning, you woke up alone in bed. You felt panic and rushed to the kitchen. There, Tom was just putting a kettle on the stove and seemed to be making something for breakfast. You released the breath you hadn’t realized you’d been holding and wrapped your arms around him from behind. He spun around in your arms to place a soft kiss on your lips, a smile breaking across his features.

“Good morning,” you told him for the first time since you met him.

“Y’know, (Y/N), that’s something I could get used to hearing.”

 Fin.

Tag List: @hufflepuffholland, @peterandchurros, @tomfooleryholland, @trackingthislamp, @lgbt-avengers, @hollandaised, @softnerdypeter, @peterfuckinparker, @peterfightmeparker, @nedslaptop, @1022bridgetp, @raindancer2004, @theweirdlunatic, @yosef-the-yak, @sachiparker, @homecunnings, @spideytingles, @spideygurl, @siennarossi

[itcamefromblog]

The arrival of THE LAST JEDI on the big screen conjures up deep emotional feelings of nostalgia in me that are hard to suppress. After I first saw the end credits of RETURN OF THE JEDI roll by in the summer of 1983, I knew in my heart that STAR WARS was done; that this wonderful chapter of cinematic joy in my life was over. After all, a beleaguered George Lucas had said at the time that he was taking a long, indefinite break from his brainchild, despite offering up the promise of potentially making nine STAR WARS movies. We all know what happened in the interim with the prequels and various animated series and incessant merchandising, but I never truly believed over the course of the last three decades that my human heroes from The Original Trilogy — Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, and Princess Leia — would ever return to continue their adventures.

So when Disney bought Lucasfilm in 2012 and a new trilogy of STAR WARS films was announced along with a steady stream of spinoff films, I had to pinch myself that it was all happening again with the Original Trilogy trio for THE FORCE AWAKENS. Given the overwhelming success of that entry, its follow-up, THE LAST JEDI, promises a lot more screen time with Mark Hamill as an elder Luke Skywalker — and has an obvious fan-perceived correlation to 1981’s THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK: Darker, deeper, and potentially superior; a film that builds on top of the previous premise-establishing tale to do more world-building and to put our beloved heroes in even greater jeopardy. The tone and approach of EMPIRE has always been the benchmark comparison for the first sequels of many a Sci-Fi franchise, and though it’s essentially an apples-to-oranges comparison, THE LAST JEDI still has a lot to live up to.

In short, I’m super excited to see how this new STAR WARS movie stacks up to the rest. And in the process, I’m taking many walks down memory lane in a galaxy far, far away.

Looking back, it’s hard to believe that a full three years went by before we got a theatrical follow-up to the first STAR WARS (which mutated into STAR WARS: EPISODE IV – A NEW HOPE, complete with an unnecessary makeover two decades later), but to this day I’m grateful that we had so much time to mine our own imaginations for the further adventures of Luke Skywalker and friends before the saga got seriously deep and then, conversely, a little too cartoonish. The wild storylines in the Marvel Comics adaptation of STAR WARS and such novels such as SPLINTER OF THE MIND’S EYE and HAN SOLO AT STAR’S END (not to mention countless hours listening to the records and playing with the Kenner toys) helped guide us, but it was still up to a generation of fertile minds to fill in the gaps until we’d see our friends again on the frigid wastelands of the ice planet Hoth.

On May 21 in 1980 I waited in line with my pals to catch a matinee of EMPIRE. Like so many, I was absolutely blown away by everything that I saw onscreen. Blown. Away. And then we stayed for a second viewing to watch from the front row, solidifying the life-changing experience. That unexpected cliffhanger ending was killer, of course, and we were faced with another three-year wait to see what would happen next, kind of like our own frozen hibernation hell in carbonite. I’m glad the stretch between main STAR WARS movies is at least down to two years now, with the spinoffs proposed to be released every other year to fill in the gaps. Too much? It remains to be seen…

As I revisit my 12-year-old mindset in anticipation of THE LAST JEDI, I’ve assembled a healthy handful of almost 30 original EMPIRE STRIKES BACK lobby cards, a few in German and French thrown in for good measure, to help you stoke the fires of your own nostalgia. Enjoy!

A little background info on lobby cards I like to regularly share for context: Back in the days before the Internet, movie lobby cards were a powerful tool used by Hollywood studios to lure audiences into the darkened theater. They were the last line of enticement — and sometimes the first — alongside carpet-bombing consumers with coming attractions, movie posters, marquees, publicity stunts, movie program books, and newspaper advertisements for their newest big-screen sensation. With no entertainment websites or blogs available to tease audiences with stills from their films, lobby cards served that purpose for the studio publicity machine. These days, movie theater lobbies have eschewed the traditional lobby card for posters, standees, trailers on repeat, experiential activations and more.

###

You made it to the end of the article. Sweet! Please take a moment to “like” IT CAME FROM… on Facebook and “follow” on Instagram and on Twitter for more great retro content.

More Lobby Cards to ogle:

Original 1977 STAR WARS Lobby Cards

CLOSE ENCOUNTERS Lobby Cards from 1977

Ridley Scott’s ALIEN Lobby Cards from 1979

BLADE RUNNER Lobby Cards from 1982

YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE James Bond Lobby Cards from 1967.

More STAR WARS stories: 

My STAR WARS Story and Mark Hamill Interview

STAR WARS and the End of Famous Monsters

Happy STAR WARS Day!

STAR WARS Toys and Early Bird Kit Nostalgia

  A healthy helping of #StarWars to stoke the fires of nostalgia for the arrival of #TheLastJedi The arrival of THE LAST JEDI on the big screen conjures up deep emotional feelings of nostalgia in me that are hard to suppress.

[bitcoinmininghardware-blog1]

Shop till you drop online with cryptocurrencies

The bitcoin craze is taking over the world by storm – and for good reason. Bitcoin, the cryptocurrencyof choice for millions of people across the globe, is stable, ground-breaking, and fool-proof. Earlier in November 2017, the Bitcoin value hit an all-time high of over $14,000!

No matter how you look at it, NOW is the best time to invest in Bitcoins. What’s more – you can buy robust Bitcoin mining hardware in South Africa to get in on the fun. Of course, the rise of Bitcoin has caused other cryptocurrencies to join the fray, including Ethereum, Altcoins, Dash and plenty more. And thanks to the increased traction of Bitcoin, more and more businesses around the world have finally embraced the concept of cryptocurrency. In fact, some of them have begun to accept these virtual coins as a form of payment.

So, who are these trailblazers accepting Bitcoin as payment? Make no mistake the following 10-best list is nowhere near exhaustive. And it should remind you that mining bitcoins or investing in bitcoinsis simply the way to go.

#1. WordPress

It’s only natural for a web design and blog provider like WordPress to embrace blockchain technology. It’s core to its business strategy. Nonetheless, WordPress was among a few handful of tech companies to adopt Bitcoin as a form of payment. So, if you are a web designer or small business owner, you need to invest in Bitcoin in South Africa to enjoy free or discounted services from WordPress.

#2. Subway

Subway has already set foot in SA. And the good news is that the American fast food chain known for purveying subs, sandwiches and fresh salads now officially accepts Bitcoins.

#3. Expedia, Inc.

If you are a low-cost flyer, the chances are that you have used Expedia.com services to book your flight, hotel, or holiday package. Here’s another reason to buy bitcoin mining hardware: Expedia accepts payment via Bitcoins!

#4. MovieTickets.com

If you love going to the theaters to watch movies, now is the time to invest in Bitcoin. Your movie ticket BFF, movietickets.com, will accept your crypto-coins.

#5. PureVPN

It has never been more critical to browse anonymously. PureVPN will make it happen for you – and, yes, they now accept Bitcoin.

#6. Virgin Galactic

Richard Branson’s brainchild Virgin Galactic will take you to space if you can spare a few Bitcoins!

#7. OkCupid

Find love with the help of OkCupid and (Bitcoins!)

#8. Overstock.com

Shop till you drop online with cryptocurrencies

#9. Microsoft

The tech giant accepts bitcoins to purchase most of its XBOX content and games

#10. Reddit

Share, tag, and enhance your online presence with Bitcoins at Reddit!

AUTHOR: Bitcoin Mining Hardware http://www.bitcoinmininghardware.co.za

[brownhardyho]

Roommates - Part Two

Ben X Reader roommate collab series

Part 1

A/N: The brainchild of mine and @wanderlustandsmut’s shared frustration of Ben muthafuckin Hardy. Honest to God, we basically talk daily about Ben so we took this concept to the next level and decided to write about it! Happy reading, enjoy! ;)

Premise: Ben X Reader are roommates and childhood friends. . What happens when their mostly platonic relationship turns sexual??

Warnings: Fluff, smutty goodness: oral (f receiving), fingering, face sitting 

Word count: 2,733 (I went IN, fam)

What the fuck? The inevitable question that always ran through your mind after a night of drinking, which seemingly was also the question of the morning. Not that you were a lightweight when it comes to drinking, not at all. But whiskey does have its uncanny way of messing with you. You groan out in annoyance at the bright sunlight filtering through the curtains and go to stretch out your body but your movement is limited by the warm body that is currently snuggled behind yours. A shirtless body. A body in which his naked chest is touching your almost naked back since the only thing separating you both is your bra and panties. And that’s when it hits you. Ben, your best friend, your roommate, is sleeping peacefully behind you, with his arm wrapped tightly around your waist, his face buried in your hair.

As good as it felt to be in Ben’s embrace, the need to pee and get a glass of water was stronger. You were able to slowly, but surely move your body out if his tight hold without waking him from his deep slumber. Your eyes spot this first item of clothing, which happens to be the burgundy button up shirt that Ben wore last night. You put the shirt on to cover your bra and panty clad body because even though you are slightly hungover, you will still have some modesty. You quickly made your way out of the room and into the bathroom just across the hallway.

Just as you washed your hands, your mind was fully awake because memories of last night came flooding through your mind. After that perfect, delicious, effortless kiss that you and Ben shared, you both decided to play a game of Never Have I Ever. “Oh fuck me,” You say to yourself as you look at your reflection in the mirror, remembering a moment of the game.

“Never Have I Ever…. cum from oral,” Ben said in confidence because surely, a gorgeous woman like you had obviously experienced this before. He’s seen you pleasure yourself before, albeit in secret, and he has this feeling in his gut that you are a confident person in the bedroom. His green eyes widened in shock when you didn’t raise your glass.

 “Benny, I have had someone go down on me,” You explain after seeing his expression of disbelief. “But sadly, he did not make me cum.”

You let out a sigh before bending your face down to wash your face of last night’s makeup that still remained. Ben probably thinks I’m a weirdo you say to yourself. And honestly, you are dreading going back into the room because of the slight embarrassment you feel since you can’t remember what other shit went down in last night’s drunken game. “God I hope I didn’t scare him off and make it awkward,” you think to yourself. To distract you from this, you exit the bathroom and head on over downstairs.

Your bare feet patter quietly against the hardwood floors, moving quickly down the stairs and towards the kitchen. You fill two glasses with water and notice a note on the counter, with your brother’s messy scrawl on it.

“Went out to get food, will be back within the hour,” it says. Well at least they’ve got their priorities straight, you think to yourself remembering how you and Ben were complaining that your brothers’ lack of talent at hosting house parties. You down the last bits of the water and bring the second glass with you to give to Ben.

All your previous worries of your and Ben’s friendship changing seem to fade away and are replaced with lust because as soon as you enter the room you are welcomed with the sight of Ben sitting back against the headboard, with his chiseled chest on display, a smirk playing on his lips. Just this damn sight is enough for you to feel your lady bits get all tingly and you clench your thighs together, an action that doesn’t go unnoticed by the man looking at you with lustful eyes.

“Good morning,” you smile softly, walking over to the edge of the bed and settling yourself on it, sitting on your knees. “I take it you slept well? Cuz no one should be looking this good after a night like last night… ”

“Like a baby,” Ben answers, his eyes tracing down your body, admiring the way his shirt looks on you. It looks way better on you than on him, in his humble opinion. “You?”

“Well, you know whiskey doesn’t like me,” You make your way to sit next to him and hand over the glass of water. “So it’s your fault that I woke up in this lovely morning feeling like shit.” You tease, wanting to gauge his reaction because boy did you want him to kiss you right now.

And it’s like you’re both on the same wavelength because to that, Ben says “Will a kiss make it better?” after he takes a sip of water before setting the glass down on the side table.

As soon as you nod in agreement, Ben turns to face you, his hand tilting your chin up so your lips can meet his. The kiss started out slow and innocent with pecks here and there. Then not long after, the intensity increased and the atmosphere of the room got more needy when Ben’s tongue swiped up against your lower lip. You open your mouth slightly and your tongues meet, doing a dance, as if to welcome each other.

With your kisses getting more and more greedy by the minute, Ben lays you down on your back so moves your legs apart so he can lay on top of you. He places his forearms on each side of your head, so his bodyweight is supported and not crushing you completely. The warmth of his bare chest against yours is something that makes your mind hazy and your body lit with desire.

“Is this okay, love?” Ben whispers softly into your ear, his lips nipping on that sweet spot just behind your earlobe. You nod frantically, your mind reeling at the feeling of Ben’s hard, fit, body on top of yours and his hardening length creating friction against your clothed pussy. “I need to hear you say it…”

“This is perfectly okay Ben,” you manage before letting out a sigh of relief at the feeling of Ben’s deft fingers unbuttoning his shirt that you are wearing. He places a wet trail of kisses down your chest as he moves down the shirt.

“God, you are so beautiful,” Ben groans out as he looks down at you, with your body laid out beneath him, your breasts perfectly framed by your black, lacy bralette. The look of pleasure on your face and your lust blown eyes take Ben deep into his feels. He just wants to make you moan and he will do anything to make that happen. He nuzzles his face onto your abdomen, nipping and sucking at various spots of the soft skin, inhaling at the sweet scent of you.

“Oh Ben,” you moan lowly, inhaling deeply to somehow calm your racing heartbeats. The feeling of Ben’s lips dancing along your lower stomach, inching closer to the waistband of your underwear, is something that excites you and you can already feel yourself getting wet down there. He moves hands down the curves of your body, the soft but determined touches igniting a fire in your core.

The way you say his name with such desire and the little moans and whimpers that escape your lips are like a damn symphony made specially for Ben. This is heightened to another level because Ben knows that he is responsible for your beautiful sounds this lovely morning. His face is just so close to your clothed pussy, his nose brushing up lightly against your clit, taking in the sweet aroma of you. You were just about to say something to hurry his slow, teasing movements, when you suddenly felt his warm tongue swipe up your clothed, drenched folds, groaning into them as he finally got a little taste of you.

“Ah fuck, Ben,” you let out with a whimper, throwing your head back against the pillows. “That feels so good.”

“You like that, baby?”  Ben moans into your wet core, moving your panties to the side. He lowers his head in even more, the sight of your glistening pussy calling out to Ben to taste. And he does. He dives right in, flattening his tongue and making sweet contact from your opening and gliding it up to your clit. “You’re so wet, for me love. Is this all for me?”

“Oh- yes, Ben, all for you,” you pant out, feeling your body almost reaching that peak. “You made me this wet..” Your feet are digging into the mattress, your hips move up of their own accord towards Ben’s mouth, in dire need of his talented tongue. 

With his tongue making slow circles on your clit, he looks up at you and the sight alone is enough to make him come in his boxer briefs. Your back is arched, your hands in a tight grasp on your clothed breasts, your chest heaving, and your hair in a messy halo on the sheets. 

Changing his tactic, he gives your clit one last lick and turns his head to the side to nip at the hot flesh of your inner thigh. Your hands tug at his blonde locks with such force that Ben’s eyes focus on yours.

“Stop teasing, Ben please. I’m so close,” You explain, raising your hips closer to his lips because the feeling of your climax is so, so close.

And with that, he takes the lacey fabric of your panties into his teeth, sliding them off expertly down the curves of your legs and throws them onto the floor. He grips your hips tightly, diving right in your soaking cunt, this time latching his mouth to your clit and sucking it harshly, flattening his tongue against your opening to collect your juices escaping it. Your thick thighs close around his head and both your hands are pulling at his hair to keep him in place. You finally reach your climax and it is nothing short of earth shattering. Ben helps you ride out the wave of pleasure and even shakes his head side to side, the friction of his undercut rubbing roughly against your thighs causing your mouth to open in an O .

“You are fucking amazing, love,” Ben says in admiration as he looks up at you, all blissed out above him. “You are so damn gorgeous when you come.”

You try to say something in return, but you can’t because your mind is shook at the amount of pleasure you just experienced, how in tune Ben was to your body. So you just stroke his hair, his head laid on your thigh, his hands stroking softly at your hip.

Just as you were about to come down from your high, you felt Ben bring his now soaked lips down to your cunt, this time bringing his fingers spreading your folds, causing shivers to run down your spine. He takes his sweet time, massaging your throbbing pussy in a successful attempt to coax more wetness out. When he slowly slips his middle finger into your cunt, that’s when you lose your mind completely. Ben’s fingers are much longer and thicker than yours and it’s been a while since another man has fingered you. So the feeling of your warm walls clenching around his finger, drawing them deeper, is entirely overwhelming and downright delicious.

“Come for me baby,” Ben growls against your folds, smirking when he hears you take a sharp inhale when he slips his ring finger to join the middle one. “I know you can do it again, love. You’re almost there, I can feel you clenching.”

“Ben, it’s too much,” you cry out, your body buzzing, drunk with pleasure, almost to the point of overstimulation. Your eyes roll back when his fingers find that elusive spongy spot, tucked in at the front of your walls. Your walls clench even tighter around his fingers and in return, they stroke at your G-spot. The fullness of his digits inside of you and their expert movement at your special spot finally causes you to let go, a pornographic moan escaping from your lips, your body thrashing against Ben’s hard body.

“Did I work hard enough for ya?” Ben smirks down at you, in awe of the post orgasmic glow you are currently sporting, your body at complete ease with his. Both your minds going to the comment you made last night, telling Ben that he’d have to work to hear you moan.

“God, I don’t even know why I said that,” you say bashfully, bringing your head down to his chest, your fingers tracing random shapes against his abdomen.

The tightening of Ben’s abs in response to your soft touch places a new agenda in your brain: to tease Ben as he did to you, not too long ago. You swiftly move your body away from his and bring your leg over his body so that you are straddling his hips, grounding your hips into his. You moan shamelessly that the feeling of Ben’s hard cock nestled beneath your bare pussy and groan in frustration at the fact Ben isn’t completely naked yet.

But you refocus your mind again, still intent on teasing Ben like the minx you are, and your widen your legs even more, so that you pussy presses down even harder on to Ben’s clothed cock. You start to grind your hips slowly on top of his, admiring the awestruck look Ben has on his face. His hands fly up to your hips, as if to signal you to move faster, and he lets out the neediest whimper you have ever heard in your life. Your body is also enjoying this as well, because you can feel a new supply of wetness gushing out of your cunt and soaking on to the front of Ben’s boxer briefs.

As you begin to grind your hips faster, you move your hands to dance on the edge of Ben’s underwear. Just as your fingers are about to pull on the offensive piece of clothing, you are suddenly jolted upward. The motion of Ben grabbing the globes of your ass to move you upwards his body so that your soaked cunt his on top of Ben’s face happened so fast that you don’t even have time to vocally respond.

Ben brings his needy warm mouth up to your dripping cunt and messily starts slurping up at your folds. His tongue swiping and licking all over, as if to chase the source of your juices. He slips the tip on his tongue inside your walls for a moment before swiping up at your labia, only to stop and settle at your clit. In true Ben fashion, he teases your clit in fast circles before nipping at it with his teeth.

“Oh Christ, Ben,” You cry out, feeling tears welling up in your eyes, threatening to spill over. You are a complete mess: your hips are grinding on Ben’s face, seeking more friction, one hand squeezing one breast, rolling the nipple between your fingers, and the other hand pulling tightly at Ben’s blonde curls. The feeling of everything is truly overwhelming and your body tenses up at all the sensations that are running through your body and finally let’s go, riding that wave of bliss for the third time this morning.

 You swing your leg over his face, settling your body down on the bed so that you’re laying next to him. Ben places a kiss you your temple, running a hand to move the baby hairs sticking on your sweat stained forehead. You lay in comfortable silence, allowing your breathes to calm down and to just process the events that just occurred.

Just as Ben was about to say something, a sharp knock at the door interrupts him.

“We’re back,” Your big brother calls out “Breakfast is downstairs! You coming?”

Reality hits you like a train and Ben, being the obnoxious guy that he is, says into your ear “She just did, 3 times!”

Taglist: @rogershamsandwich @big-deak-energy @rrrogah-tayluhh @hardzzellos @prettylittlegoldfish @queeniebean01 @hoeforbenhardy @yourebeyondperfect @ramibaby @anikatcmh @shannonlxto @meowmeow230 

(Crossed out wouldn’t let me tag 😭 )